A national survey of 3,000 people has shown that the British public is wasting £52 billion every year on gadgets that they don't know how to work. The study by Stuff Magazine reports the average annual spend on electronic devices is £3,065, but as much as half of the functionality is left unused.

Unbelievably, almost half of those surveyed didn't realise that a HD TV needs to be connected to an HD set top box to see the benefits with 2 in 100 thinking you needed HD ready eyesight. If this was on April fools day, you wouldn't believe it.

Stuff magazine's editor, Fraser Macdonald, said:
"It's amazing how much money people are wasting by not using things to their full potential.

"An HD TV is an essential purchase, for example, but it'll be so much better if you hook it up to a decent HD set-top box, such as a Sky+ HD box, a Blu-ray player and a surround sound speaker set-up."

Divided Nation

Glaswegians only managed to use 47% of their functions available on their gadgets with Staffordshire city Wolverhampton coming top, using 80%. The old gender divide was also evident with 63% of women reading the instructions but only 54% of men. Men were also only half as likely to seek help if their technology failed.