Awesome Tech

MIT’s Copenhagen Wheel is more than just a wheel: it uses regenerative braking to turn any bike into a hybrid and connects to a smartphone to serve as a personal trainer and navigator.

The Beat Thang Machine is a fully mobile music production system, able to go 6 hours on a charge; it features a 3.5″ LC, 3,000+ sounds, onboard sampling/resampling, and USB in/out.

Neato’s XV-11 makes other robot vacuums a-la the Roomba suck: instead of bumping around, it uses lasers to detect and map out objects up to 4 meters away; it’s due out 2/2010.

It may not be the smallest portable hard drive, but LaCie’s Rikiki is one of the sleekest; it sports a brushed aluminum housing with up to 640 GB, weighs 5.6 oz, and measures 1/2″ thick.

Preorder now: the Peregrine Glove mixes Minority Report and button mashing, letting you frag via your fingers with 18 touch points and 3 pads, good for 30 programmable actions.

It’s only able to swivel slightly, but for less than $15 it’s tough to beat this DIY Dual Monitor Stand; it’s mounted to a desk and made with galvanized steel pipe, PVC pipe, and wood.

Sony Ericsson’s Elm and Hazel are eco-friendly phones made from recycled plastics; each features a 5 MP camera, Wi-Fi, HSPA, a low-power charger, and minimal packaging.

SchultzeWORKS’ Philco PC is a blast from our retro past, inspired by a same-named (but short-lived) TV maker of the late 50s/early 60s; check out the video above for the full 360.

An entry in Cooler Master’s 2009 Modding Contest, Macius Barreto’s Morphius is a four-legged robotic case mod of awesome; it’s built out of fiberglass and finished with car paint.

Barely 1″ thick, Piixl’s EdgeCenter 3770 is an HTPC that mounts behind a 37″-70″ flat panel TV; it maxes out with dual Xeons, 2 TB HDD, 24GB RAM, 1GB ATI HD-5850, and Blu-ray RW.

Don’t get your D-branes rolled up in a bunch, but this Calabi-Yau Manifold Crystal is a perfect gift for string theorists and extra-dimensional geeks: it’s a 3″ 3D cross-section of a 6D space.

Available 12/18/09, Cyber Snipa’s new Silencer is a relatively affordable gaming mouse; it features a 5000 DPI sensor, 150 IPS, 9 programmable buttons, and 6 x 4.9 gram weights.

Designed to reduce the spread of disease, the Keystick Keyboard concept envisions a personal full-size keyboard for everyone that folds up like a hand-held fan for portability.

Vertu’s V Collection is bourgeoisie gadgetry, but what gorgeous gadgetry it is; it includes a bluetooth headset, SD card reader, and pen made out of black resin and stainless steel.

Get a leg up on your clandestine work activities with StealthSwitch II; it’s a system of up to five foot-activated buttons and pedals that can be programmed with your own hot keys and macros.

It’s not the first controller-style case we’ve seen, but the iPDA iHandstick is easily the cheapest at $12; it’s a dual-grip rubber gamepad for your iPhone 3G/3GS or iPod Touch 2G/3G.

The Microsoft Surface-powered D&D table gets a proper promo video and a name: SurfaceScapes is an ongoing CMU project and was conceived after a meeting with Penny Arcade.

More powerful than an HDTV and able to project on tall buildings, the Extreme Gamer is really an ad for an Epson projector–but this PS3-toting dude is still a superhero in our books.

Flash on, dude: HexoLights are red, yellow, and blue LED light pods that sync with any sound source including iPods any consoles; snap them together to build your own custom set-up.

If you prefer ohms to ornaments, Evil Mad Scientist Labs has decked their tree with resistors and other electronic components; got other holiday plans? Check out the LED Menorah Kit.

Will Urbina’s “The Desk” is an uber-case mod which puts the computer in a see-through, LED-lit Plexiglass table; perched above is “The Tower”, is a 5-drive hard disk cluster.

Andrew Mitchell’s Squibble Braille Interface concept features 779 ultrasonic motors to provide tactile and high contrast feedback; it’s designed to work with cellphones via Bluetooth.

Boxee lands a one-two punch with the heavily revamped Beta (due out 1/7/2010) and D-Link’s Boxee Box (2Q 2010); the latter features HDMI out, Wi-Fi, ethernet and two USB ports.