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EE Times On Air episode #51, published for the week ending August 23, 2019, covers three very different hardware stories: connected water bottles for children, Cerebras’ wafer-scale AI processor, and AMS’s proposed acquisition of Osram. The common thread is whether adding more silicon, sensors and connectivity produces practical value—or simply a more complicated product.
How smart is a smart water bottle?
The episode’s first brief asks the literal question, “How smart is a smart water bottle?” These are computerized children’s bottles rather than ordinary insulated containers. A typical design combines a small display, Wi‑Fi or Bluetooth, fluid-level or other sensors, a battery and touch input. A companion phone app records how much a child drinks, while parents can check intake remotely.
Some models turn hydration into a game. A character can grow as the child drinks and become unhappy when a target is missed; products may also add music, stories, games or friend-to-friend drinking competitions. That can make an otherwise invisible habit more engaging, but it also means the bottle’s value depends on sustained app use and a child’s willingness to interact with it.
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Why the category exists
EE Times cites a JAMA Pediatrics study published in April 2019 for the statistic that one in five U.S. children did not drink water on a given day. A connected reminder and a visible reward are intended to address that behavior gap, not to improve the water itself.
#1 Best Overall
- IDEAL GIFTS FOR FESTIVAL: Given its combination of smart features, excellent insulation, and stylish design, the BOOST Smart Water Bottle is not only a practical tool but also an excellent gift for anyone prioritizing health and wellness. You can earn points for every sip, which can be redeemed for discounts on future purchases—a rewarding way to stay hydrated and healthy!
- REMINDER TO REACH GOAL: WaterH smart water bottle is a game-changer with built-in hydration reminders and tracking. The halo light on the lid glows as a silent reminder—no beeps or buzzes—while the LED display and phone or smartwatch notifications keep you updated. It helps prevent side effects of dehydration like dizziness, fatigue, and increased blood pressure.It also supports your health goals and builds a lasting hydration habit.
- PRACTICAL USE DESIGNED: Our leak-proof stainless steel bottle keeps you refreshed while drinking water. The wide mouth makes it easy to add ice cubes and fruit. The compact 24-ounce design easily fits into a car cup holder, and the refined grooves on the front ensure a secure and non-slip fit. It lasts up to two weeks per charge, and is durable and easy to carry. Plus, the bottle cap handle rotates 180 degrees for easy portability during outdoor activities.
- WATER TRACKING TIPS: Our bluetooth water bottle uses an advanced algorithm to estimate water intake based on water flow and bottle angle. Third-party lab testing showed results typically within ±15% under test conditions. For optimal tracking, refill after emptying, drink at a consistent 90°–135° angle, and take 13–20 small, regular sips per session. Readings may vary by drinking habits and are intended as a hydration guide, not a precise measurement.
- WORRY-FREE SERVICE: No need to worry about unexpected untracking situations. You can do the following checks first: 1. Disconnect, remove the water bottle, and then repair it. 2. After pairing is successful, the system will prompt you to calibrate the water bottle on a flat surface or table with an empty bottle. If you still can't solve the problem, please feel free to contact our technical engineers through the store or hello@waterh.com for professional guidance and help.
Gululu and the 2019 market picture
The named example is Gululu, described in the episode as a China-based company presenting itself as a Silicon Valley enterprise. The company’s 2016 Kickstarter campaign sought $100,000 and raised about twice that amount. Echo Zhao also said JD.com listings showed more than a dozen smart-cup brands, with some companies reporting thousands of shipments per month. Those are historical 2019 statements, not a current market-size or sales forecast.
Does a $140 bottle earn its price?
The episode discusses products costing more than $100 and cites a $140 example. Whether that is worthwhile depends on the problem a family is trying to solve:
- Potential benefit: reminders, visible progress and parental visibility may help a child who routinely forgets to drink.
- Ongoing cost: the family is paying for electronics, charging and software interaction in addition to a bottle.
- Behavioral risk: a child can defeat intake tracking by filling the bottle with another drink. Zhao put it bluntly: “Well, instead of water, kids can put Coca-Cola in it, so they can outsmart their parents.”
- Trust and materials: Zhao said she rejected a plastic smart cup because it smelled of plastic, making material quality and odor part of the buying decision.
Her broader test is useful: “I believe that some people misunderstand ‘smart.’ Smart makes life easier, not more complicated.” In the episode, she says the core function can be delivered with “microcontrollers and Bluetooth or WiFi and sensors and touch screen and battery.” In other words, connectivity is only valuable if the child actually drinks more water and the parent can trust the result.
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What to check before buying
| Question | What to verify |
|---|---|
| Intake tracking | How the bottle measures volume, how often it syncs and whether the accuracy is stated for real-world use. |
| Connectivity | Whether it requires Bluetooth, Wi‑Fi, a phone nearby, a cloud account or a particular operating system. |
| Child appeal | Display characters, games, stories, music and social features—and whether they can be disabled. |
| Parent controls | What can be monitored remotely, how targets are set and whether multiple caregivers can access the account. |
| Battery | Runtime, charging method, charge time and what happens when the battery is empty. |
| Materials and care | Plastic or metal construction, odor, leak resistance, dishwasher guidance and replacement parts. |
| Price | Current regional price and availability; the episode’s $140 figure is a 2019 example, not a present quote. |
Search terms such as smart water bottle for kids describe the category, but current products and prices require checking at the time of purchase.
Rank #2
- IDEAL GIFTS FOR FESTIVAL: Given its combination of smart features, excellent insulation, and stylish design, the BOOST Smart Water Bottle is not only a practical tool but also an excellent gift for anyone prioritizing health and wellness. You can earn points for every sip, which can be redeemed for discounts on future purchases—a rewarding way to stay hydrated and healthy!
- REMINDER TO REACH GOAL: WaterH smart water bottle is a game-changer with built-in hydration reminders and tracking. The halo light on the lid glows as a silent reminder—no beeps or buzzes—while the LED display and phone or smartwatch notifications keep you updated. It helps prevent side effects of dehydration like dizziness, fatigue, and increased blood pressure.It also supports your health goals and builds a lasting hydration habit.
- PRACTICAL USE DESIGNED: Our leak-proof stainless steel bottle keeps you refreshed while drinking water. The wide mouth makes it easy to add ice cubes and fruit. The compact 24-ounce design easily fits into a car cup holder, and the refined grooves on the front ensure a secure and non-slip fit. It lasts up to two weeks per charge, and is durable and easy to carry. Plus, the bottle cap handle rotates 180 degrees for easy portability during outdoor activities.
- WATER TRACKING TIPS: Our bluetooth water bottle uses an advanced algorithm to estimate water intake based on water flow and bottle angle. Third-party lab testing showed results typically within ±15% under test conditions. For optimal tracking, refill after emptying, drink at a consistent 90°–135° angle, and take 13–20 small, regular sips per session. Readings may vary by drinking habits and are intended as a hydration guide, not a precise measurement.
- WORRY-FREE SERVICE: No need to worry about unexpected untracking situations. You can do the following checks first: 1. Disconnect, remove the water bottle, and then repair it. 2. After pairing is successful, the system will prompt you to calibrate the water bottle on a flat surface or table with an empty bottle. If you still can't solve the problem, please feel free to contact our technical engineers through the store or hello@waterh.com for professional guidance and help.
Cerebras and the “hottest hot chip”
The second brief moves from a child-focused IoT device to a processor built as one enormous piece of silicon. At Hot Chips 2019, Cerebras presented its Wafer Scale Engine as an AI-training processor intended to keep computation and data movement on the same wafer. The point of the architecture is to attack the bandwidth, communication and power costs that arise when a training job is spread across many conventional processors.
Reported hardware scale
| Specification | Figure reported in the episode |
|---|---|
| Tile arrangement | 84 tiles in a 7-by-12 array |
| Cores | 4,800 cores per tile; more than 400,000 cores in total |
| On-chip memory | 18 GB aggregated |
| Transistors | More than 1.2 trillion |
| Silicon area | More than 46,000 square millimeters |
| Comparison cited | 840 square millimeters for the largest previously successful wafer-scale device discussed |
These numbers explain why the device was newsworthy: it treats a full wafer as the processor rather than cutting the wafer into conventional chips and reconnecting them in a larger system.
What the performance claim does—and does not—prove
Cerebras CEO and co-founder Andrew Feldman said “the box will deliver the performance of one thousand Nvidia GPUs while requiring just 2 to 3% of its space and power.” That is a company performance claim from 2019, not an independent benchmark. Actual results would depend on the model, software, dataset, comparison GPUs, precision and system configuration.
Feldman also said Cerebras initially estimated 200 potential customers worldwide, then revised the estimate to 1,000. He tied that opportunity to organizations with very large datasets for which a single cloud training run might cost $150,000. The commercial case therefore rests on reducing training time and infrastructure overhead enough to justify a specialized system.
Rank #3
- IDEAL GIFTS FOR FESTIVAL: Given its combination of smart features, excellent insulation, and stylish design, the BOOST Smart Water Bottle is not only a practical tool but also an excellent gift for anyone prioritizing health and wellness. You can earn points for every sip, which can be redeemed for discounts on future purchases—a rewarding way to stay hydrated and healthy!
- REMINDER TO REACH GOAL: WaterH smart water bottle is a game-changer with built-in hydration reminders and tracking. The halo light on the lid glows as a silent reminder—no beeps or buzzes—while the LED display and phone or smartwatch notifications keep you updated. It helps prevent side effects of dehydration like dizziness, fatigue, and increased blood pressure.It also supports your health goals and builds a lasting hydration habit.
- PRACTICAL USE DESIGNED: Our leak-proof stainless steel bottle keeps you refreshed while drinking water. The wide mouth makes it easy to add ice cubes and fruit. The compact 24-ounce design easily fits into a car cup holder, and the refined grooves on the front ensure a secure and non-slip fit. It lasts up to two weeks per charge, and is durable and easy to carry. Plus, the bottle cap handle rotates 180 degrees for easy portability during outdoor activities.
- WATER TRACKING TIPS: Our bluetooth water bottle uses an advanced algorithm to estimate water intake based on water flow and bottle angle. Third-party lab testing showed results typically within ±15% under test conditions. For optimal tracking, refill after emptying, drink at a consistent 90°–135° angle, and take 13–20 small, regular sips per session. Readings may vary by drinking habits and are intended as a hydration guide, not a precise measurement.
- WORRY-FREE SERVICE: No need to worry about unexpected untracking situations. You can do the following checks first: 1. Disconnect, remove the water bottle, and then repair it. 2. After pairing is successful, the system will prompt you to calibrate the water bottle on a flat surface or table with an empty bottle. If you still can't solve the problem, please feel free to contact our technical engineers through the store or hello@waterh.com for professional guidance and help.
Why wafer scale matters for AI training
- Less interconnect traffic: more of the communication path remains on one device instead of crossing a network between many accelerators.
- Large, unified fabric: the tiled array and shared on-chip memory are designed for models that need substantial parallelism.
- Specialized economics: the system is aimed at high-value training workloads, not ordinary consumer computing.
- Engineering trade-offs: yield, cooling, software compatibility, workload fit and serviceability become critical when the basic unit is wafer-sized.
The episode presents Cerebras as a radical response to AI-training bottlenecks. It does not establish that the 1,000-GPU comparison applies to every model or that the projected customer count was achieved.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.AMS and Osram: a sensors-and-photonics merger
The final brief concerns AMS’s proposed purchase of Osram in 2019. Nitin Dahad described AMS as a sensing-IC company spanning optical, audio and imaging categories. Consumer products represented about 71% of AMS business in 2018, and Apple was widely understood to be its major customer. Osram brought a different base: lighting, automotive, opto-semiconductor and digital divisions.
Financial scale and strategic aim
| Company or goal | Figure or description | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| AMS 2018 revenue | €1.4 billion | Figure stated by Dahad in the 2019 episode |
| Osram 2018 revenue | €3.8 billion | Figure stated by Dahad in the 2019 episode |
| Combined ambition | About €5 billion in revenue | Stated strategic ambition, not a post-merger reported result |
Dahad said the companies wanted “to create a global leader in sensor solutions and photonics with revenue of about 5 billion Euros.” The logic was both diversification and expansion: reduce AMS’s dependence on a large consumer customer while gaining more automotive exposure and combining sensing ICs with optical components and lighting.
Where the technology portfolios overlap
- AMS: position sensing, lidar imaging, driver monitoring, battery management, error classification and VCSEL arrays (vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers).
- Osram: automotive lighting and opto-semiconductor capabilities.
- Combined roadmap discussed: 3D sensing, in-cabin sensing, industrial imaging, assisted and autonomous driving, automotive human-machine interfaces and digital lighting.
The proposed fit is vertical rather than a simple product-line addition: sensors and signal-processing expertise could be paired with light sources, photonics and automotive illumination systems.
Rank #4
- smartwater is h2o crafted through a vapor distillation process inspired by the clouds, for a taste that is always crisp and pure
- purified water bottles with a perfectly tailored pH to support your active lifestyle
- added electrolytes, like potassium, magnesium and calcium, to enhance the flavor
- a crisp, pure taste makes smartwater a hydration choice for every occasion
- 6 pack of 16.9 fl oz bottles of smartwater bottled water
What was happening with the bid
At the time of the episode, AMS had made an earlier offer of €38/€38.50. Bain Capital and Carlyle had offered €35, and AMS returned with a higher counterbid around €38 after Osram’s board considered the investor offer. These were transaction-stage details in 2019. They should not be read as evidence of the deal’s later completion, ownership structure or financial outcome.
What ties the three stories together?
The bottle, wafer-scale processor and merger illustrate three levels of hardware strategy. A smart bottle succeeds only when sensing and software change a child’s behavior. Cerebras bets that radically increasing integration can remove AI-training bottlenecks. AMS and Osram sought scale by combining sensing ICs, photonics and lighting across consumer and automotive markets.
In each case, the headline technology is less important than the surrounding conditions: user trust and habit for the bottle, independent workload evidence for Cerebras, and verified execution of the merger strategy for AMS and Osram.
Quick Recap
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