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It's been a fascinating few days at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. The most obvious theme is the clash of engineering and design expertise between the European, Japanese, Korean and Chinese consumer electronics makers and the different ways they're approaching the market.
The design of TVs is better than ever as LCD and plasma makers seek to compete on more than functionality, concentrating on style and improving energy efficiency.
High-definition is all the rage, from Blu-ray and HD-DVD players to HD digital TV tuners integrated into flat panels. The iPod rivals are getting slicker and boasting more memory capacity, networking technologies are making it easier than ever to move digital content from the PC to the lounge, wirelessly.
It's also been good to get back to Berlin, which I had the pleasure of navigating from the driver's seat of a 1988-era Trabant. The thing looked like it had been made in 1962. As I head for the airport and try and find my luggage, which never arrived, here are some of my personal highlights from an IFA show that had record attendance.
Flat-screen innovation
Dutch electronics maker Philips had the most impressive new flat-screen TV release with the Aurea, which extends the company's Ambilight technology to create a 42 inch high-definition LCD screen with a frame that lights up according to the images that are being displayed. The effect is really quite impressive.
With a price tag of around the 4000 euro ($NZ7755) mark, Aurea is definitely at the high-end of the market, but it's a smart move for Philips as its able to leverage the expertise of its considerable lighting business to good effect in consumer electronics. It also gives Philips a product that well and truly has a luxury feel to it, which explains the glitzy ad campaign that will push the TV in Europe from this month.
Samsung had one of the most impressive stands at IFA as it continues to invest heavily to make its presence felt in the flat-screen TV market.
It helps that the Korean TV maker also has some great offerings in the flat-screen space. I spent most of an hour lounging on the Samsung stand in front of 50-inch plus LCDs which dominated plush lounge-setting display rooms loaded with high-definition home theatre systems - Samsung's new HDBD2 Blu-ray system in particular.
Capturing most of the attention on the Samsung stand was the new F9 series LCDs, which come in 52 and 70 inch sizes and use LED Smart Lighting technology to dynamically switch off back-lighting on parts of the screen to create blacker blacks - better contrast over all, 500,000:1 is the contrast ratio Samsung is claiming, to be specific.
Samsung's compatriot LG launched two rather nice high-definition LCD models that also incorporate HD digital TV tuners, which will feed market demand in Europe and potentially here, when Freeview terrestrial services go high-definition.
Toshiba was proud of the fact that on its new LCD TVs it has managed to get the trim surrounding the screen down to 2.3cm in thickness, making for a much more streamlined TV.
Hi-def players come of age
Lots off innovative developments at IFA this year in terms of high-definition players, which is impressive considering HD-DVD players only really began appearing at IF last year.
This year the trend is towards cheaper hi-def players and more accomplished players incorporating the HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats. Second and third generation players are also coming onto the market with improved features.
Canadian electronics maker Venturer will debut a 1080i HD-DVD stand-alone player later this year for 299 euros , bringing the hi-def format well and truly . The only HD-DVD player available at that price to date has been the one you can buy as an add-on to the Xbox 360.
I don't know much about Venturer and the box was behind glass on the Toshiba stand so I couldn't get my hands on it, but it looks like a reasonably stylish player. Samsung also debuted a dual-format, hi-def player, the BD-UP5000, which follows LG's BH100 released at the start of the year, but betters it as it has improved support for interactive disc features.
It supports both BD Java and HDi interactive formats. It also supports Dolby Digital 7.1, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby True HD in the sound department and full-HD 1080p playback.
Thanks for the memory
It used to be that if you wanted a serious amount of storage capacity in your music player or phone - say upwards of ten gigabytes, you had to opt for a mini hard drive-based device.
But advances in flash memory have eliminated the need for hard drives. Sure, my iPod Nano already boasts 8GB of memory, but I was staggered to see San Disk put out an 8GB Memory Stick Micro flash card.
There were also plenty of 6GB SD Micro cards on show. At those sizes, slotted into mobile phones, they give great flexibility for storing music, photos and video.
Panasonic announced plans for a 16GB SDHC(SD High Capacity) card due for release in November. With that sort of capacity, you're looking at 160 minutes of high-definition, mpeg4 video recorded on a video camera. Toshiba said at IFA that it expects 32GB SD flash cards to be available within three years for around the US$100 mark.
Other stand-outs
Hitachi's Blu-ray disc based video camera, which allows you to shoot footage straight to high-capacity discs in high-definition will get the ball rolling on Blu-ray as a format in the camcorder market.
TV maker Loewe doesn't have a huge presence in the New Zealand market, but is doing impressive things in Europe, notably at IFA - making its TVs capable of connecting to digital cameras and iPods.
Loewe is also involved in the wireless HD technology I've been getting very excited about. This allows you to send high-definition video between a high-def player and your TV screen without needing to attach any cables between the two any cables.
Texas Instruments' mobile phone projector deserves a mention for its novelty value. Is this really the future of TV on the move?
Also in the mobile department, LG's new Windows smartphone looks very slick. With Windows Mobile 6, HSDPA data access, Wi-fi and a decent physical design its probably one of the nicest Windows-based mobile phones to debut yet. Should give I-mate's range a run for its money.
I could hardly move on the Creative stand such was the crowd of people filling it, but the new Zen looks great and the initial reviews are positive.
Best stands
Samsung for its numerous comfortable home theatre booths, Pioneer for its innovative stacking of plasma screens to create some beautifully lush pictures, Harman Kardon for its over-the-top row of LCDs that seemed to stretch on forever.
Worst stands
Sony - I was herded through it twice and didn't see anything. Sony seemed determined to keep its best new gadgets out of sight.
