During Gadget Show presenter Jon Bentley’s feature on Vlogging, or video blogging, he tested several web cams. The Philips SPC1330NC Pro webcam was given 4 G’s, higher than both other webcams tested. Jon said that the Philips webcam’s sound and picture quality was by far the best of the 3.

You can get a Philips SPC1330NC Pro Webcam as seen on The Gadget Show for around £63 here

The Dell Adamo laptop was the first of this week’s Something for the Weekend gadgets. Resident gadget expert Seema Palmer explained that this Dell laptop is billed as the world’s thinnest and hence most portable laptop, at just 0.65 inches. This is thinner than the Mac Book Air which is 0.76 inches.

The Dell Adamo laptop range is well specced with a 1.2Ghz processor, 2 GB of RAM, 128 GB hard drive and a 13.4″ WLED display. It’s pretty too, with a two tone black aluminium finish (also available in silver) and large keys for such a portable laptop.

The Dell Adamo laptop as seen on Something for the Weekend is available for around £1700 and you can pick one up from PC World here

Your thoughts on the Dell Adamo Laptop? Let us know in our forum

Ortis tested routers on The Gadget Show this week to come up with his top 5. Here were the results:

5) D-Link DIR-685

The D-Link Router is unique. Aswell as a decent performance, it incorporates a hard drive bay and a 3.2 inch LCD screen for photos or video.

4) DrayTek Vigor 2820

This DrayTek router does everything working on either cable or ADSL broadband and offers business level security settings, important if you work at home for instance.

3) Netgear WNR3500

The Netgear is a reasonable priced router at around £120. It is also a very fast router.

2) Sitecom Gaming Router 300N XR

The Sitecom is designed for gaming as the name suggests. Gadget Show presenter Ortis found it super quick to set up and great for streaming.

1) D-Link DIR-825

The D-Link DIR-825 stole the crown of best router on The Gadget Show, thanks to its effective offering of 2 routers in 1, one for gaming and one for normal surfing, though it did take a short while to set up. You can buy a D-Link DIR-825 as seen on The Gadget Show HERE

Discuss The Gadget Show in our forum

Which is better – Spotify or iTunes? Gadget Show presenters Jason and Gail tested both of the music giants to decide which was best. The first test was finding and playing the songs in the quickest possible time. Spotify won this test by a considerable margin, whilst the quality of the downloaded iTunes music was better.

The second test was all about music on the move. Jason and Gail headed outside to attempt to listen to a tune. Spotify lost this test, because it uses p2p streaming Spotify won’t work offline, although there are plans for a version that can be used on phones. With iTunes you can quickly and easily transfer your music onto an iPod which means your music library can travel with you on the go without the need for an internet connection.

Music sharing was the next test. Jason explained that Spotify assigns each track or playlist a unique web address that you can cut and paste and send to your mates in an email for free. Alternatively you can use a site like ShareMyPlaylists.com to upload your own unique playlist, and listen to playlists from other users.

iTunes, as Gail explained, is also pretty handy when it comes to music sharing. iTunes Genius gathers information about what iTunes users are listening to, and then generates a playlist according to what they like. Simply click the Genius button with a track selected and Genius will create a playlist along the lines of that track, incorporating songs in a similar genre/style.

Finally, music choice was explored. iTunes have over 10 million tracks which can all be downloaded and transferred to iPod. Pretty much every record label is licensed. Spotify on the other hand doesn’t have as wide a selection. There are glaring omissions such as the Oasis and Beatles back catalogues. However, Spotify are beginning to get exclusives and previews. The new U2 album for instance was available on Spotify a week before anywhere else.

Overall, the Gadget Show contest between Spotify and iTunes ended up a draw.  Both are excellent music resources, both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Spotify or iTunes – which do YOU think is better? Discuss in our forum

The Eco Button was the second of this week’s Something for the Weekend gadgets. Seema Palmer said that the eco button is an energy saving gadget for computers. It’s a bright green visual aid – simply push the big green button every time you leave your PC and the Eco Button will put your PC on standby, saving the environment and saving you money in the process. Click any key or the power button on your PC to resume power.

The software bundled with the Eco Button then displays on your PC exactly how much money you’ve saved, since your last visit and also ‘all time’. It shows how much you’ve saved the planet too, so great if you’re an eco-warrior.

You can get an Eco Button as seen on Something for the Weekend here

Discuss the Eco-Button and other Something for the Weekend gadgets in our forum – CLICK HERE

Need a gadget to fool your mates on April Fools Day? Look no further than the top 5 April Fools gadgets as seen on The Gadget Show last night, as described by new Gadget Show presenter Gail Porter. Here are the top 5 April Fool Gadgets from 5 to 1:

5) GotchaBox

The Gotchabox is a prank that could be used for April Fools, Christmas or any birthday. Gotchabox is a range of spoof gift boxes displaying outlandish and hilarious gadget presents that don’t really exist, like the USB toaster or the Kleen Stride Personal Debris Removal Systems.

4) RC Fart Machine

The Fart Machine is an almost age old April Fools prank, but the RC fart machine brings this prank into the digital age, without the need to blow up a whoopee cushion.

Click here to buy an RC Fart Machine as seen on The Gadget Show

3) Phantom Keystroker

The Phantom Keystroker came in at number 3 on the Gadget Show’s top 5 April Fools Gadgets. It looks like an ordinary USB memory stick, but simply plug it into the USB port of your intended prank victim, and it will play havoc with their computer keyboard, randomly alternating between Caps Lock for instance, and periodically inserting strange text.

2) Boss Voice Transformer VT-1

The Boss Voice Transformer is a telephone voice transformer, a vocal effects unit which processes your voice and allows you to change its pitch and frequency enabling you to sound just like the opposite sex.

1) Electric Shock Pen

The Electric Shock Pen is about as simple as april fools gadgets get. Simply leave the pen lying around, or hand it to a colleague to use. When they press the top of the pen it delivers a mild but alarming electric shock, guaranteed to have you in stitches and them not wanting to borrow any more pens from you.

Click here to buy an Electric Shock Pen as seen on The Gadget Show

All-in-one desktop PC’s are so called because the monitor, the base unit and a few other things are combined in a more elegantly designed unit than your bog standard PC. Last night on The Gadget Show, presenter Jon Bentley with the help of interior designer Linda Barker tested 3 of the best all-in-one PCs on the market.

First up was the Sony Vaio JS2E/S. It has a 20 inch screen, 3 Gig of RAM, a 500 Gig hard drive and cool silver finish. The JS2E/S performed well on The Gadget Show in terms of usability, a clear screen and decent processing power.

Click here to buy a Sony Vaio JS2E/S as seen on The Gadget Show 

Next was the HP Touchsmart IQ500 PC with a 22 inch touchscreen monitor, 4 Gig of RAM, 500 Gig hard drive and glossy black plastic look. Jon said the HP would be a great choice for a Windows all-in-one desktop.

Click here to buy a HP Touchsmart IQ500 as seen on The Gadget Show

Finally the Apple iMac 20″ with a 20 inch screen, 2 Gig of RAM and a 320 Gig hard drive. The Apple iMac is housed in an anodised aluminium casing. The Apple iMac 20″ looks good and performs very well despite having less RAM and a smaller hard drive than the other 2 all-in-one computers.

Click here to buy an Apple iMac 20″ as seen on The Gadget Show

The Motormouse wireless mouse in the form of a toy car was the first of this week’s Something for the Weekend gadgets. Gadget expert Ella Williamson explained that the Motormouse was easy to use, and the click wheel was designed to look like a spare tyre. The right and left mouse buttons are on the bonnet of the Motormouse.

The Motormouse also features a tiny USB receiver which slots into the boot of the car.

Click here to buy a Motormouse from Letsgoshopping.co.uk as seen on Something for the Weekend

On Tuesday’s Working Lunch Declan’s Tech Shed featured an innovative new table-top touch screen computer called Microsoft Surface.

Microsoft Surface is the latest interactive gadget to hit the UK. It is a table-sized, table-top computer that has no mouse or separate keyboard. Instead, thaere are 5 infrared cameras underneath the large surface screen to track your fingertips, and sensors record where they land. Microsoft Surface can handle up to 52 touches at the same time, so lots of people can use the same Microsoft Surface computer.

Some stores in the UK are already using Microsoft Surface as a sales tool. Barclays Bank for instance uses one that is loaded with info about its Premier Life Account service. At the moment Microsoft Surface is only available to businesses, but Microsoft envisage every home having one of these in the future.

To find out more about Microsoft Surface, click here

In this week’s Gadget Show challenge Jon and Suzi tried to sell some old gadgets for as much money as possible. Apparently there is 23 billion pounds worth of unused tech sitting unused in UK homes hat can be boxed up and sold for cash. But how do you go about selling gadgets you don’t use anymore?

Online is certainly one method of selling your old gadgets, and the biggest online auction site enabling you to do this is of course eBay. Ebay has over 14 million users in the UK alone, which means a quarter of the population could be potential buyers. 10 million items are up for sale on eBay at any one time. Tips for selling things on eBay are: make sure your photos are sharp and uncluttered, make your description as detailed as possible and sell at the right time – you want your auction to end on either Thursday lunchtime or Sunday afternoon, because statistically that’s when you’re most likely to sell for the best price. Gadget Show presenter Suzi Perry managed to get good returns from eBay for her Pentax Optio W60 camera, Sony Camcorder and Sony Cybershot.

If you don’t want the hassle of the auction, taking photos of your stuff and packaging and posting it once sold, you could use an eBay broker. There are many eBay broker shops in the UK. You simply take your stuff to them, then they will sell it for you and take around 20% commission on the sale. There is virtually no work involved for you, meaning that eBay brokers may be a good option if you’re short of time. eBay brokers also tend to get high prices for your old gadgets.

CQ out, cqout.com is the second largest online auction site in the UK. Launched in 1999 it has no initial listing fees and lower commission charges than eBay. However CQout’s payment system means that they keep hold of the money, only releasing it to you once the buyer has received their goods.  Click here to visit CQ Out

Cash Converters is another offline method of selling your old gadgets. You can take your stuff to a Cash Converters store and depending on the quality of the items and their own stock of them, Cash Converters will offer you money for them. Click here to visit Cash Converters

Apparently searches for second-hand items has gone up by 22%, not surprising given the recession we are in. This has given a huge boost to classified websites like Gumtree and Preloved. These are websites where you list what you’re selling for sale locally. Gadget Show presenter Suzi sold a 10 year old Apple laptop on there.

If you’re looking to sell old mobile phones there are quite a few websites offering this service.  Fonebank, Gazelle, Buy My Tronics and envirophone were among the ones mentioned on The Gadget Show.

CeX was another offline option – they have stores across the UK and they will subject your old gadgets to a series of rigorous tests, buying them for cash if they pass. You can visit the CeX website here.