Yesterday (September 16th, 2008), GM unveiled the production model Volt.

The Volt is an extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV), not a hybrid.  Hybrids have small electric motors that move the car at slow speeds while a gas engine kicks in on the Autobahn.  The Volt however, utilizes an all-electric 161-horsepower 45KW (100 KW peak) motor capable of moving the car from 0 to 60 in 8.5 seconds with a top speed of at least 100 mph.

The Volt’s high-voltage battery pack will get you about 40 miles after a full charge from your homes wall outlet.  I know, I know, it’s still electricity so somewhere fuel is being burned or hydrogen is being split, but it’s still cleaner than igniting that Middle Eastern octane and your electricity costs will amount to a gas equivalent of about 50 cents per gallon, so it’s a whole lot cheaper to boot.

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This little guy sucks up the rays like any other respectable tree, but it doesn’t waste all those photons producing oxygen, instead it charges your phone. 

The bonsai-like PhotonSynthesis Tree is a device by designer Vivien Muller.  It makes use of 54 mini photovoltaic leaf panels that capture all the energy you need to charge your gadget army.  All the power cords can be hidden beneath the “soil” tray.  But wait, I usually charge my gear when there is no sunlight!  No problem, this dendriform charger stores its earnings in a battery, so you can power up any time.  What’s more, is that the Lego-like branches allow you to reshape your arboreal house fixture whenever you please, just remember to not add water! 

I’ve always wondered when cell phones, ipods, and camera’s were going to charge themselves, but with idea’s as cool as this, who cares.

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Every Guy likes pocket watches, but no one uses them because they suck for telling time.  The Cobalt, however, is a synergistic blend of the past and present; an “un”antiquated time piece, if you please.  Best of all the Cobalt can withstand temperatures of up to 1495°C. 
The Cobalt’s round LED touch screen is envisaged as showing time, date, temperature, voicemail updates, email and text.  I assume the integrated Bluetooth technology will work in conjunction with a cell phone, but who knows. 
Designer Adam Huffman also plans on fully customizable screen settings; anywhere from simple analog hands to a full on digital display.  The concept wouldn’t be complete without an MP3 player and video player, so those are in the blueprints as well. 

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The Optimus Tactus was the keyboard that Maximus Meridius used in the movie Gladiator.  Ok, maybe not, but it sounds like he should have.
I guess if you’re going to use a touch screen keyboard this would be it.  Oh, except for the fact that it’s only a concept at the moment.  According to the Art Lebedev Studio, here’s the plan: any part of the keyboard surface can be programmed to perform any function or display any image.  Optimus Tactus does not have physical keys, which means there are no restrictions on their shape or size.  As per the image above, there is a video mode as well as a typing mode (shown below). 
Initially this keyboard could prove costly to the consumer, considering it’s a full length touch-display.  The big question is, would you really use it?  There’s no question that it’s uber cool and could be extremely useful on specialized tasks, but I’m not sure I’d like typing on a smooth surface; my fingers need a little somethin-somethin to know their doing a good job. 
By the time this thing gets to market, Apple will probably have created a shape-morphing tactile multi-display video membrane touch screen, that walks the dog on it’s spare time; or they’ll at least have the patent for one.

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Tempo was designed for all those retards that can’t operate a computer without deleting some imperative piece of data. Surprisingly these are the same individuals that don’t understand rollback or recovery features. Cagnina Design fashioned a hard drive to look like a little trash can, though the intended users may still get confused and pour coffee into it. Since this is still a concept, the idea goes as follows: as you delete files, they are automatically copied to the TEMPO. LED lights illuminate from the bottom up as the wireless hard drive begins to fill. I guess it couldn’t hurt to have this thing as a backup, especially for those people that can’t follow directions.  Of course now you’re going to be required to delete your daily porn twice.

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A vibrating ring you wear to bed, how can this not be good? Before you get ahead of yourself, Ring is a concept design by Meng Fandi, and I desperately hope a manufacture puts it into production soon.  Here’s the idea: the charging cradle allows you to set two separate alarms, one for each of the two rings.  Before you go to sleep, just slip a ring onto your finger and a silent vibrating alarm awakens you in the morning; perfect for the hearing impaired. 
The concept is also great for couples that have varying work schedules, or people like myself that don’t appreciate my girlfriend’s alarm blasting 3 hours early so that she can unconsciously slap snooze, which incidentally affords me one minute of sleep every nine minutes for the following 4 hours.  Of course, it’s then my fault I let her oversleep because that I didn’t realize she wasn’t conscious the 25 times she hit snooze; or when she yelled, “don’t touch me, I’m not in the mood!” Hopefully (for my sake) when someone does manufacture this incredibly awesome alarm clock, they’ll add a shock option for those stubborn sleepers. Unfortunately this device doesn’t work well for those punctual paraplegics; but what do they have that’s so pressing anyway?

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