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ROSS PRESLY
PARTY LIKE IT’S 2024
Turn your NYE into a bash
from the future
CANSOFWHOOPASS
On-ear headphones:
we test the best
CASE AND STATUS
Wrap yourself and
your gadgets in style
£4.60
January2015
www.stuff.tv
GADGETS/APPS/GEAR
SMARTWATCH
SHOWDOWN
THE TOP THREE
TECH TICKERS
YULEBELUCKY
LAST-MINUTE
XMAS GADGET
GIFT GUIDE
THE 20GREATEST GADGETSINTHE WORLDTODAY
2014
GADGET
AWARDSTHETECHOF
THEYEAR
GADGETS/APPS/GEAR
ANDROID
WEAR
WORN
A smartwatch
you actually
need p80
VR GETS REAL
Holodecks, armchair
tourism, 360º films &
VRAttenboroughp51
THE £230
SUPERPHONE
OnePlus One tested:
So long Samsung,
adios Apple p96
PLUS!
Turnyour
phoneintoaVR
headset... for £25
...and they’re
here, now
www.stuff.tv/September2014/£4.60
TESLASONTEST
So much fun to drive, the
electric bit’s just a bonus
YOU’VEGOTALE
Brew the perfect pint
with your smartphone
HI-DEF?SOPASSÉ
The three best quad-HD
TVs money can buy
THINGS
GADGETS/APPS/GEAR
STUFF INNOVATORS 2014
SUPERHEROES
OFTECH
THE APPLE WATCH IS HERE ...ANDIT’SABOUTTIME
LUCKEY
Gatekeeper of
the virtual
realm
WHITE
Reinventing
your record
collection
BREAZEAL
Mother of a
million robots
THE VERDICT
iPHONE 6
NAKAMOTO
Replacing
money
with code
MUSK
Revolutionising
travel on Earth...
and in space
GREEN MACHINES Wegolong-distanceinthreeeco-friendlysupercarsGREEN MACHINES
Meet the visionaries remaking your world
+5.5in
6 PLUS
www.stuff.tv/Nov2014/£4.60
ROSS PRESLY
/WINTERSPORTSSPECIAL
120 / www.stuff.tv
Arc’teryx Micon
£420 | arcteryx.com
A great option if your pins feel the cold, Arc’teryx’s
leg-warmers use Coreloft insulation to keep
your lower half toasty, while a waterproof Gore-
Tex Pro Shell will help to fend off the elements.
Their two large cargo pockets have watertight
zips, while zipped thigh vents keep air circulating.
Suunto Ambit
from £350 | suunto.com
While just as comfortable on a mountain bike run
as they are on the piste, the handsome Ambit
watchhasstacksofslope-friendlyfeatures–such
as a barometer for forecasting mountain weather
and a heart rate monitor. The impressive 15-hour
battery life will see you through a full day’s skiing.
Black Diamond Agent Avalung
£175 | blackdiamondequipment.com
One of Black Diamond’s 20L, medium-sized
Avalung packs will carry all the kit you need for
backcountry adventuring and features a built-in
‘Avalung’ breathing tube to feed you air drawn
from the snow should you wind up on the wrong
side of an avalanche. A potential ski-saviour.
VolklShiro
£600 | ellis-brigham.com
This versatile ski blends playful, easy
powder performance with a solid,
stable ride. It’s really a ‘big mountain’
ski to suit budding backcountry
riders while also providing good
on-piste performance. Combine it
with Marker’s F12 Tour bindings
(£290, marker.de) for great security
on fast descents and efficient hiking
on the more remote slopes.
SalomonBBR7.5
withZ10bindings
£450 | salomonsports.com
The BBR range’s surfboard-meets-
ski design makes it ideal for learners,
and this entry-level model is great
value. The lightweight, oversized
tip allows novices to both ‘surf’
the piste and take those first forays
into deeper powder, while the Z10
bindings release in all directions so
your knees will stay in one piece.
skiing
BEST FOR
freeriding
nOWAdd
these
BEST FOR
beginners
MAKE THE MOUNTAINS
YOURS WITH A PAIR OF
GO-ANYWHERE SKIS
/WINTERSPORTSSPECIAL/WINTERSPORTSSPECIAL
www.stuff.tv / 121
Steep
£2.99 | amazon.co.uk
It might only carve
over the surface of
why big-mountain
skiers are prepared to
risk (and occasionally
lose) their lives in the
pursuit of vertical runs,
but watching this doc’s
off-piste antics will
have even the snow-
apathetic reaching for
a holiday brochure.
SkiTracks
£0.69 | iOS
Like a snowsport
Strava, this app uses
your phone’s GPS to
log everything from
your speed to altitude
and distance. It’s filled
with neat touches
such as auto- starting
a new run as soon as
you hop off a chairlift,
and has built-in music
controls to tweak your
slope soundtrack.
BeINsPIreD
aPPtHIs
ThreeValleys
flights from £54 |
les3vallees.com
France houses the
world’s biggest ski
resort, with 370 miles
of slopes for beginners
(Méribel’slowerslopes)
and experts (the steep
couloirsatCourchevel).
The Les 3 Vallées app
(£free, iOS, Android)
hasweather,mapsand
a GPS ‘friend-finder’.
goHere
sKIWear…WHATTOLOOKFORBYO’NEILLATHLETEANDUKNUMBERONEFREESKIERPADDYGRAHAM
sKI
JaCKet
Ajacket’swaterproof
andbreathabilityratingsare
mostimportant.They’relistedina
rangebetween1.5Kto20K.My
O’NeillJeremyJones2Lhasa
high15K/10Krating
duetoitsFirewall
insulation.
goggles
Make sure they
fit comfortably with
and without your helmet and
that the lens tint matches your
environment. In low light, gold and
amberlensesfilterbluelight
–use dark lenses
when in bright
light.
trouser
Insulatedski
pantsaremeasuredin
grams,from30gto800g,so
bearinmindhowhotyougetonthe
slopesandchooseyourrating
accordingly.Lookforthigh
ventsandforzipped
pocketstocarry
yourtech.
Base
layer
GetonewithMerino
wooltokeepyouwarmand
dry.Idon’tfeelrightwithouta
goodthermalbaselayer.Resistthe
urgetocutcorners–cotton
T-shirtswillgetsoggy.
Coldpeopleleave
early.
1
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4
[PhotoPaddyLearmond]
[PhotoChristofferSjostrom]
1
3
2
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8
H o t s t
VOICECONTROL
Walkintoyourlivingroom,say
‘Xboxon’,then‘Xbox,showDave’,
andkablammo–you’reintoan
afternoonofManvsFoodrepeats
withoutliftingafinger.Youcanalso
switchbetweenTV, games,web
andSkypeusingonlythesounds
thatcomeoutofyourface.
9
Justtobeclear,wemeanMicrosoft
isgoinginOnedirection,notinOne
Direction.Bywhichwemeanit’staking
aunifiedapproach,notthatit’spacking
itselfintoamicroscopicsubmarineand
injectingitselfintoHarryStyles’
boyishlyhandsomeface.Yousee,
Microsofthasnoticedthatpeople
spendabouthalfoftheirXtimedoing
somethingotherthanplayinggames,
andit’sonlytoohappytocontinuethis
trendbyaddingstringstotheXbox’s
bow.Thisboxybeastisa4KBlu-ray
player,avoice-controlledmedia
streamerthatservesupallyourTV
andmovies,aphone(viaSkype),aweb
browserand,yes,agamesconsole,all
rolledintoOne.Althoughifwe’re
honest,thegames–thejaw-dropping
graphics,thepersistentonlineworlds,
thegrandiosenewstories,themulti-
screenplay,thefrighteninglyrealistic
newgameengines–aretheOnething
wereallywantitfor.
Ashotas…MasterChiefin4K
DueNovember2013/xbox.com
MicroSoft
GoeSinone
direction
theXboxonewilltake
overyourtV,yourlivin�
roomandeventually
yourlife
fu f
27 PAGES
OF THE BIGGEST
STORIES FROM
PLANET TECH
HOT
THREE
#1
Formoreviewsofthe
XboxOne,download
theStuffiOSapp
10
5
3
4
1
2
6
THINGSWEKNOW
THINGWEDON’T
fangledway,allowingyoutolend
outyourgamestoyourXboxLive
pals.Oneatatime,mind.Whatyou
can’tdoisplayyourexisting360
libraryontheOne–notevenXbox
LiveArcadedownloads.Ouch.
5 Itcanseeyourheartrate
...andyourface,whichitcan
recogniseandusetosignyouin.
ThenewKinectisafrighteningly
powerfulall-seeing1080p,2Gbps
eyewitha60%greaterfieldof
vision,thenousetoseesixplayers
atonce,do1080pvideocalls,
MinorityReport-esquemotion
controlandreadyourfamily’s
thoughtsastheysleep.Probably.
6 Ithasapropercontroller
TheXbox360’scontrollerisa
gamer’sfavourite,soit’sgoodto
seeituntaintedbyascreenor
touchcontrols.Itdoeshavenew
thumbstickrumblemotorsfor
targetedfeedback.And,the
batteryhasbeenmovedsothe
controllerbalancesbetter.Nice.
1 Ithas3operatingsystems
AlongsidetheproprietaryXbox
OS,theOnerunsaversionof
Windows,whichletsitdoWindows
8-stylescreen-splitting.Keeping
thesetwoontalkingtermsis
athird,facilitatorOS,whilethe
eight-coreAMDprocessorand
8GBRAMdotheheavylifting.
2 Itsupports4k
Well,sortof.TheBlu-raydrive
certainlycanandwilloutput4K.
Asforgames,wedon’tattimeof
writingknowiftheOnewillgamein
4K.Yes,thedifferenceingraphics
isnightandday,butthatdoesn’t
necessarilymeantheresolution
willgoup,too.Althoughobviously
we’vegotourfingerscrossed.
3Itvampiresonyourdigibox
Port-fondlingnerdsthatweare,
thefirstthingwedidwhenwesaw
theOnewastoogleitsrearpanel.
WithanHDMIinandanHDMIout,it
actsasamiddlemanbetweenyour
Sky/Virgin/Freeview/YouView
boxandyourTV,servingupthe
samecontentbutwithnicer
menusandvoicecontrol.
4 Itletsyouplayother
people’sgames,butnot
youroldones
There’sacertainold-fashioned
magicinlettingsomeoneelse
borrowyourcopyofsomething,
buttheOnedoesthisinanew-
PS4vsXBOXONEWHICHISTHE
MOSTPOWERFUL?
BoththePS4andtheOnehavean
8-coreprocessormadebyAMD,
plus8GBRAM.However,whilethe
One’smemoryisoftheDDR3type
thatyou’dfindinmostdesktop
PCs,thePS4’sisofthemore
powerfulGDDR5typefoundin
graphicscards.Thiscouldtranslate
tobetterperformance,andwhile
Sonyhasbandieditsteraflops
(thenumberofcalculationsthe
PS4canmakeinasecond)about,
Microsofthasstayedstrangely
quietonthesubject,indicatingit
mightnotbeabletomatchSony’s
figure. Ifwehadtoputmoneyonit
we’dsaythePS4islikelytobethe
morepowerfulmachine,asinthe
lastgeneration.Butitmaybethat,
justlikethepreviousconsole
generation,it’sthelesspowerful
machinethatoffersthebetter
gamingexperience.
11
●QuantumBreak
ThisfollowsthetrailblazedbyDefianceinto
‘transmedia’,whichissuit-patterforsomething
that’sbothagameandaTVshow.Withthe
newlysprucedXboxLivehostingpersistent
gameworlds,theshowwillaffectwhathappens
inthegameandviceversa.Expectlotsof
chrono-twistingfromthebullet-time-
inventingmakersofMaxPayne.
●Forza5
ThesixthinstalmentintheXboxXclusive
racingfranchisewillbealaunchtitleforthe
One,griddingupwiththePS4’sGran
Turismo6.Aswiththepreviewoffellow
futuristicmegaracerDriveClubatthe
launchofthePS4,thefocusisonexquisite
realism,withdetailsfinerthanagnat’s
eyelashcrisplypickedout.
●CallofDuty:Ghosts
Withperhapsthemostimpressivenext-gen
graphicswe’veseensofar,thenewCoDputs
anewenginetostartlingeffect.Thedetailgoes
downtoindividualleavesandthelittlescrews
onyourgun,whileenvironmentsaremodifiable
andhighlydestructible.Italsopromisesan
emotionallychargedscriptfromTrafficscribe
StephenGaghan.Andit’sgotadoginit.
●RYSE
ThisKinect-onlyhack’n’slashtransportsyouto
acatastrophicallydividedRome,inwhichyour
jobistostab,punch,cleaveandgenerallyoffend
againstyourfellowhistoricalfigures.Ifyou’re
reallyhandywithasword,youmightevenget
themtolendyoutheirears.Thisshouldbea
goodgameforshowingoffyournewKinect’s
abilitytomeasuretheforceofapunch.
WHATWE’LLPLAY
DownloadtheStuff
iOSappformoreXbox
Onescreenshots
59
BESTAPPSOF
RIGHTNOW!Without a stable full of thoroughbred apps, your superphone
might as well be made of cheese. Happily, it isn’t, so power up
your pocket-puter with our pick of the greatest apps on the planet
75 BEST APPS
64
Spendbook
Can you afford that
Krispy Kreme box?
Spendbook says
yes. You input all
your incomings and
outgoings to track
what you fritter
your hard-earned
on. There’s a lot of
data entry, but if
there’s something
you buy daily
(a Gregg’s iced
ring, for example)
it’ll automatically
account for it. Your
reward is gorgeous
graphs documenting
your penchant for
deep-fried batter.
And a better handle
on your finances.
£1.49 / iOS
Gratuity
Will Dunn Editor
Gratuity almost warrants
a spot in the Travel section,
becausethere’sonecountryitappliesto
in particular: the USA. Everywhere else,
I can get away with just adding what
seems a fair tip and scarpering, but
Stateside tips are wages, and you need
toknowhowmuchtopay.Gratuitymakes
this simple and discreet, and it also
adds in bill splitting – because I assume
everyone’s fine with splitting the bill
after I had all those foie gras cocktails
and a swan steak for dinner.
£0.69 / iOS
Droplet
Unlike full-on
mobile banking
apps, Droplet
doesn’t require
you to carry around
a DNA sample and
letter from your
mum before it’ll let
you transfer cash.
Tell it your account
number and sort
code and you can
top up your Droplet
coffers, which can
then be used to pay
Facebook friends
or anyone with the
app whose number
you know; and when
people pay you, you
can deposit it back
into your account.
£free / iOS, Android
FairShare
Houseshares can be
a hotbed of sniping
over who put what
in the kitty and
passive-aggressive
notes on the fridge
over the cleaning
rota. FairShare
puts an end to that,
divvying up duties
and keeping track
of who’s paid what
bills; it will even
prioritise tasks
for you. With your
housemates now
talking to each
other, there’s
also a private
social network for
organising drinks
out and dinner.
£0.69 / iOS, Android
Yahoo Finance
Not only is Yahoo
Finance a very
good feed of
wonga-based news;
it also allows you
to follow particular
stocks so you can
track your portfolio
in real time (if
you’re the kind of
person who has a
portfolio). It also has
summarised articles
on currencies and
markets, and makes
sure you’re buying
at the lowest of the
low and selling at
the highest of the
high. You’ll be the
wolf of your street
in no time.
£free / iOS, Android
360 Security
With the kind of
features you’d expect
to have to pay for, 360
Security goes above
and beyond when it
comes to protecting
your phone. It not only
fends off viruses and
malware but also
allows you to block
calls and texts from
annoying PPI robots.
£free / Android
Dashlane
Dashlane
remembers all your
passwords so you
don’t have to, with
one master code
to protect them all.
You can even trust
it with bank details,
notes and anything
you’d rather didn’t fall
into enemy hands.
from £free /
iOS, Android
Salient Eye
Got an old
Android phone kicking
around? Install Salient
Eye and it’ll use the
camera as a motion
detector, taking pics
of anyone who strays
into view before
sending them to you
via email or SMS.
Handy if the thief
nicks the phone too.
£free / Android
security
MONey
75 BEST APPS
62
music
Soundcloud
Tom Wiggins Deputy editor
While Spotify (see left) is still my go-to music
app, I’m finding myself opening Soundcloud more
and more frequently since its slick redesign this
summer. Even if the catalogue will never match
Spotify or Rdio, more bands are uploading new
singles to Soundcloud first and it’s a popular place
for DJs and up-and-coming bands to put out mixes
and demos for free – a bit like a YouTube for music.
If only there were an offline mode, then I could stop
using up all my data each month.
£free / iOS, Android
Twickets
Everybody
knows ticket
touts are the scum of the
earth, just like people who
don’t move down inside
train carriages. Twickets is
an attempt to make them
extinct, by allowing those
with spare tickets for gigs
(and other events) to put
them up for sale at face
value,allowingproperfans
to buy them. There’s even
a reporting system if you
suspect a ticket-tout rat
has infiltrated the system.
£free / iOS, Android,
Windows Phone
Songkick
If Songkick
were still just an
app to keep track of the
gigs it’d be the equivalent
of an album that any
self-respecting music
fan should have in their
collection – The Best Of
The Beatles, for example.
Since Songkick launched
its own ticket-buying
shop within the app, it’s
become even more than
that. Which must make
it Band On The Run by
Wings – the band The
Beatles could’ve been.
£free / iOS, Android
Boiler
Room
The Boiler Room
has built up a reputation
for pushing boundaries
(sometimes of what can
be considered music),
but if you’re into that sort
of thing it collects its DJ
sets togetherbrilliantly,
sortingthembygenreand
allowing you to save ones
you like offline. There’s
AirPlay support too, so
if you’re having a house
party you can press play
on a mix and pretend its
you all along. Sneaky.
£free / iOS, Android
Who
Sampled
You might not
know this but there’s a
good chance your music
collection is made up of
everybody else’s music
collection. It’s called
sampling. If you want to
know what ingredients
make up the songs on
youriPhone,WhoSampled
scans your iTunes library
and tells you where the
bassline for that came
from, or which James
Brown track they nicked
the drums for that from.
£1.99 / iOS
cLassic
apps
Spotify
What is man’s
greatest
achievement?
Space travel, or
instant access to
Phil Collins from
anywhere that
you can get
internet?
from £free /
iOS, Android,
Windows Phone
Channel 4
News
Channel 4’s
in-depth
coverage is hard
to beat. With
text,video,maps,
livetweets and
even Vines, it’s
brilliant for news
and analysis.
£free / iOS,
Android
Minecraft
Pocket
Edition
Punch trees
with bare hands.
Acquire wood.
Make tools.
Make house.
Fight zombies.
Never ask why
so pixellated.
£4.99 / iOS,
Android
75 BEST APPS
63
Gojimo
Getting all the
exam answers
tattooed onto your
body might seem
like a good idea at
the time, but it’s
actually not the
most effective (or
moral) way to cram
before taking any
test. Gojimo offers
downloadable
quizzes (for a
fee) for different
subjects at different
levels (11+, GCSE,
AS-levels, etc),
which are a much
betterwayof
makingsureallthose
facts sink right in.
No ink required.
from £free / iOS
Great British
Chefs Kids
The problem with many
kids’ cooking guides is that
the end result isn’t what grown-ups
want to eat – and what’s the point of
teaching them to cook if they’re not
going to make you something tasty?
This app has lots of fun visual elements
and straightforward guides (don’t miss
the Hints section, which contains good
advice on chopping onions and the like),
but more importantly, the recipes from
Michelin-starred chefs are something
you’ll actually want for dinner.
£free / iOS
kids
news Tynker
If you’re planning to
raise the next Mark
Zuckerberg you’re
going to need them
to speak binary and
have a complete
disregard for privacy
from an early age.
Tynker can’t help
with the latter but it
will give your future
billionaire the tools
they need to learn
the theories behind
coding via games
and puzzles, with
more advanced ones
available as in-app
purchases. They
can pay you back
when they IPO.
from £free /
iOS, Android
TimeAway
Curb your kids’
addictive online
habits by installing
TimeAway on both
yours and up to six
other devices. Using
a password, you can
immediately pause
all these devices for
dinner or bedtime
or, if they’ve been
particularly naughty,
lock them all
together. You’ll
receive a daily
summary of how
long they spend
online and their
most used apps.
Plus you can track
where their phones
are on Google Maps.
£free / Android
Teach Your
Monster
To Read
Kids have it so easy
these days. Where
we had to make
do with boring old
textbooks written in
Latin, they play with
apps like this. It’s
fun, charming and
perfectly paced for
kids of nose-picking
age, teaching them
sounds then simple
letter combinations
and finally full
words. They’ll also
learn basic game
mechanics as they
play – the best
education you could
give any child.
£2.99 / iPad
Great British
Chefs Kids
The problem with many
kids’ cooking guides is that
the end result isn’t what grown-ups
Reverb
A phone screen
can dazzle you with
many wonders, but
it can’t tell you all the
news at once. In fact,
even Jon Snow can’t
do that. But Reverb’s
personalised wall of
key words enables
you to follow the
stories and themes
that matter to you.
£free / iOS
Circa News
Old people
like to fall asleep in
an armchair with
a massive newspaper
over their head, bless
’em.Butyoung,vibrant
groovesters like you
want their news boiled
down to nibble-sized
chunks, and that’s
what the editors of
Circa News deliver.
£free / iOS, Android
Nuzzel
Are you
interested in the same
things your friends are
interested in? If you’re
not, dump them and
get some new ones,
perhaps at a local
snooker hall or bingo
club. If you are, use
Nuzzel to track the
news stories they’re
sharing on social sites.
£free / iOS
75 BEST APPS
102 / www.stuff.tv
/TEST/11.11/nnn/
robot vacuums
SamsungNaviBot
Silencio8895
£500 | samsung.com/uk
It’s bot the look
The NaviBot is so smooth you could
skim it across a lake like a stone. As
the name suggests, it’s about being
quiet while still offering sufficient
cleaning power. And with a HEPA
filter, even the exhaust air it
breathes out is sparkling.
Clean machine?
TheSilencioiswellnamed:it’sso
quietyoucouldleaveitonovernight
andsleepsoundly,yetitstill
managesgreatsuction.There’salso
plentyofjunkspaceinitstrunk,
whichcanbeemptiedbyhandor
(oddly)suckedoutbyanothervac.
Sadly,therearechinksinitsarmour.
Itmayhave39sensorsanda
VisionaryMappingSystem–which
shoots30snapsasecondtomapa
room–butanycablesleftonthe
floorwillsoonenduptangledinthe
bot’sundercarriage.Itsweak
battery,meanwhile,oftenleavesit
lackingthepowertoreachitsdock.
Stuff says ★★★✩✩
Quiet as a mouse, and sadly
not much more efficient.
Bump ‘n’ fine
Despite its low profile
the NaviBot will happily
bump over mats and
stray magazines.
www.stuff.tv / 103
robot vacuums
/TEST/11.11/nnn/
Litter-Robot II
£295 | litter-robot.eu
This automated litter cleaning pod
means that you’ll never
again have to deal with
your cat’s litter tray –
all you need do is
swap the waste bag
every few days.
MORE ROBOT PHWOARS
Aquabot Rover NE356
£250 | aquabots.com
If you can afford your own
swimming pool, it’s only right to
splash out on a robot
to clean it. The
Rover will do the
job in less than
three hours.
Robomow RL2000
£1900 | robomow.co.uk
This mower-bot is ideal for lazy
landowners. Peg down a perimeter
wire and it’ll trundle around, making
the lawn look
pristine before
returning to its
charging base.
iRobot Scooba 385
£390 | irobot.com/uk
Similar to its robot cleaner siblings,
this navigates its way round your
house, washing the hard floors and
sucking up
its dirty
cleaning water
as it goes.
iRobot
Roomba770
£420 | irobot.com/uk
It’s bot the look
Despite the iRobot’s slightly
plasticky feel, it looks like R2-D2’s
shiny fantasy girl. And with its highly
evolved sensors, you don’t have to
fret about it crashing into anything
and damaging its handsome visage.
Clean machine?
This one has it all: it’s quiet, powerful,
long-lasting and a bit of a brain-bot.
The Roomba has just one spinning
brush to sweep up all your debris,
but even so manages to clear dirt
out of your trickiest corners. And its
whopping battery means it keeps
going until the floor is spotless. The
fact that it only needs emptying
once a clean means you can leave it
to do a whole room without lifting a
digit – which, let’s face it, is the
whole point here – and it’ll even
leave lines in the carpet from its
mighty suction. Spotless.
Stuffsays ★★★★★
Fast, efficient and powerful, the
iRobot is lord of the future-vacs.
Adapt and conquer
The 770’s updated
iAdapt software
means the vac rarely
misses a spot of dirt.
TESTWINNER
TRAVEL
innovators
68
Plotting to colonise
the red planet
Elon Musk is about as close
to a real-life Tony Stark as
we have. He’s a Willy Wonka
of tech, concocting plans
(probably from a volcano lair
in the Pacific) before unleashing
them on the public.
But rather than sending
overweight German children
up industrial pipes he’s mainly
sending stuff into space. Musk
sold his first product at 12 years
old – he got US$500 for a
videogame he’d written called
Blastar after teaching himself
to code – but it was the sale of
PayPal in 2002 that put him on
Stuff’s map. Since then he’s
reinvented the electric car,
banishing associations with
ELON MUSK PAYPAL/TESLA/SPACE X
milk floats and the G-Wiz
courtesy of Tesla’s Roadster
and seven-seater Model S,
and set up SpaceX – a private
space exploration company
that aims to one day colonise
Mars. “I see us going to Mars
in about 10-11 years,” he told
Stuff earlier this year, “and
in a really big spaceship, not
a little thing.”
Musk compares that
proposed first trip to the red
planet to the English colonising
America and envisions setting
up a city home to millions of
people, with homes, jobs and
(probably) pet Martians. You
know, just in case we
accidentally destroy Earth.
In short, he’s a man with
ambitions to match the size
of his fortune.
If he sounds like the twin
brother of a Bond villain, that’s
not a million miles from the
truth. Musk recently spent
some of his immense wealth
on the actual submarine
Lotus Esprit used in The
Spy Who Loved Me and
is building his own: “We’ve
even joked about having
a submarine-plane-car.”
That’s a joke we can’t wait
to see the punchline for.
Satellite town
So far the Dragon
has only carried
cargo into space,
but SpaceX reckons
it’ll soon be
taking humans
Final frontier
This is Falcon 9,
the first private
spacecraft to
visit the
International
Space Station
Fully charged
In 2009 a Roadster
travelled 311 miles
on a single charge,
setting a new
world record
69
innovators
If you want to make
something streamlined
and aerodynamic, the model
to copy isn’t a Formula 1 car
or fighter jet – it’s a penguin.
Not when it’s in upright
waddling mode, but when
arrowing its way through
the ocean. That’s what
exterior design manager
Peter Wouda would’ve been
aiming for when he crafted
the VW XL1 – the most
efficient production car in
the world. Everything about
it is designed to cut through
the air like a hot axe through
ice cream, from the
extremely low ride height
and lack of wing mirrors (it
has cameras instead) to the
way it tapers towards a flat
rear end. Combined with its
hybrid of diesel and electric
power, VW has managed to
eke out over 300 miles to
the gallon, and with its tech
already filtering through to
the VW GTE, it could turn
out to be one of the most
significant cars ever made.
Now we have plug sockets
with USB ports in them,
there are only really two
main sci-fi dreams that
remain: flying cars and
hoverboards. Aerofex’s
Aero-X fulfils both, with
the added bonus of being
a little like Luke Skywalker’s
Landspeeder. On terra
firma it’s a four-wheeled,
two-person buggy-type
vehicle, but in flight it uses
downward-facing fans to
levitate up to 10 feet off the
ground at up to 45mph.
Designed by aerospace
engineer Mark DeRoche,
it uses a clever steering
system that removes the
need for complex controls
like those found in
helicopters, making it similar
to riding a motorbike. And
while it’s not ready to ride
away from a showroom just
yet, it’s not pure fantasy
either. Aerofex has tested
the Aero-X and hopes to
have them on sale by 2017.
Yours for just US$85,000.
Before he became public
enemy number one among
London’s black-cab drivers,
Travis Kalanick launched
Uber in San Francisco
in 2010. It’s an app that
allows you to book a cab
and watch it arrive on
a map. In four years it’s
taken over the world, like
a convenient four-wheeled
virus that runs at very
affordable rates.
And it’s not just for taxis
now either. There’s Uber
Ice Cream, which allows
you to summon a 99
just like a cab, plus Uber
Chopper: an on-demand
chauffeur-flown helicopter
service from New York City
to the Hamptons at the far
end of Long Island. Uber now
operates in over 200 cities
around the world, and
while not everyone is
happy to see them (those
aforementioned cabbies
for one), it’s a company
dragging an age-old
industry into the future.
It’s almost impossible to get
lost these days. You’ve got
one man to thank for that:
Azmat Yusuf. He’s the man
behind Citymapper – the
app that gets you around
London, New York, Paris and
other less fashionable cities
across the world. It makes
the most of open, real-time
data to show you various
routes to your destination,
how long each one will take,
how much they’ll cost and if
there are any problems that
could cause delays. Creator
Yusuf and his team are
adding cities all the time –
you can vote for which one
they should do next on the
Citymapper website – and
he’s already got one eye
on Rio in time for the
Olympics in 2016. Yusuf
told Stuff that he wanted
“to build something that
people would use regularly”.
Considering we can barely
get to the end of the road
without using his app, looks
like mission accomplished.
The future
of streamlined
hybrid car design
Making our
sci-fi dreams
come true
Hailing a cab
towards the
future
App-ing to
make getting
lost get lost
PETER WOUDA
VOLKSWAGEN XL1
MARK DEROCHE
AEROFEX
TRAVIS KALANICK
UBER
AZMAT YUSUF
CITYMAPPER
112
ARE FAKE BURGERS
THE FUTURE?
FUTURE FOOD
YES
PRoFESSoR
MARK PoST,
MAASTRICHT
UnIVERSITY
“In the beginning, for all sorts of
practical reasons, we are focusing
on processed meat – that will
changetheperceptionofprocessed
meat in that it will become
a highly regulated and much more
environmentally friendly and
animal-friendly product.”
no
DR MoRGAInE
GAYE, CURAToR
oF FUTUREFEST
GASTRoDoME
“Loads of people are resistant to
in-vitro meat – people who aren’t
keen on playing god or interfering
with nature. But meat prices will
double in the next five years, so if
people want to keep eating the
quantities of meat they’re eating,
something has to change.”
CULTURED
MEAT
When your research project
has the backing of Sergey
Brin, you know it’s going
places. And Professor Mark
Post’s research into lab-
grownmeathasbeenfunded
by the Google founder to the
tune of £215,000. This is
because, as Post says, “Pigs
and cows are very inefficient
in converting the vegetable
proteins in their food to
animal proteins.”
Lab-grownmeatwillmean
fewer resources poured into
rearinglivestockformeat
– although we can’t expect
to chow down on in-vitro
burgersforatleastadecade.
How does it work? Muscle
cells are extracted from a
cow and cultivated in the lab,
where they’re arranged into
small myotubes. These
contract and bulk up,
forming strands of tissue.
Around 20,000 strands are
required to create a single
burger; the first was
unveiled at a tasting event in
July this year, where it was
pronounced “close to meat”
by taster and nutrition
researcher Hanni Rützler
and “like an animal protein
cake” by food writer Josh
Schonwald. So, some work
still to be done, then.
culturedbeef.net
113
FuTure FooD
NeW FooD
sources
AlgAe
This‘algaculture
symbiosis suit’
is just an art
installation –
but algae’s already making
its way into our food. US
company Solazyme
Roquette Nutritionals is
producing Almagine, an ‘algal
flour’ which can be used in
place of butter, eggs and
flour – and which it claims
means up to 40% less fatand
cholesterolinyourdiet.
solazyme.com
MIllIMeAls
Sci-fi’s often
teasing us with
the idea of a
meal in a pill.
Millimeals puts a new spin
on the concept; it’s a set of
tearable food strips created
by a team of students for the
Science Museum in London.
You can layer them up to
create full meals – and
cleverly, Millimeals also lets
youmeasurenutritionalvalue
bylength,ratherthanweight.
bit.ly/millimeals
PlAnt
eggs
One of three
companies
praised by Bill
Gates for its futuristicfood,
HamptonCreekhaspicked
out the 22 key traits of a
hen’seggandduplicatedthem
withplant-basedalternatives.
Beyond Eggs won’t be part
of your fry-up, but it could
replace the entire third of the
world’s eggs used in cookies,
mayonnaise and muffins.
hamptoncreekfoods.com
soylent
No, not the
mysterious
green wafers
used to feed an
overpopulated Earth in the
1973 film Soylent Green, but
a customisable beige liquid
(powder mixed with water)
that’s promising to be a new
food substitute. Recently
tested by several journalists
whose only complaint was
theblandtaste,it’llbeavailable
in the US from December at
US$65 for a week’s supply.
campaign.soylent.me
tHey sAy...
“I’ve always been skeptical
of edible packaging. The
point of packaging for me is
that it protects the food from
potentially harmful foreign
bodies, stops it getting
damaged, etc. I think that it
could be a gimmick in a high-
end scenario, not spilling off
the shelf in Tesco.”
Peter Firth, trend forecaster
at LS:N Global
eDIBLe
PAcKAGING
We’ve all seen excessive
packaginginthesupermarket
– fruit and veg cocooned in
layers of polystyrene and
cling film for no obvious
reason. WikiPearl is a new
form of packaging based
around edible ‘WikiCells’, a
protective membrane made
of plant-based material.
Now, you’d be forgiven for
thinking it’s a silly idea –
because you’ll need to
package the WikiCell too,
if you want to eat it (as
indeed WikiPearl does, in
a biodegradable wrapper).
But the real trick is that
foodstuffs such as yoghurts,
and ice cream can be turned
into new types of finger food.
And let’s face it, the mango
ice cream with coconut skin
sounds mighty appetising.
wikipearl.com
tHey sAy...
“It’s unlikely that we will be
able to enjoy a 3D printed
veal escalope. The food that
gets 3D printed will be more
functional and borne of
necessity as the world
population swells, and
traditional modes of food
production and distribution
are no longer feasible.”
Peter Firth, trend forecaster
at LS:N Global
3D�PrINTeD
FooD IN sPAce
3D printing food sounds like
a gimmick – hooray, you can
make a cheesy puff in the
shape of a swan – but NASA
is taking it seriously. It’s
looking at the possibility of
using a 3D printer to make
food during deep-space
missions, with printers
mixing up the ingredients
for meals themselves and
printing them off using
additive manufacturing.
The possibilities are intriguing
– recipes could be shared on
a Thingiverse-style site and
downloaded to your printer,
or customised to meet your
own specific calorific needs
based on your BMI and
activity. Once cultured beef
comes on the market, you
could even print your own
hamburger in space.
bit.ly/nasa3dfood
tHey sAy...
“In the 1600s, lobster was
considered the vermin of the
sea, and no-one wanted
anything to do with it. Now
people pay top dollar. We
think we can eventually get
to a point where insects
have the same level of
high esteem as lobster,
crabs and shrimp do now.”
Greg Sewitz,
co-founder of Exo
INsecT
ProTeIN BArs
Setasideyoursqueamishness
– according to a UN report,
2 billion people worldwide eat
bugs. And entomophagy (the
eating of insects) is good for
you, too. “Crickets are about
70% protein, and they have
more iron than beef, gram for
gram – they have a ton of
calcium, so they’re super
healthy,” says Greg Sewitz of
Exo, a company that makes
protein bars out of cricket
flour. It’s also good forthe
planet–insectfarminguses
fewer resources and takes
up less space than livestock.
Pioneers such as Exo want
to get bugs on your plate in
the next few years – and
designerKatharinaUngerhas
gone a step further, creating
Farm 432, an insect breeder
forthehome(below).
www.exo.co
FUTURE FOOD
111
FUTURE FOOD
111111
[WordsStephenGraves]
Humans have a food problem – and it’s a lot
more serious than dropping a yoghurt in the
supermarket. By 2025,theUNpredictsthatthe
worldpopulationwill be 8.1 billion, an increase of
nearly a billion. We all need food, and it’s placing
a substantial burden on Earth’s resources.
That’s not the only problem. Animal farming
is emitting more greenhouse gas than
transport. Monocultures, desertification and
pollution are all taking their toll. And the World
Wildlife Fund reckons that 120 million hectares
ofnaturalhabitatwillbecomefarmlandby2050.
Fortunately,scienceanditssidekicktechnology
could hold the key – but we might have to get
usedtoafewchangesonourdinnerplatesfirst…
CULTUREd
MEAT
Meat may not grow on
trees, but it doesn’t have
to grow on animals either.
INSECT
PRoTEIN BARS
You might think that
eating insects just isn’t
cricket, but really it is.
3d PRINTEd
food
Made-to-measure ready
meals and printing food in
space: the final frontier?
EdIBLE
PACKAGING
Waste not, want not –
thinking outside the box,
and then eating it.
NEW food
SoURCES
Algae, plant eggs and
meals-by-the-millimetre.
Fancy a Soylent shake?
Unlikevideogamesteakpower-ups,foodsadlyisn'tinfinite.Ifwe're
toavoidafutureofcannibalism,weneedtolooktotech…
55
innovators
SUPERHEROES
OFTECHThey range from VR revolutionaries to vinyl pioneers, and they’ve
given us everything from hoverbikes to robot servants. It’s time to
meet the Stuff Innovators of 2014: our pick of the geniuses who
are going beyond ordinary geekdom to remake the modern world
STUFF INNOVATORS 2014
With a little help
from our friends…
Sometimes it’s
nice to get a fresh
viewpoint, so we
asked our friends
at Dezeen and NME
to give us their
thoughts on our
Innovators. Keep
an eye out for them.
[ Illustrations Rich Kelly ]
86
GenesisCroixDeFer
The Avid BB7 disc
brakes give massive
stopping power – no
matter the terrain or
conditions. They are
of course also
excellent for doing
massive skids.
GROUP TEST
I haven’t got space in my flat for
an array of different bikes, so
I need one that does it all. The
Croix De Fer is that bike. So now when Simon
emails about mountain biking, I can reply “See
you on the trail!” And when Will D FaceTimes
me in his Lycra, it’s *call rejected* – but I can
later text: “Sure I’ll do a 100k sportive.” And
when Monday morning rolls around, I’m able to
weave my way through the traffic to the Stuff
bunker. And if I have time left for cyclocrossing
or touring, it handles those with ease too.
Ross Presly
deputy art editor
£1150 / genesisbikes.co.uk
Stuff says ★★★★★
87
GROUP TEST
DouzeMessenger
The Douze has two
wheels, not three, so
it’ll lean into corners.
However, its length
means it has a very
‘relaxed’ turning
circle – avoid tight
spots and U-turns.
Bikes are versatile things. You
can strap on pannier bags and
carry a weekly shop. Or bolt on
a child seat and carry a child. Or fix up a trailer
andcarrytheweeklyshopandseveralchildren.
Has anyone got the time to do these things?
No. So into the car they jump. The Douze is the
solution; it’s the pickup truck of bikes. Throw
whatever you like into the cargo area – it’s in
front, so you’ll see if he/she/it falls out – and
the seven- or eight-speed transmission will
keep you rolling when the load gets lardy.
Fraser Macdonald
contributor
from £1940 / londongreencycles.co.uk
Stuff says ★★★★✩
BIKESFrom cargo to ‘crosser’, the Stuff team has put foot to pedal
and hand to ’lebar to test the entire bike spectrum
STUFF PICKS
83
The aluminium frame
serves up a smooth
ride and is the same
one found in its
pricier .004 brother,
making this the
Sa Calobra range’s
sweet spot.
HoySaCalobra.003
BIKESBIKESBIKES
My commute is a jumbled mix of
potholed roads, cycle lanes and
a sprint through Richmond Park,
so I need an all-rounder to boost my Strava
rankings. Cut from the same pragmatic cloth
as Halford’s Boardman range, this sensible but
smart Hoy is the perfect fit. Its carbon fork is
on hand to absorb road judder, while the high-
quality Shimano components and low riding
position could yet propel me to being crowned
king of Spankers Hill. All I need now are the
somewhat harder to obtain tree-trunk thighs.
Mark Wilson
features editor
£1000 / evanscycles.com
Stuff says ★★★★★
69
£110|adidas.co
m
AdidasBoost
trAin
in
g
/fashion
www.stuff.tv / 101
hard
TraIN
aGOOddaYTO
Beatfatigueandcrushyourrivalswith
theserunningshoes.Whitevestoptional
Laundry by Pixel
£25 | pxlclothing.com
Nucle
arFa
m
by
Dirty
Velvet
£25
|dirty
velvet.co
.uk
Ow
lby
Supre
m
ebeing
£25|as
os.co
m
TheOutsidersbyOutOfPrintClothing
US$28|outofprintclothing.com
10:55
Lim
itedEditionby55DSL
£35|55dsl.com
/
Defyby
King
£2
5|king
-app
arel.co
m
DefybyKing
DefybyKing
£25|
DefybyKing
|
DefybyKingking-apparel.com
102 / www.stuff.tv
[ Words Cherry Martin Pictures Matthew Beedle ]
[PicturesAlexHowe]
GROUP TEST
76
TerraNovaUltra1
Owner of the Guinness
World Record for lightest
double-wall shelter, the
Ultra 1 uses material so
thin that it is almost see-
through. You are warned
BUILD
TIM
E
BUILD
TIM
E
If you want to spend a week in a
field, get a camper van. I see tents
as a way to keep moving, not
stop. It is a sleep facilitator that I stick in a
daypack, or strap to my mountain bike. So it
needs to be small and light. It is put up, slept in,
then taken down. So it needs to be quick. The
Ultra 1 is a rather extreme – and expensive –
way to prove the point. Featherlight material, a
single pole, fixed carbon end-poles and wispy
titanium pegs mean it weighs 560g and packs
to the size of a loaf of bread. Only room for
one, though, so suits a lone wolf. Like me.
Fraser Macdonald
contributor
£700 / terra-nova.co.uk
Stuff says ★★★★★
ROSS PRESLY
[PicturesRowanFee]
appcessoriesApps are to the Stuff team what Scooby Snacks were to the titular hound.
These five come with their own hardware for maximum smartness
STUFF PICKS
TriggertrapMobile
The adaptor cables
are available for most
DSLRs and CSCs,
plus loads of popular
compacts. You get
one with the kit but
they can be bought
separately (£8).
79
Triggertrap manages to make
photography’s least sexy piece
of equipment, the remote shutter
release, seem exciting and new. It actually
turns your phone into the remote, connecting
to your camera via an adaptor cable and
controlled through an app that does so much
more than just release the shutter. You can set
it up to do timelapses, long-exposure star
trails and HDR shots. My only minor gripe is
that the connection from the phone to the
dongle isn’t wireless, but this is offset by the
fact I can trigger it to shoot when I whistle.
Simon Osborne-Walker
acting editor
£24(iOS,Android)/triggertrap.com
Stuff says ★★★★✩
The STuff Team geT plugged inTo Thehe
cooleST wayS To geT from ac To dc
stuffpicks
Isitascooter?Clearlynot.Acar?Closer,but
no.Thisis,infact,anelectricquadricycle.True,
itsdoorsareoptionalanditlackswindows,but
thewindscreenandroofkeepmerelatively
protectedfromtheelements.Andalthoughit
maynothaveroomforbothluggageand
apassenger,itissmallenoughtofitintothe
teensiestofparkingspacesandhasarangeof
about45miles.What’smore,itmakespeople
grin.Me,becauseit’slikedrivinga50mph
go-kart,andeveryoneelsebecauseit’sjustso
unusual.OK,soafewmightbelaughingatme
notwithme,butthat’sallpartofthefun,isn’tit?
Stuffsays★★★★I
TomParsons
RenaultTwizy
from£6690|renault.co.uk
[IllustrationsAlexanderEfimov]
/TEST/09.12/nnnnnn/
stuff picks
coole
stuffpicks
plugged inTo The
To geT from ac
The STuff Team ge
uff Team geT plugged inT
cooleST wayS To ge
104 / www.stuff.tv
0123456789
Therearpassenger
sitspinion-style.It’s
trickytogetintothe
seat,butsurprisingly
comfortableonce
you’rewedgedin.
stuff picks
/TEST/09.12/nnnnnn/
www.stuff.tv / 105
0123456789
106 / www.stuff.tv
0123456789
Ithinktheothershavelostsightofwhywe
gottalkingaboutelectricvehiclesinthefirst
place:money.TheEC-03costsaboutthe
sameasapetrolscooter,butonlypocket
changetorun.Itsrangeisamere20miles,but
that’llgetmetotheofficeandbackwithan
addeddetourviathesupermarket.And,
crucially,whennavigatingthecrowded
streetsofLondon,it’ssmallenoughforme
toweavethroughtraffic.It’llevenfitinthe
sidepassageoutsidemyflatsoIcanrun
thechargingcablethroughthekitchen
windowandplugitinnexttothekettle.
Stuffsays★★★★✩
WillDunn
YamahaEC-03
£2600|yamaha-motor.eu/uk
TheEC-03is
classifiedasa
scooter,soyou’ll
needatleastaCBT
certificatetorideit.
That’lltakeadayand
costyouabout£100.
/TEST/09.12/nnnnnn/
stuff picks
www.stuff.tv / 107
0123456789
Sorryworld,andsorrywallet,butI’mnot
makinganycompromises.Iwantmyelectro-
steedtodoallofthethingsmypetrolone
would.Including,butnotlimitedto:barrelling
mesafelyoutofthewayofdistractedlydriven
four-wheeleddeath-bringers;dealingwith
theoddmuddyforayupagreenlane;and
leavingmewithasmileonmyfaceforhours
afterI’vewheeleditbackintothegarage.The
DSdoesitall,ekingatwist-and-go80mph
withallthetorqueyou’dexpectfroman
electric,yetstillremainingcompact,lightand
chuckable,whetheron-roadoroff.It’sahoot.
Stuffsays★★★★★
LukeEdwards
ZeroDSZF9
£11,795|zeromotorcycles.com
Thisistheleggierof
twoDSmodels,with
a40-60milerange
dependingonhow
roughlyyourideit.
The20kg-lighter
ZF6modelis£9995.
stuff picks
/TEST/09.12/nnnnnn/
KoubachiWi-FiPlant
SensorOutdoor
The Koubachi works
out what your plant
needs through its
sensor feedback and
the app’s huge library
ofplantrequirements
– a fine read for keen
botanists on its own.
80
STUFF PICKS
€120 (iOS) / koubachi.com
Stuff says ★★★★✩
If I’m honest, I’d neglected Doug
the dragon tree plant. I was too
wrappedupinmyownlifeandhe’d
started to droop. Until, that is, nurse Koubachi
came to the rescue. The Wi-Fi Plant Sensor
sat in Doug’s pot, monitoring his temperature,
water and light levels and keeping me updated
viaitsiOSapp.Thecalibrationforsomefeatures
isalittlelong(uptoaweekforsunlightanalysis),
but the probe soon starts sending push
nudges formistandwater.Theoutdoorversion
will even survive a heavy rainstorm. Doug is
now healthyandwell–andmyguiltisassuaged.
Mark Wilson
features editor
WithingsPulse
81
GROUP TEST
As well as covering
the Pulse’s data, the
app links with third-
party apps such as
RunKeeper and
Withings’ ambient-
CO2-reading Smart
BodyAnalyzerscales.
The Pulse joins the growing army
of step counters, but it’s stepping
in with a special weapon. Sure it’ll
count your daily paces, mileage, calories and
even altitude climbed, but it also offers a clear
touchscreen display, clip mount, wrist strap for
sleep tracking and a heart rate sensor. It’ll then
send all of that data to your Android or iOS
deviceviaBluetooth4.0.Andthat’snotitsonly
clever trick: to measure your heart rate, you
holdafingertothesensorforaninstantreading.
Witchcraft! Despite all that, you’ll get a full
week’susebeforeneedingamicroUSBcharge.
Luke Edwards
multimedia journalist
€100 (iOS, Android) / withings.com
Stuff says ★★★★★
82
UrbanearsSlussen
The free Urbanears
app is very basic and
lacks key features.
Fortunately, the
Slussen widget
works with the far
superior Djay and
Traktor apps too.
82
GROUP TEST
£13 (iOS) / urbanears.com
Stuff says ★★★★✩
Phones and tablets are almost
perfect for portable DJing. But
with just the one audio output,
there’s nowhere to plug in your headphones
forcueingandmonitoring.Thetrickistoreduce
the signals from stereo to mono and put them
either side of the main output, which requires
specialist, messy cables. Slussen has solved
this with a keyring-attachable splitter. Just
rock up at a party with an iThing and ’phones,
hook up to your mate’s stereo with a standard
cable and boogie the night away. Until you
realise no-one there likes Jethro Tull, that is.
Tony Horgan
senior reviewer
1
5
6
2
3
[IllustrationJamieSneddon]
126
FIREWORKSNIGHT
6INSTANTUPGRADES
Whatbetterwaytochristenyournewbackgardenthan
withaneighbour-annoying,dog-botheringpyrotechnics
extravaganza?Warning:mayemitsparksofsensationalness
11.14|PROJECTS
[Photosflickr.com/nickwheeleroz,flickr.com/gotovan,flickr.com/caomai,youtube.com/goprocamera]
127
TRIPOD
An essential. Decide what
angleyouwanttocapture
and set up your camera
on a tripod to keep it
steady. You can even
use the Weye Feye (see
no.4, left) to see exactly
what your camera sees
and fire off shots without
shaking it.
TIME-LAPSE
If you want to record
the whole thing, you
can compress an entire
fireworks display
into a 15-second clip.
Many cameras have
a time-lapse mode,
or you can use apps
such as Lapse It (from
£free / iOS, Android).
LONG EXPOSURE
If you’re using a DSLR,
select manual and focus
on infinity. Keep the ISO
at 100, set the aperture
to around f/12 and try
exposures up to 30 secs.
If you’re using a compact
camera,selectnightmode
(no flash) or fireworks
mode if it has one.
EXPERIMENT
Feelingambitious?
Trygettingreflections,
silhouettesofspectators…
oruseflashinagroup
shotwithlongexposure
tocatchbackground
fireworks.Withcare,you
couldevenuseadroneto
captureanaerialview.
3BRAVENBRV-1
Ifyou’refeelingreallycreative,
youcouldalwayssetyour
fireworksdisplaytomusic.Ready
toprovidethesoundtrackisthe
BRV-1.It’sacompactBluetooth
speakerbuilttowithstandthe
testingconditionsofacold,
dampNovembernightthanks
toitsIPX5water-resistantrating
andruggedrubberexterior.Its
twindriverscanmanage3W
eachofpowerandofferaplaying
timeofupto12hours.Italsohas
abuilt-innoise-cancellingmic
forhands-freecalling…although
it’sprobablybestnottotrythat
whiletheskyisexploding.
£130 / braven.eu
1DUALITSTRAIGHT
SOUPKETTLE
Yourguestsareontheirway,the
emergencywaterbucketison
standby,you’vesetupyour
camera(seepanel)andthe
fireworksarereadytolaunch...
butwhat’sthatsmell?Uh-oh,
you’veboiledthemulledwine
intoafoul-tastingsoupagain.
Thissix-litresoupkettleisthe
perfectset-and-forgetoption.
Instainlesssteelwithavariable
thermostat,itmeansyou’llnever
endupwithhorribleboiledwine
again.Alsogoodforthose‘six
litresofsoup’Sundays.
£80 / nisbets.co.uk
6HUSQVARNA
TECHNICALGLOVES
Youneedsturdyglovesthatwill
keepyourfingerssafewithout
beingtoobulkyforfiddlingwith
fuses.Whilethey’redesignedfor
usewithHusqvarnachainsaws,
thesearealsolightenoughto
allowfullmovement,witha
toughyetsupplegoat-leather
palm,extraprotectionforthe
indexfingerandaterry-cloth
panelforwipingawayyour
excitement-inducedsweat.The
snugVelcroclosuremakessure
theystayput,andreflective
pipingmakesthemeasierto
findifyoudroponeinthedark.
£39 / husqvarna.com
pYROTECHniC
papping
4XSORIESWEYEFEYE
Ifyouwanttophotographyour
fireworks,thebestviewsaren’t
likelytobefromthesafest
places.Solution:theWeyeFeye
–pronouncedlikeWi-Fi–hooks
uptoyourNikonorCanonDSLR
(there’san‘S’versioncoming
soonthatworkswithmost
cameras)andprovidesliveview
andremoteshootingcontrolson
yoursmartphoneortabletviaits
ownWi-Finetwork.Thebuilt-in
batterygivesuptoeighthours
ofuseanditworksupto80m
away,soyoucangetyour
cameraupclosewithoutputting
yourselfinthelineoffire.
£200 / xsories.co.uk
2LAUNCHKONTROL
PULSE
Whywouldyoustumblearound
amuddygardeninthedark
whenyoucouldsetoffyour
fireworksatthepushofa
button?TheLaunchKontrol
Pulseisasimplewiredsystem
thatcanbeusedupto20m
away.Replaceableignitiontips
cliptothefireworkfuses,and
thepadisconnectedviaaCat5
networkcableandpoweredby
a9Vbattery.Uptofourfireworks
canbetriggeredperboard,and
youcanchainmultipleboards
togetherforbiggerdisplays.
£17 / pyrostation.co.uk
5FIREWORKS
INTERNATIONAL
TOMAHAWKROCKETS
Everygooddisplayneedsafine
setofrocketstorounditoff.This
bargainpackoffiveFireworks
InternationalTomahawksisjust
thejob.Withtwodazzlingeffects
–SilverGlitteringWillowandthe
rathercocktail-soundingGreen
CracklingCoconutwithPistil
PurplePeony–they’rethe
perfectshowstoppers.You’ll
finallybeabletoshakeoff
thestigmaofthattimeyou
disappointedeveryonewitha
mouldyboxofRomancandles.
£20 / pyro.co.uk
ROSS PRESLY
Myeyesdartleftandright,anarmextends,
fingersandthumbtouch:afive-crossaxlein
onepalm,a3x3T-beamandconnectorpegs
intheother.Mydeeplyingrainedpart-location
abilitieshavereawoken.Itfeelsgood–itfeels
natural.PiecingtogethertheV8,buildingthe
rearslipdiffandinstallingthesuspensionbring
backmemorieslongforgotten.Butrealising
thatI’djustassembledaTechnicclutchwasa
newfeeling.Learning.Mechanicalknowledge.
Power!Legoiswastedontheyoung.
Stuffsays★★★★★
RossPresly
LegoTechnic42000
GrandPrixRacer
£80|lego.com
stuff picks
/TEST/04.13/nnnnnnn/
94 / www.stuff.tv
0123456789
Buildtime 5h11 Fingersoreness
Myeyesdartleftandright,anarmextends,
fingersandthumbtouch:afive-crossaxlein
onepalm,a3x3T-beamandconnectorpegs
intheother.Mydeeplyingrainedpart-location
abilitieshavereawoken.Itfeelsgood–itfeels
natural.PiecingtogethertheV8,buildingthe
rearslipdiffandinstallingthesuspensionbring
backmemorieslongforgotten.Butrealising
thatI’djustassembledaTechnicclutchwasa
newfeeling.Learning.Mechanicalknowledge.
Power!Legoiswastedontheyoung.
Stuffsays★★★★★
RossPresly
LegoTechnic42000
GrandPrixRacer
£80|lego.com
stuff picks
/TEST/04.13/nnnnnnn/
94 / www.stuff.tv
0123456789
Buildtime 5h11 Fingersoreness
FraserMacdonald
HaynesCombustion
EngineKit
£30|amazon.co.uk
stuff picks
/TEST/04.13/nnnnnnn/
www.stuff.tv / 91
0123456789
Beforeyouask:no,itdoesn’t.Actualcombustion
andcompressioninaplasticmodeldoesn’t
reallyseemwise.Butdespitethat,andits
slightlycheapbuild,there’ssomehard-boiled
engineeringnousrequiredhere.Bolted
together,thiskitwilldemonstrateafullfour-
strokecycle,completewithcam-operated
valvesandlight-upsparkplugsfiringinthe
rightorder.It’sbackwards,mindyou,withthe
crankbeingdrivenbyabatterymotorinthe
‘gearbox’–butit’saneducationnonetheless.
Stuffsays★★★★I
Buildtime 6h Fingersoreness
DESIGN
114
CAFe RACeR
evolution
tRiuMPH StReet tRiPle R
Middleweight naked bikes such as
the Street Triple R are the big-selling
hotcakes of the motorbike world,
and British-born Triumph is leading
the way. The Triple R is a masterclass
in light handling and proper sporting
performance, but the comfortable
straight bars mean there will be
no physio trips for aching wrists
after your epic Sunday rides either.
from £7700 / triumph.co.uk
DeSiGn
115
SCIENCE
FICTION
STUFF’S
GUIDE TO
If you love technology, you’ve
got to love sci-fi. It’s where the
big ideas come from – decades
or even centuries before they
happen in real life, the inventions
of the future are described by
authors, programmers and
filmmakers. Yes, there is a
certain amount of nerditude
involved, but in case you hadn’t
noticed, nerds get all the best
jobs these days. Buckle up for
a geektastic tour of the future…
The difference is tech:whilesciencefiction
concentrates on whatmightbepossible,
given the right technology,fantasyexplains
theincrediblebysaying“it’sakindofmagic”.
Sci-fi sometimes describestechnologyso
outlandish or advancedthatitmightaswell
bemagic,butit’salwaysbasedinscience.
Some authors, such asUrsulaLeGuinand
Michael Moorcock, managetoexcelinboth
genres. Sci-fi is better,though,becauseit’s
more believable, offersmorepossibilities–
and we all know who’sgoingtowininafight
between Gandalf andtheDeathStar.
/SCIENCEFICTION
ImagesfromHardware:TheDefinitiveSF
WorksofChrisFoss,£25,TitanBooks
SCI-FI VS FANTASY
www.stuff.tv / 81
[WordsWillDunnIllustrationChrisFoss]
120
1
3
2
fashion
1. Ball Engineer
Hydrocarbon DeepQUEST
This monster has gas-illuminated
hands that’ll keep glowing right down to
its 3000m limit.
£2660 / ballwatch.com
2. Citizen Promaster Depth
Meter Chronograph
This Eco-Drive diver displays your depth to 125ft
and records your deepest plunge for posterity.
£470 / citizenwatch.com
3. Suunto D9tx Titanium
A dive computer masquerading as
a watch: ideal for dive-stat geeks.
£965 / suunto.co.uk
Best For...
tech-
tockers
121
fashion
1
3
2
[WordsSimonOsborne-WalkerPicturesMatthewBeedle]
1. Tag Heuer
Aquaracer 500m
Chronograph
The Aquaracer’s sleek looks barely hint
at its ability to withstand salty depths.
£2995 / tagheuer.com
2. Mühle Glashütte Marinus
Silver dial not alluring enough? Admire the
Marinus’ inner workings through its crystal back.
£1560 / muehle-glashuette.de
3. Christopher Ward C60 Trident
InspiredbyRolex’sclassicSubmarinermodels,
theC60isanaffordableSwissautomatic.
£460 / christopherward.co.uk
BEST FOR...
DRESS-SUIT
DIVING
1987
KEY
INTRO
20022002
84 / www.stuff.tv
Nokia1100
Stilltheworld’sbest-selling
mobilephone,withmore
than200millionofthe
beautiesshippedworldwide.
Theultimatedumbphone.
MobiraCityman
Nokia’sfirsthandheldmobile.
Costsabout£4000,weighs
800g,andisusedbythen-
SovietleaderGorbachev.
Henceits‘Gorba’nickname.
Nokia6110
Thishard-casedclassic
improvesonitsbrick-like
cousin,the2110,witha
slimmerchassis.It’salsothe
firsttofeatureSnake.
Psion3
NotaNokia,butthedebutof
EPOC–themulti-taskingOS
thatevolvesintoSymbian.
EPOCisrumouredtomean
‘ElectronicPieceofCheese’.
Nokia7650
TheFinns’mostimportantphone
ofthenoughties–afirstfor
Symbian,withabuilt-in
cameraandacolourscreen,
andthefirstphonewitha
slide-downkeypad.With
third-partyappsandamulti-
taskingOS,itis(inconcept,if
notdesign)thegodfatherof
today’ssmartphones.Allkneel…
Nokia7110
Inspiredbythespring-loaded
NokiainTheMatrix,thisdesign
classicisthefirstphone
withT9predictivetext
andaWAPbrowser.The
uninspiringearlymobile
internetmayhaveledto
‘WAPathy’,butthe7110
remainsacultdumbphoneand
eBayregular.‘Tank,loadusup…’
Untilrecently,FinnishfirmNokiawasthe
kingofmobiles–producingmass-market
classicsandhigh-endsuperphonesthat
rivalssimplycouldn’tmatch.Thenitall
unravelled:first,theKoreansintroduced
wave-upon-waveofhigh-style,low-price
handsets.ThentheiPhonearrived,knocking
Nokiaoffthesmartphonethrone.Wheredid
itallgowrong?Andcanaforcedmarriageto
long-timerivalMicrosoftreversethedecline?
Nokia9000
Nokia’sfirstCommunicator
runsaPCoperatingsystem,
GEOSv3.Oneinthe
eyeforMicrosoftandits
lamentableWindowsCE.
Nokia9210
ThefirstSymbian(andfirst
colour)Communicator.
Popularamongboth
high-flyingbusinessgeeks
andStuffeditors-to-be.
AsNokiagetstoworkonitsfirstWindowsPhone7handset,
wegetallnostalgicaboutitstrailblazingbackcatalogue
Nokia1011
World’sfirstmass-produced
GSM,or2G,phone.Nokiais
keyindevelopingthistech,
whichmeansbettercall,text
anddataperformance.
Nokia2100
Thefirstphonetousethe
NokiaTuneringtonethat
ssoundtrackthenext
decade.Over20millionsold,
possiblythankstothesong.
Nokia5110
Thefirstmobilewith
changeablecovers:fashion
phonesstarthere.Soblame
itforodditiessuchasthe
later7280‘lipstick’phone.
19921994
19992003
1998199919911996
2000
dumbphone
smartphone
computer
GREATEST
HITS
#1
Nokia
www.stuff.tv / 85
Nokia7200
Nokia’sfirstclamshell
comeswayafterthepeak
of‘flipmania’,andtoolateto
protectitsmass-market
businessfromcompetitors.
Nokia5310
‘ComeswithMusic’,itsaid.
Thenitquickly‘wentwith
music’.Itsall-you-can-eat
downloadservicefailsto
settheworldalight.
Nokia1800
ThisbasicNokiamobileis
availableforlessthanafiver
onpay-as-you-go.Imports
fromtheFarEastareeven
cheaper,butnotassolid.
NokiaN95
This‘KingofSmartphones’
(©Stuff)islight-yearsahead
whenit’sannouncedinlate
2006,withWi-Fi,HSDPA,
GPSanda5MPcam.Butby
thetimeitarrivesinMarch
2007,Applehasunveiledthe
iPhone,andtheN95lookslike
adinosaur.Nokiaspendstwo
yearslickingitswounds.
NokiaN8
TheimprovedSymbian^3makes
itsdebutonanaluminium-clad
phonewithHDvideo,12MP
cameraandHDMIout.
Betweenitsannouncement
andrelease,Appleunveilsthe
iPhone4.It’sstillthebest
camphone,buttheclunky
interfaceshowswhyNokiahad
todraftinWindowsPhone7.
NokiaX7(Symbian)
Symbianwillcontinuetopower
Nokia’smidrangehandsets
“longafter”WindowsPhone7
handsetsappear.It’sbeen
polishedupwithanimproved
Webkitbrowserandinterface
tweaks,givenapleasantnew
name(Anna)andfounda
spankynewvesselintheX7,
withits4inscreenand8MPcam.
NokiaWP7phone
Thefirstfruitoftheunholyunion
betweenMicrosoftandNokia
isduelaterthisyear,running
WindowsPhone7witha
Nokiaskin.TheFinnsare
aimingtohita“verylow
price-point”withtheirfirst
WP7phone,soamidrange
handsetisabetterbetthan
apricey,WP7-poweredN8.
NokiaMeeGotablet
Nokiaisn’tcommittedtousing
WindowsPhone7intablets,
andtheFinnsarestillofficially
alliedwiththeopen-source
MeeGoplatform.Itcouldyet
beusedtopowerNokia’sfirst
tablet,whichitpatentedback
inMay2010.IfaMeeGotablet
doeseverarrive,wehopeit’sas
wellbuiltasthelovelyBooklet3G.
NokiaE61
TheSymbian-powered
E-seriestriestotakedown
BBlackerrywithitsQWERTY
keyboardsandslimlineform
factors.Haslimitedsuccess.
Nokia3650
EccentricSymbian
smartphonewithcircular
keypad–aneraofdesign
madnessstartshere.Also
seetheleaf-shaped7600.
NokiaN80
Verysmallsmartphonewith
panoplyoffeatures:3.1MP
cam,Wi-Fiandvideo-calling.
AnditsWebkit-based
browsingputsitwayahead.
Nokia5800
Nokia’sfirsttouchscreen
phone.Insteadofa
capacitivetouchscreenit
usesinferiorpoke-and-prod
resistivetech.iPhonesmirks.
NokiaN900
Thefirstsmartphonewith
Maemoispowerfulbut
confusing.EnterIntel’s
MoblinnetbookOS:thetwo
fuseandMeeGoisborn.
NokiaBooklet3G
Nokia’sfirstPCforalmost
20years,thisisthe‘ifApple
madenetbooks’netbook.
It’salsothefirstofits
productstorunWindows.
NokiaN90
TheN-seriesofSymbian
smartphones,includingthe
videocamera-shapedN90,
arrives.Palm-powered
phonesstruggletocompete.
NokiaN82
Amuch-lovedsmartphone
oftheoldschool–andthe
firstphonewithaproper
xenonflash.Theworld’s
bestcamphone,forabit.
NokiaX6
Justovertwoyearsafterthe
iPhone,Nokia’scapacitive
touchscreencomesout.Its
antiquatedSymbianv2
doesn’tgodownwell.
NokiaN-Gage
Thecompany’sfirstgames
machineistwicethe
priceofaGameBoy
Advance,butwithnoneof
thegames.Cannedin2005.
Nokia770
Groundbreaking(butlittle
known)touchscreeninternet
tablet,runningavariantof
LinuxknownasMaemo.
Wayaheadofitstime.
2004
2007
2008
20062002
20062008
20092009
2011
2010
2005
2007
2009
20112011
2003
2007
2005
82 / www.stuff.tv
THE DAWN
OF SCI-FI
INVENTING THE
FUTURE
Writers have been speculating about space
travel for almost two millennia, and you can
find robots in ancient mythology. Sci-fi might be
about the future, but the future is as old as time…
Sci-fi predicted much of the modern world, including…
/SCIENCEFICTION
ATRUESTORY
LucianofSamosata|2ndcenturyAD
Thetitleisironic–thistraveller’syarn
ofavisittothemoonwasmeantasa
satireofthestoriesofHomer,which
manyatthetimetookasrealhistorical
sources.Insendingupotherstories,
Lucianinventedanewtypeoffiction.
SOMNIUM
JohannesKepler|1634
Whenhewasn’tdiscoveringthe
lawsofplanetarymotion,thefather
ofmodernastrophysicsfoundtime
toimaginewhatitwouldbeliketo
traveltothemoon,andtoobservethe
Earthfromitssurface.
FRANKENSTEIN
MaryShelley|1818
Thenewscienceofgalvanism–
animatingmuscleswithelectricity–
gavethe19-year-oldMarynightmares.
Shewrotethemdown,andherstory
ofamancreatedfromthespareparts
binbecamethefirsttruesci-finovel.
AJOURNEYTOTHECENTRE
OFTHEEARTH
JulesVerne|1864
Vernewasthefirstwritertomakea
careerfromsci-fi,andthefirsttomake
thegenrehugelypopular.Histripdown
avolcanictubemadegeologysound
alotmoreexcitingthanitreallyis.
Satellites
Sci-filegendArthur
CClarkeisoften
creditedwith
‘inventing’satellite
communication,in
adetailedessayfor
WirelessWorldin
1945.ButJules
Verneputamilitary
satelliteinhis1879
novelTheBegum’s
Fortune,andin1869
EdwardEverettHale
madethefirst
recordedmentionof
anartificialsatellite
(madeofbricks)
inhisshortstory
TheBrickMoon.
Tabletcomputers
InArthurCClarke’s
novel2001:ASpace
Odyssey,an
astronautusesa
Newspad,aflat
displayalittlebigger
thananiPad,toread
digitalnewspapers,
expandingpostage-
stamp-sizedicons
tofullscreenview.
Thenovelwas
writtenin1969.
Aroundthesame
time,thecrewofthe
USSEnterprisewere
usiingfamiliar-
lookingflatpanels
forcomputingtasks.
Wikipedia
HGWellswasa
prolificpredictor,
writingdepictionsof
nuclearweapons,
geneticengineering,
militarylasersand
theSecondWorld
Wardecadesbefore
theyhappened.In
TheShapeofThings
toCome,healso
wroteabout
a‘World
Encyclopaedia’:
afree,universal
information
resourceaccessed
frompeople’s
hometerminals.
YouTube
Yearsbeforethe
firstwebbrowser,
DavidBrinwrote
Earth,inwhich
peopleusetheweb
fornews,blogging
andespeciallyvideo,
thankstocheap
handheldvideo
cameras.Earthalso
predictsemailspam,
augmentedreality
andmore.Addto
thatthefactthat
DavidBrinhasa
shinybaldhead,and
youhaveonlyone
conclusion:he’s
atimetraveller.
THE PERIODIC TABLE OF SCI-FI
Cavorite
Appears in
The First Men
in the Moon by
HG Wells
Properties
Negates the
effects of
gravity; useful
for space flight
Unobtanium
Appears in
Avatar,
various other
films
Properties
Super-
conductor;
very rare and
expensive
Adamantium
Appears in
X-Men
comics &
films
Properties
Practically
indestructible;
good blade
material
Ice-nine (water)
Appears in
Cat’s Cradle by
Kurt Vonnegut
Properties
Crystallises
water at room
temperature,
including
sea water
Ca Ub Ad H20
[IllustrationChrisFoss]
2 19 11 83
www.stuff.tv / 83
CYBERPUNK
…AND MANY OTHER FLAVOURS
SCI-FI
EVOLVED
As technology evolves in the real
world, it fires up the imaginations
of sci-fi authors. In the late Victorian
era, fast communication, electricity
and steam engines drove HG Wells
and Jules Verne to popularise the
genre; in the 1980s and ’90s, the birth
of the internet caused a similar rush
of ideas from authors such as William
Gibson and Neal Stephenson. Social
change can set them off, too – in the
1960s, ideas and politics became the
themes. Every time the world changes,
a new sub-genre of SF is born… STEAMPUNK
/SCIENCEFICTION
What is it?
Inthe1980sand’90s,aspersonalcomputersmade
theirwayintoeveryhomeandtheinternetwent
global,sci-fiwritersbegantopopulate‘cyberspace’
(awordcoinedbyWilliamGibsoninhis1982story
BurningChrome)withtheircharacters.Fast-paced
andanarchic,cyberpunkfindsatleastasmuch
adventureinthedigitalasitdoesinreallife.
What is it?
Cyberpunk’smustachioed,monocled,gin-swilling
uncle,steampunkusestechfamiliartoHGWellsand
JulesVerne:steampower,clockworkandairships.
Characterswearcapesanddashaboutonrooftops.
ReadStephenHunt’sTheCourtoftheAir,China
Miéville’sPerdidoStreetStationandAlanMoore’s
TheLeagueofExtraordinaryGentlemen.
APOCALYPTIC
…inwhichtheworld
comestoanend,butit’s
sortofcool
COMIC
...inwhichthefutureis,
likethepresent,
somethingofajoke
PSYCHOLOGICAL
…inwhichthemost
importantactiontakes
placeinthemind
MILITARY
…inwhich,well–youget
thepicture.It’sgot
soldiersinit
Ghost in the Shell (film)
Mamoru Oshii, 1995
InHongKong,afemalecyborg
copinvestigatesamysterious
hacker.Watchitinadouble
billwithAkiraforafulldose
offuturisticanime.
Blade Runner (film)
Ridley Scott, 1982
Createdtheenvironment
intowhichcyberpunkwas
born:citiesofskyscrapersin
aperpetualnight,litbyneon
advertisingbillboards.
Neuromancer (book)
William Gibson, 1984
Theoriginalcyberpunknovel
hasalltheelements:ahacker
hero,agiantTokyo-style
city,artificialintelligences,
andhuge,sinistercorporations.
Deus Ex: Human
Revolution (game)
Eidos Montreal, 2011
Peppered with references to
Blade Runner, this game
makes the future look dark,
dirty and very, very cool.
Cat’s Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut, 1963
Ascientistfiguresout
howtogetwaterto
freezesolidatroom
temperature,without
stoppingtowonderif
thatmightbeabadidea.
The Drowned World
JG Ballard, 1962
Theicecapshavemelted
and Nature is taking
backtheplanet.Astheir
environmentchanges,
humanmindsregress
totheirprimalstate.
Red Dwarf
Rob Grant & Doug
Naylor, 1988-99
Thegreatthingabout
digitalTVisthat,ifall
elsefails,there’susually
anepisodeofRed
Dwarfonsomewhere.
The Forever War
Joe Haldeman, 1974
ThesoldiersofEarth
setouttofightaliens,
buthugedistancesand
timedilationmeanwar
isrenderedpointless
andconfusing.
Untilthe1960s,sci-fihadnosubtext;itwasabout
thefuture,pureandsimple.Thencameanew
breedofauthors,whousedthegenretowrite
aboutotherthings–UrsulaleGuinplayedouther
politicalideasonotherplanets,andJGBallardset
hispsychologicaldramasonanear-futureEarth.
‘Soft’sci-fi–storiessetinsci-fi’sinfiniteworlds,
butrelevanttomodernlifeonEarth–wasborn.
Penny Farthing
£500|iwantoneofthose.com
Getsomepractice
somewherequietbefore
takingyournewbikeoutfor
arideinthepark,otherwise
you’lllookfarthingridiculous.
Phonofone III
US$195|scienceandsons.com
Thisporcelaingramophone/
ear-trumpetamplifiesyour
iPhone’sspeakeracoustically
–likeshoutingthrougha
trafficcone,onlyclassier.
iRetrophone Steampunk
£225 | freelandstudios.com
TurnsyouriPhone4intothe
sortofhefty,respectable
machineachapcanlifttohis
faceandbellow“whatthe
deucedoyouwant?”into.
‘SOFT’ AND ‘HARD’
Bioshock Infinite (game)
2K Games, 2012
Bioshockissteampunkin
gameform,andInfinite’s
settinginanairborne
dirigiblecityisstraightout
ofaStephenHuntnovel.
GIFT GUIDE
USE IT WITH…
56
Fact: you’ll have more success
selling tat on ebay if you take nice
photos of said tat. Crazy, eh? The
good news is that it’s now easier
than ever to give pics a pro sheen.
Just buy your ebay fan a Foldio, a
portable mini studio with built-in
LED lights, and every shot will
look like something from a John
Lewis catalogue.
fromUS$50/orangemonkie.com
Everyone over the age of
30 has a drawer full of 35mm
negatives lying somewhere.
Imagine what might be on it: you,
when you were young and fit!
Your partner, when they were
young and fit! Your dog, when
it wasn’t dead! This scanner
transfers those memories from
film to shiny smartphone.
£50/lomography.com
Camera straps are uniformly
evil, cutting into shoulders like
a malevolent masseuse and
offering little functionality. The
UltraFit Sling Strap is a revelation:
it’s comfy enough to sleep in and
userscanwhizzacamera from
waist to face in one slick move.
£38/joby.com
Anytruephotographygeekwillalready
haveatop-notchDSLR,compactand
snap-happysmartphone.Butnonewill
bemuchuseshootingwildsalmoninthe
freezingwatersofAlaska:theDSLRwill
betoobulkytolugtotheKatmaiNational
Park,thecompactwon’tbewaterproof
andthesmartphonelacksazoom.Enter
theNikonCoolpixAW120.It’stougherthan
StevenSeagaland10timessexier.Itcan
survivedunks,dropsandfreezesandhas
abuilt-incompassandaltimeter.Most
importantly,its16MPsensorservesup
pin-sharppicturesandits5xopticalzoom
willbehandyiftherearebearsabout.
£250/nikon.co.uk
LaCie
RuggedMini
Getthemtostore
alltheirriskily
takenshotson
thistoughlittle
harddrive.It’s
rain-resistant,
shock-resistant
and pressure-
resistant,and
comeswith
between
500GBand
2TBofstorage.
from£65 /
lacie.com/uk
Foldio
Lomography
SmartphoneScanner
JobyUltraFitSlingStrap
Nikon
Coolpix AW120
StoCKInG FILLerS
SHutter
nutter
tHe GLIF This Kickstarter-funded marvel grips a smartphone
securely in its jaws then fits to a tripod to give a phone-cam
the gift of steadiness. It’ll work with almost any smartphone
in the world and doubles as a stand. US$30 / studioneat.com
nova However good the iPhone’s dual-LED flash is, it’ll never
compete with off-camera lighting. Give shots a glow worthy of
a studio set-up with the Nova flash – a dinky, Bluetooth-controlled
source that comes with a free iOS app. £50 / novaphotos.com
CuRRICuLuM
GADGEtAE
TonyFadell
tHEMANWHO
INVENtEDtHE
iPHONE
NAMEstODROP#4
26
H sO t ft u f
[IllustrationCharlesWilliams/madeup.org]
FromworkingonthefirstiPodto
designingnext-genthermostat
Nest,TonyFadellisattheleading
edgeofpersonaltech.Weaskhim
whyhethinkshomeautomation
isn’tactuallyallthatsmart…
IdesignedthefirstiPod.
IshowedittoSteve[Jobs,obvs.],
gothissign-offonit,thenbuiltthe
team.Weshipped8generations
ofiPod,designedthehardwarefor
theiPhoneandshippedthefirst
threegenerationsoftheiPhone.
Idesignedthehardwareandthe
softwarestacks–wherethe
buttonswent,whichsensorwent
where–andourteamcreated
thetouchscreen.
WhenIfirstsawa3DTV,Iwaslike,
“ThatthingisDOA.”
Theytriedtotakeacommodity
productandturnitintosomething
thatwasnewandexcitingwhen
wealreadyhadaflatpanelthatwas
fine.Theirgrowthstopped,sothey
thought,“Let’saddmore,andit’ll
allbebetter.”AndsmartTVs,how
dumbarethey?Theinterfacesare
horrible.YoujustwantNetflixbut
theremoteshaveaYahoobutton,
aNetflixbutton,asmartTVbutton
thattakesyoutoanothersetof
menus–they’renotrethinking,
they’rejustaddingmorestuff.
Iloathehomeautomation.
Typically,thepeoplewhowant
homeautomationaresingleguys.
Theywantonebuttontoimpress
thechicks.Itclosestheblinds,
turnsonthelights,turnsonthe
TV.Butmostpeoplejustwantthe
technologytogoaway.We’reall
abouttakingthethingsthatare
necessaryinyourhomeand
makingthemsmarter,butinthe
background.Tome,that’swhat
thesuccessoftheconnected
homeisgoingtobe;it’snotgoing
tobeallofthesewhizzyhome
automationthingsthatyouseein
alltheseKickstarterprojects.Blah
blahblah,talktoyourcoffee
maker.Areyoukiddingme?
Smartappliancesareonestep
toofar.
We’resolvingaproblempeople
don’thave.It’sjustmore
complication.Thereareacoupleof
verycoolthingssmartappliances
cando,likereportingenergy
usage.Butaretheyreallygoingto
changedramatically?No.What
theyneedtodoisfigureoutnew
waysofconvectioncookingor
inductioncooking.That’swhere
thefundamentaltechnology
differencesare–notlayeringon
morestufffromSiliconValleyto
confusethings.LikewhenNest
cameintothethermostatmarket:
beforeus,thebiginnovationwas
colouredtouchscreens,soyou
couldhaveyourcalendarandyour
photoalbumonyourthermostat.
What?Why?
Iworkedonwearablecomputing.
IdidtheNike+shoewiththeiPod,
andIlearnedalotaboutwearables.
Ihatetheterm‘smart’.Smartthis,
smartthat,smartsmartsmart.
Whatproblemareyoutruly
solving?Ithinkithastobeacouple
ofthingsdoneverysimply.It’snot
goingtobethiswholeplatform;
it’sanaccessorytoaphone.Often
you’rejustnotunderstandingthe
problem,you’rejustlayeringmore
onsoyoucansay,“I’veoutdone
thisotherguy’sstuff,it’sgot
morecheckboxes,therefore
youshouldbuymine.”
Phabletsseemlikeafad.
Peoplethink,“YeahIwantthe
biggerscreen,”andthenthey’re
like,“Ohno–maybeIjustwanta
smallertablet.”What’sbeing
marketedseemscool,butlookat
whatpeoplearereallyusing,what
peoplestickwith.Alotofpeople
justwantittofitintheirpocket.
Thebasicsmakeaphonebrilliant.
Whatpeopletalkaboutare:
what’sthecamera,what’sthe
display,what’sthebatterylife?
Thesmartphonemarketnow
remindsmeofPCsbackinthe
day,whentheykeptaddingmore
bloatware.It’sreallymoreabout
appsthanitisabouthardware.
SonyMagicLink
(1994)
Tonycreateda
lightweightOSfor
handheldtouchscreen
devices13years
beforethefirst
iPhonewaslaunched.
PhilipsNino(1999)
WhileatPhilips,Fadell
createdanumberof
touchscreenPDAs
runningWindowsCE.
KnownasPalm-Size
PCs,theyhadobvious
smartphoneleanings.
AppleiPod(2001)
AfterPhilips,Fadell
startedacompany
calledFusetoproduce
amusicplayerwitha
smallharddisk.He
couldn’tgetfunding,
sowenttoApple.
Nest(2010)
Whilekittingouthis
newlybuilthousein
LakeTahoe,Fadell
realisedthermostats
wererubbish,and
decidedtomakehis
own,betterone.
“TYPICALLY,IT’STHESINGLEGUYSWHO
WANTHOMEAUTOMATION.THEYWANT
ONEBUTTONTOIMPRESSTHECHICKS”
74 / www.stuff.tv
If it’s a life on the ocean waves for
you, you’ll be needing a fleece-
lined shell that’ll keep you warm
even in a white squall. The HPX is
coated in laminated Gore-Tex to
keep wind and waves at bay, and
a stretch fabric for mobility.
Soyou’reatthecruxofanE3and
therain’s closing in: clearly you
need a three-point hood
adjustment system so you can
keep your bonce dry. Tapered
sleeves stop the arms riding up
as you reach for that tricky edge.
/TECHJACKETS
MAMMUT
NORDWAND
£550 | outside.co.uk
MUSTOHPX
OCEANJACKET
£570 | musto.com
BEST FOR
SAILING
BEST FOR
CLIMBING
ROSS PRESLY
144 / www.stuff.tv
LITTLEBIGPLANETS
A
SENSOR
ADVENTURE
/GEEKART
TiredofInstagramsunsets?Trythesephotographers’tipstomakeyourownworksofart
AKA STEREOGRAPHIC PROJECTION
www.stuff.tv / 145
BYJEFFGOLDBERG
FLICKR.COM/JEFFAGOLDBERG
ingredients
HOWTO...
/GEEK ART
“I came across this
technique on Flickr, and
emailed photographers to
find out how they
composed their work:
most are very willing to
share their techniques.
Then I explored my local
areas in Illinois, United
States – the water was
so still for this shot,
I managed to get a glass-
like reflection on the far
side of the water.”
PTGui software
from £70 | ptgui.com
A photo-stitching wizard
for Windows and Mac, its
‘stereographic down’
mode centres the ‘nadir’ of
your scene to make it look
like a tiny planet.
Canon EOS 7D DSLR
£790|digitalrev.com
Sigma 10-20mm
f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM lens
£340 | amazon.co.uk
Manfrotto
190CXPRO4 tripod
£220 | jessops.com
1Scenes that make good
‘little planets’ have a
consistent texture to the
foreground, and a decent
variation to the background.
Trees and buildings work
well, but if they’re too tall
they’ll dwarf your planet.
2Set up your tripod and
take a 360o round of
photos. The shot above is a
composite of 72 images, but
simpler scenes require far
fewer. Use a shot taken
above and below you as the
centre of the planet.
3Load the images into
PTGui and choose
‘Stereographic Down’ mode.
The software calculates the
angles to help align things
and gets about 80% of
the joins correct; you can
manually adjust the rest.
4Now use Adobe
Photoshop and
Lightroom to ‘clean up’ the
likes of exposure and
generally buff your planet.
Post-processing for a shot
like this can take up to a day,
but it’s worth it to play God.
SHARECONOMY
93
[ Words Jamie Condliffe Illustration Erro Johannes ]
Welcometotheshareconomy,inwhichsitessuchasAirbnband
TaskRabbitreinventcommunityspiritbylettingyouborrowfrom
andlendtoothersovertheweb.KarlMarxwouldbesoproud…
So, the ‘shareconomy’ – that means we’ll all be
knitting socks in a commune soon, right? Don’t
fret, it’s nothing so unsexy as that. Simply put,
most of us have things we don’t use and skills
we could share. Enter, stage right, the internet,
which makes it possible to lend things to others,
sometimes for a fee, sometimes just for the
vibes, man. And even when there is a charge,
it’s usually less than using a traditional service.
Want to get started? Simply list something
– anything from a spare room to your pet — on
the right website and people will contact you to
borrow it. Sites such as Economy Of Hours take
the peer-to-peer spirit further, letting you
trade your skills and time for the same in return.
And lo! A new spirit of community is born. It’s
what the internet was invented for.
INTErNET
karma
94 / www.stuff.tv
It’schillydownbyyourshins.
It’schillydownbyyourshins.
Bootyourselfintowarmth
Bootyourselfintowarmth
It’schillydownbyyourshins.
Bootyourselfintowarmth
It’schillydownbyyourshins.
It’schillydownbyyourshins.
Bootyourselfintowarmth
It’schillydownbyyourshins.
withapairofhigh-tops
withapairofhigh-tops
Bootyourselfintowarmth
withapairofhigh-tops
Bootyourselfintowarmth
Bootyourselfintowarmth
withapairofhigh-tops
Bootyourselfintowarmth
[Words
CherryMa
rtinPic
tures
Ma
tth
ew
Beedle]
/FASHION
AirMagmaby
Nike
£8
5|siz
e.co.uk
Pulfer by Call It Spring
£85 | callitspring.com
TrekkerBo
ot
by
Gravis
£130
|surfd
om
e.c
om
KhykebyBoxfresh
£105
|boxfres
h.co.u
k
Jake
Workb
oo
tby
Ca
terpilla
r
£8
5|catfo
otwea
r.c
om
SHARES
RISING…
94
SHARECONOMY
here was a time when a
cheap room meant Premier
Inn and hiring a car meant
Enterprise. But now,
everyday folk on the internet
have flats, cars, and all kinds
of other stuff that they’re
willing to lend. “Sharing has
been around forever,” explains
NathanBlecharczyk,co-founderof
Airbnb,thepioneeringsitethatlets
you rent a room in someone else’s
home. “It’s just that in the last 50
years people have accumulated so
much stuff that they’re not using
it all. Now, technology is making it
possible for them to share it.”
Websites can match owners
to borrowers, online payment
systems allow people to stump
up cash, and social networks let
everyone check they can trust
one another. This is the sharing
economy – and if you’re not using
it yet, you probably soon will be.
Sharing 2.0
The whole thing sounds a lot like
re-branded renting, but advocates
rightly point to a few subtle
differences. “Three things mark
out a successful sharing economy
company,” explains Blecharczyk.
“One, the technology has to
remove friction from the
transaction, to make it easier. Two,
there needs to be some degree of
financial arbitrage. And three, it has
to be a community, it has to be fun.
It can’t just be about the money.
That’s the secret sauce.”
Add to the mix the fact that
shareconomy services are
often good for the environment,
because they minimise wasteful
purchases, and it seems an
irresistible prospect. It’s certainly
working for Airbnb: launched in
2008, the site now offers users
over 500,000 places to stay in
34,000 cities around the world.
Boom, boom
It’snotjustaboutfindingatakerfor
yourspareroom,though.American
sites such as Relay Rides have
created peer-to-peer car rental
services, Uber – and its cheaper
UberX offshoot – has pioneered
a new kind of taxi service by
matching willing drivers to wanting
passengers, and TaskRabbit allows
people to farm out chores. It’s all
great value, too. “UberX in London
is 30-40% cheaper than a black
cab,” explains Corey Owens, Head
of Global Public Policy at Uber.
“For a long time people didn’t
realise it was possible to make
services that cheap and provide
someone with a living wage.”
There are increasingly more
UK-specific examples, too,
allowing you to share home-
cooked food, borrow land to pitch
a tent, or even find a pooch you
can pet-sit for. Business is
booming. In fact, Lauren Anderson
from Collaborative Consumption,
an independent research
organisation specialising in peer-
to-peer markets, is “comfortable
valuing the sharing economy
globally as worth in the region
of US$100 billion.”
All about the money?
With that much cash floating
around, it’s tempting to get
involved. As a customer you can
save a packet, but you could make
money, too. Not all the cash comes
your way, though – the sites take
a cut, and you may have to pay tax
on the income – but it’s still
possible to make a wedge.
One user we spoke to, who
wants to remain anonymous,
rents a central-London apartment
for £2000 a month then sub-lets
it on Airbnb. “I make £500 in profit
each month,” he explains. “It’s not
passive income, but now I’ve been
doing it for a while I probably only
spend about 20 minutes a day
working on it.” That’s an hourly
rate of a none-too-shabby £55.
He’s not alone in this, either:
Airbnb claims the average San
Francisco host makes £5600
a year, while Steven Webb from
Relay Rides explains that “some
power users make upwards of
£600 a month.”
1995
eBAY opeNs Its
doors
Car boot sales and village
auctions were the places
for second-hand stuff, until eBay
changed everything. Nineteen
years after its launch, it's fair to
say the multi-billion-dollar site
has proven that web-based
economies work.
1999
NApster pIoNeers
peer-to-peer
It didn't invent peer-to-peer
sharing, but Sean Parker's
pioneering music label nemesis
did popularise the idea of internet
users pooling their resources for
the collective good. Or the
collective bad, if you're the
bypassed middle man.
2004
streetCAr stArts
Its eNGINes
It began with just eight cars
parked outside Clapham
Junction station, but Streetcar
soon became a pioneer of the
UK shareconomy and our biggest
car-sharing service. Until, that is,
it was hoovered up by its US
equivalent, Zipcar, in 2010.
2008
AIrBNB Is BorN
When two San Franciscan
roommates couldn’t afford
to pay their rent, they let
the place out to cover costs,
made a profit – and invented
Airbnb in the process. The
room-sharing service has so far
provided a roof over the heads
of more than 9 million people.
2013
tAsKrABBIt
HIts tHe UK
America’s biggest task-
sharing site – which lets
you farm out chores and errands
you’d rather avoid – hopped
across to the UK in November
2013. An economy kick-started
in the States is now ready to
reinvent the concept of 'temping'.
HOW IT
WORKS109 NEIGHBOURS SHARING 83 THINGS WITHIN 1 MILE
SHARECONOMY
95
Community service
The origin of all this success? “It’s
been a perfect storm,” explains
Anderson. “The sharing economy
allowed people to have what they
wanted without spending as much
during the financial crisis. But at
the same time there’s been
a resurgent desire to feel part
of a community, too.” That’s
particularly evident in the UK. “In
the US, they’re a much purer breed
of capitalist,” muses Ben Pugh,
founder of Farmdrop, a site linking
food producers to customers,
cutting out the supermarkets.
“In the UK, we’ve got a streak of
left-wing in us.”
His company means producers
see more profit and customers
get fresher, tastier food, but
many sites highlight the UK’s
egalitarian streak: Streetclub
helps communities pool DIY tasks
and tools, while Streetbank lets
you share possessions with a
neighbour. Neither require money
to change hands. “We think
financial exchanges take away the
natural high you get when you help
“IT HAS TO BE A COMMUNITY,
IT HAS TO BE FUN, NOT JUST
BE ABOUT THE MONEY”
NATHAN BLECHARCZYK, AIRBNB
someone,” explains Sam
Stephens, founder of Streetbank.
“So we're encouraging people
to be generous.”
Trust nobody
Cash or otherwise, you might still
be worried about dealing with
strangers. After all, a woman in the
US famously had her apartment
trashed by a rogue Airbnb guest in
2011, and some Relay Rides and
Uber cars have been involved in
accidents. “Without a doubt
the most critical aspect for all
businesses in the sharing
economy is establishing trust
and safety,” admits Webb, which
is why sites offer multiple layers
of reassurance.
In some cases, users can
be filtered from the get-go —
blemished driving licenses make
it impossible to sign up to car-
sharing sites, say. Then there’s
1. SHOUT
Advertise or make a
request for a Thing (be
it a product or service)
on the relevant site.
Try Meshing.it for a list
of sharing sites. On
Streetbank, your Thing
could be an old sofa
or French lessons.
2. RESPONSE
Like-minded peeps
see your post, then
request and respond
through a shareconomy
service. Or, if the
Things are owned by
the service, they’ll say
what’s available, and
where to collect it.
3. STRIKE A DEAL
An agreement is set.
On Streetbank, say, it’s
a digital handshake.
Where cash is involved,
services such as Airbnb
hold the fee, take a cut,
then pass on the cash
after the Thing has
been returned.
4.KUDOSTOYOU
Leave and receive
feedback for the deal.
Don’t neglect this
part: it boosts your
reputation on the site
and makes you
a trustworthy
shareconomiser (just
don’t call yourself that).
sPACe
oddities
SHARECONOMY
98
CaSSERoLE
CLUb
The best thing
some of us can
make for dinner
is a reservation, so
Casserole Club pairs
foodies with people
devoid of culinary
skills – and those who
just appreciate a good,
home-cooked supper.
casseroleclub.com
CaMP IN MY
GaRDEN
If Airbnb is
too much, how
about some
turf to call your own?
Camp In My Garden
offers a selection of
back yards whose
owners are happy to
have a tent pitched
there for the night.
campinmy�arden.com
DoG VaCaY
Maybe your dog
needs looking
after, or you
want a pet but
can’t have one full-
time. Dog Vacay pairs
pooches whose
owners are off on
holiday with animal
lovers keen to care for
them for a few weeks.
do�vacay.com
GEt MY
boat
A life on the
waves: relaxing,
romantic, but
expensive. Unless you
borrow someone else's
boat for the weekend
– GetMyBoat finds
occasional sailors’
vessels, from kayaks
to ocean-going yachts.
�etmyboat.com
…holiday money
WE SWaP
Instead of spending your
lunchtimes queuing up at
the bureau de change,
We Swap lets your trade
your currency directly
with someone who’s
doing the reverse of
your trip. Your cash then
appears on a prepaid
credit card to spend
during your holiday.
weswap.com
…snowboards
SPINLIStER
Hitting the slopes can be
a pricey business, but
Spinlister lets you borrow
someone else’s skis or
snowboard while they’re
hitting the après-ski
Jägermeister. And come
the summer when the
snow has all melted, they
can fix you up with
a mountain bike, too.
spinlister.com
…3D Printers
3D HUbS
Everybody wants to have
a go at 3D printing, but
these machines aren't
exactly an impulse buy.
This site lets you know
of nearby hardware and
when it’s free. Now you
just need to decide which
of your colleagues to
turn into a novelty
plastic meerkat.
3dhubs.com
…car sharing
bLa bLa CaR
The UK’s answer to Lyft
pairs an empty seat in
someone’s motor to a
person needing to take
the same journey. Like
hitchhiking without the
Rutger Hauer character
from The Hitcher, the
driver earns petrol money
while the passenger gets
a cheap ride.
blablacar.com
…parking spaces
PaRK at MY HoUSE
Drive down any street in the middle of the
day and kerbs will be full but driveways
empty. Park At My House pairs
empty drives with people who
need a spot during their
workday, saving them 70%
on parking costs. And a lot
of parking-ticket rage.
Parkatmyhouse.com
tHE LEFt�FIELD
LoaNS FRoM
tHoSE WHo
WaNt to SEEM
GENERoUS
RisiNG stARsTheshareconomyisbranchingbeyondcarsandflatsandinto…
68
GROUP TEST
What is it?
The laptop-slaying Surface Pro 2
comes armed with Intel’s new
Haswell chip for better battery
life andprocessinggrunt.Its10.6in
full HD screen is the biggest here
and,witheithertheTouchorType
Cover attached, offers the best
keysfortrout-sizedhands.Butall
thatcomesataprice–thatprice
beingatleast£720,withupwards
of£100ontopofthatforaCover.
Is it any good?
Nevermind‘laptopslayer’,at900g
thePro2isalmostasbeastlyasa
laptopitself.Fortunately,ithasthe
power to match, with the most
What is it?
TheEncoreisthefirstofaraftof
8infullWindows8.1tabletsdueto
arrivethisyear.ItrunsonIntel’s
speedynewBaytrailmobileCPU,
squeezes in a respectable
1280x800 screen and is well
stocked for ports, with microSD
and microHDMI-out adorning its
sides. It’s not much of a looker,
admittedly, but it’s neat, sturdy
andworksnicelyinportraitmode.
Is it any good?
Full Windows 8.1 looks a bit
squashed on an 8in screen, but
at £250, with the ability to run
side-by-side apps and with
MicrosoftSurfacePro2
£720 / microsoft.com
ToshibaEncore8in
£250 / toshiba.com
STUFF SAYS ★★★★★
The best Windows 8 tablet that
(a lot of) money can buy
STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩
The reliable,versatile Encore
serves up full Win 8.1 on a budget
Tech 10.6in,1920x1080● Intel
Corei5@1.9GHz● 64GB(+microSD)
● 1.2MP,720p(front/rear)● USB3.0,
MiniDisplayPort,Bluetooth 4.0
●275x173x13.5mm,900g
Tech 8in,1280x800● IntelAtom
Z3740@1.33GHz● 32GB(+microSD)
● 8MP(rear);2MP(front)● microUSB,
Bluetooth4.0,microHDMI
● 10.68x213x135.9mm,445g
sprightly video editing, browsing
and gaming on test. It’s certainly
the only tablet here capable of
running Premiere Pro and Grid 2
simultaneously. A 5hr battery life
is acceptable, build is excellent
and if you want the best, it’s the
only choice. But, boy, that price…
access to full Windows programs,
we’ll forgive it. Stamina is good at
8hrs, it flies through Window
Store games and Excel
spreadsheets alike, and while
there’s no obvious keyboard
attachment, it’s simple enough
to use a Bluetooth one.
Port
authority
ThePro2hasa
USB3.0port–great
forstickinginanXbox
controllerandgetting
insomeproperFPS
action(onlow
settings).
69
GROUP TEST
testtest
winner
What is it?
Anadvancednetbookterminator,
Asus’T100lackstheshapeshifting
abilityofitsmoviebigbrotherthe
T-1000,butitdoesbringword
processingtothepartyinstead.
The10.1intablet-and-dock
combopushesthescalesat1kg,
butit’sworthitfortheUSB3.0
portandtotapawayfuriouslyon
thetrain.The1366x768screen
offerscrisptext,greatcontrast
andcoloursthatpop.
Is it any good?
TheTBookrunsfull8.1onIntel’s
newBaytrailprocessors–double
theprocessingpowerandtriple
AsusTransformerBookT100
£350 / asus.com
STUFF SAYS ★★★★★
An amazing tabtop with power,
neat design and killer battery life
Tech10.1in,1366x768● IntelAtom
Z3740@1.33GHz● 32GB(+microSD)
● 1.2MP(front)● Bluetooth4.0,
microUSB,USB3.0(dock)●
264x171x10.5mm,550g(tab);
264x171x23.6mm,1.07kg(both)
thegraphicsoflastyear’sAtoms
–anditshows.Everythingruns
smoothlyanditalsorocks
speedydual-bandWi-Fiandthe
bestbatterylifehere,lastingall
dayandintothenext.For£350
allin,it’sreallyquiteabargain.
Nice
toseeyou…
TheEncoreis
greatforSkype,with
crystal-clearaudio–
thankstodualmicsthat
blockoutbackground
noise–andbright
HDpictures.
Room
formanoeuvre
TheT100issmaller
thanalaptop,butthe
keyboardissturdyand
thekeyshavegood
depth.Thetrackpad’s
notquitesohot,
though.
ROSS PRESLY

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  • 1. ROSS PRESLY PARTY LIKE IT’S 2024 Turn your NYE into a bash from the future CANSOFWHOOPASS On-ear headphones: we test the best CASE AND STATUS Wrap yourself and your gadgets in style £4.60 January2015 www.stuff.tv GADGETS/APPS/GEAR SMARTWATCH SHOWDOWN THE TOP THREE TECH TICKERS YULEBELUCKY LAST-MINUTE XMAS GADGET GIFT GUIDE THE 20GREATEST GADGETSINTHE WORLDTODAY 2014 GADGET AWARDSTHETECHOF THEYEAR GADGETS/APPS/GEAR ANDROID WEAR WORN A smartwatch you actually need p80 VR GETS REAL Holodecks, armchair tourism, 360º films & VRAttenboroughp51 THE £230 SUPERPHONE OnePlus One tested: So long Samsung, adios Apple p96 PLUS! Turnyour phoneintoaVR headset... for £25 ...and they’re here, now www.stuff.tv/September2014/£4.60 TESLASONTEST So much fun to drive, the electric bit’s just a bonus YOU’VEGOTALE Brew the perfect pint with your smartphone HI-DEF?SOPASSÉ The three best quad-HD TVs money can buy THINGS GADGETS/APPS/GEAR STUFF INNOVATORS 2014 SUPERHEROES OFTECH THE APPLE WATCH IS HERE ...ANDIT’SABOUTTIME LUCKEY Gatekeeper of the virtual realm WHITE Reinventing your record collection BREAZEAL Mother of a million robots THE VERDICT iPHONE 6 NAKAMOTO Replacing money with code MUSK Revolutionising travel on Earth... and in space GREEN MACHINES Wegolong-distanceinthreeeco-friendlysupercarsGREEN MACHINES Meet the visionaries remaking your world +5.5in 6 PLUS www.stuff.tv/Nov2014/£4.60
  • 2. ROSS PRESLY /WINTERSPORTSSPECIAL 120 / www.stuff.tv Arc’teryx Micon £420 | arcteryx.com A great option if your pins feel the cold, Arc’teryx’s leg-warmers use Coreloft insulation to keep your lower half toasty, while a waterproof Gore- Tex Pro Shell will help to fend off the elements. Their two large cargo pockets have watertight zips, while zipped thigh vents keep air circulating. Suunto Ambit from £350 | suunto.com While just as comfortable on a mountain bike run as they are on the piste, the handsome Ambit watchhasstacksofslope-friendlyfeatures–such as a barometer for forecasting mountain weather and a heart rate monitor. The impressive 15-hour battery life will see you through a full day’s skiing. Black Diamond Agent Avalung £175 | blackdiamondequipment.com One of Black Diamond’s 20L, medium-sized Avalung packs will carry all the kit you need for backcountry adventuring and features a built-in ‘Avalung’ breathing tube to feed you air drawn from the snow should you wind up on the wrong side of an avalanche. A potential ski-saviour. VolklShiro £600 | ellis-brigham.com This versatile ski blends playful, easy powder performance with a solid, stable ride. It’s really a ‘big mountain’ ski to suit budding backcountry riders while also providing good on-piste performance. Combine it with Marker’s F12 Tour bindings (£290, marker.de) for great security on fast descents and efficient hiking on the more remote slopes. SalomonBBR7.5 withZ10bindings £450 | salomonsports.com The BBR range’s surfboard-meets- ski design makes it ideal for learners, and this entry-level model is great value. The lightweight, oversized tip allows novices to both ‘surf’ the piste and take those first forays into deeper powder, while the Z10 bindings release in all directions so your knees will stay in one piece. skiing BEST FOR freeriding nOWAdd these BEST FOR beginners MAKE THE MOUNTAINS YOURS WITH A PAIR OF GO-ANYWHERE SKIS /WINTERSPORTSSPECIAL/WINTERSPORTSSPECIAL www.stuff.tv / 121 Steep £2.99 | amazon.co.uk It might only carve over the surface of why big-mountain skiers are prepared to risk (and occasionally lose) their lives in the pursuit of vertical runs, but watching this doc’s off-piste antics will have even the snow- apathetic reaching for a holiday brochure. SkiTracks £0.69 | iOS Like a snowsport Strava, this app uses your phone’s GPS to log everything from your speed to altitude and distance. It’s filled with neat touches such as auto- starting a new run as soon as you hop off a chairlift, and has built-in music controls to tweak your slope soundtrack. BeINsPIreD aPPtHIs ThreeValleys flights from £54 | les3vallees.com France houses the world’s biggest ski resort, with 370 miles of slopes for beginners (Méribel’slowerslopes) and experts (the steep couloirsatCourchevel). The Les 3 Vallées app (£free, iOS, Android) hasweather,mapsand a GPS ‘friend-finder’. goHere sKIWear…WHATTOLOOKFORBYO’NEILLATHLETEANDUKNUMBERONEFREESKIERPADDYGRAHAM sKI JaCKet Ajacket’swaterproof andbreathabilityratingsare mostimportant.They’relistedina rangebetween1.5Kto20K.My O’NeillJeremyJones2Lhasa high15K/10Krating duetoitsFirewall insulation. goggles Make sure they fit comfortably with and without your helmet and that the lens tint matches your environment. In low light, gold and amberlensesfilterbluelight –use dark lenses when in bright light. trouser Insulatedski pantsaremeasuredin grams,from30gto800g,so bearinmindhowhotyougetonthe slopesandchooseyourrating accordingly.Lookforthigh ventsandforzipped pocketstocarry yourtech. Base layer GetonewithMerino wooltokeepyouwarmand dry.Idon’tfeelrightwithouta goodthermalbaselayer.Resistthe urgetocutcorners–cotton T-shirtswillgetsoggy. Coldpeopleleave early. 1 32 4 [PhotoPaddyLearmond] [PhotoChristofferSjostrom] 1 3 2 4 8 H o t s t VOICECONTROL Walkintoyourlivingroom,say ‘Xboxon’,then‘Xbox,showDave’, andkablammo–you’reintoan afternoonofManvsFoodrepeats withoutliftingafinger.Youcanalso switchbetweenTV, games,web andSkypeusingonlythesounds thatcomeoutofyourface. 9 Justtobeclear,wemeanMicrosoft isgoinginOnedirection,notinOne Direction.Bywhichwemeanit’staking aunifiedapproach,notthatit’spacking itselfintoamicroscopicsubmarineand injectingitselfintoHarryStyles’ boyishlyhandsomeface.Yousee, Microsofthasnoticedthatpeople spendabouthalfoftheirXtimedoing somethingotherthanplayinggames, andit’sonlytoohappytocontinuethis trendbyaddingstringstotheXbox’s bow.Thisboxybeastisa4KBlu-ray player,avoice-controlledmedia streamerthatservesupallyourTV andmovies,aphone(viaSkype),aweb browserand,yes,agamesconsole,all rolledintoOne.Althoughifwe’re honest,thegames–thejaw-dropping graphics,thepersistentonlineworlds, thegrandiosenewstories,themulti- screenplay,thefrighteninglyrealistic newgameengines–aretheOnething wereallywantitfor. Ashotas…MasterChiefin4K DueNovember2013/xbox.com MicroSoft GoeSinone direction theXboxonewilltake overyourtV,yourlivin� roomandeventually yourlife fu f 27 PAGES OF THE BIGGEST STORIES FROM PLANET TECH HOT THREE #1 Formoreviewsofthe XboxOne,download theStuffiOSapp 10 5 3 4 1 2 6 THINGSWEKNOW THINGWEDON’T fangledway,allowingyoutolend outyourgamestoyourXboxLive pals.Oneatatime,mind.Whatyou can’tdoisplayyourexisting360 libraryontheOne–notevenXbox LiveArcadedownloads.Ouch. 5 Itcanseeyourheartrate ...andyourface,whichitcan recogniseandusetosignyouin. ThenewKinectisafrighteningly powerfulall-seeing1080p,2Gbps eyewitha60%greaterfieldof vision,thenousetoseesixplayers atonce,do1080pvideocalls, MinorityReport-esquemotion controlandreadyourfamily’s thoughtsastheysleep.Probably. 6 Ithasapropercontroller TheXbox360’scontrollerisa gamer’sfavourite,soit’sgoodto seeituntaintedbyascreenor touchcontrols.Itdoeshavenew thumbstickrumblemotorsfor targetedfeedback.And,the batteryhasbeenmovedsothe controllerbalancesbetter.Nice. 1 Ithas3operatingsystems AlongsidetheproprietaryXbox OS,theOnerunsaversionof Windows,whichletsitdoWindows 8-stylescreen-splitting.Keeping thesetwoontalkingtermsis athird,facilitatorOS,whilethe eight-coreAMDprocessorand 8GBRAMdotheheavylifting. 2 Itsupports4k Well,sortof.TheBlu-raydrive certainlycanandwilloutput4K. Asforgames,wedon’tattimeof writingknowiftheOnewillgamein 4K.Yes,thedifferenceingraphics isnightandday,butthatdoesn’t necessarilymeantheresolution willgoup,too.Althoughobviously we’vegotourfingerscrossed. 3Itvampiresonyourdigibox Port-fondlingnerdsthatweare, thefirstthingwedidwhenwesaw theOnewastoogleitsrearpanel. WithanHDMIinandanHDMIout,it actsasamiddlemanbetweenyour Sky/Virgin/Freeview/YouView boxandyourTV,servingupthe samecontentbutwithnicer menusandvoicecontrol. 4 Itletsyouplayother people’sgames,butnot youroldones There’sacertainold-fashioned magicinlettingsomeoneelse borrowyourcopyofsomething, buttheOnedoesthisinanew- PS4vsXBOXONEWHICHISTHE MOSTPOWERFUL? BoththePS4andtheOnehavean 8-coreprocessormadebyAMD, plus8GBRAM.However,whilethe One’smemoryisoftheDDR3type thatyou’dfindinmostdesktop PCs,thePS4’sisofthemore powerfulGDDR5typefoundin graphicscards.Thiscouldtranslate tobetterperformance,andwhile Sonyhasbandieditsteraflops (thenumberofcalculationsthe PS4canmakeinasecond)about, Microsofthasstayedstrangely quietonthesubject,indicatingit mightnotbeabletomatchSony’s figure. Ifwehadtoputmoneyonit we’dsaythePS4islikelytobethe morepowerfulmachine,asinthe lastgeneration.Butitmaybethat, justlikethepreviousconsole generation,it’sthelesspowerful machinethatoffersthebetter gamingexperience. 11 ●QuantumBreak ThisfollowsthetrailblazedbyDefianceinto ‘transmedia’,whichissuit-patterforsomething that’sbothagameandaTVshow.Withthe newlysprucedXboxLivehostingpersistent gameworlds,theshowwillaffectwhathappens inthegameandviceversa.Expectlotsof chrono-twistingfromthebullet-time- inventingmakersofMaxPayne. ●Forza5 ThesixthinstalmentintheXboxXclusive racingfranchisewillbealaunchtitleforthe One,griddingupwiththePS4’sGran Turismo6.Aswiththepreviewoffellow futuristicmegaracerDriveClubatthe launchofthePS4,thefocusisonexquisite realism,withdetailsfinerthanagnat’s eyelashcrisplypickedout. ●CallofDuty:Ghosts Withperhapsthemostimpressivenext-gen graphicswe’veseensofar,thenewCoDputs anewenginetostartlingeffect.Thedetailgoes downtoindividualleavesandthelittlescrews onyourgun,whileenvironmentsaremodifiable andhighlydestructible.Italsopromisesan emotionallychargedscriptfromTrafficscribe StephenGaghan.Andit’sgotadoginit. ●RYSE ThisKinect-onlyhack’n’slashtransportsyouto acatastrophicallydividedRome,inwhichyour jobistostab,punch,cleaveandgenerallyoffend againstyourfellowhistoricalfigures.Ifyou’re reallyhandywithasword,youmightevenget themtolendyoutheirears.Thisshouldbea goodgameforshowingoffyournewKinect’s abilitytomeasuretheforceofapunch. WHATWE’LLPLAY DownloadtheStuff iOSappformoreXbox Onescreenshots 59 BESTAPPSOF RIGHTNOW!Without a stable full of thoroughbred apps, your superphone might as well be made of cheese. Happily, it isn’t, so power up your pocket-puter with our pick of the greatest apps on the planet 75 BEST APPS 64 Spendbook Can you afford that Krispy Kreme box? Spendbook says yes. You input all your incomings and outgoings to track what you fritter your hard-earned on. There’s a lot of data entry, but if there’s something you buy daily (a Gregg’s iced ring, for example) it’ll automatically account for it. Your reward is gorgeous graphs documenting your penchant for deep-fried batter. And a better handle on your finances. £1.49 / iOS Gratuity Will Dunn Editor Gratuity almost warrants a spot in the Travel section, becausethere’sonecountryitappliesto in particular: the USA. Everywhere else, I can get away with just adding what seems a fair tip and scarpering, but Stateside tips are wages, and you need toknowhowmuchtopay.Gratuitymakes this simple and discreet, and it also adds in bill splitting – because I assume everyone’s fine with splitting the bill after I had all those foie gras cocktails and a swan steak for dinner. £0.69 / iOS Droplet Unlike full-on mobile banking apps, Droplet doesn’t require you to carry around a DNA sample and letter from your mum before it’ll let you transfer cash. Tell it your account number and sort code and you can top up your Droplet coffers, which can then be used to pay Facebook friends or anyone with the app whose number you know; and when people pay you, you can deposit it back into your account. £free / iOS, Android FairShare Houseshares can be a hotbed of sniping over who put what in the kitty and passive-aggressive notes on the fridge over the cleaning rota. FairShare puts an end to that, divvying up duties and keeping track of who’s paid what bills; it will even prioritise tasks for you. With your housemates now talking to each other, there’s also a private social network for organising drinks out and dinner. £0.69 / iOS, Android Yahoo Finance Not only is Yahoo Finance a very good feed of wonga-based news; it also allows you to follow particular stocks so you can track your portfolio in real time (if you’re the kind of person who has a portfolio). It also has summarised articles on currencies and markets, and makes sure you’re buying at the lowest of the low and selling at the highest of the high. You’ll be the wolf of your street in no time. £free / iOS, Android 360 Security With the kind of features you’d expect to have to pay for, 360 Security goes above and beyond when it comes to protecting your phone. It not only fends off viruses and malware but also allows you to block calls and texts from annoying PPI robots. £free / Android Dashlane Dashlane remembers all your passwords so you don’t have to, with one master code to protect them all. You can even trust it with bank details, notes and anything you’d rather didn’t fall into enemy hands. from £free / iOS, Android Salient Eye Got an old Android phone kicking around? Install Salient Eye and it’ll use the camera as a motion detector, taking pics of anyone who strays into view before sending them to you via email or SMS. Handy if the thief nicks the phone too. £free / Android security MONey 75 BEST APPS 62 music Soundcloud Tom Wiggins Deputy editor While Spotify (see left) is still my go-to music app, I’m finding myself opening Soundcloud more and more frequently since its slick redesign this summer. Even if the catalogue will never match Spotify or Rdio, more bands are uploading new singles to Soundcloud first and it’s a popular place for DJs and up-and-coming bands to put out mixes and demos for free – a bit like a YouTube for music. If only there were an offline mode, then I could stop using up all my data each month. £free / iOS, Android Twickets Everybody knows ticket touts are the scum of the earth, just like people who don’t move down inside train carriages. Twickets is an attempt to make them extinct, by allowing those with spare tickets for gigs (and other events) to put them up for sale at face value,allowingproperfans to buy them. There’s even a reporting system if you suspect a ticket-tout rat has infiltrated the system. £free / iOS, Android, Windows Phone Songkick If Songkick were still just an app to keep track of the gigs it’d be the equivalent of an album that any self-respecting music fan should have in their collection – The Best Of The Beatles, for example. Since Songkick launched its own ticket-buying shop within the app, it’s become even more than that. Which must make it Band On The Run by Wings – the band The Beatles could’ve been. £free / iOS, Android Boiler Room The Boiler Room has built up a reputation for pushing boundaries (sometimes of what can be considered music), but if you’re into that sort of thing it collects its DJ sets togetherbrilliantly, sortingthembygenreand allowing you to save ones you like offline. There’s AirPlay support too, so if you’re having a house party you can press play on a mix and pretend its you all along. Sneaky. £free / iOS, Android Who Sampled You might not know this but there’s a good chance your music collection is made up of everybody else’s music collection. It’s called sampling. If you want to know what ingredients make up the songs on youriPhone,WhoSampled scans your iTunes library and tells you where the bassline for that came from, or which James Brown track they nicked the drums for that from. £1.99 / iOS cLassic apps Spotify What is man’s greatest achievement? Space travel, or instant access to Phil Collins from anywhere that you can get internet? from £free / iOS, Android, Windows Phone Channel 4 News Channel 4’s in-depth coverage is hard to beat. With text,video,maps, livetweets and even Vines, it’s brilliant for news and analysis. £free / iOS, Android Minecraft Pocket Edition Punch trees with bare hands. Acquire wood. Make tools. Make house. Fight zombies. Never ask why so pixellated. £4.99 / iOS, Android 75 BEST APPS 63 Gojimo Getting all the exam answers tattooed onto your body might seem like a good idea at the time, but it’s actually not the most effective (or moral) way to cram before taking any test. Gojimo offers downloadable quizzes (for a fee) for different subjects at different levels (11+, GCSE, AS-levels, etc), which are a much betterwayof makingsureallthose facts sink right in. No ink required. from £free / iOS Great British Chefs Kids The problem with many kids’ cooking guides is that the end result isn’t what grown-ups want to eat – and what’s the point of teaching them to cook if they’re not going to make you something tasty? This app has lots of fun visual elements and straightforward guides (don’t miss the Hints section, which contains good advice on chopping onions and the like), but more importantly, the recipes from Michelin-starred chefs are something you’ll actually want for dinner. £free / iOS kids news Tynker If you’re planning to raise the next Mark Zuckerberg you’re going to need them to speak binary and have a complete disregard for privacy from an early age. Tynker can’t help with the latter but it will give your future billionaire the tools they need to learn the theories behind coding via games and puzzles, with more advanced ones available as in-app purchases. They can pay you back when they IPO. from £free / iOS, Android TimeAway Curb your kids’ addictive online habits by installing TimeAway on both yours and up to six other devices. Using a password, you can immediately pause all these devices for dinner or bedtime or, if they’ve been particularly naughty, lock them all together. You’ll receive a daily summary of how long they spend online and their most used apps. Plus you can track where their phones are on Google Maps. £free / Android Teach Your Monster To Read Kids have it so easy these days. Where we had to make do with boring old textbooks written in Latin, they play with apps like this. It’s fun, charming and perfectly paced for kids of nose-picking age, teaching them sounds then simple letter combinations and finally full words. They’ll also learn basic game mechanics as they play – the best education you could give any child. £2.99 / iPad Great British Chefs Kids The problem with many kids’ cooking guides is that the end result isn’t what grown-ups Reverb A phone screen can dazzle you with many wonders, but it can’t tell you all the news at once. In fact, even Jon Snow can’t do that. But Reverb’s personalised wall of key words enables you to follow the stories and themes that matter to you. £free / iOS Circa News Old people like to fall asleep in an armchair with a massive newspaper over their head, bless ’em.Butyoung,vibrant groovesters like you want their news boiled down to nibble-sized chunks, and that’s what the editors of Circa News deliver. £free / iOS, Android Nuzzel Are you interested in the same things your friends are interested in? If you’re not, dump them and get some new ones, perhaps at a local snooker hall or bingo club. If you are, use Nuzzel to track the news stories they’re sharing on social sites. £free / iOS 75 BEST APPS 102 / www.stuff.tv /TEST/11.11/nnn/ robot vacuums SamsungNaviBot Silencio8895 £500 | samsung.com/uk It’s bot the look The NaviBot is so smooth you could skim it across a lake like a stone. As the name suggests, it’s about being quiet while still offering sufficient cleaning power. And with a HEPA filter, even the exhaust air it breathes out is sparkling. Clean machine? TheSilencioiswellnamed:it’sso quietyoucouldleaveitonovernight andsleepsoundly,yetitstill managesgreatsuction.There’salso plentyofjunkspaceinitstrunk, whichcanbeemptiedbyhandor (oddly)suckedoutbyanothervac. Sadly,therearechinksinitsarmour. Itmayhave39sensorsanda VisionaryMappingSystem–which shoots30snapsasecondtomapa room–butanycablesleftonthe floorwillsoonenduptangledinthe bot’sundercarriage.Itsweak battery,meanwhile,oftenleavesit lackingthepowertoreachitsdock. Stuff says ★★★✩✩ Quiet as a mouse, and sadly not much more efficient. Bump ‘n’ fine Despite its low profile the NaviBot will happily bump over mats and stray magazines. www.stuff.tv / 103 robot vacuums /TEST/11.11/nnn/ Litter-Robot II £295 | litter-robot.eu This automated litter cleaning pod means that you’ll never again have to deal with your cat’s litter tray – all you need do is swap the waste bag every few days. MORE ROBOT PHWOARS Aquabot Rover NE356 £250 | aquabots.com If you can afford your own swimming pool, it’s only right to splash out on a robot to clean it. The Rover will do the job in less than three hours. Robomow RL2000 £1900 | robomow.co.uk This mower-bot is ideal for lazy landowners. Peg down a perimeter wire and it’ll trundle around, making the lawn look pristine before returning to its charging base. iRobot Scooba 385 £390 | irobot.com/uk Similar to its robot cleaner siblings, this navigates its way round your house, washing the hard floors and sucking up its dirty cleaning water as it goes. iRobot Roomba770 £420 | irobot.com/uk It’s bot the look Despite the iRobot’s slightly plasticky feel, it looks like R2-D2’s shiny fantasy girl. And with its highly evolved sensors, you don’t have to fret about it crashing into anything and damaging its handsome visage. Clean machine? This one has it all: it’s quiet, powerful, long-lasting and a bit of a brain-bot. The Roomba has just one spinning brush to sweep up all your debris, but even so manages to clear dirt out of your trickiest corners. And its whopping battery means it keeps going until the floor is spotless. The fact that it only needs emptying once a clean means you can leave it to do a whole room without lifting a digit – which, let’s face it, is the whole point here – and it’ll even leave lines in the carpet from its mighty suction. Spotless. Stuffsays ★★★★★ Fast, efficient and powerful, the iRobot is lord of the future-vacs. Adapt and conquer The 770’s updated iAdapt software means the vac rarely misses a spot of dirt. TESTWINNER
  • 3. TRAVEL innovators 68 Plotting to colonise the red planet Elon Musk is about as close to a real-life Tony Stark as we have. He’s a Willy Wonka of tech, concocting plans (probably from a volcano lair in the Pacific) before unleashing them on the public. But rather than sending overweight German children up industrial pipes he’s mainly sending stuff into space. Musk sold his first product at 12 years old – he got US$500 for a videogame he’d written called Blastar after teaching himself to code – but it was the sale of PayPal in 2002 that put him on Stuff’s map. Since then he’s reinvented the electric car, banishing associations with ELON MUSK PAYPAL/TESLA/SPACE X milk floats and the G-Wiz courtesy of Tesla’s Roadster and seven-seater Model S, and set up SpaceX – a private space exploration company that aims to one day colonise Mars. “I see us going to Mars in about 10-11 years,” he told Stuff earlier this year, “and in a really big spaceship, not a little thing.” Musk compares that proposed first trip to the red planet to the English colonising America and envisions setting up a city home to millions of people, with homes, jobs and (probably) pet Martians. You know, just in case we accidentally destroy Earth. In short, he’s a man with ambitions to match the size of his fortune. If he sounds like the twin brother of a Bond villain, that’s not a million miles from the truth. Musk recently spent some of his immense wealth on the actual submarine Lotus Esprit used in The Spy Who Loved Me and is building his own: “We’ve even joked about having a submarine-plane-car.” That’s a joke we can’t wait to see the punchline for. Satellite town So far the Dragon has only carried cargo into space, but SpaceX reckons it’ll soon be taking humans Final frontier This is Falcon 9, the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station Fully charged In 2009 a Roadster travelled 311 miles on a single charge, setting a new world record 69 innovators If you want to make something streamlined and aerodynamic, the model to copy isn’t a Formula 1 car or fighter jet – it’s a penguin. Not when it’s in upright waddling mode, but when arrowing its way through the ocean. That’s what exterior design manager Peter Wouda would’ve been aiming for when he crafted the VW XL1 – the most efficient production car in the world. Everything about it is designed to cut through the air like a hot axe through ice cream, from the extremely low ride height and lack of wing mirrors (it has cameras instead) to the way it tapers towards a flat rear end. Combined with its hybrid of diesel and electric power, VW has managed to eke out over 300 miles to the gallon, and with its tech already filtering through to the VW GTE, it could turn out to be one of the most significant cars ever made. Now we have plug sockets with USB ports in them, there are only really two main sci-fi dreams that remain: flying cars and hoverboards. Aerofex’s Aero-X fulfils both, with the added bonus of being a little like Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder. On terra firma it’s a four-wheeled, two-person buggy-type vehicle, but in flight it uses downward-facing fans to levitate up to 10 feet off the ground at up to 45mph. Designed by aerospace engineer Mark DeRoche, it uses a clever steering system that removes the need for complex controls like those found in helicopters, making it similar to riding a motorbike. And while it’s not ready to ride away from a showroom just yet, it’s not pure fantasy either. Aerofex has tested the Aero-X and hopes to have them on sale by 2017. Yours for just US$85,000. Before he became public enemy number one among London’s black-cab drivers, Travis Kalanick launched Uber in San Francisco in 2010. It’s an app that allows you to book a cab and watch it arrive on a map. In four years it’s taken over the world, like a convenient four-wheeled virus that runs at very affordable rates. And it’s not just for taxis now either. There’s Uber Ice Cream, which allows you to summon a 99 just like a cab, plus Uber Chopper: an on-demand chauffeur-flown helicopter service from New York City to the Hamptons at the far end of Long Island. Uber now operates in over 200 cities around the world, and while not everyone is happy to see them (those aforementioned cabbies for one), it’s a company dragging an age-old industry into the future. It’s almost impossible to get lost these days. You’ve got one man to thank for that: Azmat Yusuf. He’s the man behind Citymapper – the app that gets you around London, New York, Paris and other less fashionable cities across the world. It makes the most of open, real-time data to show you various routes to your destination, how long each one will take, how much they’ll cost and if there are any problems that could cause delays. Creator Yusuf and his team are adding cities all the time – you can vote for which one they should do next on the Citymapper website – and he’s already got one eye on Rio in time for the Olympics in 2016. Yusuf told Stuff that he wanted “to build something that people would use regularly”. Considering we can barely get to the end of the road without using his app, looks like mission accomplished. The future of streamlined hybrid car design Making our sci-fi dreams come true Hailing a cab towards the future App-ing to make getting lost get lost PETER WOUDA VOLKSWAGEN XL1 MARK DEROCHE AEROFEX TRAVIS KALANICK UBER AZMAT YUSUF CITYMAPPER 112 ARE FAKE BURGERS THE FUTURE? FUTURE FOOD YES PRoFESSoR MARK PoST, MAASTRICHT UnIVERSITY “In the beginning, for all sorts of practical reasons, we are focusing on processed meat – that will changetheperceptionofprocessed meat in that it will become a highly regulated and much more environmentally friendly and animal-friendly product.” no DR MoRGAInE GAYE, CURAToR oF FUTUREFEST GASTRoDoME “Loads of people are resistant to in-vitro meat – people who aren’t keen on playing god or interfering with nature. But meat prices will double in the next five years, so if people want to keep eating the quantities of meat they’re eating, something has to change.” CULTURED MEAT When your research project has the backing of Sergey Brin, you know it’s going places. And Professor Mark Post’s research into lab- grownmeathasbeenfunded by the Google founder to the tune of £215,000. This is because, as Post says, “Pigs and cows are very inefficient in converting the vegetable proteins in their food to animal proteins.” Lab-grownmeatwillmean fewer resources poured into rearinglivestockformeat – although we can’t expect to chow down on in-vitro burgersforatleastadecade. How does it work? Muscle cells are extracted from a cow and cultivated in the lab, where they’re arranged into small myotubes. These contract and bulk up, forming strands of tissue. Around 20,000 strands are required to create a single burger; the first was unveiled at a tasting event in July this year, where it was pronounced “close to meat” by taster and nutrition researcher Hanni Rützler and “like an animal protein cake” by food writer Josh Schonwald. So, some work still to be done, then. culturedbeef.net 113 FuTure FooD NeW FooD sources AlgAe This‘algaculture symbiosis suit’ is just an art installation – but algae’s already making its way into our food. US company Solazyme Roquette Nutritionals is producing Almagine, an ‘algal flour’ which can be used in place of butter, eggs and flour – and which it claims means up to 40% less fatand cholesterolinyourdiet. solazyme.com MIllIMeAls Sci-fi’s often teasing us with the idea of a meal in a pill. Millimeals puts a new spin on the concept; it’s a set of tearable food strips created by a team of students for the Science Museum in London. You can layer them up to create full meals – and cleverly, Millimeals also lets youmeasurenutritionalvalue bylength,ratherthanweight. bit.ly/millimeals PlAnt eggs One of three companies praised by Bill Gates for its futuristicfood, HamptonCreekhaspicked out the 22 key traits of a hen’seggandduplicatedthem withplant-basedalternatives. Beyond Eggs won’t be part of your fry-up, but it could replace the entire third of the world’s eggs used in cookies, mayonnaise and muffins. hamptoncreekfoods.com soylent No, not the mysterious green wafers used to feed an overpopulated Earth in the 1973 film Soylent Green, but a customisable beige liquid (powder mixed with water) that’s promising to be a new food substitute. Recently tested by several journalists whose only complaint was theblandtaste,it’llbeavailable in the US from December at US$65 for a week’s supply. campaign.soylent.me tHey sAy... “I’ve always been skeptical of edible packaging. The point of packaging for me is that it protects the food from potentially harmful foreign bodies, stops it getting damaged, etc. I think that it could be a gimmick in a high- end scenario, not spilling off the shelf in Tesco.” Peter Firth, trend forecaster at LS:N Global eDIBLe PAcKAGING We’ve all seen excessive packaginginthesupermarket – fruit and veg cocooned in layers of polystyrene and cling film for no obvious reason. WikiPearl is a new form of packaging based around edible ‘WikiCells’, a protective membrane made of plant-based material. Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a silly idea – because you’ll need to package the WikiCell too, if you want to eat it (as indeed WikiPearl does, in a biodegradable wrapper). But the real trick is that foodstuffs such as yoghurts, and ice cream can be turned into new types of finger food. And let’s face it, the mango ice cream with coconut skin sounds mighty appetising. wikipearl.com tHey sAy... “It’s unlikely that we will be able to enjoy a 3D printed veal escalope. The food that gets 3D printed will be more functional and borne of necessity as the world population swells, and traditional modes of food production and distribution are no longer feasible.” Peter Firth, trend forecaster at LS:N Global 3D�PrINTeD FooD IN sPAce 3D printing food sounds like a gimmick – hooray, you can make a cheesy puff in the shape of a swan – but NASA is taking it seriously. It’s looking at the possibility of using a 3D printer to make food during deep-space missions, with printers mixing up the ingredients for meals themselves and printing them off using additive manufacturing. The possibilities are intriguing – recipes could be shared on a Thingiverse-style site and downloaded to your printer, or customised to meet your own specific calorific needs based on your BMI and activity. Once cultured beef comes on the market, you could even print your own hamburger in space. bit.ly/nasa3dfood tHey sAy... “In the 1600s, lobster was considered the vermin of the sea, and no-one wanted anything to do with it. Now people pay top dollar. We think we can eventually get to a point where insects have the same level of high esteem as lobster, crabs and shrimp do now.” Greg Sewitz, co-founder of Exo INsecT ProTeIN BArs Setasideyoursqueamishness – according to a UN report, 2 billion people worldwide eat bugs. And entomophagy (the eating of insects) is good for you, too. “Crickets are about 70% protein, and they have more iron than beef, gram for gram – they have a ton of calcium, so they’re super healthy,” says Greg Sewitz of Exo, a company that makes protein bars out of cricket flour. It’s also good forthe planet–insectfarminguses fewer resources and takes up less space than livestock. Pioneers such as Exo want to get bugs on your plate in the next few years – and designerKatharinaUngerhas gone a step further, creating Farm 432, an insect breeder forthehome(below). www.exo.co FUTURE FOOD 111 FUTURE FOOD 111111 [WordsStephenGraves] Humans have a food problem – and it’s a lot more serious than dropping a yoghurt in the supermarket. By 2025,theUNpredictsthatthe worldpopulationwill be 8.1 billion, an increase of nearly a billion. We all need food, and it’s placing a substantial burden on Earth’s resources. That’s not the only problem. Animal farming is emitting more greenhouse gas than transport. Monocultures, desertification and pollution are all taking their toll. And the World Wildlife Fund reckons that 120 million hectares ofnaturalhabitatwillbecomefarmlandby2050. Fortunately,scienceanditssidekicktechnology could hold the key – but we might have to get usedtoafewchangesonourdinnerplatesfirst… CULTUREd MEAT Meat may not grow on trees, but it doesn’t have to grow on animals either. INSECT PRoTEIN BARS You might think that eating insects just isn’t cricket, but really it is. 3d PRINTEd food Made-to-measure ready meals and printing food in space: the final frontier? EdIBLE PACKAGING Waste not, want not – thinking outside the box, and then eating it. NEW food SoURCES Algae, plant eggs and meals-by-the-millimetre. Fancy a Soylent shake? Unlikevideogamesteakpower-ups,foodsadlyisn'tinfinite.Ifwe're toavoidafutureofcannibalism,weneedtolooktotech… 55 innovators SUPERHEROES OFTECHThey range from VR revolutionaries to vinyl pioneers, and they’ve given us everything from hoverbikes to robot servants. It’s time to meet the Stuff Innovators of 2014: our pick of the geniuses who are going beyond ordinary geekdom to remake the modern world STUFF INNOVATORS 2014 With a little help from our friends… Sometimes it’s nice to get a fresh viewpoint, so we asked our friends at Dezeen and NME to give us their thoughts on our Innovators. Keep an eye out for them. [ Illustrations Rich Kelly ] 86 GenesisCroixDeFer The Avid BB7 disc brakes give massive stopping power – no matter the terrain or conditions. They are of course also excellent for doing massive skids. GROUP TEST I haven’t got space in my flat for an array of different bikes, so I need one that does it all. The Croix De Fer is that bike. So now when Simon emails about mountain biking, I can reply “See you on the trail!” And when Will D FaceTimes me in his Lycra, it’s *call rejected* – but I can later text: “Sure I’ll do a 100k sportive.” And when Monday morning rolls around, I’m able to weave my way through the traffic to the Stuff bunker. And if I have time left for cyclocrossing or touring, it handles those with ease too. Ross Presly deputy art editor £1150 / genesisbikes.co.uk Stuff says ★★★★★ 87 GROUP TEST DouzeMessenger The Douze has two wheels, not three, so it’ll lean into corners. However, its length means it has a very ‘relaxed’ turning circle – avoid tight spots and U-turns. Bikes are versatile things. You can strap on pannier bags and carry a weekly shop. Or bolt on a child seat and carry a child. Or fix up a trailer andcarrytheweeklyshopandseveralchildren. Has anyone got the time to do these things? No. So into the car they jump. The Douze is the solution; it’s the pickup truck of bikes. Throw whatever you like into the cargo area – it’s in front, so you’ll see if he/she/it falls out – and the seven- or eight-speed transmission will keep you rolling when the load gets lardy. Fraser Macdonald contributor from £1940 / londongreencycles.co.uk Stuff says ★★★★✩ BIKESFrom cargo to ‘crosser’, the Stuff team has put foot to pedal and hand to ’lebar to test the entire bike spectrum STUFF PICKS 83 The aluminium frame serves up a smooth ride and is the same one found in its pricier .004 brother, making this the Sa Calobra range’s sweet spot. HoySaCalobra.003 BIKESBIKESBIKES My commute is a jumbled mix of potholed roads, cycle lanes and a sprint through Richmond Park, so I need an all-rounder to boost my Strava rankings. Cut from the same pragmatic cloth as Halford’s Boardman range, this sensible but smart Hoy is the perfect fit. Its carbon fork is on hand to absorb road judder, while the high- quality Shimano components and low riding position could yet propel me to being crowned king of Spankers Hill. All I need now are the somewhat harder to obtain tree-trunk thighs. Mark Wilson features editor £1000 / evanscycles.com Stuff says ★★★★★ 69 £110|adidas.co m AdidasBoost trAin in g /fashion www.stuff.tv / 101 hard TraIN aGOOddaYTO Beatfatigueandcrushyourrivalswith theserunningshoes.Whitevestoptional Laundry by Pixel £25 | pxlclothing.com Nucle arFa m by Dirty Velvet £25 |dirty velvet.co .uk Ow lby Supre m ebeing £25|as os.co m TheOutsidersbyOutOfPrintClothing US$28|outofprintclothing.com 10:55 Lim itedEditionby55DSL £35|55dsl.com / Defyby King £2 5|king -app arel.co m DefybyKing DefybyKing £25| DefybyKing | DefybyKingking-apparel.com 102 / www.stuff.tv [ Words Cherry Martin Pictures Matthew Beedle ] [PicturesAlexHowe] GROUP TEST 76 TerraNovaUltra1 Owner of the Guinness World Record for lightest double-wall shelter, the Ultra 1 uses material so thin that it is almost see- through. You are warned BUILD TIM E BUILD TIM E If you want to spend a week in a field, get a camper van. I see tents as a way to keep moving, not stop. It is a sleep facilitator that I stick in a daypack, or strap to my mountain bike. So it needs to be small and light. It is put up, slept in, then taken down. So it needs to be quick. The Ultra 1 is a rather extreme – and expensive – way to prove the point. Featherlight material, a single pole, fixed carbon end-poles and wispy titanium pegs mean it weighs 560g and packs to the size of a loaf of bread. Only room for one, though, so suits a lone wolf. Like me. Fraser Macdonald contributor £700 / terra-nova.co.uk Stuff says ★★★★★ ROSS PRESLY
  • 4. [PicturesRowanFee] appcessoriesApps are to the Stuff team what Scooby Snacks were to the titular hound. These five come with their own hardware for maximum smartness STUFF PICKS TriggertrapMobile The adaptor cables are available for most DSLRs and CSCs, plus loads of popular compacts. You get one with the kit but they can be bought separately (£8). 79 Triggertrap manages to make photography’s least sexy piece of equipment, the remote shutter release, seem exciting and new. It actually turns your phone into the remote, connecting to your camera via an adaptor cable and controlled through an app that does so much more than just release the shutter. You can set it up to do timelapses, long-exposure star trails and HDR shots. My only minor gripe is that the connection from the phone to the dongle isn’t wireless, but this is offset by the fact I can trigger it to shoot when I whistle. Simon Osborne-Walker acting editor £24(iOS,Android)/triggertrap.com Stuff says ★★★★✩ The STuff Team geT plugged inTo Thehe cooleST wayS To geT from ac To dc stuffpicks Isitascooter?Clearlynot.Acar?Closer,but no.Thisis,infact,anelectricquadricycle.True, itsdoorsareoptionalanditlackswindows,but thewindscreenandroofkeepmerelatively protectedfromtheelements.Andalthoughit maynothaveroomforbothluggageand apassenger,itissmallenoughtofitintothe teensiestofparkingspacesandhasarangeof about45miles.What’smore,itmakespeople grin.Me,becauseit’slikedrivinga50mph go-kart,andeveryoneelsebecauseit’sjustso unusual.OK,soafewmightbelaughingatme notwithme,butthat’sallpartofthefun,isn’tit? Stuffsays★★★★I TomParsons RenaultTwizy from£6690|renault.co.uk [IllustrationsAlexanderEfimov] /TEST/09.12/nnnnnn/ stuff picks coole stuffpicks plugged inTo The To geT from ac The STuff Team ge uff Team geT plugged inT cooleST wayS To ge 104 / www.stuff.tv 0123456789 Therearpassenger sitspinion-style.It’s trickytogetintothe seat,butsurprisingly comfortableonce you’rewedgedin. stuff picks /TEST/09.12/nnnnnn/ www.stuff.tv / 105 0123456789 106 / www.stuff.tv 0123456789 Ithinktheothershavelostsightofwhywe gottalkingaboutelectricvehiclesinthefirst place:money.TheEC-03costsaboutthe sameasapetrolscooter,butonlypocket changetorun.Itsrangeisamere20miles,but that’llgetmetotheofficeandbackwithan addeddetourviathesupermarket.And, crucially,whennavigatingthecrowded streetsofLondon,it’ssmallenoughforme toweavethroughtraffic.It’llevenfitinthe sidepassageoutsidemyflatsoIcanrun thechargingcablethroughthekitchen windowandplugitinnexttothekettle. Stuffsays★★★★✩ WillDunn YamahaEC-03 £2600|yamaha-motor.eu/uk TheEC-03is classifiedasa scooter,soyou’ll needatleastaCBT certificatetorideit. That’lltakeadayand costyouabout£100. /TEST/09.12/nnnnnn/ stuff picks www.stuff.tv / 107 0123456789 Sorryworld,andsorrywallet,butI’mnot makinganycompromises.Iwantmyelectro- steedtodoallofthethingsmypetrolone would.Including,butnotlimitedto:barrelling mesafelyoutofthewayofdistractedlydriven four-wheeleddeath-bringers;dealingwith theoddmuddyforayupagreenlane;and leavingmewithasmileonmyfaceforhours afterI’vewheeleditbackintothegarage.The DSdoesitall,ekingatwist-and-go80mph withallthetorqueyou’dexpectfroman electric,yetstillremainingcompact,lightand chuckable,whetheron-roadoroff.It’sahoot. Stuffsays★★★★★ LukeEdwards ZeroDSZF9 £11,795|zeromotorcycles.com Thisistheleggierof twoDSmodels,with a40-60milerange dependingonhow roughlyyourideit. The20kg-lighter ZF6modelis£9995. stuff picks /TEST/09.12/nnnnnn/ KoubachiWi-FiPlant SensorOutdoor The Koubachi works out what your plant needs through its sensor feedback and the app’s huge library ofplantrequirements – a fine read for keen botanists on its own. 80 STUFF PICKS €120 (iOS) / koubachi.com Stuff says ★★★★✩ If I’m honest, I’d neglected Doug the dragon tree plant. I was too wrappedupinmyownlifeandhe’d started to droop. Until, that is, nurse Koubachi came to the rescue. The Wi-Fi Plant Sensor sat in Doug’s pot, monitoring his temperature, water and light levels and keeping me updated viaitsiOSapp.Thecalibrationforsomefeatures isalittlelong(uptoaweekforsunlightanalysis), but the probe soon starts sending push nudges formistandwater.Theoutdoorversion will even survive a heavy rainstorm. Doug is now healthyandwell–andmyguiltisassuaged. Mark Wilson features editor WithingsPulse 81 GROUP TEST As well as covering the Pulse’s data, the app links with third- party apps such as RunKeeper and Withings’ ambient- CO2-reading Smart BodyAnalyzerscales. The Pulse joins the growing army of step counters, but it’s stepping in with a special weapon. Sure it’ll count your daily paces, mileage, calories and even altitude climbed, but it also offers a clear touchscreen display, clip mount, wrist strap for sleep tracking and a heart rate sensor. It’ll then send all of that data to your Android or iOS deviceviaBluetooth4.0.Andthat’snotitsonly clever trick: to measure your heart rate, you holdafingertothesensorforaninstantreading. Witchcraft! Despite all that, you’ll get a full week’susebeforeneedingamicroUSBcharge. Luke Edwards multimedia journalist €100 (iOS, Android) / withings.com Stuff says ★★★★★ 82 UrbanearsSlussen The free Urbanears app is very basic and lacks key features. Fortunately, the Slussen widget works with the far superior Djay and Traktor apps too. 82 GROUP TEST £13 (iOS) / urbanears.com Stuff says ★★★★✩ Phones and tablets are almost perfect for portable DJing. But with just the one audio output, there’s nowhere to plug in your headphones forcueingandmonitoring.Thetrickistoreduce the signals from stereo to mono and put them either side of the main output, which requires specialist, messy cables. Slussen has solved this with a keyring-attachable splitter. Just rock up at a party with an iThing and ’phones, hook up to your mate’s stereo with a standard cable and boogie the night away. Until you realise no-one there likes Jethro Tull, that is. Tony Horgan senior reviewer 1 5 6 2 3 [IllustrationJamieSneddon] 126 FIREWORKSNIGHT 6INSTANTUPGRADES Whatbetterwaytochristenyournewbackgardenthan withaneighbour-annoying,dog-botheringpyrotechnics extravaganza?Warning:mayemitsparksofsensationalness 11.14|PROJECTS [Photosflickr.com/nickwheeleroz,flickr.com/gotovan,flickr.com/caomai,youtube.com/goprocamera] 127 TRIPOD An essential. Decide what angleyouwanttocapture and set up your camera on a tripod to keep it steady. You can even use the Weye Feye (see no.4, left) to see exactly what your camera sees and fire off shots without shaking it. TIME-LAPSE If you want to record the whole thing, you can compress an entire fireworks display into a 15-second clip. Many cameras have a time-lapse mode, or you can use apps such as Lapse It (from £free / iOS, Android). LONG EXPOSURE If you’re using a DSLR, select manual and focus on infinity. Keep the ISO at 100, set the aperture to around f/12 and try exposures up to 30 secs. If you’re using a compact camera,selectnightmode (no flash) or fireworks mode if it has one. EXPERIMENT Feelingambitious? Trygettingreflections, silhouettesofspectators… oruseflashinagroup shotwithlongexposure tocatchbackground fireworks.Withcare,you couldevenuseadroneto captureanaerialview. 3BRAVENBRV-1 Ifyou’refeelingreallycreative, youcouldalwayssetyour fireworksdisplaytomusic.Ready toprovidethesoundtrackisthe BRV-1.It’sacompactBluetooth speakerbuilttowithstandthe testingconditionsofacold, dampNovembernightthanks toitsIPX5water-resistantrating andruggedrubberexterior.Its twindriverscanmanage3W eachofpowerandofferaplaying timeofupto12hours.Italsohas abuilt-innoise-cancellingmic forhands-freecalling…although it’sprobablybestnottotrythat whiletheskyisexploding. £130 / braven.eu 1DUALITSTRAIGHT SOUPKETTLE Yourguestsareontheirway,the emergencywaterbucketison standby,you’vesetupyour camera(seepanel)andthe fireworksarereadytolaunch... butwhat’sthatsmell?Uh-oh, you’veboiledthemulledwine intoafoul-tastingsoupagain. Thissix-litresoupkettleisthe perfectset-and-forgetoption. Instainlesssteelwithavariable thermostat,itmeansyou’llnever endupwithhorribleboiledwine again.Alsogoodforthose‘six litresofsoup’Sundays. £80 / nisbets.co.uk 6HUSQVARNA TECHNICALGLOVES Youneedsturdyglovesthatwill keepyourfingerssafewithout beingtoobulkyforfiddlingwith fuses.Whilethey’redesignedfor usewithHusqvarnachainsaws, thesearealsolightenoughto allowfullmovement,witha toughyetsupplegoat-leather palm,extraprotectionforthe indexfingerandaterry-cloth panelforwipingawayyour excitement-inducedsweat.The snugVelcroclosuremakessure theystayput,andreflective pipingmakesthemeasierto findifyoudroponeinthedark. £39 / husqvarna.com pYROTECHniC papping 4XSORIESWEYEFEYE Ifyouwanttophotographyour fireworks,thebestviewsaren’t likelytobefromthesafest places.Solution:theWeyeFeye –pronouncedlikeWi-Fi–hooks uptoyourNikonorCanonDSLR (there’san‘S’versioncoming soonthatworkswithmost cameras)andprovidesliveview andremoteshootingcontrolson yoursmartphoneortabletviaits ownWi-Finetwork.Thebuilt-in batterygivesuptoeighthours ofuseanditworksupto80m away,soyoucangetyour cameraupclosewithoutputting yourselfinthelineoffire. £200 / xsories.co.uk 2LAUNCHKONTROL PULSE Whywouldyoustumblearound amuddygardeninthedark whenyoucouldsetoffyour fireworksatthepushofa button?TheLaunchKontrol Pulseisasimplewiredsystem thatcanbeusedupto20m away.Replaceableignitiontips cliptothefireworkfuses,and thepadisconnectedviaaCat5 networkcableandpoweredby a9Vbattery.Uptofourfireworks canbetriggeredperboard,and youcanchainmultipleboards togetherforbiggerdisplays. £17 / pyrostation.co.uk 5FIREWORKS INTERNATIONAL TOMAHAWKROCKETS Everygooddisplayneedsafine setofrocketstorounditoff.This bargainpackoffiveFireworks InternationalTomahawksisjust thejob.Withtwodazzlingeffects –SilverGlitteringWillowandthe rathercocktail-soundingGreen CracklingCoconutwithPistil PurplePeony–they’rethe perfectshowstoppers.You’ll finallybeabletoshakeoff thestigmaofthattimeyou disappointedeveryonewitha mouldyboxofRomancandles. £20 / pyro.co.uk ROSS PRESLY Myeyesdartleftandright,anarmextends, fingersandthumbtouch:afive-crossaxlein onepalm,a3x3T-beamandconnectorpegs intheother.Mydeeplyingrainedpart-location abilitieshavereawoken.Itfeelsgood–itfeels natural.PiecingtogethertheV8,buildingthe rearslipdiffandinstallingthesuspensionbring backmemorieslongforgotten.Butrealising thatI’djustassembledaTechnicclutchwasa newfeeling.Learning.Mechanicalknowledge. Power!Legoiswastedontheyoung. Stuffsays★★★★★ RossPresly LegoTechnic42000 GrandPrixRacer £80|lego.com stuff picks /TEST/04.13/nnnnnnn/ 94 / www.stuff.tv 0123456789 Buildtime 5h11 Fingersoreness Myeyesdartleftandright,anarmextends, fingersandthumbtouch:afive-crossaxlein onepalm,a3x3T-beamandconnectorpegs intheother.Mydeeplyingrainedpart-location abilitieshavereawoken.Itfeelsgood–itfeels natural.PiecingtogethertheV8,buildingthe rearslipdiffandinstallingthesuspensionbring backmemorieslongforgotten.Butrealising thatI’djustassembledaTechnicclutchwasa newfeeling.Learning.Mechanicalknowledge. Power!Legoiswastedontheyoung. Stuffsays★★★★★ RossPresly LegoTechnic42000 GrandPrixRacer £80|lego.com stuff picks /TEST/04.13/nnnnnnn/ 94 / www.stuff.tv 0123456789 Buildtime 5h11 Fingersoreness FraserMacdonald HaynesCombustion EngineKit £30|amazon.co.uk stuff picks /TEST/04.13/nnnnnnn/ www.stuff.tv / 91 0123456789 Beforeyouask:no,itdoesn’t.Actualcombustion andcompressioninaplasticmodeldoesn’t reallyseemwise.Butdespitethat,andits slightlycheapbuild,there’ssomehard-boiled engineeringnousrequiredhere.Bolted together,thiskitwilldemonstrateafullfour- strokecycle,completewithcam-operated valvesandlight-upsparkplugsfiringinthe rightorder.It’sbackwards,mindyou,withthe crankbeingdrivenbyabatterymotorinthe ‘gearbox’–butit’saneducationnonetheless. Stuffsays★★★★I Buildtime 6h Fingersoreness
  • 5. DESIGN 114 CAFe RACeR evolution tRiuMPH StReet tRiPle R Middleweight naked bikes such as the Street Triple R are the big-selling hotcakes of the motorbike world, and British-born Triumph is leading the way. The Triple R is a masterclass in light handling and proper sporting performance, but the comfortable straight bars mean there will be no physio trips for aching wrists after your epic Sunday rides either. from £7700 / triumph.co.uk DeSiGn 115 SCIENCE FICTION STUFF’S GUIDE TO If you love technology, you’ve got to love sci-fi. It’s where the big ideas come from – decades or even centuries before they happen in real life, the inventions of the future are described by authors, programmers and filmmakers. Yes, there is a certain amount of nerditude involved, but in case you hadn’t noticed, nerds get all the best jobs these days. Buckle up for a geektastic tour of the future… The difference is tech:whilesciencefiction concentrates on whatmightbepossible, given the right technology,fantasyexplains theincrediblebysaying“it’sakindofmagic”. Sci-fi sometimes describestechnologyso outlandish or advancedthatitmightaswell bemagic,butit’salwaysbasedinscience. Some authors, such asUrsulaLeGuinand Michael Moorcock, managetoexcelinboth genres. Sci-fi is better,though,becauseit’s more believable, offersmorepossibilities– and we all know who’sgoingtowininafight between Gandalf andtheDeathStar. /SCIENCEFICTION ImagesfromHardware:TheDefinitiveSF WorksofChrisFoss,£25,TitanBooks SCI-FI VS FANTASY www.stuff.tv / 81 [WordsWillDunnIllustrationChrisFoss] 120 1 3 2 fashion 1. Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon DeepQUEST This monster has gas-illuminated hands that’ll keep glowing right down to its 3000m limit. £2660 / ballwatch.com 2. Citizen Promaster Depth Meter Chronograph This Eco-Drive diver displays your depth to 125ft and records your deepest plunge for posterity. £470 / citizenwatch.com 3. Suunto D9tx Titanium A dive computer masquerading as a watch: ideal for dive-stat geeks. £965 / suunto.co.uk Best For... tech- tockers 121 fashion 1 3 2 [WordsSimonOsborne-WalkerPicturesMatthewBeedle] 1. Tag Heuer Aquaracer 500m Chronograph The Aquaracer’s sleek looks barely hint at its ability to withstand salty depths. £2995 / tagheuer.com 2. Mühle Glashütte Marinus Silver dial not alluring enough? Admire the Marinus’ inner workings through its crystal back. £1560 / muehle-glashuette.de 3. Christopher Ward C60 Trident InspiredbyRolex’sclassicSubmarinermodels, theC60isanaffordableSwissautomatic. £460 / christopherward.co.uk BEST FOR... DRESS-SUIT DIVING 1987 KEY INTRO 20022002 84 / www.stuff.tv Nokia1100 Stilltheworld’sbest-selling mobilephone,withmore than200millionofthe beautiesshippedworldwide. Theultimatedumbphone. MobiraCityman Nokia’sfirsthandheldmobile. Costsabout£4000,weighs 800g,andisusedbythen- SovietleaderGorbachev. Henceits‘Gorba’nickname. Nokia6110 Thishard-casedclassic improvesonitsbrick-like cousin,the2110,witha slimmerchassis.It’salsothe firsttofeatureSnake. Psion3 NotaNokia,butthedebutof EPOC–themulti-taskingOS thatevolvesintoSymbian. EPOCisrumouredtomean ‘ElectronicPieceofCheese’. Nokia7650 TheFinns’mostimportantphone ofthenoughties–afirstfor Symbian,withabuilt-in cameraandacolourscreen, andthefirstphonewitha slide-downkeypad.With third-partyappsandamulti- taskingOS,itis(inconcept,if notdesign)thegodfatherof today’ssmartphones.Allkneel… Nokia7110 Inspiredbythespring-loaded NokiainTheMatrix,thisdesign classicisthefirstphone withT9predictivetext andaWAPbrowser.The uninspiringearlymobile internetmayhaveledto ‘WAPathy’,butthe7110 remainsacultdumbphoneand eBayregular.‘Tank,loadusup…’ Untilrecently,FinnishfirmNokiawasthe kingofmobiles–producingmass-market classicsandhigh-endsuperphonesthat rivalssimplycouldn’tmatch.Thenitall unravelled:first,theKoreansintroduced wave-upon-waveofhigh-style,low-price handsets.ThentheiPhonearrived,knocking Nokiaoffthesmartphonethrone.Wheredid itallgowrong?Andcanaforcedmarriageto long-timerivalMicrosoftreversethedecline? Nokia9000 Nokia’sfirstCommunicator runsaPCoperatingsystem, GEOSv3.Oneinthe eyeforMicrosoftandits lamentableWindowsCE. Nokia9210 ThefirstSymbian(andfirst colour)Communicator. Popularamongboth high-flyingbusinessgeeks andStuffeditors-to-be. AsNokiagetstoworkonitsfirstWindowsPhone7handset, wegetallnostalgicaboutitstrailblazingbackcatalogue Nokia1011 World’sfirstmass-produced GSM,or2G,phone.Nokiais keyindevelopingthistech, whichmeansbettercall,text anddataperformance. Nokia2100 Thefirstphonetousethe NokiaTuneringtonethat ssoundtrackthenext decade.Over20millionsold, possiblythankstothesong. Nokia5110 Thefirstmobilewith changeablecovers:fashion phonesstarthere.Soblame itforodditiessuchasthe later7280‘lipstick’phone. 19921994 19992003 1998199919911996 2000 dumbphone smartphone computer GREATEST HITS #1 Nokia www.stuff.tv / 85 Nokia7200 Nokia’sfirstclamshell comeswayafterthepeak of‘flipmania’,andtoolateto protectitsmass-market businessfromcompetitors. Nokia5310 ‘ComeswithMusic’,itsaid. Thenitquickly‘wentwith music’.Itsall-you-can-eat downloadservicefailsto settheworldalight. Nokia1800 ThisbasicNokiamobileis availableforlessthanafiver onpay-as-you-go.Imports fromtheFarEastareeven cheaper,butnotassolid. NokiaN95 This‘KingofSmartphones’ (©Stuff)islight-yearsahead whenit’sannouncedinlate 2006,withWi-Fi,HSDPA, GPSanda5MPcam.Butby thetimeitarrivesinMarch 2007,Applehasunveiledthe iPhone,andtheN95lookslike adinosaur.Nokiaspendstwo yearslickingitswounds. NokiaN8 TheimprovedSymbian^3makes itsdebutonanaluminium-clad phonewithHDvideo,12MP cameraandHDMIout. Betweenitsannouncement andrelease,Appleunveilsthe iPhone4.It’sstillthebest camphone,buttheclunky interfaceshowswhyNokiahad todraftinWindowsPhone7. NokiaX7(Symbian) Symbianwillcontinuetopower Nokia’smidrangehandsets “longafter”WindowsPhone7 handsetsappear.It’sbeen polishedupwithanimproved Webkitbrowserandinterface tweaks,givenapleasantnew name(Anna)andfounda spankynewvesselintheX7, withits4inscreenand8MPcam. NokiaWP7phone Thefirstfruitoftheunholyunion betweenMicrosoftandNokia isduelaterthisyear,running WindowsPhone7witha Nokiaskin.TheFinnsare aimingtohita“verylow price-point”withtheirfirst WP7phone,soamidrange handsetisabetterbetthan apricey,WP7-poweredN8. NokiaMeeGotablet Nokiaisn’tcommittedtousing WindowsPhone7intablets, andtheFinnsarestillofficially alliedwiththeopen-source MeeGoplatform.Itcouldyet beusedtopowerNokia’sfirst tablet,whichitpatentedback inMay2010.IfaMeeGotablet doeseverarrive,wehopeit’sas wellbuiltasthelovelyBooklet3G. NokiaE61 TheSymbian-powered E-seriestriestotakedown BBlackerrywithitsQWERTY keyboardsandslimlineform factors.Haslimitedsuccess. Nokia3650 EccentricSymbian smartphonewithcircular keypad–aneraofdesign madnessstartshere.Also seetheleaf-shaped7600. NokiaN80 Verysmallsmartphonewith panoplyoffeatures:3.1MP cam,Wi-Fiandvideo-calling. AnditsWebkit-based browsingputsitwayahead. Nokia5800 Nokia’sfirsttouchscreen phone.Insteadofa capacitivetouchscreenit usesinferiorpoke-and-prod resistivetech.iPhonesmirks. NokiaN900 Thefirstsmartphonewith Maemoispowerfulbut confusing.EnterIntel’s MoblinnetbookOS:thetwo fuseandMeeGoisborn. NokiaBooklet3G Nokia’sfirstPCforalmost 20years,thisisthe‘ifApple madenetbooks’netbook. It’salsothefirstofits productstorunWindows. NokiaN90 TheN-seriesofSymbian smartphones,includingthe videocamera-shapedN90, arrives.Palm-powered phonesstruggletocompete. NokiaN82 Amuch-lovedsmartphone oftheoldschool–andthe firstphonewithaproper xenonflash.Theworld’s bestcamphone,forabit. NokiaX6 Justovertwoyearsafterthe iPhone,Nokia’scapacitive touchscreencomesout.Its antiquatedSymbianv2 doesn’tgodownwell. NokiaN-Gage Thecompany’sfirstgames machineistwicethe priceofaGameBoy Advance,butwithnoneof thegames.Cannedin2005. Nokia770 Groundbreaking(butlittle known)touchscreeninternet tablet,runningavariantof LinuxknownasMaemo. Wayaheadofitstime. 2004 2007 2008 20062002 20062008 20092009 2011 2010 2005 2007 2009 20112011 2003 2007 2005 82 / www.stuff.tv THE DAWN OF SCI-FI INVENTING THE FUTURE Writers have been speculating about space travel for almost two millennia, and you can find robots in ancient mythology. Sci-fi might be about the future, but the future is as old as time… Sci-fi predicted much of the modern world, including… /SCIENCEFICTION ATRUESTORY LucianofSamosata|2ndcenturyAD Thetitleisironic–thistraveller’syarn ofavisittothemoonwasmeantasa satireofthestoriesofHomer,which manyatthetimetookasrealhistorical sources.Insendingupotherstories, Lucianinventedanewtypeoffiction. SOMNIUM JohannesKepler|1634 Whenhewasn’tdiscoveringthe lawsofplanetarymotion,thefather ofmodernastrophysicsfoundtime toimaginewhatitwouldbeliketo traveltothemoon,andtoobservethe Earthfromitssurface. FRANKENSTEIN MaryShelley|1818 Thenewscienceofgalvanism– animatingmuscleswithelectricity– gavethe19-year-oldMarynightmares. Shewrotethemdown,andherstory ofamancreatedfromthespareparts binbecamethefirsttruesci-finovel. AJOURNEYTOTHECENTRE OFTHEEARTH JulesVerne|1864 Vernewasthefirstwritertomakea careerfromsci-fi,andthefirsttomake thegenrehugelypopular.Histripdown avolcanictubemadegeologysound alotmoreexcitingthanitreallyis. Satellites Sci-filegendArthur CClarkeisoften creditedwith ‘inventing’satellite communication,in adetailedessayfor WirelessWorldin 1945.ButJules Verneputamilitary satelliteinhis1879 novelTheBegum’s Fortune,andin1869 EdwardEverettHale madethefirst recordedmentionof anartificialsatellite (madeofbricks) inhisshortstory TheBrickMoon. Tabletcomputers InArthurCClarke’s novel2001:ASpace Odyssey,an astronautusesa Newspad,aflat displayalittlebigger thananiPad,toread digitalnewspapers, expandingpostage- stamp-sizedicons tofullscreenview. Thenovelwas writtenin1969. Aroundthesame time,thecrewofthe USSEnterprisewere usiingfamiliar- lookingflatpanels forcomputingtasks. Wikipedia HGWellswasa prolificpredictor, writingdepictionsof nuclearweapons, geneticengineering, militarylasersand theSecondWorld Wardecadesbefore theyhappened.In TheShapeofThings toCome,healso wroteabout a‘World Encyclopaedia’: afree,universal information resourceaccessed frompeople’s hometerminals. YouTube Yearsbeforethe firstwebbrowser, DavidBrinwrote Earth,inwhich peopleusetheweb fornews,blogging andespeciallyvideo, thankstocheap handheldvideo cameras.Earthalso predictsemailspam, augmentedreality andmore.Addto thatthefactthat DavidBrinhasa shinybaldhead,and youhaveonlyone conclusion:he’s atimetraveller. THE PERIODIC TABLE OF SCI-FI Cavorite Appears in The First Men in the Moon by HG Wells Properties Negates the effects of gravity; useful for space flight Unobtanium Appears in Avatar, various other films Properties Super- conductor; very rare and expensive Adamantium Appears in X-Men comics & films Properties Practically indestructible; good blade material Ice-nine (water) Appears in Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Properties Crystallises water at room temperature, including sea water Ca Ub Ad H20 [IllustrationChrisFoss] 2 19 11 83 www.stuff.tv / 83 CYBERPUNK …AND MANY OTHER FLAVOURS SCI-FI EVOLVED As technology evolves in the real world, it fires up the imaginations of sci-fi authors. In the late Victorian era, fast communication, electricity and steam engines drove HG Wells and Jules Verne to popularise the genre; in the 1980s and ’90s, the birth of the internet caused a similar rush of ideas from authors such as William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. Social change can set them off, too – in the 1960s, ideas and politics became the themes. Every time the world changes, a new sub-genre of SF is born… STEAMPUNK /SCIENCEFICTION What is it? Inthe1980sand’90s,aspersonalcomputersmade theirwayintoeveryhomeandtheinternetwent global,sci-fiwritersbegantopopulate‘cyberspace’ (awordcoinedbyWilliamGibsoninhis1982story BurningChrome)withtheircharacters.Fast-paced andanarchic,cyberpunkfindsatleastasmuch adventureinthedigitalasitdoesinreallife. What is it? Cyberpunk’smustachioed,monocled,gin-swilling uncle,steampunkusestechfamiliartoHGWellsand JulesVerne:steampower,clockworkandairships. Characterswearcapesanddashaboutonrooftops. ReadStephenHunt’sTheCourtoftheAir,China Miéville’sPerdidoStreetStationandAlanMoore’s TheLeagueofExtraordinaryGentlemen. APOCALYPTIC …inwhichtheworld comestoanend,butit’s sortofcool COMIC ...inwhichthefutureis, likethepresent, somethingofajoke PSYCHOLOGICAL …inwhichthemost importantactiontakes placeinthemind MILITARY …inwhich,well–youget thepicture.It’sgot soldiersinit Ghost in the Shell (film) Mamoru Oshii, 1995 InHongKong,afemalecyborg copinvestigatesamysterious hacker.Watchitinadouble billwithAkiraforafulldose offuturisticanime. Blade Runner (film) Ridley Scott, 1982 Createdtheenvironment intowhichcyberpunkwas born:citiesofskyscrapersin aperpetualnight,litbyneon advertisingbillboards. Neuromancer (book) William Gibson, 1984 Theoriginalcyberpunknovel hasalltheelements:ahacker hero,agiantTokyo-style city,artificialintelligences, andhuge,sinistercorporations. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (game) Eidos Montreal, 2011 Peppered with references to Blade Runner, this game makes the future look dark, dirty and very, very cool. Cat’s Cradle Kurt Vonnegut, 1963 Ascientistfiguresout howtogetwaterto freezesolidatroom temperature,without stoppingtowonderif thatmightbeabadidea. The Drowned World JG Ballard, 1962 Theicecapshavemelted and Nature is taking backtheplanet.Astheir environmentchanges, humanmindsregress totheirprimalstate. Red Dwarf Rob Grant & Doug Naylor, 1988-99 Thegreatthingabout digitalTVisthat,ifall elsefails,there’susually anepisodeofRed Dwarfonsomewhere. The Forever War Joe Haldeman, 1974 ThesoldiersofEarth setouttofightaliens, buthugedistancesand timedilationmeanwar isrenderedpointless andconfusing. Untilthe1960s,sci-fihadnosubtext;itwasabout thefuture,pureandsimple.Thencameanew breedofauthors,whousedthegenretowrite aboutotherthings–UrsulaleGuinplayedouther politicalideasonotherplanets,andJGBallardset hispsychologicaldramasonanear-futureEarth. ‘Soft’sci-fi–storiessetinsci-fi’sinfiniteworlds, butrelevanttomodernlifeonEarth–wasborn. Penny Farthing £500|iwantoneofthose.com Getsomepractice somewherequietbefore takingyournewbikeoutfor arideinthepark,otherwise you’lllookfarthingridiculous. Phonofone III US$195|scienceandsons.com Thisporcelaingramophone/ ear-trumpetamplifiesyour iPhone’sspeakeracoustically –likeshoutingthrougha trafficcone,onlyclassier. iRetrophone Steampunk £225 | freelandstudios.com TurnsyouriPhone4intothe sortofhefty,respectable machineachapcanlifttohis faceandbellow“whatthe deucedoyouwant?”into. ‘SOFT’ AND ‘HARD’ Bioshock Infinite (game) 2K Games, 2012 Bioshockissteampunkin gameform,andInfinite’s settinginanairborne dirigiblecityisstraightout ofaStephenHuntnovel. GIFT GUIDE USE IT WITH… 56 Fact: you’ll have more success selling tat on ebay if you take nice photos of said tat. Crazy, eh? The good news is that it’s now easier than ever to give pics a pro sheen. Just buy your ebay fan a Foldio, a portable mini studio with built-in LED lights, and every shot will look like something from a John Lewis catalogue. fromUS$50/orangemonkie.com Everyone over the age of 30 has a drawer full of 35mm negatives lying somewhere. Imagine what might be on it: you, when you were young and fit! Your partner, when they were young and fit! Your dog, when it wasn’t dead! This scanner transfers those memories from film to shiny smartphone. £50/lomography.com Camera straps are uniformly evil, cutting into shoulders like a malevolent masseuse and offering little functionality. The UltraFit Sling Strap is a revelation: it’s comfy enough to sleep in and userscanwhizzacamera from waist to face in one slick move. £38/joby.com Anytruephotographygeekwillalready haveatop-notchDSLR,compactand snap-happysmartphone.Butnonewill bemuchuseshootingwildsalmoninthe freezingwatersofAlaska:theDSLRwill betoobulkytolugtotheKatmaiNational Park,thecompactwon’tbewaterproof andthesmartphonelacksazoom.Enter theNikonCoolpixAW120.It’stougherthan StevenSeagaland10timessexier.Itcan survivedunks,dropsandfreezesandhas abuilt-incompassandaltimeter.Most importantly,its16MPsensorservesup pin-sharppicturesandits5xopticalzoom willbehandyiftherearebearsabout. £250/nikon.co.uk LaCie RuggedMini Getthemtostore alltheirriskily takenshotson thistoughlittle harddrive.It’s rain-resistant, shock-resistant and pressure- resistant,and comeswith between 500GBand 2TBofstorage. from£65 / lacie.com/uk Foldio Lomography SmartphoneScanner JobyUltraFitSlingStrap Nikon Coolpix AW120 StoCKInG FILLerS SHutter nutter tHe GLIF This Kickstarter-funded marvel grips a smartphone securely in its jaws then fits to a tripod to give a phone-cam the gift of steadiness. It’ll work with almost any smartphone in the world and doubles as a stand. US$30 / studioneat.com nova However good the iPhone’s dual-LED flash is, it’ll never compete with off-camera lighting. Give shots a glow worthy of a studio set-up with the Nova flash – a dinky, Bluetooth-controlled source that comes with a free iOS app. £50 / novaphotos.com CuRRICuLuM GADGEtAE TonyFadell tHEMANWHO INVENtEDtHE iPHONE NAMEstODROP#4 26 H sO t ft u f [IllustrationCharlesWilliams/madeup.org] FromworkingonthefirstiPodto designingnext-genthermostat Nest,TonyFadellisattheleading edgeofpersonaltech.Weaskhim whyhethinkshomeautomation isn’tactuallyallthatsmart… IdesignedthefirstiPod. IshowedittoSteve[Jobs,obvs.], gothissign-offonit,thenbuiltthe team.Weshipped8generations ofiPod,designedthehardwarefor theiPhoneandshippedthefirst threegenerationsoftheiPhone. Idesignedthehardwareandthe softwarestacks–wherethe buttonswent,whichsensorwent where–andourteamcreated thetouchscreen. WhenIfirstsawa3DTV,Iwaslike, “ThatthingisDOA.” Theytriedtotakeacommodity productandturnitintosomething thatwasnewandexcitingwhen wealreadyhadaflatpanelthatwas fine.Theirgrowthstopped,sothey thought,“Let’saddmore,andit’ll allbebetter.”AndsmartTVs,how dumbarethey?Theinterfacesare horrible.YoujustwantNetflixbut theremoteshaveaYahoobutton, aNetflixbutton,asmartTVbutton thattakesyoutoanothersetof menus–they’renotrethinking, they’rejustaddingmorestuff. Iloathehomeautomation. Typically,thepeoplewhowant homeautomationaresingleguys. Theywantonebuttontoimpress thechicks.Itclosestheblinds, turnsonthelights,turnsonthe TV.Butmostpeoplejustwantthe technologytogoaway.We’reall abouttakingthethingsthatare necessaryinyourhomeand makingthemsmarter,butinthe background.Tome,that’swhat thesuccessoftheconnected homeisgoingtobe;it’snotgoing tobeallofthesewhizzyhome automationthingsthatyouseein alltheseKickstarterprojects.Blah blahblah,talktoyourcoffee maker.Areyoukiddingme? Smartappliancesareonestep toofar. We’resolvingaproblempeople don’thave.It’sjustmore complication.Thereareacoupleof verycoolthingssmartappliances cando,likereportingenergy usage.Butaretheyreallygoingto changedramatically?No.What theyneedtodoisfigureoutnew waysofconvectioncookingor inductioncooking.That’swhere thefundamentaltechnology differencesare–notlayeringon morestufffromSiliconValleyto confusethings.LikewhenNest cameintothethermostatmarket: beforeus,thebiginnovationwas colouredtouchscreens,soyou couldhaveyourcalendarandyour photoalbumonyourthermostat. What?Why? Iworkedonwearablecomputing. IdidtheNike+shoewiththeiPod, andIlearnedalotaboutwearables. Ihatetheterm‘smart’.Smartthis, smartthat,smartsmartsmart. Whatproblemareyoutruly solving?Ithinkithastobeacouple ofthingsdoneverysimply.It’snot goingtobethiswholeplatform; it’sanaccessorytoaphone.Often you’rejustnotunderstandingthe problem,you’rejustlayeringmore onsoyoucansay,“I’veoutdone thisotherguy’sstuff,it’sgot morecheckboxes,therefore youshouldbuymine.” Phabletsseemlikeafad. Peoplethink,“YeahIwantthe biggerscreen,”andthenthey’re like,“Ohno–maybeIjustwanta smallertablet.”What’sbeing marketedseemscool,butlookat whatpeoplearereallyusing,what peoplestickwith.Alotofpeople justwantittofitintheirpocket. Thebasicsmakeaphonebrilliant. Whatpeopletalkaboutare: what’sthecamera,what’sthe display,what’sthebatterylife? Thesmartphonemarketnow remindsmeofPCsbackinthe day,whentheykeptaddingmore bloatware.It’sreallymoreabout appsthanitisabouthardware. SonyMagicLink (1994) Tonycreateda lightweightOSfor handheldtouchscreen devices13years beforethefirst iPhonewaslaunched. PhilipsNino(1999) WhileatPhilips,Fadell createdanumberof touchscreenPDAs runningWindowsCE. KnownasPalm-Size PCs,theyhadobvious smartphoneleanings. AppleiPod(2001) AfterPhilips,Fadell startedacompany calledFusetoproduce amusicplayerwitha smallharddisk.He couldn’tgetfunding, sowenttoApple. Nest(2010) Whilekittingouthis newlybuilthousein LakeTahoe,Fadell realisedthermostats wererubbish,and decidedtomakehis own,betterone. “TYPICALLY,IT’STHESINGLEGUYSWHO WANTHOMEAUTOMATION.THEYWANT ONEBUTTONTOIMPRESSTHECHICKS” 74 / www.stuff.tv If it’s a life on the ocean waves for you, you’ll be needing a fleece- lined shell that’ll keep you warm even in a white squall. The HPX is coated in laminated Gore-Tex to keep wind and waves at bay, and a stretch fabric for mobility. Soyou’reatthecruxofanE3and therain’s closing in: clearly you need a three-point hood adjustment system so you can keep your bonce dry. Tapered sleeves stop the arms riding up as you reach for that tricky edge. /TECHJACKETS MAMMUT NORDWAND £550 | outside.co.uk MUSTOHPX OCEANJACKET £570 | musto.com BEST FOR SAILING BEST FOR CLIMBING ROSS PRESLY
  • 6. 144 / www.stuff.tv LITTLEBIGPLANETS A SENSOR ADVENTURE /GEEKART TiredofInstagramsunsets?Trythesephotographers’tipstomakeyourownworksofart AKA STEREOGRAPHIC PROJECTION www.stuff.tv / 145 BYJEFFGOLDBERG FLICKR.COM/JEFFAGOLDBERG ingredients HOWTO... /GEEK ART “I came across this technique on Flickr, and emailed photographers to find out how they composed their work: most are very willing to share their techniques. Then I explored my local areas in Illinois, United States – the water was so still for this shot, I managed to get a glass- like reflection on the far side of the water.” PTGui software from £70 | ptgui.com A photo-stitching wizard for Windows and Mac, its ‘stereographic down’ mode centres the ‘nadir’ of your scene to make it look like a tiny planet. Canon EOS 7D DSLR £790|digitalrev.com Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM lens £340 | amazon.co.uk Manfrotto 190CXPRO4 tripod £220 | jessops.com 1Scenes that make good ‘little planets’ have a consistent texture to the foreground, and a decent variation to the background. Trees and buildings work well, but if they’re too tall they’ll dwarf your planet. 2Set up your tripod and take a 360o round of photos. The shot above is a composite of 72 images, but simpler scenes require far fewer. Use a shot taken above and below you as the centre of the planet. 3Load the images into PTGui and choose ‘Stereographic Down’ mode. The software calculates the angles to help align things and gets about 80% of the joins correct; you can manually adjust the rest. 4Now use Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to ‘clean up’ the likes of exposure and generally buff your planet. Post-processing for a shot like this can take up to a day, but it’s worth it to play God. SHARECONOMY 93 [ Words Jamie Condliffe Illustration Erro Johannes ] Welcometotheshareconomy,inwhichsitessuchasAirbnband TaskRabbitreinventcommunityspiritbylettingyouborrowfrom andlendtoothersovertheweb.KarlMarxwouldbesoproud… So, the ‘shareconomy’ – that means we’ll all be knitting socks in a commune soon, right? Don’t fret, it’s nothing so unsexy as that. Simply put, most of us have things we don’t use and skills we could share. Enter, stage right, the internet, which makes it possible to lend things to others, sometimes for a fee, sometimes just for the vibes, man. And even when there is a charge, it’s usually less than using a traditional service. Want to get started? Simply list something – anything from a spare room to your pet — on the right website and people will contact you to borrow it. Sites such as Economy Of Hours take the peer-to-peer spirit further, letting you trade your skills and time for the same in return. And lo! A new spirit of community is born. It’s what the internet was invented for. INTErNET karma 94 / www.stuff.tv It’schillydownbyyourshins. It’schillydownbyyourshins. Bootyourselfintowarmth Bootyourselfintowarmth It’schillydownbyyourshins. Bootyourselfintowarmth It’schillydownbyyourshins. It’schillydownbyyourshins. Bootyourselfintowarmth It’schillydownbyyourshins. withapairofhigh-tops withapairofhigh-tops Bootyourselfintowarmth withapairofhigh-tops Bootyourselfintowarmth Bootyourselfintowarmth withapairofhigh-tops Bootyourselfintowarmth [Words CherryMa rtinPic tures Ma tth ew Beedle] /FASHION AirMagmaby Nike £8 5|siz e.co.uk Pulfer by Call It Spring £85 | callitspring.com TrekkerBo ot by Gravis £130 |surfd om e.c om KhykebyBoxfresh £105 |boxfres h.co.u k Jake Workb oo tby Ca terpilla r £8 5|catfo otwea r.c om SHARES RISING… 94 SHARECONOMY here was a time when a cheap room meant Premier Inn and hiring a car meant Enterprise. But now, everyday folk on the internet have flats, cars, and all kinds of other stuff that they’re willing to lend. “Sharing has been around forever,” explains NathanBlecharczyk,co-founderof Airbnb,thepioneeringsitethatlets you rent a room in someone else’s home. “It’s just that in the last 50 years people have accumulated so much stuff that they’re not using it all. Now, technology is making it possible for them to share it.” Websites can match owners to borrowers, online payment systems allow people to stump up cash, and social networks let everyone check they can trust one another. This is the sharing economy – and if you’re not using it yet, you probably soon will be. Sharing 2.0 The whole thing sounds a lot like re-branded renting, but advocates rightly point to a few subtle differences. “Three things mark out a successful sharing economy company,” explains Blecharczyk. “One, the technology has to remove friction from the transaction, to make it easier. Two, there needs to be some degree of financial arbitrage. And three, it has to be a community, it has to be fun. It can’t just be about the money. That’s the secret sauce.” Add to the mix the fact that shareconomy services are often good for the environment, because they minimise wasteful purchases, and it seems an irresistible prospect. It’s certainly working for Airbnb: launched in 2008, the site now offers users over 500,000 places to stay in 34,000 cities around the world. Boom, boom It’snotjustaboutfindingatakerfor yourspareroom,though.American sites such as Relay Rides have created peer-to-peer car rental services, Uber – and its cheaper UberX offshoot – has pioneered a new kind of taxi service by matching willing drivers to wanting passengers, and TaskRabbit allows people to farm out chores. It’s all great value, too. “UberX in London is 30-40% cheaper than a black cab,” explains Corey Owens, Head of Global Public Policy at Uber. “For a long time people didn’t realise it was possible to make services that cheap and provide someone with a living wage.” There are increasingly more UK-specific examples, too, allowing you to share home- cooked food, borrow land to pitch a tent, or even find a pooch you can pet-sit for. Business is booming. In fact, Lauren Anderson from Collaborative Consumption, an independent research organisation specialising in peer- to-peer markets, is “comfortable valuing the sharing economy globally as worth in the region of US$100 billion.” All about the money? With that much cash floating around, it’s tempting to get involved. As a customer you can save a packet, but you could make money, too. Not all the cash comes your way, though – the sites take a cut, and you may have to pay tax on the income – but it’s still possible to make a wedge. One user we spoke to, who wants to remain anonymous, rents a central-London apartment for £2000 a month then sub-lets it on Airbnb. “I make £500 in profit each month,” he explains. “It’s not passive income, but now I’ve been doing it for a while I probably only spend about 20 minutes a day working on it.” That’s an hourly rate of a none-too-shabby £55. He’s not alone in this, either: Airbnb claims the average San Francisco host makes £5600 a year, while Steven Webb from Relay Rides explains that “some power users make upwards of £600 a month.” 1995 eBAY opeNs Its doors Car boot sales and village auctions were the places for second-hand stuff, until eBay changed everything. Nineteen years after its launch, it's fair to say the multi-billion-dollar site has proven that web-based economies work. 1999 NApster pIoNeers peer-to-peer It didn't invent peer-to-peer sharing, but Sean Parker's pioneering music label nemesis did popularise the idea of internet users pooling their resources for the collective good. Or the collective bad, if you're the bypassed middle man. 2004 streetCAr stArts Its eNGINes It began with just eight cars parked outside Clapham Junction station, but Streetcar soon became a pioneer of the UK shareconomy and our biggest car-sharing service. Until, that is, it was hoovered up by its US equivalent, Zipcar, in 2010. 2008 AIrBNB Is BorN When two San Franciscan roommates couldn’t afford to pay their rent, they let the place out to cover costs, made a profit – and invented Airbnb in the process. The room-sharing service has so far provided a roof over the heads of more than 9 million people. 2013 tAsKrABBIt HIts tHe UK America’s biggest task- sharing site – which lets you farm out chores and errands you’d rather avoid – hopped across to the UK in November 2013. An economy kick-started in the States is now ready to reinvent the concept of 'temping'. HOW IT WORKS109 NEIGHBOURS SHARING 83 THINGS WITHIN 1 MILE SHARECONOMY 95 Community service The origin of all this success? “It’s been a perfect storm,” explains Anderson. “The sharing economy allowed people to have what they wanted without spending as much during the financial crisis. But at the same time there’s been a resurgent desire to feel part of a community, too.” That’s particularly evident in the UK. “In the US, they’re a much purer breed of capitalist,” muses Ben Pugh, founder of Farmdrop, a site linking food producers to customers, cutting out the supermarkets. “In the UK, we’ve got a streak of left-wing in us.” His company means producers see more profit and customers get fresher, tastier food, but many sites highlight the UK’s egalitarian streak: Streetclub helps communities pool DIY tasks and tools, while Streetbank lets you share possessions with a neighbour. Neither require money to change hands. “We think financial exchanges take away the natural high you get when you help “IT HAS TO BE A COMMUNITY, IT HAS TO BE FUN, NOT JUST BE ABOUT THE MONEY” NATHAN BLECHARCZYK, AIRBNB someone,” explains Sam Stephens, founder of Streetbank. “So we're encouraging people to be generous.” Trust nobody Cash or otherwise, you might still be worried about dealing with strangers. After all, a woman in the US famously had her apartment trashed by a rogue Airbnb guest in 2011, and some Relay Rides and Uber cars have been involved in accidents. “Without a doubt the most critical aspect for all businesses in the sharing economy is establishing trust and safety,” admits Webb, which is why sites offer multiple layers of reassurance. In some cases, users can be filtered from the get-go — blemished driving licenses make it impossible to sign up to car- sharing sites, say. Then there’s 1. SHOUT Advertise or make a request for a Thing (be it a product or service) on the relevant site. Try Meshing.it for a list of sharing sites. On Streetbank, your Thing could be an old sofa or French lessons. 2. RESPONSE Like-minded peeps see your post, then request and respond through a shareconomy service. Or, if the Things are owned by the service, they’ll say what’s available, and where to collect it. 3. STRIKE A DEAL An agreement is set. On Streetbank, say, it’s a digital handshake. Where cash is involved, services such as Airbnb hold the fee, take a cut, then pass on the cash after the Thing has been returned. 4.KUDOSTOYOU Leave and receive feedback for the deal. Don’t neglect this part: it boosts your reputation on the site and makes you a trustworthy shareconomiser (just don’t call yourself that). sPACe oddities SHARECONOMY 98 CaSSERoLE CLUb The best thing some of us can make for dinner is a reservation, so Casserole Club pairs foodies with people devoid of culinary skills – and those who just appreciate a good, home-cooked supper. casseroleclub.com CaMP IN MY GaRDEN If Airbnb is too much, how about some turf to call your own? Camp In My Garden offers a selection of back yards whose owners are happy to have a tent pitched there for the night. campinmy�arden.com DoG VaCaY Maybe your dog needs looking after, or you want a pet but can’t have one full- time. Dog Vacay pairs pooches whose owners are off on holiday with animal lovers keen to care for them for a few weeks. do�vacay.com GEt MY boat A life on the waves: relaxing, romantic, but expensive. Unless you borrow someone else's boat for the weekend – GetMyBoat finds occasional sailors’ vessels, from kayaks to ocean-going yachts. �etmyboat.com …holiday money WE SWaP Instead of spending your lunchtimes queuing up at the bureau de change, We Swap lets your trade your currency directly with someone who’s doing the reverse of your trip. Your cash then appears on a prepaid credit card to spend during your holiday. weswap.com …snowboards SPINLIStER Hitting the slopes can be a pricey business, but Spinlister lets you borrow someone else’s skis or snowboard while they’re hitting the après-ski Jägermeister. And come the summer when the snow has all melted, they can fix you up with a mountain bike, too. spinlister.com …3D Printers 3D HUbS Everybody wants to have a go at 3D printing, but these machines aren't exactly an impulse buy. This site lets you know of nearby hardware and when it’s free. Now you just need to decide which of your colleagues to turn into a novelty plastic meerkat. 3dhubs.com …car sharing bLa bLa CaR The UK’s answer to Lyft pairs an empty seat in someone’s motor to a person needing to take the same journey. Like hitchhiking without the Rutger Hauer character from The Hitcher, the driver earns petrol money while the passenger gets a cheap ride. blablacar.com …parking spaces PaRK at MY HoUSE Drive down any street in the middle of the day and kerbs will be full but driveways empty. Park At My House pairs empty drives with people who need a spot during their workday, saving them 70% on parking costs. And a lot of parking-ticket rage. Parkatmyhouse.com tHE LEFt�FIELD LoaNS FRoM tHoSE WHo WaNt to SEEM GENERoUS RisiNG stARsTheshareconomyisbranchingbeyondcarsandflatsandinto… 68 GROUP TEST What is it? The laptop-slaying Surface Pro 2 comes armed with Intel’s new Haswell chip for better battery life andprocessinggrunt.Its10.6in full HD screen is the biggest here and,witheithertheTouchorType Cover attached, offers the best keysfortrout-sizedhands.Butall thatcomesataprice–thatprice beingatleast£720,withupwards of£100ontopofthatforaCover. Is it any good? Nevermind‘laptopslayer’,at900g thePro2isalmostasbeastlyasa laptopitself.Fortunately,ithasthe power to match, with the most What is it? TheEncoreisthefirstofaraftof 8infullWindows8.1tabletsdueto arrivethisyear.ItrunsonIntel’s speedynewBaytrailmobileCPU, squeezes in a respectable 1280x800 screen and is well stocked for ports, with microSD and microHDMI-out adorning its sides. It’s not much of a looker, admittedly, but it’s neat, sturdy andworksnicelyinportraitmode. Is it any good? Full Windows 8.1 looks a bit squashed on an 8in screen, but at £250, with the ability to run side-by-side apps and with MicrosoftSurfacePro2 £720 / microsoft.com ToshibaEncore8in £250 / toshiba.com STUFF SAYS ★★★★★ The best Windows 8 tablet that (a lot of) money can buy STUFF SAYS ★★★★✩ The reliable,versatile Encore serves up full Win 8.1 on a budget Tech 10.6in,1920x1080● Intel Corei5@1.9GHz● 64GB(+microSD) ● 1.2MP,720p(front/rear)● USB3.0, MiniDisplayPort,Bluetooth 4.0 ●275x173x13.5mm,900g Tech 8in,1280x800● IntelAtom Z3740@1.33GHz● 32GB(+microSD) ● 8MP(rear);2MP(front)● microUSB, Bluetooth4.0,microHDMI ● 10.68x213x135.9mm,445g sprightly video editing, browsing and gaming on test. It’s certainly the only tablet here capable of running Premiere Pro and Grid 2 simultaneously. A 5hr battery life is acceptable, build is excellent and if you want the best, it’s the only choice. But, boy, that price… access to full Windows programs, we’ll forgive it. Stamina is good at 8hrs, it flies through Window Store games and Excel spreadsheets alike, and while there’s no obvious keyboard attachment, it’s simple enough to use a Bluetooth one. Port authority ThePro2hasa USB3.0port–great forstickinginanXbox controllerandgetting insomeproperFPS action(onlow settings). 69 GROUP TEST testtest winner What is it? Anadvancednetbookterminator, Asus’T100lackstheshapeshifting abilityofitsmoviebigbrotherthe T-1000,butitdoesbringword processingtothepartyinstead. The10.1intablet-and-dock combopushesthescalesat1kg, butit’sworthitfortheUSB3.0 portandtotapawayfuriouslyon thetrain.The1366x768screen offerscrisptext,greatcontrast andcoloursthatpop. Is it any good? TheTBookrunsfull8.1onIntel’s newBaytrailprocessors–double theprocessingpowerandtriple AsusTransformerBookT100 £350 / asus.com STUFF SAYS ★★★★★ An amazing tabtop with power, neat design and killer battery life Tech10.1in,1366x768● IntelAtom Z3740@1.33GHz● 32GB(+microSD) ● 1.2MP(front)● Bluetooth4.0, microUSB,USB3.0(dock)● 264x171x10.5mm,550g(tab); 264x171x23.6mm,1.07kg(both) thegraphicsoflastyear’sAtoms –anditshows.Everythingruns smoothlyanditalsorocks speedydual-bandWi-Fiandthe bestbatterylifehere,lastingall dayandintothenext.For£350 allin,it’sreallyquiteabargain. Nice toseeyou… TheEncoreis greatforSkype,with crystal-clearaudio– thankstodualmicsthat blockoutbackground noise–andbright HDpictures. Room formanoeuvre TheT100issmaller thanalaptop,butthe keyboardissturdyand thekeyshavegood depth.Thetrackpad’s notquitesohot, though. ROSS PRESLY