Gadgets Category

Carl and Pete were out and about this weekend at the Dabs.com Live Gadget and IT Show.

The show took place in the Great Hall at Wembley Stadium,and was showcasing a number of new products and gadgets.

We took our roving mic with us, and recorded a few interviews with some of the key players at the show. Our thirty minute review of the show is now available online for your listening pleasure.

For pics of the show and transcripts of our interviews, and to listen to our Dabs Gadget Show Special, go to:

www.frequencycast.co.uk/dabsshow.html.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, download and listen via iTunes: FrequencyCast on iTunes.

 

 FrequencyCast Dabs.com Show Special March 2010 [31:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Remember this bad boy? Classic 80’s retro toy Big Trak is set for a come-back.

Programmable fun… Forward… Forward…. 90 degrees Left… Fire Phasers! Now watch that cat scarper!

This six-wheeled tank has a 23-button keypad, used to enter a series of commands. None of this remote-control malarky with Big Trak.

Big Trak is due back on shelves in August 2010, you can even pre-order one at find-me-a-gift.co.uk

What’s the best game for the iPhone / iPod Touch? Flight Control, of course.

Hideously addictive, and oh-so-simple – land the planes without them crashing into each other. If you’ve not tried it – get it from the iTunes App Store now (assuming you don’t want to be productive for the next few hours, that is).

Now, Flight Control is available for a whole new platform – the Nintendo DSi. Congrats to the makers Firemint.

If you have a Nintendo DS, you owe it to yourself to fire up your DSi, go to the Nintendo store, go to DSIWare and download Flight Control. You’ll soon be gliding planes to a save landing with your stylus. It’ll cost you 500 DSI points.

If you beat our highest score, there’ll be trouble!

The iPad is out. We’ve been listening to a flaky audio stream live from Apple’s Keynote speech to find out what’s new, and here’s what we can report:

The iPad:

It’s a 9.7 inch touchscreen tablet – think of it as an iPhone that’s two and a half times larger. It has a 10 hour battery life, comes in 16, 32 and 64 Gig versions and is wi-fi enabled – a 3G version will also be available. Price for the iPad starts from $499 in the US (converts to £310). An iBooks (eBook Reader app and store) will be available, as will iWork (Apple’s new wordprocessing, spreadsheet and presentations applications). It’ll run existing iPhone apps. Looks like this will be available in the UK sometime from June onwards…

Other Stuff?

Many were expecting an announcement of a new iPhone OS, expected to be iPhone OS4. Sadly, nothing.

Our thoughts

Looks like a nice piece of kit, and it’s bound to be a hit with many. A little larger than we were expecting, but thin and sexy, as with all of Apple’s stuff.

Interesting to see Apple’s dipping into the eBook market, and their iBooks store could be a big hit, as Apple’s bound to make book purchase as easy as App store. Also, with the Apple iPad being available for $499 for a colour touch screen, Sony Reader and Kindle will have a struggle competing.

It’s going to be available in the US “in 60 days”. The 3G element will mean it’ll be several months before we see these in the UK.

Thoughts?

It’s jolly chilly out there, so our advice is to stay in and have a nice cup of coffee.

Our Pete considers himself to be something of a coffee connoisseur, and he’s been on a quest for a decent home coffee machine for a while. He’s tried a generic coffee machine, been sadly disappointed by a Tassimo machine’s awful cappuccino capsules, and until Christmas, was happy with a Nespresso machine. He’s been craving a decent home Italian coffee solution – either Illy or Lavazza – and now he’s found one.

Today, Pete’s been playing with an Amodo Mio Lavazza coffee machine (well, it’s cold outside), and has recorded a short review of his ability to make a decent cappuccino.

If you’re at a loose end, have a listen to 4 minutes of Pete talking about coffee – See and hear our Amodo Mio Lavazza Review.

Into your coffee? We’d love to hear your home coffee stories and preferences.

 

 FrequencyCast Lavazza Amodo Mio Unofficial Guide [5:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Do you want to be a record breaker? Share the gadget love this festive season by taking part in the Global Secret Santa.

Secret Santa is the tradition of swapping gifts anonymously amongst groups of friends or workmates. Those guys and gals at Firebox.com are attempting to get into the Guiness Book of records by creating the largest Secret Santa. Here’s how it works:

Go to the special Global Secret Santa site, pick a gadget gift from the section on offer, and write a quick message. Firebox will send your gift to a random person somewhere in the world, and you’ll get a mystery gadget from someone else in return. It’s a bit of fun, and you’ll get a gadget for your trouble.

All of the team at FrequencyCast HQ have joined in – so some lucky tech lovers out there will find a gift and a message from FrequencyCast.

Join in too, and share the gadget love at globalsecretsanta.com

Lovers of the Nintendo’s Wii can now access TV and radio from the last seven days for free.

Sure, it’s been possible to watch the BBC iPlayer via the Nintendo Wii web browser for a while, but from today, the 18th of November, you can now install a free BBC iPlayer channel from the Nintendo Wii Store.

After a few hours of watching Doctor Who, flicking through content, and testing the Listen Again radio service, we’re very impressed.

The quality of video playback is a huge improvement over watching video via the Wii web browser, and the interface is well laid-out and optimised for the Wii. The channel works well, TV and radio streaming is smooth, and setup was a breeze.

Get installing, y’all…

Remember the o2 Joggler? The home device that o2 pushed in May of this year as a replacement magnets on the fridge door as a way to keep the family in touch?

Two bits of news out today are set to make this device that little but more desirable.

The o2 Joggler is already a powerful device – digital pictureframe, wireless media streamer, Internet-connected News, Sport, Travel and Weather browser, text message device and online diary… but today, it’s become an Internet radio.

An over-the-air update has added DAB radio experts Pure’s “Lounge” Internet radio application, allowing an initial 100 free streaming stations to be accessed on the Joggler.

An app store is promised by the end of the year, and the Joggler platform is open to developers to create applications.

Also, best of all, o2’s just slashed the price to under £100.

We reviewed the o2 Joggler in FrequencyCast Show 41. If you want to get a Joggler at the new low price, go to shop.o2.co.uk/joggler

In Show 45, we took a quick look at the Olympus LS-11, pictured here. This is a high-spec recording device that can record high-quality stereo audio on the move.

As we only had a few minutes in the show to cover this impressive bit of kit, we’ve put together one of our special “Unofficial Guides”, where we go out and about with the recorder capturing sounds and exploring what the LS-11 can do.

Carl and Pete had lots of fun playing with this recorder, and it gave Carl a chance to show off that he does actually know something that Pete doesn’t (which makes a change). have a listen to hear something of a role-reversal for our on-air duo.

The show lasts a little over 18 minutes, and can be downloaded now as an MP3 podcast.

Photos of the LS-11, a detailed review, and the original, uncompressed sounds, can be found at www.frequencycast.co.uk/olympusrecorders.html

 

 FrequencyCast Olympus LS-11 Unofficial Guide [18:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’d like to introduce you to Chumby…

Always keen to explore new gadgets, we think the Chumby is a rather interesting concept – somwhere between a Nabaztag and a Joggler, the Chumby sits quietly where you put it, and uses an wi-fi Internet connection to pull down weather, news, Internet radio, podcasts (including ours, we hope), and whole host of other feeds and content via Flash widgets (around 1,500 of them).

Thanks to Michael Johnson, one of our regular listeners, for pointing this little chap out to us – anyone interested in us giving this a review in the next show?

The Chumby is available now in the UK from Firebox.com. See our Chumby Review for more.

On Monday 19th October, the Kindle hits the UK.

If you’re not in the know, the Kindle is Amazon’s eBook Reader. It’s been big news in the US, and until now has not been available here in the UK.

Things have opened up, and it’s now possible to get a Kindle direct from Amazon – But it’s Amazon.com, not Amazon.co.uk

So, how does the Kindle differ from other eBook readers, such as the Sony Reader that we reviewed last year? Well, it’s a connected device, using 3G to get new books and newspapers (no need to hook up to a PC). It also has a keyboard, and buying books from the Amazon store is a lot easier than the Sony purchase route.

The Kindle has a mobile phone chip inside (to allow you to get books on the move), but there’s no monthly fee or data costs – just the purchase price of the Kindle, and books (more expensive in the UK than the US, sadly). You can also get UK and US papers on a Kindle.

Including import and delivery, it’ll cost £216 to get a Kindle here in the UK. For the full SP on the International Kindle, go to www.amazon.com.

To fight back, Waterstones has recently dropped the price of their Sony Reader collection.

More details on the Amazon Kindle on Amazon.com’s Kindle site.

Lots for fan of Apple products to sink their teeth into as Apple has released a new set of iPods, a new version of firmware for the iPhone, and an updated iTunes. Here’s a summary:

New iPods:

A new iPod Nano has been released, sporting a video camera and a slightly larger screen. 8 Gig version is £115 and 16 Gig model is £135. At last, an FM radio has been added, as has voiceover, Genius mixes and a pedometer.

There has also been an update to the screen and button-less iPod shuffle, which now comes in Pink, Green and Blue.

There’s also a 64 Gig iPod Touch, for just under £300

iPhone OS3.1

The new iPhone OS adds support for Genius mixes, and will recommend applications that you may be interested in downloading, based on your previous purchases. There are a number of fixes too, including better Wi-Fi performance when using Bluetooth, a phishing alert in the browser, and improved Exchange calendar sync.

iTunes 9

An improved user interface and a new feature called Home Sharing that will let up to 5 authorised computers share music, TV shows and applications.

There’s also iTunes LP, which will supply extra goodies with purchased albums, including song lyrics, photos and video clips.

You can also organise the layout of your iPhone and iPod Touch screens from within iTunes, and there is now more control over what you decide you want to sync to your device.

Lots of new toys to play with. Enjoy!

The long-awaited LG Watchphone, the LG-GD910, is now available from Orange.

The Watchphone is 3G, with touchscreen and VGA camera. It also has Bluetooth, eight different watch faces, MP3 playback and a scratch-resistant screen.

The LG Watchphone is a steep £500 at at launch is only available by turning up in person at the Orange Store on London’s Bond Street. From mid-September it will be available online via the Orange Shop.

If you fancy a fully-featured mobile phone watch for half that price, consider the SWAP Phone

Sony has announced two new e-Book readers, to follow up from the Sony PRS-505.

The PRS-300 is smaller, and more pockable, whilst the Sony Reader PRS-600 comes with a touchscreen, holds up to 350 books and support handwritten notes.

The new Sony Readers will be out on the 10th September, and are available to pre-order now at Waterstones.

For a 10% saving on the top Sony Reader, read on.

For a limited time, we’re happy to be able to offer a £20 off voucher code to allow FrequencyCast listeners to save on Sony’s impressive electronic book reader.

If you’re looking for more detail on the Sony Reader, listen to our review in Show 19, or see our eBook Info page.

If you’re up for £20 off and free delivery, go to the Waterstones Sony Reader page, and use code R27736 at the checkout. Limited time only

If you were watching the BBC show “Dragon’s Den” tonight, you may have seen a pitch for a product called “TrueCall” – a gadget that plugs into your phone line and screens out unwanted calls.

All of the Dragons were hot for this product, and it’s not surprising. The Truecall works by looking at the caller display number of incoming calls. You can whitelist or blacklist numbers. For calls with no caller ID, the Truecall asks for a name, giving you the choice of accepting or rejecting the call.

What wasn’t mentioned in the feature on Dragon’s Den tonight, is that the trueCall unit can be turned into an answerphone, and a phone call recorder. Fancy recording your calls for “training purposes”? The trueCall can do that, with a £25 add-on.

We’ve found an online supplier for TrueCall: To find out more about the product, go to http://www.dabs.com/products/truecall-nuisance-call-blocker-5KB7.html.

Anyone interested in us reviewing this for an upcoming tech podcast? Add a comment

We’ve just released an audio update to cover some stories that have broken since our last full-length show…

In our update, we look at the latest on Setanta / ESPN, good news for Virgin Media customers looking for HD, news of a product recall for the o2 Joggler, plus the end of the road for Phorm.

Enjoy the update.

 

 FrequencyCast Update - 13 July 2009 [7:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’ve had an amazing response to one of the products we covered in Show 40 of our podcast… the Pulse Smartpen.

Thanks to all those who’ve been in touch asking questions about the pen, or who tried our first Pen Cast.

Yes – the Pulse pen appears to be our hit gadget of the year – following on from last year’s mobile phone in a watch.

The pen has a built-in camera to keep a track of every scribble you make, it records what it hears as you write, and converts your writing to editable text – plus that magic piano.

If you’re looking for more info, see the review over on our sister site: FileSaveAs review of the Livescribe Smartpen.

 

 Pulse Smartpen Review in Show 40 [30:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Satellite Navigation devices could start to fail from 2010, according to a US Government report. The network of orbiting GPS satillites is now around 20 years old, and satellites are expected to fail shortly.

The satellites need replacing after their 20 year lifespan, and the first launch of a new satellite was due for the start of 2007 by the US Air Force. This has slipped by over two and a half years so far due to “technical issues”, and the budget has already been exceeded.

It’s not clear just how close to failure the system actually is, but the official predictions are that if nothing’s done, we could start seeing breaks and unreliable GPS data from 2010, causing grief for the many military and commercial services that use GPS for positioning.

Bet you’re glad you didn’t throw that old A-to-Z away now?

The Nintendo DSi was released in the UK at the start of April 2009.

The Frequencycast podcast lads have been quick to get their hands on this new games console and put it through its paces.

Now, regular listeners will know that we’re not a games podcast – we’re all about the technology – so we’re exploring the hardware, the camera and the Internet and audio software.

Our “Unofficial Guide to the Nintendo DSi” lasts about 20 minutes, and is online now for your listening pleasure.

Hear the lads have lots of fun, and see a collection of photos at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/dsi.html

 

 FrequencyCast Guide to the Nintendo DSi [20:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download