Quaff easily crafted home brews
When there aren’t enough hours to sip a few mugs at your corner artisan-beer joint, go hyper-local with an automated brewery in your kitchen. BeerDroid will produce growler-fulls of satisfying suds in more than 40 styles, from pale lagers to exotic saisons. Yeast and ingredients come conveniently packaged. Cleaning, often a chore in home-brewing vats, is a cinch.
Available from Bloomingdale’s, $499
Jam on Not Knowing a Note
Without enough time to learn music, you can still rock out, playing Yamaha’s Sonogenic SHS-500. This ’80s-style keytar synthesizer has been contemporized to access favorite songs on a smart device. Now press any keys to join the group without hitting a clunker.
Available at Sam Ash, $299
Boot a bot to clean up spills
A slight mess on the floor? Save on effort with an AI picker-upper. The tidy white Braava jet 240 droid from iRobot senses how to best sweep or mop up hardwood, tile, or stone floors. When wet-mopping, it dispenses its own cleaning spray. This jaunty scrubber will soon have an outdoor sibling, the automatic Terra lawnmower.
Available from Target, $180
Gauge vital temperature fast
When minutes count, stop waiting for under-the-tongue or ear-canal digital thermometers to assess your squirming youngster’s condition. Without any direct touch, iHealth’s Thermometer PT3 measures forehead heat in one second; its back-lit numeric display is readable at night.
Available at Amazon, $27
Tie your shoelaces at a touch
On-street or on-court, time-saving basketball kicks that tighten their own laces beckon. Just swipe Nike Adapt BB sneakers’ app on your phone or tap the glowing buttons on the sneaker sides and they quickly conform to individual foot contours. Small motors pull a cat’s cradle of laces to precisely fit your personal proportions — and they’ll even readjust to foot changes throughout the day.
Available at Nike.com, $350
