Lovejoy’s got a new shirt

YOU CAN TWEAK THE FIT THROUGH NIKE’S APP OR VIA THE BUTTONS ON THE MIDSOLE

NIKE AIR JORDAN XI ADAPT

$500 / nike.com

Nice sneaks. Hold on, no laces? No requirement here, because while Nike has used its Adapt auto-lacing technology on a number of trainers now, this is the first time it’s found its way onto a pair of Air Jordans. With this updated version of the classic Jordan XI basketball shoe, the wearer can now electronically engage wires to tweak the fit through Nike’s Adapt app or by pressing buttons on the midsole… although you might want to wait until half-time, or the end of a quarter, or a time out, or that bit when blokes on trampolines come out, to avoid any unfortunate mid-game madness.

Surely the Air Jordan purists are hating on this? When did you start sounding all American? Nike says the wonderfully named Tinker Hatfield, who designed the original Jordan XI, showed in his initial 1995 sketches that he wanted the sneaker to be laceless from the very beginning – but even so, it’s fair to say these have divided opinion. This is not the first pair of Nike basketball shoes to get the tie-by-wire (thanks) treatment either. You may remember the Adapt BB that graced the pages of Stuff this time last year – you can currently nab a pair of Adapt BB 2.0s for £300. So why are these so much pricier? These, the first ever self-lacing Air Jordans, have been created to celebrate the original shoe’s 25th anniversary, while the Adapt app gets a ‘Jordan-flavoured’ interface plus the ability to set several preset fits (in case you plan on changing feet), customise the lights in the midsole, and check power levels. They go on sale through Nike’s SNKRS app and storefront on 30 December.

Lantern it on again TRANSPARENT LIGHT SPEAKER

They loved a lantern in the Lord of the Rings trilogy – hobbits daisychaining them at Bilbo’s birthday party, Harry Goatleaf the gatekeeper of Bree illuminating shadowy strangers, elves swinging their Fëanorian lamps about – but if they’d all had access to the Transparent Light Speaker they could have ditched the matches and stuck on Now That’s What I Call Middle Earth at the same time. This 5W Bluetooth speaker is a take on the traditional outdoor lantern, only rather than an actual candle, a sound-activated ‘vibrating bass-and-light element’ creates the glow. Omnidirectional sound comes from a 2.5in full-range driver and a 3in passive radiator. £290 / transpa.rent Er, don’t they mean pavement? Normally we’d agree… but as Amazon’s misdemeanours go, using an Americanism is fairly minor – especially considering it’s a US company and the feature in question is currently only available to American users. Sidewalk is a new wireless tech that could turn a street full of separate smart homes into a more unified smart neighbourhood – and if you’ve bought yourself a new spherical Echo or 10in Echo Show, you’ve already got what you need to make the most of it.

OK, but what does it actually do? It’s designed to fill in the gap between your Wi-Fi and a cellular network like 4G. It uses a fairly old-fashioned chunk of the radio spectrum, which has been reserved in the past for walkie-talkies and pagers, to share a tiny portion of your internet connection with other kit up to half a mile away. The idea isn’t to replace Wi-Fi but to provide a signal to stuff that’s a long way from the router, such as security cameras and other IoT sensors – or things that sometimes stray out of its reach, like Tile’s tracking tags, which until now have had to rely on Bluetooth.

What if I don’t want to share? Then you need to learn to be less selfish. Besides, Sidewalk can only send 80Kbps and the total bandwidth is capped at 500MB a month – we’re not streaming 4K films here. You can also turn it off completely if you’re determined to be stingy. If you do want to use Sidewalk’s 900MHz network, though, you’ll need to wait. Tile has some compatible trackers in the pipeline and Ring’s not-yet-available Car Alarm and Fetch pet tag will also use it… but of course, they’ll still need Amazon to flick the big Sidewalk switch for the UK first.

Swede-smart of the rodeo AUDIO PRO G10

The Transparent Light Speaker is many things, but it’s not particularly ‘smart’. Leave that to the new voice-controlled G10 speaker from fellow Swedes Audio Pro. Compatible with AirPlay 2 and Google Cast, and offering full Google Assistant integration, it’s a Scandi rival to the likes of the Apple HomePod and Huawei Sound X, packing a 52W digital Class D amplifier, a 3in long-throw woofer, dual 4.5in passive radiators and a 1.25in tweeter. We’ve not had a chance to listen to it yet, but judging by Audio Pro’s previous efforts it should sound the part, and when it comes to connectivity you can choose between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a 3.5mm auxiliary input – what a novelty. £230 / audiopro.com