8th Annual Gadgets Program: What's Hot and What's Not in Consumer Technology
Churchill Club’s 8th Annual Gadgets Program: “What's Hot and What's Not in Consumer Technology” at Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto this past Tuesday helped us evaluate the usefulness of things before we click “Buy”. It showcased some cool gizmos the tech world has conjured up this season for consumers, and helped those of us who are composing our wish lists for self and gift lists for loved ones, to jazz up our lists.
The gizmo gurus on stage were: Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor at AllThingsD.com; John Lilly, Partner at Greylock Partners, former CEO of Mozilla; Reid Hoffman, Partner at Greylock Partners; Walt Mossberg, Columnist at the Wall Street Journal; and Greg Harper, President at Harpervision Associates.
Kara, John, and Reid each presented 5-6 gizmos and Greg pulled out 20-25 gadgets from his magic hat.. er.. jacket. The gadgets ranged from $1 all the way to $1200. They were a mix of toys, digital media apps, cameras, music machines, and accessories most people were seeing for the first time. Toys remote controlled by smart phones, next gen digital cameras, and quantified self apps were common highlights among the presenters.
A full list of all gadgets presented by the gizmo gurus is below.
Written by: Ritu Malhotra
Thank you to the sponsors of the 8th Annual Gadgets Program: Plantronics and Speck Products!
Photo credit: Ed Jay Photography
Kara Swisher: have a ball – a Sphero ball
Sphero is a translucent white ball with a light inside it. It is controlled by an iPhone app. You can ask questions in the app and you get the response from the ball – which flashes green and red, for yes and no
Goop is a website setup by Gwyneth Paltrow on the scoop of the day
Angry Birds Bag
Touchfire is a tactile keyboard that fits right on top of the virtual on screen tablet keyboard. Touchfire has $150,000 crowd source commitments
Rat lights in different colors that glow on your fingers, $1 each
Hat with a bat mascot goes with the rat lights
Instagram is a digital photo app that you can use to send a picture message to your friends
Hipswap is an e-commerce photo app that you can use to post photos and prices of items you have for sale, and get bids on them
John Lilly: how to build a circuit board before you learn to read – Little Bits
Little Bits is a circuit board assembly kit for 6 year olds that retails for $89. Each time you connect a component correctly it lights up. The setup includes a finger sensor and buzzer
Ness is the iPod of thermostats. It learns your living pattern, knows when you are saving energy, and can tell how many minutes it will take to get the temperature you want. It is currently in alpha mode and has some issues like, installation is not easy and you may need to pay for someone to set it up. It does not know whether you are home or not, so it may be over controlling the temperature when it is not required.
NEX 5 is a high quality camera which is lightweight and retails for $699 with the 18-55 and $599 without. You can focus and view the image simultaneously. The NEX 7 is the higher end version and has a 7 mega pixel sensor.
Up is a “quantified self” application like Fitbit Ultra. It has an open model so you can collect all kinds of data about yourself and use it later. Some of them were recalled by Javon however the one on stage worked just fine.
Reid Hoffman: snap now, focus later – Lytro light field camera
Lytro is the next generation of camera that captures the full light field of its vision when you take a picture. Using the Lytro app you can change the focus on different subjects in the “photograph”. You can also convert it from a plain two dimensional image to a three dimensional image. I talked to xyz who is a Director of Photography at Lytro, and he explained how Lytro works efficiently to record and interpret light paths efficiently and manages to record one picture with approx 16MB, much lower than a more simplistic implementation might do. $799 for the demo model and $399 for another model.
Yama is a coffee maker .. no .. coffee syphon that will satisfy anyone who used to do chemistry labs in their spare time, and are sentimental enough about it to pay $80 for the syphon which may or may not work as efficiently as the Braun or Gevalia in everyone else’s kitchen. For those who value the experience even more – you can spend $300 on the higher end Kona
Romotive is a $100 chassis which is remote controlled by a smart phone app. This is the kind of innovative toy that will make you buy an iPhone for your 3 year old.
Projected keyboard has optical sensors so you don’t need to use the on screen keyboard and can dispense with the load of a physical keyboard. Works best on a metallic surface
Flying shark is a flying balloon toy that you can remote control using a smart phone app
Capacitive gloves allow you to use your touch screen device without having to take off the gloves when it’s cold
Fitbit ultra is the quantified self application you can use to record your fitness and daily activity data and store it historically. It has an open API / ecosystem
Walt Mossberg: untangle your ear buds and zip up your quality of life
Sol Republic Ear Buds are tangle resistant and retail for $100
Zipbuds Ear Buds don’t tangle because they zip and up-zip for your use. Retails for $40
Intoxicase is an iPhone case with a built in beer bottle opener. It comes with an Intoxicase App that tracks your count and gallons of beer consumed
Lenovo U300S Ultrabook Copper is the PC answer to Mac Book Air. It has a 13” screen, and at under 3 lb it is lighter than Mac Book Air. It has a solid state drive instead of a hard disk, and sells for around $1000, which is cheaper than the $1299-1399 that the Mac Book Air sells for. It has an Intel Core 5i processor
Airstash is a wireless USB drive that is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and Android. It acts as an automatic wifi router and streams data over wifi to the devices you want. Using Airstash you can stream photos and movies at super speed to your devices
Greg Harper: bloom music in your Sony NS 500 vase
Sony NS 500 is a concert quality sound speaker system in the shape of a vase that works with DLNA compatible devices. The large version is listed at $400 and is available at $250 at a discount. It may be a bit more difficult to use with AirPlay than with other devices
Qumi is a pocket projector with great brightness. It is HDMI compatible, works with an SD card. It retails for $450 and you can use speakers with it that retail for $150-200
Set of 6 Programmable Game Cubes that are remote controlled by the Siftrunner app. You can program them with word games and other games.
ZipShot folding tripod from Tamrac – convenient for carrying on the plane, sells for $60
GoPro 3D Camera has a suction base that you can do cool things with like stick it on the car front and take pictures in 3D and 2D. It has a viewfinder add on if you need it. Retails for around $200
Contour GPS records exactly where you go in full HD. For example if you were skiing you could stick it on the helmet and see what trail you blazed, at what speed, etc
Sony HDR – TD10 aspires to the gold standard for consumers wanting to record the best video. It has a 3D viewfinder at the back. It can record and playback in 3D and 2D. It is lightweight, has great picture quality and surround-sound. Retails for around $1200
iPhone Holder has a cradle for the iPhone and handles on both sides of it that makes it more stable to hold and play games on. Retails for $30
3D Headset gives you an image equivalent of phenomenal 150” screen. It would be very handy to see Avatar on an airplane if you can figure out a way to convert its voltage supply (maybe you have a personal jet that does it?) You do have to put it over your eyes so you have to not care about strangers thinking you are a bit freaky
Fileton active noise canceling headphones – battery operated
Samsung Blue Ray Player
Titanium Straw to sip in the soda through the movie without mishaps
Canon S100 Camera is terrific with its great performance in low lighting, fast lens, and 5x zoom all in a handy lightweight case. Retails for $400
Owl has a bigger lens that you can overlay on your camera. Makes it easy to hold steady and take great pictures
20 MHz Probe attaches to your iPhone and tells you whether that turkey in the oven is ready for the table
iGrill is also a probe that tells you whether that turkey in the oven is ready for the table
Brookstone Rover is an infrared camera that you would have to find an application for
Dream CheekyArmor is a toy that can be remote controlled by an app called iLaunch
Plantranco is a helium balloon that you can remote control using iPhone
Motorola Monitor is a quantified self kind of application the size of an iPod Nano that remotely records your heart rate, Fit Bit statistics, and chooses music for you based on the current activity you are doing
iCufflinx are cufflinks that pulse with your Apple device
Body Media is a cool gadget that communicates your physiological vital statistics to your TV. But it will stay there for a while – so make sure you erase it if you are using someone else’s TV!
