Done up like a slipper
NIKE GO FLYEASE
We’ve never wanted trainers to look like slippers, but sometimes we
wish they behaved a bit more like them. Enter the Nike Go FlyEase, a
‘hands-free concept shoe’ in the words of its maker. It eliminates the
need for laces by employing a bi-stable hinge so each shoe can be
slipped on and off using nothing but those slabs of meat we call feet.
The design allows the trainers to be open and closed in a snap, ensuring
they remain secure when worn but retain enough flex for hands-free
removal. Nike is touting them as “accessible and empowering”, but we
reckon they’ll appeal to the kind of lace-dodging deviants who cram
their feet into sneaks before rushing out of the door.
£tbc / nike.com
Salad of easy riser
GARDYN
One of the few good things to have come out of this pandemic is a
renaissance in all things green – it seems millennials now aspire to live
like Tom and Barbara in The Good Life. Imagine their excitement, then,
when the indoor smart gardening device, Gardyn, adds a refreshing
break from all the screens. It’s a vertical planter (150cm tall) and doesn’t
even require soil, nor sunlight, instead using ‘yCubes’ containing all the
necessary ingredients for healthy veg. The device connects to an app
that uses AI to detect if your salad needs more water or light... so if
you’ve run out of naff art to put on your walls, why not decorate it
with living lettuce instead?
from $899 / mygardyn.com
Xiaomi clutching at thin air, are they?
In a way, yes. Unlike traditional wireless
charging, which requires a charging stand
or pad, Mi Air Charge is truly wireless.
It utilises a remote ‘charging pile’ that
detects the location of your device and
beams energy through the air. According
to Xiaomi’s best and brightest, the pile has
“five phase-interference antennas built in,
which can accurately detect the location
of a smartphone”. And then? “A phase
control array, composed of 144 antennas,
transmits millimetre-wide waves directly
to the phone through beamforming.”
There’s a lot of jargon there, but essentially
it’ll charge devices within a few metres. No
cables, no pads, just automatic wireless
charging taking care of itself.What gadgets will it work with?
Well, clearly the device being charged will
need to be fitted with the relevant tech to
convert those millimetre waves back into
electrical energy. We’re assured Mi Air
Charge will be compatible with a wide
range of phones, and Xiaomi claims
the tech will eventually work with
smartwatches, speakers, desk lamps
and other products in the connected
home. It’ll even charge multiple gadgets
simultaneously, so it could feasibly keep
an entire smart home ticking over while
you do something productive, like dust
your Phil Collins record collection.So can I feel it coming in the Air tonight?
Not quite. As always, there’s a catch with
these things – and while Xiaomi has been
more than happy to wax lyrical about
its latest technological revolution, the
company has been less forthcoming with
a launch date. So you won’t find it on the
Xiaomi Mi 11 for instance. Right now, we
don’t know when – or indeed if – Mi Air
Charge will be rolled out to consumers.
It’s likely there’s still a bit of fine-tuning
to be done, but Xiaomi’s proclamation that
“today, we enter a true wireless charging
era” implies the company is confident it’ll
become a reality soon enough.WTF IS MI
AIR CHARGE
TECHNOLOGY?