IFA 2012

Prepare to get that meta feeling: when we caught up with Samsung for some post-unveil Galaxy Camera play, we thought what better to make the subject of our sample shot gallery than the Android camera itself. So, two Galaxy Cameras in hand (and with a couple of Galaxy Note II units along for the ride) we set out to put the Android snapper through its paces. Read on for sample photos and video of the Galaxy Camera in action.

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"No form-factor left untested" may well be Samsung's unofficial motto for Windows 8, with the company bringing a raft of prototype notebooks and tablets to IFA, Alongside the Dual-Display Notebook were four alternative concepts that played with sliding, swiveling, slate and other designs, as Samsung took a suck-it-and-see approach to Windows tableteering.

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Samsung's Windows 8 line-up at IFA wasn't limited to just the ATIV range; the company also had some interesting concepts to show, of which the most usable was a Dual-Display Notebook. Resembling one of Samsung's slick Windows ultrabooks from face-on, close the notebook's lid and there was a second display to be found, turning the machine into a slate-format tablet.

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4K TV, Windows tableteering, segment straddling smartphones, and cross-company sniping: another year, another IFA. We've seen the show coalesce around a few key themes before, and 2012 proved no different, as manufacturers took a suck-it-and-see strategy to try to cash in on holiday hardware sales. As always, the specter of Apple loomed heavy, despite the Cupertino firm's resolute absence. Read on for the highlights of IFA 2012.

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If you thought the fabulous accessory lineup that came with the Samsung Galaxy S III was about to stop with the smartphone, you were wrong. There's a whole load of Galaxy Note II covers, protectors, and pens you can grab for the next-generation Galaxy Note phablet, and they're being shown off this week in Berlin at IFA 2012. This set of accessories pretty much replicates what's already available for the Galaxy S III, but a couple more colors have been introduced - and of course they've got an spot so the S-Pen can exit the machine.

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This week we got a quick hands-on with the Vodafone Samsung Galaxy S III LTE at IFA 2012 running the next generation of Google software: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This operating system upgrade has not yet been released for the Samsung Galaxy S III anywhere else in the world, but Samsung has promised that it will be out "very soon." We also got a Speed Test result for those of you wanting to see how fast the Vodafone LTE network can be in Germany.

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If each tech show has an unofficial theme, then IFA 2012's must be Windows 8 tablets. Microsoft's new OS - in both full 8 and pared-back RT forms - has shown up on touchscreen hardware from all of the main manufacturers, each trying slightly different combinations of size, specs and accessories in the hope of standing out from the crowd. Options are great, of course, but are there signs that Microsoft's tablet desperation is rubbing off on its OEMs?

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Samsung normally isn't shy about showing off its manufacturing prowess, so imagine our surprise to find the company had snuck a super-high-resolution ultrabook onto the IFA show floor. The Samsung Series 9 WQHD ultrabook is billed as a concept right now, but it's one we're hoping the Koreans bring to market sooner rather than later: taking pride of place is a 13-inch 2,560 x 1,440 display with a matte finnish, for smooth graphics on a par with the glorious visuals from Apple's MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

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Looking for a good pair of earphones and have a ton of cash to burn through? Sennheiser has you covered with its IE 800 earphones, which are being touted as having "the most innovations per square millimeter." According to Sennheiser, these earphones can compete with the rest of the company's high-end portfolio, and we're tempted to believe it.

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This week we've gotten the opportunity to have a peek at three of HP's newest touchscreen notebooks, each of them having been announced just this week and each of them coming with no less than Windows 8 right out of the box. The first of these is the HP SpectreXT TouchSmart Ultrabook - a device working with a 15.6-inch IPS LCD screen and Radiance Full HD for brilliant visuals. Next is the HP ENVY TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 with a 14-inch multitouch HD display and Beats Audio under the hood. Then there's the lovely HP ENVY x2, complete with its own detachable tablet PC portion making this a Windows 8 "hybrid PC" - a PC first, and a tablet second.

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The folks at LifeProof have given us a hands-on experience with their iPhone 4/4S case lineup as well as their new NUUD iPad case. The iPhone case we're finding is so thin that it appears that there's no cover over the front - and yet there is. The iPad case allow you to dunk your device underwater - and the iPhone case does this as well. Basically what we've seen is that LifeProof iPhone and iPad cases make their contents impervious to damage - have a peek at how tough they are right this minute!

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Windows 8 devices are all the rage at IFA this year, especially tablets. Toshiba has a new Satellite - the U920t - on the scene, and like many tablets we've seen, this one is convertible into a notebook. However, unlike a number of the tablets we've seen, you don't convert this tablet by attaching it to keyboard dock. Instead, it features a slide out keyboard using a mechanism that Toshiba assures will provide for a smooth and stable transition.

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