It's the most wonderful time of the year. Yep, the first weeks of September are Geek Christmas: that's when the electronics industry shows off its most exciting new products at IFA, and it's when Apple unveils its latest iPhones.
But first: are smartwatches sexy yet?
(Smart)Watch this space
If you've been singularly unimpressed by the first wave of Android Wear smartwatches, it might be time to take another look. In his review of Sony's new Smartwatch 3, Gareth Beavis suggests that Android Wear might actually be getting good.
Sony's isn't the only smartwatch in town. HP's invented a luxury one, the , Asus has created a pretty one and Samsung's unveiled one with a special tiny keyboard for mice and borrowers. You'd think they were trying to announce everything before Apple unveils the iWatch.
Netbooks 2: this time it's personal
Remember netbooks, the ill-fated tiny PCs that were given a thorough kicking by tablets? Well, they're back! Asus has resurrected its Eee brand, and first up is the £165 (US$260, AU$280) EeeBook X205. It offers all the benefits of a Windows tablet with the comfort of a real keyboard, and we're cautiously impressed.
The X205 isn't the only cheap Windows device heading your way. There are tons of the things coming from the likes of Toshiba, Acer and, er, Haier. Could this be the beginning of Windows fighting back?
Size isn't everything (except for when it is)
While we wait for next week's biggest-ever iPhone, Samsung has unveiled two new phablets: the flagship Galaxy Note 4, and the no-price no-release-date no-they'll-definitely-make-it Galaxy Note 4 Edge. The Edge is the weirdest thing we've seen for a while, with a wraparound screen that rolls around the right hand edge of the handset, but Samsung's Gear VR headset comes close with its high-tech take on Google Cardboard.
Are you Xperienced?
Sony's been busy: there's a new Xperia Z3 and Z3 compact, and there's another gadget that appears to be coming back from the dead: the Walkman. The NWZ-A17 portable audio player is aimed at people with really discerning ears and awfully expensive headphones.
Philips flaunts its curves
The jury's still out on curved TVs, but Philips clearly thinks they're the future: its first curved 4K TV is "a bendy 55-inch beast", says Hugh Langley. Philips showed off stacks of new home entertainment technology this week including affordable multi-room Spotify speakers and some "vegan-friendly" (our claim, not theirs) Fidelio noise-cancelling headphones.
Dyson gives us the Eye
What sucks harder than any other robot in history? According to James Rivington, the answer is Dyson's incoming robot vacuum cleaner. The Dyson 360 Eye uses a 360-degree panoramic camera to see in every direction, and like everything else Dyson makes it's bound to be really, really cheap. Ha!
Aye aye aye aye iPhone
We're days away from Apple's iPhone event. Will we see both of the big-screened handsets? Will Bono turn up like a bad penny? Will everyone fall asleep during Tim Cook's World of Charts? The answers you need are all here.
