7. Flashing Bling-Bling and More than a Pocketful

Though I thought this product was kind of goofy when I received the press release, the guys at the Cellular Jewelry stand were so nice I figured I'd help pass the word.

Cellular Jewelry is pitched as an alerting device because it flashes when a signal is received within 1-3 feet of a cellular phone. The current design works with GSM, TDMA & iDEN phones (Cingular / AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, Nextel among others), but the company says a CDMA version (Sprint & Verizon) is under development and will be released "in the near future".

Pens, watches and assorted bracelet styles are available and they'll even do custom logo watches. The bracelets are definitely styled for the teen / college crowd, but I could see where the pen could come in handy. If nothing else, they make interesting conversation pieces, but at $10 for the pen and about $20 for the bracelets, may be priced somewhat high for an impulse buy.

Finally, another quirky product, but perhaps with less chance for success than flashing jewelry is CellStar's PocketSurfer. The self-described pocket-sized web viewer has a 640 X 240 pixel (VGA) wide color screen, but at about 6 inches long, needs a pretty big pocket.

It also requires either cabled or Bluetooth access to a data-capable cell phone and can handle Java and Flash-enabled websites, but no audio or video multimedia formats.

The product's website FAQ says most any phone will provide a satisfying experience, but that's probably due to the compression provided by the $10 / month "ISP" that you must subscribe to in order to use the $200 device.

Although I find the screen size compelling, I hope CellStar hasn't stocked a lot of inventory.