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Leaving E3 2014: The beat goes on with our July update

By Major Nelson posted June 13, 2014 at 8:30 AM

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Hey folks?we?re here in Los Angeles at E3 2014, and it has been a packed house all week long. We filled the Galen Center on Monday for our annual E3 show and rolled out an incredible line-up of blockbuster exclusives for this holiday and next year. And directly after our show, we held a great panel discussion ? with Phil, Yusuf and others ? for 200 of our biggest Xbox fans. This was the first event of its kind for us?and we loved it. You can also read Phil?s thoughts on the past week at E3 here.

As we pack up our booth, we end E3 just as we started: Our focus is on you. You?ve shaped Xbox into what it is today, and we can?t thank you enough. We look forward to hearing more from you over the coming weeks ? now, officially on Xbox Feedback ? a dedicated channel for all your thoughts and recommendations. From what we?ve seen this week, your feedback continues to be amazing. As of today, more than 65,000 fans like you have suggested more than 4,300 ideas and contributed over 181,000 votes.

As we head home, we can?t wait to dig into your ideas and explore what may be possible for the future of Xbox. What better way to keep this momentum going than to share what?s coming in July. Here?s a shortlist of features rolling out in the next few days to folks getting early access to the Xbox One system update.

  • Snap Mode for Achievements. As we showed at our E3 Green Carpet event before the show, we?re offering an easier way to track and view your achievements in the moment. With Achievement Snap, you can track your achievement progress in real time without ever leaving the game. You can also ?Get Help? on any Achievements you?re struggling with. Xbox will scan the web for you and deliver relevant tips and strategy content right to your TV.
  • Double-tap to Snap.  Double-tap the button on your controller to bring up Snap Center, where you can launch Achievements or any other snap-able app, without leaving your game. Already have an app snapped? Double-tap quickly switches between your game and the snapped app.
  • Choice of Spoken Language. Folks in New Zealand, Ireland and Austria, with this update in July, will be able to select voice control using the English or German voice models from other countries.  And if you're an expat in an English-speaking country, you, too, can choose any of the other English language models that fit you. 
  • Future Digital Bundles and Compilation Discs. We?re doing some work now so that publishers will have options for great digital bundle and disc compilation offerings in the future. As we test this feature, we?ll be seeing more flexible combinations of game titles and game content.
  • ?Like? Game DVR clips. We?re adding the ability to ?Like? all your favorite Game DVR clips as well as activity feed items in SmartGlass.
Once again, thank you for your incredible support. You?ve helped us make E3 2014 a memorable one. But we have no intention of letting our foot off the gas. We can?t wait to roll out these new features in July as we pave the way for an amazing line-up of blockbusters and exclusives this holiday.

Happy E3, folks. Hope everyone had some fun.

 

http://news.xbox.com/2014/06/xbox-one-july-update-preview

 

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Xbox One Update: June 2014

 

Xbox One Owner Impressions

 

DirectX 12 Coming to Xbox One

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Some people still complaining and wondering where features that are top in the uservoice site are.  The thing just went live not that long ago.  The July update has probably been in the works since mid-may I bet if not April.  The only way they can keep at this monthly update pace is to have started well in advance.

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And MS, can we please fix the B button thing? Muscle memory! Amazed no one at Xbox thought of this. Repeatedly pressing B is to go back to the outermost layer of the UI, it is NOT for launching the last used app. Very annoying!

the July preview began rolling out yesterday evening.

 

 

A system update is being released for you to preview beginning today, 6/19/2014, after 7:00pm PDT. Please note that this update will be available in waves, with the first wave beginning today, and the rest receiving it in the following days. 

HOW TO GET IT

  • If your console is in Instant-On mode, it will download and install the update and reboot to standby.
  • NOTE: Once the update is available, you can manually begin the update by navigating to Settings > System and selecting System Update(Note - since this is a staggered update, you may see "No update available" if you are in the second wave.
  • If your console hasn?t downloaded and installed the update by 1:00AM PDT 6/21/2014, you will be prompted to do so the next time you start your console.

 

DETAILS

OS version released: xb_rel_1407.140615-2200
Available: 7PM PDT 6/19* (3AM GMT 6/20)

*The initial update is being released in waves; it will become available for the entire preview audience in the coming days

Features enabled in this update:

  • Snappable Achievement App
  • Double-tap to open Snap Center (if no app is currently snapped)
  • New choices for spoken language in New Zealand, Ireland, Austria, and in all English-speaking countries

Also in this update:

  • Like Game DVR Clips and Activity Feed items in SmartGlass

KNOWN ISSUES

  • A small number of users may experience a black screen upon rebooting from Energy-Saving mode, or after a hard-reboot. After installing 1407.140615-2200, a very small number of users may experience booting to a black screen with just an Xbox logo shown. For more details, please click here.
  • Users using Kinect auto sign-in or manual sign-in and suspend a game by going into connected standby will note the game has returned to the main lobby screen upon resume. Before shutting down your console, please save your progress. *If you use Instant Sign-in (introduced last month), your game will pick up where you left off. 

Thank you for participating in the update previews, and thank you for your feedback!

And MS, can we please fix the B button thing? Muscle memory! Amazed no one at Xbox thought of this. Repeatedly pressing B is to go back to the outermost layer of the UI, it is NOT for launching the last used app. Very annoying!

I agree, it's annoying having your last used game launch if accidentally pressing B! It's the only pet-hate of Xbox One of mine ATM!

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nope. that's just an Amazon deal for a digital download for CoD Ghosts on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. $24.99 for both consoles, USA Only

Oh well. :)

I think he means the digital bundle part which is something MS talked about a few days ago as something they're looking at adding as a option for users.

Yup

I agree, it's annoying having your last used game launch if accidentally pressing B! It's the only pet-hate of Xbox One of mine ATM!

 

I do it all the time due to habit from 360, and hope MS correct it. B button should not be for that, it's just back to the OS/UI.

  • 3 weeks later...

So I held off posting as I thought it very well could  be my new receiver that was causing the issue, but I have definitely isolated the issue to the One itself.

 

So anyone else having major issues with their cable box coming through the One with this latest beta update?

I know one of the main points of this update was to improve connectivity of the HDMI connection for the Watch TV, but whatever they did has actually made it much worse on my end. I am constantly getting Lost signal to TV message. The video just freezes completely, and I also get a weird blinking of snow and black screen. I can now say it is definitely The One as I hooked up my Cable Box to its own separate HDMI input yesterday and no issues at all the entire day. Tried putting it back through the One and same issues instantly.

 

I really like this feature when it does work, but right now it is not usable. Anyone know if this is a known issue?

I know they list this as one of the potential setbacks of being part of the Beta program, but it was working not so good prior to the last update, the last update seemed to have fixed everything, but now this latest update has taken like 4 steps back.

So I held off posting as I thought it very well could  be my new receiver that was causing the issue, but I have definitely isolated the issue to the One itself.

 

So anyone else having major issues with their cable box coming through the One with this latest beta update?

I know one of the main points of this update was to improve connectivity of the HDMI connection for the Watch TV, but whatever they did has actually made it much worse on my end. I am constantly getting Lost signal to TV message. The video just freezes completely, and I also get a weird blinking of snow and black screen. I can now say it is definitely The One as I hooked up my Cable Box to its own separate HDMI input yesterday and no issues at all the entire day. Tried putting it back through the One and same issues instantly.

 

I really like this feature when it does work, but right now it is not usable. Anyone know if this is a known issue?

I know they list this as one of the potential setbacks of being part of the Beta program, but it was working not so good prior to the last update, the last update seemed to have fixed everything, but now this latest update has taken like 4 steps back.

helps to know which provider and cable box you're using. I'm not familiar with cable companies in New Jersey.

 

I haven't had any problems with the Cisco 4642HD from Rogers Cable in Canada. well, other than the box being a slow POS

So I held off posting as I thought it very well could  be my new receiver that was causing the issue, but I have definitely isolated the issue to the One itself.

 

So anyone else having major issues with their cable box coming through the One with this latest beta update?

I know one of the main points of this update was to improve connectivity of the HDMI connection for the Watch TV, but whatever they did has actually made it much worse on my end. I am constantly getting Lost signal to TV message. The video just freezes completely, and I also get a weird blinking of snow and black screen. I can now say it is definitely The One as I hooked up my Cable Box to its own separate HDMI input yesterday and no issues at all the entire day. Tried putting it back through the One and same issues instantly.

 

I really like this feature when it does work, but right now it is not usable. Anyone know if this is a known issue?

I know they list this as one of the potential setbacks of being part of the Beta program, but it was working not so good prior to the last update, the last update seemed to have fixed everything, but now this latest update has taken like 4 steps back.

Sounds like you need to report this along with the details of your equipment to the appropriate beta reporting areas.

When it comes to any device working properly with each and every receiver/cable box/etc, it can be a needle in a haystack for the developer to find the cause of issues that crop up over time, especially when its not a universal issue, but something that may be specific to a single model of receiver for example.

Sounds like you need to report this along with the details of your equipment to the appropriate beta reporting areas.

When it comes to any device working properly with each and every receiver/cable box/etc, it can be a needle in a haystack for the developer to find the cause of issues that crop up over time, especially when its not a universal issue, but something that may be specific to a single model of receiver for example.

Sorry, I cannot give them a pass on this just because of different hardware configurations at this point in time.

We are less than 4 months away from a year after launch.

I think we are pretty much past the point in time different hardware is some kind of valid excuse. Especially since it worked with very little issue prior to this latest update. Now not only do I have issues, they are major. To the point it is unusable.

 

It is also a pretty integral aspect of what they advertise as making the One the all in one entertainment device for your living room.

I just cannot get behind the frame of mind or thinking of "oh well, let's just sit back and accept the fact this stuff is difficult and there are bound to be issues," especially when it is the primary functionality I currently use my One for. If not for the fact of Watching Live TV through the One, it would barely be on.

 

So seriously, they need to get their act together and fast.

 

 

helps to know which provider and cable box you're using. I'm not familiar with cable companies in New Jersey.

 

I haven't had any problems with the Cisco 4642HD from Rogers Cable in Canada. well, other than the box being a slow POS

I have Verizon FIOS as my provider and a Motorola QIP6416-2.

With that said I did not expect anyone would be able to help me with my exact setup. I was simply asking if anyone else was having issues. 

Sorry, I cannot give them a pass on this just because of different hardware configurations at this point in time.

We are less than 4 months away from a year after launch.

I think we are pretty much past the point in time different hardware is some kind of valid excuse. Especially since it worked with very little issue prior to this latest update. Now not only do I have issues, they are major. To the point it is unusable.

 

It is also a pretty integral aspect of what they advertise as making the One the all in one entertainment device for your living room.

I just cannot get behind the frame of mind or thinking of "oh well, let's just sit back and accept the fact this stuff is difficult and there are bound to be issues," especially when it is the primary functionality I currently use my One for. If not for the fact of Watching Live TV through the One, it would barely be on.

 

So seriously, they need to get their act together and fast.

Um, I never suggested giving them a pass. Maybe you should re-read my post first before pouncing. I think you mistook my explanation for how issues like this can crop up as 'defending' them. I was just talking about how this works behind the scene.

I suggested to you that you should report your issues wherever beta testers are suppose to report these things. Are you saying you refuse to do that? MS wants to fix problems if you are not aware and that is one reason they started the beta program in the first place. When problems like this come up, they have a pool of users to provide feedback and help them sort out the cause of the issue.

If you only use your X1 for TV, then I understand why you would be extra upset about issues that show up, its perfectly fair to feel that way. I mean, its a $500 TV viewer, it has to be flawless or its a huge waste. If I was in your place, I would be seriously considering alternatives after I saw what MS did to try to fix the issue I reported.

I am having a problem, too, that appears to have only started with this July 2014 XBox One update.

 

I posted in the only relevant place I could think:

http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/xbox_one_support/f/4277.aspx

http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/xbox_one_support/f/4277/t/1788440.aspx

This topic is now closed to further replies.
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However, if you need to access the NAND Flash card or CMOS battery, then eight more screws (four on each side) need to be removed in order to take off the rear panel with the 120mm fan, and then the motherboard can be lifted off and removed from the SATA connector PCB. There's also no risk of threading the screw holes, because the four that hold the shell in place are metal on metal, while the screws that hold the rear panel on do screw into plastic. Either way, like last time when I reviewed the F4-425 plus, I was just happier to see larger screws being used. Overall, it follows some great improvements in build quality from the 2024 series and earlier. Setup BIOS The F4-425 Pro includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to the USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to a USB stick with an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Setup is roughly the same as the F4-425 Plus, along with the new TOS 7 setup dialogs, so there will be no surprises here. Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the F4-425 Pro can be reached by navigating to http://tnas.local. If that doesn't work, you can use the local address assigned via DHCP, which you can find using the TNAS PC desktop application, which is essentially a TerraMaster NAS finder. The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to the Control Panel, initially I did not see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Control Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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