Wednesday, 11 April 2012
TECHNICALLY FUNNY @ THE GADGET SHOW LIVE
The Birmingham NEC arena was host to the press and trade day of the Gadget Show Live, an annual showcase of technology where manufacturers around the world come together to sell their wares and let the general public experience their products in an environment that they otherwise might not be able to before they buy. The public will get a chance to see the shiny new toys between the 11th and 15th of April but we were lucky enough to go to the press day and had an absolute blast. The press and trade day is normally for various people within the industry to come and write about the show or buy products for the companies they represent. However, unlike CES in America, The Gadget Show Live is open to the public so we got a sneak peek as to what the public should expect when they go.
All the big players were in attendance, Samsung had a whole host of their current product portfolio on display including that BEAUTIFUL 55inch OLED TV we reported back from CES in January. They also had their new Series 5 Ultrabook laptop and a bevy of their Galaxy Mobile phone and tablet range. LG also had similar intent and had a huge stand with TV's galore including a sample room where you can view 4K video. They also had their OLED TV's from CES out on display and just like Samsung, they were jaw dropping.
Sony put aside their current turbulent situation by showing up with a somewhat diluted booth compared to the others. It was weird seeing Sony have such a small presence at such a big show but none the less, they were there with products from all areas of their business. Other big hitters were Microsoft who had row upon row of Xboxes and Kinects ready to be played with various games and a sneak peak of new shooter, Spec Ops: The Line. Gaming had a strong presence with both Nvidia and Alienware taking up huge booths. Nvidia had a 3 monitor racing chair ready to be played and Alienware were showcasing their new gaming rigs and laptops. I would say the only let downs were the network and phone booths. O2, Orange, Carphone Warehouse and Dial a Phone were present but would consistently ask you about a possible sale if you so much as catch eye contact with them. It was more about getting sales than giving a fun experience with those lot. It definitely didn't help the never ending negative views of phone retailers.
Dell and Acer were showing off their new Ultrabooks which looked fantastic and thinner in person. Overclockers UK were also there showing off their PC making skills and had a whole range of servers and PC internals for sale. Lenovo and Medion also joined the PC manufacturers, showing off a whole portfolio of computers and laptops. A whole host of accessory and peripheral companies were there with new and old products alike. Turtle Beach came in force with a whole host of gaming headsets, Joby were showing off their Gorilla pod tripods for cameras and iPhones and countless iPhone and iPad stands were there with a whole host of cases and accessories for your iDevice.
Audio also had a strong presence. Companies like Sonos and Seinhieser had huge booths to showcase their new wireless audio technology and headphones.
Photography was another popular genre of interest. Canon had a whole range of SLR's, Point and shoots and Video cameras to test and also had a SLR lens booth. JVC also were demoing their new waterproof video camera with a lovely ambient fish tank on display constantly being disturbed with a submerged video camera.
There were a lot of experience booths, with the visual companies offering rooms to view 3D and 4K TV's, gaming companies offering demos, photography companies offering lens experiences and more. Overclockers UK also had gaming setups of all shapes and sizes. By that I mean you could play on a huge screen with an Xbox 360 and Kinect or on a smaller screen with old school consoles like the SNES or Sega Mega Drive.
That's respectable, and like the man or not, it was good of him to come down to the press day to talk about his product and show that he knew what he was selling rather then just slapping his name onto them.
Talking about slapping your name on products, Ludacris is another rapper with a range of headphones currently making their way to the UK called "Soul by Ludacris."
There was a big booth letting you test the whole range with a bunch of reps but unfortunately, no Ludacris
It was great to see the big boys hard at work with huge beautiful booths but as we're an independent site just starting up, we wanted to see and talk to companies on the same boat and these three were the ones that really stood out to us.
A somewhat unknown company here in the UK, Improv Electronics were showing off their new range of eWriters called the Boogie Boards. These boards are basically, electronic notepads in the vein of Etch-a-Sketch. They have a black screen with the writing in white. The pads range from 8.5 to 10.5 inches and come with a stylus. Having a brief go on them, the stylus is much more accurate than a capacitive screen such as the Galaxy Note and handwriting is brilliant. The device is great to jot down notes and create quick sketches and diagrams. The Boogie board also saves your sketches and notes and inverts the drawing allowing you to print off PDF's of your creations from a computer. This is a great and refreshing product, capturing a niche where people don't want all powerful media consuming tablets and just want something they can just quickly jot notes down on. We are hopefully getting hold of a review unit so watch this space!
You might have seen these stickers stuck to numerous laptops, tablets and phones but they really are a unique product. Stick Ems are stickers that can stick to the back of gadget and be removed without leaving a mark. The front side of the sticker is made of a microfiber cloth so you can remove the sticker, clean your gadgets screen, then stick it back onto the gadget. The back of the sticker has a self cling backing which keeps it in place without leaving any marks or residue. It really is a fantastic idea and StickEmsLtd have got some artists on board to create some designs that are available now. The current range is currently limited but the company is looking to expand. Stick Em provides a great way to keep your phone or tablet clean without having the burden of a bulky case or carrying a cleaning cloth around. The designs also make them look pretty awesome.
Another little known company in the UK, Jumbo are a toy company based in the Netherlands but now expanding to the UK. Their new product is called iPieces which wants to "bring you a new generation of board games" whereby you play with real figures or pawns on the iPad. This involves the iPad used as the familiar playing board, with the figures activating special effects on the board. In this way, traditional games such as “Game of the Goose” come to life right before your eyes.
All you do is download the free game from the App store which currently consists of Air Hockey, Fishing, Snakes and Ladders and Game of Goose. Once you've downloaded and started the game, just lay the iPad down and you can use the various pieces on the touchscreen display. Its a great way to play board games with a mixture of old school and technology and gives a much greater interaction with the game, especially for kids. Jumbo are also working on a pool game with pool cues and branded games for kids such as Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam
A GREAT EXPERIENCE
There were lots of other great products and the reps and people representing their companies were absolutely brilliant. The Gadget Show Live was a fantastic experience and without a doubt, the best chance you will have in the UK to see the world of technology all in one building. The press day was mostly about networking and showcasing new products but the public days will be a lot more easy going and less business and much more fun for the family as a whole. There was a lot of selling and jargon talked about on the press day but no doubt the public days will see a change of reps for most booths and less of a sales push. A great experience and something i would definitely recommend attending. Its just a shame that these kinds of shows only come once a year for the UK.
Take a look at the Video and images below!
VIDEO
GALLERY
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