Smartwatches, intelligent homes and drones that follow users wherever they go are on show at Berlin’s mega consumer electronics fair, the IFA, which opened its doors to the public on Friday.
Here are some of this year’s eye-catching trends and innovations at the six-day showcase:
In a bid to whet the appetite for 3D printers, Taiwanese maker XYZprinting Inc (三緯) is showcasing one in Berlin that prints food.
Photo: Bloomberg
Samsung Electronics Co, Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Motorola Mobility LLC have chosen spherical faces for their latest smartwatch offerings, giving them a distinctly different look to archrival Apple Inc’s Apple Watch, which has a rectangular face. Keeping track of e-mails, water versus caffeine intake or how many steps taken in a day are among the myriad functions offered by the intelligent wristwatches.
The Android smartwatch makers are hoping that their models will claw back some market share from Apple, which shipped about 4 million smartwatches globally in the second quarter, market researcher Strategy Analytics estimated in July.
Samsung shipped just 400,000 units in the same period.
If there is one word used to describe electronics and appliances launched this year, it would be “smart.” Household must-haves from refrigerators to washing machines to coffee makers can all be hooked up to the Internet and controlled through an app on a smartphone.
Cuciniale GmbH is showcasing a cooker that takes orders from a smartphone and can cook a steak to perfection — be it rare, medium rare or well done. And pasta will, of course, be al dente, the company said.
Love plants, but cannot remember to water them? French company Parrot SA has a sensor that waters them automatically.
Samsung has unveiled not only a line of smart appliances, but also a series of gadgets called “Smart Things,” including plugs and a hub that coordinates or goes with intelligent domestic appliances.
Its vision is for the homeowner to program daily routines so that the house can run on its own.
Alternatively, certain tasks can be controlled remotely through a smartphone — for instance, opening the door from a distance.
You are sitting on your sofa when you hear the sound of a helicopter cutting through the skies, a butterfly flutter next to your ear or the stomping of feet vibrating through a packed stadium — 3D sound adapted for cinemas is now coming to your home.
Japanese audio systems specialists Onkyo Corp is launching speakers that send sound bouncing off the ceilings, producing the effect that it is coming at the listener from above.
3D Sound Labs SA has created headphones that “take into account a person’s head shape, ears and shoulders and ... gives the impression to the brain that the sound is surrounding you — from the back, front, right, left, top and bottom,” the start-up’s founder Renaud Seguier said.
For skiers who want photographs of themselves in action on the slopes, Chinese camera drone maker Dajiang Innovation Technology Co (DJI, 大疆) says it has the answer. Among several new features for its “Phantom” series is a function that keeps the drone hovering over its user wherever he or she goes.
If the drone loses signal and strays off the beaten track, there is another new feature called “home lock,” which takes the little autonomous aerial machine back home.
The pioneer of instant photographs, Polaroid Corp, returns to its roots with a digital camera that prints snapshots instantly — on special paper without requiring ink.
The so-called ZINK paper contains color crystals that are invisible until a photograph is taken, working much like old-school Polaroid cameras. However, the camera also has the advantages of a memory card that stores up to 32GB of images.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last