Note: these are Hershey’s-Kiss- inspired CD/DVD stands—not actual Hershey’s Kisses —that are being used to prop up optical media. The latter might work, but the former will crack that coworker’s tooth who keeps stealing your desk candy. [ HiddenArtShop via NerdApproved ]

Are you looking for something “different” in your life? Watching Japanese girls apologize or say “I love you” turn you on? Simultaneously? Then you’re strange, but hey, there is something that caters just to your tastes.

I bet your iPod can’t play music at FIFTY-TWO X. That’s so many Xs, you guys. Plus, it doubles as a retractable cupholder. [ There, I Fixed It ]

I thought it was a sleek CD launcher, maybe a DIY weapon, but the reality of the Quackie CD Player concept isn’t too horrible either. You open up the “beak” to turn up the volume, close it to power down. Designed by Mac Funamizu , Quackie doesn’t really seem like it’d be practical once you’re over the five minutes of “Wee! It rolls around! Quack Quack! What’s that, Quackie? Ya wanna go louder?

San Francisco electro artist Moldover , like Beck before him, figured out a way to make physical music purchases superior to digital: Embrace the physical. In Moldover’s case, that meant cramming an actual working theremin into the CD case . Moldover really went all-out with this one. The CD case theremin features a headphone jack as well as a speaker, and the wiring on the theremin itself spells out the artist name, track names, and “album art,” such as it is. He even includes a tiny pocket-sized version of the theremin so you’re never without that odd organic screechy sound.

From 1979: A source “close to the matter” claims this document outlines a future Audio format that would utilize a tapeless design, and *snort* use lasers as some sort of record needle. Sounds like Bullshit to me. First of all, a laser is going to burn up whatever it touches, so, like, do you listen to it once and then throw it away? That sounds like a great idea if you’re one of those guys who made us buy 8 tracks and now want us to repurchase all our favorite songs on cassettes again.

Considering that we’re still waiting patiently for any company (we’re looking at you, Call/Recall ) to produce a commercially viable holographic storage solution, we’re required to tackle Millenniata’s newest assertion with a sprinkle of skepticism. The claim? It’s specially lubricated, fortified and homogenized Millennial Disk is said to last some 1,000 years, making it the world’s finest and most longevous archive solution. If it’s legitimate. We’re told that digital information is carved into layers of hard, “persistent” materials, and somehow, those carvings are able to stay fresh and readable for more years than you care to count. Still, we reckon the robot apocalypse will be in full effect by the time 3009 rolls around, so even if it only lives up to half of its claims, we’ll still be impressed.

Watch this purty Russian blonde heat up and blow a CD to create a giant bubble out of it. She blows my mind. OK, too many bad puns here, but a good alternative if you are short of zubbles . Some people are telling me this can’t be done with actual CDs, others say they can. I’ve seen a couple more videos in YouTube, but never tried it myself. Any experiences out there?

We hoped it wouldn’t come to this. In a moment of passion, a series of AutoCAD templates has converted various optical media into a (deadly?) swarm of flies. May God have mercy on us all. [ CNC Forum via MAKE ]

As far as AM/FM/CD/iPod/AUX combinations go, this artfully-misspelled Sonora Eklipse is pretty good-looking, with its 7.5-watt output, shiny black finish and glowy lights. But is it really worth its whopping $550 pricetag? It’s got an auxiliary jack for other audio inputs, a nice little OLED screen to display the time and track information, and of course comes with a nice enough remote control. But $550 seems like a sort of outrageous price for such pedestrian technology, fancy package or not. It’ll be available soon , if you’re a gazillionaire who likes shiny things.