3 CNN Underscored Innovation Award Winners to Know (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Thousands of products claim to be innovative, most aren't.

[00:00:03] Speaker 2: They're either gimmicky, overpriced, or lacking in true innovation.

[00:00:07] Speaker 1: We searched for products that actually make a difference, improving how you live, work, eat, or sleep, in ways existing products haven't solved. Here are three that earned one of CNN Underscore's Innovation Awards. For the awards, our editors tested products, all looking for one thing.

[00:00:21] Speaker 2: Does this solve a real problem better than what came before?

[00:00:26] Speaker 1: The Cumulus machine is the first machine exclusively made to brew cold brew, nitro cold brew, and cold espresso with a touch of a button in under 60 seconds. So we've tried a lot of coffee machines. This is unlike any other that we've seen, which is why we chose it as our Kitchen Innovation of the Year. If you exclusively drink cold coffee, this machine is for you. You don't have to remember to steep cold brew bags overnight. You don't have to brew hot coffee and then put ice in it. It doesn't require cartridges like a lot of other nitro cold brew machines require. Instead, the Cumulus actually takes nitrogen from the air to produce the delicious microfoam. I appreciate that it's not an eyesore like some of those keg-style nitro cold brew machines. There's nothing else out there like it.

[00:01:16] Speaker 2: First came the Remarkable Paper Pro, a e-ink tablet with a really natural writing sensation. If you've ever used an iPad with an Apple Pencil, you know that writing on glass is slippery. It's distracting. You don't really love doing it. This does the exact opposite. It feels like you're writing with pencil and paper. And then Remarkable took the big Remarkable Paper Pro and shrank it down to the much more portable Paper Pro Move. And it has the same features as the bigger one. Color, front lighting, the same writing experience in a much more compact and portable design. This is replacing the paper notebook.

[00:01:52] Speaker 3: The Plutopod Travel Pillow won an Innovation Award because it levels up the travel pillow game. The design is modeled after that of a neck brace, so it offers legitimate stability and support for your head and neck while you're sleeping. It also comes with a hood to pull over your ears and the top of your head to create a quieter, more ambient space. And it includes this handy sleep mask, which is a feature we hadn't seen before. This will help you relax and unwind throughout your flight and create a fairly effective sleeping environment that's comparable to what you might find at home as much as you can get it on a plane. When you're not using the Plutopod Pillow, you can roll it up into a pretty reasonable, roughly football-sized ball. And it does come with a carabiner so that you can attach it to your personal item or your rolling luggage.

[00:02:40] Speaker 1: And those were just three of CNN Underscored's 23 Innovation Award winners. Visit our site to see every CNN Underscored Innovation Award winner.