A festival of absurd, or not so absurd, junk

BarcelonaThe consumer electronics market has entered a phase of creative exuberance that makes one wonder whether engineers have completely lost touch with reality or whether we are the ones who don't understand where the world is going. In recent months, we have witnessed a parade of electronic devices that range from the picturesque to the dystopian.

Robot pets with medical insurance

The Casio Moflin ($429) is the Tamagotchi of the AI era: a furry robot pet that develops emotions after 50 days of care and requires a Moflin Club subscription for hospitalization services when it breaks down. Yes, you can pay €44 a year for medical services from a robot that looks like a guinea pig. The company even offers resurrection services to revive "dead" pets from backups, treating the device's errors with the seriousness of a pet's death.

Despite only lasting 5 hours compared to the "24-hour" operation of real pets – provided they have enough food – the Moflin won an innovation award at CES in Las Vegas and sold out the initial production run of 10,000 units and 45 years, demonstrating a genuine demand for artificial companionship that has led Casio to expand into the American and British markets.

Spy and recording glasses for Meta

Meta has expanded its range of smart glasses with three distinct categories: the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 ($379), with Ultra HD 3K recording and 8 hours of battery life; the sporty Oakley Meta Vanguard ($549), with 9 hours of battery life and integration with Garmin and Strava; and the disturbing Meta Ray-Ban Display ($799), which incorporates a screen controlled by the Neural Band bracelet, which reads muscle impulses, into one of the lenses. These continuously record audio to train Meta's AI—yes, the one that refuses to speak Catalan—after the company removed the opt-out options, promising to reduce screen time while literally putting one in front of your eyes. Harvard has already demonstrated how to use them to identify people in real time with facial recognition. Recall that both the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 have demonstrated how the promise of revolutionary AI can end in failure.

The Berlin parade of unnecessary gadgets

Many of these inventions could be seen in early September at the IFA trade fair in Berlin, where brands from around the world compete to present the most creative solutions to problems humanity never knew existed. It's a curious paradox: the global home appliance market is valued at almost half a trillion euros and has grown by 4.78% year-on-year, driven by digital demand, yet in-person mega-fairs aimed at buyers from large retail chains continue to be held, while consumers are increasingly comfortable shopping online, increasing by 8% last year.

Cybersecurity for washing machines

We've already seen Samsung install microphones in its washing machines so we can take work calls while watching our underwear tumble around in the drum. Now, its high-end appliances incorporate Knox Matrix, the security system found in Galaxy phones. It may seem excessive to give your shopping list the same level of protection as family photos, but an unprotected, connected washing machine or refrigerator can be a gateway for cybercriminals to your home network, with all that entails.

Robots that vacuum, mop, and play ball

After the Saros Z70, that Roborock presented in Las Vegas, now comes the NexLawn Master X Series robot lawnmower, with a 77-centimeter mechanical arm that not only mows the grass, but also harvests objects, trims and can throw balls for the dog. Dyson has shown off its first Spot+Scrub AI combination robot, which vacuums and mows simultaneously, as well as the HushJet Compact air purifier, whose diffuser simulates the turbine of a jet plane.

Dazzling screens and other picturesque utensils

The 116-inch Hisense TV reaches 8,000 nights of maximum brightness, a figure that makes you wonder if what you're looking for is watching television or simulating the Northern Lights in the dining room. The Xgimi Horizon 20 Max projectors offer 5,700 ISO lumens, for playing video games in broad daylight or at night. It's another matter whether we shouldn't be using any surface as a screen.

Lenovo's Legion Go 2 gaming console with an 8.8-inch OLED display promises the experience of a PC in your pocket, but with a price tag of over €1,000 it seems like a rather expensive substitute for a Game Boy. The same brand has introduced the ThinkBook VertiFlex, a laptop with a rotating screen that optimizes the experience of reading depressing news in portrait format. It has a desktop stand that can follow you around the room, like a giant webcam.

Kirin emphasizes the electric salt spoon that gently shocks the tongue to make food taste saltier without adding salt. The Swiss AI cat door Flappie uses computer vision to prevent cats from entering the home with a mouse or sparrow in their mouth. It costs around €400, but you have to add €9 per month to get all the features.

The subscription economy invades physical objects.

This latest product, like the aforementioned Casio mascot, is yet another example of the growing trend toward subscription models for some home appliance features. It's a fundamental shift: consumers pay premium prices for smart devices, then must subscribe to access already built-in capabilities. The alternative is Samsung's Family Hub refrigerators, which display ads on screens the consumer has already paid for; other manufacturers lock existing features behind monthly payments.

The Market for Necessary Absurdity

AI has become the secret sauce that justifies any price tag, from non-over-ear headphones to 39.7-inch 5K gaming monitors. The question isn't whether we need these devices, but whether we're ready for a future where every object in our homes will have more processing power than the computers that took us to the moon.

And we kept clapping, insisting that what we really needed was just for things to work properly, offline.