Attending CES for my second year gave me a completely different outlook on the experience. Not only was I less interested in walking around the major company’s booths to see them talk about the same stuff they were marketing last year, I also noticed some trends that I’m hoping will go away. As I will say in my conclusion, I am a huge fan of new tech and usually want to own the latest products. Some stuff, however, was too silly even for me. It was also too silly not to share with you.
Smart Pet Tech
We have had tech for our pets for quite a while now. Microchips identify our dogs and their owners and can help us locate them when they’re lost. Many products have come out that allow us to keep our pets fed without actually having to remember to put food in a bowl more than once or twice a week. It seems, however, that some of the latest pet tech exists just to hop on the trend train. Especially the trend of calling your product smart.
Dogness JS04 is a smart dog leash. Yep, a retractable dog leash that apparently has enough tech in it to be called “smart.” Truthfully, all this leash does is allow you to connect a speaker, a light, or a container for your poop bag. Other pet tech gave you useful tools like a self cleaning litter box, doggie doors that only open for your dog, and even an indoor doggie toilet. Much of the pet tech, however, was just created to sell something that they could call smart.
Companion Robots
Apparently you need a robot companion. Not only do you need one, so do your kids. The CES show floor was loaded with small robots for your kids and many of them were simply plush toys with a built in screen and/or voice assistant. Some companion robots will tell you stories, some help translate languages, many of them dance, and even more can be used to control the smart devices in your home. Most of these companions require you to look at or even touch the screen on their face to use them and only a couple had any parental screen time control built in.
My question is why do my kids need a robot as a companion? I have four children, the one thing they do not need is another companion. While I guess an expensive stuffed animal with a voice assistant in it is still cheaper than having more kids, can this toy with cheap artificial intelligence actually be a friend to my child? Maybe it can help my kid learn some things, maybe it can be fun, but in reality it’s never going to be more than a toy, is it? The people developing these robots speak of them like they’re the new pet. Like your family is going to buy, name, and care for a stuffed animal robot like it does your dog Fifi…I don’t think so.
Voice Assistant Bathroom
Haven’t you ever just walked into your bathroom and wished you could tell your toilet seat to open and it does what you say? Remember the last time to went to the bathroom and just wished the inside of your shower or toilet would glow with green LEDs? No? I haven’t wished any of these things either but apparently CES isn’t about giving people what they wish they had but for showcasing things that people will assume they need since it’s a thing now. I understand that for someone who physically can’t bend down and lift a toilet seat, this product is a game changer. That’s awesome! My point is that they aren’t branding and marketing this tech as health products, this is considered high end technology for your home. I’m sure many will consider it just that and buy a glowing toilet so they can impress their friends at their next cocktail party.
Foldable Smartphones
Some products come out because the technology required to make the product is just so darn cool. The foldable phone is one such product. OLED screens are super duper thin and can work while rolled, folded, and bent. They’re being put into televisions and wall hangings and even entertainment centers in which the tv screen rolls up inside the table and then rises at the flip of a switch. As I played with a couple of foldable screens at CES I saw some neat uses for them. I wasn’t impressed with the foldable phone though. The features were pretty neat I guess but I’m just not interested in one tech device becoming all of my tech devices rolled (literally) into one package. If I have a tablet and a phone and a laptop I use them for different things and want them to be different things. I don’t need my tablet to fold down into a phone or vice versa. I truly think this trend is exactly that, trendy, and I don’t think we’ll be talking about foldable phones in five years.
I Still Love New Tech
Some of the trends you see at a trade show like CES are ridiculous but the cream truly rises to the top. The market tends to balance out and eliminate products that are too silly to survive. I couldn’t help but laugh, though, as I walked the show floor and looked at the majority of the booths selling smart versions of things that don’t really need to be “smart.” It was entertaining to see products that were mind bogglingly new at last year’s CES be basically copied and rebranded by other, smaller companies. That’s the way things work, I get it, but I see why some tech writers only cover CES every other year.
What tech trends do you think are silly? What are interesting to you? Would you like your toilet to obey your voice commands? Comment below and tell me the reason you think that “smart” product I think is silly would absolutely change your life.
