Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin marvels at the video of a flying car – because it is so poorly made, as if from Thunderbirds. There's a seaglider that appears to float rather than skim. The world's largest tyre maker – Lego – is to use recycled ropes, nets and oil. A new silicon chip apparently uses fused human brain cells to make it faster. AI therapists are showing signs of anxiety from hearing of traumatic events. Blind patients may be able to see but the process is rather squirm-inducing. There's a crowd-funded rugged phone. Spent nuclear fuel could actually power new reactors for decades. And the US navy has a new unmanned prototype warship.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin points out that Apple Intelligence isn't always particularly bright. Indian call centre voices could soon be disguised "to build a more understanding world". Citibank's $81 trillion mistake. Paper batteries might replace lithium. Limitless thermal energy comes a step closer. HarmBlock could stop children seeing what they shouldn't on phones. Scientists trying to produce a woolly mammoth have created a woolly mouse. Humanoid robots working in pairs can now put away items they've never seen before. There's an impressive affordable new e-bike. And scientists have worked out how to grow teeth.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin celebrates Photoshop coming to the iPhone, as well as Microsoft producing its first quantum computing chip, apparently powered by topological qubits. Amazon is launching Alexa+, creating your own trusted assistant. It costs but, bizarrely, more than Amazon Prime, which offers it free. If you're looking for a coffee stand or ice cream van, there's a new app to guide you. Huawai has a trifold phone. Tech trekking poles contain a folding tent. Over 1,000 artists have produced an album of silence to protest the Government's plans on AI & copyright. And walnuts could boost your brain, if you eat enough of them.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin says that in 2 days, AI solved a problem that took Imperial College scientists 10 years. But it also caused a massive gaffe in a staggeringly expensive Super Bowl ad. He discusses new e-ink developments including outdoor posters, a tablet, a minimal phone and a gaming console. The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop output has been digitised. There's a high-tech bookmark. Italy is getting tough with fake TripAdvisor reviews which are damaging tourism. You should take your tablets with milk not water in future. And Gen Z is having problems hearing, but it's neurological and caused by noise-cancelling headphones say audiologists.
Guests: steve caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
From the world of tech, Steve Caplin talks about the perfect way to cook a boiled egg and a giant barbecue that is controlled by your mobile. There's a touchscreen display for a bicycle, a camper van for an eBike and a one-bedroom flat that fits into a trailer and can be set up by one person in an hour with all – or at least most – mod cons. Glasses are to have hearing aids built into them to reduce discomfort, an ePaper frame will display your photos on the wall and you will soon be able to touch up your old videos and Super-8 movies and massively improve them.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
For the 500th show, Steve Caplin takes a look back at some of the highlights of 10 years of Gadgets & Gizmos. He covers sprayable sleep, cows imitating zebras to ward off mosquitoes, crows collecting cigarette butts, NFTs, self-parking slippers, KFC chicken-tasting nail polish, the first human head transplant, the Skunklock noxious bike lock, Refrigerdating, the robot dog flamethrower, ant populated gin and how to make pain relief pills 10 times more effective.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Share Radio's tech guru Steve Caplin discusses the Chinese AI DeepSeek, which he finds as good, if not better, than previous AI programs. Although it is heavily censored when it comes to China, Steve explains how you can get around it, even to read about "Tank Man". There's also an omnidirectional bike, a motorbike-cum-dirt-bike-cum-snowmobile, a watch with a mechanical snake, an expensive watch-winding gizmo and a fantastic-looking Dutch super sub.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin on the latest tech. Digital driving licences are coming to the UK. BT's 60,000 car charger plan produced just one – and it's out of order. There are bird-watching binoculars with stabilisation. The YouTube video on the founding of Porsche looks amazingly expensive – but it was all done with AI. There's a crowdfunded long-throw projector for giant screens and a smaller projector which folds to fit in your pocket. Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver, thinks AI's plotlines are better than humans can come up with. And Steve discusses a robot turtle for tracking marine animals and an underwater drone for treasure hunting.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin tells the salutory tale of a woman conned out of a fortune by a fake Brad Pitt online before turning to a second batch of wacky gadgets on display at the Consumer Electronics Show. There's a solar beach umbrella and a (giant) solar hat with charging ports. A new AI robot is essentially just a lamp on a walking coffee table. A flying motorcycle might not work but a helicopter carried in a van appears to. The head of an AI app confesses he has no idea how his product works. The Power Mole will transmit wireless power through windows. And the Chinese Yangwang U9 hypercar will jump potholes or metal spikes - providing it is going fast enough.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
In our tech show, Steve Caplin discusses some of the mistakes made by Apple's new AI and how Meta is getting rid of fact checkers. He reports on some of the devices on show at Las Vegas's annual CES. There's a TV to keep an eye on children and pets, a robot with an arm for picking up shoes and socks – slowly, a lamp that is also a projector, a toaster-like phone battery swapper, a giant monitor with a shoulder strap, a way to keep all your rechargeable batteries in order, an air purifier that doubles as a cat perch, and a tiny, cat-shaped robot for cooling your coffee. Only one of these tickles his fancy as a possible purchase.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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