Amazon has released a new ad for its Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, in which a noticeably British voice talks about the iPad Air, while an American one counters with claims about the Kindle. It’s widely believed the British voice is Amazon making fun of Apple’s most famous English employee, Sir Jonathan Ive.

First, the iPad Air is held up and ...

In Australia, appellations of the colour Black usually denote something awful – particularly catastrophic bushfire events. Black Saturday was the most recent of these, when 173 people died in Victoria on 7 February 2009.

And Black Friday refers to the devastating bushfires that claimed the lives of 71 people in the same state in 1939. Other events that use that title also have distressing connotations – there’s the 1881 Eyemouth Black Friday disaster in which 189 fishermen died. The Black Friday of 1910 referred to a women’s suffrage event when out of 300 protesting women at the UK’s Houses ...

Over the last few years, multiple reports have surfaced regarding the abuse of labour rights in major Apple suppliers in China. Both Foxconn (also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Pegatron have come under fire for abuses of workers’ rights.

In July, the CLW (China Labour Watch) organisation released a report citing no fewer than 86 labour rights violations at the latter facility, including “dispatch labour abuse, hiring discrimination, women’s ...

$129.95 / Leap Motion
PROS: Hands-free control of your Mac
CONS: Struggles under artificial light
RATING: 3/5

The Leap Motion is a tiny USB sensor which sits on your desk, either in front your keyboard or between the keyboard and the monitor. Armed with several cameras and infrared sensors, it tracks your hands as you wave them in front of the screen – letting you control your Mac with a flick of your wrist and even manipulate objects on the screen with both ...

$1599 / Epson
PROS: Bright; portable
CONS: No battery; no audio line-out
RATING: 4.5/5


Small enough to slide into your bag but bright enough to pack a punch, Epson’s EB-1776W is designed for road warriors looking to make a good impression.

Weighing in at 1.7kg, with a slim-line design, the 1776W has the footprint of an A4 sheet of paper and is only 44mm thick. It slips easily into a travel satchel even once you allow for ...

Sound & Image.
$259
PROS: Excellent audio for the size; well-built; great for travellers
CONS: None – even the price is good
RATING: 5/5

After a number of delays, the foxL DASH7 is available in Australia. This is great news, as we've been big fans of previous Bluetooth speakers from Soundmatters.

The DASH7 is similar to the v2 Series speakers in many aspects, but differs from them in one big way – it’s flat ...

Over a decade, we’ve moved from podcasting being an alternative to radio into it being a commercial broadcast medium. ANTHONY CARUANA looks at four of the best microphones on the market.

Zoom H2n

$329 / Zoom
PROS: Many recording options
CONS: Complex menu system
RATING: 4 / 5

Zoom’s recorders have become one of the most popular portable recording devices around. If you plan to carry out interviews outside a studio or conduct your podcast from random locations then the H2n is great option.

The H2n looks like modernised version of an old-school radio station microphone. But under that exterior is some very sophisticated hardware.

There are five microphones that can record in stereo, surround, or variable mid-side in a radius of anywhere from 30 to 150 degrees. That makes it ideal for almost any recording situation.

We’ve used it ...

Just Mobile

PROS: Great design; cable slots; solid, durable feel

CONS: Limited to one angle

$29.95 + shipping

4.5 mice



We spend a large percentage of our working days sitting at a desk and our iPhones reside on whichever surface, magazine or stack of papers that was closest at the time.

A stand for our iPhones seemed a little unnecessary. But since we received a red AluCup from Just Mobile, we wished we ...

Tucked away in Sydney’s inner western suburb of Lilyfield is a quite surprising, exciting house, almost certainly not like its surrounding renovated workers’ cottages and reinterpreted light industrial. Once a furniture store, the building has since reinvented itself as a family home, replete with all mod cons – in the truest sense of the term. In early October it was the venue for an open-house style ...