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Welcome The more connected we get the fewer cables we need. Or so it seems. Between them, Wi-Fi, LTE and Bluetooth have us controlling lights in our homes – or cameras outside them – streaming music to speakers, collecting data from wearables, and sending photos of our breakfast smoothies to the farthest reaches of the planet almost instantly. But there are two categories of cable that appear intent on hanging around: those for power and high-speed data. Sure, you can use a wireless charger with certain phones, or an inductive charger for an electric toothbrush, but those still have to be plugged in themselves. And the mobile broadband our phones and tablets love devouring still needs fibre optic backhaul from the cellular towers masquerading as trees that sprout from our neighbourhoods like giant, ersatz weeds. Still, we’re making progress. Which is why Apple’s decision to ditch the 3.5mm audio jack in its latest smartphones isn’t the apocalyptic event some suggest it is. We’ve heard the collective gnashing of teeth and baying for blood before. We heard it when Apple ditched the 30-pin connector for Lightning, or the FireWire port on MacBooks for Thunderbolt, or the optical drives that were once a standard laptop feature. We heard less of it (curiously) when Android makers started replacing the annoying unidirectional (but ubiquitous) microUSB with USB Type-C. In each case we’ve adjusted. We’ll do so again. The audio jack is over 100 years old. It’s an analogue solution in a digital world. Perhaps it’s time we let go, and Apple’s simply giving us the nudge we need. Thankfully, it’s also giving us an adaptor to aid our adaptation.

Subscriptions Hotline 0860 123 300 Email subs@stuff.co.za Web www.stuff.co.za Advertising Business director Sally Hudson sally@stuff.co.za Senior account manager Stephanie Pillay 061 130 0367 stephanie@stuff.co.za Senior account manager Thalia Pallotta 083 375 2418 tpp@futurejhb.co.za Account manager (Cape Town) Bernice Blundell 073 618 1882 bernice@stuff.co.za Management Stuff South Africa is published by the Stuff Group (Pty) Ltd. Directors: Toby Shapshak, Sally Hudson PO Box 74, Melrose Arch, 2096

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Stuff competition terms and conditions: Apple is not a sponsor, nor is it involved in any way with any Stuff Magazine contests or sweepstakes. Stuff Magazine does not offer Apple products as contest or sweepstake prizes. 1 Promotions, giveaways and competitions are entered through a controlled SMS line. The cost per SMS is R1,50. Premium rates apply. Free SMSes do not apply. SMS lines open for Issue 70, 2016 on 17 October 2016 and close on 20 November 2016. 2 The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence can be entered into. 3 Employees of Stuff Group and their families are not allowed to enter. Advertising and public relations representatives may not enter competitions in the issue in which their promotions, giveaways or competitions are carried. 4 Prizes are not exchangeable for cash and/or other products. Prizes are available while stocks last. It is at the discretion of Stuff Group and the custodian of the prizes to ensure that, should there be a problem with the stipulated prize won, a reasonable replacement of the same value will be offered. 5 Stuff Group carries promotions, giveaways and competitions in good faith and cannot be held responsible for any misrepresentation on the part of the custodian of the promotions, giveaways and competitions. 6 Winners will be notified telephonically and by mail. It is the responsibility of the winner to ensure that the correct address and contact details are given. It is the responsibility of the custodian of the promotion, giveaway and competition to ensure that prizes are sent out correctly and within the specified time. 7 Prize delivery will take four to six weeks from the time the winner has been notified. 8 Promotions, giveaways and competitions are open to South African residents only. 9 All prize-winners will be published on www. stuff.co.za the following month, once the competition lines have closed. 10 Readers may not claim for more than one prize at a time, and once announced as a winner in any Stuff promotions, giveaways or competitions, will not be eligible for another prize for three (3) months thereafter. 11 By entering any promotions, giveaways or competitions, or by accepting any prize, entrants agree that their personal details may be retained by the promoter and/ or Stuff magazine and used for the purpose of sending them information about future promotions, events and news, as well as for internal administration and analysis. 12 Unclaimed prizes will be kept for three months and will not be resent. 13 Participation in any promotion, giveaway or competition and/or acceptance of any prize implies full knowledge and acceptance of all rules.

© Stuff South Africa. All due care will be taken with material submitted, but the magazine and publishers cannot be held responsible for loss or damage. Stuff South Africa assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial, graphic or other material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial and graphic material will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and material will be subject to Stuff South Africa’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially. Stuff South Africa is fully protected by copyright and nothing may be reprinted in whole or part without written permission from the publisher. While reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure the accuracy of advice and information given to readers, the editor, publisher and proprietor cannot accept responsibility for any damage or inconvenience that may arise therefrom. Stuff is published in Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Korea, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Middle East, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

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CON S ON THE COVER

p10

p38 The big Apples

HOT STUFF 10 The Hot Four ● PS4 Pro & Slim ● Apple Watch Nike+ ● Amazon Echo & Echo Dot ● Leica Sofort 20 Gigapixel PitPat Yep, it’s a fitness tracker for dogs. Woof! 22 Apps Make your Apple Watch tick like a clock 24 Start menu A belt that tells you to stop eating pies 26 Forbes List Spy vs Spy – smartphone edition 28 Vital stats Canon EOS 5D Mark IV The swanky DSLR gets user-friendlier 30 Icon HP Pavilion Wave A Windows PC camouflaged as a speaker 32 Games Resident Evil’s gone a bit unpleasant 34 Best of Wired headphones Reports of their demise are unfounded

P37

TESTS p40 The Pod couple

p16 The home help

37 First test special Apple iPhone 7, 7 Plus, AirPods and Watch Series 2 66 First test Fujifilm X-T2 Is the sequel even better than Fuji’s original? 70 Group test Bluetooth Speakers Where were going. we don’t need wires 72 Long-term test UA Health Box Health in a box? How about that. 75 Tested UA Gemini 2 Record Equipped Sneakers that know how far you’ve run 76 Tested Jura E8 Your caffeine fix, fixed via Bluetooth 78 Long-term test Samsung Gear 360 An all-round camera 87 Tested Games Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

11.16

WIN! p25

P92 P81

FEATURES 43 The 100 best free apps Apps for playing, reading, fragging, driving, messaging, watching, drawing, training and more – and they won’t cost you a cent 81 Sunglasses Throwing a lot of shades 84 Wrist-wear Getting a move on 86 Tequila We don’t need a reason for this 88 Media hoard A different kind of cult film, plus the best new albums and some music movies to stream 100 Gadget doctor Can an iPad really replace a MacBook for the mobile professional?

PROJECTS 92 Beta yourself Instagram Take better pictures, share better pictures 94 Playlist Remasters Great-sounding music, and Phil Collins 96 Instant upgrades PlayStation 4 Get more from your pre-Slim, pre-Pro PS4 98 The big question What should I do with my old phone? 99 5-minute hacks If nothing else, at least… ● Mod your tech ● Un-selfie your selfies ● Search everywhere

TOP 10 OF EVERYTHING

Looking to buy something but need a bit of advice? Turn to the Stuff Top Tens: our expert listings of all gadgetry, from p101

T HO Y BU Samsung Galaxy Note 7 ★★★★★ A big phone with a mighty stylus p103

I MAXXED OUT MY SHOWS

For the last few months I’ve been testing ShowMax, the excellent online video on-demand service from Naspers, and I’m pleased to say it rocks. I’ve used it intermittently since it launched just over a year ago, and every few months there is a satisfying leap in functionality. It’s obviously great for binge-watching and rediscovering old series (and smartly adjusts video quality to your connection speed), but I thought I’d try the new download functionality… Just in time for a spate of power failures, and an overseas trip. It’s a very, very useful addition to the ShowMax app, and one that saved me from hours of boredom. Toby Shapshak, Publisher and Editor-in-chief

I WENT DRIVERLESS IN DETROIT

Detroit, Michigan is the city the automotive industry built. Fitting then that Ford’s testing its autonomous cars – a range of specially kitted-out, sensor-laden Ford Fusions – at its Dearborn campus west of Motor City before adding them to its product list for folk like you, me or Uber to actually buy in years to come. I got to ride in one, albeit in the backseat because there’s still a human behind the wheel (just in case) and another in the passenger seat with a laptop collecting heaps of data about the car’s every move. What did I learn? Robot drivers are calmer, more courteous and more cautious than we are. And they never give other drivers or pedestrians the finger. Bring ‘em on. Craig Wilson, Editor

Making Stuff up Publisher and Editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak toby@stuff.co.za Editor Craig Wilson craig@stuff.co.za Digital Publisher Nic Boerma nic@stuff.co.za Digital Editor Brett Venter brett@stuff.co.za Art Director Brandon van Rensburg art@stuff.co.za Production and Marketing Coordinator Mpho Ntori mpho@stuff.co.za Learning Stuff Media Intern Michelle Flowers michelle@stuff.co.za Getting Stuff to you Printing CTP

OUR MONTH

Distribution RNA 011 248 3607 (Bianca Davis)

What this issue has brought us by way of geekery I JOINED THE (HUMAN) REVOLUTION

Technically that heading is a misnomer since it was more Mankind Divided than Human Revolution but I spent a long time Divided, a dystopian in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided cyberpunk future where people with prosthetic replacements, called augments, are being discriminated against. I may have assisted rebel newspapermen, forged travel documents and broken into a bank… and a few police stations… but I’m still convinced that, at the end of the day, I was doing the right thing. Except for those unlucky mobsters who had taken over an entire apartment block. They all had headaches the next morning they probably didn’t deserve. Brett Venter, Digital Editor

I TRAILED ALONG AND TRACKED IT

The Otter Trail is one of South Africa’s most picturesque and renowned hiking trails. It’s five days of tough trekking along the coast, which means ice cold showers, tender feet and too much two-minute noodle byproduct in little wooden cabins. It’s a lot better than that makes it sound. To keep sane, I used my Garmin Fenix 3 to track our progress, time river crossings and cry at day two’s elevation gain that was equivalent to 122 flights of stairs. It certainly beat the few miserable, measly markers and the odd warning sign about drowning in a river. Take that nature. Nic Boerma, Digital Publisher

Contacting Stuff Call us 011 889 0610 Email us stuff@stuff.co.za Subscribe stuff.co.za/buy Find us www.stuff.co.za StuffSA @StuffSA Caxton House, 368 Jan Smuts Ave, Craighall, Johannesburg, 2196

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HOT FOUR #1 NOT NEO NO MORE Sony PlayStation 4 Pro

Very few of us would pass up the chance to be called a ‘pro’. Nick Woodman named his entire action camera company on the aspiration to ‘go pro’. But it might not have the same appeal if you’d spent the past few months thinking you were going to be called Neo. Maybe you even got yourself some calling cards made up with an ’80s sci-fi stencil font and laser slashes. Neo! But no, ‘Pro’ it is for PlayStation’s new 4K console, and the improvements are

certainly more 2016 than 1985. Doubled graphics ability and a boosted processor mean the PS4 Pro will either run or upscale games at 4K, adding HDR effects into the bargain. The original PS4, meanwhile, lives on in a svelte new case with less radical improvements – turn over for our review. It’s happy with its ‘Slim’ name. As hot as… HDR shading on Nathan Drake’s brooding face Rtba / playstation.com/en-za

F VR still waiting

Apart from saying that the Pro’s super specs would mean better VR performance, Sony didn’t give us much news about the PS VR headset. But we do know it’s due out this month.

22 PAGES OF THE BIGGEST STORIES FROM PLANET TECH

Hands on with the PS4 Pro

It seems crazy that Sony would launch a new console just three years after the PS4, but here we are. The threetier stacked design holds new CPU and GPU hardware to power the Pro’s raisons d’etre: HDR and 4K. And yes, that does mean native 4K… in some cases. The Last of Us demo had a proper 4K/30fps mode, and it looked lovely. Most devs, though, will make use of so-called ‘2160p checkerboard’ upscaling.

It generates a 4K image from half the pixels – don’t forget, that’s still way rezzier than 1080p. Having played Rise of the Tomb Raider in this format, and seen Horizon Beyond Dawn side by side with the old Full HD mode, We’re never going back. One surprise was the lack of 4K Blu-ray disc playback. But if a good price point meant choosing between 4K Blu-ray and fantastic graphics, Sony made the right choice.

THE PRO’S LITTLE BRO

Tested Sony PlayStation 4 Slim Rtba / playstation/en-za

What’s going on outside? It’s slimmer. Lying flat on a desk it’s just 3.9cm, down from the original’s 5.3cm, and the Pro’s 5.5cm. It’s also 1.2kg lighter, which is a big deal if you plan to cart it over to a mate’s house for shouting-distance multiplayer action. The touch-sensitive power and eject buttons of the old console are now proper buttons. Other notable physical changes are the deletion of the optical audio output – which might be an issue – and a new window on the controller’s touchpad so you can see the lightbar’s colour. What’s going on inside? Not much. If you want added graphical grunt you want the Pro. The year’s buzzy acronym HDR, for High Dynamic Range, is present on the Slim… but the original PS4 gets HDR too, via a software update. The Slim is quieter – almost silent when the disc’s not spinning or you’re just watching Netflix, and about 5dB less noisy when you’re doing some proper gaming. What’s going in your basket? Nothing, if you already have a PS4 that works. If the HDR attracts you then you’ll need an HDR-supporting TV, which is almost certainly a 4K TV, so you might as well spend the extra cash on a 4K-gaming Pro. But, if you don’t have a PS4 and aren’t interested in hardcore gaming, then a Slim might be your thing. It’s great. Although, first check you don’t want an Xbox One S, with its exclusive games – such as Forza racing – and 4K Blu-ray drive. (Or because all your friends have Xbox.)

STUFF SAYS ★★★★★ The Slim is smaller, quieter and cheaper, and HDR is a nice touch… a job well jobbed 12

EIGHT PS4 PRO GAMES WE CAN’T WAIT TO PLAY

CALL OF DUTY: INFINITE WARFARE

Infinite Warfare got a hostile fan reaction when it was announced. So how do you respond? By jazzing up your space-themed frag-fest in 4K. Headshots are gonna be very gory.

MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA

The PS4 Pro reveal gave us a first look at Andromeda gameplay, with a new protagonist taking over from Captain Shepard. The real draw here will be the writing and voice acting.

MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR

The must-play game of this console generation is being updated for the PS4 Pro. This will be a title for Tolkien megafans and everyday geeks alike.

FIFA 2017

Having watched Premier League football in 4K, we weren’t looking forward to going back to HD for FIFA 17. Thanks to the PS4 Pro, we’ll be able to enjoy Diego Costa’s face in all the detail it deserves.

HORIZON ZERO DAWN

UNCHARTED 4: A THIEF’S END

The year’s best game so far deserves to be played in the best quality, so of course it’s being updated for the Pro. As if we needed an excuse to play Drake’s final adventure again.

RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the game that sold us the Xbox One S, and it looks just as good on Sony’s new console. Plus its 20 Year Celebration edition comes with PS VR content.

DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED

Sneaking, sniping or smashing your way through a neo-futuristic world where augmented humans are treated like second-class citizens will look even better with HDR.

Killzone never went far beyond a reputation of being the best-looking shooter on PS, but developer Guerrilla has been given a new franchise to run at. Not surprisingly given the studio’s heritage, it looks stunning, with a mix of hi-tech dino-bots and nature reclaiming the planet… and now HDR makes it even prettier.

HOT FOUR #2

WATCH, YOUR WAIST

APPLE WATCH NIKE+ If you’re planning something complicated and important, such as lunch, it’s best to break down your ‘wants’ and ‘unwants’ by writing them all on Post-Its and sticking them all over the walls. Want: the pizza midday meal deal. Unwant: anything involving quinoa. Simple. But imagine the neon explosion of notes all over Apple’s device kitchen when they were planning the first Watch. Chaos. And the resulting watch, though pretty, lacked functional focus. The Series 2, however, knows that its consumers hunger for fitness features, so it has GPS and better waterproofing. You can read a full review of the standard model on p42, but this super-fit Nike+ version, with a sweat-swishing Swiss cheese strap and a swanky homescreen, won’t be out until later this month. Mmm. Swiss cheese. As hot as… neon Ronhills Rtba / myistore.co.za

READ OUR WATCH 2 REVIEW ON P42

A WATCH BY ANY OTHER NAME IS PROBABLY MADE BY SOMEONE ELSE

Samsung Gear S3 Frontier

Both Classic and ruggedy Frontier versions of the new S3 get GPS and a bigger battery, but the devices are also much bigger than the old S2. Rtba / samsung.com/za 14

TomTom Touch

Along with its new Spark fitness and Adventurer outdoorsy watches, TomTom has the first watch to measure body fat composition. R2 500 / tomtom.com

Asus ZenWatch 3

Jewellery-grade metals and three buttons are highlights, but the truly keen-eyed among you will have spotted that it’s round, not square. Rtba / asus.com/za

Withings Activité Steel HR

The minimalist Activité is gradually getting smarter, now gaining an optical heart-rate sensor and a mini display for stats and notifications. Rtba / withings.com

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HOT FOUR #3

IS THERE AN ECHO IN HERE? AMAZON ECHO & ECHO DOT

Therapists are expensive. But if you ever feel that nobody listens to you, Amazon might have a cheaper alternative. The on-the-way Echo may not be able to help with your emotional issues (unless you’re emotionally lacking in pizza) but there’s not a lot else that Alexa, the cylindrical speaker’s onboard helper, can’t do. A new Just Eat takeaway app allows you to order that aforementioned deep-pan pepperoni with your voice, while link-ups with Nest, Hue, Hive and WeMo mean it can make your existing tech smarter too. Want to add Alexa’s talents to a speaker you already own? There’s a dinky Echo Dot for that. As hot as… an XL napalm stuffed crust Rtba / amazon.com

3 THINGS YOU CAN ASK YOUR ECHO “Alexa, what is the weather like in Umtata today?” “Alexa, could you add extra eggs to my shopping list?” “Alexa, play the new Metallica on Spotify.”

AND 3 THINGS YOU CAN’T (YET) “Alexa, two double brandies and some biltong, please.” “Alexa, what’s the score in the Bulls vs. Lions game?” “Alexa, prepare the hounds. There’s another salesman at the front door.”

Instant means instant No mucking about: the fixed lens is a 60mm f12.7, with auto exposure. But there are various modes, including selfie, plus a self-timer.

HOT FOUR #4 NOBODY EXPECTS THE GERMAN INSTANT VISION LEICA SOFORT

Well, this is the icing on the cake. The cake being the month, the body and filling being the (expected but still delicious) news from Apple, PlayStation and Amazon. But this is an unpredicted sweet zing. A fun, affordable, fixed-lens instant-film format camera from Leica, of all people. It’s going to cost around R4 000 when it goes on sale in November – which, while hardly biscuit crumbs, isn’t pricey by Leica’s standards. There are branded film packs for it, but it’s actually just the popular Instax format so you’ll be able to get your hands on film easily, even if you won’t find it much cheaper – about R20 a shot is the norm. As hot as… your first Leica R4 000 /leica.com 17

A damn good egg

POWERVISION POWEREGG Firstly, it’s not made of actual egg, neither shell nor yolk. But, like nature’s delivery mechanism, the PowerEgg is still an ingenious packaging solution. From a rugby-ball-sized ovum come forth landing gear and prop arms, and a cap pops off the bottom to reveal the built-in, 3-axis-gimballed 4K camera. It’s aimed at amateurs, so it comes with two controllers: one is a traditional twin-joystick box, but the other is a Wii-style motion controller, designed to be intuitive for newbie pilots. You can also pre-set the flightpath and just control the camera, or set it to autonomously selfie you forever (well, for a while). R17 430 / powervision.me

ALTERNATIVELY… You can really get your weird on by owning a Huawei Nova or Nova Plus the company’s Android 5in and 5.5in midrangers. Each so completely lovely and harmless, you might put it down one day and forget you ever had it. Expect em next year.

The unXpected

SONY XPERIA XZ We all long to be slightly out of the ordinary – by some definition, superhuman. That’s what you’re seeing on the face of that goon who’s queued for a thousand nights to be the first to get the new iPhone… until he’s followed by the sea of me-toos pouring out of the Store doors. Buy a Sony Xperia, though, and you are superhuman for your whole two-year contract. “What’s that?” people will cry. And you’ll say: “Why, it’s the Xperia XZ, my little counter-cultural hunk of classy-designed Sony flagship, brimming with cutting-edge camera skills and Google cleverness.” And they’ll “huh” and walk off. It’s lonely being out of the ordinary. R13 000 / sony.com/za

DROP EVERYTHING AND DOWNLOAD...

Google Duo Free / Android, iOS

Forget the frivolous filters and features of Skype or Snapchat – Duo does one-to-one video calling with pared-back brilliance. There’s no conference calling, and you can only use it on your phone. But so long as you both have the app, you can call an iPhone from an Android phone, and calls are encrypted. Call quality changes depending on network speed, and the app will hop seamlessly between Wi-Fi and mobile data to keep you connected. Perfect. Unless, of course, you prefer comedy face masks. 18

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* Limited to 100 units – Black only 1. This promotional offer (“Offer”) is brought to you by JD Consumer Electronics and Appliances (Pty) Ltd t/a Incredible Connection (“we”, “us”, “our”) and relates to all products offered for sale by us together with specified WeChat Wallet discounts, as promoted in the Stuff Magazine issue dated 17 October 2016 (“Magazine”). 2. This Offer is available from 17 October 2016 until midnight on 20 November 2016 (“Promo Period”) and only for so long as stocks of the products last. 3. The discounted prices on the products are only available if the products are purchased via our shop in WeChat. This means that during the Promo Period you use the WeChat app to scan the QR Code displayed next to any of our products in the Magazine and, once directed to our shopfront within WeChat, proceed to purchase that product using your WeChat Wallet. 4. To participate in this Offer, you need to be a WeChat Wallet user. Terms of use and eligibility requirements apply. (The WeChat Wallet is also only available to iOS and Android devices with WeChat version 6.3.7.) 5. This Offer may only be taken up once per product type, per customer. 6. We need not honour or continue this Offer, in any specific instance or generally, in the event of fraud, unlawful or abusive behaviour, or if unforeseen circumstances prevent us from doing so.

The bigger picture in tech

FITNESS IN HIS EYES Bonko, pictured above, is not amused. The data from his latest stick-chasing session is in and the pace is well down on his PB. But maybe he’s misreading the numbers. He is, after all, a dog. And PitPat, the Bluetooth dog tracker, only measures activity using an accelerometer – there’s no optical heart-rate sensor, because fur. Plus, unlike human trackers, you have to make sure you specify the correct breed. (This is important, because a dachshund uses 2000 calories to cover the same ground as one Newfoundland’s step.) But all this is academic. Bonko needs to up his stick game. Or no biscuit. 20

NEWS FEED

RUDDERLESS VIKINGS AHOY!

Volvo is taking its autonomous vehicle programme to the UK in 2017. Drive Me London cars will initially be co-piloted by Volvo engineers for data gathering, but should be in the hands of real people after a year or so.

UBEREATS IS HERE

If you can’t get enough Uber, you can now make them deliver your food as well. R20 is the minumum cost for delivery, plus whatever you buy but the service is only in Jozi for now. Expect it in Pretoria by year-end and Cape Town next year.

NO MAN’S WIKI

You know what they say: “If you’re bored with Wikipedia, you’re bored with being at work.” But if you really have random article saturation, try wikiverse.io. It’s a 3D spatial build of the world’s online encyclopaedia: play The Blue Danube behind it for the full educational elite experience. 21

A P P S

This month’s mobile must-downloads

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Pebble OS 4.0

Free / iOS, Android

1 Magic Mansion

Free / iOS, Android Charming monochromatic retro gameplay – time your taps to jump enemies and collect coins – offset by the intrusion of all-too-modern ads. Still, that’s the (lack of) price you pay…

2 Minecraft

R140 / iOS, Android, Windows Lost your Minecraft mojo? Perhaps it’ll be renewed by knowing you can now point one of the world’s most advanced gaming platforms at its blocky graphics. Oculus Rift joins the Gear VR, mobile and PC versions.

3 Action Launcher

4 Nightgate

5 Enyo

Free / iOS, Android Rather than asking you to stab or chop your way to victory, this Greek-themed game plays through indirect combat, which is to say you’ll have to outwit your enemies. Outwit them into a lava pit.

6 Space Marshals 2

R120 / iOS A number 2 and an improved app icon do not a great sequel make. Rather, a great sequel is made my being great: SM2 features richer graphics, better physics and new space cowboy adventures.

7 Tickr

8 Google Allo

9 Poison 202 Vintage Midi Synthesizer

R38 / iOS An accomplished, pitch-perfect puzzler, a neon-soaked art installation, and a synth-driven audio showpiece that’ll prick the ears of anyone who’s just polished off Stranger Things.

Rtba / iOS For decades, engineers spent exactly zero time trying to give digital watches a mechanical tick. But along came the Apple Watch, and with it was born code to make it tick like a Rolex, or Big Ben. 22

Free / iOS, Android Google packs its search smarts into this messaging app so you can choose a restaurant or settle an argument without switching to a browser and it’ll finish your sentences for you. Which is creepy, but efficient.

Free / Android Still waiting for your network to serve up the Nougat OS update? Get the look with Action Launcher, which has swiftly copied some of the menus and folder actions of leaked Nougat shots.

R200 / iOS A decent mobile game can kill a couple of hours on a long flight. A synth app, however, like this sample-laden Poison 202? The crew will have to drag you out.

While Apple Watch 2 hubbub rages outside, Pebble fans are crouched by their email inboxes, waiting for their Pebble 2 shipment notifications. Here, like the police motorcycle before the peloton, is the latest OS update. Health is brought much more to the fore, with your daily stats accessible by a simple press of the up key. The mobile apps are also redesigned to be more fitness-trackery and there are updates to the way apps work and launch on the watch, making the whole Pebble experience more sophisticated.

Is that a keyboard in your pocket?

ZAGG POCKET FOLDABLE WIRELESS KEYBOARD Sure, years of WhatsApping have made your thumbs more agile than a Team USA gymnast, but if you’re ever going to finish that Viking space opera trilogy without getting carpal tunnel syndrome you’re going to need a proper keyboard. At 85% the size of a regular keyboard, Zagg’s foldable set of keys lets you take advantage of those high-speed typing skills you picked up in your DOS days without weighing you down or hogging too much space in your backpack/ jacket/handbag. Bluetooth connectivity, a built-in shelf for your phone or phablet, charging via a microUSB port and magnets to keep it closed and powered down in transit round out this portable wordsmith’s – and our protagonist Torhild’s – new best friend. R1 180 / shopandship.co.za

Selfies? Moi?

FUJIFILM X-A3 Right, remember the script. Good eye contact, steady breathing. You say: “I bought it for the resolution bump to 24.2MP over the X-A2, plus the new electronic shutter that maxes out at an action-friendly 1/32000.” They’ll say: “Whatevs… isn’t that the one with 180° tilting screen and special controls for taking selfies, though?” You, surprised but with a neutral expression: “Really? I wouldn’t know about it being a special selfie camera. I don’t really take selfies.” Focus on your breathing. You’ll get away with it. Rtba / fujifilm.co.za

FUTURE STUFF SMILE LIKE YOU’VE SEEN IT Autonomous cars are getting smarter. That’s something to grin about… It’s been a rough year for self-driving cars. Aside from a fatal Tesla Model S crash involving the Autopilot system in May, Apple has reportedly seen the departure of dozens of staff from its ‘secret’ project to build an autonomous vehicle. But fear not – the dream of being shuttled to work by your own AI-powered chauffeur is very much alive. For starters, Tesla has rolled out an updated edition of Autopilot with a much-increased reliance on radar. Where radar used to be a supplementary technology, used alongside

the camera in a Model S, this update pulls a switch reverse on that formula. Kind of like when Phil Collins moved onto lead vocals for Genesis having previously been just the drummer. To ensure the results aren’t so divisive, Tesla is introducing a geocoded ‘whitelist’ of objects such as bridges and road signs that could have been identified as obstacles. So your Tesla should only brake with good reason. That’s all fine for autonomous car owners, of course, but what about the most low-tech

commuters of all: pedestrians? To quell their Luddite fears of being run over, Swedish firm Semcom has developed a Smiling Car (above) that flashes a grin to confirm it’s coming to a stop. It’s totally bizarre and a little bit brilliant, even if we can’t see the idea of a real-life Brum catching on with manufacturers. With Uber having just rolled out its first fleet of autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh, a self-driving future seems just around around the corner, whether we’re all smiles about it or not. 23

S T A R T M E N U ST KIC AR K TE R

The latest startups, crowdfunded projects and plain crazy ideas

Talented trouser tightener

WELT

“But isn’t that what the holes do? What they’ve always done?” You laugh inwardly at this regressive thinking and attempt to explain the marvel of a belt that measures waist size differences over the course of the day. Look, you say, the app records when you’ve eaten something by showing the extra tension on the buckle. “But I know when I’ve eaten something! It’s recorded by my eyes watching my hands put things in my mouth!” Nope, there’s no convincing this one. You march off, putting an extra wiggle into your hips to try to fool the built-in accelerometer into bumping up your steps score. from $99 / weltcorp.com BACK IT STACK IT

ST KIC AR K TE R

Bluetooth king of keys

Sun-sucking powerpack

Selfie stalker

Watery 3D printing

“The cat is both alive and dead.” You point out the irritated noises very much proving the cat’s alive state. Besides, you opened the box earlier and gave it half a sausage. “But the box is locked!” You remind him he gave you an access code to the smartphone-operated Bluetooth lock back when the box was still holding biscuits. $89 / smartarmorcube.com

“Feel my calves, go on.” This, from a hiker, is unexpected. “I didn’t get them from hiking a box of pencils up here. I’ve got my DSLR, tripod, spare batteries…” You show him some of your phone pics and the 200g solar panel you use to keep it charged up the hill. He looks vacant. “Marvellous, I’m sure. But feel my calves…” €76 / sunnybag.com

“And you spent your precious time coveting plastic selfie gear…” says the Angel of Death. But actually, you fire back with confidence, this was a handy device. It could track a face or do a timelapse through a preset arc. You explain about the app… Whoosh! You’re vaporised. “Apps,” says the Angel. “Sick of hearing about them.” from $80 / mypicbot.com

“Can’t you just stick a needle up your… wossitsname?” But it’s not just the blocked nozzle, you explain, that’s seen dust gathering on the 3D printer. You’ve outgrown it. Which is why you want to splash out on this metal-cutting waterjet. You can make useful stuff, like forks! But she’s gone, muttering something about your nozzle. from $5 999 / wazer.com

SMART CUBE

ST KIC AR K TE R

I GONDI GOE-

SACK IT

LEAF+

PICBOT

WAZER

W I

WIN WITH WIN a TOMTOM TOUCH, TOMTOM GO6100 and a TOMTOM BANDIT ADVENTURE PACK worth R15 0 00 (including a travel case for the Touch and for the GO)

TomTom has put together an exciting hamper valued at R15 000 for this month’s Stuff Competition, to make sure you have a TomTom device for every activity. Track What You’re Made of by using the TomTom Touch, now with Body Composition monitoring coupled with an activity tracker and sports mode.

You can now see how your body vs fat ration varies as you increase, or alter your exercise habits. Let TomTom GO6100 Get You There Faster. The TomTom GO6100 has an interactive 6in screen, Always Connected Live Traffic Capabilities and Lifetime World Maps to your driving experience a breeze.

And since we know life is for capturing and sharing memories we have included a TomTom Bandit ActionCam. This nifty Action Camera captures video in 4k and with a simple shake of your phone you can edit and share your Bandit moments simply and easily – no more hours of editing footage.

HOW TO ENTER

SMS “TOMTOM” to 35975 (SMSs costs R1.50) Free minutes do not apply. Errors billed.

Readers must include their name and surname, contact number, email address and physical address. Valid from 17 October to 20 November 2016. Terms and conditions on the editor's letter page (p2).

HURRY!

COMPETITION CLOSES 20 NOV 2016 25

F O R B E S L

S T

The question’s made up (wrong) and the answer doesn’t matter run a weekly tech insert on my 5FM show with a good friend of mine (Ed – and longtime friend of Stuff) Simon Dingle. Every week we chat about something new and cool in the tech space, and at the end of the chat we take questions from listeners. Simon and I have been having these weekly chats on-air for years now, and literally (yes, literally) every single week someone tweets or messages us the following question (lowercase and sans question mark): “android or iphone” Yes, in the year of our Beyoncé 2016 this question is still a thing. Surely you know by now whether you’re an Apple Fanboy/girl or a Googlenista? Are we still debating this? Really? Ok then. Say this with me, slowly. “Android and iOS are basically the same. One is not better than the other. It depends entirely on which one you prefer to use.” There we go. Better? Good. Full disclosure: I’ve never owned an iPhone. Not a 4 or a 5 or a 6, or a whatever-S, not a big one, or a small one, or a rose gold one. Nada. Never. This wasn’t really a conscious choice. I never had one because the cellphone contracts I was on didn’t offer them, or

because I didn’t fancy whichever one was out at the time, or because they were so mindbendingly expensive. I probably should try one since all my other computing tech is Apple – MacBook, iPad, Apple TV… it would make sense. But I just like Android. I like it a lot. I particularly like the multiple buttons (as opposed to Apple’s single “Home” button). I know, I know, that’s bugbear numero uno for the Apple faithful. But they’re really useful. Even trying to navigate an iPad irritates me. However, some people love Apple’s mobile operating system and the user interface that comes with it. It feels natural and cozy and simple. And that’s perfectly fine. Remember lesson one? Neither is better. “But Rob!”, I hear you exclaim, “The camera! The camera!” Ah yes, the universal bragging tool. “Well the new iPhone has the best camera on the market, so nyah nyah nyah”. It’s true. Apparently, right now, the Apple camera is about as good as cameras get. I have a theory, though. You’re not gonna like it. It’s quite revolutionary. Here it is: People who take great photos

on their camera phones are good at taking photos. They don’t take great photos because of their shiny new phone camera. Blasphemy! I believe it though. I take generally rubbish photos because I’m always hopped up on caffeine and nicotine and my hands shake. I do know how to compose a great photo, though. And I bet I can take a great photo on an iPhone from 2009. Or on an Android from 2009 for that matter. If you’re snapping drunk selfies with your friends at 3am or taking a picture of a latte, I bet 99% of users couldn’t tell the difference between a pic from an Android phone or an iPhone. I will mention, though, that the new iPhone 7 256GB, with its wonderful camera, is retailing at over R17 000. Yes, that’s a real price for a phone. All the top devices on both sides are now easily pushing past the R15 000 mark. And for that reason, I’m out. Lets put aside the war between Android and iOS and together we can face the real enemy here – price. I’m tired of the speed at which these things roll out. I’m tired of seeing how much they cost (and crying). I’m tired of the marginal gains they keep adding to keep us

excited. I’m just tired of it all. The next phone I buy for myself will be a midrange smartphone. They do everything flagship phones from 18 months ago could do, which is all most people need. You can pick up a new Xiaomi for about R3 500. Now that’s reasonable, isn’t it? I’m also willing to bet that, while my pictures might be lower resolution, they still won’t be rubbish.

SPIN DOCTOR Rob Forbes is a 5FM DJ who tweets about football, sports and music when he’s not presenting, camped out in a casino waiting for people to let go of a car (long story) or raiding Stuff’s storage cupboard. Catch him on 5FM between 13:00 and 16:00 every weekday.

P R O M O T I O N

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GET 50% OFF Scan the QR code below with WeChat to buy the Kindle Paperwhite 3G + Wi-Fi right now with WeChat Wallet

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Kindle Paperwhite 3G + Wi-Fi With twice as many pixels as the previous generation, Kindle Paperwhite has an improved high-resolution 300ppi display for crisp, laser quality text. Kindle Paperwhite guides light toward the surface of the display with its built-in front light – unlike back-lit tablets that shine in your eyes – so you can read comfortably for hours without eyestrain. Adjust your screen's brightness for great reading in any light.

* Limited to 300 units 1. This promotional offer (“Offer”) is brought to you by JD Consumer Electronics and Appliances (Pty) Ltd t/a Incredible Connection (“we”, “us”, “our”) and relates to all products offered for sale by us together with specified WeChat Wallet discounts, as promoted in the Stuff Magazine issue dated 17 October 2016 (“Magazine”). 2. This Offer is available from 17 October 2016 until midnight on 20 November 2016 (“Promo Period”) and only for so long as stocks of the products last. 3. The discounted prices on the products are only available if the products are purchased via our shop in WeChat. This means that during the Promo Period you use the WeChat app to scan the QR Code displayed next to any of our products in the Magazine and, once directed to our shopfront within WeChat, proceed to purchase that product using your WeChat Wallet. 4. To participate in this Offer, you need to be a WeChat Wallet user. Terms of use and eligibility requirements apply. (The WeChat Wallet is also only available to iOS and Android devices with WeChat version 6.3.7.) 5. This Offer may only be taken up once per product type, per customer. 6. We need not honour or continue this Offer, in any specific instance or generally, in the event of fraud, unlawful or abusive behaviour, or if unforeseen circumstances prevent us from doing so.

V I

T A L S T A T S

NOT JUST FOR THE PLAYAZ Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

R54 000 (body only) / canon.co.za

You don’t have to be a pro to get the most from this big Canon’s new features

Wi-Fi and NFC built in – which will at least help to keep your costs down. (A tiny bit.)

● Get a grip The 5D sits in a sweet spot where full-frame performance meets realistic price, making it tasty for ambitious enthusiasts as well as serious snappers. But for the Mark IV, the main new ingredients will be of more benefit to the former. For example, the screen is now touch-enabled, making the 5D’s huge capabilites easier to corral. The grips are grippier, there’s a new configurable shortcut button under your thumb and it now has GPS,

● Free go-arounds The usual specs are all up – 30.4MP full-frame sensor, 61-point AF, 32000 ISO – but there’s a new way of dealing with the power that makes it user-friendly for us norms. Dual-pixel RAW mode doubles the already enormous file size of each shot, but it gives you the ability to tweak the image later. Sharpen up the focus or move the bokeh blur – it’s just the thing when composition and subject placing aren’t yet instinctive in the heat of the moment.

● Action, not art Of course, you might not be into improving your stills photography at all. A huge proportion of DSLR buyers are pure videographers, who eschew the 19th-century charm of the portrait for the racy thrills of the movies, and there’s good news on that front too: 4K video at 30fps, Full HD at 60fps, or slo-mo-ready 120fps recording at 720p res. Wannabe directors need storage and power – the arrangement of dual CF and SD card slots continues, while the Mark IV is compatible with older 5D batteries. Finally, for epic days on set, Canon has also improved the weatherproofing seals.

Mostly hidden but hard at work, the improved seals of the 5D are drizzle’s nemesis.

THE NEW 5D HAS GPS, WI-FI AND NFC BUILT IN

Measured regression

AH, BUT THERE IS ALSO THIS… ● Is it the same thing?

Very much not, no. This is the EOS M5, Canon’s first proper attempt to attack the compact system camera market. That means it’s taking on the Panasonic Lumix, Olympus PEN and Fujifilm X ranges. Gulp. Serious competitors, so the M5’s been given a serious look. Like a smallified 5D, in fact.

KOBO AURA ONE There’s nothing wrong with wanting a bigger screen. At 7.8in, the screen of the Aura One is considerably larger than that of Amazon’s flagship Kindle, the 6in Oasis. More screen space is great if you don’t like the page-turning experience of e-readers and it’s also handy for viewing PDFs, technical books or comics. There’s also nothing wrong with wanting a waterproof e-reader – just the thing for messy family life, baths and beaches. The only thing is, you’re inexorably returning to the oversized, laminated book format of your childhood. But if you’re happy with that, so are we. Rtba / kobo.com

● Why do I care?

Because R17 000, for starters, with a standard lens. But mainly, if you were at all interested in the ‘friendly to beginners’ angle laboured over in the 5D story, then the M5 also has a prod-to-focus LCD, a 24.2MP sensor with the super-quick DIGIC 7 processor and the same wireless smarts.

Every shot on target

LOMO’INSTANT AUTOMAT Instant photography is so liberating. Instead of thinking about shutter speeds and apertures, it frees your mind to do other calculations, such as: “At R300 for 20 shots of instant film, each button press is equivalent to one chocolate muffin.” Then, instead of worrying about post-capture filters and multi-platform sharing, you can spend that time watching other people eat muffins. Enter, via Kickstarter, Lomo’s new Instant Automat. It’s still cutely styled, still prints on Fuji Instax Mini film, but can now be tasked to do the aperture, shutter and flash maths for you, making every muffin-costing shot a winner. R2 300 / lomography.com 29

I C O N

HP PAVILION WAVE Rtba / hp.co.za

Why, it’s surely a B&O speaker. A fair assumption, given the available visual information, but wrong. It’s something far better, with many more talents than a mere speaker. Hold on to your beret… it’s a new Windows 10 PC. But… the size, the shape, the freakin’ B&O logo! What gives? Bang & Olufsen was involved in the design. And so, though it isn’t primarily a speaker, it will speak – thanks to an upwards-firing driver that will bounce noise off the underside of the top bit to give you 360° sound. How will you verify the truth of this? By running circles around it like a dog on a string, that’s how. And there’s still room inside for computery bits? Plenty. It’s not a cylinder like the Apple Mac Pro, but a curved triangular prism, and HP says this shape is well suited to efficient PC construction. Motherboard, CPU, GPU and SSD sit on one side, the cooling setup on another, and the main hard drive on the third. And there’s still space for a trio of USB 3.0 ports, one USB-C port and HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. Hmm. In my book, ‘efficient’ rhymes with ‘dull’. Your book is lame. For this type of PC, ‘efficient’ means being small enough to sit next to your TV, quiet enough not to be heard over that TV and yet powerful enough to squirt 4K to that TV. Final specs are yet to be announced, but sixth-generation Intel Core processors and up to 8GB of RAM are being teased. It’s probably not suited to a VR setup, though. For those, you’ll want something three times the size with steam coming out of its rump, not this pretty PC with Bach coming out of its hat.

THIS WINDOWS 10 PC LOOKS LIKE A SPEAKER BUT CAN STREAM TO YOUR TV IN 4K

DECIPHER ALLOW US TO EXPLAIN…

Two for the price of… half

ALCATEL PLUS 10 Like dungarees, most 2-in-1 devices are better in the shop window than on your person. Tablet-and-keyboard combos tend to saddle you with an average tablet, a dinky keyboard and fewer ports than an iPhone 7. With the Plus 10, Alcatel wants to tackle at least some of these criticisms head on. For a start, it’s a 10in display, which means the included keyboard isn’t intended for ants, but for humans with regular sized digits. The keyboard also includes LTE connectivity and if you’ve had a data windfall (or you’re feeling generous) you can turn it into a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to 15 devices. Full-sized USB, micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports round out the criticism-slaying package. But screen res of 1280 x 800 pixels, 32GB of on-board storage (expandable) and a flashless, AF-less 5MP rear camera quickly remind us we’re still in budget territory. Don’t expect heavy lifting, but if a light-weight internet machine is what you’re after look no further. R3 600 / alcatel-mobile.com/za

WTF? Many hi-fi tricks in one clever box

#15 APPLE HOME You already know about Apple’s smarter home project, HomeKit, but it never seemed to really get off the ground. Now, with iOS 10, it’s ready to fly. Firstly there’s a proper HomeKit control app, called Home. And it’s good, even at the beta stage where we first tested it. Creating and customising scenes and rooms is super-intuitive, with devices re-organisable via the wibbly icon-drag familiar to anyone who’s ever re-ordered apps on an iPhone or iPad. Secondly, there’s stuff. For us it’s still the Philips Hue lights that lead the HomeKit line-up, but we’re pretty keen to add a set of the awesome motorised Lutron blinds to the setup. Next on the list is the Netatmo thermostat and its new, independently controllable radiator adaptors, closely followed by a Schlage door lock. HomeKit-compatible smart cameras are on the way too, and the new version

WE CAN GET SIRI TO CHANGE THE HEATING OR LIGHTING JUST BY SAYING I’M OFF TO BED

You can have the Moon (not on a stick)

MOON NEO ACE

You saw the price and your little legs went berserk to get away from it. But we’re going to hold you up by the scruff just long enough to explain how you can have the Moon. Fifty grand is a lot of money, but the Neo Ace has many skills: hi-fi amp, headphone amp, high-res DAC, appcontrolled Wi-Fi/Bluetooth music streamer and moving-magnet phono preamp. Add all those things separately and you risk not just blowing the budget but messing up the sound too. Whereas the Moon, unboxed, internetted and plugged into speakers, is ready to sound stellar. We’re going to put you down now, OK? R46 500 (import) / simaudio.com

of the Canary, called Canary Plus, is very appealing. All of this, remember, we can get up and running without calling in an installer. So long as it has the ‘Works with HomeKit’ badge, it’s good to go. Finally, and most futurisitically, it’s all controllable by Siri. Unless we already have a scene set by time, or by our geolocated arrival, we can get Siri to change the heating or the lighting simply by telling her ‘I’m off to bed’. We don’t even need to use our phone – we can voice activate the Movie Night scene via our Apple TV remote. If you’ve been sitting on the smarthome fence, Home in iOS 10 looks set to deliver the final nudge.

G A M E S

DUE 24 JAN

FIRST PLAY RESIDENT EVIL 7: BIOHAZARD PS4, Xbox One, PC It’s clear enough from the Beginning Hour demo for Resident Evil 7 that the series has taken a turn for the grisly. It’s swapped zombies for slasher movie tropes, including a rickety old house filled with animal carcasses, mysterious locked doors and spooky VHS tapes that plunge you into playable flashbacks. One such flashback begins by being chased across a dark plantation by a horrible old hag holding a lantern. We’ll call her Theresa. Three words appear on the screen: ‘Don’t get caught.’ 32

With the usual over-shoulder perspective ditched in favour of first-person (to accommodate PlayStation VR?) we dash inside an old house while Theresa tails us, shrieking: “I told you not to come here!” Managing to evade her, we find a statue in one room and a pedestal in another. We place the statue on the pedestal and rotate it until its shadow matches the painting opposite. Bingo. A passageway opens. But Theresa’s wise to it and she’s waiting. We dive beneath the floorboards and crawl away

until things fall silent. We find a scrap of paper, with the words ‘There’s something wrong with her’ on it. You can say that again, piece of paper. Eventually there’s a gap in the floor and we emerge, only to be grabbed by Theresa. As she emits a hideous scream, the words ‘Welcome to the family’ appear on screen. It’s rare that a horror game scares without supernatural foes, but Resident Evil 7 will have you more shaken than James Bond’s martini. Do we really have to meet the rest of the family?

FIRST LOOK CAN METAL GEAR SURVIVE WITHOUT KOJIMA?

METAL GEAR SURVIVE Xbox One, PS4

Despite Metal Gear’s long history of encouraging you to hide underneath cardboard boxes, Survive isn’t a game where you just have to stay concealed inside one until everyone around you dies of boredom. With the series’ eccentric creator Hideo Kojima no longer on Konami’s payroll, a change of direction is no huge surprise. So, instead of galloping around the Afghan desert whacking people on the head and releasing them into the sky attached to large balloons, Survive sees you playing as a soldier who’s been sucked through a wormhole into another dimension filled with zombie-type baddies. Sounds pretty Call of Duty, right? Well, Konami insists it hasn’t abandoned stealth completely and you’ll still have to use those sneaky techniques to fend off your enemies. How that’ll work in practice isn’t yet clear, although the trailer shows a chap wielding a bow that fires arrows with spinning, explosive heads. Very stealthy. It’s due out some time in 2017. Until then, why not find a nice cardboard box to hide in?

COMING SOON INDIE GAMES

HOT LAVA

PC Remember that game you used to play as a kid where you couldn’t touch the floor because it was made of lava? Now you can play it on your PC. And it’s not just beds, sofas and upturned washing baskets you’ll be hopping between; there are schools, offices and underground caverns as well.

TOKYO 42

PS4, Xbox One, PC Like a cross between Fez and Syndicate, Tokyo 42 puts you in the shoes of an assassin, in an isometric open world that you can spin around to get a better look at who you’re offing. Stealth your way around or plough in guns-first, and try to avoid the giant robots out to stop you.

100FT ROBOT GOLF

PS4 A group of Transformer-style robots pull on their plus-fours and try to sink putts on a course built between skyscrapers. Get stuck behind one? Just smash it to bits with your gigantic nine-iron. It even supports PlayStation VR, which launches on 13 October.

INCOMING NOVEMBER ● FOOTBALL MANAGER 2017 ● WATCH DOGS 2 DECEMBER ● STEEP ● SOUTH PARK: THE FRACTURED BUT WHOLE ● GRAVITY RUSH 2 FEBRUARY ● FOR HONOR ● SNIPER ELITE 4

B E S T O F

WIRED HEADPHONES

“Wired headphones are dead!” cried iPhone 7 newsniks. Oh, yeah? Check out these stringy superbuds

Cool your boots, pastelphobes: you don’t have to pick pink. They come in four colours.

PRICED UP

SINED UP

BUTTONED UP

oBravo EAMT-1

Libratone Q Adapt

Audeze iSine 10

Here’s a joy that iPhone 7 owners will never get: spending over sixty grand on an extremely niche set of hi-fi in-ears. The ceramic/wood-bodied EAMTs come with either a 3.5mm jack or, if you have a suitably equipped headphone DAC, two balanced 2.5mm jacks. Sound comes via a 13mm neodymium driver and an 8mm Air Motion Transformer Tweeter – our ears are not worthy. R65 100 (import) / obravoaudio.com

Not long ago, three-button remotes for headphones were considered mindblowingly complex. “Three buttons?” we wrote in 2009. “What, are we fighter pilots now!?” But what’s this? Libratone’s Lightning-cabled Q Adapt has four. The extra one is CityMix, which controls the amount of noise cancellation. Sounds cool; we’re never going to use it. Four buttons! Nope. Rtba (due this month) / libratone.com

If you were worrying about what to buy that retiring TIE-fighter pilot in your family, then your search is at an end. Audeze has finally managed to miniaturise its planar magnetic drivers into an in-ear format. Given that the big on-ear versions get glowing reviews all over, this is big news. Plus, like those big ’uns, the iSine 10s will come with both 3.5mm and Lightning cables. R5 420 (import) / audeze.com

On the up (and the down)

FITBIT CHARGE 2, FLEX 2 Fitbit has had its morning crawling up granite slabs in the pouring rain. Right now, it’s gambolling along a sunny ridge, breathing easy and looking forward to a Bar One at the next waypoint. It’s just released new styles for its Blaze and Alta devices, and a new Fitbit Adventures app feature. It’s also released two updated fitness trackers, including the lozenge-sized Flex 2 that can be worn on your wrist or around your neck. But it’s the Charge 2 (on the left) that we’d take up a mountain. Multi-sport, heart-rate monitoring, and available with lots of different straps, its slim build and battery life make up for it polling your phone for GPS data. You need a bag for the Bar Ones anyway. R3 000, R1 900 / fitbit.co.za

ALTERNATIVELY…

Podo

If the VIRB is a tetradodecahedron, the Podo is a circle: a Bluetooth mini-cam that can stick or magnet itself to a handy surface. R1 100 / cuckooland.com

DROP EVERYTHING & DOWNLOAD

Legend of the Skyfish

R80 / iOS

Along with emitting distinct whiffs of Zelda, what with its top-down viewpoint and wandering protagonist who has a tendency to get a bit stabby, Legend of the Skyfish is a handy warning about the dangers of overfishing. Namely, in this world, the fish got sick of it and fought back, turning the humans into mutant slaves. All except Little Red Hook, the character you guide through this simpler-than-Zelda adventure, hooking and thwacking things with your fishing rod. It looks and sounds great, and is easy to get firmly hooked on (hooked, yes? Yes?) for as long as it lasts. An Android version is due this year.

The shape of things to cam

GARMIN VIRB ULTRA 30 Ever watched a child struggling to fit the square block in the square hole? No? Why not, are you some sort of child-hater? Anyway, Garmin has finally succeeded where they fail. The latest VIRB camera looks set to slot straight into the hole, knocking GoPro out onto the floor. The Ultra 30 is right up there with resolution – 4K, 30fps – but it’s the hands-free voice control, distance-based lapse mode and accelerometer-sensed action metrics that could make it champ of the action cams. Rtba / garmin.co.za 35

P R O M O T I O N

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1. This promotional offer (“Offer”) is brought to you by JD Consumer Electronics and Appliances (Pty) Ltd t/a Incredible Connection (“we”, “us”, “our”) and relates to all products offered for sale by us together with specified WeChat Wallet discounts, as promoted in the Stuff Magazine issue dated 17 October 2016 (“Magazine”). 2. This Offer is available from 17 October 2016 until midnight on 20 November 2016 (“Promo Period”) and only for so long as stocks of the products last. 3. The discounted prices on the products are only available if the products are purchased via our shop in WeChat. This means that during the Promo Period you use the WeChat app to scan the QR Code displayed next to any of our products in the Magazine and, once directed to our shopfront within WeChat, proceed to purchase that product using your WeChat Wallet. 4. To participate in this Offer, you need to be a WeChat Wallet user. Terms of use and eligibility requirements apply. (The WeChat Wallet is also only available to iOS and Android devices with WeChat version 6.3.7.) 5. This Offer may only be taken up once per product type, per customer. 6. We need not honour or continue this Offer, in any specific instance or generally, in the event of fraud, unlawful or abusive behaviour, or if unforeseen circumstances prevent us from doing so.

FIRST TEST SPECIAL APPLE

A bigger bite of the Apple Settle in for a six-page review bonanza as we test the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the AirPods and the Watch Series 2

nce upon a time, new Apple gadgets used to arrive as often as raindrops in the Sahara. Nowadays it feels like Stuff is permanently entrenched in the Brazilian rainforests with only an old coat and some soggy cake to sustain us between launches. But hey, at least this year’s downpour is worth camping out for. In addition to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, we’ve got the Apple Watch Series 2 and those brand new AirPods to contend with. And they’re all pretty significant in one way or another. Doubtless you’ve already heard about how both iPhones have cut the headphone jack adrift with all the caring that Darth Vader applied to his son’s arm surgery. But with major camera improvements, a taptic home button and the blisteringly quick A10 Fusion processor, Apple’s latest phones still offer plenty to get excited about. So how do they rate against the Galaxy S7s and OnePlus 3s of this world? Read on across this six-page reviews special to find out, and get our verdict on whether the wireless AirPods and waterproof Watch Series 2 can make much of a splash.

FIRST TEST SPECIAL APPLE

Pic a winner Both new iPhones are slick, speedy and waterproof… but the 7 Plus’s dual cameras make it our favourite from R15 500 / myistore.co.za It might have started life as a plus-sized version of the vanilla iPhone, but this year the Plus has truly stolen the spotlight. And not just because of its clever twin camera tech. The biggest change is one you won’t be able to spot: it’s waterproof. Yep, you can finally give the iPhone a bit of a dunking. Flip it over, though, and you can’t miss those two all-seeing eyes staring back at you. One’s for standard shots, the other’s for close-ups. You’ll also get a good look at the new colour choices. Apple’s 2016 shades du jour are black… and black. You can still buy gold, silver and rose gold versions, but space grey is gone, replaced with a darker matt black hue – and it’s joined by jet black, which is so glossy it’ll rival the sheen of any shampoo ad. Otherwise, we’re talking marginal gains all round. It’s the camera that makes the biggest leap, but that 5.5in Retina display continues to impress (even if it loses out on pixel count to countless Android rivals) and battery life is fantastic. This is the iPhone you know and love, only better.

1 Design

2 Screen

3 Camera

4 Performance

No, it’s not a dead ringer for the iPhone 6s. The antenna bands on the back are a lot more subtle now, and there are two new colours to choose from. Jet black looks seriously dapper.

Who needs QHD? The 1080p screen is Retina, so you can’t see the pixels without a magnifying glass. It’s bright enough to use outdoors, and the wider colour gamut makes images pop.

Or should that be cameras? Those twin sensors really set the 7 Plus apart from its little sibling. It takes stunning photos in daylight and low light – see the panel on the right to find out why.

Apple’s gone quad-core for the A10 Fusion, its fastest mobile chip yet, and bumped up the memory to 3GB. That means the Plus really flies through apps and games, with zero lag or stutter.

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Good Meh Evil

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24 hours with the iPhone 7 Plus

1min 38

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FIRST TEST SPECIAL APPLE

Double exposure Things are better in pairs. Fact. Take, for example, the cameras on the back of the Apple iPhone 7 Plus…

■ Zoom and enhance

■ Ready for a close-up

■ Baby I like it RAW

■ A light in the dark

Both have 12MP sensors, but one lets you see more of the action with a 56mm field of view. If that’s not enough, there’s also a 10x digital mode.

There’s a dedicated portrait mode in the works, which will combine both cameras for some clever depth of field effects and pretty bokeh blur.

Pros can shoot in RAW using third-party camera apps. These files save loads more light info than a jpeg, so you get more detail and fine control.

5 Battery

Tech specs

It’s got more room inside for battery, so of course the 7 Plus lasts longer than the standard 7. Even if you’re caning Clash Royale over lunch, you’ll still have juice left when you get home at night.

Screen 5.5in 1920x1080 LCD Processor Apple A10 Fusion quad-core OS iOS 10 Cameras 2x 12MP rear, 7MP front Storage 32/128/256GB RAM 3GB Dimensions 158x78x7.3mm, 188g

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16hrs

18hrs

The TrueTone flash has doubled up too, with four LEDs. You might not need them, though: low-light snaps look seriously good without any extra help.

21hrs

22hrs

24hrs

The camera has always been one of the iPhone’s greatest weapons against the Android army – and that twin sensor upgrade makes the 7 Plus a bit of a no-brainer for photographers. Add in a better battery and you’ve got a clear winner over the basic iPhone 7. If you’re firmly in camp iOS, go big or go home.

STUFF SAYS ★★★★★ Superb camera skills and better battery life give the bigger of the new iPhones a real edge 39

FIRST TEST SPECIAL APPLE

10 BEST JACK-FREE HEADPHONES TESTED APPLE AIRPODS Rtba / myistore.co.za

Rip the wires out of a pair of EarPods, give ’em longer tails, cap the ends with a glint of silver and you’ve got AirPods. It’s not that simple, obviously. They’re packing batteries good for five hours of tunes between charges, live in a teeny charging case that’ll top you up with 24 hours of extra listening time, and pair to your iPhone with a tap. In your ears they look like the kind of early-’00s Bluetooth headsets that were all the rage with Goldman Sachs bankers, but some will love how instantly recognisable they are. Put them in and your music starts playing; pull them out

HANDS-ON VERDICT These buds look good and feel fresh, but the sound still lets them down

Motorola Verve Ones+

Bragi Dash

Samsung Gear IconX

Bose QC35

AKG Y50BT

Parrot Zik 3.0

LG Tone Platinum

JBL Reflect Mini BT

Monster iSport Wireless

Three hours per charge, and a carry case to top them up. R4 100 / verve.life

Lovely noise-cancellers that drown out the world with beats. R8 700 / bose.com

These hook up to a batterystuffed neckband with mic. R2 300 (import) / lg.com

The original wireless earbuds are chunky, but store 4GB. R5 300 / bragi.com

These sound great, fold flat and can go 20 hours on a charge. R3 200 / audicoonline.co.za

The inter-bud cable reflects car lights, so you won’t go unnoticed. R1 800 / jbl.com

and the track will automatically pause. Handy. Double-tapping a bud will wake up Siri, and you can answer calls with the built-in mic. Sound quality is a downer, though. If you’ve tried Apple’s EarPods, these sound pretty much the same: mediocre. So you’re basically paying extra to cut the cord. Hmm. You might be better off with one of the alternatives below…

These have wingtips that keep them locked in place. R3 500 / samsung.com/za

Noise-cancelling on-ears in eye-catching colours. R4 900 / parrot.com

These are robust, sound OK and won’t require a second bond. R1 300 / monsterproducts.com

Stable mate It might fly solo, but the 7’s single 12MP camera still takes great photos. It’s now got optical image stabilisation and saves photos in a wider colour gamut, looking fine on that colour-calibrated 4.7in display.

FIRST TEST SPECIAL APPLE

Plucky seven

TESTED iPHONE 7

from R13 000 / myistore.co.za

So let’s talk about that missing headphone jack for a sec. If you don’t already own a pair of wireless or Lightning buds then it’s going to sting a bit – especially when you have to reach for that pug-ugly adaptor. That said, switching to Lightning isn’t all bad. It’s freed up space inside the iPhone 7 for the same taptic engine you get in the Apple Watch, adding force feedback to the new all-digital home button. Games get in on the fun too – it’s like slapping a Rumble Pak into an N64 controller all over again. And you might not even need to reach for your headphones, thanks to the new stereo speakers. They can really pump out sound when you crank up the volume. They’re a great match for the brighter, more colourful screen too – ShowMax on the move is a genuine treat, even if the resolution hasn’t had a bump. There’s also room inside for your own files. Ditching the basic 16GB storage size was a great move, and the spacious 256GB model will keep media hoarders happy, but it’s just a shame there’s no 64GB sweet spot any more. A firm press on any Apple app icon will throw up a list of shortcuts for jumping straight into the setting or mode you want. It’s perfect for snapping impromptu selfies with the much-improved camera, which handles low light as well as any phone out there. There’s loads to love here, with a whole host of little tweaks that make this new iPhone greater than the sum of its parts. It’ll serve you well… even if its Android rivals still offer better value for money.

Tech specs Screen 4.7in 1344x750 LCD Processor Apple A10 Fusion quad-core OS iOS 10 Cameras 12MP rear, 7MP front Storage 32/128/256GB RAM 2GB Dimensions 138x67x7.1mm, 138g

STUFF SAYS ★★★★★ Forget the headphone furore – the iPhone 7 is still a slick update with some handy new features 41

FIRST TEST SPECIAL APPLE

Second wind Apple’s apparently minor tweaks have made the Watch Series 2 a real winner for sporty types from R6 900 / myistore.co.za ■ Looks just like the last one, doesn’t it? But the new Apple Watch has had some pretty significant upgrades, the most striking of which is waterproofing. Good news for swimmers, yes, but also for surfers, sauna fans and forgetful showerers. ■ A combo of GPS, heart-rate monitoring, accelerometers and huge amounts of research is claimed to make the Watch 2 the most accurate sports tracker out there. For our money the heart monitoring seems less consistent than one of those horrible chest straps, but the rest is hard to fault. ■ The addition of GPS is a big boon if you like to train unencumbered by a phone. The Series 2 locks onto a GPS signal almost instantly and the screen is twice as bright as before, while 2GB of space for music gives you another reason to leave the phone at home. ■ It’s sportier than ever before, then, but the new Apple Watch is also smarter, thanks to a new dual-core chip that’s 50% faster than the old one. That makes a big difference to navigating the OS and opening apps, and Siri feels more responsive too. Siri on the Watch, by the way, is awesome.

Strap up Customising the look of your Series 2 Watch is easy, as it’s compatible with all of the Series 1’s straps, of which there are now 10 styles in numerous colours. The basic Sport is really comfortable. Face off You can also very quickly and easily change the Watch’s face between a number of designs, each of which can be customised to display precisely the info you want to see at a glance.

■ Despite the increase in power and added GPS, the Series 2 lasts longer than the original. Sure, two days is about the most you can expect, which is much less than a Garmin or Pebble, but for the extra functionality here it’s impressive.

Tech specs Processor S2 dual-core Display 1000-nit OLED Connectivity GPS, heart rate, accelerometer, gyroscope, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Waterproof 50m Battery life Up to two days

STUFF SAYS The smartest watch is now one of the sportiest – a great all-rounder ★★★★★ Say goodbye to blinding bling, say hello to ‘white ceramic’ 42

The Apple Watch has actually put on a bit of extra bulk for its Series 2 appearance. You’re not going to notice the extra millimetre, though. And what if you want a much more exclusive version? The gaudy gold option has gone, replaced by a prettier white ceramic model. There are a number of new, extremely expensive Hermes straps to choose from too, should you wish to really broadcast your wealth.

FREEBIE LOVER

100 apps that wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cost you a thing

BEST FREE APPS

The other Kindles in the range have higher screen resolution (300ppi compared to 167ppi) but it’s still easier on the eyes than a tablet.

● REDDIT Getting to work to find out you’ve missed out on a new meme can see you becoming a social pariah around the watercooler. To make sure you’re on top of breaking internet crazes, AMAs with Very Important Cats, or the latest posts in r/slavs_squatting, get Reddit’s app. Just don’t miss your stop. Free / iOS, Android

AMAZON KINDLE

THE TECH

R2 000 / incredible.co.za

If you want to be top dog on the 8am Gautrain to Sandton, the luxuriously expensive Kindle Oasis is the only choice for you; but if you can afford one of those you probably don’t need to put yourself through the misery of commuting by train. Join the rest of the worker drones with a 6in basic Kindle, which has recently had a few millimetres shaved off the edges (it’s 11% thinner) and been spruced up with a nicer chassis (it’s 16% lighter). Unfortunately there’s no built-in light, so you might have trouble reading it when the darkness of another impending Monday morning envelops your soul. 44

● KINDLE

● MARVIN 3

Sure, you’ll probably have to buy books to read on it, but if you own a Kindle the free app is worth installing – if only so you can keep reading when you’ve left it at home. As long as you keep the web connection on it’ll sync between your registered devices, so you can blaze through Moby-Dick in no time. Free / amazon.com

You possibly missed Marvins 1 and 2, but this e-reading app offers features you won’t find in most of its rivals. It’ll open a boatload of file formats, from books to comics, plus it supports the newest iOS functionality such as Split View and Side Over, so pair it with something that’s got plenty of pixels. IAPs / iOS

BEST ON iPAD

BEST FREE APPS

COMMUTER COMPANIONS

● MAPMYWALK Want to get fitter but just can’t find the time? Tracking your normal pavement-pounding with MapMyWalk will give you an idea of how much more walking you should be doing, so you can hop out of the minibus taxi early, or scoot up and down the stairs a few times at lunchtime. IAPs / iOS, Android

● SLACK

● SIDECHEF

Despite being a glorified IRC client, Slack is slowly replacing email as Stuff’s go-to way to share gifs and YouTube videos. And while we’d never endorse working while you’re not being paid, Slack’s app is great for keeping in touch. You know, if you have an urgent meeting at the bar on a Friday afternoon. Free / iOS, Android

You’re almost home but you’ve just remembered there’s nothing but an old lime and some brie in the fridge. Fire up SideChef and its daily homepage will provide the necessary culinary inspiration, the ingredients needed, plus the step-by-step instructions (plus videos) on how to make it. Free / iOS, Android

● MICROSOFT OUTLOOK Microsoft killed our favourite calendar app, Sunrise – but thankfully it’s been swallowed up by the latest Outlook app. It plugs into your email accounts, Facebook events and Songkick plans, plus there’s OneDrive online storage included too. Free / iOS, Android

● OVERCAST

● POCKET

● INSTAPAPER

Podcasts are a commuter’s best friend: funny, educational, time-killing and most of all completely free. So even if you have to spend 40 minutes pressed against a perspiring businessman from Pretoria, you won’t mind, because you can use Overcast to listen to another episode of Alice Isn’t Dead. Overcast is better than Apple’s built-in podcasts app and it includes neat power-ups that allow you to boost voices on quieter recordings and shorten any silences that stretch the running time. IAPs / iOS

The Pocket vs Instapaper battle is the catch-up reading app equivalent of the Coca-Cola vs Pepsi argument. In the Coke corner is Pocket – the magazine to Instapaper’s broadsheet newspaper, keen to show you images and video alongside the text of any articles you send to it. IAPs / iOS, Android

In the blue corner is Instapaper – a far more minimalist approach that borrows from e-readers to fill its feature set. There’s less emphasis on images but it gives you more options to change fonts, you can highlight passages or sort articles into folders, and it’ll tell you how much is left to read. IAPs / iOS, Android 45

BEST FREE APPS

GAME CHANGERS ● RODEO STAMPEDE We at Stuff HQ aren’t privy to how zoos are run, but we’re pretty sure Rodeo Stampede plays fast and loose with reality. Here, you saddle up, leap into the air and lasso a rampaging beast. Ride said critter for long enough and it’ll decide it loves you and wants to be a part of your zoo. Did we mention your zoo is floating in the sky? Rodeo Stampede then finds you switching back and forth between catching new animals (super-fast twitchy ostriches, bulldozer-like elephants…) and micro-managing your menagerie. IAPs / iOS, Android

● CALLY’S CAVES 3 You’ll probably be a few levels into Cally’s quest to rescue her parents before you wonder what the catch is. But there isn’t one. This really is a charming old-school platformer with smart level design and weapons that get more powerful the more things you shoot. IAPs / iOS, Android

● LETTERPRESS The idea’s easy: take it in turns to find the longest words you can on a five-by-five grid. But the cunning bit is that any tiles surrounded by ones you’ve claimed are protected from your online opponent during their next go. Letterpress therefore becomes a tug-of-war landgrab. IAPs / iOS

● BENEATH THE LIGHTHOUSE What’s beneath the lighthouse? A lost grandpa and a network of caverns. Each is a smartly designed circular death trap, rotated by turning an on-screen wheel, with nothing more than gravity helping your character on his way. Some are simple, some are fiendish. IAPs / iOS, Android

● SMASH HIT

● PICO RALLY

● CARRAGE

Cathartic, atmospheric and addictive, Smash Hit is an abstract and semiambient smash-’em-up. You float through the void, lobbing metal balls at crystals; all the while, you must judge which glass forms are about to collide with you and smash them to pieces. Each new level brings surprises. IAPs / iOS, Android

Pico Rally boils the racing experience down to a single button: an accelerator. That makes it feel a bit like slot-racing, with you timing when to put your foot down and when to lift off. It gets pretty frantic, never more so than when trying to catch rivals on maze-like tracks in Asia. IAPs / iOS

CaRRage depicts what the nutcases in the Mad Max flicks presumably do on their days off. Armoured vehicles zoom about in a ravaged wasteland, aiming to smash up the opposition. There are even Fury Road-style supply runs where hordes of hostile vehicles try to take your cargo for themselves. IAPs / iOS

BEST FREE APPS

This is the Snug 11 000 – if you want something a little smaller, the 5 200 takes up less space but still has enough juice for two charges.

● LEAP DAY A new challenge beckons daily in this one-thumb platformer. Your little blob pootles about, and you tap to make it jump, threading your way through nasties to reach the top of each tall, narrow level. It visually echoes 1980s classics such as Bubble Bobble but has the brutal heart of Super Hexagon. IAPs / iOS, Android

THE TECH

SNUG 11 000MAH POWER BANK R700 / incredible.co.za

No matter how many charges it gives you, there’s not much point lugging around a ‘portable’ charger if it weighs the same as a petrol-driven electricity generator. Snug’s 11 000mAh offering will charge the average smartphone half a dozen times, giving it a great weight-to-usefulness ration, and includes a power level indicator so you don’t dash out the door with it flat. And with a pair of USB ports you can charge two phones simultaneously. You know, for when you’re so deep in a Clash Royale hole you have to play it on two phones at once.

● FRISBEE FOREVER 2 It seems odd that a game called Frisbee Forever could have a sequel, but there’s an almost Nintendo-style charm to this disc-flinger. The mechanics are idiotproof: move left and right to keep your frisbee on the right path and collect stars to stay airborne. IAPs / iOS, Android

● TIME LOCKER In this strange, blocky universe of roaming dinosaurs and giant bears, time freezes when you stop moving. This is less helpful than you might think, given that you’ll be devoured by the relentless darkness if you sit still for long. But Time Locker is a little bit cleverer than your average vertical shooter. IAPs / iOS

BEST FREE APPS

Don’t let the word ‘micro’ mislead you, the XL version of the Joby GripTight can handle phone widths between 69-99mm.

● SNAPSEED This photo editor excels when you’ve got a lot of screen space to play with. Choose an adjustment type (such as ‘black & white’ or ‘tilt-shift’) and the app gives you a gestural interface. Edits can be added in layers and tweaked later, so don’t worry about ruining your masterpiece. Free / iOS, Android

THE TECH

● RETRICA

● MSQRD

The iPhone’s camera app already has eight live filters, but Retrica’s selection is larger. Its other creative tools include vignettes, blurs and borders. Our favourite feature is the interval timer, which takes consecutive photos and stitches them together in a user-defined layout. Free / iOS, Android

Unless you’re 17 years old, Snapchat’s CGI-style mods should be off limits. Ah, but some of them are quite good. Luckily, MSQRD offers similar live overlays that you can save to your phone. It periodically updates with new topical masks and filters, so you’ll never be upstaged by your teenage niece again. Free / iOS, Android

JOBY GRIPTIGHT XL MICRO STAND R320 / takealot.com

Wielding a selfie stick not only marks you out as a narcissistic cretin, it’s also one extra, awkwardly shaped thing to carry around with you. You could shove it where the sun is too embarrassed to shine, or you could use a Jobi GripTight Micro Stand instead. When not on duty it patiently waits with your keys disguised as a keyring – but the second you need to hold your phone steady for a selfie, a longexposure shot or a timelapse, it unfolds into a sturdy little tripod that’ll fit all except the hugest smartphones. Handy if you ever run into Eben Etzebeth.

BEST FREE APPS

BEST FOR SELFIES

● PRISMA

● PHOTOSHOP FIX

● PIXLR

Not many people wake up and face the world completely #nofilter. Yep, even those seconds you spend in front of the mirror sorting your hair out counts. So nobody will judge you if you run your selfies through Photoshop Fix before posting them, using its simple tools to give yourself a little boost. Free / iOS

Pixlr puts itself ahead of Android’s myriad other free photo editors simply by being ad-free; but its huge range of tools enables you to do anything from simple cropping, rotating and collaging to subtly adding radial focal blurs or going all out with all kinds of grunge and crazy effects. Free / iOS, Android

If good artists borrow and great artists steal, Prisma is the perfect accessory to your crime. So much more than just a set of clever filters, it deconstructs your photos and uses cloud-based machine learning tech to apply its artist-aping effects to your pictures as it puts them back together, resulting in some of the most convincing homages you’ll get from a phone without having to add any talent at all. MIOBI, Curtain and Electric are our favourites. Just don’t forget to turn off the watermark in the settings first. Free / iOS, Android

● GOOGLE PHOTOS Google Photos has a neat trick up its sleeve. No more having to go through and tag all of your pictures (‘amusing vegetables’, ‘cows that look like Hitler’ etc) – it analyses and groups them automatically, so search ‘cows’ and the one that looks like history’s most evil vegetarian will appear. Free / iOS, Android

● MOTION STILLS ● GIPHY CAM

● FYUSE

The gif has become valuable currency on the stock market of social media, so being able to churn out your own from your phone’s camera will put you in a strong position to harvest those likes and retweets. Giphy Cam is a cinch to use and has an ever-changing catalogue of meme-worthy effects. Free / iOS

Remember those lenticular holograms on the front of cereal boxes in the ’90s? Fyuse is that for the emoji generation. Kind of. Use Fyuse to take a curved panorama photo, capturing a 180º view of a subject, and the app will turn it into a gif-type 3D file that moves as you tilt your phone left and right. Free / iOS, Android

Apple’s Live Photos can be neat but they’re difficult to liberate from your phone. Google’s Motion Stills app scours your camera roll for compatible images and lets you turn them into shareable gifs or video clips, with the option to either loop the video or bounce it back and forth from start to finish. Free / iOS

PHONETOGRAPHY 49

BEST FREE APPS

ARMCHAIR ATHLETES ● PREMIER LEAGUE The Premier League used to charge for its fantasy football app, but now it’s put everything in one handy package. That means when you’re in the supermarket on Saturday morning and you suddenly remember you’ve left Sergio Aguero on your bench, you can quickly amend your starting line-up before the deadline. Phew. The app’s also full of news, stats and videos. There’s even a page on referees, presumably for you to yell at when your team has a last-minute winner wrongly ruled out. Free / iOS, Android

● BBC SPORT

● ESPNCRICINFO

Apparently there are sports other than soccer. Who knew? The BBC, for one – it has an app dedicated to everything from NFL to netball. It’ll show you headlines and scores, with a customisable section you can fill with the sports you want to be kept up to date on. Free / iOS, Android

There’s only one thing cricket fans like more than the sound of leather on willow – and that’s talking about it. To do that you need ammo, and ESPN’s Cricinfo app provides lots. It’s packed with stats, scores and breaking news from the world’s most civilised game. Is it time for tea yet? Free / iOS, Android

DSTV EXPLORA R1 500 , dstv.com If you’re going to watch sport, it’s coming out of this thing and DStv has just launched a new one. You’re losing 1TB of storage but you’re getting upgraded hardware and a nifty new remote to play with. Plus all the sport you can stomach.

● SUPERSPORT DStv’s sports schedule can sometimes be an arcane beast and you can’t always carry a television along with you. But you have a smartphone and SuperSport’s free app lets you stay abreast of the sporting news as it happens, without needing a couch and a beer. The app gets better based on your DStv subscription, with video highlights being the pinnacle. About that beer you mentioned... IAPs / iOS, Android 50

● STATS ZONE It’s all very well calling Gary Bailey a clueless waste of space when he’s on TV, but can you do better? Boost your sofa punditry with Stats Zone, which will generate the facts and figures to back up your radical tactical ideas (rather than relying on a mediocre playing career and bad hair). Free / iOS, Android

THE TECH

BEST FREE APPS THE TECH

LG G5 R12 000 / lg.com

● CAR DASHDROID

If you like to tinker under the hood, there’s really no other phone for you. LG’s modular G5 allows you to pull it apart and slot in specific power-ups, whether that’s a B&O DAC to make your music sound sweeter or a supercharged camera to give you a head start on Instagram.

Got a fancy new phone but drive the automotive equivalent of a Nokia 3310? Use this app to turn your phone into a pseudo Android Auto dashboard. It makes the icons more proddable, plus it’ll read out your texts and Whatsapp messages for you to dictate responses to. Free / Android

● LOKLOK

● STATUS BOARD Chances are that your iPad sits around doing nothing much of the time. Status Board gives your tablet purpose during this downtime, displaying all kinds of info. Precisely what info is down to you: the app gives you widgets for a clock, weather, calendar, email subjects/counts, Twitter and RSS. Splurge on the R200 IAP and you can add graphs, tables, DIY HTML, countdowns, text and photo albums. HDTV support also makes Status Board a superb means of creating a live status display for an office. IAPs / iPad

● SWIFTKEY

● GBOARD

Some people still don’t realise they can switch the keyboard on their phone. Swiftkey’s the old favourite, with its neat swipe-to-type system that turns you into a texting ninja. It can now predict which emoji you want based on the words you’ve typed. Insert sunglasses emoji here… IAPs / iOS, Android

Google’s Gboard takes Swiftkey’s finger-swiping typing tech and throws in some of the search skills Google is best known for. It lets you seamlessly chuck in links, pictures and gifs related to what you’ve just written, so you don’t need to keep switching between your message and browser. Free / iOS

With the LokLok app you can set a picture as your lockscreen then scribble on top of it. Whatever you draw or write will then appear on top of the lockscreens of all those in your LokLok group. Presumably it’s intended to be used for sharing notes and pics between people, without them even having to unlock their phones. We do not condone using it to send people rude scrawls. Not at all. IAPs / Android

MOBILE MODDERS 51

BEST FREE APPS

● AIRHELP

● ROME2RIO You’re in Rome. You want to get to Rio. This app will tell you all the possible permutations for that trip, from car to train to plane. It’ll do it for other starting points and locations too, with prices, booking links and suggestions for accommodation thrown in for good measure. Spoiler alert: it’s best to fly to Rio. Free / iOS, Android

Mugged off by the pirates of the sky? AirHelp is a bit like one of those ‘no win, no fee’ injury lawyers but less shady. If your flight’s delayed, cancelled or overbooked AirHelp will take up your case for you, saving you from a frustrating Twitter spat with the airline’s poor social media manager or hours on hold to the customer service department. If any compensation is due to head your way, AirHelp takes a sizeable chunk (25%) – but what price can you put on not having to do all that pesky paperwork? Free / iOS, Android

● APP IN THE AIR

● UBER

Airports can be stressful places, especially if you’re not sure where the Wetherspoons is. App in the Air holds your hand right until your backside hits that seat on the plane, with reminders for everything from online check-in to boarding times. It’ll show you tips from other travellers too. Free / iOS, Android

Download Uber and you’ll never have to hold your phone up to a taxi driver’s face, pointing helplessly at an address and hoping they understand. Uber takes the hassle out of using taxis and eliminates the chance of getting ripped off by a driver charging you an imaginary tourist tax. Free / iOS, Android

● MAPS.ME

● HOPPER

● SKYSCANNER

Google Maps now lets you save areas offline, but it makes you redownload them every 30 days. Store the areas you need and Maps.me works without a web connection, complete with directions and places of interest. It’ll even help you hunt out Wi-Fi if you have snaps you want to upload to Instagram. Free / iOS, Android

Heading somewhere but in no huge hurry to book? Just tell Hopper where it is you’re hoping to fly to and when, and it’ll monitor flight prices, letting you know when it expects them to soar or drop so you can get the best deal going. Hopper reckons it can save you up to 40%. Not bad for a free app. Free / iOS, Android

If time is not on your side but a bargain is still a priority, Skyscanner snoops through all the flights on your selected dates and shows you the cheapest way to fly from A to B. You can tell it to ignore layovers; or, if you’re feeling adventurous, get it to show you a load of cheap flights and pick one. Free / iOS, Android

BINARY BACKPACKERS 52

BEST FREE APPS

UE reckons the Roll 2 is 15% louder than its predecessor. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but every little counts when your speaker’s this small.

● TRAFI There are places in the world that Citymapper is yet to reach. Far-flung towns such as Kayseri, Kaohsiung and Kettering. OK, Trafi might be no use in Bloemfontein, but its self-learning algorithm and real-time updates will help you navigate transport systems in more exotic locales. Free / iOS, Android

UE ROLL 2

THE TECH

R2 500 / incredible.co.za

A decent Bluetooth speaker should be behind only your passport and clean undies on the essentials list when you’re packing to go away – and there aren’t many as travel-friendly as the UE Roll 2. It takes up as much space as a pair of socks, and with similar audio smarts to the much bigger Boom 2 it’s capable of filling anything from a cosy Airbnb lounge to a fancy boutique hotel room. It’s waterproof too, so you can take it to the beach and be “that guy” (or gal) by annoying all the locals with your choice of Nonku Phiri tunes.

● TRIPIT Tripit is like having a PA in your pocket. Send it all the confirmation emails you get for your journey and it will build an itinerary, so you’ll know exactly when you need to be where. You can even share it with everyone else on the trip. Well, you don’t want to leave Jamie behind, do you? Not after last time. IAPs / iOS, Android

● GOOGLE TRANSLATE Rather than pointing at items on a menu in the hope one of them is steak and chips, point Google Translate at the problem. It knows more than 70 languages and can convert them into English for you without needing a data connection. It even works on handwritten words. Free / iOS, Android

BEST FREE APPS

PART-TIME PICASSOS VS ● ASSEMBLY Assembly claims to be ‘graphic design for everyone’. In reality, it’s more like a modern take on playing with felt shapes. At the foot of the screen there’s a shapes drawer, and you drag elements to the artboard, which can then be moved and resized. Get a little more advanced and they can be grouped for mass manipulation, recoloured, and have effects such as drop-shadows applied. You can even import an image as a backdrop. You know, if you fancy having a shot at designing next month’s Stuff cover. IAPs / iOS

● BRUSHES REDUX

● SKETCHBOOK EXPRESS

The original Brushes app sadly keeled over (boo!) but became open-source (hooray!) and now Brushes Redux brings the app to modern devices. It’s still simple and usable but also powerful, and boasts one of the best super-fast brush creation tools you’re ever likely to see. Free / iOS

Proof you don’t need expensive creative apps to get finger-painting, SketchBook Express gives you layers, opacity control, 15 preset brushes and a transform tool. And if you’re not artistic, you can always use it for adding rude tattoos to pictures of Jacob Zuma. IAPs / iOS

PENCIL BY 53 R540, fiftythree.com

● PAPER Originally an elegant drawing app for iPad, Paper got a radical overhaul with version 3. The sketching stuff remained but was joined by superb tools for quickly creating diagrams, taking notes and making lists. Hip beardists bemoaned the loss of digital notebooks, but we much prefer the new stacks of virtual paper that explode into a wall of sticky notes that are easy to explore. Free / iOS

● ANIMATIC You won’t be challenging Pixar with Animatic, but as you scribble each frame you see previous ones beneath in faded form, ensuring smooth transitions throughout your DIY cartoon – so you might at least give early South Park a run for its money. Think of it like a virtual flick book. Free / iOS, Android

Designed for iOS but happy working with any touchscreen, the Pencil is the stylus that goes with Paper. It will work with other drawing and writing apps too – which is just as well, because have you ever seen a stylus that looks as good as this? No wonder it’s so pricey.

THE TECH

BEST FREE APPS

HEALTH FREAKS VS

● RUNKEEPER

● STRAVA

For R200 a month you can turn Runkeeper into a ‘personal trainer in your pocket’ with personalised workouts, but for R0.00 a month you can log your routes, store your stats and compare your performances with friends. We just hope for your sake you’re not buddies with Bruce Fordyce. IAPs / iOS, Android

If you prefer to burn your calories on a bike, opt for Strava over Runkeeper. A superior cycling community means its maps have loads of real-world time trial routes that you can try to beat on your commute. Just try not to get to work too early. Nobody likes a teacher’s pet. IAPs / iOS, Android

SAMSUNG GEAR ICONX R3 500 / samsung.com Exercise is boring without music but the wires can get in the way. Samsung’s IconX in-ears are cable-free, plus they have fitness-tracking tech built-in in case you want to leave your phone at home while you’re grunting.

THE TECH

● SLEEP BETTER

● SEVEN

● APP FORMERLY KNOWN AS H__R

Seven minutes is barely enough time to polish off a pie, but according to this app it is enough for a daily workout. With nothing more than your phone, a chair and a wall, Seven will guide you through a quick set of exercises you can do each morning while waiting for the bathroom. IAPs / iOS, Android

H__r (to give it its shorter name) is either a snooty avant-garde remix app or a tool to help you shut out the hustle and bustle of daily life, whether you’re trying to concentrate at work or get some sleep at night. Depending on which of the seven filters you select, it listens to the sounds being made around you and applies varying amounts of delay, reverb and volume-boosting to all of it (you can tweak the settings to suit), so next door’s noisy pooches might as well not exist. Either that or it’ll give you really weird dreams. Free / iOS

Rather than turning to your old friends Mr Jack Daniel or Mademoiselle Merlot to help you get to sleep at night, Runtastic’s Sleep Better app sits on the edge of the bed while you snooze and analyses your sleep patterns, waking you up at the right time and, hopefully, making it easier to drop off at night. You can also use it to keep a diary of your dreams and monitor phases of the moon. IAPs / iOS, Android

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BEST FREE APPS

The S7 Edge isn’t just a big battery and an even bigger screen. Those curved edges run handy widgets, and it’s got oomph for days.

● SHOOTY SKIES Its roots are in the scrolling shooters of the 1980s, but rather than downing an endless stream of boring jets, Shooty Skies has you attacking joystick-spewing arcade cabinets and laptops running LOLcat loops. Ridic, but getting past the colossal bosses requires some seriously deft finger-work. IAPs / iOS, Android

THE TECH

SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 EDGE from R13 000 / samsung.com

Games eat your battery like local MCs consume Nando’s, but the Edge’s 3600mAh cell will last over a day with normal usage. Some intense sessions on Rodeo Stampede will bring that down, but with a 5.5in Quad HD screen you’ll be too pixel-dazzled to notice. It’s also waterproof to 1.5m, so you don’t even have to stop playing when you get in the bath. 58

● PAC-MAN 256

● SPACETEAM

This re-imagining of the iconic dot-muncher’s maze-based adventures dumps Pac-Man beyond the infamous Level 256 glitch that consumed everything in its path. Our hero must keep moving, grabbing power-ups that enable him to spew laser death from his maw. Ah, yes — that bit’s new. IAPs / iOS, Android

‘Social’ mobile games often only let you battle someone on Facebook, but Spaceteam is different. Up to four players join on a local network, faced with a control panel of dials and sliders. Everyone must coordinate to deal with instructions (“Set Shiftsanitizer to 1!”), lest the spaceship explode. IAPs / iOS, Android

BEST FREE APPS

MORE GAME CHANGERS ● DEEP LOOT

● CLASH ROYALE Clash Royale might look like one of those horrible freemium games you see advertised on TV (and it sort of is), but this mashup of real-time strategy and card-collecting is so compelling that it’s worth dodging its attempts to mug your wallet. Your bank balance might be safe, but your free time won’t be. IAPs / iOS, Android

● SUPER DANGEROUS DUNGEONS The name makes it sound like child’s play, but each of these dungeons is peppered with traps intent on impaling or drowning the intrepid Timmy as he aims to grab the keys and reach the exit. Which sounds simple until you’ve died 27 times. IAPs / iOS, Android

● SUPER STICKMAN GOLF 3 Super Stickman Golf’s catapulting ancestor is the same Apple II artillery game that Angry Birds has at its core, but thwacking balls around giant forests in this mini-golf extravaganza is much more fun, particularly in the frenetic multiplayer race mode. IAPs / iOS, Android

● WGT GOLF If you’d prefer something a little more down to earth, WGT Golf hits a hole in one for realism, from the delicate controls through to the eye-popping photorealistic courses you play on. It takes no prisoners, mind, and it’s all too easy to end up embarrassingly over par. Best get practising, eh? IAPs / iOS, Android

This sweet exploration game resembles such mobile classics as Mines of Mars and Mr Driller. Your little diver scoots about, unearthing wrecks and treasure in a procedurally generated watery environment, taking his turn to move before various fishy critters follow suit. Loads of surprises hide in the depths, and there’s a real sense of progression as you add to collections back on the surface. It’s grindy at first, and dives are short; but persevere and you’ll salvage one of the best mobile games around. IAPs / iOS, Android

● IMAGO The aim of Imago is to merge tiles of the same size and colour to form large blocks. These then ‘explode’ back into individual squares, each retaining the score of its parent. Savvy planning can quickly see your score leap into the millions. Ignore the IAPs and this is one of the finest puzzlers around. IAPs / iOS, Android

● HOPELESS: THE DARK CAVE Hopeless sees you playing as cute, gun-toting yellow blobs in a gloomy cave. Things run at you and you only have a moment to react: monsters must be shot and other yellow blobs left alone so they can join you and increase your powers. Tense, frantic entertainment. IAPs / iOS, Android 59

BEST FREE APPS

WEEKEND WANDERERS ● GLP – GREAT LITTLE PLACE Second only to kidnapping a local, Great Little Place helps you to find the bars and restaurants that others don’t know about (well, unless they’ve also got this app). It’s a bit like a dating app for food and drink, although you don’t have to worry whether a restaurant or bar fancies you back. Find something you like the look of and you can add it to your shortlist. Find somewhere you like that’s not on the app and you can add it yourself. Just don’t get annoyed if it suddenly gets harder to find a table. Free / iOS

● CAMONROAD

● WEATHERSA

● LIVETREKKER

Going on a road trip? After a decent playlist and plenty of sweets, a satnav should be top of your kit list – and CamOnRoad is GPS with a twist. Mount it on your windscreen and it doubles as a dashcam, with footage sent to the cloud and augmented reality directions and points of interest overlaid. IAPs / iOS, Android

The weather in SA can be as fickle as finance minister appointments, so it’s best to check the forecasts before planning your next braai. WeatherSA will even give you lightning warnings and strike counts so you can unplug your PC and decoder before tragedy, umm, strikes. IAPs / iOS, Android

If you like spending your weekends outdoors it can be tough to keep track of where you’ve ventured, but LiveTrekker uses your phone’s GPS to leave a digital trail. You can add pics of the most picturesque views, videos of you getting spat on by that llama, and notes to remind you of your day. Free / iOS, Android

● ONEFOOTBALL

● GOOGLE MAPS

Just because you’re spending Saturday at Makro doesn’t mean you can’t keep up with what’s happening around the grounds. Onefootball will send you goal notifications (to your smartwatch if you have one), so you’ll know not to miss Zlatan’s 96th-minute equaliser on Match of the Day. Free / iOS, Android

Most people don’t need to be told Google Maps exists, but if you’re still using Apple’s effort then clearly you haven’t been listening. Google’s guidance is better, plus Street View is handy for checking out routes and destinations before you arrive. Existing users might not know you can also save chunks offline now. Free / iOS, Android

● MAP OF SOUTH AFRICA It’s pretty tough to top Google Maps, but if you must have an alternative, Map of South Africa gives you an offline map of the whole country complete with periodically updated points of interest and the option to find your place on the map using your phone’s GPS. IAPs / Android

BEST FREE APPS

The tracker’s battery lasts up to six months, and it’s the CR2025 sort you can pick up at any hardware store.

● MAGNUS So you’ve wandered into that gallery you always planned to check out, but it’s so coolly minimalist there’s no information about any of the pictures. Never mind – Magnus is like Shazam for art. Let your phone’s camera see what you want to identify and around 70% of the time the app will recognise it. Free / iOS

THE TECH

CHIPOLO TRACKER R400 / myistore.co.za

When you’re gallivanting about the place downing Bloody Marys and sampling craft beer, it can be easy to lose track of time/your belongings/your mind. You can’t attach a Bluetooth tracker to two of those things but you definitely can to the other. Chipolo’s tracker has a range of around 60 metres and, when triggered from the accompanying app, emits a noise when you’re hunting for it. The app will also show you the last known location of your Chipolo on a map. Or, if your phone’s the thing you’ve misplaced, shake your Chipolo to make your mobile ring, even if it’s set to silent. Just try not to swallow the Chipolo by mistake.

● FOURSQUARE

● CITYMAPPER

FourSquare is no longer about checking in to your local haunt in the hope of becoming its mayor. Now it’s about discovering places to eat and drink around you. Results show their ranking and price, and there’s also a section that suggests other places of interest, from historic sites to jazz clubs. Nice. Free / iOS, Android

There’s still no better app than Citymapper for getting from A to B, and it’s now available in 36 cities around the world. Tell it where you want to go and it’ll work out every permutation of public transport to get you there, with time and price info, plus how long it would take to walk instead. Free / iOS, Android

BEST FREE APPS

THE TECH

● KITCHEN STORIES

LG OLED55E6V R57 000 / lg.com/za

● ADOBE LIGHTROOM

If you’re going to spend so much time watching other people cook their dinner on MasterChef and its ilk, you might as well have a go yourself. Kitchen Stories is awash with mouthwatering but helpful, cleanly shot videos covering recipes and essential skills, such as how to prepare a squid or make a hearty beef stew. It’ll tell you exactly how long a dish will take to make, and when you adjust the number of portions required it automatically alters the ingredients. Just make sure you can see the TV from your kitchen. IAPs

Our favourite Ultra HD TV is almost too talented for Apple’s tiny black box (it can’t feed the LG a 4K HDR signal – at least not yet), but don’t let that stop you investing in this amazing rectangle of tech with a curved screen. The OLED picture will blow your slippers off.

We’re bending the rules a little with this one because you need a Creative Cloud subscription to use it, but if you’re serious enough to subscribe for Photoshop you should be just as serious about showing off the results – and where better than on the biggest screen in your house? CC from R140/month

● FLICKR If nothing else, Flickr is worth signing up for just to get the 1TB of storage and automatic photo backup to the cloud that it offers for free. But if you also happen to own an Apple TV and have access to some poor unsuspecting victims, it’s also a neat way to subject the family to a slideshow of your snaps from your summer holiday in Clarens (or those from holidays uploaded by people you don’t even know). Free

● PLEX

● INFUSE 4

Plex appeared in unofficial form on jailbroken secondgen Apple TVs but now it’s gone legit, keeping your movie collection in shape and streaming it from your computer or NAS to your telly. You can also select what you want to watch on your phone or tablet and then seamlessly send it to the TV instead. Neat. IAPs

Infuse is a similarly skilled streaming app, re-encoding your files on the fly as you fling them from a PC, Mac or NAS to that little black box under the TV, so you don’t need to worry about pesky conversion. Artwork, catalogue sorting and metadata are all automatic. IAPs

APPLE TV ESSENTIALS 62

BEST FREE APPS

HUMAN DIY

● PHOTOMATH

● TED

Thought you’d left maths lessons at school? Well, you were rubbish at it then and you’re still rubbish at it now. Write down the sum you need to solve, point your camera at it and Photomath will show you step-by-step instructions on how to solve it. If only you’d had a smartphone back in the day, right? IAPs / iOS, Android

TED is food for the brain, full of riveting talks by all manner of clever people, which you can watch live or download to view offline. Given that this is an app about discovery, we’re particularly fond of the Surprise Me section. Define the type of content you want to see and it will offer talks to suit. Free / iOS, Android

XIAOMI YEELIGHT Rtba / xiaomi-mi.com This bedside smartlight has modes for any mood, with a free app to change the colour Hue-style. It’ll also help you read before bed without straining your eyes, plus its wake-up function will gently ease you out of your slumber each morning.

THE TECH

● TICKLE

● REACHOUT BREATHE

● DUOLINGO

STRESS! ANXIETY! MORE STRESS! If your heart’s thumping now, you could probably use ReachOut Breathe, an app designed to slow your breathing and help you unwind. You place a finger on the screen, breathing in until a circle fills. You then hold your breath for a bit and breathe out until the circle fades. This probably sounds like it’s turned us into a bunch of hippies (man), but ReachOut Breathe really works. Try it. Relax. Be briefly at one with the world, until some idiot does something to annoy you again. Free / iOS

Annoyingly, we’ve found that eating loads of tapas and watching La Liga isn’t enough to gain fluency in Spanish. Fortunately, Duolingo turns learning the basics of a foreign language into a game-like experience through exercises, stats, and a gentle difficulty curve. IAPs / iOS, Android

Self-improvement isn’t all about sitting in a cupboard and thinking of your happy place. Tickle teaches you how to code using a simple block-based system, slotting commands together like a jigsaw. It’ll work with your Sphero BB-8, Philips Hue bulbs and other programmable gadgets, so you can put what you’ve learned into action straight away. Free / iOS

BEST FREE APPS

LIFE ADMIN VS ● CTRL-F Not an app you’ll use every day, but Ctrl-F can certainly come in handy. The name is the keyboard shortcut to search for something on a document, and that should give you a clue as to what it does. Take a picture of a page of text and the app will digitise it, giving you a fully searchable version that can help you find the bit you’re looking for, plus you can export the doc as a printable PDF. If only you could hold it up to your house and get it to scan for your car keys. Free / Android

● WUNDERLIST

● ANY.DO

● EVERNOTE

If ‘find a new to-do list app’ is somewhere on your to-do list, Wunderlist deserves an audition. It works on everything from your Apple Watch to your web browser, syncing between them. You can also add notes for those particularly mammoth jobs, like cleaning your pet mammoth. IAPs / iOS, Android

We’re all busy. Busy sticking our to-do lists on the fridge door or tapping reminders into our phones. Any.do is the best way to keep on top of it all, thanks to its cloud syncing and sharing skills. You can run it as a live widget on your homescreen and separate your tasks into folders. IAPs / iOS, Android

You can only use Evernote on two devices for free, but it’s still a great dumping ground. Quick idea for something amazing? Bang it in Evernote! Got a receipt? Chuck it in Evernote! Fancy recording yourself yelling “ARGH!” because you forgot to save a receipt in Evernote? Do it in Evernote! IAPs / iOS, Android

● PUSHBULLET

● 22SEVEN

● MONEYSMART

Install PushBullet on every device you use and you can control everything from your computer: send texts, see notifications, exchange files and links (no more emailing stuff to yourself). It also means you can text away at your desk without fiddling with your phone and it’ll look like you’re getting on with your work. Free / iOS, Android

22Seven can track multiple bank accounts and income (and outlay) streams, offering tips on how you can save money based on your spending habits. You can also invest, right from the app, and it’s one of the slickest full featured money managers we’ve seen. You can definitely bank on that. Free / iOS, Android

Need a tighter grip on your money? We sure do but other people grip better. Give your budget muscles a workout with Moneysmart, which will let you know how much Daily Available Cash you have with the aim of getting you through to the end of the month. Without having to resort to Salticrax. Free / iOS, Android

BEST FREE APPS The Echo can talk to Nest kit, Philips Hue lights and WeMo tech, so you can instruct it to control other gadgets all over your house.

● FEEDLY No matter how much of the internet gets read, there always seems to be more to get through. Will it ever end? An RSS reader helps, and Feedly lets you put all the stories from your favourite sites into one easily browsable list, plus it integrates nicely with the likes of Pocket and Evernote. Get reading! Free / iOS, Android

AMAZON ECHO

THE TECH

Rtba / amazon.com

Having spent the last couple of years helping out our friends in the US, Amazon’s Echo is finally making the trip to the UK. No word when we’ll get it in SA, though. This hi-tech tennis ball tube is home to Alexa – a Siri-style helper that you can instruct to set timers, make lists and read out your schedule for the day, among a stack other things that Siri can only dream of. Use it as a brainy speaker or internet radio using voice commands to get it to play what you want from Spotify, Audible or TuneIn Radio. Don’t fancy cooking? Get Alexa to look up nearby restaurants for you. It’s just a shame she can’t call them and make you a booking.

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Telling one app all your passwords might seem like Edward Snowden’s worst nightmare, but with its 256-bit encryption, 1Password means you can come up with stronger passwords for each online account without making them too simple. Isn’t it time you moved on from ‘password12345’ anyway? IAP / iOS, Android

F I R S T T E S T F U J I F I L M X-T 2

Yes sir, I can Fuji The X-T1 was already a great compact system camera, but 4K video and better autofocus make the sequel a real mover R25 000 (body only) / fujifilm.co.za If Apple made cameras, they’d probably look a lot like the Fujifilm X-T2. As with the iPhone or iPad, Fuji’s new compact system cam melds style with simplicity for a gadget you’ll itch to pick up but won’t want to put down. Like the MacBook, it thumbs its nose at the spec wars but still manages to outperform most rivals. And as with every Apple product, it costs a pretty penny while seemingly offering only a minor upgrade over its predecessor. Don’t think it’s all hype and no trousers, though; because while it may look much like the X-T1, the T2 is definitively a far better camera. On the face of it the biggest change here is the new 24.3MP X-Trans APS-C sensor, which gives you 50% more pixels to play with. That’s no bad thing, but image quality was never Fuji’s problem anyway – it really lagged behind Canon’s recent efforts (and most of its CSC rivals) due to its shoddy video skills and so-so autofocus. Well, they’ve both been massively improved here – and then some.

1 Film developed If video was the X-T1’s Achilles heel, the X-T2’s been to a top chiropodist: 4K recording is the headline but the fact that it now autofocuses smoothly and continuously is just as big a deal. Footage is sharp and you can also use Fuji’s lovely filters while filming.

2 Focus pocus The X-T2 autofocuses like a champ. With 91 focal points,or a massive 325 if you go manual, it’s uncannily accurate and superfast even in gloomy conditions. The subject-tracking mode can even be customised according to what you’re shooting.

Good Meh Evil

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28 hours with the Fujifilm X-T2

5mins 66

10mins 30mins 35mins 50mins

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3hrs

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F I R S T T E S T F U J I F I L M X-T 2

Tech specs Sensor 24.3MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS III ISO 200-12800 AF points 91 (325 manual) Shutter speed 1/8000-30secs (manual); 1/32,000-30secs (electronic) Video 4K mpeg-4 AVC Screen 3in, 10.4m dots Connectivity Wi-Fi, microHDMI, microUSB, USB3.0, mic/remote, SD/SDHC card

Little wonders The difference between a great camera and a camera that just takes great photos? Touches such as these:

3 Black beauty At first glance the T2 looks nearidentical to the T1, but that’s fine. It’s a stunner: elegantly retro but at the same time reassuringly well built and impressively weatherproof. It feels great in the hand, with oodles of manual controls at your fingertips. 4 Still got it Fuji continues to forge its own path image-wise, kitting out the T2 with its own X-Trans sensor. That means super-sharp stills with bags of colour. The straight-out-of-camera jpegs are wonderful; you may never need to go near the RAW files.

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5 Filter it out The Fuji’s pics have plenty of pop but for maximum wow factor check out the film sim modes. These simple filters can be applied at any time and range from the moody Classic Chrome to the gorgeous new Acros B&W option. Instagram schminstagram.

20hrs

24hrs 25hrs

26hrs

28hrs

■ Dial it up

■ Button boon

■ Dual delight

■ Screen dream

Taking photos should be a tangible experience or you might as well use a phone. Here you get physical dials for ISO, shutter speed and exposure, with aperture set on the lens. You’ll barely use the menus.

Like its stablemate the X-Pro2, the X-T2 has dual SD card slots. This is great news: you can back up images to the second card, shoot jpegs to one and RAW to the other, or just use both in turn.

Round the back there’s a new focus lever which, with so many focus points to choose from, you’ll soon rely upon. Every button can be customised too, giving you the setup that really works for you.

The screen flips sideways as well as up and down, making it easier to grab shots in tricky positions. It’s not as flexible as Canon’s class-leading efforts, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The Fujifilm X-T2 is a lesson in how to upgrade an already great gadget. There was no need for big changes here – the X-T1 was itself a brilliant camera. Instead, Fuji focused on the first model’s weaknesses, giving it superb video and autofocus skills to go with the already top image quality and build. The result is a truly superb all-rounder.

STUFF SAYS ★★★★★ The X-T2 is a joy to hold and a dream to shoot with; it’s a camera you’ll quickly fall in love with 67

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GROUP TEST BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS

Bag and dab Don’t be fooled by their size: these portable Bluetooth speakers have enough boom to shake any room

Beoplay A1 R5 000 / beoplay.com The A1 is Bang & Olufsen’s cheapest speaker, but the Danish high-end audio specialist hasn’t skimped at all on this diddy delight. Its sumptuous ‘hockey puck’ design looks terrific, and the sound isn’t half bad either. Rock solid and full-bodied, it’ll give you a hearty amount of bass from the thunderous vibes of Jamie xx and

[[1C]] 70

Popcaan. Better still, sound is pushed wide enough so you don’t have to reach for the A1’s volume button in louder surroundings. Despite lacking a little attack compared to the UE Boom 2, it’s still a fab portable speaker. STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩ Stylish and with plenty of substance to boot

Last (the) nite

We pair a lot

Feeling good

With 24 hours of playback from a 2.5hr charge, the A1 can outlast even the most depraved of house parties.

Download the Beoplay app and you’ll be pairing two A1s together. Further software updates are planned as well.

Weighing a surprising 600g, this speaker is heavier than it looks. Still, that only adds to the premium feel.

GROUP TEST BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS

TES WI T NN ER

AND IN THE OTHER HAND…

■ Eco Stove and Grill Because you never know when the urge to flame grill some wors may strike, this ultraportable, superefficient braai comes with a carry case. R1 200 / yuppiechef.com

UE Boom 2

Beats Pill+

R3 500 / incredible.co.za Perfect for taking the party outdoors, the Boom 2 has a tough, water-resistant skin and shrugs off stains like they’re the latest David Guetta abomination. A tube-like shape also means it’ll fit in your bike’s water-bottle holder, which is almost as smart as its Siri and Google Now compatibility. So you can check the weather

R4 400 / myistore.co.za between choice cuts from your Drake megamix. The bass-heavy sound doesn’t dim the details, but with a few tweaks to the EQ in the app it really comes to life. Keep the volume to about three quarters and it’ll really impress. STUFF SAYS ★★★★★ Great sound, tough build and eye-catching looks

The first Beats speaker made under Apple’s ownership isn’t a bitter pill to swallow, but it is a little sour in comparison to the other speakers here. If volume is what you’re looking for from this minimalist effort, then it certainly delivers with oodles of oomph. But when cranked up to 11, the bass surrenders to sloppiness and treble

is as shrill as your average Idols reject. You’d expect better for an asking price of near-on R4 500. This sense of disappointment extends to a 12-hour battery life that, again, just falls short of what you can find elsewhere. STUFF SAYS ★★★✩✩ Just what the doctor ordered? Not quite…

■ Double Walled Beer Glass Laugh at tepid lager with this double walled beer glass that keeps your tipple chilly while looking like an inverted brewski. Cool. R250 / yuppiechef.com

Braven 805

JBL Flip 3

R3 300 / takealot.com ■ Darth Vader Mood Light Keep the party going with this illuminated bad dad. The power-frugal LEDs mean three AAAs should last until the next movie drops. R400 / mentality.co.za

Clean lines and a rounded corners soften the bricklike appearance of one of Braven’s biggest portable speakers. The 4400mAh battery is good for up to 18 hours of playback, a built-in noise-cancelling speakerphone makes it great for impromptu, midparty conference calls, and a USB port means you can use it as a giant battery booster if the

R1 700 / incredible.co.za need arises. Well balanced sound comes standard, but you can also pair the 805 with another Braven speaker for proper stereo sound if you’ve got one to hand, or you meet another Braven owner at the park. That won’t be weird in the slightest. STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩ One of the better options, but the Boom 2 is better still

A clear step up from last year’s Flip 2, JBL’s latest Bluetooth effort beefs up its bass and battery life with sterling results. The cheapest speaker on test here, it offers plenty of noise without skimping on the nuance needed to handle more delicate fare; even finger-picked guitar sounds decent on the JBL when lesser offerings can be left floundering.

The speaker also has a splashproof casing and comes with the ability to connect three speakers together – perfect for when someone sticks on Phil Collins out of misguided irony. It’s a neat feature that caps off a welcome comeback. STUFF SAYS ★★★★★ You can’t get much better than the Flip 3 at this price

71 [[2C]]

FOUR WEEKS WITH THE UNDER ARMOUR HEALTHBOX

Armour believer Under Armour and HTC have teamed up to bring us an all-inclusive package of fitness tech… so Stuff spent a sweaty month testing it all out on the treadmill R6 075 / underarmour.com/en-za

The pack consists of a wrist band, a set of scales and a chest strap, all of which sync with an app

DAY 01 Hopes are high as we open Under Armour’s shiny red box: with UA providing the fitness know-how and HTC handling the tech, it should be a potent combination. we find two wearables plus a smart scale and download details for a host of smartphone apps. But it soon becomes clear that one part of the package is likely to get most of the attention: the band. We’ll be wearing it every day, after all. Thankfully, that’s no

great burden. Forget chunky smartwatches and bling-tastic fitness trackers, because the UA Band is pure subtlety. It sits stealthily on your wrist, counting steps until you call it into action. It’s so comfy we quickly forget we’re wearing it; fortunately it’s waterproof to 20m, otherwise our morning shower would have cut this review short. Anyone with more chunky wrists can swap the band out

The band charges in half an hour and lasts five days, so there’s no excuse not to have it on your wrist 24/7 72

for a longer one; it pops off with a pin or phone SIM tray tool, so isn’t going to fall apart when you’re pumping iron (or whatever else you do to get tired). It’s seriously thin and light, despite being packed with a screen and all manner of sensors, and the single button activates the OLED display. A pedometer counts steps, an accelerometer measures your tossing and turning at night to calculate sleep patterns, and the heart-rate sensor keeps an eye on your resting rate. The battery will keep you going for up to five days and it charges

from empty to full in about half an hour, so there’s no excuse not to have it on your wrist 24/7. You use the physical button to wake the display, but from then on it’s all taps and swipes. You have five main screens: Clock, Activity, Heart Rate, Sleep Tracker and Fitness. Each lets you dig down deeper – tapping Activity will give you calories burned and kilometres walked as well as a step count. It’ll also buzz when you get a call, text message or calendar appointment, and you can control your phone’s music playback from it, which is a nice bonus.

LO N G -T E R M T E S T U N D E R A R M O U R H E A L TH B O X

Donut of Truth™

02 03

01 One of few fitness bands that works with an HRM chest strap 02 App, band, strap and scales all work together seamlessly

03 Huge app ecosystem for all kinds of health tracking 04 Apps lack a few features, such as route maps 05 Overkill unless you’re making serious life changes

Tech specs Compatibility iOS, Android Battery life (band) Five days Battery life (strap) Up to eight months Battery life (scale) Up to one year

DAY 02 We wake to find that the automatic sleep tracking has worked pretty well: it worked out we were trying to catch some Zs and can now tell us how many hours of light and deep sleep we got, whether we woke up in the night and what our resting heart rate was when we woke up. Definitely one of the better sleep trackers we’ve used.

DAY 08 The UA Band really kicks things up a gear when it comes to fitness. You can choose between running, cycling, a gym workout, and a fourth sport you set through the app. Yoga, golf, basketball, exercise classes and baseball are all up for grabs, which should help keep calorie-counting accurate. There’s no GPS built in, so if you want route tracking you’ll need to bring your phone along. The chest-worn heart-rate monitor pairs with the band for much more accurate readings than you’ll get by strapping anything on your wrist. It has two contact pads for direct measurements and a tiny puck that sends the data to the UA Band over Bluetooth. It tells the little LED on the band which colour to glow, based on how hard you’re pushing yourself.

DAY 15 The smart scales recalibrate every time you move them. That can mean you end up with some wacky results – no, we didn’t just lose three kilos by taking the bins out. Hardly ideal, but a bit of deviance either way isn’t a deal-breaker for anyone looking for a general health boost.

DAY 28 The big questions we ask about any fitness gadget that comes our way are “Did it actually make a difference?” and “Are we going to keep using it?” Well, we’ve been using HealthBox religiously for the past four weeks, and we’ve managed to shift a healthy amount of weight. That’s a pretty good sign it’s doing something right. We’re only a third of the way to our goal, so yeah, the UA Band is staying firmly on our wrist and the app is still sitting on our phone’s homescreen. It does carry a hefty premium over your basic fitness wristband, but as a package the HealthBox nails the basics and goes into detail when you need it – and everything syncs nicely. All of which leaves you more energy to dedicate to actually doing the exercise bit.

STUFF SAYS An all-round package with everything you need to fit up – all you need to add is willpower ★★★★✩ 73

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TEST UNDER ARMOUR SPEEDFORM GEMINI 2 RECORD EQUIPPED

Smart shoes. No, really…

If these takkies don’t get you moving, nothing will. Why strap on a wearable when your shoes know everything? Rtba / underarmour.com/en-za ■ OK, Speedform Gemini 2 Record Equipped is a bit of a mouthful for a pair of running shoes, but it’s the ‘Record Equipped’ that’s the important bit. It means there’s a Bluetooth foot pod inside, for recording all kinds of data every time you run. It’s sealed inside the sole, so the only signs of the shoes’ smarts are the tags on the laces. ■ Don’t worry, your feet won’t light up like a fairground with every step. The Gemini 2s are actually pretty subtle in grey and red. You could wear them to the ambassador’s reception without causing an international incident. ■ The built-in battery doesn’t need recharging, and should last for the lifetime of the shoes. That’ll work out at around 800km of running. And while a fitness tracker is easily left at home, you’ll never forget to put your shoes on before you go for a run. ■ Out on the road, there’s enough sole padding to stop your tootsies getting tender. The tracking tech is only in the right shoe, but you can’t feel any weight difference once you’ve laced them up. Just don’t expect them to keep score once you’re on your bike – they only record runs, not cycle rides. ■ Finish your workout and the pod will automatically beam a record back to your phone. Inside the app, our distance, speed and pace were all spot-on – it’s as accurate as any top-spec tracker.

■ App my run

Most Under Armour gear uses the UA Record app, but these kicks only work with Map My Run. It syncs with apps such as MyFitnessPal too, so you know if you’ve done enough exercise to burn off that pre-lunch donut.

■ Route master

Leave your phone at home and the Gemini 2s will still record your run, but you’ll only get GPS mapping data if you bring your handset along. It will save your route as you run, so no need to open the app before you set off.

Tech specs Sensor Pedometer foot pod for tracking time, cadence, duration, distance, splits Connection Bluetooth Sizes SA size 7-14 Weight 295g

STUFF SAYS They’ll get you race-ready, but only if you chosen discipline is running ★★★★✩

Lace ’em up and leave the phone at home… unless you want GPS

Any bit of running tech you don’t have to charge, turn on or even remember to wear is a good thing. The Gemini 2s track your workouts with precision, are as comfy as a regular running shoe, and don’t cost much more either. You’ll only get so many kilometres out of a pair, you’ll still need a phone in your pocket for GPS, and they only record runs (sorry, cyclists), but for sheer convenience they deserve a place in your kitbag. 75

TEST JURA E8

Whole latte love A hardcore machine for hardcore coffee lovers… made even better by optional Bluetooth cleverness R15 300 / za.jura.com ■ Serious about coffee? The Jura E8 is fair old investment but it’ll pay itself back through use after about two years, assuming you’re mainlining at least one filter coffee every day. And if you go for the optional Smart Connect Bluetooth dongle – see below right – it’ll open up a whole new world of coffee. ■ The styling falls somewhere between Apple-esque – all polished metal and friendly screen – and steampunk. This thing is packing some hefty double pump action at the front, which makes it perfect for dual-wielding the morning espresso cups. ■ Setup is way easier than the manual would have you believe – the pathetic printed booklet is by far the weakest link in this coffee production line. You’ll find answers to most of your questions about fitting filters etc online… but not necessarily on Jura’s website. We found unofficial YouTube videos to be much more useful. ■ The screen is bright and colourful, with onboard menus putting several types of coffee just a few buttons away. The stuff itself tastes great, with a beautiful aroma, and it looks like a professionally prepared brew with proper crema. It’s heavenly. ■ There’s a complete set of maintenance modes to keep the machine clean. You might not like doing this every day, but it’ll be worth doing properly to keep the taste top-notch.

Tech specs Water tank 1.9 litres Pressure 15 bar Milk foaming arm Automatic Power 1450W Dimensions 351x280x351mm, 9.8kg

■ Welcome to the dongle

It’s the Smart Connect dongle that separates the E8 from your ordinary bean-to-cup machines. Download the Jura Coffee app (iOS and Android) and your phone can now speak to the machine via Bluetooth.

■ Customise your cappu

The options list is practically overflowing, but the app itself is simple enough. You can tweak recipes and save new presets for your favourite combo: length of drink, temperature, amount of milk and froth…

STUFF SAYS A stylish, easy-to-use machine made even better by Bluetooth ★★★★★

It’s mighty expensive, but the coffee is mighty tasty 76

Time to put away the stove-top espresso pot, paper filters and drip jug. Even those convenient single-use pods can stay on the supermarket shelf. If your coffee addiction is at the level where every barista in the local Been There knows your name and order off by heart, it’s time to start thinking about the E8. Yes, the price is stratospheric, but true caffeine fiends will love it.

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TWO WEEKS WITH THE SAMSUNG GEAR 360

Champion all-rounder? Samsung’s dual-lens 360° camera is pricier than its rivals, but is it better? Stuff spent a fortnight finding out R6 000 / samsung.com/za

The Gear 360’s shape makes it hard to stuff into a jacket pocket. Skinny jeans? Forget about it.

DAY 01 We’ll all be spending a lot more time with VR headsets bolted to our faces if Oculus, HTC and Google Cardboard get their way… but only once there’s anything to actually watch on them. A few fancy demo videos are fine, but it’s the clips and 360° photos you shoot yourself that’ll really wow your friends once you get them goggled up. A couple of

GoPros bolted together will get the job done, sure, but what if you’re after something more elegant and affordable? Nikon’s got an all-in-one 360° action cam, as has LG, and now Samsung has stepped up with this duallens snapper. At R6 000, the Gear 360 is definitely pricier than its LG rival, the 360 Cam, which sells for R3 200, but does it deliver a better experience – and better footage?

Once it’s paired up with the camera using the companion app, your phone becomes a remote viewfinder and controller

The first thing we notice as we remove it from the box is that the Gear 360 is a striking bit of kit: with the combination mini tripod/ handle attached, it’s almost a cross between a robot’s ice cream cone and one of those machine gun turrets from Portal. Build quality is excellent, with a solid feel backed up by IP53 dust-proofing. It’s water-resistant too, but only against spray “from less than 60 degrees from vertical”. So make sure you take a protractor into the shower. The mini grip screws into the bottom of the camera to give you something to hold without

getting in the way of the lenses. Flip out the feet and it turns into a tiny tripod: perfect for timelapse clips and videos where you want to be the centre of attention.

DAY 02 Size is the biggest problem with the Gear 360, at least compared to LG’s 360 Cam. The latter is nicely pocket-sized, but the Gear’s bulbous shape makes it tricky to slip in a pocket. The protective carrying pouch bundled in the box tells us Samsung expects us to toss it into a bag instead.

LO N G -T E R M T E S T

Donut of Truth™

01 Solid, attractive and distinctive design 02 Easy pairing and reconnection, and the app is good

03 Numerous tech issues 04 A bit too big to fit in a trouser pocket 05 Desktop software is Windows only

Tech specs Sensors Dual 15MP CMOS Lenses Dual 180° f/2.0 fisheye Display 0.5in PMOLED Storage microSD (up to 200GB) Dimensions 67x56x60mm, 152g

DAY 04 The Gear 360 has a tiny display and a couple of hardware controls, but we’re not using them. We found them fiddly, and framing footage takes too much guesswork. Without a phone to hand, there’s also the problem of what to do with your recorded files. They’re not VR-ready if you pull them straight off the microSD card onto a PC – you’ve got to upload to a site that supports playing back 360° clips, or watch them on a compatible device. And Samsung’s desktop editing and playback apps are only built for Windows. The companion app makes things a lot easier. Once you’ve paired your phone with the cam it becomes a remote viewfinder and controller, plus you can play back clips or check photos. You’ll need a recent Samsung smartphone, though. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+, and Note 5 all work out of the box. An iOS app is apparently on the way, but there’s no word yet on other Android phones.

DAY 08 It hasn’t been all smooth sailing. The camera regularly drops its connection to our Galaxy S6, or the app gets stuck on the loading

screen, forcing us to reboot the camera. It also hates the 64GB microSD card I’m using, throwing up compatibility errors and demanding a reformat moments after it was working perfectly.

DAY 12 It’s a shame we’ve hit so many pitfalls, because image quality is decent. Still photos and videos look crisp and it copes well with changes in brightness, like when you walk inside from a bright sunny day.

DAY 14 After two weeks using the Gear 360, it’s clear that it beats the LG 360 Cam in features, performance and build quality. But remember you’re paying a R3 000 premium for that bump in quality. And it’s a premium that you might well find difficult to justify, given the tech troubles we’ve had and the lack of decent Mac support. We’d like to see a bit more from Samsung here: proper Mac desktop compatibility is surely a must, as are guidelines as to which microSD cards will or won’t work properly. These are easy fixes, though… and once they’re made, they’ll make the Gear 360 a much more tempting prospect.

STUFF SAYS Too many problems to recommend it to everyone, but there’s a capable 360° camera in here somewhere ★★★✩✩

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FASHION

McQueen (MQ0022S/002)

R2 185 / SDM Eyewear 011 334 7020 2

Prada (0PS05RS)

R3 390 / sunglasshut.com 3

Giorgio Armani (AR6037)

[ Photographer Karl Rogers Stylist Gary Cotterell ]

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FASHION 1

Oakley (009342-05)

R1 690 / oakley.com 2

Puma ‘Williamsburg’ (PU0014S)

R1 725 / SDM 011 334 7020 3

TAG (TOA04658)

R2 840 / picotandmoss.co.za 4

G-Star Raw ‘Fat Dexter’

R3 078 / g-star.com/en_za 5

RetroSuperFuture ‘Flat Top Black&Briar’

R1 999 / retrosuperfuture.co.za 6

Dolce & Gabbana (DG4284)

R2 690 / sunglasshut.com 7

McQueen (MQ0012S/009)

R2 185 / SDM 011 334 7020

FASHION

1 4

Giorgio Armani (AR8081)

R5 090 / sunglasshut.com 2

Burberry (B3085)

R2 890 / sunglasshut.com 3

Persol (PO8139S)

R4 090 / luxottica.com 4

Prada (PR61SS)

R3 390 / luxottica.com 5

Ray-Ban ‘Clubmaster’ (RB3016)

R2 195 / ray-ban.com 6

G-Star Raw ‘Fat Wilton’

R3 078 / g-star.com/en_za

DESIGN

ATTIRE TO INSPIRE

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AFTER HOURS

HOLD THE SALT AND LEMON Alcohol doesn’t get more rock ’n roll than Tequila. It’s the stuff of legendary parties, questionable life decisions, and award-winning hangovers. But above all, it’s associated with damned good times. WHAT, WHERE, HOW?

Authentic Mexican Tequila is made by fermenting the giant pines or piñas of the blue agave plant native to that country. In short, if it doesn’t say 100% agave, you shouldn’t drink it. Highly skilled jimadores harvest the piñas, which are then slowly baked to break down their sugars. These are pulped and the juice is poured into wooden or stainless steel vats and allowed to ferment for a few days. The low-alcohol liquid is then distilled twice before either being bottled as ‘silver’ tequila or allowed to mature in oak barrels (for at least two months) for Reposado or Añejo (at least one year), to develop their unique flavours and soft amber colours.

HERE COMES THE SUN

Good Tequila should be sipped and savoured like a good whisky, but summer time is for long drinks enjoyed until dawn. Whether it’s beach parties or pool parties, a Tequila Sunrise is the perfect cocktail to salute the new day, or bid the old one farewell.

WHO’S TO THANK FOR THE TEQUILA SUNRISE?

Basically a simplified Singapore Sling made with Cuervo, the TS was invented by Californian barman Robert Lozoff who introduced the Stones to it at the start of their 1972 tour. From the infamous pre-tour party at the Trident Restaurant in Sausalito, the drink joined the roadies and the annals of music history, with Keith Richards even writing in his autobiography that the roadshow became known as “the cocaine and Tequila Sunrise tour”.

INGREDIENTS

Ice lolly maker moulds, R50, mrphome.com Freshly squeezed orange juice  Grenadine 



METHOD

Add a shot of Cuervo Tequila to each mould Pour orange juice to about 3/4 of the way up  Add about a teaspoon of Grenadine  Freeze overnight  

[ Photographer Karl Rogers Stylist Gary Cotterell ]

BARELY LEGAL?

Heading to the beach? Here is our take on the Tequila Sunrise that will keep the spirits high and the law in the dark.

TEST GAMES

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Serious sci-fi storytelling, played the way you want? Don the gothy trenchcoat and start augmenting yourself: Adam Jensen is back

PS4, Xbox One, PC / deusex.com

o you do things by the book, or prefer to go rogue? Deus Ex has always let you pick how to play, and Mankind Divided is no different. The moody, trenchcoated man-machine Adam Jensen is back cracking skulls – or lurking in the shadows if you prefer – on the hunt for the mysterious, string-pulling illuminati. Picking up two years after Human Revolution, it’s now a really bad time to be part of humanity 2.0. Effectively, the world has been split into ‘normals’ and ‘augs’, with the latter treated as second-class citizens. It’s bleak stuff, but Jensen is on the job, battling an aug terrorist group while also working covertly with a hacker group to uncover the illuminati’s dastardly plans for the planet. As much as we liked the stylised golden hues of Human Revolution, the dev team has gone for a wider colour palette this time around. It helps give each new location its own sense of character, so it really feels like you’re on an epic globetrotting adventure. You always have a choice: which way

Gameplay has been simplified, making the combat feel more crunchy than ever.

The game looks just as luscious when it drops the bright colours for moodier hues.

to head next, how to get the information you need from a particularly slimy underworld type, or whether to ignore the main story while you polish off all the side missions you can find. That’s true of the combat too. Mankind Divided has overhauled its gunplay for the better, with much more responsive controls. The universal ammo that was so unpopular in previous editions won’t be missed, but it’s the second, hidden layer of cuttingedge kit that makes a big impact. Experimental augmentations like the nano-crystal Titan Shield will give you a major edge in fights, making you completely invincible to bullets for a short time. Even better are the arm-mounted Tesla darts, which lock onto enemies and knock them out silently. Mankind Divided isn’t scared to change up the Deus Ex formula, but it keeps the things that matter. We’re hooked on the story, and the improved controls will be handy when we go in with everything blazing. Goodbye, Ghost rating…

STUFF SAYS Existing fans will lap up the tense story, and so will Deus Ex newcomers ★★★★★ 87

REVIEWS

Media hoard

Avoid falling out with the Church of Stuffology by following our instructions on what to watch and listen to this month

WATCH

My Scientology Movie_cinema he world’s most unflappable man takes on the world’s most secretive religious organisation in Louis Theroux’s first proper feature film… and it’s a stonker. After 2015’s excellent Going Clear doc, another film focusing on Scientology’s disturbing peccadilloes was never going to be enough, even with Theroux’s disarming front-of-camera style. So, with access to the church and its members highly restricted, Theroux instead auditions actors to play high-ranking Scientologists in re-enactments, scripted and supervised with the help of a ‘disgraced’ ex-member called Marty Rathbun. Before long the church gets

wind of Theroux’s project and My Scientology Movie becomes a hybrid of his trademark interviews and a kind of absurd espionage thriller, culminating in a truly bizarre encounter with a highranking acolyte in the darkness outside Scientology HQ. Theroux draws plenty of laughs with his nonplussed approach (“That’s actually quite helpful,” he remarks when blinding security lights on the property’s perimeter fence suddenly come to life) but he never backs down, even when followed or threatened. He doesn’t take Marty at face value either, probing the ex-Scientologist’s own part in the practices that he now seems so keen to expose. STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩

Luke Cage _Netflix

Bulletproof widower Luke Cage was one of the best characters in Jessica Jones, but he struggles to carry his own series. His brooding and reluctance to use his power are a little tiresome, and the show isn’t as smart as it thinks it is. Marvel fans will still want to watch, if only for the occasions that Cage engages rampage mode. STUFF SAYS ★★★✩✩

Supersonic

_cinema, Blu-ray Twenty years after Oasis played to 250,000 people at Knebworth, Supersonic tells the story of how they got there, via hammers, crystal meth and being WANT locked in the brig on MORE LIKE a ferry to Holland. It’s THIS? funny, eye-opening, and will remind you why (for a time) Oasis were the most exciting band on the planet. STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩

REVIEWS

STREAM

Made in America_ShowMax Directed by Ron Howard, who we’ll forever think of first as the narrator and occasional-cameoappearance maker in Arrested Development and second as an awardwinning filmmaker, Made in America tells the origin tale of Jay Z’s hip-hop music festival of the same name. Though it bills itself as an “all-access backstage pass” it’s more a carefully curated look at what it takes to manage a

giant music event and the equally enormous ego’s modern superstars take with them to the stage. Though not essential viewing, it’s an interesting take on the rockumentary genre.

■ Reincarnated_Netflix MUSIC MOVIES

LISTEN

Heads Up_Warpaint Does Warpaint have the best rhythm section in the business? With each new release this LA four-piece finds its groove that little bit more, and Heads Up has the members totally locked in and picking up what each other is putting down. And then some. Where songs often used to float at head height and lack cohesion, they now crouch menacingly, driven along unrelentingly and thrillingly by Jenny Lee Lindberg’s bass and Stella Mozgawa’s drums. Album

opener White Out tries to wriggle out from underneath itself and So Good struts with unstoppable purpose, while The Stall only comes to life when its stuttering beat steps up a gear. The band has talked before about being inspired by hip-hop and R&B but it’s never been more gloriously obvious. They don’t try to rap (thankfully), but this is definitely a record that pushes their sound into new places. STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩

Remember folks, only Snoop and Chinese zoos can turn a dog(g) into a lion. Reincarnated follows Snoop Dogg’s pilgrimage to Jamaica to reinvent himself as a reggae artist.

■ Muscle Shoals_Netflix Muscle Shoals is the Alabama studio where the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded, but it’s the story of the band that originally owned it that’s most interesting.

■ Nas: Time Is Illmatic_Netflix Rapper Nas went from Queensbridge survivor to global superstar when he released Illmatic in 1994, and this documentary returns him to the streets that made him.

The Midnight Sun_C Duncan Just a little too progressive for the average dentist, this is as generically pleasing as Duncan’s debut Architect was inventive and enigmatic. It’s a warm bath of lush retro synths with peppermint-scented harmony vocals, the songs sloshing gently from one into the next. Four stars, but only just. STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩

Dissociation_The Dillinger Escape Plan

This absolutely hits par for the genre-shifting, brainfuddling intellectual metal that is Dillinger. Which, given that it’s to be their last album before a hiatus, is a slight let-down – like expecting a wild send-off but just ending up at your local. Well, at your local for a really strong, complex and noisy night that you’ll talk about for months… STUFF SAYS ★★★★★

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MAKE. DO. UPGRADE.

p92 BETA YOURSELF: INSTAGRAM How to be a phone-wielding, picture-pimping Insta-legend

p94 PLAYLIST: REMASTERED ALBUMS

Great records polished up for your hi-res ears

p96 INSTANT UPGRADES: PLAYSTATION 4

It may not be Slim or Pro, but your old PS4 isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t done yet

p99 5-MINUTE HACKS

Mod your tech, unselfie your selfies and search everywhere

YOBET SE UR A LF -

PROJECTS | 11.16

It’s where many of us loiter like addicts for our daily fix of images and videos; Stuff explains how to make the most of Instagram with these handy tips and apps

power to approve or reject tags from other people by going to your profile, selecting the person icon, tapping the options icon at the top right, then selecting ‘add manually’.

THE BASICS ■ Manage your filters.

It’s important to have all your Instagram filters in perfect order. In the filters list, tap and drag to rearrange the order of the list. To reinstate ones you’ve hidden, scroll to the end of the list and choose Manage Filters.

■ Go direct. See that little

inbox icon in the top right-hand corner? That’s Instagram Direct, a way to share photos with select followers rather than the world. Do the usual (select photo and edit), but instead of sharing to Followers, tap Direct to choose the lucky recipients.

■ Get mappy. To see a map

of where you’ve taken your Instagrams, go to your profile and choose the map icon. Don’t want anyone to know about that weekend in Welkom? Go to your photo map and deselect the offending snaps.

■ Do not disturb. Want total control over which pictures appear in your profile? Get the

■ Jog your memory. If you can’t find that classic of a cat riding a Roomba, go to the settings wheel and choose ‘posts that you’ve liked’. ■ Keep it steady. Let’s not forget, the first thing you need is good photos. If you don’t have a smartphone tripod to hand, try balancing your phone on objects like backpacks or handrails to keep your Instagrams sharp and in focus. And then, get editing…

EDITING TRICKS ■ Make a collage. Instagram Layout (Free, iOS and Android) is a quick and easy way to combine up to four photos into one poster-worthy shot.

■ Fix your perspective.

Instagram’s built-in ‘Adjust’ tool is fine for basic work, but to really iron out those wonky horizons try SKWRT (from R38, iOS and Android).

■ Remove distractions.

Photoshop Express (£free, iOS and Android) has a host of essential ‘quick fix’ tools, including ones for softening noise and adjusting shadows.

11.16 | PROJECTS WHO TO FOLLOW

@ZACHLIPSON

If you’re into interesting buildings, urban jungles and the people living in them, Zach Lipson has you covered. A resident of Chicago, his sharp, muted shots look like they’re plucked straight from the pages of a graphic novel, and offer plenty of inspiration for architecture fans and city lovers alike.

@NASAGODDARD

Fact: everyone loves space. Except maybe Sandra Bullock. But for the rest of us, the universe’s wonders never cease to amaze, and the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center’s official Insta account has plenty of jaw-dropping images of the great beyond to inspire and terrify simultaneously.

SPECIAL FX ■ Get psychedelic. Need to

make an emergency album cover? Fragment (from R19, iOS and Android) will give your photos major surgery.

■ Become an artist. Prisma

(Free, iOS and Android) and Pikazo (Free, iOS) are our favourite apps for creating works that truly reflect our fearless artistic vision.

■ Embrace puddletography.

Find a puddle with an interesting reflection, turn your phone upside down, and take a shot. It’s great for getting a new angle on subjects.

TELLING STORIES ■ Press self-destruct.

Instagram now lets you take Snapchat-style photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. To make a Story, press the ‘plus’ symbol in the top left corner, doodle over your creation using the markers, and fling it into the ether.

■ Fix your invisible text.

The text in Instagram Stories is white by default, which is annoying if you’re trying to write over an albino kitten. To help it stand out, select the drawing tool and colour the background – your text will now stand out.

BACKING UP ■ Take ownership. If you plan

to leave Instagram or just want to back up your snaps, try using Instaport (Free, instaport.me).

■ Save to Drive. Instagram doesn’t have a built-in option for saving photos to Drive, but the self-proclaimed ‘internet glue’ IFTTT (ifttt.com) can do this automatically. To set it up, go to bit.ly/instagramdrive ■ Convert to atoms. Turn your photo feed into a physical album. Our favourite service for this is Blurb (from R200, blurb. com), which also offers book options for Facebook snaps.

@TANAKA_TATSUYA

Tanaka Tatsuya is a genius when it comes to blending real-world objects with miniature models. From transforming ice cream scoops to planets, belts to rollercoasters and many, many more ingenious ideas, he’s created a whole new fascinating world of macro art that we would happily hang on our walls.

PROJECTS | 11.16

Make the most of your fancy new speakers or headphones with these classic albums, now sounding even better than they used to

Interpol Turn On the Bright Lights

This is the album that put Interpol on the wanted list. The band’s trademarks – angular guitars, expressive bass and the studied, effective monotone of Paul Banks’ vocals – sound pleasingly bleak and clean, all the better to express TOTBL’s sketches of pain and squalor. Spotify, Tidal, 7digital

Underworld Second Toughest in the Infants

Rather than being packed with banging techno anthems, Underworld’s fourth album seamlessly blends various forms of downbeat electronica, proving in the process that rave music could be just as comfortable being atmospheric and reflective. Spotify, Tidal, 7digital

Phil Collins Hello, I Must be Going!

There are people, some of them in the Stuff office, who will tell you that Phil Collins’ music is without merit. But this is a flawless record, full of tracks with deep, sometimes dark lyrical stories. The remaster polishes what was already a kind of perfection. Spotify

Love Forever Changes

Whether it’s the bad trip of A House is Not a Motel or the hints at indiscriminate slaughter on The Red Telephone, Forever Changes is a subversive and surreal record. The Morricone-esque blast of brass midway through Alone Again Or is worth the download alone. Spotify, Tidal, 7Digital

My Morning Jacket It Still Moves

Tinkering with an album that’s loved partly for its raw, live sound could be a dangerous game, but My Morning Jacket get the balance right on this remixed version of their fan favourite. It still feels like you’re in a sweat-drenched bar listening to classic rockers on top form. Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz

Lift To Experience The TexasJerusalem Crossroads

It’s an apocalyptic sprawl of post-indie magnificence, but the spacey production of the Lifties’ one album never sounded very ‘big’. Well, this is not just a remaster but an actual remix, with the band involved. It’s out any day now, and we are panting for it. (tba)

Nirvana In Utero 20th Anniversary Edition

This 2013 edition of Nirvana’s final studio album includes a remastered version plus new remixes by Steve Albini, whose original mixes were deemed too lo-fi to release in ’93. With the remaster’s higher dynamic range, these songs have never sounded so nuanced. Amazon, Tidal, Spotify

11.16 | PROJECTS

HI-RES HAUNTS

TIDAL HIFI

Spotify remains our favourite all-rounder, but if it’s lossless FLAC streaming you’re after (and you’ve got the kit and ears to support it) then Tidal’s HiFi plan could be your match. Its catalogue is more rock and pop than rival Qobuz, and it’s likely to support the MQA format later this year. R150/month / tidal.com

7DIGITAL

Our pick of the hi-res download stores, 7Digital uses its ties with four major record labels to serve up a catalogue that covers everything from Kendrick Lamar to the Dalai Lama. Handy editorial features will also help you discover new music to go with your pristine 24-bit studio remasters. 7digital.com

Isis Panopticon

This is a record that sounds like it was unearthed rather than recorded. Wherever it came from, the album was remastered in 2014 and it’s never been more earthshakingly heavy. Everything on it sounds massive, with Aaron Turner’s vocals buried somewhere deep in the middle. Spotify, Tidal, 7Digital

Manic Street Preachers The Holy Bible

Less an album and more an exercise in pain and suffering – The Holy Bible places such laugh-a-minute subjects as anorexia, prostitution and the holocaust against a backdrop of raw guitars and unflinching samples. Not an easy listen, but an essential one. Spotify, Tidal, 7Digital

My Bloody Valentine Loveless

If you listen closely to the remastered edition of Loveless, you might just about hear the difference between it and the seminal 1991 original. Given that Kevin Shields spent 22 years making the follow-up, that’s no surprise – he’s famous for raising hell at a glacial pace. Spotify, Tidal, 7Digital

Slint Spiderland

Post-rock didn’t exist as a genre when Slint released Spiderland in 1991. But it was so far removed from the music that Pearl Jam, Guns N’ Roses et al were making, what else could you call it? So sparse you can almost hear the empty space in the studio, it still sounds like nothing else. Spotify, Tidal, 7Digital

VINYL CAFÉ

Get your hipster on and scoop some vinyl from this Cape Town-based online retailer. When you tire of the crackle and pop, get Sony’s PSHX500 (import - R7 150, sony. com) and convert your sultry old tunes to highres digital files. Then put the LPs in a vault. from R40 / vinylcafe.co.za

PROJECTS | 11.16

From adding accessories to unlocking hidden features, there’s plenty more to squeeze out of your PS4

BEST NEW ACCESSORIES 1 SAMSUNG M9T 2TB HDD Yes, this is a hard drive. Not the most exciting thing to look at, we’ll give you that, but as your PS4’s original one is probably stuffed to the brim with all sorts of digital goodies, R1 500 for a slim 2TB upgrade sounds like a no-brainer to us – especially as it’s a complete doddle to install. R1 500 / amazon.com

2 PLAYSTATION VR (AVAILABLE 13 OCT) Sure, you could spend a hefty sum on a beastly gaming rig and a VR headset like the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. Or you could spend a lot less on Sony’s own Virtual Reality facehugger, which looks like it’s been plucked from a futuristic arcade, ready to blast your eyes into new worlds. Rtba / playstation.com

3 TURTLE BEACH ELITE PRO TAC PACK Once you’ve experienced the isolated joy of a proper gaming headset, you’ll never want to go back to anything else. Turtle Beach’s latest cans come with an external audio controller that lets you tweak game noise, background noise and mic levels, giving you full control over your ears. Rtba / apexint.co.za

11.16 | PROJECTS FINISHING TOUCHES

NOW DO THIS...

1 DISAPPEAR ‘Working from home’ while secretly playing FIFA online was always a risky move, but you can finally avoid stern talks with your boss by appearing to be offline. Hit up your profile from the main menu, select Online Status > Appear Offline, and you’re good to go. You can also do this from the login screen when you first turn the PS4 on, by highlighting your profile, clicking the Options button on the controller, and selecting Log In With Online Status [Appear Offline]. Hello, sweet secrecy.

4 SHARE THE LOVE If you find yourself constantly taking majestic screenshots of alien worlds in No Man’s Sky or meticulously positioning the camera to capture your aerial achievements in Rocket League, then you’re probably a bit of a collector. The default option is to press the Share button and select, but an even quicker way is to hold Share down for a few seconds, which snaps one for you without having to leave the game screen. Find them all on your PS4, put them on a USB stick, and share with the world.

Y BU W NO

2 BFF ALERT Instead of being alerted when each person on your friends list comes online, you can instead limit these alerts only to your favourites – the ones in your inner circle who you genuinely like. Setting up customised alerts only takes a few seconds: Settings > Notifications > When Friends Go Online. Then it’s just a case of selecting your besties from your friends list before you’re sorted. The next time they come online you’ll get an on-screen notification, so you can start flinging out a party invitation straight away.

5 CARRY ON GAMING If you fire up your PS4 on a daily basis, then you don’t want to faff around loading up games from scratch each time. Well, you don’t have to. Go to Settings > Power Saving Settings > Set Features Available in Rest Mode. Select Keep Application Suspended, and each time you fire up your PS4 after putting it in Rest Mode you’ll be right where you left off. It won’t work for online games like Destiny – you’ll find yourself back at the login screen – but even then, you’ll be saving a bit of time.

3 PS PLUS GAMES If you’re a PlayStation Plus member then you’re probably aware of the free games Sony dishes out to subscribers each month. Trouble is, it used to be a pain to download games you might not even play – in terms of both downloading time and space taken up on your hard drive. Thankfully, Sony updated the PS4 with a new feature that lets you select Add to Library instead of Download. That way you can access it in the future, when you feel like downloading it, though you’ll still have to keep up your PS Plus subscription.

6 MULTITASK LIKE A PRO We still come across people who’ve yet to discover the wonders of easier multitasking on Sony’s console. Double-tap the PlayStation button and you can swap between your two most recent screens – which comes in handy when, for example, gaming while messaging friends. Once you’ve opened up messages while in a game, double-tapping the PS button will flick you between the messages and game screen. A single press will still take you to the main homescreen.

Pick up a PS4 with WeChat Wallet on p68

CUSTOM HOMESCREEN Do you have trouble sleeping because your PS4’s default homescreen is so boring? Head to Settings >Themes and choose a brand new look. If you haven’t got any themes loaded, go to ‘Find in PlayStation Store’ and find a design that speaks to you. Boom: a perfect night’s sleep is (gaming marathon aside) yours.

PERSONALISED SOUNDTRACK If you’re a Spotify subscriber you can stream music straight to your PS4 – a bit of Bacharach’s ideal for making scary games less terrifying. Simply make sure both your phone and console are on the same network, select the PS4 from the devices tab in your Spotify app, and say hello to your personal gaming mixtape.

APPY BANTER Sony has a separate PlayStation Messages app, which is a handy tool you should install on your phone if you’re forever chatting to your buddies. Essentially WhatsApp for your PS4, it lets you send messages to people using your phone’s onscreen keyboard, which is a much more agreeable typing experience than using the controller to peck at letters on your TV.

PROJECTS | 11.16 SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE

What should I do with my old phone? 1 / Have to dash… AutoBoy Dash Cam Converting your old smartphone into a dashcam is as simple as downloading an app such as AutoBoy Dash Cam, which lets you record all of your automobile outings – useful in case of an accident. Or you could start a popular YouTube channel with it. Free / Android

NEVER BE BORED AGAIN

PS4 REMOTE PLAY Free / forum.xda-developers.com

If you’re a PS4 owner, then you might already be familiar with Sony’s Remote Play app, which lets you stream and play PS4 games directly to your phone like magic. It even lets you connect the PS4 controller to your phone, for proper on-the-go console gaming. Trouble is, it’s not supported on non-Xperia handsets. Thankfully, though, there’s an easy workaround. There’s a version of the Remote Play app available on the XDA Developer forums which lets you load a version of the Remote Play app on almost any Android phone. Installation is a doddle, and you can even get the PS4 controller working

too, with a little bit of tweaking. Once you’re set up, you’ll be able to remotely access your PS4 from anywhere with a solid internet connection – playing games, starting downloads, you name it. It really is like having a PlayStation in your pocket. Full instructions can be found at tinyurl.com/ android-and-ps4

NOW DO THIS… GAME IN STYLE Buy an adaptor mount that attaches your smartphone to the PS4 controller and you won’t have to worry about propping up your phone on a table. You might look a little odd, sure, but you’ll be too busy scoring a hat-trick in Rocket League to care.

KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR TINY HUMAN

BABY MONITOR & ALARM

2 / Eyes on the road! Car Dashdroid Motor not Android Auto-compatible? Give your old phone a new home in the cubby hole. This free app provides fingerfriendly navigation for music, maps and contacts, making for safer use in the car. Just keep your own eyes on the road. Free / Android

R50 / Android

Congratulations – you’ve created a miniature human being, and all it wants to do is eat, cry and create waste, which you have to clean up. On the rare occasions it’s decided to sleep, you’re going to have to tend to your own needs… but you’ll still want to keep an eye on Mini You. Luckily, you can load up your old smartphone or tablet with the Baby Monitor & Alarm app. Once it’s paired to your current phone it acts as a baby monitor, letting you keep an eye on your little one while you desperately try to cram food into your mouth and recover from the toll of your parenting duties.

YOU’VE BEEN FRAMED

iFRAME

$70 / getiframe.com

NOW DO THIS... RELAX MELODIES R45 / Android

You can also load your spare device up with an app like Relax Melodies, which can help soothe your child to sleep with an array of relaxing sounds, from the light patter of rain to calming waves lapping gently on a sandy beach.

If you’ve got an old iPad that’s been decommissioned to the gadget graveyard drawer, then breathe new life into it with the iFrame – a handsome frame that lets you stand the tablet up or hang it on the wall, transforming it into the world’s most advanced digital photo frame. With plenty of apps including a built-in slideshow, you’ll be gazing wistfully at last summer’s beach shots in no time.

3 / Phone home Boinc Fire up this app when your unused phone is charging and connected to Wi-Fi, and the Boinc project will put its number-crunching processor to good use – like searching for aliens with SETI. It won’t help find intelligent life on Earth, unfortunately. Free / Android

11.16 | PROJECTS

2 ...UN-SELFIE YOUR SELFIES Wide-angle smartphone lenses can make your face look even stranger than normal. This tool will help fix your massive nose and bulbous eyes... Go to Repose. Head to Princeton University’s beta project (faces. cs.princeton.edu/) and check out some of the examples to see its face-warping code in action. It combines 3D head models and editing wizardry to convincingly simulate a change in focal length. Upload your snap. Go to ‘upload your photo’ and mark the top of your ears and head. This helps the tool make a 3D rendering based on your flat 2D image. You’ll now have some controls for adjusting the focal length, yaw and pitch of the photo.

1 ...MOD YOUR TECH

Tune up. For a less powerful but more fully realised selfie editor, check out Facetune (R80, iOS and Android). This lets you tweak your eyes and hair like a digital plastic surgeon, but lacks the Princeton tool’s selfie trickery.

Gadgets have a habit of either breaking or not being perfectly tailor-made for your needs. Sugru and Formcard have some ideas on how to fix that... Boost your storage. Sugru’s mouldable silicone is available in a new Rebel Tech Pack (R180, sugru.com), which is most keen on customising your tech. We like its hook-based ideas for tidying away Apple TVs and hard drives.

Have you ever found yourself wishing there was an ‘Apple F’ shortcut for your entire life? These tools can help track things down in the places Spotlight and Google can’t quite reach... Search the real world. Ctrl F (Free, Android) lets you scan printed text then search it for keywords (it doesn’t work with handwriting, though). Handy for searching a manual that’s been printed in a teeny font (or just cheating at word search games). Search your digital life. Not sure whether that file is hiding on your Mac’s desktop or in the likes of Dropbox, Google Drive and Evernote? The beta app Meta Search (Free, app.meta.sc) will let you search all of them simultaneously. Search your Mac with your iPhone. One for the truly lazy, Find It (Free, iOS/Mac) lets you search your Apple computer with your iPhone, as long as both are on the same network.

Tweak your controller. If your PS4 pad’s analogue sticks or shoulder buttons are too stubby for your liking, a couple of moulded balls of Sugru could lift you top of your FIFA league. Get a quick fix. Formcard’s mouldable bio-plastic (from R90, formcard.com) is handily shaped to slip into wallets, but a cup of hot water later it’s ready for all sorts of fixes, from headphone tidies to smartphone stands.

3 ...SEARCH EVERYWHERE

PROJECTS | 11.16

ALWAYS ON CALL facebook.com/stuffsa @StuffSA

stuff@stuff.co.za

●

MAIL OF THE MONTH Q

IT IS ALWAYS WISE TO BUY A MACBOOK

How wise is it to buy a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro from 2008 onwards on eBay, since a 2015 Retina Display MacBook Pro is flipping expensive? What are the things to look for or at least to keep in mind and how much does it cost to replace a battery on a MacBook from those years? I've had three iPhones, two iPod

Classics, an iPod Touch and an iPad. And from that list only two iPhones and the iPad I bought new and the rest are secondhand and I don't have a problem with them so will that be the case with a MacBook? (And one last thing, do you think it'll be cool to buy that beautiful 1st gen Mac Pro and refurbish it with the new Mac Pro innards?) Katlegomac

Buying a MacBook on eBay or from a similar service is about as risky as buying anything else online. eBay tends to be okay, as they’ll assist in the case of shenanigans, and the hardware you’re looking at buying will hold up well so you shouldn’t worry on that score. Battery replacements vary, with the battery costing anywhere from R1 500 or more, so it depends where you have it

done. Get a RAM and storage upgrade while you’re at it and you’ll be well served. As for that Mac Pro refurb idea – yes, that would be very cool.

Speak your brains to Stuff and you could win! This letter wins a Moov Now multi-sport wearable worth R1 199.

GETTING FIT ON A BUDGET

I recently got a R1 000 Incredible Connection voucher. I'm planning on spending it on a fitness tracker. I have looked on the website and the best and most affordable ones are the Mi Band Pulse, Misfit Flash, Jawbone UP Move and the Jawbone UP24. Out of the one's I have listed which one is the best and not too old? Josh

Well Josh, you’re going to have to choose. All of the bands you have your eye on are good. The Mi Band Pulse is the newest of the lot but if you’re looking for a balance of form, function, and style, then we’re going to have to go with the Misfit Flash.

SOMEONE’S BEEN WATCHING APPLE ADS AGAIN

I am about to write my final Matric examination and am starting to plan for next year. I have no computer of any sort and would like your advice. I am planning on purchasing either a 12.9in iPad Pro or a MacBook. The MacBook comes out a bit more expensive, and I'm not sure which one is the most sensible to purchase? I love the look of the Space Grey MacBook! Has the space between tablets and laptops been reduced enough yet? And perhaps an Apple Pencil could come in very handy for notes. Even then, perhaps I need to broaden my horizon, and perhaps consider other brands as well? Shaun

Stuff.co.za has a comparison for your choices of MacBook. Long story short, all of them are great but the 13in MacBook is your absolute best bet. You don’t really want an iPad and Pencil for note-taking but that’s a versatility thing. Apple’s tablets are great but you shouldn’t believe everything they mention in their adverts just yet. The iPad Pro 12.9 isn’t a laptop replacement. Not yet. If you really think you're going to need heavy lifting abilities, get any MacBook Pro.

CHEAP, QUICK, POWERFUL – PICK TWO

I am looking for a budget, quality tablet that's good for watching

YouTube videos as well as listening to music and has a decent operating system. And as a special request, make sure it's good for playing Clash Royale. I love the game. I even have The Log. Mikhail

Normally you’d be asking for the moon on a plate but as it happens, we’ve got this. Sorta. You can snag a new Samsung Galaxy Tab A (takealot.com, R3 000) which fulfils all of your requirements but we’re not really sure what your budget is. Or you can get the Tab3 Lite 7in (takealot.com, R2 200). Or just about any tablet with more than 1GB of RAM and Android 4.4 or better, if you’re looking to spend under R2 000.

Next month’s mail of the month wins a P-Touch E100 Industrial Labelling Machine from Brother worth R1 199

Label like a pro with the PT-E100VP, helping you get the job done quickly and correctly. This easy-to-use machine is especially fast and efficient, printing up to 12mm wide labels that are designed for durability, while the built-in cutter keeps hands free and the LCD graphical screen offers clear visibility.

100

*Available in orange only

Congratulations to our 3Doodler winners: Owen Mphande, Dean Welgemoed, Ian Du Plessis, Kim Randell, Christopher Roberts, Dirk Konigsbruck, Lindi Delport, Pieter Veldman, Carina Willemse and Marenda Julyan

TOP TEN OF EVERYTHING Smartphones Phablets Laptops Tablets Wearables TVs Cameras Wireless speakers Games Headphones

102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111

Have your say on the Stuff Facebook page tinyurl.com/StuffZA For reviews of products featured in the top 10s, visit stuff.co.za Prices quoted are the best available at the time of printing

T HO Y BU

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SMARTPHONES

STUFF SAYS

Samsung Galaxy S7

Welcome to the age of ‘sensible Samsung’, a smartphone maker of dependable excellence. The Galaxy S7 is straight up brilliant, setting a high bar for all of Samsung’s competitors. It looks almost identical to last year’s Galaxy S6 (except the camera bump has been trimmed), but it has a better camera, and has brought back the S5’s water-resistance and microSD card slot. Plus, it’s got an always-on display and a whopping 4GB of RAM. We’re smitten.

An imperious update of our favourite phone from last year: this is the best smartphone you can buy

from R13 000 ★★★★★

Apple iPhone 7

from R13 000 ★★★★★

OnePlus 3

from R9 000 ★★★★★

LG G5

from R12 000 ★★★★★

BEST FOR HEAVY USERS AND REBELS

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

from R11 000 ★★★★★

BEST FOR POWERING ALL THE THINGS

Google Nexus 6P

from R10 000 ★★★★★

Apple iPhone SE

from R8 500 ★★★★★

Huawei P9

Xiaomi Mi 5

The iPhone 7’s modest upgrades all come together to make a much more significant whole than you’d expect – in typical Apple fashion, the experience is just so polished. Losing the 3.5mm jack stings, though... and you don’t get the 7 Plus’s extra camera. You might recall this handset from our September 2016 issue as the Best Phone in the World. We stand by that but it’s a little hard to get in South Africa, what with shipping from China and customs officials potentially standing in the way. Amazing, if you can get it. With it’s removable bottom, swappable battery and selection of add on modules it’s a wonder the G5 still manages a sleek all-metal build. Not to mention two cameras – a wide-angle 8MP one and a conventional 16MP one – all at a reasonable price, no less. When it launched last year, the Galaxy S6 Edge was one of the best smartphones we’d ever used, not least because Samsung stopped making all the bits plastic. Nothing’s changed. It’s still one of the best phones. Especially now that the price has dropped. The 6P gets the Nexus series back on the rails. Camera? Design? Performance? Software? All get a serious thumbs-up. Standouts include the fingerprint scanner and the front camera, which are among the very best available at any price. The cheapest iPhone ever made packs pretty much all the power of the iPhone 6s into the 4in/10.1cm aluminium shell of the iPhone 5s. Its compact, no-compromise concept should tempt plenty of newbies into Apple’s world. The SE is the best small phone you can buy. Being first is always special, except on YouTube comments. Huawei’s P9 is one of those firsts, being the first handset this year to arrive packing true dual cameras. There are twin 12MP Sony shooters inside, along with a sprinkling of decent specs. Cast your beady eye over Xiaomi’s Mi 5, which owes something to the revamped Galaxy flagship range. It’s just cheaper, though it’s not short on specs. Loads of RAM, processing power and a glass build make this feel pretty premium. Except in the wallet area.

Vodafone Smart Prime 7

The Smart Prime 7 is a lesson in quite how cheap phones can get before they seem cobbled together out of bits found in bargain bins. On specs alone it easily holds its own against rivals that cost twice the price – a solid gold bargain.

P R O M O T I O N

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● Prices quoted are for handset only unless otherwise stated

102

PHABLETS 103 T HO Y BU

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STUFF SAYS

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

Just an S7 with a stylus? Nope, it’s the combination of the S Pen with the bigger 5.7in screen and clever software that makes the Note 7 different. Plus it’s a big phone that doesn’t feel like one, and a productivity powerhouse that doesn’t look like one.This sets a high bar for all of Samsung’s competitors. And now the stylus is waterproof and fits either way. Who says you can’t have everything?

The (non-exploding) Note 7 will be arriving on our shores some time this month. Worth waiting for, though.

Rtba ★★★★★

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

from R15 500 ★★★★★

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

from R15 000 ★★★★★

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+

from R12 000 ★★★★★

Huawei Mate 8

from R13 000 ★★★★★

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium

Lumia 950XL

from R11 900 ★★★★★

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3

from R3 800 ★★★★★

Huawei Mate 7

from R7 000 ★★★★★

The new 7 and 7 Plus look almost identical to last year’s models, except for the glossy jet black option and Lightning headphone output. But they’re waterproof, processing power and battery life have been improved, and the Plus gets a tasty dual-lens camera. Previously the Edge + devices were Samsung’s non-Note phablets, but now the S7 is the regular-sized device and the S7 Edge the more, well, voluptuous. So, while this here’s a great smartphone (like the S7 on the left), it’s also an outstanding phablet. Show-off. The Edge+ is a larger version of the curvy S6 Edge that wowed us last year. Its extra chunk of screen and camera are terrific, and now, thanks to the new S7 Edge, it’s a far more reasonably priced buy if you’re looking for processing clout and a big screen. If you liked the Mate 7 you’ll love the Mate 8 with its 6in/15.2cm display, Kirin octa-core cruncher, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Not to mention the exceptional 16MP camera and staggering battery life. You’re going to need big hands, though. When you have to outdo every other screen in the room, Sony’s Z5 Premium is the one to get. A massive 2160 x 3840 res on the 5.5in/14cm screen – stop counting, it’s 4K. The camera and internals are top notch too. We’d expect nothing less. It’s not often flagship phones get stealthy launches, but Microsoft did just that with the Lumia 950XL. Look for the 20MP cam, QuadHD 5.7in/14.5cm display, and the strongest hardware setup the company has put forth in ages. Pity it’s so plasticky, though. Xiaomi’s brand means two things. One – it’s not going to cost you the price of a basic motorcycle. And two – it’s going to arrive with enough hardware to keep you happy. Allmetal unibody, specs that are just as solid and enough performance to keep you going. Huawei’s 6in/15.2cmMate 7 doesn’t really fit the bill of cutting edge but it has price and surprising performance, considering the octa-core Snapdragon CPU. Since the launch of the Mate 8, this one has also become more of a value proposition.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2

Wait, how much is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 going to cost you? Just three grand and you’re getting 16GB of storage, an HD screen, dual SIM and a 13MP cam, in a phablet. Nope, they didn’t misprice this one? But, be warned, finding accessories is tough.

P R O M O T I O N

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R13 000 ★★★★★

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BEST FOR DESIGN FUNDIS

BEST FOR THE BUDGETCONSCIOUS

104 T HO Y BU

LAPTOPS

Apple MacBook Pro 13in (2015)

Apple hasn’t changed the Macbook Pro up for 2016 yet. Still, there’s a fancy new trackpad and the latest generation of Intel CPUs, which deliver better stamina as well as a chunk more power. This is an incremental upgrade, but given how good the Pro already was, that’s more than enough to keep it right at the top of the laptop honours list. If you need power as well as stamina and portability, this is one of the best laptops money can buy.

STUFF SAYS

If it ain’t broke… it hasn’t radically changed, but the Pro’s performance and trackpad are top of its class

from R21 900 ★★★★★

Dell XPS 13 (2015)

from R31 500 ★★★★★

MSI GT72VR 6QE

from R48 000 ★★★★★

Acer Predator 17

from R34 000 ★★★★★

Apple MacBook (2016)

from R18 000 ★★★★★

HP Spectre 13

How do you earn the title of world’s thinnest laptop? By shrinking and slashing until you’re left with only the essentials. Yet the Spectre has got serious power under the hood, and the looks to give Apple’s 12in MacBook a run for its money.

Rtba ★★★★✩

Microsoft Surface Book

from R38 000 ★★★★★

ASUS ROG GL752VW

from R30 000 ★★★★✩

Apple MacBook Air 13in (2015)

from R20 500 ★★★★✩

HP Pavilion 15

from R25 000 ★★★★✩

The original XPS 13 was already a great lightweight laptop, but now Dell has given it a Windows 10 refresh. If the last one was the thinking person’s ultrabook, this is that and a whole lot more. With improved battery life and performance, it’s hard to beat. Get your game on with MSI’s GT72VR, a humongous VR-ready gaming notebook toting Nvidia’s new Pascal GTX 1070 8GB GPU, 16GB of RAM and a Core i7-6700 HQ. Whether you’re using the 17.3in/44cm display or a headset, you’re totally sorted. A 17in/43.2cm gaming notebook from Acer? What’ll that run you? A reasonable R34k, all the way up to R50k but you’re getting a Core i7 Skylake and a 4GB 980M at the top end, a combo which gobbles frames like they’re ghosts and it’s Pacman. Prettiness in pink aside, this is much like last year’s 12in/30.5cm MacBook. The 2016 version is skinny and fab to work on, with a lovely screen… but unless you’d lap up the extra hour’s battery life, there’s no real need to upgrade from last year’s model.

Microsoft’s finally made a laptop, and shorn of its initial bugs, the Surface Book is a lustrous Windows machine with premium appeal. With an innovative hinged design, plenty of oomph and a tablet option, this sleek hybrid gets a lot right. Another gaming machine out for your money. Asus does love its gaming label and this 17.3in/44cm mid-ranger is evidence of that. It comes in at the lower pricing end because of the GTX 960M inside, but you’ve still got Skylake in your corner. Apple is scraping by with pretty much the same Air design as before. You get a new processor, new connectors and slightly improved battery life, but still no Retina screen. However, if a portable road warrior is what you’re after, this is still a great choice. This is a surprise, HP’s Pavilion 15 is actually a pretty competent gaming rig. You’ve got that lovely Skylake chip everyone’s talking about, a GTX 950M and some bland looks, but it will run most current titles. It makes a good lap-warmer, too.

P R O M O T I O N

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BEST FOR BUDGET SKYLAKE

TABLETS 105 T HO Y BU

Apple iPad Pro 9.7

STUFF SAYS

The iPad Pro 9.7 takes everything we loved about Apple’s original 12.9in/32.7cm Pro tablet, makes it a lot more portable, and even adds in a few extras of its own. The True Tone display, which changes automatically based on ambient conditions, is a marvel, while the 12MP shooter is frankly overkill for those brave enough to use it in public. It’s expensive, but perfection usually comes at a price.

Incredible power, superb features and near-flawless design: the iPad Pro 9.7 is pure tablet perfection

from R14 000 ★★★★★

Apple iPad Mini 4

from R7 700 ★★★★★

BEST FOR CREATIVITY ON THE MOVE

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7

from R9 000 ★★★★★

BEST FOR MAGAZINES AND MOVIES

Google Nexus 9

The design isn’t as pristine, but this is a real Android contender to rival the iPads. You get the new Android 6.0 Marshmallow software, bags of power and a super-sharp display. With 12 hours of video play and two front-facing speakers, it’ll be a great film buddy.

R6 100 ★★★★★

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

from R18 000 ★★★★★

Apple iPad Pro 12.9

from R16 000 ★★★★✩

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7

from R6 000 ★★★★✩

Mecer Xpress Smartlife 10.1

from R1 900 ★★★★✩

Samsung Galaxy Tab E 9.6

from R3 800 ★★★★✩

Mecer A890A

from R2 300 ★★★★✩

This is the mini tab we’ve been waiting for. It’s 1.4mm thinner and 32g lighter, just the right size for a great portable entertainment hub, and subtle display tweaks will do justice to games and graphic novels alike. Plus it will easily last three days on a charge. Slimmer and faster, with a brilliant screen and serious stamina, the Galaxy Tab S2 sees Samsung back in the running for the Android throne. Apple’s iPads still offer the best user interface and app selection, but as Android tabs go, this one’s tops.

At last, Microsoft has delivered on the promise of the tablet-cum-laptop hybrid. It proves there’s space in the world for a design that’s more productive than an iPad or Galaxy Note, but easier to hump around than a traditional laptop. The supercharged, supersized iPad Pro is for serious creatives with seriously deep pockets. To get the best out of it, you’re going to want the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, too. But that’ll push the price to over R20k, and it still won’t replace your laptop. Missing Samsung’s stylus-toting tablets? The oversized Notes have gone the way of the Dodo but that’s not the end of the road for you. You can still snag some S Pen action from a Galaxy Tab A, but you’re going to be sacrificing specs for the privilege. Where can you get ten inches for very little money? Get your mind out the gutter. Mecer’s 10in/25.4cm Xpress Smartlife slate will give you Android access and all-day battery for less than two grand, just don’t expect iPad-like performance. Samsung still makes a ton of budget-focused tech, though you wouldn’t believe it with all of the top-end top-dollar gear it’s been using to knock balls out the park lately. If Sammy’s hardware is what you crave, the Tab E 9.6 is the budget choice. The price conscious can’t expect to find a Windows-capable 9in/23cm tablet for an acceptable price in this country. Can they? Yes, they can. Mecer’s A890A packs a Bay Trail processor, 3G, GPS and a better-than-HD display. Um… wowser.

P R O M O T I O N

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106 T HO Y BU

WEARABLES

STUFF SAYS

Garmin Fenix 3 HR

The Fenix 3 HR is the smartest watch you can buy. It adds the HR tracking missing on the regular Fenix 3, it’ll work with Android or iOS, track every sweaty activity from skiing to SUPing, includes GPS, and lasts up to a week on a charge. It’ll track steps and sleep, too, but it’s a bit big for bedtime.

Serious about fitness? There’s no better wearable

from R12 000 ★★★★★

Apple Watch

from R6 000 ★★★★★

Fitbit Charge HR

from R2 700 ★★★★★

Moov Now

So you’re interested in getting fitter but don’t need a pedometer or HR monitor? The Moov Now will coach you as you run, bike, gym or swim your way fitter. Oh, and the battery lasts six months. Plus, it’s the best swimming tracker we’ve seen yet.

R1 400 ★★★★★

Samsung Gear S2

from R4 800 ★★★★★

Jawbone UP3

from R3 000 ★★★★★

Fitbit Blaze

When the Blaze was unveiled it seemed… ugly. It’s much prettier in person, highly versatile and has several day’s battery life, alongside fitness tracking and basic smartwatch smarts. But, it’s inexplicably not waterproof. And it gets dirty fast.

R4 000 ★★★★✩

Garmin Forerunner 620

from R6 600 ★★★★✩

TomTom Spark Cardio

from R2 900 ★★★★✩

Withings Activite Pop

from R2 600 ★★★★✩

Cupertino’s wearable just gets smarter with every update and the constant releases of new wristbands mean it can suit every occasion. It’s officially the Gary Oldman of smartwatches but it’s still a luxury, not a necessity. The Alta is too simple, the Surge too bulky and expensive, and the Blaze more than most people need. Which is why Fitbit’s Charge HR remains our favourite fitness tracker. A built-in HR monitor, pedometer, altimeter and it tells the time? Perfect.

Samsung got into the smartwatch game early, but couldn’t make any of its early attempts stick. The Gear S2 goes a long way to making up for those earlier missteps, and it runs Tizen OS, so it’ll work with Apple’s iPhone, too, unlike Android Wear devices. Jawbone’s stylish UP3, with its updated heart tracking, lack of battery sapping display and that stellar app, is still your best option for a pure movement-tracking band. You can go all-in with a Fenix, or smarter with a Watch, but this is all most people really need.

Garmin’s wealth of experience in wrist-mounted GPS shines through, offering up a cacophony of stats, including vertical oscillation (how much you jiggle while running) thanks to a smart heart-rate belt. It could be cheaper and more user-friendly, though. Focus on your running. Left. Right. Left. Right. The TomTom Spark Cardio, with its multi-discipline tracking, HR monitor and built-in GPS, will take care of the rest for you. It’s no looker, but it’s reliable and pretty affordable for a fitness watch. When is a fitness tracker not a fitness tracker? When it’s a Withings, because those Withings things are talented at looking like other things. Like a standard and stylish wristwatch, in the case of the Pop, whch still manages to track all of the things.

P R O M O T I O N

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TVs 107 T HO Y BU

STUFF SAYS

LG 55EG960V

We knew that one day OLED and 4K would be joined in holy matrimony, and that the results would be rather special. That day is now upon us and ‘special’ doesn’t quite do it justice. This 55in/139cm LG is the new pinnacle of TV tech and performance, combining the unbelievable colours, contrast and brightness of OLED with the super-sharp, ultra-detailed images of 4K to create a picture that’s more real and enticing than looking out of the window.

It’s mighty pricey, but if you’re after the finest flatscreen known to man, this is currently it

R48 000 ★★★★★

Samsung UA48J6300

A 48in/122cm screen seems to be the ideal size for most lounges, and a curve makes this Samsung eye-catching in every respect. The performance is stunning and the colours have the right balance of vividness and subtlety. This is a smart TV bargain.

R12 000 ★★★★★

LG 55EC930T

from R25 000 ★★★★★

Samsung UA55JS7200K

Samsung UA55JS8000

LG 65UF650T

Hisense 55T910UWD

Samsung 65JU6600

Samsung 55JS9000

Hisense 50K321UW

Not everybody’s got R50k to blow on a flatscreen, and if you have to choose between OLED and 4K it’s OLED we’d take right now. The awesome colours, super-deep blacks and amazing contrast will make everything you already watch look extra amazing. This 55in/139cm display is a crowd-pleaser, with performance, good looks, web-based smarts and plenty of connections. Picture quality is stunning – super-sharp and clear in 4K, and brilliantly upscaled in 1080p. There’s also a slick multitasking interface. Each of its 8.3 million pixels is put to good use, filling the screen’s handsome real estate with pin-sharp outlines, potent contrast and eye-popping colours. Sound-wise, it’s way more powerful than bog-standard flatscreens. Worth the chunky pricetag? Oh yes. The reigning champion for several months, LG’s 65in/165cm monster award-winner from 2015 has been supplanted by a newer model. This is one case where LG is probably not complaining. Sadly, the price for this 4K wonder hasn’t come down yet. 55in/139cm and a curved screen on a budget of less than R40 000 is a rare thing indeed. What if you could get those specs at half that price? Well, guess what? You can get a 4K, 55in/139cm, curved TV from Hisense for about twenty grand. How the mighty have fallen. But not too far, and their descendants have taken their place. But if you’re jonesing for a 4K 65in/165cm screen and aren’t fussed about having that fancy new HDR tech the kids are talking about, the JU6600 is still worthy. It’s big, it’s techy, it’s UHD and it’s curved. It’s also still R40 000 for this 55in/139cm beast of a smart Samsung TV and as nice as their tech is, you can do far better for not a whole lot more. Consider grabbing this one if you’re on a strict budget. UHD under ten grand? Now you’re extracting the urine to a very high degree. Right? Oh, wait, you’re serious? Yup, Hisense’s 50K321UW will give you UHD and a 50in/126cm panel for the sort of prices that you used to buy pretty basic smart TVs for.

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BEST FOR VIEWING VALUE

R23 000 ★★★★★ R31 000 ★★★★★ R32 600 ★★★★★ R20 000 ★★★★★ R30 000 ★★★★★ R40 000 ★★★★★ R9 000 ★★★★✩

BEST FOR KEEPING UP APPEARANCES

108

CAMERAS

SLR SLRs, ETC.

T HO Y BU

Fujifilm X-Pro2

Fujifilm X-T10

Canon EOS 5DS

Nikon D750

Olympus OM-D E-M5 MkII

Top-class handling and stills performance make this a superb – if just short of perfect – camera. Why short of perfect? Because video feels like a decidedly secondary skill. But if you want brilliant stills without a heavy bag this is the camera for you. For rich landscapes, detailed macro shots, stunningly sharp portraits and everyday photos, the X-T10 beats most other choices at any price. It also handles beautifully and can be paired with some of the most consistently superb lenses you’ll ever find. A fantastic piece of kit that any pixel-peeping SLR fan will get heaps of enjoyment out of. The astounding 50MP sensor puts an incredible amount of pictorial detail at your fingertips, and the 5DS is very much pitched as Canon’s ultimate stills camera. The lightest and most compact of Nikon’s full-frame offerings, the D750 offers the only tilting LCD display on a pro-level DSLR, alongside built-in Wi-Fi and an excellent 24.3MP sensor that’s also capable of 1080p video at 60fps. Phwoar! A number of upgrades make this tempting even for existing E-M5 owners. It’s just as attractive if you’re looking for your first advanced camera, or jumping from a lower-specced model – it’s solid but highly portable, and the images are gorgeous.

R27 000

(body only)

★★★★★ R11 600 (body only)

★★★★★

BEST FOR PROS WANTING PORTABILITY BEST FOR ALL-ROUND VALUE

R43 000

(body only)

★★★★★ R32 000

(body only)

★★★★✩

BEST FOR AWKWARD ANGLES

R19 000

(body only)

★★★★✩

COMPACT CAMERAS

T HO Y BU

Panasonic Lumix LX100

Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II

Fujifilm X70

Nikon Coolpix AW130

Fujifilm X30

This is one the most capable premium compacts on the market – and the LX100’s 4K capabilities give it a crucial edge over its rivals. HD video capture and superb stills performance make the Panasonic a star performer when it comes to the basics too. The latest in Canon’s non-system but high-quality stable, the updated G7 X delivers incredible image quality and low-light performance. A tilting LCD, continuous shooting at 8fps, 20.1MP 1in sensor, and NFC and Wi-Fi support make it a great buy. A touch sensitive, tilting display makes changing setting or grabbing focus with the X70 a pleasure and its old-school looks and healthy selection of manual dials makes it every bit the serious imaging tool despite its compact dimensions and minimalist look. Waterproof down to 30m, able to handle temperatures as low as -10 degrees Celsius, and good for drops of up to 2.1m, Nikon’s ultra-rugged compact also manages pretty solid 16MP images and 1080p video. The cherries on top are built-in GPS, NFC and Wi-Fi. Don’t let the X30’s retro looks fool you, it’s a slice of modern imaging excellence. Charge it via microUSB, marvel at the real-time viewfinder that adjusts with the 4x optical zoom lens, and ooh and ahh over the beautiful film simulation modes’ colour profiles.

R14 000 ★★★★★

BEST FOR 4K-SEEKERS ON THE RUN

R9 900 ★★★★★ R11 500 ★★★★★

BEST FOR FROM-THE-HIP SHOOTERS

R6 800 ★★★★★

BEST FOR ADVENTURERS OR THE CLUMSY

R7 400 ★★★★✩

WIRELESS SPEAKERS 109 T HO Y BU

The perfect portable speaker is good looking, rugged, offers great stamina, and plays nicely with others. Basically, the perfect speaker is Victor Matfield if he could sing opera. But wait, can Mattie charge two devices at the same time from a pair of USB ports, does he come with a shoulder strap, and can he survive being rinsed off under a tap? Sure, he ticks the last box, but the JBL ticks all three. Also, can he sing opera? ‘Cause the JBL can sing anything. Sorry Mattie.

UE Boom 2

Braven 705

B&O Beolit 15

Bose SoundDock III

Marshall Stanmore

JBL Flip 3

Skullcandy Air Raid

Shox Spin

10 0

STUFF SAYS

JBL Xtreme

Years making in-ear monitors for musos means UItimate Ears knows its bass from its mids. Water-, dust- and drop-proofing along with 360º sound, 15-hour battery life and a slick app so friends can play DJ makes the Boom 2 our pick of the pint-sized pack. Want a cheapish speaker that doubles as a battery pack, can survive wind, rain and a bit of rough treatment but is also very compact? Braven’s got you covered. Plus, invest in a second (or get a friend to) and your portable party just got proper stereo sound. From its leather strap to its discreet cable-holding rear compartment and its lightly rubberised and textured, phone-friendly recessed top panel, the Beolit 15 is the Danish supermodel of portable speakers. At the price of two JBL’s, though, it’s a tougher sell. The SoundDock remains a favourite of high-end, Apple-centric hotel chains, and with good reason. Great sound, elegant design, a simple remote and instant recognisability make it as desirable today as the first iPod Classic it was launched to accompany. It’d be easy to dismiss Marshall’s speaker range as an opportunistic attempt to ride the coattails of the late Jim Marshall if they didn’t sound so great. But they do. Really, really great, even at high volume. We suspect the Lord of Loud would’ve been, well, proud. JBL’s cylindrical pocket party machine lasts up to 10 hours on a charge, is pretty hardy and very reasonably priced. It’s not quite as punchy in the sound department as UE’s Boom 2 nor quite as resilient, but then, it’s also not nearly as expensive either. Best known for its headphones, Skullcandy has been dipping its painted toenails in the wireless speaker pond. The Air Raid is its best offering yet, a rugged and serious looking speaker that performs admirably enough, unless you turn it all the way up. One of the best looking budget compact speakers, the Shox Spin also has a decent mic should you want to use it for conference calling on the cheap. The choice of minirather than microUSB for charging is annoying, though. But did we mention it’s cheap?

Beats Pill 2.0

This one’s here more as a warning than anything else. We’ve had decent experiences with Beats cans, especially the sport-orientated ones, but the Pill 2.0 is an unmitigated disappointment – poor sound, high price and only its sleek design going for it.

Stellar sound, durability, portability and a reasonable price tag make JBL’s Xtreme unbeatable

R5 0 00 ★★★★★ R3 500 ★★★★★

BEST FOR PARTIES IN THE RAIN

R1 600 ★★★★★

BEST FOR BACKPACKERS ON A BUDGET

R10 500 ★★★★★ R4 800 ★★★★★ R5 000 ★★★★★

BEST FOR ROCK ‘N’ ROLL REVIVALISTS

R2 000 ★★★★✩ R2 000 ★★★✩✩ R800 ★★★✩✩ R4 000 ★★✩✩✩

GO & PLAY BLACK

4 99995

ALL PRICES ARE INCLUSIVE OF TAX & CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING TO PRESS. ERRORS & OMISSIONS EXCLUDED. OFFERS AVAILABLE AT SELECTED STORES WHILE STOCKS LAST. NO CLUBCARD POINTS ON GIFT CARD PURCHASES.

110 T HO Y BU

GAMES

The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt PC/PS4/Xbox One

Wouldn’t you know it, The Witcher 3 is still here. But not just because it’s an excellent game. It got better,with the launch of the Game of the Year Edition, incorporating Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, as well as every other bit of additional content made for 2015’s best game. You have to play it now.

STUFF SAYS

Poland has set a new bar for RPG fans - one that will not be surpassed any time soon

from R575 ★★★★★

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided PC/PS4/Xbox One Adam Jensen is back on the case following the events of Human Revolution. He’s not dead yet, folks, and he’s sneakier than ever. Though you may want to indulge in the better shooting mechanics amid glorious cyberpunk settings a little too. Play it twice.

from R575 ★★★★★

Tom Clancy’s The Division PC/PS4/Xbox One Ubisoft have been using their games to refine gameplay down into… something. The first signs of what they were up to have been seen in The Division, the massive, multiplayer, single-player, RPG shooter that we can’t stop playing.

from R650 ★★★★★

Overwatch

PC/PS4/Xbox One Did you know that you spell ‘riotous fun’ Overwatch? Yeah, if you’re looking for the most fun you can have in front of your couch/computer with your pants on then welcome to Blizzard’s first shooter. There are a few kinks and too much Bastion but we’re sold already.

from R950 ★★★★★

Fallout 4 PC/PS4/Xbox One There is no life, there is only the Boston wastes. Take a trip with a companion, your faithful pooch (he’ll be fine), or roam the land alone in customised gear to find your son. And choose a size. And pickpocket everyone in sight, because why not?

from R740 ★★★★★

XCOM 2

PC Being a PC-exclusive doesn’t detract from this isometric strategy masterpiece that will suck players in with excellent gameplay before spitting them out in a difficulty spike. Worth all the pain, too.

from R650 ★★★★★

Star Wars Battlefront PC/PS4/Xbox One You’re not a real Star Wars fan until you’ve roamed Hoth as a lowly Stormtrooper trying to bring down the Rebel Alliance. Once you’re been at the helm of an AT-AT and stomped the puny resistance to paste, you’ll never want to do anything else. Also: So much DLC.

from R650 ★★★★★

Uncharted 4

PS4 What is very likely our last outing with Nathan Drake is a strange one. It’s a lot more adult, a lot more serious, and a lot more fun that we were expecting it to be. Even the stuff that happens on the downbeat. It’s an old-fashioned adventure around the world – with feels.

from R950 ★★★★★

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 PC/PS3/PS4/Xbox One/Xbox 360 The engine might be creaking but the Call of Duty series still serves up the best in fastpaced, teabagging, trash-talking, swearing 15-year-olds. That might not sound like a selling point but when your TDM clan is about to take the round you’ll think different.

from R740 ★★★★★

Dark Souls III

PC/PS4/Xbox One Like that one relationship you used to have where you’d keep going back specifically because you were being kicked around, Darks Souls has returned to punish you some more. With tighter gameplay and more mysterious lore, it’s time to die. Again.

WIN 1 of 2 HAMPERS WORTH R2 500 EACH Hamper includes: Watch Dogs T-shirt, Speaker Power bank, Cloth patches, Hands free kit, Laptop stickers, PS4 stickers, Marcus apparel and a copy of the PS4 game

from R950 ★★★★★

BEST FOR LOSING YOURSELF

BEST FOR FRAGGING NOOBS

HEADPHONES 111 T HO Y BU

AKG K451

They’ve actually been around a little while now, but what put the K451 on-ears back on to our radar was an official price drop, and a real-world price of just R1 100 or less. For that money they’re unbeatable – awesomely agile and punchy sound wrapped up in a subtly stylish and foldable design. Add both standard and three-button control cables for maximising compatibility and there’s practically no excuse for not getting brilliant sound from your phone.

STUFF SAYS

Fantastic sound and great portability at an almost unbeatable price. Your phone deserves these.

from R1 100 ★★★★★

AKG Y50BT

Bowers and Wilkins P5 Wireless

SoundMagic E10S

Bose QuietComfort 25

AKG N60NC

from R3 700 ★★★★★

Sennheiser Momentum M2

from R3 800 ★★★★★

Proof that good wireless sound doesn’t have to cost the earth: with none of the horrid hiss, whine, crack and pop that’s often a glitch of Bluetooth headphones, these serve up truckloads of detail, with a full charge promising 20 hours of juice. The brand’s first foray into wireless brings luxury for your ears inside and out: these are the Aston Martin DB10s of wire-free cans. If you like your sound authoritative, dynamic and subtle (and who doesn’t?), you’ll feel right at home with these P5s. This is actually the third version of SoundMagic’s awesome, affordable in-ears – not that you’d tell by looking. They sound even better, though: a little smoother and more refined, with tight, weighty bass. Plus there’s now a mic and button for smartphone use. The best kind of silence is the kind you then fill with sweet, sweet music, and that’s what the QuietComfort 25s give you. The active noise-cancelling quells office hubbub, air-conditioning and airplane hum, and delivers cracking sound in its place. They’re not quite the Bose QC 25s but they’re not priced like them either. Active noise cancellation, great battery life, a versatile mic, 150g of weight and bendy ear cups make them ideal for your carry-on bag. Just the thing to drown out strangers' kids. The original Sennheiser Momentums were an almost perfect pair of on-ears, and we’re pleasantly surprised that the sequel is even more thrilling. They’re pricey, but dapper looks soften the blow, as does the lively, hugely transparent sound.

from R3 000 ★★★★★ R8 000 ★★★★★ R650 ★★★★★ R7 700 ★★★★★

Bowers & Wilkins P3

Superb sound and a solid and achingly stylish design make these the best portable on-ears around. The fact that two cables come in the box – one with a mic and remote for iPhones, one without – only sweetens the already candyfloss-like deal.

R3 600 ★★★★★

Jabra Sport Pulse

from R3 000 ★★★★★

Skullcandy Grind

They’re like tiny wireless bumblebees nestled in your ears with equally tiny stethoscopes. What we mean is, the Jabra Sport Pulse buds include an in-ear HR monitor and on-board storage for music, so you can leave your phone at home. Skullcandy used to be a brand that we’d scoff at, but time wounds all heels. Seriously, they’re cheap, lightweight and come in a variety of flavours. They’re also small enough to fit in a notebook bag and in the transparent version, won’t hurt your eyes.

R800 ★★★★✩

BEST FOR FREQUENT FLYERS

BEST FOR ON-EAR EXCELLENCE

NEXT BIG THING?

light-field photos hose appear to be Polaroids. Not quite Harry Potter snaps, are they? Not exactly, though they’re not that far off. These 3D prints don’t quite move around with their own intelligence and sentient will, but they are full colour holograms that have been printed using standard inkjet printers. Which is, you know, a sort of magic in itself. It all works thanks to some clever folks from MIT, who have developed a realistic, glasses-free 3D experience using a combination of algorithms and light-field technology. They’re calling it Lumii.

What did the cheese say to it’s reflection? Hey Lumii! Very good. It’s going to take us a while to recover from that. But back to these magical photos, because the way they work is rather clever. Subjects are scanned and a 3D model is created. Lumii’s special light-field engine then processes these 3D models, before an algorithm calculates and churns out a set of unique patterns. These are printed on separate layers using a regular printer, which means you can do it at home. Sandwich those together and – boom! – you’ve got a Hogwarts-worthy Polaroid in your hands.

Neat. But why? “But why?” Imagine if Krunk had said that to Gorg when he first brought a flaming stick back to their cave. We’d still be eating berries and living in furs, and there’d be no such thing as Netflix. But enough preaching. These 3D prints are easier to make and have a larger depth of field than existing holograms. Plus they have lots of potential uses – homemade advertising, novelty cards, or next-gen photo albums. Lumii’s still in the alpha stage right now, so you’ve got plenty of time to commission your futuristic portrait.

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