Quirky launched four new products at Engaget Expand, each one providing solutions for real-world problems (or pseudo-problems, depending on how you look at it) by taking advantage of tiny sensors, mobile apps, and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Egg Minder
While I, personally, could never fathom the use for a “smart egg tray,” we guess there are plenty of people out there who will need one. Otherwise, we couldn’t imagine a contraption like the Egg Minder ever existing.
Basically, it’s a high-tech egg tray with slots for holding up to 14 eggs. Each slot comes with a LED indicator that tells you which one is the oldest, so you can use them first the next time you grab a couple for making omelet, baking cake or just plain egging the neighbors’ car. Push notifications alert you via the companion app when eggs are low and when any of your eggs are potentially going bad (based on how long you’ve had them). Tray measures 14.6 x 4.4 x 3.2 inches, with plastic and acrylic construction.
$69.99 [buy link]
Nimbus
Paired with a stand, you can use a smartphone as a perpetually-running dashboard display, allowing you to monitor weather reports, traffic updates, Twitter mentions, and whatever the heck you want to keep in mind over the course of a day. The Nimbus, on the other hand, is a separate device that pulls those same information from your phone and display it, allowing you to keep the handset snug in pocket while staying informed of the various stats you choose to obsess about.
It comes with a retro-style four-panel display that bears both a gauge and a digital strip, looking like a fancy vehicle instrumentation of some sort. Each panel can be customized to display time, calendar appointments, estimated commute times, weather, email volume, social network activity, Fitbit data, and more.
$129.99 [buy link]
Pivot Power Genius
Remember the Pivot Power and its clever flexible power strip design? Yeah, we loved that darn thing. Well, this is the updated smart version, with a companion app that lets you turn specific outlets on and off remotely.
As with the original, it comes with four outlets that can be bent and twisted to accommodate different sizes of plugs and adapters. Two of the outlets can be controlled from afar via a smartphone app, so you can turn off the TV in the living room while you’re lying down in bed or start up the air-conditioning before you head home from work.
$79.99 [buy link]
Porkfolio
Unless you’re still in middle school, you probably haven’t used a piggy bank in a long time. But that doesn’t change the fact that piggy banks offer a great way to stash away a little money that you can dip into on a rainy day. And if you’d like to start keeping one again, you might want to consider the Porkfolio, which updates the classic piggy bank with smart modern features.
Billed as the “world’s smartest piggy bank,” it comes with sensors that detect every coin you put in, allowing you to check your running balance without having to break the darn thing and count each coin one by one. The companion app even lets you set small financial goals, with regular updates on how you’re doing towards achieving it.
Piggy banks have traditionally been cute and this one continues the tradition, featuring a plastic pig lying on its back like a turtle that turned over. It comes with a nose that lights up every time it detects a US coin inserted, along with an onboard accelerometer that alerts the app when someone is messing with the piggy bank.
$69.99 [buy link]