IFA Berlin 2015: 10 things we expect to see

The rumour mill is in overdrive as to what we’ll see at IFA Berlin. Here are 10 of them.

Rumours are rife ahead of the consumer electronics trade fair Internationale Funk Ausstellung (IFA) in Berlin.

Berlin is hosting IFA, the world’s biggest consumer tech trade show in the lead up to Christmas. Some 250,000 visitors are expected to attend.

IFA opens late today, Australian time, with a swag of major company media conferences, and the rumours are fever pitch as to what we’ll see.

Some things are definite. We’re going to see a myriad of new smart watches by Samsung, Motorola, Huawei, Asus, Motorola, and LG for starters.

Samsung has already announced 2 Gear S2 smartwatch models while LG already has showcased its $US1200 ($1703) 23-karat gold Watch Urbane Luxe smartwatch. LG too has flagged new 55-inch and 65-inch flat 4K OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs, and a curved OLED TV. Sony is expected to announce an Xperia Z5 smartphone.

With hours left before it officially starts, the rumour mill is in overdrive as to other things we’ll see at IFA Berlin.

Here are 10 of them:

1. Huawei 5.7-inch phablet, the MateS, will feature a force touch display similar to what we’re likely to see on Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6S. Whether pressing harder on the display activates a similar set of features to Apple’s remains to be seen.

2. Samsung is expected to show off a completely transparent OLED display that is designed for use in shops. In coming years, transparent OLED displays could make their way onto windows in your home, on mirrors, and on glass partitions between rooms.

3. Sony’s waterproof and dust proof Xperia range has been popular in Australia, and the Z5 might increase Sony’s market share even further. It’s rumoured there will be several Z5 models, and that some will sport a massive 23 megapixel camera. Some are rumoured to offer 4K resolution.

4. Some quirky devices are expected to debut at IFA. Already LG has announced a rollable Bluetooth keyboard called the Rolly. Take it to a coffee shop, unravel it, and you can enjoy a full typing experience with Rolly paired to your smart phone.

5. It’s more than a rumour, In fact it verges on certainty that a large range of brand-new Windows 10 notebooks will showcase at Microsoft’s presentation at IFA.

6. Struggling Taiwanese vendor HTC is likely to have another crack at producing a smart phone, it could be the A9 Aero, sporting a quad HD display. We’ll know on September 6.

7. We’ll see appliances such as vacuum cleaners that connect to your home network with Wi-Fi. Already Neato Robotics has flagged a Botvac vacuum that not only cleans your floors automatically, you have the option of controlling it from your smartphone with your feet up enjoying your favourite alcoholic beverage.

8. We’ll see peripherals such as hard drives with even huger capacities. Seagate for example is expected to unveil 8 Terabyte hard drives with model suited to different markets, from enterprise to small businesses and prosumers.

9. We can expect some exciting developments in virtual reality, such as cameras that shoot 360°, 3D panoramas at increased resolution. The OmniCam 360 by Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute is one such device offering all-round UHD immersion. It will be on show here at IFA.

10. Well see network hubs that attempt to be a single connection point for a variety of differently branded wireless home devices. The fact that different branded Wi-Fi cameras don’t talk to the same network hub is an emerging problem. One hub, called MyHomeBox, is due to launch today.

Chris Griffith is in Berlin courtesy of Samsung.