Time to learn German for Wednesday's tech news roundup:
IFA 2012: Big reveals for Sony, Samsung
Tons of devices being unveiled at the IFA trade show in Berlin. The highlights from Wednesday include:
- • Sony releases its first 4K TV, the 84-inch XBR-84X900. No official word on cost or availability, but expect to pay close to $30,000 to own one. Here's an explainer on what a 4K TV is, but no need to worry about new formats just yet. Afterall, what movies do you own in 4K?
- • Sony showed the Xperia S tablet, available Sept. 7 starting at $400. It has several TV-ready features, Android 4.0 and has optional accessories, like a stand and cover.
- • We also learned more about the convertible Vaio Duo 11, a Windows 8 tablet that is also a laptop when the keyboard slides out.
- • Sony has a new flagship smartphone, the Xperia T, with a 4.6-inch screen and 13MP camera. There is also the Xperia V and Xperia J in the phone family. (They got this letter-name brand thing going on, you see.)
- • The Sony Action Cam made its debut, shipping in Sept. for $200. Its tiny size is designed for point-of-view action shots, competing with the GoPro.
- • Everyone's favorite "phablet" has a big brother, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, releasing in October. The screen will be even larger than the original note, measuring in at 5.5 inches.
- • Samsung showed off a new line of Windows products, including the world's first device for Windows Phone 8, the Ativ S.
- • One of the most unique products unveiled is the Samsung Galaxy Camera, an Android-powered camera that has 3G and 4G network connectivity.
And of course there's news outside of IFA. Zappos, which is owned by Amazon, has created a new shopping site that gives suggestions on things to buy based on a Pinterest feed. It's called PinPointing. But you have to have an extensive amount of fashion in your Pinterest account for it to do anything interesting. I only pin geeky things, and I must have stumped it since no suggestions were relevant to my pins.
Birthday alerts are now popping up for users of Google+. If someone in your circle is having a birthday, you'll see the notification in the upper right corner when you visit Google.
And today we end with some big news in space history. For the first time, a recorded song has been played on another planet and beamed to earth. This interplanetary song, played by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, is none other than "Reach for the Stars" by will.i.am. With all that Auto-Tune, Martians probably think we're a race of robots. (And you'd think Martians would be fans of David Bowie, right?)
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