All posts by Matt Porter

Driving a Tesla on a 1,200 mile round trip to prove electric car ‘cynics’ wrong

Ness Point, Lowestoft. Suffolk
Ness Point, Lowestoft. Suffolk – Credit SKYNAMIX

Of the amazing electric and hybrid cars I have been fortunate to review, by far the coolest was the Tesla Model S. Driving the Tesla really feels like you are riding on the coat tails of automotive history and due to it’s active over the air updates, you actually seem it improving and developing before your eyes.

Pointing towards Ardnamurchan
Pointing towards Ardnamurchan and a 1200 mile round trip

Since testing the Model S P85D, the car has continued to evolve from ‘Insane Mode’ all the way to ‘Ludicrous’ and ‘Ludicrous Plus’. Tesla have also introduced the Model X and more recently the Model 3.

The most regularly asked question people ask me about electric cars is ‘What is it’s range?’. Tesla has always lead the pack with their excellent range along with their network of ‘Superchargers’ . Tesla owners can expect in excess of 300 miles per charge, refuelling with electricity in around 30 minutes.

All of this has led me to challenge the cynics when they say “Electric Cars don’t have the range of my petrol car”.

Ardnamurchan, Scotland
Ardnamurchan, Scotland

On October 6th 2017, I embark on my biggest challenge to date as The Gadget Man. So big in fact, that I will be taking my father along for the ride!

Together we will be driving from the most Ness Point in Lowestoft (the most easterly point of mainland UK) to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse in Scotland (the most westerly point of mainland UK) and back again, a total journey of around 1200 miles. All of this will take place over the weekend of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th October 2017 and will be completed on electric only in a Tesla Model S 100D.

Staying in Ullswater overnight
Staying in Ullswater overnight

Aside from being able to complete the 1200 mile trip under electric power only, we will also being travelling through some of the most amazing scenery our nation has to offer us with overnight stays in ‘Camping Pods’ in the Lake District and Ardnamurchan during our journey and a short trip on the Corran Ferry! We will we ‘re-juicing’ the car using Tesla’s Superchargers and a couple of rapid chargers and DJI are loaning us photographic equipment to help us document the journey.

We also hope to ‘live stream’ the challenge as often as possible and hope to make lots of new friends on the way!

Ullswater in the Lake District
Ullswater in the Lake District

The Gadget Man has never been a ‘paid gig’, so we are hoping that our challenge can be supported by you in order for us to be able to pay for our modest accommodation and food during the 4 day trip, all the funds we raise will be put to good use during our trip.

At the end of the challenge we will donate any remaining funds to the Red Cross.

Tesla Model S 100D
Tesla Model S 100D

If you are a business and would like to sponsor us, we will be very happy to put a link to your business on our dedicated website that we have set up for the challenge. If you know of camping gear manufacturers who who like to donate a couple of sleeping bags and pillows that would be very helpful too.

Thanks for taking the time to read about our challenge and we look forward to keeping you up to date with our planning for our road trip.

For more information, visit us at https://www.eastwestroadtrip.co.uk

 

Trackr launches the Pixel, a smaller, lighter and louder solution for lost items

Trackr has released a brand new personal tracking device to compliment the existing Bravo and Cross Peerless Trackr Pen (reviewed here).

Trackr launches the Pixel, a smaller, lighter and louder solution for lost items
The TrackR Pixel

The Trackr Pixel is smaller than a 10 pence piec, making it the smallest Bluetooth tracking devices available. Building on the functionality of the Cross Pen, the Trackr Pixel has longer range, louder speaker and LED light which makes locating it much easier find under car seats and at the bottom of bags.

The Pixel is available in nine bright colours, with a lower price point that the Bravo. It also comes with free keyring and adhesive. This means you can attach it to your keys, wallet, bags, laptop, remote control or even pet collar!

CEO and Co-Founder of TrackR, Chris Herbert said “Our goal is for people to no longer need to remember where all their items are located. Instead, technology should keep track of where our things are for us and our families, TrackR pixel is a step towards that future with its small and light design, built-in LED light, over one year battery life, and expansive Bluetooth range, making it one of the most versatile and easy-to-use tracking devices out there. Plus, it’s backed by the TrackR Crowd Locate network, which helps our customers find more than two million items worldwide each day.”

Once the device is paired with the free TrackR app, you can make your lost item light up and ring by selected in within the app.

 

As before with TrackR Crowd Locate Network, should you lose an item out of range of your smartphone, the network is activated and enables you to receive anonymous updates of the last-known location of your missing items whenever another TrackR user passes within range of it.

If you own an Amazon Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo, you can also use this to help you find your missing keys or phone. Pressing a button on the TrackR pixel device can also ring a misplaced phone – even if it’s on silent.

TrackR pixel can be bought online for $24.99 at www.thetrackr.com today and is available online now with eight-packs available for $99.99.

GoPro Hero5 Session – The Compact 4k Camera with Voice Control

GoPro have been at the top end of the action camera market for a long time and have consistently produced really high quality products, the Hero 5 range brings a whole range of functionality not seen before in a GoPro, so I was eager to find out more.

There are two camera’s in the Hero 5 range, the Hero 5 Black and Hero 5 Session, I have been reviewing the Session.

Hero 5 Session Whats in the Box
Hero 5 Session Whats in the Box

The Session is a small camera! Measuring 38 x 38 x 36 mm (1.5 x 1.5 x 1.4 inch). On the front is the camera lens and the back is a small button, on the side is a covered MicroSD and USB-C port and finally on top is the shutter button which is also used for controlling the camera. There is also a very small mono led screen which lets you know the status and mode of the camera.

The camera comes equipped with on-board wifi and it is using this and a free app that you can control and preview the camera.

Hero5 Session Switched on

There is also a brand new ‘Voice Control’ mode too, which allows you to command the camera. There are 12 commands it understands ranging from ‘GoPro Start Recording’, ‘GoPro Take a Photo’ to ‘GoPro Switch Off’. It actually works really well, however I only tried it in a room environment, so I’m not sure how it works out in the field, waves or ski slope though.

There are a heap of video modes you can shoot including 720p,960p,1080p,1440p,2,7k and up to 4k, these also offer up a variety of frame rates from 30fps at 4k to 120fps at 720p, there is the ability to remove the dreaded fish eye effect with ‘Linear’ in some modes and there is image stabilisation available up to 1080p, so those bumpy rides of ski videos will have less judder for viewers.

The image quality is simply amazing! I have always doubted the quality of the videos provided by manufacturers, but the Hero 5 Session really does delivery with zero post processing. I was honestly astounded by the 4k footage and I’m looking forward to getting out on my bike to get some off road footage over the next few days.

The camera can also take 10mp photos either in standard, timelapse or burst mode with the ability to take 30 10mp photos in 1 second! All of these settings are changeable with dozens of options available.

For people looking to use the GoPro as a dash cam, there is also ‘Loop’ mode on the video, although you might be better off looking for a dedicated device for this.

The Hero 5 range are also compatible with the GoPro Karma drone for those looking to take their footage high into the air.

All in all, I’m impressed with the GoPro Hero 5 Session, at £299 it’s by no means the cheapest camera around and you might be looking at the Hero 4 Session for half the price. However, with the drop if price you lose all of the killer features of the Hero 5 including 4K.

Cross Sports Book Awards 2017 – Superb evening and impressive winners

You might remember my live review of the Cross Peerless Trackr Pen Review from a few weeks ago. This followed the Cross Pen Hunt in London.

Cross Sports Book Awards 2017
Cross Sports Book Awards 2017

Well, a week or so later, I received an email from Cross, inviting me along to the Cross Sports Book Awards at Lords Cricket Ground in London. The awards are now in their 15th year and the list of nominees this year was impressive to say the least, featuring Joey Barton, Ian Wright, Damon Hill, Chris Boardman and many more.

Neil and Matt at the Cross Sports Book Awards
Neil and Matt at the Cross Sports Book Awards

The evening began with a champagne reception followed by a prime spot in the ‘Green Room’ where we could watch the post award interviews. All of which was filmed for Sky Sports.

Of course, being the Gadget Man, I had to take along some tech for the evening, so I was equipped with my trusty Olympus ZX-10, GoPro Hero 5 Session, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (for it’s amazing camera), Nvidia Shield K1 and HTC One M9 (for data). There was precious time to take photos or movies, but I did manage some and not surprisingly they are spread across countless memory cards and cloud storage. I will update this post as I compile more media.

The recording of the awards is now available on YouTube and can be found below.

Profound thanks to Cross for the invitation, it was a brilliant night.

 

The Cosmic Watch – A Mesmerising & Beautiful App for Viewing the Cosmos

The human race has always been fascinated by the stars in the sky. From guiding themselves across the seas, planning the harvests or daydreaming about visiting far away planets, we spend a great deal of our time thinking about the stars and planets.

It is fascinating to  think that we have only really begun to understand the Universe in the last 50 years and continue to be humbled by our place its vastness and the influence it still continues to holds on us.

So, when I was contacted by the makers of Cosmic Watch, I was intrigued on how an app was going to give me a much deeper understanding of our solar system and the movement of the planets and celestial bodies.

A screenshot The Cosmic Watch of one of the many different modes available.
A screenshot The Cosmic Watch of one of the many different modes available.

To start with, Cosmic Watch is a really good looking mobile application, with an incredibly slick, but simple to operate user experience. This is an app that can be any one of many things, from world clock, searching for planetary positions to finding Astrology Star Sign and it’s relation to those constellations at your time of birth.

Any astrophysicist worth his salt will tell you that the study of our Universe is not simply the study of ‘space’, it is also the study of ‘time’, this is conveniently called ‘Space-Time’. It’s called this because everything in our Universe is moving and thus “In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single interwoven continuum.”.

In order to understand and track the stars and planets we need to understand Space-Time in order to be able to find the positions of the planets and stars at any given point in the past and the future.

A screenshot The Cosmic Watch of one of the many different modes available.
A screenshot The Cosmic Watch of one of the many different modes available.

Cosmic Clock can provide this information using a 3d user experience which places our planet Earth in the centre of everything, not as a step backwards in our understand, but in fact to help us understand our place in the Universe. It does this both effortlessly and beautifully.

Cosmic Clock has three main modes:

  1. World Clock – For time keeping around the globe
  2. Astronomy – For viewing the constellations and planets
  3. Astrology – The study of the position of the stars and their perceived influence on us and our daily lives.

 

To navigate any of these modes you use buttons on the left hand side of the screen, with additional buttons placed at the base of the screen to control how the information is displayed.

Swiping the screen causes everything to rotate in 3d around the Earth, you can also pinch to zoom in order to see a particular place in detail.

In clock mode, you can actually use your phone or tablet as a desktop clock, just make sure you connect it to a charger first. You also need to switch off ‘sleep’ mode to keep the screen on. This is a fascinating view as it shows the Earth in real time including the approaching sunrise or sunset.

Astronomy mode display the stars and planets with added labels. You can speed up, freeze or reverse time to find out the exact position of celestial bodies as specific times.

Astrology mode shows the plants and stars using their traditional symbols and signs of the zodiac. It’s very detailed if this kind of thing interests you.

Throughout all of these modes, there are a myriad of different settings available to allow you to display the cosmos in pretty much any conceivable fashion and it’s certainly extremely interesting to use.

The app makes use of the internal sensors or your phone and tablet including the compass. This helps you align the display of the app with the actual night sky and makes the experience fascinating as rather than guessing the position of a planet, you can accurately predict when it will be in the sky.

If the stars and planets interest you, Cosmic Watch will provide you with a fascinating insight into the Solar System and wider Universe and it an absolute MUST PURCHASE and at £4.99 it is worth every penny.

You can purchase Cosmic Watch for iOS here or Android here

Or visit them directly here at http://cosmic-watch.com/

 

The Gadget Man – Episode 102 – Nokia 3310 (re)launches in the UK

Click to buy the Nokia 3310 from Amazon

With the UK launch of the Nokia 3310, I talk to Mark Murphy at BBC Radio Suffolk about the nostalgia behind one of the most popular mobile phones of the last 20 years.

The original Nokia 3310 is without doubt an iconic mobile handset and in it’s original form which went on to sell 126,000,000 units.

Following the licensing of the ‘Nokia’ phone brand to HMD, four new phones, including three running Android, namely the Nokia 3, Nokia 4 and Nokia 5 are to be launched.

Nokia 3310
Nokia 3310

Alongside these modern smartphones see’s the  reborn Nokia 3310.

The handset is described as ‘a modern classic reborn’, retaining the durability and insane standby time of the original. Available in four distinctive colours and with a price tag of £49, expect the 3310 to be popular again.

Don’t forget to listen in to the stream to find our more!

The Gadget Man – Episode 101 – WannaCry – WannaCrypt – Eternal Blue – What Happened and What to Do?

Following my previous post which can be found here, I talked this morning to Mark Murphy on BBC Radio Suffolk about WannaCry and the effect it has had on the NHS, what needs to be done to stop it happening again and what we can do to protect ourselves.

To read and in depth article on how to protect your computers from such attacks, click here

PLEASE ensure your computers have all their updates installed and make sure you have Anti-Virus software installed.

 

 

WannaCry Ransomware – How To Protect Yourself

WannaCry - WannaCrypt - How to Protect Yourself
WannaCry – WannaCrypt – How to Protect Yourself

WannaCry Ransomware has now affected over 200,000 systems in 150 countries around the world. In the UK, the National Health Service has been very badly affected causing massive disruption across the country.

Although the initial outbreak was stopped, several new versions of this virus have been reported in the ‘wild’. Some have been stopped by registering the ‘kill-switch’ domain name, but it is widely believed that a version or versions of the virus has been released that does not contain a kill-switch.

ONLY COMPUTERS RUNNING WINDOWS ARE IN DANGER OF INFECTION CURRENTLY.

Before you do ANYTHING else BACKUP your important files onto removable storage. Upon completion of this backup, ensure it is kept separately from your computer in a safe place. Should you become infected with this Ransomware, you don’t need to consider paying any kind of ransom as your files are safely stored elsewhere.

UPDATE your antivirus software, if you don’t have antivirus software installed enabled Windows Defender  which is free.

You MUST ensure that your Windows system is correctly patched with the latest security updates.

These are available from here and here.

SHARE THIS INFORMATION to protect YOU, Your Family, Co-Workers and Friends to avoid this affected you.

The following information was published by Wordfence Security

New WannaCry Ransomware and How to Protect Yourself

 

  1. If you use Windows, install the patch that Microsoft has released to block the specific exploit that the WannaCry ransomware is using. You can find instructions on this page in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. You can also directly download the patches for your OS from the Microsoft Update Catalog.
  2. If you are using an unsupported version of Windows like Windows XP, Windows 2008 or Server 2003, you can get the patches for your unsupported OS from the Update Catalog. We do recommend that you update to a supported version of Windows as soon as possible.
  3. Update your Antivirus software definitions. Most AV vendors have now added detection capability to block WannaCry.
  4. If you don’t have anti-virus software enabled on your Windows machine, we recommend you enable Windows Defender which is free.
  5. Backup regularly and make sure you have offline backups. That way, if you are infected with ransomware, it can’t encrypt your backups.
  6. For further reading, Microsoft has released customer guidance for the WannaCry attacks and Troy Hunt has done an excellent detailed writeup on the WannaCry ransomware.

Edifier MP280 – A New Generation of Portable Speaker

Lighter evenings are upon us at last! We can start to look forward to getting out in the fresh air again after hibernating over the winter months. As always when I start thinking of spending more time outside I begin looking for gadgets that I can take with me.

I’ve recently been sent the Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker something that is clearly marketed to outdoor enthusiasts.

Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker
Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker

I’ve always found Edifier really high quality and the MP280 checks that box, it feels solid and well made with special silicone material and metal. The speakers are wrapping around the cylindrical design and give 360 degree sound along with professional grade DSP chips to give exceptional sound quality.

Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker
Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker

The MP280 comes with Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, microSD and Aux sockets. There is the added bonus of a USB out port which means you can use the speaker to charge your phone or other USB device when you are out and about. The speaker can be charged using a standard micro USB socket and when fully charged, the lithium ion battery should give 10 hours of constant playback.

Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker
Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker

The on/off button is placed on top of the speaker along with the Bluetooth pairing button. When switched on, the speaker plays a pleasant tune to let you know it’s working and to demonstrate it’s lovely sound quality. On the side is the volume controls and also a button used play and pause music which can also be used to display the current battery charge status which when pressed for 2 seconds displays the battery status using 3 green LED’s.
At the bottom of the speaker is the power / status light and just above this is an NFC contact point. If you have an NFC (near field connection) compatible phone you simply tap your phone on this and it sorts out the connection for you.

Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker
Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker

As a smartphone user, I am constantly faced with battery anxiety, where I might struggle to the end of the day without having to plug my phone into a charger. The MP280 can remove this anxiety by doubling as an emergency recharge station to give your phone a boost and continue to play your music whilst charging it up again.

Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker
Edifier MP280 Portable Speaker

The speaker will operate up to 10 metres away from your phone using Bluetooth 4.0 technology and the really useful and it also doubles as a hands free device with it’s in built microphone!

If you fancy going for a hike with your friends or family, you can attach the speaker to your backpack using the inbuilt carabiner clip. Again this is feels high quality too.

There are no shortage of portable bluetooth speakers on the market at the moment and the MP280 certainly sits at the top end of this with a well made, high quality product ideal for your camping trips in the coming months.

The Edifier MP280 is available for £79.99 at the this link http://gman.ga/gman280

The ASUS Transformer Mini T102H Review – Is it a Laptop or a Tablet?

For the last few weeks, I have been testing the ASUS Transformer Mini, a device which can be a laptop and tablet depending on your mood.

ASUS Transformer Mini T102H
ASUS Transformer Mini T102H

The idea of a tablets with keyboards is not a new one, these were generally add-on keyboards for iPads or Android tablets which worked well, but seemed out of place on a device that was designed to be operated without one. There have also been laptops with detachable keyboards which in turn felt out of place running software which was designed for one.

The key change is the introduction of Windows 10 which can seamlessly transform itself from a keyboard and mouse centric operating system into a touch and swipe based tablet and back again, simply by detaching and reattaching a keyboard,

ASUS Transformer Mini T102
ASUS Transformer Mini T102H

ASUS have been in the ‘transforming’ tablet market for some time and the Transformer Mini T102H brings a very useful addition to the table with a 10.1″ LED backlit HD screen which uses ASUS’s ‘Splendid’ and ‘Wideview’ Technology to give great viewing angles.

ASUS Transformer T102H
ASUS Transformer Mini T102H

Powered by the Intel® Atom™ x5 Processor and 4 GB of RAM. The hard disk is in fact Solid State memory and gives your 64GB of silent running. Everything on board is low power and there didn’t appear to be any internal fans to cool the device.

The graphics are fast and snappy helped by the integrated Intel HD Graphics processor and there’s also an inbuilt 2 megapixel webcam for Skype or other video chat applications.

The great thing about Windows tablets is the number of connectors, the Transformer has a 3.5 mm combo audio jack, USB 3.0 and Micro USB ports, a micro HDMI socket, Fingerprint reader for login, volume controls and micro SD card slot.

ASUS Transformer Mini T102
ASUS Transformer Mini T102

The detachable keyboard was really easy to use and attaches using a powerful magnet and always seemed to line up properly and was responsive to use with the inbuilt trackpad. My Transformer also came with a stylus which is battery powered and looks and feels like a real pen, it was great for drawing and painting using the bundled apps and can also be used to write on-screen sticky note.

 

ASUS Transformer T102H
ASUS Transformer Mini T102H

I really enjoyed using the Transformer and it makes a great device for people who are comfortable with tablets, but also need a real keyboard for their work, possibly an idea for students? At £449 it is reasonably price too.