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.

ZZ Top wasn’t lyin’ — women really do go crazy for a sharp dressed man. And since we’re nowhere nearer to bringing the fedora back into mainstream style (dammit), you can still safely lean on a well built suit to drive the ladies wild this Valentines, date or not. The real problem with suits, of course (beyond those unfortunate souls wandering around in something so ill fit you could swear it was stolen from an uncle’s wardrobe), is that a trip to the local mall forces you to choose from a truly ho-hum variety of neckties.

But you, you’re too sharp for that pedestrian crap; you’re a shining star and deserve a tie as stunning as you are. And we’ve got just the place for you: check out Cyberoptix TieLab, a bounty of hand silkscreened ties “that don’t suck!” — and really, they don’t. Just check out some of our favorite picks below, available in a ton of fantastic designs and prices (median pricing sits somewhere around the $30-$70 range).

Live like an adult, play like a kid! A ton of us fondly remember the tabletop arcade games of the 80s and have probably entertained the idea of having one in-house now that we’re all grown up. Of course, much like action figures, the classic arcade table would stand out like a childhood dinosaur in a room of adult decoration (and may be a hard sell for your Crate & Barrel loving girlfriend). Someone over at Surface Tension likely had a similar thought and put the ingenuity forth to create a modern styled coffee table with arcade games — and more! — delightfully hidden inside.

With the Arcade Coffee Table built exactly to your needs delivery may take a couple of months, but it looks to be worth the wait. Each arcade game table is fully equipped with solid retro-gaming components (fully customizable in any colors you’d like), ready to go for both one and two players (and if your buddy isn’t around, you can always look for a second player online) and stocked with 29 games; if the bundled bits aren’t enough for you, the table is MAME-compatible so you can add whatever retro games you’d like! The table conceals a Dell PC to power all of your favorite goodies — including iTunes (ready to stream wireless to your speaker system with AirPort), Firefox for web surfing, Apple QuickTime to view movies, Windows XP Picture Viewer to flip through all of your photos, and ports to connect all of your peripherals.

The table comes in three different finishes — brushed, glazed and grain — for a hefty £3295 directly from the manufacturer (for Americans, basically double that price for the dollar conversion with the exchange rate as it is these days) you can add one of your own to the living room. What price making your friends green with envy, right?

Ever get umbrella envy as you’re slushing through soaked sidewalks passed on either side by fully covered pedestrians while your little CVS umbrella drips all over your shoulders? Step up to the “Rolls Royce of umbrellas”, the High Function Solo. Aside from its eye catching design (a wide canopy of black nylon offset by a swipe of green), its well thought out build puts it far ahead of convenience store competitors: the Solo features an automatic open and close button (no more slicing your thumb on dinky latches) that can also be pressed to revert the umbrella if it’s blown inside out, and is built around a carbon WindFlex Frame System with a solid steel shaft and reinforced flexible carbon polymer ligaments (so maybe it can double as a self defense club?). Even the handle is built to last with it’s zinc alloy brushed in nickel to protect against corrosion, and is highly manageable with an extra wide closure strap and convenient clip to keep strapped to your wrist or bag. The Solo sells for $95 over at UncommonGoods; if the price makes you wince, do a quick assessment of how much you’ve thrown away on cheap umbrellas and you may find this one a worthwhile investment.

Forget everything you thought you knew about mixing light fixtures and water — sure, your vanity light in the bathroom exploded in a million fantastic jagged arcs when a splash of water hit the bare bulb, but you were dealing with conventional, store-bought, sad little bulbs; the Xenon bulb laughs at your iridescent clunkers and takes a deep dive into an orb of water with the WET Lamp.

The designers haven’t gone into a ton of detail about the magic inside the box (when you see something that doesn’t immediately make sense, first instinct is to ask a million questions), but have offered some information on how the WET Lamp works: with the 10W Xenon bulb submerged into a sphere of hand-blown borosillicate glass, by sliding a thin silver rod into the water the light bulb is brought to life (and, the further submerged the rod, the brighter the light). Available in 3 different sizes (4″ - 8.5″ wide) and both frosted and clear models, you can pick up this oddity for yourself at Generate, starting at $199.

The classic theremin, with its haunting tones and seemingly mystical playability, has just been taken to a new level with this Matryomin QT, originally made for the Matryomin in Russia. Created by Japanese thereminist Masami Takeuchi, the QT is a single 8.5″ tall, 4 AAA battery powered matryoshka (no word on where the other nesters got off to, but maybe they’re making sweet music somewhere too) hiding a ptich-only theremin that’s easy to play but difficult to master. Getting started is easy: just flip the switch on the doll’s backside and position your hands around the doll to coax melodious tones from the speaker hiding under the base. If you’re still unclear on the concept, check out the video of Takeuchi playing “Love Me Tender” below. Know a theremin junky, or someone with a nesting doll yen? You can pick up this one-of-a-kind piece at the Japan Trend Shop for $599.

Sure, the new MacBook Air laptop is all the buzz this week — “thinspiration” straight from Apple — but we’re kind of excited about this new release, too. Anyone with a wealth of information on their computer certainly feels the pain of regularly backing things up; might as well scratch an afternoon off your calendar to spend time sorting through files, dragging and dropping, and weeding out needless junk. Apple wants to take some of the stress out of data storage with their new Time Capsule, a wireless hard drive with a 802.11n Wi-Fi base station that works seamlessly with the Time Machine utility in Mac OS X Leopard to automatically back up your computer. Available in 1TB and 500GB models (that’s at least a couple of years worth of data, right?), you can back up all of the computers in your home cable-free, connect the Time Capsule to your DSL or cable modem to create a new wireless network, use it as a wireless drive on both your Mac and PC, attach a printer via USB for wireless printing from any computer anywhere in your home, plus connect/transfer easily from your iPhone, Apple TV, iPod Touch and all of your other fun Wi-Fi goodies. Neat! The 500GB and 1TB models are available directly from Apple for $299 and $499 (won’t ship til February, but that’s only a couple of weeks off, and it sounds like this one is worth the wait).

The guys over at iRobot aren’t just cleaning floors anymore, they have now figured out a way to solve one of life’s worst chores as well. The Looj gutter cleaning robot will clear out a 60 foot section of shmoot clogged gutters in just 10 minutes.

No longer will weekend warriors have to precariously hang from roofs or repetitively climb and move their extension ladders. With the help of iRobot all they have to do is simply climb up once, insert the robot, and sit back while it flings leaves and pine cones at 500 RPM’s.

The price of this tank treaded beast ranges anywhere from $99 to $169 and works with any standard K-style, aluminum, copper, metal or vinyl gutters. Now if iRobot could just come up with a robot to clean up all of the crap the Looj just flung from our gutters, I would really be impressed.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

Is there anything better for the die-hard Simpsons fan? Toss your Foreman Grill and get with the true hero: the Simpsons Doughnut/Donut Maker. Now you can make mmmmmmmmm donuts right in the comfort of your own kitchen with this non-stick countertop donut maker — and since it doesn’t involve deep frying you can almost convince yourself that it’s a healthy alternative to Krispy Kreme. With it’s easy temperature indicator (and perfect Simpsons yellow housing), get ready to cook up a flawless set of 6 donuts anytime the hunger strikes. The kit also comes with its own recipe book for whipping up batter and toppings, or you can go nuts and start coming up with flavors of your own (you know, like purple, it’s a fruit!). Available from Gadget Shop for £24.95, get it quick before Hawking steals it!

…or at least for hapless mid-level musicians that can’t manage to fine-tune by ear. In fact, many new musicians abandon their attempt at playing simply because they can’t properly tune their guitar/bass/violin and nothing seems to sound right. When my friend gave me a guitar years ago I quickly learned that the trick was to first get the low E string on pitch and then tune each remaining string relative to that tone — then I found out that my low E was as in-tune as a wailing cat. So what’s a starter to do?

Pick up the eNote Clip-On Digital Chromatic Tuner to take all of the guesswork out of your notes. The eNote works in one of two ways: first is the Mic mode that monitors the sound of your instrument and lets you know if you’re in tune or not. If you’re on point, the display shows the note in bright green display; if you’re off, the display turns red. Simple, right? But if you need even more perfect guidance, the Clip mode — attaching directly to the neck — monitors the vibration of your instrument directly, and features a 360 degree rotating display so you can keep monitoring as you play without constantly stopping to check that you’re in tune. Because the display is backlit the monitor is bright enough to read anywhere, even on the darkest stage. The eNote normally retails for $39.95, but you can pick one up over at Elevation Music for the low low price of $19.75.