Crave

If Steve Jobs had anything to say about it, any "official laptop bag" created by Microsoft would probably be a giant fanny pack in '80s-style Day-Glo colors that was desperately trying to be cool. Just imagine it worn by John "I'm a PC" Hodgman. But remember, Vista has made Microsoft cool. (They wine-and-dined us at Cipriani, after all.) So, Ballmer & co. have commissioned luggage manufacturer Samsill to create its official laptop bags geared toward female customers, as recently seen on ShinyShiny. They might not be real leather (poly with accents of "leather-look vinyl&… Read more

Yeah, I thought so. This little appliance from DiVapor, featured on BornRich (naturally), will provide your bathing facilities with both an 8-jet steam shower and a personal sauna unit. Called the Utopia Steam Sauna, it'll only set you back $6,800.

The only beef I have with the design: it looks like you have to step out of the contraption entirely to go from the shower to the sauna or vice versa. But then again, I'm sure nobody who owns this thing will have much of a problem with freezing cold bathrooms to begin with. (Wirelessly controlled thermostats, … Read more

The gnomes in the itty-bitty Swiss hamlet of Ibach have come up with yet another Swiss Army essential, the GolfTool. It features 10 tools, including a tee puncher ("for the frozen ground"), a groove cleaner and the perennial toothpick and tweezers. Of special interest is the accompanying range finder;good for up to 1000 meters.

Of course the Crave crew won't settle for that. So we asked ourselves, what would a US Navy SEAL use? Well, that would be the PLRF15C Pocket Laser Range Finder, also by Vectronix. This model, while lacking a toothpick and tweezers, will … Read more

Our feelings about student gear with external speakers should be fairly clear by now, so one can image how we reacted upon learning of a binder that comes with stereo satellites, as seen on Electronista. We're thankful, at least, that it can take headphones as well, so the rest of us won't necessarily be subjected to our kids' blaring tunes.

We can't really blame school supplies companies for keeping up with the times, but we can't help but feel somewhat betrayed by the one that makes this binder--Mead--because it used to make classroom products that were … Read more

It's about time that Sony acknowledged reality. Rather than acting as though it's still king of the hill in entertainment hardware, the proprietary-obsessed company has finally broken down and released an iPod docking station (only a few years late, but no one's really counting anymore).

The speaker station even has the official blessing of Apple, according to Electronista, so compatibility with all iPod models should be ensured. There's just one problem--the price. At $250, this has about as much of a chance of succeeding as the Walkman's transition from CDs to MP3s.

For those karaoke aficionados who want to break out of their nerdsome image, there's hope from the land where it all began. CMtech has released a new digital player that resembles LG's Chocolate, with touch-sensitive buttons and a sleek profile that's less than half an inch thick while weighing about 1.6 ounces.

The K7 has a TV-out connection, FM radio and storage up to 4GB, Akihabara News says. Or it can just be used as an MP3 player if you've strained your vocal chords the night before doing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a … Read more

I like flip phones. I like smart phones. But I have yet to see a cell phone manufacturer successfully combine the two into a nice-looking package. Motorola came out with the i930, but there's no way I was going to carry that big honkin' phone around, and it was definitely catered toward the Nextel bunch. Then, HTC had a go at it with the Cingular 3125, but I don't know, I still find the design just ... weird. Now, Verizon Wireless has picked up the clamshell Pantech PN-820 (aka Verizon Wireless PN-820) smart phone, and it actually looks decent. … Read more

The presenters at the AlwaysOn conference earlier this week might have primarily consisted of companies that are marketing toward the advertising and media communities, but there were still plenty of consumer-oriented start-ups. So many, in fact, that we still aren't finished writing about them. Here's another one you all might find interesting--3jam, which allows you to send reply-all text messages to a group of your friends.

There are a bunch of different ways to use 3jam. On a basic level, you can start reply-all groups by simply texting 3jam's number, or you can use a downloadable … Read more

Months ago we mentioned the "Passport Stronghold," a reinforced pouch designed to protect your personal information from ID spies. It might work just fine, but it looks like a burlap sack with an amateurish logo slapped on it--hardly a fashion statement.

"Lifestyle gear" company Kena Kai may have a solution that bridges security and style for carrying the new RFID visas. Gearlog says its "DataSafe" passport wallets block radio signals that could be intercepted while featuring Italian leather finishes of various stains and colors for men and women.

But will anyone come up with … Read more