Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round-up of the latest and greatest toys. This week, we officially get on the objective for Lego’s Overwatch line, Hot Toys unleashes the galaxy’s most kitted-out Astromech droid, and the new Bumblebee movie gets a very cool figure. Check it out!
The dirty secret about robot vacuums is that they can’t actually clean your entire house. They’re great for floors, but are completely useless for cleaning all of your other other dust-covered surfaces. It’s a problem the Coral One—a robovac with a removable handheld cleaner—was engineered to solve. Its design is…
Even after spending $950 on the new self-emptying Roomba, there will still be lots of places in your home that require another vacuum to clean them. It’s a problem common to all robot vacuums—except the new Coral One. Built into this robovac is a removable hand vac that can be used to clean anywhere in your home the…
With the new i7+, it looks like iRobot is taking robot vacuums a step closer to truly being a hands-free way to keep your floors clean. Instead of having to constantly empty the robot’s tiny dirt bin, the i7+ has an oversized dock that transfers dust and debris into a larger reservoir with disposable bags that don’t…
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly round up of all things fun, collectible, and frivolous. San Diego Comic-Con is but a distant memory at this point, but thankfully there’s still plenty of toy news to be had. Lego’s still pumping out new sets, Jell-O’s trying its hand at making edible toys, and we’ve got some fun…
I never developed a taste for tea, or hot leaf water, as it should be more accurately called. But how else am I going to justify spending $71 on a novelty stovetop kettle shaped like Darth Vader’s helmet? It’s even got a tiny replica of Vader’s lightsaber for its handle. How am I supposed to resist that? I’m only…
Screens dominate almost every room in our homes, but to date they’ve only made minor inroads into the kitchen. You’ll mostly find them sequestered onto tiny fridge doors, but GE wants to change that with its new Kitchen Hub range hood that hangs a 27-inch interactive screen over your stove.
Sometime in the past three or four years there was a breakthrough in waffle-making technology that paved the way for simple appliances that can churn out the malty treats in endless novelty shapes. But during that waffle-making revolution, one machine has leaped ahead of the pack with its ability to make tiny,…
Released last year, Google Assistant hasn’t really proven itself useful outside of checking the weather, searching Google, or setting an alarm using voice commands. So far it’s been limited to just basic features that are more than matched by other smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. But Google is…
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's roundup of the most interesting toys we’ve seen this week. It’s a Guardians of the Galaxy blowout as we’ve got life-sized Groots, creepy plush Groots, and a fancy cassette player. But wait—there’s more, including a very swanky David Bowie figure and a very large Iron Man. Check it out!
Impressed by late-night infomercial ads for blenders that can hack and slash through ice, nuts, and rocks? They might as well be primitive neanderthal tools compared to NightHawkInLight’s latest creation, which can turn potatoes into slivers and cabbage into coleslaw in the blink of an eye.
After you watch this video of an adorable little girl named Rayna greeting and hugging a new robot friend, you’ll come to the realization it will never hug or love her back—because it’s actually a discarded water heater. (Sad!) Shortly after that, you’ll also come to the realization that kids clearly aren’t being…
If you find your kitchen counters cluttered with food-specific gadgets and appliances, you finally have a good reason to get rid of them all. The culinary innovators at Nostalgia Electrics have created the only thing you’ll ever need: The Bacon Express, a toaster that cooks delicious slices of pork instead of bread.
Robots have been cleaning our floors ever since the first Roomba arrived 14 years ago, but it’s not a completely hands-off chore yet. You still have to occasionally clean out your robovac’s dirt bin, which Black+Decker is making a little easier with its new Smartech Robotic Vacuum that compresses debris into discs…
It’s one of the simplest appliances in your kitchen, but how many times have you popped bread in a toaster, only to have it nuke your slice because the previous user had it set to well done? Too often, which is why Griffin Technology’s shiny new Connected Toaster isn’t that absurd of an idea.
For some, winter means warm sweaters, skiing, and tropical travels. For others it means dry air, cracked skin, and uncomfortable sinuses. But instead of digging out the humidifier as the temperatures drop, you can instead build yourself this perfectly safe living room tornado machine that works using water mist.
Upright vacuums with the dust bin and motor all attached to the handle can be a bit heavy to push around, but canister vacs are notorious for constantly tipping as they roll across your floors. Possibly taking inspiration from those classic Fisher-Price Weebles toys that never fall over, Dyson has created a canister…
You’d think that the first robot vacuum from a company like Dyson, who reinvented the vacuum, fan, and hair dryer, would rival R2-D2 when it came to functionality. But with the 360 Eye, Dyson instead focused on creating a robovac that did one thing very well: cleaning. It delivers as promised, but is that worth $1,000?
The ultimate power in the Star Wars universe can also be the ultimate power on your kitchen counter now that the Death Star has been turned into a two-slice toaster with settings for light, dark, burnt, and Alderaan’d.
The makers of the FoldiMate realize that the worst part of doing laundry is having to fold all your clothes once they come out of the washer and dryer. A third machine that does all that for you could revolutionize chores as we know it, but the FoldiMate might not be the answer to our lazy prayers.
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