If you haven’t returned that rental copy of The Hangover yet, you might want to pick up the phone. Your local Blockbuster just might not be there anymore.

According to MSNBC, Blockbuster is planning to shutter at least 500 of its retail stores across the U.S. They are doing it pretty quickly, too. About 253 were already closed in January 2010.

It’s pretty hard to maintain all of those storefronts in this cheapie movie rental market. Redbox charges a mere $1 a day and Netflix will deliver right to your door — or TV, in many cases. Last time I stepped foot in a Blockbuster, it cost me $20 for three rentals. They did actually throw in a tub of popcorn with that, but toxic buttery flavoring can’t always cushion the blow.

That said, Blockbuster doesn’t want to die quickly. Instead, they are piggybacking on the success of both Netflix and Redbox. They’ve been doing the mail-order thing for a little while, and now Blockbuster vending machines have been popping up in retail locations, offering rentals for $1. There’s even one in the crappy no-name convenience store down the block here.

Shouldn’t Blockbuster have been the innovator of both of those business models? Maybe they were too busy wiping out mom-and-pop video stores. If they really want to compete, maybe they should consider the Walmart approach and knock the kiosk prices down to 99 cents or something. After years of charging an arm and a leg for 3-night rentals, it’s just too little too late.

[Image via Flickr]

I was browsing through the new IKEA products (as you do) and I came across this interesting little lamp for just $19.95.

The SUNNAN lamp, designed by Nicolas Cortolezzis, is IKEA’s first solar cell work lamp and it has a built-in rechargeable solar panel embedded in the base. What I want to know though is how do you go about charging a desk lamp via solar power? Do you move your desk over to the window? Do you set the lamp outside on your lunch hour? Maybe you move your whole desk outside (awesome, but not very practical)?

Apparently, the charge time is about 9-12 hours in direct sunlight. When fully charged, the lamp stays lit for about 4 hours, dimming slightly after about 3 hours. This is a cool, novelty item for someone who’s into solar energy and its applications or who wants to spend a few weeks off the grid, but it’s not very practical for everyday use. Twelve hours of charging for 4 hours of use just doesn’t cut it.

[ Via Ikea ]

You may be wondering why this particular universal key finder is so special, well it’s because it sets up one system in your house for all of your frequently lost items, essentially connecting them to one another in a single Bermuda Triangle network. So, your keys are connected to your wallet and they’re both connected to that Blu-Ray remote you’ve been looking for since Christmas.

Here’s how it works, you hang the tags (small, but still somewhat unsightly) on to your keys, cell phone or in your wallet. When you inevitably lose one of those items, simply use any of the tags to locate any other tag in the system. It even features a hotter-colder method (like a metal detector). Once you push the button, a proximity detector will begin to flash, as you get closer to the item, the flash speeds up.

This is a great gift for the guy who spends valuable minutes every morning wondering where he set down his keys.

The Find It All Key Finder starter package starts at $40.00 for a wallet card and two keyfobs can be purchased separately. You can add up to 36 tags if you’re really prone to losing stuff.

My typical wake-up routine:

7:05 – Alarm goes off. I hit snooze.
7:14 – Alarm goes off. I hit snooze.
7:23 – Alarm goes off. I get out of bed.

Pretty standard, until now. UrbanTrend has just announced a new product that will put an end to snoozing and the unintentional, half-asleep shut-off-the-alarm-completely (popular on Monday and Friday mornings). It’s the Memory Game Alarm Clock and it works like Simon Says. You have to follow, remember and then repeat back a patterned sequence of lights before the alarm will shut itself off. The idea is that by the time you actually figure it out, you’ll be awake and unable to fall back asleep.

Buy this for your special someone and you might see a new morning wake-up routine:

7:05 – Alarm sounds, fumble around, pick up flashing light box, hit random buttons.
7:06 – Whip strange flashing light box at the wall.
7:06:05 – Go back to sleep.

Doesn’t it always seem like when you need a good nights sleep the most, someone is going out of their way to keep you awake? If you have ever been plagued by noisy roommates or neighbors than the Revenge CD is a must have.

With the new Revenge CD you will finally be able to prove that sometimes two wrongs do in fact make a right. For just $7.99 you will be armed with ear piercing tracks like drill, train, orgasm, screams, high heels, cat in heat, door banging, violin practice, garbage truck, and much more. They even throw in a pair of earplugs to make sure you don’t have to be subjected to the same torture as the people around you.

Merging a great love for imported beers and a delight in confounding friends, the Pop Up Bottle Opener is a surefire way to throw one more wacky looking gadget into your kitchen that’ll impress your guests. Designed by Giovanni Alessi Anghini, the opener seems like nothing more than a stainless steel egg sitting on your countertop til you plunk it atop your capped bottle and press down — the interior workings transform that pressure to mechanically lift the cap from the bottle and hold it tight with a magnet, thus magically lifting free of the bottle with the cap seemingly disappeared. We’re a sucker for fantastically functioning design, and this doesn’t fail to disappoint. Available for pre-order at Unica for $47.

While the world soldiers on to treat and purify our tap water, let’s face it — they’re not doing a real bang-up job. If they were, we’d all still be drinking straight from the faucet instead of mounting water filters and buying bottled H20. But you’ve noticed the difference, don’t like the way that tap water looks or tastes, and have decided to do right by your body and consume the cleanest water possible. Here’s the thing: your hair and skin are just as delicate as the rest of you and would LOVE the same level of TLC.

The Wellness Shower Filter is touting itself as an “anti-aging shower system”, but that’s not the real selling point: it’s that the same sort of system you’ve got hanging from your kitchen sink can now take out all of the harsh toxins from your shower, too — the chlorine, harsh metals and free radicals that dry out your skin and can even cause breakouts. The filter even goes one better by putting a little love back IN to the water — utilizing rare volcanic minerals, water is effectively “softened” and can help contribute to a more hydrating experience by increasing the residual moisture content of your skin and hair. Plus this purified water contributes to reducing the bacteria and fungal growth in your shower, so it may even speed up your bathroom cleaning. At $249 it’s a bit of an investment, but for healthy skin — and maybe a few less bottles of moisturizing lotion in your lifetime — it seems a decent trade off.

Brookstone and Sharper Image have long reserved the entrances of their shops for massage chairs — it’s the perfect way to lure tired shoppers in and convince them that yes, you DO need a full-body vibrating massager in your home. But this? This puppy just body slammed all of their old recliners and plug-and-rub mats: the OSIM iDesire is designed to hit up your ENTIRE body in a delightfully creepy way.

Taking on the oft forgotten limbs, movable cuffs squeeze and release your arms to release tension while air cushions literally surround your lower legs to relieve pressure in your feet and ankles (plus the tried and true vibrating mechanism for the arch of your foot). Built in optical sensors (oh yes, optical sensors) for acupressure point detection inform rollers that automatically glide along your back and features five types of upper body massage: kneading, rhythmic pressure, tapping, rolling and then a one-two punch of kneading and tapping together. Plus there’s a built in remote that lets you select from 9 massage actions and save programs for up to 4 people. And it’s all yours for $4,495!

When you’re really, really into fish (or having amazing stuff in your place to keep guests gobsmacked), a standard pet store aquarium just won’t do. Straight out of France, Octopus Studio has come up with the Silverfish Aquarium, essentially an assortment of high-quality PMMA globes connected by hamster-like tubes so your fish can roam from one pod to another; you can even go crazy and create little themes within each, a whole fish-y world at your fingertips. Available with a black, cherry wood or carbon base (you can order it without, but the stands are well designed, and intentionally made to conceal all of the heating, filtration and lighting elements), the aquarium literally comes with everything you need to get started, short of fish and gravel — filtration, heating, and aeration parts, lighting, silk plants and cleaning equipment, plus assembly and maintenance instructions in case you’re a little overwhelmed by the kit.

Because each kit is built to your own specifications, pricing varies (which is a nice way of saying “this is so not your bargain basement aquarium and they don’t want to scare you off by putting pricing on the site”), but you can contact Octopus Studios directly through their website for a quote.

There’s something about winter, with its late sunrise and layered blankets, that makes it near impossible to scoop yourself out of bed in the morning. I’ve got one friend who’s currently employing 4 different alarms in the morning to get up and still can’t seem to make it into work on time — tv timers are easy to tune out after a couple of minutes, and cell phone/alarm clock beeping is quickly snoozed with a push of the button (sure, you have to do it every ten minutes, but somehow it’s still better than actually getting up).

The trick seems to be engaging your whole self — more than just the physical movement of thwacking at a device, there’s something to be gained from dragging your brain into the process, maybe even triggering a bit of panic. Which is why I’m adding the Danger Bomb Clock to my friend’s birthday list, perhaps singlehandedly saving a career. This limited edition alarm shocks you awake with explosive sounds and a randomized code that’s refreshed each morning forcing you to work some mental muscle and disable the proper connectors before the thing will finally shut up. Stick it on the other side of your room and voila, you’ve got yourself a huge pain in the ass first thing in the morning… but you’ll get out of bed, so mission accomplished. The Danger Bomb Clock is available from GeekStuff4U.com for $36.63.