To make claims like that
They must have some large balls.
I'll get me coat. It's the one with the bioceramic pins on it.
If you're one of those still waiting impatiently for the bloody flying car and robot butler we were promised back in the 1950s, and need a consolation quick fix of 21st-century domestic tech, then have a shufti at the Crystal Wash 2.0 - a bluetooth-enabled miracle washing orb currently the subject of a Kickstarter tin-rattle …
My favourite bit of the video is the bloke uttering "This could change the way people do laundry" with a straight face.
And, honestly, I'm not sure I could cope with the awesomeness of a notification when the laundry is done. I think if I ever felt awe at any aspect of housework, I'd need a lie down.
Honestly, if I was far enough away that I needed a notification on my phone, the last thing on my mind would be rushing back home to dick about with laundry.
And as the connectivity between balls and phone seems to be bluetooth, presumably you can only be in an adjacent room at most.
Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be able to launch a "Laundry hub" that plugs in near your washing machine and bridges the magic ball Bluetooth connection to the wifi. Or perhaps they'll be able to do a deal with appliance manufacturers for 'smart' washing machines that have Bluetooth built in an ethernet connection on the back...
<hides, whimpering, in corner>
>This really looks like using technology to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
>It would be much better if they created a washing machine robot that could load/unload the washing machine and then iron.
I think building design could provide ways of making washing easier... for example, having a chute from the first floor landing down to the utility room.
Whilst they were at it, a 'grey water' system could be incorporated, so that toilets can be flushed with water from the washing machine and shower.
Regards ironing robots... maybe an easier approach to this problem is better textile technology... I seem to recall a shirt that contained a titanium 'memory alloy', so the shirt could be 'pressed' by zapping it with a hair-dryer.
Very droll, but somewhat misleading. The benefits of soap for cleaning over water alone have long been recognized, considerably before Proctor and Gamble et al ever came on the scene. This is as true for cleaning laundry as it is for cleaning oneself. Yes, you'll get most of the easy dirt out if you wash without detergent, but there will be significant dirt that you would clean with detergent that you won't with plain water, especially the greasy or fatty stuff.
And modern laundry detergents have other benefits in addition to basic cleaning; as someone who lives in an extremely hard water area (think visible chalk layer after one boil of the kettle after descaling), I can guarantee that that expensive washing machine wouldn't last five minutes without the water softeners contained in the detergent.
That's detergent though. Magical bio-ceramic balls, I think I can live without.
"Think visible chalk layer after one boil of the kettle after descaling"
A scalecatcher (stainless steel wool thing) and only using filtered water to fill the thing will help a lot.
That's not much help for the washing machine unless you get one of those big plumbed in systems though, and those descaling agents in washing powder have their own sets of problems.
Personally 95% of my clothes don't have stains. I've learnt to eat and drink.
But do you need the whole scoop, even with 2 young kids in toe, you find that it's easy to use a 1/4 the amount in most case. yes if the spag bol has decided that it's natural home is the school shirt, your going to need more, but day to day stuff, it's fine to use much, much less than recommended for most people.
That's why most eco washes are near the 3 hour mark now, it's more about soaking than washing.
It's worth noting that they try and flog the Crystal Wash (1.0?) for $50 whereas the Biocera version (which appears to be the same thing) sells for $30 and cheaper alternatives appear to be about $20. Not to mention it's a product that's not generally considered to work and apparently is the cause of some wrist-slapping in the USA over misleading advertising etc. Although that said, how much of that is fuelled by the likes of P&G is another question.
Anyways, I digress from what I was going to say. Which is that given how worthless the bluetooth functionality appears to be (come on, really?) the cynic inside me would suggest that this is a slick bit of marketing to get people to go on their website and pay $50 for a $20-30 product.
Please excuse the use of yankee money, Amazon.com appeared to give the largest range of such balls.
The Straight Dope dealt with this nonsense eighteen years ago: Do laundry balls really work?.
"Taking all this into consideration, I figure laundry balls aren't just the name of the product, they're what you need to sell it."
Makes your whites whiter and your coloureds (meant in a clothes way not in the Benedict Cumberbatch way) brighter.
Removes stains from teeth, eases joint pain, encourages hair growth where you want it and removes hair from where you don't.
Cures all maladies, cold, coughs, shivers, shingles, pleurisy, bronchitis, Leprosy and Ebola.
Makes the crippled walk, and feeble of mind sane.
Men take twice a day to pep up your virility, Women put is in you partners tea to calm his ardor.
NOW WITH BLUETOOTH!!!
Reminds me of a time back in the 1970s when visiting a New Age community. The guide pointed to the pointed roof of their new meeting hall. He explained that there was a crystal suspended by gold wires - which would generate electricity from the group's concentrated thoughts. When the process was up and running it was going to free them from having to use electricity from a utility company feed.
"Yes, but how many KW did they ultimately achieve?"
I suppose that depends on how far they were from the nearest radio / TV broadcast station, and the number of, um, turns said loop of golden wire may have had. Considering you do actually need a "crystal" to demodulate things to something usable, I'd say those folks were bang on!
"Wouldn't it be more efficient to apply such power directly to the job at hand?"
They also had a doctrine according to "Roc" that they could achieve beneficial changes to crops by communing with them. Basically you told the plant what you wanted it to do.
It was interesting during the indoctrination film to see many of the eager new recruits were fast asleep. In the Q&A session afterwards the instructors were wrong-footed - when it was pointed out that much of their own produce was grown from agro-business infertile hybrids from the local seed merchant.
Although I think he used copper wire rather than gold, there was a guy back in the 80s(?) who built a 'Tesla Coil' in his loft and used it to power his house lights sith the RF from (I think) Droitwitch transmitter.
He was only discovered when the Beeb sent out engineers to map the output after complaints from listeners.
"Thanks for making it clear that I can freely ignore those in the future."
You wrong the Reg staff. I believe they realize this is a sham product, and thus produced this article as a full-on satire/comedy piece. It's basically filler, employed to keep things moving along during slack times on the tech front.
That said, it has basically worked. This thread is as least in the top ten percent, entertainment-wise. Nice going, Reg. :-)