Ah, Star Wars. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the film's release, with all its sarcastic Han Solo lines and nifty technology -- even a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. After all, Star Wars showed us droids, comlinks and movie/data discs a few decades before we got Roombas, wireless Bluetooth headsets, and DVDs stocked in Earth stores. (And that flying practice drone that shot Luke in the tuchis when he was learning how to use his lightsaber -- now that's a gadget that really fights back.)

If you're still into Star Wars, Lucasfilm is giving you a chance to really get into the movie. InformationWeek, among other sources, has details about this new feature added to the revamped StarWars.com site:

The redesigned site will include a variety of Web 2.0 features, including an online media remix platform from video editing startup Eyespot. Using Eyespot's tools, Star Wars fans will be able to mix their own video source material with over 250 scenes and sounds from the six Star Wars films.

Okay, that's pretty cool, even if you're not a huge fan of the movies: a huge pop-culture franchise is not going to sue your pants off if you want to tinker around with copyrighted material and make your own creation to share with the world. No word yet if you can download your mashup to your video iPod, but I'll be checking it out.

Memorial Day weekend is upon us, and with it, the traditional start of summer. After a chilly, rainy spring here in the Northeast and a (hopefully) sunny beach break on the horizon, I can't think of a more potentially useful tool right now than this combination bottle opener/keychain/iPod Shuffle case from Mophie. It's kind of everything you need right there to enjoy a refreshing bottled beverage and a playlist full of happy tunes on a nice summer day.

Wanna make your mobile phone go nuts? Sign up for Twitter and get a lot of friends.

Twitter, which got a big boost in popularity and an award at the SXSW conference earlier this year, is a service that lets you describe what you're doing at that very moment in 140 characters or less -- which can make for a lot of SMS haiku. After you sign up with Twitter, you can post your abbreviated thoughts through your page on the Twitter site, by texting the Twitter number on your mobile phone, or even by instant message; AIM, Jabber and Google Talk are currently supported.

And, because Twitter is a social service, you can collect "friends" and have all of their posts (called "tweets") show up on your page, phone, or message window so you always know what all your pals are up to. You can choose to make your Twitter messages public to the world, or private to just your friends. When I first heard about Twitter a few months ago, I was sort of dubious about wanting to read a lot of pointless posts on my phone.

Yes, Twitter can be completely frivolous ("I'm waiting in line at the store to buy carrots"), but after using it for a while, I can see it has a lot of potential.

Okay, I can understand a leopard-print case for the iPod, but a French maid's uniform for the Roomba? I guess our gadgets can entertain us on many levels...

The Roomba, for those who vaguely recall its debut about five years ago, is a disc-shaped robotic vacuum cleaner that scuttles across your floor snarfing up cat hair and Oreo crumbs all on its own. You just charge it up and turn it loose, and it sweeps the carpet for you while using dozens of built-in sensors to keep itself out of trouble (like falling down the stairs). A company named iRobot makes the Roomba, as well as the Scooba, a similar model that specializes in washing hardwood, tile and linoleum floors. You can even hack the Roomba.

The company's Web site says than more than two million Roombas have been sold worldwide, so it seems only natural that someone got the idea to dress up the little rolling robot. In fact, myRoomBud, one of the original Roomba wardrobe designers, was started by inventive and enterprising kids, who came up with all sorts of ideas. If you don't want to put it in a maid's uniform, there are plenty of other costumes: cow, tiger, ladybug or "Foo Foo the WereRabbit." The Roomba costumes sell for around $25 USD at RobotShop and Amazon as well as myRoomBud, and that's a lot cheaper than some of those fancy designer iPod cases that practically cost more than the iPod itself.

The whimsical nature of the Roomba-wear reminds me of why a lot of people love gadgets to begin with. They're usually small, you infuse them with your own personality and they keep you from getting bored. But unlike an iPod or mobile phone, the Roomba actually does housework. All it needs now is a pair of wireless speakers linked to the stereo system or computer music library so it can serenade you around the house when it gets done with its chores...