CES 2015: Seven Cool Gifts for Frequent Flyers
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Shopping for a frequent traveler isn’t as easy as it looks. These are women and men on the go – they shun the heavy and the bulky; they scoff at the awkward and the stationary. For the love of all you consider holy, do not get ’em a gift card. Presuming that you’ve exhausted your SkyMall and headphone options, you can seek inspiration from the shiny new awesomeness that will pop up at CES 2015. Let’s look at the seven coolest gifts for frequent flyers.
Power Up
Packing smart starts with the pack itself. AMPL is introducing the SmartBag, a weatherproof, cushioned backpack that also juices up your electronic junk. Should you end up on a flight with no USB ports, or if that obnoxious tween is hogging the only nearby outlet in the departure lounge, you can sit back with your arms crossed as your backpack takes care of business. The SmartBag’s companion app shares its battery status and altitude, as well as measuring external forces such as pressure and humidity. No price listed, since it’s not yet available.
Pocket Printer
The problem with traditional printers is their form factor: even those “portable” cigarette-carton printers had to be as wide as an A4 sheet of paper. Those days are now behind us. Hot off a half-million-dollar Kickstarter campaign, ZUtA Labs is introducing a tiny robot that runs around on a sheet of paper, laying down ink to print whatever document, whatever size. It’s like a Roomba, but for printing. The wow-factor is strong here. The first versions ship in January 2015. They were offered via Kickstarter for $180.
Kibbles ‘n’ Bits ‘n’ Bytes
You spend a lot of time in the air, but you still gotta feed your pets. Fail at that one task, and your cat will fast-track her murder plans. Enter the SmartFeeder, by Petnet(io). You can automate or directly control your pet’s feeding via your smartphone or laptop. You can specify portion size and dispensing speed, as well as get feedback from the device: is it nearly empty? Is your cat actually deigning to eat what you’re serving? Now you’ll know. Two hundred bucks, when it becomes available. (How do you pronounce the company name, anyway? Pet-net-eye-oh? Pet-netty-oh?)
Dude, Where’s My Keys?
Kiitag 2 is like a Swiss Army Knife for your on-the-go life. Using a bluetooth beacon, your lost keys can help you to locate them(selves). The fob also contains a recharging battery, Android-friendly flash drive, and shortcut buttons for your smartphone. Life n Soul is unveiling the Kiitag 2 at CES 2015; its predecessor retailed for twenty bucks. (And, yes, I know it should be “Where’re my keys?”, but it just didn’t sound as good. Deal with it.)
Rapid Weight Loss
FINsix is calling the Dart “the world’s smallest laptop adaptor”, and it seems an apt description. You can ditch that chunky, fugly, heavy bricks that you must lug around if you want to get any work done on your laptop. This power cable is as slim and trim as you’d want a power cable to be. It can also charge a USB device while charging your PC. Kickstarter earlybirds are getting the Dart for ninety bucks. The early Mac version, using an off-the-shelf converter, was way more expensive.
Be the Creature
Okay, one more for travelers with pets. Motorola’s MultiCollar (developed by Binatone) isn’t just a monitor… it lets you experience the world along with your dog. You can spot Spot’s location via GPS, and communicate with him in real time via the collar’s mic and speaker. There’s also an ultrasonic bark-correction feature, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Parental Guidance
Finally, there’s the IntelliCradle. This one is guaranteed to spark discussions in the departure lounges, but those discussions may get a bit heated. That’s because the IntelliCradle is an auto-rocking cradle with a built-in tablet PC for your little one to watch. You can outsource the pacification of your precious baby to a robot. Hey, sometimes an on-the-go mom or dad’s gotta do what an on-the-go mom or dad’s gotta do; besides, Elroy and Judy Jetson turned out okay. The IntelliCradle is getting introduced at CES by Moneual, which primarily builds ultrasmart robotic floor cleaners.
Okay so these amazing new products won’t be available for the 2014 holiday season, but you can present your on-the-wing loved one with a gift-IOU… perhaps in the form of a card.