Cool tech at CES 2024

Note: This article was written by Christine Persaud, with contributions from Ted Kritsonis.

CES is a launchpad for some of the biggest tech products and software that we’ll see arrive throughout the upcoming year, ranging from TVs to laptops, gaming accessories, and more. But mixed in with that are fun, innovative, sometimes even wonderfully weird gadgets and gizmos. In walking the show floor of CES 2024, as well as attending pre-show media exclusive events, I came across some pretty interesting items from start-ups and established companies, alike. Here’s a round-up of ones that stood out the most for me.

Heat It Insect Bite Healer

There’s always that one pie-in-the-sky product from CES that you wonder if it’s complete vapourware or there’s something to it. (Ok, realistically, there are usually hundreds). This year, it could very well be Heat It, an insect bite healer that supposedly helps relieve the itch and pain you feel in your skin after an insect bite. It’s about the size of a dime and measures just 3 grams.

Connect it to your smartphone’s charging port and it uses concentrated heat (hyperthermia) to help relieve itching. Effectively, it works just like other battery-operated heat-based insect bite devices (like the Beurer device currently available at Best Buy) but leverages your phone’s power to generate the heat. The rep we spoke with said it has minimal impact on your phone’s battery life, even if you use it multiple times to soothe an especially itchy bite. Indeed, you can simply keep it attached to your keychain at all times and use it whenever the need arises. How well does it work? Who knows. But even if it’s mind over matter, it sure beats using chemical creams or suffering through the pain.

Catalyst Dog Collar for AirTag

It’s such a simple product but it makes so much sense. I’m not a pet owner myself, but I know others who have dogs and cats, and indeed do attach Apple AirTags (or other similar item tracking devices) to their collars. This makes it easy to keep track of where the pet might be should they be permitted to roam free or in the event of them getting lost. So what is this? It’s a dog collar with a slot at the front that’s specifically designed to hold an AirTag. So clever Use the extra loop for the Catalyst Total Protection ClipIt case and the AirTag and collar won’t dangle. It fits comfortably around the neck and it’s even waterproof and drop-proof. Choose from one of four sizes for different sized dogs and either black or blue.

LG DukeBox by LG Labs

LG makes its popular line of products but also works with LG Labs to develop unique concepts. That perfectly describes the LG DukeBox (read the full article about the LG Dukebox). It combines vacuum tube audio with a transparent OLED panel. There are front-facing speakers at the bottom and a 360° speaker at the top so you get the feeling of a totally immersive listening experience. The OLED is transparent, just like the much talked about transparent wireless OLED T TV from LG, and you can adjust the level of transparency to your liking. It is indeed a TV, so you can watch movies, listen to music, or even play a soothing, cracking fireplace in the background while you enjoy a glass of wine. I know a few people who would absolutely love having this in their den or living room.

Beautigloo Beauty Box Makeup Fridge

You have a fridge for your food and your wine to keep it at the perfect temperature, so why not your make-up, too? Beautigloo Beauty Box is an interesting makeup fridge designed to help extend the shelf life of cosmetics and enhance their performance. The LITE uses a patented and silent cooling system that maintains a consistent temperature of 50°F without introducing any humidity. Designed and manufactured in France, the Beautigloo makeup fridge could become the “next big thing” for your makeup counter.

LG StanByMe GO Portable

Another innovation from LG, the StanByMe GO was actually introduced just prior to CES, but I was able to see it in action via a full demo at the show. Housed in what looks like an oversized briefcase (one that they might cart around in a movie like Mission Impossible!), it’s a battery-operated 27-inch LED touchscreen that you can orient in horizontal or vertical mode. Pull it out, adjust the angle, even lie it flat when playing music so it looks like a turntable.

It has a 20-watt speaker built-in and supports Dolby Atmos audio, AirPlay 3, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and even comes with LG webOS software. While this is, in essence, a portable TV to use while camping, outdoors, at the park, or wherever an adventure takes you, there are so many other options. LG told me that they found fans in people like drone flyers. Best Buy Blog’s Ted Kritsonis said he could see this being useful for photographers who want a larger screen to help with composition and taking photos. Social media influencers would likely love this for shooting videos—the possibilities are endless!

Targus ErgoFlip EcoSmart Mouse

Admittedly, I don’t use a mouse at home, preferring to use the keyboard and trackpad on my laptop. But sometimes, I do require a separate keyboard and mouse. The set-up is typically comfortable, but when I think about it, I always use the mouse on the right side. That’s because most mice are built for contouring to your hand that way. I am, however, one of many people known as “lefties.”

The Targus ErgoFlip EcoSmart mouse isn’t necessarily designed for lefties. But what makes it cool as that it is designed for anyone to use it comfortably, no matter which way. Twist the top, turn the piece over, pop it back on, and voila! You now have a left-handed mouse. You can also feel good about it since it’s made from 85 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic. Perfect for shared workspaces where both right-handed and left-handed people can feel appreciated and heard. It even comes infused with an antimicrobial treatment.

Kohler PureWash Bidet

Kohler is always ahead of the curve when it comes to smart solution for the home, but when it comes to the bathroom, the company has some interesting directions. It’s new toilet is a bidet with a twist. It has a heated seat and adjustable water temperature and pressure, along with a contactless opening. That’s all well and good, and features I’d happily use. However, it also comes with Alexa or Google Assistant voice control capability. Seriously. I’m not even sure where to go with that.

Withings BeamO

Withings is always on the cutting edge of health tech, and the BeamO is yet another device that is making waves at CES 2024. The idea with this handy device, which looks like a thermometer, is to be able to augment healthcare visits. You can take a variety of measurements at home including using it as an electrocardiogram, oximeter, and stethoscope. You can do this and keep track of the data in the Withings app and/or do this alongside a telehealth visit with a doctor. I can see how this can help those with mobility or transportation issues, who can’t easily get out to see a doctor every month but could benefit from more frequent check-ups. Learn more about it in our dedicated article and see how it works in the video demo.

myFirst Frame Doodle

Digital photo frames are experiencing a bit of a resurgence, especially with the latest models that make it easy to remotely upload images to a frame using an app and/or dedicated e-mail address. The myFirst Frame Doodle puts another spin on the experience with a frame that kids can decorate themselves. It syncs with other myFirst devices so you can create a dynamic feed of shared content, even customizing each frame to display different feeds (grandkids for the grandparents, for example, friend and vacation photos for your own home). It has an anti-glare, fingerprint-resistant matte finish that reduces reflections and an advanced motion sensor that can recognize when a human is within 1.5 metres and turn on. Place it on your bedroom nightstand and use the sunrise alarm and night mode along with built-in lullabies for kids and white noise sleep aids for anyone who has trouble falling asleep. There’s also a customizable timer and auto-rotate feature that will adapt to whether you position it in portrait or landscape mode. When no one is around, it powers down to conserve energy.

Nanoleaf Skylight

Nanoleaf often stands out for its LED smart light products and the Skylight may be one of the most adaptable yet because it’s so highly modular. Install the first square into your ceiling’s light fixture and you can then add up to 100 squares, all powered by the first one. The creative options seem endless, but you can also consider setting it up in a bedroom where you can use the Nanoleaf app to arrange for lights to slowly lull you awake in the morning by emulating a sunrise. It could even light up a hallway or dining room—really any room you have in mind. The Skylight system works with other Nanoleaf lights you’ve already set up, so if you have a particular pattern or schedule in mind, it’s easy to do here. They also support Matter, simplifying how you control them as a smart home product, including by voice with Google Assistant or Alexa.

BlackLyte Atlas Desk

Coming from another Canadian brand, the BlackLyte Atlas Desk is an adjustable standing desk that takes a minimalist approach with some design points that make it feel more adaptable, including a shallow cutout at the front to help with lumbar support. There’s a hook for headphones along with a wrangler tray to organize cables and to keep things neat and tidy on the surface. A faux leather mat on top gives the desk some texture and softness that feels ideal for using a mouse or laying down the various components you want to put on top. You can always choose to sit or stand because of the motor hidden in the legs that adjusts height between 650 to 1250mm, and there’s a built-in socket to charge devices as you need them. BlackLyte promotes it as a gaming desk but it will fit in fine for most home offices, especially since it will also come in three different colours.

Xebec Snap

Speaking of desks, the Xebec Snap endeavors to turn your laptop into a multi-display workstation you can take with you. The snap-on mechanism uses magnets to maintain a rigid attachment to your laptop’s own display, and with up to two 13-inch screens on either side, you have something akin to a desktop environment on any table or on the road. Each screen has a cable that plugs into a USB-C or USB-A port to draw power from your own laptop’s battery. Since the screens easily snap into place—and detach—without a hassle, they’re easy to store and take with you wherever you go. The Snap’s biggest trait is that it makes multitasking really easy, regardless of whether you’re on a Windows PC, Mac, Chromebook and Linux. Set them up in landscape or portrait mode, or turn one the other way so you can present something on your laptop to someone viewing the Snap screen.

Espresso Displays

Yet another external display for laptops (though it also works with desktops), Espresso’s stand out because they can bring touch and pen input to any one of them, including MacBooks. The latter is an intriguing use case because there’s never been a touch-based Mac, much less any pen input. You’d need an iPad for that. The Espresso 17 Pro is the newest model, notable for its 4K resolution but there are also 13- and 15-inch variants as well, both of which are 1080p panels. In effect, the 17 Pro is both an external screen and monitor because it can mount onto a stand or detach when you want to use it closer to yourself, particularly with a pen. What’s also especially cool is that you can set up which apps you want on your main or Espresso display in advance so every time you boot up, you see that configuration without doing it manually yourself.

Clicks Creator Keyboard

How do you feel about a physical keyboard for your iPhone? It’s not entirely an ode to the BlackBerry, but the comparisons are undeniable when considering the premise behind the Clicks Creator Keyboard. An all-in-one case and keyboard that works with the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max (there’s also one for the iPhone 14 Pro, but not the Pro Max), the device’s developers found ways to integrate it with iOS, letting you type away without seeing the onscreen keyboard pop up. It has a plug at the bottom for the phone, along with a port beneath the keys to charge the phone with pass-through, though the keyboard itself doesn’t require much battery power. Clicks also integrated shortcuts into the keyboard, like a CMD button that can perform certain functions familiar to those who use Macs.

Timekettle X1 Interpreter Hub

If you’re familiar with Timekettle, then you know the brand’s pedigree for real-time language translation. With the X1 Interpreter Hub, it has combined a translator device with a pair of wireless earbuds. Two people can use one of the two earbuds and hear translations from one person speaking at the same time. For example, if there’s an interview, speech or lecture in Mandarin, it would be possible for one earbud to translate in English and the other in French. The X1 Hub can handle up to five other pairs of buds, and 20 different listeners total in up to five languages. In Face-to-Face Conversation Mode, the real-time translation feels almost instantaneous in one-on-one situations, letting both parties speak their native languages normally. To add to the efficiency in the device, two X1 users living in different places can communicate directly as well, translating phone calls in real time.

Mophie Juice Pack

The Mophie Juice Pack is back after years being out of the rotation for the company. It’s been at least five years since Mophie last released a battery pack case for the iPhone, but this new one is on the way, with packs ready for the iPhone 15, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max (there won’t be one for the 15 Plus). The new Juice Pack maintains the simple premise and execution of the previous ones. Slide your phone into the pack’s dock, slide the top half on and you have a sizeable battery pack ranging from 2,400-2,800mAh (depending on iPhone model) to help keep the phone lasting longer. There is no MagSafe here, nor wireless charging, so you would need to plug the case in to pass through the charge to the phone as well—exactly how previous Juice Packs worked. It only comes in black.

Ring Pet Tag

The Ring Pet Tag wasn’t unveiled at CES, but it did come out recently and is nice way to add some security for your furry friend. A dog tag with an QR code, anyone encountering a lost dog wearing one could scan it and connect directly with its owner. There’s anonymity thrown in as well, including with messages or phone calls in that they don’t exchange phone numbers or other personal information. Even if one party doesn’t have the Ring app, they can just open a browser page after scanning the code. This is all assuming you can get close enough to a lost dog to actually scan the code, but for one of the most inexpensive products at the show, it’s worth trying. There is no GPS or location-based tracking here, meaning you can’t use the tag to track the dog yourself.

Trulli Audio Wireless Car Subwoofer

Putting a subwoofer in your car usually requires a more intricate installation process from professionals or those with the know-how on how to do it right. Trulli Audio unveiled a wireless car subwoofer that forgoes any elaborate install and works wirelessly with a setup that should take no more than 10 minutes. It uses adapters that plug in either to a vehicle’s Aux-In or USB port to connect with the broader car stereo. Trulli promises the relative simplicity of the sub is that you could easily take it out of one car and set it up in another in case there’s a road trip or other reason to make the switch. Even buying or renting a car should make this sub easy to transfer over. Trulli says the unit also works with other speakers can handle its power, meaning you can use it, say, at the park or any other event to add some major bass and clarity to any sound system.

Did you see anything here that you hope will arrive at Best Buy sooner rather than later. Tell us in the comments, which Latest and Greatest tech you think is perfect for your life?

Thanks to Ted Kritsonis for contributing to this article.