What Happens to Peeps in a Vacuum
Posted in: Today's ChiliWe’re all familiar with the classic springtime tradition of sending Peeps to their noble deaths via microwave, but that’s getting a bit old. How about a total vacuum instead?
We’re all familiar with the classic springtime tradition of sending Peeps to their noble deaths via microwave, but that’s getting a bit old. How about a total vacuum instead?
James Dyson’s has an idea for a new form of sucking machine—one so large it requires an entire barge to house it.
Dust bunnies – they are the bane of just about any home, and is an even worse menace when you take into consideration the fact that we hardly have time to keep our homes spic and span any more these days due to the number of hours that we spend at the office for work. Which is rather strange, actually, especially when you take into consideration how we do have so many apps and devices that are supposed to make us more efficient so that we can spend more time doing the important stuff. Having said that, a robotic vacuum cleaner sounds like the ideal tool to help keep your surroundings nice and clean, but are those really able to get all those nooks and crannies free from dust? Sometimes, you will need to get things done yourself, and this is where Dyson’s DC44 Digital Slim vacuum cleaner comes in handy.
Forget about the Roomba, as doing it manually might actually be the better option here. For starters, the Dyson DC44 Digital Slim vacuum happens to be powerful and yet simply designed, and is extremely maneuverable for a vacuum cleaner, without requiring any kind of bags as well. This is also a handheld vacuum cleaner that can get those sofas and car seats clean in a jiffy thanks to its superior suction power.
The target market? Those who have plenty of time when it comes to cleaning the home, and of course, as with any other Dyson device, it will retail for a more expensive price compared to its counterparts, but you can be pretty sure that it will not have that kind of generic design, but rather, something special that might even make you wish you had more dust around so that you can spend all of your free time at home vacuuming the place. The fantastic form and function that it comes in makes it a snap to clean your floor as well as overhead compartments. Using it is a snap – just pull the trigger, and watch it go.
There is also an optional turbo button that will work wonders for extremely dirty floors, not to mention an accompanying array of nozzles that are capable of finding a task for it in your home. While some might see the battery life as its main drawback, do not be fooled by the advertised 20 minutes of continuous cleaning, I get a good half and hour before it finally runs out of juice and requires a plug to recharge.
I personally found that despite the Dyson DC44 Digital Slim tipping the scales at 5.07 pounds, it can get rather heavy after you spend some time with it via the one-handed design. You would have to sacrifice the lack of a motor on the floor for portability, but at that expense comes the issue of battery life as well as making good use of your hand’s muscles to get the job done.
Cleaning out the dirt chamber is something that you would also need to do since there is no bag for you to fill up with colonies of dust bunnies, so do be extra careful with it. I would strongly using a pair of gloves to get rid of everything within, and a face mask, too, would be worth an investment if you happen to be extremely sensitive to dust in the air. Still, if you have extra cash to spare and own a small apartment, then the Dyson DC44 Digital Slim would be extremely ideal. A house, however, would be better suited to an automatic vacuum cleaner or one that is motorized.
Product Page
[ Dyson DC44 Digital Slim vacuum review copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
It seems I can’t go more than a couple of days without finding another wacky Japanese gadget that seems to solve no real problem. Here’s another crazy product from the island nation. This robotic ball that works like a rolling dust mop.
While most of us would resort to using a vacuum cleaner or maybe a Swiffer to perform the task of sweeping up dust bunnies, the folks who designed the Mocoro rolling mop ball opted for something decidedly more whimsical.
Just release the Mocoro on your hardwood, tile or vinyl floors, and it’ll roll around collecting dust for about 15 minutes. Once it’s done, it’ll sing a little song to let you know its work is complete. It seems like a great idea until you realize that you have to wash it off between cleanings. The point is moot though, as your dog will probably use it as a chew toy before long anyhow.
Normally available only in Japan for ¥3,980 (~$40 USD), the folks over at White Rabbit Express should be able to help you get your hands on one.
People who haven’t used a Dyson often believe their reputation to be hype. How, after all, could one device designed for sucking up dirt so far exceed any other machine designed for the same task? There’s no operating system, no laundry list of features, no app market to consider, and so on. But while vacuums are simple in function, Dyson’s sophistication behind the scenes makes its machines somewhat magical, and the new DC59 (or DC62 in Canada, which explains the badging in the photos) Animal Digital Slim vacuum may just be the most magical of all.
Pros
Cons
Regardless of their utility as cleaning devices, Dyson’s line of vacuums are icons of good design. For James Dyson, the company’s founder and CEO, the word “design” encapsulates not only looks, but also engineering and technical aspects of the product. It’s a holistic approach to product creation, and one that resonates with the Apple vision for how devices should be built.
Dyson is often likened to Apple, and the comparison shows true when looking at the DC59′s ID. The vacuum carries on the tradition of Dyson’s handheld line, but adds a sharper angle to the handle, shifts the filter location and modifies the ‘crown’ of cyclones that feed through to the new Dyson digital motor V6. The result is a cleaner look, but also one that emphasizes the increased power in this new generation of vacuum engine.
The purple tube design is a continuation of the trend begun with the DC44, which features a blue shaft, and could be seen as an odd choice for the more staid vacuum shoppers in the crowd, but the overall design is one of the most harmonious in Dyson’s line, and the DC59 is easily the best-looking cordless vacuum available overall in my book.
Having previously owned a Dyson DC35 as my main vacuum, I’m not unaccustomed to Dyson cordless models. That was a stalwart machine, and served my two-bedroom condo well, but it had a 15-minute max operation time and was actually heavier than the DC59, plus it lacked the pet-friendly main floor vacuum head and upholstery attachment.
The DC59 has a lot more power, and you can tell instantly that it’s a more effective upright floor vacuum replacement than any of its predecessors. The problem with the Dyson cordless line has always been that it has likely just enough power to get you through a standard cleaning of your space-constrained place before giving out, but not enough to either be really thorough or complete additional tasks like dusting (using the included dusting head).
26 minutes is a big step up, and provides nearly double the life of that generation. It’s plenty to cover my new place, which has two floors, including carpet, hardwood and tile, and there’s still a bit of juice left over for dusting duties. The weight loss over previous models really helps, too, in terms of making sure your arm doesn’t feel fatigued even if you’re reaching up to do the drapes or get that cobweb out of the corner.
Finally, it seems like the trigger and handle have been redesigned to make operation easier, too. The trigger seems more sensitive, meaning it’s harder to accidentally turn off the vacuum mid-use, and the angled handle design is easier on the wrist and hand.
In use, Dyson’s DC59 lasted about as long as advertised, give or take a few minutes, but it felt luxuriously long compared to previous models. It handled everything I could throw at it, including cleaning out my hard-to-clean burr grinder with the included crevice tool. Charging time is about three and a half hours, which isn’t ideal if you’re just about finished cleaning and want to get it done, but at least it’s not something you have to leave overnight.
If you vacuum, you will enjoy the DC59. Notice I didn’t say if you enjoy vacuuming, you’ll enjoy the DC59: It’s actually so good at what it does that it makes an otherwise arduous task enjoyable, and that’s the real key to Dyson’s advantage over its competitors. The DC59 improves on its cordless line in every way that counts, offering more power, longer run time, and better ergonomics. It’s expensive, but if you’ve got the cash, at no time will you feel like you overpaid when it comes to this vacuum.
I hate vacuuming but I actually like using my Dyson, and the UK company has a few new models it’s unveiling today. For the U.S. market, there’s the DC59, which is a handheld cordless stick vac that bumps up the suction, and for the UK, there are new Cinetic models of three of its canister vacuums that do away with the sole remaining piece of maintenance required by Dyson hardware: the occasional filter cleaning.
The DC59 is the latest in Dyson’s Digital Slim line, with a cordless design that provides up to 26 minutes of use on a single charge. It improves over the previous DC cordless vacuums with suction power that’s up to three times as powerful as any other one currently available on the U.S. market, the company tells me. Mothballs have met their match, in other words.
That one’s impressive, but the real trick here comes from the brand new Cinetic line, which is launching in the UK now but will make its way to other global Dyson retailers in due time. The Cinetic offers up the same ball-based design you’re probably familiar with from its existing line of motorhead, turbinehead and multifloor vacuums, as well as bagless operation, but also introduces a solution to the last annoyance associated with using Dyson cleaners: you no longer have to clean wash and dry, or even ever replace the filter in these bad boys.
It essentially means the new Dyson vacuums are maintenance free, unless you accidentally vacuum up a huge hunk of cheese or something and you gunk up the tube. Dyson even claims that it can operate with the equivalent of 10 years’ worth of accumulated dust, without any kind of filter cleaning at all, without any loss of suction at all.
Of course, Dyson charges a premium for its swanky designs and newfangled technology: the Cinetic line starts at £419 and ranges up to £469 (roughly $685 to $766) and is on sale this month in the UK, and the DC59 starts at $499 when it goes on sale January 19 in the US. If you’re a weird design snob like me, however, you’ll pay the extra and you’ll like it, especially since you can just use the thing to clean, and not really have to worry about cleaning the thing that cleans the other things.
When my wife and I moved a few months ago one of the reasons we chose out new place was because my wife liked the tile floors throughout the house. I hate tile floors because you have to mop a lot rather than just vacuuming and moving on. If you live in a house where you have to mop a lot and you are tired of doing it, iRobot has a gadget for you.
iRobot has unveiled a new robot floor cleaner at CES 2014 called the Scooba 450. The robot uses a three-cycle cleaning process that promises consistently clean floor with zero input from you. At least the only input you have to make is to fill the water tank and empty the waste water. The Scooba 450 has the ability to automatically sweep and pre-soak the floor. It then rolls back and scrubs the floor clean with its 600 RPM roller.
The Scooba 450 can be used anywhere you would normally use a mop and bucket. The device has two cleaning options including a 40-minute full clean cycle for up to 300 square feet and a 20-minute cycle for smaller spaces.
You can get the Scooba 450 for $599.99(USD) over on the iRobot website.
The folks over at LG have just announced that they will be offering a new kind of vacuum cleaner to the masses, and what better way to celebrate such an entry into the world of consumer electronics than to do so at CES 2014? We are talking about the LG Smart HOM-BOT SQUARE which will offer a significant boost in cleaning performance, thanks to it being equipped with LG’s innovative smart technologies that will include Smart Control, Cleaning History, Smart Diagnosis and Software Update. Basically, this slew of technologies would enable owners to remotely control the device using their smartphones.
The Smart HOM-BOT SQUARE is unique thanks to its ability to clean the hard-to-reach places in your home. Basically, it moves in the same direction as LG’s ultimate goal, which is to improve people’s lives. Thanks to Corner Master, LG’s Smart HOM-BOT SQUARE will be able to clean effectively and efficiently. Corner Master is made up of a couple of long brushes, where there will be corner detecting sensors that will work alongside the cleaner’s unique shape. Thanks to its angular form and redesigned brushes which happen to be 1.5cm longer than on its predecessor, the Smart HOM-BOT SQUARE will be able to remove dust and dirt from tight corners. This allows the vacuum cleaner to know of its exact location in the home, where it will then direct it to turn whenever it has reached the edge of a room.
A couple of improved Dual Eye 2.0 cameras will see action on the HOM-BOT SQUARE, allowing it to be smarter, faster and more efficient when it comes to its cleaning performance. Capable of snapping several images each second, the upper and lower cameras will check out ceilings, walls and floors, never mind in low light conditions. Such information will then be analyzed by the Smart HOM-BOT SQUARE so that a smart map is generated. There is also a large capacity Easy-out Dust Bin that makes cleaning a whole lot more convenient since it requires less frequent emptying.
Press Release
[ LG announces Smart HOM-BOT SQUARE vacuum cleaner copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
The vacuum cleaner has changed the way that homes are kept spic and span over the years, as housewives and home makers of either gender have found out to their advantage. You do not have to worry about a gust of wind blowing away all the dirt that has been swept onto a dustpan, and neither do you need to grapple with pesky strands of hair that get stuck in between the broom’s head. Of course, technological advancements have been made to turn these vacuum cleaners into autonomous machines, where they will get to work even when there is no one around at home, being able to return to juice themselves up whenever they run low on battery power. The iRobot Roomba 800 is the latest of such robotic vacuum cleaners, where it boasts of AeroForce extractors that are said to amplify suction power and virtually eliminates hair tangling.
Being part of the AeroForce Performance Cleaning System, such extractors will be able to amplify suction power, delivering superior performance over traditional bristle brushes, with the additional advantage of being virtually maintenance free to boot. Roomba claims that this would translate to up to 50% better pick-up of dirt, debris and hair from your floor. Just how does the brushless, counter-rotating AeroForce Extractors work? They break down debris and lift dirt, and you get better airflow to boot which will in turn maximize vacuum power.
iRobot claims that the Roomba 800 Series are able to remove up to 50% more dirt, dust, hair and debris, where it comes with a 5x more powerful vacuum than previous Roomba models. Not only that, the high capacity bin claims to hold an additional 60% more dirt, with a new XLife battery that delivers double the cleaning cycles. For those who are interested in picking up the iRobot Roomba 800 series of robots, which is the Roomba 880, it will cost you $699.99 a pop.
Company Page
[ iRobot Roomba 800 chews up pesky hairs without missing a beat copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
The Tooth Fairy is one busy lady! She flies from house to house every night, collecting teeth that kids have left under their pillows and leaving a dollar or two (or a special surprise) in exchange for it.
So that’s the story our parents told us, and I’m sticking with it.
But with the growing population, the Tooth Fairy is probably having a hard time keeping up. Awesome dad Jeff Highsmith wanted to make sure his kid’s teeth are received in a timely manner, so he built a vacuum-powered pneumatic tube system that’ll “send” them straight to the Tooth Fairy. An adult can hang out at the receiving station to return some cash or gifts back to the child waiting on the other end of the line.
Jeff built an easy-to-navigate interface using Hype and used Raspberry Pi to power the whole thing. Aside from the Tooth Fairy, other recipients to choose from include Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, so just think of all the wish lists and letters your kid will be sending when those holidays roll around.
[Make: via Hack a Day via Neatorama]