So the IFA technology conference finished last week and brought with it some great new technology to get people excited for the future of tech and especially the NOW of tech too. IFA always brings with it some of the coolest technology for the gadget enthusiast in all of us and they haven’t disappointed this year. This year, we have new smartwatches, some new housing gadgetry, a new tablet and even a fun new portable keyboard from LG. Let’s have a look then at the best technology to come out of IFA this year.
LG Rolly
The LG Rolly is a new portable keyboard from LG that is different from many as 1. you can roll the keyboard up so it can be far more convenient and bag-friendly but 2. it is actually a hard-key keyboard rather that having some form of soft keys. The keys are deep and solid enough to give solid feedback when typing on them. The keyboard is made in such a way that when folded up the LG Rolly folds up into a convenient stick shape that would easily fit in any bag.
Sony Xperia 5 Premium
The Sony Xperia phones have always been an underrated phone in the smartphone market and, as a result, haven’t been as well recognised by Android lovers and smartphone lovers in general. The Sony Xperia Z4 was truly one of the better Android smartphones last year and so the announcement of the Z5 phones was exciting for Sony fans. This year’s upgrades have seen the first new camera lens in the Xperia line since the Xperia Z1 and an upgrade in internal specifications of course. The standout member of the Z5 family though has to be the Z5 premium. This beast of a phone features a 5.5″ 4k display. Yes, this is the first mainstream phone to feature a 4k display. Does it really need all those pixels in a phone size that would be perfectly fine with a 2k display. Sony have luckily said the Premium should still last a day and a half despite the huge amount of power the screen will be using. let’s hope this remains true upon release.
Polaroid Snap
Polaroids are back in! With Instagram pushing the digital age towards retro filters and square images again and companies taking advantage of this and giving you the option to receive polaroids of your Instagram pictures, there’s a definite push to retro square pictures again. Polaroid have come out with the Polaroid Snap which is a smart-camera that allows you to take a picture, like most cameras do, but then you can hit a button and it will shoot a 4×3 image of the photo out of the side of the camera for you to either put on your wall or give to or send to others. For those still invested in digital photography you can still share to social networks and upload onto a computer using the camera too. How good the images taken is a different story, but for a lot of people buying this camera, quality may not be too important.
Samsung Gear S2
The Samsung Gear is a smartwatch line from Samsung that uses the Tizen platform as opposed to the more common Android Wear. Tizen is Samsung’s own operating system which they’ve used on the old Samsung Gear S watch too. The S2 however comes with the first circular watch face that Samsung have made and the ability to rotate the bezel to interact with the software. The rotating bezel can be used to navigate applications or zoom in on imagery. It’s a neat idea that uses an idea that old watches have taken with a minute counter and used it as hardware aid on a smart watch.
Lenovo Yoga Tab 3
Lenovo are constantly trying to innovate with almost every gadget they bring out. They were the first laptop to bring out the Yoga, a laptop that allowed you to bend the display backwards to have it in any position you’d like. Now they have a tablet that has a projector in it! This tablet is in the Yoga Tab line and therefore, utilises Android and some fairly decent speakers. However, the highlight of this tablet is surely the fact you can project the display up to 70″ and apparently the software is optimised for Netflix viewing too.
Smarter iKettle
The smarter iKettle isn’t the frist smart kettle we’ve seen before. However, the Smarter iKettle does do a few new things and is one of the better all-rounded smart kettles we’ve seen in a while. You can do things such as connect the kettle to your smartphone and set it to boil whether you’re upstairs in bed or on your way home from work. However, the iKettle is very useful in that it will tell you when it is boiled and ready to use, it will tell you when it needs refilling and it will tell you when it’s completely empty. It will also keep your water hot for far longer than most kettles of today.
