Cover iFlyTek smart glasses, an example of wearable tech. (Photo: iFlyTek)
iFlyTek smart glasses, an example of wearable tech. (Photo: iFlyTek)
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Around the office, AI-powered tech can help you transcribe meetings, translate conversations, and even keep your plants alive. Here are six gadgets from this year’s Beyond Expo in Macau that can make you more efficient at work.
The 2026 Beyond Expo, held from May 27 to May 30 in Macau at the Venetian Macao’s Cotai Expo exhibition space, highlighted tech innovations ranging from heavy-duty industrial humanoids to everyday wearables. Now in its sixth edition, the event drew more than 30,000 visitors from around the world to see nearly 800 companies showcasing their wares.
“While there weren’t as many electric vehicles and flying machines as last year, I came across more fun and practical little gadgets this time, many of which came from Shenzhen, which is famed for its hardware offerings,” Richard Lai, a Hong Kong-based tech reviewer who attended the event, told Tatler Asia.
Many of these practical gadgets can help you make the most of your time at the office, particularly for long meetings that probably could’ve been emails. Here are our top picks.
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1. iFlyTek AI smart glasses
Worn like ordinary spectacles, iFlyTek’s latest smart glasses—launched at Beyond Expo—can automatically generate transcriptions of surrounding audio while displaying the results in your field of vision, so meeting notes appear as you look ahead. Notably, the glasses follow your line of sight to isolate who is speaking and track their lip movements, improving transcription accuracy in noisy environments. The accompanying iFlyTek app can later convert any recordings into summaries and follow-up emails.
iFlyTek says its glasses provide real-time translation for 122 languages and dialects, and that its magnesium-aluminum alloy frame brings its total weight down to 40 grams, comparable to normal prescription glasses. For those keen to experiment with AI agents, iFlyTek’s agent, GlassClaw, can handle live transcription and complex workflow execution, while a built-in teleprompter for output on the smart glasses’ lenses automatically matches your natural speaking pace.
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2. Vocci AI ring
When worn on your finger, the Vocci ring can discreetly capture meetings—at least, more discreetly than smart glasses or a phone. Developed by Gyges Labs—a reference to the ‘ring of Gyges’ thought experiment of Greek philosopher Plato—Vocci aims to shift the focus of smart ring technology from fitness, popularised by brands such as Oura, to office life.
The lightweight 3- to 5-gram titanium Vocci ring allows professionals to record conversations or their own thoughts for note-taking purposes. A double-click on the side of the Vocci ring initiates audio capture within a five-metre range, and a single click lets you bookmark critical moments as they happen. Once synced via Bluetooth, the companion application uses these bookmarks to generate speaker-separated transcripts, key action items, and meeting summaries. The device, which its maker claims is the world’s first AI note-taking ring, can store up to eight hours of continuous audio locally. All told, eight hours isn’t a lot for recordings throughout the week, but habitually offloading files can help with storage.
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3. DingTalk AI recorder
If you want a heavy-duty recorder that can keep up with your phone’s battery, DingTalk is an option. Roughly the size of a credit card, the DingTalk A1 Pro can support up to 45 hours of continuous recording and analyse real-time audio of meetings and phone calls. Much like an Apple MagSafe-compatible wallet or power bank, the A1 Pro can attach to the back of your phone and also charge it when it’s low on battery. The device uses a six-microphone array to capture spatial audio, and its built-in DingTalk software automates transcription and translation, organising notes into clear to-do lists.
Originally developed by Alibaba Group in 2014, DingTalk began as a workplace messaging platform and introduced its A1 Pro magnetic voice recorder last year to help its users streamline meeting documentation. Alternatives for those outside the broader Alibaba ecosystem include the Plaud Note Pro by Plaud, a San Francisco-headquartered startup founded in 2021 that offers similar recording devices that stick to your phone, albeit without real-time analysis.
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Above The DingTalk A1 Pro device. (Photo: Cat Wang for Tatler Asia)
The DingTalk A1 Pro device. (Photo: Cat Wang for Tatler Asia)
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4. Timekettle AI translator earbuds
Timekettle has focused on translation hardware since its founding in 2016, and its new W4 earbuds are engineered specifically for cross-border business communication. Based on product demonstrations at Beyond Expo, these earbuds pair integrated bone-conduction voice capture with localised AI translation models. By capturing speech vibrations alongside standard microphone inputs, the hardware can isolate your voice from ambient office noise and continuously process dual-direction translation, creating a natural flow for live meetings. Timekettle claims its earbuds eliminate the pauses typical of mobile translation software, allowing you to “speak” more than 40 languages smoothly; several online reviews note lags or less-than-impressive loading times, but we'll leave you to decide.
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5. Sidephone modular phone
Branded as an upscale “dumb phone,” the Sidephone is a modular handset that can act as a secondary device designed specifically to limit interruptions. The core hardware, which runs on a custom Android system, features a 2.8-inch touchscreen that can be paired with a range of accessories, such as a classic numerical keypad, QWERTY keypad, or sundial wheel reminiscent of early Apple iPod designs. Sidephone only supports a handful of functions, including basic calls, SMS texts, local file storage, WhatsApp, and privacy-first utilities like Signal and Proton Mail—so you can step away from constant notifications and algorithm-charged scrolling to focus on your work.
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6. Senso plant monitor
Office greenery can help lift your mood, but keeping plants alive while you’re indoors and juggling a hundred different tasks can be time-consuming (and, if met with failure, potentially demoralising). Senso, a smart plant sensor developed by startup SolidTech, aims to shift indoor desk gardening away from guesswork and towards precision data tracking. Product samples unveiled at Beyond Expo demonstrated how the device relies on a modular, titanium smart probe that users insert directly into the soil of existing office flora. Featuring a small screen and a round plastic case, Senso displays an animated pixel-art creature that moves around based on readings from the probe to reflect the plant’s health, much like a Tamagotchi.
Senso claims its hardware conducts capacitive moisture checks 900 times per second while monitoring ambient light and temperature, and its companion application cross-references this live data with an AI model trained on over 12,000 plant species. The device is currently undergoing global pre-orders on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter ahead of its full launch, which is slated for early June.
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Cat Wang is an editor at Tatler Asia based in Hong Kong, where she covers business, wealth, innovation, and impact. Previously, she was a Forbes Asia reporter and assistant editor of the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list, spotlighting startups and small companies on the rise across the Asia-Pacific. She began her career as a trainee reporter at the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s newspaper of record. Born in New York City, she graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a B.A. in political science.
