The Verge - Best of IFA 2012: live from Berlin

Unlike 3D, 4K TV is one gimmick you'll actually care about

2012-09-04T14:00:14Z

Ever since moving to 1080p HD displays, the TV industry has been struggling to find its next great sales pitch. Picture quality hasn't improved dramatically, OLED TVs remain mostly a mirage, and the repeated attempts to make consumers care about obvious gimmicks like 3D have fallen flat. In the absence of a real advantage to distinguish the latest TV model from the trusty high-def screen you might have bought a few years back, companies have had to enter a debilitating price war. But now there's hope.

Sony, Toshiba and LG all turned up to this year's IFA convention with a new weapon in hand: 84-inch 4K TVs. The "4K" refers to the increased resolution, which, at 3840 x 2160, is four times that of 1080p. In Toshiba's parlance, that makes...

Hype-emitting diodes: can anyone ship an OLED TV?

2012-09-03T14:00:23Z

When it comes to OLED TVs, I start to feel like Roy Batty. The things I've seen on trade show floors are almost beyond articulation: TVs so thin that they make the latest superphone look fat, contrast ratios high enough to challenge Pioneer's legendary Kuro, and nearly 180-degree viewing angles. What amazes me to this day is that you can find all of these components of desire coexisting within just one display.

Whether produced by Samsung, LG, or Sony, OLED televisions have been the perennial darling of technology trade shows, however they have yet to make the leap from the exhibition floor to retail shelf space. Some smaller OLED panels have managed to escape the factory and go on sale in limited quantities, but the promise of a living...

The iPhone 5: see how the rumors look and feel (video)

2012-09-02T14:50:30Z

Among the more anonymous booths at IFA this year, a mockup for Apple's next-gen iPhone has surfaced, looking like a fully realized compendium of all the rumors and leaks we've been hearing about the device. It has an elongated screen, a shrunken dock connector, a repositioned headphone jack, and a two-tone back cover. First spotted by GSM Israel, the mockup is making sporadic appearances at one particularly keen case maker's stand, usually ensconced in color cases.

We were told volume production of the form-fitting cases has already begun, with a view to shipping to retailers in a week's time. The mockup we got to see today confirms absolutely nothing about Apple's plans, but at least one company is confident enough in the dimensions on...

Samsung adds Google TV to its Smart TVs: Chrome, YouTube, and Google Play store (video)

2012-08-31T18:39:57Z

Although, yes, this is technically Samsung's first Google TV device, a more accurate description for what we saw today at IFA would be that the company is adding Google TV-related apps to its already expansive SmartHub suite. But those three apps arguably make up the entire Google TV experience: Chrome (without Adobe Flash support), YouTube (updated from its previous version to be much snappier and support keyboards), and most importantly the Google Play store (with "most but not all of the Google TV apps," according to a Samsung representative we spoke with).

Using Samsung's own Smart TV Wireless Keyboard is practically a requirement given all the search bars involved. It's definitely a value add for Samsung's lineup, but if you've...

Samsung OLED Multi View stacks two separate videos on one gorgeous 55-inch TV (video)

2012-08-31T18:16:04Z

The "multi view" concept isn't new, even if it still lacks a quick-and-easy description. In essence, it's two videos signals stacked on one another — using special polarizing glasses not entirely unlike 3D specs to "isolate" a (two-dimensional) signal and thereby allowing two or more people to watch different videos on the same TV. LG has it with Dual Play and Sony with PlayStation 3D Display.

Samsung's demonstration at its IFA 2012 booth didn't play up the multiplayer gaming aspect like the last aforementioned predecessors, but it did showcase the technology on gorgeous 55-inch OLED TVs. The special, very light headsets let you jump between the two videos with a push of a button — remarkably with no bleeding between the two signals...

Samsung Galaxy S III running Android Jelly Bean: our first look

2012-08-31T17:14:39Z

It's perfectly understandable that recent Galaxy S III purchasers are anxious to hear Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will make its way to Samsung's flagship, and now we've finally found the updated version on the device at IFA 2012 in Berlin. The Galaxy S III in question is Vodafone Germany's yet-to-be-released LTE variant (GT-i9305), and, completely as expected, it's no different than what we saw on the Galaxy Note II earlier this week. Many of Android 4.1's changes are obscured under Samsung's heavy TouchWiz skin, though Google Now and the new voice features are, of course, present. The noticeable improvement that we noticed on the Galaxy Nexus thanks to Project Butter wasn't nearly as apparent on the Galaxy S III, unfortunately.

For those...

Samsung's ultra high-resolution 'dual display' laptop and other crazy prototypes

2012-08-31T15:51:11Z

While Samsung's Ativ hardware is relatively tame — especially compared to some other Windows 8 tablets we've seen this week — the company did section off a part of its IFA booth to show off a few experiments in industrial design. Quarantined behind the glass were various Windows 8 laptop / tablet hybrids that range from familiar ("Slide" and "Swivel") to slightly less so ("Binder" with a slide-on keyboard and "Pop Up" with ports only visible on the hinge) and even an asymmetrical "Memo PC" that's specifically conceptualized with future Samsung mascot the S Pen in mind. We would be surprised if a few of these ideas made it to production level, but for now they're just for show.

More enticing, however, were the functional prototypes on...

XPS Duo 12: the wacky rotating display makes a comeback, reveals a better Dell along the way

2012-08-31T15:01:09Z

Dell hasn't been sending the best signs to consumers lately: the company has continued to reiterate that it is focusing on enterprise after years of falling behind to HP and Lenovo. Consumer sales dropped 22 percent last quarter. Despite all of this, it looks like the upcoming release of Windows 8 has given the company some energy: here at IFA Dell has unveiled its primary converged devices for the new operating system: the XPS Duo 12 and the XPS 10. The latter is another entry in what's quickly becoming a crowded category of tablet / keyboard dock combos, but the former gives a surprising peek at a Dell that can innovate and remain relevant in the consumer space.

The XPS Duo 12 ignores docking and instead opts for a floating display...