BERLIN, August 29, Pictured here is the 31in AMOled screen unveiled by Samsung today, surrounded by 14in models. The screens look very impressive, with vivid colours, but closer inspection of the large one showed what look like a few missing pixels dotted about.

Smaller Oled screens are becoming commonplace, but if one shows up with a defect you have not wasted a large panel. But the pictures on the screens look great, so if companies get the manufacture sorted out we might se them on laptops soon.

There were two interesting examples of smart surfaces at the show. The one on the right is being developed by by the Japanese Institute of Information and Communications techology.

It is covered with a metalling matrix that communicates with the machines using a feeble electrical field that induces a tint current in the base of the machines, which can be in any orientation.

In theory the system can be used to transmit power to devices too, but that is niot being done in this demonstration. Regular PCW users may remember that we reported a similar system developed in Cambridge a while back. Few details about those tiny PCs, I am araid, except that they are available in Japaen and are Atom-powered.

In a much more playful vein is the system on the left, an electronic Scrabble board. Each scrabble tile and each position, on the board has an RFID module, so that the state of the board can be relayed to the PC - or to web if you are playing online.

Judging by all the fuss about Scrabulous, and the dispute with the company Hasbro that owns the right to Scrabble, the system could find a big market if it could be made at the right price.  It's being developed at the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin

Pictured on the right is a picture of Panasonic's Wireless HD modules. I'll be posting another story about the technology tomorrow so I won;t write much about it here.

Walking the halls today reinfocred by first impressions yesterday that screens are getting thinner, more efficient, and bigger, They are also pushing up frame rates. Both Sony and Samsung showed 200Hz screens, refreshing four times faster than the picture they are screening.

The in-between frames are filled in by clever interpolation. Samsung had a demonstration of a 100Hz screen next to a standard model and there was an appreciable difference, though I am not sure you would miss the extra quality if it wasn't there.

Sony is showing the latest version of its ebook reader here but also on show is one called the BeBook from a Dutch company of the same name. It looks rather more elegant that the Iliad, which I reviewed recently, and has a slightly smaller screen that is not touch senstive.  It costs £229, which is a little more expensive than the Sony.

Most major vendors are now offering mini-notebooks. One comes from a name from the past, Commodore, the company that produced the much loved Commodore Pet. Or rather from the company that bought the brand Commodore. As you can see from the picture it looks like a dozen other makes doing the rounds. It has a 10in display and uses a Via C7-M processor, and weighs 1.4Kg.

I have to confess that I have never quite 'got' the craze for modding PCs, though some of the designs can be amusing. The one one the left was entered into a competiton at IFA. The only way yo can tell what it is by peering at the back, where USB ports and drive bays are hidden among the hieroglyphics.