This week in tech it’s all about the TV, not just what you watch it on but how you watch it. We’ll be talking to Harvey Norman’s Nigel Dent about all the exciting trends to look out for in TV’s in 2014, whether its curved, flat, UHD, OLED or both. We’ll also be talking to Navman about how they are revolutionising the GPS. We’re also bringing you our top 4 events from another one of this year’s big tech conferences, South by Southwest in Texas.
As always, I'll answer some of our listeners biggest questions.
I’ve had a lot of people asking me how they can get more storage out of their smartphones and tablets. In the past, you’ve had to plug in a USB through a dongle and transfer it across manually. Finally there is a wireless solution.
SanDisk has announced that its range of wireless flash storage products will finally be available to Australian consumers from April.The SanDisk connect wireless flash drive and the SanDisk connect wireless media drives allow users to stream content on their mobile devices without the internet.
Another thing that a lot of people have been asking me recently over twitter is which music streaming service to go with?
There have never been more options than there are now; you’ve got your Pandora, Rdio, iTunes Radio, Spotify and now the brand new Milk Music app.
Here’s some advice, if you know what you like and care about listening to specific artists then iTunes Radio is probably the best option. If you feel like more of a radio experience where your songs are curated according to genre, go with Pandora. As a free service it’s the best in the business.
We will have to wait and see how Samsung’s Milk goes, if you get the chance to check it out let me know what you think via @Charlietech.
Inputting directions into a GPS can be time consuming and frustrating, especially when you end up making multiple stops across one trip. So what GPS technology is now coming out that might make this process a little easier, we chatted to Noelene Lechner, Marketing Manager of Navman Australia.
Another big week in tech, another big conference. One of the most innovative every year is the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Here are some of the highlights.
1) Unmanned Aerial drone with Stun Gun ‘Stun Copter’
· It can deliver 80,000 volts directly to the skin of the victim
· Could be used to aid police in subduing suspects until officers arrive at the scene
· Embedded camera provides a live video feed to operators so they can assess the situation before they arrive. ]
· As with all drones, has some serious privacy and safety concerns.
2) IBM’s Super Computer – Watson, moves from code to cooking
· IBM installed a food truck at SXSW – Austin is famous for its food trucks, but this one was a bit different.
· All recipes were invented by the computer, you put in an ingredient and a cuisine and the computer does the rest.
· It tells the chef exactly how to prepare out there dishes with combinations that are scientifically estimated to be flavoursome by the computer on the molecular level.
· Try strawberries and mushrooms, Vietnamese apple kebabs, Carribean fish and chips with plantain.
3) Edward Snowden and Julian Assange Live Stream from Exile
· Two of the worlds most famous activists gave speeches to the SXSW interactive forum. Assange from his room at the Ecuadorian embassy, which he has been in for 2 years now, and Snowden from somewhere in the world over 6 different proxies.
· They discussed the importance of digital security and the importance of keeping the government in check with digital information.
4) The man who invented the internet – Tim Berners Lee
· Tim Berners Lee also gave a keynote address about the future of computing.
This covered three of the big themes of SXSW so far: maintaining the freedom of the internet; the value of data and privacy; and the rise of robots. I was in geek heaven. They discussed algorithms that allow you to share your data without revealing it, showed robot planes landing on wires and offered some interesting insights into possible future legislation. These were all covered in bite-sized, easily digestible 10 minute chunks.
Finally, we checked in with Nigel Dent, the National Business manager for Audio Visual at Harvey Norman, he told us all we need to know about what’s hot in TV’s in 2014?!
Stay tuned for the full podcast, we'll be bringing it straight to you on Monday morning!