Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 6 i Gadget

Virtual reality is officially here. After years of waiting, the first Oculus Rift headsets will be strapped to users faces on 28 March. But that’s not all you need to plug in to the Matrix: in addition to a £500 headset, you will need a super-powerful PC and potentially all sorts of accessories. We crunch the numbers and weigh up how the Oculus compares to the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR from page 12. If you’re not into gaming, you may wonder what VR has to offer you. Google’s Cardboard VR is much simpler than the Oculus (it is literally made out of a cardboard box), but the search giant recently released stats on what Cardboard’s five million users have been doing in VR for the last year. Gaming was…

Feb 1998 Robot Wars - Activate! The game show about homemade robots fighting to the death debuted on BBC 2, wowing up to 6 million viewers at its peak and airing for five years. Mar 2006 War machine The US military-funded Boston Dynamics unveiled BigDog, a packhorse-like android designed to work in real-life robot wars. Sept 2011 Reel Steel Huge Jackman reminded Robot Wars fans how epic machine-on-machine combat could be in this Oscar-nominated movie. July 2015 Grudge match The American creators of a 15-feet-tall robot called MegaBot challenged a Japanese mech called Kuratas to a battle. Jan 2016 Robot Wars rebooted The BBC announced Robot Wars will return for a six-part series ‘later this year,’ duking it out in a purpose-built bulletproof arena in Glasgow. July 2016 Show down…

GoSun Sport Cook a meal in 20 minutes even when it’s cloudy with this portable solar cooker. No other fuel needed or live flame. £200 | $279 Gosunstove.com Eton Rukus Xtreme This Bluetooth speaker only needs a bit of sunshine to pump out your tunes and charge your smartphone. £169 | $176 Soulracorp.com BirkSun Backpack Ideal for when you’re trekking through the woods far from a plug socket; you can charge your electronics on the go. £72 | $100 Birksun.com Yolk Solar Paper Claiming to be the world’s thinnest and lightest charger, Yolk’s solar panel can charge an iPhone in 2.5 hours. £36 | $50 Yolkstation.com Skylock Bike Lock There are lots of keyless smart locks for your bike, but Skylock is the only one that never runs out of…

Eye in the sky The built-in camera captures footage at 720x1280 pixel resolution and 30 frames per second - not the highest rate on the market, but for the price, it’s a steal Stand up to the wind Algorithms stored on-board the drone itself factor in the weight of the device in order to calculate how to help you fly in winds of up to 28 miles per hour Custom frames The body of the drone doesn’t have to be this simple semi-spherical shape – if you’ve got access to a 3D-printer, you can design your own body! Small and mighty At 50mm high and 145mm long, the drone earns its ‘micro’ moniker. It literally fits in the palm of your hand and can be easily transported Can’t stay long…

01 IT’S STOPPING ASTRONAUTS GETTING HOMESICK VR apps have been made to emulate home locations of astronauts from New Zealand and Ireland by mental health research labs in the UK. The idea is to use a VR headset in space to relieve symptoms of claustrophobia or depression. 02 IT’S HELPING US EXPLORE THE MOON A competition run between a handful of privately-owned companies – the Google Lunax XPrize – is seeing engineers working to design a robot that can land on the moon and allow itself to be operated by VR headsets here on Earth. The prize? $30 million! 03 IT’S LETTING US MAKE MORE INTERESTING MUSIC VIDEOS Of course Bjork was the first person to make a VR music video – her semi-erotic, semi-terrifying exploration of her song stonemilker…

Alienware x51 R3 Alienware is certainly no stranger to high-end gaming machines, but this version has been reengineered for VR – with above-spec graphics, optional liquid cooling and powerful, quiet performance. Alienware.com | £775 | $1120 ASUS G11CD There are three tiers of Asus VR-ready machines to buy, and this is the cheapest. It comes with a sixth-generation Intel Core processor and high-end, multiple display-capable NVIDIA graphics card, as well as in-built game capturing software. Asus.com | £660 | $949…

01 White Room: 02B3 Released as a standard film in 2012, the film was repurposed for 360-degree video recently . Six people wake up in a room, trapped with only a single gun. your perspectice is glued to the centre of the room - every time you watch, you’ll see something different. 02 Vice News VR: Millions March NYC Spike Jonze ’ first foray into VR was on behalf of Vice – where the director took to the streets of NYC to documents a Black Lives Matter rally and present it as an intimate, first-person narrative. It’ under ten minutes long, but incredibly poweful. 03 NYT Mag VR: New York An example of the increasingly popular cyber - tourism genre, this film celebrates the medium as it explores the city.…

There are at least 62 titles in development for PSVR, and 35 million people with the PS4s to play them. With the fact that most PC gamers will be unable to use the Oculus or the Vive at launch, we expect Sony to be the first VR hardware developer to popularise VR, bringing both recognisable and cutting-edge gaming experiences to this new medium TEKKEN 7 How Sony intends to make Tekken 7, a side-on 3D fighter, a viable VR project will be fascinating: will we step into the body of a fighter and engage in combat from their perspective? Or will it be about camera trickery? It remains to be seen, but the developer of the game is also making a full-on VR project called Summer Lessons, too... THE ASSEMBLY…

Safe and rapid hammering A retractable nail sleeve safely shields the impact of the hammer head, which pounds at up to 3,600 times per minute to gradually drive in the nail Work light Rotating along with the head, this powerful LED light will illuminate your work area – it’s ideal for hammering in dark places such as cupboards Rotatable head Pressing this button lets you rotate the hammer head to any of three positions, enabling you to hit nails at awkward angles and in tight spaces Rechargeable 12-volt battery The hammer is powered by a 12-volt lithium-ion battery, which can be detached and placed in the supplied mains charger when required If we had a hammer, we’d hammer in the morning, we’d hammer in the evening… if only it weren’t…

Pioneer RT 707 Thousands of these robust, small-sized, entry-level recorders were made and they not only look smart, they’re user-friendly and produce very decent sound. £1,100 | $1,595 j-corder.com Akai GX-635 DB Dolby This professional-grade, four-track reel-to-reel tape recorder handles both ten-inch and seven-inch reels and is bi-directional. £1,975 | £2,893 audioscope.net Revox PR99 Mk II A smart-looking, two-track, two-speed reel-to-reel with an electronically regulated three-motor drive mechanism. £1,300 | $1,800 ebay.com Teac X1000 Made by one of the biggest brands in reel-to-reel manufacturing, this three-head, four-track recorder has a signal to noise ratio of 50dB. Price varies roland-vintage-audio.com…

Vinyl records are created from studio master tape recordings. A lacquer-coated disc is placed on to a lathe, which takes the master’s electrical signals and cuts a waveform groove from the outside in. By producing a master plate with ridges rather than grooves, a stamper is made. This is used to press vinyl copies. When placed on a turntable, the stylus picks up the vibrations in the groove, sending them through the tone arm to the cartridge where electrical signals are produced and carried to the speakers.…

01 Tweak your software Store audio on a Solid State Drive and avoid streaming files from a USB stick. Use 802.11 Wi-Fi and ensure the software settings are optimised. Using TIDAL? Turn on HiFi for lossless streaming. 02 Get a DAC Digital audio needs converting to analog and amplified so buy a digital-to-analog converter, preferably with TOSLINK and S/PDIF support. Consider Chord Electronics’ Mojo which connects to a smartphone or PC. 03 Buy better headphones Good headphones are vital. Open headphones produce better sound so try the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro. Consider the noise-cancelling AKG N60 NC if your wider environment is distracting, though. 04 C’mon, feel the noise Consider loudspeakers that complement your music and your music room. Keep speakers 15cm from the walls and ensure the left and…

01 Make raw beer To start, you’ll need to make raw beer, known as wort. Place crushed barley grains in a grain bag and steep it in water at 70 degrees Celsius. Soak for around 30 minutes. This breaks down the grain’s starches into sugars, producing a malt extract. You will notice the water gradually turning a brown colour. When the time is up, remove the grain bag, top up your pan with water, and bring it back up to the boil. 02 Finish the wort Add the bitter hops into the boiling water, which work to balance out the beer’s sweetness with their flavour. Wait 45 minutes before adding any flavouring hops, and then add finishing hops once the pot has boiled for an hour. You then need to…

“The Sonic Foamer sends sonic shockwaves through the beer” Sound-blasting your beer The Sonic Foamer uses an invisible sound-wave to ‘knock’ air bubbles out of the beer, which in turn rise to the top to form a refreshed head Just add water You need to add two teaspoons of water to the tray for the Foamer to work, helping to create the subtle vibrations that will form beneath a flat-bottomed pint glass Portable foam forming The Sonic Foamer is powered by six AA batteries and it’s said that this will allow for 3,000 pulses. You’ll be able to take it out and about with you to ensure good beer head wherever you are For craft beers, the head is often iconic, with different types of beers forming different types (and…

Dremel’s website is regularly updated with new models for you to download to your machine and get printing instantly. Each model on the website has an estimated print-time, ranging from simple 45-minute phone holders to a full-on crane that takes a whopping 77 hours to 3D print. After you’ve chosen your project press Download, go into your Dremel 3D software, press Load, select your downloaded 3D model file, press Build and click OK for default settings, and press Build when the orange dialogue box comes up.…

01 Distance alerts Proximity sensors detect when you’re over 1m from your case and send alerts to your phone. You can also locate your Bluesmart with a heat map and get a reminder of its last location. 02 Automatic locking If you’re worried that you may have left your mislaid bag unlocked, you can remotely lock it from your phone or set the suitcase to lock itself when it detects you’re separated. 03 Global tracking As well as having a GPS sensor, Bluesmart has a built-in SIM with 3G connectivity so you can always find your case, no matter which country your airline may have accidentally been sent it. 04 Uber delivery Rather than waste hours at the airport waiting for your delayed bag to arrive, an Uber driver will…

As handy as GlocalMe is, most of us have probably managed on holiday without one, and kept the phone bills down. Still, if it’s the convenience that you’re interested in over saving money, knowing that you can get a reliable signal when travelling can be invaluable. The GlocalMe is a great gadget for staying connected, especially on business trips. Buying a local SIM, if you’re sticking around for more than a few days, doesn’t offer the reliability that this gadget does, but if cost is a concern, be aware that the upfront cost of the GlocalMe G2, and subsequent €0.50 per 10-megabytes charge means only frequent tech travellers will get their money’s worth.…

There’s no mass of confusing cables, no never-ending instruction manual, or unnecessary companion app. The Core is extremely easy to set up. In fact, the system comes with a single instruction card that you might not even need. Just press the Bluetooth button on the top of the speaker to make it discoverable. The Core will then appear in the device list on your phone or tablet. Once you’ve accepted it, the speaker will emit a reassuring ‘bloop’ sound so you know the devices are paired, and just like that you can start streaming music.…

iCade Slide in your iPad, download the Atari’s Greatest Hits collection (100 games) and head straight back the 80s with this retro arcade machine. GameDock Maybe you’re more of a Nintendo fan? This Kickstarter project converts your iPad into a retro console complete with multiplayer support and HD TV output. Joystick-It For something even more portable, the Joystick-It suckers itself to your iPhone and gives you joystick controls with a range of compatible games. Joypad Taking a completely view of the iDevicecontroller relationship, Joypad makes one device your controller, and one your screen. How? Just download two apps. Laser AppTag The AppTag Laser Blaster attaches to your smartphone and turns it into a augmented reality blaster tool to make those first-person shooters even more realistic.…

01 Link your machine The De’Longhi Coffee Link app is available for iOS and Android devices. Once it has downloaded, when you first get it going, it will ask you to switch on Bluetooth then it’ll proceed to search for the nearby machine, so don’t be too far away. 02 Choose your beverage Your app remembers what you have chosen recently, and gives you a run-down of your favourite drinks. Choose from these or tap ‘Discover all beverages’ for the full list. 03 Adjust your preferences If you’re something of a coffee connoisseur, you can customise the strength of the aroma, the quantity of coffee and milk, and even the temperature of your drink in the app. 04 Get grinding When you have chosen your drink, the machine will start…

01 Use the force An airborne kite must defy gravity and defeat drag to get lift. As wind fills the kite it provides the lifting force necessary to conquer the gravity acting on both the kite and the person. The motion of the wind passing the kite generates the crucial upward force as air flows upwards to fill the low pressure area inside the kite. 03 All for a moment You might remember from school science lessons that a moment is a rotational force. This is how the kite flips and spins and can be calculated by multiplying the force acting on the kite by the distance between the pivot (the kitesurfer’s hands) and the end of the object (the control line). 02 What a drag For every action there…

Dan Hutchinson Editor in chief The Chord Mojo DAC (page 47 ) is a great way to improve the sound quality of your music on the go. Rebecca Richards Production Editor The Gamevice (page 90) is a surprisingly solid bit of tech – I’ll definitely be using it on my iPad Mini. Dom Peppiatt Senior Staff Writer The feature-packed Microsoft Band 2 ( page 54 ) was a great wait to track my New Year’s health kick. Andy Downes Senior Art Editor I definitely want to try racing the Micro Drone 3.0 (page 12 ) in first-person using a Google Cardboard headset. Harriet Knight Assistant Designer I can’t get over the caffeine efficiency of the Delonghi PrimaDonna (page 92 ).…

Deep learning The Presence camera knows the difference between an animal, a car and a person moving in front of it, so you don’t get any alerts sent to your phone unless they’re important Smart zones If you just want to focus on one particular area (your garden rather than the main road, for example), Presence can handle this as well through the accompanying mobile app Wi-Fi connectivity Thanks to the Wi-Fi connectivity, the camera can stay in touch with your smartphone at all times and upload captured footage to a personal FTP server if necessary Instant access You can live stream the footage from the Presence camera through your phone at any time, or just check-in on what’s happening when you get a push alert sent to you Activity…

01 Download the app The MicroDrone 3.0 has a companion app compatible with iOS and Android – the drone becomes an extension of the smart phone and can be readily placed into a Google Cardboard headset. 02 Connect the drone When activated, the MicroDrone 3.0 will start broadcasting a WiFi signal which means you can tether your device to it. 03 SET UP YOUR CONTROLLER Sync the radio handset with the drone (you can do that with the flick of a switch) and get a feel for the controls. You don’t want to make yourself sick! 04 Equip the headset When your phone is streaming the image from the MicroDrone’s front-mounted camera, make sure the app is in VR mode (and aeroplane mode so your flight isn’t interrupted) and away…

There’s a lot more to the Oculus Rift than the headset – to get the most out of VR, you need to immerse yourself in a fully virtual environment. That means additional, peripheral tech, and lots of it. Luckily for us, there are designe rs out there right now figuring out the items we’re most likely going to want to take with us into a virtual world … and making sure they’ll be there for us when we land. THE OMNI The Omni is a multi-directional treadmill that’s already shown off support for some of PC gaming’s biggest names: Crysis, Team Fortress and Skyrim. The Omni allows you to move in any direction, and it’ll track you whether you’re strafing, running, jumping, crouching or simply walking. We tried it at…

WHAT? The PSVR will need an external processor running alongside the PS4 in order to make it work. The box itself is about the size of a Wii console (remember those?) and will act as a relay between headset and console. It allows you to throw a ‘social’ screen onto your TV, so people in the living room can either watch you play on VR, or play against you using the PS4. WHY? The box handles the computational sides of VR wrangling (outputting to two screens, helping with that refresh rate and so on). Without the processor, the PS4 wouldn’t be able to handle both on-screen action and the events going on in the headset. PSVR is designed to be a little more social than its PC-gaming counterparts – a…

APPLE The tech juggernaut has filed a number of patents and made a lot of high-profile hires recently, fuelling rumours the company is working on a VR or even AR (augmented reality) headset. Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the VR trend in the company’s quarterly review meeting – a statement of intent, or simply a nod to the rivals? GOOGLE Google has already got its own cheap-but-effective headset out there in the form of Google Cardboard, but as the VR market starts gains momentum, it seems the multinational tech pioneer wants to up its game: The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Google is going to develop a standalone VR headset – with no need for a phone, console or PC. NINTENDO After dabbling with VR unsuccessfully in the 80s,…

01 Straighten saw blades A traditional rip (straight) or claw hammer has many alternative uses, including bending warped saw blades back into shape. There are two ways of doing this: either use the claw end to pull the blade straight, or lay it on a flat surface (such as a piece of timber) and bash it. 02 Rip stuff up Hammers are normally used for building things, but can also come in very useful for demolition. While nothing beats a sledgehammer for bashing down tough stuff like brick walls, the claw end of a standard hammer is ideal for pulling apart wooden items, drywall partitions and suchlike. 03 Measure things Don’t have your tape measure or metal ruler to hand? Fear not: your hammer makes a handy substitute. Well, as…

Prolonged manual sawing can be exhausting, so unless you particularly want to build up those biceps, a power saw is an essential bit of kit. A good model can slice through wood, plastic and metal like a hot knife through butter, and you’ll achieve a cleaner cut than with a traditional handsaw, too. Power saws come in three main types. The reciprocating saw is nearest in design to a manual handsaw, featuring a straight blade that rapidly slides back and forth to perform the cutting action. Interchangeable blades are used to suit different materials, usually with adjustable speed. A jigsaw features a similar back and forth action, but the fine blade is positioned vertically and enables the cutting of curves and shapes. Finally, a circular saw features a fast-spinning blade…

The tape head of a reel-to-reel machine is made up of rings of ferromagnetic material. A tiny gap where the head makes contact with the tape produces a magnetic field. During recordings, the field permanently magnetises the ferric oxide powder coating of the tape, recording data by shifting the orientation of the particles north and south. The faster the speed of the tape running through the machine during a recording, the more the signal is spread on the tape, increasing sound quality but causing more tape to be used. When pre-recorded tape is run through the machine, a voltage is induced in the tape head coil and the current is processed as sound.…

MP3s became popular for two reasons: they occupy far fewer bytes than the equivalent track on a CD and they can be quickly shared online. They do this through compression technology that crushes file sizes to as little as a tenth of their original size. Yet in doing so, chunks of seemingly superfluous data are discarded. In theory, our ears shouldn’t detect the difference since MP3s remove frequencies we are deaf to. Yet it sacrifices quality, trashing some of a track’s subtleties and stripping away ambience. How much of a song is lost depends on the bitrates: 320kbs is close to CD-quality while 128kbs is equivalent to FM radio.…

01 Pick a recipe It goes without saying that you should initially pick which recipe you want to make, first by tapping your RFID card on the screen and then selecting from the list of possible recipes. 02 Add your ingredients Whether you use Brewie’s own kit or pick up some third-party supplies, you should now place the malt and hops – in their respective, supplied bags – into the correct compartments. 03 Now just wait If the Brewie is connected to a water supply you don’t need to do anything until it’s time to empty the liquid into canisters for fermentation. The Brewie app will even tell you when the beer is ready to drink.…

A delicate form Compared to many other glasses, this IPA glass is much thinner. This is done to make sure the drink is kept at the right temperature Thick and thin The unique shape of the glass is what helps create the stronger aroma since it concentrates the aroma to maintain the scent with every sip Ribbed for maximum taste The ripples at the bottom of this glass are unique to the IPA version of Spiegelau’s craft beer glasses, which aerates the beer as you drink to keep the head on top The shape of the glass that you drink from can have some surprising effects; it’s not just about the novelty of drinking from something different than the typical flat-bottomed, straight edge of an ordinary pint glass. The Spiegelau…

The simple art of stirring is most commonly employed to ensure that all the elements of a dish are well and truly mixed. However, stirring also activates proteins in some ingredients, thus developing gluten and adding crucial strength and structure to things like bread. Conversely, there are also dishes and situations where you really don’t want to stir things up. The consistency of pastries and cakes calls for as little gluten as possible, so a gentle folding motion is the way to go when combining their ingredients rather than a consistent stir. With eggs, continually stirring them is a sure-fire way to mess up an omelette, while that same technique makes perfect scrambled eggs.…

01 Zero-ink paper Zink paper is so named because of its ‘zero-ink’ content; instead of dying the paper like cameras have done for over a century, Zink uses dye crystals in the colours cyan, yellow and magenta. 02 Colour combinations Each of these colour layers are stacked upon a neutral base layer, and each has a polymer coating that protects the paper from UV exposure, moisture and fading. All this is thinner than a human hair. 03 Apply some heat Zink-enabled printers use heat to activate the colour-forming molecules embedded in the crystals within the paper, while the printer produces intense heat for split-second intervals, turning colourless crystals to white. 04 Quick results Thanks to the crystals’ molecular make-up, they retain the colour that’s exposed onto them even after they…

01 Insert the SD card First turn on the Dremel 3D Idea Builder. Then insert the SD card, which you should find easily, located to the left of the power switch. 02 Select SD card file Tap ‘Build’ on the touchscreen, then on the SD card option and scroll up or down until you find the chess piece file. Once you’ve found the file, tap it. 03 Start printing Now a screen will come up with three options: Build, Copy, Delete and an orange button to go back to an earlier step. Press build and the Idea Builder will begin working! 04 Extruder heats up The Idea Builder will now start warming up to reach a temperature of 220 degrees Celsius. A countdown for the estimated build-time will appear on…

Our lives are becoming more quantifiable all the time. As digital sensors increase in accuracy, drop in price and become easier to install, from the quality of your driving to the number of flights of stairs you climb each day, there’s a sensor (and an app) to help. And in the midst of this data-logging revolution is the science of sleep tracking. Long before you could buy a wristband to count the number of zzz’s you bank each night, researchers have been investigating exactly what happens while we’re snoozing: it’s an essential part of our biological routine and yet there’s still a lot that we don’t know about how sleep works and how it affects our bodies. We can’t live without it, that much has been established, as anyone who’s…

It’s not just users who can benefit from the data collected by these gadgets – manufacturers can pool and anonymise the flood of statistics being logged too, seeing sleep patterns across a whole region, or monitoring how activity levels in a town rise and fall with the changing seasons. Jawbone occasionally publishes some of this data on its blog. In various articles posted during 2015, it noted the relative lack of sleep logged by US users, the correlation between an earlier bedtime and a healthier heart rate, the way a longer commute impacts on time in bed, etc. As more people sign up for the wearable revolution, these streams of data are going to become more accurate and more useful over time. One post also revealed the ideal number of…

The Theta S gets its intriguing spherical results by combining an intricate inner lens system that relays the imagery to two CMOS sensors. The inner construction and positioning of the lenses to achieve a spherical result rests around a dual prism system. This bends the light towards the sensors, which sit beside the lenses, rather than behind them. Each of the wide-angle lenses’ cut-off points are just before the lenses can “see” the camera’s body, and thanks to Ricoh’s magic, when stitched together, the image reveals only the faintest of lines from where the two camera’s images have been placed together, meaning that the Theta S and/or your tripod will be non-existent in your final image.…

What makes this speaker worth the money is its acoustic holography technology. This technology physically recreates sound in the space above the speaker through the power of physics. The process relies on multiple speakers playing the same audio in sync. Each speaker has its own radius of sound, and when these overlap they make the music seem like it has a source external to the speaker itself. If you were to overlap two circles there would be a central point made of two layers. If you increase the number of circles overlapping, the central portion will have more layers. The Core’s five speakers work in the same way, and create a high-density sound above the box.…

Available on Apple and Android, the app is free and sign-up takes seconds. Sync your Woo with a single tap to dump your data wirelessly and see how you measure up to friends. Even better, check the world’s leaderboard and get a global rank for your kitesurf skills. The app records each session you surf, sensing your air time and any jump one metre (three feet) or higher. The data the app retrieves has been tested and found to be extremely accurate, so you can really trust the numbers you see on the screen.…

Go berserk Each robot has its own set of unique characteristics: the Berserker Mekamon on the left here, for example, is small and quick on its feet Brute force The Brute robot, on the other hand, is bigger, slower and better protected against any attacks from its enemies. Additional robots may well be added in the future Augmented reality Viewing the robot battles through a smartphone app enhances the gamplay with special effects Multiple sensors The existing Mekamon prototypes that were demoed at CES 2016 had infrared, Bluetooth and an in-built compass to accurately locate opponents during fights Physical robots The robots themselves are very much real, and can engage with each other and cause physical damage. They are also modular, so you can upgrade them with 3D-printed parts Different…

01 SET UP THE HEADSET Ensure the cable from the top of the headset is securely fitted into the ports on the front of the unit. Do not cover the LEDs in any way – this will impact performance. 02 CONNECT TO YOUR PC The headset will have both a USB and an HDMI cable that will need to be plugged into your computer. Don’t use any extenders – they aren’t compatible with the signal. 03 CONFIGURE THE TRACKER Attach the tracker’s mini-USB to your PC, then plug the ‘sync’ cable on the headset into the positional tracker, and have the tracker face you – five feet away, at eye level. 04 TURN ON THE RIFT Hit the power button on the top right of the headset. The screen should…

Visor adjustment The small gear and the button on the side of the headset let you adjust the elastic straps that keep the headset on: the PSVR can accommodate glasses-wearers and sit comfortably on anyone The ‘halo’ The PSVR is the only headset to feature this ‘halo’ like design, supporting the device from the top. There’s a soft inner padding which means it never rests too heavily on your nose The display Each eye of the display is 960x1080 resolution, and the whole system runs at 120 frames per second (60 per eye). There’s a 100-degree field-of-view tolerance (the lowest of any of the headsets) In-built speaker Similarly to the PlayStation’s DualShock 4 controller, the headset will have a built-in speaker (and possibly mic). It also has an in-line remote…

Better gear The headset itself is more than just a pair of lenses for the screen – it can detect proximity for things in real time and it’s got an in-built gyrometer that’s stronger than your phone’s native one. You need this to not feel sick Smart rendering Because mobile VR is only as good as the phone it’s running on, processor-friendly solutions have had to be implemented: the Gear VR will only fully render the parts of the screen you’re looking at Sophisticated eye-tracking Since the last Gear VR model, Samsung has upgraded the eye-tracking significantly; the new model lets you activate a ‘gaze cursor’, more intuitive UI navigation Smartphone display In the same way that Google Cardboard uses Android phones, Gear VR uses Samsung’s premium handsets – the…

01 Connect the reel Place the supply reel (the one containing the music you wish to listen to) on the machine’s left spindle and ensure the tape is coming off anti-clockwise. Clamp it into place. 02 Thread the tape Thread the tape through the tension rollers, ensuring the magnetic side will touch the head. Take the tape through the guide pins and between the double pinch rollers and the capstan. 03 Over the tape heads Now slide the tape around the front of the machine, over the tape heads and back up again so that it reverses what you did on the left hand side. 04 Connect to right spindle As the tape goes up through the double pinch rollers, guide pins and tension rollers, thread the tape on to…

No sweat design Rather than glass or porcelain, the Hydro Flask is made from stainless steel. It’s also coated with a powder so that it is more durable and doesn’t sweat Put a lid on it A growler works because of the pressure that is created inside the bottle, which – thanks to the Hydro Flask’s silicon seal – means it is secure. No leakage, either Double wall insulation The Hydro Flask’s TempShield double-wall insulation will keep beer cold for 24 hours and warm beverages hot for six hours With the popularity of craft beer growing and growing, it’s perhaps unsurprising that accessories have also seen an upsurge in both popularity and innovation. This stainless steel growler, which is a container used for transporting fresh ale to maintain its carbonation.…

Multiple power settings Clicking the single button on the device’s handle both turns it on and off, and cycles through the three different power settings – useful for when you’re thickening sauces Cordless power source The Stirr needs four AA batteries, but it runs efficiently as long as you’re not constantly making use of the highest power setting Washable legs Keeping the device clean is as easy as detaching the lightweight plastic lower half and rinsing it off, or even throwing it in the dishwasher Concealed motor The Stirr’s protective cap is easily removed with a twist, but the motor remains out of sight. Be warned, it can get very loud, however, depending on the pan you’re using. Fortunately, the non-scratch Silicone feet reduce the chance of marks on your…

Is your canine companion more of a lapdog than a greyhound, liking their treats a little too much? If your pooch needs to lose the pounds then it’s time to get them a PitPat! Think of it as a FitBit for Fido, designed to attach to a dog’s collar and monitor how much exercise they’re getting and in what form, whether it’s in the form of walking, running, or at play. By syncing it up to your smartphone you can download the data in literally a second or two. The app, available from the usual Google Play and the App Store, breaks down your dog’s daily activity, showing you what they did from breakfast until bedtime. By inputting your dog’s breed (there are 200 breeds to select from), age, weight,…

Border Collie Unsurprisingly, this breed of dog known for running around fields herding sheep needs around 90 mins. Boxer They might seem a bit soppy and slow sometimes, but the hefty Boxer also needs a good 90 minutes. Chihuahua Little Chihuahuas should have 50 minutes of walking, running and playing per day, not including handbag time! Cocker Spaniel Cocker Spaniels could do with 70 minutes of exercise and games per day, according to the PitPat. Jack Russell terrier Terriers have a decent amount of energy for their size, so it’s 90 mins here too. Labrador Loyal, obedient and full of beans, you need to take your Labrador on 80-minutes of walks a day. Pug Life’s pretty easy for Pugs – just half-an-hour of activity per day is recommended by the…

HP Sprout is an all-in-one computer that uses powerful 3D scanning technology to make your objects into manipulatable 3D files ready for printing. The Sprout’s Illuminator uses Intel 3D RealSense, additional cameras and sensors to make lifelike models that are fully editable. And if that’s still not enough precision for you, the 3D Capture stage is a device that enables 360-degree scans with a 15-degree tilt to ensure your object is scanned perfectly. You can also scale, rotate, repair, merge models and more by combining the scan with Microsoft 3D Builder. When you’re happy with the edits, take your models to Dremel’s Idea Builder and watch your digital creations being made a reality.…

Start to delve into the details of sleep-related technology and you can quickly get lost in a maze of jargon and scientific terms used by the professionals. Here’s your at-a-glance guide to the key terms you need to know and what they mean CIRCADIAN RHYTHM – the innate biological rhythm of our bodies, covering sleep but also eating and other behaviours. This daily cycle, broadly aligned to night and day has been observed in humans, animals and plants. DEEP SLEEP – the deepest level of sleep that we might dip into several times a night, sometimes called slow-wave or delta sleep. The brain waves slow right down and it’s much more difficult to wake up from. ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY – in simple terms, electroencephalography (EEG) is the monitoring of electrical activity in…