dyson

Last year, Dyson released a very high-tech -- and pricey -- hand vacuum, the Digital Slim DC35. That model started out at $350 but has since come down to $300.

Now Dyson is serving up a new hand vac, the Digital Slim DC44 Animal, which improves upon the earlier model, offering better battery life (20 minutes of "fade-free" power instead of 15 minutes), increased suction, and an upgraded attachment for sucking up pet hair (there's an Animal version of the DC35 that costs $329). While those are certainly welcome upgrades, I'm not sure they merit a … Read more

Q: What do you call a vacuum cleaner that doesn't suck?

A: A race car.

That seems to be the refreshingly unexpected answer Dyson's U.K. engineers would provide.

The crew got together earlier this month to shake the dust off with the "Dyson car challenge," a Pinewood Derby of sorts wherein the engineers competed to -- as the company puts it -- "create the fastest go-kart using a few Dyson spare parts and all the torque they could eke out from one of our handheld motors."… Read more

If you're a fan of Dyson's bagless vacuums but always wished that the company made a canister model that was powered by its Ball technology, that day has arrived: Dyson has introduced the DC39 Multi-floor and DC39 Animal canister vacs.

Dyson vacuums have never been cheap, and the new models, due out in mid-March, cost $449.99 and $499.99, respectively. Aside from its color and higher price, what distinguishes the Animal from the Multi-floor is the inclusion of an accessory that's specially designed for picking up pet hair. Both models are being marketed as "smooth … Read more

Driven by the oft-overlooked needs of the visually impaired, Selene Chew wanted to develop something that would improve their social lives. She came up with the concept of BlindSpot, which looks like a normal white cane, but integrates a mobile phone.

You could say the device--Chew's final-year industrial design thesis project at the National University of Singapore--is a smart cane.

Instead of a screen, users navigate the menu with a tactile navigator and listen to audio cues via a Bluetooth headset. Both the headset and phone can be charged wirelessly.

Like most of today's smartphones, BlindSpot has built-in Wi-Fi, 3G, and GPS connectivity. … Read more

YouTube adds a built-in video editor to the site, Dyson releases a room heater called simply Hot, and Facebook's new subscribe button makes the social network more like Twitter and Google+.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

In the tech world we're always talking up hot new products, but this is the first time we've gotten to report on a new product that actually is Hot--as in, that's its name.

Yes, Dyson's new bladeless heater fan is simply called Dyson Hot and it uses the company's Air Multiplier technology to push a steady stream of warm air into a room, heating it to temperatures of up to 99 degrees. … Read more

If you've ever bought a Dyson product--or even looked at one--you know that they tend to run pretty expensive.

In the case of the Dyson DC35 Digital Slim, you're looking at $299 for a cordless vacuum. That's a lot of dough, but the Slim, which is shaped more like a cleaning weapon than an appliance, has a dash of Dyson's usual innovative, fancy-sounding technology. It sustains suction level (even when the bin is filled up) with something called Root Cyclone technology, and it comes with a "fade-free" lithium ion battery that you just won'… Read more

For the past several years, cable channel Showtime has been putting together an annual showcase for its original programming called the Showtime House. Different interior designers are called in to create rooms themed around shows such as Dexter and Weeds, and the entire thing is built into several floors of an NYC building (this year's version was at the newly open Cassa hotel and residences in midtown Manhattan).

As Showtime is our corporate cousin in the extended CBS family, several CNET editors visited the location during construction and made themselves available to consult with the designers on their technology questions. The end result was that the Showtime House was packed with cool high-tech gadgets, from 3D televisions to video games to Dyson's bladeless Air Multiplier fan. … Read more

So simple, yet so brilliant. Designer Samuel Adeloju's clever little idea of a life-saving ring that can be "shot" out to someone in danger of drowning beyond the reach of a simple toss has won him 10,000 pounds ($15,890) in the James Dyson Award against 14 finalists. The international design award aims at inspiring young people to design something that solves a problem.

Given that Adeloju hails from surf-happy Australia, one can guess at the inspiration floating his boat. The Longreach Buoyancy Deployment System works on the idea of a bazooka-like device that can fire … Read more