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

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.

The Gadget Man Episode 41 Soloshot2 – Your Robot Cameraman

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!!

The Gadget Man – Episode 40 – Sony Smartwatch 3

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!!

 

The Gadget Man – Episode 39 – Volkswagen e-Golf Electric Vehicle

This week we talk about at the Volkswagen e-Golf, a really superb electric vehicle which successfully bridged the gap from traditional petrol or diesel car to fully fledged electric car.

This really was a superb vehicle on every level, the handling was just amazing. It was incredibly easy to drive and once I had got the handle of ‘Park Pilot’, that too was amazing. A really great car, and a head turner too!.

Thanks to VW Press Office for supplying the car with everything I would ever need and thanks to the two delivery drivers who were equally polite and helpful.

Dont forget to listen to the stream above, and wait for the full review coming soon!

The Gadget Man – Episode 38 – Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plus Charge Woes at Waitrose

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Review
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Review

This week I chat to Mark about the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV an absolutely superb four wheel drive plugin hybrid electric vehicle.

I loved driving this vehicle, it was so easy to drive and manoeuvre  and is packed to the brim with it’s own gadgets.

Listen to the stream and find out more, a full in depth review is coming soon on here, so keep checking back!!

Thanks to Mitsubishi Press Office for being so kind by lending us the vehicle!!

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, plugin port
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, plugin port
Charging Woes at Waitrose
Charging Woes at Waitrose

We also chatted about blocked charge bays at Waitrose. This is something I continue to witness (see above, the Golf is fully electric).

Waitrose were approached to comment on this and replied below:-

‘Our Ips​wi​​ch ​shop has four dedicated parking bays for customers to charge their electric cars whilst shopping in-store​.  W​​hile we are
not aware of any misuse of the electric charging bays, we will continue to ​regularly ​monitor the car park to ensure that those who require charging, can do so.’

Waitrose spokesperson

The Gadget Man – Episode 37 – Dyson Hot + Cool Air Multiplier AM05

This week, we talk about and demonstrate the Dyson Hot+Cool Air Multiplier. This is Dyson take on the heating and cooling fan. It is bladeless and quite quiet, it’s also great at quickly heating a space.

Find out what we thought about it by listening to the stream above.

Thanks to Dyson for providing the fan and also for offering to show us all they have to offer!!

The Gadget Man – Are TV’s Listening to our Private Conversations? plus Robot Vacuum Cleaner on the Rampage!!!

A couple of news stories this morning caught the public’s attention. The first related to Samsung TV’s and privacy concerns. The second told the story of a South Korean woman having her hair devoured by a robot vacuum cleaner.

I chat to Mark Murphy at BBC Radio Suffolk to find out more.

Listen to the link above to find out the facts!!

Photo: khan news

Samsung isn’t listening to your private conversations after all

There’s been quite a lot of coverage in the UK media overnight regarding the supposed ability for Samsung Smart TV’s to listen in to our private conversations. It all makes great headlines I guess, but after being prompted to comment on BBC Radio Suffolk about the story, we decided to look into the matter a bit more closely.

The story was originally brought to the media’s attention after publication on the online news site The Daily Beast (view) which highlights a particular portion of the Smart TV Privacy Policy (view). The specific section states (important bit in bold):

  1. Voice Recognition
    1. You can control your SmartTV, and use many of its features, with voice commands.
    2. If you enable Voice Recognition, you can interact with your Smart TV using your voice. To provide you the Voice Recognition feature, some voice commands may be transmitted (along with information about your device, including device identifiers) to a third-party service that converts speech to text or to the extent necessary to provide the Voice Recognition features to you. In addition, Samsung may collect and your device may capture voice commands and associated texts so that we can provide you with Voice Recognition features and evaluate and improve the features. Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.
    3. If you do not enable Voice Recognition, you will not be able to use interactive voice recognition features, although you may be able to control your TV using certain predefined voice commands. While Samsung will not collect your spoken word, Samsung may still collect associated texts and other usage data so that we can evaluate the performance of the feature and improve it.
    4. You may disable Voice Recognition data collection at any time by visiting the “settings” menu. However, this may prevent you from using all of the Voice Recognition features.

Again, we looked into the technology behind the TV and found the that these specific Smart TV’s work in two modes of operations

1) The viewer can operate basic features of the TV by saying ‘Hi TV’ out loud. The TV wakes up and can be told to “Change Channel”, “Volume Up” etc. These commands are very basic and no online communication takes place at all.

2) This mode of operation can only be triggered by depressing the ‘Mic’ button on the remote control. whilst depressed, the view can ask natural language questions such as ‘What shall I watch tonight?’. It is at this point that your words are being recorded, when you finish talking those words are transmitted securely to third party natural language translation company Nuance (You might have heard of Nuance as they make the very popular dictation software Dragon Naturally Speaking). Upon arrival at Nuance’s servers, the spoken phrase in converted to text, the recording discarded and the text returned back to the TV for processing. Using a 3rd party means that the accuracy of the translation is much higher and less errors are likely to come about due to difference accents or dialects being used.

So, put simply. Unless someone with very advanced decryption abilities is permanently listening in to your internet connection on the vain hope that you might (whilst asking your TV to find you something to watch) divulge some deeply private secret, the chances of any kind of security breach is very low indeed.

I contacted Samsung for comment and a spokesperson issued the following statement:-

Samsung takes consumer privacy very seriously and our products are designed with privacy in mind. We employ industry-standard security safeguards and practices, including data encryption, to secure consumers’ personal information and prevent unauthorized collection or use.

Voice recognition, which allows the user to control the TV using voice commands, is a Samsung Smart TV feature, which can be activated or deactivated by the user. Should consumers enable the voice recognition capability, the voice data consists of TV commands, or search sentences, only. Users can easily recognize if the voice recognition feature is activated because a microphone icon appears on the screen.

If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice command search to execute the command. At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV.

Samsung encourages consumers to contact the company directly with any product concerns or questions.

So, should we be concerned? Well, yes we should always be concerned about our privacy and where possible take every step we see fit to ensure it is maintained. We are at constant threat of having our privacy interfered with under the veil of protection by companies and possibly governments, so we should shown caution.

However, an obvious legal statement to protect a manufacturer from litigation is perfectly acceptable in our over litigious world and I think in this case, it has been taken out of context.

I would be very interested in what you think, so please feel free to comment as you see fit.

The Gadget Man – Episode 36 – Nissan Leaf Tekna – Pure Electric Vehicle

This week I was delighted to be able to test the Nissan Leaf Tekna. This is a very nice pure electric hatchback and I have really enjoyed driving it.

Listen to the stream above and find out what I thought about it, we also talked at length about the practicalities of driving an electric car especially with the sub hundred mile ranges many EV drivers experience at the moment.

Massive thanks to Nissan Press Office for providing the vehicle and the their support.

The Gadget Man – Episode 35 – ASUS Transformer TF103C

This week we chat about a tablet with an integrated detachable keyboard. This is the 10.1 inch ASUS Transformer TF103C.

Both myself and Mark agreed that tablets are great, but when you need to do some serious typing, keyboards are even better. The Transformer allows the best of both worlds and I really enjoyed using the device.

Thanks to Lauren at Hotwire PR for providing the device!!

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