Gadget Guru’s magic box
Guru’s neighbour-bothering activities will be taken to literal new heights once Parrot unleashes its fixed-wing Disco drone (£1,149), which includes a 14MP camera and a special phone-incorporating goggle system with overlaid flight metrics – and goes a ridiculous 50mph. It’s mainly interesting because of the integrated ‘CHUCK’ system, which refers both to the ‘Control Hub and Universal Computer Kit’ autopilot, and the fact that the Disco is launched by flinging it in the air as you would a frisbee. At that price, let’s hope it works. More on p28!
The Here earbuds (below, currently indeterminate price) are soon to ship – a vague “Holiday 2016” is as close as they’ll admit – making Guru’s long-battered lugs most pleased indeed. The idea is that, as well as streaming audio to your ears, you can use them to dynamically alter and remix the frequencies of the real world, enhancing bass, isolating conversations and the like. So the next time GaGu tells a fan in the street to shut up while he fiddles with his phone and then refuses to take his headphones out, it’ll be for a good reason. Right then, Tim Cook. Guru knows you’re reading, so this one’s for you: where, oh where is the new MacBook Pro? Chances are that Apple will have unleashed it (and the final version of macOS Sierra) to the traditional mix of acclaim and derision by the time this issue of T3 hits the shelves, but at the time Guru writes, it’s completely absent from his life. It’s been essentially three years since Apple last pulled its finger out for those of us who need power on the move, and that’s quite long enough.
Finally, Guru’s eye has been drawn to Kickstarter and the neat-looking Cell Robot kit (from £195), which lets you combine a bunch of robo-balls into a terrifying camera-equipped cybersnake on optional wheels. Control it with your phone for a bit of telepresence, to intimidate your pets, or even (and this is Guru’s favourite) have it act as a robotic bartender. The magic wine glass need never reach an empty state again.