Appliances Archives - Page 8 of 12

The Original Multi-Tool Design

The multi-tool has a long and rich history. The oldest design on record is the Harp Tool, which was carried by English longshoremen way back in the 1800’s. Spyderco has rereleased the original Harp Tool design, with a little update for the modern day. It has a Phillips-head screwdriver, slotted-head screwdriver, punch/awl, saw, corkscrew (probably more useful at lunch, if you catch my drift), file, gimlet, and a mini two-head hammer.

While all that stuff is still useful to the modern manual laborer, except maybe the corkscrew, the design itself leaves something to be desired. The Swiss Army Knife design is the more common design these days, and with some way to lock the blades in place, would be more useful for the laborer, given the heft of the object makes a decent handle. It also lends itself a little better to geek-friendly updates.

What would you have in your dream multi-tool? I’d definitely need a screwdriver, USB drive, flashlight, mini-scissors, and possibly a box-cutter. The corkscrew would be great, but that’d be in more of a barman’s helper.

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Wordless Wednesday: The Outlet Wall

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

H/T: Ironic Sans via Neatorama.

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The USB Microwave

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

I’ve spent most of my morning reformatting old G3, G4, and iMac Apple computers. It’s not especially hard work, considering Macs are quite possibly the easiest computers to do anything with, and it’s made easier by the fact that all the installs are going to be clean installs with no need to save anything. Each one takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on what kind of computer it is and if I can find the right disc.

While the work is not hard, it is time consuming. I’m the sort of person who just wants to sit at a job and get it done in one fell swoop. I don’t like walking away for lunch and coming back later. That’s why I was looking for a USB-powered microwave. I figured there’s no way you could make a microwave run off a USB hub, right? There’s not enough juice! Well, Heinz is out to prove me wrong with their prototype, the Beanzawave.

The Beanzawave is a USB (or battery) powered mini-microwave. It measures 7.4 inches tall, 6.9 inches wide, and is 5.9 inches deep, which makes it perfect for your average meal on the run. It sounds (and probably is) awesome, but… let’s think of a good name for this, huh? Surely we can do better than Beanzawave!

Image: CrunchGear

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Firebox's Washable, Germ Resistant Keyboard

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

The swine flu has become the hot story. Everywhere you look there’s discussion of the flu, how it spreads, and how to protect yourself and others. The major key to all these efforts is hygiene. Specifically, cleaning up after your sneeze or cough.

Everyone says to smother your sneezes or coughs with your sleeve, a tissue, or your hand, but what if you work in an office environment and thus have your hands attached to a keyboard all day? Wouldn’t your keyboard pick up all those horrible germs, plus any and all leftover dribbles of food, cookie crumbs, and snarfed soda? Of course it would, that’s why you need a washable keyboard.

Firebox has a washable, waterproof USB keyboard for $58. Not only can you toss it into the washing machine when it gets grungy, it also features Silver Seal technology to retard the growth of gross, sickness-causing bacteria. So if you tip over that cup of coffee, no worries! Sneeze all over the keyboard if you want!

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The Grease-Proof Demy Digital Recipe Book

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

This weekend I was looking for the manilla folder we keep coupons in. Dad and I were doing the guy’s day in thing and we were hungry for some pizza. When rooting around in the cabinets, I found my mother’s recipe books. She’s got several cookbooks and a gallon plastic baggie full of recipes she’s clipped out of magazines or hand written from various sources. Most of these are as old or older than I am, and are starting to show their age. But how can you store these digitally without the risk of losing a laptop (and all the recipes) to a spill?

Maybe the Demy is the answer. Working in concert with Key Ingredient, the Demy is basically an electronic recipe book capable of holding 2500 recipes. It’s kitchen-proof, with 3 timers (which is great because I can’t program the timer on the stupid oven), has a touch screen for easy browsing, has a measurement conversion tool, and even has an ingredient substitution dictionary in case you’re out of something a recipe requires and you want to work around it (don’t put sour cream in mashed potatoes unless you really like sour cream).

While the inability to program your recipes directly into it is kind of a bummer, you are able to upload recipes to Key Ingredient and then add them to your Demy from there. Considering that I want to make a digital record of all my favorite family recipes anyway, that would allow me to kill two birds with one stone. The Demy won’t be out until May, but you can preorder it for $300 from Amazon right now.

If you get one, share your thoughts in the comment box below. If you’re a Demy representative, I’d love to get one of your units to test (hint hint!)

Image: Engadget

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The Calypso: Chair, Table, And Desk All In One

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

One of the problems I have when I park myself at my desk for work purposes is that, well, I sit at a desk all day and when I get home, the last thing I want to do is sit at another desk for a few extra hours. The ergonomics for someone over 6 feet tall at my day job are all wrong, so by the time I get home my back is complaining about the position I've been sitting in.

Since I don't have a laptop stand to pull to my couch, that means I'm forced to use my home desk. What I'd love is to use something like the Calypso chair. It's one of the most innovative and customizable pieces of furniture I've ever seen. It can transform from a love seat to two chairs, the arms fold down to get them out of the way or inward to turn into writing surfaces, and the whole thing folds in to transform into a coffee table with storage space underneath!

It's not ready for mass production yet, and there are still some issues to work out from an ergonomic standpoint, but that would be an awesome piece of furniture if you could get the design into the hands of a skilled manufacturing company. I really like the under-table storage shelf and the collapsible seating. I think that, as laptops and working from home become more common, that you're going to see a lot more furniture designed to incorporate laptops.

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Time For Games

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

Do you love your games and electronics? I mean, REALLY love your games? Are you one of the many Kool-aid drinking Apple fanatics out there? Well, Coolbuzz found something awesome that I have to pass along: software box clocks.

They highlighted three flavors of software clock, two for gamers (classic Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City) and one for operating system devotees (Apple’s OSX). I’m not exactly Justin Long, but even I have to admit that the OSX box clock is pretty awesome. If you’re unwilling to spend $30 for a Diablo clock (and boy, do I want that one, as I love Diablo and Diablo II), this seems to be the sort of thing you could replicate at home using a software box of your own and the guts from any standard battery operated wall clock. Those are generally pretty self-contained and smaller than you’d think.

I’m going to have to get my hands on a used, cheap kitchen clock and see if this is something I could replicate with a software box, like my Wrath of the Lich King CE DVD case.

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The Surreal Dali Clock

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

While it’s not a Halloween-related item, this Dali decal mentioned over at sister site Shak In Style reminded me of something else Dali-themed that I came across in my travels through Internetville. Inspired by Salvador Dali’s 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory, these handmade wooden clocks keep perfect time while still looking awesomely surreal and melty.

That’s one of the coolest things about Etsy. People have been making awesome stuff for years, yet nobody has been able to get it out and sell it (or find it and buy it) until the internet came along. Make sure you head over to PragmaticEffect’s Etsy shop and pick up one of these awesome molded clocks before they’re all sold out!

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The Grenade Lamp Is Da Bomb, Literally

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

I needed something manly after that Hello Kitty Online post, and I’ve found it. It’s made of hand grenade and camouflage, and is quite possibly the manliest desk lamp ever made. It’s the Grenade Lamp from Spellbound Statues.

It’s pretty costly at $139, but it’s also heavy and tall and amazingly cool. If you’re a fan of Chuck Norris movies, anything Rambo-related, or just a huge fan of explosives, this is the lamp for you. The only way this could be more of a dude item is if they could somehow work in beer. Check out all the other bomb-related lamps at CoolBuzz.

Making your own grenade lamp might make a great DIY project for your man cave. It’s building something, using tools, and playing with electricity all in one. How could that possibly go wrong?

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Use The Fridge, Luke

by Ron Hogan Leave a Comment

R2D2 is a lot of things. He’s a friend to Luke, Leia, and C3PO. He’s an astromech droid. He’s comic relief. He’s a soy sauce dispenser. And in 2002, thanks to 7-11, R2D2 was made into the coolest fridge ever!

Apparently, as a give-away promotion for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, the Japanese arm of 7-11 had 1000 or so R2D2 refridgerators made, and ToyEast got their hands on one. They’re not going to keep it, though; the ultimate R2 collectible can be yours for the low, low price of $1070. I know that’s pretty expensive, but keep in mind that R2 will run off of both AC and DC power (he’s portable) and he can be switched from cold to hot, so he can also store your delicious grillables if you want to take a few burgers on your next X-Wing flight.

That’s what I call handy!

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