Technabob » timer

Time Me: The Integrated Pot Timer So You Won’t Forget Dinner’s on the Stove

Hazel Chua — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:00:40 +0000

Because of two things, I consider myself to be a disaster in the kitchen: 1) I get absent-minded sometimes and think about other things (like work, stuff I need to buy, etc.) when I should be focusing on the task at hand (like minding the carrots); and 2) I always end up leaving the pot because of something I also need to do (answer the phone, get the door, help my nephew go potty – that sort of stuff.)

Eeven with all the other kitchen timers I have, I still forget to set them when I leave the room. Hence, a lot of burnt and wasted food, and a whole lot of Chinese takeout. So I definitely see the need for the Time Me, which is simply a pot lid with a timer built in.

I mean, I think a lot of forgetful people in the kitchen would be bound to remember to set it, now that it’s literally right under their noses (and on top of the pot!) Plus, the design is simple enough that it could be sold as a replacement knob for the top of your already existing pots. About the only challenge with this thing is how it could be built to be dishwasher safe, since you shouldn’t have to remove it every time you wash your pots.

The Time Me is a design by Wu Yi-chen , Wan Ru-yi, Liu Xiaoming, Xie Yan-cong and Zhou Zhou.

[via Yanko Design]

PiepEgg Cooks Eggs with the Power of Disco

Conner Flynn — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:00:25 +0000

Boiled eggs are tricky to cook. You have to time them just right. That’s hard because it’s not as if you can peek inside the shell and check on them. There must be an easier way to boil an egg. If only it involved disco. There is – and it does.

PiepEgg will cook eggs right every time as it sings different songs depending on how done you want your egg. If you want it soft boiled, it will play “Celebration”, medium will get you “That’s the Way(I like it)”, and hard-boiled eggs will play “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life.”

The battery is good for two years, so you should cook many eggs with it until you get sick of disco. It sells for about $25(USD) over at design3000.

Cup Noodle Robotimer is the Most Awesome Thing to Come out of Japan in Years

Technabob — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:19:47 +0000

Japan is known for numerous technological innovations over the years, but none has ever made such an impact on me as this. This miracle of modern technology is the world’s first fully robotic Cup Noodle timer. Shut up and take my money now.

Developed by Japan’s Vstone (JP) robotics, in concert with Nissin, the Cup Noodle guys, this thing looks just like a regular old ramen noodle cup when you first get it. But start cooking up some noodles, set the timer, and watch ROBONOODLE rise! Here, check it out in all of its beauty:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Now watch the uprising of the first noodle robot army… Yatta!

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Isn’t that the most glorious thing you’ve ever seen? Unfortunately, I’m not sure if you’ll be able to get the Cup Noodle Robotimer outside of Japan any time soon. Apparently, these are being sold under some sort of a lottery system and only with proof of noodle purchase, because they are so awesome.

For now, I suggest you head on over to the official Robotimer website for more fun videos, and lots of stuff in Japanese that you probably won’t be able to understand. Meanwhile, I’m putting this on my eBay watch list.

Dialug: Twist-to-Set Outlet Timer

Hazel Chua — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:15:18 +0000

Picture this: your alarm goes off late one morning, so you’re scrambling around your apartment with burnt toast in one hand and random work stuff in the other. You wash everything down with coffee, grab your car keys off the table, and rush out the door – completely forgetting about your electric pancake griddle that’s still hooked up and plugged into the socket. Huge potential disaster.

While modern appliances, this shouldn’t cause a problem, there’s the chance that something might overheat and you might yourself coming home to, well, a burnt or melted mess. Or your cat could try and take a nap on the heated griddle while you’re out. Not only that, but it’s also sort of endangering the lives of your neighbors or other family members who might live in the same place as you, which isn’t good at all.

Quick and smart solution? The Dialug, a concept design by DanBee Lee, JangSoo Kim, KyoYeon Kim and WooRi Kim, which integrates a timer into the socket so you can set the number of hours when you want to keep the electricity flowing to whatever is plugged in.

Of course, there are some kinks that need to be worked out in the design. For one, there’s the issue of twisted wires. They’re bound to become all twisted up and messy and eventually loose and ruined because of repeated twists, unless there’s some sort of rotating strain-relief built into the plug itself. Aside from that, though, I still think it’s a pretty neat idea and will prove to be extremely useful, especially if you’re the forgetful or absent-minded type.

[via Yanko Design]

Countdown Clock Keeps Track of Important Dates, or Just How Long You’ve Owned it

Range — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:30:32 +0000

With all of the modern ways (apps, iPhones, and your watch) to let you know of elapsed time, it’s kind of cool to get a desk clock that does the same. Unlike other timepieces, this thing is right in your face. The Countdown Clock reminds me of the Events Countdown Clock, but in a nicer package.

The Countdown Clock allows you to count days, hours, minutes and seconds until important dates, such as birthdays, weddings, lunch, or your next vacation.You easily can load the clock up with your own important dates. There are control buttons that allow you to go through them quickly and select the ones you want to obsess about. You can even program it to display custom messages. It will also count upwards – so you can know how long it’s been since you started that diet, or how old your cat is.

The clock measures about 3.3″(W) x 3.7″(H) x 3.3″(D) so you can put it just about anywhere you’d like. You can find the Countdown Clock at Firebox for £19.99 (~$31 USD).

[via GeekAlerts]

Bring Tim! Tells You Exactly How Much Money was Just Wasted in That Meeting You Sat in

Technabob — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:07:00 +0000

Given the fact that I’ve probably spent at least a gazillion hours in my professional careers sitting in mind-numbing meetings, this device is definitely something that I need.

The $25 Bring Tim! timer should be standard issue in every corporate conference room. Just punch in an average hourly rate for your staff, the number of people in the meeting, then start the timer. For every second that ticks by, you get to see exactly how much money the meeting is costing. Brilliant, no?

Now all you need is to convince everyone else in the room to tell you how much they make per hour, and you’ll be all set.

[via The Raw Feed]

Sleep Remaining Indicator: Neither an Alarm Nor a Clock, but It Involves Legos and a Laser So Who Cares?

Lambert Varias — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:31:43 +0000

So what is it really? It is exactly what it says it is. Made by Nirav Patel, the Sleep Remaining Indicator is a homemade gadget that indicates how long you have to sleep by shining a laser beam on the ceiling (or I guess wherever you want it to shine). As the preset wake-up time draws near, the laser beam grows shorter and shorter. It’s a nerd’s hourglass, if you will.

Patel uses a potentiometer dial in the number of hours he wants to sleep, then hits the reset switch to kick things off for the night. The laser is attached to a servo, which aims the beam towards the roof of Lego pieces you see on the upper right. In effect, the Lego pieces shorten the laser beam as time goes by. Mr. Patel, a video of your creation in action would be nice.

So why make a Sleep Remaining Indicator? Patel explains: “If… like me you wear glasses or contacts, the world when you are in bed turns into a blurry mess. Normally I reach over and unlock my phone or lean over and squint at my Chumby One, but those actions make it harder to get back to sleep. What I wanted was a way to instantly know how much longer I could sleep before my alarm would go off.”

I think he just wanted to build something using Lego blocks and lasers. Masters of Arduino can check out the code at Patel’s blog.

[via Make:]

Daysago: the Digital Day Counter

Technabob — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:10:29 +0000

Did you forget how long ago you put that meat in the fridge, or when you last scooped the nasty cat box… how about the last time you changed the oil in your car? This simple, ingenious device lets helps you keep track of the last time you performed a specific task, right in the context of the item in question.

The DaysAgo Digital Day Counter is a simple little electronic badge with a day counter on it. Each badge has either suction cup or a magnet on the back so you can stick it right to the item you’d like to keep track of. Just press the button, and it keeps track of how many days have passed since you last reset it. A set of two timers is just $10, and they come in four assorted colors.

Every once in a while, I see an product and just ask myself: “Why didn’t I think of that?” This is one of those times.