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 the HTC One M9 which takes the HTC One design and brings further improvements. Listen in to the stream and find out all about the device. A full review will be published here soon.
I would like to thank Three, who supplied the phone for review, It was pleasing to see the 4G icon displayed on the screen and network performance was excellent both using the handset and streaming audio to the Volvo V60 D6 and Audi A3 Sportback etron the phone worked a treat #makeitright
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 facilities to web cast the event to a large auditorium and Coderus were on hand to demonstrate some amazing Google products such as Chromecast and the Nexus Player. We also enjoyed Google themed cupcakes and sandwiches which were delicious.
After the keynotes were finished, there was a question and answer session hosted by Jim Milne from Innovation Martlesham and featured guest speakers from the tech area to answer questions and queries about the direction that Google is taking and there were some very interesting discussions about the nurturing role we can all take with young people to help encourage a new generation of UK based IT expertise.
For those of us that waited until the very end of the evening, we were very pleasantly surprised to receive our very own Google Cardboard to take away.
Google Cardboard is a VR system developed by Google engineers David Coz and Damien Henry in their 20% time. It was first released at Google I/O 2014 developers conference.
Google Cardboard
This year, Google have updated ‘Cardboard’ to support phones of up to 6 inches screen size and now it works with the Apple iPhone (but check your screen size is big enough!). Google Cardboard headsets cost about £12 to construct and the plans and specifications are freely available to buy online for about a tenner.
They are very simple to use, you install the Google Cardboard app on your smartphone, then slide it into the back of the ‘device’. There is normally an NFC tag with the headset which automatically identifies itself and tells your phone it is ready to work in ‘3d’.
The two lenses built into Cardboard focus onto the screen on the phone and produces the impression of stereoscopic 3d.
The apps are the real gem in the whole idea and there are hundreds available and most provide and incredibly immersive experience, it’s a fantastic opportunity to try out VR and at a low entry cost it means it’s accessible to everyone with compatible smartphone.
Thanks to Mark Thomas and everyone at Coderus for the evening, it was very interesting. You can find out more about the company by visiting their website here or following them on Twitter here
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!!
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.
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!!
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!!
