Robots That Hold Your Toothbrush, Crush Very Tiny Intruders

These little robots attach themselves to your wall with suction cups, and guard pens, toothbrushes and other skinny pole-like objects. No not that one. [Mookie Gifts via Nerd Approved]

Atomic Pen Writes World's Smallest Possible Letters

Researches at Osaka University have been doing some really tiny writing later, using their newly-invented atomic pen, which can draw atom by atom. The resulting letters, the words "Si" for silicon or "Yes" in Spanish, measure only 2 x 2 nanometers, roughly 40,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. According to Masayuki Abe, one of the project scientists, they have reached a limit impossible to surpass: More »

Ballpoint Pen Doubles as an Emergency Cellphone Charger

Brando is known for quirky and offbeat gadgets, but they deliver their fair share of useful devices as well. Case in point, this ballpoint pen that can also be used as an emergency cellphone charger. According to the description, it averages a 100 minute charge time, 20 hour standby time and 2 hours of talk time on one AA battery. It also features five connectors (Sony Ericsson Fast Port, Nokia 2.5mm, 3.5mm, mini USB and Samsung). It makes sense because many of us already carry around a pen, and it's not a bad deal at $18. [Brando]

Writing Spoon Turns Your Coffee Into Ink

Admit it, you like those inexpensive restaurants where they use paper tablecloths and servers write their names upside down with crayons. Why? Because you love to doodle (and you love crayons). If only you could combine your passion for food and drink with your passion for doodling in one simple device. Enter the Writing Spoon by Spanish artist, Julie Mariscal. It incorporates a makeshift fountain pen into the spoon, making it possible to use things like coffee or soup as ink. You can pick one up on her website for around $31, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than it would be to get your own Gizuccino-making machine. [Julie Mariscal via Trend Hunter via Coolest Gadgets]

Flowlight: Like a Blackboard With Lasers

Precisely how the Flowlight would work is a little unclear, but the design page notes that a base station would focus a laser beam 100 times a second into a point in the space, creating small plasma points that glow in mid air. Users could then use the pen to draw and write, making doodles look like some sort of fantastic light show. It's kind of like a cross between and blackboard and a laser pointer—which would be extremely cool if the product actually existed. More »

Wireless Bluetooth Pen Puts Your Mid-Air Penmanship to the Test

Bluetooth enabled pens are nothing new, but they generally require something like special dotted paper to function properly. SMK Corp claims that their new "Wireless Input Pen" is the first device of its kind to transmit characters written in mid air. Combined with Bluetooth, the pen utilizes a a built-in triaxial acceleration sensor to detect the position of the pen when characters are formed, then transmits that information to a PC. More »

LED Message Pen: Cross-Classroom Messaging, 21st Century Style?

Remember the LED message wand? Brando's now got a miniaturized version that fits in the top of a ballpoint pen, and can display messages up to 20 characters in length. Perfect for covert cross-classroom messaging? As long as the teacher doesn't spot the flash of a red LED across the room. Available now for $15. [Brando via Geek Alerts]

YOTO T I-PEN Spy Camera Has Built-In Memory For Convenient Office Stakeouts

Pen spy cameras usually work wirelessly in conjunction with a base, beaming images surreptitiously onto a recording device or a monitor so you can enjoy them from afar. This YOTO pen, however, has the storage built in, meaning you'll have to wait until later to watch those 15FPS 352x288 videos or look at those 640x480 still pics. Just be careful how many times you drop this under the secretary's desk, or else you'll be not only out of a job, but probably have some criminal charges on your head too. [Yoto via imp3 via PMPToday]

Smitrix Swiftpoint Triped Mouse For Tablet PCs: Forget Those Annoying Pens

You have already seen the Swiftpoint Slider Mouse, a device that effectively makes your keyboard into one giant mousepad, and now we learn that there is a similar device made primarily for tablet PCs and multi-touch tabletop surfaces. Besides being pointier and cooler looking than the Slider, the Triped aims to "remove barriers to the growth of the Tablet PC market" by eliminating one of its major drawbacks—the pen. More »

USB Memo Lamp: Ambient Lighting For the Absent Minded

If you are the kind of person that has Post-it notes strewn all over your desk, this USB-powered lamp may help you cut through the clutter while simultaneously providing some colorful ambient lighting. Using the included pen, users can write notes on the base and simply wipe the message off when needed. Sure, it is stupid, but it is unique—and it will only set you back around $20. Additional pic after the break. More »

Falter 2D DIY Metal Pen Draws, Measures, Opens Envelopes, Kills People

Made in Italy by Parafernalia, the $31 Falter 2D is a flat piece of metal that converts, in just four easy steps, into a pen but also a ruler, and a envelope opener, and a device to kill people a la Calo killing Don Licio Lucchesi in the Godfather III. How-to after the jump. More »

D:Scribe Fountain Pen Writes SMS, Emails

Pens that digitally record what you write onto paper have been on the market for a while, but this D:Scribe pen actually sends out SMS and Email messages in real time directly from the pen! That is, it would if it were real and not just a design, but it is a pretty awesome idea. Cause seriously, if we could write our hostage demand notes and SMS it to the police at the same time? That would save us a trip to the post office. [Yanko Design]

Operation Pen Makes Playing Doctor Fun Again

While we opted not to go to med school—a choice that we celebrate every day by working in our underwear (though also a choice we regret after catching ourselves in the eye once with a Wicked Laser, true story)—the scales may have tipped were this Operation Pen around several years back. Your favorite game on an obnoxiously oversized writing device, the organs are even fastened to the game with string so you don't lose all the pieces during your first particularly shaky weekend after losing rights to that prescription pad. More »

Iranian Invents Multilingual Talking Book Reader

There's not a lot of information about this invention from Ramin Sedighi of Iran, except that it's a device with an electronic pen that scans words of a book and says them aloud. The news clip says that the device will teach languages to children ages 4 to 16, and that it can also "explain" pictures. Here's the mystery catch though: the reader has 512MB of memory "for storing 15 books." If it needs to store the books in advance, it can't just read any book, only those pre-programmed in. Which means it may be no more advanced than a LeapFrog educational toy. It's as big as a 13-inch laptop, too, and yet we're strangely intrigued. [Iranian Students News Agency via Raw Feed]

Digix Ballpoint Pen has 1GB Flash Memory

Korean company Digix has brought out a ballpoint pen with a 1GB flash memory. See it boxed below. More »

SketchPet Mini Notebook

The SketchPet is an interesting notebook design from MaginWulf that is small enough to put on a keyring or keep in a pocket. If you like to leave the digital behind every now and then to record ideas and notes on paper, then maybe this is for you. They can include up to 150 pages, and the website shows pictures of diaries as well as notebooks. Of course, if you can fit a day of social life on a page this small, then you need to get out more. [Yanko Design]

LiveScribe Smartpen Links Your Scribbles with Audio Notes

Remember the Leapfrog Fly Pentop? The educational toy that can answer math problems and translate words you write on the special dotted paper? This LiveScribe is the grown-up version, and I believe it's going to sell like hotcakes. In a nutshell, the most critically cool thing it can do is link audio recordings you make as you jot written notes to the actual text you're writing. And it can later all be indexed on a PC, and played back on the computer. Or by clicking on the notepad. Completely useful for students, journalists, lawyers—anyone who takes a lot of notes. And it works. More »

A Pen With the Paper

Long term, a pen that requires proprietary 2"x2' paper technology could never support your daily inundation of soon-to-be-forgotten-unless-written-down-immediately genius. But for one glorious, "I do have a pen AND paper!" week, you could dominate. More »

Rocketpen: One Small Step for Pens, a Giant Leap for Fun in Accounts

So there's Elton John, sitting in his office, all Writer's Block-ed out, and flipping his Bic biro in despair. He liked the way it moved, "Like a rocket," he thought. "I know, I'll write a song about it and call it Rocket Pen". It was only the return of Bernie Taupin from the kitchen, where he had been making the tea, who told Elton that it wouldn't work. "Better Rocket MAN, Elt, old chum," he said. "Save the Rocket Pen for the 21st Century. It might work better as a gadget than a song*." More »

Soft Prison Pen Makes Shanking Really Hard

The problem with letting prisoners use regular pens is that a few of them (pens, that is) eventually go missing. Well, not exactly missing, but just not locatable until until they're eventually found inside someone's thigh, spleen, or eyeball. This Prison Pen hopes to solve that dilemma by making the pen soft, and therefore unshivvable. More »

The Most Useful Pen Ever

The only time we use a pen nowadays is to write checks every month for our outlandishly overpriced apartment, but this five-function pen could be just the thing we need. The pen comes painted with a metric/imperial ruler on the side—great for when you want to measure your junk. More »

The Inkless Metal Pen

Better than an astronaut pen, this stainless steel Metal Pen writes on most paper using the metal "nib" on the tip. The pen works by leaving bits of the metal alloy on most surfaces, which as a result, allows the pen to work for years and years. As long as this idea's been around, in fact. More »

Low Tech Gear: The BookSling

For those of us that can pry ourselves away from our electronics to do some reading—gadget manuals perhaps—here's a low tech device to keep things organized. The BookSling's a bookmark and pen holder all in one, which means you won't forget where you left off or where you left the highlighter. More »

Pen-One Fingerprint Pen Steals Your Identity

What's the point of a pen that can take your signature when you sign? Imagine your credit card being stolen, but if the person who's signing gets their fingerprint taken when they sign, you'll have a record of who the thief was. A stupid example for sure, but there are other, more important uses for the device. Some that take advantage of its authentication features: More »

Auto Detective Pen Scopes Out Sound Bugs

There's a difference between paranoid for no reason and paranoid because someone's standing behind you right now as you're reading this. Good thing for both types this Auto Detective Pen only costs $17.71. The pen scans your surroundings for unknown wireless signals, and when found, lights up automatically. Now for some Engrish by someone other than me: More »

Hand Acupuncture Pen Works On Touchscreens Too

If writing on paper and on touchscreen devices isn't enough functionality for your pen, this acupuncture pen lets you do "hand acupuncture". We're not quite familiar with this technique despite playing the five finger game with butter knives all the time, much to the chagrin of our wives. It's just a guess, but we're probably safe in saying that the pen doesn't actually pierce the flesh the way acupuncture needles do. More »

Lipstick Pen: If James Bond Were a Drag Queen

Q: "Mr. Bond, please try out our latest invention in your arsenal." More »

The LED Pen Lights Up Your Life, Paper

The LED Moonlight pen works like a pen, but has a light on the tip so you can read what you write, even in movie theatres, back alleys, and inside a patient's abdomen. It's perfect for creative types who need to carry a notebook around with them wherever they go, and can also act as a regular mini-flashlight for when you're too drunk to find the lock on your car door. – Jason Chen More »

LED Scrolling Pen Makes Your Point, Up In Lights

Send messages across the room with this LED pen, which gives you 118 characters to make your point. Its brightness is controllable, and you can speed up its scrolling or slow it down for those slow readers. More »

The Inka Pen Lets You Write Underwater

The Inka Pen is both a keychain and a pen, making it better than a normal pen and definitely way better than a normal keychain. We've all seen those space pens when we were kids that allowed us to write upside down. The novelty quickly wore out, and those pens were soon lost or misplaced—who needs to write upside-down anyway? Well the Inka Pen, with its pressurized ink cartridge, lets you write in below-zero temperatures, in the desert, or even when it's wet. Really? When it's wet? Wouldn't the paper disintegrate before you're finished writing down whatever it is you're writing? More »

Password Journal Shredder Pen for Teeny Boppers

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USB Pen, MP3 Player, FM Radio, Voice Recorder

This thing may actually be pretty useful. See, you use the voice recorder to record your CFO and CTO in the bathroom talking about embezzling funds—you were hiding in a stall, using the FM radio to pass the time. Then you use the 512MB flash memory to steal office documents about the whole thing. Later, you confront and blackmail them with the MP3 playback of the recording. And finally, you have them sign a check for one million dollars with the built-in pen. All this on a gadget you bought for $48. – Jason Chen More »