What’s on your tech wishlist this year?
SEVEN OF THE BEST WEIRD AND WONDERFUL NEW TECH DEVICES FROM CES19
LIKE an extra gift after Christmas, the Consumer Electronics Show comes around every January to give us a glimpse of the future of tech. Or not. Sometimes it throws up a lot of random nonsense that will never in a million years make it all the way to market.
There has certainly been a lot of both those things at the Las Vegas event, at which the great and the good of the tech world gather each year to show off what they’ve been working on.
Trying to steer a course between those two extremes this week, I’ve picked out a few of my favourite new tech items, some of which may even prove to be useful… 1 Mui smarthome assistant OF all the things you might expect to see at a consumer tech show of this kind, a smart plank of wood might have been the furthest from your mind.
Nevertheless, here we are with the Mui. It is a piece of wood that has a touch sensitive dot-matrix style screen built into it. And with that screen you can perform all sorts of smart home tasks; control lights and heating, display calendar events and texts, even send voice messages.
It has the Google Assistant built-in, but has no speakers, so everything is done with the display. It’s hard to make a case that this is more efficient than using your voice on your phone, but there is certainly something about it that chimes with the sense that people want to return to a more natural state of mind.
Mui allows access to the latest smart features, but does it slowly and via contact with wood. If nothing else, it should make a change from jabbing a glass screen with your fingers. The Kickstarter to get hold of one has already finished, and backers won’t get theirs till later this year. There’s no word on when everyone else might get their hands on one. 2 The Jack Rabbit bicycle LIKE some kind of crazy modern-day penny-farthing, the Jack Rabbit comes cruising into view at CES with one mission – to find a better way of getting around cities and campuses.
But look closely at the “bicycle” and you’ll notice something important – yes it has two wheels, albeit mismatched for size. But where are the pedals? That’s right, it doesn’t have any – that’s because it’s an all electric bike that doesn’t need any of your human-powered nonsense to get you from A to B.
It looks like it might be a little bit uncomfortable, but it’s supposed to work for people of all sizes. It’ll do 18mph and go for an average of 13 miles on a charge – but you’ll have to wait if you want one of your own. It’s another Kickstarter-only – and even then, they were only available in the US. With a fully-funded campaign behind them though, you can have at least some hope they will find their way to the UK eventually. 3 The FoodMarble Aire breath-testing device ANY device that is branded as a “personal digestive tracker” is going to have its work cut out convincing the masses to buy in. I mean, I’m not sure I want to know.
It works by analysing your breath when you blow into it after eating. In conjunction with a smartphone app, its makers say the Aire can tell you which foods are most compatible with your digestive system. Those of you who wish to build your own “digestive profile” using this admittedly impressive hydrogen testing technology, will have to pay £149 for the privilege. 4 The Aeklys smart ring by ICARE I LIKE my technology simple – there’s a real beauty in a device that does one thing really well. Like the ring Philippe Starck has made for ICARE – the Aeklys.
It’s special and smart because it is not only quite fetching to look at, but it can also pay for that cheeky bottle of red you keep having to pick up on the way home from work because you’ve “had a hard day”. That’s right – the Aeklys ring can make contactless payments – just hold it close to the card machine and – PING – the deed is done. That’s all it does, though, so don’t expect it to do your washing. See – beautiful and simple. And also quite expensive at £130 – although you do get compatibility with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. 5 LG’s rollable TVs I AM perhaps not alone in thinking the world was not holding its breath waiting for TV screens that can roll up on themselves. LG clearly begs to differ, because that was the big news it, er, rolled out at CES this year.
The screens can roll away into a small space when they’re not in use, only coming out to play when you want to watch something. Nevertheless, it does rather feel like technol- ogy we’ll be filing away in the “They Did It Because They Could” drawer.
While the 65in screen device on show at CES is a demo unit, LG says it’s quite close to coming to market. 6 Petcube Bites 2 and Petcube Play 2 PETCUBE 2 brings a couple of updated devices to help keep you in touch with your animals when you can’t be there in person. Petcube Play (£149) allows you to watch and talk to your pet while you are away, while Petcube Bites (£219!) goes one step further and allows you to dispense a treat, which the device can fling “up to six
feet”. 7 BW-Space underwater drone by Youcan Robot WE know all too well just how much trouble you can get into flying camera drones around the place willy nilly. And now everyone’s doing it, it’s just not cool anyway. That’s why you should consider taking your drone activity underwater – and for that you’ll need the BW-Space. It’s a nifty remote controlled submarine from Youcan Robot that packs a lot of manoeuvrability and a neat camera into a design that surely came straight out of Q’s workshop. It’s a bit pricey at £1,300 but for that you get some great features – it can follow a person around, hover at a set depth, and even live-stream from 100m down. Better yet, it’s unlikely to ground any flights at your local airport.