Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Global Connect Show in China, which offers a preview of gadgets that will be hitting store shelves – and a few that make you wonder what the future even looks like. From a machine that turns any drink into a nitro creation to a waterborne aircraft that defies easy categorization, here are some of the most interesting products I encountered.
NAVEE WaveFly 5X
Do I need a flying boat? No. Do I want one? Absolutely. The WaveFly 5X from NAVEE is billed as the world's first consumer-grade crewed waterborne aircraft, and watching it skim across a lake in Suzhou was genuinely one of the more surreal things I've seen at a tech event. It uses a tandem wing configuration with a high-pressure air cushion to lift off any calm body of water – no runway, no pilot's license required – and cruises at up to 53 mph just 12 to 20 inches above the surface. The ground effect keeps energy consumption dramatically lower than free flight, and the battery is hot-swappable, so you can keep going without a long charge stop.
At around $200,000, the WaveFly 5X is really a showpiece for what NAVEE can do when it swings for the fences. And it's a very cool showpiece. There's no U.S. availability announced, and it may never come here in any practical sense. But as a demonstration of where personal mobility technology is heading, it's hard to top.
XBREW EverNitro
Nitro coffee has been a café staple for years, but getting that silky, cascading pour at home has always meant buying cartridges or lugging around a bulky CO2 setup. The EverNitro from XBREW solves that with a countertop machine that pulls nitrogen directly from the air using PSA molecular sieve technology – the same approach used in medical and food-grade nitrogen systems – delivering up to 95% pure nitrogen without a cartridge in sight.
What I love about it is the range. This isn't just a coffee gadget. You can nitro juice, beer, cocktails, or pretty much any cold drink you want. It also doubles as a whipped cream maker – which would be perfect on a nitro Irish coffee, if you're looking for a reason to justify the purchase. A fast mode gets you a pour in about 15 seconds; the high-concentration mode takes closer to a minute for a richer, creamier result.
INMO GO3
Smart glasses have been promising hands-free AI translation for years, but most of them have a fundamental limitation: you have no way to speak back in the native language of the person you're conversing with. The INMO GO3 is the first pair I've seen that actually cracks two-way translation in a way that feels functional. Pair it with the optional INMO Speaker and you get real-time dialogue translation across 78 source languages – one person speaks, each party hears their native language. That's a genuine leap forward.
The glasses themselves are built around a dual-eye green Micro-LED display with diffractive waveguide optics, which keeps the visuals crisp and discreet – nobody across the table can tell you're looking at a screen. The swappable battery system is clever: two 270mAh batteries charge in the case while you wear the other, giving you effectively all-day use. At about 58 grams, they look close enough to ordinary eyewear that you won't get stares. Beyond translation, they handle AI meeting summaries, teleprompter mode, navigation, and notifications – all hands-free.
iClever QuietShield Q950
As a parent of three, getting your kids to listen is hard enough without also worrying about whether the headphones they're using are slowly damaging their hearing. The QuietShield Q950 from iClever addresses that directly: it's the first kids' headphone to earn TÜV Hearing Care Certification, with a strict 80dBA volume limit that aligns with WHO safe-listening guidelines for young ears. Noise-induced hearing damage is irreversible, which makes prevention – not correction – the only real option.
Beyond the safety credentials, the Q950 is genuinely well-built for daily kid use. It has hybrid ANC up to 35dB (active even in wired mode, which matters for in-flight entertainment), Bluetooth 6.0, up to 60 hours of battery life with ANC off, wear detection that auto-pauses when the headphones come off, and a 10-level adjustable headband that grows with the child. The Q950 goes on sale in July.
Realsee Galois P4
Virtual tours have become table stakes for commercial real estate, but the gap between what a professional firm can produce and what a small business can afford has been wide. The Galois P4 from Realsee is aimed squarely at closing it. For any business owner who wants to offer big-business 3D spatial experiences on a small-business budget, this is the hardware to look at.
Each scan point takes about 16 seconds, and the camera supports an app-free blind capture mode that makes it fast to deploy on-site. The 24K visual quality is good enough for premium spaces – hotels, showrooms, high-end listings – and the 100-meter LiDAR range with 125,600 points per second produces dense enough point clouds for AEC-ready outputs like CAD files, floor plans, and 3D models. Realsee's platform runs on a credit-based model rather than a mandatory monthly subscription, so photographers and small service teams can activate tours and download deliverables project by project without paying for capacity they don't use.
Brolan ClearX
The ClearX from Brolan is a home robot that cleans, dries, and sterilizes shoes – marketed toward sneaker enthusiasts and sports users who care about keeping their footwear in shape. The pitch is straightforward: drop your shoes in, walk away, come back to clean and dry kicks. The sterilization cycle handles the odor problem that sneaker bags definitely do not.
This is intended for sneaker collectors, but honestly, I kept thinking about my two teenage boys during their active sports years. Cleats, running shoes, basketball shoes – all coming in the door reeking and caked in whatever they'd been running through. A machine that handled all of that automatically would have been worth its weight in laundry detergent.
Baseus Bowie MC2
Open-ear headphones have had a moment over the past couple of years, and Baseus – a brand better known for chargers and cables – has been quietly building a credible audio lineup. The Bowie MC2 is their latest open-ear wireless earbud, and after spending time with them, the short version is: they sound great, they feel great, and they are priced great. That's a rare three-peat.
At just 5 grams per earbud, you genuinely forget you're wearing them. Call quality is handled by four microphones with AI enhancement, Bluetooth 6.0 keeps the connection tight, and IP67 water resistance means sweat and rain aren't a concern. Battery life runs 13 hours per charge with 60 hours total from the case – competitive with anything at this price point
[Image credit: Josh Kirschner/Techlicious, Brolan, Global Connect Show, Realsee, XBREW]
