Tech Buyers Gift Guide

Tech Buyer’s Gift Guide

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EX PE RT pi ck s!

THE TECHactive SERies

Tech Buyer’s

GIFT GUIDE hot gadgets, selected by experts

CBN53 £9.99

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PRINTED IN THE UK

Printed in the UK

Computers Consoles Games Fitness Travel Kitchen Kids Home Outdoors and much more!

Tech Buyer’s

GIFT GUIDE Xbox 360 games The best bang for your buck

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Out & About

AV & Computing

PlayStation 3 games Don’t upgrade – play these!

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Beat the commute Technologise your journey

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Media streamers 8 Complete your living room

Wii games Wave your Wiimote and get playing

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Festival gear Camp in style – and mud

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Home movies 10 Bring Hollywood home

Skylanders vs Disney The battle is on for the parent pound

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Winter survival kit Keep warm and get silly in the snow

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BBQ equipment Burn meat with style and panache

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Editor’s letter

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Internet radios 12 Hot sounds from around the world Wireless speakers 14 Your music where you want it DJ skills 16 Make music, and make it better Gaming gear 18 Upgrade your PC gaming experience Projectors 20 Start playing on the big screen MacBook 22 Upgrade your laptop with this selection Perfect peripherals 24 Plug them in and improve your computer Gaming mice 28 Point, click, it’s all in the mind

Gadget watches Timepieces meet technology

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Home & Garden

Laptop bags Keep your stuff safe in style

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Domestic tech For every modern home

Celeb headphones Hear things the way Dr Dre intended

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Garden gear 110 Why put in effort? That’s what tech’s for

In-ear headphones Compact buds to bring music to life

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Cool kitchen kit Fill up your cupboards with tech

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Ereaders 68 Paper books are so last century

Cookery gadgets Cook up a storm – or some food

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Fitness

Phone Accessories

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Sport headphones Keeping fit? Keep it musical

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iPhone earbuds Stick them in, listen hard

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Mouse mats 30 The perfect surface for your rodent

Fun fitness Enjoy your workout with this kit

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Over ear headphones Classic cans for the purist

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Consoles

Fitness bands The personal trainer on your wrist

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Bluetooth headphones Cut the cord and go wireless

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Running gear Hit the streets all kitted up

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Android extras 126 Beef up a phone or tablet with this gear

Swimming kit Take your gadgets in the pool

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Xbox One Microsoft fires its third gaming salvo

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Xbox One games Play these and be happy

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PlayStation 4 Sony’s chance to take over?

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PlayStation 4 games The hottest new titles on the PS4

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Photography Photograpy kit The gadgets every snapper needs

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Wii U 46 Nintendo attempts to prove its relevance

Compact system cameras 88 The bridge between DSLR and compact

Wii U games Next-gen games for the new console

Action cameras 90 Capture everything, no matter how extreme

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Gaming devices 52 The best current-gen consoles out there

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Personal & Portable

Landscape cameras Luscious shots made easy

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Kids Education essentials Back to school? You’ll rule with this lot

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Tech toys What every kid wants

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Baby tech 144 Keep your newborn safe and entertained

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Perfect peripherals Whether you use a Mac or a Windows PC, we have the ideal collection of kit

Apple Magic Trackpad Apple Magic Mouse

The Magic Mouse is the world’s first Multi-Touch mouse, with a smooth surface that can detect multiple points of contact. Gesture inputs are detected just as on a trackpad. For example, a finger swiped across the mouse can move through Safari pages, and tapping gives a smart zoom. It has 360-degree scrolling too.

The Magic Trackpad is a larger, desktop version of the trackpad used in the MacBook. It supports the same range of multitouch gestures, including 360-degree scrolling, activating Mission Control, Exposé or Notification Center, and scrolling, rotating and zooming. It connects to your laptop wirelessly using Bluetooth. £52 | $62 www.apple.com

£52 | $62 www.apple.com

Mad Catz R.A.T. 9

Mad Catz’ R.A.T. mice are excellent for gaming, with pixel precision, comfortably placed controls and a range of customisation options. The top-of-the-range R.A.T. 9 is wireless, and comes with two rechargeable battery packs. The R.A.T. 7 has the same feature set but is USB; and there’s also the cheaper R.A.T. 3 or 5 if you don’t want to spend quite so much on a mouse. £87 | $121 www.madcatz.com

Apple Wireless Keyboard Apple USB Keyboard

This USB keyboard lacks the freedom offered by the cable-free wireless model, but it has two USB ports and a numeric keypad to make up for it. Like its wireless equivalent, it’s very comfortable to use, even after several hours’ typing. Like the wireless model, it’s much easier to keep clean than Apple’s old-style keyboards, too. £44 | $49 www.apple.com 24

Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard is normally bundled with the iMac, but is also available separately. It lacks a numeric keypad and any USB ports, but it takes up considerably less room when it’s on your desk and offers cable-free convenience. It’s perfectly styled to go with the MacBook, and is extremely comfortable to type on. £55 | $62 www.apple.com

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 for Mac

The Logitech K750 is a wireless Mac keyboard that’s solar-powered instead of running on batteries. It can draw energy from both artificial and natural light, and when fully charged can be used in pitch darkness for around three months. It’s very comfy to type on, too. £60 | $59 www.logitech.com

Edifier E10 Exclaim

These 2.0 speakers look as good as they sound. The black base at the foot of each speaker contains bass radiators, while the silver columns hold high frequency and mid-range tweeters, so the whole sound spectrum is pretty accurately reproduced even without a true subwoofer. They would look great on your desk, complimenting any stylish laptop which needs a little boost – but they’re also small enough to be easily portable, giving you great sound wherever you go. £54 | $96 www.edifier-international.com

Creative ZiiSound D5 Buffalo MiniStation Slim 500GB

If you need to back up or transfer very large files or a lot of data, try a portable hard drive. This Buffalo drive is USB 3.0-compatible, and is described as “the world’s thinnest storage device”.

The slimline USB 3.0 port has enabled Buffalo to shave a few millimetres off the enclosure’s height, leaving it just 8.8mm thick.

If you don’t want your external sound system on your desk with your computer, the ZiiSound D5 is what you need. You can connect it to a computer through Bluetooth, and because it uses the aptX codec (which enables higher-quality sound), your music sounds great, too. It’s also supplied with a 30-pin aptX dongle for iPods. £101 | $250 http://creative.com

£51 | $69 www.buffalo-technology.com

Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch)

This is the ideal display for your Thunderbolt Mac. A single cable combines a Thunderbolt lead for video and also a MagSafe connector to power your notebook while you work.

As well as a big 27-inch screen, the display offers a FaceTime HD camera, three USB ports, FireWire 800 and Gigabit Ethernet ports. £795 | $950 www.apple.com

Philips 298P4QJEB UltraWide 21:9 Display Viewsonic VX2370Smh-LED

This budget monitor makes an ideal second screen. It has excellent image quality for the price, a great response time and a very thin bezel that doesn’t get in the way. Build quality is equally good, although its speakers leave a lot to be desired. It might not suit design professionals, but it’s great for general home use.

The 21:9 ratio gives you a lot of breadth; you can quite comfortably open two applications and run them side by side on your desktop, without squashing or overlapping. It has four USB 3.0 ports around the back, too, and built-in stereo speakers. £383 | $725 www.philips.com

£138 | $160 www.viewsonic.com 25

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he original Nintendo Wii was something of a surprise hit – from a purely technical point of view, it lagged behind the other consoles of the time, the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3. The graphics weren’t as impressive, the processor not as powerful, the multimedia capabilities not as pronounced – the list goes on and on. What those consoles didn’t have, though, but the Wii did, was motion-aware controllers, called Wii remotes. Not only could you play your games using the usual

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directional pads and buttons that the other consoles offered, but you could also wave, shake and generally thrash around with the Wii in a way that you simply couldn’t with other consoles.

There was also a different focus for the Wii that the ‘more serious’ consoles had ignored – the Wii appealed to the whole family, from the youngest

■ Consoles

Wii U

Is Nintendo’s newest console set to be as big a hit with families as its predecessor?

members who could barely use the controller through to the eldest, who discovered a far more intuitive way to interact with games.

This also lead to the type of games available on the Wii veering away from the classic first-person shooters (FPS) and violent games aimed at older teenagers, and instead focusing on classic genres – puzzles, platform games and sport simulators. Games that you wouldn’t mind your whole

family either playing, or sitting around watching and shouting encouragement while someone else plays – although if you watch anyone play the Wii for the first time, you’ll want a go straight after.

Popularity contest This all lead to the Wii being a great success. The sales figures for the affordable Nintendo console far outstripped those for Sony and Microsoft’s counterparts, having sold over 100 million units worldwide, compared to the PS3’s 79 million and Xbox 360’s 78 million. The Wii U, 47

Celebrity headphones Everyone from 50 Cent to Quincy Jones wants to lend their name to a pair of cans. We round up five of the best

eadphones have got seriously cool, and if your cans aren’t celebrity-endorsed, then you’ve badly undermined your cool credentials. There are scores of headphones from big-name brands such as AKG or Skullcandy backed by some of the biggest rappers, singers and music producers in the world, but with varying degrees of success. We got our groove on with the biggest names in music.

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Skullcandy Mix Master Mike

These headphones sport the name of Beastie Boys DJ Mix Master Mike and feature DJ-style rotating earcups. They’re comfy and have a mute button on the right earcup, as well as an input on each side so you can hook up to either one or attach a second pair of headphones.

The sound quality is good, but suffers as you crank up the volume.

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£160 | $216 www.skullcandy.com 64

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■ personal and portable

SMS Audio Street by 50 Cent

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The only wired cans in 50 Cent’s Street range, the SMS Audios feature earcups that, while feeling squidgy and comfy, are huge and fairly heavy. The large and bendy headband makes them feel rather loose, and sound is leaked before it even reaches your ears. What does get through sounds good, but the low-end isn’t as beefed up as the Beats.

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£110 | $110 http://smsby50.com

House of Marley Destiny TTR

These distinctive headphones are the flagship model from House of Marley, which prides itself on using sustainable materials. The TTRs are built from recyclable aluminium and stainless steel, but it makes them heavy. The audio performance is strong and the on-board noise-cancelling tech proves its worth. The cable is covered in woven fabric, so it stays tangle-free.

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£185 | $300 www.thehouseofmarley.com

AKG Quincy Jones Signature Line Q460

Bearing the name of legendary producer Quincy Jones, these on-ear headphones are much smaller and lighter than any of the others here.

They look plasticky, but padding on the earcups and the underside of the thin headband makes them comfy to wear.

Audio performance is excellent thanks to the closed-back design, which means little sound is lost.

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£90 | $103 www.akg.com

Beats by Dre Studio The king of celeb headphones has to be the Beats range from Dr Dre. The Studio cans feature noise isolation and are powered by a pair of AAA batteries. Available in a kaleidoscope of colours, the Beats will certainly get you noticed, although the shiny finish is a fingerprint magnet and the cable is annoyingly prone to tangles. The bass performance is second to none – fantastic for dance tracks or booming movie soundtracks.

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£200 | $250 www.beatsbydre.com 65

Track your fitness Embrace your body – monitor its functions and tweak your daily habits with one of these health-giving tracking devices

Nike+ FuelBand

At first glance, the Nike+ FuelBand is stylishly understated.

Available in black or white, it sports a rubbery yet rigid texture and links around your wrist with a retractable silver clasp. But with a press of the band’s discreet button, a strip of coloured LED lights illuminates a seamless animated display that can show the time, your steps taken, calories burned, and accumulated Nike Fuel – the company’s proprietary unit for calculating activity that’s tied to your Nike account, and feeds into other Nike-linked activities. Below the display sits a spectral dial of traffic lights, which indicate your progress towards a predetermined goal. This is chosen via the iOS app, which looks as sleek as the wristband and represents your data in various insightful ways. Holding down the button activates the all-important Bluetooth sync, and while GPS tracking is absent, it’s the visual nature of the instant feedback that will win over most users. £129 | $149 www.nike.com

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■ FITNESS

Fitbit Flex

The Fitbit Flex combines the company’s honed pedometer technology, key to its One product (see below), with a convenient wristband that, while not the most stylish of accessories, oozes ruggedness like no other tracker. An adjustable clasp keeps things secure, while a black strip acts as a simple progress display that’s activated with a double-tap and powered by a removable plastic sensor housed inside a rubber pouch. Battery life is around five days, and although the five LED lights helpfully indicate the number of steps taken in a day, it’s the iOS and Android apps that offer a more detailed and extended picture of your activity. This data can also be shared with other Flex users, all of whom can choose between a range of cool custom band colours. £80 | $100 www.fitbit.com

Fitbit One

The Fitbit One is a more inconspicuous type of tracker, with a sleek pebble-like design small enough to keep in your pocket or attach to your belt using the supplied clip.

During the day it tracks your steps, distance covered, calories burned and even stairs climbed, thanks to its built-in altimeter. It also tracks the quality and duration of your sleep, and packs a vibrating alarm to wake you.

This data is stored minute-by-minute, and is converted to a daily total, which can be viewed on the LED display or through the Fitbit Connect software, which works on both Mac and PC via the supplied cable. It syncs the stored data from your tracker to your Fitbit.com Dashboard, where you can also record diet, weight and more. £71 | $90 www.fitbit.com

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Tech Buyer’s

GIFT GUIDE EDITORIAL Editor Alex Cox alex.cox@futurenet.com Art editor Mat Gartside mat.gartside@futurenet.com Production Katharine Davies

CONTRIBUTORS Alan Dexter, Catherine Emma Ellis, Dan Grabham, Matt Hanson, Tim Hardwick, Dave James, Nick Odantzis, Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, James Stables

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