Appliances Archives - Page 10 of 12

Frighteningly Expensive Lampshade

Since you read Shaktronics, I know you are a discerning consumer with great taste and money to burn. That’s why I know you’ll be absolutely batty for this art masterpiece depicting "The Fall of the Damned." This visibility-enhancing fixture, better known as a lampshade to the plebians, is made of high quality, uh, nylon, and will only cost $45,000, so I can’t see any situation in which one can’t have several in every room.

A dramatic, pendant lampshade, shaped into a classic image of guilt and morality. From a distance, The Fall of the Damned appears to be an organic and intricately textured ornament. Upon closer inspection it is revealed as a mass of naked bodies, reminiscent of Dante and Rubens, fused together in agonizing beauty.

The amazingly complex shape of this limited edition lampshade was made possible via the help of Materialise’s MGX technology. Using innovative 3D printing, digitally created designs are ‘printed’ with a laser, adding layer upon layer until an intricately detailed piece is formed.

Limited Edition of 40.

A doff of the chapeau to Better Living Through Design. Now if you’ll excuse me, Muffy, Biff, and I are late for our squash game at the country club. Ta-ta!

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Two Great Tastes

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

Convergence is all the rage. Refridgerator/CD player? Not a problem! TV/VCR/DVD player all together? Been there done that? Beer keg cooler and arcade video game cabinet? Of course!

Yet another thing to add to my list of things I’ll buy when I hit the lottery that I don’t really need, the Gamerator is chock full of some of the best arcade games of all time, including but not limited to: Galaga, Bubble Bobble, Street Fighter II, Spy Hunter, Pong, SmashTV, and the clincher, Tecmo Bowl! Finally, my love of beer and my love of 80-yard runs from Tecmo Bo Jackson are combined!

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Trick Or Treat For Brains

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

Tis the season for all sorts of creepy crawly products for
decorating the home and office, so when I saw this awesome zombie-themed
outdoor light from Nerd Approved over at Curbly, I knew I’d have to write about
it. This 16” tall resin creep juts his
lantern-clutching fist high over head as he makes his triumphant escape from
his grave, which just so happens to be your front yard.

Not only is it an awesome Halloween decoration, it is also
solar powered, so it’s both green in color and green in terms of being
environmentally friendly! He may be a
brain-hungry corpse straight out of “Night of the Living Dead,” but he still
cares about the environment!

Buy this awesome Halloween decoration (though I’d probably
have it up at my house all year long, since you can put a Santa hat on him and
make him a Christmas spirit) here!

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Space-Age Gutter Cleaning Technology

by Ron Hogan 1 Comment

Weather is strange this year. I want to write about stuff that should be
useful for fall (because I’m finding a lot of stuff that would be useful for
fall), but I look outside and it is 85 degrees and sunny, the trees are green,
grass is growing, birds are really confused, and it feels more like summer than
fall. A glance at the television weather
report shows that it is going to remain sunny and warm until this weekend,
maybe longer.

Rest assured, fall will come. Everything will recede, the leaves will fall
from the trees, and I guarantee you it is going to fell like all those leaves
have fallen into your gutter. Then you’ll
have to climb up a ladder, sit on the roof, and scoop out nasty brown gunk for
a whole Saturday when you should be watching college football and grilling out
burgers.

That’s why you need to make the investment and buy yourself
a Looj, from IRobot Corporation. What is
a Looj? Why, it’s a gutter-cleaning
appliance, kind of like a more disgusting version of a Roomba.

From PC World:

The
$99, 2.25-inch high Looj drives under gutter straps propelled by a three-stage
auger that sweeps out dirt, leaves and debris.

Users control the Looj from the ground, though they need to
climb up and down a ladder at least four times — to place and remove it.

Hey, even if the Looj only works for one year, it’s worth it
not to have to climb up onto the house, risk falling off, and spend a whole day
cleaning my gutters by hand. Not to
mention cleaning out the gutters in the garage, too.

Image: UK Home Ideas

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Cool Breeze And A Cool Fan

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

This summer, we went through an awful heat wave in the United States. I don’t know if my yard will ever recover, but temperatures are finally
down to the high 80’s or lower 90’s (at least in my homeland of Kentucky),
rather than triple digits. Of course, it
is nearly October, but hey, better late than never, right?

I work in a place where we have little or no control over
when the air conditioning comes on and when the heat is turned on. Despite the outside temperature, the HVAC is
controlled via remote from elsewhere, so when they decide it is fall, the heat’s
going to come on, and I need to be ready for it.

My cubicle is incredibly boring, though, and a plain fan won’t
help matters. However, a plane fan will. Check out this USB airplane fan from
Kikkerland. I don’t see a sale price
yet, but I hope to see one soon. This is
definitely a cool little item (pardon the pun!)

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How To Clean Everything: The Keyboard Edition

by Ron Hogan 1 Comment

You know, I spend a lot of time at my computer. I write articles here, I blog, I maintain the
official Flektor development blog, I do movie reviews and funny articles, I play games, I sit
here at my desk and watch movies on my DVD drive and my 19-inch monitor. Heck, I even work in front of a computer all day BEFORE I come home!

It goes without saying that I tend to eat here, too. I know I’m not alone in this, since most
people’s computers are hubs of activity. That means I get stuff in my keyboard
keys. I can’t help where potato chip
crumbles go, after all.

That’s why the CaseBuy USB vacuum cleaner might just be the
thing. It’s a miniature, lightweight
vacuum that runs off your computer’s USB power supply. It has a brush attachment for cleaning around
your monitor and your vents and whatnot, and it has a squeezable flexible tube
designed to get between and under those pesky keyboard keys.

I couldn’t find the CaseBuy one specifically for sale, but
judging by the pictures the same item is offered here by Amazon. Or if you want to explore other options, just search for USB vacuum. Happy cleaning!

Photo: Everything USB

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Home Invaders

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

We all know about the traditional welcome mat. We also all know about the various funny mats
that people sometimes put out, like the unwelcome mat. But what if you want to show the world you’re
of the geek persuasion?

Try this ultra-cool Space Invaders-themed Back Off LED Door
Mat. It runs off 4 AAA batteries and is
animated, as you can see. Motion
activated to scare off any solicitors with the ominous threat of pixilated warfare,
the glowing green dancing invaders represent the greatest in Atari-cool
throwback house wares.

They might be alien monsters, but they’re on your side. You don’t have to fire upwards through your
own shield rock to stop them, and your laundry money will remain safe from
spending. Not to mention it’ll probably
drive your cat nuts (and who wouldn’t get hours of enjoyment from that?).

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Secret Bread-Based Messages

by Ron Hogan 2 Comments

First we had the invisible toaster. That was all well and good, but it was only a
potential design. It wasn’t real. But now we have the message-leaving toaster,
and it’s entirely too real.

I don’t know who would buy such a thing, and I don’t know
why they would buy it, but I do know that one of these days a particularly
nasty (in content, not in flavor) piece of message toast will end up on
Passive-Aggressive Notes. I, for one,
can’t wait.

To my darling wife,

You must be insane. You bought a toaster that burns messages into bread. An expensive toaster that burns messages into
bread.

This is not World War II. We are not going to feed secret messages to the French Resistance. This toast will not self-destruct in 5
seconds. This is not a note. This is breakfast; this will not be read to
you.

While it may be a commendable exercise to wish me a good
morning in scorched wheat, at 6:30 in the morning and before my first cup of
coffee, all your sweet words look like scribbles to be covered with syrup or
jelly.

Yours in toast,

Your Husband

Photo Credit: Yanko
Design

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Great Kitchen Appliance Find

by Kathylynn Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I could never have enough storage space in
my kitchen. I like to cook so I have lots of big and bulky pots and
pans. I found what I believe to be a smart and very useful product at Luxury Housing Trends: the West Bend Slow Cooker & Griddle In One.

I wish appliance companies would come out with more products like this one for our storage solutions.

Two uses but only space needed for one product.

Great idea!

The kitchen appliance is $70 from West Bend.

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Cool Tunes and Cold Drinks

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

I spent 5 years in college, and as such, I spent a lot of
years dragging stuff up and down from my home base to my college, 3 hours to
the south. I loaded up my TV, video game
system, computer, refrigerator, stereo system, and the other necessities of
life into a van, and drove down to college. It was a full load of junk, too, but all if it was necessary for having
a good standard of living.

If I could’ve combined this stuff, I would have, believe
me. Trudging up several flights of
stairs with tons of gear is a major pain. That’s why seemingly weird combinations, like the Cooltone
mini-fridge/stereo system looks like it should be a fit anywhere where space is
at a premium.

As Engadget says, “On the fridge side of things, it’ll hold
twenty 400ml cans and it boasts a so-called Quick Cool feature that’ll get
things ‘cooling within seconds.’ On the
less practical part of the equation, the fridge boasts a top-loading CD player,
an AM/FM radio, some built-in speakers and, of course, a line-in port to
accommodate your iPod or other MP3 player (no iPod dock though).”

Convergence is a big deal these days. Even in the 7 years since I graduated from
high school, devices are getting smaller and more powerful, and consumer goods
are merging. The PS3 is also a Blu-Ray
player. Plasma TVs double as computer
monitors. Laptops are as powerful as
desktops. The iPod serves as a music
player and a movie storage device. It
seems only natural to me that my fridge becomes a stereo system as well.

Why not?

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