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If you’re wondering how you can beat the heat this summer, just take a look around your kitchen. Popsicles, ice cream, or a crushed ice drink – if you’ve got the right small kitchen appliances, you’ll be able to whip up an icy drink or a sweet, cold treat to cool you off in no time.

          As a person who regularly reviews products, you won’t be surprised to hear that I am a big fan of reviews. And I don’t mean my reviews, but from consumers that have bought the product, used it for a while and discovered the nuances about it, both good and bad. I would never buy a product unless I read quite a number of reviews about it as nothing can replace that user experience and associated perspective. So what I thought I would do is provide you a summary of what I found to the be top 5 best rated TVs, purely based on customer ratings and share some of their reviews.

Saturday the 21st was summer solstice, the longest day of the year the official start of summer 2014. Canadians really come alive in the summer, and on these long beautiful summer days you can feel all that energy stored up over the winter. Summer is a great time to dust off that camera that’s been sitting on the shelf and get outside and make some great photos. Today I’m going to give you my top 5 tips for shooting amazing photographs this summer.

    Create an urban dining room with style and grace or a country kitchen themed room with the new furniture available at Best Buy.

I have a confession to make – laundry is the bane of my existence. And while I’d like to think that my distaste is deep seeded in some traumatic childhood experience like my older brother locking me in a dryer, or that I’d loathe the chore in the very best of conditions, I’m pretty sure my disdain stems from 20 years of doing laundry in communal facilities in the dank basements of the various apartment buildings I’ve called home. Let’s just say that quality machines are not exactly a landlord’s priority. So that’s why, while some covet a white picket fence and a lush yard, for me, a quality washer and dryer, like those from appliance giant GE, are the epitome of happily ever after.   Ok, perhaps that’s a stretch, but to have in-suite laundry facilities that do not make your towels smell like your neighbours’ dirty hockey gear … well, that’s the dream! So, from a “have not,” here are some GE models that are more than worthy of consideration.

Last weekend I spent a few hours at the first-ever Microsoft Surface Café. Held at a hip pop-up venue on Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West, the tagline for the event was: “Where creativity comes together.” The workshop I attended on Saturday was headlined by Francis Manapul —the guy who’s currently drawing Batman. He was onstage drawing Batman … and the Joker … using nothing but a Surface Pro 3. If you happen to be in the Montreal area next weekend, Microsoft is opening a Surface Café in that city starting on June 26 and is currently taking applications to attend the creative seminars. If the Toronto version was any indication, there will be some fascinating sessions (along with free coffee and Surface cookies).    

The refrigerator is the largest and most used appliance in your kitchen. Fortunately, they’ve come a long way since the day of the boxy design with one butter bin inside.  GE offers energy smart refrigerators combining form and function that add style and storage to your kitchen.

Dolby Laboratories has been in the business of improving and perfecting the sound experience since 1965. They started with Dolby Noise Reduction, which got rid of the hiss on audiocassette tapes. In the early 90’s they introduced Dolby Digital, which gave rise to ever-improving surround sound, ultimately evolving to Dolby TrueHD, which further improved the purity of sound reproduction. Their latest sound technology is Dolby Atmos, which has taken the sound experience to yet a new level. Atmos is to sound what 4K is to TV resolution.

According to the history books – or what are now more commonly referred to as Wikipedia pages – the first mechanical dishwashing device was patented in 1850. It wasn’t until one hundred years later that they started appearing in the homes of the wealthy. Since then, the dishwasher has evolved from a luxury and a status symbol to an absolute necessity in any modern kitchen. And as a brand that has been in the household appliance business since the early 1900’s, it makes sense that Frigidaire has a strong foothold in the consumer dishwasher market.