11 Jan Corporate Apartments are Perfect Testing Grounds for Home Gadgets at CES

By Dennis Clemente

If you ask us, the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show this week should have an actual home demonstration somewhere in, say, Silicon Valley. It would be simultaneous with the Las Vegas-sponsored exhibition, so for those who can’t make the trip to the city can simply go to a house or apartment tripped up with the ultimate in geek gadgetry.

Here’s what we think: The corporate apartment that sponsors this next year in Silicon Valley would be immensely popular, especially if beyond the week-long use of gadgets, they actually add them as amenities to their rental service. It’s the kind of story the media–especially the TV networks and social media, of course, would lap–and it just fits right into the way this tech enclave thrives. Even better, these companies may go beyond letting them use the gadgets for a week but actually have the gadgets find home in apartments for free to test with corporate guests. You can thank us later for the idea — and making this happen in your rental.

Imagine apartments loaded with all the exciting new breakthroughs in home gadgets and who else can appreciate them as early adopters, but those who work at Google, Apple and most of these tech companies and their staffers in the area. You could contest New York and other major cities would equally nerd out on gadgets, of course. But Las Vegas being closer to San Francisco than New York may just make more sense logistically. Think of it as the gadget exhibit or convention coming to your home for a day or two, even permanently.

So to whet your appetite even more, here are 6 2016 CES Home Gadgets ideal for corporate apartments to test with their guests.

1. HDR (high-dynamic range) TVs

   There are so many different type of TVs these days, but we heard HDR TVs, likely to be called Ultra HD Premium. David Pogue of Yahoo Tech gushed over it in his assessment of the show. “Turns out today’s TVs can display only a fraction of the range of colors and brightnesses that our eyes can see. HDR screens can come much closer….Whites are that much brighter, blacks that much blacker, colors that much more varied.”  Netflix, Amazon, and other companies have reportedly indicated that they’ll start producing HDR shows. Pogue mentioned the most probable use of virtual-reality goggles: for games.

2. Cleverpet game for dogs

   Winner of the CES Launchit ShowStoppers Award, it was described by founder Leo Trottier as a games console for dogs. It consists of three flashing lights and a treat dispenser. The dog needs to press the right combination in order to win a treat.  It also carries a microphone and speaker so pet owners can assign their dogs more challenging games. This is perfect for those who live alone but can’t bring their dog to work. It will certainly keep him preoccupied. Now, if you can’t afford to have a dog and you want some company, how about having a robotic dog named CHip by WowWee, which was shown to be able to sit, squat down, dance and make all sorts of dog sounds.

3. Bartesian the Cocktail mixer
   

   Beer and wine are the staple drinks in most parties because you can drink them in no time. With a cocktail mixer, you can have margarita, cosmopolitan and four other ready-to-mix cocktails, so your guests can have more choices. This way you can stay busy gabbing than mixing drinks for them, because they can even do it themselves. This will look good side by side with Nespresso, the coffee-making machine, now in many corporate apartments in Silicon Valley.

4. Hydrao for smarter water use

   Designed to help you use less water, it’s a system that can be fitted to any shower and flashes red upon reaching a certain liter limit. Corporate apartments can already use this to save water. Hydrao is meant to teach us how to limit water use and still enjoy our showers.

5. Marathon Laundry Machine for cost-efficient laundry.

   Marathon washes and dries your clothes and uses concurrent data streams to minimize its energy impact and costs, optimize component life, and learn over time to become more efficient and helpful to the user. In a nutshell, it learns the best time to do your dirty laundry. How? Wi-Fi enabled, it reportedly uses uses algorithms/AI and sensors to learn about its users’ habits, preferences and environment. It uses data to deliver cycle and scheduling recommendations, timing and energy efficiencies and the ability to use your history for future improvement. It could be cost-efficient for corporate apartments to have.

6. The Bonjour Alarm Clock

   From France this voice-controlled, this Internet-enabled alarm clock can be programmed to wake you up with set controls and can alert you if your home security system (presumably installed) detects an intruder. Also, it tells you the weather, reads your latest social media messages, anything else you need to start your day–in English, of course.

Some of these home gadgets are not available for purchase yet but it’d be great to see them go under the scrutiny of guests in some corporate apartments. So which one is your favorite?