[Estimated read time: 6 minutes]
If you work in Tech, even closely related, then chances are you’ve heard of the Consumer Electronics Show (as known as CES). Heck, you most likely are in Las Vegas yourself as we speak, amongst 170,000 attendees dying to discover the latest trends in technology.
photo credits: CES 2015
For the dozen of you not familiar with the Show, every year since 1967, in January, CES hosts new product releases and announcement for the world to see. Many products -that since became legendary- have debuted at CES (Camrecorder, CD player, Mini Disc, the Xbox, Plasma TV, tablets, etc.).
Well this year, our CEO Kevin and our CTO Alexis formed an unlikely duo and travelled from San Francisco to Las Vegas to discover what 2016 had to offer. Let us just say that the first day did not fail to make an impression. Here is a list of 10 startups, and their specific new releases, that specifically caught their expert eyes.
Netatmo
Security being one of the all time hot topics, Netatmo introduces Presence, an outdoor security camera with people, car and animal detection.
Presence also reports in real-time any (suspicious?) activity going on around your home. A fantastic way to prevent damage or break-ins, day and night. Plus, you get to live stream your home from any device, and store the footage for free on a personal FTP, which is cool.
Withings
Withings isn’t exactly a newcomer to the tech world. If you’ve been paying attention to the IoT world in the last few years, you’ve heard of them (not to mention, it’s a french company #camembert).Thankfully, withings never ceases to innovate, releasing now Thermo, a thermometer both accurate and comfortable to use (I mean, come one, that HAS to be a world first).
Smarthalo
Smarthalo’s mission is pretty clear: turning any bike into a smart bike, with the tactical help of your smartphone.
Its GPS finds the quickest route, as the hardware shows you how and when to turn (or, actually as the crow flies, if you prefer). It reminds you where you’ve parked your bike. It also tracks cycling metrics, helps you to lose the Christmas muffin top by setting fitness goals. God, I had no idea I needed this that bad.
Seven Hugs
Connected home have been another hot topic as of late. With all the home IoT product releases we’ve seen (or missed) it’s a good thing that Seven Hugs smart remote lets you control all your connected devices at home with one piece of item.
The remote does not only recognizes where you are pointing at, but also adapts its screen and interface to the pointed object. Oh, did I mention everything is customizable?
Brewie
Ok guys, real talk now. This is by far our absolute favourite of all innovations presented in this article.
Brewie is self cleaning, fully automated, 60 pound piece of awesomeness that homebrews beer. Fast. We are talking 20 liters in 8 hours. Mind blown yet? it doesn’t even begin to describe how amazing this wifi connected, 1GHz processor, touch screen magical machine really is. You can chose from +200 beer recipes, and have fun with 23 parameters. Basically, better tasting, less expensive beer. At the end of the day, isn’t it what all the world really needs? Needless to say, brewie is #UpfluenceApproved #WhatATimeToBeAlive
Mother
Like every mother she has children. Very smart ones, that are able to track and record pretty much anything : where your keys are, when you children get back from school, what the temperature is in your bedroom. They are all connected to their (swedish) mother that tells you everything about her little family thanks to a variety of apps : walk, medication, sleep… Design is great and the amount of practical applications is impressive. IoT at the next level.
Invoxia
Invoxia, another wonderful high-tech french company (#CestLaVie) introduced Triby. It is a revolutionary connected speaker bringing families together through music and communication.
Equipped with great speakers, Triby plays music from Spotify, gives you the chance to send Doodles to the family, and even Bluetooth hands free mobile phone calls so everyone in the family can contribute to the conversation. Take that, Amazon Echo.
Prynt
What if I told you Prynt could print videos, using no ink cartridges, directly from your smartphone. The future is now, my friend! By plugging a cool case to your iPhone 5/6 or Galaxy S4/S5, you can snap pictures and print them straight away on polaroid like pictures in a matter of seconds. How about videos you ask? Well, here’s how it works: you take a photo with Prynt, and the app embeds a hidden video in it, to be viewed by snapping the app to the picture. A creative new way to share with your friends
3D Sounds Lab
A 3D audio headset. That’s how cool 3D sound Lab is. The headset features head tracking, simulate spatially the sound around you thanks to motion sensors with unprecedented realism. Lose yourself into a multitude of surrounding sound sources adapting to the least of your movements. You’re totally immersed in your activity (video games, movies). Dive into the audio scene. Yet, it can be used at your everyday headphones.
Hydrao
Photo credits: Wired
Let’s talk about saving our planet. While having a shower. Hydrao helps you to know how much water you consume by colouring the shower head. Like Star Wars, green is good and flashing red makes you a bad guy. And unlike Star Wars, you can track and record how good and bad you are. And I forgot to say that the light is powered by water flow. Smart shower is getting real.
