Gladget Magazine May 2013

Securing social media accounts

Should news on the internet be paid for?

Password Priority

What Cost?

Android OS is all about customisation

R evie w s inc luding Eps o n, M SI, J abra, Nokia, S t eelS eries and more. . .

Free

MSI aims for the PC gamer market

I S S U E 3 1 / Vo l . 3 May 2013

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Online Mag

www.gameccamag.com Taking fun seriously!

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• Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel • Injustice: Gods Among Us • Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate • Luigi’s Mansion 2 • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 and more...

Two War!

Army of Two returns

Zombie Slasher A new island and lots of undead in Dead Island: Riptide

Head back to life in the Metro...

Super-Fight!

DC Superheroes do battle in Injustice: Gods Among Us

Free Online Mag

Inside 6

From the Editor

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Did You Know?

YouTube, W-Fi, Alexander Graham Bell and more...

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Tshabablabber Do we need another franchise splashed everywhere?

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Get Gaming The move towards specialised gaming PC components

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Proper Password-Protection Don’t get hacked!

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What Price Kowledge Will the future reliability of information be determined by the depth of our pockets?

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The Personal Touch Android is all about customisation...

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Lookng Back: 1972 Gaming madness begins

This Month’s Cover MSI enters the gaming PC component race. See our feature on page 12...

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Reviews Lots of great stuff you want to get!

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Reviews

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MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming Motherboard

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SteelSeries Apex Raw Gaming Keyboard

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Razer Kraken Pro Analogue Gaming Headset

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Razer Deathadder Essential Ergonomic Gaming Mouse

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Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Graphics Card

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Belkin Dual-Band Wireless Range Extender

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Ferrari by Logic3 T250 On Ear Headphones

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Jabra Street2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset

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Nokia Lumia 920 Smartphone

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MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III Graphics Card

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Nokia Wireless Charging Pillow by Fatboy

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MSI HD 7970 Twin Frozr III Graphics Card

Letters: letters@gladgetmag.com

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Razer Abyssus Essential Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse

Competition Entries: competitions@gladgetmag.com

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Ferrari By Logic3 R200 On Ear Headphones

Newsletter Subscriptions: www.gladgetmag.com

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Asus E2KM1I-Deluxe Mini-ITX Motherboard

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SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive

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Belkin 4-Port Flex-Hub

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Epson EH-TW550 Home Projector

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Injustice: Gods Among Us (PS3)

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The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (X360)

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Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel (X360)

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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 (X360)

GLADGET Volume 3 Issue 31 May 2013

Editor: Katia Taliadoros katia@1337-media.com Writers: Alex Scanlon Andy Taliadoros Charlie Fripp Iwan Pienaar Lein Baart Pippa Tshabalala Rob Edwards Suvesh Arumugam Walt Pretorius

Design & Photography: 1337 Media Marketing Contact: Katia Taliadoros katia@1337-media.com

technology. simply.

All rights reserved. No content may be reproduced, copied or transmitted without the express permission of the publishers. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the editors and publishers. All Trademarks and Registered Trademarks are the sole property of the respective owners.

GAMECCA is published by 1337 MEDIA

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Copyright © 1337 Media CC 2009 - 2013

5

BoundariesUnlimited?

by Katia Taliadoros

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From the Editor

n the 18th Century, English social theorist Jeremy Bentham created an institutional building which was panopticon in nature: ‘Pan’ refers to inmates and ‘opticon’ means to observe. This gave the watchman of the facility the opportunity to watch the inmates without their knowledge.

Since then this concept has been embraced by many who want the power to control or entertain, or entertain to condition control. What is discomforting is that we, as a voyeuristic society, delight in supporting most reality shows, giving us the opportunity to relish in expressing our judgement over every poor soul who wishes to achieve their 15 minutes of fame in a social media environment.

For all those of you who are Ben Elton fans, a favourite of mine is his original 2007 bestseller ‘Blind Faith’. This is an ambitious, fictitious story based on a disturbing future reality in which all forms of privacy, information, confidentiality, isolation, retreat or simple solitude are considered criminal acts against the government and its people. In fact, if one did not post their whole lives online it was considered a perversion. It is a future where a population is dumbed down by a lack of education, as their sole source of absorbing knowledge

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is filtered through an unreliable information core called “Goog’ing” and “tubes”.

A panopticon society, gone wrong on so many levels…

In our reality today, we have hints of these extreme scenarios slowly infiltrating into our day to day living. Albert Einstein said: “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity”.

One can only but wonder where we are heading and what lies in store for children’s future realities. Certainly, technology, information and social media have made life richer and so much easier, but are we as human beings, with the bazaar nature we encompass, really ready for the exponential growth in technological change? Or will we head towards a similar fate where our intention towards information and education may be challenged by our selfish need to take control?

As far as information is concerned, the internet’s vast knowledge base is so incredibly awesome and yet it can be so awesomely unreliable. Where do we find the balance in sifting through our sources, especially when social media is starting to become the number one source in revealing information and news? Who do we believe or trust? The issue of free information versus paid

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information is also troubling; will our pockets have to define the legitimacy of information in the near future?

So what can we do? Your guess is as good as mine.

Gertrude Stein said: “Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense”. We all have to take responsibility for our actions and their consequences; why should this be any different. With every challenge in life, whether collective or not, I believe that the first step towards finding any solution is awareness!

In this month’s issue, Suvesh delves a little deeper into this subject as he takes a look at the accuracy of online information in his feature ‘What Price Knowledge’. Ivan brings to light the basics of passwords, as the key to opening your virtual reality of digital data and Pippa, once again, inspires us with “The Personal Touch”…using apps in Android customisation. Check out the review section if you are looking for a motherboard or a graphics card… you may find something worth your while.

As for me, I will leave you with this thought:” For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled”…

Richard P. Feynman.

Hope you enjoy the Mag... it is free information and it is legit! g

Did You

Know?

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…that one of most popular programmes in the world is FutureSplash Animator?

Well, technically it is, but not really. FutureSplash Animator was created by designer Jonathan Gay in 1996 as a vector-based animation editor for Gay’s company FutureWave Software. FutureSplash Animator was used back in the day on websites such as Microsoft’s MSN, Fox’s official The Simpsons website, but was bought by Macromedia in 1996, who promptly changed the name to Macromedia Flash. Skip ahead nine years, and the product was turned into the one we know better today - Adobe Flash.

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…that broadband is classified as faster than 1.2Mb? The worldwide standard for broadband has been set at 1.2Mb/s through various standards.

This speed was specifically chosen to be labelled as broadband, as it has enough capability to for streaming high definition video, playing online games and sending and receiving large amounts of data. But in South Africa the situation is a little different. The Department of Communications have repeatedly said that the classification of broadband in the country is anything faster than 256Kb/s. This is due to a number of factors, but most importantly the infrastructure for widespread deployment of 1.2Mb/s internet isn’t readily available.

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Regular

…that Comic Sans was created in 1994?

Whether technology users love it or hate it, Comic Sans is one of the most popular fonts around the world. Not only are users committing font-crimes on webpages, presentations and slideshows, but the font is widely used in birthday cards, comic books, restaurant menus and signs. The font was created by former Microsoft font designer Vincent Connare, who also designed Trebuchet and some of other Wingdings. But even the creator is very fond of him own creations, as he once Tweeted that “Comic Sans is the best joke I ever told.”

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Comic Sans, Wifi and Alexander Graham Bell... fun facts from the tech world.

by Charlie Fripp

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…that Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything?

Wi-Fi has become one of the most widely used technologies across the world – even in developing nations. It allows users to connect to the internet through a wireless portal no matter where they are – as long as they are connected to the Wi-Fi network and in range. But contrary to popular believe, the word Wi-Fi isn’t an acronym nor does it stand for something.

Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, explained that it was just a made-up word. “Wi-Fi doesn’t stand for anything. It is not an acronym. There is no meaning. Wi-Fi and the ying yang style logo were invented by Interbrand, and we asked them to come up with the name and logo that we could use for our interoperability seal and marketing efforts. We needed something that was a little catchier than “IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence”.

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…that Youtube freezes some video views at 301?

Viewers of popular videos on Youtube might have noticed that sometimes a particular video will have thousands of likes on the site, yet only have 301 views – the number of viewers who actually looked at the video. Well, Youtube sometimes freezes the view count on purpose in an effort to stop fraud and to determine which views are legitimate, and which ones are from bots or people who arrived at the video by accident or baiting. Views on Youtube are seen as a form of online currency, and the more views a video gets, the higher the income for some users.

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…that Alexander Graham Bell’s voice can be heard 130 years later?

Technology truly is amazing. Back in the 1880s, Alexander Graham Bell invented the frontrunner to the telephone that we all know and use today. During the process and while experimenting with different ideas, Bell managed to record his own voice onto a wax disc. Well, that recording has now been retrieved by the Smithsonian Museum in the US, and they played back his original recording. Making use of some clever technology, they created a digital reconstruction of the recording and extracted the sound waves from it. Bell’s voice can now be heard for the first time, 130 years after it was recorded. . g

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Amazing Franchise Opportunity!

Tshabablabber

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I

’m not quite sure why - you’d think I would be somewhat cynical by now - but I am perpetually amazed at the number of franchise games that are released, often aimed unashamedly at our children, whenever a new animated movie hits the circuit.

I’m formally trained in animation, so I have no shame in admitting that I love watching animated movies. In fact so many animated shorts and features these days are not aimed at children at all, and animation is in fact a wonderful way to address difficult and ambitious subject matter, while still making it accessible.

That said, many parents rush to take their children to the latest “cartoon” on circuit, and the result is that not only are they then often coerced into buying the DVD for their child as well as all the other clothing/stationary/ crockery/whatever else there is branded paraphernalia. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy these things for your child, I’m certainly guilty of giving in to the fact that my son is

Author’s photograph by Adrian Louw

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obsessed with Cars and Jake and the Neverland Pirates, but it really gets to me when I can see an obvious attempt at making money from whatever distributor is responsible for the movie.

What I find more interesting however, are the accompanying mobile/tablet games that are released alongside said movie, many of which are free. Although some of them have in app purchases, this isn’t always standard practice, and so I’m intrigued as to the purpose. Is it merely to raise awareness and develop brand loyalty? Is it to encourage the purchase of other items (such as the aforementioned clothing etc)? These rationalisations make more sense when the game is in many ways a replica of the events in the movie, or at least related in some way, but the games that really baffle me are free mobile games such as The Croods.

Created by Rovio, The Croods mobile game is more a strategy, or at the very least “collection”, game than you would expect from such a fun and fast paced movie, and I can’t really imagine

Pippa Tshabalala

that it would appeal to many children, or at least none who have the attention span of my son anyway. It’s an incredibly slow game, not bad, but just uninspired. Yes, you can spend real money through in app purchases, but while playing StarCraft and using cheat codes to speed up your building is frowned upon, it appears social game developers such as Rovio in fact encourage this form of “cheating”.

I suppose if your game is free to download and play, and other people are the ones raking in the cash from licensed items in the franchise, (because of course I totally know how that works) you have to make your money back somewhere. So at let’s say, $0.99 for each in-app purchase, with a conservative estimate of 1 Million installs on Android alone, the turnover is probably relatively significant. Of course, this is all just speculation and musing on my part, I have absolutely no idea how any of this works – feel free to educate me if you wish, but I have to wonder how much of a cut DreamWorks get out of my $0.99c? g

The modern video game industry owes everything to the development of computer technology. Even video game consoles, in their current and upcoming forms, have a lot of computer influence in them. While computers and video game consoles came at roughly concurrently, the present state of consoles includes a lot of hardware and architecture that arose from the computer tech industry. It is somewhat odd, then – or perhaps not, if you really think about it – that PC gaming has seen a decline, while many players move towards consoles.

Get Ga Interview

PC gaming surges ahead with fo

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aming

ocussed components. gladget31

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F

Interview Feature

or many years, PCs were the most powerful machines on which to experience games. They still are, in fact, but many will cite reasons like the almost eternal need to upgrade for their move towards the more user-friendly console systems. These days, a PC game easily be rated by its ability to play the latest games. Where gaming software was once simple, it now represents some of the most complex programming around.

Gamers demand not only excellent graphics, but also intelligent enemies, good sound and realistic physics. All of these factors, and more, contribute to the fact that, to run the latest games properly, you need a powerful PC.

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While there has been a decline in PC gamer numbers, the simple truth is that there are still millions of gamers around the globe who turn to the PC as their source of entertainment. Competitive gaming still takes place mostly on PC platforms, and the growing popularity of ideas like eSports and online play is seeing increases in PC gaming activity. More gamers are entering the market, and many of them are looking for reliable PC equipment that will provide them with fast and effective performance.

The evolution of the common computer into the modern gaming PC was a slow one, at least in terms of this fast paced industry. The first real step towards realising the potential of these machines

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was the creation of the sound card. Until 1988, sound cards were not common at all. But manufacturers like Creative Labs soon popularised the idea of realistic sounds, which lead to more than just gaming advances. In fact, sound has become an integral part of the modern computer, as people use their machines to listen to music, watch movies and even communicate verbally with others around the globe.

Sound has become integrated‌ most motherboards now offer full surround sound on-board, often augmented by chipsets that improve the quality of the audio. One of the first moves towards the modern gaming rig, the sound card, has once again become somewhat uncommon.

During the 1990s, another definitive gaming component underwent its evolution. In fact, this particular component is the one true identifier of a modern gaming PC: the graphics card. This device, in its modern guise, handles many of the functions that games require, including graphics (obviously) and physics calculations. No gaming PC – serious gaming PC – is without a graphics card. While motherboards sometimes offer integrated graphics solutions, none can truly compare to the dedicated performance of these devices, which are sometimes doubled up inside the PC for more power.

As the PC gaming industry grew and evolved, a plethora of other devices and components sprang

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Interview Feature

up. Whether peripherals like specialised mice, keyboards and headphones, or components like faster RAM and solid state drives, the video gamer using a PC as his main source of gaming has benefitted greatly. But these other components are not indicative of gaming in the same way that the graphics card is.

Recently, a number of component manufacturers started promoting another essential gaming device; the motherboard. Among these companies is MSI, a Taiwanese component manufacturer founded in 1986.

With a strong sense of the importance of the game market firmly in place, MSI have launched a

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range of products designed at improving the overall PC gaming experience. One such product range are the Z77 gaming motherboards, which use specialised LAN systems to ensure smooth networked gaming, as well as improved device ports, military class III components, multiple graphic card optimisation, top notch audio and more to enhance PC gaming.

The motherboard, though, is not like the graphics card I that it is an integral part of any PC system.

A computer simply cannot exist with it. Will the Z77 range, and others like it, be able to evolve into distinctive gaming components, rather than those that straddle a line between gaming and general computing? It seems that this is the direction that

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MSI wants to go, although time will be the true judge of that.

In addition to the Z77 motherboard range, MSI are also producing high-end graphics cards as part of their gaming range, signifies by the bold dragon logo on the packaging (and, in some cases, even on the components themselves). AT the time of writing the Nvidia 650Ti is the chipset of choice for this gaming range.

The way people perform their computing tasks has changed over the years, too, and to this end MSI have not only included the impressively specced GE60and GE70 gaming notebooks in their gaming stable, but have also produced the world’s first high All-In-One

gaming PC. The integrated 27 inch non-glare screen works with top notch components, like a GeForce GTX670M graphics processor and 3rd generation Intel Core processor to deliver a level of gaming experience never before seen in this kind of computing solution.

With companies like MSI pouring a lot of time and effort into evolving hardware better suited to computer based video gaming, it is likely that the activity will not only grow stronger, but indeed flourish. As more and more South Africans enter the market – with South Africa being a strong bastion for PC gaming – the future of the activity, thanks to forward thinking component manufacturers, looks very bright indeed. g

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are taking extra security precautions that involve all sorts of additional verification for mobile apps. Yet, that does not mean you are not at risk should the device get lost.

With all the personal information stored on your mobile device and through email, there is always the possibility that your identity could be stolen and used for all sorts of nefarious activities.

Impractical though it may seem, the only reliable way to make sure your apps are never exposed, is to log out each time you are finished with them. This will ensure that even if your phone or tablet is stolen there would be no way your passwords can be changed or your data stolen.

The first line of defence is to always use a password to protect your device, making sure that it is set to kick-in after a little inactivity. Whatever method of protection you use there is a lot to lose if your mobile sidekick falls into the wrong hands so it is best to use as much protection as possible.

Effective password creation, be it for a computer, mobile device or anything else, is not difficult. However, there are certain guidelines that should be considered. For example, using anything relates to information that could be learned is not advisable; pet’s names, maiden names, dates of birth and the like are not advisable. A better route would be to use a word that is not common, or doesn’t hold a traceable link to you. Burger King, for example, suffered a hacker attack because one of the company’s vital passwords was “whopper123”… hardly an effective protective measure.

Should you choose to go with a word that you can remember easily (as opposed to a random collection of letters, numbers and punctuation marks, which is, of course, the ideal but may prove more difficult to remember) you can purposely misspell the word.

The password can be further

Feature

ove it or hate it, social networking is here to stay.

It seems that for every example of an interesting post, there are dozens more of lunch photographs and inane comments about what a certain Kardashian is up to.

It has become both a blessing and a curse that people can update their status from virtually anywhere in the world thanks to the pervasiveness of the mobile lifestyle. Whether it is a smartphone or a tablet, we have come to rely on these devices for just about anything. Online banking, shopping, settling a pub quiz dispute, or just doing the social networking thing, there is little arguing the benefits of being connected everywhere we go.

Our phones and tablets have evolved into repositories of all our valuable information. Think family photographs, video clips from your last holiday, your credit card details, or just login details to social networks. But have you taken the time to think what would happen if your trusty mobile assistant were to be lost or stolen?

Falling into the wrong hands might mean being locked out of social networks while a stranger posts all sorts of damaging things or sharing those photos you took in the early hours of the morning after having just one too many.

Definitely not ideal. How about getting access to your bank accounts and transferring your hard-earned cash to an offshore account?

Our need to remain logged-in to the apps on our mobile devices is more a matter of convenience than anything else. Imagine having to sign in every time you want to post something or to access your email. Yet, anybody who has had their personal details exposed via a lost or stolen device will have wished they had spent a bit of time to secure their device.

Granted, emptying your bank account is a little far-fetched seeing that financial institutions

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strengthened by replacing letters within it with punctuation marks or numbers. For example, E might be replaced with 3, and A with @.

Ideally, a strong password is made up of a random arrangement of letters, capital letters, numbers and punctuation marks. Whether these are used as a completely random sequence, or as an uncommon word that you can remember, combining these elements ups the odds against the password being cracked.

Further, varied passwords should be used for different accounts and devices that require them. Also, you should change your passwords on a regular basis, to ensure the integrity of your accounts and devices. With this in mind, creating a system for passwords that you can adhere to, to ensure that you will remember them, is a great idea. However, if a system is discovered by a cybercriminal, they may be able to exploit it. Any system that you use should still contain random, non-referenced words, numbers and symbols. Also try to avoid repetition of sequential symbols, or obvious sequences (like “2,4,6” or “a,b,c”).

While we could provide you with examples of effective password systems, that would prove counter-intuitive… after all, if you can read them here, so can cybercriminals. Rather, the best advice we can give is for you to take the little time it would require to construct a number of effective passwords and password systems, which can be adjusted at least four times a year. And make sure that you can remember them; printing passwords out on a piece of paper is not as secure as you may think. If you devise a good, robust system, and remember how it works, recalling any specific password should be easy.

Fighting cybercrime is something that everyone who uses modern technology is responsible for.

Effective password protection is a way of doing your part. g

by Iwan Pienaar

Proper

Password - Protection

Securing your online presence gladget31

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W

Feature

e’ve reached a stage in the evolution of the internet where a lot of people get their news on the internet first.

Most reputed news channels attract newsreaders to their stories from links on their social media pages and accounts. Many traditional newspapers and magazines put as much focus on their internet presence (if not more) as they do on their print output. And there are now many online sources of information, which has the advantage of being instantly up to date and almost “live”. The latest statistics show that while television remains the main delivery source of news to the public, the amount of people getting their current events from the radio and newspapers has steadily declined while web watching has dramatically increased over the past four to five years. Television also peaked around 2002 and has declined by approximately 14%, while internet news following has increased by approximately 40% in the last few years. The dramatic rise includes access through mobile phones. The rise in mobile browsing has also been bolstered by the advent of apps, which most of the news agencies now have.

In the wake of this, many agencies have reintroduced paywalls, spearheaded by the New York Times, who was amongst the first to revive this concept to their news service back in early 2011.

Simply put, a paywall is a system that prevents access to digital content without a paid subscription, and the concept is now synonymous with news and academic online publishing. The norm had previously been free registration, usually resulting in polite spamming of some sort, which most were probably generally OK with. However, we should have suspected that at some stage the free lunches would be taken away. While the last of the major international newspapers, like the Washington Post, fight desperately to resist the trend towards paywalls, many South African news sites have already adopted the model, from Die Beeld to Business Day, charging up to R99 per month for subscriptions.

The scheme has come across a lot of criticism, and there have been several modifications and revisions to make the scheme work. Some like the Times and The Wall Street Journal (who were the first to institute a paywall back in 1997) introduced “hard” paywalls, where no content could be accessed at all. Other opted for “soft” paywalls, either using a variety of free and mixed content. The metering of content is also considered a “soft” model, where a user may access a limited amount of content until they reach a free usage limit for the day, at which point further content browsing is blocked.

Several of them have since revised their offers in the wake of slow growth of subscriptions as well as criticism of the ethics of forcing the public to pay to stay informed of important events. Major internet players like Google, pushed for a more open system like “First Click Free”, which would only charge for repeated viewing of the same content.

Ultimately, the jury is still out on the fairness of

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the system, most have voted with their wallets (or more accurately, they have abstained). While New York Times had already publicised that “emergency” content, such as stories on Hurricane Irene would be free to view, they recently also disabled their video paywall to boost their online traffic, allowing for unlimited views on video content, which does not count towards the 10 article metered “soft” paywall.

So where does one find the news without paying a fortune? Social media has always been a shaky source of reliable information. The cherry on top has to be the recent hacking of Associated Press’s Twitter account. The hacker used the hijacked account to tweet false reports of bombings at the White House, which led to massive drops on the Dow Jones stock exchange. The account was quickly suspended, and the market eventually recovered, but the power of false news had already made waves. After a hacker recently hacked Burger King’s Twitter account back in February to post pictures of McDonald’s menus (snidely remarking that Burger King should really have chosen a better password than whopper123). Twitter has now come under fire to introduce more verification on Twitter accounts, with many calling for two-step verification on verified accounts.

So perhaps paying for news is the only way to make sure that one actually gets verified and reliable news. However, the question of paywalls came sharply into focus during the recent terrorist attacks in Boston, when multiple explosions killed and injured participants (including two South Africans) and crowd members at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The tragic event overtook the online arena, not through news agencies, but through social media, specifically Twitter. I happened to be online at the time, despite the time difference, and can remember the wave of sudden tweets and re-tweets that suddenly overtook my Twitter feed. As many of the people on the ground tweeted what they saw and heard, there was a feeling of being connected to the event somehow, as it was happening there and then. In fact, it seemed insensitive somehow that some news agencies and tech sites continued to tweet unrelated news, possibly scheduled before hand or unaware of the unfolding tragedy. Many US news sites only reacted later, while local news mostly picked up the story the following day.

So just as news agencies have to evolve with readers to meet their needs in expectation to generate revenues, perhaps we as news consumers need to evolve the way that we interact with information. When there is a limited stream of information, we narrowed our selection and chose agencies and formats that we identified with – business orientated magazines or tech-focussed journals. With a flood of information constantly vying for our attention, we’ll perhaps have to verify information from multiple sources before we can assume a certain presentation or viewpoint is substantiated. Luckily there is no shortage of sources to give us a varied, balanced and hopefully inexpensive perspective on world events. g

What Price Knowledge Online News... should I pay to believe?

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The Personal Touch Feature

And other ways to get the most out of your Android phone

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by Pippa Tshabalala

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ustomisation. Touted as the cornerstone of every Android phone.

That said, how much do you really customise your phone? A ringtone here and there, a new message notification. Oooh, look I can change the colour of my status bar!

The fact of the matter is that when most of us get a new phone, we might fiddle with the immediate settings to find a background that is aesthetically pleasing, a ringtone that doesn’t completely grate on our nerves (and everyone around us as is the case in my office!), and a message tone that we can actually hear, very few of us attempt to do things like installing new launchers, customise icons and lock screens, and set up a phone that can look and feel completely different to the standard operating system.

But that can change, and this month I’m going to introduce you to a couple of apps that could completely change your life. Or at the very least the way you use your phone.

One of the things I experimented with first was the idea of the launcher. I’m what would be considered tech savvy otherwise I wouldn’t be in this industry, but somehow this was something I found intimidating.

Your launcher is the software on your phones that “launches” all other applications, and is the defining look and feel of your phone. I experimented with a couple of different launchers, including the Go Launcher which although popular and highly rated on the Play store, I felt was a bit clunky and I didn’t much like the look and feel of it.

I ended up, after a bit of research settling on the Nova Launcher, which not only is pretty to look at, but also speeds up the responsiveness of the screen quite substantially. This for me was a very pleasant surprise,

as one of the things I’ve been battling with in transitioning to my Galaxy S3, was the lag. As is the nature of most Android operating systems, you do still have to kill background processes manually, but overall my phone now runs a great deal smoother.

Nova has some awesome customisable features.

Including a dock that you can swipe through in the same manner as your multiple home screens, so you’re not limited to just 5 icons as your favourites if there are applications you use frequently.

You can also import your settings from your default launcher, which means you don’t need to spend ages reorganising the stuff you’ve already set up. Considering that this was the biggest deterrent for me in switching to a new launcher, it made it much less painless. It’s not completely seamless as you have to reload your widgets, but it’s definitely not a mammoth task of moving each and every one of your applications back into place.

If you so wish, you can also use gestures to open up certain apps, which is a big time saver if you’re one of those people.

I can’t say it’s something I use frequently, but it makes sense if you have loads of apps and don’t want to spend time searching for the one you want.

With Nova Launcher (or more specifically Nova Launcher Prime, the paid version), you can customise how you transition from screen to screen, can put folders in your App Drawer at the bottom of your screen for added flexibility and enable unlimited custom tabs.

The next step is the lock screen. Again, after a bit of research, I found one that completely suits me –Holo Locker. It’s simple, based on a standard lock screen so it’s

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familiar but it has additional options that push it just that little step further. Holo Locker is another app that has both a paid and free version, but the free version really isn’t worth it in this case. The customisation is limited and you may as well stay with your standard locker.

That said, it’s not expensive, and the full version worked much better than I expected.

You now have an option to set what your background wallpaper is, which isn’t new and innovative certainly, but it’s part of what sets the free and paid versions apart. You can also, with the installation of a small, free plugin, called Holo Notifier (irritating because you need to download an additional app but nevertheless) get all your unread counts directly on your unlock screen.

Holo Locker also allows you to customise which apps you can open directly from your lock screen in the same manner as the Galaxy lock screen.

Obviously there are many aspects of the lock screen which are much the same as the standard lock screens on many Android devices, however this one just functions a little smoother than the default system that came with my Samsung.

Unlike iOS, the basis of the Android system is customisation, and making your phone look and run in a manner suitable to your lifestyle is the first step towards this.

There are a variety of different launchers available on the Play Store, and while these are my favourites, it’s certainly worthwhile experimenting with what works for you and your Android phone depending on your requirements.

You may be required to fork out a little cash to upgrade from free to full versions, but on the whole it’s worth it to get the look and functionality your phone is capable of. g

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1972

By Lein Baart

Gaming Madness Begins

Looking Back

1

972 was a time of change in the world, as the old began to give ground to the new. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, the unholy trinity of heavy metal, was horrifying millions of parents worldwide, while the Godfather was inspiring thugs to at least pretend civility. It was also time of deep sorrow, as the Munich Massacre and Bloody Sunday threw ideological conflict centre-stage, and Tricky Dick began sweating bullets as the Watergate Scandal began to unravel before his eyes.

The age of space exploration had largely begun to falter at this time, with the Moon no longer the unattainable dream it had been. This wasn’t to say that it was dead however, as January saw American President Richard Nixon announce the commencement of the now defunct space shuttle program, and the Mariner 9, launched in the previous year, transmitted 7392 images over the course of 1972, completely mapping the surface of Mars, until it was turned off.

This year saw the end of the Apollo program, and

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with it the death of many a boyhood dream. Both the Apollo 16 and 17 were launched this year, and Eugene Cernan became the last man to have walked on the moon to date. The Russians kept on though, with the unmanned Luna 20 landing and collecting samples of the Moon’s soil, which was subsequently shared with French and American scientists.

The technological front was relatively quiet this year, however 1972 did mark the founding of Cray Research by Seymour Cray, the man who is almost single-handedly responsible for the rise of the supercomputer. This was also the year HP invented the first hand-held scientific calculator (both the saviour and curse of high school kids worldwide), the HP-35. The unit, which had a battery life of approximately three hours, sold over 100000 units in its first year alone, a staggering figure considering the price tag of $395, or approximately $2200 dollars today.

1972 was a colossal year for gaming, due in no small

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part the release of the Magnavox Odyssey, the very first gaming console. Invented by Ralph H. Baer (the Father of Video Games) the Odyssey was a huge leap forward over the scarce electrical gaming machines of the past. Shipping with two controllers, operated by two knobs that determined the player’s horizontal and vertical positions, as well as an assortment of accessories such as cards, paper money and dice, the Odyssey also contained support for a light gun, another first for its time. While the console itself was incapable of rendering colour graphics, surprisingly due to cost factors rather than technical limitations, this deficiency was catered for with television overlays that sold with the games. The Odyssey, unlike the consoles that were to follow, was also the forbearer of ROM cartridges, with a total of twenty seven games released across eleven cartridges.

Despite the monumental achievements of the Odyssey, it was quickly overshadowed by an arcade system released later that year, one which

would thrust gaming into the public consciousness: PONG. Designed by Allan Alcorn in what was initially supposed to be a training exercise, as Alcorn had never worked with games, the potential was soon spotted by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Inspired by “Tennis” for the Odyssey, a fact that Bushnell only admitted when Magnavox’s lawyers came knocking, Alcorn made several critical adjustments, including digital scorekeeping, increased ball speed over time and segmenting the paddles so that different angles of return could be created. All this culminated in an arcade machine that skyrocketed in fame and popularity, and almost by itself launched the video game industry as a major financial market. PONG alone created a legacy of consoles designed exclusively to play a variant of the original, with everyone from Sears to Nintendo hopping on the band wagon, and cementing Atari’s name in the annals of video game history. g

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Reviews Highlights 30 SteelSeries Apex Raw Gaming Keyboard Power in your pocket 40 Ferrari by Logic3 T250 On Ear Headphones Multimedia on the move 44 Nokia Lumia 920 Smartphone Active HD gaming 46 MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III Graphics Card Top notch graphics

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n this month’s issue we have a wide variety of hardware, including some awesome new motherboards and graphics cards from MSI and Asus. But that is not all - we also have reviews of great peripherals from Razer and SteelSeries, audio solutions from Logic3, a great projector from Epson and much more.

As the year approaches the half way mark, the world of technology is, once again, getting very interesting. And we’re right here to tell you all about the excellent products you can enrich your life with… g

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T

by Walt Pretorius

T

Review

MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming Motherboard

here has, for some time now, been a strong drive towards PC gaming in the component market. In most territories, PC gaming has seen a somewhat steady decline over the last few years, thanks to the rise of higher end consoles. That’s partly the reason why products like this have started emerging. Here in South Africa, where PC gaming is still strong, we reap the benefits, with hardware that is far more focussed on the PC gamer, rather than just PC users in general.

One of the more recent additions to the fray is the gaming motherboard. MSI have now joined companies like Asus in producing these devices, and gamers have a fair amount to crow about when it comes to these products. However, it is the added extras that bring the most noteworthy improvements, rather than the general board itself.

The MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming Motherboard is a flagship product for the range, and it brings with it several ideas that work extremely well for gamers.

But not all of these are endemic to the idea of gaming motherboards. Let’s be honest; we have seen multiGPU compatibility, military class components and easy overclocking before.

Even though these aren’t entirely original concepts, they do serve the gamer better in the fact that they have been tweaked for gaming. The board is extremely robust under strain, which is where it will spend most of its time with a dedicated gamer. Other systems, like Killer E2200 Ethernet, have been designed specifically for gaming applications. The inclusion of elements like Sound Blaster Cinema chipsets mean better surround sound, and the reworking of PS/2 and USB ports with triple gold plating means that the board responds better to high end gaming peripherals.

Will this motherboard provide gamers with an edge? Well, that’s something that only time will answer, but testing did show a rather capable highend motherboard, which is what gamers will need.

The added responsiveness in areas like peripheral interfacing and LAN connection are sometimes difficult to quantify specifically, but the general performance of this motherboard is undeniably excellent.

And then there is the question of looks. If your PC case doesn’t have a window, you’re probably going to end up cutting one into it, just to show off the design of this motherboard. The all-black board is finished with red accents, and even has heat sinks in the shape of dragons (the theme that MSI have chosen to go with in their gaming motherboard range). It certainly looks the part – so much so that hiding one in a case borders on sinful.

The improvements to the board – in terms of gaming – are largely tweaks and using higher grade components. But the improvements are there, making this a very decent option… particularly if you are a serious gamer. g

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Weapo

on of Choice

That’s what it says on the box…

Summary

Tech Specs:

Although it is very similar to other high end, MSI boards, it has tweaks that certainly enhance a gaming experience.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Looks great Excellent performance Sensible tweaks

• • • •

Intel Z77 Express chipset 4 Dual-channel DDR3 DIMMS Sound Blaster Cinema chip 4 USB 3.0 10 USB 2.0 SLI / Crossfire support

M a nufa c turer: M SI Distributor: Pinna c le A fric a O nline: www.pinna c le.c o.za RRP: A pprox R2 500

Pros • • • • •

• •

Cons • • • • •

Very similar to other high end boards.

Score

92 29

Special features speed up gaming performance

SteelSeries Apex Raw Gaming Keyboard

W W

Review

& Sty

e have mentioned before, in a previous issue, that SteelSeries aren’t about the fancy stuff.

This company produces peripherals that gives gamers what they need, rather than introducing tons of unnecessary flash. And the Apex Raw Gaming Keyboard stands testament to the logic behind that thinking.

That said, this device is not without its special features.

These are mainly in the form of 17 macro keys, each with two layers. The sum total is 34 programmable keys that can very easily be accessed, allowing players to speed up their gaming performance wonderfully.

With five of these running down the left side of the keyboard, and a further 12 above the function keys, the Apx is a little larger than the average keyboard out there.

This also allows for an enlarged ESC key, as well as a very generous space bar.

The overall design shows a good connection with the

30

needs of gamers. It might not have all the flashier bits, but the well-spaced, backlit keys are very clearly marked, and elements like the arrow keys have been modified to include two diagonal forward direction keys. Even the W key has small, tactile bumps on it to help the user find the allimportant WADS configuration without having to tear their eyes from the screen.

The keys are low profile and relatively quiet, particularly when compared to some of SteelSeries’ earlier models, which were rather noisy to say the least.

The whole thing is tied together by a rather robust, weighty design. It doesn’t feel fragile at all; the user will be able to carry this keyboard with them to LAN parties and the like, without having to worry about fragility. That counts for the feet as well. Instead of having the usuable, often flimsy fold-away feet that allowed the user to adjust the angle of the keyboard, the Apex Raw comes with non-slip rubber feet

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ylish

by Alex Scanlon

that can be changed at the rear of the keyboard, allowing for a higher or lower angle. The downside is that this takes a little more time than flipping out those old folding feet.

The upsides – well, the keyboard doesn’t skid around when in use, and the feet themselves aren’t going to break if you look at them funny.

An additional SteelSeries key unlocks extra functionality, including multimedia controls and the ability to disable that often annoying Windows key.

All of this is supported by a software that uses SteelSeries Engine technology to unlock even more options for the user.

Various customisations, as well as complex macros, can be set using this rather easy-to-use suit.

And it looks good, too. The keys are clearly marked, and the overall effect is an understated elegance that looks a bit more serious than some of the more ostentatious keyboards out there. In all, a solid, understated option. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

It looks plainer than the average gaming keyboard, but it possesses all the right kind of features to enhance gaming.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Well built Clearly marked keys Non-slip feet

17 macro keys 2 macro levels Non-slip rubber feet Corded Enlarged space bar and ESC key SteelSeries Engine software support

SteelSeries M eg a rom www.meg a rom.c o.za A pprox R900

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Adjusting angle takes a little longer

Score

89 31

Kraken

V

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.. a nd l PTSD .

Embrasing

Razer Kraken Pro Analogue Gaming Headset Review

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ov in

V

ideo games, for the moment, are at the forefront of offering the consumer an immersive experience second to none.

Their storylines and graphics capture our attention and, for the time we spend playing them, transport us to fantastical worlds where we control the ultimate outcome.

As engrossing as these games are visually, nothing quite facilitates our complete immersion as when we are stimulated with their audio prowess. Experiencing a game while being visually and audibly focused completes the immersion and the “escape” becomes all the more real.

Enter the Razer Kraken Pro Analogue Gaming Headset.

Stylishly green, comfortable and wonderful to listen through, this gaming headset is primed to take your gaming experience into a whole new dimension.

One of the main considerations of a good set of gaming headphones is comfort. You might spend hours with them on, so you’ll want to find a set that not only sounds good, but fits well too. The headset features 40mm neodymium drivers, which are surrounded by a very generous amount of foam padding and covered by a soft faux leather.

Each ear cup has an opening large enough to encompass the ear completely and the whole thing can be folded up making the Kraken slightly more compact and portable.

The headset’s soft feel on the sides of my head meant that I was able to wear them for long periods without my ears feeling fatigued or uncomfortable.

The headband’s adjustment feature, which can slide out on either side, has been designed to encompass most head sizes and I liked the fact that the adjustment settings were neither too tight or too soft, which prevented adjustment loss.

The headset also has a retractable microphone that is housed inside the left ear cup and, with its adjustable arm, can be positioned comfortably.

The cable that Razer have provided is generous enough at 1.3m long and they have included an additional 2m long audio / mic splitter cord… although I would have liked to have seen a braided or flat cable to make cabletangling impossible.

The microphone was clear and I had no trouble with others hearing me speak, but it did pick up noise coming from the headphones, especially on high volume settings.

The sound output was solid, with balanced voice and a very well defined bass, but the mids and highs seemed lost; drowned by it’s over-enthusiastic bass capabilities.

Ultimately this is a gaming headset and the sounds of gunfire and explosions will have you feeling shellshocked after a prolonged gaming session. In summary, Razer have done a great job on this headset and have left me with a virtual post traumatic stress disorder and a greater love for blowing things up! g

g

it !

Whip!

by Andy Taliadoros

Summary

Tech Specs:

Explosive sound with a comfortable fit.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Comfortable Retractable microphone Very well defined bass

40mm drivers Retractable microphone Over-ear design 1.3m cable 2m extension cable

Ra zer Corex www.c orex.c o.za A pprox R900

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Non braided cable No in-line volume control

Score

81 33

Razer Deathadder Essential Ergonomic Gaming Mouse

t… u o t If you f ’re a lefty, you’ll be le

Review

The

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Ha

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by Alex Scanlon

ander

T T

he right mouse is essential, because you’re likely to spend a lot of time holding it. That means that comfort is essential, and comfort comes right down to design. Ergonomics have everything to do with how long the mouse will feel good, as do materials. These are things that Razer understand and they manage to produce comfortable mouse devices more often than not.

The problem with the Razer Deathadder is that it will only feel good if you are right handed. Despite the move towards ambidextrous mouse design that Razer (and numerous other manufacturers) embarked on a while ago, we still see a large number of designs that leave lefties out in the cold.

In fact, the Deathadder is so right-hand oriented that simply giving in and using it with the left hand is not only uncomfortable, but also impractical. The mouse features five buttons; left and right, scroll wheel and two added thumb-accessible buttons on the left side. And enterprising left handed user may be able to work with that, but the mouse is actually curved to sit comfortably under the right hand.

The curve is subtle, but it is there none the less.

While right handed users will enjoy the ergonomics, including a good amount of little finger support thanks to the curve, left handed users need not apply.

None of this makes the Deathadder a bad mouse.

In fact, right handed users will likely love the overall shaping of the mouse, and the non-slip coating that covers the top sections is an added comfort bonus.

The side grips also add a feeling of comfort and reliability, allowing the user to quickly identify their most comfortable grip positions.

The mouse has a generous seven foot braided cable that ends with a gold plated USB plug. In addition, it is fitted with the expected low-friction feet, which allow it to glide effortlessly at any speed.

Speaking of speed, the 4G optical sensor in the Deathadder is rated at 6400 DPI, with an ultrapolling rate of 1 000Hz, providing a one millisecond response time. In simpler terms, it’s really fast and sensitive.

Naturally, the mouse is fully compatible with Razer’s Synapse 2.0 software, meaning that users will be able to customise it to their heart’s content; this includes button assignments and sensitivities, of course.

On the whole, the Deathadder is an extremely effective mouse, and manages to remain versatile.

It doesn’t have all the flashy bits that some of their other devices sport, but when it comes down to fast, smooth and effective performance, the Deathadder hits all the right notes. As a general mouse, and even a general gaming mouse, it is a good option… as long as you are right handed. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

This well designed mouse is comfortable and effective... but only if you are right handed.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Very comfortable Responsive Glides beautifully

5 programmable buttons 6400 DPI 4G optical sensor 1 000Hz ultrapolling Ergonomic design

Ra zer Corex www.c orex.c o.za A pprox R650

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Not ambidextrous

Score

82 35

The Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Graphics Card

Enhancing the brand yet again…

Al

G Review

G

raphics cards are a complicated purchase, because consumers have so much to choose from. There are two major chipset manufacturers. Each of these produce various chipsets in each generation. And then there are even more brands, each generally using these varied chipsets, who produce ranges of cards using different ideas… although these ideas often result in similar effects.

Two of the biggest bragging rights these days are temperature and noise, or more correctly, lack thereof. Keeping a card cool has many benefits, including longer life spans and greater overclocking potential. Noise… well, no-one wants a noisy PC, and the graphics card is often a massive contributor to excessive operational volume levels.

These are two of the things that Asus manage to get right with their range of graphics card solutions.

The Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost is such a card,

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managing to deliver excellent performance with lower heat and noise levels.

The GTX 650 makes use of flattened copper heat pipes that are in direct contact with the GPU to help keep things cooler. These are combined with generous heat sinks and a twin fan system, which (altogether) helps keep the card significantly cooler than reference models.

Cooling is also enhanced with the use of super alloy components. These, in addition, help reduce vibration, which results in the aforementioned quieter operation. It also leads to a longer lifespan – Asus claim 50 000 hours (roughly five years) for this device.

The card is powered by a GeForce GTX 650 chipset.

While this isn’t the top of the line, it still performs admirably. One would be hard-pressed to distinguish the differences between this chipset and the 680 without a collection of benchmarking programmes doing the job. In addition, the card offers 2GB of GDDR5, which is a very

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decent amount indeed. Considering that most people will use their graphics card primarily for gaming, and that most games won’t ask for more than 1GB of video RAM, that leaves plenty of manoeuvring room for added performance.

For those that want to squeeze more out of their graphics card, this device certainly has the ability for it. Because it is an OC edition, the user can almost endlessly tweak and fiddle with settings to get that extra grunt out of the card. This is made easier thanks to the included GPU Tweak software, which provides the user with a simple, effective way to make adjustments.

A monitoring widget will also allow real time checking of performance.

Asus has long been one of the leading brands for a wide variety of computer components, and the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost keeps that reputation going strong.

It certainly is a strong contender when making graphics card purchasing decisions. g

by Walt Pretorius

ternative

Summary

Tech Specs:

The GTX 650 Ti Boost offers everything one would want from a graphics card – performance, quietness and cooler operating temperatures.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Good performance Very quiet Easy overclocking

GeForce GTX 650 Ti chipset 2GB GDDR5 RAM Super alloy components DVI-I port DVI-D port HDMI port DisplayPort

A sus A sus www.a sus.c om TB C

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Not a top-of-theline chip

Score

85 37

Belkin Dual-Band Wireless Range Extender

Range

Getting more out of your Wi-Fi… literally

by Rob Edwards

T Review

T

echnology is something that we should always marvel over. But it becomes easy to forget that we live in a truly advanced age, because technological advancement has become so ubiquitous that we hardly notice it anymore. We spend our days making use of technological wonders that, just a few years ago, were the realm of science-fiction – without so much as a thought about what amazing things we can do with it. We have become spoiled by it… the only time when we truly pay attention, it seems, is when that technology doesn’t live up to our expectations.

This often stems out of the fact that we don’t understand the tech, and are ignorant of its capabilities. Wi-Fi, for example, is a wonderfully useful concept, allowing for wireless networking of a multitude of different devices. But it has a limited range. Instead of figuring out where that range extends to, we complain that it doesn’t reach every

38

point of our home or office.

Well, that particular problem is easily solved with the Belkin Dual-Band Wireless Range Extender. This device, which looks a lot like a Belkin router, works in conjunction with existing Wi-Fi router. It, in principle, extends the range of Wi-Fi coverage to a greater area, as well as eliminating potential dead spots. It will even drive your Wi-Fi coverage into the garden.

The Range Extender makes use of dual-band speed, covering 2.4GHz and 5GHz rather effectively. This also results in a more stable signal, and helps lead to that elimination of dead spots we mentioned earlier.

In addition, as we have come to expect from Belkin, the device is extremely simple to set up. It’s a little more than plug-and-play, really, and therefore is simple to use for anyone with even the most basic wireless networking knowledge.

It also comes with something that many Wi-Fi home

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users seem to forget about: preset security. Let’s be honest; the chances of someone leeching your unsecured Wi-Fi are pretty significant, particularly if you live o work in a densely populated area. Extending the range just increases those chances, but properly securing your network (as this device allows you to do) will prevent people nicking your bandwidth or accessing your private network.

Along with all of this, the Range Extender comes with four LAN ports, which will allow non-Wi-Fi devices to be used as well. This is particularly handy for multimedia devices, like TVs, which may not have wireless capabilities.

Creating a truly connected wireless home or office can be a challenge, because technology still needs to progress in this field. But using a device like this Range Extender will help you get closer to that lofty ideal, and it will do so easily and effectively. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

It’s an extremely sensible to any home or office network that relies on Wi-Fi.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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Easy to use Works like a charm

Dual-band Preset security Easy setup 4 LAN ports

B elkin Tudortec h www.tudortec h.c o.za A pprox R1 000

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

More LAN ports would have been sweet

Score

88 39

L

by Walt Pretorius

L

Review

Ferrari by Logic3 T250 On Ear Headphones

ast month we looked at the remarkable T350 headphones from the Ferrari by Logic3 range.

This time around, the younger brother of that excellent headset is up for testing, with the inevitable question of “does a higher price point mean a better product?” hanging in the air.

The T250 is a step-down from the T350 in a few ways. Most notably, it is a smaller headset in terms of physical size. Additionally, it lacks the active noise cancellation of the T350, which might be a detractor for some. On the other hand, the smaller size means greater portability, and the price point of the T250 certainly is more attractive.

The headsets are, quite honestly, very similar.

Both use high grade metals and quality leather finishes to emulate the elegance of Ferrari’s roadsters, resulting in headphones that look stylish and expensive. The T250 has the added benefit of being foldable, adding to the portability advantage that it has over the larger T350.

Headphones come in three varieties, in terms of ear cups: over-ear, on-ear and in-ear. While on-ear solutions are arguably the least comfortable, the T250 manages to provide a very decent amount of comfort, even after extended periods. That’s largely thanks to the ultra-soft, leather covered ear pads and headband, which apply surprising little pressure to the user’s head. The leather covering help in this regard, too, with a soft, pliable leather adding a luxurious feel to the device. The metals used are also light weight, so the T250 weighs a lot less than one would assume at first glance.

What’s most important, though, is the sound… and in this area, the T250 matches the T350 in almost every regard. The sound quality is excellent, which is surprising considering that the headphones make use of 40mm drivers. That said, the T350s use the same drivers, and the sound quality there was also exemplary. The only true difference between the two is the active noise cancellation system, which is handy for listening to music and the like at lower volumes. Quite honestly, though, we didn’t miss the hiss that came from the noise cancelling.

The T250’s performance, combined with the leather ear pads, means that very little unwanted sound will interfere with the user’s experience, making the t350’s noise cancelling a luxury that isn’t always necessary. (That said, it is really good noise cancelling.)

In the end, purchasing the T250s instead of the T350s means spending less money without compromising on the most important aspect of a set of headphones: great sound. It also comes with the standard (for this range) three detachable cables, which add mobile functionality to the mix. On the whole, an excellent option for those looking for a stereo personal audio solution. g

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Acrobat

A well balance perfo rma nce wi th

a

co

up le

of o co lt

... ks ric

Summary

Tech Specs:

It might be the little brother of the T350, but the T250 headset still has all the right move...

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget31

Looks awesome Excellent sound Easy to carry

40mm drivers On-ear configuration 3 detachable cables Stereo High grade materials Foldable

Log ic 3 A pex Intera c tiv e www.a pexint.c o.za A pprox R3 300

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

No active noise cancelling

Score

90 41

Review

An awesome audio companion

Jabra Street2 Bluetooth Stereo Headset

The Long R

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Road

by Andy Taliadoros

F F

rom as early as 1872, a company called the Great Northern Telegraph Company opened the first telegraph connection from Northern Europe to Japan and Hong Kong. Over the years this network consisted of 15,600km of telegraph cables and became the most sophisticated network in East Asia.

The Great Northern Telegraph Company was later named GN Netcom and under the Jabra brand, launched the world’s first Bluetooth headset for mobile phones in 2000, the Jabra BT100.

Their 140 year history of connectivity solutions continues today in a myriad of products and one of those products we will be looking at today is the Jabra Street2.

This unique Bluetooth 3.0 compatible unit effortlessly connects and pairs with virtually any Bluetooth-enabled device. Its primary function, through its A2DP feature, is that it enables you to listen to music streamed wirelessly from your laptop, mobile phone or mp3 player without having to touch your player to control your music.

Combined with Jabra Street2’s earphones (which block out background noise) and its AM3D Power Bass with Virtual Surround Sound, this small device pumps out clear, crisps and smooth sound. Comfort enhancements on the earphones also include interchangeable ear pieces which let you choose the best fit.

Control options on the ‘dog-tag’ include play, pause, skip tracks, volume and answering incoming calls when it’s connected to your smart phone. In fact you could connect the Street2 to two Bluetooth devices using its multiuse feature.

Taking a call on the Street2 is easy enough through its 4mm Omni-directional built-in microphone, which means you don’t have to pick up your phone to talk. The music pauses and the call connects automatically. When the call has ended your track continues from where it left off.

With only two hours of charge time, the Street2 will give you a standby time of up to 230 hours, eight hours of talk time and seven hours of music playback, which makes this device a great travel companion.

Connectors featured on the unit are one 3.5 mm audio jack on the top right of control unit and a charging or connecting Mini USB port at the bottom.

There are a couple of ways of wearing the Smart2; either around your neck with its distinctive dog-tag style pendant, or using its cloth clip. It comes in two colours (white or black) with a metallic front design incorporating the six controller buttons, surrounded by a rubber covering for protection purposes.

The Jabra Street2 not only connected my phone, my mp3 player and my laptop wirelessly to itself, but more importantly it connected me to all of them and it accomplished that with style and grace, just as if it had 140 years of development behind it. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

Powerful sound with a compact design.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

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10m operating range Multiple connections Interchangeable headsets

Bluetooth 3.0 Auto pairing Music streaming Digital Signal Processing (DSP)

Ja bra Wintec Solutions www.mobileg a dg ets.c o.za R800

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

No cover on the Charging Port

Score

86 43

Id

N N

Review

Nokia Lumia 920 Smartphone

okia have got quite a bit of ground to cover if they’re to recapture their reputation as a leading mobile handset manufacturer. For whatever reason, the company has been left eating the dust of Apple and Samsung products, and with other entrants (like HTC) producing strong contenders, Nokia pretty much have their work cut out for them.

Their answer is the extremely brightly coloured Nokia Lumia range, with the Lumia 920 being one of the bigger models that consumers can add to their consideration list. The handset is a bit smaller than the Galaxy S3 (an obvious comparison, thanks to Samsung’s very strong presence in local markets) and yet manages to weigh just a touch more. And while Samsung’s phone might tend towards more muted colours, the Lumia 920 is available in a range of hues that range from stylish to eye-watering. Our review unit was a shade of yellow that can only be called obnoxious, but various other colours can also be purchased.

Under the hood, the 920 packs a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, which is nothing to sniff at. This is supported by a 1GB RAM package, and 32GB of on-board memory. With no memory expansion slot, that’s all you’re going to get, but it still is a fairly generous amount for a mobile phone. In addition users have access to 7GB of cloud storage, which may work out for some while proving impractical for others.

In addition, the 920 has an 8.7 megapixel camera (a bit better than the S3’s) and all the bells and whistles expected from a modern smart phone. On paper, it is awesome.

However, Nokia’s choice of OS leaves a bit to be desired. While I am personally a fan of Windows, I don’t like Windows 8, and I certainly don’t like Windows Phone 8. It feels cluttered and clunky, with individual icons taking up too much real estate on the main screen.

When compared to Android and iOS applications, it just feels unintuitive and nasty to work with.

It’s a taste thing, sure, but personally I don’t see it doing the 920 any favours. When you have competing OS systems that are extremely well established and supported available, it seems like a strange move to go with an operating system that still has to prove itself by and large. This is doubly true when the handset itself needs to crash through a few barriers to try and reach previously enjoyed heights.

In short, the Lumia 920 is not a bad phone, but it lacks some of the refinement of other smartphones on the market, in looks, design and in performance. The OS will also make purchasing this device a matter of taste.

Whether the 920 will recapture Nokia’s former glories remains to be seen, but the strong competition makes it doubtful. g

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Nokia’s

by Rob Edwards

deas

s bold Smartphone in action Summary

Tech Specs: • • • • • • •

While not a bad phone, certain aspects of the 920 leave a bit to be desired...

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

Nokia Kokia www.nokia .c om A pprox R8 900

Pros • • • • • gladget31

Bold Good control placement

4.5 inch screen 1.5 GHz processor 1GB RAM 32GB storage 8.7mp camera Wi-Fi enabled Bluetooth enabled

Cons • • • • •

OS Heavy

Score

79 45

MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III Graphics Card Review

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by Walt Pretorius

I I

t must be said that a lot of marketing material we base our purchasing decisions on is entirely theoretical. Take, for example, the claim that MSI make on virtually every graphics card’s packaging: “10 year lifetime (under full load”. We’re not trying to accuse them of distorting the truth, or anything, because we’re well aware of the fact that they’re not going to wilfully scupper their reputation by making false claims. But I would like to know how they determine that claimed lifetime, beyond theories and calculations that don’t involve actually testing the product for ten years.

Not that they could, in all fairness; the rate that technology is advancing is truly staggering, and putting a product through that kind of extensive testing is impractical. It would result in a ten-year old product hitting the shelves. In a world where many technologies only stay “new” for a few months, that simply wouldn’t work.

Cynicism aside, it is one of the elements that MSI use to promote their new GTX 680 Twin Frozr graphics card. It might be a bit spurious, though, because very few people serious about graphics card performance will last that long without upgrading. Perhaps they should concentrate on things like the fact that this card, sporting an Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 chipset, is really, really quick.

They could also add to that the fact that it offers the user2GB of GDDR5 RAM, which is a really nice, chunky amount. Not the most we’ve seen, sure, but still chunky.

One of the aspects of the card – indeed, of the whole Twin Frozr range – that they do talk a lot about is the excellent cooling system built into the device. Numerous other media outlets have praised the design, which uses elements like twin propeller-style blades, nickel-plated copper bases, high-density heat sinks, multiple heat pipes and a direct contact design to carry heat away from the important bits of the card extremely effectively. The result of this well designed system is cooling that is significantly more effective than that of reference units (those being the units produced by Nvidia as ‘guidelines’ for manufacturers). The Twin Frozr system is also significantly quieter.

So, in the end, what you have is a very powerful graphics card, sporting up-to-date chipsets and packing tons of RAM, that runs cooler and quieter than many others on the market. With the support of MSI’s simple-yet-effective Afterburner overclocking software, it becomes a great choice for those who want their gaming graphics to look awesome, without turning the room into a sauna or suffering overly-loud components.

Realistically, the range hasn’t changed much with this new addition but, quite frankly, it hasn’t had to.

This is a great graphics card, all said and done.g

Shh..

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Summary

Tech Specs:

It might not look very different from other Twin Frozr units, but this one packs power in all the right places...

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget31

Runs cool Very quiet Lots of power

GeForce GTX 680 chipset 2GB GDDR5 RAM Twin Frozr cooling technology HDMI port DisplayPort DVI-I port DVI-D port

M SI Pinna c le A fric a www.pinna c le.c o.za TB C

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Identical looks to any other high-end Twin Frozr card

Score

87 47

Nokia Wireless Charging Pillow by Fatboy

by Rob Edwards

Sleep Tight Has it really come to this, ladies and gentlemen?

C Review

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all me a cynic – many have – but I am battling to be impressed by the Fatboy charging pillow.

See, we have had wireless recharging for a while now. Magnetic induction is nothing new, really, not in this fast paced technological world. Sticking a wireless charger in a pillow (which takes up more space than a conventional magnetic induction plate) and slapping a brand name on it seems a little too far over the gimmick line for my taste.

That this device does its job is undeniable, and the fact is that your phone will be a little more protected than it might be with other wireless chargers. It doesn’t require any product modification, either, which is nice… it will work right away. It takes less effort than using a normal phone charger, too, but if plugging a cable in to your phone is too much effort, you may need to rethink your laziness levels. g

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Summary

Tech Specs:

Put your phone to bed while it recharges... does that seem a little silly?

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

Your phone won’t get scratched Convenient

Wireless recharging 1.8m cable Large charging area Energy efficient power supply

Fa tboy Nokia www.nokia .c om TB C

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Tell me this isn’t a gimmick...

Score

75

MSI HD 7970 Twin Frozr III Graphics Card

Certainly from another mother…

I Review

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t gets tricky, sometimes, when reviewing items that are extremely similar in design and function.

In this issue we also review MSI’s GTX 680 Twin Frozr III graphics card which is, quite honestly, a great card indeed. So when we took the MSI HD 7970 Twin Frozr III card out of its box – with all due care and reverence, of course – it was a little disconcerting to see a device that looked pretty much identical to the GTX 680.

Therein lies the challenge (and to a degree, the ridiculousness) faced by consumers when they want to buy something like a graphics card. The industry is divided into two distinct camps: the Nvidia and the Radeon sects. But when these chipsets are compared, nowadays at least, there really is very little difference in performance. It takes a good degree of testing with specialised software to see the main differences between these chips and, if any are discovered at all,

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they are generally rather small. It certainly is next to impossible to perceive these differences with the naked eye. And yet the historical loyalty that consumers feel to either of these chipsets is still strong… one might denigrate an Nvidia chipset in favour of Radeon, or vice versa, based purely on past experiences, and not on what is actually going on at present.

Add to the mix the fact that these chipsets are used by numerous manufacturers, like Gigabyte, Asus and, of course, MSI, to produce graphics cards (with their ranges invariably containing examples of both) and things get really difficult.

That said, different manufacturers use varied ideas when putting their cards together. So a card from one manufacturer using chipset A may run very differently to a card from another that uses the same architecture. In the same stable, though, the differences are minute.

In short, this HD 7970 looks and performs very

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by Walt Pretorius

similarly to the GTX 680. It runs quietly, and very cool, thanks to MSI’s clever Twin Frozr system (which employs all manner of heat dissipating devices in rather ingenious ways).

One element that does set the HD 7970 apart from (and slightly above) the GTX 680 is that fact that is has 50 per cent more VRAM. Instead of 2GB, it has 3GB. That’s a very chunky number, and one that does improve the performance although, once again, it’s almost imperceptible to the average user who is judging the performance experientially, instead of using an array of benchmarking software.

So it comes down, then, to that almost unreasonable loyalty that people feel towards the manufacturers of the basic chipset. If you prefer Radeon (and you want that bit of extra RAM) then this certainly is the better option. Other than that, you can expect the same unassuming, effective MSI quality. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

Comparing the HD 7970 and the GTX 680 results in very few differences, aside from the chipset manufacturer and a bit of extra RAM on the former.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget31

Quick Quiet Lots of RAM

Radeon HD 7970 chipset 3GB GDDR5 RAM Twin Frozr III technology HDMI port DVI port 2 Mini DisplayPorts

M SI Pinna c le A fric a www.pinna c le.c o.za TB C

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

May result in some tough purchasing choices

Score

89 51

R

by Alex Scanlon

Review

Razer Abyssus Essential Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse

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azer certainly has a mouse for every occasion. Many of these devices are highly specialised, with carefully positioned buttons included for specific types of PC gaming. The thing is, though, that very specialised mouse devices come with a generally impressive price tag. And, quite frankly, you might not need all those highend bells and whistles. With that in mind, Razer also produces mouse units that serve more general purposes, albeit at the expense of extra buttons and super-refined features.

One such mouse is the Abyssus. It is one of the mouse simple mouse devices we have seen from the Razer stable. It is a three button mouse – and that’s counting the scroll wheel. That means no side buttons, no toggles for changing DPI settings, none of that. The Abyssus is as basic as a mouse gets.

Actually, that isn’t entirely true. For example, on the underside of the mouse are two mechanical switches; one changes the DPI rating, and the other changes the polling rate. The versatility of being able to change mouse sensitivity is there, after all, even if it is hidden on the bottom.

Most serious, or even semi-serious, gamers will find the positioning of these switches counterintuitive. After all, changing DPI on-the-fly shouldn’t require lifting the mouse, taking your eyes off of the screen and selecting a new setting via a relatively small switch. Changing sensitivity instantly makes up party of many gamers’ strategies, particularly in FPS games, but the Abyssus won’t allow for that.

Then again, this device isn’t really meant for that kind of player- as mentioned before, Razer have other options that would suit them. Rather, the Abyssus is aimed at a more casual gamer, someone who needs a mouse that is effective and accurate, but doesn’t require tons of special features to enhance their gaming. In fact, without all the extra features, it becomes a really effective all-rounder, enhanced by Razer’s ergonomic, ambidextrous styling.

Our review unit is the Mirror Special Edition, but this moniker sounds fancier than it actually is.

In essence, this means that the upper surface of the mouse is really, really shiny… and that’s about it. Still, this mouse (and “normal” Abyssus units) offer a good performance. Up to 3 500 DPI sensor performance combines with a maximum of 1 000Hz ultrapolling, tied together by a 3.5G infrared sensor.

That means, in layman’s terms, that the mouse is decently sensitive, and the various settings means that the user can trim their experience fairly easily (although not in the heat of battle.)

Overall, it’s a good mouse for those who want something a little better than the run-of-the-mill, but who don’t want to go hog wild on features that they may not use. g

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The

A plainer Razer option

Life

Summary

Tech Specs:

The Abyssus is an essential mouse... that means no major bells and whistles. But the performance is still there...

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget31

Straight forward Effective Stylish

Up to 3 500 DPI 1 000Hz Utrapolling 3.5G Infrared sensor 7ft cable Ambidextrous

M a nufa c turer: Ra zer Distributor: Corex O nline: www.c orex.c o.za RRP: A pprox R500

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Not quite on-the-fly

Score

79 53

Ferrari By Logic3 R200 On Ear Headphones

ed .

In Every W ok o L

S Review

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n u o ,s

omfort c d n da

tyle is something we all think about, whether we admit it or not. Someone saying that they don’t wear expensive designer labels, or prefer to walk around in shorts and a T-shirt, are making those statements out of a personal sense of style. Fashion and style aren’t always the same thing.

Style is certainly something that people consider when they pick personal audio solutions, and there are few quite as stylish as the wide range of Ferrari by Logic3 products. With ranges based on Ferrari’s F1 team as well as their roadsters, these headphones offer something for almost every taste.

The Scuderia range is comprised of those that celebrate Ferrari’s F1 performances, and they include the rather stylish R200 headset. Unlike the more down-toned and elegant Cavalino range, the Scuderia headsets are brash and bold. Like the R300 we reviewed last month, the R200 makes a strong

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statement in terms of looks. It eschews the R300’s pit crew look, though, opting for a more square approach.

Finished in good quality plastic, lightweight metal and high grade leather, the bold colour contrasts and materials used really do make an impression.

The biggest difference between this headset and its big brother, aside from looks, is the size of the earcups. Rather than being over-ear cups, they are on-ear.

While this is generally the least comfortable option for a headset, the generous, leather covered ear pads and headband pad make the R200s a pleasure to wear, even for extended periods. But the on-ear cups are much smaller than those of the R300, which concealed wonderfully bassy 50mm drivers… surely these smaller cups have significantly smaller drivers.

We’re estimating 40mm drivers, in fact, but the sound quality that they deliver is beyond exemplary. A rich range of tones, from full-bodied bass, through solid mids and into crisp high tones, is exactly what you will

gladget31

Way

by Walt Pretorius

get from the R200. The looks, which are pretty good to start with, certainly deceive here, as the headset produces absolutely sublime audio.

Because of their smaller size and the fact that they are foldable, the R200s are extremely portable, allowing the user the freedom to carry them almost anywhere (particularly when using the sturdy carry case provided). Added versatility comes from the three detachable cables that can be used with this stereo headset. These add telephone functionality as well, which can help out in a pinch.

Overall, there is little that can be faulted with these remarkable headphones. Quite simply, the four Ferrari

by Logic3 headsets that we have now reviewed have all shown excellent audio quality, combined with rugged construction, great looks and top notch materials. Sure, they’re not the cheapest headsets around, but the quality they deliver makes them all more than worth the price tag. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

The R200 headset may be smaller than others in the Ferrari range, but what they lack in size they make up for in powerful, clear sound.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget31

Great sound Very comfortable Sturdy

Foldable 40mm drivers 3 detachable cables High grade materials

Ferra ri by Log ic 3 A pex Intera c tiv e www.a pexint.c o.za A pprox R2 700

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Looks may be a little over the top for some

Score

88 55

Review

Asus E2KM1I-Deluxe Mini-ITX Motherboard

A small board with big potential

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Ent

by Rob Edwards

tertainment

N N

ot every motherboard is the same. That’s a pretty obvious statement, but we don’t mean it in the way that you might think. Those of us familiar with the guts of a PC will generally make the association with the common ATX motherboard, which measures 30.5cm by 24.5cm and fits into what could be called a regular PC case. In the case of this Asus board, though, the ATX board is a giant. The E2KM1I-Deluxe is classified as a Mini-ITX board, and measures a diminutive 17cm x 17cm.

And while we sometimes here about motherboards having “specific” applications, the truth is that most ATX boards are all-rounders, enabling users to make use of a wide range of functionality. Once again, this one is different. It is designed for use with discrete multimedia systems.

The use of a computer as the central hub for home entertainment is not as common as it could – or should – be. One would think that, with rampant piracy rates delivering virtually every movie, song and TV series as PC based files, this would not be the case, but there seems to be a strong move towards media players and the like. Still, a decent computer system running entertainment at home (or anywhere, for that matter) is a very good idea, for a number of reasons. The biggest problem people have is that a case using a standard ATX borad is just far too big.

Although they are a bit harder to find, discrete systems are a great solution, and this board forms an excellent backbone for them. It comes equipped with an on-board AMD Dual-Core processor, situated under the built-on heat sink, as well as Radeon HD 7340 Discrete-Class graphics. A pair of DDR3 DIMMS will house up to 16GB of RAM, which is plenty if you consider the uses that this board is designed for.

Video output is by way of either HDMI or DVI-I ports, and audio is delivered via sound ports (stereo only) or optical. Storage can be added in the form of SATA HDDs, to which end the board has five serial ATA ports. Those can handle optical drives too of course.

Further expansion and peripherals can be achieved using the board’s four USB 3.0 port support (two on the back panel) or eight USB 2.0 ports (four on the back panel). It also has a eSATA port, and connectors for external sources like radio and satellite TV. The board also comes with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities, as well as a standard Ethernet port, to ensure maximum connectivity.

If building a discrete home entertainment PC is a project you would like to undertake, then this board is the perfect place to start. It performs it’s functions very well, and serves as a great basis for a home entertainment PC system. g

Summary

Tech Specs:

This unusual motherboard forms the perfect start for a discreet home entertainment PC system.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget31

Good performance Very small Works a charm...

AMD Dual Core CPU Radeon HD 7340 GPU 1 PCI Express 2.0 port HDMI out DVI-I out Wi-Fi Bluetooth

A sus A sus www.a sus.c om TB C

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Extremely specific

Score

82 57

by Rob Edwards

SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive

USB 3.0 makes a big difference

Fast!

B Review

B

ack when we used to use floppy disks to carry everything around, we marvelled at the idea of 1MB of storage. These days, we have the luxury of much higher capacities in much smaller devices, thanks to USB flash drives. And SanDisk have come to the fore as a market leader in removable (and portable) storage.

The SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 Flash Drive doesn’t only allow users to make use of the very fast data transfer speeds made possible by USB 3.0, but it also allows for the user to carry the equivalent of 16 000 1MB floppy disks in a device smaller than a disposable lighter.

The Extreme also allows the USB plug to be retracted securely into its body, for added protection, thanks to a system that feels wonderfully secure and solid. All in all, it’s a fantastic way to transfer data. g

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Summary

Tech Specs:

Smaller than a disposable lighter, this flash drive offers excellent data capacity and blazing USB 3.0 speeds.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

Very quick Great locking mechanism

USB 3.0 16GB 190 MB/s read 55 MB/s write SecureAccess software

Sa nDisk Tudortec h www.tudortec h.c o.za A pprox R300

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Feels a little light

Score

89

by Alex Scanlon

USB …

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Belkin 4-Port Flex-Hub

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gladget31

Summary

Tech Specs:

With support for micro and mini USB ports built in, this hub stands out among the crowd.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

Easily portable Versatile

3 USB ports 1 micro B USB port Mimi B USB adapter USB 2.0

B elkin Tudortec h www.tudortec h.c o.za TB C

Pros • • • • •

• • • • • •

Cons • • • • •

Only 3 ports are standard USB

Score

84 59

Review

f you use a lot of USB devices, having enough ports available – particularly on a notebook – can be a challenge. Even with a PC, front-side USB ports are rarely enough, and crawling in behind your case to plug temporary stuff in isn’t always easy.

Belkin have a very funky solution in the form of the 4-Port Flex-Hub. It’s not the first four port hub we have seen, but one particular aspect sets it apart. Three of the ports are standard USB ports (with one in the device’s body and two being on cables) while the fourth is a micro B port, fitted with a mini B adapter. That means you can plug in most mobile devices without needing to rely on the cables supplied with them. That’s a great idea, because (for one thing) it minimises the cables you need to carry around.

As USB hubs go, this one is a really good option. g

by Walt Pretorius

P P

Review

Epson EH-TW550 Home Projector

rojection has a long way to go before it replaces TV as the main source of visual entertainment in the home. It still is something that seems to belong in the board room, or in the entertainment room of hard-core enthusiasts. The truth is, though, that projection can potentially provide a much larger image than any existing TV – even the behemoths that are currently being introduced into the market. But one vital area sees the victory go to TV time and again: resolution.

Projectors simply don’t produce the clarity of image that HD TVs do. But that, friends and neighbours, is changing.

Things like ultra short throw projection, colour correction and improved performance in varied lighting conditions are all working towards improving projection as an idea, and making projectors more attractive to a wider variety of people. Still, the resolution issue needs to be addressed.

There is progress, though, and devices like this one – the Epson EH-TW550 Home Projector – are making inroads into becoming a viable solution. The EH-TW550 projects images in a resolution that was (and still is) referred to as “HD Ready”. For a long time people wondered about that term. It refers to the ‘almost HD’ resolution of 720p. Not quite 1080p, but a good deal crisper and clearer than the average projector out there. The result is larger images that are undeniably crisper than most projectors can offer.

In addition, this projector is 3D capable. So if you’re a movie-nut who enjoys wearing those silly glasses, this one is great for you. Projected 3D has advantages over TV based 3D, too. The system is compatible with Epson’s Full HD 3D RF Glasses, although we didn’t find any included. This may be an oversight, but we would advise checking it out thoroughly in-store if the EH-TW550 is on your shopping list.

Using a 3LCD system, the EH-TW550 puts out 3000lm, which means that it can be used in daylight, although the best results are still achieved in a darkened room. The image is also crisp enough for HD movie viewing, as well as gaming. In fact, the projector comes with a specific gaming mode, and the experience can be wonderfully overwhelming.

Setting it up is really easy to, and a fair array of connectors – including the increasingly essential HDMI port – provide connectivity to a number of devices. There is only one HDMI port, though, so you may end up swapping cables for different devices.

The EH-TW550 is certainly one of the better home entertainment projectors we have seen. It is easily portable and simple to set up. As part of a full home theatre system (which would help produce better sound than it is capable of) it is a great way to view images. g

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Makin

Summary

Tech Specs:

Although not the perfect solution for home entertainment images, the EH-TW550 takes big steps towards making home projection systems very desirable.

M a nufa c turer Distributer: O nline: RRP:

gladget31

Easy to use Good image quality 3D

• • • • • •

3LED system 3000lm 3D enabled HDMI input Dedicated gaming mode Very portable

Epson Epson www.epson.c om TB C

Pros • • • • •

Projection is moving in the right direction

ng Progress

Cons • • • • •

Needs more HDMI ports

Score

88 61

Injustice: Gods Among Us

Superman Has No Swag

Up, back, down, square, x, back, back… explosion!

by Sarah Snyman

I

preserving my thumb muscles for a session, I honestly wanted the latest MK title with DC characters, fancy special moves, some environmental interaction and enhanced graphics. I want more of a good thing, I want another game that I can host tournaments for, I want to see how loudly my brother can scream at me when I use “unprofessional” single punches to take his characters health down low enough to use a character specific move to destroy him.

And before you think this is a disappointed review, I got exactly that in this title.

Like any good fighting game, there needs to be a plot which inspires concern and attention during the first play and then gets completely disregarded in multiplayer. The premise is one of alternate universes and strumpet female counterparts to the DC heroes and bad guys we have

Review

’ve been taught that I am only allowed to comment on something I have experienced. Unfortunately many game enthusiasts don’t buy into this. I have heard a lot of banter about this release being identical to Mortal Kombat, people saying it’s the same game so why should they buy it... my answer, “have you played it?”

Not only is the actual gameplay valuable to the opinion, but this is a comment coming from Mortal Kombat devotees? Surely if you have found a game that can enthral you for such a long period of time, one with such a crazy replay quality, you’ll be more than excited for another release?

The formula works. The Mortal Kombat and DC Universe games have sold countless copies, inspired memes, cosplay and web series. When I got my hands on this release, after having written two previews and

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come to love. In this alternate universe, the Joker is a bit of a careless tool as per usual; he has destroyed metropolis and tricked Superman into killing Louis Lane and his unborn child. Superman, in a fit of roid-enduced rage, kills the Joker in front of Batman. Basically, Superman shows some unlikable traits and Batman gets all emo and rebellious. The insurgency decides to send their heroes to “our” universe where Joker never had much success with his devious plans in the hope of defeating him. By accident, Batman and the Joker get caught up in the intergalactic portal vibe, you know how easy it is to be sucked into parallel universes nowadays... and so unfolds a very confusing tale of good and evil doppelgängers running amok in the wrong universe. I had to stop and rethink a few times to ensure I was in the right dimension.

Although the characters I have mentioned so far as all

very familiar, even if you have not glanced at a DC comic, there is a “cast” so vast that even DC aficionados will come across a few names that they cannot place, never mind recite their back story.

Black Adam sounds like the tragic boring counterpart of the black widow spider. A dull brown arachnid that shags and then serves himself up as post-coital dinner to a hungry scarlet marked temptress. He is, in-fact, the opposing force to Shazam! And, as I’ve recently discovered, was a perfect example of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Another more obscure character is Killer Frost, who after being locked in a thermo-frost chamber, became an evil sociopath with absolutely phenomenal breasts and zero remorse.

But after having a brief rundown of the back stories

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a series of attacks that completely destroy the opponent, provided that they don’t have any of that sneaky top layer life left that prevents any further damage when expended.

The moves are based on Mortal Kombat. Everything seems to be a different combination of down, back, forward and triangle. But the resultant moves are always character specific and feel different. The multiplayer is quite similar but I never tired of the button bashing joy that these games are famous for. But besides the similar but gloriously reworked aspects of the game, I discovered a few epic gems. S.T.A.R labs is an extra that has a character specific challenge which proves to be quite the battle, unless my skills have dropped even more than anticipated. Getting Superman to save Lois Lane from Lex Luther seemed slightly more strenuous than necessary.

There is also the archive section where you can purchase

Review

of the characters I was not familiar with, and a brief annoyance stint with the ever so whiney Harley Quin, I got into that gameplay.

The main story follows a similar pattern to Mortal Kombat, allowing you to experience each character’s special moves and the attack of the opponent, some more vicious than others. My personal favourite in this main story was the underwater world of Aquaman.

When he discovers that Superman has some kind of super power world contract in place that would allow him to govern over the waters, thereby usurping Aqua guy of his seahorse, he gets mad. And to my joy, when Aquaman gets mad, he creates gigantic waves and obliterates thieving opponents. Discovering each character,s super move, triggered with a full charge and a trigger hit, was the most enjoyable part of the story;

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attributes with rewards gained in the game, some more useless than others, although Aquaman looked quite dashing in his new rags. This area of the game is very similar to the vault in Mortal Kombat but a lot easier to navigate. And there is something quite whimsical about buying Superman a new outfit.

Despite all of these great qualities... there is one more experience in this title which stole my heart. Interacting with the environment is not something new to fighting games; if remember a certain hip hop battle title where one overpaid MC could slap another with a swinging camera. Injustice does more than this. It is a planned, live interaction with the world around you, sometimes resulting in a slightly unexpected knock down. And getting knocked so hard that your hero is shot out of the scene through a barrage of violent body slams with walls, cars,

steel structures and fists, he lands up in another entirely different environment to continue with whatever fight he has left. Unlocking additional environments as you play makes the surrounding more than just a backdrop, unlike most fighting games.

I honestly have not once been disappointed with this game for one second of play time. It is the perfect balance between nostalgia and high speed attacks. Green Arrow was my personal favourite with a fast attack and long range arrows taking down enemies one small hit at a time, while Death Stroke helped me fight my way to the top more than once by shooting large chested Wonder Woman in the thigh, for feminism of course... If replay value were the leading factor, this game would be my title of the year. Now, if only they could release this for the Marvel crowd...g

AT A GLANCE: Fighting

Reviewed on:

PS3

The creators of Mortal Kombat bring DC to life on our screens like never before. Obscure characters and old favourites combined with environment interaction.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Mortal Kombat, SoulCalibur Local

2

Network

Online

2

NetherRealm Warner Bros Ster Kinekor

Parental Advisory

16+ gladget31

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

84 65

The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

Kill Me Now Running away from an (un)dead game

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deserves.

Other than Daryl Dixon, the crossbow and the Walking Dead theme tune, it does not have much else going for it.

The graphics one of the major factors why The Walking Dead is such a disappointment. The graphics lack a great deal of detail, and seem almost incomplete… or that there wasn’t a lot of effort put into them.

On many occasions objects will be pixelated or just out of place. It is rather a pity, as the title has a lot of potential and could have made for a really exciting game – if it was done properly. In actual fact, the graphics are prehistorically awful.

Another drawback is the combat system. The player will primarily make use of blunt objects or knives, which are equally horrendous to combat the undead. Taking a swing at an enemy is a laborious exercise, as a zombie can

Review

hen The Walking Dead started its television run on AMC, the channel probably had no idea that the series would be as popular as it has become – turning into one of the biggest entertainment properties on television.

With crossbow-wielding Daryl Dixon being a firm favourite, gamers rejoiced when The Walking Dead: Survival Instincts hit the shelves, but joy turned to disappointment as the title completely failed to deliver on what could have been a truly great and exciting game.

The pure fact that it is based on The Walking Dead franchise should get anybody excited, but sadly that is about the only thing it has going for it. The prospect of playing Daryl Dixon (voiced by actor Norman Reebus) is also what might drive gamers to pick up the title, but it is not enough to sustain the intrigue and suspense it

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by Charlie Fripp

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literally take three strikes to the head before falling over.

All hand-to-hand weapons take a while to swing and there is no single weapon that will take down a zombie in one move – except for the crossbow, which players only get much later in the game.

Together with the combat mechanic, the gameplay also leaves a lot to be desired. Players will select a route on a map to reach salvation, but they are almost guaranteed to break down at random intervals. Once there, they have to search for fuel to continue with their journey, and it also seems pointless. Gamers will get the feeling it’s more about looking for fuel and ammunition than what it is about taking out zombies.

Players will also have a choice to save various survivors and allow them to ride along, but most of the time they are just a nuances. Sure they give the player special items if

they are in the party at the end of the title, but they bring no value to the overall game – unless gamers instruct them to look for fuel while the player is out looking for more fuel (see where this is going?)

The title was also punted as revolving around brothers Daryl and Merle Dixon, but the title is more about Daryl than Merle.

Actually, Merle does not bring anything to the title except give orders and it would have been better if Merle actually helped kill a few zombies on the thin-plotted “missions”.

As much as we wanted to like the title, unfortunately it just does not deliver on what could have been the quintessential zombie killing game. Terminal Reality missed a golden opportunity and didn’t put in enough effort to develop something decent. g

AT A GLANCE: First Person Shooter

X360

The title would have been great if it incorporated co-op multiplayer Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Counter Strike, early Medal of Honor, Half Life Local 00

Network 00

16+ gladget31

Online 00

Terminal Reality Activision Megarom

Parental Advisory Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Reviewed on:

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

41 67

Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel

Lifeless Killing Machines The third instalment does the franchise no favours…

by Walt Pretorius

T

rather flat and predictable plot, have been replaced by the excruciatingly imaginatively named Alpha and Bravo. This duo has all the dynamic interaction of a pair of squashed toads – the humour that Salem and Rios introduced to the game simply isn’t there anymore. And that omission makes this latest Army of Two exactly what the others would have been without that element; a lifeless pop-and-drop shooter which sees the players assisting each other in coversection after cover section, shooting a bunch of copy-andpaste bad guys. If they want to assist each other, that is.

While there are still areas in the game that work better with co-operation, the necessity for it feels lessened. There is no aggro anymore, and players can pretty much do as they please while trekking through the seven or so hours it takes to wrestle their way through The Devil’s Cartel.

The lack of charm has not been replaced by other

Review

he first two Army of Two games managed to build a decent idea – two overly macho, testosterone driven mercenaries work together to overcome lots of enemies. While they’re at it, they amuse the player with bickering, tasteless jokes and generally boyish behaviour. Salem and Rio may not have become household character names, but those that enjoyed the franchise loved these two characters.

So the decision to make the stars of the show supporting characters in Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel is beyond odd. Sure, Salem and Rios are growing older, but Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher should have been in a pulpit-walker years ago, and he’s still going. We want realism from games, yes, but not at the expense of the characters we love.

Salem and Rios, while they are still around for the

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improvements, either. The enemy AI is thicker than two planks. Enemies will charge you down time and again, with little regard for life and limb, and their predictable tactics make them slightly less intelligent than a bag of hammers.

Thankfully the friendly AI is fairly decent; it will pull the player’s fat out of the fire quite effectively if the game is played solo.

Around halfway through, the tedium of the title truly sets in, and it becomes a slog session in order to buy upgrades for the somewhat limited selection of weapons available.

The flash and over-the-top nature of the previous two games is, once again, absent.

One addition that might have made a big difference is Overkill. This mode allows the player, when it is charged up, to become a combat power-house, immune to bullets, possessed of limitless ammo and firing off rounds that have

explosive effects. It’s a great idea, wonderful for last ditch efforts in sections that are a little too tough for normal fire power. But these sections crop up very sparingly, making the system something the player is likely to forget about, rather than utilise to its full potential.

That said, there are times when it comes in handy. This is because the unwieldy cover system will often see the player either not able to get to cover, or even pushed out of cover by their AI partner.

Although the destructible environments look fairly good and the player can customise their character to their heart’s content, good looks and fiddling around with character graphics don’t make up for the fact that Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel feel flat and lifeless. It does the previous two games no justice, and fans will likely feel a strong disappointment at the wasted opportunities. g

AT A GLANCE: Third Person Shooter

Reviewed on:

X360

Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel takes everything that was great about the first two games and chucks it out of the window.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Army of Two Local

1

Network

Online

0

EA Games Electronic Arts EA South Africa

Parental Advisory

18+ gladget31

0

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

50 69

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14

Tiger’s Wood Is the franchise becoming a bit limp?

by Charlie Fripp

T

small changes make the game more frustrating than what it should be. An example of this is the wind factor – players need to keep the wind’s direction and strength in mind when planning shots. But this doesn’t always go according to plan, as the title will more often than not disregard the indicated wind speed, leaving the player to plan and execute a shot accordingly, only to have it go wayward of where it should have gone – simply because the factors are correct as indicated in-game. It seems that the game makes use of the wind factors only when it wants to.

The swing plane and shot execution has also been given a small tweak (although very minor), as players will now have to swing diagonally to perform draws and fades. This sounds a lot easier than what it is, and when a game relies on precision, swinging diagonally becomes an effort in itself. It’s much better to hit the ball straight and spin the

Review

he Tiger Woods PGA Tour series has been one of the most successful golfing games in recent history, and with the release of Tiger Woods 14, gamers can once again step into the shoes of Woods, or forge their own path to PGA glory.

But is the new title all that it’s cracked up to be? Apart from the usual PGA career, players can now step back in time and compete in some of history’s biggest moments, starting in the late 1800’s. The graphics have also been updated (which was expected), and a new experience and levelling-up system has been introduced, but it’s really just more of the same sporting action – other than being able to play as a female golfer in the LPGA, and including all four Men’s major golf championships.

While this version of the golf simulator is essentially a redress of Tiger Woods 13 with a number of tweaks, the

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daylights out of it before it hits the ground.

While players can now create a golfer that prefers Power or Accuracy, the choice is actually a bit redundant.

In golf, hitting a powerful tee shot is key, the short game needs a bit of accuracy, and then it’s down to putting.

In something like Tiger Woods PGA Tour, the first two factors are incredibly easy to power through, as putting is where the business really matters. Gaining experience points by playing well and levelling up, the XP should be pumped into Power, Putting, Accuracy and Recovery – in that order. If you can get onto the tee in as few shots as possible, half the battle is won. What’s the point of having a golfer with laser-precision accuracy but can’t crack the 200m mark from a tee off?

The presentation style of the latest title has obviously also been given a facelift, and it’s much better now than before. For starters, there is an indicator as to where the

flag is, and during the loading screens information about the next hole is displayed as well as other player stats.

But the presentation isn’t without its faults – on a number of occasions a random information pop-up will be displayed on-screen during tee off, which then refuses to go away. It will block the player’s swing plane, which is highly annoying.

The commentary team is once again headed up by Jim Nantz, and while they have some new quips, the bulk of the commentary is identical to Tiger Woods 13 – something which cheapens the game considerably.

Players of the previous games shouldn’t expect too much from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14, as EA seems to tweak every second game before releasing a brand-new version of it in between. While this version has better presentation style and graphics, it ultimately falls somewhat short of bring anything new or unique to the golfing green. g

AT A GLANCE: Sports

Reviewed on:

While it can be fun, this isn’t the new Tiger Woods that fans would have been hoping for.

Similar to: MaxPlayers Developer: Publisher: Distributer:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 & 13, John Daly’s Prostroke Golf Local

4

Network

Online

8

EA Tiburon EA Sports EA South Africa

Parental Advisory

10+ gladget31

4

Violence Language Sex Drug Use Prejudice

Accessibility Hard-Core Medium Casual

X360 Platforms

Genre:

PC X360 Kinect

PS3 Move

Wii U Wii PSV 3DS DS

Score

77 71

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