Home and Kitchen - The Gadgeteer

Dropcase outdoor enclosure and TIE Ball Joint Wall Mount for the Dropcam Pro review

By Dave Rees / January 3, 2015 / Reviews / Audio, Video, TV, Camera gear, Home and Kitchen, Surveillance / 1 Comment

The Dropcam Pro is one of the most compact, easy to use, and polished wireless cameras on the market. Their greatest weakness is being an indoor-only product with no outdoor option. Over the past few years, other manufactures have created aftermarket enclosures to protect the Dropcam from the elements. But many of these products have come […]

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Have dinner on Mars tonight

By Janet Cloninger / January 3, 2015 / News / Food, Home and Kitchen / 3 Comments

You can have dinner on any of the planets of the Solar System without having to spend months traveling to get there with the Solar System Planet Plate Set. These 10″ melamine plates are decorated with images of the eight planets. They are dishwasher safe, but melamine isn’t microwave safe. The Solar System Planet Plate

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You won’t be in a sticky situation with Bondic liquid plastic welder by your side

By Larry Geisz / December 24, 2014 / News / Do-It-Yourself, Home and Kitchen, Tools / 5 Comments

Last year Julie was nice enough to send me a packet of Sugru in a care package. While I love the stuff, it is not always suitable for every fix I need. Enter Bondic liquid plastic welder. Bondic is not a glue, instead it is a liquid plastic that you use to bond surfaces together.

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SpotCam HD Wi-Fi Video Monitoring camera review

By Julie Strietelmeier / December 23, 2014 / Reviews / Camera gear, Home and Kitchen, Surveillance / 11 Comments

When you work away from home or travel often, it’s nice to be able to check in on things at home for security and peace of mind. That’s why I have installed various WiFi security cameras in my home that can be accessed by web browsers and mobile apps. The newest camera that I’ve been

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Let the force cook with you by using the Star Wars R2-D2 measuring cup set

By Larry Geisz / December 23, 2014 / News / Cooking, Home and Kitchen, Star Wars / Leave a Comment

ThinkGekk Star Wars R2 D2 measuring cup set

So, you failed at Jedi mind tricks and you can’t build that droid of your dreams. What’s an aspiring Padawan to do? Why not bake something? And if your going to bake, your going to need measuring cups and what better set of measuring cups than the Star Wars R2-D2 measuring cup set from ThinkGeek.

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The Butler will hold your phone, wallet, and keys for you

By Janet Cloninger / December 18, 2014 / News / Home and Kitchen, Organization / 2 Comments

Hang The Butler on the wall in your foyer or mudroom, and he’ll be at the ready to hold your gear when you get home. The top is made to hold you wallet and keys. Slide the walnut strip to the side, and a Samsung Galaxy or iPhone (up to 5.5″ tall x 2.9″ wide x

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Aerate and chill wine as you pour it with the Icecap

By Janet Cloninger / December 16, 2014 / News / Beverage, Home and Kitchen / 2 Comments

If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of wanting a glass of wine but the one you want isn’t at the proper serving temperature, you don’t have to resign yourself to an improperly served beverage. You can chill and aerate a serving of wine as you pour it with the Icecap. Keep the Icecap

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Here’s a mini fridge for Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor!

By Janet Cloninger / December 12, 2014 / News / Appliance, Home and Kitchen / 4 Comments

This little fridge looks like those iconic Craftsman tool boxes from Sears. It would look great in your workshop or man or woman cave, or just anywhere you want it if you love red as much as I do. The 2-Drawer Toolbox Fridge stands 17.25″ wide x 20″ deep x 30.75″ tall and weighs 63 pounds. It

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Even when you make coffee at home, you can still have decorated drinks with CinniBird

By Janet Cloninger / December 10, 2014 / News / Beverage, Crowdfunded, Food, Home and Kitchen / 6 Comments

You’ve probably seen pictures of coffees with the beautiful decorations on top made from the foamed milk, haven’t you? You don’t get those at just any coffee shop, and if you’re like me, you won’t be able to make anything like that at home, either. With the CinniBird Spice Pen, even I might be able

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Picture It On Canvas Gallery Wrapped Canvas custom photo print review

By Janet Cloninger / December 5, 2014 / Reviews / Art, Camera gear, Home and Kitchen, Photography / 4 Comments

Even though we’ve lived in our new place for just over a year now, we still don’t have enough artwork on the walls. I’m trying to find some Mid-century prints and metal art for the walls, but I still like to leave room for pictures of loved ones. When Picture It On Canvas offered The

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Check to see if the roast is done with this Bluetooth speaker

By Janet Cloninger / December 1, 2014 / News / Bluetooth, Bluetooth speaker, Clocks, Cooking, Home and Kitchen, Watches and Clocks / Leave a Comment

If you have a tiny kitchen like mine, every item on the countertop has to have earned its place there. The Maverick Chef Tunes Bluetooth Speaker and Roasting Thermometer does quadruple duty, so it would be worthy of the 12″ x 2.5″ x 3.5″ of counter it would require. The Chef Tunes is a Bluetooth

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Keep an eye on your kids in the backseat without looking over your shoulder

By Julie Strietelmeier / November 30, 2014 / News / Audio, Video, TV, Babies, Car Gear, Home and Kitchen, Safety, Surveillance / 4 Comments

We have reviewed quite a few surveillance cameras for your home like the DropCam, but this is the first camera I’ve seen that has been designed especially for use inside your car. No, the InfantTech Always in View Baby Monitor is not a dashcam which points outside your windshield to record your driving adventures, this

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OSRAM SYLVANIA ULTRA LED bulb review

By Greg Carter / November 29, 2014 / Reviews / Home and Kitchen, LED lighting / 21 Comments

Be careful what you wish for…! I volunteered to check out a new line of LED dimmable household bulbs from OSRAM SYLVANIA, wondering at the time where I would test them. Almost immediately, light bulbs that had lasted fifteen years began to burn out all over the house! I no longer had to worry about

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Gift ideas for coffee and tea drinkers

By Janet Cloninger / November 28, 2014 / News / Beverage, Coffee Brewer, gift ideas 2014, Home and Kitchen, Tea / Leave a Comment

Today is Black Friday, the official beginning of the holiday shopping season. Coming up with gift ideas for everyone can be difficult, but here are a couple of ideas for the coffee and tea lovers. The Aerobie AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker has everything that the coffee lover needs to make a perfect cup of

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Go paperless and wireless with the Doxie Go Plus & Doxie Go Wi-Fi scanners

By Julie Strietelmeier / November 25, 2014 / News / Computer Gear, Home and Kitchen, iOS, Scanner, WiFi Scanner / 1 Comment

If you’re anything like me, you probably have drawers full of receipts, bills, forms, and more. Every year around tax time I grumble about the fact that I haven’t kept better track of my receipts. I end up spending most of a day sorting through them and entering everything in a spreadsheet. Afterwards I’m left

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Now you can make Pepsi sodas at home with your SodaStream machine

By Janet Cloninger / November 25, 2014 / News / Beverage, Home and Kitchen / 12 Comments

Well, you can make Pepsi at home if you are lucky enough to live in the test area. Pepsi and SodaStream have announced a joint project called Pepsi Homemade. You’ll carbonate water using your SodaStream, and then you add one of the Pepsi or Sierra Mist Homemade 0.5L flavor caps create your own drink. Right

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Turn a pizza box into artwork for your walls

By Julie Strietelmeier / November 24, 2014 / News / Art, Do-It-Yourself, Home and Kitchen / Leave a Comment

Adding or changing the artwork on your walls can be an expensive project. Even if you use your own images, you still have to get the pictures matted and framed, which is not cheap. Then there’s the problem with doing it all over again when you start growing tired of looking at the same images on

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Ikea’s toolkit is easy to store and easy on your pocketbook

By Janet Cloninger / November 24, 2014 / News / Do-It-Yourself, Home and Kitchen, Tools / 4 Comments

Julie’s post about the clever but expensive Strelka tool kit yesterday reminded me of my favorite little tool kit. Although my husband has a nice kit that has more expensive tools than this little kit from Ikea, the Fixa 17-piece tool kit has everything that we need to use for most of the things we do around

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Strelka is a toolbox that fits on your bookshelf

By Julie Strietelmeier / November 23, 2014 / News / Do-It-Yourself, Home and Kitchen, Tools / 5 Comments

I have a large Craftsman toolbox in my garage that contains all manner of screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers and more. But not everyone has a garage or room for such a collection of tools. The Strelka ToolBook is a toolbox that stores in your home on the book shelf. You might be thinking that you don’t

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Keurig 2.0 Model K550 Coffee Brewing System review

By Janet Cloninger / November 23, 2014 / Reviews / Beverage, Coffee Brewer, Home and Kitchen / 93 Comments

Keurig coffee brewing systems have been around for a while now. There have been a lot of models over the years, but they remained pretty much the same. They still only brewed a single cup at a time. They all used the little pre-filled K-Cups available in a wide variety of flavors and brands. If

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