Gadget Issue 13

Winter is coming... The sun has sat on another summer. The upside of it getting cold is that after months spent outside catching Pokémon and hosting garden barbecues, you justify kicking back with a boxset and doing nothing. But if you’re planning on binging Game Of Thrones from the start all over again, you should think about upgrading your entertainment setup. With screens coming down in price and new shows filmed in Ultra HD launching this autumn, there’s never been a better time to invest in a 4K TV. The Xbox One S and PlayStation 4 Pro have also just been announced with support for 4K and HDR games. But if you’re upgrading all that, you’d be silly not to supercharge your sound the same time, right? Discover a veritable Aladdin’s…

Dan Hutchinson Editor In Chief For mouthwatering close-ups of posh nosh, feast on Netflix’s gourmet cooking show Chef’s Table. Drew Sleep Production Editor Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad – the cinematography and performances are utterly sublime. Aiden Dalby Staff Writer Life Of Pi – The effects are undeniably good and the colours look gorgeous in the higher resolution. Stephen Williams Senior Art Editor If you can get passed DiCaprio’s Oscar-winning grunting, The Revenant’s epic landscapes look incredible in 4K. Harriet Knight Designer Marco Polo on Netflix is a stunning historic drama. It only took me two days to inhale Season 1!…

Works with anything The Origin is designed primarily for woodwork projects, but it can cut soft metals, plastics and composites too, depending on your chosen bit Auto-correcting blade Shaper calls the Origin “auto-correct for your hands” and it adjusts the spindle as you move in order to be accurate to within 1/100th of an inch Built-in memory The Origin can remember where it’s been too – you could carry on with a job two weeks later and pick up from where you left off Touch display The five-inch touchscreen display shows where you need to cut as well as enabling you to create designs using the Origin’s onboard software Dust extraction The device comes with a built-in dust extraction port which you can attach to a vacuum cleaner to get rid of all that pesky sawdust it generates Cutting wood…

“StarVR offers superior specs than other headsets” Missing price tag Neither Starbreeze or Acer have said how much the StarVR costs, most likely because its not aimed at home users. Instead they are aiming it at cinemas and theme parks, as well as car dealerships and aviation training facilities Wraparound optics Custom-made, semicircle-shaped Fresnel lenses curve the light from the headset’s otherwise flat screen, so the image seems to wrap around your face Double vision/ dual display The StarVR headset has not just one Quad HD screen, but two. This works out 2560 x 1440 pixels per eye, or 5K in total Reduced weight The latest model of the StarVR, imaginatively dubbed ‘Version 1.4’, has also reduced the weight of the headset to 380g. In contrast, the Rift weighs 470g and Vive 555g Team effort As well as working with…

Choose your recipe The Drop app helps you choose a recipe based on what you feel in the mood for, or the ingredients you’ve got available in your kitchen Connected devices Bosch’s Home Connect platform goes beyond ovens, too – the same tech is installed inside coffee machines, fridges and dishwashers for that complete smart kitchen effect Heating and timing If you’ve got a Bosch oven with Home Connect functionality, then it can take the timings and heating levels from your chosen recipe and apply them automatically With the web awash with recipes of all descriptions and our kitchen appliances getting smarter all the time, it makes sense to bring the two together – and that’s the logic behind a new Drop-powered upgrade for Bosch smart cookers running its proprietary Home Connect software. It means that if…

01 Yes, it is egg-shaped You’ll notice the PowerEgg’s unique shape first – distinctly eggesque. Four rotors and four landing struts pop out of the rugby ball-style shell, and because there’s no ‘front’ or ‘back’ it’s theoretically easier to pilot through the skies. 02 4K video recording The PowerEgg shoots 30fps video at 4K and can go up to 120fps in plain old HD, so it’s suitable for many a filming project. The 360-degree gimbal keeps your shots steady and can point in pretty much any direction. 03 Fly it indoors The drone comes with integrated GPS, so it can find its way home and avoid no-fly zones, but there’s also sonar and ground pattern recognition built in so the flying contraption can orient itself when indoors as well. 04 Two remote controls Drone piloting isn’t as…