I've seen the Hello Kitty Mobile Phone, the Hello Kitty TV-DVD Combo, and the Hello Kitty CD Player. So I guess that it was only right to manufacture a Hello Kitty Portable DVD Player, too!

It's said to feature a 3.5-inch screen, three-hour battery life, and will sell for around $500 (4,000 yuan). No other details are available at this time. What's next? A Hello Kitty Guitar? Oh wait, they already make that!

[via Gizmodiva]

"Nabaztag" is a clumsy name for a cute little Wi-Fi-enabled rabbit with wiggly ears, a built-in light show, and the ability to play MP3s and read RSS feeds and messages out loud. The cuteness doesn't take the sting out of a the $149.99 price tag. But I've found that the Lapin Communicant, as its maker (a French company, Violet) calls it, has really become part of my work environment. It must be the open cubes... One completely random voice seems to perk things up.

I enjoyed the digeridoo noise it makes before it reads a text message (I tried some of the other options, such as the trumpet fanfare, but they didn't quite embrace the weirdness of the Smart Bunny the way the aboriginal instrument did for me) and the fact that the name Space Bunny was already registered (I did score the name "Techno Love Bunny" at www.nabaztag.com). And the light show, a T-shaped pattern of multicolored dots, is amusing when I've stashed the Techno Love Bunny in a dark corner of the office.

The lights also offer a highly efficient means of figuring out whether the bunny has a Wi-Fi connection. Security-conscious users won't be thrilled by the bunny's ability to handle WEP. At any rate, WPA compatibility won't be available until the next Nabaztag arrives later this year. (The current model will not be upgradable.)

Like any modern digital toy, Nabaztag offers tiers of service for various monthly fees. The free service include the Talking Clock (the rabbit tells you the time, on the hour), Tai Chi poses, a recap of the week, RSS news feeds, a report on the air quality or traffic in Paris (it's a French rabbit, you see), an MP3 alarm clock, a weather forecast, a stock ticker (lights or voice!), a Mood mode that I'll avoid describing, and e-mail alerts. Last but not least, and probably my favorite feature (besides the Tai Chi poses), are Nabcasts: The bunny suddenly pipes up with poetry, strange sounds, music, and other even more random feeds than you've signed up for. Nabcasts are highly engaging, especially when you're in the middle of an episode of DL.TV. I didn't mean to yank off its magnetic ears... I just wanted to find the switch to flip it to silent mode!

If you're willing to drop $14.95 for three months, you can add your favorite RSS feeds read by the rabbit, a Stock Portfolio feature I worked hard to avoid (would you want a plastic bunny to tell you whether you should hold on or sell everything?), a Google Talk alert, personalized e-mail alerts, and an alarm clock setup that allows you to use different MP3 files for different wakeup times.

The downside? After the rather bracing amount of cash you spent on the bunny? Definitely the voice synthesizer. Remember the early days of Mac utilities that could read your e-mail with all the talent of well, an early voice synthesizer? Nabaztag sounds like that. Listening to it read, say, headlines from the Wall Street Journal or a message from a friend that says, "I warned you, but did you listen to me? Oh, no, you knew, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it?" in the exact-same joyless cadence is a bit disappointing.

But I like it. The poetry recitals and random ear waggings have grown on me. Then again, at $150 a pop, I'm not whipping out my credit card out to buy a litter (if it were a jackrabbit, we'd be talking herds, and a group of bunnys can be a bury, colony, circle, or nest, too) for my friends.

But if I hit the Lotto... bunnies for all!

Thanks to DL.TV's Patrick Norton for this post! And thanks to ThinkGeek.com for offering a demo rabbit.

What's another product to complement your geekiness and keep your fingers warm during the winter months in the office?

Product: USB G-Gloves from Usb.brando.com.hk

Description: The "G" in "G-Gloves" stands for girls, because these USB heating gloves are supposed to be more suitable for girls' hands. However, I'm guessing that means girls aged 14 and under, because they're real snug on my hands (and I have small fingers). Each glove is made of wool and connects via USB to heat your hands.

How It Works: You can wear the gloves either with your fingers exposed through the holes, or with the top flap placed over your fingers. Each glove contains a USB cable and heating controls. Place the gloves on each hand and then connect the USB cables. Turn on each glove in the low heat or high heat settings. In order to actually feel the heat on your hands, you will have to turn over the flap to completely cover your fingers because that is where the heating pad is located. It takes about a minute for the glove to heat up when on low heat, and only about 10 seconds on high heat. They really do warm your hands! It's definitely a quick solution for me instead of having to put my hands in my pockets or run them under hot water! When turned off, the glove stays warm for only about 30 seconds, so if you feel a rush of hand chills coming on, you'll need to power the gloves again!

Performance: How hot do they really get? The company claims that every five minutes, the G-Gloves will rise ten degrees. To validate this, I borrowed an infrared thermometer from desktop analyst Joel Santo Domingo (thank you!). After leaves the gloves on low heat for a minute, they reached 80 degrees; high heat was 85.5 degrees. After five minutes, they reached 90.5 degrees on low heat and 92.1 degrees on high. So it's only the high heat that will increase just five degrees. This is fine though, considering right after I took the glove's temperature I pulled it off quickly because my hand was burning! There was even a pink mark on my knuckles from the heat!

Overall: My hands always get cold, especially while typing away at the office, so these heating gloves definitely come in handy for me. And, they really do heat well! They may not cure Raynaud's syndrome, but I definitely recommend them for anyone who is cold-sensitive! However, I do have a few caveats about the product: 1.) The gloves aren't made on one USB cable--so that means they take up two USB ports. 2.) You have to wear the flap over your fingers in order to get warm, which defeats the whole purpose of using them while you type. 3.) It doesn't warm your thumbs. 4.) Size doesn't fit all!

The USB G-Gloves sell for $22.00 at Usb.brando.com.hk. Or if you're of the male species, you'll want the USB Heating Gloves.

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Geek Your Cube

Last night we attended the annual Holiday Spectacular in NYC in Key-West style. After gulping down Red Velvet Martinis, munching on salmon and salsa, and rolling cigars, we made our rounds around the show floor to see what companies had in store for us.

The highlights for me were the Micro Mosquito, Zvue PMP, and iFroz iPod cases.

The Micro Mosquito ($70, RadioShack) is an indoor R/C helicopter that flies in all directions with a 3-channel digital control going up, down, forward, reverse, left, right--and it even hovers!! I walked right under it at one point and didn't even realize it was hovering over me! It measures 6.5-inches and is recommended for ages 12 and up. It includes an R/C transmitter and charging station. I think it's going to be a hot item for the holidays! Of course we at Gearlog want to play with them, so the company will be sending us a review unit.

Handheld Entertainment's Zvue (pretty close to Microsoft's branded Zune name) is a portable media player that plays music and video. It's already available at Walmart and Amazon for just $99. I held it in my hands and couldn't believe how light it was (4.2 ounces)! Its 2.5-inch screen was playing Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack" video, and somehow the company rep and I got on the subject of NSync and Backstreet Boys! What I liked about it is that there are 2 headphone jacks so that you and your friend can listen or watch video together. You can purchase music and video from the company's content site, Zvue.com, where there are more than 10,000 videos available for download. And the company is currently developing an open platform, meaning any player with Windows Media Video standard and DRM support can download content from the site, not just to the Zvue player. Look for three more models of the Zvue player to launch this year, one of which will feature wireless, and another that will record and playback to and from TVs.

iFrogz (who were also present at the DigitalLife Press Preview but I never had the chance to get to their booth) are customizable cases for your iPod! Each case is 100% polished silicon and protects your iPod's screen, body, and click wheel. You can customize the back and front of the case, as well as choose a design for the click wheel! I think they're pretty cool, and Blogging Molly and I are going to create cases and let you know how it went!

PCMag.com also took some photos of the show. Check out their slide show!

Updated 9/21 3:35pm with PCMag.com's slideshow.

A London-based company called Moixa Energy announced a very interesting new green product: USBCELL batteries, which you can recharge simply by plugging them into a USB port. Just pop the top off and charge away. What a boon these would be for road warriors, or anyone who doesn't want to deal with clunky recharging stations. According to the company, the batteries can be used like any normal battery.

Right now the company's offering only AA batteries, but others are coming: "a full range of standard formats, phone and camera batteries," according to Moixa. The AA USBCELLs cost £12.99 apiece, direct from the company. And they are currently selling only to U.K. dwellers; if you're not one, you can preorder. We're going to try to get one in to see how well it works. We'll keep you posted.