Here on the floor of CES, we realize the Consumer Electronics Show is for consumers (or, for the companies who serve them)… but what about us entrepreneurs and small business leaders? We spend most of our hours trying to do work — and looking for ways to do it better, faster, more efficiently.
While most new products at CES are about fun, fitness, and family — I knew there’d be plenty of new tools help you improve your business wisdom, workflow and wins. So I went looking.
Here are some of the best new gadgets, gizmos and tools I found at CES to solve your business problems:
Fun-on-a-stick: Intel Compute Stick
I’ve heard of a popsicle stick, a USB stick, and even the Amazon Fire TV Stick, but what’s an Intel Compute Stick? Well, you can think of it as an incredibly-thin-client PC for businesspeople on the go. Intel says “It’s everything you love about your desktop computer in a device that fits in the palm of your hand.” It’s a new kind of thing — think of it as a low-cost computer plugged into a TV for a monitor. A computer-on-a-stick device that’s ready-to-go out-of-the-box pre-installed with Windows 8.1 or Linux, wireless connectivity, on-board storage, and a micro SD card slot for additional storage. While it’s not likely to replace your laptop, Intel says it’s “a complete experience on an ultra-small, power-efficient device that is just four inches long, yet packs the power and reliability of a quad-core Intel Atom processor.” Wow — can’t wait to see if this thing becomes disruptive!
Trans-platform keyboarding: Logitech Multi-Device Keyboard K480
Doing much “office work” on your phone lately? Yeah, me too. And on my tablet. Sometimes when you’re on the road or on the run for business, stuff needs to get done right now, and the laptop isn’t handy or it’s just not fired up — but when you’re trying to work out details on a spreadsheet or type a report, those little digital keyboards don’t cut it. Finally, here’s a super-easy solution: the Logitech Bluetooth Multi-Device Keyboard K480, a keyboard that connects with Bluetooth to any of your devices — it can even switch easily between them and works with both Mac and Windows. You can set up your phone or tablet on the keyboard’s special tray so it’s easy to see your screen and type at the same time. If you need to connect to more than one device in rapid succession, just turn the Easy-Switch dial to switch between three connected wireless devices.
Old+new is new: Guess Connect smartwatch
One big trend this year: old-fashioned wrist watches are becoming “smart” (or, even smarter). Martian has intro’d a new lineup of watches to add to its recently launched Martian Notifier, with five new models including the Guess Connect, which all work with both iOS and Android. The watches have built-in microphones that can deliver voice commands to Siri or Google Voice. The watches notify the wearer using vibrations, which can be set to vibrate differently depending on the kind of notification, and each watch features notification messages on a tiny banner display along its bottom edge using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). All of them can recharge using USB.
Get your eyes off my iPhone: Vysk Privacy Case
If you’re self-employed or part of the BYOD revolution, are you using a spanking new iPhone 6 you got this fall, or a new Google phone you got as a gift, to get business done? All the more reason that super-computer-in-a-hand must be protected, right? Well here’s a phone case that’ll protect not just the physical device, but the privacy of the data on it as well.
The Vysk QS1 Privacy Case protects against drops onto the pavement, and against hackers. The case covers your phone’s camera and microphone so hackers can’t listen in or sneak a peek at your private meetings. Your new Vysk QS1 also offers special apps to make phone calls that can’t be recorded and encrypt your text messages and photos when you send them.
Freedom vs Security? Both: Phorce Freedom
Always running from meeting to meeting, city to city, pitching to investors, clients or partners? You’re not alone — and Phorce has made it their business to create briefcases/computer bags that make your roadwork easier and more efficient. Their latest and most compact bag is the Phorce Freedom — thus dubbed because it can transform from a backpack into a messenger bag or briefcase, in under 10 seconds. So it adjusts to your needs, whatever they are today.
The bag is beautifully tailored and packed with efficient pockets, but its best innovation is how it works for you while you travel — Freedom can power your phone for an entire week. Its included backup battery charger (15,000 mAh power core) connects with USB inside the bag to its various compartments for your phone, tablets, watch, headphones or (of course) computer. So you can charge your gear when there are no power outlets — like while waiting for a plane, walking to catch a bus, or grabbing lunch from a sidewalk hotdog stand.
And its direct-access laptop compartment helps you ease through security checks more quickly.
Is that a robot in your pocket: Zuta Pocket Printer
Printing while on the road has always been a bear. While most of us don’t need printers as much as we used to, there are some things that just have to be laid out on paper for your partners, investors and customers to look over with you in detail, mark up with notes, and take with them. The Zuta Pocket Printer is the most fascinating tool to help with this task I’ve ever seen. Most portable printers are small versions of big printers, and only print to one or two specific paper sizes. The Zuta, on the other hand, is super small for a printer (about 10 cm across), it connects wirelessly to smartphones and PCs, and it lets you print on any size piece of paper. It’s so small, you might wonder for a second how it’ll print your large documents. Well, read on for three things about Zuta that make it unique, and pretty amazing:
Any Size Paper — The Zuta actually prints while roaming across your page like a little robot, so it isn’t limited to a certain paper size. Just align the printer at the top left corner of your page, and send your document. It’ll begin crawling across the page while printing, turn and print some more, and it knows when it reaches the edge. Indeed, if you send several pages to get printed, the printer will stop when it gets to the bottom of the first page and wait for you to place it at the top of the next page. Once the printer is placed on the next page, tap on the app and it’ll continue to print.- Any Device — the Zuta connects to any device via WiFi. You can now print directly from smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs.
- Anywhere — at only 10.2 cm in diameter, 7.5 cm in height and weighing only 350 grams, the Zuta can be taken anywhere. It’s meant for users who only occasionally need a printer and in places you usually won’t find a printer available. And of course, entrepreneurs and sole proprietors — often in meetings on-the-go or working in coffee shops — are more apt to need to print documents from a phone than a laptop.
True Incremental Change In the Real World
And of course, don’t forget the many useful (and necessary) tools Seagate launched this week. The cool gadgets above may not be the Earth-shaking change-makers CES marketers love to tout — but I think each of these may help us step-by-step to reach that ultra-efficient future we dream of, where entrepreneurship is mainly about ideas and working with people, rather than grappling to make our tools and processes work!
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Who is John Paulsen? A former small-business leader myself, I feel your pain (and joy) and hope you’ll enjoy the blog. I launched and ran a well-regarded production company in San Francisco with a team of 9 brilliant, hard working people. I learned to manage a wide array of tasks a small business must handle — business strategy, facilities design, HR, payroll, taxes, marketing, all the way down to choosing telecom equipment and spec’ing a server system to help my team collaborate in real-time on dense media projects from multiple production rooms. I’ve partnered with and learned from dozens of small business owners.
