Japan reopens after two years: Time for that trip of a lifetime luxury travel After two years of closure to tourists, Japan will welcome visitors from 10 June. Steve Hogarty takes a trip from Osaka into the ancient Japanese countryside. Osaka’s main entertainment district, Dotonbori is a kind of psychedelic, neon circus. Brilliant, colourful lights bounce off the glass-fronted buildings, and below they transform the surface of the canal [...]
The Long Weekend: Schnitzels and schmetterlings in Vienna Sunday read The weekend: The schmetterlinghaus in Vienna is almost unbearably hot in August, the high summer sun transforming the humid confines of this tropical greenhouse into a veritable sauna. The schmetterlings seem to love it, flitting between the wet vines in a kaleidoscopic display which, combined with the sweltering heat, can make you feel delirious, as [...]
The best of travel: Anguilla is the epitome of tropical fun times To tide us over until we’re able to travel again, we’re republishing classic travel stories from our archives. This week we revisit Steve Hogarty’s trip to an island paradise in Anguilla. ••• Far out in the well charted waters of the east Caribbean lies the Leeward Island chain, and at its northern tip is an [...]
Google Pixel 5 review: Google storms into the 5G race with a low-cost flagship to rival Apple October 14, 2020 Seems like Google really took criticism of the Pixel 4’s short battery life to heart. The new flagship, 5G enabled Pixel 5 is the longest lasting phone I’ve used since my old Nokia 3310. Like some demented Duracell bunny, it simply refuses to die. Even during my honeymoon period with the phone, when I’m playing [...]
Google Nest Audio review: Google’s smart speaker gets a much needed audio boost October 13, 2020 The Google Nest Audio replaces Google’s existing mid-sized smart speaker, 2016’s Google Home. Whereas the previous device prioritised looks over performance, resembling an futuristic reed diffuser that could be placed anywhere around the home without appearing too conspicuous, the Google Nest Audio is unashamedly a speaker with an uncompromising focus on sound quality. That’s not [...]
Animal Crossing: New Horizons review: Sedate island escapism never felt so necessary March 27, 2020 Having had the enviable job of writing about video games for most of my adult life, there’s still one question I struggle to articulate a satisfying answer to: what do you actually do in Animal Crossing? Nintendo’s sedate island life simulator doesn’t have a real objective. You have a mortgage to pay down but your [...]
Onward review: A magical tale of brotherly love, this is Pixar at its most uplifting March 5, 2020 Pixar’s latest does what Pixar does best. With just a few choice lines of dialogue and a handful of scenes it outlines a rich and vibrant world, rendered with such delicate artistry it’s hard to imagine that each frame was spat out of an unfeeling graphics processor. In keeping with Pixar’s recent slew of gut-punchers [...]
Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box review: Transforms your living room into an immersive light show March 5, 2020 The Hue Sync Box synchronises your Hue smart bulbs to your television, changing the colour and intensity of individual lights in the room based on what’s happening on the screen. On paper that might sound like a gimmick, but in practice the effect is unexpectedly mesmerising. The box sits between up to four HDMI-enabled media [...]
Logitech StreamCam review: A smart webcam for content creators and collaborators March 5, 2020 As fears of a global pandemic begin to tighten their grip on the capital, more and more businesses are requesting that their employees work remotely, rather than slither into the office to spread disease with their grubby little paws and miasma-spluttering faces. The outbreak has even prompted Google and Microsoft to temporarily grant free access [...]
Office Space: Take a look behind the scenes of Amazon’s sprawling, 15-storey London headquarters at Principal Place March 2, 2020 There’s always money in the banana stand. Or at least there would be, were the bananas not being handed out for free. Each morning outside Amazon’s HQ in Shoreditch a fruitmonger dispenses complimentary bananas to Amazon staff, peckish commuters and anybody who cares to take one. The tradition was started by Jeff Bezos himself on [...]
