Win a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones

Currys PC World have teamed up with Pocket-lint to offer readers the chance to win a pair of amazing noise-cancelling Bose Headphones. The headphones are a wireless, noise cancelling comfort headset with microphone, remote and volume control included. 

With fold-flat earcup, adjustable headband, Bluetooth connectivity and compatible for all smart devices, these headphones are perfect for those long Christmas & New Year journeys, when all you need is music to get you through the miles.

• Bose QuietComfort 35 review: The perfect travel companion

To win these incredible headphones, you have to answer the simple question below before midnight on the 21 December 2016 (GMT). We will announce the winner before Christmas so you can spread the good news on Christmas Day. 

Good luck!

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OnePlus may skip 4th generation due to Chinese superstition

OnePlus knows a thing or two when it comes to producing a real flagship competitor phone for a fraction of the price. The OnePlus 3T was released in November 2016 with a couple of internal upgrades to cement itself as the best mid-price phone available to buy.

• OnePlus 3T review: The best mid-price phone money can buy

But now that’s been released, people are already looking forward to the next version, the OnePlus 4. Only, it might not be called the OnePlus 4 but the OnePlus 5 instead and it’s all because of Chinese superstition.

The number 4 is often avoided in China as its pronunciation is very close to the word ‘death’, which can obviously be seen as bad luck for many. Most Chinese high-rise buildings even go to the extent of omitting floors 4th, 14th and so on, because of the connection.

When the phones OnePlus produces are so good, we’re happy to go along. The 5 will no doubt want to retain its status as a true flagship killer and so is expected to feature the very latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, paired with 6GB of RAM.

Fingers are also pointing to a possible ceramic build, similar to that seen one the OnePlus X. Some analysts suggest the entire phone could be made of a ceramic material, but it’s more plausible to assume it will just be the rear panel.

As for a release date, it’s safe to assume we can expect to see the OnePlus 5 around summer 2017 to coincide with previous launches. It would be good to see it keep a similar price to the OnePlus 3T too, which commands a respectable and affordable £399 price tag.

As ever with rumours, we have to take them with a pinch of salt, but we’ll bring all the latest news surrounding the OnePlus 4 or 5 as and when we hear it.

The Morning After: Monday December 12, 2016

Welcome to the start of the week!

As we all struggle into the office, catch up on Nintendo’s theme park schemes, how three elderly British dudes are responsible for the most pirated show ever, and the slow death of China’s wacky bus of the future.

Anything Nike can do…
Inside Adidas’ new tech-infused store in New York City

Not to be outdone by its rival, Adidas has opened a new flagship store in New York City. And, just like Nike, the German company packed the space with loads of technology. Inside you’ll find a virtual-reality experience and a wearable system designed to help you find the best running shoe. We took a tour / went shopping.

The first of three Nintendo park attractions
Nintendo’s debut theme park will join Universal Studios Japan

The Super Nintendo World park attraction will form a part of Universal Studios Japan in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with similar attractions coming later to Hollywood and Orlando in the US. Nintendo first revealed news of the attractions last year, and It now has more details, saying the park attraction will have “state-of-the-art rides, interactive areas, shops and restaurants, all featuring Nintendo’s most popular characters and games.” All very theme park-esque.

Who said ‘Game of Thrones’?
Amazon’s ‘Grand Tour’ is the most pirated show ever

Amazon’s Grand Tour, an auto show featuring the reheated stars of the BBC’s Top Gear, has been an unmitigated success with fans,with its first episode garnering “millions” of views. It’s also a hit with pirates who, instead of paying the annual $100 fee for Amazon Prime, have downloaded the first three episodes at unprecedented rates. According to data published by the Mail on Sunday, pirates illicitly downloaded the first episode 7.9 million times, the second episode 6.4 million times and the third 4.6 million times. A lion’s share of the downloads (13.7 percent) came from the UK.

The test site has been abandoned for months
China’s elevated bus prototype gathers dust

You might recall China’s wacky Transit Elevated Bus which promised to carry passengers over traffic? Well, according to China News, the 22-meter-long prototype unveiled in early August has been collecting dust in its hangar for well over two months. The company has indeed been facing “significant” financial issues since mid-November, and its sole investor, a Beijing wealth management company, has refused to provide further cash.

But wait, there’s more…

• This Parisian cinema chain lets you test out VR for around $25
• Researchers digitally reconstruct the face of a legendary Scottish king
• Nanotechnology discovery could lead to low-power night vision

Jabra Elite Sport review: These are the AirPods you really want

We’ve had Bluetooth headphones for what seems like an age now, but completely wireless earphones with no adjoining wire are a relatively new technology.

While brands like Motorola and Bragi released versions much earlier this year, it’s fair to say that Apple’s AirPods brought some much needed attention to the product category.

Jabra, a company known primarily for Bluetooth accessories, has arguably perfected this technology with its Elite Sport headphones, plus added a few nifty features of its own.

Are these the best wireless earphones going?

Jabra Elite Sport review: Design

Unlike their Apple-branded competition, the Elite Sport by Jabra are not a one-size-fits-all solution. As well as offering different eartip inserts in various sizes and two different material finishes (foam and silicon), you also get three different sized fins for holding the units in your ear.

The tips are very easy to switch, as are the fins. However, the silicone material which wraps around the earphones to fix the fins in place is so slim that it’s easy to see it being split if pulled or wrestled a little too firmly. Indeed, one of ours did develop a tiny split the first time we tried to attach it. Thankfully, it didn’t tear all the way across the band, or render itself useless.

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Being sports focused products having a good fit is absolutely vital – especially when you’re wearing earphones that aren’t tethered to each other by any kind of cable or neck strap. If one falls, there’s nothing to stop it from hitting the ground. Or going down the drain.

Impressively, during all of our exercise sessions, the Jabra Elite Sport have stayed in both our ears. Not once have they threatened to come loose. Choosing the right sized eartip and fins certainly helps, but when sized correctly even a vigorous head shake won’t see these earphones become even slightly loose.

The only downside is that being so snug means they can get a little uncomfortable to wear for extended periods. They’re good for an album or two, but more than that starts to test ear endurance.

As well as being snug, the Jabra Elite are also IP67 rated, so should survive even the sweatiest of reps. Important for sports earphones.

The units themselves are a chunky teardrop shape, with golden contact points on their undersides for charging while they’re in the dedicated rectangle carry case, which also doubles as a portable battery pack.

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While inside this pocketable case, the earphones charge until the built-in battery is depleted. LED lights on the front and on the side of the case inform you if the earphones are charged and whether the case itself needs plugging into the wall via micro USB to fill it up again.

On the outside of each earphone there are two buttons. On the right earbud these are used for playing and pausing music, answering calls or activating your phone’s digital assistant. On the left earbud they’re used for adjusting the playback volume and skipping tracks. However, despite the protruding buttons being easy to find, their tiny size means they’re incredibly fiddly to press.

Jabra Elite Sport review: Bassy McBassface

If you like a lot of bass, you’ll be pleased with the Elite Sport. That’s something hard to find in sports earphones.

They offer thumping, droning low tones by the bucket load – but in a way that doesn’t drown out or overly muddy the rest of the frequencies. The mids and high-end still come through well, they just lack the exceptional clarity you might get from more expensive ear/headphones. 

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Despite that, there’s still a lot of detail in the playback. You can easily hear subtleties in the music, whether it be palm-muting guitar strings or brushes stroking the skin of a snare drum. Even though not balanced like an audiophile-grade earphone (and who wants that when running like crazy?) they’re still an enjoyable listen.

If you need, you can choose to have exterior ambient noise pass-through to hear things like cars approaching if you happen to be running along a roadside. Like so many earphones with this technology, the pass-through sound is a little muffled and muted, but comes through loud enough that you can’t miss your audible surroundings. Safety before sound, right?

When looking at earphones designed for sport, audio quality is rarely the most important element. It’s more important that they stay in your ears, never needing any mid-run adjustment. In that term the Jabra Elite fit that bill perfectly. Plus they sound good. 

Jabra Elite Sport review: Fitness tracking app

Like so many other modern wireless earphones, there’s a dedicated app you can download to control various aspects of the Elite Sport. It’s not quite as fully-fledged as a dedicated fitness app, but it can give valuable insights to your body’s health and fitness. 

Because the earphones have a built-in heart-rate monitor, you can set the app to track a run, walk, bike ride or circuit session. It will keep you updated on your distance, speed, cadence and heart rate.

Based on your heart rate the app can tell you – literally, in spoken voice – how intense a particular workout is for you, and can then advise you on how long you should rest before you go for another one.

At various intervals, whether time-based or distance-based, the app gave us a rundown of our pace, distance and heart-rate as well as a score for how intense the run was. If, for instance, our heart rate strayed towards our maximum for most of a long-ish run, it scores between 4.0 and 4.9. 

Once an exercise is finished, the app calculates the distance, pace and intensity score and uses the information to figure out how fit you are compared to the average. It then advises you to leave it a certain number of hours before trying your next workout. 

Because the app can use your phone’s GPS location, its distance detection is relatively accurate. If you want to, you can choose to use the built-in pedometer to estimate distance, and even calibrate it to be more accurate, but it’ll never be as precise as using location tracking.

One disappointment is a familiar one, as found in many other fitness apps: more versatile workouts aren’t supported. So although you can build your own circuits using a variety of exercises, there’s very little for anyone who wants to measure a kettlebell session, for example. The list of available reps you can use to build a circuit or cross-training session is so limited that it’s frustrating. Jabra could and should work on building out the track-able exercises if it wants it to be taken seriously as a sports and fitness app.

Bizarrely, there is no place in the app to manual adjust the headphone equaliser (EQ). You’re stuck with the audio profile given to you by Jabra. Thankfully, some music streaming apps allow you adjust the audio balance.

In short, the Elite Sport app isn’t the perfect fitness tracking app, but there’s a good framework to build on. Apart from monitoring our heart rate, there’s no real benefit to the app except, maybe, for downloading firmware updates to improve the hardware. Stick to Strava and Spotify in our view and you’ll be just fine.

Jabra Elite Sport review: Superior connection

One element we’ve seen fail on some other completely wireless earphones we’ve tried is the wireless connection. With the Jabra, that wasn’t once an issue. They stay connected consistently and, in our testing, have never dropped our or lagged once. That’s thanks mostly to its 10-metre range and wide compatibility.

Impressively, the Elite Sport can be paired to eight different devices too – although only connected to one at a time. When removed from their case, the Elite Sport connect automatically to a paired device, then disconnect when placed in the case to charge. That’s not a bad start to try and take on Apple’s all device auto-connect AirPods concept.

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Disappointingly, however, if the case battery is depleted and the earphones don’t detect any charge, they don’t know they’re inside the case and so remain connected to the phone even when stowed away. 

As for battery life, the Elite Sport seem to live up to Jabra’s claim of three hours listening in the earbuds, with up to nine hours provided in total if you include the backup battery in the carry case. Our unit made it through more than a week of testing before needing charge, with at least an hour of music playing over five days in that time and a couple of runs to track.

The unit takes a couple of hours to recharge the earbuds from zero, and around three hours if you’re charging both earbuds and backup battery.

Verdict

Jabra has shown once again why it has long been regarded as one of the best Bluetooth accessory companies around. The Elite Sport earphones didn’t once drop connection with our iPhone during testing, nor did they drop connection between the two earphones.

What’s more, thanks to the interchangeable tips and fins, the earbuds stay fixed in the ears. In our testing they didn’t once feel like they might fall out, even when rigorously shaken. Take that, Apple.

Sound quality may not be up to audiophile standards, but then these are exercise headphones. So a little blast of bass is no surprise. Besides, we think they sound pretty good. And there’s certainly more punch than you’ll get from Apple’s AirPods.

If you’re longing for truly wireless earphones then, despite their £229 price point, Jabra is ahead in this emerging market. They offer a truly reliable and truly wireless experience.

Jabra Elite Sport: Alternatives to consider

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Apple AirPods

• £159

The AirPods are £70 cheaper and super simple to pair with an iPhone. However, they’re not the most snug-fitting earphones around, but they do stay in your ears. The Jabra take it when it comes to audio quality though.

Samsung Gear IconX

Samsung has developed its own earphones called the Gear IconX which – and just like the Jabra Elite Sport – can measure your fitness, track workouts and sync back to the S Health app on most current Android phones. 

Watch first run cinema releases on Apple TV? Steve Jobs predicted it six years ago

Last week, Apple was reported to be in talks with major movie studios to bring first run cinema releases to iTunes, to be rented and watched in the home and on its mobile devices.

Bloomberg claimed that 21st Century Fox, Warner Bros and Universal Pictures were all looking to offer “high-priced” rentals of new movies soon after their theatrical release dates, something that was previously prohibited to preserve box office take.

Apple’s iTunes service was one service said to be under consideration.

This is not a new idea, however. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs touted the idea six years ago. He talked about the possibility of watching a first-run movie during a discussion at the D8 conference in 2010.

“[I] think that there’s going to be a way to watch a first-run movie at home before it comes out on DVD if you’re willing to spend a bunch of money,” he told Walt Mossberg in an on-stage interview.

Apple isn’t the only company looking to offer movies for streaming prior to their DVD and Blu-ray release. Ex-Facebook and Napster director Sean Parker has been working on his The Screening Room project for the best part of 2016. That would provide a dedicated, encrypted media streaming box for around $150 (£120) and first-run movies for around $50 a rental.

It has industry backing, it is said, and is planned to launch in 2017.

Samsung will limit Note 7 battery charge to 30% in the UK

Samsung is doing all it can to persuade customers to return the Note 7.

It’s been two months since Samsung officially terminated the Note 7, but an estimated 10% of devices sold in Europe are yet to be returned to the manufacturer. In a bid to further dissuade customers from using the phone, Samsung announced that it will roll out a software update to all Note 7 devices in the UK that will limit the battery charge to 30%:

As part of our absolute focus on customer safety, from 15th December, all Galaxy Note 7 devices will receive a new battery software update that will limit the maximum charging capacity to 30 percent. This software update is designed to further minimise customer risk and reinforce to customers to replace their device through the Galaxy Note 7 Replacement Programme as soon as possible.

Samsung is taking drastic measures to ensure that it retrieves the remaining Note 7 units in the wild. Note 7 devices in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada are being cut off from accessing cellular and Wi-Fi networks, and Samsung is rolling out an update to U.S. units that will prevent them from charging and connecting to networks, eliminating their ability “to work as mobile devices.”

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

• Galaxy Note 7 fires, recall and cancellation: Everything you need to know
• Survey results: Samsung users stay loyal after Note 7 recall
• Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
• The latest Galaxy Note 7 news
• Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!

Android Auto app: Bringing connectivity to all cars

Until recently, access to Android Auto was at the whim of car manufacturers or else involved switching out your head unit for a system that would support Google’s in-car platform.

When Google released the Android Auto app for all phones in all cars in November, it changed the Android Auto game, liberating the platform from this prerequisite to be supported by the car. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the new Android Auto experience, which can bring connected features like navigation, calling and music, to any car, old or new.

For more information on Android Auto on your car’s system, read our sister feature on the in-car experience.

Android Auto app: Getting started

The Android Auto app is available to all Android devices and needs to be installed from Google Play, which is quick and easy.

The next thing you need (to be safe) is a mount for your phone. There are loads of options out there, from windscreen suction mounts to vent mounts, some are magnetic, some are clamps, but you can find lots of options for little money in most retailers.

We like the minimalist vent mount like the Mpow grip, and slipping the metal plate inside the phone’s case, but the choice is yours.

Essentially, that’s all you need to get started, as Android Auto will run as a car mode on your phone, without the need to do anything else.

This is a basic setup, but if you’re driving around in an older car with no other connectivity, this is all you need, except perhaps a charger for your phone.

Android Auto app: Car Bluetooth

Many cars come with Bluetooth and that’s what Android Auto is designed to be used with. Once you connect your Android phone to your car’s Bluetooth, you have the option to have Android Auto automatically launch when it connects to your car.

This is a really useful option, because it adds a seamlessness to the experience. You get in your car, attach your phone to the mount, fire up the engine and your phone opens Android Auto, ready to serve you on your drive.

It’s also worth adding your car as a “trusted device” (you’ll get this option on first connection). This means that you won’t have to then unlock your phone when you get in, it will be ready to roll as soon as you start your car.

It’s also worth making sure that your voice is a “trusted voice” in the Ok Google hotword controls. As the Android Auto app supports voice commands for everything, it’s the best way of using the system, so make sure it’s all turned on (open the Google app > Settings > Voice to find all the options you need, including Maps and car support).

What can your car’s Bluetooth do?

In many modern cars, Bluetooth will do everything with an Android phone.

It will allow you to make calls, it can also be used for media playback, letting your car access music on your phone, as well as taking your phone’s audio, so that everything comes through your car’s speakers and you can change the volume on your steering wheel and so on. 

Each car is different, so it will take some investigation to find out what you can and can’t do.

Android Auto and Bluetooth in older cars 

Older cars vary in support for different Bluetooth services and some won’t offer Bluetooth media support. That doesn’t necessarily matter for Android Auto, as you’ll still get navigation on the phone screen and the car will handle calling as normal.

However, for the full experience, you really want all the phone’s audio rooted through your car, which might mean a cable connection, perhaps a 3.5mm connection to an aux input.

There are lots of ways to do this, from something like the Pure Highway 600, which also adds a DAB receiver and separate controls, through to the Anker SoundSync Drive, which basically adds Bluetooth and gives you an aux in connection.

The long and short of it is that older cars will need a little more fiddling around to get everything working, but in most cases there is a simple way to do it.

Android Auto app: Functions and features

The Android Auto app looks the same and behaves the same on your phone as it would on a car’s system. The idea behind Android Auto is to give you the basic things you want when driving and this is how it breaks down. 

Android Auto home screen

This presents big card-like notifications for each section, so you can access things with a tap. It also gives you “recent” activities, like recent destinations you navigated to or recent calls. This means that from home you can go back to those things without having to root around your phone.

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The home screen will also provide playback for messages, which we’ll talk about in a second.

You also get icons to tap into music, calls or navigation.

Android Auto messaging and calling 

Android Auto supports messaging, from services like WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook, but in a way that’s safe for driving. That means you can’t read the text, instead it will read them to you.

When a message arrives a ping and a big shade will drop down giving you the option to listen to the message or mute it. You can also reply with a standard message (“I’m driving right now” is the default) and mute messaging services.

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Those messages will sit on the Android Auto home screen so that you can return to them later. Amusingly, emoji are spoken and once your friends know this, they’ll send you all sorts of rubbish. 

The best part, of course, is that you get Google’s voice recognition and this really is a step above most other systems that will attempt to listen to your voice and form a message. Replying or sending new messages is as simple as saying “OK Google”.

The same applies to calling, you can control everything via voice and this is a lot better than most in-car systems. There’s a tab for calling, so you can access recent calls with a tap, as well as voicemail and get a bigger dialpad for making calls.

It’s a little surprising that Android Auto doesn’t offer your “favourites” as a hit list, but in reality, voice control is by far the easiest way to trigger calls. 

Android Auto music

Music is pretty well supported by Android Auto, supporting a number of different apps and services, like Spotify and Google Play. You essentially get the option to pick your service and then when you talk to Google, it will play from that service.

This is where you really need a connection to the rest of your car, as playing through the phone’s speakers doesn’t really cut it.

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The interface lets you skip tracks or pause with a tap or head into playlists. Both Play Music and Spotify give you music to find with a few taps, but one thing you can’t really manage is relative volumes – you can’t adjust the music volume in relation to the navigation volume, so things can get a little disjointed as the music dips to let you hear navigation commands. 

Android Auto and Google navigation

For many, navigation will be the big sell of Android Auto, with the familiarity of Google Maps. While many in-car satnav systems will still cost you on the options list, Google Maps is free, apart from the data costs.

Google Maps navigation has been getting better. The mapping itself is good, but the real star is the close tie to Google’s search: “Ok Google, navigate me to the vet in Weybridge” is something that other systems won’t do and Google is much better at finding up-to-date locations, especially for businesses.

Navigation is clear with sensible map features and the voice commands are good. You don’t get the full run of features like lane guidance, but you do get traffic. This gives some scope for route selection and fairly accurate times. In many ways, Google Maps navigation is better than many of the in-car systems you’d have to pay for and certainly finding your destination is easier. 

The navigation experience isn’t as good as TomTom’s best, especially when it comes to route planning and the live handling of traffic, but you’re saving yourself a hefty initial outlay. Just bear in mind that you’ll likely be using data for mapping. 

Android Auto app: Conclusions

Giving all these connected car functions to your phone, rather than needing them to be displayed on a car’s screen, makes them a lot more accessible to a wider range of users. If you have an Android phone, you basically have a smart car experience too. 

For anyone in an older car, there’s likely to be a way that you can quickly and easily add the connectivity you’d need to your car for a seamless experience and even if you can’t, your smartphone can offer you an excellent in-car companion. 

Importantly, Android Auto is simple and the excellent support for voice control means you don’t have to touch your phone to do anything. If that saves people from fiddling with their phone when driving, then it’s a very good thing.

Lexus has turned a car into a giant LED lightshow

Thought having LED headlights was cool? Maybe they’re even adaptive to adjust to oncoming conditions. Lexus laughs in the face of your puny headlights and has decided to cover one of its IS cars in 41,999 LEDs instead. We’re not quite sure why one more couldn’t be fitted to round the number up to an even 42,000, though.

Lexus created the LIT IS car for a music video for British singer-songwriter Dua Lipa’s latest music video for ‘Be The One’, but there’s a lot more to it than just looking cool on screen.

The LED strips have three modes, the first can respond to gestures from the driver, a second can react the any music being played, to act as a visualiser of sorts, and a third mode can even respond to a connected games console.

It can’t have been easy to fit half a mile’s worth of LEDs to the car, but the strips use 1,209 watts of power to generate 175,000 lumens. A Lexus spokesman said of the LIT IS: “Through this responsive technology and the animations, an expressive car was turned into an actual vehicle for expression” and added it’s been created to be a “character and visual anchor for the Be The One music video”.

The Lexus LIT IS is a one-of-a-kind car and isn’t available to buy, but we can’t help but think LEDs could one day be adopted on a smaller scale for the likes of advertising.

Of course, it’s not the first time we’ve seen a bespoke car designed for a musician, as Nissan kindly gifted deadmau5 with a GTR wrapped in a Nyan Cat vinyl after Ferrari demanded he remove the wrap from his ‘Purrari’.