Fine-Tuning Reality: From VR Worlds to Colour, Sound and Soy Sauce | Vol. 42

A VR headset needs a better answer to “what will I actually do with it?” than an impressive first ten minutes. The Meta Quest 3S has one: access to Meta’s library of thousands of apps and games, including Quest 3 and 3S exclusives. The interesting part is not simply entering a virtual world. It is having enough reasons to go back once everyone in the house has had their turn and made the obligatory comments about your appearance.

That software breadth is the main reason to consider it. A headset is an unusually personal way to play, and enthusiasm for one demonstration does not necessarily translate into a lasting hobby. A broad library gives you room to discover what suits you rather than making the entire purchase depend on a single game. It does not mean every app will appeal, of course. Thousands of options still leave plenty of scope for spending an evening deciding what to do.

The Quest 3S also extends beyond fully virtual experiences into mixed reality, which brings digital content into your view of the physical surroundings. Meta describes it as offering the same mixed-reality capabilities and fast performance as Quest 3. That is a meaningful part of its appeal: this is not positioned as a headset excluded from the platform’s newer experiences. It should not, however, be read as a claim that the two headsets are identical in every respect.

The included equipment makes the proposition more concrete. You get two Meta Quest Touch Plus controllers, with AA batteries, so the controls are part of the package rather than another decision to make. A glasses spacer is included too. That is a thoughtful provision for people whose eyesight has declined to participate in the futuristic vision, although a spacer is not a guarantee that every pair of frames will fit comfortably.

The practical constraint here is storage. This version has 128 GB, which makes it better suited to a chosen collection than an install-everything approach. The number of apps that fits depends on their sizes, so there is no useful universal game count. If your usual relationship with a software library involves keeping everything installed just in case, expect some housekeeping.

Our view is that the Quest 3S makes most sense for someone curious about the medium, not merely the hardware. Its combination of mixed reality, included controllers and broad software compatibility gives that curiosity somewhere to go. Choose it because you want to explore those experiences; the headset itself should not be the only thing you find interesting.

The Shokz OpenSwim Pro make most sense if swimming is part of your week, not the entire definition of your headphones. Their useful trick is combining Bluetooth listening on land with built-in audio playback underwater. You do not have to dedicate a pair solely to lengths, then leave them doing nothing until the next encounter with the changing-room floor.

These are open-ear, bone-conduction headphones rather than earbuds that sit inside the ear canal. That is a meaningful format choice for someone who dislikes having their ears plugged during exercise. It should not, however, be mistaken for a promise of conventional headphone isolation: leaving the ears open is the point, not an oversight. At 27.3g, the hardware itself is light, although weight alone cannot tell you whether a particular fit will suit you.

The central buying decision is less about Bluetooth than what happens when Bluetooth stops being useful. It does not function underwater, so swimming requires MP3 mode and files held in the headphones’ internal storage. Your phone can sit this one out, but so can the spontaneous decision to stream something entirely different halfway through a session. The pool remains stubbornly unimpressed by modern expectations of connectivity.

There is 32GB of storage, with somewhat less potentially usable after system files and data management. More importantly for an existing music collection, supported formats include MP3, FLAC, WAV, AAC, M4A, APE and WMA. Despite the name of the playback mode, you are not limited to MP3 files. This makes the OpenSwim Pro particularly appealing to someone who already keeps their own audio library. For a streaming-only listener, preparing that library becomes an extra task rather than a feature to celebrate.

Battery expectations also need to follow the activity. The listed maximum is nine hours over Bluetooth, but six hours in MP3 mode, so the larger figure is not the swimming figure. Both are useful allowances for exercise sessions without suggesting that charging can be forgotten indefinitely. A full charge takes approximately 90 minutes; the listed ten-minute quick charge provides three hours of listening, a handy rescue when preparation has amounted to locating a towel.

The appeal is therefore quite specific, and stronger for it. These are not simply everyday wireless headphones with a sporty name. They offer a way to keep listening across land-based exercise and swimming, using a different playback method where necessary. If you swim regularly and are happy choosing your audio in advance, that versatility earns its place. If your entire listening life lives inside a streaming app, the underwater half of the proposition asks for a genuine change of habit.

Packing cubes earn their keep when you stop thinking of them as tiny suitcases and start treating them as removable drawers. This small Thule Compression Packing Cube gives underwear, socks and T-shirts one place to live, then uses a second zip to squeeze excess air out from between the clothes. The attraction is not a miraculous extra holiday wardrobe. It is opening your luggage without having to excavate it for a clean pair of socks.

The compression is the reason to choose this over a basic organiser. Once loaded, the compression zip reduces packing volume, making the bundle less bulky inside your luggage. Thule lists dimensions of 26 × 18 × 11 cm expanded and 25 × 18 × 3 cm compressed. That gives a useful sense of the format, but the contents still determine how far it can close: a densely packed stack of clothing does not become three centimetres thick simply because the specification says so. The zip is doing a practical job, not negotiating with matter.

There is a worthwhile distinction between saving space and saving weight. This cube weighs 80 g itself, and compressing clothes does not make them lighter. If your suitcase already tips the scales too far, squeezing another T-shirt into it addresses the wrong problem rather efficiently. For a bag with room to spare on weight but little spare volume, however, the proposition makes much more sense.

The small size is also an editorial strength. Socks and underwear are precisely the things that disappear into corners, and grouping them together makes unpacking more selective. You can lift out the cube rather than disturb everything around it. Thule recommends rolling clothes to save space and minimise wrinkling; for these everyday basics, that is a straightforward packing routine rather than a folding discipline requiring a quiet room.

The material choices support that organisational role. The 100D ripstop nylon is bluesign-approved and described as water-repellent. It is also semi-transparent, giving you a view of the contents without putting every belonging on full display. That is a useful middle ground between an opaque pouch you have to open and an organiser that turns your underwear into a shop window. YKK zips and a webbing handle round out the design, with the handle providing a way to grab or hang the cube while travelling.

There is no requirement to pair it with Thule luggage. The brand says most carry-ons accommodate four small cubes, or two small and one medium, which helps explain how this size can form part of a larger packing arrangement. It need not become a matching-set project, either: one cube dedicated to small essentials has a clear job on its own.

That is where this particular cube earns its place. It combines separation and compression in a format aimed at the clothes most likely to become loose luggage debris. Choose it for a more orderly, less bulky bundle of basics—not as permission to pack everything you own.

If you have chosen the fish carefully, the soy sauce need not be an afterthought. YAMASAN KYOTO UJI's double-brewed version makes its strongest case beside sushi and sashimi, where a condiment is part of the meal rather than an anonymous contribution to a busy pan.

The interesting detail is what happens during the second brewing. Naturally brewed Koikuchi soy sauce takes the place of salt and water. This is not merely ordinary soy sauce left standing about with an impressive calendar: an already brewed sauce becomes part of the next brew. That is a meaningful production distinction, and the main reason to take an interest in this particular bottle.

The manufacturer also says the sauce is naturally and slowly brewed for more than 1,000 days, with no additives. Those details give it a process-led appeal without needing a cupboard full of specialist equipment. You can be curious about fermentation without appointing yourself head of a small domestic laboratory.

The sensible way to approach it is as a condiment you actively notice. The manufacturer's sushi and sashimi recommendation gives you a straightforward starting point: use it alongside food where the sauce has a clear role, rather than assuming its lengthy production will transform everything it touches. A thousand days is a brewing commitment, not a guarantee that Tuesday's dinner will become profound.

There is also a firm dietary boundary: the stated Koikuchi ingredients include both soybeans and wheat. This is not the bottle for someone avoiding either.

Our recommendation is therefore specific. Choose it because you want to explore double brewing and give the dipping dish a little more consideration. If soy sauce is simply a background seasoning in your kitchen, the production story alone is unlikely to change your priorities.

‘What colour is that?’ is an easy question until someone expects a useful answer. Sage, perhaps. Possibly the other sage. The Nix Mini 3 exists to replace that conversation with a measurement: place it against a surface, use the Nix Toolkit app, and turn a physical colour into paint suggestions or digital colour values. It is a wonderfully specific job for a gadget, and a worthwhile one if colour is a recurring decision rather than an occasional argument.

The defining appeal is the link between decorating and design work. A three-channel colorimeter, the Mini 3 can feed a paint search, but it can also provide RGB, HEX and CMYK values. That makes it relevant to someone taking inspiration from a painted panel for a digital project, not just someone trying to identify the colour left behind by a previous homeowner with no surviving tins and considerable confidence in beige. It gives the search a concrete starting point rather than another adjective.

Paint-library access is a substantial part of the proposition. Nix advertises more than 200,000 brand-name paint colours, although the libraries available depend on the selected country, and premium colour systems require a subscription. Treat that headline as breadth of reference, not a promise that every paint range you might want is included. The useful outcome is a shortlist of matches to consider; choosing the final finish still deserves more thought than accepting the first name on a screen.

The physical requirements matter more than the gadget's cleverness. Nix recommends solid, opaque, flat surfaces, with the sensor held firmly and flat against them. Patterns, texture, extreme gloss and soft materials can reduce accuracy. A plain painted panel is therefore a much better fit than a loosely woven cushion or a shiny, curved ornament. This is a surface-measuring tool, not permission to point at anything vaguely attractive and demand its secrets.

There is also no standalone escape route: the Mini 3 needs the Nix Toolkit app and wireless connectivity, with location services enabled according to the setup guide. That is a reasonable workflow for transferring colours into digital projects, but less appealing if you wanted a self-contained instrument. Its usefulness rests partly on your willingness to work through the app.

The supporting details suit a tool used intermittently. USB-C charging is straightforward, and the included Diagnostics Tile works with the app for periodic testing and validation. Nix advises keeping the lens clean and charging the sensor monthly when idle. IPX4 splash resistance offers some protection, though it is not waterproof. In other words, it can belong near a decorating job without being treated like a brush.

Our judgment is that the Mini 3 earns its place through specialisation. For regular colour work on suitable surfaces, it offers a purposeful bridge between something you can touch and something you can search or specify. For one room and one uncertain patch of green, it may be more instrument than you need. Buy into the repeatable task, not merely the pleasing idea of owning an eyedropper for the real world.