Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Stuff UK

What was the last gadget to change your life? Not just give you a few hours of extra battery life, lighten your rucksack’s load or make ordering a chicken korma easier, but actually do something totally new? For me it was a couple of years ago when I got hold of a robot vacuum cleaner. Since the now lovingly named Jeeves arrived at home, I’ve outsourced all my vacuuming and suffered infinitely fewer arguments over skipping out on my cleaning duties. Given that ‘doing a Leedham’ is common terminology at Stuff HQ for leaving your rubbish on someone else’s desk, you can imagine how much grief this might have amounted to. Since robot vacs only count as a household essential for messy folk, the most likely gadget to have transformed…

You know that old phone you banished to a drawer and occasionally stumble upon while looking for your passport? “Look at it, with its tiny screen and prehistoric bezels!” you mock. “Never turning that on again.” Wrong. That old phone is your new security/dog-watching camera. Simply download the Manything app to the discarded device, open the camera, select the ‘viewer’ option on your current handset, and you’re off. Following a recent update, you can now zoom in on recorded video and jump to the exact date a clip was taken. For absolutely zilch, you get a live feed from one camera and alerts when motion is detected, while opting for a subscription makes clips accessible from the cloud. It can’t offer pin-sharp resolution, but you won’t find an easier route…

In 1982, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson mashed together fantasy novels and D&D-style role-playing. It all came across a bit like early text adventures of the day, only in paper form, but the books were phenomenally popular. Now reborn on mobile, they’re a curious oddity. There’s no five-fingered bookmarking, nor cheating, nor losing dice underneath the sofa. But in a world of Lifeline, 80 Days and other slices of portable text-orientated adventuring, these old books seem more on-trend than they have in decades. You get one title free, while more are available via IAPs. £free (IAPs) / iOS, Android…

£4300 / hublot.com THE WORD ‘GOAL’ WILL FLASH UP EVERY TIME THE BALL ENDS UP IN THE NET That is some name for a watch. Isn’t it just. The Hublot Big Bang Referee 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia is a limited-edition smartwatch launching ahead of this summer’s finals. Hublot is the tournament’s official timekeeper, and a special version of its latest wearable will be worn by the refs. They’ll be using them to keep track of stoppages and no doubt disappoint thousands of face-painted tourists by relaying decisions made by goal-line tech. But… I’m not a referee. Not to worry. There’s a consumer version of the Big Ba… oh, you know, the watch. It’s still geared towards football, keeping you up to date with everything going on in Russia. That…

Before the iPhone X came along, the ‘Apple tax’ meant paying over the odds for a handset that couldn’t do as much as an Android. Now it’s paying more for the same stuff at least, and that feels like a much better deal. Well, for the people who can afford it. But you know all this already, right? So for the purposes of this supertest the iPhone X is best considered as a benchmark from which to judge its many rivals. Which phones can live up to its lofty ideals for less? Such is the all-round quality of the X that only two come close: Samsung’s S9 and the Huawei P20 Pro. Even then, neither of them has a little thing called Face ID in its corner. The Galaxy S9…

BEST FOR SPACE BEST FOR VALUE BEST FOR GOLF-ING Hyundai Ionic Electric from £25,345 / hyundai.co.uk What’s the story? While the Leaf’s boot is big enough for a weekend away with your other half, anyone with a family to carry around could probably do with a bit more room. The Ionic offers enough space for various kit bags, homework folders and furry companions. It has a claimed range of 174 miles, which is significantly less than the Leaf’s… but hey, try to focus on all that boot space instead. Is it any good? A more luxurious alternative to the Leaf with a classier, easy-to-use dashboard, the Ionic oozes panache like few other EVs. Better still, it won’t set you back a huge amount more than the Leaf if you want…

FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE Facebook wants to own the entire internet, so it’s no surprise it’s gunning for eBay. Mobile-only for now, Marketplace is good for finding and selling locally. Beware, though: it’s a bit ‘Wild West’ compared to eBay, and some Facebookers price things mighty high. VARAGESALE This online ‘garage sale’ feels like a friendlier take on its giant competitor. It’s free to buy and sell, people use their real names (good for everyone, unless your name’s Sam Witwicky and the Decepticons show up), and you can hide categories you’re not interested in. AMAZON We think of Amazon as a website combined with an array of warehouses, with an executive team bent on obliterating all other stores and sending your shopping by drone. But it has a marketplace too, and it’s…

The player companion Boom This simple app from Ultimate Ears syncs with your speaker (not only UE’s) to let you control EQ, link up with other speakers and set alarms. The music app Spotify The king reigns supreme for good reason. With a vast library, wireless streaming, top curation and a free option, this is a great way to get the music flowing. The podcast app Overcast Prefer stories to songs? This should be every iPhone user’s go-to podcast player: intuitive, and with plenty of options to customise. On Android? Try Podcast Addict.…

FIRST ADD THESE… ONE ELGATO EVE THERMO Despite the name, this isn’t a smart thermostat – it’s a thermostatic valve that replaces the one on your radiator. That means you can holler at Siri on the HomePod to tweak the temperature in different rooms (provided they each have a Thermo installed), as well as making adjustments when you’re not at home. £60 / elgato.com TWO PHILIPS HUE WHITE AND COLOUR This three-bulb starter pack lets you create mood-based lighting scenes. Want your bedroom to have the same ambience as a Hawaiian sunset? Hue’ll do it. And with HomeKit integration, you can use Siri to switch between colours or preset lighting scenes and automate your lighting schedules. £150 / meethue.com THREE AUGUST SMART LOCK ‘Keyless entry’ might sound scary, but believe us – using…

1 Simply Piano Like Yousician, this app will take you through step-by-step video tutorials while analysing your performance as you play a proper keyboard. You also have the option of playing a virtual piano to hone your skills. £free / iOS, Android 2 Drum Guru Forget guitars: the drumkit is by far the coolest musical instrument for rockouts. Drum Guru is a highly rated app for learning the craft, with lessons from the likes of Steve Gadd (Steely Dan) and Chad Smith (Chili Peppers). £free / iOS 3 Vanido If you’re an attention-seeker, you won’t want to bother with an instrument… you’ll want to be on vocals. Vanido helps you improve your singing, with exercises focusing on breathing, pitch, range and vocal consistency. £free / iOS…

1 HOT BUY UPDATE Oculus Rift £399 / oculus.com The Oculus Rift has been playing catch-up for a while; but now that it’s got the fantastic Touch Controllers, has boosted its room-tracking capabilities to match the Vive and has had a price drop to undercut HTC’s standard headset by £100, it finally deserves to top our VR headset rankings. Its library of exclusive games has grown considerably since launch too, with the likes of Robo Recall, Lucky’s Tale and Lone Echo all added. This is now the best VR headset available that doesn’t cost the world. Stuff says Thanks to the price cut and much-needed updates, the Rift is now the best reasonably-priced VR headset 2 HTC Vive £499 / vive.com Barring a £100 price difference, there isn’t much difference…

1 HOT BUY Fujifilm X-T20 £799 / fujifilm.eu Coming with the same 24.3MP APS-C sensor and processor as the X-T2, plus a touchscreen (which its sibling lacks), the X-T20 will leave you with a lot more spare cash in your account. And for most people, the model will deliver results that are just as good as its pricier big brother’s. With well laid-out controls, a huge viewfinder, excellent autofocus and access to superb lenses, the X-T20 is just one more fantastic mirrorless camera from Fujifilm. Stuff says The X-T20 nails the sweet spot between price and performance • NOW ADD THIS Manfrotto 190 Go! Carbon Fibre Tripod You no longer have an excuse for wobbly photos with this carbon-fibre tripod. It weighs just 1.65kg. £235 / manfrotto.co.uk • TIPS &…

I EXPERIENCED A VIRTUAL REALITY MELTDOWN HTC’s Vive Pro gave me a throbbing headache this month. That had nothing to do with the stunning virtual worlds I explored – it was the real world that was giving me grief. Not only did I discover my PC wasn’t specced highly enough for the Pro, but my flat’s cleaner also scolded me for reorganising the furniture to accommodate it. Luckily, Overclockers were kind enough to loan me a beefy PC. As for my cleaner? I’m worried she’s rinsing my sheets in toilet water. Ryan Jones, Staff Writer REVIEW p62 I GOT ADDICTED TO STICKERS, AGAIN As the proud owner of a fully completed World Cup ’98 Panini album, I thought I was done with begging for swapsies and sending off for individual…

CHEAPER THRILLS GoPro Hero If you want a high-spec GoPro for your dirt-bike backflips, perilous rock climbs and surfing exploits, you’re already well catered for. But for those of us who lead lives more Poldark than Point Break, those cams are a costly investment. Just want to document your country strolls and get some FPV footage of your dog? Then consider the new Hero. At £200 it’s an affordable entry-level GoPro, and while you’ll lose the 4K and super-slow-mo stuff – expect it to top out at 1440p @ 60fps – you still get a 2in touchscreen, waterproofing down to 10m and digital stabilisation. It’s tough as hell too, able to go places your smartphone simply cannot. The Hero supports QuikStories, the nifty software that automatically edits your footage into…

OUT 21 MAY Massive multiplayer online games are a big commitment. While you can ditch your job and put your children up for adoption, it’s essentially impossible to give up on an MMO once it has its grip on you. The latest series trying to take over your life is The Elder Scrolls Online. Following last year’s nostalgic Morrowind chapter, the next expansion will be Summerset, letting you loose on a region that hasn’t been explored since 1994’s The Elder Scrolls: Arena. You see, Summerset’s borders have been shut for a long time, but now Queen Ayrenn has ordered them to be opened, allowing you and your merry band of online pals to wander in. Not everyone’s chuffed about this, and it’s your job to help soothe the growing tensions…

EARLY MAN (BLU-RAY) There’s a good chance Aardman’s caveman comedy passed you by, but the small-screen version is well worth grabbing. It’s about a band of prehistoric hunters who are driven from their valley by a Bronze Age invasion. How do they settle the dispute? With a football match, obviously. SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY We seem to be getting a new Star Wars film every few months… and next up is the Han Solo origin story. The film’s troubled production has been well documented, so geeks worldwide will be crossing their fingers that the galaxy’s favourite sardonic smuggler hasn’t been prequel-fied. ALSO IN CINEMAS: Tully Deadpool 2 7 Days in Entebbe Show Dogs ARCADIA LONDON Toasting the 10th anniversary of this 50-tonne flame-spitting robot spider, Arcadia London is bringing…

If you wanted to buy your way to ‘elite nerd’ status not so long ago then one of Google’s Nexus phones was the way to go. Since they weren’t sold on the high street you were guaranteed to own a phone none of your mates had. Plus, there was the privilege of being able to drop the phrase ‘stock Android’ into conversations as though it was akin to the Holy Grail and a winning lottery ticket combined. The problem with all of this? Loads of people who owned a Nexus were totally insufferable. A rebranding exercise was due, and it has culminated with the Pixel 2 XL: a phone for normal folks and pedantic geeks. You see, what makes this bumper-sized blower so great is not the fact that it…

• Ikea Place Don’t bother lugging back boxes of flat-pack hell, only to discover you got precisely the wrong things for your flat. Instead, use AR to project virtual Ikea goodies into your home, so you can see what they’ll actually look like in context. Not keen on Swedish MDF? Amazon’s shopping app now has similar smarts (and is on Android too). Stuff says £free / iOS • Augmented Reality Solar System This isn’t the deepest of AR astronomy apps, but it does make it absurdly easy to bring the stars into your hand. And if you fancy feeling insignificant, one touch of a button reduces the planets to scale. Go in really close and you might just make out the Earth… as a single pixel. Stuff says 99p /…

SOCCER MOMMY Clean Discordant guitars, earworm melodies and lyrical bluntness make the debut album from Sophie Allison a heady alt-rock brew. DJANGO DJANGO Marble Skies The art-rockers return with a genre-melding album that also happens to be their poppiest, most danceable record yet. YOUNG FATHERS Cocoa Sugar The third album from the Mercury Prize-winning Scottish rappers is dripping with inventiveness, but isn’t scared to drop a pop hook now and then.…

1 HOT BUY NEW Huawei P20 Pro £799 / huawei.com While Samsung and Apple’s war for smartphone supremacy rages on, Huawei has sauntered up and knocked both companies off their feet with the P20 Pro. Serious snappers will love this flagship phone thanks to the triple-lens camera, with 5x zoom and a 40MP main sensor. Add to that a quite awesome AMOLED display, lightning-fast internals and a top-notch design, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for the best new smartphone of 2018. Stuff says That triple-lens cam gives the P20 Pro the edge in the smartphone wars • NOW ADD THIS AModern Huawei P20 Pro Case With its fragile back, you’ll want a case for your P20 Pro – one that accommodates the three sensors. £6.99 / amazon.co.uk • TIPS…

NETFLIX Santa Clarita Diet (S2) Think your parents are weird just because they like to dance at discos? Please. That’s nothing on the Hammond family, whose mother has picked up the habit of gorging on human flesh. So embarrassing. Deadpool With the sequel in cinemas this month, there’s no better time to rewatch the original Deadpool. And if you haven’t seen this hilarious superhero flick, you’d best get to it before Ryan Reynolds turns up at your door with a katana. Happy! (S1) The creators of Happy! were clearly on every drug imaginable when making this comedy. The premise? An alcoholic ex-cop joins forces with a little girl’s imaginary friend to solve a kidnap case. See what we mean? AMAZON VIDEO Suburbicon Fed up of gunning people down in action…

1 HOT BUY PlayStation 4 Pro £310 / 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. Sure, it can’t match the Xbox One X for sheer power or resolution, but it makes up for that with an impressive line-up of games – including Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn and Bloodborne – and virtual reality support. Stuff says The system for console gamers who have a 4K TV and want the best catalogue of games on offer 2 Nintendo Switch £280 / nintendo.co.uk Nintendo’s console has earned a promotion in our…

1 HOT BUY Tado Smart Thermostat from £199 + installation / tado.com It might not be as pretty as the Nest 3.0, but Tado has quietly evolved into the best all-round smart heating system around. Like autopilot for your boiler, it senses when you’re leaving home or coming back thanks to the app’s geolocation. And Tado’s gadgety goodness is second to none, with the option of zonal control for individual rooms and voice smarts from the likes Alexa and Google Assistant. Stuff says Tado roasts the competition with its combination of simplicity and smarts • NOW ADD THIS Tado Smart Radiator Thermostats Once you’ve tasted the joys of zonal smart heating, you and your wallet will never go back. £59 each / tado.com • TIPS & TRICKS • Check out…

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Marshall Mid ANC To most people, the name Marshall means long-haired frontmen, moshpits and guitar solos. But for a while now it’s also been synonymous with fashion-focused headphones. The latest in the line is the Mid ANC, Marshall’s first pair of active noise-cancelling ’phones. Flick a switch and the headphones will eliminate distracting background racket. We expect the custom drivers to provide a good level of detail and bass, while battery life is estimated at 20hrs+ with the noise-cancelling turned on – or 30hrs+ of wireless playback if you’re willing to let the outside world in. Just try to resist smashing them to pieces at the climax of a really good song. As hot as… one of Slash’s face-melting solos £239 / stuff.tv/MidANC…

1 Peloton The obvious brilliance of Jeremy Harnell’s design is that you can immediately tell you’re looking at three intense cyclists despite the absence of any bike frames. £80 / kingandmcgaw.com 2 Robot Xtra 2 The panic merchants of the internet keep telling us robots are going to rise up and kill us all, but Oli Fowler’s ’bot looks like a two-legged mobile disco. £80 / printclublondon.com 3 Upward Trump to the left of you, Russia to the right: the prospect of blasting off from this bumpy sphere in a rocket and never looking back is becoming ever more enticing. £19.95 / eastendprints.co.uk 4 Blade Runner 2049 There are lots of good shots in this film, but it’s the bit when Officer K and Joi get all touchy-feely in the…

1 Minimoog Model D £14.99 / iOS The world’s first portable synth, the analogue Minimoog Model D was horribly expensive. But now, with 160 presets, you can get it stuffed inside your extremely portable iOS device – and for relative peanuts. 2 Scanbot 7 £free (IAPs) / iOS, Android Nobody actually owns a scanner… but Scanbot makes it a cinch to grab multi-page documents on your phone, make them readable and hurl the results at colleagues. This new version has improved filters. 3 Linea Sketch £9.99 / iOS If you don’t need a full-on art app but have the urge to scribble, Linea Sketch balances simplicity and power. Its ZipLine feature will even straighten a wiggly line if you press down after drawing it. 4 321 Launch £free / iOS,…

KICK-STARTER Yes it (looks like a) can LEVETOP While most drones basically look identical, the LeveTop goes for something different… and ends up coming on like a tiny quadcopter attempting to airlift an Amazon Echo. It might be comically ungainly, but it can still zip through the air at 33mph, with a 100m range and 20-minute flight time. When airborne, the LeveTop can hover, track objects and stay within geofenced boundaries, while recording 1080p video. And when it lands, its weird form factor suddenly makes sense – you fold the arms into the cylindrical body, stuff the drone into its case and then cart it about attached to a belt. from US$139 / levetop.com KICK-STARTER Wide riot MOMENT ANAMORPHIC LENS If you’re a budding filmmaker who wants to use an…

Would you like to buy some insurance? No? Ah well, no harm in asking. Life can be tough for insurance salespeople, y’know. First they have to spend all day trying to sell insurance to people who don’t really want any, and then on their commute home they’re contacted by a mysterious stranger and forced to uncover a criminal conspiracy with life-and-death stakes for themselves and their fellow passengers. Well, admittedly that last part doesn’t happen very often. In fact it only really happens when you’re Liam Neeson in The Commuter, a race-against-time thrill ride with explosive twists around every bend. Even so, just to be on the safe side you’d better stick to the car… and that’s where this month’s competition prize comes in. We’ve teamed up with in-car entertainment…

For a while, it seemed that the folks who decided electric cars are the future of motoring had agreed they must all look like something out of a daytime sci-fire-run on ITV4. How else do you explain the painfully Tomorrow’s World vibe of the original Nissan Leaf? And yet, despite looking more like a Scalextric model than a proper car, the Leaf turned out to be a quiet success as the best-selling electric car in Britain. Stick that in your vaping pipe and smoke it, Tesla. But with the launch of its second-gen model, Nissan has decided to do a 180 and transform the Leaf into possibly the most boring electric car yet made. And we mean that as a wholly good thing. Aside from the ‘zero emissions’ badge on…

THE BASICS ■ Watch and learn Your watch list appears on the eBay app’s main screen, and it’s as easy to scroll through here as it is in the ‘My eBay’ section of the website. Use the watch list to track items without bidding on them, so you don’t push up the price early on. If you find several auctions for an item you fancy, watch them all. Often there’s a bidding war as the first ones finish, and you can snap up one of the others for less. ■ Go for sold Don’t make the mistake of only watching live auctions to see how much stuff sells for. Perform a search, filter it for sold items, and then sort by price or date. Now you can see how much…

Fender Newport £190 / stuff.tv/Newport For some, there’ll be no beating the charm and name-recognition of Fender’s portable speaker. The Newport looks and acts like a mini guitar amp, complete with witch-hat knobs on top for volume, bass and treble. Every second of using this tiny slice of rock’n’roll is delightful. Flick the switch to turn it on and you’re met with the rich roar of an electric guitar; put it into Bluetooth pairing mode and a different riff plays. It’s the little things that make this speaker so much fun. With 12hr battery life and aptX Bluetooth for CD-quality streaming, it’ll find a place in any home. STUFF SAYS A Fender you can truly enjoy without Hendrix-like talent PORTY HARD This is a small speaker but feels well made.…

THE GOLDEN OLDIE THE WINDOWS CLASSIC THE BBM MAESTRO THE FANCY FLIPPER 23 VERTU SIGNATURE TOUCH • Year 2015 • Price then £6500 • eBay price now £3500 • Stuff said Vertu made a name for itself crafting absurdly exclusive and expensive phones for the ultra-rich. Problem was, beneath the unicorn-tongue and spider-silk finishes were plain old feature phones, no more exclusive than what you’d find in the bargain bin at Phones 4 U. The Signature Touch was different. Its titanium chassis held a 5.2in Full HD screen, an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor and a 21MP, 4K-capable camera. Finally, a Vertu had the mouth to match its diamond-laden trousers. It could also encrypt messages and came with access to Vertu’s famous concierge service – a 24/7 helpline for all your…

■ Wet butler It can’t make phone calls, but the TicHome Mini does pretty much everything else the Google Home Mini can: controlling your smart home, playing music from Spotify or the radio, and answering those nagging trivia questions. ■ Toney soprano This thing trumps both the Home Mini and Amazon’s Echo Dot for sound: its down-firing speakers manage to create more bass than you’d expect from its size, and it can go surprisingly loud before distortion kicks in. £75 / stuff.tv/TicHomeMini ■ In theory, the TicHome Mini brings together two of our favourite things: voice-controlled music and hot showers. It’s a smart speaker, much like the Google Home Mini, but adds a splashproof design and portability into the mix, thanks to its rechargeable battery. ■ It’s bulkier than the…

1 HOT BUY SNES Classic Mini £80 / nintendo.co.uk Why bother splashing out over £200 on a games console when you can get the SNES Classic Mini for a fraction of that? Especially when you get 21 classic titles pre-installed on this nostalgia-inducing machine, including the likes of Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, Super Mario World and the never-before-released Star Fox 2. And with two controllers bundled in the box, you’ll be able to start the Super Mario Kart action right away. Stuff says With 21 classic games installed, gamers won’t find better value anywhere • NOW ADD THIS 8Bitdo Bluetooth Retro Receiver Fed up of those short cables? Use this clever device to connect most modern controllers wirelessly. £16.14 / 8bitdo.com • TIPS & TRICKS • Chickens…