Gadget Ogling: All-In-One Cooking, In-Car Movie Nights, and Rolling Robots

By Mian Rizwan March 24, 2016 

Welcome gadget dreams and nightmares, and the rest want to know the latest gadget announcement claiming that now is the winter of our discontent or if they herald a glorious summer's columns.

In our little confused calendar this week is a table system, said to replace all other cooking device, it becomes a spray butter into a small object, a car, and doubles as a movie theater home robot.

As always, these are not comment, but the ratings only reflect how much I want to try every product.

The Joy of Not Cooking

Tovala This will change everything, apparently. It's a cooking system counter that serves as an oven, microwave, toaster, grill and steam. It seems to have all the comforts of prepared meals that provide ways to eat healthier than the typical TV dinner.
Although you can create your own dishes, acter provides their food created by professional chefs that are delivered fresh to your home in what could become an important source of income for creators. When scanning the barcode on the packaging of food, Vali will know exactly how to cook. It may, for example, chicken steam for a few minutes before the boiling, the better the texture of the end.
It's a neat idea, and as we go towards a future in which people have less and less time to cook for themselves, so the quality and nutrition are not sacrificed in the name of convenience is a noble goal. I usually do not care to cook and often have a lot of time on this, but I would turn up his nose at acter.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Fast Foods

Can't Believe It's Melted Butter

Biēm is another device aimed at food convenience. If, like me, you despise cooking sprays and wish there were a better way to grease a pan without lading it with too much oil or butter, this might be for you.

It liquefies a stick of butter so you can spray it on your pot or food. Biēm is seemingly very quick in melting the butter, and it only melts what you need, saving the rest for later and ensuring it's not sitting on your counter full of liquefied goop for days on end.

Cleaning appears to be a cinch too, as adding water and a touch of soap where the butter goes, and heating and spraying the mixture is apparently all it takes.

While I'm mostly averse to single-purpose kitchen gadgets, the Biēm looks like it would be incredibly useful in any kitchen -- and especially to anyone who uses perhaps a little too much butter, like me.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Calorie Counters

Driving Movie Theater

I'm not someone who cares much for cars. That might be down to the fact that I'm only now learning to drive, a good way into my adult life. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner we can switch to driverless cars, the better.

Here's an idea from Ford that grabbed my attention, though, as I'm an avid watcher of film. While the car is taking care of getting you to your destination, the windshield turns into a projector screen, so you can kick back and watch the latest Marvel spectacular, or that odd arthouse flick you've been meaning to catch when you could squeeze out the time.

Should you need or want to take manual control of the car, the screen will vanish and you'll see a secondary dash display.

It's only a patented concept for now, so there's a chance that before this comes to market we might entirely bypass the idea that self-driving cars need to have a manual operation option as a failsafe, rendering the secondary display entirely moot.

I hope for a few things here: that the side and rear windows have a blackout option -- as there's nothing worse than watching a movie in brightly lit space -- and there's an outlet for a Tovala so I can use a Biēm for perfect buttery popcorn.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Road Trip Movies

Aid-ing You at Home

The way I see it, if you're going to have a hub to manage all of your connected home needs, it may as well be an adorable robot.

Aido includes speakers and six microphones so it can hear you in the noisiest of rooms.

It has haptic sensors that help it respond to your touch (for which you can set custom commands) and even has an optional projector, so you can watch your favorite movie or TV show wherever you are in your home.

Aido can roam around your home on its omnidirectional ball, with its sensors stopping it from crashing into your furniture.

It supports third-party devices using infrared, WiFi, Bluetooth and several other protocols. The robot can recognize faces and personalize lighting, for instance, based on that person's preferences. Meanwhile, it can act as a roaming home security system you can monitor remotely.

Aido runs on an open source system and takes its design cues from sleek dolphins. It's far more amiable than, say, a router that controls all your connected devices. It's the most charming hub I've seen to date, and whatever my misgivings about connected homes may be, I'd welcome Aido with open arms.