When thinking about electric cars, most people conjure up images of 60 sci-fi movies with passengers sitting in a bubble of glass on empty elevated roads. This is very far from the reality of 21st century electric vehicles, which are very similar in look to their petrol drinking cousins and literally bursting at the seams with technology.
Over the past months, I have been given the amazing opportunity to test five of these vehicles, from the quirky two seater Renault Twizy to the awesome BMW i8. However nothing was going to prepare me for the most recent vehicle, designed and built by a Silcon Valley based company headed up by Elon Musk who spends the other half of his day heading up SpaceX, the private space rocket business.
This week, we take a step down from the Tesla Model S from last week and chat about the camera I used to take lots of lovely photos of the car, namely the Fujifilm XT-1 with 56mm F1.2 lens.
This is a lovely camera and the photos it captures are simply stunning. A full review is coming up later in the week.
Massive thanks to Jeannie Corby at Fuji for providing the camera and lens’s
This week we chat about the Tesla Model S P85+ electric vehicle.
If you haven’t already heard about the Tesla, you should! They are producing amazing electric sports cars with even more amazing range. Tesla were amazingly generous in allowing me to borrow a top of the range vehicle for 6 days. It’s simply superb in every way. Over the past 6 days, I have made a few new friends and have been asked numerous questions about the car.
Tesla-Model-S-at-Shotley-Gate
Listen to the stream above where I talk to Mark about my time using the car. A full in depth review will be coming over the next few days.
Thanks to Tesla Motors for lending me the car, particularly Laura who has been extremely patient. To find out more about Tesla, you can view their website here
Tesla Model S P85+ in front of Orwell Bridge in Ipswich
Thanks also to Paul Eaton, who very kindly gave up an afternoon of his time to stand, crouch and lay in the freezing cold taking some superb photos of the car. You can view his Flickr profile here
For our first official slot of the year, I talk to Mark about the HTC One Mini 2. Bringing the premium aluminium build quality to a smaller form factor. Listen in to find out more!
I was delighted to be invited to the BBC Radio Suffolk Studios to provide gadget and technology advice for callers on Rachael Sloane’s show.
I answered some very interesting questions about iMessage, Crochet Hooks with inbuilt lights, which is the best Wordprocessor and lots of other bits by text and email.
I also took a New Year selfie with Rachael, it was great fun!!
The audio recorded on the day is attached as ever at the top of the page.
It’s been a great year reviewing such a wide range of gadgets from smart watches to high end sports cars. It’s been quite a ride, I’ve really enjoyed the whole experience, so thank you to all involved from BBC Radio Suffolk to the PR agencies and companies that have been so generous allowing me to try out all the wonderful tech!
This morning I spoke to Mark Murphy about my favourite gadgets of the year and the Gadget which won the gadget of the Year.
Smart Watches
We have a lot of fun reviewing some smart wear. We reviewed the Samsung Gear 2, Sony Smartwatch 2 and Sony Smartband. My favourite was the Gear 2, purely for James Bond features. However we have been asking to review other watches, but none have been sent out. Let’s hope this improves next year.
Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 – Wearable of the Year 2014
Sony Smartwatch 2
Sony Smartband
Smart Phones and Tablets
We were never short of phones and tablets which is not surprising given the size of the marketplace. HTC, Samsung, LG, Asus, Nokia and Motorola all supplied us with review units. HTC phones exhibited the best built quality and screen sharpness. LG had the best screen of the two Quad HD displays (the other being the Galaxy Note 4). Motorola was the best value for money with it’s Moto G.
Overall, our favourite handset started and remained the Nokia Lumia 1520. A six inch incredibly vibrant screen, superb battery life and exquisite camera. Although very large, it was by far the nicest of the all the handsets we reviewed
We also reviewed three tables, the Samungs Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2, the Nokia Lumia 2520 and the Asus Transformer. The Tab Pro 12.2 was our favourite with massive 12.2 inch screen with better than HD quality, the Nokia 2520 with Windows 8.1RT on board was close behind.
HTC One M8 HTC One Mini 2 Nokia Lumia 1520 – Smart Device of the Year 2014 Sony Xperia Z2 Moto G Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 Nokia Lumia 2520 Tablet Nokia Lumia 630 Asus Zenfone 6 Asus Transformer LG G3 Asus Zenfone 5 Samsung Galaxy S5 Samsung Galaxy Alpha Samsung Galaxy Note 4
Cameras
We reviewed a number of cameras this year, as expected the GoPro models come ahead of most others for their durability and quality of movies and photos. The Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 was excellent and was a fully functional Android device to boot. The Sony Actioncam was good, but kept fogging up which spoilt most of it’s footage. The Autographer was…. weird.
GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition – Camera of the Year 2014 Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 Sony Actioncam Autographer BT Homecam GoPro Hero Selfie Stick
Electric Bikes
I loved reviewing the electric bikes this year. I started out with the mindset that electric bikes would be a welcome relief from simply reviewing mobile phones for a year, but I ended up extending my ‘E’ vehicle reviews to cars. It was thoroughly interesting and liberating to get out in the Suffolk countryside and off the beaten track to test out these bikes. The Sparta is not really designed for off-road, but was capable and fast used for travelling to work. The Smart Ebike was fabulous and I loved every minute of using it, especially off-road. The Batribike was excellent in every area, I only marked if down for off-road use, but this was a little unfair as it had road tyres.
Sparta Ion/RX+ Smart Ebike – Ebike of the Year 2014 – Joint Winner Batribike Granite Pro – Ebike of the Year 2014 – Joint Winner
Electric Cars
This was an amazing experience from the beginning. The Renault Twizy was small and exciting to drive, but really only designed to replace moped type use. The Renault Zoe was an excellent car, out of all, this was the one car which could truly offer and alternative to fossil fuelled cars both in size and price. The BMW i3 was interesting and very fast. Design wise it hardly resembled an standard BMW but it was high spec and beautiful to drive. The BMW i8 was outstanding to look at and drive. It was like sitting in Red 5 at the end of Star Wars Episode IV, and the most exhilarating drive so far (electric car wise). I didn’t get to test the Tesla Model S this year, but in a week or so, I am looking forward to reviewing it.
I also got to experience 3 AMG ‘normally’ aspirated vehicles. I say normal, there was nothing normal about these vehicles. I experienced the G63 (G Wagon), the S63 and the C63 Edition 507. The C63 was simply mind shattering. When a manufacturer electronically limits to the top speed to 171mph, you know something is afoot.
Renault Twizy
Renault Zoe
BMW i3
BMW i8 – Car of the Year 2014
The Rest
I got to test out other gadgets and gizmos, ranging from domestic gadgets to toys and drones. The drones were fun, but in some cases difficult to control. The Ankidrive was fun and the Samsung Smart TV with Soundbar was very cool indeed. However, by far the best gadget we tried out was the iRobot Roomba 880. This is a fantastic vacuum cleaner and has remained in use at least three times a day since July this year. It does a brilliant job of vacuuming up just about any type of debris on any surface. It was fantastic!!
iRobot Roomba 880 – Winner Samsung Smart TV and Soundbar Ankidrive Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Parrot Jumping Sumo
Overall Gadget of the Year 2014
The Gadget Man – Gadget of the Year 2014 – iRobot Roomba 880
We’ve certainly tried and tested many gadgets this year. Some were disappointments, some were surprising successes. But at the end of the year, you simply have to hand the Gadget of the Year award to a recipient that deserves it for providing above and beyond expectation. With this in mind, we simply have to award the Gadget of the Year Award 2014 to iRobot Roomba 880. It’s a fantastic piece of equipment which has genuinely helped us around the house.
GoPro Hero available from Currys and Argos in the UK
In the last gadget slot before Christmas, I talk with Mark Murphy about the GoPro Hero, GoPro’s entry level action camera.
We discuss the merits of such cameras over using a mobile phone and likely uses.
The GoPro Hero is lower end in performance and functionality compared to the GoPro Hero 4, but coming in at a quarter of the cost, it’s certainly worth looking at, it’s waterproof to 40 meters and has excellent optics as you would expect from GoPro.
Don’t expect bluetooth or Wifi though, but it has amazing functionality and build quality for the price.
If you are looking to buy one for yourself or a loved one, they are currently stocked by Currys and Argos or from Amazon
in the UK for approx £99.99 (click on the company link to be passed to their website).
This morning’s gadget slot was probably the most fun we’ve had so far!! Today I featured the Anki Drive a physical car racing game which effortlessly merges the real world with arcade racing and adds buckets of artificial intelligence.
You can buy Ankidrive online direct from Amazon by clicking the image below….
Both Mark and myself can vouch how quickly it can be unrolled and set up as I managed while a song was playing. I haven’t even touched on what you can do with this ‘racing game’, but I can tell you I was seriously impressed!! Full written review coming soon, in the meantime listen to the attached audio stream and the short video filmed by the lovely Jaimielee.
Thanks to the wonderful Lauren Armour at Hotwire PR for getting this over to me at such short notice!!!
As a father myself, I know how stressful is can be having a newborn baby in the house, especially when you are a new parent. Baby monitors have been the must have purchase for new parents and they have evolved amazingly over the years.
This week we have lots of fun in the studio with the Parrot Jumping Sumo Mini Drone.
Packed FULL of sensors and technology including a spring which can be fired on demand to propel the Sumo into the air, this is a really cool Christmas gift for your over 14 year old.
You can control the Jumping Sumo using a smartphone app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone. This allows for full control over the Jumping Sumo similar to a remote control vehicle.
You can also build a road map within the map so the bot can perform a pre-programmed display.
It’s all great fun and can be bought for just over £100.
Thanks to Steve Puddle for his help organising the loan of the Jumping Sumo
Front Mounted Camera
Poised for Action
Jump String
Jump Spring Close Up
Parrot Jumping Sumo Minidrone – SPINNING!!
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Both Mark and myself can vouch how quickly it can be unrolled and set up as I managed while a song was playing. I haven’t even touched on what you can do with this ‘racing game’, but I can tell you I was seriously impressed!! Full written review coming soon, in the meantime listen to the attached audio stream and the short video filmed by the lovely Jaimielee.
