heating
Random Stuff
Sweden’s New Green Tech: Heating Homes With Bunny Corpses
6:08AM Adam Frucci | “It sure is warm and toasty in here! Is that a wood stove?” I asked. “Why no,” she replied. “I’m burning the corpses of thousands of bunnies.” Then there was an awkward silence. More »
Home
Honeywell Touchscreen Thermostat and Portable Remote Review
4:20AM Jason Chen | With two products, a touchscreen thermostat and a wireless portable thermostat remote, Honeywell has changed how I control my heating and cooling forever. In a good way. More »
Random Stuff
Swedish Town Using Cremation Heat to Warm Houses
4:15AM Adam Frucci | Is this Swedish town that’s routing heat from its crematorium to local homes morbid or brilliant? Let’s just call them brilliantly morbid. More »
Peripherals
USB Monkey Hand Warmer Is For Your Hands, Not A Monkey’s
12:45AM Kit Eaton | So many options to describe this product: “stick your hands up a (USB) monkey for warmth” or “cheat the chills with chimp USB mitts.” I’m sure you can do better. It’s a pair of monkey-shaped USB hand warmers, for when you’re typing in the cold, or you’re a sufferer of chilly hands. They get up to 46 degrees in just five minutes, have a built-in wrist support for “supporting your tired wrist when using Mouse or Keyboard” and they’ll fit hands up to 17 x 11 cm, or thereabouts, and when they’re up to temp you can even disconnected them for freestyle use. [Gadget4All] galleryPost('usbmonkeys', 3, ''); More »
Home
Coiled ‘Garden Hose’ Radiator is Versatile, Mobile
7:30AM Sean Fallon | Generally, I don’t consider radiators to be all that interesting (unless it is shaped like a Lego brick), but this coiled radiator design from Ciussai is definitely an exception. The metal wire tubing can be wound and stretched much like a garden hose, which gives it far more functionality than simply heating a room. For example: you can coil it around a bar to dry clothes or lay it on your bed to warm things up on a cold night. I don’t know how safe all of this is, but I love the idea. And the best part is that it can actually be purchased from Ad Hoc—although pricing details are unknown. More »
Peripherals
Thanko Heating Cooling Keyboard Is Ready For Any Weather
6:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | Sure, that Thanko cooling fan keyboard was a great addition to your desktop for the summer, but temperatures have gotten chillier now and we’re all wondering how to keep our wrists warm. Why, with Thanko’s upgraded heating AND cooling keyboard, of course! The wintertime edition has three different warming spots that’ll make your hands all toasty. And if things get too hot, switch it back to fan mode to cool your fingers off. This miraculous weather-weathering peripheral is available on the Thanko website for roughly $US50. [Thanko via Akihabara News] More »
Gadgets
Ardica Jackets Keep You Toasty, Juice Your Gadgets on Long Winter Trips
3:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | If you’re planning on a long distance ski trip or a mountain climb this winter, check out Ardica’s new power and heat platform for outerwear. Not only will Ardica-enabled jackets charge your gadgets (up to 11 full charges on your mobile phone and 20 on your iPod), it’ll also keep you nice and warm for either nine hours on low heat or three hours on high. If you’ll be in the cold for even longer than that, just bring along a second battery. More »
Home
Ecobee Smart Thermostat Can Adjust Home Temps Online
1:45PM Gizmodo US Edition | Winter is just around the corner and, with gas prices still unstable, it’s now even more important to monitor your thermostat. That’s tough and annoying though, which is why gadgets like Ecobee are coming out on the market. Ecobee has an integrated programmable smart thermostat with a WiFi-enabled touchscreen that automatically sets your household to conserve energy at the press of a button. galleryPost('ecobee', 3, ''); More »
Science
Innovative Microwave Material Helps Cook Food Twice As Fast So You Can Get Back To Being Lonely
3:10AM Jason Chen | Researchers in Japan and at Penn State have come up with a ceramic material that allows people to heat up their food twice as fast, allowing them to spend less time staring at the microwave and more time living their (read: our) rich, fulfilling lives. The new cookers are made up of 20% magnetite and 80% petalite, which unlike traditional bowls, heat up alongside the food so that the food isn’t passing off heat by warming up the bowl. As an added bonus, the container stays hot for 15 minutes, meaning you really need oven mitts to transport this thing, Jason Statham style. If you can’t wait for technology to catch up here, it’s already on sale in Japan. [Live Science] More »
Design
