The creators of DigiPets must be foaming at the mouth, waiting for the touchable hologram market to open up. Researchers at Tokyo University have come up with a technology that is a first and significant step away from the mouse and keyboard – touchable holograms. Once readily available, that means that you could create a digital pet that sits in your hand as you bat it around the table. But, digital pet ownership isn’t the only thing exciting about touchable holograms.

The technology could potentially replace many of the common day interfaces we interact with on a daily basis, appearing and disappearing as they are needed. Light switches, television remotes, books, and video game controllers, to name a few, could all be literally rendered obsolete if the touchable hologram technology goes mainstream.

Previously, if you tried to touch a hologram, your hand would go right through it, but this new technology adds the sensation of touch to holograms using ultra-sonic waves. Touchable holograms could prove useful in replacing a variety of every day interfaces, but one very practical use would be for light switches and other similar interfaces that are touched repeatedly by large numbers of people in office buildings, hospitals, etc. By providing a touchable hologram, instead of a physical switch, the spread of germs and thus, disease, is limited significantly.

At CM4, we love to see new and exciting technology offer the capability to go and do things that have never been done before. Whether touchable holograms are used for dressing up your new digital Chihuahua, controlling the next great video gaming system, or saving lives by limiting the spread of infectious germs, touchable holograms have the potential to change everything.

What do you think? Do you like the idea of touchable holograms, or are you more comfortable with a physical switch or device?

For those of you who have always been fans of Super Mario Bros. and Contra, you’ll be happy to know that the fine people over at NewGrounds have created a marriage made in heaven. The one problem many Contra fans have with Super Mario Bros. is that despite Mario’s infinite glory, he doesn’t carry a machine gun. And sure, killing fictitious enemies with fireballs and other mystical weapons (or merely stomping on their heads) is fun, but what if you could bring in your favorite Contra characters and weapons into the Super Mario Bros. world?

Now you can. Feast your eyes on the new crossover game that allows you to kill all things Super Mario Bros. while sporting a mullet and machine gun. This will provide hours of entertainment you could have only previously dreamed about. You’re welcome. Click here to play.

At CM4, we love combining amazing features, and the new Super Mario Crossover does just that, giving us all an outlet for cubicle game play, paired with a sweet sense of nostalgia.

Given the surge in Hipster iPhone apps (like Hipstamatic) that make you’re otherwise blase looking photos look distorted and vintage, it comes as no surprise that Holga, the original hipster camera, has released concepts for a new digital iteration of their perfectly vintage toy camera. Invented by designer Saikat Biswas, the Holga D, and its enthusiasts share the motto, “Don’t think, just shoot!”

Right off the bat, you’ll notice that the Holga D does not have a viewfinder. This is all part of the genius behind the impressively minimal styling of the Holga D. In the good old days of analog cameras, there was a delayed gratification whenever you took a photo. You clicked the shutter at your subject, and then had to wait to finish an entire roll before you could actually see your photo. Somehow, this made photos more special and memorable, and there’s a certain charm to the fact that the Holga D allows you to photograph all of your bearded friends without being able to see what you shot or how a photo turned out, immediately.

What’s astonishing is how few features the Holga D actually has. Unlike most modern day digital cameras, which come equipped with a bible of information and settings one must toil through in the user manual, the Holga D strips everything down to its most minimal functionality. Boasting a subtle confidence with a mere Last-Generation full frame or 1.5x crop sensor, the Holga D skips all of the flash and pizazz and goes straight to getting to the heart of unobstructed photography. By not adding micro-lenses to the sensor, the Holga D is able to provide the beautifully distorted images toy camera enthusiasts love so much. And little features, like the ability to switch the shutter release button to the opposite side for left-handed shooting, or the E-Ink Display on top, make the Holga D a classic point and shoot camera.

At CM4, we love the idea that more is not always better. What the Holga D camera shows is how sometimes the best option is to remove features to make something more streamlined and more fun to use. With its stripped down feature set, allowing for an even greater opportunity for each photo to be beautifully vignetted with inaccuracies, the Holga D brings a whole new level of minimalistic creativity to photography, again. Don’t think, just shoot!

Read a full write-up, and detailed concept review of the Holga D, here. What do you you think of the minimal features, and interesting photographs the Holga D might provide, should it go into production?

It’s not every day that you get to see a giant snake completely crush a bus while in motion. But, that’s just what you’ll see if you happen to have caught the bus above driving around Copenhagen. As part of an advertising campaign designed by Bates Y&R for the Copenhagen Zoo, the clever use of visual trickery in wrapping the bus gives it the appearance it has been abducted and is being slowly consumed by a giant snake. How would you like to have that thing pull up next to you at 7am, before you’ve had your morning coffee? Snakes on a plane was nothing compared to this.

We’re a big fan of creative ideas like this one, here at CM4. Although, a giant bus wrapped to look like our Catalyst cover for Wii Remote with MotionPlus probably wouldn’t be as terrifying as this giant killer snake, it would, no doubt, own at Mario Kart for Wii.

Here are some other clever uses of space and environment to make each advertisement more effective:

What are some of the most clever ads you have seen?

The only thing more terrifying than watching JAWS on the big screen is watching JAWS on the big screen, while sitting on a lake in an inner-tube, as divers circle you with shark fins and grab at your floating device. That’s the experience that the Alamo Drafthouse, with their rolling roadshow, brings you with The Ultimate JAWS Experience.

There really is no better way to see JAWS. If you’re a fan of the movie, like us, you might have seen it in theaters years ago, but most likely, you’re accustomed to the DVD version. What we realized when we ventured the dark waters of Lake Travis in Austin, TX, last night, though, was that the dialogue of the movie on the actual 35mm print of the film (yes, they showed a true 35mm print of JAWS, on a dual projector system with cigarette burn marks for the projector switch and everything!) was so much more crisp and pronounced than on the DVD. It was almost like watching the movie for the first time.

Combine the added technical experience of a crisper and more full audio track, to the fact that you’re sitting in a lake, while fake shark fins attack you during key action points of the movie, and you will have a decent idea of what an amazing movie going experience this really was for everyone who attended.

At CM4, we’re not just a premium gaming and electronic accessories company, but rather, we are a premium experience company. With every product we put into stores, we have taken painstaking steps to assure you that not only will you have a premium product, but that the CM4 product you purchase will add functionality, a level of quality and innovation, plus an enhancement in style that truly makes each CM4 product a premium experience. From the premium packaging, to the way the products feel when you, or those you choose to share your equipment with get your hands on our products, we are designing products that raise the bar for how you interact and experience the devices used to interact with your life.

The JAWS Ultimate Experience was a great reminder on how you can take something that is already great, and always make the experience better. Whether its taking an iconic movie like JAWS, and pairing it with divers dressed as sharks in the water, or taking great gaming and electronic products, and adding to their aesthetic by giving products a new level of sophistication, we are big fans of the premium experience. Which is what we are always striving for with every product we release.

If you ever have the opportunity, check out The Ultimate JAWS Experience and all of the other unique movie going experiences offered by the Alamo Drafthouse’s Rolling Roadshow. But, just remember, when beaches open this summer, you will be taken by Jaws. You’ll never go in the water again!

I’ve placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit…er…I mean, iPad. It’s finally a reality, one of the most popular phrases in pop culture, when it comes to 3-D holograms has got to be, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope,” from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Now, the people over at Aircord Labo have put that technology within the grasps of us all. Well known for having brilliant, outside the box, ideas, Aircord’s new N-3D application and device for the iPad continue to impress. Aircord’s N-3D device is equipped with a special screen and a projector adapted for the iPad. It makes it possible to post objects in 3D without the need of special glasses. The device creates this 3-D imagery using a pyramid out of glass with an iPad application that changes the images based on sound.

We always love seeing the technology in movies become a reality. Those Hollywood futurists know what they are talking about. Whether it is the Minority Report style screen and user interface, Star Wars style holograms and 3D technology on the iPad, or the flux capacitor jettisoning us through the timespace continuum…okay, well, maybe we haven’t gotten that far, yet. But, it is great to see such innovative ideas becoming a reality for the common consumer. Aircord Labo has a great library of interesting ideas that they’ve already made a reality for people, you can check them out on the Aircord Labo site, and watch the full N-3D demo, below.

N-3D DEMO from aircord on Vimeo.

Really, the only thing most Apple fanboys want is an iPad or iPhone 4, right now. But, why have one, when you can have twenty! The Welikesmall agency decided to make that concept a reality by programming and stringing together 20 iPod touch devices, all mounted in sequence. The custom program that runs the iPod Wall pulls photos and video from the iTunes libraries of it’s employees and then displays them randomly. A great idea, and very well executed, but it does give a little added incentive to get some of those questionable photos and videos off off your computer, unless you’re interested in the entire office knowing about that time you did that thing down in Mexico.

At CM4, we’re constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to incorporate the devices we use into our lives in new and creative ways. The iPod wall is a great example of how a little creativity and technical know-how can turn an already great device into a piece of art that can be enjoyed on an even greater level. With each of our products, we are trying to enhance your experience and compliment the products you use every day. That’s why we love what Welikesmall has done with the iPod Wall, and why we want one in our office…as soon as we get the interns to clear a few things off our computers.

You can see a timelapse of the making of the iPod Wall, below:

Did you know CM4 offers stylish premium cases and video product demos for the:

• Nintendo DSi ( video | buy )
• Nintendo DSi XL ( video | buy )
• Sony PSP go ( video | buy )
• Wii Remote with MotionPlus ( video | buy )

If the X-51A Waverider burn is any indicator, your cross country commute from Los Angeles to New York could be significantly faster in the not-so-distant future. Today, the X-51A Waverider successfully did a 200 second burn, making it the longest-ever supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight at Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound). The previous longest scramjet burn in a flight test was 12 seconds in a NASA X-43.

What does any of that mean for you? It means that we’re going to see some really fast planes, soon. So fast, a flight from Los Angeles to New York City would only take around 45-minutes. Not to mention, the ability to fly about the universe at Mach 5 speeds could open us up to a whole new level of space exploration. Martini lunch in Los Angeles, dinner in NYC, and then home to bed on the moon.

At CM4, we love to see people pushing the limits, whether it is with stylish design, innovative technology, or a mixture of the two. You can see the full news report video, here and watch a simulation video of the burn, below. That trip to Mars is just around the corner, and who knows, maybe someone will finally finish the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. Take THAT Han Solo!

Hovering over a styrofoam cup of steaming hot noodles, trying not to burn your tongue is a staple dinner routine for many students and aspiring entrepreneurs. But, when you’re busy trying to solve the mysteries of the spacetime continuum, or knee deep in research books, who really has time to make the perfect cup of noodles? Too bad you didn’t have these robots slaving away for you, at the time. Think of all the extra mental energy that could have gone into your Quantum Mechanics studies? Or the marketing campaign you might have created for your latest invention, the Pet Boulder. These robots could have changed everything.

And that’s what they’re doing at Fuamen, a noodle restaurant in Japan. Here, customers are able to enjoy a meal of ramen noodles that are completely prepared by automated robots. The robots even go so far as putting the noodles in a bowl and dressing up each dish with all of the necessary accoutrement. So, what are the benefits of a robot chef? Well, aside from the sheer novelty of the whole thing, there’s also the idea that each bowl of noodles will be prepared exactly the same way, every single time. Not to mention, in their downtime, these robots spin plates and fight with knives. A robot chef and an entertainer? Now, that I’d pay to see.

Due to the fact that the robots were so expensive to develop, Fuamen has yet to break into the black, but we admire their innovative approach to automation. While building a robot that cooks and does the dishes is not simple task, giving it some personality, so that it dances in the kitchen between sword fights, has turned a mechanical feat into a sought-after tourist attraction. In the video below, you’ll see diners taking pictures of the robots, while they enjoy their meal. The only question left is, will these robots blush when someone asks to kiss the cook?

Tired of your iPhone pictures looking like they were drawn with a crayon? Does every iPhone pic you snap come out blurry or grainy? Too often you find yourself without a “real” camera, and instead opt to capture the memories of your life with the iPhone’s built in excuse for one. After all, that’s what you have on you and any picture is better than no picture, right? Well, not really. But, there is hope for the dismal images you’ve been passing off as photography.

Lee Morris of Fstoppers.com decided to shoot a full fashion photography session with the iPhone 3GS, proving that it’s not the camera that is important, but rather the photographer’s creativity and lighting. You can see some of the images below (high-res images, here), and watch the video below to find out exactly how Lee did it.

At CM4, we’re big fans of letting ideas, creativity, and limitless boundaries guide us, rather than constraints, restrictions, and “old world thinking.” Whether it’s getting a bunch of furniture, a TV, and some Catalyst covered Wii Remotes on top of a downtown rooftop, or raising the bar for how 3rd party accessories are designed, CM4 believes in thinking outside of the box. Thanks to Lee, we’re also taking much better photos with our iPhones, as well.

All photography by Lee Morris of Fstoppers.