Who can afford to keep up with the relentless pace of new technology? Change is constant. No matter how cutting edge you feel, that device you just bought will be obsolete soon. But we don’t have to throw out the old to welcome the new. There are always gadgets ready to bridge the gap for us and deliver shiny new smart features to our rapidly aging devices, like how Chromecast brought “Smart” to older TVs.
There were a lot of devices on show at CES 2015 designed to breathe new life into dated tech. So before you drop a fortune on the latest and greatest, or pull the trigger on an expensive new system installation, why not see if you can squeeze another few months or years out of what you have with one of these gizmos?
Invoxia Triby
You can drag any old fridge into the 21st century with this gadget. It’s the ultimate fridge magnet. The Triby combines a wireless speaker, with a doodle pad, and it’s capable of direct calls. It hooks up to your smartphone via an Android or iOS app. There are two buttons for direct calls to phones with the app installed, perfect for kids to call their parents.
It also sports a 2.9-inch E Ink display for doodles or notes sent from your smartphone. It employs Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so you can stream music from your phone, or use it as a hands-free speaker for calls, and you can access Internet radio on it directly. It’s supposed to last a month between charges, though that will depend on how often you hang out round the fridge and use it.
The Invoxia Triby goes on sale for $200 this summer.
Sony SmartEyeglass Attach
By offering a module that clips onto any pair of glasses Sony neatly sidesteps the fashion issue and caters for glasses wearers interested in smart eyewear. It’s a single lens display module that adds a tiny color OLED display with a 640 x 400 pixel resolution, and a camera to your glasses.
It’s being pitched as a sports device to begin with. As an example it might help with navigation for runners or tell a golfer what the distance to the next hole is, though it sadly lacks built-in GPS. In fact it has to be tethered to your smartphone via Bluetooth. It is waterproof and it weighs about 40g, but it’s still a prototype right now so there’s no release or pricing information.
LoopPay phone cases and covers
Mobile payments have been on the verge of take-off for a few years now, but there are lots of competing services out there and not every retailer has upgraded their point of sale system to accommodate them. LoopPay is a smart solution that works with legacy terminals, the kind you use plastic with every day, by allowing you to emulate a card swipe with your phone. That means it works at nearly 90 percent of merchant locations today.
You don’t need to worry about a new smartphone that supports the system because LoopPay is partnering with case maker Trident, and XPAL Power, which will manufacture replacement back covers starting with the Galaxy S5. The idea is that you can digitize all your existing credit cards and pay with your phone instead. The LoopPay case for the iPhone 6 lands in February and it costs $60. More cases and covers will follow throughout the year.
Cycliq bike cams
The Fly6 and Fly12 are a pair of bicycle cameras and lights. The Fly6 clips onto the back of any bike and emits 30 lumens of light while recording up to six hours of 720p video. The Fly12 is more powerful, clipping to the front of any bike and offering a 200 lumen (pretty bright) light and up to five hours of 1080p video from a single charge. Both the video recorders automatically loop to keep recording.
They hook up to your smartphone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and they can be used in combination with the Strava app to track things like distance and elevation. In the event of a crash they automatically save recent footage. Unfortunately they aren’t cheap: for $250 you can buy the Fly6 now and we fully expect the Fly12 will be even more expensive.
Parrot RNB6
The average American keeps their car for more than 10 years. In tech terms a decade is a very long time, but you’re not going to snag a new car just to update that woeful infotainment system. Enter Parrot with a superbly practical solution. The RNB6 has a 7-inch touchscreen and it can plug into your existing car features, from on-board diagnostics to parking assistance to basic navigation.
Even better, it’s platform agnostic, so it works with Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay for hands-free calls, voice activated apps, navigation, and driving assistance. It also has a wide-angle 1080p dash cam and an audio amplifier built-in. The price and release date are sadly still a mystery, but you can bet it will be cheaper than a new car.
Connected Cycle Pedal
Here’s another route to making your bicycle smart. The Connected Cycle is a pedal that can be fitted to any bike. It automatically records your speed, route, elevation, and the calories you burn every time you go out cycling. It can also be used to find your bike if it ever goes missing. You can access the bike location and your statistics using the Connected Cycle app.
The clever part is that it doesn’t need to sync directly with any other device and it recharges itself as you cycle. There are GPS and GPRS sensors inside and it connects to the Internet directly. It will come with some sort of cellular service included in the price, but we don’t know what that price will be or when it will be available.
Sengled Snap security bulb
If you’ve never come across the concept of a smart bulb before then hold on to your hats. There were a lot of different smart bulbs on show at CES this year. Sengled already offers bulbs to extend your Wi-Fi ($50) and play music ($170), but the new Snap bulb is a security solution all-in-one with a camera, speakers, a microphone, and motion sensors. It also includes a long lasting LED bulb.
You can stream video from the bulb direct to your smartphone and talk to people on the porch. There’s a facial recognition feature, presumably so it can distinguish between a human guest and next door’s cat. You can also program geofencing alerts to stop your kids from escaping. Upgrade your humble light bulb and get a complete security system without the installation pain.
Lenovo Vibe Xtension Selfie Flash
You’re probably not about to buy a new smartphone because your current model lacks a front-facing flash for selfies, but if that is a problem for you, Lenovo is ready to solve it. The Vibe Xtension selfie flash plugs into your headphone jack and can swivel to provide continuous light (not a flash) for great photographs even in dark places.
It’s not just for selfies either. You can also swivel it around to provide more light for your main camera. Toward summer time, Lenovo will sell the selfie flash on its website for $30.
Kidde RemoteLync
If you’ve wistfully eyed the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector, but you’re turned off by the hassle of fitting it, you may be interested in this doodad. Plug it into any outlet and it will monitor your existing detectors and notify you via an Android or iOS app when one of them goes off. It can be configured to notify a group of people or even call 911 for you.
It’s set for a spring release and it will cost $100. That’s the same price as the Nest Protect, but you’ll only need one of these and no messy installation is required.
Oort smart socket
If you want to remotely turn on/off any device in your home using your smartphone, this Smart Socket could be the answer. It plugs into any outlet and works via Bluetooth. It allows you to set a schedule for up to a week. It also measures how much power the connected appliance or device drinks, and can even inform you if there’s an overload.
It costs $50 for a Smart Socket. You can gain more insight and control from outside the home if you combine it with the SmartHub, but it costs $180. It lets you trigger actions and works with Oort’s other products, including the SmartFinder ($30), which helps locate anything it’s attached to, and the SmartLED bulb ($40).
If you like the sound of this and you have an iPhone, check out iDevices’ Switch. It’s a similar plug device that you can remote control it using Siri. It doesn’t require a hub to work remotely because it has Wi-Fi built-in, and it will cost $50 when it launches sometime this spring.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of other retro-fit devices out there ready to bring smart features to our everyday tech, and it looks like 2015 will be a banner year for upgrades and add-ons.
It's a brand new year, so why not start it off right by ditching the shackles of old habits and trying some new things to make your tech life easier? We know that old habits die hard and that's why we've also included links to show you how to handle these common practices
1. Using the same passwords for multiple sites
Using the same password on multiple sites is trouble because if any one of those sites is hacked, that information could be used against you in many different places. Yes, it's inconvenient to have multiple passwords if you are relying only on your memory. That's why it's a good idea to give a password manager like LastPass a chance. If you've never tried a password manager, it can store your usernames and passwords for you, it can generate new passwords for you, and is accessible online. Here's our tutorial on how to use LastPass if you're up for a change.
2. Not backing up your photos
I'll never forget the panic of almost losing hundreds of photos of my newborn because I didn't regularly sync my phone to my PC. Nowadays, that is a simple problem to overcome. If your phone is your primary camera (like it is for many), do yourself a favor and download an app that will automatically backup your photos and videos to the cloud.
There are plenty of options out there. If you like Google, you can use either Google+ on iOS or the Photos app on Android to set up auto backup. Dropbox also offers the same functionality if you turn on the camera upload option. If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, you get unlimited storage of your photos as well with the Amazon Cloud Drive app.
3. Not minding your Facebook settings
It's easy to visit Facebook, see what your friends are up to, and post your own status updates. However, when was the last time you took a look to see what content you were posting and who could see it? Diving into those Facebook settings can seem like a nightmare, but we've got a great article on how to secure your Facebook account that you should take a look at.
4. Running Flash all the time on your laptop
We are all fans of running online video on our computers, but sometimes Flash can cause your computers fans to spin up to try to cool down your PC. You should give up having Flash running all the time. If you're on Google Chrome, try out FlashControl. If you're on Firefox, try out FlashBlock. By default, these plugins will not load Flash content on a page unless you put a site on a whitelist or if you click the Flash item to load it. You'd be surprised how much battery life you can save if you turn off Flash on a number of sites. Be warned that the web might look very different to you at first, but it's definitely worth it. If you want to squeeze more battery life out of your laptop or phones, check out our guide on battery life and how to preserve it.
Bonus for Android users: Accepting your phone's default interface.
If you're like the majority of people who use Android smartphones, you may just enjoy all the great apps on your phone. But, did you know that you can change the entire way your phone presents your apps and widgets? Manufacturers like Samsung, HTC and LG all put their spin on Android with their own customizations. However, you can modify your phone by trying any number of launchers. If you've never heard of a launcher, here's everything you need to know about Android launchers. Installing one is as easy as installing any other app and you can always go back to your phone's default if you so choose.
Technology and innovation can be frustrating to watch in action. That’s because there usually isn’t much action — just incremental change with occasional flashes of brilliance.
But the only way to truly understand what’s happening and why is to keep watching. Breakthroughs from years ago are finally leading to real products and services today. Others are inching forward with the promise of big changes in 2015 and beyond.
Of course, you have to know where to look. These are the tech trends that will matter in 2015.
1. Big Data gets to work
I suspect by now you’re getting tired about hearing about Big Data, but ignoring this number-crunching wave would be a mistake. First of all, we’re generating and gathering data at an insane pace. In 2010 Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said the world generates 5 exabytes of data every two days. It’s likely double that number by now.
We’re not just generating data; we’re capturing it at an unprecedented rate, first through web sites and now more frequently through mobile apps and sensors we'll wear with increasing regularity in 2015.
Next year, companies such as Intel and IBM will turn all that data into powerful decision-making tools. IBM in particular will further expand the supercomputer Watson’s reach and introduce cognitive computing for every industry that has data to share. If you thought cognitive cooking was cool, wait until you see what IBM can do with Twitter's data and what Watson can do for cancer.
As for Intel, the company is working on building the hardware and platforms necessary for companies to bring Big Data processing inside. Instead of making decisions based on a broad understanding of market trends and customer interests (and intuition), companies will, in 2015, increasingly rely on hard numbers to propel new products and services.
2. Artificial intelligence
All that data is leading to a revolution in artificial intelligence. Microsoft, for example, is using machine learning to analyze speech and conversation so its new Skype Translator can not only perform real-time, bidirectional translation, but can even mimic the tone of speech so it makes sense in another language. However, that kind of AI is more a product of brute-force computing, and doesn’t exactly mimic how real, or perhaps human intelligence works.
This year we saw a computer program named Eugene Groostman "beat" the Turing test. That means we now have programming capable of fooling people into thinking they're talking to another person. The future is not about fooling anyone, though — it's about building human-like thought in silicon.
Software and hardware that can learn and think as we do is on the horizon. In 2015, pay close attention to the work of Google’s Demis Hassabis. He’s trying to “solve intelligence,” and his company, DeepMind, is working on recreating — or at least mimicking — how human neurons work in silicon and code.
Depending on how far he gets, we could see some interesting changes in Google services and, later, software and robots that make new connections based on learning.
3. Robots with us
I wish I could tell you our robot overlords will finally arrive in 2015, but C-3PO-style humanoid robots are still decades away. That's not to say we won’t see some pretty impressive stuff in the intervening years. Next year, robots will move next to us on the assembly line and go off road and up hills.
Most of the experts I’ve talked to point to robot innovations such as Rethink Robot’s Baxter and Universal Robots. Both stand out because they can work in close proximity to humans without harming them.
“In 2015, we’ll see this have more of an impact on manufacturing,” said Professor Julie A. Shah, who leads the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She noted this growing confidence in robots on the factory floor will lead to them working in concert with humans. Right now, most factory robots work in highly-controlled environments, with humans a safe distance away.
Amazon is actually on the leading edge of this change with a combination of the fenced-off Robo-Stow robot arms, which pick things off shelves, and mobile Kiva robots that move things about the factory floor and even deliver them to workers who pick them off the robot's mobile shelves.
Shah said factories will continue to look at how smarter, safer robots can assist in commercial appliance and auto manufacturing.
factories will continue to look at how smarter, safer robots can assist in commercial appliance and auto manufacturing. “It’s still done more by people today, so a real challenge for robotics,” she said.
Outside the factory, personal robots like Jibo and Pepper may finally make it into consumer homes in 2015, but their long-term future remains unclear.
Like most years, 2015 will be filled with smaller robot breakthroughs that focus on two critical areas: manipulation and locomotion. Companies like iRobot and researchers at DARPA and MIT are increasingly focusing on teaching robots how to move and work as well as humans.
“In 2015, we’re going to see a lot more robots moving around,” said MIT Professor Sangbae Kim. He should know, his free-running Cheetah robot recently caused a sensation.
Kim, though, thinks people may have missed the point of his robot. It was not about going fast (which it did not). “What’s really distinguishing our robot compared to driverless car [is] we can go everywhere a human can go. Cars can only go where the roads are,” he said.
Kim told me he also expects to see a lot more breakthroughs in robots’ manipulation capabilities.
4. Nanotech and material sciences
2014 saw numerous nanotechnology breakthroughs like nano cages that could deliver cancer-killing medicine at a molecular-level, and metamaterials that can deform to hide objects from human touch.
When I spoke to Biomedical Engineering Post Doctoral Associate Sissel Juul, Ph.D., earlier this year about her work on DNA Nanobots, she told me, “We will see commercial targeted non-viral drug delivery soon.”
Of course, that “soon” is predicated on the speed of clinical trials and FDA approvals. Even so, expect more DNA-level eureka moments and, just maybe, some real-world applications in 2015.
Nano technology is also propelling material sciences, everything from waterproofing phones to smarter fabrics. It could also mean some new materials in 2015. Next year, there will even be a conference in Korea devoted to smart materials. Expect a few interesting announcements to come out of that.
5. Batteries and no more wires
For most consumer electronics manufacturers, the way to deal with the limits of lithium-ion battery technology — which is in use in virtually all pocketable gadgets — is to build bigger batteries. Sure Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD and Texas Instruments are building ever-more-efficient mobile CPUs, but nothing seems to change how much power we can store and draw from these batteries.
New chemical science could lead to breakthroughs in 2015. Earlier this year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology reported that its scientists are developing batteries based on a sodium-based, complex metal hydride. It could lead to cheaper, more stable and more powerful mobile battery power. Applied Materials is working on advancing solid-state battery technology, which can hold more power than traditional lithium ion, with a much more affordable manufacturing methodology.
It's unlikely we'll see actual products using new battery technology (look at how fuel cells have sputtered), but mobile power packs based on new battery science are a distinct possibility.
While we wait for better batteries to come along, wireless charging is sure to come of age in 2015. There are both conductive and inductive options available and many of today’s phones already have wireless-charging technology inside. Intel is actually working on wireless charging based on magnetic resonance technology. We just need more wireless charging gadgets, stations and counters, all of which will probably flood the market in 2015.
6. Flexible displays
We’re finally seeing curved screens in products like LG’s curved HDTV and Samsung’s Gear Fitand even a flexible HDTV (it finally went on sale in Korea in August). Thin, flexible displays have, however, remained something of a pipe dream.
There is hope, though, that 2015 could mark the start of the consumer-grade flexible display market. An Intel spokesperson told me the company is working on shrinking components and removing wires through WiDi (wireless display) technologies and Gorilla Glass maker Corning has strong and very flexible glass ready to go.
I’m betting that we see some unique product developments around flexible displays in 2015.
These six areas represent the highlights and potentially heaviest concentration of development in the new year, but there will be others worth watching, like the rapid expansion of biometric password tools, smart home and Internet of things, sensors, and, of course, wearable technology.
