htxt.africa's Tech Made Easy - October 2014 by htxt.africa

FREE!

FROM

htxt africa

M A D E

SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST TECH WEBSITE

E A S Y ! N I W ILLER

AK WEEN O L L A H G GAMIN E BUNDL

GADGET SPECIAL Tech of the year!

Sony! Samsung! HTC! More! All the big gadget news from IFA.

HOW TO: Protect yourself

Everything you need to know about securing your iCloud account.

REVIEWED: Destiny

The sci-fi shooter we’ve been waiting for. Is it as good as Bungie hoped? ISSUE 8 | OCTOBER 2014 | HTXT.CO.ZA

s v 6 E N IPHO 5 S Y X A L GA

Apple unveils the iPhone for 2014. How does it compare to the best of the Android bunch?

X4 | 13MP | 5.5” | KitKat | LTE

BORN SMART

“As individuals, we cannot achieve our full potential until we have committed to knowing ourselves and the ability to present what we stand for, I stand for quality.”

/xtouchsa

@xtouchsa

www.xtouchdevice.com

10.1 inch PhoneTab | PF10

donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a 100 years to wait for the technology curve to bend towards our ideals. We only have today to create devices that bend space and time to bridge the gap between then and now. We proudly present the future, today.

Also available at Kalahari.com, CNA, Matrix Warehouse Computers, The Gadget Shop, PC Palace, Young Tech Solutions - subject to stock availability

Contents ISSUE #08

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

ANDROID TO APPLE: IT’S ON

ow I wish this magazine were bigger. Since we launched Tech Made Easy at the beginning of the year, there’s not been a month where we didn’t think it was the best and most comprehensive round-up of technology stories in South Africa possible. Until now. This has been an astonishing month for tech news and reviews, and while we cover everything in detail at our parent site, htxt.africa, getting it all into a magazine has been impossible. For example, Apple launched the iPhone 6 - which we’ve covered. And then someone on the internet discovered a major design flaw, which we haven’t had space to put in here (read about it at Bit.ly/1v5dica). Then there’s Windows 10, which was announced just as we were going to press. You’ll have to wait for next issue to read about that. And all the amazing new Android phones launched at IFA - we didn’t have any where near enough space to cover all of those. The big message of the month is just how tight competition in the world of smartphones is. I’ve never know so many people talking about switching Operator’s sub-R500 Steppa is firs from Apple to Android. The battle is on. t of its kind.

MTN launches supercheap smartphone

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 PUBLISHER: Brett Haggard – brett@htxt.co.za available for less than $50 anywhere. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Adam Oxford – adam@htxt.co.za That makes it quite a milestone in MANAGING EDITOR: Tiana Cline - tiana@htxt.co.za putting high-tech handsets within the HARDWARE: David Greenway – david@htxt.co.za reach of everyone. Which is awesome. GAMES: Deon du Plessis – deon@htxt.co.zaThe phone itself isn’t, of course, hugely PHOTOGRAPHIC WRITER: Charlie Fripp powe – charlie@htxt.co.za rful. It’s based on a Qualcomm WRITER: Lungelo Shezi – lungelo@htxt.co.za reference design, so it has a 1GHz single core Snapdragon processor, a 3.5in ch SENIOR DESIGNER: Quinton Hoffmann –screen quinton@htxt.co.za and a mere 2MP camera on board. More limiting is the fact that there’s ADVERTISING: Dorothy Haggard – dorothy@hypertext.co.za only 512MB of memory and 1GB of storag Sengezo Jubane – sengezo@hypertext.co.za e on-board. The screen is a decent enough multitouch affair, which takes up most

Adam Oxford Editor-in-Chief htxt.africa

It’s a milestone which puts hightech handsets within the reach of everyone… of the front of the device. There’s no physical keyboard. It also runs a positively ancient versio n of Google’s Android OS, Gingerbre ad. Still, that does still mean it’s able to access BlackBerry Messenger, which is hugel y

important for South Africa. Sadly, MTN has confir med that there ’s no plans to upgrade the Steppa to a more recent version of Android, although local hackers are investigating the possib ility of unlocking the phone and flashing a custom firmware. There’s an FM radio though, along with a microSD port for upgrading the storag e. 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 numb er of apps and services the Steppa has. Like the sound of this super budget smartphone? See our full review at

WHAT IS THAT ‘Bit.ly’ STUFF ALL ABOUT?

htxt.africa’s Tech Made Easy is Bit.ly shortens web addresses, produced by: Hypertext Media, 102 on 11th, making easierCAU to paste them CLIMATE CHA NGEitWILL SE MORE Highlands North, 2192, Johannesburg STORM DAM AGE into character-limited services IN SA More news at Two scientists from Contact Us: like Twitter or Facebook. They Wits have ed a paper Email: info@hypertext.co.za also serve aspublish shortcuts to which web says that South Africa may be at pages with long Type go to htxt.co.za Tel: (011) 023-8001/4 increasaddresses. ed risk of tropica l storm damag the Bit.ly URL seen e. in the exerpt Fax: 08654 83304 Our content is licensed under a Creative 6 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014 Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence. Other rights may apply for non-original materials.

2 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

I am a cy 6kR for clpictured one intoBit.ly your/Nww browser, forming over Madagasexample, and you’ll go directly car

the article page.

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

Typ e into this c you ode r bro web wse r

K m

• • • •P

www.htxt.co.za October 2014 Need to know

The important stuff you can’t miss.

5 6 7 8 12

14 19

Video streaming in SA New mobile app VIDI launches video on demand, but it’s not the only player in town. iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5 How does Apple’s latest compare to the best of the Android crop? The Apple Watch is here iPhone-friendly smartwatch finally announced. IFA Special Samsung, Sony, HTC and more: All the phones from the German tech show in depth. Gaming news A Sim megcity and gamers fight ebola. 5 of the best... South African made games. Indie stars from this year’s A MAZE festival. Everything about storage Don’t know your NAS from your flash drive? Don’t worry, we’ve got it all explained.

The best reviews

Hardware, games, mobile, more…

26 27 28 31

Gigabyte Aorus X7 v2 Gaming Laptop An awesome gaming notebook in a svelte ultrabook package. LG G3 The latest flagship from LG is so very nearly perfect. Destiny The creators of Halo branch out into an MMO. Dead Rising 3/Sims 4 It’s the apocalypse! And there’s a game about zombies too.

Mobile game reviews Five Nights at Freddy’s Piano Tiles Mountain The Nightmare Cooperative They Need to be Fed 3

Photos Made Easy Top tips and buying advice for cameras.

35 39

Photography news Why your next battery will be made from plants and the GoPro for dogs. Which camera bag should you buy? Haul your photography gear around in style.

How to...

The best guides to technology basics

44 49

51 52

How to photograph water Ever wondered how they get those misty morning shots? How to update your iPhone Although be warned, some versions of iOS8 have proved problematic. How to choose a graphics card Is your PC running slowly? Try one of these neat upgrades. How to secure iCloud Keep your iCloud secrets safe.

The stuff at the back

Bits that round off a mag nicely.

54 56

Subscribe All it will cost is the postage. Exclusive competition and more. SA in Stats Our monthly round up of the numbers that matter. WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 3

MediaShare Wireless Portable wireless streaming for your tablet or smartphone

STORE, STREAM & SHARE...Anywhere! Tablets and smartphones are often limited by their built-in storage capacity and their ability to access content saved elsewhere. With the MediaShare Wireless, you can access and enjoy your files without wires or an internet connection. STREAM • Connect up to 5 devices to the MediaShare and share video, music, photos and data. USB/SD CONNECTION • Built-in USB port and SD Memory slot allows easy access to content from a USB drive, portable hard drive or SD memory card*. WIRELESS BRIDGE • Upload and download content wirelessly to and from your tablet or smartphone. RECHARGING FOR SMARTPHONES •

The integrated 3000mAh battery can be used as a powerpack for your smartphone.

Scan the QR-Code to watch the video. * USB drive, hard drive or SD memory card not included.

Mitsubishi Chemical holdings Group

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

VIDI is the Netflix for South Africa Meet the low cost video on demand services which lets you watch unlimited movies and TV shows when you want.

outh Africans have been deprived of the ability to stream movies and TV series using the internet for far too long (or at least legitimately) but a new service called VIDI from the Times Media Group (TMG) promises to end the frustration that Saffas have been feeling. VIDI has two different payment options for viewers. You can pay a subscription which costs R149 a month and lets you watch anything you want from a selection of both TV series and movies in its library, or you can rent the latest releases to stream over the internet for between R15 and R27 each. You can try out the subscription service for free for the first 30 days and the service is billed on a month-to-month basis allowing you to cancel at any time without needing to give notice. All payments are handled via credit card (or selected debit cards hat have been activated for online shopping transactions) which will also be required as part of the registration process. At launch there are more than 1 000 hours from 21 different TV series as well as a library of 100 movies, with a further 72

titles available to rent for 48 hours at a time from the Instant Rental Service. TMG has already set up a content delivery network (CDN) with nodes in Johannesburg,

“We are more than ready to take on our international and local competitors with this vehicle which echoes values of aerodynamic success and high performance.” Pretoria and Cape Town that can be added to if there is particularly high demand for media in a different part of the country. The attractive thing about VIDI is the price. It’s cheaper than DStv’s Box Office service, and also more comprehensive. Another video on demand option, NODE,

also launched this month but with a more limited selection and higher price. NODE it requires an R3 500 decoder, while VIDI works via a browser or free phone app. The downside to VIDI is that because you’re streaming over the internet, you’ll need to have an uncapped broadband package or a healthy monthly cap. The minimum connection speed required is a 1Mb/s download speed with the video quality scaling dynamically to higher resolutions when more bandwidth is available. Each movie would use around 2GB of data dependant of course on the quality of the video being streamed. “VIDI represents a significant step in Times Media’s evolution to a multiplatform media and entertainment company,” said TMG CEO Andrew Bonamour. “It reflects a new entrepreneurial and innovative mindset for the group that we believe will bring longterm growth and sustainability.” Will South Africans who don’t want to go through the initial set up process for Netflix will be give VIDI a go? Check out our comparison here: bit.ly/YGVlX9. WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 5

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

iPhone 6 vs Galaxy S5 Apple’s brand new iPhone 6 has been released, but how does it compare to the current crop of Android smartphones? Should you wait until it’s in SA?

ike clockwork, Apple has announced the latest in a long line of iPhones that it hopes will dominate the smartphone market for the next 12 months. This time around the iPhone is playing catch up in

many people’s eyes having, for the first time, gone fop a much larger display to stave off the fight from the likes of the Samsung’s Galaxy S5 impressive screen inches. With a much more direct comparison between

DIMENSIONS

RAM

SCREEN SIZE

STORAGE

DISPLAY RESOLUTION

DISPLAY TYPE

iPhone 6: 138.1x58.6x6.9mm Galaxy S5: 142x 72.5x8.1mm Winner: iPhone iPhone 6: 4.7inch Galaxy S5: 5.1inch Winner: Galaxy S5

iPhone 6: 1GB Galaxy S5: 2GB Winner: Galaxy S5 iPhone 6: 16GB/64GB/128GB Galaxy S5: 16GB/32GB (Expandable) Winner: iPhone 6

iPhone 6: 750x1 334 Galaxy S5: 1 080x1 920 Winner: Galaxy S5

iPhone 6: IPS Retina HD Galaxy S5: Super AMOLED Winner: iPhone 6

DISPLAY PROTECTION

CAMERA

iPhone 6: Ion-strengthened glass Galaxy S5: Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Winner: Galaxy S5

PIXEL DENSITY iPhone 6: 326ppi Galaxy S5: 432ppi Winner: Galaxy S5

WEIGHT

iPhone 6: 129g Galaxy S5: 145g Winner: iPhone 6

PROCESSOR

iPhone 6: 1.2 GHz Dual Core 634-Bit A8 Galaxy S5: 2.5GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Winner: Galaxy S5

the hardware of the two main contenders for your smartphone buying money now possible, we take a look at both of them and break it down spec-by-spec for you to choose which one really is the winner.

iPhone 6: 8 megapixel, phase detect autofocus, dual tone LED flash Galaxy S5: 16 megapixel, phase & contract detection autofocus Winner: Galaxy S5

BATTERY CAPACITY

iPhone 6: Unknown Galaxy S5: 2 800mAh Winner: Galaxy S5

CONNECTIVITY

iPhone 6: 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC Galaxy S5: 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC Winner: Tie

IP RATING

iPhone 6: N/A Galaxy S5: IP67 Winner: Galaxy S5

More comparisons and reviews at See more in-depth comparisons of the iPhone 6 at: Bit.ly/1ygf00j And full comparisons of the iPhone 6 Plus at: Bit.ly/Zpwckz Plus a roundup of all the reviews in one place: Bit.ly/1BLM0vJ

How some of the others stack up? 6 | TECH MADE EASY | SEPTEMBER 2014

HTC ONE (M8)

Better for: Those looking for a sexy, iPhone-like build quality running Android. Trailing behind: Almost everyone in the camera department.

SONY XPERIA Z3 COMPACT

Better for: Those looking for a waterproof sub-5inch display toting smartphone. Trailing behind: It’s bigger brother in the design department.

NOKIA LUMIA 930 Better for: Phenomenal camera performance in a smartphone. Trailing behind: Android and iOS are both more polished and have more apps.

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Apple’s Watch: you’ll have to wait I

t’s been a long time coming but Apple finally took the wraps off of the highly anticipated Apple Watch – not, it should be noted, iWatch as many had all been expecting it to be called. The Apple Watch will only see the light of day next year and will be compatible with the iPhone 5, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S as well as with the freshly announced iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It features a tough “sapphire glass” covered Retina touchscreen display which in conjunction with the so called “digital crown” (which also acts as the home button) serves as the navigation elements to the watch’s newly designed user interface. Siri and voice dictation are also featured in the Apple Watch as a way to input responses although from the demonstrations shown the watch will also provide you with contextually relevant responses to messages it displays. There are four circular sensors on the underside of the watch including a heart rate sensor as well as several buried in its insides including an accelerometer which

What about the iPhone 6 Plus?

APPLE IPHONE 6 PLUS Best at: Being an iPhone, but even bigger. Needs work: On using its new screen real estate better.

combine with the WiFi and GPS data in your iPhone to help keep track of all of your daily activity. It’s the first smartwatch to come in two sizes with a smaller display version that would be ideal for people with smaller wrists. The Apple Watch will start at $349 (R3 815) when it does eventually go on sale but that’s not where it ends because there’s more than just one option available.

The Apple Watch will be available in three different collections: Apple Watch – polished or space black stainless steel case and a choice of straps Apple Watch Sport – space grey or silver anodized aluminium case and sport bands Apple Watch Edition – with an 18-carat rose or yellow gold case and a choice of exclusive straps.

…and the first Apple Watch game is arm wrestling

nce all the ballyhoo of Apple’s new smartwatch has died down (somewhat) many pundits have been turning their attention elsewhere – and in this case towards the entertainment capabilities of Apple Watch. Besides for having the luxury of checking who just gave you a missed call, or which colleague sent you an email on a lazy Sunday afternoon, it turns out that the first game developed for Apple Watch will be iArm Wrestle Champs from little-known mobile development studio Flying Tiger Entertainment. The app isn’t really a game after all, as all it will do is provide the victor (or the loser, depending on who is wearing the watch) with some bells and whistles if they prove themselves to be the strongest arm on the block. The “game” will be developed for the competing Android Wear products as well, but if you want to get a head start on what it looks like and how it works (the app, not the watch), then you can download the free Android and iOS version on the respective stores. Bit.ly/YGX7rk

SONY XPERIA Z3

Best at: Cramming the best hardware into a svelte package. Needs work: The back is also glass making it twice as likely to shatter.

LG G3

Best at: Bringing the highest resolution display in a smartphone. Needs work: Its battery life suffers heavily because of the high-res screen.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 4

Best at: Being the original and best phablet. Needs work: Not overwhelming you with extra software.

NOKIA LUMIA 1520

Best at: Bringing Android flagship specs to Windows Phone. Needs work: It’s ridiculously massive.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 7

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

The best bits from this years IFA

eptember was full of tech events, but none were bigger than IFA, which took place in Germany at the start of the month. It’s one of the most important consumer technology fairs in the world and traditionally a place where all the mobile phone manufacturers unveil their biggest and best products ready for the Christmas season. HEre’s our pick of the best announcements that came out of IFA this year…

New selfie-friendly Lumias on the way

hotography was a big theme at Microsoft’s IFA presentation where three new Lumia smartphones making their debut. The Lumia 830 leads the charge, with a 10MP PureView camera as its main selling point. the other two – the Lumia 730 Dual Sim and the Lumia 735 – are slightly more mid-range models that Microsoft says have been designed for people who like taking selfies. All three models will join the growing list of Windows Phones and run the latest version of the OS. It’s actually the 730 and 735 that are most likely to sell like hot cakes thanks to some interesting tweaks that make them rather appealing to markets populated by young

8 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

people who enjoy taking selfies. The Lumia 730 has a 4.7-inch, 1 280×720 screen, a faster processor and an additional gigabyte of RAM over its predecessor, the 720. The 730 retains the 720’s 6.7 megapixel rear-facing camera, which was great at taking low-light pictures thanks to its F/1.9 aperture, and Microsoft threw in a high-end 5 megapixel front-facing snapper in the new model that makes taking high-quality selfies a reality. That’s without the high price-tag of a high-end smartphone where 5 megapixel front-facing cameras are usually found. The 730 has a 3G radio and supports two SIM cards and is priced quite aggressively – Microsoft said 199 euros, so around R2 800.

The Lumia 735 is identical to the 730 in most ways, it just has a LTE radio, supports a single SIM card and will cost 219 euros, so just over R3 000. (Bear in mind that that’s European pricing, and probably won’t translate to the same amount in rands when the phones get to SA.) Microsoft’s description of the Lumia 830 as a “flagship phone” is a bit of a puzzle, though, as its 720p display and mid-range Snapdragon 400 processor place it firmly in what we’d call the ‘average’ bracket. Full HD displays and superfast Snapdragon 800 processors that are commonplace on highend phones, including some of those from the erstwhile Nokia.

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Sony launches the Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact

FA is turning into a trove of announcements from the world’s major electronics manufacturers, and Sony is not one to be left out of the mix as it added another high-end tablet to its range called the Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact. The Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact uses much the same hardware as the Xperia Z3 smartphone that was also announced at IFA which puts it on a slightly better footing specs-wise than the Xperia Z2 tablet that came before it. A new quad core 2.5GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor is paired with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of microSD expandable

storage. It has an 8-inch full HD Triluminous display witha 1 920×1 200 resolution and a 4 500mAh battery which have somehow been shoehorned into a 280 gram package that’s only 6.4mm thick. Being a Z-series product from Sony, the Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact is of course water and dust proof carrying the same IP65 & IP68 durability ratings as the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact smartphones. Software-wise, it runs on the latest version of Android (4.4), but it’s also been given some rather Sony-specific features that PlayStation 4 owners will like. The PlayStation 4 Remote Play

app is probably the best of these, as it allows you to use the Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact as a screen for your PS4, great for times when someone is hogging the television when you’re keen on getting in some game time. Sony also announced a special adapter for the DualShock 4 controller that allows you to mount the Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact to it so that you don’t have to find a way to prop it up awkwardly. Sony’s South African representatives have indicated that the Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact will go on sale in South Africa in Q4, 2014.

Motorola upgrades the Moto X and Moto G

otorola has been making waves in the smartphone market overseas of late. At IFA, the company took the wraps off of a new flagship smartphone, the Moto X, as well as a mid-range phone, the Moto G, before making the Moto 360 smartwatch. Currently Motorola’s phones are only available in South Africa through the Orange online store, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to remain that way forever. Lenovo is in the process of buying Motorola from Google and when we last spoke to them about bringing Motorola into South Africa they hinted that it could be sooner, rather than later, when the iconic cellphone manufacturer returned to South African shores. First up was an update to one of the most highly praised smartphones of last year, the Moto X, which keeps its name but finds itself improved in almost every area. The design has been given a major overhaul in a premium direction eschewing the budget plastic frame for a, now fashionable, metal one while adding a selection of leather backing plates to the plastic and wood ones of the previous generation Moto X. The display, still a Super AMOLED unit, has been upgraded from a 720p resolution to full HD while also growing in size from 4.7 inches to 5.2 inches. The increase in display size has increased the size of the overall phone but at the same time the edges have been slimmed

down and the back of the Moto X has been rounded to make it feel smaller in hand. Gone is the custom-built Qualcomm processor from the original Moto X replaced now with the industry standard Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with four cores humming along at 2.5GHz supported by the same 2GB of RAM. Storage-wise, there will be either 16GB or 32GB of storage which is set in stone with no microSD card slot to speak of. The camera gets a resolution bump from 10 megapixels to 13 and gets new, fancy ring flash which uses two flashes buried inside a circular diffuser which Motorola claims will make for much better pics in low light conditions. The second phone, the Moto G, also retains the same name as its predecessor. This time, however, it also keeps the Snapdragon 400 processor along with 1GB of RAM and a 720p resolution display are all back again to do duty a second time around. The display has grown from 4.5inches to 5inches which Motorola have said was one of the most popular requested changes from users of the original Moto G. The only other notable change is the addition of front-facing stereo speakers, and an upgraded 8 megapixel camera from the 5 megapixel in the original. Once again if the price when it gets to South Africa is under R3 000 then we can’t imagine too many phones being a better buy for the money.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 9

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 4

he Galaxy Note launched in 2011 and was the first smartphone to bring the phablet segment into the limelight. The new Galaxy Note 4 looks much the same as the Note 3 with the same soft touch back panel and rounded corners. It weighs in at 176g (or 8 grams heavier than its predecessor) and 8.5mm thick (thicker than the 8.3 mm of the Note 3). The Galaxy Note 4 will be available in four colours black, white, gold and pink – although we’re still awaiting confirmation on which colours will be making it to our traditionally monochrome centric market. The Galaxy Note 4, of course, comes with the latest version of the S Pen which is apparently twice as sensitive to varying levels of pressure as you write on the screen as the S Pen for the Note 3 was. SmartSelect allows you to capture multiple notes using the S Pen before sending them off to another app. Picture notes do not have to be from the same app as a floating window showing the last captured image and the button to add another image appears above your current app. The SnapNote feature allows you to take picture of something using the Note 4’s camera and annotate it or make notes underneath it. The Galaxy Note is traditionally more powerful than the Galaxy S smartphone that precedes it and the same is true for the Note 4 over the Galaxy S5. The Note 4 is of course a phablet so the display s going to be a big part of the mix. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has a 5.7 inch quad HD (QHD) 1 440×2 560 resolution Super AMOLED display. It will run on either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor or the Samsung made Exynos 5433 octa core processor both of which will have LTE. It will have 3GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of storage which can be expanded by up to 128GB with a microSD card. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has category 6 LTE which allows for download speeds of up to 300Mbps. With a quad HD display battery life was always going to be questionable but Samsung say that battery consumption has been improved by 7.5% over the Note 3 with the battery having been increased by just 20mAh to 3 220mAh.

More stories at go to htxt.co.za

10 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

Toshiba kickstarts the cheap Windows 8 tablet revolution

ow prices are the reason that more Android tablets are sold than tablets running other operating system, but that price advantage is about to be erased by a new generation of Windows 8 tablets starting with Toshiba’s latest tablet, the 7inch Encore Mini, which has just been shown off at this year’s IFA convention in Berlin, Germany. The Toshiba Encore Mini runs on a quad core Intel Atom processor which, by virtue of its four cores, is most definitely part of the Bay Trail generation of processors which have proven that they have more than enough grunt for everyday work on Android machines. Along with the Bay Trail

LISTEN TO AFRICAN MUSIC ON YOUR PHONE FOR FREE WITH MZIIKI Love African music? Have a favourite artist that you don’t see on Simfy or Rdio? Mziiki is an an African-developed streaming app that can help. Bit.ly/1uVSpjv

processor is 16GB of on board storage, which can be expanded with a microSD card of up to 128GB, and just 1GB of RAM as per the new minimum requirements for Windows 8. The display is a rather lacklustre 1 024×600 resolution and the camera on the back of the tablet can take photos at a resolution of just 2 megapixels, but because of those sacrifices the Toshiba Encore Mini will cost just $120 (R1 283) when it goes on sale. If Toshiba does bring the tablet to South Africa we would expect pricing closer to the R2 000 mark but that should still pose a very interesting proposition for many looking for a tablet.

VODACOM DEMOS SA’S FIRST 300MBPS MOBILE BASESTATION Want to know what the future of mobile broadband looks like? Vodacom demonstrated a mobile phone downloading at almost 270Mbps, and we saw it here: Bit.ly/1qN6ADA

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Sony goes Android Wear with the SmartWatch 3

he IFA presentation from Sony wouldn’t have been complete without some sort of wearables, and the Sony SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk were on hand to make sure that no one felt harddone-by with just the announcement of a new tablet and a pair of smartphones. Now in its fifth generation of smartwatch Sony is jumping ship from its own proprietary software to Google’s new Android Wear operating system for the SmartWatch 3, a smart move (pardon the pun) considering the amount of time and energy that the company will save on software development. The Sony SmartWatch 3 sports a square display like the LG G Watch with a diagonal measurement of 1,6 inches. It runs on a 1.2GHz quad core processor with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. The IP68

water- and dust proof case also contains an NFC chip, GPS capabilities and a 420mAh battery that’s charged via microUSB. The SmartBand Talk will use an alwayson 1.4-inch e-ink display which, as its name suggests, will allow you to answer phone calls on your smartphone using its built in microphone and speaker. The display can also be used to check notifications from various apps and will integrate in with Sony’s LifeLog journal application to record all of its information. Once again it carries an IP68 rating for keeping out dirt and moisture and includes an altimeter and accelerometer for fitness-tracking purposes. Sony’s South African representatives have indicated that the Smartwatch 3 and SmartBand Talk will go on sale in South Africa in Q4, 2014.

Samsung launches the Galaxy Note Edge with fancy display

ith the Galaxy Note 4 now official Samsung took the wraps off of a second big-screened “phablet” at IFA, and it was something very special indeed . The Samsung Galaxy Edge is virtually identical in hardware to the Note 4 but features an extended display which stretches the 5.6 inch display’s resolution by 160 horizontal pixels to bring the resolution to a total of 1 600×2 560 pixels. Those extra pixels on the side are curved around the edge of the body of the phone which serves as a secondary display area for notifications and additional buttons like the shutter button for the camera. We’ll endeavour to find out when the Galaxy Note Edge will make it to South Africa and will keep you in the loop as soon as we find out.

RESEARCHERS TURN SMARTPHONES INTO AUGMENTED REALITY PROPS Sometimes one screen just isn’t enough. Check out this link where researchers are using smartphones to add extra information to monitors. Bit.ly/1vnUozq

BLACKBERRY OUTLOOK IMPROVING, BUT BBM STILL FALLING SHORT Under the new leadership, the company seems to have turned over a new leaf. They are still seeing a quarterly net loss but it’s far better than last year Bit.ly/1nx8QEw

DATA VISUALISATION DESIGNERS WANTED TO HELP EBOLA Code4Nigeria is looking for experts at presenting information in a palatable manner to lend their skills to an ebola awareness campaign. Bit.ly/1u5JGNM

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 11

NEED TO KNOW: GAMES

The Sims 4 pirates are in for a pixelated surprised

P Man makes a virtual city with over 100 million residents

ome people love to build really huge, sprawling cities in the SimCity series of games that take a lot of planning and management to make work, which is partly why 2013’s SimCity – a game that actively discouraged it – was such a fiasco. Illustrating that point is a SimCity 4 player, Peter Richie, who Motherboard says used the vanilla, unmodded version of the 11 year old game to create, what can only be called a megalopolis, a city of truly immense proportions even by SimCity 4’s standards. When he was done, Richie’s MegaCity One had a paved road network that spanned more than 26 000km, 324 hydrogen power plants to supply it with electricity and over 2 000 schools, to name but a few of the items on the staggeringly long list of amenities. Most impressive, though, is the city’s population of over 107 million virtual souls: that’s around double the population of South Africa, shoehorned into a landmass that is only a bit bigger than the greater Johannesburg area. Bit.ly/1ywrktr

eople who’ve pirated The Sims 4 are not the happiest of campers right now. Not only are they miserable, dirty thieves: their pilfered copies of The Sims 4 aren’t working quite right. When their Sims climb into the shower or sit on a loo, the pixelation effect that hides their fun bits in the regular game doesn’t end – it gets bigger and bigger until the entire screen is one gigantic pixelated mess. Naturally many of them took to the EA forums to moan about their broken games, but EA said “it has no plans to aid those players unable to enjoy their pirated copies of The Sims 4”. Instead, the company is gently encouraging them to buy legitimate copies. EA has woken up to the fact that invasive, irritating Digital Rights Management software isn’t the way to deter pirates since it doesn’t work anyway, and they are instead moving towards clever countermeasures like this one. At the same time it’s also creating new products and services like EA Access (games for a monthly fee) and Game Time (full but time-limited trials) that genuinely encourage gamers to go legitimate by offering them real value for their cash. Bit.ly/1opsi0P

Gamers help out in the fight against ebola

amers are helping out in the fight against ebola by doing what they do best – playing video games. NBC has reported that there is a new puzzle game that pits gamers against the very real problem of discovering how to “twist virtual protein molecules into the desired shapes” in ways that computer simulations alone have failed to determine. The ebola puzzle is just one of many that form part of the FoldIt project that has been running since 2008 which uses computer power and human brains to solve a number of real-world science puzzles. The ebola challenge, according to the FoldIt website, is to

“create a peptide inhibitor of the Ebola glycoprotein, this one with 30 amino acid residues” in order to help with the development of a vaccine for the deadly disease that’s gripping parts of Africa. Should you not be a gamer, you can still take part by downloading and running Folding@Home, a programme that will use your computer’s spare processing power to work on small chunks of the ebola problem and others automatically. To join up, all you need to do is download and install the software and run it; the programme does the rest. Bit.ly/1rmWwHD

women htxt africa SOUTH AFRICA’S MOST IMPORTANT SITE FOR WOMEN IN IT 12 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

HEAD TO WOMEN.HTXT.CO.ZA

FROM R1499

THE MORE FUN SMARTPHONE.

NOKIA LUMIA520 SMARTPHONE, with Nokia Music, Smart Shoot and HERE Drive.

© 2014 Nokia. All rights reserved. Data charges may apply. All trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Device colours & price may vary by operator or retailer, and are subject to availability. Speciﬁcations correct at time of going to print. E&OE.

JWT 65458/E

nokia.co.za/switch

of the best South African indie games from A MAZE

September saw an amazing games festival take place in Johannesburg. So good, it’s literally called A MAZE. Here’s five of our favourite games from the show floor made by local developers and students who took part.

FLUX

CADENCE

By Tiane Erwee

By Peter Cardwell-Gardner and Rodain Joubert

This simple game by second year WITS Game Design student Tiane Erwee is all about the design, not the graphics, and boy does she nail it. Flux is a puzzle game that uses very basic visual elements that disguise a very tricky puzzle game, where players have to navigate a visual maze to collect orbs by moving, jumping, changing orientation and switching gravity. It requires a quick mind and fast reflexes, as any mis-step resets the whole thing. There are definitely very good things in this young designer’s future.

We were amazed by this very clever musical puzzle game that required players to connect up various nodes, each with their own function, in such a way that a looping tune is completed. It increased in complexity the more we played, until eventually we were faced with a mind-boggling array of options and multiple paths to solution. We were even more surprised when the developers, who are making the game for commercial release, told us that there is even a visual composer element to the game that lets people write their own music. So clever and beautiful too.

PARALLAX By Liam Brookshank

Another student game, Parallax features a tiny block that must navigate levels by pulling off some pretty complicated moves using surprisingly simple, yet hard to master, controls. The challenge is steep, requiring players to stick to walls while simultaneously jumping and shooting to create momentum, and success is a massive juggling act in terms of brain power, manual dexterity and, sometimes, blind luck. Think “as hard as Dark Souls” but with incredibly minimalistic graphics.

METAMORFOREST By Benjamin Crooks

Metamorforest is a rather abstract trudging-through-thewoods simulator that doesn’t give you a lot to do but walk and survive. If you’re lucky, you’ll come across a piece of wood to burn once the sun goes down to keep the noisy animals/creatures that snuffle around in the background at bay, so you can survive to walk another day. If you’re not… well… you’re but a smear on the landscape in the morning. You can also hunt the occasional animal for food and even meet other lost souls who you can decide to team up with… or not.

14 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

TOM SPARKS AND THE QUAKES OF RUIN By Tasty Poison Games

We were a little disappointed to find that the action role-playing game Tom Sparks and the Quakes of Ruin had attempted a Kickstarter campaign and failed. It was on show at A MAZE, and it looked really decent with its cute graphics, jump pads and wide range of weapons with which to break stuff. Sure, it looks a bit like Torchlight, but it’s very clearly NOT Torchlight as well, which makes its Kickstarter failure all the more of a pity. If you’d like to try it out for yourself, you can grab the alpha here: Bit.ly/XtsMvQ

1THREAD_6013_TEC

POWER TO YOUR NEXT STEP We all have a next step. Make yours getting more creative with photography.

Take your next step at www.canon.co.za | www.facebook.com/canonRSA | twitter.com/Canon_SA Follow us:

facebook

twitter

ÂŠ Lorenzo Agius. Canon Ambassador

Like Tech Made Easy?

Then you’ll

htxt africa

Our daily news website We really hope you’re enjoying this 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.

WHY htxt.africa IS SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST TECHNOLOGY WEBSITE: • THE LATEST NEWS

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. So if you want buying advice, gaming tips, web security specials, online activism and the most interesting stories about how technology is being used right here in South Africa and across the continent, join us.

Daily updates from around the continent and all over the world of tech.

• HARDWARE REVIEWS

South Africa’s most comprehensive test lab. If it’s on sale, it’s been in here and put through more rigorous tests than anywhere else.

• GAMES, GEEKS AND MORE

We’re not just about tech. From business news to board games, comic books to start-ups. We’ve got it all.

• 100% LOCAL, 100% INDEPENDENT

We write what we believe in, not because someone pays us to or because it’s what the rest of the internet says.

Pluso:re

Even m prizes can be won online

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

360°

SHOCK ABSORBER

TPU Corner Protection Protective Air Inlays Thick EVA Foam Protection Wide Fixation Straps

EXCLUSIVE TO DIONWIRED

Available online or in-store See dionwired.co.za. for more details.

HARD DRIVES IN FOCUS

WHICH…

hard drive

Hybrid or NAS? Spinning or SSD? Everything you’ll ever need to know about storage revealed.

urious about hard drives? Looking for a new one but you’re unsure what to get? Well read on, because this month we’ve taken a bird’s eye view of the world of

storage to give you an introduction into the different hard drives out there, with focus on what each is used for. We’ve explained the difference between SSDs and HDDs, what a NAS is and why

IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

you might want one, and whether dual drive or hybrid tech would be better for your notebook. On to the data-keeping goods!

SOLID STATE DRIVES

olid state drives (SSDs) are the new kid on the block in the storage world. They’re essentially just big Flash drives like the USB keys you carry in your pocket, which means that they have no moving parts like traditional hard drives do. That means they use less power and last longer. And being entirely memory-based is what makes these little guys the true speed demons of the storage world. SO JUST HOW FAST ARE SSDS? The simple answer is that they are so fast, they can transfer files in a flash – excuse the pun. Should your operating system be installed on one, you’ll notice that programs open just about instantaneously after you click their icons. That’s the power of SSDs right there. Some computers like the Apple MacBook Air have their SSDs soldered onto their motherboards using high speed connectors, a fact that makes them faster but which prevents you from upgrading to a larger drive later on. Other computers use SSDs that have been fitted into

a standard 2.5inch drive bay, making them easy to swap out as needed. So far SSDs sound like they should be in every computer, but there are some downsides to living in a world of Flash storage. The biggest problems are size and cost relative to regular hard drives (HDDs). HDDs in notebooks start at 500GB even for the lowliest of budget PCs, and can go up to anywhere as capacious as 2TB for those with a serious media fetish. In the SSD world you can find drives as small as 32GB, although the standard for an entry level model these days is around 128GB. And be prepared to pay more for any system with an SSD – those suckers are expensive.

SSD OR HDD, WHICH ONE IS FOR ME?

he first thing you need to consider is budget. Solid state drives are generally found only from the middle of the notebook range and upwards. The second thing to think about is how much storage space you actually need. If you’re happy keeping your pictures, movies and music collection on an external hard

drive then the limited storage space of an SSD should be more than sufficient for your needs. Lastly, if you hate waiting for things to load and have a serious need for speed, there’s absolutely only one option for you – SSDs all the way.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 19

HARD DRIVES IN FOCUS

SEAGATE LAPTOP THIN VS WESTERN DIGITAL DUAL DRIVE

olid state hard drives are fast, but regular hard drives can store far more. What if you can have the best of both worlds? That’s what Seagate and Western Digital have done with their latest hybrid drives that combine both a large HDD for storage and an SSD for speed. SEAGATE LAPTOP THIN Seagate’s efforts have been centred around its Laptop Thin “solid-state hybrid drives”, or SSHDs that use around 8GB of Flash memory (the stuff solid-state hard drives use) alongside the spinning platters of traditional hard drives. The two technologies complement each other: the platters provide up to 1TB of storage, while the Flash memory caches the most often-used files

for quick access by the operating system, resulting in hard drives that are faster than their non-hybrid brethren, but still slower than entirely solid-state drives. These drives are priced between regular and solid-state hard drives; you can pick a 1TB hybrid drive up for around R1300, when a regular 1TB laptop hard drive costs around R999. Hybrid drives represent a good compromise between the speed and high price of an SSD and the lack of performance but comparatively generous storage of a regular drive. WESTERN DIGITAL DUAL DRIVE Western Digital’s efforts, on the other hand, have been a little more daring. Its version of a hybrid drive is called the Western

Digital Dual Drive, which doesn’t just use Flash memory as cache – it sandwiches an entire 120GB solid-state hard drive into an enclosure that also houses a 1TB hard drive. You therefore get two hard drives in a single enclosure, and the operating system will pick them up as entirely separate from one another. This is handy because it means you’re able to install your operating system on the SSD and get all of the speed benefits that provides, while also having an entire terabyte of storage space that a traditional SSD doesn’t offer. The Dual Drive seems a little pricy but it’s actually not: you’re looking at around R3 000 for what is pretty much only 1.12TB of storage space, but for the same cash or just slightly less you can only get a 240GB SSD.

WESTERN DIGITAL DUAL DRIVE

SEAGATE LAPTOP THIN 20 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

Hap

TIRED OF BEING DISAPPOINTED? Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a deal that will make you

Get NeoBroadband LTE 15GB for only R499 p.m. Includes free installation worth R500.

NeoBroadband has the HAPPIEST CUSTOMERS and was voted Best Broadband in SA. MyBroadband Survey 2014.

Switch to Neotel and switch to happiness today!

HappyA4.indd 1

2014/07/29 2:50 PM

HARD DRIVES IN FOCUS

WHAT IS NAS?

t’s 2014, and watching movies and TV series and storing photos and music in digital format is something many of us consider to be the norm. But today’s media files and photos are huge, taking up gigabytes of space on hard drives, making it not only possible but likely that running out of room to store more happens quite a lot. Since laptops don’t normally have huge hard drives and desktop PCs are going the way of the dodo it makes sense that even regular computer users will need a new way to store their digital content that’s still accessible over a home network. I CAN NAS CHEEZBURGER? That’s where Network Attached Storage, or NAS, comes in. It’s not a new technology; it has seen more use in businesses than in homes up to now, but with the growing data storage needs of even the average person it’s

no surprise that most storage companies have NAS products aimed at home use. Essentially, a NAS array is little more than a computer-controlled box that you can plug hard drives in to, with various connectors on the back that let you share the data on those drives on your network or directly to your computer via USB. Some even have eSATA ports that let you hook up even more hard drives, which its built-in intelligence then manages. The fancier ones even let you set up RAID, a technology that bolts together multiple hard drives to boost either how fast you can access the data that’s on them, or to let you combine several physical drives into a far larger single drive. NETWORK ATTACHED SAVIOUR Take Synology’s DS1513+ NAS array, for instance. Not only does it have a dual-

WHAT IS DLNA?

good NAS for home use should support the Digital Living Network Alliance, or DLNA, a standard that defines how devices designed to share and play digital media files talk to one another. DLNA compatibility means

22 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

core processor and four LAN ports, securing itself against any single LAN port failure by providing redundancy, but it has two eSATA and two USB 3.0 ports as well for expanding on its already-generous five hard drive bays and providing connectivity to a PC or Mac. It supports up to five 3.5-inch 6TB hard drives for a whopping 30TB of total capacity without any need for expansion via eSATA, or you can set it up in RAID 5 to see one single – but incredibly fast - 6TB drive. This may be a bit much for a home user, but the idea is sound. Simply shunt in up to five hard drives, connect it to power and your home network via a LAN cable, configure the software that comes with it and voila, you have a network-attached storage device that puts an end to your capacity woes and lets you hoard as many TV series, movies, photos and music as you like.

PLUG AND PLAY

your NAS will be able to talk to your media player or DLNA-certified television set, enabling you to play whatever is stored on it through those devices without hassle.

efore you run out and buy a NAS array, check your router to see if it has a USB port. Some routers will let you connect any old USB hard drive and share its contents on your network that way. It’s a similar idea to a NAS enclosure, but it’s a lot cheaper.

GET SOCIAL WITH US! Find us on your favourite social network. facebook.com/htxtafrica twitter.com/htxtafrica

htxt africa

news . features . reviews . opinions . culture

HARD DRIVES IN FOCUS

SEAGATE WIRELESS PLUS

ravelling is fantastic but those long hours in transit can seem even longer when you don’t have anything left to do. And that can be nothing compared to the panic that sets in when you have a horde of screaming children also needing something to do to pass the time. Which is why travelling with a wireless hard drive with tons of space for movies and music is a must. Seagate’s Wireless Plus creates its own wireless hotspot, allowing multiple computers, smartphones and tablets to connect to it and access files that are stored in its hard drive. Best of all, it’s completely portable allowing you to take it anywhere, and it runs for up to 10 hours on the included battery pack. It manages this by creating its own WiFi network which can connect up to seven notebooks, smartphones and tablets via the Seagate Media app, which is available for Android, Windows 8, iOS and even for Kindle Fire tablets. The Wireless Plus can stream up to three HD movies to three separate devices at the same time so you and your significant other can be watching a movie while the two kids each get to choose their own entertainment from the catalogue on offer.

If you’re worried about losing out on your internet connectivity because your device is connected to the Wireless Plus’ WiFi network, don’t be. The Seagate Wireless Plus can connect to another WiFi network and your smartphones and tablets can access the internet through the Wireless Plus so that you’re always connected, even when you’re browsing those awesome snaps you took at last year’s holiday. Speaking of photos, the Wireless Plus is the perfect travelling companion for the photo obsessed smartphone user with daily backups of your smartphone’s camera also a possibility with the Seagate Wireless Plus. It’s not just a toy for the road warrior either, because the Seagate Wireless Plus is DLNA-certified. That means it can stream video and music wirelessly to most smart TVs and media players when it’s at home. Samsung Smart TVs even have their own Seagate Media app so that you can access your holiday snaps for your friends and show them off on the big screen. The Apple faithful will not feel left out as the Wireless Plus is also AirPlay-certified as well and can stream media directly to your Apple TV or even music to your AirPlay enabled speakers turning into a true media master’s delight.

GLOSSARY SSD – SOLID STATE DRIVE

Much like a giant memory stick, a solidstate drive (SSD) uses a type of storage technology most commonly found in smartphones, tablets and high-end notebooks, namely Flash memory. Since Flash memory is actually just a collection of memory chips, it provides extremely fast data transfer rates which translates into almost instantaneous start up times and apps that load in a flash. SSHD – SOLID STATE HYBRID DRIVE

SSHDs combine the capacity of traditional platter-based hard drives with the speed of Flash memory. The memory caches frequently-used data, giving the system incredibly quick access to oft-needed files, something that boosts performance

24 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

considerably over regular, non-hybrid drives. HDD – HARD DISK DRIVE

A traditional hard disk drive uses spinning platters and magnetic fields to store data. While they have become faster over the years they still cannot match the raw speed of SSDs, but they make up for it with far superior capacity. The largest HDDs available now are 3.5-inch desktop drives which can be as large as 8TB, or around 500 16GB iPhones in size. NAS – NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE

Initially used only by businesses, NAS drives have now become commonplace in people’s homes as well where they’re used to share movies, music, pictures and documents

across the home network. NAS drives typically use more than one hard drive and RAID technology to make data less likely to be lost if a drive crashes, and are a great way to keep data safe. RAID – REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISKS

RAID is a technology that spreads data across multiple drives connected to a NAS or a computer. It can be used to make accessing the files faster, or it can provide redundant copies of data for backup purposes. Redundancy reduces the available storage capacity but ensures that if one disk fails its information can be reconstructed and recovered from the remaining healthy drives.

REVIEWS DETAILS • Display: 17.3” Full HD 1 920×1 080 LED backlight display • Memory: 2X8GB (16GB) DDR3L 1866, 4 slots (Max 32GB) • Storage: 3x128GB mSATA SSD, 1×2.5inch 1TB • Camera: 1 megapixel video call camera • Networking: 802.11ac WiFI, Bluetooth 4.0, Killer LAN chip • Dimensions: 428mmx305mmx22.9mm • Weight: 3kg • Other: dual 2W speakers R33 000

Aorus X7 v2 Gaming Laptop Gigabyte’s latest gaming laptop is thin, light and exceptionally good.

he Aorus X7 v2 is billed as the thinnest and lightest GTX SLI gaming laptop offering some of the best specs available today. The body of the Aorus X7 is both sleek and slim: in fact it’s so skinny we had to double check the specs to make sure that everything that was claimed to be inside of the Aorus X7 was actually somewhere in there. At the heart of the machine is a quad core Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor which ticks over at a calm 2.5GHz normally and boosts up to 3.5GHz when under load. That’s partnered with 16GB of RAM of 1 866MHz DDR3 RAM, and if that’s not enough (although it should be) the good news is that there’s two spare RAM slots for upgrades, so you can take an Aorus X7 all the way to 32GB of RAM should you choose to. The really exciting part of the Aorus, though, is that there’s a pair of NVIDIA GTX 860M graphics cards inside, which operate in tandem for desktop-like framerates in any game you can think of. Normally, we’d expect huge vents and a massive case to house these, but at 22.9mm high, the Auros is ultrabook thin. Storage is supplied by both a fast SSD

26 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

and a regular 2.5inch rotational drive for space. Our test model came three SSDs and a full terabyte of spinning space. If all that’s inside isn’t enough, there are three USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, a mini-Display port, RJ45 Ethernet port, an SD card reader and audio jack for expansion, nicely laid out around the edges. Network-wise its the latest 802.11ac WiFi chip that caught our eye, but there’s also support for the latest Bluetooth 4.0. Hardwire connectivity is via a Killer K1 LAN connector, which is theoretically optimised for gaming. The 17.3 inch full high definition display is bright, vibrant and has excellent viewing angles whether you’re sitting directly in front of it or looking at it from an angle. There’s a few drawbacks, obviously. At 3kg it’s much heavier than it looks and if you’re looking for a notebook that’ll last you the entire day, whispering quietly away on your desk as it wicks away the minimal heat that it generates, then this noisy, battery hungry beast is not for you However, if you’re all right with a notebook that can last for a few hours if you want to browse the web or watch a

movie before requiring you to haul out the massive 200W power supply brick then you’re in the right place. The real challenge for most readers, though, will be the daunting R33 000 pricetag. It’s not a laptop for the faint hearted. But if you need something obscenely powerful to play video games on-the-go, and want it with a lot more style and sophistication than most gaming notebooks, then the Aorus X7 is the sleekest and sexiest portable gaming package available today. You can read our in-depth review here: Bit.ly/1uGUv8e

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery Life

Value for Money

Display

Interface

Overall

REVIEWS DETAILS • Display: 5.5inch, 1 440×2 560 resolution, HDIPS+ LCD display (534ppi) • Operating System: Android 4.4.2 with Sense 6 • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 2.5GHz quad core processor • Memory: 2GB/3GB RAM • Storage: 16GB/32GB expandable by up to 128GB with a microSD card • Battery: 3 000mAh user removable • Camera: 13 megapixel camera with laser autofocus • Networking: Dual band 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and LTE R10 500

More reviews at

An eink ereader to love: Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite Since it launched in 2007, Amazon’s Kindle has been the bookworm benchmark by which all ereaders are measured. Bit.ly/1kbr9xn

LG G3 Tragically flawed brilliance?

igger, faster and with a display resolution that truly boggles the mind, the LG G3 was by far one of our most hotly anticipated smartphones of the year. The LG G3 is clearly an evolution of last year’s G2 with some very welcome design improvements. The 3 000mAh battery is now user replaceable and lives beneath a brushed metal-looking plastic cover on the back of the phone. There are two hardware configurations of the LG G3, but they’re not drastically different to the point that it becomes imperative to choose the one over the other. Both are powered by Qualcomm’s fantastic quad core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor and have the same 5.5inch, 1 440×2 560 resolution display with the same 13 megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation.The only difference is in the on board storage and memory: the 16GB version comes with 2GB of RAM, and the 32GB version comes with 3GB of RAM. The LG G3’s quad HD, 1 440×2 560 resolution, HD-IPS+ LCD display is the best panel we’ve ever seen. The resolution and its accompanying 534 pixels per inch are truly mindboggling, matching the resolution of a 27 inch iMac all-in-one. Although it retains the megapixel count of its predecessor, the LG G3 has upgraded its camera from the very good unit that it had on the G2 imbuing it with an even better version of its optical image stabilisation (OIS) technology. The 13 megapixel sensor takes great pictures in both bright and low lighting conditions thanks to its physical and digital OIS. But it’s really the camera software that should be thanked for the G3’s good scores in the camera department. The interface has almost no distractions with a simple tap on your subject enough for the G3 to focus and shoot the picture.

LG have chosen to not increase the physical battery capacity of the G3 from its predecessor’s 3 000mAh and it was a mistake. The battery still has the same life extending technology that the G2 had and the same rapid charging technology that lets it gain precious hours of battery life faster than many of its contemporaries, but it’s not enough to stop the display from draining the battery before the end of the day. If you’re the kind of person that checks your phone for notifications every few minutes, or spends a decent amount of time each day watching video, then the LG G3 might not be the best choice in smartphone for you. Not because it does any of those things badly, in fact far from that – it excels in every area we could think of bar one. Battery life is the one feature that made the G2 dominate the pack last year, and the one thing that lets the LG G3 down this year and for that it may be resigned to those who don’t rely on their smartphones as much or are willing to charge the phone twice a day. Read more about the LG G3 here: Bit.ly/1pjhJvu

Hands-on with the amazing new HTC One M8 The all aluminium HTC One M8 remains our phone of choice for looks. And that includes knowing there’s a new iPhone out. Bit.ly/1nTmyL3

Alcatel’s OneTouch Idol Alpha making local comeback. A number of Alcatel’s phones have made their way onto South African shelves, but the OneTouch Idol Alpha is the best. Bit.ly/1pc2Y0E

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery Life

Value for Money

Display

Interface

Overall

Three deep-diving underwater cameras We round up some underwater snappers to pit against each other, to see which one delivers the best on performance and usability. Bit.ly/1rrG6vW

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 27

REVIEWS

DETAILS • Publisher: Activision • Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 • The good: Will appeal to a broad spectrum of multiplayer or single player gamers. • The bad: Once the campaign is finished, it’s time to work. From R799 for the PS3 and Xbox versions, to R899 for PS4

Destiny

Does Bungie’s FPS live up to the hype, or should it rather stay in orbit, never to return to Earth?

estiny’s plot has been a favourite picking point of various reviews, and to be fair, it is a little bit lacking in substance and character. For the most part, it revolves around you taking on the role of a Guardian, tasked with protecting the universe from certain doom and destruction in a post-apocalypse setting by a race of aliens that has all but wiped out everything in its path. You have to reclaim the formerly populated colonies on various planets so that earth can flourish once again. That is the major crux of the story, but naturally there are a number of plot twists and turns – well… not really, that is pretty much it. In that regard, the plot is incredibly flat and almost predictable, and it’s not like we haven’t saved mankind from aliens before. It’s almost as if the plot has fallen by the wayside, interrupting the shooting and looting with unskippable and (sometimes) drawn-out cut-scenes. There were a number of occasions where the scene’s structure just didn’t make much sense. MOUNT YOUR STEED To be able to effectively take on the uglies, you will have to create a character. One of the most important decisions that you will

Awesome reviews at

go to htxt.co.za

28 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

make in the game is which class to play. There are three to choose from: Warlock, Titan and Hunter, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The Titan is the tank of the battlefield, who goes in close and leaves only limbs behind. The Hunter is a versatile fighter with some really cool cloaking abilities, while the Warlock is a bit of combination of the previous two. Once that is settled, you have to choose your race and gender, which is purely cosmetic. Then it is off to that battlefield. There is nothing imaginative in the way the game plays, even as far as the type of missions that are available. The controls are stock-standard, so why should the missions be? The majority of them will involve going through a particular area, fighting off everything in the way, which ultimately culminates in battling some form of boss creature. The abilities of said boss will differ depending on the stage of the plot. And it’s like Bungie knew there would be a lot of grinding involved, as each of the four planets with their limited areas can be entered into through a Patrol option. This option is pretty much the “mess around” stage, as anything goes. PARTING THOUGHTS Destiny is a hugely enjoyable game that

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2: THE VIDEOGAME A game that uses minigames isn’t a bad thing, but these are just so mind-numbingly terrible that we didn’t want to do any of them more than a few times. Bit.ly/1jHRMdd

will appeal to anyone who has played Halo, Mass Effect or Borderlands, but it comes at a price. Progress through the story too quickly, and you will end up grinding through repeat levels to hit the sweet spot. But once you do, you may have to grind a bit more to get the loot that you want, and how long that sort of thing will hold its appeal remains to be seen. Ultimately, however long the Destiny ride lasts is up to you, something that hinges heavily on how much mileage you can squeeze from its multiplayer bits and your tolerance for the grind. Bit.ly/1xtvBwo

SCORES Graphics

Combat

Story & Quests

Things to do

Soundtrack

Overall

PROFESSOR LAYTON VS. ACE ATTORNEY: PHOENIX WRIGHT Labyrinthia is a weird place, but well worth a visit to see two top Nintendo gaming heroes tackling the adventure together in glasses-free 3D gaming goodness. Bit.ly/1m3JV3G

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

MicroSD High-Speed

• Perfect for your action camera, tablet or smartphone • 300x (45mbs) High-speed so you don’t miss a single shot • UHS-I and Class 10 rated for 3D and full-HD video recording • SD Adapter supplied for easy downloading • Limited lifetime warranty

Premium SD

• Perfect for Compact and Bridge cameras • Fast 200x(30mbs) speed makes sure you capture that shot everytime • UHS-I and Class 10 rated for full-HD video recording • Card reader supplied for easy download • Limited lifetime warranty

How much video can I take on my card?

* All totals may vary according to device For more information please call Premium Brand Distributors (021) 461 2325 or email simon@nikon.co.za

REVIEWS

DETAILS • Platforms: PC • Publisher: Capcom R499

DEAD RISING 3

A new city, a new protagonist and a new zombie outbreak.

ead Rising 3, originally an Xbox One exclusive, has finally made its way to PC, delivering the excellent open-world zombie-bashing gameplay players have been enjoying since last November, while adding all of the DLCs, better graphics and more zombies to the mix. Is it fun running around the open world of Los Perdidos beating the zombies with weapons cobbled together out of other items and running them over with Frankenstein’d vehicles? You bet it is. Is the story cheesy enough to enjoy, and are there traditional Dead Rising tropes of timed missions and a sense of “Solve this mystery

before the bombs drop!”? Absolutely. Unfortunately, Dead Rising 3 didn’t arrive completely optimised for the PC. It runs decidedly badly even on high-end hardware, requiring a hack that unlocks the frame rate from 30fps. Once that’s done, though, it runs a lot better. It’ll take you around 25 hours to go through the Story Mode, but shorter if you’re brave enough to play on Nightmare Mode which offers less time to get everything done, much like the first two games did. You can even bring a friend along for the ride thanks to the built-in co-op. Bit.ly/1sJqVRV

SCORES Graphics

Performance

Story

Extras

Value for money

Overall

DETAILS • Platforms: PC/Mac • Publisher: Electronic Arts From R499

THE SIMS 4

A threadbare foundation that will shape up nicely once the expansions roll out.

he life-managing, home-building, drama-curating fun of The Sims franchise is back for its fourth goaround, and while the game itself is very solid, in its current form it feels a little under-done. Clearly, the developers need to leave room to add in the bajillion expansions they probably have planned for The Sims 4, but the flip side is that has left the game feeling a little hollow. Sure, the interface has been completely overhauled and simplified, the graphics engine tweaked to run better on more computers and Sims interact with each other in new and delightfully realistic ways, but home-building,

decorating and lot-visiting options are not quite as extensive as we had hoped. Even so, The Sims 4 can still be a lot of fun with new career paths to explore, skills to develop and a Moodlet system that has you nursing your Sims through their various emotional states. Managing a household of Sims with wildly-differing personalities is as entertaining as ever, but honestly series veterans may be better off not buying the game until at least a handful of expansions arrive that flesh things out a little further. Bit.ly/1uVSyn2

SCORES Graphics

Life Simulation

Interface

Variety

Fun

Overall

7 WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 31

REVIEWS

5 mobile games that try something different

It’s nice when unique Android and iOS games come along that dare to try to do something a little unusual. FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S (Android) f you find toy dolls a bit creepy, this isn’t the game for you. It plays expertly on that sort of unreasonable fear, as your night-shift security guard alter ego guards a pizza joint whose animatronic mascots appear to come alive after dark. You must use the shop’s security cameras to keep track of them using only a limited amount of electricity, and when they aren’t where you left them or the lights go out, you have to prepare to defend yourself as they come for you. Definitely one of the scariest games you can play on mobile right now. R32.04

I PIANO TILES (DON’T TAP THE WHITE TILE) (Android/iOS) o absolutely nobody’s surprise, a game called Piano Tiles is all about accurately hitting tiles that look like piano keys as they speed ever-faster past your fingers. That’s it, really, in the same way that Flappy Bird is all about timing your taps to guide a bird through gaps in pipes. It’s just really hard to do, and you feel quite pleased when you start getting the hang of it. Addictive personalities stay away, this one will eat your spare time like a fat uncle pigs out at family braais. Free

MOUNTAIN (Android/iOS) ou want different? Try a game that shows you a mountain, shows you things growing on that mountain and what happens when weather hits that mountain... and that’s it. Want to make time go faster? Play a ditty on the on-screen keyboard. Want to move the camera? Sure, but to what avail? None, and that’s what makes this game what it is. It’s a mountain, and maybe a screensaver, and that’s about it. R10.66 (Android), R11.99 (iOS)

THE NIGHTMARE COOPERATIVE (iOS) our village has spent recklessly, and it’s up to you and some friends to go and gather some gold from a very unforgiving world, where the wrong move means permadeath. TNC is a roguelike with cute graphics but brutal mechanics that challenge your tactical thinking with clever, puzzle-y combat and a turn-based system that forces all characters to move at the same time. It’s seriously hard to get the gold your village needs, but oh-so-satisfying when you out-think and out-manoeuvre the game’s many dangers. R49.99

THEY NEED TO BE FED 3 (Android/iOS) latformers that use regular ideas on gravity are so last year. This one has 360-degree gravity so you can walk on anything while avoiding obstacles and enemies, and it’s a very clever and challenging mechanic that’ll hook you from the first leap. The aim is to get yourself to a huge beast and throw yourself into its mouth – a rather pleasant change from the saving the world twaddle peddled by so many other games. R24.99 (iOS), R21.30 (Android)

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 33

PHOTOGRAPHY

ike, it would be totally cool man, if your next camera battery was totally powered by hemp. Well, that is at least what researchers at a Canadian start-up are trying to produce. Their research is rather advanced as well, and they claim that hemp can even be a better supercapacitor than graphene. David Mitlin, the man behind the research, explains that regular batteries, like the ones found in digital cameras, charge and release energy rather slowly – but supercapacitors can charge and discharge their content in seconds. But there is a slight problem with supercapacitors, in the sense that they can’t hold nearly as much of a charge than regular batteries. To get around that, Mitlin is looking to boost the supercapacitor’s energy density

by designing smarter electrodes. And this is where the hemp comes in. Mitlin and his colleague has figured out a way to make a supercapacitor battery from hemp fibres that can hold as much energy as graphene. “Our device’s electrochemical performance is on par with or better than graphene-based devices. The key advantage is that our electrodes are made from biowaste using a simple process, and therefore, are much cheaper than graphene.” They turned the hemp into carbon nanosheets by heating the fibers for 24 hours at a little over 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and then blasted the resulting material with more intense heat. The carbons were then used as electrodes and an ionic liquid as the electrolyte. The

team recently presented their research to attendees to the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). But Mitlin was quick to add that while they have been making great strides in using hemp, a lot of work still needs to be done. “We’ve pretty much figured out the secret sauce of it. The trick is to really understand the structure of a starter material and to tune how it’s processed to give you what would rightfully be called amazing properties.” But even so, they are moving ahead with production. “We’re past the proof-of-principle stage for the fully functional supercapacitor. Now we’re gearing up for small-scale manufacturing,” he concluded.

SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST

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

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 35

CC BY 2.0/MARC FUYÀ / WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/FUYA_

Your next camera battery could be powered by hemp L

PHOTOGRAPHY

16 384 OF THESE

SanDisk’s new SD card is the king of storage S hooting in 4k video is becoming more and more commonplace as video pros look to make videos that are not only more detailed, but also have the option of re-framing down to 1080p in post production without losing any of the detail that you would normally have. The biggest problem with 4k video however, is the sheer size of the files that come from recording in the format. Well at least that used to be the problem. Then SanDisk released its latest Extreme

PRO SDXC UHS-I memory card with the mind-boggling ability to store up to 512GB of data. In just 11 years SanDisk has managed to go from offering a maximum of 512MB of storage in an SD card to offering 512GB without increasing the physical size of the card at all. The new Extreme Pro SD card is capable of claimed write speeds of up to 90 megabytes per second (MB/s) and data transfer speeds up to 95 MB/s which

make it perfect for the rigours of 4k recording. At a $729 (R8 001) it certainly is not the SD card for everyone but if you’re willing to hold out until the 15th of October when they become available and you haven’t already broken a sweat at a price like that then the SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I 512GB memory card may just be the card of your photographic dreams.

Turn your smartphone into a SLR camera C an you image the type of photos that you will be able to take if you could use your phone as a medium but have SLR capabilities? Sony is due to launch their QX1 smartphone attachment that will allow you to take SLR quality images with your smartphone. Its peripheral that clips onto your phone at the one end, and then allows for Sony’s interchangeable E-Mount lenses to be affixed to the other end – effectively turning your phone into a SLR camera. The clip-on is similar to Sony’s QX10 and QX100, but with some small changes beyond the fact you can swap the lens. According to initial reports stemming from leaked info, it will have an APS-C sensor, built-in flash, and will cost around 300 euros for the body, while the addedextra 16-50mm lens will be 450 euros.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 37

Turning amateurs into proâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

stockist of major photographic brands

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

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

SUPERTEST

WHICH…

camera bag is right for you?

How you store and carry your camera – as well as all of its accompanying equipment – makes a big difference in the long run.

arrying all your photographic gear around can be a rather tedious task, as there are certain cameras that aren’t exactly lightweight. This is where a really good camera bag comes in – one that

has the capacity to hold all your stuff, extras and maybe a slot for a notebook or tablet as well. Having battled with large amounts of gear ourselves over long periods of time, we

decided to take a look at what type of camera bags are available, and how they compare to each other. We’ve gone for a fairly broad selection of bag types so that you can get a feel for what’s on offer.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 39

SUPERTEST

LOWEPRO PRO RUNNER 200 AW IT’S SMALL, BUT REALLY COMFORTABLE

owepro’s Pro Runner 200 AW isn’t the biggest bag around, but it’s actually perfect for when you just need a functional backpack to store your gear while going on a hiking trip. The main, inner compartment is divided up into eight sections by default, but they can be

rearranged or resized by shifting the padded Velcro dividers around. The bag will be too small for high-end photographers, but it’s perfect for street photographers and enthusiasts who don’t have long lenses and huge camera bodies. It’s a great size for a mirrorless compact system with a couple of lenses, too. Once opened, the inside of the flap has a zippered compartment for document storage, and two small pockets for carrying extra memory cards. Even though the bag is small enough for urban use, it has a special place for a tripod as well, which can be fastened through a foldout holder and cam lock buckles and straps. Planning on going to a particularly rainy area? Don’t worry, the bag has a special pouch at the bottom that stores away a nifty raincoat that pulls over the bag, keeping it dry.

Hulking even a small around amount of gear can be rather taxing on the body, but Lowepro hasn’t skimped on the comfort, as the straps are padded and the lower back receives a bit more sponge than the rest of the mesh-covered backpad. There is also a chest strap that connects the shoulders together, relieving some of the strain placed on your back.

SCORES Design

Comfort

Value for Money

Overall

R1 200 Small, compact and will store all the necessities.

THULE COVERT DSLR ROLLTOP BACKPACK

IT’S ONE OF THE BIGGEST BAGS WE HAVE SEEN

or those that have a bit more gear than your average photographer, the Covert has more than enough nooks and crannies to stuff your gear into. Its gets its Rolltop name from the fact that the water-proof top compartment is rolled up, which makes it weather-resistant, and you will be able to squeeze some more space out of it. The rolltop is held in place by two clips. The camera and attachments are accessed through a zip on the side, so enough though you can get to it through the top, just sling it around from your shoulder and you have immediate access. The equipment sits in what Thule calls a SafeZone removable camera pod, meaning that the entire pod can be removed with your camera still inside. What makes the divider in the camera section so cool is that it was inspired by the age-old art of paper

40 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

folding. The divider has Velcro on its ends, but it can be articulated and bended into different positions – to exactly match the shape of your equipment. While it has more pockets than what you can shake a lens at, the Covert also has a slit in the slide to store a tablet or laptop with a maximum size of about 13-inches.

SCORES Design

Comfort

Value for Money

Overall

Approx. R2 000 More pockets than even the most laden tog can find equipment for.

SUPERTEST

TAMRAC MIRAGE 6 GREAT AMOUNT OF SPACE FOR SEMIPROFESSIONALS

f you are not quiet in the big leagues just yet but looking for a bag with some substance, the Mirage 6 will be perfect for you. It has enough space for a standard DSLR, a couple of lenses and a number of accessories. What’s nice about this one, is that the camera area in the bag can be accessed from two different zips – one on the side for over-theshoulder access, while the other zip is in the first when the bag is not being carried around or things need to be rearranged. But that is not all that the lightweight bag can carry, as there is space for a tablet and a flash in the fully padded bottom compartment. There is also a padded top compartment, which is ideal for carrying personal items such as keys, extra batteries or accessories. Stored inside is also a rain-resistant cover that pulls over the bag to keep all your equipment safe and dry.

SCORES Design

Comfort

Value for Money

Overall

R1 500 Big enough to store most of your gear.

LOWEPRO URBAN REPORTER 150

ITS OVER-THE-SHOULDER FOR BETTER MOBILITY

camera bag doesn’t necessarily have to be a backpack, as Lowepro proves with their over-the-shoulder Urban Reporter 150 messenger bag. The bag has a zipped front pocket that can be used to store personal items such as business cards, a pen and small knick-knacks that will make your life easier while on the job. But the main compartment is where the magic really happens. Being a messenger bag, the fully-padded compartment is big enough to hold one standard SLR body and one lens, while you can probably squeeze a lens in there are well. The compartment is divided up into section with Velcro, which can be rearrange or completely removed. Actually, the entire padded compartment can be removed. The bag hasn’t been built with size in mind, but rather a quick and easy way to safely carry only the essentials – so it’s perfect for a photojournalist or street snappers with small cams and wide primes. Behind the main compartment is a slightly hidden sleeve that can carry a standard tablet about the size of an iPad. The bag also has two handles – one to haul it over the shoulder, while the other one is used to carry it by hand.

SCORES Design

Comfort

Value for Money

Overall

Approx. R1 800 It’s great if you don’t have a lot of stuff.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 41

SUPERTEST

TAMRAC JAZZ 83 SMALL BUT STURDY

imilar to the Mirage 6, Tamrac’s Jazz 83 is just small enough to carry the most essential gear, but it’s big enough to pack some extras in as well. With a sturdy and lightweight overall design, on the outer sides it has mesh pockets straps (which can be used to keep tripods and the likes in place). On the front of it there is a zip that reveals a pocket for storing documents, small items and extra goodies that you might want to carry around with you. The zips between the front pocket and the business end of the bag can get a little confusing sometimes, as they are the same colour and run on top of each other. But once you flip the top, it will reveal an organised compartment separated by fullypadded mesh dividers.

The compartments are big enough to fit a DSLR with a lens attached, an extra three or four lenses and a flash. The lid of the main compartment also has two sleeves for extra accessories.

SCORES Design

Comfort

Value for Money

Overall

Approx. R1 200 It’s small, but will protect your valuable equipment.

LOWEPRO SPORT SHOULDER 12L

EASILY PORTABLE

here will be occasions where a full camera bag will be too bulky, and that is exactly why Lowepro decided to make a small shoulder bag that is easily carried around without being a burden. Slightly bigger than a classic fanny pack, it has been designed with discretion in mind, and was inspired by an outdoor lifestyle and for many uses. Don’t expect

to be fitting your entire arsenal of professional gear in to the bag, as only 40% of the space inside has been allocated to the camera, while 60% is dedicated to personal items. But with that said, it’s not actually designed for SLR cameras at all, as it is perfect for mirrorless and compact cameras instead. Although, if you manage to rearrange some of your belongings, we are positive that you would be able to squeeze a DSLR in there. But the fully-padded dividers will comfortably protect whatever you chose to store in its compartments,

whether it be lunch, a light jacket or even a 10” tablet.

SCORES Design

Comfort

Value for Money

Overall

R950 Super easy to carry around.

CONCLUSION

icking the best camera bag really depends on what you are going to use it for, and what your needs are. Sometimes you will have a lot of gear to take with you, while on other occasions you might just want to take the bare necessities. If a winner for this super test had to be chosen and going by the previous criteria, the Tamrac Mirage 6 would come out tops. The Mirage 6 is a perfect middle-of-the-road bag that will hold all of your photographic gear with ease, while it is still small enough not be a burden when being carried. A problem with bigger 42 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

bags is that they can become cumbersome and extremely heavy when packed to the brim, and they tend to be rather expensive. Value for money, design and overall camera access all needs to be taken into account when deciding on the perfect camera pack, and the Mirage 6 just ticked all the right boxes.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

HOW CAMERAS WORK

Getting exposure right is just part of the equation when it comes to taking good photographs of waterfalls.

44 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

How to make water look misty in photos

From dramatic beaches to tranquil lakes, we’re here to help you take stunning pictures of water.

here are few things more atmospheric to shoot than bodies or streams of water, and few better times to shoot them than early on a spring morning when there’s enough atmospheric chill to let you capture the moisture in the air. But if you’re wondering why when you point a camera at haunting fogs drifting over riverbeds they completely vanish from your snap, don’t worry. There’s an easy technique you can deploy for accentuating rather than eliminating misty effects. CHOOSE A LOW ISO VALUE You want to capture as much detail as possible, including things that the naked eye can’t really see. For vivid colours and drawme-in depth, set your camera’s sensitivity as low as you can. Preferably ISO 100.

GO FOR A LENGTHY EXPOSURE There’s two ways to take pictures of water. A fast shutter speed will freeze action in an instant, so is perfect for picking up droplets of water bouncing. For a misty and romantic morning river pic, however, you want a long shutter speed of several seconds. The movement of the water body and tiny droplets in the air will smooth out in to the soft image you want. SETUP A TRIPOD It’s only the water that should be moving in front of your lens, so steady your camera with a tripod. Ideally, you don’t even want to touch the shutter release button and risk the tiniest bit of movement. Either use a remote release or program the self timer to open the shutter after you’ve taken a step back.

USE A NARROW APERTURE Unless you’re after a particular effect using depth of field as well, your picture is going to be more effective if everything other than the water is pin sharp. This means using a narrow aperture with a high F-number. F16 is a good place to start. Don’t worry about under exposing - just make the shutter speed longer. It’s a technique that’s not just good for rivers and early morning dews. Waterfalls look spectacular when photographed this way, and if you use a neutral density filter, you can make any time of day look like early morning.

The silky smooth water is actually just one simple effect - motion blur. The hardest part is keeping still, so use a tripod.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 45

ADVERTORIAL

SEE WHAT THE PROFESSIONALS HA

MARKU S WORSDORFER

once read on the bottom of a camera, “You can’t photograph if you’re not in love”. Well if this is true, I must be madly in love. I say, if you don’t love the subject you photograph, you cannot capture the essence of its beauty. I love my photography and I love every subject I capture, be that a beautiful woman, a magnificent landscape or the delicate detail of nature. I got into photography 24 years ago when I first moved to South Africa, and initially only documenting the amazing landscapes. But I soon turned my eye to the other beauty the country has to offer so widely, its people. FIND OUT MORE AT: HTTP://MWORSDORFER.BLOGSPOT.COM

JOH ANN VAN DER WALT

ohann van der Walt, former president of the Photographic Society of South Africa, specialises in creative landscape photography. He presents landscape lectures and workshops on a regular basis, and is especially known for his extraordinary landscape photography such as his long exposure star trail photos, his infrared landscapes and his super realistic 3D landscapes. Initially I was drawn towards the Fujifilm X-T1 because of its size and weight and I decided to invest in it as a second lightweight travel kit. It was only after seeing the results that I realised that the image quality of this camera far surpasses my current equipment. FIND OUT MORE AT: HTTP://JOHANN.VDWALT.NET

Make your X Series camera come alive with these fantastic lense XC 16-50MM F3.5-5.6 OIS its versatile performance makes it a great choice for shooting special occasions indoors and outdoors.

XC 50-230MM F4.5-6.7 OIS The powerful 50-230mm lens will let you capture your subject at a distance with clarity.

XF 10-24MM F4 R OIS Ultra wide to standard focal length capabilities.

XF 18MM F2 R

A compact and lightweight “Pancake” type lens.

XF 27MM F2.8

XF 23MM F1.4 R

High-speed, high-precision Premium wide-angle lens Auto Focus. designed to maximize Fujifilm X-Trans CMOS sensor.

ADVERTORIAL

ujifilm has been at the forefront of mirrorless compact system cameras since the 2012 launch of the X-Pro 1. By combining good, solid, traditional camera design values with cutting edge digital technoloigies, the look and feel of Fujifilm’s X-Series cameras have been winning the hearts of photographers the world over. It’s the stunning image quality from a camera so compact and affordable that blows minds. Thanks to Fujifilm’s revolutionary X-Trans sensor which using a unique imaging pattern and construction for vivid pictures with unrivalled detail.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO OWN A FUJIFILM X SERIES CAMERA? • X-Trans CMOS sensor with unique pixel pattern and no low-pass filter for sharp shots. • EXR Processor technology – with phase detection for autofocusing as well as high frames-per-second shooting. • High ISO performance with low image noise. • Dedicated lens system for sensors, with currently 15 lenses available. • Retro design and light weight. • New weather-sealed lenses available

HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE X SERIES: ETT VENTER

tt Venter is a portrait photographer based in Pretoria, always working towards getting a documentary style body of work. A big part of his work is his use of light, as he lights almost all of his work artificially. Having used DSLRs my entire career, like most other photographers, the Fujifilm system is a breath of fresh air. Being able to get image quality on par with that of top-end SLRs in a smaller, more compact system makes my life much easier. The Fujifilm is small, light, and discreet, allowing me to quietly get the natural images I want without drawing attention to myself, while not having to worry about the bulk of a larger camera. FIND OUT MORE AT: WWW.ETTVENTER.COM

JOU BERT LOOTS

oubert Loots is a South African photographer and is currently working as a freelance documentary photographer. Throughout his life, Joubert has had opportunities to meet people who come from cultural, social and economic backgrounds that are more challenging than his own. It is the friendships made through these encounters that have fuelled his enthusiasm for photography’s ability to tell untold stories. As an artist Joubert views creativity as an aid toward self-development and he hopes to use his work as visual communication of a message that might evoke reflection from his audiences. FIND OUT MORE AT: WWW.JOUBERTLOOTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

XF 35MM F1.4 R

A standard focal length with the angle of view similar to that of the human eye.

XF 56MM F1.2 R A fast F1.2 lens with a focal length of 85mm.

XF 60MM F2.4 R

XF 18-55MM F2.8-4 R XF 18-135MM F3.5XF 55-200MM F3.55.6 R OIS WR 4.8 R OIS A mid telephoto lens with LM OIS A single versatile zoom A high magnification zoom the bright A large featuring a with 5.0-stop aperture of maximum maximum image F2.4. aperture aperture stabilization and a linear of F2.8 technology motor.

BE A TELLER OF FUTURE STORIES MyWorld of Tomorrow is an opportunity for a continent to converge under a single roof, creating an African led movement of global technological innovation. Hosted by Business Connexion, MyWorld of Tomorrow is more than an event, but rather a label to a movement and a calling card to a community of innovative thinkers and doers, where stories of technological innovation and its impact on our world of tomorrow can be experienced. MyWorld of Tomorrow is the foremost platform for interaction and knowledge sharing in the technology and innovation space, and a hotbed from which Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next global technological offering may arise. More than this, it extends to all corners of business, public sector and society, as technology has become equally pervasive across both. It is a convergence of minds, products and services, where technology and business intersect to challenge norms, exhibit solutions and speak of the future as if it has already happened.

www.mwotafrica.com

16 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 18 October 2014 Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

brought to you by

Untitled-1 1

2014/08/27 12:57 PM

:57 PM

HOW TO...

How to update to iOS 8 It’s time for current iPhone and iPad users to blow approximately a Gigabyte on getting the Apple’s latest operating system upgrade.

OS 8 is the biggest iOS release ever. It comes with updates to apps you use every day and exciting new connections between apps and between devices. STEP 1: WIRE-UP FOR WIFI… AND WAIT This update’s a big one, so you’re not going to want to burn mobile data on it. Make sure you’ve got access to a speedy WiFi connection, either for your computer or the iOS device you’re planning to update. And expect to be around for a while. 1GB of data will take you somewhere between 30 mins and 2 hours, depending on what the actual throughput of your line is. STEP 2: DECISIONS, DECISIONS You need to make a call between doing the update straight on your iOS device, doing the update on iTunes during an everyday sync, or downloading the file to your computer (it doesn’t matter whether you’re on a PC or Mac) and then updating your device manually. If you do the update on your iOS device, you’ll be downloading a ‘delta’ of the update – only the files that are required for the update – instead of the whole operating system image, which is what you’ll get if you do the update in iTunes or download it manually to your PC. The first option is better if you’ve only got a single model of iOS device, like for example, one iPhone 5s and one iPad Mini. The second option is better if you’d like to make a detailed backup of your device (and still, you only have one unit of a single model of iOS device) . The third option is only useful if you’ve got two iPhone 5s units, or two identical

generation iPad Minis (the size of the Flash storage doesn’t matter). With the two former methods, the update is downloaded (regardless of whether you do it on your iOS device or through iTunes), installed on the device and tossed. If you grab the update file, you can re-use it, providing it’s for the same model of device. In other words, the 5s file only works on 5s, and the 4s file on 4s. STEP 2: BACK IT UP Now that you know how you’re going to proceed, the next step is to get your data backed up. While I’ve never seen one of these updates go awry and the user’s data shredded, you hear nasty stories every day... Again, here you have options. Either connect your iOS device to your instance of iTunes and do a sync (just make sure the backup option it ticked in iTunes) or go into the device’s settings, look under ‘iCloud’; ‘Storage & Backup’; toggle the switch next to ‘iCloud Backup’; and hit the ‘Back Up Now’ option. If you choose the first option, you may as well grab the update at the same time. Don’t stress too much about how and where to find it. iTunes will detect the presence of an update online and prompt you to do the upgrade. Just follow the instructions. Once you’ve done a backup using either of these methods, it’s time to get things downloaded and installed. STEP 3: DOING THE DOWNLOAD Here’s where the fun begins. Remember which option you chose a while back? If you chose to direct download the upgrade to your device, all you need to

do is head into your device’s settings, look under ‘General’; ‘Software Update’; let it check for the update and once it’s found it (it will be called iOS 8.0) hit the ‘Download and Install’ button. If on the other hand, you were looking to use the iTunes method, connect your device to your computer, perform a sync through iTunes and follow the instructions. iTunes will guide you through the process step by step. If you want to download the file to roll out to multiple same-generation iOS devices, go directly to Apple’s downloads on www.redmondpie.com. Once the file has safely downloaded (it’s 1.7GB so be patient), you’re going to need iTunes. So fire it up and move on to the next step. STEP 4: UPDATING FROM AN IMAGE THROUGH ITUNES First, make sure iTunes is fired-up. Now connect your iDevice to your PC using the appropriate cable. Straight away, iTunes should prompt you to do a sync, detect that there’s an update and ask you whether or not it should proceed with the update. Hit cancel. If it didn’t prompt you, don’t stress. Hold down alt (ctrl on a PC) while clicking on the ‘Check for Update’ button. This should cause a file dialog to be launched. This is the part where you navigate to the place you saved the iOS 8 update (it will have an ‘.ipsw’ file extension) and select it. Now all that’s left to do is follow the on-screen instructions. If you’re going to use this method, you need to have done a backup like recommended and outlined above, as this will wipe the device and restore it to a factory state, albeit with iOS 8 on. WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 49

WIN! COMPETITION

HALLOWEEN GAMING BUNDLES WORTH R3 000

In space, no-one can hear you game. And that’s good, because these games will have you screaming like a little girl.

s we approach the 31st, you may find yourself keen to play something with a bit of a survival-horror edge to it. And we’re just the mag to give it to you, with these two fantastic horror game hamper giveaways. No soon-to-be-released game offers more bloody thrills than The Evil Within, a brandnew franchise from legendary game-maker Shinji Mikami that looks to have more scares, gore and outright insanity than any of his previous games. And he created Resident Evil, so that’s a lot. Another hotly-anticipated survival horror

game coming in October is Alien Isolation, a game that pits the player up against the singular murderous intelligence of a lone xenomorph. It’s set 15 years after the events of the first Alien film, and you have to outthink, outsmart and outmanoeuvre your relentless foe on a derelict space ship. It promises some serious psychological tension that could be even more unsettling than The Evil Within’s graphic gore. Two lucky readers stand to win hampers consisting of both games and some fun related goodies. We’ve been given bloodsoaked aprons, axe-shaped keychains and

some cool collector’s postcards for The Evil Within, and copies of the first Alien movie, t-shirts and keyrings to go with Alien Isolation. To enter, tell us what you’d do if you were to wake up in an abandoned sanitarium/ spaceship/warehouse/some big empty place that’s been taken over by bloodthirsty psychopaths who’re clearly out for your blood, and all you have in your pockets is a safety pin, a rubber band and a grenade. We’ll be generous this time around and give you a whole 30 words with which to describe your moves. But just 30, you hear?

ENTER AT WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA/HALLOWEENGAMESCOMPO

TO ENTER Visit the website www.htxt.co.za/halloweengamescompo and fill in the online form! Plus complete the following sentence in 30 words: If I woke up in a strange place with crazy people after me, I would... The closing date is 5th November 2014. Terms & conditions apply, all details on the website above.

50 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

HOW TO…

How to choose a graphics card Buying a new graphics card is one of the best way to future-proof your gaming rig. Here’s how to pick the right one for you.

MD Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce? A high-end but expensive graphics card or something in the mid-range that’s a bit easier on the pocket? Are you gaming on more than one monitor, or do you have a single 1080p screen? Do you want to run just one card, or two? These and other questions are the ones facing anyone looking at buying a new graphics card for their PC. Below is a handy guide that tells you what to buy based on your gaming needs.

HIGH-END IS EXPENSIVE

NVIDIA: GeForce GTX Titan/780/780i/770 AMD: Radeon R9 290/290X/295X By high-end, we mean graphics cards that have powerful graphics processors and more than 2GB of video RAM, which is memory just for games that is needed to play on more than one monitor. These will typically cost you anything from R4 000 to R10 000 (and even above), and are for gamers who want to play their games across multiple monitors, and who don’t want to compromise on graphics quality or frame rates. Buying one of these is the best way to future-proof your gaming rig. Good for: Ultimate graphics across multiple monitors, gaming on a 4K monitor Not good for: Saving you cash, lowpower computing

AMD OR NVIDIA?

These two companies are the main contenders for your graphics card money, and which one you should go for largely comes down to your personal brand. AMD provides more performance for your cash, particularly on the high-end, but they tend to run hotter and louder than NVIDIA cards do. NVIDIA, on the other hand, is closely involved with a lot of game developers who design their games to take specific advantage of NVIDIA’s hardware, so there’s a better chance of playing games as their makers intended them to be played. Their dual-GPU technology (more on that further down) is also better-supported, and gaming in 3D is likewise simpler with NVIDIA’s dedicated 3D Vision tech.

THE MID-RANGE SWEET SPOT

NVIDIA: GeForce GT/X 760/660/560 AMD: Radeon R9 280/280X/R9 270X/ R9 285/R7 260X/HD7970/HD7770 Mid-range graphics cards typically cost less than R4 000, and are good for gaming on a single monitor at 1080p or thereabouts. These cards can still put out great-looking graphics and are very affordable, but some compromise may be necessary to make games run smoothly by disabling certain graphical features in each game’s settings. Not all games, mind, but certainly the ones that make use of the very latest DirectX features. Your best bet to maximise your gaming budget is to run two of these mid-range cards in pairs, using AMD’s Crossfire or NVIDIA’s SLI dual-GPU technologies that give you a significant, but not quite 2X performance boost over single cards. Good for: Great graphics on a budget, single-monitor gaming, dual-GPU gaming Not good for: Ultimate graphics quality on every game unless they’re SLI’d or Crossfired

THE LOW END

NVIDIA: GeForce GT 730 AMD: Radeon R7 240 Low-end graphics cards, while they are very cheap (sub R1 500) can run game graphics on their own by a very technical definition of “run”, they don’t do a very good job of it and are frankly not worth your time or money. You’re better off avoiding them altogether, and instead saving for a bit longer to get yourself a mid-range card like the ones above. Honestly, if you’re a gamer stay away from these cards as they make no sense in anything but media centre PCs that are expected to do little more than output 1080p videos to a TV, 4K videos at a stretch. Good for: Media centre PCs Not good for: Gaming Always get the fastest single card your budget will allow, and to save for a few months more to get something just a little more expensive; you’ll be far happier in the long run.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 51

Image - CC BY SA FutUndBeidl - flickr.com/photos/61423903@N06/

HOW TO…

How to protect your iCloud account against hacks Secure yourself online by following these easy steps.

he massive celebrity iCloud hack that even had Apple promising to investigate the apparent breach of its backup and storage cloud service, means one thing – it’s time to think twice about security. Did you know that you can already protect yourself from further hacks using something called two-factor authentication on your iCloud account? Two-factor authentication is exactly what your bank uses when it sends you a one-time-pin via SMS when you’re doing certain things while internet banking. It works on the assumption that every password should be a combination of something that only you should know (your password) as well as something only you should have access to (your cellphone).

STEP 1

STEP 2

Open ‘Account Settings’ by clicking on your face in the top right corner and selecting it from the drop-down menu.

STEP 3

Click on your Apple ID email address.

52 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

STEP 4

Click ‘Manage Your Apple ID’ and sign in again.

STEP 5

Click ‘Password and Security’.

STEP 6

Click ‘Get started’.

STEP 7

Read the explanation of two-step verification and click ‘Continue’.

STEP 8

Read some more information on the benefits of two-step verification once again click ‘Continue’.

STEP 9

Next you’ll get some important things to remember before clicking ‘Continue’ again.

STEP 11

Apple will send you an SMS with a fourdigit PIN code which you will need to enter here before continuing.

STEP 12

You can choose to verify some of your iDevices to act as authenticators.

STEP 13

Save the backup verification key and keep it somewhere safe either in Dropbox or Google Drive (which both allow for twofactor authentication as well). You’ll need to prove that you still have the code by entering it on the next screen.

STEP 14

Enable two-step verification.

STEP 15

Congratulations, you’re safe from almost all kinds of hacking.

STEP 10

Enter your phone number and remember to select the correct country code. The code for South Africa is +27.

available at leading retail outlets

PROMOTION

Subscribe to

Tech Made Easy

and you could XF 1 BROWN

X100

WIN!

ONE OF TWO AWESOME FUJIFILM CAMERAS WORTH OVER R13 000

egular readers will probably be aware by now that like most people in the photography industry, we’ve been incredibly impressed by Japanese camera manufacturer Fujifilm. Its X Series of cameras has truly changed the way people think about digital photography. A lot of its appeal is due to the retro aesthetics which will take you back to the golden age of photography, calling to mind the rangefinders that revolutionised photojournalism. Yet these snappers absolutely cutting edge when it comes to features - the X-Trans sensor at the heart of most modern

Fujifilm cameras have a unique sensor layout that captures awesome picture quality in low light conditions, and thanks to the fact they don’t have an optical low pass filter, X-Trans sensors are sharper than typical digital cameras. What’s best about Fujifilm cameras, though, is that we’ve got two to give away. One lucky reader will win the camera that launched the X Series, the Fujifilm X100. The camera has a classic rangefinder look and has been the darling of street photographers since its launch. A runner-up will win the super compact and highly stylish Fujifilm XF 1 worth R2 995.

Why the pros are switching to Fujifilm’s X Series Local photographer Neill Soden is part of Fujifilm’s X-Photographers. He currently focuses on street and evironmental portraiture, but also does a lot of family shoots. Fujifilm is making waves out there, extent. This has personally improved my own photography tenfold. but their cameras have many Not only is the camera perfect for every day use, but it performs beautifully reasons to be as loved as they are. on a paid jobs, and compliments your bigger gear, depending on your The X100/s has become my go-to shooting style. camera, because it is small, light http://www.neillsoden.co.za / @neilsoden and discreet. The size makes it easy to carry around with Neill Soden has been shooting since 2006 and you wherever you has a very strong history of photography in might go, while the the family. silent shutter allows one to shoot without drawing attention. This enables you to take photographs with ease, while still getting the superb quality you would expect only from the bigger models. The built-in ND filter helps for shooting any time of the day, without having to carry more gear. The fixed focal length forces you to work with what you have and use the camera to its full

54 | TECH MADE EASY | OCTOBER 2014

FR EE!

I T S A T N A F

ISSUES!

FROM

htxt africa

M A D E

SOUTH AFRICA’ S BEST TECH W EBSITE

E A S Y

GADGET SP ECIAL Tech of the ye ar!

GET TECH MADE EASY DELIVERED EVERY MONTH Never miss an issue of Tech Made Easy! The mag is always free – all we ask is that you cover the postage and we’ll send a copy to your door every month.

Sony! Samsun g! HTC! More! All the big gadget news from IFA .

HOW TO: Protect yourse lf

Everything you need to know about sec uri iCloud account. ng your

REVIEWED: Destiny

The sci-fi shoote r we’ve been waiting for. Is it as good as Bungi e hoped? ISS UE 8 | OC TO BE R 201 4 | HT XT. CO .ZA

IPHONE 6 vs GALAXY S5

Apple unve ils the iPhon e for 2014. it compare How does to the best of the Andro id bunch?

+27(0) 86519 2845

CALL

During office hours at

+27(11) 023 8001

Send your detailss to us at

subscribe@htxt.co.za

ONLIINE

Fill out the subscription form at

www.htxt.co.za

• You can also email your details to subscribe@htxt.co.za or call +27(11) 023 8001.

Competition runs until 31st October 2014

Send this form to

• Subscribe to 12 issues of Tech Made Easy by ﬁlling out the form below and faxing it to +27(0) 86519 2845.

Title: Name: Surname: Delivery address: Postal code: Cellphone: Home phone: Email: Type (Visa, MasterCard): Cardholder name: Credit card number: Bank: Security number (three digits on back of card): Expiry date:

Please debit my account with R180.00 for a 12-month subscription to Tech Made Easy Signature

Please don’t send credit card details via email. We will contact you separately for payment.

Do you want to subscribe to the htxt.africa newsletter?

yes

FAX

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE:

Competition 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 Samsung 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 September 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) By entering, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. 9) Hypertext Media, Fujifilm or any of their 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 | 55

STATS

SA tech

The numbers that sum up the state of the nation

in stats

A massively dangerous 0 day bug was found in a Linux program that left the majority of internet servers open to hackers. - bit.ly/YEAWBJ

R168 000 The prize AfriLabs has launched to get more African entrepreneurs into business. Bit.ly/YEANhw

Business analyitics firm SAP has donated around R45 000 000 of money and data expertise over 4 years to the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and TB. bit.ly/1uwAmUy

that’s how much it costs to listen to African music on new streaming app, Mziiki

bit.ly/1uwApQv

Times Media’s new video streaming service VIDI costs just R149 a month for access to a Netflix-style library of films and TV. A challenger, NODE, also launched this month for R299 a month.

Enjoy this free copy of htxt.africa’s Tech Made Easy? There’s loads more like these, plus in depth features, geek culture and business news published daily at our website www.htxt.co.za.

Bethesda’s latest game, The Evil Within, will require a huge and expensive video card with 4GB on board VRAM when it’s released on PC.

bit.ly/YEAMdA Activision says that its console MMO Destiny sold $500 000 000 worth of copies in the first weekend on sale. That’s R5.46bn - curiously exactly what the game cost to make.

NEXT MONTH

And if you want even more, keep your eyes peeled for issue 9 from 1st November in all good technology retailers.

Portable bluetooth speakers, designed to move.

Minimal design. Serious sound

available at leading retail outlets