Tired of your co-workers barging in your office when you're on deadline or disturbing you while you're on the phone? Then I know what you need: the CubeGuard. It's a retractable banner that displays a message for when you don't want to be disturbed.

The CubeGuard comes in two varieties, with an assortment of background designs: CubeGuard Standard and Build Your Own. The CubeGuard Standard comes with a preprinted message, including "Please Do Not Disturb," "Out Of The Office," and "Working From Home." Build Your Own lets you create a custom message. Each CubeGuard fits entryways up to 50 inches and comes with Velcro and magnets for easy hanging.

CubeGuard was nice enough to send a few of us here at Gearlog personalized messages for hanging up in our offices and cubicles. Find out what we thought of these banners, after the jump.

It's a shame I didn't have these unusual sandals with me at the beach over the weekend. I might  have found some spare change!

Hammacher Schlemmer today added to its catalog The Metal Detecting Sandals ($59.95), wearable metal detectors that let you find buried treasure with your feet. The Metal Detecting Sandals, according to a press release, have a "copper coil built into the right sandal--powered by a battery pack that straps to your calf by an elastic band." The sandals use what's called "beat frequency oscillation technology" in order to create a magnetic field. The 9V battery pack  then alerts the wearer of metal up to 2 feet underfoot via flashing red LED lights and either a vibration or an audible buzz.

Providing up to 6 hours of use on a single charge, the sandals have PVC uppers, non-skid soles, and polyurethane foam footbeds; they are available in two unisex sizes.

Walking around the floor of a convention center for days on end, you can forget to do important things--like, say, eating and drinking. In haste, you may do something regrettable to compensate, such as tossing back a few cans of some ungodly promotional energy drink, or eating a handful of something with a name like Gamer Grub.

But actually, the wasabi-flavored version of the stuff isn't that bad. It tastes like a pretty standard snack mix. Unlike other gamer-targeted foods, it contains no taurine or caffeine, either. Calling Gamer Grub a "performance snack" and using the tagline "boost your game" might be a bit much, beyond the fact that if you don't eat food, you'll die--which will almost certainly impede your ability to play video games.

Gamers grub is available in Pizza, PB & J, Chocolate, and, of course, Wasabi flavors. It's available at Fry's Electronics.

Here's a very innovative way to think about repurposing tech discards: For the 2009 Use More, Use Less Project, Dante Bonuccelli and Lamm created this one-of-a-kind chair from discarded keyboard keys. Both designers specialize in chic furnishings; Dante is partial to family and home settings, while Lamm finds inspiration in lecture halls and academia.

There is no word on how comfortable the text-ile chair is or if it's meant purely as a decorative piece. Either way, it would be a wonderful conversation starter to geek-out on.

If you're thinking of trying to make your own keyboard-key furniture--or tackling any kind of DIY project--check out the roundup of the Web's best how-to sites at PCMag.com.

Tetris on your iPhone isn't enough to satisfy your fanatical devotion to the game? Etsy seller Digitalsoap has recently added a Tetris soap set to the user-made content on the site.

The soap set weighs a little more than 8 ounces and has a "berry fruit" fragrance. The ingredients can be found on the site. The set costs $10.00 plus shipping and handling.

Digitalsoaps offers a lot of other fun techie soaps, including ones shaped like Xbox 360 controllers, iPods, and WiiMotes.

Etsy, a site where artisans can sell their handmade items, is selling a pillow set to appeal to the Apple geek inside us: the Apple + Z or "Undo" keyboard command. The Apple pillow measures 12 by 16 inches, and the Z pillow is 12 by 12.

The Z pillow can be changed to any other letter, so that the set represents a paste, a cut, or any other combination. The pillow set currently costs $65.00 and is up for grabs at etsy.com.

In case you're wondering whether engineers are indeed as sexy as Intel makes them out to be: sadly, we may never know. Intel's latest series of ads use actors, not actual employees, at least in some cases.

Although I was unaware of this, Intel did disclose in a press release earlier this month, according to a spokesman:

"Several of the engineers we're personifying confided that acting isn't within their comfort zone," said Sandra Lopez, Intel's global consumer marketing manager. "We respect that and in the spirit of developing tomorrow's 'normal' we appreciate that their focus is on winning patents, not Clios," a reference by Lopez of the global advertising awards competition.

The new subject: Ajay Bhatt, an Intel Fellow and its chief I/O architect, who apparently sashays through a roomful of swooning office drones acting, well, like a rock star. We've added Bhatt's official photo to the right; you can draw your own conclusions as to who might better fit the bill.

The second annual Koreannovation trade show is open to the public today and tomorrow at the Penn Plaza Pavilion in midtown Manhattan. The show offers a peak at the unique--and often bizarre--technology coming out of Korea, giving manufacturers the opportunity to interact with businesses and consumers in the States.

If you're in New York City, the show is worth seeing, if only to gawk at some of the technologies that will most likely never manage to appeal to American sensibilities in any measurable way--like, say, the Nosk Nasal Insertion Mask. I went last night for a sneak preview and was immediately pulled aside by a Nosk rep, who proceeded to shove the device straight up my nose. The Nosk is meant to be a replacement for the surgical masks that have been all the rage in Asia since the oubreak of SARS.

After the jump, check out some video highlights of some of the more...interesting gadgets from the show.

Brando Workshop is quickly becoming my favorite source of charmingly unusual products. Remember the secret spy handbag from last week? Brando is at it again.

Its latest is a rechargeable flashlight (or "torch," if you're stuffy) that connects to your computer via a USB port. It comes in two parts: a cap with three bright LED lights and a body that holds the battery. Remove the cap to expose the USB connector.

So far, so good, right? Well, it's also a memory card reader. Why not? It can handle SDHC, SD, and MMC cards out of the box, and MiniSD, T-Flash, MicroSD, and MicroSDHC cards with an adapter. I don't know if the product includes adapters. I doubt it.

This wonderful combination works with Windows and Macintosh systems and costs only $12. Choose a black or white model. If anyone actually orders one, let me know in the comments.

President Barack Obama is lot of things--the first African American president of the United, a harbinger of change... a 2GB USB key? Yes, that's right, Obama is also our first USB 2.0 Commander-in-Chief, thanks to Active Media Products who today announced the release of the Commemorative Obama Flash Drive.

The drive features an Obama hologram on its front and various Obama-related data inside, including the President's Inaugural Address. There's an hour of audio and various PDF text version of speeches.

"We designed the Obama drive to be a slim, usable USB drive that fits on your keychain. It's a great value as a portable drive to carry your music, photos and data. But it's also sleek and classy enough to be a great collector's item," said the company's director, Jerry Thomson.

Classy indeed, Jerry; classy indeed.

Let's get one thing straight: I covet the Apple iPhone. Someday I will make it mine. And when I do, zweiPhone will give me the option of making it look like the crappy, super-outdated LG number I'm using now.

Ahem:

zweiPhone is a collection of stickers with used and old mobile phones. Each phone had a specific quality and style. They bring back a piece of classic design history on the back of blank and impersonal iPhones.

Right. Good to know. zweiPhone's limited-edition 14-sticker sets cost $14 each at zweiphone.com. Downgrade today!  

[via @notrobwalker]

Steve Jobs may be gone (for the moment), but he's certainly not forgotten. For those among us who miss the glory days of Apple keynotes, Podbrix has introduced a doll version of the black-turtlenecked CEO. Reenact the original iPhone announcement, or just cuddle up with your favorite sneaker-wearing executive in front of your MacBook's warm glow.

You can pick up your very own fake Steve Jobs today for $28.

Over the past six months or so, electronic cigarette manufacturers have been pushing their products in a big way. Not to the general public--not yet, at least. While the devices have managed to get something of a foothold in Asian and European countries, the concept of an electronic nicotine-delivery system is going to require a good deal of positive PR before the notoriously tech-weary American populous begins to consider adopting it, especially as e-cigarettes have a much higher entry-level cost than, say, a normal pack of cigarettes.

Recently, though, we've been bombarded by several PR companies looking to get us to try their clients' products. I've been hesitant; after all, I'm not a smoker, never have been, and the idea of getting myself hooked on nicotine for the sake of a story--no matter how fascinating--isn't really one that interests me (especially at my salary).

So I needed a guinea pig--a smoker or former smoker still in the shaky-handed grip of nicotine addiction. As far as I know, no there aren't any smokers on the PCMag editorial staff. It became clear that I would have to venture beyond our office walls to find a candidate willing to risk his own well-being for the sake of entertainment--and drugs.

That someone was Marc Maron.

If you've been thinking about adding some excitement to your sock drawer (and who hasn't?), the time is now, my friend. All you need are some Super Mario-themed socks.   

Ahem:

Now you can jump into some warp zones like your favorite 8-bit Italian hero. These puppies are thick and warm kind of like hiking socks. They won't make you jump higher or shoot fireballs but they'll be sure to put some spring in your step.

I suggest wearing them under a fine Italian business suit for that elusive "secret superhero" look.

Ready to pretend you can punch brick walls and find money? Warp Zone socks are available for $12 per pair at ashidashi.com.

Think the Roomba isn't all that? KTF, the South Korean telecom company, has announced the CW100, a cleaning robot that can be controlled by a 3G cellphone, according to Engadget.

In comparison to the Roomba, the CW100 looks kind of brick-like--that is, if we're talking about round bricks. But unlike the Roomba, the CW100 features a built-in video camera that sends live images of what it sees to a cell phone--call it a Vacuum Cam. From there, the user can view the live video feed and control the vacuum with the phone's keypad.

The firm is selling the CW100 in South Korea for about $370 US, though it requires a separate data plan that costs about $3.70 per month. Sounds like a deal to us.