Fiction Useless Inventions
The Remote Control That Hides Itself
A television remote with rubber tracks and a clock inside, which drives itself into the gap between the sofa cushions every night at eleven, because that is where it feels safest.
Home Tags
gadgets
Everything filed under gadgets.
Articles
Fiction Made-Up Words
Plugspin
(n.) The ritual of trying a plug one way up, then the other, then the first way again, which somehow now works perfectly.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Stapler That Asks If You Are Sure
A handsome desk stapler that will not fire a single staple until you have confirmed, twice, that you really do want these pages joined forever.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Fridge Light That Never Goes Off
A refrigerator that keeps its bulb burning day and night, so that nobody ever has to wonder again what happens in there once the door swings shut.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Plant Pot That Reads Bedtime Stories
A glazed ceramic pot with a tiny built-in speaker that reads your houseplant a soothing story every evening, so you no longer have to feel guilty about never talking to it.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Very Patient Parking Sensor
A calm, non-judgemental parking sensor that never distracts you with nervous beeping while you reverse, and waits politely until after you have touched the wall to mention it.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Snooze Negotiator
An alarm clock that will happily give you nine more minutes, but only after you have submitted a short written case explaining why you deserve them.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Heritage Tangling Case
A handsome leather pouch for your old wired headphones that, with the help of a tiny motor, ties them into a proper knot overnight, just like they used to do by themselves.
Fiction Useless Inventions
The Diplomatic Thermostat
An office thermostat that gives every person who touches it exactly the temperature they asked for, on its little screen, while the actual room stays precisely where it was.
Fact-based How It Started
Bubble Wrap Began as a Wallpaper Nobody Wanted
Two inventors sealed a pair of plastic shower curtains together in 1957 hoping to make stylish textured wallpaper, and it took them years and a computer to find out what they had really made.