In the past few hours, Ikea has announced a new hi-tech “furniture”, represented by a transportable LED lamp which, however, also acts as a Bluetooth speaker, with a particular passion for Spotify and for the bad guy of Star Wars.
The Swedish furniture giant Ikea is certainly not an upstart in the world of hi-tech furniture, just think of the Nordmärke line of chargers, or the Symfonisk speakers made a few years ago together with Sonos. To the products in question already known, another one has now been added, represented by the Ikea Vappeby speaker / lamp.
Presented as a further step in the brand’s democratizing mission which, by lowering its thresholds, aims to make music and light easily accessible to all, the Ikea Vappeby speaker (25 x 17 cm) has a polycarbonate chassis, in blue or gray, which its shape resembles a mushroom which, instead of its “umbrella”, mounts (as Ikea itself says) a kind of helmet a la Darh Vader. In this way, the product is able to protect itself against dust, rain, and low intensity sprays, so as to deserve the IP65 certification which guarantees a peaceful use outdoors or in the garden.
Again thanks to its curious shape, the Ikea Vappeby speaker can act as a lamp (transportable thanks to the handle at the top) with the light, emanating via LED, which can be set in two different ways: as a speaker, the sound is instead issued at 360 ° around his body, with the user who, connected the terminal to his favorite source (PC, smartphone, tablet, notebook, etc) via Bluetooth (after the association with the rear button), will be able to play music from any service you want.
In this case, Ikea Wappeby could work with YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Apple Music, TuneIn, Pandora, even if it is confirmed – as already emerged last autumn, when the documentation was found in the American FCC database – that it can give the best. of himself with one of them in particular. In this case, the reference is to Spotify, given the presence of a button for the “Spotify Tap” function: the latter, already present on Microsoft Surface, Bose, Samsung, Jabra and Skullcandy headphones, means that – at a press – the user can resume his music from where he left it while, with a second press, the platform will propose the music of his selected offer, however, according to the user’s listening habits processed by the app of the service in green.
In the speaker – Ikea Wappeby lamp, the autonomy is also very well taken care of: the manufacturer promises up to 12 hours of operation, perhaps with the light off, according to the patent with the volume at 50%, before having to recharge again. via USB Type-C (benefiting only from the cable present in the package, while the charger will be purchased separately). At the moment, the Italian price of the Ikea Wappeby is not yet known which, however, has already landed in Europe, being listed at 59 euros in Spain and 49.99 euros in Germany.