MWC 2024 exhibition in Barcelona/Reuters
As with any large exhibition, it is difficult to immediately mark the outstanding products, but at the Barcelona 2024 exhibition, there are already several products that are attracting attention, and there is a gathering of people around them.
Here are these products as we found them at the largest mobile exhibition in the world that is taking place this week in Barcelona, Spain:
Death to apps
One of the products around which there was an almost incessant crowding (besides Lenovo's transparent screen, see also below), is humane's "smart pin", which it is hard to say was crowded around like the people who wear it on the lapel of their shirts (by the way, it attaches magnetically using a clip that is also the battery).
This is a much talked about wearable computing device, and it looks like the future of what will replace smartphones.
Forget a display or apps - humane's smart pin (presented at Qualcomm's booth), is an artificial intelligence device with which you can perform tasks and chores simply by natural conversation.
The pin is also equipped with a camera and projector, so the visual output it produces can simply be projected onto your palm if you hold it in front of you.
Its surface is a touch surface, but it can also be manipulated with gestures.
Humane's smart pin (displayed at Qualcomm's booth)/image processing, Humane, PR
For that matter, instead of launching a music app, you can simply ask the pin to play music.
Similarly, you can ask her to search for flights for you, translate by voice into another language and much more - the idea is continuous use of a device that is devoid of apps in the traditional sense.
In the long demo we saw, not everything always worked, but by and large the idea is that instead of being stuck with your head in the smartphone, you can still do tasks and use the device as if it were a smartphone, only without being trapped inside an application and a visual interface and without focusing on the screen, but simply talking and continuing what you are doing .
If necessary, the humane pin will simply project the required information onto your palm or surface.
The secret lies in artificial intelligence, which, like voice assistants and artificial intelligence generators, knows how to understand you and what you want.
Instead of a screen, simply have a conversation with the device.
It's new and refreshing in a world that seems to be stuck in small screens that we all hold in the palm of our hands.
Barcelona 2024: Miki Barkan, head of the edge domain department at Pelephone, talks about the trends in the mobile world in the coming year/Walla!
technology
A similar concept, which this time does involve a screen that we hold in the palm of our hands, is Deutsche Telekom's AI phone.
Here too, the idea is to allow people to perform tasks without apps and still remain sociable and aware of their surroundings.
This is a concept phone (in fact, the demo was on a simple $200 Android), with an interface where the only button is an activation button for a call, similar to a voice assistant.
In response, the device will issue an output according to what you are looking for or requesting, such as a flight from Barcelona to Vienna or "gifts for a two-year-old boy who loves Lego".
Dror Bhatt, Pelephone's VP of Marketing, who also hosted us at the exhibition, told "Walla" that "the integration of wearable computing with the cellular world is growing at a rapid pace.
After the watches and glasses, we were exposed at the conference to Samsung's smart ring and miniaturized devices that are another development of the user interfaces that expand the capabilities of the smart devices, both in the aspect of monitoring health and physical activity data and in the aspect of controlling the mobile device, such as control through hand movements and the ability to project onto the palm of the hand Information". Bhatt believes that this field is expected to grow at a rapid pace in the coming years, but what will ultimately decide its implementation will be the matter of the price (which is quite high at the moment, at least for humane's pin, which costs around $700...).
Deutsche Telekom's AI phone.
Here too, the idea is to allow people to perform tasks without apps/Reuters
Transparent screens and flexible phones
The other product that had an endless queue around its stand as if it were a modern golden calf, is the laptop with the transparent screen of Lenovo.
Although this is only a concept computer and not yet a commercial product that can be bought, it has generated a lot of interest from the public.
Lenovo's transparent screen
@nivlilien The most talked about product at the Barcelona show is Lenovo's transparent computer - which is a 17.2-inch computer with a completely transparent screen, similar to the transparent TVs I saw at CES.
The usage scenarios are not really clear, but there is a lot of potential here for industry and tutorials #laptop #צגשקפון #משקשקוף #שקוף #תקולונגיה #הפעשים #transparent #laptops #tranparentdisplay #laptop #techtok #tech #theuplink ♬ original sound - nivli
This is a laptop computer with a 17.2-inch display, which is transparent, similar to the transparent TVs from Samsung and LG that were presented at the CES exhibition in Vegas just a month ago - but this time it is a computer.
Theoretically this could be useful in scenarios of studies, training or experimentation (for that matter, the model or product you are working on is behind the screen and you can get instructions or explanations on the transparent display).
The computer itself is a computer with AI capabilities, while the keyboard part is also a touch screen.
Laptop with 17.2 inches transparent/Wala!
Technology, Lilian dialect
The other product in Lenovo's booth that attracted attention is a flexible smartphone from Motorola.
Now you'll jump up and say, uh, a smartphone with a flexible screen?
There are already some.
But no - this is a smartphone whose body is also flexible and not just the screen, and it can be worn on the wrist like a bracelet that can be folded and attached to a magnetic strap.
Motorola's flexible smartphone/Reuters
Here, too, there are all kinds of interesting usage scenarios derived from the unusual shape and flexibility - such as a game of checkers in two or the ability to stand the phone with half folded and the top half raised up like a snake's head.
Here, too, this is only a concept device, but it can certainly be said that it is strange - but cool.
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