Articles — Özgür Bilge

Events

IFA Berlin 2026: What's Landing Around the Funkturm

By Jenny S. Becker · September 4, 2026

IFA Berlin 2026 opens today and runs through September 8, with media days having already taken place on September 2–3, when the big consumer-electronics and home-appliance brands showed their news to press first. It's the 102nd edition of the show — older than CES — and it once again fills the halls around Berlin's Funkturm tower.

This year's official themes lean heavily on Smart Home and AI convergence alongside sustainable technology, with leading brands, start-ups and "tech pioneers" all presenting under the same roof. IFA's own program groups its headline programming under "IFA Moments": brand activations, live product launches, humanoid robot demonstrations, C-level keynotes, and the IFA Sommergarten concert series that runs alongside the show floor.

For anyone following the gadget beat rather than attending in person, the practical split to know is this: media days front-load the embargoed news (most press releases you'll see this week were actually briefed on September 2–3), while the public show floor, open September 4–8, is where hands-on demos and public reveals happen. Anker's expanded Soundcore audio lineup, covered separately here, is one of the announcements timed to this week's show.

It's also worth remembering IFA's scale relative to its American counterpart: this is Europe's largest trade show for consumer and home electronics, and it consistently draws exhibitors who skip CES in January in favor of a fall European launch window instead.

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Audio

Anker Doubles Down on Audio at IFA 2026: Meet the Soundcore Space 2 Pro

By Jenny S. Becker · September 3, 2026

Anker used IFA Berlin 2026 to show its widest Soundcore lineup yet, according to IFA coverage from SoundGuys: open-ear earbuds that can take meeting notes, buds aimed at people who want to sleep through a partner's snoring, standard ANC earbuds, and a new pair of over-ear headphones.

The volume-play at the bottom of the range is the Soundcore Space 2, a budget over-ear model that launched back on April 21, 2026 at $129.99 in Linen White, Seafoam Green and Jet Black, promising up to 70 hours of battery life without active noise cancellation and roughly 50 hours with it switched on.

The more interesting device is the step-up Soundcore Space 2 Pro, which Engadget reports is built around Anker's own "Thus" AI chip driving an eight-sensor array. That chip handles adaptive active noise cancellation and, on calls, real-time voice and background-noise separation. Battery life lands at up to 30 hours with ANC on or 60 hours with it off; it's priced at $200 and ships from September 22, 2026.

What's notable here isn't the spec sheet so much as where Anker is putting it: a dedicated AI chip has typically been a flagship-tier feature for headphone makers. Pricing that at $200 rather than saving it for a true premium tier suggests Anker is trying to push on-device AI processing down-market faster than most of its audio competitors.

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Apple

iPhone Ultra: What to Expect From Apple's First Foldable

By Jenny S. Becker · August 29, 2026

Apple is expected to hold its iPhone launch event on September 9, 2026, and this year's lineup looks different from every previous cycle: alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple is widely reported to be introducing its first-ever foldable iPhone, which multiple outlets — including MacRumors and Digital Trends — say will carry the name "iPhone Ultra."

On design, MacRumors' iPhone Ultra guide and 9to5Mac both describe a book-style fold: the phone opens like a book rather than flipping vertically, and is wider than it is tall when unfolded. The outer display is reportedly shorter and wider than a normal iPhone screen and remains usable — along with the camera — while the phone is closed, while the inner display is said to approach an iPad mini in size once opened.

Pricing leaks reported by Yahoo Tech put the 256GB model at roughly $2,325, rising to about $2,645 for 512GB and $2,905 for 1TB — comfortably the most expensive iPhone Apple has ever sold, before folding-specific accessories are even factored in.

Just as notable is what's reportedly missing: Apple is said to be skipping the standard iPhone 18 entirely this cycle, pushing the regular iPhone 18, iPhone Air 2 and iPhone 18e to a spring 2027 launch instead, and leaving three premium devices — 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max and Ultra — as the whole of this fall's lineup. Reports also suggest first-generation supply will be tight, which tracks with how first-generation foldables have launched across the industry generally.

The timing lines up almost exactly with Samsung's own foldable news this year — Samsung introduced its first "Ultra" branded foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, back in July (covered separately here). If the iPhone Ultra ships as rumored, it sets up the most direct foldable-to-foldable comparison the two companies have ever had.

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Apple

Apple Names John Ternus CEO, Ending Tim Cook's 15-Year Run

By Jenny S. Becker · September 2, 2026

Apple confirmed on September 1, 2026 the leadership transition that had been the subject of succession reporting for the better part of a year: Tim Cook has moved into the role of executive chairman of Apple's board, and John Ternus, previously senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, is now Apple's chief executive officer. Apple's own newsroom describes the move as unanimously approved by the board following a long-term succession planning process.

Cook's exit closes out a 15-year run as CEO, during which — as NBC News and NPR both note in their coverage of the handoff — Apple's market value climbed as high as $4.6 trillion, propelled overwhelmingly by the iPhone. Cook took over from Steve Jobs in 2011 and became one of the longest-serving CEOs of a major tech company in that time.

Ternus is a 25-year Apple veteran and a mechanical engineer by training, and he had been the widely reported frontrunner in succession coverage — the Financial Times flagged him as the likely pick in reporting picked up by outlets as far back as late 2025. He most recently oversaw engineering for Apple's core hardware lines: Macs, iPhones, iPads and related products.

What changes, and what doesn't: as executive chairman, Cook remains involved in select parts of the company, including engagement with policymakers globally, while Ternus now runs day-to-day operations and product direction. The Washington Post's coverage of the transition frames it as landing at "a pivotal time" for Apple given intensifying competition on AI — and it's a transition that happens to land just eight days before Ternus's first major public moment as CEO: Apple's September 9 hardware event.

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Apple

iOS 27: The Biggest Changes Coming to Your iPhone

By Jenny S. Becker · August 26, 2026

iOS 27 was announced at WWDC on June 8, 2026, and is expected to arrive as a public release on September 14, 2026 — five days after Apple's hardware event. Coverage from Macworld, PhoneArena and MacRumors all point to the same headline feature: a rebuilt "Siri AI" that can hold more natural, multi-turn conversations, understand follow-up questions, pull personal context from apps on the phone, and answer using live information from the web, rather than the narrower command-based Siri of previous versions.

Beyond Siri, Apple Intelligence itself is expanding: MacRumors' rundown of "30 new things" lists improved Writing Tools and the ability to generate images using a private cloud model rather than only on-device processing. The Camera app is also gaining a Visual-Intelligence-powered mode that identifies objects in the frame in real time and surfaces information about them without leaving the camera view.

Photos gets what Apple is calling Spatial Reframing — the ability to change a photo's composition and perspective after it's already been taken, with Apple Intelligence generating additional image content where the new framing needs it. Safari picks up automatic tab organization by topic, the ability to monitor webpages for changes, and — notably — the ability to build browser extensions from a plain-language description rather than code. Maps' Flyover feature is getting an AI-driven upscale pass intended to make trees, buildings and landmarks look sharper and more textured in aerial view.

On the design side, iOS 27 continues refining the Liquid Glass interface introduced the previous cycle, adding more control over transparency and tinting, alongside broad performance work Apple says targets faster app launches, Photos loading, AirDrop transfers and general navigation.

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Wearables

Smart Glasses in 2026: Living With Rokid's AI-Powered Frames

By Özgür Bilge · August 22, 2026

Rokid's current Glasses pack a monochrome green AR display, a 12-megapixel camera, voice control, and switchable ChatGPT or Gemini AI support into a 49-gram frame — reviews from Tom's Guide and PhoneArena both single out that combination as the most complete package in the AI-glasses category right now.

In daily use, the feature I reach for most is navigation: turn-by-turn directions for walking, cycling or driving are projected directly into your field of view, which sounds like a gimmick until you've actually used it in an unfamiliar city. Photo quality and 4K video are solid for casual, hands-free capture, and several reviewers — Tom's Guide among them — have called Rokid's live translation feature genuinely industry-leading rather than just a checkbox.

Where the glasses fall short is exactly where you'd expect: build quality and design. Trusted Reviews' verdict was blunt about it — strong AI, strong camera, but not something they'd wear out of the house. That matches my own experience; the hardware still reads as "gadget" rather than "glasses," even though the software running on it doesn't feel like a beta.

On pricing, the full Rokid Glasses with display run $599, positioned well above Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses at around $300 but below most other display-equipped competitors. Rokid also sells a display-free "Ai Glasses Style" model starting at $299 for people who just want the camera and AI layer without the projected screen.

Rokid is a brand I work with directly, which is exactly why I keep landing on the same conclusion review after review: the software and AI layer here are ahead of the hardware. The navigation and translation features are useful enough that I keep putting the glasses on. The frame is the part I'd ask them to redesign next.

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Gear

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Pro Hands-On: A Real Zoom Lens, Finally

By Özgür Bilge · August 10, 2026

I've shot every generation of the Osmo Pocket, and the 4 Pro (DJI's own shorthand for it is "4P") is the first one that changes what the camera is actually for. DJI teased it on Weibo before formally introducing it at Cannes on May 14, 2026, confirming what leaks had pointed to for months: a dedicated 3x zoom lens sitting alongside the main camera, rather than a digital crop.

That's a two-sensor setup — a stacked 1-inch wide-angle unit (20mm equivalent, f/2.0) using LOFIC for a claimed 17 stops of dynamic range, plus a 1/1.28-inch telephoto handling the 3x reach. It's the first Pocket to ship with genuine optical flexibility instead of one fixed field of view, and it changes how I shoot — I no longer instinctively reach for my phone to grab a tighter shot mid-vlog.

On the imaging side, DJI leaned hardest in its own launch materials on 10-bit D-Log2 color, reworked portrait rendering, smoother transitions when zooming between the two lenses, and noticeably better low-light performance. It also picked up 4K at 240fps for slow motion, and DJI bumped built-in storage to 103GB, which matters more than it sounds like on a gimbal camera where you're not always carrying a spare card.

The honest trade-off: the 4 Pro is about 20% heavier than the standard Osmo Pocket 4 at 230g, and roughly 10% taller. It's a real difference in the hand, and it means the 4 Pro doesn't disappear into a pocket quite the way the original Pocket did. It shipped first in China at CNY 3,799 (about $562) in Classic Black or Pearl White, with the global release following on July 30, 2026.

My take after a few weeks with it: if you outgrew the original Pocket's single fixed lens — think street vloggers who kept switching to a phone just to get a tighter frame — the zoom lens alone is worth the upgrade. The weight bump is real, but it hasn't changed how often I actually carry it.

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Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: the Z Fold8 Ultra and the "Ultra-fication" of Foldables

By Jenny S. Becker · July 24, 2026

Samsung held Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22, 2026, unveiling what its own newsroom describes as the newest additions to the portfolio that "defined the foldable category" — the eighth generation of the Galaxy Z line, and for the first time, three distinct models rather than two.

The headline device is the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, the first phone in the Z series to carry Samsung's "Ultra" branding, positioned around top-tier performance and AI-powered multitasking, and starting at $2,100. Alongside it sits the more familiar Galaxy Z Fold8 — described by Engadget as the "wide" model, with a passport-like shape closed that opens into a main display with a slightly more rectangular aspect ratio — and the Galaxy Z Flip8, which keeps its predecessor's basic shape while trimming thickness, weight and bezel size.

Samsung is also introducing "Flex Titanium," a titanium-based hinge and frame construction it says helps keep the new foldables thin without sacrificing durability. Beyond phones, Unpacked included two new Galaxy Watches and what Tom's Guide's live coverage called a "more complete" preview of Samsung's intelligent-eyewear ambitions — smart glasses, the same category covered separately in our Rokid piece.

The timing is what makes this Unpacked worth revisiting now: Samsung's decision to launch an "Ultra"-branded foldable arrives just weeks before Apple's own rumored foldable, reportedly to be called "iPhone Ultra," is expected to debut on September 9. Whatever Apple ships, Samsung got there first — not just with a foldable, but with the exact tier name.

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Gear

HoverAir X1 Pro: the Pocket-Sized Follow Drone I Keep Packing

By Özgür Bilge · June 12, 2026

The X1 Pro folds down to roughly 15 × 10 × 3.5cm and weighs about 135g, with around 18 minutes of flight time per charge — small enough that it genuinely lives in the front pocket of my camera bag instead of a dedicated case, which is the whole reason I keep bringing it on trips where a full-size drone would stay home.

The step-up X1 ProMax shoots up to 8K at 30fps off a 1/1.3-inch sensor, with 48-megapixel stills, 10-bit HLG HDR and a 107-degree field of view, and adds a 10-kilometer transmission range when paired with its optional controller. The standard X1 Pro trims the camera spec a little but keeps the same tracking core that makes the whole line worth using in the first place.

That tracking is really the point. Throw-and-go automatic launch, active subject following, and a deep bench of automatic flight modes have made the line a genuine favorite outside of traditional drone circles — cycling and mountain-bike outlets like BikeMag, road.cc and Bikepacking.com have all adopted the X1 line as their go-to for solo action footage, because it doesn't need a second person operating it from the ground.

The catch is price: the ProMax runs around $1,100, which is a lot for what is, at its core, a very small camera. DroneXL's seven-month long-term review is a fair read if you're trying to decide whether the Max's extra camera spec is worth the jump over the base Pro.

My take after a season of traveling with it: it's not replacing a "real" drone for wide establishing shots. But as the camera I actually have with me when something worth filming happens without warning, nothing else in my bag comes close.

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Wearables

Ultrahuman Ring Air: a Subscription-Free Ring Worth a Second Look

By Özgür Bilge · May 28, 2026

I've worn an Oura ring before, and the Ring Air's pitch is the reason I switched for this review: $349 once, with every tracking feature unlocked for life and no subscription required. Both SmartRingHQ and SmartRingCompare still flag that as the single biggest differentiator in their 2026 reviews, and it's the first thing people ask me about when they see it.

On the body it's light — 2.4 to 3.6 grams depending on ring size — with continuous heart-rate-variability and temperature monitoring, plus period tracking. New for this generation is a 6-axis motion sensor tuned specifically to catch "micro-arousals" — the brief disruptions that don't fully wake you but still fragment sleep quality, something wrist wearables have historically struggled to catch.

On accuracy, independent long-term testing cited by Robb Sutton's review put sleep-stage accuracy at around 75% against a clinical reference, with HRV readings staying within about 6% of a Polar H10 chest strap across more than 600 paired readings. That's close to Oura, but reviewers are consistent that it trails by "a small but measurable margin" in head-to-head sleep and HRV comparisons.

One thing worth knowing before you buy: as of May 2026 there's an ongoing, unresolved patent dispute between Oura and Ultrahuman that could affect US distribution, according to coverage tracked by SmartRingCompare. It's not a reason to avoid the ring today, but it's a live variable if you're thinking about long-term ownership.

My take: for the price-conscious end of the wearables category I cover, "pay once" isn't just marketing — over two or three years of ownership it works out cheaper than a subscription ring, even before you factor in that its tracking held up close to category-leading in independent testing.

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E-Mobility

Segway's 2026 E-Bike Push: Myon, Muxi, and Safety Tech That Actually Matters

By Jenny S. Becker · April 20, 2026

Segway used CES 2026 in January to introduce two new e-bikes aimed at a broader market than its debut Xyber and Xafari models, alongside the Xaber 300 electric dirt bike inspired by the X1000 prototype it raced in the low-emissions class of the 2025 Dakar Rally, according to Cycle News and Powersports Business.

The Myon is the everyday commuter of the pair: $1,999, a Class 2 e-bike with a 500W rear-hub motor (750W peak), a 722Wh battery good for up to 80 miles of range. Tom's Guide, after a CES test ride, called it possibly "the best yet for commuters." The Muxi leans in a different direction entirely — styled closer to a light electric moped than a traditional bicycle — and retails for $1,699.99, with US availability that arrived by March 2026.

The more interesting news, at least for anyone who's actually ridden in city traffic, is the accessory lineup Segway introduced alongside the bikes: a Xiro automatic dropper post ($229.99) that senses when a rider is slowing to a stop and lowers itself — which Segway's own release calls an industry first — and a Rearview Radar kit that borrows millimeter-wave radar from cars to provide real-time blind-spot detection with audio and visual alerts.

Segway followed up in April 2026 with a compact cargo e-bike, reported by Electrek, rounding out a 2026 lineup that now spans commuter, moped-style, cargo and off-road use cases — a much wider spread than the two-bike range it launched with the year before.

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Events

MWC 2026 Barcelona: the "AI Agency War" Begins

By Jenny S. Becker · March 5, 2026

Mobile World Congress used to be a show about screens and antennas. Bloomberg's preview of MWC Barcelona 2026 framed this year's edition as the mobile industry "reckoning with AI and geopolitics" instead — and TechNewsWorld's wrap-up put a name to the shift, describing a move from the connectivity era to what it called the "IQ Era," where a phone's value is judged by ambient intelligence rather than screen-to-body ratio.

Samsung used its MWC floor to show Galaxy AI evolving into what the company itself describes as a more "agentic" companion — software that acts on a user's behalf rather than only answering direct prompts, per Samsung's own newsroom coverage of the show.

On the hardware side, the announcements were still real, even if AI was the framing: Xiaomi debuted the Leica Leitzphone, Leica's first fully international smartphone, built on the same hardware as the Xiaomi 17 Ultra with a headline feature of a physical rotating camera ring for manual zoom and exposure control. Honor revealed its Robot Phone alongside the Magic V6. Nothing showed off its budget-friendly Phone (4a) lineup across its full range of colorways. And Tecno showed a concept device using magnetic "Modular Magnetic Interconnection" tech, letting camera lenses, battery packs and speakers snap onto a 4.9mm-thick base device.

Read together, the show's throughline was consistent: 2026's smartphone pitch leads with agentic AI, and the spec sheet comes second. That framing carried straight through the rest of the year, from Samsung's own Unpacked event in July to Apple's iOS 27 and its rebuilt Siri, both covered separately here.

Makaleler

IFA Berlin 2026: What's Landing Around the Funkturm

Anker Doubles Down on Audio at IFA: Meet the Soundcore Space 2 Pro

iPhone Ultra: What to Expect From Apple's First Foldable

Apple Names John Ternus CEO, Ending Tim Cook's 15-Year Run

iOS 27: The Biggest Changes Coming to Your iPhone

Smart Glasses in 2026: Living With Rokid's AI-Powered Frames

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Pro Hands-On: A Real Zoom Lens, Finally

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: the Z Fold8 Ultra and "Ultra-fying" Foldables

HoverAir X1 Pro: the Pocket-Sized Follow Drone I Keep Packing

Ultrahuman Ring Air: a Subscription-Free Ring Worth a Second Look

Segway's 2026 E-Bike Push: Myon, Muxi, and Safety Tech That Matters

MWC 2026 Barcelona: the "AI Agency War" Begins

IFA Berlin 2026: What's Landing Around the Funkturm

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Anker Doubles Down on Audio at IFA 2026: Meet the Soundcore Space 2 Pro

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iPhone Ultra: What to Expect From Apple's First Foldable

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Apple Names John Ternus CEO, Ending Tim Cook's 15-Year Run

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iOS 27: The Biggest Changes Coming to Your iPhone

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Smart Glasses in 2026: Living With Rokid's AI-Powered Frames

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DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Pro Hands-On: A Real Zoom Lens, Finally

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Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: the Z Fold8 Ultra and the "Ultra-fication" of Foldables

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HoverAir X1 Pro: the Pocket-Sized Follow Drone I Keep Packing

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Ultrahuman Ring Air: a Subscription-Free Ring Worth a Second Look

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Segway's 2026 E-Bike Push: Myon, Muxi, and Safety Tech That Actually Matters

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MWC 2026 Barcelona: the "AI Agency War" Begins

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