Zyrus Bandi (which sounds like the name of the baddie in the next James Bond movie) is a flip-up USB drive that's just been launched in Korea. With a read speed of 18MB and a write speed of 4.5MB, the Bandi has a light-up trim in blue and a cord for you to sling it round your neck. There's also password protection and DOS booting. The Zyrus Bandi is only available out there at the moment, folks.

[AVING USA via New Launches]

Looking at this video, the new Asus LS201 LCD monitor is not only scratch-proof, but knife-proof, hammer-proof and crossbow-proof, like the Jack Bauer of displays. According to the manufacturer, it can resist scratching, crossbow arrows and extreme hammering thanks to a sapphire glass surface that protects its 1,400x1,050-pixel 20-inch LCD. They may as well told us that it was made of adamantium, because the last time I checked sapphire glass resists scratching, but shatters under this kind of impact. [Foxtrot - In Russian]

Victor (JVC to you and me) has brought out a set of earphones with a vibrating plate, apparently to enhance the listening experience. The plate is made of birch wood, with a thin film stretched over the top and, according to the blurb, gives you a rich sound while reducing noise at the same time. I'm not sure about shelling out $131 for a pair of sticky-in earphones, though. The HP-FX500 will be out some time in February next year. [Victor via Impress]

This fridge magnet has a screen that displays a calendar, a whiteboard, and a camera for video messages to family members.

Slingcatcher, Sling media's streaming set top box, has yet to be announced, but here's a high res photo.

Of course they fit in your wallet, they're probably vapourous non-ship like the Emtrace's last project, the Widgetstation. Looks like this digital photo frame, 5mm thick, and 9 by 7 cm wide and high, is what the station vaporised into. There's a dock that syncs data for stocks and other info via PC. The screen is a2.5 inch LCD, 320x240 16M colours, a rechargeable battery, and 128MB of storage and 64MB of operational memory. And of course, those are renderings, not photos, so make of that what you will.

Zink's zero-ink technology was developed in polaroid labs, so its nice seeing the tech making it back to its home marquee.

Samsung's 3-way speaker dock has a bluetooth connection that detects when your mobile gets a call, and turns down the volume. Neat trick.

Japanese paper Yomiuri is reporting that Panasonic will unveil a 150-inch plasma to show the world who has the biggest flatscreen manufacturing capability. That above is the photo of the now second-place 103-inch plasma as big as a queen sized bed. (Sharp has the current title of biggest at 108-inches). f your mcmansion isn't big enough to fit it, don't even bother inquiring about the price. [Yomiuri]

Fake Steve confirmed that his "talks with Apple" about shutdown were fake, in a round about way, but slightly more direct for those not quick enough to get it the first time. [Fake Steve]

My brother is the musician in the family. I'm not even that good at Guitar Hero. But here's an instrument my speed: The Suzuki Q Chord. There's a keypad for chord control, a 4 touchpanel for strumming, and a electric whammy bar for pitch bends. It comes preloaded with 10 rhythm tracks, and 100 MIDI instruments. And if you didn't notice, Halo weapon looks. Seems like keytar of the future, doesn't it? I thought so, too. Until I saw these disturbing demo videos.

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We don't ask for much here at Gizmodo, but what we really, really want is a jetpack that costs $200. Sure, we have brought you the deal with jetpacks before, but we want something that lasts longer than two minutes, (so do our girlfriends.) Also, we would not mind a Jetsons type transportation mode that costs less than $200,000; to be exact, a $200 price point would be ideal. So, what would we do with our stratosphere explorers?

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Whenever we need to unplug something when one of our hands is busy holding a croissant, we have two solutions: use our feet to hold the power strip or put down the croissant. Yoo-Kyung Shin has another idea, however, and designed a Raise Me Up powerstrip that you can de-plug with just one hand. All you have to do is click the lever down and the plug pops out, allowing you to unplug stuff all day while still enjoying your croissants. Damn, we really want a croissant right now. [Yanko Design]

Marco the Virtual Magician, who you may recognize from his iPhone stunts back in July, has a little Christmas greeting for you courtesy of his photonic textile shirt. Good job Marco! [YouTube]

Just when businessmen and women were getting used to BlackBerry's SureType split-key keyboards, RIM has to go and patent yet another method of inputting text. As you can see in the drawing, this guy's horribly misshapen thumbs are hammering away on angular keys, which actually seems pretty brilliant to us. Remember Microsoft and their ergonomic split-key angular keyboards? This is that, but smaller. We like what we see, sir. [Cellpassion via MobileWhack]

Christmas is our favourite time of year because we're easily dazed by bright, gaudy lights—hello, Vegas—but sometimes we yearn for pupil-constricting illumination with some class. And what's classier than a 3-D laser Christmas tree? The one my mom decorated with condoms and liquor bottles two years ago, but that's about it. [via technabob]

Oh how I love Top Gear. Why is there no show this good being produced in the States? In today's example of why this is one of the sweetest shows on TV in any country, we see a race between a souped-up remote-control electric car and a regular old remote-control car. The results are, well, not expected and infinitely entertaining. Keep on keeping on, Top Gear. [Jalopnik]

Sometime in early December, I spent a week in Hawaii. I bought that painting by local artist Doug Young, which caught my eye and credit card before I could think about the price. It was meant to be all about the fruit, but the mac icons reminded me of what's good about OS X: The OS eventually fades away so you can focus on the "fruits" like my writing, photos, and music. I know. I sound like a freaking commercial. I was having tech withdrawal, OK?

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The Gadget: Epson's newest all-in-one projector, the MovieMate 72, with yes, you guessed it, 720p screen resolution and HDMI input
The Price: $US1,200

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Didn't get a calendar, cellphone, computer or any kind of portable electronic device at all for Christmahanukwanzaakkah? Or ever? Do you constantly forget what month it is? No sweat, just burn a calendar directly into your fingernails with a laser. It kinda smells during the whole burning carbon-attached-to-your-body process (surprise), but at least you don't have to worry about flipping the page on the calendar every month, just clip your nails. Well, clip them anyway. Please. [MAKE]

I've always been resistant, as an editor, to the idea of a Xmas gift guide. That's because they're a bit cliche; but today, I realised the very practical reason why I don't like them. You have to be crazy to try to shop for a gadget addict by using one of these lists.

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Either this Shiny red and yellow 12-inch Iron Man action figure looks so much like a big nicely wrapped man-shaped chocolate, or we're just very very hungry. Nevertheless, He looks just as faithful to the movie version (left) as we could hope, and will drive Jesus wild when he unwraps him under his tree next Xmas. However, we do have a bit of a problem with his facial expression and the way he's holding out his hands. Toys R Evil expresses it thusly:

dude looks like he needs to take a dump and the suits' auto-refuse-suction-function is broken and they've run out of T.P

I know "All Giz Wants" are supposed to be fantasies involving shiny objects, but this really is my fantasy: I'd like high-def disc players that don't flash "unreadable" error messages, receivers that can pull music from a network without headaches—in general, home electronics that aren't shacked by Ethernet plugs, firmware-update discs, slow boot times and mandatory periodic hard restarts.

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Would we be worse of with only one HD format and no competing group to make them work for our dollars?

What better way to prepare your children for the coming apocalypse than to give him a car that's already been pre-burned by hand? Not only will your kids get to know exactly how NY is going to look in the year 2076, they'll be prepared for any car bombs, forest fires or nuclear explosions should it hit before then. The bad news is that these are $US50 each, which means you could save money by buying a bucket of Hot Wheels and lighting them on fire yourself. [Chinnychinchin via I Like Totally Love It vi Popgadget]

David, the man who created a fully-functional LEGO Gibson Explorer controller is back with an even better, even cooler Fender Geddy bass. It's not only full size, it still actually works (albeit with the PS2 version of the game). See it in use after the jump. [Technabob via ]

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The U.S. Navy is in the process of developing a next-generation all-electric warship that could potentially "revolutionize the Navy's use of weaponry and manpower." The system architecture, designed by Cemal Basaran, director of the Electronic Packaging Laboratory at the University at Buffalo, will distribute electrical power generated by power plants and the mechanical propulsion system to all parts of the ship.

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