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Tech show IFA has got off to a cracking start. On day one, Samsung unveiled its long-awaited Galaxy Gear smart watch, alongside the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 10.1. Sony went all wet and wild with its waterproof Xperia Z1 smartie, while Asus showed off some natty new notebook-cum-laptop-cum-tablets.
Join me as I take a look back at day one of IFA.
The team has been busy out in Berlin, scooping up all the tech news fit to print. The biggest news of the day was Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch, which was unveiled at a press conference hosted by Jason Bradbury. Yes, him with the glasses. And it seems most of the rumours were correct: the Gear sports a 1.63-inch AMOLED display that has multitouch for gesture controls. And it pairs with your mobile to bring certain functions to your wrist. Press a button and it’ll find your phone, too. There will be 70 apps at launch, with more on the way.
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Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch hands-on
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Samsung also announced the Galaxy Note 3, which features new ways of bringing your handwritten notes to life using the S Pen. Hover over the screen and an air command wheel fans out, giving you shortcuts to certain features. You can run two apps at once, and resize them depending on how much of the screen you want each to have.
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Samsung Galaxy Note 3 hands-on
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Finally from Samsung, the Galaxy Note 10.1. Like the Note 3, it features a leather-effect back, but has ridiculous eight-core processing power, with 3GB of RAM inside.
Sony launched its Xperia Z1, which leaked under the codename of Honami. It’s a doozy of a 5-inch Android device, with a crazy 20.7-megapixel snapper on the back. Not only that, slap the Cyber-shot QX100 detachable lens onto any smart phone, and it’ll effectively transform your mobile into a compact camera. It packs in a 20.2-megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor and a Bionz image processor. It syncs with your smartie over Wi-Fi, and if you have NFC, just tap it to pair.
Finally, Asus rejigged some familiar lines, with a new Transformer Book T300, a FonePad 7 2014 Edition, and a couple of new Memo Pads. But it also unveiled the Transformer Book Trio. This looks like a laptop, but the screen detaches to work as a standalone tablet. Or you can plug the keyboard into a monitor, and use it as a desktop. Thrice as nice.
Our sister site will bring you more from IFA as it happens, so stay tuned to CNET.com/ifa for the latest. Or check back here for more UK news and another round-up tomorrow.
Impressed so far? Or are you waiting for the next iPhone and Nexus 5 to blow your socks off? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
