Stuff uk magazine – june 2015

APPLE WATCH THE VERDICT GADGETS / APPS / GEAR

THUMB WAR

GALAXY S6

50 GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOUR PHONE DIES

Yes, it’s rather good

£4.60 June 2015 www.stuff.tv

THE BEST TV IN THE WORLD

THE BEST PHONE WE’VE EVER USED

p14

ON THE COVER

p41

p50 Is S6 the only way?

HOT STUFF

TESTS

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41 First test special Apple Watch It’s the most important gadget launch since the original iPhone, and this is the only review you need to read 50 First test Samsung Galaxy S6 This year’s most anticipated flagship is put through Stuff’s vigorous testing process 53 First test Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Also known as Galaxy S6: The Director’s Cut 54 Approved Stuff-approved apps for… …snooping and finally learning your ABCs 78 First test LG 55EG96OV A TV that’s 4K and OLED? Thanks, LG! 86 Long-term test Chromebook Pixel 2 Ten days with Google’s top laptop 88 Tested Games O Battlefield Hardline O Carmageddon: Reincarnation

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The Hot Four O LG G4 O DJI Phantom 3 O Asus Chromebit O Amazon Dash Vital stats Microsoft Surface 3 Full-fat Windows in a light, affordable tabtop Gigapixel Tarmacography Incredible road map makes your A-Z look old Apps Manage an F1 team or an unruly Dachshund Games We tune up for a first play of Guitar Hero Live Icon Oakley Jawbreaker Mark Cavendish’s sunglasses of choice Geek on the road National Videogame Arcade It’s a nerdy day out in Nottingham Best of… Watches 2015 Wristwear for Apple Watch non-believers I made this… Rui Sousa Campos Meet the innovator behind Iddo, the BMX trick sensor that will make you extreme Choice Battery chargers CHHAAAARGE!!! Okay, okay, it’s charged Your month Everything you must do this May that isn’t sleeping or eating

p78 Greatest TV ever

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p57 Mobile mayhem

WIN! p39

TOP 10

OF EVERYTHING

p70

Looking to buy something but need a bit of advice? Turn to our Stuff Top Tens: our expert listings of all gadgetry, from p111 TABLETS

p104

FEATURES

T HO Y BU Apple iPad Air 2 +++++ Thinner, lighter and mightier p113

PROJECTS

58 50 games to play before you dial We spend more time playing on our phones than talking to our loved ones… so here are the best mobile time-killers you can get 70 Design Watersports Beautiful things aiming to keep you both entertained and breathing on the waves 80 Techspedition Bloodhound SSC The beast-car aiming to top 1000mph. Or, if you prefer, The Hound Of The Faster-Thrills 92 Media hoard New watching, listening and reading matter 130 Next big thing? Radiance rentals No place in the sun?Try renting a solar panel 65 80

100 Beta yourself Travelling Don’t hate those smug people who somehow get cheap flights. Join them!

102 Playlist Webcomics Our pick of the finest online writing 104 Instant upgrades Garden games Sun’s out, guns out… water pistols, that is.

But wouldn’t you prefer something techier?

106 5 ways to reawesomise… Festival kit Tent, check. Sleeping bag, check. More cider cans than you can carry, check. Now what?

107 Gadget Doctor Ask him anything, as long as it’s nerdy 108 5-minute hacks If nothing else, at least…

O Do a willpower workout O Make a paper bottle opener O Pimp your Google Docs

HEADPHONES

T HO Y BU AKG K451 +++++ Fantastic sound, unbeatable price p116 CAMERAS

W NE RY T N E Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 +++++ Versatile snapper p124

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6 MONTHS NETFLIX ULTRA HD A GIFT TO YOU FROM LG*

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WELCO

I have a confession to make: I do not have gastric flu.

Yes, the signs were all there: the sweaty palms, the constant trips to the loo. But I am not feverish and, most of the time, I didn’t even need to go. I’ve been sneaking off to play Super Stickman Golf 2. And yes, I am ashamed, but I’m also Rory freaking McIlroy when it comes to Super Stickman Golf 2.

I’m not proud of what I’ve become, but I am weirdly impressed.

And it’s not just mini golf I’ve mastered: months of practice on Icycle have given me the reactions of a highly caffeinated rattlesnake, and I’ve been playing Plague Inc so much I’ve awarded myself an honorary degree in microbiology.

Still, I can’t be blamed. Okay, I can and probably should be blamed, but when I was growing up, games cost a lot of money.

I waited and saved for months – sometimes years – to play the latest SNES and Megadrive titles. And now there are thousands of games available, and they cost pennies. Unable to restrain myself, I’ve been tucking in like a dog who has unexpectedly gained overnight access to a sausage factory. Brilliant, beautiful, endlessly playable video game fun has never been so easy to come by.

So read on, and join me. Only your thumbs will complain.

THIS MONTH IN STUFF’S DIGITAL EDITION Q Animated, interactive pages, videos and more hi-res pictures Q Click-to-play links for the greatest mobile games ever made Android fan? Stuff is also available on Google Play, Zinio, Exact Editions and Samsung’s Papergarden.

SUBSCRIBE TO STUFF & YOU’LL GET...

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Will Dunn, Editor / willd@stuff.tv / @willydunn

www.stuff.tv Email us stuff@haymarket.com Call us 020 8267 5036 Teddington Studios, Broom Rd, Teddington, Middx TW11 9BE, UK Editorial Editor Will Dunn Deputy Editor Tom Wiggins Production Editor Richard Purvis Consulting Editor Fraser Macdonald Features Editor Mark Wilson Sub-Editor Emily May Brand Art Editor Chee-Chiu Lee Deputy Art Editor Ross Presly Senior Designer Will Clarke Reviews Editor Tom Parsons Staff Writer Esat Dedezade Editor, Stuff.tv Marc McLaren Apprentice Web Producer Kyle Pittman Apprentice Designer Natalia Sliwinska Senior Video Editor Peter Brown Editorial Assistant Max Langridge Editor-in-Chief Will Findlater Content Director Hugh Sleight

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Syndication Manager Paloma Gutierrez 020 8267 5396 Subscriptions Hotline 0844 848 8806 World: +44 (0)1795 592 987 Email stuff@servicehelpline.co.uk Web www.themagazineshop.com Editorial Director Mark Payton Creative Director Paul Harpin Strategy and Planning Director Bob McDowell Managing Director David Prasher Chief Executive Kevin Costello • Volume 19 issue 6 • ISSN: 1364-963 • On sale 6 May 2015 • Audit Bureau of Circulations: 77,340 (Jan-Dec 2013)

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© 2015, Haymarket Media Group Ltd. Reprographics by Born Group. Printed by Southern Print; cover printed by Stephens & George. Distributed by Frontline Ltd, Midgate House, Midgate, Peterborough, PE1 1TN. The US annual subscription price is $75.50. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. Subscription records are maintained at Haymarket Media Group, Teddington Studios, Broom Road, Teddington TW11 9BE. Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form in whole or in part without the written permission of the publishers. Liability: while every care has been taken in the preparation of this magazine, the publishers can’t be held responsible for the accuracy of the information herein, or any consequence arising from it. In the case of all product reviews, judgements have been made in the context of ware based on UK prices at the time of review, which are subject to fluctuation and only applicable to the UK market.

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O Gee, phwooar!

G4 whizz!

An 8.9mm-thick body might seem portly when the Huawei P8 (p20) is wafting its 6.4mm body all over town, but what’s a millimetre between friends when it means removable backs, microSDs and batteries?

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Screen size and pixels remain at 5.5in and 1080p, but this IPS Quantum display promises 50% more contrast, 30% more brightness and a 20% wider colour gamut.

And we know how you love a gamut.

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25 PAGES OF THE BIGGEST STORIES FROM PLANET TECH

HOT FOUR #1 HELLO, IS IT G YOU’RE LOOKING 4?

LG G4

Look G4 you tweet The G4’s camera goes up to 16 megapixels, and a new f1.8 aperture lens should let more light into the party. As with a DSLR, you can select ‘bulb’ mode to take arty, long-exposure night shots.

The LG G3 was our top phone for a significant swathe of 2014. People said we were mad. “If this be madness,” we replied, “then play on, MacDuff.” Which actually confused matters further. In time the G3 was outclassed, but now the G4 is here to battle its way back into our favour: a task that it plans to complete without excessive gimmickry, but with generous layers of class. If the HTC One M9 is ‘metal’ and the Samsung S6 is ‘glass’, then the G4 is ‘texture’. A daring leather finish will also be available, but it’s this version that will be the big seller, with its tasteful crosshatched design. There’s an almost-curve to the screen to remind you of the G Flex 2, and the display itself is a 5.5in, Quad HD, ‘Quantum’ eye-popper that promises to be more bright and colourful than the G3.

A 3000mAh battery will be pedalling furiously behind it to keep the show running; the processor is a 1.8GHz hexacore Snapdragon 808; and there are 16MP and 8MP cameras with a full bevy of smart shooting trickery. All of this sounds like the very definition of balanced aggression; you’ll have to wait for our review to know whether it retakes its position at the top.

As hot as… when an almost-forgotten character smashes back into a story £tba / lg.com/uk 9

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Tandem Phantoms Two models: the top-end 4K/30fps Professional costs £1160, whereas the 1080p/60fps Advanced version is £900. Both have auto-levelling gimballed mounting hardware.

HOT FOUR #2 THE DRONE THAT CAME IN FROM THE COLD DJI Phantom 3

Unless you want to go down in family history as ‘the one where Auntie Ethel got a drone caught up in her fascinator’, you’re going to want to add safety netting to the wedding budget. The latest version of the world’s poster drone, the DJI Phantom, comes with visual positioning sensors to allow it fly indoors, and inside churches, where GPS signals fear to tread. The controller and software have been improved to allow all sorts of aerobatic, videographic and editing tricks, and you can now get a live 720p feed even if it’s up to a mile away.

Most impressive of all, perhaps, is that these manifold enhancements come without a significant price hike.

As hot as… an aerial pan of Uncle Don doing the Funky Gibbon at the reception £900 (Advanced), £1160 (Professional) / dji.com 10

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HOT FOUR #3

Hail, destroyer If you’re the type of pilot who will risk anything to get the shot, then you’ll be pleased to note that the Phantom 3 uses the same 9in props as the previous version. Best order spares: £11 for two.

STICK-PUTER Asus Chromebit

We bear host to such promises in these pages. Supercars that run on batteries, televisions with glasses-free 3D, watches that know your heart is beating – such dreams are these! But every now and then something comes along that is (a) desirable and yet (b) feasible. Such a thing is this Asus-designed PC-in-a-stick. Plug it into an HDMI port on a TV and, bazoink, you’ve got yourself a Chrome computer.

Bluetooth up a keyboard and mouse, Wi-Fi up the internets – it has 16GB of storage built-in, but Google Drive would be a much better way to manage your documents.

There have been plug-and-play PCs before, of course, but the instant-on nature of Chrome could make this a beautiful bargain.

As hot as.. turning your hotel TV into a PC US$100 / asus.com

Bare bones?

Having listened patiently to DJI outlining its improved cameras, we immediately asked about a camera-less version.

“Later in 2015,” they sighed.

“All that effort, wasted,” they didn’t say out loud.

Access round the back of a TV can be a wee bit tight, but this is capable of a 90° contortion

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HOT FOUR #4 CLICK THE WORLD

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* Arthur Weasley, Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets

Amazon Dash

A wise man* once said: “Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” He’d be horrified by Amazon’s Dash button: Prime subscribers stick one to their washing machine, coffee machine or kitchen roll, er, machine, and reorder household items with a single prod. In this Internet of Things existence, we trust machines with instant payments, the locks to our houses, water temperature… and now we’re getting them to do our shopping. You’ll already have arranged the what and the how much, and the buttons won’t respond to further presses until the order has been delivered. We just hope they don’t make one for Pringles.

As hot as… a goblet of fire £tba / amazon.co.uk

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discover raumfeld.com

winner

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T A L S T A T S

NO PRO, MORE GO Microsoft Surface 3 from £420 / microsoft.com/surface

Hang on a second – you’re probably thinking of the Surface Pro 3. Here before you is the Surface 3. It’s thinner, it’s lighter and it’s running proper Windows.

O It’s running proper Windows.

That’s worth repeating. Previous versions of the Surface were loaded with a pared-down Windows RT OS that stopped them from running some of the more intensive applications.

The Surface Pro did get the full Windows, but it’s heavier, bulkier and more expensive. Now the

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Surface 3 appears with Windows 8.1, which you can upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro (if you like) and Windows 10 when it’s out.

O We still like the design.

Always have. A multi-position kickstand, USB 3.0 ports and angled Type Covers make the Surface act like a laptop when you’re being all business in the Oneworld Lounge, but like a funster tablet when you’re in your onesie in your own lounge. It’s equipped with the most powerful of Intel’s Atom processors running in a fanless chassis, so it won’t compete with MacBook Airs or Lenovo Yoga Pros,

but it should have more than enough poke considering its price and portability.

O It has a 3:2 screen… …because Microsoft wants you to catch up on your non-widescreen ripped-from-VHS films. Not really.

It has a 3:2 aspect, 1920x1280 screen because it’s better for web browsing and document handling.

The squarer shape also makes the device easier to handle in both landscape and portrait orientations.

It’s a touchscreen, but you can also buy the optional Surface Pen for note-taking and handwritingrecognition special moves.

IT ACTS LIKE A LAPTOP WHEN IT’S BUSINESS TIME, OR LIKE A FUNSTER TABLET WHEN IT’S PLAYTIME

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TECH SPECS

Screen

10.8in, 1920x1280 touchscreen

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A shock to the system

PINARELLO DOGMA K8-S The Paris-Roubaix bike race is famous for its cobbled roads. Not because they look rustic, but because they destroy bikes and riders and make for great TV. This year, however, Pinarello collaborated with Jaguar and Team Sky to make this, a sort of rear-suspension race bike.

Riders including Sir Bradley Wiggins himself used its pavé-smoothing elastomer suspension and flexy carbon-fibre chainstays to float to the finish unbruised. If they give it good reviews, expect more suspension road bikes, and less guffawing from mountain bikers. £tba / pinarello.com

Storage

64GB (£420), 128GB (£500)

Processor Intel Atom x7-Z8700, 1.6GHz

Par for the course

GOLF BUDDY 2015 WT4 GPS

Cameras

3.5MP 1080p front, 8MP 1080p rear

Drivers, putters, wedges, hybrids. The WT4 won’t tell you what any of them do, but it can let you know pretty much everything else about your golfing game. Combining shiny and slim with feature-filled fairway fun, Golf Buddy’s latest watch can give you info on over 37,000 courses globally, while helpfully advising on targets and hazards, pin placement and shot distances. It’ll even keep your score. To top it all, it looks just sleek enough to get away with wearing in the clubhouse afterwards, giving you pixel performance bragging rights. £180 / golfbidder.co.uk

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VS High-class

RANGE ROVER SVAUTOBIOGRAPHY Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations team has turned its engineering nous to ‘luxury’ for this super-high-end Rangey. The SVA is a lesson in limousine-class lounging: all leather, aluminium, reclining seats and powered tables.

But the silliest bit is the ‘event seating’ in the boot: two leather seats that fold out of the tailgate, so you can sit with a bottle of Bolly and watch the beatings. from £148,900 / landrover.co.uk

START MENU Sinclair C5 v2.0

BABEL BIKE

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High-tech

MERCEDES-BENZ GLE500E 4MATIC The GLE replaces the old ML SUV and also knows a thing or two about luxury. Instead of seats in the boot, however, it’s sparks under the bonnet: the GLE500e is Merc’s first plug-in hybrid SUV. It combines a 328bhp 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 petrol engine with an electric motor that adds 114bhp. Net result? An incredibly torquey 4WD bullet that’ll do 85mpg and qualifies for free road tax because of its 78g/km CO2. £tba (due September) / mercedes-benz.co.uk

The month’s best concepts, start-ups, crowdfunded projects and plain crazy ideas

Tiny block of power

Phone on your head

WONDERCUBE

S.1 HELMET CAM ADAPTOR

from £2000 / sinclairinnovation.com Crispin Sinclair, son of Sir Clive Sinclair, wants you to stay in the land of the living by investing in his safety cage bike. If a turning lorry takes you out, you don’t go under its wheels, you get shoved to the side while automatic alarms and lights draw attention to your plight. It’ll come in electric and manual versions, with high-end Shimano Di2 gearing and Brooks finishing kit.

from US$50 / thewondercube.com This one isn’t exactly a gadget at the cutting edge of innovation, because we’ve seen loads of all-in-one smartphone ‘helpers’. But this one is oh-so-tiny. The little doohickey attaches to a keyring and includes a built-in cable for charge/sync, a Flash memory slot, an emergency battery charger connector, and the always superfluous — but always included anyway — LED torch.

from US$65 / flymountusa.com If A equals an iPhone and B equals an action cam, then A plus B equals a pretty standard camera-plus-viewfinder setup, but also a super-spendy solution. Especially considering A already has a camera. Enter C: a helmet mount for A, including a prismic light-bender that makes the camera look forward. To which we’ll attribute the value ‘ingenious’.

Net result? Awesomeness equals C.

Status Seeking funding (Indiegogo)

Status Funded (Indiegogo)

Status Seeking funding (Kickstarter)

The bigger picture in tech

TARMACOGRAPHY Were you tasked with drawing a map of a country, you’d most likely start with the outline.

Then you might plot the major population centres, followed by the major topographical features and the waterways. This map, for all its apparent complexity, is comprised entirely of roads.

The coastline is defined by the ending of roads, the hills and mountain ranges are defined by the circumnavigation of the roads and the big cities are defined by being the nexus points of many roads. Granted, it’s the USA, but you can buy a UK version (shop. fathom.info) and you’ll discover things are no less discernible.

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NEWS FEED

EE OFFERS ENDLESS REFILLS

The PowerBar is a 2600mAh USB charger that’s free to all EE monthly and loyal pay-as-you-go customers. What’s unique, though, is that you can swap your depleted PowerBar for a fresh one simply by popping into an EE shop.

NINTENDO LANDS ON SMARTPHONES

After what seems like 1000 dark years, Nintendo has announced that its motley crew of characters will be making their way onto mobile. Japanese developer DeNA has been tasked with creating touchscreen-friendly apps to appear later this year.

TAG HEUER, INTEL AND GOOGLE JOIN WRISTS

Not bought that Apple Watch just yet? TAG Heuer has announced it will make an Android Wear smartwatch with Intel “by the end of 2015”. Sounds pretty exciting to us. Hope it looks like the new Monaco V4 Carbon pictured.

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Not afraid of the fray

HUAWEI P8 Gosh, P8 – you chose your moment, didn’t you?

There’s a queue of Samsung S6 buyers around the metaphorical block, there are LG G4s and Sony Z4s roaring around the corner, and OS fence-sitters are falling back on the Cupertino side so long as they get to play with an Apple Watch. This market is pulsating like a pen of piglets and you, P8, just saunter in. There’s certainly nothing wrong with your metal and glass construction, your 6.4mm waistline or your 5.2in screen. And your in-house Kirin 930 processor sounds snazzy with its eight 64-bit cores. But we hope you had a double portion of Ready Brek this morning because, P8, you’ve got a fight on your hands. £tba / huawei.com/uk

All talk and nice trousers

NIKON 1 J5 The J5 can shoot 4K movies. Boom. It shoots 4K at a rather lowly 15fps, but it also shoots 1080p at 60fps or 120fps slow-mo. And it can timelapse: five, 10 or 30sec intervals, up to 300 shots. Or the opposite: continuous shooting of 20fps with continuous autofocus or a whopping 60fps with fixed focus. Big numbers, hmm?

Professional cynics will point out that the J5’s 1in sensor and 12,800 ISO maximum could be limiting. But examine your needs carefully and this could be the very Wi-Fi and NFC rootin’, tiltscreen tootin’, sharp-shootin’ sub-£500 pocket powerhouse you’ve been looking for. £350 (body), £430 (10-30mm kit) / nikon.co.uk

FUTURE STUFF INSOLENT INSOLES

Fraser Macdonald swaps his sweaty mismatched socks for something a bit smarter Here’s the situation as it is currently. You are born. You wobble, you toddle, you walk and talk. And then you run and leap and slide and tackle, right up until about age 15. And then you do very little, slouching and mooching and occasionally running with a traffic cone on your head. And then you start a job, and to win brownie points you sign up for the office charity 10k… and your knees explode.

Then your physio tells you you’ve been running and walking wrong for all of your life, and now your entire musculoskeletal system

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is messed up and it’s going take a lot of time and money and pain to make it right. If, indeed, it ever can be righted. Woe! Here’s the situation as it will be. Born, wobble, waddle, etc. But then, you wear shoes that measure how you’re walking, for they are part of the Internet of Things.

Sensors in the soles measure impact zones, gait and shear. The data can be viewed in real time, or it can be collated and analysed over time, and/or it can be sent (Apple HealthKit style) directly to your doctor or physio. Any

potentially ruinous running can be diagnosed and acted upon. Possibly via an immediate electric shock to the leg. It’s for the best.

You can have a simplified version of this knee-friendly future now, thanks to the Smart Insoles being developed by a company called HCI Viocare. It expects to be selling them for less than £200 by the end of this year, both for sports and for those with debilitating foot conditions. It doesn’t mention electric shock therapy, though, so you might have to retrofit that yourself.

SMART HI FI AUDIO Wireless Multi-Room

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*Available for Android, iOS and PC. **Battery life usage varies

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1 Adventures Of Poco Eco – Lost Sounds

4 Instagram Layout

7 Motorsport Manager

£2.29 / iOS, Android A dreamy explorathon based around Iamyank’s album Lost Sounds. Headphones are essential but with its surreal, Monument Valley-style gameplay, you’ll want to be fully immersed anyway.

£free / iPhone Instagram has proved that while one photo is magnificent, many photos are exponentially better, and now it’s out to prove that a collage of photos fondled into a single image is the new benchmark of brilliance.

£1.99 / Android, iOS Overseeing a Formula 1 season in which it isn’t just Mercedes winning everything could be just the thing to rekindle your racing fires. This successful and addictive iOS team manager game has made the jump to Android, with all features intact.

2 CometDocs

5 Dudeski

8 Trial Xtreme 4

£free / Chrome Creating a Word doc from a PDF was hard, then CometDocs made it easy – disassembling PDFs into docs or images or whatever. And now it’s a plug-in for Google Drive: almost instant transmogrification of over 40 file types.

£free / Android, iOS You’ve played Horace Goes Skiing, so you won’t want to play this as it’s similar, although it is both addictive and cute, and there are so many good new games, although this one’s free, and…

Wow. Level 14 already, huh?

£free / Android, iOS Developer Deemedya has largely stuck to the formula that makes its dirtbike games popular. Tracks are not so hard that you can’t complete them, but getting the best scores and beating rivals takes time. Or lots of in-app purchases.

3 Europcar ToMyCar

6 Silly Sausage In Meat Land

9 Ticklefluff

£free / Android, iOS Removing the awkward preamble with the man at the hire car desk, this app lets you find, unlock, drive and return one of Europcar’s new keyless VW Golfs at Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh airports (so far, with more to be added soon).

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£free / iOS, Android In this side-scrolling, gem-grabbing, Snake-meets-R-Type puzzler, your stretchy pooch will extend until she hits a surface, at which point her tail will catch up. Keeping that tail out of trouble is the trick.

£free / iOS Ticklefluff just shed a tear because you poked when you should have stroked. You shed a tear because you realised you’re compulsively obeying rapid-fire poke, stroke and squeeze instructions from a fluffy taskmaster on a phone screen.

APP SPOTLIGHT TOMTOM GO MOBILE

£free / Android Sure, Google and Here and Waze give you free sat-nav and live traffic for your Android device. But wouldn’t you rather have a premium sat-nav app? Well, now you can, and for nothing, as the new TomTom app is free… for 50 miles a month. More than that and you’ll have to pay £15 a year or £35 for three years. We think the free trial approach is better than its previous high entry price.

G A M E S

DUE AUTUMN

FIRST PLAY GUITAR HERO LIVE PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U

[ Words Tom Parsons ]

With Harmonix getting Rock Band back together, the folks at FreeStyleGames (of DJ Hero fame) have taken the reins on the relaunch of its genredefining rival – and we’ve already bashed out a couple of tunes on it.

It’s called Guitar Hero Live, and the cartoon graphics have been replaced with live-action video from a on-stage firstperson perspective, so if you fail it hurts that little bit more than before (the crowd boos… one girl down the front looked like she was actually crying). You might

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also experience virtual stage fright. But as that muscle memory flashes back and you lean over the crowd to smash into the solo, you really do feel like a rock god.

The controller is still on the small, plasticky side but the buttons have been rearranged: the coloured row of five and the touchpad have gone, replaced by two monochrome rows of three at the top of the neck.

The idea is that it creates a better feeling of playing chords.

There’s also a new mode called GHTV, which is essentially

a playable music channel. Official videos play 24/7 and you can hop into a song at any point for a high-score battle. This track not your kind of thing? Just change channels and see what’s playing elsewhere. New songs will be added to GHTV frequently, and you won’t have to pay extra for them either.

It’s a mode that will be great for a quick blast, and will go well with a couple of bandmates and a few beers. And isn’t that the part of Guitar Hero we’ve been missing over the past five years?

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NEXT-GEN DEBUT MOTORSPORT’S MAIN EVENT

DUE 12 JUN

F1 2015

PS4, Xbox One As Lew-Ham and his Mercedes-powered chums look set to run away with the Formula 1 title again this season, it might be down to you to create your own on-track excitement. With the fifth and sixth races of the season happening this month,

F1 2015 might be a little late making it to the next-gen starting grid – but the list of improvements over last year’s model make it sound worth the wait.

Codemasters has used the extra power to build a whole new engine which will make car handling more realistic, thanks in no small part to a new tyre physics model

(which is something only F1 fans can ever get excited about). Your car’s grip will now be noticeably affected by changes in temperature, the weather, wear, set-up and any debris they pick up around the track. And the Force Feedback has also been improved so you should have a better idea of when you’re about to

make an unscheduled stop into the wall.

The PS4 and Xbox One’s improved voice-recognition skills mean you’ll even be able to talk to your engineer during the race. Exactly what you can tell them to do is unclear at the moment, but it’s likely to be pitstop instructions rather than how you take your post-race tea.

STUFF PICKS UPCOMING RELEASES

DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED

DESTINY: HOUSE OF WOLVES

TITAN SOULS

2011’s Human Revolution was one of the most well-received first-person shooters of late, so the return of Adam Jensen’s genetically enhanced limbs can’t come soon enough. We don’t have a release date for Mankind Divided but expect it to pick up two years later, when the human race is at war with its augmented self.

Bungie’s 10-year plan for Destiny means releasing expansion packs so that people who’ve played 4000 hours can stop complaining that there’s not enough to do. House Of Wolves (due 19 May) adds new story missions, fresh multiplayer maps and a co-op strike, although there’ll be no new raid until later in the year.

Tougher than a steak that’s been cooking in an old boot for two days, Titan Souls isn’t just a bullet-showering shoot-’em-up. In fact, you don’t even have a gun. You have a single, retrievable arrow, so taking down each gigantic boss means finding its weak spot. Did someone say Shadow Of The Colossus meets Dark Souls?

PS4, Xbox One, PC

PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS3, Xbox 360

PC/Mac, PS4, PS Vita

INCOMING JUNE O BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT O RORY MCILROY PGA TOUR JULY O THE FLAME IN THE FLOOD SEPTEMBER O METAL GEAR SOLID 5: THE PHANTOM PAIN LATE 2015 O STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT

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I C O N

OAKLEY JAWBREAKER [ Picture Pete Gardner ]

from US$200 / oakley.com Oh, they’re all broken.

No, they’re just mid-lens-change reveal. Imagine them revolving, opening. Hear the strains of The Blue Danube in the background.

Gasp as the artificial lens-flare suddenly strikes you; it lights up the questions in your eyes. Why such a complex mechanism? Can they justify this amount of drama?

These, and more questions, will be answered in the next three columns. But not just by us.

If not you then, by God, whom?

Only by cycling superstar and Isle of Man man, Mark Cavendish!

He’s been a collaborator on the Jawbreaker design. And while Cav’s normally fairly quick, these news specs have been two years in the making. Over 100 different iterations of the design were tried, using up 9600 man-hours of fettling and testing. These are not a fashion item – the Jawbreaker is about function.

Cav? Eep! What should I ask?

Well, don’t ask him about how long they took to make, because we’ve already covered that. Ask him about the lenses. That’d be good. Because then he can tell you about how they used eyetracking hardware to measure where a cyclist’s eyes go, and then fine-tuned the optics in the lenses to work best in those areas. That’s as relevant to a commuter as it is to an elite racer.

OK, yeah, I’ll ask him about that…

Oh, he’s gone now. Professional cyclists-cum-specs-execs don’t have time to wait around for you to gather your wits. Shame – he was itching to tell you how the Jawbreaker’s arms adjust to fit your helmet. Frame finishes include one flecked with ‘Cavendish green’ in a nod to Cav’s many green jerseys for sprinting, and a Tour de France edition if you’re more of a General Classification rider.

EYE-TRACKING TECH MEASURED WHERE CYCLISTS’ EYES GO, THEN OAKLEY FINETUNED THE LENSES IN THOSE AREAS

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Chrome in it, and touchscreen, innit

ACER CHROMEBASE All-in-one desktops running Chrome are rare.

LG makes one. And now Acer. Rarity is a bit of an issue for engineers because, looked at one way, they don’t need to do much to make their product stand out… but lack of competition also highlights a lack of demand. Maybe no-one wants a desktop running Chrome? After all, Windows desktops are cheap. A £25 Raspberry Pi will run the internet and email on any display with an HDMI socket. But maybe everyone wants a silent, slender, 21.5in touchscreen all-in-one that should be, going by its Tegra K1 chip, quick but easy on the wallet. Maybe. £tba / acer.co.uk

Get serious or just look serious

XSORIES X-STEADY LITE There are two advantages to be gained here. Firstly, steadier HD footage from your compact camera, GoPro or whatever wotsit with a tripod mount you attach to it.

There’s even an accessory for this XSorie that lets you clamp your smartphone in the shooting position. The X-Steady has a big foam gimballed grip and a weighted steel body, but still only takes up 128g of your sporting payload. Just the thing for moving shootography, be it figure skating, snowboarding or just marching up and down the touchline down at Rugby Rugrats. Second in its skillset, but no less important: whether or not the footage is any good, or even ever watched, the X-Steady makes you look like you know what you’re doing. £80 / xsories.com

DROP EVERYTHING AND DOWNLOAD...

Periscope £free / iOS

Twitter has already turned us all into potential ‘citizen journalists’ but Periscope wants to turn us into citizen on-the-scene correspondents. Stumble upon a major happening – the discovery of a whole lake of Lilt, or the Queen base-jumping – and Periscope allows you to broadcast live video from your phone’s camera across the webwaves. Viewers can comment on it in real time (“Does it still taste totally tropical?”) and reward the footage with a flurry of hearts. Or you can just ’scope another boring sunset to add to the millions of others out there. Your choice.

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Geek on the road

NATIONAL VIDEOGAME ARCADE

Craig Grannell visits the games centre that inspires people to create their own Video games drew the short straw.

Literature, film, theatre, music and even TV are lauded as ‘culture’, but games only make the news when people are offended by GTA – never mind that the series is one of the British entertainment industry’s biggest success stories.

But in Nottingham’s Creative Quarter, the newly-opened National Videogame Arcade is aiming to reframe video games in people’s minds. This permanent cultural centre is less dusty museum and more of a celebration of interactive entertainment, placing games at the point where art and science meet.

The centre’s name is almost a misnomer, since it brings to mind a darkened hall of old-school cabinets waiting to do battle.

Visit on that basis and you might be disappointed. There are classic cabinets and consoles dotted about, but the NVA’s more about encouraging gamers and nongamers alike to explore what games are and can be. This is a place where things are made, rather than just played, making it clear that games are something to be created, not just consumed.

So, as you move through the exhibits, you’re confronted by

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scratch-built games that merge the physical and digital, encouraging cooperative play and new ways of thinking. A temporary exhibition called Jump! deconstructs the fundamental components of gaming with physical contraptions, walls of sprites that leap when buttons are thumped, and a game inspector that delves behind the screens of Super Mario.

The NVA’s founders consider the entire building a platform of sorts, and this is evident in the stairwell.

The nervous system of the fivestorey building is exposed through colour-coded wiring, flat screens with attached Raspberry Pis hanging alongside. Everything is hackable, the idea being that visitors can change and ‘own’ the building, leaving with a lasting impression that inspires them to create their own games. Only in the final room, A History Of Games In 100 Objects, does the NVA echo a dry museum, locking a selection of British gaming history behind glass, static and untouchable.

This is a family-friendly place, but also a place of nerds; a slightly ramshackle but optimistic and creative feel pervades, evoking British gaming at its best. The entry fee of £8.50 makes it well

worth a visit, and as British gaming entrepreneur Ian Livingstone CBE said at the opening, the NVA sends a great message to parents, teachers, media and government that games go beyond entertainment, have great economic, cultural and social impact, and are no longer simply an obscure hobby.

GAME ON! NVA HIGHLIGHTS

Mission Control

Two players do battle on a screen while onlookers dynamically hack the game’s properties in real time, pressing buttons, flipping switches, replugging wires and even scanning in new enemies.

Room Racers

Artist Lieven van Velthoven combines controllers, a camera, a projector and a bunch of stuff on a table. All this becomes a racing circuit for projected cars, merging the digital and the physical.

Canabalt

The mobile game is reimagined in head-to-head form, controlled by two players physically leaping from mats.

Elsewhere, the Jump! exhibition explores game mechanics from Donkey Kong to Destiny.

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DECIPHER ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN…

#2 LTE-DIRECT Fraser Macdonald

Heads and jollies

STEPCRAFT 2 You, reader, are a clever fish. Your scheme of not joining the 3D printer throng has paid off, and it only took a few years of time-biding. The Stepcraft 2 has arrived. (Well, nearly. It’s up on Kickstarter and it’s surpassed its funding goal many times.) It has the look of a 3D printer, but it works with additional heads, so you can also mill, engrave, plot and cut materials from aluminium to vinyl. It can even use a Dremel tool, so you might already be equipped. All you need to do to cash in on your long game is to choose which of the five sizes of work area and seven tool heads will best suit your crafty desires. You are awesome. from US$1000 / stepcraft2.com

I wouldn’t be offended if you were to ignore this.

On seeing the phrase ‘LTE-Direct’, if you were to mutter something about wireless standards being as prolific as the proverbial rabbit and walk away, I’d probably join you. We could go and watch that new Hamlet film with Maxine Peake.

But, in truth, I can’t. Not while there’s stuff that needs knowing. Especially when that stuff might be evil.

LTE-Direct is, as its name suggests, related to the LTE 4G signal that should really be your data-spout by now as you go about your daily business. But this is device-to-device. It bypasses the mobile towers, letting you directly send and receive data at 4G speeds, over up to 500 metres. That range smashes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and, so it is claimed, does so without nuking your battery.

You could use it for getting the internet underground, and LTE-Direct founder Qualcomm has built it into its Snapdragon

DIRECTLY SEND AND RECEIVE DATA BETWEEN DEVICES AT 4G SPEEDS, UP TO 500 METRES APART

Wiggy smalls

MONSTER iSPORT SUPERSLIM Freedom comes at a price. And if by freedom we’re talking about Bluetooth wireless headphones, then the price we’re talking about is bulk. Because gubbins that wired headphones don’t have to worry about – electronics, batteries – have to be packaged up. The iSport SuperSlim claim to be slimmer than most Bluetooth headphones, by using a unique folding circuitry design. More conventionally sized iSport earphones can be had for £80, mind you, and there’s a fashionable over-ear design too, the iSport Freedom, for £230. £130 / shopmonsterproducts.co.uk

Automotive profile, so your connected car can share data with other vehicles about conditions, traffic and intentions.

So far, so yay. But LTE-Direct has also been mentioned alongside iBeacon, Apple’s commercial enterprise for location-based messaging. Think retailers knowing you’re nearby and sending you special offers… airlines suggesting upgrades when you get to the gate… and taxi companies digitally yelling at you when you land. For a salesman, this makes LTE-Direct a compelling opportunity. For us consumers… well, you’ve been warned.

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B E S T O F

SUPERWATCHES The very finest analogue wristwear 2015 has to offer

Raymond Weil Nabucco Gibson Strap one of these to your wrist and you’ll be one of only 200 people in the world capable of simultaneously displaying your love of Gibson guitars – specifically the self-tuning SG Standard – and measuring average speed using the tachymeter around the dial.

It’s all about niche appeal. £3495 / raymond-weil.com

Breitling B55 Connected Ah, now this is smart. Breitling’s watch connects to an app, but not for the narcissistic needling of calorie stats. It’s for pilots, and it syncs useful things such as time zones, operating parameters, flight logs and alarms. “Pip, pip, First Officer Tim… time for a gin.” Once you’ve landed, that is. £7000 (approx) / breitling.com

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Seiko Marinemaster Professional 1000m Hi-Beat 36000

Casio G-Shock MRG-G1000RT

Romaine-Jerome Subcraft

In 1965, Seiko first designed a divers’ watch; and 50 years later, it’s still tweaking the design. Far from being embarrassed, Seiko is celebrating: this anniversary special’s 8L55 quartz movement beats at 36,000 vibrations per hour and is contained within a one-piece titanium case. £6400 / seikowatches.com

This is inspired by the pattern found in the steel of traditional Japanese swords. The bezel and metal plate are made from an alloy that has been hardened by a recrystallisation process and, inside, there are GPS and radio wave time receivers. It is both terrifyingly expensive (for a Casio) and limited to just 100. £4500 / g-shock.co.uk

From a company famous for its watches constructed from bits of the Titanic or Moon, the Subcraft is a remarkably restrained piece of engineering.

It features the same jumpinghour movement found in the Spacecraft design, but in this pebble’s-bum-smooth shape. from US$24,500 / romainejerome.ch

Mondaine Helvetica No.1 Horological Smartwatch

Omega Speedmaster Skywalker X-33 Solar Impulse

Sinn EZM 7 S

Mondaine has teamed up with some other Swiss brands to make a basic smartwatch-andapp platform. On-watch info is limited to a ‘percentage of goal completion’ dial. But data is sent via Bluetooth LE to your phone, where the app deals with deeper insights into exercise and sleep. £tba / mondaine.com

High in the sky, Solar Impulse 2 is in the process of becoming the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate this ball. Except that it’s probably fundraising on the ground right now. This limited edition celebrates the project by being coloured earthy. It is not, however, solar-powered.

CHF4900 / omegawatches.com

EZM is short for Einsatzzeitmesser, which is German for ‘Mission Timer’. The coloured measurements on the dial represent the official time limits that fire and rescue teams should spend in various levels of protective gear and breathing apparatus. The black PVD and fire-engine red strap might push us over the edge into ownership. £1910 / sinn.de/en

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Blancpain L-Evolution Tourbillon Carrousel A tourbillon and a carrousel each form the basis of a posh watch movement. The former, decided Blancpain, had got too popular so it started making more watches with the latter. Then, in order to achieve yet more exclusivity, it started making watches that use both – this 99-edition version is the latest and greatest of them.

US$373,130 / blancpain.com

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INGENI-O-METER OOOOO Digitising dirt jumps and gamifying the gnarl

I MADE THIS

THE TRICK TRACKER

Rui Sousa Campos explains why BMX is only the beginning for Iddo Doing a trick on a bike or board is like doing a painting – it’s like a Van Gogh. But you cannot keep a record of it. I decided to try to do something about that.

Right now the Iddo sensor is at prototype stage and being supported by the Microsoft Ventures London Accelerator process, but there are already riders beta-testing it.

What the sensor does is beyond the capability of any smartphone. Iddo doesn’t fudge feedback by applying a one-size-fits-all algorithm to a single parameter of data, as a basic activity tracker does, but records as many strands of data as possible, and has each contribute to the detail of the picture they provide.

We started with a plastic casing, but we have a team of BMXers who soon showed it wasn’t going to last, so now it’s aluminium. The most unique component of the Iddo is an altimeter that’s accurate to just 10cm. Knowing how massive a jump was helps determine the score the algorithm assigns to it, so Iddo has to get it right.

Also important are the sensors for temperature, ambient light and

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humidity. They allow you to more accurately track what’s happened. You can see: OK, this BMX race was on a rough day, there was a lot of humidity, or the temperature was low or high.

It’ll allow you to compare results more accurately.

Otherwise, as you’d expect, there’s an accelerometer, gyrometer and magnetometer to map movement. An ARM Cortex M4-based processor runs the

trick-crunching algorithms and 1GB of Flash storage captures movement data. There are GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou [a Chinese GPS variant] sensors too, allowing riders to record race and training data, and letting freestyle riders see where other Iddo users have performed tricks.

Iddo will sync with an app in real time via Bluetooth. We’re really keen to build a community of Iddo users, all sharing their

you’re better off taking air over a double jump or keeping the bike on the ground. This doesn’t exist in the market at the moment – nothing can map this kind of behaviour. For the guys into BMX racing I think it’s going to be a killer feature.

Of course, we know that BMX racing is a niche market. But the Microsoft Ventures process is going to give us the chance to perfect the product and tweak

“THE APP WILL TELL YOU TO AIR THE DOUBLE OR STAY ON THE GROUND” track times and trick scores.

There will also be unlockable achievements, instant messaging and Facebook sharing. There’s even going to be an audio function, which we’re really excited about, where the app tells you through your headphones about other riders nearby who are nailing their tricks.

You’ll be able to ‘ghost race’ other BMXers, getting real-time feedback as you ride. The app will be able to tell you whether

the algorithms. And then we can look at expanding Iddo into other sports. There are loads of future options, including surfing, downhill mountain-biking, skiing and motocross.

The key is rapid prototyping.

We built Iddo using off-the-shelf components and 3D printing.

Hopefully we can get to a stage where we’re so proficient that we can begin developing hardware for other startup companies too.

THE PERFECT MATCH

F O R YO U R M U S I C & YO U R H O M E BeoSound Moment is a new intelligent, wireless, music system that integrates your music and streaming services into one, bringing the music listening experience back into your home.

b an g - ol u f s e n .com

ÂŁ1,795*

BEOSOUND MOMENT

*BeoSound Moment recommended retail price

C H O I C E 1

POWER BANKS

With great power comes great responsibility… what to charge first?

1 Knomad Mini Power “If it’s not in a cotton canvas twill sleeve, it’s not worth charging.”

With a 5000mAh battery and assorted connectors, this keeps your gadgets juiced and tidy. knomobags.com / £120

2 Robot Head Power Plus It might look like Marvin’s slightly upset android brother, but this charger’s 10,400mAh reserve can fuel up two devices at once. firebox.com / £50

3 Powermonkey Explorer 2 This waterproof, dustproof can o’ juice will charge your phone three times over, and when it runs out you can attach a hand crank or solar panel for endless power. powertraveller.com / £80

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4 Brunton Revolt 4000 With a 4000mAh capacity and hardy exo-shell, the Revolt is anything but revolting. It even comes with a no-questionsasked lifetime guarantee. brunton.com / £40

5SnooperVenturaPB60 Looking like a prop from a K-pop remake of Full Metal Jacket, the PB60 offers 10,400mAh of juice at a rapid 1.5A. With a flexible body and magnetic ends, it’s fun to muck about with, too. snooper.co.uk / £40

[ Picture RGB Digital ]

6 Samsung Animal Edition

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No monkeying around here, with a huge 11,300mAh to last you while you Google the four endangered species the different packs are designed to raise awareness of. expansys.com / £65

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Probably just the thing you need

NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX TITAN X The chances of us experiencing a MacGyver situation are vanishingly thin. We are unlikely to find ourselves locked in a shed, our only means of escape being to create some kind of a tank out of the bits we find.

Instead, we can be the people who have the shed in which MacGyvers are locked. In it we can keep an old Chevy engine and a food processor and a TIG welding kit. We don’t know what to do with any of it, but it might come in handy. Same goes for the Titan X: as Nvidia’s most powerful graphics card, with eight billion transistors and 12GB of GDDR5 memory, it’ll be the brain of the most powerful 4K gaming PC this side of the future. We might just need some help building it. from £880 / nvidia.com

THE NOBLE AUDIO PRESTIGE? Ooh, they look like Mother Nature’s kidney stones.

These are custom in-ear monitors from California-based Noble Audio. It says the Prestige is “the world’s most luxurious bespoke in-ear monitor”. But is that a truly objective viewpoint, do you think?

How bespoke are we talking?

I’m glad you asked. The answer: very.

The Prestiges are custom-made to fit your ears using 3D-scanning wizardry.

Over 2.5million points of data are recorded per ear, from which a solid piece of material is rendered. The process takes up to 30 hours, depending on the choice of material. Or how freaky your canals are.

Does that mean better sound?

Undoubtedly. They’ll kick your OEMbundled earphones into a Cockney marsh. We’re certain about this because the Prestiges are based on the expensive K10U, which we’ve already clapped ears on. Both have 10 drivers crammed into their tiny form, assigned to bass, midrange, mid/high, high and super-high frequencies. Compare this with Apple’s EarPods – which have one driver in the left, and one driver in the right – and you get an idea of why the price is so high.

You said they’re made from wood?

Now that’s one VIRB we can conjugate

GARMIN VIRB X We dug a lot about the first VIRB action camera except its size. It was clever, but it was chubby. The new VIRB, on the other hand, has got it going on… albeit in that flat-to-the-wind style that GoPros rock. (If aerodynamics are your thing, talk to Ion or Contour.) Garmin’s new boy comes in two versions: the X, which shoots 1080p 30fps or 720p 60fps, and the fancy-pants XE (US$400) which goes up to 1440p 30fps. The XE also has a super-slow-mo mode, image stabilisation and better image tweakery, including white balance and exposure controls. Both are waterproof to 50m without a case, have Wi-Fi and a smartphone app, and will be parading about come ‘summer 2015’. from US$300 / garmin.com/uk

Not just any old wood. Hand-picked exotic woods from the US, Africa and south-east Asia. In fact, not just wood: there’s a choice of 30 different materials including carbon fibre, aluminium webbing and actual, real honeycomb. It’s a fresh kind of madness, we tell thee.

Still though, £1650?

Well, the Prestige in-ears do also come with a detachable two-pin cable, a crushproof carrying case called the Storm Box, two Noble Audio amp bands, cleaning tool, ownership card, and a two-year limited warranty. And a lifetime of sneering at any earphone with a white cable, of course.

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OUR MONTH I SANK A SUB… I STARTED SAVING FOR A NEW IPAD…

…so I can play Football Manager Classic 2015, the latest and most sophisticated portable version of the time-sapping soccer sim. My original Mini is too creaky to run it, and the promise of playing a full-on FM game on the way into work is worth living on beans for.

I FEARED FOR OUR SURVIVAL… I MARVELLED AT MR TETRIS The Centre for Computing History stand at Gadget Show Live had Sonic on Sega Megadrive, an Atari Jaguar, an original PlayStation, an N64 and an SNES running Starfox.

And yet this chap sat and played Tetris. And played.

And played…

Tom Wiggins deputy editor / tablet tactician Fraser Macdonald consulting editor / game for anything 36

…on seeing the XYZ Da Vinci, which can scan an object then print it. And then it can scan the print of the scanned object and print that. If it wasn’t for the fact that you have to move the scanned object to allow the print base to lower, we’d all be drowning in plastic heads by now.

…of beer, courtesy of Heineken. The £200 Sub is the giant brewer’s attempt to offer draft beer at home.

You buy two-litre ‘torps’ (as in torpedoes), slot them in, pull the tap and receive perfectly chilled, frothy beer in return. Tinnies, be gone!

I TOOK AN AUDI R8 FOR A SPIN…

…around the track at Silverstone, part of the brilliant Audi Driving Experience (from £299, audi.co.uk). Then I turned off the traction control on an Audi TTS and took that for a more literal spin… some cones were harmed in the making of this magazine.

I CAUGHT A CAT BURGLAR…

…using the Piper NV home security system. It sends you alerts (with video clips) if it detects movement or sound while you’re not there, and can also display a live feed – so you can see what the cat really gets up to.

Tom Parsons reviews editor / daytime drunk Esat Dedezade staff writer / doomsayer

Will Dunn editor / conehead

Marc McLaren Stuff.tv editor / pet detective

T7 Bluetooth Speaker with Micro Matrix™ Or in layman’s terms, it sounds great.

It has taken Bowers & Wilkins 50 years of acoustic knowhow to make the T7. And thanks to high-resolution streaming via Bluetooth aptX® and an incredible 18 hours battery life, you’re guaranteed best-in-class performance wherever you are.

£299.99 from authorised retailers Buy direct from bowers-wilkins.co.uk/T7 Two-year warranty Free delivery

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YOUR MONTH MAY

Six good reasons to stay out of the Mars One programme (for now)

04 BIRDMAN

Shot almost entirely in a single sequence, Michael Keaton’s self-referential performance is unsettlingly brilliant. Picking up Oscars, Baftas and Globes, this star-studded black comedy is worth a spin on Blu-ray. Just don’t try recreating the ending.

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08 05 WOLFENSTEIN: THE OLD BLOOD The dystopian FPS series returns with more Nazi-bashing in this expansion pack. A prologue to last year’s The New Order, The Old Blood follows Blazkowicz through two interconnected and gore-spattered storylines on his quest for victory.

SPOOKS: THE GREATER GOOD GoT fans rejoice: Jon Snow has been upgraded. Kit Harrington swaps axe for gun as BBC favourite Spooks hits the big screen.

With Harry gone, it’s on Kit’s man Will to protect London from an impending attack. We hope he knows more than Jon Snow.

12 THE WALKING DEAD: VOL 23

Robert Kirkman The latest instalment of the zombie-fest upon which the TV show is loosely based.

Walkers! Roamers!

Lurkers! All of them hankering for flesh.

Whispers Into Screams picks up right where Vol 22 left off. Tasty.

22 TOMORROWLAND: A WORLD BEYOND

Star Wars VII lands next year, but for now Disney has this sci-fi sweetener.

George Clooney and Britt Robertson team up to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere unknown in time and space, hoping to save the world.

24 WORLD SUPERBIKES

With Kawasaki’s H2R track bike on the horizon and Harley’s Project Livewire Electric Bike touring the UK, there’s never been a techier time for two-wheelers.

Want in? Get to Donington to see a 25-strong field of the world’s best riders.

W I

N

OUT 1 JUNE ON DVD & BLU-RAY

WB SHIELD: ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. © BSkyB Limited 2014. © 2015 WBEI. All rights reserved.

TOTAL PRIZE VALUE £1505

WIN A HI-TECH SURVIVAL KIT WITH ICY ARCTIC THRILLER FORTITUDE Fortitude is a chillingly cool TV thriller in which (from left to right) Sofie Grabol, Christopher Eccleston, Michael Gambon and Stanley Tucci get frost on their eyebrows. Oh, and there’s also an unsettling mysterious murder. It’s set way up in the Arctic Circle, a place so cold and remote that you’d have to be daft or desperate – or just really, really scared of penguins – to want to live there.

Mind you, it helps to have the right kit, doesn’t it? And the gadgets in this month’s prize bundle are all designed to help you thrive in the most hostile conditions: an ultra-tough camcorder, a GPS watch, an action camera and a handheld GPS device. Bring it on, nature!

Here’s the full prize: a brand new JVC Everio GZ-R315 in bright orange (RRP £270), a Garmin Fenix 3 (£450), a Garmin VIRB Elite (£220) and a Garmin GPSMAP 64s (£350). Plus, the winner and nine runners-up each receive a copy of the Fortitude DVD (worth £21.50 each).

HOW TO ENTER

Ready to head out into the wilds with all this tasty kit? Just go to stuff.tv/win and answer this question:

jvc.co.uk garmin.com

WHAT WOULD YOU WEAR TO KEEP WARM IN THE ARCTIC? A … A coat of paint HURRY! B … A coat of arms COMPETITION C … A thick winter coat, CLOSES perhaps with a special 10 JUNE pocket for rescuing 2015 injured polar bear cubs Terms & conditions 1 Open to UK residents aged 18 or over.

2 Entries close 11.59pm, 10 June 2015. 3 Prizes are as stated.

4 Prizes are non-transferable. 5 Only one entry per person.

6 For full Haymarket terms & conditions see www.stuff.tv/legal Promoter: Haymarket Media Group, Teddington, Middx TW11 9BE

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Boldly contoured, impressively tough and exceptionally hfufgqj/ _mj WR R Qqj} D wjijŅ sjx nsst{fynts |nym nyx advanced curved design, stunning 5.5” full HD display and super fast Octa-Core processor. |||/ql/htr&zp&lņ j}D available at

F I R S T T E S T S P E C I A L A P P L E WAT C H

320 HOURS 17 CHARGES 25 APPS 751 MINUTES OF EXERCISE

About time.

Cupertino’s long-heralded smartwatch is now in store in all its glorious variety. David Phelan dons the Apple Watch to find if it’s been worth waiting all those seconds, hours and months for

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im Cook announced “one more thing” back in September and the world has been giggly with anticipation ever since. How big would it be? Who would buy the rose gold one? And what would it do?

(Answers: quite petite, actually; hardly anyone; lots of things.) Rivals have released their first, second or even third iterations while Apple bided its time… but the result is a glamorous gadget that feels great. We gave it a full workout before it went on sale to see if the battery lasts, if the screen is readable and, you know, if it tells the time.

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F I R S T T E S T S P E C I A L A P P L E WAT C H

As a watch

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1

From the company that made tech look like jewellery, it’s… jewellery that looks like tech.

But what’s it like to wear?

A

pple was serious about making this gadget personal.

As well as two case sizes, there are three metal finishes (aluminium, stainless steel or gold) and a series of straps from the colourful, practical elastomer sports band to a traditional buckle or elegant link bracelet. Apple seems to be saying: there must be one for you. It’s a world away from the ‘one size fits all’ rule of early iPhones and iPads.

Reactions are near-universal: “Is that the smaller one?” (on seeing the larger one) and “Ooh, that’s nice.” The metal case oozes class, whether it’s the £300 or the £13,500 model. The Retina display looks great, with rich detail and bright colour in every corner. The scratch-resistant Sapphire Crystal on both the Watch and Watch Edition feels solid and robust.

Even those with no interest in technology have had positive reactions to the Watch’s style.

The gleaming metal case and glossy screen make this a highly attractive accessory.

It’s superbly well-balanced and lighter than you might think, though still substantial. The look of the Apple Watch is great – and better in the flesh than photos – and the feel is just as sumptuous.

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3

4

1 Face facts

2 Finish lines

There are 10 faces to choose from, to begin with, and you can customise them with details such as weather and battery life. Some of them, such as the gorgeously animated butterflies and jellyfish, or the moon, you’ll want to leave clutter-free.

The aluminium is silvery or Space Grey, and the 18-carat Watch Edition also comes in yellow gold or rose gold. Our favourite, though, is the stainless steel case on the regular Apple Watch, especially the dark ’n’ subtle Space Black version.

F I R S T T E S T S P E C I A L A P P L E WAT C H

3 Digital Crown On another watch, this would be the winder. Here, it works to navigate the home screen and more – see right. As you might expect, it feels good under the finger and glides under your touch.

The contrast-colour flat top to the crown is a neat detail.

4 Strap On the back are two small buttons, flush with the case, that allow the strap to slide out. It means you’ll probably want an extra one to slip in for that evening event, or to go running. Apple’s made the straps as central a part of the design as the case itself.

Does it justify the buzz?

The Taptic Engine is stunning. It’s not the buzzy vibration found on other gadgets; this is a gentle but unmissable effect that feels like somebody tapping you on the wrist. There are different versions for more advanced effects, such as telling you to hang a left when being guided by Maps.

Watch how it’s done A smaller screen requires different interactions; here’s a quick guide to navigating the Watch

Q Digital Crown

Q Side button

Press it in to reach the homescreen; wind it up and down to zoom in and out or scroll through lists; press and hold to launch Siri. It’s certainly versatile and makes small-screen navigation workable.

Press this and you reveal a special screen: a circle of 12 contacts complete with photos if available. These are your Friends and this is the quickest way to message them. A long press turns the Watch off.

Q Force Touch

Q Swipes

The pressure sensitivity in the Apple Watch display means it can tell apart a gentle touch and a firmer press. New menu options appear when you Force Touch – think of it like the right click on a mouse.

Swipe down on the locked Watch screen to reveal unread notifications, swipe up when a call comes in to reply with a text. Swiping the Watch feels similar to the iPhone, and just as responsive.

Good Meh Evil

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Seven days with the Apple Watch

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F I R S T T E S T S P E C I A L A P P L E WAT C H

As a smartwatch Plenty of other wearables have beaten it to the shelves. Can the Watch beat them to the punch?

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o, it tells the time and it’s eminently wearable, but what can it do for me? Well, plenty. And that means using it a lot. I’ve found that of my many, many routine (and perhaps slightly obsessive) iPhone actions, a lot of them are covered by this small new screen.

Even if I miss a notification, I can still see something’s happened because of the telltale red dot that appears on screen.

That screen’s super-sharp and bright enough to read easily outdoors. For most messages, a top-line summary is enough; for the ones that need a detailed response right now, I can grab my phone out of my pocket.

And the two work together. So when following walking directions on the Watch (which are consistently excellent), if I want more detail, waking the iPhone takes me straight to Maps.

This is a gizmo that’s smarter than the average smartwatch, with a deep, involving interface.

The apps available are just the first – Apple says over 1000 more are in the works. When developers apply their ingenuity to it, they can turn the limitations of watch tech (small screen, short interactions) to their advantage.

1 2

1 Power During testing the battery never dipped below 10%, even on a busy day. That’s partly because the heavy lifting is done by the iPhone, which does deplete faster.

Nightly charges are required, which rules out regular sleep monitoring.

2 Performance

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There have been laggy moments. Lifting my arm, sometimes there’s a wait of a second before the screen lights up. This seems to be a deep-sleep thing – it’s only when I haven’t looked at it for ages. Apple says this will improve with updates.

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F I R S T T E S T S P E C I A L A P P L E WAT C H

3

3 Screen

4 App performance

The screen is off by default, waking when you tap or raise the Watch. Rivals such as the Sony SmartWatch 3 and Pebble have always-on screens – better for seeing the time quickly – but neither is a patch on the Apple’s gorgeous display.

Twitter shows trends in its Glances screen but takes so long that using the phone is faster. Hailo is simple to use but hasn’t always got the pick-up address bang on.

Similarly, moving from Glances to the full Watch app can take a smidge too long.

Useful apps: our pick so far

Q British Airways

The brilliant app to guide you around London, Tokyo, Manchester and other cities is helpfully wristified.

Its public transport info makes using trains, buses and even city bikes a cinch.

As your travel date approaches, the Watch works with the Passbook app to get you through security and onto the plane without taking your phone from your pocket.

Q Dark Sky

Q Evernote

Is it going to rain in your exact location? Dark Sky has the answer. Glances has top-line info but the full Watch app shows the next hour’s rain, wind, visibility and more.

The Watch version is handy for viewing recent notes, creating notes by dictation and setting reminders. It’s simple and effective, and leaves your phone in your pocket.

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4

Q Citymapper

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F I R S T T E S T S P E C I A L A P P L E WAT C H

As a sports watch The wearable revolution is aimed at improving your health and fitness.

So how does the Watch work out?

O

2 3 1

1 Exercise Ring Requiring at least a brisk walk to register, this is the most satisfying circle to see snake round to completion.

It’s aimed at those of us who want to work out more but just need a little nudge. And the half-hour of exercise can be done bit by bit.

2 Stand Ring

3 Move Ring

The easiest target to hit: if you’ve been at your desk since 10am, say, then at 10.50am you’ll get a tap reminding you to get up and walk around, even if only for 60 seconds. If sitting really is the new cancer, this is a tiny but important feature.

As well as joyfully notifying you when you hit your target, every Monday you geta pep talk. It’s no personal trainer, but suggests how you can improve. Because it very gently increases your target each week, you’re more likely to keep at it.

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Da to y 4 Si , ri. 9.

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ne of the big features of the Apple Watch is its fitness capabilities. Not one but two apps, Activity and Workout, are there to record your every move. In Workout you can enlist the iPhone’s GPS to track outdoor exercise. Indoors it uses motion sensors, so you can earn credits for your activity without the iPhone in your pocket. You can also listen to music via Bluetooth headphones, using the Watch’s 2GB of music storage.

Activity appears in Glances to show daily progress as three rings: Move counts your steps; Exercise only kicks in if you’re moving fast enough; and Stand nudges you to stand for a minute every hour if you’ve been sitting.

The Workout app works best if you tell it what you’re doing – cycling, rowing machine, stepper etc. There are a few sports but it needs more options to be really useful. Of course, you can’t swim in it – it’s not waterproof. And unlike some fitness monitors, it doesn’t track your sleep. Even if it did, you’d have to wear it less in the day to allow time to recharge.

But this is still a great fitness watch – it makes being active more fun, and winning medals as you level up is surprisingly motivating.

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4 Stroll, man

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Walking with Workout is great, thanks to progress updates including a tap to tell you you’re halfway. There’s a workout summary and all the stats feed into the Health and Activity apps on the iPhone. Other apps can use this data, with permission.

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Health apps: our pick so far

Q Strava

Q Nike+ Running

The excellent running and cycling app shows data as soon as you finish your run or ride. Glances will also show how your weekly training is going and how soon you’ll hit your target.

More handy stats with Nike+, confirming the distance you’ve run, pace and more. As with all Watch apps, though, you’ll need to take your iPhone with you.

Q Peak Brain Training

Q Runtastic Six Pack

Galvanise your grey matter with three games, ideal for the small screen.

Test memory skills, for instance, by tapping on-screen buttons.

Handy for bus journeys.

No need to squint sweatily at your iPhone in between stomach crunches: your Watch can give you haptic feedback to tell you to rest or repeat each set of reps.

The Apple Watch oozes desirability.

It won’t change your life, but it’ll make subtle upgrades that you won’t want to give up.

Some derided the iPhone at its launch. Almost no-one saw the point of the iPad. Their success came because Apple had built not just desirable devices, but also powerful platforms for app developers. The Watch is a similar story. It’s more luxurious than other smartwatches, but it’s also a platform that will attract more app builders than Pebble or Android Wear. The now of the Apple Watch is pretty great; but the future is really amazing. @davidphelan2009

STUFF SAYS +++++ Apple enters the smartwatch fray in typically showstopping style… just wait for the torrent of apps 47

F I R S T T E S T S P E C I A L A P P L E WAT C H

You love sport If you were a Spice Girl, you’d be Sporty Spice. Forget timekeeping and the look of the thing, you just want a Watch so you can join in with all the “Bro, do you even step?” step-count chat in the changing rooms and compare heart-rates as you work out. The water-resistant Sport edition is for you: with a lightweight aluminium casing it won’t slow you down, while the strap comes in five jaunty colours to match your workout wardrobe.

You’re a massive fanboy You’ve got your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and MacBook, and your Apple bumper sticker, and the blue ‘Genius’ T-shirt you bought on eBay, so obviously you’re going to get an Apple Watch, even if you’re not sure what you’ll use it for. The stainless steel link bracelet will match your existing products, the sapphire crystal Retina display won’t get scratched on your MacBook, and you can even track your soaring heart-rate while livestreaming the next Apple event.

48

You pretend to love sport Perhaps you’re trying to woo a gym bunny, or convince a doctor you do exercise. The larger-cased version of the Sport edition has a bigger screen, but will still add to your sportiness. Draw a (tiny) picture on your screen and send it to someone else’s Watch, or send them a physical reproduction of your exact heart-rate – a feature that is set to change the dating game forever. Of course, that might also give away your true fitness levels… proceed with caution.

You’re a business honcho Nothing says “Let’s get down to business” like a black leather strap, a stainless steel casing and a proper buckle. Emails and messages come straight to your wrist, with context-aware tech letting you reply without getting your phone out – so you can quietly jab your wrist to let your mum know you’ll be late home for tea without skipping a beat during the Q4 sales target analysis ‘pow wow’ you’ve been in since 10am.

Maybe ditch the Mickey Mouse face, though.

You are quite fashion Dahhhling! Isn’t that woven Milanese stainless steel just to die for? It’s magnetic, so even the tiniest of wrists can look forward to a perfect fit, and silver basically goes with everything. Now you just have to decide which Watch face will complement those Manolos. Maps on your wrist will help you navigate from A to B without getting your phone out like a loser, while the Instagram app will keep you up to date with the latest looks.

You’re insanely rich Apple has seen you and your offshore bank account coming and built you a £13,500 18-carat yellow or rose gold nugget. Not for you that cheap stainless steel the common folk are wearing. An eye-pleasing midnight blue leather strap sets the thing off, and while the tech is still the same, Apple will lay on a superior shopping experience for you with private rooms, Genius assistance and a 24-hour helpline for two years. After which time, you’ll bin it and buy a new one.

[ Words Kate Solomon ]

Which Watch for you?

There are 38 potential style combinations to choose from. Luckily, the actual tech on the inside stays the same…

E-M5 Mark II

*CIPA Standards as of 12/2014

YOU ARE FREE Follow your creative visions with the new OM-D E-M5 Mark II. Capture spur-of-the-moment photos and movies in breathtakingly clear quality thanks to the world’s most powerful 5-axis image stabilisation*. This OM-D is also ready to go wherever you go, in any situation. The compact build won’t weigh you down, while the robust construction is set for taking on the elements: dust, splashes and freezing temperatures. Freedom has never felt so free – with the OLYMPUS OM-D. Find out more at your local dealer or visit olympus.co.uk

FIRST TEST SAMSUNG GALAXY S6

The joy of six It’s the most anticipated phone of the year, but can the Galaxy S6 really get Samsung back on track and squish the iPhone 6 like a bug? £600 / samsung.com Each year the gadgetsphere eagerly awaits Samsung’s new flagship, but recently there’s been an anticlimactic sigh when the firm revealed its king Android; the S4 and S5 were great phones, but they didn’t exactly stir things up.

The same cannot be said of the S6, which takes Samsung in a steely new direction. Plastic, once the trademark of Samsung blowers, has been entirely replaced by metal and glass in a design that defies you to use the word ‘cheap’ within 50 paces.

On top the S6 gets all the usual annual upgrades, but multiplied to the nth degree with the fastest mobile phone processor (by a mile) we’ve ever tested, a cracking camera and a fingerprint scanner that actually, really works.

There is one sad point. It seems Samsung has borrowed not only a few design hints from Apple, but also its approach to storage: there’s no more microSD, and the 128GB version is eye-wateringly expensive. Don’t let that put you off too much, though – this is a phone to get excited about.

1 Getting biometric The fingerprint scanner uses entirely new hardware. Where previously you had to swipe a finger (often more than once), now you just place it on the sensor. It’s now about as accurate as the iPhone’s TouchID sensor, and makes unlocking the phone a doddle.

3

5

2 Bringing the bass Samsung has moved the speaker down to the bottom, and has also turbocharged its output.

It’s louder and beefier than previous Galaxy phones or the iPhone 6, and only the HTC M9 offers better sound quality. It’s still not stereo, but it is powerful.

3 Pixel wars The S6 sees Samsung’s non-Note phones make the leap to QHD resolution. This is a fantastic, sharp 5.1in OLED that’s superior to any other flagship. You get killer blacks and contrast, plus the choice of either totally natural or slightly punchier colours.

4 Camera bump People are sure to complain that the camera lens sticks out of the S6’s back, but it’s a good camera.

Resolution is 16MP like the Note 4, but it’s faster to shoot, and a levelled-up lens means it beats the iPhone 6 in low light and offers excellent all-round image quality.

[ Words Andrew Williams ]

Good Meh Evil

50

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30 hours with the Samsung Galaxy S6

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FIRST TEST SAMSUNG GALAXY S6

Tech specs Screen 5.1in 2560x1440 Super AMOLED Processor Samsung Exynos 7420 2.1GHz Octo-core OS Android 5.0 with TouchWiz Camera 16MP rear, 5MP front Battery 2550mAh Storage 32/64/128GB non-expandable RAM 3GB Dimensions 143x71x6.8mm, 138g

4

Special apps As with its forebears, the S6 has a few tricks up its elegantly chamfered metal sleeve...

2

Q Next-gen downloads

Q Lord of the lounge

Download Booster combines your mobile data connection and Wi-Fi to get you insanely fast downloads. Clever?

Yes, it is. Why? We’re not sure. Watch your data allowance? Yes, you should.

The little black pip at the top of the Galaxy S6 is where the IR transmitter lives. This lets you use the phone as a replacement for all your lounge remotes. No more desperate sofa searches.

Q Mountain climber

Q Look ma, no wires

Thanks to a barometric altimeter the S6 knows exactly how high you’ve climbed on a hike. Which you can also do using GPS, but this way you get to say “I’ve got a brand new barometric altimeter”.

The S6 supports the main wireless charging standards, Qi and PMC. We tried it with the TYLT VU wireless charger and it worked a treat. Any compatible dock will work, though.

1

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5 Battery: lock down The unibody design means you can’t get near the battery; it’s also not huge at 2550mAh. However, its stamina is good thanks to the advanced CPU. Two days’ use on power-saving mode is perfectly possible, and it charges like the clappers: 70% in 30mins.

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It’s easy to be cynical about phones when they appear, like clockwork, every year. However, the S6 makes solid improvements in so many areas that it really does level up the series. Samsung haters may not be converted, but if you’ve been disappointed in the past it’s time to give them another chance. @wwwdotandrew

STUFF SAYS +++++ Acing its exams on design and performance, the S6 sets the standard for the future 51

So Pure. So Stylish.

Solo.

Arcam’s world-class reputation for state-of-the-art home cinema and high performance Hi-Fi systems has now been applied to a soundbar.

The new Solo bar and sub have been designed to make Arcam’s legendary sound quality accessible to a wider audience, setting a new standard for music and movie reproduction from a soundbar.

For more information on these landmark products or to find your nearest stockist visit www.arcam.co.uk

Bringing music and movies to life

FIRST TEST SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 EDGE

Time to take sides The S6’s futuristic sister is a curvy-edged wonder set on sculpting the future of Android £695 / samsung.com Q The S6 Edge is very similar to the standard S6 in its hardware, but it has a screen with curves of almost 45° on the two sides.

This isn’t a full body curve like the LG G Flex 2 – it’s more of a wraparound affair.

Q What can you do with those edges? People Edge lets you use it as a quick dialler shortcut. Flick across the top part of the curve to bring up little icons of your five favourite contacts for quickie calls and messages.

Q Next up, the curve can light up when you get calls, and display notifications. Unlike a totally flat screen, the S6 Edge’s side is visible from an angle even when the phone is laid down. Therefore it’s a silent alternative to the often annoying vibrate alert.

Q The Edge can also be used to display some simple bits of information, like RSS feeds and sports results, using the Information Stream. You can get updates every two seconds, but it will barely use any battery at all.

Q If that sounds like grasping at straws, you might like Night Clock. It turns the curve into a bedside clock during hours you specify. Thanks to the AMOLED screen, it looks great – almost as if it’s floating in the air when the lights are off.

Tech specs Screen 5.1in 2560x1440 Super AMOLED Processor Samsung Exynos 7420 2.1GHz Octo-core OS Android 5.0 with TouchWiz Camera 16MP rear, 5MP front Battery 2600mAh Storage 64/ 128GB non-expandable RAM 3GB Dimensions 142x70x7mm, 132g

Gorilla inside

Curves with benefits

Worried about all that glass? Both the front and back of the Edge use Gorilla Glass 4, a hardy and scratch-resistant toughened glass from Corning. Just don’t drop it on concrete and you’ll be fine.

Although the Edge is a shade thicker than the standard S6, it actually feels slimmer thanks to those contours. This is one of the most ‘premium’-feeling phones we’ve ever, well, felt.

STUFF SAYS The most elegant Samsung ever, with substance to match the style +++++ The Edge is the ultimate money-noobject phone Andrew Williams

At first glance the Galaxy S6 Edge may seem like a gimmick. And maybe the curve won’t change your life. But get it in your hands and you can’t help but be won over by it as a sheer feat of engineering. It feels amazing, and makes the phone feel more slender than a straight-edge handset. You may pay extra, but the combination of the brilliant S6 with extra sexy sophistication means you won’t feel cheated.

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TEST APPS

App:roved FOR THE FIRST STEPS

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FOR IPAD WRITERS

FOR AXE WIELDING

FOR PLAYING FBI

O Metamorphabet

O Ulysses

O Yousician Guitar

O TouchTone

Learning your ABCs is a lot more fun when the A sprouts antlers, morphs into an arch and then goes for a bit of an amble. And that’s all the way to Z, with animations that range from interactive toys (a lovely kaleidoscope; the inevitable xylophone) through to more disconcerting scenes, one of which has a hand’s fingers sprout the heads of a hound, hog, hen, horse and hare. Still, kids will love it — if it doesn’t give them nightmares. .

Stuff says +++++ £2.99 / iOS

The idea behind the original Mac version of Ulysses was to keep all your text in one place.

Texts could be organised into folders, marked up, filtered, and exported to all kinds of formats.

Amazingly, the iPad release is almost identical. Your entire text library is optionally mirrored via iCloud, and you get a neat toolbar that combines document statistics, Markdown assistance, extended characters and search.

It’s a first-rate tool for any kind of writer on the go.

If you’ve spent a long time faffing about with tiny plastic guitars and fancy learning to play a real one, try Yousician – an app that bridges lessons and gaming.

Using a horizontal Guitar Herotype display, it guides you through the basics of notepicking and chord-strumming, gradually building your skills.

The app recognises what you’re playing surprisingly accurately, even if your ‘axe’ is a battered old acoustic being played next to your device’s mic.

A brain-teaser for the modern age, TouchTone’s mirror-based routing puzzles are framed as decryption and snooping on phone calls and emails, ostensibly aiming to ‘prevent the next tragedy’. The political undertones are atmospheric and complement the game’s slick, sharp graphic design and moody soundtrack. The mechanics of the puzzles are perhaps nothing you haven’t seen before but you’ll be glued to it, trying to find the next threat.

Stuff says +++++ £14.99 / iPad

Stuff says ++++, £free / iOS

Stuff says ++++, £2.29 / iOS

TEST APPS

Mini meme

O Wunderlist In these days of minimalism, Wunderlist looks a bit dated, but the app is available for a range of platforms and is therefore an excellent tool for anyone who wants to share lists. Go pro and you get unlimited sub-tasks and file size for uploads, and you’ll be able to assign unlimited to-dos.

Stuff says ++++, £free / Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, web

THE A-LIST OF APPS FOR LISTS Keep losing those all-important scraps of paper with your to-dos? It’s time to go digital with these memo-making apps

O Clear This app was doing beautiful minimalism before iOS 7 was even a spark in Jony Ive’s eye.

Clutter-free and responsive, Clear is great for straightforward, linear lists. The app bulks out its feature set with edge-swiping between lists, themes, and the means to set reminders for tasks. Its cascade of colours is also strangely soothing.

Stuff says +++++ £3.99 / iOS

O OmniFocus 2

O Any.DO

O Carrot To-Do

O Soulver

A heavyweight of the Get Things Done methodology (versus more basic lists), OmniFocus 2 has a price to match, but it’s well worth the outlay if you demand a comprehensive productivity tool. Smartly, the app is simple on the surface but offers more complexity as you need it, providing plentiful view options and organisational features.

The aim of Any.DO is to place you in the moment. Tasks are organised into what you want to do today, tomorrow, on an ‘upcoming’ date, or ‘someday’.

The interface feels modern and smart. Go premium and file upload and sharing limits are removed, and you get location-based reminders so you’ll never have to double back for milk again.

This one’s even simpler than Clear, offering a single list of re-orderable items. What makes it interesting is the underlying malevolent AI that runs the show. Become a slacker and Carrot fumes; do well and you’ll level up, unlocking new features, mini-games and an ASCII kitten who goes by the name of Captain Whiskers.

For lists of costs and numbers, Soulver is a must. It’s essentially a smart notepad that makes keeping track of expenses easy; you can list figures in context, which the app then tots up automatically. This is ‘streamlined spreadsheet meets the back of an envelope’, and it wisely enables you to save calculations and sync them via iCloud.

Stuff says +++++ £30 / iOS

Stuff says +++++ £free / Android, iPhone, web

Stuff says ++++, £2.29 / iOS

Stuff says ++++, £3.99 / iOS

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S TUFF PROMOTION

WHO DOESN’T WANT A ROBOT LAWNMOWER?

Robo-mowers are taking over the world. Don’t worry, they’re not enslaving us with surreptitious tech hypnosis. They’re cutting your grass. This is Miimo‌ ottle openers. Matches. Remote controls. Abacuses. Humans have invented tools to make their lives easier since Flintstones times. And yet, even in the 21st century, we still punish ourselves by hanging up the washing and mowing the lawn.

While we’re quite a distance from robotic laundry maids, keeping grass trim and tidy is now a job that can be handled by machines.

Machines like Honda’s robotic lawnmower.

Meet Miimo. This little chap loves nothing more than munching on grass. Green grass, yellow grass, dead grass, weeds – whatever you want cut down, Miimo’s your man. Or robot.

B

FULLY COVERED Miimo can accurately zip around your garden cutting your grass without ever accidentally JRLQJ R IRU D VWUROO GRZQ WKH KLJK VWUHHW That’s because once its boundary wire is laid out your garden, it’ll never venture beyond it.

You can choose grass lengths from 20-60mm, and mowing patterns ranging from straight lines in random directions (good for large areas) to neat diagonal zigzags, or a mixture of both. Miimo even combs the grass straight as it cuts, ensuring an even length. Even better, the VQLSSHWV RI JUDVV DUH WXUQHG LQWR QH PXOFK fertilising your garden and keeping your grass look shiny and healthy. Because it’s worth it.

If you’re worried about rotating blades, don’t be. Miimo comes packed with a host of features to ensure that little Timmy, Mr. Tibbles and your gnomes are all safe and sound. )RU VWDUWHUV 0LLPR KDV D GHJUHH RDWLQJ cover. The second it comes into contact with anything from a squirrel to your foot, or if it’s

lifted up, its blades stop spinning instantly. It HYHQ VRXQGV DQ DODUP ZKHQ LWȇV R WKH JURXQG and won’t start up again until you’ve given it your blessing with a pin code.

It’ll even happily whizz around your garden in a downpour (a big plus in the UK), and you can schedule when you want it to get to work. And that includes the middle of the night, as it’s no louder than your average household fridge.

The outside can take a beating too, thanks to a scratch-resistant top cover, and its tough ERWWRP FRYHU ODXJKV R LPSDFWV Once it gets sleepy (read: low battery), it makes its way back to the docking station and plugs itself in to charge. Adorable, isn’t it?

No matter which model you go for, a Honda dealer will come round and set it up, installing the dock and boundary wire, before setting up your schedule. They’ll even collect it for winter maintenance, and with a two-year warranty, you know your faithful Miimo is in safe hands.

WHICH MIIMO SUITS YOU? There are three types of Miimo: the 300, 310 and 520.

The 300 can deal with small, regular shaped gardens with straighter edges and can cut up to 2,200m2 with a 300m maximum boundary.

Its 310 brother manages the same area, but can deal with more complex gardens.

The 510 has a larger battery, and is suited to larger gardens up to 3,000m2 with a 500m boundary.

It can tackle more complex terrain such as hills too.

WWW.HONDA.CO.UK /MIIMO

50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

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GAMES TO PLAY BEFORE YOU DIAL

[ Words Tom Wiggins, Craig Grannell, Will Dunn ]

From stamping passports in Papers, Please to cracking your screen in Super Hexagon-induced frustration, here are 50 games for your smartphone (and tablet) that prove there’s way more to mobile gaming than crushing candy

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50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

RETRO REMIXES

A bit like the old version, but a bit different

WAYWARD SOULS SPACE INVADERS INFINITY GENE

from £2.99 / iOS, Android The maps become more complex, enemies develop different powers and your weapons are upgraded, but it never loses that Space Invaders feel.

FORGET-ME-NOT

from £1.19 / iOS, Android Imagine putting a bunch of classic arcade games in a blender. It still wouldn’t best Forget-Me-Not. A mash-up of Pac-Man, Wizard Of Wor, Rogue and more, you eat flowers, grab a key, and blast your way to an exit.

from £4.39 / iOS, Android Finished Bloodborne? Then you’re probably looking for another fiendishly difficult, nightmarish adventure to punish yourself with, you masochist. Try Wayward Souls, which procedurally generates its levels but demands a similar command of timing in order to defeat the beasts trying to end your life. The touchscreen controls only add to the difficulty, but you’ll probably be pleased about that.

ELISS INFINITY

from £1.76 / iOS, Android Eliss defined the iOS platform by embracing the idea of multitouch gaming; it tasked you with tearing apart and combining planets before dumping them in wormholes, while ensuring different colours never collide. This update ramps up the graphics and adds a demented endless mode, to ensure your fingers become intimately entangled as you desperately try to manage these mini-universes.

ELISS INFINITY TASKS YOU WITH TEARING APART PLANETS BEFORE DUMPING THEM IN WORMHOLES

I CAN’T STOP PLAYING...

HARD LINES

£1.99 / Android Imagine if Snake collided with Tron and you’re getting close. As well as eating glowing blobs you’ll also be competing against other snakes (or ‘lines’) which can be eradicated by a flick of your tail.

GRIDRUNNER

79p / iOS Gridrunner for iOS ramps up the action until the screen is just a huge mass of enemies and collectable power-ups.

It’s still massively old-skool but with a new-fashioned twist.

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ICYCLE: ON THIN ICE £2.29 / iOS When I point out that in Icycle you play a mustachioed man, naked but for a hat and shoes, and that the game involves riding a tiny bicycle around a psychedelic landscape, a certain section of our readership will already have begun downloading. But for those of you who still need convincing, I love Icycle because it’s a brilliant piece of illustration. It’s just a platform game, really, but an incredibly well made one that shows what happens when you invest real talent into a mobile app. It’s completely silly and there aren’t really any words, but the whole game is one huge, active, surreal drawing that moves and develops and often blows up or falls apart around you, accompanied by music and sound effects that are just right. If Terry Gilliam made mobile games, this is the sort of thing he’d do.

Will Dunn editor

50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

THE ROOM & THE ROOM TWO

from 69p / iOS, Android Faced with a box, you manipulate and prod, to reveal another inside. Cryptic clues take you deeper into a strange, fragmented narrative. The oddness and terror continue in a sequel that boasts interconnected puzzles across more expansive environments, ornate boxes replaced by a seance room or the insides of a deserted ship, creaking in the inky darkness.

SUPER HEXAGON

from £2 / iOS, Android, BlackBerry Initially, Super Hexagon feels like a lost cause. Your little ship darts left and right through gaps in encroaching walls, the screen spinning like a psychedelic washing machine. All too soon, you’re dead. But then you spot patterns and, almost on autopilot, navigate the geometric nightmare. Sixty seconds in, you feel like a gaming god — until you see the five sterner tests ahead.

TRAPS N’ GEMSTONES

from £2.99 / iOS, Android, Windows Phone Most Donut Games titles are knock-offs, but Traps N’ Gemstones pulls out all the stops. It’s a 2D Tomb Raider of sorts, with hints of Spelunky, Metroid and Pitfall II. Your adventurer solves puzzles, grabs loot and kills beasties. While infinite lives are at your disposal, your score zeroes on each death, making it ideal for hardened and casual completists alike.

BEYOND YNTH

from £1.99 / iOS, Android For reasons that are presumably logical if you happen to be a bug, Kribl (a bug) traverses his world by rolling around in labyrinth boxes. His overriding aim is lofty: bring light back to the Kingdom of Kriblonia. More immediate threats involve not getting baked, frozen or crushed, and arriving at the end of brain-smashingly tough stages before you take a hammer to your device and crush it like… well, a bug.

CONTRE JOUR

from £1.49 / iOS, Android, Windows Phone This Limbo-esque world of deformable terrain, stretchy tentacles and suction jets makes transporting your eyeball-with-a-tail, er, thing across each screen an often multi-digit job. You manipulate objects to avoid spikes and falls, and collect the floaty blue pills on your way to the portal goal as quickly as possible. It can get infuriating, but when you crack a level you’ve been stuck on it’s impossible to deny its genius.

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RÉPUBLIQUE

CONSOLE CONVERSIONS

from £3.21 / iOS, Android In most stealth games it’s you doing the sneaking and the hiding, but in République it’s someone else. Your job, as the story’s unseen hacker, is to watch through the security cameras, telling the game’s heroine when to run and hide. It’s a clever reinvention of the genre that makes for good gameplay, and République’s writing and design make it a tense, good-looking game.

It’s episodic too, with more chapters on their way.

Proof that not all mobile games are just for five-minute blasts in the checkout queue…

BIOSHOCK

£7.99 / iOS One of the standout shooters of the Xbox 360 and PS3 era, BioShock’s fallen paradise under the sea is one of gaming’s most memorable worlds, full of iconic enemies and Orwell-inspired dystopian imagery. This doesn’t look or play quite as well as the original but the atmosphere is admirably preserved.

XCOM: ENEMY WITHIN

from £7.99 / iOS, Android Games that use turn-based combat are far better suited to touchscreens than fraggers. XCOM is arguably the commander-in-chief of the genre; Enemy Within was released as an expansion to Enemy Unknown but it stands alone on mobile, adding new ways to deal with the alien infestation.

GTA: VICE CITY

ZEN BOUND 2

£2.29 / iOS The prospect of wrapping rope around wooden sculptures to paint them perhaps doesn’t feel like the set-up for the most compelling of games, but Zen Bound 2 is a mesmerising, fresh puzzler.

Responding to the slightest swipe and the orientation of your device, the going is tactile, and it’s a visual delight as your actions gradually colour objects. There’s no excitement here, but instead hours of quiet fascination.

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SPELLTOWER

from £1.32 / iOS, Android At first, SpellTower is Boggle with gravity. You drag out words to make lettered tiles vanish; those suddenly above empty space fall neatly into the gaps. Then Puzzle Mode arrives, adding a row for every word made, towers glowing red as they approach the top of the well. Rush Mode then pitches you against the clock, lobbing in tiles that can only be eradicated by threading lengthy words through them.

JOE DANGER

£2.29 / iOS, Android Backflipping his way from consoles to mobiles, Joe Danger lands the portable transition with aplomb, converting the controls to a range of taps, swipes and holds. Your task is to use those to jump, duck, wheelie and trick your way to the end of each stage, picking up points, coins and various other collectables as you go. It’s easy to pick up, but you’ll need to become a touchscreen ninja to master it.

from £2.99 / iOS, Android Granted, it’s no GTA V, but getting a game as big as Vice City to work on a phone is some achievement. GTA III and San Andreas are available too but this stands out thanks to its perfectly pitched ’80s pastiches, tighter mission structure and excellent soundtrack, even if it can be frustrating to control.

50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

WORLD OF GOO

from £3 / iOS, Android, BlackBerry 2D Boy’s brilliant console and PC title makes a lot more sense on touchscreens. Instead of abstract pointers, you get to directly drag sentient goo-balls around, creating structures that enable their fellows to reach the pipe to suck them up to ‘goo heaven’. Seven years old, but still essential, World Of Goo is full of ingenious puzzles, magnificent surreal imagery and lashings of humour, yet has a surprisingly poignant core.

ALONE

£1.49 / iOS, Android A bit like leapy one-thumb game Canabalt combined with Flappy Bird, Alone is a breakneck survival game that punches you in the face. It should all be so simple: slide your digit to keep your tiny ship from colliding with jagged rock-faces, comets and lurking asteroids; only you’re moving at insane speeds, which repeatedly results in swift, explodey death.

I CAN’T STOP PLAYING...

WARHAMMER QUEST

SUPERBROTHERS: SWORD & SWORCERY

from £3.22 / iOS, Android Evoking old-school point-and-click adventures but with very modern sensibilities, this quest is laid-back and packed full of knowing humour. As the heroine goes about her journey, she happens upon delightful touchscreen set-pieces, accessing dreams and freeing woodland spirits using music. The more you explore, the more you’re rewarded with gorgeous pixel art.

£3.99 / iOS I’ve been carrying this secret for so long now, even I had almost forgotten it. Obviously, like all the nerdy teenagers and quite a few Stuff staff I played Warhammer, and I had such a lovely army of skeletons. But this digital version brought the memories flooding back. It isn’t really the same as the top-of-the-table open battles with massive hand-painted armies; it’s more like digital HeroQuest with graphics far superior to my pathetic painting skills. You journey through the Warhammer world exploring villages and dice-rolling your way through dungeons, fighting hordes of orcs. The four treasure hunters all offer different skills: the elf has a ranged attack, the wizard magic, while the dwarf and hunter are both about brute force. They all combine to be a pretty lethal force, but it does require a bit of planning and luck to survive every dungeon you explore. There’s also lots of different items to collect – and if you’re really enjoying it the skaven expansion pack is a worthy addition, though the extra IAP characters less so.

Ross Presly deputy art editor

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50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

BOSON X

from £1.92 / iOS, Android In what we’re certain is an entirely accurate recreation of what they get up to at the Large Hadron Collider, Boson X finds a boffin sprinting down a rotatable corridor, leaping gaping chasms and collecting energy from glowing blue strips. On hitting 100%, the academic can plunge into the unknown to find new particles. So, Canabalt in 3D, then, with a hint of Super Hexagon and a dollop of science! Ish.

I CAN’T STOP PLAYING...

MONUMENT VALLEY

Fraser Macdonald consulting editor

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from £2.49 / iOS, Android Coming within a badger’s whisker of being interactive art and not a game at all, Monument Valley is 10 levels of isometric free-floating puzzle structures. Your role is to guide the enigmatic Princess character from start point to end point, using a combination of moving walkways, buttons and ally characters. The challenge level is upped (slightly) by an Escher-esque dynamic whereby geometric logic can be unpossibled – if two disparate platforms can be rotated so that they appear to be touching, then our character can walk between them. Gravity, too, is often dismissed in the name of progress. This impossible motion could have made Monument Valley extremely taxing, but it is not. It is a gradual unfolding which sometimes requires you to think a little. Which could have been rather annoying, had it not been for the fantastic production qualities: the stunning artwork, the dreamlike soundscape and the benignly malevolent NPCs.

RYMDKAPSEL

from £2.49 / iOS, Android This smartly designed game takes every real-time strategy game you’ve played since Dungeon Keeper (or Age Of Empires, depending on your preference), boils them down into minimalist elements and sets them in space. Your ‘minions’ are small white rectangles, your space station is built from Tetris-like blocks. Build it, fortify it and use the monoliths to harness alien tech before your enemies become too numerous.

SUPER STICKMAN GOLF 2

£free / iOS, Android What starts out as a simple but addictive crazy golf game soon becomes a crazily addictive puzzle with sticky walls, sticky balls, Portal portals, ice, lasers and a great many hats. It’s free, but the ads don’t really impinge on the gameplay and there are enough courses and challenges for a least a month’s worth of train journeys. Once you’ve finished it, try Flappy Golf from the same developer.

50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

TOUCHGRIND SKATE 2

£3.99 / iOS It’s worth firing a glance of suspicion at developers who try to make sports games ‘realistic’. Occasionally, though, closely mirroring real life can pay dividends, as in Touchgrind Skate 2.

Here, two fingers become tiny legs atop a virtual skateboard, ready for you to perform your sick, gnarly and totally rad tricks, man.

(Sorry. We’ll never do that again.) Mastery takes a ton of time, but cracking this one’s hugely rewarding.

’90S REMAKES From the days of Global Hypercolor T-shirts, Tamagotchis and PJ & Duncan… and now on your phone

BROKEN SWORD: DIRECTOR’S CUT

£3.99 / iOS, Android Touchscreen point-’n’-clicks don’t get much better than Broken Sword. Even veterans will find something new here.

CARMAGEDDON

from 69p / iOS, Android The controls are clunky and races often descend into tedious hunts for the last opponent, but that’s exactly how we remember Carmageddon – spot-on.

NBA JAM

from 69p / iOS, Android The game with more catchphrases than a night out with Roy Walker, the hectic, two-on-two basketball action is exactly as it used to be.

DOOM CLASSIC

PAPERS, PLEASE

£6 / iPad A game based around checking passports might sound about as appealing as a checkout simulator called Unexpected Item In Bagging Area but Papers, Please sees your scepticism and counters it with an overflowing booth of awards, each one in recognition of its tear-jerking story about an immigration officer trying to survive in the Soviet-style kingdom of Arstotzka.

Stamping documents has never been this entertaining.

YEAR WALK

£2.99 / iOS A rare mobile title capable of dishing out genuine scares, this is an obtuse, beautiful adventure full of riddles and horror. The tale concerns the titular Year Walk (or Årsgång) through spooky woods populated by otherworldly creatures.

What follows is an immersive touchscreen experience imbued with Scandinavian folklore, augmented by crunching audio, distinctive puzzles, and a penchant for terror.

THREES!

from £1.31 / iOS, Android Few games truly merit the label ‘addictive’, but Threes! might well be one of them.

The best mobile puzzler since Tetris, it has you slide numbered tiles around a four-by-four grid, matching pairs to increase their face value. The snag: each swipe moves every tile, and a newcomer appears after every move. Chess-like planning is therefore required to keep the grid from locking up if you ever want to find the elusive 6144 tile.

£3.99 / iOS Touchscreens are far from ideal for shooters, but if you remember the days when Doom was the pinnacle of PC gaming it’s worth struggling through.

ANOTHER WORLD

from £1.60 / iOS, Android 1991’s Another World earned itself many fans with its distinct graphical style. This allows you to relive those pixelated days, or sharpen it up instead.

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50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

I CAN’T STOP PLAYING...

HEARTHSTONE: HEROES OF WARCRAFT

£free / iPad, Android Hearthstone is one of those games that most people are completely oblivious to, yet there are over 25 million players worldwide. That’s a lot of battles. The turnbased digital card combat harks back to a time of trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering, and you can play against AI, but the real compulsion comes from taking on real beings.

£free / iOS, Android Drop7 is a well puzzler dipped in maths. But hang on — it’s really good! You drop discs into a well, and when disc face values match the number of discs in their column or row, they explode. If blank grey discs are alongside, they shatter to reveal a number. BOOM! Every few dropped discs causes the well to rise, and so survival is all about fashioning chain reactions and hoping for a little luck.

CROSSY ROAD

80 DAYS

£free / iOS, Android Why did the chicken cross the road? To earn enough coins for you to play as the cow, basketball player, swamp frog or any of the 89 (and counting) characters in Crossy Road, that’s why.

Yes, it’s basically Frogger but Crossy Road’s wonderfully designed yet randomly generated world and friendly freemium structure make it a joy to play – although it’s endless, so you’ll never discover that chicken’s true motives after all.

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DROP7

from £3 / iOS, Android Phileas Fogg’s up to his old tricks, betting 20 grand that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. As his trusted and somewhat jaded valet, you must get him back to Blighty alive and on time. The mechanics of this slice of interactive fiction are simple: branching narratives, inventory management and route-finding. But this 1872 differs wildly from the history books, being full of giant airships, automata and human enhancement.

SKY FORCE 2014

£free / iOS, Android If I’m honest, the main reason I can’t stop playing Sky Force 2014 is injured pride. The detailed graphics, classic gameplay and echoes of Harrier Attack (the first game I ever played) all help too. But mainly it’s because I can’t accept that it still beats me. Like all great scrolling shooters, Sky Force makes it feel like the odds are stacked in your favour. You control an upgradeable craft, which you can move anywhere on the screen with your finger.

It automatically sprays an infinite torrent of bullets, so all you have to do is move around, collect rewards and pick off streams of predictable enemies. Except their movements are so bamboozling, you often die by steering into a stray rocket. Which means you have to play it again, lest your phone starts vibrating in your pocket with barely controlled sniggering. One day, ‘insane mode’, I’ll have the last laugh.

Mark Wilson features editor

50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

THE BEST BLACKBERRY GAMES A BlackBerry is just like a tiny gaming PC, minus the graphics card and the software, so let’s get fragging!

TAPPY WORD In this clever little compose-’em-up, the object is to fill up all the white space with lots of lovely words. Even better, it’s an ‘open-word’ game so you can type whatever you like, for however long you like. Unless you have quarterly reports to file, in which case you should type them up as soon as possible.

LIMBO

from £3.66 / iOS, Android With their simpler graphics and often retro gameplay styles, indie games are ripe for converting from console to mobile; but few have done the job as well as Limbo.

Despite being gloomier than a goth who can’t change a lightbulb, this side-on platformer is among the most perfectly pitched puzzlers of the past 10 years, with a learning curve that makes its hellish setting an absolute joy to visit.

ZOMBIE HIGHWAY 2

£free / iOS, Android You know when you go to a safari park and the monkeys rip your windscreen wipers off? That’s Zombie Highway 2, except here you’re allowed to shoot the ‘monkeys’ and if they tip the car over they eat your brains, so it’s best to drive so close to the wreckage of other vehicles that you knock them off before things get that bad.

Just don’t try it next time you’re at the safari park.

PINBALL ARCADE

from £free / iOS, Android The Pinball Arcade crew seemingly won’t be satisfied until every classic table has been lovingly recreated inside your device. For a few quid you can get endless plays on the likes of The Addams Family, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, fast-paced Sega pinball swansong Harley Davidson, and the frankly disconcerting Bride Of Pinbot, where you try to bring a malevolent and sultry robot woman to life.

WHO’S CALLIN’?

For a game that’s just as puzzling as (if not more than) anything you’ll find on Google Play, simply delete all the people in your BlackBerry contact list, wait for the phone to ring and make your choice. Gosh, that number looks familiar, I’m going to say… dentist! Ahh no, wait, it’s the PPI guys again.

SCROLLPAGE SPRINTER The ‘jewel’ button on your BlackBerry makes it a pretty high-end games controller, actually, so put it through its paces with a really long web page, like Wikipedia’s exhausting list of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States, and time yourself scrolling right to the bottom.

Try racing your friend!

SCORE! WORLD GOALS

£free / iOS, Android Score! World Goals turns over 1000 of football’s most memorable strikes into a turn-based strategy game.

You have to recreate each goal by drawing the path of the ball on the screen, one pass at a time, before putting it in the back of the net. Whether it’s a complex tiki-taka move or a netbusting wondertonk from 30 yards, each one is as satisfying to score as a last-minute winner.

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50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

SPACETEAM

£free / iOS, Android Your ship’s falling apart and trying to outrun an exploding star. As if the day couldn’t get any worse, your control panels are spread across multiple displays.

You and some chums must therefore coordinate your efforts, in order to survive, by yelling orders, twiddling dials and flipping switches.

Set the Lustrous Prismneck to 5! Turn off the Twinmill!

(Or your spaceteam will become spacedust.)

ASPHALT 8: AIRBORNE

£free / iOS, Android, Windows Phone Around the time of Gran Turismo, racing games started to fling ‘fun’ out of the window, replacing it with ‘realism’. Asphalt 8 has no truck with that, having you blaze through fantastical versions of famous locations, drifting absurd distances and frequently hurling your car into the air in a manner that totally won’t be covered by the insurance policy.

I CAN’T STOP PLAYING...

RECKLESS RACING 3

from £1.91 / iOS, Android Returning to its Redneck Racing roots, this features ramshackle vehicles belting around circuits that include a dilapidated airport and an abandoned nuclear plant, rivers of glowing green waste worryingly covering half the track. Movement is a bit floaty, but otherwise this visually stunning, arcade-orientated title impresses. Just don’t gawk too much at the scenery or you’ll hurtle off a cliff.

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DEVICE 6

£2.99 / iOS One of the most confident and original creations to grace iOS, Device 6 plays with and subverts the conventions of games, literature and identity. You find yourself dumped in a story centred around the kidnapped Anna. Pathways comprise text from the story itself and puzzles buried within; and the entire creation is a puzzle of sorts that you piece together as it barrels towards a conclusion that will floor you.

THE WALKING DEAD

£free / iOS, Android Is it a game? Or is it an interactive comic? When it’s this entertaining, it doesn’t chuffing well matter. Telltale’s take on The Walking Dead takes place around the same time and place as the start of the actual comic and TV series but, other than an appearance by Glenn, concerns a new roster of characters. In the first ‘season’ you play as Lee, a convict released back into society right at the point that it’s being torn apart by the zombie apocalypse. He becomes a sort of surrogate father for eight-year-old Clementine and the two of them join a group of other survivors. The ‘game’ is all about maintaining relationships within the rag-tag group, surviving attacks from zombies and other, nastier humans, and making decisions that can impact who lives or dies. It all plays out in that classic point-and-click style that works so well on touchscreen. And if you don’t shed a tear at the end of season one, you’re already a zombie.

Tom Parsons reviews editor

50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

HITMAN GO

from £2.99 / iOS, Android Hitman Go is what happens when developers make franchises fully suitable for a platform. Hitman has been reinvented as a board game of sorts, a turn-based clockwork contraption where you stealth your way to a target and literally ‘bump off’ adversaries. It’s clever, fresh and adorable, yet still manages to convey the tension and sneaking about core to its consolebased cousins.

THE SILENT AGE

£free (Episode 1) / iOS, Android Many of the games here rely on clever mechanics and compulsive gameplay to keep you prodding the screen. The Silent Age uses the more old-school (and frankly superior) attractions of great writing and beautiful design, in a game that would be a mini-masterpiece on any platform. Best of all, the first episode is free (with no ads), and the second (and final) episode is out now.

HARDLY WORTH MENTIONING...

But if we didn’t, you’d want to know where these all-time classics were

ANGRY BIRDS

£free / iOS, Android, Windows Phone Bird-flinging is way more than just a game now. It’s a clothing range, a theme park, a range of speakers and a friend of the George Lucas empire.

CANDY CRUSH

£free / iOS, Android, Windows Phone It’s not going to win any awards for design but there’s no denying the success of Candy Crush. More addictive than crack-infused Nutella.

CUT THE ROPE

from £free / iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry This feed-’em-up has lost nothing with time. Om Nom’s still annoying, though.

TINY WINGS

79p / iOS Another game that needs no introduction, but if you missed it, it’s worth going back now. Getting into its rhythm is still hugely satisfying.

PLAGUE INC.

from £free / iOS, Android When the last surviving humans seal themselves in a disused mine to escape the Explosive Flesh-Eating Noroflatus that wiped out the rest of the human race, they’ll start playing this brilliant strategy game about infecting the world with a disease, using vectors and symptoms and mutation to stay ahead of the world’s doctors, and they’ll laugh at the irony of the situation. Until they start coughing.

DOUG DUG

from 59p / iOS, Android Doug’s a dwarf with a bling addiction, and you must help him dig deep underground to find ALL THE SHINY THINGS. Only it turns out underground is full of creatures that consider dwarfs tasty snacks, and happens to be susceptible to terrifying cave-ins — in part due to the tunnelling.

This one-thumb game therefore has you balance risk and reward, trying to avoid death through being that bit too greedy.

NEW STAR SOCCER

£free / iOS, Android Later versions were spoiled somewhat by the change to in-app purchases but there’s a huge number of people who lost whole months playing NSS.

FRUIT NINJA

from 70p / iOS, Android, Windows Phone It’s little more than a touchscreen test but there’s something compelling about chopping up imaginary fruit.

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50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

WTF GAMES

We’re not quite sure what these are all about either

THOMAS WAS ALONE FART DAREN FREE

£free / iOS In Fart Daren Free you play a man, presumably called Daren, who can only be freed from his prison of a life by farting, although only when there’s passing traffic to mask the sound.

LUXURIA SUPERBIA

£3.99 / iPad, Android A Stuff favourite when it first launched on Steam, Thomas Was Alone’s shape-based gameplay translates well to tablets thanks to its deceptive simplicity. What looks to be a minimalist platformer quickly blossoms into a story of friendship that has more heart than any blockbuster game, helped in no small part by Danny Wallace’s voiceover.

from £2.49 / iOS, Android This is a family magazine so we won’t go into too much detail about what Luxuria Superbia reminds us of, but this is an abstract journey down colourful – often full-on psychedelic – tunnels that’ll reward you for touching all its bits.

INAPPROPRIATE LLAMA DISASTER

£free / iOS We’ve all been there. You’re at a funeral, defusing a bomb or some other tense or awkward social situation, and all of a sudden a bloody llama turns up.

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from £1.10 / iOS, Android The Mikey Trilogy bucks the trend, in as much as it offers good fast-paced platforming action for touchscreens.

Mikey Shorts is sort of a time-attack Mario, while Mikey Boots echoes a beefed-up bi-directional Flappy Bird. But Mikey Hooks is the best of the trio: an exhilarating mix of platforming, swinging from hooks, coin-grabbing, and Mikey trying very hard to not get impaled on spikes.

MAGNETIC BILLIARDS

£free / iOS Sort of reverse pool with magnetic balls, this game’s main goal is for you to be a massive show-off.

Huge scores are amassed by building clusters of coloured balls into shapes, preferably by way of ‘buzzing’ other balls and bouncing your shot off an unreasonable number of cushions. A £1.49 ‘skeleton key’ adds dozens of new tables.

KIWANUKA’S DUBSTEPPOWERED INHABITANTS ARE JUST AS KEEN TO REACH THE END AS THE GREEN-HAIRED LEMMINGS OF THE ’90S AMIGA CLASSIC

ENVIRO-BEAR 2010

from £1.19 / iOS, Android There are a million games that put a bear behind the wheel but Enviro-Bear 2010 is the definitive version. You must drive around looking for food before winter comes and it’s time to hibernate.

MIKEY HOOKS

KIWANUKA

from 79p / iOS, Android It’s short and perhaps lives within its means a little but Kiwanuka’s dubsteppowered inhabitants are just as keen to reach the end of each level as the green-haired Lemmings of the ’90s Amiga classic.

You only have one tool: your companions, and creating human ladders to bridge gaps before leading them across with your lightning staff is about as complex as it gets, but for a few hours that’s absolutely fine by us.

50 BEST MOBILE GAMES

DESERT GOLFING

I CAN’T STOP PLAYING...

RIDICULOUS FISHING

from £1.99 / iOS, Android The one time I went fishing it took an entire day to catch one tiny fish. If it’s going to be that way you might as well go all out, which is probably why I like Ridiculous Fishing so much.

Sink your line as deep as possible by tilting your tablet (it’s best played on a bigger screen) to avoid prematurely hooking a fish, because as soon as you do you’ll start reeling the line in, at which point you should aim to hook as many morsels as you can. Then, when it reaches the surface, your catch will be flung into the air and you have to blast them as many times as possible with your gun. Stacks more fun than the real thing.

Tom Wiggins deputy editor

from £1.19 / iOS, Android Most golf games require you to avoid the bunkers. Desert Golfing is a bunker – one massive one that goes on forever. Knock the ball into the hole using the Angry Birds-style catapult controls and you move on to the next one. There’s no par, no other players, no end and seemingly no point, but somehow it’s one of the most weirdly compelling mobile games of the past few years.

FTL: FASTER THAN LIGHT

£7.99 / iPad In space, no-one can hear you scream when you fail to deliver crucial data to the Galactic Federation and get obliterated by pesky rebels.

It’s manic, seat-of-thespacepants stuff as you aim to maintain your ship’s integrity and keep the crew alive, while micromanaging situations that could ensure your collective downfall.

No two games are ever the same.

THE BANNER SAGA

from £7.99 / iOS, Android With The Banner Saga 2 due out this year you’re running out of time to get up to speed on this epic, Norse-flavoured, Kickstarted RPG. Its storyline, old-school board-game-esque turn-based combat and even older-school Disney-esque art style create an effortlessly engrossing game that forces you to make decisions that will genuinely alter the course of events as you make your way across the snowbound Viking landscapes.

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DESIGN

ZR HOVERBOARD

[ Photography Pete Gardner ]

Former professional PWC (personal watercraft) rider Franky Zapata has mastered the waves, and with the ZR Hoverboard it seems he now has his sights set on the skies. An evolution from ZR’s earlier Flyboard, the Hoverboard propels its rider up to five metres into the air and at speeds of up to 40km/h. The board is attached to the outlet pipe of a PWC via its 18m hose, and thrust can be controlled either by a second person or in a solo setup via remote throttle.

You need power, McFly! ÂŁ4200 / 158performance. co.uk

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DESIGN

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d e e n i s r s b le b 71

DESIGN

TRIBORD EASYBREATH It may make you look like a character from ’80s cartoon The Snorks, but then the Easybreath is supposed to look friendly and approachable. That’s because it’s designed to get reluctant snorkellers into the water. Instead of a mask pinching your nose, it has a large full-face visor for a 180-degree field of vision.

Instead of a nasty-tasting rubber mouthpiece, the Easybreath fits around your mouth while preventing steaming up and stopping water coming back down the integrated air snorkel. £35 / tribord.co.uk

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DESIGN

SUUNTO EON STEEL You wouldn’t wear this to the shops, but then it’s a computer, not a watch. And it doesn’t belong on dry land. Its tough steel bezel frames a bright, clear, colour TFT screen and glove-friendly buttons. It will work down to 150m depth and can calculate dive times, depths and other important data to keep you safe, whether you’re diving with air or a mix of up to three gases. Its rechargeable battery will last 20-40 hours – a whole week’s worth of diving – and it’s compatible with Suunto’s wireless tank pod to transmit tank pressures direct to your wrist. £795 / suunto.com

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DESIGN

OCEAN REEF NEPTUNE SPACE IRON MASK Not strictly necessary for your yearly dip in the Red Sea, the Iron Mask is a full-face diving mask with integrated regulator that is built to withstand some of the harshest underwater conditions – specifically, water contaminated with chemicals. The inhalation diaphragm, face seal and other sensitive parts are all made of highly resistant fluorosilicone rubber.

Oh, and it also has a ‘glacier strap’ to withstand all those ice dives you do. £1290 / oceanreefgroup.com

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DESIGN

TABOU POCKET WAVE Designed for freestyle wavesailing, the Pocket Wave is a compact, surf-slashing speed demon. Its shape has been honed to get it planing across the surface of the water quickly, while its wave-oriented footstrap placement keeps the rider firmly in control and on the board.

It’s also compatible with both single-fin or ‘thruster’ surfboard-style setups for a looser feel. What’s that? You can’t get your sail to stay up? Do some more practice and put this one on your wishlist for later… £1500 / tabou-boards.com

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DESIGN

TIWAL 3.2

[ Image User:Fascinating Universe/ Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 ]

Owning a sailing dinghy is great fun, but finding somewhere to put it when you’re not using it isn’t. This nifty little boat solves that problem by packing into two bags that will fit in the boot of your car, and it’s ready to sail in just 20 minutes. With enough room for two sailors, it combines an inflatable V-shaped PVC hull with an aluminium structure and a carbon mast with monofilm sail. There’s no boom to bash your head on during a surprise gybe and the whole thing weighs just 50kg. from €5500 / tiwal.com

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THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MER-Y SEA FACTS O The Census of Marine Life, a 10-year international project to identify ocean lifeforms, has found nearly 250,000 species. Scientists believe at least a million more are yet to be discovered.

O Going by boat may be slow, but water takes around 1000 years to get all the way around the world on the global ocean conveyor belt, in a process known as thermohaline circulation.

O More than half of the oxygen we breathe comes from the oceans, mostly produced by phytoplankton: microscopic singlecell organisms that have the ability to photosynthesise.

O Point Nemo is the name of the imaginary spot in the Pacific Ocean that is furthest away from land – 2688km, to be precise. You’ll find it at 48°52.6’S 123°23.6’W on Google Maps.

The best soundbar?

The experts think so...

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

Soundbars & soundbases Best soundbar £300-600 Q Acoustics Media 4

Home Cinema Choice ‘Best Buy’, July 2014

Trusted Reviews ’Recommended’, October 2014

What Hi-Fi? Awards 2014, ‘Product of the Year’

AV Forums ‘Highly Recommended’, July 2014

Tech Radar ‘1st in Tech Radars Top 10 soundbars’, March 2015

Media 4 The real hi-fi soundbar Sonic wizardry for music and movies With its 100w amplifier and built-in subwoofer, the Media 4 plays music, TV sound and movies with astonishing quality - no extra boxes required!

Simply plug and play - plus wirelessly connect smartphones, tablets and laptops using aptX Bluetooth.

Wall mounts with built-in bracket or shelf-mount with supplied anti-vibration feet.

Available from

and all good audio retailers www.Qacoustics.co.uk

F I R S T T E S T LG 5 5 E G 9 6 O V

Telly’s all gold 4K Ultra HD and OLED? With this new flagship telly, LG is really spoiling us – but does the high-tech combo deliver a knockout picture? £3800 / lg.com When LG launched its first OLED screen last year – the 55EC930V – we fell in love. It was everything we’d hoped for from OLED: deep, luscious blacks and punchy, bright colours. But it wasn’t 4K. This TV is. And that combination of 4K and OLED in one screen is what our wildest telly-tech dreams are made of.

You should be familiar with 4K’s pixel-packing four-times-Full-HD resolution by now. But what’s the deal with OLED? Unlike normal LCD screens that need backlighting, OLED pixels generate their own light and colour, so when a pixel turns off, it goes totally pitch black, and it can be right next to another pixel that’s pumping out pure, brilliant white.

That means contrast can be breathtakingly brilliant, but images are also brighter and punchier overall. And LG takes it a step further by adding a fourth white pixel to the standard RGB for even more accurate colours.

So OLED goes blacker than plasma and brighter than LCD. Throw pin-sharp 4K resolution into the mix and you’ve got the very best screen we have ever laid our eyes on.

2

3

1 Picture perfect This is pure TV heaven. There’s pop to colours, a purity to whites and sheer, inky darkness in the blacks, but thanks to 4K there’s also insane detail. With 4K content it’s the most dynamic, natural and realistic picture out there. It’s no slouch with Full HD or 3D either.

2 Magic buttons LG has finally given its Magic Remote some buttons. It has shortcuts, a scrolling wheel and a gyroscope to control the cursor.

That pointing and clicking will divide opinion, but it works. You can also speak commands to the TV. It works, but not with iPlayer.

3 Speaking out LG has drafted Harman Kardon in here and the two downward-firing speakers are robust, smooth and detailed enough for normal telly.

But if you’re dishing out nearly £4000 we’d heartily recommend choosing a separate sound system.

Action films will thank you for it.

[ Words Kashfia Kabir ]

Good Meh Evil

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48 hours with the LG 55EG960V

1min

5mins 15mins 30mins

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1hr

5hrs

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F I R S T T E S T LG 5 5 E G 9 6 O V

Tech specs Screen 55in 3840x2160 OLED Inputs 3xHDMI, 3xUSB, PC, component, composite, SCART Network Wi-Fi, Ethernet Dimensions 719x1226x50mm (760x1226x213mm with stand) Weight 15.3kg (18.9kg with stand)

Stick a 4K in it Take the plunge into the crystal-clear waters with these built-in sources of 4K content

Q Netflix

5

5 Fashion floats A subtle curve, combined with a transparent pedestal stand that makes it look like the TV’s floating, equates to perhaps the prettiest design in telly-land right now. The value of the curve is still debatable, but sit straight-on and it does seem to draw you in that bit more.

3 fo D is ur p de as ce siv nt e a se nd ts c of om gl fy as , a se nd si y n t ou M he ge o th ti bo t e d on x. e- is ju a b dd it er iff an y. I d d ’m Ye w s, e- tw as it’ bl ea ho sc ur k op ing ut urv tio on ed ns an , b . an ut c gl ol W e. ou ot ait Be rs he , it at do r ( ’s H th n’ ch O at t ea W ,L pe m CD u r) c .

4K h?

T T …b Vs he go ut , y re rg th ou ar eo ey kn e us ’re ow sc no … re t en a p . W at e w ch an on t t t hi hr s ee .

4 For the love of VOD WebOS is jewel in a world of ditchwater-dull TV UIs, and this updated 2.0 version is even faster and more streamlined. Everything’s treated equally and arranged as neat tiles at the bottom of the screen so switching between apps and local inputs is unobtrusive.

15hrs

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New on the 4K menu are Better Call Saul, Marco Polo and the Wachowskis’ Sense8, but we’re most excited about Marvel’s Daredevil and AKA Jessica Jones. If only the 4K deal extended to all Marvel.

Q Amazon Prime Instant Video Amazon takes the cake when it comes to 4K films. The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Elysium, Moneyball, Godzilla and American Hustle are some of the latest titles.

Q YouTube

Q PC games

Want something more than scenic landscapes and bowls of fruit in 4K? Go to GoPro’s channel and watch first-hand as adventurers climb an iceberg or descend into some volcanic lava.

The PS4 and Xbox One still lack 4K support so the only route to ultra-sharp gaming is via a PC. And you’re going to need a pretty special one – with at least a GTX 970 and preferably a Titan X GPU.

Having seen both 4K and OLED TVs, it was clear that a marriage of the two could be a beautiful thing indeed. LG hasn’t let us down. This is a mighty pricey TV, but that’s what it costs to be at the cutting edge. If I have to sell all of my furniture, a vital organ and my first-born to get one, that’s exactly what I’ll do. @kashfiakabir

STUFF SAYS +++++ The future is here: this 4K OLED screen is a new and beautiful pinnacle for TV tech 79

256mph Bugatti Veyron 268mph Shanghai Maglev train

THE 1000MPH KIT CAR This September you’ll be able to watch live on-board footage of a British rocket car attempting to break the land speed record.

We visited the Bloodhound’s shed to find out how the 1000mph machine is coming along Words Nick Gibbs Pictures Stefan Marjoram, Jed Leicester

IN NUMBERS Power 135,000hp Total cost £35-40million Cost to put your name on the fin £15 0-1000mph 55 seconds

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400mph

0mph

200mph

83mph Unpaced cycling record

TECHSPEDITION

1000mph 800mph

763mph Current land speed record 761mph Speed of sound

600mph

670mph Airbus A380

TECHSPEDITION

IN BITS A Composite body panels B Solid aluminium wheels C Eurofighter Typhoon engine D Nose cone E Chassis/air intake

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TECHSPEDITION

jet air intake, it’s all very peaceful in the shed.

There’s an occasional buzz from a lathe in the machine shop, but mostly the small team – made of up primarily of motorsport, aviation or Army engineers – are carefully inspecting and fitting together very shiny, intricately cut pieces of solid aluminium.

Currently the car is a titanium-and-carbonfibre-wrapped aluminium tubular chassis, which seems way too undercooked for a vehicle that makes its first ever test run in August (on a runway in Newquay, Cornwall, hitting around 260mph), before heading to the record attempt location on a dried-up lake-bed in South Africa a month later.

As is traditional with blokes in sheds, the team members give little away emotionally about the extraordinary engineering heights they are scaling, but the pressure must be building. After all, this is a car that will drive faster on the ground than former RAF pilot Green ever achieved in the air in more than 3000 hours of flying.

B ritish people in sheds have accomplished some amazing feats over the years, particularly where cars are concerned. But the Bloodhound is a different leap entirely.

The shed on this occasion is a former electrical storeroom on an industrial estate next to ScrewFix just off the M5 near Bristol.

Inside it’s more Airfix, but on a mind-blowing scale. On our visit, we find the team very slowly and very carefully putting together the remainder of the 3500 bespoke parts on a car that they hope will accelerate past the sound barrier and break 1000mph.

Given that the current record is 763mph (just 2mph more than the sound barrier, or Mach 1), that is a mighty jump. “This is real ‘Here be dragons’ stuff,” says chief engineer Mark Chapman.

That phrase goes back to when mapmakers stuck pictures of mythical monsters in uncharted areas. This is similarly uncharted.

The same team who took the record with Thrust SSC back in 1997, Richard Noble and driver Andy Green, are back to build a car they hope will eventually add the 250mph needed to reach their 1050mph target. There was a time when land speed attempts were

happy with just a handful of miles per hour over the previous record. Not these fellas.

PLANES, ROCKETS AND AUTOMOBILES

Chapman calls the 13.5m-long Bloodhound “part racecar, part jet fighter, part spacecraft”.

In the main, that’s because it’s got engines from all three. Like all record-breaking cars from 1963 onwards, the Bloodhound uses a jet engine.

A Rolls-Royce EJ200 engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon, to be precise, on loan from the Ministry of Defence.

That’s good for 600mph, but the rest of the speed will come from rockets: a single one this year to get car to around 800mph, and then three next year for the 1000mph bid. There’s also a roaring 550hp Jaguar V8 engine, but it’s used purely to pump fuel into the rockets at 40 litres per second.

For something that will create such fury, particularly for Green sitting just below the

ROCKET MAN

The truly scary thing is the rocket propulsion.

Like the throttle of any car, the jet part is fairly easily controllable by using your right foot to vary the amount of aviation fuel going in; but as sci-fi granddaddy Isaac Asimov once memorably wrote of rocket fuel: ‘There are… some chemicals that explode shatteringly, some that flame ravenously, some that corrode hellishly, some that poison sneakily, and some that stink stenchily. As far as I know, though, only liquid rocket fuels have all these delightful properties combined into one delectable whole.’

But the Bloodhound engineers reckon they’ve made a breakthrough. High-test peroxide (HTP), a high-concentration version of the traditional hair dye, isn’t new for propelling rockets and is popular for missiles and torpedoes. It’s also massively dangerous – you might remember chemistry experiments where the teacher tipped a small amount onto

A 550-HORSEPOWER JAGUAR V8 ENGINE IS NEEDED JUST TO DRIVE THE FUEL PUMP

Year 1898 Car Jentaud The first record-holder was splendidly named Frenchman Count Gaston de ChasseloupLaubat. He timed his stately electric car over a kilometre and said: “I’m the fastest.”

Never mind that his 39mph average was below that of the period pedal-bike record.

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Year 1906 Car Stanley Rocket The first and only steampowered car to hold the record. This American machine was also the first to crack 200kmh (128mph).

Amazingly, it held the steam record until 2009, when it was beaten by a British team who reached 140mph.

Year 1935 Car Bluebird Britain’s Malcolm Campbell had been breaking records in Bluebird since 1931, but it wasn’t until 1935 when he went to the Bonneville salt flats in Utah that he broke 300mph in a much improved car powered by a 37-litre V12 Royce-Royce engine.

Year 1963 Car Spirit of America This was the first recordbreaking car to be propelled by a jet engine… but despite hitting a very respectable 407mph, American Craig Breedlove’s three-wheel car was deemed a tricycle and so doesn’t feature in the car records.

Year 1997 Car Thrust SSC Andy Green’s first jetpowered four-wheeler became the first car to break the speed of sound (761mph), hitting 763mph (Mach 1.020) in the Nevada desert.

Powered by two Rolls-Royce jet engines, it was steered from the rear wheels.

[ Illustrations Alan Eldridge ]

BEFORE BLOODHOUND

TECHSPEDITION

COCKPIT A The right pedal controls the thrust of the jet. The left pedal is for the carbon-fibre disc brakes, but they can only be used below 200mph.

B The twin monitors are configured for easier reading compared to aircraft dials. Green bars at full height means everything’s okay; red bars dropping, be aware.

C Twin backup levers for the parachutes. Green: “Having a 9m-long cable from the handle all the way to a pin at the back end – it doesn’t get much simpler than that.”

D Among other functions, the organ-stop pulls operate the cabin lights, power steering, cabin fire extinguisher and live video feed.

organic matter and it ‘flamed ravenously’, in Asimov’s phrase. But in the Bloodhound it’s pumped to where it can react in this combustible manner with another fuel that’s basically a rubbery polyurethane, a version of the material used to make skateboard wheels.

The subsequent burning at 3000°C, hotter than a volcano, consumes 800 litres of HTP in the 17 seconds it’ll take to push the speed up to 1000mph. But – and this the crucial bit – you can turn it off. Regular rockets and torpedoes are essentially fireworks: just light and stand back. But if Green feels like something’s gone wrong, he can switch off the V8 fuel pump and instantly the rockets sputter out.

And how are the force of the jet and the rocket combined going to react together?

“We’re not sure,” says Green. “It’s never been done before”.”

HOPING IT PANS OUT

Hakskeen Pan, a dry lake bed near South Africa’s Namibian border, gives 12 miles of firm flatness for the run itself. The only problem was

the millions of surface stones that the wheels could flick up onto the bodywork with the force of bomb shrapnel. With typical disregard for the impossible, the Bloodhound team paid 300 locals to remove the stones – all 16,000 tonnes of them – by hand. That’s like hand-sweeping a motorway running from Wales to Moscow.

This desolate desert region will be turned into a small city come September, and camping there (for four to six months in total, this year and next) will consume around half of the £35-40million the project has cost, thanks to the total lack of amenities. By the time the Bloodhound gang arrives, it’ll be better connected than many UK towns, with a 4G network and fibre-optic cable laid for fast uploading.

The reason this is so important is that the Bloodhound has been pitched to private and government sponsors as a rolling educational project – a 7.5-tonne, 135,000hp chunk of brain-candy designed to get British kids thinking about engineering as being cool again.

And the coolest way to do that is to deliver exactly the same data from the car’s 500 sensors as the engineers are seeing onto

your phone or tablet. “You’ll get to mark our homework live as we do it,” says Green. Well, not quite live. The feed from the cameras will have a short delay in case Green swears in the cockpit. Or, as he doesn’t say, in case something terrible happens.

IT’S NOT A PLANE, BOND

Some of these sensors will help monitor the ride-height. “We’ve got 100mm of suspension travel – that’s not a lot before you become a plane or a plough,” says Chapman. Quite apart from that fact that an airborne Bloodhound robs Green of all control, the run could be judged non-compliant by the FIA, the motorsport body that ensures the two timed runs within the hour follow the rules.

Green will be holding a steering wheel that connects to the front two of the four pressed aluminium wheels and, although it’ll give him some control over the car, there’s certainly not the kind of grip that Formula 1 drivers or even owners of fairly ordinary sports cars are used to. The cornering limit for the car is about 0.4g – considerably less than the 1g limit of

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TECHSPEDITION

FIVE REASONS WHY WE LOVE THE BLOODHOUND

D It produces 12 tonnes of thrust A supercharged V8 in your Jaguar F-Type or Range Rover should easily top-trump your neighbours on power. But here all 550hp is used to push HTP fuel to the rockets by spinning a 25kg fuel pump at around 10,000rpm. This was originally a Cosworth F1 engine, but the team found the torquier and less finicky Jag unit did a better job. Green will start the engine with a button that releases the clutch and starts to pump the fuel. As soon as that hits the solid fuel the reaction occurs – boom! – and 12 tonnes of thrust will be added to the nine tonnes given by the jet.

E Its speedometer goes past Mach 1 Sponsor Rolex created some extra-special back-up dials for the Bloodhound, including a chronograph and a speedo in case the cabin computers fail for any reason. Just for us, the tin-can-sized speedo was carefully removed from the foam bed in its lockable aluminium carry case so we could see covetable details such as the ‘MPH x 1000’ inscription at the bottom and the Mach 1 line between 700mph and 800mph. The actual timing lights are pulsed lasers out on the course, placed 10x further apart than normal so Green doesn’t hit them.

1000mph The Jaguar V8 pump is forcing through hydrogen peroxide rocket fuel at a rate of 40 litres per second.

C It will pioneer a new ‘hybrid’ rocket The car’s rockets come from Norwegian firm Nammo. The high-test peroxide fuelling system, which burns rubbery solid fuel, is something new that Nammo hopes can bring down the cost of satellite launching by allowing rockets to be easily reused. And while it hasn’t been designed as a green machine, chief engineer Chapman argues that hydrogen peroxide does have some green credentials in that it breaks down to oxygen and water. Noble describes the carbon footprint of the Bloodhound after the 60 planned runs in its life as equal to “4.5 lactating cows”.

350mph Rockets switched on.

With all three rockets, the car will gain speed at 40mph per second, over twice the acceleration of the Eurofighter Typhoon.

B It has the toughest tail-fin in history The 8ft-high fin has a delicate job to do. Too big and it’ll dictate where the car will go, too small and the car’s instability will make it too twitchy to accurately steer.

The job of lead fin engineer Terry Godsmark, formerly of the RAF and then Airbus, is to ensure the strength of the most stressed part of the car.

“The hardest-working fin in history,” Green calls it. Six aluminium ‘spars’ are the backbone of the skeleton, and the largest was milled from a three-tonne solid aluminium lump that got whittled down to something that weighs just 25kg.

0-350mph Jet on. Starts moving using power from the jet engine. By 200mph, it’ll be accelerating at 20mph per second.

A It has aluminium wheels The four 39in wheels will be spinning 170 times a second, or 10,200rpm, and that calls for some seriously stressresistant metal. They were forged using an aluminium alloy – one that didn’t exist four years ago – to ensure the internal grain structure is as hardy as possible. Then the Bloodhound team fired shots at them to replicate debris hitting them at 1000mph. They’re not driven – the rocket and jet provide the thrust. In fact it’s been a long time since a land speed record car has used driven wheels: all the way back to Donald Campbell in 1964 with the final Bluebird.

FLOOR IT! How to do 0-1000mph (and back) in two minutes

0 mph

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500 mph

1000 mph

TECHSPEDITION

GREEN WILL DEPLOY THE MASSIVE AIRBRAKES AND SCRUB OFF SPEED AT 60MPH PER SECOND most cars, but enough that if Green has to correct hard to get the Bloodhound back on track, it won’t roll over.

This is partly because there’s no spoiler, and no downforce to keep the car pressed into the desert – at least that’s the hope of the designers, using their computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computer programmes to guess the flow of air. The drag comes when Green deploys the great airbrake flaps and scrubs off speed at a tremendous rate of 60mph per second.

The idea is that Green’s reflexes and coolness, as first the jet and then the rocket fuel burn ferociously behind him, will make him an engineering pin-up, whether he hits Mach 1.4 or not. “If it peaks at 990mph, that’s still a massive win. If we engage kids in their tens of millions then we’ve already achieved our goals, regardless of what speeds we do,” he says. “Getting to 1000mph will just be a nice way to finish that off.”

by Andy Green (Bloodhound pilot)

I’ll feel like I’m driving straight up in the air.

Accelerating at 40mph per second, I will be experiencing the g-load of blood running from my feet to my head; my heart rate will try to go down to reduce blood pressure. Due to a disorientating effect called the somatogravic illusion, it’ll feel to my inner ear like I’m lying on my back. In other words I’ll feel like I’m driving straight up.

Pilots get it all the time. This is a more extreme version.

Then I’ll feel like I’m going straight down.

With the airbrakes on I’ll be reducing speed at 60mph per second and now all the blood suddenly wants to run from my head to my feet. That’s when tensing up legs and stomach stops me from blacking out. It’s known as the push-pull effect and acrobatic pilots train hard against it because it will catch you out. I’ll also feel as though I’m going straight down, and that is very disorientating.

You can’t train to make it go away – it’s something you need to work through.

200mph Andy puts his foot on the brake pedal to active front disc brakes. Makes a turn for the second run.

Refuel and repeat.

500mph Air brakes deploy, slowing the car at a rate of 60mph per second, subjecting Andy Green to forces of 3g.

For more pictures of the Bloodhound, download the Stuff Digital Edition app

HOW TO DRIVE AT 1000MPH

The cockpit will feel like the noisiest place on the planet.

The good news is that, at 600-700mph, I now can’t hear the world’s noisiest jet engine because I’m leaving the sound behind me. The bad news is that, because the air going through the intake must be 500 mph

below 600mph, we’ve got to reduce the speed by 400mph using a series of shockwaves.

That’s incredibly noisy. We’re probably more worried about this than the g-forces. It’s not just my safety – the instruments will collapse with too much vibration and acoustic energy. We’re using an awful lot of soundproofing to keep the noise down.

My racetrack training was as relevant as flying jets.

You might wonder what racing at 50-100mph has got to do with driving at 500-1000mph.

Well, the Radical SR3 RS [which Andy drove at Goodwood] is a lively sports car and a great way to feel the grip you have. Is it the front gripping?

Is the back biting? How do you balance the two? I’ll be doing the same thing at 300-400mph when the car is sliding around.

I also drove a Jaguar on snow and got a lot more out of that than I expected. Snow has about the same level of grip as driving on the desert.

Thrust SSC handled really badly.

Just shy of 300mph I had 90° of steering lock on. We almost aborted it. Part of the reason the car handled so badly was that we were running it noseheavy for safety reasons. The other part was that we didn’t understand its aerodynamic balance as a car. We couldn’t know 15-20 years ago – it was 10 years afterwards that someone came up with a computer model that said: this is why this happened.

Also, rear-wheel steering is a silly idea. It’s actually unstable.

There’s a reason it’s limited to forklifts and shopping trolleys.

0 mph

85

a

TEN DAYS WITH GOOGLE’S NEW CHROMEBOOK PIXEL

Join the dots Google’s luxury laptop features a four-million-pixel touchscreen and a brilliant design, but you can’t run desktop software on it. Does that matter these days? from £800 / google.co.uk/chromebook/pixel

The PIxel comes with 1TB of Google Drive space (for 3 years), but only 32GB on board

[ Words Will Dunn ]

DAY 01 Before we get into this review, I should explain that I’m a fan of the Pixel. I’ve been using the original model for over a year now. I use Macs for work, because magazines are almost all made on InDesign, but I default to the Chromebook for most of my writing and web browsing, because the keyboard, touchpad and (touch)screen are superb.

I’ve always thought that if it had better battery life and cost a bit

less, it would be the ideal laptop.

And whaddaya know, that’s just what Google has done.

The design is very similar to the original, and still very attractive indeed. It’s lighter in colour, about 20g lower in weight and a barely noticeable 1.1mm thinner. The multicoloured light bar on the lid was previously just Google’s classy little riposte to a glowing fruit – something to mark you out from the rest of the

Tap the mulicoloured light bar on the lid and it will flash you a subtle display of how much battery is remaining

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Starbucks typing pool – but now you can give it a soft tap and it will flash you a subtle but smug display of how much battery is remaining. It’s a nice showy touch that’s actually mildly useful, although given the prodigious battery – more on that in a minute – it will rarely be necessary.

Because it uses USB C charging, and because there’s a USB C port on either side, you can charge it from left or right. Once you realise how useful and sensible and neat that is, you will experience a few moments of intense rage thinking about the years you’ve spent not

being able to reach power points and spilling tea over carelessly draped cables.

The new Pixel is more powerful, with a faster processor and a muscular 8GB RAM, although – this being a cloud-centric internet machine – it still only has 32GB of solid-state memory. But what you notice first is the whopping upgrade in battery life: I left the new Pixel unplugged on its first day in the hope of running it flat during a full work day, but it still had almost four hours left by the time I was ready to go home and lasted almost all the way to lunchtime the following day.

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

05

Donut of Truth™

01

04

02 03

01 Brilliant screen 02 The keyboard and touchpad are also superb 03 The free apps cover most of what you need…

04 …but not all, especially

if you need ‘proper’ desktop software 05 It’s a one-way ticket to Castle Google… depends how much you like it in Castle Google, really

Tech specs Display 12.9in 2560x1700 IPS touchscreen Processor Intel Core i5/i7 ‘Ivy Bridge’, dualcore 2.2/2.4GHz RAM 8/16GB Storage 32/64GB onboard, 1TB Google Drive (free for 3 years) Battery life 12hrs Connectivity 2xUSB 3.1 Type C, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi Dimensions 298x 225x15.3mm, 1.5kg

DAY 02 Conveniently, my work laptop is the Pixel’s closest rival in price and specs: a 13in MacBook Air. They have the same battery life and similar price (the Air starts at £50 more); the MacBook is lighter and has more storage; the Chromebook has a newer, faster processor and twice as much RAM. On the keyboard, the trackpad and the screen, however, the Pixel gives its rival a sound thrashing.

Not only is the screen much, much sharper, it has better colours and a better shape. Think about a web page: if it was made of paper, it would be one long sheet, and accordingly the Pixel has a taller screen with 3:2 aspect ratio, so websites look spacious.

The Pixel’s screen is still good for films, although you’ll get black bars above and below, but you almost certainly spend more time on the web than you do watching films, especially on your laptop.

DAY 06 The original Pixel was quick, but it would get warm on demanding tasks, the fan was eager to kick in, and it did so audibly. In almost a week, I’ve only managed to get the new Pixel’s fan to start up once, and it’s very quiet.

DAY 07 Google hasn’t done a great job of pointing out how well Chromebooks work offline: everything in Google Docs can be worked on, and it backs up to the cloud when you reconnect. Apps like Gmail Offline download your inbox like a regular email client, Pocket lets you save whole web pages, and you can edit pics and videos without Wi-Fi. The Chrome Web Store offers low-powered (but free) software that compares to old versions of Photoshop and Premiere, and CloudMagic lets you connect to any email service.

DAY 10 So what’s the catch? It’s this: ChromeOS is great in many ways but, if there’s one thing it excels at, it’s gluing you to Google like you’re a male deep-sea anglerfish mating with, and slowly being absorbed by, a much larger female deep-sea anglerfish. Like using Firefox or Opera? Not here. Want to watch films offline? You’d better have a Google Play account.

Even if this doesn’t affect how useful the Pixel is to you, there’s a difference between using Google’s services because they’re great, and using them because Google gives you no choice.

STUFF SAYS When all software is cloud-based, this will be the perfect laptop; it just needs the world to catch up

★★★★✩

87

TEST GAMES

PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One / battlefield.com

Battlefield Hardline EA has ditched the tanks, the jets and some of the destruction in favour of a Heat-style cops ’n’ robbers vibe for the new Battlefield – but is this more than a diverting gimmick? attlefield, to me, is all about the multiplayer. The fiveman Battlefield 4 squad I’ve been part of racked up a combined total of 943 hours in 17 months, and that’s all been spent in the cut and thrust of those big online battles. But can I see me and my comrades ploughing so many hours into Hardline? Actually, I can.

There are gimmicky features, such as the police cars blasting out Sound Of Da Police while you scream into a gunfight, but overall

B

the multiplayer’s smart and considered; the result is a faster, fresher-feeling game.

Some will mourn the loss of tanks, but the focus here is on smaller and nimbler vehicles.

They’re not designed as weapon platforms, but as ways to get to places fast. This is what makes games of Conquest in particular so competitive, and so liable to big swings in points.

And the general grind has been reduced somewhat. Even the starter weapons are perfectly

respectable, and special weapons are now pick-ups rather than player-owned. Pesky chopper causing all sorts of problems?

Check the map for the location of the Stinger rocket launcher and hightail it over there. The power to change your team’s fortunes is in your hands.

The shooting itself is trademark Battlefield – a little less snappy than the likes of Call Of Duty, but still solid, satisfying and easy to get used to. Destructibility has been reduced, though. You’ll blast

chunks of masonry, but you won’t demolish whole buildings. Still, you won’t be complaining when you find cover with walls you can actually rely on.

The game is exceptionally stable too, which is reassuring for those who were stung by Battlefield 4’s well-documented bugs.

Hardline is a very different game to the rest of the series. Smaller in scale, but faster, tighter and undeniably great fun. This cops ’n’ robbers lark will keep me going for a long while yet. Tom Parsons

STUFF SAYS This isn’t Battlefield as you know it, but it’s fun Battlefield all the same ++++✩ 88

TEST GAMES

Hardline offline

Players who drop laser trip-mines all over the map are scum. Scum!

Ziplines make traversing maps the work of an instant

The single-player portion of Hardline is designed to mimic a playable cop show, complete with cinematic cutscenes and “previously…” montages when you resume your game.

You soon learn that the idea is for you to keep casualties to a minimum. The more people you arrest rather than kill, the quicker you level up, unlocking new weapons and equipment.

If only there were an option to get ‘irony’ plastered down the side of your assault rifle.

Unlike most stealth games, you don’t necessarily have to sneak up behind people in order to take them down.

Holding L1 when prompted flashes your badge and gun at an enemy, which, as long as you’ve caught them by surprise, is enough to convince them to reach skywards.

For a while this is a fun, interesting twist to the genre, allowing you to live out those dormant Miami Vice fantasies, but it does get monotonous.

The bad guys wait politely to be handcuffed and fall asleep as soon as they are. It’s a bit too basic and comical.

While the single-player game is noisy, spectacular and distracting for a while, it’s one-dimensional. Without the multiplayer option this would be a one-weekend wonder.

Tom Wiggins

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TEST GAMES

PC / carmageddon.com

Carmageddon: Reincarnation The original, politically inappropriate, pedestrian-splatting racing game returns! But has Carmageddon evolved enough to compete 18 years later? really, really loved the original Carmageddon.

Within a couple of hours of discovering the trailer I must have watched it 20 times. I didn’t even care when campaigning resulted in the pedestrians being swapped out for zombies – I loved the bunch of bonkers cars and characters smashing into each other and winning stunt-filled races by any means necessary (or even unnecessary).

That Generation X Wacky Races concept is still awesome to me, so I’ve been mighty excited about this sequel-cum-reboot from original developers Stainless. Having now ploughed hours into it, though, I’m rather disappointed.

The original had this odd combination of heavy handling and floaty gravity, but either it’s a little worse here or expectations are simply greater. Cars are sluggish and stodgy. They’ll build up to fairly crazy speeds on a long straight, but the handling is too heavy and unresponsive, making hitting what you’re aiming for as reliant on luck as skill. It’s especially frustrating in

I

the game modes that involve being the first to hit a specific checkpoint or pedestrian – the game engine just doesn’t have the precision for the objectives it gives you.

Opponent AI is also a bit weak.

Drivers seem perfectly happy to give up a big lead in a race to have a fight with you instead. Those fights are one-dimensional, reduced from the epic battles they should be to attritional annoyances.

Not that there isn’t a huge amount of fun to be had. Some of the power-ups in the 80-strong selection are brilliantly brutal – especially the Repulsificator, which fires springs that launch opponents or pedestrians, turning them gory when they inevitably hit a building. And there’s lots of game here: 50 events and 36 race routes over nine maps, plus 24 cars to unlock and drive.

With a bit more love and polish Reincarnation could still be great, and Stainless has now given itself until 21 May for just that. Check Stuff.tv to see if the final, final version is worth an extra star.

Tom Parsons

The drill on the front of the Twister makes mincemeat of cows… and pedestrians

There are loads of ‘cunning stunt’ opportunities around the nine maps

STUFF SAYS There are moments of gory brilliance, but it frustrates too often +++,, 90

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REVIEWS

Media hoard This month’s reviews include alien beasts in a warzone, ageing indie superheroes in a recording studio, and life-wrecking mistakes in 140 characters or less

WATCH

Monsters: Dark Continent_cinema ith original director Gareth Edwards off directing another creature feature in Godzilla, Tom Green steps in to direct the sequel to the low-budget 2001 hit Monsters. Johnny Harris and Sam Keeley play US soldiers on a rescue mission, stranded between deadly aliens and angry Middle Eastern insurgents.

It’s both similar and completely different to the original: the ominous beasties are again an ever-present threat, but this time that device is wrapped around a larger, war-ishell drama. While missing the simple genius of Edwards’ film, Dark Continent takes this world in an interesting direction, helped by often stunning cinematography and the avoidance of roaring war-movie machismo.

W

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Much of the film’s appeal rests on the shoulders of its two wellcast leads. Looking like he was ripped straight from Call Of Duty, Harris’s Sergeant is a harrowing look at an ordinary man forged into a war machine. Keeley’s overwhelmed Private provides a counterpoint to Harris as the bullets fly and the monsters roam.

Slightly let down by a script that spells out every moment, the stars fill the spaces between with tension to keep you invested.

While far from the monster (sorry) that its predecessor was, this sequel avoids trying to rehash the past in favour of an interesting, unflinching war story.

James Luxford

Based on the true story of Zahid Mubarek, an inmate at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution convicted of petty theft, who was murdered by his racist cellmate Robert Stewart. The film makes some valid points about the prison system but it ends up feeling too much like the killer’s story, when really it should be Zahid’s.

Tom Wiggins

Eddie Redmayne rightly won an Oscar for this portrayal of the most influential scientist of our time, Stephen Hawking.

Alongside his first wife Jane (Felicity Jones), this moving biopic shows their battle against Hawking’s failing health as he studies time, the very thing he fears he’s running out of.

Emily May

STUFF SAYS +++,,

STUFF SAYS +++,,

STUFF SAYS +++++

We Are Monster _cinema, DVD, VOD

The Theory Of Everything _Blu-ray

REVIEWS

LISTEN

The Magic Whip_Blur As Blur’s first album as a proper four-piece since 1999’s 13, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this is a tad two-faced. One minute Albarn’s gone Defcon Cockney on Lonesome Street, with a chunky riff reminiscent of Modern Life Is Rubbish; the next there’s the processed beats and plucked guitar of Thought I Was A Space Man, which bursts into life on drummer Dave Rowntree’s command. One sounds like

Why Make Sense?_Hot Chip

Blur, the other like solo Albarn. Ice Cream Man mixes both, with a wriggly synth through the middle.

But The Magic Whip is at its best when all four members are on form, such as the bass-driven funk of Ghost Ship, dotted with brass parps and Graham Coxon’s classic-rock guitar, or the singalong festival anthem Ong Ong. Tom Wiggins STUFF SAYS ++++,

Rituals_Other Lives

READ

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed_Jon Ronson The internet connects the brains of half the planet into a single herd: a giant, methane-guffing hivemind that can turn hoof and trample you, if you’re not careful. Ronson’s book begins as an enjoyable ride on the infobeast, as it headbutts Daily Mail columnists, but it quickly finds that this power is dangerously unconstrained.

The wrong tweet or status

The Way Of The Runner _Adharanand Finn

update can invite a catastrophic outburst of opprobrium, and the internet is now home to the sort of public shaming that hasn’t been seen for over a century.

Rich in detail and humour, this will make you think twice about joining in the next Twitter witch hunt.

Will Dunn STUFF SAYS +++++

Stuck On You: The Rise & Fall... & Rise Of Panini Stickers

An object lesson in perfect popcraft. Opener Huarache Lights’ chest-bursting bassline could become dancefloor legend, Need You Now is irresistibly catchy and the title track is propelled by a drumbeat worthy of John Bonham.

Alexis Taylor is a skilled wordsmith and a bloodless singer, transcending both dinner parties and clubs.

Will Findlater

This has a suspicion of Radiohead, a whiff of Grizzly Bear and maybe the pawprints of a Fleet Fox or two. Other Lives started out as an instrumental band, and it shows in the lack of melodic focus: the ethereal textures and semi-falsetto vocals are agreeable enough, but it becomes background music a little too easily.

Richard Purvis

Finn’s Running With The Kenyans saw him learn the secrets of the world’s best distance runners. This book looks inside Japan’s elite leagues. Though focused on the Hakone Ekiden relay marathon, its revelations about why Japan’s runners struggle to beat African rivals make it a fine bit of cultural anthropology.

Mark Wilson

Football geeks of a certain age will be excited by this book on the sticker craze.

The myth-busting around sticker distribution will quiet conspiracy theorists, but it needs more pictures of what collectors will buy it for: old football stickers.

Tom Wiggins

STUFF SAYS ++++,

STUFF SAYS +++,,

STUFF SAYS ++++,

STUFF SAYS +++,,

_Greg Lansdowne

93

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STUFF, FREEPOST RSBU-TALE-BXJT, PO BOX 326, SITTINGBOURNE, ME9 8FA QUOTE REF M0615P OR M0615B

NOW available in high gloss finishes

Unlike docks and soundbars, the BT3 ‘Wireless’ Hi-Fi Speakers from Q Acoustics delivers real stereo sound separation via its versatile twin bookshelf speakers.

Stream music via Bluetooth®, plus connect the audio output from your TV or set-top box* to the BT3’s built-in 100W amplifier and enjoy sound quality that comfortably outperforms typical ‘single box’ soundbars and docks. *BT3 is compatible with both Sky and Virgin remote controls.

Available from

www.Qacoustics.co.uk and all good audio retailers

MAKE. DO. UPGRADE.

p100 BETA YOURSELF: TRAVELLING

p102 PLAYLIST: WEBCOMICS

Feeling trippy?

Use your geek skills to line up a bargain holiday

Sometimes you need something more substantial than LOLcats

p104 INSTANT UPGRADES: GARDEN GAMES

p106 REAWESOMISEâ&#x20AC;Ś YOUR FESTIVAL KIT

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99

YOBET SE UR A LF -

PROJECTS | 06.15

That holiday isn’t going to book itself. But how to bag a cheap ticket to a sun-kissed deckchair? Clint Johnston of smart travel site TripHackr is your tour guide…

Q Check one-way flights.

THE BASICS Q Fly on weekdays. Try to be as flexible as possible with your flight dates. Flying from Saturday to Saturday will be the most expensive, while departing on a Tuesday and returning on a Wednesday is typically cheapest for week-long trips.

Q Go multi-city. For European adventures, it often works out cheaper to fly into one city and return from another. For example, flying into Brussels and getting a train to Amsterdam then returning from there will give you bonus Pilsner pounds, plus a more interesting trip.

Q Play holiday roulette.

Fancy putting your travels on ‘shuffle mode’ while getting bargain flights at the same time? Type ‘everywhere’ into the destination search box of skyscanner.net and it’ll show you a list of the best last-minute flights to virtually every country.

Now close your eyes and point your finger. There you go. Now it’s time to pack.

As with train fares, booking two one-way flights can give you cheaper tickets and alternative options. To find these ‘hacker fares’, check the ‘one way’ boxes in comparison tools like Kayak (kayak.co.uk) to see how they compare with the return ticket.

Q Get an upgrade.

There’s no exact science to getting a free invite to the other side of that exclusive little curtain. But other than having a friend at the check-in desk, surveys have shown the best way to boost your chances is to have joined the airline’s (usually free) loyalty card scheme. Worth putting up with a few emails for?

FLIGHT HACKS Q Check the trends.

Kayak uses algorithms based on users’ searches to predict whether prices for your journey are likely to go up or down.

Q Set up fare alerts. If you don’t want to book today, sign up for the fare alerts offered by most comparison sites.

Q Don’t book too early.

Booking late can be expensive, but booking months in advance can cost you too. There is no magic formula, but for international trips aim to book between six and eight weeks before departure.

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06.15 | PROJECTS LEVEL UP WITH...

THE BOOK THE ART OF TRAVEL HACKING

US$20 / triphackr.com Casual holiday-goers will find more than enough travel tips in the ‘resources’ section of the Triphackr site, but serial travellers who are looking to gain a black belt in air miles can download this e-book from the site.

Though very US-centric, it describes the kind of obsession that helped the author get a $1200 plane ticket to Brazil for just $58.

THE WEBSITE ROME2RIO

rome2rio.com Like a Citymapper for globetrotters, this site tells you how to get from point A to a point B anywhere on the planet.

Type in your destination and it’ll crunch all your options for trains, planes, ferries, buses, rental cars and submarines (OK, maybe not that last one), before presenting them to you with journey times on a handy map.

HOTEL TRICKS Q Automate it. Book your hotel via tingo.com. If the price of the room drops, it will refund you the difference.

Q Haggle with hosts.

Don’t insult Airbnb owners with low-ball offers, but asking for an extended-stay discount of 10-15% is reasonable.

Q Check the Wi-Fi. Use Speedspot (speedspot.org) to check is a hotel’s broadband is any good, or use a Satechi Smart Travel Router (£35, amazon.co.uk) to broadcast fast, secure Wi-Fi from an ethernet connection.

PACKING LIST Q Go minimal. Combine a high-quality carry-on bag like Minaal (US$300, minaal.com) with some water-resistant packing cubes from Eagle Creek (from £8, cotswoldoutdoor.com) and you’ll be able to go on most trips without needing a pesky check-in case.

Q Have two photo backups.

Ideally one should be physical, such as a LaCie Rugged Flash Drive (from £25, lacie.com), with the other a cloud service like Dropbox. Rotate several memory cards, and keep them in a Pelican card case (£25, amazon.co.uk).

BEST TRAVEL APPS Airhelp (£free / Android, iOS) Seething over a delayed, overbooked or cancelled flight?

This app knows your rights and you can apply for compensation via a five-step process.

Here Maps (£free / iOS, Android, Windows Phone) While Google Maps’ offline options are still quite limited, Nokia’s revamped app lets you download entire countries and directions for use without a pricey data connection.

Rocketmiles (£free / iOS) This app lets you earn air miles by staying at affiliated hotels.

THE SERVICE THE TRAVEL HACKING CARTEL

From US$15 per month / travelhacking.org It might sound shady, but this subscription service has got air-mile-earning down to such a fine art that it guarantees one free plane ticket every three months. Of course, only very frequent fliers need apply, but there is a one-dollar 14-day trial for those who’d like to see if it’s worth the time it saves on perusing travel forums like FlyerTalk.

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PROJECTS | 06.15

Print them out, do a spot of home bookbinding and they’re just like real comics you didn’t have to go to the shops for! Or you could read them online...

Never Mind The Bullets This Wild West production from Microsoft delivers a kinetic experience – cigarette smoke curls lazily into the air, assailants sneak up behind characters and bullet casings tinkle onto the ground. Best of all, the whole thing can be customised. nevermindthebullets. com

Toothpaste For Dinner

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Drew Fairweather started Toothpaste For Dinner in 2002.

Its simplistic, squiggly line drawings pack a hefty wallop of surrealism, social commentary and schadenfreude, which made one critic at Slate write: “In terms of clickability, this is Rembrandt.” toothpastefordinner. com

There are no storylines in Zach Weinersmith ‘s webcomic, no characters and not even a set format.

But since its launch in 2002 it’s won multiple awards and gathered a huge fanbase who love his gags inspired by academia, religion and romance. smbc-comics.com

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Diesel Sweeties

Poorly Drawn Lines

XKCD

One of the longestrunning entries on this list is 15-year-old Diesel Sweeties, which is about robots and humans who fall in love. You’ll need to follow it for a while to get some of the irony-laden subtleties, but you’ll soon learn that everyone has their emotional handicaps.

Especially the robots. dieselsweeties.com

Reza Farazmand writes Poorly Drawn Lines, which features adorable animals, cute robots and more surprise plot twists than an M Night Shyamalan movie.

The humour is a mix of observational and surrealist, but what makes it work is the contrast with the gentle, clean artwork. poorlydrawnlines. com

Randall Monroe’s tales of ‘romance, sarcasm and math’ are a tri-weekly delight, ranging from pop-culture puns to epic adventures that unfurl over four months. The art is basic and you’ll need to know graphs to get half the jokes, but no other comic is a bigger part of the fabric of the web.

XKCD.com

The Wormworld Saga Despite being more of a graphic novel than a traditional comic, this saga is well-suited to the web thanks to its infinite canvas with just a few floating frames.

Those magnificent, sumptuous visuals packed with detail – you’ll lose yourself in them for hours. wormworldsaga.com

06.15 | PROJECTS

STRIP SEARCH

OH NO ROBOT Ever catch yourself trying to find a specific strip but can’t remember the title? Oh No Robot is a search engine that transcribes the contents of over 2000 comics so you can track down the one you want. ohnorobot.com

COMIC ROCKET Catching up on webcomic backstories is hard.

Enter Comic Rocket, a crowdsourced indexing tool that tracks where you are and keeps your place. You can also find new favourites with the recommendations tool. comic-rocket.com

Perry Bible Fellowship Nicholas Gurewitch’s comic, originally written for the newspaper at Syracuse University, gets its laughs from the juxtaposition of childlike imagery and colours with themes of sex, religion and violence, so it’s not one to show the kids.

But its black humour is infectious. pbfcomicscom

Dinosaur Comics

The Oatmeal

Paranatural

Ryan North creates what’s known as a constrained comic – each one has exactly the same characters (a trio of dinosaurs) in exactly the same positions. Only the words change – and yet it still manages to be hilarious, poignant and clever in equal measures. qwantz.com/ index.php

Matthew Inman’s comics are eclectic, covering everything from zombies to grammar, and he’s built up a legion of fans who raised enough for the purchase and restoration of the pioneering scientist Nikola Tesla’s laboratory. Inman’s latest project? A card game called Exploding Kittens. theoatmeal.com

This one is a little more involved than many webcomics. It’s been running since 2011 and tells the story of a teenager who moves into a town infested by ghosts that only he can see. The animé-styled artwork is rich in colour and detail.

Be sure to start at the beginning. paranatural.net

COMIC CHAMELEON This free iOS app lets you scroll through more than 125 of the best comics on the web, with panel-bypanel navigation and payments to the artists in question. An Android version is due very soon. comicchameleon.com

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PROJECTS | 06.15

Summer is on its way. Time to sit back, wait for a break in the rain and then hurriedly book a day oďŹ&#x20AC; to enjoy our ultimate outdoor funfest

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[ Illustration Jamie Sneddon ]

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06.15 | PROJECTS BEST POOLCESSORIES

1 BERG CHOPPER AF Why pull on the Lycra and sweat away on a sunny Sunday afternoon when a more relaxed version of cycling could fit the bill? You could be cruising in style on this Chopper-style pedal cart with sidecar that will fit all ages from nine to adult.

With big, wide inflatable tyres, it’ll tackle potting sheds and potholes with equal aplomb.

There’s plenty of room for a passenger in that second seat, or perhaps a couple of bags of shopping next time you go for an ice-lolly run with the rest of your gang. £700 / bergtoys.com

4 AQUAPOD BOTTLE LAUNCHER You may have your eye on a shiny new drone, but you won’t be able to fire one of those into the sky for 20 quid. For a bit of simple, batteries-not-required fun, half-fill an old fizzy drink bottle with water, grab a bike pump, hook both of them up to this mobile launchpad and get pumping. Once you hit 60psi of pressure the valve will start hissing, which means it’s time to retreat to a safe distance and give the launch cord a yank.

Watch it soar into the big blue sky, pick it up and repeat. £20 / thediscoverystore.co.uk

2 BUNCH O BALLOONS We don’t know about your dad, but ours were never as enthusiastic about waterfights as Bunch O Balloons creator Josh Malone. Instead of shouting at his eight kids to clear up the mess, Josh came up with a way to fill a hundred water bombs in one minute. A hundred! All tied off and ready to fling, like the balloon equivalent of a hooligan-dispersing water cannon. We don’t know if he shared any of the Kickstarter cash with his kids, but they’ve surely got trench foot from all that water fighting by now.

US$17 / bunchoballoons.com

3 PLAYBASE Fancy furnishing your garden like an astronaut training facility, but also having the option of bouncing on a trampoline from time to time? The Playbase is just the thing. With its versatile aluminium frame, it can be kitted out with any of the 25 modules currently available – and the Oxford-based creators are working on 20 more. From a giant gyroscope you can strap yourself into, to a trampoline, a circular bar or even a hammock, it should be a reliable source of garden frolics for years to come. £1500 (base unit only) / play-base.co.uk

5 GIBBON SLACKLINE

6 SKLZ SHOOT AROUND

Like a laid-back, bouncy version of tightrope walking, slacklining is a good test of balance, and this line packs down so small you can take it to the nearest park. The 15m line is 50mm wide, tough but flexible enough to support your weight – unless you weigh more than four tonnes – and has enough bounce to try some jump tricks further down the, ahem, line. Simply hook it between a couple of sturdy trees, crank up the tension and attempt in vain to ‘style out’ falling on your face repeatedly. £45 / bananafingers.co.uk

In basketball, as with any sport, practice makes perfect.

But if you spend three quarters of your practice time chasing wayward balls around your makeshift court, perfection is going to take a while. Shoot Around clips onto your hoop and can be angled in any direction to feed the ball directly back to you. Its four snap-on straps attach quickly to make your shooting practice instantly more productive. The only issue is you actually have to get the ball through the hoop in the first place for it to come back to you. £40 / amazon.co.uk

WABOBA BLAST Ever wished you could show off your stone-skimming skills at home? This ball fits the bill, bouncing across the water, but being made of foam it’s much more fun to catch. For sea use, the Waboba Extreme travels further. £6 / firebox.com

GIANT INFLATABLE BEACH BALL With a diameter of 2.75m when inflated (bike pump recommended), this huge beach ball opens the door to a host of new garden games: giant keepie-uppie, giant catch, giant headers and volleys, giant… you get the idea. £150 / roobix.co.uk

AIRQUEE AQUA RUN You’ll need a pretty big paddling pool to fit this 10m inflatable, but it’ll be worth it when you can stage your very own version of Total Wipeout in the garden. Now all you need is Richard Hammond’s smug, irritating commentary. £poa / airquee.co.uk

IVATION SWIMMING POOL SPEAKER This 5W floating Bluetooth speaker brings the party to the pool – or bath – without getting your phone all soggy. It runs on six AA batteries and features subtle blue mood lighting for night-time dips and Vegas reminiscing. £70 / amazon.co.uk

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PROJECTS | 06.15

WAYS TO…

Modern music festivals aren’t exactly a trek through the Appalachians, but you’ll still want to feel like the Bear Grylls of mild discomfort. Chris Rowlands picks out the under-hyped stars of your camping line-up…

Use it with…

Primus Eta Lite This small but powerful gas stove has an integrated igniter and packs down neatly into an aluminium pot. £80 / cotswold outdoor.com

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[ Photograph RGB Digital ]

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Toasty support act

Soggy clothes quarantine

Brunton Heatsync Hot Seat Folding up for easy carrying, this runs from any Brunton USB power bank (sold separately) and warms your derriere for over four hours on its medium setting. £60 / brunton.com

Osprey Ultralight Dry Sack While most dry sacks are made from rubbery and slightly less packable PVC, these waterproof nylon ripstop bags weigh almost nothing and easily fit into a pocketable pouch.

Though only with one compartment, they are available in sizes up to 30L. Handy for that mandatory 24-hour downpour. from £8 / ospreyeurope.com

3 Light the night (and charge your phone) BioLite NanoGrid Festival campsites can befuddle even the strongest sense of direction. Luckily, this combination of a PowerLight (torch, lantern and USB powerbank) and a string of SiteLights (120-lumen LEDs) will give your tent up to four hours of ‘full beam’ or 22 hours of softer light. £90 / aboveandbeyond. co.uk

4 Beat the coffee queues Grower’s Cup The desire for a morning caffeine fix can be overpowered by ‘tent inertia’, which leaves the victim unable to leave their sleeping bag. This is why you need an emergency coffee pouch for a tent-side brew. Just add 300ml of boiling water and it’ll be filtered through 18g of slow-roasted coffee beans. There are also tea options. £1.50 each / growerscup.com

5 Save your juice Android All Android phones will benefit from Greenify (£free, play. google.com), which auto-hibernates apps you’re not using. iOS Go to Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage to see which apps are hogging your battery life. Force quit any leechers by flicking them away. Turn off location services too – Google Maps isn’t much use in a field.

06.15 | PROJECTS

ALWAYS ON CALL facebook.com/joinstuff O @stuffTV

google.com/+stufftv O stuff@haymarket.com

MAIL OF THE MONTH Q

I’M SAT DOWN

I want to buy a new sat-nav and am looking at Garmins. The Nuvi 3598LMT-D has caught my attention, but reviews about sat-navs in general can be mixed.

Do you have any advice on this particular model or any others worth looking at?

Richard Gelister

I think lots of people just don’t get their sat-navs set up properly before driving off. We’ve always liked Garmin devices. TomToms tend to be more user-friendly, but we like Garmin’s photo-real junction view and easy-to-change settings.

Failing that, there are plenty of apps that do the job just fine.

A

Speak your brains and you could win a 6-month SPOTIFY PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION This letter wins six months of ad-free, high-quality audio streaming from Spotify, worth £10/month

marbles. The Quirky Drift Trainer board (£120, amazon.co.uk) has an adjustable ball-and-pendulum balancing mechanism that more accurately simulates the roll and instability you get when you go surfing or snowboarding, and you could even use it head-on if you want to give your ski legs a boost too. We’ve tried it ourselves and it’s a fun way to watch TV. Until you fall over.

Q

SURFIN’ USA

Hey Stuff, I’m heading out to the States this summer for some sun, sand and (hopefully) awesome waves. It’s been a fair few years since I went surfing and anything I could do to grease the cogs a bit would be great. I’m nowhere near the sea, so ideally a balance board or something I can use at home to warm me up would be great.

Tony Carlisle Hi Tony, sounds like a lovely summer you’ve got ahead of you. Not that we’re jealous or anything. A balance board is a good shout, but don’t settle for a plank of wood and some

A

Q

PEAK PERFORMANCE

I’m doing the Three Peaks 24hr Challenge in May with 20 people to raise money to upgrade the IT suite at my children’s village primary school.

I’ve already got my boots and various layers sorted, but now I’m wondering what are the best gadgets to take with me?

Duncan Rutherford Hi Duncan. You’re probably already sorted in the phone/camera/tablet department so we reckon a portable battery charger with around 20,000mAh capacity should keep all your tech topped up in between and during the climbs. A Bluetooth

A

speaker to keep spirits up after an exhausting run is also a good idea. The UE Boom (£170, ultimateears.com) sounds excellent for its size and will happily pump out tunes for 15 straight hours.

Q

FISCALLY SOUND

As a Yorkshireman I’d like some wireless over-the-head headphones that don’t break the bank. Can you help?

James We certainly can, James.

The SD50 SoundWear Bluetooth over-ear headphones will only set you back £30 and offer decent sound and bang for your buck. They’ll last 10 hours, and aren’t too bulky and unwieldy either.

A

Q

and 3D angular renders used as wallpapers in lots of reviews, but I’m having a hard time finding them myself. I’m not really sure what to search for. Thanks.

Clara Parsons Yes, Clara, we know exactly what you’re after. That style you’ve described is called ‘low poly’, and we agree – it looks awesome. Searching for ‘low poly wallpaper’ should bring up plenty of options on Google, and go to reddit.com/r/lowpoly for new submissions. There’s also a really nice 99p app on the Play Store called Facets, which has an awesome collection that you should definitely check out.

A

SPOT THE PATTERN

Hi Stuff. This is a bit of a weird question, but maybe you can help. I want to pimp out my HTC One M8 with some funky icons and wallpapers. I’ve already got a custom launcher and a bunch of icons, and really want a decent selection of wallpapers.

I keep seeing geometric patterns

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PROJECTS | 06.15

2 MAKE A PAPER BOTTLE OPENER Your punchbowl, baby back ribs and strained neighbourly relations are all in place for the summer barbecue, but you could really do with a beer and you’ve lost your trusty bottle opener. Time for an emergency party trick: Find a piece of paper. Fold it in half vertically as many times as possible, until you only have a very thin rod of paper.

1

1 DO A WILLPOWER WORKOUT Sometimes willpower, that annoying thing standing in between you and those cookies, isn’t strong enough. Enter this infuriatingly smart treats jar:

Fold this remaining paper in half lengthways to create a V-shape, making sure the edge is as sharp as possible.

Push this V edge into the underside of the bottle cap and apply a little pressure.

Cue a round of applause for the magic of tensile strength.

Have we confused you?

Here’s YouTube to the rescue: bit.ly/paperbottle

3 PIMP YOUR DOCS Though our simple brains like Google Docs’ clean look, there is time-saving gold buried within its add-on menu. Just click ‘get add-ons’ and search for these: Doc Secrets. If there are secrets within a shared doc (your password, an address, a Hollyoaks spoiler) that you need to password-protect, use this add-on to encrypt them in Google Chrome.

Screenplay Formatter.

Fancy yourself as the natural successor to Wes Anderson?

This add-on will format your whimsical tales into accepted screenplay standards.

Social Drop. If you like publishing your Google Docs on Twitter, this sidebar lets you send them directly to the Twittersphere and track any retweets. Not in a desperate way. Just every five seconds or so.

Pick up a kSafe (US$90, thekitchensafe.com). This translucent jar connects with the kSafe app (Android, iOS) to lock away its sugary contents until you’ve reached your goal.

Set your goal. You can set a standard time-lock to make sure the jar only opens at certain times of the day or week, or set a ‘location goal’ that will see it unlock if you begrudgingly make it to the gym.

Crank up the difficulty level. If you own a Fitbit, you can set it to only open when you’ve burned a certain number of calories or walked a set number of steps.

Just two more laps until cake…

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TUNE IN NEXT MONTH TO...

3

O Leather up for a motorbike geek-out O Turn your garden into an earthly paradise O Go online shopping for summer T-shirts

Trident_ redefined.

THE NEW

TRIDENT

C60 TRIDENT PRO 600 – Swiss made dive watch with automatic mechanical movement, unidirectional rotating ceramic (ZrO2) bezel and water resistance to 60 bar/600m. Available in 38mm and 42mm case sizes, five dial/bezel combinations and four strap styles.

SWISS MOVEMENT

E XC LU S I V E LY AVA I L A B L E AT

ENGLISH HEART

christopherward.co.uk

TOP TEN OF EVERYTHING Smartphones Tablets Hi-fi & streaming Headphones Home cinema

112 113 114 116 118

Blu-ray, speaker systems, PVRs etc

TVs Laptops Home computers & games machines Wearables & smart home Cameras

119 120 121 122 124

For full reviews of every product in the top 10s, visit stuff.tv/reviews

T HO Y BU

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SMARTPHONES

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Samsung Galaxy S6

This is a new era for Samsung, with a smart upgrade that fixes not just things that were amiss in the Galaxy S5, but things that have plagued them for years.

No plastic here: its front and back are super-tough Gorilla Glass 4, its sides aluminium. In terms of ergonomics and speaker quality, HTC still wins, but only just. And in the more important areas of camera performance, screen tech and raw power, the Galaxy S6 tramples its rival. We just wish it had a microSD slot.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

The Edge, with its wraparound screen, is the ultimate money-no-object phone. It’s techier and beefier than its brother, but it’s also a good deal pricier. Its curvy USP may be more about style than anything else, but come on, it’s pretty darned cool.

HTC One M9

This year’s HTC One is not a full-on revolution, but it is a careful, considered refinement of one of the best phones ever, packing high-end specs into a premium design. The switch to a megapixel main camera results in beautifully detailed daytime shots.

Motorola Moto X

Smart, fast and beautifully crafted: Motorola’s software works together seamlessly to make your life that bit easier and the brilliant Moto Maker means a personalised smartphone like never before. This feels like a phone that’s built for everyone.

LG G3

LG surprises us again. There’s barely a single thing wrong with the G3… and so, so much that’s right. Upgrades range from sleeker back buttons to the bigger, better 2K screen and laser-assisted camera. And it still lasts 15 hours. How do they do it?

Apple iPhone 6

With its slim, deeply attractive build and software overhaul, the iPhone 6 is the freshest-feeling iPhone in years. Its larger screen is big enough to be a useful improvement, with gorgeous colours, and this is Apple’s best ever battery.

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best sub-5in Android phone around. The power of a full-size flagship, an excellent camera and an impressive battery life are all crammed into a device that’s a pleasure to use no matter the size of your digits. Impressive stuff.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Samsung was first at the phablet game, and with the Note 4 it’s still the best. The ace camera, Multi Window feature and pressure-sensitive S Pen make proper use of the extra screen real estate. Plus, it has the longest battery life of any 2K phone we’ve tested.

Sony Xperia Z3

The refined Xperia Z3 is the phone the Z2 should have been and every bit as good as that sounds. It’s sleeker and easier to hold, but with the same stunning screen, camera and hi-res audio. Not to mention the incredible battery life and PS4 Remote Play.

Motorola Moto G

Google sprinkled some magical Nexus dust over this Motorola blower: the Moto G costs a mere £125 yet has a distinctly non-budget 4.5in 720p screen and quad-core processor. Paltry storage and a poor camera count against it – but then again: £125!

STUFF SAYS Samsung has proven its critics wrong – the Galaxy S6 is the new benchmark for flagship phones

from £600 +++++ from £695 +++++

BEST FOR CUTTING-EDGE GADGETEERS

£580 +++++ from £300 +++++ £280 +++++ from £540 +++++ £290 +++++

BEST FOR DAINTY HANDS

£450 +++++ £315 +++++ from £125 +++++

BEST FOR SMALLER BUDGETS

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS AND OUR SMARTPHONE BUYING GUIDE, VISIT STUFF.TV/TOP-10S/SMARTPHONES

PLUG INTO STUFF’S SOCIAL NETWORK facebook.com/joinstuff

O Prices quoted are for handset only unless otherwise stated

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TABLETS 113 T HO Y BU

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Apple iPad Air 2 The iPad Air didn’t really need to be thinner, but that doesn’t mean 6.1mm isn’t mighty impressive. This combines with reassuring weight and impeccable build quality to make this the most desirable tab on the planet. While the display is the same Retina resolution as before, clever screen tech brings the pixels closer to the surface, and the whole experience is even faster than before thanks to the new A8X chip. Basically it’s the best tablet in the world made even better.

Apple iPad Mini 2 With Retina Display

The iPad Mini 3 is newer but all it adds is Touch ID. The good news is that the Mini 2 is now down to £280, which is frankly bargain-tastic. That’s why the ‘old’ model stays in our Top 10 – if you’re after a mini-tablet of real quality, your choice has just got easier.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5

Samsung has blessed the Galaxy Tab with one of the best tablet screens we’ve ever laid eyes on, plus an impressive camera and some incredible stamina – but there are performance niggles and Apple’s tablet app selection is still far superior.

Tesco Hudl 2

At this price, the Hudl 2 has far more tech rammed into its 9.85mm-thick body than you’d ever expect. It has a Full HD screen, and its 273ppi display offers the sharpest of images. This is a jaw-dropping bargain, as long as you can put up with Tesco bloat.

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

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.

Asus Transformer Book T100

A stonkingly affordable tabtop with raw power, a neat design and great battery life – perfect for Office on the go, thanks to Intel’s new Baytrail CPU. The 1366x768 screen is a good ’un too, with crisp text, great contrast and colours that pop.

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 5.0 Lollipop 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.

Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

A slim, light and reliable couch or commute companion, with a screen that looks brilliant despite being ‘only’ Full HD. The waterproofing may sway people away from choosing an iPad Mini and every gamer’s eyes will light up at the mention of PS4 Remote Play.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4

Samsung’s superb screen, design, performance and a wider selection of optimised apps mean that against many other Android tabs it’s still a winner. However, the new low price for the iPad Mini 2 makes the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 look rather pricey.

Nvidia Shield Tablet

This really is the ultimate gaming tablet. The Shield’s sheer power and gaming smarts are incredible, with a console-quality controller and the option of seamless streaming from your PC. All it needs now is more made-for-Shield games… lots more.

STUFF SAYS Thinner, lighter and mightier: Apple’s iron-fisted reign at the top of the tablet charts continues unabated

from £400 +++++ from £240 +++++ £325 +++++

BEST FOR MAGAZINES AND MOVIES

£130 +++++ from £640 +++++

BEST FOR WORKING ANYWHERE

£285 +++++ £280 ++++, £300 ++++, £250 ++++, £240 ++++,

BEST FOR GAMING ON THE GO

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS AND OUR TABLET BUYING GUIDE, VISIT WWW.STUFF.TV/TOP-10S/TABLETS

114 T HO Y BU

HI-FI & MUSIC STREAMING

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Sonos multiroom system

Who needs to drill holes and replaster walls to get a multiroom music system? Not you. With the addition of the cracking little Play:1 (£170) Sonos has made it easier than ever to start spreading your tunes around. Then maybe hook up a Connect to your existing hi-fi and router, and add speakers to a Connect:Amp in another room, or a SUB for a bass boost. You’ll run out of rooms before you run out of options. For a further upgrade, the Arcam rSeries SonLink DAC works a treat with the Connect.

Naim Mu-so

£895 for a wireless speaker?! Well yes, but what a wireless speaker it is. Naim has ploughed all of its high-end hi-fi experience into delivering a beautifully made, great-sounding device with AirPlay, Spotify Connect and aptX Bluetooth all on board.

Monitor Audio Airstream S200

It may look a bit like a floppy skyscraper, but the Monitor Audio’s Bluetooth-plus-AirPlay speaker makes a lot of sense, mostly because it takes up very little shelf/desk/table space but makes loads of lovely noise. It’s a bit of a steal at £200.

Cambridge Audio Go

There are loads of very cheap Bluetooth speakers out there, but we reckon it’s worth spending that little bit more to get something that’s really good – and that’s the Go. It sounds awesome, it’s really nicely built and its battery lasts a massive 18 hours.

Bluesound multiroom System

Fancy a bit of Sonos-style multiroom but with better-than-CD-quality sound thrown in? You want Bluesound. There are all-in-one speakers, adapters for your existing hi-fi, and a Vault that rips and stores all your CDs. All can handle high-resolution audio.

Audio Pro Addon T10

Available in orange, white or black, the Addon T10 is a Bluetooth speaker that also has analogue inputs and a USB socket for charging your MP3 player. Sound-wise it’s punchy and deep, with just a little too much bass. It sounds best in orange, obviously.

Libratone Zipp

A fuzzy, cylindrical, colourful AirPlay dock that will deliver detailed, punchy 360° sound anywhere at all, thanks to a built-in battery that gives it four hours of outdoor life. Direct Wi-Fi skills free you from cables, routers and everything but the boogie.

Cambridge Audio Minx Xi

It might not look all that fancy, but the Minx Xi is like that micro system you had at uni, only it gobbles internet music rather than Rage Against The Machine CDs. Just add a pair of quality speakers (try Wharfedale Diamond 220s) and you’ve got a great hi-fi.

Q Acoustics BT3

These ultra-versatile Bluetooth speakers have an optical input for waking up the audio of your flatscreen TV. The styling is simple and so is the sound – brilliantly so, with perfect hi-fi balance and an impressive focus to the stereo image.

Sony NWZ-ZX1

This is a premium high-res audio player, and it’s the best-sounding portable device we’ve ever heard: you’ll notice parts of songs you never knew were there. We’re not so keen on the high price and lack of expandable storage, though.

STUFF SAYS Infinite music in every room without the need for custom installers?

Sign us up now, please

from £170 +++++ £895 +++++

BEST FOR ONE-BOX WI-FI HI-FI

£200 +++++ £120 +++++

BEST FOR PICNIC PARTIES

from £400 +++++ £200 +++++ £300 +++++

BEST FOR AL FRESCO PARTIES

£350 +++++ £280 +++++ £550 ++++,

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS AND OUR HI-FI BUYING GUIDE, JUMP OVER TO STUFF.TV/TOP-10S/HI-FI

PLUG INTO STUFF’S SOCIAL NETWORK youtube.com/stuff

Smart luxury is a selection of products that offer just WKDW OLWWOH ELW H[WUD Ă&#x20AC; DZOHVV SHUIRUPDQFH HOHJDQW GHVLJQ G\QDPLF WHFKQRORJ\ RU D FRPELQDWLRQ RI WKHP DOO

SMART LUXURY

BLUESOUND

BLUESOUND IS A 24-BIT NATIVE, PURE DIGITAL WIRELESS STREAMING MUSIC SYSTEM

Even 16-bit CDs have only about half of the audio spectrum that the master recording holds and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a whole lot more than MP3s have left in them. With more than a decade of compressed audio piping through earbud headphones and cheap dock players, the time has come. The portable players we all love have created a new way of listening to music, but there hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really been much there to hear. Until now. Enter true 24-bit HD digital audio.

A sound experience like no other. Because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s engineered like no other.

Prices from ÂŁ399

NAD M12 / M22

DIGITAL PREAMPLIFIER / DAC / POWER AMPLIFIER The M12 is an ultra-high resolution digital audio hub that boasts a full roster of audiophile-grade features. An optional DD BluOS MDC Module allows streaming of a variety of music services, HD streaming from a NAS device plus it gives you full control of your music library. The M22 employs the latest generation of digital PowerDriveâ&#x201E;˘ and offers a minimum of 250W per channel with amazing reserves of dynamic power at lower impedances.

ÂŁ5998

NEW

NAIM MU-SO

WIRELESS MUSIC SYSTEM Through its advanced connectivity, mu-so will unleash your digital music, wherever itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stored. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so easy to set up and use that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll ďŹ nd yourself listening to and enjoying your favourite artists more than ever before.

Combining Naimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expertise in streaming, ampliďŹ cation and loudspeaker technology. Mu-so is the stage your music deserves, bringing you closer to the songs that inspire your life.

ÂŁ895

SENNHEISER MOMENTUM WIRELESS

NEW

NEW

OVER-EAR HEADPHONES Peak performance with active noise cancelation. Sennheiserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new MOMENTUM Wireless - Closed circumaural headphone feature Bluetooth wireless technology and NoiseGard Hybrid active noise cancelation impedances.

MOMENTUM Wireless can also be operated with a detachable cable, just like any conventional headphones.

ÂŁ379.99

FEBRUARY 2015

BOWERS & WILKINS T7

PORTABLE BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

Perfectly sized for bedrooms, kitchens and gardens, T7 is B&Wâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most portable, versatile wireless system yet. So now you can bring great sound to places other speakers canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach. The size of a hardback book, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s designed to be picked up and carried with you; and T7â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rechargeable battery gives you the freedom to take it with you wherever you go, for up to 18 hours at normal listening levels.

ADVERT VALID UNTIL 03/06/2015. E&OE SOME BRANDS ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN ALL STORES.

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ÂŁ299.95 26 STORES NATIONWIDE

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116 T HO Y BU

HEADPHONES

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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 from £130 to £80, and a real-world price of just £50 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.

Bowers & Wilkins P5 Series 2

Even the most demanding audio buff would find it hard to fault these – B&W have delivered a pair of premium on-ears that look, feel and sound exquisite. You control playback and volume with your iPhone, while feeling like a VIP guest at an intimate gig.

Philips Fidelio M1 MkII

Your commute deserves a quality soundtrack, and second-generation Fidelio M1 headphones give you precisely that. There’s oodles of detail to the sound and they punch harder than the Hulk. Beats and their ilk can’t touch them.

SoundMagic E10S

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.

Sony MDR-EX650AP

If you’re prepared to pay a little extra for your in-ears, these Sonys are even better than the SoundMagics above. The sound is that bit bigger, a little more detailed and a little more grown-up, and if you don’t like the brass finish there’s a silver version.

Bose QuietComfort 25

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 aeroplane hum, and delivers cracking sound in its place.

Philips Fidelio M2BT

Building on the award-winning M1BT, Philips has added NFC for its new wireless Bluetooth headphones and swapped the dark blue design for an understated black finish. The smart built-in controls and rich sound performance remain.

AKG Y50

The bright colour options (they’re available in yellow, teal and red, as well as black) and massive logo have a slight try-hard feel about them, but the Y50s make up for it by sounding loads better than the more ‘street’ on-ear headphones out there.

Sol Republic Master Tracks

Really tough things are usually really ugly, which is why the lovely styling of the “virtually indestructible” Master Tracks headphones is so refreshing. Loud, punchy, fast and controlled, the sound is just as attractive as the design. Worth every penny.

Sennheiser Momentum

Classily styled, cushion-comfortable and smooth-sounding, the Momentums are the perfect over-ears for the dapper man about town. There’s also an on-ear version, smaller and cheaper at £100, available in pink, blue, green, brown and, um, ‘ivory’.

STUFF SAYS Fantastic sound and great portability at an almost unbeatable price: the perfect phone upgrade

£45 +++++ £250 +++++ £150 +++++ £40 +++++ £60 +++++ £240 +++++

BEST FOR SHUTTING OUT THE WORLD

£185 +++++

BEST FOR GREAT SOUND WITH NO WIRES

£50 +++++ £100 +++++ £200 +++++

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS AND OUR HEADPHONE BUYING GUIDE, VISIT STUFF.TV/TOP-10S/HEADPHONES

All the latest gadget reviews

118 T HO Y BU

HOME CINEMA

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Sky+HD

The new Sky boxes come with built-in Wi-Fi, to make it easier to access on-demand programming, of which there’s now more than ever, including pre-release blockbuster films. There’s now a 2TB drive available that, with more than 65 channels of HD, might well be worth the outlay. On the move, the Sky Go app is supremely slick. But the most important thing is this: Sky has more movie, TV and sport content – and more of it is unique – than any other service.

Sony BDV-N5200

A whole (home) cinema (minus a telly) in one box? That’s the Sony BDV-N5200.

A Netflix-toting Blu-ray player, an amplifier, five speakers and a subwoofer, all for a lot less than an iPhone 6. There’s even a wireless adapter for the rear speakers.

Sonos Playbar

A characteristically Sonos take on the soundbar, the Playbar hooks up to your TV via its single optical input and fills your room with a big, detailed sound. And as with all Sonos kit, it can stream your own music files, Spotify and more as part of a multiroom system.

Sony BDP-S7200

Sure, you can pick up a Blu-ray player for just £50 these days, but if you’re serious about your movies then you want to make sure they look and sound crisper than a Kettle Chip.

That’s where the S7200 comes in. It even throws Netflix and iPlayer into the bargain.

Yamaha YSP-2500

STUFF SAYS The only choice for serious TV, movie or sport addicts

from £free + £21.50/month +++++ £395 +++++ £600 +++++ £180 +++++

If your only requirement for a soundbar is that it should sound better than your telly, almost any will do; but if you want one that will fool your ears into thinking they’re surrounded by actual speakers, you want the amazingly clever Yamaha YSP-2500.

£595 +++++

Virgin TiVo

from £free

Hardware-wise, the taste-learning TiVo is a Sky+HD-beater, but it loses out on content. Mind you, subscribers to the ‘XL’ package now have free access to all the BT Sport channels: Premier League football, MotoGP and more, in lovely HD.

BenQ W1400

What’s better than Inception? Inception on a 300in screen, that’s what. How do you get a 300in screen in your house? You buy the BenQ W1400. If your lounge isn’t quite that big it can also project an 84in image from just 2m away. Try finding an 84in TV for £1010.

Humax DTR-T2000

Building on the success of the DTR-T1010, Humax has treated us with a more refined version of their suscription-free YouView box. This faster and more compact device has a huge variety of catch-up offerings for your sofa-time, but there’s still no sign of Wi-Fi.

Panasonic DMP-BDT700

The BDT700 is the Blu-ray player for the most serious of serious home cinema buffs.

It’s all high-end materials, sound-enhancing dampening and 4K-upscaling video circuits.

But yeah, it’ll also stream Vampire Diaries from Netflix if that’s more your kind of thing.

Sony BDP-S5200

There’s no display, it looks a bit cheap and its remote is a bit naff, but this dinky Blu-ray player offers a lot of bang for very few bucks. For the money you get a very good picture, 3D (if you’re still into that), Wi-Fi and plenty of on-demand apps. Bargain.

BEST FOR STREAMING MUSIC

+ £24/month

+++++ £900 +++++ £180 +++++ £450 +++++ £75 +++++

FOR OUR COMPLETE HOME CINEMA TOP 10 LISTS, POINT YOUR CLICKER AT STUFF.TV/TOP-10S

PLUG INTO STUFF’S SOCIAL NETWORK twitter.com/stufftv

TVs 119 T HO Y BU

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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 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.

LG 55EC930V

Not everyone’s got £4000 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.

Samsung UE65JU7000

Samsung UE55HU7500

from £1500 +++++

This 55in 4Ker will be replaced in the near future, which means there are some tasty deals around right now. It’s a mighty fine telly, too, with all of the usual Samsung smart whizzbang (albeit without the new Tizen UI) and all the lovely detail of Ultra HD.

Sony KDL-50W829B

6

The 46in F7000 might just be the sweetest spot in Samsung’s current range – the same spectacular performance as the F8000 series but without the show-off design. Great picture quality and slick online functionality in one box.

9 10

from £2300 +++++ £2750 +++++

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£3800 +++++

If you’re going to go 4K, best do it big. Samsung’s latest 65in Ultra HD offering is a beauty with the screen on or off, and the open-source Tizen UI is very snazzy. The processor and inputs are still in a separate little unit than can be upgraded in the future.

4K a bit too new-fangled (or pricey) for you? How about a 50in edge-lit LED LCD with all of Sony’s smart features for well under a grand? It’s not even like picture quality’s been sacrificed – this is an absolute corker of a telly in every way.

7

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

Samsung UE46F7000

Sony KDL-32W706B

There’s nothing wrong with sticking with a smaller TV, but you should still make sure you pick a good ’un. This 32in Sony is the best, in terms of both picture performance and features, which include 1080p resolution and all the smart stuff you can handle.

Sony KD-55X8505B

If you want to jump on the 4K bandwagon with Sony you could go for the wedge-shaped X9, which is great, but we’d suggest that this slimmer, less intrusive ‘entry-level’ 55-incher is an even better buy. It’s still got all the smart stuff and great performance.

LG 42LB700V

The performance is very good, but what makes this 42in LG really special is its webOS user interface, which treats all sources, apps, recordings and live broadcasts equally, getting you to the content you want to watch quicker. And isn’t that what a TV is for?

Panasonic TX-42AS500B

It’s not the prettiest, it’s not the smartest, and with just two HDMI inputs it’s not the most connected TV about, but there’s a really simple, intuitive OS pulling the strings here – and a performance that’s very strong given the price and 42in size.

£590 +++++

BEST FOR AFFORDABLE BRILLIANCE

£1370 +++++ £315 ++++, £1300 ++++, £500 ++++, £370 ++++,

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS AND OUR TV BUYING GUIDE, NAVIGATE TO STUFF.TV/TOP-10S/TVS

BEST FOR A SMALLER SCREEN

120 T HO Y BU

LAPTOPS

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STUFF SAYS

Apple MacBook Air 13in

The 2014 MacBook Air update means, once again, our favourite old laptop is now our favourite new laptop. Nothing’s changed on the outside, and under the skin there’s just a slight processor boost from 1.3GHz to 1.4GHz, but combined with a price cut of £100 on each model we’re still happy with that. The very top model, which comes with a 256GB SSD, is now just under a grand too. Head to stuff.tv for our full reviews of both 13in and 11in versions.

Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display 13in

It’s not a major upgrade, but Apple has improved the Air’s already awesome spec and lopped £100 off the price

from £850 +++++

Choosing between Air and Pro is getting harder. Both now run on Haswell chips, but the Pro is faster, with a 2014 processor boost. There’s a 4K-capable Thunderbolt 2 port, and then that Retina screen, one of the most gorgeous you’ll see. Tough call.

from £930 +++++

BEST FOR EVERYTHING BAR THE PRICE

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

from £750

BEST FOR WORKING ANYWHERE

The fact that it’s the only device to feature in two of our Top Tens is a testament to the Surface Pro’s versatility: it’s a strong tablet, but its full-fat operating system and powerful innards mean it’s also a worthy adversary to Ultrabooks and MacBooks.

Toshiba Chromebook 2

Toshiba has created the most desirable Chromebook to date with some well-judged upgrades. Slightly smaller and lighter, the screen’s resolution now has full pin-sharp HD and the Skullcandy speakers are distortion-free. It lasted eight hours on test.

Aorus X3 v3

This high-end gaming PC is packed into one of the smallest chassis we’ve ever seen, complete with a drool-worthy Ultra-HD screen, good sound quality and all the storage you’ll ever need. It is pretty pricey, but it will keep you at the top of your game.

Google Chromebook Pixel

The new Pixel comes within a hair’s breadth of five stars. With its pin-sharp screen and class-leading design, it is a superb laptop. But it’s a superb laptop that still only runs one browser. Still, you could always install Ubuntu on it…

Lenovo Yoga Pro 3

The third entry in the Yoga Pro line refines the laptop/tablet hybrid design with a power-sipping new Intel Core M processor plus slimness and style to make even the MacBook Air look worried. And you can stand it up like a tent. If you want.

Dell Chromebook 11

Well-built, tough and powerful: Dell has delivered pretty much all you could want from a wallet-friendly Chromebook. Its high-quality finish, solid keyboard and responsive trackpad feel premium and it’s a runaway success in our benchmarks.

Acer Aspire S7

The Aspire S7 is almost the perfect Ultrabook – it matches the MacBook Air for weight, beats it for slimness by 6mm, and has a gorgeous 1920x1080 touch-friendly screen.

Only its battery, which lasted a mere 5hrs on test, prevents it getting that fifth star.

Asus C200

The holy grail of laptop battery life is 10 hours, and Asus’s C200 Chromebook misses it by 17 minutes. That’s as good as we’ve seen from a MacBook Air costing four times as much. There are more powerful Chromebooks, but this one just keeps on going.

(with Type Cover)

+++++ £200 +++++ £1750 +++++ from £800 ++++, £995 ++++, £220 ++++,

BEST FOR VALUE FOR MONEY

£1015 ++++, £170 ++++,

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS AND OUR LAPTOPS BUYING GUIDE, VISIT STUFF.TV/TOP-10S/LAPTOPS-NETBOOKS

THIS MONTH IN..

2008

HTC Legend

Eclipse TD307PAII

Samsung NX10

Flip MinoHD

£370

£400

£600 (with kit lens)

£140

Stuff said It’s all about the aluminium body and the optical trackball. The small screen also makes for a compact handset, and what it lacks in ability it makes up for in elegance – something smartphones have been crying out for. A worthy son of the Hero. +++++

Stuff said Eclipse’s ‘Time Domain’ theory dictates the swoopy-egg shape of its speakers. Handy, then, that one shaped to deliver soundwaves with minimum interference should happen to be the coolest look any desktop could wish for. +++++

Stuff said There are lots of nice touches, such as a memory card slot on the side rather than hidden in with the battery, and the viewfinder turns on when you put your eye to it.

A well-performing, sober but dinky almost-SLR. +++++

Stuff said This compact camcorder is effortless to film with, and its built-in software makes sharing movies online incredibly simple. The 4GB memory delivers 60 minutes of recording and the quality will tickle your tastebuds with its detail and sharpness. ++++,

TOP FIVES HOME COMPUTERS & CONSOLES 121 T HO Y BU

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Apple iMac

Other than regular power upgrades and a bit of slimming, the iMac has been largely unchanged for a while, but it does now run Apple’s lovely Yosemite OS. There’s also now a more affordable version and an eye-wateringly expensive 5K model.

Sapphire Edge VS8

This mini-PC may look like the Terminator’s lunchbox, but it houses AMD’s 1.6GHz A8 APU and dedicated HD7600G graphics with 4GB of RAM. A capable little fellow, the VS8 even does a decent job with the latest gaming titles (with the detail dialled back a little).

Alienware X51 (2014)

The X51 hasn’t changed a huge amount, but the wee size matched with powerful components make it perfectly suited to HD gaming. Steam Machines are going to liven this market up but right now it’s the best balance of power and form in PC land.

Raspberry Pi Model B+

It’s a fully functioning PC that’s barely bigger than a credit card, and now it’s more flexible thanks to two extra USB ports and better power management. Don’t expect a ‘proper’ computer – this is for tinkerers. Look out for a review of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B.

Zotac ZBOX Sphere OI520

About the size and shape of a cannonball or cantaloupe, this striking sphere will certainly draw attention. For media playback it’s perfect, but high-end gaming is a no-go due to low frame rates. However, even in full swing it barely raises a decibel.

Sony PlayStation 4

It may not quite be the finished article, but this is the best games machine on the planet.

It has whisper-quiet operation, a sleek form and bags of power, with full 1080p on all titles and not a whiff of lag. When proper media streaming arrives, it’ll be unstoppable.

Microsoft Xbox One

This is very different to the Xbox One of 2013. Most significantly, the unpopular Kinect feature is now out of the deal, allowing Microsoft to drop the price and releasing enough extra power for developers to make their games look and play better.

Alienware Alpha

It’s not quite a PS4 or Xbox One-beater, but this is the most console-like PC there’s ever been. Steam is the main interface, but it runs on top of Windows for maximum game compatibility, and performance is very impressive.

Sony PS Vita Slim

If you’re serious about gaming on the go, the Vita is way better than a smartphone, and when you get home you can play your PS4 games in bed thanks to Remote Play.

That’s gaming decadence, right there.

Nintendo Wii U

While it hasn’t had the same impact as the original Wii, don’t underestimate the U’s fun factor. Nintendo’s bottomless bag of superb game franchises rolls on with the excitement of Mario Kart 8, with its anti-gravity karts and submarine racing.

from £900 +++++

BEST FOR ALL-ROUND BRILLIANCE

from £260 +++++

BEST FOR COMPACT POWER

from £600 +++++ from £20 ++++, £355 ++++,

from £320 +++++ £300 +++++ from £450 ++++, £180 ++++, £170 ++++,

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS IN EACH CATEGORY AND OUR BUYING GUIDES, VISIT WWW.STUFF.TV/TOP-10S

Every gadget, every review, every page, available on PC, Mac, iPad and Android www.stuff.tv/digital-magazine

TABLET APP OUT NOW!

TOP FIVES WEARABLES & SMARTHOME

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Apple Watch

Apple’s Watch is by no means the first smartwatch, but it is the most desirable.

It’s more luxurious (and yes, more expensive) than its rivals, its software is better thought out, and in the coming months you’ll see an explosion of new apps for it.

Pebble Steel

The Steel keeps the straightforward looks, crisp display and five-day battery life that helped the standard Pebble win our hearts. But it holds more RAM, apps and customisable faces, and swaps the plastic for a stylish metal suit.

Fitbit Flex

The Flex delivers all of Fitbit’s activity-tracking smarts but in a form factor that’s less fiddly than its belt-clip counterparts. The tiny module fits in Bluetooth, NFC, a buzzer and an LED display. See also the Fitbit Charge, with numeric display, for a few quid more.

Jawbone UP24

With Bluetooth for hassle-free syncing, the stylish UP24 is worth the extra £30 over the Jawbone UP. The app introduces new challenges and tracks your sleep patterns.

It will also gently nudge you, if you’re lazing around, to get back on the move.

Motorola Moto 360

from £300 +++++

BEST FOR TECH YOU WANT TO WEAR

from £150 +++++

BEST FOR BATTERY LIFE

£65 +++++ £100 +++++

With its circular design, this is a smartwatch that’s actually a smart watch. The Moto 360’s our favourite and most comfortable Android Wear watch so far, but its battery life might make you anxious and it’s a few specs short of brilliance.

£190 +++++

Nest Learning Thermostat

£250 (with installation) +++++

Nest has a smart design paired with a ton of features to control your heating in style.

We recommend making use of its IFTTT channel: it offers map-based geofencing, or you can fire up the boiler with a text. There’s even voice control via Google Now.

Philips Hue

Pair these smart LED bulbs with ‘recipes’ on ifttt.com – set them to change colour with the weather or when it’s time to run for the train. They also tie in with Philips’ own Ambilight TVs, casting the colours from the screen across your entire room..

Roku Streaming Stick

‘Streaming Stick’ tells you all you need to know, really: it’s a stick, and it streams.

It streams plenty – Netflix, iPlayer, Spotify, Sky Now and Sky Go to name a few.

And unlike Chromecast, it’s also a dab hand with your own video and music files.

Google Chromecast

This USB memory-stick-sized cord-cutter is compatible with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play movies and BBC iPlayer: a cheap, simple way of getting web-sourced movies and shows onto your living-room TV.

Synology DS214se

Within this entry-level hardware beats the best NAS (network attached storage) software yet. Not gorgeous to look at, but at least it’s small and easy to hide away.

If you’re new to the NAS party, the DS214se is the cheapest way to get onboard.

from £50 ++++, £40 ++++, £30 ++++, £115 ++++,

BEST FOR BACKUP AND STREAMING

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS IN EACH CATEGORY AND OUR BUYING GUIDES, VISIT WWW.STUFF.TV/TOP-10S

NUTRIENT

SKIN THERAPY

“Wellman® Skin Technology keeps my skin refreshed, energised and protected.”

from

James Anderson

Wellman® Skin Technology • Dynamic performance for male skin

England’s No. 1 wicket taker of all time*

• Formulated by Vitabiotics scientific experts using Advanced Research in Male Skincare ( ) • Concentrated nutrient and botanical skin complexes • Energise and rejuvenate your skin

ADWELSKINMCONP 02-03-15E

Available from

anti-ageing moisturiser

under eye serum

& wellman.co.uk

facial scrub

face wash

Available from larger Boots stores, subject to availability. *England’s all time highest international wicket-taker, 380 test wickets correct at 16 Jan 2015.

Source: www.jamesanderson613.com. **Nielsen GB ScanTrack Total Coverage 52 w/e 31 Jan 2015.

TOP FIVES CAMERAS

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Olympus OM-D E-M1

The Olympus flagship is armed with the same excellent 16.3MP sensor as its predecessor the E-M5, but has an improved autofocus system, a startlingly good electronic viewfinder and masses of direct controls. Also look out for the E-M10.

Canon EOS 700D

Look, it’s a new Canon at No2. No, wait, it’s the old one. Actually, it’s kind of both. The 700D is a minor upgrade over the 650D, keeping its 18MP sensor, flip-out touchscreen and autofocus during video and adding little beyond a new kit lens. Still great, though.

Sony A6000

Sony’s new system camera may be tiny but it packs a big photographic punch. There may be no optical image stabilisation but the incredible speed and accuracy of the A6000’s autofocus is a real highlight, as is its large, clear electronic viewfinder.

Nikon D750

It’s big and bulky, but otherwise this is one of the most comfortable and intuitive DSLRs money can buy. And with a handy tilt screen and some wireless connectivity features, there’s none of the purist snootiness that we saw in the D810.

Sony A7R

We love this camera. It’s lightweight but tough and delivers results that outstrip pretty much any other compact system camera on the market. It has a huge full-frame 36.4MP sensor and noise-suppression. Your wallet might weep, but your photo album will sing.

Sony DSC-HX60

2014’s HX60 isn’t a huge departure from its predecessor in terms of its build quality, ease of use, specifications and 30x zoom lens – all of which are excellent. What it does add is NFC and a newer Bionz X processor, making it a slightly nippier performer.

Sony DSC-RX100 III

If you’re looking for the best tiny snapper around, this is it. Excellent image quality, fast autofocus, a useful electronic viewfinder and professional video recording, all squeezed into a truly teeny package that’ll fit into your jeans pocket. We’re smitten.

Panasonic Lumix LX100

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.

Fujifilm FinePix X100S

Fujifilm souped up its fixed-lens retro shooter last year, with faster focusing and a big APS-C sensor. It retains the 35mm (35mm-equivalent) f/2 lens and hybrid viewfinder of the old X100, and a less retro version with black finish is also available.

Panasonic Lumix FZ1000

Bridge cameras often feel like a compromise, but the FZ1000 is incredibly versatile: a fixed-lens camera capable of shooting fantastic stills and video in almost any situation. And yes, it’s nearly the same as the Leica V-Lux 114, but £300 cheaper.

£760

(body only)

+++++ £330

(body only)

+++++

BEST FOR ALL-ROUND VALUE

£390

(body only)

+++++ £1300

(body only)

+++++ £1130

(body only)

+++++

£190 +++++ £500 +++++ £530 +++++ £570 +++++ £590 +++++

FOR THE FULL REVIEWS IN EACH CATEGORY AND OUR BUYING GUIDES, VISIT WWW.STUFF.TV/TOP-10S

IN CASE YOU MISSED..

HYBRID LAPTOPS

HP Pavilion X2

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

£280 / hp.com Want a tablet for 10% work, 90% messsing around? The HP X2 is a bargain tablet that comes with a smart accessory that’s part case, part keyboard.

This is the X2’s killer feature.

Low screen resolution leaves everything looking pretty blocky but it does last 11 hours. ++++,

£1000 / lenovo.com/uk Few laptops impress in person like this one. It’s incredibly slim and light, made of glass and magnesium. Then there’s the hinge, which looks like it’s made from high-end watch parts. It’s got less grunt than the Yoga 2 Pro but this is all about portability over power. ++++,

from £640 / microsoft.com Microsoft isn’t messing about here; it wants to replace your tablet and your laptop, not live alongside them peacefully. It’s quite a feat of engineering and the clever fan system means it can fit seriously powerful processors into a magnesium body just 9mm thick. +++++

Toshiba Satellite Radius 11 £360 / toshiba.co.uk Despite its plastic build it feels nice and sturdy, and the hinge curves smoothly all the way around. The display doesn’t offer particularly good colour, contrast or viewing angles, but for light duties on a budget it ain’t bad at all. +++,,

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Vintage Watch Movement Cufflinks

by Pretty Eccentric

When these watches stopped who knew they would be reincarnated as really cool cufflinks.

Crafted from Swiss watch movements from the 1920s 1950s, set with original ruby jewels, backed with vintage leather and mounted as cufflinks.

Presented in a vintage inspired box. £49 Visit: www.prettyeccentric.co.uk call 07870 607925

NEXT BIG THING?

hat? Renting a solar panel? People been doing that for gigayears.

That they been. And what insights have they gleaned? That, between the cost of installing the panels and the energy companies dictating the unit price of buying back surplus kiloWatts, the system doesn’t work. Sure, your renewable energy usage might see you sitting atop a massive pile of freshly minted smuggins, but it’s distinctly less minty when you also see money pouring out underneath to pay The Man. Fortunately, change is inevitable. And here it comes.

W

Change? Where?

On the horizon. Before it, though, there’s a bitter pill to swallow. It’s a single, entirely justified use of the word ‘Uberisation’. As in, the Uberisation of renewable energy is the Next Big Thing. Ugh. Anyway, the idea is that people start sharing and selling renewable energy to each other, bypassing the big suppliers altogether. So a farmer with a gaggle of wind turbines on their land might invite people to bid for the energy. Or someone with a big roof might lease out the space to someone with the money to put solar panels on it.

That’s just commerce. What’s new here?

Because, like the aforementioned car-and-driver service, it’s all managed via the cloud and via apps. Like AirBnB-ing your summer house: a resource that wasn’t doing you a whole heap of good just got introduced to someone who doesn’t have a summer house of their own.

They might be your neighbour, they might be from Nepal; either way, the whole transaction is slick and seamless and community-reviewed.

And, hopefully, largely devoid of money-hungry middlemen. Finally, it’ll work out better for Mother Earth and for us, her doltish offspring.

[ Words Fraser Macdonald ]

di ce rent s

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