Tech Made Easy - February 2015 by htxt.africa

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BYE BYE BOOKS Tablets in schools!

What you need to know about Gauteng’s educational experiment.

REVIEWED RPG heaven!

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REVIEWED Portable perfection

Low cost, high power! Is Intel’s Core M the best choice for your next laptop. ISSUE 12 | FEBRUARY 2015 | HTXT.CO.ZA

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www.htxt.co.za February 2015

ISSUE #12

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

POWERLESS? NOT QUITE

hree things happened in January that dominated the htxt.africa offices and will affect more or less every person living in South Africa - especially if they have an interest in tech. The first was the news that Eskom doesn’t have a short term fix for the current energy crisis, and if it doesn’t get a big cash bailout (which it might be the time you read this) we could be plunged into full on blackouts and not just loadshedding as currently planned. February is going to be bleak - loadshedding is expected for a full three quarters of the month. Time to start stocking up on solar gadgets then (p14). The second news involved etolls - the much criticised automated tolling system used to pay for road improvements in Gauteng. Not a national issue, maybe, unless SANRAL is looking at introducing it in your area of course. And finally some good news. Gauteng’s education department pushed ahead with a pilot program to introduce tablets instead of textbooks to seven local schools (p4). The department wants to know if it can Operator improve standards and cut costs - fingers crossed. ’s sub-R500 Steppa is first of its kind. Otherwise, it’s been a quiet month (other than CES obile opera tor MTN has p6). Things get busy from here-on in. launched South Africa’s first important for South Africa.

MTN launches supercheap smartphone

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-bo ard. Bino de Gouveia – bino@hypertext.co.za The screen is a decent enough multitouch affair, which takes up most

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

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

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htxt.africa’s Tech Made Easy is At the bottom of almost every produced by: Hypertext Media, 102 on 11th, article in Tech Easy CLIMATE CHA NGE WILLMade CAUSE MORE Highlands North, 2192, Johannesburg STORM DAM AGEsee you’ll IN one SA of these strange More news at Contact Us: sts from short codes.Two It’sscienti a Bit.ly adress Wits have published a paper which says Email: info@hypertext.co.za shortening link, which means that that South Africa may be at when you type it into web go to htxt.co.za Tel: (011) 023-8001/4 increas ed riskyour of tropical storm damag browser it will take e. you to a longer Fax: 08654 83304 Our content is licensed under a Creative 6 | TECH MADE EASY | MARCH 2014 Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 4.0 International Licence. Other rights may apply for non-original materials.

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STORE, STREAM & SHARE...Anywhere! STORE, STREAM & SHARE...Anywhere! Tablets and smartphones are often limited by their built-in STORE, STREAM SHARE...Anywhere! Tablets andcapacity smartphones are& often limited by their built-in storage and their ability to access content saved

storage ability limited toWireless, access content elsewhere. Withand the their MediaShare you built-in cansaved access Tablets andcapacity smartphones are often by their elsewhere. With the MediaShare Wireless, you can access and enjoy your files without wires or an internet connection. storage capacity and their ability to access content saved and enjoyWith yourthe filesMediaShare without wires or an internet connection. elsewhere. Wireless, you can access STREAM and enjoy your files without wires or an internet connection. STREAM • Connect up to 5 devices to the MediaShare and share video, music, STREAM • Connect up to 5 devices to the MediaShare and share video, music, photos and data. photos and data. • Connect up to 5 devices to the MediaShare and share video, music, USB/SD CONNECTION photos and data. USB/SD CONNECTION • Built-in USB port and SD Memory slot allows easy access to content from a USB USB/SD CONNECTION • Built-in USB porthard anddrive SD Memory slot allows easy access to content from a USB drive, portable or SD memory card*. drive, portable or SD memory card*. • Built-in USB porthard and drive SD Memory slot allows easy access to content from a USB WIRELESS drive, BRIDGE portable hard drive or SD memory card*. WIRELESS BRIDGE • Upload and download content wirelessly to and from your tablet or smartphone. WIRELESS • UploadBRIDGE and download content wirelessly to and from your tablet or smartphone. RECHARGING SMARTPHONES • Upload andFOR 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. RECHARGING FOR SMARTPHONES • The integrated 3000mAh battery can be used as a powerpack for your smartphone. •

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Contents ISSUE #12

Need to know

Photos made easy

The most important news this month.

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In the shops now…

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Tablets in schools Gauteng’s education department kicks off an ambitious new pilot. All the tech of 2015, live from CES What were the biggest announcements at this year’s Conusmer Electronics Show. Windows 10 and awesome new toys from Microsoft Microsoft comes out fighting with a brand new Windows and VR kit. Game news Free games and Forza. All the latest in playful tech. Game Interview South African devs Twoplus talk about zombies and SNES.

Take your snaps to another level.

31 33 34 36 38

Gaming keyboards Mechanical, or not mechanical. We’ve got the answer here. Asus Zenbook UX305 Powerful like an ultrabook, but with the cost of a tablet. ASUS Fonepad 7 Forget phablets. ASUS’ latest Fonepad is bigger still. Dragon Age: Inquisition The RPG series is back on form in one of Bioware’s best games yet. Dead Run and Far Cry 4 DLC Smite the zombie foe and escape a prison island. Mobile games Five of the best for your phone.

Photo news All the latest from the world of pictures. Samsung NX1 The mirrorless masterpiece is a pro piece of kit, but pricey. Fuji X-T1 Graphite Fujinon 56mm APD Two excellent but expensive pieces of kit from Fuji. Pixel Mago Speedlight A third party flash at a fraction of the price of others. Photo interview We catch up with Joburg-based snapper Axel Buhrmann.

How to...

The ultimate guides to everything. Honest.

The best reviews

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Download YouTube videos today Turn online streaming videos into offline files to play anywhere. Android Launchers How to change the homescreen on your phone. Set up PlayStation TV Make the most of Sony’s video and game streaming box. Fibre or DSL, which one’s for you? Our guide to prices and performance in your metro.

The stuff at the back Rounding off the mag nicely.

This month in stats The big numbers behind the headlines this month.

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 3

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Gauteng to textboo paperless Ambitious plan to give all learners a tablet computer kicks off in Tembisa. Will 2015 be a watershed for SA students?

even schools in Gauteng have become the first public schools to do away with dusters, chalk and blackboards, as a pilot program to introduce paperless classrooms has kicked off with the start of the new school year. The flagship for the pilot, Boitumelong Secondary School in Tembisa, saw deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, minister of telecommunications and postal services Siyabonga Cwele, and local education MEC Panyaza Lesufi turn up for the first day of term to hail the project. The school was abuzz with students preparing for the big day, all of them, as well as their teachers have already been trained on how to use the entire system and are already set to start learning and from what we heard from them, they canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to get straight to work.

4 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

ng students say goodbye books and welcome ess classrooms “I’m excited about the paperless classrooms because we see technology is changing the world and makes life easier, so I think it will help improve our marks because we can get more information and are able to download school material from our homes or carry on with extra learning and lessons,” says Gugulethu Motha, a grade eight learner at Boitumelong Secondary. “Life and learning will be easier,” says Lucky Mohale, a grade nine learner, “Textbooks can’t store as much information as tablets and the internet can. You can also use a tablet to watch videos that explain things you may not understand and help you catch up on lessons you miss.” “So far I’m enjoying using the tablets and the new technology. We no longer have to carry textbooks around with us everywhere we go and we no longer have to write and learn from books. Everything is in here on this one thing,” Mohale’s classmate, Koketso Mashiane added. Ntombi Maphanga, a teacher at Boitumelong Secondary, says the time is just right to introduce elearning in classrooms

“There will be no difference in education between township schools and other schools… We’re not looking to compete with other provinces in South Africa, we’re competing with schools in Ghana, India, Brazil and Russia.” - Panyaza Lesufi because students are interested technology and understand it so well. “The learners are so much more interactive, attentive and excited about lessons. They’ve enjoyed using the tablets so far. It also going to make it easier for me to prepare lessons from home on my laptop and put everything on a USB memory stick, bring it to school and start my lessons. It’s made the experience 100% better for me as well,” she elaborated. “We want every township school to be paperless by the 2017/2018 financial year,” says MEC Lesufi. “A township learner will no longer be disadvantaged, they will be like any other learner in private and so-called Model C

schools. These kids will no longer survive on social grants,” says MEC Lesufi, “but they will survive on the skills they learn.” Bit.ly/1wbPUIU

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi.

GAUTENG’S TEXTBOOK FREE SCHOOL PROJECT LAUNCHES: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW Gauteng MEC Panyaza Lesufi kicked off the program to replace textbooks with tablets in government schools in the province at Boitumelong Secondary School in Tembisa. Boitumelong is considered the flagship of the project where every pupil over grade 9 has a 4G tablet to take home and furniture and security has been beefed up at the school. Hailing the introduction of tablets as the end of the ‘Irish Coffee” period of education – in which rich students float to the top – Lesufi told journalists at a press briefing that he sees the one tablet per learner project, officially known as “Classrooms of the Future” as a major step towards improving public education in South Africa.

The seven schools involved in the pilot are Sunward Park, Thandi Elanor Sibeko, Ponelopele Oracle Secondary, Boitumelong, Tlamatlama Primary, Tshepisa Primary, and Phumolong Secondary. They will be using a centralised portal developed by Bramley’s MIB Technology for managing tablets and aggregating educational content into a single portal. MIB’s backend pulls in CAPS aligned digital textbooks from the likes of Via Afrika as well as extra resources from around the web. Content from Wikipedia, the BBC, the complete works of Shakespeare and Khan Academy is cached locally for teachers to reference during lessons and pupils to use for study and research. Bit.ly/1u3v8RG

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 5

NEED TO KNOW: CES

CES 2014 NEWS ROUNDUP

All the top tech, gaming and gadget announcments from this year’s show.

Dell’s new Venue 8 Android tablet is sexy

ell is a company focused on function over form, which made our first sighting of the Dell Venue 8 7000 series tablet that much more startling with it is sleek, slim and sexy design. Running on Intel’s 2.33GHz quad core Bay Trail tablet chip along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of microSD expandable storage the Venue 8 should have no trouble with the Android 4.4 operating system (which will have a planned upgrade to Android 5.0 shortly) as well as the standard rigors of tablet computing. The stand out spec is the Venue 8’s 8.4 inch, 2 560×1 600 resolution, OLED display which sits snug in the 6mm thick aluminium frame of the Venue 8 which is thinner than that

Intel’s Compute Stick is a full Windows PC the size of a 3G dongle

he Intel Compute Stick is a full PC running on what are essentially tablet specs designed to plug directly into a TV or a monitor using its HDMI port. Depending on which operating system you choose for your Compute Stick, either Windows 8.1 or Linux, the specs will vary slightly. Both models use Intel’s quad core 1.33GHz Atom Z3735F processor and have Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi capabilities to go along with the 1.4a spec HDMI port. At $149 (around R1 750) the Windows 8.1 version of the Compute Stick pairs the Atom processor with 2GB of RAM and 32GB on onboard storage to cater for its operating system and additional programs. The Linux version will set you back $89 (just over R1 000) more than twice as much as the new Raspberry Pi Model B+ will but gives you twice as much memory (1GB of RAM) and 8GB of onboard storage as well as all of the wireless connectivity options. The Compute Stick is powered via a microUSB port but future versions may get all of the power then need from the HDMI port itself. The current versions of the Compute Stick will go on sale in the US in March but versions using Intel’s freshly announced Cherry Trail tablet processors and even its low powered Core M Broadwell chips are also potentially on the way. Bit.ly/1yf1hnE

6 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

of the stand out competitor in the small tablet crowd, Apple’s iPad Mini. On the back are three cameras, a standard 8-megapixel camera along with two additional 720p cameras that allow the Dell Venue 8 7000 to capture 3D images and adjust focus points after pictures have been taken in much the same way that HTC’s One (M8) would do with its dual camera setup. Dell will be selling the venue 8 7000 starting at $400 in the US which is the exact same price as the entry level iPad Mini 3 that should see the Dell arriving in South Africa for a similar retail price to it’s competitor of R5 499. Bit.ly/1KFoMge

NEED TO KNOW: CES

Makerbot shows off wood and metal filaments for desktop 3D printers

he most recognisable name in the 3D printing business, Makerbot, took to this year’s CES to show off the latest in its arsenal of crafting materials, which combine PLA plastic with maplewood, limestone, iron or bronze to create composite filaments that posses some of the traits of the added materials like the ability to stain the wood with varnish after printing. While Makerbot isn’t the first company to have made composite filaments for 3D printing – and South Africa’s own Hans Fouche has been experimenting with plastic/paper/wood/concrete mixes for a while – it’s always a big deal when

they get in on the action because they have the international brand and cache to mainstream this. And this is good news not just because it increases the variety of finishes 3D printed models can take: one of the primary goals 3D print enthusiasts have been searching for is the ability to print conductive metals easily, so that all components required to build a new printer including the circuit board can be manufactured on an existing printer. In Las Vegas Makerbot demonstrated its new materials with a 3D printed hammer, with a metal head and a wooden handle. Bit.ly/1xWPg7w

LG going all-in on OLED for its 2015 4K TVs

W Alcatel OneTouch’s parent company is reviving Palm

emember when Palm ruled the mobile productivity roost? Fast forward a decade or so and the once mighty company had fallen to pieces after having been acquired by HP, who then sold off its WebOS operating system and staff to LG who now use it to make TVs. While that all sounds rather doom and gloom for Palm, it seems as though the brand will live again now that TCL – the company behind Alcatel OneTouch – has bought the rights to use Palm’s name and will begin making smartphones with the famous moniker. While none of the patents, employees or indeed any other part of Palm itself will form part of the new US subsidiary tasked with the revival of the Palm brand, we have faith in TCL’s ability to make some good products. And with their strong presence in South Africa we can’t see why the new Palm smartphones wouldn’t make their way to our shores when they are finally released and will be keeping a keen lookout for them later in the year. Bit.ly/1DD7Ftl

Razer enters the VR fray with its own ‘hackable’ headset

aming peripherals company Razer has entered the virtual reality ring with its own VR headset, called the OSVR Hack Dev Kit. OSVR stands for Open Source Virtual Reality, which means that Razer has every intention of making, using and developing for its headset as easy as possible. To that end,

hile 4K televisions are nothing new, OLED will be something that many of you will only have seen in smartphone displays from the likes of Samsung’s AMOLED displays. OLED TV will form the major backbone of LG’s 2015 TV offering with all of its 4K televisions using OLED technology instead of LED. OLED TVs have a much greater contrast ratio than any other kind of television technology because each individual pixel in an OLED panel not only illuminates itself, but can also be turned off making it go completely black. They also have incredible viewing angles which allow everyone watching the TV, from any angle to be able to see the same colours without having them wash out. Driving the system will be quad core processors and the latest version of the WebOS operating system that we first saw in the 105 inch monster TV from LG at CES last year which will add 4K streaming content from YouTube and other services.

Bit.ly/1DTv7Qz

Razer has made its headset entirely hackable. That means everything from the software to the physical design can be customised by developers, allowing for VR headsets that are more comfortable for a wider variety of physical face features, and more flexible to develop. We can’t wait.

Bit.ly/1DD7ZIw

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 7

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Microsoft unveils its plans for Windows 10 Microsoft has just revealed its plans for Windows 10, and boy does it have some crazy – but pretty cool – ideas. Here are the best bits.

his is what Microsoft is calling Windows for the masses, its allinclusive upcoming operating system we simply cannot wait to use.

IT’S FREE Yes, really. If you’re using Windows 7 or 8.1, you’ll be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free for the first year of its availability, and get access to free support for the lifetime of the OS. That’s even better than Windows 8’s crazy-low R125 upgrade offer of 2012. CORTANA COMES TO WINDOWS 10 Cortana, Microsoft’s digital assistant who was lifted straight from the Halo universe and thrust into Windows Phone, is coming to Windows 10. You can talk to her like you talk to real people, and she will draw on the collective knowledge of Bing to answer your questions. We wonder how she’ll handle non-American accents, though. Microsoft says it wants to give you new ways to interact with your PC, and a talking, responsive, intelligent assistant is a pretty good way to go about that. BETTER OFFICE Office will look and work very similarly on phones and tablets as it does on Windows 10 PCs, and even use hardware acceleration for smoother graphics. Hooray, if that sort of thing is important to you. THE XBOX APP The Xbox app will ship with every Windows 10 PC, giving you access to your 8 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

friends list, your activity feed, and even let you talk to friends while they play. To access it, just press the Windows Key and G, and the overlay pops up. It works with all games, too, not just those specifically designed for Windows 10. DVR FOR WINDOWS Recording and uploading gaming footage is built into Windows 10, just like the Xbox One’s DVR (Digital Video Recorder) feature. You will be able to record and upload the last 30 seconds of your gameplay footage on any PC game and save it to OneDrive (or whatever Cloud storage app you like). CROSS-PLATFORM PLAY You’ll be able to play games across platforms, provided they’ve been released for both Windows 10 and Xbox One. The capability was demonstrated with a quick co-op session of Fable: Legends, which is out this year for both platforms, with Phil Spencer playing on a PC and someone else playing on an Xbox One. STREAM FROM XBOX ONE TO WINDOWS 10 DEVICES Windows 10 will enable you to stream Xbox One games to any Windows 10 PC or tablet in your home via your network. DX12 FTW DirectX12, which ships with Windows 10, will reduce the amount of power needed for game graphics by up to 50%. That

sounds quite good, as it means better battery life on mobile devices when playing games. NEW BUILDS COMING SOON New builds of the Windows 10 Preview will release in the coming week, and after the Superbowl, it will be made available for phones. That’s after Monday the 2nd of February, for all us non-Americans. Microsoft will also increase the number of languages supported by the Windows 10 Preview from 4 to 25. HOLOGRAMS MADE REAL The most impressive part of the unveil event this month was when Windows Holographic was shown off. It’s an augmented reality project that uses a wearable visor to inject holograms into the viewer’s field of view. It’s so cool, NASA has been using it to help simulate Mars environments and perform research they couldn’t otherwise do. HOLOSTUDIO Holostudio is a creative studio that lets people create holograms of 3D objects while wearing Microsoft’s augmented reality visor, which can then be 3D printed. To show it off, Microsoft showed a live demo of a person wearing the visor, and we got to see what she saw from her point of view. She created a 3D quadrocopter, which we were shown afterwards, and it actually flew! Amazing. Bit.ly/1uncpuJ

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NEED TO KNOW: GAMES

Spot the South African-built Ford bakkie in new Forza Horizon 2 DLC

orza is one of the most popular racing series on Microsoft’s Xbox console with this year’s Forza Horizon 2 selling over 350 000 copies in the first week. Forza Horizon 2’s Storm Island DLC (now available) features a completely South African-built car – and a really tough one at that. Storm Island adds five new cars, inhospitable terrains and really nasty weather, and what better car to tackle that with, than with a 2014 Ford Ranger T6 Rally Raid. The ‘bakkie’ was designed and engineered by South African Neil Woolridge after he beat out several American constructors for the chance to do so. Woolridge was

commissioned by Ford to build a vehicle that would be able to withstand the gruelling condition of the 2014 Dakar rally – and the Ranger T6 Rally Raid was his answer. “We are extremely proud to be sending these South African-built Rangers to the 2014 Dakar. Dakar is the ultimate test of man and machine and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to participate with a phenomenal team comprised of local and global expertise,” said Jeff Nemeth, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa. Bit.ly/1BWKB6Q

Will mini-games replace static loading screens in 2015?

D Thousands of classic DOS games now playable in your browser

hould you fondly remember such gaming classics as Conquests of the Longbow, the original Prince of Persia and the time-bending history lessons of Carmen Sandiego, here’s a bit of good news: the people at The Internet Archive have added over 2 300 MS-DOS games from the 80s and 90s to their huge library of classic software, and they’re all completely playable in your browser right now. Internet archivist Jason Scott, the man behind last year’s addition of over 900 arcade games to the Internet Archive, is behind this effort as well. He does caution people a bit in the section’s FAQ , saying the games will likely not behave exactly as expected and that saving progress in games isn’t possible due to the nature of the emulation (they’re browser-only and therefore not downloadable), so the collection is more of a showcase of what games from the era were like than a practical source of old games to be played at your leisure.

o you know the reason game loading screens are static and boring for the most part? It’s because one games publisher – Namco – holds the patent for “auxiliary games” that can be played while the main game loads, and other publishers haven’t cared to license it from them. Fortunately, 2015 is the year the patent’s “exclusivity period” ends, opening up the possibility that other developers will integrate playable mini-games into their loading screens in the near future. The original patent was filed back in 1995 and expires on the 27th of November, 2015. Unfortunately it’s not that simple – apparently the patent also precludes anyone from even developing a game with interactive loading screens, even if that game is set to come out after the patent’s exclusivity period expires. We still have high hopes that 2015 is the year we see an end to static interludes between levels and look forward to seeing how modern game developers rise to the challenge.

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A DEAD RISING MOVIE IS COMING AND IT’S FULL OF CHEESE

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10 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

Come March, and fans of the Dead Rising series of games will be treated to a made-forthe-internet movie based on the franchise. Bit.ly/1zNvXjh

UP CLOSE WITH MICROSOFT’S NEW HOLOGRAM TECH Microsoft blew a lot of people away with its augmented reality project called Windows Holographics. This is how NASA is using the newfangled tech in space. Bit.ly/1uQv20f

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NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

How SA just save 1.5 milli

An interview with local game dev Steven Tu.

woplus Games is a Joburg-based games developer which is currently riding high in the mobile games charts with its zombie escaping, hat swapping, survivor saving game that’s been critically acclaimed and has seen 1.5 million successful zombie slayings since its launch in September. This is the kind of success that attracts us like flies to a reanimated corpse, so we couldn’t wait to catch up with Twoplus founder Steven Tu to discover how they made it on the international stage.

HELLO TWOPLUS GAMES STUDIO! WE’RE LISTENING… Twoplus means quite a bunch of things to me, and I always get a bit embarrassed saying them out loud (or typing them into reality). I always loved multiplayer games – harkening back to the days of the Super Nintendo when I was couchplaying my cousins, bombing the crap out of each other, coop gunning through Contra, elbowing each other and generally having a laugh. I miss that in a lot of modern gaming, so Twoplus is a nod to that. Also, my friends know me as Tu, so it’s Tu-plusfriends.

Read our review of Dead Run for iOS on page 26!

12 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

MY FAVOURITE GAMES GROWING UP WERE FROM THE SIERRA AND LUCASARTS STABLES. WHAT DID YOU GROW UP PLAYING? There’s no easy answer to this one! One of my very earliest memories when I was tiny was when I was around eight, and I was still in Taiwan, and a playground friend claimed that his dad made video games, so I “designed” a console (ballpoint drawing on scrap of paper) and gave it to him, fully

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

SA’s Twoplus Games aved the world from llion zombies expecting his dad to make it a reality for me. It was a handheld of some sort, that’s all I remember. After I moved to South Africa, I spent a lot of time in Newcastle with my cousins, playing the SNES as mentioned above with friends was awesome. Super Mario Land, Ghouls and Goblins, Ganbare Goeman, Parodius… So many good games. Then one day, while we were playing – I think it was Ninja Turtles – my cousin’s dad walked in with a hockey stick, and smashed it to smithereens. We ran for our lives. I think we may have overdone it.

WHO ARE YOUR GAMING HEROES? Richard Garfield, who designed Magic: The Gathering, Netrunner, King of Tokyo, Robo Rally, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, is among the most incredible game designers out there, who is unlimited by what he has made before, and blazes new trails continuously. Rami Ismail, one half of Vlambeer, needs no introduction with anyone who knows anything about indie gaming. He has not only made an incredible pile of games with just a team of two, he also continuously contributes time and energy into fostering the indie industry all around the world. And he’s WAY under 30, to boot. WHY ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT THE INDUSTRY? This is an industry of love, passion and enjoyment. It’s about creating things that people love, and then setting them out into the world for people to love. It is about interaction, it is about engagement, It is about expression. It is so uniquely edgy yet it is all about accessibility. It incorporates so much of what I love to do anyway – art, interaction, social engagement, narrative, pushing digital boundaries, usability. And probably most of all, it is built by people who are excited about making stuff and

make that stuff with so much LOVE!

GAME DEVELOPMENT IS GROWING IN SOUTH AFRICA WITH NEW COURSES POPPING UP EVERYDAY. WHERE DO YOU SEE THIS SPACE HEADING LOCALLY? The potential for growth in SA is unquestionably massive. We all know that Africa stands at the cusp of the digital rise – there is an insatiable appetite for knowledge and entertainment, we are just growing at a pace that’s locked by our infrastructural and logistical challenges, which are on their way to being solved. As for production, the challenges are really the same – infrastructural and logistical. Red tape for game developers – indies and companies alike – is so thick that it’s often disheartening, and it’s affected us globally, as can be seen by Google not accepting South Africans for their Merchant Account, denying us of easy access to a very large slice of the international distribution potential. We had the Amazon refusing to ship to SA problem not so long ago. These all add up to a more difficult than necessary terrain for us to traverse – but some of the most critically acclaimed titles coming from our shores speak for themselves. Desktop Dungeons, Broforce, Viscera Cleanup Detail are our spearheads. There are many more on the way, we just need to blaze that trail for more of us to be able to follow. DEAD RUN IS A HIT ON IOS. IT’S TENSE… BUT WE LOVE IT. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA? Dead Run was an idea sparked off by a few things: We wanted to make something of as small a scope as possible. We were affected by all the hullabaloo about Flappy Bird. We wanted to make something that stirred people emotionally. So Loet (my partner in crime in Twoplus) and I threw experimented

with various one-button ideas, built and prototyped the idea in one weekend. We showed the results to a few people, and it was met with quite a few “Ship it! Ship it now!”, so we put more work into it and brought it to what it is now.

EXPLAIN THE GAME TO READERS WHO HAVEN’T YET DOWNLOADED IT YET… Dead Run, is a game of rapid zombie profiling – it’s a tension-filled endless runner where your options are simple – strike, or don’t. You’ll run into zombies who will kill you if you don’t hit first, and fellow survivors who will end your run if you kill them. Different hats unlock different ways of playing. Dead Run is simple, yet unlike any other game you’ve ever played, with an addictive learning curve that rewards, well, learning. Zombies are always a hit, and the polish we’ve put into the game really shows. It boils down to that “just one more try”, “I can beat my best” feeling that it’s able to deliver in a few short minutes at a time. DEAD RUN IS YOUR FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE. WHAT’S NEXT FOR TWOPLUS GAMES? We are constantly prototyping and trying out ideas: Beat Attack It’s a versus puzzle game, it’s a music game, it’s one touch, and it’s going on mobile! Krigsskibe/Codename: Warship Tetris meets tower defence meets the Normandy landing. No More Boxes Toss, suck, magic, punch boxes at friends in this 4 player versus platformer physics-em-up arena, made for Ludum Dare 31. Landshark Missile Attack You are a landshark, firing missile barrages in bullet time to destroy hordes of enemies! Made for Ludum Dare 29. Bit.ly/1yyDhiu

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EVERY

DAY!

Stay up-to-date with South African tech-related news, features and reviews at our website, htxt.africa! 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.

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

SUPERTEST

WHICH…

Gaming keyboard should you buy? Four finger-tapping options that are perfect for gaming pros.

sk any professional gamer and they’ll tell you; when it comes to gaming hardware there is no room for average. That’s because a missed action or keystroke can mean the difference between victory and defeat, getting fragged or pwning the competition. While most gamers, including us, will never attain the level of skill that a

professional needs to be able to compete on the highest level, we all hate losing because of hitting the wrong key in the final moment of a late-night PvP battle. And lately gamers have more choice then ever, thanks to an explosion of mechanical keyboards aimed at the run-andgunner. Mechanical keyboards, with real microswitches under each button, may be

pricey but they last longer and will give far better performance than normal keyboards. They’re more reliable, and don’t wear out over time – but should you buy one?

SEE THE CONTENDERS ON THE NEXT PAGE. WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 17

SUPERTEST

COUGAR 700K THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK HAS ALL THE RIGHT MOVES.

OUGAR is a new brand to the South African market which arrived just a few months ago with a range of high end keyboards and mice. The COUGAR 700K is the topof-the-line gaming keyboard from the

LOGITECH G910 ORION SPARK

ALL OUT GAMING OR BUST.

ogitech is the 500-pound gorilla in any peripherals discussion. The company has been around for ages and makes some of the best keyboards with the G910 Orion Spark representing the pinnacle of its G-series of gaming goodies. The G910 is unlike any other keyboard in our test because of one major design decision taken by the team over at Logitech. The surface of each key is drastically indented to cradle your fingertips ensuring that you always feel like they’ve found the right place on each key. The WASD

DETAILS Design

Performance

Value for Money

Overall

Approximately R2 499

18 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

keys in particular have a slightly different feel to the rest of the keys which makes them easier to find as well. It’s a wonderfully comforting feeling for when you’re gaming but actually makes regular every day typing on the G910 an absolute nightmare especially for anyone who touch types. Similarly, the self-designed switches have a smooth action that lacks the tactile feedback of mechanical keys loved by typists, and we weren’t mad about the font choice for the keys as it felt over-stylised to our eyes. But this is a keyboard for gaming, not typing, and it’s very, very good at that. There’s even an extendable smartphone dock which allows you to use your phone as a second screen, with data from games or the desktop right in front of your face. Annoyingly, though, there’s no way to charge your phone while it sits in the cradle if your charging port is at the bottom of your smartphone. The Logitech G910 Orion Spark is a phenomenal gaming keyboard and that may be its biggest downfall. It’s almost too focused on gaming to be useful every day. That said however, if your rig is only ever used for gaming then the G910 might just be the perfect option for you.

company and comes with all of the bells and whistles one would expect from a high-end peripheral. COUGAR has done well to differentiate the 700K from other, better known brands with some clever additions and changes to what we’ve seen from gaming keyboards in the past. For instance the row of customisable macro keys that run down the left-handside of the keyboard are places at a significant angles compared to the rest of the keys making them easy to identify and almost impossible to hit by mistake. The design of the COUGAR 700K will likely not appeal to everyone with

SUPERTEST

its chunky palm rests and aluminium backing plate but there will definitely be a chunk of players who will gravitate to its looks. The Cherry MX keys are the de-facto standard for mechanical keyboard and with good reason too. They provide a fantastic level of tactile feedback and ensure that you get you’re still enjoying using the 700k hours into a gaming session. COUGAR’s UIX software is simple and easy to understand and can allows for enough levels of customisation to suit our needs but isn’t the best on display in our test. One thing that we found to be a bit of an issue with the COUGAR 700K was the split spacebar which leaves the right hand half of the key as an unassigned macro key. From pure force of habit we changed it to also be used as a spacebar but kept hitting the middle of the keys instead of either one which grew more frustrating the more often it happened.

RAZER BLACKWIDOW ULTIMATE

NO FRILLS, NO FUSS, JUST A GOOD, SOLID KEYBOARD.

DETAILS Design

Performance

Value for Money

Overall

R1 799

he manufacturer who more or less invented gaming keyboards and mice, Razer has kept pace with more recent rivals well - even if some of its ergonomics have remained polarising choices. Razer’s BlackWidow Ultimate is exactly what you would expect from a gaming keyboard with bright, backlit mechanical keys and a row of customisable macro keys down the left of the keyboard. The secondary functions of the keys aren’t backlit which sometimes made it difficult to see them in a dark room with the powerful backlight shining in your eyes something which caused some minor irritation in non-gaming use. The keys themselves are appreciably louder than most of the other keyboard in the test because of Razer’s use of its own proprietary switches which mimic those of Cherry MX’s Blue switches. It’s not the ideal choice for gaming per se, but it made for a very good all round keyboard that could easily be used for gaming as well. Razer’s Synapse software is by far and away the standout of the bunch allowing you to customise any of the company’s peripherals, including the BlackWindow Ultimate, quickly and

easily with enough granular control to give them different profiles for individual games. It’s a stand out feature of theirs and definitely worth looking into if you switch between different genres of game often. The BlackWidow Ultimate is the gaming keyboard equivalent to high end German sedan. It’s solid, dependable and has all of the features you would expect but lacks any of the flair or excitement that buying silly, fast, red Italian sports car would give you.

DETAILS Design: 8/10

Performance: 8/10

Value for Money: 8/10

Overall

R1 800

WHO IS THE WINNER! WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 19

SUPERTEST

STEELSERIES APEX

he SteelSeries APEX is physically a beast of a keyboard. With 22 macro keys spanning the length and breadth of the keyboard as well as a set of media controls on the right hand side, the APEX casts an imposing figure on your desk. While all of those buttons have their uses our favourite keys on the APEX are the additional diagonal arrow keys which are fantastic for strafing in first-person-shooters. Although we like the ability to map a bunch of macros to all of those additional keys, there comes a point where there may actually be too many of them on the keyboard. We consistently missed the enter key on the num pad by hitting the media controls on the right instead and could never quite find the escape

WINNER

he good news is that there is no one single solution for gamers with each manufacturer focusing on different aspects of the keyboard. The bad news is that no one manufacturer has made the perfect keyboard. While the COUGAR 700K is the out-and-out best keyboard in our test, that split space bar would drive us insane in the long run and would push us to buy something from the likes of Logitech or Razer instead. That being said there are merits to buying all of the keyboards above with the exception of the SteelSeries APEX which just isn’t up to the same standard as the rest of the kit on show. Bit.ly/1Cg4eZe 20 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

ALL THE KEYS IN THE WORLD CAN’T MAKE A GREAT KEYBOARD.

key which felt like it was hidden in the vast ocean of macro keys on the left. However even with all of the good and bad that can be said about the wealth of keys at your disposal, the SteelSeries APEX is an unfortunately flawed keyboard that puts it at the bottom of the pile here. Firstly, while there is anti-ghosting for the 20 most used keys, that still leaves a host of combinations that will result in lost key presses. Ghosting is a problem that many keyboards face when three or more buttons are pushed simultaneously such as when you’re running diagonally in a game while jumping and performing an action. MOre importantly, the SteelSeries APEX is a membrane keyboard and not a mechanical

one like the others on test. As much as we want to like it, the difference is palpable: it has less travel and a softer touch. You might prefer that: for us it’s worth spending R300 more on the COUGAR above.

DETAILS Design

Performance

Value for Money

Overall

R1 500

’S EDITORE CHOIC

Connected Home for Your Family

Watch TV, surf the Internet, download music, and share memories across your TRENDnet digital network. TEW-812DRU

AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router

Designed to produce the ultimate wireless experience in a busy connected home, TRENDnet’s AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Router creates two concurrent wireless networks—a 1.3 Gigabit Wireless AC network and a 450 Mbps Wireless N network to connect common wireless devices.

TN-200 2-Bay NAS Media Server Enclosure

TRENDnet’s 2-Bay NAS Media Server Enclosure is the entertainment and storage hub of a digital network. DLNA® Smart TVs, media players, and game multiple HD simultaneously.

videos

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REVIEWS

DETAILS • Display: 13.3 inch, 3 200×1 800 resolution IPS display • Processor: 0.8GHz Intel Core M-5Y10 • Memory: 4GB • Storage: 256GB solid state drive • Networking: Dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 • Dimensions: 324mmx226mmx12.3mm • Weight: 1.2kg R11 499

ASUS Zenbook UX305 The future is here and it is flawed.

t this year’s CES, Intel unwrapped its newest line of notebook and desktop processors codenamed Broadwell. They’re faster, more frugal and have better graphics capabilities than their predecessors but their arrival had already been preceded by a new product line from the Broadwell family called Core M. The ASUS UX305 is the first notebook to pass throughTech Made Easy HQ bearing an Intel Core M chip. Beautiful. That’s the first word that sprung to mind when we unboxed the ASUS UX305 and it was the last one we thought when packing it up again. At just 12.3mm thick, the aluminium-framed UX305 exudes premium looks from afar but once you open the lid, the plastic interior begins to cheapen the experience. The next thing you’ll notice about the ASUS UX305 is something that you don’t see when using it, noise. The beauty of Intel’s Core M processors is that they finally allow notebooks to be built in the same way that tablets are – without fans. The biggest fundamental flaw with the construction of the UX305 was the omission of a backlit keyboard. While it will help keep the battery consumption down over time it definitely took away from the premium quality that we think

More reviews at

ASUS was searching for. As we mentioned earlier, the ASUS UX305 runs on Intel’s latest generation of Broadwell processors which, for those who like to get into the specifics, is manufactured using a 14nm fabrication process. Our particular review unit was fitted with the Intel Core M-5Y10 processor which hums along at 0.8GHz with the ability to churn up to 2GHz when the need arises. It’s paired with 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for storage which gives it more than enough grunt for the average day’s web browsing and word processing. The 13.3 inch display is a 3 200×1 800 resolution IPS panel with wireless connectivity in the form of 802.11ac dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, while wired connections come in the form of three USB 3.0 ports an SD card reader and a micro HDMI output. The chiclet keyboard, although not backlit, was fantastic to type on even though it offered very little travel. All in all it’s a very solidly specced unit and would be more than capable of meeting the day-to-day needs of any light-to-medium user. The 3 200×1 800 resolution 13.3 inch IPS display is eyewateringly good.

DON’T WANT A GOPRO? MEET THE DRIFT STEALTH 2 ACTION CAM

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22 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

All you need is a device that can easily record in 1080p, be small in size and without any fuss. This cute action camera weighs less than 100g. Bit.ly/1HM7ueR

The biggest failing of the ASUS UX305 is that the battery life suffers greatly from that QHD+ display. The display is definitely the main contributor to the six or so hour battery life that we saw from it in day-to-day usage. The ASUS Zenbook UX305 is a fantastic laptop that, for its price, is easily recommended to the average user who needs something more than a tablet, but won’t be pushing the hardware to the limit. Bit.ly/1BiHUJd

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery life

Value for money

Display

Overall

WILL 2015 BE THE YEAR WEARABLES GET BETTER? LG G WATCH R Android Wear is Google’s answer to the impending wearableapocalypse and the LG G Watch R is the first piece of kit we’ve had that shows off the new OS. Bit.ly/1BiNX09

REVIEWS

DETAILS

ASUS Fonepad 7 Is it a phone? Is it a tablet?

hen ASUS released the first generation Fonepad in 2013, we will be the first to admit that there were some chuckles as we balked at the notion of having such an absurdly large phone strapped to our face. Cut to the future and now the 7inch display toting Fonepad doesn’t seem quite as silly, with phablets encroaching on the 6inch mark. The ASUS Fonepad is, undoubtedly, more similar in looks to a tablet than it is to any smartphone. In fact, it bears a strong resemblance to the ASUS made Nexus 7 tablet with a similar matte coating on the back which seems to attract fingerprints from the ether. As a tablet, it’s thin, light and comfortable to hold in one hand, but as a smartphone it looks ridiculous and only fits into the largest of pants pockets. That means your ASUS Fonepad will be confined to a handbag, backpack or suitcase making it rather useless for things like instant messaging. Being a budget proposition the ASUS Fonepad runs on rather meek looking internals. A dual core 1.2GHZ Intel Atom processor pairs to 1GB of RAM and just 8GB of storage. The internal storage can always be expanded with a microSD card if need be, and it almost certainly will

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 4 - FOR THOSE WHO LOVE PHABLETS Note users know what they want, and this is pretty damn close to exactly that. It’s time to take note of Samsung again with a new cool phablet. Bit.ly/1FiyiQP

need to be at some point. Dual SIM card slots offer an interesting option for those looking for even more convergence by turning the Fonepad into a combination of a smartphone, tablet and a MiFi. The display is where most of the budget saving has been made with just 170 pixels per inch on the 600×1 024 resolution, 7 inch display. Because the Fonepad is the same size as a small tablet it has the same size battery as a small tablet would have with a monstrous 3 950mAh power pack. Imaging is taken care of by a 5 megapixel camera in the rear and a 2 megapixel camera up front, nothing spectacular but the standard for the price range. It all translates into a rather unpleasantly laboured experience when using the Fonepad 7 that would often frustrate us at how long actions like pulling down the notification bar would take to be carried out. The ASUS Fonepad 7 runs on Android 4.4.2 which, as the oldest circulating release of Google’s mobile OS, is hardly what we would call cutting edge. Still the thought of the hardware having to deal with all of the visual changes and extensive graphics requirements in Android 5.0 makes us almost glad that

MSI GT72 DOMINATOR PRO GAMING LAPTOP What happens when a worldclass maker of computer components gets the freedom to make a killer gaming notebook? It’s the MSI GT72. Bit.ly/1tpyWpe

• Display: 7 inch, 600×1 024 resolution display (170ppi) • Operating System: Android 4.4.2 • Processor: Dual core 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 • Memory: 1GB of RAM • Storage: 8GB expandable by 64GB with microSD card • Battery: 3 950mAh • Camera: 5 megapixel rear, 2 megapixel front facing • Networking: 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 • Dimensions: 196mmx110.6mmx7.9mm • Weight: 280g R1 999.00 (8GB model) / R2 299 (16GB model)

they went with the older version instead. While ASUS’s ZenUI is not as overly in-your-face as the likes of Samsung’s TouchWiz, it still adds some guff over the top of the standard Android experience. For its price it makes a compelling choice as a tablet but we still can’t see ourselves using a phone this size without feeling foolish. However that should not dissuade you from the Fonepad 7 should you be in the market for a silly-sized phone. Bit.ly/1EN8UEb

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery life

Value for money

Display

Overall

IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: MTN STEPPA TABLET 2014 was the year of the budget tablet, and after being beaten to the line by rival Vodacom, MTN is getting in on the act with its Steppa tablet. Bit.ly/1qZitgZ

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 23

REVIEWS

DETAILS • Publisher: Electronic Arts • Platforms: PlayStation 3/4, Xbox 360/One and PC • The good: Everything that made the first game so good and then some. • The bad: Microtransactions and an “open-world” that’s sometimes linear. R599 for PC and R699 for console

One of the deadly beasts you’ll have to slay.

Dragon Age: Inquisition It’s not just an awesome flying lizard RPG, it’s got some of the best of everything.

orget the disappointment that was 2011’s Dragon Age II. The latest game in the RPG series – subtitled Inquisition – is an impressive return to form and just about surpasses the excellent Origins. Developer BioWare has basically taken all the best bits of its Mass Effect, Baldur’s Gate and previous Dragon Age games, and made them better. The result is an astoundingly huge game which delights on every level. What’s it got? What does it have to offer? Here’s a quick rundown: Huge, sprawling open world to explore that’s jam-packed with sidequests, interesting characters and unexpected dungeons? Check. Competing factions, fleshed-out religious beliefs, a pantheon of gods and a mature fantasy storyline that avoids feeling overly clichéd? Affirmative. Console-friendly controls, combat that’s neither too easy nor too overwhelming and a large number of combat abilities to unlock? You better believe it. You play as the Inquisitor, someone who appears “chosen” by the world’s gods to save 24 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

it. Through mysterious circumstances, you are the sole survivor of an attack on the peace talks between Thedas’s mages and Templars, emerging from the ruins of the sensitive talks with the magical ability to seal the “rifts” that began to appear shortly after the attack took place. Rifts are massive tears in the fabric of reality separating the physical world from the metaphysical realm of the Fade. In addition to the primary rift that’s expanding like a black hole and threatening to consume Thedas entirely, smaller rifts are appearing all over, bringing with them demons and malevolent spirits that cause chaos and destruction. The main story revolves around reestablishing the Inquisition as a political and military force to be reckoned with, and to do that you must make allies, gather supplies, find and learn about your enemy and essentially prepare for the inevitability of war. Along the way you must level up to unlock new combat abilities, find magical artefacts and craft weapons and armour to make you as strong as possible.

Fighting, as in the other DA games, is central to the world-exploring and quest-solving that you’ll spend a lot of time doing. Blessedly, the combat controls are spot-on perfect. Like any major political figure in the real world, there’s a team of people behind you organising things behind the scenes. In Inquisition’s case, there’s a War Council made up of three other major characters, each of whom offers a different set of skills with which to address the inevitable political issues that arise. They come into play in the War Room, which presents a table showing the land of Ferelden on which you’ll see various “missions” pop up as the game progresses. Each mission can be resolved by any of your three advisors, and their differing approaches lead to differing outcomes. Resolving conflicts and earning rewards is kind of satisfying, especially as it can sometimes lead to new mission areas. As the Inquisitor, you’ll also eventually unlock the ability to judge people you encounter in the world, and how you judge them sometimes opens up new missions on the War Table.

REVIEWS

Each quest you complete earns you Power, which can be spent unlocking story missions or other sub-missions on the War Table. It forces players to see at least some of the world rather than letting them blow through the main quest like a Tasmanian devil in a hurry, adding some intelligent balance to the mix. As with any game of this ambition and scope, there are bugs in Dragon Age: Inquisition, but happily they aren’t the gamebreaking ones experienced by other highprofile recent releases. Instead, they range from party members glitching out and getting caught on scenery to levels being loaded right in front of you without a loading screen to hide them and falling through the floor on occasion, although to be fair that only happened to me once, and at a specific dungeon level. There’s also quite a lively discussion on various forums about the game’s combat, specifically about how some abilities and status effects work or don’t work. Inquisition has a multiplayer mode, but it’s completely separate from the main game. It lets you and up to three friends take part in a dungeon crawl where you must take on four waves of enemies, and if you make it to the fifth, a boss. Levels are randomised every time, so while the setting may stay the same, the layout doesn’t. Objectives in each level range from “Protect that guy” to “Kill everything”

to “Kill that one specific target”, and once you succeed, the level’s over and you’ll need to start another one. Along the way you’ll collect XP and gold, which is used to upgrade your characters and purchase chests that have cool loot in them. There are only three character classes to choose from initially – Rogue, Mage and Warrior – but there are a total of 12 that can be unlocked through play. Chests spit out loot that can be used to upgrade your characters, but often they don’t give you anything useful. These somewhat-useless items can be broken down and their parts used to craft better items, but the number of parts required is often ridiculously high, meaning a lot of grinding is necessary to get your character properly kitted out. Of course, this being EA, you could just pay to win. To nobody’s surprise you can buy Platinum, the multiplayer game’s currency, with real-world cash, which can be used to shortcut the whole “grinding for loot” thing by buying chests without putting in the effort. In all, it’s kind of nice to play a Dragon Ageesque game together with your friends, and its bite-sized nature is likely the best approach BioWare could have taken with it. That’s because the main game is so ridiculously long that it’s unlikely you’ll be able to play it from start to finish with the friends in your party

given how hard it can be to line up everyone’s schedules. Even if you were to spend the full R899 on a next-gen console version of Dragon Age: Inquisition, it will still be the best value for your entertainment buck. In the end, this is a game I believe every fan of role-playing games will enjoy. It’s essentially the product of Electronic Arts putting its considerable wealth of talent onto a single project, and that level of sheer creative genius is on show every minute of every hour you’ll play. From the music to the graphics to the story and the world itself, Inquisition is a beautifully-crafted piece of digital art, and a game that you simply can’t afford to miss. Bit.ly/1La7N5K

SCORES Presentation & Polish

Story

Combat

Multiplayer

World

Overall

9 WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 25

REVIEWS

DETAILS • Publisher: Ubisoft • Platform: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One Approximately R120 ($9.99)

Far Cry 4 DLC: Escape from Durgesh Prison The first of FC4’s downloadable content packs is here, but is it any good?

emember Durgesh Prison from the Far Cry 4? Remember waking up in a cosy house after making your escape, with no idea of how you got there? Well, in Escape from Durgesh Prison, Far Cry 4’s first DLC pack, you get to play through a scenario that has you fighting your way to the helicopter that got you out of there. The title is misleading, though: Ubisoft really should have called it “Reach the Extraction Point to Complete Your Escape from Durgesh Prison” for accuracy, but that name clearly didn’t have the same ring to it.

DETAILS • Publisher: Twoplus Games • Platform: iOS and web R25.99

26 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

Basically, you wake up unarmed and with none of the skills you unlocked in the main game, and you must fight your way to the extraction point, liberating outposts, gathering crafting materials and completing side-quests along the way that unlock bonuses and upgrades, all while having bad guy Pagan Min yapping in your ear. This pack is essentially a big challenge map that can be played solo or with a friend, and while it can be fun, that’s something that may annoy anyone looking for something with a bit more substance for their R120. Bit.ly/1EmKKD8

SCORES Value for money

Challenge

Fun

Longevity

Overall

Dead Run The undead, zombies, hats and pixel graphics.

ead Run’s premise is very simple: rescue humans and kill zombies. The trick is to tell which is which as you sprint, and not to kill humans or get eaten by zombies, both of which end your game. The aim is to rescue as many humans as you can and rack up a nice big score. You start with a baseball bat that must be swung with a tap before reaching the zombies, or not swung with a pause as you pass by humans. Rescued humans run along behind you, and should you rescue a lot of them, they’ll form a large crowd that will start edging you towards the right side of the screen. Kill a human by mistake and the results are tragic and gameending. Yet still lighthearted as the devs named each one, and threw some celebs into the mix.

So you end up killing Megan Fox or William Shatner. Along the way you’ll also collect shells for your secondary weapon, a shotgun, which are needed to take out fat zombies. And you can also gain access to hats that give you special powers. Plus, it’s made by South Africans – what’s not to love?

Bit.ly/1CX05pV

SCORES Challenge

Addictiveness

Fun

Value for money

Overall

ADVERTORIAL

vetech has compiled a top performing upgrade kit for anyone looking to breathe new life into an old desktop, looking only to upgrade the main components without having to buy a whole new pc. These specific components were selected due to the high quality of the components that will guarantee a long life span without having to upgrade again soon, along with a 3 years warranty should anything ever go wrong down the road. The core i7 upgrade kit provides phenomenal value for money, and delivers high end performance at a price point your wallet will be able handle. It’s also fully upgradable should you ever feel the need to add more memory or another processor at a later stage. This kit is designed to be used as a Gaming platform, as well as a Workstation build or photography work horse. Let’s take a closer look at the specific parts of the bundle.

MSI Z87-G43 GAMING MOTHERBOARD

The Z87-G43 Gaming is a gaming specific board with some nice features to boot such as: Killer LAN NIC – which gives your

28 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

online gaming the performance boost it needs putting priority on gaming ensuring less in-game lag. Multi GPU Support – The MSI G43 Gaming features multi GPU platform which allows you to combine up to 2x Graphics cards for maximum GPU horsepower for gaming or rendering. MSI Audio Boost – Which brings out the highest audio quality for your games and music.

8GB CRUCIAL BALLISTIX DDR3 1866MHZ MEMORY

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CONCLUSION

The Intel Core i7 4790 is a Quad Core (8x Threads) CPU clocked at 4.0GHz (Turbo), Intel Core i7 4790 CPU is based on the latest Intel 4th Generation CPUs and are the most future proof processor available. The Core i7 4790 is excellent at all tasks, including Gaming, Video Editing, Photo Editing, Music Production, and Multi-tasking. Future Proofing, Buying the best available CPU will ensure that your computer will be equipped to handle any current or future tasks you might require, Be it for Gaming, Designing or 3D Rendering.

Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer offer superb quality and reliability, on this motherboard you will be able to fit 4x memory chips, so your memory can be upgraded to a maximum of 32GB. Crucial is also so comfortable with their quality of memory that they offer a lifetime warranty on these memory modules.

The Evetech Core i7 upgrade kit is ideal for anyone looking to restore the life in their current desktop computers without having to start over. The upgrade kits will bring your machine to a new pinnacle in performance delivering superior performance & will only set you back R 6,699 Inc. VAT which is a steal for what’s on offer. Visit Evetech.co.za for more info. Bit.ly/15Oerin You can also browse Evetech.co.za where they have numerous options of upgrade kits for all price ranges, and performance levels.

REVIEWS

Five fun mobile games for Feb

Looking for some pocket play to kill time in a queue or on your next commute? We’ve got it sorted. VAINGLORY (iOS) ainglory gives MOBA fans a massively online battle arena to play on their iPhones and iPads, featuring epic 3v3 battles, plenty of heroes to level up and a clever set of rules that keeps the action going back and forth. Lush graphics make use of Apple’s Metal tech, maintaining high levels of detail and a smooth frame rate and showing off the artists’ creativity with gorgeous levels. Free with in-app purchases

STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC (Android, iOS) OTOR first came out in 2003 for the PC and original Xbox, and is widely considered to be one of the best role-playing games ever made. It has the right blend of good writing, addictive strategic combat and all-round Star Warsiness, and it translates surprisingly well to the touch interface of phones and tablet. Larger screens are best. R115.18 (Android), R119.95 (iOS)

THE ROOM TWO (Android, iOS) he Room Two is one of the most challenging puzzle games. It expands on the single-object puzzling of the original by opening the game up to the Rooms hinted at by its title, bringing in more space to encounter puzzles in and more objects to stare at, rotate and poke and prod until their secrets are revealed. Its storyline even veers into horror territory, so if you love solving eerie puzzles, this is money well-spent. R29.78 (Android), R36.99 (iOS)

THE LEGO MOVIE VIDEO GAME (iOS) n this brilliant adaptation of the console game you’ll play through 45 different levels with over 90 LEGO characters from the film, smashing blocks and collecting LEGO studs with which to unlock other characters and abilities. Along the way you’ll harness the power of the Master Builders to construct some truly impressive LEGO creations, all while bumbling through as everyman Emmett on a quest to save the world from the Craagle. R59.99

GOAT SIMULATOR (Android, iOS) our dreams of living a virtual life as a virtual goat have just come true! Goat Simulator lets you play a goat – licking things you shouldn’t, destroying anything that gets in your way and generally being a nuisance. There’s no real structure to the game beyond exploring the map and breaking things and jumping off things, but the laughs you’ll have are more than worth the price of entry. R59.99

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PHOTOGRAPHY

Google Glass is dead but not buried

oogle is stopping sales of the Explorer Edition of it’s headmounted wearable next week and transferring the entire project, including all of the staff, over to a new division under the management of former Nest CEO Tony Fadell – the guy who was responsible for designing the original iPod. Google’s Explorer program for Glass allowed people to buy what was beta hardware and software,for $1 500 (R17 000) under the premise that they would be

part of the evolution of the platform until it reached the full consumer market stage. In a post on their Google+ page, the Glass team made a point of saying that the concept of Google Glass is not dead but rather that they would be focusing on building the future of Glass in secret citing the massive increase in interest around wearables. The team will continue to be run by the current head of the project Ivy Ross, who comes from a background in the retail industry, and with her and Fadell running

the show Google seems to be pushing for a version of Glass that will be seen as fashionable. “Early Glass efforts have broken ground and allowed us to learn what’s important to consumers and enterprises alike,” Fadell says. “I’m excited to be working with Ivy to provide direction and support as she leads the team and we work together to integrate those learnings into future products.” Bit.ly/1yg40hK

A 3.2 gigapixel digital camera inches closer to taking spectacular night sky images

ameras come in all shapes and sizes, but we can guarantee you that you have never seen one quiet like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) in Chile. The LSST, which will be the largest digital camera in the world, just got the funding it needed to go into operation. The LSST is about the same size as a small car, weighs 2.8 tons and will be able to take pictures in all its 3.2 gigapixel glory, capturing some of the most spectacular night sky scenes ever recorded. Being the biggest camera on the block comes with a number of responsibilities, and the members of the LSST collaboration have

earmarked key aspects it would like the camera to focus on, one of them being the nature of Dark Energy. “With a light-gathering power among the largest in the world, it can detect faint objects with short exposures. Its uniquely wide field of view allows it to observe large areas of the sky at once; compact and nimble, it can move quickly between images. Taking more than 800 panoramic images each night, it can cover the sky twice each week,” the company explained on the website. If everything goes well, the camera should be up and running by 2022 from the Cerro Pachón mountains in Chile. Bit.ly/14WOkUT

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REVIEW

DETAILS: • Image sensor: Approx. 28.2MP • Lens: Tested with 15-50mm (R13 999 extra) • Shutter Speed: Auto : 1/8000 sec • Exposure: ±5 EV (1/3EV step) • Display: 3” Super AMOLED w/Touch Screen • Battery: 1860 mAh • Vertical Battery grip: Optional R15 999

Samsung NX1 Smart Camera

A pro DSLR in a more compact size — is Samsung making the most of mirrorless though?

amsung is best known for screens and phones, but its slowly inching its way into more backpacks and slingbags of photographers. And in its new range of NX models, the undoubted star which does more to convince us the system is worth buying in to is is the Samsung NX1 Smart Camera. The body’s weight, tough build quality and ruggesd professional controls already makes it feel like a strong contender for handling, add in the optional battery and it’s got photo-journalist written right through it. This is a mirrorless camera, though, which means you get an electronic viewfinder (EVF) rather than a direct-through-the-lens view more common at this price and capability. If the point of mirrorless cameras is to reduce the size and weight of traditional SLRs, we’re not sure the NX1 quite cuts it. But let’s come back to that later. On the back of the camera there’s a generous 3-inch Super AMOLED touch screen which is as responsive and intuitive to use as a smartphone. Almost everything is just a few taps away, with no need to go into the physical buttons unless you want to. There’s a third screen on top of the body so that you can keep track of all the necessary details like ISO, image count and battery level. What about image quality? Samsung’s claim is that the NX 1 is the first 28MP APS-C CMOS sensor in a camera body that makes

use of ‘Back Side Illumination’. It’s a technical reconfiguration of the way a CMOS sensor is made, what’s important to know is that the same technology helped make the iPhone 4 the most popular camera on Flickr. Taking pictures in low light conditions is usually a challenge for almost any photographer, and the NX1 an ISO range of 100–25600 which can be extended to ISO 51200. It’s more or less useable right the way to 25 600 too, which suggests that sensor tech is doing its job well. For video, it’s capable of recording at full 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, and makes use of the new H.265 codec. We reckon videographers will probably be drawn to the camera more than photographers, thanks to separate jacks for audio in too. And it wouldn’t be a Samsing camera without drawing on some of the firm’s expertise with apps. There’s the Samsung Camera Manager app for your phone that turns it into a second viewfinder (which is great when taking pictures that require weird angles or timed group shots), which works over WiFi or Bluetooth. Samsung’s SMART Camera App for transfering and uploading pics which is in its fourth generation, and news photographers might be interested in that level of integration matched with the high speed 802.11ac WiFi for getting pics back to the desk fast.

Which means in the market for an excellent mirrorless camera that has a little more heft to it and image quality to boot, Samsung’s new NX1 should definitely be on your radar. But there is still a catch. Price-wise, the body competes directly with the likes of Canon’s EOS 70D and Nikon’s D7100, but you get a much larger selection of low cost lenses with those traditional DSLR systems. Its mirrorless rivals would be the Fujifilm X-T1, which is much smaller and just as capable, or the Sony A-7 with its full frame sensor. So the competition is tough, and there’s many reasons to prefer the Samsung, but make sure you research the whole market first. Bit.ly/1D8ruFc

SCORES Handling

Image Quality

Performance

Added features

Ease of use

Overall

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REVIEW

DETAILS: • Sensor: APC-S, X-Trans CMOS, 16.7MP • Storage: SD Card R18 499

Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite Silver Edition So good they coloured it twice.

ujifilm is so proud of the soft matte finish on the refresh model of its X-T1 flagship mirrorless camera that it’s neither graphite nor silver, it’s Graphite Silver… but is it worth the premium you pay over the vanilla X-T1 which is, let’s face it, only a year old anyway? Other than the respray, the X-T1 Graphite Silver Edition is, for almost all functional and physical purposes, identical to the existing X-T1. The body is the same size and weight, with the lines of a classic SLR before they started getting outsized. The button layout is the same

DETAILS: • Aperture: F1.2-F16 • Focal length: 56mm • Filter size: 62mm R17 999

and every last piece of hardware inside is identical. The only slight differences are that the rubberised grip is slightly stickier than the original and the back buttons feel marginally more responsive. And that’s great, because the X-T1 is already our favourite mirrorless camera, and the fact that the firmware for the older model has been updated to include all the new software features means that it’s unlikely to be toppled from that perch soon. These updates are, without exception, all improvements: the ability to customise the quick menu settings and reprogram more buttons makes it possible

to bend the layout of the camera to your will. Bit.ly/1zyniRF

SCORES Picture quality

Manual controls

Value for money

Handling

Overall

Fujinon XF 56mm 1.2 R APD Expensive, but refined for a very specific type of photographer.

he relationship between aperture and depth of field is one of the first things you learn when you start to take photography seriously, which is why Fujifilm’s latest high speed lens, the XF 56mm 1.2 R APD, includes a built-in ‘apodisation filter’ designed to both enhance image sharpness at the wide apertures used for portraiture and simultaneously smooth the bokeh in the background. And it works. The bokeh really is even creamier and smoother than the standard XF 56mm lens (which also has an F1.2 aperture). The lens itself is a 56mm piece of glass which, thanks to the APS-C sensor in Fujifilm X-Series cameras is the equivalent of an 85mm lens on a traditional film camera. It’s a popular prime for shooting people, and the massive F1.2 aperture makes it incredibly fast too, as happy with low light reportage-style snaps popular with wedding photographers as it is with posed studio pics. Bit.ly/1BgZRua

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REVIEW

DETAILS: • Dimensions: Guide Number: GN 65 (IS0100/200mm)

• Flash Coverage Range: 20 to 200mm • Flash Mode TTL/Manual/Multi • Stroboscopic Flash: 1-500Hz • Max. flash sync speed: up to 1/8000s • Manual flash: 1/128-1/1 output control • FEB: 1/3rd increments (±3 stops) • Control System: Optical wireless • Lamp: 4W white LED lamp • Battery Life: 150 times • Dimensions: 196.5mmx80.7mmx64.4mm R2 500

Pixel Mago Speedlite flash for Canon

The Mago flashgun does exactly what one would expect, although it is a bit on the heavy side.

flash for any camera can be an invaluable tool in the arsenal that photographers have available to them. But there will be many occasions where the little built-in flash just simply won’t do. Any serious photographer would buy a separate flash that slots into the hot shoe, as triggered lighting can dramatically change the tone and emotion of an image. The Pixel Mago Speedlite is one such flash that when used correctly, could change the way an image is produced when using Canon cameras. The Pixel Mago Speedlite has a Guide Number (GN) of 65, meaning that if you use the equivalent of ISO 100 film, the flash will perform optimally at F6 at 5 feet, or 1.5m. A flash’s Guide Number is a pretty good indication as to its strength so to speak, and the higher the GN the more powerful it will be. With that in mind, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the flash is only capable of lighting an area that its GN dictates, as light by nature travels everywhere. It just means that you will be able to make the most of it, but it will certainly work at further distances. The Mago has some other tricks up its sleeve as well, just in case you though that the GN is a bit on the low side.

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For those times that you need to shoot very quickly and make use of the flash, the Mago has a maximum flash sync speed of up to 1/8 000s. In layman’s terms, that means that the flash can sync with the camera at a shutter speed no more than 8 000th of a second – which is pretty impressive by any standard. It also has a maximum stroboscopic flash time of 500, meaning that it can fire up to 500 times on one camera exposure. Getting the flash to go where you want is also an important feature to look out for, but this one has an adjustable tilt angle of -7 to 90 degree up and down, and 180 degree to the left or right. The ability to tilt the flash straight up is one of the most useful features a photographer can hope for, as you can bounce the light of the ceiling (provided it’s not too high) and illuminate the subject from above. Flashes can be a bit confusing, especially if you haven’t worked with one before. You will be better suited to operate any flash if you do a little research beforehand, and it might sound silly, but do read the manual that comes enclosed with the Pixel Mago Speedlite flash. But, to operate this little beauty, it features a dot matrix LCD display at the back of the unit, which is where you will find all the information

on your current shooting settings. The unit is also operated with four AA size alkaline or rechargeable batteries. Our favourite feature, though, is that it also has a built in LED lamp for video, which means you throw one speedlight into your bag for all occassions. The Mago is a bit on the heavy side, coming in at almost half a kilo, but that’s a small price to pay considering the cost. It’s as capable as Canon’s own 320EX – and arguably even more expensive parts of its range – but costs about R500 less. Which makes it a good choice. Bit.ly/1Hde7GQ

SCORES Ease of use

Flash strength

Flash speed

Goodies in the box

Overall

Image - CC by 2.0/Axel Bührmann]

HOW TO: PHOTOS

Meet local photographer Axel Buhrmann Tech Made Easy chats to South Africa’s Buhrmann, a popular photographer with over a million Flickr views online.

“I

t’s probably in the genes, and a carry-over from my father, who seemed to catalogue everything he possibly could,” says Johannesburg-based professional photographer Axel Buhrmann, when looking back at how he got into his chosen career path, “I don’t think I quite grasped that until I digitised a collection of his photographs dating back to the early 50s, when he first arrived in South Africa.” Mainstream media tends to portray photographers as hardened journalists who only go into the most war-torn regions to get the perfect shot. Buhrmann also had aspirations to being a war photographer when he was younger, but soon realised it was a little bit more complex than that. “As a teenager, I had these vague – and romantic – notions of being a war photographer. When I moved into having an actual career after studying, my first job was as a photographer – architecture, interior decor, gardens, and the like. But I quickly discovered that being ‘forced’ to take photographs for a living killed my love for it, so I purposely moved away.” Spending some time in journalism, writing about technology and everything that goes with that, Buhrmann took up photography as a hobby, and while he doesn’t focus on one specific topic to showcase his skill, he explains that he really enjoys experimenting with different styles and techniques. “People have told me my style is quite distinct, but I just don’t see it. But I am most certainly not a ‘technical’ photographer – worry about the intricacies

38 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

of shooting something,” he reveals, joking that “my camera is not set to the green setting; I do know how to use AV and TV modes.” In his mind, having no specific style or technique leaves him open to explore more subjects that others would hesitate about, but after all these years he does prefer macro photography – if the subject permits.

“The best camera is the one you have – start there and proceed onwards. Don’t get bogged down in technical stuff; first focus on developing your own creative eye.” “I think my Flickr nickname – snapeverything – says it all. If something can be photographed, I’d like to do it.” One of his favourite macro images are from a miniature Star Wars set which features that ever-snappy Han Solo, where Buhrmann improved to add lifelike steam to the image. “A favourite snap is of Han Solo catching

a train. The ‘steam’ you see here comes from a hot cup of coffee. The character itself is smaller than the size of a pinkie nail.” After many years as a photographer, it tends to become harder and harder to choose a photograph as your best work – the one image that you are the most proud of. And Buhrmann is still struggling to answer the question fully. “Hell’s teeth, that’s a difficult one. It depends on subject, I suppose. And it’s very subjective too. Two of my favourite shots are of my son, who used to be a willing victim of my camera. One is an inadvertent chiaroscuro snap – it encapsulates my little man’s love for life at the tender age of three. The other is a Lensbaby capture – a completely manual snap that just worked out, despite all the settings (including focusing) needing to be manual.” Buhrmann has exhibited that he definitely knows a thing or two about photography, as his Flickr page has over a million views – three million to be exact. “I joined Flickr eight years ago, quite a while before other – and now more successful – photography and cloud storage sites appeared on the scene. Since I am very right-brained, my filing of anything tends towards the chaotic. I’ve come to regard Flickr as my filing cabinet; it allows one to upload and download at full size.” Buhrmann currently uses a Canon 7D, a 100-400 zoom lens, a 50 mm F1.2 wide-angle lens, a number of Lensbaby equipment, and some off-camera technology. Bit.ly/1BtKzlI

HOW TO…

How to download online videos for offline viewing

Click, copy, paste and grab – it’s really easy when you know how.

o you enjoy online videos from sites like YouTube, DailyMotion and others, but you find yourself wishing you could download then to watch later, without the hassle of an internet connection? Perhaps for a long drive, so your kids can watch tablets stuffed with (free) videos that don’t need connectivity? Well then prepare to be happy, because there’s a way to do exactly that and we’re going to tell you how to do it.

or right-click on the highlighted address and choose Copy from the drop-down menu.

GRAB THE VIDEO

CHOOSE FORMAT

Find the video you want to download, and copy its address – also called its URL, which stands for Uniform Resource Locator – to your clipboard. To do that, highlight it with your mouse and press Control and C on your keyboard,

Learn more at…

GO TO SITE

Open a new browser window, and navigate your way to www.clipconverter.cc. Paste the copied URL into Clip Converter’s “Media URL to Download” dialogue box. Before you click Continue, choose the format you’d like to save the movie file in. The default settings are fine, but if you want just the audio, or to save the video to a specific file format, this is where you make your choices.

go to htxt.co.za

40 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

Having full control of those PCs via the internet is how you solve remote tech issues - it’s a great way of keeping on top of your home PC while you’re out. Bit.ly/1zI5MXs

Click Continue, and choose the video’s quality from the options that appear. 720p is a good compromise between quality and file size, but of course for the best quality 1080p is where it’s at.

DOWNLOAD

PASTE

CONTROL A WINDOWS PC OVER THE INTERNET WITH YOUR PHONE

CHOOSE QUALITY

Now click Start, and once the conversion completes, click Download to save the file. It can then be played in your favourite video player; we recommend VideoLAN, better known as VLC Player, which is available for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. Now all you have to do is copy those videos you’ve saved to the device they will be viewed on, and you’re set. Bit.ly/18oqZxH

BUILD YOUR OWN WIFI-CONTROLLED LED LAMP Learn how to make a unique and awesome colour changing WiFi lamp in just a couple of hours, Tom Van den Bon and Sebastian Schocke of Binary Space. Bit.ly/1EopWv0

Spruce up your Android interface with a new launcher Google’s open OS means your home screen is completely customisable.

ndroid is a wonderful operating system for phones and tablets, but even so its interface could use a few improvements. That’s where things like Android launchers come in; they’re small apps that change the interface in ways both big and small that can make it quicker and simpler to make Android do things and, in the process, make your life a little bit easier. There are dozens of launchers available on the Play Store for you to check out, and while most of them are completely free, many also come with advanced features that you have to pay to use. If you’re willing to cough up a few bucks you can get things like access to more themes, the ability to add widgets and extra screens to your Home screen options and, in some cases, the ability to make the launcher do specific things when you swipe with two fingers (also known as gesture support). Happily, launcher apps aren’t expensive, and you can usually unlock the extra features for less than R50. Sound good? Here’s how to go about setting your phone or tablet up with a brand-new launcher.

1. FIND THE APP

Open up Google Play on your phone or tablet, and enter “launcher” in the search box. This is what you’ll see:

2. DOWNLOAD IT

3. LAUNCH IT

When the download has completed, press Open. This will start the launcher up and replace your Home screen with the app’s. You will be asked if you want to make the new app your phone or tablet’s default launcher; this is entirely up to you. It’s possible to have multiple launchers installed, and by setting none of them as the default, you’ll be able to choose which one to launch every time you press your Home button. Should you accidentally set one as the default, and you want to change it, go into

your phone’s Settings and go to Apps, then press on the launcher app and look for an option towards the bottom called Clear defaults. Press this, and your phone will ask you which launcher to use every time you press your Home button. From here, it’s a matter of poking around to see how the launcher differs, and how you can best take advantage of the changes. What’s so nice about Android is you can have more than one launcher loaded at the same time, allowing you to switch between them via your phone’s settings. Bit.ly/1HbUQJn

TECH MADE EASY RECOMMENDS We recently grabbed Smart Launcher 2 because of its clean interface and the way it sorts apps into categories for easy access.

BEFORE

AFTER

Once you’ve decided on which launcher to get, press on it and then press Install on its Store page. Star ratings help to tell you beforehand if a launcher is worth it or not; if you stick to launchers rated 4 stars and above, you should find something decent.

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Image - CC BY-SA 2.0 oneaustin - .flickr.com/photos/oneaustin/1261907803/

HOW TO…

How to set up Sony’s PlayStation TV

So you want to buy a PlayStation TV but you’re unsure of how easy it is to set up? Read on!

e’ve done all the heavy lifting for you below and recorded the process so you can approach your PS TV’s installation with confidence.

IN ADDITION TO WHAT COMES IN THE BOX, YOU WILL NEED: • Dual Shock 3 or 4 controller • A USB cable • A network cable

STEP 1

Remove your PlayStation TV from its beautiful, lovingly-crafted packaging. You should have: • A PlayStation TV micro-console • A power cable

STEP 2

the USB cable you brought along into the PS TV and into your Dual Shock 3/4 controller. See how the PlayStation TV lifts off the table in our image? The double-sided tape from Step 2 will prevent that.

STEP 4

While the PlayStation TV console has builtin WiFi, it’s highly recommended that you connect it to your network with an Ethernet cable to ensure the fastest-possible network performance. As you’ll be streaming quite a bit of data between your PS4 and the PS TV, the speed and reliability of the network that connects them is very important, and Ethernet is much better on both fronts than WiFi.

The PlayStation TV is incredibly lightweight; we recommend using doublesided tape (or any sticky solution of your liking) to stick it down. This is so it doesn’t accidentally get knocked off your desk, or dragged onto the floor over time due to the weight of its cables.

STEP 5

STEP 3

Power up the PlayStation TV, and go through its initial setup screens. You’ll set up the following by simply following the onscreen prompts: • Language and location

Plug the power and HDMI cables into their respective ports on the PlayStation TV. Connect the HDMI cable to the TV/ monitor you’ll be playing games on. Plug

Learn more at…

Hit the power button on your PlayStation 4, log in and configure it to accept Remote Play connections. Go to Settings->Remote Play Connection Settings and choose Allow Remote Play connections.

STEP 6

INSTALL WHATSAPP ON ANY ANDROID TABLET, EVEN THE CUT-PRICE ONES

go to htxt.co.za

44 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

Follow this guide to easily use the instant messaging app, WhatsApp, for Android... even if it’s not available through your tablet’s storefront. Bit.ly/1yqhQd4

• • • •

The edges of your TV screen Time zone, date and current local time Your PlayStation account Your connection to the internet

STEP 7

Once that’s all done, you’ll be looking at an interface that is identical to that of the PlayStation Vita, except it’ll be on your TV. To connect to your PS4, ensure the PS4 is on and connected to the same network as the PS TV and choose the PS4 Link option you’ll see on the PS TV’s main screen. A few seconds later, you’ll see a 1:1 copy of what is showing on your PS4, on the TV or monitor connected to your PS TV. From here, all you need to do is load the game you want to play into your PS4’s optical drive slot, and it will stream across your network to the PS TV, allowing you to game in peace while the main TV is in use. With an Ethernet cable connecting the two consoles, there should be no noticeable delay between using your controller and the game you’re playing responding to your commands. Alternatively, to play a PSP game you can simply choose the game’s icon on the PS TV’s screen, or to play a Vita game you must just insert the game’s memory card into the PS TV’s card slot and play as normal. Bit.ly/1wpFO7k

CAPTURE SCREENSHOTS ON A BLACKBERRY BB10 SMARTPHONE In case you’ve ever wondered how - simply press the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons on your BB10 phone at the same time. There. Wasn’t that easy? Bit.ly/1Bugpiq

WIN!

TICKETS TO GEEKFEST!

It's the biggest event of the year for nerds, and we've got four pairs of tickets to give away.

hat are you doing on the final weekend of November this year? Wrong, you’re going to be joining every other self-respecting geek in Gauteng at the awesome event that is Geekfest. There’ll be videogames, a geek quiz, board games, robot wars, cosplay compos, live roleplaying and even a best-dressed pet parade – if that’s your thing – and it all takes place on Saturday 29th November at the Ball and All Driving Range and Pub, up near

the Lion Park in Noitgedacht. You can read all about it here: www.geekfest.co.za, and tickets cost R50 per adult or R25 for kids under 12. We’re going to be there. And you can too in our exclusive competition to win tickets. We’ve got four pairs to give away, and all you need to do to win one of them is caption the picture on the right from Geekfest 2013. Don’t worry, no pets were harmed in the taking of this picture. Honest.

To enter: Point your browser at www.htxt.co.za/geekfestcompo

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HOW TO…

VDSL versu Which is the best price for superfast broadband in SA?

f we had to nail down one thing that’s really changed in South African tech last year, it was the fact that proper superfast broadband is finally becoming available in South Africa. The catalyst was the decision by a Joburg suburb to go it alone and organise residents to buy in fibre to the home (FTTH) rather than wait for a network to get round to it, but we’ve also seen VDSL and FTTH from Telkom as well as Category 4 LTEAdvanced for the home too. While all of the sounds good and well there are of course two main things to consider when choosing which super fast broadband connection is for you. The first is availability. With FTTH and LTE-A roll outs both in their infancy it should be a while before there is sufficiently adequate coverage to justify it as an option for the masses. VDSL has a larger existing footprint but is likely to become outdated over time as its competitors gain more coverage. The second is of course price. More speed and larger data bundles equals more money. To make things easier we’ve lashed together a quick comparison of what you get from VDSL, FTTH and LTE-A with prices and data caps to give you an idea about what you’re going to get for your money. Telkom has exclusivity on LTE-A and VDSL line rental but other ISPs have a chance to offer their data on VDSL lines. Similarly there are other ISPs in the FTTH space, like Vox and Cool Ideas, although the packages are limited to Parkhurst for the time being. For our money Vox Telecom’s 100Mbps package in Parkhurst is the pick of the litter and makes us a bit jealous of the residents who have access

46 | TECH MADE EASY | FEBRUARY 2015

HOW TO…

SL versus FTTH us LTE-A to it’s high-speed, high data-capped goodness. Telkom has promised to have 50 suburbs connected to LTE-A before the end of April

2015 and anther 20 suburbs are getting FTTH from the fixed line incumbent making 70 or so suburbs with access to super fast

broadband before the end of next year. Bit.ly/15Kv5P8

Comparison of superfast broadband in South Africa? R2 800.00

DATA CAP 300GB 200GB 100GB 50GB

R2 100.00

R1 400.00

R700.00

R0.00

Telkom 20Mbps VDSL

Telkom 20Mbps FTTH

Telkom 40Mbps VDSL

Telkom 40Mbps FTTH

Vox 50Mbps FTTH

Cool Ideas

50Mbps FTTH

Vox Cool Ideas Telkom Telkom 100Mbps 100Mbps 100Mbps 150Mbps FTTH FTTH FTTH LTE-A

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 47

STATS

SA tech

The numbers that sum up the rest of the month

in stats

10 years: how long Eskom reckons it will take us to fix the electricity supply. Bit.ly/1yCfzAo

Meanwhile, expect loadshedding to occur on 21 out of 28 days during February. Bit.ly/1yCfJrs

Chile just got the go ahead for its Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a giant space-peering camera capable of 3.2gigapixel photographs. Bit.ly/15qkuss South African transport app GoMetro is now available in all 11 official languages. Bit.ly/1yCg3GM

The report into etolls ran to 223 pages long. It recommends... etolls! Bit.ly/1yCfWuL

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

R115 000 000 The amount South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk has given to a foundation which campaigns to limit AI development to that which is beneficial to mankind. Bit.ly/15qkokF 60% of online shopping is for stuff you don’t need. Bit.ly/1n4M6cy

NEXT MONTH

And if you want even more, keep your eyes peeled for issue 13 from 1 March in all good technology retailers.

MOBILE COMPUTING MOBILE COMPUTING I live each and every day to the fullest. I’m out the door in the morning and don’t stop until I get home at night. I need my electronic devices at my side – protected and accessible – keeping Ime live each and every day tomakes the fullest. I’m by outdesigning the door solutions in the connected. Case Logic it simple morning and don’t stop until I get home at night. I need my that fit my devices and my style. electronic devices at my side – protected and accessible – keeping Case Logic. Life, Simplified. me connected. Case Logic makes it simple by designing solutions that fit my devices and my style. Case Logic. Life, Simplified.

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