Top tech of 2014

HERE are a dozen of our favourite personal tech gadgets for the year.

GoPro Hero4 Black Edition sports camera

HERE are a dozen of our favourite personal tech gadgets for the year. They are not only market leaders but also showcase innovation in their field. Many other products are worthy of inclusion on this list, there’s no doubt about that. And the composition of this list will change quickly, with so many new devices in the wings. In the next few months, expect a host of wearables to flood on to the market: think activity monitors and smart watches combined, upgraded drone models equipped with 360-degree photography and longer flight ranges, and smart glasses products that rival Google’s long-awaited Glass. Due for release next year, the Oculus Rift headset will bring you the experience of 360-degree virtual reality a la The Matrix, although there’s a taste of it around now, with the Samsung Galaxy Gear VR due out soon.

GoPro Hero4 Black edition

THE new premium Hero4 Black takes fast action in 4K or ultra high definition, at up to 30 frames per second. It also shoots 1080p full HD at up to 120fps, for smooth slow-motion playback. This new model adds Bluetooth connectivity, so a user can control camera actions with their smartphone. Images can be taken singly or in a burst of 30. It takes interval shots for time-lapse shooting for as long as the battery lasts. GoPro has a huge range of attachments for its camera. They mount on a bike, a helmet or clip-on attachments for use underwater, surfing, skiing or snowboarding. The new Hero 4 uses a battery that’s incompatible with earlier models, which might annoy some people. $679

DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus drone

YOU have to admire a quadcopter that can fly into Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano and capture spectacular high-definition vision of spewing, molten lava. The Vision Plus was hardy enough to survive, even though its camera eventually melted. At this price it’s no toy, and it doesn’t take a separate payload, so it won’t deliver pizza. It’s about great photography, video­graphy and remote ­inspections. It has a range of 700m, which can be boosted to 2km with special antennas, but Australian regulations demand line-of-sight flying in daylight. It’s the best prosumer drone we’ve seen so far, although we’re waiting for Parrot’s new Bebop to arrive in Australia soon. $1359

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

SAMSUNG has oodles of experience making phablet sized smartphones. This is the fourth iteration of the Note series with its big 5.7-inch screen and a drawing device, the S-Pen. It has a beautiful AMOLED QuadHD screen that displays video at twice the resolution of full high definition, and its camera shoots 4K video so you can watch it at increased resolution. The phone has a powerful 2.7 Gigahertz quad core processor and a big 3220 milliampere hour battery that delivers more than 14 hours of HD video playback on one charge. It has a built-in heart monitor and UV radiation monitor, and it will count steps. The Note 4 unlocks using a fingerprint swipe, and apps run in multiple windows with multi-tasking. It’s not water resistant or cheap. But it’s the best phablet phone out this year. $949

LG EG970T curved, OLED, 4K TV

THIS year LG and its rival Samsung have produced outstanding TVs loaded with state-of-the-art features. They include ultra-high definition displays with four times the resolution of the regular 1080p, screens that curve, and new OLED displays with naturally bright and vivid colours. LG’s 77-inch EG970T has all the above, along with LG’s unique webOS operating system. It offers a radically different look for smart TV. Functions are represented as a series of cards along the bottom of the screen. Apps to the right of the cards are “the future” (what you will watch) while the display of recently used apps (“the past”) are to the left of the cards. Cards also can represent connected devices such as set-top boxes. $22,999

Google Chromecast

AT this price, you can’t go wrong with Chromecast. It’s a dongle that you plug into a spare HDMI slot on your old television. It magically transforms that old set into a smart TV to which you can stream vision from smartphones, tablets and computers connected to your home network. For example, you could fire up an app such as YouTube, choose a video or movie, and press a button in the app to stream it to your TV or home theatre system. Installing a Chromecast plugin on a computer’s browser will stream movies on that computer to Chromecast-connected TV. A growing number of apps are Chromecash compatible. It’s incredibly useful and incredibly affordable. $49

Apple iPhone 6

BEFORE the iPhone 6, Apple was losing market share. With the market accustomed to Android phones with larger screens, the 4-inch display on the iPhone 5S was seen as titchy and inadequate. The larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus got Apple out of its market rut. The slim and lightweight iPhone 6 in particular has proven a huge success with more than 20 million sold by early last month. It has a faster A8 processor, a beefed-up co-processor for activity monitoring and now a barometer for counting flights of stairs. The new iPhone has near field communication, which will facilitate payments using Apple Pay once that system arrives in Australia. There’s also Apple Health integration. $869-$1129

Apple Mac Pro

THIS is one of the most original devices we’ve seen from Apple since the iPhone. It may look like a wine cooler, a coffee urn, a vacuum flask or a rubbish bin, but it’s a powerful desktop computer with the electronics attached around the inside of its hollow cylinder. Air flows through the middle of the cylinder, providing cooling and energy efficiency. The question is whether users need a desktop that starts at $3999 and can cost more than $12,000 with all high-end options, and whether users can make use of the computing grunt of what Apple says is its most powerful computer. Its graphics operations are capable of 7 teraflops (seven thousand billion floating point operations per second) in a small form factor. From $3999

Microsoft Surface 3 Pro

MICROSOFT’S Surface Pro tablet is up to its third iteration — and it has a strong, loyal following in the market. The Surface 3 Pro runs Windows 8.1 Pro, has a 12-inch screen, a fourth-generation Core i3, i5 or i7 processor, and a battery that Microsoft says delivers the user nine hours of browsing. Microsoft touts the Surface Pro range as the tablet that can replace your laptop. It has an optional Type Cover keyboard as well as Microsoft’s signature kickstand, which props up the device. The Surface 3 Pro has a single USB3 port and Mini DisplayPort. If you are after more connectivity, you can buy a docking station for $230. Keyboards are extra.

From $979

Sony PlayStation 4

THE futuristic-looking PlayStation 4 gaming console has been on sale for almost 12 months and has proved to be a runaway market success. It has all the modern connectivity needed for local and network gaming: a Blu-ray drive, two USB3.0 ports, HDMI out for connecting to an external screen and a gigabit Ethernet connector for fast internet connectivity. There’s a port for an optional PlayStation camera and optical audio connector, and it has 500GB of disk storage that can be upgraded. PlayStation 4 is about gaming with friends across the internet and sharing on social media. In addition to gaming, Sony has pay-for-music and movie services on offer, and the PS4 pushes these at you. $549

LG G Watch R

LG’s G Watch R is a robust, round smart watch that could easily be mistaken for a stylish analog timepiece. It looks good and at just 62g is light to wear. The Android Wear device uses Bluetooth to link to an Android smartphone. In addition to displaying phone notifications, the G watch R measures your exercise activities, takes voice dictation and controls music playback. It has a bright P-OLED 1.3-inch screen and sports a snappy 1.2 Gigabyte processor. Its on-board sensors include a heart rate monitor, a compass and a barometer, and the watch has no less than 24 default clock faces to choose from. The battery life is good, easily lasting more than one day of moderate use before needing to be recharged. $359

Samsung Galaxy Gear VR

THE world of 360-degree virtual reality, whereby you are totally immersed in an alternative world, is about to explode on to the consumer market. There are several devices on the drawing board that will offer it, but the Gear VR will be the first in the mass market. When you put on the visor-like gear, you’ll see a world that you’ll feel part of. You can look left, right, up, down and even turn your head to see what’s behind you. Samsung recently demonstrated the Gear VR, which uses technology developed by Oculus VR. The Oculus Rift headset is due for release next year. The Gear VR works in conjunction with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 phone, which you insert in the VR headset. $249

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

THIS camera is designed not to miss a moment. Canon’s 7D Mark II supersedes the 7D and offers high-speed continuous shooting in RAW and JPG formats at up to 10 frames per second and at 20.2 megapixels resolution. Its 65-point autofocus delivers sharp images, even when engaged in rapid shooting, while two DIG! C 6 Canon processors offer fast image processing speeds. Canon says the DIG! 6 is its fastest processor to this date. The viewfinder lets the user change settings while keeping their eyes on the subject. The 7D Mark II shoots full high-definition video using various CODECS at rates of up to 60 frames per second. Average price $2245 (body only).