Hasta La Gadget!

I am currently living in a high rise apartment where there is water rationing going on, simply because of the mismanagement of our natural resources that resulted in this predicament. Unfortunately, there has been no water flowing through our taps for the past week, and this situation needs some serious looking into by the authorities. That means a pile of laundry sitting there that grows bigger by the day, if only there was a washing machine of sorts that saves water and gets the job done as well. Perhaps the £39.99 Scrubba Portable Washing Machine could be a lifesaver in such a situation?

The Scrubba Portable Washing Machine is touted to be the first pocket-sized washing machine in the world, where it does not run on any kind of electricity, but uses good old fashioned hand power instead – making it ideal in the event of a zombie apocalypse, too. Touted to be twice as effective compared to a hand wash session, and yet uses up just a fraction of the effort, the Scrubba Portable Washing Machine delivers machine-quality results in just a matter of minutes. There is a special internal washboard that makes scrubbing effortless, and it sure as heck beats bringing along your washing machine during a camping trip.
[ Scrubba Portable Washing Machine is perfect for your outdoor adventures copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Washing clothes shouldn’t be rocket science, but you’d be forgiven for thinking that when you look at the controls of modern washing machines. So when cloud services company Berg set out to create a prototype for an Internet-connected washing machine, they didn’t want to smarten it up just so it can tweet which socks you prefer. Berg knew that smart doesn’t mean needlessly complex.

Berg’s Cloudwash prototype is built on four premises. The first one is that, for all the intricate settings on conventional washing machines, most users only ever use a handful of them. That’s why Cloudwash only has a few, easy to understand physical controls.

The first set of options lets you choose from your three most used wash settings. You’ll then use its companion app if you want or need to tweak these settings. Which brings us to Berg’s second premise: the early examples of smart appliances are not really smart.

Berg noticed that the current crop of Internet-connected appliances mainly have two ways of distributing controls or options. Some smart appliances have all of their controls thrown to a mobile app, rendering the appliance nearly useless if you don’t have a mobile device on hand. On the other end are appliances that come with a touchscreen or mobile device tacked on, with few if any remote controls.

Berg opted for a middle ground. The Cloudwash app has all of the controls and options so you can control everything remotely if you wish, but the most used controls are also on the machine itself.

Berg’s third premise is that Internet-connected appliances should be able to adapt to your lifestyle. That should be part of why they’re called “smart.” Thus the second set of controls on Cloudwash lets you delay the washing machine’s final rinse.

This can also be adjusted through the mobile app, so you don’t have to hurry home to take out your clothes before they get wrinkled. It’s about making the machine adjust to you and not the other way around.

The third set of options includes a button to toggle notifications, but the other two buttons are more interesting. They’re manifestations of Berg’s fourth premise: subsidized washing machines might become a thing, just like what Nestle did to coffee machines with Nespresso.

See, you can set the two buttons to either send a reminder on your phone that your conditioner or detergent is running low. Or you can use them to make one-click purchases. Berg thinks that online retailers like Amazon or laundry product manufacturers may be willing to give away free machines or at least subsidize them to reel in customers.

Check out Berg’s case study on the Cloudwash for more information. I think its mobile app is a bit over designed and cluttered – there’s a freaking washing machine calendar, and it still uses vague washing machine terminology. I also don’t want a future where my appliances are cheap but will only work with a certain brand of detergent or brand of popcorn (because what else will it ultimately lead to?). But I do love the attempts to make machines more user-friendly and flexible.

[via Gigaom]

So, we did talk about how LG rolled out the latest version of their vacuum cleaner that could respond to the clarion call of your voice – which is going to be more than a novelty, and it would also work great for those who love living in futuristic conditions. Well, the next time you want to consider picking up a washing machine, perhaps it would bode you well to fork out money for a new washing machine from LG that get this – does not use water at all in its operation.

A washing machine that uses no water? What kind of sorcery is this? Senior Vice President for LG Electronics Home Appliance Division, Kevin Cha, did not want to share anything more about this particular washing machine, on whether it will be completely waterless or virtually waterless, but we do know that it is on its way to the market, never mind that right now, it remains in the early stages of development and will be a trade secret – hopefully not for long, though.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Corn Husks Could Be Your Dinner, HAPIfork Starts Crowdfunding On Kickstarter,

The Washa|part is a small wall-mounted washing machine that is perfect for use in small apartments. The washing machine uses steam to release particles from clothing. It is also sprays detergent onto items in the form of a fine mist to better suit the steam operation. It is a cool concept that will hopefully hit the light of production in the near future.

[Yanko]