The Best Smart Home Gadgets From CES 2021
Behold the top intelligent technology that CES had to offer.
3 min
Not even a pandemic could stop the world’s premier technology trade event, the Consumer Electronics Show, now officially known as CES, but this year, in accordance with social distancing and safety protocols, the event went all online.
Despite the novel format, CES was still packed with all the cutting-edge tech for which it’s become known. Below are some of the best devices you may be welcoming into your smart home soon.
LG Transparent OLED Smart Bed TV
Two years ago, all of CES was a clamour about LG’s OLED TV R, a 4K, organic LED smart screen that unfurled out of and re-rolled into a Dolby speaker base. This year, they’ve upped the innovation—by making it transparent and installable at the foot of your bed. The LG Transparent OLED Smart Bed TV, as debuted by LG Display, the company’s sci-fi-like screen division, is a 55-inch, 40% transparent screen which ascends and descends from a sleek and slender (and portable!) containment unit which is placed at the base of the bed. The screen, which users can see through when it is on or off, features speakers built into the display, and the container base provides an all-black secondary screen that can rise behind the transparent one for users to enjoy the full richness and colour of whatever they are watching. In addition to allowing users to consume televised entertainment, the Transparent OLED Smart Bed TV will allow them to mirror their devices on screen, and LG anticipates a suite of smart features for the device, from notifications and weather alerts to activity prompts and music streaming.
Like so many of CES’ most eye-grabbing gadgets, price and release date have not been named for the LG Transparent OLED Smart Bed TV.
NordicTrack Vault
Gym enthusiasts, acutely aware of what the pandemic has taken from them, will be overjoyed to learn of the NordicTrack Vault. Like the Mirror by Lululemon, the Vault is a full-length reflective surface/HD touchscreen that allows users to perfect their form as they take a wide variety of classes (yoga, lifting, high-intensity interval training and much more) from NordicTrack’s suite of iFit trainers. Unlike the Mirror, which is a freestanding or wall-hanging device, the Vault’s screen doubles as a door to a workout equipment storage system, complete with dumbbells, kettlebells, yoga, pilates, and strength-training accessories, giving Vault owners and even wider range of exercise options at their disposal.
Open to pre-order now, the Vault is available for around $3775 (exercise equipment included) or approx. $2500 (standalone), with each option including one year of iFit Family Membership.
Kohler Stillness Bath
Looking for a smart (and luxurious) soaking experience? Kohler, a leading name in high-tech bathroom fixtures, has heard your pleas. Modeled after a Japanese spa-style soaking tub, the $20,000 Kohler Stillness Bath is an infinity-edge bathtub that users can fill via voice command (even specifying precise temperature) and features a mood-lighting system ringing the entire basin. Users can even upgrade their Stillness Bath to include an “Experience Tower,” which will add aromatherapy and mist to their bathing experience—both also controllable by voice command.
The Kohler Stillness Bath will be available for $7800 to $20,000, depending on features, with the various models rolling out from May to October 2021.
MyQ Pet Portal
Here’s one for the dogs (and cats). The Pet Portal from MyQ looks to liberate indoor-outdoor pet owners from the constant need to give their four-legged friends entry to and exit from the home. Outfitted with a live-video streaming camera and two-way audio via the MyQ app, Pet Portal owners can open the pet door for their cats and dogs remotely from their phones or tablets—or they can cede the decision entirely to their furry companions. With an accompanying Bluetooth-enabled collar, pets can activate the Pet Portal via (very) close encounter, and once the device, which opens in two panels like elevator doors, grants entry or exit, it quickly closes and locks to prevent any other unwelcome visitors.
The Pet Portal, which requires professional installation and replaces an existing exterior door, is available for $2,999.
Samsung Bot Handy
The smart home owner who wants the full “Jetsons” experience will be eagerly anticipating the release of the Samsung Bot Handy. Intended to serve as an extra hand wherever you need it around the house, the Bot Handy is a slender, mobile pillar with a rolling base and digital face—complete with expressions—and a fully articulating arm with clamp hand, that can pour you a drink, pick up laundry or even place dishes in the dishwasher. A forward-facing camera and pretty clever A.I. allow the Bot Handy to determine the material components of what it is seeing and handle it accordingly.
There is no release date or price yet for the helpful robotic companion, which Samsung lists as “in development.”
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An intriguing new holiday home concept is emerging for high net worth Australians.
An intriguing new holiday home concept is emerging for high net worth Australians.
3 minAffluent Aussies with a savvy financial mindset have been sharing the expense of their luxury lifestyles for years through yacht and private jet syndicates, and now the idea has stretched to high-end holiday homes.
A concept known as Second Home has reached the millionaire playground of Queenstown, New Zealand and the idea is tipped to soon take flight across the ditch.
Longtime co-ownership pioneers John and Sharon Russell started selling shares in luxury boats in Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast in 1999 and have now entered the holiday home space with Second Home.
Investors can purchase shares in a fully-managed vacation property, but unlike a timeshare, each owner’s name is on the title. As a result, the shares remain a sellable and appreciating asset.
“This is very similar to buying into a boat syndicate where you own a share and can use it as if it’s yours, without the full cost and responsibility of owning the boat outright,” Mr Russell said.
“With Second Home, you are purchasing the bricks and mortar of a New Zealand holiday home valued at over A$2.5 million – with your name on the title, and access to it and all the wonderful activities in and around Queenstown for six weeks each and every year.”
Currently under construction in the Kiwi ski town, there is a three bedroom apartment in the Jacks Point development on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, pictured. Eight shares of the architecturally designed, fully furnished apartment are available, from A$325,000 and include six weeks usage of throughout each year.
Mr Russell said the concept is a far cry from the better known short term rental schemes.
“This is not a hotel or Airbnb with tourists coming and going – the only people who stay in the home are the owners and their guests, who we encourage to get to know each other,” he explained.
“Second Home is ideal for people who aspire to own a holiday home and return with family and friends to enjoy the same region each year, but don’t want to invest so much capital in owning an apartment outright, only for it to be locked up for months on end.”
Additionally, he said the ongoing costs of owning a holiday home are also shared among owners.
“In the case of Jacks Point, each investor’s share of expenses is about $7000 annually, which covers body corporate and management fees, insurances and maintenance,” he added.
“Overall, that’s still significantly cheaper than booking accommodation each time they’d like to holiday in New Zealand.”
Property prices in Queenstown have increased by approximately 7 per cent a year over the past decade, with property experts tipping the median will continue to rise.
While Queenstown property prices have come off their post-pandemic high, the longterm snapshot of the popular holiday destination show that it has experienced incredible growth.
Data from realestate.co.nz showed from the beginning of 2015 to the end of 2024, average asking prices in Central Otago-Queenstown Lakes rose 106.6 per cent.
After hitting a peak in November 2022, house prices fell 5.27 per cent before bottoming out in December 2022. The average price of a Queenstown property in December 2024, according to CoreLogic NZ, was A$1.65m with values up 2.17 per cent over the three months prior.
“There can be some very lucrative capital gains to be made by buying into a shared holiday home,” Mr Russell said.
Second Home’s other NZ location is a six-bedroom, French-style chateau in the Carrick Winery in Central Otago. It comes with a Land Rover Defender 130 and six e-bikes. There are 13 shares available, valued at A$445,000 each, with annual expenses of around A$8,600.
The Russells also have one $40,000 share remaining of thirteen in a four-bedroom villa near Florence, Italy, where shareholders can enjoy an authentic Italian rural lifestyle for one month every year.
It’s being sold by a Chinese billionaire who’s accumulated a handsome portfolio of lavish real estate in the U.S.
An intriguing new holiday home concept is emerging for high net worth Australians.
