3D TVs and tablets beckon at Berlin's IFA trade fair

Germans are not known to be a nation of spendthrifts but when it comes to consumer electronics they throw caution to the wind -- much to the delight of exhibitors at Berlin's IFA trade fair starting this week.

"Germans are currently in a downright buying frenzy," said Jeffry van Ede, board member of German tech industry body Bitkom.

Exhibitors at Europe's largest consumer electronics trade fair IFA are hoping that behavior will spill over into the rest of Europe as they negotiate contracts with retailers for the coming months and the year-end holiday shopping season.

Samsung Sells 1 Million Galaxy S Phones in US

Samsung sold more than one million Galaxy S Android smartphones in the U.S., the company announced. In a month and a half, the combined sales of T-Mobile Vibrant and AT&T Captivate topped one million, in a boon for Google Android's fight for supremacy against Apple's iPhone.

Is Apple's Click Wheel Dead? Are iPods Now iPads?

What if Apple killed off the iPod line and decided that everything from the nano to the touch is now an iPad? It sounds crazy, but it's possible. If the leaked photos of cases for the upcoming sixth generation iPod nano are actually leaked photos and not, say, completely fabricated, then Wednesday's Apple event in San Francisco is going to be interesting.

Apple Japan offers to replace overheating iPod nano

A poster shows a 2005 version of the iPod nano. Apple's Japanese unit has offered to replace its first-generation iPod nano music player in the event of it overheating after reports of fires led to criticism from the government in Tokyo. (AFP/File/Joel Saget)

Apple's Japanese unit has offered to replace its first-generation iPod nano music player in the event of it overheating after reports of fires led to criticism from the government in Tokyo.
     
       Apple confirmed "very rare cases of overheating" in the battery of the iPod nano sold between September 2005 and December 2006, which distorted the shape of the device or made it unuseable, the company said on its website.
     
       It offered to replace affected units, adding that concerned customers using the first-generation iPod nano can now get the battery replaced, it said on its Japanese-language website.