Top Ten Gadgets from IFA 2010: a video round-up

Gadget show IFA in Berlin last week brought a host of new gadgets into the spotlight. It is the year of the Tablet so many of the top gadgets were tablets, some cheap knock-offs of the iPad, others really interesting in their own right. Otherwise it was all about 3D – the TVs, the cameras and uh the phones. Then there are a few wild-cards.

Here are the top ten we saw – video reviews from Gerald Lynch and Ashley Norris of TechDigest.

1. The Samsung Galaxy Tab
The hot new entrant in the tablet computer market Ashley went so far as to say he’d swap his iPad for it.. what’s so damn great about it?

2. Android TV from Lava Sweden
Yes really! Android is not just for phones, or even just for handhelds. See what Gerald thinks of it….

3. LG 31 inch OLED protoype TV
Check out this gorgeous flatscreen. It’s genuinely shimmering – and not just because the camera’s shaking. I think Gerald’s gone shakey with awe.

4. Sharp’s 3D mobile phone prototype (no glasses needed)
It’s not just TVs getting 3D treatment. IT COULD BE ON YOUR PHONE. Just prototype though, so don’t be expecting one of these for Christmas..

5. LG Smart TV
All the major TV manufacturers at this year’s IFA were touting some form or other of web-connected screen, but the pick of the bunch were LG’s smart TVs.

6. Panasonic 3D Viera TVs
This booth showed off Panasonic’s live 3D post-production techniques using their latest Viera 3D panels and professional stereoscopic 3D camera gear. Pretty swish: the TVs are great but Gerald got a bit creeped out by whole display set up – everyone was watching the film of the show and not the actual show.
“Now you can argue that, at a tech show, people are bound to be more interested in the TVs than a circus act. It’s what they’re there for after all. But the whole set-up just creeped me out a little bit, like a glimpse into some Philip K Dick style future where humanity will only ever see the outside world passively through high-tech TV screens.”

7. Toshiba Folio 100 Tablet Computer
Though Samsung’s Galaxy Tab may have been grabbing most of the limelight at this year’s IFA conference, Toshiba too were making their first steps into the touchscreen tablet market with their Folio 100 device.

8. Hannspree launch Apple TV too!
Looks like Steve Jobs and co won’t be the only gang launching an Apple TV this year. Feast your eyes on the Hannspree 55 Apple TV! [geddit?!?]

9. ViewSonic Viewpad 7 tablet hands-on
WELL, if it isn’t another tablet. It is. On Android 2.2 – see how Gerald found this contender to stack up against the big boys.

10. Spotify for Sonos multi-room music systems demoed
Ah Spotify.. my favourite music streaming app ever teams up with Sonos. The rep shows us how to turn your house into a giant co-ordinated music system and then control it all from you iPad. I’m impressed.