Snoring is like the common cold — they both prove that the world's scientists are clueless about what is important in life. Rather than building a better spaceship, how about just removing these banes from our lives? Francebed, the name of which is only half truthful as it is the moniker of a Japanese sleep furniture company, is stepping in where the Nobel Prize coveters fear to take their slide rules. It has developed a vibrating pillow that is intended to reduce a user's snoring. The pillow packs a snore detection sensor rigged up to an internal vibrating mechanism. When the sensor picks up snoring, the pillow vibrates, presumably to get you to alter your position. It includes a microphone jack so you can record your snoring sounds, a winning idea if ever there was one, to check how well the pillow functioned. I would have thought anybody within hearing range of you could do that. The pillow is slated for release in September with a price tag of 29,800 yen with more information available at www.francebed.co.jp/. Perhaps most importantly at that price it's also a comfortable foam pillow so you can get to sleep without too much of a struggle. After all, it can hardly help you cut your snoring if you never get to doze off in the first place. But then again . . .

The beauty game: It is no secret that males dominate the market for video games. Boys just have to have toys. Konami has an upcoming game for the Nintendo DS Lite aimed firmly at redressing the balance. Its Dream Skincare, due out on Oct. 18, is not so much a game, however, as a digital beauty adviser. Created by Chizu Saiki, who apparently is something of an expert, it is definitely not for the regular gaming crowd, if you will forgive the sexist overtones. It shuns the usual button game controls and instead relies on using a stylus. The game checks your physical and emotional health each day via a series of questions. You input your body temperature and weight each day, as well as a daily schedule. A record of your daily meals is also input, in return for which you get dietary advice and healthy recipes. You can also designate "special days," such as first dates, for which a special skin care regime will be created. The game also includes a face map that shows where you are prone to get pimples and wrinkles. Now while I am sure this will be terribly useful to members of at least one gender, I still wonder where the fun comes in. Those who think games should be good for you can find out more at www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20070614/konami.htm

On the clock: Brushing your teeth is a) good for you and b) something you need to get regular lectures on. I was once advised sagely to brush for at least three minutes a time if I aspired to proper dental hygiene. These days I usually manage that on the rare occasions when I am feeling unusually pious or a nagging pain has me in fear of the need to visit the dentist. Oral-B takes both a) and b) seriously with its new toothbrush, the Oral-B Triumph with SmartGuide. The twist with this is that it connects wirelessly to an LCD display that you can leave on the washstand. This informs you of how long you have been brushing, making it a relatively easy way to keep tabs on how good you are. Of course you could just check your watch but I guess one advantage of this gadget is that having taken the financial plunge to buy it, pangs of guilt will drive you to make use of it. Not to mention that the glaring eye of the display is going to be more difficult to avoid than your watch. Clock watchers can get more information at www.oralb.com/us/products/power/