Cool Tools: Vanity postage. This pretty-easy-to-use website will generate official US postage stamps featuring a photo or illustration of your choosing (works well with iPhoto for instance). When the service was first introduced two years ago it was abused by clever pranksters -- my favorite hack was a Unabomber postage stamp. The Post Office shut the program down. The service is available again but I don't know what the actual image limits are (vs. their stated policy). We made some silly faces and they made stamps from them. I've seen them used for wedding/party invitations. You can also put business logos on them, or other non-political messages. The cost is more than twice that of regular stamps (less if you buy them in bulk). A 20-stamp sheet of these makes a nice personal, utilitarian gift.

Photostamps [Cool Tools]

Popgadget: The Bibliochaise is book storage with a difference. Apart from the fact that it has a higher than average creativity quotient, the Italian designers, nobody&co have thrown in an added utility factor by creating a literal “arm-chair library.” With the Bibliochaise, you can pick off your books right from where you are seated. Because this chair-cum-library is designed to hold 5 linear metres of books and a book-lover as well.

Personally, the fact that I can access my books from my chair is, in and of itself, less appealing to me than what the Bibliochaise has to offer in the art department. With looks that can be customized too (you can choose different combinations of wood for the chair and colors for the cushions), this chair will definitely stand out in your living room.

Read in style with book chairs [Popgadget]

Springwise: As Babyplanners state on their website: “your dedicated babyplanner takes care of all aspects of life concerned with the upcoming arrival: we help you decide what you need and when you need it.” Think sourcing the best baby carrier, create the baby’s bedroom, or pre-selecting and arranging birth prep or parent confidence classes.

Babyplanners offer two programs: the ‘Good’ plan, which contains all the details of the service new parents will want and need, where to secure them, and a timeline of when they need them, and the ‘Great’ plan, which filters products and services based on individual needs, and which then goes on to organize them.

With the number of time-starved, well-earning new parents only increasing, this is a great opportunity for any service-minded entrepreneur who’s been through pregnancy, cashing in on hard-earned skills and diaper-stained experience. Tokyo, Paris, New York and Singapore to follow?

Mom-to-be, no time free? [Springwise]

Iconoculture: Entrepreneurial young South Florida Latinos post their creative homemade videos on YouTube.com.

Four Latino twentysomething friends starred in a video they produced on the cheap called “Cuban Churro Salesmen,” a comedy which became YouTube’s second-most-watched comedy video within 24 hours of its appearance on the website.

The friends’ company, Four Awesome Guys Studios, has filmed seven improvised shorts. The next step: write a script and improve production techniques.

The Internet provides a forum for talented Latino filmmakers and actors with no money or connections in Hollywood, which often stereotypes and excludes them.

For Latinos, YouTube means TuTube [Iconoculture]

Cool Hunting: Minale Maeda's "Table Manners Collection" is a clever exploration of the intersection of formal dining and fast food. Toasted directly onto a grilled sandwich, the porcelain pattern lends the refinement of fine china to eating on-the-go. Other works by Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda, the duo behind this Rotterdam-based design studio, include t-shirts printed with a tablecloth pattern—for those of us who would rather eat topless than on a undressed table—and delicately embroidered paper napkins.

Minale Maeda: Table Manners Collection [Cool Hunting]

BornRich: If you want to be always equipped with your favorite personal computing devices all-the-time without carrying any external baggage then, how about walking down the street wearing all of them in a special outfit. Well, if you quiet liked the idea then you dont have to go on looking for a Bond-tailor to get one, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has designed one for you, the Flexible OLED suit. The special outfit is decorated with wearable personal computing devices.

Wearable Computing Devices of the Future [BornRich]

Popgadget: No more yelling "Stop riding your skateboard in the house!" or "You just ran over the cat -- go outside!" With the Tuck n' Roll upholstered vinyl skateboards, you can safely cruise the hallways . The site calls it "sculpture you can ride" and I wouldn't disagree. Hang it on your wall and call it an "installation."

They also make custom embroidered vinyl longboards for the office surfer.

Inside Skate [Popgadget]

Strange New Product: The STA-ON diaper harness is used to keep diapers on dogs, whether young puppies, untrained adult dogs, or elderly incontinent dogs.

The idea is the invention of Dorrie Krenkel, who grew tired of diapers that kept falling off of her dachshund, Bucky.

The harness is intended to work with babies' diapers (you just poke a hole to pull the tail through), and you can get the harness in a variety of colors. They sell for $12.95 for the smallest size to $16.95 for the largest.

I suppose you might also need to get some "puppy powder" to prevent against diaper rash.

Diaper Harness for Doggies [Strange New Product]

Springwise: For everyone who'd like to escape office politics and the daily commute, iscape manufactures and sells purpose-built garden offices. Both are multi-use outdoor living spaces, but the Miana was specifically designed to be used as an office.

Every garden office comes complete with integral electrics and includes sockets and lighting. The buildings are designed to fall within UK permitted development rights, so in most cases buyers don't need planning permission.

Design conscious lawn commuters might be more interested in the company's bespoke service, which creates garden offices to a customer's exact wishes, with all stages of the project undertaken and co-ordinated in-house.

Garden offices for lawn commuters [Springwise]

we make money not art: Scientists at the CSIRO's Textile and Fibre Technology division in Australia have woven electronic sensors into a T-shirt (the WIS - the Wearable Instrument Shirt) so that it can be played liked a real guitar.

Movements by the wearer's arms are mapped and beamed by radio to a computer which interprets them and turns them into musical notes.

"The left arm chooses a note and the right arm plays it," said Richard Helmer, at CSIRO. The arrangement can be reversed for left-handed musicians. "You can play with yours hands above your head," added Dr Helmer. "You can turn around and jump. Whatever you like."

Wearable Instrument Shirt [we make money not art]

BornRich: In the past, we have told you about stylish waterproof TV sets for your bathroom, to make your bathroom more luxurious and to give all those couch-potatoes, a reason to leave their idiot-boxes for a refreshing shower. But, I do think, we have given you very less options for a bathtub combo that includes a built-in TV, if you want it that way! So, going with one, The Luxor hydro massage bathtub that is though not-at-all as alluring as the one from CalSpas with a 42″ auto-rising plasma TV. But, it features a 14 LCD screen with video input, adjustable air & water massage jets at the bottom with underwater lighting at the base and built in shampoo and body wash dispensers.

Luxor Hydro Massage Bathtub With Built-In TV [BornRich]

Influx Insights: Influx has written in the past about variable pricing models and how these might one day become a key component of business, we have now found an interesting example in a new music site called Amie Street.

This independent music site uses demand-driven pricing; where the community dictates the pricing of the tracks. All tracks start out at zero and can rise to 98 cents depending on sales.

The site encourages community members of recommend and find music and gives back 70% of the proceeds to artists after the first $5 in sales.

Amie Street have some smart technology that prevents artificial inflation, but openly encourage musicians to mobilize their fan bases to use the site and buy the tracks.

Demand driven pricing models [Influx Insights]

TrendCentral: Taking heated comment section feuds (when readers pick fights with bloggers and other readers in a blog’s comment section) even further, bloggers and podcasters now have the chance to engage in direct discourse with their devoted readers and/or listeners—this time, via live listener call-in segments. Often described as “podcasting 2.0," a site called BlogTalkRadio enables registered users to schedule show times and receive callers through an assigned phone number, foregoing the more traditional broadcasting routes that required radio stations and producers.

Site lets bloggers and podcasters host call-in shows [TrendCentral]

Springwise: New at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol: weddings to go. Whether a couple met on a flight to Bangkok or just wants to be able to go straight from ceremony to runway for their honeymoon, Schiphol offers travellers the opportunity to get married at the airport.

Brides and grooms to be can pick from several packages, from the all-out 'Ticket to Paradise': get hitched and leave for a tropical destination together with your wedding guests; to 'Say Yes & Go', the budget alternative for couples who want a quick and simple ceremony before flying off together.

As a travel hub, Schiphol gets the TRANSUMER trend that trendwatching.com wrote about earlier this week. Increasing numbers of consumers are mirroring travel behavior in daily life, valuing transient experiences over fixed possessions.

Airport weddings [Springwise]

Iconoculture: Forget pushy sales clerks or waiting for online orders. Instead, opt for robotic arms. Motorola is rolling out Instantmoto vending machines that will sell cellphones and other celly stuff at malls and airports across the country.

Like Staples' vending machine effort, Motorola's robot retail stores are to be placed in high-traffic areas. Motorola's hoping their anytime convenience will draw travelers and other off-hours shoppers.

Finding cellphone chargers and replacing must-have celly accessories on the road? Brutal. When it comes to telecom needs, travelers crave access and convenience – not mad scrambles to closed electronics stores.

For consumers who know what they want, salespeople just get in the way. No-lag, 24-7 access is key for consumers who want to buy, not shop.

Giant vending machine spits out cellies! [Iconoculture]

Cool Hunting: If you haven’t heard about the wonders of Pinkberry, it's neither a new fragrance nor a nasty skin condition but rather a frozen yogurt phenomena that's already taken over LA and recently opened their first NYC location in Koreatown. Available in only two flavors, plain and green tea (although I've heard no one ever gets the green tea), it’s the many toppings—fresh fruit, crunchy sugary cereal, cookie crumbs, nuts, etc.—that elevate the frozen treat into a personalized dessert. Especially delicious after a salty, garlic-y Korean meal, the yogurt is tangy like real yogurt and not overly sweet like normal frozen yogurt. The space is modernly decorated with Philippe Starck's crystal-clear Charles Ghost stools and Victoria Ghost chairs and wavy, repro pendant lights by Poul Christiansen. Be on the lookout for new stores in Chelsea, the Upper East Side and Soho.

Pinkberry [Cool Hunting]

Strange New Products: Betty Beauty is the name of a hair coloring made especially for pubic hair.

Apparently many hair salons have made the practice of providing women with a brown bag of hair coloring to match the coloring they just got put on their heads. A woman named Nancy Jarecki decided why not sell a product like this over-the-counter.

And so, Betty Beauty was born.

Coloring comes in five different colors, brown, black, blonde, auburn, and hot pink. What? No red?

It's supposed to be the safe alternative to using head-hair coloring, and can be used by men also.

Pubic Hair Coloring [Strange New Products]