Home and Kitchen - The Gadgeteer

ShowerTunes Shower Curtain – Now you can take a shower with the boys from New Direction

By Julie Strietelmeier / September 20, 2013 / News / Audio, Video, TV, Bathroom, Home and Kitchen, Speaker / 5 Comments

Now you can take your gadgets into the bathroom with the ShowerTunes Shower Curtain / Liner. The curtain features a built in waterproof speaker system and a special play-through/see-through pouch to place your smartphone or tablet. Watch and listen to music while you shower, or take a call while you soak in the tub. The […]

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Control your entire house with the Revolv system

By Janet Cloninger / September 17, 2013 / News / Gear, Home and Kitchen, Home Automation / Leave a Comment

If you’ve started trying to automate your house and find you’ve now got a variety of systems doing various tasks, you should check out the Revolv Smart Home Solution. Simply power up the Revolv hub in your home, and it uses the proprietary FlashLink system to join your local network (you’ll need to enter the

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Charge an emergency flashlight in your bed-side lamp’s socket

By Janet Cloninger / September 15, 2013 / News / Emergency preparedness, Flashlight, Home and Kitchen, LED lighting / 5 Comments

Here’s a new one for me. This low-heat LED lightbulb from the MoMA Store becomes an emergency flashlight when you need one. It screws into a standard socket, and it produces as much light as a 40W bulb using only 6W of electricity. The LEDs will produces up to 60,000 hours of light. When you

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Xtreme Life DVR and Landscape Stone Surveillance Camera review

By Bill Kuch / September 15, 2013 / Reviews / Camera gear, Home and Kitchen, Home Security, Surveillance / 11 Comments

I’ve been searching for a way to keep an eye on my summer cabin while we’re not in residence, and the Xtreme Life Landscape Stone from KJB Security products would seem to be the answer. It claims to provide unattended surveillance with minimal operator intervention and ease of operation. I guess we’ll have to see about that…

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Ostrich pillows now for the whole family!

By Morgan Bornstein / September 12, 2013 / News / Home and Kitchen, Kid Gadgets, Pillow / 5 Comments

What started off as a “concept piece” apparently found a niche somewhere, as the oddly shaped and worn Ostrich pillow has now produced an offspring: Ostrich Pillow Junior. This pillow is exactly the same as its big daddy, just sized smaller and in two “kid friendly” interior lining colors – red with white polka dots and

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Archimedes would be moved by the STRONG LIKE BULL Bottle Opener

By Andy Jacobs / September 12, 2013 / News / Bottle opener, Crowdfunded, Home and Kitchen / 4 Comments

The ancient Greek scientist and mathematician Archimedes is attributed as stating “Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I will move the world!” If so, Archimedes would probably have liked drinking beer with Brian Conti, creator of a crowdfunded Kickstarter project to produce a unique bottle opener.

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Grow your own food on your windowsill

By Janet Cloninger / September 10, 2013 / News / Home and Kitchen, Plants / 8 Comments

There’s a hydroponics supply store near my house, but I’ve never been in there because I always think of illegal substances when I think of in-home hydroponics systems. These planter boxes from Modern Sprout take hydroponics out of the musty basements and put them on your windowsill. They may look like simple wooden boxes, but

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Make personalized gift wrapping paper with your own photos

By Janet Cloninger / September 3, 2013 / News / Home and Kitchen, Photo keepsake / Leave a Comment

We’ve told you about a variety of products that you personalize with your own photos – books, stretched canvas, 3-d figures – but I’ve never seen this product before. GiftSkins lets you make custom gift wrapping paper using your own images. You can even add a personalized message, so your paper will be absolutely perfect

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Technogel Sleeping Anatomic Pillow review

By Julie Strietelmeier / September 1, 2013 / Reviews / Home and Kitchen, Pillow / 20 Comments

The average person gets 8hrs of sleep per day, that means most of us end up spending a 1/3rd of our lives in bed. If you spend that much time doing any activity, you should be as comfortable as possible right? Technogel Sleeping products have been designed with the mission of “making your world more comfortable”. I

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Unikia offers unique products that protect your lunch

By Julie Strietelmeier / August 31, 2013 / News / Home and Kitchen / 6 Comments

If your lunch is as important to you as it should be, you probably want to protect it from possible mayhem. Norwegian based Unikia offers all sorts of innovative products, but their unique variety of food containers is what first caught my eye. The Compleat Robust is a lunch box that features an impact resistant shell, a

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Walhub is an easy way to add storage to your light switch

By Julie Strietelmeier / August 30, 2013 / News / Home and Kitchen, Organization, Storage / 1 Comment

When you live in a small house or apartment, storage space is a valuable commodity that has to be managed well, or your house might end up looking like an episode of Hoarders. That’s why I love the concept of the Walhub. It is a replacement faceplate for single and double gang wall switches that

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Maintain your close-cropped hairstyle without visiting a barber

By Janet Cloninger / August 23, 2013 / News / Gear, Home and Kitchen, personal grooming / 8 Comments

Okay, this looks like a tragedy waiting to happen, but Hammacher Schlemmer is offering a device that is designed to let you cut your own hair. The Single Handed Barber uses a “rotary cutting system and razor-sharp stainless steel blades” to cut your close-cropped hair as you move the device over your head in a

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Monitor who’s at the door with the Doorphone 870 video doorbell

By Janet Cloninger / August 22, 2013 / News / Home and Kitchen, Home Security / Leave a Comment

The Gadgeteer has told you about some WiFi-connected doorbells that allow you to answer the door from anywhere in the world, but what if you just want to see and talk to the person at the door before you open the door? The Doorphone 870 (SWHOM-DP870C)from Swann shows you color video and allows 2-way conversation with

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Answer your doorbell from your mobile device

By Janet Cloninger / August 19, 2013 / News / Crowdfunded, Home and Kitchen, Home Security / 1 Comment

This is an indiegogo crowd-funding project. The iDoorCam is a WiFi-enabled doorbell that works with an iOS or Android app so you can see, hear, and talk with people on your doorstep. You connect the iDoorCam to the wiring for your existing doorbell, connect it to your WiFi network, and then you’ll be able to

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Boxxle Bag-in-Box wine dispenser review

By Bill Kuch / August 14, 2013 / Reviews / Beverage, Home and Kitchen, Wine accessory / 6 Comments

I have a confession to make. Before this review, I’ve never consumed wine from a cardboard box container. It’s not that I’m a wine snob, it’s just that the limited number of wines I enjoy, only come in bottles. So, the makers of the Boxxle provided me with their 3 liter bag-in-box dispenser so that I could

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Reliable Überlight 9000C SMD LED Task Light review

By Andy Chen / August 11, 2013 / Reviews / Home and Kitchen, LED Light / 2 Comments

Need a task light for your desk or workspace but want something that runs cool? The Reliable Überlight 9000C SMD LED Task Light is something you should consider. Let’s shine some light on this one.

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Cuppow BNTO – turn a canning jar into a Bento Box

By Julie Strietelmeier / August 10, 2013 / News / Food, Home and Kitchen, Storage / 2 Comments

If you’re looking to join the upcycle movement and make sure your cookies and milk don’t turn into soggy cookie soup before you can enjoy them, you need to check out the Cuppow BNTO canning jar lunchbox adapter. It’s a 6 oz BPA, BPS and phthalate free food-grade recycled plastic cup that fits into a

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Fizzy Farm planters bring the garden indoors

By Julie Strietelmeier / August 6, 2013 / News / Food, gardening, Home and Kitchen, Outdoor Gear / Leave a Comment

Ever since my cancer adventure a couple years ago (I can’t believe it’s been that long…), I’ve changed a lot of things in my diet in order to become healthier. I cut out 95% of the diet soda that I drink by carrying a Bubba Brands Hero bottle full of iced tea to work every

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Efergy Engage Wireless Energy Monitor review

By Bill Kuch / August 5, 2013 / Reviews / Home and Kitchen, Wireless / 31 Comments

I’m always looking for ways to cut down on my monthly expenses, and one of the areas I’ve been having a problem controlling is electricity consumption. The issue is that we don’t really know what’s keeping our bill so high, making it difficult to affect changes. There are energy monitoring devices available, but most of

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Philips compact fluorescent bulbs with built-in photocell automatically turn on your porch lights

By Janet Cloninger / July 31, 2013 / News / Home and Kitchen, Home Automation, Home Security, Outdoor Gear / 15 Comments

I recently reviewed the Belkin WeMo Switch and said it was one of the steps I was taking to automate my home and increase its security. The Switches work great to control lamps plugged into outlets inside my house, but my porch lights don’t plug in to an outlet. I had first thought that I

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