IFA 2024: all the news from the big Berlin tech show
Photo by Sebastian Gollnow / picture alliance via Getty ImagesHere’s everything being announced from Europe’s biggest tech show. Continue reading…
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IFA, Europe’s huge consumer tech expo, attracts some of the biggest companies in the world. It’s like a counterpart to CES in the United States, which happens in January, whereas IFA caps off the summer with news on the latest smartphones, fridges, robot vacuums, laptops, and “AI-powered” products from A to Z.
In 2024, IFA opens in Berlin on September 6th and runs through September 10th, and The Verge is flying across the Atlantic to bring you the latest coverage. Like last year, IFA should continue its reputation as the showcase for new smart home tech, especially smart appliances. Many of these devices are adopting the Matter standard, which everyone seems to want but which is still somewhat struggling to gain full traction.
International tech companies from China, Korea, Japan, the US, and elsewhere are delivering fresh news leading up to the first day of IFA. Expect new phones from companies like Honor, new appliances from Samsung and LG, and much more.
I’m heading to Berlin to seek solutions for the smart kitchen
Image: IFA
I’m a sucker for the smart kitchen. Build me a kitchen that can tell me what to cook, when to cook, how to cook it, and do the boring bits for me, then clean it all up afterward, and I’ll be a happy tech reviewer. For years, this has seemed totally out of reach. Appliance makers have stuck Wi-Fi chips in everything but have barely done anything to make those appliances smart. Unless all your appliances are from the same brand, nothing works together in the smart kitchen — the one place where interoperability really matters.
At the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, this week, the biggest names in home appliances will be showing off their latest gadgets and hopefully presenting solutions to some of these problems. I’ll be there to hear what companies like LG, Samsung, Bosch, Haier (GE Appliances), AEG (Electrolux), and SharkNinja have to say about the evolution of home appliances.
EcoFlow launches four new batteries for phones, homes, and RVs
Image: EcoFlow
EcoFlow just launched four new battery products designed to power everything from your home appliances in the event of a blackout to your Qi2-compatible phone to RVs.
Going from most powerful to least, there’s the second-generation Power Kit to power your off-grid vanlife fantasies, the midrange Delta 3 and compact River 3 solar generators, and the Rapid Qi2 wireless power banks for phones that can also charge your laptop in a pinch.
Lenovo leak shows cheaper Copilot Plus PCs coming this month
Image: Microsoft
Lenovo appears ready to launch new more affordable Copilot Plus PCs. Reliable leaker Evan Blass has published a press release from Lenovo that details a variety of Copilot Plus PCs that will be announced at the IFA trade show later this week, including two that are powered by an unannounced 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip.
The new Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PCs from Lenovo include the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1, a convertible with a 14-inch OLED display, and the IdeaPad Slim 5x, a full-metal clamshell laptop with the option to pick a 14-inch OLED display. Both feature a new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chip, instead of the regular 10-core version.
With AI food recognition Samsung Food could be the ultimate meal-planning app
Image: Samsung
New features on Samsung’s AI-powered food and recipe app could make your meal planning and food management chores much easier. With Samsung Food, you can now add items to a Food List just by taking a picture. The app can then suggest recipes based on the food you have, automatically remove them when you cook a recipe using anything on the list, then add food items back to the list when you tick them off your shopping list.
The Food List was previously only accessible via the SmartThings app and the built-in tablet on Samsung’s Family Hub smart fridges, limiting its usefulness. Now, as part of the cross-platform Samsung Food app, it could turn the service into a really useful all-in-one shopping, food management, meal planning, and cooking app.
