Posted by: Jane Douglas

This week in gadgets: the Leyio personal sharing device arrived in the UK, as did Etymotic’s custom fit earphones, bringing individually moulded earbuds to the iPod-loving public.

The partly see-through LG GD900 we’ve been cooing over, hereafter known as the LG Crystal, got a UK stockist: expect to see it exclusively in The Carphone Warehouse this summer.

In games, meanwhile, Nik was treated to a preview of upcoming Fallout 3 expansion Broken Steel, easily the most significant of the Fallout DLC.

I also joined EA for a showcase of its 2009 line-up, including three promising action adventure titles: Dante’s Inferno (hellish hack n’ slasher), Brütal Legend (heavy metal madness) and The Saboteur (free-roaming WWII romp).

You’ll see much more of these games over the coming weeks. (Today EA confirmed a simultaneous PSP version of Dante’s Inferno, underlining its ambitions for the game as a new multi-platform blockbuster franchise.)

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Posted by: Nik Taylor

Broken Steel, the third instalment of downloadable content for Fallout 3, will be released on Tuesday May 5 for PC and Xbox 360. It will cost 800 points (about £6).

Fallout 3 developers Bethesda reckons the game’s fans are going to be pretty chuffed with this latest expansion, as it addresses two issues with the original game.

1. The level cap has been increased.
2. The game no longer ends.

First, that level cap. The highest level you can achieve has been increased from 20 to 30. Along with the normal benefits of levelling up, there’s also going to be a bunch of new perks to choose from as you go through the levels. There’s no word yet on exactly how many, but we were told at Bethesda’s press event yesterday that one of them will be called ‘Puppies!’. Taking this perk ensures that, should Dogmeat ever die, he will be instantly reincarnated.

New screenshots from Broken Steel

You’re going to be one mean Lone Wanderer by the time you get near level 30, so Bethesda is levelling the playing field by adding some new enemies for characters above level 18. Among these will be super-mutant overlords, packing new weaponry, and feral ghoul reavers, which are heavily armoured and have a penchant for lobbing grenades.

You’ll also benefit from some new weapons of your own. One of the best on show yesterday was the Heavy Incinerator, which projects balls of flame long distances. It’s a bit like a flaming grenade launcher.

***SPOILER ALERT*** The rest of this posting discusses events that happen at the end of Fallout 3 and in the Broken Steel DLC.

Onto the gist of the storyline. Broken Steel plays out in the Capital Wasteland and kicks off during the final scenes of the original game. You find yourself at the Project Purity reactor once again, only this time you can persuade companions such as Fawkes and Charon to go into the reactor for you, should you wish. Whatever choice you make, you won’t die and instead wake up two weeks later in the Citadel.

What you find is that Project Purity is up and running, but things aren’t going as smoothly as you might expect. It’s proving difficult to distribute the purified water, but also the battle between the Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel is still raging. Your main quest in Broken Steel is to find a weapon called the Tesla Cannon, which is powerful enough to win the battle for the Brotherhood.

This quest will take you across the Capital Wasteland, through the Presidential Metro system that’s underneath the White House and to a new space, the Adams Air Force Base. But throughout the quest you’ll be able to wander off and enjoy the diversions of the original. Most importantly, when you complete the Broken Steel quest, the game doesn’t end, so you can keep on exploring.

Posted by: Nik Taylor

When we get told a story that’s under embargo, we tend to play by the rules.

Actually we don’t ‘tend to’ play by the rules, we make damn sure we don’t let on until the embargo has passed. Fair play and all that. However, it seems not everyone is as even-handed as us folks at T&G.

This afternoon, Bethesda announced to a roomful of journalists that it is working on a new Fallout game, set in Las Vegas. The revelation was to stay under wraps until tomorrow, but in the end it took less than three minutes for the news to appear on the web. While its impossible to rule out psychic bloggers being behind the leak, my own suspicions are on that shady-looking journo who was hiding behind his laptop at the back of the room.

Anyway, the story’s out in the open now, so we can give you all the details without fear of a thunderbolt from the heavens. Such details are pretty sparse at the moment, but here’s what there is so far.

Fallout: New Vegas will come out some time next year. It’s not a sequel to Fallout 3, in terms of storyline, but will take place within the Fallout game universe.

It’s going to be developed not by Bethesda (who developed Fallout 3) but by Obsidian (who developed Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II, among other things). Several of the team at Obsidian worked on the original Fallout games. New Vegas, however, will be an RPG in the same vein as Fallout 3.

It’s going to come out on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC… and that’s about all we know. We were promised a full reveal later this year, quite possibly at E3.

And as for that embargo, yes, there were other things covered by it and, no, we can’t talk about those ones yet. But keep an eye on this blog this time tomorrow for more.

Posted by: Jane Douglas

Three more of my highlights from The Gadget Show Live, now I'm away from the show and flicking through my photos:

X-Desk
A 52-inch, multi-touch tabletop system from Engage Production, built with an Epson projector and made to order. There's Bluetooth connectivity and object recognition via Smart Tags too.

The obvious comparison is Microsoft's Surface, though the X-Desk can be built to spec in size and height: four 52-inch units combined to make a giant X-Desk, in one instance.

SkyScout Personal Planetarium
New from Celestron, a handheld sky scanner that uses GPS to  identify whatever star or planet you centre in the viewfinder. Chunky and rugged, dead simple to use, with a big LED-backlit readout, something I'd have liked to have taken home.

Revomaze
A solid, mysterious-looking little puzzle gadget from a British engineer/inventor Ashton Pitt.

Concealed inside a grooved metal tube (left) is a precision-crafted cylindrical labyrinth (below). Twist and turn the maze out of the tube (takes hours, apparently) to release a certificate of ownership and a code to place you on the Revomaze leader board.

Posted by: Jane Douglas

As promised, the Hybrid PA bag from turned out to be a new soft-top, modular, power-assisted suitcase for frequent travelers from Live Luggage.

It can help you haul up to 75kg of baggage over less than level terrain, which is a lot of clothes and duty free by anyone's measure. Soon to be available in John Lewis.

Posted by: Jane Douglas

It's well into the afternoon here at The Gadget Show Live and the question is: bass tunnel or powertool racing?

For visitors who just can't get enough bass out of the subwoofer at home, there's the colossal and slightly terrifying VIBE bass tunnel (pictured). It resembles a washing machine for human beings, washing victims volunteers from all directions with pounding bass.

Then for the fans of DIY and/or drag racing, there's the powertool drag racing strip, courtesy of Silverline Tools: a short track down which visitors are invited to race heavily modified implements of home improvement.

Alternatively, there's the Test Track, around which daring souls (that is, the kids) are riding supercharged inline skates (Booster Blades) and scissory, double-footboard scooters.

Posted by: Jane Douglas

There's a pretty mixed crowd of exhibitors here at the first The Gadget Show Live.

Seems like everyone wants a piece of the Channel Five show's popularity, from the Highways Agency (?) to makers of power tools, electronic cigarettes, fake flickering televisions (to deter burglars while you're off on holiday) and the usual big-name brands: Panasonic, LG, Garmin, TomTom on the gadget side, for example, and Nintendo, EA and Alienware representing for games.

With emphasis on showing the crowd a good time with fun - but already-on-shelves - gadgets, there's only a handful of exclusive launches going on, and these mostly take the form of UK first appearances.

So Panasonic is introducing the UK's first Blu-ray recorder, while LG is displaying the 3G touchscreen watchphone that made its worldwide debut back in January, as well as the partly transparent GD900 phone that premiered at Mobile World Congress (pictured).

Garmin is tentatively showing off its nuvifones (M20 and G60), the navigation-focused mobile phones produced in alliance with Asus, of the netbook fame.

The Windows-based M20 is maybe a truer smartphone, with push e-mail and video capabilities but the Linux-powered G60, with which I got a hands-on, is a largely similar device. Garmin's sat nav is the star feature, as you'd expect, along with some nifty integration of navigation with, say, web browsing and contact addresses. Both are being tested by carriers in the States at the moment and wont be with us for a while.

Live Luggage, meanwhile, a firm making "power-assisted luggage" is unveiling its Hybrid PA Bag: a soft-top bag for travellers who presumably pack more than they can carry without mechanical help. That's my next destination, stay tuned.

Posted by: Jane Douglas

There's plenty of useful, serious gadgetry here at The Gadget Show Live, but there's also room for eight-foot tall robot sculptures of recycled scrap metal (skates, irons, hinges, etc) in the shape of Transformers, Predators, the Terminator and such.

The fellow pictured, built of 8000 bits of recycled metal, weighs 400kg and comes with a £5,500 pricetag. Smaller, cheaper versions are also available from robosteel.com, with the added benefit of fitting on your mantelpiece.  

Posted by: Nik Taylor

Jane has arrived at The Gadget Show Live and is moseying her way around the various stands and exhibits.

Below are her recent updates from the show via Twitter. Keep an eye on her Twitter feed on the main blog page for the very latest.

Jane’s tweets

5.15pm Uk's first Blu-ray recorder out in June, says Panasonic (£1000 for 500GB HDD, £900 for 250GB): http://www.twitpic.com/3gm60

4.45pm "Future Home" was a bit of misnomer for that exhibit, unless by Future is agreed to mean "things you can buy now for the right money".

4.30pm @sheld of PC World says Nvidia's 3D Vision is the biggest draw at the PC World stand so far. No word on a UK release date just yet.

3.35pm People of Centre for Computing History are very nice and they have a Sinclair C5. Someone sponsor their museum. http://www.twitpic.com/3gf28

3.30pm @pocketlint No sarcasm, Pacman gummies are genuinely delicious. And the show is just as good. @FreshPlastic All gone, no pics, sorry!

1.50pm Lunch = Pacman-shaped Haribos courtesy of Gamestation, sweeeet.

1.40pm Playing hunt the WiFi/3G signal at Gadget Show. Also: Resonance Damping Compound needs MUCH sexier product name. Think branding, people!

12.40am Booster Blades look lethal and awesome in equal measure. Concept sketches for injected moulded plastic next-gen version very cool.

11.40am LG's showing the partly transparent GD900 that caught our eye at MWC: http://twitpic.com/3g5vl

10.40am This Transformer sculpture: made of 8000 bits of recycled metal, weighs 400kg, a mere £5.5k from robosteel.com http://twitpic.com/3g4fx

10.15am No pictures or video allowed on the Nintendo stand. Least we all know what a DSi looks like already...

9.55am Masses of visitors poised to rush Gadget Show Live. Tickets sold out a while back, they're expecting 300,000 people over the weekend.

9.45am Arrived at NEC, can't get in till 10. T3 folks get in early since they're fancy sponsors. Queue: http://twitpic.com/3g3fm

8.30am On the train to Birmingham Intl for Gadget Show Live. Free WiFi still for first class passengers only, bah.

Packing the big bag o'gadgets for The Gadget Show Live. VGA compact camcorder or HD? Former outputs smaller video files, easier to upload and edit on the fly. 

Latter, well, captures higher resolution video, obviously. Maybe a bit of each for comparative purposes...

Posted by: Jane Douglas

Tomorrow I’ll be at the first Gadget Show Live, tweeting and posting from Birmingham’s NEC.

The show (April 17-19) promises to be a haven for technophiles, with gadget makers flaunting their latest wares and the Channel Five presenters doing their thing for a live audience. Then there’s a Hall of Fame filled with iconic retro tech, a Game Zone and the inevitable Home of the Future exhibit.

I’ll be updating the blog with show highlights as they happen and collecting tasty gadget stories to share next week.

Posted by: Jane Douglas

Today Nikon introduced us to the D5000, an entry-level DSLR camera packing a rotatable LCD screen and capable of capturing HD video.

That 720p video capture on a DSLR was a world first in Nikon’s D90 last year and it’s not the only feature the new D5000 has in common with that camera.

The D5000 shares a lot of tech with the more expensive, mid-level D90, including the same 12.3-megapixel sensor, combined with (as Nikon describes it) the simplicity of the D60, a DSLR for beginners.

The vari-angle swivelling LCD screen is nifty, allowing shooting not only from up high and down low (as on the P90 I was testing two weeks back) but also fully reversed, for better framing of self portraits.

Some other features to appear first on the D5000 include eight new scene modes, (including “pet portrait”, “candlelight” and “blossom”), as well as some nice in-camera editing functions: a smart soft focus filter for flattering portraits and a distortion control for, say, snapping tall buildings from ground level. 

With an RRP of £800 for the basic kit, the camera is priced closer to the D90 (£1030) than the D60 (£480), but Nikon seems confident that there are enough families looking to invest in a first DSLR camera and willing to part with that kind of cash. After the D5000 hits shelves on May 1, we shall see.

Posted by Nik Taylor

Are you a Rock Band nut who can’t stand to be away from your guitar or drum controllers? Well, help is at hand from June 9, which is when EA will release Rock Band Unplugged for the Sony PSP.

Unlike Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS, which came with a plug-in peripheral, Rock Band Unplugged will be played using the standard buttons.

“Rock Band Unplugged reinvents band gameplay while staying true to the authentic feel of the Rock Band console games,” reckons Bob Picunko, Senior Vice President of Electronic Games for MTV Games.

Hmm, but will it really be as much fun as the home games? A lot of the kicks to be had from those come from feeling like you’re really playing the drums or the guitar. I can’t see quite how that will translate to a handheld like the PSP. As for singing, how is that going to be fun when reduced to simple button-mashing?

Still, the price is right. Rock Band Unplugged will ship for £24.99. It will feature 40 original songs, including nine exclusives that will later be available to home consoles on download. The exclusives are…

• 3 Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
• AFI - "Miss Murder"
• Alice in Chains - "Would?"
• Audioslave - "Gasoline"
• Black Tide - "Show Me the Way"
• Blink 182 - "What's My Age Again"
• Freezepop - "Less Talk More Rokk"
• Jackson 5 - "ABC"
• Tenacious D - "Rock Your Socks"

Screenshots from Rock Band Unplugged

View Full Album

Posted by: Nik Taylor

Any self-respecting racing gamer knows that if you want to get the most out of your Gran Turismo, Project Gotham or Burnout, you’ve got to get yourself a steering wheel.

Drifting round corners and making audacious overtakes just isn’t the same with a standard controller; you need to be whipping that wheel from left to right to really get a feel for your driving.

But there are wheel controllers, and then there’s buying the interior of a car in which to race. That is essentially what’s going on with the VisonRacer VR3, and I think it looks ace.

Not only do you get a bling-bling bucket seat in which to recline, but the whole set-up is furnished with a force feedback Logitech steering wheel and pedals.

Having one of these is going to be like having your own version of Daytona from the arcades in the living room. Better, in fact, as you’ll have more than three tracks to choose from and won’t have to feed the thing with 50p coins every five minutes.

There are a couple of problems though. First… it costs £699 just for the seat. Add your essential Logitech parts and you’re looking at just over a grand. Second… where am I going to put the sofa?

Midnight Club challenge
Talking of driving games, there’s a bit of action on the Midnight Club Xbox Live servers this weekend. The game’s developers are going online tomorrow night (Sat April 4) between 9pm and midnight for a mass burn-up, which seems like a pretty good opportunity to find out just how good your driving skills are.

The event is a plug for the new South Central downloadable content, and it seems you’ll need to have that if you’re to track them down. Add the Gamertags below to your friends list and keep an eye out for them on the streets.

RockstarNYTest1, RockstarNYTest2, RkstrNYQALEAD1, RkstrNYQALEAD2, RkstrSDDesign1, RkstrSDDesign2, RkstrSDDesign3, RkstrSDDesign4, RkstrSDTest1, RkstrSDCode1, RkstrSDAudio1, RkstrSDArt01, RockstarDub10, RockstarDub11, RockstarDub12

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