Say goodbye to that obnoxious alarm clock, scaring you out of bed every morning with its cacophonous din. Now you can rage against the dying of the light with the Glo Pillow, gently waking you up with soft LED lights, slowly increasing their brightness over 40 minutes just like the sunrise. Also embedded under a few layers of cushiony foam is a digital display, perfect for those who sleep with their heads completely buried face down into the pillow.

Even though this tech seems far-fetched, the pillow's display and lighting are designed around an LED woven substrate that's been actually demonstrated by Philips. But the Glo Pillow is just a design concept so far, and a few problems have yet to be worked out, such as, would a serious bout of night sweats turn into a shocking experience? It also might be a bit daunting to spend, say, $1000 on a pillow just so you can go gentle into that good night, but nobody's talking price just yet. – Charlie White

Glo Pillow Gently Wakes You In 40 Minutes [Yanko Design]

This Shock Absorber Pen can smooth things out a bit when you get a little too rambunctious with your writing. We've never seen a pen built to look exactly like a car part before, but here it is, a working miniature shock absorber with a ballpoint pen inside.

Looks like this might be rather annoying for any actual writing, where you'll have to go through that entire shock-absorbing gyration just to lift the pen off the page. Anyway, it might look spiffy in a fancy pen holder as a desk ornament. Get yours in silver or blue for $23. – Charlie White

Product Page (Korean) [Funshop, via TFTS]

While we at Gizmodo are no strangers to beds, it is with some embarrassment that I feel the need to come clean. Never have I had the pleasure to wake up and find a lady sprawled, all casual-like and thong-tastic in mine. But that's just me. I'm not sure if this lady comes free with the Lomme bed - but if she does, let me say now that this egg basket-shaped model will be a BESTSELLER. Oh yes indeedy.

To enhance your pleasure, the Lomme comes with sexy lighting, a muscle relaxing system (now you're scaring me) and an iPod dock, so you can thrill your Comes-Free-With-The-Bed lady with that Linkin Park gig you downloaded last week, and recreate how you think the concert lighting should have been. As to whether she'll stay around or not - well, your guess is as good as mine. The downside? It's only available in Liechtenstein at the moment, so that probably means it's 'spensivo. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Lomme via Sci-Fi Blog]

Announced last year in Japan, the Miuro is now ready to go around the house on its own. The robot speaker on wheels who follows you about like an annoying child (but with better tunes) is available not just in white but in a number of hot fruity colors like Lemon Sunburst and Acid Orange* as well as basic black. Miuro will connect now to your 802.11b/g wireless network to stream music from your PC or play Internet radio. It will also connect to the PC to use the new Autonomous Motion Package, a $166 PC software that uses Miuro's camera to map your home or office and allows you tell him where to go.

In addition to the PC, an extra $133 will buy you the optional Remote Communication Package, which allows you to use your cellphone to send Miuro toddling off to its destination, taking a photo of the place with his built-in camera on arrival. There's a gallery below and full specs and pricing are after the jump.

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Here's a Korejanai USB memory stick. It's cute and it doesn't make me hungry like Solid Alliance's USB food does. But it cost $59 (plus $12 shipping) and, should you choose to spunk your cash on it, your $71 will only get you 256MB-worth of memory. Bad Korejani. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Audiocubes via UberGizmo]

Great colors, these crutches. They make a change from the usual scratched steel pair with a tatty sticking plaster running up the side with "Weemawee General Infirmary" scrawled on it in biro. These are from German design firm qed*, who like to make everyday life "more pleasurable and sensible" - hmmm. The only drawback that I can see with these, though, is that they are not adjustable. Doctor Ruth and Yao Ming, these crutches are not for you. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [qed design via MedGadget]

A hot tip from Mr Curly pointed us to a great site that does batteries galore for the Aussie market.

Rezap does battery converters like the ones mentioned earlier, but at a cheaper price (scarily plastic, but $5.50 for 2xC and 2xD adapters). There is also a universal recharger station for $79.95, which claims recharging of Titanium, Alkaline, RAM, Ni-Cd, and Ni-MH batteries. Is that for real? How does that even work? Power aficionados, start your engines.

USB and phone adapter battery charges are here too. Definitely worth a squiz. -Seamus Byrne

Just a quick note about the PlayStation 3 Folding @ Home app that's been all the rage lately—you know, because there aren't very many actual games to play on the system. Tomorrow Sony's releasing an update that both increases folding performance (nice) and improves the user location display map so you can see where you and others are doing their folding.

Hit the jump to see the full release.

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We're getting a lot of questions about what an Aussie version of Gizmodo can do for you. While it's early days and like any blog we're slowly finding our feet, here's a few things that will be hitting Gizmodo Australia real soon:

• Dealzmodo Australia: yes, flagging deals that will actually matter to you. If you spot any, feel free to share through the local tips address.
• Local competitions: Seen cool stuff on offer at Giz USA but haven't been able to take out the prizes? We will have stuff to give away very soon, and it is just for you Australians. Yes, we are hoping to buy your love...
• When is it coming out here? The classic question, and we'll aim to get the local knowledge on releases and pricing.
• More stuff!:Gizmodo USA + Gizmodo Australia = more stuff! Yes, we're a bit thin on original content while we get rolling, but we'll be upping the posts and blogger count as we ramp things up. Local tips help big time, so send 'em if you got 'em.
• Easier commenting: We want you to get involved, so we've got a much easier comment process live right now. Submit, and it'll appear soon after. Too easy.

Feel free to share any thoughts, by email or comment. Notes attached to house bricks will be thrown out without being read, so you're on notice.

A few days ago we ripped DoCoMo for thinking about turning the phone into a Wii remote, but now I think the technology was unfairly compared to Nintendo's little miracle baby. As we said, there's no room for swashbuckling or tennis, but the right motion-sensitive phone game can be fun. And here, I'm talking about Camera Phone Darts by Gosub 60.

Using software from GestureTech, your phone's camera senses motion the way an optical mouse's sensor does, though the emphasis is twisting rather than linear tracking. The dart board appears on the screen, essentially on a virtual wall in front of you. Your job is to twist around until you've got the dart board centered, then tap the OK button to make the shots.

As cool as it is that the game repurposes your phone's camera for motion sensing, a camera-phone dart game that doesn't let you have fun with actual photos would be lame. Follow the jump to see me with tomato on my face.

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Do you have any C batteries lying around? Does anybody? Now you can turn any regular AA battery—which you're bound to have loads of—into a C battery with this Battery Adaptor II.

Each adaptor costs only $5.50, which means for $11, you can have a lifetime's worth of C batteries without actually buying C batteries. But seriously, what uses C? Maybe midget-sized dildos? Now if we only had a way to turn some other AAs into Cs. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Brando via Uber Review]

Following in the vein of the Transformer sneakers, voice changing helmet, and iPod dock are these Japan-only Takama Tomy Transformer headphones. Technically, they should make that biew-biew-biew-biew-biewwww noise that the bots make when the shape-change.

You know, for historical accuracy to the cartoons. – Brian Lam

Earphone Transforms Into A Robot [Tokyo Mango]

Sure, you could get that USB foam rocket launcher if you're some sort of wussbag, but if you mean business you know that a couple of soft darts to the face aren't going to really get your message across. You need to get serious.

Nothing's more serious than… well, OK, there are lots of things more serious than a BB gun, but BBs hurt a lot more than foam darts, and you can't shoot someone's eye out with a glorified nerf gun. That's why this crazy USB BB gun is so awesome. Controlled remotely and using a webcam, the creator has all the power he needs to keep those rascally neighborhood kids off his lawn. Luckily for children and small animals everywhere, this is a homebrewed creation and isn't going to be available at Wal-Mart anytime soon. –Adam Frucci

Remote Controlled USB BB Gun [Everything USB]

I've liked the idea of AVCHD video, but the fact that nothing to date has been able to edit the footage -- even Sony's own Vegas 7 -- has been plain ridiculous. Sony has promised "coming soon" since their cameras launched back in November, but now, six months later, we finally get the news we've been waiting for.

Vegas 7 Professional will have a free update, downloadable from May 1. Huzzah! Users of the consumer Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8 will get their update in July. Ouch, but at least you've finally got a date.

It is native editing too, not transcoded to an intermediate codec, so you won't be getting any generational loss. No decision yet on recommended spec, but it will have to be more than general Vegas use because real-time editing AVCHD is going to cane your CPU. We've been told:

It does not do too bad on a Duo CPU! Sony CS have come up with a faster way of editing naively that's all I can tell you...

Let's assume that's 'natively'... I don't want to call them naive about this just yet. Zing!! -Seamus Byrne

We're not sure how accurate this study is, but the Swedish Defense Research Agency has found out that using your GPS unit near a computer with a CPU clocked at 1.7GHz or above can cause your GPS to malfunction. In some cases, the GPS unit failed completely. Most people wouldn't have a PC next to their GPS to begin with (unless you got a car-puter or a laptop handy), but any of you guys experience anything remotely close? – Louis Ramirez

Your PC Could Knock Your GPS Out [Tech.co.uk via Navigadget]

In addition to that wireless plamsa that's in the works, today we also learned that Samsung is planning on giving it's 2nd-gen LED-based DLPs a 3D upgrade. The current line up is 3D-ready and come September, Samsung will sell a $100 package that'll include two 3D glasses and a 3D emitter that'll hook up to your DLP and display 3D content. The plan is to spread the 3D feature across all of Samsung's TVs (DLP, PDP and LCD), but the DLPs are up first. It's certainly a nice extra to have (provided the content is there too), but how many of you guys out there want 3D on your TV? – Louis Ramirez

For those new to the show, yes, this is Gizmodo Australia. But we've still got the entries from Giz USA. Here are some of the best from overnight.

iRiver Clix is looking hot.
A page full of tech pr0n awaits.

Hiroshi Ishiguro has a new best friend.
If they switch places really fast, the cops will never pick the real killer.

Wii shortages to continue through to 2009!
No really, Nintendo are just some also ran. Just ask their competitors.

Gadget guide to becoming a superhero.
The hot gear you need to save the world. Not that you can buy it yet... or ever...

ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT brings the smackdown.
8800 is just so last week.

A coffee machine that learns your addiction patterns.
For those who need their coffee hit yesterday.

Samsung's Korean 1080p screen with Bluetooth.
No, I DON'T want to run headphones cables across the living room. Do you?

New phone tech to bring 3D and tactile feedback to your calls.
LG wants you to reach out and touch someone. Yes, in that way.

Sony Cine Alta 4K projectors.
Just the ticket for playing back your home movies shot on a Red One.

And that, by my calculations, works out at 89¢ per picture, which is, effectively, 89¢ per keychain if, like me, you think that new photo = new keychain (well, it works for me.) Cheap as chips, don't you think? There's a 1.4-inch screen and 8MB of internal flash memory and it works from a built-in, rechargeable battery. Like I said, $50. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [SkyMall]

Finally, a company has combined my two favorite hobbies. Thank you for fulfilling my dream of being able to transfer files with ease and crack open a cold one almost at the same time with one convenient device. This Popdrive is a 1GB flash drive that sits securely in the handle of a standard bottle opener. Chalk this peripheral up as another goodie from the fine folks at SkyMall. The question still remains: Is it a bottle opener with a flash drive or a flash drive with a bottle opener? *Head explodes* $30. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via OhGizmo!]

If you remember, the second generation iRiver Clix is now available and the man in brown dropped off mine today. Initially, the device is mighty pretty. Everything, from the extremely clean look, interface, display and more. For those wondering how the device is operated, the four edges of the front panel are actually buttons. They aren't touch-sensitive buttons, but tactile button that "click." Stay tuned for a video demoing the clicking functionality in the coming days. Hit the jump to see some more initial impressions—good and bad.

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Those crazy cats over at Wired have devised a list with 15 of the lamest of lame tech mascots. The predictable choices are there, like Clippy from MS Office fame. But there were even some newer entries, like the scarier-than-Hell Jester from Adobe CS 3.

But they crossed the line when they subjected Clarus the Dogcow to the list. You do not mess with that half dog/ half cow because she's been through way too much in the last 24 years.– Ben Longo

Lamest Technology Mascots Ever [Wired]

At one time or another, every Microsoft-branded product for the home has been called the next media "hub." Is it the Windows PC? Is it the Xbox? Is it the component-shaped Media Center PC? In January, Microsoft suggested that the , a standalone multidrive server that sits somewhere on your network, automatically caching all of your music, TV shows and other files, and giving you access to them throughout the home and on the road. (Yes, I know I know, it's not the most original of ideas, but that doesn't automatically mean it's not a good one.)

Today in New York, Microsoft and HP showed off the latest version of the product, a four-bay SATA server that will ship this September. (No price yet.) A two-drive 2.5" concept config built by Carbon Design is shown above. Follow the jump for lots of stuff I found out, plus pictures of the HP box and its current interface.

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Sick of the stinky cat food smelling up your humble abode? Well, you shouldn't have gotten a cat in the first place, dummy, but there are ways to get rid of the smell, and the Pedal Bowl is it. This food dish reminds me a lot of a toilet. There is a pedal that can be pushed down and a lid similar-looking to that of a toilet seat lifts up and the feline can scarf down all of the cheap food. Let the pedal go and the lid closes back down protecting to food and eliminating the smell. It can also stop dogs from eating all of the cat food because dogs are obviously too stupid to figure it out (bring it on, dog owners!). –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Coolest-gadgets]

If there's one thing we wish we could do in our day, it's type in the bathtub. With this Wireless Multimedia Flexible Keyboard from Brando, we can almost do that. Much better than the Bendi Light-up Keyboard (because that one's got wires), this wireless one uses the 2.4GHz frequency to give you the freedom to take your typing anywhere.

Plus, since it's "virtually indestructible" and "water-resistant," you can probably chance taking it into the tub without completely breaking it. Just don't submerge it entirely underwater. The shock from two AAA batteries may not kill you, but it does sting the gonads a bit. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Brando]

Everyone once in a while we like to send out a positive message in the form of a gadget and today it is Spikey, the device that can attach to the top of bottles to prevent them from being able to be spiked with roofies or other inebriators. The device pops on to the top of a standard bottle and will only allow enough room for a straw to pass through. They are pretty cheap and disposable, too. A 10-pack will set you back a couple bucks. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Nerd approved]