(Credit: New Launches)

This might be un-neighborly, since it means your nosy neighbors can't piggyback off your wireless connection anymore.

But for the price of a can of house paint this may very well be one of the most cost-effective way to secure your office wireless network against hackers ...

(Credit: Logitech)

I've been shopping around for a go-between that would prop my toasty laptop off my lap. I thought I found this with the ...

Generation two sees the tweeter tweaked with a splash of color.

It's a mark of achievement when competitors start making clones of your product. Apple's one such trendsetter. XM-I may be another. Though definitely not in the big boys league, the Singapore-based company has blown us away over the years with its "little speakers, mighty sounds" innovative spunk. Having scored a red-dot winner with its first X-mini outing, and following this up with the X-mini Max stereo and its clever magnetic hamburger halves, it's now continuing the momentum with the X-mini II.

At first glance, generation two is incrementally larger than its pocket-size predecessor at about 2.9 ounces, though the audio boost is also markedly enhanced, thanks to a larger 40mm driver. When we tried both out on a laptop, the ramp-up in sonics was clearly audible. However, heavy beats and the larger driver caused the X-mini II to play hopscotch across the table, unlike the X-mini, though this is a minor gripe.

But what's a lot more interesting is the new buddy jack with built-in 3.5mm audio cable that's designed to tuck away neatly into the base. XM-I CEO Ryan Lee told CNET Asia that the new feature is more modular, letting users form an almost endless daisy chain of their X-mini IIs for more volume. It's frightfully loud, all right.

In a demo where they rigged up seven speakers, it got so deafening in the Lab that our senior editor almost cried mama. We did note that linking two together will still give you mono sounds, though the bass-enhanced impact of several booming speakers made the difference moot.

With companies downsizing in the current economic crisis, and the lucky pool of survivors having to shoulder their absent co-workers' load and slog it out, there's never been a greater need than now to flog the whip, ah, motivate the office geeks.

Thanks to the ...

Design savvy is about clever little ideas like this. Designer Shen Di's +Shifter faucet taps on the idea of a gearbox from a premium sportscar, turning this into an instant conversation piece for the home.

The brushed black metal and copper faceplate's luxurious ...

Be the badass skier you never knew you could be.

For those who can't get enough of skiing (and you know who you are), this virtual simulator is just great for getting that adrenalin fix when you're not on a powder slope. It's also ...

Not quite your heavyweight CES showpiece, but the Origami Sticky Notes ($4 at Think Geek) are just the thing for post-holiday work blues. Banish those moments of boredom or take a break from deadlines by turning on your creative juices and recycling your office notes into 3D ...

Three-wheel rides aren't big surprises here in Asia. Thailand has its Tuk-tuk, Southeast Asia its rickshaws or trishaws, the Philippines has its tricycles.

However, we're more familiar with these chariots as taxis for commuters. For personal transportation, the West, in the throes of economic recession, ...

If you never grew up with the childhood song "Eensy Weensy Spider," it's about the peekaboo adventures of a spider as it ascends, descends, and ascends yet again along the water spout.

Well, the $29.10 Hanging Alarm Clock seems to have spun a Web around ...

I'm a little tired of the candy bars and slider phones that seem to define today's mobile phone appearance. So anything that pushes the design envelope out of the rut without being ridiculously OTT gets my vote.

Heikki Juvonen is one such designer who has ...