Table of contents for January 2019 in Stuff UK

For 11 months of the year, the Stuff team wouldn’t say boo to a robo-goose. But then we get to our annual Gadget Awards issue, and they become more hyped up than a pre-fight Conor McGregor. Whether it’s Apple vs Huawei, Netflix vs Now TV or Red Dead vs God of War, there's no shortage of passionate debates to be had over the winners. Thankfully, though, the only things bruised were a few egos, and everyone on the team can agree that each of our 21 categories has a winner that represents the very best in tech. It all starts on page 30 – and also includes some great choices for Phone and Gadget of the Year from you, our readers. With another Christmas over, thoughts turn to improving ourselves…

Arlo Ultra £369 / arlo.com Arlo’s latest Wi-Fi security camera keeps an Ultra HD eye on your gaff • Shadow play Netflix and Sky Q might have decent-sized catalogues of 4K movies… but if you want to make your own Ultra HD version of Crimewatch, Winterwatch, You’ve Been Framed and Big Brother all rolled into one, you need one of Arlo’s new wireless security cameras. Not only does the Ultra record in 4K, but it supports HDR as well – so even if someone tries to hide in the shadows there’ll still be plenty of detail in the darker bits of the footage. Not that there will be many shadows to hide in, because the Ultra has a bright, motion-activated spotlight, plus a siren to scare off any intruders. •…

Endel £free / iOS Calm down, dear! Endel is a beautiful app that creates ‘adaptive soundscapes’ to help you focus and relax on the go. The ambient sounds are algorithm-powered and respond to conditions such as weather, heart rate and, for example, whether you’re walking or on the train. Mesmerising white linear spirals and patterns dance across a black backdrop, and if you tap the screen it’ll create some squiggly circles that expand and then fade. Nice. And when you’re bored to tears of your ‘work music’ playlist, the focus mode is surprisingly helpful at getting you to knuckle down. The sleep mode, meanwhile, allows you to set a timer to give yourself enough time to zone out. It’s all very nice, and it’s… all nice and… it’s… all… zzzzzzzzzz.…

Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 £599 / samsung.com What’s the story? Samsung’s aim with the Tab S4 is to steal iPad Pro customers by offering the most versatile tablet with Android inside, and at a more palatable price. A plain-looking sheet of Gorilla Glass and aluminium, it has a 10.5in Super AMOLED screen similar to Samsung’s top-end phones, and DeX for a more PC-like experience if you’re replacing a laptop. Is it any good? While the revolution will not be tabletised, the S4 is still a solid slate that makes doing real work in Android easier than ever before. A lack of AR support is a shame, and the S-Pen isn’t as good as the Apple Pencil 2; but attach a keyboard, flex your DeX muscles and this becomes a great…

THE BASICS ▪ Twizzle your tabs The Snapseed interface is split between three tabs: Looks, Tools and Export. You’ll also see several buttons at the top of the screen. Open is used to open a new image. To the right, there’s a square with an arrow over it, for accessing undo/redo/revert and your edit history. Next to that are the image details button and the menu for tutorials. ▪ Try some tools Snapseed’s interface is context-sensitive, and changes with the selected tool. However, there are commonalities, such as being able to cancel or confirm edits. Tools with presets have them appear above the bottom toolbar. Those where you can fine-tune parameters have a slider button. Tap it or just drag up/down on the image to choose a parameter, and then…

KEEP ON MOVING Dave Wright, creator of the Myzone fitness wearable and advisor to Ukactive, on staying fit past January 1 Goal machine The key to exercise sustainability is setting realistic expectations. You need to set longer-term targets and try to connect socially with like-minded people. Fitness tech with online communities can be really effective here. 2 Track star There are loads of fitness trackers out there, but before buying, identify the problem you are trying to solve and what exactly you want to track. If it’s purely about recording steps, smartphone apps do that for nothing. 3 Cheer leader If you get lonely working from home, exercise can be a powerful depression fighter. It promotes neural growth, reduced inflammation and activity patterns promoting calm and wellbeing. It also releases…

Platysens Marlin £140 / platysens.co.uk The Platysens Marlin is a swim tracker like no other, particularly when it comes to open water. It uses motion sensors and GPS to accurately track longer swims outdoors, delivers real-time audio feedback and directions via bone conduction technology, and can communicate to you even when you’re underwater. Weighing just 27g, the two devices attach to the back of your swim cap and goggle straps (just in front of your right or left ear) without being too cumbersome. By sitting on your head, instead of around your wrist like most other watery activity trackers, the GPS module faces the sky during swimming. This ensures much better accuracy over algorithms from smartwatches, which attempt to pin your location via data from your wrist between strokes. The…

With such a massive roster of combatants, it’ll take some time to unlock every character in this game. In the same way as previous Smash titles in the series worked, you get challenged by a new fighter every once in a while. If you win, you then unlock that character. Whoever you were fighting as prior to that challenge will be the fighter you have to try to defeat them with, which can sometimes hinder you if you’re not fully accustomed to that character. In the past, if you lost one of these challenges you’d just have to hope your conqueror would pop up again at random. But Ultimate has a rather nice new feature called the Challenger’s Approach, accessed via a door that pops up once in a while…

• TIPS & TRICKS • The phone itself doubles as a wireless charger, so you can share juice with any Qi-enabled device. • An AI-assisted video trick lets you create colour portraits with black and white backgrounds. • The 3D Face Unlock security feature lets you wake up the Mate 20 Pro with just a glance. HOT BUY 1 Huawei Mate 20 Pro £899 / stuff.tv/Mate20Pro Huawei bumped its own magnificent P20 Pro off the top spot with another flagship phone that’s left Apple and Samsung scrabbling to catch up. The Mate 20 Pro brings back the triple-lens camera of the P20 Pro, only now it’s got a 20MP ultra-wide-angle camera with a new version of its predecessor’s AI-assisted night mode. It’s the most tech-packed phone in the world, yet…

HOT BUY BARGAIN BUY 1 Beyerdynamic Byron £42 / stuff.tv/Byron A strong argument for the idea that you don’t really need to spend more than £50 on earphones, the Byrons have a sound we defy you not to like. They’re not like the company’s studio headphones, designed for sound engineers looking for extreme accuracy – they’re for everyday folk – but these humble-looking buds do come with a shot of that special Beyer sauce. They’re some of the truest-sounding in-ears we’ve heard, with great midrange detail and good punch to the bass. Stuff says Seriously classy in-ear headphones with the detail to outdo the competition 2 Sony WF-1000X £129 / stuff.tv/SonyWF Impressive levels of detail and clarity, a decent amount of bass weight to the mix, and active noise-cancelling that…

HOT BUY 1 Moov Now £60 / stuff.tv/MoovNow Slow and steady wins the race, and the Now has gone on to prove that with a marathon-like pace helping it finally make it to the top of this list. We’ve long considered this tracker a bargain, but further reductions have helped it enter the realm of ‘downright steal’. OK, so it doesn’t have a screen or smartphone skills, but with guided voice coaching, a six-month battery and solid waterproofing, it has everything you’d ever want in your perfect fitness tracker. Stuff says A bargain-tastic fitness band that does more than just track your steps 2 Fitbit Alta HR £130 / stuff.tv/AltaHR The Alta HR is one of the most motivational health monitors around. The heart-rate tracking adds some insightful meat to…

HOT BUY 1 Sky Q from £20 + £20/month / stuff.tv/SkyQ 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 You’ll have to cough up for a subscription, but this is the best box for watching both live and recorded shows NEW 2 Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K…

HOT BUY 1 Lego Boost Creative Toolbox £150 / stuff.tv/LegoCreativeToolbox Building Lego models is already ridiculously good fun, so think what great a time you’ll have when the completed model turns into a functioning robot. With the accompanying tablet app, you can use simple coding to make the robot move, fire projectiles and play various games. And rather than retiring it to the dusty shelf once you’re bored, you can rebuild him into four other programmable models: a harmonica-playing cat, a driveable rover, a working robot-builder and a playable guitar. Stuff says All hail Vernie and friends – for value and sheer fun, it’s hard to beat this programmable Lego kit 2 Sphero BB-8 with Force Band £130 / stuff.tv/BB8 BB-8 was fun even without the Force Band. Now it…

HOT BUY 1 Sony DSC-RX100 V £870 / stuff.tv/RX100V We wouldn’t recommend buying this camera if you already own the old IV model, but a few improvements have ensured Sony remains the top dog in our compacts list – and we’re keeping this model above the new RX100 VI simply because of the huge price difference. It remains one of the finest point-and-shoots we’ve ever seen, with a flexibility that few pocket cameras can muster. While it’s still not exactly cheap, we reckon this is the cam to buy if you want fantastic-looking snaps from your holidays. Stuff says A small improvement over the RX100 IV, but this Sony is close to premium point-and-shoot perfection 2 Panasonic Lumix TZ200 £629 / stuff.tv/TZ200 This Panasonic compact is a significant upgrade from…

• 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. HOT BUY 1 SNES Classic Mini £80 / stuff.tv/ClassicMini 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…

I TOOK A MAGIC LEAP INTO THE FUTURE You can’t see it, but on the table in the photo below sits a fortress manned by green pigs, and I’m carefully aiming a slingshot at a box of TNT in the hope I can blow it to smithereens. Rovio’s Angry Birds is the first game I’ve played on the Magic Leap One, an as-yet unreleased mixed reality headset. Unlike VR, which takes you somewhere else entirely, MR projects reactive 3D objects onto the real world, so I’m fully aware of how daft I look. Matt Tate, Hot Stuff Editor I LET STRANGERS FERRET THROUGH MY FRIDGE I moved into my new home this month, and immediately set about installing all of Stuff’s top-rated smart home tech from Nest, Netatmo and Philips…

from £90,000 / ourroadis.com Elon Musk at it again? Actually no, but we’re pretty sure the billionaire flamethrower manufacturer and future Mars resident would love to see a Tesla logo on this two-wheeled marvel, and RoboCop would no doubt love to ride it. This is the Arc Vector (no relation to the Anki Vector, as far as we’re aware). It is, according to its maker, the world’s first fully electric cafe racer Sweet. Now give me numbers. This futuristic motorcycle can do 0-60mph in the precise time it takes us to execute three star jumps (3.1 seconds) and has a top speed of just over 124mph. And with an urban range of 200 miles, or 120 if you’ve really got the throttle opened up, there’s no need to constantly be…

1 Fog of World £4.49 / Android • £6.99 / iOS Now on Android, this game encourages you to explore the globe by removing fog from the map as you move about. No Stuff reader’s going to 100% this one, unless you’re a massive cheat. 2 Fluid Navigation Gestures £free / Android Fluid turns your screen’s entire border into a kind of draggable goop. That’s fun enough, but you can then assign actions to a bunch of swipe-and-hold gestures. 3 Super Fowlst £free / Android, iOS Fowlst shoved Flappy Bird in a box and turned it into an arena shooter. This sequel spreads its wings, with SNES-style flap/smack/shoot/escape larks that marry twitchy controls with smart level design. 4 Spitkiss £1.99 / Android, iOS This indie mobile fare shows that not…

KINGDOM HEARTS III We gave up trying to understand what the hell is going on in Square Enix’s bonkers Disneyfied crossover RPG ages ago. But that doesn’t mean we’re not interested in seeing Donald Duck and Buzz Lightyear on the same team. NEXT ISSUE February Appwardly mobile On sale 24/1/19 VICE We haven’t seen a massive amount of Christian Bale recently. That’s probably because he’s be en busy making himself unrecognisable to play Dick Cheney in Vice. The film charts Cheney’s tenure as Vice President to George W Bush, and how he came to wield such enormous power. ALSO IN CINEMAS: The Favourite Glass The Mule Stan & Ollie CES 2019 The tech industry hits Las Vegas to show us what’s in store. Last year it was 8K TVs, in-display…

• Instagram If you want bare-bones and no-fuss video, Instagram provides it. Prod ‘record’ a few times to capture your masterpiece, slap on a filter, upload and cross your fingers in the hope that you’ll become an internet sensation – or at least, that everyone doesn’t leave a load of snooty comments about how little effort you’ve clearly made. Stuff says £free / Android, iOS • Periscope You can, of course, broadcast live on Facebook, but Twitter seems to be at least 11% less evil – and Periscope is its livestreaming app. Go live and for a short while you’re a tiny TV show in which every viewer can immediately let you know how much they hate you via an endless stream of comments. Terry Wogan, bless him, never had…

WINTER WARMERS The wind whackers Ronhill Unisex Wind Block Whipping Arctic gales are made a lot more bearable when you’re kitted out with some wind-resistant gloves. These lightweight thermal jobs will keep your hands cosy, with the added touch of a towelling thumb to wipe away sweat in case the temperature ever creeps above ‘horrible’. £22 / cotswoldoutdoor.com The rain repellers Dexshell Touchfit Preparing you for every damp eventuality, from drizzly misery to torrential torment via showery annoyance, these waterproof knitted hand-huggers are breathable, grippy in the palms and easy to find in a pile of navy blue parkas. They’re also available in black, but where’s the fun in that? £32 / dexshell.co.uk The snow stoppers Arc’teryx Venta Your hands need serious protection when you’re building a life-size snow Noel…

▪ Amazon has put 4K in a streaming device before but that was a box, not a stick. Now it’s crammed 4K, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support into this little twiglet – which has a faster processor and comes with the new Alexa Voice Remote. ▪ The remote’s sleek form factor makes getting the battery cover off an exasperating swear-fest, but that aside, setup is just about idiot-proof. Plug the stick into an HDMI port and hook up the USB power cable to the mains. Instructions on the TV then guide you through the rest. ▪ Amazon says its new 1.7GHz processor makes this unit 80% more powerful than the standard Fire TV Stick. You can zip around the on-screen interface at speed, and it’s very quick to respond. ▪…

AFFINITY PHOTO People got all excited about Adobe launching a ‘real’ Photoshop for iOS when the new iPad Pro made its debut, but Affinity Photo has been keeping iPad owners happy since 2017. For high-end editing larks on the go, it can’t be beaten. £19.99 / iPad affinity.serif.com PIXELMATOR If you want a step up from Snapseed on your phone, Pixelmator’s the best bet – assuming that phone is Appleflavoured. It’s packed full of Photoshop-like features and includes a comprehensive layer system. £4.99 / iOS pixelmator.com/ios ADOBE PHOTOSHOP FIX If you want to squirt Adobe goodness into a mere phone, full-fat Photoshop doesn’t exist, but apps that carve off bits of its functionality do. Fix is especially good for improving selfies. £free / Android, iOS adobe.com/uk…

▪ Stream engine There’s a basic remote, but it’s not very well laid out and feels a lot cheaper than the speakers it’s controlling. Far better to use the two apps that KEF has developed for these speakers: KEF Stream and KEF Control. ▪ Phat controller KEF Stream allows you to access networked music via DLNA, Tidal or Spotify, while KEF Control handles setup, EQ, firmware updates and source selection. Both apps are stable enough, and free of silly design flourishes. £999 (pair) / stuff.tv/KEFLSX ▪ You know the saying: if it ain’t broke, keep your filthy hands off it. But if you can make it smaller and cheaper without breaking it in the process, go right ahead. So KEF has taken everything it’s learned from the runaway success of…

from £1199 / stuff.tv/MacBookAir13 Donut of Truth™ 01 Screen is a significant step up from the previous Air 02 Classy design with an outstanding keyboard 03 Same great battery life as before, despite the upgrades 04 This is no longer the ‘affordable’ option the Air once was, and is only slightly faster than before 05 Loses ports in the name of thinness The battery should give you 13 hours of video playback or 12 hours of ‘wireless web working’ – a mix of typical tasks • DAY 01 Fans have been waiting years for Apple to show some love to its most affordable laptop, and now, a whole decade after the Air was first revealed, the new generation has arrived. Design, hardware and software have received significant updates that bring…

HOT BUY NEW 1 Apple iPad Pro (2018) from £769 / stuff.tv/iPadPro2018 The latest iPad Pro isn’t cheap, but it’s a mobile powerhouse like no other, with a diverse and rich app ecosystem, tons of power, a gorgeous screen, and the kind of focus on creativity and productivity that just doesn’t exist on other tablets. If you just want to faff on Facebook or Netflix it’s massive overkill, but then there’s the standard iPad or a slew of other tablets for doing that. Still, even if you don’t actually need the new iPad Pro, you’re going to want one if you have it in your mitts for five minutes. Stuff says Once again Apple blasts ahead of the pack, with a stylish, powerful tablet full of creative potential 2 Microsoft…

HOT BUY 1 Sony WH-1000XM3 £330 / stuff.tv/SonyXM3 Sony’s WH-1000 series was already a top performer, and the WH-1000XM3s make for an even more compelling package. With Bluetooth wireless and great noise-cancellation, they’re the ultimate public transport stress killer… well, aside from a chauffeur or a lottery win that lets you retire. The leather pads make them incredibly easy to wear, not unlike sitting in one of those ultra-comfy leather chairs, and most importantly of all the sound quality is fantastic. Stuff says Great wireless headphones with effective ANC and a sound that nails just about everything 2 Urbanista Seattle Wireless £70 / stuff.tv/SeattleWireless The Seattles are some of the best-sounding affordable wireless cans around. They’re full and rich-sounding, with the sort of tasteful bass drive that will please the…

HOT BUY 1 Sonos Beam £399 / stuff.tv/SonosBeam Sonos’s home cinema gear has always been a little expensive, but with the Beam it’s created a great-value soundbar. It sounds ace, comes with loads of features and is compact enough to fit into the average living-room AV setup without taking over. If you want the best-sounding system then the Playbar or Playbase are still the products to go for, but they’re a lot more money, they don’t have Alexa, and they don’t control your TV in the same slick way the Beam does. Stuff says Smaller and cheaper than the already excellent Playbar, and packed full of smarts 2 Q Acoustics Media 4 £199 / stuff.tv/Media4 The justifiably multi-award-winning Media 4 combines subtle detail with precise surround effects to be one…

HOT BUY 1 Sony PlayStation 4 Pro £350 / stuff.tv/PS4Pro 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. Sure, it can’t match the Xbox One X for sheer power or resolution, but it makes up for that with an impressive line-up of games – including Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn and Bloodborne – and virtual reality support. Stuff says The system for console gamers who have a 4K TV and want the best catalogue of games on offer 2 Nintendo Switch £280 / stuff.tv/NintendoSwitch Nintendo’s console earned a promotion in our…

HOT BUY 1 Jaguar I-Pace from £60,995 (with PiCG) / stuff.tv/ipace Not content with simply making an electric vehicle that can get you from A to B with minimal fuss (and fuel bills), Jaguar has created something desirable, fun to drive and impressively capable when the going gets tough. This car offers Amazon Alexa intergration, smartphone connectivity and a 10in touchscreen on the upper deck. With the I-Pace, Jaguar can happily claim to be the first mainstream brand to really give Tesla something to worry about. Stuff says Fun, fast and practical, the I-Pace is the greatest thing to happen to electric cars in a long time 2 Volvo XC90 T8 from £57,783 / stuff.tv/XC90T8 The latest XC90 is a monster 4x4 that features some of the most impressive interior…

• TIPS & TRICKS • Check out the app’s Energy Savings Report to see how well you’re doing each month. • Crank up the nerdery by tinkering with Tado’s IFTTT channel or adding it to your HomeKit setup. • Hook up an Amazon Echo or Google Home to change the temperature with your voice. HOT BUY 1 Tado Smart Thermostat from £199 + installation / stuff.tv/Tado 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…

• TIPS & TRICKS • Pre-shot ES mode starts taking photos and adding them to the buffer as soon as you half-press. • Sports Finder mode’s display enables you to see what’s about to come into frame for moving shots. • Tapping an area on the 3in touchscreen will let you set the focus point or take an instant shot. HOT BUY 1 Fujifilm X-T3 £1299 / stuff.tv/FujifilmXT3 It’s really hard to find anything bad to say about the X-T3 – it’s just consistently great in so many ways. Fuji has looked at virtually every feature on the X-T2 and upgraded it. With substantial tweaks made to the pro-level video options, the high-res EVF, the super-fast autofocus and the burst shooting, what you’re left with is an all-round beast of…

APPLE GETS ECHO-FRIENDLY If you’ve been paying any attention to the war of the cylindrical smart speakers, you’ll know that operating Apple Music with your voice has been a feature exclusive to Apple’s own HomePod. But no longer will greedy DJ Siri get to hog all your tunes, as the service is now available as a skill on Amazon Echo devices. BOSE REVEALS TECH SPECS When you think of AR, you think of Pikachu, Ikea sofas and spaceships, right? Well, Bose sees (or hears) it a little differently. Its $200 Frames, available for pre-order in the USA, use motion sensors and your phone’s GPS to provide audio feedback, via tiny speakers, on what your peepers are peeping at. ALEXA HOOKS A BASS Alexa gets everywhere these days, doesn’t she? Phones,…

RETRO iOS SYNTHS AUDIOKIT DIGITAL D1 SYNTH £9.99 / iPad The team behind open-source masterpiece AudioKit Synth One goes pro, infusing your iPad with gorgeous ’80s and ’90s sounds. SQUARE SYNTH 2 £4.99 / iOS Reckon retro audio is about gaming sounds? This analogue synth bathes your ears with noise that could once have blasted forth from a NES. ZX PLECTRUM 99p / iOS If those apps seem like too much effort, this one presents eye-searing loading bars from the ZX Spectrum… and then lets you play them.…

KICK STARTER Thank the plank MUI The superstitious touch wood to bring them luck. Touch Mui’s wood surface, though, and you get the internet – or at least bits of it. That’s because this unassuming wall-mounted wooden panel temporarily becomes a smart controller when caressed, but fades back to being a refined hunk of tree when you’re done. In a world of glowing glass displays, the notion of making tech invisible is a welcome twist. And via IFTTT, Mui can connect to smart home services – over and above its built-in messaging, news and weather forecast capabilities. One for getting yourself a bit more connected to nature. $599 / mui.jp KICK STARTER Cheer your ear SOUNDBRENNER CORE Musicians waste far too much time dealing with annoying metronomes, tuners, wonky bandmates…

1 The North Face Women’s Evolution II Triclimate Jacket Respond to anything nature throws at you with this 3-in-1 coat with two zip-in layers. £210 / thenorthface.co.uk 2 Patagonia Men’s Down Sweater Hoody Its water-resistant finish and insulative lining will keep you warm; its colour will make you easier to find after you sledge into a 30ft snowdrift. £220 / cotswoldoutdoor.com 3 Icebreaker Unisex Pocket Hat Made from breathable merino jersey, this hat can fold down to fit in any pocket and is reversible for unforeseen fashion swings. £25 / uk.icebreaker.com 4 Uniqlo Heattech Fringed Scarf Heattech, we’re told, uses moisture released by the body to retain warmth. No, we don’t understand how, but… nice scarf. £13 / uniqlo.com…

▪ Trail mix The mixing interface has each track (up to eight) represented by a colour-coded blob. Drag a blob up or down for level, left or right for panning, and that’s your mix. It’s instantly responsive and totally intuitive. ▪ Side effects Now, shall we add some reverb to that banjo? Oh… too late. Yes, there are some basic effects, but you can only apply these as you record, and can’t remove or even adjust them afterwards. Best keep your powder dry, then. £349 / stuff.tv/Spire ▪ You’re a genius, aren’t you? Course you are. If only you had some way of getting down your brilliant, multi-layered ideas in hi-fi quality before you forget them. If only you had a mini mobile studio, complete with built-in condenser microphone, one-button…

Ever wondered what’s up with the links in Stuff? We’ve got a team of retail pros who scour the web to find you the best gadget deals – visit any stuff.tv link in this issue and you’ll be taken to the best deal for that product. If you make a purchase, we may get a small commission. It’s that simple, and has no impact on how much you pay.…

You can also fill in the survey at stuff.tv/readersurvey WIN a Roxi music system! WIN! We have two Roxis, worth £149.95 each, to give away. tryroxi.co.uk Thank you for completing our survey. Your details will be entered into our prize draw. Entry closes on 24 January 2019. Winners will be drawn on Monday 4 February and contacted within three days. Winners will be announced at stuff.tv. The editors’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Full terms and conditions at kelsey.co.uk. No purchase necessary.…

HOT BUY 1 Data Wing £free / Android, iOS This game starts off as if Asteroids had a baby with a top-down racer: your triangular craft blasts around circuits, gaining speed when its bum scrapes neon track edges. Soon you discover you’re part of an OS ruled by a deranged AI. Story and game quickly expand, as you glimpse the world beyond the screen and battle gravity in cavern-based sections that recall 8-bit classic Thrust. Rarely do mobile titles pack in so many hours of clever, thoughtful narrative. Pretty much never are such games free. Stuff says A mobile game we’d happily recommend if it cost a fiver – for nowt, it’s an absurdly generous bargain 2 Euclidean Skies £4.99 / iOS This is a challenging mobile game that pulls…

HOT BUY 1 Apple Watch Series 4 from £399 / stuff.tv/WatchS4 The Apple Watch Series 4 has everything going for it – the larger screen, improved processor and louder speaker mean it’s easier to actually do stuff on it than any previous Watch, and it has a load of health features that just aren’t on other wearables. Whether you’re navigating somewhere using Maps, going for a run without your phone, or just wanting to keep track of your activity during the day, this Apple Watch does a great job of handling all these things and more. Stuff says Best wearable ever: a sleek, sophisticated redesign of the previous generation with some hearty upgrades 2 Samsung Galaxy Watch from £279 / stuff.tv/GalaxyWatch A sturdy and stylish smartwatch with plenty of power…

HOT BUY 1 Sonos One £199 / stuff.tv/SonosOne Making an amazing speaker was an easy job for the multiroom champs, but getting Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to dance along in time with it… well, that wasn’t such a simple task. But the One is now an altogether more well-rounded device than it was at launch, supporting Spotify with voice control as well as Amazon Music and TuneIn Radio, while the early Alexa hiccups seem to have been fixed by a series of software updates. The only issue? It’s a little hard of hearing compared to Amazon’s Echo. Stuff says Sonos’s Alexa-powered speaker remains a class apart from the competition 2 Amazon Echo Dot £40 / stuff.tv/EchoDot The massive price difference means that, for many people, this is a much better…

HOT BUY 1 Oculus Rift £399 / stuff.tv/OculusTouch The Oculus Rift has been playing catch-up for a while; but now that it’s got the fantastic Touch Controllers, has boosted its room-tracking capabilities to match the Vive and has had a price drop to undercut HTC’s standard headset by £100, it finally deserves to top our VR headset rankings. Its library of exclusive games has grown considerably since launch too, with the likes of Robo Recall, Lucky’s Tale and Lone Echo all added. This is now the best VR headset available that doesn’t cost the world. Stuff says Thanks to the price cut and much-needed updates, the Rift is now the best reasonably-priced VR headset 2 HTC Vive £499 / stuff.tv/HTCVive Barring a £100 price difference, there isn’t much difference between…