WiFi 6: What’s the deal?
The Wi-Fi Alliance announced in September that it would start offering WiFi 6 certification to device manufacturers. The main thing you need to know is that WiFi 6 provides much faster speeds than the WiFi we all use right now, reports Mashable. According to CNET’s testing, it can outpace the average download speed in the United States by 1,000 percent. One of the other selling points, per the Wi-Fi Alliance, is that WiFi 6 can perform better in crowded environments (e.g., sports stadiums) where a lot of devices are connected to a single network. One caveat: We’re still in the early stages of WiFi 6 deployment, and devices need to be built with the standard in mind to take advantage of it. Most home networks can’t yet support it. But already, Netgear has produced some WiFi 6-compatible routers.
Pet tech
Interactive toys, automated feeders or fountains, and grooming devices lead the list of pet-tech products purchased by U.S. pet owners, reports Orlando Magazine. About 8 million additional households plan to buy pet tech in 2020, according to the Consumer Technology Association’s 21st annual “Consumer Technology Ownership and Market Potential Study.” That said, many pet owners, despite their reliance on their own Fitbits or Apple Watches, miss out on some of the biggest benefits of pet tech, says Steven Hummel, senior research analyst for the CTA. Although they indicate that “ensuring the well-being of their pets is of paramount importance, it’s unfortunate that pet owners are least aware of the various types of products which do just that. Less than one-fifth of pet owners have heard of devices that monitor a pet’s health and track their fitness, for example.”
Your reputation precedes you
Israel-based Intellithings has brought its “presence sensing technology” to market with RoomMe, a personal location sensor that can identify you when you enter a room and trigger your smart home devices – e.g., smart lights, music, thermostat – to perform based on your personal preferences, reports Digital Trends. The sensor creates a virtual Bluetooth Low Energy curtain at room entrance and tracks smartphones that pass through it, says Intellithings. RoomMe can identify up to 16 individual family members.
Instant photos by (who else?) Polaroid
Polaroid’s new Lab instant photography device creates hard copies of any digital photo on your phone without the need for wires or fiddling with wireless settings, reports Gizmodo. Instead, light from your smartphone’s screen is projected and used to directly expose Polaroid’s instant film. The device – which looks vaguely like Polaroid’s instant cameras – has a platform on which users place their smartphones face down. Inside the Lab, three lenses focus the projected light from the phone’s screen down onto the Polaroid film, which creates the exposure. There are some trade-offs, reports Gizmodo. If you’re hoping for a crisp, 8×10 recreation of a beautiful portrait photo you snapped on your smartphone, this isn’t the solution for you. Polaroid film is still known for its lo-fi aesthetic (which some photographers still prefer), and the analog approach taken here will soften and desaturate images in the process.
Sniffing out diabetes
Diabetes alert dogs are trained to use their acute sense of smell to alert their owners early of a peak or dip in blood sugar before it becomes dangerous. The founders of AerBetic thought up their wearable’s feature set by asking, “How does the diabetes alert dog do it?” reports Consumer Technology Association. AerBetic is a noninvasive wearable diabetes monitor that passively and continuously monitors blood sugar levels, along with a partner app that allows the user to set up alert communications to a network of caregivers or health care providers. To monitor changes in blood sugar levels, the AerBetic wearable uses a nano gas sensor, created by AerNos™, to detect certain gases that humans naturally emit at the ratios and ranges that scientists have identified as early indicators of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia.