For those concrete jungle dwellers looking to bring a little bit of the real jungle into your lives, technology has an answer for you. Meet the Nectar by Hummingbird, a system that helps you garden regardless of where you are. The St. Louis based team of three have been working on their technology for over a year, and now, the fruits of their labor have taken life. The Nectar is a box measuring 4 feet tall, 18 inches wide, and 20 inches long, and boasts a suite of sensors and microcontrollers that detect what your plants need to adjust the environment accordingly.
There’s no soil involved, nor is there water, but there is life. Thanks to a nutrient solution that you can buy online or in gardening shops, you can do your gardening from within your studio apartment. Supposedly, there’s no mess involved and you’ll still be able to work on your green thumb. And of course, because this is the 21st century and we’re inseparable from our smartphones, the Nectar is controlled by a companion app that gives you the power to adjust the humidity, pH levels, temperature, and lighting of the enclosure.
As per the Nectar website, the ultimate draw for this indoor gardening system lies in the availability of organic food grown in your own home, no matter what the season. And thanks to its small size, you should be able to fit the Nectar just about anywhere.
While the original idea may have been to use the Nectar to grow basil and tomatoes, there’s also a more … interesting application for the smart gardening system as well. As co-founder Danny Varghese noted in an interview with the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the marijuana industry could become a major market for these systems. “I found out that there is a large subset of marijuana users in Colorado who spend around $5,000 per person per year on marijuana,” Varghese said. “These people are really in pain right now. They are spending big money on marijuana.” But with Nectar, Varghese says, users may be able to cut down on costs.
So no matter what you’re looking to grow, if you’ve a penchant for gardening, this just may be the smart home system for you.
Few things ruin a quiet evening faster than a robot vacuum roaring through the living room. Most of us end up pausing the cleaning run, which defeats the whole purpose of owning one. Matic thinks it has the answer with its new Serene robot vacuum, and the big selling point is how little noise it makes.
The Matic Serene runs at 52 decibels even when cleaning at full power. To put that in perspective, Matic compares it to the hum of your refrigerator. It is available now for $1,695, which is $200 more than the original Matic’s current price.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
Technology evolves every day, transforming how we live and work. Our devices are becoming more than tools we use. They are increasingly capable companions that help streamline day-to-day routines and spark creative ideas. If you have been waiting for the right moment to upgrade your tech setup, the Discover Samsung Shopping Event offers an opportunity to explore what connected, AI-powered living can look like.