The Digitec team is travelling to the International Consumer Electronics Fair in Berlin again this year. We take a first look at the latest products and innovations, from routers to smart toasters. Tell us what you're interested in.
The International Consumer Electronics Fair (IFA) opens its doors on 6 September. Like every year, you might think. The difference: this year, IFA is celebrating a milestone birthday. It will be 100 years old.
Under the motto "From mouth to ear on the ray of electric power!", the first IFA in the then Weimar Republic was mainly centred around radios. Just seven years later, the first televisions were exhibited. And even if the CES is now bigger and probably a little better known, the IFA can boast a great past: In 1967, for example, the then Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor Willy Brandt symbolically launched colour television for West Germany. And in 1981, Philips and Sony introduced the compact disc (CD).
We are also paying our respects to the IFA to mark its 100th anniversary. We are sending a Digitec task force to Berlin. It consists of Michelle, Jan, Lorenz, Luca and me. We were allowed in two days earlier and were able to get an impression.
Nowadays, the exhibition is by no means limited to radios or televisions: a good 1800 exhibitors are showing thousands and thousands of devices of all kinds. We take you on a virtual tour of IFA and report on what you can see (and soon buy). To do this, we need your opinion: Which areas are you particularly interested in? Let us know in the survey!
What interests you most about the IFA?
The competition has ended.
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.