<div>At the International CES, tens of thousands of gadgets from thousands of manufacturers are on display. And yet, each year, a few rise to the surface.<br /><br />At CES 2015, some were startling, like Sharp’s Beyond 4K television, which borders on exceptional 8K (ulta high-definition) resolution. Some were laughable yet intriguing, like Belty, a so-called smart belt that automatically expands and contracts itself as your waist requires. A few others stuck out.<br /><br />Withings Activité Pop<br />As we await the arrival of the Apple Watch, manufacturers are rushing to refine their smartwatches and activity trackers. The French electronics maker Withings released a new smartwatch called the Activité Pop that grabbed attention for its looks, simple features, waterproof design and astounding eight-month battery life. It also has an appealing price: just $150 (Rs 9,480).<br /><br />The Pop, Withings said, is meant to be a more mass-market tracker, and although it does nothing more than track your daily movements (via a small dial on the watch face that runs from 0 to 100), the company said it believed activity was a fundamental component of health. After wearing the Pop for a few days, I found it lightweight and comfortable as well as attractive as a timepiece, and I appreciated the at-a-glance activity updates. The accompanying app is fairly bare bones, although it can synchronise with MyFitness Pal if you count your own calories. <br /><br />Misfit Bolt<br />A company better known for its wearable technology jumped on the smart home trend at CES, introducing a smart light bulb. <br /><br />And while many companies sketched a vision of a smart home that could be controlled or monitored using a smartwatch or other mobile device, Misfit brought more of the pieces together with the Bolt, a Wi-Fi-connected, colour-changing light bulb.<br /><br />The Bolt is a competitor to the Philips Hue connected bulb system, but far cheaper at $50 (Rs 3,160) a bulb or $130 (Rs 8,216) for three. It doesn’t require you to plug in a hub for wireless control. Connected bulbs let you control their colours - depending on your mood - using smartphone apps. <br /><br />It would seem that, after smart TVs and connected thermostats, light bulbs are an increasingly popular connected home gadget. Qualcomm also announced what it called easy-to-use blueprints so any company can create Internet-connected LED bulbs.<br /><br />Parrot Pot<br />File this under laughable at first, but brilliant on second notice. The obviously named Pot, by the French electronics maker better known for its drones is a Bluetooth-connected flower pot that can sense the water level in a plant, then automatically water it from a reservoir on the side of the pot.<br /><br />You use the Pot’s accompanying app to specify what kind of plant you have, so the watering decisions are personalised to the plant, so to speak, and you don’t waste water. It features a two-liter reservoir, which Parrot says can keep a plant watered and healthy for about a month. Parrot calls the Pot the “most advanced connected plant pot,” a claim I would be hard-pressed to dispute.<br /><br />Parrot also announced the Flower Power H2O, a sensor and irrigation system that you can put into your own flower pots to make them “smart.” You can attach your own water bottle to the irrigation system and get the same monitoring and watering as with the Pot.<br /><br />With both devices, a free app for Android or iOS will give you advice about your plant care and, if you haven’t attached a water bottle to the H20, the app will let you know if your plants are thirsty or otherwise suffering. Pricing has not been announced.<br /><br />And while the idea of a smart flower pot might have seemed trivial, the ability to keep plants alive with minimal work and updates about their health is, judging from the crowds around the Pot, tech most people can use.<br /><br /><br /></div>
<div>At the International CES, tens of thousands of gadgets from thousands of manufacturers are on display. And yet, each year, a few rise to the surface.<br /><br />At CES 2015, some were startling, like Sharp’s Beyond 4K television, which borders on exceptional 8K (ulta high-definition) resolution. Some were laughable yet intriguing, like Belty, a so-called smart belt that automatically expands and contracts itself as your waist requires. A few others stuck out.<br /><br />Withings Activité Pop<br />As we await the arrival of the Apple Watch, manufacturers are rushing to refine their smartwatches and activity trackers. The French electronics maker Withings released a new smartwatch called the Activité Pop that grabbed attention for its looks, simple features, waterproof design and astounding eight-month battery life. It also has an appealing price: just $150 (Rs 9,480).<br /><br />The Pop, Withings said, is meant to be a more mass-market tracker, and although it does nothing more than track your daily movements (via a small dial on the watch face that runs from 0 to 100), the company said it believed activity was a fundamental component of health. After wearing the Pop for a few days, I found it lightweight and comfortable as well as attractive as a timepiece, and I appreciated the at-a-glance activity updates. The accompanying app is fairly bare bones, although it can synchronise with MyFitness Pal if you count your own calories. <br /><br />Misfit Bolt<br />A company better known for its wearable technology jumped on the smart home trend at CES, introducing a smart light bulb. <br /><br />And while many companies sketched a vision of a smart home that could be controlled or monitored using a smartwatch or other mobile device, Misfit brought more of the pieces together with the Bolt, a Wi-Fi-connected, colour-changing light bulb.<br /><br />The Bolt is a competitor to the Philips Hue connected bulb system, but far cheaper at $50 (Rs 3,160) a bulb or $130 (Rs 8,216) for three. It doesn’t require you to plug in a hub for wireless control. Connected bulbs let you control their colours - depending on your mood - using smartphone apps. <br /><br />It would seem that, after smart TVs and connected thermostats, light bulbs are an increasingly popular connected home gadget. Qualcomm also announced what it called easy-to-use blueprints so any company can create Internet-connected LED bulbs.<br /><br />Parrot Pot<br />File this under laughable at first, but brilliant on second notice. The obviously named Pot, by the French electronics maker better known for its drones is a Bluetooth-connected flower pot that can sense the water level in a plant, then automatically water it from a reservoir on the side of the pot.<br /><br />You use the Pot’s accompanying app to specify what kind of plant you have, so the watering decisions are personalised to the plant, so to speak, and you don’t waste water. It features a two-liter reservoir, which Parrot says can keep a plant watered and healthy for about a month. Parrot calls the Pot the “most advanced connected plant pot,” a claim I would be hard-pressed to dispute.<br /><br />Parrot also announced the Flower Power H2O, a sensor and irrigation system that you can put into your own flower pots to make them “smart.” You can attach your own water bottle to the irrigation system and get the same monitoring and watering as with the Pot.<br /><br />With both devices, a free app for Android or iOS will give you advice about your plant care and, if you haven’t attached a water bottle to the H20, the app will let you know if your plants are thirsty or otherwise suffering. Pricing has not been announced.<br /><br />And while the idea of a smart flower pot might have seemed trivial, the ability to keep plants alive with minimal work and updates about their health is, judging from the crowds around the Pot, tech most people can use.<br /><br /><br /></div>