What makes a device a “smart device?” We could perhaps look at mobile phones and how they evolved from being dubbed feature phones to Smartphones to get the answer, but then again some feature phones did indeed have internet connectivity capabilities. We could perhaps refer to smart devices as those which can connect to and interface with others in a feature-rich and intuitive way, which is why though some smart devices are in fact paradoxical by their very nature.

A Smart Wine Bottle

Why on earth does a wine bottle need to have internet connectivity capabilities? I know what you’re thinking — this could perhaps be a good thing, especially if wine lovers can keep tabs on the perfect temperature conditions under which to mature and store their wine, but that’s not what this makes this particular smart wine bottle “smart.” Ferngrove Wine Group, a Chinese winemaker’s idea of their smart wine bottle makes use of wireless tech to combat counterfeiting. It may be a high-end wine, but yeah, I don’t know hey…

Smart Cat Water-Fountain

The fact that this idea raised $56,000 via an IndieGogo campaign is rather concerning, but that was $44,000 short of its intended target of $100k. So this smart cat water fountain was intended to encourage cats to practice better water-drinking habits while helping the pet-owner keep an eye on the water-intake of your kitten, from your Smartphone! I mean there’s natural instinct on the part of the cats for that, isn’t there?

Smart iKettle

Really? A £100 kettle which connects to your phone to alert you when you can pour your hot water and delivers to you some reminders of when you should refill. Oh and it also tells you when the kettle is empty! Ground breaking stuff this, isn’t it? I’ve been using my “dumb” kettle which does exactly the same things manually all wrong!