Gadget Issue 16

Welcome to the future Greetings from the year 2017! One of the quirks of being a tech journalist is that you’re always living a few months ahead of everyone else. While the rest of you were outside basking in the mid-August sun, we were testing out early samples of next season’s ski gear or hunched over in a darkened room compiling our Christmas gift guide, a ‘Now, That’s What I Call Festive’ playlist on repeat and a plate of old mince pies handy to set the mood. Now that you’re at the point of decking the halls and getting merrily on high, we’ve already moved on to next year’s trends. So what can we report back from the front line of the future? Drones are smaller and less expensive than ever, but…

Dave Harfield Editor In Chief Self-driving cars are only going to get smarter with old names like Ford and BMW taking on Tesla’s dominance. Drew Sleep Production Editor Retro-inspired tech is my jam, so I want to see more innovations with a flair for old-school cool. Aiden Dalby Staff Writer As a lifelong Nintendo fan, I am excited to see what it’s next-gen Switch console can do. Stephen Williams Senior Art Editor The end of Apple. I’m more excited for Microsoft’s touchscreen Surface Studio than a new Mac.…

Quick climber As well as being able to reach new heights for aerial shots, the Inspire 2 can reach them quickly, climbing 20 feet per second and descending at almost 30 feet per second New cameras DJI launched the Inspire 2 along with two new cameras: the Zenmuse X4S has a one-inch 20-megapixel sensor and the larger Zenmuse X5S, which has a 20.8-megapixel sensor and supports eight lenses from wide angles to zoom Dual-battery system As well as extending its flight time, the Inspire 2’s two batteries ensure that if one fails during a flight, it will still have enough power to be able to return to the pilot Subzero shooting The Inspire 2’s battery system is also self-heating so it can film in even the coldest conditions – minus 20 Celsius, to be exact Super-fast filming The Inspire…

01 Skyfall (2012) The opening sequence of this James Bond movie, which sees 007 chasing an unnamed terrorist across the rooftop of Istanbul’s famous bazaar – on motorbikes no less – wouldn’t have been half as panoramic if it wasn’t filmed using drones. Watch it here: youtu.be/tHRLX8jRjq8 02 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) The iconic pool party scene in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street was shot with octocopters, beginning with a bird’s-eye shot off the coast of the Hamptons, before moving in to capture an aerial view of Jordan Belfort’s rowdy bash. Watch it here: youtu.be/JLR__P1MyNQ 03 Chappie (2015) Appropriately for a film about a self-aware robot, Chappie was shot extensively with drones. As well as being used as a reference point for actors to look at while talking to CGI characters that would…

Approved by HTC The TPCAST comes straight out of the Vive X Accelerator project, intended to get accessory makers working closely with HTC itself to develop some cool add-ons for the Vive Low latency The developers of the TPCAST say it has a very low latency of two milliseconds, and those who’ve tried it say there’s no noticeable lag in the gaming experience Start saving Based on a rough currency conversion, the TPCAST is going to set you back around £175/$220 – getting involved in the early adopter VR scene does get expensive quickly Order priority Initial supplies could be limited, HTC says, with priority given to those who can provide a valid HTC Vive serial number; preorders are open now, with shipping in the first quarter of 2017 A wireless experience The HTC Vive’s usual cabling is used…

MSI VR One One alternative to ditching the wires is to carry your gaming PC around with you. Enter the MSI VR One, available to preorder now from a starting price of around $2,000 (about £1,610), and offering around three hours of game time per charge. Zoltac VR GO Also taking the backpack route is PC-maker Zoltac. The VR GO backpack is packed with top-end components and can still be used as a desktop PC. We don’t have pricing or availability details yet but expect to see it at CES 2017. Intel Project Alloy Intel is working on a prototype called Project Alloy that takes a different approach: packing everything you need into the headset itself. As yet there’s no firm launch date but this is likely to be the future of VR technology. Oculus Santa Cruz Oculus…