Dyson are preparing to do what they did for hoovers and fans for fan heaters too this Christmas, after last night revealing their Dyson Hot luxury heating system.

Using the company's Air Multiplier Technology, the Dyson Hot heats a room qickly and evenly by drawing air through a mixed flow impeller and then accelerating it through a 2.5mm aperture set within a loop amplifier.

Setting a temperature between 1 and 37 degrees celsius, the Dyson Hot monitors room temperature and only powers up if it detects a drop in heat, which should go some way towards saving on costly heating bills.

It took 22 engineers three years to complete the project.

"Other fan heaters rely on inefficient motors or dust friendly grills," explained Sir James Dyson.

"As the heat rises you're left with a partially heated room and a worrying burning smell. Dyson engineers have developed a heater that produces no smell and heats the whole room".

The Dyson Hot is available at Dyson.co.uk now and from John Lewis later this month before going on nationwide sale in October. Expect to pay around £269.99.

Scroll down for some more shots of the Dyson Hot.

Name: iRobot Roomba 780

Type: Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £499 direct from iRobot

The future promised a lot, and while robot butlers and hovercars are still pipe-dreams, robot vacuum cleaners are very much a reality. Hot on the heels of its IFA 2011 unveiling, Tech Digest got to spend some quality time with our very own clean-freak R2D2, the iRobot Roomba 780 vacuum cleaner. Read on to see whether or not it's time to send the Dyson to the dumpster.

I'm a "cat man". I've had more of the furry felines as pets than hot dinners, and am currently the ward of two moulting black cats. I also live in a mostly-carpeted house, and often have my crumb-dropping toddler nephews over to visit. This would make me (if I do say so myself) something of a "grubby-carpet" expert. So obviously I was delighted to find that I could not only hand over my hoovering duties to iRobot's latest top-end robot vacuum cleaner (the Roomba 780), but that it did a damn fine job of cleaning up after my messy mates too.

Part of the new 700 Series line that iRobot launched over the weekend at the IFA 2011 tech show, the 780 system has a few notable improvements over its predecessors. There's new touch-sensitive controls, new iAdapt Responsive Cleaning Technology for helping the Roomba better navigate your home and better dirt-spotting sensors and cleaning routines for isolating and clearing away different types of mess. Though you'd assume a robot would be a nightmare to set up, the Roomba 780 is actually very simple; it's just a matter of taking out a battery tab and the wheel and brush stoppers, popping the clear bin unit into the bot and leaving the Roomba 780 to charge overnight. From here on in you could potentially leave the Roomba 780 to go about its business automatically, but there are multiple ways of scheduling clean ups, which we'll go into more detail on in a sec.

First though, the matters of size and style. At roughly 50 cm in diameter and about 10cm high, the circular Roomba 780 is relatively small in comparison to the majority of vacuum cleaners. Even it's Home base (the charging unit that the Roomba returns to when it's finished cleaning your house or is running low on power) is discrete. It may not have the bells and whistles of R2D2, but the Roomba is sensibly styled with black and grey mixtures of gloss and matte plastics, with a carry handle to help you move it about the house when necessary. LED displays on the top of the cleaner easily let you view programme cycles and spot when the bin needs emptying, with strong, colourful glows of red, blue and orange displayed depending on the circumstances. There's a big central "Clean" button if you want to send the Roomba about its business immediately, and practically all functionality can be carried out with a supplied IR remote too.

Using the onboard clock, you can set up any cleaning schedule that suits your home's needs, sending the Roomba skirting around the floor at a surprisingly fast pace. All actions are accompanied by voice notifications too, which charmingly reminded us of our favourite educational toy from the late 80s/early 90s, the Speak and Spell. The new cleaning sensors seem to have worked very well too; though we haven't had a previous model with which to compare the 780, we had no real complaints with how the Roomba 780 cleaned both our carpets and wooden flooring areas. iRobot, like all vacuum cleaner manufacturers, do encourage you to avoid hoovering up wet or mushy substances though.

Other than that, be they large chunks of popcorn or fine animal hairs, the Roomba 780 grabbed them all...eventually. It's hard to argue with the thoroughness of the clean this Robot vacuum cleaner manages, but do expect it to be darting around for quite some time per cycle. The bin onboard is also a little bit on the small side, so expect to empty it more-or-less after each average clean cycle.

If however you just need to sort out a quick crumb drop or or particularly messy post-party area, the Roomba 780 also features a "Spot" clean mode, which will set the robot off for a hardcore cleaning session in its immediate one-metre diameter surroundings. It's a great feature if you've got an intense spillage to clean up in a short amount of time.

Another excellent feature is the ability to set up Lighthouses and Virtual Walls to help the Roomba navigate areas that it's finding hard to get around, or block off areas that don't need cleaning. You get two units that can act as either Walls or Lighthouses, each sending out a signal telling the Roomba where it should and shouldn't be heading. While the circular design means the Roomba will always struggle to clean room corners, the Lighthouse features let it weave around chair and table legs with ease.

Once the Roomba 780 starts cleaning you can pretty much leave it unattended, though there are a handful of things it doesn't like. Wires and rug tassels can hold the Roomba 780 up, causing it to spin brushes in reverse for quite some time until it's convinced it's clear of any tangles. The environmental sensors also don't pick up black surfaces very well, which meant the Roomba 780 would bash into my glossy black home cinema subwoofer quite regularly.

Last but not least; stairs. The Roomba 780 has a cliff sensor that means it won't throw itself down steep drops, but that also means that it won't be able to go up and down stairs cleaning them if need be. That cliff sensor works perfectly, but is arguably almost too smart; we could swear the Roomba 780 was teasing us like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey as it darted towards the top drop from the stairs, only to stop and reverse at the very last second. Terrifying stuff considering I had to send back the review sample a week later.

Verdict:

It's a bit of a stretch to call a vacuum cleaner fun, but we have to admit the iRobot Roomba 780 did raise a fair few smiles. From its charming robot voice and nifty touch-sensitive control panel to its ability to drag stubborn cat fur out of our carpet, it was a pleasure to have a new robot pal around the house. It's a fair bit slower than doing the work manually, but when you're sipping an icy cool beer with your feet up while the Roomba does the dirty work, who's going to complain?

Philips recently launched an interesting campaign to test the effectiveness of their wake-up light in Longyearbyen Norway.

If you like me have never heard of Longyearbyen, it is the northernmost town situated only 600 miles South of the North Pole. During the winter, the people of Longyearbyen are plunged into four long months of total darkness, so in late October when the sun set for the final time until spring, residence were given a Wake-up Light to test. These lights gradually emit light to simulate the rising of the sun in your bedroom. This supposedly helps prepare the body for a more gentle wake up. Residents will trial the product until December and are reporting their experiences on the campaign website.

To be honest, I find it difficult enough to get out of bed in the winter, and could not imagine having to live in total darkness for that long, so am quite curious to see how effective this light will be. So far the residence seem to be reporting mixed results, but that said more people have said they are waking up feeling either great or okay than tired.

While I was snooping round the GRO website I also found that the company has also designed what must be the most stunning table football in the world. A mix of chrome metals (there's a whiff of luxury bath taps) and atmospheric lighting, it really does look stunning. The table is now on sale via this website. The bad news is that it takes 12 weeks before they can ship it to you. Got to be worth the wait though. Take a look at these images.

Click on the image to start the gallery

We don't known a great deal about it except that it has been designed for Samsung by London based design team Gro. It is very cool the way it looks of futuristic yet kind of retro at the same time. You can almost imagine this lot using it.

Take a look at the gallery and you'll be able to see that it can used horizontally or vertically and customised to the user's requirements. Cool stuff and almost as cool as this fridge. Just a prototype at the moment, but here's hoping it gets made one day.

Spotted by this lot.

Click on pic to look at other fridgey images

There was time not too long ago when if you bought a pair of hi-fi speakers you almost certainly bought British. Unfortunately many of the British speaker makers have scaled down their activities over the last few years and cheap, but often good quality speakers from the Far East, Europe and America, have mopped up some of their market share.

So it is good to see that there are still British speaker companies doing interesting things. Like Ferguson Hill, which this week announced the arrival of two new products - a home theatre system and a mid-sized version of the company's signature horn shaped speaker unit.

The FH009 Home Theatre set up pairs a class A integrated amp that is compatible with any audio out enabled device. It comes with horn speakers that can be wall mounted or free-standing and are made from transparent acyclic. It will sell for around £800.

The FH010 is a cut down version of Ferguson Hill's FH001 high end speaker system. It comprises four speakers (two bass speakers and two mid-high frequency horn speakers) and can be used with music servers, hi-fi systems and TVs.

It will be on sale soon and is priced at £6000.

Click on the pic below to look at some rather cool lifestyle shots of the speakers in situ

Normally, we wouldn't bother reporting about the release of a hand-held vacuum cleaner. They're just not that exciting. But Sir James Dyson - the man who revolutionised the vacuum cleaner and washing machine industries - has claimed that the DC 31's motor is the "fastest motor in the world, by a long stretch".

104,000 revolutions per minute make the motor ten times faster than the one found in a Boeing 747 and five times quicker than an F1 car's motor. I bet the plane and the F1 car could still beat the vacuum cleaner in a race though.

Dyson has stated that the DC 31 is just the first of a long line of products that will include the new motor. He said: "It's radical. It's completely different technology. We are the only company in the world producing a switched reluctance motor."

Get your Dyson DC 31 here. It's £129.99. Or £149.99 for the Animal version.

(via The Telegraph)

We poor old Brits must have the worst AC plugs in the world. Well, us Brits and also the 30 or so other nations who use the old type G, BS1363 AC power adaptor. Not only are they bulky and ugly it also hurts like hell if you accidentally tread on one.

But, we may not have to put up with the old bulky adaptors for much longer if the video below is anything to go by:

It proposes a new design, measuring just an impressive 1cm thick that works by folding the three copper prongs into a nice, neat parallel line.

It's just a concept at the moment, but surely someone has got to pick up on this and mass manufacture it. It looks brilliant. I'm going to go home tonight and hack of all of my old bulky plugs in anticipation.

(via Engadget)

To be fair, "waterless" is a slight exaggeration, but only slight because a company named Xeros has managed to develop a washing machine that uses just 10% of the water of a normal houselhold unit.

This utility room game-changer employs reusable nylon polymer beads to wash your undies. They clean the clothes faster, using 30% less energy and each cycle only requires a single drop of detergent too. What's more, expensive eco-enemy tumble dryers need less time because you're linen will be less wet too. Therefore saving a few inches more planet. Sounds pretty marvelous really.

The trick has been working out a way to get the beads from your togs at the end of the wash but, now that's sorted, Xeros reckon they'll have commerical units in hotels and other such large operations by the end of the year.

And if that hasn't got your juices flowing green, then check this - if these nylon polymer machines were as standard in the UK, it'd be the equivalent of taking 2 million cars of our roads. Where do I sign up?

(via Cambridge News)

We've seen these things before; vibrating units that turn whatever surface they're on into giant speakers. The advantage with the amusingly named Kerchoons KBox is that it's not shaped like a butt plug.

This time, what we're looking at is a USB-charged device with around 20 hours of battery life and it's about the size of an iPhone. Do I stutter?

It delivers a slightly bottom heavy frequency response of 40Hz - 20KHz, which isn't massive, but, then, it does only cost £39.99 plus a fiver in the post. It plugs into just about anything you like and uses a patented gel on the underside to make whatever surface it touches vibrate and create the sweet sounds.

Probably not one for the audiophiles but certainly fun, if nothing else.

KBox

iMu Vibration Speaker review:

Remember, before we all had mobiles, the days of the home phone. Having to drag the cable across the hallway and under your door if you wanted to have a private conversation without the rest of your family listening in? That mysterious 'Mercury' button?

Those days are mostly at an end, but there are a few people still buying landline phones. As a result, companies are still making them - including T-Mobile who, rumour has it, will be bringing out an Android version next year. There'll be a docking station that lets you sync it and recharge the battery.

On top of that, there's a 7" Android tablet in the works too. There's very little detail being shared, but it'll apparently let you 'check the weather' or 'manage data across a wide variety of devices'. Sounds good. More when we get it.

(via Electric Pig)

Who needs to buy expensive flavoured vodkas when you can turn any piece of fruit into you own personal shot glass? The Lushlife Shot Carver basically looks like a slightly expensive and rebranded version of an apple corer only shaped to give you the perfect volume for a shot. You can, of course, dig a little deeper.

If you're in the habit of spending upwards of $35,000 per year on ice cream then the credit crunch is probably amongst the least of your concerns. Still, if it is you could save money by making limitless quantities of delicious dairy snack with the $35,000 NitroCream machine.

Now, you're probably thinking that you don't need to spend $35,000 to get a good tub, but the reason this little wonder costs as much as it does is because it uses liquid nitrogen to instantly transform cream or yoghurt into smooth, creamy ice cream. You no longer need to take up valuable space with keeping your materials cool and the like.

Yep, that means it's mainly aimed at commercial ventures, but that hasn't stopped the website from extolling its values to the "novice" ice cream maker. To be honest, unless those novices happen to be eccentric millionaires, they're probably better off breaking a £20 note on Mr Frosty instead.

Do you have a mug problem in your office? Where some tosser always steals your mug from the cupboard just as you *really* need a soothing cup of tea? Well here's your answer.

The Plug Mug, from IWOOT, has a removable plug in it that you can keep on your keyring and only apply when you're drinking. That way, it's useless to anyone else. It's dishwasher safe and everything.

Yours for just £10, available right now.

Plug Mug (via Technabob)

O2 is launching a device for the family home in April known as the Joggler. Horrible name, I know. The idea that arose from some hideous marketing session is that it's dynamic and it juggles all the arrangements so that you don't have to. Bucket please.

It's a £149.99 device with a 7-inch WVGA touchscreen, an AC adaptor, Ethernet port, USB slot, 1GB of internal memory and Wi-Fi connectivity. There is no battery because it's designed to sit in a communal area of the family home, where a calendar might normally go, and stay there without going missing down the back of the sofa along with the DVD remote.

It's primary function is as a hardware device on which to base the O2 Calendar that also comes out next month, but more on that in a minute.

If you spend your spare time perusing Gillette's website, as I'm sure you do, you might notice that the company seems to be marketing a new razor specifically for gamers. The whole idea confuses me greatly.

Firstly, are they trying to say that gamers don't shave much? If so, they're not going to have much need of a razor. If that's not the case, then I can only assume it's all some massive misguided marketing idea. Let's hope it's not.

If you're a gamer, would you buy a "Gamer's razor"? Personally, I've always been more of an electric shaver kind of guy. Let us know your shaving preferences in the comments.

Gillette Fusion Gamer (via @the_b)

There's a whole bunch sissy Shrove Tuesday pancake making gadgets out there like this one for flip cowards and this one for the plain gullible, so I thought I'd bring you the ultimate in batter mixture cookers so that you can get the correct kit in for next year or alternatively breakfast next week.

So, ladies, gentlemen, let me introduce you to the Crêpière Krampouzk CEBPA4 PRO. You may recognise it from it's usual situation, sheltered from the rain at the end of large queues at British music festivals.

A "light wand" that uses ultraviolet radiation in the UV-C band to sterilise surfaces has been made available by Purelight UK. The wand should be able to knock out 99.9% of bacteria, including the rather nasty MRSA and C.difficile bacteria.

UV-C is higher-energy than the UV-A and UV-B wavebands, and it cleanses viruses and bacteria by breaking down the DNA of the microbes. After exposure of no more than 20 seconds, only 1 in 1000 bacteria remain.

There's three versions of the wand available - the XD, which is rechargable and costs £120, the MD which is more compact and costs just £35, and the more hardcore, industrial "ClearCare" system, which costs £500 and up. None of those prices include VAT.

Purelight UK

Google has announced an odd little scheme it's calling PowerMeter - which, it reckons, could eventually save us all 15% on our electricity bills.

How does it do this? Well, it probably can't at the moment - the PowerMeter idea requires you to have a utility company and modern 'smart' electricity meter that gives out streaming power usage data. The main gadget for use at the moment is the AWESOME POWER of the HUMAN MIND, which, by having a plug-in that constantly tells you how much money it's costing you to run the washing machine, Google thinks can prodded into making you think twice before pressing any 'on' switches.

The fully-functional PowerMeter system will eventually be offered on Google's iGoogle home pages, providing real-time, accurate, open-source estimates of energy use, to anyone with the required 'smart' energy meters in their homes.

Imagine how great it'll be sitting at work, pressing F5, desperate to see when your fridge motor has turned on. It will be, I might suggest, ELECTRIFYING.

(Via NYT)