Author: Damian Francis

Damian Francis is Jen's husband and a former consumer technology journalist for T3, GQ and Men's Health

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Smart Home

Interiors Addict’s guide to buying a TV in the New Year sales

If I had a dollar for every person who asked me what to look for when buying a TV, I’d have about… $1.50. It’s been a few years since I was a hardcore technology journalist so give me a break. But being that Christmas is upon us and ‘tis the seasons to buy extravagant items in post-Christmas sales (a TV, hint, hint), it seemed like a good time to brush off more the technology cobwebs (I’ve been doing a little bit of that lately – here and here) and lay down the law when thinking about spending some hard earned on a TV for your home.

woman-shopping-for-tv
Image via sheknows.com

Here are five tips you really should follow if you want to get a TV that doesn’t just look stylish in your house, but actually looks good when you turn the screen on.

Size matters

When I was in high school I pushed my Dad to get a 59cm Sony Wega flat screen. It was the bomb, and 59cm back then was monstrous. Now it’s small. But smaller screen sizes may be perfect for you. When I say size matters, I mean it does in the sense that you need to buy the right size for your room, not the biggest TV. You should be sitting roughly 1.5 times the size of your screen away from it. In other words, bought a 65-inch TV? Sit 130 inches away (yes, I too hate that for some reason, TV sizes are now measured in imperial again!?). So if you own a small, one-bedroom apartment, perhaps 40 inches is more appropriate.

Sound matters too

TVs are now thinner than ever, and some of the best looking ones can actually be no-name or store owned brands. DSE brand TVs are surprisingly good looking, as are Kogan’s. But beware, the general rule is that the first thing to be dropped in producing a TV on the cheap is the sound. It is harder to get away with a poor picture — you can easily see that in-store, but the sound is rarely turned on so it’s a lot easier to sneak in a cheap set of speakers. A poor set of speakers will make your viewing experience quite unpalatable. Ask to listen to the TV in-store before you make the purchase. And don’t write off cheap sets straight away — some can have decent sound, you just have to look carefully. If you made the mistake of buying a TV with crap sound, fear not, just buy a soundbar to boost the sound. A good one — don’t make the same mistake you did with the TV!

Watch the accessories

Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, Google Chrome, Apple TV, Blu-ray, USB, Nintendo Wii U blah, blah, blah. There are a lot of things you can plug into a TV and chances are you will have more than one thing. There are two things to think about here: does your TV have the required amount of ports on the back? And do you have enough storage space to house the TV and the peripherals? This is particularly important when you are moving up screen sizes. Suddenly your entertainment unit is no longer big enough to take the TV and all the trimmings. Imagine the temper tantrum when hubby finds out the PlayStation has to go in the basement? I speak from experience. At least three HDMI and two USB should do the trick. But the more the merrier.

App, app and away

The buzzword right now is ‘smart’. You will hear Smart TV being bandied about everywhere. Simply speaking, it is a TV with internet connectivity so you can download apps using a built-in platform like Android TV. You generally pay more for these types of TVs and some of them are quite good. But if you find a bargain on a TV that is not app-ready out of the box, buy it anyway. Chances are adding Apple TV or Google Chrome if you really want that kind of functionality will still make the TV a pretty good deal. And those options are small and easy to hide. Google’s Chrome, for example, can hang off your TV HDMI plug and draw power from the USB plug, so you will never see it.

Power up

Your TV will likely be something used a lot, especially if you are buying for the family room. So it’s wise to think about energy consumption, if for nothing else than to be nice to the planet. Six-star energy ratings are hard to find with TVs, but five-star TVs are common enough, even on larger sets. So if you want to keep your energy bill down, make sure to have a look at the star rating before purchase. But also be sure to weigh it up with the price of the TV. If you’re paying hundreds of dollars more for a similar set just to bump up from four star to five-star, it is arguably not worth the money.

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Expert Tips Smart Home

Is Bang & Olufsen’s good looking Beolit 15 speaker worth $699?

As with all things audio, we hand over to our resident former consumer technology journalist Damian Francis, otherwise known as Mr Interiors Addict…

Let’s play a straight card on this one. The Beoplay Beolit 15 by Bang & Olufsen needs to be bloody good. Really, really, bloody good. That may sound a bit harsh to just lay down the law like you would to a young child who has just thrown his Messina ice cream all over the pavement, but it is important that boundaries are laid down early.

Why? Because the Beolit 15 is a portable bluetooth speaker… that costs $699! It costs $699 because it is made by Bang & Olufsen. And while it falls under the lighthearted entry level Beoplay brand, it still has to be held up to the same standards that all Bang & Olufsen products should be held to. It’s Bang & Olufsen after all — you don’t buy and Mercedes-Benz A-class or a BMW 1 series and walk away with a smile on your face if it drives like a Toyota Yaris.

Beolit15-14JS-Me29
B&O’s Beolit15 in Shaded Rosa

So, the question is, can a portable bluetooth speaker justify a $699 price tag? Here are some of the key takeaways from a week using the Beolit 15… and an answer to the question of value.

The look. I’m going to defer to Jen on this. She thinks it’s better looking than me. And I have it on good authority that I’m pretty good looking. Ahem. There are three colour options (natural champagne, polar blue and shaded rosa), all in muted pastels that tend to soak into the background rather than draw attention. Jen loves the gold (natural champagne) version (and all gold accessories judging by our living room). Away from design aesthetics, this is good. A speaker is meant to sound good first and foremost. If it looks good too, that’s a bonus. The full grain leather strap is a bit take it or leave it in my opinion, but lovers of accessories will likely adore the touch (as Jen does).

Set up is a breeze. The hardest thing is taking it out of the box. Once you have, plug the power cord into the neatly hidden compartment at the back and you’re in business. This will charge the battery at the same time. Connecting it to your bluetooth device is just as easy. Press the bluetooth logo button on the top and hold it down. It beeps. Then search on your device for Beolit 15 and connect. Simple. There are a number of bluetooth products I have tested in my time that can’t get this step correct. Connecting becomes a laborious, time-consuming, rage-filled activity. Not the Beolit 15. It will take a couple of minutes from opening the box to playing music.

The sound. I’ll be upfront – I don’t like wireless sound, especially over bluetooth. It can be patchy, highs are often lost and bass is overcompensated in the hope that the young types will think the quality is brilliant because the speaker is vibrating. Dr Dre has a lot to answer for. Wireless over a network is better but wired is where it is at. As far as bluetooth sound goes, this is really good. Really, really good. Good to the extent that my credit card has stopped trying to cut itself in half having heard the $699 price tag and is asking to hear just one more track. The bass is good, not overpowering. Treble is balanced well. While there is certainly a little murkiness at the very top end, it takes a while to get there and is certainly not a deal breaker. In fact, for a bluetooth speaker of this size I have never heard treble balanced so well before. It dances brilliantly with lower notes, with the Beolit 15 producing a very well balanced sound. In layman’s terms — classical music sounds classical on a Beolit 15 — you won’t feel like you’re missing anything.

And the X-factor? One could argue that the $699 price tag is the X-factor! Thankfully it’s not. There is a little X in the design, a lot in the sound quality, but the real X-factor is in the versatility. It has a built-in battery that lasts up to 24 hours from full charge. You can take this virtually anywhere. But when plugged in at home, you can add another Beolit 15 to create a (extremely expensive) stereo system with proper left and right speakers. While we haven’t tried that, it is likely to be pretty good. The bluetooth technology will also allow you to connect two devices at a time for dual control and it will remember up to eight individual devices without having to connect again.

The specs. So you want to know what you are really dealing with here (if you don’t like tech specs, skip to the next paragraph)? The Beolit 15 has 240 watts of peak power thanks to four active drivers and two passive bass radiators, driven by dual Class D amplifiers. There is more, but this probably isn’t the audience for it! I’m barely the audience for that. As far as I’m concerned, tech specs mean nothing if you don’t personally enjoy the product.

So, $699 for a bluetooth speaker. Justifiable? Yes, after a little while. But when you really give it time to listen properly, the Beolit 15 will grow on you big time and won’t look bad at all in your lounge or bedroom. I’ll take two, thanks.

You can get more information here.

Disclosure: We were gifted the Beolit 15 with no guarantee of a review, let alone a positive one. But we were so excited about its good looks and sound, we had to share!

Categories
Appliances

The lightbulb you can play music through. Via your mobile!

As with anything tech, we hand over the reviewing to our resident former consumer technology journalist Damian Francis, aka Mr Interiors Addict 😉

Do you remember that time you wished your bedside lamp had a speaker in it? No, not just in the lamp itself, but right inside the actual bulb? Nope, neither can I. And yet here I am, staring at my bedside lamp with a bulb in it that contains a speaker.

Machtig, Sengled Pulse Solo - LED + Wireless Speakers, available in ES & BC (RRP $129). Pix 4LR

The company in question is Sengled and its aim is to turn your home into a connected home in a DIY fashion. No need to call in an electrician or rip down a few walls, just buy some of these Pulse Solo LED bulbs with 2×3-watt JBL speakers in them, download the app, and then boom, connected home. Kind of. In the sense that only the lights and speakers are automated via the Sengled app. Decent start, though. Carry on…

Sengled has four products in the range; the Pulse, Pulse Solo, Boost and Snap. They are all bulbs that can be controlled through the app, some with speakers in them. But they are not cheap. The Pulse Solo I tested retails for an eye-watering $129.99. Yes, it has a speaker in it. Yes, the bulb is LED and should last decades, but it’s quite a serious upfront cost for what essentially costs you a couple of dollars down at Coles for a traditional version sans speaker.

Is it worth the hernia inducing hit to the wallet for the long term benefits and the sweet sound of music coming from your lamp? Yes and no, but mostly no.

Machtig, Sengled Pulse Solo - LED + Wireless Speakers, available in ES & BC (RRP $129). Pix 3LR (1)

Let’s cut straight to the chase. It’s an app controlled light bulb and speaker with Bluetooth. For Interiors Addict readers that likely means a few things prior to purchase. It has to be stylish, it has to be functional, and it has to have a bit of ‘wow’ factor.

In terms of style, it’s heavier than a standard bulb and slightly bigger to boot thanks to the speakers. Largely white, you’re still going to want to hide this under a lamp shade. This isn’t a bulb you can show off naked. It doesn’t look bad, you just wouldn’t leave it bare.

Functionality is a big one for this bulb. It comes in E27 screw or B22 twist. It screws in easy and is ready to pair as soon as you switch it on. Once you download the app (iOS or Android) you can find the bulb and name it for easy access. You then have control of volume and brightness via a well laid out user interface. So installation and set-up are a breeze.

As for use, the Bluetooth is patchy, and that is being generous. Even with the source device within a metre of the bulb the sound would completely cut out regularly. And the sound quality – it’s just not good. Sorry, Sengled, but there is no other way to put it. For the price, consumers shouldn’t expect good sound quality, but this is certainly at the lower end of expectations. No bass what-so-ever, tinny highs, distortion. For anything other than soft background music, the Sengled Pulse Solo just isn’t up to the job.

When it comes to ‘wow’ factor, the Pulse Solo is much like the first iteration of Apple TV, the Toyota Prius or that coffee made from animal droppings. It makes you do a double take, the features seem pretty cool, but the execution just isn’t there to be continually useful or urgently needed.

If you just want a connected bulb, Belkin provides a similar system for cheaper as it doesn’t contain speakers. Personally, I would go in this direction if I really wanted to buy into the app-controlled lighting space. The Belkin solution is called WeMo and it is much closer to home automation in that you can get power sockets as well that can be controlled by the app plus proper light switches (electrician required) and motion sensing detectors. But even then, I probably wouldn’t do that. It’s just not truly necessary unless you live in a very big house.

At the end of the day, the outlay is massive for what is essentially a dimmable light controlled by your phone. Again, happy to acknowledge the bulbs last decades, but still, expensive is expensive, especially when the speaker is sub-par and the Bluetooth is patchy.

Interesting idea, but lacking execution.

RRP $129.99 (Pulse Solo). For further information or to buy online.

Categories
Appliances

Review: Sonos Wireless Speaker System

The Connect Amplifier

Former consumer technology journalist for the likes of T3, GQ and Men’s Health and Jen’s husband, Damian Francis, reviews the Sonos Wireless Speaker System.

One of the biggest challenges for the home owner today is concealing wires. What a fantastically interesting topic! But the reality is, today’s modern homes are small technology hubs — connected environments that are meant to make life easier and more entertaining. With technology comes wires. How many are sprouting from your TV right now? Mine looks like Medusa’s head on steroids. I’ve done a bang up job hiding those wires behind an entertainment unit the size of the QM2. Strangely Jen doesn’t seem to be too thrilled with this solution.

The Play 1 speaker

So how do you overcome it? The truth is, it’s tricky. Cull the wires and you often cull the quality, keep the quality and you add serious expense. How many times has Kevin McCloud waxed lyrical about a great built-in system that had to be heavily researched and then installed in a house at build-stage? When it comes to sound systems though, it is now a hell of a lot easier with Sonos.

Why Sonos?

Sonos was one of the first brands to produce a wireless solution for sound systems that didn’t sound like a spluttering 1970 VW Beetle, didn’t have the price tag of a Porsche and actually looked like something you would want to put in your home. I was a technology journalist when the brand first made waves — it caught the attention of a number of my colleagues, which is no mean feat.

Let’s cut to the chase. You want a Sonos because you’re tired of wires cluttering your home, you want versatility in your system to play music in a single room or throughout your house, you want a system that blends in with modern decor and you don’t want to have to remortgage your house or cut into walls to get any of the above.

Out of the box

Interiors Addict had a set of two Play:1 speakers ($329 each) and a Connect ($599) to test. Installation is as simple as taking the speaker out of the box, plugging it into the powerpoint and following the simple and quick step-by-step instructions to get the first speaker working. Adding more is even easier, with the process taking no more than a couple of minutes. And trust me, if you want to make the most of Sonos, you want more than a single Play:1 unit.

The Connect Amplifier
The Sonos Connect

There are a range of sizes and accessories to suit most needs — such as Play:1 small speakers for smaller rooms like I have in our house or the Connect which connects to wired stereo systems. But you can also get larger Play:3 and Play:5 systems as well as a Soundbar and Subwoofer. All are set up in a similar fashion and all can be used solo or grouped together.

Playing music is a fairly simple process. You download the Sonos controller on your laptop, tablet or mobile device and you can then play music from that device or use a range of popular services like Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn Radio and much more to play music. The Sonos controller also allows you to name your speakers, join them together to form a stereo sound system, play music in more than one room at the same time, change your speakers’ settings and more. Start using your smartphone and then move to using your iPad, for example, and you will pick up where you left off with your playlist rather than having to start from scratch.

controller-ios-tablet-music-menu

The quirks

While it is relatively simple to use, it still has some quirks which can become a little annoying. It’s not always as simple as finding what you want and pressing play. While that’s not a big deal, it can grate a bit. In some cases it would be much better to be able to use the standard app, such as Spotify, rather than having to use the Sonos controller app to control your Spotify account with your speakers.

The real world test was getting Jen to use the app on her smartphone. She got it, but it took a little while and there were some really good questions as to why certain aspects weren’t simpler.

Also, bear in mind that Sonos is not a bluetooth speaker. You may use it with your computer or smartphone, but it is different to a bluetooth setup and therefore can’t be used like a bluetooth speaker. Big deal? Not at all – but if you’re after a bluetooth speaker, buy one.

Being that the Sonos system is meant to be a home music solution, sound quality is of greater importance than most speakers you would associate with control via your laptop or mobile device. Thankfully it’s good. But let’s qualify that. My Honda CR-V is good — plenty of space, cheap to run, good looking. But I’ll still get smashed off the lights by a Porsche Cayenne. The story is similar for the Sonos Play:1, which I tested at home, and other systems which I have tested previously, such as the Play:3 and Play:5.

Sonos offers great bang for buck. The sound is loud and travels further through your house than you would imagine. But it’s bass heavy, and treble can become murky, making certain genres of music more enjoyable to listen to on the Sonos than others. Adding speakers together, such as two Play:1s for a left and right channel system, helps but it doesn’t completely solve the problem. Despite this, the music is still enjoyable to listen to and I would argue that if you wanted better clarity through your highs, you should spend more money on a higher end system.

The result

When it comes to the crunch, the Sonos products are well priced and well designed, with adequate sound quality. They are well thought out and relatively easy to use. If you want a wireless solution that won’t require remodelling of your home or your bank account, it is hard to go wrong with a Sonos system. Play:1 will suit apartments or small rooms, Play:3 will suit lounge rooms and medium-sized areas, but for open plan areas, go for a Play:5… or two.

For more information.

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Appliances

Sucked in: Electrolux and weird vacuuming statistics

Henry vacuum cleaner

Apologies for the radio silence over the past month. We were busy getting married and all. But now that distraction is out of the way, here are some weird facts about vacuuming from Electrolux that you probably didn’t know and might not want to know, depending on what kind of person you are. But if you have always been interested in naked vacuuming, or when you can put your kids to work in the salt mines… umm… lounge room, then hit the jump and take a peek at some of these weird and wonderful vacuuming stats.

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Appliances

Smeg Linear oven with TFT display tells you how to cook

Last time I let my vacuum cleaner tell me what to do I got into a whole world of trouble. But Smeg clearly thinks I should give the machines another chance and listen to what its new oven range has to tell me. Or at least read what its new oven range has to tell me.

Smeg Oven SFPA140-LS

The Smeg Linear SFPA140 comes with a TFT touch screen that will give you recipes tailored to Australian produce, advise you on how you should set up your oven depending on what you are cooking and take care of all the fiddly bits and pieces that would usually be handled by a knob or physical button.

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Appliances

New Smeg Ceiling Mount Range Hoods add class to your kitchen

It seems like every part of the house is turning into art these days – which is a bloody good thing really. No more awful irons, horrid metal pans, plain Telstra branded phones or… huge and ugly range hoods. Smeg, the chaps behind those fridges that pretty much everyone with an ounce of style wants has turned its attention to kitchen ventilation with this new range that melds interior design chic with kitchen practicality and a touch of technology to boot.

Smeg CM Vertigo-LS

First things first, these are serious range hoods not just expensive kitchen ornaments. The three new range hoods are Vanilla, Zoom and Vertigo. Each has four speeds for the ideal extraction rate as well as four halogen bulbs to light the kitchen as if it were daylight. You can even get continuous use through the Key 24 mode which runs the system continuously and silently for 24 hours. Thanks to the built-in energy diffuser, there is a significant increase in energy efficiency as well. For convenience, the metal filter is dishwasher safe.

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Appliances

The pet friendly vacuum cleaner from Electrolux that looks like a transformer!

Apparently 63% of Australian households own pets. That’s pretty believable – I actually thought it would be a bit more. For all those people who come home to abodes full of cat or dog hair dust bunnies, Electrolux has tried to make your life a little easier. If, on the other hand, you’re part of a household that owns a pet snail, hamster, beetle or anything else that could potentially get sucked up into a vacuum cleaner, the normal warnings would apply to using these products.

Electrolux Ultracaptic vacuumThe main bugbear for pet owners with vacuum cleaners is the noise they make. I tried searching for a statistic on how many pet hamsters croaked after sudden vacuum turn ons but couldn’t find anything on Google. Maybe I should try Bing… but anyway, Electrolux has solved that by adding some pet friendly features to some of its popular models, namely quiet start-up and operation.

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Appliances

Foreman is back with the Lean, Mean, Roasting Machine

Pow! We are back after a few days without any appliance news, and guess what, Foreman is back as well! Now he is leaner, and meaner, and… roastier. Ahem. George Foreman is welcoming back the Lean, Mean, Roasting Machine, which as you can imagine, roasts food and knocks out the fat. The appliance has a five litre capacity which means that you can roast a fair whack of food at one go, and it comes with the usual slanted cooking plate which drains away whatever fat and grease drips off your meats.

George Foreman Lean Mean Roasting Machine

So what will a five litre capacity actually hold? Apparently that equates to a 2.5 kilogram chicken and full cuts of meat, which is pretty significant. The Lean, Mean, Roasting Machine also comes with a removable drip tray and digital timer so that you can simply set and forget.

The Lean, Mean Roasting Machine will set you back $99.95 so there is plenty of… meat left on the bone for food to roast. Sorry. For more information head to RussellHobbs.com.au.

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Appliances Kitchens

Russell Hobbs Ice Cream & Yoghurt Maker plus Vegemite toaster

I got pretty excited about this. It looked like a go kart engine, which piqued my interest. Turns out it was the new Russell Hobbs Ice Cream & Yoghurt maker… which is probably a much better fit for this site.

russell hobbs ice cream maker

But when I checked out the website for more info, the limited edition Vegemite toaster up for grabs smacked me in the face. That is one mighty awesome pop art style toaster which is still up for grabs from Russell Hobbs and Vegemite. And considering the Marmite vs. Vegemite debates I often have with my Pommy fiancee, I think I need this in our kitchen to make a point!

Russell Hobbs vegemite toaster

First things first, the Ice Cream & Yoghurt maker which I can 100 percent assure you IS NOT a go kart engine. It makes creating your own frozen treats like ice cream simple and also does yoghurt or ice cubes. So what? Stacks of products out there do the same. This one has some tricks up its sleeve though, which may seal the deal.

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Appliances Kitchens

Siemens speedMatic dishwashers are like something from Star Wars

I do the dishes in this household. Many moons ago in a galaxy quite close to where I live now… if not the very same galaxy, it was decided that the dishes would be my domain. After all, how hard can it be to rinse, load, push a button and then empty? Well, not hard. But it’s not particularly interesting either. In manual washing it was almost like you had a bit of time to yourself as you rinsed those dirty plates with suds. Now it’s all so mechanical… but the Siemens speedMatic dishwashers could brighten your day somewhat.

Siemens SN46V593AU

Why? Because they are full of cool technology which makes washing dishes a little more interesting. For all the guys out there, the damn thing will project the time remaining and stage of the cycle on the floor with a feature called timeLight! Seriously. That is some spooky stuff. But there is a stack more packed in as well which, although not as outwardly cool, is actually quite handy.

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Appliances

Beko Indyflex 60cm cooktop makes paella (or a hell of a lot of bacon) real easy

I don’t know about you but every day when I get home I lament the fact that it is terribly difficult to cook a good, big paella on my current cooktop. OK, I don’t, but some people might. And not just paella; other dishes that require large amounts of ingredients, or even just those that you have to cook for a large party. The Beko Indyflex 60cm cooktop (HII 64500FT to give it its full name) could be the answer to your dramas.

beko indyflex cooktop

It could also be the answer if you wanted to cook a hell of a lot of bacon at once, which I do, often and continually. That would be one amazingly mighty bacon sandwich, all of which would be cooked perfectly at the same time. Living the dream, I am.

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Appliances

Frankie says ‘Relaxx’x… with a Bosch vacuum cleaner’

There must be too many ‘x’s hanging around the Bosch offices. The company famous for its power tools has hurled a few spares at the name of its new vacuum cleaner range. If you’re a lover of silence or a lover of pets (but not together, there are two separate models for each type of person) then you’re in luck.

sky_teppich_animal_ 018

Bosch has launched the new Relaxx’x ProSilence and the Zoo’o ProAnimal. I’m a big fan of silence and I’m also a big fan of animals. But if I was reading this I would be struggling to see how on earth a vacuum cleaner could dare put ‘silence’ in its name, let alone ‘pro’, and what vacuum cleaners have to do with animals aside from scaring cats when you switch them on. Read on and you’ll find out! 

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Appliances Kitchens

Five appliances you (or more accurately, I) didn’t know existed

I live in a little bubble. It’s warm and cosy. There is a PlayStation in it, and a TV, and a laptop. I have a frying pan as well, a toaster and a kettle… I could go on, but you get the point. I have all the basics required to live a rather simple but entertaining life. Then an esteemed colleague of mine started this blog, Appliance Addict, and my mind was progressively blown as weird objects trying to pretend to be appliances landed in our apartment.

To be fair, they are actually appliances, they’re not just moonlighting. Which would be pretty odd – an inanimate object moonlighting as an electrical appliance. The news media would be all over that on a slow news day. It was more my appliance innocence, not realising that a) half of these tasks could be done at all, let alone with a specific appliance and b) anyone actually needed to do these tasks.

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Appliances Kitchens

Breville Original ‘74 jaffle maker is retro groovy… or something like that

This one was way before my time – almost 10 years, but I still grew up with a jaffle maker and seeing one again brings back memories filled with delicious ingredients. It also brings back memories of frustration and burning smells, but that could have been more to do with the chef than the jaffle maker.

Breville Original 74 Jaffles

Back in the late 80s and 90s my mother used to have a gigantic plastic jaffle maker, such was the style of the time. One day it vanished, and I’m not surprised. It can’t have been that sturdy, and we used it a lot, mainly for putting tinned spaghetti in a jaffle or spiced mince. Those jaffles were pretty fantastic, but it also took a keen eye and some talent to make sure the jaffle was perfectly made with no splits or spills. We were one of apparently more than six million households which own jaffle makers.

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Appliances

Beko InnovaChef makes the oven smarter

Smart fridges. Whatever happened to those? When I started out as a technology journalist all those… seven years ago, LG was trying to convince everyone that these were the way of the future. They looked the part too, with big colour screens attached that could connect to the internet and do all this funky stuff. Well, Beko has a similar idea with the InnovaChef, but instead of being a fridge, it’s an oven.

BEKO INNOVACHEF OVENThe idea with a smart fridge is that you could potentially keep track of what is in your fridge and when you needed to buy more of it. Sure, you could do that with your eyes as well, but this is, well, cooler. With the Beko InnovaChef, it’s all about loading your recipes to your oven via USB and using the step-by-step recipe guides that come with the oven. OK, you could read a cook book instead, or use your tablet or smartphone which most people probably do, but that’s not the point.

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Appliances Kitchens

Kambrook X Blade KSB100: The guy test

If there is one thing that keeps people, especially men, away from home cooking, it’s difficulty. There are plenty of simple meals to create, but many of them need a kitchen gadget or 2 to bring the difficulty down a notch or speed up the process. Take Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals for example. All great and simple meals, but most require a blender or a mixer or something like that.

Kambrook X Blade stick mixer

No drama, but that requires actually buying the mixer/blender (hudnreds of dollars) and the time to sit down and figure out how to use the damn thing. Without wanting to cast gender stereotypes, this is particularly difficult for guys. The majority of us have little patience for kitchen gadgets at the best of times. That rule also goes for appliances but that’s another story.

It’s been a while since I have done anything more than a chop and pan fry in the kitchen, so using the new Kambrook X Blade KSB100 was going to be interesting. There is one strict rule I have when it comes to appliances: if I am going to use it regularly, it needs to be simple. I shouldn’t have to read the instruction. So I didn’t. Also, it shouldn’t slice my finger off, which is why I’m now extremely cautious around knives and baked bean cans with ring pulls.

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Appliances Kitchens

Smeg Combi Steam Oven

Good news anyone who has ever had the unfortunate experience of having to eat food I have prepared in an oven – next time it won’t be so dry and look like a small meteor that entered the earth’s atmosphere. I kid, of course, because I’m not stupid enough to let anyone other than myself (and sometimes poor Jen) eat the creations I come up with that need to be baked.

Smeg Combi Steam Oven

Smeg is the reason I can make such large claims because it has just launched the Combi Steam Oven. Put simply, it’s an oven that is not just your conventional convection (fan forced) affair, but it also comes with steam function. There is still the traditional fan grill, static grill and fan forced options, but you can also use the steam function alone or in tandem with the traditional methods for a more gentle cooking method that will also save power.

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