Buying Guide: PS4 deals: how to save big on the PS4 this holiday season

Find the PS4 on the cheap

Here at TechRadar, we've rounded up the best deals and sales available to you for the PlayStation 4 this holiday season. There are several cheap PS4 console bundle deals that have appeared in recent weeks, too.

From the moment the console war started, Sony ?'s? PS4 ?has been soaking up the critical acclaim since it's hugely successful launch last November. Only recently, MCV reported that the newly released Destiny contributed to a 300% spike in PS4 orders, making it the best selling console. Interestingly, this resulted in Microsoft giving the Xbox One a $50 price cut.

The PS4 continues to get a plethora of games with the likes of Metro: Redux, FIFA 15, The Crew, LittleBigPlanet 3 and Driveclub hitting the shelves this year.

If you're in the market for a new console there are some great cheap PS4 deals to be had.

Starting Thursday at 5 p.m. check out Best Buy's PS4 plus Grand Theft Auto V & The Last of Use: Remastered bundle Black Friday deal that comes with the system and two games for $399.99.

OK, say you can't find a Best Buy, then get Target's PS4 plus Grand Theft Auto V & The Last of Use: Remastered bundle Black Friday deal for $399.99. Alternately, head over at 5 p.m. to the kids' favorite spot for the Toys R Us PS4 500GB Bundle that includes GTA V and The Last of Us Black Friday deal or the Toys R Us PS4 500GB Bundle that includes LittleBigPlanet 3 and Lego Batman 3 for the same price.

One more idea: Say you've already played GTA and TLoU on PS3 and have no interest going back for one last go-around. Your best bet is buying the Walmart PS4 Black Friday deal that comes with a $50 gift guide for $399.99. (Though they have a PS4 plus Grand Theft Auto V & The Last of Use: Remastered bundle Black Friday deal and PS4 plus LittleBigPlanet 3, Lego Batman 3 and $50 gift card Black Friday deal as well).

You can buy the standalone PS4 console at Amazon for $399 although there are several bundles that provide better value for money.

If you can't make it out on Black Friday, don't worry. There are plenty of deals from online retailers, bound and determined to save you some green.

Starting Thursday at 6 p.m., scope Dell's PS4 Console w/ Grand Theft Auto V & The Last of Us: Remastered Black Friday deal or for the best deal in town check out Walmart's PS4 Bundle with GTA V, The Last of Us Remastered and choice of two games for $449.

If you can't wait until Black Friday, there's Amazon's PS4 Bundle with GTA V, The Last of Us Remastered available for $468.95 or a a great offer for the PS4 and Destiny for only $449.

If your kids aren't quite ready for a full-size system, the PlayStation TV may be the right way to go, and right now, there's a bundle including LEGO Movie: The Videogame available at Best Buy for for only $139.99.

Want an additional controller to go with your PS4? Amazon currently has DualShock 4 PS4 controller for $51.90.

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Makerbot CEO Jenny Lawton On Ramping Up A Fast-Moving Company

Incoming MakerBot CEO Is Focused on Perfecting Their Ecosystem

3D printer company Makerbot experienced almost exponential growth. After a few years in a cramped Brooklyn warehouse, the team grew from 20 to 600 in a few short years and the company was bought by Stratasys, a major player in the professional printing space. Makerbot’s new CEO, Jenny Lawton, sat down with us to talk a bit about what it meant to be a global company and how it felt pushing Makerbot’s engine from 0 to 100 in what seemed like seconds.

“It’s cool to be the CEO of the coolest company in Brooklyn,” said Lawton (after some coaching). Lawton and her team are currently working on interesting character partnerships with brands like Sesame Street and Hello Kitty. The company is also working on newer versions of their software and hardware which Lawton was a bit reticent to describe.

“We’re super-excited about growing the ecosystem,” she said. They have a number of interesting announcements coming at CES, she said. The worst thing about Makerbot’s growth? The fact that she can’t be sure who works at the company anymore in the elevator, she said.

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Review: HP Envy 15 x360

Page 1 of 3Introduction and features

The introduction of Windows 8, the emergence of touchscreens and the increasing efficiency of components have helped laptops get thinner and lighter, and they're also behind the growth of hybrids – machines designed for use as both notebooks and tablets.

The HP Envy 15 x360 (model 15-u000na) is one such system. It flips between laptop and tablet modes with a hinge that rotates through 360 degrees, and its 15.6-inch screen makes it one of the biggest hybrids we've seen.

The Envy's 5.3 pound weight (2.4kg) and 0.94-inch thickness (about 24mm) are more akin to laptops than tablets, and that stands up when the HP is compared to its rivals: the Lenovo Flex 2 15 is another 15.6-inch hybrid, but it's thinner and lighter. The HP's nearest laptop competitor, the Dell Inspiron 15 7000, is only a little bigger.

The x360 is chunkier than other hybrids

The dimensions, and the 15.6-inch screen diagonal, mean the HP is far more comfortable when used as a laptop. With the screen flipped back to tablet mode the Envy is too large to use in one hand, which means that its use is restricted – it needs to be rested on a table or a lap to be used comfortably with two hands.

The price of £649 (around $1,015, AU$1,175) puts this machine firmly in the mid-range, but it looks like a premium device. Most of the visible surfaces are clad in smart brushed metal, with a glossy black bezel surrounding the screen. Build quality is inconsistent: pushing the underside saw the keyboard flex, and the screen was little better – only a light tap on the rear saw the desktop disfigure. A solid wrist-rest is little consolation.

The HP's trackpad is augmented with two Control Zone pads. These sit on either side of the trackpad, and they're designed to add touchscreen-style functionality. Taps and swipes on the left-hand pad select and switch between apps, and swiping the right-hand Control Zone opens the Charm menu.

In reality, it's a mixed bag. Opening the Charm menu from the right-hand pad worked flawlessly, but the left-hand pad required too much force for its gestures to function. That inconsistency renders the Control Zone somewhat pointless, especially given that the touchscreen isn't exactly difficult to reach. The trackpad doesn't make up for the disappointing Control Zone – its coating has too much resistance, so using the pad requires more effort than we like.

The keyboard is a let down, sadly

The keyboard is similarly disappointing. The layout is fine, but the typing action isn't: the keys feel cheap, there's not enough travel, and our presses occasionally failed to register. It's fine for brief typing, but no good for work.

The HP's specification ticks the right boxes, but there are no surprises. The Envy is built around a Core i5-4210U processor – an ultra-low-power part that's clocked to 1.7GHz and uses Intel's latest silicon designs.

And the trackpad isn't much better...

The processor is paired with a modest integrated graphics core, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard disk – all standard stuff.

Connectivity is disappointing. The inclusion of a single-band 802.11n Wi-Fi chip means this machine can't connect to dual-band networks or faster 802.11ac routers, so don't expect great speeds. Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth 4.0 are standard inclusions that don't make up for the poor wireless connectivity.

Page 1 of 3Introduction and features

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Makerclub Helps You Learn 3D-Printed Robotics

 

Want to make a giant 3D-printed spider robot? A humanoid help-mate? A robotic scorpion with a powerful, electrified tail? Makerclub can probably help. Created as a place for makers to come together and discuss 3D printed robotics, the service is now part commerce site, part repository, and part educational resource. Interestingly, the service is also offering a hardware brain on Indiegogo to help build the creations.

“As far as we know, no-one else is creating a 3D printed library of parts such as ours, or building an educational platform to bring the technology to the mainstream,” said the founder Simon Riley.

Reilly has also created a board, called the MakerConnect, that makes it easy to build the creations on the site. Called the MakerConnect, it connects an Arduino board with on-board Bluetooth so you can wirelessly control the creations on the site. While you don’t need to use the MakerConnect, the $50 board makes it much easier to build many of the robots on the site.

 

“We create 3D printed robotics projects which teach invention and product design. Each project is powered by our Arduino based chip, and controlled by your smartphone,” said Rielly. Users can download plans and programs and then print all the parts needed for the robots. There are even lesson plans using the models so kids can learn how to create robotic projects with a minimum of fuss.

“I studied Electronic Engineering with Computing at Nottingham, with my 3rd year in UNSW, and then went into Software Development,” said Rielly. “I’ve worked for a number of companies, big and small, including Experian, eBay and Brandwatch and have become a relatively proficient programmer. However, it always niggled me that I came out of University with a 2:1 and almost no real understanding of or passion for my subject, and I had to spend the next 5 years catching up before and after work.”

“This all started from my frustrated efforts to make a remote controlled car 2 years ago. I could work out how to program everything but my woodwork and general craft skills are so below par, that everything I made would either fall apart or be so clunky that nothing would move. I was then lucky enough to meet up with my old boss at a Christmas party where we discussed the beginnings of my idea and get brought a 3D printer for my combined Christmas and Birthday Present two weeks later,” he said.

Reilly describes the project as “everything I would have wanted as a 15-year-old kid.” Throw in some Stephen King books and a Victoria’s Secret catalog and I think he might be right.

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Review: Leica V-Lux (Typ 114)

Leica and Panasonic have an interesting working relationship. Some Panasonic cameras have Leica lenses that are produced in Panasonic's factory following Leica quality control measures. And some Panasonic cameras are essentially rebadged as Leica models. The V-Lux (Typ 114), for example is Leica's version of the popular Panasonic FZ1000 and like the D-Lux (aka Panasonic LX100), it's produced in Panasonic's factory.

Both have been covered already along with all the other latest camera reviews and news in the Techradar Camera Channel home page.

The (Typ 114), by the way, distinguishes the V-Lux from its predecessor, which was called the V-Lux 4 (confusingly) but was based on an the older Panasonic FZ200 bridge camera which has a smaller sensor.

As usual there is a price premium to pay for the Leica badge, but the V-Lux comes with a 3-year warrantee from Leica and a copy of Lightroom 5 for organising and processing your images.

Like the FZ1000, the V-Lux (Typ 114) is a bridge camera with a 16x zoom range and a focal length equivalent to 25-400mm. Both cameras have a Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 at the widest point and f/4 at the narrowest.

The 16x zoom range covers an effective 25-400mm.

Just like the FZ1000, the V-Lux is a direct competitor to the Sony RX10 which also has a (20.2Mp) 1-inch sensor, but the Sony's focal length range is restricted to the equivalent of 24-200mm, although the maximum aperture is a constant f/2.8 throughout the zoom range – the V-Lux's maximum aperture drops to f/4 at the equivalent of 175mm.

Inside the body is a 1-inch sensor (significantly larger than the 1/2.3-inch devices in most models), with 20.1 million pixels. The bigger sensor means larger photo-receptors, to allow more light to be captured and improve noise control, dynamic range and image quality as a whole.

Leica doesn't actually mention the V-Lux's processing engine, but it's a safe bet that it's the same Venus Engine as is found in the Panasonic FZ1000. This allows the native sensitivity to be set in the range ISO 80-12,500 with an expansion setting of ISO 25,000 – that's slightly different from the FZ1000 which tops out at ISO 12,800.The maximum continuous shooting speed is 12 frames per second.

There are exposure modes to suit enthusiasts (program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual) along with a fully automatic mode and scene modes to help less experienced photographers. The V-Lux also has a mode that gives access to the same 22 filter effects available on the FZ1000. These effects are applied to JPEG files, but they can be used when shooting raw files simultaneously so that a clean file is available for processing.

The FZ1000 was the first bridge camera capable of 4K (3840 x 2160 pixel) video recording at up to 25fps (PAL) in MP4 format, and the V-Lux follows suit. While this may not impress some stills photographers, the fact that it's possible to extract 8Mp still images form 4K video may.

It's also possible to record video at Full HD and VGA resolution, but the V-Lux only allows MP4 recording while the FZ1000 can record in MP4 or AVCHD. The FZ1000's ability to record Full HD footage at 100fps is also absent in the V-Lux.

Like the FZ1000, the V-Lux has a collection of AF point selection options including, 49-Area, 1-Area AF, Pinpoint AF, Face Detection AF and the Custom Multi AF mode first seen in the GH4 that allows the user to select blocks, rows or columns of AF points for use. It's also possible to focus manually and Focus Peaking is available to show the areas of highest contrast (focus) – this is especially useful during video recording.

There is also a Zebra display for highlighting areas close to burning out. This can be set to indicate a brightness value of 50-105%.

It might look like an SLR, but the V-Lux's viewfinder is electronic rather than optical.

Naturally, as it's a bridge camera, the V-Lux's viewfinder is electronic rather than optical. This is a 2,359,000-dot OLED device, and there's a vari-angle 3-inch 921,000-dot LCD. As on the FZ1000, this screen is not touch-sensitive.

The V-Lux has Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity built-in for connecting to smartphones and tablets. In addition, Leica offers a free app (Image Shuttle) which enables the camera to be controlled remotely and images transferred wirelessly.

An intervalometer for time lapse recording, multiple exposure mode and a built-in flash, along with a hot-shoe for attaching an external flashgun, top-off the V-Lux's specification nicely.

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