ShinyShiny's April Round-up: iPhone 6 rumours, The Gadget Show, Jawbone up24

It’s been a whirlwind of a month here at ShinyShiny, so we’ve decided to collect together our favourite events, top reviews and most popular videos for a mammoth round-up. Keep an eye out for a lot of new and exciting changes to the site from next month. We can’t wait!

The Cricut Explore: a must-have gadget for crafters and Pinterest addicts

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This month we had the great opportunity to meet the team behind Cricut and get an exclusive hands-on with their new gadget, the Cricut Explore. This cute cutting device allows you to design anything you like and then it takes over, cutting it out for you on all kinds of materials. The Cricut Explore is obviously ideal for Pinterest-lovers and crafting queens, but it’s so easy-to-use and can be handy for upcycling, decorating, DIY and pretty much everything else!

Our #SleeveSelfie competition proved to be a big hit

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We launched a competition last month called #SleeveSelfie, merging our love with vinyl with the selfie trend. The idea was to take a photo of yourself with a record that changed your life, or just pick a record with funny album art and re-enact it. Check out our #SleeveSelfie tumblr to see all of the entries.

Top 10 apps for the perfect selfie: Facetune, More Beaute, CameraBag

We’re venturing into the world of online video again here at ShinyShiny and one of our first topics: well, selfies of course! In this video we look at some of the top apps for taking and tweaking your selfies.

Misift Shine Review: An activity tracker for the fashion conscious

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We’re really excited about wearable gadgets at the moment here at ShinyShiny, so jumped at the chance to review the Shine from Misfit Wearables. We fell in love with the look and feel of this very convenient and wearable tracker, but felt it fell down a little when it came to tracking our workouts.

Jawbone Up24 Review: Stylish, comfortable and wireless activity tracking

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We reviewed the Jawbone up24 this month. Although we found the band a little bit uncomfortable at first, the data the Jawbone app serves up is really accurate, the dashboard is intuitive and most importantly the stats encouraged us to move much MUCH more.

Fantastic London commuting pics – doesn’t the city look pretty?

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We grilled Paul Jarman about how he takes such beautiful photos of London. His answer: take the Clipper boat on The Thames back to Docklands and use a Nikon s9100. It also helps he’s an awesome photographer, too!

iPhone 6 rumour round-up: two models, a HUGE screen and sapphire glass

Don’t worry, our videos aren’t just about selfies. We also delved into the crazy world of iPhone 6 rumours this month, rounding up some of the most popular whispers about the new Apple handset.

The best of The Gadget Show 2014: Fitbug, Garmin, Fitbit, iHealth

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We were invited along to The Gadget Show in Birmingham this month where we got the chance to have a hands-on with many of the gadgets we’ve been writing about. Our favourites? Probably these luxurious (and not to mention Shiny) Parrot Zik headphones.

Becca Caddy