Sometimes you need a beer brought to you, sometimes you need to blast a stream of water at your mother-in-law’s face. This remote-controlled Electric Amphibious Vehicle ($99) understands that, and quickly transforms from rugged land vehicle capable of carrying Heinekens to your side to sea craft with an on-board water cannon just meant to muddle up middle-aged mascara. It just takes one 9V battery to make your world a more James Bondian one.
The company Popcorn, Indiana makes some damn fine popcorn, but they’ve done raised their game to a ridiculous new level. Introducing the Popinator, a voice-activated popcorn shooter that sends a delicious kernel into the air every time you say “Pop.” The fully automated machine can pinpoint wherever the magic words were spoken from and then send the popcorn soaring in that direction, all from up to 15 feet away. So what happens if you say “hop” or “cop” instead of pop? I suppose worst case scenario, a piece of unintended popcorn is flung your way. Better leave room for it.
If beer is the world’s oldest beverage, then opening beer is the world’s oldest chore. Non-twist bottlecaps are the only thing getting between you and your delicious fermented grains, and the Kebo bottle opener ($25) is the best tool for removing this menace. This style of opener, first designed in the 1930’s, had been abandoned up until recently. Now beer requires one less limb to open: just place the Kebo on the bottlecap, squeeze with your dominant hand, drink, rinse, repeat. With St. Patrick’s Day on the horizon, friends and family alike will marvel at your ability to streamline the drinking process with the Kebo.
Try as you might, there’s just no stopping the digital revolution. Sure, old school DJs cutting up vinyl will always reign supreme, but can anyone resent the future when it looks like this? Say what’s up to Numark’s NS6, the company’s newest digital DJ controller. This slick-looking piece of hardware is a ferocious 4-channel mixer with Serato Itch 4-deck DJ software built-in; that means all you need is a laptop with tunes and some speakers, and you’re ready to rock the party harder than DJ Qualls. OK, so DJ Qualls isn’t really a DJ, he’s that skinny actor from Road Trip, but no one will care about that misguided reference when you show up with this 14-pound piece of music-mashing metal. It’s going for about $1K.
