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Engadget Podcast Ep 21: Ooh Las Vegas
Associate editor Billy Steele, senior editor Nicole Lee and deputy managing editor James Trew join host Terrence O'Brien to talk about the early trends emerging from CES. It's only the first day of the show, but there's already been plenty of announcements, press conferences and lots of lost sleep. One of the most immediate things you'll notice on the show floor is that everything has voice control this year, even garbage cans. And tons of companies are rushing to integrate Alexa into cars, washing machines and refrigerators. The panel will also talk about the best and worst things they've seen so far.
Oral-B's latest smart toothbrush has one fatal flaw
Oral-B, those purveyors of tools to keep your teeth clean, have been making Bluetooth electric toothbrushes for a few years now. But its latest, the Oral-B Genius 8000, is the Cadillac of connected Bluetooth toothbrushes, if you're in to that sort of thing. What's interesting about the Genius is that it uses your smartphone's front-facing camera to analyze your brushing patterns and ensure that you're hitting every zone of your mouth sufficiently before you move on. The company has seen that when people brush, they often accidentally skip over or under-brush parts of their mouth, and this is meant to fix that.
Scrubbing with a toothbrush that knows when you missed a spot
Mobile World Congress is predominantly about smartphones, however look hard enough and you'll find all sorts of other surprises too. Take Oral-B, which chose Barcelona as the place to announce the B-Genius, a new toothbrush that knows exactly where you're scrubbing. A built-in accelerometer clocks the angle, while your phone's front-facing camera tracks its location and your dentures. As you brush, the companion app highlights the places you've cleaned and the spots you might have missed. So of course, we had to try it for ourselves and see if it's worth the hassle.
Oral-B's app-connected toothbrush now rescuing British teeth for £230
Oral-B's electric toothbrushes spin, vibrate and get into places your standard scrubber can only imagine, but none are more extravagant than the new "Smart Series" launched today. The Bluetooth-endowed brushes -- yes, they're a thing now -- pair with iOS devices (an Android app's due in August) and tell you how terrible your oral hygiene is, with the hope of improving it. Basically, the app allows you to choose different brushing routines, with your iPhone showing a timer (as well as news and weather reports to distract you from the dull task at hand), telling you when to move on to different areas of your chops, and notifying you when you're putting too much pressure on your teeth. Oral-B's actually had toothbrushes with similar functionality for many years, but they've all required additional hardware that's replaced by your phone in this new Smart Series. Kind of like a fitness tracker for brushing, the app will also store session data so you can build up a record of successful scrubs.
Oral-B's smart toothbrush wants to fix our dumb hygiene habits (hands-on)
Were we expecting to find a Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush here at MWC? No, we weren't. Did we physically put it to the test, after a long line of other exhibition goers? No, we certainly did not. However, we'd be more than pleased to show you how the Oral-B's SmartSeries 7000 might earn its keep. As you're about to see, the $220 gizmo can do plenty of things that normal toothbrushes can't.
Oral-B smart toothbrush will make sure you're following your dentist's advice
Two can play the smartphone-savvy toothbrush game, it seems. Procter & Gamble tells Reuters that it's releasing an Oral-B toothbrush (pictured above) that, like its Kolibree rival, will talk to your smartphone via Bluetooth to show how well you're cleaning your teeth. Dentists will play a more important role here, however -- they can program the companion app to make sure you're cleaning spots you tend to miss. Ideally, this will prevent the tendency to slack off following a check-up. The smart brush will be one of the priciest models in the Oral-B line at £199 ($331) when it ships in June, but it may be worth the expense if it spares you from any cavities.
