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IKEA teamed up with Swedish House Mafia on a turntable
IKEA has teamed up with Swedish House Mafia on a series of products, including a record player and a desk for music producers.
Razer’s latest absurd concept is a modular workstation with a 65-inch OLED
CES wouldn’t be the Consumer Electronics Show without Razer bringing at least one prototype product to the event.
Razer’s $399 Enki is better than most office chairs, period
Razer's Enki chair is designed to keep your butt comfy and your back straight while you game.
IKEA's ASUS ROG gaming collection comes to the US and UK this October
After debuting in China and Japan, IKEA's ASUS collaboration is finally making its way to the US and UK this October.
Amazon furniture assembly workers report poor training and tight schedules
A few months ago, reports indicated that Amazon was piloting a new service where its delivery drivers not only dropped off products — they'd also assemble things like furniture, appliances and other large items. Given Amazon's problems keeping its workers safe and happy, it's not surprising that this program sounds like it's off to a rough start.
Razer's first gaming chair improves your posture
Razer has unveiled its first gaming chair, the Iskur, that promises to improve your posture for long game sessions.
IKEA partners with ASUS ROG on 'affordable' gaming furniture
IKEA has already jumped into tech with a smart home division and AR furniture app, but now it’s making a leap into an entirely new category: PC gaming. The Swedish company has announced that it’s teaming up with ASUS’ Republic of Gamers (ROG) division to create “affordable gaming furniture accessories” with a line of around 30 products.
Amazon's latest AR shopping tool fills your space with virtual furniture
Amazon's new AR shopping tool lets you view multiple pieces of furniture and home decor simultaneously.
Logitech and Herman Miller team up to design ergonomic gaming furniture
Plenty of gaming chairs look cool, but whether or not they're actually good for your back is another question. Furniture company Herman Miller and Logitech's gaming hardware brand Logitech G want to change that. They're teaming up to create a line of ergonomic furniture for gamers, starting with a gaming chair that could arrive as soon as this spring.
Teenage Engineering’s IKEA collection lands in stores next month
If IKEA's Sonos speakers are a little bland for your taste, you might be happy to know that the FREKVENS line, a collaboration between IKEA and Teenage Engineering, arrives in February. The collection is meant to get funky house parties started, and it includes everything from speakers to spotlights, spill-resistant furniture and a raincoat -- all with Teenage Engineering's signature colorful quirkiness.
IKEA's AR furniture app now lets you preview an entire room
IKEA's augmented reality Place app can be helpful for gauging how furniture will look in your abode, but you've been limited to trying items one at a time -- not much help if you're trying to furnish a new home. Now, though, it's much more practical as a home decor tool. An updated iOS app (the Android equivalent is coming in the "near future") lets you place multiple items at once, whether they're handpicked or part of pre-defined Room Sets. You'll know if that lounge chair and lamp combo fits in with your living room, for instance.
IKEA is working on robotic furniture for small apartments
IKEA wants to "empower people to have big dreams for small homes." To do so, it's creating a line of robotic furniture. Today, the company announced that it's partnering with Ori, an American startup that develops robotic furniture meant to address the challenges of small apartment living. IKEA and Ori will introduce their new line, dubbed ROGNAN, in 2020.
IKEA will finally offer online shopping through mobile apps
IKEA's mobile apps have so far been focused on enhancing the retail experience, not replacing it. You can preview furniture in your home, but you'll have to either visit the web or travel to the store to make a purchase. That's poised to change, digital chief Barbara Martin Coppola told Reuters in an interview. The big-box store is prepping an app that would let you shop remotely for that couch or desk while still visualizing how it appeared in your home. The new app would allow you to enter your room dimensions to ensure a good fit, and choose from different styles and "life stages" to narrow down the selection.
IKEA promises zero-emissions delivery in five cities by 2020
IKEA doesn't just want to take the pain out of assembling furniture... it wants to eliminate the environmental impact of receiving that furniture. The company recently pledged to offer emissions-free home delivery in five major inner cities (Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York City, Paris and Shanghai) by 2020. Order an EKTORP sofa and an electric vehicle or a similarly Earth-friendly machine will roll up to your door. IKEA had already hoped to transition to zero-emissions delivery, but it's picking up the pace to set a "strong example" for urban transport.
MIT's robotic carpenters take the hassle out of custom furniture
If you want to build custom furniture, you usually need to know your way around a saw and devote days to both designing it and cutting every last piece. MIT's CSAIL might have a better solution: let computers and robots do the hard work. Its researchers have developed an AutoSaw system that makes it easy to craft furniture without the risk of cutting your fingers. You start on your computer by customizing furniture templates in OnShape's simple CAD system. After that, modified robots (a Roomba for a jigsaw, Kuka youBots for chopping) cut the individual parts. You still have to assemble it yourself, but the software will guide you through the process.
IKEA's Place app for iOS previews furniture in your home
Now that Apple's augmented reality platform is nearly here, developers are ready to show off what it can do... and one of the first examples will be particularly handy if you're updating your living room. IKEA has unveiled IKEA Place, an iOS app that uses ARKit to preview how furniture will look at home. As hinted at back in June, the software is smart enough to not only show off furniture at the proper scale (98 percent accuracy, IKEA says), but with the right kind of lighting and shadows. You'll know if that couch is too large for your apartment, or whether or not that reading chair would be too gauche for the room. Naturally, you can share images to ask for your friends' advice and jump straight to the IKEA website to buy your selections.
SOBRO: The smart coffee table for cold beers and chill tunes
Coffee tables aren't the most glamorous piece of furniture. If you're anything like me, they inevitably become a repository for loose stuff like keys and remotes. StoreBound's SOBRO smart table aims to be a lot more useful. It's not just nice to look at; it's also well-equipped with a built-in fridge, speakers and even mood lighting, all of which can be controlled from your phone.
Amazon considers opening augmented reality furniture stores
Amazon's retail plans could extend well beyond books and groceries. New York Times sources hear that the internet giant is "exploring" the possibility of appliance and furniture stores with a technological angle. You'd use augmented or virtual reality to see how items would look in your own home, making it easier to pull the trigger on that new couch or stove. And there's a chance that Amazon might challenge some of its tech rivals more directly in retail, too.
Pottery Barn's AR app will preview your future furniture
When you're looking to purchase the perfect couch for your living room, you probably want to make sure that it looks good next to your end table. Pottery Barn hopes to entice shoppers into its stores with a new augmented reality app set to do just that when it launches later this month.
Panasonic's new prototype TV can hide in plain sight
Panasonic has shown off a transparent TV before, but the company has since improved the image quality to the extent that the idea of a television built into your furniture's glass panes is not only possible -- it's right here. The OLED screen is made from a fine mesh, embedded into the glass sliding door. While the TV image is visible even with the backlighting on, once it's dimmed the image is clear and bright enough to be almost indistinguishable from existing televisions. (The last model was a bit too dim, and required under-shelf lighting to boost the image.) Turn the TV panel off, however, and it's hard to tell it was ever there to begin with. Want one? Panasonic's spokesperson says the television is likely to stay in development for a while longer: at least three more years.
