One of the most notable trends at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year was the emergence of small-scale inventors whose high-tech gadgets are more useful and affordable than the products unveiled by giant companies.
Many of those gadgets—including the Pebble smartwatch and Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles—were created by inventors who funded their projects by raising money through “crowd funding” investment Web sites such as Kickstarter.com, proving that innovation and entrepreneurship are alive and well in America.
Here are 10 of the most notable products* from this year’s show based on an interview by Bottom Line/Personal with consumer electronics expert Nilay Patel…
Wristband activity tracker:Fitbit Flex tracks how many steps you take each day, how far you walk, how many calories you burn, whether you’re meeting your fitness goals and even how well and how long you sleep. It then sends this data wirelessly to your iPhone, PC or Mac computer or certain Android devices. Fitbit Flex software makes your activity data easy to track and interpret. www.Fitbit.com
Release date: Spring 2013.
Price: $99.95.
Smartwatch that syncs with your smartphone (see above): Pebble doesn’t just tell time. It also syncs with your iPhone or Android smartphone to alert you when you receive a call and tell you who is calling…or to let you read incoming texts and e-mails right on the watch face. The Pebble’s “e-paper” display is quite legible even in bright sunlight. This watch is very helpful when your phone is in your pocket, purse or briefcase…in another room in your house…or when you are in a meeting and don’t want to be seen checking your phone. The Pebble can serve as a remote control for your smartphone’s music, too. Additional apps soon will allow it to be used to track speed and distance when biking or jogging…or as a range finder on the golf course. There are other smartwatches that do similar things, but they aren’t as easy to use as the Pebble or as attractive. www.GetPebble.com
Release date: First half of 2013.
Price: $150.
iPhone-controlled light switch: Belkin WeMo Light Switch lets you operate one of your home’s lights from anywhere with your iPhone. That could be useful if there’s a light you always forget to turn off before going to bed…or if you would like to turn on an interior light before entering your dark home or stepping out of your car into your dark garage. You can install multiple WeMo Light Switches to control several lights. WiFi is required, but installation is no more difficult than with a conventional light switch. WeMo iPhone-controlled plug-in outlets already are available. Other WeMo devices including coffeepots and Crock-Pots are on the way.
Some earlier home-automation systems failed because they cost thousands of dollars, were complicated to operate and required their own control systems. With WeMo, home automation is inexpensive, very easy to use and controlled from an iPhone, something many people carry anyway (an Android app is planned for later this year). www.Belkin.com/us/wemo
Release date: Summer 2013.
Price: Not yet announced but expected to be around $50 based on the price of WeMo products that are already available.
Taking the guesswork out of plant care: Parrot Flower Power is a probe that you insert into the soil near a plant—either indoors or out. It then syncs wirelessly with your smartphone to track whether the plant is receiving sufficient water, light, warmth and fertilizer. It also provides plant-care recommendations and reminders. Once you have learned what care a plant requires, you can reposition Flower Power for a different plant. In this way, a single Flower Power can be used to track the care requirements of an unlimited number of plants. www.Parrot.com/flower-power
Release date: By the end of 2013.
Price: Not yet announced.
High-tech diet tool: HAPIfork is a “smart fork” that vibrates a warning when eating speed is judged to be too rapid. That’s helpful because eating too fast can result in eating too much. HAPIfork also tracks dining data, including meal duration, bites per minute and intervals between bites. This data can be uploaded from the fork to a computer or smartphone to help you track and improve your eating habits. www.HAPILabs.com
Release date: Second quarter of 2013.
Price: $99.99.
Bathroom scale that measures much more than your weight: Withings Smart Body Analyzer measures body mass index, body fat percentage and heart rate as well as weight when you step onto the scale. The air-quality monitor checks carbon dioxide levels periodically to confirm that you are breathing healthy air. The scale can sync wirelessly to a smartphone or tablet to track this data or can send it directly to a doctor, dietitian or support group. www.Withings.com
Release date: First quarter of 2013.
Price: $149.95.
Lost-luggage tracker: GlobaTrac Trakdot is a small plastic device designed to be packed in a suitcase for air travel. When the suitcase arrives at an airport, you will receive an alert on your mobile phone telling you not just that it has arrived but where it has arrived. If your bag was routed to the wrong airport, you can inform the airline so that the bag can quickly be located and returned to you. www.Trakdot.com
Release date: April.
Price: $49.99 plus an activation fee of $8.99 and an annual fee of $12.99.
Waterproof smartphone: Sony Xperia Z features an extremely large, high-resolution five-inch screen and 13-megapixel camera. Its glass-backed design is distinctive and attractive, but what really makes this Android 4.1 phone stand out is that it is waterproof, rendering it safe from a major cause of failure. Prior waterproof smartphones have been bulky and inelegant. www.SonyMobile.com/us/xperia
Release date: Expected to be available by spring.
Price: Likely to be in the neighborhood of $200 with a cellular contract.
Faster, lighter computer tablet: Vizio 10-inch Android Tablet features the new ultrafast Nvidia Tegra 4 processor. It is thinner and lighter than many 10-inch tablets, too (though its precise size and weight have not yet been released). Vizio also will offer a seven-inch model featuring the Tegra 3 processor that will be notably smaller than other seven-inch tablets. www.Vizio.com
Release date: By late 2013.
Prices: Not yet announced, but Vizio is known for producing competitively priced electronics, so the hope is that the 10-inch tablet won’t cost much more than $300…the seven-inch not much more than $200.
Virtual reality goggles that really work: Oculus Rift headset lets you feel as if you’ve been transported to a different place. This is virtual reality that truly feels real, something no one has managed before. It is not yet clear what games or applications will be compatible with the device. www.OculusVR.com
Release date: By the end of 2013.
Price: Not yet announced but expected to be perhaps $300 to $500.
*Prices have not yet been finalized on some of the products listed, but most are expected to cost no more than a few hundred dollars, except as noted.
Source: Nilay Patel, managing editor of The Verge, a Web site that offers reporting and reviews about technology and related topics. He previously was managing editor of the technology review Web site Engadget and has appeared on CNN, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC and elsewhere to discuss technology. www.TheVerge.com
