T a b l e t S u p e r t e st p 1 0 9
Apple’s big ideas!
iPhone 6 + Watch Exclusive hands-on special + 6 Plus: Apple’s first phablet The Gadget Magazine
156 gadgets reviewed
November 2014 / £4.99
F I RST L OO K
Google Glass goes designer MR POrter styles up
ultimate buyers’ guide from photos to fitness
your smartglasses
masters of fx
framestore uncovered from oscar
trend on test
smartwatch showdown moto 360
winners to galaxy guardians
■
■ lg g watch r asus zenwatch
P R I N T E D I N T HE U K
I SS U E 2 3 5 T 3 . C O M
■
Connected Get Yourself
52 Wireless Upgrades To Change Your Life
Contents November 2014 / Issue 235
Editor’s letter
11
Opinion
How to get ahead in headphones
Radar
Most Wanted: Apple’s new batch
Insight by Monster’s Noel Lee 15
Review: Samsung 65HU7500
Gamergate: Word War III is here
24
Tech giants battle for control of that valuable territory betwixt arm and hand The field of hoop dreams
25
Icon: Richard Sapper
26
Design legend who Apple let get away… Spend: GTAaaaaaaarrrrgh!
28
It’s a McLaren for the track only. And also for the exceedingly gifted of wallet only Gaming gets woody
Stuff
High-end, 65-inch 4K TV lacks curve but has no shortage of pixels or style
49
Review: Optoma HD50
Stellar HD projector that trumps even Samsung’s telly for screen size
Features
Review: Humax DTR-T2000 YouView 105
Red-hot PVR turbo charges Freeview 54
Scaled-down speakers that suck out smartphone sounds
Who let the tech out?
Mobile devices for every budget and requirement, slated or rated
85
Yes, this actually happened: T3’s long-awaited rundown of the best dongles for dogs and cameras for cats. It’ll make you purr… Framestore: world builders
93
30
Tech life Gadget of the month
67
Stats, tech stories and your Apple thoughts
Philippe Starck’s latest “works”: future e-bikes and Conan the Barbarian’s cycling helmet
Incoming
How to
The Buzz
30 38
Must-remember dates for your digital diary
Play
Tech Dad 41
42
The Evil Within keeps the tension high, plus DriveClub and more Borderlands Music
113
The guide Smartphones Tablets Laptops Gaming Home audio Home entertainment Headphones Televisions Cameras Accessories
118 119 120 121 122 123 124 126 127 128
43
Upgrade: watches
76
Top quality shanks enter choppy waters Home
Apps, websites and ebooks
Drive
44
73
Let there be light, on your bike. Plus get muscular and muddy with our cyclocross gear
Edge of Tomorrow kills Tom Cruise nastily over and over again. Who could resist? Tom Hanks puts out an iPad typewriter app. No, us neither. Plus: cloud storage sites
71
Smart watches (as opposed to smartwatches). Plus your chance to win an Elliot Brown piece
Test: knives 43
70
Rapid Madness rifle: foam war is declared
Pulse
Aphex Twin: dirty son of a glitch Films
69
Supertest: tablets
106
Tips and kit to recreate Mr Do in your shed
Creative Assembly makes impregnation and evisceration in space seem scary again Games
68
Conker at conquers. No, that’s not right… Obsession: arcade cabinet making
The Essential: Alien: Isolation
Group test: Bluetooth audio
If your mind’s neglected, stumble, you might fall. That’s why you need our guide to all things linkable and Internet of Things-y
29
The more random end of quality tech
105
Finally… by Nick Cowen
From a shack in Soho making videos for Culture Club to Oscar triumph with Gravity
Love Hultén’s irresistible R-Kaid-R puts retro games in old-school timber casings
104
49
Truth by Duncan Bell
Get yourself connected…
Tron-esque court attempts unlikely feat of making basketball interesting
99
Stateside by Chris Smith
Need list
We have plenty of tech made by firms other than Apple this month, from Samsung’s VR goggles to Sennheiser’s sexy cans
360 review: Google Glass
YouTube celebs: what the hell is going on? 48 Outing closet gays for fun and profit!
20
Rated
The smart specs are finally available in the UK. Time to make a Glass of yourself?
All you need to know about Watch, iPhone 6 and its bigger bro’, iPhone 6 Plus
Smartwatch showdown
47
77
Dyson’s exceedingly tall robo-vac unleashed VW’s e-Golf looks like a real car. BMW’s i8, however, looks like the future of driving…
78
On the cover
Akvile @ Profile Photographed by Richard grassie styling by Dean Hau Hair and Makeup by Ami penfold retouching by simon windsor model wears DVF Made for Glass, Yellow jumper by Baum Und Pferdgarten, Rings by Topshop
n ov e m b e r 2 0 1 4 T 3 9
Editor’s letter November 2014 / Issue 235
We predicted the “iWatch” in my first issue, almost four years ago. Fact is, it’s been a great white whale for tech’s many rumour-raking Ahabs: a fabled wristpiece that would teleport us into that ice white future promised by science fiction and Dieter Rams, while justifying our existence as vital trend predictors, if it would just get over itself and exist. On a long enough timeline, we all get something right, and now the iWatch is here. Except it isn’t; it’s just called Watch (p15) – the world’s SEO teams let out a collective sigh – and it won’t be on arms till next year. But it exists, and this is a good thing. First, the power of Apple’s commercial partnerships and app alliances guarantee that there will at last be something to do with a smartwatch beyond Michael Knight impressions. Second, its buy-me looks – trust us, those pics you’ve seen online do it no justice whatsoever – will make every other wearable maker raise its design game. It was a hell of a launch, too. At the Flint Center, where the original Mac was unveiled, a huge, Grand Designs-style white monolith in the courtyard turned into an elaborate Apple Store of unreleased plenty. Stephen Fry sauntered among
the phones, Gwen Stefani and Dr Dre jetted in together, and I bit my lip to not get too “fanboy” around Trent Reznor. U2 freebieing their new album was but a support act. Make no mistake, this was history in the making, like the first iPhone or iPad unveiling, a green light of approval on a new product category in its infancy. Over the next 12 months, the tech leaps, the style evolutions, the app advances, and the endless accessories will be fascinating. Which makes it a sad day to depart the good ship T3, but after a prolonged stay in London, the world’s best tech mag sets sail back to its Bath home, where a new crew and captain will take it to hopefully even warmer waters. We’ve made our fair share of history in the four years I’ve been at sea with T3, too. We’ve been the UK’s bestselling digital mag three years running, nabbed two PPA Awards, two DMAs, one GMA and hit two record-high circulations. We’ve secured exclusives from Google and Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, and I’ve had the pleasure of chewing the tech fact with such icons as Sir David Attenborough, Lord Sugar, Shuhei Yoshida, Sir Ridley Scott and Palmer Luckey. It’s been a hell of a trip. So we’ve gone all out on our last tech plundering. As well as a frank wrist assessment of Apple, we also get our mitts exclusively on both iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on p18 and our eyes on Net-A-Porter’s new designer Google Glass on p56. Then, as a fitting sign off to the capital, we go behind the scenes at its premier film graphics house, Framestore. It nabbed an Oscar for creating almost everything bar Sandra Bullock in Gravity before shaping this year’s unusually good blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy (p93). Thus, I give up the spear! Bon voyage. Matt Hill, Editor Twitter: @gethill / Email: matt.hill@futurenet.com
{Contributors}
1
2
3
Noel drummed in Asian Wood (yes!) in the 70s, before launching Monster Cable in 1979. Its partnership with Dre Beats changed the audio market for ever. He tells us how he got ahead in headphones on p47.
From brand development to animation and fashion, for clients from Saatchi and Saatchi to Skype, Aaron’s done it all. Now he brings his individual style to our Opinion section, from p47.
T3’s former features editor, who also used to rule over tech mags What Laptop and Tech, is now senior editor at Wareable.com. Who better, then, to unveil the most stylish wrist assistants on P54.
Noel Lee
Aaron Miller
JAMES STABLES
To subscribe to T3, point your browser at myfavouritemagazines.co.uk, or flick to p50. The next T3 is on sale October 28… N ov e m b e r 2 0 1 4 T 3 1 1
MOS T WAN T E D
{ A p p l e wat c h }
It’s about time… Will the first new product category from Apple in four years kick the wearables market into overdrive? the apple watch could well be the yardstick by which Tim Cook’s tenure as the company’s CEO is measured. Appearing on the Flint Center stage at the launch event in Cupertino sporting the firm’s first all-new tech creation since his predecessor Steve Jobs passed, Cook explained why the Watch – there’s no “i” in New Team Apple, and none in this product’s name either – is “the most personal product we’ve ever made”. You can see why: this thing is a customisea-thon. There are three versions of the Apple Watch, from the sweat-swatting Sport to the show-offy, 18-karat-gold Edition, with a series of swappable straps and screen sizes. While smartwatches to date have been oneoff, quickly iterated products, this is a new collection, in the fashion sense of the word. The rest of its armoury is a tad more familiar, with the Watch sensing when you’ve raised your wrist to activate the screen. Notifications come through as vibrations and you can control your music through it, too. Needless to say, it spends much of its time tracking your activity via a pulse monitor, accelerometer and gyroscope, although with no GPS on board, you’ll need your iPhone on you for more pro-like fitness pursuits. That’s right: when Cook says the Apple Watch is designed to work “seamlessly with iPhone”, he means it. While much of the wristpiece’s functionality is available while your handset’s left at home, you do very much need one as a hub for its services, which is understandable, if a bit of a shame. Where it gets Apple-ier was explained to us at the event by Sir Jony “voice of God” Ive. The Watch’s haptic touchscreen interprets your interaction based on how hard you tap, while a mic means that Siri is also onboard, CIA-style. Maps, meanwhile, offers the directions and location searching via directional vibrations, so you don’t actually need to look at the screen. Yet the curved sapphire-glass display is not the primary means of input: that’s the “digital crown”, which subverts the traditional winder into a nav tool and home button. Rather than use your podgy fingers to pinch and zoom on its tiny face, you rotate the dial for zooming, scrolling and more. Just what the extent of that may be, though, is in the hands of the devs… From $349, Apple.com/watch, out spring 2015
1 6 T 3 N ov e m b e r 2 0 1 4
2 1 {Deta ils} 1. get Connected
The Watch is completely wireless, with no physical ports at all. Charging is via a circular MagSafe connector that attaches to the rear
3
2. Display
A flexible sapphire-glass, pressure-sensitive Retina touchscreen, able to tell the difference betwixt a tap and a proper press 3. crown jewel
Apple reckons this “digital crown” control is its best input since the iPod wheel. It navigates menus and zooms in and out without obscuring the screen 4. Design
Three watch collections x two face sizes x six strap styles apiece = 36 different customisable options. Straps vary from fit-happy rubber to jewellery links.
{ SPECS }
BUILD Watch: stainless steel, Watch Sport: aluminium, Watch Edition: 18-karat gold Display Two sizes: 1.5” and 1.7” sapphire glass Flexible Retina touchscreen Processor S1 SiP connectivity/Sensors G Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 accelerometer, heart-rate monitor, Apple Pay Compatibility iPhone 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6 Plus Battery Not quoted
{Focus}
Apps with your Apple, Sir? With Watch, Apple has again built an attractive platform that it hopes will lure developers to truly secure its wearable future. Maps, Pay (p19) and Remote for iTunes are there, of course, and third parties include Facebook and Twitter. BMW has an app that will find your car, smart home giant Honeywell has one for
wrist-mounted thermostat control, while Starwood Hotels is looking to use the Watch as your room key. Fitness will play a big part, of course, and Nike is on board with an app to let friends know when you’re jogging (cheers for that). Apple’s own fitness apps are pre-loaded, though, to feed into iOS 8’s Health.
WWW For more NEWS go to T3.COM
Radar
spend
GTAAAAAARGH!
Buckle up for 986bhp and a battered wallet with McLaren’s track-only P1 GTR SO McLaren’s Special Operations unit HAS TAKEN the existing, Forza Motorsport 5-fronting, already-walletmelting P1, squeezed an extra 83bhp from the engine and added the required aerodynamics to stop the thing from taking off. The result? What automobile experts like to call “very nippy indeed”. Potential P1 GTR buyers can look forward to 0-62mph in under 2.8 seconds, then a top speed well above 200mph, followed by arrest, a lengthy ban and a cameo on Police, Camera, Action!
We jest, of course: this is strictly a track machine, designed to coerce admirers of the P1 into purchasing a race-ready version to indulge fantasies of being Steve McQueen in Le Mans or, if you’re us, Dick Dastardly. But for the considerable outlay, you get 986bhp, race-ready suspension, remodelled bodywork, an on-board “air-jacking” system to reduce tyre-change times and enough downforce to practically suck the Tarmac off the track. £2 million, mclaren.com, out june 2015
winning colours
designed to thrill
expert assistance
The P1 GTR wears a special paint job that references the F1 GTR that won the Le Mans 24-Hour in 1995
The carbon-fibre chassis has lower suspension than the road-ready P1, plus a newly fixed rear wing
McLaren’s Special Ops unit will maintain and run all GTRs, offering race coaching to its brave and well-paid drivers
pushed to the limit
made for speed
Under the bonnet are a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine and an electric motor capable of 986bhp, which rivals the Bugatti Veyron
The four quick-release wheels flaunt bespoke Pirelli tyres and 19-inch racing alloys that are “way fierce”
2 8 T 3 N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 4
In association with
The Awards ceremony Is at hand. has the tech you love won? find out next month‌
Put the date in your smartphone’s calendar: October 2, in London 3 6 T 3 n ov e m b e r 2 0 1 4
The awards
T he shortlist The best of the best. But what tech will prove to be the best of the best of the best? Find out in the next issue of T3… Gadget of the Year HTC One (M8) Microsoft Xbox One Sony PlayStation 4 TomTom Runner Cardio Apple iPad Mini with Retina display Apple iPhone 5S Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition Samsung Galaxy S5 Google Nexus 7 Phone of the Year HTC One (M8) Apple iPhone 5S Samsung Galaxy S5 Sony Xperia Z2 LG G3 OnePlus One The Gaming Award Sony PlayStation 4 Microsoft Xbox One Razer Blade Oculus Rift Apple iPad Mini with Retina display Alienware 18 Laptop or Tablet of the Year Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display Apple iPad Air Dell Venue 11 Pro Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Apple iPad Mini with Retina display Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet TV of the Year Samsung HU8500 Sony Bravia X9005B Sony Bravia W829 Loewe Connect ID 46 LG LB730V Panasonic Viera WT600 Car of the Year McLaren P1 Tesla Model S Porsche 918 Spyder BMW i3 Ford Focus Audi TT
Brand of the Year Apple Google Sony HTC Netflix Samsung Camera of the Year Canon 700D GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition Nikon Df Sony RX100 II Panasonic Lumix DMC GH4 Olympus Stylus SH-1 Fitness Wearable of the Year Garmin Vivofit Nike Fuelband SE Monster iSport Strive TomTom Runner Cardio Jawbone UP24 Garmin Forerunner 620 The Design Innovation Award Razer Project Christine Apple Mac Pro Gravity Sony Project Morpheus Valve Steam Controller Audi Virtual Cockpit The Sound Award Sonos Play:1 Pure Jongo T6 Denon Cocoon Stream Cambridge Audio Minx Xi Loewe Speaker 2Go Orbitsound airSound Base SB60
The Entertainment Award Netflix Amazon Prime Instant Video YouView Sony PlayStation Network Sky+ HD Spotify The TechLife Home Award Dyson DC59 Animal Philips Hue Sage by Heston Blumenthal The Dual Boiler The Peloton Bike Oral-B Pro Smart Series Braun Cooltec Headphones of the Year Philips Fidelio S2 Bose Quiet Comfort 20i Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear Denon AH-D340 B&W P7 Shure SE425 Tech Personality of the Year Will.I.Am Rachel Riley Rory Cellan-Jones Richard Ayoade Spencer Kelly Jason Bradbury
The ceremony takes place at Grand Connaught Rooms in London on October 2. You can follow all the action on Twitter and, of course, at
T 3.com/ awards n ov e m b e r 2 0 1 4 T 3 3 7
Xperia Z3 from Sony Is out now on all networks and for ÂŁ515, handset only
3 8 T 3 n ov e m b e r 2 0 1 4
t3 promotion
1
All Sony’s skills; one cool mobile
Meet the family
From the left: Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (the world’s slimmest slate) and Xperia Z3 Compact. So… What’s your Xperia gonna be?
2
Xperia Z3 from Sony: the life-proofed mobile that’s like a BRAVIA, Cybershot, PlayStation and mobile in one Entertainment legend
Unveiled at IFA, Xperia Z3 from Sony was the pick of the Berlin-based festival of tech. Weighing just 152g, it’s fully life-proof (water- and dust-resistant to IP65 and IP68 levels respectively), powered by a 2.5Ghz quadcore Snapdragon 801 and fronted with a scintillating, 5.2-inch, full-HD display. The latter uses Sony’s BRAVIA-derived Triluminos and X-Reality technologies to give the best possible clarity and colour on a mobile, and Sony’s Cyber-shot camera division has also been pillaged for know-how. As a result, the camera offers super-clear 4K video with SteadyShot and Intelligent Active Mode mopping up any unwanted jitters. There are also crystal clear, 20.7-meg stills via a 1/2.3 Exmor RS for Mobile sensor and a 25mm G Lens, with a maximum ISO of 12800 that laughs in the face of low light. With super-fast connectivity via 4G and
AC Wi-Fi (N Wi-Fi is also supported), you can easily enjoy all the mobile movie and gaming goodies Sony has to offer. With PlayStation 4 Remote Play, you can even use Xperia Z3 as a second screen, connected to and controlling your PS4 faves from anywhere in the house (see right). Despite the screen’s size and clarity and the processing power on show, Xperia Z3 has enough battery power for up to 13 hours of high-quality video playback, and up two days general usage. That’s thanks to Battery Stamina Mode, which turns off background functions when not in use. Continuing to drink deep from Sony’s well of tech, Xperia Z3 also seamlessly works with Sony’s latest SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk wearables. Your mobile life has never been smarter or simpler.
As well as viewing films on Xperia Z3’s class-leading screen, you can Remote Play your PS4 games from anywhere in the house, plugging in your DualShock via the GCM10 Game Control Mount for the full Xperience
3
£515, sonymobile.com/uk
www.sonymobile.com/uk Also unleashed…
Xperia E3 from Sony (top) offers great features for less money. Want a perfect wearable pairing for any Xperia? Try SmartBand Talk or SmartWatch 3
n ov e m b e r 2 0 1 4 T 3 3 9
SUBSCRIBE
— Option two —
— Option One —
PRINT Packed full of the latest gadget news and reviews, delivered straight to your door for just £18.99 every six months
all access For the tech fanatic that wants it all and doesn’t want to wait, T3’s All Access subscription scores you every issue on every format, for £21.99 every six months
Save up to 35% on the shop price 13 issues delivered direct to your door up-to-the-minute gadget news and reviews
Save up to 55% on the shop price FREE access to T3: iPad Edition free access to T3: iPhone Edition* 13 issues delivered direct to your door up-to-the-minute gadget news and reviews
Subscribe today!
Subscribe today!
go online myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/TTTP24 Call us 0844 848 2852 QUOTING CODE “TTTP24”
go online myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/T3AP1M Call us 0844 848 2852 QUOTING CODE “T3AP1M”
Lines are open 8am-9.30pm weekdays and 8am-4pm Saturdays Live outside the UK? For fantastic savings please visit myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/T3 Terms and Conditions: Savings compared to buying 13 issues from UK Newsstand and 13 issues from Apple Newsstand. All-Access: You will be able to download the digital versions of all print issues published within your subscription free of charge. If you cancel your subscription you will still be entitled to download the digital issues you have received. Future Publishing reserves the right to withdraw access at any time. Print + All-Access: If you are dissatisfied in any way you can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription at any time and we will refund you for all unmailed issues. Prices correct at point of print and subject to change. For full terms and conditions please visit: myfavm.ag/magterms. *t3: iphone edition available for retina display only. Offer ends: November 4 2014.
n ov o ceto mber 2014 T3 51