Diving into the Deep Web

With all of the recent advancements in technology, including the ability for anyone to know what is going on around the world with just a few keystrokes or finger swipes, it is amazing that anything can be a mystery anymore. When I was young, you had to rely on the newspaper, nightly news programs on the TV or radio, or books and magazines. Encyclopedias were the old-school version of the Internet, but you had to know what to look for. Now Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and endless other social media and Internet search tools allow you to get any information you need when you need it. You don’t even have to know exactly what you are looking for to get more information on a topic than you could read through in a year. Simply plug a few keywords into your favorite Internet search engine and you will be on your way to a subject matter expert in minutes.

LaCie Mirror

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the shiniest hard drive of them all?

Hard disks are never the most exciting devices, but LaCie works hard to come up with unusual designs that make their hard drives a bit more interesting. In the past they’ve produced hard drives that look like silvery spheres and metallic sculptures, and now they’ve come up with the eye-catching Mirror.

It’s entirely covered on all sides with gleaming, reflective glass and is relatively chunky when compared to some of the latest portable drives. However, it only weighs 230g, so it’s still slim and light enough to slip into a backpack with no trouble at all.

Logitech UE MegaBoom

A sturdy new Bluetooth speaker that turns everything up to 11

Logitech’s little Boom speaker got good reviews a couple of years ago. As the name suggests, the MegaBoom (from Logitech’s Ultimate Ears range) sticks with the cylindrical design of the Boom but makes everything bigger and louder.

It’s larger than its predecessor, but you can still fit it into a backpack without giving yourself a hernia. The MegaBoom is also very sturdy and can cope with being dropped in water up to a metre deep. It uses Bluetooth for streaming, but there’s a 3.5mm connector on the base, along with a micro-USB port for charging.

Sennheiser Momentum 2

Portability without compromise on sound or build quality

Now that the smartphone is ubiquitous and you always have your music library with you, headphones have moved from afterthought to big business.

The advantage of using bigger cans rather than earbuds is that, in general, they offer a more accurate and detailed sound reproduction thanks to their far larger diaphragms. A larger surface area means fewer compromises and tricks are required to generate a solid bass end. They’re also arguably less damaging to your hearing as they don’t fire sound right into your ear canals. Sennheiser has an excellent track record both in the pro and consumer audio worlds, and makes a wide range of headphones to suit different budgets.

The wheels of change

Cloaked in mystery, Apple’s biggest secret project could be something no one expected – a driverless electric car.

Things certainly move fast in the world of Apple rumours.

When the first murmurings surfaced in early February that Apple was secretly working on new automotive technology, many commentators quickly dismissed it as some sort of unannounced CarPlay innovation, an improvement of Apple Maps or battery life research.

Then news emerged of Apple poaching Tesla employees by the bucketload – Tesla employees specialising in fields like mechanics and manufacturing, specifically. Mysterious Apple vans loaded with cameras started appearing on the streets of California, New York and Hawaii. Initial cautious scepticism began turning into fevered excitement – surely Apple couldn’t really be working on a car... could it?