ifa 2016

The thing that makes IFA a hard show to cover is also its best feature

Today concludes my fourth IFA. Or maybe my fifth. These tech conferences tend to blend together after a while. The first time I attended the show, I hadn’t really heard of the thing, to be honest.

Samsung’s smart belt is now on Kickstarter, and it’s still called WELT

In Berlin, it means “world.” There’s probably something to be read into that, but I’ve been here covering IFA for several days now and quite frankly, I’m coming up short. The gadget made its

A wristband and your finger can replace your phone, but you still need a phone to use it

The most exciting part of Samsung’s IFA booth is also its most understated. Somewhere toward the middle of the huge, brightly lit hall are a series of tables showing off non-Samsung products, a perf

Your washing machine should be smarter about washing clothes than you are

Washing machines have always felt like a sort of necessary evil. I’m wouldn’t go so far as suggesting that no one enjoys washing clothes — heck, I find doing the dishes kind of cathartic. Pe

If nothing else, StikBox is a good way to hide the fact that you own a selfie stick

What if I told you that you could hide the shame of carrying around a selfie stick, protect your smartphone and have a free kickstand all in one go? How much would you pay for such a luxury? $10,000?

As long as robots look adorable and make us coffee, we’ll be eating out of their robotic hands

It doesn’t take much. For all the bluster around the conversation about Skynet and robotic overlords, we still melt when a diminutive robot flashes the slightest hint of humanity through a small set

And this is why VR headsets are headsets and not sunglasses

They fall off. A lot. And nothing rips you from the escapism of VR faster than having a pair of glasses constantly fall off the bridge of your nose. No sudden movements and you should be fine. I’m

We become the people in ‘WALL-E’ one VR massage chair at a time

Little by little, next thing you know you’re sitting in a massage chair, wearing an Oculus Rift, acting like you’re not in the middle of a crowded German trade-show floor. You can let yourself go

A different glimpse at VR’s future through Qualcomm’s eye-tracking headset

Poor Qualcomm. Always the reference design, never the retail unit. It’s like being the guy behind the guy, the comedian’s comedian, the power behind the product that doesn’t get to reap the pomp

Fossil sure has a lot of different smartwatches

Fossil’s not messing around here. Back in November, the company announced plans to pick up fitness tracking company Misfit for $260 million, and, all the while, it’s been announcing connected wear

A circular satnav designed to blend in with a scooter

Like Garmin, TomTom’s been getting pretty aggressive with its wearable strategy. No wonder, really — it’s a space that’s seen exponential growth over the past few years, as in-car GPS syst

At long last, the player piano does multi-room audio

We all knew in our hearts that if we just waited long enough, the Internet of Things would come around to self-playing pianos; that surely the cloud would incorporate that last vestige of ol’ ti

Drop partners with Bosch to let users monitor their oven remotely

This could actually go a ways toward easing my obsessive dial checking on the way out the door in the morning. Drop, they of connected kitchen scale fame, is partnering with Bosch to bring an added la

Sanbot is a humanoid robot with penguin flipper arms and a touchscreen heart

When I arrived at Qihan’s IFA booth, a rainbow-colored trio of Sanbots were performing choreographed moves to some unrecognizable pop song. Because, well, when you want to get people to stop at your

Finally, Windows 10 on a refrigerator door

To the thousands, nay, millions who were holding out for a Windows 10 fridge before upgrading, we’ve got some pretty great news straight from the IFA show floor. Granted, it’s still just a prototy

An entry-level VR headset that doesn’t need a phone

If you’re going to do yet another VR headset, the least you can do is bring something new to table. For Alcatel, that means an all-in-on solution, doing away with the need for a tethered computer or

A 38-inch curved gaming monitor isn’t as immersive as VR, but it’s still pretty neat

At $1,500, the 38UC99 works out to around $39 per inch of curved gaming monitor. And it’s a pretty lovely thing to behold – particularly when lined up alongside two other 38-inch gaming monitors.

Wacom’s Intuos 3D package bundles a pen tablet with 3D design software

Wacom’s IFA announcements thus far have centered around the company’s consumer-facing Bamboo line. Earlier this week, the tablet maker showed off two new versions of its sketchpad digitizer, i

Acer’s 17 pound, curved-screen temple to gaming excess

Where to start? There’s the weight: 17 pounds. The screen: 21 inches, 2560 x 1080, curved. The power supplies: two. The fans: five. Rear ports: 21. Or how about the gaming pad that flips over, trap

LG’s Amazon Echo competitor will get Alexa functionality

LG’s SmartThinQ Hub looks a lot like the Amazon Echo. It’s the first thing that occurred to me when it was announced right around CES of this year, and it was probably the first thing that occ
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