2021 had more than its fair share of great tech products released to market. Many believe that the huge spike in the number of people actively working (and playing) from home encouraged businesses to unleash a flood of new or improved devices all jostling for attention and your hard earned cash. As the year drew to a close, Business Game Changer Magazine waded through the 2021 tech offerings to single out the fantastic products worthy of your time and money. Here is our definitive Editor’s Choice of the top ten tech products of 2021.
Language
PocketTalk
It’s long been accepted that the popular sci fi show Star Trek was the inspiration behind many of our (now) commonplace tech devices. Whether we’re talking about 3D printing, virtual reality or even faster than light travel, pretty much all of these ideas had their roots in Star Trek. But one device familiar to trekkies that had still to make an appearance was the Universal Translator. Yes that device that could be used to translate any language in real time, ensuring near perfect communication between strangers.
Well, it looks like the Universal Translator’s time has finally come. And it’s called PocketTalk. Weighing in at just 75 grams and at just 9.15 cm × 5.34 cm × 1.14 cm, the PocketTalk is much smaller than your mobile phone. Almost all of the PocketTalk is dedicated to a large touch screen and there is just one button beneath it. How does the PocketTalk work? Well, this is so simple that even the folks at Apple are sitting up and paying attention. You simply hold down the button on the front of the PocketTalk, speak and let go. The PocketTalk will translate your words into any one of 82 languages. Perfectly. Even if you have an accent or use a dialect.
The version we road tested came with two years of data, so no need to connect to wi-fi. And there’s no downloading language packs or training the device to recognise your voice or anyone else’s. Oh, and let’s not forget that this beauty has a battery that will last for at least a week on one charge. During our test run with the PocketTalk we put it through its paces in French. And the result was flawless. You can also use the PocketTalk as a text translator. Simply point the screen’s 8MP camera at the words you need to decipher and it’ll translate it for you in your chosen language. Excellent.
For anyone looking to travel to distant lands, the PocketTalk removes the language barrier with just the click of a button. A true game changer. PocketTalk retails at $329 and is available from PocketTalk.
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
Livescribe Symphony
Over the years there has been a variety of companies vying to create a smart pen that actually performs as described on the packet. Finally one company has managed to deliver on its promises. The Livescribe Symphony pen is not the first smartpen we’ve road tested, but its one of the few that actually works. Works very well in fact.
Looking like a pretty standard – albeit slightly chunkier – pen, the Livescribe Symphony is a remarkable feat of technical engineering and programming. To use the Livescribe Symphony you simply plug the pen into a powersource to power it up, then download the app and pair your device. You can write on the supplied notebook (which comes with the Livescribe Symphony) or you can shell out an extra £24.00 to buy the executive journal pack so you have dedicated paper ready for your magnum opus. Once you start writing, a camera in the pen nib transmits your words to the apps screen. After this, you can tap the words on the screen and the OCR program converts your handwriting to text. During our two week test run of the Livescribe Symphony we found the pen’s ability to recognise handwriting second to none. The only minor niggle we had was actually seeing the hand writing on the screen will make you slightly self-conscious if your hand writing is as untidy as our editor’s. Despite this, the Livescribe Symphony performs incredibly well. It’s ideal for note taking in class or in meetings and perfect for jotting down your thoughts or your next blockbuster novel. Highly recommended.
The Livescribe Symphony retails for $109.99 and is available from LiveScribe
Audio
With some 549 million headphones shipped worldwide in 2020, it was clear that 2021 would be a bumper year for headphone makers. This was probably the hottest contested section of our top ten with over 200 manufacturers eager to have their products featured. Here are the three we believe set new standards that others should be judged by.
Urbanista Los Angeles
This incredible product is nothing short of a game changer. Los Angeles is the world’s first self-charging solar powered headphone. Slick and beautiful to look at, Los Angeles converts all light (both indoor and outdoor) into energy which, effectively, guarantees a near infinite play time.
Los Angeles comes complete with advanced hybrid Active Noise Cancelling, voice control, Bluetooth 5.0, on ear detection and works seamlessly with your Android or IoS phone. Oh and did we mention that Los Angeles never stops charging when exposed to light? Genius. Los Angeles deserves nothing less than 10 out of 10 from Business Game Changer editor.
Los Angeles retails at $279 and can be purchased from: https://www.urbanista.com/ca/losangeles
Evolve2 75
For anyone even thinking of working from home, the Jabra Evolve2 75 is an absolute must-buy. Weighing some 100 grams less than the Evolve2 85, this beauty is a powerful, light weight headphone that has been optimised for hybrid working from home, working during your commute or from the office. During our test run, we wore the Evolve2 75 for 8 hours solid with zero discomfort.
During the time we weren’t working, listening to music with the Evolve2 75, was nothing short of sublime. We also loved the shorter microphone boom which offers great sound quality and made taking a call hassle free even in a busy office. The Evolve2 75 offers some 33 hours of Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) play time and 36 hours with ANC turned off.
The Evolve2 75 comes in two editions: one for Unified Communications (UC) and the other focused on Microsoft Teams. Everything you need to work effectively from home or the office or, when you’re kicking back, listening to crystal clear music with your feet up.
Jabra Evolve2 75 retails at $400 and can be purchased from Jabra.
Poly Voyager 4300 UC Series
One of the biggest surprises in the headphone market, the Poly Voyager 4300 UC Series is a headphone that ticks all of the right boxes and delivers in ways that we weren’t expecting. Coming from the company that created the headsets used on the Apollo moon missions, the Poly Voyager 4300 is a great example of an entry level Bluetooth headphone focused specifically on home and office workers. Whether you’re using Microsoft Teams, Cisco Jabber, Avaya One-X, Zoom or GoToMeeting, Poly Voyager 4300 works seamlessly.
Poly Voyager 4300’s microphone boom delivers incredibly effective noise cancellation performance, reducing even the most intrusive background sounds into something less than a whisper. The result: the person you’re talking to will be able to hear you clearly no matter what’s going on around you.
The Poly Voyager 4300 also boasts great Bluetooth connectivity offering some 164 feet of freedom. But the feature that really helps the Poly Voyager 4300 stand out has to be its very impressive battery life. The Poly Voyager 4300 takes just 90 minutes to fully charge and, once charged, provides a staggering 24 hours of talk time. Ideal for anyone working from home, the office or anything in between. The Poly Voyager 4300 retails at $209.95 and can be purchased from Poly.
The Poly Sync 20
When it came to speakerphones, there were countless entries but only one that stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Since the pandemic forced many people to consider working from home as a real and viable alternative, the Poly Sync 20 has become the go-to product when it comes to enhancing the audio quality of your conference and video calls. The Poly Sync 20 Speakerphone is deceptively small and light weight, coming in at 360gms and no bigger than 20cm wide.
However beneath the shiny exterior lies a wealth of useful features that really help the Poly Sync 20 shine. Chief among them is the top drawer audio speaker and microphone performance which beats any laptop on the market hands down. There is also the ability to use the Poly Sync 20 as a charger for your phone.
Coupled with the fact that the Poly Sync 20 is small enough to be portable (so you can use it at home and in your business office), its Bluetooth USB connectivity, 20 hours of battery life and futuristic touch sensitive controls, this really is a stand out product that will enhance the quality of both your audio and video calls. And if you’re not working, the Poly Sync 20 is great for kicking back and listening to music. Highly recommended.
The Poly Sync 20 retails for $129.95 and is available from Poly
Wearables
SnapWatch
With most developers focused on the adult market for tech wearables, it’s refreshing to find a device aimed at kids and the huge potential this growing market has to offer. SnapWatch caught our eye after hearing about this fun and yet practical solution to the problem of creating a truly flexible and wearable displays. SnapWatch – as the name suggests – is a watch combining a flexible LED display with an integral snapband feature. The result: a watch you can snap around your wrist without the need for a traditional buckle. As the watch is aimed at the younger generation, its display is large and bright and include both 12 and 21 hours options as well as seconds. SnapWatch comes with 6 design options – two plain and four featuring bright and bold character designs. The idea that encouraging kids to learn to tell the time by making watches accessbile and fun is something that has to be applauded. We loved the SnapWatch and we’re confident that millions of kids around the world will too.
SnapWatch retails at £9.99 and is available from SnapWatch
The Cardiac Monitoring T-Shirt
KYMIRA, the original producer of human-powered infrared sportswear has released an early prototype of the world’s first cardiac monitoring t-shirt. The garment wirelessly transmits the wearer’s heart rhythm to a mobile device, and can accurately identify an unusual heart rhythm that could cause a sudden cardiac arrest.
The new monitoring t-shirt uses a single lead ECG and movement reducing hardware to offer more accurate reading during exercise, perfect for both professional and amateur athletes alike.
The t-shirt, which is due to be available to sports teams in March this year (2019) and the public by the end of 2020, offers a way to reduce sudden heart attacks among athletes. The scientists at KYMIRA will continue to progress the technology to a 5 and 12 lead ECG version for medical purposes in the future.
Tim Brownstone, CEO and founder of KYMIRA, said: “The possibilities this product offers both sportspeople and the general public is astonishing. We envisage developing this product to be used for clinical applications to allow those who may already suffer with heart conditions enough warning of a heart attack.”
How it works:
Made from a lightweight infrared emitting fabric using KYnergy infrared technology, KYMIRA products regulate body temperature to improve the wearer’s performance due to the active minerals that are embedded into the fabric. The minerals capture the energy produced by the human body during exercise and re-emit it back into muscles, providing increased circulation, increased tissue oxygen levels by up to 20% and pain relief, especially reducing delayed onset muscle soreness. (DOMS)
The cardiac device currently has electrodes printed onto KYMIRA’s fabrics, which feed into a processing unit that takes the ECG data and transmits it via BLE to the cloud. There, KYMIRA’s proprietary algorithms process and clean the data to remove noise and movement artefacts in order to accurately detect irregular heartbeats such as arrhythmia heart beats.
Available from KYMIRA
Modius
Modius is the first headset from California and Northern Ireland-based health-tech company, Neurovalens and the first in its category to introduce wearable neuro technology to help make weight loss easier.
Modius works by sending a safe low-level pulse into the brain which targets the area responsible for your desire for food by reducing your appetite and cravings, the user simply needs to eat less!
Results both in lab testing and in the real-world show people losing on average 4% body-fat after just three months use.
Since it’s launch on Indiegogo late last year Modius now has some impressive customer data.
After more than 390,000 user sessions:
- after 10 weeks the average loss is approximately 9lbs
- the top user has lost 91lbs – six and a half stone
- the top 100 users have lost 40lbs on average each – more than two and a half stone
- the top 1000 users have lost over a stone
- heavier users are losing more weight
- under-30s, over-60s all age groups are reporting weight loss
Available from Modius Health
The Modius is one of those rare gems that appear from nowhere and instantly has the capacity to change an industry.
Cloud
Jatheon Cloud
Email archiving and eDiscovery company Jatheon Technologies is the company behind next-generation cloud email archiving solution – Jatheon Cloud.
After 15 years of experience with on-premise archiving solutions, the company created the new Jatheon Cloud with the same philosophy in mind – providing secure long-term email storage and easy retrieval for organizations that need to securely retain email and ensure easy access and searchability for reasons such as compliance requirements, legal discovery, storage management and business productivity and insight. With the new product, Jatheon can now address the lower end of the market and provide email archiving for startups and small-to- medium sized organizations that lack the IT infrastructure to support hardware solutions.
“The new cloud archiver meets and exceeds the highest standards of regulatory compliance and has the granularity necessary for the most demanding searches during eDiscovery. To make the email archiving experience easy for non-IT users, we’ve put in extra effort in the design of the user interface,” says Marko Dinic, CEO.
“Jatheon Cloud enables small and medium size businesses to execute complex email searches through millions of emails with a simple, easy to use interface, making eDiscovery a fast and efficient process. With this product priced very competitively against other leading archiving providers, we believe that it will be a complete success”, adds Jeff Marlow.
Available from Jatheon Technologies
