Each Plugbook has a pair of outlets on its side, and a built-in retractable cord, so it all stows inside the Plugbook until you need it. A push of the button on the spine of the Plugbook neatly coils the 10 foot-long cord inside.

In addition to either US or European outlets, the Plugbook has a pair of handy USB ports built in for charging your gadgets.

About the only thing I wish is that there were a way to actually use the Plugbook while it was hiding away on your bookshelf (for instance if the outlets were mounted on the back edge. Still, it’s kind of a clever design, and certainly looks better than most cheap outlet strips out there.

The Plugbook is currently raising funds over on Kickstarter, and a pledge of $25(USD) or more will get you one of the first Plugbook outlets in either white, black or a color to be voted on by buyers. There’s also an “encyclopedia red” edition for $35, and discounted prices for multiple Plugbooks.

These cute and creative books are full of fun activities like helping Geordie get his visor on, and piloting the Shuttlecraft back to its dock. For now, Juliebell is only selling printable patterns for the quiet books, but the puppets are are available as a complete set.

So head on over to Etsy and buy some of these for your little Starfleet cadet (or Padawan.) He/she will thank you for it later.

[via Geek Crafts via Neatorama]

Made by crafts captain Julie Gillrie, the book is made of felt and is filled with lots of fun toys and activities to keep your kid – or you! –  occupied, from finger puppets of the crew to a glove that will help your kid rock the Vulcan salute.

The book has earned the approval of none other than Enterprise crew member Wesley Crusher aka Wil Wheaton. Unfortunately, Julie isn’t actually selling the book itself, only a pdf with a list of instructions to make the book. Unfortunatelier, the pdf itself has already been bought. As of this writing Julie does have a Star Wars quiet book, but if your kid is a trekkie he’ll probably scream in your face if you get him that one instead.

[Julie Gillrie via Geek Crafts]

Pad & Quill have launched a Kickstarter project to crowdfund this tiny book cover iPod nano 6G case. Its style will please you if you like Moleskine notebooks.

You’ll have to pledge $34(USD) to get your own Littlest Black Book over at Kickstarter. At the time of writing, they have amassed $828 out of their $4,500 goal, and there are 28 days left. Even if this thing started out as an April Fools prank, it seems that people are willing to spend their money on one, so there’s a good chance these will be produced.

[via Ubergizmo]

Oh, how I wish I had one of these Dictionary Desk Pillows in my bookshelf. You see, this extremely thick volume doesn’t cram millions of definitions in it, but a huge, cushy and comfortable-looking pillow instead. When it’s snapped shut, you can simply place it on your book case and no one will be any wiser.

There’s only one problem though: unless you speak Chinese, then it might strike some people as odd that you’d have this huge dictionary in your shelf. The Dictionary Desk Pillows are available from the Japan Trend Shop for $80 (USD), making them some expensive pillows, too. I’m sure if you live in Japan, you can get one for quite a bit less.

I mean, we have social sites for video games, artwork, and music aficionados. Why not one for independent writers? But here’s some good news: it’s coming. Or rather, it will come, once the Leebre project gets funded on Kickstarter.

Basically, Leebre is a social community where readers and writers can connect. But more than that, it can provide authors with a multitude of tools and resources to publish their work independently. The site will not only allow writers to post manuscripts online, but will generate eBook formatted content, as well as give their content a professionally typeset look, then release them with the appropriate Creative Commons license. Writers can put their bios and book previews up online, place “donation” buttons on their works so readers can show their appreciation or even contribute to charities.

For now, the Beta site is focused on publishing fiction, but there’s no reason why it couldn’t support any sort of content. I think Leebre will become a very cool site if it gets fully released, mainly for the fact that more people would be able to gain access to literature that would otherwise remain unpublished. I say this, given the lack of resources that many of these independent authors find themselves in.

If you’re interested in supporting Leebre, head on over to Kickstarter and contribute what you can.

The book will teach you ten key phrases, “eliminating near-fatal encounters with notoriously short-tempered Wookiees while smoothing the way to lasting partnerships and friendships.” Pick a phrase and then play the appropriate recording on the sound module to hear how it’s said in Shyriiwook.

Actually forget the book – I’d just rip out the sound module and have it on me at all times. Fire up the Millennium Falcon and warp to Amazon to order How to Speak Wookiee for about $12 (USD).

[via Neatorama]

Gwydion ap Dafydd of Konkreet Labs was able to hollow out a hardcover copy of Mary Hahn’s Praktisches Kochbuch (Practical Cookbook) to conceal a MeeBlip synthesizer.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Gwydion chose the page well, since the glowing LED power light has been placed perfectly into the eye of a pig on the page. That’s pretty cool.

For his next hack, Gwydion promises to use a copy of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital.

[via Make:]

This bundle will be available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 8. The limited edition will sell for $79.99 (USD), while the standard edition is available for $49.99.

[via 1up]

There are 50 different characters in Bare Essentials, and almost all of them are easily recognizable. The book was released recently, and it’s available from Lebowski Achievers for €25 (~$34 USD). There are even some prints of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (Donatello) that made the cover. They sell for €50 (~$68 USD) and are each signed and numbered.

deGroot is a Dutch designer who created the illustrations, and the project was brought to print with the help of Nalden.

[via Fubiz]

Since we already know way too much about the main characters in Star Wars, Elliott Quince wanted to shed some light on some of the B, C, and D-list cast members. They are probably bitter about not making a big splash, and they probably were treated badly on set and of course he figured their lives were never the same since the movies.

Well, now you can find out for yourself how these cast members fared, since it is all in Elliot’s book, called Plasticine Tatooine. The book is clever all by itself, but the coolest part of this project is that for the pictures in the book he actually made all of the characters out of plasticine (clay).

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

These guys all look adorable in clay form and it makes the book worth buying at £4.95 (~$8 USD) from Plasticine Tatooine.

Despite its chunky form and monochrome display, up until today the Game Boy remains the third best selling video game system of all time, topped only by the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2. Part of it’s success was because the competition sucked, but more than anything the Game Boy was successful because it had a legendary line up of games, from Tetris to Pokémon. Judging from the shots of the book’s contents, Sergio seems to be well aware of that.

Pixel Galaxy singles out and takes a closer look at some of the Gameboy’s most popular games like Link’s Awakening, Castlevania and Street Fighter II. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he focused on the different kinds of art styles used in the games rather than their gameplay. Not that that would be disappointing. For gamers like me who grew up in the mid-80′s until the early 90′s, 8-bit graphics will always have a special place in our hearts.

You can find more pictures of Pixel Galaxy in Sergio’s Behance page. Sergio is also currently looking for a publisher for Pixel Galaxy, so if you’d like to help him out spread the word about his book or even better, find him a publisher. Hopefully he’ll thank us by coming up with an English – and Japanese! – translation of the book.

In The History of Nintendo, Volume One, author Florent Gorges (along with Isao Yamzaki) carefully documented the beginnings of Nintendo, dating back to as early as 1889, all the way through 1980.

The book is the first of a ongoing series, with 240 full color pages, and over 2,000 images of hundreds of Nintendo products over their first Century of operation. Every card game, toy and product that could be found is documented in the pages of the book.

From Nintendo’s Hanfuda playing cards, to the awesomely cheesy Love Tester is covered in rich historical detail, with photographs to back up the story.

The publishers of the book, Pix’n Love Publishing were kind enough to share some scans of the interior of the book for us to post, and it really looks like a wonderful book for any serious video game or Nintendo fan.

Inside the covers, you’ll also find some of Nintendo’s early arcade games from the 1960s and 1970s, along with their first home video game systems, leading all the way up the the introduction of the Game and Watch series. You’ll also discover things that you never knew Nintendo made, like baby strollers, slotless race cars, and even the Japanese version of Twister.

What you definitely won’t find in Volume One are the NES, Game Boy, SNES, N64, Gamecube, NDS, 3DS or Wii, all released after 1980.  And since Volume Two is focused entirely on the Game and Watch series, you’ll have to wait until (as yet unannounced) future volumes to get into Nintendo’s real gaming hey-day.

You can order The History of Nintendo, Volume One now over at Pix’N Love’s website for £24.99 (~$40 USD).

Twelvesouth, the company that pegs itself not only Apple-friendly, but Apple only, makes this and I have to say that it looks pretty swanky. I like how it can carry around a 3 or 4 credit cards too, meaning that you’ll probably end up leaving your wallet at home. And if you have any concerns, the Twelvesouth guys assure us that they’ve performed rigorous testing, and putting your iPhone alongside your credit cards is perfectly safe, and will not erase them.

The BookBook case is available exclusively for the iPhone 4, and is made from durable, distressed and stitched leather. It should be noted that there’s no opening for the camera lens though, and you’ll have to slide your iPhone up an inch or so when you want to snap a picture.

The BookBook will cost you $59.99 (USD) which seems a bit much for an iPhone case. You can get it over at Twelvesouth website, along with a bunch of other stuff that looks pretty cool.

Steve’s book light has a maximum output of 40W. Not only does it turn off when the cover is closed, its brightness is also dependent on how far the lid is opened. What a bright idea. Sorry about that.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Check out Steve’s website, Grathio Labs, to find out how you can make your own literal book light. I heard Steve’s next project is going to be a literal rainbow.

[via Laughing Squid]

While Mustard’s Tiny Tim Booklight doesn’t have as many moves as Luxo or Anglepoise, the little reading light does still have charm and character. Tiny Tim measures about 5 inches high, and provides ample battery-powered illumination for reading your books. That is, assuming you haven’t ditched paper and moved to an e-Reader or an iPad for your reading enjoyment.

The Tiny Tim Booklight isn’t yet available in stores, but is supposed to start shipping at the end of June. Retail price for the lamp is £7.99 (~$13 USD), and you can probably convince Perpetual Kid to carry them since they sell other stuff from the same UK gift maker.

And speaking of inanimate lamps with personality, who remembers this classic IKEA commercial, directed by none other than Spike Jonze?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So you might wonder where this totally random bookcase would find its place in this same ordered world. An ordered kind of random, that is.

How about my study? I don’t know about you, but the first thing I thought when I saw this was, “Wow, this a pretty hot mess.” And I mean that in every literal sense of the word.

The Random Bookcase is made from MD wood fiberboards and painted in matte white. I love how ordered and disorganized the whole thing looks at the same time. In my book, “random” usually translates to “messy” and “disheveled,” but this bookcase totally goes against the definition of the word.

Go wild, live a little, and be more random. You can start with your bookcase. These bookshelves are available from Made In Design and carry a hefty price tag of £1,629.00 (~$2,650 USD.)

[via Gadgets Matrix]

Developed by a team from Osaka University, the Paranga is a mechanical device that acts as a controller for an E-book reader, providing readers with the sensation of actually flipping pages. The system can detect how much the book is bent, then page flips are detected using a paper-covered roller. Here’s a video the guys at DigInfo TV shot, showing off the Paranga in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Funny thing is that it’s not accurate enough yet to detect individual page turns, so in the prototype it’s used to just play with a flip-book animation. The concept seems interesting enough, but the fact that any version of such a device would add unnecessary bulk to the svelte E-reader, it’s kind of a non-starter. Perhaps they’ll figure out a way to create some sort of miniature haptic device that feels like turning pages without all the mechanical components, and then they’ll have something. For now, the concept is nothing more than an amusing novelty.

[via YouTube]

The Case has a carved wooden base that holds the Kindle and has cut outs to allow all the controls to be accessed. It also appears to have some felt in certain spots to prevent scratches. That wooden holder for the reader is then bound like a real book with a leather cover.

Inside the leather cover is red paper to complete the book look. The Case for Kindle 3 even has a red ribbon bookmark to complete the look and a moleskin strap to keep the case shut. If you like the style you can order one up for $44.99(USD) and it’s set to ship in the next few weeks.

Each case is made form birch wood with a paper book cover with a leatherette texture. These cases are designed to snuggly fit your latest Apple devices, including the iPad, iPad 3G, iPhone 3G and iPhone 4. They’re a great idea for those people who want to disguise their iPhones and iPad into less obvious targets for potential thieves. But will they actually discourage theft? It’s harder to see what exactly they are, that’s for sure.

The Artisan Bindery Book Cases are available from Pad and Quill for $54.99 (USD) for the iPhone version and $39.99 for the iPad version. My only gripe is that at those prices, I’d have expected them to use real leather, not just cardboard for the covers.

[via Designboom]