appliances

Some people complain that smartphones are too large or that even some tablets are too big. You might wonder if they're going to complain about something that's actually the size of a table as well. Ideum has quite a number of such touch-enabled smart tables, but the new Duet has a very particular feat. It is touted to be the world's first such "smart furniture" that brings both Windows 8 and Android to the table, literally. How long that will be the case is something yet to be seen.

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Robot vacuum cleaners seem to be going through a shape evolution. The very first ones were little more than fancy and thick cylinders that roamed around your house cleaning almost every nook and cranny. Them some got classier and started sporting a more industrial, box-type body. Now someone is trying to go with a triangle. Yes, Pananosic's upcoming Rulo robot vacuum cleaner has a rather odd triangular chassis, but don't be so quick to pan that as a gimmick, as it has been thoughtfully designed to reach even corners.

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Washing clothes is a simple matter when at home, but becomes more difficult or unnecessarily expensive when traveling. You might have resorted to washing a shirt or two in the sink in a moment of desperation, and with the Dolfi you'll largely repeat that process, only with one big difference: the inclusion of ultrasonic tech, which is delivered by a handheld device about the size and shape of a bar of soap. Clothes are promised to be clean after about half an hour, no agitation or scrubbing necessary.

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Coffee is a morning staple for many, and there are a few different ways you can get it. There are french presses and pour over contraptions for the discerning bunch among us, and there are drip brewers with nearly every function and design imaginable. Also popular are Keurig makers, which use K-cups and are exceptionally fast ways to get a cup. Speeding that latter process up just a bit more is GE's new Cafe Series French Door fridge, which features an integrated Keurig coffee maker in the door.

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A load of lights, a smaller load of darks, and time wasted. That’s how laundry time goes for many of us, but LG wants to put a stop to it. Today at CES, LG is rolling out a new washer, but this one os unlike anything you have seen before. Rather than create some sort of super-fast washing cycle, LG is taking advantage of wasted space. the pedestal you’ve got your washing machine on can now be a smaller washing machine!

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Bitter rivalries between South Korea's LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics reached a potential tipping-point on Friday, as prosecutors raided the former's headquarters over accusations of destroying the later's appliances ahead of a media event. Samsung had reported to authorities in Korean capital Seoul that several LG employees were seen deliberately damaging a number of their premium washing machines. The incident took place in German retail stores in September, shortly before the Berlin-hosted IFA electronics show.

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There is no shortage of coffee makers to choose from, and they come in all styles, ranging from single-cup brewers for those who don't consume much to large machines intended for commercial workplaces. Few exist that can withstand harsh environments, however, leaving those looking to take one camping, to a construction site, or through a mini apocalypse with few options. Enter Oxx, a company that has debuted its Coffeeboxx, a rugged coffee maker you can set a car on, throw around, and accidentally blow up.

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The love of home cooked meals is often foiled by the reality of burnt home-cooked meals, and the folks behind Pantelligent want to change that. Pantelligent is a smart frying pan that communicates with a mobile app to take would-be chefs step-by-step through the cooking process, including things like monitoring temperature levels, alerting when the food needs to be flipped, and giving a heads-up about what step will need to be taken next. This is largely achieved through an integrated temperature sensor.

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If you're looking to add a bit of smart functionality to your home but aren't interested in swapping out your existing devices, the folks behind Roost might have the solution. Roost is a 9v battery that connects your "dumb" smoke alarms to your WiFi network so that alerts are shuttled off to your smartphone, where you can see if they're going off and in which part of the house the detector is located. It also eliminates low-battery chirping that starts late at night, among other things.

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If you've ever used an induction stove or cooktop, you know they mostly only have good things to offer: it's less likely you'll burn your dinner because heat is more evenly distributed, and you don't have to worry about someone touching a hot surface and being burned. Their biggest downside is the same one that comes with any technology that is both silent and invisible, however: it is hard to tell anything about what is going on due to the lack of visual cues. Samsung has used a method to get around this that is definitely in the realm of "futuristic".

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Dyson is really spreading its wings as far as its product lineup goes. Just last month it introduced to the world its first robot vacumm cleaner, the 360 Eye. Now, it is doing so again but with a humidifier. It doesn't have an ominous sounding name and is simply called the Dyson Humidifier. That doesn't mean, however, that it is any less interesting. This humidifier, which resembles and doubles as a bladeless fan, not only keeps your air cozily humid, it also kills germs before it distributes those water particles as well.

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Unlike conventional smoke detectors, or thermostats, Nest's products can gain new features without having to buy and install a completely new device. That is the case here with version 2.0 of the software for the Nest Protect, giving it a couple of new features that not only help owners weed out false alarms but also learn from the past.

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