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As the weather gets warmer, we can prepare to see a lot of companies that will try to push our summertime cookout buttons. CDS has hit on something big with their line of teppanyaki-style Cook N Dine cooktop tables. The dining table is a solid piece of stainless steel that has a powerful heating element inside it that allows you to grill meat, fish, vegetables, and kebabs in the center of your table while you and your guests eat on the edge. And all you have to do is plug it into an outlet, eliminating the extra trip for propane … Read more

This may be the best way to deliver beverages since the "Flying Barstool."

The radio-controlled cooler can take the place of a poolside cabana boy and you won't even have to give it a tip. We suggest only sealed containers, however, not any fruity drinks that can easily spill their umbrellas.

There are other drawbacks: The cooler holds just six beverages and has a range of only 30 feet, according to GeekAlerts, so your guests will have to stay reasonably nearby whether you like it or not. But if you team it up with a beer-fetching Roomba … Read more

We're tempted to give these to a couple we know but, frankly, their marriage probably won't last anyway and we don't want to expedite the process. But if you know of pending nuptials involving cell phone addicts with a good sense of humor (if that's possible), this might be impossible to resist.

These figurines seen on GeekSugar are made of hand-painted porcelain, which makes us worried that someone might actually use them atop their wedding cake. If that's indeed the case--and you're trying to send a message to one of them--you can even mix … Read more

What's new in the kitchen? We explored the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago in March to find out.

The trade show, which is closed to the public, is known as the largest of its kind, attracting store buyers from more than 100 countries.

Among the items attracting attention this year were a microwave and handheld espresso maker, both billed as the world's smallest. Eco-minded shoppers could find plenty of options for making the home a bit greener, and people with a sweet tooth could find contraptions for making doughnuts and gummy candies.

During the show, we covered … Read more

My RSS reader is packed with food, gadget, and shopping blogs, and whenever I see something that might be worth sharing here I try to bookmark it for when I have time to write it up. Cruising through my bookmarks earlier today I started to notice a trend: I've been marking lots of products that are explicitly designed for playing with food. Apparently my inner child thrills at the thought of a mechanically assisted way to launch her broccoli across the room. So for her sake and yours, here are four tools for merging meal time and play time.

Air Fork One lends some credibility to the whole "here comes the plane into the hangar" story you try to sell to your toddler every night. So far, it's a design concept only, but creative types can probably cobble together a reasonable facsimile on their own.

Apartment Therapy's gadget blog recently featured these Icetris ice cube trays. Use your freezer… Read more

In Singapore, a lot of us eat with chopsticks. Most of those you get these days are the low-quality disposable kind that leave strands of wood in your food and are way too thin for a good grip. If you feel strongly against using these horrible tree-killing utensils, the Brunton FlipSticks folding chopsticks could just be your thing.

The ends of the FlipSticks which pick up food are made of bamboo, just like regular chopsticks, but the rotating ends are stainless steel. They fold to half the normal length for storage and fit into a handy case for transport, as … Read more

I recently had some time to scroll through the shortlisted entries in Designboom's Dining in 2015 competition, in which industrial designers were encouraged to conceptualize products that will fit how we eat in 2015. Though the winning entry, the Leaf Spoon, was stunning in its simplicity, I much preferred the anthropomorphized grater pictured above, called Scratch my back. I'm dying to recruit this guy to help me out in the kitchen. (Do you hear me, Alessi?)

One of the other more visually stunning entries is "Plus Minus F," an orb-like salt and pepper set that uses … Read more

With people around the country looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment (not to mention all the companies clambering to make some green off the new green trend), eco-friendly kitchen accessories are popping up as fast as a field of bamboo shoots.

Some of them are even taking the form of bamboo. Specialty distributors and big-name retailers alike are now pushing bamboo kitchen utensils, bowls, cutting boards, and dish racks.

Part of the reason for the explosion of bamboo products is that it's a greener alternative to traditional wood, so it's getting attention from people … Read more

Poor R2-D2. Once everyone's favorite chirping bot, it's now reduced to serving as a lowly desktop accessory or novelty USB key. And as if this weren't bad enough, it's beheaded on a regular basis. We can hear Tim Moynihan weeping as we speak.

But all that pales in comparison to its latest incarnation--as a soy "source" bottle. "All you have to do is pour some soy sauce into his orifice, close him up, and then pour," Tokyomango says. The horror.