iRobot's Roomba robots already suck: now they can spit, too. The iRobot Braava Jet isn't rude, though, it's actually intended for bathroom and kitchen floors, as well as rooms with wood and laminate surfaces. Cheaper than its vacuum siblings, it's also considerably smaller so that it can dart behind your toilet. I cornered it in a bathroom to see how it worked.
I'll be honest, I'm pretty lazy when it comes to my food. If there's a shortcut that I can take, without losing too much on the flavor side, I'll take it. The only thing I really struggle with in that department is butter. I hate scraping cold butter over toast, but I'm also not a fan of the artificial butter-substitutes that you can spray (yes, I can believe that's not butter). Well, all of my butter-related issues have just been solved by one new gadget.
Back to the Future had a very interesting take on what the world would be like in the year 2015. Well, we already know how 2015 turned out, and very few of Robert Zemeckis' predictions came true. While hoverboards, flying cars, and Mr. Fusion were all nice, there was one invention that I really wanted to see. I'm talking, of course, about the oven that rehydrated and baked a pizza in almost no time.
Kitchen geeks, beware: your sous-vide may just have been overshadowed. Panasonic's latest countertop cooker may look like a dull black box, but inside - so the company claims - is some serious culinary magic. Dubbed the Countertop Induction Oven, it's a multi-purpose device that threatens to replace most of the ways you commonly prepare food.
I've got a water pitcher that I keep in my fridge, for when I want to drink a glass or a bottle of water. As you can guess, it has a filter in it, to keep all the bad stuff out of my drinking water. Of course, I have a bad habit of forgetting when it was that I changed the filter last, as it doesn't have anything on it to tell me when to replace it. Well with the latest Brita pitcher, I won't have to think about when to replace the filter, or even have to remember to buy a new one.
While LG's new OLED TV's took the spotlight at their press conference this morning, it wasn't the only part of their new signature line that was worth a look. While I'm not one to get excited about kitchen appliances, their new LG Signature Refrigeratior had a couple of interesting features worth looking at.
Anova's first consumer sous-vide was a touchscreen-topped wand both credited with helping the fashionable cooking style broach a broader market and criticized for being a little confusing. The follow-up Precision Cooker Bluetooth dialed back the display to a couple of temperature read-outs, added a literal dial for local control, and threw in short-range wireless to link with your phone. Now there's the Precision Cooker WiFi.
Over the past few weeks we've been using the Bud-E Fridge, and it's quickly become our favorite non-traditional smart device ever. While we're not generally in the business of reviewing devices that are made solely for keeping food fresh, in the Bud-E Fridge we've found an appliance that's as entertaining to use as it is helpful. While we've used tiny, dorm-friendly fridges before, this machine takes the art to a whole new level. One with can sensors and blinking lights.
Thermos, the company that most people associate with hot food and drink containers, has a new bottle that keeps tabs on your drinking habit. Water drinking, that is. It is called the Thermos Smart Lid Hydration Bottle, and it is not unique in the connected-devices market. It is, however, the first big-name company to get in on the drinking-tracking market, and does so while specifically targeting iOS users. Don’t have iOS? Thermos is also launching a bottle with a manual-tracking feature.
A new bit of coffee tech may one day make it to your favorite coffee shop to bring a bit of caffeine and art to your morning cup of Joe. A new coffee machine has surfaced that takes advantage of 3D printing tech to make works of art in the foam at the top of a cup of coffee. The printer is called the Ripple Maker and it uses birth 3D printing and inkjet tech.
The FDA is clamping down on trans fat, telling food companies that they must cut one of the most unhealthy from what they sell within three years. The decision marks the culmination of a lengthy Food and Drug Administration investigation into partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), which are currently the primary dietary source of artificial trans fat in processed foods. The conclusion is damning: PHOs are considered not "generally recognized as safe" for use in human food, the FDA decided, and so they have to go.
If you've had trouble perfecting quiche florentine, or simply burn your microwave popcorn, the June Intelligent Oven has got you covered. This oven is smart. It is light-years beyond precook settings such as "popcorn" and "defrost". This oven can identify what you've put inside, and use a wide array of sensors and built-in algorithms to cook it properly. It's a step towards an Internet of Things level smart house without having to remodel the kitchen to make room for a smart device. June is small, about the size of a microwave or large toaster over. It has a 1 cubic foot cooking chamber than can fit a small turkey or a standard 9 x 13-inch baking dish.