According to Gadget Show presenter Ortis Deley, more than 1.8 million of us fall victim to identity fraud every year. Which is why we all need a shredder to effectively destroy our old credit cards, bank statements and other bits of sensitive information. Ortis looked for the best shredder on the market.

First he gathered 20 of the best shredders on the market and performed a speed test to whittle them down. Some of the shredders managed to shred documents in just over 2 seconds. The next test he performed was an actual shredding test – how effectively could each shredder actually destroy documents making them impossible to piece back together. Again, the competition was whittled down in the quest to find the best shredder. Finally the shredders were tested for strength – how many pieces could they shred at once.

Eventually Ortis found his top 5 shredders, and from these he decided on the best shredder on the market. Here were the runners up:

5. Genie 1005XD, £120 – A very good cross-cut shredder.

4. Swordfish Ebony 10, £102 – Makes light work of most shredding tasks including CDs.

3. Acco Rexel Style Shredder, £35 – It’s compact, looks stylish, is cheap and is a great performance shredder to boot.

2. Fellowes DS1, £80 – this quick shredder manages 11 sheets of paper at once in an amazing 2.63 seconds.

Finally, the best shredder money can buy according to The Gadget Show:

1. Acco Rexel Pro Style Shredder, £99

 This is the best shredder on the market according to Ortis Deley. It provides a secure and speedy shred in just over 3 seconds, and also comes with a huge storage compartment which means less emptying trips. Fully deserving of the top spot in the top 5 shredders.

Click here to buy an Acco Pro Style Shredder, best shredder as seen on The Gadget Show

Suzi Perry was asked to compile her top 5 best apps of 2010 on The Gadget Show Winter Special. A tricky undertaking, given the 300,000 apps she had to choose from on multiple platforms including iPhone and Android apps. Here were the best apps of 2010 according to Suzi Perry and The Gadget Show:

5. Google Goggles, free – this brilliant app puts the fun back into tiresome internet searching by using the camera on your mobile to carry out visual searches. Google Goggles scans the photo you’ve taken and searches for relevant matches. This could be a household object, a brand logo, a wine label or a landmark, in which case the Google Goggles app is aided by the built in GPS of your mobile phone.

4. iMovie, £2.99 – the iMovie app is designed specifically for the iPhone 4, with it’s ultra high-res retina display and the multi-touch screen. According to Gadget Show presenter Suzi, the iMovie app is really intuitive. You can shoot the footage on iMovie and edit it right there and then on your iPhone. You can also add music and titles.

3. Hipstamatic, £1.19 – Hipstamatic is an iPhone application which gives a 70′s style retro look and feel to your pictures. Select from a choice of lens, flash and film effects before taking your photo. Hipstamatic processes your images in seconds and allows you to share them on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

2. PingChat, free – PingChat is a unique social networking app which allows you to send pictures to your friends for free. Sending an image via a text usually falls outside of your phone contract’s inclusive free texts bundle and can cost 20p or more for every image you send, so PingChat is a very good alternative allowing you to send images for free.

1. Angry Birds, £0.59 – Angry Birds has been a gaming sensation on mobile phones. This gaming app is ultra-addictive and is available on a variety of platforms. The aim of the game is to launch your birds from a catapult and destroy the evil green pigs. Angry Birds Seasons is a Christmas special edition of the game and is available for download now.

So those were the best apps of 2010 as seen on The Gadget Show. Do you agree with their verdict? Let us know below!

Gadget Show presenters Jon and Polly looked at the best personalised calendars. A personalised calendar makes a really special and personal Christmas gift for a friend or a loved one. You can add your own pictures for each month before uploading them to one of several personalised calendar websites, and they will do the calendar creation for you. To judge them Jon and Polly ordered several personalised calendars online, and discounted any which arrived over a week after the order for the personalised calendar was placed.

The calendars were judged on various aspects such as layout, picture quality and printed dates. Here were the best personalised calendar websites as seen on The Gadget Show Winter Special:

Cafepress Custom Wall Calendar, £15 – this received a 3 G rating for it’s ease of use and additional products. The calendar did include American holidays too.

Calendar Wizard Original Photo Calendar, £14.99 – this personalised calendar website also received 3 G’s for it’s cool layout and array of photo diaries and notebooks.

The winner of best personalised calendar website according to The Gadget Show was the Snapfish Classic Wall Calendar, £14.99. Jon and Polly were impressed by the clear layout and ample room for adding important events to it. You can also add colourful frames to your personalised calendar. Snapfish also offer a whole host of other personalised gifts from mugs to Christmas tree decorations.

The Gadget Show Christmas Special featured the best stocking fillers under £25, which would be ideal presents if your budget is tight or you need a Secret Santa present for a gadget lover. Here were the top 5 stocking fillers under £25 as seen on The Gadget Show:

5. Cyber Clean £6.99

Cyber Clean is a high-tech cleaning compound for your tech, like laptops or phones. Cyber Clean as seen on The Gadget Show is a gooey substance that picks up dirt and grime with an antibacterial action, cleaning right between the keys of your keyboard. Cyber Clean was Gadget Show Polly’s choice.

Buy some Cyber Clean as seen on The Gadget Show

4. Fairy Jar £19.99

The Fairy Jar was the surprise choice from Gadget Show Jason. The Fairy in a Jar is LED lights in a jar, designed to bring calm to the chaos that could surround your Christmas morning. Jason said the Fairy Jar would light up his little girl’s world.

Buy a Fairy Jar as seen on The Gadget Show

3. Wine Bottle Kit £12.99

Gadget Show presenter Jon Bentley plumped for the Wine Bottle Kit which includes pourer, stopper and corkscrew in a neat little bottle-shaped package.

Buy a Wine Bottle Kit as seen on The Gadget Show

2. Solar Powered Mobile Phone Charger £24.99

Gadget Show Otis chose the Solar Powered Mobile Phone Charger which is extendable and also charges PSP’s, Nintendo DS and MP3 players in addition to most mobiles. At £24.99 a great little stocking filler.

Buy a Solar Powered Mobile Phone Charger as seen on The Gadget Show

1. Spring Speaker £12.99

The winner of the Gadget Show best stocking filler under £25 for Xmas 2010 was this spring speaker chosen by Suzi Perry. It expands like a concertina to provide great bassy sound and hooks up to most portable devices like iPods, phones, MP3 players etc. A great Gadget Show stocking filler for Xmas!

Buy a Spring Speaker as seen on The Gadget Show

The Gadget Show ran a feature on their Christmas special, which looked at the Playstation Move and the XBox Kinect. to see which was better. Gadget Show presenter Jon Bentley called these the two ‘must-have’ gadgets this Christmas. It’s been 4 years since the ground-breaking Nintendo Wii changed the way we think about computer games forever. Since then you can be pretty sure that clever young things in Atari T-shirts and designer glasses have been spending every waking hour in the research labs of Microsoft and Sony to bring the joys of gestural gamin to the XBox and the PS3.

This Christmas, the PS3 Move and the XBox Kinect have hit the shelves and are battling for supremacy. But which is better of the 2 interactive games according to the Gadget Show Christmas special? Jon Bentley ran some tests.

XBox Kinect:

Set-up:

The XBox is easy to set-up as your body acts as your controller, but it does have to be calibrated first and you do need a fair amount of space to stop you bashing into household objects. It has a clever voice recognition feature which allows you to control the console using voice commands such as ‘Xbox open tray’ to open the Xbox tray.

Gameplay:

Using the Kinect is better than using a controller as your body performs all the required in-game actions. It actually feels like you’re in the game and it’s very responsive. The driving game, Kinect joyride, felt rather strange without a controller. Kinectimals is a great animal game for kids.

PS Move:

Set up:

The playstation move allows you to stand closer to the screen, but it needs to be calibrated before every game.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is more complex than the Kinect because you have to combine button presses with real life actions. Quite tricky for a non-gamer. The Gadget Show also noticed lag between moves and on-screen response.

VERDICT:

The overall verdict on the Gadget Show Christmas Special was that the PS Move received 4 G’s, good for experienced gamers but not the easiest to control for gaming novices like your granny. The XBox Kinect received a Gadget Show rating of 5 G’s because of it’s ease of use and huge potential for the future of gaming.

Click here to buy an XBox Kinect as seen on The Gadget Show

Click here to buy a Playstation Move as seen on The Gadget Show

Dixons are the sponsors of the latest series of The Gadget Show, and they currently have some fantastic deals on Laptops, Netbooks and Desktop PCs. Treat yourself or your family this Christmas with some cracking deals from Dixons!

Laptops

For work, play or avoiding eye-contact on the train. If there’s one thing you want sitting on your lap, it’s a laptop. Dixons have got big ones for entertainment, little ones for web browsing and ultra-portable ones for when you’re on the move. Take your pick.

Netbooks

Netbooks are the latest craze and fast becoming an essential item if you spend a lot of time ‘on the move’. For such small packages, Dixons Netbooks pack a powerful punch – great for browsing, email, entertainment etc.

Desktop PCs

Dixons also stock a range of desktop PCs which are now slimmer, smaller, quieter and more stylish and powerful than ever before.

Click here to shop at Dixons.co.uk, sponsors of The Gadget Show

Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury came up with a list of the top 5 video games for 2010 in last night’s episode of The Gadget Show. 2010 has been an incredible year for gaming, one of the best yet. In terms of the top 5 video games, there were so many excellent titles to choose from and a lot of research was needed.

Jason is a self-confessed computer games addict, so this top 5 was right up his street. Here are the top 5 video games of 2010, from five to one, as seen on The Gadget Show:

5. Dance Central: (XBox 360) Kinect

There are some games where a traditional video games joypad just isn’t enough. Video games which encourage the gamer to get physical have been all the rage since the advent of the Nintendo Wii a few years ago. Before that we had the EyeToy from Sony, then the Playstation Move, and now Microsoft have muscled in on the physical gaming genre with its Kinect. Dance Central is the first dancing video game for the new XBox Kinect hardware. Dance Central is brought to you by Harmonics, the same team behind the hugely successful Rock Band. But instead of strumming on bits of plastic and drumming on pads, you are dancing to the beat using nothing more than your own limbs and body. Dance Central for XBox 360 features a whole range of tunes and dance modes, including an excellent freestyle mode.

Click here to read reviews and buy Dance Central as seen on The Gadget Show

4. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Expansion Pack (PC)

Cataclysm is the expansion pack to one of the world’s most popular games, World of Warcraft. With over 12 million users of this video game wordwide, any expansion pack for World of Warcraft is major news. The last expansion pack became the quickest selling video game of all time on it’s release. Cataclysm features a whole new storyline, new characters, new areas to explore, dungeons and graphics which make the game look more gorgeous than ever. Cataclysm looks set to keep the most dedicated World of Warcraft gamers occupied for months to come.

Click here to buy World of Warcraft: Cataclysm as seen on The Gadget Show

3. Assassins Creed: Brotherhood (PS3 or XBox360)

Ever since it’s release, Gadget Show presenter Jason has been a huge fan of Assassins Creed. So much so that he was in the first game as a background character, having flown to Montreal to get his likeness scanned and used in the final release of the first Assassins Creed. It will therefore come as no surprise that he has included the latest version of Assassins Creed in his top 5 computer games for 2010. The game follows on directly from Assassins Creed 2, where you take the reins of the main character. This time you’re now a master assassin, and you create a brotherhood with which to attack your enemy.

Click here to read reviews and buy Assassins Creed: Brotherhood as seen on The Gadget Show

2. Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

Gran Turismo 5, also known as GT 5, took an astounding 5 years adn 60 million dollars to make. The good news is that according to Gadget Show presenter Jason, it looks like this latest Gran Turismo title was worth that time and money. 1000 cars to choose from in 70 exciting and glorious locations. For the first time in the main series, online play is available, damage to your car now appears, and you can even race in the dark. This game is one of the best reasons to own a PS3 and according to Jason, rightly features at number 2 in his top 5 video games of 2010.

Click here to read reviews and buy Gran Turismo 5 as seen on The Gadget Show

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3, XBox360, Wii)

No real surprise that Call of Duty Black Ops was number one in the list of best video games 2010. But why is this the best video game 2010? Call of Duty is one of the largest grossing video game series of all time. Black Ops doesn’t let those standards slide. This time, rather than modern warfare, you take control of various special forces operatives during historic military moments, conducting covert or ‘black ops’ in locations such as Cuba and Vietnam. Look out for an appearance from none other than JFK in the game. Visually Black Ops is stunning, and the environment seems truly 360, with things going on all around you. Black Ops deserves it’s position as top of the top 5 video games as seen on The Gadget Show.

Click here to read reviews and buy Call of Duty Black Ops as seen on The Gadget Show

Do you agree with this list of Top 5 Video Games of 2010? Did Mario unfairly miss out? Let us know your thoughts by posting a comment below!

This week there is an amazing Gadget Show Competition Prize on offer with a whole host of the latest gadgets and also a Fiat car thrown in for good luck. The Gadget Show presenters describe this as their biggest prize haul yet. Gadget Show competition entry details are simple – answer this question:

In the film industry, what are the Academy Awards also known as?

a) The Oscars

b) The Osbornes

c) The Oswalds

ISIOTB.com hint – it’s a)

And call 0904 16 16 555 or text a, b or c to 63555

Good luck! Lines close midday on Monday 29th November.

On this week’s The Gadget Show, Suzi Perry was paired against DIY expert Tommy Walsh in a DIY challenge. Tommy had the benefit of all his years of experience, against Suzi’s latest DIY gadgets to help her.

The first set of DIY gadgets Suzi used were the Bosch PLR 30 Laser range finder or distance measure, and the DIY Calculator App, which only costs 59p and allows you to work out the volume of paint you need. You can also download the Painting Walls Pro App, which lets you take a picture of the room and then paint the walls on the picture to see what it will look like in various colours.

Suzi then used the Earlex HV5000 Spray Station to get the paint onto the wall in no time. The Earlex gadget pushes high volume air through at low pressure, breaking the paint up into a fine spray for precision application onto walls. Much faster and more precise than a roller. the Wagner W660 fared even better in this respect, getting the paint done in no time.

Next up was the Phototex paste-free, self adgesive wallpaper which goes on the wall in no time. It can be removed and re-adjusted if you get a piece in the wrong place.

Probably the most left-field of this week’s Gadget Show gadgets was the 900 Global RC900 Remote Controlled Bowling Ball. Gadget Show presenter Pollyanna tested the product in a ten-pin bowling match against the UK’s best female ten-pin bowling champion Hayley White.

The radio controlled bowling ball is designed with a counter-weight inside, and it is this which allows you to control its direction using the remote control handset. Once the ball finds it’s balance position you simply sync it to the handset using the wireless connection, and you’re ready to cheat (er, bowl).

This remote control bowling ball is great fun, and really works. It’s aimed squarely at kids and designed to bridge the gap between the video game generation and bowling, but big kids will love this too.

Click here for more information about the RC900 Remote Controlled Bowling Ball as seen on The Gadget Show