Kieron-Scott Woodhouse created his own brand of smartphone out of a solid block of organic bamboo.

The 23-year-old design student at Middlesex University in the UK created a design concept for the ADzero Android phone, posted it on a website, and soon it was spotted by investors who helped him bring the project to reality.

Woodhouse says it’s durable as well. According to Woodhouse, that bamboo is “just as strong as any kind of plastic.”

The handset has additional niceties on board as well, including a ring flash. Which, if it’s anything like professional ring flashes we’ve encountered, gives your photos smooth, even illumination, especially for close-ups.

The smartphone will be released first in China and the UK. Take a look at the video above, and hear Woodhouse talking about the phone and its unique capabilities for yourself.

[via JustAdZero]

Nintendo Co.  said Friday that it plans to release its new Wii U home console for the holiday shopping season at the end of this year in Japan, the U.S., Europe and Australia.

At a briefing for analysts in Tokyo, President Satoru Iwata said that the company will show the finalized model of the Wii U at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in June in Los Angeles.

The new console, the successor to the massively successful Wii, will be key to Nintendo’s efforts to start a new cycle of growth at a time when the strong yen is hurting its revenue and profits.

The Japanese videogame giant said Thursday that it swung to a net loss of Y48.35 billion for the nine months ended December and that it now expects a net loss of Y65 billion for the fiscal year ending March, more than three times a Y20 billion loss it previously forecast in October.

via Nintendo Press

Toshiba has yet to officially announced their new Portege M930 slider laptop, but Microsoft has already been showcasing the new sliding laptop at CES.  It’s an Intel Core i5 processor, come with 4GB of RAM and have a 256GB hard drive. Together with a 13 inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800. The laptop weighs in at 1.9kg and measure just 27mm thick.

The mechanism used in the new laptop allows you to slide back the screen, to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. However due to the sliding design of the laptop when the keyboard is revealed there is no tracker pad.

via pocket lint

A new range of Ferrari branded headphones created by Logic3 will be arriving in April. The new Logic3 headphones will be accompanied by speaker docks which will also be carrying the coveted supercar logo.

The new Logic3 Farrari headphones fall into two distinct lines, the Cavallino Collection which carries the luxurious style of Ferrari’s road going GT cars. Together with the Scuderia Collection patterned after the F1 racing team. Priced from around $150/$225 for the earbuds, $225/$450 for the full sized headphones.

via Logic3 Farrari

Samsung SUR40 is the new generation of Microsoft® Surface® experience featuring PixelSense™ technology, which gives LCD panels the power to see without the use of cameras. Building from the innovation of the first version of Microsoft® Surface® and Samsung’s leading display technology, it is now possible for people to share, collaborate and explore together using a large, thin display that recognizes fingers, hands and other objects placed on the screen.

via Samsung

The SanDisk Extreme SDXC UHS-I card features up to 45MB/sec read/write speeds⁴, enabling photographers to capture sequences of high-resolution photos using their camera’s burst mode and then quickly transfer the files to a computer.

The card’s fast shot-to-shot performance lets photographers capture the images that matter most to them-whether using a point-and-shoot camera to take photos of a young child’s first steps or a DSLR to capture a high school track star racing across the finish line. The card’s fast file-transfer speed lets photographers offload an hour-long Full HD video in five minutes or a batch of 500 high-resolution photos in as little as one minute⁵.

The SanDisk Extreme SDXC UHS-I card is backed by SanDisk’s reputation for quality-professional photographers trust SanDisk. The card provides consumers with the reliability and durability they need to capture photos anytime, anywhere, and includes a built-in write-protect switch to help prevent accidental data loss. For added protection, the card includes a one-year downloadable offer for RescuePRO® Deluxe data recovery software (a $59.99 value), which can bring accidentally deleted images back to life.

The 64GB and 128GB SanDisk Extreme SDXC UHS-I cards are shipping worldwide with MSRPs of $199.99 and $399.99 respectively.

via Sandisk

Its no secret that many musicians use their iPhones and iPads to help them craft their tunes, and go-anywhere podcasting holds great appeal for many others. To serve such folks, IK Multimedia has unveiled three new peripherals joining the likes of its AmpliTube adapter and iMic accessories: the iRig MIC Cast, iRig MIX, and iRig Stomp. The MIC Cast is a unidirectional mic aimed at mobile podcasters that hooks up to your iOS device through its headphone jack (and has a 3.5mm port for headphone monitoring). It has a compact form factor that matches the iPhones slimness, and comes with recording and voice processing apps to get things sounding just right. Look for it Q1 of this year for €29.99 ($38).

Next up is the iRig Stomp, an electric guitar pedal crafted from aluminum that works with any iOS guitar, amp or instrument app. It connects to your iDevice’s 3.5mm headphone jack and comes with a free AmpliTude app for adding effects and will cost €44.99 ($58) when it lands in Q2. Lastly, there’s the dual-channel iRig MIX mobile music mixer, which can be connected to iDevices, CD players or other music sources using it’s stereo inputs. It’s got gain, bass, treble and volume controls along with a channel crossfader to tailor your tunes using the included apps: DJ Rig, AmpliTube, VocaLive, and GrooveMaker. Diplo wannabes can pick up the MIX in February for €74.99 ($96).

via IK Multimedia