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Home Explore Stuff Magazine - November 2014 UK

Stuff Magazine - November 2014 UK

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THE APPLE WATCH IS HERE ...ANDIT’SABOUTTIME GADGETS / APPS / GEARiPHONE 6 LUCKEYTHE VERDICT Gatekeeper of the virtual + realm 5.5in 6 PLUS WHITE Reinventing your record collectionMUSKRevolutionisingtravel on Earth...and in spaceNAKAMOTOReplacingmoneywith code STUFF INNOVATORS 2014 BREAZEAL Mother of a Meet the visionaries remaking your world millionrobotsSUPERHEROES OF TECH www.stuff.tv / Nov 2014 / £4.60GREEN MACHINES Wegolong-distanceinthreeeco-friendlysupercars





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THE WORLD’S FIRST 4WD PLUG-IN HYBRID SUV FROM £28,249 - £34,999 Including £5,000 Government Plug-in Car Grant61. Official EU MPG test figure shown as a guide for comparative purposes and may not reflect real driving results. 2. 5% BIK compared to average rate of 25%+. 3. 32 mile EV range achieved with full battery charge. 510 miles achieved with combined full batteryand petrol tank. Actual range may vary depending on driving style and road conditions. 4. Low-cost British Gas plug-in vehicle charging package available – ask your dealer for more information. Offer ends 31st March 2015. 5. Domestic plug charge: 5 hours, 16Amp home charge point: 3.5 hours, 80% rapid charge: 30mins. 6. Prices shown include VAT (at 20%), exclude VED and First Registration Fee. Metallic paint extra. Model shown is an Outlander PHEV GX4h at £33,399 including metallic paint. Prices correct attime of going to print. For more information about the Government Plug-in Car Grant please visit www.gov.uk/plug-in-car-van-grants.Outlander PHEV range fuel consumption in mpg (ltrs/100km): Full Battery Charge: infinite, Depleted Battery Charge: 48mpg (5.9), Weighted Average: 148mpg(1.9), CO2 Emissions: 44 g/km.





CON S ON THE p113 COVER p24 p14 Watch this… HOT STUFF p18 TESTS 6 of the 14 The Hot Four best? 72 First test Motorola Moto 360 O Apple Watch As round as a satsuma and so swish O Apple iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus p55 you’ll show it off to everyone you know O Moto Hint World O Samsung Galaxy Note 4, leaders 74 Approved Stuff-approved apps for… Galaxy Note Edge …spicing up your social life, raiding dungeons and dodging flesh-eating plants 24 Vital stats Fujifilm X30 A powered-up new version of the X20, 90 Tested Galaxy S5 Mini with a tilting 3in screen and added Wi-Fi A micro version of the bestselling blower 30 Gigapixel Jaguar XE 98 Tested Lapierre Overvolt Jaguar flies its new model over Tower Bridge A mountain bike with an electric secret by helicopter, just for the hell of it 100 Tested Games 34 Choice Globes O Destiny New ways to have a planet in your bedroom O BioShock (iOS edition) 38 Games 113 Group test Budget smartphones Drive snarling supercars in Project Cars Rather not spend your life savings on a device you’ll lose or break within the week? 42 Apps How to fuse your face with that of your cat 116 Reviews Sensory snacks Vampires in a film, super-nerds in a book 46 Vital stats Casio Exilim EX-FR10 An action cam with a detachable screen p98 48 Our month What we did when no one else was looking 50 Your month Upcoming films, games, shows and all that8

WIN! p53p105 p126 TOP 10 OF EVERYTHING Looking to buy something but need a bit of advice? Turn to our Stuff Top 10s: our expert listings of all gadgetry, from p131 TVSFEATURES PROJECTS HOT BUY Samsung UE55HU7500 +++++ 2014’s star TV p14055 Stuff Innovators 2014 122 Beta yourself Cooking WEARABLES Our pick of the greatest inventors, scientists, You can’t be a student forever – it’s time designers and entrepreneurs on Earth to go beyond microwaved spag bol NENEWTRY 77 Techspedition The Alps in 3D 124 Playlist Podcasts LG G Watch We head for the hills with the researchers If your eyes are busy doing important things, ++++, mapping an entire mountain range with drones give your ears something to do LG’s Android Wear wristputer80 Green machines 126 Instant upgrades Fireworks Stuff gets behind the wheel of three eco- Remember, remember, the fifth of November p150 friendly supercars for a coast-to-coast dash is the night to go OTT without losing the plot HEADPHONES93 Fashion Winter coats 128 Re-awesomise… your Chromebook The cold months are coming, so stop If you’ve fallen out of love with your little PDRRIOCPE shivering and put one of these on laptop, here are five ways to fall back in105 Design Lighting 129 Gadget doctor As photographers and estate agents say, Out with it, then – our resident tech light is everything, so lamp up your life specialist promises not to laugh14564 Next big thing? Sound-charging phones 130 5-minute hacks If nothing else, at least… Running low? Go to a gig and turn those Climb Everest from your desk O Make sound vibrations into sweet electricity texting fun again O Give YouTube a facelift p100 Sony XBA-4iP +++++ Get some in-ear excellence for less p135 p80 9

webOS SMART TV MADE SIMPLE This is the future of telly; other manufacturers had better be watching .It’s All Possible.www.lg.com.uk/webOS

WELCO While invisibility and X-ray vision are all very fancy, there are real, human superpowers all around us. Parents who THIS MONTH know how to muster Zen-like super-patience; friends IN STUFF’S iOS who seem to be able to read your mind; people who can APP EDITIONreverse-park without even thinking about it. But perhaps the humansuperpower that makes the most difference is the ability to come Q Check out behind-the-up with an original idea. When it comes to changing the world, the scenes pictures from ourpower of invention is up there with being able to shoot laser beams eco-supercars testout of your eyes, and our Innovators (p55) all have it in spades. Q Animated, interactive Of course, it’s not just people that can have superpowers: flying, pages, videos and moresix-eyed robots (p77) can come in pretty handy too, especially if hi-res picturesyou’re working on one of the most ambitious scientific expeditionsthis century. And you don’t have to be David Hasselhoff to know Android fan? Stuff is alsothat cars can be Super, especially if they’re the petrol-sipping green available on Google Play,machines (p80) we drove across the country this month. Zinio, Exact Editions and You can get in on the act yourself – suit up with the power Samsung’s Papergarden.to resist a chilly breeze (p93), acquire the power to createdeliciousness (p122), and turn yourself into an early cyborg with SUBSCRIBEthe best wearable in the world – which has to be the Moto 360 TO STUFF &(p72) or the new Apple Watch. Speaking of which… YOU’LL GET...Will Dunn, Editor / [email protected] / @willydunn 1 … the latest gadget news on your doorstep, before www.stuff.tv facebook.com/joinstuff twitter.com/stufftv it hits the shops 2 …free Grid Autosport access via Steam (see p118) 3 …exclusive reader offers 4 …the power to travel through time (forwards only, standard speed) Call 0844 848 8806 or visit www.themagazineshop. com/stuff-nov14 google.com/+stufftvEmail us [email protected] Publishing Director International Business Dev Syndication Manager 33(())&& 3()& &HUWLILHGCall us 020 8267 5036 Rachael Prasher Manager Amardeep Mangat Paloma Gutierrez 020 8267 5396 Publishing Manager Ollie Stretton Head of Creative Solutions Subscriptions Hotline 7KLV SURGXFW LVTeddington Studios, Broom Rd, Digital Publisher Sandip Ray Chris Bullen 0844 848 8806 IURP VXVWDLQDEO\Teddington, Middx TW11 9BE, UK Senior Marketing Executive Creative Solutions World: +44 (0)1795 592 987 PDQDJHG IRUHVWV DQG Sarona Taylor Project Managers Email [email protected] FRQWUROOHG VRXUFHVEditorial Marketing Executive Liam Maguire, Hannah Pettifor Web www.themagazineshop.comEditor Will Dunn Natalya Paul Creative Solutions Editor ZZZSHIFRUJDeputy Editor Tom Wiggins Secretary Sarah Weetch Edward Craig Editorial Director Mark PaytonProduction Editor Richard Purvis Advertising Director Chris Daniels Creative Director Paul Harpin © 2014, Haymarket Media Group Ltd.Consulting Editor Contributors International Advertising Director Strategy and Planning Director Reprographics by Fresh Media Group. Printed byFraser Macdonald Sam Kieldsen, Jools Whitehorn, Ian Porter Bob McDowell Wyndeham Heron; cover printed by Stephens &Features Editor Mark Wilson Paddy Smith, Lindsey Baker, Business Development Director Managing Director David Prasher George. Distributed by Frontline Ltd, Midgate House,Sub-Editor Emily May Adam Oxford, Andrew Williams, Mike Walsh Chief Executive Kevin Costello Midgate, Peterborough, PE1 1TN. The US annualBrand Art Editor Chee-Chiu Lee Craig Grannell, Andrew Hayward, subscription price is $75.50. Airfreight and mailingDeputy Art Editor Ross Presly Marcus Fairs, Al Horner, Les Dunn Production 020 8267 5414 • Volume 18 issue 11 in the USA by agent named Air Business Ltd, c/oSenior Designer Will Clarke Thanks to Production Manager • ISSN: 1364-963 Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2ndReviews Editor Tom Parsons Neil Earp, RGB, James Lipman, Anthony Davis • On sale 1 October 2014 Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Periodicals postageReviewer Sophie Charara Matt Beedle, Jamie Sneddon, Senior Production Controller • Audit Bureau of Circulations: paid at Jamaica NY 11431. Subscription records areStaff Writer Esat Dedezade Alexandre Efimov, Claire Nash Paul Skinner maintained at Haymarket Media Group, TeddingtonEditor, Stuff.tv Cover image Rich Kelly Newstrade Marketing Manager 77,340 (Jan-Dec 2013) Studios, Broom Road, Teddington TW11 9BE. AirMarc McLaren Nick Lyon Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. All rightsDeputy Editor, Stuff.tv Advertising 020 8267 5190 Licensing Director Haymarket is certified by BSI to reserved. This publication may not be reproduced orStephen Graves Agency Sales Executives David Ryan 020 8267 5024 environmental standard ISO14001 transmitted in any form in whole or in part withoutEditorial Assistant LeAnne Foley, Billy Jones, Licensing Account Manager the written permission of the publishers. Liability:Max Langridge Matthew Larkin Isla Friend 020 8267 5058 while every care has been taken in the preparationEditor-in-Chief Will Findlater Classified Sales Executive Senior Licensing Executive of this magazine, the publishers can’t be heldContent Director Hugh Sleight Branton Palin Giuseppe Messina 020 8267 5502 responsible for the accuracy of the information herein, or any consequence arising from it. In the case of all product reviews, judgements have been made in the context of ware based on UK prices at the time of review, which are subject to fluctuation and only applicable to the UK market. 11

Storm Gathering VXR8 GTS 6.2 Litre 585PS Supercharged V8Official Government Test Environmental Data. Fuel consumption figures mpg (litres/ 100km)18.5 (15.3). CO2 emissions: 363g/km#.Model shown New VXR8 GTS 6.2i V8 (585PS) £54,499. Vauxhall does not condone irresponsible driving. #Official EU-regulated test data are provided for comparison purposes and actual performance will depend on

.co.ukand CO2 emissions (g/km). VXR8 GTS: Urban: 12.9 (21.9), Extra-urban: 24.4 (11.6), Combined:driving style, road conditions and other non-technical factors.

HOT S T HOT FOUR #1 IT’S ABOUT TIME Apple Watch As with other major celebrities, new iPhones can’t help a few revealing shots appearing on the internet before announcement day. But while Apple’s new blowers (of which you’ll see more in a minute) had been leaked in some detail, no-one had a clue what the Apple Watch would look like until this month. And here it is: a sapphire crystal screen that can sense the difference between a tap and a press, a Digital Crown spinner that zooms and selects different things on the screen, and a bevvy of sensors that can tell not just how you are, but who you are. Like the iPhone, it has three finishes: standard steel, aluminium and gold, all available in two sizes. Is this the beginning of the Age of Wearables, or the beginning of the Age of People Squinting Irritatedly at Their Wrists? We’ll see. As hot as… sauna time from £215 (due 2015) / apple.com/uk14

U F F 25 PAGES OF THE BIGGEST STORIES FROM PLANET TECH WATCH YOU TALKIN’ ’BOUT? It needs your iPhone Watch doctor Sporty or posh? Buzz me in Face look…but can relay messages, Not only does it watch Click in a sporty strap for Streetdirectionsuse Years of research and control apps and even you exercise; it also the gym, then swap it for hapticstosteeryou,so zillions in investment, youdon’thavetowatchwatch through your 5, 5c, knows how long you’ve a posh one to watch thescreenwhilewalking all so you can have 5s, 6 or 6 Plus’s camera spent standing up Downton Abbey a Mickey watchIt looks and After years wear, it looks nice, and it we’re going to call it, is more Of course, there are a lotfeels better of waiting, the has enough unique design important than you might of unknowns here, but as iWatch – sorry, flourishes to set it apart. think. There’s a very with the iPhone, the Apple in real life the Apple The screen is bright and real difference between Watch starts with a hulking Watch – has crisp, and words and pictures controlled haptics and a flat great advantage in the appsWILL DUNN at last materialised. are readable from all angles. buzz, especially in a piece department. Lots of big When the iPhone landed, it of wearable tech, and the brands are already signed @willydunn wasn’t the first smartphone The dial, or Digital Crown, haptics in the Apple Watch up and making them for by a long chalk: it was just is unobtrusive in real life; it have that nuanced feel – its its platform – apps to find a much better smartphone. rolls easily, with very little heartbeat-sharing delivers your car, control your smart So is the Apple Watch a resistance and no click. a softly detailed pulse. heating or track and share better smartwatch? It’s a great piece of design, your exercise. With so After spending some allowing you to move things many people building useful time with a couple of early around on screen without software for it, it’s only versions in Cupertino, I think covering them with your going to become more it’s definitely the one to beat. clumsy prodfingers. attractive to the world’s It’s light and comfortable to 200 million iPhone owners. The ‘taptic engine’, as Apple calls it, or buzzer, as 15

HOTS TUF F THE LINE-UP There were over ten new wristronics devices launched this past month. Here’s our pick,with three recent decents. Just so you know where we’re at…O Asus O Sony O Acer O Samsung O LG O Garmin O Moto O Samsung O PebbleZenwatch Smart- Liquid Leap Gear S G Watch R Vivosmart 360 Gear Live Steel watch 3An attractive It’s basic in ‘Only’ Nowt wrong Looks like a The ‘sexiest Another four- Five-starred,Android Wear Not idly design and Samsung’s with the fitness band, smartwatch’, star review, the non-watch with named, the functionality, own Tizen OS original, but but displays it missed out but the best conformist’smildly curved Smartwatch but Acer rather than this round notifications. on five Stuff Android Wear choice.screen. It has 4GB of is planning Android, but version might It works with stars due to watch for now. Support is stilluses standard on-board a very low it has a full be what’s ANT+ heart- its battery. Otherwise, strong, and its22mm lugs, Walkman, a price for the brace of needed to rate sensors Will the Apple wait for the battery lifeso you can put life-tracking call- and text- sensors take people’s and can even Watch pack Apple, Asus beats newerit on whatever app and GPS notifying, and its own eyes off the control a VIRB a bigger and Sony watches bystrap you like. plus a proper fitness- SIM-card 3G Apple Watch action cam. juice-box? Smartwatch 3 a few days.less than microUSBslot. tracking Leap. connection. and Moto 360. £140 / £200 / reviews… £150 /£200 / €230 / £60 approx / €300 / £tba / garmin.com/ motorola. £170 / getpebble.asus.com/uk sony.co.uk acer.co.uk samsung.com lg.com/uk uk co.uk samsung.com com KEYO NEW WATCHESO EXISTING O Apple Watch16



HOTS TUF F HOT FOUR #2 DO YOU THINK I’M SIXY? Apple iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus If, like us, you had already sold your iPhone 5 in anticipation of the post-Keynote value crash then, like us, you’ll be pleased that the iPhone 6 looks rather smashing and worth upgrading to. For the first time, there are two sizes to choose between: the 5.5in iPhone 6 Plus with its 1080p resolution and the 4.7in iPhone 6 with 1334x750 pixels. The difference is not just in the pixel count: iOS 8 will flip between portrait and landscape on the bigger display. We’re also excited about the ‘25% faster’ A8 processor, the impressive battery life claims and NFC, which arrives late but brings with it a swish new contactless payment system. The 8MP camera might not sound like a whole hill of megapixels, but it’s the new sensor and phase detection autofocus that matter, and the Plus also gets optical stabilisation. Lots to watch out for in our full, in-depth review, in next month’s issue. As hot as... a theatre full of sweaty geeks from £540 (SIM-free) / apple.com/uk18

HOTS TUF FWHAT’S REALLY NEW?We will NFC you now They’re more orientation-aware R.I.P.Apple hasn’t seen the point of NFC in the past, Double-tap the Plus’s Home button in Safariuntil Apple Pay arrived. Combining NFC with and the URL bar will drop down. Flip it around and APPLE IPODthe fingerprint-reading Touch ID, it turns your you’ll get split-screen views and an extended CLASSICphone into a secure tap-to-pay wallet. The only keyboard. It’s clear that Apple has thought hardproblem is that it’s currently US-only. about making the jump to a bigger screen. (2002 – 2014) The iPod Classic peacefullypassed away after a long struggle with obsolescence on 9 September in Cupertino, California. Born to Jony Ive and Steve Jobs in 2002, the iPod worked as an internationally revered digital music player, and was particularly known for its clickwheel and large capacity. The iPod Classic is survived by three children: Touch (aged 7), Nano and Shuffle (both 9).8 into 6 does go Yes, we camThe Health app makes the most of the new Don’t be fooled by the basic 8MP spec: the new‘M8’ motion-sensing chip, and the 6 and 6 Plus sensor’s upgraded with ‘focus pixels’ and phasecan even tell how many stairs you’ve climbed, detectionautofocus.There’sanew240fpsthanks to a mixture of motion smarts and an slow-motion video mode, and the Plus’saltitude-sensing barometer. snapper even gets optical image stabilisation.These phones The influence screens have that classicoffer a taste of of the iPad Air Apple superiority in terms ofthe new Apple is obvious in the colour and sharpness – that design of the bright, light, iPad Air look – but WILL DUNN 6 and 6 Plus, and the soft rails give a very slight while they’re unmistakably bulgetothescreenedge. @willydunn Apple phones, there’s a sharp difference between these and The one detail that stands the 5s. Or rather, a blunt one: out, literally, is the camera: it and a rigid design for iOS. where the 5s is an edgy, shiny protrudes – only slightly, not Everything from the exterior block, these have softer rails like the Lumia 1020’s magi- metal to the keyboards, core and a matte alumi-skin. cam – but the benefits of this apps and screen rotation The metal body is really, little bump are immediately speaks of a more open- really nice, and they’re so light obvious: autofocus is super- minded approach, offering that it actually takes a bit of quick, snapping subjects into people the breadth of choice getting used to: the 6 Plus felt the clear almost instantly. they’ve been getting from like it might not be a real phone, The image stabilisation is also Android while adhering to although a few minutes of impressive, from what I could Apple’s mania for quality prodding iOS 8 and playing tell in a busy room. control. Will the 6 tempt me Monument Valley confirmed away from my HTC One M8? that it is. On the front, the This is a new direction for Head to stuff.tv to find out. Apple: gone is the dogmatic adherence to a single size 19

HO HOT FOUR #3 CHECK YOUR APP-EARANCE Moto Hint Voice control may be the screen-free tech of the future, but it’s still embarrassing to hold your phone in front of your face and talk at it, rather than into it. And if you have to take your phone out and fire up Google Now/Siri/ Cortana to get the info you want, you might as well use your hands. Enter the Hint, a tiny earbud that listens for your custom cue-phrase (you can change “OK Google” to “Engage earputer”, “Hey Samantha” – you know, from the film Her – or anything else) and brings the wizardry of voice- controlled computing to your ear. It’s small enough to be pretty much unnoticeable, but it could be the next big thing. As hot as... an earful of Scarlett Johanssen £tba (due 2015) / motorola.com20

HOTS TUF F HOT FOUR #4 LIVE LIFE ON THE EDGE Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge Android fans watched the iPhone 6 launch with bleary eyes, having only just pulled themselves back together after celebrating the arrival of both a new 5.7in Note and a clever-screened 5.6in Note Edge. Both have 2K screens, though the Edge’s extra 160-pixel curved section gives it aslightlydifferentaspectratio onpaper.Inpractice, were you watching a 2K video on your phone, that curved edge would likely be used for video controls – just one of many uses, including notifications and a night clock. Both have a mighty 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 chip and 3GB of RAM, and both have a doubly sensitive S Pen and optical image stabilisation for their 16MP cameras. The Marmite leather-back design has been refined, and the phone now has actual metal edges. Must have been quite a party. As hot as… those chilli-chocolate cocktails £tba (due October) / samsung.com/uk MORE REASONS TO PARTY 1 23 1 Gear VR The Note 4’s processing power and 2K screen make it powerful enough to slot into this headset and be used as a standalone VR gamer, like Oculus Rift. 2 Gear Circle Bluetooth wireless headphones that vibrate with incoming notifications or calls. When not in use, the ends clip together to make one distinctly nerdy necklace. 3 Powerbot VR9000 Just a month after Dyson revealed its robovac, Samsung has a new model. ‘CycloneForce’ tech will keep lawyers busy, and you can ‘light up’ an area for it to clean. 21

Let the voice of Naim take you AirPlay is a trademark of Apple Inc. inside the musicMu-so is our first wireless music system. Finely tuned by our specialist engineers in England, its powerful digital brain delivers the most exceptional quality insound, commanding 450 watts of power through six custom-designed speakers, to create an experience of music that has to be heard to be believed. naimaudio.com Features: Airplay, Bluetooth®/aptX®, Spotify Connect®, UPnP™ (access your stored music), Internet Radio, USB, Analogue and Digital inputs, Apple iOS and Android App for complete control. John Lewis | Selected Apple stores | www.apple.com | Specialist Naim retailers

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V I TALSTATS FUJI GAINS WEIGHT …ALSO STAMINA, AWESOMENESS Fujifilm X30 £480 / fujifilm.eu/uk Fujifilm claims the X30’s battery will manage around 470 pictures on one charge Everyone’s favourite fancy hidden within is the much larger O Say, what can you never see? ALTERNATIVELY… compact cam, the X20, NP-95 battery pack, as used on The gubbins! But, actually, they’re gets a slew of new features Fuji’s X100, which should improve largely the same: a 12MP, 2/3in Leica MP that more than justify its battery life by a factor of two-ish. X-Trans CMOS II sensor and a Another new retro 50% model name increase 28-112mm, f2.0-2.8 lens that amazo-o-cam option. O Say what you can’t see. also acts as the on/off switch. Leica promises it O Say what you see. There’s something missing There’s a new control ring at the is ‘twice as fast’ as “Muscle is heavier than fat,” from the front of the X30 base of the lens and there’s also the original M Digital, mutter people as they struggle that, if spotted, will out you now a dedicated movie record and has a new subtle to read the scales readout over as a camera super-nerd. No? Why, button for those 1080p/60fps design. Slightly pricier their forward-mounted slab of it’s the outward end of the optical masterworks. It gets Wi-Fi, to than the X30, at £5650. “muscle”. But generally they’re viewfinder. The inward end is bring it up to date with almost right, and while the X30 has present and correct because the every other compact out there, definitely bulked up since the X30 now has a 2.36MP electronic and it also gets a new ‘Classic X20, it’s for good reason. It now viewfinder. This should offer a Chrome’ film simulation mode to has a tilting (rather than fixed) metric world of improvement over help you forget that we live in the 3in, 920k-dot LCD screen, and the welcome, but tiny, optical eye- kind of future where our photos spy that was on the X20 and X10. can travel invisibly through the air.24

Hear the fullspectrumP3 Bowers & Wilkins have beenestablished as masters of soundengineering for almost 50 years.We are now able to bring thatsame expertise to the world ofheadphones; the same precision, thesame care, the same extraordinaryrange and depth of detail is nowavailable from an ultra-light, highlyportable set of headphones superblyCDRHFMDCSNjSHMSNXNTQKHED£169.99 Buy direct from bowers-wilkins.co.uk/P3 Two-year warrantyfrom authorised retailers Free deliveryAvailable in Black, White. Red and Blue

HOTS TUF F Old brand new TECHNICS PREMIUM CLASS C700 Now, this is exciting. Technics is back. That’s the company known by most for its iconic SL1200 DJ turntables, but fondly remembered by others for its hi-fi separates and mini systems – back when graphic equaliser presets for ‘Hall’ or ‘Stadium’ were a marvel and purchase decisions were made on the basis of a crisp cassette mechanism or smoothly retracting CD tray. Fittingly, they’ve come back at the high end: a stratospherically priced Reference Class range and this slightly humbler Premium Class – still likely to be in the thousands. But it’ll be streamy, with hi-res audio, and best of all, it has little VU meter needles. Sweet. £tba / technics.com/uk Don’t get in a stew TEFAL COOK4ME This is a one-pot culinary wonder that cooks, browns, boils and steams, and it’s pre-loaded with 50 sweet and savoury recipes that contain a maximum of six ingredients. You just choose your dish, follow the on-screen instructions regarding the what-and-when of the ingredients and, within minutes, tuck into a tasty tagliatelle or perfect paella. If you’re a time-rich metrosexual about town, the idea might horrify you; but if you’re a busy family, this can knock up a tasty dinner for many and keep dishes warm for up to 90 minutes, or be delay-started automagically up to 15 hours in advance – so it might be like mechanical manna. £220 / lakeland.co.uk We’re on a Dutch bender ALTERNATIVELY… PHILIPS 8900 Panasonic X942 Not curved, but Tell you what: the curved wall we’ve been according to the working on is taking ages. And it’s taking even PR this new flagship more plaster than it’s taking time. And then TV showcases ‘Ultra- Sony announced last month that less curved Large’ technology. is the new curved and we nearly had a heart It’s 85in. Not sure if attack. Fortunately, this month Philips has ‘Ultra-Large’ has been announced its first curved TV and we’re all internationally ratified. fired up again. It’s got Ambilight, but we don’t need that because we’ve plastered a bunch of Philips Hue lights into the curv-o-wall. It’s also got micro-dimming across its 55in panel and it’s powered by Android, so you can hit the Play Store and download some tasties. But not yet: pass that palette knife, will you? £tba (due winter) / philips.co.uk26

THE ONE RE-IMAGINING WHAT’S POSSIBLELUMIX GH4, WITH 4K SHOOTING ds 2014 LUMIX GH4 is the first camera of its type to shoot true-to-life 4K Ultra HD stills and video.The most advanced camera in the LUMIX G range, it’s the one for those who demand absolutequality behind the lens,* its size freeing your creativity to imagine new possibilities. Find the LUMIX G for you at panasonic.co.uk/LumixGTheOne*GH4 available body only or with 14-140mm lens.



HOT S TUF F Second thoughts ? WTF IS THE RESSENCE TYPE 1 OPTOMA WHD200?It will be as of the days of yore, when the sun rotated around the Earth and none but a blind fool would think otherwise. And then someone Looks stunning. I’ll take ten. pointed out, really carefully, why it was folly and now we laugh at the Now don’t be sniffy. Sometimes, within memory. Now we are on the cusp of realising that the hands should the confines of relatively featureless not rotate around the dial; rather the dials should rotate around the black boxes, life-changing functionality hands. Watches should not be electronic and smart; they should be can be found. In this case, the removal smartly mechanical. Should they need recharging, that shouldn’t of some of those pesky HDMI cables begin a quest to find the little wireless charging splunkin – it should that are snaking around your house, be done by simply rotating the back of the watch. Are you ready to tripping up the maid and chewed by the dog. Previously available only in Europe be enlightened, people of Earth? (Do you have a few quid?) but now wired up British-style, the £13,000 (approx) / ressence.eu WHD200 forms an up-to-20m wireless link between the end of two HDMI cables. Waterproof or hi-res? Twenty metres! At last, I can stream SONY NWZ-A15,NWZ-WS613 TV to the Wendy house. Uh, nope. See, the WHD200 deliberately If you’re reading the issue from back to front, you’ll have noticed that uses a different frequency to that used Sony has launched two new phones this month. If you’re reading the by your Wi-Fi router and cordless phone,issue from front to back, then watch out – there’s a spoiler above. But to reduce interference. This is cleverSony has been busy elsewhere, too. The WS613 is a pair of standalone thinking. However, the higher frequencyWalkman earpieces with upwards of 4GB on-board. They also work as makes the signal less capable of travellinga Bluetooth headset, and are waterproof. Then there’s the NWZ-A15, through walls and windows. Less clever.a hi-res Walkman that will play FLAC, AIFF, WAV and Apple Lossless files. So the most likely use, as far as we can see, is for someone who has a dual TV It will also, says Sony, upscale lossy formats such as MP3 to hi-res and projector setup. The transmitter box audio quality. To which we raise an interested, sceptical, earbrow. has two HDMI 1.4 inputs and one output, so day-to-day you can watch TV on your from £170, from £130 / sony.co.uk normal box, but wirelessly send the signal to your roof-mounted megaprojector for special occasions. Like the University Challenge quarters. Talk to me about quality, though, because I like my Bamber Gascoigne to be sharp. Few people are sharper than a Bamber, and the WHD200 shouldn’t let you down. Dispel any received notions about wireless streamers, so long as the range isn’t out: this box of delights will keep up to 1080p60 HD or 1080p24 3D just as crisply as if you were running it through big-ass HDMI cables. The signal can still carry multichannel audio, too, if you’ve got your system wired up that way – there’s a maximum system latency of 1ms that might need a little tweaking if you’re of a golden-eared persuasion. £165 / optoma.co.uk 29

The bigger picture in tech CARPOCALYPSE NOW Jaguar flew its new XE over London this month prior to its glitzy launch, a scene that will no doubt bring to mind Wagner’s Ride Of The Valkyries. Which might be deliberate – German music for its German foes BMW, Audi and Mercedes. Or it might be an embarrassing marketing oversight. Either way, the car looks mint. Were we a small executive, this might well be the small executive car we’d choose.30

HOT S TU F FCLIP-ON NOWSCREWS-ONSony has expanded itsrange of crazy clip-oncamera lenses for yoursmartphone. The £250QX1 will let you screw onany E-mount digital SLRlens, while the slightlysaner QX30 (also £250)is a 30x-zoom update ofthe previous QX10.SELFIE-AWAREHTC’s new mid-range 820phone is interesting fortwo very different reasons.Firstly, it’s got a 64-bitocta-core Snapdragon815 chipset, so it’s one ofthe first phones to be readyfor the 64-bit Android LOS. Secondly, it follows theemerging trend for phoneswith powerful front-facingcameras: a sizzling 8MPof selfie-taking overkill.SONOS TAKESOUT THE BRIDGEAn oft-maligned aspect ofthe Sonos wireless audiosystem is that eitherone of the speakers ora purpose-made Bridgeneeds to be hardwired intoyour home network. Nomore! A new softwareupdate makes the systemtotally wireless. 31

HOTS TUF F The light shines from within PENTAX K-S1 Those lights on the grip are “an innovative illumination interface system”. Effectively, the lights shine green when taking photos but turn red when shooting video. Function? Form? You decide. The camera specs are healthy: a new CMOS sensor with 20.12 effective megapixels, ultra-high ISO 51200 sensitivity, and a shutter speed of 1/6000 second. It has a 3in LCD display with an easier-to-use UI, plus if you use a Flucard For Pentax memory card, you can control it via an iOS or Android app – ideal for mounting the camera and snagging perfectly considered shots. £550 / pentax.co.uk No more crayon styluses WACOM BAMBOO STYLUS FINELINE You know what’s great? A stylus. It’s like being transported back to toddlerhood and being blown away that the stick in your hand can make a line appear. Whenever we get our hands on a device with a stylus, we can’t help but delightedly cry: “Daddy draw a fish!” But you know what’s not great? Any stylus with the big spudgy end designed to work on non-digitiser touchscreens, ie: an iPad. This USB-rechargeable Bluetooth Stylus Fineline from Wacom, however, has a much finer end, albeit one that works best with Wacom’s own Bamboo Paper app. “Daddy draw a dinosaur!” £50 / wacom.com Humbly yours LOGITECH K480 BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD What a month. There’s smartwatches and iPhones and digital cameras enough for everyone. But we’ll never lose sight of what is glorious about geekery: it doesn’t take a royal budget to feel a little joy. Look at this Logitech keyboard. It has a long slot in which youmightbeabletofitbothaphoneandtablet andithasaselectorswitchtohop betweenthepairingsofeither– aswellasyourdesktoporlaptop.It’snotdesignedto be that portable, but it will reportedly last for up to two years with just two AAA batteries. Other, more expensive gadgets might come and go, but this will sit on your desk, neatly doing its thing. And that’s to be celebrated, no? £50 / logitech.com/uk 32

Wear it. Mount it. Love it.™GoPro App gopro.madison.co.uk

CHO I CE GLOBES 2 All together now! We’ve got the who-ole 4 world on our desks, we’ve got the... 6 1 MOVA Spinning Globe 1 3 We all love a dramatic juxtaposition: how about a traditional globe that 5 spins futuristically in thin air? So much less clichéd than all those[ Picture RGB Digital ] Instagram pics of empty Coke cans littered around the pyramids. £150 / nauticalia.com 2 12-inch Venus Globe Face it – you won’t be part of an intergalactic colony and you’ll probably never fire a laser in space. Instead, gaze at this topological map of Venus and imagine it all happened before ‘they’ wiped your memory. £110 / 365astronomy.com 3 SuckUK Cork Globe Impress friends with your well-travelledness by sticking pins in this corking sphere. As long as you don’t just have 20 bristling out of Marbella, that is. £100 / suck.uk.com 4 Globee San Francisco Night Light Globe Cool kids love San Fran. Cool kids sit on museum steps reading Jack Kerouac before heading to their office that looks like Tom Hanks’ apartment in Big. £16 / globee.co.uk 5 Globe On Stand You hand-wind your vintage Rolex, you use a fountain pen, and prefer to take notes in a Moleskine. Vinyl sounds better than Spotify. You like globes that look like globes did when this was all fields. £15 / notonthehighstreet.com 6 Maxwell’s Lunar Globe In days of yore, skygazers peered upon yonder moon without the aid of satellites, and ye olde lunar globes had a blank, unmapped slice where be moon dragons. £420 / globemakers.com34

3 NEW WAYS TOLOOK AT SOUNDBuy a wireless Libratone ZIPP or LOOPspeaker and get an additional FREEcover from our new décor color range: Apricot Red Moss Green Sandstone YellowBuy your speaker online or from anauthorised reseller and registeryour product at libratone.comto claim your free cover.*FREE EXTRA COVERWITH PURCHASE* Offer valid until 31st of October 2014

HOTS TUF F Which adventure are you? STARCKBIKE M.A.S.S. BY MOUSTACHE French fancifier Philippe Starck has put his pencil to four bikes with one aim: adventure. But you must have the correct bike for the terrain in which your adventure finds itself – the name stands for Mud, Asphalt, Sand, Snow. All of them are electric, thanks to bike peddlers Moustache, and they all use the slick Bosch Performance system. The Sand and Snow bikes get fat tyres, while the Snow (pictured) also has a distinctive furry cover to protect the battery from the cold. The Mud and Asphalt bikes come with more conventional tyres but top-line components. Each bike also gets themed accessories, including some frankly bonkers helmet designs. £tba / starck.com It is, and it isn’t NOKIA LUMIA 830 Nokia, which is actually Microsoft, has released its ‘affordable flagship’ (it’s not its actual flagship – that’s the 930, which is more powerful). But the 5in-screen 830 still has Zeiss optics and optical image stabilisation,and is flagshippy enough to get the new Lumia Denim OS update with a new mega-featured Lumia Camera app. The 830 is markedly slimmer, at just 8.5mm and 150g, making it the thinnest and lightest Lumia smartphoneever made. Nokia also launched the 4.7in 735, calling it the ‘selfie phone’ as it has a 5MP wide-angle front camera. £tba / nokia.com Rub-a-dub-dub, 3000 books in the tub KOBO AURA H2O This ebook reader is waterproof: you can submerge it in up to one metre of water for up to 30 minutes. Basically, you can dunk this in the bath or take it out in the worst rainstorm imaginable and it will not care the slightest bit. And the Aura H2O’simperviousness to water isn’t the only string to its bow. Comparedtoitspredecessor,theAuraHD,it’slighter and thinner and its 6.8in anti-glare touchscreen is sharper. It comes with 4GB of expandable storage, a battery that’ll last up to two months and a 1GHz processor that Kobo says will make page-turning swifter. £140 / kobo.com36



GAME S DUE NOV FIRST PLAY PROJECT CARS PS4,Xbox One,PC,Wii U Roaring its mantra ‘beyond for cash and puts it back where delivering driver trust. Once the reality’ over the noise of snarling it should be: on competitive weather model comes into effect, V8 supercars, single-seaters and spirit. These are lofty targets it’s hard not to admire the puddles even karts, Project Cars wants for a company whose last race that form or track droplet trails to move hardcore motorsport was Shift 2 (which, while pretty, on your visor, but it’s best to keep sims away from PC petrolheads somewhat missed its braking one eye on the road – handling and bring real-life handling and point and ran wide into console degrades in the wet. physics to all platforms. Yep, corner). But Slightly Mad Studios even the Wii U. was also involved in the GTR With everything from gentle series, and that’s the parent warm-up laps to 24-hour races, In its aim to be on the grid Project Cars naturally runs to. over 70 car licences and 80 ahead of Forza and Gran Turismo, tracks, PC support for 12K Project Cars scraps the ‘grind’ The handling is solid and graphics (using three 4K model of having to earn pots of progressive, and gives you monitors) plus Oculus Rift cash in a Daewoo Matiz before enough faith to establish routine and Sony’s Project Morpheus, you get to drive a car you actually braking and turn-in points, and Project Cars is vying for pole want. This switches the that combined with breathtaking on our most-wanted list. emphasis away from winning depth-of-field is central to Simon Strang38

HOT S TUF F2-UP ULTIMATE PANTS-BROWNERS SILENT HILLS SLENDER: THE ARRIVAL PS4, PC PS3, Xbox 360, PC That picture to the left isn’t from Silent Hills. It’s from The Slender Man is well-known on the internet P.T. (or Playable Teaser), which you can download for for being one of the creepiest creations in horror, your PS4 right now. It hints at the direction in which but until now he’s remained locked up in the relative Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame) and Pan’s Labyrinth safety of PC gaming. Reminiscent of found-footage director Guillermo Del Toro will take Silent Hills – and that films such as The Blair Witch Project, Slender: The direction is oh-my-god-I-don’t-like-it-please-turn-it- off-ARGHHHHH. Its brain-bending parallel-dimension Arrival has arrived on PS3 and Xbox 360 with premise sucks you into the puzzles to the point where a bump (in the night). Exploring his world, torch you’re distracted enough to be easily scared. And scare in hand, through the LCD screen of a camcorder, you it will. More than any game you’ve ever played. it’s really just a case of how long you can bear to VS play without switching the lights on.MAKING THE JUMP TO PS4UNTIL DAWN TEARAWAY UNFOLDED DAYZOriginally planned for the PS3, Until Dawn This charming cut ’n’ paste puzzle platform Notoriously buggy and even moreis a spiritual successor to Sega’s 1992 game from the makers of Little Big Planet notoriously difficult, survival shooterMega CD game Night Trap. You have to was a critical hit on Vita and hopes to pull a DayZ was originally a mod for PC gamemake decisions for a group of eight friends, bigger crowd when it makes the jump to its Arma 2. While its standalone PC versionstranded in the middle of nowhere with a TV-tethered brother. It’s described as an isn’t even out yet, DayZ creator Dean Hallmurderer on the loose. Can you hold the ‘expanded retelling’ of the original; expect has announced it’s coming to PS4 – thoughcontroller still enough to prevent giving your DualShock’s touchpad and motion there’s no release date yet. An Xbox Oneaway your hiding place to the killer? controls to finally be put to good use. version hasn’t been ruled out either. INCOMING OCTOBER O ALIEN ISOLATION O FORZA HORIZON 2 OTHE EVIL WITHIN NOVEMBER O FAR CRY 4 O LITTLE BIG PLANET 3 O PES 2015 DECEMBER OLARA CROFT & THE TEMPLE OF OSIRIS 39

HOTS TUF F Three is the magic shape ALIENWARE AREA-51 Alienware says its ‘Triad chassis’ optimises cooling as well as access to ports and the like: you can simply pivot it forward using the built-in grips, and the sides come off for more serious tinkering. Like previous Area-51s, it will be configurable at purchase, and if money is no object you can have an octo-core Intel i7 Extreme processor, up to 32GB of RAM, a 1.5kW power supply, the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi and as many as three full-length, double-width graphics cards. That means 4K graphics across up to three monitors – a potential resolution of 11,520x2160 pixels. Jeepers. £tba (due December) / alienware.co.uk Z3 things of Orient are Not ‘affordable’, perfect SONY Z3,Z3 COMPACT, B&O BEOPLAY S8 Z3 TABLET COMPACT We’re all on to a winner here, bless us. Within the A tablet and two phones walked into a bar. The bartender gilded staterooms of Messrs Bang and Olufsen, they said to the tablet: “Oi, you can’t ring them in here.” And whisper about this 2.1-channel audio system as a more affordable entry to BeoPlay ownership. But once it’s they all had a good laugh and sat around discussing specs laid out resplendent in our lounges, onlookers will only for the rest of the afternoon. Like how all three – the Z3 be amazed at the beauty of the S8 – win! – at which we can rabbit on about the work of its Danish designer phone, the Z3 Compact and the 8in Z3 Compact Tablet – Torsten Valeur. If some audiophile should feel beholden have the ability to play hi-res audio, including Sony’s new to remark on its lowly status, then we can frown disapprovingly: “In this room? I should think anything DSEE HX that upscales MP3-quality audio to hi-res. The larger than a 250W Class D amplified sub and two 150W two phones got talking about their super-high 12800 speakers would be a little unbalanced, don’t you?” (Win.) £1000 / bang-olufsen.com ISO cameras, but the tablet told them to shut up and they moved on to PS4 Remote Play instead,which they all have. Inevitably though, after a few drinks, the talk turned to size differences. Doesn’t it always. £550, £430, £330 / sony.co.uk HOT POT Hiding inside the sub are the two 150W amplifiers that drive these guys. That means they can be made pretty small: 158mm across and less than 1kg each.40

Open it up in a truly massive open world. From day to night, dirt to pavement. Connect and race with friends in the most realistic – and unreal – driving game out there with more than 200 of the world’s greatest cars. Get the demo now on Xbox One. “Visually, Forza Horizon 2 is a thing of beauty” – Trusted Reviews “It’s hard to not marvel at the glorious graphics” – Pocket-lintXbox.com/ForzaFeatures and requirements subject to change. Features vary between Xbox 360 and Xbox One version of game (each sold separately). Xbox One games for useonly with Xbox One systems. Games made for Xbox 360 will not work on Xbox One. Xbox LIVE Gold membership (sold separately) required for online multiplayer;multiplayer between Xbox 360 and Xbox One not supported. On Xbox 360, some cars require download from Xbox LIVE (ISP fees apply) and a hard drive. ForXbox 360 4GB, Arcade and Core consoles (hard drive sold separately). Demo available for Xbox One only. Download from Xbox LIVE. 12GB required. ISP fees apply.

APPS 7 This month’s mobile must-downloads 14 582 36 91 CoPilot 4 Back To Bed 7 Bugmilesfrom £20 / Android, iOS, Windows £2.49 / iOS £free / iOSThere are many reasons to like Remember Monument? What The British online social club forCoPilot’s mobile sat-nav, including a pleasant slice of isometric runners, therunningbug.co.uk, nowits multi-platformness and its gravity-defying bimble-gaming has an app for tracking and loggingaffordability. And now it’s done that was. But over too soon, yes? your efforts. Obviously it faces a lota free update, 9.6.2, that adds a Enter Back To Bed, in which you of competition, but if you’re alreadyfree map update and time-savvy manipulate environments to keep one of its 200,000 members thenActiveRoutes algorithms. a sleepwalker safe. it’s a no-footer.2 FishBrain 5 Tiny Tower Vegas 8 Assassin’s Creed APP SPOTLIGHT Pirates VALIANT£free / Android, iOS £free / iOS HEARTS: THEIs it a happy-go-lucky social app to Previous Tiny Tower games were £free / iOS, Android GREAT WARlog your favourite fishing spots and pretty good. By ‘pretty good’ we ACP gets a new episode, entitledcatches? Or is it a cunning ploy by mean the time we spent playing Cold Blood, which is set in the Arctic £2.99 / iOSanimal activists to trick Japan into them would show up on a graph of Sea. Brrrrr. Sorry, that wasn’t usposting pictures of illegal whaling our life activity. Now there’s a new shivering at the sight of icebergs, In this centenary year, Worldactivity? Either way, FishBrain now take, in that you’re running a Vegas it was the idea of facing a new round War One things have beenhas 500,000 users. den. Get the thumb-splints out. of in-app purchase demands. popping up all over the place, but one of the most heart-3 FaceFusion 6 Gravity Flipper 9 Cord warming was Ubisoft’s Valiant Hearts – and now it’s availablefrom £free / iOS £free / Android £free / iOS for iOS, albeit in IAP chapters.It’s creepy enough that this game’s “Tap to reverse gravity. Try not to Cord lets you share voice messages You play different charactersmarketeers suggest mixing your die.” Not only a succinct intro for with friends or groups of friends. from different aspects of theface with that of a celebrity. But a tricksy, monochromatic, Flappy “We used to call it ‘conversation’,” war and help them with theirnot nearly as creepy as mixing your Bird-generation scroller, but also your dad will say. Or, if he’s a geek, differing struggles.face with that of your pet, and not a fine concept for a film. Or maybe he’ll launch into a diatribe aboutnearly as ROFL-inducing. Tweet a difficult-to-insure replacement the failure of Push-To-Talk phones.your best efforts to @stuffTV. for Laser Tag. Either way, yawn.42

Portable Bluetooth SpeakerPIONEER FREEME SPEAKERS ARE THE PERFECT speakers come in a genuine leather finish, with aCHOICE FOR PORTABLE SOUND… ALL AROUND. choice of a Tan or black.Small and lightweight enough to fit in your bag, the It’s not hard to play your favourite tracks out loud, theFREEme is the perfect music accessory to take along for FREEme speakers have built in Bluetooth® and workgatherings, as the smart and effective 360° circle sound with simple NFC one touch pairing, for quick and easydesign allows listeners to sit wherever they please. music playback. If that’s not enough, the speakers come with a built in microphone for hands free callingBringing style to your sound, the LF1 FREEme speakers from the click of a button!come with a rubberised finish and a choice of threecolours; aqua blue, white and black, whilst the LF3 Begin the journey at www.pioneer.co.uk/freemeThe Bluetooth word mark is a registered trademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use Pioneer.electronicsof such mark by Pioneer Corporation is under license. @PioneerUK

B E S TOF YAMAHA …which dropped 15 products this month. We quite like these three: TIME FOR DAB MORE GO THAN GLOW SMART AND SHINY TSX-B15D LSX-170 R-N301 Remember the opening scene of Back The trend for pretty lights shows no sign We’d auction off our collection of To The Future as it pans slowly around of passing. Whether it’s smart lightbulb BNIB Robosapiens to get ourselves a room full of clocks, all set to exactly the same time? Well, that, but with modern sockets or cameras with LEDs built a couple of steps up the range of Bluetooth-streaming, DAB-receiving into the grip, or Kickstarted pseudo- Yamaha A-S high-design hi-fi alarm clocks. A whole room of them! Ambilight LEDs to stick to the back separates. This isn’t even really an Roberts, Revo, Pure, Goodmans, and of your TV, we’ll take it all. Yamaha’s A-S product, but it’s got that kind of this one from Yamaha that looks like it’s latest Relit products stay blessedly clear Japanese Bauhaus aesthetic – and that half-sunk into the tabletop. It’s got Apt-X of the garish end of this market, content ‘N’ in the name refers to ‘Network’, this Bluetooth and an aux-in socket, but the to be just a mains-powered desktop being one of Yamaha’s connected amps. bad news is that the UK website is only speaker that just happens to have DLNA, Spotify streaming and dedicated showing the black and white versions app control are all on-board, along and not the glorious colours you see here. app-controllable lights on-board. with the good old stuff like a phono Bluetooth, natch, and there’s a stage and buttons that go ‘clunk’. £120 / uk.yamaha.com portable one, the LSX-70. £360 / uk.yamaha.com £260 / uk.yamaha.com44

HOT S TUF F Get your own back MOTOROLA MOTO X The Moto X won’t win any spec wars. No world firsts or gimmicks either. But Motorola’s new flagship smartphone will wiggle its way into your shortlist anyway. How? With a gorgeous new 5.2in Full HD display, a 13MP camera with a ring flash and – lest we forget – even more customisation than last year’s X. The front is either black or white, but you can choose from 25 different materials for the rear, including real leathers and woods. You also get ten choices of accent colour and the option to engrave a name or message on the back. All for a score over £400 – it’s definitely worth a look. £420 / motorola.com Be king of the swingers SONY SMART TENNIS SENSOR They say the CIA can reconstruct your conversationsusing an office object, turning vibrations into a waveform of you slagging off your manager. Knowing this makes a sensor that only tells you that you hit a ball seem underwhelming. Until you learn it can measure where on the strings you hit the ball, along with swing and ball speed. It knows its forehand smash from its backhand slice, and all the stats can either be saved or viewed in real time via an Android or iOS app. US$200 / sony.co.uk A smorgasbord of in-car tech VOLVO XC90 Volvo’s new XC90 is the figurehead of its refreshed, hi-tech and still Swedish design direction. Those fancy LEDs and the simplified front grille, for example, plus the hybrid 60g/km CO2 engine. But let’s go inside: the dashboard has a new tablet-like Sensus infotainment system that supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with Nuance-powered voice recognition. There’s a 19-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system and, should you be distracted by it, there’s a brace of sensors and radar working to avoid peds and cyclists as well as other cars. Makes a Range Rover look like an over-priced tractor, doesn’t it? £tba / volvocars.com 45

V I TALSTATSONE, TWO, BUCKLEMY CAMERAROOCasio Exilim EX-FR10¥50,000 (approx £290) / casio.com This ain’t no two-bit, A detachable, me-too action camera. Bluetooth-linked Oh, wait, it is two-bit. screen saves your As in two bits… phone’s battery life O Having it all Ask anyone – the world is full of haves and have-nots. Take the GoPro HD Hero: surprisingly, it’s a have-not, because it has no built-in screen. Don’t be sad, it’s also a squillionaire. Now look at Garmin’s VIRB, a new(ish) ‘have’ with a fancy colour screen. Oooh. O Best of both worlds Now let’s look at this Casio – you can stop looking at the other two, they’re not going anywhere. The EX-FR10 manages to be that rarest of things, a have and a have-not. Its 2in 230k-dot screen, which can sit in line with the lens or be folded around the back, can also be removed and used via Bluetooth as a waterproof remote control. It’ll hold an image up to five metres from the lens, but continue to act as a shutter button 10m away. O Screen there, done that But now the waters will be muddied by someone pointing out that, while the GoPro ‘have-not’ got a screen, it ‘have’ the ability to connect to your phone. Quite right: it is by hook and by crook both a have and a have-not. To which we reply: so is the Casio, thanks to a free Exilim app. O Specs appeal But is it actually better, this Casio? It has a 21mm equivalent focal length, with an f/2.8 aperture. A 1/2.3in CMOS sensor records 14MP stills and 1080p video to microSD cards and Casio says its battery will last 75 minutes of action shooting. But action cams can’t be judged on specs alone. It’s only out in the mud and the mire, the sand and the surf, that they show their true colours. So we’ll endeavour to do just that, the minute the EX-FR10 makes its way over from Japan.46

HOT S TUF F VS Speaker easy Level best PURE JONGO X SERIES DENON HEOS The Jongo system isn’t shiny and new like Denon HEOS, Heos, the Greek god of wireless multiroom audio, has but the ‘X’ marks a refresh. There’s the coolly refreshing sided with Denon to create a set-up that’s aimed squarely at (and slightly pricier than) Sonos. There are three types, ice-coloured speaker grille on the white speakers, but with increasingly sophisticated speaker set-ups but the more refreshing still are the tweaks they’ve been given same connectivity: Wi-Fi, Ethernet or aux-in, with an iOS/Android app in control. The ‘3’ stands horizontally by the boffins in Pure’s R&D department. The setup or vertically, the ‘5’ and ‘7’ on their longer edge. There’sprocess has been simplified, and thanks to Pure’s Caskeid also the HEOS Amp and the Link, with line-level outputstechnology the whole Jongo system can now intelligently for your own amp, while the Extend creates a bridgepick up on what you were last playing and resume it when connection for the further reaches of your mansion. from £250 / denon.co.uk you’re back in the room. As multiroom systems go, Pure continues to win the value-for-money gong. from £100 / pure.comSTART MENU The month’s best concepts, start-ups, crowdfunded projects and plain crazy ideas Thumbing a lift Fade to great Action stations ULTRASONIC OPENMIX POWERPOLE LEVITATION MACHINE £35/myopenmix.com US$130/polarprofilters.com US$120/soniclevitation.com This dinky little device has two 3.5mm Some people think like dogs. See, mostOne for you science-o-philes, this kit contains inputs and one output, so it will let you people look at a GoPro on a stick and think crossfade tracks between two devices, about the footage. People who think like dogs all the bits you need to levitate light objects with the resultant noise heading straight look at a GoPro on a stick and think about the using soundwaves. An amusing enough to your hi-fi or PA system. Doesn’t have stick. That’s exactly what the guys (or to be two songs you’re mixing, either. You possibly dogs) at Polar Pro did, and that’sdiversion for a wet weekend, but it forms the could have one phone with music on and when they thought about filling the stick withbasis of a theory that could lead to perpetual another with one of the many DJ effects batteries to make your GoPro (and other motion, the resultant destruction of the apps out there. gadgets) last longer. Clever boy.energy industry and the demise of the human Status Status race as we know it. Maybe. Funded (Kickstarter) Funded (Kickstarter) Status Seeking funding (Kickstarter) 47

HOT S TU F FOUR MONTH What the past 30 days have brought us by way of geekery I SAW A I LISTENED I DIDN’T I GOT A I RODE A I COOKED UP MOTO 360 TO MUSIC REALISE THE LITTLE 116MPH A PLAYLIST… EXPLODE… LIKE AN TESLA WAS SMITTEN… LAWN- OLIGARCH… SO LOUD MOWER… …quite literally, …OK, it had already …with the detailed with the brilliant exploded/been …on Vertu’s £490 The deep guttural map of London’s …and I didn’t Biolite CampStove. carefully dismantled new V headphones. roar of its electric train lines at ‘do a Hammond’. Its ability to convert with all its custom They even smell engine was so carto.metro.free.fr Honda invited me twig-based fire into circular parts on exclusive, wrapped brutal and enticing – there were to Donington Park electricity meant display. I snuck in hand-stitched that I just had to undoubtedly better for a go on its it simultaneously behind the scenes lamb’s leather. And pop the hood and things I could have record-breaking cooked my pasta at Motorola’s new they sound great, check what was been doing than grass-cutter and, and powered my Chicago HQ to as you might expect under it. Turned figuring out how while I may not campfire songs see the squares with the design out to be quite many platforms of quite have earned during a trip to and squircles it assisted by B&O. a surprise. Watch how many stations a spot in Guinness’s Snowdonia. Even rejected before You’d swear Cliff the vine here: I had been to. book, you can read the sheep were striking design was in the room. bit.ly/stufftesla all about my ride impressed. gold with the 360. Fraser Macdonald on stuff.tv Stephen Graves Ross Presly consulting editor / Sophia Charara stuff.tv deputy ed / deputy art editor / station spotter reviewer / easy listener confused greaser 360° viewer Tom Wiggins deputy editor /48 lawnmower man Mark Wilson features editor / caveman 2.0



HOT S TUF FUpcoming cultural highlights: collect all six and win a prize! But without the prize 03 20 21 27 30 31 HAYFEST MARVEL’S THE ABYSS GODZILLA THE SUNSET AGENTS OF BEYOND TELEGRAPH OVERDRIVE Hayfield, S.H.I.E.L.D. DREAMS Not monstery SKI AND Derbyshire SEASON 1 enough! Too SNOWBOARD No need to buy a Peter F Hamilton monstery! SHOW Halloween costume, Either the last Perhaps you were All the possible because you’ll not hurrah of summer never in during the “O, for the wings accusations were Ignore the fact that be going anywhere. or the first, more show’s airings, or of a dove!” sang flung at acclaimed you haven’t booked As long as you building-based maybe your Sky+ someone, striking British director a snowsports clicked ‘release day festival of winter, box was faulty, or fear into doves Gareth Edwards’ holiday yet and delivery’ on your depending on your perhaps you didn’t everywhere. Here, Next Big Project. instead focus on Sunset Overdrive circumstances. watch it on 4oD. though, it’s more: Now we can watch spending a whole order, you’ll be Either way, this Whatever, now you “O, for 750 pages it again at home – wodge on the latest melting your brain civilised riot of can buy this on DVD of the first book getting the surround gear. This show at with technicolour music and beer and Blu-ray and in a new series speakers out – and Earl’s Court 2 is just third-person (including Andy perhaps get it all by a British sci-fi see if we were just the place to do it. craziness. Fairweather Low, down you before superstar!” a bit over-excited. above) should be Season 2 begins. a laid-back delight.50


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