I thought I would post a short video showing the Tesla Model S P85D performing an Auto Park manoeuvre. This will hopefully form a series of posts and videos detailing the new updates to the car which include ‘Autopilot’ which is basically an advanced cruise control system. In the meantime, enjoy…
Category Archives: Gadget Man
The Gadget Man – Episode 85 – FlyONE Dark bluetooth headphones from DEEWEAR
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This week I have been testing a set of FlyONE Dark bluetooth headphones from DEEWEAR.
The headphones have an real ergonomic design coupled with extremely high audio quality, they are designed in such as way as you stay fixed in your ear by using built in flaps which fit into your ear and remain there even during exercise. Deewear employed Luigi Lorenzi, Parkourer with Team Jestion to test and develop the headphones to ensure they stay in place even during somersaults!
The earphones are contained in a display case charged ready to go, just couple them to your bluetooth device and you are ready to go, the box also contains a USB charger cable , buds and flaps.
The earphones utilise Bluetooth 4.1 and 6th generation CVC noise reduction which means that constant usage stretches to 5 hours music or talk time (using the integrated microphone) or 180 hours standby time.
The earphones are connected together with a flat cable which is reflective on one side which can be seen when headlights shine on it, a usual safety measure if you are exercising in the dark.
When you switch on the ear phones a voice is heard saying ‘Power On’ and ‘Connection Successful’, holding the centre power button will switch off the earphones again with a voice telling you ‘Power Off’.
The three button control allows you to adjust the volume up and down and pause music, you can skip backwards and forwards between tracks by holding the volume up and down for 2 seconds.
When you are ready to charge the earphones, you remove the cap on the back of the right earphone and plug in the micro USB cable. Charging doesn’t take too long, however you can only check the battery level by pairing with an Apple device, be that iPhone, iPad or iMac.
The sound quality of FlyONE Dark is supreme, although you need to ensure they are fitted correctly before using them to experience the excellent bass reproduction. While I was testing them, I viewed a film trailer on my phone, I found myself rewinding the trailer to experience the cinematic bass, it really was very good indeed.
If you are looking for a set of Bluetooth earphones, FlyONE Dark comes highly recommended.
To listen to the Mark and I chatting about the FlyONE Dark, click on the link at the top of the page or click below
A massive thank you to DEEWEAR for providing the earphones for test and review.
Star Wars The Force Awakens BB8 from Sphero – This is the Droid you are looking for!
It’s been 10 years since the last Star Wars movie was released and it looked like we wouldn’t been seeing anymore of the George Lucas universe. That was until 2012 when Lucasfilm was snapped up by Disney for $4 billion!
With this announcement came the news that the Star Wars movie franchise was to start again with the release of Episode VII The Force Awakens, followed by Episode VIII and IV plus other Star Wars movies not part of the main series. It’s certainly all go! As with the previous movies the mega marketing machine around Star Wars kicked swiftly into gear and earlier in the year Star Wars Day heralded the official reveal of a slew of toys, games, apps, games and much more.
The most enduring characters of the Star Wars series have most certainly been the droids R2D2 and C3PO, both featuring in all the films in the current series and set to continue to appear in the future too. Along with these fan favourites a new droid is set to take a starring role in The Force Awakens, his (we think it is a he) name is BB8.
BB8 shares certain similarities with R2D2 in the style the dome that carries the eye, however rather than the dustbin style body with legs, BB8’s body is made up of a large ball with the head magically floating onto as the ball rotates to move the droid around.
Disney have licenced the job of producing a ‘toy’ version of BB8 to the tech wizards at Sphero, who have in the past produced a number of robots based on balls that can be controlled by phone apps. BB8 retains this style of control, requiring the user to control the droid using a iPhone or Android device connected via a special app and Bluetooth. BB8 is charged by sitting the ball in a little cradle and whilst charging the dome head will move around is if taking in the surroundings.
Once charged, you place BB8 on the floor and run up the special app, the droid jumps into life with all the sound playing through the smart phone. You can choose to pilot the droid using controls on the app, control it via ‘set piece’ moves, set it on patrol around your space where it with detect obstacles and attempt to avoid them whilst chirping away in the same style as R2D2. You can also control BB8 via voice by training the app to recognise different commands.
Finally you there is a entertaining ‘Hologram’ mode. This allows you to record a short video message on your phone and then have BB8 project it like a hologram. In reality this is done by pointing your phone camera at BB8 and having the hologram overlaid onto the image on the screen. It is quite cool though,
The Sphero BB8 is not really a toy aimed at young children and at around £120, it’s fairly pricey to and might have limited interest after the hysteria of the movie dies down. Expect more from BB8 in the upcoming movies and a revised ‘battle damaged BB8’ in 2016
The Gadget Man – Episode 83 – Edifier R1800BT – Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers
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Finally we make it to Episode 83 with our first proper Gadget Man of 2016. This week I chat to Mark about the Edifier R1800BT Bluetooth enabled Book Shelf Speakers.
These are really lovely to listen to and have been either side of my iMac for the past couple of weeks. They even come with their very own polishing cloth!
Listen in to the audio stream above and stay tuned for our upcoming episode where we will be chatting about the Tesla Model S P85D with Auto Pilot!!
The Gadget Man – Tesla ‘Summon’ Mode now enabled with 7.1 software update
We’re going to be reviewing the Auto Pilot functionality of the Tesla Model S at the end of January 2016 and I’m not completely certain the UK model will have this functionality, but it looks as though the promised upgrade to allow for ‘Summon’ mode has been released in the wild.
According to a number of websites, Summon Mode allows for driverless parking in a recognised parking space or garage and summoning of a vehicle from 39 feet away along with integration with automatic garage doors. I seems that you can now park your car in spaces you reduced access and summon your car from it’s garage.
The video’s below illustrate both parking and summoning of the Model S from a garage. Below that is the video of the ‘Snake’ charger that we hope will be released soon.
I have the P85D for a few days to review at the end of January, so I’ll report back on both Autopilot and the release times for ‘Summon Mode’ in the UK
Via:
Source:
The Gadget Man – Episode 82.6 – Human Transportation via drone – EHANG 184
Drones are never far from the news at the moment and with the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) currently in progress in Law Vegas, there has already been some big announcements in this area.
But none quite so big as the EHANG 184 Autonomous Flying Vehicle. Stay tuned for more CES announcements. You can watch the official video below for more about the EHANG 184 and it’s founders ideology of safe aerial transportation.
The Gadget Man – Episode 82.5 – Attempted Telephone Extortion by a ‘Help Desk’
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We’re now firmed established in the New Year now and 2016 is looking to be a memorable one for technology. What hasn’t changed however is computer crime. Criminals have now settled in to established methods of computer crime using either hacking or persuasion on the telephone or email.
Attached is a recording of a telephone conversation I had with a ‘cold caller’ who goes on to tell me that I possibly have issues with my computer and with their help, they are suggesting they can fix them.
I have had countless telephone calls very similar to this one, what is different is that I specifically request the caller to go home and think about who they are working for, when they immediately hang up on me.
To be clear, NO COMPANY is able to tie your telephone number to your computer in this context. It would be incredibly time consuming to go about such an act and would therefore be reserved for government or police forces to do. If anybody calls you out of the blue and suggests your computer is faulty, hang up and consider reporting the call to the police and telephone provider. Do NOT follow any instructions by the caller to run software of ANY kind, they are simply attempting to extort money from you which could run into thousands of pounds.
If you know ANYONE who might be vulnerable to this kind of scam then please send them the link to this page.
Happy New Year
Matt
Photo Credit : Christiaan Colen via Flickr
The Gadget Man – Episode 82 – Gadget Review of the Year
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Its my last broadcast of the year and I so talk about my top 5 gadgets of the year. Listen to the stream to hear what I thought of the following :-
- Star Wars Sphero BB8
- Motorola Moto 360 Android Wear Smartwatch
- Soloshot2 Robotic Camera Mount
- Fujifilm XT-1 Mirrorless Camera
- Tesla Model S P85D
These are all products I’ve reviewed in the past, so you can click on each of them to take you to it’s relevant feature.
Merry Christmas from the Gadget Man!!
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Thanks for visiting The Gadget Man over the last year. I sincerely wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year wherever you are in the world.
Stay tuned for next year where I will be testing the Tesla P85D with Autopilot. I’ll also be looking at the amazing Loop Energy Monitoring gadgets and a whole host of new and exciting stuff!!
Finally, don’t forget to tune in to BBC Radio Suffolk on 28th December 2015 at 10.50am, where I will be talking about my gadgets of the year!!
The Gadget Man – Episode 81 – Huawei Watch
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When I started out as ‘The Gadget Man’, I always thought that Watches were the obvious gadget, something you would recognise as a gadget, be it Dick Tracy, Star Trek or Thunderbirds. Being able to communicate with your nearest and dearest by talking to your wrist seemed to be the a really futuristic thing to be doing, so it was my first port of call. Having now tested 8 smart watches and wearables, I was really looking forward to getting my hands on the Huawei Watch.
If you haven’t heard of Huawei, you should have. They are one of the leading communications and technology companies in the world and have been manufacturing Smartphones for some time now, but it is the Huawei Watch that I wanted to see.
The Huawei Watch is a premium Android Wear device, noticeably weightier than other models and with a much brighter, high res screen that stays on the whole time. Like the Moto 360, the Huawei Watch sports a round screen, but unlike the Motorola device it uses the entire screen and the ‘flat tyre’ is absent. This means that their are no external sensors on the screen, so auto-brightness is not an option, but saying that; I prefer this trade off because using the whole screen makes the watch look all the more realistic.
This is one of the first Android Wear devices to officially support iOS so iPhone users are not simply tied to the Apple Watch. When I say officially, I can confirm that I have paired a Moto 360 with an iPhone as well, but it isn’t officially supported.
As with all Android Wear devices, it makes use of Google Now with the ‘OK Google’ trigger to do lots of difference tasks. There is no speaker in the watch, just a microphone, so don’t expect to use the watch as a speakerphone (just yet). Personally, I’m surprised that this functionality hasn’t been added to Android Wear, it was present in the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 more than 18 months ago and worked really nicely. I’m certain the trade off against battery use was one of the reasons not to include it, but it’s a shame though.
Aside from the pre-installed apps supported by Wear, other apps are reliant on what is installed on your handset. I’m a keen (electric assisted) cyclist and I’ve personally tried a number of cycling related apps, as soon as these are installed, the watch automatically installs a Wear capable add-on, whether this is a information window or live map, it’s always intriguing to see what the developer has deemed worthy of the watch-face. Some good and some not so.
The Huawei Watch uses sapphire crystal as it’s watch face which is much harder and scratch resistant that other toughened glass and seems less prone to fingerprints. The display is a 1.4 inch AMOLED display which gives excellent blacks, this is because AMOLED screens use self illuminating pixels and don’t require a generic back light, so blacks are not lit at all. This sounds great, but in bright sunlight the display suffers which is a common problem with the technology. The watch has built in Wifi, which allows for updates without the need for a phone in the vicinity, but as will almost all wearables, you really need a phone nearby to get the full potential.
The watch itself is manufactured from cold forged stainless steel and the watch strap is a very high end leader fastener. All in all the watch feels expensive and very high quality. The rear of the watch has a magnetic four pin coupling for charging and in the centre is a heart rate sensor which works with Huawei’s fitness software and Google’s ‘Fit’ system.
Battery life is really pretty good for a watch that is effectively switched on the whole time, but in standby mode a different clock face is used which uses lots of black and therefore lots of pixels are being lit. Very clever decision by Huawei.
I was particularly looking forward to reviewing this watch as it looked like a real contender to the Apple Watch. I love the circular face smartwatches that make you feel that these wrist worn wearables are something more that a boring square display. I was fond of the Moto 360 which is slightly larger and the Huawei device certainly didn’t disappoint.
The smart watch is still finding it’s feet and I would suggest it will find them by the next generation of wearables. Whether is can be established as a replacement for smartphones is a question we will have answered eventually, but until then the Huawei Watch does a superb job of using the available technology to it’s maximum.
Thanks to Huawei for the loan of the watch, I’m very grateful for your efforts.