The Gadget Show Live 2009

Unfortunately due to illness it’s taken me a couple of extra days to put this together, but at the weekend I attended The Gadget Show Live (GSL) at the NEC, Birmingham.  The Gadget Show is a UK television programme shown on Channel 5.  Each series has a weekly show and it showcases new technologies and compares leading products against one another.  it’s usually a good watch and the journalistic comparison is presented at a layman level and at the same time tends to offer some insightful points on practicalities of individual items.

Inside GSL

My expectation of GSL was that I would get to see some of the latest consumer technology and maybe even get a hands on look at some of it.  The reality however did not quite match up to my expectations.  There were some notable exceptions which I’ll come on to, but in the main much of the technology that I saw were things that I could walk into my local electronics store or along the high street and purchase.  It really wasn’t as cutting edge as I’d hoped.

There were some interesting things that I did come across at GSL which I hope to post about at a later date.  But there are a couple of things that I feel deserve a more special and immediate mention.

Sony OLED Details

OLED Screen

The big thing that people seemed blown away by was in fact something very small.  Sony had a couple of OLED screens on display.  OLED stands for organic light emitting diode and is a technology that is going to lead the way over the next few years in terms of screens.  Apart from producing better colour contrast than LCD with a lower power usage, they can be laid onto a thin surface allowing OLED screens to be placed on materials and surfaces that might not be able to take the weight of an LCD unit or that would simply be impractical (a fabric wrist strap for a watch might be a good example).

The screens on display looked okay from a distance, but when you got up close the quality was evident.  The colour was really very rich and incredibly clear.  Unfortunately at over £3,000 these are a little too expensive for most consumers, though the price is set to drop dramatically in the next few years and hopefully we’ll start seeing larger screens appearing too.

What will be really interesting to see is how this is utilised for portable touch screens such as those on the iPhone or how about a roll-out mat that you plug into a screenless ultra-mobile device to run Microsoft Surface.  The future is looking cooler and geekier every day.

How-To with TechDigest

The second thing I thought was particularly noteworthy was the “How-To” sessions run by TechDigest.  I originally dropped by to sit in on a panel discussion around the future of mobile phones but a shuffle in timetabling meant that I also sat in on ‘How to choose and HDTV’ session.  Both sessions were lead by Daniel Sung (TechDigest’s Editor) and were really quite interesting and informative.  The mobile phone session was supposed to have Richard Warmsley of T-mobile, but for an undisclosed reason he didn’t make it – so the panel consisted of Daniel Sung, Duncan Geere (TechDigest Editoral Assistant) and a guy from Geek Squad whose name I unfortunately can’t recall (but he was a good addition).

The general thrust of the future of phones was suggested to be around services and particularly around functionality delivered through application stores.  The arguments for this were well reasoned and the pitch was very much like a round the water cooler discussion which was one of the things that really made this session appeal to me.

I also came away with a 1 GB flash drive with details from all of the how-to sessions.  A nice and much appreciated touch – so thanks to TechDigest for that.

So that’s my uber brief round-up of some of the best and whilst it didn’t live up to my personal expectations, it was certainly a lot more relaxed that the “ICT trade shows” I’ve been to for work.  Hopefully I’ll post a few more bits and pieces about GSL in the not too distant future.

Previously, if you were hankering after a vehicle in the shape of a cat, you’d be limited to a bus. However, I’ve always hankered after the notion of straddling a large, shiny phallic cat, and had until recently been left out in the cold.

Luckily, Jaguar have been thinking of consumers just like me and have created this:

Whether this is an oversight or a feature, Jaguar appear to have missed off any means of actually moving the handlebars. Now, I’m not an expert on the intricacies of motorcycle riding, but from my scant knowledge, I believe that the handlebars are used primarily when on roads with corners. So this might not work all that well in those circumstances.

Other than that, though, it’s quite a feat of engineering. Because if you’re riding a bike, sounding like you’re humping a large cat, you may as well look like you are as well.

A snap at only £290,000.

(via techdigest)

Una notebook grande y totalmente personalizable. Los responsables: Alienware. La obra de arte: Area-51® m17x. Incluye una tarjeta NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX con tecnología SLI para manejar dos procesadores gráficos. Procesador doble Intel Core 2 Extreme. Hasta tres discos duros, con un potencial de almacenamiento de 1.5TB (sí, el hasta hace poco mítico terabyte) y 4GB de memoria RAM. Pantalla de 17 pulgadas Extreme High Definition (1200 píxeles) y la correspondiente alta definición de audio. Puedes incluso jugar con las luces y personalizarlas a tu gusto cuando quieras. Los precios de fábrica están entre $2199 y $4119.

Nota importante: nunca he visto una Alienware en vivo y en directo. No sé si las venderán en el Perú. Hay un sitio web que lo sugeriría, pero sólo vende accesorios, y no veo nada de la propia marca. Incluso las laptops que venden son HP. Siguiendo los comments en otros blogs, particularmente aquí, es probable que sólo las puedas conseguir directamente de la empresa. Así que a raspar RapiTinkas hasta que alcance.

Aquí una video reseña para TechDigest por la siempre bien ponderada Susi Weaser.

The web is a vocal place. Here are some echoes of what people are saying about Who Has The Biggest Brain?

Techdigest
“The hot new thing is connected brain training on Facebook. At least, that’s what I reckon after playing Who Has The Biggest Brain?, a new Facebook app that tests your grey cells against those of your friends. [...] The competitive element is fearsomely addictive, and the Flash graphics are polished and attractive.”
Full article…

WhatApps
“Playfish has raised the bar quite high for all Facebook apps with their new Who Has The Biggest Brain? game.”
Full article…

Game Axis

“Not all your non-gamer friends would be arsed to pick up a DS just to play Big Brain Academy with you (plus, it’s not exactly the epitome of fun). But turn it into a pissing contest amongst your peers at Facebook, and you got yourself an instant win.”

Full article…

PocketGamer
“[Playfish] has already launched its first game, Who Has The Biggest Brain?. It’s a Facebook application that’s inspired by brain training games on DS and mobile, with the added fun that you can see how your brain rates against your Facebook friends.
It’s rather marvellous.”
Full article…

The Unofficial Facebook Blog
“This is definitely one of the more entertaining games on Facebook.”
Full article…

And many many more. Keep them coming, they make our day!

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