By David Ponce

As you may know, a certain day is just around the corner. And while most of us geeks might be spending it “forever alone”, those who aren’t are probably looking for little trinket to buy… Oh who am I kidding? You’re going to pick that stuff up from the gas station on the way home from work, aren’t you? Good on you! If romance is still part of the equation though, here’s the HeartPart. It’s a little plastic heart that breaks apart into two fork-like eating utensils. *Cue cheezy music here* Perfect for sharing a plate of fruit, each one of you holding one half of your heart, staring lovingly into one another’s eyes.

And while I vomit a little over here, you can go buy them for $9 for a 10-pack. They come in 5 colors.

[ Product Page (caution: auto-playing music) ] VIA [ CoolHunting ]

By David Ponce

If you’ve ever strayed into the household section of a bookstore, you might have seen those little zen gardens with the rake and the sand and the claims to inner peace and all that jive. The Zen Table you see above is centered around a similar concepts, but adds a fair bit of technology that simply makes it awesome instead of kitschy. See, it contains special sculpting sand, a robotic arm and a sculpting tip. This enables the device to create stunning images in the sand. What’s best is you decide what these images are. You can load the table with any bitmap and specialized software will convert this into a sculpting file. You’re then free to watch as the magic happens. If you watch the below video, you can see how this could be a crowd pleaser.

By the same token, if you’re buying this, you’re probably going to want to put it in the sort of the establishment that has crowds to begin with as it’s quite pricey. There’s a small-ish desktop version which comes as a kit or pre-assembled. This is $500 or $750 respectively. But the real coffee table… adds a zero to these figures, although it comes assembled in both cases. The $7,499 version might have been a Kickstarter only affair with special perks for early backers. Still, at $5,000, we see this in the waiting area of a fancy restaurant rather than someone’s living room.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By David Ponce

Having a fireplace in your home is nice and all, but it usually requires quite the commitment, construction-wise. There’s a chimney to be built, for one. And you need to make room for it too. Finally, if you live in an apartment, you can pretty much forget it. Unless of course you get a fireplace that you can hang on the wall, like a painting. The Serafin Liquid Fireplace mounts on a wall and burns an ethanol based fuel that allegedly produces no soot or smoke, so there’s no need for a chimney or flue.

It’s not the first indoors, chimney-less fireplace we’ve seen, but it’s the first time we see one that mounts on a wall. If you’re working on decking out your bachelor pad, there’s very few things that would fit better than a fireplace so the $649 asking price might be considered a wise investment.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By David Ponce

These have been around since forever and it doesn’t even look like you can buy them. Why post about them, then? Well, they’re cute as hell and it’s nice to know they exist. Also, I ate a bowl of estrogen this morning instead of my cereals and I’ve been acting funny all day.

Forgiveness is sought.

VIA [ BoingBoing ]

By David Ponce

We’re big fans of simple elegant design, whether its in consumer electronics or mundane everyday household items. Like the good old whisk. There’s nothing wrong with it, really, other than the fact that it takes up a bit of room in storage. So if you can keep things cheap and simple, why not improve on that? The preposterously named “Joseph Joseph Twist™ 2-in-1 Silicone Whisk” lays flat for easy storage, but becomes a regular balloon whisk when you turn the base of its handle. And it’s $10.

Ships in March 2012.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By David Ponce

There are robots to clean your floor, like the Roomba (which vacuums) or the Scooba (which scrubs). There are also robots like these to clean your windows. And now there is a robot to go around your house, purifying air. See the thing about air purifiers is that they’re static. They’ll try to cycle as much of your home’s air as they can, but there’s only so much they can do while just sitting in a corner. So the Rydis H800, from Moneual, goes around your home, filtering the air as it does. It has sensors to avoid bumping into obstacles and “you can use a multi-function remote control to turn filter settings from low to high, or to send the H800 into another room. In sleep mode, the H800 operates at a 22dB sound level, and in turbo mode it can go up to 48dB.”

There is no price or availability information at the moment.

[ Rydis Home ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By David Ponce

I guess you’d call this art, as the melting glasses themselves look like how you’re going to feel once you’ve drunk enough of what they contain. They’re all different and made to order, since they’re not cast in a mold but rather deformed by gravity while still hot enough to be pliable. And this uniqueness translates into a unique price: a set of 6 will cost you £65, or about $100US. You have to email them to find out if they’re even available, because everything is in limited quantity.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ The Fancy ]

By David Ponce

So I’ve spent the last couple minutes intently staring at The Trevi Fountain in Rome, after which this wine glass in named. I can’t figure out how they’re related. But it’s ok. This glass not only looks kind of interesting, it also claims to be able to oxygenate your wine as you pour it. See, if you don’t know, you have to let your wine breathe a little, let it contact some air so that it releases its full flavor. There are decanters and sophisticated aerators for that, and now, apparently, this glass.

It’s $27 and will likely just make your guests talk about it a lot, rather than accomplish anything useful.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By David Ponce

Let’s face it, many geeks like coffee. It’s one of those beverages whose quality can vary enormously and whose perfect execution is considered an art by some. I personally don’t really care and gulp down ashtray juice by the gallons, but the more refined of you might appreciate the PID-Controlled Espresso Machine. It’s a $400 machine that stands on par with $700+ models. And here’s why. Good espresso boils down to two things (aside from the quality of the beans): constant pressure and temperature during the entire pull. More expensive machines manage this feat through high-end components. But this project from Gleb Polyakov and Igor Zamlinsky uses an Arduino brain and a PID controller (proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller) to constantly monitor the temperature and pressure of the shot and adjust on the fly, ensuring a consistent pull every time. They had to redesign the thermoblock to suit their needs but have kept overall costs down by using off the shelf parts whenever possible.

The geeks are excited about this one, as the project has raised $341,000+ so far, even though their target was $20k. They’re on their way to being the 6th most funded project ever. And while once on the market this espresso machine will retail for $400, you can still get yours for $300 (up from $200 at few days ago). It’s going to be made and is supposed to ship in March.

[ Project Home ] VIA [ Wired's Gadget Lab ]

By David Ponce

I’m a big fan of the painting The Scream, from Edvard Munch. Yeah, the one that was stolen and recovered two years later. It’s an icon, and now you can put a little sliver of anxiety and fear in your drink, in the form of some The Scream ice cubes.

It’s a novelty item, sure, but could still spark a conversation or two. It’s $9. Hurry up though, there are only 14 left.

Hit the jump for more pictures and links.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ LikeCool ]