The Sunday Scene - 10
In front of the IFA convention center in Berlin
Greetings from somewhere between Frankfurt and Chicago. I'm traveling home from an eventful week in Berlin at IFA. A great time, but not nearly as effective for getting bits of work done for my channel like I normally have at CES in Vegas. I have lots of stuff still in production and I hope to have more updates for you soon.
In the meantime, here are three highlights from this week you should know about.
First
Philips Hue had an event in Berlin this week with a number of announcements. The biggest were the new Hue Bridge Pro, and Hue's move to support Matter over Thread in their new, cheaper light bulbs. This was technically not part of IFA though.
Philips Hue hasn't had a booth at IFA for years from what I've heard, and they continue to avoid talking to any creator I know, aside from Jennifer Pattison Tuohy at The Verge. None of the US smart home YouTubers I was with were invited to the event. As similar, creator-friendly brands like Govee continue to work with us, it will start to hurt Philips Hue. Please change Philips Hue and start including American smart home creators in your PR!
Second
Nuki and Aliro - Also this week Nuki gave me and a number of creators a demo of their new prototype keypad that supports Aliro NFC. This means you can tap to unlock with an iPhone via Apple HomeKey, or an Android phone with something like Samsung SmartThings. No specific ship date or pricing to announce here, but it's an important detail here to make your next lock buying decision even more confusing. There's HomeKey NFC, Aliro NFC which adds Android support, and Aliro UltraWide Band (UWB) which unlocks when your phone is headed towards the door. The latter two Aliro options have yet to ship in any locks.
Third
ECOVACS X11 OmniCyclone - This robot vacuum is a big step forward for ECOVACS with lots of great features including fast charging pit stops during cleaning sessions, the latest roller mop tech, impressive air flow, and more. ECOVACS sent me one ahead of my trip to Berlin. If you're someone who likes to buy into big generational leaps in tech, this is likely one to consider for robot vacuums. I'll have a full review soon. ECOVACS also helped book my and other US creators' travel out to Berlin.
The schedule
This week we have the Apple "Awe Dropping" event on Tuesday where new iPhones are expected. I'll be talking about that and IFA on my live stream on Thursday. I will also have more IFA content headed your way on YouTube as I catch up on editing during my flight back to the US.
I also have another video that’s been ready to publish but delayed for reasons outside my control. It will hopefully be coming this week.
I hope you have a great rest of your Sunday.
Best,
Eric
