Nothing is more worse than drinking sour milk with your Cheerios. Luckily, several U.S. and Chinese researchers are aiming to prevent people from buying spoiled milk. Costing about less than penny per milk carton, the idea is to use a plastic “widget” with a thin metallic strip that vibrates when exposed to a magnet scanner inside the store. If the milk has gotten thick, it causes the metal strip to vibrate slowly (or stop vibrating), which causes an alarm to go off. Similarily, if the milk’s consistency has gotten too thin the metal strip will vibrate faster, also causing an alarm. The widget ensures no bacteria-infested milk is ever bought. The system should work for other liquids as well, such as soups and juices.
Of course, the system relies on passing the milk carton through a magnet scanner at the store. What happens after the milk is bought? This doesn’t prevent people from drinking spoiled milk, it only prevents the purchase. I don’t see this working at home, unless the consumer has their own magnet scanner.
How about using some sort of litmus strip that can change colors depending on the quality of the milk. If the milk is still safe to drink, the strip remains colorless. If bacteria is present, the strip turns red.
The Japanese probably care less about Apple’s iPhone, than Sharp’s 921SH Fullface2. It sports a touchscreen interface, 3.2 mega pixel camera, microSD card slot (4GB max), and a 1 seg tuner — because the Japanese got to have TV everywhere. Apparently, its also got the “touch, shake, and zap” gimmick to navigate through menus.
No idea on price, but it’s available in Japan through SoftBank.
Check out this R2-D2 Beanie from Carissa Knits. Unfortunately, besides the lucky few, she isn’t taking any more orders. She made the beanie for her nephew’s Halloween costume. But, once the bloggers found out, she’s been getting emails through the roof.
Whirlpool has showcased its futuristic version of a “green” kitchen. The concept is designed to redistribute 60% of the water and heat generated from the various kitchen appliances to fuel other appliances or functions. An example would be using the heat from the refrigerator’s compressor to provide hot water. The basic idea is to create an “kitchen eco-system,” modeled after nature’s own cycle, which, theoretically, should boast up to 70% energy efficiency over ordinary kitchens — yielding up to 24% in money savings.
It even appears to have its own aquarium. Or is that some kelp farm? I guess when Whirlpool says “green”, they mean green.
The Onkyo CBX-300 is a CD player, iPod docking station, and FM radio all in one package. The CD player supports MP3 and WMA tracks and will play your entire iPod tracks. The CBX-300 sports Onkyo’s OMF (Onkyo Micro Fiber) diaphragms and Aero Acoustic Drive, for “exemplary audio fidelity” and natural sound. The features are:
* Full Range, Bass Reflex 3 1/8
* Aero Acoustic Drive for Powerful and Natural Sound
* Integrated iPod dock: iPod Touch, iPod Classic, iPod Nano (3G), and iPhone
* Plays CDs: MP3 and WMA encoded discs
* Can play back tracks on iPod
* 4-Mode Preset EQ Function (Standard, Dynamic, Vocal, and Clear)
* Active Bass
* 25-Track Memory Playback
* FM radio: 30 FM/AM Presets, sleep timer, snooze function, and preset station naming
* Headphone jack (mini jack)
* Includes remote control
Full specs after the jump.
The Onkyo CBX-300 costs £229 ($608 USD) $230. iPod is sold separately. Available now via Amazon.
Evergreen’s USB Hub Photo Frame is another desk ornament for your office. It features 4 USB 2.0 ports and a back light to provide lighting for your photo. It measures 11.3 x 8.2 x 5.7 cm.
Pandigital is entering the kitchen with the “industry’s first” HDTV, digital cookbook, and digital photo frame device. Pandigital wants to make traditional, paper-bound cookbooks a thing of the past. The device, called the Kitchen HDTV/Digital Cookbook/Digital Photo Frame, comes with pre-loaded recipes and sports a 1280 x 720 “HD-ready” resolution, which should make it the perfect cooking gadget for the Chef Boyardee in you. It features:
* 15-inch LCD screen
* 512MB of internal memory - enough to hold 3,200 pages of recipes/photos
* ATSC/NTSC, composite, S-Video, YPbPr, and HDMI support
* Calendar and clock function
* Built-in 6-in-1 card reader: SD, XD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro/Duo, Compact Flash, and MultiMediaCard
* Google Picassa support - download photos from Picassa photo-sharing service
* Support file types: JPEG, Motion JPEG, MPEG 1, MPEG 4, and AVI
* Interchangeable faceplates to match various kitchen decors: brushed stainless, black, and white
The Kitchen HDTV/Digital Cookbook/Digital Photo Frame is stain-proof, thanks to its sealed glass. It comes included with a counter top stand and an under cabinet mount - for those without enough counter top real estate.
The Pandigital Kitchen HDTV/Digital Cookbook/Digital Photo Frame will be available beginning in June for $399.99.
Not exactly a robot, this little critter, dubbed “Bristlebot 2.0“, is made from an old BIOS chip with a strapped on pager/cell phone vibrator. Alex Gonzalez simply bent the pins on the chip downwards in a slightly forward (or backwards, depending on how you look at it) angle. This allows the vibrating bot to move in one direction, as you can see in the video.
