TRE Talk Radio Europe 'gadget guru' conversation from May 2017

Here's the technology I talked about in my May 2017 'gadget guru' chat on TRE Talk Radio Europe:

InstruMMents 01

I like a bit of hyperbole and I like a bit of technical language as well. So let me introduce you to the World's First Dimensioning Instrument.

If you want to measure a straight line, you probably use a tape measure. You can also go high-tech and use a laser measure, which shoots a beam of light across the room.

But how do you measure something that’s not in a straight line? Well, you can try to use a tape measure or even something as simple as a piece of string – but you’ll probably end up with estimates and approximations.

Or you can whip out the 01, which is – as the name suggests – the first product from a company called InstruMMents.

The 01 looks like an aluminium pen. It’s battery powered and connects wirelessly with an app on your phone. You pretty much just switch it on and roll the device along the surface you want to measure. The casing rotates, so all you need to do is move it along. It means you can measure a straight line up a wall, a curved line on a plan or even an irregular surface: perhaps measuring how much carpet you need for your stairs, Inside there’s a gear and magnet sensor system to track rotation and revolutions – and Bluetooth to send the data to your phone.

You could argue that this kind of measurement is already available to designers – and indeed it is – but they’ll potentially be spending tens of thousands of pounds on something that’ll track coordinates and measure dimensions.

Selfridges have claimed a UK exclusive launch for the InstruMMents 01 at £149.


Bosch EasyCut NanoBlade

This is a product that’s been described as a ‘pocket chainsaw’, which isn’t too far off the truth.

It weighs just 900g and is more like a cordless electric drill in its shape – but instead of a drill bit there’s a tiny chain with 44 teeth. Because it’s so small, you don’t get all the vibration you would with a regular chainsaw - and you also don’t need to oil or adjust the tension on the chain.

It’ll cut through 65mm of wood, which means it’s suitable for gardening as well as woodwork. It runs from a 12v rechargeable lithium-ion battery and the blades can be replaced, although apparently a single set can last for over 100 metres of cutting.

Price is £130 for the EasyCut 12. There are also a couple of corded mains-powered models with more power and more blade choices.

ION360 U smartphone camera

This is a clip-on camera and a rechargeable battery built into a protective case that’ll fit on a mobile phone. More specifically, on to an Apple iPhone 7 or a Samsung Galaxy S8.

At which point, you’ll probably say: why do I want a camera and a rechargeable battery in a case? I’ve already got those on my phone.

Yes,but you haven’t got a camera that shoots 4K 360-degree images and video. That’s ultra-high definition pictures – still and moving – with the ability to view the recorded scene from different angles. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be recorded: the ION 360U can stream video live to Facebook or YouTube, which is where that extra battery is especially useful. It can even recharge your phone when you’re not using the camera.

You can either shoot up to two hours of 360-degree video or take loads of 8-megapixel 360-degree images.

The camera/case is due to start shipping from mid-July and is expected to sell for £299.99, although at the moment you can order a ION360 U unit for the special price of £219.99.

Disc Jock-e

This is not a Frisbee with a built-in Bluetooth loudspeaker. Let me make that absolutely clear. Not because that’s an incredibly daft idea but because Frisbee is a trademarked product and this is not a Frisbee. So what we have here is a flying disc with a built-in Bluetooth speaker.

It’s 25cm across, 4cm deep and looks pretty much like you’d expect a flying disc to look. Except there’s a USB charging socket and some chunky control buttons as well.

Connect it wirelessly to your phone or compatible music player and you can stream music when you’re in the garden or at the beach. And yes, you really can take it to the beach because it’s waterproof.

You can pause or play and change the volume from the disc itself; the speaker is in the centre, so it’s evenly balanced and flies as well as you’d hope. Just make sure your dog doesn’t get too interested.

UK price is £27.99.

Finding your true voice for writing

Simon Armitage talks about the idea of a poet finding their true voice (from 'The Verb' 21st April 2017 on BBC Radio 3; this conversation started approximately 21 minutes into the programme). Ian McMillan asks "do you think you have to find a true voice?"

I think that's become a very convenient shorthand for blurb writers on the backs of books: "he has found his voice and he has found it early". In fact, I think it might have said that on the back of one of my books... as if it were there waiting under a stone and you just had to have a good rummage around the garden and you would come across this thing called 'your voice'. Because I think probably more realistically what happens is that when you start writing, you are experimenting, you're shopping around, you are writing portfolio collections, and what you notice eventually is that one version of your voice seems to be appreciated over others - and that's probably the voice that you start using in your poetry because you can see that it's an appealing one.

So?

Iain Sinclair, talking about conversational sentences that begin with 'so':

"...it’s a signifier, a warning bleep letting the recipient know that nothing that follows has any billable consequence."

TRE Talk Radio Europe: April 2017 'gadget guru'

Here's a list of the technology I talked about in my April 2017 'gadget guru' chat on TRE Talk Radio Europe:

Samsung Galaxy S8

This is the new flagship phone from Samsung. (You could say there are actually two flagship phones: the S8 and the S8+, which is pretty much the same as the regular S8 but with a bigger screen).

So what do we have here? Well, the S8 has a bigger screen than the previous S7 but is actually a smaller device. That’s a clever trick. The bezel – the edge round the screen – has pretty much been shrunk to nothing. This means the screen has become a slightly different shape than some other phones and it also means there’s no physical button to press for getting back to the home screen – you need a virtual button on the screen instead. Rather cleverly, it’s pressure-sensitive and there’s a little vibration module hidden behind the new virtual button, so you can still feel feedback even though there’s no click.

The S8 has a 5.8-inch screen and the S8+ has a 6.2-inch screen. They’re capable of supporting high dynamic range (HDR) video playback, which offers clearer pictures

The other big deal here is Samsung’s virtual assistant, which they’re calling Bixby. This is their equivalent of Apple Siri, Google Now and Microsoft Cortana. You push a button on the side of the phone – a real button – and you can control some of the built-in apps with your voice. At the moment it’s more about helping you use your phone rather than giving you answers to difficult questions.

Talking of control, there’s now an iris scanner, which means you can use your eye as a security alternative to fingerprints.

There are other improvements, of course, but they’re more incremental: improved cameras, although still 12 megapixels on the back, plus a more powerful processor. And rather cleverly, there’s an optional dock to connect it to a bigger screen and a keyboard, which can turn it into an Android-powered computer, if you want that kind of thing.

Pricing from £689.00 for the 64GB S8; £779 for the S8+.

New Apple iPad

For balance, I thought I ought to give the new Apple iPad a mention. Up until now, we’ve had the iPad Mini and then three levels of larger iPad: there’s the basic iPad, the iPad Air, which was thinner and a bit cleverer, and then the iPad Pro, for people who want a tablet with loads of power – more like a regular computer.

The new iPad is a successor to the iPad Air 2 – but it’s not called the iPad Air 3. It’s just called the iPad; those two lower levels have effectively become the same thing.

It comes with Apple's A9 processor, which is the same as the one in the iPhone 6s. That’s an update to the A8X processor in the iPad Air 2, although it’s still got the same 9.7-inch display as the Air 2 – what Apple calls a ‘retina display’ of 2048 x 1536 pixels – and the same cameras: 8 megapixels on the back, 1.2 on the front. It’s also got the fingerprint-sensing Touch ID button, which is good for security and can also be used for payments.

This is all about Apple making its product range easier to understand – and it’s also an acknowledgement that producing lightweight tablets is pretty much a given thing now, not a special feature. Having said that, the new iPad is slightly thicker and heavier than the tablet it replaces (but what’s 32g and 1.4mm between friends?)

UK pricing starts at £339 for the 32GB WiFi only version, which is £40 cheaper than the iPad Air 2 was selling for. If you want to upgrade your old iPad, this is well worth thinking about. If you’ve already got an iPad Air 2, don’t bother.

Ikea smart lighting

I’ve talked about smart lighting before – but when one of Europe’s biggest furnishing companies gets into it, you know it’s going mainstream.

One of the reasons smart lighting is becoming increasingly popular is because it’s easy to install. In some cases, it’s as simple as changing your bulb and downloading an app to your phone.

So – what does smart mean? For Ikea it can be remote control or it can be something as basic as dimming your lights (so do make sure you know exactly what you’re buying). Their smart lighting brand is called TRÅDFRI, which is Swedish for wire-free.

A good starting point is what’s being called a gateway kit. It costs £69 and includes two white LED bulbs, so they’re relatively low power. You also get a separate remote control and a gateway box that connects with an Ethernet cable to your internet router. You then download a special app that lets you control the lights from your phone and set up your own presets of warm or cool light. (You can’t change the colour to any great extent but you can change how warm the light looks.)

There’s also a motion sensor kit, which switches the lights on when you walk into a dark room and keeps them on for a pre-programmed time. The sensor itself is wireless and costs £25. Extra bulbs cost from £9 each, depending on the fitting you need.

At the moment the Trådfri app just lets you choose different types of light but later this year we’re told you'll be able to use it to schedule timers and turn your lights off remotely as well.

The only major downside is that Ikea’s products aren’t compatible with a lot of the other home automation stuff out there, so although the price is appealing, you won’t be able to tell Alexa or Google Home to turn on the light.

Atari Pong coffee table

In the early days of video games, they were available like fruit machines in pubs – and some were built into pub tables.

This piece of technology promises to let you play Atari PONG in your coffee table… but not quite as you might expect.

Atari Pong was one of the first-ever video games, in black-and-white, where a little white ball would bounce around the screen and you did your best to make sure it didn’t bounce off your side of the screen by controlling a bat that moved from side to side. Meanwhile, your opponent would be moving their bat to try and knock the little ball into your side of the screen.

At this point you may be expecting me to talk about screen sizes and processor power. I won’t be doing that because this is an analogue version of a digital game. It actually uses physical controls to hit a physical block. The entire game has been recreated by using magnets, springs and little motors. Of course, there are electronics in there – you get sounds and lights, much like the original, and you can see your score – but the gameplay is physical.

It’s got all the charm of the original but with the sophistication of a 21st century pinball machine. They’ve even given it a digital clock, USB ports to recharge your phone and the option of Bluetooth music streaming.

The whole thing is being funded via Kickstarter. (As ever with crowd funding, caveat emptor – read the terms and conditions.) Delivery is promised by the end of the year if all goes according to plan.

My 'gadget guru' technology for TRE Talk Radio Europe March 2017

Here's a quick reminder of the technology I talked about in my March 2017 'gadget guru' chat on TRE Talk Radio Europe:

Alcatel A5 LED smartphone

Alcatel phones are produced by TCL, a Chinese company that now makes BlackBerry devices as well as everything from air conditioning units to TVs.

The phone that caught my eye is the Alcatel A5 LED, which was revealed at Mobile World Congress 2017. TCL is calling it the World’s First Interactive LED-covered Smartphone

Most smartphones have an LED at the top: a little light that changes colour when the battery runs down and flashes when you have a call or a message.

This phone has the back panel covered in LEDs. There are 35 of them that can be used for notifications. So you can have one kind of light show for incoming calls and perhaps a different one for messages, another one for alarms and another one for social media alerts.

But that’s not all. You can also have the lights moving when you play music, like a miniature night club.

And, yes, it’s a phone as well. It runs the Android operating system; there’s a 5.2-inch HD display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a 5 megapixel on the front with a flash, so you can take selfies in the dark.

Availability is expected from May, with an unconnected price of €199.

Gemini PDA

Some people - myself included - would be tempted to described the Psion 5MX of 1999 as the ultimate Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). It would just about fit in your pocket but had a 5½ inch screen, a QWERTY keyboard and ran for hours off a couple of AA batteries.

You had all your contacts and your diary on it - and could use it as a tiny computer for writing documents and running spreadsheets.

Jump forward almost 20 years to 2017 and we're presented with Gemini, which is likely to put a smile on the face of anyone who fondly remembers their Psion 5MX. For a start, one of the people involved in the project is Martin Riddiford, who was part of the design team for the Psion Series 5.

As with the old Psion 5MX, there’s a proper QWERTY keyboard and a standby time that’s measured in weeks, not hours. It’ll have a 5.7-inch colour screen – a touchscreen – and the option of built-in mobile connectivity, plus a choice between running the Android operating system or Linux.

It's currently being promoted on crowd-funding site Indiegogo; the company behind Gemini reckons it’ll have the first units delivered in November.

Final retail pricing is expected to be around $600 but there’s an opportunity for early backers to get one for around £350.

Coros Linx smart cycling helmet

This isn’t just a regular helmet but has high-tech safety features and a built-in hands-free kit as well.

The hands-free part uses Bluetooth wireless technology - but you don’t need to wear earphones. Bone-conducting speakers in the straps turn sounds into vibrations and send them directly to your inner ear. It means your ears aren’t obstructed, so you can still hear traffic and people’s voices.

The microphone for hands-free conversations is just inside the front of the helmet, which helps cut down on noise – and, of course, you can also use the helmet for having the sat-nav on your phone speak directions to you.

Because of all this connectivity, the helmet can even send an alert if you have an accident. There’s a sensor that can tell if you’ve fallen off: when that happens it’ll send a text message to your chosen contact.

It all connects to your phone via an app and there’s also a remote control that can be fitted to your handlebars. The helmet itself weighs 400g, so all this tech hasn’t added too much to the weight.

Pricing is £179.99.

Rocketbook Wave reusable notebook

This is, to all intents and purposes, a paper notebook. So you’ve got the freedom of writing or sketching or doodling as you would on any other piece of paper. But when you’ve finished, you can upload it to your phone. There’s a QR code at the bottom of each page – that’s one of those square barcodes – and when you point your phone's camera at it, the Rocketbook app on your phone takes a copy. You can have your notes saved automatically in Dropbox, or Evernote, or Google Docs or even email – whichever of those online services you prefer.

The book is designed to be used with the Pilot FriXion pen, which is erasable. If you make a mistake, you can flip the pen upside down and rub it out. What actually happens is that when the ink heats up to over 60°C, it becomes invisible.

Here's the unexpected bit. When you've finished your notebook and uploaded all your notes, you can put the whole thing in the microwave. Seriously. Give it a few minutes with a mug of water on top and all the ink will disappear.

You can do this for around five times before the paper stops working, so you could say it’s not an 80-page notebook you’re buying but the equivalent of 400 pages.

The price for the Rocketbook Wave Reusable Notebook is £32.99. And if you're not quite convinced, take a look at the forthcoming Rocketbook Everlast. That’s designed to wipe clean – literally – with a moist paper towel.

Miss Odeyne Spark

Several years ago a friend gave me a signed photograph of Miss Odeyne Spark, dated May 1905. I'm pretty sure it is actually signed, rather than printed with a signature - and I'm working on the assumption that the signature is that of Miss Spark. But who was she? Online copies of old newspapers have given me a glimpse of her career.

She's described as a dancer and comedienne in a number of English regional newspapers from late 1902. The Shepherd's Bush Empire, where she appeared in May 1906, called her a "Delightful Comedienne and Dancer". She's also mentioned as being on a vaudeville bill in South Africa earlier in 1906.

Variety in 1907 tells us "a case today under sharp Federation scrutiny [presumably the Variety Artistes' Federation] is that of Odeyne Sparks, engaged to open Oct. 7 at a Keith house for four weeks. She is considered a good turn here, and was booked through Hyman's agency, Mr. Feiber never having seen the act, his tactics toward Miss Sparks are construed by sound legal authority as intimidating." It goes on to say "if Miss Sparks concludes to face the music she will have ample artistic support".

The Cardiff-based Evening Express on 30th August 1910 reports that "Odeyne Spark is electrifying as a comedienne and dancer" at the Newport Empire.

Adelaide's Evening Journal of 19th January 1911 contains an advertisement that informs us Miss Odeyne Spark is "arriving to-day by the R.M.S. Malwa, direct from London" and that she is "one of England's daintiest and brightest comediennes and dancers".

The Advertiser reviews her show with "Miss Odeyne Spark, a bright comedienne from London, made her first appearance in Australia on Saturday, and proved herself an artiste with plenty of charm and originality. Clog-dancing is one of the strong points in her turn."

She proves popular in Australia: the Sydney Sportsman of 15th February 1911 describes her as "a recent arrival from across the herring pond" and notes that she "piles up encores nightly".

The Argus of Melbourne, Australia, dated 20th March 1911, tells us "A number of good new turns were given at the Opera-house on Saturday afternoon. Miss Odeyne Spark, described as a singer and a dancer, is neither a very excellent singer, nor does she dance very well, but her turn is a very bright one, as she has a good appearance and a pretty way of putting her work before the house. She had the gallery singing her chorus for her on Saturday, and that is a sure sign of approval. Her songs include one concerning the advantage of being named William, and another centred about the hobble-skirt."

A month later, the Amusements section of The West Australian (Perth edition) dated 25th April 1911 alerts us to the "Decided Success of Miss Odeyne Spark". It was around this time that some of her dresses were stolen from the Cremorne Theatre; William Parsons was sentenced to two months' imprisonment for the crime.

Odeyne Spark returned to England at the end of April 1911.

How many words in a minute?

How many words in a minute? It's a question that appears to mix disparate disconnected units, like measuring an Olympic-sized swimming pool with double-decker buses or calculating the height of Nelson's Column in football pitches. Besides, there are also issues of size and speed - from the single syllable to the sesquipedalian, from relaxed to rushed. How many balls of string would it take to reach the moon? One, if it's long enough. As a child I was told that was one of the oldest recorded English language jokes - unless, of course, someone was having me on. Incidentally, your ball of string would only need to be a few metres across. Now that IS surprising. More recently, researchers have found a tenth-century double entendre in a poetry book at Exeter Cathedral. What's the punchline? And is double entendre hyphenated? We'll come back to those another time. Ultimately, any calculation can only be an average. Fortunately, I am an average man - although for copyright reasons I won't be quoting any of Rockwell's lyrics. Unlike his protagonist, I cannot afford to pay the price. But there is an answer to my question. One hundred and ninety nine and a ha...