Five New Pieces of Everyday Tech from CES 2017 (Including One Big Dud)
Smart collars, smart scooters, smart... hairbrushes?
Right now (in case you haven't been hanging on every tweet), the Consumer Technology Association is holding a huge conference in Las Vegas — CES 2017 — and while that might sound kind of abstract, it's an internationally-watched event with reams of huge new product announcements that are relevant to the everyday tech user (that's you!). The Consumer Technology Association (acronymed to CES, not CTA, for unfathomable reasons) is a trade union that promotes and standardises widely used technology, meaning high-end tech gets into your life sooner. This year has already been pretty epic. Here's a breakdown of some of the best tech reveals (so far), coming soon to a smart household near you.
A SMART COLLAR FOR YOUR POOCH
Now, this is a nifty little device for lucky, lucky pet owners. Whistle 3 is a new pet tracking collar that lets you monitor your puppo's or catto's daily activity levels and track them on your smartphone. It's the third iteration of the product and reports from CES indicate this time they've nailed it. Whistle 3 is compact, waterproof, clips to your pet's collar and syncs to an app on your phone. At the moment, it's only available in the US but we'll keep you updated on developments. In the meantime, remember to get your precious furbabies microchipped.
AN AI-FITTED TOYOTA
What business Toyota has building an AI, we don't know. But they have. Its name is Yui (pronounced you-ee) and, yes, we expect it will allow us to become best friends with our car like Shia Lebeouf and Bumblebee. No, but really. AI in a car is about risk assessment and will work in tandem with what they called 'human driving'. So it's not exactly automated but it will allow certain elements of automation when it's safe to do so. Yui warns the driver about potential hazards and can automate corrections to prevent them. But most importantly, it's super-duper cute and futuristic.
A RELATIVELY FAST SCOOTER THAT CAN CHARGE YOUR DEVICES
The URB-E might look a little goofy (like its Segway and Hoverboard brothers) but this compact little electric scooter could be the future of travel. Give up any dreams of your kids buying their first banged up Holden Commodore, the next generation will be driving these 30-pound scooties to school. Three years ago, the URB-E was debuted at CES. This year, they've revealed four new, updated models and a range of accessories. To fill you in, the URB-E is a foldable scooter/bicycle hybrid out of America. The cheapest, the URB-E Sport, retails for US$899 and can reach a top speed of 22 kilometres. A fully-charged URB-E Sport can travel up to 25 kilometres before needing a recharge. And you can charge your phone off it too. Damn. These iterations of the URB-E are more affordable and more powerful than ever, so you might as well embrace these tiny, goofy scooters because they ain't leaving anytime soon.
A CASUALLY POWERFUL, 92-MEGAPIXEL, VR-SUPPORTING PHONE
While we're not sold on the name ZenFone (imagine the roundtable on that decision), the newest phone out of the Asus camp is exciting for multiple reasons. First, it's built to support virtual and augmented reality technology (the future is here!) which means it's packing a considerable amount of processing power for such a little thing. Its three cameras (the most powerful of which takes 92-megapixel images and 4K videos) enables 3D mapping technology. Yeah. Your selfie game just jumped up a level. It's expected for release midway through this year.
UH... A SMART HAIRBRUSH?
Yeah, so L'Oreal has designed a smart hairbrush. Rejoice for now every part of your daily routine will be watched over by machines. The Keratase Hair Coach uses sensors, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a microphone to spy on you and determine a) how healthy your hair is b) whether your hair is wet or dry c) whether you're brushing too hard or too much and d) how many Keratase products you need in your life right now. Guive Balooch, the vice president of L'Oreal's Technology Incubator, said to Fortune the brush will also try to smooth your hair. All of this for under $200? Woah. The future really is stupid.
Via IB Times, The Verge and Gizmodo.
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