More ClickBits

They say work expands to fit the time available – and in this case, the 3 minute tech round up on the BBC’s website takes the better part of a day to make.

This post is really to chronicle the 3rd and 4th episodes so I can remember where I put them on the internet…  Click on the picture to get re-directed to the BBC’s site.

Clickbits Episode 4  – can’t see the link? click here: http://bit.ly/clickbits004

The really bonkers one to do was Episode 3 which I pushed down from Las Vegas during an evening where every other technology person there was also trying to send video.   Once the video was sent back to the UK,  Zoe and Gary put the pictures together on the other end.

It was very strange sending down raw material and seeing a put-together programme emerge at the end of it.

Clickbits Episode 3  – can’t see the link? click here: http://bit.ly/clickbits003

These links were filmed next to the Intel touch-wall, which was a giant interactive cube pulling pictures down from flickr. It was being run on what looked like a normal laptop – which surprised me – the graphics card in there must have been rather tasty.

If you want to see some pictures from CES 2010 , pop over to my flickr site here for a look round some of the weird and wonderful gadgets on display here.

Nom Nom Nom 2009

…is only 10 hours away, and I’m ready.

No, of course I’m not ready, but I did source a particularly effective chef’s hat…

The last month has been brilliant, manic and, alas, almost completely sleep-free.

Excitingly I’m going to be on the BBC again next week as my piece on Music Recognition should be cooked by then – first I have to get 2 or 3 internet shots at some ridiculously unsociable hour on Monday morning, before crawling into the Edit with both Callie the Editor and the sort of coffee that causes spontaneous leg-shaking and hallucinations.

But before that in 10 hours’ time I shall be entering NomNomNom 2009, a charity cook-off where the fabulous Jemimahknight and I are charged with making a 3-course meal and serving it to 2-michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens – so no pressure there, then…

Our team is called Bork Bork Bork – will report back with pix and video assuming I survive.

Twitter Article hits BBC Website!

Few things persuade me to get up in the morning, but knowing I needed to finish this article in time to have it submitted to the BBC News Website was successful in pulling the duvet covers off!

 

After last night’s twestival, I arrived back home inappropriately late after spending the majority of the evening filming – it was a fun evening, even though I was working for most of it, and I hope that the very worthy charity: water will have benefited enormously from all the organisers’ hard work.

Twitter Article on the Beeb!

The pictures in this article are by @lateral – you can see more here.

In case you’re wondering, the article is all about how I think Twitter has changed in recent times as more people have joined. Click on the picture, or here: http://tinyurl.com/ljbbctweet to read it.

I’m going back to bed…

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!

Las Vegas CES 09

Good morning  – at least, it’s morning here in Las Vegas.  It’s the day before CES 2009, the world’s largest trade show for Consumer Technology, and the largest annual trade show in the USA according to the data sheet next to me. 

Las Vegas CES 2009

Apparently, people from over 140 countries attend the show, and its popularity is reflected by the packed plane I arrived on yesterday, where, believe it or not, the person sitting in the seat next to me ate my food whilst I was asleep – why? Because apparently, she didn’t like the chicken. 

Las Vegas Monorail - $5 a ride

CES debuts from years past include the VCR in 1970, the Camcorder in 1981, HDTV in 1998, Microsoft’s XBox in 2001 and OLED TV in 2008.  Consequently, this morning I awoke with 2 intentions – 1) get up early and have a look round and 2) hit the all-you-can-eat buffet with a vengeance.

There are more stations behind me - a shrine to gluttony. Yippee!

So, after a filling meal of pancakes, french toast, potatoes, eggs, fruit and a cinnamon bun, I’m ready for some serious gadget input. 

  blogging this in the Press Room!Tonight’s party is the Pepcom Digital Experience, where many exhibitors are showing off their new stuff. I shall be bringing my trusty camcorder with me to record anything utterly bonkers or incredibly useful.

 

Please let me know if you’d like me to look up something for you.

Digital Winter 2008

I just realised I haven’t blogged for ages, mainly due to the fact that my feet haven’t touched the ground in the last week and a bit.

So what follows is a very, very brief digest of what I’ve been up to, one post at a time:

DIGITAL WINTER 2008 TECH EVENT

This is basically where a bunch of companies have stalls which show you their latest gadgets, and sometimes their flagship products as well.  Siemens showed their new concept solar-powered dect phone too.

Sandisk's new Sansa Fuse at the top, and its mini cousin, bottom

There was so much food and cake available, but I’d stuffed myself with sushi on the way there, annoyingly.  Secretly I was dying for a nice cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit – but this was no time for confectionery or patisserie, it was time for some serious gadget-hunting.

The technology was suitably diverse, so here are a few highlights of the event.  Have a look at Sandisk’s Sansa Fuse (at the top) which has 4GB inbuilt memory, and a slot for a micro SD card for future expansion. 

… and the red ones have a great Ferrari-style paint job, which doesn’t have any bearing on the performance of the product, but looks nice.

 

           Next up…

Power Traveller's Solar Gorilla Laptop Charger

…a look at the Solar Gorilla from PowerTraveller, a gigantic solar panel which you can use alongside their battery to charge up your laptop – you can also use a mains adaptor with the battery if you’re stuck in the dark, and get about 6 hours’ worth of laptop life from a full charge.  The MacBook Pro is there for scale.

In fact, I have the miniature one of these, the powermonkey which I use for charging my mobile – although the larger product on display is probably better suited for use in remote areas that catch a lot of sun, i.e. anywhere except London.

 

                                  And Finally….

Veho 200x USB Microscope with 2p coin on screen

…the USB microscope from Veho, one of the more amusing products on display.  You can see on the screen a 2p coin magnified 200 times from the coin underneath the microscope.  Yes, *of course* I stuck my fingers underneath, you can see the ridges and everything. 

For one secret and hideous moment I wondered whether this would be a useful beauty accessory for facial excavation and then decided against pointing the device at a particularly good spot on my cheek in public, what with wanting to look like a serious technology journalist and all, although I can’t resist adding that you’re either a squeezer or a leaver in this particular field.

So Digital Winter was quite fun.  If you want to see these pics a few minutes after I’ve taken them, then please feel free to subscribe to my Flickr Stream, where I’ll upload them from my N95.  I promise not to upload any pictures from the microscope.

SlingMedia Release Sling Catcher

…Last week I found myself perched up on the roof of myhotel in Bloomsbury, London, to hear about a new launch from the people who brought us the Slingbox – the device which allows you to watch your own telly from anywhere in the world with decent internet access.

So here’s the video from that freezing cold day, thank goodness I got to go inside.

Listen out for the incredibly tenacious police chase that’s all over the audio, not even Logic 8 could get rid of that triumph of law enforcement.

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

And do click here for more info on SlingCatcher.

That evening I went to the Harvest Twestival, and I’ll be editing up a video about Social Networking soon which incorporates some footage from this event.    Thanks to Ben Matthews and Bright One for allowing access for the interviews!

Skype Video Interview with Josh Silverman, CEO

I’ve been editing like a wild thing! Just uploaded video from the Skype 5th Birthday party, in case you wanted to know what went on that night – Apologies for the slightly dodgy audio, the acoustics were not the best in a London nightclub with the New Yuricans playing at full volume during the individual interview section, although I did do a little tweaking.  I really liked the fact that Josh from Skype used words like “Woolly Mammoth” in conjunction with Voice-Over IP software. 

Here’s a bit of his speech and the interview.

RSS Readers/Can’t see the vid? click here

Nero has just launched some new software yesterday, including Nero 9 and a fabulous new program called “Move It”  – I got to see it first last week (it’s been under embargo) and I recorded some vlog footage for your delectation.  I may even be able to post the video up today if I drink enough tea to fuel the computer.

P.S. Rather bravely (some might say idiotically), I decided to play with the registry in Vista, being inspired by Techware Labs’ post  – much to my amazement, my computer now starts up quicker, although I would be very, very careful and BACK UP if you also have an irrational urge to poke around in your PC’s private areas…

Skype is 5!

F-f-f-freezing c-c-c-cold d-d-d-drink, p-p-p-please

After a short bout of being a bit poorly (dodgy tummy, I won’t elaborate unless you’d like me to…) I found myself recovering with Blue Drinks at Skype‘s 5th Birthday Party, held at the Absolut Ice Bar, in central London. I took my good friend Decabbit along, you’ll see her in my flickr pics.

The venue’s gimmick is of course the Ice Bar, where guests are served drinks in what is essentially a gigantic freezer set to -5 degrees C.  The glass you can see was made of ice, as were the seats, the bar itself and various sculptures.  I caused great amusement by attempting to send out a twitter microblog from my N95 mobile phone with my increasingly numb fingers, heroically taking off my protective gloves in the name of blogging.

Believe it or not, Skype is only 5 years old – and we were duty-bound to celebrate with blue drinks, blue cakes and a sneak peak at Asus’ Skype Device (not out yet), below.

The current President, Josh Silverman, delighted us with some amusing Skype Stats, some of which might make it into the mini-video I’ll be editing together tonight.

Not yet out, Asus' Trek Communicator style Skype-type Thing

 

I took a stealth pic of this skype device from Asus, which isn’t even out yet – I’ve sent an email to my contact at Skype to ask for the proper name of it as my caption is, quite frankly, poor.  

Oh, and meet Robin from WeAreSocial in my shot, ha ha, as the evening has gone on, and a few more blue drinks have disappeared.

It turns out that I met Robin once before at the Moo print party in Brick Lane.  

… poor chap – I said embarassing things whilst being covered in mini stickers (long story) and I also told him more than once of my desperate and immediate desire to go to my favourite curry house across the street because I was starving.  Despite that previous meeting, he still came up to say hello.  What a good bloke.

If you want to see the other piccies, please feel free to click on my flickr stream above, or click here for the full set on flickr.