Chrome Gadget Fall 2016

Who says a gadget has to be like everyone else’s? This group runs the gamut, whether you want to escape to a virtual world, work out like a champ or brew your own beer, there are gizmos to do all that and more right here.

HTC Vive

Putting this headset on is like opening a door to a plethora of virtual reality (VR) experiences that will tickle all your senses. Whether it’s walking around a real-world location or shooting at enemies in an immersive game, the Vive is unlike anything you’ve seen before. But to get into all the VR goodness requires a heavy-duty PC to run the content.

www.htcvive.com

$1,150

Athos

This compression shirt and shorts combination uses sensors underneath on the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, pectorals, biceps and triceps and others to measure your muscle activation during workouts. The Core is the holstered module that pulls the data from the sensors to sync them over to the Athos iOS app via Bluetooth, so you can see how balanced you are in real-time.

www.liveathos.com

Shirt $230 | Shorts $185 | Core $230

DJI Phantom 4

A drone that not only lets you shoot 4K video with the onboard camera, but also has some smarts in avoiding obstacles and locking on to follow a subject, the Phantom 4 is fully loaded and ready to fly. The firm body can take some punishment from wind gusts, and piloting only gets better once you learn the ropes through the included controller and DJI Go app.

www.dji.com

$2,030

HumanEyes Vuze VR Camera

With VR ascendant, the Vuze VR lets you create your own 360-degree 4K video, which you can view in real-time on your paired phone or afterward on a headset. It’s pretty compact and light to carry around, making it ideal for shooting anything from a vacation to a sporting event, and the video itself is universal enough to play back on any VR headset or app.

www.vuze.camera

$800

Quell

As a way to manage chronic pain, the Quell is a drug-free alternative that uses a strap with a strip of gels wrapped around the upper calf, sending electric pulses to stimulate the nerves. They carry neural pulses to the brain to trigger natural opioids for pain relief and to block pain signals in the body, regardless of where the pain is situated. Seriously, it works.

www.quellrelief.com

$300

Roku Streaming Stick

If you’re looking to make your TV smarter, this is one of the best ways to go. The Stick offers just about everything Roku has to offer, and includes neat app integration where you can plug in headphones and listen to what you’re watching. Over 1,400 apps, or “channels” and all you need to do is stick it into your TV’s HDMI port and take it from there.

www.roku.com/en-ca

$60

Mass Fidelity Core

Not your average Bluetooth speaker, the Core has Wave Field Synthesis (WFS), technology used in stadiums and airports since the ’80s, to pump out sound that feels bigger. It’s not 360-degree audio, but it can sound like it is, propagating itself in mid-air spatially to fill a room with more resonance. It can also do multi-room setups with up to nine Cores paired together via Bluetooth.

www.massfidelity.com

$600

PicoBrew

If you’ve ever wanted to brew craft beer on your own terms in your home, this is the gizmo to do it. Using PicoPaks filled with pre-packaged grain and hops, the unit scans the barcode to download the recipe and kick off the process. A small keg filled with water is attached with hoses to the side, finishing brewing and fermentation after several hours. More than 100 microbreweries around the world from dozens of countries are selling PicoPaks now.

www.picobrew.com

$1,000

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