Designer Joel Escalona has created Seven, an alarm clock that won a Volvo for Life Design Award. It’s mostly a regular (although rather bulky) alarm clock, with one exception - it will continue trying to wake you up until it sees you moving around.

The alarm clock will begin to play a selected MP3 tune when it’s time to wake up. If its motion sensor sees you lying still, it will continue to raise the volume of the music until you (and possibly a few neighbors) are awake.

Seven also shows the outside temperature and humidity on its display.

This concept is a great way to wake up the heavy sleepers among us. I know a friend or two who could definitely use one of these alarms. If only it wasn’t so huge.

We all know that Apple products aren’t the cheapest around, but according to a report by research firm Piper Jaffray that could change soon. The best part? The “coolness” factor doesn’t have to go.

In a report to clients, Piper Jaffray claimed that Apple saw the worst year-over-year growth rate in the history of the iPod. To change this, the firm thinks that Apple will have to change its strategy.

“In order to achieve this level of year-over-year iPod growth, we are expecting Apple to introduce cheaper, innovative iPods with Wi-Fi and multi-touch technology,” analyst Gene Munster wrote. “We believe that, despite a slowdown in growth in the MP3 market, Apple’s vision of the iPod line-up becoming a mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform will have two results. First, it will spur growth in the portable media player market, particularly from the replacement cycle. Second, if Apple is able to lower prices on Wi-Fi connected and possibly touch-screen iPods, it will be able to maintain or grow its leading market share position,” Munster concluded.

Apple has yet to respond on the matter, but considering the company’s close ties to Piper Jaffray, these predictions are probably not that far-fetched.

This bamboo-inspired speaker design (with pics) by Soohyuk Im has some great features: WiFi, wireless speakers, an LED screen, MP3 line in, remote desktop syncing, radio, and a CD player. Not only does it have more than the expected features, but it also sounds great due to the acoustics of cylindrical objects. The setup includes left/right wireless speakers, a control ring, and a base station that houses the subwoofer.

The base station can be setup to wirelessly sync with your computer. The Bamboo’s charge lasts for 12 hours.

We think this thing looks like an awesome speaker setup, and we really love the computer syncing feature. Too many times people need to use an iPod for the sound systems they use in their house, when in reality all modern sound systems should have features to sync with a person’s computer and make it as easy as possible to manage music.

Designer Bomi Kim has just come out with a new MP3 player referred to as the “Tactile MP3 player”. The player has no screen, and is controlled entirely using a braille-like system. The controls are raised bumps that you can use to perform all the regular interactions one would have with an MP3 player.

It looks pretty cool and it’s perfect as a small, portable, distraction-free mp3 player for use in the same situations when an iPod Shuffle might be useful.

Photo: http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2008/01/28/another-simple-mp3-player/