Last Gadget Standing Nominee: dB Logic headphones

Price: $29

Worried that listening to loud music for too long could damage your hearing? You could stop listening to loud music for long periods. Or you could buy dB Logic’s headphones. They use a technology called SPL2 which the company says “intelligently modifies the sound wave to closely match the profile of the original sound wave, while keeping the overall volume level at a level that can help avoid hearing loss.” They’ll be available this month.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Card 2.0

Price: TBD

What if that magnetic stripe on your credit card could get a lot smarter?  That’s the idea behind Dynamics’ Card 2.0, a paper-thin, flexible computer platform that can be utilized in a variety of applications such as next-generation payment cards.  Card 2.0 features a magnetic strip that can be reporogrammed on the fly; it can be read by any existing magnetic stripe reader, so merchants don’t need to bring in new hardware or learn a new process.

According to the company one of the greatest benefits is Dynamics’ anti-skimming device, called the Dynamic Credit Card.  It helps to protect consumers and merchants against this threat by automatically writing a new, unique dynamic security code onto its magnetic stripe for every in-store purchase. (Grabbing your credit card number from a receipt and abusing it is no longer an option for bad guys.)  The card can even have a display that shows a new security code for every online purchase.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: LensPen SideKick

Price: $19.95

LensPen makes carbon-point pens that clean camera lenses and other sensitive surfaces without liquids or cloths. SideKick, which will be available in January, is a pen designed especially to remove fingerprints and other nastiness from the iPad and other touch-screen devices. I haven’t seen or used it, but I one did permanent damage to a netbook screen by over-application of cleaning fluid–so I like the idea of tidying up screens without liquids, if it gets the job done…

Last Gadget Standing Nominees: Plantronics Savor M1100 and Voyager Pro+ headsets

Price: $99.99 each

If you’ve got a hundred bucks to spend on a Bluetooth headset, Plantronics offers two possibilities–with lots of differences and some features in common. The Savor (on the left above) is small, inconspicuous, and straightforward (and way less flashy than its Jawbone competitors–Plantronics representatives have told me they think people like headsets that match the aesthetic of their phones). It aims to improve sound quality by packing three microphones, and can be worn without an earloop (it comes with one, but it’s optional).

On the other hand, the Voyager Pro+–an update to an earlier model the Voyager Pro–is unapologetically big and obvious. (It may pack modern technology, but it looks like a spiritual descendant of the earpieces that mobile-phone users wore when headsets first got popular.) It uses two microphones rather than three, but you can adjust the long boom so it’s in close proximity to your mouth.

Both models offer AD2P, which lets phones route music, GPS instructions, and other audio to them as well as phone calls. They work with Plantronics’ Vocalyst text-to-speech service, which can read texts and e-mails; they speak information such as the battery’s status into your ear; and support multipoint technology that lets them work with two phones.

The Savor M1100 and Voyager Pro+ are available now.

Attention, hardware makers! We’ve extended the deadline to nominate products for Last Gadget Standing, our yearly competition to find the single coolest gizmo on display at the Consumer Electronics Show. Maybe it’s the tryptophan; maybe we’re feeling your holiday pressure. Either way, we’ve decided to give you a few more days to get your gadgets in ship shape and show the crowds your stuff.

On January 8th, at our Last Gadget Standing event at CES, we’ll have a surprise host who’s going to have you splitting your sides with laughter (and he doesn’t even need an app for that).

So if you’ve been sitting on the fence, this would be the chance to write a few words about your product and why it deserves to be Last Gadget Standing. It’s sort of our very own Black Friday! Register by December 7th (the Day of Infamy by the way). May the best gadget win.

To apply, go here.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: RedMere-enabled Ultra Thin High Speed HDMI Cables

Price: $20-$85

RedMere-enabled Ultra Thin High Speed HDMI Cables make smartphones, cameras, camcorders, laptops and other portable devices that supports HDMI output even more portable. Unlike traditional HDMI cables–which are thick, heavy and unwieldy–a cable powered by RedMere’s unique smart cable technology is thin and light, long and portable, just like the sleek and slim portable devices they’re designed to connect. Not only do these cables look and feel really good, but they’re also tiny enough to fit in your pocket or your camera case. And RedMere’s self-powered 10.2Gbps booster module, which fits inside the HDMI cable connector, allows the cables to be extremely long, so you can view HD content comfortable viewing distance of your couch.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Looxcie

Price: $199

When I was a kid, I freaked out my sister by theorizing that human beings would someday be able to use miniature cameras to record their entire lives for later playback. I believe that the cameras I envisioned would be implanted in the user’s forehead–but except for that tiny detail, Looxcie (great name!)  is the invention I had in mind.

Looxcie looks like a rather oversized Bluetooth headset–and can, in fact, work as one. But it’s also a video camera that’s continuously buffering thirty seconds’ worth of footage. What you see, it sees–and if you push a button, it’ll save the last half-minute and keep on recording. You can transfer the video it captures to your Android phone for saving and sharing; an iPhone app is on its way.

I still like the idea–and I bet it would still freak out my sis.

CNN says that this year is all about tablets, E-readers, connected TVs, smartphones, and oh yeah, did we mention 3D TVs?  We were tickled to see that they cited Boxee as last year’s Last Gadget Standing winner.  Can Google TV beat Boxee this year?  Your thoughts please…

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Jade Live Broadcaster

Price: $219

As the world turns to video it’s easy to be left behind, especially if you’re on a limited budget. MCN Technologies’ Jade Live Broadcaster levels the video playing field by offering a network camera for live video broadcasting over the Internet. It’s an HD camera with H264/AAC compression and an 802.11b/g wireless interface.  The live content is distributed as a set of streams with different resolutions simultaneously (1280-by-720, 640-by-480, 320-by-240 and 160-by-120) with bit rates ranging from  2Mbps to 80Kbps, so viewers with smartphones connected to mobile broadband can view low bit rate streams while ones with HD players connected to high speed networks at home can watch high-quality video. Who knows, maybe we’ll test it out and start our own Last Gadget Broadcast station.

The Live Broadcaster is due to go on sale on January 16th, 2011.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: ViewSonic 3D Multimedia Digital Photo Frame

List price: $179.99

Taking photo frames to the next level, ViewSonic’s 8” 3DPF8 3D Multimedia Digital Photo Frame makes it easy to share life’s memories in full 3D.  Viewsonic, says it flawlessly displays 3D photos and videos WITH NO GLASSES NEEDED, it also automatically converts standard 2D photos and videos to 3D. ( Those of us who’ve seen some of these 2D to 3D conversions tend to be a skeptical about the 3D experience but at least ViewSonic is trying something new.)  In addition to customized slideshows with music, this multifaceted 800-by-600 resolution device offers all the functionality of a compact digital display, including 128MB of internal memory, SD/SDHC/MMC and USB support, and calendar, clock and alarm features. Additionally, a rechargeable built-in battery and hidden touch panel controls ensure this device is as intuitive as it is interactive.  Sounds great… let’s see how it looks.