As leading suppliers in wholesale meat Western Cape and Johannesburg, N1 like to keep up with all developments that can help streamline work processes – and the Internet of Things (IoT) is probably one of the most interesting. IoT is slowly creeping into every aspect of our lives and homes – CTO, Mohammed Dastagir, amusingly said ‘We are in a brave new world where not only do our children talk back to us, but so do our appliances’ – although dare we say the latter probably save us more time and money.

By now we’re all familiar with smart fridges and their capability of sensing what kinds of products are being stored inside and what the stock levels are, but there are also smaller appliances that are entering the market to make our lives that much more efficient. 

Here, courtesy of Postscapes (a leading voice on the Connected Economy), are a few new favourites on the smart kitchen, wishful-thinking-list.

Hiku looks like a chunky fridge magnet, but as you scan or tell it which groceries you need, it can integrate with a number of third-party shopping lists. Planned updates will eventually add online price comparisons and online ordering.

GeniCan sits on the lid of a waste bin and scans or takes voice recordings to track items as you throw them away, so you’re always ready to restock the pantry. Online ordering is also in development.

Hapifork is a way of encouraging you to eat slower, it uses a capacitive sensor and a built-in vibration to send gentle physical notifications or flash small indicator lights when it senses you’re eating too fast.

Vessyl keeps track of beverage calories by doing the thinking for you, it has internal sensors that analyse the ingredients to determine what, how much and how often you’re drinking—it also tracks nutritional metrics like caffeine intake, calories consumed, and hydration.

Neo is a container that not only holds dry goods, but it also measures how much is left with a built-in digital scale. Once you tell it what’s inside, Neo can suggest recipes, calculate the nutrient content of each serving, and even automatically refill itself by placing orders from online delivery services.

And last, but not least, Eggminder is a smart egg tray that lets you know how many eggs you have left in the fridge while you're out at the grocery store. Each egg slot has a sensor that keeps track of every egg's individual shelf life based on when it was added to the carton, and LED lights indicate which of the remaining eggs are freshest.