You know, we track some wacky trends here on Crave. There are the Color-Changey Things, and the Stupid USB Devices, and of course Anthropomorphic Audio. And recently I've been spotting another one: things shaped like UFOs. There's that bug-killing gadget that flies, and a cute little saucer to manage hands-free electronic activity in cars. The latest in this emerging trend is the Neues Licht UFO Light, a German lighting concept that is shaped like something that might have appeared in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The Neues Licht UFO is made mostly out of glass fibers, … Read more

Warner Bros. will be making some of its films available on "Total Hi Def" DVDs, which are, ingeniously, HD DVD on one side and Blu-ray on the other.

The combo discs are the same size as always but contain both single and dual layers for both formats. A Total Hi Def DVD can have 15GB or 30GB on the HD DVD side and 25GB or 50GB on the Blu-ray side.

The Total Hi Def DVDs (THD DVDs? THDs?) will begin appearing some time after July, in conjunction with normal movie-to-DVD release schedules, Warner Bros. said at CES.

The … Read more

It's pretty obvious: Everyone's talking about Apple's iPhone, from its touch-screen interface to the "close to the ear" sensor to the fact that it's actually called the iPhone (since Linksys did get there first.) But from our perspective, one of the most fascinating and least-talked-about aspects of the just-announced iPhone is Apple's collaboration with Web giants Google and Yahoo on some of the new device's features.

More specifically, Apple has teamed up with Google to bring two of its most popular Web applications to the iPhone: Google Search and Maps. Google's … Read more

As we posted last week, nominations are out for the 2007 Weblog Awards, or Bloggies. If you like what you're reading on Crave, particularly our coverage of CES, Macworld, and the Detroit Auto Show; we'd be more than honored if you'd consider us for the nominations round. The deadline is 10 PM Eastern time tonight.

Crave is eligible for the following categories:

Polaroid popped up on our radar again, this time introducing a handy photo backup device.

Plugging the portable storage device into a computer's USB port automatically prompts it to find and copy any images stored on the computer. The Media Backup Photo Edition, which comes in black or white, does not require installing software or clicking a sync button to activate but works automatically through its "ClickFree" technology.

The 2.5-inch 40GB hard drive can hold up to about 40,000 photos and can be used with Internet services for sharing and printing.

Polaroid launched the new media backup device … Read more

Wet foam-based ear-pads are the natural result of heavy exercise while listening to music. Jensen addresses this soggy problem with its SportFone MP3 neck-phones (JHM3005). Rather than foam, the ear pieces are made of sweat-repelling and hypoallergenic silicon.

Sportfone comes in two flavors, a 512MB (due in February and priced at $69.99) and a 1GB version (due in summer 2007 but no price has been announced). An included USB cable facilitates music to neck-phone transfers of MP3 and WMA files, and the gray-and-orange wrap-around phones come in a soft-sided, foam-filled orange carrying case.

In a practice jaunt around the … Read more

Ever since Sonos opened the door for whole-house iPod wireless network solutions, numerous firms have tried to produce less expensive alternatives that also avoid the DRM issue, such as the conceptually similar but not as pricey Creative XDock systems. But both the Sonos and the Creative XDock require the addition of separate speakers.

Griffin's Evolve is a less ambitious $349 whole-house solution operating in the 900MHz spectrum. But for the money, you get a base that charges and broadcasts your music and video through two included speakers. Essentially, the twin 4-inch-square speakers charge on the transmitter base, then can … Read more

Add Eton to the growing list of manufacturers such as iHome and DLO adding iPod to a clock radio so that you can wake up to your own music. But the company has gone one step further and added Sirius satellite radio connectivity to its new Sound 101 AM/FM clock radio. Unfortunately, the iPod doesn't dock on the Sound 101 (April, $150), but jacks in via a separate charging dock, which could be an ungainly arrangement on a small night table. You also have to add your own Sirius receiver.

A second Eton expandable alarm clock, the Sound … Read more

Controlling your tunes from across the room can be difficult. Now, iSkin's new Cerulean RX+TX Bluetooth solution forgoes the need for a separate remote by using your very own iPod to control your music on an iPod dock connector-enabled device. I got a chance to play around with this tonight, and the big deal here is the range, which is around 100 meters. What's nice is that when you get out of range, the music cuts out completely; there's no distortion or signal loss like you get with some FM transmitters.

The kit uses two pieces, … Read more