Every month we search far and wide to bring you a dozen of the best new ideas in gear. These gadgets are the first, the best and the latest.
Click here to see our favorite gadgets of the month.
Char-Be-Gone
Clean your cooker without chemicals. The Grand Grill Daddy brush drizzles water from its handle reservoir, which the grill’s heat turns into steam, helping loosen grease and char against the brush’s steel bristles. Grand Grill Daddy Grill Cleaning brush: $45; Amazon
Tiny Eye
By adding extra reference points to its digital focus system, the Lumix G3 allows photographers to focus on any subject, no matter how small or distant, at a near-pixel level. Tap on the three-inch LCD to magnify an area by four times, then tap again to center the focus where you want. Our sister site, Popular Photography, tested the Lumix G3 (and found themselves very pleased with it). Check out their impressions here. Panasonic Lumix G3: $634 (with lens); Amazon
Slice More
Stanley’s utility blades stay sharp five times as long as average. The edges are covered with diamond-ground tungsten carbide, to add strength without sacrificing flexibility in the rest of the blade. Stanley Carbide Utility Blades: $5 for 5; Stanley Tools
Virtual Keys
The Lockitron lets you safeguard your house remotely. Connected to a secure router, your lock is controlled with a smartphone, so you can flip it from anywhere. Lockitron: From $295; lockitron.com
Center Channel
Blast your phone’s music library through any surround-sound system. The InCharge Home BT dongle plugs into a receiver’s auxiliary port, connects to your device over Bluetooth, and streams your tunes. XtremeMac InCharge Home BT: $80; XtremeMac
Piggy Backer
If your iPhone’s power runs dry, snap the Third Rail battery pack onto the system’s custom case. The lithium-ion cell will fully recharge your handset in as little as an hour, and, as a bonus, it uses the standard micro-USB port rather than Apple’s proprietary (and harder-to-find) port. Third Rail system for iPhone 4: $90; Amazon
Top Table
Built around a space-saving 13-inch blade, Bosch’s portable table saw has a low center of gravity, making it stable on almost any surface. Its steel base holds the tabletop true without warping, the way plastic models often do. **Bosch GTs1031 10-inch Portable Table Saw:Amazon
Smart Stove
Preprogrammed with dozens of cooking sequences and equipped with a food thermometer, this oven can, for example, brown a turkey and then automatically lower the heat for roasting. Bertazzoni Design Series: From $3,100; us.bertazzoni.com
Media Streamer
Within its own, closed Wi-Fi network, this 500-gigabyte hard drive can stream stored movies to three devices simultaneously. Its internal battery lasts for five hours on a charge—enough juice to keep the kids occupied on a long car ride. Seagate GoFlex Satellite: $200; Amazon
Water Well
You’ll most likely lose the new Klean Kanteen before it wears out. The stainless-steel bottle and cap are free of paint or plastic, which can rub off, chip, or break. Klean Kanteen Reflect: $32.95; kleankanteen.com
Long-Lived
On one set of AAs, HP’s wireless mouse squeezes out twice the battery life of other mice. It communicates with your PC over WiFi, which uses far less power to transmit location data than the mouse-standard Bluetooth. HP Wi-Fi Mobile Mouse: $35; Amazon
Better Battle
A new take on Battleship uses infrared to bring random elements to gameplay. The game’s eye tracks players’ fleets and hits them with events such as typhoons and spy-plane flyovers. Battleship LIVE: $50; Hasbro
