Working Lunch TNG

Yes, for some reason, I’m going to be allowed back into BBC2’s Working Lunch studio this Tuesday, despite the proliferation of awful puns the last time I was on screen.

This time I’ll be talking to Declan about CES, the consumer electronics show, and the technology that was shown during the exhibition.  I’ve just finished editing some footage including Windows 7 screenshots which hopefully will be displayed in the background of shot.

 

Windows 7 taskbar

 

CES 2009 – battery! Nooooo

How incredibly ridiculous, I left 1/2 of my UK/US adaptor in the hotel, which means I’m on the clock with a minor uploading drama!  So the video might or might not make it up there, with 32 minutes remaining, it’s anyone’s game.

Coffee!! I need Coffee!!

Highlights so far have been a proliferation of newer, greener display technologies (hold tight for OLED on the vid) and an emphasis on mobile content consuming, including a projector that’s been built into a phone.

In fact, the phone-projector from Samsung (using DLP technology) was the gadget I featured for BBC Click during filming last night, that’s going to be broadcast on BBC World, and perhaps even on the internet site too, which is very exciting.

RSS Readers / Can’t see the link? Click here

Today I’ll go to my appointments on the show floor armed with my (fully charged!) camcorder, and later I’ll meet with the rest of the BBC Click team.

…and tonight I might be attending the Sony Online Poker party which last year had Fire-Eaters and Acrobats as well as many different food stations.

Below are a few piccies from Flickr uploaded earlier:

In front of 150" TV!

Samsung Mini Projector - up to 50" screen size

bottom phone is also a projector - to be featured on BBC Click

See you soon!

 

 For those of you who missed me on the BBC’s Working Lunch programme:

LJ and Declan on BBC2 Working Lunch - click pic to view the vid (if it's still there)

(RSS Readers / can’t use the link? Click here  )

Here’s a still shot from my performance on BBC2, where I manage to squeeze 2 puns into under 2 seconds.

I’m not proud of that.  (OK, OK, I am…)

 

Quick Click Blog

View from Click Towers

…And the reason I’ve been so utterly busy is partially explained by the picture, which is the view from BBC Click’s offices at BBC TV Centre!  Wow!

I’m putting together some packages (which is what we call the 4-minute features in the programme) which will be transmitted across the whole world!

Some of the more techy readers may well have seen me pop up on a couple of episodes already – and you’ll be able to see me on the iPlayer on the coming edition, talking about gadgets with Spencer Kelly, Click’s main presenter, in the soon-to-be-revealed Click Lab.

I am chuffed to bits to be at the BBC!!!!!  As I (and others) would say on Twitter: “Woop!  Woop!”

 

‘Tis the Season

only 1,000,000 shopping days left – quiiiiiiick!

As you can see from the set today, it appears that Christmas now officially lasts for 7 weeks, whether or not you’re a believer.

I entertain visions of having everything under control but it just doesn’t happen like that – I remember a year ago, I bought most of my stuff online in November (mainly at www.boots.com and  www.Firebox.com! )  – this was laughably easy and I felt especially self-satisfied – until I had to accompany all my less-organised friends to Costco anyway as they hadn’t done any of their shopping.  So there I was on the 22nd December,  being squished between various gift aisles suffering from caffeine deprivation and trolley bruises.  All my hard work and slight gloating was for nothing.

 

So, should I be panicking?  Have you done your  xmas shopping already?  Will you do anything for the festive season?  Are you incredibly organised and wrap everything beautifully? Or are you a last-minute lemming ?

 

 

Virgin Gadget Spy Episode 2 Now Released!

Gadget Spy Episode 2!

Yes, after all that hard work, we’ve done it, it’s been edited, and this is Episode 2 of Gadget Spy

 

Gadgets featured are:

 

Air Guitar Rockstar

Archos TV+

Power Monkey Solar Charger

PVT Video Transfer

Wattson

Jawbone headset 

Linksys Router

Port Coolfan

 

And if you’re wondering what the Bunny Rabbit was at the beginning of the video, it’s the Nabaztag Internet Bunny  which will tell you what the weather’s like and pull stockmarket and news data from the internet. 

 

…and for those of you who read my blog, here is a secret for you – hear the background music?  That’s mine, that is !! 

 

 

 

 

Virgin Gadget Spy Filming PhotoBlog

Filming Gadget Spy II

Yesterday was spent at Virgin Towers filming the second Gadget Spy – this was all done in a bit of a hurry,Virgin are keen to get this up and live on the web by next week – Eeeeek!

So we collected together an array of gadgets (and had some help from www.firebox.com – thankyou!) and hopefully got enough material together for our 3-minute webcast.

The gadgets include a few of the things I’ve been impressed enough to blog about or take flickr pics of, including the Cisco/Linksys Router , the Archos TV+ and the Jawbone noise-cancelling headset.

This was an incredibly fun day, it was tiring but very rewarding, as we’ve been working flat out since last week getting everything together for the magic day of filming.

We're in the studio area and setting up - within about 10 minutes, most floor space is covered with tech. There is a general need for tea. We've also realised that it's going to be boiling in here.

Phil from Virgin checks the gadgets - we have to work out which order to put them in right at the start of the show, so we can get the camera to pan across at the beginning and match our working script.

We like to have a few quirky, bonkers products in "Gadget Spy" - last time it was the Bubble Wrap Keychain. This time it's the Guitar Rockstar.

Thanks to www.firebox.com, who provided us with a few gadget loans for the pilot, and kindly let us borrow a few more for episode 2. Everything is boxed back up and sent back to Firebox HQ, so they'll lend us stuff again!

More tech ready for filming: you can see the top of the Pinnacle PVT Video Transfer, the Linksys Router, and the Archos TV+ as well as a few bits poking out of the case.

Dan, camera operator, checks the footage. Anyone doing any filming knows to check as soon as you do the first take, just to make sure video is actually recorded.

Here I am, "sitting in" - we're testing the shot before filming properly, we need to make sure the lighting works for the camera, and I've put a mark on the desk so I always sit in the same place!

My suitcase: Kit 'n' Heels, har har. This case got really battered when I took it to China and Dubai, and it's held a lot of tech in its time. On the way to and from Virgin Towers it's bulging with strange and wonderful stuff.

Behind the camera, filming the intro! We steam through the voiceover, the outro and each gadget, doing a couple of takes for each one - the basic rule is when you do a "good one", you do one more for safety. Normally, I'm pretty good at this, because I'm used to live TV and one chance to say something. However, by the end of the day, saying "Port Cool Fan Laptop Stand" took me about 6 tries. We got it all in the can though, and the next thing is editing it up for release - Working date : 10th September 2008

What follows is a quick look at what went on in the day.  If you want to see the Flickr Gallery, please feel free to click here.  I’m really looking forward to seeing the final cut, hope you like the pics!

 

CD!! CD!!! CD!!!!

Wow, I can’t believe it! I’m holding in my hands my FIRST grown-up looking CD!  Here it is:

I am soooooo excited

This CD “wot I wrote” has 4 meditation tracks on it, I think the style is formally described as “new-age” or “extremely chilled”.  Each track has been composed, produced, and mastered in my lovely new studio!_

I’ve also uploaded a sample of the tracks on to myspace – if anyone knows a sexier way to get an MP3 file to talk to wordpress, please let me know, I’m still relatively new to all this blogging lark, and quite happy to benefit from someone else’s experience and/or knowledge.

Actually, there’s another, deeper, reason I’m really excited by this, because it’s only a small (some might say very small) step on the musical ladder in the big scheme of things.  I think this CD (and showing it to you in public) symbolises an acceptance of the musical part of me, which for a long time (and for very complicated reasons) I rejected for a while. I think there is also a big helping of nerves involved in actually going for it, creating a product and placing it in the market place.  What’s very odd to me is that I’m quite comfortable standing on stage / on TV chatting to a bunch of people I don’t know, but this blog post makes me feel incredibly strange, vulnerable and exposed.

_

Oh well.  Too late for that now.  The next step is for me to put the envelope with 5 CDs in the post to CDbaby, who will then hold the copies for purchase, and convert tracks to MP3 for digital download.

inside the Jewel Case

...and the back

… right, I’ve been brave.  Now to self-medicate with chocolate and tea.

 

JVC MS100

So, here’s a little clip of the capabilities of the new JVC MG-MS100 SD card camcorder: 

 

 

Can’t see the link? click here

Anyhow, I’m just about to finish a DS9 Episode, then it’s off to work…

 

OMGTV: 48 Hours on QVC in 4 days! Apologies in advance…

This was Soooooo dangerous

So here I am, back from China.  It was utterly fantastic and I promise to do a final post about the last part of the trip, which included Harley Davidsons, hiking down a cliff/up a mountain and Far East Electronics. 

Right now, though, something more pressing beckons…

In fact, I am actually rather apprehensive about it….

…AAArrrgh!!! what’s that coming over the hill?  It’s one of the most insane televisual tortures ever invented – lurking for 24 hours at a time - known as the TSV or Todays Special Value on QVC, this is the multiple-appearance-required featured-low-price-item repeated throughout the day from 0000 the night before to 2330 the night after. 

I tremble mentally at the thought, and by the end of the night I may well tremble physically from caffeine overuse.  Yes, Starbucks et al, rub your collective hands in glee as another addict publicly falls off the wagon with dismal regularity*.

This strange and barbaric practice requires complete and utter knowledge about one’s chosen consumer electronics product, combined with an ability to cope with sustained sleep deprivation and an unreasonable determination to get to the end of the day without a) saying something inaccurate on air, b) falling over and/or breaking stuff on air or c) swearing and/or stripping off on air.  Needless to say, some manage it, and some don’t.  The ones who don’t tend to end up on youtube**. 

Do I look like this? Srsly?

Yes, dear reader, it’s not just one TSV I’ve been booked for on the 27th July, but two – the second being on the 31st.  Thank goodness the products are nice techy ones, I’ll sneak some piccies on once the embargo is lifted.

So, until midnight on the 27th (i.e. Saturday night) I’m gonna get my head down and study hard.  I will not watch any telly, I will certainly not attend any parties, and I’m definitely not going to do anything non-TSV related…

…Although I am accidentally holding in my paws front row tix for Batman on Friday at a very big cinema.  Yes, I think it’s important for my research that I attend this movie for observational and research purposes.

…

 

*Double Tall Wet Skinny Latte please.  I fall off the caffeine wagon every morning when I realise there’s milk and tea in the house, then I imagine the sound the kettle makes when it switches on.  This generally happens before my eyes are open.

**Yes, of course there’s a clip I’m thinking of.   If you want to see it, leave a comment and I may be persuaded to post the offending link.