This week Matt again joined the Grumpy Old Gits on Mark Murphy’s Morning Show on BBC Radio Suffolk, where together with Ian Healey and James Easter they had a collective grumble about the following:-
Banning Contact in School Rugby – James Easter
Sunday, no longer the day of rest – Matt Porter
Royal Watchers – Ian Healey
Cold Calling – Ian Healey
Air Shows – James Easter
You can listen in to the stream to hear both what this weeks ‘GOG’s’ had to say and what they agreed or disagreed on.
This week Matt was a G.O.G. (Grumpy Old Git) on Mark Murphy’s Morning Show on BBC Radio Suffolk.
The subject matter still had technology subject matter as well as poor sound quality on broadcast TV, the perils of being computer savvy, the date of Easter, do children still go out to play and does riding an electric bike count as exercise?
Featuring Matt Porter, Mark Murphy, Rev. Andrew Dotchin and Neil Bowles.
You can listen to the stream, by clicking the play button above.
The Gadget Man – Episode 86 – Tesla Model S P85D – Auto Pilot
I have been driving the latest Tesla Model S P85D over the past few days, specifically to experience software update 7.1 and the improvements to Autopilot functionality.
Tesla Model S P85D
We discussed the technology behind Tesla Autopilot and also the future of autonomous and driverless cars.
You can listen to a recording of the stream and find out what we thought.
Following on from the Tesla Model S P85D Auto Park manoeuvre from Yesterday, I was as a rapid charger today and took the opportunity to make a short video explaining the functions of the centre console. Enjoy…
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…
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.
FlyONE Dark Headphones in box
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.
FlyONE Dark can be purchased from Amazon currently more than 30% off at £39.99 which is a very appealing price for such a high quality item.
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.
The price of oil is never far from the news these days, especially as it has a direct effect on the price of petrol, diesel and domestic fuel.
Loop Real-time energy monitoring
There has always been a direct correlation between the price of oil and electric and gas bills and the feeling that we as consumers are somehow trapped with a provider because it seems so difficult to move to an alternative.
Well, it looks like Loophave the answer to this problem by supplying a very nifty bit of that monitors your gas and electric usage and after a period of monitoring will be able to find a cheaper provider based on your usage.
It’s very simple to set up and I will cover all of this further in a full review soon. In the meantime, listen in to the stream to find out more about Loop.
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!
Star Wars – The Force Awakens – BB8 Sphero App Enabled Droid DIGITAL CAMERA
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.
Star Wars – The Force Awakens – BB8 Sphero App Enabled Droid
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.
Star Wars – The Force Awakens – BB8 Sphero App Enabled Droid
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
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!
R1800BT
R1800BT_one speaker side
R1800BT_speaker on end
R1800BT_speakers
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!!
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
