I've heard of reading the paper and opening your mail while using the John, but a toilet that plays mp3s? I'd have to be in the bathroom for quite awhile to enjoy that!

Akihabara News reports that the Japanese MP3-Playing Toilet has an SD slot so you can add your favorite bathroom tunes.

When I first heard about this, I wondered if when you sat down all of a sudden you'd start hearing "Smokin' In The Boys Room," "Tubthumping," or "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair," but the mp3 player seems to be part of the toilet that is situated on the wall. I think incorporating it into the seat though would be hilarious!

Here's the video that explains it all.

And just for kicks, here's a list of the Top 10 Soft Rock Songs With A Bathroom Connection (yes, this list actually does exist).

Dan Costa's Comment: Just don't drop the SD Card.

David Coursey's anti-Comment: Gee, that video could be about almost anything--especially, since I don't speak Japanese. Is this thing actually for sale or is this just another of those dopey Japanese inventions that seem to be produced more for domestic entertainment than commerce? I remember the Japanese toilet that supposedly did medical tests on your waste product.

On the other hand, at a technology exhibition in the Netherlands, I did once visit the "bathroom of the future" which had a monitor built into the floor, for viewing the Internet from a seated position.

The PepperPad ($849.99 direct) is the latest in a long line of gizmos designed to make the Internet easier to use at home.  It is a noble idea, but a quick run down of the specs on the PepperPad shows that an ordinary, entry level laptop is probably a better bet for getting online and getting things done. The PepperPad comes with a 800x600 screen, a 20GB hard drive, and a 802.11B connection. For the same price, you could get a Dell Inspiron 6000 with a 40GB hard drive and 802.11G!

Perhaps the biggest drawback to the PepperPad is that is still uses a USB 1.1 connection to move files on and off the device, giving new justification to all those vendors boasting about offering "high-speed" USB 2.0.

To be sure, the notebook form factor isn't ideal for all home applications. I would love to have a Tablet that would get me online fast, play video, and let me read some ebooks on the couch.  Unfortunately, the PepperPad isn't it. If you don't believe me, check out PC Magazine's full review.

Nuvi 350 adds the Travel Kit to Garmin's main menu

The Nuvi 350 Travel Kit includes an MP3 player

The Nuvi 350 can play audio books from audible.com

The Nuvi 350 doubles at a picture viewer.  You can view pictures stored on the unit, or from and SD card inserted into the Nuvi's card slot

When traveling abroad, measurement converters are handy

The Nuvi 350 Kit includes a handy currency converter

The Nuvi 350 trip computer keeps track of trip statistics

Enroute navigation shows the next turn, distance to the next turn, and estimated time of arrival

Late last night, PC Magazine's Craig Ellison, our friendly neighborhood GPS guru, got his hands on a Nuvi 350 (with SiRFStarIII) (more photos here) that's been preloaded with US data. For those of you that know the Nuvi 350, you also know you can't buy it preloaded with US maps (yet).  He's writing up his review now for PCMag.com, but let it suffice to say, he's very pleased with its performance.

It's important to note that you can only buy the Nuvi 350 preloaded with European maps (sporting either regional maps only, in the Nuvi 300, or all of Western Europe, in the Nuvi 350). But as of yet, a US version is not available, but if you buy the Euro version, you can load it yourself with US maps (with a City Navigator North America SD card). And that's exactly what Garmin did for the testing version that Craig has in his hands.

As we already know, the Nuvi 350 is packed with an A/C charger and approximately 1 GB of internal memory for storage of supplemental maps, MP3s, and audio books. With the optional language pack, the Nuvi 350 can speak nine languages. Due to budget constraints, we had to let our linguistics department go here at GearLog, so we were only able to test the English and the German (we have a German lab guy, so there).

Considering how lazy we are here at GearLog.com, we don't want to manually load US maps into a European Nuvi 350. (We'd rather spend our time whinging about the video iPod and the OQO Model 01+ mini-PC.)  So, we're avidly awaiting an announcement from Garmin about the US Nuvi (more photos here), that we're told, will be made soon.  Real soon. (Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge.)

David Coursey's Comment: This looks like a device designed for the European briefcase traveler market--someone who doesn't drive much and takes planes, trains, and taxis from place to place. Looks like it would be painful to use while driving (something I do a lot of) and the 3.5-inch (diagonal) screen seems small. I'd want mine with real buttons rather than a touchscreen-only user interface. Preloaded maps or not, there's no way I'd drop nearly $1000 for one of these.

The DLO iBoom I wrote about last week is one of my favorite iPod accessories since I don't own a stereo. But, if you do own one, Belkin's new TuneStage for the iPod ($179.99 list) is a great choice.

It lets you stream music wirelessly from your iPod to your stereo from up to 33 feet away.  The silver and white transmitter plugs into any iPod with a remote-control jack, but if you own a nano or shuffle, you're out of luck because those models don't have that port (for now anyway). After you plug the transmitter in, simply press play and you can use your iPod as a wireless remote.

The TuneStage will come in handy if you're throwing a halloween party this weekend and you have a bunch of Halloween tunes on your iPod (I'm thinking "Thriller," "The Rocky Horror Show Picture.").

Read the full review here.