So you’ve had a no-good, terrible, awful day. The kind of day that only cookies and milk can fix. But holding the cookie in the milk while it’s soaking? Ugh, who has time? Thankfully, someone heard our disgusted sighs and invented the most perfect answer to the lazy cookie dunker: The Dunkin’ Buddy (patent pending). This invention is a “hands-free cookie dunking device” that is “designed not only to save cookies from breaking and getting lost in your cup, but makes multitasking easier.” The inventors suggest that with your hands free from holding your cookies in a glass of milk, you’ll have more time for other hobbies like video games, homework, and working on your computer.

Basically, The Dunkin’ Buddy is a two-piece magnetic tray. The dunking chamber sits inside of your drinking cup and the magnet that holds it there sits on the outside. In theory, you fill the entire drinking vessel with milk and lower the tray into the milk via the exterior magnetic handle. You can then control how much milk comes into contact with your cookies, and the tray is even big enough to dunk two cookies at a time.

We had to do a lot of digging before we could be sure the Dunkin’ Buddy wasn’t an April Fools’ Day prank. Really, if holding your cookies in a glass of milk for a few seconds (up to 30 or more, according to the inventors, depending on cookie type) takes way too much time out of your day, you might actually be too busy to eat cookies and milk right now. Just put down the XBox controller and take a two-handed cookie break, muchacho.

But there are people who see this invention as a useful accessory to their apparently very important cookie eating. Lots of them, in fact. Although the Kickstarter campaign to fund the manufacturing of the Dunkin’ Buddy was unsuccessful, the product has since found a manufacturer and it’s being produced for retail sale. The inventors, Jason Wells and Kiana Machnicz, say that the final product will have a different design than the publicized prototype – but they aren’t revealing it until the product is ready for retail.

The post This is a Gadget for Hands-Free Cookie Dunking, Apparently first appeared on Gajitz.

Have you ever gotten out of bed in the morning with a growling belly and a yen for a big bowl of cereal…only to find that the milk you’ve just poured on your Golden Grahams is chunky and disgusting? It’s a first-world problem, perhaps, but still pretty frustrating. The Milkmaid is a milk jug that will never let you experience this kind of disappointment again. Created through a partnership between GE Labs and crowdsource manufacturers Quirky, the Milkmaid monitors the amount of milk you have left as well as its level of freshness.

Apparently, milk has an ideal pH level. And when that level starts to drop, your milk is starting to go bad. The Milkmaid has sensors on its base that keep track of the pH level and sends you a text message to let you know that your leche is taking a turn for the worse. The integrated iPhone app also lets you know when you are running low on milk and need to make a trip to the supermarket. According to Quirky, the product is not only a futuristic home object – it is also an homage to the beautiful thick glass milk pitchers of the mid-20th century.

The post Keeping it Fresh: Jug Sends a Text When the Milk is Spoiled first appeared on Gajitz.