30 December 2010 12:20 GMT / By Dan Sung
One often looks at CES and January as the biggest moments in the tech calendar but there’s no doubt that 2010 was all about September. The month started with a bang as this year’s IFA show in Berlin caught the beginning of autumn rather than the end of August as it sometimes does. With the iPad launch earlier in 2010, we were all expecting a year of tablets and we weren’t disappointed. Finally, the world met the Android powered, 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab and there was even a little competition with the Toshiba Folio 100 as well. Aside those treats, it was the usual case of a world of AV products - 3D being the watchword - as well as a promise from Motorola that we’d see a tablet from them come CES 2011. Watch this space.

For the gritty details of everything that whent down in Berlin, take a look at our IFA 2010 homepage but, if it was the tablets you’re after, then it was elsewhere we got a glimpse - albeit behind glass - of other gadgets in this emerging space. September also saw BlackBerry’s annual event in the US where Pocket-lint snapped the BlackBerry PlayBook concept as well as the latest Bold and Pearl mobiles running OS 6 and sat down to a full explanation of just what this QNX operating system was all about.
Nokia too decided that September would be a good time for the company's Nokia World show which this time took place in good old Blighty. Despite their fire going out in the eyes of the Western World, there was still plenty of interest in the handsets that were on show including the C7 and the Nokia E7 QWERTY communicator. Again, more on the event as a whole on our Nokia World home page.

At the same time, HTC’s Peter Chou thought he’d gazump proceedings down the road with a launch that the world had been waiting for all year. Yes, it was free minibus shuttle for journalists war as the Desire HD and Desire Z became real along with the upgraded version of HTC Sense and lots and lots of dribbling gadget fans.
Motorola weren’t to be outdone either - in theory, anyway - so the company held an event for its second crack at QWERTY chic with the Motorola Milestone 2 as well as launching probably the only Android handroid designed with toughness at heart - the Defy. Fortunately, the month was also kind to those on a budget as Orange came up with the San Francisco Android smartphone which has proved to be one of the most popular handsets out there. And to wind it all up one the mobile front, there was even one phone seen that no one was able to get their hands on. Do take a look at the video of the concept that is the Mozilla Seabird if you didn’t catch it first time around. Mind blowing.

Naturally, Apple wasn’t going to sit there and do nothing, so the company made sure its annual Autumn refresh of the iPod range went without a hitch and even beefed up proceedings with the revamp of Apple TV and the launch of iOS 4.1 with its tablet sized dreams.
Despite it all though, September truly belonged to the camera world with the Photokina 2010 trade show in Cologne and a huge host of other optical launches that happened around the world at the same time. Naturally, Pocket-lint was all over it like a UV filter and brought back pictures of DSLRs like the mid-range Canon 60D, the enthusiast powerhouse that is the Nikon D7000, the alternative Pentax K-5 and the super-expensive Hasselblad Ferrari H4D and medium format, £10k Pentax 645D.

An embarrassment of riches this might have been but it was really all about the compacts or, more specifically, those cameras that lie somewhere in between. Canon and Nikon got professional with their G12 and P7000 respectively, Samsung got very excited about their latest take on the mirrorless interchangeable lens market with the NX100 and it was probably Fuji that stole the show with the very swish looking rangefinder-a-like with APS-C sensor that is, and hopefully will be soon, the FujiFilm FinePix X100. Of course, if you had £20,000 to spend, there was always the Titanium Leica M9 and you can see all the other bits and pieces we dug up on the Photokina 2010 homepage.
So much happening and so little time but we still found the seconds to bring you news away from all the product launches as well. We met a spray on fabric revolution called Fabrican, we brought you photos of the futuristic Electrolux Design Labs competition, we got our first glimpse of the Facebook film on MySpace of all places and there was also the sad news of the tragic death of the man who ran Segway and the not so sad closure of Blockbuster video in the US. Ex-employees of Ritz Video UK are still waiting to jump for joy over this side of the waters.



Best new iPad apps to show off the Retina Display UPDATED: How to best test your hardware
APP OF THE DAY: Logos Quiz Game review (iPhone/iPad) Have you got a brand?
Best Windows Phone 7 apps Must download apps
Year in review 2011: July US loses shuttle but gains Spotify
Draw Something tips and tricks from the pros Zynga, gamers, artists, and cartoonist tell all
Is Facebook about to buy Opera to create own Facebook browser? EXCLUSIVE: Pocket-lint source tells us "yes"
APP OF THE DAY: The Weather Channel review (iPhone / iPod touch) Tonight for the first time, just about half-past ten...
Mazda CX5 2.2 TDI AWD A very zoomy SUV
Apple testing 3.95-inch iPhone 5, with 16:9 display 1136 x 640 resolution revolution
Jony Ive: Next Apple product is our most important and best work yet Better than iPod, iPad and iPhone?
Which smartphone is best for the sun? Screens for the Summer
Batman Nokia Lumia 900: Limited edition phone heading to UK Who are you? I'm Batman
WIN: Tickets to Ibiza Rocks to see Maverick Sabre and Labrinth live Epic prize courtesy of Sony
Dragon's Dogma Adventure time
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Roger likes a Tango at 12 o'clock
Porsche 911 Carrera (991) 2012 pictures and hands-on WANT
Robert Moog Google doodle best yet, even better than Les Paul Synthesizer synthesiser
Canon EOS 5D MK III It's a hat-trick
British Gas turns Team GB swimming stars into superheroes Aquanauts assemble
APP OF THE DAY: Mini Motor review (Android, iPhone and iPad) Top-down. Top app.
Olympus OM-D E-M5 review
The compact system camera to beat all others?
Nokia Lumia 900 review
Is big beautiful?
HTC One V review
V for victory?
Huawei Ascend G300 review
Big bang for your hundred quid
FIFA 12: UEFA Euro 2012 review
Lacks polish, if not the Polish
Asus Transformer Pad TF300T review
Transforms your money in to a great tablet
Nikon Coolpix P510 review
Does the P510 zoom beyond expectations?
Fujifilm X-Pro1 review
Like a Leica
Volkswagen Beetle Design 1.2TSi DSG review
The bug is back. Again.
BlackBerry Curve 9320 review
A BB for beginners?
Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR review
Can Fujifilm’s latest put the ‘super’ in superzoom?
HP Envy 14 Spectre review
The Ultrabook that isn't an Ultrabook
The Walking Dead: The Game review
Fleshed out zombie bonanza
Nikon Coolpix S6300 review
Point, shoot and scoot