TUTUSTU ilmaisiin artikkeleihin projektissa ZINIO

You might have seen headlines this week about the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra taking so-called “fake” moon pictures. Ever since the S20 Ultra, Samsung has had a feature called Space Zoom that marries its 10X optical zoom with massive digital zoom to reach a combined 100X zoom. In marketing shots, Samsung has shown its phone taking nearly crystal clear pictures of the moon, and users have done the same on a clear night. But a Redditor has proven that Samsung’s incredible Space Zoom is using a bit of trickery. It turns out that when taking pictures of the moon, Samsung’s AI-based Scene Optimizer does a whole lot of heavy lifting to make it look like the moon was photographed with a high-resolution telescope rather than a smartphone. So when someone takes…

E-TYPE UK is a company known for its restorations, but it is now branching out into something a little more specialised. Via its Unleashed sub-brand, it is taking Series 3 E-types down the ‘restomod’ route. Octane arrives in deepest Kent to be greeted by the first car that truly demonstrates what Unleashed is about. By the time you read this it will have been shipped to its new owner in California, after a process of several months during which its final specification has evolved. What strikes you is how clean it looks, with some of the fussier elements of S3 bodywork – not typically regarded as a high point for the E-type – resolved. There are new bumpers – without the clumsy overriders – which hug the nose and tail. The front…

This is a story about a dog called Ouka who loves to fly with his owner, the French adventure filmmaker Shams. It is also a story about the healing powers of humankind’s oldest friend, and their unique ability to get us back on our feet when we’re feeling low. “Ouka changed my life for sure,” Shams tells me when we talk over video call. “It’s a long story,” he adds, “but I’ll try and keep it short.” Chances are, you will have come across the pair’s flying exploits via their popular Instagram feeds @ouka.sam (174,000 followers) and @ shamsfilmmaker (39,000). They’re the kind of videos that often get shared over beers at the end of a day’s flying. In one, Shams seems to be riding Ouka, whose fluffy white hair is swept…

Last year, I moored my narrowboat at the Dundas Aqueduct just outside Bath. The valley around the River Avon is known for its wild garlic, which carpets the woodland floor and raises such a powerful perfume you can smell it from your car, driving down the A36. But since the permissive paths that cut through some of the woods go nowhere near the wild garlic, to forage for my dinner I had to trespass. Conkwell Wood was initially enclosed in the early 19th century, when the manor was built at the top of the hill. Because we, in modern times, have been born into a nation of exclusion, and so take it for granted, it is hard for us to imagine the anger of a community suddenly evicted from such a…

MOVIE | Book Club: the Next Chapter Forget about reading—these women are ready for love COMEDY This follow-up to the 2018 hit begins with a gracefully done segment that acknowledges real life: It’s the pandemic, and Zoom is the only option for book-chat besties Vivian (Jane Fonda), Carol (Mary Steenburgen), Diane (Diane Keaton) and Sharon (Candice Bergen). Then the pandemic goes away, and we escape to happy fantasy. Vivian announces that she’s engaged to boyfriend Arthur (Don Johnson), and the ladies—none of whom suffers from a life-threatening condition that requires masks or extra vaccinations—fly off to Italy for an extended bachelorette party. They hop from one beautiful tourist destination to another, meet attractive foreign men and amuse themselves with cheesy-risqué jokes about the anatomical details of statues that date back to antiquity. All in…

2020 brought a redesigned iPhone, but in 2021 the iPhone was fairly static, while the iPad Pro took a big step forward. Given Apple’s longer cycles for iPhone redesigns, I don’t expect a revolutionary new iPhone to spur sales ever higher. But Apple will tinker around the edges with the iPhone, spending most of its time upgrading the iPad and launching new products the likes of which we’ve not seen before…from Apple, anyway. These are my predictions for 2022 for the iPhone, iPad, and the rest of Apple’s non-Mac product line. I’m doing this with the risk of being dead wrong in public, but I’ve been there before, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. iPHONE GETS TWEAKS AROUND THE MARGINS The iPhone of 2023 will probably look dramatically different from what we’ve…

$449, sony.com.au There’s no doubt that Sony has a strong pedigree when it comes to premium noise-cancelling audio, with both its WF-1000X and WH-1000X product lines dominating their class (true wireless in-ear headphones, and wireless over-ear headphones respectively). With the WF-1000XM4, Sony has upped the ante once more, introducing an entirely new ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) processing chip, along with a redesigned earbud, and the results are stunning if somewhat pricey. Design As Sony has reliably done for past 1000X product launches, the WF-1000XM4 is available either in Black or Platinum Silver – both classy and understated colours with brassy, metallic trim that provides a subtle counterpoint to the matte and uniform tone of the plastic. This trim is most prominent in the cylindrical microphone housing protruding from each earbud and is seen again on…

Lamborghini Countach That the Piedmontese word countach translates roughly to “holy shit!” tells you all you need to know about the impact of this quintessential Lamborghini. Unlike earlier supercars, whose sensuousness was often compared to reclining nudes, designer Marcello Gandini’s brutal masterwork looks more like a deadly weapon, a flying ax-head. This is the Countach’s legacy: It defined a level of outrageousness against which all future supercars would be judged. But the Countach itself is defined by its mechanical packaging. Mounting the radiators at the sides meant the nose could plunge to a honed edge. The huge, longitudinally oriented V-12 faced rearward, its transmission pointed toward the front, centralizing the car’s weight and pushing the passenger compartment forward, inverting the typical sports-car proportions. Also, in the post-Countach era, a supercar without…

THE FIRST EDITION OF MY BOOK RACING WEIGHT WAS released in 2010—and it was inspired by my observation that athletes often approached performance weight management in ineffective and sometimes unhealthy ways. As an alternative to the fad diets and other extreme measures that were leading so many athletes into trouble, I took a different view on performance weight management based on mainstream science and elite best practices. Much has changed since Racing Weight first hit bookstore shelves. Fad diets have come and gone (remember Paleo?), and the very practice of performance weight management has been questioned by many. Yet my own views on the subject have changed very little, and that’s because elite best practices and the science that supports them have remained remarkably consistent. I do frame my guidance somewhat…

The public beta of macOS Monterey, released by Apple in early July, doesn’t look surprisingly new. Exceptions include Safari, which gets a dynamically resizing tab bar and other conveniences, and FaceTime, which gets a background-blurring portrait mode and screen-sharing features. As you get more familiar with Monterey, however, you’ll find improvements and conveniences everywhere and may wonder how you managed without them. This is because Apple’s annual updates to the Mac operating system tend to have a regular rhythm. Massive updates arrive on even-numbered years: Big Sur, for example, the 2020 update to macOS that was also the first version that ran on Apple Silicon hardware. Updates in odd-numbered years, such as Monterey, look more or less like the previous version but come with under-the-hood improvements that may do more for…

Maintaining smooth Wi-Fi performance and throughput for gaming, video streaming, and smart home devices is important, but now that so many folks are working from home with no end in sight, you’ve also got to consider important work applications and different modes of work communication, especially video conferencing. This is where whole-house coverage becomes more than a nice-to-have. Many of the latest wireless routers can provide strong coverage to most rooms of a typical medium-size house, but larger homes and dwellings with dense walls, multiple floors, metal and concrete substructures, and other structural impediments may require additional components to bring Wi-Fi to areas that the router can’t reach. Range extenders do a good job of filling in dead zones but typically provide only half the bandwidth that you get from your…

So you’re in the market for a detachable 2-in-1—a tablet you can use either by itself or with a keyboard and stylus? The Apple 10.9-inch iPad Air is a good choice—in fact, a PCMag Editors’ Choice winner—at $599. But if you’re willing to think different, HP’s 11-inch Chromebook x2 costs the same—including twice the memory as well as the keyboard and pen that Apple will charge you an extra $428 for. Tablet shoppers rarely consider Chromebooks, but the HP x2 favors the bold. It doesn’t perform as well as comparably priced Chromebook laptops (and we still consider our Editors’ Choice favorite, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, a better value among Chromebook detachables), but it fills a nifty niche. PROS: Affordable price includes pen and keyboard cover. Available 4G mobile broadband. CONS: Tepid performance.…

HEX TUBELESS TIRE SEALANT PRICE PER USE: $4.22 PSI LOSS AFTER 3MM NAIL: 4.9 PSI LOSS AFTER 4MM NAIL: 18.1 RECOMMENDED CHANGE: 3 months Hex uses an ammonia-free formula, which allows you to use CO2 for inflation and helps the sealant work in a wide range of temperatures. But in this case, it also means the sealant didn’t clog punctures as fast as others. Our Hex-equipped tire lost more air than any other sealant in both the 3mm and 4mm puncture test. STAN’S NOTUBES RACE SEALANT PRICE PER USE: $3.49 PSI LOSS AFTER 3MM NAIL: 2.3 PSI LOSS AFTER 4MM NAIL: 3 RECOMMENDED CHANGE: As often as every 2 weeks Stan’s Race uses twice as many particles as the company’s regular formula and in our test sealed both holes with minimal air loss. It’s relatively affordable, until you consider how often…

Welcome to the first-ever GQ Sports issue of this magazine. Instead of waxing about Stephen Curry, Shohei Ohtani, and Mohamed Salah though, I want to use this space to share about the loss of a titan in our world: Virgil Abloh. ¶ Virgil’s death on November 28, 2021, precipitated an outpouring of new remembrances online and off, but my favorite Virgil story has been the same for years. It goes like this: Kanye West’s longtime publicist, Gabe Tesoriero, is escorting New York Times pop music critic Jon Caramanica backstage at Ye’s Governors Ball gig when the pair run into Virgil, who was then still working as Ye’s creative right hand. The year is 2013. Ye is at the height of his powers, arguably the biggest artist in the world, and Virgil…

Sometimes reviewers need to pay close attention to all the details in the material their editors send them for a review. When Robert Harley suggested that I review a pair of Van Alstine M225 monoblock power amplifiers, my instant reaction was “Yes.” Frank Van Alstine has quietly been making outstanding audio designs for around half a century, and I hadn’t had the chance to fully audition any of his work in years. But, urgh, in a world where the main goal of high-end design has sometimes seemed to be to create power amps that are bigger than speakers, that break the 300-pound limit, and that cost well over $30,000 a pair, I expected more of the same (and promptly resumed my weight-lifting exercises). Well, all kidding aside, sometimes it really does pay…

In the late 1960s, production road race classes were gaining popularity, but as support races to the established GP classes. When BSA, Honda, Norton and Triumph launched 750cc street bikes, they realised racing in the production class would help their sales. Honda had a race kit for their CB750 and Norton had a ready-to-race Norvil production racer. BSA launched the three-cylinder Rocket 3 and Triumph their version, the T150 Trident in 1968. Both models were more powerful than the company’s twins, but weighed a lot more. “A FIVE-YEAR WINNING CAREER IN THE TT PRODUCTION RACE WAS UNHEARD OF AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL, BUT THAT BEARS TESTAMENT TO THE OVERALL DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ‘SLIPPERY SAM!’” In 1970 BSA and Triumph started race prepping stock bikes in their experimental/race departments. Initial reactions to the factoryTriples…

iPads and iPhones don’t have expandable storage – but you can use external USB sticks and memory cards to transfer files or store things you don’t need to keep on your device. Things are easier if you own an iPad Air or iPad Pro equipped with USB-C, since you can connect USB-C sticks directly. However, often you’ll need an adapter, especially when using a memory card, or an iPad or iPhone equipped with Lightning. In that case, to connect USB sticks, you’ll need the Lightning to USB Camera Adapter or the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter; to connect memory cards, the Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader or the USB-C to SD Card Camera Reader. While USB sticks don’t use as much power as external hard drives, they still need a…

THE STORY SO FAR... PS’s technical editor buysa cheap bike – £1500 or less – and gets it ready to sell on at a profit. First is a 1993 Kawasaki ZXR400. He will then repeat the exercise four or five (or 100) times until his modest initial stake bags him a longed-for Bimota. Let’s see what happens (although we already know where this is going). Still on with the remedial work in the effort to bring my 1993 ZXR400 back to mechanical perfection. Up until now that has been something of a battle, with the seemingly fairly tidy Kawasaki transpiring to be anything but as the layers were peeled away. However there is definitely a corner being turned now, the darkest hour being just before the dawn, and all that. First order of…

I SCAN THE ADS all the time for anything interesting, for the sake of being a nosey so-and-so, or for a bargain to turn a bit of beer money. Here’s the thing: I’m still not seeing much of either. Everything in our world seems to be strong money – and is hard to find, or sells almost immediately. You’ve got to be on the case if you want the good stuff – scanning the ads at least twice a day in some cases. That leaves you even more open to being had. There’s been some utter, utter crap listed. Even the stuff that’s just OK is going for the money I’d expect the good stuff to go for. I’ve included some of both in your pages this month. The worst thing you can…

The story so far… The editor of The PS likes his 996 so much he rides it at least once a year. Here, he prepares for his 2022 excursion The 996 hasn’t had any attention since it was last used in October 2021, when it was washed and tucked in the corner of the garage. I noted down a few things on the whiteboard that needed attending to, waiting to do them over winter. Then the Laverda came to me (see page 130), eating up most of my available tool-time. It was a short list fortunately, so getting the Ducati ready for its first taste of warm roads this year was no more than a morning’s work. First job was replacing the headlight, holed on a trackday last year trying to tuck…

THE PLAN To give a ’90s icon, the ZX-7R, the power and handling to trounce a new Kawasaki H2, with a GSX-R1000 motor... and a turbo. One day If you read PS in the manner the Japanese consume literature – that is, back to front – then you will have read about the Laverda project that has come my way. If not – flick forward to page 96 to see what I’m on about. I’ll wait here for you… Back? Good. Now you’re up to speed, you’ll understand that Pa Newbigging and I are quite excited about it. We’ve not done much to the bike itself, other than eyeball it and soak a few things in penetrating spray, but we have spent a few evenings on the interwebs sizing up the scale of…

When Marianna Leivaditaki offered to cook me fish soup, I knew it would be good. Marianna is head chef at Morito, the Greco-Moorish mezze bar in London that is one of my favorite restaurants. But I didn’t expect to be eating her silky, briny broth for breakfast in northwestern Crete on a green bay wedged between granite cliffs. We had never met before she picked me up earlier that morning in her brother Antonis’s motorboat. I squeezed on board beside Antonis’s young son, Orpheus, whose blond curls floated in the breeze. We glided past the craggy shoreline, pocked with caves and coves, until we found the perfect spot. Antonis tipped a mighty fish he’d caught a few hours earlier onto a cracked white stone. Marianna roughly chopped potatoes and tomatoes…

Look around you and chances are you’ll find something touched by the rose – be it a gloriously scented candle, a pot of moisturiser or perhaps even a trellis of late-summer colourful climbers. With a history dating beyond 35m years, it’s fair to say that this, the queen of flowers, has an enduring appeal. ‘Roses are just so much a part of our culture. They live in our art, literature and daily ablutions,’ says fashion historian and curator Mairi Mackenzie. Perhaps their allure lies in their compelling duality: they’re both the emblem of romance (Mark Antony was said to wade through her petal-covered boudoir to Cleopatra) and death (‘Saints were thought to emit the scent of rose when they died,’ offers Mackenzie). The physical flower is itself a paradox, beckoning us…

Through a steady London rain on the morning of May 6, the pomp and ceremony of King Charles III’s coronation began with a ride in the Diamond Jubilee State coach. The carriage, first used in 2014 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the accession of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, departed from Buckingham Palace at 10:20 a.m. Escorted by more than 150 members of the British armed forces and cheered on by thousands of damp but decidedly enthusiastic well-wishers, the enclosed horse-drawn coach rolled its way to Westminster Abbey. For Charles, 74, accompanied by his wife of 18 years, Queen Camilla, 75, the ride followed a carefully charted course, winding past landmarks like Trafalgar Square, the Palace of Westminster and Big Ben. At only 1.4 miles, the King’s procession…

For many, the classic late-’80s/early-’90s computer music setup would be one based around an Atari ST, but a thick wallet was needed for extra outboard gear like a MIDI keyboard, a synthesiser and possibly even an Akai sampler for good measure. However, at the very same time, an underground computer music movement was already brewing, and its only requirement to create kickass tunes was a humble Amiga – no external gear necessary. Composing music that played back purely on a home computer was once the domain of video game musicians who also happened to be skilled programmers, but all this changed thanks to a German musician/coder named Karsten Obarski with his release of the first commercially available tracker. The Ultimate Soundtracker – or simply Soundtracker, as it was known – revolved…

1 PANTHERS C.J. STROUD QB OHIO STATE Stroud throws with accuracy and touch from the pocket. The improvisation skills he showed in the national semi were a glimpse of what he can do when plays break down. 2 TEXANS BRYCE YOUNG QB ALABAMA Despite his size, Young is my top-ranked QB. He’s always composed, processes information quickly and is accurate to all three levels. 3 CARDINALS WILL ANDERSON JR. EDGE ALABAMA Anderson was elite at Bama—34.5 sacks, 62 TFLs. Power, length and burst give him impact as a pass rusher or run stopper. 4 COLTS ANTHONY RICHARDSON QB FLORIDA Richardson is relatively inexperienced as a one-year starter, but he has the most upside of any QB in the draft due to his size, speed and arm strength. 5 SEAHAWKS TYREE WILSON EDGE TEXAS TECH Despite a foot injury, Wilson had his most productive year (seven sacks, 14 TFLs). He’s an excellent combo of length…

Bob’s recent book, Earth-Shattering (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), explores the greatest cataclysms that have shaken the universe. In 1969, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced her five stages of grief experienced by people who are facing life’s tragedies. But those five now-famous stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — have been overlooked by backyard astronomers. Say you’re an observer in a typical suburban location. You’ve spent a small fortune on a telescope that looks so cool, you gaze at it like it’s a Rembrandt. Tonight, you’ve invited over an old friend you’d like to impress; you’ve heard she owns some mountaintop acreage, and you fantasize she’ll let you build an observatory there. So you aim your telescope at Saturn, arguably the universe’s greatest crowd-pleaser. But to your horror, it’s not there. In its…

Apple’s relatively new M1 Macs that rely on Apple silicon have a number of usability differences from previous Intel-based Macs. One difference that’s tripped up some readers is how to start up or boot the M1 Mac from an external drive. Intel Macs generally make this easy. You might want to use a bootable external drive to have a higher-capacity SSD than is offered or affordable via Apple’s pricing. Or you may want one for backup in case something goes very pear shaped with your M1 Mac. Testing indicates that the following are required to start up from an external volume: > A Thunderbolt 3 drive. That’s not just one that uses the USB-C connector, but one that is a native USB 3.1 or 3.2 drive. Nor can you use a Type A…

DATABASE REVEALS OVER 200K PEOPLE INVOLVED IN POSTING FAKE REVIEWS ON AMAZON I actually reported some sellers attempting to buy my good review directly to Amazon. Amazon was extremely slow in actually being able to take down the vendors. The process was so painful, in fact, that I probably would never bother to do it again. I’m sure those same vendors are back up on Amazon as some other name, as Amazon does zero vetting of marketplace vendors. Amazon has serious issues with credibility and many of the Chinese vendors on their platform are very underhanded and don’t follow the Amazon Marketplace rules at all. I stopped reading anything other than the bad reviews, really. I do check the questions from time to time … but I never read the good…

$3,299 body only, olympus-imaging.com.au The new OM System OM-1 is here. Recognise the camera but not the name? That’s because it’s a new line from OM Digital Solutions, which bought the sinking Olympus imaging division in 2021. A natural successor to the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, the OM-1 will be the last camera to have the Olympus name etched on its body. But it’s what we hope will be the first of many bearing the new OM System branding. A warm tribute to the original 50-year-old Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR, and a fitting swansong for the Olympus name, the OM-1 is a hugely capable camera, and a joy to shoot with. Everything that we’ve loved about the Olympus Micro Four Thirds system over the years is cranked up a notch here,…

There’s no hiding from the fact that swimming is a technical sport, so in order to truly progress you need to learn and understand some basic stroke mechanics—and then you need to practice them a lot. Tower 26 founder Rodrigues has developed a three-step system to help simplify what can be a complex process. The three steps? Tautness, alignment, and propulsion. First grasp the concept and feeling of tautness in the water, he said. Only then can you progress to alignment and then propulsion. TAUTNESS When we swim, we need to hold our bodies with just the right amount of muscular tension, or tautness. For new swimmers, adjusting to how their body feels in the water can be the hardest part. Accomplished swimmers learn how to hold their bodies in the water…

Dans le domaine des équipements connectés sur le marché de la première monte pour l e s c a m p i n g - c a r s , Truma a ouvert la voie en proposant le Truma iNet System. Avec ce dispositif, il est possible de commander les appareils de chauffage et de climatisation de la marque, mais également d’allumer et éteindre l’interrupteur 12 V principal ainsi que celui de la pompe d’eau. Cette application donne aussi certaines informations sur les équipements. Ainsi les utilisateurs peuvent notamment connaître la température extérieure, savoir si le véhicule est correctement connecté au réseau électrique terrestre ou encore connaître en temps réel l’état de charge de la batterie cellule et celle du porteur. Le marché de la seconde monte est aussi concerné…

Au volant d’un camping-car, une longueur supérieure à 7,00 m et un porte-à-faux important sont des facteurs à risque en cas de manœuvre en marche arrière. Dans ces conditions, la caméra de recul est une aide précieuse. Ce troisième œil, est le complément idéal de ce que vous voyez dans les rétroviseurs. Le dispositif se compose d’un émetteur (la caméra) placé à l’arrière et d’un récepteur (l’écran) placé dans le poste de conduite. Les informations (image et son) sont transmises par liaison filaire puis restituées à l’écran. Les avantages d’une telle installation sont multiples. On a une vision à l’aplomb de la face arrière et une belle perspective, tant en longueur qu’en largeur, pour manœuvrer en toute sécurité. On peut également entendre ce qui se passe grâce au micro intégré,…

The Hisense 350-sq. ft. Window Air Conditioner is a reasonably priced Wi-Fi-enabled window AC unit that you can control with your voice, your phone, or the included remote. It’s easy to install and did an admirable job of cooling in our tests. It doesn’t offer power usage reports or compatibility with Apple HomeKit and IFTTT like some other smart air conditioners we’ve tested, but it also costs less than many 8,000-BTU models, making it an affordable option for small to medium spaces. PROS: Reasonably priced. Easy to install. Fast cooling. Voice control. Relatively quiet. CONS: Lacks usage reporting. Doesn’t support HomeKit or IFTTT. BOTTOM LINE: The Hisense 350-Sq. Ft. Window Air Conditioner is a smart AC unit that can be controlled by your phone, voice, or remote, and does a fine job of…

As a six-core, 12-thread processor with great integrated graphics, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is the CPU that 2021 has been waiting for. A strong successor to older, budget-friendly, gaming-focused CPUs such as the AMD Ryzen 5 3400G, it puts up some of the fastest game frame rates to date from an integrated graphics processor (IGP). Cheaper than the IGP-less Ryzen 5 5600X ($299) and layered in with the highly capable Radeon RX Vega 7 graphics engine, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is a serious threat to Intel’s competing Intel Core i5-11600K on CPU grunt and really puts the hammer down once you factor in its gaming results and Radeon Software compatibility. Whether you’re an esports hopeful aiming to get a gaming PC built for cheap or just want a…

Canon Pixma G620 $299.99 EXCELLENT It’s easy to find a bulk-ink printer with the familiar cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) quartet, but finding an ink-tank-rather than cartridge-based inkjet with six inks for superior photo quality has been difficult, prohibitively expensive, or both. Canon aims to change that with the Pixma G620 Wireless MegaTank Photo All-in-One Printer, which gets its tank refills from bottles. At $299.99, it’s half the price of the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500 Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank. Versus that Epson, the Canon is slow and short on features, so it doesn’t join it (or the wide-format EcoTank Photo ET-8550) as an Editors’ Choice award winner. But the Pixma prints terrific-looking borderless photos at sizes up to 8.5 by 11 inches for pennies, making it a great value for families and…

Been shopping for a tiny desktop around the internet? The ECS Liva Z3 is going to look pretty familiar. These days, mini PCs from many different manufacturers look like they all come off the same assembly line. Similar boxy profiles and basic black panels look like somebody copied-and-pasted the Intel NUC over and over again, with minor cosmetic changes here and there. The ECS Liva Z3 doesn’t stray from that template, looking just like the recently reviewed Beelink GK Mini and other NUC-like systems. But it still has something to offer: a low price that makes it a great budget choice. That’s provided, of course, that you can accept the performance limitations that come with the Liva Z3’s Pentium processor and eMMC storage. PROS: Small, easy to hide. Included mounting gear.…

It’s hardly surprising that Rotel should bring out a MkII version of its highly popular A14 integrated amplifier, which is the flagship model in its 14 Series. Manufacturers of digital-to-analogue converters are constantly releasing upgraded ICs (and deleting older ones from their inventory) so manufacturers who use those ICs are in turn having to constantly re-design products to accommodate the latest silicon. Then there are the situations such as one that is currently affecting audio manufacturers right around the world: A disastrous fire on October 21, 2020 completely destroyed the factory in Nobeoka, Japan, where Asahi Kasei Microsystems manufactured its DACs and ADCs so these devices were no longer available. I don’t know if it’s a co-incidence or not, but the biggest change between the original A14 and this new A14MkII…

All go on KH1F front MG’s KH1F is looking swell, and well on its way to completion. I attach a photo of mine in its current state. A picture is allegedly worth 1000 words, so with my standard of photography this one is worth 250. The project has not been helped by a back problem that put me in A&E and on heavy duty painkillers; the polisher taking three weeks instead of the promised one; and one fork stanchion coming back from rechrome with a damaged internal thread that needs to be fixed before I wreck another top nut trying to fit it. I am now in week 10 out of 16. But I still try to go out into the shed every night, even if it is only to do small jobs…

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly. That’s the thinking that led Paul Burge to build his own tribute to Valentino Rossi’s 2001 pre-season test NSR500 from scratch, rather than wedge it in a 250 race-rep as many others have done. Paul’s own skills, acquired in his day job as a pipe fitter, are reason enough to break out the fabrication and welding gear and do it: he’s got form for motorcycle chassis parts already, having been commissioned to modify a batch of SP-2 swingarms to replicate the factory WSB parts by an owners group. And, before you ask... they’re all sold. The plan began with a 500 Gamma engine, purchased in 2012 as a consolation prize for selling a GSX-R1000 K5 to prioritise family needs (including buying a…

ON OUR BENCH If we actually had just the one bench things might be a great deal more straightforward: in the sense that a degree of urgency might apply. But no. No, no, no. It all drags on... and now summer’s here Some years back, we featured Ron Fairbrother’s Japan-inspired Zephyr 1100. Eight years back in fact. A gorgeous thing, it remains one of relatively few extensively-improved Zephyrs around outside of Japan, where they’re massively popular in the wake of the Zed-boom over there. Plenty of Zs and KZs have been reimported to satisfy the market over there, and Zephyrs satisfy those with a more modest budget looking for the same effect. So Ron’s remains one of few useful points of reference for anyone building one, if you can’t speak Japanese, or throw…

The story so far... Allow a man with zero sense of urgency, and limited skills, to build a lightweight Bandit 12 for some time in 2032 Carbs refurbed, new rubbers on, new clips, all good to go, after a minor rearrangement of the rubbers – there are inner and outer inlets as well as left and right. You knew that. Of course, I put them on incorrectly first time around, before thinking about it and working it out, instead of the usual cursing and blinding, and blaming everyone else except me for my own ineptitude. So that in itself is progress. Now for the rear linkage and shock. First job is to de-gunk the assembly with… good old Gunk. I’m not a massive fan of pressure-washers. They’re great for wrecking wheel bearings and…

Richard Goodwin With a career spanning nearly 40 years, Richard has brought his pro experience into his home workshop Richard Goodwin’s home workshop is a study in maximising space to make the absolute best of what he has. His single garage has been converted with load bearing beams in the ceiling, above which there is a purlin roof to create a space which effectively doubles the floor space for the storage of spares, panels and more. There’s an annex housing part of his bike collection in the back garden too. “Everything that’s been done has all been done by our own hands, that is to say mine and those of my Dad, Ernie, who is now 82. That’s his 2010 Fireblade over there,” says Richard, pointing to an immaculate Honda. “Plus we share…

WHERE TO STAY Ammos Like jazz improv, the elements of this seaside hotel come together in wonderfully clashing harmony: uplifting interiors, great food, punchy cocktails—and good-natured staffers who don’t flinch when a toddler smears tomato sauce on one of the designer chairs—all delivered with a dash of humor and genuine Cretan hospitality. Rooms from about $150; ammoshotel.com Metohi Kindelis Stories of Venetian dukes and Ottoman pashas rustle in the avocado and mango trees of this magnificent 17th-century estate on the outskirts of Chania. Behind the rose-pink walls there’s an organic farm, a family home, and three self-contained guesthouses. Each has a private pool, a garden, and a dining terrace for sampling homegrown produce and delicacies that are replenished daily—figs, persimmons, lychees, and strawberries; nutty graviera cheese; and smoky heather honey. Guesthouses from about $235…

When Indra Nooyi flashes up on my screen for our Zoom interview from her home office in Connecticut, USA, she immediately emits a spark. The kind of spark you’d expect from one of the very first women of colour to lead a Fortune 500 company (the world’s most prosperous organisations). Dressed in a bold, geometric-patterned top, she is a commanding presence and talks with both a rapid-fire energy and a razor-sharp precision. ‘I honestly believe the next few decades are the decades for women,’ she says. ‘But if you want to move up, know that it’s a tough slog. Keep upgrading your skills, take balanced risks and make sure you focus on yourself as much as you focus on the job. If you do those things, you’ll come out ahead.’ It’s a…

It’s a new year, and if you’re looking for a fresh start, you can begin with your iPhone. Just by changing a few settings you can vastly change and improve your overall user experience. Even if you’ve been using your phone for years, these often-overlooked toggles and tweaks can make your iPhone feel brand-new again. 1. SILENCE UNKNOWN CALLERS If it seems like robocalls have increased exponentially over the past year, it’s because they have. Spam callers have gotten more sophisticated and plentiful since the start of the pandemic, and they’re a regular nuisance on our iPhones. But you can put a stop to them without needing to block every number that comes in. In the Phone settings, you’ll find a toggle to silence unknown callers, which will stop your iPhone from…

I’ve been shot at,” says Emily Hikade, explaining life as a counterterrorism case officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. “People would shoot rocket-propelled grenades at your vehicle.” Tasked with collecting information overseas, Hikade, 46, put her life on the line every day. “I’ve been so close to explosions that I’ve been knocked off my feet, where it rings in your ears, and everything goes into slow motion,” she continues. “I was invincible; I felt fearless before I had kids.” Still, she had four boys while serving—Camden, now 15, Beckett, 12, Shaw, 10, and Gable, 7, with her husband, Christopher, 51, also a retired CIA officer—and by 2015 was longing for security and stability. “When you’re home, and you’re safe, that’s when you put on your pajamas,” she says. That idea inspired…

Time and again, we’ve seen excitement build around new technologies—the rail road, electricity, the personal computer, fiber optics, e-commerce. Early investors place risky bets on seemingly oddball ideas. As a few gain traction, the money (and the hype) follows. As a market develops, large investors—venture capitalists, private equity firms, Wall Street—pile in and help scale up technology. A similar dynamic is unfolding today in climate tech. Fifteen years ago, solar power plants and electric cars were marginal players with poor business prospects. But years of successful innovation, iteration, and improvement coupled with a pervasive sense of urgency to deal with climate change have spurred an investment boom. PwC’s State of Climate Tech 2020 report found that in 2013, a mere US$418 million globally was invested by venture capital (VC) firms into…

When we think about energy, we often think about the physical and mental types—the oomph that helps us move through a vinyasa or focus on a task. It's easy to identify when these energies are lagging, and most of the time we know how to replenish or balance them: We eat healthy foods, rest, get out into nature, connect with the people we love, commit to a consistent asana practice, or let go of some questionable habits. But energy is more than what fuels the body or the mind. Many ancient traditions, such as yoga, Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism—plus modern physics—teach that everything in the universe is energy. A table, a computer, and a bicycle are all forms of energy; each one vibrates at a speed that allows you to see,…

I’ll admit, I was pretty skeptical before unboxing the first smartwatch from OnePlus, aptly named the OnePlus Watch. At $159, it’s less than half the price of our Editors’ Choice winner, the Apple Watch Series 6 (which starts at $399). And while it doesn’t work with iPhones, it offers many of the same features as Apple’s market-leading wearable. So far, my skepticism appears to have been unfounded. The OnePlus Watch offers a large color touch screen, built-in GPS, 2GB of storage, a 402mAh battery that promises two weeks of power, and the ability to make and receive calls. It also has plenty of health and fitness features, including support for more than 110 workout types, automatic workout detection for jogging and running, rapid-heart-rate alerts, guided breathing exercises, stress detection, and the…

After releasing the relatively affordable Studio Buds ($149.99) earlier this year, Beats is back with a new pair of noise-cancelling true wireless earphones, the Beats Fit Pro. Aptly named, the focus here is on in-ear fit security, with built-in earfins made of a pliable material that truly helps create a more secure seal in your ear. They’re also armed with active noise cancellation (ANC), and since Beats is owned by Apple, you get the company’s H1 chip, which enables features including Spatial Audio with head tracking, Adaptive EQ, hands-free Siri, and one-touch iOS pairing. The sonic performance is classic Beats, with intense bass, boosted highs, and a scooped-out midrange. The ANC is better than average, with effective low-frequency noise elimination. For the price, there’s plenty to like, but the Beats…

Pocket mice are typically associated with productivity, given their portable, lightweight designs that let you work in an airport, coffee shop, or office. The Razer Orochi V2 offers that same capability, but for gaming. It’s a small, wireless mouse, but with the sensor and software support of a Razer gaming mouse. The Orochi V2 isn’t a full-on replacement for a standard-size gaming mouse, but it’s convenient as a backup input device for your laptop bag. PROS: Lightweight. Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless support. Has HyperSpeed multi-device support. Supports AA and AAA batteries. Dongle storage. CONS: Can’t add a AA and AAA at the same time for max battery life. Small design is still less comfortable than a regular-sized mouse. Lacks RGB lighting. BOTTOM LINE: Featuring a lightweight design and HyperSpeed multi-device wireless support, the…

FOR theorist Renato Renner at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the deadlock between quantum interpretations wasn’t acceptable. He set out to break it with a more sophisticated Schrödinger’s cat-type thought experiment that he devised with his colleague Daniela Frauchiger, originally in 2016. It involves not one, but two “Wigner’s friend” arrangements, in which someone is outside the lab observing whoever is observing the state of the cat. In the first, an experimentalist called Alice waits outside a lab in which her friend is doing a quantum experiment, a kind of coin flip carried out using quantum technology whose outcomes, for the purposes of later maths, are weighted ⅔ one way and ⅓ the other. In parallel, Bob has his eye on a second lab where his friend is…

Join Our Quilt-Along! See page 33 for a weekly schedule and to learn where to share pictures of your progress. #APQQuiltAlong Materials FINISHED QUILT: 59½×70" FINISHED BLOCK: 9" square Yardages and cutting instructions are based on 42" of usable fabric width. Fabrics are from Happy Days collection by Sherri & Chelsi for Moda Fabrics (modafabrics.com). To plan this quilt in a different colorway, use the Coloring Diagram on Pattern Sheet 3. ⁕ 30 matching pairs of 1½×42" strips assorted medium and dark prints in red, coral, chartreuse, navy, gray, and aqua (blocks) ⁕ 30—5" squares assorted medium and dark prints in same red, coral, chartreuse, navy, gray, and aqua as strips (blocks) ⁕ 3¼ yards solid cream (blocks, sashing, inner border) ⁕ 5 matching pairs of 1½×42" strips assorted cream prints (blocks) ⁕ ⅛ yard gray diagonal stripe (sashing) ⁕ ⅞ yard aqua…

Newport Test Labs measured the output voltage of the Marantz SA-12SE as 1.9950 volts from the left channel and 1.9952 volts from the right channel, a very healthy voltage that will be more than sufficient for any ancillary components. As you can see from the closeness of these two voltages, the balance of the left and right channels is exceptionally good, one of the best results I can remember seeing, such that the channel balance is 0.001dB. This would not only be totally imperceptible, but is also well within measurement error limits for this particular test. Channel separation was not quite in the same league, as you can see from the tabulated figures, but all three results (71dB at 16Hz, 81dB at 1kHz and 63dB at 20kHz) are more than required for…

Modern sports tourers are great, but they tend to be hideously expensive, and have one wheel in the adventure market. Some of us just want a big, fast, comfortable machine that’s able to shrug off motorway miles, and make the most of any twisty action we meet along the way. If that’s your bag, and we suspect it is, you could do a lot worse than go for a 1980s sports tourer. They were fast then, and they’re still rapid now, plus they had the comfort bit already nailed. Handling too. In terms of size, grunt, potential and value there’s not much on the market to rival one of these old school all-rounders. But which to choose? Mile-devouring monsters like Yamaha’s FJ1100/1200, Kawasaki’s ZX-10B and Honda’s CBR1000F remain as capable of nailing…

The Speed Triple foreshadowed where biking was going – dynamically, but also rider mindset. That applied to the buying process too. When the 900 and T509 came about, you could still build a sportsbike with the right power, the right spec sheet, and sell it. If you backed racers well enough, and it won WSB/BSB/TT/endurance races, you’d benefit from that, too. Fairly straightforward – fast motorbikes sold well. But, to get anything else off the showroom floor you had to try a bit harder. How? Exceptional ability helped – VFR750s, Pan Europeans weren’t fashionable but were hard to beat for the task in hand, so they sold. Price is always good – Suzuki sold many thousands of technically-average Bandits by selling them for peanuts. The Speed Triple didn’t have either of…

By now it is more than a little self-evident that what I bought in the 1993 ZXR400 was less of a bike to flip and more of a project. Still, this is very much my hole to dig myself out of, and digging away is what I’m doing, although my metaphorical shovel seems as effective as a teaspoon some days. I won’t be making that mistake again; at least not until the next time. There isn’t a huge amount to report this month, hence the concise update. Our magazine deadlines made it impossible to get the panels refinished in time. I have, however, arrived at a hybrid solution to the refinishing of the bodywork, this being a set acquired as an improvement on the worn and cracked originals. Mark Woodward of graphics…

THE PLAN To give a ’90s icon, the ZX-7R, the power and handling to trounce a new Kawasaki H2, with a GSX-R1000 motor… and a turbo. One day. The ZX990 is mechanically ready to run. Electrically, far less so. I can build and modify wiring looms, but it’s a long job that requires no distractions and total concentration. I haven’t built a loom since I became a father to my two sons. That is no coincidence… The ZX990 would stretch my toolkit and understanding of electronics to the limit, as I’ve never delved into a fuel-injected bike, and I don’t have the tools required for some of the stranger connectors – mine will only service the basic latch connectors and terminals familiar to anyone who’s looked under the panels of a Japanese bike. So…

Radicchio and Apple Salad With Mustardy Croutons 8 SERVINGS This assertive salad brings a tangy, bitter, and pungent balance to any celebratory meal. Thinly sliced apples stay bright and crunchy thanks to a gloss of apple cider vinegar, and hearty radicchio resists wilting even when dressed. Almost all of the components can be made at least a day ahead, so all you have to worry about before serving it is…everything else. 1 medium leek, trimmed, thinly sliced⅓ cup (or more) plus 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil¼ cup chopped parsley, plus leaves for serving3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard, divided2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 tsp. Morton kosher salt, divided, plus more Freshly ground black pepper6 oz. stale country-style bread, torn into 1½" pieces2 small apples (such as Honeycrisp or Fuji), cored, thinly sliced1 Tbsp.…

My privy at the cabin is almost finished. The four corner posts stand firmly in the ground, the door and window are in place, the shingles are securely on the wall, the rainwater runs off the covering that I’ve laid on the roof, just as it should, and the first branches in the juniper wattle have turned orange – just as they should. The first thing I have to do when I get to my cabin is fire up the black wood-burner in the kitchen. The old timber walls always take a while to heat up. I soon start to understand what people mean when they say you need to know your burner. I realise that I don’t need to be so wary of the half-burned logs that are left there…

Over the past year, I’ve realised simultaneously how lucky I am: my lockdown life remained pretty much the same as my ‘normal’ life (working from home, taking the dog for a walk, watching TV, bed), and also, how incredibly boring I am. Man, if you’d told 16-year-old me that, by the age of 46, the most exciting moment of every day would be getting into bed at 9.30pm, turning the electric blanket on and watching Come Dine With Me, I would probably have divorced my Future Self. Imagine being a proper grown-up, with total freedom, and not spending every night at a gig, or a ball, or a ‘happening’! What a waste of a life! What’s the point of growing up if you’re going to go to bed early, like…

Most of us feel anxious or depressed at some point. For many, mental health is an everyday struggle. We are used to this being how things are; we accept it and think of it as normal. But perhaps it isn’t. Perhaps there’s something fundamentally wrong with how we live, which is affecting our mental health and our physical health, too. This is the radical theory of Gabor Maté, an original thinker and wise man for our times. Born in Budapest, Maté is a Hungarian-Canadian physician whose groundbreaking work across four decades has focused on improving the human condition. Working as a GP in the 1980s, Maté invented a way of conducting therapy, called Compassionate Inquiry, that’s now used worldwide. His global bestsellers broke new ground on addiction, bringing up children and how…