Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max review: The biggest leap in camera Apple has ever made October 3, 2019 For many years the most important words in a phonemaker’s lexicon were “thinner”, “lighter”, and “faster”. The race to achieve the thinnest, lightest, fastest phone resulted in the dainty little rectangles we all know and love and hate. Any variation on the theme, such as the ill-fated modular phone, was swept aside, never to be [...]
Two Ladies at Bridge Theatre review: A gripping but unremarkable political drama October 3, 2019 Two Ladies begins with a powerful image: FLOTUS Sophia enters with her cream two-piece covered with deep red blood. It’s a clear nod to Jackie Kennedy, and a neat introduction to the theme of Nancy Harris’s new play – the psychology of women who exist a manicured fingernail’s breadth from the most powerful jobs in [...]
Joker review: Joaquin Phoenix carries this supervillain’s dark origin story through its own dopey social commentary October 3, 2019 On social media site Reddit there is a section called “Am I the asshole?”, where concerned users submit situations in which they feel they may have been in the wrong, to seek a kind of masturbatory catharsis from a jury of their peers. There are arguments with strangers, disputes with family members, feuds in the [...]
Nintendo Switch Lite review: The quirky hybrid has become a conventional handheld October 2, 2019 Nintendo has a reputation for updating its consoles mid-generation, not long after launching them, to the extent that it’s become a little risky to be an early adopter. Why spend a few hundred pounds on a device that will be refined into something neater in 12 months, as the Nintendo DS was with the DSi, [...]
The story of the world’s best beef: How Kobe conquered the globe October 2, 2019 Wedged between the Rokko mountain range and Osaka Bay, Kobe is the sixth largest city in Japan with more than a million and a half people. Its namesake beef doesn’t come from the city itself but from the surrounding farmland of Hyogo Prefecture where Kobe is the capital and the key port. As the story [...]
Why did the US Navy sink its own vessel off the coast of the Cayman Islands? September 27, 2019 The sound of whirring rotor blades carries across the bay. I’m staring at a framed photo of Tom Selleck inside the office of Cayman Island Helicopters, while its proprietor, Jerome Begot, readies the chopper. Jerome is a Frenchman who, inexplicably, flew in the US Air Force decades ago, and Magnum PI is his hero. After [...]
What is frankincense? And where does it come from? September 27, 2019 The sun is blazing and the air is hot, dry and dusty. Gazing out over the horizon, there’s nothing but parched, rocky land as far as the eye can see in any direction, except for the strange-looking trees that shoot up from the ground like gnarly, overgrown bushes. You wouldn’t think much could thrive here, [...]
Regent’s Crescent: How John Nash’s iconic Georgian terrace is being reborn September 27, 2019 Walk around London’s west end, your eyes skywards, and you’d be hard pressed not to spot the work of John Nash. The architect to the Prince Regent (later George IV) built countless buildings in central London – from Marble Arch, to Clarence House, to All Souls Church on Langham Place. And then there’s Park Crescent. [...]
Inside Mayfair’s ‘most luxurious’ rental home – yours for £30,000 a month September 27, 2019 A new-build apartment which has been dubbed Mayfair’s ‘most luxurious’ has just hit the market, and is available to rent for anyone who happens to have a spare £30,000 a month. The 1,593 sq ft Apartment 3.05 sits within Clarges Mayfair, a grand Portland Stone block overlooking Green Park which is collectively valued at £160m. [...]
GoodWaste: The graduate designers creating unique homewares from scavenged marble September 27, 2019 Sometimes success comes knocking at a young person’s door, and they are so prepared that they already have their coat and shoes on. This is the story of how three dynamic Royal College of Art MA product design students had a bloody good idea for their degree show – and a few weeks after graduating [...]