They hold important papers together and provide hours of mindless bending, twisting and fidgeting while on that endless conference call. Now a design team has made the paperclip a provider of light as well. Designers at Teague have come up with a desk lamp that has the same bendable appeal as the paperclip, but on a much larger scale and with a row of LEDs in the top. It's still a prototype, so unfortunately you can't buy it yet. Attention Office Depot: I think this is something you need to look into.

Cool demo of how it works at www.papercliplamp.com

[VIA MoCo Loco]

Not satisfied with simply allowing you to write things down, this all-in-one executive pen also lets you store important info on its hidden USB flash drive (up to 512MB), enter text into your PDA with its stylus, light your way with its flashlight and highlight PowerPoint bullets with its laser pointer. (The flashlight and laser pointer are optional. But what guy in his right mind would leave them out?)

Pull this out the next time you get a little face time with the boss. It's your first step on the road to the executive suite.

www.card-media.co.uk

[VIA The Red Ferret Journal]

You've got a lot going on in your entertainment life. There's NFL Sunday Ticket on TV, DVDs coming in from NetFlix, the new mp3s you just downloaded (legally, of course), Tiger Woods golf on the Wii... it's getting harder and harder to keep track of all the remotes. And figure out which three you need, and what buttons to push in which sequence, just to watch a movie.

Regain some control with the Harmony 670 Advanced Universal Remote from Logitech. It can handle up to 15 audio, video, and gaming components, and can even control lights and appliances.

Gone are the days of punching in codes and struggling to get it programmed. Plug the 670 into a USB port and access a database of over 175,000 devices, including your cable or satellite company's DVR. Use the wizard to program in the sequences you typically go through to access your systems and it takes care of the rest. With the One-Touch Control you select the activity you want, like “Watch a DVD”, and it launches whatever individual components are needed.

The buttons are fully customizable, you can put your most frequent activities on a single button. And the backlit display and LCD screen make access easy when the lights are out. Because the only fumbling you should be doing in the dark should be with her, not your remote.

$149.99
www.logitech.com

Tired of riding your bike through crowds that won't get out of your way? Distracted drivers that veer too close? One blast from the Thunder Horn and you'll have a clear path for miles.

Not a toy (or recommended for kids at all), its pant-soiling 115 decibel sound output is just a little louder than the sound reaching your ears from the front row of a rock concert (110 dB), and just below the "threshold of pain" (130 dB). And for those of you who were wondering, 160 dB results in the instant perforation of the eardrum. It'll be the last time you'll have to yell "EXCUSE ME!" over and over as you're forced up over the curb.

(Since it's battery operated, and can go anywhere, I'm thinking how insidious this thing would be in a an office environment. "BWEEEEEEEP!!!! Bob, where's your TPS report?!")

[VIA The Red Ferret Journal]
Thunder Horn

For those of you with permanent black and blue blotches under your thumbnails from mis-hits when driving nails, comes relief in this nail holder from Yanko Design.

You're most likely mashing your digits due to holding the nail at a bad angle and/or striking with poor aim. This little DIY helper solves both your carpenterial shortcomings by holding the nail perfectly straight, and giving you a much larger target to whack at. Slide the nail up the clear sleeve and into the red collar that'll hold it steady, pull down the sleeve, put it where you want the nail driven, and hammer on the large surface. If you're still catching your thumb, you might want to consider glasses.

[VIA Gizmodo] www.yankodesign.com

No one ever says, "It's 11:43" when you ask for the time. They'll say, "It's quarter till", or "Almost noon". (Or in this office, "lunchtime" as they walk out the door.)

The designers over at insightOutsight in the UK thought it was about time someone designed a clock that tells time the way we do. Not with exact numbers, but with "rough time". So they designed one. The clock rounds off the time and gives you a phrase instead of a number. Any time from :41 to :49 is considered "quarter to", :50 to :59 is considered "nearly", etc. They called it, fittingly enough, About Time.

www.insightoutsight.co.uk for details and availability.

[VIA DesignSpotter]