Author: Stephen Fenech

eBay Australia has taken your shopping experience to an all-new level and partnered with Myer to create the world’s first virtual reality department store which you can explore from the comfort of your own home. To explore the virtual store, an Australian-made world first, you need the new eBay VR app and a VR viewing device You can use the Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard or just get your hands on eBay’s very own Shopticles – that’s short or shopping spectacles, in case you were wondering. When you fire up the eBay VR app on your smartphone and place…

Huawei has announced its latest premium smartphone with a 6-inch display and 16-megapixel camera – and it has a real Aussie flavour because it’s called the Mate 8. Available to purchase on May 24 for $899, the Huawei Mate 8 brings together an impressive set of features starting with the impressive 6-inch full high definition screen which, thanks to the extremely thin bezels on either side, actually feels smaller in your hand. It achieves this with an 85 per cent screen to body ratio – one of the highest in the market. The move to bigger screen devices is certainly…

The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, couldn’t have been a better choice as the debut 4K new release title by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment – it is a visual feast that absolutely showcases the added resolution that 4K offers. Available today on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray along with the Blu-ray and DVD versions, The Revenant is set in the 1820s and tells the story of fur trapper Hugh Glass and his fight for survival and quest for vengeance after he is left for dead in the wilderness. The film rightly won Oscars for director Alejandro Inarritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki…

If you want to hear higher quality music from your iPhone without killing your battery, then you need to take a look at Arcam’s MusicBOOST which combines a digital to analogue (DAC) converter with a battery case. Designed for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S, the MusicBOOST is designed to protect the device in one sleek package while providing battery power, a headphone amplifier and a DAC converter. When the iPhone is plugged into the MusicBOOST, it can fully recharge the device completely with some power left over for a top-up later. And MusicBOOST also offers the protection of a…

It’s Episode 199 of the Tech Guide podcast, hosted by editor Stephen Fenech who talks you through the week’s biggest tech issues, news stories and latest products to keep you updated and educated. On this week’s show, if you already own a 4K TV you might not be able to play 4K discs – we explain why and what you can do about it. Also on the program, ingogo taxi booking platform introduces flat rate fare and we take a look inside The Electric Canvas – the company behind Vivid. In the Tech Guide reviews, we take a look at…

When you plug in a USB cable it’s a 50/50 chance you’ll insert it the right way up. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cable that lets you get it right every time? You can with the new XL reversible cable. And it’s the same battle at the microUSB end with users having to carefully examine the plug to ensure they are connecting it properly. But with the XL fully reversible sync and charge cable you’ve got no such issue at either end. The XL cable is available in microUSB for Android users and a Lightning (which is already…

Taxi booking and payment platform ingogo has introduced a new game-changing feature for the taxi industry that will remove the uncertainty of the experience for passengers – fixed fares. From today, customers will no longer have to keep an eye on the meter and worry about the size of their fare. With ingogo, when you book a taxi from the app and enter all of your trip details, you’ll receive a precise determination of what the fare will be. Once the customer accepts the fare, the taxi is booked and the driver is sent to pick them up. And within…

If you were one of the first people to buy a 4K Ultra High Definition TV we’ve got some bad news for you – your expensive TV might not be able to play the latest 4K discs through a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player. And it’s all because of a copy prevention technology called HDCP 2.2 which is short for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection that is designed to make it impossible for someone to copy the 4K movie. It’s fair enough to say you have bought a 4K TV to watch 4K content and it’s finally here with the first…

If you’re serious about your fitness and you want a GPS sportwatch that can keep up with you, then you should take a look at the new Garmin Forerunner 735XT with wrist-based heart rate. The lightweight multisport watch has a sleek design with soft comfortable silicone bands and a large colour display to easily view your stats in the middle of a rugged training session. The Garmin Forerunner 735XT has 24/7 heart rate monitoring and built-in activities including running, cycling, swimming, multisport, hiking, cross country skiing, strength training, paddle sports and cardio. With the Elevate wrist heart rate technology, the…

The first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs are now in store with JB Hi-Fi among the first stores to display the opening wave of titles. But how much can you expect to pay for these movies with four times the resolution of Blu-ray? At JB Hi-Fi, a new release Blu-ray Disc is usually priced at $29.98 with DVDs at between $19.98 and $24.98. Recommended retail pricing for movies on Blu-ray Disc and DVD is usually determined by individual studios and the same will apply for 4K Ultra HD discs. At JB Hi-Fi, prices for 4K Ultra HD movies were between…

Vivid kicks off on May 27 and Sydney’s historic buildings will once again be the backdrop for the popular festival of light and music. But it takes a lot of hard work to deliver that incredible experience. Tech Guide has taken a look behind the scenes and dropped in to see The Electric Canvas – one of the companies behind the eye-popping projections for Vivid including the spectacular illumination of the iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House. The Electric Canvas is an award-winning company that was established in 1997. The company specialises in projection mapping and it has used…

Episode 254 of the Two Blokes Talking Tech podcast, with Tech Guide editor Stephen Fenech and EFTM’s Trevor Long, to you from Samsung’s launch of its 2016 range of Quantum Dot SUHD TVs. The event was held in a palatial home overlooking Gordon’s Bay and showcased the new curved and flat TVs as well as the latest soundbars and the just released 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player. Also on the show, the Vaya challenge to match any other 4G plan, Huawei’s P9 smartphone with a dual lens camera and Channel 7 goes HD – sort of. The blokes also talk…

LG has been part of a new Guinness Record after a professional card stacker (yes, there is such a thing) built the tallest house of cards – on top of its new Centum washing machine while it was running. Bryan Berg, a Harvard graduate who has been stacking cards since he was eight years old, partnered with LG for the record attempt to build the world’s tallest house of cards. But it came with one condition – it had to be sitting on top of the LG Centum front-loading washing machine while it was spinning at 1,000 RPM. As you…

Samsung has announced pricing and availability for its 2016 range of next generation Quantum Dot TVs, audio products and the first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player released in Australia. The company has done its homework and has studied the viewing habits and preferences of Australian customers and addressed their “pain points” with their new line-up of TVs. “The way Australians experience home television has evolved dramatically in terms of viewing habits and access to on-demand or streaming services,” says Samsung Australia vice president for consumer electronics Carl Rose. “With the arrival of technologies like HDR, and access to 4K Blu-ray…

When Samsung’s impressive Galaxy TabPro S 2-in-1 Windows 10 tablet was launched recently, the wi-fi only version was all you could buy but now 4G LTE version of the device has landed. The Galaxy TabPro S 4G variant is now available and will allow users to be even more mobile without losing their connection to the internet. The device has a 12-inch full high definition Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2160 x 1440. It is just 6.3mm thick and weighs in at 620g. READ TECH GUIDE’S COMPLETE REVIEW OF THE SAMSUNG GALAXY TABPRO S HERE Users have the…

LG’s new DAB+ smartphone is the first smartphone in Australia with an onboard DAB+ digital radio so you can listen for free like a regular radio rather than using lots of data to stream the signal. If you love listening to the radio most of the day and on the move, the the LG Stylus DAB+ could be your next smartphone. It has a large 5.7-inch high definition screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 and is powered by a 1.2Ghz quad core processor. That large screen gives you plenty of room to view webpages or read e-books and…

Want to hear about the latest tech news and reviews while you’re driving or exercising? Then you need to tune in to Episode 198 of the Tech Guide podcast, hosted by editor Stephen Fenech. We can keep you updated and educated so you’ll know exactly what’s happening in the fast moving world of consumer tech. On this week’s show, mobile provider Vaya throws down the challenge to other telcos with a price match guarantee, Huawei launches the new P9 smartphone with a dual lens camera and Samsung’s first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc player has already gone on sale. In…

We’ve got the 4K TVs, we’ve got the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players – and now here come the 4K discs.  The first titles, including The Revenant and Mad Max Fury Road, will be appearing from this week. Samsung’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player is already on sale with Panasonic, LG and Sony players expected later in the year. And 4K Ultra HD TVs are the new standard for customers with four times the resolution of a full high definition TV. Not it’s time to showcase those TVs with content that will use every single pixel on the screen. The…

Jabra’s Halo Fusion has combined the freedom of earphones with the convenience of a neckband so you have access to your music and can easily answer you calls on the move. With regular earphones, they tend to slip off your neck when you’re not listening to them so you’ve either got to have them in your ears or tangled up in your pocket. Not so with the Jabra Halo Fusion. It sits comfortably and firmly in place around your neck and puts your earphones within easy reach. Weighing only 21g, the Halo Fusion Bluetooth earphones have noise isolating earbuds to…

Standing out from the crowd in the competitive smartphone market is tough but LG has managed to do just that with its new G5 device and its interesting modular design. This was the company, after all, that had the courage to put all of its smartphone’s buttons on the rear panel a few years ago. So naturally LG’s bold step for its new flagship – the G5 – was to think outside the square again with an idea that gives users both a unibody phone and a way to access their battery and add modules with an innovative design. But…