Features

Best tech of 2020: an eco vacuum, electric car and a £12 kettle

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The consumer group Which? chooses its top 50 gadets of the year, from cheap and cheerful to high end

Part human, part machine: is Apple turning us all into cyborgs?

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With its iPhones, watches and forthcoming smart glasses, Apple’s gadgets are increasingly becoming extensions of our minds and bodies. It’s the big tech dream – but could it turn into a nightmare?

By Alex Hern
Illustration by Steven Gregor

An MDF bookcase for £12,000? The jolting genius of design superstudio Memphis

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The high-voltage style, comic-strip colours and eye-watering price tags of this Italian collective changed the world of design – what better place for an exhibition than modernist Milton Keynes?

Launch of celebrity candles lights up – and cashes in – on lockdown gloom

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It started with Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina candle; now Alicia Keys, Anthony Hopkins and Drake have joined the trend

‘Let’s bring joy into the house as early as possible’ – why Britain is already celebrating Christmas

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At the end of a truly difficult year, Christmas lights, trees and decorations are springing up, and even the shuttered shops haven’t slowed the present buying. What’s behind this race to begin the festive season?