I'm pretty sure that the first utterance that came out of my mouth when I opened the box was, "Huh?"

It was a product sample from Dyson, and it was this tabletop... thing. According to the box, it was an "Air Multiplier," which still didn't help much. A whosis?

I was not alone in my confusion, as evidenced by one of the funniest promo videos I've seen.

Okay, so it's a fan. It looks vaguely like a large makeup mirror without the mirror. The middle is just hollow... no blades. That's right, no blades. That means no anxiety about little fingers or furry tails getting hacked off the second you look away from your fan.

I turned it on, and it was powerful and steady. You can easily tilt it and turn it, and set it to oscillate or to stay in one place. You can also adjust the air flow with a dimmer switch. It's about as loud as running a hairdryer on the low setting, and it comes in either a 10-inch or 12-inch model, with three colors. (The blue looks really cool, if you ask me.)

One of their most frequently touted features is that it eliminates "unpleasant buffeting" associated with regular fan blades, with a helpful link to a Wikipedia definition:

Buffeting is a high-frequency instability, caused by airflow separation or shock wave oscillations from one object striking another. It is caused by a sudden impulse of load increasing. It is a random forced vibration. Generally it affects the tail unit of the aircraft structure due to air flow down stream of the wing.

Now, personally, I have never noticed any unpleasant buffeting before. I have never felt particularly unstable around a fan, unless I'm in high heels and have recently taken Benadryl. But! I can say that the wind coming out of this Dyson fan does feel extra-smooth.

For me, the selling feature is all about the lack of blades. No matter how much other manufacturers try to imprison them in their metal or plastic cages, fan blades still make me nervous when little kids are around. With this fan, you'd never even have to warn your kids to stay away. The air is brought into the fan through the base, so there’s nothing to harm them, unless they perhaps pick the thing up and fling it into each other's heads. Which is not likely, unless you have those sorts of kids.

Now for the bad news: This fan costs $300. And you can't even get it on Amazon or somewhere you're likely to find a deep discount - it's available only on Dyson's website or in "select design stores."

The Dyson Air Multiplier was sent to Jenna Glatzer for review by Dyson's PR firm.

If you've read ZRecs for any length of time, you'll know how passionate we are about keeping kids buckled in the safest car seats, properly installed. I participated in a Twitter party on Wednesday for the new website Child Passenger Safety, where I was reminded that tomorrow, September 12, is National Seat Check Saturday. The event kicks off a week dedicated to child passenger safety (stay tuned for a review of a new car seat we've been testing out). On National Seat Check Saturday and all next week, we urge you to find a child safety seat check station and have your seat installation checked by certified Child Safety Technicians. (If you miss the event though, you can still have your seat checked by a technician at any time!)

Our family loves to ride bikes. From commuting to work to participating in long distance rides, my husband and I have always enjoyed the simplicity, sustainability, health benefits and great fun of riding bikes. But when you have small children, family rides can get a little more complicated. Through two kids, I've had experiences with balance bikes, mini bikes that attach to the back of an adult bike, and front- and rear-mounted child seats, so I thought I'd share a few impressions on our favorite kids' bike seat to date: The iBert Safe-T Seat.

Our toddler can balance for long distances on his pedal-free kids' bike. It's great for his own play, but not suitable for riding as a family.

When my older son (who is now 17) was little, I used a bike seat that attached to the back of my bicycle. While he enjoyed getting out on the bike with his mom, he often complained that he couldn’t see anything (besides my backside) and I didn’t like how difficult it was to talk to him. As he grew older, we got a Trail-A-Bike that was a blast for us both. We rode daily to school and even did some short “long distance” rides (25 miles) with friends.

Now, our younger son wants to be more involved in our bicycling adventures. He isn’t willing to sit quietly in a trailer and we knew he would want to see everything we were seeing from our bikes. So after my husband made a trip to Tokyo and saw countless Japanese families riding around with front-mounted child bike seats, we researched front seats online and found one available in the U.S.

The iBert Safe-T Seat allows our toddler to really participate in the ride. Since the seat faces forward and attaches near the handlebars, he can see where we are going, is able to talk to us while we are riding and feels safe right between our arms rather than being banished to the back of the bike. Out on a typical ride, he points out objects like airplanes, animals (he loves cats) and other bicyclists and is able to put his hands on the handlebars (which can be a liability if you aren’t paying attention).

The iBert Safe-T is recommended for children ages one to four with a maximum weight of 38 pounds and a maximum height of 42 inches.

The cost is reasonable compared to seats that go on the back of a bike - at around $85 it's cheaper than some, and costs more than just a few. Better still, assembly is a piece of cake - it literally took five minutes to install, and has a quick-release for the seat so you can ride solo again quickly. That's a great feature!

There are two drawbacks to the iBert:

1. Your handlebar stem needs to have 3/4" clearance for the iBert to fit properly, so make sure to measure it if you're thinking about getting one. Our family is proof that the mounting bar doesn’t fit on all bikes - it fits on two of the five bikes we have between us.


2. Ergonomically, it doesn't work equally for all users. My husband is tall (6 foot 1 inch) and he still has plenty of knee room to pedal. For me at 5 foot 3 inches tall, it is not as comfortable. Reaching over my son to get to my handlebars, I feel crowded. So, he usually rides with his Dad.

The seat has a very minimal affect on the handling of the bicycle and the balance feels natural, with more of the weight towards the front rather than the back of the bike.

Overall, the iBert seat is simple to use and our son loves it so much he asks to go on bike rides!