Designer Fabien Nauroy came up with the Play, and it comes in a nifty little package shaped like a speech bubble. The compact device has a front-facing video camera and microphone for recording, and a small 2.4″ color LCD screen and speaker for playback. Once you leave a message, it has a bright LED indicator so you know that someone has recorded a clip.

It’s also got a built-in magnetic back so you can just stick it to most refrigerators. Plus, if you have a fridge that won’t hold magnets, you can just hang it over the handles with the convenient carrying strap. That also makes it easy to hang on a doorknob too. They also include a magnetic sheet with a sticky-tape back that you can hang up anywhere.

Specs are nothing to write home about with just 320×240 resolution, but it’s a fridge magnet so what do you want?

The Play is available for pre-order now over at Native Union for $59.99 (USD), and is scheduled to start shipping on October 20th. But good luck ordering it the U.S. Unfortunately, the drop-down menu to choose the color is borked in the U.S. version of their website. You’ll have much better luck if you live just about anywhere else though. Hopefully, Native Union will fix the problem soon for those of you who want to order one. Just don’t try their even more perplexing customer service page.

[via Fancy]

However, ABI wraps more than just text messaging into their estimate, with the number including SMS, MMS, mobile email, and IM. Part of the reason the number is so large, according to ABI, is that many people in developing nations use a mobile device for emails and messaging rather than a computer.

Despite the huge number of SMS messages expected to be sent, ABI reckons that revenue will decline thanks to commoditization. The rate of adoption for SMS use is also expected to decline with the mobile market becoming saturated.

Not only does the LED Message Mouse keep your mouse hand nice and cool thanks to a built-in fan, it can display dot-matrix messages along the edge of the fan blade as it spins ’round.

The mouse works its wordy magic using an illusion known as persistence-of-vision that we’ve featured a few times before here on Technabob. Just input your message on the included remote control, and watch it go through a variety of animations as it displays your words of wisdom.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Of course, the major design flaw here is the fact that most of the time your message will be displayed underneath your hand, so unless the palms of your hands have eyeballs in them, nobody will ever get to read your Pulitzer-prizeworthy prose. The LED Message Mouse is available over at Japan’s eSupply for ¥2,079 (about $21 USD).

[via TFTS]

Now you too can put down your laptops, Blackberries and iPhones and go old school with these fun paper e-mail pads. Simply fill in your To:, Date:, Time: and Subject: fields to get your message started. When you’re ready to send it along, simply fold it into a paper airplane and throw it across the office to your intended target. Got lots of recipients? Just fill in the CC: or BCC: fields, then lather, rinse and repeat.

Each pad comes with 50 sheets, and will set you back $3.99 — or about 8 cents per e-mail — such a deal. Available now from ThinkGeek.

The latest Open Source creation from Evil Mad Science Labs, “Peggy” gives you the parts you need to make a pixelated grid of LEDs in any design your little heart desires.

Peggy is named for her 25 x 25 pegboard which can hold up to 625 LEDs in place for your custom signs. It’s able to drive just about any LED you’d like, and can be run off of 3 ‘D’-cell batteries or on an optional AC adapter. The kit includes the pre-populated circuit board, battery pack and a photosensor which lets you automatically turn off the display in daylight. And yes, the whole thing is driven by a fully-programmable micro-controller, so you can create animations, blinking and flashing displays if you know what you’re doing.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to buy your own LEDs, and will need some basic soldering skill and a soldering iron to create your own signs. The kit is available from the EMSL Shop for $80 USD. You can also pick up a batch of LEDs while you’re there. (For those more adventurous, there’s a bare-bones version of the board without the electronics already installed for $50).

Perfect for labeling boxes, temporary signage, creating impromptu artworks or modern graffiti, the tape comes in either a dot-matrix or segmented style. Just grab a permanent black marker and mark out the appropriate white portions of the tape to reveal your message.

Designed by rAndom International for Suck UK, the tape should be available soon. Prices will range from £5.00 to £7.00 (about $10 to $12 USD) a roll.

[For some reason, all this talk about tape made me think of Flight of the Conchords].

So if I’m doing my math right, the disk will be completed in 2138, a little over 130 years from now. The good news is, that should be just in time for Vista SP2 to be released.

[via istartedsomething]

The head-scratcher of an error message simply reads “Error: No error occurred.” This gets me wondering why this message doesn’t appear every time an error doesn’t occur. Heck, it should be the norm in all applications. Then, the absence of an error message would mean that something really went wrong. Seems like a good idea to me. Maybe it could be part of the Web 3.0 standard.

It’s all part of my evil plan to make millions selling pop-up blocking software to prevent these buggers. Whoops, did I say that out loud?

[via TechEBlog]

Designed by Robert Stadler for French design firm Radi Designers, the limited-edition +336+ mirror glows with your most recently received SMS messages. LEDs hidden behind the surface of the mirror illuminate with your text when you get close to the front of the mirror.

There are only twenty of these being made, but with a price tag of $10,000, even that many might take a while to sell out. If you’ve got the cash to burn, you can pick one up over at Generate.

[via Better Living Through Design]

The pocket-sized device costs £14.99 ($30 USD) and can store up to four messages at 30 characters each in its internal memory.

The Spacewriter comes with English and European character sets, as well as some funky special characters. It’ll also generate some pretty cool special effects if you choose not to move it in a straight line.

Galaxy Programmable watches let you enter up to 121 characters for display on a bright 21 x 7 LED matrix. The watches feature a stainless steel case with an all-leather strap and are water resistant to 5 atmospheres.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The watches are a limited edition, and come in three colors: red ($169), blue ($199) and orange ($159) from LedWatchStop.