Just a few years ago, Li Mengqi could not have imagined shopping on her own. Someone needed to always keep her company to say aloud what was in front of her, who's been blind since birth. When smartphones with text-to-speech machines for the visually impaired arrived, she immediately bought an iPhone. "Though it was expensive," Li, a 23-year-old who grew up in a rural village in eastern China's Zhejiang province, told me. Cheaper smartphone options in China often don't have good accessibility features.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Smart home technology can be a little intimidating if you don't consider yourself tech-savvy. Believe me, when I first moved in with my boyfriend and had to learn how to live in a partly smart home, I was nervous and spent the first few weeks asking him to change the lights for me. Now, though, I can navigate my smart home apps like a semi-pro, and my absolute favorite thing is being able to control my lights without getting up.