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The best tech from the Gadget Show Live 2014

The Gadget Show Live is the UK's largest showcase of consumer technology. We popped along to see what's on show.

Andrew Lanxon
Andrew is CNET's go-to guy for product coverage and lead photographer for Europe. When not testing the latest phones, he can normally be found with his camera in hand, behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food. Sometimes all at once.
Andrew Lanxon
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1 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The Gadget Show Live is the UK's largest consumer technology showcase. Big brands and plucky upstarts all flock to glorious Birmingham to show off their latest kit. We popped along to pick out our favourites.

First up, Peugeot was using Facebook's Oculus Rift headset to give test drives of its new cars.

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2 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

This man was cruising around on the one-wheeled, uh, OneWheel. This skateboard meets Segway Scooter will be shipping to Kickstarter backers in September.

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3 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Who's this chap then? It's Gadget Show host and Samsung launch host regular Jason Bradbury. Always a pleasure.

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4 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

This little car is powered entirely by its solar panels. It was made by the University of Cambridge and recently travelled nearly 2,000 miles across Australia powered only by the sun.

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5 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Volkswagen is shouting about its eco-creds too. The XL1 has a hybrid engine that can achieve up to 313 miles to the gallon. Only 200 will be made and they'll cost £111,000. I've ordered three.

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6 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

If that's a bit steep, VW's E Up is a fully electric city car. It costs £19,000, but its electric motor will need a charge every 90 miles.

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7 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Apart from chilling out looking bored, the NAO robot will help teach kids in schools about robotics and programming.

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8 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

There's a whole truck load of audio gear at the show. Libratone was showing off its Zip portable bluetooth speakers.

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9 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Bowers and Wilkins meanwhile had its colourful P3 headphones.

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10 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

B&W also had its enormous Nautilus speakers on show. More impressive than their sheer size is their £55,000 price tag.

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11 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Is it 1972? The Ruark Audio R7 Radiogram would have you believe so.

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12 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Back in the present day, Pioneer has a whole range of new headphones, designed for the bass-loving DJ.

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13 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

East-London based startup Musaic showed off its Kickstarter-funded audio streamers, the MP5 and MP10.

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14 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

As well as streaming tunes from services like Spotify, Musaic's systems can link to smart bulbs to set mood lighting to your music.

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15 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Announced this week, the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ is a quadrocopter with a stabilised camera beneath, letting you capture super-smooth video from the sky.

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16 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Want to use a more cinematic camera? DJI's eight-rotor beast might be more up your street.

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17 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

At £350, Parrot's AR Drone 2.0 is a slightly more affordable way of scaring your pets with flying aircraft.

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18 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Sick of your job? Spare a thought for this poor guy who has to spend his entire day in a glass tank demonstrating that the Sony Xperia Z2 is waterproof. Being a tech writer doesn't seem too bad anymore.

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19 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

If you're more into hacking together your own technology, Technology Will Save Us has a range of do-it-yourself gadget projects including this plant moisture sensor for £22.

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20 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

An umbrella with a slightly lower front is apparently the big thing in rain-avoidance this year. Can't wait.

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21 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Roland's TD30K digital drum kit uses sounds recorded from real drum kits to sound as realistic as possible.

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22 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

£15,000 for an 80-inch TV might seem a lot, but this is a 4K model from Finlux and it's actually considerably cheaper than its Samsung equivalent.

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23 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

I take back what I said about the poor diver trapped in a glass box all day. These guys have it worse.

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24 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

"And if I press this button, I become Skrillex." A Pioneer demonstrator showing off some computer-linked DJ decks.

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25 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

If your home Wi-Fi router gets no signal, it's probably too small. This 5ft wide model will probably fare much better.

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26 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The Voltz eScoot electric scooter has a range of up to 30 miles and only takes three hours to charge from flat. Expect to see me cursing around London on one just as soon as I can find the £2,000 asking price in some old jeans.

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27 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

This Top Gear Experience ride was sat in the corner of the trade show. I'm hoping it accurately simulates the experience of being sat at home watching Top Gear with a beer.

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28 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Think you're calm and well adjusted? Try this giant Flappy Bird game and see how quickly your face turns puce as you become apoplectic with rage.

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29 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

If you're sick of your stupid, short human legs, pop on the Digilegs and pretend you're half an antelope.

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30 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Or use the legs with a costume like this and scare the life out of neighbourhood children.

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31 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

No bedroom is safe unless it's protected by a blowup turret from the Portal video games.

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32 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

All aboard the Windows bus! Next stop -- adventure!

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33 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Orbitsound had a whole range of its sound bars to show off at the Gadget Show.

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34 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The Leap Motion controller lets you interact with your PC using gestures. Fancy!

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35 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

I'm not sure what this lady was doing with that knife but I wasn't brave enough to ask.

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36 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Breffo has a range of stands and supports for phones and tablets. Its latest, the Gumstick, can be bent around your phone to stand it up and costs £15.

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37 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

If your office chair doesn't look like this, it's not good enough. Upgrade now to the Infinity Emperor Workstation. It houses Bose speakers and costs a mere £4,700. Good luck getting your office to install that one.

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38 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

It wouldn't be a tech show if there wasn't at least one Microsoft Surface 2 tablet on display.

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39 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

These inflatable balls aren't here for nothing. They're a demonstration section of a new type of bed.

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40 of 40 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The Balluga smart beds are stuffed with those balls that are able to automatically change their pressure to make sure you're body is always supported in just the right way.

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