So, in my previous post about Gadget Show Live I was a little negative. There were eBook readers that were total rubbish, watches that can be nicked, and 3D tellys that were blurry given the wrong light.
But then I realised, there is a lot of cool new tech out there, you just have to wander around the exhibition space a bit more, open your eyes to what’s already around us, and watch what the professionals can do with enough time and money.
Firstly, sound. I’m a big music fan, and I’m one of those who believes that the quality of the sound has a big impact. By using cheap, low quality headphones, it just doesn’t sound the same. But I’m ashamed to say, I use Apple earphones. I’ve just never gotten around to researching anything better. Having gone to a headphone stand (Zino, if anyone cares) and tried out a pair, I realised what I was missing. All these top quality headphones, and I had my Apple blinkers on and didn’t bother researching if anything else could be better.
Secondly… sound. More specifically, sound around the house. The Sonos multi-room music system, which lets you play any song into any room. It can link to your iTunes library, last.fm, and Napster. And it can be controlled using a dedicated remote control or an iPhone app.
It’s the sort of application of computer networking that I love, it’s very clever and it doesn’t need any complicated setup procedure. It’s simple, does the job, and makes technology great. It is a little pricy though, £799 for a two room bundle is a lot of money when you can share an iTunes library between two computers. But the idea is just brilliant.
And finally, Architectural Mapping, which we were shown during the live show. There’s lots of photographs and videos of this technique in various settings, but it really does have to be seen in person to appreciate just how fantastic it looks.