appliances

Sorry, Mike, I just couldn't resist. Looks like Hello Kitty is stalking you in the kitchen, too, thanks to this slow cooking crock pot. It's predictably pink and is decorated with lovely little depictions of Hello Kitty and food. It's supposed to make cooking easier, but really, it's just for the aesthetic touch.

Try pairing it with your pink George Foreman grill, which regrettably doesn't have Hello Kitty imprinted on it. But that's what stickers are for!

(Via ThisNext)

Yes, to many of you this will look stupid. But if you're an urban apartment-dweller like me, there's a good chance that you saw this gadget and immediately said "OMIGOD, I NEED THAT." Our suburban brethren often don't realize that many apartments in New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, etc. don't have dishwashers due to space constraints. As a result, we've become very well acquainted with every brand of dish soap on the market (hello, Method Home!), the merits of relying on take-out Chinese food, as well as the deep drama involved in … Read more

A sexy blender doesn't have the same shock value as, say, a sexy air filter, but they still have a bit of a kick to them. Like this hourglass-shaped beauty from Breville, the Moda bar blender. It sure looks like it could make one heck of a margarita.

Unfortunately, at the same time it doesn't look all that functional. The stainless steel is sexy, yes, but I'm skeptical of the fact that it's not see-through and you consequently won't know exactly how well that frozen daiquiri's been blended. Plus, there are only two settings. … Read more

As a pizza lover, I think this Japanese gizmo is pretty cool. (Well, it's sold on a Japanese site. The product appears to have English writing on it. Hmm...) It'll cost you about $70, and will cook your homemade 12-inch pizzas in open air. So you can watch...and salivate. No need to shut all that tomato sauce-y beauty up into the oven. Leave it to the Japanese to come up with kooky food solutions like this one.

I can smell the pepperoni already.

UPDATE: Looks like this is available stateside, and has been for some time. Guess … Read more

I suppose it's unofficially Modernist Monday here at Crave. Yes, I know that's not quite as thrilling as Party Friday, but you have to admit it's still kind of cool to learn about household items that resemble abstract art. With the surrealist power strip earlier this morning and now this wacky air filter, you certainly could say that we're on a bizarre-appliance kick.

A few weeks ago we looked at an air filter that resembles an iPod wrapped in wallpaper (in a good way), and now here's another one to add to the mix of … Read more

A few months ago, when I came across that gadget that prepares eggs, toast, and coffee for you, I rashly and wrongfully asserted that such "breakfast multitasking" was endemic to Japan. That was an erroneous assertion on my part: the Dutch are doing it too, except that this gadget really isn't specific to breakfast. Holland Electric has a fun little product designed by Marcel Wanders. Called the Wave TV, it combines a microwave with a 15" TV and DVD player. We've seen kitchen TVs before, but until this point they've been largely confined to … Read more

The way manufacturers are splattering color all over home appliances, you'd think they'd seen Pleasantville one too many times. We've seen transformations in everything from stoves and refrigerators to washing machines and even personal safes.

So we're curious why it's taken so long for them to get around to that staple of every house, apartment, condo and dorm room: the microwave. But Whirlpool is trying to make up for lost time with its "Max" ovens, which Popgadget says are available in black, silver, baby blue and raspberry red. They also sport a non-traditional … Read more

There are some household gizmos that I thought would never get "sexy." Air purifiers, for example. I thought they were doomed to look like a cross between air conditioners and old-school computer towers for the rest of history. But Blueair's Airpod, as featured on Eclectic Detective, has proven me wrong. The Airpod looks like a cross between a wrapped gift box and a high-end audio speaker (though its design, as well as its name, is clearly inspired by the iPod), and comes in four pretty patterns to match your impeccably designed living space. They retail for around $… Read more

In today's high-paced, BlackBerry-powered world, a lot of things have been made more expedient (and more annoying) through the use of high technology, but there are a few things that gadgets just can't seem to solve easily. One of the biggest ones: waking up. We've seen loads of crazy alarm clocks recently, from the one that you have to chase around to the one that flies to the one that you have to dismantle like a bomb. But here's a prototype for an alarm clock that actually might work: instead of an alarm, it wakes you … Read more