T3 Magazine - November 2014 UK.pdf

TA B L E T S U P E R T E S T p 1 0 9

Apple’s big ideas!

iPhone 6 + Watch Exclusive hands-on special + 6 Plus: Apple’s first phablet The Gadget Magazine

156 GADGETS REVIEWED

November 2014 / £4.99

FIRST LOOK

GOOGLE GLASS GOES DESIGNER MR PORTER STYLES UP

ULTIMATE BUYERS’ GUIDE FROM PHOTOS TO FITNESS

YOUR SMARTGLASSES

MASTERS OF FX

FRAMESTORE UNCOVERED FROM OSCAR

TREND ON TEST

SMARTWATCH SHOWDOWN MOTO 360

WINNERS TO GALAXY GUARDIANS

Q

Q

Q LG G WATCH R ASUS ZENWATCH

Get Yourself

Connected 52 Wireless Upgrades To Change Your Life

Contents November 2014 / Issue 235

ON THE COVER Get yourself connected

54

Slabs of tech that talk to each other, wares that you wear. Welcome to the Internet of Things, humans…

iPhone 6 and Watch

15

Apple’s biggest phone launch ever and its long-awaited wrist adornment, handled by us, live from the frontline

Google Glass goes designer

56

Our reviewer has a few harsh words for standard Glass on p99. Just as well DVF and Net-A-Porter have a solution, then…

Smartwatch Showdown

110

Moto 360 takes on LG, Samsung and Asus for wrist-based supremacy

Framestore Uncovered Soho’s FX-meisters on going from Boy George to George Clooney to becoming Guardians of the Galaxy

97 SPECTACLES: GOOGLE GLASS EXPLORER EDITION (P99) DRESS: TUBE GALLERY SHOES: KURT GEIGER

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Contents November 2014 / Issue 235

Editor’s letter

11

OPINION How to get ahead in headphones

15

Stateside by Chris Smith

Review: Samsung 65HU7500

Outing closet gays for fun and profit!

Need list

Gamergate: Word War III is here

We have plenty of tech made by firms other than Apple this month, from Samsung’s VR goggles to Sennheiser’s sexy cans Smartwatch showdown

24

Tech giants battle for control of that valuable territory betwixt arm and hand The field of hoop dreams

25

Icon: Richard Sapper

26

Design legend who Apple let get away… Spend: GTAaaaaaaarrrrgh!

28

It’s a McLaren for the track only. And also for the exceedingly gifted of wallet only Gaming gets woody

49

Review: Optoma HD50

Stellar HD projector that trumps even Samsung’s telly for screen size

FEATURES

Review: Humax DTR-T2000 YouView 54

Scaled-down speakers that suck out smartphone sounds

Who let the tech out?

Mobile devices for every budget and requirement, slated or rated

85

Yes, this actually happened: T3’s long-awaited rundown of the best dongles for dogs and cameras for cats. It’ll make you purr… 93

30

TECH LIFE Gadget of the month

67

Stats, tech stories and your Apple thoughts

Philippe Starck’s latest “works”: future e-bikes and Conan the Barbarian’s cycling helmet

Incoming

How to

The Buzz

30 38

Must-remember dates for your digital diary

Tech Dad 41

Creative Assembly makes impregnation and evisceration in space seem scary again 42

The Evil Within keeps the tension high, plus DriveClub and more Borderlands Music

69

Supertest: tablets

106

113

THE GUIDE Smartphones Tablets Laptops Gaming Home audio Home entertainment Headphones Televisions Cameras Accessories

118 119 120 121 122 123 124 126 127 128

43

Upgrade: watches

76

Top quality shanks enter choppy waters Home

Apps, websites and ebooks

Drive

44

73

Let there be light, on your bike. Plus get muscular and muddy with our cyclocross gear

Edge of Tomorrow kills Tom Cruise nastily over and over again. Who could resist? Tom Hanks puts out an iPad typewriter app. No, us neither. Plus: cloud storage sites

71

Smart watches (as opposed to smartwatches). Plus your chance to win an Elliot Brown piece

Test: knives 43

70

Rapid Madness rifle: foam war is declared

Pulse

Aphex Twin: dirty son of a glitch Films

105

Tips and kit to recreate Mr Do in your shed

PLAY Games

68

Conker at conquers. No, that’s not right… Obsession: arcade cabinet making

The Essential: Alien: Isolation

Group test: Bluetooth audio

If your mind’s neglected, stumble, you might fall. That’s why you need our guide to all things linkable and Internet of Things-y

29

The more random end of quality tech

105

Red-hot PVR turbo charges Freeview

From a shack in Soho making videos for Culture Club to Oscar triumph with Gravity

Love Hultén’s irresistible R-Kaid-R puts retro games in old-school timber casings Stuff

High-end, 65-inch 4K TV lacks curve but has no shortage of pixels or style

Finally… by Nick Cowen

Framestore: world builders

104

49

Truth by Duncan Bell

Get yourself connected…

Tron-esque court attempts unlikely feat of making basketball interesting

99

YouTube celebs: what the hell is going on? 48

All you need to know about Watch, iPhone 6 and its bigger bro’, iPhone 6 Plus 20

360 review: Google Glass

The smart specs are finally available in the UK. Time to make a Glass of yourself?

Insight by Monster’s Noel Lee

RADAR Most Wanted: Apple’s new batch

RATED 47

77

Dyson’s exceedingly tall robo-vac unleashed VW’s e-Golf looks like a real car. BMW’s i8, however, looks like the future of driving…

78

ON THE COVER AKVILE @ PROFILE PHOTOGRAPHED BY RICHARD GRASSIE STYLING BY DEAN HAU HAIR AND MAKEUP BY AMI PENFOLD RETOUCHING BY SIMON WINDSOR MODEL WEARS DVF MADE FOR GLASS, YELLOW JUMPER BY BAUM UND PFERDGARTEN, RINGS BY TOPSHOP

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Editor’s letter November 2014 / Issue 235

We predicted the “iWatch” in my first issue, almost four years ago. Fact is, it’s been a great white whale for tech’s many rumour-raking Ahabs: a fabled wristpiece that would teleport us into that ice white future promised by science fiction and Dieter Rams, while justifying our existence as vital trend predictors, if it would just get over itself and exist. On a long enough timeline, we all get something right, and now the iWatch is here. Except it isn’t; it’s just called Watch (p15) – the world’s SEO teams let out a collective sigh – and it won’t be on arms till next year. But it exists, and this is a good thing. First, the power of Apple’s commercial partnerships and app alliances guarantee that there will at last be something to do with a smartwatch beyond Michael Knight impressions. Second, its buy-me looks – trust us, those pics you’ve seen online do it no justice whatsoever – will make every other wearable maker raise its design game. It was a hell of a launch, too. At the Flint Center, where the original Mac was unveiled, a huge, Grand Designs-style white monolith in the courtyard turned into an elaborate Apple Store of unreleased plenty. Stephen Fry sauntered among

the phones, Gwen Stefani and Dr Dre jetted in together, and I bit my lip to not get too “fanboy” around Trent Reznor. U2 freebieing their new album was but a support act. Make no mistake, this was history in the making, like the first iPhone or iPad unveiling, a green light of approval on a new product category in its infancy. Over the next 12 months, the tech leaps, the style evolutions, the app advances, and the endless accessories will be fascinating. Which makes it a sad day to depart the good ship T3, but after a prolonged stay in London, the world’s best tech mag sets sail back to its Bath home, where a new crew and captain will take it to hopefully even warmer waters. We’ve made our fair share of history in the four years I’ve been at sea with T3, too. We’ve been the UK’s bestselling digital mag three years running, nabbed two PPA Awards, two DMAs, one GMA and hit two record-high circulations. We’ve secured exclusives from Google and Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, and I’ve had the pleasure of chewing the tech fact with such icons as Sir David Attenborough, Lord Sugar, Shuhei Yoshida, Sir Ridley Scott and Palmer Luckey. It’s been a hell of a trip. So we’ve gone all out on our last tech plundering. As well as a frank wrist assessment of Apple, we also get our mitts exclusively on both iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on p18 and our eyes on Net-A-Porter’s new designer Google Glass on p56. Then, as a fitting sign off to the capital, we go behind the scenes at its premier film graphics house, Framestore. It nabbed an Oscar for creating almost everything bar Sandra Bullock in Gravity before shaping this year’s unusually good blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy (p93). Thus, I give up the spear! Bon voyage. Matt Hill, Editor Twitter: @gethill / Email: [email protected]

{CONTRIBUTORS}

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Noel drummed in Asian Wood (yes!) in the 70s, before launching Monster Cable in 1979. Its partnership with Dre Beats changed the audio market for ever. He tells us how he got ahead in headphones on p47.

From brand development to animation and fashion, for clients from Saatchi and Saatchi to Skype, Aaron’s done it all. Now he brings his individual style to our Opinion section, from p47.

T3’s former features editor, who also used to rule over tech mags What Laptop and Tech, is now senior editor at Wareable.com. Who better, then, to unveil the most stylish wrist assistants on P54.

NOEL LEE

AARON MILLER

JAMES STABLES

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{EDITOR IA L}

{PUBLISHING}

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{A DV ERTISING}

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Radar

{ A L S O M A K I N G WAV E S }

Gear VR & the month’s top tech p20 Smartwatches: the new wave p24 A b-ball court that coaches you p25 The man who said no to Steve Jobs p26 Buckle up for McLaren’s P1 GTR p28 Arcade gaming goes portable p29

ESSENTIAL NEWS FROM TECH’S FRONTLINE

M OST WA N T E D

The unusual suspects: Apple Watch, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus

{ A P P L E WAT C H , i P H O N E 6 A N D i P H O N E 6 P L U S }

TIME AND MASS With its slick, long-awaited wearable and the two largest smartphones it’s ever produced in tow, Apple’s gone big AND gone home… N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 1 5

M OST WA N T E D

{ A P P L E WAT C H }

IT’S ABOUT TIME… Will the first new product category from Apple in four years kick the wearables market into overdrive? THE APPLE WATCH COULD WELL be the yardstick by which Tim Cook’s tenure as the company’s CEO is measured. Appearing on the Flint Center stage at the launch event in Cupertino sporting the firm’s first all-new tech creation since his predecessor Steve Jobs passed, Cook explained why the Watch – there’s no “i” in New Team Apple, and none in this product’s name either – is “the most personal product we’ve ever made”. You can see why: this thing is a customisea-thon. There are three versions of the Apple Watch, from the sweat-swatting Sport to the show-offy, 18-karat-gold Edition, with a series of swappable straps and screen sizes. While smartwatches to date have been oneoff, quickly iterated products, this is a new collection, in the fashion sense of the word. The rest of its armoury is a tad more familiar, with the Watch sensing when you’ve raised your wrist to activate the screen. Notifications come through as vibrations and you can control your music through it, too. Needless to say, it spends much of its time tracking your activity via a pulse monitor, accelerometer and gyroscope, although with no GPS on board, you’ll need your iPhone on you for more pro-like fitness pursuits. That’s right: when Cook says the Apple Watch is designed to work “seamlessly with iPhone”, he means it. While much of the wristpiece’s functionality is available while your handset’s left at home, you do very much need one as a hub for its services, which is understandable, if a bit of a shame. Where it gets Apple-ier was explained to us at the event by Sir Jony “voice of God” Ive. The Watch’s haptic touchscreen interprets your interaction based on how hard you tap, while a mic means that Siri is also onboard, CIA-style. Maps, meanwhile, offers the directions and location searching via directional vibrations, so you don’t actually need to look at the screen. Yet the curved sapphire-glass display is not the primary means of input: that’s the “digital crown”, which subverts the traditional winder into a nav tool and home button. Rather than use your podgy fingers to pinch and zoom on its tiny face, you rotate the dial for zooming, scrolling and more. Just what the extent of that may be, though, is in the hands of the devs… FROM $349, APPLE.COM/WATCH, OUT SPRING 2015

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2 1 {DETA ILS} 1. GET CONNECTED

The Watch is completely wireless, with no physical ports at all. Charging is via a circular MagSafe connector that attaches to the rear

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2. DISPLAY

A flexible sapphire-glass, pressure-sensitive Retina touchscreen, able to tell the difference betwixt a tap and a proper press 3. CROWN JEWEL

Apple reckons this “digital crown” control is its best input since the iPod wheel. It navigates menus and zooms in and out without obscuring the screen 4. DESIGN

Three watch collections x two face sizes x six strap styles apiece = 36 different customisable options. Straps vary from fit-happy rubber to jewellery links.

{SPECS}

BUILD Watch: stainless steel, Watch Sport: aluminium, Watch Edition: 18-karat gold DISPLAY Two sizes: 1.5” and 1.7” sapphire glass Flexible Retina touchscreen PROCESSOR S1 SiP CONNECTIVITY/SENSORS G Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 accelerometer, heart-rate monitor, Apple Pay COMPATIBILITY iPhone 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6 Plus BATTERY Not quoted

{FOCUS}

Apps with your Apple, Sir? With Watch, Apple has again built an attractive platform that it hopes will lure developers to truly secure its wearable future. Maps, Pay (p19) and Remote for iTunes are there, of course, and third parties include Facebook and Twitter. BMW has an app that will find your car, smart home giant Honeywell has one for

wrist-mounted thermostat control, while Starwood Hotels is looking to use the Watch as your room key. Fitness will play a big part, of course, and Nike is on board with an app to let friends know when you’re jogging (cheers for that). Apple’s own fitness apps are pre-loaded, though, to feed into iOS 8’s Health.

WWW FOR MORE NEWS GO TO T3.COM

Radar

NEWS BLIP MICROSOFT BUYS MINECRAFT CREATOR MOJANG FOR $2.5 BILLION

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{SPEAK}

T3 editor Matt Hill goes “wrist on” with Apple’s first wearable The product formerly known as iWatch tries hard to bridge the gulf between quirky phone sidekick and the kind of luxurious timepiece that people aspire to own. The canny hires from YSL and Tag Heuer, plus

Ikepod watch designer Marc Newson, have paid off, though: this is a very attractive product indeed. The 18-karat-gold Watch Edition, which if whispers can be believed will cost thousands, is particularly impressive. Of course, people spend that kind of dosh on a watch to last,

not one to upgrade each year, and in turn Apple reckons its timepieces will last for a decade with firmware updates. Hmm. The interface is super slick, the “digital crown” a clever workaround for tiny-screen syndrome, not just zooming into maps but also flicking

through colour schemes and traversing the menu of circular apps. The subtle alerts, shunning loud beeps for a light throb, are welcome, too. Smartwatches still have to prove themselves as a tech essential, but there’s enough allure here to think they might.

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M OST WA N T E D

{APPLE iPHONE 6 AND 6 PLUS}

MAKE MINE A LARGE… Believe the hype (and the leaks): Apple’s new superphones are bigger

IPHONE 6 FROM £539, 6 PLUS FROM £619, APPLE.COM/UK, OUT NOW

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{DETA ILS} 1. LARGER, THINNER

Apple’s two new handsets have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens. Despite that, waists of 6.9mm and 7.1mm actually make them the slimmest iPhones yet 2. RETINAMAZING

The new Retina HD screen ups the pixel counts, with 326ppi on the iPhone 6 and 401ppi on the 6 Plus 3. NFC AT LAST

The long-under-utilised contactless tech lets Apple Pay bolster Passbook with credit and store cards 4. IOS8: GR8

Features from walkie-talkiestyle voice messaging to the fitness-friendly Health app are on board. The 1.3 million iOS apps will all resize for the new screens, sans fuss, too

138MM (ACTUAL SIZE)

NO SINGLE PIECE OF CONSUMER tech generates as much chatter as a new iPhone and Apple again gives us two models to chew over at once. The lead iPhone 6 comes, as widely leaked, with a 4.7-inch display that pits it against the Galaxy Alpha and HTC’s One M8 for the superphone crown. The display is Retina rather than full-HD – 720p and 326ppi, since you ask – while something called “ionstrengthened glass” means it should withstand a pocket-based brawl with your car keys. The larger, phablet-like 6 Plus, however, is 5.5 inches of full HD (1920x1080 and 401ppi) splendour, which is big enough to let you run apps in landscape mode, iPad-stylee. On both this and its smaller sibling, rounded corners and a seamless build mean a closer similarity to iPads Air and Mini than iPhone 5S. The lock button on both moves from top to side, too. Design and res aside, little has changed that drastically since the iPhone 5S. There’s still silver, gold or “space grey” flavours and there’s still no SD card support, meaning you must choose from 16GB, 64GB or 128GB storage – where’s 32GB gone? No, we don’t know either. The new 64-bit A8 processor in both is, Apple assures us, 13 per cent smaller than last year’s A7 but 25 per cent faster, although, as ever, no stats are quoted. Similarly, the camera still has eight megapixels and an f/2.2 aperture lens, though a new sensor with “focus pixels” gives better autofocus and less noise, while the 240fps slo-mo upgrade is suitably ace. The 6 Plus even gets optical image stabilisation. As ever, where the changes mainly come is in the software, and while iOS 8 is visually similar to its predecessor, the functionality is greatly expanded. You can multi-task email drafts, send voice iMessages, make calls from your Mac, add real-time widgets to Notification Centre and use third-party keyboards. HomeKit and HealthKit will let you control a soon-to-be-announced canon of connected devices, while Apple Pay (see box, right) has designs on your wallet. Connectivity-wise, there’s little to grumble about, with 20 bands of LTE – more than any other phone – and download speeds up to 150Mbps. Something there is likely to be grumbling about? Well, if you’re offended by “premium” pricing, look away now…

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5. SNAP HAPPY

The front 1.2-meg cam is mainly for FaceTime, while the rear eight-meg/1080pat-60fps iSight packs better autofocus and time lapse 6. LANDSCAPING

The 6 Plus can add functions to your apps by making the most of the more tablet-like screen acreage. So far Mail and Calendar make best use, dividing off list views 7. TOUCH ME

TouchID is in place on both handsets this time, centre to authorising Apple Pay’s new credit transactions

7MM (ACTUAL SIZE)

8. WATCH THIS

Apple’s new wearable (see p16) requires an iOS 8powered iPhone to work, syncing up for calls, fitness tracking and whatever else devs are frantically coding right now


Radar

NEWS BLIP MORE THAN FOUR MILLION iPHONE 6S WERE PRE-ORDERED WITHIN 24 HOURS – AN APPLE RECORD

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{SPECS}

Apple iPhone 6

158MM (ACTUAL SIZE)

OS iOS 8 SCREEN 4.7-inch, 1134x750, 326ppi PROCESSOR/RAM 64-bit, A8 CPU plus M8 co-processor/1GB REAR CAM 8-meg/1080p FRONT CAM 1.2-meg/720p STORAGE 16GB, 64GB or 128GB CONNECTIVITY AC Wi-Fi, 4G, NFC/Apple Pay, Bluetooth 4.0, 3.5mm audio QUOTED BATTERY LIFE 14 hours talk, 250 standby SIZE/WEIGHT 138x67x6.9mm/129g

{FOCUS}

Apple Pay: quite literally money

Apple iPhone 6 Plus As above except: SCREEN 5.5-inch, 1080p, 401ppi QUOTED BATTERY LIFE 24 hours talk, 384 standby SIZE/WEIGHT 158x78x7.1mm/172g

6

Apple chief Tim Cook slammed credit cards as outdated then moved briskly on to Apple’s alternative: the prosaically monikered but undeniably exciting Apple Pay. Much like EE and PayPal have trialled, this uses near-field communication (NFC) to transmit payments from an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus as if they were contactless cards.

Register your plastic via iTunes or by scanning it with your phone’s camera and you can pay in any shop with a contactless payment hub; there are hundreds of thousands in the UK, but this is US-only to start with. The home button-set TouchID will read your fingerprint before allowing payments, or you can enter a pass code if you prefer (or are paying with the Watch). Your card details are never transmitted and payments can be suspended via Find My iPhone if it is lost Pay will work with credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard and AmEx at first, with McDonald’s and Disney the first firms to sign up to be paid in Apples.

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{SPEAK}

T3 editor Matt Hill gets his hands on Apple’s dynamic phone duo The world expected a tag team of iPhones and that’s exactly what it got. Much larger than Apple has risked previously, both are clear attempts at courting the growing Eastern market, where massive

phones are in high demand. Indeed, the 6 Plus initially feels very un-Apple, too big to use with one hand, with the interface workarounds no replacement for the firm’s previous “one thumb” thinking. That said, it’s still very light and both are finely

evolved designs, echoing the iPad Air’s metallic sleekness and harking back to the 3GS’s rounded edges, which I always preferred (no, really). While iOS 8 isn’t the most visual OS overhaul ever, there’s plenty of improved functionality, especially if you

have a Mac and Yosemite. Apple Pay is as responsive as suggested, the card scanning almost stupidly simple. The notable spec bump should sate Apple fans, but whether floating voters will be wowed by the oversized real estate, we shall see…

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M O S T WA N T E D PA R T 2

NEED LIST

{3}

4K FIEND

Alienware Area-51 The PC gaming specialist’s latest revamp plays the latest shooters at a maximum res of 11,520x2,160 – across three 4K monitors – thanks to new factory-overclocked, octocore Intel Haswell E processors and support for up to three graphics cards. The new, air-cooled “triad” chassis, meanwhile, boasts nine controllable lighting zones, an upgrade-friendly design (thanks to “vast and open entryways”) and, perhaps best of all, a vague resemblance to a ship from the original version of Elite.

If tech be the food of love, this is what you should be eating …

{1}

CLEAN SLATE

Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

£TBC, ALIENWARE.CO.UK, OUT WINTER

{2}

SONIC SMUT

Our pick of Sony’s enormous range of new gizmos, this tablet offers up eight inches of full-HD screenage, backed by a sprightly 2.5GHz quadcore, with graphics courtesy of an integrated Adreno 330. Add 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a meaty 4,500mAh battery and you have a real iPad Mini contender. But best is PS4 Remote Play, which lets you next-gen game from anywhere in the house with its DualShockfriendly dock. The Z3 line is all waterproof, so we chose the bath.

Audio aficionado Sennheiser has long been known for quality cans rather than snazzy looking ones… until now. These headphones put a Germanic spin on street style with an austere sexiness that’s like being spanked by a Wagnerian Valkyrie while elaborately moustachioed men dance to Kraftwerk. We’re talking stainless steel hinges, aluminium sliders and fabric wrapped headbands: ach ja, ich komme! Now, it must be said, Sennheiser has pandered to current, Dre-led fashions by cranking up the bass, but meaty sound thrusts from both ends of the audible spectrum. Filth.

£TBC, SONY.CO.UK, OUT AUTUMN

£150, SENNHEISER.COM, OUT NOW

Sennheiser Urbanite

{4}

GALAXY OF GEAR Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4, Gear VR and Galaxy Note Edge

The recent Samsung Unpacked event found the South Korean firm showing off a trio of top tech goodies. First, the 5.7-inch, eightcore, Note 4 is its new stylus-controlled phablet. Slot it into the Gear VR headset and it utilises Oculus’s bespoke software to transport you to far-away tropical beaches and laser-strafed battlefronts. The Galaxy Note Edge? Similar to the first but with an AMOLED screen that bends around the right-hand side of its 5.6-inch frame to shoot messages and alerts from the hip. GEAR VR $199, OTHERS TBC, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, OUT FROM OCTOBER

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Radar

NEWS BLIP MOBILE CHIP MAKER QUALCOMM PREDICTS MORE SMARTPHONES THAN PEOPLE BY 2019

{7}

DOUBLE TROUBLE New Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL

{5}

SPIES LIKE THIS Motorola Hint

This tiny, voice-controlled bud whispers notifications directly into your ear, with a proximity sensor so it knows it’s in there. A downside of its diminutive stature is a feeble battery life of just 3.3 hours, but arguably that’s worth it for the ability to pretend you’re a spy in a 1970s John le Carré adaptation or, if your reference points are more contemporary, Joaquin Phoenix in Spike Jonze’s Her.

Everyone loves a thumbstick, which iswhy Nintendo’s bunged a second control wiggler on to this update of its all-conquering handhelds, albeit in exceedingly nubby form (can’t work out where it is? It’s the little grey circle, top right). Other tweaks include extra shoulder buttons, a faster processor (the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles will, confusingly, only run on this), screen improvements such as an enhanced upper display and eye-tracking for optimised visuals, plus compatibility with the Skylanders-esque Amiibo figures (below) without the need for a peripheral. £TBC, NINTENDO.CO.UK, OUT OCTOBER IN JAPAN, UK TBC

$149, MOTOROLA.CO.UK, OUT WINTER

{6}

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM Logitech K480

Bluetooth keyboard that links to three devices simultaneously, with the dial on the left shifting between them. With two slots locking in blower and slate for angleoptimised viewing and support for PC, Mac, Android and iOS, it’s one for all, all for one! £50, LOGITECH.COM

{8}

WUB WUB WUB HUB Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay S8

B&O has clearly mugged the Household Guard for a bearskin for the design of this, but rest assured the result is anything but fluffy. This sub/satellite speaker combo packs a bassy punch, with 140W of low-end grumble from the eightinch cones inside, which can be sonically optimised for placing by the wall, in a corner or “free”. A further brace of 140W amps power the rather trebly hubcaps that flank it. £999, BANG-OLUFSEN.COM, OUT NOW

{9}

RETRO SOUND Flexson VinylPlay for Sonos

This stylish mix of old and new tech pairs with Sonos speakers, combining infinite-playlist, multi-room, digital convenience with one-album-at-a-time, single-room, analogue inconvenience. Okay, it also lets you make digital copies of your LPs for easier distribution, but surely that’s cheating, isn’t it? £329, AMAZON.CO.UK, OUT NOW

{10}

PHILIPS SKEW DRIVER Philips 8900 series

The curved TV fray is joined by the we’re-not-making-any-more-TVs-honest Dutch firm with the first dose of bendy-vision to run on Android. The 4K 55-incher ships with 1.6GB of storage to house Google Play goodies and touts micro dimming, adjusting backlight levels to match lounge ambience, and three-sided Ambilight, which emits colours from its sides to suit on-screen hues. There’s also a camera for gesture control – and so GCHQ can watch you. £TBC, PHILIPS.CO.UK, OUT WINTER


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Radar

NEWS BLIP HARMAN KARDON LAUNCHES OMNI, THE FIRST “WIRELESS HD MULTI-ROOM AUDIO SYSTEM” (SONOS SAYS HI)

{12}

INSTASNEAKS Adidas MiZXFlux

This impossible-to-pronounce trainer line lets you create kicks as unique as your face, a chaffinch or an urban landscape – well, anything you can take a smartphone pic of, basically. Position, rotate and scale your photo in the iOS or Android app into totes unique shoe designs for optimal swag, hit “Buy”, then wait for delivery. Now, when someone steps on your sneaks, they may quite literally be stepping on your face – maximum disrespect, guy. £82, ADIDAS.CO.UK, OUT NOW

{11}

GIMME, GIMME, GIMME… Holger Senior

…A bag after midnight. If you think of this Swedish carry-all collection as Abba, the Senior bag is the large and cheery Benny, capable of sheathing a 13-inch laptop, your tablet and phone. The Junior bag is the waif-like Agnetha, while the Backpack is Björn and the other one. All are literally electric performers, keeping tech alive with a builtin 3,600mAh battery, and put a leather finish in five colours over a recycled interior. SENIOR €229, JUNIOR €199, BACKPACK €249, HOLGERBAGS.COM, OUT NOW

{13}

{15}

HEAVY METAL IN DOLBY

SMALL CAMERA, BIG PICS

The first home receiver to support Dolby’s dangerously immersive 3D audio format Atmos, this multichannel behemoth lets you configure up to 11 individual speakers. So that’s two subwoofers, three speakers at the front, two at the back, two at the sides and two overhead, arrayed in a state-of-the-art 9.2 configuration. Atmos-compatible movies will start appearing in autumn, with Guardians of the Galaxy and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes leading the way.

In Gadgetland, the much-coveted “world’s smallest” badge of honour is a fleeting one, so Sony’s wasting no time with the world’s smallest “interchangeable lens camera with an APS-C sensor”. This squeezes 24.3 megapixels into a 110x63x35.7mm body, with Sony’s Bionz X processor co-opted from the flagship A7 range. What? All you want is to take selfies? Lucky there’s a flip-out LCD, then…

Marantz SR7009

$1,999 (UK PRICE TBC), MARANTZ.COM, OUT OCTOBER

Sony a5100

{14}

NO, NOT ADELE Aëdle VK1 Legacy

Handmade in France, the Legacy works a headband and cups in hand-sewn lambskin, 40mm transducers and acoustic chambers wrought from a single piece of machined aluminum. As well as high-quality audio for the home, it also offers an in-line mic and remote for your phone. Commissioned originally for swanky Milanese design show the Salone del Mobile, it was then available as a limited edition and then at Selfridge’s only. But now it’s available for normal, non-fashionista people. Hoorah! £300, AEDLE.NET, OUT NOW

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£550 WITH 16-50MM LENS KIT, SONY.COM/UK, OUT NOW

Radar

I N N O VAT I O N

SMARTWATCH STYLE Committed Apple objector? It’s time to upgrade YOUR wrist, too…

ASUS ZENWATCH

LG G WATCH R

Features include the tip-top Tap-Tap, which locates your phone, Remote Camera, which is a “Remote” control for your “Camera”, and a call-muting “talk-to-the-hand”-style gesture that lets you bin off a cold caller or needy friend just by covering the watch face. Needless to say, it employs Android Wear, so there’s full access to Google Play’s wearable wares. Even more needless to say, a bunch of fitness trackers are incoming for it too. Step to it now, fatties.

Its name may read like a really poor Scrabble hand, but LG’s Android Wear-able is the currrent crown-holder, specs wise, and fairly sexy to boot. Offering up its step-counting, email-triaging wisdom on a 1.3-inch diameter P-OLED porthole, its brain is a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 CPU, with 512MB of RAM. There’s also 4GB of storage, with juice coming from a 410mAh battery. It’s Google-powered too, running on the latest Android Wear OS.

£199, ASUS.COM/UK, OUT TBC

£TBC, LG.COM/UK, OUT WINTER

SAMSUNG GEAR S

SONY SMARTWATCH 3

This 3G-connected device lets you make calls via your wrist, just like in Blake’s 7. Its curved, two-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz dualcore CPU, 512MB of RAM, and respectable 4 Gigs of storage might sound like an open invitiation for doctor battery drain to pay a housecall, but Samsung assures us its battery trickery means the 300mAh battery will keep ticking for a big two days. The fact it runs Tizen may also help with this, for all we know.

Sony’s latest stab at a watch encases its 1.6-inch, 320x320 LCD display in ritzy stainless steel. The Android Wear device makes use of 4GB of built-in storage and is fully waterproof, like its Xperia brethren (see p16, p52). The usual sensory fare – an accelerometer, compass, gyro, GPS and mic – let you do everything from tracking your steps to logging your life to remote controlling your smartphone’s camera to barking instructions into your wrist.

£TBC, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, OCTOBER

€220, SONYMOBILE.COM/UK, OUT AUTUMN

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NEWS BLIP KOBO’S NEW ‘AURA H20’ E-READER CAN SURVIVE HALF AN HOUR IN 1M OF WATER

IT’S ON FIRE! Nike’s Tron-like House of Mamba LED court is a massively connected b-ball coach BASKETBALL CAN BE A BEWILDERING sport for those not au fait with their NBA. “Travelling”, “carrying”, “flops”, there are all kinds of pedantic penalties to interupt your ball flow. So adding cutting-edge training tech into the court can only be good, and Nike’s sensorladen House of Mamba brings its A game. Premiered with LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant (left), the Shanghai court uses trackers and a carpet of LEDs to show where players should

be moving in practice, be it defending against virtual attackers or shooting from a series of varying spots on court, HORSE-style. It will also flag up when you put a size 15 foot wrong, monitoring and displaying your performance stats. Scientists also believe that the rich, sci-fi-visual overlays could spice up the spectacle of ten giants wandering up and down, endlessly plonking a ball through a hoop. NIKE.COM

{EXTR A}

THE HOUSE THAT LEGO BUILT Hot on the heels of a surprisingly funny The Lego Movie, presumably rictus-rocking builders have broken ground on The Lego House, a 12,000 square metre “experience centre” that

celebrates the mighty Danish lo-tech toy. Sadly, although its ceremonial foundation stones do resemble actual blocks, the bulk of the structure by compatriot architects BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

W W W F O R MOR E NEWS GO TO T3.COM

will be built using materials that can’t be pulled apart and rebuilt by mischievous nippers. Yet the complex now taking shape in Lego’s home town of Billund does capture the brand’s

mechanics and colours beautifully, with an interlocking mesh of play areas, terraces, displays and shops. Some 250,000 people are expected to visit a year. LEGO.COM, OPENING 2016

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Radar

ICON

NEWS BLIP NEXT FROM SAMSUNG: THE GEAR CIRCLE, A VIBRATING MUSICAL NECKLACE. HONEST

#8

DESIGN DONS RICHARD SAPPER

The creative vet who spurned Steve Jobs’ advances is a class act MOST TECH IS THE RESULT OF HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF design work, and few have invested more than this prolific German gadget creator. Sapper has racked up more awards than we can list, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of North Carolina, has 15 works in New York’s Museum of Modern Art and London’s V&A, and even snagged a Merit Cross back in his home country. Born in 1932, Sapper’s been designing for the best part of 60 years, starting at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart. He ditched home soil to make tech look good in Milan and New York, and even turned down the lead design job at Apple that would eventually go to Sir Jony Ive. You can see why Jobs wanted him on board…

{SPEAK}

Design Museum’s Ria Hawthorn is a sap for Sapper

TELCER GRILLO PHONE 1965 MADE BY THE ITALIAN ARM OF SIEMENS, THIS CLAMSHELL PIONEER WAS DESIGNED WITH MARCO ZANUSO AND REDEFINED THE HULKING, FINGER-STOP BLOWERS OF THE TIME IN STYLE. BRIONVEGA RADIO 1963 THE COLOURFUL, HINGED AND, IMPORTANTLY, PORTABLE RADIO CUBE SNAPPED UP THREE DESIGN AWARDS FOR ITS COOL AESTHETIC BACK IN THE SWINGING 60S. IBM THINKPAD 701 1996 FOLDING IS SOMETHING OF A LEITMOTIF IN SAPPER’S WORK.

2 6 T 3 N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4

HERE, A FOLD-OUT “BUTTERFLY” KEYBOARD KEEPS THE LAPTOP’S FOOTPRINT DOWN. JAMES BOND APPROVED: BROSNAN DID HIS DIRTY WORK ON IT IN GOLDENEYE. ALESSI MELODIC KETTLE 1983 SAPPER WORKED WITH A PIPE TUNER TO MAKE CLEAR “E” AND “B” NOTE WHISTLES FOR ALESSI’S FIRST DESIGNER STOVE-TOPPER. AN EAR-CODDLING ALTERNATIVE TO THE DIN OF LESSER TEA-MAKERS. TIZIO LAMP FOR ARTEMIDE 1972 LIKE THE DADDY OF PIXAR’S LUXO LOGO, THIS AWARD-WINNING DESK LAMP MADE USE OF ADJUSTABLE

COUNTERBALANCED ARMS. IT’S ALSO BEEN LAUDED FOR DITCHING MESSY CABLES, RUNNING THE ‘LECCY INSTEAD THROUGH TWO PARALLEL CONDUCTING ARMS, AND ITS USE OF HALOGEN BULBS, WHICH WERE CONSIGNED ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY TO THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY AT THE TIME. ZOOMBIKE 2000 THIS THREE-GEAR STEED FOLDS UP AT THE PRESS OF A BUTTON, SO IT CAN “BE HUNG ON A COAT HOOK IN A SMALL APARTMENT”. IT’S NIPPY, TOO, WITH AERODYNAMIC DISK WHEELS AND MATERIAL CUES FROM AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGIES.

From the ’60s until today, Richard Sapper’s output has always been at the forefront of design and technology. His style is hard to pin down, but in addition to his German, rational, technological approach, he brings a little Italian poetry to his work, best shown in his tunefully whistling kettle for Alessi. In the ’70s he produced living and transport concepts reflecting new attitudes in society. Among them was a mobile housing unit for 1972’s seminal Italy: The New Domestic Landscape exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. At the age of 81, Sapper still works designing everything from cars to kettles, laptops to lamps, and brings something extraordinary to each. It’s a portfolio that few designers can match and has a diversity that, in all likelihood, would just not be possible today.


Radar

SPEND

GTAAAAAARGH!

Buckle up for 986bhp and a battered wallet with McLaren’s track-only P1 GTR SO MCLAREN’S SPECIAL OPERATIONS UNIT HAS TAKEN the existing, Forza Motorsport 5-fronting, already-walletmelting P1, squeezed an extra 83bhp from the engine and added the required aerodynamics to stop the thing from taking off. The result? What automobile experts like to call “very nippy indeed”. Potential P1 GTR buyers can look forward to 0-62mph in under 2.8 seconds, then a top speed well above 200mph, followed by arrest, a lengthy ban and a cameo on Police, Camera, Action!

We jest, of course: this is strictly a track machine, designed to coerce admirers of the P1 into purchasing a race-ready version to indulge fantasies of being Steve McQueen in Le Mans or, if you’re us, Dick Dastardly. But for the considerable outlay, you get 986bhp, race-ready suspension, remodelled bodywork, an on-board “air-jacking” system to reduce tyre-change times and enough downforce to practically suck the Tarmac off the track. £2 MILLION, MCLAREN.COM, OUT JUNE 2015

WINNING COLOURS

DESIGNED TO THRILL

EXPERT ASSISTANCE

The P1 GTR wears a special paint job that references the F1 GTR that won the Le Mans 24-Hour in 1995

The carbon-fibre chassis has lower suspension than the road-ready P1, plus a newly fixed rear wing

McLaren’s Special Ops unit will maintain and run all GTRs, offering race coaching to its brave and well-paid drivers

PUSHED TO THE LIMIT

MADE FOR SPEED

Under the bonnet are a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine and an electric motor capable of 986bhp, which rivals the Bugatti Veyron

The four quick-release wheels flaunt bespoke Pirelli tyres and 19-inch racing alloys that are “way fierce”

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NEWS BLIP ONLIVE CLOUD GAMING SERVICE TO BE PREINSTALLED ON PHILIPS TVS

.

PLAY SCHOOL R-Kaid-R, the first wooden games console since Atari’s VCS, lets you maim via MAME HAVE A SEAT, DEAR GAMER, AND BEHOLD THIS LAVISHLY hand-tooled, personal arcade system of which a mere 50 are being constructed. The work of excellently named Swedish designer Love Hultén, the R-Kaid-R (“Arcader”, do you see?) is a classic cabinet-emulating love letter to retro gaming days of yore. It boasts an eight-way joystick, fire buttons aplenty and an eightinch, 800x600 screen, but most importantly (and expensively),

it’s all built into a box made from maple, ash or walnut that can be slipped into a leather carry case for eight hours of USB-charged play. Running games involves a MAME emulator app, an SD card and varying levels of copyright infringement, with consoles from Game Boy to PlayStation covered. It was built to “create curiosity towards the origin of gaming” and is a magical meeting of digital and analogue. €2,500, LOVEHULTEN.COM/RKAIDR.HTML OUT NOW

{EXTR A}

MATERIAL WHIRLED: HANDCRAFTED TECH TO HANDLE Alpaca guitar Built in the American wilds of Vermont, this six-string axe boasts a carbon-fibre soundboard and weighs just 1.8kg. $624, ALPACAGUITAR.COM, OUT NOW

Gothicism coffee machine

Vertu Signature Touch smartphone

The work of South Korea’s Dutch Lab, this espresso dispenser is built from aluminium, brass and borosilicate glass.

Hand assembled in Hampshire, no less, each of these has the name of the engineer who built it lovingly enscribed.

£4,308, DUTCH-LAB.COM, OUT NOW

£14,350, VERTU.COM, OUT NOW

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Radar

UNDER THE RADAR

NEWS BLIP LEAP RELEASES VR HEADSET ATTACHMENT FOR ITS MOTION CONTROLLER

STUFF From artificial spines to singing balls, consider this month’s offbeat tech fully coralled and pointed at

DAINESE MANIS BUILT FOR MOTORCYCLISTS BUT SUITABLE FOR ANYONE WHO LONGS TO BE A HUMAN ARMADILLO, THIS BACK PROTECTOR’S COMPOSITE MATERIAL IS TOUGH YET FLEXIBLE. £60, DAINESE.COM, OUT NOW BRAUN WATCH THIS UPDATE ON THE COOL, DIETER RAMS-DESIGNED CERAMIC TIMEPIECE IS WATERPROOF TO 30M AND STYLISH TO THE NTH DEGREE. £275, BRAUN-CLOCKS.COM, OUT NOW NAKAMICHI NBS 10 JAPANESE PLEASURE BALLS OF BLUETOOTH SPEAKERAGE THAT OFFERS SEVEN HOURS OF MOBILE, MULTI-COLOURED PLAYBACK. £59, NAKAMICHI.COM, OUT NOW SMS AUDIO BIOSPORT FIT-HAPPY EARPHONES THAT ADD AN OPTICAL SENSOR TO MEASURE YOUR WORRYING HEART RATE. SMS IS OWNED BY RAPPER 50 CENT; THE COST IS LIABLE TO BE A HIGHER. £TBC, SMSAUDIO.NET, OUT WINTER FROG ROAD BIKE ALL-ALUMINIUM BICYCLE FOR YOUR LITTLE ’UN, MODELLED (LOOSELY) ON TEAM SKY’S TOUR-TRUMPING, TWO-WHEELED CHARIOTS. £450, FROGBIKES.COM, OUT NOW LOMOGRAPHY LCA+ INSTANT CAMERA KIT FILTERS BEGONE! CREATE OLD-TIMEY SATURATION AND VIGNETTE-ASSISTED POT SHOTS OF YOUR VERY OWN WITH THIS 35MM INSTANT SNAPPER. £279,LOMOGRAPHYUK.COM, OUT NOW RAZER BLACKWIDOW ULTIMATE CHROMA THE DREAMCOAT OF THE MECHANICAL KEYBOARD WORLD, THIS LETS YOU COLOUR CODE YOUR KEYS OR EVEN HAVE THEM SHIFT HUES AS YOU PLAY. £150, RAZERZONE.COM, OUT SEPTEMBER

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Email [email protected] Tweet @t3dotcom Facebook /T3mag Letters T3, Future Publishing, 2 Balcombe St, London, NW1 6NW

M O S T WA N T E D PA R T 2

THE BUZZ

The rifts, rows and reactions to the stories that made up the month in tech

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH Tennis got rhythm LCD Soundsystem man James Murphy has teamed up with IBM to create electronic dance tunes based on data from tennis matches at the US Open. Deuce!

Clack hack is back A loudspeaker’s been erected in The Times’ newsroom to pump out old-fashioned typewriter noises to help journos work faster. Hanx Writer does the same for us (p44).

Tweets win crisps Walkers’ interactive vending machines appeared at three London bus stops for a fortnight, dispensing Gary Lineker’s favourite snack, gratis, in return for Tweets.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Ongoing updates on the tech stories that will not go gently {GA MES}

{ H A R DWA R E }

{CA RS}

Scribbled out

Drones’ day in court

Console sales switcheroo

Then: “Magic” Scribble Pen concept sought crowdfunding back in June to create a tool that can scan any object’s colour and replicate it on paper. Now: Amid suspicions this is impossible with 21stcentury tech, it was booted by Kickstarter, then fellow fund site Tilt shortly after. For shame!

Then: Chip maker Nvidia took legal swipe at Samsung on the usual mobile GPU matters. Now: Operator T-mobile gets legal on the ass of Huawei over claims of, er, bot-theft. It says the Chinese firm “copied… and stole parts, software, and other trade secrets” from its phone testing droid, “Tappy”. It’s a new one, at least.

Then: “Gamer-focused” Xbox 360 raced ahead of “media hub” LameStation 3. Microsoft’s console enjoyed a 36 month top-slot streak. Now: Sony’s PS4 – “For the players” – has outsold the more multi-disciplinary Xbone for eight months. Meanwhile, early adopters of Microsoft’s device glare bitterly at their no-longer-bundled Kinect.

YOUR MAILS, TWEETS AND POSTS

But who’ll wear a Watch?

Apple Pay deserve any credit?

It’s a considered design. Apple takes a while to release stuff, but when it does, it gets it right. Hundreds of customisable options, haptic feedback, magnetic charging – it’s a considered interface rather than responsive nonsense.

This is nothing like PayPal – this will change the way we pay. NFC has been around for a while but Apple has the power to push this into the mainstream. CHRIS CHAMBERS

iPhone 6 reaction bonanza!

LUKE SPRINGATE

This is a sad day for Apple. Trailing behind the 2K screens, with no waterand dust-proofing. They beat every other phone on style but, sadly, that’s it now. Goodbye Apple, we had some good years.

And what about LG’s G Watch R?

I quite like it but I’d like to see how it feels to wear. I also think it’s going to be a niche item, not everyone will want one. I just hope pricing isn’t prohibitive.

BERNIE CRIBBINS

KARL SMITH

Why are they still offering a 16GB option but no 32GB? That aside, Samsung will have to bring its A-game for the Galaxy S6.

It might scream, “Me too,” and prove the biggest disappointment but that won’t stop it selling by the iBasketload.

A Gioteck EX-06 Wired headset with excellent sound quality and removable mic boom. Foldable and fantastic.

JASON KINNISON-HOLMES

MARK GOSBEE

£34.99, GIOTECK.COM

I don’t think I want a dinner plate on my wrist, thanks. MARK THOMAS

Have this headset in your ear then, Mark…

SEND MAIL, WIN THIS

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WWW F O R M O R E N EWS G O T O T 3.C O M

Radar THE MONTH IN NUMBERS Stats all, folks…

I’M ON HOLIDAY,

CIAO, BALLMER

BRITISH, AND I LIKE IT…

Stepping down from Microsoft’s board after 34 YEARS with the company, 14 as CEO, Steve Ballmer is worth $20.8 BILLION and retains 333 MILLION shares in the Big M.

IT’S-A BIG-A LOSS-A! Nintendo shipped just 510,000 Wii U consoles and 820,000 3DS units from April to June 2014. Despite selling 2.82 million copies of Mario Kart 8, the Japanese company reported a $97M (£58m) second quarter loss. *NINTENDO

ALWAYS WANTED ONE OF THEM… £142 The amount the average British consumer spends online while drunk per year.

53% of that is on Amazon. *DAILY TELEGRAPH

*BLOOMBERG

52% OF BRITS UPDATE SOCIAL MEDIA ON HOLS

Destiny Bungie’s long-awaited shooter sucked in 10 million players on its first day – and $500 million in its first five.

Kim Dotcom The generously proportioned entrepreneur put on his social-warrior hat to reveal New Zealand’s government is spying on internet users as they surf innocently for rugby statistics.

24% UPLOAD PHOTOS TO SOCIAL MEDIA 18% DO WRITTEN UPDATES 4% UPLOAD VIDEOS TO SOCIAL MEDIA

Of those who do partake…

Garth Brooks The MOR country crooner has launched his own digital music store. You can buy all his albums there, but not individual tracks – yeah, good luck with that, Garth.

WINNING WEAR’S IT ALL GOING?

9% POST SEVERAL TIMES EVERY D AY 17% POST ONCE A DAY 34% POST EVERY 2 TO 4 DAYS 10% POST AT 5- TO

There’ll be 250,000,000 smart wearables in use by 2018. Of those, 87% will be wrist-worn.

7-DAY INTERVALS

THE T3 WINDEX

What’s going up and down in Techsville?

*CCS INSIGHT

19% POST LESS THAN ONCE A WEEK

FAILING Charlie Shrem THE GAME HYPE CHART! BIGGEST PERCENTAGE INCREASES IN PRE-ORDER NUMBERS AFTER GAMESCOM EXPOSURE 1.

PROJECT CARS

2.

RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER

3.

BLOODBORNE

4.

HYRULE WARRIORS

5. QUANTUM BREAK 6.

FAR CRY

7.

ASSASSIN’S CREED UNITY

8.

MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR

9.

BATTLEFIELD: HARDLINE

10.

SUPER SMASH BROS.

42.53% 30.25% 16.08% 11.77% 10.77% 9.53% 9.44% 9.03% 8.81% 7.56%

150

THE NUMBER OF GALAXY

American Bitcoin trader and entrepreneur who ran BitInstant.com pled guilty to running unlicensed money transfers through his site, selling over £603,000 of Bitcoins to dark web emporium Silk Road.

TAB S TABLETS SAMSUNG

Twitpic

USED TO CREATE A DIGITAL RAINBOW, 4.3M HIGH AND 7.9M WIDE, ON LONDON’S SOUTHBANK

The photo-sharing company has been forced to close following a trademark dispute with Twitter. #Awks.

ON AUGUST 20 2014 *SAMSUNG

New Zealand web users Not only are they being spied on (see above), but Kiwis racing to click on fake links to illicit celeb pics also crashed Spark, the country’s main ISP, last month.

1024

NUMBER OF ROBOTS IN A SINGLE “SWARM” DEVELOPED BY A TEAM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY *AMAZON

*HARVARD

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Radar

NEWS BLIP SKY NEWS IS COMING TO XBOX 360… BUT NOT XBOX ONE

INCOMING

WHAT’S ON YOUR RADAR?

Psychics are furious: local mum reveals one weird trick that lets you see future events!

3 6 9 Months away

Months away

Months away

TECH

TECH

TECH

FiveNinjas Slice

HTC One M9

GoPro Hero 4

This 1TB media player ticks many tech boxes: it plays digital movies on your TV via HDMI, it’s portable, and its guts are a Raspberry Pi. Oh, and you can program the LEDs around its midriff to any hue you choose. It cuts loose this December.

If the usual schedule is maintained, expect a One M8 sequel to land in March 2015. We heard it through the grapevine: 2.5GHz Snapdragon 805, 3GB of RAM, an eyeball-fondling QHD display, and your plans to make me blue.

It’s been well over a year since GoPro dropped its Hero 3 on our heads, bikes and ’boards, with only some fairly minor upgrades to show for it. However, summer 2015 looks set for a proper action-cam sequel, with 4K at 30fps starring.

FILM

FILM

FILM

The Interview

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Assassin’s Creed

Highly implausible journos James Franco and Seth Rogen snag an interview with Kim Jong-Un – with hilarious consequences! North Korea has promised to “mercilessly avenge” this cinematic outrage when it hits in January.

Matthew Kick-Ass Vaughan again directs a Mark Millar adaptation, as Colin Firth tutors youngster “Eggsy” in the ways of espionage. Michael Caine and Samuel L Jackson add gravitas and swearing, respectively.

Michael Fassbender and Justin Kurzel, director of the pulse-racing Aussie indie Snowtown, are still signed up, so you never know: this video-game mish-mash of parkour-based stabbing and DNA-memory theories might be good…

GAME

GAME

GAME

Evolve

Resident Evil

Unsung Story

2K Games, of Borderlands infamy, is back with further sci-fi shootin’ business. You’re under alien attack, and for the first time, four of you can gang up a lone player who’s controlling the monster, à la the Left 4 Dead multiplayer mode…

Capcom relaunches the 2002 revamp of the 1996 survival horror originator in full HD, with a raft of enhancements. Hopefully these include better dialogue and controls that don’t involve you moving like a human tank.

This turn-based, tactical war simulation RPG racked up $660,000 on Kickstarter on the promise of “re-imagining” the genre. An epoch-spanning, episodic tale, it’s the brainchild of Final Fantasy Tactics vet Yasumi Matsuno.

EVENT

EVENT

EVENT

Chinese New Year

South by South West

Apple WWDC

Join 500,000 celebrants in London on February 19, with China Town and beyond thronged with dragons, performers and oriental grub. Warning: it’s the Year of The Sheep, and the sellers of said grub probably want to fleece you.

Austin, Texas once again glories in its annual triumvirate of festivalscum-conferences. Expect tech heads, gamers, music lovers and film buffs from around the globe to join the town’s generally bearded locals, next March.

Moscone, San Fran sees Apple wowing devs at its annual global tech fest next June. Hard gadget goodies will likely be given a miss, but a buffet of OS X and iOS morsels will be on hand to feed your MacBook Air with Retina display and iPhone 6.

{THE HIGHS A ND LOWS OF T3’S COMING MONTH}

YEAH!

With Apple’s new announcements still ringing in our ears, attention switches to the iPhone 7. Early rumours we’d like to get out there now: it’ll be foldable. You’ll control it with your mind… And it’ll control you, with its.

MEH!

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If it’s October, it must be Tokyo and CEATEC, which is like January’s CES and last month’s IFA, but Japanesier. There’ll be more 4K TVs, cameras, home automation devices and VR than you can shake a chopstick at.

As November looms, the number of PRs emailing to ask if T3 will be “doing any Christmas gift guide-type features” reaches critical mass. A little insider revelation for you here, guys: yes, we will be.


IN ASSOCIATION WITH

THE AWARDS CEREMONY IS AT HAND. HAS THE TECH YOU LOVE WON? FIND OUT NEXT MONTH…

Put the date in your smartphone’s calendar: October 2, in London 3 6 T 3 N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4

THE AWARDS

THE SHORTLIST The best of the best. But what tech will prove to be the best of the best of the best? Find out in the next issue of T3… GADGET OF THE YEAR HTC One (M8) Microsoft Xbox One Sony PlayStation 4 TomTom Runner Cardio Apple iPad Mini with Retina display Apple iPhone 5S Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition Samsung Galaxy S5 Google Nexus 7 PHONE OF THE YEAR HTC One (M8) Apple iPhone 5S Samsung Galaxy S5 Sony Xperia Z2 LG G3 OnePlus One THE GAMING AWARD Sony PlayStation 4 Microsoft Xbox One Razer Blade Oculus Rift Apple iPad Mini with Retina display Alienware 18 LAPTOP OR TABLET OF THE YEAR Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display Apple iPad Air Dell Venue 11 Pro Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Apple iPad Mini with Retina display Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet TV OF THE YEAR Samsung HU8500 Sony Bravia X9005B Sony Bravia W829 Loewe Connect ID 46 LG LB730V Panasonic Viera WT600 CAR OF THE YEAR McLaren P1 Tesla Model S Porsche 918 Spyder BMW i3 Ford Focus Audi TT

BRAND OF THE YEAR Apple Google Sony HTC Netflix Samsung CAMERA OF THE YEAR Canon 700D GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition Nikon Df Sony RX100 II Panasonic Lumix DMC GH4 Olympus Stylus SH-1 FITNESS WEARABLE OF THE YEAR Garmin Vivofit Nike Fuelband SE Monster iSport Strive TomTom Runner Cardio Jawbone UP24 Garmin Forerunner 620 THE DESIGN INNOVATION AWARD Razer Project Christine Apple Mac Pro Gravity Sony Project Morpheus Valve Steam Controller Audi Virtual Cockpit THE SOUND AWARD Sonos Play:1 Pure Jongo T6 Denon Cocoon Stream Cambridge Audio Minx Xi Loewe Speaker 2Go Orbitsound airSound Base SB60

THE ENTERTAINMENT AWARD Netflix Amazon Prime Instant Video YouView Sony PlayStation Network Sky+ HD Spotify THE TECHLIFE HOME AWARD Dyson DC59 Animal Philips Hue Sage by Heston Blumenthal The Dual Boiler The Peloton Bike Oral-B Pro Smart Series Braun Cooltec HEADPHONES OF THE YEAR Philips Fidelio S2 Bose Quiet Comfort 20i Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear Denon AH-D340 B&W P7 Shure SE425 TECH PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR Will.I.Am Rachel Riley Rory Cellan-Jones Richard Ayoade Spencer Kelly Jason Bradbury

The ceremony takes place at Grand Connaught Rooms in London on October 2. You can follow all the action on Twitter and, of course, at

T3.COM/ AWARDS N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 3 7

XPERIA Z3 FROM SONY IS OUT NOW ON ALL NETWORKS AND FOR £515, HANDSET ONLY

3 8 T 3 N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4

T3 PROMOTION

1

All Sony’s skills; one cool mobile

MEET THE FAMILY

From the left: Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (the world’s slimmest slate) and Xperia Z3 Compact. So… What’s your Xperia gonna be?

2

Xperia Z3 from Sony: the life-proofed mobile that’s like a BRAVIA, Cybershot, PlayStation and mobile in one ENTERTAINMENT LEGEND

Unveiled at IFA, Xperia Z3 from Sony was the pick of the Berlin-based festival of tech. Weighing just 152g, it’s fully life-proof (water- and dust-resistant to IP65 and IP68 levels respectively), powered by a 2.5Ghz quadcore Snapdragon 801 and fronted with a scintillating, 5.2-inch, full-HD display. The latter uses Sony’s BRAVIA-derived TRILUMINOS and X-Reality technologies to give the best possible clarity and colour on a mobile, and Sony’s Cyber-shot camera division has also been pillaged for know-how. As a result, the camera offers super-clear 4K video with SteadyShot and Intelligent Active Mode mopping up any unwanted jitters. There are also crystal clear, 20.7-meg stills via a 1/2.3 Exmor RS for Mobile sensor and a 25mm G Lens, with a maximum ISO of 12800 that laughs in the face of low light. With super-fast connectivity via 4G and

AC Wi-Fi (N Wi-Fi is also supported), you can easily enjoy all the mobile movie and gaming goodies Sony has to offer. With PlayStation 4 Remote Play, you can even use Xperia Z3 as a second screen, connected to and controlling your PS4 faves from anywhere in the house (see right). Despite the screen’s size and clarity and the processing power on show, Xperia Z3 has enough battery power for up to 13 hours of high-quality video playback, and up two days general usage. That’s thanks to Battery STAMINA Mode, which turns off background functions when not in use. Continuing to drink deep from Sony’s well of tech, Xperia Z3 also seamlessly works with Sony’s latest SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk wearables. Your mobile life has never been smarter or simpler.

As well as viewing films on Xperia Z3’s class-leading screen, you can Remote Play your PS4 games from anywhere in the house, plugging in your DualShock via the GCM10 Game Control Mount for the full Xperience

3

£515, SONYMOBILE.COM/UK

WWW.SONYMOBILE.COM/UK ALSO UNLEASHED…

Xperia E3 from Sony (top) offers great features for less money. Want a perfect wearable pairing for any Xperia? Try SmartBand Talk or SmartWatch 3

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 3 9

EDITED BY NICK COWEN

This month… Evil Within festers / Tom Cruise dies repeatedly/ Aphex Twin is back / Tom Hanks is just your type (writer)

Play TH E CONTENT FOR YOU R K IT

THE ESSENTIAL

XENO SURPRISES

Alien: Isolation rescues Ridley Scott’s horror icon from shooter hell with a survival masterclass n the years since H.R. Giger’s iconically icky creature first tore its way out of John Hurt’s chest, the Alien franchise has been wallowing in video-game hell. Devs have fallen over one another trying to craft a hit title where the screeching xenomorphs swarm towards the player with all the tension of a touch-screen Madden team, and while the Alien brand has generally ensured these shift enough units to justify another entry, their critical maulings have been their only consistency. Alien: Isolation, from Brit developer The Creative Assembly, should change all this, taking its cues as it does from Ridley Scott’s haunted-house original, rather than the more obvious space-marine sequel. So instead of being plonked in with a Pulse Rifle, you’re a vulnerable protagonist staring into the unknown. Set a few years after the first film, Isolation takes place on a creaking space station in which the game’s heroine, Sigourney daughter Amanda Ripley, is searching for the flight recorder

I

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 41

Play

GAMES

The original cast return to voice their characters in DLC missions

« of the Nostromo, her mother’s ill-fated ship. As she investigates those familiarly eerie corridors, she soon discovers that not only will the stir-crazy human occupants attack, but that the pesky xenomorph is on board, too. Now, Alien: Isolation is a true survival horror. While the terrifyingly effective Oculus Rift VR demo won’t follow through as a main game – we’ll be quite glad not to have to look down and see ourselves impaled anymore, thanks – it’s just as scary on a big screen. If the titular creature spots you, the only option is to hide; sure, you can try to craft weapons to keep it at bay, but it can’t be killed. The alien’s movements are suitably erratic, too. Whereas a lot of horror games terrify players with jack-in-the-box scares, Gary

IF THE ALIEN SPOTS YOU, THE ONLY OPTION IS TO HIDE. IT CAN’T BE KILLED

THE EVIL WITHIN

Resident Evil creator goes unrated and retro with another asylum-based sh*t-’em-up n the wake of Outlast’s second-wind success and Hideo “Metal Gear Solid” Kojima’s terrifying “PT” demo for his upcoming Silent Hill update, the next-gen survival horror revival is well and truly on. Now following on from Alien: Isolation’s well observed scares slithers The Evil Within, a new, suitably claret-soaked scarefest from Shinji Mikami, the bloke who invented the whole genre with Resident Evil. Set in yet another crumbling insane asylum where a murder must be investigated, this chiller scores fairly high on the cliché counter as players take on the role of

I

“Safe, man. Safe”

Detective Sebastian Castellanos (why, of course), who in short order finds himself sucked into a nightmare dimension where every terror he can imagine is in pursuit. Jumping from over-the-shoulder thirdperson action to fashionable quick-timeevent dramatics, The Evil Within reads like a smorgasbord of horror, roping in visual nods to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostel, Carrie, The Grudge and The Exorcist. We sure hope there’s a good, narrative reason for so much pillaging, but it’ll certainly be a fun, gore-ridden trip finding out. FROM £25, THEEVILWITHIN.COM, OUT OCT 17 ON PC, PS4, X1, PS3, X360

{FOCUS}

Napper, Isolation’s lead designer, says that this alien is programmed to be chaotic. “It’s very unpredictable and hard to gauge what’s going to happen,” continues Napper. “It’s not frustrating from a design point of view, because we wanted it that way. It’s actually turned out really well.” This unpredictability puts you continually on the back foot, unable to plan actions around its movement. Instead, you’re forced to react or pre-empt; judge wrong and it’s a brief but particularly graphic end for you. Even more cleverly, the alien reacts to your tactics, so a penchant for hiding in cupboards and cabinets will see it rip them open like a Raptor. “The way people play and the way the alien adapts to that is the learning curve of the game,” adds Napper. “It stops being scary if you have more information than the creature.” As the first Alien game to truly nail the horror of the series, Isolation certainly has us hooked. It gets under your skin like a face-hugger. FROM £32, ALIENISOLATION.COM, OUT OCTOBER 7 ON PC, PS4, X1, PS3, X360

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Players face the living hell of… having to scour Sebastian’s environment for tools and assets to help him survive. And much like Outlast, the more you search, the better chance the bad things have of finding you…

{BEST OF THE R EST}

Wacky race from the track to outer space

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!

Super Smash Bros

Project Spark

3DS, WII U

X1

Sony’s much-hyped social racer finally hits the track. The key is making friends, show off your wheels and challenge rivals – so best start making some pals.

PC, MAC, PS3, X360

This colourful arcade fighter reboot lets you transfer souped-up stats between Nintendo’s home and handheld machines.

Microsoft’s answer to Sony’s killer game-creator app LittleBigPlanet, this “digital canvas” lets you build realms for each other to play in.

£50, UK.PLAYSTATION.COM, OUT OCTOBER 10

£35, BORDERLANDSTHEGAME. COM, OUT OCTOBER 17

DriveClub PS4

Gearbox’s RPG shooter has had a revamp. The result? Another looting cast of cartoons and the ability to bounce around in anti grav.

£32, SMASHBROS.COM, OUT OCTOBER 3 ON 3DS, LATER IN AUTUMN ON WII U

£28, PROJECTSPARK.COM, OUT OCTOBER 7

FILMS

MUSIC

The wearables of the future will be far more discreet

APHEX TWIN

Electronica’s malevlolent munchkin is back with the ill behaviour nly Richard D James’ second “proper” album this millennium, Syro picks up right where 2001’s Drukqs left off. So we get 12 more examples of Aphex’s genius for barely disguising great melodies under a mountain of racheting glitches and detuned vocal noises, then giving the results alienating titles. Face it, nobody’s going to go up to a DJ and say, “Oi mate, can you play 4 Bit 9d Api+e+6 (126.26) for my girlfriend,” are they?

O

£12 CD, £8 MP3, OUT NOW

{BEST OF THE R EST}

Never too old to rock FOO FIGHTERS

Sonic Highways Recorded in eight cities, with “local legends” from each, this nonetheless all sounds like everything by Foo Fighters ever, for better or worse. £9 CD, £9 MP3, OUT NOW

LEONARD COHEN

Popular Problems Beautiful soul and broken-hearted troubadour “laughing” Len Cohen was born old, but now he actually is. There’s little sign of his powers fading, though.

EDGE OF TOMORROW

Basically Groundhog Day with futuristic extreme violence – and there’s nothing wrong with that his Tom Cruise vehicle so underperformed at the box office that it’s been rebranded for home viewing as if its memorable tagline, “Live. Die. Repeat,” is the name of the film rather than Edge of Tomorrow, its eminently forgettable and largely irrelevant actual title. But as in last year’s underrated sci-fier Oblivion, Cruise impresses by expanding his range, a little bit. You usually know for sure going into one of Cruise’s films that he’ll survive to the end, alternating between his two looks – furrow-browed concentration and shit-eating grin – along the way. In this alien-invasion explodea-thon, however, he dies early on, and then repeatedly, thanks to the film’s Groundhog Day-aping time-loop structure. With an excellent supporting cast featuring everyone from Emily Blunt to Hudson from Aliens, the result is gritty and intelligent yet a blast to watch.

T

{HD MOMENT}

The future war scenes have a suitably grim look, with exo-suitwearing grunts being eviscerated all over the shop

£18 3D BLU-RAY, £13 BLU-RAY, £14 HD DOWNLOAD, OUT OCTOBER 13

{BEST OF THE R EST}

Intelligent animation, a mixed bag of live action


IRON MAIDEN

The Complete Albums Collection Bring your daughter to the slaughter, mother, then run for the hills: the complete and utter works of the kings of British heavy metal, in a box.

Ghost in the Shell BLU-RAY

SHIVERS BLU-RAY

THE WIND RISES BLU-RAY

Jimmy’s Hall

£43 VINYL ONLY, OCTOBER 13

Wonder Where We Land Hybrids of electronic and organic, hip-hop and IDM from London’s Aaron Jerome, who’s young enough to be all of the above’s grandson. Corking.

The 1995 anime classic, finally on Blu-ray, where it still looks murky as hell, but now in higher definition. Its meditative mood and cyber-punk bad-assery remain splendid.

Early David Cronenberg classic: poo-resembling parasites in the water supply turn an exclusive tower block’s denizens into something like zombies, but randier. Entirely icky.

This tale of the golden age of aeroplane design is slight, but a joy to watch. The fact it’s perhaps the last ever film from Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away et al) lends extra poignancy.

This might be Ken Loach’s last effort too. As ever with him, the human details save this tale of religious oppression from entirely battering you over the head with its own righteousness.


£24 BD, OUT NOW

£14 BD, OUT NOW

£18 BD, OUT NOW

£18 BD, £14 DL, OUT NOW

SBTRKT

BLU-RAY, HD DOWNLOAD

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 4 3

APPS & ONLINE

{IOS}

Apple’s little packets of goodness Godus IOS 7.0+: IPHONE, IPAD, TOUCH

Peter Molyneux is creating worlds again. Become a god then build your civilisation, while trying to dodge natural disasters and in-app purchases. FREE, 22CANS.COM

Timeful IOS 7.0+: IPHONE, IPAD, TOUCH

This assistant combines your to-do lists, calendars and notifications so you always know what’s going on. It even learns from your behaviour. FREE, TIMEFUL.COM

Next IOS 7.0+: IPHONE, IPAD, TOUCH

Think Tinder, but instead of looking for awkward liaisons, you’re checking out budding new musicians, in your area or around the world, via clips. FREE, YAYNEXT.COM

Asana IOS 7.0+: IPHONE, IPAD, TOUCH

Teamwork without email is the goal – This shares documents, tasks, media and everything else you could ever need with up to 15 colleagues.

App of the month

FREE, ASANA.COM

HANX WRITER

Humin

Loveable superstar Tom Hanks turns app developer with the retro-keyboard equivalent of Hipstamatic om Hanks – actor, writer, producer, director… and app creator? You’d better believe it. Hanx Writer comes direct from the man himself, and aims to turn your usually mundane iPad keyboard into a delightfully clackety typewriter. Er, why? Well, aside from being a celebrated thesp, Tom is also a manual typewriter fanatic – he’s written about them for the New York Times and everything. Now, he wants to make your iPad into one, and to that end, the free app gives you the Hanx Prime Select, a classic big desk typewriter. When you tire of its charms,

T

IOS 7.0+: IPHONE, IPAD, TOUCH

Supercharge your address book. This predicts the contacts you need right now from your email, and lets you sync and verify them with insouciant ease.

there are two others available as in-app purchases (£1.99 each or £2.99 the pair): the Hanx 707 and the Hanx Golden Touch. Each feels different, with slightly different sounds, key placement and typefaces, and the purchasable ’writers also come with support for multiple documents, text alignment, title page and picture. You get a decent chunk of settings too. Turn off the modern delete and Hanx Writer will X out your mistakes instead of erasing them. Does it serve any purpose? No. But it makes for pretty decent pub ammo…

FREE, HUMIN.COM

PackPoint IOS 7.0+: IPHONE, IPAD, TOUCH

Tell this app what the weather is like and what activities you’re planning, and it’ll give you a barebones packing list for your trip. FREE, PACKPNT.COM

Blood Bowl IOS 6.0+: IPAD ONLY

Classic Warhammer-meets-gridiron action. Build your team from humans, orcs and other races, and battle others in cross-platform multiplayer action.

FREE, IOS 7.0+ IPAD ONLY, HITCENTS.COM

£2.99, BLOODBOWL-GAME.COM

{U PDATE}

Netflix hits six more European countries Holidaying on the continent is delightful, but until now it was impossible to watch movies on Netflix while enjoying the local produce and talking very loudly and slowly to uncomprehending natives. That all changes this month, when the streaming video service launches

in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and, for some reason, Luxembourg. Viewers in those lands will thus be able to watch a mix of local, global, Netflix- and Hollywood-made TV and movies, though there’s no word on specific content or pricing as yet.

4 4 T 3 N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4

THREE CLOUD SITES THAT AREN’T ICLOUD

Mega.co.nz

Wuala.com

Spideroak.com

GO BIG

GO WIDE

GO MOBILE

The creation of chunky Megaupload “entrepreneur” Kim Dotcom, Mega offers 50GB of space straight off the bat. You’re trading size for security because Mega’s encryption is less robust than some.

Starting at 5GB of free storage, with options to purchase more, this encrypts at source before it uploads and splays your data over different servers so it’s harder for outsiders to identify.

Spideroak starts you off on 2GB of free storage. Like Wuala it encrypts at source, but you can also synch it with your iOS and Android device, retrieving your data while you’re out and about.


Play

{ANDROID}

{W INDOWS PHONE}

{BL ACK BER RY}

Google’s great and good

Feeling the live tile love

BB kings and queens

Swarm

Quicklie for Google

WINDOWS PHONE 8+

BLACKBERRY 10.0.0+

From the makers of FourSquare comes another easy way to find out which friends are around you, share plans and organise meet-ups.

One app to rule them all – pulls together Google’s services into one place, including Mail, Maps, YouTube and Drive, quelling home page clutter.

FREE, SWARMAPP.COM

£0.75, APPWORLD.BLACKBERRY.COM

Who Called Me?

Ghost Contacts

WINDOWS PHONE 8+

BLACKBERRY 10.0.0+

Never dial back a nuisance caller again. This app, as its name suggests, pulls “unknown” numbers from the web, so you don’t waste your time.

Locks your contacts and messages – including BBM – away from prying eyes, and syncs contacts across to new devices if your old one goes.

FREE, WHO-CALLED.CO.UK


Hungry Shark Evolution

Pocket Bombs

WINDOWS PHONE 8+

BLACKBERRY 10.0.0+

Start off as a pup, then chomp through fish and fishermen alike to become a Jaws-esque monster, then play with the big boys of the ocean.

Play against up to three friends, furiously setting off chain reactions to score points, in this tricky multiplayer puzzler.

FREE, WINDOWSPHONE.COM


Android in-depth

Key Note

Tresorit

Bamboo Paper

WINDOWS PHONE 8+

BLACKBERRY 10.0.0+

Fantastic note-taking app, organising your thoughts into books, saving sections to the clipboard and syncing with OneDrive so no nugget is lost.

Encrypted cloud storage service that syncs your files across devices, all with industry-standard and patented security measures.


FREE, APPWORLD.BLACKBERRY.COM

Beautiful Lens

Companion

WINDOWS PHONE 8+

BLACKBERRY 10.0.0+

Simple and streamlined camera and image-processing app chock full of filters that you’ll actually want to use. Impressive.

Your travel and life assistant, providing geolocation info, weather, stock news, public transport and road information, with NFC triggers.



Fitbit

Cam for Retrica

WINDOWS PHONE 8+

BLACKBERRY 10.0.0+

A bug-free return for the fitness tracking app, providing real-time stats, motivational notifications and social interaction facility.

Version of the popular camera app with 40 filters, 16 frames, resolution control and a handy self-timer to capture that all-important selfie.

FREE, FITBIT.COM


Guardians of the Skies Windows Phone 8+ With brilliant graphics, this time-passer lets become you a modern-day air combat ace via a series of missions and aircraft.

Moon Music Player Pro



ANDROID 4.0+

Hot on the heels of last month’s Pencil stylus from rivals FiftyThree, Wacom’s new app looks to emulate that device’s excellent Paper, providing a similar experience. Though obviously Wacom would prefer you use one of its ones, Bamboo Paper works with any stylus, giving you a huge, Photoshop-esque range of brush styles and colours. The star of the show though, is the new inking technology, which uses vector graphics to create the most realistic feeling of pen on paper to date. FREE, BAMBOOPAPER.WACOM.COM

Cyberdust ANDROID 4.0+

This deletes your messages mere seconds after you send them, so private conversations stay private. The same with photos and videos. FREE, CYBERDUST.COM

Over

GAMES & EBOOKS: NICK COWEN. MUSIC & MOVIES: DUNCAN BELL. APPS: PETE DREYER, MATT HILL

ANDROID 4.0+

Adding text to your photos is nothing new, but no app does it with as much style as this. When you’re done, this lets you share with social media. FREE, MADEWITHOVER.COM

Unclouded

BLACKBERRY 10.0.0+

Not the best-looking music app around, but it does the job of sorting your tracks, as well as sound effects, from your device’s music.

ANDROID 4.0.3+

Tidies your Google Drive and Dropbox accounts – support for Onedrive and BOX is coming soon – and tells you where your storage is being used.

The Innovators

So, Anyway

FREE, PLAY.GOOGLE.COM

BY WALTER ISAACSON

JOHN CLEESE

Sweeping historial epic looks at the genesis of the digital age. Starting in the late 1800s, this follows the trail to Silicon Valley.

A British comedy legend bares all. From the Ministry of Silly Walks to a badly run hotel in Torquay, it’s all here, and presumably covering some alimony bills.

Rove ANDROID 4.0.3+

Curates a personal journal based on where you’ve been. If you’ve taken a few snaps you can import those too, and it all stays 100 per cent private.

FOUR EBOOKS TO READ

1 3 2 4

£10.99, OUT OCTOBER 9

£8.03, OUT OCTOBER 9

Roy Keane: The Second Half

Desert God

Thomas Was Alone

RODDY DOYLE

WILBUR SMITH

ANDROID 4.0+

Reasonably fresh off a BAFTA win, the indie classic brings its minimalist game design to Android, replete with 20 extra levels too.

Manchester United’s controversial former captain has teamed up with Ireland’s Booker Prize-winning scribe to craft a career memoir.

Historical-airport-novel specialist serves up another epic, this time following the trials, tribulations and sexy antics of a warrior poet.

£3.99, BOSSASTUDIOS.COM

£6.99, OUT NOW

£7.59, OUT NOW

FREE, ROVEAPP.COM

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 4 5

Opinion

{THIS MONTH}

Noel Lee’s Monster headphone success Chris Smith’s YouTube Zzzzz Factor Duncan Bell’s axe to Grindr Nick Cowen’s war of the words Edited by Duncan Bell

TECH STE E L F RO M T HE AN VIL OF T3’S COMMEN T-MON GERS

NOEL LEE

{INSIGHT}

HOW TO GET AHEAD IN HEADPHONES The Monster CEO’s tie-up with Beats by Dre made cans the biggest music must-have since the iPod. He reckons they’re just getting started… onster is a 35-year-old company that did business for 30 years without headphones. We invented the Monster cables that musicians swear by today. We did a whole lot more besides. Still, even though we’re now post-Dr Dre and making our own headphones, I would never underestimate what we did with Beats Electronics. It was an incredible meeting of circumstances that will never happen again. At the time, music was mainly consumed from iTunes, with very little revenue for those that make it. People were buying singles instead of albums, so instead of a $15 CD purchase, it’s a £1 spend on iTunes. So we were looking for the next big thing. Dre thought speakers, but I said, “Forget those, nobody wants big boxes anymore.” Home theatre really hadn’t taken hold. The timing was right for headphones. Bose, Sennheiser, Skullcandy – none of them had done it; the revolution was ready to take place. We had our tech, and my knowledge of audio, and wanted to ride headphones in a way no one had before. Now, Beats CEOs Jimmy Iovine and Dre didn’t know anything about engineering or

M

ILLUSTRATION AARON MILLER

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 47

CHRIS SMITH

« how to get a sound, but they knew what sound they were looking for, and they showed me how to market, and the growing influence of urban culture. “Pop”, whether it’s Lady Gaga or Eminem, is such a powerful force – no other music genre is so influential. You might have millions of country music fans, but it doesn’t change the way people talk. Result: a marriage made in heaven. This unique marketing perspective to pop culture, creating a demand for high-quality headphones among kids who had never heard proper low, punchy bass before. We had guys like Lil’ Wayne, P Diddy and David Guetta, influencers to millions of kids. We collaborated and it was 1+1=5; or, in this case, $3 billion. The thing is, we’d had stars endorse product before but it never really worked, yet Dre was different. He had amazing credibility because he’d never endorsed anything before this headphone. Authenticity is everything. The way I look at it today is you should have somebody but you don’t need a lot, you just need one star. Social media is more important – are you going to believe your friends and the community, or am I going to believe somebody who’s getting paid to say something about the product? Kids today are very savvy. Now, people say the headphone business

“DRE AND MONSTER WAS A MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN. IT WAS 1 + 1 = $3 BILLION” is too full and it’s going to stagnate, implying Apple has paid too much for Beats. But I’d say it was a good price because the market is actually going to get a lot bigger. Why, you ask? The percentage of people who own phones and tablets that also own headphones is less than three per cent. The big game changer is the boom in streaming; the music is basically free. Users might have to deal with a commercial, but as less than 10% opt for the premium, ad-free service, obviously they don’t really mind them – they just want music free and of high quality. If iOS 8 recognises high resolution music files, that’s a game changer, too. If Apple encourages Beats Audio to do more highresolution stuff with its streaming service, you’re not going to listen to that on a white earbud, you’re going to need something higher quality. Other companies that want to do what Monster does and what Beats did? They don’t have the engineering to get to the next level. Noel Lee is founder and CEO of Monster Cable Products Inc; monster.co.uk 4 8 T 3 N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4

{STATE SIDE}

YOUTUBE IF YOU WANT… But I’ll pass, thanks. What is it with all these “celebrity” kids with millions of subscribers anyway? Get off my lawn!

F

ull disclosure: I had a bit of a minor run in with YouTube recently. While writing about the site’s failings, I asserted confidently that its stars aren’t proper celebs like those I loved growing up – Cannon and Ball, The Krankies, Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog, for instance. The reply from one of Google’s Earthly representatives was swift: “Yes they bloody are,” he said (I’m paraphrasing), before serving up a laundry list of reasons I was wrong. It was a good point and it was well made: according to a recent Variety study, YouTube celebs are actually more popular than mainstream icons among US teens. In fact, the top five names cited by 13-18 year olds were all YouTubers, who beat out old-schoolers including Katy Perry,

Jennifer Lawrence and Seth Rogen. Among these latterday Sinatras are TheFineBros, a comedy duo who have ten million subscribers and amassed two billion video views. A sort of meta YouTube celebrity act, they post (admittedly well-produced) videos where other YouTube stars I’ve never heard of offer reactions to music videos by acts I’ve also never heard of. They laugh at old people – who I am beginning to suspect include me – using the Oculus Rift and Google Glass and shoot – to be fair, relatively funny – original sketch comedy. As a result, they have an empire built on YouTube ad revenue, owning an independent studio and creating content for Comedy Central, Warner Bros. BBC America and MTV. They’re by no means alone. Tyler Oakley is a quintessential YouTube personality. He’s got plenty of sass, tremendous hair and over 5.5 million subscribers. He recently landed a gig as a red carpet reporter at the MTV VMAs for Entertainment Tonight, sits atop the iTunes Podcast chart, and just won an online entertainer of the year award. Oh, and earlier this year was summoned to the White House, where he and other viral video masters were asked by President Obama to push his healthcare initiative. He’s 25. How about Evan from EvanTube HD? His kid-friendly channel reviews games and toys and has its own dedicated ad-sales team. Even after YouTube’s jacked its 45 per cent cut, Business Insider reckons he could earn up to $1.32m this year. He’s seven. Also bigger in America than Kate Bush multiplied by Oasis is Bethany Mota, a “bubbly” – OMG! I soooo want to use the words, like, “totally annoying” right now, you guys, but I won’t! – fashion vlogger. She’s going to be on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars alongside Carlton from The Fresh Prince and Chong out of Cheech and Chong, no less, has her own fashion line with the Aéropostale label and is on the cover of this month’s Seventeen magazine. She’s 19. Think you’re insulated from the YouTube invasion on home soil? Think again; it’s here already. Caspar Lee and Joe Sugg, two One Direction-esque London flatmates who’re barely out of their teens, just landed a BBC Radio 1 gig on Sunday evenings where they’ll chat… to other online stars. What’s striking is that I had to go and research all these, while to anyone under the age of about 26 they’re as well known as Obama, if not more so. It’s a galling sign that I’m now officially old. But you know what? It’s one I can live with. Chris is one of the few British permanent residents of Miami who is under the age of 60

D U NCA N B E L L

N ICK COWEN

Opinion

{TRUTH}

{ F I N A L LY }

SEEK SEX, FIND GRIEF

IT’S NOT ALL GAMES

With online security (or lack of it) in the news again, how’s this for a tale of what can go wrong if app devs don’t think things through…

There are good points to be made on both sides of #Gamergate. But if you can’t express them like a human being, kindly f**k off…

y regular reader will know that I have written before about web security and how, at heart, nobody cares about it. Not even you. Have you, for instance, pulled your “adult” pics off of iCloud after the megaceleb-nude-misogyny-fest of August 2014? No, of course you haven’t. How about if it could get you into real trouble, though? A less publicised coding fail last month related to the gay, ahem, “chat” app Grindr. This allows chaps who wish to “chat” with other chaps to find them in the local area. It’s an IM app with a strong geolocation element, basically. Last month, somebody messaged me on Grindr to point out a security flaw in it. Not just me – the hacker was mass-mailing users. The flaw: Grindr reveals your distance from FUNnow57, or whoever you may be lining up for a good, hard chatting; that’s its USP. However, with a bit of ingenious coding, you can ping FUNnow57 from several locations at once. Via the miracle of triangulation, you now know exactly where he is. And why do you know that? Because Grindr’s geolocation data is both reasonably accurate and totally unencrypted. Sure enough, following the link the mystery white hat had shared in his message, I could view a map overlaid with the location of every local Grindr user, including, more or less, my own location – it was within 20 metres or so, anyway. I must admit my initial thought was, “That’s neat – Gaygle Maps!” However, not every user of the app lives in a Western idyll where nobody much cares about sexual orientation – or if they do, they’re polite enough to put up with it so long as it’s not “shoved down their throats”. Yup. Grindr, though, has a slightly more

M

nuanced use in certain other countries: it lets gays find other gays without the threat of harassment, assault or having the Saudi religious police kick their door down of a morning. Or ,at least, that’s what users in those countries thought it did. I’m sure Grindr’s devs never considered this when they built the app. Just getting it to work without crashing, while showing you an advert every 15 f**king seconds, seems to be the limit of their ambitions/skill. The global nature of smartphone connectivity means an app meant for one place and purpose ends up being used in ways it was never intended. That’s not their fault. You’ve got to say, though, they didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory after their security hole was pointed out. Subsequent updates didn’t appear to fix the exploit, but they did seem to try to stop anyone sending mass messages on their system. Ones saying, for instance, “Hey, Iranian guy! Using this app could get you killed!” So that’s nice. Now, will actual danger to life and liberty cause Grindr users to take their online security seriously? I hope so, I really do. But if not, my original point is proved, I’d say. Duncan is T3’s managing editor

{G E T I N VO LV E D}

HAVE YOUR SAY… To read more of our views on tech, the web, life and more, head to T3.com/opinion. You want to add your voice to the debate? Look no further than: Facebook.com/t3mag or Twitter.com/t3dotcom

he online gaming community has been tearing into itself of late over what was at one point or other known as #GamerGate. It’s a colossal hubbub that’s seen those who write about games and those who play them engaged in Mortal Kombat. Have no idea what I’m on about? Lucky you. It was kickstarted by an online post in which a former lover revealed intimate details about his relationship with a female game developer. The ins and outs of this relationship, of course, were nobody’s business except the people involved, but this didn’t stop a large contingent heaping as much bile and misery on those involved as possible from the comfort of their keyboards. Those who supported the dev feel she’s the victim of a witch hunt and that her private life has no bearing on her work. However, the complaint from the other side was that journalists, devs and PRs had too close a relationship. Furthermore, that outlets the gaming community used to trust for news and reviews had been hijacked by “social justice warriors”, a lovely term for writers who point out issues of misogyny and sexism in gaming; or, coincidentally, similar issues around attacking a game dev for being a woman. Even so, the most depressing aspect of #GamerGate is that no space exists to put forward a rational argument inbetween very crudely drawn “sides”. Scribes on both fence of the argument are burned on Twitter, slashed on Facebook and in some instances, doxed, before the ink on their op-ed is dry. Many are too intimidated to wade in. This is a problem. There may very well be genuine concerns at the heart of it all, but until they’re able to be aired without a torrent of abuse, and in turn handled with respect, the true issues won’t be examined at all. Nick is T3’s gaming editor at large

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N OV O CETO MBER 2014 T3 51

Designer wearables p56

Entertainment

Fitness and wellness p60

Home p62

Car p64

WORDS RORY BUCKERIDGE , JAMES STABLES, JIM HILL PHOTOGR APHY RICHARD GRASSIE ST YLING DEAN HAU

p58

ways to start your Internet of Things… FROM APPLE’S HOMEKIT TO WEARABLES YOU’LL ACTUALLY WANT TO WEAR, THE TIME IS NOW TO SYNC UP TO THE CONNECTED HIGH LIFE. MEET THE FINEST WIRELESS GEAR TO KEEP YOU ONLINE AND INFORMED AT ALL TIMES

GET CONNECTED

PHAT CONTROLLER

1 Sony Xperia Z3 This 2.5GHz quadcore superphone’s best chums are Sony’s new SmartWatch and SmartBand Talk. Its 5.2” HD screen also acts as an Android hub for an increasing number of connected devices in both home and car. Its neatest trick, though, is to be both dust- and waterresistant but still slick. £515, SONYMOBILE.COM/UK

DRESS: TUBE GALLERY

NEVER NOT CONNECTED

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2

3

GLASSES WITH CLASS

SMARTWATCH STYLE

DVF Made for Glass

Moto 360

Google’s smart specs (review p97) may be The Future, but their look has long been a bit “sci-fi call centre”. Luckily, designer doyenne of luxe things, Diane von Fürstenberg, has reimagined them as chic opticals or sunnies for Net-A-Porter, while men’s stablemate Mr Porter has its own Titanium collection. Now you can capture air kissing more viscerally than ever.

The most coveted smartwatch before SirJony Ive and Marc Newson rocked up, this round-faced, stainless steel and leather piece blends classic chrono looks with Google’s Android Wear OS. Features optical heart rate sensor, a 1.56-inch, 320x290pixel screen, wireless charging and unusual handsomeness.

FROM £1,120, MRPORTER.COM

£199, MOTOROLA.COM

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NEV ER NOT CONNECTED

BLUE DRESS: KIM JHUI NECKLACE: STYLIST’S ARCHIVE CUFF: TOPSHOP BOOTS: PAUL ANDREW

THE GET ESSENTIALS CONNECTED

Designer wearables 4 5

6

ON-TREND TR ACKER

TECHY TOP

Jawbone UP24

Ralph Lauren sensor shirt

No stranger to a stylish collaboration (see p47), the nowApple-owned Beats’ latest pairing sees its iconic cans clad in exceedingly opulent-looking red, white or blue leather courtesy of posh Italian ladies’ bag vendor Fendi. Expect to see them stapled to the head of more metrosexual Premier League players shortly.

Serial tech magic-dust sprinkler Yves Béhar (Ouya, One Laptop per Child, Jambox, er, “a line of waterproof rechargeable vibrators”) styled this attractive and versatile fitness band to look as natural with a suit as it does running gear. Steps, calories and sleep are all tracked with fashionable aplomb.

The preppie powerhouse shrugs off its jumpers-tiedround-necks reputation with this compression shirt, which tracks energy levels, pulse and breathing rates via sensors woven into its unforgivingly cut nylon. It was tested on ball boys at the US Open last month; none were harmed.

$1,800, BEATS.COM

£105, JAWBONE.COM

£TBC, RALPHLAUREN.CO.UK, OUT JANUARY 2015

HEADPHONES

Fendi X Beats by Dr Dre

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8

9

10 iJEWELLERY

TECH GEMS FOR HIM AND HER (MAINLY THE LATTER) Ringly 3D SPECS

GPS SHOES

FASHION TIME!

FABULOUS FITNESS

Ingri:Dahl

Dominic Wilcox No Place Like Home

HP Michael Bastian smartwatch

Fitbit by Tory Burch

Fed up with the soulless, hand-medown, bacteriaflecked plastic frames you ponce from cinemas? Well, why not pay for your own designer pair? This Scandi-Calfornian line work with any passive 3D system and can even be worn outdoors, giving real life an unusually realistic, 3D look. $20, INGRIDAHL.COM

Smart, Brit-designed brogues guide you to your destination with LEDs (so long as you have pre-programmed your route on your PC beforehand), with the left shoe pointing where to head and the right housing a progress bar that fills up as you walk.

Seldom fêted for its design credentials, HP has tied up with Gant pensman Bastian and online style retailer Gilt to draw this up. Arguably the biggest fashion-tech marriage to date, details remain scarce, but iOS and Android compatibility are promised.

Fashionista Burch’s accessories for the Fitbit Flex transform this bland band into a girl’s best friend, with a design for every look. The designer styles it out with a range of silicon designs stamped with her trademark “T”, with a brass necklace for formal occasions.

£POA, DOMINICWILCOX.COM

£TBC, HP.COM

FROM $30, TORYBURCH.COM

Gives alerts from iOS or Android devices by lightly vibrating. Comes in a choice of stones. Mmm, lovely.

11

FROM $195, RINGLY.COM

June Bracelet that monitors UV exposure levels, nagging you to cream up accordingly.

12

€95, NETATMO.COM

13

Memi Ringly in wrist-based form, this gives custom vibro alerts for different sources. $150, HELLOMEMI.COM

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GET CONNECTED

Entertainment 14

15

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16

CONNECTED TV

GAME BEAMER

TELLY STREAMER

PORTABLE SERVER

Sony Bravia X9

Sony PS TV

Google Chromecast

Lacie Fuel

This sleek 4K set is wedgeshaped to crowbar in decent speakers and costs a fair wedge to boot. But it’s worth it: you can mirror your Sony phone (see p55) or tablet no fewer than three ways: with a tap on the remote via NFC, over Wi-Fi direct or mobile HD link (MHL). Your EPG is now all your files and the entire web.

Similarly streamy from Sony is this wee but wonderful box that can fling gaming sessions from your PlayStation 4 to a second telly. Named Vita TV in Japan, it also runs the portable’s OS and can pull actual PS One, 2 and 3 games from the cloud through the PlayStation Now streaming service to any TV, too.

A seemingly humble dongle that slides into any vacant HDMI port, this streams movies, on-demand TV, music, photos and apps from compatible mobile devices, and can mirror pretty much anything you want from PCs and Macs via Chrome, too. Yes, even that…

With 1TB and 2TB options, this battery- and USBpowered media streamer attaches to your mobile devices or desktop for filling up, then discharges its data load wirelessly, including HD movies, like your own personal cloud that you carry in your pocket. Oh, and it’s AirPlay compatible – get in!

£2,499, SONY.CO.UK

£85, UK.PLAYSTATION.COM, OUT NOVEMBER 14

£30, GOOGLE.CO.UK/CHROME

£140, LACIE.COM

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AIRS AND GR ACES

STEAM MACHINE

NASA-WORTHY NAS

FACIAL CINEMA

ON-THE-GO GAMER

AUDIO ORBS

Arcam AirDAC

Alienware Alpha

Avegant Glyph

Nvidia Shield Tablet

Elipson Planet LW

With battleship build and 24-bit/192kHz maximum resolution, this lifts AirPlay, Apple’s underrated multi-room, wireless audio system, on to the audiophile Iron Throne. Fear not, old-school hi-fi heads: there are also optical and coaxial digital inputs here, so you can yap on about how much better they are.

Built around Valve’s Steam library and “Big Picture” mode for PC gaming on your flatscreen, this packs chips from Intel’s i3 to i7. A bespoke Alienware UI removes the need for a mouse, with a free Xbox controller thrown in to ram that point home. Next-gen consoles? What are they?

Synology DiskStation DS1513+

With the impressive Tegra K1 processor under the hood and an eight-inch, full-HD screen, this not only puts next-gen gaming in your man bag, it’s also a streaming powerhouse: from your PC to its screen; from there to a TV or direct to Twitch.

£640 PLUS COST OF DISKS,

A virtual reality-style headset that’s already been backed by Netflix, this talks to media players, games consoles and such via HDMI and beams their content directly on to your retina via a two million “micromirror” array. Avegant reckons this produces a more natural image, with noise-cancelled audio blasting into your ears.

£240, CONTROLLER £50,

These mIghty fine, apt-X Bluetoothlinked speakers use twin 50W ICEpower amps – weapons from Bang & Olufsen’s sonic arsenal – connected direct to the woofer and tweeter. They look great and sound greater. Need more inputs? Add a Bridge for £149 more.

SYNOLOGY.COM

$524, AVEGANT.COM, OUT 2015

SHIELD.NVIDIA.CO.UK

£1,199, ELIPSON.COM

£400, ARCAM.CO.UK

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£330, ALIENWARE.CO.UK, OUT WINTER

Beefy, networkattached storage device has five drive bays ready to Hoover up anything up to 30TB of data, then spit it out on to devices on your home network and, via various apps, beyond. Fast and futureproof.

Fitness and wellness 25

24

HEALTHY HEADPHONES

Jabra Sport Pulse Bluetooth-connected buds that squeeze in an ultra-miniature optomechanical sensor on the left earpiece. This shines light on to your skin in order to get an accurate heart-rate reading for the accompanying app to interpret. Bonus feature: they also pass music from a suitable player into what doctors call your “ears”.

26

SLEEP IMPROVER

A CASE FOR TREATMENT

Beddit

Azoi Wello

This sleep monitor and “wellness coach” is likely the least sexy thing ever to slip under your sheets. However, thanks to ballistocardiographic monitoring of your heart and breathing as you slumber, it will suggest ways for you to improve your sleep, with tips on snoring, insomnia and sports recovery.

Why visit a doctor when you can have your phone case track your health? Wello comes packed with sensors to monitor blood oxygen, temperature, lung function, heart rate and ECG for a complete picture of your wellbeing, simply by holding your phone. So Candy Crush can be healthy, as well as fun.

€149, BEDDIT.COM

$200, AZOI.COM

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£200, JABRA.COM

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29

LENIENT BR ACELET

TENNIS COACH

SPEAK-YOUR-PULSE

Phyode W/Me

Babolat Play

Finis Aquapulse

Pronounced “With me” (yes, we know), this band has a less bossy take on activity tracking, telling you when to kick back and relax. It uses real-time readings of your breathing and heart rate to detect when you’re stressed, at which points it suggests you chill the f**k out. It’s your mum on your wrist!

Sensors in the handle of this racquet, from the oldest manufacturer in the world, track your stroke power, how sweetly you hit the ball and the number of forehand, backhand, overhead and spin shots. The data is then presented on your smartphone via a set of hopefully-not-toodepressing graphs.

Clips to your earlobe – that’s not as painful as it sounds, honest – during workouts to read your heart rate through capillary blood flow. The attached processor unit then gives you live updates on your progress via a bone conduction speaker, so it’s rather like the voice of God telling you about your pulse.

£135, PHYODE.COM

£350, EN.BABOLATPLAY.COM

£68, FINISINC.COM

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DIABETES MANAGER

DIASTOLIC DADDY

GStar Blood Glucose Monitor for iOS

QardioArm

Keeping tabs on blood sugar to manage diabetes can be a matter of life or death or, at the very least, life or extremetiredness. Good news, then, that this handy app and plugin for iOS devices can test yours in seconds with just a pinprick of the red stuff.

Worried about your blood pressure? Pair this to your iOS or Android device via Bluetooth, wrap the cuff around your upper arm and hit start. Results are synched with, and stored on, an app, and can be shared directly with your GP. The battery lasts a year – possibly longer than you! Ha ha ha… ahem.

£12, BGSTAR.COM

£99, GETQARDIO.COM

THE GET ESSENTIALS CONNECTED

33 FITNESS ASSIST

Misfit Shine Discreet and classy, in a range of finishes, the Shine puts many fitness monitors to shame with both its tastefulness and its six months of battery life. It’s also fully waterproof, so is as good at tracking lengths in the pool as it is steps, cycling and sleep. It also tells the time, so that’s nice. £79, MISFITWEARABLES.COM

32 SMART SCALES

Withings Smart Body Analyzer WS-50 Not content with speaking your weight, this can be combined with Withings’ O2 Pulse band to collate data about your activity, body fat percentage, blood pressure and even interior air quality. It’s a hypochondriac’s dream come true! PULSE O2 £90, WS-50 £130, WITHINGS.COM

YELLOW DRESS: FLYING WARDROBE TIGHTS: FALKE BOOTS: PAUL ANDREW

NEVER NOT CONNECTED

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35 TECHY THERMOSTAT

Tado Heating

Dial down the temperature if you’re stuck at the office, or set it to remain off until the smart thermostat detects the GPS module in your smartphone heading its way. Then study the app’s wealth of stats and feel a tad more secure about your next fuel bill. £249, TADO.COM (US$279, QUIRKY.COM)

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NEVER NOT CONNECTED

SMOKE DEFEATER

Nest Protect The connected thermostat veteran has come up with a more affable smoke alarm than the usual shrieking, ugly white puck. This one speaks with a human voice if anything’s awry, be it toast or carbon monoxide. It alerts you and any other networked units to the danger and advises on how to exit the area. £89, nest.com

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BLACK VEST: STYLIST’S ARCHIVE LEGGINGS: FALKE BOOTS: URBAN OUTFITTERS

GET CONNECTED

Home 37

36

BREW CONTROL

Smarter iKettle Time spent boiling kettles is time that could be spent doing, er, other stuff. Thank crikey, then, for this. App control of your kettle means you can have it boiling as you hit the kitchen, slicing seconds off your tea routine. And instead of the designed-for-landfill aesthetic that novelty electronics usually flex, this steel machine is built to last.

38

AiR CONDITiONER

OMNI-CONNECTOR

Quirky Aros

SmartThings Know Your Home

As air-con units go, the Aros is a handsome devil, and clever with it. Tapping into your Wi-Fi and locking on to your phone’s location, it cools the air to your favoured temperature as you head home, learning your preferred settings over time. It’ll also calculate how much you’re blowing on cold air. It’s the Tado in reverse, basically.

This US automation firm has just been snapped up by Samsung, meaning this obliging band of sensors, cameras, locks and light switches will head our way soon. They work together to protect your home while you’re out, and are commanded from your phone while you’re in.

$279, QUIRKY.COM

KITS FROM £367, SMARTTHINGS.COM

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£99, FIREBOX.COM

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40 38

41

LIGHTS, ACTION!

NON-STOCK LOCK

SECURITY BOT

Philips Hue Lux

Kwikset Kevo

Dropcam Pro

The latest addition to the Hue family of mobile-controlled lights is a white, 750-lumen LED bulb. Easy to set up, it can be dimmed – when you’re in the mood for love, for instance – set to wake you gradually with a sunrise, or be employed as a perfect task light, sucking 80 per cent less power than an incandescent.

This security frontline can be opened with but a waft of your iPhone, Kevo’s app sending an unlock code to release the mechanism, so you no longer need a key (though you can use one if you wish). You can also email e-keys to guests’ mobiles, then deactivate them on a whim, or after a set period of time.

Chummier looking than the cameras you find watching car parks, this 720p sentinel can nonetheless zoom in up to eight times to monitor your abode, storing footage in the Dropcam cloud. You can also try reasoning with any intruders via its mic and speakers. “Rob next door, not me – they’ve got gold!”

£25, PHILIPS.CO.UK

$219, KWIKSET.COM

$199, DROPCAM.COM

INTELLIFRIDGE

WI-FI LAUNDERER

LG LFX31995ST Smart ThinQ

Samsung WW9000

If this huge three-door fridge with ice maker and eight-inch touchscreen doesn’t impress your pals, give it their email address. Using its barcode scanner and Wi-Fi, it can alert them as your food passes its sellby date and suggest recipes that could use up what’s left. Can their fridge do that?

With its touchscreen interface and wireless connectivity, as 10kg washing machines go, this is a great smartphone. Ask it how your wash is progressing and it’ll even text you right back. Other cool features include smart dosing of laundry liquid from its massive Persil reservoir.

£1,500, LG.COM/UK

£1,700, SAMSUNG.COM/UK

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GET CONNECTED

Car 44 45

46

BACK-SEAT DRIVER

BESPOKE RIDE

Automatic

Land Rover Smart Assistant

The new Jag saloon is a rolling Wi-Fi hotspot that gets any device inside online. An app can schedule the climate control to warm up or cool down before you step in, unlocking the doors and firing up the engine as you approach, or from anywhere in the world, in case you’re feeling very obliging to your car-less pals.

This dongle plugs into your car’s data port and sets about learning your driving style. It then tells you off via app when you waste petrol by zooming off, breaking hard, etc. The result: savings of “up to 30%” in petrol costs, by driving like a pensioner. GPS also reminds you where you’ve parked – handy, if you’re a pensioner.

The 4x4 don’s app recognises you as you approach and sets the car up as you like it – seat settings, aircon preferences, radio station, the lot. When your nipper’s been discharged it changes your playlist. Upload your diary and it’ll tell you when you need to leave, based on current traffic, too.

£TBC, JAGUAR.COM, OUT 2015

£60, AUTOMATIC.COM

£TBC, LANDROVER.CO.UK, OUT 2015

ONE HIP CAT

Jaguar XE

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49

48 50

51

52

TR AFFIC TAMER

GOOGLE CONTROL

HANDY HUD

THE iCAR COMETH

YOUR EYES AND EARS

FATIGUE ALARM

Waze

Android Auto

Navdy

Apple CarPlay

TVH Touch Screen Dual

Harken

Crowd-source your way past jams with this nav app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Users flag up pinch points; the app routes you around them. The community also shares petrol prices, helping you to each area’s cheapest refill, and you can also let friends track your progress live, with expected arrival time.

Let Google take over your car, with the UI integrated into steering wheel controls. Google Maps replaces the GPS, Google Music powers the stereo, abetted by apps including Spotify, Songza, Joyride and Pandora, and you can control it all by voice.

Heads-up display that syncs with your iOS or Android device to chuck nav and message info on to your windscreen and lend gesture control, too. So you can take or dismiss calls with a wave of a finger, read emails and reply via voice recognition. It’ll even send Tweets if your passenger is impossibly dull.

Plug in your iPhone or iPad and you can use the in-dash touchscreen and ever-chatty Siri to select playlists, take/ make calls, browse the net and, if you’re a masochist, use Apple Maps to get you to your destination.

FREE, WAZE.COM

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FREE, ANDROID.COM/AUTO, COMING SOON TO SELECTED AUDIS, ALFA ROMEOS, FORDS, BENTLEYS AND HONDAS

£200, NAVDY.COM

FREE, APPLE.COM/UK/IOS/ CARPLAY, COMING SOON TO SELECTED FERRARIS, HONDAS, MERCEDES, HYUNDAIS, AUDIS, BMWS AND CITROËNS

Records HD video from both the front and rear of your ride, like a GoPro turned insurer, saving footage from before and after when sensors detect a prang. It’ll also keep an eye on your car when parked, too, recording when it detects interested parties lurking about. £109, DASHCAMS.CO.UK

This uses sensors in your car’s seats and seat belts to track your heart rate and breathing. Why? When fatigue strikes, they slow down, tripping alarms to prevent you from nodding off. The full name of this project? “Heart And Respiration in-‘Kar’ Embedded Nonintrusive sensors.” Eck. £TBC, HARKEN.IBV.ORG, OUT 2015

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GAL A X Y ALPHA SMARTPHONE SHOWDOWN

4K FOR UNDER £2K

HIP SHOOTERS

CHOCKS AWAY!

WE CROWN OUR PREMIUM

DREAM SCREENS THAT

PRO PHOTOGRAPHY FOR

AERIAL ACTION FROM THE

MOBILE CHAMPION

WON’T BREAK YOUR BANK

LESS THAN A GRAND

WORLD’S BEST DRONES

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Edited by Pete Dreyer

M A N UA L

YOUR MONTHLY EXISTENCE ENHANCER

FE E H H LI TEC T OF T E TH G D GA MON

HOW TO CONQUER CONKERS P68

OBSESSION BUILD YOUR OWN RETRO ARCADE CABINET P69

TECH DAD FULL-AUTO FOAM RIFLE P70

UPGR ADE SMART WATCHES. AS OPPOSED TO SMART WATCHES P71

PULSE BIKE LIGHTS; GET IN TO CYCLOCROSS P73

TEST CHEF’S KNIVES P76

HOME DYSON’S ROBO VAC P77

DRIVE BMW’S HYBRID MIRACLE VW’S ELECTRO-GOLF P80

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M.A.S.S. EFFECT: THE BIKES 1/ ASPHALT AN ELECTRIC MOTOR AIDS URBAN PEDALLING, WITH ROADOPTIMISED BOSCH POWERTRAIN.

CYCLING À LA STARCK

2/ MUD ALL-TERRAIN E-BIKE WITH HOT-OFF-THE-PRESSES SHIMANO GEARING AND BRAKES, PLUS FOX AND ROCK SHOX SUSPENSION.

Designer Frenchman makes two-wheeled transport suitably stylish

3/ SAND HEAD TO THE COAST WITH OVERSIZE SCHWALBE TYRES FOR EXTRA LIFT AND TRACTION, AND A SANDSTORM-PROOF FRAME COVER.

Tireless design don Philippe Starck now turns his gaze to the e-bike with the M.A.S.S. range, each concept named after the land they yearn to traverse: Asphalt, Mud, Sand and Snow. “I wanted the bike to be able to go over infinite and poetic territories,” says

4/ SNOW OVERSIZE SCHWALBES FLOAT OVER POWDER, WHILE SYNTHETIC FUR PROTECTS THIS BIKE’S BATTERY FROM THE CHILL.

WORDS PETE DREYER

the chin-stroking monsieur, though parts from Fizik and Shimano do anchor them in the physical plane. Even better, each has its own, designer helm: check out the Snow helmet (inset) and tell us you don’t feel like rampaging across some tundra. £TBC, starck.com

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HOW TO HACK YO UR

LIFE WITH TE

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TOOL OF THE MONTH

CONQUER AT CONKERS 1

MAKE BEEF JER KY SANS DEHYDR ATOR

St John Burkett, organiser for the World Conker Championships, swings his best, vinegar-hardened tips at our favourite autumnal past-time….

Will Yates, founder of Billy Franks’ Beef Jerky (billyfranks.co.uk), gets dry and meaty

DEWALT BRUSHLESS 18V XR 2 SPEED FR AMING NAILER Firing nails into things hasn’t been this satisfying since Casino Royale. Twin 5Ah batteries offer plenty of cordless oomph for the brushless motor to pummel pointy bits of metal into anything from plasterboard to hardwood. But, thanks to its safety features, hopefully not up your nose and into your soft, yielding brain. £570, dewalt.co.uk

1/ Use a lean cut of beef. A lot of the lesser used cuts are great for jerky. Trim off any excess fat, skin and tissue, and cut into strips no more than 4mm to 8mm – or you may die. 2/ Create a marinade using white wine vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic, ketchup and honey. Then add your headline flavours – hot sauce, chillies, herbs etc. 3/ Refrigerate for at least five hours, ideally overnight, then spread out over a rack in the oven on lowest temperature. 4/ Check after six hours. The jerky is ready when it’s completely dry and all the moisture’s been evaporated. Once cooled, it should almost break when folded rather than bend.

4

THE TECHQUATION Keep your home safe and protected...

Samsung SmartCam HD Pro Ultra-wide-lens cam can be put anywhere and brings streaming to your phone via Wi-Fi. £139, samsung.com

2

BUILD YOUR OWN STEAM M ACHINE Not available in shops. At your house, however…

Interlogix indoor wireless motion sensor Scans for motion in your house, allowing for pets, and alerts you to any larger intruders. £54, interlogix.com

1/ Buy parts You’ll need all your usual PC internal gubbins. Nvidia’s GPU’s offer the best Steam OS support. 2/ Motherboard Start off by fixing the CPU and the – essential – heat sink to your motherboard. Things get fiddly if you try to do it inside the case. 3/ Construct Fit your complete motherboard into your case, then bung in the GPU, hard drive and RAM. They should all fit pretty snug. 4/ Steam OS Download Steam OS on another PC, and transfer it onto a memory stick. Plug that into your Steam Machine, boot it up, head into the BIOS settings and select “USB source”. Installation from there is straightforward. 5/ Controller We recommend a wired Xbox 360 pad.

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1/ Anyone can win a conker match with the right nut, but there’s still a technique to the game. In the World Championships, conkers are drawn blind from a bag. 2/ Start by working on accuracy. The best players set up a practice rig and store a supply of conkers in the freezer so they can practice all year. You can use an old squash ball if you’re out of conkers. 3/ Sweat your technique. Favourites include the Southwick Sidewinder, where the conker is hit from the side with power; the Barnwell Bomb – a downward swipe with as much force as you can give it – and the Oundle Chop, where you try to chip away at your opponent’s conker with little taps. 4/ You have just five minutes to knock your foe’s battle chestnut from its string, and can be disqualified for not trying to hit his brown fruit – for example, if yours has a crack in it. 5/ After that, the game moves to a “penalty shootout”: three rounds of three shots with the winner being the one who makes most contacts with their rival’s sacred orb – this is where the great players show they are truly nerveless.

Safewell 25FPM Large enough to fit all your techy valuables, with a biometric fingerprint scanner to make it more teeth-proof. £119, safewell.co.uk

Total Lockdown You are now the most secure house on the street, unless you live next door to this.

WORDS FRANCESCA PEAK ILLUSTRATIONS MARK MITCHELL

Win at life; play it all back

IOON ESE S OBOS G F... IN K ME TH

INSERT COINS TO CONTINUE

BEC

#37 ARCADE GAMING Want to celebrate the golden age of video games in your “breakout space”-cum-shed? Forget ROMs on your laptop and build your own cabinet. Bonus retro points if you stick Double Dragon in it…

WHAT YOU’LL NEED…

ARCADEWORLDUK.COM’S ANDY PICKERILL GIVES HIS TIPS FOR ASPIRING FLATPAC-MEN AND KINGS OF KONG

1/ Monitor maketh the man – Both open frame and CRT displays connect easily to PCs. If using an open frame, attach a couple of wooden batons to your cabinet to bolt it on to; if it’s a CRT, make a shelf, as it will be much heavier. But remember: while horizontal mounting suits most games, if you like shooters such as Galaga, you’ll want it vertical. 2/ Joystick-gate – Your handle aesthetic is a matter of preference, but the gate is key: it controls how you can control the stick. A four-way lets you move up, down, left and right, for something as simple as Pac-Man, but if you’re playing something a little more modern, particularly three-dimensional fighters like Tekken, an eight-way is essential. 3/ Button bashing – The main choice is between concave and convex styles. The former were used in many classic 80s machines, but again, convex buttons are usually preferred by modern fighting fans. Another important factor is the microswitch: high-actuation switches sound quite clicky, whereas Cherry microswitches are the quietest. 4/ Keyboard encoding – If the lazy man in you can’t resist using MAME emulation rather than original JAMMA boards, the I-PAC2 (Interface for PC to Arcade Controls) will translate button and stick moves so your PC can understand them.

f 1/ Sanwa JLW-TM-8 The iconic joystick in 99 per cent of Japanese machines, this is near indestructible and fit for a raft of classics. £19, sanwa-denshi.com 2/ Arcade World UK stand-up cabinet A flatpack cab that is precision cut on a CNC machine so it fits together to the millimetre. £330, arcadeworlduk.com 3/ Worx Slide Driver You’ll be needing this a lot. Your choice of six bits sit inside this electric

WORDS PETE DREYER

TECHlife

screwdriver’s chamber; rotate to make your choice. £40, worx.com 4/ Happ Competition buttons These come in endless colours and will survive a nuclear assault. For a quid more, you can have ’em with delicious Cherry D44X microswitches, too. £2 each, suzohapp.com 5/ Framemeister xRGBMini No CRT? This gives an authentic, scan line-laden arcade look on modern monitors. £205, solarisjapan.com

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ARCADE STICKS FOR QUICK FIXES ETOKKI OMNI WROUGHT BEAUTIFULLY FROM TWO SHEETS OF STEEL, THIS COMES IN JAPANESE OR KOREAN ARCADE CONFIGS FOR PC, PS3 AND X360. £121, ETOKKI.COM MADCATZ ARCADE FIGHTSTICK TOURNAMENT EDITION 2 XBOX ONE AND PS4 COMPATIBLE, WITH AUTHENTIC SANWA COMPONENTS. £180, MADCATZ.COM QANBA Q4RAF EXCELLENT CHINESE STICK, FOR CURRENT-GEN CONSOLES AND PC, WITH ARCADE-QUALITY PARTS. £120, EIGHTARC.COM

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TECHlife

FOAM ON THE R ANGE

D, HTHDE A KIDS TTE’SC R O T F NES I

HO

In the war of the soft weapons, Nerf is no longer a lone superpower Gunshots! This is Mattel’s rapid-fire entry to the world of foam-based munitions, the Boom-Co Rapid Madness. Unleashing 20 rounds in seconds, it’s a spray-and-pray sidearm similar to the Tec-9 or Uzi, except with soft, foamy darts rather than death-dealing lead. The impressive fire rate is because it works on compressed air, paintball-style – just pump the handle to fill the chamber, then take those tangos down. Exhaustive testing in the T3 office suggests this gives it an edge in fire-fights with the more multi-faceted Nerf. £38, boom-co.com

THE TECH The Rapid Madness in detail

1/ Pump it up Use bicep power to load the air chamber, then pull the trigger once to propel a single shot up to 15m, or hold it down for a 20-dart, shortrange fusillade. An extra ten darts are included to replace those inevitably lost under the sofa. 2/ Dart collector The Rapid Madness uses Smart Stick darts coated in a high-tech substance that sticks like glue to your enemy’s integrated pop-up shield, but not to carpets, walls or cats. 3/ Bull’s eye In order to encourage non-violence, you should really get the kids to shoot at the Smart Stick target in head-to-head accuracy contests rather than at each other, though. Play nice, now…

TECH DAD SELECTS

I’LL ONLY TELL YOU ONCE!

A pair of alternative ornament destroyers

With aeons of gadget wisdom under his belt, Tech Dad has the answers to all your familial questions

Dear Tech Dad, My five-year old daughter keeps wandering off. How can I find her, quickly?

Nerf Demolisher 2-in-1 Battery-powered carbine with under-mounted foam grenade launcher for max distress. £45, nerfelite.co.uk

KAREN/LONDON

any Android product and you can also set a time scale to stop your offspring from sneaking “one last game”, after hours. 99p, techno-app.com

The trusty Guardian Angel is an effective radio tracking device that warns you when a child, pet or life partner ventures out of safe range. £33, trackyour.co.uk

Dear Tech Dad, What tech solution can you suggest to get my kids to brush their teeth properly? JOSH/BRISTOL

Dear Tech Dad, How can I program a timer on my son’s Nexus 7? He never stops playing with the damn thing and I’m at the end of my tether. Stealth Crossbow High-powered, William Tell-esque target shooter uses old-school, sucker-tipped bolts. Tight, feudalperiod pants optional. £20, red5.co.uk

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RAY/REDRUTH

Try the new TechNo parental control app for Android devices. It lets you restrict the use of

How about making it a fun game? The Grush – yes, they really elected to call it that – is a sensor- and Bluetooth-equipped brush that scores your child’s brushing in real time on an onscreen mouth (obviously, we’re using the phrase “fun game” quite loosely here). £59, grushgamer.com WORDS DEREK ADAMS

DE UPGRUA P,

Big guns, cool clocks

TECHlife

FIX T LOOK SMAR

WATCH YOURSELF Tick-tocking style and tech boxes, these pieces are worth your time 1/ Void VO3D The latest wrist candy from this reliably stylish marque has all manner of neat design touches, including minimalist concentric numbering and luminescent bars in the hands. With a reliable and accurate, 2,115-piece Miyota movement, this is also the first VO3 to give you the date. £135, voidwatches.com 2/ PXR-5 Back after four years out of service, the PXR-5’s nylon-velcro strap and oversized digital display give it a nicely retro feel, with the clean elegance of a brushed metal body. An understated classic. £85, dezeenwatchstore.com 3/ Shore Projects St Ives As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with a very nice watch. Inspired by various British seaside towns, the clean-cut aesthetic of Shore’s designs and interchangeable nato straps make them an easy everyday choice, free from all the random bits and bobs that crowd some watch faces. £85, shoreprojects.com

4/ Casio G Shock GA1000 Now in a range of bright and exciting colours, this range update boasts a digital compass and tracker, thermometer, UV-LED lighting, and time-server signal reception. There are few watches techier than a G Shock, but they also work as street style statements. £260, casio.com 5/ Swatch Sistem51 Ignore the space face for a second; the really clever bit of this is on the inside. The 51-piece mechanical movement is the simplest ever constructed for a wrist-watch, and makes this marvel of mass production battery-free and ultra-reliable. £108, swatch.com 6/ Long Distance 1.0 The minimalist clock faces, monochrome styling and calf leather strap make this smart without being too showy. Both dials can be set to different time zones for easy comparison, and it’s pretty tough too thanks to a solid stainless steel case topped with a hardened crystal lens. £300, kitmenkeung.com

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PREFER SOMETHING MORE CLASSIC? MONDAINE POCKET WATCH CLOCKMAKER TO SWITZERLAND’S RAILWAY STATIONS, MONDAINE’S POCKET WATCH VERSION OF THOSE PIECES IS A BEAUTIFUL SLAB OF CLAEAN, MODERNIST DESIGN. APPLE BOUGHT A LICENSE TO USE IT AS A CLOCK IN IOS 6, NO LESS. £169, MONDAINE.CH

WORDS PETE DREYER

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T3 COMPETITION

WIN!

ONE OF THREE COOL, RUGGED ELLIOT BROWN BLOXWORTH 929-002 WATCHES

WORTH £600 EACH!

THE TOUGH TIMEPIECE WITH GO-ANYWHERE GOOD LOOKS ELLIOT BROWN’S CHRONOGRAPHS MARRY RUGGED TOUGHNESS WITH CLASSIC STYLING and the Bloxworth is no exception. The marine-grade stainless steel body and strap are sandblasted, then coated with jet-black PVD, while the dial is cut from a single sheet of carbon-fibre, hiding a bespoke shock absorber that protects the jewelled Swiss movement. The 3mm anti-reflective mineral crystal face is harder than a mango in a UK supermarket and with the crown and buttons triple-sealed against water, dirt and dust this is a watch that’ll go anywhere with you and always look the part. £600, ELLIOTBROWNWATCHES.COM

TO ENTER, HEAD TO T3.COM/COMPETITIONS *FULL TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE ALSO AT T3.COM/COMPETITIONS

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Win a watch; keep it light

BEAM WEAPONS Cyclists: winter’s drawing in and the clocks go back soon. Time to lamp up your steed…

TECHlife

Now arguably, this lighting setup is overkill, but with winter blanketing the land in dusk and killers on the road, you’re better safe than sorry. Our pick of this bunch is the 1/ Light & Motion Urban 350. Light and easy to fit, its 350-lumen beam pulsates rather than flashing, aiding your depth perception without hurting your eyes or those of oncoming traffic. Two amber side lights give maximum visibility and hopefully prevent you getting T-boned at murky junctions. The 1.5 hours of full beam per charge is enough for all but the most hardcore of cycle commutes, while an accurate battery meter means you’ll know when to rejuice. £60, lightandmotion.com

P U L SE

TECH PUT THROUGH ITS PACES

2/ Blaze Laserlight Projects an image of a bike on the road in front of you, visible as you nose out of turnings. £125, blaze.cc 3/ Knog Blinder Arc 1.7 High intensity XB-D Cree LEDs give an elliptical beam that can be seen from 1km away. £45, euro.knog.com 4/ Electron Pod A simple as it gets, this is light and compact with a bright-enough Cree LED. £13, electronlights.co.uk

5/ FWE USB Rechargeable This small, nifty light is an eye-catching 80 lumens and comes as a pair with a rear flasher – that’s a bikey bargain. £30, evanscycles.com 6/ Electron F200 Robust, waterproof and powerful, the F200 clears your way with a 200-lumen beam with pulse mode option. £40, electronlights.co.uk LIGHTS COURTESY EVANSCYCLES.COM AND MADISON.CO.UK

WE STILL NEED MOR E LUMENS! That’s your headlight sorted, then, Now here are illuminations for your rear, side and also your helmet-mounted GoPro

1/ Cateye Volt 50 Rear A simple rail mount attaches this super-compact light with four beam modes. £40, cateye.com

WORDS PETE DREYER PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID CAUDEREY

2/ Revolights City V2.0 Smart LED rings around these wheels give incredibly bright side, front and rear lighting. £250, revolights.com

3/ Knog Qudos Mounts to anything GoPro, providing a 400-lumen beam for low-light, on-bike video recording. £90, euro.knog.com

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CYCLOCROSS GEAR Cycle. Pick up your bike and carry it over a ditch. Repeat. Cyclocross is the ultimate test of your mettle, and your metal THE BIKES

THE BIKES 01/ Norco Threshold A3 This entry-level steed hails from British Columbia, where they know a thing or two about tough biking conditions. Fully equipped and ready to upgrade when you need, it’s a great starting point, and brake cables are tucked away inside the light aluminium frame, to avoid mud and snagging during carrying. £650, norco.com 02/ Boardman CX Team 2014 A well-specced bike for the price, and if you’re looking for something a bit more serious, the CX Team is a solid upgrade. Avid B5 disc-brakes are a significant performance boost over the Norco, and a mix of SRAM, Microshift and Boardman parts keep things light and strong. £900, boardmanbikes.com 03/ Moots Psychlo X Whilst the cycling world has embraced carbon fibre, Moots continues to make highperformance titanium frames. It’s still a staggeringly light 8.32kg, with a lower bottom bracket and shallower angles boosting stability and speed. £3,331, moots.com 04/ Ridley X-Night 20 Disc Belgium is very much the homeland of cyclocross, and Ridley is based right in the heart of it. The frameset is built to be ultra-light but comfortable when shouldering, with Shimano’s brand new R785 hydraulic disc brakes topping a list of highperformance parts. It’s already in the hands of two professional teams, soon it could be in yours. £4,450, sportline.co.uk THE GEAR 05/ Shimano XC90 SPD The most important part of the cycling body is your feet, so look after them with a decent pair of shoes. The Rovenica synthetic upper on these moulds to the shape of your foot for a perfect fit, and the super-stiff carbon footplate and low-profile spikes let you put the hammer down in the most piss-poor of conditions. £320, shimano.com 06/ Pearl Izumi Elite Gel Riding like a maniac is hard on your hands, but Pearl Izumi’s 1to1 gel-padding technology moulds the gloves to the nerves used most in holding

the handlebar, relieving pain. With the palm patterning fabric further wrapping your hands, you’ll barely feel a thing. £25, pearlizumi.co.uk 07/ Mobi V-17 portable pressure washer Bad news: your bike will get muddy during cyclocross and unless you want dirt clogging up your gears, you need to clean it. This guy can handle that, with a substantial, 17-litre tank and adjustable pressure levels for blasting the filth from your ride. An anti-lag system means it’s ready whenever you need it, and the rechargeable battery and shoulder strap make it easily portable for use immediately post-race, or once safely home. Worth spraying out for. £130, chainreactioncycles.com 08/ Brush-X A cheaper cleaning option, the faintly medical looking Brush-X connects to your hose so water flows right into every nook and cranny through stiff bristles that then get rid of even the toughest grime. It turns a Sunday chore into something that’s almost fun. Almost. £15, brush-x.com 09/ Craft Active Bike Extreme Sweat is inevitable, but unpredictable British weather means that a base layer that keeps you warm, cool and dry at the right times is essential. This one is designed for highintensity use, with a fit that’s like a second skin. £27, craft.se 10/ Hutchinson Black Mamba French tyre expert Hutchinson has adapted a line of cyclocross-specific tyres from its acclaimed mountain bike range. The Black Mamba has rubber knobs covering the tread and sides, providing grip as well as quick acceleration even in marsh-like conditions. £45, hutchinsontires.com 11/ POC Tracbike Race MIPS How about this for tech? POC has moulded its cyclocross helmet on the trabecular bone structure of your skull, and kitted it out with the MIPS system, which reduces the impact of rotational forces on your head. The around-the-head design and ventilated lining brings a snug, sweat-free fit. £182, pocsports.com WORDS PETE DREYER

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CycloCross kit

TECHlife

LIQUID ENGINEERING Triple British cyclocross champ Ian Field gives his best fluid-based tips

1/ Finish Line Super Bike Wash Perfect for post-race cleaning, obviously, this also tackles bike-munching hydrocarbons and organic compounds and helps ward off rust. £8, madison.co.uk

THE REST

2/ Elite O3one intense warm-up gel Fast-absorbing ozonised gel enhances blood flow and warms your muscles before you hit the dirt. Also helps fight the effects of lactic acid build-up mid-race, so you can keep going harder for longer. £16, elite-ozone.com

3/ Mad Alchemy Gentlemen’s Blend mild embrocation balm You’d be crazy to take on cyclocross without some of this. With Texas white cedar and Spanish rosemary oil, it smells warm while keeping you red hot and greasy. £12, madalchemy.com

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TECHlife

CHEF’S KNIVES Razor-sharp and blade to please, these four top-quality kitchen shivs – two German, two Japanese – are all champion choppers. But which is the Mac the knife?

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KEEP YOUR BLADES TIP-TOP… WITH ROB BEAGLEYBROWN, DESIGNER OF TOG KNIVES 1/ PROTECTION STORE YOUR KNIVES ON A RACK OR IN A BLOCK, NOT IN A DRAWER, AND DON’T PUT THEM IN THE DISHWASHER! 2/ CHOPPING BOARDS I FAVOUR WOOD OR BAMBOO OVER PLASTIC. THERE IS SOME DEBATE IN PROFESSIONAL KITCHENS ABOUT WOOD AS IT ABSORBS BACTERIA, BUT THEN WOOD NATURALLY KILLS BACTERIA TOO. DON’T USE GLASS OR MARBLE. 3/ SHARPENING AN ABRASIVE SHARPENING STEEL OR HONING ROD WILL GRIND AWAY A TINY AMOUNT OF STEEL, WITH A FEW STROKES ONCE A WEEK BEING ENOUGH. AFTER A FEW MONTHS YOU WILL NEED TO GRIND A NEW EDGE, HOWEVER, AND THE BEST WAY OF DOING THIS IS WITH A JAPANESE WHETSTONE. TOGKNIVES.COM HAS SOME VERY HANDY VIDEOS, IF I SAY SO MYSELF.

TEST WINNER

4/ Zwilling Pro chef’s knife Like the Wusthof, this classic feels hefty compared to the delicate Japanese knives, but hence all the better for meatier jobs. However, while the curve and weight of the blade make it effective as a rocker, they also leave it less useful on finer cuts. £104, zwilling.com 3/5

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2/ Global GS-89A 30th Anniversary cook’s knife Popular thanks to their iconic styling, Globals are also very good blades, with a hollow handle filled with sand for pinpoint balance, and a steep edge that makes for precise knife work. . This 30th anniversary one is a cracker. £80, globalknives.uk.com 5/5

1/ TOG Gyuto chef’s knife The antimicrobial copper layers in the blade and “kebony” handle make the Gyuto a thing of real beauty. It handles much lighter than the two German blades, but it is precise and well balanced. A knife that’s out of this world, at a price that’s astronomical. £170, togknives.com 4/5

3/ Wusthof Classic Ikon cook’s knife Wusthof’s knife feels heavy in the hand. It’s robust enough for heavy chopping and cleaving, but it may tire your arm out. The clean flowing design is classic – if you’re after a knife that doesn’t need constant attention, this is the guy. £121, inthehaus.co.uk 4/5

WORDS PETE DREYER, MAX PARKER IMAGE PIXELEYES

Shanks vs robots

MECHA BUTLER Dyson steps into the robo-vac wars with an intelligent behemoth that sees all and sucks big time

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Behold the Dyson 360 Eye! See how it towers over lesser robo-vacs, with tank-like tracks to help it over the household obstacles that trip many of its rivals! Tremble as its cyclone suction, powered by a 104,000rpm digital motor, collects dust and dirt from hard floors and carpets alike! First it scouts out your pad with a 360-degree panoramic view from its top-mounted “eye”, then it goes into action. Now, admittedly, the fact it’s about twice the height of most robo-vacs means it won’t be able to clean under many sofas and beds. But you know what our solution to that is? Don’t look under your sofas and beds! £TBC, dyson.co.uk, out autumn in Japan

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INSIDE DYSON’S 360 EYE AS SIR JAMES TOLD US HIMSELF BACK IN T3 228, “WE’VE BEEN DEVELOPING OUR ROBOTIC CAPABILITIES FOR 15 YEARS.” THE RESULT CLEANS FLOORS BY DIVIDING THEM UP INTO SQUARES OF 3X3M AND DEMUCKING THEM ONE BY ONE. THE 360 EYE’S BRUSH BAR IS WIDER THAN ITS BODY, AND SPORTS BRISTLES FOR BOTH HARD AND CARPETED FLOORS. ITS CAMERA AND ARRAY OF SENSORS REMAP YOUR GAFF’S LAYOUT EVERY TIME IT CLEANS

WIN! A GROHE RED INSTANT HOT WATER SYSTEM

Quite literally the hottest competition prize we’re giving away this month, the Grohe Red serves up boiling water, purified via a unique, five-stage filtration system, direct from its rather fetching tap, with safety features including CoolTouch and ChildLock. You know you want one. £1,700, FOR MORE INFO SEE GROHE.COM/UK. TO ENTER THE COMPETITION HEAD TO T3.COM/COMPETITIONS

WORDS DUNCAN BELL PHOTOGRAPHY JOE BRANSTON

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T3 PROMOTION

EE: WHAT YOU WANT, FASTER Its double speed 4G network puts the “EE” in “SPEED”. Now EE wants to help with the rest of your mobile life, from phones to bus tickets IMAGINE A ONE-STOP SHOP, WHERE YOU could buy everything you need: food, clothing, household and leisure goods, haberdashery, whatever that is, and everything for your mobile life. Well EE, the UK’s top 4G network, is exactly like that. Only without the food, clothing, household and leisure goods and haberdashery. What we’re trying to say is, EE is the number one destination not just for super-fast mobile internet. It’s also home to the hottest handsets, with everything from the Apple iPhone range to the latest android devices from Samsung, HTC et al, to EE’s own, unfeasibly keenly-priced flagship smartphone, the Kestrel. This lets you in on EE’s super-zippy 4G action for under £100. The EE/mobile comms/birds of prey crossover doesn’t end there, however. Swoop into one of their stores or fly online and you can also pick up the high-spec, low-price Eagle tablet, the Buzzard in-car Wi-Fi dongle, which turns your motor into a hotspot on wheels, plus the Kite and Osprey, which are your more traditional Wi-Fi dongles, both built to take advantage of EE’s blazingly fast 4G. With 75 per cent of the country already covered and double speed 4G in 40 towns and cities by the end of this year, EE is the UK’s leading 4G network. However, it’s also got designs on your home broadband, via its zippy Fibre broadband – available on 18-month contracts for less than £20 per month – served through the excellent Bright Box 2 router. In short, with a great range of tariffs and prices to suit every budget and requirement, EE is your one-stop shop for super-fast connectivity at home and away, the best mobile devices and accessories. But it doesn’t do haberdashery. FOR MORE INFORMATION HEAD TO EE.CO.UK OR SWING BY YOUR LOCAL EE SHOP

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EE Kestrel: 4G action for less The UK’s cheapest 4G handset, the Kestrel costs less than £100. But this easilyaffordable flagship of a blower has a great spec, with a quadcore processor, bright, 4.5-inch screen and five-meg/720p cam.

FOR MORE INFORMATION HEAD TO EE.CO.UK

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EE’S BUFFET OF TECH, LAID OUT FOR YOU TO CONSUME… 1

HTC ONE (M8) Undoubtedly one of the phones of the year, this marries awesome power to chic design.

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EE OSPREY Rugged 4G Wi-Fi dongle for the PAYG crew: high speed, low price, in a range of colours.

EE EAGLE A 4G-ready, eight-inch widescreen, superslim tablet for under £200? Believe it! EE BRIGHT BOX 2 With plug-and-play ease and dual-band AC Wi-Fi speed, this is free to EE home fibre users.

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SONY XPERIA Z3 Sony’s brand-new, 5.2-inch big daddy rocks a 20.7-meg camera and rebuffs water and dust.

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SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 This and the similarly-specced-but-moremetallic Alpha are primed for EE’s fast 4G.

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EE KITE The Osprey’s stylish older brother is similarly compatible with EE’s double-speed 4G.

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EE BUZZARD Sits in your motor’s cup holder and lets up to 10 passengers use its 4G connection.

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CASH ON TAP

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CASH, CARD OR PHONE, SIR?

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EE also wants to help make your shopping and travel simpler. Cash on Tap is a secure, simple, tap-to-pay system on selected EE mobiles that lets you instantly buy items under £20 in over 300,000 outlets nationwide. It’s also now accepted on London’s buses and tube, DLR and overground trains, replacing your Oyster card.

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E DRIV

SHORT-HOP SUPERSTAR Unlike a lot of electrics, VW’s new lithium-powered e-Golf looks like a normal car

H TO TEC YO U E TAK ACE S PL

and actually outclasses its carbon-farting brethren, so long as you don’t intend doing more than 100 miles per drive. As an urban runaround, it’s hard to beat…

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TOP SPEED 87 MPH (LIMITED) 0-62MPH 10.4 SECONDS ENGINE AC ELECTRIC POWERED BY 24KWH LITHIUM ION BATTERY GEARBOX SINGLE-SPEED, INTEGRATED DIFFERENTIAL POWER/ TORQUE 115BHP/199LB/FT OPERTING RANGE 118 MILES CARBON EMISSIONS ZERO WEIGHT 1,510KG PRICE AS TESTED £27,090

ROUTE MASTER

1/ Milton Keynes

We kicked off with a quick blatt along the boulevards near VW’s head office and then onto the M1. Limited to just 87mph, this is no autobahn stormer, but there’s oodles of instant electric torque. Looping back through the countryside reveals the upside of all the low-down weight, too: a chassis that smothers lumps and bumps.

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2/ Ampthill

Anyone for e-Golf?

What do most electric cars have in common? They’re attention seekers to the point of almost poking you in the eye with their lithium packs while spraying you with a fake flower from their lapel. Whether it’s Citröen’s “quirky” C Zero, Nissan’s “zany” Leaf or Renault’s “actually mad” Twizy, being conspicuously electric is part of the package. Not so the new Volkswagen e-Golf, however. Looking just like the standard petrol and diesel models, if you’re after an EV that flies right under the radar, this, the latest seventh-generation Golf, could be the car for you. It’s not just eco-friendly and economical; it’s a polished, practical, presentable and – whisper it – conventional ride. Based on VW’s modular MQB platform, the latest Golfs have been designed from the get-go to accommodate everything from combustion lumps to pure electric power. As a result, the battery on the e-Golf slips neatly into the chassis floor, running down the spine and into the boot – indeed, pop open the rear hatch and you’d never know there’s a gargantuan 318kg battery lurking beneath. All you lose is a little of the standard Golf’s storage below the adjustable boot floor. Now, as with most electric cars, the e-Golf isn’t a practical long-distance proposition. It’ll

TECHlife

THE TECH INSIDE 1/ All very familiar Inside, almost nothing gives away the cuttingedge alternative-energy apparatus. It’s just goodold Golf quality 2/ Touch of class VW’s familiar touchscreen multimedia rig has been given some additional chargetracking functionality, but the core feature set of navigation and tunes hasn’t really changed 3/ Socket set This sports a full set of charging chops. There’s support for AC charging from domestic supplies as well as DC, which delivers an 80 per cent top-up in 35 minutes.

TRIPS IN THE E-GOLF ARE PLEASURABLE, QUIET AND COST MERE PENNIES do about 100 miles before conking out, and even if you can find a charging point along the way, you’ll need to kill some time in Little Chef while it juices up – it takes 35 minutes for an 80 per cent top-up, and 13 hours for a full recharge. However, for many users that’s irrelevant. In urban areas, it’s not about the wind in your hair and the freedom of the open road. It’s about getting from home to school, supermarket or Ikea in comfort. The e-Golf does that with serene ease. Even by electric car standards, it’s exceptionally quiet, and it feels more stable and composed than its diesel and petrol siblings thanks to the low-mounted mass of the battery pack. We’d go so far as to say it make the standard model feel clumsy and antiquated. So the e-Golf isn’t as versatile as a conventional car. But the fact that its design won’t make people laugh and point at you, and that the trips you’ll take in it will be quiet, pleasurable and cost you mere pennies? Well, that sweetens the deal, we’d say… FROM £25,203, VOLKSWAGEN.CO.UK

WORDS JEREMY LAIRD

THR EE TO TEST DRIVE Kerb your enthusiasm

1/Ford EcoSport 1.5 TDCI Nissan’s coining it with the Juke, so this close rival is a no-brainer for Ford. The diesel delivers 120g/km and 61.4mpg.

2/ Audi TT The all-new third-gen TT has finally gone on sale. Highlights include hybrid aluminium construction and clever LCD instruments.

3/ Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy Renault’s road warrior given the Trophy treatment, with stiffer suspension and a cracking exhaust.

£16,495, FORD.CO.UK

£29,770, AUDI.CO.UK

£28,930, RENAULT.CO.UK

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TECHlife E DRIV H TO TEC YO U E K TA ACE S PL

HIGHER HYBRID BMW wipes the floor with every other sports car out there with its tag-teaming of petrol and electric

A closer eye on the i8 1/ Multi-mode machine The i8’s clever petrol-electric powertrain can switch from full reheat mode for mountain passes to pure electric at the flick of a switch. The result is a single car that trades blows with Porsches in pure performance stakes and then sails silently into London, under the Congestion Charge radar 2/ Connect, drive The petrol-electric gubbins may be unique to the i8, but its multimedia is carried over from other BMWs. Luckily iDrive with ConnectedDrive is pretty much the most advanced infortainment rig on the planet, and a charging station database is added to the nav 3/ Carbon cred Carbon is a running theme for the i8. For starters there’s the preposterously low 49g/ km official tailpipe emissions. Then there’s the carbon-fibre LifeCell at the core of the car. It’s something BMW is proud of, hence the exposed carbon weave in the sills and door shuts

{CONCEPT}

FIAT 500L VANS It is a skater van, it says “see you later, fan” 1/ The van fits. The 500 is already a bit of a shoe-shaped lump, so it makes sense that Fiat’s created a one-off concept with Vans, the famous surf ’n’ skate SoCal footwear specialists. 2/ Hmmm, waffles. Spot the design references: the “waffle” sole pops up on the pedals and the dash is plastered in Vans stickers. 3/ Surf’s up top With the Vans tie-in, a surf-friendly roof rack is a given, while the quad LED driving lights are a more generic design. Fiat.co.uk

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Doing 155mph tops and zero to 60mph in just over four seconds? Pretty impressive. Doing so with 134.5mpg and 49g/km? That’s unique; that’s the BMW i8. Its compact, three-cylinder petrol engine and plug-in lithiumion electric power combine to five a balance of performance and efficiency that annihilates every other sports car, ever, enabling everything from maximum-attack b-road fun to pure-electric silent running in town. It’s a devastatingly slick and balanced driving machine. £94,845, bmw.co.uk

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WHO LET THE TECH OUT?

PET SHOP BUYS

T3 did. Now let us lead you to the finest gadgets known to fur WORDS ROB TEMPLE PHOTOGRAPHY RICHARD GRASSIE CAT CLEO, MONGREL DOG ADELE, WEIMERAMAR @PETLONDON

FurCode Pet Identification Tag A clever ID upgrade that uses unique QR codes to link to an online profile of your pet, including contact and vet details, plus medical information, in case it goes walkies. They’re hewn from laser-etched aluminium, too, making them light and virtually indestructible. £11, lazyboneuk.com

G-PawS A GPS tracker that’s light enough, at just 12g, to be worn by cats as well as canines, this lets you finally find out what Mr Meowington gets up to when he disappears through in-browser maps. It’s robust, weatherproof and charges via USB in four hours, attaching to collars with Velcro tabs. £50, g-paws.com

CAT CENTRAL Petcube Much like a baby monitor for Tiddles, this crowdfunded, 4x4x4-inch, Apple-esque aluminium box lets you monitor pets or lazy cleaners on your phone’s screen. You can also play with/freak out those involved from afar with a laser pointer, then share photos of your beloved and/or burglars’ feet online. $209, petcube.com

FroliCat Dart

Litter-Robot Bubble

Shru

Cats go crackers for lasers and this is one of the best. Switch it on and the beam moves in a circle at a choice of four speeds, changing directions at random, while Socks loses his mind. £18, frolicat.com

A rotating, self-cleaning chamber to cover you on prolonged city breaks that even large cats can use: just plug in and add litter. The roomy drawer means you won’t come home to Poo Mountain. €399, litter-robot.eu

Kickstarter-funded, egg-resembling device that keeps kitty amused. How? It “responds and chirps like a living animal”. A “Find Me” feature will locate it when your cat inevitably “kills” and buries it. $49, getshru.com, out early 2015

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PET SHOP BUYS

Cat DJ Playhouse A cardboard deck meets scratch mat that folds together with a rotating disc that your cat will be compelled to play with, saving your sofa arms from total destruction. Combine with the FroliCat for a proper naughty feline rave-up. Oi oi! £20, suck.uk.com

SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap Ends next door’s big tom stealing your scaredy cat’s dinner by microchip IDing pets, only unlocking the door for VIPs. Name not down? You’re not coming in. £80, sureflap.co.uk

Bistro Feeder

PetChatz

Recognises Fluffy’s feline features and dispenses food only to him. Weight sensors calculate how much has been eaten, sending data to an app so you can feel paranoid about his weight, too. From $159, indiegogo.com

Missing your moggy? Get in touch, via tablet or phone, and drop a treat from the base of this videophone. “I’m afraid I can’t take your call right now, human, I’m hiding a mouse carcass in a shoe.” $349, petchatz.com

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PET APP PARADE Pet First Aid

MapMyDogWalk

CrazyCat HD

Articles, videos, illustrations and tips for both cats and dogs on how to deal with everything from cuts and choking to CPR. You can record medical info, too. £2.49 iOS, £1.91 Android

Log your routes and track your calories, distance, duration, pace, speed and elevation, then view you and little man’s workout history online at home. Free, iOS and Android

Animated critters fly, run and crawl around the screen while your cat collects points for number of vermin swatted. Don’t forget the scratch-proof cover! £1.99 iOS, free on Android

Doggity

Kennel Club Puppy Buying Guide

Pocket Pond 2

The essential guide to dog-friendly dining in Britain, this app packs over 2,000 places for you and pooch to visit, with 350 of those in London. Free, iOS

Helpful tips on choosing a puppy, what to ask breeders, links to local clubs, training advice and health stats. Handy. Free, iOS and Android

This colourful Koi feeding and breeding simulator is actually meant for human players, with full career mode in tow, but doubles as a great moggy diverter. Free, iOS and Android

FUELBAND FOR FIDO? Voyce Wellness Tracker

Whistle Activity Monitor

Collar that monitors key health signs, including heart and respiratory rates, and spots early signs of diseases. $299, mydogsvoyce.com

Disc attaches to any collar to track your mutt’s activity, with updates dispatched to your smartphone. $129, whistle.com

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FitBark Behaviour monitor that syncs to your smartphone and gives breed-specific feedback to see how your dog compares to its peers. $99, fitbark.com, out 2015

ROBOT WORKFORCE

WORDS RORY BUCKERIDGE

THE WORLD BUILDERS

HOW TECH HELPED SHAPE THE RISE OF LONDON’S PREMIER GRAPHICS HOUSE F R O M C G I U P S TA R T S TO OSCA R W I N N E RS AND GUARDIANS OF T H E C I N E M AT I C G A L A X Y

s business plans go, one tied inextricably to Moore’s Law – the computing theory that speculates that processor speeds, or overall computing power doubles approximately every two years – is one most companies would struggle to get past their bank manager. But most companies aren’t post production visual effects studio Framestore. And when your business’s expansion is dependent upon incremental advances in technology, it’s a simple and pragmatic plan. But more of that later.

Zoe Saldana and Chris Pratt get some quality green-screen time together in Guardians of the Galaxy

Framestore used their considerable technical nous to bring Star Lord’s ship to life in Guardians of the Galaxy

Soho-based Framestore is one of UK Plc’s biggest success stories. If you’ve been to the cinema, at all, in the last 10 years, you’ll have seen some of their work. From Harry Potter’s House Elf Dobby, The Dark Knight and Oscar winning turns on 2007’s The Golden Compass to incumbent Achievement In Visual Effects Oscar holders for Gravity, Framestore sits on top of a global Premier League of three effects houses, alongside directors George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic (acquired by Disney back in 2012) and Kiwi Peter Jackson’s Weta. With offices in New York, Montreal and Los Angeles, a worldwide headcount currently of 976, turnover £77.6m in 2013/14 and a display cabinet straining expensive hardwood under the weight of five BAFTAs, five Cannes

Lions, 13 Emmys and two Oscars, Framestore has been showered in more awards than Jony Ive’s propelling pencil. It’s interesting, then, that this company started with a failure. Of sorts. The first gig the nascent company bagged, when it was set up on March 2nd 1986 was a Culture Club video. For “God Thank You Women” to be precise, a CGI triumph featuring movie stars Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren and Raquel Welch among others, by all accounts crudely cut out of movies. Back then, this was an impressive, tour de force of special effects, but it didn’t stop the single flopping at number 31. “It was the first one that failed, rather sadly,” begins Framestore’s CEO and cofounder, Sir William Sargent, a tall, lean, softly spoken Irishman. “They had five or six hits in a row, then they got us on board!” The Eighties was an era where the music industry was making Everest-sized mountains of cash

MOVIE MASTERS

“Processing power, obviously, was very slow,” says Sargent, “and storage was very expensive, and so at that point you could only do standard definition TV, 625 lines and we could only do 90 seconds at a time, of storage. And in fact the storage device was the size of this room [Sargent’s office holds a desk, storage space and a sizeable, square conference table for meetings], to store 90 seconds of video in standard definition of resolution. It would take us four hours to load it in, at 24 frames per second. We’d load the frames in, and then we’d work on them, and then we’d load them off for another four hours. So it would take 8 hours a day to load in and load out, and we’d work on that 90 seconds for the day, and then we’d load the next 90 seconds and then we’d break it down.” Hence Framestore’s wonderfully pragmatic business plan. Sargent continues: “We knew when we started that we’d do film, we just had to wait for Moore’s Law. And we were very clear. We plotted it, we thought it would take us about 10 years before we could do film resolutions, as film was 16 times television resolution in data – it was purely a matter of economics. We knew that processing power would exponentially go with Moore’s Law and the cost of storage would come down and the cost of processors would come down.”

FRAMESTORE’S WILLIAM SARGENT PICKS FOUR FILMS THAT CHANGED FX FOREVER SNOW WHITE (1937) “At the time, animation was a five-minute art form. And it was all funny, it was all jokey. And the fact that you could tell a full-length story and carry an audience was unheard of. Disney had to finance the movie himself because nobody would touch it with a barge pole.” TOY STORY (1995) “That was the first time a CG animation story really moved someone. And we loved it, and [director] John Lasseter is a genius.” AVATAR (2009) “Jim Cameron had Avatar ready to go 10 years before he made it, but he stopped. He went on to do Titanic instead. Because he couldn’t. He tested it, but he didn’t have the technology, so he had to wait for the technology to catch up with his vision for Avatar.”

IMAGE: REX FEATURES

THE BAD OLD DAYS

MOVIE EFFECTS MILESTONES

IMAGE: REX FEATURES

“Those were the days when pop promos were the art form where people were developing the new ideas and techniques,” continues Sargent. “There were one, two, three hundred grand budgets for music videos and we were the first company fundamentally to apply computers to the making of films.” But this was the Eighties, computing was hardly personal, server farms were a thing of sci-fi and processors could be counted by eye.

The turning point, it transpires was 1994, when the hardware that Framestore needed hit a sweet spot of affordability to be able to enter commercial reality. Computing, however, still took the lion’s share of investment pounds in the business, although the situation was changing rapidly. “Of course what happened over that decade was that the hardware became cheaper so there was a transformation from the hardware being the key component of the technology to the software taking that place,” explains Sargent. “So we might spend a million pounds on a product of which 75% of the cost was hardware, like disc drives, and steel casings and all that, and software might be 20 or 30% of the cost. To a situation 10 years later where you buy a Dell computer for a thousand pounds and spend five thousand pounds on a software licence. And the wages went the same way, that the cost of a desk, say, is 100 units, and the software was 10 units and the hardware was 70 units and the wages were 20 units. It changed over the years to the hardware and software flipping around, and then the wage bill becoming a part of that. So six-figure salaries are common in the software world.”

IMAGE: REX FEATURES

Bradley Cooper + mo-capped actor + CGI developed after observing a real animal = GotG ’s Rocket Raccoon

GRAVIT Y (2013) Director Alfonso Cuarón’s brief was we went and shot this up there in space. That’s what the industry feels that. The point was that people bought into visual effects as just reality. As opposed to a sci-fi movie, where you know it’s not real.”

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HOW TO WIN AN OSCAR GRAVITY’S LIGHTING DIRECTOR PAUL BEILBY’S TIPS FOR GONG WINNING TURN POST-PRODUCTION HOUSE INTO A PRE-PRODUCTION HOUSE “The main difference on Gravity was that we were involved very early on in the project. So we were actually involved in the lighting design on set.” BE PREPARED TO THROW TRADITIONAL PRACTICES OUT “We had a work pipeline that we’d developed over about 10 years, to do all the other movies and we realized we were going to have to rewrite it from scratch, so we changed everything.” BE FLE XIBLE “The first day that Chivo [Director Of Photography Emmanuel Lubezki] came in, he was like, ‘Okay, I want the sun to move from here, all the way across the sky and over there,’ so we realized that we were going to have to be able to move the sun.” BE PREPARED TO WORK WITH BIG NUMBERS “We generated terabytes of data. The International Space Station was in the region of 1.5bn polygons.” SHOOT THE WHOLE MOVIE BEFORE THE MOVIE HAS BEEN SHOT “Before they even started shooting, we’d done a version of it. We’d worked with Chivo to set up how the lighting would be, and before they even went on set we’d designed the lighting.” LEARNING ON THE JOB “There’s always something new to learn, you can always go a bit further than you could before. Before Gravity, in terms of the number of light bounces you used to be able to do, you’d do maybe one. On Gravity we did four.”

Gravity, of course, is currently Framestore’s big-ticket product. It was a boundary smashing thing, but a project which clearly stretched the company to the limit. “We were trying to do something that we ourselves didn’t know we could pull off. As we got into it, we began to realise that boy, had we taken on something that we hadn’t quite imagined. Because the level of ambition was just crazy. But we just believed that we could crack it. And in the cracking, you really realise what you’ve taken on.” It’s maybe strange, then, that Sargent would prefer it if the impassive, golden statuette wasn’t even on display. “I’m very unhappy about having awards out,” he says, “because it’s the past and the future’s all that counts. I’m happy to celebrate the awards, but normally we’ve acknowledged our own success when we delivered the work. We all looked at Gravity and we all knew it was quite special, and we were very proud of it. The fact that nine months later it wins Oscars and so forth is fabulous, but by the time we got the award we were already working on Guardians Of The Galaxy.” “Winning the Oscar for Gravity reaffirms our credentials,” Sargent continues, “as opposed to gets us credentials. People say you must be getting loads of work? Well we’re getting no more, no less work than we used to get.” What was more frustrating at the time, it turns out, was not being able to share the work which the company internally knew was exemplary. “Warners wouldn’t allow us to show the movie to anybody,” says Sargent. “So we couldn’t use it to get business for the next projects. We’d spent two years working on something we knew was the best thing that

had been done ever. And we couldn’t show it to the five other studios or even to Warners’ directors to get business because they wanted it under wraps.” By that time Framestore was already deeply into their next project, producing CG characters Rocket Raccoon and alien, tree-thing Groot for what will probably be the biggest film of the year – Guardians Of The Galaxy. But again, technology plays its part, as Sargent contends a movie of Guardians’ complexity just couldn’t be done until this year, because the tech wasn’t ready. “You couldn’t have done this at a price point three years ago which you can now do,” he says, “And so there are scripts floating around that you look at and go, ‘It’ll just cost too much, and the studio’s not going to fund it because it doesn’t make financial sense’. But you know in three year’s time, the price point will be doable.”

Sandra Bullock and her fellow actors were the only non-CGI elements of much of Gravity

MOVIE MASTERS

Guardians of the Galaxy is so cutting-edge, Framestore’s FX boffins reckon it would have been impossible in 2013

CRE ATIVE THINKING

It all sounds very clinical and economics-based. So does Framestore add tech to art, or art to tech? Sargent: “In my opinion we create, using technology. But the creative process is people. So we are using tech tools and technology to create visual material. But the skill set is our people. ” For those that baulk at the cost of this year’s iPhone, imagine running a company where the latest hardware is a competitive necessity. It surely must cost a fortune keeping up with this tech arms race? “Well the answer is we’re always incrementally improving our business. It’s evolution. It’s not that it goes obsolescent, it’s just that you keep evolving,” says Sargent. “We spend 3 to 5 million pounds a year on equipment and software. In various degrees of moving forwards.” And can he put a value on his technology assets? “Value is subjective, isn’t it? I know what I’ve spent. In the last 10 years I’ve spent at least 30 million pounds.” The conversation continually returns to and references money. Well, budget, to be precise. Not because Framestore seems greedy, or overly focused on the bottom line, but with, for instance, 200 expensive London staff (and another 80-odd in Montreal) currently working on Universal Pictures’ Dracula Untold, creating even basic VFX starts racking up big bills pretty quickly. Like any artistic process, it’s a continual discussion with a movie’s director about priorities and compromises and part of Framestore’s expertise lies in liaising with directors to ensure that their budget is directed into the right areas. So if a director wants an epic crowd scene, that’ll cost, Sargent suggests, (and we have no idea if this is a real figure), two million pounds. If the VFX budget for the movie is five million, the director’s going to have to decide pretty quickly how important that scene is. Asked where he thinks technology is going to take his industry next, it’s real time rendering Sargent thinks will have the most impact, explaining: “What we’re heading for is real-time rendering. What we could do three years ago, we can do for a quarter of the price now. But Gravity set the bar for ambition in terms of complexity and rendering processing and all that sort of stuff.” Again, our friend Moore comes back into the equation. As processing power becomes faster and cheaper, it allows companies like Framestore to push the boundaries of what they can create, within the budgetary constraints. So as a company, is Framestore eternally impatient with the speed of advances in technology? “Not really. Because there’s stuff we’ve struggled to deliver this year. Guardians Of The Galaxy was a challenge. Gravity was a challenge. So I’m more than happy with the current challenges we have!” It’s interesting to get a line on where Sargent sees his company in a few year’s time. Will they be ever farther

down the road of photo-real VFX, or is there another aspect where he thinks technology will influence his company’s journey? “The more interesting thing for me is the ability to tell a story across different platforms,” says Sargent. “That’s more to do with the creative, rather than the technical barrier. For instance, we are one of the only companies in the world to operate across all the platforms: on the phone, the iPad, IMAX, television, virtual reality, Oculus Rift.” “But can I get my clients to work across all the platforms?” he continues. “No. Because either they don’t work in markets that operate across all the platforms, or they are structured in a way that can’t commission. But what will drive that will be the fact that at some point we will deliver a story across more than one platform at the same time. So that you’ll get some content on your phone, some in the cinema, some of it on TV or something like that, and they’re all interconnected.” And finally, with all this talent and all this tech, how far away are we from a movie experience where it’s impossible to tell the difference between film and CG effects? “Well I think Gravity cracked that one. So the answer is, we’ve already done it.”

CODE LIKE AN OSCAR WINNER! WANT TO MAKE A CGI BLOCKBUSTER, BUT GOT NO KIT? HERE’S WHAT FRAMESTORE’S PAUL BELSY WORKS ON… THE PC: A Dell T3610, T5610 or Z600 (£1,327, £2084 or £1,249 – Dell recommend an XPS 15, as the Z600 has been discontinued). “These average 16 cores and 16Gb of memory” says Paul, “but our render machines have 96Gb.” THE MONITOR: 2x Eizo CG245W monitors (£1,727 each) “We use two monitors, one of which is always colour calibrated.” THE SOF T WARE: Scientific Linux (free), Maya 2014-2015 (£3,100), Arnold (£875), Nuke (£2,534). (Plus Framestore’s bespoke software, coded in house and commercially unavailable.)

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VOTE FOR YOUR OF THE YEAR! Best Original Game? Best Multi-Player? Gaming Platform of the Year? Have your say! Let us know what you’ve loved from this great year of games and you could win an iPad Air!

Vote in the 2014 Golden Joystick Awards

WIN AN IPAD AIR!

THE ONLY GAMING AWARDS VOTED FOR BY GAMERS

VOTE NOW! www.goldenjoystick.com

Edited by Libby Plummer

RATED THE LATEST TECH FROM THE T3 TEST LAB

First Glass {RATINGS}

GOOGLE’S BROW-MOUNTED CAMERA AND TRACKER IS AVAILABLE TO BUY IN THE UK. IS YOUR FACE BOTHERED?

{ALSO REVIEWED THIS MONTH}

STEVIE WONDER

MICHAEL CAINE

Samsung HU7500 p104 Humax DTR-T2000 p105 Optoma HD50 p105 Bluetooth speakers p106 Tablet supertest p109

HAROLD LLOYD

DEIRDRE BARLOW

HEINRICH HIMMLER

WORDS ANDREW WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHY PIXELEYES GLASS COURTESY OF EBUYER.COM

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Google Glass: everyone’s heard of it; hardly anyone’s tried it. You could even ponder whether most people want to try it – banned in cinemas and liable to win you more unwelcome attention than sitting at the front in a comedy club, Google Glass is barely social acceptable. What is it actually like to use?

2

As well as requiring nerves of steel socially, Google Glass demands a hefty investment. Available in the UK at last, it costs £1,000, which gets you the latest 2.0 Explorer edition. Little has changed since we looked at Glass last year beside it actually being available to buy, and a boost from 1GB or RAM to 2GB. While the name “Explorer” might suggest this is for early adopters willing to put up with a few remaining creaky bits, the hardware is actually pretty impressive. Where optical specs need to be professionally fiddled with to fit, Glass will fit virtually any head after a oneminute manual tweak. It’s all down to the construction – the skeleton of the thing is a single piece of thin, flexible titanium. Bendy and {SPECIFICATION} super-light, Google Glass is easily the most comfortable OPERATING SYSTEM augmented reality headset Android 4.4, modified for Glass we’ve tried. Even after PROCESSOR/RAM prolonged wear, there’s little Texas Instruments discomfort – maybe a bit of OMAP 4430 dualcore/2GB SCREEN 640x360 pixels, rub just above the ears after “equivalent to a 25-inch HD wearing the set all day, but screen placed 2.5m away” nothing untoward. STORAGE 16GB CONNECTIVITY Furthermore, while Google Bluetooth, G Wi-Fi Glass doesn’t fit happily on CAMERA 5 megapixels/720p top of normal specs, you can BATTERY 570mAh QUOTED BATTERY LIFE get them fitted with sunglass One day of “typical use” and/or prescription lenses. Setting up Glass is about as easy as setting up any sort of Bluetooth accessory: {DIMENSIONS} download the MyGlass app and you’re away. It largely relies on a smartphone connection while out and about, but it can connect to Wi-Fi when available too, most control can be done directly from the headset. As well as the main control – a discreet, side-mounted touch panel – there’s also a mic for voice control and a couple of buttons. HEIGHT 133mm The display sits on WIDTH 203mm the right, just above your DEPTH 23mm WEIGHT 43g standard field of vision, projected into a transparent block. The way our brains

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WWW FOR MORE REVIEWS GO TO T3.COM

360° R A T E D

1 3

{DETAILS} 1 SMALL-SCREEN THRILLS

The surface that makes up Glass’ screen actually sits at a 45-degree angle rather than dead on 2 PLAYING THE EAR BONE

Rather than using earphones, Glass has a bone conduction speaker, making sound seem like it’s coming, spookily, from inside your head 3 SECRET SNAPPER

A button on top lets you take photos, or video when you give it a long press

work means it looks like a screen suspended in the air just to the right and slightly above your head. With a resolution of just 640x360, image quality is fairly dodgy and the colours are a bit off, but as Glass isn’t trying to do anything as cinematic as Oculus Rift, this is not a total deal-breaker. What can you actually do with the headset? It all starts with “Okay, glass”, the phrase you’ll have to say about a million times as it’s what kicks Google Glass into action. You’re then taken to a menu that, perhaps surprisingly, is nothing like Android, despite being based on Android. It’s been radically simplified, keeping what you can do limited in order to make Glass easy to use. What you can do, then, is send messages, take photos using a button on the top or a voice command, search the web, record video or get directions to anywhere from McDonalds to Manchester. Fresh out of the box, there’s no eye-operated Flappy Birds, no Netflix. Things are kept deliberately simple. Google Glass wants to be your everyday pal, and as important a part of your life as your phone. It’ll let you find the route to whoever you’re going, ask Google questions and record your life in 720p video and five-meg stills. Flicking through the interface does take a bit of getting used to simply because it is so different from Android or IOS. But it is quick, and it is intuitive. Bark out the “Take a picture” voice command and it’s awkward because you can only take one shot before having to flit back through the menu again. Using the button on the top of Glass instead is simple, however, and the results are about on par with a decent five-megapixel phone camera, with results worth uploading, if not framing. Turn-by-turn navigation is pretty neat too, although we did worry about getting fixated on the screen while walking down the street and crossing roads. Delve deeper and you get some hints as to Glass’ future potential. Browsing the web is surprisingly handy – place two fingers on the side and your head movements pan the page. You may look like you’re convening with spirits, but it does work. With the help of clever Google searches you can also listen to podcasts and watch YouTube videos. Some, but not all, of this sort of functionality has been unlocked by the new wave of Glass apps – there are around 50 so far, with obvious picks such as Twitter, a few AR games, a zombie-themed running app and other curiosities. While the limited availability of Googles goggles has kept numbers down, you’d expect growth to accelerate when and if the price of Glass comes down and it really takes off. «

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R A T E D 360° {KILLER FEATURES}

KNOW YOUR GLASS FROM YOUR ELBOW

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The right side of Glass is a multi-touch trackpad like that on a tiny laptop. Taps select things, flicks to the left and right move through menu options and down swipes step backwards. Getting used to this pad is the most important part of mastering Google Glass, unless you’re socially confident/inept enough to use the voice control.

One of the most controversial features is the five-meg/720p front camera. Its wide-angle lens means you can shoot more or less what you can see, and at decent quality, too. The camera view also comes in handy when navigating, and is key to Glass’ AR app future , but it will also make all you meet think you are creepily spying on them.

Despite only needing to run quite a restricted version of Android, Glass actually has a fair bit of power on tap, with a dualcore Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 CPU backed by 2GB of RAM. While it won’t smoke a Galaxy S5, the processor is capable of much more than we’re seeing at present – fingers crossed we’ll see that potential exploited…

TRACKPAD

Design is futuristic as opposed to stylish – see p56 for an alternative Glass “look”

CAMERA

PROCESSOR

« Indeed, a big reason to grab Glass now is to see exactly what happens next – there’s more scope for innovation here than in phones. Battery life, it must be said, is a bit rubbish. Use it a lot, as we did while testing, and you’re lucky to get half a day out of it. At the very least, you’ll need to charge it every night.

THE SPIRIT OF GLASS IS ADMIRABLE. IT’S THE ULTIMATE EARLY ADOPTER’S TOY…

{THE RIVALS}

SMART SPEC SPEC-OFF!

GOOGLE GLASS

EPSON MOVERIO BT-200

VUZIX M100

PRICE URL

£1,000 GOOGLE.CO.UK/GLASS

£569 EPSON.CO.UK/MOVERIO

€900 VUZIX.COM

We’re still waiting for developers to really get on board with Glass, but it’s an undeniably exciting thing. Will it ever take off? Your phone can do everything Glass can, often a bit better, and if consumers really do want to get at info more quickly than a phone allows, smart watches seem a better option. They’re just more discreet and practical than a camerafestooned tracking-device-cum-computer that you wear on your face. Sorry, but they are. That said, there’s something about the pioneering, “screw-what-normal-people-think” spirit of Glass that’s undeniably admirable. It’s the ultimate early adopter’s toy.

SCREEN

The 640x360 display isn’t totally sharp but it is handily placed and works well enough

The Moverio has two, at 950x540 resolution. They could still be sharper, frankly

With a 428x240 resolution and no transparent effect, this is notably worse than Glass

CAMERA

Operated with voice or touch, With just a VGA camera, photos Though designed for work image quality is comparable to and vids are like something functions really, the five-meg a midrange smartphone from about 2005 images are fine for Facebook

PROCESSOR

A dualcore OMAP 4430 CPU runs tings and is, if anything, more powerful than is needed

The TI OMAP 4460 dualcore CPU is very similar to that on Google Glass

A dualcore OMAP chip again. With its own storage, this is less smartphone dependent

BUILD/ STYLE

A feat of design, this is light, comfy and has a certain sci-fi style, in multiple colours

So clunky, and with a separate battery pack, it makes Glass looks like Tom Ford Eyewear

Rather than a full glasses frame, there’s a single earpiece clip. It lacks style and feels awkward

KEY FEATURES

The (comparative) style, clever Head tracking sensors offer Designed for professionals, so interface and choice of apps low-res VR gaming. The battery there’s an SDK to build apps for put this way above its rivals pack doubles as a trackpad it, but most won’t be much fun

£1,000, GOOGLE.CO.UK/GLASS

BATTERY LIFE

Realistically, you’ll get around five hours of “proper” use

APPS

There’s a choice of 50-odd apps It’s Android, so there are plenty A limited selection for retail, and they’re all Glass-specific. of apps, though very few that professional and medical uses, Hopefully that will grow… are optimised for specs not consumer/entertainment

T3 VERDICT

Glass is not for everyone… But It can potentially do a lot, but it is for considerably more the BT-200 earns about minus people than the Epson or Vuzix 100 style points

LOVE Masses of potential. Surprisingly comfortable. Easy to setup and use. Decent camera and navigation HATE Poor battery. Expensive. Potentially awkward, socially. Jury’s out on their appeal beyond initial buzz T3 SAYS A great engineering achievement, even it’s still one only the true tech hardcore wants

About 6.5 hours – not amazing, Only lasts about two hours on but not outright bad either full blast – ouch!

It’s half the price, but it’s also neither as much fun or as useful as Google Glass

RATING

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WWW FOR MORE REVIEWS GO TO T3.COM

2 HEAD OVER TO T3.COM FOR AN EXTENDED REVIEW

Less curve, more class SAMSUNG’S RESOLUTELY FLATSCREEN 65HU7500 GIVES YOU 4K FOR “ONLY” £3.5K

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{DETAILS} 1

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TWO REMOTES

TUNE IN, TURN ON…

PHOTO VIEWER

Boring-but-functional, standard one with buttons or futuristic-but-crap, motion-sensing one? Hmm…

Both Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners are at hand, plus hard-drive recording via USB

Feed it snaps via Wi-Fi or USB and you have the ultimate picture frame – today’s photos are BIG

{FOCUS}

{SAMSUNG 65HU7500}

POINTS OF INTEREST {SPECIFICATIONS}

SCREEN 65-inch, 3840x2160 TUNERS Freeview HD, Freesat HD CONNECTIVITY 4x HDMI, Wi-Fi, ethernet, component, 2x composite, 3x USB 2.0 3D Active, 2x glasses included AUDIO 40W, Dolby Digital

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Content to make you content

{SIZE/WEIGHT}

DIMENSIONS 874x1449x295mm 25 kg unboxed

Samsung still offers the strongest set of smart features of all the big TV bods, in our opinion, and you can expect to find apps for all of the on-demand channel providers such as BBC iPlayer and 4OD, plus most of the paid-for content providers like Blinkbox, at the Samsung Smart Hub. Crucially, you also get Netflix, which is so far the only provider of 4K programming. You will need a fast broadband connection to make use of said programming – fibre-optic at 20Mbps+, ideally. That aside, there’s not much ultra-HD gear to gorge on so far, but Breaking Bad on Netflix, and games like Sniper Elite III, do make you realise what the 4K buzz is all about.

Although the spec is slightly off Samsung’s bendy, range-topping UE65HU8500, the feature set on this non-curved 4K set is near identical, making it as close as a three-and-a-half-grand telly gets to being a “bargain”. Pictures truly boggle the eyes once you dial back the image processing, with uniformly clean and crisp pictures, both native 4K and upscaled HD. Admittedly, upscaled standarddef stuff looks a mess, but that’s inevitable. The “Mastered in 4K” HD Blu-ray of Total Recall looked especially detailed and smoothly rendered, though this very darkly-lit film did also highlight how reflective this screen is. 3D films also benefit greatly. Samsung has taken the active 3D path here, which means there’s no compromise in resolution when you don the 3D glasses and watch Avatar in impressive UHD resolution. Furthermore, although the thin panel and even slimmer bezel means it’s only marginally larger than its picture, there’s still space for four HDMI 2.0 ports, all of which can all handle a 4K signal at 50/60Hz. In short, Samsung’s step-down set gives you 4K without the debatable delights of a curved screen, or the expense of a separate media box – though a port lets you add one in future, should you so wish. If you seek a futureproof set then, pound for pixel, the Samsung 65HU7500 is (a lot of) money well spent. £3,499, SAMSUNG.COM/UK

LOVE Stunning 4K and well upscaled HD. Lots of useful features and connectivity HATE Excessive image processing, though this can be turned down, of course. Reflective screen. Mad price T3 SAYS Has the scale and resolution to really show you what ultra HD is all about

Reviews R A T E D

HUMAX DTR-T2000 YOUVIEW £199, HUMAXDIGITAL.COM

OPTOMA HD50 £999, OPTOMA.CO.UK

The Optoma HD50 is a Full HD projector for those wanting to watch wall-sized movies and supersize their games. What sets it apart from the midprice 1080p pack? Simple: it performs like a projector costing twice as much.

{SPECIFICATIONS} PROJECTION TECH Single chip DLP RESOLUTION 1920x1080 3D Active (optional extra, no specs included) BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST 2,200 lumens, 50,000:1 CONNECTIVITY 2x HDMI, component, composite, PC VGA, RS232, 12v trigger AUDIO None SIZE/WEIGHT 286x266x124mm/4kg

The DTR-T2000 is the latest YouView PVR from set-top specialist Humax. It employs a 500GB drive to store 125 hours of HD or 300 hours of SD.

{SPECIFICATIONS} HARD DRIVE 500GB (125 hours HD, 300 hours SD) WEB TV BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD, Demand 5, UKTV, Milkshake, Now TV, Sky Store CONNECTIVITY HDMI, ethernet SIZE/WEIGHT 360x50x245mm/2.5kg

Image sharpness is exceptional, with HD images from TV and Blu-ray alike bristling with fine detail. It’s also contrasty enough, if that’s a phrase, to give images tangible depth. A Dynamic Black mode further optimisest black levels depending on image content by adjusting the lamp output, though this causes the projector’s cooling fan to slip into noisy overdrive. While it can be used in a partially lit room, the HD50 looks its best in full-black out conditions. Rainbow fringing, an artifact common to single chip DLP projectors, is notable only by its absence. This HD projector isn’t cheap per se, but it’s a good deal that punches way above its price bracket. The razor-sharp clarity of its images, easiness on the eye and simple setup make it great for projection noobs, giving killer delivery of big matches and bigegr blockbusters, while more tenth dan AV blackbelts can dig deep into a host of calibration options and system functionality. If you’ve got a white wall, this is an essential add-on for it.

YouView’s own platform sits atop the Freeview HD service and offers a seamless mix of 70 live channels and streaming catch-up TV from the BBC, ITV/STV and C4/S4C plus the more marginal likes of Channel 5, UKTV (aka Dave, Really and Yesterday), Milkshake!, plus paid-for offerings courtesy of Now TV and Sky Store. The user experience is polished, with effortless set-up and seamless transition from live TV to web content to recorded TV on the PVR portion of the device, via YouView’s time-shifting EPG. Recorded image quality is identical to source, and the PVR is also compatible with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, when broadcast. Streaming services work well, with no buffering so long as you’ve got decent broadband, and for the most part don’t disgrace themselves in terms of image quality. Combining excellent image quality with the approachability of Sky and the sophistication of Freetime, this platform arguably pips both. The only real caveat is the lack of Wi-Fi; you’ll need ethernet or Powerline AV. That aside, the DTR-T2000 is a corker.

LOVE Razor-sharp 1080p pictures. No overt DLP rainbow effect. Plug-and-play simplicity HATE Speaker and 3D not included. At 29dB it’s not the quietest T3 SAYS A big-screen, full-HD barnstormer that comprehensively out-performs its price tag

LOVE Compact slim design. Effortless usability. Seamless mix of broadcast and web TV HATE No network file support. No integrated Wi-Fi T3 SAYS This slimline silver TV-surfer is great choice for non-subscription telly addicts

WORDS JIM HILL AND STEVE MAY

HEAD TO T3.COM FOR EXTENDED REVIEWS

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Singing the Blues TAKE THE WEIGHT OFF YOUR PHONE’S SPEAKERS WITH THIS LATEST BATCH OF PIMPED-OUT, BLUETOOTH SONIC PROJECTORS

02 RUBBER SOUL

AS THE TRICKLE OF TOP-END BLUETOOTH AUDIO BOXES becomes a flood, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to battery-powered, wireless companions. With the latest crop of portables offering big sounds, bold looks and all-day battery life, they’re still essential even as autumn makes their sojourns into the great outdoors less frequent. Which should you choose? Read on for the truth about ’tooth.

01 WHAT A BEAUTIFUL NOISE

TEST WINNER

03 FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK…

01 WHAT A BEAUTIFUL NOISE

02 RUBBER SOUL

£170, DENON.CO.UK

£249, JABRA.CO.UK

DENON ENVAYA

The Envaya’s rather basic looks and curious name may not necesarily suggest great things are afoot here, but you won’t be disappointed by its performance. The 2.1 speaker array does a size-defying job, making the most of every note stqueezed to it via apt-X Bluetooth, while battery life is also impressive. Unlike some of the speakers here, it’s at

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home with both your sweet-vocals-andacoustic-guitars type of music and something more full-on, thanks to a fine blend of detail and poke. It’s hardly pocket sized but you’ll be more than happy to find space for it in your luggage. T3 SAYS Super sound with all-day battery life: what’s not to like?

03 FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK…

MONSTER SUPERSTAR

JABRA SOLEMATE MAX At 3.7kg the Max is a brute of a “portable” but despite its rubberised bulk, its audio is not its strongest point. With all that weight, and the combined output of two tweeters, two woofers and a bass driver, you’d expect plenty of thump, and it does deliver the low-end goods with dance music and rock, but it’s more about volume than quality, and

£99, MONSTERPRODUCTS.CO.UK

a little underwhelming for the high price. On the plus side, the 14-hour battery life is superb, and there’s both NFC and a neatly hidden cable as additional connectivity options, but a lack of subtlety and excess of price scupper it. T3 SAYS Loud, wellbuilt but overpriced slab of stylised rubber

Monster claim their diddy little speaker is “The world’s smallest audiophile speaker.” We’re not sure about that, but it does put out a very pleasing noise for its price. The bass is punchy, the mid-range tight, and the effect is especially pleasing on vocal-heavy tracks. You can’t complain about a lack of volume either, although it goes

up so loud that you start to get a bit of distortion at its upper limits. Add a water-resistant, rubberised build, a battery that’ll last about five-ten hours and just-about-pocketable size and it’s a sterling Bluetooth contender. T3 SAYS Decentsouding portable with no lack of volume

WORDS CHRIS HASLAM ILLUSTRATION CATK PHOTOGRAPHY JOBY SESSIONS

Portable sounds R A T E D

04 SHARP-DRESSED MAN

05 TEENAGE DIRTBAG

04 SHARP-DRESSED MAN

TED BAKER FASTNET £199, TEDBAKER.COM

Elegant is not a word bandied about that often when talking about Bluetooth speakers, but Ted Baker’s first foray into audio kit scrubs up far better than, for instance, Jabra’s effort. Looking like a cross between a retro camera and luxury luggage, the leather clad Fastnet somes in black, brown, pink or white and feels reassuringly well built.

The audio here is also refined. More gale force than hurricane, it’s a grown-up audio balance that’s highly enjoyable when gently grooving to acoustic and vocal tracks but a bit undercooked when the time comes to get busy with beats. T3 SAYS A stylish system for more laidback sounds

WWW FOR MORE HEADPHONE REVIEWS GO TO T3.COM

05 TEENAGE DIRTBAG

SUPERTOOTH D4

{FOCUS}

€50, SUPERTOOTH.NET

Most of the offerings here are at the premium end of the Bluetooth market, because that’s the kind of high-falutin’ publication we are. But if all you want is a cheap and dirty hit of volume, in a variety of colour choices, you could do a lot worse than the D4. Boasting excellent battery life – up to 12 hrs – it also performs a lot better than you might

expect for the price. Will it provide soaring highs and trouser-flapping bass? Er… no; but it sounds alright. And weighing in at a mere 500g, and with a handle on top to boot, it’s as portable as it is unsophisticated. T3 SAYS Cheap and cheerful, highly portable speaker-ette

AUTUMNAL AUDIO

Fall Out Boy Grand Theft Autumn Neil Young Harvest Moon The White Stripes Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground Green Day Wake Me Up When September Ends Broken Bells October Song The Kinks Autumn Almanac Yo La Tengo Autumn Sweater The Cure Last Days of Summer Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong Autumn in New York Tom Waits November Small Faces Autumn Stone Morrissey November Spawned a Monster

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Tablets R A T E D

Keep taking the tablets THINK APPLE AND GOOGLE MAKE THE ONLY GOOD SLATES? THINK AGAIN. HERE ARE THE CLASS ACTS FROM THE COMPETITION.

Tablets that don’t have an Apple or Nexus logo on them have a bit of an image problem. Half think they’re compromising by not buying an iPad, and the other half don’t even know these ‘other’ tablets exist. ILLUSTRATION LUKE O’NEILL

Get a tablet from somewhere other than the most obvious places and you can find something a wee bit different, though. Are you in the market for a drawing tool, something to replace a laptop or something that costs under £100? We’ve gone on safari outside the box to see what’s on offer in the tablet jungle these days. We have a few amazing sights to show you here. «

{CONTENDERS}

Five tablets battling for attention

ACER ICONIA ONE 7 £90

WORDS DAVID PHELAN PHOTOGRAPHY PHILIP SOWELS

ASUS VIVOTAB NOTE 8 £260

MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 3 £649

LENOVO YOGA 10 HD+ £300

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S 8.4 FROM £319

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ACER ICONIA ONE 7 £90, ACER.CO.UK

{SPECIFICATION}

1

OS Android 4.2 SCREEN 7-inch, 1,280x800 pixel PROCESSOR/RAM 1.6GHz dual core Intel Atom CPU STORAGE 16/32GB RAM QUOTED BATTERY LIFE Up to 7.5 hours

3

4

2

{DIMENSIONS}

HEIGHT 198mm WIDTH 119mm DEPTH 8.9mm WEIGHT 320g {DETAILS} 1 BUILD

The rough textured plastic back adds grip. 2 STORAGE

A microSD card slot lets you add more storage. 3 DESIGN

It may not be posh, but it sure is portable. 4 SCREEN

You miss out on Retina sharpness, but the 7-inch screen isn’t too blocky.

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Cheap as curly fries but a decent tablet for the price The Acer Iconia One 7 is all about the bottom line. Android tablets don’t get much cheaper than this, but Acer has managed to pack in all the features you’ll need too. A powerful Intel Atom processor, two cameras, a microSD slot and an IPS screen – these are all good boxes to tick. That Acer has managed to do it all this cheaply shows you really don’t need to pay much for a decent tablet anymore. There’s even GPS, so you could even use it as an in-car navigation tool with the right maps app. If you’re not yet convinced whether you need a tablet, this is a good, low-risk place to start. Of course, it’s not perfect or everyone would be buying a sub-£100 tab. Screen colours are a bit muted, the contoured plastic back feels a bit like the Asda Savers of the tablet world and we found that games do take a while to load. And often they don’t look as good as they would on a more expensive tablet. You also miss out on a few of the flashier extras you’d get in some of our pricier picks. There’s no NFC, no 3G option and you can’t use this tablet as a universal remote, as you can with some.

However, it’s a real step up from older £100 tablets. Until recently we wouldn’t have recommended touching one this cheap with a disinfected bargepole. Things like using an IPS screen, so that the image doesn’t go all funny as soon as you tilt the tablet, and a processor that can keep up with Android actually make it leagues ahead of the budget tablets of old. You still need to manage your expectations a bit, but you’re not going to get a nasty surprise as soon as you press the power button here. For the money Acer has delivered a tablet that is surprisingly useful.

{ACCESSORISE}

Elgato EyeTV Micro This doesn’t have 3G, but there’s an easy way to watch TV on it. This turns the tablet into a teeny TV, using an aerial to beam the Freeview signal onto your screen. £60, ELGATO.COM/

LOVE Cheaper than 99 per cent of budget tablets. You can hand it to a toddler without worrying HATE Textured plastic bodywork looks and feels a bit cheap next to others. The display’s desaturated colours don’t exactly make movies and games pop T3 SAYS Money too tight to mention? It’s not perfect, but it is great value

Tablets R A T E D

ASUS VIVOTAB NOTE 8 £260, ASUS.COM

{SPECIFICATION}

1

OS Windows 8.1 SCREEN 8-inch 1,280x800 pixel PROCESSOR/RAM 1.3GHz quadcore Intel Atom STORAGE 32GB RAM QUOTED BATTERY LIFE Up to 6 hours

3

2

4

{DIMENSIONS}

HEIGHT 221mm WIDTH 134mm DEPTH 11mm WEIGHT 380g {DETAILS} 1 BUILD

The stylus slots into a little hole at the bottom. 2 SCREEN

A 1,280 x 800 IPS screen isn’t the sharpest, but gives good space for notes. 3 DESIGN

This is a bit thicker than most at 11mm thick. 4 CONNECTIVITY

There are no advanced connections.

A tablet at a mid range price that offers a responsive stylus Tablets with proper styluses are pretty rare. Tablets with proper styluses for under £250 are pretty much unheard of. The Asus VivoTab Note 8 is a stylus tablet available for as little as £245, and it uses similar digitiser tech to what you’ll find in a high-end Wacom graphics tablet, as used by professionals. If you want a tablet to unleash your creative side with, you could do a lot worse than this. Load up this Windows-based tablet with an art app that can hack the hardware’s 1,024 pressure sensitivity levels and you’ll have a great little art tool on your hands. The stylus also slots into the VivoTab Note 8’s body, so there’s less chance you’ll lose it. Granted, you probably still will. With an 8-inch screen and 380g weight, you could even have a doodle on the train on the way to work – it’s pretty portable. Get two hands involved and the Note 8 feels like a little digital notepad. This is a pretty low-cost tablet for something that packs-in a digitiser, though, and there are a few compromises. Most important, its Intel Atom with 2GB RAM engine room sounds – and is – powerful

WWW FOR MORE CAMERA REVIEWS GO TO T3.COM

{ACCESSORISE} among tablets, but it’ll start to struggle if you put Adobe Anker 25W USB Photoshop in front of it. It’ll charger This 5-port USB charger work, just not lightning fast. plugs into the wall and lets The stylus isn’t quite you charge your phone, perfect either. It’s accurate your tablet and more without hogging the power enough, but it feels a bit sockets. scratchy when you draw £50, IANKER.COM with it as the pen nib doesn’t have quite the right finish. You generally only really notice when you’re making big swipes across the screen, though. If you want to get serious about digital art, though, the proper active stylus of the Note 8 gives you a better place to start than an iPad with a dumb capacitive stylus. You just don’t get the refinement of proper pressure sensitivity with that kind of combo.

LOVE Having a proper pressure sensitive stylus is great. Pretty cheap for a tablet with a digitiser stylus. HATE Screen isn’t Retina-grade in sharpness T3 SAYS This tablet lets you unleash your inner artist without remortgaging the house

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MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 3 FROM £649, MICROSOFT.COM

{SPECIFICATION}

OS Windows 8.1 Pro SCREEN 12-inch 2,160 x1,440 pixel PROCESSOR Intel Core i3/i5/i7 STORAGE 64/128/256/512GB CAMERA Dual 5-Meg QUOTED BATTERY LIFE Up to 9 hours

3

1

4

2

{DIMENSIONS}

HEIGHT 292.1mm WIDTH 201.4mm DEPTH 9.1mm WEIGHT 800g

{DETAILS} 1 BUILD

A grille sits around almost the whole of the tablet. 2 CONNECTIVITY

You get the connections needed for a monitor and a mouse. 3 SCREEN

LCD screen gives laptop size and top tablet quality. 4 STORAGE

Unlike a laptop, the Surface Pro 3 has two cameras.

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Machine designed to lure people away from their laptops For the past few years, Microsoft has desperately been trying to make a tablet to lure people away from their iPads. To be honest, It hasn’t worked too well, but now Microsoft has decided to change tack. The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is a tablet that wants to replace your laptop, but not necessarily your iPad. It’s a 12-inch device, making it roughly the size of some smaller Ultrabooks out there. However, as it’s so slim carrying one around feels more like handling a pad of A4 paper. Go for one of the higher-spec versions and you’ll have a computer that’s as powerful as any slim and light laptop, though. To get the most out of the Surface Pro 3, you’ll need the Type cover, a £110 keyboard accessory that plugs into the bottom of the tablet with magnets. It’s pricey, but also a must-have if you’re after something that can be both tablet and laptop. The keyboard doesn’t keep the tablet upright. Instead, there’s a kickstand on the back, which holds the screen at almost any angle. As both the kickstand and tablet are made using magnesium alloy, everything feels super-hard and well-made. You may not get

{ACCESSORISE} Apple iPad looks but build Type Cover quality is just about perfect. This must-have accessory As the Type cover keys are is what levels up the the same size as those of a Surface as a laptop computer. It has good-size laptop and have a proper key keys and even features a action, typing at full speed backlight perfect for offers no problem. It just night-time typing. £109, MICROSOFTSTORE.COM feels a little different – you’re still tapping away on a board that’s actually only a few millimetres thick after all. With a sharp, bright 12inch screen and the Windows app store, the Surface Pro 3 works pretty well if you’re going to use it a tablet or laptop. But this one works best if you’re going to at least do some work on the thing. iPads and Androids are that bit snappier for pure fun purposes. As a work machine, the Surface Pro 3 more than does the trick.

LOVE Big, sharp screen is probably better than your laptop’s one. Run full apps thorogh Windows HATE The keyboard doesn’t come included, and costs a bit. Play games and the fan kicks in, making it noisy T3 SAYS A real tablet-laptop hybrid, this one is up for fun and work

«

Tablets R A T E D

LENOVO YOGA 10 HD+ £300, LENOVO.COM

{SPECIFICATION}

3

OS Android 4.4.2 SCREEN 10.1-inch 1,920x1,200 pixel PROCESSOR Quadcore Snapdragon 400 CPU STORAGE 16/32GB QUOTED BATTERY LIFE Up to 18 hours

1 4

2

{DIMENSIONS}

HEIGHT 261mm WIDTH 180mm DEPTH 8mm WEIGHT 615g

{DETAILS} 1 BUILD

The hinge can be pushed back into the body or opened up like a frame. 2 SCREEN

A 10.1-inch isn’t classleading but sharpness and colours are both good. 3 BATTERY

There is a giant 9,000mAh battery running things. 4 STORAGE

A microSD card slot is hidden behind the hinge.

The ultimate tablet designed to be used in your kitchen Most tablets are designed to be taken here, there and everywhere, but the Lenovo Yoga 10 HD+ is the ultimate at-home tablet. Everything from the design to the battery life and interface is absolutely spot on for supercasual use indoors. The actual design is pretty unusual, though. A 10.1-inch screen is common enough, but here the screen rests on a non-removable swivel stand that adds a chunky bulge to one side of the screen. It’s not just for show, though. It acts as a handy grip should you want to go handheld, and lets the tablet pack in a ridiculously huge battery. Think the iPad Air’s 10-hour battery is impressive? The Lenovo Yoga 10 HD+ lasts for up to 18 hours off a charge. This is fantastic news for a casual at-home tablet. Picture the scene – you’re cooking up some fajitas while flicking between a recipe, iPlayer and your emails on your Yoga 10 HD+, resting happily on the side. Thanks to that amazing battery life, you could go for more than a week’s worth of dinner preparations and still have enough juice to watch a Breaking Bad re-run in the bath afterwards. If only it was waterproof.

{ACCESSORISE} You wouldn’t need to use headphones as the Beats Pill XL A good wireless speaker is tablet’s front stereo speakers the perfect partner for this aren’t too bad either. It’s a tablet, turning it into an homebody’s dream. entertainment powerhouse. This is Lenovo hasn’t maxed out super-portable and sounds the Yoga HD+ in every way, good too. £250, BEATSBYDRE.COM though. It has made sure it’s significantly cheaper than an iPad. As a result, only the hinge is metal. The rest of the tablet’s back is plastic. The HD+’s CPU is not a barnstormer either, and we did notice a little bit of lag now and then. This probably isn’t a tablet for the most hardcore of tablet fans, but it’ll slot comfortably into your life perfectly if you want something to use primarily at home.

LOVE Nice vivid colours, perfect for movies and games. Battery life is jaw-droppingly good HATE Bulky battery grip. Awkward positioning makes the rear camera even less useful T3 SAYS It’s big and chunky, but amazing battery life more than makes up for it

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SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S 8.4 £319 (WI-FI) £399 (4G), SAMSUNG.COM

3

{SPECIFICATION}

TEST WINNER

OS Android 4.4 KitKat SCREEN 8.4-inch 2,560x 1,600 pixel Super AMOLED PROCESSOR/RAM Octa core 1.9GHz Exynos 5 CPU STORAGE 16/32GB RAM CAMERA 8-Meg rear camera with LED flash 2.1-megapixel front camera QUOTED BATTERY LIFE Up to 10 hours

1

2

4

{DIMENSIONS}

HEIGHT 213mm DEPTH 126mm WIDTH 7mm WEIGHT 294g

{DETAILS} 1 STORAGE

A microSD card slot and IR transmitter push this above the crowd. 2 SCREEN

The 8.4-inch screen is sharp, bright and vivid. 3 BUILD

The 6.6mm thickness is super-impressive. 4 PORTABILITY

Poppers on the back hook into Samsung’s own cases.

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Slim and portable with features that make it great for home or commute Some tablets are good for work. Some work best at home. But the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is great at being that one device you want to pick up whether you’re on the sofa or a train half-way between Didcot and Churn. Get your hands on one and you can’t help but be impressed by how incredibly slim and light this tablet is. It’s 6.6mm thick and 294g, it has that sort of unnerving lightness that initially makes you assume they must have left the battery out. It’s a lot lighter than even the iPad mini. An 8-odd inch tablet also strikes a great balance between screen size and portability. You’ll need to keep it in a bag rather than a pocket, but it really is tremendously convenient. And its screen quality is fantastic– super-sharp, super-rich. This being a Samsung product, though, there are some quirks. The back is made of plastic, with a similar kind of dimpled design you might have seen on the Galaxy S5. It doesn’t feel as expensive as the aluminium of the iPad mini. Samsung has also bunged a couple of popper thingies on the back. They are designed to cleverly hook into Samsung

{ACCESSORISE} cases, but you don’t get one in the box and without a case Samsung they look a bit like security Simple Cover Hide those unsightly tags left on from the shop. poppers and give the Tab S Not a great look. 8.4 even more of a book-like If you can forget these feel with one of Samsung’s official covers. idiosyncrasies, this is one £30, SAMSUNG.COM of the few tablets that can really double up as a Kindle replacer and a digital magazine. And doesn’t Samsung know it. A new Paper Garden app lets you buy magazines directly from the tablet, using a super-swish interface. We would recommend T3, of course. This is something that Samsung has made, or at least modified, so unfortunately you won’t find it everywhere.

LOVE It’s the most portable 8-inch tablet out there. Its super high-res Super AMOLED screen is a joy HATE Samsung’s interface is a bit bloated, and not the quickest T3 SAYS Big-screen bliss in an ultra-portable package. Superb

Tablets R A T E D SPEC SHOT

ACER ICONIA ONE 7

ASUS VIVOTAB NOTE 8

MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 3

LENOVO YOGA 10 HD+

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S 8.4

PRICE URL

£90 ACER.CO.UK

£260 ASUS.COM/UK

FROM £649 MICROSOFT.COM

£300 LENOVO.COM

FROM £319 SAMSUNG.COM/UK

OS

Android 4.2

Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 Pro

Android 4.4.2

Android 4.4

SCREEN

7-inch 1,280x800 pixel

8-inch 1,280x800 pixel

12-inch 2,160x1,440 pixel

10.1-inch 1,920x1,200 pixel

8.4-inch 2,560x 1,600 pixel

PROCESSOR/RAM

1.6GHz dual core Intel Atom CPU

1.3GHz quadcore Intel Atom CPU

Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPU

Quadcore Snapdragon 400 CPU

Octa core 1.9GHz Exynos 5 CPU

STORAGE

16/32GB RAM

32GB RAM

64/128/256/512GB

16/32GB RAM

16/32GB RAM

QUOTED BATTERY LIFE

Up to 7.5 hours

Up to 6 hours

Up to 9 hours

Up to 18 hours

Up to 10 hours

LOVE

Cheaper than 99 per cent of tablets, you can hand this to a toddler without undue worry

Thin. Runs smoothly thanks to its quadcore chip. Decent camera, too

Big, sharp screen is better than many laptop ones. Runs proper Windows

Nice vivid colours, perfect for movies and games. Battery life is very good

Highly portable eight-incher with a super high-res Super AMOLED screen that’s a joy

HATE

Plastic bodywork looks and feels cheap. Poor colours on the screen

Screen lacks that bit of sharpness you’d ideally want from an eight-incher

No keyboard included, and it costs a bit. Play games and a noisy fan kicks in

Bulky battery grip. Awkward positioning makes the rear camera less than useful

Samsung’s interface is a bit bloated, and not the quickest

T3 SAYS

Money too tight to mention? It’s not perfect, but it is great value

This tablet lets you unleash your inner artist without remortgaging the house

An expensive tablet-laptop hybrid, this one is up for both fun and work

It’s big and chunky, but amazing battery life more than makes up for it

Big-screen bliss in an ultra-portable package. The best non-Apple tab out there

4

7

MAKE AND MODEL

RATING

{REASONS}

Why the Samsung grabs this month’s tech crown

1

Despite having one of the smaller displays, the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is the highest-res tablet here.

2

The IR transmitter lets you use the tablet as a universal remote control – touchscreen ones used to cost £300 alone.

3

This isn’t trying to be something else. It’s a tablet first and foremost.

Its rear camera is better than that of some phones. You can get some cracking shots with the inbuilt HDR mode.

5

The Tab S 8.4 has stereo speakers for more immersive sound.

6

The microSD card slot lets you boost storage by up to 128GB, enough for 1000+ albums.

6.6mm thickness and 294g weight make it handy for portable use.

8

A Super AMOLED screen gives it far better contrast than any IPS LCD tablet.

9

The preinstalled Remote PC app lets you access your home computer directly from your tablet, like magic.

{FOCUS}

Four tablets for peanuts GOOGLE NEXUS 7

TESCO HUDL

KINDLE FIRE HD 7

ASUS MEMO PAD HD 7

Google’s official low-cost tablet isn’t the cheapest, but it offers some great specs: a 7-inch screen and power to play 3D games. £169, GOOGLE.COM

The Hudl costs a hundred quid and gets you a colourful 7-inch tablet. It’s a tiny bit sluggish. It’s ideal as a kid’s first tablet, though. £99, TESCO.CO.UK

Amazon’s Kindle tabs are different to other Androids, with a more limited app store and a UI built to make it easier to buy things from Amazon. £119, AMAZON.CO.UK

This no-nonsense Android tab isn’t as sharp as the Nexus 7, but a vivid screen and decent battery life make it a good entry-level pick. £99, ASUS.COM/UK

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{THE FINAL WORD}

KOREA OPPORTUNITIES? If our test proves one thing, it’s that you don’t have to plump for Apple or Google to get a svelte slate that meets all your needs. And in point of fact, choosing another manufacturer could save you a few quid, which you could then put towards that holiday in Mauritius you’ve been hankering after. It’s not all good news, admittdely. The Acer Iconia One 7 may be cheap but it also looks a bit shoddy. It’s a decent-enough entry level tab, but a bit nasty looking. The Asus Vivotab Note 8 is not as cheap as the Acer but it is a little better as a performer thanks to a responsive stylus. The Lenovo Yoga 10 HD+ costs a little more than the Asus but it’s world’s apart in terms of quality. Great for a device to use in the comfort of your own kitchen. The Microsoft Surface 3 is designed to lure people away from their love of laptops and even though it is at a higher price point, it is a great machine if you’re looking for something to use for work. But the winner, by a reinforced mile, is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4. Portable and with a lovely big screen, it offers the full digital magazine experience at a very competitive price. Apple should watch out.

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The No.1 website for musicians

Love this magazine? You’ll love musicradar.com Thousands of gear reviews and killer video demos

Tips and techniques to help you play and sound better

TheGuide {THE BEST OF EVERYTHING}

Smartphones p118 Tablets p119 Laptops p120 Gaming p121 Home audio p122 Home entertainment p123 Headphones p124 Televisions p126 Cameras p127 Accessories p128

Top tens THE place to start researching your next gadget-buying jaunt. For an even more up-to-the-minute snapshot of our latest wish lists, check out t3.com/best-gadgets. Scores The products featured in The Guide are reassessed regularly against what’s new, hip and happening. As a result, we will re-rate older products to reflect the current market. Prices We scour the web for the best prices we can find at trusted retailers. Even so, check the most up-to-date deals before getting out your Solo, Access or Diner’s Club card. AVAILABLE ONLINE @ T3.COM THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 1 1 7

{BUYING TIPS}

Smartphones

Phablets that punch their weight 3

1

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3

An array of clever, stylusfocused extras give this 5.7-incher the edge. £430, SAMSUNG.COM/UK

2

02

03

04

05

SAMSUNG GALAXY S5

£464, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, TESTED JULY 2014

06

£325, LG.COM/UK

4

NOKIA 1520

A stellar 6.4-inch screen, a mighty fine camera and impressive slimness.

Hulking yet sexy slab carries the Windows Phone flag in its enlarged fist. Fast, apart from the camera.

£310, SONYMOBILE.COM

£340, NOKIA.CO.UK

SONY XPERIA Z ULTRA

01

LG G FLEX

A slightly curved variant on the phablet theme, with six inches of screen girth.

SONY XPERIA Z1 COMPACT

FROM £345, SONYMOBILE.COM, TESTED APRIL 2014

LOVE Updated interface. Incredibly bright screen. Plethora of innovative features and excellent battery-saving mode HATE Sensors are great, but the accuracy isn’t there yet T3 SAYS The S5 throws everything at its bid for Android supremacy and it just about pays off

LOVE Premium waterproof design, just like its big brother. Brilliant 4.3-inch display. Powerful processor HATE Lack of Android 4.4. Sony’s own interface feels dated T3 SAYS The scaled-down version of the Xperia Z1 loses very little of the original’s appeal

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

PROCESSOR 2.5GHz quadcore SCREEN 5.1-inch, 1920x1080 CAMERA 16-megapixel/4K STORAGE 16GB or 32GB

PROCESSOR 2.2GHz quadcore SCREEN 4.3-inch, 1280x720 CAMERA 20.7-meg/1080p STORAGE 16GB, microSD

HTC ONE M8

£507, HTC.COM/UK, TESTED JUNE 2014

07

HTC ONE MINI 2

£380, HTC.COM/UK, TESTED NOVEMBER 2014

LOVE Stunning metallic build. Great camera upgrades. Quadcore processor runs like a dream. Inspired Dot Matrix case HATE Fewer flashy headline features T3 SAYS The most stylish Android. Lacks headline features of others, but what’s there works and looks top

LOVE High-end metal design. Excellent display. Strong camera. Generally premium feel for under 400 quid HATE Battery won’t last a long day. Processor can lag T3 SAYS Sublimely designed, the HTC is a head-turner that also qualifies as affordable

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

PROCESSOR 2.3GHz quadcore SCREEN 5-inch, 1920x1080 CAMERA 4-ultrapixel/1080p STORAGE 16GB

PROCESSOR 1.2GHz quadcore SCREEN 4.5-inch, 1280x720 CAMERA 13-meg/1080p STORAGE 16GB plus microSD

APPLE iPHONE 5S

FROM £549, APPLE.COM/UK, TESTED DECEMBER 2013

08

SONY XPERIA Z2

£483, SONYMOBILE.COM, TESTED JULY 2014

LOVE Powerful processor. Slick iOS 7. Looks premium (even in gold). Fingerprint security. One of the best phone cams around HATE Pricing on higher-storage models is crazy T3 SAYS The innovations here really wow, but it can’t hold back an attack from its newest Android rival

LOVE Big display with brilliant image quality. Powerful processor. Excellent camera. Waterproof HATE Too little built-in storage. Sony’s interface needs work T3 SAYS A full-featured and rugged Android smartphone. Not quite as slick as some of its rivals, though

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

PROCESSOR A7 SCREEN 4-inch, 1136x640 CAMERA 8-meg/1080p STORAGE 16GB, 32GB or 64GB

PROCESSOR 2.3GHz quadcore SCREEN 5.2-inch, 1920x1080 CAMERA 20-meg/4K STORAGE 16GB

SAMSUNG GALAXY S5 MINI

£389, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, TESTED NOVEMBER 2014

09

LG G3

£479, LG.COM/UK, TESTED SUMMER 2014

LOVE Array of sensors and features. Water resistant. Appealing screen at a more manageable size than S5 big bro HATE Average battery. Full-size S5 has a better spec T3 SAYS Almost as good as the full-size S5, for considerably less dosh. You can’t argue with that

LOVE Remarkable hi-res display. Laser-focused camera. Slick new re-skinning of Android KitKat HATE Very big. Plasticky cover. Rear controls still a divider T3 SAYS The G3 is bigger, with added lasers and an imcredibly sharp screen, but it’s no Android champ

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

PROCESSOR 1.4GHz quadcore SCREEN 4.7-inch, 1280x720 CAMERA 8-meg/1080p STORAGE 16GB plus microSD

PROCESSOR 2.46GHz quadcore SCREEN 5.5-inch, 1440x2560 CAMERA 13-meg/4K STORAGE 16GB

GOOGLE NEXUS 5

FROM £299, GOOGLE.CO.UK, TESTED JANUARY 2014

10

NOKIA LUMIA 635

£130, NOKIA.CO.UK, TESTED NOVEMBER 2014

LOVE Incredible 1080p display. Android KitKat operating system. Staggeringly affordable price tag HATE Average camera. No 64GB option T3 SAYS The best ever Nexus phone is a top Android blower, offering a heck of a lot for not much dosh

LOVE Punchy design with neat feel, great build and funky colours. Strong Windows 8.1 OS. Decent camera, too HATE Low-res display, although it actually doesn’t look bad T3 SAYS Great design with ace software, this is a massive bargain and punches well above its weight

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

PROCESSOR 2.3GHz quadcore SCREEN 4.95-inch, 1920x1080 CAMERA 8-meg/1080p STORAGE 16GB or 32GB

PROCESSOR 1.2GHz quadcore SCREEN 4.5-inch, 854x480 CAMERA 5-meg/1080p STORAGE 8GB plus microSD AVAILABLE ONLINE @ T3.COM THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

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TheGuide

{THE BEST OF EVERYTHING} {BUYING TIPS}

Tablets

E-readers deserving attention 1

AMAZON KINDLE PAPERWHITE

The best e-reader screen around, now backlit for late-night edification. FROM £109, AMAZON.CO.UK

2

APPLE IPAD MINI WITH RETINA FROM £319, APPLE.COM/UK, TESTED JANUARY 2014

KOBO AURA

The only e-reader to rival Amazon for device quality and book store size. £89, BARNESANDNOBLE.COM

£110, WHSMITH.CO.UK

FROM £499, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER 2014

LOVE Ace screen. Octocore power. First tab fingerprint sensor HATE Sensor needs finessing. Android tablets apps still lacking T3 SAYS Samsung’s best tablet: slimmer, slicker, sexier SPECIFICATIONS

OS iOS 7 PROCESSOR A7 SCREEN 7.9-inch, 2048x1536 STORAGE 16GB/32GB/64GB/128GB

OS Android 4.4 PROCESSOR 1.9GHz octacore SCREEN 10.3-inch, 2560x1600 STORAGE 16GB/32GB, microSD

FROM £399, APPLE.COM/UK, TESTED JANUARY 2014

SONY XPERIA Z2 TABLET

07

FROM £399, SONYMOBILE.COM, TESTED JULY 2014

LOVE Stunning design. Blazing performance from the new A7 processor. Incredibly thin and lightweight HATE No fingerprint sensor. Camera remains unchanged T3 SAYS That big Retina screen. Those sleek, slimline looks. This is Apple’s best full-sized iPad yet

LOVE Slim, waterproof build with newly rounded edges. Fantastic screen. Great battery life, extended by Stamina Mode HATE Lots of bloatware. Sizeable bezel around screen T3 SAYS In the category of best ten-inch Android slate, Sony’s Xperia Z2 Tablet is king

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

OS iOS7 PROCESSOR A7 SCREEN 9.7-inch, 2048x1536 STORAGE 16GB/32GB/64GB/128GB

OS Android 4.4 PROCESSOR 2.3GHz quadcore SCREEN 10.1-inch, 1920x1200 STORAGE 16GB/32GB

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S 8.4

FROM £319, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, TESTED NOVEMBER 2014

NOKIA LUMIA 2520

08

£300, NOKIA.CO.UK, TESTED JANUARY 2014

NT

RY

LOVE The most portable eight-incher tablet out there, with the best screen. Better than the iPad in some respects HATE Samsung’s interface is a bit bloated T3 SAYS A wonderfully sculpted, ultra-portable package with an AMOLED screen to die for NEW

04

E

LOVE Tactile, attractive design. Speedy performance. Nokia’s own-brand apps add to Windows 8.1 HATE Runs watered-down version of Windows 8.1 T3 SAYS This is not the most powerful Windows tablet on the market, but it is the nicest to use

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

OS Android 4.4 PROCESSOR 1.9GHz octacore SCREEN 8.4-inch, 2560x1600 STORAGE 16/32GB

GOOGLE NEXUS 7

FROM £199, GOOGLE.CO.UK, TESTED NOVEMBER 2013

OS Windows 8.1 PROCESSOR 2.2GHz quadcore SCREEN 10.1-inch, 1920x1080 STORAGE 32GB

LENOVO YOGA 10 HD+

09

£300, LENOVO.COM, TESTED NOVEMBER 2014

LOVE Beautiful, high-res screen. Processing power boosted to 1.5GHz. Lightweight, compact build. Very affordable HATE Lack of tablet-optimised apps T3 SAYS The hardware is excellent, but there are too few tablet-specific Android apps to topple Apple yet

LOVE The screen boasts nicely vivid colours, perfect for movies and games. Battery life is jaw-droppingly good HATE Bulky grip. Awkward positioning of rear camera T3 SAYS It’s big and chunky, but amazing battery life more than makes up for it

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

APPLE IPAD MINI

FROM £249, APPLE.COM/UK, TESTED JANUARY 2013

NT

RY

OS Android 4.3 PROCESSOR 1.5GHz quadcore SCREEN 7.2-inch, 1920x1200 STORAGE 16GB/32GB

E

NEW

OS Android 4.4.2 PROCESSOR 400CPU quadcore SCREEN 10.1-inch, 1920x1200 STORAGE 16GB/32GB

MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 3

10

FROM £649, MICROSOFT.COM, TESTED NOVEMBER 2014

LOVE The pocket-friendly, 7.9-inch screen with ultra-slim bezel looks fantastic and works great. 4G LTE. Very good value now HATE No Retina Display. Now only in 16GB version T3 SAYS Apple’s first miniature tablet can still turn heads, but it’s been beaten on specs of late

LOVE Super, sharp screen. Runs full apps through Windows HATE Keyboard not included. Decidedly pricey. Windows 8 is less than optimum as a tablet OS T3 SAYS A real tablet-laptop hybrid, this one is up for fun and work, although primarily the latter

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS RY

OS iOS 7 PROCESSOR 1GHz dualcore SCREEN 7.9-inch, 1024x768 STORAGE 16GB

NT

05

4

SPECIFICATIONS

APPLE IPAD AIR

03

£59, AMAZON.CO.UK

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S 10.3-INCH

06

LOVE Retina screen. Speedy and sleek. More LTE bands and 128GB option. Best app store going. Perfect size for everyday use HATE Touch ID would have been nice, but not essential T3 SAYS Apple’s smallest iPad is still its best, for us, now with specs that match the larger iPad Air

02

AMAZON KINDLE

The cheaper, lighter Kindle with an improved screen is a nailed-on bargain.

A top-quality e-ink screen with added touch control and backlighting. Easy Facebook/Twitter sharing.

NOOK GLOWLIGHT

01

3

NEW

E

OS Windows 8.1 Pro PROCESSOR Intel core i3/i5/i7 SCREEN 12-inch, 2160x1440 STORAGE 64/128/256/512GB AVAILABLE ONLINE @ T3.COM THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

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{BUYING TIPS}

Laptops

Desktop PCs of plenty 1

3

Optimum combo of style and spec. A 1.4GHz i5 and 500GB for under a grand.

Windows 8 looks great on the 27-inch touchscreen, with an Apple-rivalling spec and Blu-ray drive thrown in.

APPLE iMAC 21.5-INCH

FROM £899, APPLE.COM/UK

FROM £1,479, DELL.CO.UK

2

SONY VAIO TAP 20

A touchscreen Windows 8 all-in-one whose screen detaches to become a hulking, 20-inch tablet. £1,000, SONY.CO.UK

01

APPLE MACBOOK AIR

FROM £749, APPLE.COM/UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER 2013

06

LOVE Slimline looks, great battery life, cheaper than last year’s model, comes in 11- and 13-inch sizes. Now with Mavericks OS HATE No Retina Display T3 SAYS The world’s best, ultra-portable laptop SCREEN 11.6-inch, 1366x768/13.3-inch, 1440x900 PROCESSOR/RAM Core i5 1.3GHz/4GB STORAGE 128GB or 256GB SSD QUOTED BATTERY 9hrs

DELL XPS 15

£1,249, DELL.CO.UK, TESTED OCTOBER 2012

07

04

05

ACER C7 CHROMEBOOK £217, ACER.CO.UK, TESTED MARCH 2013

SONY VAIO DUO 13

£915, SONY.CO.UK, TESTED DECEMBER 2013

LOVE Slimline Windows 8 laptop/tablet hybrid. Stylishly designed. Fantastic touchscreen. Battery lasts all day HATE Lack of storage for that crazy price tag T3 SAYS Got money to burn on an overpriced Windows 8 hybrid? You could do a lot worse than this SPECIFICATIONS

SCREEN 15.3-inch, 1920x1080 PROCESSOR/RAM Core i7 2.1GHz/8GB STORAGE 1TB HDD QUOTED BATTERY 8hrs

£328, DELL.CO.UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER

£759, TOSHIBA.CO.UK

SCREEN 11.6-inch, 1366x768 PROCESSOR/RAM 1.1GHz Intel dualcore/2GB STORAGE 320GB HDD QUOTED BATTERY 3hrs

SPECIFICATIONS

DELL VENUE 11 PRO

TOSHIBA LX830-11D

Solid all-in-one that moonlights as a Freeview recorder and DVD player.

SPECIFICATIONS

LOVE Amazing screen. Excellent build quality. Top performer thanks to powerful processor and graphics card. Good VFM HATE Weighty. No solid state drive T3 SAYS An incredibly powerful laptop for the price and still gives most MacBooks a run for their money

03

4

LOVE Incredible price tag. Decent screen and acceptable processor. 100GB of cloud storage HATE Chrome OS lacks support. Requires web connection T3 SAYS The sheer cheapness makes this a very good second machine, or one for undemanding users

SPECIFICATIONS

02

DELL XPS ONE 27

SCREEN 13.3-inch, 1920x1080 PROCESSOR/RAM 1.6GHz i5/4GB STORAGE 128GB SSD QUOTED BATTERY 10hrs

08

LENOVO YOGA PRO 2

£1,000, LENOVO.CO.UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER 2014

LOVE Capable and powerful when used as a tablet, laptop or makeshift desktop PC. Very smart functionality HATE Keyboard and desktop dock cost extra T3 SAYS Surprisingly powerful and much more than just a Windows 8 tablet if you stump up for all the add-ons

LOVE Incredibly sharp quad-HD screen. Bends and twists to become a tablet or laptop HATE For this price you could get a tablet and a laptop T3 SAYS An incredibly versatile, but also exceedingly pricey, portable computing option

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

SCREEN 10.8-inch, 1920x1080 PROCESSOR/RAM 2.4GHz quadcore/2GB STORAGE 64GB SSD BATTERY Not quoted

SCREEN 13.1-inch, 3200x1800 PROCESSOR/RAM 1.6GHz Core i5/4GB STORAGE 256GB HDD BATTERY Not quoted

APPLE MACBOOK PRO 13-INCH £1,249, APPLE.COM/UK, TESTED JANUARY 2014

09

TOSHIBA CHROMEBOOK CB30-102 £230, TOSHIBA.CO.UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER 2014

LOVE New Retina Display is stunning. Thinner and lighter. More storage space packed inside, too HATE Can get hot. Battery life’s not brilliant. No physical drives T3 SAYS If you’re after power, Apple’s new Pro laptop is lighter, better and cheaper than ever

LOVE Bargain price tag (although pricier than the HP, below), slimline looks and a surprisingly decent battery life HATE Limited power and storage. Reliance on web T3 SAYS Can’t compete on specs with most laptops, but is very portable and pretty affordable

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

SCREEN 13-inch, 2560x1600 PROCESSOR/RAM Core i5 2.4GHz/8GB STORAGE 256GB SSD QUOTED BATTERY 9hrs

SCREEN 13.3-inch, 1366x768 PROCESSOR/RAM 1.4GHz dualcore/2GB STORAGE 16GB SSD QUOTED BATTERY 9hrs

HP SPECTRE XT

£850, HP.COM/UK, TESTED MARCH 2013

10

HP CHROMEBOOK 11

£199, GOOGLE.CO.UK, TESTED APRIL 2014

LOVE Attractive and sturdy all-metal design. Seriously thin and portable. Great battery life. Beats Audio. Reasonably priced HATE Tricky touchpad. Screen could be better T3 SAYS The smartest ultrabook – what it lacks in power it makes up for in style and portability

LOVE Elegant styling. Very light, yet sturdy. Reduced spec is still up to most day-to-day tasks HATE Reliance on a web connection T3 SAYS It’s no power player, but this budget, web-dependent laptop is a steal for the spec

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

SCREEN 13.3-inch, 1366x768 PROCESSOR/RAM Core i5 1.7GHz/4GB STORAGE 128GB SSD QUOTED BATTERY 7.5hrs

SCREEN 11.6-inch, 1366x768 PROCESSOR/RAM 1.7GHz dualcore/2GB STORAGE 16GB SSD QUOTED BATTERY 6hrs AVAILABLE ONLINE @ T3.COM THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

1 2 0 T 3 N OV E M B E r 2 0 1 4

TheGuide


Gaming

Gaming laptops with skills 1

3

Heavy and built to win, this is a powerhouse. Nongamers need not apply.

A slim and light laptop that punches well above its fighting weight.

£1,999, ALIENWARE.CO.UK

£1,199, MSI.COM

2

4

Unusually svelte for a games machine, this runs a bit hot, but performance is pretty scorching too.

A gaming portable not out of place in the office, though lacks oomph.

£1,250, CHILLBLAST.CO.UK

£1,200, TOSHIBA.CO.UK

ALIENWARE 18

MSI GS60 2PC GHOST

CHILLBLAST HELIX

01

02

03

04

05

MICROSOFT XBOX 360 250GB £189, XBOX.CO.UK, TESTED NOVEMBER 2011

06

TOSHIBA SATELLITE P50T-B-10K

SONY PLAYSTATION VITA

£146, UK.PLAYSTATION.COM, TESTED APRIL 2014

LOVE Affordable but powerful games machine. Feast of big series like Gears of War and indie gems. Sky support. Ace online service HATE No Blu-ray. About 97 in gadget years. Ad-laden interface T3 SAYS A slick and powerful games and media machine. Outgunned but hanging on with a quality back catalogue

LOVE New model is lighter and thinner with more storage. Improved battery. Good games. Remote Play with PS4 HATE No more OLED screen. Less premium. T3 SAYS Great portable game console is made slightly more enticing. Coupled with PS+ service, it’s a real player

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

STORAGE 4GB BLU-RAY/DVD No/Yes CONNECTIVITY HDMI, 5x USB, ethernet, N Wi-Fi, AV out

SCREEN 5-inch, 960x544 LCD touchscreen CONNECTIVITY N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, USB, SD, NFC BATTERY 4-6 hours

SONY PS3 SUPER SLIM

£145, UK.PLAYSTATION.COM, TESTED JANUARY 2013

07

APPLE IPOD TOUCH

FROM £199, APPLE.COM/UK, TESTED CHRISTMAS 2012

LOVE A Blu-ray player and media server that’s 3D-ready and supports the Move controller (£24). Oh, and you can play games on it, too, with some very good exclusives like Last of Us HATE Horrid plasticky quality to latest model T3 SAYS A top gaming option if you can bear the new build

LOVE Beautifully designed and now packing iOS 7. Bigger, bolder Retina Display. A5 processor. Tonnes of cheap games HATE Pricey. Lacks physical controls. Closed system T3 SAYS A modern portable that’s spawned a new gen of gamers who don’t consider themselves gamers

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

STORAGE 12GB BLU-RAY/DVD Yes/Yes CONNECTIVITY HDMI, 2x USB, ethernet, G Wi-Fi, AV out

SCREEN 4-inch, 1136x640 touchscreen CONNECTIVITY N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 BATTERY 8hrs (video), 40 hrs (audio)

NINTENDO 3DS XL

£150, NINTENDO.CO.UK, TESTED OCTOBER 2012

08

NINTENDO WII U

£220, NINTENDO.CO.UK, TESTED CHRISTMAS 2012

LOVE Bigger screens look great. Ergonomic curved design. Boosted battery life. Increasingly impressive game selection HATE Looks a bit cheap. No AC adaptor. 3D is a gimmick T3 SAYS Look past the kiddie graphics and you’ll find an ace handheld with the best game line-up of last year

LOVE Genuinely innovative platform. Full-HD graphics at last for Mario and co. Some very good, unique games from Nintendo HATE Pricey. Touch screen an afterthought. Game options slim T3 SAYS Nintendo again reinvented the way we play, yet unfortunately few developers fancy joining in the fun

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

SCREEN 4.88-inch 800x240 3D/4.18-inch 320x240 touch CONNECTIVITY G Wi-Fi, 3.5mm audio BATTERY 4 hours

STORAGE 32GB CONNECTIVITY N Wi-Fi, 4x USB, HDMI, NFC GAMEPAD Touchcreen 6.2-inch, 854x480 BATTERY 3-5 hours

SONY PLAYSTATION 4

£350, UK.PLAYSTATION.COM, TESTED JANUARY 2014

09

NINTENDO 2DS

£85, NINTENDO.CO.UK, TESTED DECEMBER 2013

LOVE Most powerful next-gen console. Ergonomic new controller. Stylish design. Remote Play with PS Vita is ace. Decent price HATE Light on games and media. Interface basic. Camera extra T3 SAYS Very powerful and stylishly built. The PS4’s potential is there, even if it’s light on must-buy games

LOVE Nintendo’s vast catalogue of AAA-quality games, now available for you at a very special price. Kid-friendly build HATE Possibly the ugliest gaming gadget ever T3 SAYS If you’re a gamer or parent who doesn’t own a DS platform, this is a very smart purchase

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

STORAGE 500GB BLU-RAY/DVD Yes/Yes CONNECTIVITY 2x USB 3.0, N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, HDMI, optical audio, ethernet

SCREEN 4-inch, 1136x640 touchscreen CONNECTIVITY N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 BATTERY 8hrs (video), 40 hrs (audio)

MICROSOFT XBOX ONE

£349, XBOX.COM, TESTED JANUARY 2014

10

NVIDIA SHIELD

£257, NVIDIA.COM, TESTED NOVEMBER 2013

LOVE Powerful spec. Vastly improved functionality. Gameplay sharing easy. Now available without Kinect. Price cut-a-roo HATE Brutish design. Lack of games. Fiddly interface T3 SAYS Completely outguns the Xbox 360 in power and the potential is there, but lagging behind the PS4 still

LOVE Excellent screen and Tegra 4-powered graphics. Streams high-end PC games to a portable device HATE Bulky design. Technical restrictions. Kerr-azy UK pricing T3 SAYS Real graphical punch, even if bulk, price tag and a lack of game support dampen spirits somewhat

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

STORAGE 500GB BLU-RAY/DVD Yes/Yes CONNECTIVITY 3x USB 3.0, N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, HDMI, ethernet, optical

SCREEN 5-inch 1280x720 CONNECTIVITY N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, HDMI, USB 2.0, MicroSD, 3.5mm BATTERY 5 hours AVAILABLE ONLINE @ T3.COM THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 1 2 1

Home audio

{BUYING TIPS}

Portable speakers with punch 1 3 JAWBONE JAMBOX AND JAMBOX MINI

Small, brightly hued, great audio, easy Bluetooth pairing. Winners, both. £90, £102, JAWBONE.COM

2

02

03

04

05

DENON COCOON STREAM £249, DENON.CO.UK, TESTED MARCH 2014

06

£269, LOEWE.TV/UK

4

JABRA SOLEMATE

A top performer, whether serenading you gently or rocking the spot.

Trainer-like design won’t suit all tastes but this sure is a loud, brash, room-filling speaker-cum-shoe.

£170, DENON.CO.UK

£73, JABRA.COM

DENON ENVAYA

01

LOEWE SPEAKER 2GO

Incredible sound quality with size-defying bass and top clarity. Pricey, though.

BOWERS & WILKINS A5

£399, BOWERS-WILKINS.CO.UK, TESTED FEBRUARY 2013

LOVE AirPlay-enabled streaming speaker that also plays nicely with NAS storage and DLNA for Android devices via smart app HATE Jelly bean-style design not to all tastes T3 SAYS A crowd-pleasing streaming speaker that, sonically speaking, punches well above its price point

LOVE Unfussy design and highly impressive sound. New app makes iTunes syncing easy HATE Bass wobbles at higher volumes T3 SAYS Elegant audio executed excellently, the A5 is the little black dress of speakers

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

POWER 4x 25W CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi, USB, AirPlay, DLNA, 3.5mm out SIZE 451x236x170mm

POWER 4x 20W CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi, auxiliary analogue, ethernet, AirPlay, 3.5mm out SIZE 300x180x120mm

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO MINX AIR 100 £250, CAMBRIDGEAUDIO.COM, TESTED MAY 2013

07

MONITOR AIRSTREAM S300

£249, MONITORAUDIO.CO.UK, TESTED NOVEMBER 2014

LOVE Powerful, detailed sound quality. AirPlay and Bluetooth connectivity. Rugged, sleek design. Handy web radio buttons HATE Multi-room is less straightforward than on Sonos T3 SAYS Sounds great and packs more features than any other wireless speaker systems on the market

LOVE Can do both refined an raucous. Good stability by AirPlay standards. Reasonably priced. HATE Setup is a pain. Banana shape won’t please everyone T3 SAYS A curvaceous beatbox that, thanks to AirPlay, can also be used to build a cheap multi-room system

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

POWER 100W CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi, AirPlay, Bluetooth, RCA, 3.5mm SIZE 354x182x118mm

POWER 100W CONNECTIVITY G Wi-Fi, 3.5mm input, USB audio/data inputs SIZE 467x150x154mm

DENON CEOL PICCOLO

£178 WITHOUT SPEAKERS, £313 WITH, DENON.CO.UK, TESTED FEBRUARY 2013

08

SIMPLE AUDIO ROOMPLAYER £699, PHILIPS.CO.UK, TESTED FEBRUARY 2013

LOVE The original all-in-one Ceol has ditched the CD player but kept AirPlay, an iPod dock, 24-bit support and web radio HATE Slightly dull looks T3 SAYS Multi-format mini marvel at a decent price

LOVE Supreme sound quality when paired with suitably spendy speakers. Easy setup and reliable streaming at up to 24 bits HATE No wireless connection. More pricey than Sonos T3 SAYS Fine lozenges of multi-room audiophile delight, though price and features put them in a niche category

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

POWER 2x 65W CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi, USB, optical in, audio in, AirPlay, 3.5mm out SIZE 180x90x234mm

POWER 100W CONNECTIVITY ethernet, phono in/out, 3.5mm in/out, optical out, subwoofer out SIZE 50x200x200mm

PHILIPS FIDELIO SOUNDSPHERE £450, PHILIPS.CO.UK, TESTED JANUARY 2012

09

PHILIPS AW9000

£368, PHILIPS.CO.UK, TESTED FEBRUARY 2013

LOVE Powerful and articulate 100W sound, a classy design and a strong wireless connection for AirPlay streaming. Add the free Fidelio app and you get internet radio, too HATE No LCD display means awkward setup. Not cheap T3 SAYS Quality speakers with added AirPlay? Love ’em

LOVE Six high-class drivers deliver outstanding sound quality. Wood veneer speakers look classy HATE DLNA set-up needs to be made simpler T3 SAYS Buxom chunks of wireless sonic bliss. A fine alternative to the one-box streaming norm

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

POWER 2x 50W CONNECTIVITY Line in, AirPlay SIZE 265x410mm

POWER 100W CONNECTIVITY N Wi-Fi, analogue, digital coaxial, digital optical, 3.5mm in SIZE 300x210x350mm

SONOS PLAY:5

£349 EACH, SONOS.COM, TESTED MARCH 2010

10

PURE JONGO T4

£130, PURE.COM, TESTED MARCH 2014

LOVE Superb, multi-room sound. Spotify and Last.FM support. Control it all using the recently upgraded app HATE Go properly multi-room and the costs pile up T3 SAYS A simple, effective but pricey way to pump well-rounded audio into every room

LOVE Multi-room wireless streaming on a relative budget. Link two and you can achieve proper stereo sound, too HATE Connectivity can be glitchy T3 SAYS The slightly more affordable way to play digital DJ for the whole house, with good results

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

POWER N/A CONNECTIVITY Wireless, ethernet (Sonos proprietary streaming), line in SIZE 217x365x123mm

POWER 50W CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ethernet, 3.5mm in SIZE 305x146x165mm AVAILABLE ONLINE @ T3.COM THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

1 2 2 T 3 N OV E M B E r 2 0 1 4

TheGuide

{THE BEST OF EVERYTHING}

Home entertainment

{CONTENT}

Blu-ray box sets to guzzle 1

THE WALKING DEAD SERIES 4

Continues to mix plodding action and a laughable lack of character development with sporadic outbreaks of genuine thrills and tension. £30, OUT NOW

2

24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY

Something’s changed: this is actually set over a

01

02

03

04

SKY+ HD 2TB WI-FI

PRICE VARIES, SKY.COM, TESTED CHRISTMAS 2013

06

£30, OUT OCTOBER 6

3

HANNIBAL SERIES 2

The early life of Dr Lector continues to play out in a manner so relentlessly dark and edgy, it’s almost funny. But not quite, Clarice. £20, OUT NOW

PANASONIC DMP-BDT330 £145, PANASONIC.CO.UK, TESTED MAY 2014

LOVE Seamless Wi-Fi integration. Rapidly expanding on-demand content. Excellent all-round performance HATE ONLY Still only two tuners to Virgin Media’s three T3 SAYS Our Entertainment Gadget of the Year is also the best PVR set-top choice, now with added Wi-Fi

LOVE Vibrant colours and striking detail. 4K upscaling on hand for proper encouragement to buy a 4K telly, too HATE Rather convoluted interface T3 SAYS Future-proof Blu-ray player with cracking image quality, 4K upscaling and decent smart TV trimmings

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

TYPE Satellite HD CHANNELS 67 TUNERS 2 STORAGE 2TB/350hrs HD recording

CONNECTIONS Wi-Fi, ethernet, 2x HDMI, optical digital out, 2x USB, SD card, ethernet SIZE 430x183x41mm

VIRGIN MEDIA TIVO

PRICE VARIES, VIRGINMEDIA.COM, TESTED JUNE 2014

07

ONKYO TX-NR515

£300, UK.ONKYO.COM, TESTED APRIL 2013

LOVE Triple tuner recording. Excellent image quality. Extensive on-demand content that’s easy to search. Built-in Netflix HATE The user interface is long overdue a revamp T3 SAYS Now with a massive selection of catch-up and on-demand services, TiVo’s upped its game

LOVE Bombastic, 130W-per-channel oomph. Slick interface. Eight HDMI inputs. Can upscale images to 4K resolution HATE No AirPlay, unlike some rival receivers T3 SAYS A polished multichannel AV receiver with all the modern trimmings, at an affordable price

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

TYPE Cable HD CHANNELS 56 TUNERS 3 STORAGE 1TB/100hrs HD recording

POWER 130W per channel CONNECTIONS 8x HDMI, 2x USB, 5x composite, 4x digital audio, 5x analogue audio. Wi-Fi via dongle

SONY BDV-N590

£273, SONY.CO.UK, TESTED DECEMBER 2012

08

YOUVIEW

£199, YOUVIEW.COM, TESTED

NOVEMBER 2014

LOVE Five satellite speakers and a sub. Net-connected 3D Blu-ray player with great performance. Groovy price HATE Satellites are a touch on the small side T3 SAYS A full 5.1 cinema system and Blu-ray deck for less than £300? That’s a bargain in anyone’s book

LOVE Retrospective EPG mixes catch-up and live telly. Excellent image quality and ease of use. All the big UK channels on board HATE No integrated Wi-Fi. No network file support T3 SAYS This slimline silver TV-surfer is great choice for non-subscription telly addicts

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

POWER 1,000W CHANNELS 5.1 CONNECTIONS 2x HDMI, Wi-Fi, 2x USB, optical, audio, composite, ethernet

TYPE Freeview HD HD CHANNELS 12 TUNERS 2 STORAGE 500GB – 125 hours HD, 300 hours SD

HUMAX HB-1000S FREESAT HD £130, HUMAXDIGITAL.CO.UK, TESTED APRIL 2014

09

LOVE Easy-to-use Freetime platform. Blends catch-up and live TV. Integrated on-demand services. Cheap and sub-free HATE No built-in storage. Only a single tuner T3 SAYS Inexpensive and slick way to get your satellite telly fix without a subscription

£159, UK.MAXELL.EU, TESTED JANUARY 2014

£133, SONY.CO.UK, TESTED MAY 2014

SPECIFICATIONS

TYPE Satellite HD CHANNELS 11 TUNERS 1 STORAGE None, compatible with USB drives

MAXELL MXSP-SB3000

SONY BDP-S5100

LOVE Appealing and compact design. Vivid Blu-ray images and smooth upscaling from DVD. Useful apps and features HATE Just one HDMI. Iffy 2D-to-3D conversion T3 SAYS “Distinctive” design houses high-class Blu-rayness. Striking 3D visuals and cinematic sound guaranteed

SPECIFICATIONS

05

12-hour period, not the usual and, indeed, titular 24. Something’s not changed: it’s ludicrous throughout.

CONNECTIONS Wi-Fi, ethernet, HDMI, 2x USB, coaxial digital audio out SIZE 360x199x43mm

10

SAMSUNG BD-F7500

£149, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, TESTED MAY 2014

LOVE Robust and well-balanced sound from a good-looking soundbar. Meaty 100W wireless sub HATE No Dolby Digital decoder T3 SAYS Maxell’s first soundbar is a corker, delivering on performance and value for money

LOVE Set-top packed with apps providing catch-up TV services. Comprehensive connectivity. Speedy menus. 4K upscaling HATE Occasional video noise and judder T3 SAYS The actual Blu-ray playback is good rather than great, but the apps and additional features rock

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

POWER 2x 30W + 100W sub CHANNELS 2.1 CONNECTIONS 3x HDMI, Bluetooth, Optical, Coaxial, RCA, 3.5mm

CONNECTIONS Wi-Fi, ethernet, 2x HDMI, USB, optical digital audio out, analogue audio out SIZE 430x201x46mm AVAILABLE ONLINE @ T3.COM THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4 T 3 1 2 3

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TheGuide


Cameras

Budget compact cameras 1

3

Credit card-sized snapper with a 16-meg sensor, 8x zoom and Wi-Fi. Video is 720p rather than full-HD.

16.2-meg CMOS, 8x zoom and easy 1080p shooting. Small, but well formed.

£94, CANON.CO.UK

£93, SONY.CO.UK

2

4

Heftier than the Canon, but with 1080p video and an 18x zoom, we see why.

No fripperies, but does the basics well, with a 13.2-meg CMOS and 1080p video.

£110, SAMSUNG.COM/UK

£90, NIKON.CO.UK

CANON IXUS 140

SAMSUNG WB250F

01

02

03

04

05

CANON EOS 700D

£579, CANON.CO.UK, TESTED OCTOBER 2013

06

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-WX60

NIKON COOLPIX S02

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-HX60V £319, SONY.CO.UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER 2014

LOVE APS-C CMOS sensor delivers cracking images. Jack-of-all-trades zoom kit lens. Touchscreen LCD HATE Relatively bulky and pricey T3 SAYS An excellent beginner’s DSLR that takes semi-pro shots with reliable quality

LOVE Extensive zoom. Richly detailed images. Rock solid but still pocket-sized build HATE Slightly limited aperture T3 SAYS Richly detailed pictures from a small but perfectly formed compact camera

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

SENSOR 18.5-megapixel/1080p KIT LENS 18-55mm SCREEN 3-inch touchscreen WEIGHT 580g

SENSOR 20.4-megapixel/1080p KIT LENS 24-720mm SCREEN 3-inch WEIGHT 272g

SONY SLT-A58

£339, SONY.CO.UK, TESTED OCTOBER 2013

07

SONY A5000

£349, SONY.CO.UK, TESTED JUNE 2014

LOVE Great value for money. Translucent mirror allows you to film video in a flash. Decent lens choice HATE Smaller LCD screen, but a fairly bulky look T3 SAYS Sony’s not-a-DSLR is feature-packed with great performance and a low price

LOVE Compact size. Tilting screen. High-resolution APS-C sensor. Wi-Fi connectivity and selfie-ready tilting screen HATE No hotshoe. No touchscreen T3 SAYS A great upgrade if you crave better shots than your smartphone or compact can handle

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

SENSOR 20.1-megapixel/1080p KIT LENS 18-55mm SCREEN 2.7-inch WEIGHT 492g


OLYMPUS STYLUS SH-1

£350, OLYMPUS.CO.UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER 2014

08

NIKON COOLPIX S9700

£250, NIKON.CO.UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER 2014

LOVE Well-crafted design. Handles like a much pricier Olympus Pen interchangeable lens cam HATE Zoom range could be better T3 SAYS Classic looks and modern features. The most premium of premium compacts

LOVE Big lens on a compact body. OLED screen at the rear. Reasonably priced for a big zooming compact HATE No grip. Small buttons are tough to control T3 SAYS The compact camera that delivers a big zoom at an affordable price

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

SENSOR 16-megapixel/1080p LENS 25-600mm SCREEN 3-inch touchscreen WEIGHT 271g

SENSOR 16-megapixel/1080p KIT LENS 25-750mm SCREEN 3-inch WEIGHT 232g

SAMSUNG NX300

£380, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, TESTED JUNE 2013

09

SONY RX100 II

£465, SONY.CO.UK, TESTED MARCH 2014

LOVE DSLR-quality photos. Tiltable AMOLED touchscreen. Manual controls aplenty. Built-in Wi-Fi HATE No viewfinder or built-in flash T3 SAYS Cutting-edge camera features in an attractive, compact package; a winner

LOVE Rock solid construction. Tilting LCD and hotshoe (a rarity on a compact). Carl Zeiss lens HATE Tiny buttons. No handgrip. Expensive for a compact T3 SAYS An A-grade combination of optics and features crammed cleverly into a pocket snapper

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS

SENSOR 21.6-megapixel/1080p KIT LENS 18-55mm SCREEN 3.31-inch touchscreen WEIGHT 284g

SENSOR 20.2-megapixel/1080p LENS 28-200mm in 35mm terms SCREEN 3-inch WEIGHT 281g

SAMSUNG NX MINI

£275, SAMSUNG.COM/UK, TESTED SEPTEMBER 2014

10

PANASONIC LUMIX DMC-GX7 £675, PANASONIC.CO.UK, TESTED DECEMBER 2013

LOVE Point-and-shoot size, but with the added bonus of interchangeable lenses HATE Bundled with a fixed zoom lens. CMOS not APS-C T3 SAYS Affordable and compact, with plenty of potential for lens upgrades

LOVE Great, hi-res viewfinder and tiltable screen. Takes excellent photos and HD video. Reliable Wi-Fi for instant sharing HATE On the premium end of “mid-priced” T3 SAYS Panasonic’s best CSC yet performs to a very high level, then ticks connectivity boxes just to show off

SPECIFICATIONS

SPECIFICATIONS


SENSOR 16-megapixel/1080p KIT LENS 14-42mm SCREEN 3-inch WEIGHT 490g AVAILABLE ONLINE @ T3.COM THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

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SHUTDOWN

NO.71

Ten ways the Internet of Things will ruin our lives 1/ Being watched at all times

Conquering Your Fear of the Dark hypnotherapy track is booming out of every socket, that’s what.

Sometimes you do things in the privacy of your own home that you wouldn’t really want anyone else to see – watching Gogglebox naked, eating a Pot Noodle, that sort of thing. So how are you going to feel when every household object has its wee beady, camera-laden eyes on you? Relaxed? Or will the thought of your smoke alarm beaming an image of you to everyone you know cause you to spend all your “me” time sitting with your hands by your side? Best not risk it…

8/ Bossy furniture You really wanted that FatbEgone body monitor scale until it started beeping at you, loudly and incessantly like when the car gets angry at your lack of seatbelt activity, just because you strayed one point into the excess BMI zone. To rub it in, the little blighter then ordered your fitness tracker to enforce endless runs in the “fat burn” zone without asking and told your smart fridge to cancel all the tasty things from your Ocado order. It’s all kale-juice dinners for you this month…

2/ Disloyal tech You’ve just been telling everyone at work you’re going on a hot date at the end of the week, but on logging into Facebook of a Friday night you notice your connected microwave has just informed everyone of the Cumberland Pie for one you’ve nuked inside him for four minutes. “You sure know how to treat a girl!” comments Tim from Accounts. (Note to self: unfriend Tim.)

9/ No more lies “Oh, you’re too ill to come in today? That’s funny, I’m just looking at the employee activity monitoring system now… According to WorkBand+, your temperature and pulse are fine and your blood alcohol level suggests you’ve just had a pint… at 9am. Oh, what’s that? You’re feeling better now? Yep, see you in half an hour.”

3/ Constant guilt One new voicemail: “Hi, this is Plant Pot 2, just to let you know you haven’t taken any notice of my watering alerts, which is probably why Lily has just died, much like Basil did last week. Have a nice day, murderer!”

4/ Auto ordering One moment you’re putting in some in-ear headphones, the next a man from Boots is at the door with a three-litre bottle of ear wax softener. You thought you were just recording an episode of Great British Bake Off, so why has Tesco’s entire

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10/ Everything will crumble supply of yeast turned up in a van outside? Well, if you let them, your gadgets will empty your wallet quicker than you can say “soggy bottom”.

5/ Awkward alerts Every gadget now seems to want to monitor your health, which means your FitBand or FuelBit will inevitably start syncing with your bathroom.

“Message from toilet: I’m still blocked, eat less lard” isn’t the best thing to flash up on your wrist while giving a presentation. But then, perhaps, it’s the only way you’ll learn.

6/ Insults from random objects The Selfie Mirror already exists (Google it), so it won’t be long until we all own one whether we

want to or not, reflections auto-generating relevant hashtags for every time someone stands in front of it. Sure, you’ll hope for some basic kindness, but are presented with #LookinOld #RedFace instead. Thanks a bunch, reflective glass.

7/ TMI The poster child of the Internet of Things is

the ol’ “stereo following you around the house”, playing tunes as you enter each room. The LightFreq speaker even combines this with illumination, chucking music out of your lights as you stroll around. But what if these sonic bulbs get hold of your mostplayed song lists? One minute you’re showing off your sexily connected new house, the next you’re explaining why a

When all gadgets can talk to each other, arguments are the inevitable conclusion. What will Kettle think when it finds out how much care you take to clean Nespresso Machine, even though it doesn’t do as much work? What will Iron make of finding out that iPhone gets to sleep in the bedroom rather than a cupboard? Your tech will get angry, go on strike, and then start plotting to Skynet us all. *Cue Terminator drums*

WO R DS RO B T E M PL E I L LUSTR ATI O N CHRI S K I NG @ I L LUST R AT IO N W EB.C O M

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T3 Magazine - November 2014 UK.pdf

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