The Gadget Man - Technology News and Reviews

This week those very kind people at Three have again supplied us with a gorgeous LG G4 Smart Phone. The G4’s stand out feature is it’s screen. It improves the QuadHD screen from it’s predecessor, the G3 but brings improvement in colour and brightness. It has a nice loud speaker and the phone controls are on the back of the phone under the camera lens which makes controlling it su...

Cameras are one of my favourite areas of technology. It’s marvellous to  be given the opportunity to review the latest and greatest of these devices. Today I chat to Mark about the Fujifilm XQ2, a simple beautiful compact digital camera with a staggering number of high end features. Listen in to the stream and keep an eye out for a full review soon. Thank you again to the amazing Jeannie at...

With the summer suddenly returning last week, it was lovely to have another electric bike to review. I’ve reviewed the Granite Pro from Batribike last year, so it was really exciting to get to check out their newest addition to the ‘stable’ in the shape of the MTB style Storm . Listen in to the stream to find out all about this amazing e-bike and keep an eye on the website for a...

Action cams are the big thing at the moment. They offer excellent filming quality but are rugged and waterproof giving opportunities to film in water and rain. The Toshiba Camileo X Sports Camera is no exception, it packed masses of features in a great quality camera but at a much lower price that the competition. Hear what I thought of the camera by listening to the stream, full review due soon!!...

This week it’s back to smaller gadgets which brings us to Smart Phones. HTC has been a big player of since the birth of the device category years back. HTC are well known for their high quality aluminium designs with bright screens and fast processors. They have also been one of the leaders in innovation with camera technology with their F2.0 ultra pixel sensors. Today I chat to Mark about t...

This week we stay with hybrid cars, but this time we look at the Audi A3 etron. First things first, this car looks spectacular! I have never seen such a bright red in my entire life and the big alloy wheels enhance the look even more. It’s certainly a head turner. The A3 etron comes with a 1.4 litre turbo charged engine outputting 150 bhp, however yet again it sits alongside an electric moto...

This week we move back to hybrid cars with the Volvo V60 D6 Twin Engine Plug in Hybrid vehicle. The D6 is unique as it is a Diesel – Electric Hybrid rather than the standard Petrol Electric that we are used to. This is a very powerful snappy car, at full ‘Power’ mode it is outputting a combined 280bhp and you certainly feel it. Along with beautiful ride, upholstery and fuel effic...

KTM eStreet P Electric Bike Great fun was had this week as I was out on about testing one of my favourite forms of transport! Yes, I was testing an super electric bike from those clever people at KTM. I even brought the bike into the studio to show everyone and nearly managed to run over a musician in the green room. The KTM eStreet P is a really nice electric bike which makes great use of pedal a...

This morning I chat to Mark about the EE Power Bar. The Power Bar is a rechargeable battery pack which can supply power to your phone on demand. Like other battery packs, the Power Bar is recharged via USB cable. You can use the included usb cable to charge your phone, or you can plug other USB cables to charge your iPhone. It also has a torch and flashing light function, which is useful if you ar...

VW Golf GTE outside Trinity Park, Ipswich This morning, I chatted to Mark about the new breed of cars currently hitting the markplace around the world, namely PHEV’s or Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. I’ve already reviewed the e-Golf a few months ago, however the GTE takes the  electric technology from the e-Golf and combines it with the performance on the Golf GTi. It’s quite...

This week I talk to Mark about the Aqua-Massage XL-250 Pro, a dry hydro-massage system. The massage is dry because the water used to massage your body from top to bottom is safely sealed away behind a waterproof membrane. This means, that other than removing your shoes, you can stay fully clothed when having your massage. As you can see from the video below, the Aqua Massage uses a high pressure w...

This week we talk about the Transcend Storejet 25M3 detachable Transcend Storejet 25M3 1TB USB 3.0 Hard Disk USB 3.0 hard disk drive. These are ruggedised, which mean that they are a bit more durable than your average portable hard disks and whats more, thet support USB3.0 transfer speeds! The are whisper quiet to use and work very nicely as a backup device with the addition of a quick backup butt...

Google Cardboard V1 can be assembled in 6 steps This week I talk about Google Cardboard and Google I/O Extended from Adastral Park. The event was the brainchild of Mark Thomas at Coderus , they are situated on the Innovation Martlesham also. Google I/O Extended are events which enable people to experience the keynotes of I/O in Silicon Valley in their own countries. BT provided some amazing facili...

Fujifilm X-A2 Compact Mirrorless Camera This week, we chatted about the Fujifilm X-A2 Mirrorless Compact Camera. This is a camera that is aimed at the mid point of the market, but has the features of the ‘X’ series . We have the camera for a few weeks and will be revisiting it shortly to find out if it lives up to it’s hype. Thanks to Fuji for the loan of the camera, they have be...

This week we chat about MiFi’s or mobile wireless which allow you to connect your laptop and gadgets to a wifi network anywhere where you can get mobile coverage. The Huawei E5756 is perfect for people who commute a great deal or even better for long family journeys as it gives you a wireless network, so you can stream music, upload files and browse the web. Listen in to find out more about...

Tesla Model S P85D Imagine going from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, powered by a dual motor 690BHP electric car? Now imagine doing that on one of the wettest days of the month?   Well that’s just what happened on Thursday this week! We were able to spend a very wet hour with the car, but you wouldn’t have noticed. The all wheel drive and very advanced traction control kept the car stuck fi...

This week we talk about the Tesla Powerwall. The powerwall is an electricity storage solution for homes, businesses an more! Tesla Powerwall The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery designed to store energy at a residential level for load shifting, backup power and self-consumption of solar power generation. The Powerwall consists of Tesla’s lithium-ion battery pack, liquid...

This week I talk to Mark about a bunch of amazing products supplied to me my D-Link. Specifically the  myhome  suite of products. D-Link myhome Smart Plug D-Link have taken a very intelligent view of home automation by not only providing a plug that can be controlled via a phone app from anywhere in the world, but also by adding sensible features to the product allowing you to monitor usage and al...

Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid Hypercar arriving at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone Racetrack – Photo from Porsche Facebook Page. To celebrate it’s 10 million fans on Facebook, Porsche ran a competition offering the winner a chance in participating in a 1000 km road trip in the 918 Spyder. The car was specially wrapped to allow fans along the way to sign the car During the trip...

This morning I talked about a very useful dash-cam, namely the Transcend DrivePro 220 in-car camera. The camera boasts an incredible F1.8 low aperture super wide lens with a hefty 16GB memory card on-board. The camera is however much more than simply a way of recording your journey (and any unfortunate events), it also features ‘lane departure warning’ and ‘collision warning&#821...

We had a wonderful day at the World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Silverstone last weekend. Not only were we guests of the wonderful people at Porsche Motorsports, we were also able to chat to the Technicians and Drivers and find out more about how the idea of Hybrid power translates to the worlds fastest racecars. Matt Porter interviews Mark Webber about the Porsche 919 LMP1 During ou...

Motorola Moto 360 Reviewed by Matt Porter This week we look at the Motorola Moto 360 Smartwatch. With traditional round face and high end looks, this is one of the most appealing smart watches on the market at the present time. Listen to the stream and find out what we thought of it. Stay tuned for a full review of the Moto 360 online here soon!! The post The Gadget Man – Episode 45 –...

This week I talk to Rachel Sloane about the amazing Ollie from Sphero! Ollie is a very clever robot toy, controlled using Bluetooth from a smart phone app. We loved playing with Ollie in the studio, listen in and find out what Matt thought of it. The post The Gadget Man – Episode 44 – Ollie from Sphero appeared first on Matt Porter, The Gadget Man - Creative Technologist - AI & Tec...

Sony Smartband Talk reviewed by Matt Porter I previously reviewed the Sony Smartband and thought it was one of the best wearables of last year.  This week we look at it’s latest iteration which is the Sony Smartband Talk. Yet again, it’s a great product for monitoring activity and more! The ‘more’ being, the lovely e-ink screen and bluetooth headset technology. I really rat...

There are two versions of the video, the first was produced by the Kodak software. You will notice the black bar, this displays because this area is not filmed by the camera. (Kodak Rendered Video) (This video was produced by YouTube’s utilty) I was really delighted to  be able to record todays episode of The Gadget Man in the studio with Mark Murphy. The camera is very easy to setup and get...