Little is known about the KE850 from LG, but the folks over at International Forum Design must know a thing or two about it, seeing how they just hooked it up with a Product Design Award for 2007. And hey, with those hot Chocolate-esque looks — though we have no proof this one’ll actually be branded as a Chocolate — who can blame them? The big draw here, of course, is a 400 x 240 touchscreen that takes the place of virtually every hard button you might find on a more traditional handset, save for Send, End, and a handful of keys on the sides. The posterior reveals a cam, though its specs remain a mystery. Does someone at LG (or iF) want to spill the beans for us?

[Via Slashphone]
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In an announcement sure to cause lazy people everywhere to raise their arms ever so slightly in glee, home appliance manufacturer Electrolux has revealed a “vacuum shoe” concept model. In order to accommodate the electric motor — and store all the crap that you’ve left on your floor — the concept design features a rather thick and ugly sole reminiscent of Cosmo Kramer’s basketball sneakers, so you probably wouldn’t want to do much walking outdoors in them. Seeing as this is just a concept model that’s at least a couple of testing stages away from a real product, we wouldn’t be surprised if the real model was even more “visually challenged.” No matter, because a device that completes chores without the owner knowingly doing them is effectively impossible to price, although that doesn’t mean Electrolux won’t try. And if the vacuum shoe does manage to make it out of testing, it probably won’t ship for a while: in other words, don’t say we didn’t warn you if the excuse of leaving mess around just “so you can have something to test it with when it ships” doesn’t cut it with your significant other.

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JR Hokkaido, a Japanese rail firm, is poised to fully launch its dual-mode bus and rail vehicle. The bus-train has both rubber and steel tires, allowing it to switch between regular roads and railroad tracks with ease. The company debuted a test model nearly three years ago, and a set up a test line in the Shizuoka Prefecture city of Fuji late last month — but JR Hokkaido will be conducting commercial tests on the Semmo Line near Shiretoko in April 2007. This crazy dual-use machine is meant to be a way to replace train cars that run on local lines where ridership is down to under 500 people per day (that’s 30 percent of JR’s lines). While you probably won’t be able to get your hands on one unless you’re a running a Japanese rail company, these new hybrids will cost Â¥20 million ($170,735) apiece, which apparently is about one-seventh the cost of a traditional diesel-powered train car. At such bargain basement prices, Japanese rail riders might be seeing these pretty soon — that is, unless the hovercraft-train-bus triple-threat comes to market first.

[Via Engadget Chinese]
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We know what you’re thinking: extreme ski biking is cool now? Or alternatively, who the hell would get on one of these? Just take our advice, next time you find yourself off-piste, keep your eyes peeled for Ktrakers — crazy people who’ve bought a universal attachment that replaces the wheels of a mountain bike with a track drive and an optional front ski. Apparently the Ktrak’s insane appeal comes from its ability to let cyclists ride over previously inaccessible surfaces like snow and sand, as the company’s videos demonstrate. Due for a production run in early 2007 (priced at a reasonable $400 for the track and $140 for the ski), the Ktrak is apparently very easy to install and ride, and adds only 5-pounds to the average mountain bike’s weight. If you can manage to convince your brain that this thing actually exists, your biggest problem is going to be getting your hands on one before everyone else: to that end, you can reserve a kit for $300, as long as you get your pre-order out before January 1.

[Via Spluch]
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Apparently Epson is hoping that small is in, as the firm is pumping out yet another “world’s smallest” object, and this time it’s a wee-sized GPS module. Crafted specifically for tiny applications like mobile handsets, the S4E19863 measures just 7- x 6- x 1.28-millimeters and purportedly holds the title for “world’s smallest GPS chip.” Already available in NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA 903i series, Epson has begun shipping these things in bulk, hoping to add GPS functionality to other miniscule handsets as well. Built to receive even the faintest signals indoors and out, the chip also boasts “3GPP-compliant positioning modes (MS-Based, MS-Assisted and Autonomous)” to offer greater compatibility across the board. Plus, we bet it’s just a matter of time before these tiny positioning modules are up and running in some streamlined dog collar for the “anxious pet owner” crowd.

[Via Far East Gizmos]
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Just one day after seeing the first “officially announced” SideShow remote for Vista Media Center Edition, out pops this slider from Ricavision. Their loquaciously named remote — the Microsoft Windows Vista SideShow Media Center Remote Control — is a confirmed IR and Class 1 Bluetooth device. That gives you a 100-meter (or so) operating radius when coupled with the included USB RC6 (IR) receiver and Class 1 Bluetooth receiver. Nice, however, what’s most notable is that sweet, sweet 2.5-inch QVGA LCD display for Microsoft’s promising SideShow technology; a bit of magicking that hooks the remote into a suite of Media Center “Gadgets” allowing you to extract and display information related to your media. In short, you’ll have damn-near full control over your media center’s TV recordings and schedules, music library, radio presets, and collection of pictures and video. Better yet, the remote works with any Gadget assigned through Vista’s SideShow Control Panel like eMail, calendar, and RSS feeds just to name a few. Great, now add a touchscreen and hack that thing in half and we’ll be able to carry it around in our pockets. Nevertheless, we’ll have to give this, and other SideShow remotes a thorough hands-on at CES in January to see if they’re worth the premium. Otherwise, you’ll just be in suspense, wondering how to spend the $199 the MWVSMCRC will cost ya when hitting in April, 2007 — that would just be mean. More product renderings after the break.

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I-O Data is back on the RoHS-compliant NAS trail again, as its new LANDISK Tera offers up a secure, environmentally-friendly way to stash and share your data over a network. The new drive comes in both 1TB and 2TB flavors, supports RAID 5, boasts four hot-swappable bays, and now features AES 256-bit encryption. Additionally, this data cube comes dressed in all black, keeps your data under lock and key, and even touts a secondary security lock that can only be accessed with your chipped USB thumb drive. Aside from touting gigabit Ethernet, you’ll also find support for Windows Active Directory and a data tracking feature to keep watch over who moves your precious files. Both units can be snapped up sometime next month, and while the 1TB variety will run you Â¥99,800 ($846), the 2TB edition will demand Â¥168,000 ($1,424).

[Via Akihabara News]
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