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Gadget Lab reader John Costello sent in his ingenious invention, one of those ideas so simple that you slap your forehead and wonder why it hasn’t been done before. John has designed an induction hob which uses LED “flames” to stop you turning it up too high.

While induction hobs give the instant control of a gas flame, there is no way to see how high you have set the heat (there are numbers on the knob, but that’s hardly intuitive). John noticed that people would set the controls too high, so he decided to fix it.

His hob uses LEDs arrayed around the perimeter of the heat-rings. these project a light onto the pot which varies in height depending on the amount of heat dialed-in. As the power creeps higher, so do the “flames”, giving visual feedback that can be read by anybody, even from afar.

I love it. I still use gas, as I like to melt the plastic handles off my stovetop espresso pots every few months, but if I went to electric, it would certainly be induction, and I’d like to have John’s electric blue flames licking up the sides of my saucepans.

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Source:wired.com

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Want to put your overheating iPhone to some use (other than scalding your cheek as it goes to work in your hip pocket, of course)? Why not try it out as a barbecue grill, no app required?

Illustrator Chad Covino tossed off these funs sketches after reading about the hot, hot handsets here on Gadget Lab, and, while rather sardonic, Chads idea is a good one. The glass top of the iPhone is wipe clean, like the ceramic cooker hobs beloved of the Ladys clean-freak mother. And because youll have to use the iPhone 3GS if you have any hope of getting your meat past the salmonella stage of doneness, youll also benefit from the grease-repelling oleophobic coating.

The only problem we foresee, then, is that the iPhone is tiny in comparison to a real grill, although youll probably have space for six chicken nuggets or a very small, reshaped burger patty. And you can even use it as a countdown cooking timer!

No APP required [Chad Covino]

Posted under Gadget Reviews