This is one sick-looking puppy. The USB Smart Dog Hub is a 4-port USB hub that literally loses its rectangular-shaped head. Detach its head from the hub, and you've got a portable radio with auto scan 88Mhz to 108MHz. And if you're a good dog owner, you'll return the head so that you can use it as a computer speaker.

Head on over to LatestBuy.com to buy this smart pup for $19.15.

Over here at Gearlog headquarters, we've been intrigued by Jada's Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker since the company first busted it out back at CES. While the device officially launched back in February, its availability has been fairly limited--well, as limited as something that's widely available online can be.

If you've been waiting for the full nationwide rollout to get your hands on this guy, it looks like you're finally in luck. Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker is available today through all the major retail channels, including Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and Toys R Us, for the heroic price of $29.99.

Jada also announced the release of forthcoming "Encore Packs for Air Guitar Rocker with new belt buckles and cartridges featuring "legendary heavy metal and '80s rock riff." The expansion packs will be available this summer, for $14.99 a piece.

Personally, I have issues about spending more than $50 on a pair of shoes. But if you happen to be the sort of person who feels the need to use the words "smart" and/or "experience" when describing your footwear, then perhaps a pair of VectraSense Technologies' new $700 Verb for Shoes are exactly what your feet need.

So, what does one get for a cool $700? Well, the shoes feature an embedded computer, which offers "Auto Comfort": the "Experiance" shoes automatically adjust to their wearer's feet, becoming firmer or more cushioned based on movement. The shoes also feature "Contact Sharing," which allow them to trade information with other smart shoes in the area, and a wireless link, which lets users sync information between their shoes and PC.

Would you be caught dead checking your e-mail or surfing the Web on this absurdly-looking device? Developed during the Next-Gen PC Design competition, one finalist's AlphaGrip Handheld Computer (AlphaGrip HC) concept is an ergonomic device with a thumb-controlled trackball and "eight multi-directional keys that enable the user to generate 20 characters, each with a single finger pressing a single key, and an additional 60 characters using three shift buttons," according to the site.

When I wrote the top ten list of the geekiest sneakers, I knew there'd come a day when there'd be a Wi-Fi-enabled pair. Designer Stefan Dukaczewski developed a prototype based on Nike Dunk shoes, with an 802.11 detector under the flap on the left shoe and a discrete three-LED display system, according to Gizmodo. The prototype is cleverly named, "A Step in the Right Direction," or ASRD.

The idea is that as you're walking, the pressure sensor in the heel is activated, and the Wi-Fi detector is capable of finding a hotspot within 150 feet. Of course, you may be walking around all day until you find a connection, but at least you're getting the exercise, right?

No word yet on whether these wearable Wi-Fi detectors will be in a store near you.

It's OK. Admit it, we've all been there. You're just about ready to consummate a relationship with that special someone when it occurs to you: You've got foot odor.You could attempt to keep your shoes on for the rest of the night and chalk it up to some manifestation of a Tobias Fünke-like never-nude syndrome, or you can invest in a pair of Dami Trading's Nano Silver Socks.

According to the company, the socks are designed with nano silver particles built in to, "fight bacteria using a slow ionization process." The resulting effect is both anti-bacterial and deodorizing.

And have no fear: "The nano silver material maintains a semi-permanent antibacterial shield despite repeated use and wash." It's hard to say precisely how long "semi-permanent" is, but by then your significant other will hopefully have already accepted you for who you are. Stinky feet and all.

The Nano Silver Socks will be on display to the public with a number of other wacky Korean gadgets at New York's Koreannovation show on May 14th and 15th.

Looking to out-pet-pamper your neighbor? Korean-based Autoelex may have the answer. Sure, it looks like the bastard offspring of a laundry hamper and a toaster oven, but the Luxury Pet House is actually the latest advance in pet spoiling--perfect if you have a lot of money to blow on a beloved beastie and don't mind encasing it in something that looks like it needs to be preheated for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

The over-the-top Luxury Pet House offers PC-managed controls, temperature and humidity limits, infrared radiation and carbon heating walls, antibiotic air, solenoid valve "medical treatment," and carbon filter-based deodorizing. All this thing needs is a built-in cryogenic setting, so future generations might be able to bring Mittens back to her original glory.

The Luxury Pet House will be on display to the public with a number of other wacky Korean gadgets at New York's Koreannovation show on May 14th and 15th.

I'd be lying if I said that the idea of a bidet didn't make me cringe slightly--but honestly, the idea of a nice, warm jet of water does seem more sanitary than a piece of one-ply toilet tissue. In Japan, it seems, folks can't get enough of their butt streams, a market that NCM's Blooming Bidet is eager to capture.

I'm not quite sure where the whole blooming part of the process comes in, even after reading all the specs--and I think I might be better off leaving it in the realm of mystery. Still, despite the fact I'm less than an expert in the world of bidets, NCM's entry seems fairly tricked out: It offers an LED light, a three-way power saving system, a dual seat sensor, a remote control, an oscillating wash, a massage feature, nozzle-position adjustment, five levels according to personal preferences, a seat warmer, a warm air dryer, deodorization, a self-cleaning nozzle, and a whole slew of other features.

Toss in an FM tuner and some video capabilities, and this thing beats my iPod hands down.

The Blooming Bidet will be on display to the public with a number of other wacky Korean gadgets at New York's Koreannovation show on May 14th and 15th.

"Current portable music players rely on headphones or earphones," states the release for the Soundwalk. Fair enough, but what exactly is the problem with that? Hearing damage, naturally. So, how do the fine people of the Soundwalk's manufacturers, the fittingly titled AZA Extremes, propose to solve this problem? By strapping a pair of speakers to your torso.

The Soundwalk comes in vest, jacket, or backpack designs. Speakers are built into the shoulder straps via one-inch lightweight speakers, assuring that you both help fight hearing loss and get a sweet walking soundtrack that all within earshot can enjoy--whether they want to or not. As a bonus, the EF series offers a built-in mic for public cell phone conversations.

The Soundwalk will be on display to the public with a number of other wacky Korean gadgets at New York's Koreannovation show on May 14th and 15th.

There's been plenty of talk about the inevitable robotic uprising of the mid-to-late 21st century, but in the meantime, it's vital that we get in as many robot rides as humanly possible. Designed by Korean robotics manufacturer Airrobot, the Ringbo riding robot should help the young members of our species get in on the action early, while the robot riding's still good.

Targeted at kids ages 2 to 3, the Ringbo looks a bit like a Fisher-Price-designed "My First Segway" (or Rascal, take your pick), with a decidedly Radio Shack-esque flair for style. The device requires a good 6 to 8 hours of charging for an hour-long ride--certainly enough time to make a few trips between the TV and a juice-box-stocked Frigidaire.

The Ringbo will be on display to the public with a number of other wacky Korean gadgets at New York's Koreannovation show on May 14th and 15th.

Last month, I reported on the national availability of at-home DNA Paternity tests at Rite Aid pharmacies. Well, looks like the affordable kit has already been changing lives.

Take Suliemon Clemens of Philadelphia, for example. Two weeks ago, Clemens wanted his twins to know that he was their father. He hadn't seen them in 14 years: "I remembered these twins when they were toddlers, and I was amazed at how they had grown up," said Clemens. "I told their mom, I just believe the children need to know the truth." As a result, Clemens marched on in to his local Rite Aid, and the lab results proved with 99.99 percent certainty that he was the biological father. "I have plans for them to meet my wife, mother, father, and my son in New Jersey. Identigene, please do not stop helping people in similar situations who may be able to build bridges within their family."

After spending my weekend roaming the halls of the Jacob Javits Convention Center for the 3rd annual New York Comic-Con, the idea of people wearing their geekdom on their sleeves--or, rather, capes--no longer seems all that odd. So perhaps I'm not the ideal person to point out why the concept of a superhero named WiiMan is somehow out of the ordinary.

WiiMan doesn't actually fight crime or fly. In fact, he doesn't actually seem to have any special powers, save for the slightly interesting ability to control Nintendo's ultra-popular console by flailing his limbs around a lot--surely an odd enough sight to make anyone rethink committing a crime while you're around.

The costume was created by a member of the Israel-based tech collective GarageGeeks. Evildoers beware: Don't make WiiMan open up a can of Super Smashbrothers Brawl on you.

Is your iPod nano starving for some attention? Then feed it this Kobe Beef iPod nano Pooch. For $97.86, you can add a whole new meaning to "Where's the Beef?" The Kobe Beef pooch (did they mean "pouch?") is available now on GeekStuff4U.com.

One of the major criticisms of virtual worlds is that, for more and more people, they are becoming surrogates for real-life interactions. Designer Marc Owens may have found a way around this conundrum, combining the fantasy awkwardness of virtual-world interactions with real-world settings. As a bonus, shocked and befuddled spectators have been tossed in too.

The 26-year-old Royal College of Art design student has created the Avatar Machine: It's a big, bulky costume and a head-mounted camera that feeds into VR goggles, allowing users to view their own movements in three-fourths overhead perspective.

Boing Boing has a story of "beta testing" of the device in Tokyo--one of the few place in the world where people might already be accustomed to such shenanigans.

A few years ago, I took a trip to Boquete, Panama, a small mountain town in the northern highlands of the country. One day I went hiking with a guide. Along the trail we crossed this pristine mountain stream in a completely unspoiled forest. I commented on how the water in that stream must be the purest on earth. "I bet you could just kneel right down and take a long drink," said I.

My guide let out a chuckle and replied, "You could, but you'd probably want to filter it through a T-shirt first. There's a parasite in that water that will attach itself to the lining of your throat and swell up until it eventually suffocates you." Whether or not the story was true, it freaked me out for the rest of the trip.