GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

14-Cup Food Processor, from manual at Cuisinart.com

Long before we had supercomputers in our pockets, our gadgets were mechanical. In the 1970s, if they weren’t in the garage, they were in the kitchen. Food writer Mark Bittman wants to restore to power the one appliance to rule them all: the mighty food processor.

In a long article in yesterday’s New York Times, Bittman writes an extended ode to his food processor, praising its compact versatility:

The food processor replaces the whisk; the pastry cutter; the standing mixer (for which there are still some uses, but only if youre a dedicated baker); the mandoline… and, perhaps most importantly, the grater… I gave the food processor the greatest compliment possible: I upgraded its position in my kitchen from a cabinet to a spot on my itsy-bitsy counter.

Bittman even shelves his blender, opting just for a lightweight immersion blender for margaritas. Music to my ears: like Bittman, I also have near-zero counter space. (The food processor plus immersion blender combo is the kitchen equivalent of the office’s B&W laser printer plus portable scanner all-in-one alternative.) Throw in a rice cooker, and baby, you’ve got a stew going.

What’s more, Bittman puts his cooking money where his gadget-loving mouth is, posting a series of first-rate food-processor recipes, for dishes from pound cake to mayonnaise. If your food processor’s gathering dust in a basement grave somewhere, these just might tempt you to clear off your countertop.

Source:wired.com

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Can’t live with them, can’t live without them! Those black power cords are almost always annoying but there’s no way around it – unless manufacturers can license Fulton Innovation’s wireless power technology.

Fulton did a demo today integrating its technology into a blender to show how it can work in a “high powered device.” The blender works without a power cord or cable. It is placed on what Fulton calls countertop that has ‘eCoupled-enabled’

Here’s how it works. Fulton, which is a subsidiary of Amway, splits a power supply coil into two parts, one of which is built into a surface (hence the eCoupled-enabled surface) and the other is incorporated into the device to power or charge.

A shared electromagnetic field is generated when the power supply and receiving coils are positioned near each other, wirelessly transferring power to or charging the device, says Fulton.

An eCoupled-enabled surface recognizes devices with similar embedded technology technology and power is transferred from the supply coil to the receiving coil in the device.

There’s also an element of intelligence as the surface and the device communicate to monitor and adapt the power to meet the needs of the device, says the company.

So far Fulton has demonstrated the idea in cellphones and MP3 players that require lower power (five watts or less) but now it says it can wirelessly power kitchen devices such as blenders, grills and coffee makers that require kilowatts of power.

But here’s the catch. Fulton has been promising this for at least two years now.

It showed the technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2007 and offered the same list of partners – Motorola, Leggett & Platt and Herman Miller- that it says it is working with to make power and charging cords obsolete.

Fulton says its engineers have been working on the technology for nearly 10 years now.

So while its latest blender is neat, it looks like Fulton Innovation hasn’t made much progress beyond the concept stage.

The video of the wireless blender:

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