BERLIN, Germany — What’s the world of consumer electronics coming to? How about to a whole-house/whole-life embrace of technology.

The clues were all there last week at IFA, International Funkausstellung, the meeting ground of electronics manufacturers, retailers, media and the C.E.-loving public held at the giant Messe Berlin exhibit and fairgrounds in West Berlin.

IFA has been around since 1924, when it was established to introduce radios and phonographs to the German public. That fun-loving physicist Albert Einstein was a keynote speaker at one of the early fairs.

But this year, for the very first time, event organizers invited home-appliance manufacturers to also exhibit their wares — scores of fancy coffee makers, brainy kitchen and laundry appliances, sophisticated personal-care products and more — with the usual array of audio and video goodies, navigation systems, mobile phones and such. The addition made the show absolutely huge (1.3 million square feet) and unwieldy, with 1,240 exhibitors from 63 countries unveiling tens of thousands of products.

But the change sure brought extra excitement and fun for showgoers. Celebrity chefs came, too, whipping up coffee treats and pasta dishes for sampling in their giant “test kitchen” booths like the Siemens lifeKochArena outfitted with the latest in speed-cook ovens, food processors and such.

IFA chief officer Christian Goke said the new show recognized that the public buys both “white” (appliances) and “brown” (consumer electronics) goods in the same superstores and doesn’t really differentiate between them. He argued that the kitchen is now as central a gathering place as the living room, and both varieties of home goods are equally high-tech, entertaining and central to our daily lives.

Here’s a look at some of what the show featured:

— Philips may have nudged IFA to this new style of thinking. It recently combined its audio/video and home appliance divisions under the banner of “Consumer Lifestyle Products.” And while there were plenty of cool TVs, networkable music systems and more to tout, Philips was equally enthused about smaller gadgets like a new rendering of its Senseo pod coffee maker (20 million sold!). It’s called Latte Select and includes a milk-frothing feature for specialty coffee drinks. The second generation WakeUp Light is a bedside, clock-set companion that gradually brightens and thus awakens you “just as nature intended” — then it can hit you with a radio or buzzer alarm if the illumination wasn’t enough.

Look for it to hit the U.S. next year.

— The merging of lines also played out in products like the Haier Wash 20, the first washing machine that dispenses entirely with detergent, using instead a patented water electrolysis system with oxygen as the primary cleaning agent and hydrogen for additional cleaning during rinsing. Appliance maker Gorenje unveiled the first, Apple-sanctioned “made for iPod” refrigerator. Equipped with a video screen and speakers, it lets you view content (including recipes and movies) from an in-door docked iPod.

— At IFA, many companies were touting their “green” awareness — how much more energy efficient their new products are, and how easy to recycle these items will be.

Flat panel LCD TVs are undergoing a big transformation this year, with makers like Samsung, Sony, Philips and others at IFA introducing screens illuminated by environmentally correct, low-power LED bulbs instead of cold fluorescent tubes (which contain mercury.) Besides being more eco-friendly, LEDs offer better LCD set performance and sexier cosmetics.

Sony and Samsung were also touting “the world’s first” TVs that refresh a picture at four times normal speed.

That would be 200 Hz (200 times a second) for the European standard, and 240 Hz for sets conforming to U.S. broadcasting. Motion blur — traditionally a sore point with LCD televisions — seemed totally eradicated in these high speed TVs, which could hit stores on both sides of the big pond at year’s end.

More from the floor: Toshiba, sore loser in the high-def video-disc war, showed off its first DVD players, TV sets and laptop computers using advanced processing to deliver a claimed “near HD” picture from conventional DVDs (for which Toshiba holds core patents).

In side-by-side-comparisons of their players and large screen sets with the new “Resolution +” circuitry on and off, the touted improvement seemed barely visible. But the 17-inch picture on a Toshiba Quosimo G55 laptop really sharpened up when its Quad Core HD Processor was engaged. Go figure.

Panasonic sprang the first high definition Blu-Ray disc recorder for the European market at IFA.

The DMRBW500 has twin HD digital tuners and also a 500 GB hard drive on board, allowing users to watch one program while recording another.

For the time being it will be available only in France, a company exec said, because that’s the only European country offering plenty of HD broadcasts. Um, don’t you guys think there’s enough broadcast content in the U.S. to warrant sales here? Or has Hollywood tied your hands?

— Weirdest products at IFA: A stripped bare, eco-friendly Sony digital still camera for kids, already on sale in Japan, is twirled around on a finger to power up and advance to the next shot.

At another extreme is a line of female torso-shaped computer mice called Pat Says Now. You can just imagine where the left and right buttons and scroll wheel are located.