IFA 2008: Women, ultra-high definition and widgets

Sep 3, 2008

So what brilliance has been jammed into the halls of what is supposedly the world's largest consumer electronics trade fai this year? Take a tour.

In an ongoing battle to be the biggest exhibitor at IFA, Samsung no longer considers hall 20 at the Messe Berlin to be large enough, despite the fact that it's 96m long by 39m wide. To make up for these cramped conditions, this year it erected a tent outside to contain all the microwaves and fridges that would otherwise clutter up the main exhibition area.

So, what brilliance had the company jammed into its hall this year? First up, there was the RSS-reading TV that everyone has suddenly started making a fuss about, despite a version of it being at CES back in January. There was also a new Blu-ray player, the BD-P2500, which is slender and attractive.

We got a chance to see the Armani/Samsung TV, which we slated on spec a few months ago and are now able to slate on appearance too. It really is a ghastly lump of ugly black plastic. If you've ever seen women wearing those hideous gladiator shoes, it's the technological equivalent of those. Seriously, is the fashion industry just having a laugh, or do people actually think stuff like this is somehow special?

There was also considerable excitement about Samsung's new ultra-high-definition TV, which looks set to replace existing HD televisions at some point, as soon as they can persuade us to part with even more of our cash.

There were also girls--lots of them. Some were just there helping people understand the technology, some were there to pose for photographs and videos on the Samsung cameras area and some seemed to be mainly for pointing at stuff.

Credit: Ian Morris/CNET UK