1. September 2013: Withings Pulse
Yes, another digital trainer, but this addition to the sports-pimp plastic mountain has new tricks up its sleeve. It’s the smallest device – just 8g – that can tell you your heart rate as well your steps, calories burned, how well you’re sleeping, and all that; just do your workout, press your finger to the back and find out whether all that cardio’s paying off. Clipping discreetly to your clothing and Bluetoothing to your phone and the free Withings Health Mate app, it allows you to chart progress and personal bests, with 14 days worth of data accessible via an OLED screen.
2. September 2013: Bayan Audio Soundbook
British fi rm Bayan drops in on the busy Bluetooth speaker scene with this stylish 15W effort. Connectivity includes Bluetooth 4.0, using the apt-X codec for improved sound, and NFC for easy setup. It also incorporates an FM radio and works as a speakerphone,
too. The battery offers up to ten hours of playback, while the nylon cover, available in a range of colours, doubles as a stand, which is, ahem, novel.
3. September 2013: Bose QuietComfort 20
Bose’s first in-ear headphones to offer noise-cancelling tech use dual mics in each lug to detect and counter outside sounds, insulating you in a cocoon of your own tunes. However, press a button on the slightly bulky control unit and said mics can also allow you to hear what’s going on around you, via the miracle of “Aware mode”. This lets mid to high frequencies through so you can hear station announcements and the like. The battery provides up to 16 hours of noise cancellation on a single charge, with a full rejuicing via USB taking two hours.
4. September 2013: Crystal Acoustics Blu DAC
Making sweet, digital love to your hi-fi , this little black box is a Bluetooth receiver and digital-to analogue converter (DAC) that lets you stream tunes from your phone wirelessly. It can be attached to any amplifi er or receiver via analogue or optical digital, and if your device has NFC, you can pair with a touch. Music is streamed using the apt-X Bluetooth codec, bringing any home stereo stack, no matter how valve-based and dusty, firmly into the wireless age.
5. September 2013: Nike Hypervenom Phantom
These new kicks might not gift you the skills of £48m man Neymar, but Nike’s All Conditions Control technology may afford you better ball skills on a sodden British pitch come Sunday afternoon. The outer sole is crafted from a responsive nylon chassis that boosts agility and traction and, according to Nike, the placement of the studs allows for faster penetration (of the pitch), so that’s nice. Oh, and a quicker release, too. Wayne Rooney will be playing in a pair of these this season. Like his syrup, the colour scheme and finish – designed to highlight the parts of the boot best used to score goals – are eye-catching indeed.
6. September 2013: Razer Atrox Arcade Stick
This latest gaming accessory from the US PC gaming beast brings ’80s-style arcade nostalgia into your home, letting you play Street Fighter II Turbo as nature intended. Ten “tournament-grade” fi re buttons are accompanied by an eight-way joystick with authentic, rounded ball top. The top panel can be removed, giving modders and tinkerers access to its internal workings.
7. September 2013: Samsung Galaxy NX
Splicing gadget genes without regard for the consequences, Samsung’s latest experiment is the Galaxy NX, a compact system camera running on Android, with 4G for easy shot-sharing. A 20.3-meg APS-C CMOS sensor with 100-25,600 ISO suggests the possibility of pro-grade shots, and dualchannel Wi-Fi kicks in should 4G or 3G be lacking. There’s also Bluetooth for more local sharing. Essentially a camera that thinks it’s a phone, it’s not to be confused with Samsung’s Galaxy Zoom (p24), which is a phone that thinks it’s a camera.
8. September 2013: Sony Smartwatch 2
Pressing on with its wearable-tech revolution, Sony updates the Android-based smartwatch that it released to a chorus of groans last year. Having sold half a million worldwide since, the Smartwatch 2 looks rightly smug, pairs via NFC or Bluetooth 3.0 and lets you read messages, control music and answer calls. The 1.6-inch, 220x176 display is water- and dust-proof, with a “four-day battery life”. We’ll see about that…
9. September 2013: Sony Xperia Z Ultra
The Xperia Z’s phablet-sized relative has a 6.3-inch, full-HD screen and an inherited disregard for the perils of water – it’s encased in waterproof aluminium and glass that lets it dive up to 1.5m. Protected inside sits a 2.2GHz quadcore processor and there’s an eight-meg camera on the rear. It may be big, but at just 212g it won’t sink like a stone. And at just 6.6mm thick it’s competing with Huawei’s Ascend P6 (p30) for the title of world’s slimmest smartphone, too.
10. September 2013: Toshiba Excite Write
There’s one company very happy about the resurrection of the stylus, post- Galaxy Note, and that’s Wacom. Already selling pressure-sensitive digital pokers for Android and iOS, it’s now providing the one that comes built into Toshiba’s 10.1-inch, Android Jelly Bean-packin’ Excite Write. Scrawl notes on its 2560x1600 IPS display and clever software deciphers your script into neat digital text. Other stuff: 1.9GHz Tegra 4 processor, 2GB RAM, microSD slot, Gorilla Glass 2 screen protection, a choice of 16GB or 32GB, 3G or 4G variants, and a keyboard dock.
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