[REVIEW] Orbitsound T3 Portable Speaker

At Gadget Show Live, I was lucky enough to be given one of Orbitsound's T3 personal speakers to test. (Picture pinched from orbitsound.com, hope they don't mind!) The speaker is fairly small at 6cm by 11cm and is powered by an internal battery which can be charged via USB. My previous experience of portable speakers has been somewhat patchy at best, most of the ones I have used (mostly as a kid, to be fair) have been fairly large, clunky battery munching monstrosities, so the light and delicate T3 appealed to me, but I was still fairly skeptical about the sound quality (in particular the bass) that would be produced.

The Orbitsound crew recommended I should test the T3 with a variety of machines:

Laptop: My laptop is my baby. It's fast, reliable and me and the husband find ourselves using it to watch various TV on demand services, movies, YouTube videos etc, especially when the poor overworked tower PC connected to the big screen telly has crapped out again. It's speakers are fairly poor, however, and if we happen to be laughing or discussing what's happening on screen, the audio gets lost. On plugging in the T3, I instantly noticed an increase in the volume and a richer tone in the voice of the scary lady announcing that we're all done for. (Need to load up on stimpaks and rad-away, pronto.) A win for the T3!

iPhone/iPod: Generally when I'm listening to music, it's coming from my iPhone. Time to test out one the T3's major boast, the claim that it can produce stereo sound from just one speaker, using it's "halo" effect. To test this, I chose Zebrahead - Playmate of the Year for it's alternate "Woo!"/"Yeah!" which if you're listening through headphones, you'll notice happens in one ear then the other. To create the effect, the T3 is worn on a lanyard around the neck, and the little side speakers create the stereo effect. Unexpectedly, this works really well, and I was very impressed!

Another great test using the iPhone really explored the power that this little speaker has. The acoustics in my bathroom aren't great, and I love having music while I shower, but the tinny little iPhone speaker tends to get lost amongst the sound of the water. Using the T3 a much louder, better quality sound can be achieved, probably much to the distress of our neighbours who have to deal with my, um, diverse music tastes. The T3's first downfall became obvious here though, as my phone struggled for signal and the speaker burst out into the loudest EM interference noise I'd ever heard in my life. Moving the speaker and the phone further away from each other seemed to help until I received a text message, when it did it again. What I really don't understand is why that never happens in my iPhone headphones! Obviously, all this can be avoided by using an iPod instead, but it's a bit of a pain, considering most of the stuff I want to listen to is on the phone!

Portable Gaming System (3DS): To me, this looks to be one of the most promising categories, provided that Nintendo do actually keep their vague promises to bring lots of 3D video content to the handheld. Yet again the sound is louder and less tinny. My personal preference is to play my games with the sound off, but for cut scenes or movies it is ideal. It seems like it would also be a perfect partner for a PSP as well, particularly for watching UMDs.

The Verdict: Retailing at £50, it's not cheap, however having had my fair share of crappy portable speakers in the past I'd be inclined to say that you get what you pay for. The T3 is lightweight, compact and packs a massive punch for what it is. Battery-wise, I've had the unit for two weeks and I've not yet charged it up again. Orbitsound say it lasts ten hours on a full charge, so more than enough life for a day out picnicing in the park or partying on public transport. The only downsides appear to be the susceptibility to interference and the fact that I felt a bit of a goof wearing it around my neck - but then again, if it's kickin' out some awesome tunes, who cares?

Overall, 4/5. Recommended! :)

[EVENT] Gadget Show Live, 12th April 2011 - The Game Zone (part 2!)

The Game Zone (sponsored by, you've guessed it, GAME) at Gadget Show Live was an entire hall dedicated to showing off the latest and most exciting upcoming games, hardware and accessories. A quick wander round revealed demo machines showing off titles like Shift 2, Dirt 3, Gran Turismo 5 and a whole bunch of other franchises. There was one franchise, however, for which we made an immediate beeline.

And here it is! A first exclusive look at Duke Nukem Forever! Alright, maybe it's not THAT exclusive. The game (or demo, at least) begins with the urgent need for Duke to have a wee, which when you consider that this game has been twelve or thirteen years in the making, is entirely reasonable! Those familiar with the Duke Nukem series will be familiar with the story, aliens have landed and are stealing all the women, which has thoroughly annoyed our chauvinistic Duke - they're HIS women, dammit! (Or something like that.) The game looks pretty slick, and has taken notice of other leaders in the FPS genre, with cheeky nods to other titles such as Half Life in the dialogue. In the time Duke's been away, he's been honing his skills and trying his hand at some new things (as illustrated here in my gallery of photos from the Duke Nukem stand!) but the tried and tested formula remains the same. Chew bubblegum. Kick ass.

A few other highlights from the 18+ section included the Gears of War 3 demo, guaranteed to delight fans of the series. Admittedly, Gears isn't really my kind of game but the visuals are slick and the gameplay seems to handle well. Codes for the beta are now available from Gamestation in the UK when you pre-order the game, so now there's no excuse for not having a go yourself. Also played in this section was Mortal Kombat, on PS3s that were set up arcade style with proper old school sticks and buttons. I am terrible at fighting games, but my other half showed me how it was done, and later on the demo at home proved that he still knows all the fatalities. Gory, gruesome and grim! (But highly recommended, obviously!)

After leaving the 18+ area, we took in the rest of the Game Zone, which included a rather neat retro area, where we had a quick game of MarioKart 64, some fake Pac Man machines, complete with a Pac Man with ARMS, a few Kinects, (where I got stage fright and couldn't quite bring myself to play Dance Central!) some chaps playing Portal 2 who looked like they'd been there for HOURS and finally, the 3DS section. With the 3DS having been out for three weeks by this point, I'd managed to get my hopes up that we would be able to see some of the games scheduled for later on in the year, such as Zelda, Steel Diver and the Resident Evil games. Unfortunately it was not to be, as the only games displayed were the launch games. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and we picked up a ton of StreetPass hits from the area, and on this week's Gadget Show, we caught a split-second glimpse of my other half inside the 3DS area! (Which can be seen here! Literally the first second of the footage.) Trust me to be standing behind the camera!

Oh well, maybe next time! :)

[EVENT] Gadget Show Live, 12th April 2011 (Part 1)

A while ago, my partner and I were lucky enough to be invited to Gadget Show Live Professional, a sneak preview of GSL for trade buyers and people in the industry. Obviously, we jumped at the chance to be able to visit this event and hot-footed it down to the Birmingham NEC to see what it was all about.

On entering the first hall, one of the first things to greet me was this super-cute robot from the Future Technology area. Using Microsoft's Kinect, he can sense depth much better than a robot using a regular camera. More on this in a future post!

Walking around the first hall, where most of the home-oriented gadgets and technology were situated, there seemed to be a massive focus on 3D home entertainment, with most of the major television manufacturers represented. All dependant on 3D glasses, the quality ranged from excellent (The Batman demo at the Acer stand was a favourite) to "Oooh no." (A direct quote from myself.) If I had money to burn, I'd certainly invest in a top of the range set, however at the moment 3DTV for me is marked under the heading "Purely Aspirational", at least until the costs come down... or the glasses come off! Speaking of aspirational, one company were exhibiting their top of the range hot tubs, complete with champagne glass holders. As the husband quite rightly pointed out, it's not merely the extortionate cost of such a luxury that prevents us from owning one, it's the fact that we simply don't have room in our house!

Next stop was the Gadget Hall of Fame in association with the Centre for Computing History. A little confusing at first, as we stepped straight into the 1980's exhibit only to be met with a genuine Sinclair C5 and the red JVC camcorder made famous in Back To The Future! Closer inspection of a BBC Micro computer revealed that it contained the text based game Hampstead, and confirmed that twenty years later, I am still  no good at text based games. Around the corner was the 1970's exhibit, faithfully decked out in obnoxious wallpaper, with working Pong machine and an actual Betamax recorder! I had to capture the moment as I doubt I shall ever see one again! The 1990's exhibit was filled with a few more familiar toys such as a Mega Drive, the first iMac and a selection of early mobile phones, but the computers of the 1960's were almost unreal! I found it fascinating, but almost impossible to comprehend how those boxes of circuits relate to the technology of today. Guess I've got a lot of history to catch up on!

After blagging a glass of wine from the lovely people at Orbitsound (Who also gave me one of their T3 personal speakers to test - review to come!) we headed down to the test track, where all kinds of bikes, radio controlled vehicles, scooters and such were being tested out. On the way we met none other than the man himself, Jason Bradbury! He was running around like a bit of a madman trying to get things organised for the live show, undoubtably we caught him at probably one of the busiest times of his life, yet he still gave two minutes of his time to say hello and pose for a picture with us. What a pro! Then onwards to the track, where my other half got to try his hand at riding a Segway!

All in all, an absolutely superb day out, and that's even before I've told you about the Game Zone! But more on that later in the week...