Back when "mouse" just meant "small annoying rodent," would-be inventors competed to see who could build a better mouse trap. In these "mouse as input device" days, Seagate Technology is kicking off a contest on MySpace called "Driven to Design."  MySpace users between the ages of 14 and 28 are invited to create a new mobile device that includes a 20GB 1-inch Seagate hard drive.

The winner will receive a $5000 prize, and five runners-up will receive $1000 apiece. In other words, for ten grand, the company gets a whole bunch of new product ideas. Contestants don't actually have to construct the device but can describe it in words, in sketches, or through other media.

The contest begins today (October 9) and will run through November 15, with winners announced in December. Official rules are available myspace.com/_Seagate. Let's see if someone can actually build a better mousetrap: one with a 20GB hard drive, of course!

Post by Peter Suciu

This might sound like it comes straight from a futuristic movie or video game, but it's happening right now: Danish company viZoo's Cheoptics360 visual medium lets you enjoy presentations and films using floating 3D video images that can be viewed with equal veracity from all angles. Take a look at the cool video at the company's site for a taste of how this actually looks.

The Cheoptics360 is a four-sided pyramid (I'll bet you already guessed it was a pyramid) made of transparent material. Video images free from a background and frames are created in the company's FreeFormat. Why a pyramid?  The shape acts as a prism that gobbles up all the light from four video projections and fits them together to create the images. Inside the pyramid, the images achieve three dimensions through surface mirroring and reflections.

ViZoo says that flat-panel HDTVs are the Cheoptics360's biggest competitors for a market that is looking for the best and brightest in visual experiences. But although some companies have jumped on the bandwagon and inquired about the Cheoptics360, few are ready to spend the money and time it would take to make something viable out of the technology. So the idea of holographic visual images may (once again) be put on the back burner until the world can catch up. 

Post by Don Reisinger

Blogging Molly is so disturbed by a new toy she heard about this weekend. Let's begin with its name: Love 'n Licks Puppy. Ick. Playmates is trying to sell your kids a toy that shows its love through licking. Sounds great! (Just as great as the Oozinator, that is.)

Why any kid would want to be licked by a stuffed dog is beyond me. The commercial alone would have terrified the five-year-old me. It shows kids wearing bathing suits and raincoats because the dog gets them so wet. EW!

The Web site even has a step-by-step diagram with nasty sound effects--including slurping and heavy breathing--showing the puppy's growing love. He barks, wags his tail, kicks his leg and then he licks. SLURP!

The toy was featured on The Soup's "What the Kids are Watching" on E! Entertainment Television last week, where host Joel McHale postulated that this is how people get their start in fetish films. Sounds about right.

The other day, Creative stopped by our office to give us a demo of the Xmod, an external soundcard only slightly larger than an iPod nano. (It's about 4.25 by 1.5 by .5 inches). This tiny gadget packs in a lot of technology, including Creative's X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity, which digitally restores high and low frequencies that are lost through compression. Just connect the Xmod between PC speakers or a headset and a PC, Mac, or portable music player, and your audio is enhanced "beyond CD quality" (according to Creative). Anecdotally, I can tell you that I was quite impressed. Music that sounded flat and tinny coming straight through PC speakers and a headset was much more rich and full with the Xmod, and the sound seemed to expand around me. I was thinking how great this would be to have with me when I'm traveling, and the price is definitely doable.

Of course, I don't have the golden ear of PC Magazine's audio analyst Mike Kobrin; he plans to put the Xmod through its paces. Watch for his review soon on PCMag.com.

The Xmod will be available later this month, at a list price of $79.99.

Remember when Yahoo! Music Unlimited was a frickin' steal compared with Napster and Rhapsody? Then the service's prices, as they are wont to do, went up... but today, Dealhack clued me in that Yahoo! Music is bringing sexy cheap music back. 

When you sign up for a one-year subscription with your MasterCard, you get a second year free: All you have to do is fork over $60 (that's just two and a half bucks a month) to get two years of music on your PC. Or if you want your music to go, you can pay $120 total for the PC and portable music player service.
 
This deal has been extended so go ahead, download like crazy!

Post by Angela Chang

Were you as chilled as I was this morning by the news that North Korea did an underground nuclear test? Brings me back to the bad old days of the Cold War, when everyone was sure some maniac country or other would press a little red button and blow the planet up.

What made this scary happening much more real for me was looking at GoogleWatch's Steve Bryant's slideshow of Google Earth images of the region, including the mountainous area where the test took place. It's fascinating; cruise on over and take a look.

Automakers may be integrating some impressive technology into cars these days, but at TechnoRide we sometimes find that their Web sites could use some updating. Which makes this achievement that much more remarkable: The Web Marketing Association has announced that Una Noche IS, the Puerto Rican–based Web site for the Lexus IS, is the winner of the Best Automobile Web site award for the 10th annual WebAward Competition.

"Automotive Web sites are consistently pushing the envelope in use of design, technology, and interactivity," said William Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association in a press release. "More and more automotive consumers are shopping online for vehicles, so it is important that companies stay on top of great Web site design."

The automotive industry represents one of the most competitive categories in the WebAward competition. Entries are judged on seven criteria: design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting, and ease of use. For the past three years automotive Web sites have received above-average scores across all seven judging criteria.

Past WebAward winners in the automotive industry are:

To see the results of J.D. Power's survey of car Web site for owners, click here.

You know that saying, "it's better to be safe than sorry?" Who ever came up with that quote is right. You should always wear your seatbelt, keep your doors locked, be cautious at night, and think twice before eating that cookie you dropped on the floor.

While we can't protect you from ghosts, in-laws, and reruns of "Murphy Brown", we CAN help safeguard you, your children, your home, and your laptop. Each week, we'll bring you a total of five security products that we tried out and tested. First up in the series is a personal alarm for runners, reviewed by PCMag's Hardware Reviews Editor Jen Trolio.

Product: Alarm Combo by Doberman Security ($29.99)

Description: A girl's gotta keep safety in mind when jogging alone at night.  Enter Doberman Security's Alarm Combo, which the company bills as "a personal alarm for joggers and active people." The package includes two portable 100DB alarms: the Power Button, with an attached velcro armband that lets you wear it while you're running, and the Electronic Defense Whistle, which hangs from a small lanyard and is meant to be kept in a handbag or backpack.

I've worn the Power Button for a few workouts now, and though it's not particularly innovative, it's definitely useful. Its armband is comfortable and easy to adjust (it doesn't get much easier than Velcro, folks!) and the device is light enough that I barely noticed I was wearing it. I don't particularly care for the white-and-bright-orange color scheme (it also comes in white and blue), but I do realize that the point of the Power Button is to help me be safe, not to make the chicest runner in the park. That said, if you really hate the way it looks, it's flat enough to hide under a T-shirt sleeve.

Do you particpate in Citibank's PayPass program, where you can wave the RFID pass in front of a reader, instead of trying to swipe your metrocard through the turnstile?

Well, starting today (October 9) through October 15, 2006, NYC subway riders who have PayPass can ride on the 4, 5, and 6 lines for free! The offer is good up to 20 free subway rides. Not a bad deal!

According to MasterCard's web site: "This offer may be combined with the NYC Subway Trial Pay-As-You-Go 3 Free Rides offer or Pre-Pay 6 Free Rides offer. Participants will receive any remaining free rides under those promotions first, with up to an additional 20 free rides available during the Ride Free week. Maximum number of free rides available during Ride Free week will not exceed 23 free rides for Pay-As-You-Go participants or 26 free rides for Pre-Pay participants." Enjoy your free rides Gearlog readers!