Gadgets and gizmos – those are pretty common words these days. Our entire lives revolve around these tiny ingenious devices that make a lot of things we do possible.
A new gadget pops up every other day that solves a different set of unique problems. In this post, we bring you five devices you need to know about, and we might interest you in backing/buying one.
Pix Backpack
Are you tired of your traditional backpack? Want something more visually appealing? Pix is a smart backpack that lets you control its appearance from your smartphone.
Just download the Pix app, create your design or choose from the many premade ones and upload it to the 16×20 LED matrix screen the Pix has at its front!
In addition to being super cool with all its LED glory, Pix is shock and waterproof. You can even play Tetris on it too! It does all that a regular backpack does and beyond.
Pix is currently running its Kickstarter campaign, and the best part about it? At about $150, it justifies the price tag for the level of tech and coolness you get.
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Vector
Vector is a cute little robot that will blow your brain away. It can hear, see, and feel your touches and is aware of its surroundings.
You can chat with it, set up timers, play games, take photos, express the weather, and more. It can also charge itself when it’s low on battery by itself.
The Qualcomm 200 platform powers vector, has an HD Camera with 120° wide FOV, beamforming four-microphone array, infrared laser scanner, 6-axis IMU, high-resolution IPS display and a WiFi connection.
All this tech is crammed into a little frame that is not larger than the palm of your hand. Vector is currently on Kickstarter and will be available for retail sale starting 12th October 2018.
The not-so-steep price of $249 — for a tangible bot that can do all of the aforementioned stuff — makes it more accessible to a broader consumer base as well.
Lumi
In a world where home appliances are getting smarter daily, why should the toilet brush be left behind? Meet Lumi, the self-sanitising toilet brush and base.
As the name suggests, Lumi is an intelligent toilet brush and base system with self-cleaning technology. It’s an innovative base that uses germ-killing UV light to clean your brush.
The concept here is that traditional toilet brushes never really clean anything; they transfer the germs from one place (your toilet bowl) to another (your brush stand), perpetuating the ‘germ cycle’. While you may also clean your brush, you never really kill the bacteria on it.
Lumi, however, recognises when the brush has been kept in the base and then turns on UV lights of wavelengths varying between 180-280 nanometers, causing a germicidal effect on the brush hence cleaning it of any bacteria present.
Peak germicidal effectiveness occurs at 265 nanometers, the UV wavelength of the LEDs used in the LUMI base.
In addition to the UV light and LEDs, the LUMI base has also been coated with reflective aluminium to maximise the effectiveness of the germ-killing light. It offers a heavy-duty build in quite a sleek design.
With germ-killing UV lights, a weighted base with anti-slide grips, and an auto-open/close system, LUMI has solved problems that have been quite a menace for a long time. You can support Lumi on Kickstarter for as low as $40.
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Hidizs AP80
As difficult as it is to pronounce, the Hidizs AP80 is a next-gen ultraportable HiFi music player. It features a headphone jack, FM radio, step counter, a 2.45-inch touchscreen, expandable storage of up to 1TB, and fast USB- Type C charging.
It has an 800 mAh battery, which gives it about 15 hours of playback time or up to 35 days on standby. The DAC chip powering the AP80 is the ESS ES9218P; it has DSD support for DSD 64/128, supports APTX and supports PCM up to 32-bit/384 kHz.
The AP80 runs a custom-made HiBY 3.0 Linux version as its OS, which provides a pleasant and user-friendly interface. The AP80 also offers BLE 4.1 for connecting Bluetooth headphones or speakers.
Regarding formats supported, the AP80 supports most lossless formats, including but not limited to FLAC, APE, WMA, WAV, ALAC, DSF and DFF.
The AP80 is currently campaigning on Kickstarter and will soon be available for retail sale. The expected price is about $115, which seems fair for the amount of tech and the killer design you get.
SPRY
SPRY is a waterproof drone that not only flies but also swims! The Spry can submerge briefly under water, float back to the surface, flip around and fly like a bird.
The interchangeable battery allows it a flight time of up to 17 minutes. It can go as fast as 70 kph with its standard two-blade propellors. By installing three-bladed high-angle propellers, you can go even quicker.
Even the controller is fully waterproof, allowing fishers, surfers and almost anyone to fly without worrying about water or weather conditions.
Other features include GPS tracking, the ability to follow a subject and return to the pilot’s location even if the pilot has moved from the take-off location.
You can also turn off the internal GPS and activate acro mode to go full-out manual and fly the SPRY like a racing drone. In addition to all this awesomeness, the SPRY can transmit its live video feed to multiple displays and goggles, which is a very convenient feature.
SPRY is about to complete its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. If you back this up now, expect it to ship by December this year.
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