Hi-tech Frontier

USB Flower Mini Speaker If you are a fan of flower inspired gadgets, like the USB Flower Fan and the Rose Microphone, this brand new USB mini speaker should be right up your alley. The USB Flower Mini Speaker is available in purple or red and you can get the product for $19.99 from the GizFever.com website.

USB Bamboo Fountain If you want to try to add a little zen to your workplace, this USB bamboo fountain with flowing water might give you a nice relaxing and soothing effect - or, maybe it won’t. The USB Bamboo Fountain is available over at the USB Geek website for $25.

Block Speaker Dock -- iPod LEGO Inspired Dock in New Colors Some of you might remember the iPod LEGO Dock that we covered here at GeekAlerts last year. This playful audio accessory is now available in two new colors: black and white. Features An iPod speaker dock that looks like a gigantic toy building block. Active Bass System for superior sound quality. Supports the following iPod family generations:Nano 1st, 2nd 7 3rd, iPod 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and Classic, Mini, iPod Touch 1st, Shuffle. Easily connect other MP3 players using the mini headphone jack cable (included). Can be charged using a 12V adapter (not included). Suitable for ages 12 years+. Requires 3 x AA Batteries (not included). Size: 24 x 9 x 4.7cm. The Block Speaker Dock is available from the IWOOT website for £39.99 (about $56 USD).

GPS-equipped FineDrive iQ500 PMP Seriously folks, is it really that hard? Can we North Americans get a few PMPs like this one, or are we destined to have but a few kinda-sorta similar Archos units to choose from? South Korea is proving yet again that its PMP designers are truly top notch with the FineDrive iQ500, which proudly sports an expansive 7-inch LCD (800 x 480 resolution), a 600MHz ARM processor, 4GB / 8GB of internal storage, an SDHC expansion slot, WinCE, GPS module, a DMB TV tuner and support for a smorgasbord of audio and video file formats. It's also spectacularly thin and drool-worthy, and naturally, can only be procured and fully enjoyed within the confines of its home nation. Oh, one question though: "Oil Save?"

IBM ZTIC USB stick Among the goodies making their debut at CeBIT this week, ZTIC (Zone Trusted Information Channel) is a USB stick designed for secure online banking, even on your horribly malware-infected machine. Developed in Zurich by IBM, this guy opens an SSL connection with the bank's servers, keeping the data safely on its side of things (this guy has no storage of its own) and displaying the transaction on the hardware itself. Even if your connection is breached by a "man-in-the-middle" attack, the hacker's funny business will be exposed on the device's display, which comes equipped with a big red "panic" button -- just in case. Pricing and availability for banking institutions has yet to be determined,

ASUS Eee Box 206 ASUS first got official with its upgraded Eee Box 206 way back in December, but the nettop is just now finally rolling out into availability (in the UK, at least), and bringing with it a number of more HD-friendly features. That, of course, includes an HDMI port, and some ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics to ensure that your HD videos play without a hitch, though serious gaming is certainly still a bit of a stretch. Otherwise, you can expect the usual 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive (plus 10GB of ASUS' Eee online storage service), a fairly generous complement of ports (including DVI) and, of particular note, a total power consumption of just 20 watts. Still no official word on a release 'round here, it seems, but folks in the UK can pick this one up now in their choice of black or white for £310, or just under $440.

Bird Electron Takotsubo "octopus trap" speakers Bird Electron loves rolling out the crazy little speakers and such for your listening pleasure. The company's newest pair, the Takotsubo speakers, are modeled on Japanese fisherman traps. In this form factor, however, we doubt they'll do much beyond catch some wild stares from your friends, but they sure are cute! Don't expect to be blown away by the sound, but they're available now (in Japan only) for ¥5,000 (about $50).