Weed tech is warming up with a new smart apple vaporizer, Microsoft alums

Warning: This story deals with psychotropic substances and the technology used to consume them. These substances are legal in some places but not in others. You should not do illegal things – nothing here endorses the use of illegal drugs.

The co-founder of the company is an alum from Apple. The flagship product is a clever gadget with a $ 250 app in an emerging category. The silver body design gives it the appearance of a landmark piece for modern homes.

It might look like what I'm describing Nest, but I'm really describing Firefly, a California-based tech weed start-up. The product in question is not a smart thermostat that regulates the temperature of your home, but rather a smart vaporizer regulates the temperature of cannabis precisely compatible with the application. Available for pre-order this weekend and whose delivery is scheduled for next month, it is called Firefly 2 Plus and, if the nomenclature of the company does not betray its influences Apple, its discussion points will certainly.

"We want to be the vaporizer for everyone," said Walden Alexander, Firefly 's director of global sales and distribution, "in the way the iPhone was the smartphone that helped reduce the number of people in the world. gap between early adopters and mass adoptions. "

Boasting an easier air intake, a modest increase in battery life and a lower price than the Firefly 2, the almost identical Firefly 2 is not a breakthrough spectacular for the brand. However, it is joining a burgeoning field of high-end portable vaporizers that seek to leverage technology to deliver superior performance – and win customers at a time when the legalization movement seems ready to further integrate the industry. mainstream in the lap.

A tipping point for the pot?

Alexander and I talked about weed technology issues between bites in a popular spot for Nashville's hot hot chicken, near downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Towards the end of our conversation, he unpacked a production model of the Firefly 2 Plus to show me the latest material from the company. It's an attractive gadget, longer and bulkier than most pocket vaporizers.

Like the other Firefly vapes, the 2 Plus is equipped with a magnetic cover with the design of your choice. With the wood grain pattern on Alexander's 2 Plus, the thing looked a bit like a duck cry the size of a king while he was wearing it to his lips to show him how hold it and use it.

Yes, I will admit that during all this time, I peeked nervously in the dining room looking for a local policeman taking his lunch break.

Despite a long history as the country's largest hemp producer, the Commonwealth of Kentucky is one of 18 states where recreational and medicinal marijuana use is still prohibited by law. In Kentucky, possession of drug-related equipment is also classified as a Class A crime punishable by a fine of $ 500 and a maximum sentence of one year in prison. At the same time, CBD products derived from hemp are legal in Kentucky and bangs, pipes and sprays are sold openly in stores across the state, with flashing signs saying "only for the use of tobacco ". In any case, we are far from California.

Again, we may be closer than you think. Earlier this year, legislators from the Kentucky House of Representatives introduced a bill to legalize marijuana for medical purposes in the state. Last month, this bill was approved by 16 votes to 1 of the Judiciary Committee. More recently, Kentucky Democratic nominee Adam Edelen presented a plan to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

In addition to record public support for the legalized pot – which now includes a majority of Americans aged 55 and over, and a majority of Republicans – such titles fuel the growing sentiment of marijuana across the United States . Mark Williams, the former Apple developer who co-founded Firefly in 2012 with his commercial partner Sasha Robinson, himself a veteran of Microsoft, cited the mid-term elections of 2018 as a point of contention. key inflection. State-wide initiatives to legalize marijuana have been enacted in Missouri, Utah, and Michigan, which has become the first Midwestern state to legalize the herb intended for recreational use.

"It was the best day for the history of cannabis in the history of cannabis," says Williams. "Suddenly we realized that there was no turning back."

Williams added that he was delighted to see many Democratic presidential candidates embrace legalization as part of their platforms – and although he "does not pretend to speculate," he adds that he could also consider that President Trump is beaten to death.

"If I were in his place, I would wait only a few months before the elections," Williams said, "and, on the just order of the executive, legalize the process and remove the problem to the Democrats and say: "Ha! Do not have this problem anymore. "Http://www.cnet.com/"

High technology

In any event, Williams and others I spoke to in the weed control industry expressed optimism that the US will see significant progress towards legalization. complete by the November elections next year. Meanwhile, emerging cannabis subcategories such as vaporizers and oil concentrates, the latest with which Firefly vaporizers are compatible, are already growing steadily, according to the Eaze marijuana delivery service. That's what headwind Firefly is trying to catch with the 2 Plus as a new flagship product.

To this end, the new price of $ 250 costs $ 80 less than before – to vaporizers like the DaVinci IQ ($ 275), but $ 80 more than its main competitor, the popular Pax 3, manufactured by the same team behind Juul electronic cigarettes. Like Firefly, these application-activated alternatives feature catchy designs, which is not a coincidence. When you try to take advantage of the curiosity of consumers and make them happy.

Firefly hopes to stand out from the crowd with its beautiful magnetic lids and the fact that, unlike most vaporizers, it features a small window that allows you to see what's inside as well as you spray it.

Like the Firefly 2, the 2 Plus also uses a patented technique called "dynamic convection" that heats the device up to the selected temperature with each drag instead of preheating it to the temperature set at the beginning and then stay on. It only takes a few seconds to heat up when you want to take a hit, but these seconds add up as you wait for each shot. With most other vaporizers, you wait about 15 seconds when you turn them on for the first time, then slide them until you're done.

With Firefly, simply hold your finger against the touch buttons located on either side of the device, wait for the green light and take a shot. And, in a nice touch (no pun intended), the app allows you to use one of these buttons – or both simultaneously – to warm the room. Simply tell the application what option you want.

Dynamic convection also ensures that the 2 Plus does not need a power button, as it warms up with each button press and automatically cools down after each keystroke. When the battery needs to be recharged, you insert the 2 Plus into the charging cradle that came with the device. Firefly indicates that dynamic convection has other benefits, including smoother heating, more precise temperature control, and reduced steam loss between shots.

Meanwhile, the 2 Plus features a borosilicate glass bowl inside the appliance and a glass piping towards the mouthpiece. This is a quality interior – although the exterior cladding is a little more plasticky than what some of us expected at first contact. With the extra size and angular volume, a few of us also found that it was less comfortable to hold than other vaporizers.

Regarding what makes the 2 Plus, you know, a "Plus", the Firefly team points out that the improved airflow from the aircraft during trips is the biggest improvement over the Firefly 2.

"It's easier to inhale," Williams says. "You do not have that immediate need to breathe out." To use an analogy, you'd never take a sip of beer and spit it out halfway in. But that's what the people are doing cannabis right now. "

The key to any vaporizer is the temperature control. In fact, most of the steam is to heat the active ingredients (terpenes and cannabinoids such as THC and CBD) to their boiling point and release them as steam, without burning your bud like the would make a naked flame. Whether it's basic conduction tubes or more sophisticated convection tubes that heat more evenly, the goal is that you aim for a temperature in Goldilocks – hot, but not too hot .

This is where these application controls come in. With a full spectrum of temperature settings ranging from 200 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit that you adjust in increments of 10 degrees (a major upgrade from the six fixed settings of the previous generation), as well as a "Calibration" Slider for more progressive adjustments that improve the quality of your vapors or improve drag, Firefly's application is simple and uncluttered. I've also enjoyed links to educational videos in its Info section.

It's a pity that there is no reading of the temperature on the device itself, nor the ability to scroll through this whole range of temperature settings without it. ;application. You can still use the device if the battery of your phone is discharged, you simply will not be able to deviate from a default medium-high setting.

Perspective

Like the law, the marijuana technology market is still evolving in the United States and we do not yet know what its final form will look like. It's also hard to understand how the demand for high-end sprays, which cost hundreds of dollars, will go against the smaller vape pens designed to be used with disposable cannabis oil cartridges. These are significantly cheaper than products like the Firefly 2 Plus, and their popularity is on the rise.

If the Firefly 2 Plus wants to be the iPhone vaporizer, it may be an iPhone XS Max – big, expensive, impressive and more than many people probably need or do not want to pay. Still, you may have already said something similar about Nest – and see how it turned out.