A recent story in WSJ about how
annoyance drives some household innovation was worth a read. It re-describes the Nest Thermostat, which I
have blogged about before. And talks about other worthy
items to remove stress from life (if you are a techie, and have spendable
cash):
The next annoyance remover product is a smoke
detector, with museum good looks, innovative working ideas, and, sadly, a $129
price tag. But here is what it does
better:
1.
probably has a 10
year battery
2.
looks pretty good
3.
if you put 4 in
your house, they can talk to one another and so if one goes off in one room,
the other 3 will also go off.
4.
false alarm? You wave your hand and it sees that, and
stops the alarm sound. No finding a
ladder and so on.
5.
if the battery is
low, it tells you, maybe in plain English
6.
if there is a
fire in one room, perhaps the other 3 units will speak something like “fire in bedroom” – I am not sure.
The article mentions paying
for things with smart phones (see my
post earlier today) and I see that coming rapidly. Why?
Because for the first time ever, most everyone has a $600 (list price)
phone-computer in their pocket and thus can communicate with their money and
vice versa. Think about paying small bills, like a food-truck meal (no land
line in the truck) or other vendor wirelessly.
Credit cards might someday look as obsolete as the “pagers” of the 1970’s
and 80’s . And to think I was impressed
with my first pager and used it a good bit. Same with my first bag phone.
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