Tag Archives: Ember

Ember’s new self-warming baby bottle keeps milk or formula at a consistent temperature of 98.6°F

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The folks behind the self-warming cup are now looking to disrupt the baby bottle with a similar self-warming design. The Ember Baby is a $400 bottle that will automatically heat up at the push of a button, reaching and maintaining a consistent 98.6 degrees of temperature in just five minutes. Ember’s patented convection current technology circulates liquid on the inside to make sure it’s evenly heated, and an Insulating Thermal Dome makes traveling with your bottle of milk/formula much easier.

No more boiling, steaming, microwaving, and then checking the temperature by adding drops to your palm. Just press a button on the Ember Baby Bottle and you’re ready to go.

Designer: Ammunition Group and Ember

The Ember Baby Bottle is a 6 fl. oz. bottle that builds on the Ember self-heating cup’s capabilities. Using the same advanced technology but in a new format, the Baby Bottle comes with a puck that you rest it on to activate the heating system. Place the bottle on the puck and hit the button and it actively begins heating the milk or baby formula inside to body temperature. The convection technology helps circulate the fluid in the bottle so it’s heated evenly, and a series of sensors relay information to the Smart Warming Puck twice per second to prevent overheating, ensuring you always have the perfect temperature.

The Warming Puck heats the milk up twice on a full charge, with LEDs to let you know when it’s ready

Ember’s triple check safety technology utilizes precision sensors to prevent overheating

The bottle works in tandem with the Ember Baby app, which provides an integrated smart solution to track and monitor feedings, as well as your baby’s growth. It lets you remotely warm the contents of the baby bottle, as well as quickly log your baby’s feedings, whether from the bottle or breast milk, keeping tabs on your baby’s nutrition and growth.

The Ember Baby Bottle features a high-quality plastic bottle, with a threaded top and base that lets you open it completely for cleaning. All components that come in contact with the milk or formula are 100% BPA-free, and the bottle ships with its own nipples, but also has adapters for the Philips Avent Natural™ nipple and the Dr. Brown’s™ Wide-Neck nipple. The Ember Baby Bottle is also safe for use in dishwashers (top rack only), sterilizers, or boiling water.

The $400 Ember Baby Bottle System includes two bottles pre-assembled with a Level 1 nipple (along with Level 2 and Level 3 nipples in the box), a single Smart Warming Puck and power adapter, and even an Insulating Thermal Dome (shown above) that lets you carry refrigerated milk/formula around with you for up to 4 hours, and heat it just before serving your child. The Ember Baby Bottle System is up for pre-order, with shipping starting March 21st.

The post Ember’s new self-warming baby bottle keeps milk or formula at a consistent temperature of 98.6°F first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ember, the smart coffee cup maker, enters the healthcare field with refrigerated vaccine shipping boxes

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The brand synonymous with keeping your coffee hot also wants to ensure that vaccines and other critical medicines are safely transported in the perfect cold environment.

To be honest, although the use-cases seem vastly different, Ember’s company mission statement remains the same – to harness the power of temperature control to transform how the world eats, drinks and lives. The California startup made its mark with the eponymously named Ember Mug, a slick, award-winning temperature-controlled beverage mug designed in collaboration with Ammunition Group. However, with Ember Health, the company embarks on a new venture that runs parallel to its Drinkware brand. Its debut product, the Ember Cube, is a self-refrigerated, cloud-based, trackable shipping box that’s ideal for the cold-chain logistical requirements of medicines and vaccines. Designed to be effective but also be durable and reusable, the Cube is set to offset nearly 3000 tonnes worth of medical shipping containers from entering landfills… in just the first year of its use.

Ember’s experimentation with developing battery-powered heated mugs for coffee ended up directly influencing and informing its healthcare product. The Ember Cube uses the same microprocessors, sensors, and algorithms found in the Ember mugs, but flips the parameters by ensuring the contents within stay cool instead of warm. It uses a vacuum-insulated design, lined with phase-change gel-packs on the inside that help the container’s contents stay 41°F degrees for up to 72 hours, even in warm desert-like climate conditions. However, that’s what helps the boxes retain their cool temperature. What actively cools them is a vented refrigerating system, where multiple boxes plug into a specialized rack with enough breathing room to allow air to flow through. To actively cool each box, a refrigerated mixture of water and ethanol is passed through the phase-change gel packs, bringing their temperature down to the desired value. Each individual Cube is also cloud-connected and trackable, offering a unique advantage over current traditional medical shipping boxes, while practically weighing the same as them.

The Ember Cube’s design process, described in vivid detail by Fast Company, was a bit of a challenge, considering the most obvious way to go about it was to create a plastic outer housing with a foam-lined interior that would help absorb shock and protect the precious vials on the inside. The problem with this, mentioned Ember founder and CEO Clay Alexander, was that the plastic boxes would end up getting horribly scratched and scuffed during the logistical process, looking terrible after just a few shipments. The less-obvious alternative was, however, to flip the materials inside out and use a foam exterior. The Cube’s black-box-inspired exterior now uses EPP (Expanded PolyPropylene), the same material used on the inside of bicycle helmets. This material is wonderful at absorbing shock and taking on impact, making the boxes act “like a rubber bouncing ball”, according to Alexander. “If I drop this box on its corner, there are several inches of EPP foam, and it compresses like a spring, and bounces back.”

The Ember Cube truly is a marvel of modern design and engineering. Its internal tracking systems allow you to remotely monitor its location as well as each individual cube’s temperature and humidity. The Cubes can comfortably survive a 72-hour journey, allowing them to be shipped by road, sea, or even air to any location, and once they’ve been received and their contents extracted, a simple ‘Return To Sender’ button lets the Cube alert the carrier for a pickup, while automatically generating its own shipping label and displaying it on the electronic ink display on the front. Considering how critical medical shipping can be, the Ember Cube ensures a snag-free, lag-free efficient shipping process from start to finish!

The Ember Cube comes in partnership with Cardinal Health, one of the largest distribution companies in healthcare, with a yearly revenue of $162 billion through shipping medical supplies and prescription medication to hospitals and drug stores (1/3rd of that business comes from CVS). Cardinal Health aims to have the Cube reach critical mass by the end of 2022, practically replacing up to 7 million pounds of packaging waste each year, including single-serve cardboard boxes, styrofoam protectors, and disposable ice-packs.

Designers: Ember Health & Cardinal Health

The post Ember, the smart coffee cup maker, enters the healthcare field with refrigerated vaccine shipping boxes first appeared on Yanko Design.

Blue’s latest microphone gives streamers an XLR option

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With the rise of livestreaming, easy-to-use audio gear has become a staple among YouTubers, podcasters and more. Blue has been catering to that group for a while now with its line of plug-and-play USB microphones, but at CES 2019 the company has a ne...

YD Handpicks: Your complete caffeine-kick kit!

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The third most popular beverage in the world after tea and beer, coffee to some people is almost as important as the air we breathe. A dose of coffee powers you through the day like an invisible pair of batteries… and this round-up ensures you’re super-charged throughout the entire day. Starting from the most basic of processes like the roasting to the actual drinking of coffee, we’ve covered the entire cycle of the coffee brewing affair, with a surprise product right at the end. Scroll through to completely uplift your coffee game.

01. Kelvin Coffee Roaster by IA Collaborative
We first start with the roasting of the coffee. Roasting your own coffee lets you consume it at its freshest, and the Kelvin was designed exactly for that. Rather than buying beans that were roasted months in advance and have lost their potency, Kelvin connects you to bean distributors who deliver green coffee beans to your home, while the device itself roasts your bean to that beautiful brown, which you can then proceed to grind and brew into the freshest cup of coffee ever!

Click Here to Buy Now

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02. Hiku Coffee Grinder by Kanso Coffee
After your coffee beans are roasted to that absolutely beautiful shade of umber, it must be ground to a powder, so as to allow proper infusion. The Hiku takes precise grinding to another level with a grinder inspired by camera lenses. With markings on the side, you can calibrate the coarseness or fineness of your coffee grounds, depending on the kind of brew you want. Hiku’s patented axle and burr system are so rock solid, they don’t deviate in the slightest as they’re crushing the beans, resulting in a grind that’s of immaculate consistency.

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03. Kruve Coffee Sieve by Michael Vecchiarelli
Kruve takes Hiku’s mission a step further and allows you to, at a micron level, sieve your coffee. The size of your coffee ground along with its brew time decides how your brew tastes, so making sure you’ve got a consistent grind is key. The minute you have larger, coarser particles mixing with finer ones, you lose out on your brew remaining consistent… resulting in a brew that’s acidic and bitter, because some particles are under-brewed and some over-brewed. Kruve’s sieve has a two-stage process, allowing you to trap the larger particles on the top, and the smallest particles in a tray at the bottom, leaving you with a perfect, consistent grind in the middle. The sieves are so remarkably accurate, they work on a level of a few microns… and experts say that the difference in taste is noticeable. “Sieving is believing” amirite?

Click Here to Buy Now

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04. Minipresso by Wacaco
Congratulations on perfecting your grind! Now it’s brewing time… The Minipresso takes care of that in a profile that’s small enough to slide into your backpack’s bottle holder. The tiny little brewer lets you brew coffee from your own grounds, and there’s even a version that lets you just use Nespresso pods. With a pressure chamber that allows you to build up a high pressure, the Minipresso allows you to pump hot water through your grounds, resulting in fresh-brewed creamy, rich coffee that you can either consume in espresso form or turn into a cup of black coffee or a latte by adding to it. The Minipresso is tiny enough to let you brew your coffee anywhere, and even comes with its own cup, so you’ve got literally nothing to worry about. Just sip away!

Click Here to Buy Now

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05. Newton Lever Espresso Maker by Hayden Maunsell
Want something more rustic, manual, and quirky? Essentially the most simplified version of a french press, the Newton is effortless because it uses a Type 2 Lever to reduce the amount of effort needed to extract every single bit of goodness from your grounds. Start with a nice hot cup, place and press your coffee grounds into the lower chamber of the Newton. Screw the lower chamber into place and pour hot water into the upper chamber before pulling the lever up. Then delight in the hipster routine of pumping the water through the grounds and out the bottom into your toasty hot coffee cup. The entire process is fun, non-electric, and effortless. Depending on how hard you press down on the lever, and how coarse or fine your coffee grounds are, you should be able to perfect the art of making coffee that’s a 100% product of your work!

Click Here to Buy Now

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06. & 07. Ember’s Self Heating Mugs by Ammunition/Robert Brunner for Ember
The mug that heats up your drink for you, the Ember is quite a revolutionary bit of tech. Available initially in a travel-mug format before moving to the traditional mug-shaped design, the Ember lets you set your temperature preference, and then it keeps your beverage at exactly that temperature… because coffee that’s too hot is physically undrinkable, and coffee that’s at room temperature is too disgraceful to drink, but coffee at the correct temperature feels less like a beverage and more like nature giving you a hug!

Click Here to Buy the Ember Travel Thermos (Black)

Click Here to Buy the Ember Ceramic Coffee Mug (White)

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08. Cafepress by Kinto
The Kinto is for those who want to cut out the coffee machine from their coffee-brewing cycle. Made for those coffee-addicts who don’t like the idea of having to wait for their mug, the Kinto does the brewing and filtering within the cup itself! Just pour coffee grounds in and top it off with the hot water. Let the brew rest for a minute and then insert the filter that sits flush against the handle when inserted. The filter acts like a press, compressing your grounds/leaves to the bottom of the cup, leaving just the aromatic flavorful liquid on the top for you to sip, directly from the mug you brewed your drink in!

Click Here to Buy Now

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09. Power Caffeinated Toothpaste by Dan Meropol
Too much in a hurry to sit and brew your coffee? How about caffeinated toothpaste!? The Power Toothpaste literally gives you a rush while you brush! With the caffeine equivalent of one cup in a single tooth-brush dabful, Power claims it can give you an energy boost within just the first 10 seconds of brushing (it tastes like mint though, so your mouth feels fresh). The caffeine gets absorbed by your gums, giving you an energy boost sans the cup of coffee. You can still have that cup too, if you love the taste of a good brew! Rest assured your mornings will never be groggy again, and you may just look forward to brushing your teeth every day!

Click Here to Buy Now

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The PERFECT winter companion!

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It was only this time two years ago the world saw the unveiling of Ember – the World’s most advanced coffee mug. If you were under a rock at the time, here’s what it does – the Ember mug rapidly cools your hot coffee or tea down to your chosen temperature and holds it at that exact temperature for hours on end. Well, Ember has done it again – using the same technology as the ever popular travel mug, Ember has developed the Ceramic Mug. This mug is pretty smart too – there’s no on/off switch here instead, the mug detects when there’s liquid inside and then prompts the user to select their desired temperature through the app. If you’ve ever waited for your coffee to cool down and forgotten about it, only to find it lukewarm 20 minutes later – then you’ll be counting down the days until this arrives at your door.

Designer: Robert Brunner & Ember

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A coffee mug for Goldilocks!

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Coffee. The third most popular beverage in the world. However it’s physically undrinkable when it’s too hot, and shamefully undrinkable when it reaches room temperature… which is what happens with every cup that you store your coffee in. It starts off scalding hot, gradually reaches the perfect drinkable temperature for precisely 4 minutes, and then descends into a terrible, tepid, insipid excuse for caffeine.

The Ember mug however allows you to maintain your drink at the perfect drinkable temperature. It’s different from a thermos because a thermos simply slows down the cooling process, while the Ember allows you to choose a temperature and have your drink constantly at that temperature. Another con for a thermos/flask is that when you pour a boiling hot beverage in, it stays boiling hot for a prolonged period of time, making it undrinkable for longer. With the Ember, no matter what temperature your coffee is, it will rapidly cool down or heat up to the temperature you decide… making it, in the words of Goldilocks, “Just Right”!

Designed by Ammunition, the same firm that designed Beats by Dre’s line of products (before Apple bought it), the Ember’s design language is subtle, functional, and looks everything like what a coffee mug should look like. Concealing every bit of state-of-the-art technology within the mug’s body (to retain its minimal visual aesthetic), Ember comes with a 360° sipping lid with an air-tight lock. It even features a hidden display at the base that lights up when you set the temperature using a dial at the base of the mug.

The mug runs on a battery and charges wirelessly via a charging coaster. With a temperature range of 120°F to 145°F, the Ember works not just with coffee but with any hot beverage, bringing it to the right drinking temperature and keeping it there for you to sip over at your own comfortable pace. I’m thinking a nice warm and spicy mulled wine!

Designer: Ammunition for Ember

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ICYMI: Perfect temp mug, MIT’s wiggly robot and more

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Today on In Case You Missed It: MIT's Media Lab created the LineFORM out of a wiggly bit of robotics that can morph into different shapes, like a telephone or a data connecting cable. Meanwhile a $130 mug will let you set the perfect temperature fo...

Google testing energy-saving thermostats, says report

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Google's intentions of invading the home do not just involve TVs. According to The Information, the technology giant is currently testing Internet-connected home thermostats to let users monitor and...