Gotta Have Gadgets!
“Dot.calm” by Jane Silverman
As a prophesier, visionary and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison would have been enthralled by the annual Consumer Electronics Show digital.ces.tech/home, which is known as a proving ground for envelopepushing technologies and must-have items we never knew we needed. As a self-proclaimed “gadget geek,” here are a few of my favorites:
An Aye for an Eye:
This could be the most exciting vision aid since Ben Franklin invented bifocals: Voy’s Tunable Glasses voyglasses.com can be quickly adjusted from -5D to +2D vision so wearers can finetune the same glasses for reading or driving. Each of the lenses is controlled by a small dial at the top of the frame tweaking the placement of two polycarbonate plates which slide across each other to adjust the lens’ strength. Cool!
The Bee’s Knees:
The Italian company Beeing www.beeing.it/en turns a honeydo list into a sweet pastime. Their B-BOX is a small beehive that works with a sensor to monitor the bees’ health and environment, separating an extra honeycomb from the bees so you can harvest the honey without a beekeeper’s suit. It is the first-ever beehive designed for the home.
Lip-shtick:
Mrs. Mina Edison would have been delighted by Yves Saint Laurent’s Rouge Sur Mesure www.yslbeauty.com/rouge-surmesure launching this Spring. It is a lipstick pod device that self-mixes up to three shades of lip cremes to create your bespoke lipstick shade. Just design your color on the companion app, connect via Bluetooth, and it does all the rest. Merveilleux!
Garden of Eating:
Mina’s father was also a successful inventor with 92 farming device patents. He would be thrilled with the vertical hydroponic growing system by Gardyn (no green thumb required) mygardyn.com. Its app monitors every step of your indoor farm’s growth letting you know when to water, add light, or add nutrients.
Watch Out!:
The Mudra watchband www.mudra-band.com offers touchfree control for your Apple watch with “a non-invasive neural input interface for controlling digital devices through effortless finger movements.” Wow. Wearing gloves? Running? Washing dishes? Driving? With one hand and a tap of your finger, you can manage calls, dismiss notifications, change a music track, and more.
Chilling-In:
The inventor of Soft Serve ice cream may or may not be Tom Carvel, the Dairy Queen Family, or former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (who worked as a chemist in a lab where they perfected an emulsifier to whip more air into the soft-serve formula). But what I DO know, is that the Keurig-like ColdSnap machine coldsnap.com is a revolutionary at-home countertop soft serve ice cream maker (but it can also make smoothies, frozen yogurt, frozen cocktails, and more). I need this!
Safe and Sound:
Visit www.trovaofficial.com to see their suite of portable biometric safe deposit boxes ranging from pocket-size to shoebox size. It’s perfect for your home or travel to protect jewelry, documents, and medicines and easily pairs with its smartphone app. To securely lock or open face id, thumbprint, or pin code.
Unmasked!:
Wearing a see-through mask to let people see when you speak is a game-changer for everyone including the deaf, children, pets, and even dating! Nexvoo’s transparent Breeze mask has two silent fans that circulate and filter the air, and a UV light to automatically disinfect the mask while it’s charging. Need this! Find it at nexvoostore.com/breeze-bynexvoo-tech-mask-clear-mask.
Speaking in Tongues:
One day we will all get to travel again to lands far and wide, but this time there will be no language barrier, as long as you are wearing Waverly Labs’ Ambassador Translator. Simply put on the over-the-ear device, download and pair its app on your smartphone, choose one of 20 languages with 42 dialects, and listen seamlessly to its translation. For conversations, pass the guest earpiece to the other person. No internet required! www.waverlylabs.com.
“The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” – Elbert Hubbard