The Internet of Things has jumped the shark

Someone has come out with a Bluetooth-enabled baby bottle. As someone who has spent plenty of time feeding babies, I never thought even once, "I wish this baby bottle sent alerts to my phone." In concept, I kind of understand the notion that a "smart bottle" can help train a new parent about issues like letting the child suck too much air (bottle held at wrong angle), or lumps in the milk (did not mix powdered formula enough), but these are things you figure out very quickly on your own. I wonder how on earth you sterilize the "smart" part of the cap. For me, this falls in the same category as most other kitchen and household gadgets that seem interesting but end up stuffed in the back of the utensil drawer. Someone once gave me a long-handled barbecue fork for the grill with a built in meat thermometer. I left it outside by the grill once, it rained, the batteries leaked and corroded the battery contacts, and that was the end of that. I suspect this will do well for a while, as people are always looking for baby shower gifts, and this fits the bill perfectly. But most new parents are likely to end up using "old fashioned" glass baby bottles or the bottles that use the one use plastic inserts (which pretty much solve the sucking air problem).

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