What new innovations will improve our lives in the years ahead? New technology debuts all the time, but many attention-grabbing items don’t catch on. Bottom Line Personal asked consumer technology expert Marc Saltzman, host of Tech It Out, what kinds of recently unveiled and future technology will take hold.
Smartwatches are just the start. An expanding range of wearable technology offers health monitoring and help with health challenges. The latest options include…
Abbott Lingo biosensor
People with diabetes have long used wearable devices to monitor their blood-sugar levels. Now the new Abbott Lingo biosensor can do the same for people who don’t have diabetes or who have pre-diabetes. This small sensor, which is worn on the back of the upper arm, monitors real-time blood-sugar levels over two weeks, generating data and providing personalized advice for managing metabolism, weight control and reducing the odds of becoming diabetic down the road. A two-week monitoring plan that includes one biosensor costs $49. Biosensors can be worn for two weeks but cannot be reused. Longer plans featuring multiple biosensors also are available. An iOS device such as an iPhone is required.
Compass Wearable
If your hearing and/or memory aren’t what they used to be, this small device, worn on a string around the neck, can help. The Compass Wearable automatically transcribes your conversations into text so you can refer back to them later. What advice did the doctor offer during your last checkup? What did that new neighbor say his name was? What was the name of that sitcom a friend recommended? It all will be there in the transcript. Unlike smartphone-based transcription apps, you don’t even have to remember to hit a record button. By default, it records continuously unless you turn the app off in its settings. Compass Wearable also uses artificial intelligence to create summaries so you don’t have to dig through long transcripts to locate highlights. It costs $99…with up to 10 hours of transcription per month is included at no additional cost. For more transcripts, you can opt for the Compass X subscription, in which you can pay by the month at $19/month or commit to a year billed at $14/month.
Apple Watch
The FDA has now approved several smartwatches for sleep apnea detection, including the Apple Watch Series 9, 10 and Ultra 2…and Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. This smartwatch feature truly can improve watch wearers’ lives—left untreated, sleep apnea can lead not only to chronic fatigue, but also to increased risk for high blood pressure, stroke, dementia, diabetes and other serious health problems. The sleep-apnea detection features are included for free in the operating systems’ software updates.
Oura Ring
If you don’t like wearing a watch when you sleep…or if smartwatch styling is too obtrusive for your tastes…a high-tech health-monitoring ring is an alternative. The Oura Ring ($249 to $349 plus a $5.99/month subscription, compatible with iPhone or Android) and Samsung Galaxy Ring ($399.99, no subscription required, compatible with Android) look like conventional gold or platinum rings but serve many of the same functions as smartwatches, monitoring things sleep quality, heart rate, activity levels and more. Unlike smartwatches, smart rings don’t feature screens—the data they gather is provided via a smartphone app. That lack of a screen means they have impressive battery life, often upward of a week per charge. Apple is rumored to have a smart ring of its own coming out soon—and when Apple enters a product category, it often means that category is about to become much more popular. These may even be eligible for purchase with your HSA.
Some tech trends are the result of breakthrough innovations, but others stem simply from demographics. The population is rapidly aging in the US and many other parts of the world, so expect plenty of tech products that serve older users’ needs. Among those already available…
Aging in place is a common goal, but adult children of older parents often worry whether their parents can still live on their own safely. There are numerous technological solutions available to help overcome this concern, but many involve the use of video cameras that infringe on parents’ privacy and/or alarm systems with monthly subscription fees. Those options can be worth considering—but also consider simply installing inexpensive monitors and/or motion sensors that can send messages to smartphones. Mount a motion sensor on a medicine cabinet door or refrigerator door and/or a motion sensor in the hallway to the bedroom, and the adult child can confirm that the parent is getting up in the morning and taking medicine on schedule—without placing pestering calls or installing anything as invasive as a camera. Some sensors can alert you not only when there is motion, but when there is no motion—you set the parameters. This tech is no longer new, and it’s certainly not expensive—you can find dozens of DIY devices and systems along these lines, many of them costing less than $30 apiece. (Search for terms like “door sensor smartphone” on Amazon and other shopping sites.) What’s new is that devices originally designed for home security increasingly are being repurposed into aging-in-place tech.
Wearable tech might be on the rise, but not every older person wants to wear one of those “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” buttons. New tech called millimeter-wave radar sensors—mmWave, for short—can alert loved ones when an elderly or frail person falls in the home by analyzing sudden changes in movement…but without any need for a wearable device. It can also alert emergency services and loved ones. Downside: It works only if the fall occurs in the room containing the sensor, which is why many people use multiple sensors throughout the house.
Kami Fall Detect Camera and Kami Home app
Products include Kami Fall Detect Camera, which features both fall detection and a camera that can send images of the room when it detects a fall—it’s appropriate only if the parent considers emergency camera access acceptable ($99 plus $45/month for a subscription)…and Aqara Presence Sensor FP2, which has no camera and no subscription fee ($85.99).
Opening and closing window shades is a simple chore…until it isn’t. Arthritic hands can make operating shades a challenge, as can mobility issues that inhibit the ability to move around a home. RYSE 
is a simple device that attaches to the chain of many types of shades and blinds, then allows the user to open and close them with a smartphone app. And if used together with a smart speaker, RYSE even can be operated via voice commands. It also can be programmed to open and close shades on a schedule—that’s not only a convenience, it creates the impression that someone is home even when they are not…a useful security feature. RYSE costs $149.99 to $199.98 per device.
Every new year brings new innovations in laptops, tablets and TVs—the companies that make these popular items need to keep innovating to convince consumers to upgrade from the versions they already own. Among the latest offerings…
It is no secret that artificial intelligence is among the decade’s biggest tech trends—just ask it. The AI that’s available online is no longer the only option—numerous PCs now include neural processing units (NPUs), which means they have built-in AI capabilities. This offers several advantages over online-accessed AI—it’s somewhat faster…much more private…and accessible for certain uses even when not online. Built-in AI also means you can use AI to examine data that’s stored on your computer—you could ask the AI in your computer to find the digital photo of you with your wife drinking champagne on the beach that’s stored in your computer, for example. Virtually every major PC maker already has AI options on the market—look for Windows PCs that include Copilot+ and Apple’s offering, Apple Intelligence.
The latest laptop batteries can go longer between recharges than their users are likely to go without sleep.
ASUS Zenbook A14 (UX3407)
Several laptops now provide 24 hours of use per charge and one—Asus ZenBook A14—offers 32 hours of battery life. That’s four full eight-hour working days on a single charge. The A14 weighs less than 2.2 pounds, is less than two-thirds of an inch thick and features Copilot+ AI. It costs $1099.99.
Tablets are designed to be portable, but they can’t really be used everywhere—the glare of direct sunlight tends to render their screens virtually useless.
TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus
The new TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus has a solution. At the press of a button, it switches into a display mode that makes the words on the 11-inch screen almost as visible in sunlight as the pages of a book—it’s comparable to “eInk” eReader displays. Pricing was not yet announced as of press time but was expected to be under $250.
TV makers have a problem—most consumers are perfectly happy with their current TVs and see no reason to upgrade. The manufacturers’ response has been to offer absurdly large TVs for not-absurd prices—TVs as big as 85 to 100 inches are no longer astronomically expensive. Most major TV brands have joined this trend, including Samsung, LG and TCL, but Hisense is arguably leading the way—its 100-inch TVs tend to have list prices of around $3,000, but many can be found for $1,600 to $1,800.
LG Signature T 77-inch OLED
Meanwhile, 85- and 86-inch TVs from many manufacturers now sell for around $800. Also: If you like your TVs big but unobtrusive, there’s the LG Signature T 77-inch OLED, which transforms into a transparent window when turned off, eliminating that big black rectangle that dominates many living rooms.
