For that target audience of avid readers, Kobo insists that E Ink remains the way forward for usability. The Aura HD’s panel sees a step up in specifications, however, with a 1440 x 1080 resolution, 6.8-inch Pearl panel, running at 256ppi; it also has front-lighting, as we’ve seen on other recent ereaders from Amazon and B&N, though Kobo claims its system offers the most even illumination. It’s certainly bright and looked consistent across the panel. Inside, there’s WiFi b/g/n though no cellular connectivity, Kobo telling us it still doesn’t believe the hassle of getting 3G/4G hardware certified and the costs of data involved make it worthwhile for its audience.

Kobo is pretty keen to highlight its angular back-panel, though, modeled after a creased sheet of paper. The raised edges give your fingers somewhere to rest, so the theory goes; in practice, it’s certainly not the thinnest way to read an ebook – the iPad mini and Nexus 7 have replaced a standalone ereader for many – but the Aura HD is easy to grip and feels like it could survive a fall from your nightstand. Physical controls are limited to a power button (finished in a contrasting color) and a key for the “ComfortLight” illumination.

Everything else is operated with the touchscreen, which seems reasonably responsive. The Kobo homescreen pulls together your recently read titles – complete with both a percentage of how much is read, and a useful indication of roughly how long it might take you to read the rest, handy if you’re trying to plan ahead for a journey – with recommendations for new books and authors. A tally keeps track of how many books you’ve finished and how long you spent reading them, and you’re prompted to rate completed titles. The Aura HD also supports basic gaming, like chess, with widgets to access your most recent game.

In use, what impresses the most is the clarity of the ereader’s screen. Even at small font levels, there’s no graininess or jagged edges to the text, something Kobo said it achieved not only by virtue of the higher-density display resolution but by going back to first-principles with the fonts and redesigning them pixel-by-pixel to suit the E Ink panel. The screen is also 30-percent larger than other ereaders of a similar scale, and together with the improved readability at small sizes, that means more text on a single page and fewer turns. Fewer turns also adds up to longer battery life, as e-paper displays like the Aura HD’s only use power when they’re changing the content of the display, not maintaining it.

Otherwise, it’s pretty much par for the course for the Aura HD. The onboard 4GB of storage can be expanded by up to 32GB with a microSD card, and there’s a new Freescale i.MX527 processor that, at 1GHz, is apparently 25-percent faster than any rival model out there. We can’t say we noticed a significant uptick in speed, though we also didn’t encounter responsiveness issues.

Kobo has high hopes for the Aura HD, and says there’s still a strong market for ebook-centric devices rather than tablets. In fact, its own ereader sales tripled year-over-year, something the $169.99/€169.99 Aura HD is expected to contribute to. It’s already up for preorder in the US and Europe, and will arrive in US and UK stores come April 25.

The company wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how large or small the new models would be, only referring to the 85-inch “entry level” S-Series set currently available. That leaves plenty of room for those with smaller rooms to find a model to fit, though whether they’d have sufficient space to make the most of the high resolution remains to be seen.

There’s also the question of content, something which even Samsung concedes that is significantly lacking unless you’re relying on upscaling. Broadcast UHD shows aren’t expected until 2016 at the earliest – Samsung pointed out that the decoding and tuner standards aren’t settled upon yet, which means they can’t yet build them into the TVs with any confidence – while physical content will probably land in 2015.

Streaming or downloading might be the answer, though it’ll demand a fat internet connection. Again, though, there are issues surrounding that, not least the fact that the HEVC codec likely to be used – the successor to the MPEG4 codec currently prevalent – isn’t yet standardized for UHD 3D at 60fps.

In short, “currently there is no television which is compatible with the upcoming UHD standards” Samsung admitted, its own included. However, the firm is relying on its Evolution Kit to fill that gap down the line, a slot-in box that will add an upgraded processor, graphics chip, connectivity and more, bringing older sets up to speed with technology released after they’ve gone on sale.

So far, though, we’ve only seen Evolution Kit plans for the 2012 range, granting them the same specs as the 2013 line-up; it’s unclear how far back Samsung will retroactively be polishing old products. We’ll be at IFA 2013 in September to find out how the new size Ultra HD sets slot into the new range.

We’ve not modified or edited the shots, bar the watermark, to give you an idea of what the Galaxy Camera alone is capable of. Still, it’s worth noting that there’s a reasonably comprehensive photo-editing suite onboard by default; you can make basic brightness/contrast style tweaks, crop shots, or fix redeye, or make more noticeable changes such as adding clipart, text and Instagram-style frames, as shown in our hands-on video (also shot using the Galaxy Camera):

As you can see, there’s some focus-hunting when filming close-up, with the Galaxy Camera struggling at times to keep a lock on the subject. In terms of functionality, mind, being able to instantly upload to services like Instagram, all from the camera itself, or indeed send the shot to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or via email, is a real benefit. Moreover, you can set the Galaxy Camera to automatically upload all new shots to the cloud as you take them, perfect for instant sharing.

Samsung has pushed the camera option to the forefront of the TouchWiz interface – by default the icon is first in the homescreen quicklaunch bar – but it might be nice to have a dedicated hardware button to launch it. Otherwise, the 4.77-inch Super LCD touchscreen makes navigation incredibly straightforward, with enough space for clear previews of shooting modes and effects, not to mention easy text entry on the onscreen keyboard. It’s worth noting that some Android apps prefer portrait orientation, whereas the Galaxy Camera is most comfortable in landscape: Instagram is a notable offender, refusing to rotate.

Stills look solid though not outstanding; this is, after all, a point and shoot. Touch-focus makes framing easy, and there’s little lag when you hit the shutter button; we did find that we initially kept tapping the silver onscreen button on the right, thinking more of camera apps on Android phones, but which on the Galaxy Camera actually pulls out the mode menu. Samsung is quick to point out that the camera isn’t running final software yet, so both photo and video output – not to mention things like focus hunting – may be changed by the time it reaches shelves. We’ve more hands-on impressions with the Galaxy Camera here.

Just to reiterate, all of the photos in the gallery are unedited and as they came from the Galaxy Camera itself; the watermarks are the only thing we’ve added. Let us know whether you’re convinced by Samsung’s newest model in the comments.

The Swivel model, shown above, follows the convertible notebook approach we’ve seen in Windows tablets before, with a touchscreen that can be rotated and then folded flat down onto the keyboard so as to make a ruggedized slate. That would deliver the same functionality as the Dual-Display concept, but with less weight thanks to only having a single screen.

The Binder concept is more unusual, with a touchscreen slate sliding into the docking slot of a removable keyboard. It’s hard to tell how it differs from the docking systems of the Samsung ATIV line-up - all four of the concepts were behind glass – but it presumably has low-profile connections in the docking “gutter” so as to allow the slate to glide into place.

Samsung’s Slider concept took a slightly different angle to the Sliding PC Series 7 the company showed off back at CES in January, with a form-factor more akin to Sony’s VAIO Duo 11. The fixed viewing angle is a compromise, but the mechanism may well be more sturdy than a single swiveling hinge as on the first prototype.

Finally, there was the Samsung Memo PC, a smaller form-factor slate (somewhere between 7- and 8.9-inches, we’d say) with S Pen support, intended for those that don’t need a physical keyboard. The asymmetric profile would be more suited to right-handed users, but it could be an interesting alternative to Samsung’s Android-based Note series.

Of course, that’s assuming any of the designs actually make it to production. Samsung is pushing ahead with more conventional docking-tablet designs right now, but was polling IFA attendees to see if they were swayed by any of the concepts it had on show. Let us know which you prefer in the comments.

That arguably gives the best of both worlds: you get the convenience of a slate form-factor when you’re more interested in content consumption, and then a full keyboard when you’re looking to get some words down on (virtual) paper. It’s a similar concept as we saw Toshiba and Sony follow with their Windows 8 tablets, though those companies opted for a slider mechanism rather than a second display. Samsung also throws in its S Pen digital stylus, for notetaking and sketching.

The downside to Sony’s strategy is weight. The base section of the notebook is as slim as a regular Samsung ultrabook, but the lid is considerably thicker than the norm; it has to be, to fit back-to-back displays. Although it didn’t tip back under its own heft, or prove too much for the hinge mechanism to keep the screen stable, you did notice it when lifting the concept notebook up.

Samsung isn’t saying whether the Dual-Display Notebook will ever get a commercial release, though the company was running IFA attendees through questionnaires about form-factors and expectations around battery life. Our guess is that the collective response to that will decide whether the concept makes it out of the labs or gets relegated to the back-burner.

Windows tablets have been the weeds of IFA, springing up just about everywhere you looked. Samsung, Dell, Sony, and others each brought along their interpretation of an iPad-rivaling, usually keyboard-toting slate, with sometimes multiple models – often split between Windows 8 and Windows RT – from individual firms.

It’s a strong showing of support out of the gate for Microsoft, certainly, though with just about all of the hardware left unpriced (and with release dates generally vague) there’s really no telling whether any of the models will be competitive. That’s even before you get to quite how practical some of the hardware itself is; just because a tablet has a keyboard, it doesn’t make it the perfect hybrid of notebook and slate.

In contrast there was only one “phablet” at IFA, but Samsung’s Galaxy Note II is arguably more compelling than any of the Windows touchscreen models shown. If the original Note, announced a year ago at IFA 2011, was a tentative step into a new market, then the Note II is an altogether more confident product. Samsung, buoyed by widespread popular response to the idea of a sizable, pen-enabled smartphone and rewarded by surprisingly strong sales, has come up with a more refined product that doesn’t stint where it’s most important: software.

Too often we’ve seen great hardware ideas let down by sloppy or simply absent software support, but that’s not a fate destined for the Note II. Samsung has continued to polish its stylus experience, signing up compelling names like Moleskine in the process, and giving Galaxy Note II buyers not only a good reason to pick up the phablet on day one, but to keep using it in the months after.

Check out our hands-on with the Galaxy Note II for more details!

Big screens weren’t limited to phones. 4K TVs, promising resolution four times that of regular HD, made themselves known at IFA this year, and while they’re still targeting the richest living rooms, basking in their extra detail is enough to convince where 3D might still leave you cold. Where Samsung could flesh out the Note II with its own suite of functionality, however, the TV industry is stuck waiting for 4K content to proliferate. Right now, it’s a case of resolution oneupmanship; more boastful than truly beneficial.

It’s also been a show of jostling and sniping, as companies in an increasingly litigious and competitive marketplace jostle for position. Samsung CEO JK Shin got the ball rolling, obliquely describing courtroom rival Apple as a “hindrance” that the company would be sure to overcome. (Apple snapped back by adding the Galaxy S III and other recent devices to the list of devices it hopes to eject from stores.) Lenovo’s EMEA chief Gianfranco Lanci was somewhat more sanguine about Microsoft’s Surface and its potential for undermining the company’s own ThinkPad Tablet 2, suggesting the own-brand slate was “very welcome” and acted as “a good advert for us.”

Welcoming competition is all IFA’s starlets can really do. With several weeks of high-profile launches ahead – including Nokia’s new Windows Phone 8 range, Amazon’s Kindle refresh, and of course the inescapable iPhone 5 – the Berlin show was an opportunity to get in early with headlines, if not actual sales. How many of the products of the past week will be remembered when the dust settles at the end of September remains to be seen.

You can find all our IFA 2012 coverage in the show hub!

Messe Berlin subsidized SlashGear’s trip to IFA, contributing to airfare and accommodation costs. No requirements, guidelines or expectations were placed on coverage or content, and Messe Berlin had no involvement in our editorial processes.

There’s a set of three pouches made of either leather or faux-leather that you can slide the Galaxy Note II into while it sits in your bag or pocket. There’s a collection of protective cases prepped for the device with a bumper around the edges to protect against drops, the back appearing to have a relatively thick plastic in the same set of colors currently revealed for the Note II – and there’s a lovely soft pink for you cuties out there. These cases protect the sides and the back of the device and include an S-Pen slot.

The Galaxy S III Flip Cover is back, this time large enough for the Samsung Galaxy Note II. These Flip Covers come in a wild variety of colors like blue, green, electric yellow, pink, another pink, mustard yellow, red, black and white – if you want to keep with the basic model color, of course. These flip covers replace the back of the device (the battery cover) and have a cover that swings around the front for front-facing protection. Amongst the Galaxy Note 10.1 cases shown at IFA 2012 are a set of vehicle docks for the Galaxy Note II as well – they’re stuck right up over there to the right.

A set of alternate S-Pen devices appear here not quite a size that’s made for docking, just a bit larger for larger-handed users. A set of battery chargers is here too, all of them ready for launch later this year. At the moment there’s no pricing or release information attached, but you can bet they’ll all be hitting the market right around the same time as the actual device.

This device is a lovely Plum color, too, a color that’s certainly rare if not completely exclusive at the moment to Vodafone. This device otherwise has the same specifications as the Galaxy S III throughout Europe with a quad-core Exynos processor from Samsung – the difference between this and the USA being a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor. Have a peek first at the LTE result from inside the IFA building:

Next have a peek at a single Quadrant benchmark result, and note that the I/O and CPU are quite high. Compare them to the HTC One X with NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor if you wish, and see how they’re both handling four CPU cores in hardcore action. The HTC One X with Tegra 3 got CPU 6670, Memory 3305, I/O 4832, 2D 946, 3D 1244. Also compare if you will to the Galaxy S III we’ve reviewed in full – the International Version, that is.

Finally hear this: the Jelly Bean upgrade appears here on the Vodafone version of the device to have made the device just a bit quicker, but certainly within a margin of error. There’s going to be some changes done to the Samsung TouchWiz interface that we’re not really seeing here yet as this is a bit of a pre-release build, so to speak. Stay tuned for the final build as it hits the USA soon.

Windows may still be dominant on desktops and notebooks, but Microsoft’s footprint in tablets has been underwhelming for years. The company has seen Apple eat not only its lunch but its breakfast, dinner, and afternoon snack in slates, with the iPad helping spread the iOS/OS X ecosystem into all areas of users’ lives.

Microsoft knows it needs to score big with Windows 8/RT (not to mention Windows Phone 8), hence taking matters into its own hands and producing the Surface. Faced with a solid “own-brand” option, Windows OEMs have apparently decided that outlandish riffs are the way to go.

Detachable keyboards have been done already with Android slates, but that hasn’t stopped the idea being well reheated for Windows 8 and RT models. Samsung threw the most devices into the mixture, with the ATIV Tab and Smart PC Pro range each offering removable keyboard docks, but Dell’s XPS 10 and Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet 2, HP’s ENVY x2, and ASUS Vivo Tab and Vivo Tab RT, all play with the form-factor.

You can see the appeal of the strategy. Adding full QWERTY is a simple and obvious way to differentiate from the iPad: Apple says its tablet users don’t really need a keyboard, so Windows tablets will sweep up those who still think they really do. That only works, though, when there are keyboards worth typing on, and that certainly wasn’t the case across the board. Chasing competitively light form-factors left some manufacturers with models that are top-heavy – Samsung’s more powerful ATIV Smart PC suffered this fate – and others that simply lacked the sort of key-travel and responsiveness that makes a physical keyboard worthwhile.

Even having a fixed keyboard isn’t necessarily a guarantee that you’ll have a decent typing experience. Sony chose to keep its keyboard permanently attached, and instead make the VAIO Duo 11 a tilting-slider; Toshiba did the same with the Satellite U920t, though its screen could at least be adjusted to different angles, rather than the fixed-position VAIO. Dell took a different approach again with the XPS Duo 12, making a device that’s arguably an ultrabook first and then – with the flip of a screen – a tablet second.

Of the three, the Toshiba and Dell had the best feel, though it’s worth noting that they were each significantly larger than the 10-inch tablet norm. Both have a 12.1-inch display; the 11.6-inch VAIO managed to feel cramped, particularly with the bottom edge of the display section ending its travel just above the function key row.

Could it be that manufacturers are chasing unusual form-factors for the sake of form-factors; simply for being noticeably different on store shelves rather than truly delivering on the functionality promise they imply? It’s worth noting that not all of the keyboard docks include batteries, either, a somewhat common-sense addition presumably ditched for its impact on weight.

Microsoft’s Windows partners need the platform to succeed. The iPad is just as damaging to Sony, Samsung, and the others as it is to Microsoft, while Android has shown itself to be – though wildly popular in smartphones – less than capable of a clean sweep in tablets. Windows 8 and Windows RT represent a third contender to keep the slate segment moving, as well as a doorway into those enterprise markets yet to be convinced by the iPad’s business credentials.

That desperation has created a glut of products that, after our first look at IFA, don’t all hold up to scrutiny. Choice of models is important, yes, but so is a product that not only makes sense in ticking spec-sheet boxes but in everyday use. Not all of the Windows 8 tablets brought to Berlin this past week look likely to succeed in both those categories.

Check out all our IFA 2012 coverage in the show hub.

Though the Samsung’s panel doesn’t quite match up to the Retina Mac’s 2,880 x 1,800 resolution, its smaller size means pixel density is almost identical between the two models. The MBPr comes in at 221ppi, whereas the Samsung sneaks ahead at 226ppi (though the difference is, to the eyes, imperceivable).

No matter the stats, Windows 8 looks incredible on a display of that resolution and – as we’ve come to expect from Samsung notebook displays – with such vivid colors and strong brightness. Beyond pixel count specifications were in short supply, but the rest of the machine basically falls in line with 2012 Series 9 notebooks we’ve already seen. That means Ivy Bridge processors and a waifish profile.

Sadly, the detail we were most keen to find out – when we could expect to see the Series 9 WQHD on shelves – was something Samsung wouldn’t discuss. Of course, Apple is tipped to be readying a Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro, and it’s possible that Samsung’s 2,560 x 1,440 panels could be headed to Cupertino’s production partners ahead of even Samsung’s.

That’s because, for starters, these earphones sport a frequency response of 5 to 46,500 Hz, allowing for a “lifelike sound image.” The hardware in these earphones is held in a ceramic housing, and as you can see from the image, the have quite a nice-looking finish. The star of these earphones is the Sennheiser-developed Extra Wide Band (XWB) driver, which comes in at only 7mm in diameter and provides excellent sound quality with perfect timing.

Also included in this package is Sennheiser’s new vented magnet system, which is meant to bring distortion to a minimum. “The oscillating motion of the diaphragm produces an air flow in the magnet system housing that causes the diaphragm to wobble slightly,” said Senior Acoustic Engineer Axel Grell in a company statement. “By positioning two precisely defined vent holes in the housing directly under the magnets, we can cause the air to flow in a specific direction. This minimises the wobbling motion of the diaphragm and reduces total harmonic distortion to less than 0.06 percent.”

Sennheiser also claims to have solved the problem of masking – which is when low-volume frequencies are masked by louder low-frequency sounds – through the use of a new absorber. These absorb all of the extra energy from the loud low-frequency sounds, allowing users to hear all of the frequencies without having to worry about masking. Sennheiser has also developed new oval-shaped ear adapters that allow for a better fit, but the company also includes the more common round ear adapters should you decide that you prefer those.

They sound pretty impressive at the end of everything, but you’ll be handing over a hefty chunk of change if you want to get your hands on the IE 800 earphones. They come in at $999.95, so only those who are very serious about sound quality need apply. They’ll be available in the US “later this fall” but other that, we don’t have a solid release date. Are you going to pick up a pair of these, or are they a little too expensive for your tastes?

With the HP SpectreXT TouchSmart Ultrabook you’re getting a full touchscreen experience on a lovely 15.6-inch display and a high quality keyboard and giant touchpad besides. This unit also has a Thunderbolt port for ultra-fast data transfer, and the whole thing only weighs in at 4.77 pounds in the end. It’a also just 17.9mm thick and will be blasting your eyes out with brightness with that IPS technology behind the screen – outdoors time!

The HP ENVY TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 brings you a 14-inch HD display up top with full touchscreen capabilities. This device is actually quite similar to the SpectreXT TouchSmart Ultrabook, but here you’ve got a slightly different size and no Thunderbolt. Also it’s got a slightly different feel to it, but you can certainly tell that both the ENVY TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 and the SpectreXT TouchSmart Ultrabook are made by the same folks – best buds!

Finally there’s the hybrid PC known as the HP ENVY x2. This device runs Windows 8 as both a notebook and a tablet, with an 11.6-inch touchscreen to make it all bright and optimized for the next generation in HP computing. This device will be coming in at just 3.1 pounds for the whole unit or 1.5 pounds for the tablet on its own. The display on this unit is also rather bright at 400nit working with IPS LCD technology. The HP ENVY x2 also has NFC capabilities – so watch out for the wireless future!

The LifeProof NUUD iPad case works with each of the 2 newer iPad models out on the market and protects with IP-68 and Military Standards to make sure your device will be protected like no other. For water you’re able to submerge the device fully up to 6.6 feet under the surface for 30 minutes. The case is sealed from dirt and minute dust particles at an IP-68 rating – the same is true of its rating against melting snow and ice. This case also protects your iPad against shock with the ability to withstand drops from up to 4 feet.

This unit allows you access to all of your buttons including volume, screen lock, power button, home button, and your dock connector as well. This case also has large speaker ports so you’re good to go with the beats, and you’re working with CrystalClear double AR coated real glass lens as well for high quality images. This unit weights in at 310 grams, 9.97 ounces, and is the following dimensions: 265 x 208 x 20.5 millimeters (10.43 x 8.18 x 0.81 inches). You’ll be able to pick this unit up now online at LifeProof’s store for $149.99 – there’s a cover+stand unit for this case as well for $29.99 more.

The iPhone 4/4S case is also shown off here complete with IP-68 rating against water and dust. It’s got Military Specifications MIL-STD-810F-516.5 (2 meters/6.6ft drop on all surfaces and edges. 26 tests) for shock and impact, and it’s ready for 2 meters of water – 6.6ft depth as well. This unit weighs in at less than an ounce and is made to work with all iPhone 4 and 4S models all around the world and for every carrier. It adds just 1/16” (1.5mm) when measured from the center of the phone when you’ve got it on your device, and again you’ve got fabulous double AR-coated optical glass lenses in place to make for the great crystal-clear vision.

The iPhone 4/4S unit is $79.99 and comes in a wide variety of colors and is also ready for purchase right this minute. In our talk with LifeProof they let us know that they’re prepared for the next-generation iPhone (still code-named iPhone 5) already and are planning on working with the Samsung Galaxy S IV as well when it’s eventually announced. They’ve also got cases coming for other Apple and Android cases including the iPod touch – expect great things from LifeProof now and in the future too!

The Satellite U920t comes with a 12.5-inch glossy touchscreen, and as you can imagine, that slide-out keyboard adds a bit of weight to the unit. It weighs in at 1.45 kilograms, which is around 3.2 pounds, so while it’s a bit heavy as far as tablets go, it’s still right around the top-end for Ultrabook weight. The U920t makes use of Intel‘s Core range of processors, and you can run with either 4GB or 8GB of RAM, depending on your preference.

As far as storage goes, Toshiba is making use of solid state drives with the U920t, allowing users to pick from either 128GB or 256GB varieties. It also features two USB 3.0 ports and one full HDMI port, which is a pretty rare sight for tablets. It comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, and even though it doesn’t come with 3G functionality at the moment, Toshiba says that it could update the U920t to include 3G in the near future.

Since it’s a Windows 8 tablet, Toshiba is hoping to have launch bad boy as close to the Windows 8 release date as possible – meaning it should be available right on October 26. Of course, Toshiba may need a bit more time than that, so the company isn’t ruling out an early November launch. The Satellite U920t will cost €949 when it launches in Europe, which comes in just south of $1,200. More details on pricing and availability are likely to follow soon, so keep it here at SlashGear for more information.

The iRobot Scooba 390 uses a four-stage cleaning process that starts with preparation step, moves on to washing, follows up with a scub, and finishes it all off with some squeegee action. This unit is said by iRobot to remove up to 98% of your common household bacteria and is, in the end, the best item in your home to destroy your mop in a robot battle. You wont need a sweep with this device either, just set it down after you’ve added the necessary components inside (like clean water), and let it roll.

This interview filmed at Showstoppers during IFA 2012!

Next is the iRobot Scooba 230 which is, again, made much smaller to get in your smaller areas where the 390 never could. This unit is another floor washing robot that’s made to take the place of your mop. It’s able to clean around your toilet, under cabinets, and on tile, linoleum, or sealed hardwood floors. Like its bigger brother, the Scooba 230 uses a multi-stage cleaning process, this time just three required to take out 97% of common household bacteria. This time you DO have to sweep, mind you, but it’s just so cute!

The Scooba 230 will cost you $279.99 from iRobot’s online store, and the 390 will run you $499.99 USD – with free shipping, even! Also check the tail-end of the video out for the hero line of iRobot’s Roomba line – getting better all the time! Then make sure to head to our iRobot tag portal to see the rest of our iRobot coverage from the past and keep on picking up robots for your home!

Inside you’ll find a next-generation NVIDIA GeForce GT640M GPU, the first in an Acer Ultrabook, and a 3rd Generation Intel Core processor besides. You’ll also get Dolby Home Theater v4 audio enhancements working with what Acer calls “premium” speakers – hard hits and big beats on the way! This unit also has battery power that Acer rates at a full day of productivity and entertainment unplugged.

The Aspire M3 touch has a lovely dark casing made of aluminum alloy and works with a chiclet keyboard including full QWERTY and numeric keypad as well. You’ve got an oversized touchpad for precision control aside from your touchscreen, and the whole device is, again, so thin that you’ll want to bring it everywhere. This unit works with Acer Instant Connect so you can reconnect to access points you’ve got saved up in just 2.5 seconds, and Acer Green Instant-On so you can resume from sleep mode in 1.5 seconds.

This unit is one of several revealed – or presented again – at IFA 2012 in Berlin. Have a peek at our Acer tag portal as well as our portal for IFA and stay tuned as the devices keep popping up left and right! ALSO NOTE: Pricing and availability have not yet been announced, but we’ll have it all up for you soon as we can!

Heterogeneous System Architecture is a catch-all for scalar CPU processing and parallel GPU processing, along with high-bandwidth memory access for boosting app performance while minimizing power consumption. In short, it’s what AMD has been pushing for with its APUs (and, elsewhere – though not involved with HSA – NVIDIA has with its CUDA cores), with the HSA seeing smartphones, desktops, laptops, consumer entertainment, cloud computing, and enterprise hardware all taking advantage of such a system.

While there were six new public additions to the Foundation, Samsung Electronics’ presence came as a surprise. The HSA was initially formed by AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, and Texas Instruments, but today’s presentation saw Samsung added to the slides and referred to as a founding member.

Samsung is no stranger to heterogeneous computing tech. Back in October 2011, the company created the Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium (along with Micron) to push a new, ultra-dense memory system that – running at 15x the speed of DDR3 and requiring 70-percent less energy per bit – would be capable of keeping up with multicore technologies. The Cubes would be formed of a 3D stack of silicon layers, formed on the logic layer and then with memory layers densely stacked on top.

As for the concept, Rogers described a system which could not only learn from a user’s routine, but react to whether they were smiling or not, whereabouts at the display they were looking, and to more mundane cues such as voice and gesture. Such a system could offer up a search result and then, if the user was seen to be smiling at it, learn from that reaction to better shape future suggestions.

Exactly when we can expect such technology to show up on our desktop (or, indeed, in laptops, phones and tablets) isn’t clear. However, Samsung has already been experimenting with devices that react to the user in basic ways; the Galaxy S III, for instance, uses eye-recognition to keep the screen active even if it’s not being touched, while its camera app includes face- and smile-recognition.

What you’ll get here is a lovely little high-quality mobile speaker set up quite clearly to compete with similar-sized speakers – you know who that is. At the moment it’s not quite possible to tell which unit is “better” so to speak as we’ve not had a full test of this Jabra device. But given the quality of Jabra products we’ve worked with before, great things are bound to happen here.

This Jabra Solemate device is being shown off in collaboration with the platform known as ClubCreate, a User Generated Content group that makes music mixes across the world. With Jabra and the Solemate on their side, mobile music mixes are sure to be on the rise. And with the style and super odd look of the Solemate, we’re definitely going to be interested in sporting it in public.

Look at this little shoe device. It’s not mean to be worn on your foot, but the hook certainly is there. Stick to the surface and let the beats roll out! This device will be available extremely soon if not immediately (depending on when you’re reading this, of course) through a variety of major retailers and Jabra themselves for $199 MSRP. You’ll be able to pick up either white or black – your choice!

As E Ink sees it, an LCD or AMOLED screen on a phone is great for multimedia and browsing, but is wasted on showing text or other persistent data like network status and battery level. Instead, the whole rear of the phone – also typically wasted space – is filled with an e-paper screen, that consumes minimal battery life (only requiring power when the content is changed).

The e-paper display itself is incredibly thin, and even with a protective plastic coating – making it just about shatterproof – is roughly as thick as a typical phone battery cover. E Ink’s concepts used functional e-paper, and plugged into a driver unit as per in our video demo were able to change on the fly; the LCD was simply printed on.

What could a twin-screen smartphone of this sort be used for? E Ink has a few ideas, though is leaving most of that to OEMs. An ereader app is the obvious choice, though you could also show a digital boarding pass for a plane (even if you had no battery life remaining on your phone to drive the regular screen), QR codes, or mapping directions. Alternatively, the panel could be used to show promotional information, such as vouchers for nearby stores, or even sponsored messages in return for free call, message and data credit.

E Ink couldn’t tell us which companies it has shown the idea to, and which have said they’d be interested, but did say that at least one was working on something. The first such device could hit the market by 2013 at the earliest.

At first glance, the XPS 10 looks like a mash-up of Dell’s old netbooks and the current XPS ultrabooks. The plastic casing feels sturdy in the hands while still remaining lightweight – Dell isn’t allowing people to talk about exact specifications yet, including most of what’s going on inside the slate section – though the company has used a Snapdragon S4 processor, Qualcomm has already confirmed.

Up front there’s an HD-resolution multitouch display that proved responsive at whipping through Windows RT’s Metro-style start screen. Although it’s just 10mm thick, there’s both microUSB and microSD connectivity, though the lower section comes with extra connectivity too as well of the battery. Overall, combined slate and dock can run for up to 20hrs, Dell promises, comfortably exceeding a couple of work days.

Tug out the slate – the mechanism uses a single lock-slider, and proved a little tricky on the pre-production model we were using, though Dell says that will be addressed by the time the XPS 10 hits the market – and it’s a lightweight way to browse, view video, and use basic Office apps. It has to be said, it doesn’t feel as instantly high-quality as the new iPad, but neither does it feel cheap or as though it’s likely to break.

Windows RT tablets aren’t going to be a rare sight by the end of the year. Dell will have to price the XPS 10 competitively if it hopes to grab a slice of the Windows 8 market, never mind if it wants to challenge the iPad and Android models.

Huawei is still playing coy by not offering an exact launch date and simply saying that the tablet will ship globally starting in September. The company says that the Wi-Fi version of the tablet is available right now in China. When it starts shipping, at some point next month, it will land in Germany, Sweden, Russia, Belarus, Korea, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Huawei says that the tablet will come to other countries following the launch in the places I just mentioned. Presumably, one of those other countries will include the US, but that is unconfirmed. If you missed the previous reports on this tablet, it runs Android 4.0 and has a 10.1-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200.

The tablet also has an eight-megapixel rear camera that can record 1080p video and a 1.3-megapixel front camera for video conferencing. The tablet supports 5.1 Dolby surround sound and runs a K3v2 Cortex-A9 1.4 GHz quad-core processor. The tablet also has a 16-core GPU and can operate on 4G LTE networks in some models. There are also versions of the tablet for 3G networks and packing Wi-Fi. The tablet can be fitted with the keyboard add-on to transform it into an ultrabook with VGA and HDMI outputs. Pricing is expected to be under $500.

Where other Windows 8 tablets go for the docking-slate approach, pairing a lightweight tablet with a removable keyboard, the XPS 12 Duo is a full ultrabook that can double as a tablet with the flip of a screen. The original Inspiron Duo was a great idea but poor in delivery: it was too thick, underpowered, ran an OS that wasn’t ready for touchscreen use, and had too small a display that ended up dwarfed by its oversized bezels.

In contrast, Dell has used premium magnesium alloy for the screen bezel: that means it can be significantly thinner than before, despite showing no flex whatsoever. Enclosed inside it there’s a Full HD touchscreen that magnetically clings into either front- or rear-facing orientation; it’s backed with a sheet of carbon-fiber for resilience without weight or bulk.

We can’t talk about exact specifications, nor when exactly the XPS 12 Duo will hit the market, but we’d expect Dell to want to join the rush of firms releasing Windows 8 hardware around the end of October. What we can say is how well the new Dell works as both a notebook and a tablet. In the former orientation, the 12-inch form factor means the backlit keyboard is spacious enough – and has enough key-travel – for touch-typing, and has great feel. There’s also room for a good sized trackpad for when you don’t want to reach up to the screen.

A little pressure in the upper corner of the display, and it rotates smoothly and magnetically clips into place facing the other way. Close the lid, and you’ve got a tablet; it’s obviously heavier than a slate-only device, such as Apple’s new iPad, but then you also get a larger display. That delivers 400nit brightness, too, and is incredibly detailed and clear (so bright, indeed, it was difficult to photograph): websites look great (and you can use multitouch gestures to navigate them, of course) as does text whether you’re using the XPS 12 Duo as an ereader flipped into portrait orientation, or for creating content in apps like Word or PowerPoint. Keep the screen in tablet mode but leave the lid open, meanwhile, and you can use the XPS 12 Duo for presentations, controlling them from behind the display.

Dell’s compromise – or that of the XPS 12 Duo’s end user – is of weight, convenience and power. The convertible ran smoothly, despite crunching high-resolution graphics, while we used it, though its heft is more akin to an ultrabook than a true tablet. Those looking to carry it around in slate orientation will need to accept that there are concessions to be made if you want instant access to a decent keyboard.

Pricing will play a huge role, but with Dell positioning the XPS 12 Duo as a premium model (and having the smaller, dockable XPS 10 for those looking for a more mainstream Windows tablet implementation) all this slick hardware probably won’t come cheap. Still, for those wanting to make the most of Windows 8′s touch capabilities without giving up on notebook flexibility, it’s shaping up to be a strong (if niche) contender.

The coolest part about the TV technology that the company offers is not only does it support the conversion of existing 1080p content up to 2160p resolution; it also supports 3-D with no glasses. The company says that it has developed a groundbreaking algorithm that can add resolution to the data in existing content. The company says that the algorithm will work on content of any resolution allowing it to be viewed in greater than 1080p.

In some cases, the resolution can be upscaled all the way to 2160p. The Ultra-D 2160 3-D without glasses Television lets the viewer view content in a higher resolution than the output source. The technology allows for the presentation of 3-D content without any viewing angles, distortion, or other visual artifact.

Source content for the 3D TV the company offers can be anything from cable or satellite to game consoles and streaming content from Netflix. The conversion to high-resolution 3-D happens in real time. The company’s first 2160p product will be a 60-inch television. The company also intends to introduce 42-inch and 46-inch 1080p LED 3-D without glasses TVs its auto converting technology called SeeCube. Pricing and availability are unannounced.

In other words, we’ve got no reason to believe that this unit wont be a winner. The original was (and is) massive beyond comprehension, this one has been made for people that like the design of the A720 but want to keep it a bit smaller for more realistic human-sized rooms. You’ve got a 23-inch full HD (1920 x 1080 pixel resolution) IPS LCD display working with Intel® HD Graphics 4000 / optional NVIDIA GeForce 615 2G/1G – and there’s two parts to this equation.

First you’ve got the monitor which measured in at 561×345.9×21.5 mm (22.08×13.61×0.84 inches). Then you’ve got the base which is 337x32x210.8 mm (13.26×1.25 x8.29 inches). The whole thing is still going to be relatively heavy at 9.8 kg (21.60lb), but the size is what matters here the most – instead of the massive A720′s beastly proportions you’ve got, again, a human sized monster on your hands.

The Lenovo IdeaCentre A520 will be popping up in October 2012 starting at $999 USD – also a very human-sized price. Have a peek at the rest of our Lenovo coverage of IFA 2012 and stick around for future reviews as well!

This line of notebooks works with up to Ivy Brindge, the 3rd Generation Intel Core processor line up to i7, and up to Genuine Windows 8 Pro for your next-generation computing needs. You’ll be choosing between the Z500 with its 15.6-inch backlit LED HD display at 1366 x 768 pixel resolution and the Z400 with its 14-inch backlit LED HD display at 1366 x 768 pixel resolution as well. Both notebooks have 16:9 ratio widescreen displays as well.

Lenovo’s Z Series comes with Bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity as well as an integrated DVD reader/writer – this drive also functions as a Blu-ray Disc drive as well. This machine line works with stereo speakers with Dolby Home Theatre v4 audio certification for what the group lets you know is definite Immersive Sound. The Z Series includes Lenovo’s choice OneKey Recovery system for easy data backup and as well as recovery.

You’ll be working with a front-facing 720p HD webcam as well as a Backlit AccuType keyboard that includes individually rounded keys. Lenovo notes that this will allow for comfortable and accurate typing all night and day long. You’ve also got up to NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M 2GB graphics with DirectX 11 under the hood – great stuff! The IdeaPad Z400 will be available November 2012 starting at US $549 while the IdeaPad Z500 will be available September 2012 starting at US $549.

The B340 is the one of these two units that works with optional OneKey TV with the ability to turn the display into a high definition television with one button click. When you’ve got this function activated, you’re able to watch TV without powering on the PC at all – cool stuff! You’ll be working on a 21.5-inch Full HD touch-screen display with a collection of specifications that out-do this device’s predecessor, the B320, which was the first computer to have OneKey TV working on it.

This is the second – working with an independent hardware TV circuit board inside the PC to operate separate from the PC’s board. The B320 is also able to allow you to watch picture-in-picture so you can have your PC and TV on the screen simultaneously. As Lenovo notes, “this technology is the first hardware TV solution to be put into an all-in-one PC.

The B340 also has Dolby Advanced Audio V2 as well as NVIDIA GeForce 615 1GB/512M graphics with DirectX 11. You’ll be working with up to 8GB DDR3 memory at 1600MHz and you’ll have the option to have an integrated DVD reader/writer or Blu-ray Disc drive. This AIO can connect with Bluetooth 2.1 if you choose it to be able and you’ve got wi-fi connectivity as well. The IdeaCentre B340 and B345 will be available October 2012 starting at US $599.

Then there’s also the B545, a device which was available in April starting at $699 USD. This all-in-one PC has a 23-inch frameless screen with 10-point multi-touch for Windows 8 – in the near future, that is – as well as 3D vision. You’ll be working with this device in the very near future with up to Genuine Windows 8 as well as the AMD A10 quad-core processor under the hood. You can add on an integrated Blu-ray Disc drive. This device also has HDMI-out as well as HDMI-in with TV tuner – but not quite the same magic tech the B340 has with TV – separate stuff!

Check out the rest of our Lenovo coverage at IFA 2012 and stick around as the more pops up all week long – and over the weekend, too!

This unit weighs in at 2.2kg – thats about 4.85 pounds – and is 21mm thick (that’s 0.83 inches, once again), meaning this device is certainly mobile for how powerful it is. Inside you’ll find an Ivy Bridge (3rd Gen) Intel Core i7 processor (if you so choose) as well as either Genuine Windows 8 or Genuine Windows 8 Pro right out of the box. This unit’s display is 1366 x 768 pixels sharp and has a 16:9 aspect ratio as well.

Graphics on the IdeaPad U510 are made possible with NVIDIA GeForce 625M 1GB under the hood, and your memory is going to be ringing up to 8GB HDD storage — 1333/1600 Mhz memory [2 SODIMM slots (1x2GB/2x2GB/1x4GB/1x2GB+1x4GB/2x4GB)]. Right alongside you’ll see your disk drive working with up to 500GB HDD storage – [500GB/750GB/1TB (5400rpm)]; 24/32GB SSD1 cache. For audio you’ve got integrated stereo speakers, two of them at 2W with Dolby Home Theater v4 action backing you up on the inside.

You’ll be working with wi-fi connectivity, 10/100M LAN (RJ-45 connector connected), VGA out, and optional Bluetooth 4.0. Along the sides as well are 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB 3.0 port, HDMI out, memory card reader that works with SD and MMC, and a 1/8-inch Stereo Headphone Output & Microphone input combo jack. Lenovo notes that inside you’ll have OneKey Recovery software for easy data backup and recovery as well as remote disable.

Also integrated in the U510 is the ability to wake this Ultrabook up from Sleep mode in just over a second. There’s a front-facing 720p webcam for video chat with software right inside the OS when you start it up – Youcam and Skype amongst them. Also inside are McAfee, Lenovo Support Energy Management to keep you running strong without eating your battery like a pig, and Microsoft Office (everywhere except Japan).

The IdeaPad U510 will be available inside September 2012 starting at US $679 – go grab it! And also stick around for the rest of the Windows 8 wave and Lenovo‘s full IFA 2012 offering too!

This machine is made to be changed around, that’s for certain. You’ve got up to 3rd generation Intel Core i7 processor options and the ability to add up to NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M dedicated graphics with NVIDIA OptimusTM technology. You also have up to 16GB DDR 3 memory, up to 1TB HDD storage, and up to 16GB SSD cache. You can also work with an interchangeable DVD reader/writer or Blu-ray Disc drive!

This beast works with one of Lenovo’s own Intelligent Touchpads optimized for Windows 8 and their next-generation touch- and gesture-friendly interface. The Y Series has an all-ways on USB port for charging of USB-powered (charged) mobile devices even when the notebook is not powered on itself – unplugged, even.

On the sides you’ve got 2x USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 port, a 6 in 1 memory card reader, 1/8 inch Stereo Headphone Output Jack/ SPIDIF, 1/8 inch Input Jack Microphone, and HDMI out. The full beast is either 387x259x15.5-36.0mm (13.77×9.64×0.59-1.29 inches) for the larger model or 350x 245x 15-33mm (13.77×9.64×0.59-1.29 inches) and both have a battery that’s quoted at 3 hours of productive usage without recharge. These notebooks will have specifications that vary by region – and both will be available October 2012 starting at US $649. Stay tuned for more Lenovo action at IFA 2012!

Starting right off with Sony, we have a hands-on post with the absolutely massive 84-inch 4K Bravia 84X900 TV for you to check out. If a display that’s a little more wearable is more your cup of tea, then have a look at our hands-on with the Sony HMZ-T2. Of course, we’ve also got a hands-on with the Sony VAIO Duo 11, and for those of you who still want more big, we’ve got you covered there too with this Sony Tap 20 oversized tablet hands-on.

Lenovo has announced a number of devices during IFA, revealing the IdeaPad S Series Laptops. We have a hands-on with the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 for you to peruse, along with this Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 hands-on and this hands-on with the IdeaTab A2109 and A2107. That does it for the Lenovo and Sony hands-on articles, but in the words of some guy we see on TV all the time, “we’re not stopping there!” We also spent some quality time with the new Liquid Image EGO HD Mountable Camera, and we recommend that you also have a look at our hands-on with the HTC Desire X.

At IFA today, Toshiba announced a set of three new ultrabooks, and ZTE was there to show off its new Grand X IN smartphone – the first ICS phone to sport Intel inside. It seems that the incoming Windows 8 is making manufacturers go a little bit touch-crazy, and today we were treated to a number of leaks in addition to all of the news from IFA. The Motorola DROID RAZR M 4G LTE has suffered yet another leak, and it would seem that both the next Kindle Fire and the next Kindle Touch were leaked today as well. Speaking of the Kindle Fire, it turns out that the tablets have sold out in anticipation of Amazon’s big reveal next week.

Samsung seems to be learning more toward Microsoft after its loss to Apple, and the company may just have a plan to make Apple pay up should the iPhone maker release a new device with LTE capabilities. The iPhone 5 was featured in a new video and photo leak today, Steam Greenlight is officially up and running, and the Mars Curiosity Rover has finally left its landing site to go and look for clues on the surface of the Red Planet. Finally tonight, Windows Phone 8 may be getting a handy new parental control feature, and Google and Apple’s CEOs have gotten together to talk about a potential patent settlement. That does it for Thursday’s Evening Wrap-Up, but be sure to join us back here tomorrow for more straight from IFA 2012!

Let’s jump right in with the sound bars, shall we? First up is the Mini 3D Sound Bar with Subwoofer, which sports dimensions of 11.4-inches long, 3.9-inches wide, and 2.8-inches tall. This sound bar is obviously aimed at those who suffer from a lack of space (though the included subwoofer won’t help with that), and it comes with five different ways to connect to your devices, including “two analog connections, two digital connections and Bluetooth wireless technology.” This means that, should you want to, you can connect the speaker wirelessly to a tablet or laptop and listen on the go.

The other sound bar Toshiba revealed today is the 3D Sound Bar SBX1250. This one will likely be a bit larger than the Mini 3D Sound Bar, but it would have to be as it houses six individual speakers. Two of those speakers are optimized for lower frequency to give you a nice bass boost and all six of them sport Sonic Emotion technology “to create an immersive virtual 3D sound field and deliver a total peak power of 100 watts.” Toshiba also says that this sound bar doesn’t require any calibration – just hook it up and you’re good to go.

Toshiba claims that both of these speakers eliminate the need for finding a “sweet spot” for listening and offer excellent sound quality regardless of where you are in the room. Both come with a remote control included in the package, and even though we don’t have a solid release date yet, they should be available sometime in fall 2012. You can grab the Mini 3D Sound Bar for $129.99, while the SBX1250 will set you back $179.99.

Moving right along to Toshiba’s next announcement, the company has revealed Canvio Cloud Storage, which marks its entry into the cloud storage market. It’s being advertised as a cloud storage system for the home, and is compatible with Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs, Android and iOS devices, Smart TVs (that are connected to the Internet, of course), and DLNA-compatible devices. An app for Windows-based PCs, Android, and iOS allows you to manage all of your saved content, and it has the added bonus of being entirely self-maintained, which means that you don’t have to pay subscription fees to store your stuff (though you have to do all the work).

The Toshiba Canvio Cloud Storage device comes in 2TB ($219.99) and 3TB ($249.99) varieties, and the company has given it a release window of September 2012, meaning it should be arriving soon. So there you have it – Toshiba has a slew of new devices for you to check out, and we’re expecting to hear more about these before long. Stay tuned, and be sure to check out our story timeline below for more on what Toshiba has been up to lately!

Have a peek first at the Sony VAIO Duo 11 in our hands-on experience. There you’ll find what’s called a “hybrid sliding PC” that’s not entirely unlike the ASUS solution for a similar situation in the Eee Pad Slider – but here it’s working with Windows 8 instead of Android. And it’s a bit more chunky (as seen above). Next have a look at Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet 2 as seen below. It’s a tablet if you’d like as well, this time you pull it out and set it up in a keyboard dock rather than sliding.

The Dell XPS Duo 12 is a strange beast indeed – working with a flip screen on hinges – like a framed painting whose center can be turned around. There’s a keyboard in there somewhere as well. Have a peek at that below this paragraph as well – and note that we’ve only gotten “eyes-on” with this device so far, so there’s no telling how fabulous it’ll be in the near future.

The folks at HP have brought along several units to the show including a hybrid PC that runs Windows 8 and has the power of a full PC – rather than a tablet with “mobile power”. Here you’re working with what’s otherwise known as a tablet with a keyboard dock, but it’s described the other way around. Then there’s Samsung – they’ve brought out the guns with the ATIV Smart PC Pro sporting a very similar setup to the HP solution also in this paragraph. Here Samsung has brought on a lovely looking combo that’s not without it’s Ivy Bridge – another bit of hardware we’ve seen a lot of this year. There’s also an ATIV Smart PC that we got hands-on with as well.

Check out the rest of this awesome pageant of touch-friendly (and sometimes not so touch friendly) devices as they appear in Berlin in our IFA 2012 portal. And keep up with the Windows 8 tag as well through the future – some strange devices are afoot!

This device has the ability to carry up to a 32GB microSDHC card and works with a rechargeable battery rated at 1.5-2 hours of HD video. The unit you buy standard comes with a tripod mount as well as a multi-directional mounting system with a quick release lever so you’ll be able to detach it easily. You’ll be able to attach this camera to your helmet, goggles, a variety of vehicles, and dunk it underwater with a specially fitted waterproof housing.

The standard package has a multi-directional mounting system that works with bikes, boards, cars, and all manner of sporting equipment as well. With the wi-fi connectivity aboard, you’ll be able to connect with smartphones, tablet, and your computer – and no extra wireless module attachment is necessary for live wireless streaming if that’s your style!

The entire device measures in at 1.6 x 1.2 x 2.5 inches and fits in the palm of your hand. You’ll be able to record without fearing destruction by loose tree limbs and debris due to the compact size, and the whole system comes in a variety of colors. Black, blue, yellow, white, and red are out now for right around $179.95 USD – grab one!

First we have the CAMILEO S40, which is being marketed as a “pocketable” camcorder that still delivers when it comes to performance. It sports a pistol grip design, comes in four different colors (silver, turquoise, orange, purple), and features a 5x digital zoom that is helped along by electronic image stabilization. On the back we have a 3-inch LCD touchscreen that features an icon-based GUI, and this camera also comes equipped with CAMILEO’s Uploader Software so you can share what you’ve shot easily. Finally, the S40 comes with mini HDMI and micro USB ports, allowing you to connect it to your other devices and playback video on a larger screen.

Next up is the CAMILEO X150, which is a palm-held camcorder aimed at those who need to get an up-close shot while still maintaining 1080p quality. It features a 10x optical zoom, and allows users to snap pictures while recording video. It also comes equipped with smile detection and face detection, meaning that not only will your pictures be in-focus, but you also won’t be snapping pictures of awkward faces as often. Just like the S40, the X150 comes with a 3-inch LCD touchscreen, along with mini HDMI and micro USB ports for easy playback.

Wrapping up Toshiba’s triple reveal, we have the CAMILEO BW20, which is for those who need a camera that can withstand a few hits. It can handle falls from up to 1.5 meters, and is waterproof down to five meters for up to 30 minutes. It can record in low-light settings all the way down to 2lux, and comes with an anti-glare 2-inch LCD screen so you can review what you’ve shot even with the Sun bearing down on you. As with the cameras before it, this one also features mini HDMI and micro USB ports.

It’s also worth pointing out that all three of these cameras come equipped with an LED flashlight and a multi-card slot. There isn’t any pricing information on these camcorders yet, and Toshiba hasn’t announced a release date either, saying that they’ll be available in the UK starting in Q4 2012. Stay tuned, because we’ll have more details for you once Toshiba dishes more information.

There are three new products from Dell for you to take a look at today. The first is the refresh of the Dell XPS One 27, an all-in-one PC that has been given a touchscreen and support for Windows 8. It also comes packing a sexy resolution, running at Quad HD 2560 x 1440 and being able to boast 3.7 million pixels. We were able to spend some time with that 27-inch screen, and you can see what we thought of it in our hands-on with the Dell XPS One 27.

Next up we have the Dell XPS Duo 12 ultrabook. This announcement is significant not only because it’s seemingly reviving the Inspiron Duo, but also because the XPS Duo 12 comes with a swiveling touchscreen, putting an interesting spin on the tablet/notebook hybrid. Dell kept the XPS Duo 12 behind glass after making its announcement, but we were still able to get some eyes-on time with the convertible ultrabook and have a look its full HD screen.

Finally, we come to the Dell XPS 10 tablet. The 10-inch slimline tablet is rocking Windows RT and comes with a removable keyboard dock. That’s all well and good, but what really surprised us were Dell’s claims about the battery. This bad boy can apparently run for 20 hours on a single charge, so if you need a tablet that has a long lasting battery, this sounds like the one for you. Just like the Duo 12, we have an eyes-on with the XPS 10, giving you an up-close look at the tablet. As an added bonus, we also found out that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 processor line will be powering this new tablet, so that’s something to get excited about.

That about does it for our Dell wrap-up, but keep it right here at SlashGear for more news straight from the floor of IFA 2012!

First off their U945 will be a low end and more budget conscious Ultrabook but we’ll get into specifics shortly. Then the P845t is a full out Ultrabook class machine along with a full touchscreen for tablet like capabilities. Overall these are pretty standard designs and nothing out of the ordinary but lets take a look.

Starting with the U945 you’ll have a 14-inch low end Ultrabook that will be even cheaper than previous models thanks to a durable hard plastic shell instead of aluminum. It won’t feel as premium but then it will be lower priced too. The device comes with a Core i3 or i5 option, 500GB HD and a 32GB SSD for quick wake and boot times. Then we get the standard 3 USB ports, HDMI, and Ethernet. Not bad Toshiba, not bad.

Next is their “thin and light” S955 that isn’t considered an Ultrabook although it will be 30% thinner and lighter than previous generations from Toshiba. We’ll get a Core i5 here, 8GB of RAM, 750GB HD, a cheaper AMD option and even Harmen Kardon speakers on board.

Last is their P845t which has a 14-inch display as well, only this one rocks touchscreen capabilities. This will be a growing trend with Windows 8 but this device packs a decent punch. We get again the Core i3 or i5 possibilities, 750GB HD, 32GB for bootup, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, then again 3 USB ports, HDMI, and Ethernet. This will be priced a little higher but should be a solid performance. Pricing for all three laptops listed has not yet been unveiled but they will all be available starting October 26th, the day Windows 8 launches. Stay tuned for more details and hands-on pictures live from IFA 2012.

This smartphone has a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 pixel resolution display and it sports a powerful 8 megapixel camera on the back with single LED flash. Inside you’ll find ZTE’s custom user interface over Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, this affording you all the great features of the next-to-newest operating system from Google with ZTE’s bubble flair. You’ll see rounded corners around square icons and your very own high definition widgets with weather, time, and date as well.

This device will work with 4G HSPA+ up to 21Mpbs and has Intel Hyper-Threading Technology embedded within. With this technology and the Intel XMM 6260 Platform you’ll be working with ultra-fast web browsing and an all-around super speedy user experience throughout the device.

Under the hood you’ve also got a 1650mAh battery for all-day up time as well as 1GB of RAM with either 4 or 16GB of ROM. You’ll also have the ability to expand your memory by 32GB with this device’s microSD card slot. You’ve got a front-facing 0.3 megapixel camera for video chat, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 + A2DP, Dolby sound, RM Radio, Accelerator, Gyroscope, Compass, Proximity senros, and Light sensor as well.

Have a peek at the timeline below to see more on the history of this model as it appeared earlier this year with slightly different specifications – and note that what we’re seeing above appears to be the final version, coming out in Europe at the start of next month!

Up front is a 1600 x 900 display, short of Full HD but still good enough to do duty for video playback in your kitchen or den. You needn’t settle on just one location, either; Sony has equipped the Tap 20 with a rudimentary battery, enough to keep it powered up while you move from room to room.

Ports are arrayed along the edge, including audio in/out and USB, and there’s a front-facing webcam for video calls. Support is from a single metal stand that allows for tilt adjustment, though as you’d expect Sony has had to make it on the stiff side so as to support the chunky upper section.

Sony Tap 20 10-finger Fruit Ninja multitouch demo:

We scoffed at first, but after a while stabbing, slashing, and swiping with all fingers on Fruit Ninja on a huge display, the Tap 20 begins to shine. As it’s a full Windows PC, of course, you can plug in a keyboard and mouse and do “proper” work with it, should you need to.

Sony hasn’t finalized the design yet, so pricing isn’t settled, but that’s likely to be the deciding factor for most homes. If Sony can undercut the smaller all-in-one PCs – think along the lines of ASUS’ Eee Tops from a few years back – then it may not be quite as ridiculous as it first seems.

VAIO notebooks generally look the part, especially the more expensive ones, and the Duo 11 follows in those footsteps with an angular black casing that’s a nice diversion from the usual round-cornered fare. The glossy plastic is a fingerprint magnet, of course, and Sony’s non-final hardware showed some flex when you pull the screen open, but once upright and in place – in a single, non-adjustable angle – it stuck fast no matter how roughly we jabbed at it.

Sony has chased connectivity not headline grabbing dimensions, and so while the Duo 11 isn’t the fattest tablet we’ve ever seen, nor does it rival recent Samsung and Apple slates for waifish form-factors. Instead, you get HDMI and USB connections, along with – in what seems to be a bizarre accommodation of legacy business users – a full-sized VGA connection. Things get even thicker if you bolt on the extended battery slice, doubling runtimes at the cost of significantly increasing width.

Sony VAIO Duo 11 hands-on video:

Unfortunately, adding that extended battery is seemingly the only way to accommodate the pen when you’re not using it – it slots into a cutaway underneath – which is a shame since stylus input works well in general. OneNote, Microsoft’s unfairly overlooked notetaking app (which will sync its notes with its cut-down counterpart on Windows Phones), receives digital ink with aplomb, the pressure sensitivity of what we’re guessing to be a Wacom-sourced digitizer paying dividends for quick sketches and handwritten notes.

As for the keyboard, it’s more compact than a regular notebook, but still very usable for typing. There’s a trackpoint-style navigation nub in the middle of the ‘board, though rather than physically moving it uses an optical sensor to map the movement of your fingertip. Still, we found ourselves using the touchscreen more often than not, as reaching forward felt more natural.

Unlike some Windows 8 tablets, Sony hasn’t compromised on raw grunt. There’s Intel’s Core i7-3517U paired with 4Gb or 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of SSD storage; the 1080p 11.6-inch display is incredibly crisp and bright. The underlying message is yes, you can use this as your main PC, but you’re probably going to have to pay handsomely for it. Sony will announce numbers closer to the VAIO Duo 11′s official release in late October.

The choice of full Windows 8 rather than Windows RT is a good start – the Tablet 2 will slot neatly into any existing enterprise setup, and run all the same apps – and the ThinkPad keyboard dock, which is obviously removable, has similar feel to the company’s laptop ‘boards. Both slate and dock were non-final hardware, however, so we’ll have to wait for final builds to know exactly how well they match.

Then there’s full sized USB, that old favorite the TrackPoint, and the option for integrated 3G/4G for road warriors. Pull out the stylus – as long as you’ve specified the active digitizer option – and you can use handwriting recognition and sketch in OneNote. We do wish Lenovo had gone for a bigger pen, however, as Lenovo’s barrel is a little thinner than we’d like.

Lenovo isn’t specifying which Intel Atom processor is powering things, and nor is it talking about pricing. That’s likely to be the biggest deciding factor for business users, though Lenovo is potentially waiting to see how Microsoft prices the Surface Pro. Speaking of which, Lenovo EMEA chief Gianfranco Lanci claims the company isn’t concerned about Microsoft wading into the hardware business:

“It’s very welcome if other people – including Microsoft – come with [a] Windows 8 tablet, I think it’s good for Windows 8. I see it from a positive point of view and not a negative point of view, unlike a lot of people, because they think that Windows 8 can be a player in the tablet market. It’s also a good advert for us … we’re not negative at all about this movement”

We’ll know more when the ThinkPad Tablet 2 goes on sale, alongside Windows 8 on October 26.

That shows its limitations when you’re paging through Android – 4.0, of course, not Jelly Bean 4.1 as on the Nexus 7 – which shows a little jerkiness and lag. That could be improved with software updates, we’re guessing, but right now it doesn’t exactly make the A2107 feel like a premium product.

That’s a shame, because physically the IdeaTab A2107 feels great. The soft-touch rear cover is tactile and easily gripped, in contrast to the smoother A2109. That has a 9-inch screen and a Tegra 3 processor, and the quadcore’s turn of speed shows its worth by keeping Ice Cream Sandwich running noticeably smoother than its smaller sibling.

With little to make either model stand out, buying decisions are likely to come down to price alone. $299 will get you the 9-inch A2109, while Lenovo is yet to confirm numbers for the A2109.