It's hard to keep us out of the kitchen, for no other reason than we just really enjoy food! Today we offer up a dilectable assortment of gourmet gadgets.
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EPISODE 156
Cocoon Cooker Grows Meat In Your Kitchen (thanks Bill!)
Ultrasonic dishwasher cleans your plates with waves of sound (thanks Sam!)
Ravi cools wine at the very moment it is poured
Cosentino turns minerals and woods into truly unique surfaces
LED Grabbing Tool Picks Valuables From Where Fingers Fear To Tread
Taylor Digital Measuring Cup Scale
... Read more
Free apps like Howcast provide video tutorials anytime, anywhere.
I'm not the handiest person in the world, which is why I tend to reach for the telephone more often than the toolbox. (The plumber's on speed-dial.)
It's not that I don't want to drill, cut, measure, and fix things myself--it's that I usually lack the tools and/or know-how.
All together, now: there are apps for that! Here's a roundup of five excellent iPhone apps that cater to handymen, home improvers, and other DIY fans.
- Bolt & Nut Need to figure out the wrench size for a particular nut or bolt? Just lay it (gently) on your iPhone screen and drag the calipers until they "fit." This clever app also provides a thread gauge, ruler, and reference guide. Price: free.
- Dimensions It's an entire iPhone toolbox devoted to measuring. In addition to a ruler and caliper, Dimensions provides virtual tape measures--including a clever camera-based "Long Tape" that can measure distances up to 82 feet. Price: $1.99.
- Hole Spacer When you finally get around to hanging those snazzy album-cover frames, you'll want to make sure they're evenly spaced. Hole Spacer does the math so you know exactly how far apart to drill each hole. Where has this app been all my life?! Price: free.
- Howcast Forget YouTube. If you want to learn how to do something, watch the professionally produced, often-humorous videos available in Howcast. It's got everything from changing tires to fixing leaky toilets. Price: free.
- wikiHow Kind of like Howcast's wiki kid brother, wikiHow provides a huge selection of tutorials on just about any project you can imagine--along with a survival guide in case you're ever, um, treed by a bear. (It could happen!) Price: free.
Well, did I miss any must-have DIY apps? I didn't include any "level" tools, as they've been around forever, but do you have a favorite? Share your iPhone-as-toolbox thoughts in the comments.
In the meantime, check out these other "killer app" roundups:
(Credit:
Pro-Idee)
It's not often that we have one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that moments at Crave, but this is definitely an exception. That's probably why we just write about inventions instead of create them and retire.
The idea behind the aptly named "Spoon Scale" is as useful as it is disarmingly simple: Just scoop what you think you need and let the integrated digital meter do the fine-tuning. Showing immediate results on its built-in LCD, this battery-powered scooper is purportedly accurate to "down to the last 1⁄10 gram," according to OhGizmo--and, thankfully, can be programmed to measure in ounces for the metric-challenged among us.
This intelligent scooper even has an option to weigh ingredients added to the original measurement, making it ideal for the most difficult culinary feats that leave no margin for error. Which, for the record, is something we'll never know anything about.
South Hall LVCC loading docks
(Credit: CNET Networks/Lindsey Turrentine)If you're far from the madding crowd at CES and wishing you weren't, you can ease the pain in one of three ways: 1) Hop on a plane and join us (you'll probably have to fly standby at this point; 2) Read CNET's coverage; or 3) indulge in some schadenfreude.
Las Vegas' biggest trade show of the year makes Disneyland look like a day at the spa. Say you got dropped off by a cab at the back of South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center (henceforth, LVCC), and say your badge is at the CNET booth at the front of South Hall. What would you do? Logically, either walk through the hall or around the hall.
Without a badge, walking through was not an option for me this morning, so I asked for directions to walk around the building. The friendly badge police told me that I could pick up a shuttle (just to get to the other side of the same building). I asked if I could walk. They conferred and decided that walking was too dangerous. I said I would try walking anyway and asked for directions to get around the loading docks. They politely declined.
Seriously. They wouldn't let me walk around the building.
I decided to try anyway since the shuttle line rivaled the line at the McCarran Airport taxi stand, and the friendly security folks at the docks let me in. Sure, I had to drag my suitcase the quarter-mile length of the building (see photo), but at least I got some quality alone time.
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