Time Magazine this week released its annual “Best Inventions” list and, as usual, it presents a peculiar blend of the awe-inspiring, the “wait, didn’t we already have that?” and the “what were they thinking?”
How many of these will matter to the average consumer? Spoiler alert: the answer is complicated.
Take LG’s transparent OLED TV. Yes, A television that magically transforms into a window when it’s not in use, it’s the epitome of futuristic chic. But who has a living room that’s pristine enough to warrant a see-through TV? Most will see it as a glorified solution to a problem that never existed. A TV that doubles as a window? But hey, it’s cool!
A solution to a real problem seems to be offered by Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV, also called the QN900D. With a mere 12.9mm-thick screen, it uses a built-in processor to power an “upscaling algorithm” — an AI process for turning standard- or high-definition video into 8K resolution. Costing north of R100,000, you really have to love your old movies.
The list lauds the latest instalments in the foldable phone saga. Huawei has upped the ante with its Mate XT tri-fold phone because, apparently, two folds weren’t complicated enough. And with complexity comes cost. You could probably buy a small island nation for the same price.
Honor has also pushed the edge in the foldable phone arena, after last year’s triumphant V2, then the thinnest foldable phone in the world. The Magic V3 is a mere 9.2mm thick when folded, thanks to a long-lasting silicon-carbon battery that’s as thin as a credit card. If you already have the 9.9mm-thick V2, you may wonder if 0.7mm is worth an upgrade.
Apple only just makes the list, thanks to its latest AirPods, now doubling as hearing aids
Apple only just makes the list, thanks to its latest AirPods, now doubling as hearing aids. A medically approved software update on the iPhone allows for clinical-grade hearing tests and, if it picks up hearing loss, turns the AirPods Pro 2 into hearing aids. Apple called it “a moral responsibility to do more in this space”.
Apple also offers a symbolic warning of the consequences of winning an Invention of the Year accolade. Last year’s Apple Vision Pro headset combined virtual reality and augmented reality into what the industry calls “mixed reality”. Any South African looking at its $3,500 (R62,000) price tag could have told Apple — and Time — this was not going to change how consumers experience the digital world. The magazine gushed last year that, amid a global quest to produce headsets with mass appeal, “Apple might be the first to pull it off”. It turns out that building in a dozen cameras, six microphones, five sensors and a powerful new chip is not enough to make this a primary computing device. Apple has now scaled down production of what has come to be known as its billion-dollar failure.
A consumer favourite that does stand out, however, and is not going to collapse for pricing reasons, is DJI’s new Neo drone. It is the Chinese manufacturer’s lightest, most compact quadcopter yet, weighing just 135g. As Time puts it, “it takes off from the palm of your hand and can automatically capture stabilised 4K aerial footage”. More significantly, it is available locally for only R3,999.
While many of the inventions on the list might genuinely improve our lives — or at least entertain us for a while — others seem destined to become overpriced dust collectors. But that’s the beauty of innovation: to push the boundaries, we occasionally stumble along the way. As long as we keep our cool with our credit cards.
• Goldstuck is the founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee
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