7 Gadgets I would kill for!

1.) Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Speakers

Wow! The first time I saw these speakers, I fell in love with them. If I had a spare £300, I would buy these in the blink of an eye. These are the best designed speakers I have ever seen, and the sound quality is fantastic. Well worth the steep cost.

Will I get one? Maybe- I would love one of these!

2.) BMW Carbon Racer

I don't cycle, but if I owned one of these, I would cycle everywhere. It's fast, agile and really good-looking. I love it!
Will I get one? No- I don't have two grand.

3.) Batmobile

Bob Dullam. What an amazing guy. This man built a real life batmobile. I would do anything at all for this car. Just look at those wheels. Awesome. Amazing. Enough said. Just look at the picture. Wow. This guy built this car in his garage, from scratch. Please build another one. Please. Just for me. Please.


Will I get one? Keep on dreaming.

4.) Real Life Iron Man Suit

When I first saw Iron Man, I wanted to build the Iron Man suit. Unfortunately I gave up when I realised that he defied the laws of physics in many ways. But that hasn't stopped Tony Hurtubise trying. His suit is amazing, He has performed test after test on it, from picking fights with bears to asking biker gangs to beat him up. The amazing thing is that his suit actually works. It's bulletproof, and it'll stand a grenade. Unfortunately he hasn't invented the laser beams on Iron Man's hands, but his magnetic gun holsters make it easy to slip out your pistol and take out a rogue drone.

Will I get one? There are only two, and I think that I'd have to outbid the U.S Government.

5.) Landyachtz Carbon Evo Longboard: I used to really like skateboarding, but I found it too slow for my taste. So I switched to long-boarding, and this board is one of the best and the fastest I've ever seen. I would love to own one, but it costs the best part of £500, and unfortunately I don't really have that kind of money to spend on my hobbies. However, if I did, I'd get this board in a heartbeat. The carbon fibre lightweight speed clinches it for me. 


                                                                            Will I get one? No- for me, it's not worth £500.

6.)  Martin Jetpack

 The human race has dreamt of flying for many years, and now, it's possible. This amazingly well designed  pack is really, really cool. It can go up to 60mph, and reach 8000ft. However, they don't come cheap, with estimates around $100,000. Want to see it in action? Check out this video!

Will I get one? Not unless I win the lottery.

7.) Beats by Dre

A modest request compared to my last one, but just as classy. These Solo HD's in red are my favourites. Apparently the sound quality is pretty good as well, which you'd expect from something this expensive (it costs around £240).

iPhone 5 Apple Invites!

This image is currently spreading like wildfire as its the official iPhone 5 press release invites!(Sadly the postman has come today and mine isn't here yet) While looking at this I realised it was rather boring, just some simple apps, but as I looked closer I realised it was in-fact a puzzle! I've mangaed to solve most of it, but does the phone symbol mean that only one piece of hardware will be coming out?

Apps

Calendar badge: Conference will happen Tuesday, 4th October.

Clock badge: Event will happen 10am PST

Map icon: Points to Apple HQ, California where event will take place

Phone: Only one new iPhone coming out?

Amazon Re-Kindles Their Tablet

Breaking news! The Amazon Kindle Fire is out and I hate to say this but...I think it looks quite cool. It's a huge step up from the old Kindle design where the lack of diversity (one model, one colour) really annoyed me, because it could have been done so much more tastefully.

However, the Fire also has flaws. It's fat (11.4mm, 2.5 mm off the iPad). Interestingly though, it is 200g lighter than an iPad, which is a lot when you're carrying it in your briefcase. The new Kindle lacks a camera and a microphone, a huge omission by Amazon and most importantly, no 3g connectivity! That is pointless. There are basic abilities your tablet must have before it is even considered to be an iPad rival, and two of those are 3g connectivity and a camera. If I were even considering buying a Kindle Fire (which I'm not), those two omissions are dealbreakers for a Facebook addict like me.

It also has poor memory (just 8gb), no bluetooth, no GPS and 2 hours less run time than the iPad. I cannot stand this. I've been waiting to find a tablet where I could honestly say 'This is way better than an iPad', and I really wanted it to be this one. But I can't. The only tablet that the Kindle rivals is the HP Tablet, but I think it loses out on that rivalry as well. The HP is really well priced, and one of the only true iPad competitors (Find a bargain price on the 32gb version here)

Like: Cheap, good for books

Dislike: No 3G connectivity, no camera, a bit fat

iPad rival? No

Electric Skateboards!

Just saw an article on Geeky Gadgets, which looks pretty cool. For those of you too lazy too actually click on the link, it's about an MIT student who designed an electric skateboard from a deck, a snowmobile and a Chrysler. Of course, his was by no means the first electric skateboard, but it's the first one using snowmobile parts!

Unfortunately, I don't have the time, money or ability to try out these skateboards (my skateboarding is awful!), so I'll just sum up where you can buy them, how much they cost and what they can and can't do.

• Eight Ball

Probably the most popular around (quantified by the reliable test 'Where do they come if you type 'electic skateboard' into Google Shopping?').  Prices range from £160 to £470, depending on the make.

• Rokit Science

More expensive by quite a lot (their most expensive board is £800) and , in my opinion, they have a poorer design. However, as I haven't tested these boards, the price and the design could be redeemed by a superb ride.

• Skate electric

Prices ranging from £350-£450. Very cool design, and with a good range of videos and dates of upcoming events.

Reviews

Best for speed goes to... Electric Skateboards! Wins by a good 4mph!

Best for design goes to... Skate Electric! Red stripe running along the middle looks very cool.

Best for price goes to... Eight Ball! Relatively inexpensive, and a good variety of boards!

Best Overall goes to... Skate Electric! Good design, good price, good speed!

IPhone 5 release date!

Apple have finally announced the launch date for their new smartphone, along with their invites! Unfortunately, Rachel and I haven't received ours. They must have forgotten. The release date is due to be October 4th, when the first Apple speech without Steve Jobs will be given. This event will probably be the release of the iPhone 4S and the iPod Touch 3G.

The iPod Touch 3G? Yes. Images were leaked onto Apple's website such as the one below:

I apologise for the poor quality (it's highly focused), but in the top left corner, you can make out the letters '3G'. Why Apple are releasing a 3G version, I have no idea (what will it do that an iPhone can't?).

On a serious note, if anyone from Apple is reading this then a.) Please may we have an invite to your speech? and b.) Can you please send us an iPhone 5 to write a review on?

Thanks!

Changes to the site

Here at TastefulTechnology, we're all about innovation, and so we're changing our site. The new background will look something like this (except we'll have gotten rid of some of the clutter at the top). More changes as my friend Rachel Green will be blogging occasionally, this week we're running a special on CSI style technology and whether it actually works. We're hoping to hit 1000 page views by the end of the week. Happy reading!

A summary of f8

Facebook, as you have probably heard, is changing. It is changing almost everything, and releasing a ton of useful features. I will try to give you a full summary of f8 and of what has changed.

• The Ticker

This is an updated form of news feed, where realtime information about all of your friends activities comes straight into a 'ticker' (based on the stock exchange's tickers where you see realtime stock movements). Personally, I find this quite useful, though I know that many disagree, multiple hate groups having been set up, campaigning for the old Facebook.

• The Timeline

This is a big one. This is the source of all the buzz. Facebook have once again antagonised its users by invading their privacy and seem hell bent on keeping Timeline as it is. It's modelled on your 'life story'. You can see everything a user has done, or the major changes in his life. It has been described as a 'stalker's paradise' and it's hard to disagree. Also, another element that angers people is that you can now see who has unfriended you. Previously, unfriending was a quiet act, one that didn't appear in your news feed, not a public act, like becoming friends with someone. The buzz around Timeline is similar to that around News Feed, back in 2007. At first, people hated it, but they have grown used to it now.

•  Open Graph

This is by far the biggest change, though probably the least mentioned and the vaguest. It is a fundamental change to apps and the basic platform that the apps run on. It means that you can see what your friends are watching/playing easier, and then open that link without leaving Facebook. So you can click on a new music video by Ed Sheeran and listen to it without ever leaving facebook. This leads me neatly to my next point.

• Media

Facebook now does music, TV shows and movies. I has joined together with companies such as Spotify and Netflix to enable the user to watch the shows and stream the music without leaving Facebook. It is integrated with Open Graph.

• Lifestyle apps

This is much more straightforward and easy to explain. Facebook are creating a whole new class of app, which is much more fully integrated with your profile. The apps are much more similar to iPhone apps than to Farmworld and other games. Some of Facebook’s Lifestyle Apps partners include Nike, Foodspotting, Netflix, Rdio, Foodily, Spotify, Metacafe, FundRazr, Eventbrite, Ticketmaster and Airbnb.

I think that's all, but if I've forgotten something, feel free to let me know about it, and I'll correct it as soon as possible. Thanks for taking the time to read this article!

Gapminder

During my latest piece of work (an essay on the correlation between HIC's and poor teeth) I stumbled upon this little gem of software. It's a free website that allows you to plot statistics against each other, allowing you to vary the x and y axes and the size and colour of the dots which indicate a country. It's a great tool for analysing statistics on nations, and I use it all the time. You don't need to download anything if you don't want to, or you can download so as to run it without internet access. It's great, check out!