Tech Blog

Apr 24 2012

Our Verdict on The Gadget Show World Tour

I was originally going to publish this article last night after the show had aired but there was such an amount of negativity on Twitter that I decided to sleep on it and publish it with fresh eyes outside of the heat of the moment.

Starting in 2004, for many years The Gadget Show was THE program to watch for news and reviews about consumer Technology and Gadgets. It’s presenting team of Jason Bradbury, Suzi Perry, Jon Bentley, later joined by Ortis Deley and Pollyanna Woodward, had good chemistry, worked well together and were well liked, particularly the original cast.

A mix of enthusiasm, professional reviews and technology based challenges found The Gadget Show respect in the
technology arena and a huge fan base, as seen by the massive attendances at the Gadget Show Live shows. For 16 series the show went from strength to strength with impressive viewing figures during the shows traditional Monday Evening slot, but then the news broke that series was about to undergo a massive over haul, out went the studio based format, and in came an international road trip format. Bigger news followed that Suzi, Jon & Ortis were no longer involved in the show, and it wasn’t by their choice. The Gadget Show Web Page was flooded with complaints but the decision had been made to radically change the shows format, gone was the Gadget Show and in it’s place was The Gadget Show World Tour, and last night the new format aired for the first time but was it a success?

The first thing to say is that this incarnation of the Gadget Show is very different making it difficult to compare with the traditional format, the lack of studio time makes the show feel more like a documentary rather then a magazine show, a trait that is backed up with a challenge that arcs across the whole episode, in this case to build a robot to compete in the Robot Wrestling Championships, of course being set in Japan there are plenty of tech suppliers to help. The addition of a story line is an interesting one, it gives each episode a purpose but sometimes it came across as being a little forced and was definitely a step away from the relaxed studio atmosphere.

@zoeghdie on Twitter: A bit annoyed at how overly dramatised @thegadgetshow has become! Hmmm… or is it only me?

In between robot building were features on different technology elements, starting tonight with a review if 3D camcorders, fantastic I thought a return to the shows routes but unfortunately there was a twist, the camcorders were to be used to film Poly dressed up as a Manga character complete with up skirt shots. There is no doubt that this will appeal to certain demographics but there is a real danger, as the following Tweets show, that distracting away from the Tech will cheapen the meaningfulness of the review.

@Darrin1066 on Twitter: @TheGadgetShow up skirt video of Polly! What’s that all about, I want to know the best gadgets to buy. Not soft porn and robots!

@richiemortuk on Twitter: Hmmn, dressing @GadgetPolly in skimpy clothes, and getting her to dance whilst filming up her skirt and #thegadgetshow is dead

Another change in shows visual style was the introduction of interview style sections to camera, with each each presenter providing a personal insight into why decisions were made for the task and also their thoughts on the trip as a whole, creating a video diary. Polly and Jason were answering questions from an interviewer but the original questions were edited out making the scene looking a little odd.

@LawTechGadget on Twitter: @thegadgetshow Why did you change the format? @suziperry & ors made it the show it is today. The diary thing is v strange.#thegadgetshow

One opportunity provided in the new format is that presenting the entire episode from a single country allows you to

HatsuneMiku

look at the culture of the country, and this was covered by Polly and Jason exploring a sensational 3D Holographic Japanese pop sensation using the impressive HatsuneMiku voice synthesis software and looking at the worlds most advanced walking robot. This could potentially become a fascinating aspect to the show allowing us to see how different cultures interact with technology in different ways.

But is the show a step in the right direction, or is our beloved Gadget Show a thing of the past? The previous show was so popular that any change in format was going to be difficult to get over with the shows fan base, I don’t think that there’s an argument to say that the show didn’t need a slight re-fresh but this complete over hall might be a step to far. Did the show deserve the massive backlash it got last night, obviously not as it show certainly had its entertaining moments, but there is no doubt that the show desperately missed it’s regular presenting team, and the on-screen chemistry that they had built over the years. There is also some question as to why Pollyanna was chosen as a presenter when she possibly had built the least creditability with the audience, had this been an interim show to cover the space in between series then it would have been received in a much more positive manner but as the main gadget show output it no longer ticks some of the boxes that it used to.

Whilst the majority of Twitter expressed a negative reaction to The Gadget Show World Tour, it did get some positive feedback so I’ll leave you with some more thoughts from Twitter, showing examples of the good, the bad & the ugly

@scottgroovez on Twitter: @TheGadgetShow Oh I shall; missing the banter between the presenters. Look forward to seeing what’s next!@VickyGough1 On Twitter: #thegadgetshow – love love love it.

@fluffyheadorca on Twitter: I won’t be watching @TheGadgetShow until they bring back @OrtisDeley @suziperry @jonbentley90 RT if you agree #showruined #thegadgetshow

@Weezykid On Twitter: I actually prefer the new #thegadgetshow format so far. Not sure about the interview bits but glad its tech centric @TheGadgetShow

@Viva_Vialli on twitter: Very disappointed with #thegadgetshow not the same without the full crew. @JasonBradbury is still “The man” but the gold digger???!!!

@AnnaPhylaxis on Twitter: Very much enjoyed #thegadgetshow tonight. I can say that cos I didn’t make it. Fascinating technology & tech culture.

Update on Viewing Figures
See here for an update on The Gadget Show World Tour Viewing Figures

About the Author
This has been a post by Phil Lane, a self confessed Gadget Addict. To read all his Blog Posts Click Here.

You can follow Phil on Twitter at @GadgetPhil

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By Gadget Phil • Tech Blog • 2 • Tags: ,

Mar 8 2012

The Dangers of Location Based Social Media

Before I jump straight into the main body of this article, here’s a quick introduction to this post. I’ve been looking at location based Social networks for research for a forthcoming article, but as I became familiar with FourSquare it became apparent to me that there is a very real risk associated with using this type of service along side of Twitter. So I decided to put together this article to outline what I found and  hopefully it might you think about your security and safety….

“I’ve just told you where I am !!“

Social Media has become an increasingly common element in our lives, and we are getting more and more comfortable about sharing our lives with our online friends and followers.

We share our deepest thoughts, feelings, activities, personal pictures, and now more and more commonly our location. This means that a large amount of our lives is out there on the Internet, do any one of us gives this a second thought, or is it now just accepted as the normal thing to do.
How well is this data protected, and is there a risk that the information we provide could be used by Cyber Criminals?
20120307-225320.jpgRecently I’ve been looking at FourSquare which is a location based Social Network which allows you to ‘check in’ and state your current location. The users of the service do this for a number of reasons, for example it allows them to see if any of their friends are in the same location as themselves and to see if there are any special offers available in the premises. Being a user of FourSquare has many benefits and provides  fun challenges, and Foursquare also the feature  to automatically Tweet your check-ins automatically onto Twitter.

Most Social Networks have strong and secure privacy policies, and Foursquare includes tight seccurity settings, but because of it’s anonymous nature most people leave Twitter open for anyone to read their tweets. So it doesn’t matter how secure your FourSquare security settings are, if FourSquare automatically tweets your information it’s only as secure as your Twitter settings.
When FourSquare tweets to your timeline it publishes where you complete with a map, this becomes  a problem as Twitter includes a comprehensive & advanced search engine, which allows you to search on location of where the tweet was published from.

Using Twitters Search tool within a matter of a couple of minutes I was able to see who was automatically publishing tweets with FourSquare near my locality, after finding these tweeters you could easily see information about their location and you can start to follow them on Twitter.

There are specifically 2 major areas where this can be an issue, these are burglary and Stalking.

Many FourSquare users check in when they get home, so by modifying the twitter search criteria to include the word 20120307-224029.jpg‘home’ I could search for people nearby and by clicking on the tweeted Foursquare link you get a map of their approx home location. So you can find the rough location of their home and then by watching their Twitter feed you’ll be able to see when they are out of the house when they check into a new location. It must be a burglar’s dream come true.
It also means that if a FourSquare tweeters house is burgled any of their followers could be a suspect.
Stalking is ever more sinister, a user who tweets their FourSquare information can be tracked, profiled, their schedule examined, their interests discussed and possibly their photo seen on their profile picture. There’s enough information available to see where someone is and what they look like, if a stalker wanted to find you and those with you they could. The fact that information is available on mobile devices means that you can be found very quickly.

“You can’t see me !!”

This is very scary stuff but it’s not the fault of the social networks, but rather in how we use them and how accepting we are of our data being available to a large audiance.

There are a couple of very simple things you can do to protect yourself:

  • Firstly never checkin to a home location, there are plenty of other ways to let proper friends know you are home.
  • Secondly turn off automatic tweeting in FourSquare, it’s much better if you control who sees your location rather then you having no control over who knows where you are

Social Networking is fun but you need make rememeber to make sure that you are responcible with your personal data.

About the Author

This has been a blog post by Phil Lane, a self confessed Gadget Addict. To read all his Blog Posts Click Here.

You can follow Phil on Twitter at @GadgetPhil

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Feb 5 2012

How to Make the Most of your Unlimited Data Plan

Mobile devices are pretty limited without a mobile data connection, relying on pre-saved files and cached information. But, by adding an active data connection you open up a number of possibilities from improved productivity and communication to increased entertainment.

Unfortunately Mobile data plans have become limited in recent years, with fixed data allowances putting a limit on how much data you can download per month before you start to get charged a significant fee for usage.
Fortunately, Three have introduced The One Plan which as part of your contract gives you truly unlimited data usage, so that you don’t have to worry about extra costs.
But what can you do with your unlimited data allowance, here are some suggestions.

1) Share the joy of connectivity with other devices.
The use of The One Plan isn’t limited to just your mobile handset, if your mobile has the ability to become a Mobile Hotspot then your connection can be shared with any wifi enabled device, for example, this might be your laptop, tablet, or portable games device. This means that you are no longer dependant on public wifi availability free or otherwise.
Working mobile becomes a real possibility by using your mobile phone as an access point, you can gain access to your email, files and virtual environments, all through your normal laptop as if you were on your home wifi network.

When you go on holiday or travel, if you have access to unlimited mobile data you no longer have to worry about finding a hotspot or paying for Internet access, you can simply turn on your personal hotspot and enjoy Internet access. Also students no longer need to worry about paying for broadband in their student property, mobile broadband is a good substitute.

All work and no play is dull though, so don’t forget that you can use your wifi hotspot to access entertainment sites like iPlayer, and TV catchup on the larger screen of your laptop.

2) Control your Home PC through your mobile phone.

You can now take your home PC with you – virtually. Using a remote control app, like PocketCloud or Logmein, you can access your home PC as if you were sat in front of it.
An application runs on your computer which forms a secure gateway between your desktop and your mobile device, and your desktop screen is delivered to you, allowing you to remotely control your PC.


This means that you can access all your usual applications as if they were running on your mobile device, the desktop screen is automatically scaled to match the screen size of your mobile device, and the use of pitch and zoom is used to magnify and move around the screen. The size of the screen on your mobile device dictates how similar the experience to that of your normal PC, on an iPad the result is very good, and it’s still usable on an iPhone.

This allows you to access your applications, files and systems, from anywhere.

3) Watch online video.

High quality Video is really starting integrate into our mobile lives but because of the high bandwidth and file size, access can be restricted unless you have unlimited data access.

Without constraint there are exciting ways for you to use Online video on your Mobile.
You can watch Live Freeview TV by using services like TVcatchup.com or watch premium Sky Channels through the Sky Go App.
You can watch the latest news headlines from the Sky News and BBC News Apps, or watch the football action through the Sky Sports TV and ESPN Goals Apps.

If you have missed your favourite shows then you can also access high quality Video on Demand services like BBC iPlayer, 4OD and ITV Player.

You are always connected so you can always stay up to date.

Further reading:

4) Listen to Radio Stations.

As the Internet has matured, more and more radio stations have provided online streams to their broadcasts. It’s possible to listen to thousands of radio stations covering every possible genre and style. The potential of online radio hasn’t been missed by large radio stations and many have released apps which let you listen to their content and interact with them through social media, there are also apps which collate and provide you with access through to a large selection of live Radio stations.

You aren’t limited to live radio either, some stations provide access to catch up radio facilities, where you can listen to previously broadcast shows, allowing you to pick and choose between your favourite shows and listen to them at your leisure.

Listening to Radio shows provides a real alternative to listening to your music collection, and with unlimited data plans you can listen as often and for as long as you like.

5) Share your media.

Modern Mobile devices have evolved to become natural media hubs, with their powerful camera’s capable of capturing high quality images and high def videos, we have the capability to capture every moment as it happens, and sharing media has become very quick and easy.
Traditionally pictures and short video clips could be shared using MMS messages which proved to be expensive, but now you can email, tweet & share pictures over the Internet directly from the handset.

Most mobile devices have YouTube functionality integrated so sharing high quality video is also straight forward, and files can always be shared/stored using cloud storage.

These functions work over your mobile data allowance, and on most data plans there is a risk that you’ll over run your data allocation and get a heavy charge, but on an unlimited data plan you don’t have to worry and you can share your media as often as you want

Mobile Data has matured over the last few years and it has opened up a lot of potential for constantly connected apps, but the majority of data plans are limited which means that you could end up with a heavy and unexpected cost.

To really let your device reach it’s full potential then  make sure you have a mobile contract that comes with unlimited data, for example The One Plan from Three

About the Author

This has been a blog post by Phil Lane, a self confessed Gadget Addict. To read all his Blog Posts Click Here.

You can follow Phil on Twitter at @GadgetPhil

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