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?

[Get It $150]

If wood is the first thing you like to see in the morning, then you’re in luck!
Designed by Kouji Iwasaki, the Wooden LED Clock from Suck UK, appears to be a normal block of wood, until you plug it in. With a thin layer of real maple wood veneer the LED glows from the inside, creating the illusion that the time is actually hovering on the surface of the wood.
What a great clock for the nature enthusiast.

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From designers Eoin McNally & Ian Walton comes a gentler way to wake up.  The Glo Pillow is designed to provide a more natural method of being woken opposed to the intrusive and incessant beeping of the traditional alarm clock. 

Via an internal LED grid, the time is displayed on the pillow while the fabric side control unit is used to set the alarm.  Forty five minutes before the alarm is due to wake you, the pillow begins to softly glow.  The intensity of the glow increases gradually from 0 lux to 250 lux, simulating a sunrise.  At the set alarm time, the light reaches an intensity that is sufficient to naturally wake a person; this is supposedly a calmer and more natural way to start the day.  In theory this seems like a “sound” way to develop a healthy sleeping pattern tailored to your specific needs, but I’m not some hydro plant that needs to be tricked into budding off season.  If I set an alarm, I need to know that I’ll be woken up.  What happens if it’s already light in my room, or the back of my head is on the pillow? 

*Great for the deaf, but does not work if you fall asleep with the light on.

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The future is super awesome, I can’t wait to get there.  I’m basing this on the smelly stinky past which totally sucked compared to the creature comforts of today; things like video games, vehicles, factories, guns and nuclear radiation. 
Can you imagine a credit card thin device that unites your mobile phone, camera, mp3 player, PDA, universal remote, GPS, gaming system, credit cards, car and house keys, and to some degree your computer; and it’s not made by Steve Jobs? – wow, just don’t lose it.  Although if someone does steel it, they won’t be able to use it unless they steal your fingerprints as well.

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[Get It $250]

The Voltaic Backpack is a rough-grade glimpse into the not-so-distant future when accessories harness and store energy, and a weekend hike can start without the worry of having a fully charged cell phone.
The Voltaic line converts light energy to talk time and ipod life via a series of solar panels located on the back face of the bag.  The pack comes equipped with 11 adaptors for any sort of electronic gadget you might be rolling with, a battery pack that stores harnessed energy for use when the suns gone down, and convenient pockets for your laptop, phone, ipod, etc.
Despite the old school JanSport style, this is a rouged sac that I would recommend to anyone in need of a daypack with 1,850 cubic inches of storage space.  The padded mesh back cuts down on back sweat by providing more airflow while the mesh straps provide ergonomic comfort.
Best of all, the shell of this bag is made from recycled soda bottles, very cool.

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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.

I’m not sure how designer Duck Young Kong intends for his portable sonogram concept “Aimo”, to work without that cold blue ultrasound gel, but the idea is certainly interesting.  Prospective parents may begin to view their offspring in the tadpole stage of development and even listen to the heartbeat via a sound receiver built into the digital ultrasonic camera.  Personally, this would give me nightmares, but all those fanatical parents would carry the Aimo everywhere to show friends, strangers, and anyone else who truly wouldn’t care.

*Warning, your child may appear unproportionate via the sonogram, but in no way does this suggest your child will be born with alien-like features; nor does it guarantee it won’t. 

One ring to rule them all!  (all of your Apple devices that is)

This is the coolest concept I’ve seen in while.  If the only plan was to have the apple symbol light up I would still buy it.  Now before you Mac-o-holics start scouring the web for a place to buy this gem, I should make it very clear that the iRing is not an actual item (hence the “Visionary” category of this post), but rather a 3D design image created by Victor Soto.

If an engineering team does jump on board with the iRing, the plan is to include a Bluetooth touch sensitive “function strip” for iPod (or iPhone) volume and playback control. Personally, I think an actual dial along the center of the ring might be more practical than touch-screen technology on a piece of jewelry for your hand, it seems less likely to inadvertently change songs or blow out your eardrums; of course, if anyone can get it done, it’s Steve “Superman” Jobs.

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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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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.