by Take six presenters, present them with reviews and challenges, add a mix of mythbusters along with a touch of Blast Lab (the explosions) and you have Gadget Geeks coming to Sky 1 HD to take on the dominant Gadget Show
Three of the six are technology journalists, sought out to help people find the best gadgets already on the market.
The other three are going to build things that don’t already exist. These guys are the best out there, they’re hilariously funny and incredible at what they do.
There are couple of preview trailers, each for the two distinct areas of the show. You can see them on Vimeo:
Reviews trailer: http://vimeo.com/34074747
Builds trailer: http://vimeo.com/34074513
It’s perhaps inevitable that you’ll ask me if we’re copying the Gadget Show. I hope, once you’ve seen the trailers, and watched show when it starts, you’ll see we’re trying to do something unique
Sky 1 programming can have a habit of starting out with some good production values which then dwindle and become a former shadow of themselves, take Braniac as an example.
Sky are also notoriously ad heavy, the gadget show rolls in at about 37 minutes per episode if you skip the commercials along with the competition (which could be called advertising or at the very least product placement). Sky are also notorious for making the most of advertisers, so can the show avoid being nothing but a product placement excersise or even worse, an overlong pc world or microsoft style advert.
Will gadget geeks acknowledge iPad specific products and mention the branding or wording of iPad rather than saying “for your tablet” like the Gadget Show?
It strikes me as an almost “political correctness gone mad” statement against Apple on product reviews when the said item being demonstrated shows text at the bottom of the screen will say iPad protective case, the ACTUAL product mentions iPad, the product has been clearly designed and marketed for the iPad (see the episode where they dropped a bowling ball onto an iPad) but presenters seem almost fearful of saying the word iPad or Apple yet android itself is a brand and a word clearly used more. Will Gadget Geeks have the courage to mention the work Apple or iPad the “iPad” word?
Why do gadget shows say iPad rather than tablet. Simple. It’s because no other device represents that market. The kindle fire might shake that up. It’s like back in the 80’s where parents would say “playing Nintendo” as Nintendo was the word for console. Nowadays it’s Xbox which has the same metaphors.
The Gadget Show seems to have lost it’s way a little. Sure, it’s gadget freaks and the such that tune in yet sometimes things are numbed down just a smidgen too much. Perhaps that’s a new direction the show’s going in?
Wonder if anyone will be brave enough to reboot GamesMaster
As of yet there is no official air date for the show on Sky 1 and the production company Bullseye Productions have yet to respond to our press inquiries so we will keep this post updated just as soon as we have more information.
Update
It’s official now, our time slot is 8pm on Monday the 16th of January and every Monday for 12 weeks
Turns out that Ian Morris, who is in the show, is from a podcast over at Cnet UK. On the podcast Ian always went against the iPad and any Apple products which sounds like a bit of Apple bashing for the sakes of it. *sighs*
I never bash Apple for the *sake* of it. I’m a technology journalist, I say things about Apple that occur to me during the course of what I do.
Some of those things are negative.
But if you want only pro-Apple comment, there are plenty of places you can get that.
If you head over to Pocket-lint.com, you’ll see that the MacBook Air 11-inch is just about my favourite laptop ever.
I’ve seen you on the DS forums and I have to say all things come across as reasoned and if this comes across in the show then I really do have my fingers crossed it’s a success and pushes the gadget show to start trying. Well trying more than just adding another female presenter for eye candy 😉
Ironically I don’t see the point in the MacBook Air 11 inch after using one. It was one of the first models and everything felt slow, god forbid you did a 3 finger pinch or expand on a browser, that killed it dead.
If you want to loan me your Nokia for a week for a comparison test, let me know 😀 Playing with other hardware keeps me more objective 🙂
Thanks Mark.
During the show, it’s the contributors who decide which product is best. So, there’s really no bias from any of the presenters. And, if you watch the series, you’ll see that the presenters balance each other really well.
The only thing I hated about the Air was the fact that it seemed confused by the three fingers “spaces” swipe, and the two finger “back” swipe. This caused a lot of swearing, as I lost a lot of work through it cancelling what I’d typed :/
You should spend some time with the Nokia. It’s a top-notch handset 🙂