You might’ve heard of the Jack and the Beanstalk tale during your childhood. Here’s a coat hanger design reminiscent of that tale designed by Max Battaglia. Called the MagicBeans, this coat hanger is eons away from the usual coat hangers we’ve had around all this while. The little white puppets suspended from the green ropes that are inspired by the beanstalk hold on to your coats and can be adjusted in number and height too. Due to the friction caused by the rope passing through the quadruple curve, the hanging puppets stay put when a coat is hung on to it.

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Too lazy to reach for the remote? Well, you can now switch control your television with your clothes! At first glance, this T-shirt looked pretty simple, with a simple design. Little did we know that the design was actually a bunch of buttons, with which you can control your television. This one works fine with just about any television that supports a universal remote. Using a conductive thread that’s sewn through the fabric itself, this one uses soft switches to create a circuit board of sorts, and was designed by Bem Tsang.

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Well, if you’re a tree-hugger and just love your green buddies, we’re pretty sure you’d fall for this audio system for your home. Shaped like the stump of a tree, the branch-like protrusions hold the speaker cones. The stump itself can be split up into four to move the speakers around your home, or you can simply stack them up, on above the other, for a tower speaker system. Christened the “Growin’ Up”, this entertainment system was designed by Marcos Madia.

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We all might’ve faced the dreaded occasion of having to unlock a door in a dark room. Power failures usually leave us fumbling for the keys and then struggling with fitting it into the keyhole. Designer Fedor Porshnev however has come up with a novel way to open doors in darkened out spaces. The Iskra concept basically is a door lock with a backlight. To power up, the lock uses piezoelectricity, and requires no electrical assistance from the grid. The piezoelectricity concept can also be used for electronic locking systems that go dead during power failures.

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Avant-garde designs sure leave us awe-struck and amazed. This Red Dot Award winning design by Kim Jin-Gi is known as the Pebbling and has a very good reason to be called that too. Basically a music speaker system, this one has a dash of out-worldliness. Like every other speaker, this one switches on and off and has volume controls. What’s different is how you toggle all these controls. To switch it on, you first scatter the pebbles and use the blue tilt button. To change the volume, the pebbles need to be rearranged. Shaking the pebbles switches off the system and this is probably the most emotional approach to a speaker system ever seen before. Innovative and beautiful, the Pebbling is an amazing touch to music indeed.

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You know how fussy children can be and not everything we do they are pleased with, for example trying to get their teeth checked or using a steel thermometer to check their temperature. This group of designers thought of a way to appeal children to stay calm and came up with the Thermoplay. It looks like a toy but it encourages natural temperature measurement through play. It is styled like a stethoscope and has been designed for monitoring children at home with minor ailments like a cold or flu. It has a screen that displays an emoticon which changes to indicate a child’s condition. Interesting one.

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This could be the answer to all worries while travelling or sitting in a movie hall… this is the Paperclip Armrest. This design is created by James Lee. He made a dual-level armrest used between seats which enable the arms of two adjacent occupants to share the same vertical space without clashing. It also increases comfort in tight seating arrangements. Nice one.

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Since Friday most of us are glued to news channels on television or over internet to grab the latest on nature’s fury over Japan. Sitting far away in different corners of the globe, many are keen to extend a helping hand. But HOW? Here are a few trustworthy options that we have listed down which are just as simple as texting from any part of the world. Such small gestures will make a difference!

· Red Cross - Use your cell phone to text-message REDCROSS to 90999 to make the $10 donation, or visit the Red Cross.

· Salvation Army – Operating since 1895 in Japan, the Salvation Army is currently providing emergency assistance the needy. Text JAPAN or QUAKE to 80888 to make a $10 donation or donate online at here.

· Save the Children – This organization is accepting donations for its Children's Emergency Fund. You can text “JAPAN” or “TSUNAMI” to 20222 to donate $10 or visit Save the Children.

· Mercy Corps - Text “MERCY” to 25283 to donate $10 or visit Mercy Corps to know more.

· International Medical Corps - A donation of $10 will be accounted to your mobile phone bill when you Text MED to 80888.

· GlobalGiving - Text JAPAN to 50555 to donate $10. This Washington based organisation is providing relief and emergency services to victims of the earthquake and tsunami.

· Google - They have launched a Person Finder service to search for the missing and also post an update about their status. This service is available in Japanese as well as English and provides information of ‘already found’ people.

· Facebook – Folks at Explore.org are donating $1 for every “Like” of the “Dog Bless You” Facebook page, up to $100,000.

· iTunes - Apple has created a donation page in iTunes to donate $5 to $200 to the Red Cross.

You can help us by sharing this information by tweeting about it, liking it on Facebook or simply mailing it to your family and friends. It is advised to donate to recognized charities and aid organizations only.

Well if you just love everything around you with organic shapes, here’s a piece of furniture you’d kill for. Designed by Sarai Noguez, this comfortable furniture has some well cut organic shapes on its canopy inspired top surface. Called the Arboreum, this one can just fit right into your living space without too much of a hassle. And it looks good enough to lie in your garden too, for some comfortable outdoor seating.

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Keeping time is the essential function of a watch. Some of them do step out of the usual cliché’s and do a lot more though! Take the Konect USB watch for example. This one looks great and hot enough to make just about any gadget-freak go wide eyed and jaw-dropped. The blue radial area you probably might have noticed that’s reminiscent of the Tron: Legacy bike’s wheels is the watch, while the slip-out USB flash drive neatly tucks in beside it. That’s not all. Certainly not all! The watch can stream audio live or communicate via Skype when loaded to the USB flash and boasts voice record ability.

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Walking might just turn into a human activity of the past. With technological developments like the ones we’re seeing just about every day, mobility keeps getting easier and less tiring. Well, from a health-related point of view walking is sure necessary, but with a contraption like the XB1, we’d just give that a pass! Powered completely by electricity, the vehicle uses three wheels to get around and comes with a GPS system for navigation. Touching speeds of t 35 km/hr which sure beats walking, the vehicle also supports smart-phones.

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Now you don’t really need to spend a good few hours leaning back on the recliner at your shrink’s office trying to figure out just what actually boils the volcano inside you. Instead, simply strap on the Q Sensor, a magical little device that figures out just exactly what overwhelms you and points a finger out to your main causes of stress. The device was designed and developed by a company called Affectiva based in Waltham, Massachusetts and uses two small silver electrodes on the underside that send out a low electric current to measure skin conductance that rises along with physiological levels of stress.

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This design literally looks like some futuristic mono-drive vehicle. It is shaped like a big egg with three wheels in round ball shapes. You can sit in it like one of those cycles used by the mall cops and navigate to your destination. Like the Nano in India, this would be ideal for the roads of crowded China or Bangkok! It is designed by Robin Wang.

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We all know how boring it is to brush the teeth but it is necessary nonetheless. Designer Lee Dong Ho has designed a cool brush ideal for children. It is called the Time Toothbrush which has a timer of three minutes – the correct amount of time required to actually brush your teeth. It is measured by an analog spring and the timer is activated with a tap against the bathroom bench which contracts with the impact and returns to its original position after three minutes. Once this happens, a timer goes out and you can stop brushing.

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