Technology has made our lives easier. No one will argue that the smartphone has revolutionized our lives and it has led to so many devices going from dumb to smart. Some are useful, like smart bulbs, smart TVs and smart locks but not all of them are. We are at a point where we have to ask, just because we can utilize technology with something, should we?
Below are some items that probably should have just stayed dumb. While the people who designed them are incredibly smart, it is hard to see practical applications for many of these in everyday life. If you own one of these, we hope that you have found a use for it.
Getting Up In The Morning
The Quirky Egg Minder
Have you ever stressed out about how many eggs you had in your refrigerator or how old they are? When it comes time for breakfast you might. If you are stressing about that then the Quirky Egg Minder is for you. A 14-egg holder is put into the fridge that is capable of syncing with your smartphone. It will give you real-time updates about how many eggs you have and how long they have been in the fridge. In-tray LED lights will change color to indicate the oldest egg and notifications will be sent when eggs get low. Or you could just open the fridge up and look and leave them in the carton. But you won’t impress anyone that way.
Cost $10
Nespresso’s Prodigio
Do you need your morning kick from coffee and enjoy the simplicity of coffee pods to make that a reality? No one of course wants to come down for their morning cuppa Joe only to find that the pods are all used up. It could be a disaster worse than that of the Hindenburg. That is where Nespresso’s Prodigio comes in handy. It will tell you when you’re out of pods. You don’t even need to lift the door to open it up to find out, though you will have to add new pods.
Cost $199
Hatch Baby Smart Changing Pad
Part of your morning routine, and probably several other times a day will be changing your little one’s diaper. When it comes time to do that use the Hatch Baby Smart Changing Pad, or perhaps the only device here that has a modicum of usefulness (OK, that’s not quite true). The pad connects to your smartphone and measures your child’s weight, food intake, number of diaper changes and more so you can share that with your pediatrician. There is some use to that, but you could also use a pen and paper for that too.
Cost $150
Food
The HAPIfork
We are all becoming more health conscious and there is nothing wrong with that. We watch what we eat and how much of that we eat. Well, now you can have some help with the HAPIfork. The unit will light up and vibrate when you eat too fast to help aid proper digestion. A readout will give you vital information like how long it took you to eat your meal, the amount of fork servings and the amount of time between fork servings. The only question that we have is if the HAPIspoon and HAPIknife will be coming soon? Also, how many forks could you buy for the cost of one of these? Oooh, what about the HAPIspork?
Cost $79
Griffin Toaster
Of course before you use the HAPIfork you will need to prepare the food and what food is easier to prepare than toast? And that just got even easier. The Griffin Toaster is a smart toaster that allows you to set your level of crispness and it will send you a notification when that toast is done. You will now have the perfect toast and you can get those 3 minutes of your life back to spend on social media. And it has Bluetooth. Everything is better with Bluetooth isn’t it?
Cost $100
June Intelligent Oven
If you want something more than toast then the June Intelligent Oven is for you. It uses cameras and AI to recognize the food that put in it and it cooks it for just the right amount of time. As of right now it is not able to recognize everything that is put in it and is insanely expensive but this could be the start of something. We’ll admit, this could be the future of ovens here. But until it is, we’ll just have to use our conventional ovens.
Cost $1,500
Chip Smart Cookie Oven
Don’t forget about desert too. Using the Chip Smart Cookie Oven you can make your own cookies! After purchasing a set of cookie pods you can use an app on your smartphone to bake your cookies and you’ll receive a notification when they are done after about 10 minutes (or about the same amount of time it takes to bake cookies in your oven). If you are out of pods it will take you to the online store to order more of them. Now freshly baked cookies (and those wonderful smells) can be enjoyed by even those that do not have ovens. But you can only make 4 cookies at a time, so you’ll probably eat the four cookies while making the next batch.
Cost $99
Body Care
Onvi Prophix
You should brush your teeth after every meal. To do that, there are a bevy of choices including smart toothbrushes but the Onvi Prophix stands out. It of course connects to your smartphone to share with you photos and live video of you brushing your teeth thanks to a 10 megapixel camera built into the brush. Let’s face it if you wanted to see this you would have probably become a dental hygienist.
Preorder for $299
Floss Time
You should floss twice a day, especially after eating toast from your Griffin Toaster or your Chip Smart Cookie Oven. 10 out of 10 dentists recommend flossing. In fact you should probably floss after every meal. But, what happens if you forget to do it? That is where Floss Time comes in. Floss Time can remind you to floss and dispense an appropriate amount of floss for you to do the deed. When you are finished you get a smiley face as a reward. Of course you need more of a reward than good oral health.
Cost $32
Kérastase Hair Coach
Worried that you are brushing your hair wrong? If you do you may not be alone (or you might be, we don’t know) but don’t worry smart tech is here to help with the Kérastase Hair Coach. Using a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a microphone to listen to your hair, it will tell you if you are brushing your hair the wrong way. It can even tell you if your hair is wet or dry. Amazing! Who knows, maybe you’ve been doing it wrong all along?
Cost $199
Griffin Mirror
When doing your hair you will need a mirror so you might as well get a smart mirror. The Griffin Mirror can be configured to display notifications from your phone, weather updates (God forbid just looking out a window) and best of all you can put a piece of toast in your Griffin Toaster and your Griffin Mirror will notify you when it is done. Life is good isn’t it?
Cost $1,000
Getting Dressed
Nike HyperAdapt
Most people learn how to tie their shoes when they are very young but has this simple act become too difficult? If so, the Nike HyperAdapt is the shoe that you want. This shoe comes to life when you put your foot into it. It lights up, it adjusts to the shape of your foot and the activity that you are doing so you will always have the perfect fit and it is a self-lacing shoe. The only downside is that you will have to recharge your shoes every night. In the 90s you had the shoes that you could adjust by pumping and don’t forget LA Lights, this takes that to a whole new level.
Cost $400
Belty Good Vibes
Are you living too much of sedentary lifestyle or don’t like to stand up. The Belty Good Vibes might be for you. It is paired with an app and vibrates when you sit too long, don’t stand up straight, don’t drink enough water and a few other reasons.
Cost $395
Vessyl
Staying hydrated is important, whether it is during a workout or just going about your day. We need water to live after all, but are we drinking too much or too little? Now you can know thanks to Vessyl, the smart water bottle. Vessyl takes into account your height, weight, age, sex, activity level and amount of sleep to tell you when to have a drink of water. It can be synced with a FitBit to give you an optimal level of hydration. Let tech tell you when to have a drink of water, don’t rely on your thirst at all.
Cost $150
HidrateSpark
Is the notification system from Vessyl not working for you and you are still worried you are not hydrating enough? The Hdrate Spark will glow when it is time to have a drink. It is better for the visual people out there.
Cost $55
Brita Infinity
To fill your smart water bottles you will need to get the water from somewhere and in the modern millenial smart home you don’t go to the tap for that water. No, you will need filtered water using a Brita system. But how can you know if your filter should be replaced? The Brita Infinity will send you a notification when your Brita’s filter needs to be replaced and it will automatically order another one from Amazon. That works out well for Amazon certainly.
Cost $45
Garageio
Is opening touching your garage door remote too strenuous to do? Lifting you arm to hit the button as you near your garage just too mundane? Then why not use Garageio. It lets you open your garage door with your smartphone. Yep, getting your smartphone out and hitting all of the buttons to unlock it and open the app to then open your garage is just so much simpler than hitting the remote’s button.
Cost $129
Sensoria
Many people run to stay in shape and many people like to quantify how good their workout was. How far did you run? How fast did you run? It is all information that people want to know. Now, your smart sock Sensoria can tell you. Sensors are woven in each sock and communicates to a device attached to the ankle. Move over FitBit and other wearable tech. Available also with a sportsbra and t-shirt too.
Cost $199
The Davek Alert
Have you ever lost your umbrella? It can be a pain on a rainy day and no one wants to get wet. The Davek Alert is an umbrella with a piece of Loss Alert technology that is incorporated into it and syncs with your smartphone. It tracks the distance between you and your umbrella and signals you when the two of you are more than 30 feet apart. It won’t help you not to forget your umbrella or misplace it but you will always know that your umbrella is nearby. Perfect for rainy days.
Cost $135
In The Bedroom
i.Con
It had to happen but, even the most carnal action can be helped with smart tech. The human race has managed to survive millennia but we just didn’t know how good we were at it, until now. i.Con is a smart condom that helps guys tell them how good they are in bed. If you are worried that your partner is not being honest with you, why not give it a try? You can have all of the data related to your carnal activity that you could ever want. If you have ever wanted to prove that you are a beast in the bedroom, this will be for you.
Not Available Yet
We-Vibe
If the i.Con isn’t working for your male partner, then the We-Vibe could be just what you are looking for. It was inevitable that smart sex toys would become a reality and the We-Vibe is just that. Controllable via smartphone but there are some security flaws that could allow your device to be controlled by an outsider. But maybe that is just what you are looking for?
Cost $109 and up
The Stuff That Made It To CES
Hari Mari x Nokona Flip-Flops
Do you wear flip-flops? They’re the footwear of choice for going to the beach and for many other occasions as well and someone though that it would be a good idea to bring tech to a pair of flip-flops from Hari Mari! A chip is embedded in the footwear and syncs with an app on your smartphone to provide guess what? If you guessed fitness data you would be wrong, it sends you updates on discounts. The good news for this is that they appear to have been a commercial flop (pun intended) and are no longer in production (or never made it to production). At least there is some hope.