Hrkn to .. Gadgets & Gizmos

Steve Caplin looks at the latest from the world of tech. He tells us how much Earth and Jupiter weigh, who the 8th billion person on Earth is, how to scare sharks away from fishing lines, why Bob Dylan's signature isn't what it seems, about a free time-lapse photography app, about an audiobook app that has trouble pronouncing words and how the United State has just become the second country to app...

Steve Caplin discusses the latest tech news with Simon Rose. As well as some bizarre Twitter blue ticks, there are Japanese robotic spiders to check sewers, cameras strapped to sharks to map seagrass meadows off the Bahamas, rats dancing to Mozart, the Ministry of Defence firing the first-ever real laser weapon, a Swedish wooden choir, a desk to facilitate using a laptop outdoors, a Japanese missi...

Steve Caplin updates Simon Rose on the latest tech news, with problems at Twitter, Tesla and Meta in the news. He marks 10 years of Candy Crush then drones on about drones seeing wifi devices through walls, edible drones, autonomous emergency rescue drones, undersea drones and ashes released by drones. There's an origami mouse, a discussion about how we might talk to aliens when we can't even chat...

Share Radio's technology editor Steve Caplin talks to Simon Rose about Elon Musk and Twitter, the arrival of magnetic north in the UK, a new data speed record, a robot falcon, how to defeat self-driving cars, the tiniest of tiny TVs, a self-boiling Thermos flask and how Google hopes to develop AI for the top 1,000 (out of 7,000) languages worldwide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastc...

Steve Caplin tells Simon Rose about a flying car that you can now order, although as a car it might prove somewhat lacking. He celebrates 21 years of the iPod, marvels at a couple of Lenovo prototypes, discusses the deadline to use up old-fashioned stamps, plays a recording of what the Earth's magnetic field might sound like, wonders why it's taken until the production of the Sand Rover to solve t...

Share Radio's technology editor talks to Simon Rose about the ability to 3D print QR codes inside food, but wonders why anyone would want to. He is dubious about the data gathered by Meta's new VR headset but loves an app that separates various elements in music. He is impressed by a motionless rooftop wind generator and a sea platform producing energy from waves. There's even a proof-of-concept a...

Share Radio's technology maven Steve Caplin looks into a pledge not to weaponise robots, while a kinetic sculptor has armed a house plant with a machete in the name of art. A robot boot could help the elderly walk faster with less effort while Apple's new iphone has been assuming people on rollercoasters were in accidents. Brain cells grown in a lab of people and mice have been taught to play pong...

Share Radio's technology editor Steve Caplin tells Simon Rose about the new EU requirement for all small and medium portable electronic devices to have a stanard USB-C cable from 2024. Amazon have brought out a raft of new devices, Google are closing Stadia, Tesla has demonstrated a prototype humanoid robot – which can't walk, a work of art has been destroyed to promote NFTs, a next generation raz...

Technology guru Steve Caplin talks to Simon Rose about a record-breaking running robot, a clever seabed camera, repairing the tops of tall buildings with extruding drones, how to make driverless cars safer for pedestrians, a lamp that not only follows you but also offers emotional companionship, turning plastic into diamonds and how VR goggles can be used for sedation. Learn more about your ad cho...

Share Radio's technology editor Steve Caplin reveals to Simon Rose the winners of the Ig Nobel prizes for science. There's also news of how AI can change the accents of cold callers, of a giant simulated moon you can visit, how building blueprints can be interpreted by robots, how cockroaches can be turned into cyborgs for dangerous situations, how concrete buildings can be easily constructed usin...

Share Radio's tech maven Steve Caplin tells Simon Rose about the new iPhone 14, which can tell if you're involved in a crash. The new iOS lets you unsend texts while the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra has a camera with abundant pixels. There'll soon be 3D-printed Wagyu beef while LG have a fridge with mood lights and bluetooth speakers. And if you're worried that robots might be too solemn, Japanese scien...

Steve Caplin talks tech with Simon Rose. The Koreans are developing infrared lasers that can charge your phone when you walk into the room, while MIT has come up with batteries from aluminium, sulphur and salt, superior to the Li-ion type. There's also an idea for getting energy from waves, facial recognition for one type of salmon, how Surrey Police have been tricking drivers by manipulating Waze...

Steve Caplin marvels at a website that will separate out voices and instruments giving you ready-made karaoke. He reveals that pain relief works better lying down, but only on one side and discusses a beautiful and nippy submarine, a limited edition Bugatti, an 87mph electric unicycle, clever rear bike lights and NASA's revelation of the sound of a black hole in the Perseus galaxy, 240m light year...

Steve Caplin talks tech with Simon Rose, warning all Zoom users they should update the app. He links it to Wordle, where there are now books and poems. There's also a car park machine that only talks Welsh, a funeral where guests could quiz the deceased, problems with Meta's chatbot, the physicist who convinced people chorizo was a star, woodless pencils, three different stories about robot dogs a...

Steve Caplin tells Simon Rose of plans to create jet fuel from sunlight. Students have built an e-car that sucks CO2 from the air, there's a tech mattress to help with sleep, Google's new AR glasses, a way to use dead spiders to lift tiny objects, a wearable fitness tracker that detects Covid 2 days before symptoms appear and a faster, more efficient way to dig tunnels - with a big catch. Learn mo...

Steve Caplin talks tech with Simon Rose, giving us the top theme park artificial smells, including rotting flesh, penguin vomit and Kylie Minogue's breath. In addition, there are motors made of DNA, how small-wheeled scooters can be made more stable, reusable coffee pods, car wheels able to turn 80 degrees, replacing microplastics with silk and an affordable electric bike. Learn more about your ad...

Tech maven Steve Caplin tells Simon Rose about the chess robot that broke a 7-year-old opponent's finger. There's also an explanation of why Hammersmith Bridge was wrapped in foil, a hydrofoil creating hydrogen, the privacy dangers of TikTok, why BMW owners need to pay more for heated seats, an e-Jerry can if you run out of charge and serving court papers using non-fungible tokens. Learn more abou...

Share Radio's technology guru Steve Caplin laments the demise of the SLR camera after over 60 years. He discusses the world's longest drone highway, printing your face on Hasbro figures, hacking fruit-fly brains, a more efficient kettle, a crowdfunded levitating firestone and the Swiss developing a network of underground autonomous freight tunnels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...

Share Radio's technology editor Steve Caplin talks to Simon Rose about Twitter's spam & bot accounts, about the Uber files, how the offside rule will be monitored at the World Cup, about quantum entanglement, Bob Dylan's one-off disk, how limpet teeth trump spider silk as the strongest material in nature and about the Wizard Smart Switch, enabling you to turn lights on and off with a touch of a ma...

Share Radio's technology editor, Steve Caplin, talks to Simon Rose about Amazon's new e-cargo bikes and a new more efficient biofuel. Renewable energy storage takes a leap forward with sand batteries, while pyramids could be the way forward for solar cells. AR glasses may not be needed; there could be AR contact lenses instead while NASA want to send mini swimming robots to moons of Jupiter and Sa...

Share Radio's tech expert Steve Caplin tells Simon Rose of the Chinese students who must take compulsory swimming tests to graduate and who are now having to do it online! Alexa is exploring cloning the voices of the dead, IKEA is producing an app that lets you remove your existing furniture, the police now have contactless fingerprinting, there's an autonomous truck with no cab, a mysterious moon...

Steve Caplin, Share Radio's tech guru, discusses the first mainstream AR glasses, though he's less than impressed. He also tells of environmentally-kind spray food wrap, bionic robo-fish collecting microplastics and a worm called Zophobas Morio that eats plastic. In addition, disposable nappies are being trialled as a road surface, there's a coaxial octacopter for beating jams, a cycle brake light...

Steve Caplin goes all robotic in this week's tech show. As well as a robot waiter and a robot pizza maker, there's a pea-sized robot doing an obstacle course and a sweaty robotic finger. At Google, there's an argument over whether one of its robots is actually alive, with an engineer claiming it is and trying to get it a lawyer. Internet Explorer is no more, there's a solar panel-festooned car and...

Share Radio's tech supremo Steve Caplin delves into the features of Apple's forthcoming iOS update and looks at the world's fastest supercomputer. China is planning to put a solar power plant in space, there's an autonomous gas tanker, driverless taxis in San Francisco, 3D printing of ears and the ability to print inside the body, mouse jigglers for those not working particularly hard at home and...

Steve Caplin, Share's tech expert, discusses with Simon Rose a new electric car powered by the sun. There's an electric DeLorean, a tracked VW camper van, an e-bike that could climb Mount Everest – if there was a road, objections to a car park pizza vending machine, parents using Alexa to help with homework, litter-picking in space, robot snakes and crabs and why people using mobile payments are m...