Technology Archive

Let me scrap my boxes of CDs with Spotify Stereo

Ryan Morrison

Published: November 30, 2009Posted in: General, TechnologyTags: Arts, BBC, BBC iPlayer, Compact Disc, CompactFlash, Liquid crystal display, Radio, Secure Digital card, Spotify, UK Radio Player, Universal Serial Bus, Wi-Fi

Let me scrap my boxes of CDs with Spotify Stereo

I love Spotify, I love internet radio, I love podcasts, I love the freedom to just drop in and out of content as I see fit.

Whether that dropping in and out be in the form of music from almost any album ever released on Spotify or a speech based podcast show.

But I’m not overly keen on having to turn my computer on to listen to that same content when all I want is something to hear while washing up.

At the moment CDs and linear FM radio win out for the ease, cheapness and convenience of being able to push two buttons and be listening to ’something’.

: Image via Wikipedia

What I’m really looking for is a reasonably priced (under £300) home stereo I can put in my kitchen that has WiFi built in with a VERY user friendly interface that gives me access to albums on Spotify, podcasts streamed straight to the device and on demand content possibly through the new UK Radio Player.

A simple device that had space for a CD at the bottom alongside a USB and SD (why are the cheaper ones still Compact Flash) card reader with a LCD screen just above that – and a speaker either side.

The interface would give me the choice of a number of services through a simple icon based menu system on the front screen.

These would be:

CD | OTHER | SPOTIFY | ON DEMAND | LIVE

CD would give you all the options for the CD player including the option of ripping the music straight to an SD card inserted in the slot below.

OTHER would give you access to the media on the SD card or any USB device plugged in.

SPOTIFY would give you access to the full Spotify library using a specially designed interface for a small touch screen based display.

ON DEMAND would give you access to the UK Radio Player on demand interface including the BBC iPlayer – so all radio content from the last seven days.

It would also give you access to the wealth of podcasts from around the world in a specially designed directory.

LIVE does what it says on the tin and gives you access to both the UK Radio Player and radio stations broadcasting live from around the world.

But obviously that wonderful dream device isn’t available at the price I’d be prepared to pay at the moment so I use a combination of the annoyance of powering up a computer just to listen to audio – at which point I find other things to do and forget what I started out doing.

And of course my iPod – I have music synced to it, I have podcasts on it and with the help of a little app I have on demand content ripped to it – but this isn’t exactly what I want or even nearly what I want.

The computer thing does still work sometimes though – normally for my children’s birthday’s we will have pass the parcel and other party games at home with family.

This involves me having a playlist of kids music in iTunes and stopping/starting as necessary – this year I used Spotify for the music and didn’t even need to load up iTunes.

I just want to finish my design of my dream stereo by saying – I love Spotify.

Logitech makes Squeezebox Radio and Touch official (engadget.com)
Backstage: Early Thoughts on Logitech’s Very Cool New Squeezebox Radio (ilounge.com)

A device for every purpose and then some

Ryan Morrison

Published: November 27, 2009Posted in: General, TechnologyTags: Android, Business and Economy, Consumer Electronics, iphone, mobile, Mobile phone, Netbook, shopping, Sound recording and reproduction, Video camera

A device for every purpose and then some

To fully understand this post you’ll need to appreciate that I’m a geek and so have the normal geek armoury hanging off my shoulder more or less everywhere I go.

Within that I have a camera, two mobile phones (one for calls one for internet), a NDS, a book, a notebook, a netbook, a video camera, an audio recording device and a few other bits and pieces.

That’s the reason I have a bad back BUT more importantly it’s the reason I rarely get bored – everywhere I go I carry a full on entertainment system with me and am ready to cover any news story that might break around me.

Because of always carrying a good camera I’ve managed to get photos of armed sieges, gas leaks, protest and more that I wouldn’t have got to in time if I had to go back and get a camera.

But I got thinking the other day – with mobile devices becoming more comprehensive in their feature lists and with each individual feature becoming more usuable – do I really still need all those devices.

I could get an iPhone or a new Android based phone that can take photos, video, get online, act as a mini computer, do video, let me read books, record audio and even let me send anything I gather straight to the internet.

But, it’s main purpose is the internet device, the mini internet device – it LETS me do all of the above but none of it to a standard a device designed with the purpose in mind can.

Do I think the dawn of the single device is upon us? No not even a little bit but I do think we’re entering an era where every individual device will be able to do many of the things every other device in my bag can do – to a limited extent.

It’s only a matter of time before my camera has internet access (some can already do video) and every other device can do a little bit of everything.

I see a world not so much built around one device doing everything reasonably well but a selection of devices each doing one thing really well AND a selection of other things reasonably well.

That was if you do forget one device there is something else that can fill in behind it – just not as well as it would have done on its own.

I’ll settle for mobile phone pics if I forget my camera, I’ll settle for reading on a netbook or browsing the web on my phone if I forget my book or netbook – but neither is how I’d CHOOSE to do it.

Interestingly – my wife who isn’t exactly a geek has a camera, mobile phone, iPod and NDS in her bag and carries them more or less everywhere she goes – even if they are all pink!

Need Help on a Choosing a Smartphone Presentation (phoneboy.com)
Old Phones Still Need New Ads (marketingpilgrim.com)
Why PC Makers Will Make Android King (gigaom.com)
Evernote Beta for Android Makes for Easy Note-Taking [Downloads] (lifehacker.com)
I Want An Awesome Phone (techstartups.com)
Got a pen? There’s an app for that! (geeksaresexy.net)

Give the grown-ups a go

Ryan Morrison

Published: November 10, 2009Posted in: General, TelevisionTags: Blue Peter, competition, Doctor Who, doctorwho, Mars, Matt Smith, Peter Kay, TARDIS, Television, Waters of Mars

Every year Blue Peter runs some form of Doctor Who related competition or another – whether it be to design an alien for Peter Kay to dress up as in an actual episode or to re-design the TARDIS interior.

In fact that is the most recent competition from the age old children’s magazine show – a competition to design a new look for Matt Smith’s TARDIS – at least one that will appear in an episode of the new Doctor Who.

The Blue Peter team provided all the info you need including a template, Do’s and Dont’s, a couple of example designs and even a video.

They tell the children (or the Dad’s doing the work anyway) to use the template, include notes on features, use any method you like and to use things from around the house in the design.

This is all very interesting in a number of ways – firstly it means there will be more than one console design in the new series as this only appears in one episode and more importantly – it means we’ll HAVE a new console/TARDIS design.

But the kicker here for me though is the age groups it is open to, the age groups these things are ALWAYS open to. There are three groups (and I have a child in each) the 6 and 7s, the 8, 9 and 10s and finally the 11s and 12s.

But what about the 20-30s, the 30-40s and up? What about those of us that aren’t children but still love Doctor Who, that would love to have a design used in Doctor Who – where is the competition for Grown-Ups to have a go?

I’m writing this now for two reasons 1) I’ve just realised that The Waters of Mars is on this Sunday and the competition closes on Thursday.

I’ve been very good this year and have managed to avoid more or less ALL spoilers for The Waters on Mars to the point that I didn’t realise it was on until I read a tweet.

Still – Sunday is going to be GOOOD.

Doctor Who Awash in Action with New “Waters of Mars” Trailer (wired.com)
Want To Redesign The TARDIS For Doctor Who? (screenrant.com)
Doctor Who? There’s no question who the Doctor is at Comic-Con (canada.com)
Will the Ice Warriors appear in the Doctor Who episode ‘The Waters of Mars’ ? (hubdub.com)
BBC defends Blue Peter contest (news.bbc.co.uk)
Fans to redesign Tardis console (news.bbc.co.uk)
David Tennant and RTD give an exit interview (tvsquad.com)
New Dr Who hailed as ‘the best’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
Doctor Who: Tennant’s exit (guardian.co.uk)

Keeping movie magic alive

Ryan Morrison

Published: August 21, 2009Posted in: General, Media, TechnologyTags: Arts, Arts and Entertainment, cinema, film, Film festival, itv, magic, movie, movies, projector, Television, Westar

Kevin Lewis has been working with film for the last 40 years and his passion extends beyond what you see on screen.

For Kevin his passion is as much in the nuts, bolts and water cooled appature ring as it is in the moving pictures.

For the last 15 years he has been rebuilding the 50 year old projector that now brings the prints at the Jersey Outdoor Film Festival to life.

And despite telling me it is finished, he still finds himself tweeking, playing and cleaning it every day.

The projector in question is a Westar, is 50 years old this year and is one of the last to be made in Britain.

However, after being rebuilt over the last 15 years from spare parts and with the passion of a dedicated enthusiast it bares only a passing resemblance to the one originally built during the hey day of British cinema.

Originally built to play films in a cinema, the 35mm projector is now built into an old television outside broadcast truck called ‘OB2′ – Kevin wanted ‘OB1′ but two was in better condition.

And the truck itself, brought from a now defunct ITV franchise holder in the UK, gets the same level of care and attention as the project it carries around.

The ‘truck’ has now become a trailer, partly because having big metal bars makes it easier to ‘level’ when playing a film and partly because it makes it more portable.

It has been the centre piece of one of Jersey’s ‘hidden gem’ summer events.

OK so it is a bit of a stretch to call something attended by over 3,000 people ‘hidden’ but you won’t find it in the high profiles brochures or promoted in shop windows around town.

Every year Kevin brings out the ‘pearl screen’, the projector and makes use of his contacts as a former cinema owner to get the prints – so that thousands of islands and tourists alike can enjoy a film under the stars.

Despite being watched by thousands and appreciated by all, even those asking for the big grey truck to be moved, the event’s future could be in question if a sponsor can’t be found for 2010.

Kevin payed for it himself for the first four years, got a grant from Tourism after that and in the last four has found himself begging for sponsorship to keep the event going.

It would be a shame to see this great summer tradition come to an end over money. Even more so for the projector and truck that work so hard to keep its audience enthraled.

And the projector, the truck, and the screen – those vital ingredient in playing a film- they just sit there working away.

Despite technology that is nearly 50 years old they manage to keep the young, the old and everyone in between wrapped in the grip of the magic of the movies year in, year out.

In a World Full of Voyuerism and “Reality TV,” Documentaries Are Ignored (cinematical.com)
ITV is still the UK’s top peak-time channel (guardian.co.uk)
Media AS Revision 009 (Section B) (slideshare.net)
Philips Cinema 21:9 TV Will Cost $7400 [TVs] (gizmodo.com)

Just…. wow!

Ryan Morrison

Published: May 11, 2009Posted in: General, TelevisionTags: BBC, BBC HD, BBC iPlayer, Engadget, film, Pacific Ocean, Slow motion, South Pacific

As well as being a seriously amazing piece of camera work, a stunningly beautiful footage and as Engadget readers put it … Camera Porn – this is an epic leap in natural world film making by the BBC.

To get the full effect of the video below … wait until the BBC HD broadcast – but failing that click on HD and the full screen it.

It was filmed on a shockingly beautiful new customised camera build in a water tight casing. The camera is the $100,000 TyphoonHD4 camera.

It’s capable of filming in super slow motion and high def at 20 times the speed of a normal HD camera.

It can shoot at 1280 x 1024 resolution at 1000fps which was what allowed the camera man to shoot this amazing footage of surfer Dylan Longbottom inside a 12 foot monster barrel. This is a first of its kind.

Here is a longer version of that very same barell wave clip in the BBC EMP.

It was filmed for the new BBC Documentary series – South Pacific which is on BBC Two on Tuesday nights and also on BBC HD at the same time.

In fact lets make this our iPlayer pick as well.

Super Slo-Mo Surfer (buzzfeed.com)
BBC reveals stunning sample footage shot with TyphoonHD4 camera (engadget.com)
$100,000 Camera Captures Slow Mo Surfing, From Underwater [Hd] (gizmodo.com)
BBC HD: Joining the BBC iPlayer family (bbc.co.uk)
BBC HD: All new website and idents (bbc.co.uk)
BBC iPlayer goes high definition (news.bbc.co.uk)
BBC iPlayer goes HD (upyourego.com)

Using Beeb data to buy stuff

Ryan Morrison

Published: April 23, 2009Posted in: General, TechnologyTags: archers, Arts and Entertainment, BBC, BBC Radio, broadcasting, Television licence, website

I’m a big fan of the various BBC data services and the way they all integrate with each other. Both the services themselves and the standard identifier codes they use.

: Image via Wikipedia

What this basically means is that, when these services roll out more widely across the BBC site (remembering that the BBC site is a lot more than one big website – it is a collection of fiefdoms, held tightly and with a passion by a number of different teams and departments.

The data sites like /programmes, /music, /iplayer (although that is really based around /programmes and in future /events basically allow for persistent and constant content in a human and machine readable way.

For example a BBC programme will have a unique idetifies such as, we’ll use mine for this example: p001d7vp.

If you follow the link underneath that code it will take you to the /programmes page for my show ‘BBC Jersey Introducing’. The show does have its own section of the BBC Jersey website and you could argue that, as it is part of the Introducing family – it could do with being in the Introducing look and feel – but as it is broadcast on BBC Radio Jersey – that’s how it looks.

However, what /programmes and this seperate of data, design and structure provides is the flexibility to use the data contained underneath p001d7vp in a number of different ways.

For example it could be tied into /music (and probably will in the future) so that I can publish my playlist, you can click on the bands I played, find out who else has played them, listen to that show, find out more about the band and their other songs – see where they are being played.

This could also then in future tie into /events and show you when they’re playing on BBC Shows or when they HAVE played on BBC Shows which in turn could be tied into the new /buyersguide (currently Archers only) to show where you can buy tracks from those sessions on the internet.

Which actually brings me on to the point of this blog post – the newly launched BBC Buyers Guide. Something that seems so logical, and would be logical if it wasn’t for the way the BBC is funded.

: Image by radiothings.com via Flickr

Basically it uses the standard PIP identifier for a show to tell you where you can buy audio/video/book content associated with that particular programme – although right now its only The Archers.

But don’t worry the BBC gets no kick backs from the companies they list. Mark Friend wrote on the BBC Internet Blog: “And just to reassure you suppliers do not make any payments to the BBC, either for listing as part of this service or for any click-throughs.”

Mark went on to say that: “We hope that the ‘Buyer’s Guide’ will go some way to providing users with the opportunity to find out more about their favourite BBC content.”

I’m guessing the plan is that I’ll be able to go to the /programmes page for say Top Gear and then from there I’ll see a Buyers Guide link where I can find out all the sites online selling downloads, books, dvd’s, music etc associated with that programme.

It’s basically a BBC only version of Kelkoo but without ANY recommendations – it is a list of all the places you can get the product online – at least all the places that meet a set of strict, pre-published criteria for listing.

These include purchasing security, data protection and customer support.

In fact there is more information on why this is a justified new area for the BBC to go into on the Buyer’s Guide about page.

The BBC’s Public Purposes state that “the BBC is a trusted guide to the digital world for the inexperienced or unsure, a safe place to be for the young, a reliable and accurate on-air and online source for the information seeker, and a challenging and involving partner for the more advanced user.”

Research conducted on behalf of the BBC revealed that buying and consuming media online can be a confusing and daunting experience for new users, particularly those with concerns around security and legality.

Those of us that are familiar with and regular users of sites like Audible or the iTunes store might find that a little odd but there are people, more than not, who aren’t comfortable buying things online or even necessarily know you CAN buy BBC programmes online.

My only concern is that it might bring the ‘why should I pay again for BBC content that I’ve paid for with my licence fee‘ lot out of the woodwork.

The response to that of course is that the BBC pays a fee for a limited number of plays of the content using the licence fee and has to pay again to do other things with it.

: Image via Wikipedia

That money goes to writers, directors, musicians, songwriters, actors etc…

So if the Beeb wanted to make something (there are some exceptions to this – non scripted content, wholly BBC owned content – but not many) available to download for ever so you could do what you like with it, or wanted to replay it online for ever – they would have to pay again.

That isn’t really a great use of the licence fee – it would be much better to play it within the agreed limits (e.g. two airings and seven day catchup) and then make it available at a reasonable price for people that want it outside that window and to keep for everl.

As the /buyersguide site expands, and as all the other data sites expand – there’s going to be some interesting pieces of digital content coming out – show pages that pull in details of the number of plays a track has received and where, links to places you can buy a copy of live bands performing on the BBC and where else on the BBC they have or will be playing in the future.

Surge in demand for online video (news.bbc.co.uk)
RadioLabs: Programmes in focus (bbc.co.uk)
BBC bids for online radio catchup service (guardian.co.uk)
Radio 4 fifth of programmes are repeats (telegraph.co.uk)
Radio 1 and 2 should be privatised, say industry figures (guardian.co.uk)
BBC ‘must stop kids’ TV decline’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
Stars ’should pay BBC Ofcom fine’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
Ofcom’s report has strong conclusions but weak argument: analysis (telegraph.co.uk)

BBC iPlayer goes HD

Ryan Morrison

Published: April 20, 2009Posted in: General, TechnologyTags: BBC, BBC HD, BBC Internet Blog, BBC iPlayer, John Barrowman, Linux, mac, Television

I like new toys, new things to play with and enjoy – especially when they’re shiny. And they don’t come much shinier than 720p 3mb+ video streaming over the internet.

OK so it isn’t as good as the 16mb+ and 384k audio you get with BBC HD over satellite – but it is still impressive for the web.

Unfortunately I live in Jersey where the maximum broadband speed is still 2mb – I pay for business broadband at home so I get no caps, 512kb up (instead of 256kb) and a 20:1 contention ratio – but that doesn’t help me with BBC iPlayer HD streaming.

To effectively stream the HD content from the iPlayer I would need a connection that regularly ran in at 3.5mb/s – not the 1.7mb/s I currently get.

It doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the HD content though, I can still download it all through the iPlayer Desktop Adobe Air app and it looks seriously impressive.

Here are a couple of screen shots for you to enjoy and then underneath it one with a disolve. The first is Tonight’s The Night (what can I say – I like John Barrowman and dodgy TV talent shows) with John Barrowman in SD – this is from the download so will be the highest resolution SD version (came in at 660mb).

[ COMING SOON ]

And now for the HD version (came in at 1.2gb) of the same show – also from the download version.

As you can see there is a very clear difference between the two versions. Now the streaming versions – first you’ll see the low end 512kbs version, then the high 1500kbs version and then the high def 3500kbs version.

The mid range video stream, just below high def is encoded at 1500kbps and is sized 832×468 – High Def on other video websites.

On top of that the standard video quality has been pushed up as well – now coming in at 800kbps – all encoded in H.264.

However, for those of us on much lower speed connections the new adaptive bitrate technology will automatically reduce the quality of the stream to whatever you can cope with.

Anthony Rose said on the BBC Internet Blog they are: “Using H.264 and an encoding bitrate of 3Mbps or greater (we actually settled on 3.2Mbps as our preferred HD bitrate). However, since many people won’t have an internet connection that can stream 3.2Mbps reliably, we wanted to make HD available for download as well.

“Trouble is, a year ago our download manager was Windows-only, and we were determined to only release HD when we had a solution that allowed our Mac and Linux users to download them as well. ”

The HD version of iPlayer has been a year in the making, mainly because they wanted to wait until they could offer it to Mac and Linux users and wouldn’t require a flash upgrade from most users.

Anthony Rose explained thaT: “The good news is that as of today the various pieces are in place for going live with HD: Our new cross-platform download manager allows Windows, Mac and Linux users to download HD, everyone has a version of Flash that can stream HD, and our HD channel now has more content available.”

But there is another major development associated with this release of the iPlayer and that is that it is the release marking the end of the iPlayer P2P relationship – it’s going all AIR.

iPlayer head honcho, Anthony Rose said in a blog post: “Finally, we’re taking our cross-platform iPlayer Desktop download application out of Labs and ending our use of peer-to-peer technology.”

There is also a new diagnostics page that basically runs a stream and download speed test on your connection then lets you know which of the iPlayer streams/services you’ll be able to comfortably run – remembering download will work regardless – it will just take longer on a slow connection.

Anthony Rose said: “Our new diagnostics page – http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics – looks at first glance similar to others you may have seen at speedtest.net and elsewhere, but it’s significantly more sophisticated than other speed test sites we’ve seen.”

This is because it needs to test streaming, whereas most speed tests look at download speeds – a big difference between the two.

Anthony Rose said: “our diagnostics page performs a total of four tests: The first tests the download speed from our BBC web site servers, the next three tests measure the Flash RTMP streaming speed from each of three major content distribution networks (Akamai, Level3, Limelight), giving us excellent visibility into overall network throughput and allowing us to shape future design decisions accordingly.”

F1 on BBC: Return of the Chain and more (upyourego.com)
The weekend’s TV (guardian.co.uk)
BBC HD: All new website and idents (bbc.co.uk)
Interesting Stuff 2009-01-12 (bbc.co.uk)
BBC iPlayer Finally Goes HD – ITProPortal (itproportal.com)
BBC reintroduces test card after 10 years (telegraph.co.uk)
RTMP: Flash video streaming protocol (captsolo.net)
iPlayer Pick: 20 January (upyourego.com)
YouTube and iPlayer heading for Freeview mark two (telegraph.co.uk)
BBC HD: Nyquist Limit (bbc.co.uk)
BBC ITV and BT plan to bring iPlayerstyle services to TVs (telegraph.co.uk)

Resisting the world

Ryan Morrison

Published: March 22, 2009Posted in: General, TechnologyTags: army, art, china, dream, england, france, future, jersey, Marching, Marching band, monachy, Music, nuclear, power, Short story, star wars, stormtroopers, Victoria Avenue

You know when you have a dream that is so vivid, when you wake up you have to do a double take and for a split second wonder if it was actually real or not?

Well I had one of those last night and it was a wierd one. One day I’ll try and write the whole thing into a short story but for now here is the summary.

View Larger Map

A new element is discovered in Jersey – this is something incredibly rare and 1mg of it has the power to both destroy a planet and power a whole country forever – assuming it’s mixed properly.

But it turns out after much searching, debate, discussion and bartering that Jersey is the only place in our solar system it can be found.

So France who believe they have a medieval claim to the island, China who need the power, England who believe they own the island through the Crown and Imperial Stormtroopers (told you it was weird) decided to invade.

This then turns the tiny island that’s just 9 miles by 5 into an international battle ground.

In my dream I was leader a resistance movement of people that were living in the island before the element was discovered, I work with a team to convert the Puddle Ducks (google Puddle Duck Jersey) into escape ships that can take hundreds to mainland UK to escape the fighting in Jersey.

All the while dodging the Stormtroopers, Chineese forces and French soldiers eating cheese (don’t ask).

One scene saw me walking down towards Victoria Avenue as a squadron of Stormtroopers marched along the Avenue – I avoided them by joining a marching band who – for some reason where in fancy dress and hiding between them.

All the while I have an irritating buzzing feeling in my left shoulder.

That’s when I woke up to find my 14 month old baby poking me in the shoulder.

Ryan Morrison

Published: February 18, 2009Posted in: General, TechnologyTags: Automobile, Electric motor, Electricity, Global warming, Smart, Smart ED, Smart Fortwo, United Kingdom

Hiya guys – I get to do a lot of different things as part of my job but reviewing cars isn’t usually one of them – mainly because I can’t drive – otherwise that would probably be included as well.

However, today I got to go out in a Smart ED (electric version of the Smart fourtwo) with a colleague driving – we filmed the whole experience.

He is writing a review as he drove the car and I’m writing a more generic feature about electric cars.

But I did knock a quick review together – my first car review written in about 10 minutes (as I know it won’t get published elsewhere) so thought I’d share it with you.

Not exactly the most exciting car in the world, in fact it being in it made me feel like I was sitting on top of an oversize rollerskate that someone had attached a small electric motor to.

Mercedes have produced around 100 Smart EDs – it’s basically a smart fourtwo with an electric motor instead of an engine.

They’re being made available to company’s and local councils across the UK as part of a four year trial to work out the kinks before a commercial release – which (despite the four year trial) they hope will be in 2011.

Inside it is pretty much the same as a standard Smart car, feels pretty much the same when driving and the only difference on the dash is the fuel gage being replaced with a power monitor.

It will apparently do 70 miles on a single charge although after a bit of pushing I got confirmation that that is the total limit if no other electrics are used.

So it WILL go 70 miles if you drive during the day on a warm but not hot day, and never touch the windows.

It will actually do an average of 50 miles on a single charge. A full charge takes about 12 hours and is charged from a standard British 13 Amp 3-pin plug.

Apparently it will do 70+ mph but is electronically limited to 60 – I tested it in Jersey with an island wide speed limit of 40mph – so not much of a problem.

At the moment you have to give it a full charge every night but they’re hoping that won’t be necessary, that you’ll only have to charge it as you need to when it is released.

It is very quiet – you can barely hear it bar the tyre noise from outside the car and inside it is almost silent – except for the VERY annoying whine.

Although at times that whine, which when accelerating sounds like a jet starting up – can feel a bit boys own knightrider-ish.

All in all it wasn’t bad, it’s certainly better than something like the G-Whiz and if you’re already happy with a standard Smart car then the Smart ED, when released to the public properly – won’t really cause you any real concern.

It feels, drives (apparently), looks and has the same safety rating as a Smart FourTwo – just with an electric motor instead of an engine.

What you will notice is the cost difference – forget global warming, climate change, environmental impact, pollution etc – lets talk about money.

Even in an exceptionally expensive electricity market like Jersey – a full charge (so 50 miles of driving) on a Smart ED costs just £1.20 – that works out at roughly 1.5p/mile – compared to around 6.7p/mile for the petrol version.

What are your thoughts on electric cars?