FrequencyCast Review of 2012
Here's a transcript of the first part of our review of the year that was 2012. We look at the tech we've reviewed, the places we've been, and the fun that we had back in 2012.
Listen to, or download, FrequencyCast Show 83 (31 mins) |
FrequencyCast in 2012 - Part 1:
Transcript from our look back at 2012, as featured in Show 83:
Pete:
Well Kelly, Happy New Year!
Kelly:
And Happy New Year to you too!
Pete:
It's the first show of the new year, and it's time for us to take a little look back at how the last twelve months have been. How have they been for you?
Kelly:
Eventful, but fun.
Pete:
Yeah, we've been out and about doing all sorts of little bits and bobs, haven't we? You've been on your one-wheeled bike, and at science fiction conventions - stuff you never thought you'd be doing a year ago.
Kelly:
No, I would never, ever have put myself at a convention a year ago.
Pete:
You wait to find out what we've got in store for you this year.
Kelly:
Oh dear! - I'm starting to wish it had been the end of the world!
Pete:
OK, so what we're going to do in this show is take a look at the last twelve months of tech, and also look forward to what's going to happen in 2013. Are you ready?
Kelly:
I'm ready.
Pete:
We're going to spin back to January, and the first story of the year was Netflix, the movie service. Do you use Netflix?
Kelly:
No, I don't actually.
Pete:
Well, Netflix started up as the rival to LoveFilm. That started back in January, and was big news at the time. Also, Virgin announced it was doubling their broadband speeds, at no extra charge, which wasn't bad; and Fetch TV went into administration. Also, we reviewed one of my favourite products, the Cookie Catcher.
Kelly:
The Cookie Catcher?
Carl:
Go on then, Pete - put me out of my misery. What is this thing?
Pete:
If you take it out of the packet, what you have is basically a small, white, cup-shaped net. You slide it into your freshly-made cup of tea, like this. I'm going to take a ginger nut, and I'm going to dunk my biscuit in my cup of tea. What's happened now is my biscuit has deteriorated. I've now got a third of a biscuit in my hand, and two-thirds in the cup. Now comes the clever bit - I pull the bit of string that comes with the Cookie Catcher out, and at the bottom of my little net are the remains of my biscuit, so I have saved my tea from a fate worse than biscuit crumbs.
Carl:
Hold on a minute - don't give that to me, I'm not playing soggy biscuit with you.
Kelly:
That is atrocious! Who buys that?
Pete:
Come on, you must admit - you've done it.
Kelly:
Of course I have, of course I've done it, but then you have to fish it out, or you just have to drink it with your tea, and that's how you learn not to do it a second time!
Pete:
I'm sorry, but you need a Cookie Catcher.
Kelly:
No, I'm not convinced.
Pete:
OK, well that takes on to February, where one of the biggest stories of the year broke for us, which is the news that about a million Freeview homes are going to be seriously affected come this year, 2013, when the 4G network starts up.
Kelly:
No, that's really not very good at all. Why?
Pete:
Well, this is all about the 4G network transmitting on the same frequencies as used by Freeview before the switchover took place. So your TV will pick up signals from a new mobile phone network, but a million people needing ten pounds' worth of filters? - not good. More on that later this year, no doubt.
Kelly:
No, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens there, and I can guarantee I'll probably be one of the first ones affected.
Pete:
Later in February, this little beastie came out.
Kelly:
The Raspberry Pi.
Pete:
Yes. £22 gives you a computer board that runs HDMI and wireless, and all sorts of other things - £22. I still haven't put mine to its full potential yet. That's on my to do list this year, to get the Raspberry Pi doing all sorts of clever amateur radio stuff.
We also had something called the promise.tv PVR. Rather than just recording one show at a time, it records all of the channels.
Kelly:
Yeah, that's not bad, but so many TVs now have the internet built in, that's not really worthwhile any more.
Pete:
What I would say is, when they came out, £2,000 for a recorder that does that.
Kelly:
Ooh - that is a lot!
Pete:
But now it's dropped to £995.
Kelly:
That is still a lot.
Pete:
Absolutely! But there you go, the promise.tv PVR we looked at a while ago, and of course in February, we also had the news that there were going to be some changes to Channel 5's Gadget Show. Kelly, what happened there?
Kelly:
Suzy Perry actually left the show, as well as Ortis Deley, and John Bentley.
Pete:
Yep, they moved on to pastures new, and here's Suzi Perry telling us what happened.
Suzi:
I have to tell you, I've known that I'm not doing The Gadget Show since two days before Christmas, so I've had a little bit of time to adjust to what was quite a shock. I haven't made any long-term decisions - long-term decisions take a long time, by definition of what they are. If you're looking at a new show, it will generally take about 12 months from concept to getting it on screen, so I'm not looking at doing anything particularly regularly until probably the end of the year/beginning of next year, but I'm loving the chance to do lots of different things, and lots of fun right now.
Pete:
Well, that takes us onto March, and the big story there was to do with hacking, but not phone hacking. Does that ring any bells?
Kelly:
It does, actually - Rupert Murdoch, again!
Pete:
Yes, absolutely. So BBC's Panorama broke the story that one of Rupert Murdoch's companies, NDS, had allegedly been doing some work to sabotage ITV Digital, which of course was a competitor to Sky at the time. That was a big story in March. What else did we have in March?
Kelly:
There was also the launch of the third-generation iPad.
Pete:
And of course, the fourth generation one came out a little bit later in the year, so we got our fair share of iPads in 2012. We were also out and about. We were at the Ideal Home Show, where we met Suzi Perry, and also on a boat.
Jim:
CQ, CQ, CQ to Echo Zero Romeo Mike India Portable, transmitting from the LV18 in Harwich. Well, today demonstrating some radio products, some amateur radio systems.
Tony: Well, the LV18 was in fact the last-ever Trinity House manned light vessel, and she was decommissioned in '94. She was built in '58, so she's 54 years old now, and she's doing all right. She's one of the new ones, one of the last four to be built.
Pete:
Good fun, playing out on the boats there.
Transcript continues here: 2012 Review - Part 2
Listen to, or download, FrequencyCast Show 83 (31 mins) |
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