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The barista-approved gear you need to recreate the coffee shop at home
Now you too can create cafe-quality coffee at home.
BioLite’s HeadLamp 330 is listed at its lowest price yet, $40
It isn't just laptops and phones that are getting marked down for Black Friday. Some of our favorite outdoor gear will be discounted, too.
PicoBrew shifts its focus from beer to coffee with the MultiBrew
In May of 2018 PicoBrew announced the Pico U -- a universal brewing machine that was supposed to make basically any beverage you could called "brewed", from coffee, to beer to horchata. Well, the story didn't end well for the Pico U. Its Kickstarter campaign was pulled and the device never actually saw the light of day. A little over a year later and the company is ready to try it's hand at an all-in-one system again. The Pico MultiBrew takes the core concept of the U, but refocuses it. The result is a product that might have an easier time finding a home on your counter.
R2-D2 Dark Roast Edition makes your coffee astromech-style, puts brew into 'homebrew' (video)
Has there been a gaping R2-D2-shaped hole in your gadget life ever since the Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition bowed out? The good crew at Instructables knows your plight and has designed the R2-D2 Dark Roast Edition to give your astromech desires an almost literal jolt of energy. The team's do-it-yourself project modifies a BUNN industrial coffee maker -- no slow-drip home unit here -- with a float valve and a generous mix of aluminum, brass, copper and steel welded on top. If you're particularly ambitious, you can even make R2 bleep his delight when you've got a fresh pot lined up. Constructing a Dark Roast Edition requires a good amount of electrical and metalworking savvy, but it might be worth your time while you wait for C-3PO to reach stores.
TextSpresso machine brews caffeinated goodness via text messaging (video)
The folks at Zipwhip may have unwittingly discovered a new business model. While the company is primarily focused on cloud messaging services, it's recently created an espresso maker that allows employees to whip up custom brews from the comfort of their mobile phone. Known as TextSpresso, it's based on the Jura Impressa XS90, but unlike the retail model, the machine accepts orders via SMS. As if that weren't enough, it's part of a larger system that's capable of printing employee names onto the foam (using edible ink) and then placing the drink onto a warming tray. TextSpresso is very much a custom job, but if you'd like an inside peek of the system -- complete with servo motors, an Arduino microcontroller and a retro-fitted Canon printer -- be sure to hop the break and dream of what could be.
iOS-controlled Top Brewer coffee maker is a thing to behold
Rejoice, o ye iPhone and iPad-toting coffee addicts with fat wallets! Just when you thought that there was nothing new under the sun to create the perfect cup of joe, Scanomat brings the Top Brewer to the market. The Top Brewer is a high-end coffee machine that uses an iOS app to control brewing. Most of the hardware for the brewer is hidden under a countertop, meaning that all you see is a spigot, a drain, and a touch panel for those times when your coffee jitters have caused you to drop your iPhone. The Top Brewer was demonstrated at the recent HOST hospitality show in Milan, Italy, where many top baristas gave the coffee-brewing juggernaut top ratings. Those who own more than one Top Brewer can control multiple machines simultaneously via the app's favorites screen. It gives you control all of your machines in one view, so you can be churning out a variety of drinks with a few taps, conducting a team of invisible baristas. This may be the start of something big. Perhaps your local coffee shop will install a team of Top Brewers and let you order your coffee drink just the way you like it from your iPhone or iPad while you stand in line to pay for the beverage. There's no price tag for the Top Brewer yet, but it's probably going to be targeted at high-end homes and to the hospitality industry. [via Gizmodo]
Scanomat TopBrewer brings iPhone control, elegant design to single-cup coffee makers (video)
There's no question that we love our coffee, but we're often far less intrigued by the brewing process than we are the result. With its incredibly sleek design and simple iPhone or iPad control, Scanomat's faucet-like TopBrewer could easily become one of the few exceptions, however. This fully automatic coffee machine grinds your beans, measures out ingredients and foams milk, before dishing out the perfect cup. But iOS control is the keystone of this elegant solution, letting you make your beverage selection from a wireless device, leaving nothing but the stainless steel tap exposed. Craving a cappuccino? Simply toss your cup under the spigot and tap an icon. You can also dispense cold milk or water, hot chocolate and even carbonated water -- all from the same head. Scanomat has yet to hint at a release date or price, but if you have to ask... Jump past the break for a quick taste, courtesy of some lucky folks at a hospitality industry expo in Milan. [Thanks, Fredrik]
Barista-approved mod shoves a coffeemaker, Mac mini and subwoofer into an iMac DV case
Do you have even the slightest clue what you get when you shove a perfectly operational Mac mini, JBL Spot subwoofer and WMF1 coffeemaker into a perfectly defunct iMac DV case? The iMac CS, that's what. In one of the most bizarre and aspirational mods we've seen in quite some time, one Klaus Diebel has managed to combine three devices that wouldn't typically be shoved within the same enclosure... into the same enclosure. The result is a coffee-making media server that just so happens to boast its own inbuilt sound system, or in other words, exactly what you need to start a street corner java shop. The bad news is that a customized version will set you back at least €300 ($431), but the good news is that you can probably build your own for less. Just make sure you know exactly what you're getting yourself into before embarking -- we've got a vague idea that this won't enhance the lives of many.
BeMoved coffee machine will make you jump for your caffeine fix
A robot barista-filled future may still be a long ways off, but it looks like you may just be answering to a machine of another sort for your coffee sooner than you think -- at least if Douwe Egberts has its way. While it's still a concept, the company's so-called BeMoved coffee machine promises to finally bring the disparate worlds of hot beverages and motion control together at last, and do nothing short of raise "human interaction with a coffee machine to a higher level" in the process. Because, really, you can never truly feel close to a coffee machine until it's taunted you to jump up and down to fill your cup of joe. Of course, you can also do some slightly more practical things like tailor your coffee exactly the way you like using the massive touchscreen, and even check up on the weather and news while you wait. No word on any test markets just yet, but folks can apparently check out the concept first-hand at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven this week -- or simply head on past the break for a video. [Via Appliancist]
Philips serves up two new Senseo brewmakers at IFA, still won't dethrone Starbucks
It's been a full year since we asked if a few off-the-wall renders were indicative of Philips' next-generation Senseo, but at long last, the next in the long line of successful coffee making machines has come to light. Seven years after the first Senseo hit the scenes, the heralded machine will finally be made available in a new "square shape," with the appropriately named Quadrante doing everything a Senseo does but with edges rather than contours. Said machine will be available in Dark Stroke Black and Bright Style White, while the limited edition version by Marcel Wanders -- which hearkens back to the classic design -- spices things up with some fancy sequins atop a translucent red or translucent grey finish. For the java lovers in attendance, feel free to give the read links below a once over, and be sure to raise a glass to us while you're at it. [Warning: PDF read links]Read - Philips Senseo QuadranteRead - Philips limited edition Senseo
Internet-connected coffee maker leaves your PC, mornings at risk
It looks like those that enjoy a little remote control over their coffee could be unwittingly leaving both their PCs and their precious brew vulnerable, at least according to BDO risk advisory services manager Craig Wright, who found that his Jura F90 internet-connected coffee maker had several significant security holes, including a buffer overflow in its internet connection software. That, he says, could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the PC connected to the coffee maker, not to mention control the strength of the coffee and perform unwanted diagnostics. Of course, given the number of internet-connected coffee makers out there right now, Wright admits that the potential risk is relatively low (and moot if it's behind a firewall), but he has some dire warnings for the future, saying that eventually "you'll be able to turn on your oven with your mobile phone," which he says could lead to a malicious hacker "burning the house down."
Learning coffee machine on the horizon, could use GPS / RFID
Although a coffee machine that slowly but surely learns your daily preferences in regard to cups of java may sound outlandish, the already-created RFID-enabled refrigerator certainly brings things back into focus. A "provisional patent exploration into coffee machines that learn and react to their users" is underway in Lafayette, Indiana, as James Pappas is hoping to take ubiquitous computing to the next level on coffee makers of the future. While internet-connected and weather-displaying renditions are already on store shelves, Pappas is hoping to utilize some form of GPS / RFID technology to create a machine that learns and adapts to your coffee drinking ways so it can automatically have a white chocolate cappuccino ready and waiting each weekday (except Monday, which is your straight-up black coffee day, right?) without you having to touch a thing. Furthermore, he's hoping to take the idea to the mobile front, as he refers to a cellphone interface to dial-in your next request so that it's ready to go by the time you hit the kitchen. Still, it sounds like the invention is a few years off at best, but serious drinkers better hope this thing automatically alerts you when the beans are running low, too.[Image courtesy of CoffeeToThePeople]
