The heat is customizable, featuring three levels of warmth that you activate with a tab in the coat's chest (sort of like a very lame Iron Man).

This coat, as described so far, will run you $375. And Brian Lam really liked the technology when he checked it out several months back.

For another $50, you can add a USB adapter that leads into a pocket that's fed from the same battery as the heating element. In other words, you'll be able to recharge your phone, but it could be at the cost of freezing to death or at least losing a few limbs.

Tough call. [Mountain Hardwear via Urbandaddy via CrunchGear]

Philips senior scientist Paul Lemmens and a team of researchers have devised a jacket—but sorry dudes, no matching pants—that augments your emotions with gentle nudges, squeezes and taps. The point? To cause "a shiver to go up the viewer's spine and creating the feeling of tension in the limbs," Lemmens told IEEE Spectrum, on the eve of the World Haptics Conference where he's presenting the jacket.

Lemmens says that during a Bruce Lee fight scene, the jacket can pulse with the gu-goong gu-goong gu-goong of an elevated heartbeat. (All good, until you remember that Bruce Lee's heart rate never went above 42 beats per minute his whole life.)

The jacket's versatile fondling techniques come from 64 actuators, clustered in groups of four along different parts of the torso and arms—eight in each sleeve, for instance. They are low-powered enough to be run on two AA batteries for an hour, but hopefully they'll make room for more batteries, since the average movie is over 2 hours, including trailers. The signals to pinch your arm, tighten your chest, or sooth your back would come from the film itself, kinda like how those D-Box motion chairs follow pre-determined cues that are synced with the action on the screen.

I'm willing to buy into the argument that a little more physical interaction would heighten my emotional appreciation of a movie, but I just can't help feeling it's the premise of a corny but terrifying episode of The Outer Limits? [IEEE Spectrum]

At the heart of the modu ecosystem is a tiny, modular and sleek mobile phone. In addition to complete mobile functionality, the modu phone is a music player and a mass storage device containing 2 GB of internal memory. The innovative modu phone presents a bold graphical user interface and a unique seven-key keypad to perform basic functions even without a modu jacket. For added functionality and style, users can easily slip the modu phone into a range of modu jackets. This modu ecosystem offers boundless – and affordable – possibilities.

The new modu jacket lineup includes:

• modu™ night jacket: inspired by the nightlife scene, this jacket includes futuristic styling with an edgy keypad, flashing lights, night mode imaging and a unique graphical user interface
• modu™ street-art jacket: capturing the expressive and vibrant street art scene, this jacket fea-tures stereo speakers and dedicated music keys for a powerful music experience
• modu™ classic jacket: designed to fit the everyday needs of a modern lifestyle, this jacket carries all essential mobile communication features with an air of elegance and fine taste
• modu™ express jacket: this jacket transforms the modu phone and user interface with a rain-bow of fun, playful flavors 
 
"modu is turning the notion of a ‘one-size-fits-all' mobile phone experience on its ear," said Dov Moran, founder and chief executive officer of modu. "Consumers want a mobile phone that can keep up with their dynamic lifestyles. The combination of the eye-catching modu phone with the new modu jackets offers not only personalized style but affordable updates without the costly expense of buying a new phone."

At its heart, the Modu phone is a simple cellphone (the lightest on the planet according to Guinness), but adding these jackets can completely change the functionality and aesthetic of the device—allowing the user to customize the device to his/her tastes. Modu expects to have these jackets on the market by Q2 of 2009, with several other jackets to roll out by the end of the year. If the previous info holds up, the phone plus two jackets will be available for only $200, with additional jackets running from $20 to $60—an agressive low price that could be key to its success. What do you think? Does Modu have a chance? [Modu via TechCrunch]

The Gadget: The toasted bliss that is Ardica's heated jacket pack. I will never brave the cold without one.

The Price: Varies but around $375 for jacket and system

The lowdown: The idea of a heated jacket isn't new. But neither is the perception that such a set up would be heavy, bulky, sweaty and involve making sacrifices in the core material, features and breathability of the garment itself. Not here! Here's what Ardica's system is, and here's why it works and why I want it so badly.

The Ardica system is, basically a battery pack powered heating system that manufacturers can build into their jackets.

Ardica the company has a background in fuel cells, but they knew that making a consumer jacket heating system would require it to work in the real world at a relatively affordable cost, today. So the entire system is built around a power source of lithium ion batteries arrayed in a soft pack that looks like a waffle, and that fits in the upper back between a person's shoulder blades, in a pocket in the heated garment. The power source is 10 watts, enough to heat a person's core — and therefore their whole person — for 3-8 hours. 10 Watts of juice goes to the jacket's 2 elements on a wearer's front chest and one on their back, or through a USB jack which can power a USB device directly, or a 1watt sub-battery that can charge devices with its ipod/iphone and usb mini jack variants. The heat output is controlled via a LED lit waterresistant switch that toggles between three settings.

I still wonder what happens if the system gets drenched. Lithium ion packs have advanced management in them, but that management is electronic, and, can be foiled as we saw with all the exploding laptop stories from a few years back. What if you fall on this a lot?
You'd think that such a system would be uncomfortable, but within a few seconds of wearing it and turning it on, it had all the coziness of heated seats in a car on a cold winter morning or sitting next to a roaring hearth or napping in the sun one summer afternoon after a cold dip in a pool. The weight of the battery is about that of a large laptop battery, and since it's placed on my back, it was not noticeable, nor did it swing around while I moved. (Maybe while wearing a backpack I'd notice it.) The jackets are going to go for $375 with the system and a premium jacket. A little steep for an regular, non waterproof jacket which you'd wear as a layer under a shell, but the potential for comfort in the cold is well worth it and the fact that the system will be built into brand name gear like Mountain Hardware makes it a little more bearable. [Previously mentioned Marmot — I think I might have imagined that.]

The jacket is filled with a primaloft, my favorite synthetic down replacement, which stays warm when damp. I'm curious as to how breathable this jacket is, overall, given the black side's weatherproof coating. [TNF]

• You'll get navigational guidance along mountain ski trails with both visual and audio cues.
• Other realtime data like current speed, weather conditions, and route details will also be available.
• There is a friend-finder function, which lets you track down your buddies or just follow them along a path.
• This being a Europe-only product (for now), there's a Bluetooth component, too, which lets the jacket download data via phone.

While a winter-sports site called Boardsport Source is reporting that the NavJacket will be "available as part of the O'Neill Fall/Winter 2008/09 collection," we didn't see a mention of it on the O'Neill site, and the same article says, "The NavJacket will be tested the coming winter season on selected areas in the Alps." My guess is that it's still a bit of a ways off, but damn do I ever want one. [Boardsport Source via CrunchGear]

Sewn onto the back of the jackets are thousands of LEDs, which will run through a sequence of letters, spelling out the band's name. And the bit I like the best is that the gear is described as "a knowing fusion of glitz and capitalist kitsch" — a look that everyone should aspire to, if you ask me. [Dezeen]

Smoking Jacket [WMMNA]

The young gun who designed Excubo (Latin for "I sleep outside," in case you're playing at home), Matthew Gale, won first place in a design competition sponsored by James Dyson (yes, the vacuum guy) and the Industrial Designers Society of America. Hopefully next on the chopping block is a pair of shoes that don't get absolutely destroyed in post snow storm New York. – Nicholas Deleon

Excubo [Matthew Gales' Home Page]

Plantronics Puts Bluetooth into Quiksilver/Roxy Apparel [MobileWhack]

This piece visualizes feelings towards an era of dependency on mobile technology. All these new possibilities right here, right now, right wherever we stand. We carry with us our gadgets; we are systems of sorts - a set of draws, a storage box, a showcase for our collections of digital data plus their extension with the outside world.
This clothing is not a new technology; it makes visual some of the things that could be said of what tends to remain invisible.

Clothing that arranges the body- is a garment made up of pockets that connect their content with the outside via the flow of electricity. Instead of regular plugs and plugholes the electrical current flows through material magnetic fastenings.

Product Page [Via WMMNA]

This jacket, like the other SeV stuff we've talked about, is a nice piece of clothing. The hidden pockets for cellphones and even laptops come in handy on trips and this one is the first that I could see using for outdoor activities. Essentially, this thing is an overnight bag you can wear. Unlike the common multi-pocketed fishing vests seen on so many attendees of geek shows like CES and E3, all the magic happens behind the scenes. Each pocket has a small hole that allows you to route wires to an fro between devices, hiding everything. This made the solar panel installation a snap.

The panel fits over the epaulets on the shoulders of the jacket. You then velcro the panel down to the lower back pocket and route the panel wire through into any other pocket on the jacket. I routed it to the right bottom pocket and plugged in the solar charger, a 4-inch box with a USB port on one side.

The panels themselves are very flexible and relatively unobtrusive. They are instantly noticeable, but with all the crap that comes on jackets these days, they appear at first glance to be some sort of frippery and not a fully-functioning solar battery.

The kit charged a few of the devices I had lying around the house. Apparently it doesn't work very well with iPods, but it seemed to be doing something. However, check before you buy if you're an Apple-only shop.

Otherwise, it's a pretty cool little setup. I can see the value of this thing on the slopes to keep the tunes pumping while you slalom down mugs of warm wine while the rest of the suckers ski.

Product Page [ScottEVest]