The season of continous lockdowns finally seems to be just a memory, but that period brought up a number of themes and issues that are now part of our daily lives. Among them is air purification in indoor spaces, whether at home or even in the office. The idea of a coffee table with a built-in air purifier is not new, see for example Ikea’s Starkvind. LG is approaching the theme in its own way, and with its purification technologies, with a piece of furniture that lights up, charges wireless devices and is also made from waste materials, part of the brand’s new all-design-oriented line, LG objet. Debuting at IFA is a collaboration with Korean painter Sunwoo Kim, who signs a diverse and colorful AeroFurniture line, furniture for the millennial home that perfectly conceals its air-purifying function.

Early last year, Lenovo launched its first foldable ThinkPad: that’s how Brian Leonard, a student of Richard Sapper and the company’s design chief, told Domus, and now presents it updated. In concept, it has changed dramatically: before it was notebook size-a very personal item-it could be used as a minicomputer and then unfolded into a 13-inch screen. Now it expands to 16” losing in agility and portability, partly because of the no longer integrated stand, that becomes a further layer to be carried magnetically docked: the result, together with the keyboard, which folds between the two screen flaps, is a luxurious and elegant hyper-tech sandwich. “From our research we saw that users prefer a device of this format,” product manager Nate Reaves tells Domus, “With a full size keyboard that now also has the iconic Thinkpad red dot, a larger trackpad, and a 12-inch screen when using the device in notebook format.” Also interesting is the vertical mode, which will appeal to people who write a lot – “we designed it for people who write code,” Reaves concludes.

Asus’ answer is a computer inside a 17.3-inch Oled folding screen that folds to create a 12.5 notebook. The ingredients are still the same: a magnetic keyboard that rests inside the computer when folded and rests on a table when needed, a kickstand to rest the device on when unfolded. Here, however, it is integrated, and perhaps the aesthetics of the exterior of the device deserved a bit more attention to be better streamlined. Folding notebooks are devices for the few – they cost more than 3,000 euros. Sure, they are attractive and can be extremely convenient, but they do not fulfill any real need. All indications are that the diffusion speed will be no faster than that of the corresponding smartphone form factor.

Last year the city of Berlin approved the extension of it bike lane network to a total of 3,000 kilometers. The construction of a 38-kilometer fast bike lane running lengthwise through the city has also been approved. In one of Europe’s most mobility-transforming cities, it is almost nonsensical that we see so little of mobility at IFA. But there are specialized mobility trade fairs now that probably drained energies from the fair’s historical Shift mobility sections. Among the few interesting things we saw, a bike designed specifically for Africa (durable and with a big battery), and Nilox’s e-bike for kids. Which is more like a tiny motorbike, since it has no pedals. “We’ve found that today’s kids aren’t into pedaling,” the brand explains.

They were already a trend before Covid. Now there are a lot of them: we’re talking about micro-greenhouses that allow you to grow herbs and vegetables at home, supported by smart features that make everything easier. If you live in Sicily maybe they don’t do anything for you, for Berlin they are perfectly in context. The flagship remains the Grangette, already seen at the end of 2011 and brought to the fair by pininfarina: a true limousine of indoor growing, with hermetic closure to prevent the proliferation of insects and a well-kept look that makes it one of the most beautiful appliances you can put in your kitchen today-and expensive, with a price tag of 24 thousand euros.

If there’s no display, put it there, and next time around, make it bigger and with fewer edges. If there is one golden rule of consumer technology in recent years, it is this. So Harman has made a move that seems almost obvious on the face of it: it has put a screen on JBL’s new flagship earbuds. “From research we found that consumers prefer to control content on their devices from their earbuds,” Christian Schluender, SVP and design manager at Harman, tells Domus. With this integration, he continues, they can make calls and manage music much faster, up to seven times faster, as well as the ability to set alarms and timers, or trivially check what time it is. “It’s not just another gadget, it’s an innovation in line with the needs of users,” concludes the VP, who points out that with this device Harman has raised expectations in the premium market segment, without actually tweaking the price upward.

Bangkok airport recently got a security robot that runs between gates. It looks like a giant Playmobil mounted on a Roomba, but it does the trick. In fact, very few robots are seen at IFA. Only few robot dogs, which were nevertheless going strong at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The exception is this artificial kitten that could easily be popularizing Instagram in a few months. Maybe it’s also because of the pet boom due to the pandemic, but the impression is that the number of technologies for pets is growing, whether it’s dedicated trackers to locate them at all times or devices to dry them after bathing (obviously mini-dog bag format, after all, those are the ones that are in fashion now).

As shown a decade ago in an episode of Breaking Bad, the robot is already in our homes and it is the one that works as a vacuum cleaner (often badly, but obviously the cleaning quality raised over the years). The American company Airper specializes in pool robot cleaners. An oddity, so at first glance. Or the piece of that puzzle we call home of the future, in which there will be a robot for every function. And we will no longer do anything and can get fat in front of the TV like in Wall-E, as Danny Boyle told us in an interview when the pandemic still had yet to hit Europe.

Urbanista is a fine audio brand from Sweden that found a novel way last year, launching the first pair of headphones that recharge with solar power. If worn constantly, it becomes unnecessary to charge them by wire. A remarkable breakthrough, linked to Powerfoyle, a unique technology of solar cells that can be adapted to any shape, developed by an also Swedish company, Exeger. Here at IFA, Urbanista is presenting the first pair of earbuds that recharge with solar power, thanks to cells placed on the case: certainly outsized compared to the tiny ones on the market today. And there remains the question of when it will ever see the light if you keep it in your purse or pocket. But according to Exeger, the battery is so small that the charging system should work. And we can bet that we will see more and more devices with autonomous charging - also reviewed here at IFA was Samsung's solar-charging remote control, for example.

Wearable devices, and especially smart watches, are not the new smartphones. But they have become a wellness personal powerhouse, capable of telling us if there is something wrong with our circulatory system in an increasingly precise way. Here at IFA, Huawei is presenting a watch that, in addition to functions we almost take for granted such as exercise programs or ECG, also measures heart pressure. With an average of 5 checks per day, the battery lasts almost a week.

Forget the idea of the display as an accessory. In a move that reverses factors, Samsung has launched a huge 55-inch curved screen with a cockpit mode that can literally encapsulate the user, making him or her a kind of passenger. The Odyssey Ark is designed for gaming and is impressive when used vertically, with the ability to arrange windows across its entire surface. Certainly, this relationship established between content and user works especially for games, which demand constant participation and presence. But it cannot be ruled out that tomorrow we will see this model adapted for example to office workstations, perhaps integrated into the infamous pods for work sessions with a high degree of concentration and intensity.

There was a time when the future seemed to pass for home 3d printers. One in every home for self-producing designs that could be purchased directly online. And every small, low-cost printer received incredible attention. Today this is no longer the case, and the one presented by Anker, a brand best known for its excellent range of smartphone accessories, is a white fly within the show. Funded on Kickstarter, equipped with a camera with artificial intelligence for progress monitoring, capable of cutting printing time by 70 percent according to the manufacturer, and with an affordable price tag, it could make many people want to experiment with self-made again. You never know it really is our future.