Lifestyle

We're not terribly big on wine, preferring single-malt scotch for our imbibing pleasures, but we couldn't resist beating Caroline McCarthy to the punch on her favorite subject. (Well, one of her favorites, anyway.)

GE's "Monogram Walk-in Wine Vault" is the ultimate oenophile gadget, combining the convenience of a home cellar with security for a vintage collection, according to Gearfuse. From a tech standpoint, one of the most impressive features is its digital inventory system, which the vault's Web site describes this way: "In just seconds, you can locate wines and determine whether bottles … Read more

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us either: Baby monitors are supposed to let you hear every whimper no matter where you are, presuming that you haven't gone out for groceries. And yet many monitors on the market today still come in sizes reminiscent of those 5-pound "mobile" phones of the late '80s, as Slashgear rightly points out.

Attempting to bridge that gap in logic is the "NScessity Compact Audio Monitor," which U.K.-based Babyworld describes as "about the size of an egg" and having a range of … Read more

I'm getting a little tired of this trend of luxury car companies lending their logos (and design houses) to random gadgets. I mean, come on, USB drives designed by Ferrari mastermind Pininfarina? Not to mention those car-themed cell phones, and that abomination of a Mini Cooper desk. It's basically just a reason to make pricey products even pricier.

I'm consequently skeptical about how good a Lamborghini coffee maker could actually be. Yes, it's made by big-name Tonino, and it's special enough so that only 1,000 have been manufactured, but does it really need the … Read more

There was an amazing party last Friday at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., celebrating the anniversary of the first human spaceflight, which was made by Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin. While CNET News.com has already penned a great article on the event, I thought I'd add my two cents on some of the cool gadgets I spotted at the party.

Peter Foucault's drawing robots drew a steady crowd the entire night. These two little robots had Sharpie pens mounted on them and were contained within what looked like a little robot boxing ring. Only … Read more

So you've gotten a "Weemote" to limit your kids' TV hours, but what happens when they get bored of Nick Jr. reruns and want to go online? Even if they've exceeded their allotted time, you know they'll try to find a way to sneak in a few games, especially if they're boys.

Those are situations that could call for the "Best Net Guard," a parental control device that comes in the form of a remote similar to one used to lock and unlock the car. If you're doing dishes in the … Read more

At Crave, we're all about living the high life, or at least pretending we can--it sure beats Hello Kitty sometimes. You know, flying cars, Ferrari phones, and speaker-equipped cocoon beds. Basically, if it's gorgeously yet somewhat-obnoxiously designed, we're all over it (vicariously).

Consequently, we are totally drooling over this shower from Signorini Design (yup, it's Italian). Not only does it pour water forth from a sleek metallic block rather than a typical shower head, but a set of colored lights can illuminate the water in your shade of choice. Which means--yes!--it's color-changey. That basically … Read more

It was bound to happen, wasn't it? Zander Urquhart, a personal trainer from Glasgow, has reportedly come up with an official exercise regimen based on playing the Wii.

It's not as silly as it may sound. Research has suggested that digital games can help people lose weight, and at least one blogger says he lost several pounds playing Wii Sports 30 minutes a day. According to Newlaunches, a study by Liverpool John Moores University reports that 12.2 hours of Wii playing each week can burn 1,830 calories.

We have no personal knowledge of how well it … Read more

Crave usually isn't fond of objects that change colors just for the sake of doing so. But there's something about sunglasses that makes a chromatic carousel seem natural.

A pair of shades developed at the University of Washington promises to "change colors on command," though it's limited to various intensities of blue at present. "It uses an organic compound inside the lens, which, once zapped to change, stays that way without any sustaining power," according to Shiny Shiny.

The real fun will begin when researchers add red and green to the mix, which … Read more

As a former hamster owner, I can tell you that this concept for a hamster-powered paper shredder is really, really inefficient. Sure, it's not a mass-market product, but rather a design concept by artist Tom Ballhatchet that will be on display in Milan next week. The device works like this: the hamster runs on the wheel, which powers the shredder, which shreds the paper into hamster bedding. Clever, right?

Um, here's another idea. Just put the paper in the hamster's cage. Hamsters' teeth never stop growing, which is why they constantly need to chew on things. Consequently, … Read more