Table of contents for November 2017 in Stuff UK

So, which side are you on? With the iPhone X’s grand unveiling, a great divide has opened up at Stuff HQ. In the green corner, you have a bunch of Android loyalists who laugh in the face of a thousand-pound handset. In the rose gold corner, a select few Apple fans are cooking up ever more preposterous schemes to afford the thing. As for me, I’m just excited that Apple has pulled its finger out this time. The iPhone X is the most ambitious product it’s made in ages, and reading our coverage from the launch (p14) has only amped up my excitement. After all, it’s been almost five years since an iPhone climbed to the summit of our smartphones Top Ten. As revolutionary as the iPhone X is, it’s…

HYBRID CAR TEST p40 Eco warrior By combining a low profile, an aerodynamic body and a diffuser-style rear bumper, the new Leaf cuts drag (the sworn enemy of everything that moves) drastically. This stops it wasting all those efficiencies it’s made elsewhere. ONE PEDAL TO RULE THEM ALL Nissan Leaf (2018) Rubbish at eco gear shifts? You’ve two options: abandon hope and buy a flappy paddle Ferrari, or go quids-in on the new Nissan Leaf. Equipped with a nippy 110kW electric drivetrain (equivalent to 148bhp), its biggest trick is one-pedal driving. Lace up your shoe and let the e-Pedal do the work, using resistance from the car’s regenerative energy tech to do the slowing when you lift off. For everything except emergency braking the e-Pedal is your one-stop shop. It…

The latest startups, crowdfunded projects and plain crazy ideas INDIE-GOGO Print ’n’ play TOYBOX 3D PRINTER In the olden days you’d count yourself lucky if you were given a brick on a string to play with. These days, kids have fidget spinners, iPads and Oculus Rifts to entertain themselves, and their bricks are used to make enormous Millennium Falcons. Now, thanks to the Toybox 3D printer, they essentially have their own toy factory too. Kids can use the app to pick the toy they want to print with just a single button press, or can even design their own. Then, if our experience with 3D printing is anything to go by, you just need to entertain them for three hours while it gets to work. from US$249/make.toys BACK IT STACK…

1 Nanoleaf Ivy Smarter Kit The customisable Nanoleaf LED bulb is voice-controlled through your smartphone, so your fingers never have to leave the keyboard. £61/nanoleaf.me 2 MX Anywhere 2S This wireless mouse is kitted out with Logitech Flow, which lets you seamlessly control up to three computers with one device, and it’ll track on any surface. £80/logitech.com 3 Satechi Smart Charging Stand This will dock and charge an Apple Watch, Fitbit Blaze or smartphone – which is much more impressive than your average pencil pot. US$35/satechi.net 4 Super Mario Bros Heat Change Mug A hot brew is always welcome on a desk, but you’ll enjoy it more in the knowledge you’ve given life to an 8-bit Mushroom Kingdom. £9.99/firebox.com 5 Samsung DeX Station It looks like little more than a…

HOW TO BUY 1 Choose your engine There are two types of hybrid motors: conventional and plug-in. Conventional models don’t need recharging. Plug-ins do, but also have bigger batteries. 2 Check out your local charging structure Plug-in hybrids are a hassle if you don’t have a charging spot nearby. Be sure to check your local setup via a service such as Zap Map. 3 It’s an investment! Hybrids often cost more than a petrol car. The trade-off ? Far superior fuel efficiency, grateful polar bears, and a motor that should better retain value. 4 Understand the tax breaks Most hybrids cost £130 to tax after the first year – a mere £10 less than a petrol or diesel. Only fully electric and hydrogen cars are now tax-exempt. WHAT I LOVE…

VOLVO XC90 T8 £61,705/stuth.tv/XC90T8 Range strife Since the battery can only muster 13 miles, it doesn’t o? er a purely electric driving mode. Yet next to a Range Rover this is still much more eco-friendly. We could be lifted Our guilty pleasure here? The electronically closing boot. After a lifetime spent playing games, we struggle to move anything heavier than a 5in phone. DESIGN Big love Volvo’s mantra for the XC90? Bigger is best. So while this car’s five-metre length is tastefully designed, you’re reminded of every centimetre when you try to park it. At least the combo of a 12.3in display and reverse parking camera means you can see how close that rogue shopping trolley is. Better yet, we enjoyed being able to stick a bike in the boot…

You may have spotted a few Sky Mobile adverts in this issue. That’s because it’s really rather interesting. You see, Sky Mobile is the network that does things differently. Alongside offering you the latest 4G technology, free unlimited Sky WiFi at places around the country and free roaming in more than 30 EU and EEA locations, on Sky Mobile you get a combination of features, perks and flexibilities you won’t find anywhere else. Like the ability to watch shows you’ve recorded on Sky+ from anywhere, or tailor your plan on a monthly basis. This is the Sky Mobile difference… Swap Craving the latest smartphone every year, completely hassle-free? Swap12 is for you. When it’s time to Swap, you simply choose a new phone and send the old one back to…

The problem with most prequels? You already know how they’re going to end before you’ve started. So by the time the final part of Before the Storm wraps up, we’d bet our pitiful life-savings on Chloe Price having a new blue haircut, Rachel Amber going missing and the time-travelling Max Caulfield making one final appearance. Because all those pieces were in place at the start of 2015’s role-playing soap opera Life Is Strange. And yet Before the Storm is shaping up to be every bit as winsome as the cult classic that inspired it. With a slew of memorable characters, painful teenage dialogue and intriguing moral quandaries, this first instalment in a three-episode arc follows broadly the same setup as the original game. Once again, you’ll spend most of your…

Apple iPad Pro 10.5in from £619/apple.com The 9.7in iPad Pro was already sitting comfortably as our favourite tablet, but that wasn’t good enough for Apple. Rather than giving its flagship tablet a few minor tweaks, it introduced a bigger screen and an immensely potent processor. In fact, this device is so powerful and flashy that it’s even blurring the lines between tablet and laptop. If you only want to browse social media and watch Netflix, the 10.5in iPad Pro is overkill; this is for those more interested in creation than consumption. Stuff says 5/5 The iPad Pro puts all other tablets to shame – it’s unbeatable as a multimedia machine or creative tool Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 £600/samsung.com The Tab S3 is powerful and has a gorgeous screen, while the…

Sky Q from £20 + £22/month/sky.com Sky Q works flawlessly and could change the way you watch TV – especially now 4K’s arrived. With Sky Movies’ huge range of films and Sky Sports’ frequent doses of football and F1 now all in stunning Ultra HD, there’s something for everyone to treat their eyes with. And 2TB of storage means you can record 350 hours’ worth of entertainment, so you’re unlikely to be sweating over which show needs deleting. Factor in its multiroom skills, and Sky Q is undoubtedly the best TV experience you can get. Stuff says 5/5 You’ll have to cough up for a subscription, but this is the best box for watching both live and recorded shows Q Acoustics Media 4 £299/qacoustics.co.uk This soundbar has won awards two…

DJI Spark £450/dji.com The Spark is the most user-friendly drone for beginner pilots. Don’t want to use a clunky controller to navigate? Use your smartphone instead, or even just wave your orders at it via gesture controls. Plus, it’s extremely diddy and will easily fit in a backpack. True, its 15-minute fly time is frustratingly short and the gesture system needs some fine tuning, but you’ll be having so much fun taking aerial shots that you’ll soon forget these forgivable flaws. Just make sure to buy a spare battery. Stuff says 5/5 A perfect beginners’ drone, the Spark has flown down from gadget heaven and into our No1 spot DJI Mavic Pro £850/dji.com Despite the tiny proportions, DJI hasn’t had to make any sacrifices for the Mavic Pro. In fact,…

NETFLIX Stranger Things (S2) Those Stranger Things kids remind us of our own childhoods: playing video games, cycling around the neighbourhood, fleeing from monsters from parallel universes… nothing’s really changed since the ’80s. Mindhunter (S1) To catch a serial killer you need to think like a serial killer, according to the FBI agents in Mindhunter. Unfortunately, applying the same logic and dressing up in red and white doesn’t make a Where’s Wally? book any easier. Wheelman There’s one big reason we can’t stop watching getaway driver films like Wheelman. It’s not the high-speed chases or the crazy car stunts; it’s so we can learn how to turn sharp corners without spilling a drop of coffee. AMAZON VIDEO Arrival Alien invasions are usually full of laser blasts and sci-fi shocks. But…

I HAD A CHAT WITH MY HEATING As fun as Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant are, I didn’t invite them into my house to be court jesters – I got them to control my smart home. So far, the novelty of telling my lights to turn on and off hasn’t worn off. But now I’ve got a new favourite, thanks to Tado’s Smart Radiator Thermostats. Because they do zonal control, I can say “Alexa, turn the heating in my lounge up three degrees” and immediately hear them whirring into action. This one’s going to be hard to beat. Mark Wilson, Features Editor SMART HEATING p93 I TURNED A GUITAR INTO AN ATARI 2600 Bitcrushers are all the rage at the experimental end of the axe-thrashing community, where the last thing…

Sphero R2-D2 £180/sphero.com Sphero’s app-controlled R2-D2 is an upgrade on your current housemate ■ Beepy buddy Perfect paintwork and fully functional LEDs mean this mini version of the galaxy’s favourite droid (sorry, C-3PO) looks the part, so Sphero made damned sure he sounds it too. Note-perfect audio effects from the Star Wars archive emerge from R2-D2’s speaker. ■ Falcon fancier Augmented reality tech unleashed by the app allows you to explore a holographic simulation of the Millennium Falcon – accompanied, of course, by your new droid mate, who will respond to your movements. The app will throw you tidbits of information as you move through the corridors of Solo’s ship, so you’re not going to walk past the AG-2G quad laser cannon without noticing. ■ Room roamer When you’re tired…

from £329/apple.com Ah great, another watch… Can’t you take the hint? That grotty old ticker currently on your wrist smells sweatier than a stale kebab. But this here isn’t just any watch. It’s an Apple Series 3 watch, and if this won’t persuade you to give your wrist a much-needed upgrade then nothing will. It’s the stuff of your childhood dreams, now allowing you to make calls to your friends without the help of your trusty iPhone. Wow! So many new opportunities to publicly embarrass myself! Just think of them all for a moment. You wish happy birthday to your dad while doing squats. Give a meter reading in the middle of a swim. Organise your laundry collection on the football pitch. All you need to do is sign up…

This month’s mobile must-downloads 1 Amazon Prime Video £free/iOS, Android For ‘reasons’, this app used to require you to jump through hoops on Android, but now it’s on Google Play. Hurrah! Only, annoyingly, it doesn’t yet have Chromecast support. Hurroo. Still, it’s a start. 2 Data Wing £free/iOS, Android This game begins as a minimal overhead racer with you seemingly controlling the ship from Asteroids. But then you’re embroiled in hacking and trading barbs with AIs. Odd. Brilliant. Entirely free. 3 Trips by Lonely Planet 3 Trips by Lonely Planet £free/iOS If you’re not yet sick of other people’s photos of beautiful places, Trips is a great way to sightsee on your iPhone. It’s packed full of photography-rich stories, and you can easily add your own. 4 Little Alchemy 2…

from £29,980/stu. .tv/VWGolfGTE WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT Natalya Paul, Social Media Editor Natalya Paul, Social Media Editor I learned to drive in my mum’s old Golf (02 number plate), which had a sealant problem. In winter it smelt like a terrapinarium, but that was the price of freedom. Slinking along in this GTE, I’m thinking the Golf has sure come a long way. Our friends electric While VW’s e-Golf can muster about 125 miles, the plug-in GTE will run for about 20 miles on leccy alone, which is about par for the (Golf) course. NOW ADD THIS Tile Mate This Bluetooth puck was made to track misplaced wallets, but it’ll also do the same for four-wheeled items of property in labyrinthine car parks. £20/thetileapp.com DESIGN Practical motor homie If…

■ Story Plot Generator Pro You sit down to write your bestseller, but… ARGH – ideas have deserted you! Have no fear, because you can get inspiration from this app – triggers for situations, details, objectives – and hope the paragraphs then flow. It’s all a bit hackneyed, but at the very least it’s a spark to help get you started. £2.19/Android ■ Evernote Unless your idea for a novel is something you can easily squeeze onto the back of a napkin, you’re going to end up juggling all kinds of inspiration – websites, lists of ideas, images, and perhaps even audio. To keep track of everything, hurl it all at Evernote, tag items, and revel in your searchable online goodie-bag of literary brilliance. £free/Android, iOS ■ Gboard You’re really…

£150/stuff.tv/TimexIQMove ■ On the surface the Timex IQ+ Move looks just like your average analogue watch, but it also offers step tracking, alarms and basic timer alerts. Sure, it doesn’t do much, but that’s kind of the whole point of this £150 watch. ■ This wearable has the same tastefully minimalist style as other, normal Timex watches. Its casing is stainless steel, with slightly curved mineral glass on top. It’s a smart look, and it’s water-resistant down to 50 metres. ■ Timex makes the IQ+ Move with either a leather or a silicone strap. Our leather one has a sort of corrugated finish across half of its length. Not a fan? You can always swap it out, as the IQ+ Move uses a standard strap fixture. ■ Beneath that plain…

FIRST GET THESE… ONE WACOM INTUOS ART PEN & TOUCH TABLET Wacom might be known for its pro-level graphics tablets, but this Intuos model is an affordable way to up the quality of anyone’s design work. Whether you’re sketching in Illustrator or tweaking in Photoshop, it’ll give you far more precision than a mouse. A smaller tab is also available for £90. £170/wacom.com TWO MICROSOFT SURFACE ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD Microsoft knows a thing or two about PCs. So even though its Surface Studio can’t quite match the iMac for all-round performance, this wireless accessory is a great upgrade on Apple’s Magic Keyboard. Its curves take a while to get used to, but typing is much more pleasant once you have. £120/microsoft.com THREE LOGITECH MX ERGO Some things – wallet chains and…

1 HIVE ACTIVE HEATING The simple option, Hive Active Heating lacks some of the skills of its rivals, including the ability to learn your from movements. Still, it’s a super-slick performer, with IFTTT powers to boot. It may not be flashy, but it gets the job done. 2 NEST 3.0 Nest’s smart wheel design and Alexa compatibility have kept it atop our smart home Top Ten for years… but with so much competition turning up the heat, it’ll take more than good looks to ensure it remains our favourite smart thermostat. 3 HONEYWELL EVOHOME Honeywell doesn’t believe in learning our habits – we’re just too unpredictable for it to bother. What it does believe in is giving us absolute power by letting us set individual temperature schedules for every single…

• TIPS & TRICKS • Holler “Hey Bixby!” at your S8 and its voice assistant can dictate texts, suggest pubs and much more. • You can customise the S8’s screened The feeds for the weather, news and other notifications. • Hold down the S8’s ‘recents’ key and tap the multi-window button to open two apps at once. Samsung Galaxy S8 £689/samsung.com You don’t need us to tell you that the Galaxy S8 is a bezel-less thing of wonder. Just look at it: glorious! And beneath that gorgeous facade lies an equally sumptuous blend of power and performance. With enough oomph to run any app you please, and a point-and-shoot camera to rival both the iPhone 7 Plus and the Google Pixel, this really is an astoundingly good comeback after Samsung’s…

■ TIPS & TRICKS ■ Press the top-ri?ht lu? and you’ll ?et a list of favourites where you can start your activity trackin?. ■ In-depth runnin? stats include stride len?th, aerobic and anaerobic trainin? effect, plus cadence. ■ There are modes for track runnin?, skiin?, triathlon, rowin?, mountain bikin?, ?olf and even skydivin?. Garmin Fenix 5 £500/garmin.com The Fenix 5 is the champion of multi-sport trackers – not least because it can track almost every discipline that’s out there. It also manages to be tough without looking ungainly, and carries a real sense of premium build quality that’s not undermined by its user interface. Those physical buttons add to the experience, especially during exercise, while strong Bluetooth and battery performance polish things into a complete tracking package. Stuff says 5/5…

• TIPS & TRICKS • Who needs a Touch Bar? You can lo. into your Mac with your iPhone’s Touch ID usin. the MacID app. • The universal clipboard lets you copy text on your iPhone and paste it directly to your Mac. Apple MacBook Pro from £1099 (13in)/apple.com The MacBook Pro didn’t really need a big update, but we’re not moaning that Apple decided to give it one, especially since it comes at no extra charge. With the new Kaby Lake processor giving the Pro a big boost in power, this is a monster of a laptop – even without the Touch Bar. When you factor in the gorgeous display, fantastic keyboard/touchpad combination and slick design, putting the MacBook Pro at No1 was the easiest decision we’ve ever made.…

• TIPS & TRICKS • Check out the app’s Ener?y Savin?s Report to see how well you’re doin? each month. • Crank up the nerdery by tinkerin? with Tado’s IFTTT channel or addin? it to your HomeKit setup. • Hook up an Amazon Echo or Goo?le Home to chan?e the temperature with your voice. Tado Smart Thermostat from £199 + installation/tado.com It might not be as pretty as the Nest 3.0, but Tado has quietly evolved into the best all-round smart heating system around. Like autopilot for your boiler, it senses when you’re leaving home or coming back thanks to the app’s geolocation. And Tado’s gadgety goodness is second to none, with the option of zonal control for individual rooms and voice smarts from the likes Alexa and Google Assistant.…

• TIPS & TRICKS • Chickens killed you in Zelda again? You can rewind up to five minutes and pretend it never happened. • For full-fat nostalgia you can read the instruction manual for each of the SNES games online. • Stop trying to raid Bowser’s castle in one sitting, and use one of the four save slots to take a break. SNES Classic Mini £80/nintendo.co.uk Why bother splashing out over £200 on a games console when you can get the SNES Classic Mini for a fraction of that? Especially when you get 21 classic titles pre-installed on this nostalgia-inducing machine, including the likes of Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, Super Mario World and the never-before-released Star Fox 2. And with two controllers bundled in the box, you’ll…

SETUPPA YA FACE LENOVO EXPLORER It was raining Windows Mixed Reality headsets at this year’s IFA trade show (we hope they didn’t land on anyone), with the pick of the bunch, we reckon, being Lenovo’s Explorer. The big selling point of this new wave of VR headsets is their simplicity. Dual front-facing cameras and sensors built into the device itself mean you can dive into virtual (mixed) reality without having to waste your time setting up external sensors. Inside-out tracking will also detect the bundled motion controllers, so it’s really a case of plugging the headset into your PC and you’re good to go. Microsoft expects us to use the lightweight Explorer for productivity as well as gaming, but it’ll partner up with your Xbox controller when the time comes…

PC, PS4, Xbox One Within the first hour of our time with the marvellously-titled South Park: The Fractured But Whole, we were already fighting off paedophile priests, beating up busty waitresses and completing a mini game where the object is to squeeze out a turd. Controversy, as ever, is the order of the day. Cartman, inspired by the millions made by DC and Marvel movies, decides that creating his very own league of totally awesome superheroes (played by his motley crew of pals) is a route to untold riches. But the kids soon fall out, sparking their very own Civil War. South Park writers Matt Stone and Trey Parker have taken full advantage of their vibrant cast by giving them superpowers, and naturally the two disabled characters haven’t been left…

27th NEXT ISSUE December The Stuff Gadget Awards On sale 02/11/17 6th BLADE RUNNER 2049 If ever there was a film that didn’t need a sequel it’s Blade Runner, but with Denis Villeneuve directing, Harrison Ford returning as Deckard and Ryan Gosling playing the lead, at least it has a fair shot at being the secondbest film in the series. We’ll give it a chance. Buy Doctor Who Season 10 on Blu-ray NOW WOLFENSTEIN II: THE NEW COLOSSUS When The New Colossus was announced, the idea of Nazis taking over America seemed absurd. Funny old world, isn’t it? Wolfenstein II lets you fumigate the fascists by turning their own technology against them in an alternative ’60s America. 54 years ago First ever episode of Doctor Who THEN 6th MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS…

£80/stuff.tv/SNESMini Remember the pain of trying to get a NES Classic Mini last Christmas? That nightmare is back, but this time with the SNES Classic Mini – a nostalgia machine that you won’t forget about once the turkey’s gone cold. From the very first Super Mario Kart to cult classics such as Secret of Mana and Street Fighter II Turbo, this tiny plastic box is stuffed full of 20 old games that are still chuffing brilliant. Oh, and the never-before-released Star Fox 2 has also been chucked into the mix. All of this adds up to an embarrassment of retro gaming riches, especially since you get two controllers thrown in. And at well under a hundred quid it’s a total bargain. Trouble is, we can’t be sure there’ll be enough…

£750/stuff.tv/AcerSwift3 ■ Add a few things to your laptop wish list and prices can soon spiral out of control. Metal frame? Core i-something processor? Not bad to look at? All that’ll cost you well over £1000. Well, unless you buy the Acer Swift 3, which gives you the lot for an affordable price. ■ The big change for the 2017 Swift 3 is a casing upgrade. Instead of a dated-looking border around the edge of the screen, there’s a giant pane of glass running edge to edge. Just about everything else is machined from aluminium. ■ The 14in screen is sharp, with 1080p resolution, and its colours are only a little undersaturated. But maximum brightness could be higher, especially as the superglossy screen will make reflections an issue as soon…

£129/stuff.tv/HiveCamera ■ Smart security cameras are brilliant, giving you peace of mind when the house is empty and letting you snoop on family members when it isn’t. Every big smart home player has one in its line-up; Hive is the latest to join the list. ■ The Hive Camera is a compact security cam with impressive build quality – even if it does lack a truly premium feel, being made from plastic rather than metal. It can be propped up with the tabletop stand or screwed to a wall. ■ You can use a microSD card to record any motion automatically, but you can’t record to the cloud, meaning that if a nasty intruder pinches the camera, you won’t have a backup. ■ The Hive Camera’s performance is certainly reliable.…

Space Jam. Kingdom Hearts. Mayweather vs McGregor. Three examples to show how fantastic crossovers can be… and then we have Alien vs Predator to show us how bad they can get. When we first heard that Mario would be joining forces with Ubisoft’s annoying Rabbids, we couldn’t help but think it was doomed to plunge into the latter camp. Turns out we were wrong. Dead wrong. Sorry for doubting you, Rabbids. Mario + Rabbids features a Mushroom Kingdom like you’ve never seen before. A contraption called the SupaMerge has been fusing things together, resulting in the likes of the hilarious Rabbid Luigi and the selfie-obsessed Rabbid Peach. Separated from his friends, Mario must enlist the help of these unlikely allies to save the kingdom. This game was a gamble –…

FOR MAGICAL MIXERS COCKTAIL FLOW £free/Android, iOS There’s a cocktail for every single situation. Tanning it up on holiday? Sex on the Beach. Reading in the garden? Mojito. Cleaning up sick after a big party? Bloody Mary. The options are endless. Well, they would be if your cocktail-making skills exceeded a G&T… Rather than having to attend a mixology course to impress your guests, Cocktail Flow offers quick results. With a huge range of cocktails on tap, whether they’re creamy, tropical or non-alcoholic, there’s a drink here for everyone. Filters make it easier to find your perfect tipple, letting you search via the drink’s colour, strength or country of origin, and you can even narrow it down by the alcohol – essential if you’ve sworn never to drink tequila again.…

• TIPS & TRICKS • Don’t like the kickstand? Use a standard VESA mount to get it on your wall instead. • There are a few modes worth tinkering with; use the THX app to tweak your settings. • We suggest turning off the Light Sensor, as it can adversely affect the contrast performance. SONY KD-55A1 £2999/sony.co.uk LG has been sitting pretty on top of our TV chart for yonks now – its decision to go OLED has proved a mighty successful one. But LG’s dominance is finally over, as Sony blasts away the competition with its very first attempt at an OLED telly. With an outstanding picture and design, packaged with a clever speaker system that vibrates the whole screen, the A1 comes out on top in almost every…

PlayStation 4 Pro £340/playstation.com As a gaming platform, PlayStation 4 is the best around – which makes the PS4 Pro the best of the best. Games optimised for the new console look stunning on a 4K HDR TV, and are substantially improved by the extra grunt inside this slightly bigger machine. If you’ve already splashed out for a 4K HDR screen and you enjoy video games at all, it’s well worth the upgrade. The missing 4K Blu-ray drive means it isn’t a perfect entertainment system, but streaming converts won’t care. Stuff says 5/5 The system for console gamers who have a 4K TV and want the best gaming experience possible Xbox One S from £250/xbox.com Microsoft dumps Kinect, the £400+ asking price and the fugly power brick to create a…

Should I up.rade? AMAZON ECHO SHOW Ryan Jones Staff Writer There’s no doubt about it: Alexa will eventually take over the world. She may seem all innocent sitting silently on your desk, but she’s plotting your demise this very second. There’s nothing we can do about it, though. Might as well make the most of her while she’s still in ‘faithful servant’ mode. While locked up in the Echo, Alexa will read you the news, set your morning alarm and control your heating without ever being tempted to roast you to death. So why bother upgrading? Keeping Alexa imprisoned in her tube is surely the best thing to do to keep the human race alive. Screen time The trick to world domination, though, is to gradually grow in power. If…

• TIPS & TRICKS • For aperture-priority shots, set shutter speed to auto and turn the lens rin? to the desired f-number. • Pressin? the Q button will open a custom menu, ?ivin? you quick access to loads of settin?s. • Tappin? an area on the 3in touchscreen will let you set the focus point or take an instant shot. Fujifilm X-T20 £799/fujifilm.eu Coming with the same 24.3MP APS-C sensor and processor as the X-T2, plus a touchscreen (which its sibling lacks), the X-T20 will leave you with a lot more spare cash in your account. And for most people, the model will deliver results that are just as good as its pricier big brother’s. With well laid-out controls, a huge viewfinder, excellent autofocus and access to superb lenses, the…