We all have that hairy-toed hobbit inside of us whose always wanted to live in the Shire.  The home manufacturer Japan Dome House Co., Ltd. is all about Middle Earth and they want to make those halfling fantasies come true.  These igloo-shaped structures are built from snap-together wall sections made of 100% Styrofoam.  No termites, no rust, no toxic fumes in the event of a fire.

Hobbits from all around Middle Earth will come flocking to your door step to relax in your dome bathhouse as they puff on their pipe-weed and run up your phone bill with that Hobbit phone of yours.  Dome House kits start at around $30,000 which excludes the cost of delivery, assembly and interior construction. I wonder if Peter Jackson will give up his Hollywood home in favor of his very own Bilbo Baggins bachelor pad.

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Hyun Jin Yoon and Eun Hak Lee have designed this jagged edged wooden phone dubbed the Maple Phone. It’s made up of African Blackwood and sports some of the latest features you’d find in any cellphone to date. An MP3 player, digital camera and the basic functions like calling and SMS are all incorporated into this wooden phone that’ll have every hippy bitching about the preservation of woodlands in America.

Though it doesn’t display your mood like the FuChat, this unique handset has a display that is placed at the back, revealing itself as you slide the handset. It isn’t until you touch the wood (ha, touch the wood!), that the phone shows it’s true form and screen display. No word on a release date or if the phone will be as cheap as the HOP1800, but you can bet Frodo will be showing this phone to all his hobbit buddies in the shire.

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Excuse the lack of gadgetryness in this post, but holy shit. We haven’t been this excited since MacWorld. It seems that Peter Jackson and New Line have sorted out their disputes, and have settled on a contract that would put Jackson behind the camera for two films based on Tolkein’s The Hobbit.

How awesome is that? We were afraid they would hire someone bad for the direction, like that dude from Happy Days or that guy who did the Die Hard movies. Thank you New Line. — Andrew Dobrow

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