Stuff UKの April 2016 の目次

Computers are only as clever as the people who use them. Take the Apollo Guidance Computer, which was completed 50 years ago this year: it was, by modern standards, a bit of a joke, weighing as much as a well-fed labrador and running a processor roughly 8000 times slower than the one in your pocket. But the people who used that computer understood every line of its source code, every quirk of its integrated circuits, and as a result they could use it to land a spaceship on another world. (They also had half a billion dollars and a huge rocket, but you get the idea.) The same is true of the gadgets we use today. Tim Peake uses a pair of £25 Raspberry Pi computers to do experiments in…

The latest government figures show that approximately 85% of Leica owners haven’t actually unboxed, so great is their fear of damage. The idea, therefore, of taking their shiny super-camera to the beach, or in a boat, would be enough to reduce most to a quiver too pronounced for any image stabilisation tech. And yet, that is exactly the environment in which this new Leica should excel – it’s their first waterproof camera. Depths of up to 15m can be withstood, along with a certain amount of shock and, presumably, any depth of dust. It has a fixed 23mm, f/1.7 lens behind which is a 16.2MP APS-C CMOS sensor; there are underwater modes for stills or Full HD video. Anyone with £2400 to spend will surely pay the extra £50 for…

Music Memos £free / iOS Given a musical scenario, you’ll often find an iPhone user in frozen befuddlement, their finger poised over a bulging folder of music apps like a guitarist with too many pedals and too few feet. Do they want SuperBonk VIII for this, or TrebleTwerker Pro Premium? Apple’s own Music Memos is designed to be a simple (and free) sound capture option: the default prod for capturing that hummed, riffed or plonked ditty. It won’t compress the sound like a voice memo app, and it does have whistles and bells such as tuning guides and tempo-matching backing instruments. Now, how did it go again? Ba-da-dum, ba-da-dee, doobap-squee……

1 Countdown £1.49 / Android It seems like there ought to have been an app of this teatime TV quiz before now. And yet, nope, for here we are telling you about it. And, later, missing our train stops as we puzzle over a conundrum. 2 Periscope £free / iOS, Android (Look away now, Androiders.) An update to the iOS version of Periscope lets you broadcast using a Wi-Fi-connected GoPro camera. Now, if you’re brave enough, you can livestream your rad action. 3 Downwell £2.29 / iOS; £2.36 / Android We’ve been waiting ages for Alto’s Adventure to come to Android, and it still hasn’t, and we’re exercising our anger with this frenetic down-scrolling blaster, which has now come to Android. 4 Starbucks £free / iOS, Android Where will this…

There used to be a time, not too long ago, when you could stroll into a bookstore and peruse the latest and greatest offerings. That’s less feasible these days, since Amazon led the online charge to low prices that killed many such shops. But curiously, Amazon may be the company that revives the concept – in the US at least. After opening a bookshop in Seattle in November, the company is now said to be considering hundreds more, according to Sandeep Mathrani, CEO of shopping mall operator General Growth Properties.“You’ve got Amazon opening brick-and-mortar bookstores and their goal is to open, as I understand, 300 to 400,” he was reported as saying in The Wall Street Journal. If the new stores are anything like the Seattle experiment, the books will…

Microsoft Mimicker Alarm £free / Android A quick office poll revealed that Stuffers are battered into consciousness by an array of beeps, radios, mums or cat claws. But Microsoft’s wake-up option might sweep the board in a future survey, if its unlikely demands are successful. On silencing the alarm, Mimicker will request you fake an emotional expression, or find a colour, or speak a phrase. Fail, and the alarm goes off again. This is a Microsoft Garage project, so it’s open source. Maybe that should be a game: the only way to stop the alarm going off is to download the source code from GitHub and develop your own wake-up game. Beep! Too slow, sleepy dev-head!…

07 CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL Age-old questions about machines superseding humans only get more interesting as we near the point where it’s going to happen. And that’s why the two-week Cambridge Science Festival has over 300 events of digital paranoia examination. 08 THE PAPER MENAGERIE & OTHER STORIES by Ken Liu Have you heard of Ken Liu? He’s the American sci-fi writer who also translated the award-winning The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Have you heard of Liu Cixin? Who have you heard of? 10 AFFORDABLE ART FAIR Battersea, London Either you’ll have a lovely day out and find yourself some fab new art, priced from £100 to £5000. Or, you’ll be so incensed at the prices you’ll dust off your 3D printer to go and make your own. Either way:…

BBC micro:bit from £free microbit.co.uk What is it? A gateway drug to a coding habit. Simpler and smaller than the Raspberry Pi, it’ll initially be given away for free to year seven kids before being available to buy. It’s been co-developed by Microsoft, ARM and Samsung. Best bits The tiny motherboard has a bunch of handy built-in sensors, such as an accelerometer and compass. There’s a matrix of 25 LEDs for a basic display on the back too. That’s enough hardware for a 12-year-old to hack NASA. What can you make? The efficient but comparatively feeble processor means its projects fall in the fun-but-fleeting category, like cardboard guitars (p50). Making your own apps is a cinch; just don’t expect it to run your smart home. Raspberry Pi Zero £4 raspberrypi.org…

Naturebytes Wildlife Cam Kit from £140 / naturebytes.org Spring is almost upon us, which can only mean one thing: the Nigel Kennedy of nature, Chris Packham, is about to return to evening TV with camera traps and other cool tricks. If you fancy yourself as a punkrock preservationist, you’ll want to get your paws on one of these Raspberry Pi-powered cameras, designed for capturing animals of all sizes. You can buy it with or without a Raspberry Pi board and the case also holds a Pi cam, SD card and rechargeable battery (all included). Just power it up and plonk it on a birdfeeder, by a badger sett or at the zoo and it’s ready to go. Because it’s based on the standard Pi operating system, adding extra features later…

FOR FETTLING PHOTOS SKRWT When most photography apps either want to do everything for you or fire a million filters at your face, we admire SKRWT’s focus. It exists to correct the distorted and skewed lines you get from the wide-angle lenses in most smartphones. This works especially well with city shots, and the app affords you plenty of precision. It isn’t enough to save photographic disasters, but it might just make your phone snaps look like they arrived from better kit. Stuff says 67p / Android; £1.49 / iOS FOR iPAD ARTISTRY Pigment Colouring in on an iPad might seem mad, until you sit down with Pigment. You can zoom the intricate artwork with no loss of detail, and there are loads of pens, pencils and brushes to try.…

So much more than just a blown-up Edge, Samsung’s inflated flagship takes the form and functionality of its forerunner and stretches them to biblical proportions. While its sizeable shell is a stretch for small hands, at 6.9mm thick it’s still just about pocketable, and retains the Edge’s sleek metal styling – steering clear of Samsung’s plasticky past. It’s also technologically superior to almost everything out there. Sure, there’s no microSD card slot nor an IR blaster for TV zapping, but NFC, a heart-rate reader, blood oxygen sensor and fingerprint scanner mean the Edge+ isn’t slacking on the tracking. Battery stamina is also up there with the best. Use it a fair amount and you’ll definitely need to charge it every day. However, just use it to ping a few WhatsApps…

Let’s say you’re the kind of person who cherishes your Surface Pro, can’t wait to get hold of a HoloLens and loves to whip up a quick spreadsheet on your morning commute. Firstly, it’s time to get out more. Secondly, you should still think twice about owning a Lumia 950 XL. Microsoft’s flagship phablet is a decent enough phone, but it can’t hold a candle to the competition here. Why? You guessed it – the Windows 10 operating system it’s running on. As with every other Windows Phone, there just aren’t enough apps to take advantage of that souped-up screen. Those apps that are available are often slower and less capable than the iOS and Android versions. You can’t post videos on Instagram, for example – even though this feature…

DREMEL 4200 £120 / dremeleurope.com Mark Wilson Features Editor Last year, I became the proud owner of my first shed. I had visions of workbenches, building furniture, and impressing George Clarke on Shed Of The Year. But reality has rather cruelly insisted that I prioritise a growing list of minor DIY jobs, so my tool of choice is this spectacularly sensible multitool. It won’t build me a wardrobe, but Dremel’s new ‘EZ change’ system means I can swap any of its 75 bundled attachments in and out without a key. And with its many talents including carving, sanding, cutting and sharpening, I’ll be ticking off those weekend jobs in no time. WHAT I’M BUILDING… It might only be March but I’m already thinking about barbecue season. My garden lacks any…

£250 / acer.co.uk This is a tablet companion to Acer’s big bruiser gaming laptops and desktops. Despite its striking look, the Predator 8 is slim and feels pretty light… but not everyone’s going to love it. There are too many sharp points that will weigh into your palm. It ticks a lot of nerd boxes, though, such as its expandable 32GB storage. Most low-cost tablets use screens that can’t really tap deep into the colour spectrum, but the Predator 8 looks pretty vivid. This screen punchiness is provided more by colour than contrast, due to its ColorBlast technology. There are four powerful speakers, two each side. They’ll certainly be better, and louder, than those of your phone. You won’t have to worry about blocking them off with your hands either.…

I SHREDDED SOME TYRES… …using Ford’s mental Focus RS. But, then, if you’re going to give your ridiculously fast hot hatchback a ‘drift’ button and then invite a wannabe boy racer like me behind the wheel, hopefully some burnt rubber was expected. In drift mode the 4WD system can send 70% of its 350hp to one of the rear wheels, so putting pedal to metal guarantees a cloud of tyre smoke. It’s as close as I’ll ever get to living out those Tokyo Drift fantasies – see the video at bit.ly/stufffocusrs Tom Morgan, News Editor, Stuff.tv I BETRAYED ESAT We’d had a lovely time, strolling through the snowy, irradiated back streets of Manhattan. Sure, we were accosted by a couple of escaped convicts, but that wasn’t enough to spoil the…

If you weren’t already, peer closely at this watch. Closer. Come on, no-one’s watching you; they’re all staring at their phones. What do you see? That’s right: nothing. The entire case is made of clear sapphire crystal. Seven pieces in total, requiring over 600 hours of machining. Though this LaFerrari Sapphire will be launched at this year’s Baselworld show, it’s not the first time we’ve seen the LaFerrari movement – designed to mimic a Ferrari engine – but it is the first time we’ve seen it in all its glory, in a sapphire case. As before, the mechanism is capable of an amazing 50 days of power… but only after you’ve wound it using a special drill. Now, it’s probably best if you move the magazine back to a more…

US$250 (expected) / 2016moonwalker.com What is this brand of stacked madness? The tip of a Martian iceberg, is what it is. Nugget-encrusted nutjobs are scrabbling to launch commercial space flights, the Chinese are going back to the Moon and we all want to know whose shirt Tim Peake is wearing. (Disappointingly, an England rugby one. He couldn’t have taken a Britain-encompassing Six Nations shirt?) Anyway… this is the space renaissance, baby, the dawning of the public age of the stars! And, thus, that oldest of industries – fashion – has fired its retros. The extraplanetary threads market is open, and these are off-the-shelf moon boots! They look more like moon slip-ons. And none too vacuum-friendly. Ah, it’s the proverbial long game, is space. Shipping your high street space range now…

Robot Wars starter set SUMO BOY Robot Wars is coming back! The BBC is reactivating the RC battle-bot show and, although not much is known except that Dara O Briain’s presenting, we’re all excited. Not least because it might save a generation of young roboteers the cost of drone racing – they can compete using more affordable land-based robots. Alternatively, try Robot Sumo, an established international league, with this Arduino-based standardised kit. Victory will come from skill in building and programming. And psyching out opponents with team bomber jackets, if Robot Wars was anything to go by. Activate! £tba / sumo-boy.com Fahrenheit from far FLO THERMOMETER The classic truant’s ruse of popping the are-you-really-ill thermometer into a cup of tea before handing it back to Mum will be ‘disrupted’ by…

Mother Habits €135 / iOS, Android Sen.se’s eeriefaced IoT hub Mother has been merrily recording aspects of its users’ lives for some time. But now it’s about to start telling tales about things not being done. Sticking a motion sensor on a door is basic Internet of Things fun. But Mother’s new Habits app will tell you if a door hasn’t been opened when it should have been – when Grandad should have got his medication, for example. More interesting yet is the adjustability of the reporting. Has Timmy really done his cello practice? You can set the app to only ‘validate’ an activity if the correct type and duration of movement has been sensed. Which is the kind of creepy kid-tracking we’re glad our own mothers never managed.…

£160 / wit-lighting.com 1800 HOURS OF DESIGN RESEARCH HAVE GONE INTO MAKING THE WORLD’S FIRST E-READING LAMP Iconic lamps, there are a lot. This, iconic? Surely not. You’ve been at the Dr Seuss again, haven’t you? Well, he wouldn’t approve of your negative attitude. Do you not marvel at its peculiar shape? Does not the promise of technological treats cause a-rumblings in your tumblings? Smell that innovation! All I can smell is puff. Of the facts, there are not enough. Right. You only have to look at the smears of make-up on any lamppost to realise that we are spending more and more time looking at our gadgets. Given that we used to be encouraged to take regular breaks from screens during working hours, this 24-hour artificial light burn is…

Hackaball £75 / hackaball.com ‘Programming’ doesn’t have to mean sitting at a screen typing text commands. Okay, for the people who make Twitter and Fallout 4 and Spotify it does. But for people – especially small people – taking their first steps into code, it’s better to start with a VPL: a Visual Programming Language. Like the micro:bit’s Block Editor, this replaces the confusing text strings with manageable chunks that fit together to do things. In the Hackaball app, these chunks can be turned into games, which can then be tested by taking the Hackaball outside, chucking it around a bit and seeing if the code works. Kids think they’re mucking about with a toy, but they’re actually learning to code and test a smart device. Sneaky. Twine If you’d…

Kano Screen Kit £110 / kano.me It’s not enough to just build your own computer these days – to score full Steve Wozniak points, kids must piece together the monitor too. With controller boards and liquid crystal involved, this would normally be the sort of job that demands the help of weary, sofabound Dad. But luckily, Kano’s modular kit is here to make the process as easy as assembling a Lego X-Wing. Designed by Londonbased agency Map (who were also behind the Hackaball on p55), the Screen Kit contains all the parts needed to build a 10.1in, 720p screen. Which is all a bit of a step up from an Etch A Sketch. Add Kano’s £120 Computer Kit or your own Raspberry Pi 2, and you’ll have a complete DIY…

Pocket Code Making games is a major reason people get into programming. Pocket Code eases you in gently, using drag-and-drop components to teach the principles of coding. It’s aimed at kids, but the app’s open nature and remix culture make it suitable for anyone determined to create the next Flappy Bird. Stuff says £free / Android Lrn If you’re totally clueless about coding, Lrn is a good place to start ‘lrning’. You can delve into HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ruby and Python, gradually building your confidence and knowledge through completing a series of tiny quizzes. HTML and CSS are free; the rest are £2.29 each or £4.99 for the lot. Stuff says from £free / iOS (Android soon) Codea The hugely ambitious Codea is about bringing to life your app or…

This is a phone of no compromise. If box-ticking alone were a measure of mobile greatness, the 6P would win this battle hands down. Despite being cheaper than the rest of the phablet pack, it doesn’t sacrifice the slick-running skills synonymous with Google hardware. There are some serious specs in the 6P’s slender shell. Its software is bloat-free, making light work of vanilla Android Marshmallow – as well as getting all the good bits, such as Google Now on tap. Combining the liquid feel of Lollipop with the responsiveness of KitKat, it’s extremely nippy. In contrast, battery life is distinctly ordinary. Despite a hefty 3450mAh cell, the thirsty Snapdragon chip that runs the 6P puts paid to anything more than a day from one charge. Still, at least it looks…

In a smartphone world of samesame styling, the LG V10’s duality is deserving of a double take. As well as luxe looks and top-ofthe-line specs, it offers a pair of front-facing cameras and two touchscreens. Yep: along with the 5.7in QuadHD pearler that fronts the V10, there’s a 2.1in display bar at the top. When your phone is off, this second screen stays on to serve as a tiny notification centre. When awake, it gives access to five of your recently used apps, favourite contacts, music controls and more. As heavyweight handsets go, the V10 is a truly big phone, weighing in at a significant 192g – though its Dura Skin textured coating secures it in even the sweatiest of paws. This is good news as you fumble for its…

A mighty screen and camera combo is probably the best reason to buy the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, other than the bragging rights of having one of the most expensive ‘non-luxury’ phones in the world. This is, simply, a brilliant smartphone. It gives you that oversized Note 5 flavour without the pesky pen, pairing a dazzling curvy design with performance power to pay the bills. Sure, some elements are not class-leading. Take the speaker: it’s essentially the same as the S6’s – a dinky outlet on the bottom edge. But, as an all-round, money-no-object package, this big-screen beauty is the one to beat. Who’d want an iPhone when Samsung builds phablets this sublime? + Now add these Samsung Gear S2 All about that bezel: the Gear S2’s Tizen interface might…

£410 / fairphone.com The uncomfortable fact about tech products is that they use many materials from many countries, and at the bottom of the supply chains are people who get treated like dirt. UNICEF and Amnesty International report that over 40,000 children work in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo producing the cobalt used in batteries. But moral products are good business – look at Fairtrade coffee and free-range eggs – and the Fairphone 2 aims to change the way our tech is made. Virtue comes at a price, and the price is a chunky, plastic phone. With its heavy-duty case on, it’s 11mm thick – thinner than the latest Moto G, but hefty next to an iPhone 6s. It’s tough, though: we’ve seen it dropped six feet onto…

ALWAYS ON CALL facebook.com/joinstuff @stuff TV google.com/+stufftv stuff@haymarket.com MAIL OF THE MONTH Q PROJECTOR PROJECT I have a big collection of DVDs, which I’m currently projecting on a 118in screen. I’ve been thinking about getting a Pioneer BDP-LX58 Blu-ray/DVD player, but is it better than the Oppo BDP-103EU? Here in Portugal I can get it for €500 but the Oppo is €800. And I’ve read great things about the Pioneer… António A Hi António. It seems you’ve done your homework, which is nice to see. Presumably at that giant projector screen size, you’ll want to spin Blu-ray discs more than DVDs. Regardless, the Pioneer is definitely the way to go. Our expert cousins at What Hi-Fi? rated the Pioneer an impressive five stars, while scoring the Oppo three. As the…

Rain smashes down on the shoulders of our hero programmer. Oh no, she’s got the old Pi and the new Pi mixed up. They look the same! But using the wrong one would lead to catastrophic inefficiency of... wait, ‘Pi 3’ is printed on this one. Gregor, her DIY weather station, will be the envy of all the neighbourhood’s meteorologists – this new version of the tiny, programmable computer gets a massive 50% power hike over the Pi 2 model thanks to a quad-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A53 processor. Plus, streamlined networking as 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 are now built in. Best of all, it stays the same price as the old one. As hot as… baked summer fruit £25 / raspberrypi.org NEED SOME PI-DEAS? Head to our DIY…

1 Sony XDR-P1DBP Finally, the bizarrely tiny DAB to complete the 1:3 scale model of your actual life, aka “It’s a small world living as a thirtysomething professional in Penge.” £65 / sony.co.uk 2 Goodmans Nod Like a screaming phoenix, rising in fire and sacrificial effluent, the Goodmans brand is reborn! And rather well. This alarm clock radio has two USB charging ports. £50 / goodmans.co.uk 3 Pure Evoke CD-6 Well, kids, in the olden days DJs used to 2D-print their favourite music onto silvery discs. Yes, you put them right in that slot there. No, we haven’t got any. £250 / pure.com 4 Ruark R1 Mk3 Osborne & Little To go with your Basso & Brooke Sky box and Laurin & Klement Skoda Yeti, here’s a limited edition Osborne…

ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN… #12 PS CHANGES As if there was any doubt PlayStation was one of Sony’s biggest assets, the firm has just revealed its plan for the next 20 years: Sony Interactive Entertainment. This new mega-company merges the two parts of Sony that deal with all things PlayStation. Sony Computer Entertainment used to handle hardware and games, while Sony Network Entertainment dealt with the PlayStation Network. As confirmed by Jim Ryan on the PlayStation blog, Sony Interactive Entertainment will be based in San Mateo, California, and represent the entire PlayStation division. Andrew House, SCE’s current president and CEO, will remain in charge. A name change might not sound like a big deal, but having all parts of the company in one place should make it easier to team…

Ever since the boffins at Bletchley Park built the first digital computer, processors have been gaining in speed and power. But they’ve also been getting cheaper, and more numerous. And while cutting-edge chips like the ones in your PS4 can perform trillions of operations per second, you can also pick up a processor that’ll do lots of interesting internetty stuff for a couple of quid. This has created a quiet revolution. Across the world, millions of people are starting to use computers that can literally be bought with pocket money. The best-selling British PC of all time is now the Raspberry Pi, selling three million units in the last year alone. And this month the BBC will give away a million miniputers for free, in the shape of the micro:bit.…

Think you’re seeing double? Apple might have upgraded the internals of the iPhone 6s Plus, but there’s nothing new to look at: it’s Cupertino glass and metal to a tee – and virtually identical to its predecessor. In the flesh, although the 6s Plus’s 5.5in screen isn’t the biggest out there, you’ll still need substantial mitts to comfortably use it. Movie lovers might also balk at the 401ppi display resolution, which leaves the 6s Plus lagging behind the hi-res phablet pack, while non-expandable, high-priced storage can be crippling. What makes the 6s Plus stand out is 3D Touch, Apple’s pressuresensitive touchscreen tech that can feel the firmness of prods for nifty navigation via pop-up menus and quick previews. Once reserved for MacBooks and the Apple Watch, its move to mobile…

We’ve been saying for years that you should take Huawei seriously; the Mate 8 shows exactly why. With a whopping 6in screen but a very slim profile, Huawei’s huge flagship is a mostly metal affair that looks and feels expensive. It’s not loaded with the kind of quirks that might give it a strong design personality, but it’s classy, and there’s very little excess bezel. There are a few neat hardware bits, too. The SIM slot takes two nano cards or you can trade the second one for a microSD slot. You also get a very good fingerprint scanner on the back. Annoyingly for some, the Mate 8 utilises Huawei’s Emotion UI. Replete with oddities and missing Android Marshmallow’s excellent app menu and general briskness, it is, thankfully, less cluttered…