WhatsApp Video!

WhatsApp has hit iMessage with a massive punch and added video calling to their app for FREE.

First they started with regular old instant message, then group message, most recently they added voice calling to their ranks and now they’ve probably put the nail in iMessage’s coffin with Video Calling.

No more green messages! Yay!

 

Click here to download WhatsApp Apple / Android

Click here to listen to the guys talking about WhatsApp Video on the show!

Snapchat Glasses!

Snapchat has been causing quite the fuss on social media lately and it’s all down to their first piece of physical hardware. Snapchat Glasses. They cost $130 Dollars (Selling for 1000 dollars on ebay) and are only available in pop up ‘stores’ or vending machines which are called ‘Snap Bots’.

There have even been reports of people waiting in line for up to 4 hours in line for these glasses! They are available all around the US however, they aren’t advertised and you have got to scourer your Twitter feed or around the cities or your local area to find them.

The glasses feature a camera with a 115-degree lens, which apparently mimics how we as human’s actually see. When you record footage (connect the glasses via bluetooth to your android or iOS device) the video is shot in circular video. However when you view the footage in the Snapchat app and not on your video/photos app the video then fills the screen, if you rotate the device too you get a super clean and smooth transition, thus allowing you to see more of the image.

The battery lasts about a day or 100 video snaps so it depends on how much you shoot really. You’ll want to keep a hold of the case which holds 4 charges itself, so you can get theoretically around 400 snaps per charge cycle (4 charges)

Click here to download Snapchat! Apple / Android

Click here to listen to the guys talk about Snapchat glasses!

Amazon’s Luxurious 1 Hour Delivery!

Wines from Spirited wines and health and beauty products from John Bell and Croyden will be available to you within an hour (in selected London Postcodes) from Amazon! By joining forces with these companies Amazon will be expanding it’s product offering by approximately 47 percent. 

If you are a Prime Now customer you can browse Amazon like normal or you can visit special John Bell & Croyden or Spirited Wines stores which will add the things you wish to buy to a separate shopping basket. You do however have to spend a minimum of £20 before the 1hr delivery becomes available. If you cannot wait and have to have your goods super quick 1 hour delivery slots will cost you £6.99 but if you can wait a little longer 2 hour delivery slots will not cost a single penny!

That’s not all either! Amazin are now going to offer one hour delivery (priced at the same as luxury goods) from Morrisons to selected London or Hertfordshire postcodes! Amazons link with Morrisons began back in June however this latest agreement between the retail giants expands the ranges that are available to customers.

Click here to listen to the guys talking about Amazon’s super quick delivery!

Pax 2 vaporizer review

The future of smoking (?)

Basic Universal Income

Firstly what is a Basic Universal Income?

BASIC UNIVERSAL INCOME: Basically everyone in a country will receive state funded “wages” with everyone receiving the same amount of money each month in addition to any other form of income received from other avenues.

Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and the hyperloop amongst other really cool things, thinks we’ll eventually need a basic universal income because of “automation.” Automation being the theory that eventually all of our jobs will be taken up by Robots, leading to a loss of jobs for humans. How would human’s live without jobs? This is where Elon’s theory of Basic Universal Income (by way of Robots and job loss) comes into play.

There are a lot of benefits to a basic universal income. Speaking to CNBC Elon states that we will have a lot more time to do more “complex things and more interesting things” One of the most notable benefits being a lot more leisure time! (Plus it allows us to show you more ways to kill time!) But Elon did send out a small warning to anyone thinking that we are about to lose our jobs to those pesky robots, he states that we have got to “Figure out how we integrate with a world and a future with vast A.I….. there has to be some improved symbiosis with digital super intelligence,” He’s not wrong! We’ve seen Terminator! 

However on the flip side there is an incredible amount of benefits to the idea of basic universal income, everyone would essentially receive enough income to survive without working and we’d all live happier lives due to the less stress that we would be under. Plus the threat of homelessness and poverty levels would decrease causing an increase in the health of a countries economy.

So maybe robots taking our jobs aren’t such a bad thing after all……..

Click here to here the guys talking about basic universal income on the show!

Cornerstone Razors – A better way to shave?

We were recently received a Cornerstone Razor at the office. And we wanted to see if this razor on demand service lived up to all the hype. Read more

iKettle 2.0!

We here at How To Kill An Hour didn’t think that the act of boiling a cup of tea needed revolutionising, or that the kettle could be any more technologically advanced than it already is.

But we were WRONG!

We have been introduced to the iKettle 2.0 by Smarter and it is simply amazing! Who knew the simple act of boiling a kettle could be so much fun! Basically it’s a Kettle which has a WiFi connection in it. But that WiFi connection opens up a whole heap of features such as:

Remote Boil: Instead of hanging around in the kitchen waiting for what seems like a 1000 years you can set your kettle to boil over wifi and have it ready for you when you get in! Or you can request for it to be boiled from another room in the house. How cool is that?!

Wake Up Mode: Set your iKettle to boil as soon as you wake up, thus saving you from being late to work for the 3rd time this week!

Temperature Setting: You are able to set the kettle to boil within a single degree. That way you can create the perfect green tea or black tea if that takes your fancy. Either way it will make for a better tasting tea as it hasn’t been over-boiled!

Water Sensor: Can see how much water is in the kettle all from the app, so you got no excuses for having people left out.

Warmer for Longer: The Kettle is able to keep your water for longer, long after it has been boiled!

Cooling: Cool the water to just the right temperature, perfect for those who like their brews at just the right temperature or for those with babies who require very specific temperatures for their food and milk!

 

A lot of the features that the iKettle 2.0 has is not on the kettle physically but rather in the complimentary smarter app. It’s very simple and a single setting can be changed with a simple touch of a button, for example setting the kettle to boil at any temperature! The center dial giving complete control with a simple two touch experience.

To buy your own iKettle 2.0 by Smarter please click here! 

To download the Smarter app please click here: Apple / Android

To listen to the guys discussing the iKettle 2.0 please click here! 

 

 

 

Philips Hue Smart Bulbs

Nick Bright on the show introduced us to some ‘Smart Bulbs’ called Philips Hue and they are quite impressive!

The lights allow you to choose from 16million colours in the complimentary hue app to allow you to set the light to match your mood. The bulbs themselves have been improved with deeper green, cyan, and blues for even better scene setting. You can even use a photo and set the bulbs to colour that particular photo! The bulbs are even compatible with iOS’s HomeKit technology, ask Siri to turn on or dim the lights! You can even save your favourite light settings and recall them whenever with a touch of a button.

You can extend your TV Viewing experience to sync with your favourite show or favourite music to flicker to the beat! Can even control the lights away from the house! Remotely check if you have left the lights on, you can even and check out how cool this is, by using geofencing technology you can set the lights to turn on as soon as you walk through the door after work! Not only that you can wake up naturally with your Philips Hue Smart Bulbs and have the bulbs increase with intensity to reflect the sunrise or vice versa and have it dim slowly to reflect a sundown.

To buy your own Philips Hue Smart Bulbs please click here! 

To listen to the guys discussing the Philips Hue Smart Bulbs please click here! 

Roli Blocks

Marcus recently went to a Roli event to check out their latest product: Blocks. Basically for all the music producers out there it’s a modular music studio that lets anyone create music as it is so simple to use!

It lets you easily make music whether your a beginner or a seasoned pro through intuitive gestures on a small touch sensitive gesture pad you can connect multiple blocks to one another and with the FREE NOISE app by Roli (available on the app store) start to make music quickly and easily.

They suggest to start off with the ‘Lightpad Block’ which is the center of the BLOCKS system. You make music by making natural movements on the pad, drop melodies and beats by striking, gliding and pressing your fingers on the surface while the illuminated grids help you find notes. While the Light Trails guide you through making music via musical gestures quickly!

Check below for a video on BLOCKS

 

 

 

To find out more about Roli Blocks please click here! 

To hear the guys talking about Roli Blocks please click here!

The New Macbook Pro

The new Macbook Pro’s are here and they’re better than ever and they look so cool for one!

They’re obviously much more powerful than previous models, they’re much thinner and lighter and not to mention the screen has had a massive upgrade too! Now more brighter and colourful allowing you to work and view media gloriously!

But what is getting everyone talking is this new touch bar, a multi-touch enabled strip of glass that is fully customisable and changes depending on what app you’re using.  They replace the function keys along the top strip of the keyboard and become something that is much more versatile than regular old function keys. For example you can have intelligent typing complete with auto-complete and emoji’s like you already have on your phone or on Final Cut Pro X you can scroll through your timeline with the Touch Bar quickly and easily.

 

The keyboard has had a slight upgrade too, becoming shallower than previous generations and is now much more responsive with a Force Touch trackpad which is now 2 times larger than before.

The Macbook Pro comes in 3 different formats:

13 inch Macbook Pro (with no touch bar)

13 Inch Macbook Pro

15 Inch Macbook Pro

For more information please click here!

To listen to the guys talking about the Macbook Pro please click here!