Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2017 i Stuff UK

Whoever said ‘Christmas comes but once a year’ clearly never worked at Stuff. By the time this magazine lands in your grubby hands it will have been months since the words ‘gift guide’ were first uttered in our office. In the meantime, we’ve pored over hundreds of potential presents in order to pick out the ones worth giving and those you’ll want to keep for yourself. Nintendo’s Classic Mini? An essential purchase. A pop-up hotdog toaster? We could hardly resist. A phone case that also works as a cheesegrater? Absolutely not. It’s in this spirit of good humour and discernment that we bring you Gifts For Geeks: our annual compendium of what to get the gadget-lover in your life. If you’ve put off sorting out your shopping until now, you’ll…

£1150 approx (due Sept 2017) / maglevaudio.com Well, this looks like a pretty stylish turnt… WAIT, WHAT THE HELL?! IT’S FLOATING! Your eyes do not deceive you. The Mag-Lev turntable is indeed pretty stylish, and it is indeed floating – or at least, its platter is floating. But… floating AND spinning AND staying in the right place, all at the same time? How? Magic! Or rather, magnets. The turntable’s patented drive system, powered by electromagnets, not only keeps the platter in the air but also twirls it steadily and precisely. When not in use the platter is held up by ‘legs’, which retract when you start it spinning. And, because the company knows that the only thing cooler than a levitating disc is a glowing levitating disc, it has groovy…

Oh, look. It’s one of those ‘gorilla cinema’ things. Um, no. Gorilla cinema would be The Jungle Book, or possibly The Mechanic. What we think you’re thinking of is ‘guerilla cinema’, a mid-2000s fad brought about by the launch of pocket-size pico projectors. We don’t really talk about it any more. Oh? Why not? Because while the idea of holding smallscale smartphone-based movie viewings in public places appealed to our geeky tastes, it never really caught on. And, in a strict copyright sense, it was illegal. Which is important, really. Lots of things are illegal. I try not to get too hung up on it. Right, let’s move on. This is the Odin2, from New York-based Dos Owls. It’s a hand-sized projector, and has a built-in battery so, yes, you…

FOR CLEVER CLOGS  Stephen Hawking’s Pocket Universe We’re used to clever interactive tomes on iPad, but this effort is perhaps more ambitious, attempting to cram Stephen Hawking’s mind-bending Brief History into a tiny iPhone and not leave you a gibbering wreck. Friendly animations sit alongside bite-sized chunks of text as the app tracks your progress through subjects such as black holes and space-time. It’s more rewarding than scrolling through never-ending Facebook feeds. Stuff says £5.99 / iPhone FOR MOBILE MOVIES Loop by Seedling If you fancy yourself as the next Aardman but don’t have time to master complex animation apps, Loop provides tools for crafting a mini stop-motion masterpiece. Using your iPhone and a steady hand, you shoot individual frames; an optional onion-skin overlay enables you to compare the current…

1 Mister tumble Nikon knows a thing or two about protecting cameras. This one will shrug off 2m drops onto concrete, and can hold its breath down to 30m. 2 Bluetooth LE means the Nikon hooks up to a phone in seconds – and you don’t exactly have to check your framing when you’re filming in 360°. 3 No jacket required This GoPro doesn’t need a chunky case to keep it safe from the elements – it can take a dunking down to 10m right out of the box. 4 Big shout out For hands-free filming, the Hero5 listens out for basic voice commands and will record, snap or timelapse whenever you tell it to. Nikon KeyMission 360 What’s the story? Extreme sports are perfect 360° video fodder, and Nikon’s…

1 OnePlus 3 HOT BUY BARGAIN BUY £329 / oneplus.n 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 bi_, brilliant bar_ain of a phone that’s _oin_ 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 wood and…

TIPS & TRICKS Torn between MOTD and Mr Robot? LG’s WebOS 3.0 lets you split your screen across two channels Want to watch Netflix in 4K? You’ll need to.opt for its £8.99/month Ultra HD packa_e. 1 HOT BUY LG OLED55C6V £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…

I LIVED A DREAM… …to go on stage at a Westfield Shopping Centre and be introduced by a Hollyoaks star. That’s exactly what happened when Team Stuff went to the Technology Showcase at Westfield Shepherd’s Bush to talk about our gadgets of the year and put devices like the iPad Pro, OnePlus 3 and Amazon Echo into confused shoppers’ hands. Darren Jeffries, better known as OB on the student-favourite soap, even announced he was returning to the show that very day. This glamorous life! Guy Cocker, Editor-in-Chief I LEARNED A VALUABLE LESSON ON WHERE TO FLY DRONES… …namely, not in the Stuff office. Unless you want strong Twitter derision for accidentally landing/crashing on a 40ft-high windowsill and not being able to get it airborne again. Zerotech’s Dobby drone is small…

THEY CAME FROM OUTER WEBS HTC 10 EVO Exclusivity. It’s difficult, isn’t it? You try to strut your stuff down the High Street, but you’ve got all the same bits and bobs as the other strutters. Legs. Face. Elbows. And your phone, which – regardless of how much you spent – is the same phone that most punters have got that month. Sad face… undo! HTC has this for you. It’s a curious remix of the HTC 10: waterproof, bigger screen, slower processor and no headphone jack. But it’s likely to come in under £500 and, crucially, it’s exclusive to htc.com. There’ll be no high-street strutters stumbling on this. As hot as… folk failing to name your phone £tba (due this month) / stuff.tv/HTC10Evo Did you hear some-ping? There’s no…

#17 MACBOOK PORTS Tom Parsons, Deputy Editor, Stuff.tv First the headphone jack fell off the iPhone, now the MacBook Pro loses almost every one of its ports except for the headphone jack. That’s a bit of a head-scratcher, isn’t it? Well, Apple knows that telling pro laptop users to ditch their fancy cans in favour of Bluetooth would have sparked even more anger than it got from the iPhone move, so that part makes sense. The lack of an SD card slot initially feels like a real issue, though. I probably only use mine once a month, so I’ll just have to hope I have the relevant USB-C adaptor to hand when I need it (I won’t). But there are three questions every potential Pro buyer should be asking. Firstly,…

Eyes on the back of your head ORBI PRIME Oh no, Madam. You don’t want to attach a 360° camera to your cycling helmet. You’ll look like a Teletubby, and your centre of gravity will be all skew-whiff. Madam would be much better off with these 360-video-recording sunnies. There are four 1080p camera modules built into them, see? Two at the front and two built in to the back of the arms. Yes, it will be a little bit strange to have to wear them over your hair, Madam. But how awesome to have the Orbi app stitch together the footage, in near-as-dammit real time, so you can share it with your VR-headset-wearing friends? from US$349 / orbiprime.com KICK_ STARTER BACK IT STACK IT SACK IT It writes, it dimensions…

NEXT ISSUE February In which we become fitness fanatics On sale 5/1/17 DONNIE DARKO Most people missed Donnie Darko at the cinema in 2001 because they didn’t know it was any good until their movie-nerd mate told them. With Stranger Things making supernatural nostalgia cool again, here’s a chance to go back in time to see this 4K restoration at the pictures. ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY You wait 10 years for a new Star Wars film and then two come along in 12 months. Rogue One doesn’t pick up where Finn and Rey left off, instead jumping back to before A New Hope to tell the story of a Rebel plot to steal the plans for the Death Star. DAVID BRENT: LIFE ON THE ROAD BLU-RAY Thirteen years…

Sorcery! Steve Jackson’s gamebook series is realised perfectly on mobile across four separate apps, which immerse you in an epic adventure within a land of monsters and magic. The branching plot and combat system are great, and the rewind feature is extremely smart: die like a total buffoon, go back a few moves, and try something new. Stuff says £3.99 each / Android, iOS Lifeline The original Lifeline kicked off the concept of stripped-back adventuring on mobile, as you attempted to help a stranded astronaut survive. Played in real time, and with some brutally abrupt endings, it remains a smart slice of interactive fiction, where your choices – broad strokes though they are – have serious impact. Stuff says £1.99 / Android ● £1.49 / iOS Burly Men at Sea…

EASY THE DAY TRIPPER Yellow Submarine As The Beatles once sang, all you need is Lego – and psychedelic kits don’t come much cooler than this funky tub. Pretend it’s 1968 with John, Paul, George and Ringo in mini-figure form, as turning propellers and a swivelling rudder see you rub-a-dub all the way to Pepperland. £50 / Ages: 10+ MEDIUM THE RUG BUG Volkswagen Beetle Okay, so it’s a little more angular than the curvy original, but this quaintly styled replica of the symbolic VW is straight out of the ’60s. Complete with surfboard, cool box and beers – to scale, of course – tricks like a tilting rear seat add extra authenticity to the alluring azure-blue paint job. £70 / Ages: 16+ CHALLENGIING THE LOG LIFTER Claas Xerion 5000…

THE BASICS Install the app. Seems counter-intuitive, right? Alexa is a capable voice assistant, but to add new ‘Skills’ (Amazon’s name for Echo apps) and unleash her full capabilities you need to delve into the app’s settings. It’s available on Android, iOS and even Amazon’s ill-fated Fire Phone. Plug in the tunes. You can control Amazon’s Prime Music library with voice commands by default, but what if you’re a dedicated Spotify subscriber? Link your account by going to Settings > Music & Media > Spotify in the app, then make it your default music service. You can now ask Alexa to play a song without having to add the words “on Spotify” to your request.  Give it some love. Just like your dog’s love of a stroking session, your Echo…

£449 / stuff.tv/YogaBook 􀁑 This might be the first 2-in-1 that works just as well in tablet mode as it does as a laptop. The Yoga Book is pencil-thin, whether you’ve got it folded flat or open ready for typing, thanks to a cunning touch-sensitive keyboard that doubles as a drawing pad. 􀁑 It might take time to get used to (you’re tapping on a smooth bit of glass, after all) but the light-up keyboard is nifty for writing up emails. Because it’s completely flat, it doesn’t feel weird when it’s folded up in tablet mode. 􀁑 We’ve seen paper notebooks weighing more than this. It’s light enough to throw in a bag, but is built from a sturdy mix of magnesium and aluminium that won’t show up scratches. 􀁑…

Black Mirror Charlie Brooker’s dark anthology series returns for a third season. It’s already predicted a Prime Minister sticking his sausage inside a pig, but can these six new episodes off er more insights into our bleak future? Rick and Morty Imagine Back to the Future, but Doc Brown is a verbally abusive alcoholic and Marty McFly a wimpy kid in a broken family – and there you have Rick and Morty. Just don’t expect a family-friendly adventure. Mascots This is like Britain’s Got Talent but with contestants who are off their noodle, wear crazy costumes and each have an exceptional yet useless skill. OK, so that’s still Britain’s Got Talent, but this Netfl ix original is a better watch. Lucifer Apparently being lord of the underworld is a bit…

1 Apple MacBook Pro from £1449 / apple.com HOT BUY NEW It can be easy to focus on what this entry-level version of the 2016 MacBook Pro doesn’t have: it’s missing that sexy new Touch Bar for a start, and is down on ports and power compared to the next model up. But it’s also £300 cheaper, and has the same diminutive form and truly gorgeous screen. It also has the brilliant second-gen butterfly keyboard. We’ll deliver our verdict on the Touch Bar model next month, but this could be the pick of the Pro range. Stuff says The Touch Bar version is the lust object, but this ‘basic’ Pro hits a very sweet spot ● NOW ADD THIS Satechi Type-C USB 3 Hub Two ports not enough? This hub…

HOT BUY NEW 1 PlayStation 4 Pro £349 / playstation.com As a gaming platform, PlayStation 4 is the best around – which makes the PS4 Pro the best of the best. Games optimised for the new console look stunning on a 4K HDR TV, and are substantially improved by the extra grunt inside this slightly bigger machine. If you’ve already splashed out for a 4K HDR screen and you enjoy video games at all, it’s well worth the upgrade. The missing 4K Blu-ray drive means it isn’t a perfect entertainment system, but streaming converts won’t care. Stuff says The system for console amers who have a 4K TV and want the best amin experience possible 2 Xbox One S from £250 / xbox.com Microsoft dumps Kinect, the £400+ asking price…

IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF FITNESS TECH FOR 2017 NEW MACBOOK PRO TESTED TOP KITCHEN GADGETS ON SALE 5 JANUARY SUBSCRIBE ONLINE NOW GET IT DELIVERED FOR FREE AND SAVE UP TO 53% ON THE COVER PRICE! www.themagazineshop.com/stu/jan17 Subscribe now and get a free KitSound BoomBar wireless speaker! Full details on p90. BECOME A NETFLIX NINJA You’ve got the ‘find a show, locate Doritos, press play’ routine down to a tee. Now it’s time to take your Netflix mastery to the next level with these tricks: ● Share your account (but not your password). Need to loan someone access to your Netflix account while you’re on holiday? The Chrome extension AccessURL (£free, chrome.google.com) lets you share a link with a built-in expiry date so they can’t abuse your generosity. ●…

WHERE THE F-KEY…? APPLE MACBOOK PRO Actually, that price is misleading, for two reasons. Firstly, because there’s a cheaper MacBook Pro, a £1249 last-gen clunker that students’ parents are going to buy them. But mainly because, while you can get one of the new MacBook Pros for £1449, it’d be the 13in version without the Touch Bar. Yuck. What you actually might want is one of the 13in models with the Touch Bar (from £1749), or the 15in (from £2349), which has the Touch Bar, proper Radeon Pro graphics and Intel Core i7 processors. But you can’t afford one of those. And neither can we. Which is a shame, because an app-specific OLED touchscreen sounds like a lot of fun. As hot as… finger-dancing on the Bar…

1 Scanbot 6 £free (IAPs) / iOS, Android Scanners used to be the size of a small hatchback. Now your phone is one – with the right app. Scanbot ably captures documents; pay and it’ll also extract text, enable editing, and probably do the washing up. 2 Duolingo £free / iOS, Android, Windows With its videogame feel, Duolingo is far from the language-learning you suffered at school. Now you can chat to bots to perfect your Spanish, rather than embarrassing yourself in a sweaty bar. 3 Notes on Blindness VR £free / iOS, Android John Hull went blind in 1983. Extracts from his audio diary are merged with Daredevil-like VR scenes in this powerful semi-interactive film that’s best experienced with Google Cardboard. 4 Melodist £free / iOS If your head’s…

THE CHEAPEST ONE Vello Bike+ In its most basic form, the Vello is the most affordable e-bike here. This version still gets a rear hub that contains both batteries and a motor, with a Bluetooth app for changing drive modes. It’ll even put some power back into the batteries when you coast or brake. But are you really going to pass on the more spendy versions with carbon belt drive and a titanium frame? Have a word. from €1599 / vello.bike THE SMALLEST ONE Tern Vektron Unlike the Bike+ and the Model E – quite big bikes with tiny motors – the geekily titled Vektron is a diminutive city folder, onto which has been shoehorned a proper Bosch motor system. That means a range of 10 gears and some serious…

AUD IO FREAK  Pitch-perfect gifts for those people who insist that even the Christmas carols be played on vinyl 1 Pro-ject VTE “I’ve wanted a turntable for years but don’t have room for it,” your uncle says every Christmas. Well, as he’s got nowhere to put it, you ignore him. Sadly for you, Pro-ject has made a space-saving vertical turntable. “Ah, but he’s a lefty,” you’ll say. Sorry, there’s also a left-handed version, so you’ve no excuse for not buying him one now. £230 / project-audio.com 2 Amazon Echo No doubt you already know that Amazon’s Echo is the speaker you can talk to. If you’re itching for a particular song, just say the words and it will scour Spotify or Amazon Prime Music to deliver the sonic goods. It’s…

£250 / stuff.tv/Solo3Wireless 􀁑 The first Dr Dre / Jony Ive collaboration has clearly been built specifically for the jack-less iPhone 7, with colours matching the new phone range – but Apple’s R&D team has also helped out with the tech underneath. The W1 chipset is a real leap forward for wireless range, ease of pairing and battery life. 􀁑 Normal Bluetooth performance is fine up to 15m away, but the dropouts start quickly beyond that. If you’re using a new iPhone, however, wireless range with the Apple W1 tech jumps up hugely: I could go practically anywhere in our three-storey office, even for a sprinkle, and keep listening to music from the phone on my desk. 􀁑 While Sennheiser’s Momentum 2.0 Wireless cans will keep going for 22 hours,…

1 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 2 Apple iPad Mini 4 from £379 / apple.com Just the right size for a great portable entertainment hub, while subtle display tweaks…

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 2  £100 / pebble.com Buy the Pebble 2 for the effortless way it handles notifications, the geeky app and the watchface selection –…

HOT BUY 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…

1 HOT BUY Raspberry Pi 3 £30 / raspberrypi.or You don’t have to be big on coding to enjoy the Raspberry Pi. With some basic tweaking, you can turn this £30 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 askin 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.…