Share Sounds from Gadgets and Gizmos

Steve Caplin, Share Radio's technology expert, discusses Gloucestershire's solar-powered fire engines and Dutch students who've built a solar-powered camper van. Facial recognition payment has come to the Moscow Metro and schools in North Ayrshire. Apple have listened to customers with their new Macbook, Tesco have a checkout-free store as well as a one-hour delivery service that isn't as fast as some competitors. Also news of a foldable e-scooter you can take on a plane, robot Japanese waiters, the Royal Mint extracting gold from discarded devices and 10,000 Damien Hirst spot paintings where the buyers have a difficult choice to make.

Steve Caplin, Share Radio's technology editor, on William Shatner's brief trip into space, expressing disappointment that we didn't all wear monkey masks. With news that Prince Charles's Aston Martin runs on cheese whey, he hopes he drives "caerphilly". There's news of Sky Glass, ending satellite dishes, a lost Picasso palimpsest revealed, IKEA's flat-pack houses, a clever system for recharging e-bikes, Facebook's robot for spinning fibre cables and an app for those who are afraid of spiders.

Share Radio's Technology Editor Steve Caplin admires William Shatner, TV's Captain Kirk, going into space at the age of 90. He discusses competing movies to be made in space, why NASA is firing a rocket at an asteroid 7m miles away, recommends an interactive website for psychological disorders, applauds a method for ridding railway lines of those pesky leaves and tells of Netflix's move into gaming, of AI completing Beethoven's 10th Symphony, Ocado claiming it will have driverless food delivery in two years, Amazon opening an electronics store and why somebody has come up with the idea of a collapsible suitcase.

Share Radio's equivalent of James Bond's Q looks at the latest not-so-secret gadgets. There's the world's biggest and most expensive solar farm (by a factor of 10), being built for Singapore but located in Australia, an Alexa-powered robot from Amazon, pigs being employed at Schiphol airport to reduce bird strikes, a flapping wing room fan, lab-grown coffee, airless tyres from Michelin and a solution to the problem of regolith, the dangerous jagged pebbles thrown up by moon landings.

Political commentator Mike Indian discusses the energy crisis and fuel shortages, asking how we got into such a mess. He reviews the Labour Party conference: how did Starmer do and is Labour ready for government? He looks ahead to the Conservative Party conference: will Boris Johnson get a rough ride? And with one million people still on the furlough scheme, he considers the effect of its termination. He also looks at the latest problems with the fishing industry, with both British AND French fishermen in an angry mood.

Share Radio's technology editor Steve Caplin pays tribute to the inventiveness of the late Sir Clive Sinclair, inventor of the pocket calculator among other things - even though he always used a slide rule. He gives a Tesla a test drive, including its built-in whoopee cushion, admires a new microcar, looks forward to streets lit by glow-in-the-dark plants, explains why the Lithuanian government is warning people about Xiaomi phones, recommends an auto cutout app and highlights the latest IgNobel Prizes, one of which says sex is better for clearing the nose than decongestant.

Tech maven Steve Caplin discusses cosmic concrete using Martian soil and astronauts' body fluids. Also MooLoos, training cows to pee environmentally soundly, hydrogen-powered, autonomous freight submarines, the idea of all homes and offices having to have charging points, the rifle that can shoot round corners, AR-equipped swimming goggles, a wireless portable hydrojet cleaner and the iPhone 13.

Share Radio's tech supremo, Steve Caplin, explains why Abba are having to build a venue for a London concert featuring them as they were 40 years ago. Also the finalists of the James Dyson awards including a Braille ebook, a touchscreen games table, fast food delivered in the air, Apple easing its take in the App Store, a wireless charging room and smart bike pedal lights which mean you never need worry about being out without lights if it gets dark unexpectedly.

As Simon Rose takes a well-earned break, we re-visit a programme first broadcast in March 2017 when Share Radio was a national DAB station. From April 2017, zero emission cars have been the only vehicles exempt from road tax. Despite growing interest and increasing pressure to move away from polluting vehicles many were still reluctant to make the jump. So just what are zero emissions cars and what should you consider when making the switch from petrol? Tom Hill looks at the current state of zero emissions technology and the challenges facing the industry hearing from a range of experts and commentators

Share Radio's technology editor mourns the loss of Peter Corby, inventor not just of the eponymous trouser press but rather more. He looks at Amazon's decision to open physical department stores, Elon Musk's announcement of the Tesla Bot, a crowdfunded "smart" ukulele, why the world's fastest rollercoaster is breaking bones and the British battery researchers who are hoping to make solid-state batteries for cars. He also laments the real-world problems trying to use an electric hire car in France.