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Tech NewsDesignWhy Ikea Shutting Down Its Most Popular Fan Site Is a Giant Mistake
If you’re like me, you’ve spent countless hours surfing IkeaHackers, where Ikea fans send in their mods and hacks. You’ve also probably spent money at Ikea thanks to the site, which has inspired a DIY fervor among its fans. Which is why Ikea shutting down IkeaHackers this weekend over trademark claims is beyond boneheaded. IkeaHackers … Continued
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Tech News
Ikea Knows All About Your City’s Weird Sex Habits and Toilet Time
In a way, what you do in the privacy of your own home is literally Ikea’s business. So it’s no surprise that the Swedish company spends a ton of time and money studying how people live. What is surprising, though, is what its latest study found out. Including the fact that you’re not the only … Continued
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Tech News
Ikea’s Selling an Electric Bike To Help Get All Those Boxes Home
As far as large corporations go, Ikea genuinely strives to be as environmentally responsible as it can. It stopped selling incandescent bulbs in its stores ages ago, there’s not a plastic bag to be found, it’s wholeheartedly embraced solar power for its buildings and many products, and soon it will be officially selling an Ikea-branded … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Ikea Is Turning Its Very First Store Into a Museum
In addition to the obvious—meatballs, for most of us—there are many joys inherent in an afternoon pilgrimage to an Ikea showroom, not least of which is sitting on, reclining over, picking up, and/or putting down every damn thing you wander past in the cheery furniture labyrinth. Now the Swedish superstore wants to open a museum—does … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Watch Ikea’s March to World Furniture Domination
Ikea was founded in 1943, and its first showroom didn’t open until 1953. Since, though, it’s become an unstoppable furniture juggernaut hellbent on making it into everyone’s living room. This map shows how unrelenting that’s been. Not dissimilar to a map showing Apple’s worldwide retail takeover—though arguably this Ikea one looks a hell of a … Continued
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Tech NewsSploid
What the hell do all those IKEA names mean? Here are all their secrets
Some people think they are names of death metal bands. Others think they are made up names stolen from some Tolkien book on elvish lineage. The fact is that all of IKEA’s products follow a logic and have a meaning. Ish. Here’s an overview: Bookcases are occupations in Swedish The famous Expedit means shop assistant. … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Ikea Just Bought a Wind Farm Big Enough To Power All Its U.S. Stores
It takes a lot of energy to keep the lights on as you greedily pile ¢59 kitchen dongles and weird cookies into that blue bag, which is why Ikea is making a push to offset its total energy consumption by 2020. This week, it took a big step towards doing so by buying a wind … Continued
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Tech NewsDesignAn Early Look at Ikea’s Light, Cheap, and Portable 2014 Collection
Ikea is already the gold standard for furniture that moves well, but this year its designers are pushing the art of nomadism even further. Images of Ikea’s new PS collection have arrived, and its name—On the Move—says it all. Just a few weeks ago, Ikea announced the untimely demise of its super-popular Expedit shelving system, … Continued
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Tech News
You’ll Never Trip Over This In-Ground Solar Light
They’re the perfect accent to a well-manicured backyard, but the solar-powered lights dotting your gardens and walkways are just one misstep away from being accidentally destroyed. So Ikea’s come up with the perfect solution, LED lights that you press into your lawn so that they’re flush to the ground while still providing plenty of light. … Continued
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Tech NewsColored Lights Let This Tiny Ikea Billboard Display Three Messages
Let’s be honest with ourselves here for a moment. If you’re heading to Ikea to furnish your home, you probably don’t live in a sprawling million dollar mansion. Instead, you’re probably furnishing a tiny dorm room or a cozy apartment. And not only is Ikea aware of this, it’s also taken it to heart with … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Here’s Why Ikea Is Discontinuing Everyone’s Favorite Shelf
Expedit, we hardly knew ye. Ikea recently announced that the popular shelving system is not long for this world, and the internet responded with rage. But there’s a really good reason for Ikea to get rid of Expedit. And in fact, it’s not really going away at all. Ikea says it’s replacing Expedit with a … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidWatch people get pranked into thinking they’re trapped in an IKEA room
This is hilarious. Imagine shopping inside IKEA and hopping inside one of those strategically decorated rooms where every single thing has a price tag and playing with the faucet and looking at all the weird Swedish names and then… realizing you have no idea how to get out. That’s because you’ve just been pranked. There’s … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsSploidThis hilarious parody of Gravity set in IKEA is spot on
Space is beautiful. Space is terrifying. IKEA is mostly just terrifying, especially when you get lost. Director Daniel Hubbard hilariously spoofed Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity by setting it inside the expansive world of IKEA. At over 346,000 square feet and absolutely no sense of direction, it sure feels endless. The parody trailer nails the IKEA shopping … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsDesign
Why It Takes Ikea Five Years to Design One Kitchen
I’ve always daydreamed about what working at IKEA must be like: Creating whimsical reindeer-shaped furniture, testing new meatball recipes, and dreaming up adorable product names. But as the Wall Street Journal reveals today, the process of developing products at the world’s largest furniture retailer is an epic, efficiency-driven numbers game. The WSJ got an in-depth … Continued
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Tech News
Can You Tell These Ikea Products and Death Metal Bands Apart?
Ikea furniture names are often full of umlauts and improbable double consonants. I’ve been told that the names are Swedish—and I have no choice but to believe this, because I don’t speak Swedish. Come to think of it, they sort of resemble the names of another fantastical Scandinavian export: Death Metal. Take the Ikea or … Continued
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Tech News
IKEA’s Going to Sell Solar Panels Now (No Assembly Required)
Get excited, Earthlings who like the Earth: IKEA just announced a new program to sell energy-saving solar panels in each of its 17 UK stores. This means that with a little bit more effort than it takes to purchase a set of Billy bookcases, Brits can be doing their part to bring the world a … Continued
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Tech NewsIkea’s New App Transports Furniture Right Into Your Living Room
Ikea’s messed around with augmented reality before, but this year they’ve really outdone themselves. With just a phone and a copy of the catalog, you can now call up a digital version of any piece of furniture and put it anywhere in your home. All you have to do is throw the catalog on the … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech News
There’s Enough Ikea Furniture in Porn to Fill a Whole Tumblr (NSFW)
Let’s not beat around the bush: We all watch porn. OK? OK. And it turns out that while we’re doing that, we’re getting a full view of Ikea’s affordable, easily cleanable, porn-friendly furnishings. As Buzzfeed has discovered, a site that sounds totally SFW called Just Another Ikea Catalog isn’t actually very SFW at all. Sprinkled … Continued
By Peter ha -
Tech NewsDesign
Ikea Resurrects the Little Table That Inspired Ikea as You Know It
Ikea is coming full circle square. This week, the company announced the return of Lövet, the humble table that inadvertently sparked the flatpack revolution in 1956 when, in a fit of desperation, a young designer chopped off its legs in order to cram it into his car. You see, for its first ten years of … Continued