The folk at Flarion have secured the first live field trial of their broadband mobile phone based wireless network via Nextel in the US. The Ferret is something of a fan of this tech, and believes that it will eventually wipe out Wifi totally if it works as advertised. We’re talking about speed and total mobility here, an unbeatable combination. ‘They will be able to take full advantage of average downlink speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second (mbps)…

The Satis D-218S [Babel] loo comes complete with auto lift lid, ionizing deodorizer and disinfectizer, multiple cleaning nozzles, night light, room and seat heater, self cleaning pan…and an MP3 player with two speakers and an SD card slot to let you listen to your fave sounds in … er … private. More here. Hmm…let’s just say that the Japanese take their toilets seriously, shall we?

Nothing will say ‘I love you’ more this geeky Valentine’s Day than a beautifully crafted Cat 5 cable bracelet in matching his and hers (OK unisex) styles. Just part of a selection of exclusive prop-head gifts now on offer at Think Geek. No mention of whether they’re crossover or straight pair unfortunately. ‘Each bracelet contains 8 wires, twisted into 4 pairs of two, then individually attached to a jump ring and a lobster clasp. Your bracelet will arrive packaged in…

There’s nothing worse than a dirty PC. Well, maybe a couple of things…but really. Aren’t you ashamed? Well Mr PC Clean has lots of tips for you.

MP3Converter.com. Another nice audio freeware goodies site, with rippers, encoders, players, MP3 converters et al. While you’re about it, check out the excellent audio tools from the prolific AnalogX. His vocal remover proggie is cool, as is his Tap Tempo. Oh and while I’m here, may I say that I really like Nesoft’s Alt WAV MP3 WMA OGG Converter (even if it’s not free).

The SmallBluePrinter people have done it again with their neat little online GardenPlanner Flash app. Don’t be fooled by the pretty presentation though, this is not an easy task – the planning or the doing.

I’m not going to give this guy any more publicity than necessary for this tripe, but it’s just too funny for words. The Blogs to Riches book. ‘A Step by Step Guide to Blogging your Way to Riches! This book is about giving you the ability to make money with your weblog, fast. It’s about showing real examples about what you need to do, and how you need to do it. No theories!’ Yuk!

The Whattorent.com site is kind of like a collaborative filter, except it recommends movies you should rent based around a one-time personality quiz and a simple on the spot ‘mood’ filter. Register, answer your profile questions and the next time you fancy watching something but don’t know what, log on. Tell it what kind of mood you’re in and it will suggest something. It’s quite cool I think, since the first two choices it gave me were pretty close (the…

The nTag interactive name badge. ‘Worn like a regular name badge, nTags exchange data using infrared sensors…illuminating the LCD screens and displaying information on shared interests.’ So tell me, did I miss something? Did talking get outlawed while I was asleep?

Oops, forgot to add the Gnod network to my collaborative filtering piece last Friday. Now added.

German ‘progressive electronic trip-rock’ band Eisbrecher has released a new album called Noise Attack. And more. ‘The band has decided to make a statement for its fans and for music consumers in general and is releasing the album including a bonus DVD with 2 blank CD-Rs which have the same label as the CD itself. Alexx Wesselsky (singer and head of the group): “We are of the opinion that the music buyers are criminalized enough and have been made responsible…

The Siemens Pen Phone is a tri-band mobile phone concept with all the usual trimmings like contacts, calendar and messaging. Funky! ‘…thanks to the PenPhone�s integrated handwriting recognition facility, they can write their SMS messages directly into the mobile phone. Whatever they use to write on, the PenPhone will interpret their hand movements as written words and translate them directly into the SMS editor…It is not yet certain whether the PenPhone will be going into serial production.’

Change My Image. Not the Pop Idol lament, but a $10 makeover program. ‘”Change My image” is the new easy-to-use hair style and color simulation software for Macintosh and Windows. Try out different hair styles and hair cuts, and then use Change My image’s color simulation function to see which hair color suits you best. You can choose from an infinite variety of colors.’

The Aqua FM. Hmmm, does the world need a bone-conducting FM radio swim snorkel? Answers on a flipper please to…. ‘Finally … the walkman for swimmers! Listen to your favourite radio station while you swim and avoid the boredom of those lengths. Relax to the sound of music as you enjoy a swimming pool session or when adventuring in the sea.’ More here.

Regulars will know that the Ferret is very partial to collaborative filter (also known as recommender) systems. These things use the power of other people’s recommendations, allied to your likes and dislikes, to help you find new stuff that you might enjoy. I will go so far as to say that I believe that this technology will eventually become an indispensable part of the Internet, especially as the quantity of data grows and grows over the coming years. People already…