LIFE WITH GADGETS

AS ONE of the stars of Channel 4's Make Me a Million series, Chris Gorman beams at the camera, his smile exuding the confidence of a self-made millionaire who has finally achieved an ambition to become a television personality.
But while viewers nationwide have been tuning into this latest corporate reality show, to watch the wealthy Renfrewshire-based tycoon mentor a couple of wannabe millionaires, another reality has been unfolding in the High Court, where Gorman has been one of the stars of a very different drama. In court number 55, Gorman has admitted being reduced to tears during a long-running feud with his accusers in a battle over a business deal that could end up costing millions. Gorman, together with fellow retail entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter and his business partner Jim McMahon, is being sued by Freeserve founder Peter Wilkinson and UBS investment banker Jon Wood, who claim they were cut out of a business deal by the Scots-based team to buy the Birthdays chain. The case has run for two weeks and is due to conclude this week. Now questions are turning to how the fall-out will affect Hunter and Gorman, and in particular Hunter's relationship with UBS, which has handled £100m of his personal dealings together with other business. An indication that Hunter would move his business elsewhere in the light of Wood's actions was first revealed by Scotland on Sunday in April and now looks certain once proceedings are over. But the lasting damage is yet to be assessed. Hunter and Gorman have been raising their profile in the City, particularly Hunter, who has attempted to pull off some big deals. Failed bids for House of Fraser and Selfridges left some in the City questioning whether he could ever do the big deal that eludes him. Wood further muddied the waters by disclosing in a witness statement a private document detailing Hunter's hitherto unknown interest in Woolworths, WH Smith and Somerfield. Gorman, who has shadowed Hunter's progress to the point of emulating much of his business style - same car, same ostentatious celebrity parties - has also attempted to build a reputation among Britain's big business players. The pair mix with the likes of Bhs owner Philip Green and Sir Richard Branson. Their common playgrounds are the Monaco Grand Prix and holiday homes in the Mediterranean. But over the past fortnight, Hunter and Gorman have been reduced to defending their integrity and business dealings against accusations that they failed to play fair. The men were all shareholders in the Gadget Shop, which went into administration earlier this year. Wood and Wilkinson allege that Gorman, Hunter and McMahon denied them a chance to invest in the Birthdays chain and instead bought it for themselves. Hunter and Gorman claim that everything was above board, that the other shareholders were offered the chance to participate, and that the terms of their original agreement left all parties free to pursue other deals. But the suspicion has been raised that Wilkinson and Wood are attempting not only to prove a breach of fiduciary duty, but also to embarrass their former partners. Michael Crystal, Wood and Wilkinson's QC, asked Gorman: "And we are agreed that you were wearing a flowery shirt," sparking bursts of laughter from pockets of the courtroom, and even cracking a smile on the stoney face of Hunter. On Friday, Hunter's QC, Lord Grabiner, pressed home the point when he said, during his summing up: "I regret having to say this, but Mr Wood is a liar. His primary concern is to damage the reputation of Sir Thomas Hunter in court, and under absolute privilege ... he seeks to portray him as a drunkard and a liar." Disputes of this nature between powerful businessmen do not often come to court. Millionaires with reputations to preserve usually settle their differences behind closed doors. Although Birthdays was sold at a £5m loss and the Gadget Shop collapsed, Wood and Wilkinson are suing for the value of their stakes in the enlarged business at the time the Birthdays deal was done in August 2003. Testimonies as to the value of that stake range from a few million to several hundred million pounds. The combined legal costs incurred by the case are likely to stretch beyond £10m, according to legal sources. As the courtroom row has rumbled over the past two weeks, a stream of colourful allegations about the conduct of all parties involved has been flushed out. Gorman has been portrayed as an ego-driven party animal who throws tantrums over business issues. Hunter has been accused of discussing business issues while drunk and manipulating agreements to suit his own purposes. Wilkinson is accused of being so abusive as to have eroded relations between the two halves of the Gadget Shop consortium. The litigation itself has already been partly to blame for the collapse of the Gadget Shop, as it scared away a potential takeover offer from Game Group, the listed computer games retailer. The dispute is also likely to see Hunter carry out an earlier threat to close his £100m private banking account with Wood's employers at UBS as soon as the verdict is given. Whichever way Justice Warren rules when he delivers his verdict - which is expected before Christmas - the tit-for-tat battle seems to have served no one's reputation favourably. The chain of events that brought Hunter and Gorman into partnership with Wood and Wilkinson began in the early months of 2002. Hunter, who made his first fortune with the sale of his Sports Division retail chain to JJB Sports in 1998, was introduced to Wood through the private banking arm of UBS. Hunter had been a client of the Swiss-based group for some time and wanted the chance to invest alongside UBS in some of its corporate transactions. Wood, a managing director of UBS, is one of the bank's top dealmakers. Within weeks of Hunter and Wood's first conversation, the UBS man alerted Hunter to the possibility of investing in the Gadget Shop. Wood was a friend of Peter Wilkinson, the internet entrepreneur who also owns Hull City Football Club. He had known him for about seven years and had invested in a handful of Wilkinson's businesses. Wilkinson had taken a small stake in the Gadget Shop two years earlier, but it was now on the brink of administration and needed money fast. The three men agreed to get involved. Hunter then suggested that Gorman, with whom he had worked on numerous other projects, also be allowed to join the consortium. By the beginning of May, the four had signed a deal that saw them plough a combined sum of around £1m into the business. Hunter and Gorman ended up with 50% of the Gadget Shop, Wood and Wilkinson with 40%, and the founder John Elvidge with 10%. It was agreed that Gorman was to run the company, initially only on a temporary basis. But relations quickly soured. Wood was angry that the 10% stake given to Elvidge had come from his half of the consortium, diluting his share of the company. Hunter said he asked for this because Elvidge and Wilkinson knew each other well and he did not want the 50/50 balance of the consortium to be upset. Wood said he saw this as "chipping away" at his investment, the court heard, and believed that the balance of power had been tipped in Hunter's favour. But the ill-feeling was put to one side. A few weeks later Hunter indicated that he wanted a share incentive scheme to be introduced for the Gadget Shop's senior management. Given that this included Gorman and Elvidge, who already had sizeable stakes, this was an issue of concern for Wood and Wilkinson. Wood, in particular, was fearful of his stake being diluted again. Around this time Hunter also suggested that another friend of his, retail billionaire Philip Green, be brought on to the Gadget Shop board in exchange for a small stake. Wood and Wilkinson again resisted, seeing this as another attempt to swing control of the company towards Hunter. On the trading front, the Gadget Shop was improving its sales performance under Gorman, and went on to have a successful Christmas period. But it was at the board meeting of February 6, 2003, to discuss the Christmas sales that the underlying tensions appear to have erupted into the open for the first time. Christmas had been good and Gorman was pleased with what he had done. But Wilkinson and Wood were already taking a dislike to him and the court was told that they both thought he had "far too big an ego". Wilkinson is alleged to have repeatedly dubbed Gorman "Billy Big Bollocks" - a term which he admitted in court is one he often uses to refer to someone with an "overrated opinion of themselves". Wood also told the court that "he [Gorman] always seemed to be in the press crowing about how great he was". At the same meeting, Wilkinson told Elvidge that he looked like a "gay Dutchman" when he arrived with dyed hair, wearing an orange shirt. Hunter and Gorman claim that Wilkinson then went on to insult almost everyone in the room. The gruff Yorkshireman is alleged to have described the Gadget Shop's human resources director as a "jumped-up wages clerk", the court was told. He is also alleged by Hunter to have referred to the entire operational management as "c***s". And Wilkinson admitted in his written evidence that he asked how the "same f***ing team" had done so well when they had done so poorly the year before. Wilkinson and Wood claim this was all good-hearted banter. Gorman and Hunter claim it was offensive and created an "acrimonious" atmosphere in the room. After the meeting with management there was a meeting just for the shareholders, the court heard. No one disputes that when the issue of Gorman's possible share bonus came up in this meeting, the mood turned sour. "Putting it bluntly, I blew a fuse and vented a lot of frustration that had built up," Wilkinson said in his evidence to the court. "At this meeting I do remember calling Mr Gorman 'Billy Big Bollocks'." Gorman threatened to quit the company unless he was granted his share options. Wilkinson told the court that Gorman was behaving like a "spoilt child" and that if he wanted to leave, that was fine with him. Afterwards, Gorman is said to have been found in tears in his office. Wood's written submissions also give colourful accounts of encounters with both Gorman and Hunter in the south of France, and he repeatedly accused both men of being drunk. He told the court of encounters in the Nicky Beach Bar in St Tropez. He also claimed Hunter raised the issue of the Gadget Shop buying Birthdays in the toilets of a nightclub in Monaco after the Grand Prix race of June 1, 2003. Wood, who is "virtually teetotal", alleged in his submissions that Hunter was "clearly very drunk" and slurring his words. Hunter is also alleged to have discussed the continuing disagreement over Gorman's share bonuses. Lord Grabiner put it to Wood in court that this was a "pack of lies", adding: "Your testimony of that conversation in the lavatory is a lie. You have devised it purely to embarrass Mr Hunter in public." Wood also claimed in his witness statements that billionaire property investor Simon Reuben had advised against doing business with Tom Hunter. Reuben gave evidence to the court to rebut those allegations. When he appeared in the witness box, Michael Crystal, acting for Wood and Wilkinson, did not attempt to argue with Reuben's restated version of events. Furthermore, Reuben told the court that he did not like dealing with Jon Wood because he was never sure when the UBS director was acting in a personal capacity and when he was acting for his employer. By July 2003 the prospect of Birthdays being acquired was in the open. Wood and Wilkinson claim this was always going to be a Gadget Shop deal. Hunter claims it was a "two-track" process and there was always the option to buy it either through the Gadget Shop or West Coast Capital. Gorman told the court that the lines were "very blurred" between the two. At a crunch meeting on August 20, 2003, Hunter offered Wood and Wilkinson 25% of the enlarged Birthdays and Gadget Shop group in exchange for their 40% holding in the Gadget Shop. There were around 50 Gadget Shop stores and roughly 500 Birthdays stores. Wood and Wilkinson claim that Hunter said the combined business would be worth between £200m and £300m, so they were being given the chance to get a more valuable holding in a bigger company without putting in fresh capital. Wood and Wilkinson told the court they were furious about the prospect of their shares being diluted further and insisted they had rights to invest more money in the company to maintain their stake. No agreement could be reached. Hunter then pressed ahead with the acquisition of Birthdays through West Coast Capital, to meet an August 29 deadline imposed by Rothschilds, which was handling the auction for the company. Over the next few months, legal proceedings began to emerge. Meanwhile, the trading performance of both Birthdays and the Gadget Shop deteriorated. By February 2004, the board of the Gadget Shop agreed to begin to merge Birthdays at an operational level, shifting the headquarters to Glasgow. Senior members of staff at the Gadget Shop were working between the two businesses, in spite of the different shareholder groups involved - although this was all agreed at board meetings. The parties' lawyers, Hammonds and McGrigors, were both putting forward settlement proposals. The last offer from McGrigors, representing Hunter and Gorman, dated April 16, 2004, was that an independent valuer be brought in to value the Gadget Shop as at August 29, 2003, the date the Birthdays deal took place. But this was rejected. Trading problems at both chains continued. Birthd
ays was sold for £46.4m to Clinton Cards in September 2004, at a combined loss to West Coast Capital and Gorman of £4.75m. Potential buyers for the Gadget Shop were being approached around the same time. One offer came from Hamleys, the famous toy store owned by another of Hunter's associates, Icelandic retail group Baugur. After another dire Christmas, Game Group offered £1m in January 2005, on the condition that the litigation be dropped. By March the litigation threat had driven it away. The Gadget Shop went into administration on March 14 of this year, leaving its 700 employees in the lurch. Shortly afterwards, the legal dispute became public. After Gorman's testimony last Wednesday, all that remains now is for the closing statements from the respective counsels to be heard. After the saga is over, it seems unlikely that any of the parties concerned will be showered in glory.

THAT new iPod nano may be impossibly slim and stylish but the sad truth is it's already obsolete. Even its bigger, video-playing brother - announced last week - will be old technology by the time it hits the shops next month.
For 2006 is to be the year of the Ultimate Gadget, when the phone, music player, camera, organiser, games machine, and pretty much everything apart from the kitchen sink, is crammed into one attractive, effective and easy-to-use package. The consumer electronics industry is convinced we're tired of carrying two or three separate devices to deal with our entertainment and communication needs. The marketing gurus call the solution "convergence". And while many modern mobile phones offer a bewildering array of functions none yet does them particularly well. But a series of recent developments have convinced technology-watchers we are on the verge of getting the electronic equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife: • Tiny, high-capacity hard drives have been developed which allow thousands of songs and hours of high-quality video to be stored on devices no bigger than a mobile; • South Korean firm Samsung has developed a tiny computer chip powerful enough to process numerous tasks simultaneously; and has also showcased mobiles containing hard disks; • Software giant Microsoft is working on a mobile-based version of Windows that will handle a wide variety of jobs; and • PalmOne already claims to have produced the ultimate gadget, the £400 Treo 650, a handheld computer that incorporates a camera but is likely to appeal more to gadget addicts than mainstream consumers. Meanwhile, the firm that many would argue started it all, Sony, is not far from the action. Sony Ericsson will unveil its W800i Walkman Phone, which includes an organiser, camera, video camera and player, and music player, later this month. Apple, the creators of the iPod, is refusing to give anything away but industry sources are convinced its iPod Video is just the beginning of the route to convergence. Paul Harris, Professor of Screen Media at the University of Abertay, Dundee, said there is now a demand for an ultimate gadget, but it will have finally arrived when people no longer think of it as a gadget. "It will become as essential as a kettle in the home," he said. "It will include a telephone, camera, texting, music store. It will allow you to download programmes and songs from anywhere." Robert Strohmeyer, gadgets editor of the technology journal Wired, said: "As far as the ultimate convergence gadget is concerned, we are almost there. A series of new phones will come out in the next couple of months which will bring all the functions together." He added: "One in particular, the Samsung i300, has a hard disk and, for song storage, it is up there with the iPod nano and iPod Mini, and it is a phone and organiser. We can expect convergence devices to become much more common about the end of 2006 onwards. But these devices need to be under £200 in order to become mainstream." There is another important side to the development: style. Merely cramming features onto a Mars Bar-sized piece of electronics will not be enough to sell, according to experts. Mainstream consumers, and especially women, have little interest in expensive gadgets which are anything other than completely intuitive. The iPod's success among women has been shown by a huge increase in their numbers downloading music from the internet. New figures show that while in 2004 96% of downloads were bought by men, this year 31% of the customers are female as women have embraced the new technology. Shane Greeves, executive creative director of marketing agency Future Brand, said: "The element of style is completely crucial. What Apple has pioneered with the iPod is the philosophy that products do not have to be big and chunky; they can be slim and elegant. One of the key factors that attracts women to iPods is its simplicity. Women don't like gadgets and they are technophobes. On a mobile all women want is an address and text and that is it." Michael Parsons, the editor of the personal technology website Cnet.co.uk, said: "What Apple cracked with the iPod, was making it easy enough to use. Their Clickwheel on the front a
llowed the user to find one song among 4,000. There needs to be a similar advance in making gadgets easy to use in order to make a 'super gadget' popular among mainstream buyers." But there are other challenges in the months and years ahead, among them developing batteries which are both small and high-capacity. Colour screens running video use up plenty of power, yet consumers will demand many hours' use between recharges. Graham Whitehead, manager of future developments at BT Scotland, agrees the ultimate gadget is on its way, but questions whether its appeal will be universal. "Personally, I quite like having an iPod, which plays music and that is it. "I like having a high-quality digital camera, which is a good camera and nothing else. If the ultimate device has to fit in a pocket, how big can the screen be? Will it be big enough for those of us who are getting on a bit?"

SCREEN spy James Bond’s Rolex watch from the 1973 film Live and Let Die has been voted the greatest 007 spy gadget ever, in a poll conducted to mark today’s 40th anniversary of the screening of the first ever Bond film.
To mark the release of Dr No in October 1962, shoppers were asked to name their favourite gadget from the 007 movies. The digital Rolex, used by Roger Moore’s Bond, topped the poll conducted by Dixons, the electrical retailers. The watch was not only equipped with a rotating saw and an electromagnetic field that deflected bullets, but also famously unzipped a Bond girl’s dress. "Along with the women, the cars and exotic locations, gadgets have helped make James Bond a cultural icon," said Stuart Carson, marketing director for Dixons. "Many of Bond’s gadgets from the 1960s and 1970s, such as pagers and miniature cameras, were considered to be total fantasy, but are now essential hardware. In many ways, 007 films are a showcase for future technology." London’s Science Museum is to host an exhibition marking 40 years of Bond films, from 16 October . Artefacts on display will include Oddjob’s bowler hat and Jaws’ metal teeth.

THE Apple iPhone has been voted the coolest gadget of the year, despite not being launched in Britain until next month.
The revolutionary phone, expected to fly off the shelves with a £330-plus price tag, came first in a top ten must-have list.

The judges, from technology magazine Stuff, said: "It's the coolest gadget of the year by a country mile."

They added that its gesture-sensitive touch screen was a big step forward in technology.

"It remains the most impressive piece of technology we've seen this decade - it really must be seen to be believed."

Tom Dunsmore, Stuff editor-in-chief, said the winners were selected on their "stand-out" quality rather than sales success, functionality or value for money. He added: "Gadgets are getting more stylish and more desirable every year. This year's list is packed with must-have Christmas gifts so beautifully designed and such a joy to use that they'll appeal to technophobes as well as gadget- lovers."

Second place was taken by the Leica M8 camera, described by the judging panel as "a 20th-century classic with a 21st-century makeover" and which is priced at a cool £3,999.

The Tonium Pacemaker - an iPod-style gadget for DJs which allows them to mix music without turntables - came third. The tiny Sony Vaio UX1 PC was fourth. Then came the smash-hit Nintendo Wii games console, which reacts to the movements of the user, allowing realistic games of sports like tennis to be played out on screen.

A mobile phone, the Sony Ericcson W880 phone - a "superslim phone with an unequalled wow factor" - was sixth. The final four positions were taken up by the Shanling MC-30 Amp Valve, described as "hi-fi for the MP3 player age"; the Wattson energy calculator, which works out household energy consumption in cost or watts; the Sony Ericsson MBW Bluetooth watch, which controls mobile phone functions from a wristwatch; and the already-legendary iPod Nano MP3 player.

The Scotsman Magazine technology writer Nick Clayton said the iPhone deserved to top the list as it was revolutionary, while the others were mostly developments of previous technology.

He added: "They also share the expense factor - these aren't really gadgets for the masses, with the exception of the iPod Nano and the Wii.

"But one thing they all have in common is that they are relatively easy to use and would look good in your living room.

"And a large proportion of them would be as popular with women as with men, which is an increasing trend."

He said the iPod Nano was "a classic example" where the market was at least as big with women as with men.

He added: "Similarly, with the Wii, a lot of games are equally suitable for men and women."

If he had the pick of the list, he would choose the Wii as "it's re- latively cheap, it looks nice, and does what it does very well".

Windows Vista has been out for just over a year now, and whilst many of us have put off upgrading, Microsoft will soon be stopping the supply of Windows XP.

Given this, I thought I'd run through a couple of tips for the new software.Vista comes with the windows sidebar, running along the right-hand side of the screen, this is an area that by default shows the time, weather and latest news.The sidebar however is completely customisable, and not just restricted to the right hand side.If you drag the weather element away from the right onto another part of the desktop, it expands to show

more detail, and a three-day weather forecast.You can also add thousands of custom applications from the web, from games to calculators and other utilities. Just click at the top left of the sidebar to view options.The applications are known as 'gadgets', so click 'add more gadgets' to find more programs and utilities for the sidebar.One thing people notice about Vista is the increased security - you are forever being prompted to confirm your actions and the actions of software with pop-ups, which some people find annoying. This is called 'User Account Control', and if you want it can be turned off by going to 'control panel', and searching for user account.In the results window you will see 'Turn User Account Control On or Off', click this to disable it. Please note this feature is there for your security, and I would only recommend advanced users to disable it.