Whilst sitting on the train returning from the first day of the Gadget Show Live Event, held at the NEC Birmingham, I was pondering what to write about – first.

It was a busy morning and I got there really early and managed to fit quite a lot in. The team from the Gadget Show were there doing the rounds – Jason Bradbury and Ortis Deley were looking at kit and talking to exhibitors, Dionne South was busy interviewing for the web show – and I nearly got run into by Jon Bentley on a YikeBike. No sign of Suzi but I imagine she was there somewhere with a gadget or two.

In particular it was great to sit down and take a closer look at the range of machines from Packard Bell, a company that had all but disappeared from my radar for some years. Especially of interest were the 20” and 23” oneTwo series touch screen all-in-one PCs which would have been ideal for the recent look at touch screen all-in-ones (see Touch Screen All-In-One Desktop Computers – What’s Available?).  It would have been good to spend some time with MSI looking at their machines but there simply wasn’t enough time – perhaps tomorrow!

The centre for computing history was well worth a visit for that nostalgic trip down memory lane and for that real retro experience.

On show at the computing history area were a range of computing and other retro devices including the Commodore PET, Osborne One, Apple IIe, Atari VCS, Astro Wars, a Sinclair C5, Amstrad CPC 464, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.

Other interesting things I got to see during the press morning included the Festo flying penguin, I got to sit down and relax on the Swopper active chair, do some mind control activities with the Mindflex from Mattel, take a look at the new LG passive 3D television technology (though my advice would be look at it BEFORE you see the active shutter 3D technology). 

Other novel tools and gadgets included the Mantra Lingua Talking Pen, the Blobo – a Bluetooth “ball” that you can use to directly control computer and mobile games, and the clickfree automatic backup solution.