While all of our gadgets having seemingly been getting smart, some are smarter than others.
Take Google’s (GOOG) Smart Contact Lens, for example.
The company has miniaturized chips, sensors and an antenna to the point where they fit on a contact lens. What’s so smart about that? Pop in a pair of these Google contacts and they constantly monitor your blood sugar level in your tears!
If you’re not Diabetic, this may not be a big deal, but for a growing segment of the population, jabbing a finger with a needle to get a blood sugar level has been the only way to track this information. It hurts, and it takes time. The Google Smart Contact Lens project would make monitoring continuous and eliminate the need to take blood.
Unfortunately, they aren’t in production yet. But here are 5 of the coolest smart gadgets you can buy today, or at least within a matter of days.
5 Coolest Smart Gadgets: Power Up 3.0 Smartphone-Controlled Paper Airplane Kit
Want to get in on this drone thing, but don’t feel like dropping $500 or more for a decent one?
If you can live without an onboard video camera, Power Up has a pretty cool solution. With their Power Up 3.0 Smartphone-Controlled Paper Airplane Kit combined with your piece of paper and your smartphone, you can have a drone for under 50 bucks.
Simply charge the battery, make your paper airplane and clip the control module on. Then you get a motorized, propellor-powered drone that’s smartphone-controlled. Crash and destroy it? Just fold another piece of paper and clip the components on.
The Power Up 3.0 is already available overseas, with U.S. orders shipping on October 1.
5 Coolest Smart Gadgets: Parrot Flower Power
Some people are great with plants, while others accidentally murder pretty much anything green that has the misfortune to land in their garden or in a pot on their porch.
The Parrot Flower Power is for the people who lack that green thumb.
Stick the sensor in the soil near your plants and its sensors monitor all sorts of useful information like moisture, the amount of light, temperature and key nutrients. It then uses a Bluetooth connection to send an alert to your smartphone warning you if your plant needs water, fertilizer or a new location.
You can buy the Parrot Flower Power at the Apple (AAPL) Store and online — an Android version of the app is also available.
5 Coolest Smart Gadgets: BioLite BaseCamp
Over the past two years, the BioLite Stove emerged as the ultimate must-have emergency gadget for those who can’t live without their electronics if power should happen to go down for a few days.
Instead of relying on solar power, hand-cranking or big batteries, the BioLite burns just about anything –which gives you heat and the ability to cook food when there’s no power– but turns some of that energy into electricity which then charges your electronics via a USB port. That’s pretty smart.
Now there’s a new version, the BioLite BaseCamp.
This new model is larger, with the room to grill an entire meal, a gooseneck light (so you can see what you’re cooking in the dark of a blackout) and a built-in Lithium Ion battery.
Burning twigs, chunks of wood or whatever else you can find that’s flammable for 30 minutes gets you five hours of smartphone talk time, plus a hot meal. Just remember to use it outdoors.
5 Coolest Smart Gadgets: Tile
There’s been a lot of buzz around this one. Early reviews have been good, and now they’re taking orders for fall delivery at $20 a pop.
Tile is a small plastic tag with a Bluetooth chip. Attach it to anything you tend to misplace and you can use the Tile app on your iPhone to tell you how close the object is. As you get really close, the Tile plays a tune so you can home right in on it.
No GPS, so this isn’t meant for luggage, but it would be great for keys, TV remotes and other commonly misplaced items.
Sorry Samsung (SSNLF), but Tile is currently not compatible with the Galaxy S5 or any Android smartphones — iPhone only.
5 Coolest Smart Gadgets: Cyborg Unplug
Worried that drones are buzzing your back yard and spying on you, that “glassholes” are creeping on your customers or that your office is being bugged by hidden wireless microphones?
If any of these situations concern you, the Cyborg Unplug may be the answer. Billed as an “anti-router” it detects any of these devices trying to use your Wi-Fi network and disconnects them, preventing them from streaming any information.
It also has an “All Out Mode” — possibly (okay probably) illegal, depending on where you live — that declares war on these connected devices, attempting to break their connection regardless of what type it is. For example, it could disconnect a device from the smartphone that’s controlling it, even though it’s not on your Wi-Fi network.
Technically, this one is a few weeks from availability (they’re taking orders starting September 30), but close enough.
The base version is $50, the deluxe — complete with alarms so you know when it’s found an intruder — goes for $100.
As of this writing, Robert Martin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
