htxt.africa's Tech Made Easy - March 2014

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WIN! A 3D PRINTE R DESIGN ED IN SOU TH AFRICA

HOW TO: Protect your Facebook profile Top advice from the pros to avoid getting scammed on social media.

TOP GAMES: Hands-on with Thief The steampunk sneakem-up is back, and we’ve played it!

T S E T R E P U S WHICH

SMARTPHONE Going away over the break? Here’s the gadgets you mustn’t forget to pack.

MARCH 2014

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SHOULD YOU BUY? South Africa’s most powerful phones compared: which is right for you?

F IS IR SU ST E!

ROUND-UP: The best travel tech today

*on selected models.

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Contents ISSUE #01

WELCOME TO TECH MADE EASY!

G

reetings, dear reader, and welcome to the unique experiment in South African publishing that you hold in your hands. This is Tech Made Easy, a lovingly crafted magazine designed to take some of the mystery out of technology and help you get the most out of your gadgets and software today.

But it’s also much more than that.

What you have in your hand is htxt.africa’s Tech Made Easy. This is just a small example of some types of the hundreds of articles we publish every month on our website, www.htxt.co.za. If you haven’t come across us before, that’s OK - there’s still plenty of time left to join the thousands of others who are already part of South Africa’s fastest growing tech community.

As well as the kinds of features you’ll read here, we also cover start-ups, business news, geek culture and all the things technology is making possible from all across the continent.

Oh, and we run awesome competitions too (P38).

So if you enjoy this free mag, and feel you want more, you’ll find it every single day of the year at htxt.africa.

Come, join us there.

Adam Oxford Editor-in-Chief htxt.africa PUBLISHER: Brett Haggard – brett@htxt.co.za EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Adam Oxford – adam@htxt.co.za MANAGING EDITOR: Tiana Cline - tiana@htxt.co.za HARDWARE: David Greenway – david@htxt.co.za GAMES: Deon du Plessis – deon@htxt.co.za TECH ’N’ STUFF: Christo van Gemert – christo@htxt.co.za WRITER: Lungelo Shezi – lungelo@htxt.co.za

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SENIOR DESIGNER: Quinton Hoffmann – quinton@htxt.co.za DESIGNER: Jessica Hurwitz – jess@htxt.co.za ADVERTISING: Dorothy Haggard – dorothy@hypertext.co.za Sengezo Jubane – sengezo@hypertext.co.za htxt.africa’s Tech Made Easy is produced by: Hypertext Media, 102 on 11th, Highlands North, 2192, Johannesburg Contact Us: Email: info@hypertext.co.za Tel: (011) 023-8001/4 Fax: 08654 83304 All content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence.

For other uses, please contact info@htxt.co.za

2 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

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www.htxt.co.za March 2014

18

Need to Know

Photos Made Easy

The news you have to have hear about

5 6 8

Meet the RoboBeast The world’s toughest 3D printer.

The ultimate low-cost smartphone MTN’s Steppa smashes through R500 barrier.

News round-up An Android app that can cure cancer and wake you up.

MTN makes Wikipedia free.

The surgical camera disguised as a pill.

The app that will make you fit.

Intel’s battery saving phone chips.

SA luvs the PS4. eSports in South Africa.

The best reviews

Hardware, games, mobile, more…

18

26

49

27 28 29

WIN ME! 32

31

Which high-end smartphone should I buy?

Looking for a top-notch phone?

Let us help you decide.

Saitek RAT 7/Afrihost LTE Mad mice and superfast broadband.

LG Flex LG’s phlexing phablet is here!

Broken Age Kickstarter record-breaker reviewed.

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition Lara’s latest redone for next-gen consoles.

Mobile games What you can play on your phone?

Special section for serious snappers

36 39 44 45

Photo news What’s new in cameras this month?

Which is the best retro camera?

Old fashioned design values meet high tech future head on.

ISO Masterclass Getting to grips with sensor sensitivity.

How to sort out your photo collection

How to...

The ultimate guides to making tech work

46 49 51 52

Protect your Facebook profile Keep cloners at bay.

Secure your data Tips to improve your online security.

Get more out of iMessage Make the most of Apple’s IM app.

Check the traffic Jack yourself into a live feed and see jams before you leave.

The stuff at the back Rounding off the new mag nicely

53 54 56

Infographic Which broadband is right for me?

Subscribe Get htxt.africa’s Tech Made Easy delivered to your door.

This month in numbers...

SA tech in stats

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NEWS Not even a good shake can slow the RoboBeast down

Meet the RoboBeast

The toughest, roughest, low-cost 3D printer in the world, designed in South Africa

“I

used to describe myself as ‘just a South African guy with an idea’,” says Richard van As, modestly, “Now I guess you could call me ‘just a South African guy with another idea’.”

But what an idea it is. To design and build the world’s toughest, roughest lowcost 3D printer. RoboBeast is ‘bulletproof ’.

It requires no set-up software tweaks, or mechanical adjustment of the frame before you print. You can move it during operation and the print head stays steady: it can even print if flipped upside down.

And yet at heart, it shares exactly the same DNA as the open hardware design that underpins every ‘affordable’ 3D printer commercially available. It’s an open source design – you can build one yourself if you like – and it’s been created specifically to help amputees.

The first RoboBeast has been designed and built in a two and a half month period. And its inventor, van As, is the carpenter who shot to fame almost a year ago following a Popular Mechanics South Africa article about RoboHand.

More news at go to htxt.co.za

At CES this year, a second chapter was added to the RoboHand story thanks to Project Daniel – through which US inventor Mick Ebeling took Makerbot printers to Sudan in order to build prosthetics for children injured in the civil war. Towards the end of last year, van As moved the RoboHand project into House4Hack, the Centurion makerspace

It can even print if flipped upside down which is run by volunteers and has been home to other world-class 3D printing inventions. The original plan was to create a ‘botfarm’ of 3D printers in a backroom

SHUTTLEWORTH STEPS UP: UBUNTU PHONES SET FOR 2014 LAUNCH Chinese makers Meizu and Spanish bq have promised handsets running the smaller screen version of Ubuntu before the end of the year.

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at House4Hack which would be capable of producing printed RoboHands en masse for people who can’t afford medical prosthetics.

“We work on a ‘pay it forward’ system,” says van As, “Amputees contact us asking for help and where we can, we send them a RoboHand. Then, if they’re able to work where they weren’t before, they can consider a donation to help us keep going.”

Enter RoboBeast: with the help of other House4Hack members, a prototype of the printer has been put together in just two and a half months, and van As says four more are currently being built. To make it easy to operate, RoboBeast’s SD card is loaded with preconfigured RoboHand models in a variety of sizes. Other models can be set-up using the USB port.

Naturally, this design is more expensive than building a ‘traditional’ 3D printer, but it’s not prohibitively so: van As reckons the total bill of materials will be around R27 000 ($2 500) per machine: considering an off-the-shelf MakerBot 2 costs $2 100, that’s not terrible value at all.

LOCAL SQUARE RIVAL PUTS MOBILE PAYMENTS IN YOUR POCKET A Durban firm’s device that plugs into an iPhone or Android device and allows South African sellers to take card payments on the go.

Bit.ly/1gjUmiy

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 5

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

MTN launches supercheap smartphone Operator’s sub-R500 Steppa is first of its kind.

M

obile operator MTN has launched South Africa’s first Android-powered smartphone that’s available on pre-pay for less than R500. It certainly an African first, and may even a world one: as far as we know, there’s no other smartphone in this class available for less than $50 anywhere.

That makes it quite a milestone in putting high-tech handsets within the reach of everyone. Which is awesome.

The phone itself isn’t, of course, hugely powerful. It’s based on a Qualcomm reference design, so it has a 1GHz single core Snapdragon processor, a 3.5inch screen and a mere 2MP camera on board.

More limiting is the fact that there’s only 512MB of memory and 1GB of storage on-board.

The screen is a decent enough multitouch affair, which takes up most

More news at

of the front of the device. There’s no physical keyboard.

It also runs a positively ancient version of Google’s Android OS, Gingerbread.

Still, that does still mean it’s able to access BlackBerry Messenger, which is hugely

CLIMATE CHANGE WILL CAUSE MORE STORM DAMAGE IN SA

go to htxt.co.za I am a cyclon e forming over Madagasca r 6 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

It’s a milestone which puts hightech handsets within the reach of everyone…

Two scientists from Wits have published a paper which says that South Africa may be at increased risk of tropical storm damage.

Bit.ly/Nww6kR

important for South Africa.

Sadly, MTN has confirmed that there’s no plans to upgrade the Steppa to a more recent version of Android, although local hackers are investigating the possibility of unlocking the phone and flashing a custom firmware.

There’s an FM radio though, along with a microSD port for upgrading the storage.

What you don’t get, however, is a fast HSPA radio for high speed internet access – you’ll have to settle for plain old 3G. All in all, though, it’s a heck of a phone for the price. Not even Nokia can come close with its Asha range of semismartphones, which start at about R799 and don’t have access to half the number of apps and services the Steppa has.

Like the sound of this super budget smartphone? See our full review at http://bit.ly/1l5dVkv

FACEBOOK BUYS WHATSAPP FOR R200BN Facebook has just dived into its war chest again to make another big purchase, this time it’s buying the popular messaging service WhatsApp. Bit.ly/1nPD8wj

There is nothing quite like and then finding it again.

TABLET LOCATED

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NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

An Android alarm clock that could help to cure cancer and Alzheimers

S

amsung and the University of Vienna have teamed up to create the new Samsung Power Sleep app which, along with being an alarm clock to help you wake up, also allows you to assist researchers at the university with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease research. The app uses the BOINC system of distributed computing, which means that your smartphone or tablet will process a small amount of data, but if hundreds of phones join in a huge amount of scientific number crunching can go on. While it sounds complicated at first the app is actually very simple in its execution. Once you’ve set the alarm all you need do is plug your smartphone into its charger. When your battery reaches 80% charge that’s when the magic happens. The smartphone or tablet downloads a small, roughly 1MB, file from the network and begins to decrypt protein sequences with its processor. Once it finishes decrypting the file it sends the results back home and starts working on the next file. By default the app is set to only download files when connected to WiFi, but you can set it to use mobile data if you really want to help that badly. The app doesn’t interfere with any of your device’s regular functions and for those of us concerned with privacy issues it also does not get access to any of your private information such as contacts, messages or photos.

More stories at go to htxt.co.za

8 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

MTN provides free access to Wikipedia for all

F

rom now on, MTN users will have free access to Wikipedia, thanks to a group of brave young learners from a township school in Cape Town. Last year, learners from Sinenjongo High School set up an online petition calling on all the mobile networks in South Africa to provide free access to Wikipedia, as they and many other underprivileged learners around the country, don’t always have airtime or internet to access the service for school projects and information. A team of MTN employees created a video similar to the one by the Sinenjongo learners, where they read out a response to their call. “You recently shared a video asking South African cellular networks to give their customers free access to Wikipedia... we know that many school children in the country don’t have access to free research material, which can make excelling at school so much more difficult. That’s why MTN is proud to be the first South African cellular network to make Wikipedia free.”

Will this inspire Cell C, Vodacom and Telkom Mobile to do the same? We certainly hope so.

FACEBOOK BUYS WHATSAPP FOR $19 BILLION WhatsApp has already racked up 450 million users, 320 million of whom use the service every day. But what about Snapchat? bit.ly/1nPD8wj

TWEETS FROM 8 000M AS MOUNT EVEREST GETS 3G The tower is the first in a planned investment in infrastructure that will see cell coverage jump from 30 to 90% in the next year. bit.ly/1c4045J

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Meet fitCal, the SA calendar for runners, cyclists and swimmers

S

outh Africa is a hotbed of sporting activity with dozens of races taking place each and every weekend around the country. fitCal is a new, South African website that allows you to search through the races and events in from across the country to create your own customised schedule. Running, cycling, swimming and multi-sport events like triathlons are all represented in the online calendar which lets you first filter by your sport of choice and then by

your region before churning out your list. Once you have a list of events it’s simple enough to add them into your schedule with the fitCal website exporting to Apple’s iCal, Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. fitCal was created by Mike Stopforth in response to his growing frustration at “trying to find running, cycling and swimming events by my (his) preference across the myriad (in many cases sub-standard) event and fitnessrelated sites online.”

A

WIKIMANIA 2015 COULD BE HOSTED IN CAPE TOWN If Douglas Scott wins his bid, the conference for Wikipedia, Wiktonary, Wikinews and other Wiki projects might be coming our way. bit.ly/1eVrwlS

T

entire colon from a monitor that stores the images, without sedation or radiation (or anything going up your rear). It’s basically like Go-Pro for your colon. It also works for patients who have had incomplete colonoscopies and need to complete their colon exams. There’s no need to retrieve the PillCam back either, after the procedure, it dissolves like a normal pill and passes through with a bowel movement. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the PillCam COLONclearance, so it’s expected to debut in the America and Japan soon.

he major constraint with most modern devices, be it smartphones, tablets or notebooks, is without a doubt battery life. No matter how powerful your tablet is, if the battery is flat when you need it, then it may as well be an expensive paperweight. The Intel Labs team, which was set up to work on technology that “could change the game, and your life, in five to ten years”, has been showing off their research into optimising the power usage of the on-board graphics processor (GPU) at this year’s International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.

While some of the work they do, like this optimisation of the GPU, will go largely unnoticed they have been responsible for some more high profile innovations like the technology like the high-speed Thunderbolt ports that you find on today’s Apple Mac products.

Intel has already focused its latest efforts in the mobile processor space on increasing battery life, work which is most evident in the latest generation of Haswell PC processors. Haswell wasn’t only about battery life though, the other big advancement was in the on-board Intel Iris graphics which brought a much needed boost in that department. Intel’s focus on graphics further highlights just how much this latest project could be used to further improve the battery life of notebooks in the future. Thankfully the work that was shown off is not just theoretical. There is already a working testchip at the Intel Labs which has been built on the same 22nm process already being used to make the Haswell chips. We just hope that it doesn’t take five to 10 years to make its way into our next notebook.

LOCAL MONEY MANAGEMENT APP 22SEVEN COMES TO ANDROID

PAPERIGHT SAYS STUDENTS CAN SAVE 1BN WITH DIGITAL TEXTBOOKS

This pill camera is like a GoPro for your colon nyone who has had a colonoscopy will tell you that the process is not the most pleasant of experiences. So hurrah, then, for a new pill-sized camera hopes to take the pain and discomfort out of looking inside your insides, which in turn could encourage more patients to do the procedure.

The PillCam COLON is created by pharmaceuticals company, Given Imaging, and looks like a capsule but has a mini camera on the inside. Patients are required to swallow the PillCam COLON, which then goes through the digestive system, allowing doctors to directly view the

Intel’s new chips could double your battery life

For R25 a month, 22seven is now helping Android fans to make sense of their financial data and see what’s happening with their money. bit.ly/1bNWXnU

With its Textbook Revolution campaign, CT print-ondemand specialist Paperight is trying to convince students to adopt low-cost publishing. bit.ly/1feVpDW

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 9

NEED TO KNOW: GAMES

PS4 wins the game-based popularity pageant

World sport body to include eSports in future

T

he International eSports Federation has achieved another victory in the war to have playing videogames competitively recognised as an actual sport. This time, they have convinced The Association for International Sports for All (TAFISA) to include eSports in 2016’s TAFISA World Sport for All Games. The Games, which are held every four years, showcase sports and games from around the world. They are open to the general public, who can see firsthand what physical activities other countries and cultures engage in for recreation.

The MSSA has long been involved with TAFISA, having sent teams to attend two events so far, the 1996 and 2012 Games, and will be looking to assemble a team of local gamers to attend 2016’s event in Jakarta. The TAFISA World Sport for All Games will be held from the 10th to the 16th of November, 2016.

N

othing says ‘I love you’ more than sales figures, and in the battle for the hearts of gamers it appears that the PlayStation 4 is winning more affection than the Xbox One. An NPD report on January sales in the US has shown that Sony’s PlayStation 4 sold almost twice the number of consoles as Xbox One. NPD tracks videogame-related retail sales, and releases monthly reports on sales figures for both game software and hardware, including consoles.

Its findings for December indicated that more Xbox Ones were sold than PlayStation 4s, but in the company’s latest report it appears the tables have turned: January saw gamers buying PlayStation 4s over Xbox Ones by a factor of almost two to one.

In the months between the PlayStation 4 launch and the 2013 holiday season, Koller said that Sony has shipped over 4.2 million consoles worldwide, and “sold every PS4 available in the US”. So the next(current?)-gen war is definitely on. Microsoft has a long way to go to woo South African gamers away from the attraction that is the PlayStation 4, but clearly ours isn’t the only market where the Xbox-maker is facing some pretty serious challenges.

MakeGamesSA makes dreams come true: Sends two students to school

L

ocal games developer association MakeGamesSA is best known for supporting the production and marketing of locally made gems like Broforce, Stasis and PixelBoy. But now it’s gone and got itself a reputation as a tiny nation of philanthropists too. MGSA’s Ben Myers says that this weekend the community forum managed to raise a massive R25 000 in just four days, in order to keep two talented (but impoverished) students on the Game Design course at the University of the Witswatersrand.

Hanli Geyser, from Wits, posted an urgent request to the MGSA forum on Thursday afternoon, asking regulars to consider helping Thsetso Gift Radebe and

Tumelo Thabane. The two are passionate about games and had been singled out as good prospective students for the course, but found themselves R22 780 short of funding their studies. So the forum had a whipround. Astonishingly, by Sunday evening, the lovely MGSAers had pledged a fund of R25 000 for the pair - effectively creating the organisation’s first bursary project in a completely impromptu fashion. MGSA committee chair Nick Hall says that the organisation had been toying with the idea of a bursary, but this opportunity came out of the blue. Clearly proving that not only do South African developers make the best games, they have the biggest hearts too.

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NEED TO KNOW: GAMES

Hands

We got to play and early build of the revival of Eidos’ stealthy cult classic. Join us, and step into Garrett’s soft shoes.

T

hief starts off with Garrett on a job. His mission is to meet a contact on the rooftops of The City, a sprawling Victorian-era metropolis, who he will be pulling the job with. Turns out, it’s someone he knows, a young woman by the name of Erin, who may or may not be the grown version of the young girl Garrett met (and possibly apprenticed) at the end of Deadly Shadows. She serves as a bridge between the previous games and this one, even though Thief is, according to the game’s makers, a reboot of the franchise rather than a direct sequel.

SNEAKY MOVES The job goes awry, naturally, leading to some sort of summoning ritual being performed by a mysterious cult and Garrett, in trying to save Erin from evil magic, knocks himself unconscious and yes, gives himself amnesia. He wakes up a year or so later with only a fuzzy recollection of what happened, in a city that has changed completely (and not for the better) which of course sets him on a path of answer-seeking.

What actually happened when Erin died? Why is the city being affected by a mysterious illness that seems connected to the gloomy fog that has settled over it? What happened during the year that changed everything for the worse?

More news at go to htxt.co.za

12 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

MICROSOFT’S PROJECT SPARK BETA LETS YOU MAKE YOUR OWN GAMES Project Spark uses a visual programming interface to let users craft their own interactive adventures and virtual worlds.

Bit.ly/NqpBzW

CUSTOM KEYBOARDS FOR IOS, COURTESY OF FLEKSY iPhone owners have long been jealous of Android’s choice of customisable keyboards. Meet Fleksy, the first multi-app alternative typewriter for iOS. Bit.ly/1c0qxqm

NEWS

ds-on with Thief In the next chapter you’ll find out just how gloomy and depressing the city had become in the year since Garrett bumped his head; bodies are piling up all over the place because of a mystery illness called “The Gloom”, and the authorities appeared to have been instructed to come down hard on the city’s poor, the people most affected by it.

After a brief meeting with one of Garrett’s old underworld pals, Garrett was given the job to steal a ring from a certain recentlydeceased wealthy man, whose body was busy decomposing at a well-guarded nearby bodydisposal plant.

Getting around in this new Thief means making your way through what are essentially interconnected hubs. Your main base is an old abandoned clock tower, and picking up missions means sneaking around to the local pub or wherever your contact tells you to meet him, and then sneaking your way into whichever part of The City the job is located in. It’s definitely no open world, but it works pretty well and the load times that separated the areas were acceptably short even in this early build.

progress as achieving each level’s primary objectives. All of the tools and abilities Garrett acquires are unlocked with money, so if you don’t steal anything, you can’t

“Getting around in this new Thief means making your way through what are essentially interconnected hubs.”

Strangely, one didn’t feel punished for messing up; we felt encouraged to be smarter.

Part of the challenge of getting away was due to some inconsistency in the environmental design. Garrett can’t jump, but he can climb and sometimes leap over obstacles. Just not all of them, and figuring out what can and can’t be traversed didn’t prove to be quite as intuitive as we’d have liked. Sure, Eidos Montreal has marked out the more obvious places Garrett can climb or leap over, but we often came across crates or debris that looked like we could climb from a purely logical standpoint, but which proved to be no more than set dressing. While this is quite minor when you’re sneaking around, when as being chased by guards and your master thief is flummoxed by a small branch, it is a tad annoying.

kit yourself out properly for the next mission or buy the tools needed to make effective use of the game’s environments. It’s a very clever, very subtle change that keeps gamers focused on being a thief that may occasionally get into a fight, rather than a headshotting psychopath who occasionally pilfers stuff. It goes very well Embrace the with the fact that you can darkness, for it complete the entire game is your friend without killing a single person.

It didn’t bother us that Garrett was useless in a fist fight, to be WHERE YOU AT? honest, as his vulnerability in all preceeding By changing the game’s economy from one games is what forces you to closely evaluate of experience points to one based purely options as you moved through the level lest on money, the developers have pretty much you make a wrong step and end up on the ensured that stealing is as important to player wrong end of a sword or crossbow again.

USE YOUR INSTINCT Of course, there’s a way to mitigate problems like that in the game, using Garrett’s Focus ability. It works just like Instinct mode in both Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution, in that it highlights objects of interest in Garrett’s immediate vicinity in blue. Grates that can be opened, bits of wall that can be used to climb to greater heights, stealable items and more are instantly made visible when pressing the Focus button. It even makes things like picking locks and pockets easier, but to make sure it’s not overpowered, Eidos limited its potency by ensuring it doesn’t automatically regenerate; it needs to be replenished by consuming an item, just like health.

Being a preview build, the game had a few issues - we noticed lip-synching irregularities and a few mis-timed audio cues here and there. At the end of our time with Thief ’s preview build, we found our fears of a cynical cash-in on a great franchise name just about entirely allayed.

But you don’t have to hope that we’re right.

Thief was released on PC, Xbox, PlayStation et al on the 28th February – too late for us to get a review into this issue but plenty of time to take a look at it online. Check out www.htxt.co.za now.

12-YEAR-OLD BUILDS A BRAILLE PRINTER OUT OF LEGO

VIDEOGAME TEACHES KIDS TO RECOGNISE STROKE SYMPTOMS

The Braigo printer uses a pin mounted to a manoeuvrable arm that can print out any of the 26 standard letters onto a roll of calculator paper.

Bit.ly/1gvEUju

21 YEARS LATER, 90S PLATFORMER JETPACK GETS A SEQUEL The levels look to be just as fiendishly difficult as those of the original, with tons of puzzles and secrets to keep old-school platformers happy.

Bit.ly/Osu9H6

A short game on the causes and symptoms called Stroke Hero has been developed by researchers at Columbia university.

Bit.ly/1bDlGe6

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 13

must-have travel gadgets Going away for the Easter break? Here are the gizmos that will make your journey easier.

PETZL NAO This award-winning headlamp is pricey, but that’s because it has a built in sensor that varies the output of its twin LED bulb in response to ambient lighting for the room your in. The sophisticated dork look.

R1 999 Bit.ly/1ciNM9v

LEATHERMAN WAVE II There are many like it, but the Leatherman Wave II remains the best multitool for travellers and geeks alike. Be prepared for anything, from errant screws to scrimshank.

R1 289 Bit.ly/1bI20pF

DESIGN GO DOUBLE USB CHARGER Solar chargers for your gadgets are excellent, but the serious traveller never goes anywhere without one of these: a USB adaptor for your car and almost any international socket.

It’s capable of charging both your phone and your partner’s simultaneously, thus avoiding the who-goes-first fight too.

R120 Bit.ly/1fAL3Nn

SONY CYBERSHOT QX10 Want to travel light and pack a decent camera to go with you? Sony’s QX10 has a powerful 10X optical zoom and yet is about the size of tax disc holder. How is it so small?

Because it’s just a lens and image sensor: it uses your smartphone’s screen and storage for other camera functions.

R2 770 oran.ge/1hNup0i

SPEAKER BLANKET Tired of lugging around a portable speaker as well as all your picnic kit? This is the last word in packing efficiency: a Bluetooth speaker built into blanket. Just don’t ask us how you wash it.

R535 Bit.ly/1cKeDP9

14 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

full-frame. pioneering size The world’s smallest and lightest 35mm full-frame interchangeable-lens camera*. from Sony.

Introducing the

*Information correct as of 16th October 2013 and refers to commercially available products intended for consumer use. “Sony”, “make.believe”, “ ” and their logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Corporation.

www.sony.co.za

facebook.com/zasony

twitter.com/zaSony

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Our daily news website We really hope you’re enjoying this first issue of htxt.africa’s Tech Made Easy, because we think it’s a unique magazine in South Africa in that it’s completely independent, 100% locally made and full of expert advice that’s both comprehensive and accessible no matter how familiar you are with the subject.

The thing is, we’re also fairly sure that you’ll be left wanting more. Which is why you should head over to htxt.africa now.

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ech Made Easy is just a small subsection of what we do on our main website. Every day we carry South Africa’s best news about technology, gadgets, games, business start-ups, geek culture and more. We have the broadest editorial remit of any similar site in the country, and we’re passionate with it. We believe that all across Africa, technology is changing lives - and that the more we write about it and the more you read about it the better the chance is that it will be for the better.

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htxt africa www.htxt.co.za Live from South Africa.. Tech, Culture, Games, Geeks, more

SUPERTEST

WHICH…

High-end smartphone Apple or Samsung? LG or Sony Xperia? If money’s no object, these are the phones to choose.

A

ndroid or iPhone, Samsung or Sony. Your smartphone is no longer just a communication device, it’s your link to the world and everyone has an opinion on which one is best. 2013 was a year filled to the brim with some of the best smartphones we’ve ever seen.

The perennial powerhouses of Apple and Samsung were always going to make a claim for the top spot, but some surprise

18 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

entries gave us a lot to think about.

The seven finalists in our smartphone supertest each stood out in their individual reviews with us. They cover every major smartphone operating system and come from a variety of big name manufacturers.

So who are the finalists?

Apple makes it onto the list twice with both of its latest smartphones the iPhone 5s and 5c making the grade while BlackBerry

SHOULD ?

YOU BUY

also has a contender in the mix with its latest flagship the Z30. The Android army is well represented with Sony’s Xperia Z1 joining LG’s G2.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 beats out its stalemate the Galaxy S4 to take a place in the fight with Nokia’s camera cum smartphone, the Lumia 1020, rounding out the top seven.

But which is best? Read on…

SUPERTEST

APPLE IPHONE 5S THE COOL KID EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE AROUND The upgraded camera in the iPhone 5s is a real beauty. Even upgrading from an iPhone 5, which also has an 8-megapixel camera, there is a noticeable difference. While it still captures eight million pixels, each of those pixels is physically larger, on the image sensor. This means that they are more sensitive to light, and as a result low-light performance benefits drastically.

While Apple has been criticised in the past for not innovating enough from one generation to the next, the iPhone 5s represents a dramatic leap forward in the technology inside Apple’s smartphone. The changes from the iPhone 5 are under the skin rather than cosmetic in nature. The inclusion of a 64-bit processor is a strategic move, but thankfully it does have real-world benefits. The fingerprint sensor has an associated cool factor, but is also already functional and will instantly become something you

cannot live without. We can’t wait for it to be used more widely by the operating system in years to come.

However it’s without a doubt the camera that’s the biggest take away from our time with the iPhone 5s. It’s the best new hardware feature and one which, we’re confident in saying, puts Apple firmly at the head of the pack as the portable camera of choice.

DETAILS Design

10

Performance

10

Value for Money

6

Overall

10

From R10 699 Smart, sleek and sophisticated Bit.ly/MCUYHu

APPLE IPHONE 5C

The new polycarbonate (plastic) frame that houses the iPhone 5c is a boon to many who have suffered the indignity of a shattered iPhone. While it won’t protect the display of your new iPhone it most certainly is a refreshing change to the back with its

THE COOL KID’S LITTLE BROTHER

comfortable soft touch feel.

While not quite the ‘cheap iPhone’ that was predicted before its launch, the iPhone 5c is nonetheless a smaller burden on the wallets of those lusting after Apple’s smartphones.

The internals are almost identical to those of

the outgoing iPhone 5 with a larger battery the only real internal change.

It’s the new housing comes in five colours, which represent the most drastic departure from the love affair with glass and aluminium that has dominated iPhone design since the iPhone 4 was launched in 2010. The iPhone 5c is every bit as great a smartphone as the iPhone 5 but will immediately appeal to parents who want a more robust device for their children or those who want to stand out from the army of metal clad iPhone crowds.

The lower price point is also an enticing proposition for those who don’t feel the need to have the latest components right away.

DETAILS Design

8

Performance

9

Value for Money

7

Overall

8

From R10 699 The C stands for colour. Who knew?!

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 19

SMARTPHONE SUPERTEST

BLACKBERRY Z30

A BLACKBERRY DESIGNED TO WIN BACK BUSINESS USERS

be described as, epic battery life and Battery life is the BlackBerry Z30’s truly remarkable feature. you have a smartphone capable of outlasting even the most productive A typical day of usage that business executive. would see its contemporaries The BlackBerry Z30 is not the begging for a top-up by late phone for everybody, a subpar camera afternoon doesn’t even phase the Z30 which just calmly carries and a limited app store keep it from truly shining. However if you’re a on all through the night. The business executive who couldn’t care prolonged battery life is certainly about Angry Birds or Instagram appreciated in a world where then the Z30 is most definitely the carrying around a charger has smartphone for you. almost become the norm.

The Blackberry Z30 is the best phone released by the company since the launch of DETAILS the BlackBerry 10 operating Design 8 system. Not content with the title of best BlackBerry, the Z30 Performance 6 is also the best communications device available today.

Value for Money 8 The secret is in the BlackBerry Hub, a single location that houses all of your calendar, email, instant and text messaging. The Hub is available with a simple swipe From R8 799 We love the all-day battery life no matter what you are doing.

Combine that with, what can only Bit.ly/1jKq6jc

Overall

7

LG G2

THE LATEST FLAGSHIP SMARTPHONE FROM THE OTHER KOREAN TECH GIANT The gorgeous 5.2-inch full HD display is one of the best displays we’ve ever seen in a smartphone.

Even though the screen itself is larger than its main competitors the LG G2 manages to feel more compact by virtue of the minuscule bezels around the display.

Who would have thought that putting the power and volume buttons on the back of a smartphone would have worked out so well? And yet the LG G2 is proof of that. With its rounded sides and edge-toedge display the G2 rests comfortably in one hand, not an easy feat for a smartphone with a larger than 5-inch display. Those rear buttons are easily accessible with an index finger for both right and left handed users and quickly become the norm for any G2 owner.

Hardware-wise the G2 competes with the best Android smartphones around and bests most of them with its superb 13 megapixel camera and that gorgeous display. Innovative software features like KnockOn, which lets you tap the display twice to turn it on and off, are a welcome addition to the powerful hardware creating a better overall experience rather than becoming a hindrance.

DETAILS Design

10

Performance

10

Value for Money

8

Overall

9

From R7 299 A beautiful design that works Bit.ly/1h9q6rm

20 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

Multiple HD Streaming Powerline adapters auto-connect and stream to multiple HD smart TVs throughout your home

Smart TV

Floor 2

Powerline 500

Smar t TV

Scan for video

TPL-406E2K Powerline 500 AV Nano Adapter Kit • Includes two TPL-406E adapters • 500 Mbps networking from an electrical outlet • Auto connect out of box

Floor 1

SMARTPHONE SUPERTEST

NOKIA LUMIA 1020

THIS WINDOWS 8 SMARTPHONE IS A PHOTOGRAPHER’S DREAM Without a doubt it’s the camera that is the stand out feature of the Nokia Lumia 1020. Any area of a smartphone camera that can be enhanced, Nokia has done it with the Lumia 1020’s 41 megapixel sensor.

Whether in direct sunlight, indoors or in low light conditions, the pictures produced by the Lumia 1020 are some of the best we’ve ever seen from a mobile phone.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 is without a doubt the best camera phone we’ve ever used in terms of sheer imaging power. Unfortunately it’s hampered by an ageing Windows Phone 8 operating system which could really do with an overhaul to make things smoother.

The battery life could be a concern for those looking to replace a dedicated camera. If you need it to be ready to take pictures at any time then worrying

about keeping some juice for an emergency call is going to hurt you in the long run.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a technological marvel and for our money it’s the best Windows Phone 8 smartphone available right now.

DETAILS Design

8

Performance

8

Value for Money

7

Overall

7

From R10 399 Fantastic photos every time Bit.ly/1l0mkF0

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 3

FIND PHABLETS BULKY AND UNINSPIRED? THIS SMARTPHONE MAY CHANGE YOUR MIND

The Galaxy Note 3 is a phone so large it blurs the line ’twixt mobile and tablets: but it’s not so large that you feel silly using it. Unlike most ‘phablets’, this is one we can see ourselves using.

And although it’s tough to slide into a pocket, the large 5.7-inch display that makes the Galaxy Note 3 makes it worthwhile having to reach into a bag to answer your phone. Videos look incredible at this size and any text, whether on a website or in an email, is crisp and easy to read. Even using two apps side-by-side actually becomes a real possibility.

The powerful hardware makes short work of any task that you throw at the Note while the massive battery keeps it going for much longer than we initially expected with that big display. Add to that the fantastic ‘Accidental Damage from Handling’ warranty – which will cover you for screen or liquid damage – and the Note 3 becomes one of the most attractive smartphones available today, whatever the size.

The only drawbacks? Samsung’s heavily customised interface and the faux leather back.

22 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

SMARTPHONE SUPERTEST

SONY XPERIA Z1 COMPACT THE BEST OF SONY IN A COMPACT AND DURABLE PACKAGE The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact is both water and dust proof making it one of the most robust smartphones available today. With the ability to stay submerged for up to 30 minutes in a full meter of deep water, dropping your phone into your morning cereal is no longer an expensive start to the day.

The Z1 Compact has a list of specifications that would make any smartphone owner proud to call one their own. The 20.7 megapixel camera sensor comes straight from one of Sony’s best digital cameras and produces some truly amazing pictures. While the huge battery in conjunction with some smart power-saving software helps the phone make it through the day with ease.

And yet it’s also easy to handle. It has the same high performance specs as a full size Z1, but it fits your hand better than any of the current oversized crop of high-end handsets.

However what makes the Z1 truly

special is the fact that all of that hardware is wrapped in a protective case that keeps it from dying at the first sign of moisture or dust. The elimination of the worry associated with small accidents involving water makes the Z1 Compact an even better smartphone than it already is, not to mention giving you a fantastic party trick.

DETAILS 8

Design

10

Performance Value for Money

6

Overall

8

From R8 999 Practical design, perfect specs Bit.ly/1gZ2EOP

DETAILS Design Performance

8 10

Value for Money

8

Overall

8

From R8 999 The most phantastic of phablets, still Bit.ly/1gJpgmI

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 23

SMARTPHONE SUPERTEST

THE WINNER: LG G2 In the end it was a much tougher decision than we ever thought it would be, with a strong case being presented for many of the smartphones on show in our supertest. The overriding impression that we got after reviewing the finalists was that camera quality as well as battery life are two of the most important features we look at when testing a smartphone.

With all said and done it came down to a straight out battle for the top spot between the iPhone 5s and LG’s surprise package, the G2. Apple fans will no doubt clamour for the iPhone 5s and its

innovative fingerprint sensor to take the top spot, it is however the G2 with its superb design and that big, beautiful display that takes the crown as our overall winner.

The iPhone 5s impressed us with how well the fingerprint sensor worked as well as claiming a narrow win in the camera stakes, but the combination of the G2’s fantastic design and phenomenal battery life that won in the end.

While it’s easy to notice some of the external changes, like the thin bezels around the display or the repositioning of the buttons to the back of the G2, it’s really the changes made inside the G2

that have yielded the greatest benefit to users. The Silicon anode (SiO+) battery with its ‘stepped’ design allowed LG to cram more battery into the G2’s impressively thin profile. That, along with a small GRAM chip, which saves power by helping refresh the image on the display gives the G2 some of the most incredible battery life we’ve ever experienced in a smartphone.

A smartphone is, after all, only useful when it has battery life and the LG G2 is the phone that just kept going no matter what we threw at it.

R’S EDITOIC E CHO

SPECS-TACULAR Display Display resolution Pixel density

Processor

iPhone 5s

iPhone 5c

BlackBerry Z30

LG G2

Nokia Lumia 1020

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Sony Xperia Z1

4-inch IPS LCD

4-inch IPS LCD

5-inch Super AMOLED

5.2-inch IPS+ LCD

4.5-inch ClearBlack AMOLED

5.7-inch Super AMOLED

5-inch Triluminous TFT LCD

640X1136

640X1136

720X1280

1080X1920

768X1280

1080X1920

1080X1920

326ppi

326ppi

294ppi

424ppi

332ppi

386ppi

441ppi

Dual core, 64 bit, Apple A7

Dual core, Apple A6

Dual core 1.7GHz Snapdragon Pro

Quad core 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800

Dual core 1.5GHz Snapdragon

Quad core 1.9 GHz & quad-core 1.3 GHz Samsung Exynos Octa (N9000 - 3G model)

OR Quad core 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800

Quad core 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800

(N9005 - LTE model)

RAM

1GB

1GB

2GB

2GB

2GB

3GB

2GB

Storage

16/32/64GB

16/32/64GB

16GB (microSD card up to 64GB)

16/32GB

32GB

16/32/64GB (microSD card up to 64GB)

16GB (microSD card up to 64GB)

Camera

8MP, dual-LED flash, 1.5µm pixel size

8MP, 1.4µm pixel size

8MP

13MP, Optical Image Stabilisation

41MP, Optical Image Stabilisation, 1.12µm pixel size

13MP

20.7MP

LTE

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

WiFi

Dual-band 802.11n

Dual-band 802.11n

Dual-band 802.11n

Dual-band 802.11ac

Dual-band 802.11n

Dual-band 802.11ac

Dual-band 802.11ac

Bluetooth 4.0

Bluetooth 4.0

Bluetooth 4.0

Bluetooth 4.0

Bluetooth 3.0 (updated to 4.0)

Bluetooth 4.0

Bluetooth 4.0

1560mAh

1510mAh

3000mAh

3000mAh

2000mAh

3200mAh

3000mAh

OS

iOS 7

iOS 7

BlackBerry 10.2

Android 4.2.2

Windows Phone 8, Lumia Black update

Android 4.3

Android 4.2/4.3

Weight

112g

132g

170g

143g

158g

168g

170g

Bluetooth Battery

24 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

Yes (N9005 model)

Yes

REVIEWS SPECS • Up to 6400 DPI sensitivity • 18 adjustable components • USB (gold-plated) • 4-way scrolling • 2-button mouse, with clickable scroll wheel and Forward/Back buttons on the side R1247 (average)

Mad Catz R.A.T. 7 Gaming Mouse

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his wired gaming mouse from Mad Catz is like a robot from the future that has extra parts that can be swapped out to make it even more awesome. Those parts are also adjustable once they’re in so that the R.A.T. 7 fits your mousing style - and your hand – exactly.

There are 18 different ways it can be adjusted, which is what gives it a massive edge over other mice aimed at gamers. There are three major parts of the R.A.T. 7 mouse that can be adjusted: the thumb rest, a moveable cushionlike piece that rests in the palm of your hand, and a panel right near where your pinky lies naturally.

MEGATRON MOUSE The palm rests made the biggest overall difference to the R.A.T. 7’s feel, as they’re not just good for changing how the surface of the mouse feels, they’re also good at changing how the mouse is held. That said, this is one expensive mouse – expect to spend over a thousand rand on it. While the design works in that the mouse rests against the parts of your hand, it doesn’t feel quite as nice to hold as a less modular, and more ergonomic mouse does.

None of these tiny issues are deal-breakers – the R.A.T. 7

is still a very good mouse, and one we’re only too happy to recommend to gamers.

SCORES Design

9

Comfort

9

Accuracy

9

Modularity

10

Price

6

Overall

8

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Hisense Infinity Prime 1 A budget Android phone from the low-cost TV manufacturers. The dual-Sim option makes it one to watch.

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Sony PlayStation 4 Gorgeous visuals, Sony’s best controller and the ability to share screenshots and videos. What’s not to love?

Bit.ly/1eVJIfh

SPECS • 802.11n WiFi • 10 simultaneous connections • up to 150Mbps LTE • 3 000mAh battery rated for up to 10 hours R2 696

Afrihost Huawei E5776 LTE MiFi

A

mobile data connection has become an integral part of the mobile office.

There are multiple options when connecting to mobile data networks on the move, but there is no solution quite as complete as the MiFi. Afrihost have become a force to be reckoned with in the mobile data space with aggressive pricing on its data packages and specials on hardware as well. The Huawei E5776 spares nothing in the specs department.

The LTE receiver is rated for up to 150Mbps download speeds

26 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

depending on the network it’s connected to with the ability to scale down the connection all the way to a lowly EDGE connection if needs be. In reality we found that our average download on LTE tended towards 15Mbps which still outperforms nearly all available ADSL lines in South Africa.

With LTE being a notorious battery hog, the E5776 was always going to need a lot of battery power. At 3 000mAh the battery inside the E5776 dwarfs many smartphones available today. For the first time in absolute ages, the battery life of a device has exceeded

the manufacturer’s claims by a wide margin. At R2 696 from Afrihost it’s certainly not for everyone but in our opinion it justifies its price with solid performance.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 All of Olympus’ best technologies, from both its SLR and compact mirrorless models, stuffed into one sexy camera.

Bit.ly/1e9PXMx

SCORES Design

6

Performance

10

Battery

10

Value

8

Overall

9

Lenovo Yoga 8 tablet Speakers, display and design are just three things that impressed us about this tablet-laptop hybrid.

Bit.ly/1csRelf

REVIEWS

DETAILS • 6-inch curved P-OLED display • 720×1280 resolution at 245 ppi • 2.26 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor (MSM8974) • 2GB RAM • 32GB non-expandable storage • 13 megapixel rear camera • 2.1 megapixel full HD, front facing camera • LTE, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, dual-band 802.11ac wireless • Flexible display and body • ‘self-healing’ rear cover R9 999

LG G Flex

A ground-breaking flexible phone with a more comfortable grip, fit, and “self-healing rear” cover.

F

orget reviews that rave about how solid a phone feels in your hand.

This is the future: LG’s G Flex isn’t the first phone with a curiously curved display, you can also bend it flat and watch it ping back into shape. For nerd-credits, that’s awesome – but does it actually make the G Flex a phone you’d want to buy?

The 6-inch display is phablet-sized big, but is flanked by relatively small bezels to either side so that it feels marginally smaller than – say – a Note 3. It does, however, render the G Flex near impossible to operate with one hand.

The LG G Flex sports all of the top end internal components you would expect from a premium Android smartphone.

The quad core 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor is joined by 2GB of RAM and 32GB of nonexpandable storage.

Wireless communications are all up to the latest standards with LTE, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 all finding their way on board. The 6-inch flexible display runs at a 720X1280 resolution and is kept alive with a rather monstrous, and equally flexible, 3500mAh battery.

The biggest talking point when anyone sees the LG G Flex is of course the curved display. The 6-inch Polymer Organic LED (P-OLED) display comes directly from a collaboration with LG’s display division which is also responsible for the company’s curved OLED TVs. The curved panel performs as advertised

outdoors helping to reduce glare by limiting the amount of sunlight reflected into your eyes. LG’s website also claims that the “G Flex’s curved screen fills your field of vision for a more immersive, panoramic viewing experience”. While we’re not so sure about filling our vision, the claim has some measure of truth to it. The curved display was great for both for gaming and when watching video. While the viewing experience on the curved display felt better than on a regular display that could just be personal preference. The major disappointment with the display is its 720X1280 resolution which puts it behind almost every flagship Android smartphone released in 2013, including LG’s own G2.

The LG G Flex’s 13MP camera is good, in fact it’s better than just good. In direct lighting the G Flex is as accomplished a shooter as its stable mate which, while short of the incredible pictures that the Sony Xperia Z1 and Nokia Lumia 1020 produce, still make for great images.It is, however, in low light conditions where the loss of the OIS becomes more apparent. Pictures tend towards being either too bright, washing out some of the lighter colours, or too dark making images appear slightly grainy.

The battery performance of the G Flex is phenomenal. The combination of the 3500mAh battery and a lower resolution, energy efficient OLED display means that, even though the G Flex is outfitted with a larger than average 6-inch display, it just keeps going and going.

The flexible display and battery technology, could be the first steps towards an era of hardy smartphones that resist the urge to shatter at the slightest drop. Add to that the ‘self-healing’ exterior which makes scratches magically vanish and the G Flex becomes the showcase of smartphone tech of tomorrow.

But frankly, for most of us, the phone is far less thrilling than the spec sheet. It feels cumbersome to use: gimmicky, not clever.

If you’re an early tech adopter or you just want to have something that no one else does, then the G Flex presents a compelling case. But if you’re looking for a brilliant, flagship Android smartphone that has a great camera, a fantastic display, great battery life and blazing performance then LG has that for you too. It’s called the G2 (see previous page). Get that instead.

SCORES Design

8

Performance

10

Battery Life

10

Value for Money

6

Display

6

Interface

6

Overall

7 WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 27

REVIEWS

DETAILS • Game: Broken Age by Double Fine Productions • Platform: PC • The Good: Beautiful hand-painted visuals, great story, scintillating dialogue • The bad: Shay’s story gets off to a slow start, only the first part of a 2-part game R275

Broken Age: Act 1

The record-breaking Kickstarter by LucasArts legend Tim Schafer is here. The Double Fine Adventure game is now Broken Age, and thankfully it’s also very good.

T

he development of Broken Age is a story in itself, but it’s not one we’re going to retell here. Why? Because explaining why it’s awesome that Tim Schafer is making games again, and crowdfunding them too, would only take away from what we think of this fine game.

It stars two characters, both young teenagers who are aching to break the mold created for them by their doting parental figures. Shay is a spaceship-bound boy bored with his life aboard a vessel controlled by a slightly suffocating artificial intelligence, and Vella is a village-dwelling girl who has been chosen for a tradition she neither understands nor agrees with.

Players can choose which story they’d like to play, and can switch between Shay and Vella at any point as well. The interface is clean and uncluttered, and gameplay deliciously familiar – walk around, talk to whoever you can, pick up items used to solve puzzles and watch the story unfold. The puzzles themselves are straightforward for the most part – almost too straightforward – with only a few occasions where we found ourselves a little stumped.

Visually, Broken Age looks like a painting that has come to life, and the voice acting is top-notch thanks to some A-list talent like Elijah Wood. Not everything about the game impresses right off the bat, though:

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28 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

the opening scenes for Shay’s storyline are humdrum. Vella, his earth-bound female counterpart, had a much better start. She had been chosen to represent her village in a special event, that of being a ritual human sacrifice to a huge monster to ensure her village’s continued existence.

Despite the other girls who’d also been chosen considering it an honour, it doesn’t sit right with Vella, who resolves to do her best to kill the monster rather than submit.

Even with its gorgeous hand-painted graphics and superb voice acting, it was Broken Age’s dialogue that really stood out for me. It was often laugh-out-loud funny, clearly evoking the spirit of Schafer’s other work with its droll humour. A certain conversation with a tree – yes a tree – in which Vella had to use dialogue to encourage it to hand over its sap was particularly sharp, and you won’t be forgetting the woodcutter’s lines anytime soon, either.

You fight like a cow. And all that.

You may have noticed that this is a review of Broken Age Act 1. A second half will apparently be out soon, and Kickstarter backers will get it for free when it releases. After playing this game through to its conclusion and seeing the incredible cliffhanger at the end and a twist you won’t

BITE-SIZED ACTION – HALO: SPARTAN ASSAULT REVIEWED Quite different to other games in the Halo franchise, Spartan Assault is still a fun distraction and a twin-stick shooter Halo fans should definitely play.

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see coming, it’s hard to be forced towait to find out what Double Fine Productions has in store for us fans of old-school adventure in the second act.

If you in any way enjoyed the old Sierra and LucasArts games from back in the nineties, you should definitely give Broken Age a go. It’s only $24.99 (around R275) on Steam, it’ll take you about five hours to finish but it’s packed full of everything you loved about 90s-era point-and-click adventures, and should give you a good dose of nostalgia along with its own brand of humour and clever storytelling.

SCORES Graphics

8

Audio

7

Voice Acting

9

Story

9

Interface

8

Overall

8

OPINION: CALL OF DUTY GHOSTS VS. BATTLEFIELD 4 COD and BF, though similar at their roots, are quite different in what they offer. Deon du Plessis finished them both and reports back on his first-person shooting action.

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REVIEWS

DETAILS • Game: Tomb Raider Definitive Edition by Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix • Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One • The Good: Gorgeous graphical upgrade, still the same excellent game • The bad: New tomb section is quite short, multiplayer assets have limited appeal, no real need for fans to re-play it R699

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Lara’s had a makeover for the new consoles, but is that enough to justify its full game price?

L

ast year’s Tomb Raider reboot was a pretty decent game. It introduced Lara Croft’s origin story, and gave gamers a more realistic, believable Lara to play as, and it generally reviewed well. It ‘only’ sold four million copies, though, which was below publisher Square Enix’s sales expectations of upwards of five million.

And thus we have this ‘Definitive Edition’ of the same Tomb Raider game, ostensibly to feature a significant graphics overhaul which can take advantage of the more powerful hardware of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. But really, it feels a bit like there’s a strong push to make up the numbers. Even if there is an extra level to sweeten the deal.

Having said that, and having played Tomb Raider extensively both in its original form and this new Definitive version for the PlayStation 4, we can say that it looks better in every way than the console versions that came out in 2013. Better than the PC version, even. If you played it on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, and you were disappointed with the game’s jagged edges or the occasional drop in frame rate, this puts right

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those ills. Lara, too, has been given a digital makeover. Particular attention has been paid to her hair, her skin and the subtle yet important ways she gets sullied with mud and blood as the game progresses.

She’s grubbier, and the amazing TressFX technology that went into making her hair behave realistically in the PC version is on full display here too.

The same technology makes the level design shine too. The designers sharpened up all of the textures in the game and tweaked the lighting model to create more realistic environments, and the draw distance has been increased so that even far-off things look detailed now. On our PlayStation 4 version, everything ran at a brisk frame rate, with no slowdowns or juddering at any point to mar our enjoyment.

The extra content is a bit of a letdown, however. There is only one new tomb to raid and it takes less than 15 minutes to run through, and the additional multiplayer maps and skins don’t add much unless you’re really into the game’s survivors vs islanders deathmatches. Judging by the

HANDS-ON FIRST IMPRESSIONS: TITANFALL BETA Titanfall is a lot of fun – running around levels is sheer exhilaration as the controls and weapons magically convey this incredible sense of size.

Bit.ly/1hnKHta

number of people not online playing, that isn’t very likely.

So this new edition is still excellent, insofar as it’s the same game from last year, only prettier. It really, definitively, is the way you want to play Tomb Raider. If you have the hardware. But because it doesn’t offer that much in the way of truly new content, and the stuff that is new isn’t exactly groundbreaking, it’s not really worth the full asking price if you’ve played it before on another platform.

SCORES Graphics

9

Audio

9

Gameplay

8

Story

8

Multiplayer

7

Overall

8

FILLING IN THE GAPS: THE LAST OF US DLC REVIEWD The Last of Us DLC is part prequel, part gap-filler, and it works really well; the overall effect is that of adding a whole new chapter to the game.

Bit.ly/1gBqVsf

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 29

REVIEWS

Five hot mobile games to play right now

Here are five mobile games that we can guarantee are worth their respective asking prices.

THE ROOM TWO (iOS) THE sequel to 2012’s iOS game of the year brings you even more of The Room’s brain-bending puzzly goodness as you attempt to unearth the secrets of a completely new set of puzzle objects. It’s a much bigger game this time, giving you more locations and more puzzles to solve before allowing you to move on to the next one. The intricacy of each puzzle is astounding and the graphics are gorgeous, making The Room Two a must-play for puzzle lovers everywhere. R39.99

RIDICULOUS FISHING (Android/iOS) IN Ridiculous Fishing, you must first catch fish by guiding your hook into the depths, and once you’ve caught a bunch you must haul them out as fast as you can and then blast them to smithereens as they explode skywards. Crazy powerups and tools make your fish-gathering and firepower even more effective, making RF a fun, hilarious and strangely challenging puzzle game that’ll keep you laughing and playing for hours.

R33.17 (Android), R24.99 (iOS)

INFINITY BLADE III (iOS) IB3 is a hack-and-slasher that will test your reflexes and brain power with its fluid combat mechanics and potent foes that force you to adapt your tactics on the fly. The game wraps up the story of Siris and Isa in their battle against The Worker, the creator of the Infinity Blades, and the action follows them as they fight to stop him from destroying the world. R56.99

JELLY SPLASH (Android/iOS) JELLY Splash takes the shape-and-colour-matching concept and changes it up a little, as it features jellies instead of sweets that must be matched up and “splashed” to clear levels. String enough of the little blighters together and you form bombs that take out rows of jellies regardless of their colour for bonus points. It’s one of those easy-to-play, hard-to-master games, and it’s excellent.

Free with optional in-game purchases

REAL RACING 3 (Android/iOS/BlackBerry 10) THE “real” in this game’s title refers to the realism that you’ll see all over the game, from its graphics to the handling of the large number of accuratelymodelled real-world cars you can potentially drive on the ten licensed tracks you’ll have access to. The driving model is superb and racing is a lot of fun, but at its heart lurks a freemium game, so you’ll be gently encouraged to spend money.

Despite this, Real Racing 3 is actually a very good driving game for mobiles, and highly recommended. Free with optional in-game purchases

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 31

COMPETITION

WIN!

YOUR VERY OWN 3D PRINTER! Join the tech revolution with your very own South African designed RepRap Morgan 3D printer.

T

ech fads come and go, but if there’s one buzzword that’s going to hang around for a long time, it’s 3D printing. Crafting your own designs in a 3D modelling program and watching a 3D printer slowly construct them layer-by-layer from a piece of plastic string is mesmerising. And the potential is limitless too: 3D printers can make

things that wouldn’t be possible any other way - beautiful artworks, interlinking jewelery, more.

Better yet, if you’re in an inventing frame of mind, you can make parts to fix existing equipment or even design your own product prototypes to try out before looking for funding for mass production.

WHO IS OPEN HARDWARE? To give away this printer we’ve teamed up with the lovely folk at Open Hardware (www.openhardware.co.za).

Open Hardware is one of just a few stores in South Africa which sells 3D printers, parts and spares, and it also offers other hobbiest and enthusiast electronics like DIY quadcopters, OpenBeam kits, laser cutting services and the like.

Open Hardware is more than just a shop. It grew out of the prolific hardware hacking community in Gauteng and specifically Centurion’s House4Hack (www.house4hack.co.za). The company isn’t just on a mission to sell revolutionary technology like 3D printers, but to support and grow the community of people who passionately believe in the advantages of low cost, open source designs for software and hardware in the country.

YOUR PRINTE BEING MADER

RTS HED, PAWILL IS IN F N ER WHE R PRINT OF YOU IN THE DARK! GLOW 32 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

COMPETITION

The printer we’re giving away is known as a RepRap Morgan. RepRap, which stands for Self-Replicating Rapid Prototyper is a project to develop and publish designs for low cost 3D printers that anyone can design and build.

RepRap Morgan is the internationally acclaimed variant of RepRap that was created

by South African engineer Quentin Harley, which is both cheaper and easier to build than pre-existing designs. It also looks a lot cooler.

NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED! Before you enter this competition, you must understand that the printer you are hoping to win has been built by us, in our office, using another printer which we made. This is being supplied to you with no instructions, no support and no guarantee that it will work perfectly beyond the first print.

3D printers operate at high temperatures and move at fast speeds. They can be dangerous.

They need constant care and attention and if it breaks, you’ll have to fix it yourself. Every time you move the printer or replace the tape on the heated bed, for example, you’ll need to recalibrate it. Successfully owning a 3D printer means being willing to learn about how they work.

By owning a 3D printer, though, you’ll become part of a exclusive club of curious people who want to change the world. Not only have they contributed hundreds of pages of design and operation manuals for RepRap-style 3D printers, they’re welcoming of newcomers and extraordinarily helpful - if you’re prepared to join.

FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY. YOUR REPRAP MORGAN WILL BE A DIFFERENT COLOUR.

WHAT IS REPRAP MORGAN?

CHECK OUT WWW.HTXT.CO .ZA/REPRAPCO MPO FOR UPDATES & WWW.HTXT.CO .ZA/WINAREPRA P TO ENTER!

HOW TO ENTER

What you really want to know is how to enter this competition, isn’t it? Over the next two months, we’re going to be taking you through the steps required to build a RepRap Morgan using parts we’ve made on our office RepRap machine. By the end of April, we’ll have a complete build finished and be ready to send it out to a lucky winner. Check out www.htxt.co.za/reprapcompo for weekly updates.

All you need to do is fill in the form below and answer this simple question:

What does RepRap stand for?

FAX

Answer:

Send this form to

+27(0) 86519 2845

ONLIINE

Name:

You can also enter at

Address:

www.htxt.co.za/winareprap Postal code:

Email:

Telephone:

Do you want to receive the htxt.africa newsletter? yes

no

Terms & Conditions: 1) This competition is only open to persons who are resident in South Africa. We cannot ship the prize overseas. 2) No cash equivalents are available, and the prize is not transferable. 3) Employees, agents and their families of Hypertext Media and Open Hardware are not eligible to enter. 4) Multiple entries per household will not be allowed. 5) The judges decision is final. 6) The closing date for the competition is 30th April 2014, and the winner will be notified by email or SMS within two weeks. 7) If we are unable to contact the winner within seven days of decision, a new winner will be declared. 8) The prize is supplied without instructions, support or a guarantee. We will do our best to help, but this is a hobbiest’s kit not a commercial grade product. 9) By entering, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. 10) Hypertext Media, Openhardware and the respecitive directors, members, partners, employees, agents, consultants, suppliers, contractors and sponsors assume no liability whatsoever for any direct or indirect loss or damage arising from an entrant’s participation in this competition or for any loss or damage, howsoever arising, from entry or use of the prize.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 33

s ’ o r p o t n i

s r u e t a m s Turning a d n a r b c i h p a gr o t o h p r o j a m stockist of

Tel: 011 880 2885 Fax: 086 685 8132 KAMERAZ - Shop L12, the Rosebank Mews 173 Oxford Road, Rosebank

Web: www.kameraz.co.za Mail: kameraz@netactive.co.za Find us on facebook: http://goo.gl/3Xitw

PHOTOGRAPHY WELCOME TO HTXT.PHOTOS

OUR MONTHLY PHOTOGRAPHY SPECIAL, FREE WITH TECH MADE EASY

Turn back time

39

Get the hipster look: the best retro-looking cameras on test.

UNDERSTANDING 44 ISO How does your sensitivity setting affect image quality, and why?

Where did I put that it?

O

nce you’ve got a digital camera, taking photos doesn’t cost you anything. Freed from the limits of expensive film, you can click away to your heart’s content. The only problem that remains is how and where do you store all those shots?

A large hard drive is the obvious answer, but once you’ve got a few thousand images up there, finding the one you want by file name is tough.

Was it DSC12354.jpg or DSC12344.jpg?

To be honest, I don’t remember myself. So ask yourself.

Do you feel lucky?

While randomly rediscovering old pics is fun, fast and efficient sorting is better. Which is why we swear by Google’s free Picasa tool: it indexes your hard drive and displays a thumbnail of every image you’ve taken, no matter where it is. Even better, you can sort images according to metatags, upload them directly to sharing services or edit them without leaving the one intuitive interface.

Want to find out more? Turn to page 51 now.

For even more tips and tricks for cameras and camera phones, head over to photos.htxt.co.za today.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 35

PHOTOGRAPHY

Smaller, wetter and with added WiFi: Canon refuses to give up on compacts I

s there a future for compact cameras in this day and age of 41MP smartphones?

There’s some debate among camera manufacturers, as companies like Olympus, Fujifilm and Sony seem to be racing to get out of point-and-shoot territory, moving themselves upmarket.

Canon, however, has just updated its various ranges of compact cameras and while the improvements are incremental, they show that the Japanese giant thinks that there’s life left in compacts yet.

For starters, there’s three new IXUS compacts in the latest announcements: they are the IXUS 155, IXUS 150 and IXUS 145. In order, the key features are a 20MP sensor with 10x optical zoom for the IXUS 155 while the other two share a 16MP sensor and 8x optical zoom.

The only apparently retrograde move is that the IXUS 145 scales back on video recording capabilities to a mere 720p HD. The more exciting announcements in the updated compact camera line-up comes in

the form of three other cameras. The first of which is the PowerShot SX700 HS. Canon are proudly proclaiming the PowerShot SX700 HS as the thinnest 30x optical camera the company has made to date. It’s a lot smaller than the previous model which holds the 30x zoom title in their range, the SX510. In addition to the 30x zoom, the camera sports a 16MP sensor, WiFi and NFC with full 1080p HD video at 60 frames per second.

The PowerShot D30 is Canon’s third iteration of their waterproof camera range.

The 12MP sensor and 5x optical zoom is not really a change. What is, however, the ability for the camera to go down to 25 meters, just over double the depth of the older D20. In fact, this is the best depth of any compact without a housing we are aware of to date.

The final camera in the new announcements is the long-awaited PowerShot G1 X Mark II. The original G1 X was Canon’s first compact camera to feature a significantly larger APS-C

sized sensor as frequently found in DSLR cameras. It received with mixed reviews.

The Mark II version is smaller, features a tilting touchscreen and an optional electronic viewfinder in the absence of the optical one seen in the predecessor.

The lens is now a 24-120mm equivalent with a faster f/2.0-3.9 aperture lens. (The Mark II also promises faster autofocus, although we’ll wait to try it out before we agree with that.) The G1 X Mark II also features WiFi and NFC bringing it into the connected age and allowing it to share images with your smartphone or tablet.

Other than the PowerShot D30’s incredible diving abilities, the PowerShot G1 X really is the only compact camera from the recent Canon announcements to really grab our interest. With a massive zoom range, better waterproofing and a bigger sensor that performs significantly better in low light are all things worth considering and are what Canon is offering.

SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST

36 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

CAMERA NEWS, TIPS, TRICKS AND TUTORIALS PHOTOS.HTXT.CO.ZA

PHOTOGRAPHY

Fujifilm SA wants to give you a free lens

W

hat’s better than getting your hands on a camera that’s totally unique, highly regarded and capable of taking stunning photos every time? Why, getting your hands on such a beast with not one, but two lenses included in the cost.

Fujifilm South Africa has just launched an awesome photo promotion whereby if you buy one of its X-Pro 1 cameras with an 18mm kit lens, it will send you your choice of a 27mm, 35mm or 60mm prime to accompany it. Absolutely free.

The lenses are worth up to R6 800 a pop, and the same promotion has been running overseas for a while now.

It’s a smart move by Fujifilm – any potential purchaser will understand that one of the things that puts people off of the Fujifilm X-series cameras is that it’s an entirely new system that won’t accept existing lenses without an adaptor. Back when Fujifilm used to make ‘normal’ DSLRs, it based its designs off of Nikonfit lenses.

The X-Pro 1 is getting a bit long in the tooth now – it was first released in January 2012 and there’s a successor mooted to be launched at the Photokina trade show later this year. What’s more, Fujifilm has recently launched two other X-series cameras which are probably

better when looked at in the cold light of day – the XT-1 and XE-2.

But with its rugged retro looks and unique hybrid viewfinder, there’s still nothing quite like the X-Pro 1 available yet. And since it launched, a couple of firmware updates have done a lot to offset the main criticism that people level at it – namely the sluggish autofocus. But thanks to that X-Trans processor, which is larger than you find in most mirrorless cameras – it’s still brilliant enough that more than a few people may find their minds made up by this offer.

See bit.ly/1fmFced for more details and how to take the offer up.

Canon cues up a new budget SLR

G

oodbye, old faithful. For almost three years Canon’s most basic SLR, the EOS 1100D, has been a standby for many pro photographers and the perfect camera for introducing interchangeable lens photography to a newcomer. But its day is finally done: Canon has announced its replacement and its time to shoo the 1100D off stage right and welcome its successor, the EOS 1200D. The EOS 1200D is a more solid and stable design than that of its predecessor. Not hugely different in terms of looks, but with a better finish that doesn’t feel quite as cheap. More importantly, it inherits the 18MP APS-C sized CMOS sensor that appears in many of the other current EOS cameras.

Both photo and video quality benefit from this as it now records moving pictures in full HD. Along with the EOS 1200D announcement Canon released the MR14 EX II ring flash for lovers of macro photography. The two flash tubes that make up the lighting source for the flash each have independent power control.

Recycle times are quick and silent which will help with sensitive creatures.

SA pricing and launch date to be confirmed.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 37

SUPERTEST

WHICH IS THE BEST…

R Retro camera

There are loads of awesome looking mirrorless SLRs around now. But which is the best cool camera that looks like it was made 50 years ago?

M

odern cameras are amazing things. Large and full of features or tiny enough to fit in your smartphone: it’s hard not to be impressed by how far we’ve come since the glass plated Daguerreotype of less than 200 years ago.

And yet.

Despite all the advancements, nothing feels quite as reassuring as a hefty block of metal hewn into a shape that recalls the mid-20th Century golden era of the photojournalist. Panasonic, Fujifilm, Olympus, Nikon: all these camera brands are looking back for the future of photo design, and coming up with corkers.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 39

SUPERTEST

NIKON DF A YESTERYEAR TOOL THAT REFUSES TO COMPROMISE ON NEW TECH.

T

here’s a reason Nikon SLRs are so popular with professionals in the demanding worlds of sports and photojournalism. Their cameras are generally second to none. And so it is with the Df, a reproduction of classic ’80s Nikon bodies filled with the innards of a top end D600. That means it has a full frame sensor for awesome picture quality, packed into a lightweight, mirrorless body.

HANDLING Despite the fact that the Df forgoes an internal mirror – the image through the eyepiece is an LCD screen, not an optical viewfinder – the camera is not as small as we’d have hoped. It’s got a pleasant heft in the hand, but dials require stretching of fingers that feels uncomfortable and out of reach. The merging of convenient modern cusors and retro dials clash rather than complement each other.

IMAGE QUALITY The 16MP full-frame CMOS sensor allows for fantastic image quality particularly in low light

conditions at higher ISO settings. It renders images close in quality to Nikon’s range topping D4 which costs considerably more.

PERFORMANCE The Df is by far the most capable camera here, and a fantastic piece of kit. But ultimately it’s undone by its price point.

Photographers willing to pay that much will want the extra features of a ‘true’ SLR – like video recording and WiFi – and there’s not enough to differentiate it from cheaper mirrorless cameras to justify the extra cost. Nice, but too much.

SENSOR SIZE In cameras with changeable lenses you will come across reference to three main sizes of sensor.

Full Frame Sensor: A full-frame sensor refers to a imaging sensor in the camera the same size of traditional 35mm film, in other words 24x36mm.

APS-C sized sensors refer to a smaller sensor size from the last film system before digital’s onslaught which label Advance Photo System. It is the most common sensor size with slight size differences from various brands, for example Canon camera have a 1.6x magnification factor versus full frame sensors while most others feature a 1.5x factor.

Micro Four Thirds: The final sensor size found in mainstream systems camera is Micro Four Thirds as used by Olympus and Panasonic. This system has a magnification factor of 2x or double that of full frame lenses.

SONY ALPHA 7 MIRRORLESS BUT FULL FRAME, SONY’S A7 IS THE CAMERA THAT’S CONVINCING PROS TO SWITCH.

KEY FEATURES • 16MP Full-frame Sensor • ISO 100-25600 • 5.5fps (frames per second) • 39-point AF system • SD Card R36,999.00

SCORES Handling

4

Image Quality

8

Performance

6

Value

4

Overall

6

We want to love the Df, but we’re simply not rich enough for this one.

KEY FEATURES • 24.3 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with OLPF • Hybrid AF system with 25 contrast-detect and 117 phasedetect points • Weather-proof alloy and composite body • 1.23 million dot, 3-inch tilting LCD • 2.36 million dot, OLED electronic viewfinder • Full HD video recording at 1080/50p and 25p; uncompressed HDMI output • Wi-Fi with NFC capability R19,995.00 (Body Only) R22,995.00 with 28-70mm

S

haking things up and banging down the doors of the establishments that dominate the photographic markets it Sony and its new Alpha 7, a mirrorless camera with a full-frame, 24MP sensor that is targeting professional and serious enthusiast photographers a like.

HANDLING The Sony Alpha 7 is an acquired taste in the handling department.

It is not the sexiest looking of the cameras here on review and at first

40 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

SUPERTEST

FUJIFILM X-T1 A THE X-RANGE JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER: FUJIFILM’S X-T1 PROVES WHAT MIRRORLESS CAN DO.

KEY FEATURES • 16MP X-Trans CMOS II sensor • Weather-resistant body • ISO 200-6400, plus 100 - 51200 expanded (JPEG only) • 2.36M dot OLED electronic viewfinder - 0.77x equiv. magnification • 8 fps continuous shooting with continuous AF (3 fps with live view) • Built-in Wi-Fi with remote control via a smartphone or tablet • Full HD movie recording 1080/50p R14,999.00 (Body) R18,999.00 with 18-55mm

the placement of the shutter release feels all wrong. The more you use the camera though the more comfortable it feels and some of the design cues begin to make sense. It will likely loose out on first impressions for many which is sad and a gamble that Sony should perhaps not have taken.

IMAGE QUALITY The Sony Alpha 7 is equipped with a 24MP full-frame sensor that is familiar not only to Sony’s Alpha 99 but some cameras from other brands as well. It offers incredible details when paired to quality lenses, something the system currently offers though

fter releasing its first retro styled camera, the X100s, in late 2010, Fujifilm has caused no small stir in the photographic world.

The retro look was pioneered

by Panasonic and Olympus, but only Fujifilm took up the challenge to make it special.

HANDLING Styled like an old film SLR camera, the X-T1 is really a thing of beauty. It’s good looks hold your attention and that alone will have people taking a second look. The camera is incredibly compact, yet has all the control dials in exactly the right place. The simple control layout with shutter and ISO dials is fantastic and with a very brief walk through you can operate the camera in no time.

There is the odd dial or button that feel a little small but it’s not a massive issue. It certainly handles better than the Df. IMAGE QUALITY There is but one word to put to sum up image quality: incredible. The X-T1 uses the

16MP APS-C sized CMOS sensor which is smaller than most professional cameras, yet it uses a load of proprietary techniques to make the resulting shots indistinguishable from cameras that cost twice as much more. It’s high ISO performance – vital for low light shots – is phenomenal for a camera of this class.

PERFORMANCE While there’s not a lot of lenses available for Fujifilm’s twoyear-old X-mount bodies yet, those that are out there are of exceptional quality for the price and won’t make you feel limited.

One criticism that has been aimed at other Fuji mirrorless cameras, though, is the focussing speed of the AF system. With the X-T1 that problem vanishes.

It will hold its weight against the best now and Fuji claim it can track moving subjects at 8fps, bettering the Olympus OM-D E-M1’s claim of 6fps.

To round it off, the electronic viewfinder is so good you’ll swear you were looking at a window not a screen.

SCORES

Handling

9

Performance

9

Image Quality

9

Value

9

It’s hard to find fault with the X-T1, a lovely camera that produces lovely shots.

with a very limited selection of just five lenses currently. The high ISO performance is not quite on par with the Nikon Df being a higher resolution sensor with smaller pixels making up the same surface area. The ISO 3200 on the Sony sits between ISO 6400 and ISO 12800 on the Nikon in our view.

That said it is equal to or better than other 20MP plus cameras that are more direct competitors.

PERFORMANCE The Sony A7 isn’t going to equal a DSLR for autofocussing on moving subjects: serious wildlife and action photographers should look

WHAT IS A MIRRORLESS CAMERA Mirrorless cameras (also referred to as CSC or Compact System Camera) are cameras that lack the reflex mirror found in a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera. The mirror in such cameras allow for an optical viewfinder to see right through the lens on the camera. By removing the mirror and making use of an electronic viewfinder, mirrorless cameras offer a smaller package with the same sized sensors and therefore image quality found in a DSLR. So just because we call them mirrorLESS does note mean they are LESS of a camera.

Overall 9

elsewhere in either mid to top end DSLR’s or Olympus and Fuji’s flagships models.

Where the Alpha 7 scores over its competition is on video though: it is equipped with a microphone and headphone jack allowing you to monitor audio levels and adjust them while shooting. With Wi-Fi and NFC pairing the Alpha 7 to your smartphone or table to remote control or copy images is a breeze.

SCORES Handling

8

Image Quality

8

Performance

8

Value

8

Overall

8

Great image quality and a brilliant camera for video too.

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SUPERTEST

CONCLUSION Between the wide price variations of these three cameras, and indeed at even better value price points, there are plenty of other old schools shooters to choose from. But these all represent something special: the Nikon Df is big commitment from a big company, even if it’s not quite right yet. Being retro for the sake of it – with an extremely high price tag as well – is not enough if the design inhibits the function.

Sony’s Alpha 7 gets many things right, not least of which is the full frame sensor in such a small body and at a lower price point than competing DSLR’s can offer. It falls behind in terms of native lens selection however Since Fujifilm announced the X100 in 2010, however, it’s become synonymous with retro looks, high tech. The X-T1 just

cements the firm’s reputation further: a fun camera, with a classy design, a reasonable price and unbeatable as a tool in the field. As good as the Sony is the real competition for Fuji is going to be the Olympus OM-D E-M1 – reviewed at bit.ly/1e9PXMx – which builds on the success of the E-M5 which caused several photographers to make a total cross over to the mirrorless system from DSLR. In that battle, the Fuji X-T1 will edge the Olympus on image quality as much as the

EDITOR’S CHOICE

ISO COMPARISON ISO 100

ISO 800

Olympus edges out a win for handling. It would be a tough match between the both of them.

Out of these three cameras on review it is a tight call between the Sony Alpha 7 and the Fujifilm X-T1. The Fuji has it for us.

CAN MIRRORLESS CAMERAS CUT IT IN THE DARK? WE PUT OUR RETRO LOOKERS THROUGH THEIR PACES

ISO 1600

FUJIFILM XT-1

FUJIFILM XT-1

FUJIFILM XT-1

NIKON DF

NIKON DF

NIKON DF

SONY ALPHA 7

SONY ALPHA 7

SONY ALPHA 7

42 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

HOW CAMERAS WORK

Explaining Exposure: ISO Learning how to work with light sensitivity is easy.

T

oday’s modern day digital cameras are filled with incredible features that would have the founding fathers of photography scratching their heads in amazement. From the almost mortgage breaking medium format cameras used by the very top fashion photographers, to the camera powering the smartphone in your pocket, the fundamentals of exposure and how photographs are made have note changed and unlocking the knowledge of how to use and manipulate these elements will empower your photographic creativity.

PAINTING WITH LIGHT The word photography is derived from two Greek words which essential mean painting with light. A camera has three elements with which it can control the light it uses to form an image. These elements are ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speeds. We will be looking to first tackle ISO in this months tutorial.

WHAT IS ISO? We measure light sensitivity using ISO. In the days of film cameras you had to buy your film in the sensitivity you wanted or needed. The sensitivity was determined by the size of the light sensitive sliver-halide crystals the film’s emulsion contained.

Larger crystals had a larger surface area to gather light on and were more sensitive.

Smaller crystals made for finer grain images but were also less sensitive to light.

Awesome guides at

go to htxt.co.za

44 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

ISO SPEEDS The most common measurements in ISO are ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800 and in the case of one or two cameras now, you can go even further than that. The lower the number the lower the sensitivity to light and vice versa.

The move from ISO 100 to ISO 200 is frequently referred to as one stop or 1EV (Exposure Value). All of the three exposure elements, ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speeds as measure in these ‘stops’ or EV’s. A change from ISO 100 to 200 would usually require an adjustment of one stop to either the aperture or shutter speed to maintain the same balanced exposure.

NOISE Lets return back to the silver crystals films used to determine their ISO sensitivity as mentioned in our introduction. Digital cameras have a fixed sensor and so when selecting an ISO speed there is no physical change taking place to the sizes of the sensor’s pixels to make them more sensitive to light. Essentially you are digitally manipulating the information the camera is capturing. Think of it like listening to

HOW TO CONVERT YOUR ITUNES PURCHASES INTO MP3S Believe it or not, the cure for converting your purchased AAC files into MP3 files lies right inside iTunes, on either Windows or Mac OS X. Bit.ly/1fFWUcZ

your music in your car. As you turn the volume up on the speakers you may pick up distortion or other noises. The less capable your amplifier and speakers the more ‘noise’ is introduced to the music the louder you go. This is what happens to the images your camera captures. The higher the camera is having to amplify the fixed information it is receiving and the more digital noise or graininess is introduces to your images.

HOW DO I CHANGE MY ISO? Most cameras and even some smartphones will have an ISO setting in their settings or on a dial on the camera itself. The important point to note is that almost all cameras will not allow you to adjust your settings in that green auto mode. You need to move the camera into either P (for Program mode), A (for Aperture Priority mode), S (for Shutter Speed Priority mode) or M (for Manual mode). A suggestion for now is to stick to Program mode and just get used to adjusting the ISO for now. We will cover the other modes in upcoming tutorials.

DECISION TIME The big thing you need to decide on now that you know what ISO does is choosing between a low ISO setting for fine detail images or a high ISO for action and areas where you need a faster shutter speed, keeping in mind the further up the scale you go the grainier your image will look. Go out and experiment.

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HOW TO: PHOTOS

How to sort out your photo collection Find that one photo in a thousand fast with this great desktop app.

C

an’t remember where you filed those shots of the kids playing last Christmas? Don’t worry, there’s plenty of tools for retrieving your pics wherever you’ve put them on your hard drive. Picasa, from Google, is a free download which will search your drive for images and display them in a friendly date order.

Say goodbye to confusing file structures and hello to orderly thumbnails.

STEP 1 – FIND PICASA The first thing you need to do is install Google’s magic piece of software. The easiest thing you can do is Google Picasa or if you don’t mind typing out a longer URL, enter www.picasa.google.com

STEP 2 – INSTALL Once you have downloaded the installation file, go ahead and double click on it to install. This may take a few minutes.

STEP 3 – SETUP Once installation is complete Picasa will launch and ask if you wish it to search only certain folders or the entire computer for images. If you haven’t been organized with your images thus far, you may want to search the entire PC.

STEP 4 – SCAN Once you have chosen one of the two previous mentioned option Picasa will begin scanning for images. A notification appears in the bottom right corner as it works. If you have a lot of images you could make and eat a sandwich while this happens.

STEP 5 – FOLDERS Once the scan is complete you will notice a column on the left of Picasa that has all the folders where images are stored. Note that Picasa does not move the files it is simply an index to where they all are saved.

STEP 6 – FACES Another way that Picasa helps to sort your images is via Facial Recognition. Above ‘Folders’ you will see a section for ‘People’.

This scanning of images take a while longer but eventually Picasa will group like faces together for you to confirm as the same person and name.

STEP 7 – IMPORT When importing new images from your camera or it’s memory card there is a chance that Picasa will launch it’s import mode as soon as you connect the camera or card. If not, click on the ‘Import’ in the top left corner.

STEP 8 – IMPORT OPTIONS When the ‘Import’ tab open you can choose where you wish to import from.

Select images you wish to import or you can select to ‘Import All’ in the bottom right. Before doing so, choose where you wish the images to be imported to on the bottom right and give the folder a name in the next box.

LEAVE CARD ALONE Before importing images as per Step 8, one can choose at the bottom where you name the import folder, what happens to your memory card after importing. We prefer to leave the card along and format the card in the camera.

Picasa is capable of much more than what we have touched on here today, but this is merely the starting point to help you get your photographs organized. In future tutorials we will share more tricks of how to maximize this program.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 45

HOW TO… Stop your Facebook profile getting cloned A rising number of readers have contacted us saying their Facebook personas are being ripped off.

O

ver the last few weeks many South Africans have noticed an alarming new trend: their Facebook profiles have been cloned.

There’s no advanced technology or clever viruses involved with cloning a Facebook profile. All an impostor needs is a photo of you, some basic information, and access to your friend list - information that’s publicly available, right on your own Facebook profile.

So when your friends start getting friend requests from a profile with your name, information, and photos, it’s not because you’ve been hacked, have a virus, or need to change your password. No sirree, you’ve just fallen into the trap of being lax about your Facebook privacy settings. It’s really the age old hacking technique (and now, double entendre) of social engineering.

It’s worth paying attention, too. It’s not just some harmless internet joke. The creators of cloned profiles go on to convince your existing friends that they are you. Once a gullible friend has fallen into the trap and accepted a friend request the scammers now have their information - for a new cloned profile, and more victims - as well as the knowledge that your friend might be accommodating.

Scammers go about posting things in your name, including links to malware and dataharvesting apps, as well as soliciting money for financial aid. Because hey, what’s a few bucks between buddies?

With the damage done, your only recourse is to tighten up security and notify Facebook

More tech tutorials

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46 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

- and your gullible friends - of the issue. For those who haven’t been the unfortunate victims of the scam, there are a few basic measures that can be taken to greatly minimise the risk of your profile being cloned.

If a scammer cannot see your friends, they cannot send them messages. Simple as that.

KISS YOUR FRIENDS GOODBYE While some people might take pride in their enormous... friend lists, it’s the one big thing that puts you at risk when a scammer wants to clone your profile. See, publicly-viewable friend lists mean that a scammer only needs

There’s no advanced technology or clever viruses involved with cloning a Facebook profile. your name and profile picture to contact your friends. Nip this in the bud by restricting who can view your friend list. To do this, go to your profile on Facebook. Click on your Friend list.

Now click on the edit button. This brings up a menu to edit privacy - which you want to do and from there you can select who gets to view your friend list.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD FACEBOOK PAPER Tech lovers who like to get their hands on the latest will be raring to fire up their app stores and grab Facebook’s latest app.

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SAY SAYONARA TO THOSE SNAPS To most people on the internet, the logic of “Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck - must be a duck” is sound life advice. So when your unwitting friends get a friend request from somebody that looks like you, talks like you, and has your name, it’s game over.

Sadly, the steps that need to be taken here are a bit more tedious. Facebook doesn’t have a global setting for controlling the privacy of your photos. This has to be done per album.

And certain albums - like wall photos, profile photos, and Instagram photos - have per-photo permissions settings.

It’s a pain in the butt, sure, but more inconvenient than having your identity stolen?

We thought not.

To change photo permissions you’ll have to go to your profile, navigate to Photos, and then select the Albums section (rather than Photos of You). Now, tackle each album individually.

The albums you’ve created will have a gear icon. Click on that and you can toggle the

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HOW TO…

privacy of that album. For special albums, like your profile photos, you’ll have to go into each album, then select each photo, and manually select its privacy settings.

BECOME ANONYMOUS Personal information, such as where you attended school, who you’re married to, and what TV shows you enjoy, are all bits of information that can be used to make fake you look like real you. To make sure that only you, or your friends, can see those details, you just have to edit your profile’s About page.

Go to your profile page, click on the About section, and then click on the edit button next to each section that has your information. Here you can set which information is publicly viewable. We recommend hiding it all. Only your friends need to know about your personal details, anyway.

You can also hide yourself from search engines - and even Facebook search. To do this, click on the gear icon at the top right of the screen, on Facebook. Select Privacy Settings. Now you can toggle who gets to look for you on Facebook, as well as whether or not search engines can link to your profile. Make it harder for scammers (and stalkers) to find you, and your online life will be less stressful.

PENETRATION TEST YOURSELF No, not that. Get your mind out of the gutter. This is meant to help you see how secure your profile is - basically, you want to see what an unknown scammer can get on you, using just your Facebook profile. Thankfully there’s a tool built in for that. Once again, go to your own profile page and click the gear icon next to “Activity Log”. There’s a tool there called “View as...” which will let you view your profile as somebody else - one of your friends, or a stranger from the internet. Now you can see how much information is publicly viewable, and go back to edit the privacy settings for posts that shouldn’t be appearing to all and sundry.

Although tightening the security on your profile is the best start of all, you can also practice vigilant surfing habits. Don’t use any old dodgy apps on Facebook; most apps will ask for permission to use your profile. Don’t accept friend requests from strangers, or friends you already have on Facebook. Don’t click on phishing links in strange emails. And, for goodness’ sake, don’t believe everything you read on the internet.

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PLAYSTATION 4 TIPS AND TRICKS A few things we picked up in our time with the PlayStation 4 that we’ve found to be incredibly useful, interesting or just plain cool Bit.ly/1c47Z2R ly.link

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HOW TO…

5 ways you can better secure your data secure your data Do you know who is in control of your personal information?

U

nless you have been living with no technological connection to the world, privacy is no longer about secrecy, it is more about whether you can control how your data is used and by who?

Here are five ways you can better secure your data.

1) MORE SECURE FILE TRANSFERS Many of us use Dropbox for file sharing.

Dropbox is pretty secure. It transmits your data to its servers (well, Amazon’s servers which Dropbox operates on top of) using fairly decent encryption and encrypts data it stores on those servers. The challenge with Dropbox is that you don’t control the decryption keys for your data. Dropbox does, and you won’t necessarily know if or when Dropbox decrypts your data in response to a demand by law enforcement authorities.

If you just need a way to securely move data between trusted devices, consider BitTorrent Sync which was developed by the same people who came up with the technology that powers your other (legitimate) file sharing activities. BitTorrent Sync differs from Dropbox in that Sync is a peer-to-peer file-sharing tool where data is transferred directly to approved devices and not through an middle man or server.

Sync is pretty secure and you can install Sync apps on Android and iOS devices for easy file sharing between mobile and desktop.

2) MORE SECURE EMAIL How secure is your email? Do you know if your provider uses decent encryption to protect your data from being intercepted?

Not all providers do. If you use Gmail you are already using a relatively secure email service. Other email services are stepping up with better security too so make sure you know how well they protect you.

You may prefer not to trust your email with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or any other cloud service (at least not entirely). You can start securing your desktop email app with

freely available software based on Pretty Good Privacy (“PGP”) tools. GnuPG is a “complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP” protocol and offers software for Windows, Mac and (probably) Linux. You’ll need to configure the software yourself but you should be able to create encryption key-pairs to encrypt your emails and self-sign them. Encrypted mail is a terrific idea but that is only viable if your recipients are also using similar encryption tools.

3) MORE SECURE TWITTER Twitter is actually pretty good with encryption and data protection and not many people realise just how forward thinking Twitter is. Twitter has set encryptions to its services to more secure connections by default (look for “https://” in your browser toolbar). If you use the Twitter apps on your mobile devices, you can add an additional layer of security that is just amazing.

If you enable the option to send login requests to your Twitter app (if you have the Twitter app installed on your tablet and phone, pick one) then you will be able to approve login attempts using your device before the login will succeed.

Generator in your mobile Facebook app are pretty important starting points because they go a long way towards preventing people from intercepting your Facebook use and from hacking your account.

5) MORE SECURE GOOGLE Your Google account settings affect much of what you do on Google. As with Facebook and Twitter, you really should enable “2-step verification” for your Google account. You can use Google’s Authenticator app (iOS and Android) or other authentication apps like Authy to generate random codes to better secure your account. That protects your account (including Gmail) from some unauthorised person impersonating you because it uses your mobile device to authenticate you to Google (so don’t lose them).

Make sure you set up a recovery phone number (Google supports SA mobile numbers) and email address because that is how you should be able to regain control of your account if it is hacked. Google can also send you SMS notifications of any password changes and suspicious activity so enable all of these options.

Now that you have done all of this, stick your fingers in your ears and go have a nap.

4) MORE SECURE FACEBOOK Despite all the ways Facebook collects your data and uses it, there are a quite a few ways you can better secure your account. Visit your security settings and spend some time enabling and configuring these options: Enabling secure browsing and the Code

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 49

HOW TO…

How to get more out of iMessage If you have an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac, this guide’s for you

A

pple’s instant messaging (IM) service, iMessage, has become quite popular. A year ago Apple claimed that 250-million people use iMessage – and with 50-million phones sold in the last three months alone you can bet that there are even more users now. Anybody who has an iPhone will be asked to set up an iCloud account when they configure it for the first time, and that in turn enables iMessage. And when one iPhone user messages another, it uses data – just like Whatsapp or WeChat – instead of sending an SMS over the GSM network.

To help you get more out of iMessage, though, we have some handy tips.

1) BIND MULTIPLE ADDRESSES While your iCloud address (user@icloud. com) and phone number are the primary means for contacting you, iMessage can be set up with a few more addresses. On your iOS device, go to Settings, then scroll down to Messages. Here you can ensure that iMessage is turned on – it’s a simple on/off switch. If it’s off, all your messages are sent using regular SMS. When it’s turn on, your iPhone automatically knows when it’s sending a message to another iPhone.

Scroll down to Send & Receive. Here, you can see which addresses iMessage users can reach you at. It’s also very simple to add another address to the list: type in the address you wish to bind with your account, and Apple sends a confirmation email. Click the link in that, and you can now tell people to message you at user@newaddress.com.

It’s also wise to select a default address for iMessage. This is the address that’ll show up (think of it as a caller ID for iMessage) when you send people messages.

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2) CONTROL YOUR PRIVACY If you have paranoid friends who nag you about responding to messages when they can see you’ve read them, iMessage has a fix for that. Go to Settings -> Messages, and turn off the “Send Read Receipts” feature.

Now when friends send you messages they’ll simply see that the messages have been received, but they won’t know whether or not you’ve read them.

As an aside: while it’s not explicitly an iMessage feature, Apple’s hidden the Blocked feature in this same menu. Here you can add the details for people you want to prevent from calling or messaging you.

3) REVEAL MESSAGE TIMESTAMPS One annoyance that some people have with IM applications is that they often don’t append timestamps to messages. It’s especially problematic when somebody’s sent you a message two days ago, but you don’t know if it’s from then, or now, or a year ago. While the Messages app on iPhone does insert the occasional timestamp for conversations, it also adds more detailed times for each message.

To access it, simply open up a conversation and swipe from right to left. This slides open the timestamp drawer, and you can see exactly when a message was sent.

show up in the conversation. Just tap and hold on any attached item in an iMessage conversation, and wait for the context menu to show up. Tap “More…”, and you’ll be given the option to select items to delete – both attachments and single messages. This is also where you can select message to forward to other users.

You can also keep track of all video, image, and audio attachments in a conversation. Tap on a single attachment and it goes to a view mode. Now tap on the menu button in the bottom right, and a list of all attachments is displayed.

5) GET IT ON YOUR MAC It’s possible to get the iMessage experience on your desktop – as long as you have a Mac. Messages on Mac supports Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo, and AOL messaging protocols, as well as iMessage. However, it’s not possible to add your iCloud account through the Messages application. Instead, Messages picks up the details from the iCloud panel. Going to System Preferences, and then adding your iCloud account there will have it show up in the Messages application.

From within Messages you can configure all the same iMessage options as on your phone or iPad – including addresses you receive messages at, enabling read receipts, and deleting messages.

4) MANAGE CONTENT Whether it’s an offensive photo or simply something that’s taking up space in the conversation, it’s possible to delete items that

5 UNORTHODOX SECURITY TIPS FOR SAFER BROWSING If someone really wants to get your online data, and is really determined, there’s probably not a lot you can do to stop them... until now.

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HOW TO USE A MAC-FORMATTED HARD DRIVES WITH YOUR WINDOWS PC With Apple computers gaining popularity, we’ve seen a common problem: hard drives used with Macs will not necessarily work with Windows computers.

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WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 51

HOW TO…

See traffic on SA’s highways before you leave home Now there’s no excuse to get stuck in a jam. Not when you can find out what’s happening on the roads ahead of time.

Y

ou don’t have to rely on traffic reports on the radio to tell if your route to and from work is going to be chock-full of delays. TomTom has a free “live traffic” service that overlays a map of your current location with road conditions: it shows you where the delays are, what the reason for the delay is and the length of the queue of cars so you can plan your commute accordingly.

To access this very useful info, simply visit the TomTom website and click the Live Traffic button at the top. That opens this view, centred on your current location as determined by your computer’s IP address or your phone/tablet’s GPS unit: There are other ways, too, but they’re not as useful as TomTom’s all-in-one overview. South Africa has a network of traffic cameras that take pictures that

are then fed to the internet, where they are collated and presented in a grid pattern for motorists to look at. You can find that feed here.

It’s not very user-friendly as each camera’s exact location isn’t displayed, and it will take familiarity with the areas being watched to realise what you’re looking at, but it’s at least there. The images that you’ll see are very recent, having been taken seconds before you loaded the page.

Do you know of any other high-tech ways of planning a road trip? Let us know in the comments of our online article at bit.ly/1jwbJzA

Learn more at…

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52 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014

VIEW YOUR WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX SCORE IN WINDOWS 8.1 Ever since Windows Vista, you could benchmark your PC to see how fast its hardware was according to the Windows Experience Index.

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SET UP A MULTI-MONITOR WINDOWS 8 PC Games are especially spectacular when spread across two or more screens. The question is, how to make it happen.

Bit.ly/1brQ3nH

HOW TO…

Broadband ...is best for me?

Which

Consider this

Inter-what?

N

The internet. Do you need it in your life?

ADSL prices are impacted by how much data you want to use (capped or uncapped), as well as your line speed. Gamers want high speed (4Mbps or faster) and low latency (capped bandwidth). Those who download and browse a lot will do fine on uncapped accounts, and a line speed that meets their budget.

Y

All the internet!

Streaming and kittens and games and downloads. Give it all to me!

How much?

Gamer?

Sharing?

Hogging the line alone, or will you share it?

N

N

Y

Just enough, please

Y

Then get...

Then get...

I am but a humble home user. Just email and news sites for me, thanks.

Are you sure?

Let’s not mess around. With multiple people sharing a line, all demanding some action, a 10Mbps uncapped line is the way to go. R957 a month from Axxess. tinyurl.com/htxtbb5

N

Yarr!

We know what you be talking about.

A 2Mbps uncapped line will give you unlimited joy, as you traipse about the internet. Incredible Connection has an account for a mere R501 a month - with a DSL line. tinyurl.com/htxtbb4

Y

We knew it.

So, you also faff around online, watch YouTube videos, browse Tumblr, and enjoy being an internet consumer?

Oh...

N

So you need more? You also want to download things?

N

Y

Then get...

Afrihost’s mobile offerings are great, and well-priced.

The 5GB offering is a mere R145 a month, and will be perfect for light surfing, mail, and software downloads tinyurl.com/htxtbb1

Y

Frags for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Do you want web access, or do you want to experience a whole new connected world?

You browse and email, huh? No other stuff for you?

Whoa!

Ok, you’d rather go play outside. Just remember. the web’s not just for nerds: everybody uses it now, bro.

Then get...

Then get...

A modest capped account will provide you with tons of fun on the internet. WebAfrica’s bargain prices net you 30GB at 2Mbps for just R387 a month, incl. line. tinyurl.com/htxtbb2

If you’re gaming, you’ll want the best speeds possible, with no shaping.

A capped account provides this. WebAfrica’s capped bandwidth is cheapest: R807 for 240GB at 4Mbps. tinyurl.com/htxtbb3

Footnotes: All prices for packages listed here were correct at the time of publishing. 3G connections require no additional fees. All ADSL connections attract R158 a month in line rental, as well as DSL rental. All ADSL products listed here include DSL rental for the applicable line speed, as well as line rental. Uncapped products are subject to acceptable usage policies, which are determined by the host ISP.

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WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 53

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STATS

SA tech

The numbers that sum up the state of the nation

in stats

Oscar Pistorius’ PR Twitter feed, @OscarHardTruth, gained 2 000 followers an hour on the afternoon of its launch.

513 000 tablet computers were sold in South Africa last year, up 86 000 over 2012

465 000 000 WhatsApp users at the time of the Facebook acquisition. WhatsApp is marginally bigger than Facebook on smartphone here.

R3.25m

Value of spaceships destroyed in an online battle in Eve Bit.ly/1fncqvG

There are now 3 Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatches

Number of people who visited Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:

72 000

20 cents: The new Mobile Termination Rate for network operators in South Africa that has Cell C and MTN in a tizz.

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