As with some other parts of the world, there has been a steep rise in the use of smart home appliances and devices in the fallout of the COVID 19 pandemic that forced a global lockdown in 2020. A recent survey on US households by multinational professional services firm Deloitte has shown that households had an average of 25 smart home devices being deployed during the pandemic. These connected devices provided a raft of services, including entertainment, health and fitness, security, education, and work, among others.

As governments and health authorities battled to stem the rising cases of the novel coronavirus in 2020, many people were forced to work from home for extended periods of 2020, even up till this year. This transformed most homes into an amalgam of several activities, including work and leisure. This led to the seeming explosion in smart and connected devices like laptops, TVs, gaming consoles, headphones, and an array of other gadgets. These smart gadgets helped to spice up the boredom of being locked indoors for several months for many people.

In his comments on the survey, Deloitte’s Vice Chairman Paul Silvergate said that the onset of the pandemic had propelled the tech industry tens of years into the future. It has changed how we interact with the fast-expanding collection of connected devices, ultimately helping consumers, healthcare providers, tech innovators, education professionals, and others to adapt, innovate and thrive in daily activities.

The Deloitte survey revealed that about 58% of the respondents were having a smart wearable device, 14% of which purchased the device during the pandemic. This indicates a rise in the use of fitness features in these smartwatches to gauge daily exercise and other fitness activities.

Although the optics of the survey shows a growing acceptance of smart devices, there is still a fraction of the respondents (more than 30%) who feel overwhelmed by these devices and their subscription regime. This could cause a marginal decline in the use of smart devices, although the decline could be swamped by the growing number of new users of smart gadgets.

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Intel has announced a new gadget called Compute Card at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2017. It is a wonderful device that can prevent appliances from becoming obsolete.

These days there are numerous appliances that come with computing features such as smart TVs and refrigerators. Since technology is always evolving, smart devices tend to go obsolete as newer devices are unveiled.

For instance, a smart TV purchased may become obsolete after a year or two. Moreover, there is no easy way to upgrade such electronic devices. To get a faster TV or to add newer features, users need to invest money in buying a whole new one. Here is where the Intel Compute Card comes into play that saves electronic devices from going obsolete.

Related: Intel Kaby Lake Processors Officially Unveiled for Desktop, Performance Laptops

The Intel Compute Card is a credit card sized device that can be easily added to a smart device to upgrade it. The Intel Compute Card is equipped with a motherboard, RAM, storage, Wi-Fi connectivity with flexible I/O options and the 7^th generation Intel Kaby Lake processor. Its thickness is only 5 mm.

A smart device that has a slot for Intel Compute Card can be upgraded instantly. It is like a smart card that will only work when it is plugged into a slot of a bigger device. At present, the device is not meant for upgrading PCs. However, it can be used on wide range of devices like refrigerators, smart TVs, CCTV cameras, smart kiosks and IoT gateways.

According to Intel’s press release, “Device makers simply design a standard Intel Compute Card slot into their device and then utilize the best Intel Compute Card for their performance and price needs. This reduces the time and resources needed to design and validate the compute block and helps speed up innovation to bring the power of intelligence into an ever wider range of devices.’

Intel has confirmed that it is working with leading global companies like Dell, HP, Lenovo and Sharp to take advantage of the upgradeability offered by Intel Compute Card. It will be available for purchase with a range of processor variants by mid-2017.

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