IFA you want my body and you think I’m sexy…
IFA IS big. Really, really big. (yes, borrowing from Douglas again). That means that there’s a lot of stuff that just doesn’t get covered in depth. But! Fear not! Here’s some of the brand news you may have missed.
Netgear – The premium networking brand has a whole bunch of stuff to share. There’s a Wifi6 Mesh Extender under the gaming Nighthawk moniker, for those that want to get their game on, but keep their fancy Nighthawk router. Mesh router system Orbi gets its own Wifi6 upgrade too, which it boasts as having 4x the capacity of the current Wifi 5 standard.
The Insight range of cloud-controlled networking equipment for business has had a big boost too, and weirdly, the Meural Canvas II, which offers a framed canvas that can be set to display anything from a range of classic artworks gets its first upgrade since Netgear bought it.
Arlo – In case you were wondering, Arlo is now a separate company from Netgear, so it gets its own listing. There’s not much new to report, but we are planning a comprehensive review of the range in the coming weeks. It has, however, revealed a “Works with Arlo” programme which will see services directly integrating, as well as plans for a Z-Wave and Zigbee upgrade to hubs.
Netatmo – One of our favourite smaller brands, Netatmo has quietly expanded its range in recent years, and used IFA to unveil its security system, fully compatible with other Netatmo products. It also confirmed that its cameras will now work with Amazon Alexa. Google Assistant would be nice too, but one thing at a time.
Tado – Our favourite smart heating firm hasn’t brought a new hardware game this time, but its app has had a massive revamp with more detailed information about air quality, both inside and using data it has for outdoor air in your area. That means it can give you more intelligent advice on when its best to open a window and when you really ought to do some dusting, you slob.
Dynabook – Who? Well, Dynabook is the newly off-shot (is that a word?) name for Toshiba’s laptops. Amongst its offerings at IFA are the Tecra X50-F laptop, which maxes out at 15.6-inches but weighs just 1.36kg and can hit 17 hours battery life on a good day.
Jabra – the headphone maker has updated one of our favourite products of last year. The Elite 75t updates the 65t range with significantly extended battery life for its premium wireless earbud offering, yet the buds themselves are 20% slimmer.
PNY – French accessory vendor PNY isn’t perhaps known for its pushing the envelope, but that hasn’t stopped it from offering the “smallest and fastest” external SSD drives on the market. Measuring 6×35.6×8.9mm (so less than 4cm at its widest), the PNY Elite Portable SSD range is pocket-sized and offers 880/900MBs r/w. It has also launched a range of keenly priced USB-PD chargers, which anyone looking for them knows are like hen’s teeth.
Honor – Usually releasing more ‘flagship’ devices faster than Boris Johnson loses MPs, the Honor wagon train has been a bit more in the sidings this time, with its only big announcement being a 5th generation version of its Fitness Band.
Ring – Ding Dong! Amazon-owned Ring is improving the way its devices work together meaning you’ll be able to trigger a camera when the door goes, for example. Still no integration with sister brand Blink though.
D-Link – The venerable accessory brand has been showing off routers that work with its Exo range of mesh access points. All include McAfee protection and give a lot more options to the power user than using Exo on its own.
Withings – No secret that we have a lot of love for this French fitness brand. The new Withings Move ECG can not only check your heart rate and steps but is able to spot any abnormal activities in your heart. It may just save your life.
That’s not it. How could it be – but its some of our favourite footnotes to the Berlin behemoth. We’re hoping to get some of these in for review in the coming weeks.
See our full coverage of IFA 2019 as it lands, at this link. μ