[Image credit: Steve Jacobsen]

I’m all for convenience. I don’t wash my clothes by hand, or perform my own complicated single-set plays for evening entertainment instead of turning on the TV. If I need to travel the country, I’ll use a train or a car instead of channeling my inner Taylor Lautner and loping across great distances like a wolf. The common factor across each of those devices is that they can do their tasks better than I can in other, more manual ways.

That’s not the case with pod coffee: they’re selling you convenience, yes, but you’re also agreeing to a compromise on taste. Sure, they’re probably better than a spoonful of instant dunked into boiling water, certainly less stomach-churning than those cappuccino-in-a-sachet where the foam is made by bicarb. But, for all the hyperbole and George Clooney, they’re not great coffee.

Hang around any of the coffee boards online and you’ll soon come across the rule of fifteens. Green, unfrosted coffee beans stay good for about fifteen months. Roasted, whole beans are probably good for about fifteen days. Once you grind them, you’ve got fifteen minutes before the all-important oils – the things that give you the true taste, the real crema, the complexity of properly prepared coffee – are evaporated and wasted. The guy in the cafe who scoops you out a couple of spoonfuls of preground coffee when you ask for decaf? He’s serving you stale coffee.

When was the coffee in your Senseo pad, or your Nespresso capsule, or your Keurig K-Cup roasted and ground? There’s a best-before date on the packet, yes, but that’s going to give the manufacturer the broadest possible window to sell each pod. Figure on 15 minutes, and the pods would be out of date before they’d even reached their packaging.

Here’s the thing: it really takes very little effort to get a better cup of coffee than a pod machine. You don’t even have to spend $2,000 on a huge, shiny Italian espresso machine. Here are my top three alternatives to pod coffee, each cheaper and practically as easy the machine you might covet for your counter.

Clever Coffee Dripper

Drip coffee has been around for a long time, and the plastic cones that sit on top of a cup can be picked up for a couple of dollars. Spend $15, however, and you can get a whole lot more control over the flavor of your morning brew. Shaped like an oversized cone, the Clever Coffee Dripper takes a standard paper filter (I like to rinse it at least once, preferably in the cone and with boiling water, to wash away any lingering “papery” taste) but holds the brew until you sit the whole thing on top of your mug.

A nifty little valve in the base is opened by the mug and lets the coffee run out. If you’ve ever dismissed drip coffee because it’s not sufficiently potent for your tastes, the Clever Coffee Dripper allows you to leave the brew sitting for as long as you like, getting stronger all the time. Plus clean-up is simple: dump the filter into the trash, give the cone a rinse and you’re done.

AeroPress

Not quite filter, not quite espresso, but special in its own way: the AeroPress looks like a bovine-scale syringe but actually lets you create concentrated – and delicious – coffee for $25. Screw in an (included) paper filter at one end, pour coffee and boiling water into the other, stir, and then push through the inner tube, forcing the brew into your cup.

The end result can be diluted with more water, used as a concentrate for cooking, chilled for iced coffee or just enjoyed as a pseudo-espresso. The sturdy plastic means you can drop the AeroPress into a suitcase when you’re traveling, too. When you’re finished, ditch the old coffee and the filter into the trash, rinse the tube through with water and that’s it.

French Press

Pod coffee makes plenty of speed boasts, but if you’re making drinks for a few people the one-at-a-time process can make serving staggered. A French Press (aka press pot or cafetiere) serves multiple people at the same time, and like the Clever Coffee Dripper you can experiment with how long you leave the coffee in contact with the water (and thus the final taste and strength).

Preparation is easy: drop in the coffee, pour over water, give a quick stir and then wait four minutes or so before plunging. Clean-up can be a little more fiddly than with either of the other two methods, though it’s easier if you pick a dishwasher-safe model.

The important thing with all three of these methods is to use fresh beans. You might get lucky and find a roaster nearby – remember, the “best before” date on that coffee in huge hoppers in the supermarket doesn’t tell you anything; what you really want to know is when the beans were roasted – but if not there are plenty of good places online to order coffee and have it shipped just a day or two after it comes out the roaster.

If you’re in the US, Intelligentsia is a good place to start, while Hasbean in the UK has some great choices. They’re certainly not the only options; feel free to speak up in the comments if you have a favorite roaster or vendor.

When you’ve got your beans, then you need to grind them. A proper espresso machine demands a burr grinder – crunching beans between carefully balanced burrs makes sure they’re suitably fine and consistent – but any of the three methods above can be paired with a simple blade grinder. You can grab one of those for under $20.

Rather than forcing you to pick from vaguely-titled “Colombian” or “Italian Roast” pods, any decent roaster will be able to tell you not only about the various flavors but where their coffee comes from, the growing and drying process, how they decided to roast the raw beans in order to bring out the best of them. You want more flavor? Throw in some syrup. Unlike with pods, where you’re basically limited to whatever taste options the manufacturer decides will suit the mass market, going straight to beans gives a far broader range to choose from.

I know the appeal of a shiny new gadget for the kitchen. The choice of Tassimo, Keurig, Senseo and other machines is huge, and the manufacturers have certainly been quick to make them glossy and attractive. My geek-lust can certainly kick in over them, even though I know the actual coffee they produce is underwhelming.

If you can resist, though; if you can channel your fetish for buttons and automation into something else – something where automation actually adds an advantage – then your taste buds will thank you. Your wallet may thank you as well: those pods, many of which are proprietary, add up too. Convenience has its place, but sometimes you lose much more than you gain.

This spray is amazing, comes in several lovely colors, and is both without odor and without taste. Food Finish is what it’s called, and it was developed by a group called The Deli Garage in collaboration with a small food factory that generally specializes in high-quality fine pastries with otherwise also-odd food colorings. And before you ask – yes, more than likely if you spray this stuff on a wall, it’ll wash off if you lick it. But don’t quote me on that. The Snozberries taste like Snozberries.

Right this minute there are four colors, each of them sort of chrome-like, red and blue, then the obvious gold and silver. Right this minute you can pick up a single can for approximately $34 USD plus whatever shipping ends up being. Of course, again, they’re only available in parts of Europe, and again, you can’t get them shipped to the USA. Also I’ve been told by a close associate of mine that we don’t know everything there is to know yet about regular food coloring and dyes, so I wouldn’t truly recommend using these sprays without taking them to the science labs first.

[via TrendLand]

The tray has space for six little cubes and one larger cube of ice. I can only assume that large cube is for a punch bowl, or a really, really big glass. The tray comes by way of a Japanese company called Kotobukiya. You can order the tray up right now and it is even on sale.

The tray goes for $13.50 and if you want a different style, you can also get R2-D2 trays too. These are the ice trays you are looking for. If they only had a Death Star punch bowl to go with these it would make for the perfect geek party.

This little cutie is a pretty darn good replica of the original version which, believe it or not, is a whole lot bigger. As the artist shows, you don’t necessarily have to plop a drop of mixed alchol in there, you can use this little guy for everything from jellybeans to SD cards – or a single roll of film would work too. Can you imagine all the things you’d think of to drop in?

Then again, you could toss back a few shots of whiskey and go on a photo hunt, I suppose that wouldn’t be the worst idea should you remain safe on the jaunt. The best part about this entire situation is that the shot glasses are for sale, they’re inexpensive, and they come in a set of three. Just head over to the Awesomeness section at Photojojo and drop $18 for the win!

And don’t forget to pick up a set for your ol’ friend yours truly!

I bet you can get it through one of those randomly super tight drink lids that make plastic straws explode too. The cool part is that you can wash the straw so you always know no one has had it in their nose and then put it back in the box. I think this would be perfect for vampires with a little modding.

Sharpen the straw to a point and you could be drinking blood neater in a jiffy. If you want one of these straws, you can pick it up at ThinkGeek for $15. That is a lot of loot for a straw, but they are made from titanium and don’t get hot or cold. The downside is if you miss your straw while talking to someone and it goes up your nose, you might puncture your brain.

[via Technabob]

I have taken to making s’mores in the microwave, but it turns out that microwaved marshmallows and shaving cream have something in common. Shaving cream continues to grow and grown so what starts out as a little ends up being enough to shave a horse’s butt. A nuked marshmallow tends to grow in the same manner; I believe this is how the Stay Puffed marshmallow man came to be. What I need is this dedicated S’mores maker to get the perfect blend of slightly brown and properly mushy marshmallow.

You can cram up to 12 marshmallows onto the sticks it comes with. Once they are properly cooked, you can slide them onto your crackers and munch away. You do need to have a serious s’mores fetish to have a dedicated machine and honestly, it looks like you could do the same with your toaster oven. You can get the S’mores Maker for $39.

[via Redferret]

We used to have fights when I was a kid over who got to use the corncob holders at my house shaped like corncobs. I can’t imagine the fights the Cornobi would have caused. The only downside is that it only puts a handle on one side of the cob. Typically, you need a handle on each side to get a good grip. You will have to eat this thing like an ice cream cone.

The top of the lightsaber has three prongs that stab into the corncob to keep it steady. This might be only marginally useful, but I would so buy it. It would look great in the drawer next to my Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter. Check out the parody video as bizarre as the Cornobi below.

[via Craziestgadgets]

This would be the perfect wine opening implement to sit on your fancy bar beside that fancy Personal Brewery I talked about last week that makes your own beer. That beer-making device was very expensive at over $4,000 and this corkscrew from Code-38 is much cheaper at only $210 – $440 depending on what version you pick. This Code-38 offering will also pop the top off a wine cooler for your less genteel pals.

The Code-38 offering is said to be stylish, very well made, and have a solid heft. I think you could buy a life’s worth of cheap corkscrews for the same price. The cheapest $220 version is made from stainless steel and has a strong cork pulling part that is apparently called the worm. The high-end $410 version is the Pro Stealth and it has “a complete blend of blasted textures and vaporized titanium-based finishes.” At that price is should come with a beautiful serving girl each time you use it.

[via NYTimes]

Weight-based dosing has been something of a holy grail for coffee addicts over the years. The problem with traditional grinders is that, even if you know exactly the weight of the coffee beans going in at the top, you can’t be sure how much – after you lose some sticking to the mill, to the coffee chute, etc – will come out for the eventual brew. Timed grinding, where you preset a length of time for the grinder to be active, leads to the inevitable variances with different beans and in each different grind.

“You’re the home barista. You geek out on coffee, you measure everything. You weigh everything. You time everything. Meanwhile, your spouse just wants a good cup of coffee. This is one more step to he or she being able to have that, on their own, thanks to the grinder doing the weighing for them. You program in the weights and set the preset buttons (there’s three). In the morning, your spouse just has to hit one button and voila, the grinder has ground out an exact dose for their morning press pot. Or morning espresso. No muss, no fuss, no scales, no obsessive compulsive home coffee geek looking over their shoulders.” Mark Prince, CoffeeGeek

What Baratza has done is integrate a tiny weighing mechanism into a base plate – designed, in the case of the Esatto, to have an existing Maestro Plus, Virtuoso and Preciso grinder to sit on top – which takes over control of the grinding process and shuts it off when a preset weight is achieved. The Esatto uses basic power cycling to control the grinder on top, while the Vario-E actually integrates everything into a single unit for those who don’t already have a Baratza grinder.

The Baratza Esatto is expected to go on sale in June 2011, priced at $149. As for the Vario-E, that’s expected to add $100 to the cost of a regular Baratza Vario, making it around $549 in the same timescale.

It’s made from stainless steel and looks the business for sure. It has all sorts of fancy knobs and dials on the top and a tap that you can put your mug under to get at your own personally brewed beverage. The big catch to this thing is the price; it sells for about $4,500 here in the states.

The cool part is that all of the steps of the brewing process from fermentation, to carbonation and serving are handled in this one single unit. It takes about a week from start to drunk for you to taste your own brew. This thing even chills the beer for you to drink a nice frosty one after a hard day.

[via Uncrate]

That lets out all the juice and leads to a dry steak, which again can get you shot. What you need to avoid overcooking that beef is one of these Steak Buttons. This is a little thermometer that you can poke into the steak that is graded in something that steak fans can understand.

Rather than just listing degrees in a range and you having to figure out of 160-degrees is medium or medium well. This thing just says rare, medium, and well. The lines between will represent medium-rare and medium-well. Just don’t mess around and end on the far side of that well mark. You can get four of them for $20.

[via Uncrate]

The toaster is made in China, and sells for £50 at Firebox.com in the UK. It doesn’t seem to be available in the US right now. Maybe an item like this would have more appeal in Britain, where folks are more serious about their toast. Other crazy toasters that have been seen across the pond: a toaster with an attached egg poacher, a scan toaster the lets you print a customized pattern on your toast, and a toaster that could toast a graphic of the day’s weather prediction on a slice of bread.

[via The Telegraph]

The opener is really cool and very simple. It has a bottle on the bottom of the opener that acts as a handle. When you put the opener on your bottle and pry the lid off that lid will fall down into the handle bottle of the opener.

If you are the sort that likes to run down what you had to drink at the party the night before this will help you keep tabs of those too. There is no word on this thing actually coming to market, but it certainly looks like it would be easy enough to make.

[via YankoDesign

The SmartShopper has been around for a while now. However, has just been updated with a new design and a new price. The design is more modern looking and the thing sells for less than it used to at $79.99. The core functionality of the SmartShopper is still the same though with a voice recognition system that allows you to make a list that prints just by pressing a button and speaking your list.

The gadget automatically separates what you tell it you need into sections so you don’t end up running from one side of the store to the other and back to get all your dairy and other items. All dairy products are together, paper products and so on. The device also has a flag that allows you to note when you have coupons for something. An integrated thermal printer spits out your list so no ink cartridges are needed. The device uses four AA batteries and replacement paper can be purchased from SmartshopperUSA.

Video demo after the cut

Sanyo has managed it by slotting in a cutting blade as well as the usual dough hook, and adding a second compartment – built into the lid – which dumps the rest of the ingredients into the mixture once the grains have been suitably shredded. The whole process takes about four hours from rice to fresh loaf.

There’s something gloriously hypnotic about the grains of rice being ground up into first a fine powder and then a paste in the video below, so we’re glad to hear Sanyo is planning on launching the GOPAN internationally sometime in 2011.

[via OhGizmo!]

The Click n Cook is a modular spatula and cooking utensil thingy that is really cool. You have a handle that removes from the individual attachment heads allowing you to get all the cooking utensils you need with one handle and less space.

The kit comes with one handle, a flat spatula, a long slotted spatula, an extra-wide slotted spatula, a flexible mixer, and a slotted spoon. The storage base and all pieces are available right now for $35. Check out the video below for a look at how the product came to be.

Sure, the cutter is molded after the Enterprise from the original series, but I can let that slide. The cutter is an officially licensed Star Trek item and has a laser etched stainless steel blade bearing the NCC-1701 markings. The cutter is hand wash only.

The cutter is designed and made exclusively for ThinkGeek and has a 4-inch blade diameter. The total length of the cutter including the blade is 4-inches and it weighs of the cutter is 277 grams. This is the perfect thing for cutting your Tribble pie.

Quirky has a new product that is sort of silly at first glance, but if you cook a lot of foods that require boiling water the thing is actually pretty cool. The product is called the BoilBuoy; it is a purple and clear bell that you put in your pot of water. It floats there on a weighed bottom with a foam core for buoyancy.

When the water starts to boil the chime inside the BoilBuoy starts to ring to let you know that your water is ready. The BoilBuoy is 125mm tall and 85mm wide and is made from 100% food and heat safe materials. You can preorder one of the 1492, that will be made for $9.99 and 183 have already been sold.

Inside, a rechargeable battery would head up the water and then push it through a Nespresso pre-packaged coffee pod.  That makes for minimal mess, and you can either fill the integrated water tank before you leave the house or detach it mid-journey should you come across a water supply.

Unfortunately, despite seemingly being designed back in 2007, nobody has leapt onto Hopfgartner’s concept and turned it into a real product.  For shame, Nespresso licensees, for shame!

[via UberGizmo]

The Zipel is designed to combine your traditional oven, a microwave, and even a steamer, and package it all in a nicely-designed box. And considering the steamer function, along with everything else, the Zipel is perfectly capable of cooking pretty much anything you’d ever want to eat, even if it is healthy. And with touch controls on the front, you won’t have to worry about any pesky dials.

Just to tantalize us even more, Samsung even included voice activation. It comes with over 160 settings, so you don’t actually have to try and cook your favorite macaroni and cheese dish — it’ll take care of that for you. The Zipel will sell for just under $600 for the full rig, including the steamer functionality. But if you don’t think you’ll ever use that, you can get a steam-less version for just around $250. That price seems more than reasonable, especially if students all over the place start getting rid of their hot plates.

[via OhGizmo!]

Most nutcrackers today are metal things that look like pliers and crush the nuts. A new concept nutcracker has been designed that looks like some sort of nut free baser’s bong. The thing has a tall glass tube.

You drop the nut into the bottom of that tube where it sits on a metal base. You then drop a metal weight down the tube and crush the nut to break off the shell. That seems like an ornate way to do it when you could just stomp it or throw it at your brother’s head to crack it.

The bottle is made from Bamboo and glass. The bamboo wood is used to cover the inner glass bottle for looks and protection. Bamboo is a green and renewable resource. The glass bottle can be reused over and over, plus it is dishwasher safe.

The bottle is BPA free and holds 17 ounces of liquid. It is 10.25-inches tall and 3.125-inhces in diameter. The cap, bottom, and nut of the Bamboo Bottle are made from plastic that is completely recyclable and made from FDA food-grade materials. You can pick up your own Bamboo Bottle now for $25.

Out go the traditional slots and in come two bread-shaped depressions and a pair of toasting-paddles.  We’re guessing the dial at the front adjusts how well toasted the bread gets (or, if mis-used, how serious the burns on your chest are).

Unfortunately this is all a design exercise and not a commercial product, but as a potential “congratulations on graduating medical school” gift it has real appeal.  Just make sure you keep it and the real thing separate: the last thing you want is a whole load of Joules through your thick-sliced harvest granery.

[via DesignBoom]

The espresso machine is functional and will make your highly caffeinated hot beverage. Rather then being made from plastic or high-end stainless steel the thing has a body made from concrete.

Concrete touching my drink sounds gross to me. The good news is that the espresso and water apparently don’t actually touch the concrete. You put the water into a water drawer where it is made into the dark and smelly beverage. Apparently, the coffee beans are in contact with the concrete before they are ground.

Hammacher Schlemmer has announced a product called The Healthiest Deep Fryer. That sounds like an oxymoron, but compared to a normal deep fryer I can see where the name comes from.

The Healthiest Deep Fryer needs only one tablespoon of oil for fry up two pounds of crispy fries or other food. The thing claims to make fries with only 3% fat compared to the 14% fat content of fires made with a normal fryer. Tech in the kitchen great it! The only downside to this thing is that it costs right at $300. You had better really like fries to get your monies worth.

I am thinking if I had this new waffle iron from Triangular Concept that makes roughly triangular waffles on a stick, I might be able to save myself a bit of time. The waffle iron cooks the waffle goodness on a stick. This would work well at the carnival next to the fried Snickers bar on a stick.

The clean up of all those little grooves in the waffle iron would be a massive pain in the rear. The waffle iron will cook four of the waffles at once in less than two minutes.

via The Trendy girl

With that touchscreen – and the Zipel’s WiFi b/g support – you can browse the internet, stream media via DLNA, take notes and even pull up nutritional information for more than 500 different types of food.  It’ll also show Google Calendar entries and weather reports, again with internet updates, as well as news alerts and other articles.  Slap in a memory card (no telling what type) or hook up some sort of wireless storage and the Samsung Zipel can show a slideshow of your favorite photos, which is frankly much better than sticking on rubbish painted pasta pictures that your offspring comes home with and expects you to fawn over.

Unfortunately, this sort of 21st century magic doesn’t come cheap.  Samsung will be launching the Zipel refrigerator in South Korea with a 2.49 million won price tag ($2,182) which makes for a darned expensive way of looking at pictures and keeping your paté chilled.  You could, of course, recreate your own version by sticking a WiFi photo frame or iPad to the front of your existing fridge, though we doubt you’d get a happy Korean lady to come and sit next to such a style travesty.

[via Tech Ticker]

The thing is a curly tube with an open slide that you hand from a cabinet or ceiling. When you want an apple, you take one from the slide and the others roll towards the front for easy access. The thing should work with other similarly sized fruit like oranges.

Looking at the gadget I am wondering how exactly the fruit on the end of the slide is kept from falling over the edge, like when that paper dispenser built into the end of a 12-pack of soda suddenly breaks sending all your beverages onto the floor. The device looks cool and those are certainly some nice apples in the picture.

Beyond that scant description and the WiFi b/g 2.4GHz support we’re in the dark about the white appliance’s specifications, but then again this isn’t What Fridge? you’re reading.  We’re guessing a straightforward embedded digital photo frame in one of the Samsung’s doors, to which you can stream photos either locally on the network or from various internet galleries; hopefully there’ll be some internet access for recipes, too.

[via Ubergizmo]

A mug-worth of water goes into the flip-up lid at the top, while your coffee pod – or “coffee pad” as they call it – goes into the cassette above the mug.  Press the button and it heats the water, pushes it through the coffee and hurrah, you’ve got your drink.

While this looks like something you’d see in a design magazine as a concept but not an actual production product, the best thing is you can actually buy the WMF1.  We’re not sure how much it retails for, but it’s available in kiwi, berry, stone, silver and black.

Update: Kenneth tells us it ranges from €79-99, depending on color.  Full pricing here.

[flv]http://www.wmf.de/wmf/upload/html_includes/wmf1spot/flashvideo.flv[/flv]

[via The Red Ferret Journal]

Video demo after the cut

There it does duty as a web-access point, a media player and more, with desktop widgets showing things like time and calendar entries.  On the inside of the cupboard there’s a custom box that hinges open to reveal the Eee PC’s keyboard, together with cabling neatly tidied up and away for power and sound.

Considering how cheaply you can pick up a second-hand netbook on eBay these days, together with touchscreen kits being under $100, this looks a fantastic mod for the kitchen.  Oh, and can we just say we’re loving the bizarre German music in the video, too.

[via jkkmobile]

Those controls can be used to set various automation features, including straightforward alarms or even timed boil cycles.  That way, when Princess Michael of Kent shows up at 2pm exactly, you’ll know you have enough hot water for her Cup-a-Soup.

You can also set various temperatures from the handle, ranging from 113 degrees F through to 212 (45 to 100 degrees C) and of course it’s cordless with a 360-degree base.  The Bugatti Vera Electric Kettle goes on sale in September, priced at a reasonable (if you’re comparing it to their cars; pants-wettingly expensive if you’re comparing it to other kettles) £185 ($300).

[via OhGizmo!]

While that does mean you can’t really use your grandmother’s favorite pancake recipe, it also reduces clean-up issues and – since the bags can sit for a year on an unrefrigerated shelf without spoiling – adds convenience.  The unit is around the size of a microwave and consists of two teflon-coated rollers which shuttle the tender, fledgeling pancakes from nozzle to plate.

Those pancakes, incidentally, are 97-percent fat free and contain less than 83 calories apiece.  Unfortunately you’re looking at $3,500 for the machine itself, which thankfully for those I share my kitchen with puts it well out of my reach.

[via OhGizmo!]

This new model measures in at 18.5-inches and sports a 720p resolution with a built-in DVD player. Also included is a TV tuner that supports ATSC, NTSC and QAM. Likewise, the DVD player supports numerous formats including MP3, WMA and DiVX.

Inputs include VGA and HDMI. Other specs are a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a 5ms response time, a 170-degree horizontal and 160-degree vertical viewing angle and 300cd/m2 brightness. You can get the 19LV612U starting in September for about $350.

It actually makes more than a little sense to use a touchscreen rather than rotary or push-button controls, before you accuse Oster of pandering to the latest interface fetish.  Since the display is flat and crevice-free, it’s easy to wipe clean and keep free of old food that could present a future hygiene hazard.

Otherwise it’s a pretty standard blender, albeit one powerful enough to crush ice and frozen drinks.  Oster even give you some pre-programmed settings for common tasks, and the all-metal mechanism promises lengthy employment in your kitchen.  Now, to find a touchscreen kettle.

The Oster eLume Touchscreen blender is available now, priced at $69.99.

[via CNET]

Each station has its own temperature controls. This is so convenient. I mean, if you’re cooking for a bunch of people, and want to grill up more than steaks but sides too, the extra grills could be used at different temps for different items like corn or kabobs.

This grill is capable of grilling, stir frying, steaming, smoking and rotisserie. And it folds up just by pushing a button. How futuristic! So, how much do you have to pay for 1,200 square inches of cooking space? About $4,000. Good luck to Hampton Grills selling that in this economy!

[via Born Rich]

Equipped with wireless Internet, this kitchen gadget features a digital cookbook and recipe collection built right in from Bon Appetit. It also has a built in HDTV and can act as a digital photo frame. You can watch TV or have your photo collections display on the screen. You can also surf the web, while you’re at it.

Other features include a 5-in-1 card reader, 1GB of memory and a 15.6-inch touchscreen. The touchscreen thing is convenient, but I hope it has some sort of splatter-proof coating. That would be a mess. You can get the Pandigital Kitchen Technology Center now for $449.99. Yeah, that sounded like a lot to us, too.

For those that just can’t stand to be away from their technology, even while in the kitchen, this Samsung fridge is right for you. With a 7-inch touchscreen LCD built right into the door, you can control your refrigerator from the outside.

You can control the refrigerator’s temperature and check on the water filter, of course. But even more impressive, you can access a calendar, keep your schedule, view nutrition facts, view photos and even check unit conversions for those cooking emergencies. Besides all of the techie goodness, this fridge also features a 28.5 cubic foot capacity. LED lighting is incorporated as well for great energy savings and brighter lighting. The Samsung RFG299 is available now in black and white and stainless platinum colors for $3,099.

This new device is a rangehood outfitted with a 10-inch LCD monitor. That way you can look at a screen right above your stove. Talk about convenient. And with it up high like that, it’s out of the way of splatter and food particles, unlike screens that sit on counters.

The LCD screen can be controlled by means of a wireless remote and you will need to hook up cable to it. There are AV inputs as well, so a DVD player hook up is a possibility, if you find it necessary to have a kitchen DVD player. No word on availability or price yet, unfortunately.

[via Coolest Gadgets]

The Demy Digital Recipe Reader is fairly small and has a touchscreen display for easy use. The interface looks like it belongs in the kitchen and features a recipe database for those looking for new culinary inspiration.

There is also built-in memory, so you can store 2,500 recipes. You can transfer them by means of a USB transfer. The plastic exterior is splash resistant and the device features three cooking timers, a substitutions database and a conversion tool. You can pre-order it now for $299 and it will be available by the end of the month.

[via OhGizmo!]