The battle to win the hearts and minds of consumers in the TV space centres largely around having flatter, bigger full HD panels. And Sony is no different. But it is also working technology to produce super-slim, ultra bright TVs.

Its OLED (Organic LED) panels have a contrast ratio of a whopping 1,000,000:1 and are mere millimetres thick. OLEDs are organic polymers and when electricity is passed through them it gives out brighter, deeper colours.

The prototypes, which have been around for a while, and shown at other trade shows around the world, are just 11.3inches in size.

The technology is due for release in Japan next year, and again it reaches only 27inches in size. Because the picture is so bright, due to the contrast ratio, so the TVs need no backlight.

Currently there are no plans to release the TVs in the Middle East, but if a success in Japan, they will quickly be releases into other regions. Equally, as the technology improves, expect to see the panel size quickly increase.

Holy smoke! No this isn’t a hybrid wireless access smoke detector…

D-Link is bringing out two 802.11g wireless access points next year that are both designed to look like smoke detectors. They are aimed at businesses such as hotel, where a company want to keep the additional devices looking similar.

They can be ceiling mounted, and have to power options: via a conventional plug or using Power over Ethernet (PoE), a technology that is still in its infancy, but that uses the Ethernet cable to trickle power to a device. At the moment, only low powered devices can take advantage of PoE, although obvious future applications ripe for the technology once it can charge more power hungry devices are networked printers and computers.

Of the two D-Link DAP 3260 devices pictured, the larger one has a greater range.

For those fed up with moving their mouse around to see little change to the cursor’s position on the screen,  has released the MX Air mouse. As the name suggests, it’s a mouse that can be waved around in the air to control the cursor. It’s really aimed at those that use the multi-media functions, perhaps coupled with a media entertainment PC, or for those that have to give regular presentations.

We had a quick try of the mouse, and it takes a little getting used to initially, but didn’t take too long to get control of the cursor. As to how comfortable it is to use as a mouse, we didn’t have it long enough to decide. But if it is to be used over the day, it would most likely spend as much time on a flat surface as a traditional mouse as it would one that is used in the air. Priced at Dhs595, an in-built gyroscope controls the position of the cursor, and it comes with handy buttons for controlling volumes and media playback.

We should be getting one in for test later this week, so look out for a video review on the site soon.

Also released at Gitex was what Logitech claims is the world’s smallest USB receiver. It is tiny, barely protruding from the USB port, and forms part of the VX Nano mouse package. The mouse itself is a pretty standard size. The company said it took two years to design the receiver. Usually USB receivers are long because this increases the strength of the antenna, so Logitech had to design it to have good range but be of a tiny size.

The other product fresh from Logitech is the Wave keyboard, designed to be ergonomically better for typing. The keys have, as the name suggests, a wave shape rather than the more traditional flat layout, which is designed to better fit with the differing length of our fingers. It costs Dhs395.

LG is set to launch its awaited Super Multi-Blue, dual format high definition DVD player into the Middle East market. Able to play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD films, it was unveiled at the beginning of the year at CES in Las Vegas.

With the format war on-going between the Blu-ray and HD-DVD standards camps, it has left consumers with the choice of backing one format knowing that if it ultimately falls from favour and dies, they have invested money in a dead technology. HD-DVD took an early lead, but Blu-ray, with its backing from Sony and inclusion in PlayStation 3 games consoles is now outselling its rival.

Whether one format will fall by the wayside – and if so which - is still the subject of much debate, and LG is attempting to capture a share in the HD market by releasing a hybrid machine. It has also developed hybrid Blu-ray/HD-DVD optical drives for PCs.

The unit displays film in 1080p resolution and will write Blu-ray discs, but does lose some controls available to HD-DVD-only players. The price was not announced, but at launch in the US it cost around $1,200.