Archive for the ‘Coffee’ Category

Microsoft Now Serving Cappuccinos at the Windows Cafe In Paris [Windows 7]

If you live in Paris, you can head on over to 47 Boulevard Sebastopol and enjoy coffee and pastry served up by Microsoft. Their Windows 7 Cafe is now open for business.

As you will see in the gallery complied by Le Journal du Geek, it looks like a pretty cool place to hang out and have a drink. They don’t sell anything but food there, but it gives patrons an opportunity to play around with various Microsoft products. Wouldn’t mind having a few of these on this side of the Atlantic. Hit the link for more photos. [Le Journal du Geek]

Dolce Gusto Makes Me Swoon, So I’ll Drink Its Crappy Coffee Anyway [Coffee]

A French press will make way tastier coffee than Nescafe’s new single-serve Dolce Gusto, but even the most beautifully designed press won’t look as good. I’ll just try to imagine the coffee tastes pretty. [Fubiz via Unpluggd]

Battery Refill Required [Caffeine]

This t-shirt visualizes what we’ve all known for a long time: He who merges with the caffeine merges with the power. $20. [Glennz Tees via Fashionably Geek]

You Can Tell This Coffee Maker to Do Anything but Make Coffee [Coffee]

Here’s a fantastic idea for a product: A coffee maker that responds to voice commands…just not a voice command to “make me some freaking coffee!”

Offered by Hammacher Schlemmer:

This is the first voice-interactive coffee maker that asks, “Would you like to set the clock or set the coffee brewing time?” and operates in response to your verbal commands. Simply saying, “Set the coffee brewing time,” or “Set the clock,” will prompt the machine to reply, “Please say the time, including AM or PM.” It uses an advanced voice recognition system to identify any time of day you speak, eliminating the hassle of fussing with buttons.

Sure, the one instance that you ever have to program the time on your coffee maker is a tad inconvenient, and I can appreciate the UI improvement of any gadget. But as long as we’re using voice commands and $100 coffee makers, we might as well open the door for new functionality. “Brew 4 cups of coffee” or “tea earl grey hot” would both be welcome commands that could save you time and prodding on a daily basis.

Imagine if you could only tell the Enterprise to “set the clock.” [Hammacher Schlemmer via CrunchGear]

* To be fair, maybe Hammacher Schlemmer just failed to mention the “make coffee” command. Even if so, the fact that you’d need to press a button to issue the order sort of negates the convenience.

This is a voice guided coffee maker. Yes, you read that right.

You know which sector has been aching for interactive voice command features? Coffee makers. For instance, if I were to set the timer on my own personal coffee maker, I’d have to press the timer button, select the time I want the coffee to brew, and then press the timer button again to set it. That’s two button presses with some button holding in between!

Thankfully Hammacher Schlemmer is selling “The Only Voice Interactive Coffee Maker” for $100.

Space-age stuff, to be sure. According to the product description:

This is the first voice-interactive coffee maker that asks, “Would you like to set the clock or set the coffee brewing time?” and operates in response to your verbal commands. Simply saying, “Set the coffee brewing time,” or “Set the clock,” will prompt the machine to reply, “Please say the time, including AM or PM.” It uses an advanced voice recognition system to identify any time of day you speak, eliminating the hassle of fussing with buttons.

I’m almost certain that this product is positioned at the aging baby boomer crowd but if there’s one thing baby boomers hate more than trying to set digital clocks and timers, it’s talking to machines. In that case, this coffee maker can be operated the old-fashioned way, too.

The Only Voice Interactive Coffee Maker [Hammacher Schlemmer]

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