Five #NewBreed of Gadgets in the last 5 Years

The year 2014 is a year where we’ve seen a lot of new products introduced in the market that we did not image was possible 5 years ago. These new breed of gadgets and technologies have become mainstream and are becoming among the hottest product categories in the market.

Activity Trackers. There are so many of them in the market this year that it’s hard to track all of them.

What used to be considered fad and targeted only to fitness enthusiasts, the current breed of Activity Trackers are made and marketed to almost every one.

Fitbit Flex. Fitbit has been making a number of activity trackers but it was the Fitbit Flex that gave it a good reputation. The Flex was also the first tracker that is water resistant so you can take it in the shower or while swimming. It comes with 5 LED lights to indicate the number of steps taken and battery life. The device lasts about 5 to 7 days on a single full charge.

Sony Smartband. Sony’s Smartband is the company’s first activity tracker although they’ve been making smart watches for some time already. The tracker is a tiny device that tucks inside a water-sealed rubber straps so you can also take it into the shower or go swimming. Sony created the LifeLog app to beautifully illustrate your daily activity in your Xperia or Android smartphone.

Samsung Gear Fit. This fitness wristband from Samsung features a curved AMOLED display that comes with a heart rate sensor, pedometer, and sleep monitor. It is already considered a smartwatch which is powered by 180MHz ARM Cortex M4 chip. The device lasts about 3 to 4 hours on single full charge.

Jawbone UP24. The UP24 by Jawbone is perhaps the least conspicuous of the lot with its slim profile and colorful bands. Jawbone has also recently announced the UP3 and the Jawbone Move.

Garmin Vivofit. Garmin has been around making a lot of GPS devices and the Vivofit is their first activity tracker. The device is a small module that fits into a rubber strap that’s also waterproof. A small LED display actively shows the steps for the day. The kit comes with two colorful straps with different sizes for men and women.

Misfit Shine. One of the more unique activity trackers around, the Misfit Shine can be worn as a watch, pendant or clipped on the shirt or jeans. Aside from being water-proof up to a depth of 100 meters, the Shine also has an impressive battery life of close to 6 months.

Huawei TalkBand B1. This dust-proof and water-proof activity tracker is also a smartwatch and comes with Bluetooth and NFC for faster pairing with your smartphone. The tracker can be removed from the rubber strap and also doubles as an earphone so you can take calls without having to pick up your smartphone.

There’s also the Polar band, Adidas Pacer, WiThings Pulse, and the Razer Nabu.

Smart Watches. Brands are looking into the next stage of human screen interaction and the smart watch is looking to be the one closest to us since we’re basically wearing it.

Google is heavily pushing for it with their Android Wear platform and even Apple is banking on smart watches (Apple Watch) will become their next cash cow after the iPhone.

Early models include Sony’s Smartwatch and Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. This year, we saw so much more with the Samsung Gear S, LG R Watch, Sony Smartwatch 3, Motorola Moto 360 and the much-awaited Apple Watch.

Smartphone Camera Lens. This is a totally new product category that really surprised us. A smartphone camera lens to replace the one built into your smartphone giving your handset almost the same power and capability as a dSLR (or a micro four-thirds).

These lenses have much better sensors and can be controlled by a smartphone app. They’re still expensive at the moment but we’re hoping the price goes down as more and more people buy into the idea.

So far, only Sony has made these new breed of gadgets starting with the QX10 and QX100 then followed by an upgraded QX1 and QX30.

Wireless Chargers. While battery technology has not changed much in the last decade, computing power has exponentially grown in the past few years. This means we need more juice for our devices, especially smartphones.

This inductive power standard is set up such that the device can be placed on top of the power transmission pad and it automatically charges it via resonant inductive coupling.

Quite a number of phone brands are part of an effort to standardize wireless charging (referred to as Qi) — Asus, HTC, Huawei, LG Electronics, Motorola Mobility, Nokia, Samsung, BlackBerry, and Sony.

Hopefully soon, we should be able to re-charge our smartphones without even having to place it beside the charging pad.

Drones. Most kids (and adults) are quite contented with being able to fly a kite on a week-end. Today, we have access to drones in all shapes and sizes. And, they’re also quite affordable.

Parrot has recently released the Rolling Mosquito, a mini-drone that looks and sounds like ahh, well, mosquito. This $100PHP 5,869INR 8,475EUR 95CNY 728 drone can be controlled via Bluetooth using your smartphone.

If you have more budget, then the Parrot AR Drone 2.0 should be more fun.

Those wanting to shoot serious videos might want to consider the DJI Phantom.

These #NewBreed of gadgets and technologies are just a few of the many more that have become available to the mainstream in the last few years yet they are the ones that either made an impact or have uniquely changed our perspective.

Editor’s Note: This compilation was inspired by Highlands Corned Beef, made with Angus beef that is why it is the choice of the #NewBreed. Check them out on Facebook here.