On the heels of the hot pink RAZR, Motorola announced a rock garden's worth of U6 PEBLs today. Or maybe it's a flower garden? These PEBLs come in orange, pink, blue and green, which seem more appropriate to a field of wildflowers or a rack of ball gowns than to a handful of stones. (Okay, maybe they're gemstones.) There's no technical advance here, just some lovely colors, but the PEBL wasn't a phone for techies anyway. With its pretty basic feature set, it's a fashion accessory that makes phone calls.

The new PEBLs will be available by July, Motorola says. No prices yet.

Robots are just plain cool. Maybe they'll never have the kind of heart that Johnny 5 had in Short Circuit, but many companies are designing robots that can assist you in every day tasks. Some of them you may remember us chatting about, like WowWee's SCOTY, Japan's Robot Escorts, and the HRP-2.

Now, there's the 5-foot RI-MAN Humanoid Robot, created by the Japanese research team Riken, that can see, hear, smell, and even carry human beings--particularly those that are elderly. RI-MAN is equipped with sensors that show it a body's weight and position. So, I guess this takes the "I've fallen and I can't get up" idea to new levels.

So why a robot that can carry the elderly? Apparently, Japan is expecting a major increase in elderly care due to people living longer, so the RI-MAN would aid in carrying a person to the bathroom, to bed, or wherever they need to go.

Toshiharu Mukai, one of the research team leaders, "...would like to develop a capacity to detect a human's health condition through his breath."

All I know is, thank goodness I'll have someone to carry me when I'm 80.

[via Gizmodo]

This week is traditionally a party week in NYC, due to the Saint Patrick's day holiday on Friday, so I thought it fitting to talk about one of those cool gadgets that is available over the other side of the pond.  Any malt and hop aficionado worth his pint glass knows that a great deal of the appeal of draft Guinness Stout is the mouthfeel from a freshly drawn pint.  Our (lucky) readers in Great Britain can go down to the local Tesco, aka the UK's Wal-Mart  like Peapod.com with physical locations, and pick up the Guinness Surger. 

The Guinness Surger is an ultrasonic plate that agitates a glass of Guinness after you've poured it out of a specially packaged can or bottle.  The agitation replicates the entertaining bubble flow and head from a 'perfect pour'.  It's been described as being more authentic tasting than the nitrogen dosed 'widget' cans and bottles available worldwide, but not quite as good as an authentic draft pint from a barkeep that knows his craft and keeps the tap lines clean.  A starter kit costs £17 (about $30), but you get the glass, Surger, and two pints.

I'd love to try one out, Guinness are you listening?  Apparently it's been available in Japanese bars since 2003, since many of the commonly found 5-10 seat 'hole in the wall' bars don't have the space for a traditional tap and keg system.  Sláinte!

[Please Gearlog responsibly.]

The Slappa BulkHead PRO 4 in 1 takes "modular" to a whole new level. My inner efficiency expert got kind of thrilled at this concept.

It's a smart idea for travelers who might want to use all the extra compartments to pack their stuff but could use a slimmer bag at their destination.

At left is the bag all zipped together; at right, it's unzipped into four separate padded bags, each of which can be used alone. If the zippers were hard to work, that'd be a dealbreaker, but zipping and unzipping is easy; you could add or remove modules on a crowded plane, or wherever you needed to, pretty quickly.

The bag's made of "rainproof BuckBlast suede," which is nice-looking and feels pretty like tough material. This version is $179.99 direct. Other versions are available for less (see the company's comment below).

Cheap geeks, take note! Slappa is offering a 10 percent discount on this bag to Gearlog readers. Just enter the word "gearlog" as the discount code when you're checking out.

I'm a lefty, although I do some things with my right hand, such as writing and using a mouse. But for those of you who are true Southpaws, you'll be happy to know that Logitech designed a computer mouse exclusively for left-handers. I imagine that it didn't take long for Logitech president and CEO Guerrino De Luca to dream it up either, since he's left-handed.

The Logitech MX610 Left-Hand Laser Cordless Mouse comes with Logitech's precision laser tracking system, contoured thumb and pinky-finger grips and 10 navigational buttons, including e-mail and instant message notifications.

The MX610 has a wireless range of up to 30 feet and also includes volume up, down and mute buttons for controlling music on the PC. 

According to this Logitech Press Release, the MX610 Left-Hand Laser Cordless Mouse will be available worldwide in early April for $59.99. The package will include the cordless mouse plus a 2.4 GHz Micro-Receiver, CD with SetPoint software, USB-to-PS/2 adapter, and 2 AA batteries.

[via Ubergizmo]