Crave 28: Where's my steampunk boombox? (podcast)

This week, we get all Crave-y over a new boombox from TDK with a sweet design that belies the company's low-tech roots. Also, a fake coffee bot makes us yearn for the days when "The Jetsons" becomes a reality; some creepy crawlers get made over into flashy, USB-powered robots that are just ripe for holiday stockings; and we check out a tutorial on how to install your own "Star Trek"-worthy pneumatic doors. Plus, an utterly expensive--yet awesome--steampunk flash drive catches our eyes, as does a rather emasculating motorcycle ripped straight out of "Tron"--but for entirely different reasons. Finally, a shout-out to a local eatery in this week's "This is Why You're Fat" segment.

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If only Brewbot could truly transform

Imagine having your morning cuppa joe served by a charming little humanoid robot--just like in the neat ad above and below.

"What can I get for you?" Brewbot asks in the TV commercial after performing an impressive transformation from ordinary kitchen appliance to bipedal robo-barista.

Kraft Foods' Tassimo Brewbot is a coffeemaker that can whip up seven beverages including coffee, espresso, and latte. It uses single-serve "T-discs" from makers like Maxwell House and Twinings; the discs have brewing instructions embedded in barcodes.

That's all very well and nice, and I'm sure Brewbot's coffee … Read more

Convenient coffeemaker rolls into good taste

Coffee convenience is almost as important as the coffee itself. The continuing proliferation of coffeehouses can attest to that. Though it is certainly easy to simply walk into a cafe and order a coffee drink, that method doesn't necessarily represent the apex of coffee convenience; you still have to manage to get to a cafe, after all. About the easiest way to get a cup of coffee--other than having somebody go get it for you--might just be a particular honor saved for single-serve capsule coffeemakers.

Making coffee doesn't get much easier than inserting a coffee-filled capsule into a … Read more

For the coffee (grinding) enthusiast on your list

Gone are the days when it was hard to shop for someone who was labeled "the person who has everything." Nowadays, with so many gadgets in existence, it's just too unlikely. Sure, your hard-to-shop-for targets may have a quesadilla maker, but one of those and a doughnut hole maker? Probably not. And if they do, well, there are a million other kitchen-related gadgets and accessories that may not be so common. So with the "person who has everything" dwindling away to a statistical improbability, what's a shopper to do? Luckily, we have enthusiasts to … Read more

How Starbucks is trying to change the media

Caffeine behemoth Starbucks on Tuesday finally unveiled its revamped Web hub, a landing page that's only accessible from its in-store Wi-Fi networks in the U.S. Teaming with the likes of Yahoo (the main technology partner), The Wall Street Journal, GOOD, The New York Times, iTunes, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, Starbucks has packed the new site full of news both local and mainstream (including content that would normally be behind paywalls), free music download promos, local information like weather and bike trails, and movie trailers.

It's an interesting concept. Starbucks calls this the Starbucks Digital Network, or as senior … Read more

Froth on the weekend

There's no getting around it: coffee is everywhere. Which is a good thing, because though having an endless supply of fuel available to power our daily activities may be a dream to modern society as a whole, but to an individual coffee-drinker, it is essential for just making it through the day. However readily accessible the beverage may be, its ubiquity isn't always all encompassing. Every weekend, households everywhere wake up to the realization that the particular cup of coffee they want is more than a pair of slippers and a robe away.

No latte or cappuccino is … Read more

Coffee maker does all the coffee making



Coffeemaker keeps mornings easy

An economy of motion in the morning is a survival technique many coffee drinkers innately understand. As we find our way to the kitchen, there is no time for any wasted movements; to do so would just increase the time it takes to get to the magic elixir. If it so happens that the timer on the coffeemaker was not set the previous night, this efficiency becomes paramount as we stumble through the motions of producing a pot of coffee.

Making it easy to get to the important parts, the DeLonghi DCF2210TTC 10-cup thermal carafe drip coffeemaker provides a way … Read more

Know how old your coffee is?

Coffee drinkers are a particular bunch; this is well known. However it's not all about whether they prefer a dark roast to a light roast or what temperature at which they like to have their coffee served. Other factors come in to play when it comes time to drink down the caffeinated elixir. (Assuming of course, that the choice of coffee is indeed caffeinated.) Brewing methods dominate a particularly large segment of the coffee drinker's preferences, but no matter which way the drink ends up in their hands, how old the coffee is always a factor.

For those … Read more

Crave 13: Gundam vs. Wolverphant (podcast)

This week, Crave branches out onto our friendly neighborhood tech blogs to bring you a super fantastique, ultra huge, raver-friendly digital turntable thingie...and a bottle opener. Don't be too let down by that second one: it's over-priced and attaches to your bike, so it still has some cache. Also, Donald and Eric get extremely excited over a glorified statue, an electric Datsun leaves a Nissan GT-R in the dust, and a giant robot arm is put to good use. Plus, Jasmine squeals over an elephant with some monstrous dental work, and we take a look at a camera lens cleavage coffee mug.

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