The annual IFA tech show in Berlin has come to a close for yet another year, after bringing plenty brand new gadgets and gizmos to the table to start saving for. It's a massive show, packed with everything from AV gear to mobile phones and home appliances, but we've sifted the wheat from the chaff to give you our highlights from Europe largest electronics expo. Here's Tech Digest's IFA Best in Show for 2011.

BEST TV: Sharp 8K4K Super High-Def TV

The TV that Tech Digest shall set as the high-watermark all others must aim for for the forseeable future, Sharp's 8K4K prototype was by far the most stunning screen we've ever seen, and our favourite item overall at this year's show. Though it's not going to be commercially available for at least the best part of a decade, we were treated to a jaw-dropping presentation of footage 16-times the pixel density of full HD 1080p. We felt sorry for all the TVs we had to check out at the show after seeing this one so early on, as none of the others stood a chance in comparison.

BEST SMARTPHONE/TABLET: Samsung Galaxy Note

Not a great show for tablets or smartphones, with Sony's offerings a little underwhelming and few other manufacturers making a splash. Samsung's Galaxy Note, while not everyone's cup of tea, at least attempted something slightly different, with its massive screen and stylus input. Jobs may have delcared the stylus dead with Apple's touchscreen devices, but Samsung quite rightly still see a place for digital note taking with an input pen.

BEST PROJECTOR: Epson EH-T9000W

If you've got a few grand to spare, Epson proved that having your very own 3D cinema experience in your living room is a relatively affordable reality this year. Showing off their first line of 3D projectors, the stunning visuals were made all the sweeter thanks to the inclusion of Wi-Fi smarts in the EH-T9000W top-end model.

BEST LAPTOP: Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook

Who said Windows machines couldn't be as good-looking as Apple devices? Acer's Aspire S3 Ultrabook paired great looks and portability with supercharged power in a laptop that offered both i7 and SSD high-end configurations.

MADDEST GADGET: Jean-Michel Jarre's AeroDream One 11ft iPad dock

Jean-Michel Jarre; a man known equally for his pioneering electronic music and dazzling live light shows. He'll now also be known as the man behind the world's most ridiculous iPad dock, the 11ft tall AeroDream One. Tech Digest had the pleasure of talking to the French musical legend at IFA 2011 in the video above, where Jarre explains the inspiration behind his designs.

For more coverage from IFA 2011, click here.

First an official name and then an official spec sheet; IFA 2011 killed two birds with one show-stone for Sony's Tablet P device, formally known as the S2.

A 9.4 inch device, its unique selling point is its dual-screen set up and clamshell design.

Android Honeycomb version 3.1 is displayed across the two screens, with a Nvidia Tegra 2 processor powering the show.

Due for a September 16th launch through Dixons, the 16GB Wi-Fi only version costs £399, while the £32GB version with Wi-Fi costs £499. A 16GB Wi-Fi and 3G version is listed at £499, though no delivery date nor pre-order form is currently accessible.

Hit the video above for more details.

How much would you pay for a pair of in-ear headphones? £50? £150?

How about £1,000?

That's the asking price for the latest luxury pair from AKG, the K3003 in-ear headphones. They were on show at IFA 2011, and while they were hidden away behind glass meaning we couldn't get a chance to hear them in action, we did get a chance to catch them on camera and grab those all-important specs.

What constitues the £1,000 price tag then? For a start, AKG are claiming that these are the first truly 3-way buds, with separate high, mid and low units, giving a full-bodied sound that AKG claim will match the detail of a high-end Hi-Fi system.

You're also able to customise the out-of-the-box sound by attaching one of three packaged noise filters, letting you boost bass, high frequencies, or opt for the reference levels AKG tailor. Likewise, numerous interchangeable silicone earbuds are included to ensure maximum in-ear comfort.

Hit the video above for more info.

MacBook Air fans looking for some Windows lovin', have a gander at the Acer Aspire S3. Billed as an "Ultrabook", it's lightwieght and powerful in all of its various configurations, and more than a match for the Apple machines in the style stakes. We went hands on at IFA in the video above.

A mere 13mm at its thinnest point and booting from sleep mode to a useable state in just 1.5 seconds, its available with both SSD or HDD storage options and i3 or i7 cores.

A 13.3-inch, 1366 x 768 pixel LED display is offered up by Acer, with 7 hours worth of battery power per charge.

Hit the video above to take a look.

JBL have updated their iPad speaker the system, the OnBeat, with the new OnBeat Xtreme dock. Showcased at IFA 2011, the OnBeat Xtreme lets you dock an iPad in either landscape or portrait angles, and offers crisp, room filling sound.

The OnBeat Xtreme also caters for wireless audio over Bluetooth, perfect for gamers looking to boost their iPad gaming audio while still holding the tablet in both hands. There's also a built-in speakerphone for giving FaceTime calls an extra volume injection.

Check it in action in the video above.

For our review of the earlier JBL OnBeat model, click here.

I can remember trying to catch the majority of World Cup 1994 from inside a tent on a camping trip with a little battery-powered handheld TV. Needless to say, it was like watching a Subbuteo match through a blizzard, and thoroughly frustrating.

If only I'd had Sharp's LC20FE1 portable HD-ready TV! On show at IFA 2011 over the weekend, it's a 20-inch display running at XVGA resolution, and features HDMI and USB playback, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity for streaming over a home network.

A 5 hour charge of the internal battery gives only two hours of playback right now, which is frustrating, but as an AC adapator can be hooked up, you technically can use this as a regular fixed, wall-powered TV set too.

Out now in Japan, Sharp are considering a European release with a DVB tuner, at somewhere around the €600 mark, but have yet to finalise any plans.

Check it out in the video above.

Sony's madcap 3D headset prototype from CES 2011 is set to hit stores in a fianl retail build, and the HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer visor was on show at the IFA 2011 tech conference for all and sundry to try out.

The headset manages a pretty impressive 3D image by placing two 0.7 inch OLED panels in front of your eyes, giving the impression you're watching a single 750-inch 3D screen. The headset also comes complete with pseudo-5.1 surround sound thanks to the multi-channel ear pieces that sit either side of your head.

Set first for a Japanese release before the year is out, as yet there is no UK release date set. It'll set you back around £480 to import them from Japan however.

Check them out in the video above.

French electronic music maestro Jean-Michel Jarre had one of the most space age stands at this year's IFA 2011, showing off his latest range of Jarre Technologies Apple docks. Though the star of the show was the gigantic AeroDream One, he was also displaying his eqaully stylish AeroPad One and AeroPad Two docks.

Both are iPod, iPad and iPhone compatible, and each features the same chrome finishing as see in the larger dock. The AeroPad Two is the more powerful of the pair (pushing out 200W compared to the AeroPad One's 120W output) and is resultingly the more expensive of the pair at €699 with the AeroPad One €499.

Once you're done checking out Jarre's space-age docks, check out his truly mad AeroDream, 11ft iPad dock in our video interview with the electro pioneer himself.

Sony Ericsson took to IFA 2011 with their fastest Xperia handset yet, the Arc S. Running off a 1.4GHz processor, the Xperia Arc S features 512MB RAM, Sony's Mobile Bravia Engine, Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread, microSDHC card support, a 4.2-inch display with a 854x480 resolution, Bluetooth, WiFi, an eight-megapixel rear camera, Sony Exmor for mobile CMOS sensor and SE's own Timescape UI.

The camera is also capable of 3D photography, including 3D sweep panorama shots, though you'll need to hook the handset up to a compatible 3D display over HDMI to get the benefit of the added dimension.

NOTE: Please excuse mention of a dual-core processor in the video; it's a single core in the Arc S. 3 days of tech-show fatigue were kicking in by the time this clip was shot, sorry!

Hit the video above for a sneak peek.

2.1 speaker systems aren't always the most exciting of ventures when it comes to home cinema gear, but Panasonic have a nifty little unit heading to stores before Christmas in the shape of the HDB15 2.1 soundbar.

The HDB15 can split into two separate speaker units sitting either side of a smaller flatscreen TV, or transform into a single bar to sit under the display.

Hit the video above to see what we mean.

All the major display manufacturers are clamouring away to be the first to produce a convincing glasses-free 3D display, but the only company showing any real innovation in the area at this year's IFA conference was LG.

They were showing off the LG D2500N glasses-free 3D monitor. A full-HD display, it managed well to give the impression of 3D space from the flatscreen, with little flicker and only marginal blurring on the 25-inch screen.

It manages this by popping a head-tracking webcam in the top of the monitor's bezel, which then tells the display to adjust the 3D image to better suit your positioning.

It worked great, and more exciting is the fact that LG are planning big screen TV versions, capable of tracking multiple people at once, in the near future.

Hit the video above for more info.

LG's screens at IFA 2011 were a little bit more quirky than the competition. Take the LG PZ850T PenTouch Plasma TV for instnace. As the name suggests, it comes bundled with a special touchscreen stylus that lets you sketch images and notes and navigate apps by directly tapping the screen with the pen.

Avaialble in 50 and 60 inch sizes (the larger of which is 3D-capable), LG showed the screen off hooked up to a laptop, allowing them even greater functionality and piggy-backing web browsing from the machine.

Now we can see the application here in maybe an office or classroom environtment, but we're not so sure about in the home. I'm not sure I'd like to encourage my kids to write on a TV with a specific pen, only to find they've got it mixed up and scribbled all over my expensive new Plasma screen with a Sharpie.

Available from the end of September, hit the video above for our first look at the screen.

LG were showing off their latest flagship passive 3DTV at IFA over the weekend, the LG LW980T. A Nano Full LED passive 3D display, it's got a few unexpected tricks up its sleeve.

The super slim 26.4mm-thick TV has plenty of connected content, including a 3D VOD app, BBC iPlayer, Facebook and Blinkbox, and comes with 7 pairs of passive specs.

However, the most interesting feature is Dual Play:

Much like the PS3 monitor revealed earlier in the year, it allows two gamers to share the same screen and still have a full screen experience in 2-player multiplayer modes. By using a two dedicated pairs of glasses (one with two right lenses, one with two left) the screen is able to shut off alternate frames in compatible games to give each player a massive display, and stop cheating in the likes of split-screen Call of Duty.

Set for a September release you're looking at £1799 for the 47in model and £2499 for the 55 incher.

Name: iRobot Roomba 780

Type: Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £499 direct from iRobot

The future promised a lot, and while robot butlers and hovercars are still pipe-dreams, robot vacuum cleaners are very much a reality. Hot on the heels of its IFA 2011 unveiling, Tech Digest got to spend some quality time with our very own clean-freak R2D2, the iRobot Roomba 780 vacuum cleaner. Read on to see whether or not it's time to send the Dyson to the dumpster.

I'm a "cat man". I've had more of the furry felines as pets than hot dinners, and am currently the ward of two moulting black cats. I also live in a mostly-carpeted house, and often have my crumb-dropping toddler nephews over to visit. This would make me (if I do say so myself) something of a "grubby-carpet" expert. So obviously I was delighted to find that I could not only hand over my hoovering duties to iRobot's latest top-end robot vacuum cleaner (the Roomba 780), but that it did a damn fine job of cleaning up after my messy mates too.

Part of the new 700 Series line that iRobot launched over the weekend at the IFA 2011 tech show, the 780 system has a few notable improvements over its predecessors. There's new touch-sensitive controls, new iAdapt Responsive Cleaning Technology for helping the Roomba better navigate your home and better dirt-spotting sensors and cleaning routines for isolating and clearing away different types of mess. Though you'd assume a robot would be a nightmare to set up, the Roomba 780 is actually very simple; it's just a matter of taking out a battery tab and the wheel and brush stoppers, popping the clear bin unit into the bot and leaving the Roomba 780 to charge overnight. From here on in you could potentially leave the Roomba 780 to go about its business automatically, but there are multiple ways of scheduling clean ups, which we'll go into more detail on in a sec.

First though, the matters of size and style. At roughly 50 cm in diameter and about 10cm high, the circular Roomba 780 is relatively small in comparison to the majority of vacuum cleaners. Even it's Home base (the charging unit that the Roomba returns to when it's finished cleaning your house or is running low on power) is discrete. It may not have the bells and whistles of R2D2, but the Roomba is sensibly styled with black and grey mixtures of gloss and matte plastics, with a carry handle to help you move it about the house when necessary. LED displays on the top of the cleaner easily let you view programme cycles and spot when the bin needs emptying, with strong, colourful glows of red, blue and orange displayed depending on the circumstances. There's a big central "Clean" button if you want to send the Roomba about its business immediately, and practically all functionality can be carried out with a supplied IR remote too.

Using the onboard clock, you can set up any cleaning schedule that suits your home's needs, sending the Roomba skirting around the floor at a surprisingly fast pace. All actions are accompanied by voice notifications too, which charmingly reminded us of our favourite educational toy from the late 80s/early 90s, the Speak and Spell. The new cleaning sensors seem to have worked very well too; though we haven't had a previous model with which to compare the 780, we had no real complaints with how the Roomba 780 cleaned both our carpets and wooden flooring areas. iRobot, like all vacuum cleaner manufacturers, do encourage you to avoid hoovering up wet or mushy substances though.

Other than that, be they large chunks of popcorn or fine animal hairs, the Roomba 780 grabbed them all...eventually. It's hard to argue with the thoroughness of the clean this Robot vacuum cleaner manages, but do expect it to be darting around for quite some time per cycle. The bin onboard is also a little bit on the small side, so expect to empty it more-or-less after each average clean cycle.

If however you just need to sort out a quick crumb drop or or particularly messy post-party area, the Roomba 780 also features a "Spot" clean mode, which will set the robot off for a hardcore cleaning session in its immediate one-metre diameter surroundings. It's a great feature if you've got an intense spillage to clean up in a short amount of time.

Another excellent feature is the ability to set up Lighthouses and Virtual Walls to help the Roomba navigate areas that it's finding hard to get around, or block off areas that don't need cleaning. You get two units that can act as either Walls or Lighthouses, each sending out a signal telling the Roomba where it should and shouldn't be heading. While the circular design means the Roomba will always struggle to clean room corners, the Lighthouse features let it weave around chair and table legs with ease.

Once the Roomba 780 starts cleaning you can pretty much leave it unattended, though there are a handful of things it doesn't like. Wires and rug tassels can hold the Roomba 780 up, causing it to spin brushes in reverse for quite some time until it's convinced it's clear of any tangles. The environmental sensors also don't pick up black surfaces very well, which meant the Roomba 780 would bash into my glossy black home cinema subwoofer quite regularly.

Last but not least; stairs. The Roomba 780 has a cliff sensor that means it won't throw itself down steep drops, but that also means that it won't be able to go up and down stairs cleaning them if need be. That cliff sensor works perfectly, but is arguably almost too smart; we could swear the Roomba 780 was teasing us like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey as it darted towards the top drop from the stairs, only to stop and reverse at the very last second. Terrifying stuff considering I had to send back the review sample a week later.

Verdict:

It's a bit of a stretch to call a vacuum cleaner fun, but we have to admit the iRobot Roomba 780 did raise a fair few smiles. From its charming robot voice and nifty touch-sensitive control panel to its ability to drag stubborn cat fur out of our carpet, it was a pleasure to have a new robot pal around the house. It's a fair bit slower than doing the work manually, but when you're sipping an icy cool beer with your feet up while the Roomba does the dirty work, who's going to complain?

Remember the quirky Epson iPod projector we revealed to you at the tail-end of last week? Well, we've now caught it on camera on the show floor of IFA 2011 for your viewing pleasure.

With a pop-out docking station, the Epson MG-850HD projector will let you beam videos from your iDevice onto a wall at massive sizes, as well as having the regular HDMI and PC connectivity of a standard 720p projector.

It's had a mixed reception from the journalists we spoke to at the show, but one thing none will argue with is its reasonable price tag. You're looking at just a £649 asking-price when this one launches a little later in the year.

Tech Digest got a little starstruck at this year's IFA 2011 conference, as we got to meet electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.

The electro star's presence caused quite a stir at the show, not least of all thanks to his startling AeroDream One iPad/iPhone/iPod dock.

Think you've seen all that the world of iPod docks has to offer? Think again; Jarre's AeroDream One takes Hi-Fi docks to a whole new level, with the emphasis on the "Hi" part. The docking port sits on top of an 11ft column, which necessitates the need for a fixed ladder on the side of the speaker to reach it.

It's also got enough punch to match its gigantic size, pushing out an ear-popping 10,000 W through its 5 channel amplifier.

The AeroDream One is very much a luxury item, and priced at € 399,000 (£349,873) is definitely a statement piece as much as it is a speaker system. As such, Jarre sees it just as at home in concert halls as the homes of the wealthy elite.

We have a chat with Jean-Michel in the video interview above, discussing his range of Apple product docks (which includes more affordable miniature versions of the AeroDream One among other designs), the state of the music industry and the inspiration behind his latest mad venture.

Following on from our quick-specs rundown of Epson's wireless 3D EH-TW9000W projector (which you can read here) we've now got a preview video of the model to go with it.

It's quite the looker we think, with it's curved white chassis bringing 2001: A Space Odyssey design chic to the projector space. In terms of industrial design it's intelligent too, thanks to front-facing venitlation systems that make mounting the projector in a shelving unit far less likely to cause overheating.

We've now got official confirmation of pricing for the Epson EH-TW9000W model too, makred up at £2962 when they hit UK stores in November.

Samsung once again showed off their monster D9500 LED 3DTV at IFA 2011, touting an incredible 75-inch screen with active 3D technology.

The world's largest consumer LED TV according to Samsung, it completely dwarfed nearby 55-inch models, which themselves are big enough to flatten a person should they take a tumble. Screens this size can get a little blurry when it comes to fast moving scenes, but Samsung have popped in 240Hz refresh rate tech to keep things silky smooth.

Fully loaded with Smart TV funcitonality including a 3D VOD app and all manner of social networking capabilities, the D9500 also has Skype support built in, making the "Video Call Wall" of Back To The Future 2 very much a reality now.

Big screens inevitably come with big price tags, and the D9500 is no exception. You're looking at around $17,600 in the USA, or almost £11,000 when converted to UK pricing.

Hit the video above to see the impressive display in action.

Plenty of cameras on show at IFA 2011, but the quirkiest of the bunch was Samsung's MV800 compact.

Featuring a fold up touchscreen, your photo's subjects are able to quickly fix their hair in the front-facing screen before each shot, while you can then flip it back into a more traditional position for scrolling through menus and adding after-effects.

And what a great supply of after-effects Samsung have popped in here. Our favourite was the Magic Frame, letting you pop parts of your photo into pre-made frames, some of which will just make for Facebook profile shot gold. Fancy popping your features onto a full moon above an ocean with a sombre saling ship heading towards your folorn features from the foreground? It's done with the MV800.

You can also use the touchscreen to rub out specific sections of photos, and then re-shoot the areas that you've made available for tweaking. Look for the hilarious results as I tried to squeeze my own head back into a shot from which I had earlier deleted it in the video above. Pet owners will rejoice as they use the MV800 to make "Cat-Man" finally live!

Looking at more standard snapper features, it's a 16.1MP resolution camera, with 5x optical zoom and 26mm wide angle lens. Panaroma shots can be taken, and in 3D too, but will need a 3D television with which to view them in all their three-dimensional glory.

Expect to see the MV800 in shops later this month, priced around the £250 mark.

Injunction after injunction from Apple hasn't stopped Samsung from revealing yet another Galaxy Tab model at IFA 2011. Those looking for a more pocketable Honeycomb experience shouldhave a gander at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 edition.

As its name suggests, this is a 7.7 inch Android tablet, running on a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, a 2MP front facing camera and a 3MP rear one. Samsung's TouchWiz UI gets rolled out for yet another airing, with the tablet available in 16GB or 64GB storage sizes, each with microSD support.

A Super AMOLED display improves viewing angles over previous Galaxy Tab models, while HSPA+ connectivity offers potential download speeds of 21Mbps.

A nice inbetweener model for those not sure about 10-inch slates, hit the video above for our first hands-on impressions.