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Hottest New Tech Gadgets of 2015

There’s no denying that the tech world moves faster than most of us care to keep us with sometimes. To help, I’ve scoured the expos and special events to bring you a list of the top gadgets to release in 2015.

Apple Watch

Apple’s long awaited foray into wearables is set to be the hottest gadget of the year, even if its luxury watch price point dissuades many from actually dropping the cash to own it.

With design legend Marc Newson rumoured to have had no small part to play in the design of the gorgeous timepiece, the watch starts at £299 for the Watch Sport, with the most expensive Edition running to a staggering £13,500. The sleek gadget comes in 3 collections, each with 2 sizes and a host of different bands, meaning no one will be stuck for choice.

The abundance of options also extends to the watch faces you can set on the device, with each of the 9 default faces allowing plenty of customisation. The watch is no slump when it comes to functionality either, as it boasts fitness tracking, music playback, phone and FaceTime calls, texting and iMessages, and even supports third-party notifications, along with, of course, telling the time. It’ll need to pair with your iPhone, and releases on 24/4/15.

Oculus Rift

The Oculus Rift has been around for a while, as it continues to iterate through various beta versions and developer kits. However, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year, Oculus debuted a vastly updated version, prompting speculation from many that a consumer release is on the cards for 2015.

The company hasn’t set a release date, but have confirmed that the next product they release will be the consumer version of the Rift VR headset. The Oculus Rift promises to be a huge step forward in the world of virtual reality and gaming, allowing truly immersive gaming experiences straight from science fiction to become a reality.

Flir One

A contender for the ‘coolest gadget you didn’t know you needed’ award, the Flir One is a nifty device that uses 2 cameras to offer thermal imaging technology on your smartphone. It works with iPhone 5 and 5s, and uses a combination of athermal imaging cameraand a standard visible light one to take pictures that show heat mapping overlaid onto regular images seamlessly. It allows a straightforward and easy way for consumers to check the heat proofing of their own homes, along with a whole host of other potential applications.

2015 MacBook

The MacBook is back, and it’s skinnier than ever. The new generation of Apple’s MacBook is the thinnest yet, at an astounding 13.1mm thin, and weighing just 0.9kg. Despite the MacBook’s tiny size, it still packs a 12 inch Retina display and all day battery life. It makes use of the new Intel 5th generation Core M CPU, and comes in three different design colours: silver, gold and space grey.

Dell XPS 13

If you’re not taken by the skinny MacBook, the Dell XPS 13 might be the laptop you’ve been looking for. Featuring a borderless 13“ Ultrasharp QHD+ display, fifth generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, and boasting up to 12 hours battery life, this slim laptop has been lauded by tech bloggers as the best Windows laptop for years. It’s certainly a great ultrabook, and coming in significantly cheaper than either the new MacBook, or Apple’s other ultraportable, the MacBook Air, it might well be the laptop of choice for a lot of people.

Intel Compute Stick

The Intel Compute Stick is the last in our roundup of the hottest tech gadgets of 2015, but certainly not the least. The latest in the long process of making the personal computer as small as possible, the Compute Stick is just four inches long. It looks a little like a typical USB memory stick, but plug it into the HDMI port of any monitor and it’s a fully-fledged computer. It features a quad-core Intel Atom processor, along with wireless connectivity and storage — everything you need from a full-sized computer. It might not pack the punch of a traditional laptop, owing in part to its lack of a graphics card and only offering 2GB of RAM, but if you’re looking for a cute, easy to transport alternative to lugging a full-sized laptop around, this little device should be able to perform a range of productivity tasks. It can even stream Netflix. It ships with either Windows 8.1 or Linux pre-installed.

From virtual reality to thermal imaging, 2015 looks to be a scorcher.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chloe Hashemi .