My new favourite designers are the Play Coalition, who first came to my attention with their selfless light fitting, The Martyr; a neat little visual pun on the idea of energy-saving.

They’ve now come up with a crazy, Tim Burton-esque solution to light-starved houseplants, The Plantbot.
Slap in your favourite fern, yucca, whatever and say goodbye to [...]

Boffins at Queen Mary’s, London, are wandering round in white coats trying to find out “how people can develop a long-term relationship with artificial creatures, in everyday settings”.
That’s robots to you and me – digital servants who’ll help ’round the house, befriend the lonely, and plug into the web to take care of dreary domestic [...]