11 ridiculous ‘smart’ gadgets that totally exist Part 3

October 11, 2017

HapiFork

The HapiFork is a Bluetooth-enabled “smart fork” that vibrates when it senses you’re eating too fast. As goofy as it sounds, it is trying to coach you out of a genuine problem. Whether or not you need to pay $70 and subject yourself to a Pavlovian experiment to solve that problem, however, is less clear.

Oombrella

I’ve left umbrellas at bars and restaurants across the country, so I’m not totally opposed to a connected model like the Oombrella, which can send its last known location to your phone. That it can send weather alerts to your phone might not be the worst thing, either, although weather apps (and human eyes) exist for a reason. Putting your $80 toward umbrella stats, though, might be a bridge too far.

Bruno

If the Bruno ever makes it past its current production troubles, I could see it becoming a thing. Yes, it’s a $140 trash can that needs to be recharged every month. It also needs proprietary bags to work, which is fairly dystopian. At the bottom of that can, though, is a small vacuum cutout that will suck up whatever crumbs, hairs, or general crud that’s manifested on your floor. That means no more dustpans. It’s tackling a total first-world problem, but at this point, that should be a given. 

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