On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Google looks into turning the headphone cable into a control interface through the experimental I/O smart braid, a fabric cord allowing users to control a connected smartphone through pinch, squeeze and swipe gestures.

A Google blogpost describes a "helical sensing matrix" (HSM) consisting of a series of capacitive and conductive yarns woven into the braid. The yarns can detect gestures from any angle or part of the cables, with an experimental setup involving single taps for play/pause, a double-top for skip track and a twist for volume adjustments. The fabric also includes fibre optic strings, providing useful visual feedback.

Garmin announces the Quatix 6X Solar-- an update of the Quatix 6X GPS sports smartwatch featuring (as the name might suggest) a solar charging technology allowing for an impressive 24-day battery life.

The solar charging technology resides in transparent Power Glass lens covering the 1.4-inch sunlight-readable display, meaning the user cannot actually see the solar panels. What they can see is how much energy the smartwatch is receiving from the sun through a real-time power indicator. They can also see and control how settings and sensors impact battery time, as well as adjust battery saving modes through a customisable Power Manager.

IFA 2020 will happen as in-person event after all-- if in the form of an invite-only "Special Edition" event taking place over just three days, specifically 3-5 September 2020.

The limits in attendee numbers are due to, of course, the coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic. After all, the German government has banned all events with over 5000 participants until 24 October, leading organisers gfu and Messe Berlin to come up with an "innovative new concept" for the venerable trade show. The organisers add the IFA 2020 concept was developed in collaboration with German public health authorities to ensure the health and safety of all participants, and as such the show will not be open to the public.

The SD Association (SDA) announces the SD 8.0 specification-- leveraging the PCIe 4.0 specification to create faster SD Express memory cards, with data transfer rates reaching up to 4GB/s.

SD Express uses the PCIe 4.0 specification and the latest NVMe specification (up to 1.4). The SD 8.0 specification provides to transfer speed options for SD Express memory cards through support for either PCIe 3.0 x2 or PCIe 4.0 x1 with up to 2GB/s and with PCIe 4.0 x2 technology with up to 4GB/s. SD Express cards based on PCIe 4.0 x1 architecture use the same form factor as SD 7.0 cards, with a second row of pins, while cards supporting dual PCIe lanes (PCIe 3.0 x2 or PCIe 4.0 x2) have three rows of pins.