Despite the product name, iMuffs are unfortunately not designed to keep your ears warm, which is unfortunate given that many of us have already seen the thermometer drop well before the freezing mark. They will however allow you to listen to your iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod Photo, iPod Touch, iPod Mini and all 3rd generation iPods without having an annoying headphone cable dangling from your head. You will need to attach the iMuffs Bluetooth transmitter to your iPod since they lack that connectivity by default, but once paired you’ll be able to stash your MP3 player in your pocket while still controlling volume and playback via the headphones themselves.

The iMuffs can also be paired with a Bluetooth equipped smartphone, and include a built-in echo and noise canceling mic allowing you to make calls in-between listening to your music. Their built-in battery can be recharged via USB, and provides a decent play time of about 16 hours. The iMuffs MB210 are available in black or white, and can be bought directly from the Wi-Gear online store for $129.99.

[ Wi-Gear iMuffs MB210 ]

ZAGG has announced a new line of products called ZAGGaudio and the first product from the line is the Z.buds earphones. The earphones retail for $79.99 and feature a microphone built-in to allow users to place and receive phone calls.

Two color options are available including black and red colors. An inline control for volume, music, and phone calls is integrated. Zagg promises that its headphones will sound as good as sets costing twice as much. At $79.99 the Z.buds are one of the more costly sets of earphones out there, so they had better sound good.

ZAGG

Solar car battery charger

You can use your car less and not have to worry about coming back to a flat battery as this little gadget will ensure it’s always topped up. It’ll also work on motorbikes, boats and other small vehicles.

The full post can be found on Decide What to Buy.

3G iPhone Accessories - Incase Power Slider Case

Incase has revealed a new version of their Slider Case for the 3G iPhone, the Incase Power Slider Case.

This isn’t just your ordinary iPhone case, this new one features a built in battery pack that will double the battery life of your 3G iPhone.

The full post can be found on iPhone Sync.

Desktop Cotton Candy Maker

Cotton candy at home? I can feel the sugar coma coming on. You simply add sugar to the heating chamber and it produces cotton candy. Everything is removable for easy cleaning.

The full post can be found on Kitchen Contraptions.

HP TouchSmart tx2 notebook: Swiveling Magic!

The 12.1″ widescreen display swivels into a tablet, and lets you use two fingers to expand and pinch graphics, rotate and move objects around the desktop, drag things around and double tap to open

The full post can be found on Elite Choice.

Scotsman Beer Dispenser Pours Ten Pints in Ten Seconds

The Scotsman Trufill beer dispenser takes a different approach to filling pints, by filling from the bottom up. In doing so, it is able to serve beer at the alarmingly fast rate of ten pints in ten seconds. One would assume that a specialized cups or glasses are required in order to make use of the bottom-up filling method, but if it gets us beer faster, I am all for it.

The full post can be found on Uber Review.

Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife

If this doesn’t take the cake, it will at least slice it in 67 different ways. The Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife features a staggering 85 implements and is capable of performing over 100 tasks. It comes complete with double-cut wood saw, laser flashlight, universal wrench, golf divot repair tool and of course, what Swiss Army Knife is complete without a flashlight? It does weigh 1.5kg though, so you may not want to put it anywhere flimsy. Like a pocket.

The full post can be found on Gaj-It.

Faucet with Built In Electronic Thermostat

The Blok is an awesome new minimalist faucet mounted to a large shelf. Embedded within the shelf is a glowing digital display showing the water’s temperature. You can view the thermostat to instantly know if the water is too hot or too cold without having to do the tried and true water touching method.

The full post can be found on Craziest Gadgets.

Thanks again to all the sites for their submissions now over to you guys for voting (don’t forget to leave a comment with your reason for a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher) and tell a friend about this contest to possibly win another $50:

Want to hear about future contests first? Subscribe to our daily digest via email or RSS.

If you write for a gadget themed blog and wish to be included in next weeks contest check out the CGOTW instructions page.

Obviously the most interesting part of the Storm is the single big button of a screen so we’ll just cut to the chase. The touchscreen in general works as you would expect, sensing your touch on the glass and allowing you to scroll through things like lists, menus and across maps. What’s different about the touchscreen on the BlackBerry Storm which sets it apart from other touchscreen phones is that the glass display is like a single large, mechanical button.

When you lightly press your finger on an item on the screen it will not take action on the item, but simply select it or set focus to it. To take action you must press a little harder until the entire solid display physically depresses down a tiny distance. This gives a very intuitive and clear sensation of a button click as if you had really pressed a button. The display is not flexible in anyway, but it rests on the phone at multiple points, so for example pressing in the bottom left corner will angle the display to the bottom left corner only instead of depressing the entire piece of glass down evenly. It’s actually pretty neat and works very well. The display is very crisp, clear and most importantly large!

Using the keyboard was especially interesting. Turning the BlackBerry Storm on its side will automatically turn the display sideways as well and provide a full QWERTY keyboard with generously sized keys. You have to go slow enough to let the screen pop back up after the previous key press and I found it to be a little bit more cumbersome than using other touchscreen devices, or devices with real buttons for that matter. Tipping the phone back upright gives a more compact keyboard with multiple letters on each key, just like you would see on the BlackBerry Pearl.

The only things we didn’t like was that it really didn’t have that little “zing” you could do with the iPhone and scroll through things as if you are sliding them across a sheet of ice. Also, the edges of the display seemed to leak a little of the backlighting out from the sides and looked like an awesome place to make an impressive pocket lint collection. The device doesn’t come with a case so unless you get one separately you’ll be cleaning this out often.

Current BlackBerry users will find the navigation really easy to pick up on as the Storm has kept the four main buttons for answering calls, the BlackBerry menu, Go Back and Hang Up/End to help with getting out of where you currently are in the OS and getting that handy dialog menu at any time. A nice addition to the OS interface on the Storm is the folders. The system has folders that can be used to organize applications much like you would on a PC or Mac.

Overall the device seemed very well built and sturdy to hold. It has all the cool business-centric features of the current BlackBerry devices coupled with an awesomely large display and convenient touchscreen. Of course it also has a 3.2MP camera, GPS, a fast, fast browser and something we did not expect to see - a SIM card. Inside the back cover nestled right next to the battery and the 8GB microSD card (which is included with the Storm, BTW) is a removable SIM card making the BlackBerry Storm a 3G world phone capable of hooking up to networks in many places around the globe.

The BlackBerry Storm launches Friday November 20 in the U.S. with Verizon Wireless for $200 with a two-year agreement.

Says Sprint spokeslady Lisa Zimmerman-Mott:

"What is happening is Sprint is offering a personal decision for employees to take advantage of a voluntary separation package. No one is being forced to do anything. There are no forced reductions. There are no layoffs in store. It's a matter of employees having the option to exercise discretion. No targets have been announced."

Supposedly, improving customer service was one of CEO Dan Hesse's major goals when he took over the beleaguered carrier, but we're wondering how shedding staff is gonna help that. Also, how long before the pink slips go from voluntary to mandatory? We can't help but think this move is simply to make a coming massacre slightly less bloody. [Fierce Wireless via Consumerist]

Mossberg said that "neither I, nor any of the several BlackBerry addicts I asked to try it out, considered typing on the Storm’s keyboard to be very similar to using the keyboard of a traditional full-sized BlackBerry," but ultimately concluded that it's "another good option for anyone who is looking to buy one of the new, more powerful, pocket computers."

Matt Buchanan said "I kind of came to hate typing on it" and called it "tiring".

Joshua Topolsky, quested if the clicky touchscreen could "actually improve the experience of using this sort of device -- and in our opinion, they do not."

Danny Dumas says the laggy operating system "moves like a tranquilized yak," and that it's not as good as RIM's own Bold, let alone the iPhone.

Yardena Arar, from PC World described it as "awkward and disappointing," and that "People who were hoping for a credible iPhone alternative fortified with BlackBerry's strengths as a mobile tool for corporate travelers will likely find the Storm a disappointment."

Laptop Mag's Mark Spoonauer knocks the "sluggish performance," issuing a verdict that stops short of outright condemnation: "The one thing that most BlackBerry users have grown accustomed to—a superior keyboard—is frustrating to use on the Storm."

Peter Ha at CrunchGear won't be ditching his current model: " I wish the Storm were the real iPhone killer, but it’s not..."

So, who, apart from Mossberg, liked it?

Boy Genius Report goes back and forth at length, but its firmest points are the positive ones: "This is the best phone to ever touch Verizon Wireless so far. If you’re a Verizon Wireless subscriber and a dumb phone won’t cut it, you’d be pretty air-headed to not pick this bad boy up above any other smartphone in Verizon’s lineup. ... "

David Ciccone at Mobility Today offers unreserved praise: "We will not compare the iPhone to the Storm since the iPhone is clearly not a full fledged business messaging device. If you are in the market for a new phone the Storm definitely has to be on your holiday list this year! Great job RIM!"

Judging by the significant drop in price of TVs across the country, it appears the faltering economy is forcing retailers to start their Black Friday deals early.

Sony, Samsung, LG and other manufacturers have started bringing down the price of their TVs in the last couple of weeks by as much as $600 per set.

According to HDGuru, some of the biggest drops are coming to formats that are already being set aside by newer technologies. For example, the non-thin rear-projection (15-inch depth) DLP TVs are being cut down across the board so much that starting this upcoming Sunday (Nov. 24th), you’ll be able to pick up a 67-inch Samsung DLP for only $1700 (see list below).

Other manufacturers are cutting their 2008 LCD models by $200 to $300 at most, with further cuts expected on the actual Thanksgiving weekend. The LG 32LG30, the larger brother of the 26LG30 TV that we gave a score of 7 (out of 10) in the Fall TEST issue of the Magazine, is down to $550 at Best Buy, with 30%+ discount. That’s one excellent deal for a top TV.

And here's a useful tip: If you have the money to spend on a TV in the next week, you can also use the thirty-day price protection that some manufacturers offer. If they do, you can buy a TV now and then keep a close look until the prices come tumbling down even more with the rest of the economy (when you'll start seeing sings like the ones at the right). Then, you can go back to the retailer with your receipt and get back the difference.

Check out some of the deals available now and coming up in the next few days. Stats courtesy of HD Guru and This Week in Consumer Electronics.

If you hear of any more deals, please send them to us and we'll keep updating this list through the holidays.

Photos: Bekathwia/Flickr, Hilmartj/Flickr

After praising Honda a few days ago, we got a great email from a pleasingly enthusiastic engineer who asked to remain anonymous. He claims to be working at American Honda in Torrance and I'm inclined to believe him, but bear in mind also that this didn't come from a Honda email domain nor could I confirm that he's employed by American Honda. Even so, I loved his email and thought I'd share it with you.

The picture above? That's Honda's new FC Sport concept car, a fuel cell sports car designed to show what a hydrogen-powered racer might look like in the near future.

Honda is a freak, by American and even Japanese standards. There is an absolutely astounding amount of room here for anyone to work once they get in. The view is Global and the focus is Local. No one has ever told me what to do. One Rule - Dream. We find our way on an individual level, as reason, interest and inclination dictate, and this is an ultimate form of unequaled personal power to affect the future. In Honda, our own best interests are at the forefront of every day life at work and home. In engineering, there are no lines of demarcation segregating futurists from the present applications of science. There is nothing so esoteric that doesn't deserve a close inspection, and there is a common belief here in doing things the Hard Way. Even so, the core philosophy of the company could best be described as the pursuit of Joys.

Soichiro Honda once pointed out "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon, philosophy without action is worthless". He really believed that the only reason anyone would even show up to work is to have fun, and the real aim is to have fun you can share. He also said "If you hire only those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are. Always remember that you often find outstanding people among those you don't particularly like."

He is the only person in business who seems to have fully understood a Japanese term that is a tad hard to translate, called Kioso. "Co-Creation Through Conflict", in which he breaks down the 4 necessary human elements of a properly functioning group of personalities which are co-dependent on each other's talents in order to succeed; Rationalist, Expert, Producer and Lunatic. Isn't that interesting? It could as easily be attributable to the success of The Beatles.

Lots more after the jump.

Mr Honda was a bit of a Lunatic, to be sure. Ask any of the fellow engineers who had a wrench thrown at their heads. The current president of Honda Japan recently came to give a speech in Torrance, and he said "I had a great deal of respect for Honda until I came to work for him." People laughed, and also knew it to be true. This kind of realistic appraisal of the verities of difficult work relationships will not result in a political reaction typical of the kinds of companies who believe that respect can be demanded. Mr Honda was seen as a father, and is remembered that way, with deeply felt respect and admiration for his own flexibility... good traits to pass on. He never once put himself above his work force.

Many people don't remember that the entire success of the initial Honda Motorcycle Company revolved around the development of the CVCC auto engine, which at the time was considered impossible, an answer to a pie-in-the-sky suggestion that was legislated by senator Muskie to create the first Green Automobile, to match a wish to have a very low emission standard adopted by an existing auto industry that fought the very concept of it tooth and nail in DC. It was the 1970 amendment to the Clean Air Act of 1963 that called for a 90% reduction of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions! No one believed it could be done. The fact of the matter is, even Honda at that time was perhaps not the ideal place to openly pursue that kind of design, so what actually happened is that a very small group of Honda engineers met clandestinely in a neighboring village. In great secrecy they perused existing patents and extrapolated a design that would eventually be feasible before they brought it to Mr. Honda, and when they made the first Emissions Standard possible, they not only revolutionized auto production for Honda, they forced Mr. Honda to realize that his "children" had outgrown him, and so he essentially abdicated his company to his employees and stepped down as president, although he remained as Supreme Adviser.

Honda is the only auto maker who spends more on R&D than it does Advertising.

I have noticed that they also do not concern themselves so much with legal responses to false claims made by competing companies that like to appear to be "first", such as a claim made by a competitor who rushed a Hydrogen Car to America to claim it was the first one made, when in fact the prototype blew up upon delivery to the Long Beach Docks, and didn't work. They just don't care. They prefer to know, and keep working at improving everything continually, and to remember what's important in the long run. Egos and attitudes are left at the door.

Honda has unmatched diversity of products. Are you aware they just began production of the HondaJet? Not too many car companies are building airplanes that are fuel efficient too. The evolution of products show the variety of interests and talents that have evolved from individuals allowed to grow in an open framework... Watercraft, Generators, Snowblowers, Lawnmowers, Race Cars, ATVs and Humanoid Robots. All come from respect for the individual and what they enjoy.

On a personal level, and perhaps to more closely address the kinds of negative trolling you experienced having Honda as a patron, I think harsh criticism is good, even if perhaps based on being fundamentally uninformed or unrealistic. At the heart of discomfort is the reality of the concern, and Honda, each of us, we feel this every day. It is real concern. Not something to dismiss, but to face. Loud criticism is even better, and then to focus on answers, and who has ideas and is working toward real answers is most important. Good to criticize to focus attention and maintain awareness. A silent place has no passion. The noise you make may spur progress if enough people listen and join. The rest sorts itself out. Proceed always with ambition and youthfulness. Enjoy your competition. We don't kill for sport. We play to win. Racing in the blood.

I used to be very mad at car companies, because I saw the Concept Cars and could never figure out why none of them ever made it to market. I was so mad. I want Tomorrow today. It never occurred to me how cars really come to market. Reality is, no matter what you can discover in research, or how far ahead you can see due to science and conjecture, when it comes time to produce a concept car that cost a million dollars to build ONE, the car becomes the child of the Parts Department, and they are the ones to decide what will go inside it. The reality is always a balance between consumer cost and functions for that cost.

Right now there are a few people driving the Clarity, a 3rd generation Fuel Cell Vehicle that produces nothing but water vapor at the exhaust pipe. Every one of them cost a million to put on the road as a relatively low cost lease. I'm aware that a lot of press is still claiming it costs as much to produce hydrogen as gasoline, to power it, but Honda has cut that cost down to 30%, and that is real progress. They also build a natural gas powered car, and produce a Home Energy Station that uses gas to power a house and heat it's water and also produce energy for a car efficiently, all-in-one. Also Electric Cars for a long time. They have a solar powered Hydrogen Generating Filling Station. As newer exotic materials enter the finished design process, the Concept Cars they introduce become viable production models now, and you will absolutely see many Concepts coming to market in the near future. When they introduced the Clarity Concept Car last year, it was a real working car, not a mock-up.

I don't know who you work for, where or why. I have no idea what you are dealing with, when it comes to the limitations or opportunities you have or need. I know a lot of you are scared right now, and your prospects seem dark. I don't have an individual answer for each of your problems, but I may have a solution for companies that feel they have run out of ideas and suggestions. If a company has been mismanaged, and has lost touch with it's consumers, and has a real concern for being able to survive and prosper, I can show you a company that has lost touch with it's work force and it's public getting there. It's time for you to stop telling people what to do, and turn the tables. If you're at the top, give your company the money and get out of the way, you blew it. That won't turn things upside down, it will turn things right side up. Buzz word hypnosis and marketing catch phrases won't work for you any more. Let the truth come out, and find yourself responsible. Then ask your people for the answer. Take personal responsibility for every challenge wherever you are.

Look at the Automotive Manufacturers on Capitol Hill this week. Every one of them talks about the sacrifices they are demanding and what they are giving up to stay afloat, from worker pensions to union contracts and complete abandonment of factory towns, as though that had anything to do with finding success and a better future. They all took private corporate jets to get there, and would sooner strip a company's profits in salaries, resort meetings and golden parachutes before they ever set an example anyone could follow. They may as well sacrifice their employees to a volcano while they howl at the moon. Have any of them asked their employees what to do? Failing companies who turn their operations over to the employees willing to sacrifice in the short term for a larger stake in the future seem to end up with viable profitable operations again. There's a lot of reasons. Workers know what works.

A funny thing happened on the way to the solution. Try and picture this. On my first day of work, no one told me what to do. On the second day, the same thing happened, and on the third. That's as much as I could take. I decided to meet with everyone I was coming in contact with to find out more about their individual talents and personalities, and to find out what was going on. Before I knew it, I was developing a picture of how things really were, and who needed what, and I became creatively involved in defining my own participation in relation to the skills I could bring to the table. In the process of doing this, I had complete access to everyone in the company, from other newlings to the President. Nothing but open cubicles no higher than 3 1/2 feet. I was allowed to learn, interact, and find solutions to every problem and need I recognized. I always found something important to do, and it became natural to provide effective solutions as needed. I am not a very unique individual, but I am effective because I am allowed to be. I also know it may be different for some people, experiencing this kind of freedom. I know that some people are petrified by this kind of freedom, and equate it to abandonment, and it drives them crazy not knowing what to do. I also know that even under the best of circumstances, people become sedate sometimes and settle in to patterns of repetition for false comfort. The answer, then, is to have them all switch places every few years, no matter how well they may be doing their job, because it is just as important to let everyone see their own position from someone else's position. It also allows for the surprise of finding how much fun change can be when your creativity meets a new challenge. See what you end up with. It's either this, or that.

As a Honda employee, I've had an opportunity to explore a very different kind of work experience, and today is a particularly good time to share it. This working circumstance may be familiar to BoingBoing readers who had an opportunity to be involved in a "Start-Up" with real friends, and took the opportunity to rewrite the established rules of Business in favor of a less traditional way of doing things. Perhaps they were lucky enough to evolve successfully without losing too much of that freedom to explore and take real chances, but my experience working with countless Fortune 200 Companies at the Management Level at the most critical times of their existence has made it sadly obvious to me that the soul and heart of what makes a company successful is frankly usually lost within one generation. It's like a story my grandfather once told me. It can take one generation of sacrifice to get ahead, one more to use the gifts the last generation earned and developed, and a third to squander what they don't understand because they can only see the riches available as the essential asset... unless there is a strong enough philosophy to bind the generations to a common cause, so that each generation can learn from the last and establish a path for real growth. That or the insanity of repeating the cycle looking for a different result.

As we regard the disconnections evident so plainly in much of Corporate America, and as so many business failures are now daily announced, accompanied by the mass migration of "leaders who failed" heading to Congress, asking for money so they can continue to make the same mistakes, it's the common folks who see plainly the waste they represent in the process of spending all their gifts until nothing is left. While this is of great concern, there should be a greater concern for The Answer to all these problems.

We notice easily that many Leaders, be they Corporate or Political, have adopted one way of dealing with trouble, and it's wrong, because they have all reduced their involvements to Riding Waves instead of Making Waves. They are typically surrounded by identical employees, who are like stalks of grain that struggle not to grow too tall or stick out too much for fear of being mowed down for standing out. It is a mistake to fear making mistakes, when mistakes have to be embraced and solved On The Spot At An Individual Level, Everyone Equal and Equally Involved and Empowered to overcome failures toward success. While this is true, it doesn't manifest naturally unless the cultural medium and philosophy supports it and provides a proper place for growth, so perhaps it's most important to share the lesson I've learned from a company that has overcome the limitations I've described.

A list of old and new MAP prices on Samsung DLPs:

•HL61A650/61” (Lamp) $1299.99 ($300 savings)
•HL61A750/61” (LED) $1699.99 ($200 savings)
•HL67A750/67” (LED) $1799.99 ($600 savings)
•HL72A650/72” (Lamp) $2199.99 ($600 savings)

[HD Guru]