Practical gadgets

The Channel 4 series “Gadget Man” sounded interesting. A show that promises to explore the world of gadget and new technology, with the entertaining and amusingly awkward Richard Ayoade as host, I was reminded of the ABC series “Quantum” that I thoroughly enjoyed back in the 90s. But by trying to pack as many gadgets as possible into each episode, there was rarely time for more than a fleeting mention of names and prices. It felt more like promotional material than a series of in-depth reviews, and many of the gadgets appeared to be high-tech only for the sake of being so. Few gave the impression of being genuinely useful.

Two items, however, caught my attention for being both simple and practical. The BabyKeeper is a baby carrier with hooked straps that attach to the top of a door, a convenient device for keeping an infant out of harm’s way in the kitchen. Meanwhile, the piamo is a tiny plastic capsule—about the size of an eggcup—that you fill with ground coffee and water, and then microwave for 30 seconds, producing a more-than-acceptable espresso! Unfortunately, the project didn’t appear to receive sufficient crowd-funding, so it isn’t clear whether this will ever become available.