Slotless Toaster Is Rather One-Sided
This is the “Slotless Toaster”, a $90 innovation which promises to toast “thick bagels or croissants, Texas toast, or baguettes” as well as the pop-tarts and skinny slices of bread handled by the toaster you have already. Has anyone spotted the problem, yet?
Yes. To get even browning, you’ll need two of them, the second suspended at an appropriate distance above the first. Either that or you’ll have to return after your bagel’s base is browned to flip it a toast the other side. It has a crumb tray, a 10.25 x 7-inch surface and a 700-watt element inside, making it much like your existing toaster, only less useful.
In fact, there is one way a regular two or four-slotter can be made to perform the same trick: just put the oversized target food on top of the slots and press down the lever. It’s not pretty, but I do it all the time and it works just fine. It also saves you almost $100: Feel free to write in with your thanks.
Product page [Hammacher Schlemmer via Coolest Gadgets]
Posted: October 26th, 2009
at 9:13am by Charlie Sorrel
Topics: Household, food & drink, sweet sweet toast, toast
DIY Laser Hair Removal And DIY Botox Markets Expanding [Household]
I love DIY projects, lasers, and chemistry sets as much as the next gal, but the whole do-it-yourself laser hair removal and Botox market boom is terrifying. Untrained individuals shouldn’t be pointing needles and lasers at themselves.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is in an uproar about the things people are doing in their bathrooms. It’s not that those surgeons are just worried about losing money on procedures, they’re bound to gain clients from all the DIY messups anyway, but they appear genuinely concerned about regulations and safety. And I agree, because somehow former Gizmodo intern Benny Goldman letting the Jezebel team cajole him into a bikini wax doesn’t seem so insane when you read about people ordering Botox from websites called Discount MedSpa and putting videos of their DIY injections onto YouTube (Warning: the clip may make you cringe).
We all like to look pretty, but there are safer ways to get rid of hair, folks! And somehow it’s better to have wrinkles than order Botox from a website that looks like it was made in Microsoft Word. [Wired]
Posted: October 23rd, 2009
at 10:20pm by Rosa Golijan
Topics: Botox, DIY, Diy laser hair removal, Household, Laser, Laser hair removal, Lasers
Alien Abduction Lamp Beams Into Reality
I was sure we’d covered the prototype of the Alien Abduction Lamp already here on Gadget Lab, but Google tells me otherwise. So here it is for (possibly) the first time in all its ready-to-buy, steel’n’perspex glory.
The $100 lamp comes with glow-in-the-dark aliens in the cockpit, a “Removable Bovine Abductee” and three options for the energy-saving LED light: On, off and – most appropriate – pulse.
The lamp is currently sold as part of a limited edition of 2000 units, complete with an engraved signature from the designer Lasse Klein, although soon it should be making it into an otherwise annoying novelty gift store near you, destined to become the next Big Mouth Billy Bass. Until then, visit the web site and, if you have some colored spex, view it in 3D (for those lacking the 1950s cellophane glasses, there is also an “Earthling Mode”).
Product page [Abduction Lamp via Oh Gizmo!]
Pointless Gadget of the Day: Touch-Sensitive Faucet
Oh, where to start with the list of things wrong with the “Pilar Touch-Activated Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet”? Perhaps the outrageous $500 price tag? Or the forcing of touch-control tech where is doesn’t belong? Or the “technical” description which drops phrases like “Touch2O Technology” and “inspired by a fusion of technology and nature”?
Now, a mixer tap in the kitchen is great. I have one, and it also has a “touch-sensitive” handle. The difference is that mine cost almost nothing and that instead of an electronically operated detecting surface it has a paddle you can tap. Both require actual touching, whether with oily fingers or the back of a hand, and both can easily be switched on or off. My faucet, though, will work as I expect it to and when it breaks, I know how to fix it.
Product page [Delta via Noquedanblogs]
Rock’n’Read: Human-Powered Lamp Chair Mashup
We love this human-powered reading chair by Rochus Jacob, which powers an OLED lamp with the rocking motion of the reader beneath, keeping your pages illuminated by night and storing excess jiggle-energy in batteries by day.
How does the Murakami Chair work? “Advanced nano-dynamo technology which is built in to the skids of the chair.” Quite. This is probably the reason that the chair is just a concept design rather than a real, working product. Still, when Jacob manages to find a hardware store that will sell him a few pounds of stick-on nano-dynamos, expect to see this in stores. Until that time, suck it up learn to deal with a few cables already.
Project page [Design Boom]
