Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i Stuff UK

Wanna know how Team Stuff usually picks its annual awards-winners? We go down the pub and argue about gadgets for five hours. This nearly always ends in acrimony, especially when it comes to electing our Gadget of the Year. Here even the most mild-mannered of my collea gues will embark on a foul-mouthed tirade about how we’re not showin g an OLED TV “the respect it deserves” or somethin g. This year was different, thou gh. When the time arrived to hoist one gaget above the rest, up stepped Deputy Editor Tom Wi g gins to ar gue for the HTC Vive. What followed, to my memory at least, was a bit like the “O Captain! My Captain!” bit of Dead Poets Society. Only everyone was of le gal drinkin…

● NEXT ISSUE January Christmas ’16: can you feel its presents? On sale 1/12/16 27th ROMESH RANGANATHAN: IRRATIONAL BELFAST WATERFRONT ‘Irrational’ would be getting a flight or a ferry just to go to a comedy gig, even if one of the topics is likely to be ‘iPhone vs Android’. But you can rationalise it by bolting on that visit to Belfast you’ve always talked about. 21st REGENERATE! This was the first story with a Time Lord re_eneration… and the actor swap that this conveniently allowed. DOCTOR WHO: THE POWER OF THE DALEKS DVD This six-episode story had its only airing in 1966 before being carelessly junked by BBC staff in the ’70s. Oops. But now it’s back, as a specially commissioned animation. The BBC Store will be showing episodes from…

FOR WORDY WITS ● Scrivener If you’re armed with an iPad and aiming to be the next JK Rowling, you need Scrivener. The spit of its desktop cousin, it combines a capable rich-text editor, a ‘binder’ to stash research (PDFs, images, web links), a corkboard for arranging your story using draggable index cards, and lots of export options. It’s surprisingly capable on iPhone too, and syncs via Dropbox to the Mac/PC app – so now you can work on your bestseller or Ferret Uprising screenplay anywhere. Stuff says £14.99 / iOS FOR TECHY TEAMS ● Dropbox Paper Designed to allow people to collaborate on documents and share ideas, Dropbox Paper feels like someone mashed iOS Notes into Google Docs. You get sleek editing (including tables), images that auto-arrange, rich content…

Lenco L-85 Price £119 / stuff.tv/L85 We’d forgive you for being wary of this turntable. It’s pretty cheap, it comes in some garishly bright colours, and it’s made by a brand you probably haven’t heard of. But bear with us – this is actually the definition of a bargain budget turntable. Everyone knows the all-in-one suitcase creations from the likes of Crosley aren’t up to scratch, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find plug’n’play convenience at a knockdown price and still be getting value for money. The Lenco L-85 makes that apparent. Setup? Get it out of the box and plug it in. No tonearm balancing or cartridge adjusting required. To steal a famous tech phrase, ‘it just works’. And it works in some style. The Lenco delivers a decent,…

TomTom Spark 3 Cardio + Music This TomTom has a heart-rate sensor, and it’s got GPS for phone-free workout mapping, but otherwise it’s all pretty simple. It’ll track running and cycling, it’s waterproof to 40m, and it’ll monitor the basics: sleep, steps, active minutes. You don’t get much in the way of extras – no smartphone notifications, no apps, not even a colour screen – but that helps with the battery life. And this is the only dedicated GPS running watch that’ll stream music to Bluetooth headphones. This watch won’t swamp you with stats. It covers the basics well, so you can concentrate on beating that PB rather than constantly checking you’re in the right heart-rate zone. It might well be all the fitness watch you need. Screen 22x25mm, 144x168…

A Boy Made of Blocks Keith Stuart A young dad realises that Minecraft is helping his autistic son, Sam, face the real world. At almost 12 hours this is a lengthy audiobook, but it’s nicely read, touching, insightful and funny. £19 / audible.co.uk Revenger Alastair Reynolds that this is the sci-fi specialist’s fi rst ‘young adult’ book is apparent from the youthful female protaganist narrating and the Treasure Island-ish adventure that unfolds – and his imagination is at maximum output. £19 / audible.co.uk Infomocracy Malka Older A political thriller that’s just the ticket for US election year this is an audiobook you’re going to have concentrate on, but it’s worth it: a post-cyberpunk House of Cards crammed full of surprises and ideas. £15 / iTunes Digging Up Mother Doug Stanhope…

Boyhood Richard Linklater’s coming-of-age classic didn’t get nominated for six Academy Awards for nothing. If you’ve not yet seen the story of Mason Evans Jr, then prepare to have your cockles warmed to their very core. The Grand Tour From the people who brought you Top Gear comes a show that’s a whole lot like Top Gear, only not on the BBC. If you like cars and the sight of grown men acting like total buff oons, then this is for you. Westworld Having brought you such classics as e Wire and Game of rones, HBO has turned its talents to the realm of sci-fi with Westworld. Based on the 1973 movie and exec-produced by JJ Abrams, it’s a critical smash. Designated Survivor Imagine Jack Bauer as the President of…

TIPS & TRICKS Siri on MacOS Sierra allows you to search for photos on the web and your laptop, then dra. them into apps. Save on space by .ettin. your Mac to optimise its stora.e. This will reduce the clutter from bi. files. 1.Apple MacBook Pro from £999 / apple.com Apple didn’t change too many parts of the MacBook Pro for its 2015 update, but given how good the Pro already was, that’s enough to keep it right at the top of our honours list. There’s a new trackpad and the latest generation of Intel CPUs, which deliver better stamina as well as lots more power. If you need speedy processing as well as long battery life and portability, this is one of the best laptops money can buy. Stuff…

TIPS & TRICKS Head into the Sonos app’s settin.s menu and you can set an alarm usin. your favourite music. Don’t mind a few bu.s? Get Sonos updates early by si nin. up to its beta testin. pro.ramme. 1. Sonos multiroom system from £169 / sonos.com If you want to pretend your favourite band are playing in your living room, there’s no better option than a Sonos wireless speaker. They look great, work with your smartphone and, most importantly, boom out your tunes with dazzling finesse – from the compact Play:1 (£169) to the flagship Play:5 (£429), a speaker redesigned from the ground up last year. Stuff says Infinite music in every room without the need for custom installers? Sin us up! ● NOW ADD THIS Spotify Premium Sick of…

1 HOT BUY Raspberry Pi 3 £29 / raspberrypi.org You don’t have to be big on coding to enjoy the Raspberry Pi. With some basic tweaking, you can turn this £29 tiny-puter into a very respectable desktop PC, retro gaming machine or media centre – and that’s just the start. The Pi 3 is also the perfect update to its predecessor: you get loads more power (about the same as a mid-range smartphone), integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and it still costs less than a PS4 game. Stuff says Opens up a world of tech possibilities for what is a positively diddy asking price NOW ADD THIS Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2 Not every Pi 3 project has to be a homage to your childhood console. This adds smartphone photo-pizazz. £18…

I BOUGHT MY WIFE SOME MAMMOTH MEAT After completing her degree in archaeology and anthropology, my wife had to accept that she wasn’t going to be a real-life Lara Croft and would have to get a job (sigh). But thanks to the Kickstarter-funded Mini Museum: Second Edition (US$99 / minimuseum.com), she can still have the pleasure of owning a collection of Tomb Raider-worthy rare artefacts, ranging from 15th-century chainmail to a fragment of stegosaurus plate. Will Clarke, Senior Designer I CHANGED TEAMS After six years of dominance in the Stuff lunchtime digi-football tournament, FIFA has been toppled. No, it’s not perfect, but PES 2017’s interpretation of the beautiful game is the closest it’s ever come to recapturing its last-gen glory days (especially if you edit the wonky team names). Some…

1 Text-TV 79p / tvOS Teletext lives! Sort of. And mostly in Europe, truth be told. But Marcus Olovsson’s Text-TV now supports throwback geek project Teefax, full of British weirdness, including Digitiser’s Mr Biffo and Bamboozle. 2 Google Trips £free / iOS, Android In its quest to take over the world, Google now at least wants to help you explore it more easily. There’s armchair tourism for planning a visit, and day plans for when you actually arrive somewhere. 3 Tiny Cards £free / iOS If you can never remember which dinosaur is the one with the long neck or what country is above Peru, Tiny Cards (lovingly) beats your brain into submission with beautifully illustrated flashcard drills. 4 Bohemian Rhapsody Experience £free / iOS, Android Think Bohemian Rhapsody’s video…

Looks unsettingly… clinical. It’s for external application only, we promise. Thim is a fingermounted sleep trainer that helps to improve your snoozing by the most obvious method: it wakes you up just as you’re nodding off. Nope, it’s going straight in the blender. Wait, come back! The theory is that it conditions you to the act of falling asleep, thus making it easier to nod off in the future. In training mode Thim will detect when you’ve fallen asleep, which it determines by your lack of motion, and do a little vibrate to wake you up. You crook your finger a little to respond, and the process starts again. Eventually you’ll properly fall asleep, and not respond, and it’ll stop vibrating. A few nights of this practice and you’ll start…

No need to reinvent the door DING Yeah, you could rig up a Heath Robinson affair where pushing the doorbell moves a thing that thwacks a thing that releases the dog that eats the food that unweights a thing that unlocks the door. You could do that, yeah. Or you could back Ding. It’s a battery-powered doorbell that wirelessly connects to a portable speaker (Chime) or to the Ding app on your phone. You speak to the person at the door and establish whether you’re in or not. No cameras, no smart locks, no dog-thwacking – just the essentials of door management, so subtly refined that John Lewis and the Design Council have both given it a nod of approval. from £92 / dingproducts.com BACK IT BACK IT BACK IT…

£499 / stuff.tv/PureHotCool 􀁑 When is a fan not a fan? Well, the Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Link doesn’t look like a fan and doesn’t work like your average fan, yet that’s what it is. Oh, and it costs 500 quid. If the fantastic 360 Eye robot vacuum was Dyson’s most eye-catching stab so far at connecting its products to your smartphone, then this is its follow-up. 􀁑 Used as a fan with thermostatic heat control, it’s really good. Too hot to sit on the couch for a three-hour Netflix binge? Relax – a lifestyle of opulent laziness is within reach. Noise levels are even low enough to keep it on while you’re watching TV. 􀁑 Unlike a classic bladed fan, the Dyson produces a smooth and constant airflow…

Lava BrightSounds 2 Richard Purvis, Production Editor My wife loves camping. I think it’s an exercise in pointless hardship, but she doesn’t care what I think so we do it anyway. Well, I might as well take the edge off those cold, scuzzy weekends by buying her this versatile accessory. First up it’s a Bluetooth speaker – not the classiest in sonic terms, but better than listening to the couple in the next tent arguing and/or mating. It’s also a dimmable LED lamp, because tents don’t even have light sockets, and an emergency phone charger. Hooray for making camping a little bit less like camping. £39 / amazon.co.uk RAINING CHAMPION The dinky leatherette handle and IPX4 splashproof ratin make the BrihtSounds 2 ideal for listenin to Singing in the Rain…

HOT BY HOT BY Apple iPad Pro 9.7 from £549 / apple.com The iPad Pro 9.7 takes everything we loved about Apple’s original 12.9in Pro tablet, makes it a lot more portable, and then even adds in a few cool extras of its own. The True Tone display, for example – which changes intensity and colour balance automatically based on ambient conditions – is an absolute marvel, while the 12MP shooter is frankly overkill for those brave enough to use it out and about. It’s expensive, yes, but quality comes at a price. Stuff says Incredible power, superb features and flawless design: the iPad Pro 9.7 is pure tablet perfection SoundMagic E10C £39 / soundmagicheadphones.com With the SoundMagic E10Cs you get fantastic sound for the money, a quality cable and…

Picked up cheap AMAZON ECHO DOT Guy Cocker Global Editor-In-Chief Fancy an Amazon Echo but don’t have a spare £150 swilling around in your back pocket? Me too. So I got myself the Echo Dot instead. It costs a third of the price of a standard Echo and has exactly the same AI smarts. Ordering a Just Eat takeaway hands-free, I’ve never felt more slovenly. Should I up.rade? APPLE WATCH SERIES 2 Rob Leedham Editor Pity the plight of the early adopters – forever destined to shovel their precious payday funds towards the latest tech trend, all for the privilege of claiming ‘firsties’ and then feeling a bit empty afterwards. As these dilemmas go, the Apple Watch edition is a classic. The best smartwatch of 2015 is now a bit…

BEST MULTI TASKER LASTPASS from £free (US$12/yr for Premium) lastpass.com During its eight-year existence (an eternity in internet time), LastPass has picked up the best all-round set of password skills we’ve seen, along with a very glossy interface. Setup is more of a trudge than a stroll in the park – you have to type in your existing logins manually – but it has a great password generator that comes up with virtually unbreakable codes. Once you’ve added all your details, you can check out your chops in Security Challenge. It rates your password quality, spits out a percentage score and even ranks you among the hundreds of thousands of LastPass users. If you manage to squeeze into thetop 1000, your security must be much, much better than ours. LastPass…

1.Fujifilm X-T2 £1399 / fujifilm.eu The X-T2 is an excellent lesson in how to upgrade an already great gadget. The X-T1 was itself a brilliant camera, so Fuji gave it superb video and autofocus skills to go with the already top weatherproof build. Sure, it’s pricey, but it’s also worth every penny. What you’re getting here is a camera that approaches high-end DSLRs for speed and rivals pretty much any camera for image quality, so it’s a truly superb all-rounder. Stuff says A dream of a camera that barely strays from perfection from start to finish – and has brilliant 4K video skills 2. Sony A7R II £2999 / sony.co.uk The A7R II combines impeccable build quality with a class-leading full-frame sensor, 5-axis image stabilisation, a huge ISO range, super-fast…

1 Jays a-Jays Four Flat ribbon cables, Androidspecific three-button remote and très en vogue matt gold edging give the Jays all the yays. And the £300 dual-armature q-Jays are mini marvels if you have that kind of money. £50 / jaysheadphones.com 2 MEE Audio M6 Pro We mostly chose these because their name chimes with our favourite motorway. But also because they have a mechanical slider volume control that will work with any phone. And, lastly, because they’re see-through. £45 / meeaudio.com 3 Sennheiser Momentum 2.0g Rumour has it that a bunch of left-wing politicos were so moved by Sennheiser’s headphones that they set up Momentum. Whatever, we do know that these look great. £89 / sennheiser.com 4 SoundMagic E50C The E10C earphones are largely regarded as the best budget…

SMARTPHONE OF THE YEAR ONEPLUS 3 Over the past ten years or so, Apple, Samsung and their ilk have conditioned us to believe that a high-end smartphone must cost the same as return flights to Rio. But OnePlus is more short-haul than red-eye, and with the OnePlus 3 it proved it could make a blower to match the high flyers for a package-holiday price. It might not quite match up to the best when it comes to the camera, and it lacks a few of the fancy extras you get by shelling out for a Galaxy or an iPhone, but the OnePlus 3 excels in the areas that matter to most of us: performance, battery life and price. That makes it impossible not to recommend to, well, pretty much everyone.…

GET STRAP HAPPY... ONE PUGO TOP APPLE WATCH BAND Apple’s official Milanese Loop strap is lovely. It also costs £150. This stainless steel alternative from Pugo Top costs a mere £10, has an 18-month warranty and looks identical, right down to the magnetic clasp. It’s available in iPhone-matching colours for those who like to accessorise. £10 / amazon.co.uk TWO CASETIFY APPLE WATCH BAND Casetify offers plenty of funky straps, but its custom strap service is ideal for making your Apple Watch feel more personal. The online strap builder lets you upload any photo, and can link directly to Instagram and Facebook, pulling in your pictures to customise. Make sure they’re high-resolution. US$52 / casetify.com THREE SEVEN SIXTEEN CLICK ADAPTOR If you have a collection of watch straps you already adore,…

£3629 / stuff.tv/5DMkIV Popular with amateurs, pro photographers and filmmakers alike, the Canon EOS 5D always bags you great shots – and it gets better with every iteration. The Mark IV builds on its heritage with a 30.4MP sensor (up from 22MP), a 61-point autofocus system, 4K video and a touchscreen. The buttons feel intuitive in the hand, and this is the best touchscreen we’ve seen on a DSLR yet. It soon becomes second nature to use the buttons and screen together for an easy, fluid experience. Shots have a fantastic level of detail. Colours are great on the whole, with nice saturation and depth, and Canon’s new metering sensor does a fine job. And the AF is notably better than before. The 5D has been the go-to DSLR…

£30 OR LESS Raspberry Pi Zero A gift for someone who remembers tower PCs and Christmas ’94: a 6cm computer capable of running desktop software and playing 1080p videos. Its best trick is being a retro gaming machine (Google ‘RetroPie’). £27 / thepihut.com Kasa Smart Bulb The cost of a Philips Hue addiction can mount up, so these cheaper (if dumber) colour-changing bulbs could be a safer bet. They can be controlled from smartphones and scheduled to turn on and off. £29.99 / firebox.com Tile Slim Know someone absent-minded? Help them keep track of their wallet, keys and other possessions with this Bluetooth tracker. It’ll show where them where they left an object, or sound an alarm to reveal where it is. £29.99 / currys.co.uk £20 OR LESS SlugHaus Bullet…

HOW TO USE THEM 1 HOT BUY OnePlus 3 £329 / oneplus.net Once again, OnePlus has swanned in with a £300-ish phone that offers a true alternative to some costing more like £600. The tech is as aggressively packed in as ever, but this is also the best-looking, most expensive-feeling OnePlus phone to date. If an extra £300 is nothing to you, there are slightly better screens and cameras available. But last time we checked, most of our readers like a good deal. This is an unbeatable one. Stuff says A big, brilliant bargain of a phone that’s going for half the price of its rivals ● NOW ADD THIS Rosewood case The OnePlus 3 may be perfect for skinflints, but keep your frugal sensibilities to yourself with this luxe-looking…

£2229 / lg.com A truly stunning television. LG’s OLED panel can go blacker than most TVs and will dazzle your senses with its brightness; it offers sharply etched detail, excellent viewing angles and solid HD upscaling. It also boasts support for both HDR standards – HDR10 and Dolby Vision – so you’ll be able to watch compatible content from Amazon, Netflix and UHD Blu-rays regardless of which format wins out in the future. If you’ve got the money, this is the 4K TV to own. Stuff says Packed full of tech, with jaw-dropping performance to send you into TV reverie ● NOW ADD THIS Microsoft Xbox One S A fine games console and a 4K Blu-ray player all in one. Grab yourself a copy of Forza Horizon 3 and you’ll…

Apple Watch Series 2 from £369 / apple.com Last year’s Apple Watch was already the best smartwatch to date; now it’s found its focus. The Series 2 devices come with an array of upgrades – more power, a brighter screen – along with a greater emphasis on fitness functions without a phone in tow. Both GPS and waterproofing make this a far more compelling gadget for exercise obsessives. No alternative is as fast or as well made, or has the same quality and quantity of bespoke apps. Stuff says Apple’s small tweaks and renewed sports focus add up to make the Series 2 a watershed wearable Pebble Time Steel £189 / pebble.com It’s very similar to the Pebble Time, but the extra Gorilla Glass 3 on the front makes the…

1.Xbox One S from £249 / xbox.com The Xbox One S dumps all the stuff that didn’t make sense about Microsoft’s third proper games console – Kinect, the £400+ asking price, that fugly power brick – and the result is that it looks and feels like an even more enticing machine than the PS4. And when compared to the upcoming PS4 Pro, you can’t help but notice that it also has a 4K Blu-ray player… while Sony’s new machine doesn’t. Which means that if you’re the proud owner of a fancy Ultra HD TV, this is now the console to get. Stuff says The best games console you buy right now, thanks to its 4K smarts, not to mention exclusives like Gears of War 4 2.PlayStation 4 Slim £249 /…

THE BASICS 1. Sensor adventure All that’s meant by ‘compact system camera’ (or CSC) is a camera with interchangeable lenses but no DSLR-style mirror. Sensor size is important. Large sensors, like the Sony A7 series’ full-frame Exmors, are able to suck in more light, which means at the same shutter speeds they’ll outperform their rivals when it comes to shooting in low light. ● Get this: Sony A7R II £3239 / sony.co.uk 2.Lens friends Thanks to adaptors, it’s possible to fi t almost any lens to almost any CSC – but if you want proper metering, autofocus and aperture control, you need lenses made specifi cally for your camera. A Panasonic or Olympus CSC might be the best choice: all of Panasonic’s fi rst-party lenses work on Olympus cameras and…