Hrkn to .. Gadgets & Gizmos

Steve Caplin expresses surprise that Elon Musk (or his lawyers) claims not to use a computer, despite previous contrary evidence. Tesla has launched its RoboTaxis while Amazon's Zoox intends making 10,000 robotaxis in a year. Perplexity AI is being sued by the BBC. A Chinese student was arrested in the UK for using an SMS blaster to scam people. A new bike helmet has a way of charging bike lights....

Steve Caplin discusses more to do with AI: researchers have discovered that relying on it makes you stupid; an engineer found it can't play chess; AI-generated music is mostly listened to by bots; Meta's AI is making people's searches for advice public; and Meta itself is apparently offering $100m sign-up fees. Google's new videoconferencing system is now available. Donald Trump is selling gold mo...

Steve Caplin is unsure about DeepMind's forthcoming "next generation email tool" which will answer emails in your voice. The rooftop garden of Google's new London HQ is plagued by foxes and rats. BIC celebrated 75 years by having a pen write Romeo & Juliet in the Bard's handwriting. Shimano have come up with automatic bike gears. There's a coffeemaker that does not need water – it sucks it from th...

Steve Caplin is excited by Jony Ive's new venture, even though nobody yet knows what it is. He wonders how much Albert Einstein's business card will fetch. There's a face sticker that can monitor employees' tiredness, but there's a catch. Living tattoos have been developed for buildings. The UK's first flying taxi has had a real world flight over the Cotswolds. Who might want to buy a concrete cof...

Steve Caplin says that the Vienna Tourist Board will be celebrating Strauss's bicentenary by beaming The Blue Danube to Voyager 1. Google's 3D meeting platform is almost here. Claude AI has taken to blackmailing engineers who try to turn it off by scouring their emails for indiscretions. Could our phones soon tell us if we are dehydrated? Dyson have a new vacuum with all the gubbins in the stick....

Steve Caplin is bowled over by Google's new AI which can produce videos with incredibly realistic speech in 24 languages with any accent, though perhaps not Geordie. The much-awaited unifying parking app may be about to happen. 3D beard trimming-guides are here. A gene-edited spider can make red fluorescent silk. A new jet is far more efficient by removing the passenger windows. There's a tennis-s...

In Utrecht, says Steve Caplin, they've installed a fish video doorbell so the lockkeeper can open the lock for spawning fish. Scientists have managed to turn lead into gold but, even with the Large Hadron Collider, they only produced 29 picograms. There's a way of adding three extra screens to your laptop. Audible are to use AI to narrate audiobooks. Fusion scientists think they can cut the time t...

Steve Caplin wonders why scientists have developed a cake with pneumatic robotic dancing bears on top, rechargeable but also edible. Amazon have a new budget service – Haul. DVD anti-piracy warnings were piratical themselves. Spielberg's film Duel is about to become a reality in Texas. Delivery robots will soon be able to climb stairs. EEGs are to be considerably less intrusive. Agatha Christie is...

Steve Caplin explains the research showing how junk food inhibits the brain. There's a tailor-made Bugatti watch costing a mere $340,000. British scientists plan to weigh the world's trees with a newly-launched satellite. A Newcastle company hopes to grow dinosaur hides in their lab. Urinals could soon be made a little less splashy. Google are trying to talk to dolphins. And Chocolate Digestives a...

Steve Caplin says there's a new colour, "Olo", but you need a laser blasted into your eye to see it. Instead of flu jabs, you may soon be able to chew a gum made with Egyptian kidney beans. There's a new high-tech stethoscope monitor you can wear at home, a folding colour ebook reader, AI-powered gloves to help the near half million deaf-blind people in the UK, augmented carpentry, a motorised tap...

Steve Caplin is desperate to buy the Kawasaki robot horse which can do everything a horse can but is powered by hydrogen. Sadly it's still only a beautifully-realised CGI concept. But there's a renewable energy motorbike with a roof covered with solar panels and a wind turbine. Or a WalkCar the size of a laptop. Or even an electric skateboard that goes at 45mph. Ford have patented a gear stick for...

Steve Caplin is impressed by a Chinese car with predictive suspension that remains level going over bumps and can even travel on three wheels. China also launches pilotless air taxis. There's a personal VTOL and a zero-emission hydrogen-electric jet. The AI Therabot can lower depression by 51%. A top accounting firm is having to train its GenZ workers how to use telephones. AI can improve your pro...

Steve Caplin discusses a hybrid STOL plane which is as quiet as a vacuum cleaner and only needs a 100m-long runway. Amazon's plan for UK drone deliveries might be kiboshed by the CAA insisting on one pilot for each drone. There's an example of just how realistic GPT is when you chat to it. Placebos are the most effective way of treating PMS. Running a marathon shrinks your brain. There's a bizarre...

Steve Caplin delves into the world of tech. Virgin expects to have an eVTOL air taxi service in the UK relatively soon. In San Francisco, driverless cars got 600 parking tickets last year. AI apparently can't tell analogue time or interpret calendars. Gravity batteries could be used in the lift shafts of abandoned mines. The Chinese company BYD has developed batteries that can add 250 miles range...

Steve Caplin marvels at the video of a flying car – because it is so poorly made, as if from Thunderbirds. There's a seaglider that appears to float rather than skim. The world's largest tyre maker – Lego – is to use recycled ropes, nets and oil. A new silicon chip apparently uses fused human brain cells to make it faster. AI therapists are showing signs of anxiety from hearing of traumatic events...

Steve Caplin points out that Apple Intelligence isn't always particularly bright. Indian call centre voices could soon be disguised "to build a more understanding world". Citibank's $81 trillion mistake. Paper batteries might replace lithium. Limitless thermal energy comes a step closer. HarmBlock could stop children seeing what they shouldn't on phones. Scientists trying to produce a woolly mammo...

Steve Caplin celebrates Photoshop coming to the iPhone, as well as Microsoft producing its first quantum computing chip, apparently powered by topological qubits. Amazon is launching Alexa+, creating your own trusted assistant. It costs but, bizarrely, more than Amazon Prime, which offers it free. If you're looking for a coffee stand or ice cream van, there's a new app to guide you. Huawai has a t...

Steve Caplin says that in 2 days, AI solved a problem that took Imperial College scientists 10 years. But it also caused a massive gaffe in a staggeringly expensive Super Bowl ad. He discusses new e-ink developments including outdoor posters, a tablet, a minimal phone and a gaming console. The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop output has been digitised. There's a high-tech bookmark. Italy is getting toug...

From the world of tech, Steve Caplin talks about the perfect way to cook a boiled egg and a giant barbecue that is controlled by your mobile. There's a touchscreen display for a bicycle, a camper van for an eBike and a one-bedroom flat that fits into a trailer and can be set up by one person in an hour with all – or at least most – mod cons. Glasses are to have hearing aids built into them to redu...

For the 500th show, Steve Caplin takes a look back at some of the highlights of 10 years of Gadgets & Gizmos. He covers sprayable sleep, cows imitating zebras to ward off mosquitoes, crows collecting cigarette butts, NFTs, self-parking slippers, KFC chicken-tasting nail polish, the first human head transplant, the Skunklock noxious bike lock, Refrigerdating, the robot dog flamethrower, ant populat...

Share Radio's tech guru Steve Caplin discusses the Chinese AI DeepSeek, which he finds as good, if not better, than previous AI programs. Although it is heavily censored when it comes to China, Steve explains how you can get around it, even to read about "Tank Man". There's also an omnidirectional bike, a motorbike-cum-dirt-bike-cum-snowmobile, a watch with a mechanical snake, an expensive watch-w...

Steve Caplin on the latest tech. Digital driving licences are coming to the UK. BT's 60,000 car charger plan produced just one – and it's out of order. There are bird-watching binoculars with stabilisation. The YouTube video on the founding of Porsche looks amazingly expensive – but it was all done with AI. There's a crowdfunded long-throw projector for giant screens and a smaller projector which...

Steve Caplin tells the salutory tale of a woman conned out of a fortune by a fake Brad Pitt online before turning to a second batch of wacky gadgets on display at the Consumer Electronics Show. There's a solar beach umbrella and a (giant) solar hat with charging ports. A new AI robot is essentially just a lamp on a walking coffee table. A flying motorcycle might not work but a helicopter carried i...

In our tech show, Steve Caplin discusses some of the mistakes made by Apple's new AI and how Meta is getting rid of fact checkers. He reports on some of the devices on show at Las Vegas's annual CES. There's a TV to keep an eye on children and pets, a robot with an arm for picking up shoes and socks – slowly, a lamp that is also a projector, a toaster-like phone battery swapper, a giant monitor wi...

Steve Caplin kicks off the year by reminding us it is 40 years since the first mobile phone call: but do you remember the celebrity who made it? Motorised skis will get you up a mountain. Apple's AirTags could help you locate missing luggage. A Chinese spherical security robot put Steve in mind of The Prisoner. Chat robots add video but don't impress. You can play Xbox games on an Amazon Fire Stic...