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Ten top tech toys to interface with a techie’s Christmas stocking
Gifts for the geek in your life - and that means YOU
Roku 3
Since its UK launch with Netflix, the Roku player has gained a few tweaks and improvements. It’s also been rebadged and subsidised as Sky’s NowTV box. But we reckon that for most people the Roku 2 or Roku 3 is the best bet - the latter adds a faster processor and an Ethernet port. Both include a headphone socket on the remote, which is a neat idea that more firms should adopt, and can pump out 1080p.
Catch-up TV capabilities now include BBC iPlayer and Demand 5, and for a little extra each month you can try out Netflix or Sky’s new NowTV service, which includes access to sports and entertainment channels as well as movies.
The Roku is a great little box, but don’t believe the “450 channels” hype. Outside the big names, you’ll be hard pushed to find great mainstream content.
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Sony PlayStation 4
You wait ages for a new console – and then two come along at once. Feel free to disagree violently with our choice of the PlayStation 4 to go under the Christmas tree, if you’d rather have Microsoft’s Xbox One.
And if no one loves you enough to buy either, that’s just tough. You were adopted anyway.
But we digress. With the PS 4, Sony has delivered a sleek box that comes in at a more affordable price than the competition – and has some cool remote play features, if you’ve also got a PS Vita. The interface has been cleaned up, and most people who’ve seen the game pad love it.
Sure, there are some rough edges, especially in the non-gaming area of media playback, and a lot will depend on which games come out. That’s true of the One too, though. Who wouldn’t fancy a sexy new console this Christmas?
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