Parenthood, while constantly entertaining, is also one of the most eye-ball meltingly frustrating experiences I've personally ever had. At the end of the day, I do not have patience for any additional extra hassles, be it an unresponsive device, lagging apps or diaper wipes that come out 15 at a time. There are some parenting gadgets that are actually worth your money because they can make life with new babies much more convenient, and some of our favorites are on sale for Black Friday. We've tried out nearly every product below so we can vouch for their advantages, functionality and what really counts as a good deal for the holiday shopping season. That way you can save all your patience for the toy cars, houses and high chairs you're going to have to build after Christmas.

Seven Israeli and Israeli-founded companies were among over 400 firms featured by US business magazine Fast Company on its annual "World's Most Innovative Companies" for 2019. The monthly publication's editors and writers said they sought out groundbreaking businesses across 35 industries in every world region, listing the top 10 in 41 categories such as AI, Biotech, Branding, Health, Robotics, Food, Security, and Middle East, for a total of 410 organizations. Fast Company also released its annual "50 Most Innovative Companies" but no Israeli firms made that list. In 2018, Israeli-founded navigational app Waze was featured in the top 50 alongside giants such as Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify, and Israel had its own category with 10 top startups. An additional 5 Israeli companies and startups were featured in other categories.

LAS VEGAS - Every year, the CES gadget show brings more devices promising to make life a little bit easier for harried parents. Sure, the kids might love them too: Who wouldn't want a computerized Harry Potter wand that also teaches coding? The Las Vegas show's growing "family tech" sector encompasses products that range from artificially intelligent toys and baby monitors to internet-connected breast pumps. Their common thread is an appeal to parental anxiety about raising smart kids, occupying their time, tracking their whereabouts and making sure they're healthy and safe. Some also come with subtle trade-offs.

When my wife and I became parents, the most important weapon in our childcare arsenal was an A5-size notebook. In this mighty tome we wrote out every single data point relating to our new baby, from the quantity of milk she drank and duration of sleep through to the volume of excreta. It was, after all, only with this information that we were able, in our sleep-deprived and confused state, to coordinate how to meet her needs. Devices like Nanit's artificially intelligent baby monitor are designed to outsource much of that brainwork. It's a $349 night-vision camera that hangs over a cot, using computer vision and deep learning to monitor your little one's sleep. The little gadget is relatively small, but it packs a microphone, speaker, camera, nightlight and temperature sensor inside its body.

If you follow me on Snapchat (msuster) you might already know that I've been looking at and investing in a number of companies in the computer vision space. My thesis is that it will become a major I/O computing metaphor or as this field is sometimes referred to HCI (human-computer interaction). Today I am so excited to announce our latest investment in the category -- Nanit -- which is a smart baby monitor. The objective behind Nanit is to help parent "sleep more and monitor less." By using computer vision Nanit is able to better help parents understand how well a child is sleeping and if they're having difficulties what the causes may be (sound, ambient light, temperature or even, gasp, too much parental interference).

What if a simple camera capturing data for machine learning could tell you the threat level of an individual approaching a fence? What if the same combination of camera and computer could classify the behavior of shoppers in a grocery store isle and judge things like intent to purchase, presence of decision paralysis, and ease of identifying desired products? Fueled by advances in image recognition and processing power, smart-cameras that can classify human behavior rather than simply observe it may be the next step for IoT. Nanit is one of the first companies in this space. Dr. Assaf Glazer, a parent himself, and his team are working to take the pain out of one of the most strenuous tasks of any parent, making sure their baby gets a good night's sleep.

What if a simple camera capturing data for machine learning could tell you the threat level of an individual approaching a fence. What if the same combination of camera and computer could classify the behavior of shoppers in a grocery store isle and judge things like intent to purchase, presence of decision paralysis, and ease of identifying desired products. Fueled by advances in image recognition and processing power, smart-cameras that can classify human behavior rather than simply observe it may be the next step for IoT. Nanit is one of the first companies in this space. Dr. Assaf Glazer, a parent himself, and his team are working to take the pain out of one of the most strenuous tasks of any parent, making sure their baby gets a good nights sleep.