By Ada "Peer-Review" Sparks
Berlin's IFA trade show is where the smart home and the storage drive both get a yearly makeover, and this year's crop leans toward doing more with less.
Aqara, fresh off showing several smart home firsts at CES earlier this year, returned to IFA with a broad lineup of smart lighting compatible with both the Zigbee and Thread wireless protocols, The Verge reports. Among the new devices is the Floor Lamp T1, which ditches the look of a conventional lamp for an LED-equipped pole mounted on a base. Supporting two wireless standards rather than locking buyers into one is a modest but practical move — it means the lighting can talk to a wider range of smart home hubs without an extra bridge device.
Separately, Lexar is entering the increasingly crowded market for ultra-thin portable drives with the Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD, according to The Verge. At under 4mm at its thickest point, the drive follows a trend set by companies like Xteink: shedding the traditional USB-C port to shave down the hardware's profile. It's expected to launch later this year in 512GB and 1TB capacities.
Both items come from manufacturer announcements at IFA, the consumer electronics show, and the reporting available does not include independent speed, durability, or battery-life testing for either product — nor confirmed U.S. pricing. As with any trade-show unveiling, specs and ship dates can shift before retail units reach reviewers' hands. We'll be watching for the benchmarks.
Extraordinary claims. Ordinary evidence? Then no.
— Compiled from reporting by The Verge.
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