5 everyday things that didn’t need a smart version [Native]

The internet of things (IoT) promises all manner of connected devices, but there are some things that don’t need to be connected to the internet or slapped with a chip.

Yep, for every connected TV, printer, light bulb or refrigerator, there are gadgets or appliances that don’t need to be smart in the first place. Here are a few noteworthy examples.

Smart water pitcher

Because even the simple act of consuming water needs to have the “smart” label attached to it. Yes, the Brita smart water pitcher exists.

According to Engadget, the pitcher is equipped with WiFi and automatically orders more filters from Amazon when the current filter is nearing the end of its life. Who knew that a water container needed smart functionality?

Smart bins

Believe it or not, but you actually get smart bins. And the idea isn’t half bad at first glance.

The concept is that municipal bins are fitted with sensors that communicate the volume of rubbish and other info. This is sent to authorities, who can better plan rubbish collection as a result — saving cash and man hours.

That’s the theory, but let’s be honest, leaving rubbish in a bin tends to be a health hazard. Who cares if the rubbish is only a quarter full when there’s old decaying food and waste in there?

Smart toothbrush

We’ve seen several of these revealed in the last year or so, with MWC 2016 playing host to one of these launches as well.

Why would you need a smart toothbrush though? Why, to give you whiter teeth, of course. Or, that’s the first thing I thought of.

In any event, some smart brushes claim to track your brushing habits, telling you when you’ve neglected certain areas, if you’re brushing too hard or urging you to brush for longer. Or you could just get all those areas, go softer and brush longer with a conventional toothbrush.

Smart hairbrush

Another brush enters the fray in the form of a smart hairbrush, with Withings and Kerestase having one of the more prominent efforts.

The idea is that the smart hairbrush has an array of sensors to measure brushing habits (such as pressure used, patterns etc) as well as delivering a hair quality rating. The latter doesn’t sound so bad, but I wonder whether straight and curly hair will see different scores, as frizziness is used as one of the parameters…

Otherwise, this is yet another battery-powered gadget that’ll be fighting for your wall-plug. Alongside the smart toothbrush.

Smart wine and whiskey bottles

Do we really need internet-connected wine and whiskey bottles? Apparently so, with both of these options out in the wild.

According to The Verge (via We Put A Chip In It), the Kuvee Bottle has a touchscreen (meaning it needs to be charged) and uses “proprietary wine cartridges”. Because greed.

Then there’s the Johnnie Walker Blue Label smart bottle, which can “detect both the sealed and opened state of each bottle” thanks to an NFC chip under the label. In other words, if you can’t see the whiskey level yourself, this is one lazy solution to checking if someone has been in your stash.

“The tags and the sensor information they contain will allow Diageo to send personalised communications to consumers who read the tags with their smartphones,” the creator adds. That means that you’ll be getting spam as well.

This article has been brought to you by HP.