IFA WRAPUP
Alcatel
Alcatel, best known for their smart phones, enthralled crowds at this year’s IFA with a stunning new VR product that could come to Australian customers as early as 2017. Called the VISION, Alcatel’s new product is quite exciting as it is one of the first completely wireless and standalone virtual reality headsets. What Alcatel has succeeded in doing is eliminating the need for a smart phone to be embedded into a headset to experience virtual reality vision and that’s an achievement that’s more than worthy of recognition.
Alcatel that has spent the last 18 months carving up the Australian smartphone market with their cost-effective range of mobiles and they used IFA to reveal a new budget handset. The #3 smartphone brand in Australia will roll out their own online store where several products that are currently sold overseas will be available to Australian consumers. The new products ranged will include the likes of two-in-one notebooks, tablets, smartwatches and a range of mobiles not currently stocked by retailers or carriers.
On top of the company’s alreadyimpressive VR and smartphone offerings, Alcatel also brought their latest range of wearable tech to this year’s IFA. Their Movetime Wi-Fi Watch features a 1.39-inch AMOLED display with 400 x 400 pixels, and support for connectivity over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s got a built-in speaker and microphone and even uses Alcatel’s own proprietary operating software rather than something like Android Wear. The Movetime will arrive in three colour variations (silver, dark grey and gold) and comes accompanied by the Moveband and Movetrack. The former is a strippeddown version of the Movetime that keeps the health and fitness functionality but loses the ability to tell the time. Meanwhile, the Movetrack is a fairly frill-free GPS tracker for keeping track of things like luggage or your car keys.
Lenovo
Lenovo, the Chinese technology company is doing what Apple is struggling to do: invent new products that are stylish cutting-edge today’s millennial audience of consumers who have grown up on a diet of tablets and smart phones. This is no more evident than with the new YogaBook. After being revealed at this year’s IFA in Berlin, it already has retailers describing it as the hottest new product in 2016. Five years in the making the YogaBook allows users to write and draw on a piece of paper and instantly see their creations digitised.
Lenovo is also set to be the first across the finish line when it comes to support for Google’s augmented reality initiative, Project Tango. The company announced their new phablet, the Phab2 Pro, at IFA. It touts a 6.4-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 and 4GBs of RAM. However, it’s the wide-angle camera that’s crucial here. The Phab2 Pro features a depth sensing 3D camera. This addition sets the handset up to do far more than just overlay objects in 2D but actually generate virtual objects in three-dimensions. Google’s Project Tango was shown during their developer conference in May and promises to pull together a Google Cardboard-styled headset and depth sensors to create an augmented reality experience in line with what Microsoft is attempting to achieve with their Hololens.
Two new Lenovo smartphones were also revealed at IFA. The Lenovo P2 comes packing with an extra-large 5100mAh battery that supports fasting charging, lending credence to its claim as the successor the P1. It features 5.5-inch AMOLED display and is powered by a Snapdragon 625 processor and 3GB of RAM. Camerawise, it’s got a 5-megapixel shooter on the front and a 13-megapixel rear camera backing it up. Meanwhile, the budget-friendly Lenovo A Plus offers up a 4.5-inch display. Under the hood, the low-end handset is powered by a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6850 processor and 1GB of RAM. The A Plus houses a 2000mAh battery and a 5-megapixel camera, which while not exactly jaw-dropping specwise does make a value-driven proposition at its lower price point.
Motorola are set to deliver a new handset with a shatterproof display, called the Moto X Force to Australian customers. Pitched as a phone that’s “tough enough to love you back,” the Moto X Force’s 5.4-inch Quad HD AMOLED display features Motorola’s own ShatterScreen tech which they promise will deliver both maximum protection and heightened clarity.
Panasonic
After teasing everyone at IFA in Berlin, with a new generation OLED TV, Japanese company Panasonic then wowed the crowds with a display of where home appliances and home living are going. In Australia and around the world, Panasonic is fast earning a reputation for delivering cutting-edge appliances whether it be top end refrigeration or a new generation food mixer or a new state of the art laundry system that takes the pain out of washing and folding clothes. Through the theme of “A better life, a better world,” Panasonic showed off a new type of living environment, built around modern electronics in the modern home. While the Company had a lot of connected appliances on show as well as smart plugs, remotes, and sensors for controlling a number of devices remotely and from around the Japanese Company who are a major supplier of a new generation of batteries for powering the home also showed new lighting and ambient sound technology. The technology allows environments to be controlled automatically, with highactivity moods leading to more exciting lighting, while relaxing scenarios will see everything calm down to match what’s going on.
Panasonic will be bringing a new premium handheld 4K camcorder to market called HC-X1. Pitched as a tool designed for “working professionals looking to create stunning 4K video content,” it can record video in every resolution from Full HD to 4K Ultra HD. The camcorder also features a 1-inch MOS sensor and 20x zoom lens, which Panasonic promise will provide “outstanding image quality and flexibility for excellent results whatever the shooting situation.” According to Panasonic senior product manager Doug Campbell, “This camcorder combines the superior imaging and editing flexibility of 4K with high mobility and operational ease to meet professional demands.”
Samsung
Samsung has revealed its next major product for the smartwatch market. Launched at the company’s pre-IFA conference event, the Gear S3 combines a more-refined design, IP68 water resistance, support for mobile payments and built-in GPS. Design-wise, Samsung say they have aimed for a smartwatch that doesn’t look like a smartwatch but one that looks like a “smart watch.”
The company also added to its curved gaming monitor line-up at IFA 2016, introducing a number of new quantum dot curved monitors. The new monitors will comprise the CFG70 (24” and 27” models) and the CF791 (34” model), with Samsung to highlight how quantum dot tech, already featured in its UHD televisions, “brings the intricacies of today’s video games to life”.
Samsung’s smart refrigerator was also on show at IFA 2016. The Family Hub is decked out with a 21.5” full-HD touchscreen, providing a range of functionality, with an online shopping app allowing for ordering of groceries, paving the way for partnerships with grocery chains. Samsung states that the touchscreen can serve as an interactive white board for notes, photos, shared calendars and artwork, while content can be uploaded directly via the touchscreen or remotely by mobile phone or tablet.