Home and Kitchen - The Gadgeteer

Smarter toasters are hitting the streets – no, not the Cylons (at least not yet)

It’s early in the morning. You have mouths to feed. The first round of toast comes out perfectly, but the second round? Burned! Grrr! Dualit has solved this problem. The Dualit 2 Slot and 4 Slot Lite Toasters are made with Dualit’s patented Climate Sensing Toasting Cycle technology. This technology detects the temperature of the […]

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Turn your kettle grill into a pizza oven with the KettlePizza

By Janet Cloninger / July 7, 2014 / News / Cooking, Home and Kitchen, Outdoor Gear / Leave a Comment

Earlier this year, we told you about a wood-fired pizza oven for your backyard that promised to make great pizza but cost $2700. You like pizza, but you don’t have that kind of cash to dedicate to a large piece of equipment that can only make pizzas, you say? What about a piece of equipment that

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Revolve+ Surge Protector with 4 Rotating Outlets + 2 USB review

By Kathleen Chapman / July 6, 2014 / Reviews / Home and Kitchen, Surge protector with USB power outlets / Leave a Comment

Houses, even new ones, just don’t come with enough outlets. Our house was built only five years ago and we constantly need power strips to provide enough outlets to power all our various gadgets and appliances. I recently bought a surge protector that I thought had rotating outlets to accommodate the various sizes of AC adapters

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Dyson DC65 Animal vacuum for less than $500

By Janet Cloninger / July 5, 2014 / News / Home and Kitchen, Vacuum / Leave a Comment

If you really liked the Dyson DC65 Animal vacuum cleaner Julie reviewed in April of this year but were put off by the $600 price tag, then today may be your lucky day. QVC has the DC65 Animal as their Today’s Special Value deal, and they are offering it in red, blue, or purple for

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You might not be able to control the weather, but you can control this cloud lamp

By Janet Cloninger / July 4, 2014 / News / Home and Kitchen, Home lighting / Leave a Comment

This Interactive Cloud Lamp is more of an art piece than task lighting. It looks fluffy like a real cloud and hangs from your ceiling like a small thundercloud. It has interactive, color-changing Philips lights inside and a speaker system that can stream music from any Bluetooth-enabled device or produce the thunder that goes along

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Freeze your own treats in these plastic zipper bags

By Janet Cloninger / July 1, 2014 / News / Food, Home and Kitchen / Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, my sisters and I loved frozen treats that we called Icicles. There’s a similar treat available now called Otter Pops. I’m not sure what those ice-pops were made from, but I’m pretty sure it was nothing but sugar and artificial color and flavorings. With Zipzicle Pouches, you can serve your

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And here’s the mailbox to complement your mid-century modern home

By Janet Cloninger / July 1, 2014 / News / Home and Kitchen / 3 Comments

Yesterday, we told you about the Modfire Astrofire modern fire box for the backyard of your mid-century modern home. Today, we’ll show you the perfect mailbox for your home. These mailboxes were designed by a fellow North Carolinian, and his project was recently successfully funded on Kickstarter and is now in the manufacturing stage. Now

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Build your fire in a back-to-the-future fire pit

By Janet Cloninger / June 30, 2014 / News / Home and Kitchen, Outdoor Gear / 1 Comment

I’ve had a life-long love of mid-century architecture and design. We finally are living in a mid-century building, but it’s a condo building, so I’m not free to decorate the outside of my home. In case you are lucky enough to have a fabulous atomic-age home with your own outdoor area, here’s the perfect fire

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Snap Power SnapRays Guidelight review

By Julie Strietelmeier / June 27, 2014 / Reviews / Home and Kitchen, LED lighting, Wall Outlet / 14 Comments

How many of these do you have scattered around your house? Would you like to free up your outlets but still have the functionality of a night light that only turns on when it’s dark? Me too, that’s why I helped fund the wildly successful SnapRays Kickstarter project earlier this year. I was very excited when my

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iDevices Bluetooth Connected Kitchen Thermometer review

By Julie Strietelmeier / June 26, 2014 / Uncategorized / Bluetooth, Cooking, Home and Kitchen, iOS / 4 Comments

In my household, I’m usually the one who makes dinner every night because I get off work first. I like to cook, but it cuts into my Gadgeteer work time if I am constantly running up and down the stairs to check the temperature of something that I’m baking in the oven. I’ve always wanted

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This Buddy will protect you from the dark

By Janet Cloninger / June 25, 2014 / News / Emergency lighting, Emergency preparedness, Flashlight, Gear, Home and Kitchen / 2 Comments

Several years ago, a terrible storm in Greensboro knocked down a pine tree across the street from us. The pine took down the power lines, which lit the tree on fire and caused the most incredible noises as the line arced and jumped around. I knew just where my flashlight was, but was dismayed to

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Serve your kids a better drink in a better drink box

By Janet Cloninger / June 23, 2014 / News / Beverage, Home and Kitchen, Water Bottle / Leave a Comment

Juice boxes are convenient for packing in a child’s lunch or for taking along on trips, but what they contain probably isn’t your first pick for feeding to your child. Those juice boxes often contain beverages that are more sugar than anything else, so they aren’t nutritious. Those flimsy cardboard boxes that can seem like

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Liftware gives those with hand tremors a better experience at meal time

By Julie Strietelmeier / June 22, 2014 / News / Food, Health and fitness, Home and Kitchen / 5 Comments

Most of us take a lot for granted. We give almost zero thought to holding a spoon or fork, scooping up a bite of food, lifting it to our mouth and eating. It’s something we all do multiple times every single day. It’s a no-brainer. But for people who suffer from Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s

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It’s easy to score with Hat Trick BBQ tools

By Larry Geisz / June 21, 2014 / News / Cooking, Grilling, Home and Kitchen, Outdoor Gear / Leave a Comment

Hockey season is over and you’re jonesing for some stick time, but the temperature outside could melt steel let alone your backyard ice rink. Hat Trick BBQ has the solution to get that stick back in your hands, or at least part of a hockey stick. Hat Trick BBQ has come up with a concept

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This sound generator produces white noise or fan sounds

By Janet Cloninger / June 21, 2014 / News / Health and fitness, Home and Kitchen, Sleep / Leave a Comment

If you like falling asleep to the sound of a fan but don’t want the air flow from an actual fan, the LectroFan is for you. The LectroFan is a small white box (4.4″ X 4.4″ X 2.2″, 14 ounces) that can produce 20 masking sounds to help you sleep better. In addition to 10

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“The Vessyl with the pestle has the brew that is true…”

By Kathleen Chapman / June 17, 2014 / News / Android, Beverage, Bluetooth, Health and fitness, Home and Kitchen, iOS, Water Bottle / 3 Comments

Most of our appliances communicate with us now, so it was only a matter of time before our dinnerware did too. The Vessyl, created by a company called Mark One, is a 13 ounce cup that contains sensors which can determine the type of drink (including sodas, alcohol, smoothies, tea, coffee, etc.) as well as

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Hot beverage + coaster = koi pond

By Janet Cloninger / June 17, 2014 / News / Beverage, Home and Kitchen / Leave a Comment

These cups and coasters redefine cups with designs that change when hot beverages are added. These borosilicate glass mugs have an interesting slanted shape and unusual stick handles, but they are otherwise plain when viewed from the side. They have a fish-shaped metal piece on the bottom, and when you fill the mug with a hot

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Cammy IP camera cloud viewing app review

By Julie Strietelmeier / June 15, 2014 / Reviews / Android, Cloud, Home and Kitchen, iOS, Surveillance, Webcam / 5 Comments

If you have ever been to a party where they say to BYOB – bring your own beer, then you’ll understand the concept of the Cammy IP camera cloud viewing app that requires you to BYOC – bring your own camera. As a diehard fan of Dropcam cameras, I was intrigued by Cammy for one important

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Make the Perfect Drink with this app-controlled bartending scale

By Janet Cloninger / June 15, 2014 / News / Beverage, Home and Kitchen / Leave a Comment

perfect drink app controlled bartending scale

You’re having a party, but you don’t know a lot of recipes for mixed drinks. Sure, you could run to the bookstore and buy a bartender’s recipe book, but where’s the gadgety fun in that? Instead, purchase the Perfect Drink App-Controlled Smart Bartending Scale and you’ll have recipes for hundreds of drinks at your fingertips,

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Add a little personality to your Zoku Quick Pop Maker products

By Janet Cloninger / June 14, 2014 / News / Food, Home and Kitchen, Spotlight Gadgets / Leave a Comment

We’ve told you about a variety of Zoku frozen treats makers, beginning with the Zoku Quick Pop Maker back in 2009. That pop maker is still around, and Zoku has introduced an accessory kit that lets you add bits of fruit to your pop. Using the cutters and the layout paddle, you can arrange small

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