vacuum

The 404 210: Where who's that chick who just moved in across the hall?

MTI saves the day on a show where Wilson is MIA in northeastern America. Mark chats us about how a new e-card service will tell the one you've loved that they need to get checked out. Also, we read up on who's being a dick according to dickipedia.org (Jeff), and how the PSP firmware 5.0 was hacked in record time.

A big thanks to Clayton Morris today for supplying us with today's most bizarre story. Of course it deals with automobile-related cleaning equipment and human anatomy, but what else would you expect from the co-host of Fox News' Fox and Friends?

Another huge thanks goes out to 404 long-time listener Jamey from Tennessee. He graced us with his new 404 intro theme that we absolutely love and begin the show with today for the first time.

It's just a good-old fashioned Tuesday on the 404; plenty of laughs to help you get through the day.

EPISODE 210 Download today's podcast … Read more

iRobot offers three-for-two deal

iRobot is offering deep discounts on its home products if you buy directly from its Web site.

We're wondering why, and it comes down to two possibilities, really.

One, they have newer, brighter, shinier models in the pipeline and need to unload old stock. Or, two, they're simply trying to get a head start on the holiday-season discounts expected from retailers, given the state of the economy.

Most recently, iRobot sent an e-mail letting people know it's offering $50 off its Scooba 380 model if you buy it before October 24. It normally sells for $450. That … Read more

Handheld kitchen gadget makes every chef a sucker

Whatever it is, this thing really sucks. No, really.

All joking aside, it's not crazy to be completely stumped as to what this ergonomic stick could possibly do, let alone what it could do in the kitchen. For looking so complex, this thing has one simple function: to pump air. Well, that, and to look pretty. The stick is called the Lock & Lock: Rosaline Vacuum Sealer, designed to keep food fresh by removing the air that would otherwise allow bacteria to thrive and food to spoil. To use it, you place the stick into the top of any … Read more

Affordable ultra high-end headphone amplifier

Would you buy a Ferrari for $1,050? OK, how about a $1,050 headphone amplifier?

The Woo Audio WA6 Special Edition headphone amp is built to Ferrari levels of quality and performance. Even before I listened to it, I knew it was going to be amazing.

It's a two-piece design. One chassis contains the power supply, the other is the amplifier proper. The pewter color, die-cast chassis parts are finished to a high standard, fully equal to $10,000 stereo amplifiers I've reviewed, but the WA6-SE is a good deal smaller than your average high-end amplifier. The two chassis together fill just 11.25 inches by 10.25 inches of shelf space.

The WA6-SE is a pure tube design, without a single semiconductor or integrated circuit in the entire amp. It's hand-crafted in New York's Queens borough, and there are no printed circuit boards; all wiring is point-to-point hand-soldered. Woo Audio builds each amp to order, so it can incorporate custom options and offer a wide range of upgraded parts. Current build time is about three to four weeks.

Woo Audio offers an extensive range of headphone amplifiers. Prices start at $470 for the Woo Audio 3; the top-of-the-line WA5 LE runs $2,400. When I heard the $585 WA6 amp a few months ago, I was knocked out by its sound. … Read more

How to soak up more than just rays this summer

Ever since inventions like Dippin' Dots made it into the mainstream, food enthusiasts and chefs have been in search of ways to make food more surprising. Chefs such as Richard of Top Chef have blurred the lines between the laboratory and the kitchen, and in the quest for more creative culinary innovations, they've proven to us that anything is possible.

Take chefs Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adri?, two names often associated with molecular gastronomy. Responsible for creations like foamed beetroot and espresso (made using cartridges of nitrogen oxide), Adri?'s goal is to "provide unexpected contrasts of flavour, … Read more

Vacuum-sealed, temperature controlled wine preservation from U.K.

White or red? It may be a common question that we ask ourselves when pondering which bottle to open for dinner. Especially when our palates have expanded beyond the simple "white with fish, red with beef" mantra of generations past. I mean, what about tofu? Sometimes a hearty red is what the situation calls for. However, our wine drinking predecessors were right on many an occasion. For example, the delicate flavor of fish usually is best with a white. So the best (and most fun) answer is simple. Open one of each. Ah, but then we will end … Read more

Wannabe Roombas suck up dirt, exude cute

These little guys got me thinking: what's the least important feature of a gadget?

Functionality? Probably not. Price? Arguable. Cuteness factor? Absolutely.

The Robo Vacuums from Perpetual Kid are cuteness on steroids. And that's why these wannabe Roombas, spotted at Boing Boing Gadgets, for $15 each are probably not super effective. (But no matter! We here at Crave love useless eye candy.)

The Robo Vacuum is a smaller, cheaper version of the Roomba, the robot vacuum that does your dirty work for you. That is, you click it on, and it buzzes around your house, sucking up dirt … Read more

Gadgettes 78: The Last Gadget on Earth Episode

If that one missile that was shot at that one satellite was to, oh I don't know, miss that satellite entirely and redirect itself at the earth and blow everything up except for one of us and a small handful of gadgets...Well, let's just say you'd NEVER see us using them. Not even if they were the last gadgets on earth. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 78 Why didn't I think of that? What the HELL?! This Week in Hello Kitty

Combo mouse is a compulsive cleaner

If you thought the irritatingly misspelled "Robo Vacum" was silly, you're in good company. What it needs, of course, is to be combined with another device--like a mouse.

And that's good news for a company like Thanko. It is, after all, the Japanese outfit that prides itself on creations ranging from USB aromatherapy devices to muscle-toning mice. So it came as little surprise that it's responsible for a "USB Vacuum Mouse" that's pretty much self-explanatory.

The combo gadget is an 800-dpi mouse that turns into a mini-vacuum cleaner with the flip of … Read more