More Personal Transport

Remember the Solowheel? I posed about it previously. 
The whole idea of small personal transport gadgets just gets bigger and bigger: this is oblivious to the basic health of users who should at least walk some small distance each day  - but who cares about that, right? we all wanna look cool on a zoomy thingy that you can carry in your bag or stash in your school locker . . . . .

But there is a new twist to the story now: First, here is the Onewheel:

Like it's compatriots it has electronic balancing and control, new batteries and a motor - in this case in the wheel hub.  It's actually a good design I think since it is narrow, has a large wheel with an airfilled tye so you can use it offroad and there is plenty of foot spacing to allow the rider to balance well.

 Now check this out: at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show this year, a Chinese company turned up with knockoffs for sale.  they lasted about five minutes.

Should I even mention Hoverboards? it seems this is what the two wheeled devices will now be called even though they don't hover. The big mess about who has the license to make and sell them  - never mind those terrible battery fires - will be with us for a while yet.  Pah! they can't handle a decent bump and stick out too wide on the footpath too. I'll take a Onewheel any day. or walk.

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There was one other CES 2016  thing that caught my eye: Cooki. This is the kitchen gadget that I have been expecting for a long time:  have a look here.  Yup, let's replace another basic human activity with a gadget and  reduce it to a mechanical process so that folks can spend more time on Facebook or Netflix. Note that the real plan is to pre-pack ingredients and sell the packs to users - that is where the real money is, just like printers and ink carts.