Well the party season will be upon us before we know if as we all head towards Christmas.  I received a new product called the After Party Shoe from Redfoot - so I thought I'd give them a whirl.  I had a lot of local leafleting to do (sadly I don't really go to all night parties any more).  So I decided to inflict sore feet on myself by walking 90 minutes in high heels posting leaflets through doors.  What I do for Gadgetspeak - I must be mad. 

So now here I am sitting in my comfy, podiatrist designed, After Party Shoes.  They are a soft and lightweight pump which fold in half so they can slip easily into a little carry case and then into your party bag.  When folded the pair of shoes are just a little bigger than my purse and did fit into my reasonably small bag.   The upper is soft material and the bottom is a waterproof shoe sole.

Yes they are comfy, and looking at the website they come in a very large range of fashionable styles and fabrics - for business, party and holiday wear.  I've often had sore feet after shopping and a long day at the office, so they could be just as useful then as after a party.

My only question - what do you do with the shoes you've taken off that won't slip into your bag?   Better take a spare plastic bag with you as well!!!

After Party Shoes are £25 and available on-line from http://www.redfootrevolution.co.uk/

What's more if you buy a pair in October £1 is donated to Breast Cancer charity The Pink Ribbon Foundation.

In these turbulent times, Bosch suggests that we improve our homes if we can't move.  We're hoping to review these products in the Spring, but thought readers would like to know about them now - we know how popular home improvement tools are in the run up to Christmas.

Bosch have a range of home decorating Spray Paint Guns which use their low-pressure "Spray Control Technology" to produce a fine paint mist.  Bosch tell us that this speeds up the drying between coats, is 3 times faster than a paintbrush and saves you money by using 15% less paint. Sounds good!

The new Bosch PFS 105E is designed for spraying internal rooms as well as large outdoor surfaces.

The new Bosch PFS 55 is a hand-held system for small to medium spraying tasks, such as furniture or even wooden toys. 

Completing the spray gun range is the PFS 65, which became available for the first time this Summer.  It's a compact, portable and light weight system for medium sized projects such as larger pieces of furniture, garden fences or sheds.

The Bosch PFS  65 is already in-store and the PFS 55 and 105E will be available at B&Q from 6 October 2008.

The PFS 65 is also available online at:

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=152634

Prices frange from £59.99 to £139.99 including VAT.  For further information call: 0844 736 0107.

It's October already - where has the the year gone?

Thanks to everyone that entered last months prizedraw - and for visiting the site. It's so good to see so many of you returning again and again.

This month we're really lucky to have Fujitsu sponsor the competition. They will be providing the lucky winner with one of their excellent ScanSnap S300 scanners. You can read Michael Fereday's thoughts on this product in his review.

In summary this is a very space efficient scanner with a built in automatic document feed (ADF) - great for scanning in a set of pages. Apart from being the world’s smallest duplex ADF scanner (i.e. it can scan double sided pages automatically) it's also very light and portable. Unlike flat-bed scanners this one isn't going to take up most of your limited desk space.

Remember our competition is free - all qualifying GadgetSpeak members are automatically entered into each months competition as soon as they log-in that month.

New members are of course also more than welcome (did I mention membership is free?). Simply complete our short joining form, activate your account and add some basic data to your profile and you'll be entered (check the full terms and conditions on the joining page - but in short open to UK residents 18 years old and over).

Following on from our review of the Photobox photo printing service we've received news of a Facebook application from Photobox available at www.photobox.co.uk/superphotos

The Superphotos application lets you upload photos to Photobox for printing and to Facebook for sharing through one portal.  From the Photobox site you can then turn your photos into photobooks, calenders, collages and more.

You can also export your existing Facebook albums into Photobox and give permission to your Facebook friends to use your photos to create prints or gifts.

Commenting on the new development, Lawrence Merritt, Photobox's Marketing Director, said: "Super Photos directly addresses feedback from our customers who want to print their Facebook photos, but found uploading to Facebook and Photobox separately was a pain in the neck. This application will give millions of users sharing their photos with Facebook the option to print them with our next day photo service. Now your indiscretions can be printed and posted back to your door!"

To add Super Photos to your Facebook profile directly, go to http://apps.facebook.com/getsuperphotos or go to the application fan page at http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=37946903376 and click 'Go to Application'.

Paul Smart sat down today with Aaron Powers from Vyke to talk about their new 'FreeTxT' service. The concept behind this new service for your mobile phone is to reduce the cost of texting (SMS messages). Rather than be bound to your service providers tariff for messaging your friends, your install a little Java applet called VykePro (There is a VykeLite as well - but parts of the Vyke site suggests this does not support SMS - while other parts say it does!).

Once you've installed the applet you use that to send SMS messages instead of the usual phone application. If you are messaging another user that has the Vyke application installed and happens to be online the service is 'free' (see below). If the person is not online or doesn't have Vyke then your message is sent to the recipients usual SMS inbox, for which you will be charged 3p.

The Vyke application exchanges data with the Vyke servers via your mobiles data service. This is often not a cheap operation and there is no indication of the amount of data that will be sent - so although Vyke will be charging you a maximum of 3p per text - you need to understand how much your service provider is charging you for data. This should still represent a saving for most people on Pay-as-you-go.

Paul will of course be putting the FreeTxT service through it's paces in the coming weeks and we'll have a full report!

In the meantime you can read what Vyke have to say about FreeTxT (which is currently in Beta testing) on their web site

Anyone that reads GadgetSpeak on a regular basis will know that I'm an ardent fan of radio. DAB radio has now been around for a number of years and has been steadily making inroads inthe marketplace. The DRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) has recently announced second quarter figures up 34% on the same period last year with 27.3% of adults now having at least one DAB radio at home.

This announcement by John Lewis of just how many DAB radio products they are selling shows how mainstream the new digital technology is becoming, despite continued issues with signal strength in some parts of the country.

Here at GadgetSpeak we've certainly reviewed a significant number of DAB capable products, with more on the horizon as we move toward Christmas.

Of course DAB has a few competitors - apart from the venerable analogue signal. Also making headway is Internet radio. These devices basically sit on your home WiFi network and stream 'radio' stations over your Internet connection. This gives you the benefit of a world-wide service, freeing you from the limit of just those stations broadcast locally - particularly useful for expats that would like to listen to their home country stations.

Multiple technologies however serve to create uncertainty in the market - should you buy a DAB radio or simply use Internet radio - or just stick with your old analogue set that works just fine? This kind of indecision has handicapped many new products - just think of HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray.

John Lewis see integrated DAB/WiFi sets as being a potential solution - one box - both technologies and are forecasting significant growth in this area through 2009.

What's your take on the future of radio? Or maybe you think it doesn't have one? Post your views down below and let us know!

Hexbug is a tiny robotoic creature of just over 2 inches in length which can can feel its way around sensing objects in its path and avoiding them. Objects in their way, or loud noises, such as a clap will change their direction.

There are five HEXBUG characters named ALPHA, BRAVO, CHARLIE, DELTA, ECHO each has a distinct shape and colour.

Put to the kiddie test, our 11 and 13 year olds played with them for hours!  I thought they might be the sort of thing you open, watch it do a trick or two, and then forget it. However, our kids rapidly turned on their imaginations and started making little maze warrens for them from upturned CD boxes.  Having two of them was definately more fun than one. Only problem - we played with them until the batteries ran out on one!

Available from Amazon for £9.99 each.

Last week I received two products from Lakeland to help with the cost of washing - the Dolly Balls and the Dryangles.

The Dolly Washer Balls come in a pack of 9. You spread these small plastic balls evenly around your washing and they provide extra agitation - a bit like when you rub your clothes together when handwashing - if you can remember handwashing. The extra friction can, they say, save you up to 75% of your washing powder and make lower temperature washes more likely to work. I gave them a go at 30 degrees and with a very small amount of washing powder. It's not a scientific test, but I must admit the wash did seem to come out the same as it would have done with more powder.

The Dryangles are for use in your tumble dryer, to aid softness without needing to use fabric conditioner. I gave this a go with towels, and yes they did come out reasonably soft - they certainly weren't like cardboard. Lakeland claim that drying time can be up to 25% faster. I didn't notice any difference on this score - but again it's hard to do a valid test.

Dolly Washer Balls cost £13.99 for a pack of 9 and Dryangles are £9.99 for a pack of 2. Both available from Lakeland at Lakeland.

Medion's stylish new black and silver 10-inch notebook is now on sale in Sainsbury's stores nationwide, priced at £299.99 including VAT.

Summary of press information:

With 1GB RAM and an 80GB hard drive, the 1.2GHz Intel Atom-based Medion Akoya Mini E1210's has plenty of storage for personal pictures and videos downloaded via the memory card reader.  The Akoya Mini E1210 is small and light enough to be carried in one hand, its bright and clear 10-inch screen is easy to read outdoors and it comes with the latest Draft-N wireless connectivity to make the most of WiFi hotspots.

The Medion Akoya Mini E1210 has a full-sized keyboard, three USB ports and a webcam and microphone for keeping in touch with friends and family.

And here's the link to details on the Sainsbury web-site.

I'm not at all happy with Orange right now. I've been a loyal Orange customer for over 4 years, keeping the same handset for all that time and paying them £30 per month on contract. With my phone coming to the end of it's life I wanted to upgrade to the best phone I could get and keep that for (hopefully!) the next four years.

Before I go into my experience - I'd love to hear how you've faired. If you have upgrade stories (good or bad) please either blog them or add comments to this blog.

OK - my story. Popping into the Orange shop there are a wide range of phones clearly available for free on contract. My choice - the Sony Ericsson k800i.

"Sorry sir, that's only available to new customers - you can have that phone for £100." What? The phones on offer for a free upgrade were singularly uninspiring. Phoning Orange and threatenning to leave dropped the price to £89 - the best they could do. They explained that while they would like to upgrade me they had to position their offers to attract new customers.

My understanding of business is that it is much easier to keep your existing customers than to find a new one and that you should *never* neglect your existing customer base. I was until that point a happy existing customer.

Close to moving to a new provider I phoned The Car Phone Warehouse to see whether they could upgrade me for free. They could - and sticking with Orange. Yipee! I was offered a 12 or 18 month contract and was happy to sign-up for an 18 month contract, moving to the Orange Puma 30 plan. I was told I'd get 375 any-network minutes, 450 land-line minutes and 75 texts per month. Great.

First statement arrives and I have 200 any-network minuts, 100 landline minutes and 100 fixed line minutes - that is a 12 month contract. A call to Orange. "Ahh - yes sir - you're on a 12 month contract. When you upgrade and get a new handset your 12 month contract is actually 18 months." Now I clearly had the choice from Car Phone Warehouse of 12 months or 18 months. I clearly requested 18 months and was clearly told the number of minutes etc that I would have.

A call to Car Phone Warehouse. Hmmm - they aren't sure what's happened but the person that dealt with me will definitely call back. Well of course they didn't.

So - have you upgraded with an existing supplier recently? Are they *all* as aweful as Orange? Do they all treat their existing customers as something they've scraped off the sole of their boot? Questions to ask:

• Do they give you the same choice of phone at the same price as new customers?
• Do they lock you into different terms to existing customers?
• Are they up-front with what they are offering? Look around the Orange shop or web-site - they are full of 'free with £35 contract' - no mention anywhere that if you are an existing customer you might as well not bother looking round their shop and may as well bin the Orange brochure they have.

I'd like to know because as soon as this contract is up I'm moving from Orange. They have lost a hitherto happy customer. The rest of my family will follow in due time so that will be 3 lost customers.

My recommendation is never upgrade with Orange. Always move away from them. What is your experience?