About

DigitalOutbox is all about technology, gadgets and gaming. We produce a weekly podcast that breaks down the weeks digital related stories with a distinctly UK perspective. We are passionate about our subject matter and hope that will shine through in our podcasts. As we grow we hope to encourage debate amongst the community that grows around our casts.

We’d love to hear from you about the podcast and website, both good and bad. The contact page has a number of way’s with which you can get in touch. Enjoy the show!

DigitalOutbox Team

Ian Dick
Ian lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. By day he works in the IT department for a large manufacturing company but outside work he is a keen follower of all things digital. In 2006 he switched to using a Mac as his primary computing platform although at work it’s all Windows with a bit of Solaris thrown in from time to time.

A keen gamer he has owned almost every platform from the SNES onwards although stubbornly refuses to buy a Wii. Currently an Xbox 360 and a PS3 keep his fingers occupied although his attic is stuffed with consoles and games from the last twenty years.

There is almost an obsession with regards his gadget buying. The desire to keep up to date with the latest and greatest technology often means some costly purchases – the early adopters tax hit’s hard sometimes. Recently though he has started to hill walk as well as go on something of a health kick to try and shed the pounds as years of couch and chair dwelling had taken their toll.

To find out more about Ian visit his blog or follow him on twitter. Don’t ask where his nickname of shweepa comes from though. He can be a grumpy bugger at the best of times!

Shakeel Naim

Born in Pakistan, Shakeel moved to Glasgow, Scotland at a very young where he has lived most of his life. In 1998, he moved to Peterborough, England, to start a career in IT and is currently employed as a web developer.

Shakeel is very much into all things digital and absolutely loves technology, gadgets, games and A/V. He used to be a huge gamer in the past, but with changes in lifestyle, he now finds more enjoyment from his 50″ HD plasma, Sky HD, 5.1 surround sound setup, Denon AH-D5000 headphones, PlayStation3 and a growing collection of blu-ray titles.

A recent convert to Apple computers, Shakeel enjoys working on a 24″ iMac and a 15″ MacBook Pro. He also owns an iPhone 3G which he will not be parted with. He finds the overall Apple Mac computing experience refreshing and hassle-free. At work, Shakeel works on the Windows platform and uses Visual Studio .Net for most of his development work.

Shakeel is a keen amateur photographer and is finding himself becoming increasingly interested in digital photography and the delights of Photoshop. A Nikon D300 keeps him shutter happy and he employs Adobe Lightroom 2 to manage and process his photographs. He is currently trying to learn the secrets of Photoshop along with Illustrator, XCode, Objective-C and iPhone development .. yeah, good luck buddy!

Outside the geek zone, Shakeel enjoys keeping fit, working out and cycling. You can find out more about Shakeel on his blog and you can also follow his activities on Twitter and Facebook. To view his photography efforts, visit his photostream on Flickr.

Chris Hutchinson

Chris, the podcast guest who seemed to just stick around, runs his own web development setup. Currently living in West Sussex, he brings a little Southern influence to proceedings.

Although a little more modest on the gadget front than Ian and Shakeel, he still has his moments – currently sporting an ensamble of remote control colour changing lamps in his lounge for example!

Chris is also PC based and therefore offers a little balance to the Apple influence of the rest of the team.

A keen gamer, his Xbox 360 gets a fair workout, and his PC setup includes a G25 steering wheel to live out his motorsport dreams in the virtual world.

When not working or gaming, he can often be found watching all manor of motorsport either track-side or on the TV and is a regular karter, helping to run and taking part in a local karting championship through the year.

You can follow Chris on Twitter as well as read his ramblings on his blog.

Henry Merriweather

Guest podcaster Henry also lives in Glasgow and fell into a career in IT when his former employers found that putting him behind a PC was a great way to keep him from doing any serious damage and he found that it kept him from doing any strenuous labour. A win-win situation.

It’s a point of personal pride that he switched to Mac before Ian in 2006, and suffers from the delusion that Ian would never have considered taking such a momentous step if he hadn’t raved about it so much.

Having four kids means that Henry can only gaze enviously at Ian, Shak and Chris’s gadget stash, although he has managed to blag a few of Ian’s cast-offs as you can see for yourself at “Ian’s stuff – I still have it”.

Henry’s a very casual gamer having never really coped with things going 3d, but secretly he spends far too much time on Doodle Jump, Cananbalt and other games on the iPhone.

Away from the computer and Dad’s Taxi duties, Henry has eaten beetle grubs with a retired cannibal in Papua New Guinea, but that’s another story and we’re going to “save it for the podcast”…

Henry’s on Twitter and blogs here.