Hasta La Gadget!

Never waste a drop of toothpaste ever again

Toothpaste always runs out just when you’re in the biggest rush. You hold the end of the tube with one hand, and squeeze it between the thumb and forefinger of the other, pulling and squishing until the last drops of minty paste are up near the nozzle. You then attempt a kind of gripping/twisting/squeezing motion which — hopefully — extracts the last remnants of toothpaste from the shoulders of the tube, but also rips through these shoulders leaving any remnants open to the air, to become dried out within hours.

And the liberated drop immediately drips onto your interview tie. Damn your idiot spouse for not always squeezing from the bottom!

What you need, my panicked, angry, job-seeking friend, is the Catherine Werdel’s Toothpaste-Squeezing Toothbrush, which will allow you to gently roll the toothpaste tube “auf den letzten Drücke” (she’s German). It’s an incredibly simple design: just a slot in the toothbrush’s handle which lets you roll the tube and push its contents towards the exit hole.

My esteemed blogging colleague Andrew Liszewski, over at Oh Gizmo, speculates like a true paranoiac. The reason this design has never been commercially available is that the evil toothbrush cartels also sell the paste, and they want you to waste as much as you can. Maybe Liszewski should consider one less espresso in the mornings, as I have a far simpler explanation: Imagine trying to use this brush when the tube is already wrapped halfway around it. It would be a nightmare. And given that we’re all too lazy to even squeeze a tube from the bottom, there’s no way we would thread this thing on every single time.

Squeezing toothbrush product page [Catherine Werdel via Oh Gizmo]

See Also:

• $400 Philips Toothbrush Comes with Plug-In Drinking Glass
• Toothbrush Wobbles But it Won't Fall Down
• Water Fountain Toothbrush No Longer Costs $1750
• Unibody Aluminum Toothbrush Case is Tough, Pointless

Too lazy to spend five seconds to cold brew some coffee? Then Grady’s has you covered

Mmmm. You’re thinking of making a nice tall glass of iced-coffee, sweet, creamy and with the strong hit of an espresso. Do you a) throw a 250-gram (half-pound) pack of ground coffee into a liter (0.038 cubic feet) or so of cold water, stir once and set aside for 12 hours, only to strain it and be left with a delicious and concentrated hit of non-bitter caffeine or

b) jump in the car, burn yet another gallon of gas driving to the store in your air-conditioned Chelsea Tractor and spend $15 on Grady’s Cold Brew, a pre-made iced-coffee concentrate?

The answer should be “a,” and if you’d thought about this yesterday you’d be sipping on that tall, cold beverage right now. That said, Grady’s looks to be a pretty good product. It’s made the exact same way you’d make it at home, by steeping in cold water overnight and then filtering (although Grady’s has chicory and secret spices added to the mix).

Sealed, it’ll last four days. Chilled, you’ll get around two weeks. You’ll need to order two bottles, along with $15 shipping (total $45), to get it sent, or you can just head down to Brooklyn, NY, where the coffee is made.

Grady’s Cold Brew [Grady’s Cold Brew via Uncrate]

See Also:

• Beautiful Cold-Brewed Coffee Dripper Turns Your Kitchen Into a Lab …

The new Fifth Avenue cube, now with fewer ugly seams. Picture: Apple

Apple, famous for pushing materials to their limits in order to make ridiculously thin and strong gadgets, is doing the same for its flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City. A remodel of the already perfectly good design will see the amount of glass panels of the iconic cube reduced from 90 panes to just 15. It seems that Apple’s minimalism knows no bounds.

The new street-level entrance is part of a $6.6 million refit. According to the Gothamist, to whom Apple sent its plans along with a rendering of the new simplified cube, the panes will also be “seamless,” using some kind of joints built into the glass itself.

The plan for the new cube

The new cube will be done by November of this year, and will doubtless be spectacular. I just wonder how much it’s going to cost to fix if some kid kicks his football too hard and breaks a window?

Fifth Avenue Apple Cube Being Stripped Of 75 Panes Of Glass [Gothamist]

See Also:

• iPad Apple
• The Cube: Apple's NeXT Mistake?
• Jobs Unveils the Mac Cube

Avada Keduster! That’s right Potter fans, magic may not be real (sorry), but if Du.static ever makes it to market, get set to eliminate household dust with the flourish of a wand. Designed by Hongik University’s Won Suk Lee, this 2011 Spring Spark Concept Design winner combines the functionality of a feather duster and air purifier, into a two-in-one, Hershey-kissed silhouette. The standalone unit’s base-mounted induction fan sucks your room’s filth into a fine particle filter, releasing fresh air out its other end, while an LED light keeps track of environmental detritus — signaling red for “polluted” and blue as “pure enough.” Impressive powers of purification aside, we have a feeling its removable electrostatic stick cleaner is going to get more cosplay (and cleaning) mileage. Head to the source now for extra shots of the device in action and while you’re at, petition Dyson for its real-world equivalent.

Continue reading Du.static dust-busting concept clears the air, won’t vanquish Voldemort

Du.static dust-busting concept clears the air, won’t vanquish Voldemort originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Carzor: Card. Razor. Carzor. Got it?

For me, “shaving” is something done once every week or two, and involves rubbing a tired, years-old beard trimmer over my furry face. If I’m feeling hungry, I might run a comb through there first to see what I can catch.

But for those who actually have to work in an office, and talk to actual people, the Carzor might help out after a night on the town. It’s a razor and mirror, folded up together into a package the size and shape of a credit card, ready for a slot in your wallet.

The idea might be dumb, but the design is anything but. The razor handle pops out of the card, leaving a U-shaped mirror so you could even shave away from the bathroom using a cup of Evian. In the back of the mirror section are two storage slots where the blades are kept. You’ll need to slot one in every time you shear your grizzled face.

Blades come in a variety of flavors: mint, sandal, lemon, ocean, and orange. I’m not sure about “ocean,” and “sandal” sounds like a terrible idea — who wants their face to smell like a sweaty shoe? Worse, there appears to be no way to order fresh blades. But then, you’ll probably never use this, anyway. After all, if you’re cool enough to stay out all night on a school day, you’re probably cool enough to turn up to work red-eyed and stubbly.

Carzor [Infmetry via Oh Gizmo!]

See Also:

• $100000 Razor Has Just Two Blades
• Buy Your Dad an Old-School Safety Razor
• Rolling Razor: Six Blades Knife Can't Do Anything For You