Disclosure: IFA contributed to SlashGear’s travel/accommodation costs. However, as always, there was no editorial control over what we covered, how we covered it, or which companies we met with.

Tablets

Samsung stole IFA 2010 with the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab, and the company brought along its successor to this year’s show. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 answers most of our complaints about the original: the slightly larger screen uses the company’s own Super AMOLED Plus technology, runs at a higher 1280 x 800 resolution, is thinner, lighter and made from metal rather than plastic.

It’s not the only Honeycomb slate we saw, either. ViewSonic has targeted the more affordable end of the market with the ViewPad 7x, though its ViewPad 7e – which will be under $200 when it hits stores – falls back on Gingerbread to hit that price point. IFA was also a chance for companies to release their second-gen slates, with both Toshiba (with the AT200) and Lenovo (with the IdeaPad A1) addressing criticisms that their first models were oversized and ugly. Sony put plenty of money into its Tablet P and Tablet S launch, too, though our early review of the Tablet S left us somewhat unsure that it’ll be quite as successful as the company hopes.

Android and the tablets that run it continue to be overshadowed by legal concerns, however, with Samsung forced to pull the Galaxy Tab 7.7 from its IFA booth after Apple filed an injunction over patent infringement allegations. The German courts have already taken Apple’s side once, over the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and while Samsung went so far as to put stickers saying that there’d be no availability in Germany on each Tab 7.7 unit, that obviously wasn’t enough to stay the judge’s hand.

Smartphones

The stand-out phone from IFA actually could’ve fallen into the tablet category, too. Samsung continued its strong showing with the Galaxy Note, a 5.3-inch 1280 x 800 Super AMOLED HD smartphone running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and offering a digital “S Pen” stylus that can be used to annotate, take handwritten notes, and more. It’s not exactly a new concept – HTC tried it with the Flyer, after all – but the difference is that the inking experience works on the Galaxy Note: the virtual ink flow is smooth and precise enough to make using it as a notepad replacement realistic. Whether mainstream users will blanch at the size remains to be seen, however.

Samsung Galaxy Note close-up:

Also thinking big is the HTC Titan, one of the company’s two new Windows Phone 7 Mango devices and, as the name hints at, packing a sizable display: 4.7-inches in this case. It also brings a faster processor than we’re used to: 1.5GHz, as opposed to the 1GHz benchmark of first-gen Windows Phones. One aspect we’re particularly excited about is the camera, with HTC using a back-illuminated, f2.2 sensor that promises to answer criticisms of patchy low-light performance in previous devices. That’s shared with HTC’s other new Mango handset, the smaller Radar.

Ultrabooks

Call them a cynical rebranding of ultraportables or a semi-desperate attempt to claw away sales from the MacBook Air, but Intel’s ultrabook segment got some high-profile support from big-name brands in Berlin this past week. Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba all brought models to IFA, attempting to balance Apple-rivaling style with the sort of connectivity PC users expect.

Toshiba arguably does the best on that front, managing to squeeze ethernet, HDMI and VGA into the Portege Z830, along with three USB ports (one of which is USB 3.0), audio in/out and an SD card reader. Still, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s finds room for USB 3.0 and HDMI, and all in a particularly attractive chassis with an eye-catching routed-edge design. Lastly there’s the Acer Aspire S3, which promises to best the Air on multimedia performance thanks to its Dolby Home Theater tuning.

The rest…

Samsung didn’t have an ultrabook, but it did have the Series 7 Chronos. While we weren’t entirely convinced by the Apple-esque styling, the company’s advanced LCD technology – which means you get roughly an inch extra of screen compared to what would normally fit into each chassis – complete with anti-reflective finish and super-strength brightness lent no small degree of appeal.

Toshiba’s utterly vast 55-inch HDTV, the ZL2, was hard to avoid, offering as it did glasses-free 3D using a face-tracking system similar to that we’ve seen on recent Toshiba notebooks. Unfortunately the company still isn’t committing to a release date.

Finally, there were the more unusual products and prototypes. The Fraunhofer Institute brought along its flickering-LED based Visible Light Communication networking system, bypassing WiFi and ethernet, in what could make for flight- and hospital-safe high-speed connectivity. Then there was E Ink’s Triton color epaper display, as well as confirmation that LG, Sony, Samsung and HP are all beavering away on flexible ereader panels.

What we didn’t see…

Big screen TVs were certainly in evidence at IFA, but we’re still yet to see a meaningful, joined-up Smart TV experience. Apple’s continued treatment of the Apple TV as more of a hobby than a focus has left the door open for other firms to take the lead, but beyond some basic DLNA streaming there’s still little in the way of linked thinking about how a home with multiple screens of a broad range of sizes will play best together.

Wrap-Up

Just as it did with CES 2011, Apple managed to cast a significant shadow over IFA 2011 despite not even being in attendance. The injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 was the Cupertino company’s most obvious impact, but the specters of the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 waiting in the wings were the unmentioned black cloud on many vendors’ horizons.

Perhaps as a result – or perhaps because the tech market as a whole is saturated with more segments and sub-segments than it can stomach – many of the announcements felt evolutionary rather than revolutionary. That’s not to say that the Galaxy Note, Portege Z830 and HTC Titan aren’t interesting devices, but they’re refinements on a theme more than anything else. On the flip side, though, refinement is what’s needed if each company wants to compete, and that adds up to not only more consumer choice overall but a generally stronger selection to choose from.

You can read all our show coverage by using the IFA 2011 tag, and don’t forget to let us know what your favorite product(s) are in the comments!

On Saturday, all Samsung staff manning the IFA stand would say was that the company had “voluntarily” removed all of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 demo units, information and promotional information from the show, pending receipt of the court’s comments. Before that had taken place, however, each Galaxy Tab 7.7 was already marked with a label suggesting that the design was subject to change, and that it would not go on sale in Germany. Samsung appears to have hoped that the sticker would be sufficient to allow the IFA launch and subsequent demonstration to go ahead without incurring the court’s – or Apple’s – wrath.

Samsung is now promising to take legal action against Apple in the hope to have the injunction overturned; the company is already prevented from selling the larger Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany after a previous preliminary injunction there. If you’re curious about the Galaxy Tab 7.7, make sure to check out our full hands-on report.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 hands-on:

[via FOSS Patents]

However, Gore was at pains to point out that the decision to yank the Galaxy Tab 7.7 – which Samsung announced with great fanfare only on Thursday – was made voluntarily, rather than at the court’s behest. Where previously the slate had on show across two demo tables, now all branding has been replaced or removed and the slots filled with the Galaxy Note and Wave 3. Meanwhile, several members of the Samsung team were apparently measuring the now-covered Tab 7.7 wall poster, presumably either to replace it for the remainder of IFA 2011 or to arrange a more permanent draping.

Apple’s legal team managed to secure a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe back in August, which prevented sales of the slate from going ahead. That was later limited to Germany alone, with Samsung agreeing to neither sales nor promotion of the 10-inch tablet in the country.

While full details are not yet available, it could be that Samsung and Apple’s lawyers have already clashed and that the Cupertino legal team expects to have a similar injunction against the new Tab 7.7 soon. We won’t know until court documents or an official announcement arrives, however.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

US availability, meanwhile, will follow “later than that” though they couldn’t say exactly how much later. Given we’ve only just seen a US launch for the Samsung Galaxy S II, despite it having gone on sale in Europe in late April, it’s certainly imaginable that North American carriers could drag their heels out for several months.

Samsung Galaxy Note hands-on:

No word on pricing at this stage, though we’re expecting it to carry a premium over the GSII. It’ll arrive alongside various accessories, like a Bluetooth keyboard, vehicle dock and a flip-cover that may reassure some dedicated paper-notebook users.

Check out our hands-on report with the Galaxy Note, and our comparison between it, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, and the Galaxy S II.

The lenses are f3.2 and there’s 5-megapixel still capture alongside the Full HD video recording. An LED flash light is mounted underneath the lens array, too, there’s an optical zoom, and recording is supported in either 2D or 3D, as you’d expect.

Storage is via SD card, and while there’s no touchscreen there’s a reasonably straightforward little joystick on the back which falls neatly under your thumb. No word on pricing or availability at this stage.

Getting quality digital ink is surprisingly hard; as we found with the HTC Flyer, if the virtual ink-flow isn’t smooth, tight or narrow enough, you can’t get as much on-screen to justify dumping your physical notepad in favor of a stylus-equipped tablet. It’s something Samsung’s customized digital S Pen technology looks to have got right, though: you can see the crisp lines and lack of bleed in the video below. Bear in mind we were writing while also holding a camera, since without that handicap we’d have been able to fit even more text on a single line.

Samsung Galaxy Note inking, video editing & more:

Samsung’s video and photo editing apps also warrant some attention. Although we’ve seen earlier iterations of both on previous devices – the Galaxy S II, for instance – in their latest form they can legitimately take on desktop editing software. The video app allows you to combine clips, music and titles, make crops and cuts using either your finger or, for more accuracy, the pen, and then handwrite or add text, sketches, highlights and more on top before exporting at up to 720p resolution. You could feasibly film, process and export an entire mini-movie on your device, without ever needing to offload footage to your computer.

The photo editing software is similarly impressive, supporting an intelligent quick-selection tool of the sort you’d find in Photoshop so as to make selecting aspects of the frame more straightforward. You can then manipulate and morph those selections, as well as do all the usual annotation and tweaking, with little in the way of processing delay as the Galaxy Note does its crunching.

Although you’re getting more screen real-estate than on Samsung’s smartphone line-up, Samsung has also made plentiful use of pinch-zooming gestures. We’ve already written about the pinch support in the calendar, which moves between various levels of time: year, to month, to week, to day, and back again. However, pinch the message list in Samsung’s customized email app and it collapses to show messages from the past few days, weeks or months, saving you the time of scrolling through pages and pages of old mails. For users looking to condense both their digital and paper lives into a single device, that’s a useful advantage.

We also took a moment to run SunSpider on the Galaxy Note, the browser test of JavaScript performance. Samsung asked us not to run processor-specific benchmarks like Quadrant, since neither the hardware nor software are finalized, but SunSpider put in a solid showing, completing the test in 2894.4ms. In comparison, the (similarly non-finalized) Galaxy Tab 7.7 managed it in 1440.4ms in Carrypad‘s testing, while the Galaxy S II came in at 3584.3ms. We expect the Note to do better after Samsung has worked on the software, and at that point the company should have some battery estimates for us, too. Right now there’s no official word on exactly how long the Galaxy Note will last, but “at least a full day” from the 2,500 mAh battery is the promise.

We also took the opportunity to run a few third-party apps – like the SlashGear for Android app shown above – on the Note to see how its higher-than-average resolution display handled them. Generally we saw no problems, with apps simply stretching out to suit the 1280 x 800 panel.

More Samsung Galaxy Note hands-on video and photos here.

It’s unclear if those are mistakes on Vodafone’s part or an upgrade that Samsung has made for the European 4G model, but what we do know is that the 4G connectivity is fast. We ran Speedtest and got a 12.99 Mbps downlink and 8.06 Mbps uplink; obviously speeds are network-dependent, but it certainly leaves us eager for a broader launch of the 4G model.

Otherwise it’s the same Galaxy Tab 8.9 we saw earlier in the year, now the mid-range model slotting in-between the Tab 10.1 and the freshly announced Galaxy Tab 7.7. It’s certainly a little more portable than the 10.1, but with the 7.7 offering the same resolution display in an even more one-hand-friendly form-factor, Samsung’s tightly-packed line-up may end up leaving some consumers confused.

Of course, Samsung has no need of a Windows-based iPad alternative, because it already has its Android-powered Galaxy Tab series. The business customer, then, gets a solid slate computer with a decent 11.6-inch capacitive touchscreen display, bright and with broad viewing angles, served up in a reasonably slimline casing with HDMI, microSD and USB connectivity.

If you want more ports, the docking station has a full-sized HDMI (versus the mini port on the Slate PC itself) as well as a USB, headphone socket, ethernet and power. Unfortunately it’s not adjustable for angle, though you could easily leave a bigger display permanently attached for when you’re back at your desk. The Bluetooth keyboard is much like we saw on the Series 9 Chronos laptops, but because this is a full Windows PC you can of course plug in any USB peripheral you want.

Best of all, Samsung has already confirmed that it intends to upgrade the Series 7 Slate PC to Windows 8 when the new OS is launched, which adds in a degree of future-proofing that enterprise clients will enjoy. At that point, it might also win some fans among mainstream consumers, though we’ll have to wait and see how well, exactly, Microsoft’s next-gen OS lives up to its tablet promise.

If Samsung had to pick a company to act as its muse, Apple is hardly a poor choice. Still, the chiclet keys – particularly the directional arrows – and labeling looks very similar to what you’d find on a MacBook Pro, while the compact webcam in the narrow bezel looks somewhat like that of the old-style Pro. We’re not saying Samsung threw Apple’s notebook into a photocopier, but given the design of other notebooks in the company’s range, which differ significantly, we’d have liked to have seen more of its own imagination show through.

Beyond that, build quality is high and those glitzy displays certainly give you more pixel space than you’ll get on most other machines. The anti-reflective coating is a nice addition too, and while sometimes that treatment can leave displays underwhelming in their colors, the 300 nit brightness on the Series 7 Chronos machines punches through.

Compared to Sony’s updated VAIO S series, we imagine Samsung’s bigger screens and neat design (whatever the inspiration) will win some sales for the Chronos. Whether those buyers will have to spend all their time explaining “no, it’s not actually an Apple” remains to be seen.

On the right side of this device you’re going to find a full SD card slot, at the back you’ll find a power port, full sized HDMI port, and two USB ports, and on the left side you’ll find a headphone socket — aka this laptop is very basic in its connectivity scope. Inside you’ll find a full sized chicklet keyboard with Dolby home theater support, and a full trackpad front and center. Atop the display you’ll find an Acer Crystal Eye 1.3 megapixel camera and mic able to connect you with some video chat via Wi-fi provided by Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED technology – plus there’s some brand new Bluetooth 4.0+HSR tech in there for good measure.

Two features this laptop holds that are certainly selling points for the platform are Acer Green Instant On and Acer Instant Connect. The former of these two innovations is one that provides you with two modes of sleep for your laptop: Sleep and Deep Sleep. From Sleep mode, your computer will be able to boot back up to full capabilities in 1.5 seconds. Should your computer go into Deep Sleep mode, you’ll be able to resume in just 6 seconds. Because this laptop is able to go into this advanced Deep Sleep mode, it’s able to stay super low on battery consumption, allowing this computer’s up time, Acer says, to last 50 days – of course you’ll probably want to open the computer up every once in a while too, so more than likely 50 days is the max, but still! Pretty cool. Acer Instant Connect, on the other hand, has more to do with the internet, providing you with access to the web in just 2.5 seconds — how and under what circumstances being a few notes we’ll have to expand upon once we get to review this device in full.

The Acer A3 will be priced between €799 and €1199 with USA prices forthcoming, and will be rolling out in select regions in September with a ramp-up in productions come October. This laptop is expected to become Acer’s star product during the fourth quarter of 2011.

This is one of several of Intel’s new Ultrabooks, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300S [hands-on video] and the Toshiba Portege Z830 [hands-on video] rounding out the bunch presented here at IFA 2011. What these devices are targeted at is the market currently being dominated by the MacBook Air. Compared here (and in the video in this post) are the MacBook Air and the Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook.

The newest 2nd-gen MacBook Air runs either a core i5 or a core i7 processor while the Aspire S3 in this case is running a core i7 processor. The thickness between these two shows the Acer S3 to be considerably thicker, the MacBook Air sizing in at 0.68-inches at its thickest point while the S3, even though its official specs say it’s 0.51 inches, can be seen to be, indeed, thicker than the Air here. The rest of the size bits here on these 13-inch models from each line, the Acer laptop ends up being a bit wider than the Mac, this sizing reflected in the weight of either device at 2.38 lbs for the Mac and 3 lbs for the Acer – certainly not a whole HECK of a lot of difference, but it is there!

As far as ports, both device has the same number of USB ports, a headphone jack, power port, SD card port – where they differ is in the display port, the MacBook Air giving you a mini display port / Thunderbolt port while the Acer gives you a full sized HDMI. It’s sort of like choosing between buying a DVD or a Blu-Ray disk at the moment, where HDMI is certainly still a viable option and works on many many platforms, Mac’s Thunderbolt port may well be the way of the future. As far as the keyboards go, both devices are fairly similar in their sizing and abilities save for the MacBook’s trackpad which is slightly larger and more advanced due to gesture-related abilities included in the laptop’s current operating system Mac OS X Lion. Speakers MAY be better with the Dolby Home Theater options available on the Acer device here but we’re not sure quite yet since we’ve not gotten to review a unit – as for that and the rest of the compare-ables we’ll have to wait until a full review situation arrives.

Until then! Which one would you choose if given the choice?

The app allows the user to play their own music playlist and stream from the web. There are three different docks in the Android line including the AS851, the AS351, and the AS111. The AS851 is the top of the line offering and it has a design made to structure the acoustics for deep bass and great sound. The device uses crystal-sound technology and uses digital sound processing. It has 30W RMS total power output.

The AS351 is the next step down the range with the option of battery or AC power to allow it to be used on the go and at home. It has bass boosting technology and 10W RMS total power output. It also has an AUX input for other devices on the back. The final docking station is the AS111 with a compact design perfect for your desk or nightstand. The dock has 360-degree sound to provide sound quality anywhere in the room.

[via Android Community]

Updated with Samsung comment after the cut.

Davies figured the tablet would end up in the States, but it might come with no voice service. It looks like Samsung has opted to simply not offer the Note and Tab 7.7 in America at all. A Samsung rep has confirmed to GottaBeMobile that the company has “no plans” to sell either tablet in America. It wouldn’t be the first time that an official statement turned out to be false so we can only wait and see.

The tablets not coming makes sense, Samsung other tablets aren’t exactly blowing up the sales charts in the States. Samsung may just be picking where the tablets will sell and that will be Europe where carriers will let the tablet have its voice service. You can check put some of our other coverage of the new tablets here.

Update: Looks like someone at Samsung wasn’t quite clear. We’ve just spoken to the company, which said “Samsung has not yet announced availability for any part of the world. Those will be coming at a later date.” It looks like no decisions have been made – or, at least, no decisions that Samsung wants to talk about today – on where will get the Note and Tab 7.7, and where might not.

[via Android Community]

E Ink CMO Siriam Peruvemba demonstrated the Triton color display, which uses an E Ink Pearl panel with a color filter layer overlaid. The existing prototype runs at around 160dpi, but the company has been working with Epson on a 300dpi color version of the monochrome screen announced earlier in the year. Two companies already have Triton products announced, but there are apparently several more using the next-gen screen for incoming devices. Meanwhile, faster versions that can support more fluid transitions are in the pipeline.

As for bank security, E Ink showed the new generation of its SURF display (Segmented, Ultra-thin, Rugged and Flexible) which can be slotted into a regularly-sized credit card complete with battery and a control button. The screen can show a six-digit code – created with each purchase – to introduce an extra check before the transaction goes through. According to Peruvemba, the battery should last for at least two years before you need a new card.

Finally, there are flexible displays. LG, Sony, Samsung and HP are all working on their own bendable panels, replacing the normal glass substrate with a plastic one. Plastic Logic is perhaps the best known, but each company could have products on the very market soon.

Toshiba also unveiled the X200 and X400 camcorders. All three of the new camcorders can record in 1080p video resolution and use only SD cards to store the video. The X200 has 12x optical zoom and the X400 has 23x zoom. Price details are not offered right now, but the cameras are expected to land in Q4 for Europe. I would expect to see them in the US as well. The cameras record in 1920 x 1080 format at 30 fps in H.264 HD format.

The three cameras all have a 1.5-inch LCD and electronic image stabilization. The sensors are 5MP units and they can shoot still photos at up to 16MP resolution. The Clip has 10x optical zoom and all come with software for editing and uploading video. I suspect these will all be relatively cheap offerings.

[via NexGadget]

As before, the Live has a carry-handle on the back as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. Inside, the speakers and amplification have been improved, with a 5-inch bass, twin 3-inch midrange speakers, two 1-inch ribbon tweeters and 150W of amps (50W bass, two 25W tweeters and two 25W midrange). That adds up to a far stronger sound, still using the FullRoom virtual stereo technology that reflects audio off of the walls. It was impossible to really judge how well that soundfield works on the showfloor, however.

The Libratone Lounge, meanwhile, offered a noticeably better stereo split. There’s the same amplification inside, but powering an 8-inch inverted woofer, twin 4-inch ceramic midrange speakers and twin 1-inch ribbon tweeters. Unfortunately, despite Libratone showing it off underneath a TV, there’s a shortage of ports: you get AirPlay and a 3.5mm stereo audio input, but no HDMI or digital audio inputs.

Libratone Lounge AirPlay Speaker:

Just as with the original Libratone Beat (which will remain on sale for those not enamored by Apple’s tech), the company is positioning the Live and Lounge speakers as decidedly premium products. The Live is a hefty ¢699, while the Lounge is $1,299. They’ll ship later this month.

The device is designed to complement the iMac or Cinema Display and it has dual dome tweeters, midrange/bass drivers, and passive radiators with headphone outputs, line-in jacks and an optional sub-out port. The Luna Voyager II is a low profile, FM dual alarm clocks and personal audio system that works with the iPod, iPhone, and iPod. It also has a FM tuner and a buzzer to wake to.

The Soma Stand is a folding portable design that has dual ported speaker legs and works with the iPhone and iPod. It runs on AC adapters or batteries and it lasts for up to six hours on a set of batteries. The last of the new gear is the Soma Travel. This portable dock is powered by the device docked to it. That is an interesting device since most of the time we see portable gear with batteries to power the iPhone. All of the gear will be available widely in October.

In the video conferencing demo, one laptop was hooked up to a custom light fitting via ethernet cable, and another was connected to a receiver box. The light used LED to transfer data to the receiver, and then the receiver beamed back its own data using infrared for bi-directional communication. Put your hand in-between the sensors and the conversation froze; remove it and it automatically resumed.

Fraunhofer bi-directional visible light communication demo:

Fraunhofer’s second system demonstrated mono-directional communication, a laptop that could receive a streaming video from customized light fitting installations. As the motorized demo platform shifted from under one light to another, the connection dropped and then automatically re-established. Although in that situation you don’t have two-way comms, it does make for a situation where one emitter can talk to as many devices as can fit within light range.

Fraunhofer mono-directional demo:

It’s also potentially more secure. While it’s tricky to limit the range of RF wireless systems like WiFi, or at least in a directional sense, with light it’s a simple matter of blocking off where the communications signal shines and where it doesn’t. Right now Fraunhofer’s mono-directional prototype is a roughly mouse-sized box and USB bus powered (the bi-directional unit is roughly shoebox-sized) but the goal is something more akin to a USB memory stick. The research institute has no plans to commercialize the technology itself, but tells SlashGear that there are several prototype reference designs in the wild with potentially interested manufacturers.

The video you’re about to watch is quite loud, so make sure you’ve got your headphones turned down somewhat, then get your sharp listening ears out because there’s a massive amount of what I’d call “bonus” noise going on here because everyone is so excited to see all the new gadgets – ravenous fans, I tell you! What you’re going to get a look at here is the NX200, a camera capable of an ISO range of 100-12,800 and the recording of Full HD movies.

Lenses of all sorts come capable of working with this device, all of them part of the Samsung i-Function family, each of them putting the controls for camera settings on the lens itself so you’re able to access them without taking your hands off the controls. Additionally, i-Function 2.0 lenses allow the control of smart filters amongst other functions directly from the lens in Lens Priority mode.

You’ll be getting a quick journey through the device through its rear-facing 3-inch AMOLED display while our Samsung presenter flips the hardware around with great ease. An interchangeable lens compact camera with great potential!

The first thing you should be noting whilst comparing the Galaxy Note and the Tab 7.7 is that they’ve both got a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution AMOLED display, the different between then being the size of the screen, (7.7-inches on the Tab 7.7 and 5.3-inches on the Note), and the name Samsung gives each of their displays: the 7.7 has what Samsung calls a Super AMOLED Plus display while the Note has what Samsung calls an HD Super AMOLED. Because both of these devices have the same number of pixels across different size screens, the Galaxy Note wins out with 285ppi, or pixels per inch.

Both of these larger devices are able to offer both voice and data connectivity, in this case meaning you can use the pair of them like smartphones in every respect. This means holding these relatively large devices up to the side of your head like your average cellphone, perhaps looking foolish in the process.

Galaxy Tab 7.7

The newest member of the Galaxy Tab family has a fully aluminum chassis, a 7-inch display, 3G HSPA+ connectivity, and is both small enough to place in your pocket (if you’ve got a bit pocket, that is,) and large enough to play all your favorite bigtime dual-core games. You’ve got a powerful 1.4 GHz dual-core processor under the hood, and with such a tablet comes the ability to avoid the slightly larger and perhaps, dare I say, more cumbersome Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the upcoming 8.9. Check out our hands-on post from IFA 2011 for a closer look at the device.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 hands-on:

Galaxy Note

Samsung presents this next-generation device whom they’ve dubbed the king of the new size, that being a perfect point between tablet and smartphone. This device has, again, the same resolution display as the Galaxy Tab 7.7, but it’s got a 5.3-inch panel displaying it so it’s much more sharp and brilliant. You’ve also got a pen stylus that’s able to sit inside the device while you’re not using it, a “silo” if you will for convenient carrying on the go. This device represents a new generation, if Samsung has their way, and has the potential to swallow up a market that hasn’t yet even really been addressed anywhere in the world in the history of mobile connectedness. Check out our Galaxy Note hands-on post from IFA 2011 for a closer look at the device in its current form.

Samsung Galaxy Note hands-on:

Galaxy S II

This device is one of the hottest selling smartphones of 2011 and promises to continue its reign over Android devices in the world through at least the next few months as its released in several different iterations in the USA. This device has Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus display, this time at 800 x 480 pixels resolution over a 4.3-inch panel. This device you can see in full-on action in several reviews and hands-on looks on SlashGear:
Samsung Galaxy S II Original International Edition Review
Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch Hands-On
T-Mobile Galaxy S II 4G Hands-OFF
AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Hands-On

Samsung Galaxy S II Review:

Compared

Each of these devices have a massive battery capable of more than a day’s worth of work. Each of these devices is capable of acting like a smartphone, with both mobile data and voice, and if you’d like to hold them up to your head to make a traditional looking phone call, you can certainly do that. Have a look and Chris Davies doing so here, first with the Galaxy Note:

Then with the Galaxy Tab 7.7:

Looks nice, yes?

Now you’ve got the choice between the three, right? Not necessarily. Each of these devices has the ability to act in a unique way, working with you to connect you to the mobile internet at all times of the day. Each of these devices has one of the most brilliantly bright and sharp displays in the world, and they’re all running Samsung’s unique version of TouchWiz, slightly different for each of them, over the top of the most updated version of stock Android.

You could have the choice between these devices, but you might as well go ahead and buy all three, right? Not so fast. What Samsung has done here with the Galaxy Note in particular is to challenge the idea that you need more than one device. They say they’re challenging you to only use this singular device, but you know good and well that if one of these devices seems enticing to you, they all do to some degree or another.

We shall see how they all sell (and continue to sell) in the near future.

For those looking to get into Android via a unique look at the Android operating system as it’s topped by one of the coolest 3rd-party user interfaces on the market, this is your device. The user interface you’re seeing here is not your average Android 3.2.x Honeycomb experience, instead being called Viewscene 3D, an interface designed by the same folks who developed SPB Shell 3D, a homescreen replacement app quick we’ve reviewed over on our sister site Android Community. ViewSonic worked with that development team to create a great looking out of the box experience with, again, what they’re calling Viewscene 3D. You’ll see the coolness of the look and controls in the hands-on video below.

This device is introduced to us amongst about a billion other rabid technology fans, so you’ll have to bear with the noise, but it’ll be worth it once you realize what you’re seeing here. ViewSonic presents a tablet with a 7-inch display at 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and a 1GHz single-core processor with 512MB of RAM. Along the side you’ll find all the ports you love so very well, that being a miniUSB, microUSB, power port, headphone jack, and microSD slot for expansion of memory by up to 32GB should you want to hold every single app you’ve ever downloaded at once.

You’ll be getting a 3 megapixel camera on the back, a VGA camera on the front for video chat, and the whole device is made of mainly plastic. This device will be available for the bargain price of 149 Euros or around $199 USD and will be released inside September of 2011.

Sound like the deal you’ve been waiting for?

Follow the three birds! They always lead you to fine displays, yes? What we’ve got here is a hands-on video that’ll show you a tablet that does indeed have a fairly nice 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixel resolution display on it. This tablet also brings you Android 3.2.x Honeycomb, that being the most advanced tablet-based Android system on the market, and the processor is one of our favorites: the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core SoC at 1.0GHz. You know what that means? Full access to the Tegra Zone.

Before you watch the video, be sure to turn your headphones and/or speakers down to a moderate level as the background noise in this IFA 2011 environment is quite deafening when it comes down to it. You will be able to hear all the juicy details, on the other hand, so follow along! This is the ViewSonic ViewPad 7x, again, and it’s got 1GB of RAM and will be released in 8GB and 16GB versions. There’s a rear-facing camera rated at 5 megapixels with an LED flash and capability to record at 720p and a 2 megapixel camera on the front for video chat and tiny photos and all that.

On the sides of the device you’ve got micro-HDMI out capable of 1080p video playback, micro USB, stereo speakers, and a microSD card slot upgradable to 32GB should you desire to do so. This device will be offered as a Wi-fi only device for starters, but down the line there will be a 3G HSPA+ model as well. The first model will be costing around 349 Euros, this translating to $499 USD. This price will certainly pose a challenge as similar 7-inch tablets are already out and are coming out in the near future with very competitive pricing at similar specs.

This device comes with the rather impressive Viewscene 3D user interface, a sort of 2D/3D situation that’s not unlike what we’ve seen in the past with the third-party homescreen replacement app SPB Shell 3D. So close that it’s actually developed by the same folks – what do you know? Good choice ViewSonic.

This device’s first iteration is set to be released in late September.

One of the more interesting points Karnes lets us know is that the point at which deterioration of hearing in this high school age started in a real way to deteriorate was right around 2004. It’s no coincidence that this is the same year that the iPod was first released. Karnes goes on to note that because of the now-norm activities of digital music players, laptop video watching, video chatting, and the list goes on, the close monitoring of safety standards in earphones and earbuds should be much more of a priority than it is today – one thing Karnes notes that’s again alarming is that this unmonitored audio listening at unmonitored loudness exceed all too often the safety standards for even industrial sound levels.

To solve this problem, or at least take a swing at it, is a set of earbuds make specifically for children (though adults can wear them too,) which limit the volume output blasted through the speakers.

What this means is that no matter which device you’re plugging your earbuds into, you’ll be listening to the audio as the same listening level. This set of buds is an electrical device which does not affect the frequency response of any products that are currently on the market, still having a what Karnes describes as a great dynamic range, and superior noise isolating. There’s a triple flange, four different ear tips being available for a large range of ear sizes – AND if you want your whole ear filled, noise isolation means you’ll want to perhaps turn your volume DOWN because “you’re not competing with the outside world.”

No batteries are required, this component device again working with any device with audio output on the market today, and they’ll be shipping to US, UK, and Euro retailers on the 20th of October, 2011. Dixons, Amazon.com, HMB, are amongst the places you can get them at launch and they’ll be right around $49 USD right out of the gate. That price is for the Earphone-only ETY•Kids5, then there’s the ETY•Kids3 Headset + Earphones set for $79 with 3-button Apple control.

Sound nice to you? The ETY•Kids project is currently housed at http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/etykids.html

This device features an all-aluminum body, top, bottom, and insides. The entire body of the IdeaPad U300S is 14.9 millimeters thin, 1.3 kg in weight, and features a keyboard and touchpad setup you may very well recognize if you’ve seen your humble narrator’s previous review of the Lenovo U260 (also available in burnt orange like the U300s) or any other recent Lenovo laptop as well, of course, the exception being that this device has an increased size touchpad made entirely of glass so you’ll have a soft and easy to use piece of hardware to use.

Our video host shows the cooling system off, telling us that this system works by pulling in air along the hinge row of openings, running the air across the underside of the keyboard, and blowing it back out the left side of the device. There are absolutely no vents along the bottom of the device. Lenovo tells us that this device will remain very cool at all times, be it on the underside, in the wrist area, and of course on the keyboard.

The U300S features a full 13.3-inch display, has battery life up to 8 hours, this being a 50% increase over the previous Lenovo laptop generation, and it features Express Charge. What this Express Charge does is allow you to charge the battery up to 50% capacity in as little as 30 minutes. I’m sure we’ll see more information on that particular process as we review the device in the very near future. Lenovo summarizes the product as a beautiful piece of hardware made to also be a worker’s product – sounds like a killer combination, yes?

Those displays mimic a 16:9 aspect 60-inch display viewed from 10 feet away, but it’s the camera and sensors that make it particularly special. As well as tracking 6-degrees of freedom with the same plug-in motion sensor as offered for the Wrap 1200, the STAR set has a front-facing 1080p HD camcorder. The camera is removable, with a pair of screws underneath, allowing you to use the perhaps more discrete camera integrated into your smartphone instead.

Just like other Vuzix headsets, you can individually adjust each eyepiece to suit various levels of eyesight (or wear them over glasses, though it’s a clunky and heavy option and we felt like it might slide off at any moment) as well as adjust the nosepiece and tilt the eyepiece section inside the glasses frame. Audio output is supported too, while inputs include composite and component for hooking up to a PMP or DVI and VGA for your computer. USB is used for the AR software, and Vuzix says most apps – as long as they have the right connections – should work with the STAR.

Vuzix STAR 1200:

Sadly we couldn’t actually test that, as Vuzix didn’t have anything set up to actually feed AR data into the STAR 1200. Right now there are apparently only two such headsets in the world, one at ShowStoppers and another in the US. Unfortunately, Vuzix is targeting the STAR 1200 headset at developers looking to push AR software and services, rather than the general public. That adds up to limited availability when it begins shipping in the next few months, and a $4,999 price tag. We may have to wait a little longer before AR gets integrated into our regular glasses, but hopefully the STAR 1200 will help pave the way.

The Galaxy S WiFi 3.6 falls into the same strange category as the iPod touch, that offers almost all the same apps and multimedia capabilities of a smartphone and looks like a smartphone, but can’t actually make any phone calls. This perhaps appeals to those that want a dedicated media playing device that’s more affordable and won’t require an attached wireless contract.

It features a 3.6-inch 480×800 resolution display, a 1GHz TI OMAP processor, a VGA front-facing camera, and a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera. There are clear cost-cutting choices made here with the lower-resolution cameras and the non-AMOLED display. The device is already priced for the UK at £149 ($242) for the 8 GB model and £169 ($274) for the 16 GB model. No pricing or availability has been confirmed yet for the US.

Samsung made several other major announcements this morning, including the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and an unexpected Galaxy Note that straddles both the smartphone and tablet categories with its 5.3-inch screen. Make sure to check out our Samsung IFA 2011 wrap-up.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

Here’s where the real fire came into play, with Samsung revealing two outstanding Android devices that are sure to set the tablet world on fire – only the second and most superstar-classification-worthy of which Samsung doesn’t define as a tablet at all. We’ll get to that in a moment, but first there’s the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, the next in a line of successful Samsung Android tablets to feature Android 3.x Honeycomb with TouchWiz UX, a custom tablet interface for Android devices, working on top of it. What’s perhaps most impressive about this tablet (beyond the fact that it’s got a wholly metal chassis) is the fact that it’s got the largest (7.7-inch) Super AMOLED Plus display on an Android device thus far on Earth. Brightness! Check out our [original announcement thread] or head straight to our [Galaxy Tab 7.7 hands-on post] for a video exploration of the tablet in full brilliance.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 hands-on:

Also take a look at the already massively popular post by the name of [Will carriers kill the Galaxy Tab 7.7?] for all your discussion needs.

Samsung Galaxy Note

Samsung this week announced what they’re calling a whole new category in the mobile environment, that being what they’ve found to be the perfect blend of large screen size and small portability, all with a brand new “HD Super AMOLED” display for the brightest and sharpest look at Android yet. If there’s one device Samsung has chosen this week to be its hero device, this is it.

Check out our [original announcement post] or head straight to our [Galaxy Note hands-on] post complete with, again, brilliant video with hands-on pro Chris Davies.

Samsung Galaxy Note hands-on:

Cameras

Samsung has introduced several cameras this week, the first of which being the NX200, a single 20.3 megapixel camera with the ability to shoot continuous photos at 7 frames per second, an APS-C CMOS sensor, and 100ms Advanced auto focus. This device also has a gigantic amount of interchangeable lenses to go with it, looking like an explorer in the lens jungle in its first press shots. [announcement post]

Next there’s the Samsung WB750, a ultra-zoom capable Schneider Kreuznach device with 18x optical zoom and 24x Smart Zoom inside. This device is also capable of shooting 10 megapixel photos at the same time it’s recording 1080p video, and 12.5 megapixel resolution photos at 10 frames per second in high-speed continuous mode. [announcement post]

Finally there’s the Samsung MV800, a point-and-shoot camera with a giant flip-out and swivel LCD display so that you’ll be able to snap photos with preview in any way shape or form. This camera is rated at 16.2 megapixels, the LCD flip-out display is a 3-inch LCD, and a slew of special effects in-camera for all your odd editing needs. [announcement post]

Notebooks

There’s a single notebook to be had this week from Samsung as far as the IFA Unpacked event went, that being the Samsung Series 7 CHRONOS, a device which we spoke about earlier this week then were treated to a slight more formal look at later in the week.

Smart TV

As far as new announcements on the Samsung front this week, one news bit stood out from the rest: Samsung’s YouTube 3D partnership. How apt would you be to purchase a Samsung Smart TV with 3D capabilities if you had an infinite free library of content on your hands as opposed to the scant selection of 3D Blu-ray disks out there today? [original announcement post]

Wave Smartphones

Samsung brought some fire to their very own mobile operating system with three new bada 2.0-based devices, the first and most impressive of which was the Wave 3, a lovely 4-inch display having 1.4GHz toting smartphone with all your favorite bada amenities. The other two bada 2.0 devices announced this week were the Wave Y and the Wave M, all three of these devices set to be released soon. [original announcement post]

We were also given the opportunity land a hands-on with the Wave 3, this being an experience you can share with us in our Samsung Wave 3 hands-on post featuring Chris Davies on the handling, complete with video. Look like a winner compared to Samsung’s Android offerings?

Samsung Wave 3 hands-on:

Windows Tablets

If there’s one thing we did NOT expect to come out of the Samsung labs this week, it was the Samsung Series 7 Slate, a tablet PC running Windows 7. Luckily it won’t be stuck on the near-dead Windows 7 platform for long, as it comes ready to update to Windows 8 nearly right out of the gate. [original announcement post]

Amazing offering this week Samsung, keep it up!

Although it’s Windows Phone inside, the metal casing of the Titan is definitely familiar from the HTC Touch HD and other Android devices. The minimal bezel surrounds a screen that’s impressive size-wise, with decent color, though the WVGA resolution falls short of the qHD that we’ve seen HTC use on the Sensation and EVO 3D.

Build quality can’t be faulted, and the 8-megapixel camera – with dual-LED flash and 28mm wide-angle lens – not only has the pixels on paper but promises low-light performance too. It’s the high-end Windows Phone we’ve been waiting for from HTC, and the 1.5GHz processor is a welcome change from the 1GHz hardware we’ve seen until now.

HTC Titan hands-on:

Build quality, as we’ve found with all of HTC’s unibody devices, is strong and creak-free. The lower white panel slides off to reveal the battery and SIM card slot, and there’s a dedicated camera key, microUSB port and 3.5mm headphone socket. Size-wise, the 120.5 x 61.5 x 10.9 mm handset is more compact in the hand than the first-gen HTC Trophy, despite offering the same screen size. It also has better viewing angles.

HTC is particularly pushing the Radar’s photographic abilities, with the 5-megapixel camera using a back-illuminated sensor for improved low-light performance. There’s also a 28mm wide-angle lens, together with a single-LED flash and f/2.2 aperture. Up front is a VGA resolution camera for vanity shots and video calls, when they’re supported.

It’s really the combination of HTC’s hardware and the much-improved Mango that makes the Radar a success. Microsoft’s first major update to Windows Phone has, as we discovered in our technical preview, polished many of the rough edges early-adopters complained about; with the Radar expected to be priced roughly in line with the Android-based HTC Desire S, it’s likely to find an audience among those who want to spend less time tinkering with their handset and more time getting on with smartphone features.

HTC Radar hands-on:

The ViewPad 7x has a 7-inch 1024×600 multitouch capacitive display powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor. It has both front- and rear-facing cameras, although the image quality hasn’t been revealed, 8GB of internal storage, and integrated GPS. It will run ViewSonic’s customized ViewScene 3D user interface and utilizes a special injection molding technique that’s said to deliver a lightweight yet durable casing. It’s set to be available in late September for €349 ($499).

The ViewPad 10pro offers a 10-inch multitouch display and can dual-boot either Windows 7 Professional or Android 2.3 Gingerbread allowing for the best of both work and play. Not too much has been provided in the way of details, but it seems like the tablet will offer the ability to quickly switch between the two operating systems without much hassle. A WiFi-only version is expected to ship on September 5 for €499 ($714).

And lastly is the ViewPad 7e, which is only revealed to have a 4:3 ratio multitouch display with Amazon Kindle software pre-installed. No size was listed, but it’s most likely a typical e-reader size. Plus, it supports web browsing and multimedia and includes wireless, Bluetooth, and HDMI-out. Availability is set for late Q4 for €169 ($242).

None of these have been listed with a US release date yet, but we’ll keep you posted should those details turn up. Make sure to keep it here on SlashGear for more IFA 2011 developments.

The Toshiba TL Series 3D TV may be more budget-friendly but it isn’t a slouch. It comes in a range of sizes from 40-inch to 46-inch and boasts a Full HD 1080p 3D LED display with an ultra-smooth 200fps refresh rate. It also packs all the Smart TV features we’ve come to expect with WiFi connectivity for accessing on-demand content and online applications through the Toshiba Places portal.

However, the WiFi connectivity comes via an additional dongle, but the TL Series does provide four HDMI ports and two USB inputs as well as DLNA that will let you connect all sorts of other external devices to it, including Blu-ray players and game consoles. Also, unlike its revolutionary big brother ZL2 announced earlier today, the TL Series will require active shutter 3D glasses that are sold separately.

Exactly how much value the TL Series will deliver is still unknown, since no official pricing nor release date has been announced yet.

The ZL2 also claims to be the first to offer a consumer-targeted TV with a Quad Full HD display that has a 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution. This means an amazing 2D viewing experience as well with four times your usual Full HD resolution.

The 3D technology used is based on delivering slightly offset pictures to the left and right eye to achieve a 3D effect. And since there can be multiple viewers facing the screen at varying angles, the ZL2 utilizes a range of lenticular lenslets along with face recognition to provide 3D images for up to nine different viewing positions.

Content that wasn’t originally formatted for 3D, can be upscaled to 3D, including DVD, Blu-ray and even regular TV broadcasts. The conversion also includes depth control so that you can adjust the 3D depth to your liking.

Besides upscaling from 2D to 3D, you can also upscale resolution to the ZL2′s Quad Full HD display with Toshiba’s Resolution+ image enhancement technology. Again, content that can be upscaled include DVD, Blu-ray, and even your regular TV programs that are in SD or HD resolution.

Other features include Auto Calibration support that ensures color and grayscale levels are presented correctly, while WiFi connectivity offers a host of content viewing and sharing capabilities. Through Toshiba Places, you can access on-demand videos and other internet services such as Facebook.

However, the Toshiba ZL2 Series has not been given an official price or release date yet. For now, you can soak up the features list and some more photos of the TV below:

Toshiba ZL2 features:
- 139.7cm (55”) Glasses-Free 3D TV
- Quad Full HD (3840 x 2160) resolution display
- Face tracking technology via integrated camera
- 2D to 3D conversion with depth control
- Built in Wi-Fi, DLNA® and Windows 7 compatibility
- Freeview HD ready tuner
- Resolution+ and 3D Resolution+
- Toshiba Places
- YouTubeTM, BBC iPlayer
- Personal TV
- Remote control operation via iPhone®
- AutoView ambient light sensor
- Built-in subwoofer
- USB HDD Video Recording
- Auto Calibration
- 4x HDMI, 2x USB
- REGZA-LINK (HDMI CEC)

This tablet will be coming out sometime inside September of 2011 and it will cost $199 at launch. Interested yet? Thought so. What you’ll be looking at here is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet made to work in the mid-range of Android tablets and grab your attention with its cool low price and its several options as far as backing color goes. Certainly the fact that Lenovo has their own slightly unique UI going on here in the house should be enticing as well, but it’s most definitely the price that’s got us hooked on the possibility of this device selling well.

What you’ve got here is a 7-inch tablet with a Cortex A8 1 GHz single-core processor inside, a 3 megapixel camera on the back, a VGA 0.3 megapixel camera on the front, and is 11.9 mm thin. This device weighs in at 400 grams, has an LED display, and will on the whole have a pretty decent visual experience. This device has Bluetooth, Wifi, micro SD, micro USB and stereo speakers. One of the unique features Lenovo is noting right out of the dock is offline GPS and navigation and a unique chipset powered by Navdroyd.

Sound neat enough to you? The price you see above is for the 16GB model, and users can expect a 32GB model sometime in the near future.

As with previous Pogoplug devices, installation and setup is a speedy process: plug in power, ethernet and some form of storage, register for an account and then choose from the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Android apps, or the new Mac OS X or Windows apps. The web interface is still supported too, for other smartphones and when you’re using someone else’s computer.

With its mobile focus, the smartphone apps are the main push with the Pogoplug Mobile: it can automatically upload a copy of every photo and video you take to your personal cloud (either over WiFi-only, over 3G and WiFi, or on-request only). In the process, along with the original file it creates multiple versions suited to different bandwidths, so that if you want to stream video over 3G you should see fewer jumps and skips. Viewing the original file is an option.

Pogoplug Mobile demo:

The new desktop apps mean drag & drop file management is supported, and both local and mobile software supports Pogoplug’s sharing tools. You can share individual files or groups of files, and since you’re actually inviting others to access content served up via your home (or office) broadband rather than on your phone, you don’t have to leave your notebook or handset turned on as they send, or stomach the ensuing data bill.

Pogoplug will continue to sell the existing consumer ($79) and business ($299) models, as well as offer the free and premium ($29) software apps (which we reviewed a few months back). There’s no WiFi in the Pogoplug Plus; apparently experiments with previous wireless-enabled models only confused customers, and the service works best when it’s hard-wired to your home or office router.

As for rivals like Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Apple’s incoming iCloud, Putterman says that the big marketing and promotion efforts of the two companies, and others, have in fact helped rather than hindered Pogoplug. “When people hear all these things about iCloud they say to themselves, ‘I guess I need to find out about this cloud thing’” the co-founder explained. “That helps us.”

Pogoplug Mobile is up for pre-order from today, priced at $79.99, with availability on October 1 2011.

The keyboard is a little short on travel in comparison to larger machines – no surprise given the relatively shallow key tray on offer – but we’ll forgive Toshiba since they used the space to add an 8-cell 47Wh battery. The keys themselves are backlit, too, and water resistant, while above the 13.3-inch display looked bright despite the strong show lighting and the necessarily compact backlighting.

Unlike, say, Apple’s MacBook Air, the Z830 gets an ethernet port, and both HDMI and VGA. There’s also an SD card slot and three USB ports, two USB 2.0 and a USB 3.0 for higher-speed data transfers. Audio in and out round out the main ports, plus there’s WiFi b/g/n inside.

Toshiba Portege Z830 video:

Toshiba isn’t talking pricing yet, but if it can bring the Portege Z830 in at under the $1,000 mark – as Intel originally promised for ultrabooks – with similar specifications to what Apple offers on the MacBook Air, then we can see the company having a hit on its hands. Release date isn’t announced at this stage, but you know SlashGear will be waiting.

Toshiba Portege Z830 walkthrough:

But before you jump on that claim, pointing to the Eye-Fi as a pre-existing WiFi-enabled SD card, the FlashAir works a bit differently. Whereas the Eye-Fi could only transmit files from a camera directly to a computer or smartphone, the FlashAir can do the same but also receive and transfer peer-to-peer.

The FlashAir lets users transfer photos and other data to and from computers and smartphones over WiFi, but also can transfer wirelessly to and from other digital cameras that are FlashAir compliant. The 8GB Class 6 card will be sampled starting November but will not begin sales until February 2012. Also, no pricing information has been announced yet.

The card will be shown off during IFA 2011, where there’s been a deluge of exciting announcements this morning, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, the Galaxy Note, and the Toshiba AT200. More cool gadgets are sure to come throughout this week so stay tuned here on SlashGear as we’re in Berlin covering the event from September 2-7.

This device is created from a single-piece aluminum shell, a sleek and lightweight product weighting in at less than three points and having a 13.3-inch display, just large enough to do all your basically mobile work yet small enough to carry anywhere. With your 2nd generation Intel® CoreTM i7 processor with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 you’ll be booting up in 10 seconds from cold, too, so it’s time to get out there and make mobile!

UPDATE: we now have a hands-on video of this device up. Check it out here and in that hands-on post:

You’ve also got a 16:9 widescreen format HD going on in that display and 4GB DDR3 memory and up to 256GB of SSD storage for good measure. One of the things Lenovo has been clear on is the fact that the one-of-a-kind Breathable Keyboard is something that cannot be missed. With Intel Advanced Cooling Technology you’ll have air flowing through your whole board of keys and in and out of the sides and rear hinge. How strange!

This technology does away with the need for vents under the device, making it easier on your legs, pillow, or cat under your laptop. Additionally inside you’ll be working with up to eight hours of “productive use” with patented “Lenovo Long Life Battery” OR a fantabulous 30 days of standby time. Charging this battery take 30 minutes to reach 50%. Impressive.

This laptop is available in two colors, one being the plain Graphite Gray, the other being a lovely Clementine Orange. Starting price for this laptop is $1195 and it’ll be available in October 2011 from Lenovo.com. Be there!

In fact, at 7.7mm thick it’s 0.9mm thinner than the Samsung, and the crisp edges and metal chassis is likely to win it some admirers. It also manages to pack a higher resolution camera than the Samsung, too, at 5-megapixels on the back.

We couldn’t tell what performance is like, and of course this is pre-production hardware so it’s too early to say conclusively, but the 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 processor is a change from the 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 we’ve grown used to seeing in Android slates. We’ll be benchmarking it when review units are available, later on in the year.

Toshiba AT200 video:

The machine is 0.6-inch thick and made from a single chunk of aluminum and will come in grey and a limited edition orange color. The battery on the machine is good for eight hours of use and 30 days on standby with a RapidCharge battery, it can recharge to 50% capacity in half an hour. The machine also has 802.11n WiFi, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports and a 720p resolution webcam.

The notebook also has an optical drive and can be filled with up to 8GB of RAM and 1TB of storage if you choose a HDD. Graphics are handled by a Radeon HD 5470M GPU with 1GB graphics memory. The difference between the U300 and U400 is screen size with the U300 at 13.3-inches and the U400 at 14-inches. The U400 also has a slot-load optical drive and a slightly larger battery. The U300s Ultrabooks start at $1195 with the normal U300 at $799 and $849 for the U400. Shipments will start in October.

From the official press release we can tell you this is a 10.1″ Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet measuring only 7.7mm thick, making it one of the thinnest tablets to date and could be a real treat not to mention thinner than Samsung’s current offering. As usual the 10.1″ display as a 1280 x 800 resolution and this ultra-thin device is powered by a dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM. We are hearing 16, 32, and even a 64GB flavor will also be offered by Toshiba.

According to the press release we can expect to see a 5 MP camera on the rear with LED flash, and a 2 MP shooter up front for video chat. As usual we have micro SD, micro USB, and even mini HDMI-Out. Toshiba is promising 8-10 hours of battery life too. The entire tab will come with a brushed aluminum back and it does look pretty. No pricing or official release date was given but we can expect to see the device before the end of the year.

Stay tuned, We’ll be back with some hands-on soon.

The Recon3D upgrades audio to THX TruStudio Pro and adds other enhancements. The Recon3D has an optical input with Dolby Digital 5.1 enabled. When connected the player gets accurate and positional sound over a gaming headset and the ability to get a virtual surround sound environment on two speakers.

The device is also made to improve the clarity of your voice in games where chat is enabled. The audio processing for the system is done with a Sound Core3D processor. That processor is Creative’s latest Quartet DSP with four independent processor cores. The Recon3D has controls for instant access to volume, Mic Boost, and THX TruStudio Pro audio enhancements. It also has a special Scout Mode that allows the user to pinpoint enemies in FPS games allowing the player to hear where the enemy is located. The Recon3D is slated for launch in October for $129.99.