Appliances Archives - Page 5 of 12

Sony's $2000 Home Battery

One of the best things about living where I live now is the fact that we’ve got underground power lines. All around us, power might be going out, but our little subdivision is cozy and warm pretty much all of the time. However, because we have underground lines, when we lose power, we’re among the last to get it back because if our lights go out, there’s a blown transformer or five that need to be replaced.

A few years ago, the power went out in the middle of winter thanks to an epic ice storm (six inches of straight ice; it was awful). The lights went off and stayed off for almost a week! In the middle of winter, that’s pretty miserable. Well, fortunately, for the low low price of $2000, Sony is introducing a product that will provide all the electricity you could possibly want to get you through any storm season.

It’s called the Sony Home Energy Server, and basically it’s a gigantic lithium-ion battery pack. It’s a pretty heavy device, weighing in at about 26 pounds, but after a six-hour charge cycle, you’ve got enough juice to charge a smartphone 30 times or run a 40-inch television for 2.5 hours! In spite of its weight, it’s only 14 inches tall, so it’s almost the perfect portable (and it’s way better than older battery solutions).

Of course, if you want this product, you’re going to have to wait. Unless you’re Japanese, in which case you should be able to get your hands on it shortly. For everyone else, we’ll just be sitting around, waiting for the respite from disasters to come.

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Fun Friday Video: Don't Microwave That!

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

There are a lot of things you’re not supposed to microwave. Tinfoil, CDs, bowls with metal filigree, you name it… if it’s metal, don’t put it in the microwave! That said, there are a lot of unusual things that should be microwave safe that aren’t. For example, the most shocking thing I saw on Buzzfeed’s list of 16 things you should never microwave was a harmless, innocent piece of fruit. Allow someone else to demonstrate:

That’s right, apparently if you nuke grapes in a glass, you end up with plasma-like bursts of energy! Who knew!? Not me, that’s for sure. You’d think that something like a grape would be totally harmless and safe to nuke, but I guess not. There’s no telling why it had such an electric response, but I’m just glad I found this out before I decided to thaw grapes in the microwave or something else equally dangerous.

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A Travel Sewing Kit That's Bigger On The Inside

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

It’s amazing the sorts of things you can find on the internet. For example, take a look at this handicraft Craftzine found on the online forum Craftster. If you can’t tell what it is at first glance, you must not be a Doctor Who fan. That’s a TARDIS Travel Sewing kit, complete with Mini-Doctor, Mini-Rose Tyler, and two Mini-enemies all on the heads of pins.

How awesome is that? Not only does it look great on the outside, it also combined a whole lot of elements needed in a sewing kit into a very small space. I’m especially partial to the pincushion walls and the central post for support/spool holding. When you’re traveling, the last thing you need is to have to untangle all your thread. Once you pop the top off, the sides come down from the base on hinges. What more could you possibly want from your travel sewing kit?

Much like the Tardis, it’s much bigger on the inside.

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This Table Lamp Is The Bomb

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

It’s pretty common for home furnishings to look pretty. Even in the most spartan household, there’s a need to beautify the nest and make things look as good as they possibly can. However, there’s the lamp as art and the lamp as discussion-starter, and the two rarely ever meet. However, the Nuke Lamp is a gorgeous example of how art can intersect with interesting without losing its edge.

The Nuke Lamp is the brainchild of Veneridesign Studio, and it’s modeled after, you guessed it, an A-bomb explosion. It was printed in 3-D and is composed of a realistic-looking translucent material to give it extra texture and a more realistic look. It’s pretty impressive, no? Unfortunately, it’s also $1500 if you’d like to purchase one. Even if it does use real fluid dynamic simulation to properly project how a real mushroom cloud would look and renders it accurately, that’s a whole lot of lamp.

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Wave Goodbye To Unlimited Data

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

All good things must come to an end. In the case of Verizon Wireless, the good thing was unlimited data plans. The end was today. Today, Thursday, was the last day for unlimited data on Verizon; like AT&T and everyone else, Verizon has now gone to a tiered data access plan designed to charge heavy data users for their crimes against the network. Customers with existing data plans won’t be affected by the change, but new customers (and I assume renewing customers) will find themselves paying $30, $50, or $80 per month, depending on how much data they want to eat.

Is anyone surprised by this move? I’ve been expecting it for some time now, personally. Given the meteoric rise in data usage, and the incredible adoption of smartphones among, well, everyone these days, those data usage rates have to have spiked and the best way to keep people from using all the bandwidth is to make it more expensive (versus, say, upgrading your network to handle an increasing data load every few months).

This leaves Sprint/Nextel as the only surviving phone company with an unlimited data usage plan.

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Wordless Wednesday: MST3K Bed

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

Via Doorman Ideas

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LightDims Black Out Those Pesky LEDs

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

It’s a real first-world problem, but it’s one I can empathize with. When you’ve got the lights off and you’re sitting on the couch, trying to enjoy a movie on your big-screen high-definition television, even the slightest bit of light can be a distraction. And by “the slightest bit of light,” I mean those super-bright LED lights that electronics manufacturers stick inside power buttons and whatnot.

Yes, it’s great to have a button that shows the TV is on, but generally I can figure that out without help. Plus, there are digital clocks that might need covering, LED lights on other devices that may or may not be in use, and a host of other things that might bother the casual viewer. For some people, who have had eye surgery or cataracts, those LED lights can be downright painful. That’s why some mad genius invented LightDims. Basically, they’re stickers that fit over LEDs and turn the brightness down to tolerable levels, without blacking them out completely.

I just wonder how many LightDims it would take to completely black out annoying LED status lights that are completely unnecessary, like those on the back of a computer tower.

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Incandescent Bulbs On The Way Out

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

The 100-watt incandescent bulb is soon to be a thing of the past. Starting on January 1, 2012, a new federal law goes into effect that will effectively eliminate the 100-watt bulb we all know and love. The design, which is basically the same from when it was first designed by Edison, produces more heat than light and thus, the government has decided it is wasteful and that the traditional measure of lightbulb effectiveness isn’t exactly right. Thus, the 100-watt bulb will be a thing of the past, to be replaced by an entirely new type of bulb with a new label.

Watt bulbs, which measured light by electricity used, didn’t accurately reflect how lights actually brighten. Out with the watt, in with the lumen, which is a measure of actual light strength rather than electricity used. A traditional 100-watt bulb yields about 1600 lumens. The new bulbs, which will probably be CFLs, LEDs, or mercury-free halogen incandescent bulbs depending on the price, will provide the same amount of light and the same yellowish tint of light we’re all used to, but at a slightly higher starting price.

That higher starting price will make up for itself in the form of decreased electricity use. That 100-watt bulb yielding 1600 lumens will actually consume only about 72 watts of power at maximum, with CFLs and LEDs consuming far less than their traditional peers.

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Cisco Closes Down Flip, Two Years After Buying Them

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

In 2007, the simple, easy-to-use Flip camcorder was launched and it quickly rose to the very top of the camcorder market. People loved them; they were frequent give-aways online, the company had great press, and in many ways, Flip was riding the crest of the YouTube generation. In two years, the company sold two million cameras, and that generated enough attention to catch the eye of Silicon Valley elder statesman Cisco.

Cisco was tired of being in the office and wanted to be in your living room, and what better way to do that than to acquire the red-hot Flip? Well, $590 million later, the Flip founders are incredibly rich and Cisco is the leader of the camcorder market. Then, the smartphone revolution happened. Not only were they getting smarter, they were more capable than the Flip. Why carry around multiple things when you can carry one thing to take pictures, text, make phone calls, use GPS, take videos, post videos online, play games, and do pretty much everything imaginable?

Well, the smartphone market growth has crippled Flip, and Cisco is left with egg on their faces and debt on their books. Faced with shrinking sales and reduced profits, Cisco is shuttering its consumer electronics divisions, including the noble Flip. What a difference a few years can make, huh?

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Honoring The Bunsen Burner

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

Happy 200th birthday, Robert Bunsen! If you know the name of Bunsen, it’s because of the Bunsen burner. The Bunsen burner is a gas-powered burner that has become the de facto standard for all scientific experiments due to its simple design, ease of use, and the fact that, err, Dr. Bunsen never patented the burner he first started using way back in 1855 at Heidelberg University in Germany.

Still, Bunsen’s monetary loss is the world’s scientific gain. If you’ve ever been to science class, you’ve seen the Bunsen burner in action. There’s a reason it has been in use for over 150 years, and that’s because it works. When you want to heat something up and you don’t want a lot of fuss, the Bunsen burner is the tool for you. Just try to do anything scientific without it, I dare you!

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