Smart devices promise to make life easier by automating previously laborious tasks. But British data specialist Mark Rittman got exactly the opposite with his Smarter iKettle, a wifi-enabled take on the humble kettle that turned boiling water for a cup of tea into an 11 hour saga.

Told through a series of tweets, Rittman's tale of a smart kettle failing to be, well, smart, started at around 9am. All Rittman wanted was command the kettle to boil water via companion app, only he ended up receiving messages to "connect to kettle network before proceeding." Being a man with some knowledge of coding Rittman proceeded to investigate the code powering the iKettle, and discovered the base station was actually failing to communicate with the kettle itself!

Three hours into the investigation failed to produce any results-- if anything the situation got arguably worse, as popular Twitter account Internet of Shit discovered Rittman's story, slowing down Rittman's progress. An hour later Rittman revealed how the iKettle was insisting for more network calibration, and further digging into the code revealed how the kettle lacks software allowing integration with a number of smart home control platforms, including SmartThings, IFTTT and HomeKit.

GoPro is not the only company selling a foldable drone-- DJI has a similar product, the Mavic Pro, a small and slim drone promising many of the advanced features from the larger DJI Phantom drones.

The Mavic Pro does not exactly qualify as palm-size, but is small enough to fit in a backpack or purse when folded. Sensors on the front and bottom provide obstacle avoidance, subject tracking, autonomous landing and indoor stability, while a 12MP camera sensor shoots 4K video at 30fps and HD video at 96fps.

DJI claims the battery allows for 27 minutes of flight on a single charge, and the drone's top speed is around 65km per hour (in comparison the top speed of the larger Phantom 4 is 72km/h).

Is anything safe from the power of app-powered smarts? Probably not, as revealed with the LuDela-- a real candle with a real flame inside a sensor-packed shell.

The actual candle is a refillable wax insert (promises up to 30 hours of flames) users place inside a battery-powered exterior shell. The shell connects to smartphones and an obligatory companion app via Bluetooth, and allows one to remotely light and extinguish the candle, all without need to bother with matches and the like.

Apple claims the Apple Watch is the currently the second best selling watch (just after Rolex) before it announces the next generation of the smartwatch-- the Apple Watch Series 2.

The Series 2 is, essentially, an incremental upgrade over the original model. As many expected it is water resistant up to 50m, and is powered by an S2 dual-core processor and new GPU promising twice the graphical performance of the first model. The display is brighter (1000 nits) while GPS comes built-in.

Construction is in stainless steel, aluminium or, in an Apple first, ceramic with a "gorgeous pearl-white shine." Launching together with Series 2 are new Hermes bands. Nike also gets in the Watch action with Watch Nike Plus-- a version designed for athletes featuring a perforated rubber band and lighter aluminium construction for "the best running experience out there.