New fridge stops beers exploding
David Court. A $20k gaming chair and a fridge that stops beer exploding. Welcome to IFA, writes
One of the biggest technology events of the year is happening this week. No, I’m not talking about the iPhone launch. That’s next week. I’m talking about a trade show called Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin, which somehow translate to the acronym IFA.
As the full name suggests, the event is hosted in Germany. And like all trade shows, it takes place in a soulless, absolutely massive, exhibition centre on the outskirts of a city.
Inside the trade show you’ll find a depressingly large number of suited businessmen milling around, looking at shiny new products.
So what’s the show’s saving grace? The technology at IFA is
genuinely exciting.
Samsung launched a range of affordable mid-range 5G smartphones and domestic dry cleaning appliance.
Acer launched a ridiculous
NZ$22,000 gaming chair. And Asus launched a gaming laptop with a hugely impressive 300 hertz display (your expensive TV is probably
60Hz).
Here are my favourite three announcements for this year’s show.
Note: Annoyingly, IFA is a showcase that is aimed at grabbing headlines, so prices and availability are still to be confirmed for most of the announcements.
Electrolux’s new fridge stops beers exploding
Full marks go to Swedish white goods manufacturer, Electrolux, for its use of the Internet of Things to solve real-world problems.
MultiChill is the company’s new feature that uses a four-door fridge design (and smart connectivity) to give users greater control of how their fridge chills its contents.
The headline feature here is the ability to use a smartphone app to inform the fridge where the drinks are that you’re chilling.
The app then interacts with the fridge, sending extra cold temperatures to the compartment where your drinks are stored, and alerts you when your beverages have chilled for an appropriate amount of time.
Electrolux has identified that this new feature is perfect for preventing beers from exploding when they’re chilled for too long, like in a (dumb) freezer.
LG to use AI to prevent consumers from breaking appliances
Sticking with clever fridges, LG has also announced new smart features for its white goods.
ThinQ, the company’s home appliance app, will now use a new artificial intelligence chip to help give ‘‘Proactive Customer Care’’ feedback to users about the performances of their products.
More specially, ThinQ has been designed to send push notifications to users if appliances are running sub-optimally.
For example, if you have stacked your new LG refrigerator in such a way that you have blocked its airflow, you will also be pinged – allowing you to fix the cause and prevent the appliance from needlessly overworking.
Likewise, if the new LG washing machine detects that you have put in too much detergent you will get a handy notification via your app.
Intel reveals Project Athena: ‘‘the future of laptops"
Laptop names don’t really tell you much do they? HP EliteBook x360 and a Dell Latitude 7400 sound impressive, but unless you’re a bit nerdy, you won’t know if they’re any good or not.
That’s where Project Athena comes in. It’s Intel’s new seal of approval that aims to instantly inform consumers that qualifying Intel-powered laptops will meet certain performance expectations.
To become ‘‘Project Athena certified’’, Intel says laptops will need to include ‘‘solid-state drives, touch controllers, embedded controllers, and display panels, which can often have the greatest effect on a device’s performance and power consumption’’.
The HP EliteBook x360, 1040 and
830, Dell Inspiron 14 5000, Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1, Dell XPS 13
2-in-1, as well as Lenovo ThinkPad
X1 Carbon, are a few of the current crop that meet Project Athena’s criteria.
The app interacts with the fridge . . . and alerts you when your beverages have chilled for an appropriate amount of time.