Category Archives: Review

Electric Car, Electric Vehicles, Gadget Man, Podcast, Review, Technology, Tesla

The Gadget Man – Episode 49 – Tesla Powerwall

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This week we talk about the Tesla Powerwall. The powerwall is an electricity storage solution for homes, businesses an more!

Tesla Powerwall
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 thermal control system and software that receives dispatch commands from a solar inverter. The unit mounts seamlessly on a wall and is integrated with the local grid to harness excess power and give customers the flexibility to draw energy from their own reserve.

The battery can provide a number of different benefits to the customer including:

Load shifting – The battery can provide financial savings to its owner by charging during low rate periods when demand for electricity is lower and discharging during more expensive rate periods when electricity demand is higher
Increasing self-consumption of solar power generation – The battery can store surplus solar energy not used at the time it is generated and use that energy later when the sun is not shining
Back-up power – Assures power in the event of an outage
The Powerwall Home Battery increases the capacity for a household’s solar consumption, while also offering backup functionality during grid outages.

The Powerwall is available in 10kWh, optimized for backup applications or 7kWh optimized for daily use applications. Both can be connected with solar or grid and both can provide backup power. The 10kWh Powerwall is optimized to provide backup when the grid goes down, providing power for your home when you need it most. When paired with solar power, the 7kWh Powerwall can be used in daily cycling to extend the environmental and cost benefits of solar into the night when sunlight is unavailable.

Tesla’s selling price to installers is $3500 for 10kWh and $3000 for 7kWh. (Price excludes inverter and installation.) Deliveries begin in late Summer in the US. Plans are for Powerwall to be available in the UK before for the end of the year with more details to follow.

Powerwall specs:

Mounting: Wall Mounted Indoor/Outdoor
Inverter: Pairs with growing list of inverters
Energy: 7kWh or 10kWh
Continuous Power: 2kW
Peak Power: 3kW
Round Trip Efficiency: >92%
Operating Temperature Range: -20C (-4F) to 43C (110F)
Warranty: 10 years
Dimensions: H: 1300mm W: 860mm D:180mm

Cameras, Christmas Presents, Gadget Man, Podcast, Review, Technology

The Gadget Man – Episode 48 -D-Link myhome – Smart Plug, Motion Sensor, Home Monitor and Music Everywhere

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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 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 also set switch on and cut off times via a schedule.

When used in conjunction with the Motion Sensor and Home Monitor, the smart plug can be programmed to switch on or off based on events triggered by motion (Motion Sensor and Home Monitor) and also sound (Home Monitor).

The Home Monitor is a very able HD streaming camera which as I have mentioned can be programmed to trigger other devices within your personal home network.

They are really very good devices and I would like to personally thank D-Link for sending the very helpful Robert to our offices to fully demonstrate their capabilities.

We will be fully reviewing the devices online shortly

Cameras, Gadget Man, Podcast, Review, Technology, Transcend

The Gadget Man – Episode 47 – Transcend DrivePro 220 – In-Car Camera

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Transcend Drive Pro 220 ReviewThis 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’ and speed warning systems. I found it very able and the picture quality was outstanding.

If you would like to find out more, listen in to the link above and find out what I thought!

You can find out more information about Transcend and its other products by liking their Facebook page or following them on Twitter.

http://www.facebook.com/TranscendUK
http://twitter.com/Transcend_UK

 

Thanks to Mickaela Noone at Transcend Information Europe B.V for the loan of the product.

Electric Car, Electric Vehicles, Gadget Man, Hybrid, Mark Webber, Motorsports, Podcast, Review, Technology

Heads up for The Gadget Man on Monday – Porsche 919 LMP1 + Matt interviews Mark Webber

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Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber, Porsche Team: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb
Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team – Photo courtesy of Porsche

We had a very exciting weekend at Silverstone for the World Endurance Championship Qualifiers, namely 6 Hours of Silverstone which is the UK heat of the WEC which culminates in the world famous 24 Hour race at Le Mans.

The WEC LMP1 class now uses hybrid technology and following on from our series of electric and hybrid car reviews, we were interested in finding out what Porsche were doing in this area.

Porsche Motorsports and former Formula 1 driver, Mark Webber
Porsche Motorsports and former Formula 1 driver, Mark Webber

Porsche Motorsports very kindly invited us to be their guests for the day and we were able to interview drivers,  Mark Webber & Michael Christensen, plus we were also able to chat to Porsche LMP1 Technical Director Alexander Hitzinger about the technology around the car and what the future holds for us in an increasingly electric world.

To hear the interview, tune in to BBC Radio Suffolk on Monday 20th April 2015 at 11:40 and find out what Mark Webber thinks of the all new hybrid technology and how it will eventually effect us in production cars to come.

App of the Week, Gadget Man, Podcast, Review, Smart Watch, Technology, Wearables

The Gadget Man – Episode 43 – Sony Smartband Talk

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Sony Smartband Talk reviewed by Matt Porter
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 rate these products as a means to motivate people to be more active and the Smartband Talk does this with that added bit of ‘cool’.

Listen in to what I thought of it and hear about some of our listeners that are using the same products.

Full review coming soon!!!

Cameras, Gadget Man, Podcast, Review, Technology, Video Review

The Gadget Man – Episode 42 – Kodak PixPro SP360 action camera

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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 going, not so easy to get the footage onto YouTube, this however is more to do with Youtube.

I shall be reviewing the camera over the next few weeks, in the meantime enjoy the video. You will need YouTube of Android or Google Chrome to be able to see the 360 effect.

Cameras, Drones, Gadget Man, Podcast, Review, Technology, Wearables

The Gadget Man Episode 41 Soloshot2 – Your Robot Cameraman

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This week we chat about the Soloshot2. Billed as ‘your robot cameraman’, it takes away the pain of filming your activities. It does this by tracking your movements using a remote wrist strap which is tracked by the main camera mount unit.

Below is some footage filmed using the Soloshot 2 a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks to William at Soloshot UK for his efforts!!

App of the Week, Gadget Man, Podcast, Review, Smart Watch, Wearables

The Gadget Man – Episode 40 – Sony Smartwatch 3

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Today we look at one of the newest of the Android Wear devices to hit the market. We’re looking at the Sony Smartwatch 3. A great device with an amazing Transflective display.

If you are looking for an Android compatible smart watch, then the Sony Smartwatch 3 could be for you.

Listen to the stream and find out what I thought of it with a nice little demonstration live on air!!