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Contents

www.htxt.co.za June 2015

ISSUE #16

Need To kNow: News

SIMPLY THE BEST

ow there’s a headline that betrays the writer’s age. Hearking from a time when Tina Turner was Mad Max’ bete noir – not Charlene – that song is yet more proof that sometimes it wasn’t better in the Good Old Days. One thing that’s definitely better today is that smartphone you have in your pocket. What did we do with all that leisure time we had before we spent every waking hour staring at a small screen? And if you’re going to be spending hours a day looking at WhatsApp and Facebook messages, Tweeting and browsing the web or playing the latest games you might well want to do it on a phone that is as good as it possibly can be. But which phone is that? If you want to know the answer, turn to page 15 now. But wait, don’t go yet. We’ve got a packed issue elsewhere for you. We’ve taken a look at the best video streaming packages and services available in South Africa at the moment on page 26, and what’s possibly the best camera available on the market right now too (p37). We can’t stop loadshedding, but we can tell you Operator’s sub-r500 Steppa is firs how best to avoid it (p43), and we’ve rounded up some t of its kind. great mobile games for you to try too (p33). obile operator MTN has Because we believe you’re the best, obviously. important for South Africa. launchedCue South Africa’s first Sadly, MTN has confir med that there oid-powered smartphone big hair and guitars for our exit until nextAndr month. ’s

MTN launches supercheap 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: NIck Cowen - nick@htxt.co.za putting high-tech handsets within the HARDWARE & GAMES: Deon du Plessis –reach deon@htxt.co.za of everyone. Which is awesome. TECH & NEWS: Charlie Fripp – charlie@htxt.co.za The phone itself isn’t, of course, hugel y STARTUPS & STUFF: Lungelo Shezi – lungelo@htxt.co.za powerful. It’s based on a Qualcomm reference design, so it has a 1GHz single SENIOR DESIGNER: Quinton Hoffmann – quinton@htxt.co.za core Snapdragon processor, a 3.5in ch screen and a mere 2MP camera on ADVERTISING: Dorothy Haggard – dorothy@hypertext.co.za board. More limiting is the fact that there’s Sengezo Jubane – sengezo@hypertext.co.za only 512MB of memory and 1GB of storag e on-board. 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

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 #16

Need to know

Photos made easy

More stories at go to htxt.co.za

Speaking of throwing, that is how you launch it: just throw it into the air and its motors will kick in automatically as the drone takes flight. So if you don’t have to fly it, then how does it work? Lily has a strap on tracking device that uses a combination of GPS and visual subject tracking; the tracker lets the camera know what your position, distance and speed so it can keep you in the shot. A mobile app lets you program the different flight plans that are available, so it can hover in place, rotate around you or follow you around. The app lets you set other flight plans as well as editing and sharing you videos and photos. The built-in camera uses the same 12-megapixel Sony sensor that are found in top action cameras like the GoPro Hero3. This little flying miracle can capture 12-megapixel stills and 1080p video at up to 60 frames per second or 720p at 120fps. Audio is provided via a built-in mic on the

TALK TO GOVERNMENT OVER THE INTERNET IN TSHWANE Free WiFi network Project Isizwe is opening up online chatrooms to talk to the city. Bit.ly/1IFl71c

tracker that’s synced with the camera. Your photos and video can be stored either on the 4GB of internal storage or on a microSD card. The internal lithium-ion pack is should give you about 20 minutes of flight time and will take two hours for a full recharge. Replaceable batteries may have been a nice option, but this would have come at the expense of it being fully waterproof, personally I would rather have the later. The quadcopter can reach speeds of 40kmph and altitude is set from 1.75 meters above you to a maximum of 15m, with a maximum distance 30m from you. Want one now? You will be a little disappointed. The Lily Camera will only start shipping in February 2016 and will be a hefty R11 000 when it does. But, if you jump on the 29-day pre-order campaign, you will be able to get one for a mere R6 000. Off you go then. Bit.ly/1IFkNQ2

SA ACTIVISTS BRAND INTERNET.ORG “IRRESPONSIBE” The Facebook-backed free internet initiative is coming under fire from all sides. Bit.ly/1IFladr

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 5

Image - CC BY SA 3.0 JMK - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stellasie_TG001_Barbet,_N1-noord,_Lynnwood,_Pta.jpg

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Outstanding etolls? You won’t be able to renew your vehicle licence

eputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed the new dispensations for Sanral’s controversial etolls system in Gauteng roads. Fees have been reduced quite heavily across the board, but for those not tempted by the carrot of payment there’s also a sharp, pointy stick in store: the government is trying to clamp down on non-payers, and as a result you will no longer be able to renew your vehicle licence if you have outstanding etolls. “Motorists will have to settle any outstanding e-toll fees before they can renew their motor vehicle licences,” Ramaphosa said during the media briefing. The actual changes to the regulations have yet to be published, but the key points are: • Public transport remain exempt from paying any etolls. Busses and taxis who operate with valid transport licences won’t have to pay anything.

More stories at go to htxt.co.za

6 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

• A single reduced tariff will be applied to all motorists – meaning that etolls are to be made cheaper. • Where people are currently paying 58c per kilometre, the fee has been reduced to 30c per kilometre. “This is almost a reduction of 50%, and will apply to all motorists in a vehicle class.” The monthly cap for motorists has been reduced from R450 a month to R225 a month. “That is a huge jump, and the revised caps will be introduced to other categories as well. This is focussed on the bulk of etoll users,” he explained. People who drive under gantries less than 30 times a month will not benefit from the reduction in monthly cap, but those that do will have their accounts capped at R225. Motorists will have six months to pay outstanding etolls at a reduced rate of 60%, and that the monthly cap for those who are in arrears will be R450.

KENYAN TEAM DEVELOPS NEW LANGUAGE An esperanto for Africa proposed to help heal over old differences and tribal tensions. Bit.ly/1LsS80k

The most controversial measure, however, is that drivers with outstanding etolls bills against their name will “This will be linked to the vehicle licence system. You have to settle your etolls before you can renew your licence,” he said. With the new guidelines and systems in place, which is due to come into effect over the next two or three months, it will create a shortfall in Sanral’s revenue of R350 million. “This shortfall will be shared between the national government and the Gauteng government.” Some of the added changes to the etolls system were recommended by Gauteng Premier David Makhura in his panel review, but an increase in the fuel levy, a tyre tax and raisising money from adversing and a system to encourage car pooling were all ignored in the final decision. Bit.ly/1LsRXlG

WITS PROF WINS BIG IN MULTINATIONAL SCIENCE PRIZE AWARDS A senior academic at Wits has won R300 000 for her work on TB testing kits, thanks to the Innovation Prize for Africa. Want to see what she made? Type this into your browser. Bit.ly/1Jz1715

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Telkom opens up high-speed LTE-A to 23 more suburbs

n December last year, fixed and mobile operator Telkom rolled out LTE-Advanced to two suburbs in Johannesburg, two in Cape Town and one in KwaZulu-Natal. Somewhat keeping its promise to roll out LTE-A to more than 50 suburbs before the end of March 2015, the company has revealed a host of other suburbs that will be able to connect to its 150Mbps network. The majority of the newly-added suburbs are in Johannesburg, but for the first time in its expansion plans it added two suburbs in Tshwane: Highveld and Midstream Estate in Centurion. The other suburbs added to the network coverage map are Carlswald, Halfway Gardens, Houghton Estate, Midlands Estate, Noordwyk, Parktown, Parktown North, Parkview, Greenside, Sandhurst, Saxonwold, Vorna Valley, Kyalami Hills,

Killarney, Craighall Park and Rosebank in Gauteng; Green Point, Rondebosch and Mouille Point in the Western Cape; and Prestondale in KwaZulu-Natal. LTE-A is capable of 224Mbps download and 10Mbps upload speeds, using the equipment supplied by Telkom. There are three prepaid deals available on the website, and range from R2 699 for a once-off 2GB and 1GB monthly internet bundle, to R4 299 for a once-off 60GB and 60GB monthly internet bundle. In terms of contact prices, a 100GB monthly package with set you back R1 399 a month for the cheapest one (which come with the Huawei E5186 LTE A Router only), to R1 449 for a 100GB monthly package that comes with a Huawei E5186 LTE A Router and a Huawei E5372 LTE Mi-Fi Router + MultiSIM. We’ll be testing it next month. Bit.ly/1LsSTqj

City of Tshwane crime-fighting app to be deployed across the police force

he City of Tshwane’s Namola crimefighting system and app, which was piloted last year, will be deployed across the entire city, and smartphones compatible with the app will be installed in all Tshwane Metro Police Department vehicles, the city’s executive mayor, Kgosientso Ramokgopa has said. Ramokgopa highlighted this during the State of the Capital Address presented today at Freedom Park, Pretoria, adding that 2 000 officers will be trained on how to use the emergency response system. Namola lets users send an emergency alert to the nearest Tshwane Metro Police station at a touch of a panic button. Police officers nearest to the area where the person is located receive the alert on a dashboard-mounted smartphones in their vehicles and they can then respond to the alert and make their way to the scene.

ANOTHER STEVE JOBS MOVIE IS ON ITS WAY A second movie about Apple founder Steve Jobs is coming out this year. You can watch the official trailer here: Bit.ly/1Jz1aKk

“We have a zero tolerance approach to any form of misconduct”, Ramokgopa said. Ramokgopa also mentioned in his speech that the city’s e-Tshwane utility accounts site currently has 120 000 registered accounts on it. e-Tshwane lets home owners, companies, property managing agents and tenants to register and view, download and make payments for their utility accounts online. Residents can make payments via the Standard Bank MyBills and Nedbank MyeBills internet banking services. “This is a bold step towards the national realisation of e-government services,” Ramokgopa said about the site’s growth. Bit.ly/1IToPnW

FACEBOOK’S FREE INTERNET ACCESS COMES TO MALAWI Malawi is the latest country to get free net access via Facebook’s internet.org. Rumours are that South Africa is next. Bit.ly/1H6Bcc5

ROBBEN ISLAND GOES OFF-GRID WITH NEW SOLAR GENERATORS Historical landmark Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, will soon be solar powered - as will many other local sites of interest. Bit.ly/1F5VnGO

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 7

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

LG unveils smaller & bigger versions of the G4 K

orean smartphone maker LG had the tongues wagging when it revealed the leather-clad G4 just over a month ago, and now the company unveiled two more models to accompany the flagship phone. They’re called the G4c, which is a slightly reduced size version of the flagship G4, and phablet-style G4 Stylus. The G4 has a 5.5-inch screen, while the smaller G4c has a 5.0-inch display. Interestingly, neither of the new phones has gone with the controversial dual core

G4 STYLUS • Chipset: 1.2GHz quad core (LTE)/1.4GHz eight core (3G) • Display: 5.7-inch HD IPS (258ppi) • Memory: 1GB RAM/8GB ROM/ microSD • Camera: Rear 13MP (LTE) or 8MP (3G) / Front 5MP • Battery: 3 000mAh (removable) • Operating System: Android 5.0 Lollipop • Size: 154.3×79.2×9.6mm • Weight: 163g • Network: LTE/3G • Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a, b, g, n/Bluetooth 4.1/NFC/A-GPS/ Glonass/USB 2.0 • Colours: Metallic Silver/Floral White • Other: Stylus Pen/Laser Auto Focus/Gesture Shot/Glance View/Knock Code

8 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

processor that the G4 sports, they both feature more traditional quads – albeit running at a slower speed and paired to just a gig of RAM (the G4 has 3GB of RAM). There is an option for the Stylus that has an eight core processor, but at the expense of an LTE antenna. The G4 Stylus is the biggest of the three phones, and packs a 5.7-inch HD IPS screen. The phone comes with LG’s “Rubberdium” Stylus. “The G4 Stylus and G4c are perfect examples of what we mean by a premium

smartphone experience without a premium price. We are committed to offering consumers in fast-growing markets LG devices that not only deliver performance, but also look good while doing so. Both the G4 Stylus and G4c will surpass customers’ expectations of what an LG phone should be,” said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, in a media statement.

CHECK O U OUR REV T IEW OF THE L G ON PAGE G4 20!

G4C • Chipset: 1.2GHz Quad-Core • Display: 5.0-inch HD IPS (294ppi) • Memory: 1GB RAM/8GM ROM/ microSD • Camera: Rear 8MP/Front 5MP • Battery: 2 540mAh (removable) • Operating System: Android 5.0 Lollipop • Size: 139.7×69.8×10.2mm • Weight: 136g • Network: LTE • Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b, g, n/ Bluetooth 4.1/NFC/A-GPS/Glonass/ USB 2.0 • Colours: Metallic Gray/Ceramic White/Shiny Gold • Other: Gesture Shot/Glance View/ Knock Code

NEED TO KNOW: NEWS

Microsoft changes the name of Windows Phone, again

icrosoft’s semi-successful mobile phones and its Windows mobile platform have gone through a number of naming changes over the last decade of so. From the first release of Windows Mobile in 2003, to Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6, the company eventually settled for Windows Phone when the seventh version of its operating system rolled around – and all subsequent phones. Now, it’s going to be known as Windows 10 Mobile. Going into a bit more detail, Microsoft said that Windows 10 Mobile will make

things a bit easier for people who want to use their mobile phone as a complete PC solution. “Windows 10 Mobile offers great productivity, security and management capabilities for customers who use their personal devices at work. In addition, Windows 10 Mobile will enable some new devices to take advantage of Continuum for phone, so people can use their phone like a PC when connected to a larger screen.” Bit.ly/1FD0Dp1

Windows 10 coming in at least seven flavours

W Rdio launches two new streaming options in SA

nline music streaming service Rdio launched in South Africa in 2013 as part of a 20-country expansion, and it’s just announced two new products that will be made available to music aficionados. First up is a “free” ad-supported streaming Internet radio service. The plan allows for users to listen to programmed Internet radio stations at no cost and no subscription is needed. It is similar to rival Pandora Internet Radio’s streaming model, where users select a genre or specific band, and Rdio will play a selection of tunes that match the request. “South African users now have access to unlimited algorithmic artist- and genre-based stations, human-curated stations programmed to fit any mood or activity, personalised stations tuned to each individual listener and stations based on tastemakers,” Rdio said in a statement. If you don’t want to go that route, there is still the option to listen to whatever tracks you want to for free, but you have to sign up for a free account that is only valid for six months – and your email address can only be used once.

More stories at go to htxt.co.za

hen Windows 10 comes out on 29th July Microsoft will unleash at least seven different versions of the operating system on the public. They are: • Windows 10 Home • Windows 10 Professional • Windows 10 Enterprise • Windows 10 Mobile • Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise • Windows 10 Education • Windows 10 IoT Core (for Raspberry Pi and the like) We had hoped Microsoft would have reduced the number of different versions of its latest OS compared to years past, but alas, that’s not the case. Fortunately the average Windows user only need concern themselves with the first two. For most people who just have a PC at home that they want to use to play games, surf the internet, email family and troll people on Facebook, Windows 10 Home is fine; it just doesn’t have business features like the ability to join a domain, which home PCs just don’t need. Find out what the others do here: Bit.ly/1FD0QbO

SA UNVEILS NEW DRONE REGULATIONS TO GOVERN WHERE YOU CAN FLY After months of deliberation the Civil Aviation Authority has decided where it’s legal to fly drones, and who’s allowed to take to the air. Bit.ly/1FD1oOK

“FACEPALM” AND “SELFIE” ADDED TO THE OFFICIAL LIST OF EMOJIS Running out of funny pictograms to add to your Facebook posts? Fear not, there are 38 more characters to be added to the official lexicon including some you might not expect. Bit.ly/1FD1HZY

WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 9

NEED TO KNOW: GAMES

New Need for Speed coming later this year

e guess that nobody could claim that they didn’t see this one coming, but Electronic Arts (EA) has revealed that a new Need for Speed game will be making its way onto consoles and PCs later this year. The new release will apparently reboot the franchise, and will include a number of aspects that haven’t been featured before. “Need for Speed is one of the most iconic names in gaming, and we’re returning it to greatness in this reboot. Pulling on our 20 years of history, and

then taking a year out from releasing a game, we are making the game we’ve always wanted to,” said Marcus Nilsson, Executive Producer at Ghost Games. Simply titled ‘Need for Speed’, the game will take place in a nocturnal openworld, and it seems like the franchise will be going back to its roots of car customisation. With Project Cars making a huge impression on the market, and Forza being the dominant racer on Xbox consoles, Need For Speed has to do something rather unique to keeps its players. Bit.ly/1ITpupu

Next Assassin’s Creed to star twins, has no multiplayer

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is out on October 13th

ou could quite possibly be disappointed right now that The Division is being pushed back to 2016 (see last month’s TME) but here’s a reason to be happy again: we know exactly when that other Tom Clancy game, Rainbow Six: Siege is going to appear on store shelves for the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. October 13th. For those old hands who’ve been playing Rainbow Six since its first incarnations back in the late nineties and who have lamented the absence of the tactical, squad-based FPS in games in recent years, this is brilliant news. For newer gamers looking for something to capture their tactical minds, challenge their hand-eye co-ordination and titillate their imaginations with a high-tech story in the way that many games these days don’t, it’s even better news. And for fans of playing against real people in hostage-rescue, bomb-defusal and other high-tension situations, Siege will offer a great alternative to EA’s Battlefield games. Ubisoft has showed off very little since the awesome gameplay demo that premiered at last year’s E3 that showed off the teamwork, destructible levels and intensity of the game’s multiplayer mode. We’re hoping for more peaks into what’s coming over the next few months. Bit.ly/1F5WqX1

More stories at go to htxt.co.za

10 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

h, Ubisoft, back to its old tricks of making us excited for a new Assassin’s Creed with slick videos and a killer soundtrack. The company has taken the wraps off the next sequel, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, and showed off more of what we already know – that the game will be set in Industrial Revolution-era London – and more of what we didn’t. Like the fact that Syndicate will have not one, but two protagonists: a set of twins, Jacob and Evie Frye, raised in the Creed. Jacob is a typical assassin, full of beans and eager to fight and kill and throw himself off of buildings into haystacks, while Evie is more subtle, a master of stealth and subversion. There will also be vehicles to commandeer – a first for the series – like carriages and trains, as well as the almost obligatory rope-launcher-grappler thing seen in other games (Batman, Dying Light, Ubisoft’s own Far Cry 4). The theme of the game is working class alienation and growing disillusionment with the modern era of machines. “The ability to lead an underground gang, commandeer any vehicle on hand and use modern tools to take on an expansive and fast-paced Victorian London sets this game apart,” said Marc-Alexis Côté, creative director, Ubisoft. “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate has been in development for more than two years and this new modern take on the living open world will please Assassin’s Creed fans and newcomers alike.” Bit.ly/1ITqyd9

GIGABYTE’S AORUS X5 HAS A BONKERS STORAGE SETUP The latest gaming laptop from Taiwanese company Gigabyte has an incredible plan for speeding up Windows. Three superfast drives running in sync. Bit.ly/1KBIVC6

SONY IS LAUNCHING A NEW PLAYSTATION WITH A 1TB HARD DRIVE Speaking of storage, word on the street is that Sony is upgrading the PlayStation 4 already. According to some US websites, it’s planning to introduce a new PS4 with a 1TB hard disk. Bit.ly/1Q4yQV4

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ech Made Easy is just a small subsection of what we do on our main website. Every day we carry South Africa’s best news about technology, gadgets, games, business start-ups, geek culture and more. We have the broadest editorial remit of any similar site in the country, and we’re passionate with it. We believe that all across Africa, technology is changing lives - and that the more we write about it and the more you read about it the better the chance is that it will be for the better. 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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he Asus ROG G751JL is a laptop made for gaming. The ASUS ROG G751JL is covered with an aluminium finish; it features a stunning 17.3 inches IPS anti-glare display. It has a full HD 1080p (1920x1080 resolution) and offers 178-degree wide-viewing angle allowing you to share your favourite gaming moments. This gaming laptop is powered by the top end Intel Core i7-4720HQ processor. The i7 is a quad core processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.60GHz and 6MB L3 Cache. Standard features on this laptop include a 1TB 7 200rpm hard drive, so that you will have ample storage for all your favourites. There’s also housing for a second hard drive for more storage space. The ASUS ROG can have memory size of up to 32GB of DDR3 Memory (4x8GB Chips), and it is equipped with the latest and most powerful Maxwell NVIDIA GeForce GTX965M GPU packed with 2GB GDDR5 dedicated memory giving a performance increase of 40% over the last generation GTX860M. ASUS also has TurboMaster technology for an enhanced on-the-fly graphics performance boost when you need it most.

14 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

The laptop also features a dual-fan cooling system allowing your laptop to stay cool while playing games for extended periods withstanding the demands of high performance gaming. The ergonomic design and highly responsive low profile keys of the keyboard make fatigue a thing of the past, and an adjustable backlight makes them easy to see even in the dark. In addition, there’s a key for fast access to your games library and the additional ASUS ROG Macro keys are programmable with up to three commands; you can set the keys for launching apps, multi-key actions or in-game events This laptop doesn’t just look good: MaxxAudio processing by Waves gives you professional quality sounds, and the ROG AudioWizard will setup bring game worlds to life around you. For full range, there’s even a Bass Eye Subwoofer underneath the machine itself. The unique look of this notebook is typical of ASUS’ top end gaming machines, but it’s more than just visual flair. Not only does moving the screen closer to user give the illusion that the laptop seems a little less large while it’s being used, but it

also gives the machine an isolated area to vent heat away from the user. Keeping the vents hidden gives the rest of the machine’s chassis license to be subtle by comparison. A soft, matte finish finishes the whole thing off with a luxurious touch that’s classic as well as highly durable. Perfect for throwing into a bag for LAN events. THe ROG G751Jl might be a slim laptop considering its internal power, but that doesn’t mean it’s sacrficed on external ports. There are two USB 3.0 ports along the right hand side, a VGA connector, three audio jacks, Ethernet, HDMI and a Thunderbolt port too. On the other side there’s two more USB 3.0 ports, a Blu-Ray drive and an SD/MMC card reader. And yet it still only measures 416.6x317.5x43.2mm and weighs 4.3KGs. ASUS has packed some serious firepower into an awesome looking machine, and done it without raising the price by a ridiculous amount. You will not be disappointed to be the owner of this killer gaming laptop. Available now at Evetech.co.za from R20 999 Inc VAT. For more info please visit the website Bit.ly/1DYJJQ4

SUPERTEST

WHICH IS THE BEST...

High-End Smartphone Looking to put the best of the best in your pocket? Let us guide you through the pros and cons of the ultimate phones today.

o everyone and his dog has a flagship smartphone out and available for purchase in South Africa, and you could be asking yourself

which one is the best of the lot. That’s what we’ve set out to answer with this month’s Supertest, where we’ve pitted high-end phones from several big-name

manufacturers against one another to see which one rightly deserves to have your flagship fund spent on it. On to the phones!

SAMSUNG GALAXY S6

fter years of feeling let down by Samsung’s phones – mainly because they used so much plastic – it’s a pleasure to find one we can easily love. We like the Galaxy S6 so much so that we would buy one with our own money if the need arose. We would complain about the battery life, its lack of waterproof-ness and some

of the software but we love so much of the phone that it’s just not important. Like its new, Gorilla Glass-covered surfaces, the gorgeous metal edging and its truly astounding general performance. This is a phone that takes the idea of upgrading over its predecessor really seriously, and has done a great job of providing many good reasons to

take the plunge. In short; if you like Samsung phones then buy the Galaxy S6, it really is the best one they’ve ever made. If you like Apple phones then this still won’t make you switch because nothing really will. But if you’re on the fence, then this is the phone for you.

DETAILS • Display: 5.1 inch 1 440×2 560 resolution Super AMOLED display (577ppi) • Operating System: Android 5.0.2 • Processor: Samsung Exynos 7420 quad core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 • Memory: 3GB RAM • Storage: 32GB/64GB/128GB non-expandable storage • Battery: 2 550mAh non removable battery • Camera: 16 megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation, 5 megapixel front facing camera • Networking: dual band 802.11 ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, LTE • Dimensions: 143.4mm x 70.5mm x 6.8 mm • Weight: 138g From R8 999

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery Life

Value For Money

Display

Camera

Overall

TURN OVER TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHONES… WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 15

SUPERTEST

HUAWEI ASCEND P7 DETAIL • Display: 5 inch, 1080×1920 resolution full HD IPS LCD display (441 ppi) • Operating System: Android 4.4.2 with Emotion UI 2.3 • Processor: HiSilicon Kirin 910T 1.8GHz quad core processor • Memory: 2GB RAM • Storage: 16GB expandable by up to 64GB with microSD cards • Battery: 2500mAh nonremovable • Camera: 13 megapixel rear, 8 megapixel front-facing • Networking: Dual band 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and LTE R5 999

n isolation, the Ascend P7 is a great phone due in large part to its phenomenal build quality. A lacklustre processor and an irritating Android skin hurt its overall scores, but superb battery life and a very good frontfacing “selfie” camera manage to claw back some of its appeal. It’s what you’d call a very competent Android smartphone, if not a particularly thrilling one. It gets everything right, but nothing excessively so. The closest it comes to a feature that’s worth writing home about is its beautifully thin chassis that uses a lot of metal to make it look like a far more

16 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

expensive phone than it is. It’s incredibly thin at just 6.5mm, and feels really good to hold for one-handed operation. But it’s really the price that wins us over: at more than R3 000 less than the Samsung Galaxy S6 16GB, the Ascend P7 offers one pretty compelling reason to choose it over the competition. There will always be those who want the absolute best and are willing to pay a premium for it, but for those who cannot justify the added expense, the Ascend P7 is perfect as it delivers a great blend of performance, quality and features for a very attractive price.

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery Life

Value For Money

Display

Camera

Overall

SUPERTEST

SONY XPERIA Z3

he Xperia Z3 has us battling to pinpoint the major reason you should not buy one that isn’t “But it’s not a 2015 flagship phone!” The Z3 is the best smartphone Sony has made in years, and it represents enough of an enhancement over the Xperia Z2 in aesthetics to justify its existence. If you’re stuck between the two sizes of the iPhones 6, then the Xperia Z3 may just be the salve to your ache for something in the Goldilocks region between the two. The display, battery life and camera are all fantastic. Especially the battery life, which is in a class of its own. The processor is more than fast enough to keep it chugging along nicely for the next two years until an inevitable upgrade is due. The Xperia Z3 was, when it launched, good enough to win out over almost every other phone we’d seen up to that point. Today, however, it can’t quite match the S6 or iPhone 6 when it comes to performance or features, but its cheaper price due to its relative years goes a long way toward making it a mighty tempting offer indeed. Our only gripe? Despite the robust feel we’ve seen too many that turned out to be fragile.

DETAILS • Display: 5.2 inch, 1 080×1 920 resolution IPS LCD display (441ppi) • Operating System: Android 4.4.4 • Processor: 2.5GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor • Memory: 3GB of RAM • Storage: 16GB expandable by up to 128GB with a microSD card • Battery: 3 100mAh non-replaceable battery • Camera: 20.7 megapixel camera • Networking: 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE • Dimensions: 146mmx72mmx7.3mm • Weight: 152g • Other: IP68 certified dust proof and water-resistant at depths over 1 meter for 30 minutes R6 999

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery Life

Value For Money

Display

Camera

Overall

HOW DOES HTC COMPARE? TURN OVER NOW… WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 17

SUPERTEST

DETAILS • Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 • CPU: Quad core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad core 2 GHz Cortex-A57 • GPU: Adreno 430 • Display: 1080p Super LCD3 Capacitive Touchscreen, 16m colours • RAM: 3GB • Storage: 32GB, expandable via microSD • Operating System: Google Android 5.0.2 • Communications: AC-class WiFi, Bluetooh, GPS, NFC, Infrared Port, MicroUSB with MHL 3.0 TV-out • Network: GSM/LTE/HSPA • Battery: 2 840maH • Cameras: 20.7MP Primary @ 5 376×3 752 with dual-LED flash, 4MP secondary • Audio: Stereo speakers with BoomSound and Dolby tech • Weight: 157g • SIM Format: Nano R9 999

HTC ONE M9

TC has refined what worked so well in the One M8’s design for the One M9, and the result is this very good but not particularly revolutionary phone. It’s a solid upgrade to an already wonderful handset, which will delight owners. What it isn’t, though, is an S6-killer – by most accounts Samsung’s latest is definitely its greatest – but it’s a phone that delivers performance in the S6’s range. It’s slightly more costly, though, which is a problem as you don’t get enough extra for the cash to have us recommending it over the S6. The biggest drawcards the phone has is HTC’s by-now-traditional all-metal chassis

18 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

that has a very pleasant heft to it, and its excellent BoomSound speakers that are brilliant for those times you want to watch a movie without headphones or show off a cool new tune to some mates. If it’s solid design and a stunning camera you’re looking for, the One M9 has plenty of it. The phone itself is very competent when it comes to the important bits like performing well, flying through the interface and running apps and games fluidly, so there’s definitely a place for it among the flagship phones of 2015. Just not quite at the very top of the list.

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery Life

Value For Money

Display

Camera

Overall

SUPERTEST

LG G4

f you’re looking for a phone that delivers where it’s important – camera, screen, general performance – then the G4 is a strong contender for your cash. Its leather backing feels wonderful to touch and lends the G4 an air of sophistication lacking from other phones in the segment. And the fact that the back can be removed for battery replacement and insterting an SD card scores the G4 big points for people who don’t like that the S6 does neither. LG’s strong focus on the camera has resulted in one of the finest smartphone cameras yet made, with plenty of manual options to tweak and explore but also plenty of automatic ones that capture great pictures without much effort required from you. The camera is a little sluggish at times, though,

owing to all the fancy processing it does, and Samsung does a better job of showing an accurate preview of your shots, but overall the G4’s shooter is definitely up there with the best of them. And that screen… it’s razor sharp at 538 pixels per inch and its colours accurate thanks to its eye-watering resolution of 2 560 x 1 440 and LG’s stunning IPS Quantum Display tech. But little gripes with its Optimus UI looking a bit dated as well as its 3 000 mAh battery that should last longer than it does prevent us from recommending the G4 unreservedly as the best flagship phone out there. It’s still very good, and the best LG phone to date, it’s just not top-of-the-class good.

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery Life

Value For Money

Display

Camera

Overall

9 DETAILS

• Display: Display: 5.5 inch 1 440×2 560 resolution IPS Quantum display (538ppi) • Operating System: Android 5.1 • Processor: Snapdragon 808 Dual core 1.82 GHz Cortex-A57 & quad-core 1.44 GHz Cortex-A53 with Adreno 418 • Memory: 3GB RAM • Storage: 32GB with microSD slot (up to 128GB) • Battery: 2 550mAh non removable battery • Camera: 16 MP, 5312 x 2988 pixels, laser autofocus, optical image stabilization, LED flash, 8MP secondary • Networking: dual band 802.11 ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, LTE • Dimensions: 48.9 x 76.1 x 6.3 – 9.8 mm • Weight: 155g R8 999

TURN OVER TO FIND OUT WHICH IS OUR FAVOURITE… 20 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

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SUPERTEST

APPLE IPHONE 6

nce the undisputed leader of the smartphone pack, Apple has lost a lot of ground to its competitors who have innovated their way to much better hardware and software over the last few years. The iPhone 6 is indeed the best iPhone Apple has ever made, and there isn’t a fanboi out there who would not be thrilled

to get one. The iPhone 6 does everything exceptionally well, and while it still suffers from some of the same bugbears that we have had with previous iPhone generations, we can’t deny that it’s easily one of the best smartphones we’ve ever reviewed. That said, if it were our money, we would not be buying an iPhone 6 because of its poor

battery life in comparison to that of the Sony Xperia Z3, which is far superior. We would, however, spend every single day using another phone wishing that Apple would just license the TouchID fingerprint sensor into every piece of technology that is made on earth, because it is simply that fantastic.

DETAILS • Display: 4.7 inch 750×1 334 resolution IPS LCD display (326ppi) • Operating System: iOS 8.1 • Processor: 1.4GHz dual core Apple A8 • Memory: 1GB of RAM • Storage: 16GB/64GB/128GB non expandable storage • Battery: 1 810mAh • Camera: 8 megapixel camera • Networking: dual band 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE • Dimensions: 138.1mmx67mmx6.9mm • Weight: 129g • Other: TouchID fingerprint sensor R9 399

SCORES Design

Performance

Battery Life

Value For Money

Display

Camera

Overall

TOUGH CALL

t’s a good time to be a phone fan, because no matter what you choose you can be assured of getting a fast, good-looking phone with a battery that lasts, at the very least, a full day. But of the phones in our Supertest lineup, there’s a clear winner in the flagship category: Samsung’s Galaxy S6. Not only is it beautiful to look at, it’s the very best Galaxy phone Samsung has released, and a phone with mass appeal. Gone are the plastic finishes that

22 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

kept the S5 from feeling truly highend, replaced by gorgeous Gorilla Glass, and the overall performance of the phone is astounding no matter the task. It truly is a good upgrade over its predecessor even if the S6 isn’t waterproof this time around. If it’s the best of the best you want in a smartphone, get the S6. But even if you choose something else, if it’s on this list a winrar will still be you.

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DETAILS • CPU: Intel Core i3/i5/i7 • RAM: 8GB • Hard drive: 1TB/2TB • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 860M From R10 000

Alienware Alpha A PC-cum-console made for Steam gaming.

alve Software doesn’t make many games these days, but its Steam platform is the facto way of getting PC games from the web onto your PC. It’s plans to take over your living room with console-style PCs running the Linux-based Steam OS haven’t been quite as successful to date – despite an initial release of the operating system a year and a half ago, off-the-shelf Steam Machines aren’t available yet – but that doesn’t change its ultimate ambition. Still, Valve has left PC builders and gamers with many options for accessing their games and playing them back on any screen with Steam Big Picture mode, Steam Streaming and so on. And there is a set of official Valve specifications for Steam Machines. Which is how Dell has managed to brand this little living room PC as one, even though it runs Windows, not the aforementioned Steam OS. The Alienware Alpha comes in three models, each defined by their processors. There is one based on an Intel i3-4130T, another based on an i5-4590T and the flagship is based on an i7-4765T. The processor is the only part that is different between the three models. All of them include 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive (although in some markets the i7 24 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

version comes with a 2TB hard drive) and a custom version of Nvidia’s GTX 860M mobile graphics card with 2GB of dedicated memory. That’s not the beefiest of video cards but it will handle most games at 1 920×1 080. It’s basically a laptop with a beefed up processor and no screen. The Alpha’s hardware components are no doubt important, but the real magic lies in the software. Before you even get to Steam you have to go through Alienware’s Alpha UI which is a controller-friendly interface that allows the user to change some system settings and just generally make sure the system is ready for gaming. Once into Steam the system defaults to Big Picture mode which has been designed with controllers in mind. To highlight that last point it is important to make special mention of Steam’s Daisywheel on-screen keyboard. For the uninitiated, the Daisywheel keyboard uses a much more intuitive design that makes typing out words so simple and elegant. The only sad point about the Daisywheel is that it’s not available on Xbox or PlayStation. In a perfect world the Alienware Alpha is perfect. It’s not obscenely expensive, delivers a decent gaming experience and looks drop dead gorgeous to boot. But

back in the real world you are paying a premium for what is essentially a high laptop without a screen. Ideally it will suit those with a gaming PC or laptop which can be used to stream games from if more grunt is required. The fact that a homebuilt PC running Steam OS can be built for next to nothing does hurt the Alpha’s desirability, but for those who want a sexy package with capable hardware it’s hard to deny that the Alpha ticks both those boxes. So if you are looking to buy a premium Steam machine then the Alienware Alpha should be at the top of your list, but makes sure to get a CouchMaster too, just to enhance your gaming experience. Bit.ly/1G50hYg

SCORES Build quality

Price

Components

Performance

Extras

Overall

REVIEWS

Online video in South Africa Competition is heating up when it comes to streaming video services in the country. Here’s three of the best currently available.

outh Africa has several video streaming services that offer movies and TV shows for your enjoyment that are, for the most part, obtained via the internet. And they’re getting better by the day. Here’s a look at three of the newest and most promising of these VOD services.

for quite a large selection of movies and TV shows, but the real attraction for us is in pay-as-you-go. Most of the prices are competitive with DVD stores or DSTV’s Box Office service, and with free data it’s a no brainer. Go to www.vidi.co.za for more.

VIDI

FrontRow is MTN’s video on demand service that offers movies and series from six major Hollywood studios. The selection is excellent – better than Vidi we think – and you’ll find recently-release movies as well as a good range of TV. You need to subscribe for R179 per month and your data costs aren’t included, but if you’re one of the first 5 000 MTN subscribers to sign up, you’ll get 10GB of free mobile data to use with the service. Non-MTN peeps can sign up as well, and watch TV shows and movies offered through the service using their own internet connections.

Vidi was the first proper Netflix-like service in the country, but it’s soon found itself surrounded by rivals. There are two ways to use it. Firstly, you can pay a subscription and can watch anything from a selection of movies and TV series on any device that has an internet connection. You can buy a subscription that grants you access to Vidi’s main library for 30 days at a time for R149. For newer releases and more popular shows and films, you have to on a permovie or per-episode basis. This can be up to R30 per showing. Subscriptions get over 100 movies, while on-demand viewing is limited to just over 70. The good news is that if you watch over ADSL (as opposed to over a cellular data connection), you won’t even be charged for the data used thanks to some technical wizardry, so you save on bandwidth costs. Worth it?

Definitely. R149 is actually pretty cheap 26 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

MTN FRONTROW

Worth it?

It is for the sheer number of movies and series that are available some of which like Power and Black Sails aren’t available elsewhere here. But FrontRow is pricier than Vidi, and could get expensive when it comes to bandwidth costs. Go to mtnfrontrow.discoverdigital. co.za for more.

ALTECH NODE

Altech Node is a great idea: it brings together home automation and security, on-demand movies and TV series, internet access, video streaming across your network and even lets you play movies, music and images stored on USB drives on your TV. The up-front cost is only slightly pricier than a DSTV Explora, at R1 999 for the Node decoder, but it’s a once-off. On top of that you need to pay a monthly subscription of R299, which gives you access to over 700 hours of movies and TV shows for no more money down. Unfortunately, the TV shows offered by Node are, according to the website, “… older than three years as it only becomes available once its run on television is over”, which is quite disappointing. NODE also offers recently-released movies that can be rented for a small fee – R25 – just like DSTV’s Box Office service. Worth it?

It’s definitely the least bandwidth-intensive VOD option available, but those up-front costs and the age of the TV series on offer are a bit off-putting. Fire up the Node website to read more: www.node.co.za

REVIEWS

DETAILS • Developer: Slightly Mad Studios • Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC From R600

Project CARS Is this South African-developed race game as real as it gets?

on’t ever play Project CARS with a steering wheel. Because if you do it will utterly ruin your life. Or at least that part associated with a bank balance. You’ll see just how superb the simulation experience is, and a mere game controller will no longer cut the mustard. You’ll have to go out and buy the most expensive wheel you can possibly afford. Especially if you’re the kind of gamer who will appreciate the lengths to which the developer, Slightly Mad Studios (SMS), has gone to offer a real racing experience. These small touches are many, and each one matters. For instance, in order to determine tyre pressures in race cars, the developers modelled the road surface temperature at each of the game’s 110 racetracks. The air inside the tyres of a car is affected by the temperature of the tyre – the hotter the tyre, the more the air inside it expands. The more the air expands, the higher the pressure. Higher tyre pressures affect the handling of the car; and warm tyres also stick better. In Project CARS, all of these things matter, and influence how your car handles. In modelling the road surface temperature – to accurately determine a car’s grip levels and handling characteristics – the developers had to take into account the location of the sun and ambient air temperatures. In Project CARS, all of these things matter, and influence how your car handles. In modelling the road surface temperature – to accurately determine a car’s grip levels and handling characteristics – the developers had 28 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

to take into account the location of the sun and ambient air temperatures. This is all in the game, by the way. You can actually set your car’s radiator opening to be too narrow, and the car will overheat. You’re warned about this through fully-functional instrumentation on the dashboard. Now, rather than just guessing the location of the sun, the developers went and recreated the solar system. When you drive at the 24 Hours of Le Mans you will see the actual stars you’ll see if you were standing under that part of the French sky, on that exact date. And if you were at Circuit de Spa Francorchamps, in Belgium, you’d see those stars too. At Spa you’d also be at an altitude of roughly 400 metres, which means the air your engine is sucking in is 4% thinner than it would be at sea level. Unless your car has a turbocharger, which compresses air and can (sort of) compensate for the less-dense air. If you’re an arcade racer, you may not quite appreciate the depth and detail that SMS has gone to, but fear not. You can just drive through and admire the scenery by switching on all the driving aids to keep the car in control and on the road.

TECHNICAL DETAIL

But really, this is one for connoisseurs. The level of technical detail that contributes to the simulation in Project CARS is – as the above examples show – completely astounding. There are many more examples of how SMS has simulated the real-life ecosystems that impact a car’s performance, but what matters

most is that it all works, and makes this one of the best racing simulations to date. Hardcore sim gamers on PC might debate that Assetto Corsa has the edge in some areas, but console gamers can rejoice: not only is this cross-platform, it’s also better than the two fanboy favourites that have, until now, divided the sim racing communities. Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, there’s a new king in town. Car lovers may find less to love in Project CARS than other games, but what is there is truly exquisite. As the lineup of cars increases, and updates smooth over its few rough edges, there will be fewer reasons to not want to play it. Very rarely do real innovations and breakthroughs come to a genre – but Project CARS is this generation’s Gran Turismo. And higher praise there is not. Read an extended version of this review at Bit.ly/1FNo6DW

SCORES Graphics

audio

Controls

Realism

Overall

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GTA V

• Developer: Rockstar • Platform: PC R600

The definitive crime simulator returns to the PC.

o date, the console versions of Grand Theft Auto V have racked up over 43 million sales since the game’s release almost two years ago. So much anticipation greeted the PC version when it finally arrived. PC gamers had been waiting for a long time, too, as Rockstar had continually delayed the game from its initial 2014 release, then to January 2015, then again to March as it worked to incorporate a new Heists mode into the game’s multiplayer that let gamers take on robberies with other live players that would launch across all platforms alongside the PC version of the game. But it was more than just the prospect of Heists that had PC gamers in a frenzy over GTA V: it was the idea that they could finally play the game as its creators had intended. This means high-resolution textures instead of the muddy console ones, and crisp, sharp graphics thanks to the PC version’s ability to run the game on multiple monitors and crazyhigh resolutions, all running at a higher frame rate than the measly 30fps that PlayStations and Xboxes are limted to. The game runs like a dream, it plays brilliantly with a keyboard and mouse and it looks even better than we PC gamers could have hoped thanks to our platform’s superior graphical hardware and all the options they afford us. The single-player, criminals-in-search-oftheir-big-score story is intact: ex-bank-robber Michael, gangsta-from-the-ghetto Franklin

and psychopath Trevor’s saga is as intense and engaging as ever, and even a bit more satisfying to play through again as returning players know what to expect. Except that the new first-person perspective makes it almost feel like a brand-new game entirely.

A SMATTERING OF SATIRE

As with all Grand Theft Autos since Number Three, Number Five pokes fun at American culture. It does this by way of satirical adverts on the radio for cynical products and services, the tongue-in-cheek comments each of the characters make and the ridiculousbut-plausible missions Trevor, Michael and Franklin are sent on. Many of these openly mock what the creators clearly believe are commonly-held prejudices and stereotypes among some portions of the American populace. But you likely don’t care about any of that, and just want to know how cool the multiplayer is. In a word: Very. GTA Online lets you enter the crime world of Los Santos as a newcomer keen on making their fortune as a criminal, starting with small jobs and working their way up the criminal ladder to the point where they’re experienced enough to be recruited as a Crew member on a big heist. When they go right, heists are very, very

cool. Remember how fantastic pulling off The Big One was in the single-player game? Multiplayer heists are the same, but better as you’re pulling off the jobs with friends and strangers rather than scripted accomplices. This, combined with the PC’s incredible graphical power and the resulting gorgeousness of GTA V’s visuals, made for a superb game that PC gamers absolutely have to play, even if they’ve played it before on the other consoles. GTA V PC is the definitive version of Grand Theft Auto V, and thanks to Rockstar’s PCspecific tweaks, is the pinnacle of perfection when it comes to videogame masterpieces, and a lesson on how to port games from console to PC for every other game studio out there. An extended version of this review can be found at Bit.ly/1FNqeM4

SCORES Graphics

Soundtrack

Story

Multiplayer

Heists

Overall

8 WWW.HTXT.CO.ZA | 31

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IN STORE | ONLINE | MOBILE

REVIEWS

5 Memorable mobile games from… a tv network? You may know Adult Swim as the seedy alter ego of Cartoon Network. But did you know it makes games too?

GIANT BOULDER OF DEATH (Android & iOS) nother endless runner game that’s almost identical to Temple Run? No no, this is an endless roller. You play as the titular Giant Boulder, and yes, as it goes on to suggest you will be dealt a bit of death in your endless rolling endeavours. Let gravity take your boulder and guide it by tilting the phone or swiping the screen, and you will roll down the side of tallest mountain, crushing all beneath your spherical cragginess. Fun for a bit of boredom-destroying bedlam before returning to your normal, non-bouldery life. Free with in-app purchases

AMATEUR SURGEON 3: TAG TEAM TRAUMA (Android & iOS) ver wanted to cauterize a wound with a Zippo? Dissect something with a pizza cutter? Operate on a talking crash test dummy that teaches you how to be a surgeon while you operate on it? You may get a few strange looks from onlookers or younger kids, and you should not play before (or after, or during) a meal, but this is definitely something to sink your teeth into. Free with in-app purchases

ROBOT UNICORN ATTACK 2 (Android & iOS) rance through the magical landscape, but instead of stopping to drink from a mystical fjord, smash your robot unicorn horn through the body of a few golems. This game makes up for its somewhat samey endless running gameplay with a vast amount of customising options. You can have the prettiest, sparkliest unicorn with a glowing rainbow trail, or one that resembles what Darth Vader would look like as a unicorn. Free with in-app purchases

CASTLE DOOMBAD FREE-TO-SLAY (Android) lay as the bad guy and set traps to cook the heroes in their armour and then make monsters to eat them, keeping the princess for yourself, so you can… steal her screams? A great premise is let down by very simplistic mechanics and a flat art style. You won’t be playing this for more than a few minutes before putting it down, but the in-game store is worth checking out for the strange bestiary alone. Free with in-app purchases

MAJOR MAYHEM (Android & iOS) modern, mobile, version of the arcade light gun games. Like the light gun games, you need to duck out of cover to fire on the enemies (which are ninjas, of course), and it’s only then that you can take damage. Oh, and they have your girlfriend… naturally. You can also shoot upgrades and try to quell your trigger finger to rescue hostages. Taking out the ninjutsu warriors also rewards you with coins you can use in the armoury for increasing your absurd armour and weapons. Now, if you will excuse us, qw have to use my chicken gun to shoot ninjas while dressed as RoboCop. Free with in-app purchases

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PHOTOGRAPHY

This is the world’s largest photograph ever taken Massive 365 gigapixel picture of Mont Blanc. A thousand megapixels for every day of the year.

hen thinking of the largest photograph in the world, you could be forgiven for thinking about it in a physical manner; that is, the size of a printed image. But a photographer recently set the world record for the largest photo ever taken in terms of pixel density. How big is it? Well, the photo of Mont Blanc (the highest mountain in the Alps) comes in at a massive 365 gigapixels, and was taken by Filippo Blengini with the help of an international team and a number of sponsors. It is about 45 gigapixels bigger

than the previous record. It is the biggest picture taken on earth, as Nasa actually holds the record for the largest picture taken anywhere. In 2014 Nasa released a 681 gigapixel image of the Moon’s surface from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image of Mont Blanc was captured with a Canon EOS 70D, a 400mm lens and a fully automated high precision panand-tilt head made by Claus. “We were brave, crazy and ambitious enough to think about a gigapanoramic

Below is an image of about half of the photo, with a small cable car highlighted a long way away.

picture, to seize every single detail of the mountain,” Blengini explains on the website. “The astonishing majesty of this impressive white giant is too wide to be represented either in words or images. You have to be there to feel it. But now, you can grab that rarefied atmosphere through the highest resolution panorama ever made.” You can view the full image as well as zoom into specific areas on the group’s interactive website with astonishing detail. But if you want a look behind the scenes, check out the video at Bit.ly/1FNmw4Z

And here is the same image zoomed into the same cable car. you go in even closer for more detail if you like.

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REVIEW

DETAILS • Lens system: Fuji X-series

• Sensor: 16Mp X-Trans II • Rear LCD: 3inch, 920k dots

• Dimensions: 118.4×82.8×40.8mm • Max shutter: 1/32 000 • Max ISO: 51 200 R8 999 (Body only)

Fujifilm X-T10 Pint-sized photo perfection.

ou know that feeling when you get something so right? Well, the folks at Fujifilm must be walking around with the biggest of smiles on their faces at the moment because they’ve nailed it. They have managed to produce a camera that does everything the most demanding photographer wants to do and does not cost the earth. The Fujifilm X-T10 is billed as the little brother of the X-T1. Besides its physical footprint, there is nothing little about it. The X-T10 uses the same X-Trans II APS-C sensor and EXR II Processor that has helped its big brother make a serious dent in the market. The electronic viewfinder (EVF) is a 2.36 Million dots OLED with a 0.62x magnification that means it’s slightly smaller than the 0.77x of the Xt-1, but it is possibly the best EVF viewfinder that we’ve ever used.

LAYOUT AND DESIGN

What attracts us to this camera is its simple nononsense design, there is nothing there that you don’t need. While it is similar to the X-T1, the lines are a little harsher and well defined, in the end you have a much cleaner looking camera. The magnesium alloy body comes in either silver or black painted version. The incredibly

small footprint of the X-T10 is a serious plus – it measures just 118.4×82.8×40.8mm which makes it a street photographers dream. On the top plate, you will find three dials. The ISO dial of the X-T1 is gone and is replaced by a mode dial, which makes much more sense to me. On the other side the shutter speed dial and exposure compensation dial remain. On both sides under the mode and shutter dials are the levers for the pop up flash and a lever to switch between full auto SR+ mode and manual mode. There are scroll wheels both on the front and the rear of the camera, in addition to scrolling they can be pressed and assigned custom functions. The XT-10 comes with Fujifilm’s revamped AF system, already loaded on the camera, which was spot on every single time we used it. The superfast zone focus system makes it perfect for those situations when you need to catch a fleeting moment. What’s really impressive, though, is that the light sensitivity of the phase detection has been boosted by an incredible five times. The sensitivity threshold is now only 0.5EV, this has made the world of difference. There is no more focus hunting in low light or backlit conditions, in fact, it is better than most of the high-end cameras that

we have tested, even with the slower 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 lens. The image quality out of the X-T10 is what you would expect. JPEG images are crisp, with fantastic colours, which is just as well. At this stage the camera is so new, the RAW converter software isn’t available yet. But the JPEG engine has great dynamic range and low noise levels. If you are in the market for a camera at the moment, do not buy anything without having a look at the X-T10. Actually, just go buy the X-T10. Bit.ly/1esh3GH

SCORES Design

Handling

Picture quality

Speed

Overall

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HOW TO…

Which SD card should you buy?

Superfast or superlarge? What’s the perfect storage card for your camera or camera phone?

hen it comes to taking photos there are many factors to consider, what camera to buy, what lenses to buy and of course which bag looks the coolest. However, there is

one thing that many photographers don’t consider. Which SD card should you choose? Not all SD cards are created equal — there are different makes, speed classes,

physical sizes, and capacities to consider. This can be daunting for a first-time buyer, so here are all the differences you need to keep in mind when making your decision.

WHAT SPEED DO YOU NEED?

IS SIZE IMPORTANT?

There are four different speed classes — 10, 8, 4, and 2, with 10 being the fastest, and 2 the slowest. They are measured in MB/s or Megabytes per second. Class 2 is fine for point and shoot cameras, where you will be shooting single images every now and then. We would not recommend a Class 2 SD card to anyone who has is serious about his or her photography, though. Classes 4 and 6 are fine for standard definition video recording and JPEG images coming out of most consumer DSLR or mirrorless cameras. If you plan on shooting full HD video or you only shoot on RAW, then a Class 10 card is what you should be looking at. There are two Ultra High Speed (UHS) speed classes; while it might seem like overkill, if you regularly take bursts of photos on a high speed setting – say, faster than 3fps – a faster SD card like this is essential. Any slower, and your memory buffer will over run and your camera stall after a couple of seconds.

There are three types of SD cards available, standard, mini and micro. The last two were designed for mobile devices and not cameras. Most consumer and pro digital cameras that are available today will have a standard SD card slot. There are adapters available that will allow you to plug a smaller SD card into a larger SD card’s form and fit it into the appropriate slot. There’s no real difference between a microSD card in an adaptor and a full sized SD card, except that as microSD cards are smaller they are easier to lose when you switch them. Just like hard drives and USB flash drives, SD cards are available with different amounts of storage capacity. However, this is not the only difference between SD card capacities. Once again, there are three different standards. SD cards are available in Standard SDSC (SD), which are 1MB to 2GB in size, SDHC cards that are 2GB to 32GB in size and lastly SDXC, which allows cards 32GB to 2TB in size. Bit.ly/1esjVmO

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HOW TO…

Sync your contacts

How to keep your address book up to date across Android and iOS

hould you have been using a mobile phone for more than a year, the chances are that you have some contacts that have been saved to your phone’s SIM card and some that are stored in its memory. You’ve almost certainly got some stored in your email account, and then there’s all those pesky messaging apps you downloaded too. And we bet you lost a few contacts when you moved to a new phone too. But did you know there’s a way to ensure that never happens, ever again? And that Google has the answer you need? All you need to do is add your contacts to your Google account and sync it with your phone. That’s it. Next time you add that Google account to any other phone, your contacts should all download from the Gmail cloud. Well, that’s the idea, anyway. Here are the actual steps.

TO SYNC YOUR ANDROID PHONE WITH DESKTOP

1. Log into your Google account from a browser on a PC or Mac. 2. Fire up Google Mail and click on the Gmail button in the top left corner of the screen. 3. Click Contacts from the drop-down menu; this takes you to the contacts that are currently synced with Google. Here, you can add, delete and edit contact information to your heart’s content. Now on your Android smartphone, do the following: 4. Press the Call button, then choose Contacts or simply go looking for its icon in your Apps. It’s also called “People” on some phones. 5. Once there, press the Settings button and choose “Contacts to display”. 6. Select your Google account. This sets your Google contacts as your phone’s contacts.

TO SYNC AN IPHONE WITH THE SAME ACCOUNT

Should you use an iPhone that runs iOS version 7 or later, you can do the same thing by following these steps: 7. Open Settings, then go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars and press on Add Account. 8. Enter your Google account name and password. 9. Be sure that Contacts is set to the “On” position. 10. Now press the Home button and press Contacts; contact info should sync automatically. And there you have it. Follow these steps, and you’ll never have to freak out over missing contacts ever again. Bit.ly/1HJaUzh

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on’t miss any of the most important national and international tech news! Our parent website, htxt.africa, sends out a fact filled email every single day. With over 5 000 subscribers its one of the biggest communities of readers in the country – so don’t miss out, sign up today! Still not convinced? Our email newsletter subscribers also get access to exclusive competitions and offers just for them. And don’t worry – if you don’t like it it’s easy to unsubscribe and we’ll never sell your details on to spammers either! Want to find out more? Point your browser at www.htxt.co.za/emailsignup and fill in the short form there.

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HOW TO…

YOU’LL F IN LINKS TO D THESE A ALL PP BIT.LY/1F S AT NQJPK

Five loadshedding apps to keep you in the loop

Looking to avoid loadshedding? Keep an eye on power outs with these awesome apps.

here are very few people in South Africa who haven’t been affected by loadshedding in some way, shape or

form. Apart from a suburb adjacent to the Union Buildings in Pretoria which has

never had its power intentionally turned off, for the rest of us knowing when the lights will go dark is key to keeping a calm head. We scrubbed the internet to find you a host of loadshedding apps, just so that you can be 99% sure that when your lights

go out, it is actually loadshedding. And of course, ones that will help you plan ahead for when Eskom makes that dreaded announcement.

MYESKOM

LOAD SHED

The official app for Eskom’s electricity status and national power consumption guide, is a pocket-sized version of the website by the same name. It aims to give you regular updates on the latest loadshedding status, a view of the forecasted power status and alerts to switch off appliances. The app itself doesn’t display loadshedding information regarding times and schedules, but it does provide an easy link to the official loadshedding website.

Developed by Devmoco, this loadshedding application makes use of location-based alerts to let you know if there will be loadshedding in your area, as well as crowdsourced outage reports from areas that interest you. The app will also provide you with information from its early-warning system on when loadshedding will hit by means of push notifications.

LOADSHED Loadshed, developed by MADE Agency, aims to take the complication out of understanding your loadshedding schedule with a simple interface focussed on areas that you specify. Currently it covers over 85% of South Africa, but the devs promise that more suburbs are being added every day.

GRIDWATCH Punted as being the most up-to-date loadshedding app, GridWatch is the result of the folks at News24 working really hard to provide people with an alternative to Eskom’s schedule. The app allows you to save a Home and Work location for easy reference when loadshedding is announced. You can also view the week ahead in calendar view or text view, making it easy to see when the darkness will hit and you can plan accordingly.

LOADSHEDDING – NOTIFICATION AND SCHEDULE The name is a bit of a mouthful, but what makes this app great is that it gives you access to load shedding schedules for multiple suburbs or areas. You will also be able to share schedules with

friends and family as well as save periods of loadshedding to your calendar. It currently covers the major areas in South Africa, but more areas are being added regularly.

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HOW TO…

Read y on-boa Get an insight into your car’s engine troubles using your smartphone.

ars are very complicated machines. Under the hood is an engine that harnesses the power of explosions and the computer that controls it. That computer, or Engine Control Unit (ECU), controls the fundamental aspects of the internal combustion engine and depending on the purpose of the car is also responsible for delivering maximum performance or fuel efficiency. The ECU also serves as a means for diagnosing problems. When you take your car to a mechanic’s garage he (or she) will plug a laptop into the car and read the fault codes directly from the ECU. There are different fault codes for the different parts of the car which include the engine and powertrain, the chassis or the internal network. The ECU can be accessed through the on-board diagnostics (OBD) port, which has been a standard feature on motor vehicles since 1996. Modern vehicles either have an OBD-II port or the compatible EOBD port, both of which use a 16-pin interface to access the ECU. Your mechanic is using a laptop with a USB-based OBD scanning tool and some very expensive software, but there are cheaper ways for you to get access to your ECU and achieve more or less the same results. Over and above reading simple error codes, there is quite a bit of fun to be had when you have access to your ECU.

GEAR UP

To read your ECU’s error codes and gain access to real-time data you will need the following: 1. Android smartphone 2. ELM-327 based Bluetooth OBDII/EOBD adapter

44 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

HOW TO…

d your car’s oard diagnostics 3. Torque Pro app (available on the Google Play store) We picked up our ELM-327 based Bluetooth adapter from BidOrBuy.co.za for R250, but because it is a cheap model it has very limited support. It worked on a Hyundai Accent and a Chevolet Spark but not on an Alfa Romeo Guilietta. There are more expensive name brand units on the market such as the OBDLink MX which sells for $99 (R1 200) and promises to be more compatible with the vast array of vehicles on the market today. Buy a cheaper adapter locally first to see if it’s compatible with your car before you import an expensive one.

It is advisable to do some in-depth research when it comes to your car, especially if you drive a European or American one since these vehicles sometime use special protocols that are only supported by more expensive ELM-327 adapters Once you have your OBD-II Bluetooth adapter you will need the Torque Pro app. The app can be purchased from the Google Play store for R53.65. On the Torque Pro store page there is a polite note to beware of cheap ‘clone’ ELM-327 adapters which have limited compatibility, which in the case of this article was ignored, and why it didn’t work in the Alfa Romeo Guilietta we tried it on.

Torque Pro is a feature-rich app that can not only read the error codes from the ECU but also read real-time information such as the RPM, speed and turbo boost status of your engine. So you can leave it plugged in and the phone on your dash while you drive (never handle a smartphone while at the wheel, though). For those interested in speed and power, Torque Pro also includes timers to do 0-100 km/H times and will show you your kilowatt or Horse Power figures while you drive. The main dash of Torque Pro can be customised so that the information displayed is what the user finds most important. Bit.ly/1Q8Hahm

HOW TO DO IT STEP 1

STEP 5

Once you have Torque Pro installed on your phone you will need to turn on your phone’s GPS and Bluetooth radios.

Once your phone is paired start the Torque Pro app. The app will automatically default to the paired OBD-II adapter and will start to communicate with the ECU.

STEP 2

You will need to locate the OBD-II port in your car; it should be quite close to the steering column inside the cockpit, close to your car’s fuse box.

STEP 6

In the Torque Pro menu select Fault Codes then let the app scan your ECU and read all the error codes. You can either clear the error codes or armed with this new information head off to your mechanic and get the problems fixed.

GOING FURTHER Torque Pro has a small community behind it that develops plugins to add extra functionality. One such plugin is called Track Recorder (available on the Google Play store) and allows you to record a video of your track session with an overlay featuring all the information one needs. This means there will be video proof that you were driving at 180km/H down the mineshaft at Kyalami. Just don’t let your insurance see it.

STEP 3

Once you have located the port simply plug in your ELM-327 adapter and turn your ignition into the On position. STEP 4

Start scanning for nearby Bluetooth devices and pair your phone with your OBD-II adapter.

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COMPETITION

WIN!

TC’s award-winning One series of high-end handsets has long been one of our favourite. Last year’s One M8 was a top notch Android phone with a class leading chipset and camera, and this year’s One M9 is even better. Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, the HTC One M9 is both beautifully crafted and as powerful as any other flagship phone while remaining an affordable pride. It looks gorgeous thanks to HTC’s trademark metal exterior, which is a gently

TO ENTER

curved aluminium unibody frame that has rounded corners and a unique “stepped” edge. A 20MP rear-facing camera takes bestin-class photos, while the front facing camera uses HTC’s own Ultrapixel technology for sharp selfies and Skype chats. And to view those pictures you have a super-sharp and colourful 5.0inch screen with full HD resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. Software-wise, the One M9 arrives running the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, Lollipop, and the HTC Sense overlay that keeps you up to date

One lucky reader will get their hands on this NEW flagship phone. Find out how below!

with the latest news and social media posts from friends. Sense can be fully customised with the new HTC Themes app too. That beautiful chassis and the phone’s stellar performance make the One M9 a definite contender for your cash, or your latest upgrade. So who wouldn’t want one for free? Good news, free-phone seekers: we have a single HTC One M9 to give away to one lucky reader.

POINT YOUR BROWSER AT HTXT.CO.ZA/WINAONE9 TO ENTER

All you have to do to enter is answer this really easy question. What chipset does the HTC One M9 use to power its performance? - Qualcomm Gingersnap 7 - Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 - Sweetpotato fries 1000 The closing date is 30th June 2015. See the entry form for T&Cs.

46 | TECH MADE EASY | JUNE 2015

AN HTC ONE M9 ANDROID SMARTPHONE!

makers htxt africa

in association with

World’s cheapest computer hits Kickstarter goal A full computer for under R120? Yes please.

hen your latest project requires a bit more processing power than an Arduino provides then most Makers upgrade to the Raspberry Pi or a BeagleBone Black. Now there is another option. It’s called the C.H.I.P. and it’s being sold as the world’s cheapest general purpose computer. The marketing strategy is similar to what we saw with the Raspberry Pi. A small cheap computer that can be used for web surfing, doing spreadsheets and playing games. Its also pushing the educational angle with pre-loaded development software for students.

C.H.I.P. was launched on Kickstarter, and quickly reached its crowdfunded goal of $50 000 (R592k). An R106 pledge would have got you the C.H.I.P. module with a composite cable. Other options available include the more expensive Pocket C.H.I.P., which adds a 4.3″ touchscreen, mini qwerty keyboard and a five hour battery. Sadly, without a local distributor yet, C.H.I.P. may not be catch on in South Africa yet. Just like the Raspberry Pi you still need to add a display and keyboard. Want to connect it to a VGA or HDMI screen? Then you need to add an adapter

(another R200). Add another R240 for shipping to South Africa and you might as well get a Rasberry Pi 2 locally. Bit.ly/1FCXmpA

MEET THE C.H.I.P. 1GHz Processor 512MB Memory 4GB Flash Storage WiFi, Bluetooth Composite Video, VGA and HDMI (with optional adapters)

Samsung launches R2m maker compo with new Arduino-compatible ARTIK board

orean phone giant Samsung looks like it wants to get in on all the excitement around makers at the moment: it’s announced its own ARM development platform called the ARTIK. What’s encouraging about ARTIK is that, like Intel’s Galilleo development boards, ARTIK is fully Arduino certified. That means that it’s fully programmable from the Arduino IDE. So if your project is still running on your Arduino UNO and it needs more power or better connectivity then this is for you. The smallest module starts with the ARTIK 1 which is only 12x12mm in size, has a 250MHz ARM based Dual Core processor, 1MB RAM and 4MB flash storage on board. It also has a

9-axis motion sensor and Bluetooth for connectivity. Unfortunately these modules aren’t available for sale as yet, but if you have a great project idea then you can apply for their Alpha Developer Program. Samsung is currently running a competition for makers to come up with a product to help prevent water shortage. With more than $200 000 (R2 372 210)up for grabs in cash and prizes you would be crazy not to participate. The ARTIK is in direct competition with the Intel development boards and with all this power under the hood we’re curious to see what awesome projects will emerge from the maker community. Bit.ly/1FCXyW1

STATS

SA tech

The numbers that sum up the best of the month

in stats

The City of Johannesburg has announced plans to put up more than 1 000 free WiFi hotspots as part of its R1.2 billion 2015/16 budget. Bit.ly/1AxOG3E

A 365 gigapixel photo of Mont Blanc (the highest mountain in the Alps) captured with a Canon EOS 70D and a 400mm lens is now the largest photo ever taken on Earth in terms of pixel density.

Bit.ly/1FYwWk7

Only 3 percent of SA startups get funding from angel and venture capital according to the 2015 Seed Academy startup survey. Bit.ly/1e0JtXR Ubisoft announced that it’ll only make future games for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, with the exception of 1 – Just Dance – which itll continue making for

previous gen consoles.

Bit.ly/1G9DRpi 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.

A 22 million rand worth “public awareness campaign” will accompany the 18 to 24 month rollout of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in South Africa. Bit.ly/1Kog5VM The latest MacBooks available in South Africans measure 13.1mm at their thickest point. The most affordable of them costs R18 999 model and is equipped with a 1.1GHz Core M chip and 256GB solid-state hard drive. Bit.ly/1FaC91M

NEXT MONTH

And if you want even more, keep your eyes peeled for issue 17 from 1 July in all good technology retailers.