Fascinating tech at the IFA show

September each year is the time for tech lovers to converge upon Berlin, where the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA) show happens. It's one of a handful of tech shows that are still important, but sadly, much of its thunder is stolen earlier in the year by the Consumer Electronics Show and the Mobile World Congress. All the same, if there's nothing life-changingly new at IFA, there are product evolutions that are no less interesting...

The talk of the IFA show is Lenovo's Yoga Book, what the company calls a 'two-in-one tablet'. One part is a tablet as we know it, except that it comes in either an Android of Windows flavour. But the more fascinating part is a digital panel attached to the tablet with a strong hinge. It's this panel that adds functionality to what might have otherwise been a regular tablet.

The matte black panel of the Yoga Book doubles up as a writing or drawing pad, like the Wacom tablet used by designers for precision drawing. You pick up the Real Pen, the stylus provided, and go ahead and hand-write. The writing will convert to text and appear on the tablet portion. You can also draw and watch your creation on the screen. You also get, in the box, a magnetic clipboard on which you can use paper and an ink pen to write, in the regular way, on the panel. This too is digitised.

And that's not all, the panel triples up as a keyboard. On demand, you can call up a virtual but backlit keyboard, adequately sized and compete with a touchpad.

Haptic feedback makes it easier to type on what is after all, a flat surface. And in effect, you have a notebook, tablet and drawing pad all in one gadget.

Among the products showcased by Sony, there was one that warmed the cockles of many a heart: a prototype home robot called Xperia Agent with a built-in voice assistant. The robot, with eyes that dance when the music is on, is a smart home hub and talks to the coffee machine, television, music system, and other gadgets. You can pat its head to order up a cup of coffee and collect it from the machine.

Rather than being extremely useful, the Xperia Agent is just a concept at this stage and shows a glimpse of what home robots could be like one day.

Two hundred and sixteen 55-inch curved televisions made up a tunnel that visitors at IFA were reluctant to leave. LG played a loop of psychedelic visuals on the display, enveloping awestruck viewers in a magical dream-like spell. While nothing like the TV tunnel will make it to homes, the display shows how immersive curved TVs can be.

Earlier this year, Lenovo launched the Moto Z, a device that takes on modules for added functionality. The Hasselblad Moto Mod is an add-on attachment that clamps on, magnetically, to the Moto Z and its variants. It brings 10x optical zoom, a Xenon flash, and the ability to shoot in RAW format. It turns the phone into a camera that even looks like a camera. The add-on costs a whole $300 though, probably making sure most people give it a miss.

LG hasn't reviewed any phones and wearables, but the other Korean giant has something besides its mesmerising TV tunnel. The Door-in-Door Instaview Signature refrigerator was debuted at an earlier show but now has a surprise.

First of all it's an enormous fridge and you can knock-knock on the door to have a good look inside without opening it. Also, on the door, a screen turns into a tablet, letting you drag and drop information on the food items, such as expiry date. But the surprise is that it's going to be available with complete Windows and Cortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant.

As IFA draws to a close, there will probably be more interesting tech coming to light, some of which will remain at the concept stage and some of which will be available to buy.

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