Brain shaped ice cube trays. Isn’t that all you need to know?

Nine bucks will net you this silicon mold that makes four ice cubes (though I guess “ice spheres” would be more apt) shaped like tiny little brains. ThinkGeek, who sells this awesome little doodad, suggests using them as novelty items at a zombie-themed Halloween party, or as an inside joke for all the nerds you work with at the science lab.

That’s not really thinking outside the box, though, now is it? Come on, let’s exercise a little creative thought. (Yes, that was a carefully-placed and intentional pun. You should know by now that I have no shame.) How about using them for jello shots at your college graduation after-party? Or put a popsicle stick in them and give kindergartners a tasty object lesson?

Hmm, somehow that sounded very sweet and innocent in my head.

Alright, okay… you should probably just stick to the zombie thing.

Not only does it serve a dual purpose (not at the same time, obviously) but it looks pretty good too.

The bottom hotplate takes care of tea, coffee and other drinks you want to stay hot by maintaining them at a constant temperature.

If you want it cold, the top section contains an impeller and motor for pushing out cold air.

To make it really obvious which function is being performed, the LEDs in the top section turn either red (for heating) or blue (for cooling).

The only problems are that this is currently a concept from designer Dmitriy Shcherbakov, and that it will only handle one cup at a time. A dual unit would be great, though I wouldn’t mind having a couple of these sitting next to each other on my work surface. Maybe they could even start communicating with each other via Bluetooth?

That is, apart from the concept ones which, by nature, don’t exist yet. Not in production, at least.

Take this one designed by Kamil Kurka from the Institute of Art and Design at tehe University of West Bohemia.

I have to say I like the silver and black one the best, but it might also come in other colours. How good the coffee would be from one of these machines is another matter, but there’s no way of knowing that until it’s made.

Via

I found the shot carver at Cool Stuff Express, and while it does not really involve electronics of any kind, I think that it would at least serve as a conversation piece when you entertain at home. So what does it do?

Think apple corer. In truth, it is not that much different from your conventional apple corer. What the shot carver does is create a hole in a fruit (apple, pear, name it!) which can then serve as your shot glass! Pretty nifty, huh?

Imagine this. You have 10 or more people coming over. You have to prepare all sorts of glasses and drinking stuff for the night. You have to clean up the house, decorate a little bit, and make sure that nothing stinks. At the end of the night, you’d have to do all the cleaning up yourself! With the shot carver, you do not have to waste time washing and cleaning your shot glasses. Just get dozens of fruit, insert the gadget, twist, pull it out, and voila, you have a disposable shot glass! Not only do you have something functional, you can entertain in style as well.

The best part -  it’s only $11.99!

This is the Gota dishwasher designed by Ibsen Caldas and is made from ABS polycarbonate. It has the single geek in mind. Washing dishes will thus become very easy as all you need to do, like standard dishwashers around is to put dirty dishes in, plug the Gota and see it work through the see-through plastic top.

It does its job by using steam blown directly at your dishes, it later uses the residue steam to give your plates a final rinse.

My personal opinion is that this may be perfect for plates a little cleaner from grease. Probably the geek who loves sandwiches. And by the looks of it, it’s just really plates to wash here. Hmmm… well, at least eh?

No word on availability just yet, we’ll post it as soon as it hits the stores.