October 2009 Archives

By Jay Garrett

Hello again Gadgety faithful!

It's catch-up time again as I have been a busy little Jay over the last couple of weeks.

First off – what has revealed itself since our last get together?

How about a tiny nuclear batteries or a projector that can make any wall a multi-touch display?

You may have caught wind (arf!) of Dyson's latest offering and that the Polaroid instant camera is making a return.

There seems to be a dual-screened e-Book powered by Android going by the name of Alex and a camera that will snap the progress of your life at 30 second intervals.

The next Wii Fit has been given the thumbs up by the NHS, Blackberry users will soon get their own Dick Tracy styling, there's hints about the Wii 2, NASA have an iPhone app and the dead get special Facebook priviledges.

By Dan Owen

RUSSELL HOWARD'S GOOD NEWS. Is he? Good news, I mean. Stand-up comedian Russell Howard is best-known as a regular on satirical panel show Mock The Week, and has proven himself a likeable enough panellist. But he's not a particularly extraordinary talent in my eyes. His comedy sticks to exaggerated anecdotes aimed at students -- the kind of stuff a witty 19-year-old friend would come up with in the pub and could themselves work-up into a five-minute set if they were so inclined. Maybe that's Howard appeal to student-kind; he's walking proof that a middle-class lad from the countryside can make a living telling forgettable jokes with enthusiasm and cheekiness.

By Dan Owen


We're waist-deep in new television just now, so I thought I'd share some of the new Autumn shows I've been watching that are airing in the UK. Here are six worth checking out, in alphabetical order:



Eastbound & Down, FX

I loathed the pilot (where a failed baseball player and egomaniac returns to his hometown with delusions of grandeur), but I tuned in for the next two episodes and enjoyed them a lot more. It helped that Kenny Powers, while still unlikeable and monstrous, earned a modicum of sympathy through various run-ins with people, and actually seemed to learn something about his soft touch family in episode 3. In some ways, this is a raucous American version of I'm Alan Partridge (faded celeb refuses to accept the fact he's a washed-up loser), only not as funny and twice as vulgar. Still worth checking out, as it's a brief 30-minutes of six episodes – unusually brief for a US sitcom, but all the better for it.

By Jay Garrett

Welcome to another gadgety update.

So, who else thinks that the Amazon Kindle is coming to these shores a little too late?

Anyhow, I'd rather curl up in some oversized knitting and wait for the Courieror Apple iTablet  to appear.

Every now and then something crops up that makes me nostalgic for simpler times – such as the joy of making a mix tape for a girl I fancy or for a buddy that's after some new tunes.  The great thing is when there's a tech way of satisfying the nostalgia – complete with sleeve to scrawl the track names on.

Looking for a good looking but cheap way of jumping aboard the Windows 7 bandwagon? Check out the EB1501 by Asus my gadgety faithful.

If you're in the market for some Italian thoroughbred super-car looks - but would rather plug it in than fill it up with liquid fuel then perhaps glide over and marvel at the e-Wolf e2 – not to be mistaken with Airwolf!

By Jay Garrett

OK gadgety fans it's October already – what's my pick of the last 7 days?

The end of an era has occurred. O2 no longer has its own way with the 3G and 3Gs iPhones as now Orange and Vodafone have joined in the party.

Other mobile phone news is that there's handsets made out of wood, the chocolatey LG BL20 is coming to Blighty and Samsung produces a camera that doubles as a cell phone!

Honda have made a more portable and more agile version of the Segway called the U3-X – you'll still look a bit of a prat riding it though.

The iPod gets some dude in trouble and Gear4 enables you to hook it up to a telly and the iTablet gets a launch date if Jobsy lets it go ahead.