Gadget Show Live Impressions

So my overall impressions of this years gadget show live was good, there was a lot of 3D there, both in TV's and gaming, some of it was the same old 3D nothing special, but there were a few notable exceptions.  The only real grumbles I had with the show was being harassed by npower people, everytime I turned around there seemed to be one there, also the NEC does not have wifi, I find it strange that something that is used as much as the NEC is does not have any wifi.

There were too many things to list in one post, but in true gadget show fashion I will list my top 5 things I liked, in no particular order :

1.  The Nvidia 3D experience was outstanding, so far to date I have not seen 3D of such quality, the short video that was shown was fantastic, they were advertising both games that can be played using their technology and also films that can be watch on their kit.  The pictures/graphics where so sharp and it was really high quality.  The active 3D glasses were comfortable to wear also, they did not feel like some of the cheap plastic ones available.  There were also some excellent driving rigs setup so you can sit on the seats that move around and they are supposed to give you the most realistic driving experience there is.

2.  Orbitsound, had on display both the T12 sound bar with iPod dock and the T3 Spatial stereo mobile speaker.  The sound that came from both of these devices where very impressive indeed. 

 

I have a T3 portable speaker for review, and I am looking forward to looking at this device is greater detail.  It is rechargable via USB so there is no need to keep replacing the batteries, and it claims to have a 10 hour battery life.

 

 

3.  Dragon Dictation - I have heard many things about how good dragon dictation but until now I have have never really seen the application working in the wild, I have used the iphone application before so test it out and that has been good, but also I was unaware of all the other functions of the application.  I was giving a full demonstration on the product, and they demonstrated on how you can move around blocks of text, insert pictures, change fonts along with the sizes etc.  I also was impressed with the way it can open different applications, and you can also list commands to search the internet.  I did only see this running on the windows platform, it is available for Mac OS but I am not sure if all of the features would be the same.  The salesman did mention it is worth using a decent microphone with the packsge to get the most from it.

4. Acer Predator gaming rig

This was a very impressive gaming rig, I think it looks great and also for the short while I was playing with this it performed very well, as you can see I was playing Batman Arkyham Asylum in 3D, the multi screen setup was incredibly smooth, it was not jumpy or jerky just some excellent game playing, but then seeing the spec of the machine it was not surprising.

   

5.  The final item I liked was talking to Grant Cooper from Robo Challenge.  Regular viewers of the Gadget Show will recognise him as one of the engineers that help design and build the modifications to vehicles etc for the show.  They are responsible for the fighting robots, as well as the chainsaw dragster and the fan propelled bicycle that was on the show a couple of weeks ago.  Here you can see Grant with his creation. 

He was kind enough to rig up the bike to so me the power of the fans, and I was shocked at how much power there was generated by just two of the fans on the bike, these fans I add are comercially available for purchase.  After he started to crank up the power he had to lean forward and apply pressure to stop the bike from moving, I can't describe the power output coming from standing behind this.

I did ask him to also power up the chainsaw dragster, but he mentioned he had fired it up earlier in the day, but only for other exhibitors to complain that it was too noisy, and the fact that everyone was flocking to it.  From seeing all the inventions they had on display and seeing what that they have done in show so far, I am really looking forward to what they do next.

 

It was a great way to end the day as I got to meet Jason Bradbury from the show. 

I would like to thank Vicky Hughes from Fugu Public Relations for sorting me out the pass for the day and for the professional manner in which her staff had everything organised on arrival.

 

I am always interested in feedback so feel free to add any comments, or you can mail me  here.

 

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Gadget Show Live