Hot 100: T3's pick of groundbreaking tech

The concept art for this space elevator, designed by 30-year-old Jordan-William Hughes, might look like it belongs on a Magic: The Gathering card, but the concept of switching out rockets for wires connected to a seafaring spaceport might just transcend the world of fantasy. The future isn’t burning fuel – it’s about sustainable transport.
jordanhughes.artstation.com

Razer’s Hyperspeed wireless connectivity is the perfect partner for a capable gaming headset like this. Not only do you get full freedom of movement – doubly so since, despite its chunky looks, the Blackshark V2 weighs just 280g – but also sound that’s as lag free as possible without wires. Oh, also superb sound and an excellent mic, but that goes without saying.

Don’t call your device that. Seriously, it’s gross. But whatever it’s called, the Linkface MoistPod does have some practical application. Hold the unit up to your face and, through a link to your phone, it’ll analyse just how dry your eyes are. Then it will spray out just the right volume of moisturising mist to take them from crispy to sparkling. Why have we waited so long for this?!
£TBC, linkface.imweb.me

Left-handers have been denied the luxury of ergonomic mice for far too long. The ErgoFlip doesn’t just cater for those on the sinister side – it’s fine to share or swap hands as you wish, with a top shell that spins around to accommodate fingers and thumbs in either configuration. And it includes an antimicrobial coating that should prevent it getting too gross.

What if your mattress knew a little too much? DeRUCCI’s T11 Pro Smart Mattress does. It includes 23 sensors that track your sleep state and position, and builds in 18 support air bags that help it shift you about when it detects that you’re not sleeping sweetly. Check the report in the morning, and you might learn about health issues you never knew you had.
$8,250 (around £6,550), derucci.com

There’s really no point to Looking Glass’ nifty holographic screens other than to elicit an ‘ooh, look at that’ reaction – but sometimes that’s all you need. The Looking Glass Go marks a smaller, more affordable take on the depth-of-field display, made for what Looking Glass calls Spatial Memories – and its software can ‘turn just about any photo 3D’.
$300 (around £238), lookingglassfactory.com

While we’re sure the ColdSnap, which has been in development for several years, will serve up a delicious bowl of ice cream, you must feed it special first-party pods before it’ll spit out a scoop. Ice cream is not rare. You can buy it, ready to go, from a shop, without the need for a wacky machine. Or pick up one of the best ice cream makers without needing to buy pods. Silly.
£TBC, coldsnap.com

Keep leftovers warm or actually cook food on the go with a stylish battery-powered bag that somehow doubles as a 150-degree oven. Switch it off, let it cool, and its insulation will even keep stuff cold. An innovation, particularly for those that can’t stand to eat a room-temperature snack.
$200 (around £159), willtex.co.jp

A smart home revelation? Certainly, if you’re creative. Aqara’s sensor can detect up to five individual people. What you use it for is up to you: there are obvious security, lighting and smart thermostat applications, but also certain not-so-obvious automations that its multi-person detection opens up. Sleep sensing is one. Delaying one’s wake up routine if someone’s still in bed sounds glorious.

The leading name in pinball keeps scoring multiball jackpots. Jaws is available in three trims, from the perfectly acceptable Pro to the outrageously indulgent limited edition, and all take advantage of Stern’s Insider Connected system, which links the world’s machines to pit all players against one another.
From £8,195, sternpinball.com

You’ll agree that ‘Numi’ is a terrible name for a toilet, particularly one that’s introduced as an ‘immersive sensory experience’, but we can’t fault the innovation here. Cloaked in e-ink, like last year’s monochrome morphing BMW, the whole commode can change appearance, offer up music and lighting, and respond to voice control. For some reason.
£TBC, kohler.com

Red and near infra-red therapy can have a positive effect on the tightness of one’s skin, so there’s no wonder it’s the flavour of the month. The Currentbody Skin range includes a number of soft but terrifying looking devices that can help you apply IR to the bits that matter most to you – the neck, around the eyes, the lips, or even the full face.
From £270, currentbody.com

The flying car future keeps getting pushed back, so far that we can see barely a glimmer of it on the most distant horizon. We don’t think you’ll be piloting one of these. But we could absolutely see Supernal’s S-A2 mini electric flyer forming the core of a super-premium Uber-like service, flown by responsible people who know what they’re doing. £TBC, supernal.aero

What’s the best way to get around a city? Honda thinks it might be the Motocompacto, a luggable suitcase-like device that transforms into a little electric moped. As implausible as it might seem, it actually turns out to be very practical – particularly as it sits neatly on a luggage rack.
$995 (around £816), motocompacto.honda.com

Why should humans have all the fun? The Ogmen ORo is a companion robot especially made for dogs. Excellent for dealing with separation anxiety, whether that be the human or canine variety, since this can play with your dog and give it treats, or offer you a look at what your hound is destroying while you’re stuck at work.
$799 (around £635), orobuddy.com

An odd choice for the Hot 100? Hear us out. The Vivoo At-Home Urinary Tract Infection Test's app is the cool bit, being a practical use of deep learning tech. It uses AI to analyse the test stick to determine whether or not you actually have a UTI. Though you’ll probably have an inkling.
£TBC, vivoo.io

More of a commercial robot here, much though we’d love to have a little guy trundling around our house offering us freshly poured beer. The Ottobot Brew carries with it a Cooler Keg, which is a combination cooler and CO2 draft system, and its app-based ordering system is definitely a neat idea if you’re crying out for a drink and don’t want to leave your cushy table.
£TBC, ottobotbrew.com

Not ready to rip out your toilet to replace it with a smart model? Crown your current throne with Kohler’s PureWash E930 add-on bidet system and you’ll be able to get the benefits with a little less outlay. Sure, it’s not cheap, but anyone who’s used it will describe the benefits in uncomfortable detail…
£1,339, kohler.com

We’re not just thrilled by the Abode Edge security camera. It’s the tech inside. Wi-Fi HaLow utilises sub-1GHz frequencies and some technical wizardry to create a range of over a mile, so if you’re lucky enough to live on palatial grounds this could be just the solution to get coverage without all those wireless repeaters.
$199 (around £159), goabode.com

Smart mirrors may be starting to find their niche. The Baracoda BMind isn’t just a quirky showcase of a screen glowing behind mirrored glass – it offers wellness advice. AI will identify your mood and make recommendations based on what it perceives to be your mental state.
£TBC, baracoda.com

Back in the PC’s heyday, everyone had a set of small powered speakers on their desks. Kanto’s Ora 4 speakers are basically that combined with some of the best bookshelf speakers, sporting dinky tweeters, but they output what Kanto calls audiophile-grade reference-quality sound – so they’re as good for musicians as they are for gamers.
£309, kantoaudio.com

The latest classic computer to get the mini treatment is the Atari 400. For those of us in the UK, this will be more a journey of discovery than one of nostalgia, given that the 400 didn’t reach the heights of the C64 and others here, but we can’t fault the effort, and there are plenty of gems pre-installed.
$120 (around £95), atari.com

Taking one’s pet to the vet every time they cough gets expensive fast. A smart pet bed appears to be a wiser investment, and the Domethics Carepet can offer data on heart rate, respiration and sleep quality as they doze, as well as tying those stats to environmental conditions. Through its app, you get early warning on potential issues and peace of mind.
£TBC, domethics.com

Take a guess as to how Dyson’s innovative straightener flattens out multiple types of hair without using hot plates and without damaging the hair. The clue is in the name: the Dyson Airstrait uses hot air. Precisely angled and intricately controlled, the air can even do the job on wet hair straight from the shower, or be made to blow cold to set a style.

Can this really translate a baby’s cries? We’ll stay dubious about the efficacy of Maxi-Cosi’s CryAssist feature, but we’re not concerned about its 2K camera, its five-inch parent screen, and the panning, tilting and zooming that’ll keep your baby in frame.
£200, maxi-cosi.co.uk

NAD is an elder statesman of high-end hi-fi, and the reputation it carries from the past few decades is just as relevant today as it was then. The M66 sees it planting its feet firmly in the present: like the best streaming DACs, it’s an advanced streamer packing support for all relevant hi-res tech and an audiophile-grade DAC and preamp.
£4,499, nadelectronics.com

Home surveillance tech is now so affordable and easy that everyone should have one or two of the best security cameras installed somewhere. Imou’s newest combines panoramic pan and tilt with a built-in AI engine that can detect intruders. This will mean nobody’s setting foot on your property without you knowing about it – even in twilight, thanks to colour night vision.
£70, imoulife.com

If any company knows a thing or two about air quality it’s AirThings, though to our knowledge this is the first time it has gone beyond detectors to do something about it and make a bid to join the ranks of the best air purifiers. Looking like a cross between a suitcase and a subwoofer – but far, far quieter – the Renew uses both HEPA-13 and charcoal filters to pull everything nasty out of the air around you.
£349, airthings.com

We’re all for innovation in the personal mobility space – just check out our guide to the best electric scooters if you want more evidence. Electric all-terrain skis with a top speed of 50mph, though? Perhaps that’s a tool best left for the Red Bull generation, or those with less respect for their own teeth. We’re positive that the SKWheel One will be an absolutely exhilarating experience, but we’re terrified to strap them on.
£3,760, skwheel.com

Invest in the things you use the most, they say. Your shower should definitely be on that list, and an investment in the Anthem Plus gets you an app-controllable shower that lets you set presets for the perfect water temperature; exceptional light and sound ambience; and even a custom amount of steam.
£TBC, kohler.com

Serious security here, with a vast array of options for getting in that rivals many of the best smart locks. The Visage offers an auto-mixed PIN pad, a fingerprint reader, facial recognition, RFID key fobs, Apple Home Key and Alexa smart home support, Matter connectivity and even a slice of metal with teeth on it. Perfect for short term rentals, or those prone to losing their keys.
$349 (around £278), lockly.com

There’s clearly a place for smart home robots, but whether that’s in countless development labs or countless homes remains to be seen. The Samsung Ballie might just have us convinced, though. It’s adorable (of course), helps manage home appliances, can follow your pets around to give you updates when you’re not home, and even projects videos on the floor.
£TBC, samsung.com

The Mercedes MBUX system is very neat, offering personalisation and app installation where most infotainment platforms lock it down. Sound Drive takes things several steps further: it’s a reactive soundtrack generated from your journey and feedback from the vehicle’s hardware, straight from the barmy mind of Will.I.Am. Essential? No. Fun? Maybe.
mercedes-benz.com

It washes! It dries! It vacuums, mops and even empties its mop bucket into the same drain as the washing machine. Like all of the best robot vacuum cleaners, Eureka’s ultimate cleaning combo does require the right home layout to get the most out of it, but it’s an ingenious combination of smart appliances, and the most effective space saver you’re likely to find.
£TBC, eureka.com

The Harman / Kardon Allure Essential keeps the glassy looks, the 360-degree sound and Alexa from old models, making it a strong candidate for one of the best smart speakers. But it also gives it a golden makeover and ambient dynamic lighting to offer your music a little light to go with the super sound.
£TBC, harmankardon.co.uk

Age-related macular degeneration sees the middle of one’s vision deteriorating and becoming more blurry. Samsung-backed Cellico has come up with something that might help: smart glasses that use a 4K camera to transpose that central vision into the peripheral, still working areas of the eye.
£TBC, cellico.nanugo.kr

AR is not just for the eyes, as Brandenburg Labs is attempting to prove. It’s working on the Audio Augmented Reality Headphone System, an immersive all-around sound system that projects a directional soundscape right to your ears – the kind of thing that’ll fully immerse you in VR, or simply offer up a sound-only imagination experience. There are practical uses too – but fun’s the headline, we think.
brandenburg-labs.com

Gozney makes brilliant pizza ovens. We have no reason to suspect the Arc, its brand new gas-fired outdoor oven, will be any different. The name comes from the arc the flame makes over the curved roof, which offers your dough a consistent and super-hot heat. We like that they’ve incorporated a digital thermometer this time, too.

We’re sure very few of the best security cameras are quite this cute. But there’s smarts behind the eyes of the Reolink Duo 3 PoE – they’re pointed in such a manner as to provide a full 180-degree panorama of whatever they’re pointed at, without having to resort to too much fish-eye distortion.
£TBC, reolink.com

The term carcinisation describes the strange phenomenon of multiple species’ evolution heading towards crab form. Hyundai's Mobis e-corner system puts the ‘car’ into that: the e-corner system sees a concept Ioniq 5 turn all of its wheels 90º and crab-drive into spaces.
hyundai.com

Here’s something that could be revolutionary, but it has its work cut out for it if it’s going to get there. Not because it doesn’t work – we presume the SeerGrills Perfecta is brilliant at what it does – but because what it does is cook steaks in what amounts to a special sideways toaster.
$3,499 (around £2,790), seergrills.com

It’s a robot vacuum. One that’s not nearly as connected as some of its rivals. But that’s a good thing. Matic keeps the position of your couch private, sucking and mopping without sending a map of your house to Amazon – and it does it quietly, with a high level of internal smarts and the ability to react to voice control.
$1,795 (about £1,430), maticrobots.com

Nanoleaf remembers music visualisers, and plans to immortalise them by upgrading the reactive tech it’s used in previous devices. The Orchestrator software picks out different frequencies, beats and melodies to give each tune its own unique light show – perfect for parties or gaming.
nanoleaf.me

The threat of AI-created deepfakes is so insidious that we find ourselves excited by a McAfee product for the first time in decades. Project Mockingbird fights fire with fire, using its own AI to spot computer-generated falsehoods, so you’ll always know if that celebrity is really offering you a free car. (Hint: they aren’t.)
mcafee.com

VR hand tracking is already pretty darned good, but it could be better. The PalmPlug’s hand tracking is, of course, exceptional – but it’s the haptic and visual feedback that really makes this sing. It’s not just for the best VR headsets, either: it’s a cool tool whether you’re getting fitter, learning a new finger-based skill, or just want to affect a cyberpunk look.
$400 (around £317), palmplug.com

Social media’s pervasive influence is everywhere. If you’re the next Insta superstar but don’t want to leave a broken cameraperson in your wake, Belkin has your back. Stick your iPhone on the Auto Tracking Stand Pro, let its app recognise you, and it’ll train the camera on your image and never let it go.

Since 2008, BMW has been fiddling with incorporating augmented reality tech into its driving platform, but it’s been impossible until now. Xreal’s Air 2 glasses, which incorporate tiny micro-OLED image overlays, might just be able to pull off the reaction times required to make the German car giant’s vision of computer-aided driving a (mixed) reality.
£TBC, bmwgroup.com

For the phone to truly reach Apple’s goal of becoming the leading gaming platform, it needs solid controls. Serafim’s S3 phone joystick has said solid controls. And they’ll stay that way, since the sticks employ hall effect sensors, which measure the position of magnets rather than utilising gunky potentiometers. That means no drift whatsoever. Nice.
£TBC, serafim-tech.com

Nvidia is on something of a mission to add, well, character to non-player characters. Avatar Cloud Engine allows developers to build their personalities from AI models, hemmed in by appropriate guardrails to ensure that computer bartender doesn’t suddenly start getting all inappropriate. Weirdly, we love the idea – give us a world full of interesting AI folks.
nvidia.com

As much as Xencelabs et al might be nipping at Wacom’s heels, the new Cintiq Pro 27 demonstrates why Wacom has stayed so long at the top of the tree of the best tablets. It’s gorgeous, huge and well suited to digital artists, with a colour-calibrated 4K display, which means you’ll be able to draw with the finest resolution possible. State-of-the-art.

The Reencle Gravity itself isn’t the main event here. Yes, it’s a clever food bin that accepts waste and turns it, odour-free, into garden-ready compost – but it’s the so-called ReencleMicrobe that does the hard work. Rather than cooking and desiccating food waste like some rival products do, the microbe digests it – and can do so within a day.
$449 (around £355), reencle.co

Fancy a 100-inch screen? That’s the conceit behind the Spacetop, which swaps out the usual flat panel for a set of AR glasses. Bang them on your face, and the half-laptop comes into its own, popping up a desktop full of translucent windows into the air above – almost like a slightly more practical Apple Vision Pro.
$2,150 (around £1,710), sightful.com

Hearing aids are expensive and, wrongly, many people won’t wear them because they consider them uncool. Nuance’s glasses are far more subtle, employing an array of beam-forming microphones to pick out a 20-degree arc of noise-suppressed sound in front of the wearer, and amplifying it to the ears with four invisible temple-mounted speakers.
£TBC, essilorluxottica.com

The vinyl re-revolution is not just about enjoying the warmth of analogue sound that the best record players provide, it’s about the physical, tactile and beautiful nature of physical media. Make the most of displaying your limited edition picture discs and lurid-coloured LPs with Fuse’s well-appointed vertical spinner, which works standalone, cabled, or via a Bluetooth output.
$210 (around £166), fuseaudio.net

The Pro 2 is pure fun, whether you’re scooting around on four wheels or sitting static in front of the TV. 4mph faster than the original GoKart, now hitting 26.7mph in race mode, this is great to take out in the sun – and it converts to a console-compatible force feedback racing controller when you’re stuck inside.
£1799, segway.com

The advanced colour of quantum dots and the true blacks of OLED go rather well together. This is the first time we’ve seen a manufacturer able to drive them quite this hard: Alienware says the 32 4K QD-OLED 240Hz screen is the world’s first QD-OLED monitor that manages to hit 4K resolution. It also includes Dolby Vision driven to a peak luminance of 1000 nits.

We don’t think too many people deeply miss the Blackberry form factor, but there are plenty of social addicts and work-anywhere types that’d appreciate the tactile response of a proper QWERTY keyboard. Thus the Clicks, perhaps the most practical add-on typing surface we’ve seen for the iPhone, and one pulled off with a serious amount of style.
From £139, clicks.tech

Even the best VR headsets need a little expression, and HTC has the answer. Clip this on to your Vive XR Elite headset, plug in via USB-C, and you can realise your Andy Serkis dreams. Your eye and mouth movements get captured and translated onto the mug of your digital avatar – and it’s also used for automatic IPD adjustments, which is a nice touch.
£174, vive.com

With over 5,000 celestial points of interest and 37 million stars in its database, the Odyssey already knows what you want to look at – and its smart app-driven motorised mount means you can seek out the best of the universe with no effort. There’s too much maths and not enough looking at the sky in astronomy, even when using some of the best telescopes – this is a true upgrade.

TV manufacturers have been shaving off the inches – not on screens, which are getting far larger, but on their increasingly stubby stands. That’s great for aesthetics, but terrible for soundbars – unless they’re Philips’ new 2.1 Dolby Atmos flagship, the TAB6309, which is only 37mm tall and will therefore not block even a micron of your 4K panel.

If Yamaha’s music experimentation station gives you OP-1 vibes, you wouldn’t be alone – the design is redolent of Teenage Engineering’s style, and the SEQTRAK is, similarly, capable of drums, synths, sequencing and some serious sound design. It’s a different workflow, however – and if you love tweaking knobs, this is a winner.
£349, uk.yamaha.com

Intel recently announced that it was done with its NUC line, seemingly consigning the compact computer range to the bin of history – but thankfully Asus was happy to dive into that dumpster and keep the NUC flag flying. Tool-less for easy customisation, packed with a 4060 or 4070 GPU, and utilising Intel’s latest Core Ultra platform, these will fly.

If you missed out on the Sega Nomad – and, let’s face it, most did, given it was released in 1995, in limited numbers – then the portable Hyperkin Megadrive 95 will scratch a long untended itch. It appears to use hardware emulation for accuracy, takes actual cartridges and won’t swallow six AA batteries in an hour.
£TBC, hyperkin.com

PBV stands for ‘Platform Beyond Vehicle’ – it’s Kia’s really rather clever idea for a series of modular four-wheelers. They can be specced to match precisely what you want to do with them, from the number of seats in the passenger vehicles to the specific storage configuration in the commercial vans. We’ll take the ultimate electric camper, please.
£TBC, kia.com

Samsung is, on one hand, making some of the best 8K TVs. And on the other, it’s arguing that you really don’t need a TV at all. This isn’t just an ultra-short throw projector, meaning it can sit by the wall, and neither is it only capable of projecting 130 inches of 8K. It’s also wireless; its OneConnect box no longer needs a wire.
£TBC, samsung.com

#24: Brewing

Microbrews be damned. The era of the picobrew is here, with gear like the ExoBrew Craft Gen 3 and iGulu F1. They move homebrew from mad scientist experimentation in a collection of dusty garage-bound plastic jugs to an almost foolproof process contained in equipment handsome enough to live on your kitchen counter. No more paint stripper – just a nice pint.
Exobrew.com

We fully expect electricity to take hold of the motorbike market, from a practical standpoint as much as anything else. Yes, the Verge TS Ultra doesn’t make the same kind of noise that an ICE bike might, but it’s super-clean, super cheap to run, fast, and that back wheel makes it look like something out of Tron.
From $44,900 (around £35,500), vergemotorcycles.com

The Focal Aria Evo X, the latest speaker series from Focal –which, as is its way, runs a five-model gamut from floorstanders to bookshelves to satellites and beyond – impresses with more than just its glossy colour schemes. This is precise and perfect engineering, with flax cones pumping out an immersive sound.
From £699, focal.com

Samsung’s vague messaging around this new monitor-connecting tech has us slightly unclear on the way it actually works. What we know is that it’ll make multi-monitor setups neater than ever, linking together super-thin screens without the need for extra wires – something every cable-covered desk needs. Making yourself one of the best ultrawide monitors is now easier than ever.
£TBC, samsung.com

The LG DukeBox is a smart speaker with 360-degree audio, which sums up the present day; on the front, a very futuristic transparent display draws the eye through to the vintage sight of glowing vacuum tubes behind. Somehow the whole lot really works as one – here’s hoping LG takes it beyond the concept stage.
£TBC, lg.com

Are these the laptops that everyone should be using? Maybe, as far as sustainability goes. Acer’s Aspire Vero 16 notebook crams in pro-environment features – its plastic is 60% PCR and free from mica, its packaging is 100% recyclable – but the presence of Intel’s Core Ultra platform proves the insides have pep beyond the message.

Sennheiser’s newest in-ears feel like the next step for true wireless. The Momentum True Wireless 4's new battery plus Bluetooth’s low-energy Audio tech helps them last 30 hours, the ANC is as sharp as expected, and the refined TrueResponse transducers offer extra-crispy sound.

A bit of showing off from Samsung here, demonstrating the kind of thing its next-level folding displays can actually do. Where the Galaxy Z Flip folds only in on itself, the Flex In&Out concept goes either way – acting as an expansive, outwardly rounded cover screen when it needs to, or completely closing up when it’s in your pocket.
£TBC, samsung.com

With typical minimalist aplomb, a small case, but just enough technological style to pull off its role, the Ikea Vindstyrka is a relatively basic but incredibly affordable air quality monitor that deserves a place in everyone’s home. And if you want to take it further, it hooks up to Ikea’s other smart home gear, like the Starkvind air purifier, to correct issues fast.
£35, ikea.com

#11: Wi-Fi 7

You might not even have upgraded to Wi-Fi 6 yet. No need to worry: Wi-Fi 7 might use the same 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands as it predecessor, but its connections can span channels in the shorter wavelengths to allow them to send a whole heap more data, and even tie together multiple frequencies from different bands. What does this mean? Speed, lots of speed.

Time for Philips to claim a spot at the top of the TV tower? Its flagship OLED+959 might well be enough to get it there. It sports an 8th-gen P5 AI Dual Engine processor, the upgraded Ambilight Plus to give your wall a colourful treat, and a new integrated 102W 5.1.2 sound system from Bowers & Wilkins. Watching anything on this will be an experience.
£3999, philips.com

Samsung’s newest Premiere, later in the Hot 100, has a looser take on short throw projection which doesn’t go nearly this far: Hisense’s awesome setup builds in its own projection screen, utilises laser projection for consistent and super-bright images, and – as its name suggests – turns its screen into a big speaker for unparalleled sound.
£TBC, hisense.com

For a soundbar to land this high up the Hot 100, it’d have to be special – and Samsung’s 11.1.4 Dolby Atmos setup, the HW-Q990D, fits the bill. The successor to the HW-990C adds 120Hz 4K HDMI 2.1 passthrough, finally removing the bottleneck for next-gen gamers, and inserts a very neat private listening mode that uses the rear speakers for less wall-shaking sound.

Ironing out the teething troubles of the original 40-series line, the Super is the powerhouse behind today’s finest gaming experiences. Sony says the PS5 is reaching the latter stages of its lifespan, but Nvidia is just getting started on the PC side – this is an upgrade that every desktop box simply needs to make.
From £529, nvidia.com