Busy Months Ahead C
Managing Director Noor Azman Head of Department YK Cheah
hances are, by the time you’re reading this, we’ll either be at COMPUTEX in Taipei, or have already returned from the event. This year seems to be quite a big deal for a number of tech companies, mainly NVIDIA and AMD as they’re looking to wow the crowd with their latest and greatest offerings this year. If you were to ask us, we’re very much interested in seeing what AMD has to show off, especially what with the number of rumours surrounding the Polaris GPU and Zen processor architecture. The month of May also came with a number of interesting stuff, the major one being NVIDIA inviting us to attend their regional event in Bangkok for the announcement of the NVIDIA GTX 1080. The company made quite a number of bold statements regarding the card’s performance, and while we’re inclined to think that quite a fair bit of it is true, we’d still like to put a reference card through its paces first before we gush about how powerful the card is. This month, we’ve got a number of interesting features, and a cover story that should interest those who are paranoid about ‘‘Big Brother” watching over what you’re browsing on the internet. Have you ever been curious if consumer products can actually withstand extreme weather? Or how to ensure that even your older phones can feel new again? Flip the pages to find out. As for the reviews this month, we’ve got quite a number of interesting products in our labs. If you’re looking for a desktop gaming PC, you’re in luck as ASUS, MSI, and Lenovo all sent us a unit of their gaming towers. To complement these behemoths, we’ve got an even larger item in the form of the Philips BDM3450UC 43 inch 4K monitor. To wrap a pretty interesting month off, we also have a DJI Phantom 4 come in for us to play with. We’ve got more of course, but you’re going to have to read on to know what they are.
EDITORIAL Deputy Editor Nazrin Zain Senior Writer Matthew Yap Writer Nixon Ng Contributors Edwin Lee, Christoph Schmidt, James E. Curtis, Caren Stella Geiger, R. Mattgey, Jörg Geiger, Robert Di Marcoberardino, Markus Mandau, Leo Joscha, Fabian von Keudell Design & Layout Halijah Ismail Cover Design Halijah Ismail SALES & MARKETING Senior Manager YK Cheah Consultant Muffadzlee Dato’ Sufian ADMINISTRATION Admin Manager WP Lim ONLINE www.chip.com.my @CHIPMY CHIP Malaysia PUBLISHER Online Dynamics (M) Sdn. Bhd. A-5-07 Block A, Neo Damansara Bandar Damansara Perdana, Jalan PJU 8/1 47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: (03) 7727 6554 Fax: (03) 7727 3554
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Nazrin Zain Deputy Editor
All views expressed in the magazine are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily represent those of CHIP magazine / the publisher. All information in the magazine is provided ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ and CHIP magazine / the publisher makes no representations and gives no warranty of any kind, implied, express or statutory as to the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, non-infringement of 3rd party rights, title, merchantability and / or suitability / fitness for a particular purpose with respect to the said information. Under no circumstances whatsoever shall the CHIP magazine / the publisher be liable for any direct, indirect, special or consequential damages whether in contract or in tort arising out of or in connection with the use of the information made available in CHIP magazine. All prices, product versions and URLs’ are correct at the time of printing.
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COVER STORY NEWS & TRENDS
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072 Surfing Anonymously
Worried about Big Brother watching over your shoulders on the internet? We’ll show you how you can remove traces of your existence on the net
006 Local News
Coverage of the latest news and events right on our shores
038 World Wired Web
All the latest tech happenings around the world
034 Security Reports
Monthly dose of security news
FEATURES
042 Tech Spelunk: NVIDIA GTX 1080 We take a look at what makes NVIDIA’s new high-end GPU tick
052 Welcome To The Machine
What are the chances that we will kneel down to our A.I. overlords in the future?
062 Is Technology Dumbing Us Down? Has modern technology become a crutch for us to perform daily tasks?
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TEST LAB
062 081 Test Lab: The Tools Test Labs’ tools of the trade
082 Test Lab Contents Take a pick and get started!
090 Reviews
Professionally conducted reviews following our stringent tests and benchmarks
LITE & LEISURE
110 Touch
See what people have been funding on the internet!
112 Touch
Looking for music apps to entertain yourself on the move? Look no further!
114 Ratchet & Clank
A classic video game gets a modern upgrade. Ratchet and Clank are back to save the day!
PRACTICE
116 Change Your Background Do the background of your photos look drab? We’ll show you how to shake things up in this tutorial
REGULARS
001 Welcome Note 118 Tips and Tricks
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contents chip download
CHIP Downloads June 2016 We’re back with our monthly dose of interesting, free and handy tools for you to enhance your PC experience. If you want to know how you can get these files, follow the instructions below: 1. Head on our website @ www.chip.com.my and right at the top, click on the “Downloads” tab 2. After that, click on the respective month’s post. You will then be prompted for a password. The password can be found on this page monthly. 3. Navigate using the tabs and pick the categories you want to download the files from. Once you find the file you want, just click on it and you’re good to go! And it’s as easy as that! PASSWORD FOR JUNE 2016 - anonymity
Featured Tools CLIQZ Browser CLIQZ is the first browser with a built-in quick search and a new anti-Tracking technology for better privacy protection. Just by typing a search query into the address bar, CLIQZ will instantly display a selection of website suggestions. These are based on their very own independent search engine, and hitting the Enter key will take you to the alternate search engine of your choice.
AntiBrowserSpy AntiBrowserSpy turns off hidden spy functions of your browsers, cleans traces of your surfing activities, and creates backups for all your browser settings. At a single click you can control all your browser settings and disable hidden espionage features. Its Stealth Mode randomises your UserAgent, so your browser fingerprint cannot be tracked back to you.
eXplorer eXplorer extracts a complete overview of all activities of the user, your search activities are recorded and associated with the Google account that is currently logged into. Activities gathered included, general user data, messages, contacts, google notes, search history, all data from Google Chrome, media files and others.
Essentials
Our list of essentials consists of programs and software such as graphic drivers, browsers, compression software and even Cloud storage software that will improve a PC user’s experience. The links on our website won’t provide you with the files, instead it will lead you to the developers’ official website, where you can find the right file for you. 004
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The Monthly Downloads OpenShot Video Editor Operating system: Windows 7/8/10 You don’t need expensive tools when you want to add a bit of post production to your videos, especially if you aren’t a professional. OpenShoot Video Editor is a freeware which you can use to put the finishing touches on your personal recordings with great results even when its free.
O&O Shutup10 Operating system: Windows 10 O&O Shutup10 gives you full control over which comfort functions under Windows 10 you wish to use, and you decide when the passing on of your data goes too far.
BackUp Maker Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8/10 Backing up your files has always been an important thing to do if you have sensitive data, and with BackUp Maker you can create copies of your most important files quickly, just by clicking the ‘‘Backup” button.
Finance Explorer Operating system: Win Vista/7/8/10 Finance Explorer helps you keep an eye on your finances. Download and import your transactions directly into MLFE, no need to manually enter them and save time and avoid mistakes. Set your financial goals and let its budget feature help you to achieve them, at the same time gaining fine control over your spending and sticking to your budget.
Stand-Bye! Operating system: Windows 7/8/10 Stand-Bye! prevents your computer from switching off automatically when you have important downloads, or backups running in the background. Stand-Bye! can also ensure that your PC doesn’t go into standby mode during a presentation with its ‘‘Active Presenter Mode”.
ScreenBlur Operating system: Win XP/Vista/ 7/8/10 Want a quicker way to unlock your laptop then look no further with ScreenBlur. Unlike the Windows password, ScreenBlur is more efficient as you can directly enter the password into the lockscreen.
Concenturio Operating system: Win XP/Vista/ 7/8/10 If you’re the type of person to forget his/her appointments while your too caught up while working on your PC? With Concenturio you can specify a countdown or time together with a notification tone to remind you when your next appointment is.
Winyl Operating system: Win XP/Vista/ 7/8/10 A no frills music player that’s perfect for netbooks and PC sticks, it supports playback of a wide variety of music files and also provides you with innumerable internet stations to choose from. With brilliant design and an awesome range of features you can enjoy your music even on low performance devices.
GnuPG Operating system: Win XP/Vista/ 7/8/10 The Gnu PrivacyGuard provides powerful encryption for your personal data with the help of various algorithms like DES, Blowfish and Tiger. You may also decrypt files at the command line level.
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LG Brings New Innovation To Digital Signage New range of B2B displays address various needs
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tatic signage are things of the past, according to LG Electronics. The electronics maker has introduced new technologies for commercial displays and in the field of digital signage, which can help improve interest retention and potentially increase turnovers, depending on usage. “LG Electronics’ wide range of screen sizes from 10-inch to 98-inch, coupled with high quality image resolution and industry firsts – including the world’s first OLED digital signage as well as a super-sized 58:9
One of the new OLED signage, which is used to display a train service’s routes
David Oh (left), Managing Director, LG Electronics Malaysia with Brian Yang Regional General Manager, Asia HE B2B Business unveiling LG’s new innovations
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Ultra Stretch signage ratio – allow Malaysian businesses to leverage commercial displays to suit their specific needs,” said David Oh, Managing Director of LG Electronics Malaysia. Oh revealed that the take up rate of digital signage locally has increased significantly, owing to their adoption by quick-service restaurants and the fashion industry. The use of digital signage or commercial displays have certainly been on the rise in recent years. There are many industries that have seen the merits of using them, including retail outlets, educational institutions, or for locations like airports. LG believes that its innovations in this area will help businesses better capture the attention of the people today. One the most interesting products coming out in this category is the company’s new Ultra Stretch signage. The LG Ultra Stretch 86BH5C panel has an unusual aspect ratio of 58:9, and measures at 2,148 mm wide and 335 mm high. It has UHD resolution and uses LG’s Picture-byPicture technology, allowing users to divide the panel into four separate screens’ in either landscape or portrait view. With its aspect ratio and screen dividing feature, the LG 86BH5C has a variety of uses, such as an information display at banks and airports, or as a digital billboard in a retail store to show in-store promotions. LG also boasted of its new OLED digital signage – a world’s first. As we’ve come to expect from LG OLED displays, the commercial version also delivers superior contrast and colour accuracy. A display that is particular interesting is the dual-view display. It can output visuals to both the front and back of the display. A new panel for video walls was also showcased, featuring a super thin bezel of 0.9 mm. When placed side by side, the space between two of the same displays is only 1.8 mm, making it the thinnest in the market at the moment. Thanks to the Image Gap Reduction technology, the LG 55VH7B and VM5B offer greater immersion and a seamless viewing experience. It also has the Video Wall Image Creation technology and uniformed LED backlighting to ensure consistent white balance and brightness across all connected panels. Interested parties can now contact their respective dealers to get hold of the new commercial displays, which have been made available to the Malaysian businesses. However, as these are commercial products, prices have not been publicly announced. www.lg.com
news Connect Wireless Stick enables users to easily share files between multiple devices or even stream content without the hassle of physically connecting them. It also comes with the SanDisk Connect app, which helps users manage the content on it between different iOS or Android devices. Furthermore, the app now supports AirCast and Chromecast, so users can stream content to large displays easily. ‘Other products shown included a new USB Type-C Flash Drive, UHS Class 3 (U3) microSD card, and a higher capacity version of the Dual USB Drive. Used for mostly PCs or compatible mobile devices, the new USB Type-C Flash Drive can be plugged in without worry of which way is up. It supports USB 3.1 standard with transfer Estee Chin, Country Sales Manager for SanDisk Malaysia, with Peter Mah, who is the Regional Director in APAC for SanDisk speeds of 150 MB/s and Corporation showing off SanDisk‘s new mobile storage lineup comes in capacities of 16, 32, 64, or and 128GB. While the new SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II card is designed for devices like drones or action cams, delivering an extremely fast file transfer speed of up to 275 MB/s. It comes in 64 and 128GB versions. Lastly, the simple yet highly popular Ultra Dual USD Drive 3.0 now comes in a 128GB version, allowing Android users of OTG enabled devices to easily store their files and share their files. anDisk recently launched its upgraded will enjoy using our new range of storage Pricing and availability is as follow: series of Mobile Memory Solutions devices.” SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive (available now): (MMS), which are specifically designed Back with a new design, the iXpand Flash RM179 (16GB), RM239 (32GB), RM339 (64GB), to address the needs of mobile users today. Drive can now fit most iPhone casings. It and RM529 (128GB) Present at the launch of the new lineup, allows users to connect it to their iPhone or SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive Peter Mah, who is Regional Director for iPad without the need to remove the casing. (available now): RM49 (16GB), RM69 (32GB), SanDisk APAC, said: ‘‘Keeping in mind the Thanks to the USB 3.0 connector on the RM109 (64GB), RM199 (128GB) growing storage needs of consumers, other end, users can also plug it to a PC or SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II we realised this is the opportune time Mac computer to easily transfer digital files. card (available Q2 2016): RM599 (64GB) and to reinvent our range. Our new offerings An improve app is available for the iXpand, RM1,199 (128GB) give users the luxury of capturing, sharing complete with a more intuitive interface and SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0 128GB and saving loads of data speedily without many useful features, such as password(available now): Price TBC worrying about storage limitations. We encrypting for files or folders, as well backup SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick (available are committed to delivering innovations for files, social media or contacts. now): Price TBC solutions and are hopeful that consumers ‘Now available in a 200GB version, the www.sandisk.com
SanDisk Refreshes Mobile Solutions Offerings The popular iXpand Flash Drive gets an update
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Empower, Engage And Experience With Lenovo Lenovo continues to innovate to provide the ultimate experiences for consumers
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enovo unveiled its latest approach in providing the full range of ultimate user experiences, via its “Empower, Engage and Experience” umbrella themes, across a new range of devices spanning its consumer, commercial and enterprise segments. Lenovo aims to make work more efficient, by delivering smart end-user devices in addition to powerful infrastructure, all with connected services and apps. With the devices launched, Lenovo continues to serve the diverse needs and interest of its key customer segments, while committing to future offerings that will similarly empower, engage and offer unprecedented experience. The first strategic theme will Empower users by providing them with the capabilities for high performance at the core of their businesses, focusing on Security and Reliability. Businesses are being transformed by the continuing evolution in data centers. You have the Lenovo System x3550 M5
1U Rack Server, designed in a dual socket 1U form factor, the System x3550 M5 Rack Server supports Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4, faster energy-efficient TruDDR4 memory, it delivers exceptional performance while sporting a flexible and scalable internal storage configuration. It features up to twelve 2.5-inch or four 3.5-inch drives with a wide selection of drive sizes and types. For the second strategic theme, it will Engage on-the-go customers of every profile, as they demand high performance combined with ultimate portability, and that their devices strike the perfect balance between leading specifications and a form factor that suits a range of situations. Lenovo is committed to expanding on its track record of engineering PCs that lead the innovation trail like the Lenovo ideapad MIIX 700 recognisably different with a unique dual watchband hinge kickstand for those who value stylish design. There’s also the Lenovo Pocket Projector,
a palm-sized mobile accessory that is equally adept at projecting vivid cinematic visuals on-the-go as it is at delivering a truly wireless experience. It can instantly transform an Android, iOS or Windows smartphone or tablet into a personal cinema. Users can also stream movies and photos from external sources using WiFi, DLNA and Miracast, as well as images of their games and apps in big screen format. Their third strategic theme is Experience, an important part of Lenovo’s game plan, by enhancing work and play. Lenovo’s purposedriven innovation certainly has, as one part of its ends goals, the enrichment of contemporary human experience with seamless, powerful access to rich content and applications. Designed for forward thinkers the newly expanded ThinkPad X1 family embodies Lenovo’s Experience theme. There’s the ThinkPad Carbon X1, the ultimate go-anywhere Ultrabook, one of the most refined and elgant notebooks available today. Designed for forward thinkers, the ThinkPad X1 family also includes a number of accessories specifically designed to match, and to enhance the overall user experience. There is also the YOGA 900s, the world’s thinnest Intel Core i convertible laptop at only 12.8mm thin. Recognisably different watchband hinge provides noticeably smoother rotation between its four flexible use modes. www.lenovo.com
The Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon is a blend of style, design and performance all in an incredibly flexible ultrabook
Loh Wai Mun, Consumer Lead, Lenovo Malaysia, Khoo Hung Chuan, Country General Manager, Lenovo Malaysia, Natalie Saw, MNC Account Manager, Intel Malaysia, and Luke Tan, Enterprise Segment Lead, Lenovo Malaysia together with models presenting the latest range of products at the TECH Never Stand Still media showcase
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The Lenovo Wireless Pocket Projector brings your office presentations to almost anywhere
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Cooler Master Case Mod World Series Update #2 We bring you another issue of awesome case mods from the best modders around
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nother month rolls in and we’re back with more from the Case Mod World Series 2016. Once again, we crawled through the forums to find what we felt are some of the coolest case mods around. Take a look at what we found, hope you like them. Our first one this month is an unusual one: a wall mounted mod. Vinay Agrawal’s blackNred Wall Mount is not a case in the traditional sense, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. The entire setup is painted black and is lined with red LED lights to give it a nice contrast. Its base is actually a piece of square wood block of about 5mm thick, with brackets made out of acrylic to hold components in place. The next one is a unique creature, It’s impressive enough looking at it like this, but it truly comes to say the least. David Cathey used to life when the lights are off
This wall mounted style could be mounted next to a large TV and be used as a multimedia PC
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THREE Cooler Master CM Elite 130 cases to build his Gigantea case mod, combining the diminutive mini-ITX casings with various other parts to form a new beast. First, he disassembled all three cases and used the parts to form a ‘spine’ for the mod, then bent that spine into an S shape so that it would look like a centipede rearing up. Add in a coloured water tank and tubes, as well as some LED lights, and we have a sick mod that looks ominous in the dark. Any fans of Battletech, or the Mechwarrior games? If you answered ‘yes’, then you’ll likely enjoy S.PiC’s Battletechstyled custom case, build completely from scratch. With a body built entirely out of wood Project Vulture is made to look like a titanic robot with the same name in the Battletech series. This bipedal case has can swivel its torso, What’s an issue on the Cooler Master Case Mod World Series without featuring the
Pew pew pew! This mech can’t shoot you, but it sure left our jaws dropping
brand’s own MASTER Case 5? Coolone from the Cooler Master’s community forum has made his MASTER Case Pro 5 have Darth Vader’s grim visage sticking out of the side panel. Additionally, the front grill and top panel have been replaced with shiny metal pieces. Case Mod 2016’s closing date is drawing near and we hope to see even more cool mods and builds soon. Remember to look out for our update next issue! mod.coolermaster.com
When the LEDs inside light up, you can almost imagine Vader signature breathing as his red ‘eyes’ glow
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Microsoft Celebrates Surface And Windows 10 Microsoft calls upon influencers to share their experiences with Surface tablets and Windows 10 Earlier in May, Microsoft invited media to celebrate the success of its Surface series device and Windows 10. The Surface devices have recorded a second quarter of sales of one billion dollars, while Windows 10 can now be found running on over 300 million devices globally. To help people learn more about both, Microsoft held a campaign that engaged four local influencers to showcase how the Windows 10 powered Surface Pro 4 can help people become more productive and creative. The four are Lowyat.Net’s Editor, Pang Tun Yau; Chief Commercial Officer of online beauty and wellness centre Bfab.my, Raeesa Sya; Professional DJ, Reuben Samuel; and comic book artist of the Grimm Fairy Tales series, Sheldon Goh.
‘‘Our company mission is to empower every person and every organization to do more – with the right tools like the Surface Pro 4, there are no limits to what you can achieve, and that is what we are looking to accomplish with this campaign,” commented Bruce Howe, General Manager, Consumer Channel Group, Microsoft Malaysia. “People may have seen or heard of tech reviews of the Surface Pro 4, but we know that they also want to see its practicality. And our engagement with Pang Tun Yau, Raeesa Sya, Reuben Samuel and Sheldon Goh does just that – the campaign is a challenge to these individuals – and by extension to all Malaysians – to really explore what they could do with this powerful device.” Each of the Surface influencers shared their experiences on the Surface Pro 4, with
Pang and Raeesa lauding its capacity in aiding their daily work. “The Surface is a mobile, lightweight machine that allows me to work virtually anywhere - and has enough under the hood to do more intensive tasks like photo and video editing when necessary,” said Pang. Sya pointed to the OneNote and Surface Pen combo being her personal favourite features, as she no longer needed multiple Word documents to store her notes. The two more creatively inclined of the four also had good things to say about the Surface Pro 4. Goh praised the device for being useful for drawing up sketches on the go. “Sketching on the Surface feels very natural,” he said. This is because the Surface pen was designed to work with the Surface like pen on paper. Samuel was impressed with how easy it was to use the pen in place of a mouse, citing that it’s more natural and allowed him to do his mixing without a sequencer. “In short, the Surface Pro 4 has really exceeded my expectations,” he said. Microsoft also highlighted how well Windows 10 has done over the year; 300 million active devices across the globe now use it. Howe urged Malaysians to not miss out and take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10, which will expire on 29 July. www.microsoft.com/en-my
The Surface Pro 4 influencers, flanked by Andres Sirel (left), Windows & Devices Business Group Lead at Microsoft Malaysia, and Bruce Howe (right), General Manager, Consumer Channel Group
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ASUS Launches The ASUS ROG GX700 Watercooled Laptop ASUS reveals the world’s first ever water-cooled laptop which uses a docking system to provide the ultimate gaming experience
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SUS’ Republic Of Gamers celebrated their tenth anniversary of excellence, as a brand that consists of only the best of the best, offering the best in hardware engineering, fastest performance, and the most innovating of ideas. The celebration was filled with games and excitement, and the grand reveal of the world’s first liquid-cooled laptop and also a close look at its internals. The ASUS ROG GX700 is the world’s first liquid-cooled laptop that uses a detachable liquid-cooling module to give you enthusiast desktop-grade performance, and ultra-fast speeds even when on the go. With the liquid-cooling dock attached, you can overclock your ROG GX700 to gaming desktop levels of performance, as it easily outperforms other
gaming laptops on the market today. The ROG-exclusive Hydro Overclocking System pumps coolant into the ROG GX700, where it is circulated around heat-generating components, then the coolant heads back to the cooling module where two radiators dissipate the heat. ROG has worked with Cooler Master to create the Mobile 3D Vapor Chamber Thermal System. This ROG-exclusive technology, together with the copper heat pipe, create an efficient cooling system that improves GPU performance by up to 6 percent for smooth and stable gaming. The ROG GX700 features a 17.3inch Full HD IPS display which sports NVIDIA G-SYNC technology for smooth gaming without lag, tearing or stuttering. True to its name as one, if not the best
gaming laptop in the world, the ROG GX700 features a powerhouse of PC components. The laptop runs on an Intel Core i7-6820HK processor, 32GB of RAM and a desktop-grade NVIDIA GeForce GTX980 with 8GB GDDR5 VRAM. For storage, the ROG GX700 uses a pair of M.2 PCIe x4 NVMe 256GB SSD’s. This beast of a machine is the definitive top of the line gaming laptop in the world, and you can get it for RM18,999, a price affordable only for the most hardcore of gamers The GX700 wasn’t the only reveal at the event. ASUS’ ROG GT51 Iron-Man inspired gaming desktop also made an appearance. Powered by Intel’s latest Intel Core i7-6700K processor and up to two NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X graphics cards in SLI, the ROG GT51 also sports a USB 3.1 Type-C port on the front panel for faster transfer speeds without the hassle of connecting to the back of the PC. The ROG GT51 also comes with an NFC-based wristband which allows you to perform special commands with a quick wave, such as overclocking and to unlock the secret “ASUS Shadow Drive” a special partition of the hard drive where you can lock away those compromising files you might not want others to find. https://www.asus.com/my/rog-republic-ofgamers/
A sneak peak at the internals of the GX700 watercooling docking station
From left to right Frank Wang, Product Manager of ASUS Malaysia, Karen Chow, Telco Head of Intel Malaysia and Singapore MNC, Li Huai Pin, Head of ASUS Consumer Products, and Evan Wong, Thermal Designer for ASUS Taiwan at the launch of the GX700
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The Iron-Man themed ASUS ROG GT51 made an appaearance at the tenth anniversary of the Republic of Gamers
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Eye-Tracking Technology And Desktop Gaming With MSI Innovating the gaming scene with eye-tracking technology MSI shows there’s more than just a mouse and keyboard when it comes to gaming
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ast year, MSI partnered with Tobii tech, the global leader in eye-tracking technology, to integrate eye-tracking function into its MSI GT72S gaming laptop. With this technology, the GT72S offers deeper game immersion and the most realistic experience available. Now that the technology is ready, MSI showcases the GT72S Dominator Pro G Tobii gaming notebook for the first time in Malaysia and allowed visitors to experience the eyetracking technology. The GT72S Dominator Pro G Tobii is
powered by a sixth generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor and a GTX980M 8GB graphics card, featuring G-SYNC technology. The highlight of the notebook is definitely its eye-tracking technology with Tobii, although only supporting a short list of games at the moment, during the event they demonstrated Tobii using Tom Clancy’s : The Division played by professional female gamer Christina XiaoTing. At the event MSI also revealed
their desktop gaming redefining MSI Vortex G65 6QF SLI. The Vortex is powered by an Intel Core i7-6700K processor, which allows for higher performance through overclocking. It not only sports a powerful processor, the Vortex features 2-way GTX980 SLI and with everything combined, the Vortex achieves a 3DMark 11 score of P21,000 when in SLI mode. What makes the MSI Vortex G65 6QF SLI even more impressive is that all that performance is fitted into a 6.5L casing. You can look forward to getting the MSI Vortex G65 6QF, on release, it’s priced at RM18,999 while the GT72S Dominator Pro G Tobii is priced at RM12,999. https://my.msi.com/
The MSI Vortex 6QF can support up to 6 monitors with no problems
Henry, Director of MSI Notebook Sales & Marketing (second from left) and Sameer Tupaki, Head of Marketing of Malaysia and Singapore Intel (third from right) together with VIPs and celebrities during the launch
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Praising Uncharted Heroes Malaysian studio Passion Republic are unsung heroes in the completion of several AAA video games
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ith Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4 gaining massive plaudits amongst gaming media, and with the much-anticipated launch coming just around the corner, Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, Director of Creative Content and Technologies of MDEC and the company recently sprang a surprise on the local media as they invited us out to lunch to talk about how a Malaysian digital studio helped Naughty Dog out of a bit of a sticky situation. Many of you may not have heard of Passion Republic, but this Puchong-based studio has made a name for itself over the past couple of years creating art assets, including characters and structures, as well as even help animate cutscenes for a number of AAA game titles such as Mortal Kombat X, the PlayStation 4 exclusive The Order 1886 and Dark Souls 3.
Naughty Dog’s delay of Uncharted 4 had not gone unnoticed, as it happened quite a number of times towards the expected date of release of the game. Initially slated to be launched in March, Naughty Dog announced that the release date had to be pushed back to April 26th for reasons unknown, and then pushed back some more to May 10th due to supply issues, as the company was not able to cope with the amount of preorders. The veil was taken off last Friday as we sat down with MDeC and Passion Republic, as we found out from the company owner himself, Ng Aik Sern, President and Founder of Passion Republic that Naughty Dog had approached the company, after seeing their impressive portfolio to help out with creating art assets for the game. ‘‘Late last year, we received an e-mail from
Naughty Dog requesting that they helped us out with creating some in-game assets like treasures and such. The catch? We have six weeks to get it all done” said Sern. This proved a monumental task for the team of artists at Passion Republic as creating the assets in such a limited amount of time wasn’t the only hurdle, but it was also the software and methodology that they had to learn and familiarise themselves with in order to create these assets and put it in the pipeline for the people at Naughty Dog to look at. According to Sern, Naughty Dog was very attentive in this regard as they sent tutorials and manuals for the artists at Passion Republic to watch, and were always there whenever they had things that needed further clarification. Despite the tight deadline given to Passion Republic, the team managed to get back to Naughty Dog in time, and the American video game studio was more than impressed with the work that was given to them, despite the deadline given. Sern was also very coy about mentioning anything beyond working on Uncharted 4 with Naughty Dog. www.passionrepublic.com
The team at Passion Republic, responsible for world, asset and character creation for a number of AAA game titles, including Mortal Kombat X, The Order 1886 and most recently, Naughty Dog‘s Uncharted 4
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Huawei P9 Series Now Available Locally New P9 features dual-lens camera made with help from Leica
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lipping after the heels of the Mate 8, Huawei has launched its latest flagship smartphones – the P9 series. New innovations in mobile devices has been scarce this year, but Huawei has changed that with the introduction of the new series. They come with Leica certified lenses and are a result of a long-term partnership that was signed earlier this year. The Leica certification doesn’t equate to them being made by Leica, but certainly indicates quality in creation thanks to the collaboration. This is particular in the optical design, imaging quality, image data processing, optimisation, and the mechanical construction of the camera for the phones. The Huawei P9 and P9 Plus, in particular, will have a dual-lens feature, which delivers
more light to the sensor and produce better photos. Huawei has identified the need of a good camera on mobile devices, because consumers want it. According Luke Au, Southern Pacific Handset Product Marketing Director at Huawei: ‘‘With more than 90%
MSI Stays Ahead Of The VR Curve New VR-ready notebooks have been developed
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irtual reality is the biggest buzz term of the year and the gaming industry is scrambling, with brands trying to one up each other to come out on top. MSI seems to have gained a significant lead thanks to the company’s foresight in setting up a VR lab in early 2015. This lab aimed to start work with other major VR players in the industry to develop new notebooks that are optimised for VR. new gaming notebook design and development programs solely for the optimization for VR devices. Through this lab, detailed tests will be conducted and its results will be publically announced. MSI has stated its intention to continue to keep this lead and stay at the front of the VR scene. MSI now boasts the world’s first VR-ready notebooks – the Gaming GT72S Dominator Pro and Workstation WT72. Both have the high-end hardware that allows
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it to run VR smoothly and are therefore ready to support the VR hardware set to launch for the PC, such as HTC’s highly anticipated Vive. Despite being the most demanding VR device at the moment, MSI has worked closely with HTC to ensure that its two laptops will be able to support the HTC Vive.
of consumers identifying cameras as key purchase factor, it is no longer about taking photos. The P9 delivers on the sophisticated needs of consumers in capturing moments and improving the lives of their loves ones.” The P9 series has been made available locally, and can be purchased at authorised resellers or online at vmall.my. Currently, the P9 Plus is not yet available, but Huawei the P9 can now be pre-ordered for RM2,099. The P9 will come in three colours: Prestige Gold, Titanium Grey and Mystic Silver. Later on, Huawei will also make the P9 Lite - a mid-range version of the P9 – available for a retail price RM1,099. consumer.huawei.com/
Other than HTC’s upcoming VR device, the two laptops has also become to be certified VR-ready notebook by Intel. The CPUs used to power the machines will combine with the high-end GPUs to optimise the user’s VR experience. vr.msi.com.
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Transcend Announces Availability Of SSD220S
Transcend announces their offerings for a high performance, high durability and low power consumption SSD at an attractive price point
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ranscend Information, Inc., a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products has recently announced the availability of its high-performance solid-state drive for system builders looking to speed-up their system boot-up times and application start-up. The Transcend SSD220S SSD delivers uncompromising performance, higher durability, and lower power consumption, all at an attractive price point. The SSD220S SSD is rated for 550MB/s transfer speeds guaranteeing snappy boot-up times and applications load in a flash so you don’t need to wait to get things done. Featuring a DDR3 DRAM cache which provides incredible
4K random read and write performance up to 330MB/s, it’s the perfect boot and application drive replacement. Experience a more responsive system that reacts quickly to your actions so you don’t need to wait to perform another action. Peak speeds of 550MB/s read and 450MB/s write are achieved via advanced firmware algorithms, high-quality flash chips and SLC caching technology. Transcend guarantees long operating life and the ability to optimise itself for long-term usage via built-in technologies to improve the drive as wear sets in. Transcend engineers the
Cooler Master Reveals The New Sentinel III
This gaming mouse features a OLED display on it
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ooler Master has made its new Sentinel III gaming mouse available in Malaysia. This mouse promises to provide superior comfort for gamers who favour a palm grip style and will have customisable RGB lighting. ‘‘Designed for right-handed palm grip players, the Sentinel III includes a new sensor and expanded on-board memory,” said Leo Cheng, Product Manager at Cooler Master. ‘‘The new and improved OLED display also allows you to rename your profiles, show your exact DPI settings, and upload custom logos. This is the first step in making the Sentinel III truly yours.” The Sentinel III has a slightly larger body compared to many gaming mice. Its two rests for the users’ thumb and pinky is a welcome addition for those who use a palm-grip. This
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mouse can last long, because it comes a UV matte coating that will not peel or wear off easily. Its buttons are robust too – Cooler Master said that each button has a rated lifetime of 20 million clicks. Furthermore, the Sentinel III supports weight tuning, with five 4.5g disks inside that can be used to customise the weight and balance of the mouse. Housing an Avago 3988 sensor, the Sentinel III is highly accurate and has a maximum DPI setting of 6400. Users can also switch the DPI settings on-the-fly via the DPI up and down buttons. Besides that, the
SSD220S with a RAID engine and low-density parity check coding to keep data secure. While internal wear-levelling technology ensures data integrity during transmission, improving and prolonging lifespan. The Transcend SSD220S is a quick and easy way to improve productivity in both your desktop and notebook. At only 6.8mm and weighing at 58g, it fits most modern notebooks and replaces the heavier traditional hard drive providing faster application loading times and start-up speeds as well as dropping power consumption to help improve battery life. http://my.transcend-info.com
software combines with the on-board 32-bit ARM processor and 512KB memory, allowing users to save up to five macro profiles and all sorts of complex macros. In addition, with the ‘Storm TactiX’ feature users can set secondary functions to any button on the mouse, which can be activated while gaming just by holding the ‘TX’ button. Essentially, this allows the users to increase the button count of the mouse up to 15. One of the most unique features of the Sentinel III is its OLED display, which can output 16.8 million colours. Combined with the software, users can upload custom logos to be displayed on it, or name their profiles for easier recognition during use. Thanks to the display, the users will be able to know what settings are in use just by looking at it. www.coolermaster.com
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Intel Announces Extreme Processors For Gamers And Content Creators The most powerful processors to date uses the X99 chipset and is designed for the extreme need of gamers and content creators
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ntel has announced their most powerful processors to date with their Broadwell-E processors also known as Intel Core i7 Extreme. At the helm we have the flagship model the Intel i7-6950X which is Intel’s first ever 10-core desktop processor and sports up to 20 threads. It will also feature Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0, 4 channel DDR42400 memory support, 25MB of Intel Smart Cache, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology and Intel Ready Mode Technology.
The Intel i7-6950X has a base clock of 3.0GHz and has a boost clock of up to 3.5GHz. The rest of the line such as the i7-6900K has a base clock of 3.2GHz and turbo clock of up to 3.7GHz but only comes with 20MB of Intel Smart Cache. The i7-6850K has a based clock of 3.6GHz while a turbo clock of up to 3.8GHz and 15MB of Intel Smart Cache. Finally there’s the i7-6800K with a base clock of 3.4GHz and up to 3.6GHz of turbo clock and 15MB of Intel Smart Cache.
All four processors uses the LGA 2011-v3 socket which is supported by the X99 chipset so if you were using an X99 chipset motherboard previously, you won’t have to worry about compatibility issues. The processors comes in a new packaging in the form of a black box and gold font to let it stand out as the processors for those gamers and content creators with extreme needs. The processors are priced as following, the i7-6950K is priced at USD1569(RM6,443), i7-6900K at USD999(RM4,102), i7-6850K at USD587(RM2,410) and the i7-6800K at USD412(RM1,692). www.intel.com
ZTE Launches Blade v7 Series In Malaysia The Blade V7 Lite and V7 Max are now available
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alaysians are spoiled for choices when it comes to smartphones these days and ZTE is about to add more to the plethora of metal unibody smartphones on the market. First announced in this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Blade V7 series has made its way to Malaysia. ZTE has officially introduced two wallet-friendly models of this new series of smartphone locally, which are the Blade V7 Lite and Blade V7 Max. Danny Chan, Malaysia Channel Director for ZTE Devices Group SEA region, was present at the launch event and said: “With affordable quality as our utmost priority, ZTE created models with ranging specifications in recognition of the varying consumer demand and budget. These two smartphones cater to the needs of every consumer segment, from students to working professionals.” The Blade V7 Lite is aimed at the
mainstream mid-range marketing. This highly affordable smartphone is powered by MediaTek’s MTK6735P processor, a quad-core processor running at 1.3 GHz, as well as 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage. Available immediately for RM669, the Blade V7 Lite has a fingerprint sensor, a feature that is usually seen only on premium high-end smartphones. In addition, the 5-inch device sports a modest 1280x720 resolution display, as well as a 13-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front shooter with dual flash. As for the Blade V7 Max, it is a more powerful model with housing the MediaTek MT6755M chip. Inside is a 1.8GHz octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Like its Lite sibling, the V7 Max has a fingerprint sensor at the back. However, it’s a larger device at 5.5-inch and its display has a resolution of 1920x1080. The camera specs are also slightly different, with a 16-megapixel
A close up of the Blade V7 Lite
primary camera at the rear and a 6-megapixel front camera featuring an optical glass lens. Despite beefier specifications and features, ZTE will be selling this model at an attractive price point – RM999. It will be available in late Q2 2016. In conjunction with the Blade V7 series launch, ZTE also had a promotional event at ZTE’s Concept Kiosk in Low Yat Plaza on 15 May 2016. Early birds got to purchase the new Blade V7 at half the price. ztedevices.com.my/
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Immerse In Live-like Viewing Experience With BenQ Enjoy the upcoming Euro 2016 matches with BenQ’s top-of-the-line projectors
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enQ recently introduced two new DLP projectors – the W2000 and the W3000 Rec. 709. Both come with the Rec. 709 HDTV standard and promise incredible colour reproduction and video quality. When it comes to projectors, short-throw is a great feature to have and the two new projectors excel in this. At a 2.5 metre distance, the W2000 and W3000 can output a display of 100-inch at 1080p. As mentioned, the two DLP projectors are Rec. 709 HDTV compliant. According to the standard, compliant displays can produce the most accurate of colours for HD content. BenQ believes that both features combined would deliver a great viewing
experience for those who like to watch football matches. Besides the image quality, the BenQ W2000 and W3000 have excellent sound quality as well. Thanks to the resonant sound chambers and the BenQ CinemaMaster Audio Enhancer, both projectors can deliver booster treble and bass levels for a superior stereo sound. BenQ boast that with it, users will feel like they are in a real football stadium with the crowd cheering. Another useful feature is the Vertical Lens Shift. It helps during installation of the projector and users do
not wish to move its physical placement, as the output visual can be shifted up or downwards without affecting the quality. Along with the 2D keystone available, users have the flexibility to place the projectors where they want without compromising on visual quality. As an added bonus, BenQ has also made available an optional Wireless Full HD kit that will help in reducing cable mess. It allows users to stream even uncompressed 1080p 3D content to the projector. The kit’s four antennas are able to extend coverage to a maximum of 30 metres. Even if there are walls in the way, the Dynamic Frequency Selection will switch channels to prevent signal loss. This makes the kit a valuable option in larger homes. www.benq.com
U Mobile Offers Free Video Streaming Customers can now watch unlimited video on their mobile devices
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he string of new services continues for U Mobile, with the telco company unveiling a new video streaming service. Called ‘Video-Onz’, the new service offers free and unlimited video streaming, all day long. U Mobile has leverage the content of its content partners, making a whole slew of interesting content available to its customers at no extra cost. With Video-Onz, customers no longer have to use their data to stream anything from YouTube, HyppTV Everywhere, Viu, iflix, Youku Tudou, Astro on the Go, tonton, Eros Now, Herotalkies, ONFM and Pocketimes. In addition, U Mobile customers can also watch a variety of shows in different languages, such as Malay, English, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, Hindi and Bengali. According to Jasmine Lee, Chief Marketing Officer of U Mobile, the telco experienced a significant increase in data usage for video
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streaming since launching its free off-peak video streaming promotion. She pointed out that about 45 per cent of the telco’s data traffic stems from video streaming, a clear indication of how a large portion of U Mobile’s customers use data. In order to provide these customers with an even greater video streaming experience, Video-Onz was born. ‘‘We are a data centric telco, one that is always looking at ways to provide the best value and the best data experience to our customers. After months of planning and working with our valued partners, we are delighted to present Video-Onz to our customers. No customer will be able to resist the lure of streaming now that they can stream all their favourite content for free without using their data. It is a win-win for our partners and U Mobile. We make our customers happy and our partners get to share their wonderful content
with our customers, who are keen to stream 24 hours every day.” Currently, U Mobile’s plan is to give P70, i90 and i30 U postpaid plan users free unlimited streaming of Video-Onz. This means that they can stream as much as they want without sacrificing their monthly data quota. As for customers who are using U Mobile’s other postpaid or broadband plans, U Mobile will be giving an extra 100% of their current data cap just for the Video-Onz service. Pre-paid users will also get to a similar benefit to the latter, with customers of the UMI and MB plans set to receive 100% extra data applicable to the Video-Onz service. In addition, UMI customers will receive another 1GB of data, with the promotion available till 30 June 2016. u.com.my
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Digi Announces Internet Sharing Service Between Supplementary Lines Digi knows sharing is caring and shows it off with the introduction of their Internet Sharing feature
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igi has just announced its new Internet Sharing feature for the recently launched new Digi Postpaid plans that makes it easier to share internet quota with up to six supplementary lines. The new Digi Postpaid Internet Sharing feature is not only easy to start with any Postpaid plan but also easy to use for managing accounts and topping up Internet quota for family members, offering a seamless Internet experience and even unlimited calls. Apart from family members, customers also get to choose to share Internet quota for their devices at any time. Using the MyDigi
app, customers can begin sharing Internet quota with supplementary lines easily. The new plan is coupled with other key features such as unlimited social messaging with WhatsApp and WeChat, access to the best apps and digital services such as unlimited music streaming with Digi Music Freedom, a one-year subscription to iflix and 100GB of cloud storage on Capture. ‘‘Sharing and managing Internet quota has never been easier with the introduction of the new Digi Postpaid plan. We know it matters in the way our customers use the internet and we want to ensure that they have the best options
Loh Keh Jiat, Digi’s Chief Marketing Officer(right) and Praveen Rajan Nadarajan, Digi’s Head of Postpaid & Digital Services(left) posing for a photo op session at the unveiling
tailored for them and their loved ones. Digi customers have the ability to have more control over their call and Internet plans via the MyDigi app which is available on Android and iOS platforms,” said Loh Keh Jiat, Chief Marketing Officer, Digi. These features are all supported on Malaysia’ widest 4G LTE network which now covers 73 percent of the population in 153 major cities and towns, while 33 percent are enjoying Digi’s 4G LTE-Advanced services. Customers who sign up for the new plan will also enjoy consistent high-speed Internet access while remaining future-ready for Digi’s latest innovative offerings in LTE-Advanced, Voice-over-LTE and Voice-over-WiFi. www.digi.my/sharing
Monash University Wins Eco-friendly Themed Competition Team Prometheus takes the prize with an unconventional air-conditioning unit
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chneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and automation, has presented the Malaysian winner of the annual “Go Green in the City” University Challenge. The annual competition challenges students to come up with an innovative and deployable idea for efficient and sustainable energy management that also takes the environment into consideration. This year, the theme for the challenge is ‘Smart Cities’ where students must submit their proposals on five different topics. Sustainability and Inclusivity, Ecodistrict MicroGrid, Equipment Recycling, Low Tech Development and Going Green. The proposals are judged based on
innovation from the business perspective, environmental impact, energy management perspective, the feasibility of the idea and the knowledge of Schneider Electric’s products. The champions, Team Prometheus from Monash University Sunway Campus consists of Tan Jo-Anne and Low Wai Sern, received RM5,000 as prize and the winning trophy as well as a Certificate of Honour for each member. The biggest reward however comes from representing Malaysia at the East Asia Zone finals, competing against Indonesia, Korea, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam on June 10 2016. The winner will have a place at the
international finals at the Schneider Electric headquarters in Paris, which takes place from 19-22 September 2016. Team Prometheus’ winning proposal, titled ‘Solar Power Peltier Cooling Unit’, is an unconventional air-conditioning unit that is embedded in the wall, using solar power and the Peltier effect to create an inverse thermal plate. This creates cool air that is circulated back into the room. The air-cooling unit emits minimal little noise, zero emissions and requires little maintenance. The idea was born when the team desired to reduce the energy demand on the conventional power grid, which is still primarily generated from fossil sources. www.schneider-electric.com/sri
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Free Camera gives you free roam all over your game, but NVIDIA said it differs according to games as developers may put limitations
Nick Stam, Senior Director of Technical Marketing, NVIDIA showing off the NVIDIA GTX 1080 graphics card
NVIDIA On GTX 1080 & VR A round-up of what NVIDIA has shared with us regarding the GTX 1080 and their VR technologies By Nixon Ng
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ot long after the launch of the GTX 1080 in Austin, Texas, NVIDIA invited us down to Bangkok, Thailand to brief us on the latest features that come with their most powerful graphic card to date. But the GTX 1080 wasn’t the only reason we were there as NVIDIA has also been pushing VR technology for awhile. There, we got to see the latest VR technologies they have cooked up for us.
Ansel What can Ansel do for you? Ansel gives you the ability to have free camera in supported games, it
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will pause the game and allow you to fly around the game to take amazing pictures from angles and compositions you never could before without it. You can also add filters and vignettes before taking your snapshots, giving
Capture multiple exposure levels for incredible photos
Ansel captures screenshots in ultra-high resolutions and stitches them together to produce an ultradetailed screenshot ready for print
you almost amazing control over your photos, only limited by your creativity. Ansel also supports EXR for full-spectrum colour capture, enabling you to tweak your camera exposure when post-processing with image editing tools like Adobe Photoshop. Furthermore, Ansel is capable of capturing screenshots at up to 32x higher than your screen resolution. Ansel will take multiple screenshots at high resolutions and stitch them together to create a whole image but with amazing detail. Even when zooming close into the picture you could even read text of a book which you might have found hard to see ingame. You can then choose to use those highquality images as wallpapers, wall prints and posters.
news reverberation. The indirect sound depends on the size, shape, and material properties of the surrounding area. Sounds also interact with different Ansel turns your game into your very own movie scene Audio is a key element when it comes to immersive gaming materials in very different ways such as how tiles reflect a large amount of sound, whereas carpets and curtains absorb a large amount of sound. NVIDIA VRWorks Audio uses ray tracing, a technique used in NVIDIA is able to simulate obstacles and materials to provide you a You can take 360-degree photos with Ansel to view on VR Gear and generating more realistic experience with sound also Google Cardboard with NVIDIA‘s app images in computer graphics to trace the Finally with Ansel you can capture full path of audio propagation 360-degree panoramic screenshots, which can through a virtual scene. then be viewed using VR headsets like the HTC VRWorks Audio simulates the Vive, Oculus Rift, and even simpler ones like propagation of acoustic energy the Google Cardboard. For Google Cardboard through the surrounding users, NVIDIA has released the NVIDIA VR environment. Rays are Viewer so you can view your 360-degree generated to trace the direct screenshots on any supported device. and indirect paths along which NVIDIA VRWorks Audio audio can travel from a source Traditional VR and game audio provides an to the listener, and when these VR requires 450MP/s, vs 60MP/s on traditional computer games which rays encounter requires only 60 to be playable surfaces in the scene, the rays can be absorbed, NVIDIA’s memory designers have been studying reflected, and scattered when the possibilities for a next generation of meeting the material properties memory signaling technology. GDDR5X is the which are associated with the culmination of that effort and is the fastest and surface they are interacting with. most advanced interface standard in history, This is turn allows VRWorks achieving 10Gbps transfer rates. Audio to create indirect sound effects which give the player accurate 3D position of the audio source within information about the size and a virtual environment. In the real-world sound structure of the space they are spreads in many directions and not just in. directly towards a listener, therefore some of that sound will bounce of surfaces and make GDDR5X Memory its way to the user later than the direct sound. Since the introduction of This is called indirect sound, reflected sound, or GDDR5 memory in 2009,
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news for the L2 cache, as a compressed tile. Additionally, it reduces the amount of data transferred between clients such as the Texture Unit and the frame buffer. As a result of The GTX 1080 beats the Titan X in performance and efficiency with ease the improvement in memory compression, the GTX 1080 is able to significantly reduce the number of bytes that have to be fetched from memory per frame. This NVDIA‘s smallest architecture currently also boasts their strongest reduction in performance as well bytes fetched Will blower styled cooling solutions be making a comeback with the compression provides benefits translates to roughly 20 percent additional GTX 1080? such as reduced amount of data effective bandwidth, and when combined with To achieve this high speed operation, a new written out to memory, reduced amount of the GTX 1080’s 10GBps GDDR5X memory, this I/O circuit architecture was needed, and it data transferred from memory to L2 cache. ultimately provides the GTX 1080 with 1.7x required a multi-year development project That effectively provides a capacity increased effective memory bandwidth increase over the incorporating the latest advances in the field. GTX 980. Every aspect of the new design was carefully Simultaneous Multicrafted to meet the exacting standards of high Projection frequency operation. Significant energy Since the early days of 3D efficiency improvement was also attained rendering, the graphics pipeline through a combination of these circuit has been designed with a simple advances. Resulting in the same power assumption that the render consumption but at 43 percent high frequency. target is a single, flat display Additionally, the channel between the GPU die and the memory die had to be designed screen. However, in recent years with great detail. The speed of operation of the advances in display technology interface is determined solely by the speed of have led to many new types of the weakest signal on the bus. Every signal display scenarios that do not fit The GTX 1080 is made to overclock and to reign over all other graphic cards between the GPU and memory die was the classical assumption. VR carefully studied along its entire path, with display systems put a lens attention to channel loss, crosstalk, and between the viewer and the discontinuities that can degrade the signal. In screen, requiring a new type of summary, all these improvements and careful projection that is different from studying not only enabled GDDR5X to perform the standard flat planar at 10GBps, but also provide the benefits for projection that traditional GPUs future products that use GDDR5. support. With Simultaneous MultiEnhance Memory Compression Projection (SMP) and the ability handle multiple tilted or rotated The memory subsystem of the GTX 1080 uses projections at once, Pascal GPUs lossless memory compression techniques to can now support these new reduce DRAM bandwidth demands. The The full specifications that the Pascal architecture is capable of display use cases directly, with bandwidth reduction provided by memory
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With SMP the GTX1080 becomes the card to use when it comes to VR
Matched Shading parameters is to check the sampling rate compared to the sampling rate for the final image. In addition, developers will have the option to use different A graphical view of NVIDIA‘s VR technologies settings; for example one locations of the vertex as viewed could use a setting that is higher in resolution from left and from the right eye. in the centre and undersampled in the The SMP hardware takes care of periphery, to maximise frame rate without picking the right version of the significant visual quality degradation. All in all, vertex and routing it to the the combination of Single Pass Stereo and Lens Matched Shading allows Pascal to appropriate eye. From that point deliver, up to 2x performance improvement for on, the SMP hardware can VR compared to a GPU without support for further apply a number of Simultaneous Multi-Projection. projections to the current primitive, this functionality is important for combining the Single Pass Stereo with Lens Matched Shading.
Lens Matched Shading Leveraging on SMP’s ability to use multiple projection planes for a single viewpoint, it is able to approximate the shape of the lens-distorted projection. This is called Lens Matched Shading, with Lens Matched shading, the A jump from 60FPS to 90FPS when SMP is activated shows the capability of SMP in VR SMP engine subdivides the display region into four quadrants, with each quadrant dramatically improved efficiency. With Pascal’s SMP engine, which supports two separate applying its own projection plane. The projection centres, the GPU can render the two parameters can be adjusted to approximate stereo projections directly in a single rendering the shape of the lens distortion as closely as pass. This SMP capability is know as Single possible. One step in determining the Lens Pass Stereo, with Single Pass Stereo, all the pipeline work, including scene submission, driver and OS scheduling, and geometry processing on the GPU, can be performed only once, which results in substantial performance gains. In Single Pass Stereo Mode, the application runs vertex processing only once, but outputting two positions for The evolution of Display, from the past to the future and maybe beyond each vertex being processed. The two positions represent
Fast Sync Fast Sync is a latency conscious alternative to traditional Vertical Sync (Vsync) that eliminates screen tearing, while allowing the GPU to render unrestrained by the refresh rate to reduce input latency. Using the traditional method of frame rendering, the game engine is responsible for generating the frames that are sent to DirectX. The game engine also calculates animation time and the encoding inside the frame that eventually gets rendered. The draw calls for information and is communicated forward to the NVIDIA driver and the GPU converts them into actual rendering. It is then rendered to the GPU frame buffer before being scanned to the display. But when it comes to Fast Sync, NVIDIA has decoupled the front end of the render pipeline from the backend display hardware. This allows different ways to manipulate the display that can deliver new benefits to gamers. With Fast Sync, there is no flow control. The game engine works as if Vsync is off and because there is no backpressure, input latency is almost as low as with Vsync off. Best of all, there is no tearing because Fast sync chooses which of the rendered frames are scanned to the display. It allows the front of the pipeline to run as fast as it can, and it determines which frames to scan out to the display, while simultaneously preserving entire frames so they are displayed without tearing.
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security report
The First Blackmailing Viruses For Mac Are Doing The Rounds
The BitTorrent client ‘Transmission’ contains one of the first ransomware viruses for Apple computers in the official version
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p until now, blackmailer Trojans, developers of Transmission have released compromised software, the malware first so-called ransomware, only appeared the new version 2.92 of the software. stays quiet for three days before contacting in Windows systems. But this type After users downloaded the its control server via an anonymous gate of malware can now also be found on connection. Subsequently, user data Apple computers. The Trojan KeRanger are encrypted with a 2048-bit RSA encrypts data on OS-X systems and encryption. Moreover, KeRanger demands a ransom of one bitcoin, which remained undiscovered since it uses an is equivalent to around RM1,700, from Apple-approved developer certificate. the victim. The malware was discovered Apple has already responded to this by security researchers at Palo Alto and withdrawn the certificate, which Networks in early May. Criminals have should prevent the Trojan from being succeeded in incorporating the virus installed. into the official version 2.90 of the Updating to the latest version of BitTorrent software Transmission. Transmission will not only ensure that How exactly the attackers have done the Trojan virus is no longer in the this is not yet clear. Experts speculate installation file, but now it will also that the damage-free version was search for and remove any installation replaced with a manipulated one on of KeRanger on your Mac computer. the website. However, whether the The latest anti-virus systems also hackers had direct access to the site is detect the malware. The new version of Transmission 2.92 has integrated a delete not yet confirmed. In the meantime, the function that automatically gets rid of the malware from the system
Data Theft Of The Month TWITTER: 10,000 USERS’ DATA ACCESSIBLE
BARMER HEALTH INSURANCE: ACCESS TO PATIENT RECORDS
Owing to an error in the password recovery feature of Twitter, the data of thousands of users was accessible for 24 hours – including e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. According to Twitter, all users affected were informed of this by e-mail. The service now advises all users to set up a secure password and an additional two-factor authentication.
A journalist at the “Rheinische Post” obtained access to patient records of the medical insurance company in Wuppertal, Barmer GEK. In the re-enacted case of fraud, he called the customer centre of the insurance company and got an address changed. For this he only needed the personal details and insurance policy number. Using the password sent to the new address, he could log into the personal sphere of the customer.
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STAMINUS: CUSTOMER DATA ACCESSIBLE ONLINE The anti-DoS company, Staminus, which protects customers from DoS (Denial of Service) attacks, ironically became a victim of a data attack. The hackers made customer data, such as credit card numbers and log-in data, freely accessible online.
security report
Virus App In The Amazon App Store A Apple’s Mozilla Warns Of TouchID Virus Add-ons Hacked T U All Facebook Users Unsafe T
n unknown has infiltrated an app in Amazon’s app store. The tool Gutscheine.de transforms smartphones into listening bugs by loading commands of a command and control server after it is installed. The app has nothing to do with the portal gutscheine.de. For now, Amazon is still analysing the app.
p until now, the fingerprint sensor of the iPhone was a safe sensor for identification. But it is quite easy to deceive Apple’s TouchID. Everything that the sensor manufacturer Vkansee needs for this is an accurate print form: the target person must first press his finger on a plastic impression material for 5 minutes, e.g. like used by dentists. This will create a particularly detailed copy of the fingerprint. The negative form is filled with Play-Doh clay once it is dried. This impression is then placed on the iPhone sensor – and the device is unlocked.
Danger Barometer Malicious spam emails are on the rise, with Kaspersky reporting over 22 million attempts to infect its users in March 2016.
he Firefox extension YouTube Unblocker is one of the most popular add-ons and Firefox is now warning users about it. According to Firefox, the extension represents a security risk and the browser manufacturer has actively blocked the add-on. The reason for blocking, according to Mozilla, is because the extension downloads a configuration file that changes the browser’s security settings. Apparently, Unblocker can disable the signature check, which has been a standard feature since Firefox 44 and is supposed to ensure that only secure extensions are installed. Then, the YouTube Unblocker installs harmful add-ons.
his February, security researcher Anand Prakash found a gap in Facebook’s password recovery feature, which he could have used to hack into any user account within a couple of hours. The service sends a 6-digit number via SMS, and this number replaces the password temporarily. Facebook usually prevents a Brute Force attack by allowing only 10 attempts. But this feature was disabled via the developer site beta.facebook.com. Prakash was rewarded with about USD15,000 (approx. RM60,000) by the Zuckerberg group for conveying the information about the gap.
Record phishing rate
Good news for Android users
February was a record month for phishing. The rate was higher than any month last year
A latest study by Symantec proves that no new Android virus families were found in February. However, on an average, there are 48 new subvariants of malware per family – every month
High risk
3.750
1 in n mails is a phishing mail
3.000 Medium risk
4
Number of new virus families
3
2.000
2 1
Low risk
1.000
Märch Apr. May June July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. 2015 2016
0
Märch April May June July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. 2015 2016
SOURCE: SYMANTEC
US$100 mil
Number of the Month:
A group of Chinese hackers made it big by robbing the Central Bank of Bangladesh of an estimated 100 million USD (around RM400 million).
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security report
Cybercriminals Similar To Terrorists A
ccording to Trend Micro, cybercriminals aren’t too different from terrorist, at least when it comes to the tools they use to operate. Both types of organisations are reported to rely much on the Deep Web, also known as the Dark Net, to avoid being traced. The underground email services favoured by cybercriminals are now being adopted by terrorist organisations. This includes SIGAINT, RuggedInbox and Mail2Tor, all recommended platforms to keep away from the scrutiny of national securities. While not meant to be used is such a way, cybercriminals and terrorists benefit from the anonymity that’s offered. Trend Micro also cited Telegram as a messaging platform that is widely used by such organisations, due to its strong encryption methods. Of course, cybercriminals and terrorists have differences. Terrorists have been using various platforms on the internet to spread propaganda. The Trend Micro report states that terrorist organisations use file sharing services and even social media to do so, as evident by the ISIS chapter in Malaysia that has communications via Facebook. Aside from that, terrorists have applications that are developed specifically to fit their agenda. Trend Micro has discovered several of such programs, which are capable of encrypting communication and also distribution info among terrorists’ contacts.
IronScales Boasts Reduced Phishing Rate Up To 90% P
hishing has long been a problem for enterprises, but it seems that there is now an effective way to combat it. The phishing mitigation technology provider, IronScales, has announced that it has a new record in threat mitigation speed from its clients and employees. IronScales has achieved this via crowd sourcing, reducing the rate of this cybercrime by building awareness about it and getting its bottom line to proactively prevent phishing attacks. By using an approach that uses games and simulation, employees are trained on how to fight cybercrime and thus drastically reduce the threat. Now, when more than one employee (IronScale used the word ‘pre-qualified’) reports a threat, it will be removed from the mailboxes of everyone within the organisation. According to IronScale’s survey, employees have a 40% click rate on simulated phishing emails. Through the training method, IronScale saw click rates reduced by more than 90%. The company also reported nine times faster detection rates, first reports showing up in less than 1.45 minutes after receipt of the phishing email, and only 12.2 minutes required before the complete elimination of a threat. While website phishing attacks have been reducing as of late, email phishing remains a potent threat, especially spear and whale-phishing attacks. Recently, a study by SANS states that 95% of attacks on enterprise networks are due to successful spear phishing, demonstrating the severity of this threat. Disaster recovery and backup plans are essential, but organisations should also come up with better mitigation methods, such as the training program by IronScale. ‘‘Phishing is an insidious, constant threat to enterprises,” IronScales CEO Eyal Benishti said. ‘‘Organisations need to take a proactive approach to make sure it becomes a far less successful channel of attack,” he added.
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security report
Malicious Spam Emails On The Rise K
aspersky Lab has released its latest Spam and Phishing Report, which indicated that while the number of spam emails are now lower, there are more that are of malicious nature. According to the report, Kaspersky Lab products have stopped over 22 million attempts to infect users through emails in March 2016 alone. In addition, the number of spam emails with malicious attachments in the first quarter of this year is 3.3 times higher than it was in the same period last year. At the same time, there’s a significant increase in ransomware, which usually moves around through emails as infected attachments. In the first quarter this year, the number one ransomware would be the Trojan Locky. Locky has been active for months, distributed through emails in many languages and has hit victims in at least 114 countries. According to Kaspersky Lab, spam is becoming increasingly popular for cybercriminals aiming to make money through their malware. This is caused by the increased security in web browsing, which has reduced the click-through rates for phishing. In fact, popular web browsers mostly have built-in security and anti-phishing tools, making it harder for malware to infect users through websites. Darya Gudkova, who is a Spam Analysis Expert at Kaspersky Lab, is expecting that this growing trend will rise to a dangerous level. “Unfortunately we are seeing our previous predictions about the criminalisation of spam coming true. Fraudsters are using diverse methods to attract user attention, and to make them drop their guard. Spammers are employing a diversity of languages, social engineering methods, different types of malicious attachments, as well as the partial personalization of email text to look more convincing. The fake messages often imitate notifications from wellknown organizations and services,” she said.
Specially Tailored Cyber Threats Becoming Prominent O
ne of the world’s leader in endpoint security, Sophos, has revealed that its SophosLabs research division has noticed a rising trend among cybercriminals. According to the SophosLab report, cybercriminals have begun to create customised spam to target different regions. This is likely to have better results via cultural compatibility. It’s not just about the spam, because the spam could carry malicious software such as ransomware. What’s more, these ransomware will have authentic email notifications, or have counterfeit logos that are localised. This results in higher click-through rate for the ransomeware and thus more profitable for the criminal. ‘‘You have to look harder to spot fake emails from real ones,” said Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at Sophos. “Being aware of the tactics used in your region is becoming an important aspect of security.” The TeslaCrypt ransomware is one that has been customised for locales like the UK, USA, Canada, Singapore and Thailand. With our neighbours to the north and south being targeted, Malaysians should also be wary of this particular category of malware. ‘‘Even money laundering is localised to be more lucrative. Credit card processing can be risky for criminals, so they started using anonymous Internet payment methods to extort money from ransomware victims,” said Wisniewski. ‘‘We have seen cybercrooks using local online cash-equivalent cards and purchasing locations, such as prepaid Green Dot MoneyPak cards from Walgreens in the U.S. and Ukash, which is now paysafecard, from various retail outlets in the U.K.” Besides that, SophosLabs reports that cybercriminals are starting to filter out specific countries from their list of targets. ‘‘Cybercriminals are programming attacks to avoid certain countries or keyboards with a particular language,” said Wisniewski. ‘‘This could be happening for many reasons. Maybe the crooks don’t want attacks anywhere near their launch point to better avoid detection. It could be national pride or perhaps there’s a conspiratorial undertone to create suspicion about a country by omitting it from an attack.”
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world wired web
Surf Safely With Cliqz The new security browser intends to prove that data privacy and big data can also work together
W
Bright And ColourThe First Intensive TV Images Ubuntu Tablet In T The World
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he Spanish electronics manufacturer, BQ, introduced the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition at the Mobile World Congress – the first convergent Ubuntu tablet. This gadget can thus be operated not only in touch mode, but also with a mouse and keyboard like a full-fledged desktop PC. With this model, BQ wants to make multitasking and managing windows easier. The Aquaris M10 is expected to come out in the second quarter; the price of the 10.1-inch tablet is not yet known. Its predecessor, with Android Lollipop as the operating system, cost around 240 euro (approx. RM1,100).
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he new SUHD TV generation of Samsung has been launched with the newly developed Quantum Dot displays and HDR rendering. The 10-bit technology brings the devices of series 7, 8 and 9 an extended colour space with up to a billion colour nuances. The brightness intensity of up to 1000 cd/ m2 is said to ensure brilliant display of HDR video material (High Dynamic Range) with an contrast range. In all the new SUHD TVs, Samsung meets the specifications of the “UHD Premium” logos of the UHD Alliance, which makes high demands with respect to contrast, black levels, colour space, and brightness. The Smart Hub too appears to be improved; thanks to intuitive operation, viewers can access players or apps by VoD providers. The 2016 generation TVs are available in curved and flat designs, and the display sizes range from 43 to 88 inches. Samsung’s UHD Blu-ray player UBD-K8599 plays the appropriate ultra HD resolution, and will be available from April onwards for around 500 euro (approx. RM2,299).
PHOTOS: ISTOCKPHOTO/TOMASSEREDA (SCREEN LANDSCAPE); MANUFACTURER (PRODUCTS)
ith Cliqz, the similarly-named start-up company has released a browser that promises its users anonymity while surfing and is directly going against data collectors like Google, Facebook, etc. According to manufacturers, it already has more than one million users. Cliqz hasn’t completely done away with forwarding data; only secure contents that don’t make the user identifiable is allowed to be transferred. Moreover, users are anonymous. The browser data is processed locally, i.e. on the device of the user, who can delete it whenever he wishes. To get rid of any remaining unsafe data, the browser has put in some interesting features. The recently-programmed search engine will apparently also work independently from Google thanks to its own web index. Similar to Chrome or Firefox, search queries can be typed directly into the address bar. However, while the user is entering his query, Cliqz doesn’t yield any search suggestions with the help of the established search engines, but a handful of selected results right away, which are given out by its own plug-in. It decides according to relevance, i.e. how many users click on what – the more the users, the more accurately Cliqz works. In addition, the start-up has developed a new anti-tracking technology that will grant users more control when surfing. Users can just check the menu bar to see which information one website passes on to another company. These are automatically blocked by Cliqz. This means that personalised advertising isn’t possible. In the future, Cliqz will be funded “by advertisements based on innovative targeting options”, but there aren’t yet any concrete plans regarding monetisation. Cliqz is being developed by more than 90 employees with Firefox as the basis, and is an open source browser like Firefox. This makes the switch for Firefox browser users easy.
world wired web
Fitness Tracker DSLR for By Garmin With Beginners Move IQ T
W
ith vivofit 3, Garmin will launch a new fitness tracker in the second quarter. The gadget, priced at around 120 euro (approx. RM552), is said to have several interesting features. When fully charged, the battery capacity can last one year, and it is water-resistant up to 50 meters. Thanks to the system Move IQ, the wristband can, for the first time, collect and analyse all activity data automatically. Even the new smartwatch vivoactive HR has this feature. For around 270 euro (approx. RM1,242), it also has GPS tracking, heart rate measurement and a floor counter.
he digital single lens reflex camera Canon EOS 1300D is directed at beginners; the “automatic scene recognition” feature will apparently relieve them of all the settings. However, they still offer all semiautomatic and manual modes, which can be used as the user’s understanding of them increases. Furthermore, the EOS 1300D, thanks to dynamic NFC and WLAN, makes it particularly easy to load images on a smartphone and share them over different web services. The Canon SLR will be available from April onwards for approximately RM1,724 for the body or RM2,230 with the 18-55 mm lens
New Displays
U
HD monitors are in vogue in the office and gaming spheres. Unlike the first generation, the new ones are quite practical with IPS panels for better viewing angles, broadband connections for smooth UHD display and delay-free game display. In April, LG announced the 27UD88, which is optimised for Office, image and video editing. It has pre-calibrated sRGB colour representation (over 99 percent sRGB coverage), all the ergonomic adjustment options including pivoting, and an integrated USB-C port, which can be used to charge compatible notebooks. There’s also the LG models 27UD68 and 27UD68P with AMD’s FreeSync technology and image optimisation, delivering greater ingame visibility for gamers. The manufacturer ViewSonic has introduced the XG2700-4K monitor for professional gamers, which is said to stand out thanks to a particularly low input delay. The 27-inch gadget will be available at the end of April for around 750 euro (approx. RM3,449). At 32 inches, the U3277PQU by AOC (estimated to be around RM4,598) is especially large and due to its high brightness and 100-percent sRGB coverage, is also ideal for graphic designers. It can display images from different sources as picture-in-picture or next to one another.
Uber Tests Self-Driving Cars
M
aybe you’ll be able to see a self-driving car in the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania thanks to Uber. The company will be sending out their self-driving car to collect mapping data and testing self-driving capabilities. Pittsburgh was chosen as its test ground as the Advanced Technologies Center run by Uber is located in Pittsburgh as well. The car is a Ford Fusion Hybrid and is equipped with radars, lasers and cameras, and will be collecting mapping data as well as testing real-world traffic reactions on public roads. Ridehailing companies believe that self-driving cars are the future, with multiple manufacturers putting out countless of trials and tests in a race to develop the cars of the future.
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BIOSTAR Announces Braswell Refresh Motherboard
Biostar announces a motherboard with an on-board Braswell processor and other great features
B
IOSTAR has announced a small yet powerful motherboard, this motherboard features an integrated Intel Braswell Refresh SoC processor. Featuring the Celeron J3160 quad-core processor that has a clock speed of 1.6GHz and a turbo clock of up to 2.24GHz, the motherboard can deliver amazing performance from a SoC-based system. The latest generation of Intel’s HD graphics can be found in the J3160MD and features performance improvements over last-gen Intel IGPs, giving the board excellent performance and support to play 4K UltraHD content and delivering a stunning
multimedia experience from a small package. It also supports only 2 DIMMs of DDR3L 1600/1066MHz, up to a maximum capacity of 16GB. The motherboard supports both VGA and DVI display output and USB 3.0. Among other features the board sports Charger Booster, a technology that lets you charge your Apple devices faster than most devices, giving a more efficient and quicker charge when you connect an Apple device to a BIOSTAR motherboard. There’s also BIO-Remote2 that allows you to control your system remotely via your mobile
AC Router With Display And Smart Home Control
A
touch display and direct connection of smart home devices are features of the TP-Link SR20. Its display allows users to change the settings and directly control the device. To operate smart home devices, it uses common wireless standards, as well as ZigBee and Z-Wave, allowing it to act as a hub. Furthermore, this router supports Wireless-AC and Wireless-N, offering speeds of up to 1300 MBit/s. It can also support NAS via the USB 3.0 port. We’ve been informed that the TP-Link SR20 will be available in June, but its price is yet to be confirmed.
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device, so you can enjoy your home theatre with both Apple and Android to let you control your BIOSTAR equipped PC remotely. Next we have SmartSpeedLAN an application that optimises your network connection and allows for full control on how to handle the traffic from your PC. You can specify which applications get priority of your network connection giving you increased efficiency in maintaining a smooth experience when gaming or streaming. http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/ introduction.php?S_ID=838
A Cheap Gaming Graphics Card
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or roughly 100 euro (approx. RM458) – gamers have no need to spend much to game with the R7 360 Green iCooler OC 2GB by HIS. This 18.2cm long graphics card, along with the Radeon R7 360 features good price-toperformance ratio and comes with DirectX 12 support. The GPU clocks at 1,070 MHz, has 768 Unified Shaders and 2GB of GDDR5 memory, which is connected via a 128 bit interface. It has a DisplayPort, HDMI port and also two DVI interfaces. In addition, its fan runs quiet at 28 db(A) and has a low power consumption of 50 Watts, according to HIS.
world wired web
New AC Routers By D-Link
“Privacy Shield” Has Several Holes
he two WLAN routers DIR-869 and DIR-879 by D-Link will be launched soon. The two routers – as is customary of the manufacturer – are very flamboyantly designed models from the EXO series work according to the fast 802.11 ac standard and reach up to 1300 MBit/s in the 5-GHz range, and up to 600 MBit/s in the 2.4-GHz range. With the help of a switch at the back, both routers can be converted into a range extender to extend a WLAN. The QRS app by D-Link allows it to install the devices comfortably even without a PC. Prices are yet to be confirmed.
he succeeding agreement to the “Safe Harbor” has been declared invalid by the European Court of Justice, as the data of EU citizens are still exposed to access by US intelligence services. The “Privacy Shield” has a total of six instances that need to justify the future mass surveillance. Critics have already announced lawsuits.
T
A Designer PC For The Living Room
A
cer has priced the All-in-One PC Aspire U5-710 at just under 1,000 euro (approx. RM4,581). With its ultra-flat 23.8-inch casing, the gadget should fit in well even in living rooms, the display offers touch operation and full HD resolution, while the Core i5 and i7 CPUs from Intel’s latest Skylake range combine with NVIDIA’s GeForce 940M GPU delivers the performance. As for RAM, it can be expanded up to 16 GB. Apart from an HDMI interface, the PC also has two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, as well as a DVB tuner. The integrated Intel RealSense stereo camera enables gesture control.
T
USB Stick For Type A And Type C Interfaces
W
ith a dual port USB drive, Toshiba ensures smooth data exchange between devices from different generations. The 32 GB stick TransMemory-EX U382 has a type A and type C port. The gap between the interfaces of older devices and hardware can thus be bridged with the new type C port.
What Smartphone Buyers Wish For
N
early two-thirds of mobile phone owners hope their next smartphone has longer battery service life. 36 percent also expect a better-quality built-in camera.
More powerful battery
Better camera
35 %
36 %
63 %
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SOURCE: BITKOM RESEARCH
More storage
PHotos: Hersteller
Larger display
19 %
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tech spelunk
NVIDIA GTX 1080 The GTX 1080 at the time of writing is the most advanced gaming card ever created, and is poised to usher in the next generation of DirectX 12 and Vulkan graphics, power the latest Virtual Reality(VR) headsets, games and applications. Also driving 4K, 5K and HDR displays with incredible fidelity By CHIP Team
SLI HB Bridge Using the new SLI HB Bridge, the GTX 1080’s new SLI interface runs at 650MHz, compared to 400MHz in previous GeForce GPUs using legacy SLI bridges. Older SLI bridges will also get a speed boost when used with Pascal. Specifically, custom bridges that include LED lighting will now operate at up to 650MHz when used with the GTX 1080, taking advantage of Pascal’s higher speed I/O.
GDDR5X The GTX 1080 is the first card in the world to use Micron’s GDDR5X memory, using a 254-bit memory bus, the 1080 packs 8GB of quad data rate GDDR5X at 10Gbps. A new IO circuit architecture was needed and developed to gain significant energy efficiency. With the lower 1.35V GGDR5X standard and new process technologies, GDDR5X is capable of 43 percent higher frequencies.
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Enthusiast Key NVIDIA no longer officially supports 3 or 4 way SLI systems, but don’t get angry just yet. NVIDIA has confirmed that although they will not officially support 3 or 4 way SLI, they are still giving enthusiasts the means to activate it. All you have to do is to get an Enthusiast Key from NVIDIA’s website and load it into your GPUs. NVIDIA has also stated that they would also be working with overclockers and enthusiasts when it comes to 3 or 4 way SLI systems, but it would not be their main priority.
tech spelunk Blower Type Cooling The GTX 1080 Founder’s Edition sports a blower-style cooling design, it is believed that with improvements from the Pascal architecture, the GTX 1080 doesn’t require as much power or cooling as previous generations. Therefore, the blower-style cooler is much more appealing now especially when you won’t be expelling hot air inside your computer like when using a custom cooler design. Also, the GTX 1080 requires only a single 8-pin PCIE power plug to run it, which cements its power efficiency claims.
Ansel Ansel allows you take stunning and exceptional screenshots while freezing time in your game. Roll, zoom and reposition and go where ever you want to with Ansel’s ‘‘Free Camera”. Once you found a composition which you like you can then tweak the feel with post-process filters. Then after you can pick the resolution of your screenshot, together with ‘‘Super Resolution” you can take screenshots at up to 32x your screen resolution for incredibly high resolution and detailed pictures that can be turned into wallpapers and posters.
Pascal Architecture The GTX 1080’s Pascal architecture is the most efficient GPU design ever built. It comprises of 7.2 billion transistors and 2,560 single-precision CUDA Cores. The Pascal architecture incorporates a new 16nm FinFET manufacturing process that allows the chip to be built with more transistors, leading to higher performance and improved power efficiency.
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legaltech
Snapshot of Legal Developments – Q2 of 2016 This marks a new series of articles that I am writing, with the aim of providing you with a snapshot of important news to keep you informed of the significant legal developments in the technology, media and telecommunications sphere in Malaysia on a quarterly basis By Edwin Lee Yong Cieh
Issuance of Compounding Regulations pursuant to the Personal Data Protection Act 2010
parties would be spared the time and expense of court proceedings.
On 15 March 2016, the Commissioner issued the Personal Data Protection (Compounding of Offences) Regulations 2016 (“Compounding Regulations”). The Compounding Regulations provides a list of offences which are prescribed to be “compoundable offences”. For offences which are compoundable, the Commissioner may offer data users an opportunity to pay a monetary penalty (which penalty can be up to half of the maximum fine stipulated in the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (“PDPA”) within the time period stipulated in the offer. If no payment is received within the stipulated period, prosecution for the offence will be instituted against the data user. It is important to note that only some and not all offences under the PDPA and its regulations are compoundable. The issuance of the Compounding Regulations points to the focus of the Commissioner and the Personal Data Protection Department (“PDP Department”) moving to the next phase of implementation of the PDPA, namely investigation and enforcement. Most data users would favour the use of compounds as it is likely to reduce the penalties for not complying with the PDPA significantly, as well as save both the prosecution’s and alleged offender’s time and costs, as
Malaysia to step up cyber security measures in capital market and national defence sectors
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On 21 March 2016, the Securities Commission Malaysia (“SC”) published a consultation paper seeking public feedback on the proposed regulatory framework relating to the management of cyber security risk by capital market participants. The SC recognises that with the increased dependency on information technology and Internet connectivity, there is a need to put in place cyber security policies and procedures to safeguard and protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information systems used by capital market participants. Sound management of cyber security risk has been identified as a critical component to further strengthen the resilience of the Malaysian capital markets. Towards this objective, the SC intends to introduce regulatory requirements to guide the capital market participants to achieve a certain state of cyber security resilience. The SC recommends that the board of directors of capital market participants set a clear direction and give adequate priority in their respective board’s agenda for the effective management of cyber security risk and require their senior management to develop and implement
legaltech appropriate cyber security frameworks (which includes policies, procedures, awareness programmes and risk reporting mechanisms) throughout their organisations. On the defence front, the Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Johari Baharum, during his keynote address at the Cyber Security Conference in conjunction with the 15th Defence Services Asia Exhibition and Conference on 20 April 2016, proposed a threepronged approach to enhance cyber security in Malaysia. The three-pronged approach consists of: (i) reorientation of the design philosophy of the Information Communications Technology (ICT) systems, in particular focusing on cyber defence systems to ensure all computing systems reflect uniform reliance; (ii) establishment of inter-disciplinary centres, specifically on the need to connect academia, the private sector, national laboratories and the government in sharing information and offering innovative and creative solutions; and (iii) getting the military defence and security community to provide ‘‘leadership by example” and “provide support to the national and global efforts in meeting cyber security challenges to the defence and security domains”. The above announcement was made in response to the rising threat of cyber-attacks in Malaysia. Cyber Security Malaysia (a government agency tasked with being Malaysia’s Cyber Security Reference and Specialist Centre) reported that 11,900 cyber security related cases were recorded in 2015, as compared to only 1,038 cases recorded in 2007, which may lead to some legislative reforms to bolster and/or to introduce new legislation that deals with cyber security threats to Malaysia’s critical information infrastructure.
will need to be amended to facilitate these new changes. The Amendment Bills may be tabled in Parliament during its sitting in October 2016, and “if everything goes well, a new dawn of taxi industry may begin end of the year,” SPAD chairman said.
Spectrum reallocation in the telecommunications industry On 27 January 2016, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato Sri Mohd Najib bin Razak, during the Budget 2016 recalibration, announced that spectrum for the telecommunications industry will be reallocated in a move to optimise revenue. Following that announcement, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (“MCMC”) announced on 1 February 2016 that the 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz frequency bands will be reallocated among the four major telecommunication operators, namely Maxis, Celcom, Digi and U Mobile for a fee for 15 years. The MCMC explained that the four operators were chosen because they already have sufficient infrastructure to expand on for them to increase competition in the industry. The MCMC also explained that the reallocation will provide more certainty on the length of time these four operators will have to use this spectrum and ensure that spectrum will be used in the most efficient manner. All affected operators are required to start migrating from their existing apparatus assignments to the new spectrum assignments with full migration and implementation to be completed by 1 July 2017. As a result of the reallocation exercise, Celcom and Maxis will see their existing spectrum being reduced while Digi and U Mobile will benefit from getting additional spectrum.
Regulating peer-to-peer lending Land Public Transport Commission to regulate ride-sharing and taxi-booking apps by Q4 of 2016 Following an endorsement by the Special Economic Committee chaired by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, ride-sharing and taxibooking apps such as Uber and Grab may be subject to a new regulatory framework to be introduced by the Land Public Transport Commission (“SPAD”) by Q4 of 2016. This proposal was made in response to the rising tide of new form of competition introduced by these third party ride-sharing and taxi-booking apps and complaints filed by the incumbent taxi companies. Although no draft of the regulatory framework has yet been circulated, it is understood that for the conventional taxi industry, a profit-sharing concept or guaranteed percentage of the day’s income for the taxi drivers will be introduced. For the private car drivers, they would be required to obtain a public service vehicle license and register themselves with SPAD for vetting purposes, before they are allowed to offer their services. Private car drivers are also required to send their vehicles for annual inspections and take up passenger insurance coverage, much like what taxi drivers are currently required to adhere to. It is also understood that these third party ride-sharing and taxibooking companies may be subject to local taxation laws when the regulatory framework is introduced, as the government has realised that there is a potentially massive outflow of the Ringgit due to the widespread use of these booking apps. Several laws, such as the Land Public Transport Act 2010, Road Transport Act 1987 and Communications and Multimedia Act 1998,
As part of the Securities Commission (‘‘SC”) continued effort to nurture and facilitate market-based innovation in FinTech, the SC has recently introduced a new regulatory framework to facilitate peer-to-peer (‘‘P2P”) lending in Malaysia. P2P lending facilitates the raising of funds by businesses or companies from both retail and sophisticated investors through an online platform. Individuals are not allowed to seek personal financing via a P2P lending platform. With the introduction of this new regulatory framework, investors may now use P2P lending platforms to buy securities in the form of an investment note or Islamic investment note, which are issued by businesses or companies. Once purchased, the issuer of the investment note or Islamic investment note will be obliged to pay the investors over a period of time, with interest or profits. There is no limit imposed by the SC in relation to the amount of funds an issuer may raise on a P2P lending platform. An issuer is allowed to keep the funds raised provided that it must have at least raised 80% of its targeted amount. There is also no investment limit imposed on sophisticated and angel investors. Operators interested in operating a P2P platform may submit their application to the SC from 2 May 2016 to 1 July 2016. All P2P lending operators must be locally incorporated and have a minimum paid-up capital of RM5 million.
The views expressed in this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter and does not constitute professional legal advice. You are advised to seek proper legal advice for your specific situation.
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Technilexicon - USB-C A connector which always works everywhere, which re-charges devices at a faster pace and which transfers all types of data – That’s what USB-C stands for. However, all is not as well as it should be By Markus Mandau created a logo scheme that identifies the C connection. However, this is not a suitable indicator for the USB version, since the C connector doesn’t just support USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2 – It also supports the old USB 2.0 format. The only thing you can do is look at the fine print in the device description to try to find out which version is being used. A C port definitely has its advantages. When it comes to USB 3.1 Gen 1 or Gen 2, A and B connectors only permit a current of 0.9 amperes when the electrical capacity is 4.5 watts. C connectors can operate at 3 amperes and 15 watts – Such a large amount of power will make it possible for batteries to be recharged at three times the speed. Google’s new Nexus smartphones (i.e. 5X and 6P) use USB-C to obtain electricity from a USB-C(haos) and 15-watt mains adapter; is how Google developer Benson however, the connector also dangerous cables Leung describes the manner in Does this mean that supports 2.5, 4.5 and 7.5 which cable manufacturers are everything will become a lot watts. The connections use dealing with USB-C simpler? Unfortunately, the the cable’s configuration answer is no. The USB consortium adopted channel to determine how many watts are two additional specifications along with the C going to flow through the circuit. Separate pins connection: USB 3.1 and USB Power Delivery are used for this purpose. 2.0 (USB-PD). Upgrading to 3.1 doubles the The arrangement works quite well in the maximum data transfer speed, while the presence of a C-to-C connection, but the same Power Delivery format speeds up the rething cannot be said about C-to-A charging procedure. These two formats have connections. In such a case, the whole thing nothing to do with USB-C, but as far as public depends on whether or not the cable perception is concerned, the whole thing has manufacturer has embedded the generated a very large amount of confusion. recommended resistance of 56 kilo-ohms The confusion definitely carries some of the within the cable. If the resistance is at a lower blame for this, because it managed to mess up level, the device could be damaged: The many familiar terms (refer to the overview of C-device operates at 3 amperes, but the the nomenclature that is on the right side of A-device can only tolerate a maximum of 0.9 this page). It officially abolished USB 3.0 with amperes. Since this happens quite frequently, the introduction of USB 3.1. The old version 3.0 Google developer Benson Leung systematically is now USB 3.1 Gen 1; the new technology tests the C cables that are available. Before operates under the name of ‘Gen 2’. However, you make a purchase, you should read his many cables, external drives and sticks are comments on online stores like amazon.com. sold under the designation of ‘3.1’ – There’s no USB devices can be re-charged a lot quicker way to know which generation is being with the Power Delivery system. Several referred to. Now, the USB consortium has hundred notebooks, beginning with the very
‘Ripe for a disaster’
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first C devices (Apple’s 12-inch MacBook and Google’s Chromebook Pixel), are already compatible with this arrangement. However, Power Delivery only works in conjunction with active USB cables. They have a chip that communicates with the devices and manages the power supply. USB-PD permits a maximum of 100 watts in conjunction with an A, B or C port.
For 8K monitors and UHD TVs The Alternate Mode is an important new feature of USB-C. This turns USB into a highend video connector. Standards such as Thunderbolt, DisplayPort and Mobile HighDefinition Link (HDMI for mobile devices) have already adopted the Alternate Mode. Some notebooks (such as those belonging to Dell’s new XPS series) have a C port that is right next to a little thunderbolt symbol. This symbol stands for Thunderbolt 3, which can control an external monitor with a maximum resolution of 5K and an image refresh rate of 60 Hz. However, this necessitates a high data rate, which is not facilitated by the C port. The Alternate Mode makes it possible to reprogramme certain pins for data transfer operations. Four pins are usually used for transmitting data, while another four are used for receiving data via USB 3.1. When it comes to the process of transferring data to the monitor, the mode uses all eight pins to transmit data. The system also features two pins for utilising the side band; this more than doubles the data rate. DisplayPort 1.3 and the
New USB nomenclature USB-C: Has nothing to do with USB 3.1. Introduces the new twist-proof USB port. USB 3.1 Gen 1: as previously called USB 3.0, and was re-named during the 3.1-upgrade USB 3.1 Gen 2: Doubles the maximum speed associated with the USB port to 10 GBit/s USB Power Delivery: Defines profiles for the quick re-charging of batteries. Requires special cables
Fotos: CHIP Studios (Z1, Detail USB-C-Stecker u. -Anschluss); Microsoft (Lumia); Huawei (Nexus); Google (Kabel)
T
he ‘U’ in ‘USB’ stands for ‘universal’, but it could just as well stand for ‘untidiness’: When it comes to connector-types A and B, there are a dozen different variants, including the mini and micro ones. However, this chaotic mess is about to be tidied up: For the new type C connector, industry giants from Intel to Microsoft have defined a single connection form for PCs and mobile devices: 8.4 mm high, 2.6 mm long, and with 24 pins for data transfer and power supply. This is the highlight of this layout: No matter how you connect a C cable, it will always fit, since the upper and lower pins are arranged back-tofront. This might sound trivial, but it does away with the fidgeting that is normally a part of the procedure when plugging in Type-A and B cables.
feature Lenovo ZUK Z1 with USB 3.1 Gen 1
Three speeds for USB-C USB-C is compatible with USB 2.0, 3.1 Gen 1 (3.0) and 3.1 Gen 2. You won’t be able to tell how fast the data connection is just by looking at the port. Logos are supposed to answer this question, but even the manufacturers of smartphones are leaving them out.
Lenovo’s new smartphone has a Super-Speed C port, which transfers data of up to 5 GBit/s
Lumia 950 XL with USB 3.1 Gen 2 Microsoft’s new flagship model features the fastest USB variant (i.e. SuperSpeed+). It has a transfer rate of up to 10 GBit/s
Nexus 6P with USB 2.0 The latest devices belonging to Google’s Nexus series feature a high-speed C port, which only supports a maximum speed of 450 MBit/s
The pins in the twist-proof connector Data transfer, power supply, device communication – Each one of the 24 pins in the C connector has a special function. The point-symmetric arrangement reveals why it always fits
GND
TX1+
TX1-
VBUS
CC1
D+
D-
SBU1
VBUS
RX2-
RX2+
GND
GND
RX1+
RX1-
VBUS
SBU2
D-
D+
CC2
VBUS
TX2-
TX2+
GND
Data line for USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2, transmission direction Configuration channels for determining the charging capacit and Alternate Mode (see below) Power supply, re-charging
Data line for USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2, reception direction Side channels for the Alternate Mode Data line for USB 2.0 Earth
Alternate Mode: USB-C as a video connector A thunderbolt symbol next to the port indicates that the C port is compatible with Thunderbolt 3.0. Other video standards also support USB-C in Alternate Mode. It allows pins to be re-programmed for video transfer operations.
Turbo-charger, when the connection is suitable The connection type determines how quickly you can re-charge a device using USB-C. Many mobile devices featuring USB-C have a charging cable that pulls 15 watts out of the socket (see right). USB CONNECTION
USB STANDARD
Type C to type C or power connection
Type C with Power Delivery to type C with PD or power connection
Standard port Maximum resolution - For frames per second
TYPE OF CABLE
MAX. ELECTRIC CAPACITY
Passive
2,5 Watt = 5 Volt x 0,5 Ampere
USB 3.1 Gen 1 (USB 3.0), USB 3.1 Gen 2
Passive
4,5 Watt = 5 Volt x 0,9 Ampere
USB 2.0
Passive
15 Watt = 5 Volt x 3 Ampere
USB 3.1 Gen 1 (USB 3.0), USB 3.1 Gen 2
Active
15 Watt = 5 Volt x 3 Ampere
From USB 2.0
Active with USB 25 Watt = Power Delivery 5 Volt x 5 Ampere
From USB 2.0
Active with USB 100 Watt = Power Delivery 20 Volt x 5 Ampere
USB 2.0 Type C or A to type A
VIDEO CONNECTOR
THUNDERBOLT 3
DISPLAYPORT 1.2A
DISPLAYPORT 1.3
MHL *
SUPERMHL
USB-C
USB-C, DisplayPort
USB-C, DisplayPort
USB-C, MicroUSB
USB-C, superMHL
5.120 x 2.880
3.840 × 2.160
7.680 x 4.320
3.840 × 2.160
7.680 x 4.320
60
60
60
30
120
- With colour depth
30 Bit
24 Bit
24 Bit
24 Bit
36 Bit
- For colour scheme
4:4:4
4:2:0
4:2:0
4:2:0
4:2:0
HDR Max. streams per port Copy protection
2
2
4
4
32
HDCP 2.2
HDCP 2.1
HDCP 2.2
HDCP 2.2
HDCP 2.2
* Mobile High-Definition Link
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Keeping Up To Date With Digital Security
Peter Sparkes, Symantec Senior Director, Cyber Security Services for APJ
The digital security landscape is one that changes ever-so-often. We sat down with Peter Sparkes, Symantec Senior Director, Cyber Security Services for APJ to find out the latest security trends, and how companies can protect themselves By Matthew Yap In the recently released Internet Security Threat Report, we can see that zero-day attacks were at an all-time high last year. Is this an aspect of the exponential number increase in threats last year, or a shift in how cybercriminals operate? Zero-day vulnerabilities are particularly valuable to attackers. Indeed, because zeroday vulnerabilities are such a seemingly rare commodity, attackers will closely guard their exploits so that they may be used for longer and remain undetected. There was an unprecedented 54 zero-day vulnerabilities found throughout 2015, more than doubling the number found in the previous year. Discovering unknown vulnerabilities and figuring out how to exploit them has clearly become a go-to technique for advanced attackers, and there is no sign of this trend changing. Most of the zero days seen in 2015 target old, “faithful” tech¬nologies that have been targeted for years.
Could you tell us what are the most common forms of cyber threats in this year thus far, from the perspective of end-point consumers as well as the 048
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enterprise? There are two key trends common in Malaysia that we have monitored. Ransomware is one of the most common type of virus that takes hostage of documents, pictures which are stored on the victim’s computer and encrypts the files. The cybercriminals will then demand for payment for the victims to regain access to the encrypted files. Social media scams are also popular in Malaysia. Social media scams are where cybercriminals use technical or social engineering tools to trick users into clicking a particular link. Cybercriminals leverage internet users who voluntarily share and click on links or photos which are actually malicious sites or sites which have already been infected. This is mainly done for monetary gains. Symantec recently released its findings from the Internet Security Threat Report vol.21 which reveals the current state of cybersecurity in Malaysia. According to the report, the risk is real in Malaysia. Ransomware attacks in Malaysia totals to 5,069 attacks in 2015, which is 14 ransomware attacks per day. There were 26,783 cases of social media scams in 2015 and Malaysia ranks 6th in the Asia Pacific and Japan region. Furthermore, there also was a significant increase in spams, with
Malaysia’s global ranking up from 44th position in 2014 to 23rd position in 2015. Lastly, the ‘services’ industry faces the most spearphishing/targeted attacks in Malaysia, making up 72.4% of attacks.
Many cybersecurity firms have agreed that ransomware is the number one threat in 2016. Are they targeted towards businesses and enterprise companies only, or are consumers in danger as well? The cybercriminals behind ransomware do not particularly care who their victims are, as long as they are willing to pay the ransom. With this in mind, it is easy to see why the cybercriminals tend to take a scatter-gun approach to propagating the ransomware, casting a wide net across targeted regions and types of users. With the cybercriminals hitting millions of users worldwide, if even a small percentage of victims pay the ransom, then it could make the scheme worthwhile.
Besides improving best practices and educating the masses, does Symantec have any plans on developing new applications to combat ransomware? Symantec has launched Advanced Threat Protection, the first solution that can detect and remediate advanced threats across control points, from a single console with just a click, all with no new endpoint agents to deploy. It correlates suspicious activity across all control points and prioritizes the events that pose the
feature most risk to an organization. Once a critical threat is identified, it can now be quickly contained and new instances can be blocked. Symantec ATP allows customers to: • Uncover a full range of threats from APTs to zero day attacks across endpoint, network and email, with cross-control point detection and environmental search • Prioritize what matters most by correlating the threat intelligence from across local control points with all that Symantec sees globally through its massive telemetry • Remediate the threats fast through containment of endpoints and blocking new instances across control points, with one click, from a single console • Leverage existing investments in Symantec Endpoint Security and Email Security.cloud, without deploying any new endpoint agents Reducing the noise for customers with Symantec ATP happens in a few ways. First, Symantec’s massive global threat intelligence combined with local customer data means companies have a more accurate view of which threats pose the greatest risk inside their infrastructure. Additionally, Symantec ATP includes Symantec Cynic, a new cloud-based sandboxing and payload detonation service to discover and prioritize today’s most advanced threats. It also includes Synapse, a crosscontrol point correlation capability that collects suspicious activity across endpoints, networks and email to prioritize those that are of greatest risk to the organization.
The awareness and skillset for cybersecurity in Malaysia is relatively poor. Is there any possibility that Symantec would engage the Malaysian government and education sector in improving these two areas? Protection and prevention against cybercrime is a collaboration of all parties. It is everyone’s responsibility to take precautions. The government has a role to raise awareness and monitor the security threat activity in the country. One of the many ways the government can do this is through the education sector. Symantec is always on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate with the government to provide ongoing education and training.
Moving on to another sub-topic,
we’ve notice the presence of Big Data in many industries this year, including cybersecurity. Are there any new concepts or applications that have been derived through the use of Big Data so far? (Note: Assumed to be the Symantec Global Intelligence Network and Next Generation Security Analysis) From a security standpoint, organisations need to be able to find ‘the needle in the haystack’ that tells them they are being targeted or under attack. This might be a strange file on the endpoint, odd network traffic or user behaviour. Whatever it is, the organisation needs to know – and know now! It often involves running a very large number of algorithms against the data, in order to find correlations, rather than testing a particular hypothesis. Once relevant correlations have been identified, a new algorithm can be created and applied to particular cases. This is a form of ‘machine learning’, since the system ‘learns’ which are the relevant criteria from analysing the data. This ability to be able to SEE more (visibility) and KNOW (external threats) defines your aptitude for cyber intelligence. It also forms the basis of good data analytics.
Could you explain more about the Symantec Global Intelligence Network and Next Generation Security Analysis? Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network (GIN) is a massive archive of security data where we monitor, analyze and process more than 10 trillion security events per year worldwide. We collect big data that comes from various streams and finding the common threads that connect them that comprise an attack. The Symantec GIN has global visibility into the threat landscape including big data from: • More than 41.5 million attack sensors in 157 countries • An extensive anti-fraud community of enterprises, security vendors and more than 50 million end users • More than 8 billion emails per month from 5 million decoy accounts • Over 13 billion web requests a day
The next thing we want Symantec’s opinion on is the Internet of Things (IoT). What’s
the biggest challenge when it comes to developing security applications for devices that fall into this category? Over the last year, Symantec has seen an increase in proof-of-concept attacks and growing numbers of IoT attacks in the wild. Many issues stem from how securely vendors implemented mechanisms for authentication and encryption (or not). When introducing any new technology, the attack surface expands, which presents a variety of new problems from a security standpoint. Proprietary IoT networks have already been found with multiple security vulnerabilities, some trivial and some serious. The fundamental question regarding IoT and home automation is not, ‘‘How do we do this?” It is, ‘‘How do we do this securely?” With the adoption of common standards, it is likely that older proprietary protocols will fall by the wayside, paving the way for potentially greater consolidation in the marketplace. While larger, well-known brand names will continue to release their own products, smaller, innovative IoT companies will become attractive targets for organizations seeking to quickly expand their portfolios into those areas. However, cybersecurity must be at the core for the adoption of this new breed of IoT tech¬nology to succeed. As more homes become connected, it will be difficult for consumers to ignore the benefits that this new tech¬nology will promise. It is always important to weigh the convenience of remote control, automation, ease of use, and the benefits they can bring, against the potential risks introduced that could lead to hackers opening IoT locks, disabling IoT burglar alarms, or generally wreaking havoc with IoT devices. Protecting the Internet of things requires the same holistic approach as other areas of IT security. Unfortunately, both Industrial IoT ecosystems, like the Industrial Internet Consor¬tium (IIC), and consumer IoT ecosystems, such as the AllSeen Alliance, are still very early in defining standards for this rapidly evolving area. The remedies are well-understood, but manufacturers need to prioritize security and find the right balance between innovation, ease-of-use, and time-to-market constraints. Fundamentally, companies and consumers need to be assured that suppliers are building security into the IoT devices they are buying.
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The Insecurity Of Things The concept of IoT is a very intriguing one, but there are consequences to consider By Peter Sparkes, Symantec Senior Director, Cyber Security Services for APJ
T
he Internet of Things has already arrived. We only have to look around at our own environment to see the impact it is having on our everyday lives. The average smartphone now has more computing power than the Space Shuttle; a smartwatch now downloads updates from the Internet; the point-of-sale terminals at a coffee shop are all connected to the company’s central financial system; many cars now have satellite navigation and Bluetooth connections; an Internetconnected thermostat can control the temperature in our homes Gartner forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020 . Given the present poor state of security on connected devices, they will present an increasingly attractive target to criminals who look for easy targets in the same way that burglars prefer houses without alarms or resident dogs. Over the last year, Symantec has seen an increase in proof-of-concept attacks and growing numbers of IoT attacks in the wild. In numerous cases, the vulnerabilities were obvious and all too easy to exploit. IoT devices often lack stringent security measures, and some attacks are able to exploit vulnerabilities in the underlying Linux-based operating systems found in several IoT devices and routers. Many issues stem from how securely vendors implemented mechanisms for authentication and encryption (or not). We may even expect to see IoT devices as the preferred route for attacking an organization, and potentially the most difficult for incident response staff to recognise and remove. While a hacked smartwatch may be an inconvenience, a
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vulnerability in business tools can present a serious danger. For instance, a backdoor in a medical device may give thieves access to medical records, leading to serious injury or potentially even death. So how should businesses employ security for IoT devices? It is vital that effective security layers are built into devices and the infrastructure that manages them – strong SSL/TLS encryption technology will play a crucial role in authentication and data protection. However, given the present poor state of security on connected devices, they will present an increasingly attractive target to criminals who look for easy targets in the same way that burglars prefer houses without alarms or resident dogs.
Security Tips To Protect Information When Using Smart Devices Use basic security measures When first installing a device or app, change the default usernames and passwords, and ensure your data is encrypted. Research the product/vendor Consumers and enterprises should take control of their security by vetting connected-device vendors to confirm that they encrypt data and allow only signed code to run on their devices. Think twice before sharing sensitive data Pay attention to permission requests from apps. In a Norton survey, one in four admitted they did not know what they agreed to give access to on their phone when downloading an app – this could include personal information, location data and access to contacts. Use a multi-layered approach When considering IoT devices, employees
should factor in a multi-layered approach to security, while also ensuring comprehensive protection of their data through backup, availability and overall management.
Security Best Practices For Businesses Don’t get caught flat-footed Use advanced threat and adversary intelligence solutions to help you find indicators of compromise and respond faster to incidents. Employ a strong security posture Implement multi-layered endpoint security, network security, encryption, strong authentication and reputation-based technologies. Partner with a managed security service provider to extend your IT team. Prepare for the worst When it comes to security, nothing should be left to chance and knowing Murphy’s Law, it is better to be safe than sorry. Your security measures should encompass any and every possible breach scenarios. Incident management ensures your security framework is optimised, measureable and repeatable, and that lessons learned improve your security posture. Consider adding a retainer with a third-party expert to help manage crises.
Provide Ongoing Education And Training Establish simulation-based training for all employees as well guidelines and procedures for protecting sensitive data on personal and corporate devices. Regularly assess internal investigation teams to ensure you have the skills necessary to effectively combat cyber threats. At Symantec, we run a weekly practice drill where phishing emails are sent to employees. As the occasional employee fall into these traps, we are constantly reminded that we can never be too complacent when it comes to cybersecurity. In essence, businesses need to understand that using IoT devices can put them at a greater risk for having data stolen or used unknowingly without their permission. At the same time, they need to ensure that suppliers are prioritising security upfront and building security into the connected devices.
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feature
Welcome To The Machine Part 4 of CHIP’s Artificial Intelligence series. Imagine this: It’s intelligent, and nobody bats an eye. Prominent critics are sounding the alarm about the underestimated risks associated with a super-AI. But can the intelligence beast really be held back? And do we really want that to happen? By Roman Leipold
I
t may happen in the next 25 years, but it’s bound to happen this century: Extraterrestrial beings that are clearly superior to human beings will eventually land on our planet. The world’s best scientists, technology companies and militaries have already put their finger on the signals, and they are issuing clear warnings about this event, which will produce unforeseeable consequences for the human race. Obviously, this is all bogus nonsense, but let’s allow this cheesy plot to play out. The items that appear next in the script are hysterics, heroics, panic and preachers. However, experts will soon try to answer this most decisive of questions: What can we do to ensure that things turn out well for us? Let’s rewrite one particular part of the plot: Let’s assume that one or more superintelligences arrive on our planet instead of
feature aliens. This scenario involves a networked technology that is more intelligent than the entire human race, and which keeps getting better through the process of recursive selfoptimisation. Lots of people would also claim that this scenario is also nonsensical, but none of the scientists who are even marginally engaged with the domain of artificial intelligence (AI) seriously doubt that a ‘technological singularity’ of this nature will ever emerge, leading to unforeseeable consequences for the entire human race. It’s just a matter of time. In the worst-case scenario, it will happen in about 25 years – In that case, young people won’t be the only ones who will experience the zero hour of global society, as such it would make sense to acquaint the general public and not just the experts with this topic, so that we’ll eventually be able to skip the panic and hysteria.
Photos: iStockphoto/mediaphotos (hands), carrollphoto (printed circuit board); Foundation for Effective Altruism (right side)
Biggest Threat To Mankind
There is no shortage of warnings. The British mathematician Irving Good, who collaborated with Alan Turing during the Second World War to crack the German Enigma cipher machine, was one of the first people to issue such a warning. This is what he said in the year 1965: “An ultra-intelligent machine would be defined as a machine that utterly eclipses the intellectual abilities of even the smartest human being. Since the ability to build machines is one such intellectual ability, an ultra-intelligent machine would be able to build even better machines; this would undoubtedly result in an ‘intelligence explosion’, which would far outstrip human intelligence. The first ultraintelligent machine would thus be the last thing that mankind would invent.” Okay, so that was more than 50 years ago. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence has gone through two ‘long winters’, during which time the predicted progress was not made. Let’s consider one of the protagonists of the modern digital age, such as Elon Musk. This adventurer of technology-driven capitalism is always diving into projects that seem to be quite fantastic. He implements these projects in an uncompromising manner, even though they cost him a lot of money, and even though his employees have to pay a heavy price in terms of their nerves. He was involved in the founding of PayPal, he set up the Tesla car company, and he
uses his space exploration company SpaceX to shoot rockets into outer space. The technologyobsessed Musk wants to overcome the limitations of his earthbound existence and die on Mars. ‘‘But hopefully not during the landing”, he says. Is this mad man afraid of anything at all? He definitely is, and these fears may even irritate fans of the Marvel hit movie ‘Iron Man’: Musk thinks AI is potentially more dangerous than nuclear weapons – He considers it to be “the biggest existential threat that mankind is facing. We would essentially be conjuring up demons.” The 44-year old is currently engaged in trying to set up avenues of escape that would rescue us from the AI trap. However, there are a few charges that can be levelled against Mr Musk. He is not a scientist, but a businessman, albeit a wellinformed one. Like his rich friends in Silicon Valley, he represents the California ideology, which considers progress to be synonymous with disruptive technologies and monopolies. However, he believes that the singularity is a little too corrosive and a bit too unique. However, when it comes to the stylite of modern physics, there can be absolutely no doubts about the expertise and motives of Stephen Hawking. Hawking’s warnings about an uncontrollable machine are not just respected among experts, and this is what he has to say on the topic: ‘‘A super-intelligent AI will be extremely good at attaining its objectives. If these objectives are not in line with our (humans’) objectives, we’ll have quite a problem.” Along with thousands of other scientists and prominent figures, Mr Musk and Mr Hawking have spoken about the dangers associated with AI in open letters. However, in
Publicity Switzerland’s ‘Foundation for Effective Altruism’ published a paper on how to deal with artificial intelligence. One of the goals was to initiate a public debate regarding the issue
How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Is Challenging The World Humanity is on the threshold of the greatest revolution in its history. Technology companies, militaries and research laboratories are working on a digital super-intelligence that will change everything in the blink of an eye: Society, our life and even our death. Are these omens of utopian times, or the last days of mankind? The answer will depend on the path we choose. In this series, CHIP will illuminate the unbelievable opportunities opened up by the AI revolution, and shine a light on its understated dangers.
spite of the support of celebrities such as Steve Wozniak (the co-founder of Apple) and the actor Morgan Freeman (who presents the science show ‘Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman), the topic may not exactly light a spark in the public domain. Neither the political domain nor the media sector seems to care about the wildest issue of our times. On the contrary: The successes of AI are always played down and the risks are derided.
Philosophically Flat Upload Perhaps this ignorance can be attributed to the broadly-defined concept of the singularity, as explained by Ray Kurzweil. The inventor and futurist is famously optimistic: In his narrative, technology and the human race simultaneously enter an era of perpetual happiness; every major human problem is solved, the human being is digitalised and death itself becomes a thing of the past. The metaphysical concept of immortality This prompts critics to compare him to an odd sect leader who is teaching his unworldly disciples to worship technology.
Philosopher Thomas Metzinger is familiar Thomas Metzinger is considered to be one with such digital prophets: ‘‘I have been to California many times, and I even lived there for of the world’s leading philosophers of the a year. I believe that the entire church of human mind. The 58-year old investigates singularity and so-called transhumanism are human consciousness, and is intensely engaged nonsensical.” with the field of artificial intelligence. His In a nutshell, this movement will only be critique of transhumanism definitely should not able to compete with the old ethnic religions if it be considered to be a licence to ignore the develops an equally powerful model of denial of technological singularity of an intelligence mortality. Such a model could, for example, explosion. revolve around digital ghosts or the uploading of data into digital avatars. Metzinger believes that this wouldn’t make too much sense even if it could be implemented: ‘‘From a philosophical point of view, all of this is totally shallow. If there’s no substantial self, what exactly would Should we be afraid of a super-intelligence? ‘‘We you upload? Your childhood traumas, fears and should, because we won’t know what neuroses? Your suffering and your greed? preferences and objectives such an AI system Would that really be a good thing? This form of would have. However, fear is never a good transhumanism is nothing more than a cheap adviser – We should deal with the situation in a substitute religion for techies.” rational and evidence-based manner. I would Mr Kurzweil recognised the problem, and compare it to the concentration of financial has now begun to reject the term power in the hands of the richest one percent of ‘transhumanist’. As he has written in his book the world’s population: We were warned, but we ‘The Singularity is Near’, he wants to be judged didn’t listen. Now none of the world’s on the basis of his governments can control the technological themes, not on violent concentration of the basis of questionable capital – If anything, it’s the religious derivations. other way round.” According Nevertheless, he firmly to Mr Metzinger, the positioned in the drawer of Ray Kurzweil on his relationship emergence of ‘cognitive esotericism, which often power’ would lead to a with religion covers his technologysimilar situation, but in this related predictions and arguments. case, the power would not lie in the hands of If Mr Kurzweil believes in anything other human beings at all. than technological progress, it’s the power of The businessman Elon Musk wants to the free market. He believes that this power influence the development of AI. Consequently, permanently improves the lives of all human he teamed up with his investors to found beings. OpenAI, which is a non-profit company that is
Fear Is A Bad Adviser
‘‘I believe in the existence of the universe”
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like a start-up. The company is supposed to lead to the emergence of a free research centre, whose scientists would share their work with the public. OpenAI already has financial commitments amounting to the sum of one billion US dollars, and the company doesn’t have to make any profits. Nevertheless, the venture capitalist Sam Altman (who is a member of the supervisory board of OpenAI) believes that such an intelligence explosion would have a positive side: ‘‘AI will probably lead to the end of the world. But in the meantime, there will be a lot of business to be had.” But how can a super-intelligence be controlled? In case of a technological singularity, the machine would utterly eclipse human beings. When it comes to securing its ability to act, the new market leader in intelligence would hardly let itself be slowed down by slow human thinkers.
Hypocritical Super-Intelligence Switzerland’s ‘Foundation for Effective Altruism’ has also looked into this issue: ‘‘By definition, a super-intelligence wouldn’t exactly be dumb: If it knows that it could be unplugged, it would initially behave the way we want, but only until it finds out how to minimise the risk of an involuntary deactivation.” The foundation has published a freelyaccessible discussion paper (ea-stiftung.org) that contains recommendations regarding the opportunities and risks associated with AI. Thomas Metzinger also contributed to the paper. If the philosopher could prevent the emergence of the singularity, would he do it? ‘‘Yes.” The institution’s recommendations are also
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(L-R) Bill Gates and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman are issuing warnings about the risks associated with a super-AI system, along with physics genius Stephen Hawking and business stars Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak. Nick Bostrom (fourth from left) deals with these risks at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute
Photos (FLTR): Reuters/Shannon Stapleton, Kevork Djansezian, Suzanne Plunkett; University of Oxford; Reuters/Bobby Yip, Thomas Peter
a wake-up call for assigning a global priority to the topic of AI. For example, the institution is calling for more research funds to be spent on analysis and prevention. The political sector must provide more resources for the critical and scientific-ethical supervision of technological developments. Strengthened international cooperation would help prevent a technological arms race.
AI Keeps Dropping New Riddles
The situation is somewhat reminiscent of the development of nuclear weapons. Every single scientist who was a part of the Manhattan Project knew how dangerous nuclear explosives would be, but the research could not be stopped. There were always reasons to keep going, from the political situation to simple complacency. When it comes to the super-intelligence, the situation is even trickier, because nothing is known about its genesis or final form – Everything is a mysterious riddle. Sceptics often refer to the human consciousness that adds up to the human mind, and which could never emerge within a machine. Does a highlydeveloped thinking machine really need a consciousness? ‘‘Nobody knows. We don’t have a theory of consciousness”, says professor Metzinger. Even if such an event is highly unlikely, the issue of an AI apocalypse is a cause for prudence, because there is so much at stake.
Apart from that, several ethical questions Malaysia, which is a relatively safe country in are already arising with regard to the terms of traffic. Autonomous vehicles will programming of expert systems. drastically reduce this number. Consequently, Consider the example of the military sector: we’ll have to accept a few tragic hardship cases. Technology doesn’t make war ‘more humane’, it Consider the example of the working world: just makes it more efficient. When it comes to Intelligent machines are taking more and more the owners of such systems, autonomous jobs away from human beings. In the past, this weapons that can be used as a substitute for primarily applied to jobs that involved physical soldiers lower the inhibition threshold for skills. However, it now also applies to higherwaging war. The machines follow orders in a qualified jobs, which primarily require cognitive stoic and emotionless abilities. manner. They can get by For example, in inhospitable radiologists are already environments, and they facing a problem need neither wages nor regarding their future, care. Robots never get since there are machines tired; they have no fear, no that are better than Thomas Metzinger, philosopher scruples and no need for radiologists at funeral services. Machines interpreting the data that don’t have nervous relatives in Idaho. They don’t emerges from imaging processes such as suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and computer tomography in a quick and cheap they never rail against Ursula von der Leyen. Is manner. that good or bad? And for whom? According to an analysis that was carried Consider a simple traffic example: out by the ING-DiBa bank, 18.3 million jobs are Autonomous cars have to make a decision going to be threatened by robots in the next ten whenever they face an ethical dilemma because to 20 years. It cannot be guaranteed that these of an unavoidable accident. Should they dodge jobs will be replaced by new ones. Furthermore, the confused old lady in the street, and end up the remaining ‘job holders’ will feel an everramming the young man riding a motorcycle? increasing amount of pressure to remain Which decision would be made if the probability competitive by making concessions. of death is at the level of 90 percent and 30 percent for the frail woman and the healthy young man, respectively? What would the car do Work Will Be A Thing Of The Past if the woman is the mother of the driver? Federico Pistono believes that a systemic You could keep playing it out to its logical change is the only thing that can deflect us conclusion, and maybe (just maybe) the answer away from this downward spiral. This is what to the dilemma could be as follows: A small the American author wrote in his book (‘Robots number of people die on the road every day in will Steal your Job, but that’s OK’): ‘‘We must
‘‘Nobody knows whether a superAI would possess a consciousness”
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feature finally bid adieu to the flimsy notion that every single person has to earn his bread and butter.” Pistono believes that we should make the best of the eventual 99/1 society: For example, if one percent of the population uses its machines to make money, a basic income or a negative taxation rate should be used to ensure that the other 99 percent will be able to lead an independent and happy life. This is what the Israeli evolution historian Yuval Harari stated in a newspaper interview: ‘‘We can’t simply say that we’ll do something else if the machines start handling the cognitive tasks – There will be nothing else.” Mr Harari believes that most people will not work at all; instead, they will simply consume: ‘‘That would then be our job. The USA is already beginning to move in this direction, but there’s a problem: This system would contradict every economic model in the history of mankind. You would need a new model, and such a model does not currently exist.”
Human Society Is Under Pressure Problems such as these are going to haunt us on a permanent basis, and they are going to throw up all kinds of new complications. As far as Thomas Metzinger is concerned, they may actually disguise a glimpse at the true conflict of the human race against a powerful AI system: “The risk is a real one, and we have to address it in a rational manner. The public debate will probably turn into an exciting form of entertainment for people who live in rich
countries, and who cannot cope with the real problems. The real problem affecting the human race involves the structure of our own mind and the functional architecture of our brain. The political, social and economic problems are definitely real and important, but in the final analysis, they merely represent a superficial expression of our inability to quickly and effectively modify our own mental structure.” A critical mode of handling the theme of AI and preventive measures are definitely important, but this much is clear: Humans are creating AI systems, so they have to deal with them, even if they eventually become too intelligent and powerful, and even if the creation of the ultimate machine leads to the emergence of the ultimate disruption: A technology that supersedes the human system.
Prudence – The Ultimate Utopia However, maybe things will take a different course. You don’t have to run a deep analysis to realise that the world that has been created by human beings is irrational in many ways. Consequently, it is quite probable that the path that leads to the emergence of a superintelligence will result in a conflict of objectives between rising AI systems and stubborn human beings. Could these conflicts be instructive in terms of the attempt to channel the singularity onto a controlled set of tracks? ‘‘Naturally. For example, the AI systems could use logic and evidence to prove to us that we would suffer less and be happier if we allowed them to become more and more autonomous. They could demonstrate to us in a scientific manner that we have lost control over the planet. And they could show us in an unpleasantly
When will an AI system that is comparable to humans be attained?
Consequences of a humanlevel AI system
Year
%
2022
40
10 % 35
2040
50 % 30
2075
90 %
In his book ‘Der Ego Tunnel’, philosopher Thomas Metzinger considers the latest insights from the domains of consciousness and brain research
25
Extremely bad
Rather bad
neutral
Rather good
Scientist Nick Bostrom combined four surveys that 15 were conducted among AI experts into a single one. 10 The result isn’t representative, but it does depict a pattern of opinions. Half of the respondents believe 5 that a human-level AI system will be created by 0 2040. A quarter of the respondents were sceptical about its consequences – such as the emergence of a super-intelligence
Extremely good
20
convincing manner how the situation could be changed.” Even if a single AI system prevails on a global scale, it doesn’t necessarily have to be dangerous. Metzinger believes that “as a limited resource, the manner in which humanity would be handled by a competition-driven group of entities would be different from the manner in which it would be handled by a single entity. Today, we are destroying our ecosystem at an alarming rate precisely because we are competing with each other – A rational world government would never do that.” Once the singularity emerges, a superintelligence would be orders of magnitude cleverer than all of humanity put together. Projects such as the harmless and limitless creation of energy and the exploration of outer space would become a reality. However, these are all human dreams that we will eventually be able to fulfil on our own. The wildest utopian idea among all the fantastic AI-related scenarios relates to the aforementioned rational governments. The utopian project is simply too massive for human beings, and those who want to experience it will have to give AI a chance. All the others can take solace in the words of a human super-intelligence named Albert Einstein: ‘‘I never think of the future – It comes soon enough.”
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Big Data
The estimated amount of memory on all datacenters worldwide in 2016: 1180 exabytes Amount of data on a text page: 1 kilobyte
Gigabytes, terabytes, petabytes – the amount of data generated, saved and transferred across the globe is staggering. A data collection of data By Melissa Montasser
The Bible as a text: 4 megabytes
1 Kilobyte: 1000 bytes
Storage space on the first SD card: 8 megabytes
1 Megabyte: 1,000,000 bytes
Storage space on SD cards today: Up to 512 gigabytes
1 Gigabyte: 1,000,000,000 bytes
Average storage capacity of an external hard drive in 2011: 500 gigabytes
1 Terabyte: 1,000,000,000,000 bytes
Estimated average storage capacity of an external hard drive in 2020: 3.3 terabytes
1 Petabyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes 1 Exabyte: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
Produced storage capacity of hard drives and SSDs in 2015: approx. 700 exabytes
Storage space on the lunar module of Apollo 11 in 1969: 74 kilobytes
Amount of data processed by Google daily in 2008: 20 petabytes
Storage space on the first floppy disk available in the market: 80 kilobytes
Amount of data processed by Google daily in 2015: more than 500 exabytes
Capacity of the first hard drive (IBM 305 RAMAC, approx. 1 tonne heavy): 5 megabytes
The estimated storage capacity of all datacenters worldwide in 2002: 1 exabyte
Capacity of datacentres
1000 EB
YouTube is launched and bought by Google
100 EB
Server capacity of chip.de (texts, videos, downloads): approx. 5 terabytes The sum total of all printed works: 200 petabytes Amount of data on the Cloud in 2011 (server plus terminal devices): 329 exabytes Amount of data on the Cloud in 2015: 4100 exabytes Global IT data volume in 2013: 4.4 exabytes Estimated data volume in 2020: 44 million exabytes Amount of data that Steam transfers to American users every week: 16 petabytes Amount of data that streaming provider Netflix streamed in the fourth quarter of 2014 transfers to American users every week: 24 exabytes Amount of data that the archives of the Hubble space telescope have stored since 1990: more than 100 terabytes
Every person on Earth generates 500 MB of data traffic every month
Amount of data that is added to these archives every year: 10 terabytes
The first terabyte hard drive enters the market
Storage capacity by which YouTube has to expand every day: 1 petabyte
10 EB
Memory capacity of the human brain: 2.5 petabytes
1 Exabyte 2003 2004
2002
2006 2007 2008 2009
2005
2011 2012 2013 2014
2010
2016 2017 2018 2019
2015
2020
Sources: Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Samsung, IDC, own interpolation
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Mobile phone sluggish, memory scarce, battery empty? Our tips for Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile will make it possible for you to bring any smartphone back to its original dewy-fresh condition By Benjamin Hartlmaier
H
as this ever happened to you? You buy a smartphone, but the joy that the new device brings you is short-lived. It starts throwing its first tantrums in just a few months: The mobile phone begins to slow down, the battery runs out at a faster
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pace and the space available for new images and apps starts becoming scarce. This shouldn’t happen, because Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile offer numerous on-board tools that you can use to enhance your mobile phone in terms of its speed,
Refreshing Android Devices When it comes to the system’s configuration options, Android gives the user a lot of options. However, the users aren’t the only ones who can take advantage of this freedom – This leeway also makes it possible for device manufacturers to equip their devices with their own user interfaces. Thanks to this, the labels and layouts of the individual options can vary from device to device – This means that these items may deviate from our screenshots. In addition to the various manufacturers’ configurations, one also has to note that the market currently contains a total of seven different Android versions – From Froyo (2.2) to Marshmallow (6.0). Our test device used Android 6.0. If your device uses an older version, the menus might look different, or certain options might not be available. In such a case, you will still be able to get by with an
Photo: iStockphoto/Petar Chernaev
Making Your Smartphones As Good As New
stamina and memory capacity. However, the tuning options are often hidden deep in the settings menus of the operating system. In this article, we’ll show you how you can access and use these options.
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1 General tuning tips You can use these tricks on any mobile operating system: Re-start the smartphone It might sound trivial, but it often helps: Simply re-start your phone if it creates problems or begins to slow down. Transfer large files In order to keep the phone memory free for apps, larger files such as videos, music files and images should be stored on an SD card or in the cloud. Use the quick-access menu If you do so, you will dim the display and deactivate unnecessary sensors such as the GPS and Bluetooth sensors. Consequently, the battery will last for a longer period of time.
Android tuning app such as CCleaner.
1 Free Up Memory If the memory space on your Android device is on the low side, it is likely due to a host of reasons. The first step is to identify the cause of the shortage of space. Access the smartphone settings, navigate to the ‘‘System” section and select the ‘Storage” option. A colour scale will be used to depict the usage of the various memory sections: The upper part corresponds to the internal smartphone memory. If the device contains an SD card, the corresponding section will be shown at the bottom. Select the ‘‘Apps” entry to display all the installed applications. You can use the options menu (the three
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vertical points in the upper right corner) to sort the apps based on their sizes. The system will thus immediately display the largest memory hogs: In our case, the gaming apps were the biggest memory hogs. Each app offers multiple options for deleting memory. This is the simplest one: Uninstall applications that you no longer need. If you do not want to permanently delete a particular app, you can free up some memory by using the ‘‘Empty cache” option to clear its buffer. Transferring an app to the SD card can clear up some internal memory, but it can also lead to problems associated with those app widgets which only work if the respective application is stored in the internal memory. In many cases, pre-installed apps such as Chrome, YouTube and Facebook can neither be deleted nor transferred to the SD card. If you do not use such an app, you should deactivate it in order to lessen the cache. However, you should ensure that you do not deactivate any system-relevant apps! You should only deactivate integrated apps such as Hangouts or Gmail, and you should only do this if you know for sure that you are not going to need them.
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2 Stop background processes If your smartphone is responding very slowly, or if it is stuttering when you swipe the screen, the RAM is probably strained because too many background processes are in operation. If you want to view the precise load factor, access the device settings section and go to ‘Memory”. Now, scroll until you reach the applications that are currently active. The apps are listed on the basis of their memory requirements, so that you will immediately be able to identify the applications that are
consuming a lot of RAM. You can then close or uninstall these apps. Google Now is an extensive service that runs permanently in the background – In addition to the RAM, it also puts a strain on the battery. To deactivate the service, launch the Google app and access the settings. You can deactivate Google Now completely by
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feature accessing the ‘‘Now maps” menu and deactivate the ‘‘Show maps” option. Those who do not want to completely deactivate Google Now can take a look at the lower section and check whether the relevant categories are the only ones that are active. Each deactivated field will conserve both the battery and the processor.
3 Conserving The Battery If you detect noticeable drops in the battery’s capacity, you should find out which app is responsible for this. The culprit doesn’t have to be a newly-installed application; botched appupdates can also result in a higher degree of power consumption. To view the current consumption values of all the apps, select the ‘‘Battery” option in the device settings section. This section also allows you to switch over to the ‘‘Energy-saving mode”. Furthermore, in order to conserve the battery, you should regularly check the quick-access menu, which can be displayed by swiping the screen from the top. Deactivate all the sensors that you do not need (such as the Bluetooth and GPS sensors) and lower the display brightness all the way to the bottom: This will save a large amount of battery power.
In comparison with previous versions of iOS, Apple now gives users more freedom in terms of configuring the operating system. We’re showing you how you can use iOS 9.3 to obtain the best possible performance from your iPhone and iPad.
1 Free Up memory To find out how much memory is still available on your iPhone, navigate to the ‘‘Settings > General > Memory & iCloud usage > Manage memory” section. This section displays a list of all the installed apps (it is sorted with respect to the sizes of the apps), and it also tells you how much storage each app is using. When you tap an app, the system will display detailed information regarding the memory occupancy. When it comes to certain apps such as Safari, you can use the detailed view to set certain app data (such as the Offline reading list) to zero by swiping the respective entry to the left and then clicking the ‘‘Delete” option.
CLEANING TOOLS FOR ANDROID AND IOS Deleting apps is a simple solution to quickly clean your smartphone’s memory. In this section, we will introduce you to the best cleaning apps for Android and iOS. The few cleaning apps that are available for Microsoft’s mobile operating system do not really offer any benefits for the system functions. Consequently, we are recommending any of them. > CCleaner for Android The good old CCleaner (which has been cleaning up the hard drives of Windows computers for several years now) is also available in the form of a free Android app. This tool reliably cleans up data residues, such as the cache, the browser history, the preview images from the gallery and images
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Speed Up iPhones And iPads
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and videos that have been sent via WhatsApp. Before images and videos are deleted, CCleaner allows the user to check the respective files. > PhoneClean for iOS PhoneClean is basically the CCleaner for iPhones, iPads and iPods. This is the difference: The clean-up programme does not run as an app on the smartphone or tablet – Instead, it has to be installed on the Mac or the PC. In order to clean up a mobile device, you have to use a USB cable to connect it to the computer. The detection procedure is executed automatically. The free version of PhoneClean offers all the basic cleaning-related features, while the Pro version costs 20 euros (approx. RM91) a year.
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2 Speed Up The iPhone The hardware of older iPhones and iPads is often unable to fulfil the requirements associated with newer versions of iOS. You can unburden the processor by deactivating, or at least limiting the extensive Spotlight search function. To do so, navigate to the ‘‘Settings > General > Spotlight search” section and deactivate the buttons next to all the apps that should no longer be taken into consideration by the Spotlight search. The zoom facility also places a heavy burden on the processor. This feature is animated whenever an app is launched and closed. In order to deactivate this feature, navigate to the ‘‘Settings > General > Operating aids > Reduce movement” section and deactivate the button.
3 Conserve the battery To find out which apps are exerting a particularly strong influence on the battery capacity, navigate to the ‘‘Settings > Battery” section. You should uninstall power-hungry apps that you do not need, or which you only require on an infrequent basis.
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This section also allows you to activate a percentage display of the battery condition in the status bar. The GPS module also consumes a lot of power. You should only leave the positioning service active for apps such as Apple Maps, which needs to use this feature. The ‘‘Settings > Data protection > Positioning services” section allows you to either completely deactivate GPS utilisation or specify the utilisation framework for each app. Apps that display many notifications on the locked screen (such as the Facebook and Twitter apps) also strain the battery. The ‘‘Settings > Notifications” section allows you to specify whether and where each app is allowed to display notifications.
Cleaning up Windows 10 Mobile During the switch to Windows 10, Microsoft announced that older Lumia smartphones were also supposed to be upgraded to the newest Windows 10 Mobile operating system.
1 Free Up memory To obtain an overview of the memory, tap the ‘‘All settings” option in the quick-access menu. Now, switch over to the’’System > Storage” menu. This section displays the occupancy of the internal device memory and the SD card. Now, use the ‘‘Storage locations” section to specify that new downloads, music files, images and videos should be stored on the SD card, so that the internal memory will be available for apps. Although you can define the SD card as
the standard memory for applications, this rule is reset as soon as you install an app that cannot be stored on the SD card.
2 Block Background Apps To speed up your smartphone, you should block all the applications that do not need to send and receive information on a permanent basis, such as games. Use the “All settings > Data protection > Background apps” menu to specify which apps are allowed to run in the background.
3 Extend The Battery Life In order to ensure that the GPS module does not unnecessarily drain the battery, only those apps that genuinely require this function (such as the maps app) should be allowed to access it. The corresponding menu can be found under the ‘‘All settings > Data protection > Position” section. Keep scrolling downwards until you reach the list of apps that use the positioning service. You can then specify the access privileges. To find out which apps are consuming the most power, navigate to the ‘‘All settings > System > Power-saving mode” section. In the ‘‘Overview” section, the ‘‘Battery utilisation” entry will allow you to view a list of your apps – The apps will be sorted with respect to their power consumption levels. You should uninstall power-hungry apps that you no longer need. If you want to specify that the smartphone should conserve energy by automatically deactivating background apps and dimming the display as soon as the battery condition reaches a certain level, you should select the ‘‘Change settings for power-saving mode” entry. If necessary, you can also manually activate the power-saving mode at any time through the quick-access menu.
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Is Technology Dumbing Us Down? Do our brains rot when we use technology way too often? It is plausible, but when used correctly, PCs, smartphones and such actually gives us a lot of benefits By Daniella Lukassen
T
he navigation features shows us the way, automatic spell check smoothes out typos, the Outlook calendar reminds us of birthdays – and when we
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don’t know something, we just ask Google. It’s rather convenient. This gives us more time for other things. But what happens when the computer continuously causes us
to think less? Think of it this way: Something takes place in our brain when we no longer need to make a mental note of appointments or the way to the cinema is predetermined by a computer voice. This can be compared to our muscular system. If you’ve already broken a leg, you know that the muscles have visibly reduced after six weeks in a cast. However, if you exercise daily, you’ll develop more and more muscles. The same is true of the brain. ‘‘Generally speaking, our mind changes constantly because the brain changes through use,” says brain researcher Prof. Dr Dr Manfred Spitzer. “The more a brain has learned at a young age, the more differentiatedly it works and the fitter it is during adulthood.” Simple examples can prove this. ‘‘A person who is fluent in three languages will learn a fourth much faster than someone who has only learned his mother tongue. A person who can already play three musical instruments will learn the fourth faster than an adult who’s just
Photos: iStockphoto/SIphotography (lead story), Ijubaphoto (mobile phone); Fotolia/kreus (notes), zerbor (timer); privat (portait)
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Source: myMarktforschung
17.9 percent of people first enter important appointments in their mobile phones
20.9 percent of people use notepads to write down appointments
have taken over a majority of tasks that we would otherwise have to do ourselves. Not so long ago, architects had to toil away with graph paper and a pencil, but today, they design entire building complexes in 3D More Input, More Capacity format on the PC. And pilots fly people The cause for this, according to Spitzer, is across the world with the help of the extraordinary architecture of the brain. computers. One thing is for certain: we It isn’t rigid like a computer hard drive. New make ourselves dependent on computers. connections are constantly While they don’t take being created in our brain, over our activities and old ones are trimmed completely, they out. Our brain is always influence them and often changing. And it is change them constantly developing. permanently, and Thinking and absorbing therefore, naturally our information helps it. Quite capabilities too. Aviation unlike a hard drive, which experts, for instance, becomes full at some point, have found that several the brain needs precisely pilots, thanks to the this input in order to work. autopilot feature, have The processing and storage even forgotten how to capacity of the brain is respond appropriately to formed only through use, certain events and explains Spitzer. In plain situations on their own. Prof. Dr. Dr. Manfred Spitzer language, this the excessive The same goes for The psychiatrist and use of digital media at an doctors, who mainly psychologist researches, early age. His insight on depend on computeramong other things, intensive media use states based systems when neurodidactics that it deteriorates the brain, diagnosing or during and children and operations. Here too, adolescents are as a result often rendered researchers discovered that owing to barely capable of learning anymore. increased use of the computer, doctors can develop tunnel vision that doesn’t allow Dependent On Automation? them to make their own interpretations and Quite a number of tasks that we used to diagnoses. Our knowledge is also stored on carry out ourselves just a few years ago electronic machines. In no time at all, we have been handed over to the computer. can call up information for which we would For a while now, computers in offices at one time have had to pore over an
beginning to learn to play music from scratch; and it’s the same when it comes to using tools or learning chemistry or physics.”
‘‘Our brain changes through use”
41.4 percent of people write down appointments the old-fashioned way in a timer or calendar
encyclopaedia or ask an expert. So, have we become more dull because we’re always asking our computer questions? Does increasingly better software reduce our ability to act? Will we someday perhaps no longer be able to remember simple things like our friends’ birthdays without digital assistance?
Using The Computer As A Support Neurobiologist Prof Dr Gerald Hüther doesn’t think the situation is that bleak. ‘‘Computers don’t think as such. They just transfer data to us,” he explains. And he also sees an added value in computers.
5 tips: How To Better Utilise Your Computer Critical research Work on your topic and use the Internet source with a critical approach! Do it yourself Do you know a programming language well? Then program your own computer game. Stay fit with games Sudoku and other similar games keep the brain busy – even when solving them on the PC! Photoshop and the like Image editing tools can awaken your inner creativity – the journey is the reward, get going! If bored, turn it off Do you feel like you’re just killing time at the computer? Then turn it off!
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‘‘Our brain only releases individual functions”
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50.0 percent of 16 to 34-year-olds say that everything that they need to know or remember is saved on their smartphone
discovered: someone who depends predominantly on the Internet to obtain information may think himself cleverer, but in reality, doesn’t have a very good memory. The memory thus suffers from unreflected use. Martin Korte emphasizes this too. But what can one do about it? The brain researcher gets to the point: ‘‘Do one thing without neglecting the other,” he summarises. So, if you’re using a search engine online, you shouldn’t neglect to think for yourself during this time. A reflected search where the serious and non-serious information aren’t differentiated from one another won’t lead anywhere. On the other hand, using the computer to research specific contents can also have a big additional value. That is, when the person selects contents well, compares them with one another, checks the information content of individual sources and forms an independent opinion based on these. Korte has a few more tips. ‘‘For those who wish to train their memory, games can be very helpful.” Knowledge-based games such as Trivial Pursuit and Scattergories are some examples. “If you play this with your family for a while, you’ll be surprised at how much you actually know and that you don’t need a computer for it at all.” Even finishing your Saturday shopping by memorising, without any list, is a good way to train the brain. If you take the help of a computer now and then in your daily life, you won’t need to worry about your memory capacity. Not even when you find out your colleague’s birthday from Outlook or a social networking site.
Photos: : iStockphoto/KristinaJovanovic (top left), peshkov (top right); Felsch Fotodesign (portrait)
Source: Kaspersky Lab
Today, with the help of digital gadgets, we can accomplish things that weren’t possible all those years ago. ‘‘We can observe surgeries and do several other amazing things. It is fine as long as we use the devices primarily for accomplishing things that we humans can’t do ourselves, as it isn’t a bad thing at all that we use computers,” he says. He adds that ‘‘we humans are unsuited to be machines, for example.” The 17.0 percent of people know their best friend’s development of the steam engine in the 18th telephone number by heart century was therefore an important milestone in history. And it is the same with computers too. ‘‘If they facilitate things for us that would otherwise take a lot of effort and stress on our part, this is a positive thing.” But even he is critical of automation. ‘‘We must, however, learn what to do with needed if we want to work properly with our freed-up time,” he comments. This is an software. If we develop and use these skills, important requirement for retaining what using computers and handing over work to it sets us apart as humans. can’t harm us, in Korte’s opinion. Prof Dr Martin Korte also rejects thinking Nevertheless: this must be taken into in black and white when it account especially in the comes to the digital world. education of children and The expert says: ‘‘When adolescents: ‘‘Children must we use a navigation first develop their cognitive system, we only release skills so that they can use individual functions. Our technological aids in a brain, however, must also responsible manner and first operate a learning operate them correctly,” says curve so that we can first Korte. The brain researcher of all understand how a also knows the navigation feature works.” disadvantages of excessive How should I enter the media use. If a person is destination in such a way always lost in the digital that I reach using the world and no longer relies on quickest way? Should I his own capabilities, this will use the shortest route or definitely have consequences: the one that is particularly ‘‘Anybody can determine for Prof. Dr. Martin Korte, Among ecological? Or, to get to himself, how good he is at other things, the biologist has the heart of it: we need to mental arithmetic,” he says written the book ‘‘How think in order to give the in reference to the pocket Today’s Children Learn” computer the input, which calculator, whose use has it can use to assist us in made the calculating power an efficient manner. of many people shrink. Because if we can’t enter the destination into the navigation system correctly, the Using Technology Correctly whole technology is useless. Korte doesn’t When we cleverly use what we’ve already condemn searching for information online learned, in order to achieve new things with per se either: ‘‘Googling is not really a the help of the computer, it doesn’t make us problem. We don’t become stupider right stupider. But if you only rely on the away. Because to find the information that computer as a storehouse of knowledge, this we’re really looking for, we already need to can have consequences, as a study by know a whole bunch of things beforehand.” American psychologist Daniel Wegner and Our cognitive skills are therefore also Adrian Ward showed. The researchers
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It is a general belief that modern hardware has a low endurance threshold. However, this is not the case when it is actually used in icy environments, deserts and even outer space By Christoph Schmidt
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Photos (FLTR.): Alfred Wegener Institute/Stefan Hendricks, Martin Schiller (2); Panasonic
Technology In Extreme Conditions
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n overturned coffee mug and a fall from a coffee table are usually the most severe risks to which hardware is exposed to at home. And that’s often enough to severely damage notebooks, mobile phones or tablets. These glass displays may shatter or the electronic systems may spill out of the devices. For example, the electric car manufacturer Tesla engaged in a long and fruitless search for a 17-inch touchscreen display for its S model. The development departments of the car parts suppliers dismissed the idea on account of the vibrations and the expected (high) temperatures. Finally, Tesla made a surprising discovery when it was running its own tests: Standard notebook displays that are not designed to be compatible with these stresses can actually withstand the stress quite easily – Such displays have actually been used successfully in 50,000 cars over the last four years.
feature Helicopter measurement flights are used by climatologists to measure the ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean. The notebook has to work perfectly
The rechargeable drillers for ice samples must work at a temperature of -36˚C
What makes a Toughbook so tough? Display > Extra-bright IPS panel (up to 1000 cd/m2) > Special polarising filter reduces reflections caused by sunlight Keyboard & touchpad > Resistant to splash water DVD drive > Can be replaced by an extra battery (runtime of up to 18 hours) Hard drive/SSD > Heating system allows operations at low temperatures Casing > Impact-resistant magnesium alloy > Can withstand falls from heights of up to 76 cm
Our research indicated that hardware can actually put up with quite a lot. However, it can also run up against its limits quite quickly if it has not been specially prepared for the respective fields of use.
In The Icy Arctic Ocean The hardware that the marine researcher Dr Thomas Krumpen uses in his field work has to be able to deal with icy coldness, extreme temperature fluctuations and heavy vibrations. The climatologist from the Bremerhaven-based Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) regularly visits the polar regions to measure the thickness of the sea ice. The helicopter carrying him conducts a low-altitude flight over the ice, and the measurement device that is
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suspended from the helicopter transfers the data to his notebook via WLAN. Since helicopter flights in the Arctic and Antarctic regions are as expensive as they are complicated, the computer has to work perfectly even if the conditions are extremely unfavourable. Thomas Krumpen only used a normal notebook once on such a flight. ‘‘The PC refused to properly function on board the helicopter – It was literally frozen”, he explains. This isn’t surprising when you consider the fact that Dr Krumpen’s trips experience temperatures of up to -36˚C: When the temperature starts sinking, the electro-chemical processes in the battery slow down, and the electrolyte fluid becomes viscous, which in turn thwarts the movements of the lithium ions and destroys the battery’s capacity. Apart from that, subzero temperatures make the mechanical systems in hard drives so stiff that the drives stop rotating altogether.
Since then, Dr Krumpen has only been using Panasonic Toughbooks for the measurement flights. Although they are bulky and expensive, their high-performance batteries offer sufficient reserves for a runtime of 5 to 6 hours in extremely cold conditions. In some models, heating plates can preheat the hard drive and other components during the boot-up process. The display is also so bright that you can use the device on white ice-covered surfaces even if the sun is shining brightly. Dr Krumpen’s colleague Martin Schiller (who shares responsibility for the technical equipment) substantiates this: ‘‘We usually use the ‘semi-ruggedised’ Toughbooks, which are only protected against splash water – Even if they fall into the snow, it does not affect them at all.”
Worse Than The Cold: Condensation Martin Schiller photographs the AWI’s
feature Vibrations and tremors are the biggest risks when the photographic equipment is being transported on a motorcycle
Condensation – of the type affecting this Arctic explorer’s camera – can harm the optics and electronics
with its own set of pitfalls. For an operation in Siberia, a large MI-8 helicopter had to be rented, and a separate fuel depot had to be created. A measurement computer malfunctioned during the flight. The reason became clear when the device was taken back to base: Although the Windows system had been installed correctly, it had not been activated. Finally, a satellite telephone had to be used to solve the problem.
Immersed In The Arctic Ocean The two Arctic explorers have not yet experienced a total breakdown of their hardware, but Thomas Krumpen has once witnessed a literal wash-out. On one particular mission, the waterproof radio devices literally went ‘swimming’. “One of the devices fell into the bore-hole and sank like a stone”, says Dr Krumpen. In this case, the colleagues could actually laugh at the incident – Luckily, it didn’t result in an emergency, because it wasn’t the only radio
device they had.
In The Desert Heat The opposite of the ice and cold found in the Arctic regions can also put a burden on sensitive electronic devices, such as the heat and sand found in the desert. The burden becomes especially cumbersome if a motorcycle is used to transport the devices through the world’s sandy deserts, rocks and ice deserts. Tremors and vibrations torment the mechanical systems; heat, cold, dust and moisture can have an adverse effect on the electronics. Geographer and adventure photographer Michael Martin regularly subjects his equipment to these exertions. When it comes to his multi-vision shows, he doesn’t just have to take pictures under spectacular
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Photos (FLTR.): Michael Martin; Alfred Wegener Institute/Martin Schiller, Michael Martin (2); NASA; ESA/NASA
operations using a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, which works very well in the Arctic region. “You just have to make sure you use specially-sealed L lenses – Strong temperature fluctuations cause the normal lenses to get steamed up on the inside.” The polar expeditions also make use of devices that are less complicated: The AWI researchers use the largest professional rechargeable driller manufactured by Bosch for ice borehole operations. ‘‘I have often been quite surprised to note that they keep working even after they have landed in damp snow”, says Mr Schiller. The large batteries of the drillers also have sufficient reserves for the low-temperature conditions. In order to be able to take a look below the ice, Thomas Krumpen straps a GoPro action camera to a stick and shoves it through the bore-hole. The small and robust cameras are often used to document the operations. In addition to the cold, the remoteness of Arctic operational areas is also associated
The desert heat has no effect on professional reflex cameras
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Adventure photographer Michael Martin saves images on his Macbook
The radiation on board the International Space Station damages the sensors of digital cameras. They become unusable after three years
Notebooks on the ISS Software > Debian Linux + ISS control software Cooling > Strengthened cooling system, in order to discharge warm exhaust air more powerfully (no convection) Network connection > via WLAN, with the on-board network of the ISS; data connection to Earth via satellite
Docking station/ Connection > Special holder & connections to the 28-V DC network of the ISS
conditions; he also has to bring them home in an undamaged condition. He is completely and totally dependent on his professional Nikon D4S reflex camera: ‘‘Regardless of whether I was dealing with a temperature of -50˚C or +50˚C, it has always worked perfectly”, he says. He does not use protective accessories or external batteries that can be carried under one’s clothing. ‘‘I deliberately try to keep the equipment as simple as possible, so that nothing will distract me from the photography”, explains Martin. He uses several relatively small memory cards to bring his photographs home: This minimises the loss that he would have to bear if one of the memory cards malfunctioned. In the evening, he copies everything onto his Apple MacBook, which he has equipped with an impact-proof SSD (this is the sole modification that has been made to the device). Martin produces about 80 gigabytes of RAW photos on each one of
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his trips. In the early days, he had to transport several unexposed and exposed filmstrips. In this regard, the domain of digital technology represents a giant leap forward, especially because the photographs can now be checked on-site. In the early days, a single grain of sand in the camera could scratch the entire film, and this only became apparent when he was examining the photographs at home. He accommodates the camera equipment on his motorcycle with the help of a special Touratech tank-rucksack. ‘‘It can hold the reflex camera and three lenses, which are well-protected against vibrations and any potential fall-related damages.” His bag also carries a smaller substitute camera that can be used in case of an emergency, but he has not yet had to fish it out. In the desert, the dust and the dirt are not as problematic as one might think – Desert sand is so coarse and dry that it can
hardly penetrate the gaps or adhere to the devices. Michael Martin simply uses a normal photo cleaning brush as a cleaning accessory.
Electricity Problems In The Pampas On the other hand, it can be quite tricky to re-charge the batteries of the required devices when you’re far away from civilisation. Michael Martin uses the 12 A mobile solar charging device didn’t really work out too well: “The process of setting up and aligning the device was quite cumbersome, and the device was also very slow.” Now, Michael Martin just prefers to carry a few extra batteries. Mr Martin uses a camera for about two to three years, but some of his lenses have been making journeys with him for more than ten years. ‘‘If you handle the issue with a dose of common sense, nothing bad will happen.”
However, even the most experienced globetrotter has to deal with unpleasant surprises every now and then: For example, a group of Maasai once attacked the night-quarters of Michael Martin and his companions and made off with two cameras, among other things. However, they later returned the cameras in exchange for a manageable amount of ransom money. The ransom was just a fraction of the sum they wanted for the stolen toiletries bag. ‘‘I was quite surprised when I eventually found a few overexposed and unclear photographs of the Maasai village.” The Maasai had tried out the cameras, but they apparently had little use for the professional technology.
On The Space Station The most hazardous environment of all, outer space, does not cause any unsolvable problems for conventional notebooks, tablets and digital cameras – provided the devices are on board the International Space Station. According to Dr Raimund Lentzen, when it comes to the ISS, considerations regarding whether or not the hardware is going to harm the environment actually outweigh considerations regarding whether or not the environment is going to harm the hardware. The head of the astronaut training department at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) is responsible for crew support at the European Space Agency (ESA). Consequently, he is also responsible for the ‘off-the-shelf’ IT devices that are now found in large numbers on the ISS. As always, the devil is in the detail: ‘‘For example, if the glass display of a tablet shatters, fine glass fragments are dispersed throughout the zero-gravity environment. This would represent a real threat of danger to the astronauts”, explains Dr Lentzen. Because of this, the glass on the devices must either be replaced with plastic or masked off with foils. Each consumer IT device has to go through a qualification procedure that lasts for one-and-a-half to two years before it may be transported to the ISS and used on the space station. For example, the radiation and de-gassing behaviours are checked. This involves checking whether the plastics emit
things like plasticisers, which would harm the air quality on board the ISS. ‘‘In this respect, shells and casings are often more problematic than the devices themselves”, says Dr Lentzen. Due to this long lead time, the hardware that is used on board the ISS is not exactly up-to-date. About 100 IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads (T61p and A31) are currently being used as standard notebooks. The models are at least seven years old, and the spare parts are no longer available and are expected to be replaced on a gradual basis. Apart from the special docking stations, All the functions of the ISS can be controlled by the dozens of Thinkpad ISS mains adapters and notebooks on the space station strengthened ventilation systems, the computers digital cameras in space. High-resolution themselves remain unchanged. Most of image sensors in particular are ‘shot to them are equipped with normal hard drives pieces’ by high-energy radiation particles. that are not too large. They begin to produce more and more pixel Under controlled conditions (a errors after they have been used on the ISS temperature lying in the range of 20 to 25˚C for two to three years. When such cameras and a normal air pressure level), these are scrapped, they follow the route of all the devices are as unproblematic as they are on other pieces of defective hardware: Since it’s earth. more expensive to bring objects to the Passively-cooled components are the surface of the earth from orbit than it is to devices that do not work at all on board the boost objects into orbit, they are packed into space station. In the zero-gravity empty supply capsules along with other environment, the heated air does not rise. pieces of garbage. These supply capsules are Instead, it forms a bubble. The heat is not then guided into the earth’s atmosphere, discharged, and this leads to a situation in where they are vaporised. which the device gets overheated. It is quite difficult to transfer data between Consequently, the fans of the notebooks the earth and the ISS, which moves at a that are used on the ISS are also speed of 28000 km/h, at an altitude of 400 strengthened, so that they will be able to km. The TDRS system (which contains seven discharge the warm exhaust air from the satellites) facilitates a permanent radio and computer in a better manner. The zerodata connection, whereby the data rates gravity environment also creates fluctuate between the meagre level of 192 complications affecting the ink-jet printers KBit/s and 300 MBit/s. One of the daily that are used on board the ISS. The ink does tasks of Raimund Lentzen’s crew support not flow out of the tanks on its own, so division is to assemble personalised data models featuring fleece tanks are the only packets (containing news, blogs, music and ones that are used. These models function videos) for the astronauts, which are then using capillary forces. uploaded to the ISS at times of low network
Chips Age Due To Radiation There is another problem regarding using
traffic. This is the world’s most expensive DSL connection for the daily field post in outer space.
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Photo: ESA/NASA
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1984
1977
Macintoch
The first commercially-successful computer with a graphical user interface
Apple II
One of the most successful micro-computers of all time
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"Design is how it works!”
CHIP TIMELINE Apple: A 40-year Revolution
The American tech giant is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. Now, the company is once again on the threshold of yet another monumental moment in its versatile and contradictory history By Andreas Hentschel
I
n April 1976, Steven Paul Jobs was thinking about potential names for a company that he himself had founded. He settled on ‘Apple’ for two reasons. In his opinion, the word stood for something simple – In those days, computers were
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anything but simple, which is why they were only being purchased by a handful of people. More importantly, ‘Apple’ would appear before ‘Atari’ – his hated ex-employer – in the telephone directory. The Atari fiasco demonstrated the
eccentric nature of Steve Jobs. However, his ideas about simplicity pointed towards an understanding of design that would eventually form the basis for several successful products. For Jobs, design was a lot more than just appearance: “Design is
PHOTOS (FLTR): WIKIPEDIA/RAMA & MUSÉE BOLO/CC BY-SA 2.0 FR, WWW.ALLABOUTAPPLE.COM/CC BY-SA 2.5 IT, NAFIJA SHABANI/CC BY-SA 3.0; CHIP (2)
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on his productunderstanding
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2001 iPod Music player for the trouser pocket which, unlike its competitors, could actually be used easily. A revolution!
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1998 iMac Visionary: The digital centre for music, videos and photos – Also one of the first computers without a diskette drive
how it works”, he once said in an interview that dealt with the emergence of the iPod music player (which eventually turned the music industry upside down). This understanding flared up for the first time with the Apple II. From 1977 onwards, the micro-computer was sold in the form of a complete package that included the keyboard and the monitor. It was competing with the computer assembly kits, for which the users had to purchase the accessories separately. The Apple II also relied on open interfaces and standards as everything was documented. At the time, no other computer featured a better kit of software. Soon after the Apple II was released, the folks at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino started working on the Macintosh – This was a computer
2007 iPhone The beginning of the era of smartphones – With revolutionary operations that used a touch-display
which, with its graphical user interface, was supposed to appeal to buyers who had little use for the command-line-based Apple II. When the Mac entered the marketplace, the CEO of Apple then was John Sculley, who was previously Pepsi’s head of marketing. After internal quarrels broke out, he fired Steve Jobs in 1985. Even though Sculley’s tenure as the head of Apple did not exactly produce fond memories, he did initially lead the company in a very successful manner. In the 90s, he got bogged down in too many products; the production and marketing costs exploded, and Apple was in the red. When Jobs returned in 1997, he slashed the product range and kicked off the development of the iMac and the mobile Powerbooks. Thanks to their simple operations, the devices were supposed to
form the heart of their users’ digital lives – In fact, the package also included software for video editing, music playback and photographs. Apple thus laid the foundation for the iPod and the iPhone, building a foundation stone for a success story that continues to this day. However, Apple also said adieu to its long-running philosophy of openness. iOS in particular is a system that has been sealed off in a strict fashion. And Apple has been successful in spite of that – But for how much longer? Right before its 40th birthday, Apple’s title as the world’s most valuable company was taken by Alphabet, which is the parent company of Google. This is what’s particularly ironic: If telephone directories still existed, Alphabet would have appeared ahead of Apple.
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Surfing Anonymously Google, FBI, etc. know more about you than you think. We will show you which tools and tricks to use to surf the web anonymously and without being spied upon By Fabian Von Keudell
Photo: Nikolaus Schäffler (lead)
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The End Of Web Anonymity
Google‘s Advertising Turnover
When will it be time up for the anonymous use of the Internet? Nearly 60 percent of web experts who were asked this believe that the time is long gone
The web group makes around 90 percent of its total turnover with advertising. For optimally targeted advertising, the group gathers loads of user data
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ompanies like Google live off the fact that users don’t wipe their surfing tracks online, don’t use any antitracking software and allow all cookies if possible. But for the user, such disclosure of privacy doesn’t just mean annoying advertisements. Even hackers use freely available data to send phishing mails designed specifically for the user. It’s therefore about time that users fought back and reclaim their anonymity online. In this article, we will help you to surf the web without leaving any traces as much as possible. One-hundred-percent anonymity is not possible, but with our tricks and tools, you’ll soon have very little in common with the common internet user.
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SOURCE: ALPHABET
Billion US dollars
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SOURCE: TNS INFRATEST
Percentage of experts surveyed
use, you must always install a virus scanner, just like the latest security with the help of the integrated update feature. Preferably let this install automatically by going to the control panel under ‘‘Updates” and selecting the option ‘‘Automatically install updates”. The next step pertains to data security. Microsoft has integrated several features in
Windows 10 (unlike in Windows 7 and 8) that sends back personal information to the group. To disable this feature, click on ‘‘Settings > Privacy” in the start menu. Here, disable all the options except the SmartScreen filter. This acts as an authenticity check of apps from the Windows store. The other options don’t provide any protection. If you don’t use the voice assistant Cortana, click on ‘‘Stop getting to know me” in the sub-menu ‘‘Speech, inking and typing”. With this step, you will deny Microsoft future access to the contacts and calendar entries stored in the system. Now continue in the menu item ‘‘Feedback and diagnosis”. By default, Windows 10 sends diagnostics and usage data to Microsoft. You should forbid this by setting the option above to ‘‘Never” and the option below to ‘‘Basic”. As a last step, ensure that you use an offline account and not an online version for logging in. To switch to an offline account, go to the control panel and click on ‘‘Accounts” and here, select ‘‘Login with an offline account instead”.
With the AntiBrowserSpy tool, you can enable important anonymisation option with a click
1. How To Make Your Desktop Secure When it comes to surfing anonymously, many think of the web browser and forget the base frame on which the browser is built – the desktop operating system. Which is why you should first of all secure the OS and then protect your browser.
Set Windows Data Privacy
Windows 10 users must actively refuse to let their data be transferred
Regardless of which Windows system you
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cover story How to delete cookies Surf under an invisibility cloak Adjust the Firefox settings to specify that the browser opens in Incognito mode by default
Anonymise your browser Very few users use the useful Incognito mode in their browser by default, even though it ensures more anonymity. The reason: it needs to be enabled first with every start-up. Unless you use our trick: in Firefox, enter ‘‘about:config” in the address bar and acknowledge the warning message. Then search for the line ‘‘browser.private browsing.autostart”. With a double click, set the ‘‘Value” to “true”. In IE, you will have to create a link. Right-click on the desktop and select ‘‘New > Link”. Specify ‘‘C:Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” as the location. At the end of the line, add the option ‘‘-private”. Insert a space between the file path and the option. Then select ‘‘Next > Finish”. For Chrome, carry out the same steps as with IE. Only here, the storage location will be ‘‘c:\Program Files (x86)\
google\chrome\chrome.exe” and the option selected is ‘‘-incognito”. Another advantage of the private mode of the browser: datacollecting plug-ins are disabled by default. This also protects you from hacker attacks because you no longer need to worry about criminals playing malicious codes on your computer using flaws in the plug-ins. If you need a plug-in and still want to surf privately, go to Chrome. Here, you can allow individual plug-ins for Incognito mode too. On IE, you can only enable all at a time, and in Firefox, the plug-ins are completely disabled. If the private mode is enabled, you’re already online anonymously because cookies are no longer available. However, you can still be traceable due to browser fingerprints. Examples of such fingerprints include installed plug-ins, browser versions, installed Windows version and language
An alternative to Gmail Certain e-mail accounts like Posteo can retrieve emails from Gmail, but work completely anonymously
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settings. These elements can be kept secret with the help of the program AntiBrowserSky. For this, the tool slightly changes these properties. Depending on which service you use on the web, you can also be identified by it – by your search behavior, for instance. Therefore, you should use the search engine DuckDuckGo instead of Google. It delivers completely anonymised search queries. Even better is using the Cliqz browser. This is a special Firefox version that has its own anonymous search integrated. The index is very small, but this isn’t much of a disadvantage since the browser searches automatically on DuckDuckGo on request. Moreover, the Cliqz browser has antitracking protection. In some circumstances, it prevents advertisements from being displayed, which can quickly become a tricky problem for websites – after all, they are funded for the most part by advertisements.
Anonymous credit card
With the help of a special additional option, IE will automatically start in the private mode
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Traditional cookies Clear the history regularly and use the private modes of the browser Supercookies To delete a specific cookie storage area, use the add-on Ghostery Cookies in Flash You can delete the flash storage area only via the web configuration (http://chip. biz/1WbPjpJ)
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The company Wirecard, offers a prepaid credit card with mycard2go – you can pay anonymously online using this card. You can get this card at petrol stations, for instance. You will see a list of outlets under www.mycard2go.com. For registering, you only need a mobile phone. You can then make purchases using the card at any online shop that accepts VISA credit cards.
Curb spying By default, Apple’s iOS monitors your location and also uses this for displaying location-dependent advertisements
On the website www.gratis-sim-karten.de, you’ll find an overview of cost-free SIM cards – for using an anonymous telephone number
For your preferred sites, you can therefore disable the anti-tracking feature – or at least think about it. But even the Cliqz browser doesn’t help in the case of specific hacker attacks. Only a virtual system can protect you from the attacks. For this, you can use the BitBox browser. It runs completely in a virtual environment, is anonymous and hack-proof. The only disadvantage is that you will need a computer that isn’t more than two years for the virtual environment to run fairly smoothly.
2. Plug Gaps In iOS & Android Just as you surf anonymously on your desktop system, you should also make your mobile phones safe. They often disclose more information than your PC at home does.
Disable Spying Features In iOS The Apple iOS, by default, gathers GPS data and sends it to the company. To prevent this, go to the settings, and open ‘‘Data privacy > Location services > System services”. Under the option ‘‘Frequent locations”, you can stop iOS from collecting your data. You should also stop cookies from being created. For this, go to ‘‘Settings > Safari > Block cookies”. Finally, you should prevent your phone from creating a cloud backup. Even better, perform a local backup using iTunes to which Apple doesn’t have any access – and that
can be encrypted too. Disable the cloud backup under ‘‘Settings > iCloud > Backup”. Delete the cloud backup already saved under ‘‘Settings > iCloud > Storage > Manage storage > Backups”.
Set Android Data Privacy On the Google system, first disable the transfer of location data. You can find this feature in the settings under ‘‘Google settings > Location”. Here, disable the logging for all services. Clear out online services”. You can get more security settings by installing the Cyanogen Mod (www. cyanogenmod.org), an alternative Android OS. With this, you can perform security settings for individual applications. Although
this feature is available if your phone is on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. To get additional protection on normal Android phones, specify in your browser settings that it shouldn’t create any cookies. In Firefox, click on the three points at the top right and select ‘‘Settings > Privacy > Cookies”. Here, select the option “Don’t allow”.
Set Up Anonymous Accounts Theoretically, you may be able to do without a system account on iOS and Android; but then, you won’t have access to the apps from the stores. To remain somewhat incognito despite this, add an anonymous e-mail address for use, e.g. at Posteo.de. If
Disable transfer As with iOS, you should disable the feature that transmits information about your location on Android too. If you want to manage the settings even more specifically, you will need a special Android OS like CyanogenMod if your phone is not on Android 6.0 Marshmallow
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Cloud prints With Cloud eXplorer by Elcomsoft, you can see with which browser versions and operating systems you use Google
In Cloud eXplorer, you can see all the info on your Google account, e.g. all your chat histories and GPS data
you want to use cost-based apps too, buy a prepaid card to top up the anonymous account. Do not use your credit card for this, but a prepaid version instead, such as the one by Wirecard (mycard2go.com).
3. Remove Online Service If your devices are free of data collectors, we’ll go on to the web services. Apart from Google and Facebook, we’ll explain how to be as incognito as possible on WhatsApp when you’re out.
Before deleting your Google account, you should create a local backup of your data
Facebook has the option of saving all the stored data offline in a ZIP file
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Stop Google From Snooping The program Elcomsoft Cloud eXplorer will give you an overview of all the information saved with Google. You’ll be surprised to see what Google knows about you, e.g. the browser and Windows at every instance of log in. Ideally, don’t use a Google account anymore in the future. Alternatively, you can create an anonymous account. If you want to delete your log-in, you should first download all the data to your computer, to be on the safe side. You can do this in your account settings: log into Gmail, right-click on your profile picture at the top-right and select ‘‘My account > Account settings > Delete account or service” and then ‘‘Delete products”. Upon clicking ‘‘Download data”, you will receive an offline copy of all the
data. You can then deactivate your Google account if you want. If you still don’t want to do away with your Google account, you should adjust the privacy settings. First, take care of the data saved by Google when you surf the web. To do this, go to your account and click on ‘‘Personal info and privacy. In the ‘‘Privacy checkup”, you can also specify whether Google can give out your mobile phone number to other users. Google has slyly hidden this option under the usefulsounding entry ‘‘Allow other people to contact you more easily”. Above all else, ‘‘Personalise Google usage” is of critical importance. Here, specify which surfing information Google can store. Additionally, you can also see the location
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Keep tabs on Facebook If you want to share as little personal information as possible on Facebook, you should restrict the visibility of your posts
history of your mobile device here when it is connected to your Google account. Last but not least, you should adjust the settings for advertisements under ‘‘Receive relevant advertisements”. This is also important because Google determines here which data the service can store when you aren’t logged in with a Google account. Then go back to “Account overview” and disable all the options listed under it.
Adjusting Your Facebook Settings Just like with Google, you should first take a look all the data stored. To do this, click on ‘‘Settings > General” in your account. Here, via ‘‘Download a copy > Start my archive”, you’ll receive a ZIP file with all the information about you that Facebook has saved. If you want to close down your account, you should first deactivate it. Click on ‘‘Settings > Security > Deactivate your account”. But this doesn’t delete the data from the Facebook server. To do this, you must open https://www.facebook.com/ help/delete_account. This will permanently delete all the data. If you want keep your account and only modify the privacy settings, first check which information is freely available. The site http://graph.tips is useful. You can see all the available info on your account here when you log in. To change the visibility settings, click on the small lock at the top-right corner on Facebook. The sites will now take you through the privacy settings. Here, you can determine who can see your posts (e.g. only friends), who can send you requests and so on. But whatever settings you perform here: Facebook has complete access to the data.
quite secure because messages sent by the users are automatically encrypted with endto-end encryption. WhatsApp therefore can’t read the data. But there’s a catch: the service provides this encryption only to Android devices. Messages sent by iOS users can basically be read along by WhatsApp. But the messages alone aren’t the problem. Even status messages and read receipts can be seen by other users – on any OS. One only needs the mobile number to do this. If you want to make WhatsApp secure, you should first go to the settings, open ‘‘Account > Privacy”, and set all options to ‘‘Nobody”. You should ideally also disable the “Read receipts” option – even though you won’t be able to tell whether the recipient has read your message. The next step is slightly more
Mobile data security 1 On Whatsapp, you should disable the feature that allows it to share status updates, but you won’t get any either 2 Only when you delete your account will the Cloud backup be deleted
On the website graph.tips, you can see which profile details of yours are visible, via the account ID
complicated, but then only those people will see that you’re using WhatsApp with whom you wish to share that information. Usually, WhatsApp detects who uses the Messenger by comparing with the address book. If you use a separate number for WhatsApp, you can only add users to whom you’ve given your WhatsApp number. You can get a new number by buying a prepaid card, for example.Transfer your account to the new number by opening ‘‘Account” and pressing ‘‘Change number”. Chat groups that you are a part of won’t get deleted. If you don’t want this, you’ll have to delete the entire account and create a fresh one with the new number. The new number will be only for WhatsApp. This way, you can still be called on your old number as before.
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Use WhatsApp Anonymously At first glance, the messaging service is
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How the VPN connection works Thanks to a strongly encrypted connection, user and server are combined into one virtual unit. On the surface, the user appears under the server’s identity, which can often be freely selected
https://abc.com
Website 1
User
Selected VPN server IP Encrypted and protected connection
Web call
How the Tor network works
User
Before connecting with Tor, the client will retrieve the active Tor nodes from a server. The connection will be sent through several layers by means of the principle of chance. When a new connection is established, the traffic takes other paths
Web access
Web access
Tor IP x
https://abc.com
Website 2 Unprotected connection
Tor IP n https://abc.com
Website 1
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Tor IP t https://abc.com
Website 2 Tor IP y Directory Server Secure connection
Unsecured connection
4. Hide Internet Access
explain how to establish a VPN connection. While this doesn’t protect your identity on the web, it will hide your place of origin (see picture above). Alternatively, you can also protect your identity with Tor.
After gadgets and services, we now come to Internet connections. In the first step, we’ll
Normally, you need to perform complicated settings for the setup. But with Steganos
Use VPN Access
Online Shield VPN, this procedure will go much faster. Everything you need to know is in the box below on this page. The installation for mobile systems is just as easy. For iOS and Android, you can get the apps from the respective app stores. With the help of this tool, you can surf the web under a different IP from the one assigned to you by your provider. The advantage of connecting via VPN is that you can virtually move your computer to any country where the VPN service provides a server. This way, you can also bypass country restrictions of websites. However, there’s a catch: many mail providers don’t work if the IP address comes from a VPN network. But with the full version of Steganos, this isn’t a problem. For all the major providers, you can establish exceptions with just a few clicks. The mail traffic will then run on the conventional IP address. For this, go to the Steganos Online shield desktop program and click on the small toothed wheel next to “Protect connection”. In the following window, specify the corresponding exception.
Use Tor The makers of the VPN solutions send the entire data traffic via their server. Most companies ensure that these are not tapped or manipulated. If this is not enough for you, you can put in a little effort to go online anonymously in another manner – with Tor.
FULL VERSION: STEGANOS ONLINE SHIELD VPN Cost-free serial number With the serial number, you’ll get a monthly traffic budget of 5 GB for 12 months. Open the page https://www.steganos. com. After the installation, you can choose from which country you want to obtain a secure VPN IP address.
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Mobile configuration The serial number is valid for Android and iOS too. The installation takes place from the respective app stores. In the iOS, the OS asks, following the installation, whether a VPN connection can be added. Here, you must press “Allow”. In the future, all data connections will be secured automatically. Even when you switch from mobile network to WiFi.
Additional settings When you send your e-mails via a mail program on your desktop, it could happen that the connection is denied by the mail server if you use a VPN. In the Steganos settings on the desktop, you can disable the VPN connection for certain mail providers. All other data will still be protected.
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What Tails OS can do The advantages These days, you’re rarely secure and anonymous when you’re not at home, unless you use the Tails OS. The data is directed via the Tor network – what’s more, viruses in the Linux system don’t stand a chance. The disadvantages The OS is suitable only for surfing and Office-related work. You must replace files with your Windows OS via the web storage.
Protected browser 1 After installing Tor, you can test how it works 2 In the Tor browser, you should adjust the security regulator, which is set too low, upwards
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Password manager 1 If you want, you can store your passwords in the secure password manager KeePassX. 2 On Tails, you will have access via the drop-down menu to all the important components of the PC, e.g. data connections
Your data traffic will be routed via different servers and anonymised in this way. The only catch is that Tor only works with the Tor browser. Caution: the data of other mail programs will still run via the nonanonymised IP address. After installation, you should check the configuration with ‘‘Test Tor network settings”. Then set the security controller in the settings to “upper middle”. You don’t need to set the private mode, because it is enabled by default. You will usually receive an identity per session. But you can establish a new connection for certain tabs – this connection will then run via other servers. For this, press the onion icon at the top left and select ‘‘New channel for this page” from the context menu.
5. Tails The Anonymous Linux
The Tails OS offers the greatest possible protection from spying and the most amount of anonymity. The Tails OS is a complete Linux operating system, which you should use when you’re out and want to surf securely and anonymously in external networks. All data connections work via the Tor network and are therefore anonymised. Applications that try to connect with the web directly are completely blocked by the Tails OS. Office software, like Office tools, are also included. But it also has a password that stores your passwords safely if you want.
Install Tails OS You should install tails on a USB stick. Installing apart from the system partition on another hard disk partition is not recommended since the concept of complete separation of both systems is not ensured. Alternatively, you could install Tails as a virtual machine. However, this has several security-related disadvantages: theoretically, the host system, i.e. Windows, can monitor exactly what takes place in your virtual
Try out the Tails OS 1. Download the ISO image Download the ISO image on to your computer from the CHIP DVD 2. Burn DVD Right-click on the ISO file and select ‘‘Burn data disc image”. 3. Start from disc Depending on the PC configuration, you must select the DVD drive of the PC during the booting procedure of the computer in order to start the Tails OS. Change the start sequence in the BIOS
machine. This makes it possible for attackers to get their hands on the entries under Tails using a keylogger installed on Windows. The only safe solution is installing it on a USB stick. The advantage over the DVD is that if you want, you can store data such as the encrypted password safe permanently here. For the installation, you’ll need two USB sticks with at least four GB memory on each. For security reasons, Tails can only be installed by another Tails. For this, a downgraded version is installed first on the first stick, and then, the second stick is written with a full version of Tails. Tails is certainly not for daily use since your Windows software doesn’t run on the Linux system. Switching between the two systems is not advisable either, at least not if you only want to surf the web for a short time. The rest of the tips in this article are enough in any case. With the help of these, you can surf on your PC and smartphones almost completely anonymously – and without affecting comfort noticeably.
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TEST LAB: The Tools Here at the CHIP Test Labs, we adhere to the high requirements set by the CHIP International Testcenter standards. This means that everything here -- from our own personal knowledge and to our trusted tools of the trade -- are meant to provide the most optimised, unbiased and comprehensive review to every product that comes through our doors. As thus, our test bed tools are specifically picked to get the most out of every test we perform
Intel Platform Motherboards Intel DZ77GA-70K MSI Z87 MPower
Processors Intel Core i7-3770K Intel Core i7-4770K
Graphics Processing Unit MSI GeForce GTX 980 GAMING 4G
CPU Cooler Cooler Master X6
PSU, Storage & RAM Power Supply
Memory
Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid (1300W)
Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX Kingston HyperX FURY HX318C10FWK2/8 Kingston HyperX Predator HX430C15PBK4/16
Storage Western Digital Black² Dual Drive Western Digital My Book Live Duo
AMD Platform Motherboards ASUS Crosshair V ASUS A88X-Pro
Graphics Processing Unit ASUS Radeon R9 290X
Processors
CPU Cooler
AMD FX-8150 AMD A8-3850
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Benchmark Software Operating System Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
Futuremark PCMark 8 3DMark
Industry Standard Benchmark Tools AIDA64 SiSoftware SANDRA Speccy Unigine Heaven
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TEST LAB 14
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CONTENTS 12
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090 091 092 093 094 095 096 097 098 099 100 101 102 103 104 105
MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon Lenovo IdeaCentre Y900 ASUS Zendrive Sony h.ear on Wireless NC D-Link DSL-2877AL BenQ EW2750ZL ASUS B150I Pro Gaming/WiFi/Aura Philips Brilliance BDM4350UC ASUS PCE-AC88 Dual-Band AC3100 GIGABYTE P35X v5 ASUS ROG GT51 DJI Phantom 4 MSI GL62-6QF ASUS GTX 950 2G MSI Aegis HP EliteBook 745 G3
CHIP Awards CHIP Editors’ Choice Award
Ratings Each product review is rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for different key parameters:
Awarded to products that receive unanimous endorsement from all CHIP editors for its overall brilliance
CHIP Outstanding Award Reserved for products that combine astute technical performance with good quality and design
CHIP Recommended Award Given to products that possess singular quality worthy of a recommendation
PERFORMANCE : Refers to the efficiency of execution FEATURES : Rates the abilities and unique characteristics available DESIGN : Varies according to product. Finished products - form factor and build quality. Hardware components - layout, size and cooling solution. Software - user interface VALUE : Calculated from the performance and features of the product in relation to the price
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first looks Reimagining Movement The DJI Osmo brings with it professional cinema quality stabilisation making shaky videos a thing of the past. It literally puts the power and quality of the moving professional camera in your hands, which is made possible by integrating a 3-axis gimbal that absorbs unwanted movement, allowing the camera to maneuver smoothly and fluidly with a full range of motion. DJI’s Smooth Track Technology anticipates how you want the camera to move and adapts to the most subtle movements. Along with 4K resolution, the Osmo can also shoot in 1080p and 720p at a multitude of framerates. DJI Osmo Contact: ECS ASTAR Sdn. Bhd. Phone: (03) 6286 8222 Info: www.ecsm.com.my
For The Watch The Razer DeathAdder is back again with the Razer DeathAdder Chroma Overwatch. Perfectly designed to fit snugly under your palm, the ergonomic shape of the Razer DeathAdder Chroma gives gamers the most comfortable gaming experience ever, especially during the most testing of battles. The mouse is equipped with a 10,000dpi optical sensor, capable of mouse movement speeds of up to 300 inches per second and 50g acceleration. Change the mood of your mouse with over 16.8 customisable colour options, you can now illuminate your Razer DeathAdder Chroma’s scroll wheel just the way you want. Razer DeathAdder Chroma Overwatch Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7956 6300 Info: www.razerzone.com
Fire In the Hole The Armaggeddon Molotov-5 is the result of Team Armageddon’s determination to create a mobile gaming headset that is durable, portable and yet produces powerful audio. With the 40mm driver tuned to their full potential, Armaggeddon promises to deliver full-range audio capable of rivalling headsets with larger drivers at a fraction of the size and weight. The Molotov-5 features braided cables for maximum durability, and the attached cables ensure that the Molotov-5’s cables can be wound and unwound around the headset without damaging the wires, making it easily portable and minimising possible damage. Armaggeddon Molotov-5 Contact: Leapfrog Distribution Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7803 6703 Info: www.armaggeddon.net
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first looks Sharing Is Caring The My Cloud EX2 Ultra is a high-performance, two-bay network attached storage(NAS) system. The My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS is designed from the ground up for creative professionals and prosumers that need to automatically sync content across computers, easily share files and folders and enjoy multiple backup options so they can create their own personalised digital library with ease. The NAS sports a powerful 1.3GHz dual-core processor that enables users to get ultra-fast transfer rates for high performance and smooth video streaming. There’s also 1GB of DDR3 memory which allows for multi-tasking with ease. WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra Contact: Amble Action Sdn Bhd, Eternal Asia (M) Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7955 1768, (03) 5613 5600 Info: www.wdc.com
Hearin’ the Sounds Of Music Made for elegant everyday listening, Sony’s h.ear in Wireless debuts a light, comfortable behind-the-neck design that sits comfortably and discreetly around your neck. Slip on the high-comfort in-ear earphones and connect wirelessly with your smartphone or MP3 player and you’re all set for breathtaking sound with exquisitely balanced vocals and instruments. Equipped with a compact, highlysensitive 9mm driver unit, h.ear in Wireless features an outer magnetic path-type magnetic circuit to maximise the driver output. As a clever extra detail, there’s also a regular minijack input for direct connection to your phone or MP3 player, so the music doesn’t have to stop even if you’re out of battery. Sony h.ear in Wireless Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 300 88 1233 Info: www.sony.com.my
Extend Your Range Ever had problems getting your wireless to reach the deepest crevices of your home? Well that’s what the D-Link Wireless N300 Range Extender is for! It’s ideal for hard-to-reach areas like basements, upstairs bedrooms or outdoor areas, as the compact wireless Range Extender gives you performance where you need it most. Just plug it into any USB powered outlet then configure it using either the D-Link One-Touch app or by activating WPS on both the router and the extender and it’ll configure itself automatically. D-Link Wireless N300 Range Extender Contact: Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd., Ingram Micro Sdn. Bhd., Lab Seven (M) Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 8070 3633, (03) 7952 8188, (03) 80758811 Info: www.dlink.com.my
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first looks Without A Screen With the Leica M-D (Typ 262), Leica Camera AG adds a further model to the Leica rangefinder system. The Leica M-D is the first serial production model of the digital M family to be made without a digital display. The usual location of the screen on the back of the camera is now taken by the ISO sensitivity setting dial, one of the few, but essential, features of the camera. Although the Leica M-D embodies the entire range of technical advantages perfected over decades in the Leica rangefinder system, it intentionally omits all but the most essential technical features, reduced to the most important parameters required for photography such as shutter speed, aperture, distance and ISO sensitivity. Leica M-D (Typ 262) Contact: Leica Camera Asia Pacific Pte Ltd Phone: (03) 2142 2822 Info: www.leica-camera.com
Whatever, Whenever, Wherever The UE ROLL blasts unapologetically awesome 360-degree sound that is loud and crisp with deep bass that busts out incredible beats. On top of its insane sound, the design of UE ROLL carries the essence of the original UE BOOM and is made to be part of your ultra-mobile lifestyle. Just like the UE BOOM, you can can wake up to your favourite music, remotely turn on the speaker, and even double the sound by pairing it with any other Ultimate Ears speaker all through the UE ROLL app. UE ROLL Contact: Ingram Micro Sdn Bhd., MCL Sdn Bhd., M-Link Sdn Bhd., Kaira Technologies Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7955 8188, (03) 8023 3800, (03) 7728 9003, (03) 7955 3669 Info: http://www.ultimateears.com/
GOALLLLLL!!! The BenQ W3000 is equipped with Rec. 709 HDTV standards to deliver stunningly lifelike colours, brilliant video quality, perfect for live European Championships broadcasting in HDTV quality. In addition, the W300 gives out a short-throw ratio of up to 100-inch inches at 2.5 meters, also supports 1080p Full HD optimised optical system for unmatched picture clarity. Now, football fans can easily enjoy the exciting game in the comfort of their living room with professional quality audio-visual projection. BenQ W3000 Contact: BenQ Marketing & Services Sdn. Bhd. Phone: (03) 7954 7800 Info: www.benq.com.my
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first looks A Quick & Easy Upgrade The Transcend SSD220S rates itself with a transfer speed of 550MB/s to guarantee snappy boot-up times and loading applications in a flash. The SSD features a DDR3 DRAM cache which provides incredible 4K random read and write performance up to 330 MB/s. Experience a more responsive system that reacts quickly to your actions so you don’t need to wait to perform another action, with speeds peaking at 550MB/s read and 450MB/s write, made possible by advanced firmware algorithms, high-quality flash chips and SLC caching technology. Transcend SSD220S Contact: Amble Action Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7968 6899 Info: www.transcend-info.com
One Shot, One Kill The ergonomic, contoured body of the Sentinel III is slightly larger than average and sports a thumb and pinky rest, giving the mouse a natural, comfortable shape and allowing your hand and arm muscles to relax. Each of the eight buttons on the mouse can be easily reached without altering your grip. An Avago 3988 sensor offers pixel-perfect movements and sensitivity up to 64,000 DPI. On-the-fly DPI adjustments can be preset at 400, 1200, 4000 and 6400 so you can tune your mouse to be quick on an assault rifle or slow and steady on a sniper rifle. Cooler Master Sentinel III Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd, Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7956 6300, (03) 7955 3699 Info: www.coolermaster.com
Extreme Potential The first ever laptop to be water-cooled in the world using the exclusive ROG Hydro Overclocking System. It uses a pump to circulate coolant around heat-generating components inside the GX700. The liquid coolant then heads back into the cooling module where two radiators help to dissipate heat. Powered by the Intel mobile K-SKU processor and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GTX980 graphic card, the ROG Hydro Overclocking System allows the user to overclock its CPU performance by up to 48 percent. Additionally the DDR4 RAM can be boosted from 2,133MHz to 2,800MHz to give the GX700 incredible desktop-level gaming performance. ASUS ROG GX700 Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd, Servex(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn Bhd(263791-K) Phone: (03)7955 3699, (03) 8024 6688, (03) 6286 8222 Info: www.build.com.my, www.servex.com.my, www.ecsm.com.my
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first looks Beyond What’s Capable The RP-AC68U is a powerful repeater that extends an existing dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi network, with speeds up to 1900Mbps. The compact and stylish RP-AC68U features four internal high-performance antennas and allows users to easily extend coverage with ultra-fast speeds. The repeater is also equipped with a USB 3.0 port for connecting storage devices. This high-performance port supports ASUS AiCloud and delivers up to 10-times faster data transfers than USB 2.0. Five Gigabit Ethernet ports add great flexibility for connecting wired devices, and combined with the convenient Media Bridge mode, allows users to convert any wired network devices to wireless operation. ASUS RP-AC68U Contact: Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd., SDS Distribution Sdn. Bhd Phone: (03) 8070 3633, (03) 7782 4700 Info: www.advancenet.com.my, www.sds.com.my
A Music Aftershock Designed to ensure the ultimate level of awareness and comfort without compromising on premium sound, the Trekz Titanium are wireless, open ear sport headphones made to ensure safety, perfect for runners cyclists, hikers and more. Trekz Titanium comes with PremiumPitch+ to deliver exceptional sound quality with AfterShokz patented technology, delivering dynamic range and truly powerful bass. Trekz Titanium uses bone conduction technology to transmit audio waves to the inner ears through the skull, bypassing the eardrums completely. AfterShokz Trekz Titanium Contact: DISTEXPRESS Malaysia Phone: (03) 9054 6199 Info: www.distexpressasia.com
Toughing Through The Toughest Conditions The Olympus TG-Tracker is a new generation action camera designed for outdoor life-logging. The TG-Tracker’s Field Sensor System uses five enviro-position sensors for data augmented video recordings that simultaneously show you where you were in map or altitude/ depth position at playback. Its extreme wide-angle lens captures a 204-degree view for exhilarating POV movies. The TG-Tracker also incorporates Olympus’s Tough technology and is water-proof, crushproof, freeze-proof and shock-proof. It also has a class-leading 90 minute battery life when recording at 4K resolution and uses a removable battery that is easily exchanged in the field. Olympus TG-Tracker Contact: Olympus (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. Phone: (03) 6411 0000 Info: www.olympusimage.com.my
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first looks For The Couch Gamers Designed with a focus on enabling a PC gaming experience from the couch, the Razer Turret consists of a gaming grade chiclet keyboard with full antighosting and a highly precise gaming mouse with a 3500 DPI sensor. The integrated magnetic mouse mat ensures the mouse will not slip even during intense gaming sessions. The Razer Turret comes with dual wireless connectivity, enabling users to play lag-free when connected to a console via Bluetooth LE or to a PC via the bunbled wireless 2.4GHz adapter. Razer Turret Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7956 6300 Info: www.razerzone.com
The First Strix The Strix GL502 is a powerful gaming system with a compact and lightweight design, at just 23.5mm high and weighing only 2.2kg, the Strix GL502 easily fits into a backpack or bag. The Strix GL502 has a specially designed chiclet gaming keyboard with red-backlit scissor-switch keys that offer 1.8mm of travel distance for tactile keystrokes. Hardware wise it sports an Intel i7-6700HQ processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB SATA harddrive, 128GB of M.2 SSD, and a GTX 970M for a lean mean hardcore gaming machine. ASUS Strix GL502 Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd, Servex(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn Bhd(263791-K) Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 8024 6688, (03) 6286 8222 Info: www.build.com.my, www.servex.com.my, www.ecsm.com.my
A Fashionable Storage Solution The JetDrive Go 500 is a stylish storage solution that has a unibody design made with high-quality alloy construction that’s packed in a small size. It features dual connectors to connect it to an Apple device via its Lightning connector and any device with a USB interface. The JetDrive Go suppors the JetDrive Go app featuring Shoot and Save function, allowing photos and videos to be captured ans saved directly to the JetDrive Go 500 flash drive. The JetDrive Go 500 comes in both Silver and Gold to complement Apple devices. Transcend JetDrive Go 500 Contact: Amble Action Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7968 6899 Info: www.transcend-info.com
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MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon
Price: TBA Contact: JW Power Marketing Sdn. Bhd., Mediaforte (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd Phone: (03) 2148 1307, (03) 7960 6868, (03) 8070 3633 Info: game.msi.com Socket: LGA 2011 Chipset: Intel X99 RAM Slots: 8 Memory: Up to 3,466 MHz DDR4 Ports: 1x PS/2, 1x LAN, 4x USB 2.0, 4x USB 3.1 Gen1, 1x USB 3.1 Gen2, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C, 5x Audio ports, 1x Optical (SPDIF), 4x PCIe x16, 2x PCIe x1, 10x SATA 6Gb/s, 1x SATA Express, 1x M.2, 1x U.2 PCMark Home: 4,202 points PCMark Creative: 3,539 points PCMark Work: 3,632 points
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design:
Inside Bling Showing off the core of your PC has never been better. The MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon will either dazzle your friends, or give them epilepsy
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ntel’s Skylake took prominence this year, more or less overshadowing the X99 platform that was released in late 2014. But that doesn’t mean that the platform is significantly inferior, as it still has a place amongst the enthusiasts and professionals. Since RGB is the popular gimmick to add to anything this year, MSI has come out with its highly fancy X99A Gaming Pro Carbon. The Gaming Pro Carbon comes in a thick box with a number of accessories. There are six SATA cables, a handy two-way SLI bridge, the I/O shield, some extension cables for four-pin chassis fans, and even a MSI Gaming badge to stick on casings. Inside the box is the ATX motherboard itself that’s coloured mostly black; fantastic if you have a black chassis. What’s even better is if you have a large side window on your chassis, because then you’ll be able to show off the RGB lights that comes alive as long as the system is switched on. The shrouds covering the I/O and the audio chip, as well as the northbridge and southbridge, are the major ‘zones’ on the motherboard that emit the RGB lighting. This motherboard has eight DIMM slots, allowing users to add up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM if they want to. It also has four PCI Express slots, which are encased in metal for
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stronger structural support. It’s possible to run a three-way SLI or CrossFireX configuration with this, though the PCIe lanes will drop to x8 in that case. Also, the board is Broadwell-E ready, so if you have the resources, you could slot the new 10-core Core i7-6950X in it. MSI definitely thought of the modding enthusiast by including not only three chassis fan connectors, but also another one that can be dedicated to a liquid cooling solution’s water pump. And believe us, you’ll definitely need liquid cooling if you want to overclock Broadwell CPUs. It also has connectors for extra USB ports – 2.0, 3.1 and even Type-C – so there’s plenty of room for expansion if you really need them. In terms of performance, the Gaming Pro Carbon did well even if you’re not looking to overclock. For a quick and beginner-friendly overclock, the Game Boost feature is the easy way. All that’s required is a twist of the dial on the motherboard near the power button and the system will do the work for you. The RGB lighting are bright and aren’t just static; users can set the lights to breath, flash (and risk causing seizures), or light up in a wave. This is controlled via the Mystic Light app, which is available for Windows and as a mobile app on Android.
It looks like there’s only a standard set of I/O, but there’s a lot more expansion options onboard
The Mystic Light RGB lighting adds a touch of bling to your PC builds
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RGB LED lighting Lots of I/O support
Needs liquid cooling
CHIP CONCLUDES Though the retail price is not yet out, the MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon is sure to be expensive. But if money is no issue, it’s a splendid choice for those looking to build one of the best systems.
test lab
Lenovo IdeaCentre Y900 Price: RM6,499 Contact: Lenovo Technologies Sdn.Bhd Phone: 1 800 80 8575 Info: www.lenovo.com/my/en
Operating System: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K Graphics: NVIDIA GTX970 Memory: 8GB DDR4 Storage: 2 TB HDD Dimensions: 206.4mm x 503.5mm x 478.9mm PCMark Home: 4,269 points PCMark Creative: 4,116 points PCMark Work: 3,819 points 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme: 5,114 points 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 2,413 points
By Nazrin Zain
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Gaming With Ideas Lenovo’s Y900 packs solid components to make any gamer happy
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here have been a lot of researches recently that have stated that the end of traditional desktop PC is at an end. While it is true that desktop PC sales have gone down a lot over the past few years, sales for high-end enthusiast PCs are also seeing quite a bit of traction. Lenovo sees this as an opportunity, and with that has announced a very powerful gaming PC in the form of the Lenovo IdeaCentre Y900. The black, angled chassis of the Y900 reminds us of the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica, with its menacing thin red LED lighting that can be seen throughout the chassis. The side panel allows you to take a peek into the innards of the Y900, which feature some pretty high-end components. This includes an Intel Core-i7 6700K processor, 8GBs of DDR4 RAM, as well as a 2TB hard drive, a 7-in-1 card reader and an optical disk drive. That last one may sound a bit odd for a PC of this day and age, but maybe there are still people out there who find a use for it. As far as graphics go, the Y900 is equipped
with a reference NVIDIA GTX 970, arguably the go-to graphics card today for the best 1080p gaming experience that you can get. If needed, there is also an option for you to upgrade your GPU, or even memory to whatever specifications you want as the side door can be opened, giving you access to the insides of your PC. Performance-wise, there isn’t much that we can complain about the Y900. The Core i7 processor that was put into the machine is pretty much the highest-end GPU from Intel that you can get, and coupled with the GTX 970, you have a gaming machine that’s capable of playing any games you want to on it, be it Shadows of Mordor, Call of Duty, Battlefield and the new Doom at Full HD or 1440p in high quality. As far as noise goes, the Y900 is actually pretty silent, all things considered. Even when in the midst of gaming, the Y900 just silently hums along, with most of the noise actually being air circulated in and out of the system, rather than the fans themselves.
The side panel of the Y900 can be opened, revealing the desktop PC’s internals, which you can modify to your liking
Lenovo’s pretty generous with the I/O ports on the Y900, even giving users four USB ports on the front
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Performance Convenience
Price
CHIP CONCLUDES If you don’t feel like building your own system, Lenovo’s IdeaCentre Y900 is one to consider if you’re looking for a no-hassle gaming PC with future upgrade options. It’s a bit on the pricey side, but you do get a lot of added conveniences.
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ASUS ZenDrive U7M Price: RM128 Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd, Servex(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 8024 6688 Info: www.build.com.my, www.servex.com.my Read Speed: 8x DVD+R Write Speed: 8x DVD+R Disc Diameters: 12cm/8cm Interface: USB 2.0 Dimensions: 142.5 x 135.5 x 13.9mm Weight: 228g
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Nothing Lasts Forever. Or Do They? Keeping your memories around for life and beyond with ASUS
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-DISC is probably something many of you have never heard about before. This is a write once optical disc technology that comes in both DVD and Blu-ray discs. What makes M-DISC so special is its longevity, regular DVDs and Blu-ray discs have an estimated lifespan of 100 years, whereas for M-DISC the estimated lifespan is 1,000 years. The exact properties of an M-DISC disc is a trade secret, but we do know that the data layer is a glassy carbon. The best part of M-DISC is that it’s readable even in conventional drives, with capacities ranging from DVD-R to BD-XL sizes. Only a few brands have produced drives that can write on M-DISC media with ASUS being one of them. With that, we were sent the ASUS ZenDrive U7M to test out its writing capabilities, and a chance to as well write our memories into stone. The ASUS ZenDrive U7M is an ultraslim 13mm external DVD writer that has a concentric-circle hairline finish. Its slim form factor makes it perfect to pair with laptops or ultrabooks which doesn’t sport optical drives.
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The writer comes bundled with Cyberlink Power2go 8 which simplifies the disc-burning process through its easy to use interface and options. You can create a disc in just a few steps by dragging the files you wish to write and with a click of a button, burn all the data you selected into the disc. The ZenDrive U7M comes with two free M-DISC 4.7GB DVDs so you can get right to writing your memories into stone right from the get go. If you are worried about crossplatform issues, don’t worry as the ZenDrive U7M supports both Windows and Mac. The writer has a DVD write speed of up to 8X and CD-R write speed of up to 24X. Additionally, the writer is capable of running of a single USB 2.0 port and has a rated access time of 160ms for both DVDs and CDs. The ZenDrive U7M writes data quick with no problems after testing with both M-DISCs. None of the files written were corrupted or distorted in anyway, and regarding its longevity all we can do is wait for a 1,000 years to pass to see if it really does work.
Verbatim is one of the few brands that produce M-DISC discs
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Features
None
CHIP CONCLUDES Regardless if you’re a photographer or an average joe, it feels horrible to lose important data due to media deterioration. If you have important data to keep, be sure to get your hands on the ASUS ZenDrive U7M and write those important memories and data into an M-DISC.
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Sony h.ear on Wireless NC Price: RM1,299 Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 300 88 1233 Info: www.sony.com.my
Frequency response: 5Hz-40,000Hz Impedance: 16ohms(Power Off), 32ohms(Power Om) Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, stereo mini jack, microUSB Weight: 290g
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Quiet Even When Outdoors A stylish headphone that allows you to enjoy music outdoors even when its noisy and loud
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rom the most purist of audiophiles to the average joe, it doesn’t hurt to have a good pair of headphones in your bag or back at home. A good pair of headphones will stay with you for a long time, and give you countless hours of enjoyment. With music being universal now, it would be a shame to not invest in a decent pair of headphones as there are affordable options in the market nowadays. But this time around we won’t be writing about something under the budget category. This time it’s for the travellers and commuters. Some of us would recommend using an in-ear monitor when it comes to portability, but it’s known that there are people who just don’t like sticking things into their ears, and that’s normal as everyone has a preference. Portable headphones don’t usually give a good level of isolation when compared with IEM’s but that’s why there are brands churning out noise cancelling headphones. With us, we have Sony’s h.ear on Wireless NC headphones, designed to be stylish and to provide a great listening experience indoors and outdoors. The headphones look great, it has a nice simple design that would go great with
almost any outfit. The headband is adjusted easily just by pulling and pushing it apart, and it clamps down comfortably. If you feel that it’s clamping down a bit too hard, just loosen the headband by just a bit and it’ll start feeling comfortable. Connecting the headphone to a device is pretty simple using Bluetooth and we were listening to our tunes within minutes. Listening to music wirelessly gives you a sense of freedom, but once it runs out of battery you can use the provided cable to connect it directly to a device and continue listening to your music. The battery on the headphone lasted us around 16-20 hours of playback which is pretty impressive. Sound-wise the headphones sound good, the bass runs quite deep but as you crank up the volume, it starts getting bloated and leaks into the mids. The mids are satisfactory but as the bass leaks it becomes slightly veiled, what we liked were the highs that were detailed and didn’t come off as sharp. The noise cancelling feature works well, sitting in the passenger seat of a car we couldn’t hear engine noise or any ambient noises.
The headphone collapses easily for storage so you can store it in your bag without using much space
You are required to switch on the headphone if you wish to use it’s noise cancelling feature
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Comfortable Features
Bass Price
CHIP CONCLUDES The price for the h.ear on Wireless NC is quite steep, which is a shame as if it was priced a bit more competitively it would be a great purchase. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get it, it performs very well and is still a good buy.
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D-Link DSL2877AL
Price: RM299 Contact: Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd., Ingram Micro Sdn. Bhd., Lab Seven (M) Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 8070 3633, (03) 7952 8188, (03) 80758811 Info: www.dlink.com.my Ports: 2x USB 2.0, 4x RJ45 LAN, 1x RJ45 WAN, 1x DSL Network Standard: 2.4GHz(IEEE 802.11n,IEEE 802.11g,IEEE 802.11b), 5GHz(IEEE 802.11ac,IEEE 802.11n,IEEE 802.11a),LAN/WAN(IEEE 802.3u,IEEE 802.3a) Dimensions: 198 x 146 x 54mm Weight: 302g
By NixonNg
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Connecting Your Home
D-Link’s wireless router lets you connect to the internet with ease
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t’s no longer uncommon to see a house with high speed internet unlike before, and quite recently Internet Service Providers are beginning to up their hardware quality. But even with that, some power users would want greater control over their network and they would still go out to get a new router, especially one with dual-band capabilities and better signal strength. The D-Link DSL-2877AL is an ADSL router that supports Unifi, Maxis and TIME so you don’t have to worry about compatibility. Setting up the router is very easy as well. All you need to have is your ISP username and password beforehand and fill in the required spaces and voila. For setup of the router its also pretty self-explanatory, just attach the antennas, connect the DSL or if you’re using a different modem just connect it to the WAN port. Getting straight into the performance of
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the router, the wireless coverage of the router is great. The dual-band capabilities are our favourite and we would always recommend buying a router which has dual-band to avoid network congestion. Another thing we liked was the ability to create a guest network, so we don’t have to worry about handing out passwords, providing us with a mix of convenience and security. The router can be controlled remotely using the mydlink Lite app or by web portal as long as you have internet. We would also like to point out the USB 2.0 ports which we used to transfer files over the network worked really well transferring small files. Of course, if it was USB 3.0 it would’ve been a lot quicker. Another cool feature is that it support 4G USB dongles, which means if you wanted to share your 4G mobile plan you got from let’s say Digi you can just plug that in and make it into a very large hotspot for friends.
Colour coded ports will make sure you won’t use the wrong ports, though the USB 2.0 port could be a bit misleading as it’s blue like a USB 3.0 port
The on and off switch is found on the side, then there’s also the switch for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands
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4G USB dongle support Dual-band Guest network
None
CHIP CONCLUDES The D-Link DSL-2877AL is an entry-level device but comes with a slew of features, if you’re looking for an easy to use router which supports multiple ISPs and 4G USB dongle, this is the router for you.
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BenQ EW2750ZL Price: RM999 Contact: BenQ Marketing & Services Sdn. Bhd. Phone: (03) 7954 7800 Info: www.benq.com.my Screen: 27-inch Full HD (1920x1080), 72% NTSC Panel: AMVA+ Response Time: 4ms (Grey to Grey) Refresh Rate: 60 Hz Input: 2x HDMI (v1.4), 1x VGA Others: Low Blue Light, Flicker-Free, Dynamic Power Saving Dimensions: 458.5 x 613.8 x 194.9 mm
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
All Rounder This isn’t a super fancy gaming monitor, but it performs well in its own right
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hile the premium and glamorous products wow and excite us, the bread and butter for any brand is with the mainstream market. BenQ’s latest option to mainstream users is the BenQ EW2750ZL, a model that should fit a wide range of users. Packed away in a simple looking box, the EW2750ZL comes in two main pieces – the display itself and the stand. We really liked the clean look on this monitor and its thin bezels, which made it possible for BenQ to cram a 27-inch screen in a smaller form factor. The stand and matte screen are fingerprint magnets though, so that might bother some people. On the flip side, it’s great at keeping reflections away. Build quality is top notch here, with hard plastic for an overall solid body. It also doesn’t flex or creak much when pressure is applied like many other cheap monitors. In particular, the stand is great and has four rubber feet to keep the monitor from sliding around. The display might wobble a bit when moved, but there’s no real worry of it getting damaged, unless it was handled roughly. Unfortunately, there are zero stand adjustment options, which isn’t the end of the world but would have been nice to have. At the back of the monitor are the I/O ports, including two HDMI v1.4 and a VGA,
for those using older laptops to plug in to. There’s also a pair of 3.5mm jacks for audio out and line-in, which obviously will work with the HDMI ports. Then on the right-side of the back is the OSD buttons. These were quite difficult to use at first, due to the lack of a bezel to etch in labels for them. Even after getting the hang of it, the buttons were unwieldy and awkward to use at best. While not professional-grade accurate, the EW2750L’s colour output is vibrant enough and its high contrast levels helps make colours pop out better. The one problem here we’ve noticed is that the colour temperature leans over to the ‘cool’ side, especially if the brightness level is higher which means further calibration is required to get the output right. It also has a few handy features to make the monitor useful in various situations, such as Low Blue Light, Super Resolution and Smart Focus. Super Resolution supposedly boosts pixel density, but its effectiveness isn’t very obvious. As for Smart Focus, it creates a ‘box’ with the outside of it is dimmed so that users can focus on the inside; situationally useful, but not being able to use a 27-inch monitor’s full range of real estate to its fullest felt very counterintuitive.
The stand is a simple one with no adjustment options
Buttons for the OSD are at the back and are quite difficult to use
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Solid build Price Good contrast and colour
Lacks stand adjustment options Difficult to use OSD
CHIP CONCLUDES For a monitor of this size, its performance and price tag are attractive factors. Great choice if you’re looking to get a new monitor without breaking the bank.
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ASUS B150I Pro Gaming/WiFi/Aura Price: RM 642 Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd, Servex(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Ingram Micro Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Achieva Technology Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 79553699, (03) 8024 6688, (03) 7952 8188, (03) 7955 1768 Info: www.asus.com/my Socket: LGA 1151 Chipset: Intel B150 RAM Slots: 2 Ports: 1x HDMI, 1x LAN, 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, 5x Audio ports, 1x Optical (SPDIF), 2x WiFi antenna port, 1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16, 2 x SATA 6Gb/s, 1 x M.2 SATA PCMark 8 (Home): 4,727 points PCMark8 (Creative): 4,231 points PCMark8 (Work): 3,892 points
By Nazrin Zain
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
A Colourful Performance ASUS’ Mini-ITX motherboard should appeal to enthusiasts and system builders alike
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t may not come as a surprise to you now, if you’ve read our past reviews, but small system builds are in vogue now amongst enthusiasts. This is helped by small components like motherboards and GPUs that perform just as well as their full-sized counterparts. This time around, ASUS has sent us their ASUS B150I Pro Gaming/WiFi/Aura motherboard, which adds a bit of colour to your build. The ASUS B150I Pro Gaming/WiFi/Aura is a Mini-ITX board, which are some of the smallest one can find in the market right now. The motherboard features two DDR4 DIMM slots, which is capable of supporting up to 32GBs of RAM, four SATA III ports, one M.2 port at the back, and one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot. As far as I/O is concerned, the B150I Pro Gaming has two each of USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, one USB Type-C port, as well as one HDMI and DVI port for video output. On top of that, the motherboard also features support for 802.11ac MU-MIMO technology which helps users obtain the best WiFi connection that one can get. Another feature that this particular
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motherboard has is the Aura RGB Lighting that is more commonly seen in some of ASUS’ more high-end line of motherboards. The company likely thought that some small system builders would love to have lighting options on their motherboards as well and added it in to the B150I. ASUS’ Aura software allows users to control the RGB LEDs at the side of the monitor, and has even included a number of lighting schemes, including static, breathing, rainbow and others. In fact, you can even set the colours to change based on CPU temperature and load as well, so you know how hard your processor is working while you’re gaming, or doing some other CPU-intensive task. Despite being a small motherboard, we also mentioned that ITX-sized motherboards perform just as well as their desktop counterparts. Throughout our benchmarks and various testing, the motherboard performed very well, not giving us any problems whatsoever. The unfortunate bit is that the B150 boards don’t exactly allow for overclocks, but depending on your needs, you may not even need it.
Despite being a Mini-ITX board, the B150I Gaming Pro WiFi/Aura sports an impressive number of I/O ports
The M.2 SATA port at the back allows users to use compatible storage drives as the main OS drive, leaving the SATA ports open for high-density storage options
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Performance Features
Price
CHIP CONCLUDES The ASUS B150I Pro Gaming/WiFi/Aura motherboard is an excellent choice for system builders who want a bit of colour in their PCs, while not sacrificing performance.
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Philips Brilliance BDM4350UC Price: RM2,799 Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7956 6300 Info: http://www.philips.com.my/c-m-pc/monitors Screen: 43-inch UHD (3840 x 2160) Panel: TPV IPS Response Time: 5ms (Grey to Grey) Refresh Rate: 60 Hz Input: HDMI (v2.0) x2, DisplayPort 1.2 x2, VGA Dimensions: 965.2mm x 259.08mm x 629.92mm
By Nazrin Zain
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Big And Bright Philips shows that bigger is always better
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re you in the market for a UHD display for your computer? You’re in luck then as Philips has recently unveiled its 43 inch 4K beast in the form of the Philips Brilliance BDM4350UC 4K monitor, a display that depending on how you look at it, can easily be confused for a television. As mentioned, the BDM4350UC is a 43 inch 4K monitor, which utilises a variant of an IPS panel called TPV IPS for better colour accuracy. The display also supports 10-bit colour processing, which is great for designers who work using a large colour spectrum. Sporting a 5ms grey-to-grey response time, this monitor is meant more for designing and multimedia viewing than it is for gaming and the like. That being said, this monitor reportedly also has a viewing angle of 178 degrees both horizontally and vertically, and during our tests, we see that the claims are well and truly met. In fact, the display is so vibrant and sharp, that even metres away, we could still make out some of the finer details of images and videos on the monitor. That being said, it is
recommended that you sit at least 2-3 metres away from the monitor to truly appreciate how big and wide the monitor is, especially when used with the PC. As far as port options go, the BDM4350UC monitor sports two HDMI 2.0 ports, two DisplayPort 1.2 ports, one VGA port, one 3.5mm audio out port, and four USB 3.0 ports as well, which we feel is very generous of Philips. One thing to note is that while the monitor does support 60Hz at 4K resolution, you will need to use a HDMI 2.0 port, or a DisplayPort 1.2 port to enable it. Good news is at lower resolutions, 60Hz is available across the board. OSD, or On Screen Displays are often the bane of many users when it comes to adjusting the monitor’s various settings, but Philips has managed to make this a pretty simple affair by using a small 4-way joystick, which also functions as the monitor’s power button. Right off the bat, you can change the monitor’s various preset visual settings and adjust them with ease. There are more options of course, but it’s definitely easy to navigate thanks to the joystick.
The joystick button at the back functions as both a power button and a means to navigate through the OSD
The BD4350UC monitor comes equipped with a generous number of I/O ports at the back, and they’re all easily accessible
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Vibrant display Great viewing angles Generous number of I/O ports
None
CHIP CONCLUDES The Philips Brilliance BDM4350UC 4K monitor is a beauty to behold. Its thin bezel makes the display look larger, while its abundance of ports allow it to be used with many devices. We’d highly recommend it based on just the price-to-display ratio alone.
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ASUS PCE-AC88 Dual-Band AC3100 Price: TBA Contact: Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd., SDS Distribution Sdn. Bhd, ECS ICT Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 8070 3633, (03) 7782 4700, (03) 6286 8222 Info: www.advancenet.com.my, www.sds.com.my Interface: PCI Express MIMO: Yes Antenna: 4 x R SMA Operating Frequency: 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz Network Standard: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IPv4, IPv6 Dimensions: 103.3 x 68.9 x 21 mm Weight: 125g
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design:
Max Throughput This PCIe adapter is made for people who can’t get an Ethernet cable to their desktop, or just want to avoid having more cables
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or larger houses, sometimes the distance of a desktop PC to the router is too far for an Ethernet cable, or sometimes you just don’t want to have unsightly cables around. That’s when you use a Wi-Fi adapter like ASUS’ latest PCE-AC88. There’s a lot to like about the PCE-AC88, like the packaging. For one, it comes with a cut out that shows the mountable base. Inside the box, you’ll find the PCI Express card, a set of four antennas, and a bracket for it. There’s also the warranty notice, a quick start guide and the driver CD. Unlike the straightforward plug-and-play options like USB Wi-Fi adapters, a PCI Express adapter like the PCE-AC88 needs to be installed on a PCI slot on a motherboard for it to work. Once that’s installed, the antennas can be screwed directly to the connecting ends of the PCI-E card, or you could connect the mounting base to it and the antennas could be installed there instead. The PCI-E card itself will have custom heatsink over it, keeping the component cool and longer lasting, even in warmer countries like ours. Why a mounting base, you might ask. Well, it’s the better option if the location of your desktop isn’t getting good Wi-Fi signal. By plugging the cable-end of the base to the
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connectors on the PCI-E card, users now have a flexible antenna. The cable’s length is long enough that it can reach table height, even if the desktop is on the ground. In addition, the mounting base has a magnetic bottom, so it can be attached to the top of metallic chassis without falling off. To test it, we moved the desktop PC – that the PCE-AC88 was installed in – far away from our office router to test its antennas’ efficiency. As expected, when the antennas were plugged in, the WiFi strength was poor since we deliberately placed the desktop PC at a dead corner on the opposite side of the office. Using the mount, we were able to get better results. Realistically, it’s not possible to get the maximum speeds promised by the PCE-AC88 unless the user has the best in hardware, such as an 802.11ac router and faster SSDs. We got local WiFi transfer rates averaged at around the 600Mbps range, while the fastest internet service locally is TIME’s fibre home broadband (up to 500 Mbps). We also tested how well its beam forming worked and got improved signal strength, but found that it causes lag spikes when playing online games. Keep that off, however, and the 4x4 NitroQAM technology really helps make streaming a smooth experience.
The PCE-AC88 comes with a mounting base to get better reception near dead corners
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Flexible placement Great reception Faster speeds
Needs an AC router to perform well
CHIP CONCLUDES Its performance is definitely top of the line, but it’s overkill unless you have the hardware and environment that takes advantage of it. Recommended if you are looking to stream or if you have a lot of ground to cover between PC and router.
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GIGABYTE P35X v5 Price: RM8,999 Contact: TECH ARMORY Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 5887 0962 Info: www.gigabyte.com
Operating System: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ Graphics: NVIDIA GTX980M Memory: 16GB DDR4 Storage: 256GB SSD, 1 TB HDD Ports: USB 3.0 x3, USB 3.1 Type-C x1, HDMI 2.0 x1, Mini DisplayPort x1, VGA x1, SD card reader Dimensions: 385mm x 270mm x 20.9 mm Weight: 2.4kg PCMark8 (Home): 2,821points PCMark8 (Creative): 2,532 points PCMark8 (Work): 2,390 points 3DMark FireStrike: 7,688 points 3DMark FireStrike Extreme: 4,258 points 3DMark FireStrike Ultra: 2,301points
By Nazrin Zain
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Plain Outside, Performance Inside G
GIGABYTE shows that looks don’t always matter aming laptops come in a variety of shapes and sizes now, and GIGABYTE are pulling out all the stops with their own line of machines, specifically from the P-series and the AORUS brand of gaming laptops. This time around, we received an understated monster, in the form of the GIGABYTE P35X v5. The GIGABYTE P35X v5 is a gaming laptop that perhaps isn’t much of a looker on the outside, due to its run-of-the-mill black chassis that we’ve seen in so many other gaming notebooks, but you’d definitely want to pay attention to the specs that this particular machine packs. The processor is Intel’s latest 6th gen Core i7-6700HQ, an option for either 8 or 16GBs of DDR4 RAM, alongside a storage combination of 256GB M.2 SATA SSD and a 1TB hard drive. A thing to note here is that the P35X v5 comes with two M.2 slots, both of which support the latest NVMe drives for even faster performance. On the GPU front, the P35X v5 sports NVIDIA’s latest and most powerful mobile GPU
yet, the GTX 980M, which is capable of driving the laptop’s 15.0 inch screen in both Full HD and Ultra HD configurations, whichever one you wish to choose. As far as I/O ports go, the P35X v5 sports three USB 3.0 ports, one USB Type-C port, one HDMI 2.0 port, a mini DisplayPort and a VGA port for video output as well. Performance-wise, the P35X v5 is a beast of a machine. Out of the box, the GTX 980M is capable of driving the 4K display with nary a hiccup. Playing back YouTube videos at resolutions higher than 1080p only proved a challenge because of our internet connection. Gaming on this machine is also a pretty fun affair, as we tried out a number of titles at 1080p and 1440p, such as Tomb Raider and Shadows of Mordor were running smoothly with graphics settings set at moderately high levels still yielded excellent framerates. Noise was also an almost non-factor despite the 980M, as the sound was more of the air being dissipated out of the machine, rather than the fans making noise.
The P35X v5 is powered by a 6th generation Intel Core-i7 processor and an NVIDIA GTX 980M discrete GPU
Despite being a relatively thin laptop, the P35X v5 packs an impressive number of I/O options
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Performance Features
Design Price
CHIP CONCLUDES The GIGABYTE P35X v5 isn’t much of a looker, but underneath it is some of the best components that money can buy. If budget isn’t a concern in your search for a powerful gaming laptop, this is one to consider.
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ASUS ROG GT51 Price: RM9,999 Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd, Servex(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn Bhd(263791-K) Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 8024 6688, (03) 6286 8222 Info: www.build.com.my, www.servex.com.my, www. ecsm.com.my Operating System: Windows 10 Home Processor: Intel i7-6700K Graphics: 2-way GTX980 SLI Memory: 64GB DDR4 2800MHz Storage: 2TB SATA, 2x 512MB M.2 SSD PCMark Work: 3,911 points PCMark Home: 4,729 points PCMark Creative: 5,888 points 3DMark Fire Strike: 18,176 points 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme: 10,067 points 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 5,795 points
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
The ASUS PC Master Race A true high-performance gaming desktop, equipped with all the components and features to fulfill any gamers dream
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very gamer’s dream is to have a gaming desktop that can play the latest games at the highest settings with smooth as silk performance. ASUS has built a gaming desktop PC which will satisfy even the most hardcore of gamers. Inspired by Iron-Man, the ASUS ROG GT51 is built with power, design and technology in mind. One of the most if not the most powerful gaming desktop we have ever received for review, the ASUS ROG GT51 reaches our office sporting Intel’s latest Core i7-6700K processor, Skylake’s top performing processor. Then we also have a 2-way SLI of NVIDIA’s GTX980 and 64GB of DDR4 2400MHz RAM. The desktop unit is quite large and heavy but it’s aesthetically pleasing especially with the whole Iron-Man vibe going on. The front of the desktop sports two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.1 port, and one Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port, along with a headphone and microphone jack. The power button can also be found on the front of the desktop, together with the optical drive below it and on the other side is the “Overclock” button to bump up your CPU clock up in a single push. The processor is watercooled by a 120mm radiator and fan that is mounted on the
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back of the casing. When running FurMark temperatures on both GTX980 peaked out at an average of 80C and this is an extreme case as FurMark pushes graphic cards to a point a games usually doesn’t. Despite peaking at 80C under stress both cards were relatively quiet and shouldn’t cause much problems even when under heavy load. On the other hand, when the processor was stressed with Prime95 another extreme, temperatures shot up to 80C and peaked around 81-84C and the fan was noticeably very loud. The ASUS ROG GT51 also comes with an ROG band that uses NFC to activate various features on the desktop. It can be used to activate the “Overclock” mode, and to keep certain “files” secret with the built-in shadow drive. Just swipe and you can hide the drive from the public, the files will stay hidden and inaccessible until reactivated by the band. Gaming on the ASUS ROG GT51 is magnificent, easily playing AAA titles at the highest settings with ease at 1080p. There is little to no performance issues while gaming, there were no stutters or jitters or any form of hardware-related lag. In fact, thanks to the SLI configuration, gaming at resolutions higher than 1080p is a cinch.
This beast of a machine is powered by 2-way SLI NVIDIA GeForce GTX980, let’s play Minecraft
A single 120mm fan radiator cooling the powerful i7-6700K
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Performance Shadow drive
None
CHIP CONCLUDES If you’re looking for a high-performance desktop that will rip the latest games to shreds with ease, then look no further with the ASUS ROG GT51.
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DJI Phantom 4 Price: RM6,199 Contact: ECS ASTAR Sdn. Bhd. Phone: (03)6286 8222 Info: www.ecsm.com.my Max Flight Time: 28 minutes Obstacle Sensory Range: 0.7-15m Photography Modes: Single shot, Burst shot, Auto Exposure Bracketing, Time-lapse, HDR Video Recording Modes: UHD, 4K, 2.7K, FHD, HD File Formats: JPEG, DNG, MP4, MOV Storage: MicroSD (Max 64GB capacity, Class 10 or UHS-1 rating required) Weight: 1.38kg
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Having An Eye In The Sky Recording sports videos and hard to reach places has never been so much fun or simple
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rones have been controversial in many ways, with there being no proper laws set for drones at the moment, with regards to privacy and trespassing. Despite all that legal mumbo jumbo, a drone is definitely something you should get if you like adventuring and taking epic videos. The DJI Phantom 4 is DJI’s latest offering and we have to say one of the most interesting products we had the chance to review. The Phantom 4 is perfect for the times you want to capture something in motion yet unable when on foot. You can also use the Phantom 4 to shoot those hard to reach spots like for example while rock climbing and you want to follow a climber around the edge. The drone comes with 4 detachable propellers which have to be fixed on accordingly. The propellers are colour coded and must be followed to ensure the drone works as intended. Inside the box there are extra propellers just in case you need replacements. There is also a microUSB cable to connect your remote to a smartphone or tablet. The remote is quite large but fits nicely in our hands. Getting right into it, the Phantom 4 requires you to download their DJI GO app which is used to control all features of the drone. It was a bit confusing when we tried switching on both the remote and the drone
as we thought we had to just press and hold the power button as written in the instruction manuals. But actually what we had to do was tap the button once and then press it down again but this time holding it down for a few seconds. Once we got that out of the way it was time to start flying. We lifted off the drone manually to really get into the feel of flying a drone, and it made us feel like kids again. The Phantom 4 hovers excellently with barely any shaking, keeping the camera nice and steady. The drone will also brake and hover the instant you release the controls. The Phantom 4’s ActiveTrack is our favourite feature as it allowed us to follow a moving subject regardless of moving horizontally or vertically. If you are worried about hitting obstacles fret not as the Phantom 4 features Obstacle Avoidance that allows it to react to and avoid obstacles. We somewhat forced it to pass obstacles when returning to us and was able to not hit any of the obstacles on the way back, but we still don’t recommend deliberately hiding behind obstacles. The videos took by the camera even while in motion was considerably steady and looks amazing. Additionally, the quality of still pictures taken was great and the views and composition only attainable with a drone is something to die for.
The camera is attached to an advanced 3-axis gimbal which enables for smooth and fluid capturing of footage
You can fit a tablet horizontally or a phone vertically on the controller, you will need the DJI GO app to work the drone
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Steadiness Video & picture quality Easy to control
Price
CHIP CONCLUDES If you don’t have a drone already we recommend you get one, and if you have the budget for it, we highly recommend the DJI Phantom 4 for its all-round great performance whether it’s taking pictures, recording videos and following moving objects.
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MSI GL62-6QF Price: RM3,999 Contact: MSI Malaysia Phone: (03) 2282 8599 Info: game.msi.com Operating System: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ Graphics: NVIDIA GTX960M Memory: 4GB DDR4 Storage: 1 TB HDD Others: Bluetooth 4.1, Full HD webcam, Gigabit LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, SD card reader Dimensions: 383mm x 260mm x 29 mm Weight: 2.3kg PCMark Home: 2,982 points PCMark Creative: 3,039 points PCMark Work: 2,990 points 3DMark Fire Strike: 3,941 points 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme: 1,979 points
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Gaming On A Budget MSI proves you can game without breaking the bank
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aming laptops are often pricier than its desktop counterparts, for reasons like portability. But this model proves that you don’t really have to break the bank for simple, mainstream games. As PC enthusiasts, this issue makes us happy, because of the desktop PCs and laptops we got to review. Among its number is MSI GL62, a notebook entry that’s targeted at the mainstream market segment. With its built-in GTX960M, you’ll be able to play quite a number of games on it. The GL62 we received came in a brown box with the black box of the laptop inside, plus a laptop bag to go with it. We’re not sure if this is a specific package MSI Malaysia will be selling, or if it’s optional, so just take note of that. The 15.6-inch GL62’s general aesthetics is typical of MSI laptops, with the GL series being particularly identical. On the front you’ll find the grills where the speakers are situated, with two larger ones at the back for heat exhaust. At the sides are the I/O ports, which include an optical drive, a USB 2.0 and SD card reader on the right side, as well as two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 3.0 Type-C port, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and mini DisplayPort, plus two 3.5mm jacks for line-in and audio-out.
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Build quality for the laptop’s body is good, though it’s very ‘plastic-ky’. That’s fine, however, since it helps reduce the cost and the weight of the laptop. The lid feels solid enough and has that nice black-metal like finishing that feels great to the touch, but has the unfortunate problem of being a fingerprint magnet. The GL62 features a Steeelseries keyboard. It performed well overall, especially for gaming. While the key travel could be shorter to make typing easier, it’s not that big of a deal once we got used to it. As for gaming on it, keep in mind that it’s equipped with a GTX960M. It was about to handle games like Starcraft 2, Dota 2, and generally most e-sports titles. But pit it against titles with high graphics requirements like The Witcher 3 and it starts to falter, barely delivering 30fps on some titles like Crysis 3 and Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor. Noise levels are low on the GL62 which is great for normal usage. For more thermal dissipation, a button near the power button turns on Cooler Boost and ramps up the fans’ speed to maximum. That’s when they become rather loud. We don’t recommend using it unless you feel that the laptop is becoming unbearably hot.
The GL62 has an optical drive, which can be useful sometimes
With the USB Type-C port, the GL62 can connect to newer devices like monitors that support USB Type-C connectivity
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Lightweight Great set of I/O options Value
Cooler Boost is loud
CHIP CONCLUDES For its quality and performance level, the MSI GL62 6QF is great value. If you’re need a new general purpose laptop that can game without paying too much, do yourself a favour and check this out.
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ASUS GTX 950 2G Price: RM789 Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd., Servex (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Ingram Micro Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Achieva Technology Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 6286 8222, (03) 9274 6000, (03) 7955 1768 Info: www.asus.com/my/ GPU: ASUS GTX 950 Memory: 2GB GDDR5 Clockspeed: 1,051 MHz, 1,228 MHz (boost) Ports: 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort Slot Size: Dual-Slot Other: 768 CUDA cores, 128-bit interface, Dimensions: 210 x 110.3 x 40 mm 3D Mark Fire Strike: 5,465 points Fire Strike Extreme: 2,727 points
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
GPU For All Tired of chasing the premium PC components and want something that just works? This may be the GPU that you need
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s the hype for Nvidia’s upcoming Pascal GPUs grow, people might soon start to forget all about the Maxwell versions. But if what you want to do is play the simpler games or e-sports titles, a GPU like ASUS’ GTX 950 2G is all you’ll need. It comes with a free invite code for a cruiser in World of Warships and gives the user a 15-day premium account for the game. Both of these extras are included with the box of the GPU and are valid for redemption till the end of January 2017. The GTX950 2G is a dual-slot GPU and features a shroud painted in white with blue accents. It’s also one of the shorter cards around. Since it doesn’t need any power connectors to run, ASUS has managed to keep its length at 8.3-inches (210mm), which means it’s almost guaranteed that there would be no clearance issues. ASUS went with a combination of an aluminium heatsink with two low-noise fans for its cooling solution, which should do well for a card with a TDP of 90W. As for I/O, this card should cover all modern displays with one each of HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort. In addition, ASUS pointed out that it matches well with some of ASUS’ Z170 motherboards, such as the Sabretooth Z170 S; this could be considered a boon if you’re the
type to colour coordinate your components. Matching aesthetics and bonuses aside, white has always been a colour that yellows with age, so your mileage may vary. We wished that ASUS actually gave this GPU an extra 6-pin connector to overclock better, since its AUTO-EXTREME production process technology lowers power loss and thermal temperatures of the PCB. This should translate to more stable overclocking, which can’t be fully tested on this GPU. Benchmark scores show that the GTX 950 2G can perform pretty well. We managed to get a score of 5,465 on Fire Strike (2,727 on Fire Strike Extreme), without overclocking our CPU, RAM or the GPU. The lack of an extra power connector does mean that it doesn’t have any more extra overhead for overclocking, but the OC mode still scores above 6,000 points consistently and remains stable. Gamers would be pleased with this GPU’s acoustic performance – even at full speed, the fans barely register as a faint hum in the background. This is great if you stream your gaming sessions, but don’t have a setup that dampens ambient noise. At the same time, the fans can in fact deliver a decent amount of airflow, which kept the card relatively cool at a maximum temperature of 61⁰C.
It’s a relatively short card at 210mm, so most users will not have clearance issues
This GPU’s I/O options are decent, but we wish there are more HDMIi ports
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Quiet No power connector needed Fans deliver good airflow
Can’t overclock much
CHIP CONCLUDES A great option for those who want to game but not have to sell a kidney for it. Quiet, relatively cool, and a great price point – you really can’t ask for more, at least till they launch a GTX 1050.
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MSI Aegis Price: TBA Contact: Mediaforte (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. Phone: (03) 7960 6868 Info: game.msi.com Operating System: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i7-6700 Graphics: NVIDIA GTX970 Memory: 8GB DDR4 Storage: 256GB PCIE SSD, 1 TB HDD Others: Bluetooth 4.1, Full HD webcam, Gigabit LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, SD card reader Dimensions: 433.18mm x 376.11mm x 169.92mm mm Weight: 4kg PCMark Home: 4,151 points PCMark Creative: 3,916 points PCMark Work: 3,662 points 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme: 5,094 points 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 2,656 points
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design:
Compact Wonder
This desktop shows that MSI isn’t just eying the premium enthusiast market for desktop PCs, but also those who have humbler needs
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his month is certainly an exciting one for us and you readers, because we have three desktop gaming PCs to review. One of it is a very fancy, highly compact and somewhat portable entry from our friends at MSI – the MSI Aegis. The Aegis is a surprisingly compact gaming PC that can easily fit in most places. While not as small as the Vortex, it’s still pretty impressive. It has an elongated and angular body, with removable side panels and a useful handle for easy transport. Its right side panel has a small grill that offers a peek at the Nvidia GTX 970 inside, while the front features multiple ‘segments’ with cut outs that have mesh grills revealing the glowing RGB LEDS within. You’ll find the usual I/O ports at the back but not much more in terms of exhaust vents for heat; most of the heat exhausts via the side panel. Speaking of IO ports, MSI has managed to include a good number of options across the board here. First, at the front you’ll find an optical drive, Gen-1 USB 3.1 port, USB 2.0 port, a mic-in and audio-out, as well as the power button to turn this beast on. At the back, there are more USB ports – two USB 2.0 104
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and four Gen-1 USB 3.1 – for you to plug your various peripherals and devices to. There’s even a PS/2 port for peripherals that do need it, as well as a HDMI, two DisplayPorts, two DVI-D ports, and the usual 6-in-1 audio combo. With a GTX970 and an Intel Core i7-, the performance of the Aegis is about as expected. The Witcher 3 is playable on High settings and with Nvidia Hairworks active, running at over 40fps consistently but dipping to 30fps at times. We benchmarked it with Ashes of the Singularity as well, just to see how it will perform on DirectX 12 games. It managed an average of 42 fps, which is more than fair considering that the settings were set to high. It’s possible to add more RAM and or upgrade the parts inside if you want to, but removing the side panel voids the warranty. Acoustically, it’s also quiet; all you’ll hear from the Aegis is a soft hum when the cooling solution is working at its hardest, which didn’t bother us at all. Since the fans don’t make much noise while under automated control, the RPM can be increased for more cooling, which in turn means some extra overhead for overclocking.
For something so compact, the Aegis has a lot of I/O options
The side view of the Aegis gives you a peek at the GPU inside
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Compact size Convenient carry handle
Limited USB ports
CHIP CONCLUDES Considering its form factor, acoustics, cooling, and performance levels, the MSI Aegis is definitely a great gaming PC to consider.
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HP EliteBook 745 G3 Price: TBA Contact: Hewlett-Packard (M) Sdn. Bhd. Phone: 1 800 22 6998 Info: www.hp.com/my
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional Processor: AMD PRO A12-8800B Graphics: AMD Radeon R7 Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Storage: 1TB HDD Others: HD webcam, DisplayPort, USB Type-C Dimensions: 337.8 x 236.2 x 18.8mm Weight: 1.48kg PCMark Work: 2,076 points PCMark Home: 1,923 points PCMark Creative: 3,128 points
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design:
It’s All Business A lightweight laptop perfect for the frequent traveller who wants something sleek and well put together
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hen we were in college, we would see other students lugging around these big heavy laptops. Back then, we wanted a laptop that could do everything. To game, to watch movies, listen to music, and do our college assignments all on one convenient device, and didn’t care much that it weighed like a sack of bricks. Once we start working however, and commute becomes more frequent, the weight and size of those laptops just becomes a hindrance. Time to get a device that was meant for being a lot more portable and efficient. The HP EliteBook 745 G3 is a laptop meant for those who want a mix of portability and efficiency. The laptop is lightweight, weighing at only 1.48kg making it incredibly portable. The smooth and sleek design exudes a professional feel. The EliteBook is powered by the AMD PRO A12-8800B an A-series APU that comes with Radeon R7 Graphics. It also comes with 8GB of RAM which we think is the bare minimum any recent device should have nowadays, and a whopping
1TB of storage. The display is a 14-inch HD display that display colours vibrantly and text crisply, the size is just right for working on assignments, spreadsheets, documents and also for watching media. In terms of connectivity the EliteBook isn’t half bad with ports like DisplayPort and USB Type-C, but there is no HDMI port. It would have been great if it had a HDMI port as that would allow for a variety of video output options. A minor issue we had with the EliteBook was with its bunch of pre-installed software which didn’t really add to our experience, much like how a smartphones comes pre-installed with apps we don’t use. On the bright side, unlike our smartphones we can remove the pre-installed software quite easily but takes a bit of time. But there is more to like than there is to dislike, especially when the EliteBook feels durable and sturdy in hand. The keyboard is comfortable to use and we have no qualms with any part of it, the touchpad is also great as it it’s responsive to our touch with no issues of being sluggish.
The EliteBook 745 G3 sports a USB Type-C port and DisplayPort which you don’t see often on a laptop
There’s VGA and DisplayPort if only HDMI was also present then it would’ve been perfect
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Lightweight Feels well built
Bloatware
CHIP CONCLUDES If you’re looking for a laptop for working on assignments or for your daily commute while working, the EliteBook is quite a decent choice.
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lite & leisure E-SPORTS NEWS
E-Sports Express Latest E-sports news from the region and around the world
By Matthew Yap and Nixon Ng
SKT T1 Takes MSI 2016 It’s hard to say that we did not see this coming, SK Telecom T1 (SKT T1) although losing some matches early on in the Mid-Season Invitational 2016, came back harder and stronger to beat NA-LCS representative Team Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) 3-0 in the finals. Along the way they made their way into the semi-finals with a Group Stage score of 6-4. Losing to CLG, Royal Never Gives Up (RNG), and twice to Flash Wolves (FW). But they were able to take revenge on their losses during the Bracket Stage beating both RNG and CLG and taking home the trophy for the MSI 2016.
Riot Games Rules Against Teams Renegade And TDK After investigation of several allegations from parties involved, Riot has dropped the hammer on Teams Renegade and TDK. For Team Renegade there has been allegations centered around the team’s ownership structure and behaviour, player welfare and treatment within the team and collusion/competitive integrity. Renegades management has been found to have knowingly violate the competitive ban against Chris Badawi who had his right to own any current or future teams until his ban expires. Back in 24 June 2015, Chris was found guilty of soliciting a player under contract from Team Liquid and was suspended eligibility to own an LCS team through the end of the 2016 season. Renegades promised Chris a 50% stake in their team once his suspension has expired, but as per the ruling by Riot this is a violation. As a result both Renegades and TDK are no longer allowed to participate in Riot-sanctioned leagues, Chris Badawi is permanently banned from association or affiliation with any team or organisation participating in Riot-sanctioned leagues, and Christopher Mykles current owner of Renegades is banned for one year from holding any Riot-sanction position within a competing organisation.
No Leeway For Cheaters In Overwatch Even before its official launch date on 24 May 2016, Overwatch already had its fair share of competitive play during the Overkill tournament. We are expecting to see Overwatch join the eSports world very soon, with its fastpaced objective based gameplay. But as with every game there are those who wish to break the game or have an unfair advantage over other players using cheats and hacks. Blizzard in turn has vowed that they would have a zerotolerance policy when it comes to cheaters of their highly anticipated game. Anyone who cheats in Overwatch will be permanently banned from the game, harsh but it’s a move that Blizzard thinks is best for maintaining the fairness and integrity of their game.
YellOwStaR Rejoins Fnatic Bora "YellOwStaR” Kim one of the few players that has made it to the World Championships since Season 1, has decided to leave his current team, Team Solo Mid(TSM) after leaving Fnatic last year to join TSM after only reaching the semi-finals of 2015’s World Championships with Fnatic. YellOwStaR was brought into TSM for his shotcalling abilities, and were able to finish in second place at the NA LCS Playoffs. But despite that achievement TSM has decided that YellOwStaR’s brand of playing support just didn’t mesh with TSM’s team, but it isn’t all a loss as YellOwStaR also has expressed his desire to return to Europe. Well Fnatic fans can now rejoice as YellOwStaR has officially re-joined Fnatic with Fnatic head coach Luis "Deilor” Sevilla Petit openly expressing that YellOwStaR’s return is perfect for the team, also acknowledging his experience, game knowledge and his synergy with Martin “Rekkles” Larsson(current AD carry for Fnatic).
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Drama Strikes Fnatic Dota 2 Squad Controversy hits as Mushi rejoins the Fnatic Dota 2 squad’s main roster, with the organisation deciding to demote Lim Wai Pern ‘Net’ to the substitutes bench. With this change, Erwann Shah (aka ‘343’) gets to play in the position 5 support role that Net occupied before Mushi took time off to recover from asthma treatment. Net initially seemed to accept this, but later decided to quit the team. Initial speculation suggested that Fnatic would lose its direct invite to the Manila Major and The International 6, as the organisation has broken the roster lock-down rule set by Valve: "While a player is locked to a team, the team cannot kick the player, and the player cannot leave the team.” Net would also not be able to compete at TI6 unless he manages to find a new team that would be willing to go through the open qualifiers with him. Later on, Net released a statement on his Facebook page. In the statement, he said that he was not consulted in advance in regards to the plan to swap him to a substitute role. Net also insisted that he was not given the chance to contest the decision. He said (edited for grammar): "I didn’t even have a chance to disagree or discuss about the decision they made. All I got was an apology from the manager.” When asked for clarification, Fnatic’s Dota 2 team manager said that Net is still legally contracted to the team, but is allowed to play for other teams despite his position as a substitute for Fnatic.
EHOME Also Miss Out On Direct Invites To TI6 While Fnatic managed to avoid it on account of a technicality, a team that would definitely miss out on a direct invite to TI6 is EHOME. The Chinese powerhouse have lost their chance at securing any direct invites, as their team’s position 1 carry, Yang Wei Ren ‘eLeVeN’, has announced that he is taking a break from competitive Dota 2 due to personal issues. Having failed to qualify for the Manila Major and the lack of big LAN events for EHOME in the coming months, eLeVen will be taking a break till after TI6. An announcement by EHOME explained that eLeVen wants to be close and available for his currently ill grandfather. A spot on the team will remain available to him, as soon as he’s ready to return. Whether EHOME has found a fifth player to temporarily replace eLeVen is unconfirmed. However, the issue is that because EHOME did not register a substitute player during the roster lock, the team is disqualified from invites. They would now have to fight through the open qualifiers for TI6, in order to have hopes of reaching the big stage in August this year.
E-sports Finally Has An International Association Casters, players, and all parties related to e-sports have discuss and wanted this for a long time now: an international association to for e-sports. With the founding of WESA – the World Esports Association – the industry as a whole can work towards important undertakings such as better standards, protection for players, regulation for tournaments, or even revenue sharing. WESA represents a new era where e-sports stakeholders, be it a player, team, organisation, or broadcasters, can all come to discuss on those important things mentioned above. The organisations that have banded together for this new association include: Fnatic, Natus Vincere, EnVyUs, Virtus.pro, G2 Esports, FaZe, Mousesports, and Ninja in Pyjamas. One of the things WESA did first was to form the Player Council. As the name implies, it is a council of elected by players to represent professional e-sports players. Its aim is to provide a platform for players to influence decisions that go into the regulation side of tournaments and more. Players have been clamouring for a council like this in the last two years and now it is finally available. However, whether it will prove to be effective and of benefit to players is something that we will have to wait and see.
Astro Launches eGG The Malaysian broadcasting company, Astro, has officially launched its very own e-sports channel called eGG (Every Good Game). It will occupy channel 808, which was the same channel that streamed The International 5 from last year and this year’s Shanghai Major. The channel will also be accessible through Astro on the Go. eGG is on 24/7 and will showcase e-sports tournaments from not only Dota 2, but also League of Legends, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Starcraft II. When asked to comment on the launch of the channel, Lee Chong Kay, Astro’s Vice President of Sports said, "Enjoying booming popularity among a growing community of e-sports fans, we believe that eGG will play a pivotal role in bringing together a connected ASEAN community of e-sports fans. eGG plans to partner with main game organisers and developers to bring live top tier global tournaments and on demand content featuring pubstomps, gaming walkthroughs, expert guides, documentaries, game house tours and weekly highlights.”
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lite & leisure CROWDFUND
Made Possible By The Masses Eye-popping crowdfunding projects for tech geeks
By Matthew Yap and Nixon Ng
Ily – Connecting Generations
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here are many who see this era of mobile connectivity as detrimental to personal bonding in families. But it doesn’t have to be! Ily is a device that functions as a hub for children to communicate with their family, without the need to give them their own device. Now you don’t have to worry about your kids growing up with their noses stuck to mobile devices. Assuming you can keep it that way, of course! http://kck.st/21FC81v
BLIPS – Making Portal – WiFi Boosting Casual Photography T Better
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ere’s something people who prefer using only mobile devices to take photos. BLIPS is a set of mini lenses that allow you to snap macro or microscopic images with a mobile device. Both lenses are each attached to an adhesive band, which can then be stuck on any smartphone or tablet. While microscopic might not be very crucial for consumers, a lot of casual photographers or Instagram users are sure to appreciate the ability to snap better macro shots. http://kck. st/23MnvuA
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ired of the terrible performance of the WiFi at your home or office? Time to give it a quick boost! Portal – not the game with the evil AI – is a portable device that is made to cut throw the wireless network congestion to give users greater Wi-Fi throughput. Its Spectrum Turbocharger allows a WiFi network to operate on a protected portion of the 5GHz radio spectrum. In other words, other nearby WiFi networks won’t be able to affect the network. http://kck.st/1qbUXxe
lite & leisure
Make Any Surface Smart!
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nocki is a wireless device that can be attached to ordinary surfaces, and transforms them into powerful yet easy to access remotes for your favourite devices and software. Using Knocki is easy, just tap simple gestures anywhere on a Knocki-enabled surface to automate all kinds of useful actions. Knocki can be used for many different functions such as turning your lights off and on, finding your lost phone, climate control, activating your security alarm, playing your favourite tunes. Combine all of this together and you could turn on music and dim the lights with just a few taps. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/knocki/knocki-make-anysurface-smart?ref=category_popular
Multi-Colour LED Smart Bulb For Your Home
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ube is a multi-coloured Wi-Fi Smart Light Bulb for your home. Using the Qube App you can control your lights anytime, anywhere and also create countless automations. Qube is able to detect your location within the house and create automations on your lights effectively. It can also notify you of calls or messages through your lights. Qube allows you to access your lights from anywhere in the world with internet access, and will notify you if you accidentally forgot to turn of your lights before you leave your home. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/world-s-most-affordable-wi-fismart-bulb#/
World's First Personal Air Conditioner Evapolar is a desktop personal air conditioner that not only chills, but also humidifies and purifies air. Evapolar emulates a soft natural chilling process instead of just producing a cold air thread like the other conditioners, its personal climate is healthy for your skin and hair, and thanks to its portability, Evapolar makes you feel comfortable exactly when you need it and where you need it. The main goal was to develop a device that is not only just safe to use but absolutely eco-friendly, Evapolar doesn't need Freon or any other toxic coolant, and the evaporative materials are easily recyclable and don't deal any harm to the environment. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/world-s-first-personal-air-conditioner#/
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lite & leisure TOUCH
Music Apps Wherever it may be, many of us are playing our favourite tracks as we go about our daily lives. It’s so easy these days, with mobile apps on our smartphones being dimes of a dozen. But what are the best music apps around that you could find? Here are some of the most popular options and why they work By Matthew Yap
Spotify Spotify is a digital music service that allows you to stream songs to your PC or mobile devices. It can also be used to discover new songs and artistes you’ve never known before, thanks to the Discover. The app can be used for free, but has ads that will be played automatically. Users can pay the premium subscription, which removes the ads and enables downloading songs for offline use.
SoundCloud SoundCloud is very similar to Spotify, except it has a website version instead of a PC app. The great thing about SoundCloud is that it’s the better platform if you like to discover indie bands or amateurs that otherwise have no way of being featured on Spotify. It also has playlist creation and offline listening with a premium account.
Apple Music Originally an iOS app, Apple Music is not available on Android. This is another app that focuses on providing a music streaming service to its users. You can discover new songs with it, have social interactions with your favourite artistes, or keep your own playlist. However, access to its repository of 30 million songs is only free for three months.
Google Play Music Google’s own take on music streaming. Its suggested music feature is great especially if you are a Google Chrome user, because it can use your browsing history to find out what music you like best. Besides that, it also has podcasts, a website version, and the capability of storing your personal music files and play it through the app.
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lite & leisure
JOOX Music Launched last year, JOOX Music is an option that’s quickly gaining popularity. What’s different about JOOX is that you are able to share songs in real-time to your friends on WeChat or on WeChat Moments. It’s also got a substantial music library, over 50 radio channels, and personalised playlist.
MTV TRAX The newest kid on the block, MTV TRAX is an app developed by MTV and is currently available in Malaysia, UK and Ireland. It has what we now consider staples – customisable playlists, favourites, offline listening, and more. Of course, some of these are only available to premium subscribers.
Musixmatch Music apps aren’t all about the streaming bit, of course, there’s apps like Musixmatch that enhances your user experience with music streaming apps like Spotify. With this app, you can have floating lyrics that appear as a song plays, identify songs, or Chromecast it to a TV for an impromptu karaoke session.
Shazam Sometimes we swap to radio channels we don’t listen to, then we hear a song we like but can’t identify. Shazam can help with that, easily giving you the name of the song and the performing artiste in seconds. You can also buy the song directly from Google Play Music once you’ve identified the song, and it even integrates with the Google Now voice assistant on Android.
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lite & leisure PLAY
Ratchet & Clank Ratchet and Clank are back, ready to kick ass in this PlayStation 4 reboot of everyone's beloved platforming franchise By Nazrin Zain A Classic Gets A Modern Reboot If you grew up playing games on Sony’s PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles, chances are you’ve already played, or at least heard of Insomniac’s series of platformer games that go by the title of Ratchet & Clank. After years of technological advancements in gaming, fans have been clamouring for a new game, and now have their prayers answered, kind of.
The Game Based On The Movie, Based On The Game The wonderful thing about Ratchet & Clank is that the game functions as both a great nostalgic throwback to the days of old, and a fun new games for those who aren’t familiar with the title. The game starts out easy enough, showing gamers the ropes before plunging them into full fire fights soon enough.
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The storyline is very much the same one from the first game, but with updated graphics, sound and more. In fact, some parts are rewritten in such a way that it reflects some social constructs of current times, such as comments about social media and the like. Old allies and villains make a return, most notably Captain Quark, who is first seen as a galactic hero, only to be found out as a character who not only shirked from his duties, but also one who betrayed the cause.
Gameplay As We Remember It Old fans of the series will fit right in into the game, as Ratchet & Clank’s frenetic pacing serves as a great reminded of how amazing this platformer is. You run, jump, shoot, fly and swim across a multitude of planets with locales that include cities, swamps, beachfronts and more.
Throughout the game, you will receive a variety of upgrade packs, including upgrades to Ratchet’s helicopter back pack, magnetic boots and even the ability to fly in certain areas and maps. All these upgrades are not only required to advance in the story, but also to collect all the collectibles and secret items that are scattered throughout the game. Dogfights also make up a small portion of the game, where you are required to gun down enemy ships. Unfortunately these are one-time affairs, and while your ship does get a weapons upgrade down sometime in the storyline, it’s only used once. Hoverboard racing is also back in Ratchet & Clank. Whilst you only need to clear it to advance in the story, winning each of the Bronze, Silver and Gold Cups will net you goodies, but there are also secrets in the race tracks that will get you more extra stuff as well.
lite & leisure
Weapons Galore Ratchet & Clank games have always been known for their formidable arsenal of weapons, and here it is no different. You start off with the classic Omniwrench, a melee weapon, but as you go along, you will receive a wide variety of guns and grenades, such as the Bouncer, the Combuster, Mr Zurkon, and our personal favourite, the Groovitron, which makes your enemies dance as if they’re in a disco. On top of that, the stats these weapons can also be upgraded thanks to Raritaniums, which you will first only be able to obtain from maps. These upgrades not only include the ability to increase ammo and firepower, but also increase the number of bolts, which is the main currency in this game, as well as Raritanium, from killing enemies. That said, upgrading weapons isn’t as easy as just raking up the Raritanium count, as the actual levelling up process is done by using the weapons over and over. This is to encourage players to try out all the weapons, as some of
them may not necessarily be all too powerful in the beginning. As these weapons level up (all the way to level 5), more upgrade slots open up, allowing you to spend your Raritanium for stat upgrades.
Collectibles. Lots Of Collectibles Another thing that Ratchet & Clank games are famous for is collectibles. This game doesn’t disappoint in that regard either as it has three major things that you’ll definitely want to collect throughout the game: Cards, the RYNO weapon, and Gold Bolts. The cards in the game serve two purposes. First of which is to act as a memento of past games, while the other is to augment your game experience even further. Sets of cards come in threes, and every time you collect a set, you unlock a special boost, be it extra bolts or Raritanium for every enemy killed, weapon augments and more. Initially, the way these cards are collected is by scouring maps to find card packs, but as you upgrade your weapons along the way, each
enemy you kill will also have a chance to drop single cards. For every five duplicates that you obtain (game keeps track of this for you), you can exchange it for one card that is not yet in your inventory. As mentioned earlier, each set of cards come in threes, with the exception of the RYNO card set. This is because obtaining all nine of the RYNO’s card sets nets you the RYNO itself, widely considered to be the most powerful weapon in the game. Each RYNO card is tucked away in relatively hard-to-reach places throughout the game, but once you obtain the weapon, even the final boss of the game is child’s play to its firepower. Similar to other weapons, the RYNO can also be upgraded to level five, with a variety of unlockables included within.
Fun For Everyone As we’ve mentioned earlier, regardless if you’re new or old to the franchise, Ratchet & Clank is easily one of the most fun games to play on the PlayStation 4 this year. It’s got a fun story, a bunch of wacky characters and most important of all, replay value. If you’re still on the fence about this one, we guarantee you’ll definitely be having a lot of fun times with it.
Ratchet & Clank Genre: Platformer Developer: Insomniac Games Info: http://bit.ly/1vBs3HL System Requirements Platform: Sony PlayStation 4
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Fun Replay value
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Main story mode might be a bit too short for some
Gameplay: Graphics: Sound: Replayability:
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practice
1
Change Your Background Make your subject the centre of attention! A new background can make a Lamborghini look even better – all the more so since Photoshop also optimises the details By Glyn Dewis
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amborghini looks impressive against any background. As an advertising motif for a car dealer specialised in luxury cars, the expensive speedster looks perfect in every way. This led our photographers to change the background while post-processing the photo and thus present the racing car in a studio atmosphere instead of an outdoor environment. In this workshop, we will show you how to work out all the details with precision. Moreover, we brightened the car, making it look as good as new, while producing realistic looking reflections and shadows.
How it works
spots and scratches from the bodywork and trim with the ‘‘Spot healing brush” and the ‘‘Copy stamp” . With the ‘‘Burn tool” set to ‘‘Range: midtone”, ‘‘Exposure: 20%” and ‘‘Protect tones”, you can dim tyres, spoilers and the black trim so that they look like they’re fresh out of the Lamborghini factory.
3 Select and take out Now create a selection of the car to take it out of its original background. The ‘‘quick selection tool” is ideal for this. But it would be better if you drew a path using the ‘‘pencil tool” and load it in the window ‘‘paths” using as the selection. Then click on in the level window. This will add a level mask, which will bring out the car.
Increase the ‘‘Depth” in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or Camera Raw to ‘‘+90” and the ‘‘Clarity” to ‘‘+77”. Next, resharpen the ‘‘Details” with ‘‘Value: 60” and set ‘‘Mask” to ‘‘100” in order to confine the sharpening to the wheels and contours of the Lamborghini. To complete the detailing work, remove the slight chromatic aberration in the area of the wheel arches with the command ‘‘Lens correction > Colour” and set the slider of the ‘‘Intensity” to ‘‘4”.
4 Create a studio background
2 Polish perfectly
5 Create reflection
Go to Photoshop and remove the stickers from the tyres and dirty
In the active car level, press [Ctrl] + [J] to create a copy and give it a
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Create the new level ‘‘Floor”, fill it in white and drag it right to the bottom in the level window. Then drag it as the floor, under the car using and keeping the [×] key pressed. Create another white level with the name ‘‘Wall”, drag it under the ‘‘Floor”, and create a ‘‘Tonal correction setting” level, and here, use the slider to set the output white point to ‘‘240” for giving the wall a darker shade.
PHOTO: GLYN DEWIS
1 Work out details
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new name. select ‘‘Level > Level mask > Apply” and then, ‘‘Edit > . Transform > Flip vertical”. Move this level below with the help of Now add a level mask by clicking on and drag a linear path from bottom to top using , with a black foreground, so that the reflection below also fades out.
6 Create shadows Set the opacity of the reflection to ‘‘10”. Now create a level with the name ‘‘Shadow”, and at the wheels, trace a selection as long as the car with the help of . Select ‘‘Edit > Fill area > Content: black” and click on ‘‘OK”. Now remove the selection by pressing [Ctrl] + [D], convert the level into a ‘‘smart object” and apply ‘‘Gaussian blur > Radius: 18.0 pixels”. Reduce the ‘‘opacity” to ‘‘15”.
7 Adjust window colour
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To remove the blue of the sky reflected by the panes, create a setting level ‘‘Hue/Saturation: and select ‘‘Blue hues” from the second dropdown menu. Push together the adjuster between the colour bars and click on the different blue ranges in the window with . Then set the ‘‘hue” to ‘‘-124” and the brightness to ‘‘+86” using the slider bar, and fill in missing areas using .
8 Apply painting effects
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With the key combination [Ctrl] + [×] + [Alt] + [E], group together everything in one level with the name ‘‘Look”, create a copy of it called ‘‘Sharpness”, and hide this copy. Now in the selected ‘‘Look” level, add the filter ‘‘Reduce noise” with ‘‘strength: 10” (residual values to ‘‘0”), and in the selected, visible ‘‘Sharpness” level, select ‘‘Filter > Other filters > High pass > Radius: 1.0 pixels”. Set the fill mode to ‘‘Blend”. Unlike re-sharpening methods such as ‘‘unsharp mask” or ‘‘selective sharpening”, the ‘‘high pass filter” is restricted to sharpening object contours, and thus prevents image noise due to over-sharpening.
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tips & tricks
Tips Tricks JUNE 2016
WINDOWS & OFFICE Windows 8.1 Reset Forgotten Password
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problems. Download the tool, open the file and click on "Next”. Windows will then search for problems and tries to solve them itself. After some time, you will receive feedback informing you whether or not the error has been corrected. In most cases, the problem will be solved successfully. If this is not the case, you can still use the system update preparation tool, which you will find under the URL windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/ What-is-the -System-UpdateReadinessTool.
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Word Create And Print Address Labels
remove the storage medium and keep the CD or USB stick in a safe place. If you enter an incorrect password on Windows later when logging in, the link "Reset password…” will appear under the input field. If you haven’t just mistyped the password, but actually forgotten it, click on the link, and the "Password Wizard” will appear. Now connect your computer to the password reset data storage device. You can then set a new password.
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Windows Update Responding To Error "800b0100”
01 A wizard helps create the data medium for recovering the Windows password
To avoid virtually locking yourself out because of a forgotten password, you should use the option in Windows to create a "password reset data storage device”. For this, you only need an external storage medium, like a blank CD or a USB stick. Open the "Control panel”, click on "User accounts and family safety”, then go to "User accounts” and there, click on "Create password reset disc”. Now, the "Forgotten Password Wizard” will open. After clicking on "Next”, select the drive that you want to use as your password reset data storage device, from the drop-down menu. Windows will now ask you for the current password, and create the password reset data storage device after this password is entered. Then,
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02 Microsoft provides a tool for problem control – simply download and start
If you get the error message "800b0100” while updating Windows, the best thing to do is contact Microsoft directly. If you open the link http://go.microsoft.com/ fwlink/?LinkId=231149, you will find the manufacturer’s diagnosis tool for handling
While creating envelope labels, you can select from different formats
If you use letter envelopes without an address window, you can make attractive address labels in Word. Open the word processor and click above on the tab "Mailings”. Depending on the Office version, you will see the button "Labels” or "Letterings” in the menu ribbon, under the field "Create”. When you click on it, a new window will open – type in the address of the recipient here. You can also choose a recipient from your Outlook contacts by clicking on the Address book button. In order to pick a design for your label, click on the button "Options”. If you want to print pre-cut labels, select the manufacturer and model from here. You can also choose your own style sheet by pressing the button "New label”. Click on "OK” and finally choose whether you want an entire page of labels ("One page of the same label”) or you only need "One label”. Click on "New document” to move the label to Word. You can now modify the size, font, and colour. Then use the shortcut [Ctrl] +
tips & tricks [P] to print the labels.
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Windows 7 Restore your operating system without a CD
your data, you can enter the next step by clicking on "Next”. Windows will now
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Outlook Export Contacts In The Event Of A Version Change
06 After deleting the Application.manifest file, the Windows 10 settings can be opened again
04 In the "Recovery” mode, you can restore Win7 even without the installation CD
The Windows installation CD is very helpful if you want to restore Windows 7 to default. But you can still do this without a CD. But do not forget to back up your personal data and programs beforehand. If your computer’s manufacturer has stored the Windows 7 installation on your PC, carry out the following steps: open the Control Panel and go to the category "System and security”. Under "Back up and restore”, you will see the item "Restore system settings on the computer” below. Next, click on “Advanced restoration methods”, select the option "Reset computer to its factory settings”, and follow the instructions. However, if you stumble upon the option "Reinstall windows (Windows installation data storage device required)”, you must reset Windows 7 using the recovery method. When your computer starts, look out during the booting process, for the note at the lower corner of the screen that tells you to press a function key to go into the recovery mode. This is usually done with the [F11] or [F9] keys; if not, try the other function keys. On certain notebooks, the [Fn] key at the bottom left of the keyboard has to be pressed in order for the function keys to be operated. If you haven’t responded fast enough, you’ll have to repeat the booting process. Once your computer is in recovery mode, select the item "Recovery” with the arrow key. Since you’ve already backed up
05 You can find the field "Export” in the advanced options of Outlook
When you switch from an old Outlook version to a latest one, you can take along your contacts without too much effort. For Outlook 2010 and 2013, the following procedures are recommended: call up the menu command "File > Options > Advanced”. In the "Export” field, click on the button of the same name. In the list that opens, select the item "Export to file” and click on "Next”. In the next selection, mark the entry "comma-separated values (Windows)” and click on "Next”. Now open the folder "Contacts” and click on the "Next” button again. Now, select a storage location, and click on "Next” and then "Finish”. In Outlook 2003 and 2007, open "File > Import/Export”. A window will subsequently open, in which you will see a list of storage types. Check "Export to file” and click on "Next”. Then go to “commaseparated values (Windows)” and press the "Next” button again. Now open the folder "Contacts”, press "Next”, specify a storage location, and click on "Next” and then "Finish”.
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Windows 10 Make Settings Accessible Again
The settings on Windows 10 give you quick access to important elements in the control panel. However, every once in a while, it so
happens that the settings can’t be opened. If you have recently installed Windows 10, the problem can usually be solved quickly. Microsoft has specially released a problem solution under the link aka.ms/ diag_settings, which rectifies the errors. Download the file and open it. When you click on "Next”, the tool will search for problems and solve them on its own. If the problem occurs only after Windows has been used for a long time, you will need to rectify it manually. A certain file is usually responsible for the settings being blocked. In order to delete it, you will need the necessary rights to do so. Open Explorer, go to the item "This PC” and navigate to the path "C:\Windows\ Immersive-ControlPanel”. Now right-click on the file "Application.manifest” and open "Properties”. Then open "Security”, select the "User” and click on "Advanced”. Go up to the link "Modify” and enter the PC name, followed by "User”, e.g. "TimsPC\ User”. After clicking on the button "Check name”, close the window by clicking on "Apply” and then "OK”. Close all further windows by pressing "OK” and open the file’s "Properties” again. Then go back to "Security” and click on "Edit”. Select the "User” and enable the option "Allows” under "Full access”. You can now delete the file "Application.manifest” – and the Windows settings can now be opened again.
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Word Correct Incorrectly Set Hyphenation
When the hyphenation feature of the word processor doesn’t work, the relevant fields are usually not formatted correctly.
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tips & tricks
7 Remove the tick next to ''No hyphenation”, and Word will go back to separating words properly
So, highlight the section of text where you want to hyphenate the syllables, and click on "Page layout > Hyphenation > Automatic”. If the hyphenation feature still doesn’t work, the style sheet can also be responsible for this. Open the tab "Start” and right-click on the style sheet that you’re using at the moment. Now select "Change > Format > Paragraph”. In the tab "Line and page break”, remove the tick next no "No hyphenation”. Also enable the option "Check spelling as you type” under "Document proofing”. If none of these steps yield the desired result, copy a part of your file on to a new document by way of trial. If the hyphenation feature works, the problem could lie in the original file. In this case, copy the entire text and paste it in a new document.
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Windows 10 Solve Registration Problems And Secure Activation
When Windows reports the error "This copy of Windows is not genuine”, there is a
problem with the registration. The message appears if you haven’t yet entered your product key or it is already being used on another PC, for instance. To fix this problem, open the Control Panel and open the category "System and Security”. Under "System”, right at the bottom, you will see "Windows Activation”. There, click on "Change Product Key” or "Activate Windows”. Now enter the right code or a new one. If the activation still doesn’t work, you will need to contact Microsoft. You can use the Advanced Token Manager to back up the Windows activation easily. Once the EXE file starts, you will find your product key, which you can also write down now, in the second row. Click on "Activation Backup” to create a backup of your Windows and Office activation on the desktop. On Windows 8 and later versions, you will also find the Windows activation in the folder "C:\ Windows\System32\spp\store”.
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Windows 10 Create A Customised Lock Screen
You can give the lock screen of your Windows 10 computer a personal
08 You can change or re-enter the Windows 10 product key in the applet "System” on the control panel
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touch very easily. Open the start menu and click on the "Settings” and select "Personalisation”. Click on "Lock screen” on the left and select an image. You can click on "Browse” to set a photo of your own for the lock screen. Even more interesting is the option of defining multiple images as a source. To do this, navigate to the tab "Lock screen”. There, open "Background” and go to the drop-down menu called "Picture” and select "slideshow”. Click on "Add folder” to provide the application with a picture folder.
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Windows Use The Command Prompt As An Administrator
10 Configure the advanced properties to run the Windows panel as administrator in the future
You mainly need the Command Prompt when the normal user interface isn’t working. You can then call up specific information or start programs using it even when your system has problems. To start the panel on Windows 7, open the start menu and enter "cmd” into the search window. Once the [Enter] button is pressed, the prompt will appear.
9 Determine how your lock screen should look in the field "Personalisation” in the Windows 10 settings
tips & tricks Be it Windows 7, 8 or 10 – there is an identical way to the panel for all three operating system versions. Use the shortcut [Windows] + [R] to open the "Run” window, enter "cmd” there, and click on "OK” – the panel will now open. To perform certain actions, you will need administrator rights in order to be able to use the Windows panel. But it won’t hurt to open the panel all the time as administrator either. To run the panel as admin just one time, search for "Command prompt” in the search window of the start menu. Rightclick on the link and then select "Run as administrator” in the context menu. If you want to start the command line as administrator every time, search again for the "Command prompt”, right-click on the link and open "Properties”. Now go to "Advanced” and tick the box next to the option "Run as administrator”. After clicking on "Confirm”, you can use the Windows panel permanently as administrator.
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later select the mailing list. Now switch to the tab "Contact group” and click on "Add members” under the category "Members”. Here, select the option "From Outlook contacts”, "From address book” or "New e-mail contact”. Enter the name or e-mail addresses of the contacts and then click on the "OK” button. Outlook will then save the mailing list under the name specified. Later, when you open a new mail, you can simply enter the name of the mailing list in the address field to send it to all the members.
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Windows Bring an incessantly restarting computer back to its senses
Outlook 2010 Create A Mailing List For Mass Mails
12 Removing the tick next to "Automatically restart” will prevent the PC from restarting all the time
11 With a couple of mouse clicks, compile as many "Contact” groups as you want to in Outlook
If you often send mails to a certain group of people from your Outlook contacts, creating a mailing list would be rather useful. Open the tab "Start”, click on "Contacts” at the bottom left, upon which the menu bar above will change. From the group "New”, select the option "New contact group”. A new window will subsequently open. In the field "Name” first enter the name of the mailing list, e.g. "Friends” or "Colleagues”. Under this name, you can
Then check your computer for corrupt system files. Use the search window on the taskbar to open "Command prompt”, right-click on it and select "Run as administrator”. Then enter "sfc /scannow” in the panel. in some cases, a certain setting could be responsible for the string of restarts. Go to the control panel and open "Power options > Advanced”. Under "When I press the power button”, select "Shut down”.
Windows Uninstalling Stubborn Programs
If a program can’t be deleted, there’s probably a problem with the installer program. First try deleting the program again and wait for the uninstaller to open. If this doesn’t work, you can try to reinstall the software in order to overwrite the faulty installation. You should now be able to delete the program. Alternatively, you can use the uninstaller from the program folder. You can also try to restore the PC to an earlier time with the system recovery feature. If nothing helps, try out a tool like Revo Uninstaller.
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Powerpoint Crop Images To Fit Presentations Perfectly
You can use a few inserted pictures to If your PC keeps starting up again after make PowerPoint presentations less monotonous quickly. To fit your photos you’ve shut it down, the fault could lie with an incorrect system setting. In Windows optimally, you don’t need a separate versions 8 and 10, this can be rectified in tool – you can do this very quickly within PowerPoint itself. the control panel. Go to "System” and from there, to "Advanced system settings”. On First, insert the image in PowerPoint. the tab "Advanced”, click on "Settings” under "Startup and recovery”. In the field "System Failure”, remove the tick next to "Automatically restart” and save this setting by clicking on "OK”. If this doesn’t help or you’re using Windows 7, you should first make sure that you’ve 14 installed all the The presentation tool offers several different options for cropping inserted updates for Windows. pictures to the ideal size
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tips & tricks Then click on it and go to the new tab "Picture Tools”. In the field "Size”, click on "Crop”. Here, you will have the option of cropping the picture to the desired "Shape” or a specific "Aspect Ratio”. For the normal crop, select the option "Crop” in the opened menu. Now drag the picture section to the desired size. Finally, click on a field next to the shape so that PowerPoint applies the changes.
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Windows Insert special characters and symbols using the character map
15 The character set of all fonts on Windows has the character map ready – just click and insert
The Windows character map gives you an overview of the entire character set that a font can depict. Characters can also be copied and inserted into a document from this table. To do this, use the shortcut [Windows] + [R] to open the "Run” window, enter "charmap” in the "Open” row and then click on "OK”. In the character map window, click on the desired symbol and then on the buttons "Select” and "Copy” before inserting the character in your document.s
uniformly across all hard drives included, hard drives and pick a RAID level. Then exit which considerably increases the access the BIOS by pressing the [F10] key. speed. For users, the RAID 0 network acts as a large hard drive. However: if one hard drive malfunctions, all your data is gone. Graphics card Remove Buzzing Sounds From The If you want to mirror your data on two Graphics Card hard drives, go for RAID level 1. RAID 5 combines the speed and capacity increase of RAID 0 with the failure safety of RAID Every now and then, the graphics card 1. For this, you’ll need at least three hard emits a buzzing sound. This is because drives. Two disks will store one data block of transducer coils, which under full load, each, the third, for security, and parity of create these unpleasantly high-frequency information. noises. When setting up the RAID network, you should make sure that the hard drives you select for connecting to a RAID adapter are by the same manufacturer and of the same size. If this adapter isn’t available already, integrate one. Before turning on your OC, disconnect it from the mains and earth yourself by touching a heating 17 pipe, for instance. Insert Turn down the power of the graphics card a bit using a frame limiter, in the RAID adapter carefully order to prevent buzzing sounds into a free PCI or PCIe To stop this coil buzzing, you should slot and connect the hard drives of the reduce the power of your graphics card a RAID network. You can now screw down the PC and start it. bit. Use a Frame Limiter for this. With this, Configure the RAID network in the the graphics card will no longer compute as BIOS. If you have a motherboard with many frames per second (fps) as possible, RAID support, you should search for a but only as many as specified by you. RAID configuration interface in the system The simplest way of limiting the BIOS. If not, another screen showing a frame computing is to enable vertical keystroke combination for opening the synchronisation (Vsync). This setting can be RAID configuration will appear after the accessed in virtually all games and also the POST BIOS screen. This is usually [CTRL] + nVidia and AMD GPU drivers, and adjust [A] or [CTRL] + [R]. Now select your RAID the fps rate to the image refresh rate of the monitor. The coil buzzing should no longer occur now. If this method doesn’t work, and your graphics card is still within its warranty period, you can try to replace the card.
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HARDWARE RAID network Speed Up Your System And Make It Fail-proof
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A RAID network allows you to combine several hard drives, improving system performance and optimising the security of your data. Which RAID level you should go for depends on the goal that you want to achieve with the RAID network. RAID 0 distributes all data blocks
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16 In the BIOS, select the hard disks for your RAID network
SSD storage Optimise An Already Fast SSD
Integrating a solid state disk (SSD) into your PC is the ultimate tuning measure. But even this fast storage device can be optimised by some tweaking. Unlike magnetic hard disks, you don’t need to defragment SSDs. You can therefore safely disable this feature. To do
tips & tricks
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Disable the function "Prefetcher” in the Windows registry database
In the BIOS, select the hard disks for your RAID network
Make the entries in a terminal of the operating system Raspbian
this, open "This PC” in the Explorer using the combination [Windows] + [E], right-click on the SSD drive and open "Properties”. In the tab "Tools, click on "Defragment now” and go to "Configure timetable” at the top left. Now click on "Select data storage device”, remove the tick next to the drive and close all windows by pressing "OK”. Even the pre-fetching feature that presorts files in HDDs that Windows needs at start-up is unnecessary when it comes to SSDs. Use the shortcut [Windows] + [R] to open the "Run” window and go to the registry with the command “reg edit". There, go to the path "HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\Prefetch Parameters”. After double clicking on the entry “"Enable Prefetcher”, change the value to "0”. There is great write access to the SSD as soon as the PC comes out of the hibernation mode, and will affect its service life strongly. You should therefore disable the hibernation mode and instead completely switch off your computer at all times. Open the "Run” windows again by pressing [Windows] + [R] and type "cmd” to call up the "cmd.exe”. Here, enter the command "powercfg-H off” and confirm the disabling of the hibernation mode by pressing [Enter]. Incidentally, deleting the file "hyberfil.sys”, which earlier was downloaded every time the computer was woken up, also frees up a good amount of storage space.
wrong settings in the BIOS and your system is no longer working properly. Switch off your PC and disconnect it from the mains. Then press the power button again to use up the residual current in the device. After opening your PC, you will see a small button battery on the mainboard. Take it out after pressing the latch lightly on one side. Wait for about two minutes, re-insert the battery and insert it back into the computer.
save the configuration by pressing [Ctrl] + [X], then [Y] and [Enter]. Finally, initiate a restart of the network service with "sudo / etc/init.d/networking restart”.
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BIOS Restore BIOS To Factory Settings
Resetting helps if you’ve performed the
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Raspberry PI Define A Fixed IP Address For Raspberry Pi
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Power Supply Unit What To Do When Your Power adapter Hisses
If your computer’s power supply adapter suddenly emits hissing noises, this could often be because of dust or dirt particles. Important: Before investigating the cause, always disconnect the PC from the mains! Open the casing and check the power adapter and fan. Usually, you’ll find that a lot of dust and dirt has gathered there, which you can carefully get rid of using a vacuum cleaner. Furthermore, all the fans should be free and run noiselessly. If the clattering can be traced to worn out bearings, you should contact a technician to get the fans replaced.
If you want to prevent your Raspberry Pi from repeatedly getting a new IP address in the home network via DHCP, give it a fixed address. For this, start the terminal and call up the command "netstat –r –n”. Then, in the column "Gateway”, search for the IP address of your router and note it down. Now open the network configuration with "sudo nano/etc/ network/interfaces”. Then replace the line "iface eth0 inet dhcp” with the following four lines: "iface eth0 inet static”, "address 192.168.178.28”, "netmask 255.255.255.0” and "gateway 192.168.178.1”. Under "address”, you can now enter your preferred IP address. However, it must be in the allowed address space. For the address behind the "gateway”, enter 20 the router’s IP address that Carefully vacuum-cleaning dirt and dust will make your computer much quieter and help it run more efficiently you’ve written down. Now
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16/5/2016 – Is that Fabio holding the new Acer laptop?
27/4/2016 – The ASUS ROG GX7 photo 27/4/2016 – Everyone clawing for a toy at ROG’s tenth anniversary 126
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12/5/2016 – Three ZTE’s are better than one, wait thats not how it’s suppose to go
12/5/2016 – The MSI Dragon mascot makes an appearance at the Vortex launch, everyone was tempted to kidnap it chip malaysia
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in the next issue JULY
COMPUTEX 2016 We’ll be heading off to Taipei to cover the latest and greatest at Computex 2016. Stay tuned for more!
Are Startups The Future? Is it the start of something entirely new? How are startup companies that don’t produce anything making so much money?
Declaring War On Snoopers Just when you thought you were safe, actually you’re not. Learn a few simple ways to keep yourself protected without the loss of comfort or performance.
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