Cool, cutting-edge items coming to households soon
Q. You usually write a column around this time of year about the cool new home products that debuted at the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Did you go again this year?
A. Of course, though the massive show has officially been renamed simply “CES.”
As usual, new models of super-resolution TVs were everywhere. One of the most impressive (if not ridiculous) was Samsung’s “The Wall,” which comes in diagonal sizes as large as 24 feet. One Samsung representative was unsure about how much the behemoth television will cost when it becomes more widely available but repeated that age-old adage, “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.”
Though small robotic vacuum cleaners that operate on their own have been around for years, Narwal Robotic’s new Narwal T10 that it touted at this year’s CES can both vacuum your rugs and mop your floors, then transfer any dirty water into a separate self-enclosed tank for easy disposal.
In the kitchen, the Bosch Home Connect Refrigerator — already available in Europe and expected to hit the U.S. market relatively soon — has two cameras inside the fridge to survey its contents, then utilizes an app to recommend tasty recipes based on its findings.
Doing the laundry can be made easier with the help of the LG ThinQ washer, which will be rolled out soon. It automatically detects the items you throw into the tub and determines the best cycle for the fabrics inside. You will also be able to purchase a matching dryer that automatically chooses the best drying cycle.
Kohler Co., considered a leader in the manufacturing of bath and kitchen products, used CES to showcase its first smart bathroom mirror, which brings Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant Alexa into your water closet.
Kohler’s sleek Verdera Voice Lighted Mirror has long vertical LED lights built into the mirror that can be dimmed or brightened by voice command or by the touch of a finger on its discreet control board, the latter of which includes two watertight speakers that can also be controlled by voice.
Luxury bed manufacturer Dux introduced a new bed with an Alexa box and upscale speakers built right into its frame. With a few accessories, you can tell Alexa to dim or turn off the lights, close the blinds, put on your favorite beddy-bye music and the like. Dux’s king-size model will retail for about $5,000.
REAL ESTATE TRIVIA
Tech-research firm Ovum reports that sometime next year, there will be almost as many voice-activated assistants in homes, cars and offices as there will be people on the entire planet.
Q. What do you know about this futuristic city that Toyota is planning to build in Japan?
A. Called “Woven City,” the automaker plans to break ground on the 175-acre project near the base of Mount Fuji near Tokyo early next year. But to call it “futuristic” is an understatement: The words “revolutionary” and “space age” come to mind.
The automaker unveiled its plans at CES. Designed to foster new advancements in nearly every area of technology, all cars in the mixed-use development will be selfdriving, and the entire project will be fully self-sustainable, thanks to a network of rooftop solar panels and emission-free hydrogen fuel cells.
About 2,000 people will initially live in Woven City’s smart homes, each of which will include a system of robotics, sensors and artificial intelligence to fulfill the basic tasks that humans must perform and even check each occupant’s health.
Many of the residents or business tenants will be scientists, academicians, researchers and others who will interact with each other on a regular basis and share their knowledge to create even greater technological innovations in the future. Images of the planned city are available at pressroom.toyota.com.
Q. Is an A-B trust the same as the “basic living trust” that you sometimes write about?
A. No, not by a long shot.
The basic living trust that I write about is a relatively inexpensive tool that the majority of Americans can use to leave their home and other assets to their heirs without requiring the heirs to suffer through the long and costly probate process.
An A-B trust is far different. Though there’s not enough space to explain the intricacies here, they are geared toward multimillionaires or billionaires who want to minimize or even eliminate estate taxes that could be levied after they die.
For 2020, the Internal Revenue Service will allow any individual to will or gift up to $11.58 million without triggering the estate and gift tax. Married couples can shield $23.16 million.
Unless your estate would exceed those limits, an inexpensive basic living trust would be a far better choice.
ABOUT LIVING TRUSTS
Wondering whether forming a trust would be a wise idea based on your individual circumstances? For a copy of David Myers’ “Straight Talk About Living Trusts,” send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to D. Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231. Net proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross.
Send questions to David Myers, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-2960, and we’ll try to respond in a future column.