Category: News (Page 9 of 130)

      An Oil Free Deep Fryer for Those Starting Early Christmas Lists

      August 10, 2013 /

      208069_1_600

      I like to think of myself as a practical man who at least recognizes the rules of the world, even if I don’t always understand them, and doesn’t live to long with his head in the clouds pondering on impractical notions.

      But for the life of me, I just don’t understand why dieting means I can’t eat fried foods.

      Sure they’re just about the worst thing in the world for you, but they’re also really, really good. No that doesn’t justify them as a health food, but it’s not fair that we can’t eat the most delicious achievement in culinary evolution just because you can feel it chipping away at your life as it goes down.

      Recognizing the problem lies in that delicious oil that frying takes, Hammacher Schlemmer have crafted a viable deep frying alternative that instead uses infared heaters to reach temperatures of up to 400 degrees and produce perfectly fried foods that are actually, if only slightly, healthier for you. You even get separate compartments so you can have even more slightly healthier for you deep fried foods.

      Minor health element aside, the real appeal of the lack of oil to use this device is the fact that cooking oil for deep frying is actually incredibly expensive and, as news stories every Thanksgiving remind us, very dangerous if not handled properly. For $250 then, this is actually not an entirely impractical kitchen gadget, for those who want the ability to take a perfectly reasonable food, and deep fry the hell out of it at their leisure.

      News

      Turn Your Tub into a Touchscreen With Aquatop

      August 7, 2013 /

      Technology may be designed to be with you wherever you go, but the one area where your pretty much on your own is the bath.

      Sure you can buy waterproof cases, but when you get right down to it, how comfortable are you really with holding your favorite expensive electrical toy mere inches above a pool of water? Even if you do survive an accidental drop, exactly how much submersion can that tablet or smartphone withstand before it’s lost?

      That’s the question that keeps most of us from bringing our tech in the tub, and drove a team of developers in Tokyo to use a Kinect, a projector, some speakers, and a home computer to craft an invention that can turn the surface of your tub into a touch screen.

      From the user’s perspective, once the device is turned on, they only need to dip their hands into the water to turn them into interface tools. With that in place, you are now able to run files, videos, pictures, and other applications, and interact with them in a manner very similar to how you would with a touchscreen.  There are even special gestures, like the ability to use your thumb and index finger to grasp an icon and drag it around or, even cooler, the ability to fully grasp an item and submerge it to delete it.

      The really impressive part about this tech comes through the games however. I advise you skip to about 7:06 in that video above, to see what happens when you combine all of the elements of this tech to produce a game that may be simple (essentially an aerial shooter type), but uses what should be a hindering environment for such a thing as an advantage instead, as you are provided a gaming experience that could be had nowhere else but the bathtub.

      Continuing a recent trend on this site, this is a device that isn’t likely to go beyond the prototype stage, but hopefully makes sporadic public appearances in some fashion, as it’s hard to not want to get your feet wet (so to speak) in this technology once you see it in action.

      News

      Defeat the Wine Cork, Once and for All

      August 1, 2013 /

      Magical-Bottle-Opener-Can-Pour-Wine-Without-Popping-the

      Let’s take a moment to appreciate all the inventors out there who think of ways to improve aspects of our lives we never even knew was an issue until the solution is presented. In fact, to celebrate them, let’s pour a glass of wine.

      Lucky for us, thanks to a recent device by one of those inventors, the process of celebrating with that wine just became easier.

      The Coravin 1000 addresses the age old wine problem of removing the cork without looking like a complete amateur, or even risking the dreaded “break off” that even occupies a part of the professional wine connoisseurs mind.

      That’s because the Coravin 1000 doesn’t require you to take the cork off at all, and instead uses a thin needle to pierce through the cork, while a pressure based system in conjunction with a spout lets you make normal sized pours, so you don’t lose an ounce of functionality, or a drop of wine.

      More importantly though, it also doesn’t compromise the flavor of the wine by letting oxygen in. This is easily done while the needle is inserted, but the innovative part of this tech comes when you remove the needle, as the puncture it makes is so thin, it allows for the cork to reseal itself when you take the device off.

      The $299 price point for the Coravin is steep, but wine is meant for occasions of relaxation and suaveness, both of which are harder when you are fumbling with a cork, and both of which come easier with this undeniably innovative and handy device.

      News

      Because Absurdity and Ability Don’t Always Hang Out With Common Sense, Here’s a Baby Stroller for Men

      July 30, 2013 /

      manly-baby-stroller-2

      Full disclosure. This baby carriage does not exist in any retail form, and sadly is not likely to anytime soon.

      Instead it is the result of a group polling of fathers by the ŠKODA car company, where it was revealed that dads would be much more willing to push their babies around in strollers if it weren’t for the fact that it was just so unmanly.

      Of course when asked what would make the average stroller manlier, the dads responded with suggestions straight out of your standard episode of “Home Improvement.” Among them were a more muscular design, large wheels, hydraulic suspension, and brakes lights, since when you’re pushing your baby boy or girl like a bat out of hell, you naturally need to consider safety.

      While anyone else would have treated this as “guy talk,” ŠKODA took it as a challenge and designed a prototype built to those requested specifications, as it comes decked out with 20 inch all terrain tires, suspension, brake lights, and even high-beam headlamps. They call it the “Man-Pram.”

      Sure it was mostly done as a stunt for the recent ad campaign for ŠKODA’s new car, but it also serves as a physical embodiment of the old saying that you should be careful what you wish for, as this stroller shows that while some things sound awesome over a couple of beers and punctuated by high fives, when you actually see the end result, you realize that some things are best left practical and…

      Oh who am I kidding. Slap a lawnmower engine on this puppy, ship it stateside, and you’ll have to start a waiting list just to handle the demand.

      News

      The War on Mosquitoes May Have Just Gotten Easier

      July 27, 2013 /

      Along with death and taxes, we’ve just come to accept mosquitoes as an inevitability. Sure there are a host of devices out there that promise to keep them away, but ultimately all of the Off spray and ultrasonic replants in the world won’t save you completely from bites. Come every summer then, we either accept the annoyance, or hunker down with a few complete series DVD’s or the latest grabs from the Steam sale to keep us inside until winter.

      Despite this, it seems there is at least one annual invention that promises to solve the problem for good. Some may be more effective that others, but if any of them worked like they said, tales of mosquito horror would have turned into campfire stories, around campfires not burdened by a single flying bloodsucker.

      Put away that well supported cynicism regarding these solutions, however, and you may see the newest of those inventions, the Kite Patch, might actually be different.

      Designed from findings over years of research, the Kite is a small wearable square patch that effectively blocks a mosquito’s ability to read  the CO2  from your body that draws them in the first place, thanks to a multi-step system that works for up to 48 hours

      The important thing to understand, though, in thinking this approach may be different, is realizing that the Kite wasn’t designed to repel mosquitoes at the backyard BBQ, but rather to repel them in areas of the world where they are one of the top killers. In fact, the true field test for the Kite will take place in Uganda where malaria cases are some of the worst in the world.

      That effort of providing the Kite to the areas that really need it is brought to the forefront on the product’s indiegogo page, where all contributions send the Kites to families in Africa, and other problem regions, while only larger amounts net you some personal ones as well (assuming you’re in the US).

      Already the Kite has surpassed its goal by around $200,00 with over a month to go.

      With a good idea built around good intentions, it would be a shame if the Kite goes the way of the sonic emitter and becomes yet another curiosity at the museum of the war against mosquitoes. Given everything shown so far though, we could finally be looking at the real deal.

      News

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 Gadget Teaser

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑