bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Jamie Carter

Technology to make life better, but not busier – that was the goal for some of the innovators showing their products at IFA 2019 in Berlin, Germany.
For these trendsetters, smartphones and the stress they bring are now the enemy; their goal is to achieve “peaceful digital living” and harmony with nature.
Such thinking made for some unusual technological advances.
On show at the annual consumer electronics trade fair was everything from a therapy robot that was half cat to a smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to musical sunglasses.


1. Qoobo the therapy cat robot
What the world needs is … a tail-wagging robotic pillow? “When you touch it, it moves like a cat,” says Clement Bastide, marketing manager at Yukai Engineering in Tokyo. “Depending on how you touch it, it reacts differently – touch it fast and its tail will move faster.”

When caressed, Qoobo waves gently. When rubbed, it swings playfully. When you do nothing to it for hours, it occasionally wags its tail just to say hello.
A companion robot created in Japan as a destressing toy for people who live in small flats and cannot have a pet, Qoobo (US$149) recently went on sale outside its home country.
“In Japan it’s mainly girls who buy it,” says Bastide.
If you like going outside and listening to music you need sunglasses and you need headphones. It’s just not very convenient
Cao Hui of Mutrics, the makers of the Music-X Series smart audio sunglasses
2. Music-X Series smart audio sunglasses
Remember Google Glass? Take away the built-in camera and the screen, then slash the price, and you have something like the Music-X Series sunglasses (US$129) that, like the recently launched Gentle Monster and Bose Frames Alto, can stream music over Bluetooth 5.0.
Embedded with tiny 1W speakers arranged close to the wearer’s ears, they use algorithmic bass enhancement technology. The Music-X sunglasses play tunes, but also have a mic for making hands-free phone calls and for talking to Siri and Google Assistant.
“If you like going outside and listening to music you need sunglasses and you need headphones,” says Cao Hui of Mutrics, based in southern Chinese tech hub Shenzhen. “It’s just not very convenient.”
With UV400 polarised lenses, IP55 certified, so totally waterproof, and with a built-in 2,200mAh battery that lasts for an impressive eight hours and is recharged via USB-C, the sunglasses come in black, white and … orange. They are available from this month.

3. Pro1 smartphone with QWERTY keyboard
BlackBerry fans, take note. Modern smartphones all look and work almost exactly the same, so London-based F (x) tec is committed to bringing back what people miss. Cue the Pro1 (US$699), an Android-based device that is ever so slightly less slim than usual, and with good reason; it conceals a full, slide-out, angled landscape QWERTY keyboard.
With a 6-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display, 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, it’s a serious phone, but there’s only one reason to buy it. That keyboard is highly impressive; it’s joined to the phone by a very well designed flick-out hinge mechanism that lets the keyboard slide into play at a snap.
Although it’s got obvious retro appeal, the Pro1 makes a lot of practical sense. After all, why clutter up your screen with a virtual keyboard when you do not need to? It also makes split-screening two apps worth doing. The Pro1 is scheduled for global launch in mid-September.

4. DFree toilet timing wearable device
Is it time to go to the toilet? Taking on the challenge of incontinence in a rapidly ageing society in Japan and elsewhere is Triple W, whose DFree (US$445) device tries to solve the problem and so give people back their dignity.
“It’s for elderly people and even 100-year-old people,” explains Yuhei Urabe at Triple W Europe, based in France. “It has an ultrasound sensor that sits on the bladder and detects its size, and when it gets to a certain size you get a notification on your smartphone telling you it’s time to go to the toilet.”
That happens before the person needs to go, so essentially it’s a predictive device. DFree is already used by over 2,000 people in Japan.


5. Mui Lab smart home control panel
Mui Lab, based in Kyoto, Japan, is all about creating “calm” devices, and in Berlin it presented a piece of wood that is connected to the cloud.
“It’s real wood and connects with smart locks and smart heaters; it tells you the weather and the time, and it lets you play music,” says Akikio Moriguchi at Mui Lab.
Fully customisable depending on what devices you have in your smart home, it’s mostly aimed at replacing the smartphone at home.

“It’s the opposite to the smartphone because it only displays information when you touch it,” says Moriguchi. “Smartphones are always displaying information and disturbing us, forcing us to adapt to them and changing our lifestyle, even our posture.”
Drawing inspiration from the Taoist philosophy of mui shizen (doing nothing), mui-enabled systems are all about harmony between technology, humans and nature.

For more insights into China tech, join our Facebook group, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.



US export controls have fuelled China’s AI development

Why the Philippine Army is turning to locally built remote weapons systems

OpenAI in talks to raise US$10 billion from Amazon and adopt Trainium chips

China’s Qwen and DeepSeek edge out US AI models in Christian values benchmark

Technology

IFA 2019 – five weird tech ideas, from smartphone with slide-out keyboard to musical sunglasses

F(x)tec's Pro1 smartphone with slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Triple W's DFree, a device that alerts its user of calls of nature,  is on show at IFA 2019 in Berlin

mui Lab 's smart home panel made of real wood on show at IFA 2019 in Berlin

Qoobo is a tail-wagging robot cushion on show at IFA 2019 in Berlin

The Mutrics Music-X Series smart audio sunglasses – one of the innovations on show at IFA 2019 in Berlin, Germany. Photo: Jamie Carter

Leonardo DiCaprio face-swap star took ‘8 seconds’ to find fame with Chinese app Zao – but what about his privacy?

Games developer Allan Xia became the face of the face-swapping app Zao after inserting himself into a Leonardo DiCaprio montage.

Chinese  App Zao.

Allan Xia appearing as John Snow via the App Zao.

Allan Xia appearing as  Leonardo DiCaprio via the App Zao.

The logo of the Chinese app ZAO, which allows users to swap their faces with celebrities and anyone else, is seen on a mobile phone screen in front of an advertisement of the app, in this illustration picture taken September 2, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration

Travel tech for digital nomads: from mobile Wi-fi and fast chargers to solar-powered backpacks

If you’re a digital nomad it’s essential you have the right technology that will help provide reliability, security and affordability. Photo: Alamy

Handout image shows  Meredith Valentine.[07SEPTEMBER2019 FEATURES]

PowerIQ 3.0 Mobile Charger (anker.com),

Voltaic Systems Array Rapid Solar Backpack Charger

Roost laptop stand

Handout image shows a Skyroam, a mobile wifi hotspot device.[07SEPTEMBER2019 FEATURES]

B1X0P0 Inuit women walking with children in Grise Fiord, Nunavut, Canada. North America's Furthest Northern Community.. Image shot 2007. Exact date unknown.

LG’s new foldable dual-screen phone hands on: practical, sleek, sturdy – the future for folds?

With the LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen’s second screen attached, users can run Google Chrome over both screens so they get one larger canvas to read articles. Photo: Ben Sin

The second screen of the LG G8X  can also display a virtual gamepad.

Another new feature on the LG G8X Dual Screen  is the ability to run a full keyboard on one screen. This drastically improves typing efficiency for me, which has come in handy when responding to emails or typing articles.

The LG G8X Dual Screen measures 15mm thick. It’s a bit thicker than a normal smartphone but still thin enough to fit into my trouser pockets

The back of the LG G8X ThinQ is made of Gorilla Glass 6 and is completely smooth with no camera bumps. The cameras are underneath the glass.

The LG G8X ThinQ in standalone form without the Dual Screen attachment

Lifestyle

Gadgets

Tech

Lists


Need a robotic therapy cushion shaped like a cat that wags its tail, or an app to forewarn you of the need to pee? How about a cloud-connected piece of wood?
The annual IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, Germany, is the place to discover gadgets you’ve never thought you might need … until now



The annual IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, Germany, is the place to discover gadgets you’ve never thought you might need … until now, such as sunglasses you can make calls and listen to music with, or a cat-shaped therapy robot.


China technology

Gadget reviews