2009 Gadget Rundown

December 30th, 2009 1 Comment »

Despite me initially thinking this had been a relatively slow year for gadgets, as I look back it seems I have purchased quite a few. There have been a number of none-physical gadgets in the form of software, as well as a record number of feline related ones and gadgets for my family and not me.. so here are my top 5 gadgets of 2009:

#5: Sony PSP-3000
Yup, I gave in a purchased another games console. This one has been very useful in ways I hadn’t considered when I purchased it. Aside from a quick Ridge Racer session to pass 5 minutes now and then, I’ve taken it to Berlin where it acted as a video player. I’ve also put training videos on it to watch so I can do a bit of learning on the go, it can remote control my PS3 allowing me to watch TV using the Sony PlayTV gadget which is nice but doesn’t make the top 5(although there’s issues there I won’t go in to), it works as a Skype phone and is generally quite cool just to hold and look at! The whole thing is protected by the excellent invisibleSHIELD which is the best screen / device protector ever and is highly recommended – it only misses out on the top 5 as it’s a bit boring.

#4: Balance Bike
Poppy absolutely loves her balance bike. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it since I bought it, but she is now able to push herself along at great speed and even lean in to her turns as you would on a proper bike. I don’t think it will be too long before she is able to ride a proper bike – but we’ll give that a little while longer yet.

#3: Sureflap RFID Catflap
Yup, I purchased a cat flap which can read the microchip in the back of my cat’s neck. And it really does work very well. Since I fitted it earlier this year, it is only on it’s second set of batteries so looks like it eats a set every 6 months which is pretty decent. It looks just like a normal cat flap with no sticky-out porch thing like the Pet-Porte cat flap and has prevented other moggies from entering my garage. Sadly my cat still hasn’t got over her little ‘wee’ problem so is banished to the garage until I can work something out, but at least her life is cosy since I gave her the Petnap Heated Cat Bed.

#2: Toyota Celica
Mmmmm, nice shiny silver car with shiny alloys and a nice low profile. Mmmmm. 5 months in to my new 4-wheeled toy and I’m not bored of it yet.

#1: Windows 7
Of course it is… Microsoft Windows 7 is my favourite “gadget” of the year. It’s given my laptop a new lease of life and my desktop an excuse for the 4GB of RAM I wanted. I’ve had next to no issues with it and to coin an Apple phrase… it just works. Coupled with Windows Home Server backing my machines up every night and providing a centralised storage, switching between my Windows 7 machines is seamless – offline files work perfectly for my documents on my laptop, and the integration of Windows Live with my personal domains means I have my very own Windows Live Mail domain integrated with my desktops. Windows 7…. come on you Mac boys, you know you like it really!

So, that’s it. Sadly not quite making the top 5 this year were the practical but boring Enviro-Light LED Spotlight bulbs from last week, Vicky’s Sony Reader Touch which I think is good, but haven’t used it much myself what with it being full of boring old classic novels. The digital Digital Photo Frames I was given for my birthday are still in use – one of which is permanently switched on on my desk at work. The Heatmiser Digital Touchscreen Thermostat is still going and works just fine - I do wish I’d gone for the one which also controls the hot water and expended the effort in extending the wiring for that but never mind, maybe in 2010. Oh yes, and the Steam Powered Wallpaper Remover is in its box in my garage waiting for me to be bothered with decorating the spare room – I’m working on the bathrooms at the moment so the spare room can wait.


Touch Screen Thermostat

February 8th, 2009 No Comments »

Second gadget of the year: Heatmiser Touch Screen Digital Programmable Thermostat. OK, so not mega exciting but it looks pretty neat, improves the efficiency of the central heating system, and, most importantly of all it has a blue backlit screen. Over the last couple of days we’ve been having trouble with the central heating and I *think* I’ve traced the fault down to the frost-protection thermostat in the garage (thanks dad!). Anyway, while I was messing around with the wiring I thought I might as well stick this on the wall as well. So I pulled the old stat down, drilled and hammered a large hole suitable for sinking a back box in to (35mm metal one.. the dry line plasterboard one didn’t work cuz one side of the hole turned out to be right next to a beam of wood.). Then it was just a case of wiring it up and screwing it to the wall. What’s so good about it I hear you say? Go on, say it… thanks. Well you can set ‘comort levels’ on it that vary throughout the day, so it can be set to warm up the house in the morning, then during the day make sure it doesn’t drop too low, warm up again in the evening, then cool down for the night time.. you can have different temperatures for each of those time periods and the device even learns how long it takes to warm your house up so it can guarantee your house it at a particular temperature at a particular time. So far so good with only one small issue. I mounted it at eye height where the old stat was positioned. This is however at my eye level not Vicky’s, and the viewing angle of the screen seems to be limited. Vicky has to stand on tip toes to view the screen… oh well, might put her off whacking it up full during the day! I did fit one of these in our last home some people may remember.. but they’ve move on a bit since then. The old version wasn’t touch screen to start with, but the biggest issue was it’s sensivity. When the room got up to temperature and was hovering around say 20 degrees, it would flicker between 29 and 20 degrees every few seconds causing the boiler to turn on and off… not too good for it and a bit annoying. Heatmiser have fixed that with an adjustable buffer zone… and it works down to 0.1 of a degree. So far so good anyway and if I have any issues I’ll be sure to moan about it on this blog.

thermostat