FrequencyCast Review of 2012
This is the second part of our review of 2012, as featured in FrequencyCast Show 83. We review the tech and the events that kept us busy during the year.
Listen to, or download, FrequencyCast Show 83 (31 mins) |
This is part 2 of our transcript of Show 83:
Continues from 2012 Review - Part 1
Pete:
That takes us on to April, and of course, the big news of April, for TV, was?
Kelly:
The digital switchover.
Pete:
Mmm. It hit London, and nine million people had to make sure they were off the old analogue TV service, and switched over to digital. Also, it was a hundred years since the sinking of the Titanic, and at the time we caught up with Tim Wander, who is a historian into all things radio, who explained how radio's future could have been scuppered.
Tim:
April 14th 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg - the story's extremely well-known, but 711 lives were saved, solely because she carried radio. What is interesting is that Guglielmo Marconi was due to sail on the Titanic. He had to go to America for a legal case, and he sailed two weeks earlier on board the Lusitania, surprisingly enough, but on the day the Titanic sailed, his wife and family still held tickets to go on the Titanic. It just turned out his son went down with a very high fever, and they cancelled on the eve they were to sail the Titanic. Now, something to think about is, what the world would have been like if Marconi had gone down on the Titanic. If he had gone down, would British broadcasting have been born? Would the company have survived his loss? On such things as missing a boat, the world changes, and maybe our modern civilisation hinges.
Kelly:
OK, so that takes us on to May, and the iPhone killer came out.
Pete:
It did indeed - the Samsung Galaxy S3, which is probably the best smartphone that isn't an iPhone out there, appeared in May, and lots of people have found that a very, very good device. It didn't tempt you away from your BlackBerry though, did it?
Kelly:
No, it didn't - nothing's going to do that.
Pete:
And also in May, I took my first drive in a silent smart car, courtesy of British Gas.
We're currently stationary, and this is the impressive bit, is actually starting the engine, for want of a better word. Katie, could you fire it up for me?
Katie:
OK. Complete silence - no engine noise in the cabin at all, inside or outside.
Pete:
Brilliant, OK - let's go for a drive. Woah, so we're off and running. That is unusual - it feels a bit like when you start your car without the engine running, and just lose the handbrake - you're moving forward with absolutely no engine noise. Katie, how is it to drive?
Katie:
Very smooth, very responsive, so very small movements on the accelerator and brake, and really fun to drive as well.
Pete:
And we've got some nice tech here - I can see to the right of your dash, there's a display that says, 86 miles, and that presumably is 86 miles left before I need to charge?
Katie:
Yes, it is, so very much like your fuel indicator, plenty of life left to go, and it's very clear as to when it's getting to that point as well, and when I need to go back and charge.
Pete:
There's also a very nice display that looks like a ... ooh, a little jump there - the brakes are a little bit nippy on this, aren't they? They're a little bit on the sharp side, I have to say.
Katie: I know, it's terrible! In any electric car I've driven, they've been very similar, so very, very small movements on the brake, but once you've got the hang of it, then it comes very naturally.
Pete:
Great fun driving around in the Nissan Leaf electric car, and that takes us on to June, where the hot news was that BT had outbid EPSN for the rights to show a decent percentage of the Premier League football that's coming up this autumn. Also in our June show, we took a look at this.
Kelly:
We certainly did. This is the my Torch USB programmable torch.
Pete:
And of course, everybody must have a torch that is USB-programmable. Where would you be without a USB-programmable torch?
Kelly:
Of course. I have one in my handbag all the time.
Pete:
Of course, as do I.
Kelly:
And it suits you!
Pete:
OK, that takes us on to July. Before I move on to that, I'm going to do some show and tell. Hold your hands out, please. I'm going to get this out of the bubble wrap. Just slide it out of its little case there.
Kelly:
Oh, hello! This looks very old.
Pete:
This is the Psion Organiser, which you're not that familiar with, clearly. This is actually my prized possession, the Psion Organiser I, and this was pretty much the start of all handheld computers and smartphones.
Kelly:
Well, congratulations for having one.
Pete:
Thank you very much. Now, these came out way back in 1984, with a massive two kilobytes of RAM.
Kelly:
Wow!
Pete:
And they used to use these things, so hold that hand out there. So in that hand, you've got a 16K data pack from Psion.
Kelly:
That is actually quite ridiculous!
Pete:
And these memory packs, you couldn't erase them like you can an SD card. What you had to do was do this: pop them out of their case, and slide that under a special ultra-violet scanner to format them.
Kelly:
What an effort!
Pete:
In their day, they were the greatest thing. It was the Hitchhiker's Guide equivalent of an electronic book. It paved the way for this little chap though, that was one of my other favourite possessions; back in the early Nineties, for me this one. So what you're looking at here is a Psion Series 3, with a bunch of apps.
Kelly:
System, data - you've got Word, you've got your agenda, time, world, calculator, sheet and jotter.
Pete:
So the reason we're talking about the Psion Organisers is, they were pretty much at the cutting-edge of handheld computing. They were a British company, and in July last year, Motorola bought Psion, so that was the end of a bit of an era for computing in the UK.
Kelly:
Well now, that is sad.
Pete:
Also in July, we looked at the British Gas smart home heating system, which has been very handy for taking remote control of the heating at home in December, and here's a reminder of how that works.
Paul:
Well basically, we are replacing the old hard-wired thermostat with a wireless one that will connect to the internet hub.
Pete:
After getting the new boiler connection sorted, my rather dated thermostat was removed, and replaced by a shiny new digital thermostat.
Paul:
It's all set up, basically fitted the thermostat in the same position as the old one - that's all ready to go.
Pete:
Were we an easy install for you?
Paul: It was, it was very easy.
Pete:
And of course, Kelly, in July, we were also out and about at your favourite place of the year - where was that?
Kelly:
By far! We were actually out at the London Film and Comic Con.
Well, there's a lot of people here dressed up as, I think super heroes. I don't really know who they are. I've seen a lot of people with very crazy hair.
Pete:
We're in what's called the signing hall at the moment, and just paint a picture for me, Kelly.
Kelly:
Well, at the moment there's a lot of people here in a lot of queues, with a lot of pictures waiting for quite a lot of autographs.
Dave:
Hello, this is Dave Prowse - Darth Vader from Star Wars, and you're listening to FrequencyCast. I'm not a huge sci-fi fan. I don't think I've ever seen an episode of Star Trek. I've met all the Star Trek people, and I get on very very well with them all, but I'd hate to admit to them that I've never actually seen an episode of it.
Kelly:
I quite like the commitment they put in, you know. That could make me convert, and I love fancy dress.
Pete:
Mmm, so a Mecca for all things geeky, looking at all the people in their weird outfits doing all their sci-fi things, the Doctor Who, the Tardis, the K9, and of course, the people from Firebox.
Kelly:
Yeah, I'm just going to put this out that I'm very, very, very upset that I still do not have my doll.
Pete:
And you're not buying anything from Firebox ever again, are you?
Kelly:
No, I'm not, and I sound like a very spoilt child that did not get what they wanted for Christmas.
Pete:
So are we up for going to this year's sci-fi shows?
Kelly:
I think so. I think we may have to dress up this time, though - go as a double-act.
Pete:
Sold. That takes us on to August, and we had the launch of the Humax YouView box, and it was only two years late.
Kelly:
It was indeed, and still pretty expensive.
Pete:
And something else happened, of great excitement?
Kelly:
Curiosity landed on Mars.
Pete:
We saw the start of what could potentially be the analogue radio switch off. Some of the BBC local radio stations started turning off their AM transmitters, more to see if anyone noticed, and there hasn't been much of an outrage, so it could be that we're going to start losing more medium-wave stations. We also looked at a replacement for the old key lock, which was a special digital door lock from Yale.
So this is it, and it installs on the side of your door here, and what you do, Tom, is you put your hand - just put your hand on there for me. So you're putting your hand on it, and a little keypad lights up. So you're putting your hand on it, and a little keypad lights up. If I put in the wrong pin number, you get an error, so you can't get in. Palm on there to wake it up, and put the right pin in - there you go, and you heard the little mechanism unlock there, and now ...
Tom:
I think it looks quite modern. It's quite stylish - I like the chrome. I think ease of use, it's a fantastic little lock - I would use one.
Pete:
It lets you programme in your own code, anything from four to twelve digits. Let's just shut the door. It's also got this concept of a fake pin as well, so if you've got a guest coming to the house, and they're looking over your shoulder, they can't get a feel for what your pin is - you put in some dummy numbers before it, which is rather clever.
Tom:
They're using the same technology in their latch locks there, which most people have got on their doors already, so the security is still there. All you're doing is, you're replacing the key side of it with a key pad, and I feel that they've covered everything.
Transcript continues here: 2012 Review - Part 3
Listen to, or download, FrequencyCast Show 83 (31 mins) |
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