We went to the Gadget Show

Last Friday three young whippersnappers (i.e. the Felix Tech team) made their way to the Gadget Show Live, in the ExCeL, hoping to see the newest tech on the market, as well as have some well-earned time off. Once we arrived there and got our shiny press passes sorted out, we decided to split up so that each of us would have a different view of what actually was going on in the tech world.

The two biggest areas of the exhibition were given over to Microsoft and Nintendo. This does fit with the conclusion that the companies who really need media attention to sell their product are going to try as hard as they can, at every opportunity that is available. Since I am not the Windows guy of the Tech team, and we had enough coverage of Windows 8 anyway, I decided to skip out on the Microsoft area. On the other hand I was quite intrigued by the Nintendo stand, due to the recent release of the Wii U. As I made my way over to the large almost playground like area, it seems others also had similar ideas. A larger than life Mario and Luigi were walking around the area, uttering the occasional “Mamma Mia!”, and in general everything was packed. The attention to detail was great, and I did have a go on the Wii U for two games and managed to avoid the queue by waving my shiny press pass! (see here)

After I had my fill in Nintendo, I decided that other parts of the Gadget Show also needed my attention. I walked over to EA (which was a cube thing) and looked into that, but I quickly decided that this would not be worth my time, as several teen boys had staked their territory in front of the large FIFA 13 station, and were hogging it like their was no tomorrow. Anyway I thought that I had seen too much gaming already and needed to find some real cutting-edge tech to write about.

So I wandered around in search of something absolutely stunning, but the majority of stands that I saw were below par to be honest. There were some interesting things that caught my eye and I kept their locations in mind, however at that given moment I was more into browsing the whole area than looking at specific things. One of these was a portable projector, a little beamer thing that you attached to your phone and it would project what was on your screen onto the wall. The projection was a little faint, but it had to be kept in mind that it was quite bright in the hall. While I was playing with the beamer with my iPhone (apparently it is compatible with any OS), I had some interesting things in mind. This technology if marketed correctly could replace the need for televisions. The majority of users who have a smartphone have some kind of TV app on their device, be it Sky Go or BBC iPlayer. The only problem with watching any program on their phone is the relative small size of their screen. Yet with the mini projector, the area you are watching becomes roughly the same as the size of a medium sized TV.

... attached to your phone and it projects what is on your screen onto the wall

After my rendezvous with the projector I continued my stroll among the stands. To my disappointment only the minority of things were truly revolutionary. The rest were either toys for teens or for older men, who will always remain children at heart. Examples of these were lego (lego at a tech show!?!), RC cars, RC helicopters or battle robots (like the ones on Robot Wars). I actually had a try and totally dominated my opposition (well....not really). Anything that was not a toy or for wellness was an accessory for your smartphone. I would estimate about 60% of the stands at the Gadget Show were smartphone accessory related. Thus when I met up again with the tech team to relay what I had seen, I was actually quite disappointed. Luckily I had not payed the £30 entry price for the show, but I still felt somewhat ripped off. This exposition did not seem to want to display the newest tech, but rather advertise and sell the stuff it already had. These thoughts were echoed by the Tech writers, and we all felt rather cheated. However we decided to give it another try for you, dear reader, but this time, together so that we could brave the disappointment as one.

On my previous meandering I had encountered some rare interesting things, and therefore when neither Jason (Tech Editor) nor Yong Wen (the other Tech writer) put a viable point of interest forward, I took charge (sigh) and guided them to what I thought was interesting. First port of call was LG, and boy it did not disappoint. Not only did we get to see the world’s first 84” Ultra HD TV, but then saw something that was the absolute highlight of the show. A TV that could show two different things at the same time. Like with a 3D TV, when part of the screen is polarised one way and another, the other way, it did this but with two totally different screens. Jason and I both had a go, playing a racing game (I naturally won) where we saw different things, like a split screen superimposed.

about 60% of the stands at the Gadget Show were smartphone accessory related

After this wonder, things were looking up, and the next place I lead to did not disappoint either, i.e. Stone paper. Yes, you read correctly, stone paper. Made from Limestone instead of trees, it has some beneficial properties compared to normal paper, and is environmentally friendly to boot! Writing on it was a bit strange, especially under water, but its tear resistance and all round originality was very cool. Without further ado the tech team had bough a few booklets to test at home! Next we had a look at a bunch of wiggly ears that move according to your brainwaves. Although the actual use of these things eluded us, we still decided to have a look at these weird contraptions. As we were listening to the “sales person” giving us his pitch, Jason was wearing a pair of these pink cat ear things on his head. I watched with fascination when the ears gave a twitch every so often. After that rather funny episode we made our way to the 3D printer, where we watched a little stick man being created right in front of our eyes. Although 3D printers have been around for a while, this was the first time I had seen one and I thought it was quite amazing. The various models littering the table around the printer were very different, including model castles, balls and even a plastic chain that apparently could carry a grown man (although I wouldn’t imagine for very long). Shortly after we visited a stand full of toilets, Yong Wen and me wanted to move on, but Jason was quite intrigued by these porcelain thrones. The special thing about these toilets is that they wipe your butt for you (actually as Yong Wen put it: “they wash it gently with warm water, and then dry it with hot air”).

After we had seen the most interesting things, it was not the turn of the somewhat pointless contraptions on which most people spend their hard earned money. We ridiculed the Christmas tree that sprayed styrofoam snow, and wondered at its use. We had a go at a vibrating plate that apparently qualified as a work out, maxing them out to the highest rpm they had and laughed at the effect the vibrations had on our voices. We also came across a bunch of designer 3-D glasses (yes the ones you get in the cinema, just designerised), which were actually quite fairly priced. Our last stop was the section of old arcade and computer games set up by the Computing History Museum. Although I was thrashed by Jason in the old fashioned tennis and football games, when the antes where upped it was my turn to exact revenge. Yong Wen on the other hand managed to spectacularly lose in an old version of Super Mario. Then we bid farewell to the Gadget Show, and these three young whippersnappers headed back home!

The Gadget Show is very consumer orientated, with the majority of stands trying to sell you something instead of show you something you haven’t seen before. I, and the others for that matter, where disappointed as we had expected more awe-inspiring tech. Yet when we actually took the effort to look among the little stands that the crowd overlooked we were pleasantly surprised at all the original stuff that we got to see. The big companies just want to get rid of what they have, instead of introducing something new, as tried and tested is always better than going out on a limb. The little guys however have nothing to lose. They don’t have any old tech to rely on, instead trying to create their own market and show it off to anybody who wants to see. All in all, I would have felt cheated if I would have had to pay £30 for the tickets, even though there was some nice stuff, however there wasn’t enough to warrant such a relatively high price.