Wow, the Italians are threatening to go on TV strike? That’s right, viewers are being urged to leave the couch next weekend, and if they take their remote control with them they’ll get discounts in certain shops, restaurants and bars. Cool. ‘Organisers say they are expecting around 400,000 people to join the strike against what they call Trash TV.’

The Canopus MTPlayer (MP20-HDD) looks like a portable plug-in media player and card reader combo. Possibly. …note to self. Shame you gave up on those Japanese lessons!

No, not some obscure post-modernist, but a very cool web site dedicated to the work of post production sound track masters – the foley artist.

Xingtone. Create your own mobile phone ringtones from MP3 files.

Now here’s a novel way to shush your PC or other electronic equipment – Quiet Feet. ‘QuietFeet� are made from a special proprietary visco-elastic polymer that combines shock absorption, vibration isolation and vibration damping characteristics to create the ideal acoustic damper and absorber. The QuietFeet offer a very effective and inexpensive method to reduce unwanted noise from a wide variety of computer and similar equipment and are especially effective for use in home entertainment centers with computer-based playback systems, TIVO’s…

More info on the Finger Whisper mobile phone technology. The big question everyone’s asking is, of course, how do you pass the phone to someone else? Stick your finger in their ear? Reminds me of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In – ‘Blow in my ear, Lucy, and I’ll follow you anywhere.’

The iTap Intelligent Text Entry System is a mobile phone predictive text technology with a difference. Anything that makes it easier to SMS, ‘where are you?’ gets my vote. More here. ‘The iTAP 6.0 system becomes more accurate over time and makes composing entire sentences and paragraphs, intuitive, easy, and personalized. The iTAP system requires only one key touch to select a letter, and also proposes the next word you intend to add to your message or note. ‘

Some classically bad press for Microsoft courtesy of one guy’s move to Open Source.

Anyone who’s ever had problems moving photos from their mobile phone to PC via Bluetooth might like to check out this program from the online fraternity. Float’s Mobile Agent (FMA) is open source and although I haven’t tried it yet, it looks pretty neat. ..and check out this thread regarding potential problems with Bluetooth drivers and phone access.

Apparently the tattoo fad is over, and people are spending lots of money trying to get rid of their body signals with laser and the like. OK, so this may not be such a hot story, but it comes via The Ferret, the automatic robot blog I just set up for a laugh at Drunk Men Work Here with its amazing ‘patented Zero-Click� posting technology’. Fab fun!

Euro Electronics has developed the world’s first door lock that can be opened by waving your mobile phone in front of it. The AnyKey S100 is the result of a $1.7 million R&D investment and features some pretty clever battery driven wireless receiver technology. No word on price though. ‘After a simple installation and registration, the cards can be used to open any equipped door. If the cards or cellular phone registered is lost, the registered ID can quickly be…

Hot on the heels of our mention of the Amex ExpressPay product comes news of Sony’s new Felica electronic wallet card. Start saying bye-bye to the green stuff in your purse. [Thanks to Kevin of the Stinger Report] ‘The contactless IC card featuring FeliCa Technology can instantly read and process data. Prepaid value can easily and frequently added according to user preference. For this reason, this choice becomes extremely suitable for use as a passenger ticket.’

OK, hands up, no contest. The Voodoo Envy gets my vote as the funkiest looking PC laptop on the market. I mean, iBooks are just so yesterday, aren’t they dude? Arf.

Korean company Multi Fine Tech has developed the PDA Guide System for museum, gallery and exhibition visitors. The idea is that the visitor is presented with a PDA and will use its internal digicam to snap barcodes to receive information about the item they are viewing. Sounds like an innovative use of handheld technology. Unfortunately I can’t find any further information on their rather quirky web site. ‘Designed as a replacement or supplement for traditional paper brochures, plaques, and narrators,…

The Boring Institute. Some people take things way too seriously.