To be quite honest, there's been an awful lot of gadgetry lately tied to rings, and while it's a curious fascination, you won't find us griping over the latest ring-based device. Gail Knight's vibrating GPS hoops are nothing short of a traveler's dream come true, as these fanciful finger adornments work in conjunction with a neck-worn GPS controller to direct you to your destination via simple buzzing cues. The rings vibrate in a variety of manners to instruct the wearer which direction to go, which could certainly help an English tourist in Japan feel a lot more at home. Granted, even the inventor admits that the current design is entirely more suited for a lady, but we can envision quite a few macho gents putting their pride aside in order to refrain from being lost.

[Via NaviGadget]

For those of you enjoying the free-flowing high-occupancy vehicle lane on the Capitol Expressway (in your HOV-exempt hybrid, no less), stay sharp, as it looks like those oh-so-valuable stickers that reside on your ride appear as gold to thieves. Apparently, "two to three dozen" victims per month are surfacing in California, where the now-extinct stickers are presumably fetching a pretty penny on the underground markets. The labels -- which were handed out to some 85,000 hybrid owners in years past to give them the same speedy privileges are carpoolers -- are no longer being administered by the DMV, which means that those that were able to take advantage are now targets. Interestingly, hybrid vehicles that are up for sale in the area are fetching "nearly $4,000 more" than comparative models so long as they come with the coveted sticker pre-installed. Notably, the DMV claims that the "carpool stickers are treated chemically so they crumble apart if tampered with," but that wee tidbit isn't likely to slow down a desperate bandit.

[Via Fark]

We know how it is, out on the road with choices to make in regard to which hotel you stay in the for night, but booking a room in a joint that lacks high-speed internet of the free variety just isn't going to happen. These days, however, the gadget-packed traveler demands even more connectivity options, and apparently Marriott gets it. By the year's end, Marriott International plans to have 25-percent of JW Marriott, Marriott, and Renaissance guest rooms in the US and Canada hooked up with 32-inch LCD HDTVs that boast a nifty "digital connectivity panel" to encourage gadget integration. Guests will reportedly be able to plug in laptops, camcorders, digicams, video games, and iPods (we presume DAPs / PMPs in general) into the swank set, and the built-in PIP functions will allow the business savvy to check their corporate inbox while playing back a video clip in another window. Additionally, the firm plans on throwing in a bevy of new channels to delight couch-dwellers, and the rollout is slated to hit completion by 2009. So if you just so happen to be stopping in the San Francisco area and feel like checking this out, SF's Moscone Center has officially been dubbed the first to offer such niceties in 100-percent of its rooms.

[Via TGDaily]