Wearable M.D.

Forget just staying in shape. Activity trackers, heart rate monitors, and other wearable fitness devices are about to change medicine and health care as we know it. By Jill Duffy

What if you could buy an over-the-counter genome testing kit, just as you can buy a pregnancy test today, then take it home and know within a matter of minutes whether you’re at risk for cardiac arrest? What if, as a result of taking that test, your doctor prescribed a regimen of diet, exercise, and stress reduction, monitored by your Internet-connected refrigerator, sensor-laden workout clothes, and an fMRI headband that dimmed the lights when it noticed increased brain activity associated with stress? What if you could upload a copy of your brain to a hard drive so that doctors could reinstall your memories if a disease or accident wiped them out?

The death of the web design agency

A few high-profile acquisitions coupled with a downturn in business has led to speculation that we are witnessing the end of an era. Tanya Combrinck asks: is the web design agency dead?

Adaptive Path was acquired by Capital One. Happy Cog shut its office in Austin. Teehan+Lax closed its doors and its founders went to Facebook. In the UK, Mark Boulton Design has been acquired by Monotype. These are leading web design agencies; the stars of our industry. So it’s not surprising that these events have been a shock for the community - especially at a time when the business climate is in a state of flux. Last year was tough. In a recent net interview, former Happy Cog man Greg Storey described 2014 as “apocalyptic” for web design in the US, with many agencies failing to attract the levels of business they’re used to.

Nikon D750

If the D810 is just a bit too much D-SLR for you and the D610 just not quite enough, then the D750 could be just right. Has Nikon built the perfect enthusiast-level D-SLR?

While it's always tempting to think that too much resolution is never enough, there are some practicalities to consider with cameras like Nikon's D810 or the EOS 5DS duo from Canon. Namely that big image files have a variety of logistical implications... they'll slow you down if you don't have sufficient computing power and they take up a lot more space both on your working drives and your storage devices. Yes, the image quality is stunning, but the question to ask yourself is whether you'll really ever be able to take full advantage of it. The honest answer for many non-professional photographers is, probably not. Yet there are lots of other features of the D810 that are worth having, no matter what or why you shoot.

Fujifilm X30

Its predecessors were top of the class in high-end fixed-lens compacts, but there's a bit more competition around now, so how does the X30 stack up?

While interchangeable-lens compacts - such as Panasonic's GM5, for example - have undoubted attractions, there's still something very appealing about the fixed-lens option. Perhaps it's because you don't have to make any choices about lenses. Perhaps it's because it eliminates any problems with dust on the sensor. Perhaps it's simply because it's actually quite fun to try and make one lens work for everything... and you'd be surprised how inventive you can get here.