Sometimes, in order to grow, you need to take a step back and look with adoration and respect to the things you took for granted as a child. It also helps to mock them incessantly.
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EPISODE 144 |
“Grease” game coming to Nintendo
6 high-tech ways to upgrade your barbecue from start to finish
Pretttttyyyy (Jason edition)
Vacuum-tube chess set
What the hell?
The Microsoft vomit ad saga
Kill Me
The most expensive 16 gigabytes on the planet: The Mnemosyne USB cube
Tool Time
Video mask allows you to film underwater hands-free
Gender gap
thereifixedit.com
It’s about time (childhood nostalgia edition)
iPod clock terrorizes hobbits
It begins with iPhone 3 software details, progresses into face stealing, and somehow ends up at a claw machine containing a mountain of mammaries. Obviously words do nothing to express the joy of this week's Gadgettes.
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EPISODE 129 |
iPhone OS 3.0: What you need to know
iPhone 3.0-ready with $24 stereo Bluetooth headset
iPhone OS 3.0 will turn your phone into a revolutionary sex toy
The 3D FaceStatue might be the creepiest product of all-time
Japan’s latest supermodel–a robot
... Read more
This weekend, crunchy snacks are going to be consumed across the country in staggering amounts. All the Super Bowl parties filled with delicious treats can only mean one thing: somebody has to clean it all up. Well, now, maybe not a somebody, but rather, a something.
Powered by two AA batteries, the Mini Robo Vacuum skirts across your kitchen table (or Super Bowl spread) picking up crumbs or other small bits of unwanted trash. All you have to do is push the button on top of its little robot head and off it goes.
The small robot vacuum cleaner measures 5 inches by 4 inches, and comes in three different colors. As a regular addition to your normal tablescape it should fit right in.
At only $20, the Mini Robo Vacuum isn't going to compare with a powerful robotic vacuum cleaner such as the Roomba. However, I would rather have one of these little guys scuttling about my kitchen countertop.
Certainly this weekend, robot cleaners large and small will be put to good use. Considering the amount of pretzels, potato chips, and crackers that will be consumed over this Super Bowl weekend, the robot cleaners are going to be working overtime no matter how close the game is.
(Via Dvice)
iRobot's Roomba, Scooba, and Dirt Dog are selling bundled for $900.
(Credit: iRobot)iRobot is offering deep discounts on its home products if you buy directly from its Web site.
We're wondering why, and it comes down to two possibilities, really.
One, they have newer, brighter, shinier models in the pipeline and need to unload old stock. Or, two, they're simply trying to get a head start on the holiday-season discounts expected from retailers, given the state of the economy.
Most recently, iRobot sent an e-mail letting people know it's offering $50 off its Scooba 380 model if you buy it before October 24. It normally sells for $450. That discount is presumably in preparation for the new Scooba 385 that it promises is "coming soon" on its European Web site.
iRobot is also offering $25 to $100 off its Roomba models when you buy two.
But if you have a lot of cash lying around, you could save even more. The company has a series of value packs in which they'll give you three robots for the price of two.
If you buy a Roomba 570 vacuuming robot and Scooba 380 floor-cleaning robot for $900 directly from the company Web site, for example, iRobot will throw in its Dirt Dog shop vacuum for free. They also offer combos that include the Looj gutter-cleaning robot.
Considering that averages out to $300 per robot, it's really not a bad deal.
(Credit:
Woo Audio)
Would you buy a Ferrari for $1,050? OK, how about a $1,050 headphone amplifier?
The Woo Audio WA6 Special Edition headphone amp is built to Ferrari levels of quality and performance. Even before I listened to it, I knew it was going to be amazing.
It's a two-piece design. One chassis contains the power supply, the other is the amplifier proper. The pewter color, die-cast chassis parts are finished to a high standard, fully equal to $10,000 stereo amplifiers I've reviewed, but the WA6-SE is a good deal smaller than your average high-end amplifier. The two chassis together fill just 11.25 inches by 10.25 inches of shelf space.
The WA6-SE is a pure tube design, without a single semiconductor or integrated circuit in the entire amp. It's hand-crafted in New York's Queens borough, and there are no printed circuit boards; all wiring is point-to-point hand-soldered. Woo Audio builds each amp to order, so it can incorporate custom options and offer a wide range of upgraded parts. Current build time is about three to four weeks.
Woo Audio offers an extensive range of headphone amplifiers. Prices start at $470 for the Woo Audio 3; the top-of-the-line WA5 LE runs $2,400. When I heard the $585 WA6 amp a few months ago, I was knocked out by its sound.
... Read more
These little guys got me thinking: what's the least important feature of a gadget?
Functionality? Probably not. Price? Arguable. Cuteness factor? Absolutely.
(Credit:
Perpetual Kid)
The Robo Vacuums from Perpetual Kid are cuteness on steroids. And that's why these wannabe Roombas, spotted at Boing Boing Gadgets, for $15 each are probably not super effective. (But no matter! We here at Crave love useless eye candy.)
The Robo Vacuum is a smaller, cheaper version of the Roomba, the robot vacuum that does your dirty work for you. That is, you click it on, and it buzzes around your house, sucking up dirt so you don't have to. It comes in red, white, and black, and needs just two AA batteries.
This also gives me the opportunity to share one of my favorite CNET News.com videos, where one of our reporters took the Roomba home for the day. Enjoy.
(Credit:
Thanko)
If you thought the irritatingly misspelled "Robo Vacum" was silly, you're in good company. What it needs, of course, is to be combined with another device--like a mouse.
And that's good news for a company like Thanko. It is, after all, the Japanese outfit that prides itself on creations ranging from USB aromatherapy devices to muscle-toning mice. So it came as little surprise that it's responsible for a "USB Vacuum Mouse" that's pretty much self-explanatory.
The combo gadget is an 800-dpi mouse that turns into a mini-vacuum cleaner with the flip of a small switch, according to Everything USB. They would do well to work in a cooking function to make the clean-up feature all the more attractive.
(Credit:
NOTCOT)
We don't know if the (mis)spelling is intentional, but here's the Robo Vacum, a desktop vacuum cleaner for your workspace. Unfortunately, this cute little thing doesn't maneuver around by itself. You press its button on its head, then aim it for the crumbs left from your Subway sandwich.
Not quite a Roomba, but that's all right since you wouldn't want something automated to fall off your table and make a mess on the carpet anyway. Our only gripe: It uses two AA batteries and not the USB ports for power.
(Source: Crave Asia)
Master Vacuum
(Credit: Samsung)
Master Chief
(Credit: Microsoft)Even in the dead of winter, some of us at Crave suffer the worst of allergies--and, when spring rolls around, we'd be better off in a bubble. That's why we're always on the lookout for anti-allergy technologies, even when we're in the car.
Naturally, Samsung's "Silencio" uber-vacuum cleaner got our attention, as Appliancist says it has a "suction power rating" of 360 air watts that exceeds its conventional counterparts. (We also like its name, as well as the blue LED lights.)
The bagless Silencio automatically adjusts the settings of its two-chamber system depending on the surface it's attacking, "catching 99.95 percent of micro-particles such as dust and allergens," all while making as little noise as possible. Most awesome of all is its design, which makes it a dead-ringer for the Master Chief.
He didn't make this tube, but it sure looks cool!
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)A friend turned me onto this amazing video of a man hand crafting vacuum tubes. He makes every part, the metal structures, blows the glass envelope, the base, pins, everything. It's a hugely labor intensive process. I just love that there are people out there doing this sort of thing, almost the same way it was done 100 years ago.
