The Gadgets Page

The fourth of July is right around the corner, so get ready for your Independence Day BBQ the way The Gadgets Page would celebrate it!

The best charcoal grill: Meco Stand Up Red Charcoal Grill

Mike and I bought one of this grill at a garage sale about six years ago. The previous owner had used it once. We could still see the single hamburger mark on the grill. After a good cleaning and tightening of the bolts on the legs, it has lasted us this entire time. Now that it’s time for its retirement, I’m partial to just buying the exact same one to replace it. Ours is a little different because it has a little fold-down table on the right side, but everything else is the same. I can’t count how many wonderful cookouts we have had on our little grill.

Best BBQ Tool Set: Mr. Bar-B-Q 18-Piece Stainless-Steel Tool Set

I thought this would be a great set because after I cleaned the tools, I would be able to put them all away in the case and keep them clean and organized. Unfortunately, the case was lost long ago. All that remains of this set are the tongs, the burger flipper and three of the corn on the cob holders. It’s about time we bought another set of BBQ tools and I’m going to go with the same kit as we did last time. I’m going to keep everything in its case, I promise!

Best argument ender: Digital BBQ Fork

The biggest argument while we’re cooking is whether the meat is “done” or not. I don’t own this gadget, but I imagine it would end all of these arguments. I can see them play out like this:

“I don’t think it’s done. You should give it another five minutes.”

“But that will make it all dry and gross!”

“It’s not safe to eat right now.”

“It’s just fine. I’ll risk a little e.coli to have a tender burger.”

“Let’s let the Digital BBQ Fork decide!”

“See! I TOLD you it was done!!”

Of course, it my fantasies, I’m always right, so the Digital BBQ Fork would agree with me. In reality, I’d probably have to wait the five minutes just like Mike said.

Best BBQ apron for a gageteer: Q-Labs Top Secret Spy Gadgets BBQ Apron

I don’t own this apron, but I want it. What gadgeteer wouldn’t want this awesome apron for both BBQ’s AND science experiments!

In the end, you don’t need a bunch of gadgets to have a great BBQ. You just need some good friends and a bit of good food. Have a happy holiday and don’t burn yourself on the grill!

When I was a kid, I watched a cartoon called Yogi Bear. Yogi and BooBoo spent every episode obsessing about stealing picnic baskets. Picnic baskets like the ones that Yogi stole are available even to this day, but as a child of the Seventies, I had never seen a picnic basket in real life. I always thought they must contain the BEST food in the world. As a starving kid, the picnic basket had been elevated to such a level of imagined delectability, that nothing in the real world could ever compare.

Of course, as a child of the Seventies, we never had a picnic basket. We owned a cooler. That’s where all the good food was when we went to Lagoon or up to the mountains. This blue Coleman cooler was lugged around to every park and outdoor activity in the Salt Lake Valley when I was a kid. Mom and Carol would make the best sandwiches with bologna, cheese and mayonnaise. Just the sight of a blue Coleman cooler makes my mouth water, even after all these years.

This Kelty Pop Duo bag gives the old Coleman cooler a run for its money, now. Just like the cooler, there is a work space where you can make sandwiches or cut fruit, but the Pop Duo isn’t a huge bulky box like the Coleman is. I could carry it alone without any help and the pockets look roomy enough to carry enough bologna sandwiches for the whole family (the soda, however, will have to be stored somewhere else).

The mystic of the picnic basket is alluring to me, mostly because of the imagination of Hanna-Barbera. If you have never seen a Yogi Bear cartoon, here is one that is pretty typical of the show.

Via: Camping Cooler Bag with Built in Prep Table » CraziestGadgets.com

Wouldn’t it be cool if you never had to charge your cell phone again? What if your phone was able to stay charged just by collecting the radio waves that are already flying around the air around you. That is the technology that Nokia is working on today.

• Technology Review: Wireless Power Harvesting for Cell Phones

The Nokia device will work on the same principles as a crystal radio set or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag: by converting electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal. This requires two passive circuits. “Even if you are only getting microwatts, you can still harvest energy, provided your circuit is not using more power than it’s receiving,” Rouvala says.

This is one of those technologies that will eventually show up in our lives and years later, we’ll be saying to ourselves, “Remember when we had to charge our cell phones? We used to have cradles and car chargers and habits in our lives just to make sure our phones were charged and you little whipper snappers come in here with your fancy self-charging phones.” Of course, by then, I’ll sound like an old miner and wave around a cane like I’m going to hit you with it.

It will be cool when it shows up, though!

I am a complete Weird Al Yankovic fan and have been since “Another One Rides The Bus.” His latest song is a Doors style parody with Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist from the Doors, on the synthesizer! You can see it here:

I love it when Weird Al gets technical! For reminiscing appeal, here’s “It’s All About The Pentiums.”

A couple of weeks ago, Sheldon had this comic about a washing machine that could clean your clothes with sound waves instead of water.

• Sheldon™ Comic Strip: 05-31-09

The idea of a washing machine that could clean clothes with the power of sound waves is an OLD one. The June 1951 article in Mechanix Illustrated talks about just that:

• Sound Waves get your wash clean

It reads:

Sound Waves get your wash clean, claims Robert Bosch of Stuttgart, Germany. This seven-pound machine works on principle of auto horn. Hooter must sound for five minutes. Cost is $32.

There have been many people and companies that claim to be able to clean clothing or dishes with sound waves. One of them is Bosch. According to U.S. patent application number 20070131250:

“A dishwasher machine (1), in particular a domestic dishwasher machine, is described, comprising a washing container (2) and devices for washing items to be washed by means of washing solution, as well as a sound wave generator (5), wherein the sound wave generator (5) is used to generate a sound wave which at least assists the drying process of the items to be washed. In order to achieve the highest possible efficiency of the drying process, the sound wave generator (5) is designed to deliver sound waves of different frequency and/or amplitude.”

In this case, the sound waves are being used to dry the dishes, not remove stains and odors. This patent was filed over two years ago and we still haven’t seen the amazing ultrasonic dishwasher yet.

I’ve been promised it so many times that I don’t believe it will ever be invented.

As great as looking at photos on the computer can be, sometimes, I just want to look at pictures in a book. I can sit on the couch with family members and we can turn the pages together instead of crowding around my computer desk and trying to look at the photos together on the screen.

Unibind offers a way for you to make your own books with their MyBook kits:

• Photobook Creator Bundle

Here is a video showing how it works:

It costs $99 for the Photobook Creator and then $19 to $25 dollars for the MyBook kits. After looking at the cost for comparable Blurb and Qoop books, the Unibind system seems like a pretty good deal if you like to make books often (i.e. for each vacation or family event).

The Photobook Creator reminds me of the UniBind Binding Machine that I used when I worked at the engineering firm. It heat up the glue in the UniBind Steelback Spine and make a great book that stayed together. It was a great gadget and we made MANY reports with it, but it cost them a bunch of money just to buy the machine.

Those steelback spines came in a WIDE variety of sizes and we could make reports that held over 350 sheets of paper, but we had to add our own plastic sheets and covers to the reports, whereas the MyBook kits come with what looks like a hard cover book instead. I suspect I could use the smaller spines with the Photobook Creator gadget and that would make it affordable for normal human beings (instead of engineering firms).

I enjoy having a book that I can pull off the shelf and show friends, so I think this would be a good thing for me. It looks like Digital Scrapbooking 101 likes the Unibind system and even has tips on how to get the printing exactly right using the Photobook Creator software.

One thing she didn’t mention is that if you put more sheets of paper than are supposed to go in the book, the papers won’t be bound correctly and the middle sheets will fall out. You MUST follow their guidelines about how many sheets of paper that they can hold, otherwise, you’ll be sorry.

If you notice, she holds the book right on the heating element instead of letting it sit like they show in the official Unibind video. That’s because she has learned, just like we did, that the books MUST be fully on that heating element in order to melt the glue correctly. Otherwise, it just won’t work. At the engineering firm, we were making 10 or 15 books at a time, so we would just put them all in the Unibinder and they would be held upright by the plastic holders on the side. Based on this video, it looks like the Photobook Creator is big enough for the larger steelback spines from UniBind, so I would feel confident in using it for them as well.

Whether you’re creating photo books, reports, or even journals for writing with beautiful pictures, the Unibind system is a great way to make books that stand up to many viewings.

Home & Garden Television have a list of gardening gadgets that might make yardwork a little easier this year.

• Enabling Garden Tools and Other Cool Gadgets : Home Improvement : Home & Garden Television

Here are a few of their recommendations here:

• Pot Lifter: Make moving your potted plants easier with the pot lifter.

• Ergonomic hand tools: A set of tools that work with your body better than the old style of hand tools.

• Ratchet-driving pruning tools: Prune your bushes and trees with three times the strength.

• Garden knife: Cut, weed and dig with this tool.

• Grip tape: Replace the grip on your worn out tools. Wrap your gardening tool handles with this tape to prevent blisters on your hands.

• Gardener’s pouch: Carry all of your tools with you while you garden.

• Multi-purpose nozzle: Better water nozzle for your hose.

• Faux wasp nest: Fake out wasps and yellow jackets to build a nest somewhere else.

There are so many garden gadgets on the market today to help make keeping your property looking good with less strain on yourself. Get out and enjoy your yard today!

I LOVE toothbrush technology and I love to talk about the changes and advances that they have made with just a simple brush to clean teeth. It looks like Dave Kellett feels the same way.

• Sheldon™ Comic Strip: Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett

My favorite is this one with the tilted head:

The Tilted Head: Doing what apparently your wrist couldn’t do before? Bend 10°?

I guess Dave hasn’t seen the commercial. You CAN’T get to those back teeth unless you have a Reach toothbrush or a flip-top head!

• Gadgets Page » 1946 Squibb Angle Pre-dates the Reach Toothbrush By 40 Years

I have enjoyed watching the Toothbrush Wars over the years. I find them far more entertaining than anything you could find on reality television. It’s nice to know Dave Kellett is right there watching with me!

I’ve seen lots of these kind of food cutting devices, like the Slap Chop, on television. I’ve even seen the original Slap Chop commercial, which was a typical infomercial with little to show for it. This remix of the commercial, however, is freakin’ AWESOME!!

I have watched this video at least five times now. I love the line, “Stop having boring tuna.” I know it’s a line straight from the commercial, but it sounds SO much better in the song. THIS is what should be on television, not the original commercial.

Wouldn’t you be more likely to buy the Slap Chop with a cool commercial like that?!

The original commercial is here:

I instantly fell in love with Trongs the minute I saw them. They are little utensils that protect your hands from messy foods.

I LOVE buffalo wings. I have taken to eating boneless wings because I can eat them with a fork and spare myself the mess, but with the advent of Trongs, I could go back to eating the original wings.

Here is a video showing you how to use them:

Here’s a video that gives you a closer glimpse of them:

Every bar and wings restaurant in the country should hand out a pair of Trongs with every basket of wings they serve.

Via: Trongs are the Finger Tong Utensil of the Future » CraziestGadgets.com