London - Somerset - London, 12-06-15 & 14-06-15

London - Somerset, 12-06-15
Lousy Connection - Ezra Furman
Back of The Van - Ladyhawke
Jeepers Creepers - The Puppini Sisters
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
Pumped Up Kicks (original) - Foster The People
Girl You Know It's True - Milli Vanilli
John, I'm Only Dancing - David Bowie
Moonlight shadow - Maggie Reilly
One Way or Another - Blondie
They Don't Know - Tracey Ullman
Little By Little - Oasis
Candy Girl - New Edition
Restless Year - Ezra Furman
What Is Love - Haddaway
So Right, So Wrong - Linda Ronstadt
Millionaire (Radio Edit) - Kelis
Crazy Crazy Nights - Kiss
Time Bomb - Rancid
Heaven Is A Halfpipe - OPM
Down On The Corner - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Cigarettes, Women And Wine - Chicory Tip
You and Me Song - The Wannadies
If I Can't Have You - Yvonne Elliman
Tell Me When - Human League
Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman) - Joe Tex
Dr Fell - Juliet Turner
One Week - Barenaked Ladies
I'm So Excited - Pointer Sisters
Let's Hear It For The Boy - Deniece Williams
This Is The World We Live In - Alcazar
OK Fred - Errol Dunkley
Little Red Corvette (album) - Prince
Let Me Be Your Fantasy - Baby D
Your Woman - White Town
You Are The One - a-ha
Beware of The Flowers - John Otway
I Can Make You Feel Good - Shalamar
Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter - Herman's Hermits
If You Let Me Stay - Terence Trent D'Arby
Body Rock - Maria Vidal
Hi-Speed Soul - Nada Surf
It Doesn't Have To Be This Way - Blow Monkeys
I Touch Myself (Soda Club Radio Mix) - m*a*s*h feat. Stacie D
Mono - Courtney Love
Battleship Chains (Kick 'n' Lick Remix) - The Georgia Satellites
Ring My Bell - Anita Ward

Somerset - London, 14-06-15
Reptilia - The Strokes
Victoria - The Kinks
Don't stop, never give up - S Club 7
From Despair To Where - Manic Street Preachers
Like Toy Soldiers (clean) - Eminem
When Will I Be Famous - Bros
Short People - Randy Newman
Special - Garbage
Juke Box Jive - The Rubettes
Babooshka - Kate Bush
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) - The Offspring
Umbrella (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel Radio Edit) - Rihanna
Rock N Roll High School - Ramones
Breathe In - Lucie Silvas
All Star - Smash Mouth
Flash Bang Wallop - Tommy Steele
Mmm Bop - Hanson
A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers
Screamager - Therapy?
Together In Electric Dreams - Human League
Don't Talk To Him - Cliff Richard & The Shadows
Shout - Lulu
Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
Tiny Dancer - Elton John
Your Love Is My Drug - Ke$ha
Mister Sandman - Emmylou Harris
That Happy Feeling - Bert Kaempfert
La Dolce Vita - Ryan Paris
I Should Have Known Better - Jim Diamond
Footloose - Kenny Loggins
Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad - Tammy Wynette
Puppet On A String - Sandie Shaw
Clair - Gilbert O'Sullivan
Going for Gold - Shed Seven
An Honest Mistake - The Bravery
Alright, Alright, Alright - Mungo Jerry
Would You Love a Monsterman - Lordi
Save Your Kisses For Me - Brotherhood Of Man
Best Friend - Toy Box
Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) (bootleg?) - Frank Wilson
Get Down On It (extended) - Kool & The Gang
Us - Regina Spektor
I Wanna Be the Only One - BeBe Winans/Eternal
Since Yesterday - Strawberry Switchblade
My Prerogative - Bobby Brown
bette davis eyes - Kim Carnes
I Should Be So Lucky - Kylie Minogue
Monsters and Angels - Voice of the Beehive
All Night Long - Lionel Richie
(The angels wanna wear my) red shoes - Elvis Costello
------------

Google Project Soli

Airows reports: [edited]
Google is developing a new interaction sensor using radar technology that can track movement with impressive accuracy. It's the size of a small computer chip and can be inserted into everyday objects.

Thanks to Keith Seckel for the heads-up


------------

Batteriser

TechHive reports: [edited]

Batteriser is a simple metal sleeve that promises to give consumers up to eight times more life from their disposable batteries, AAA through D.

A completely new alkaline battery is rated to generate 1.5 volts, but once its output drops below 1.35 or even 1.4 volts, it effectively becomes useless to many devices. The battery’s chemical cocktail is still loaded with juice, but the circuitry in many gadgets (especially more sophisticated ones, like Bluetooth keyboards and bathroom scales) considers the battery dead.

This is where Batteriser comes in. It’s essentially a voltage booster that sucks every last drop of useable energy from ostensibly spent batteries. So, instead of using just 20 percent of all the power hidden inside of your Duracells and Energizers, Batteriser makes effective use of the remaining 80 percent.

Voltage boosters are nothing new, but Batteriser scales down the technology to the point where it can fit inside a stainless steel sleeve less than 0.1 mm thick. Roohparvar says the sleeves are thin enough to fit inside almost every battery compartment imaginable, and the combined package can extend battery life between 4.9x for devices like remote controls and 9.1x for various electronic toys.

Batteriser will cost $10 for a pack of four when it goes on sale in September.
------------

New biosensor allows real-time medical monitoring

Kurzweil reports: [edited]

A one-centimeter-square) biosensor chip developed at EPFL is implanted under your skin to continuously monitor concentrations of pH, temperature, and metabolism-related molecules like glucose, lactate and cholesterol, as well as some drugs.

The chip would replace blood work, which may take hours — or even days — for analysis and is a limited snapshot of conditions at the moment the blood is drawn.

The biochip contains three main components: a circuit with six sensors, a control unit that analyses incoming signals, and a Bluetooth module for sending the results immediately to a mobile phone. It has an induction coil that wirelessly draws power from an external battery attached to the skin by a patch.

The chip was successfully tested in vivo on mice at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Bellinzona, where researchers were able to constantly monitor glucose and paracetamol levels without a wire tracker getting in the way of the animals’ daily activities.

The results were promising, so clinical tests on humans could take place in three to five years — especially since the procedure is minimally invasive, the researchers say.
------------

LG 1mm OLED Display

Pocket Lint reports: [edited]

The OLED TV was shown as a proof of concept at a press event in Korea. The 55-inch TV was a meagre 0.97mm thick and weighed just 1.9kg.

By mounting a thin magnet to the wall the TV can be attached like a fridge magnet. To remove it you simply peel it off the wall. It also appears to be flexible making damaging it difficult and curving it easy.

LG Display plans to keep pushing OLED and will introduce a 99-inch OLED screen this summer.
------------

Iron fish helps relieve anaemia

BBC reports: [edited]

When Canadian science graduate Christopher Charles visited Cambodia six years ago he discovered that anaemia was a huge public health problem.

In the villages of Kandal province, instead of bright, bouncing children, Dr Charles found many were small and weak with slow mental development.
Women were suffering from tiredness and headaches, and were unable to work. Pregnant women faced serious health complications before and after childbirth, such as haemorrhaging.

Anaemia is the most common nutritional problem in the world, mainly affecting women of child-bearing age, teenagers and young children.
In developing countries, such as Cambodia, the condition is particularly widespread with almost 50% of women and children suffering from the condition, which is mainly caused by iron deficiency.

The standard solution - iron supplements or tablets to increase iron intake - isn't working. The tablets are neither affordable nor widely available, and because of the side-effects people don't like taking them.

Dr Charles had a novel idea. His invention, shaped like a fish, which is a symbol of luck in Cambodian culture, was designed to release iron at the right concentration to provide the nutrients that so many women and children in the country were lacking.

The recipe is simple, Dr Charles says. "Boil up water or soup with the iron fish for at least 10 minutes, then take the fish out. Add a little lemon juice which is important for the absorption of the iron."

If the iron fish is used every day in the correct way, Dr Charles says it should provide 75% of an adult's daily recommended intake of iron - and even more of a child's.
------------

QromaScan

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

The QromaScan uses 12 LEDs to illuminate its interior. To start scanning you open the dedicated app on your phone and put the device onto the box with the camera facing downward. When the photo is in position below it, the camera on your smartphone is used to capture the image, using voice recognition to avoid camera shake.

Location and time can be added to the metadata of the resulting digital image using voice control. The same method can be used to tag people in an image, allowing for easy organisation of your pictures. Currently, this only works with iOS devices but an Android version is in the works as well.

The makers of the QromaScan have launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance final development and mass production. Early birds can secure a QromaScan for $35 but a range of backing options are available. Shipping is expected for July 2015.
------------

Lily - Throw-and-Shoot Camera Drone

PetaPixel reports: [edited]

Lily lets anyone capture cinematic aerial photos and videos without needing to do any piloting.

Using the Lily involves putting a tracking device on the subject you’d like Lily to follow, throwing the Lily into the air, after which Lily flies and shoots using GPS and computer vision to follow the tracking device at up to 25mph.

The drone itself is waterproof and floats, allowing you to safely land it in water if needed. Size-wise, it easily fits in a backpack and weighs less than an average laptop.

Onboard is a camera that can shoot 12 megapixel stills, 1080p HD video at 60fps, and 720p/120fps slow motion footage. The internal battery allows for 20 minutes of flight per charge.

The Lily will start shipping in February 2016 for the price of $999, but the company is currently taking pre-orders through its website for $499.


------------

Vaptur

Vaptur reports: [edited]

An easy-to-use phone camera App that allows you to captiure the perfect shot or special moment.

You start and stop recording based on what you see in the delay screen – not the live screen. Wait to see the end of the action in the delay screen before hitting stop.

Post your perfectly timed and edited video to your favourite social media site immediately after filming. No more having to edit something before you post or superfluous video footage taking up valuable phone memory.
------------

Apple Watch helps blind people navigate

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: [edited]

Molly Watt - who is deaf and blind - says the Apple Watch has transformed her ability to navigate around town by giving her directions through a series of vibrations on the wrist.

"12 taps means turn right at the junction or three pairs of two taps means turn left," she wrote on her blog. "I'm still experimenting with this but so far very impressed".

The Apple Watch's new feature is called the "taptic engine", which produces what Apple calls "haptic feedback". Haptics, derived from the Greek haptikos, refers to any form of interaction or communication by touch. The watch's engine allows wearers to set vibrations for various alerts and at adjustable intensity - or to send messages by taps to other users.

Ms Watt says the integration of haptics with the watch's map function is "definitely awesome for me as a deafblind person". It allows her to be directed around London's complex web of streets and alleys without hearing or sight.

Her review after five days of using the device is not entirely glowing - the audio could be louder, she says, and the price point more accessible. But "the positives far outweigh the negatives" overall.
------------

Tesla Powerwall Home Battery

Wired reports: [edited]
Elon Musk unveiled his 'Tesla Energy' scheme to electrify the world on Thursday night. Tesla, which is in the middle of building a vast 'Gigafactory' battery production plant in the Nevada desert, plans to offer versions of the batteries it puts in its Model S car to residential, commercial, and utility customers.

The 220-pound Powerwall will, as its name suggests, be mounted on a wall, and is made for home use. It’s just six inches deep, comes in different colors, has a 10-year warranty, and is available in two versions: a 10-kWh setup for $3,500, and a 7-kWh unit for $3,000. It’s Internet-connected and has an integrated DC inverter. It’s available for order now and will be installed by distributors. Tesla expects deliveries to start late this summer.

There are plenty of advantages for consumers, Musk says. If the grid goes down, you can still have power. You can fill up the battery at night, when rate are lower. The typical household uses somewhere around 30kWH a day, says Stu Lipoff, an electronics industries consultant and IEEE fellow. So the Powerwall wouldn’t really be enough to keep your home going off-grid for long (depending on how much solar energy you’re putting in), but it’s a lot better than nothing.

In the US, Musk says, customers often have to sell energy back at wholesale prices, then pay for more at retail cost, so “it actually makes huge economic sense.” It should be even better overseas, where sell back prices are well below how much energy costs. “It’s gonna be huge in Germany.”
------------

3D Robotics Solo Drone

Wired reports: [edited]

The $1,000 Solo drone (or $1,400 with a GoPro-holding gimbal included) is full of clever tools to automate and simplify shooting. There’s even a one-click way to take an ultra-dramatic selfie video. But one of the most impressive features is that the drone will be sold as an open platform, allowing hackers to tinker with the hardware and software.

It has a simple controller, which looks like an old-school video game joystick, with a holder for your iPhone or iPad, which act as both the monitor for the drone and the remote control for the mounted GoPro camera. There are lots of helpful tools for newbie pilots, like a panic button on the controller that will stop the drone in its tracks wherever you are, and a flight simulator app so you can learn to fly a drone without risking crashing $1,000 into a wall.

The Solo’s best feature, though, is its camera automation. In addition to the standard 'follow me' mode, you can draw a line on your phone’s screen, and the Solo will fly back and forth along exactly that line while recording video. Pick an object and select 'Orbit', and the drone will fly a perfect circle, camera focused on your subject the whole time. And in selfie mode, the camera trains on you and flies away, epic-action-movie-style. You can control your GoPro settings in flight, too, which no other drone offers. The goal is for Solo to take great video without you doing much of anything, and then do even more as you get better.
------------

Unibody Tiko 3D Printer

Core 77 reports: [edited]

When we think of FDM 3D printers, we think Cartesian; the print head always rides along rails in the X- and Y-axes, and the machines are cubic in form. But the developers behind the low-cost Tiko have literally been thinking outside of the box, adopting a triangular form factor and opting to use a delta-style mechanism to drive the print head.

This solves a lot of problems at once. The key issue with a Cartesian system is that you need highly accurate, precision-machined parts to achieve the tolerances necessary for dead-on printing. By going with a delta mechanism, which drives the print head via three arms and essentially triangulates the position, they eliminate the need for expensive parts.

For the delta mechanism to be accurate, it has to be connected to three precisely-spaced rails. The development team has got around this by opting for an extruded unibody design. Hundreds of feet worth of body can be extruded at once and sliced into individual units; the stiffness of the triangular shape ensures rigidity; and this completely eliminates the need to assemble and connect rails, with the tolerance woes that can bring.

The end result is that the Tiko is priced at just $179. Interested parties are numerous and have responded positively: The team was seeking $100,000 on Kickstarter, and, at the time of the blog being published, has racked up nearly $2 million in pledges.
------------

Specialized S-Works McLaren Tarmac

Wired reports: [edited]

I’ve ridden plenty of bikes from Specialized. I know the feel of the standard Tarmac, its refined carbon road racer, which costs between two and ten grand. But this bike is something quite different.

The $20,000 McLaren Tarmac is the latest result of a years-long partnership between Specialized and McLaren, the world renowned maker of F1 race cars and supercars for the wealthy.

So what does McLaren, master of four wheels, bring to the bicycle game, apart from some sweet orange paint and a fancy name?

It’s data, says Sam Pickman, Specialized’s lead engineer. It’s the intent and the experience: what a bike is designed to do, how it handles, and the way it connects to the ground for a distinctive Tarmac feel. With McLaren’s help, the Tarmac’s ride quality was computer modelled and fed by stiffness, weight, and geometry.

That makes for a new kind of development process. With McLaren consulting, Specialized gained a new understanding of the complex 'bike-rider system', a specific number to codify what you experience in the saddle when going all out on race day or at a relaxed pace around town. That 'code' is the stiffness and damping of all the components in various directions that add up to the desired ride. It considers everything, from the rubber to what’s in between the wheels.

The good news is that the vehicle dynamics know-how from McLaren gave Specialized a template for their next generation of bikes, so the next (more reasonably priced) Tarmac you ride should have a lot more data behind it.
------------

Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera is a lightweight professional-grade action camera with a Micro Four Thirds lens mount.

The Black Magic Cinema Camera borrows bits of technology from many different manufacturers to make for an incredibly versatile unit. At its core is a Super 16 sensor, about a third smaller than a conventional Micro Four Thirds sensor, but larger than the sensors found in action cams like the GoPro. It can output Raw video with 13-stops of dynamic range.

The MCC offers both a rolling and a global shutter, the latter of which exposes the sensor all at once, eliminating the jello effect commonly found when using a rolling shutter for fast action shots.

The camera weighs 300 grams, three times the weight of GoPro Hero4 Black, however it is still light enough to affix to a DJI Phantom 2 drone.

Price: $995.
------------

Samsung NX1

Digital Photography Review has published a full review of Samsung's 'enthusiast' mirrorless camera.

Snippets from the conclusion follow:

"One can almost imagine a group of Samsung engineers sitting in a conference room and having the spec sheets of every leading APS-C and four thirds camera dropped in front of them, along with a directive to outperform the whole lot."

"And to a certain extent they seem to have pulled it off. Canon 7D II for autofocus and frame rate? Check. Panasonic GH4 for video? Check. Sony sensors for dynamic range and ISO sensitivity? Check. The result is a camera loaded with features for both still photography and video, and which excels at both."

The company seems to have listened to users when designing the camera. Not only is it a well designed tool from a usability standpoint, but Samsung managed to pack it full of technical improvements that are hard to ignore, such as best in class image quality and best in class video quality.

We could probably justify giving the NX1 an award simply based on technological advancements and raising the bar for both image quality and video performance in its class. But those achievements are wrapped inside a well designed camera with a great user experience. Congratulations to the Samsung NX1 for winning our Gold Award.
------------

Microsoft Office Lens for iOS and Android

c|net reports: [edited]

Office Lens, a scanning app that's been a hit on Windows Phone, is coming to iOS and Android. The free App allows users to take pictures of receipts, business cards, whiteboards, sticky notes and export them to OneNote, Microsoft's note-taking app, as well as Word, Powerpoint, PDF, Mail & Photo Library.

Office Lens automatically crops, enhances and cleans up images. It also enables users to search for key words in the images via optical character recognition.
------------

Combat snack cravings by walking

PsyBlog reports: [edited]

People often find it difficult to cut down on their daily treats but a recent study indicates that by taking a short walk, they are able to reduce their intake by half.

The study involved 47 overweight people with an average age of 28. All regularly ate chocolate or high calories snacks. In the three days before the study, the participants were asked not to snack on any of their usual comfort foods.

In the lab, half the participants spent 15 minutes on a treadmill, while the other half had sat quietly. They then were given a difficult psychological test. They were then given sugary snacks to unwrap, but only ‘handle’.

The results showed that those who’d been on the treadmill had much lower food cravings than those who sat quietly. Exercisers also showed lower physiological arousal to handling the sugary snacks.
------------

Amazon launches Dash buttons

The Verge reports: [edited]

It’s 2am and you’re changing your baby when you realise you’ve just used up your last nappy. Or you go to reach under your sink to grab another roll of toilet paper only to discover you've forgotten to order more...

The Dash button is a WiFi-enabled button that will instantly order a product within seconds of pressing it. An LED on the front blinks after you press it, then turns green to let you know Amazon has received the order. You will have provided Amazon with your payment information, along with the size and quantity you require. The product will be shipped to your pre-determined delivery address.

Dash buttons come with an adhesive strip on the back, and a small bumper case that allows it to be hung up on hooks or on strings.
------------

Fujifilm X100T

Digital Photography Review has published a review of Fujifilm's large sensor prime compact.

Snippets from the conclusion follow:

"The X100 was a breakthrough camera when it first appeared: making good on the large sensor, small camera idea first pursued by Sigma. It was a potentially great camera, riddled with quirks and inconsistencies. However, Fujifilm continued to develop the camera and the X100 today is much closer to being the classic that its looks imply."

"Whether it's the addition of Wi-Fi, the provision of 1/3rd stop increments on the aperture dial or the move to dedicated directional buttons, rather than the cheap-compact style wheel on the back of the camera, there are plenty of changes that make the camera better. Equally, the addition of an electronic shutter option and a greater degree of camera customisation make a big difference.

We've been really impressed with the image quality from the X100 series, the JPEG color is excellent and the F2 maximum aperture is wide enough to give a little bit of background blur at reasonable working distances, meaning you can get images that look distinct from most other small cameras.

There's nothing else on the market that offers the same combination of image quality and shooting experience, thanks to its direct controls and clever viewfinder.

Overall, it's a small but significant step forward for the series. It's a lovely camera, and well worth considering if you've never owned one of the series before, but it's not the 'rush out and buy one now' product that we keep hoping the X100 series will be.
------------