IFA Berlin 2017: the best phones, laptops, headphones, and everything else from Europe’s biggest tech show – The Verge

Digital assistants made it into speakers, headphones, phones, lamps, and more at IFA

2017-09-05T14:14:28-04:00

The IFA technology conference in Berlin this past week blessed us with gadgets. We witnessed the introduction of questionably large speakers, new phones, mixed reality headsets, and even new gaming mice. Much like we saw at CES, virtual assistants also continued to creep into every product.

As of this summer, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Cortana can all be built into third-party manufacturers' devices, and these new IFA products demonstrate an interest in including them. Most companies either bundle support for all the assistants into one device, or release a specifically designed gadget for each assistant.

Given that Amazon was the first …

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Acer announces two 360-degree cameras

2017-09-01T16:32:54-04:00

Acer Holo360 | Photo: Acer

Acer is joining the 360-degree video craze with two new cameras, including one designed for your car. The Acer Holo360 is smartphone-sized 360-degree camera powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. The LTE-connected camera comes with a 3-inch display and can capture 4K 360-degree videos. It also runs Android 7.1, making it easy for users to share their videos over social media.

The other camera Acer announced is the Vision360, a camera designed as a high-end dash cam. The Vision360 is designed to film every angle of your car during a collision in 4K, and then upload that footage to the cloud with GPS coordinates and your speed. If y …

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Huawei spills an eye-searing shade of blue on the Honor 9

2017-09-01T15:11:40-04:00

Honor is releasing its Honor 9 phone in a new "robin egg blue" shade. The turquoise is certainly unique, although I'm not sure whether that's a good thing. We all want our phones to stand out, but this blue makes my eyes hurt a little bit? It's just so bright and so turquoise. I want to put it in an Easter basket. It shouldn't leave the Easter basket.

Maybe you're into the pastel trend, though, and are ready to fully commit to that lifestyle, in which case, this is probably a good color for you. The limited edition release went on sale in China on August 16th. It'll be coming to the UK in mid-September for £459.99.

The affordability makes …

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Sharp announces an 8K TV now that you’ve upgraded to 4K

2017-09-01T08:32:40-04:00

Now that you've upgraded to a shiny new 4K TV, Sharp has revealed its latest screen to stoke your fear of missing out: a 70-inch Aquos 8K TV. That 8K (7,680 x 4,320) resolution is 16 times that of your old Full HD (1920 x 1080) TV. Sharp calls it "ultimate reality, with ultra-fine details even the naked eye cannot capture," which doesn't seem like a very good selling point.

Keep in mind that having a screen with more pixels doesn't buy you much after a certain point, because those pixels are invisible from a distance - while an 8K panel would be beneficial as a monitor, where you're sitting close, it won't buy you much when leaning back on …

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Amazon Alexa is coming to the Bragi Dash

2017-09-01T03:00:01-04:00

The Bragi Dash wireless earbuds are getting a new feature later this year: the ability to talk to Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa. The headphone maker announced at the IFA trade show today that a software update coming in October will allow access to Alexa, and will be available in English (US and UK) and German.

It's not the first pair of headphones to receive Alexa support, but this is definitely the first pair of truly wireless earbuds to offer access to the digital assistant. Alexa won't be triggered by a wake word, though - users will have to either tap or use the Dash's "4D menu," in which the earbud uses motion sensing to allow users …

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Sennheiser’s wireless earbuds slim down in a big way with the HD1 Free

2017-08-31T17:01:44-04:00

Momentum HD1 Free | Image: Sennheiser

Sennheiser is announcing three new headphones today: two brand new models of wireless earbuds, and a redesigned version of what the company claims are the "finest pair of ear canal phones on the market."

At the top of the list is the Momentum HD1 Free (seen above), a new entry in Sennheiser's line of fashionable but good-sounding headphones. It's a pair of neckbuds, but they aren't attached by one of those huge plastic neck straps - there's just a cord in between the earbuds, with small plastic pieces on either side, one of which contains playback controls and a mic.

It's a significant slimming down since Sennheiser's first pair of neckbud …

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Lenovo’s Surface competitor has Intel’s new quad-core processors, LTE, and a 3D camera

2017-08-31T14:30:02-04:00

Lenovo Miix 520

Lenovo is making its Surface competitor a lot better this year. After slow iterating the Miix tablet from its Core M roots, the new Miix 520 will include Intel's 8th generation quad-core i7 processor. It's an addition that pushes its CPU performance past Microsoft's new Surface Pro, alongside 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and a 12.2-inch 1920 x 1200 display. Lenovo also offers a USB-C port, the company's own active pen support, and an optional 3D camera for capturing images.

Lenovo is even offering an LTE version of the Miix 520 before Microsoft has managed to ship its own Surface Pro with LTE. Like Microsoft's Surface Pro, the Miix 520 …

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Lenovo’s new Yoga 920 laptop has far-field microphones so you can shout at Cortana

2017-08-31T14:30:01-04:00

Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana has been in Windows 10 laptops for a couple of years now, usually accessible via the search box on the Windows desktop and, in some cases, via a dedicated physical button. Lenovo is taking that a step further by turning its top-of-the-line Yoga laptop into what is, essentially, a home assistant.

The new Lenovo Yoga 920, announced today at the IFA trade show in Berlin, has far-field microphones so users can talk to the laptop from more than a dozen feet away and Cortana will respond - even if the laptop is closed. This means you can shout at your laptop to take notes or set calendar appointments even if …

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Sony made a 5.6-foot-tall speaker for lit block parties

2017-08-31T12:23:43-04:00

Sony's thinking of all the neighborhood DJs with its newest, massive speaker, the MHC-V90W. It's one of the most extra speakers I've seen. It includes lighting effects that synchronize to the beat, and it supports Chromecast, meaning you can control it through the Google Assistant. This seems like the strangest use for Google Assistant, or at least I never thought of the Assistant being used to control massive party speakers, but I suppose DJs can benefit from voice controls, too.

The V90W syncs with up to 10 other speakers over Wi-Fi, so if one 5.6-foot speaker isn't enough, you can get a true party chain together. The speaker features fou …

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Technics debuts the SP-10R, its most premium analog turntable to date

2017-08-31T12:10:25-04:00

Technics has announced it is reissuing its classic SP-10 as the Reference Class SP-10R, a model that parent company Panasonic is calling the brand's "most premium analog, direct-drive turntable to date."

Panasonic displayed the SP-10R prototype at IFA 2017 in Berlin, and its high-end features see it falling in line with the brand's turn toward audiophiles in recent years. At first glance, the turntable is simply beautiful to look at, with a weighty 7KG platter for stable rotation made of brass, aluminum, and rubber. It has a separately housed power supply that's a departure from most turntables' all-in-one design, meant to minimize hum and …

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