This fancy Japanese smoke detector is designed to call your cell phone whenever it detects a whiff of smoke. That way you'll be able to tell that your freeloading brother who's been staying with you has either burned a bag of popcorn or is accidentally (or intentionally?) burning your house down. How convenient!

On the one hand, it seems like it makes more sense to have it call the local fire department rather than you. On the other hand, how many times has your smoke detector gone off? And how many times did that require the assistance of the fire department? You wouldn't want to get on the do-not-rescue list just because your overeager smoke detector called them every time you left something in the oven too long. Save your $140. — Adam Frucci

Textually.org, via Engadget