Happy Holidays! T
Managing Director Noor Azman Head of Department YK Cheah
he year is about to end and as expected, November saw quite a few smartphone and audio brands hosting launches, but was otherwise a quiet month. But that’s not what you’re here for, right? Maybe our cover caught your eye and you’re curious of what’s within. Well, it’s pretty self-explanatory. That’s right, the holiday season is just around the corner and we’ve decided to give you some ideas on what to get. We went with a slightly different angle this year, so we hope you appreciate our ideas. You’ll find our 2017 Holiday Gift Guide in page 62. On the events side, we couldn’t really call the second last month of 2017 a particularly exciting one. It’s a month between major reveals and few brands will launch their flagship products before CES 2018. Of course, this means that ‘leaks’ will come our way soon. Fortunately, we got some eye-catching products to review this issue besides our gift guide, including the AMD Threadripper 1950X, Samsung Galaxy Note8, and a gaming chair from GAMDIAS. We won’t spoil the rest, so please check out our reviews, starting from page 80. 2017 is about to end and we’re glad you readers have been with us along the way, so thank you and cheers to another great year ahead!
Matthew Yap Deputy Editor
EDITORIAL Deputy Editor Matthew Yap Writer Nixon Ng Writer Rikco Shim Contributors Roman Leipold, Felix Knoke, Richard Meuser, Heiko Bauer, Christoph Schmidt, Andreas Th. Fischer, Patrick Hannemann, Markus Hermannsdorfer, Sabrina Raschpichler Design & Layout Halijah Ismail Cover Design Halijah Ismail SALES & MARKETING Senior Manager YK Cheah Account Manager Connor Tan Consultant Muffadzlee Dato’ Sufian ADMINISTRATION Admin Manager WP Lim ONLINE www.chip.com.my @CHIPMY CHIP Malaysia PUBLISHER Online Dynamics (M) Sdn. Bhd. A-5-07 Block A, Neo Damansara Bandar Damansara Perdana, Jalan PJU 8/1 47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: (03) 7727 6554 Fax: (03) 7727 3554
PRINTED BY Unipress Printer Sdn. Bhd. 117-G, Jalan Tiaj 1/4, Taman Industri Alam Jaya, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan. Tel: (03) 6038 5578 Fax: (03) 6038 3944
DISTRIBUTED BY MPH Distributors Sdn. Bhd. Ground Floor Warehouse, Lot 2, Bangunan TH, No. 5, Jalan Bersatu, Section 13/4, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Tel: (03) 7958 1688 Fax: (03) 7956 5995 © This edition of CHIP is a publication of Online Dynamics (M) Sdn. Bhd. licensed by Vögel Burda Holding GmbH, 80336 Munich, Germany. © Copyright of the trademark ‘‘CHIP by Vögel Burda Holding GmbH, 80336 Munich, Germany. No part of CHIP magazine / shall be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission. All views expressed in the magazine are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily represent those of CHIP magazine / the publisher. All information in the magazine is provided ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ and CHIP magazine / the publisher makes no representations and gives no warranty of any kind, implied, express or statutory as to the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, non-infringement of 3rd party rights, title, merchantability and / or suitability / fitness for a particular purpose with respect to the said information. Under no circumstances whatsoever shall the CHIP magazine / the publisher be liable for any direct, indirect, special or consequential damages whether in contract or in tort arising out of or in connection with the use of the information made available in CHIP magazine. All prices, product versions and URLs’ are correct at the time of printing.
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Indonesia
Italy
Netherlands Poland
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COVER STORY NEWS & TRENDS
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062 2017 Holiday Gift Guide It’s the holiday season and you’re wondering what to buy. Here’s some ideas for you 006 Local News Coverage of the latest news and events right on our shores
030 World Wired Web All the latest tech happenings around the world
028 Security Reports Monthly dose of security news
FEATURES
038 Warfare Through Machines Artificial Intelligence don’t come with a human’s moral compass, so should they be banned from warfare?
046 LAN Cable Over WiFi The LAN cable is old tech but can be the better choice if used correctly
058 Wearables For The Disabled With the advent of wearables, the technology to improve the lives of disabled people is finally progressing again
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TEST LAB
071 Test Lab: The Tools Test Labs’ tools of the trade
072 Test Lab Contents Take a pick and get started!
080 Reviews Professionally conducted reviews following our stringent tests and benchmarks
LITE & LEISURE
98 Bully Bullies have always existed, even in games. Such is the theme explored in this Blast of the Past
102 E-Sports Express What’s the latest gossip in the e-sports world?
108 Made By The Masses A look at some interesting crowdfunded products you should know
PRACTICE REGULARS 080
114 Take Off With Photoshop Creating a photo with a subject suspended in mid-air requires some work. We give you some tips on how
001 Welcome Note 116 Tips and Tricks
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contents chip download
CHIP Downloads December 2017 We’re back with our monthly dose of interesting, free and handy tools for you to enhance your PC experience. If you want to know how you can get these files, follow the instructions below: 1. Head on our website @ www.chip.com.my and right at the top, click on the ‘‘Downloads” tab 2. After that, click on the respective month’s post. You will then be prompted for a password. The password can be found on this page monthly. 3. Navigate using the tabs and pick the categories you want to download the files from. Once you find the file you want, just click on it and you’re good to go! And it’s as easy as that! PASSWORD FOR DECEMBER2017 - seasontogift
Featured Tools Franz Franz is a messaging app that combines different chats and messaging services into one application. It currently supports Slack, WhatsApp, WeChat, HipChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Google Hangouts, GroupMe, Skype and many more.
Wox Wox is a full-featured launcher providing access to programs and web contents as you type. It allows you to quickstart programs and local files without ever leaving your keyboard, you can also search the web using keywords and prefixes.
Wunderlist If you need to get your schedule into shape, then Wunderlist is perfect for you. It’s a fullfeatured program that gives reminders on due dates and more. It also seamlessly sync across iOS, Android, Mac and even the web.
Essentials
Our list of essentials consists of programs and software such as graphics drivers, browsers, compression software and even Cloud storage software that will improve a PC user’s experience. The links on our website won’t provide you with the files, instead it will lead you to the developers’ official website, where you can find the right file for you. 004
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The Monthly Downloads LosslessCut Operating system: Win XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 Lossless Cut is a cross platform GUI tool for lossless trimming and cutting of videos using ffmpeg and electron. It doesn’t do any decoding or encoding, which allows for fast trimming without quality loss.
AxCrypt Operating system: Win Vista, 7, 8, 10 An open source file encryption software for Windows, Axcrypt integrates seamlessly with Windows to compress, encrypt, decrypt, store, send and work with individual files.
DiskBoss Operating system: Win XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 DiskBoss is an automated, rule-based data management solution allowing one to perform disk space utilisation analysis, file classification, duplicate files search and cleanup, and much more.
CopyTrans Manager Operating system: Win XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 An alternative to iTunes, CopyTrans Manager allows you to quckly drag and drop music and videos from your PC directly to your iPhone, iPod or iPad.
ScreenToGif Operating system: Win XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 ScreenToGif is a portable program you can bring anywhere that records content from your screen, webcam and sketchboard and turns it into a GIF which you can edit with a powerful built-in editor.
Unchecky Operating system: Win XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 Unchecky ensures that you don’t install unwanted software while you’re installing certain programs, usually freeware. It will automatically uncheck unrelated offers and keep your PC clean from adware.
Ditto Operating system: Win XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 Ditto is an extension to the standard Windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard, allowing you access to any of those items at a later time.
DuckDuckGo Operating system: Independent If you’re worried about your privacy try getting DuckDuckGo’s extension or add-on for your web browsers. While searching, DuckduckGo will not store personal info, track you or throw targeted ads at you.
Linux Deepin Operating system: Linux Deepin is a Linux distribution made for easy installation even for beginners. Although simple to install, Deepin sports great stability and ease of use even after installation. https://www.deepin.org/en/download/ chip malaysia
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Lenovo Launches Star Wars Themed Yoga Laptops Which side will you pledge your allegiance to? Are you prepared to choose?
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enovo has launched a limited edition Star Wars themed Yoga 920 convertible laptop. Sporting two different versions, Malaysians will be given the opportunity to choose between the Galactic Empire with its black body and silver etched logo, or the Rebel Alliance with its white body and Alliance logo in red. The colours are reminiscent of each faction’s prominent starfighters - the X-Wing and TIE Fighters - and come with Gorilla Glass to protect the striking visuals. The slim and sleek Star Wars Special Edition Yoga 920 is renowned for its intricately-tooled watchband hinge. It also has a beautiful all-metal unibody design weighing at just 1.37kg and a near edgeless 4K display, making it ideal for immersive entertainment and unparalleled productivity. If the inner Force user in you hasn’t
already made the decision for you, maybe the inner geek in you will? The Yoga 920 features up to an eighth generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, 512GB PCIe storage and up to 15.5 hours of battery life. The display is a 13.9-inch UHD wideangle touchscreen and has an integrated fingerprint reader for secure and instant biometric authentication. It’s also capable for transforming into four modes, in laptop mode you can work as you do with a laptop and in stand mode it’s best used for presenting different modes of media. Or if you don’t really have the place, how about browsing in tablet mode? And finally, you can also relax while watching videos in tent mode. The different modes are all made possible due to Lenovo’s amazing hinge system. The price for the Star Wars Special
Edition Yoga 920 starts from RM8,888 with the device available for purchase at Lenovo Exclusive Stores, Lenovo’s Lazada Store and Lenovo Multiple Brand Stores sometime in December. Alongside the Yoga 920 are the Lenovo Yoga 720 and 520, which don’t sport the Star Wars theme. Prices for those start at RM5,599 for the 720 and RM2,799 for the 520. www.lenovo.com
Slim and sleek like a starfighter
Pledge yourself to the Rebel Alliance!
From left to right Gary Khan, Consumer Lead, Lenovo Malaysia and Khoo Hung Chuan, General Manager of Lenovo Malaysia and Singapore
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Be The Life Of The Party With vivo V7 The smaller brother of the V7+ has finally landed in Malaysia. Let’s take a look at what it offers compared to others in the market
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ot long ago, vivo, a big name in Malaysia for its selfie-centric phones, has come out with yet another device to make your jaws drop. We wondered when the V7 will drop in Malaysia, since the V7+ was announced a while back and news on the V7 was oddly omitted back then, but now fans of the brand can look forward to getting their hands on it. The V7 comes with a 5.7-inch IPS display
on a 149.3 x 72.8 x 7.9 mm body, which usually houses a 5.2-inch screen instead, a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (which can be expanded by using a microSD card of up to 256GB). As for the cameras, the main selling point of vivo devices, there’s a 24-megapixel front camera and a 16-megapixel camera at the back. Both cameras are equipped with f2.0 aperture lenses.
You can fit up to three cards in the SIM slot – two nano SIM cards and one microSD card. It is also powered by a 3,000 mAh battery and runs on vivo’s proprietary OS, Funtouch OS 3.2, which is based on Android 7.1. During the event at Zouk KL, Wesley Wong, X-RITE Coloratti Master to talk about the advantages and the quality that you would get when using the V7 as your main camera. Janna Nick, the ambassador for vivo V7+, said that ‘‘Staying active on social media is an act to keep my fans updated on my journey as a public figure in Malaysia. With the FullView Display and 24-megapixel front-facing camera, vivo V7 is a perfect device for a selfie lover as it gets the job done in one shot. It’s leading my life journal towards perfection.” The vivo V7 comes in Crown Gold and Matte Black, with the latter featuring a full body black design throughout the phone, while the Crown Gold sports a gold design on the back of the phone with white ascents around the front. The device is priced at an affordable RM1,299 and is now available for purchase from vivo concept stores and authorised stores. www.vivo.com/my
vivo angels posing for a picture with the new vivo V7
The vivo V7 Simeon Sia, Brand Manager of vivo Malaysia, in the middle flanked by vivo angels
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Dell Gaming Is Gaming Ready Unveiling a brand-new gaming laptop along with gaming rigs, monitors and peripherals from Alienware
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ell is no stranger to making products that amazes the world and it has done it again with a new laptop from their Inspiron line, the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop, and other products that are within Alienware’s Gaming Ecosystem. Dell even invited Chineko, a popular cosplayer, who cosplayed Reaper from Overwatch! Starting off the with Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop, it is equipped with a 7th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, up to 16GB of RAM, up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with Max Q Design and 6GB GDDR5, a choice of internal storage ranging from 128GB SSD to 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD. It also has a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display. The whole system is powered by a 56 Whr, 4-Cell battery with Quick Charge capabilities, capable of lasting up to 8 hours when gaming. It also features a SmartByte software that will prioritise gaming speed while using its dual-band Wi-Fi AC. Lastly, it comes equipped with Thunderbolt 3 port for faster transfer speeds.
The Alienware Aurora Desktop was also showcased. It is a mid-tower prebuilt desktop that comes with a dual GPU setup and an 8th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU. It also fits up to two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 of 8GB GDDR5X. In addition, it supports a maximum of 64GB DDR4 RAM, and either 256GB or 512GB of SSD with 1TB of HDD. The Aurora is VR ready and easy to upgrade yourself by removing the cover. Next up are some new Alienware monitors. Firstly, the Alienware 34-inch Curved Gaming Monitors are equipped with WQHD or WFHD resolution, features a unique design with AlienFX lighting and ultrathin bezels. It is also G-Sync ready for your NVIDIA cards, and with 120Hz of refresh rate and 4ms of response time. Then there’s the 25-inch model that comes with either AMD FreeSync or NVIDIA Ge-Force, so you can choose the monitor that matches your graphics card. It has 1ms of response time and 240Hz of refresh rate. It also has slim bezels for flawless multi-monitor setup.
The Alienware Pro Gaming Keyboard comes with an Alienware logo etched onto the bottom of the keyboard, and has 13 zone-based RGB AlienFX blacklit lighting options. It comes equipped with Brown mechanical switches, Anti-Ghosting and N-key rollover capabilities, multimedia keys, and up to 15 programmable macro keys. Lastly, the Alienware Elite Gaming Mouse comes with a 12,000 DPI optical sensor and up to 13 programmable buttons, all built with Alienware design. It’s also customisable, features interchangeable side grips, configurable weights, and the wrist rest of the mouse is adjustable. For RGB fanatics, they have added AlienFX lighting effects as well. The new products are available via Dell stores and authorised partners, prices below: Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop – Starts from RM3,899 Alienware Aurora Desktop – Starts from RM4,999 Alienware 34-inch Gaming Monitor with WQHD – RM5,599 Alienware 34-inch Gaming Monitor with WFHD – RM5,079 Alienware 25-inch Gaming Monitor (G-Sync) – RM2,699 Alienware 25-inch Gaming Monitor (FreeSync) – RM2,199 Alienware Pro Gaming Keyboard – RM569 Alienware Elite Gaming Mouse – RM429 www.dell.com.my
Pang Yee Beng (Managing Director, Dell Malaysia; and SVP, South Asia & Korea, Dell EMC) with models and cosplayer Chineko posing with new Dell products
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Acer Expands Predator Gaming Line Acer brings their best to Malaysia with the Acer Predator Triton 7000 and Orion 9000
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cer Malaysia has launched their newest additions to its Predator Gaming line in Malaysia, led by the powerful yet thin Predator Triton 700 laptop. The Predator Triton 700 laptop comes with the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 with Max-Q, which allows for further overclocking of the graphics card. Not only that, it has a low profile N-key rollover mechanical keyboard. Also launched at the event was the curved screen Predator X34P and Z35P gaming monitor that offer UltraWide display, as well as NVIDIA G-SYNC for ultra-smooth and immersive performance and experience. A little more information about the Predator Triton 700 is that it has two NVMe PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 configuration and up to 32GB of DDR4 2,400MHz memory for maximum speed and massive storage. Thanks to Acer’s Dual AeroBlade 3D Fan, which has the world’s thinnest metal blade at only 0.1mm, the thermal system is hyper efficient at cooling and exhausting heat out of the upper and lower air intake. For a truly
immersive gaming experience, the VR-ready Predator Triton 700 offers bright, vibrant visuals on a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display supporting G-SYNC, for faster and smoother gameplay. It delivers perfect gaming visuals with its 170-degree viewing angle, as well as 120Hz refresh rate for blur-free action and minimal stuttering. Then we have the Predator X34P, a 34-inch 21:9 monitor with an UltraWide QHD display resolution of 3440 x 1440. It has a 1900R curvature for immersive gaming and an IPS panel to deliver great colours while gaming. As for the Z35P, it’s a 35-inch display sporting a 1800R curvature with the same UltraWide QHD resolution. The difference is that it uses a VA panel for better blacks, contrast and viewing angles. Not only that, the monitors are equipped with the Predator GameView feature that can be used to tweak and save three different custom modes for gamers to switch to during gaming. Finally, they also revealed a surprise
called the Predator Orion 9000. As gaming desktop that supports up to four RX VEGA cards and an Intel i9 Extreme Edition 18-core processor, this desktop is cooled using Acer’s Ice Tunnel 2.0 - a thermal innovation with advanced airflow management that intelligently separates the different thermal zones of the system, each with an individual airflow tunnel to expel heat. Designed for the hardcore gamer, the Orion 9000 also has an adaptable chassis that allows gamers to upgrade the CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage effortlessly for future upgrades. www.acer.com/ac/en/MY/content/home
The star of the show - Acer Predator Triton 700.
The Acer Predator Orion 9000.
(Third from left) Chan Weng Hong, General Manager, Products, Sales and Marketing, Acer Malaysia; (second from right) Jeffrey Lai, Product Manager, Acer Malaysia; and (first from right) Edmund Hoh, Product Manager, Acer Malaysia.
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Teoh Eu Jin, Marketing Manager of Malaysia, Lenovo MBG & Motorola Mobility (second from left) and Lydia Foo, General Manager of Malaysia, Lenovo MBG & Motorola Mobility (second from right) posing with the new Moto G5S Plus and Moto X4smartphones.
Adding To The Moto Spice Moto by Lenovo continues to expand its lineup with new devices
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arlier in November, Motorola Mobility launched its latest smartphones in Malaysia - the Moto G5S Plus and Moto X4. The first is a variant that’s a straight upgrade of the G5 Plus, while the X4 is a premium device with a classy design. Both sport dual-cameras that can record 4K videos. Even with the competition, Moto has been able to do relatively well for itself in recent months, owing to the stable performances of its devices. The G5S Plus continues this trend by providing consumers with an affordable device with great features and looks. It comes with a 13-megapixel dual camera at the back that, with the photo enhancement software installed in the device to make it possible for users to create some interesting photos and effects. An example is the selective black and
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white mode, which allows the user to choose what part of the picture retains colour or not. Besides that, the G5S Plus comes with a full metal body framing a 5.5-inch Full HD display. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, 4GB of RAM and has 32GB of internal storage. With its 3,000 mAh battery, it’ll also last most of the day, depending on use. On the higher end is the Moto X4, a device meant for those who want a premium device. Its sleek, glass and metal body is made of aluminium to keep it light, while the watch-dial design around the rear camera gives it an extra luxurious look. Its dual rear setup combines a 12-megapixel and 8-megapixel camera, while the front is a 16-megapixel shooter with adaptive low-light mode. It’s also equipped with IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.
Under the hood, the phone is powered by a Snapdragon 630 processor, along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Both devices are now available for purchase, at RM999 for the G5S Plus and RM1,899 for the X4. The G5S Plus comes in Lunar Grey and Blush Gold, while the X4 be in Super Black and Sterling Blue colours. moto.com/my
The Moto G5S Plus
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A New Mirrorless Icon The Canon EOS M100 is now finally available in Malaysia
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n early November, Canon announced the EOS M100, the latest in the EOS M camera series that features interchangeable-lens capabilities. Canon mirrorless cameras are equipped with the ability of DSLR cameras to capture images with speed and precision, while maintaining the ease of operation similar to phone cameras. In that sense, the EOS M100 is the perfect partner for modern art such as selfies, food pictures and panorama shots. Andrew Koh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Canon Marketing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, said: ‘‘At Canon, we believe that our cameras not only take the best quality images but also provide sharing options that make it simple to upload, store or share your photos at the touch of a button. We noted that while customers appreciate the convenience of smartphones
cameras, they have also cultivated the skills and appreciation for capturing better photos and videos, and will start to look for advanced imaging technology. Hence, we believe the EOS M100 makes the perfect companion for users aspiring to take their passion in everyday photography to the next level.” The EOS M100 comes with a 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS image sensor and a DIGIC 7 imaging processor. It has a max ISO of 25,600 and can shoot continuously at 6.1fps. It also sports a 3-inch tilt-capable LCD touchscreen, and can connect to other devices via Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth. They have also announced the Canon SELPHY CP1300, the perfect companion for the EOS M100. The SELPHY CP1300 is a compact and portable wireless photo
EOS M100_Black
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printer. It measures at 180.6 x 135.9 x 63.3 mm. While not completely pocket friendly, you can still store it in a bag, since it only weighs around 860g. It also has a 3.2-inch touchscreen to facilitate printing via SD card and can print postcards in as fast as 47 seconds. Simply connect to the SELPHY CP1300 via Wi-Fi, AirPrint or Mopria Print. You can power the CP1300 via cable, or if you truly wish to be wireless, you will need to purchase a separate battery pack. The EOS M100 comes in three colour variants of Grey, White and Black, as for the SELPHY CP1300, it comes in Black, White and Pink. Both products can be purchased from Canon Image Squares, authorised retailers and Canon’s Official Lazada Store. Prices are detailed below: EOS M100 Kit + EF-M15-45 IS STM – RM2,499 EOS M100 Kit + EF-M15-45 IS STM & EF-M22 IS STM – RM3,099 SELPHY CP1300 – RM599 www.lazada.com.my/canon-official-store www.canon.com.my
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Sony WI-1000X
Sony Malaysia executives, posing with the new devices, which also includes a new Sony Walkman.
Go Truly Wireless With Sony Sony’s 1000X from last year now has siblings, three more of them in fact
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he hustle and buzz of city life can often get to us, but with some technology those can all be isolated and controlled. Sony has launched three new types of noise cancelling audio products set under the 1000X series, which was first launched last year. They are the WH-1000XMK2, WI-1000X and WF-1000X, all made in different form factors for different users. Leading the trio is the WF-1000X, an earphone set that is truly wireless. It comes with zero wires and though its sound driver is a mere 6mm, it delivers high quality and dynamic audio. In addition, it comes with a charging case that can hold up to nine hours of charge, while the earphone itself can hold about three hours of charge. Adding up to 12 hours together, it gives users an ultra-portable earphone that can provide endless hours of music entertainment. Next up is the WI-1000X, a behind-theneck wireless cancelling earphone designed for commuters. It’s stylish, comes with noise cancelling, and has about 10 hours of battery life. It also features Sony’s Atmospheric
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Pressure Optimising feature that, as its name implies, analyses the atmosphere pressure and adjusts the noise cancelling property so that your ear drums don’t feel pressured. To drive its high-quality sound, this earphone uses a hybrid 9mm Balanced Armature plus dynamic driver. Last but not least is the straight upgrade to last year’s MDR-1000X, the WH-1000XM2. Capable of being used wired or wirelessly, this headphone has a massive 30 to 40 hours of battery life and gain 70 mins of charge in just 10 minutes with the Quick Charge feature. All three are compatible with the latest Sony companion app, which will have an activityrecognition feature known as ‘Adaptive Sound Control’. This feature can detect whether the user is walking or standing still, allowing it to adjust the noise cancelling settings according to the situation. The new WH-1000XM2 headphone will retail for RM1,599, while the ones with the other two ultra portables – the WI-1000X and WF-1000X – will be priced at RM1,499 and RM899, respectively. www.sony.com.my
Sony WH-1000XM2
Sony WF-1000X
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OPPO F5 Displays AI Tech
The brand known for its selfie phones now adds more to your selfies with AI Beauty Recognition
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PPO Malaysia also had an active November, officially launching its new F5 smartphone to the masses. Among its features, the biggest draw is its AI Beauty Recognition technology. A smartphone for selfie has to have quality, so OPPO has given the F5 a 20-megapixel front camera with a f/2.0 aperture. It’s also equipped with the ‘‘Facial Unlock” feature, which allows the user to unlock the device by scanning their face using face recognition technology. ‘‘OPPO has always been committed to delivering world-leading selfie technology for consumers to enjoy the convenience and have the best selfie photography experience. With the F5, users can easily capture the perfect and real selfie in any condition,” said William Fang, Chief Executive Officer of OPPO Malaysia. As the key feature of this device, AI Beauty Recognition technology works by gathering data to learn of different facial features of the many people across the globe. According
to OPPO, the company collaborated with professional photographers and make-up artists during the R&D process, so that the technology will be able to have the same ‘skills’ in order to make selfies look better. Besides that, it can also learn and profile the skin tone and skin type in photo, allowing it to be able to make personalised enhancements to those aspects. Ken Ng, Product Manager of OPPO Malaysia, was also present at the launch of the event. He briefly described the tech’s use as to: ‘‘Emulate the abilities of a professional photographer, who would bring years and years of technical skills and
experience when taking a portrait. An F5 user thus gains a similar ability to capture selfies that are of the highest quality.” In addition to the front camera, the F5 also has a 16-megapixel rear camera with F1.8 aperture, a 6-inch Full HD+ screen in 18:9 aspect ratio, and a 3,200 mAh battery to keep the device going strong for about 12 hours even with continuous use. All of this is crammed into a slim metal unibody that’s comfortable to hold and pretty to look at. Using OPPO’s Color OS 3.2, the F5 will have 4GB RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, and an octa-core processor that is expected to be a Mediatek Helio P23. The OPPO F5 is now available from Lazada, 11street, Shopee and more, at a price of RM1,298. www.oppo.com/my
The OPPO F5
CEO of OPPO Malaysia, William Fang, (eighth from left) posing with colleagues, partners, and brand ambassadors, while holding up the newly launched OPPO F5.
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Rupert Chen and Richard Tang were invited as VIPs for the launch of the Vector 33S and Edge 1030
Garmin Announces Brand New Products For Cyclists For cyclist enthusiasts out there, check out these brand new gears that’ll improve your cycling experience
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armin Malaysia has announced the Vector 3/3S, a completely redesigned pedal-based power meter. Unlike previous versions of the Garmin Vector, the Vector 3/3S does not have a pod and installs like any other pedal, making it easy to transfer from one bike to another without professional assistance. Once installed, the dual-sensing Vector 3 measures total power, left-right balance, cadence and advanced cycling dynamics, while the Vector 3S reports cadence and total power. The Vector 3/3S fully integrates with the Garmin cycling ecosystem and the Edge 1030. Garmin’s cycling ecosystem will not only let cyclist receive structured indoor training by pairing their Vector 3/3S with power-based training systems, but they will also gain access to compatible third-party training
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platforms. The Vector 3/3S features up to 120 hours of battery life and they are priced at RM4,799 for the Vector 3 and RM2,899 for the Vector 3S. ‘‘As cyclists aim to beat their personal best on their next race, the affordable and innovative Vector 3/3S will help them ride farther, stronger and more often. By redesigning the pedal and eliminating the pod, cyclists have the ability to quickly transfer from bike to bike and still receive advanced performance data that takes their training to the next level,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin Vice President, Worldwide Sales. Also announced was the Edge 1030 high-end cycling computer. The Edge 1030 combines enhanced navigation, performance and cycling awareness into a lightweight design. Using billions of kilometres of ride
data from Garmin Connect, new Trendline popularity routing provides cyclists with the best on and off-road routes possible, allowing them to ride with greater confidence. Whether hitting the trails or streets, cyclists will benefit from the pre-loaded Garmin Cycle Maps that feature turn-by-turn directions for all terrains, and alerts to sharp curves ahead. If that sounds interesting to you the Edge 1030 is priced at RM3,199. www.garmin.com.my
The Garmin Vector 3 and 3S
The Garmin Edge 1030
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Never Run Out Of Space Again Storage needs are always increasing and Western Digital is here to meet those demands
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estern Digital recently launched three new storage devices, each aimed at users with different needs. In total, there’s a new external drive from the My Cloud series, SanDisk iXpand device, and a microSD card. Due to the increase in capture devices, the amount of digital content that is generated daily has also seen an exponential rise. With more people starting to look into applications like virtual reality, or higher resolution media in 4K or 8K, the need for larger and centralised storage is increasing. Western Digital’s answer to this is the My Cloud Home, a new external storage drive catered for such users. What the My Cloud Home can do is that it allows the user to sync all their files – be it from their smartphone, PCs, social media accounts and more – into a central location. When connected to the internet, the drive functions as a personal cloud storage that can be accessed
from anywhere you have via PC or even a smartphone, as long as you have an internet connection. Aside from the My Cloud Home, there’s the new SanDisk iXpand Base. A series that should no longer be a stranger to many, it returns with a twist this time – as a larger device that’s meant as a storage repository. Compatible with Apple devices like iPhones and iPads, the iXpand base provides users with a simple way to backup the files on their devices. It also doubles as a charging base, so that the user can charge the device while it’s backing up the files. The process is also done automatically. Lastly, Western Digital also launched the new 400GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card. As the name suggest, this is a microSD card with a massive 400GB storage capacity. With a memory card like this, you no longer have to worry about running out of space that quickly.
The My Cloud Home and SanDisk iXpand Base are already available, but the 400GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card will only be available later. For pricing, refer to the list below. My Cloud Home (2TB, 3TB, 4TB – RM739, RM839, RM1,059 My Cloud Home Duo (4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 12 TB, 16TB, 20TB) – RM1,599, RM1,999, RM2,499, RM3,459, RM3,999, RM4,399 SanDisk iXpand Base (64GB, 128GB, 256GB) – RM369, RM529, RM899 400GB SanDisk Ultra microSD (10-year limited warranty) – RM1,499 www.wdc.com
Western Digital My Cloud Home
(L-R) Hui Low, Regional Product Marketing; Margaret Koh, Director of Sales, Asia South; and Albert Chang, Regional Product Marketing, posing with the newly launched products
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Koh Kong Meng (Managing Director, Southeast Asia and Korea, HP Inc.) and Kym Lim (Managing Director, Malaysia, HP Inc.) posing with the Sprocket 2-in-1 and HP Spectre 13
Incoming New HP Products
HP launched several products that is sure to entrance everyone
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e got to see some dazzling new products from HP recently, including the new HP Spectre 13, HP Spectre x360, an improved Sprocket with the HP Sprocket 2-in-1, and more. Koh Kong Meng, the Managing Director for Southeast Asia and Korea for HP Inc, said: ‘‘In the last 24 months, HP has been laying the foundations for long term and sustainable growth in Southeast Asia, by focusing on building a robust product portfolio, deliver customer outcomes and enhancing security innovation.” While Kym Lim, the Managing Director of Malaysia for HP Inc. chimed in and mentions that HP will continue their pursuit of perfecting mobile printing and developing PCs to meet the needs of One Life, the blend between work and life. The new HP Spectre 13 is the world’s thinnest touch laptop. It comes with a 4K Display, louder audio, and has Intel’s 8th Gen processors inside, as well as up to 16GB of DDR3 and 1TB of SSD. It is built from CNC
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aluminium and carbon fibre, and comes in Ceramic White or Pale Gold. The Spectre 13 can last up to 11.5 hours, and with HP Fast Charge, you can get from 0 to 50% in 30 minutes. As for the Spectre x360, HP claimed that it is the convertible with the longest battery life. It comes with Intel 8th Gen processors, up to 16GB of DDR3 and up to 1TB of SSD, a 13-inch 4K display with an option to add privacy screen, and battery life of up to 16.5 hours. It comes with two colour variations of Natural Silver and Dark Ash Silver. A fingerprint reader can be found on the side of the device, and with HP Sure View, you can keep whatever you’re browsing or writing a secret from others with a click of a button, eliminating visual hacking. The HP Sprocket 2-in-1 is similar to the previous HP Sprocket, but this time, it comes with instant photo printing capabilities. You can still snap pictures from your smartphone and deliver it to the Sprocket for printing, but you can also take pictures with the camera and have it print out instantly. Now you can
print your selfies and wefies whenever and wherever. They also showcased the HP ZBook x2, a detachable PC that allows you to design, draw and create without any limits. It is the world’s first detachable workstation, and is capable of delivering up to 73% more performance compared to the Surface Pro with its quad-core Intel Core processors. You can even connect the ZBook x2 to two 4K displays, or five total displays. On the workstation itself, it comes with a 14-inch 4K multi-touch display with an optional 10-bit, one-billion colour HP DreamColor display calibrated to 100% of Adobe RGB. It can last up to 10 hours on battery, and can be recharged to 50% in 30 minutes. You can overclock it to 2.4 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost, or add up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Two devices in the EliteBook series were also premiered - the EliteBook X360 1020 G2 and EliteBook 1040 G4. Both give you phenomenal performance, the best features and can withstand harsh environments. There will also be a few new products within the A3 printer series as well. Currently, most of the devices are pegged for either a release come December of 2017, or early 2018. We have not been given any exact dates or prices, so stay tuned for further updates on the prices or availability of these tempting HP devices. www8.hp.com/my/en/home.html
news
From the left: Andy Lu (Product Manager, Huawei Home Device & Tablets, Huawei Consumer Business Group, Malaysia) and Patrick Chew (Product Expert, Training & Development Manager for Huawei MRO Device Department) posing with the MediaPad M3 Lite
Unveiling The MediaPad M3 Lite
Huawei is adding some extra flair for the slowly disappearing tablet market with the MediaPad M3 Lite
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few weeks ago, Huawei invited us to their headquarters to try out the new Huawei MediaPad M3 Lite, a lighter version of the M3 that was released not too long ago. The M3 Lite is made for people who prefers to use tablets on the go, while not wanting to splurge too much or carry a heavier tablet around. Although it’s only 310 grams, this device features an 8-inch FullHD+ IPS screen. You can easily slot the tablet into your pocket, or fit it inside your handbag without weighing it down. It is powered with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor, with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage space. It also features LTE CAT4 with a dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi. As for the download speeds, it can reach up to 150Mbps. It runs on EMUI 5.1, which is based on Android 7.0.
A fingerprint sensor can also be found on the device for easier unlocks. It also features a split screen feature for multitasking capabilities, like watching a movie while browsing the internet. For parents who wish to purchase an affordable tablet for their kids, Huawei also introduced a Kids Corner setting that you can turn on. Settings ranging from timers to game can be set, so you can still maintain control over what media your kids are consuming. A feature that Huawei is touting on the device is with its audio capabilities. Huawei teamed up with Harman Kardon to engineer the audio on the M3 Lite with two bottom-firing speakers equipped with Super Wide Sound to deliver a much louder sound without breaking. The tablet also sports a 4,800 mAh battery, which should be able to power you through six movies, nine hours of 1080p videos, 40 hours of
music, and roughly 600 hours of standby time, according to Huawei. It also comes preloaded with a Microsoft Office Kit that is customised for the M3 Lite, useful for the always on-the-go businessman. Camera wise, it has an 8-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera. The Huawei MediaPad M3 Lite is available for purchase from authorised stores nationwide and is priced at RM999. It comes with two colour variants – Space Grey and Gold. The local version of the M3 Lite comes packaged with a leather case. consumer.huawei.com/my
The Huawei MediaPad M3 Lite
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Harman Kardon executives, brand partners and tiny models, posing with the large range of new products.
Harman Leading The Way In Audio Harman is showing off their latest products with a bang
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udio company Harman, which owns popular brands such as JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG and more, released a plethora of products to wow consumers for the year of 2018. Products ranging from Soundbars to Headphones were demoed in a launch event recently. In the soundbar category, sitting pretty on top of the pile is the JBL Bar 5.1. It comes with 5.1-channel Surround Sound with 510W of power, eight Drivers and three Tweeters, as well as a 10-inch subwoofer. The battery of this wireless surround speaker is detachable, so you can just remove the battery component to charge your speakers. It can last up to 10 hours, which should be enough to last you 3 to 4 movies. Next is the JBL Boombox, a gigantic portable speaker with Bluetooth capability, up to 24 hours of playtime with its 20,000 mAh battery, IPX7 rating, and two charge outputs for other devices. It can also act as a speakerphone for impromptu conference calls at the beach and features JBL Connect+, which allows you
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to link together other JBL wireless speakers of more than 100 devices! Harman Kardon is also coming in with some new iterations of their older products, such as an improved Aura Studio 2 and Onyx Studio 4. The Onyx Studio 4 is a Wireless Home Bluetooth Speaker that can act as a functionable art décor at home. Simply connect to the device via Bluetooth and you can play your music wherever. It can last up to 8 hours and, with HK Connect+, connect more than 100 devices together. It also has a built-in microphone with noise and echo cancelling abilities for clear conference calls, as well as access to Siri and Google Assistant. For headphones, JBL has their latest JBL E65BTNC, a wireless Bluetooth-enabled headphone with Noise Cancelation capabilities, JBL Signature Sound, and up to 24 hours of battery while running only on Bluetooth (or 15 hours with Bluetooth and Active Noise Canceling on). It also has quick-charging, so all you need is two hours of charge to last you
24 hours. There’s also the new AKG N60NC Wireless, a wireless headphone with Active Noise Canceling capabilities. With aptX, you can expect high quality streaming from it. It can last you 15 hours with Bluetooth and ANC on, or 30 hours with just ANC on, and comes bundled with a wired option for endless listening. Once done, simply fold it into the bag and you can take it anywhere with you. For a full list with price and specs, you can drop by Harman authorised stores and resellers, or Hot Gadget’s website. estore.hotgadgets.com.my/
Some of the JBL products on the show floor
The AKG N40 in-ear headphones
news
New ViewSonic Monitors For Pros Easy on the eyes, great for the colours
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ecently, ViewSonic Corp. launched two new monitors built for professionals, whose work depends on colour accuracy. Presenting the VP2768 and VP3268-4K. The VP2768 monitor is a 27-inch WQHD IPS display with a frameless design, allowing you to combine multiple monitors together without the awkward bezels on the side. It is capable of covering 99% of the sRGB colour gamut with its 14-Bit colour that can produce over 4 trillion colours on the monitor and has a 60Hz refresh rate, with 14ms of response time. The surface of the panel is covered with an anti-glare and hard-coating, to ensure that you can still work on your projects even with the sun blaring on your monitor. It comes with two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort, and one mini DisplayPort.
As for the VP3268-4K, it is the first monitor within the VP series to have 4K UHD, marking the first step of its series to veer towards 4K UHD. As the name suggests, the VP3268-4K comes with a 32-inch 4K UHD IPS display and has 4K HDR support to deliver High Dynamic Range colour and detail enhancements for HDR content. It also sports a frameless design for ease of a multi-monitor setup. Port wise, it comes with two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort and one mini DisplayPort. It also comes with internal speakers, so you don’t need to plug in external speakers, saving you more space on your desktop. Both monitors are already pre-calibrated right out of the box to achieve professional grade Delta E<2 accuracy and Delta Lv<5% uniformity, which are important for colour-
The ViewSonic VP3268-4K
critical applications. Some additional hardware calibration options are also available, and are co-developed with colour management experts, X-Rite. ViewCare, the premium service for ViewSonic monitors are also present, giving you ease of mind when it comes to problematic monitors. With the launch of these two larger sized monitors, ViewSonic will be making larger displays for professionals and gamers soon. For those who are interested to purchase them, the VP2768 is priced at RM2,299, and the VP3268-4K is priced at RM3,999. Both monitors are available to locally from authorised resellers. https://www.viewsonic.com/my/
Digi Launches vcash e-Wallet Digi takes a step forward towards a cash-free Malaysia
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igi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (Digi) announced their entry into the FinTech space with vcash – a mobile payment application that offers Malaysians an easy, more convenient way to pay, send, request, and store money in their smartphones. vcash is a solution offered by Digi in partnership with Valyou Sdn Bhd, an e-money issuer authorised by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and is now available for all Malaysians on the Google Play Store or Apple App store for free. As Malaysia moves towards becoming a cashless society, spurred by BNM’s strategic measures to accelerate the country’s migration to e-payments, users may find vcash as their go-to e-Wallet that offers a secure and superfast payment service using
QR codes. Beyond payments, vcash also enables funds transfers between vcash users and also to non-vcash users, facilitates cash deposits and withdrawals at any time, and purchase of items from the in-app vcash store. Users do not have to pay transaction fees for using any of the features above. The company today also announced its nationwide merchant line-up with notable brands such as Astro Go Shop, Ezbuy, Fish & Co., Life Juice, Major Drop, Manhattan Fish Market, Mydin, Nice Catch, NY Steak Shack, RedTick, Sam’s Groceria, TAPAK, The Lorry, Tony Roma’s, TR Fire Grill, and more.All these
brands will allow Malaysians to use vcash to pay for purchases. To date, vcash is available at 500 physical touchpoints nationwide and Digi intends to grow the number of touchpoints to 2,000 by the end of the year. In addition, vcash will also be made available as a payment option for merchants under MOLPay and iPay88’s online payment gateway networks, enabling consumers to transact using vcash with thousands of merchants with online shop fronts nationwide. www.digi.com.my vcash.my
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security report
Google Wants To Make Android Safer
Android aims to fight malicious apps with a protection mechanism, but the implementation is difficult and slow
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ndroid has always been in the headlines mainly when criminals misuse the system. One way of attack is using infected apps, which always appear in the Android Play Store. These apps can steal user data or smuggle in malware such as WireX (see next page). Google is working hard to combat these and at the end of August, it blocked around 300 apps with the IgexinWebframework. The fact that Android is so popular among criminals has its reasons. Not only does it enjoy the largest market share worldwide, but it is clearly more open than iOS. Google wants to solve this issue with Android 8 Oreo. In the future, Android will have an integrated virus protection called Google Play Protect, which will come with machine-learning functions that should detect mischievous behaviour. This will not only be valid for applications from the Play Store, but also for APKs that are installed from external sources. The question is whether this is enough. For example, Microsoft Windows is just as widely used. It also has a free virus protection and security functions, which resourceful malware developers are actually avoiding. A better screening process for apps and developers is necessary (also, Google has promised improvement in this field), but more important is to provide even older Android products with security patches. Here, there are massive loopholes and users sometimes have to wait for months, or maybe never even get updates. Google wanted to deal with this problem with the ‘‘Project Treble”,
which is supposed to convert Android into a modular system. The core components can then be updated without having to consider specific adjustments from smartphone manufacturers. Android Oreo is not yet compatible with Treble, but some manufacturers are already working on reports in order to make their upcoming products on a modular basis.
Google Play Protect should improve protection for Android against malware in future. A virus scanner and better app control will be of help here
Data Theft Of The Month DATA COLLECTION OF 711 MILLION PASSWORDS FOUND
ACCIDENTAL ACCESS RELEASED FOR INSTAGRAM API
FINANCE INSTITUTIONS LOSING MILLIONS OF CUSTOMER DATA
Experts have found an amazing 711 million Email addresses, passwords and access info on the web. The data was located on a server in the Netherlands and was allocated to the spambot ‘‘Onliner”. It is responsible for more than 100,000 infections around the world. Interested users can check whether they are affected by going to the website havelbeenpwned.com.
Instagram had to admit that there is a loophole in its API, allowing an attacker to obtain access to the data of its users. Private info such as Email addresses and phone numbers were accessible. Currently, a list with 50 celebrities and their personal data is doing the rounds. Fortunately, Instagram has since closed the loophole.
The American finance institution, Equifax, has lost data of 143 million customers. Between May and July, attackers were able to get access to names, social insurance numbers, birthdates, addresses and driver’s license information. Also, information about 300,000 credit cards was leaked.
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500,000 Pacemakers Recalled T
he US Food & Drug Administration issued a warning that pacemakers made by Abbott can be attacked by hackers. Around 500,000 units around the globe are affected and were thus recalled. Fortunately, the necessary update can be installed without operation, but Pacemaker patients should contact their doctor regarding this.
WireX: Android Botnet Shutdown I
Malware Converts Headphones Into A Bug S
cientists of the Israeli Ben-Gurion University have made a discovery that should leave the security-conscious users more paranoid. They found out how the audio ports of the latest systems can be inverted, effectively converting the audio output into a microphone input. The attack works only with classic, unprotected headphones. Bluetooth headsets and active loudspeakers are not affected. A malware can use this function on notebooks and PCs to listen to the surroundings, or even transmit commands via the Airgap networks. This way, extremely secure networks can also be attacked.
Danger Barometer
Cybercriminals get more money Scientists of the Chalnalysis company state that criminals clearly get more money through cyberattacks. Phishing and Exploits are particularly lucrative.
High risk
PROFIT BY CYBERCRIME (IN MILLION US DOLLARS)
Phishing Exploit 200 Medium risk
Low risk
100 SOURCE: CHAINALYSIS
Hackers can potentially bug unprotected headphones, allowing them to use audio outputs as microphones instead, to listen in or transmit commands.
n a coordinated operation, experts of various providers like Akamai, Cloudflare, Google and Oracle have disabled the WireX Botnet. The botnet had been running DDoS attacks since August 2017 and taken over thousands of Android smartphones for that purpose. The infections happened via manipulated applications and up to 300 apps were distributed by criminals via Google Play. These apps fulfilled their purpose while these criminals could carry out attacks from smartphones in tandem. A minimum of 70,000 devices were infected and up to 120,000 IP addresses were involved in the attack.
0 July 2016
Number of the Month:
October 2016
January 2017
711,000,000
April 2017
July 2017
Over 700 million account access info have been found collected in a server in the Netherlands, proving how dangerous that a spambot is a major risk to user privacy.
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world wired web
OKI Data Americas President and CEO Kiyoshi Kurimoto accepts a 2018 Pick award from David Sweetnam, Director of Research and Lab Services at Keypoint Intelligence Buyers Laboratory (BLI) at SGIA Expo in New Orleans, Louisiana
OKI Wins Keypoint Intelligence‘s BLI 2018 Pick Award O KI Data Corporation, an OKI Group company specialising in the printers business, was awarded the Outstanding ‘‘Enhanced” CMYK Eco-Solvent/Latex 56”/64” Printer Pack Award by Keypoint Intelligence’s Buyers Lab (BLI) for their ColorPainter M-64s wide-format inkjet printer. The printer was
ColorPainter M-64s
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put up against competing printers throughout Europe and the USA, and after months of hands-on evaluations performed by expert teams of analysts and technicians at BLI, OKI came out on top. ‘‘OKI’s ColorPainter M-64s was the clear winner in the ‘enhanced’ CMYK category. With a strong performance across multiple categories, the device’s CP manager garnered special commendation for its comprehensive functionality and usability helping it achieve Five Star status for Device Management and Monitoring,” said David Sweetnam, Director of BLI’s Research and Lab Services.
Since launching the Eco-Solvent/Latex test program in 2016, BLI has tested a host of Latex 54”/64” devices in Europe and the United States, presenting their inaugural awards to the best performing products in four categories (Entry level CMYK Eco-solvent, Enhanced CMYK Eco-solvent, High Production CMYK Eco-solvent and Gamut Expansion Ecosolvent). BLI applauded the ColorPainter M-64s for its productivity and exceptional dimensional stability in highly accurate multi-panel artwork. It was also the only device recognised to achieve excellent rating for reproduction of the greyscale on top of its advantages. Revolutionising the wide-format print market with innovative technology and features, the easy-to-use ColorPainter M-64s drives efficient, high-quality and unmatched graphic output at unrivalled speeds. Together with high-viscosity, low-odor, eco-solvent SX inks, it improves working environments and helps achieve a wider colour gamut and high-density colours that result in superior, long-lasting print images with lower operating costs. This makes the ColorPainter M-64s ideal for a broad range of interior and exterior applications from vehicle wraps to backlit displays. www.oki.com.my
world wired web
USA Against Kaspersky The US government prohibits some agencies from using antivirus tools from Russia, due to fear of espionage
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he US government has prohibited its authorities from using software of Russian security company Kaspersky. According to a risk analysis, the US secret service is afraid that the company has installed spying functions under the pressure of the Russian government and is eavesdropping on the US government authorities through those functions. The authorities now have 90 days time to delete the software. However, there are evidences that suggests the US government is wrong. Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson of the Kremlin, firmly denies the accusations and speculates that USA has only commercial interests, saying: ‘‘The position of the Americans undermines fair competition.” Company CEO Eugene Kaspersky Of course, Kaspersky itself is also wrong by insisting that it has ‘‘never helped and will never help any government in the world in cyber-espionage or offensive cyber-activities.” For agencies of many countries, other security software such as that by Japanese developer Trend Micro and the US company Symantec are more commonly used. Antivirus programs are classified as perfect spying tools by IT experts, because they often have access to the entire system, as well as being able to stop or manipulate programs and services on the computer. They check the entire computer for viruses and stop attacks if required. As a result, it is possible for spying functions to be included inside, yet remain undiscovered by experts and operate with impunity.
Telefonica And Nokia Planning 5G
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okia and the phone company Telefonica want to develop 5G cellular networks together. The agreement between the two companies states that Nokia will develop technologies and execute field trials together with Telefonica, which will enable better utilisation of the network capacities of O2. The objective is to increase performance, particularly in the heavily used city regions where LTE frequencies are limited. This paves the way for new services that require a lot of bandwidth. For example, the Nokia technology Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) is used here. With this technology, Nokia can reduce latency times. Telefonica and Nokia have not given an exact schedule on when any plans or test trials will be held.
BlueBorne-Security Loophole Threatens Bluetooth Devices
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he security loophole BlueBorne, discovered by the security company Arvis, threatens billions of devices that have Bluetooth. With the help of weak points in the Bluetooth protocol, it is possible to attack Android, iOS, Linux and Windows. Linux and Android systems based on Linux, can be completely taken over in this manner. The hack also works for up to ten metres, so potential victims only need to have their Bluetooth activated for their device to be compromised. The loophole concerned was already closed by Microsoft with the last patch day, while iOS users were vulnerable only till version 10.0. Vulnerabilities in MacOS have not yet been identified. However, as the operating systems from Apple share the same kernel, the loopholes should also be patched in the desktop system. As for Android, Google has already responded and share security updates for the OS. The updates are still available for Linux, the most vulnerable system for BlueBorne. For now, it is recommended for users to avoid Bluetooth completely till the updates are released.
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Urgent Photos Like Before
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lick, hear the ‘‘bzzzt!”, wait for a few minutes and a photo gets printed on photopaper – that is the Polaroid. The Dutch company, Polaroid Originals, has launched a classic Polaroid instant photo camera, which will print photos directly printed on to photopapers. As the paper comes out, the camera spreads a developer paste on it that makes the photo quickly visible and fully developed in 10 to 15 minutes. The ‘‘OneStep2” (approx. RM586) model is a fixed focus camera with integrated flash. Although it has a USB port, it’s used exclusively to charge the batteries because too many film packs with a disposable battery would be a big burden for environmental reasons. The film packs are available for about RM78, in black/white film with 8 photos each. However, note that they’re not backwards compatible with old Polaroid cameras.
Foldable Smartphone Possible By Next Year
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or two years, rumours that Samsung is working on a device with a foldable screen has continued to grow. The display technology ‘‘Youm” (introduced in 2013) is now mature enough to be implemented in a smartphone in 2018, according to the South Korean company. Samsung first indicated ambitions in this direction in 2015 with the S6 Edge. In a press conference, Koh-Dong Jin, the chief of the mobile division for Samsung Electronics, announced that they will release a suitable smartphone in the Galaxy Note series next year. The smartphone should appear in the market as soon as ‘‘a few minor problems” are resolved. However, Dong-Jin did not reveal more on what problems are to be resolved. Thus, while a 2018 release is possible, but there is no fixed date for the same as yet.
Facebook Combines Emergency Help During Catastrophes
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n the future, if there is any catastrophe or terror attack, the Facebook will combine all its resources for use under the Crisis Response. For example, the Facebook Safety Check, Community Help and an option for donations fall under this. As soon as there is a catastrophe or a terror attack, users can access the tools via the menu option Crisis Response through the desktop application or smartphone app. Users can then mark themselves ‘‘Safe” via the Safety Check. The Community Help is a type of forum where Facebook users can exchange information about lodging and boarding options. As for the donation collection, it should offer an option to send money to victims and those affected. The Crisis Response, according to Facebook, will be launched in the next few weeks. Posts by local Facebook users should serve as an information source for contents of Crisis Response.
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feature
Technilexicon: Automated Certificate ACME Encryption works and every Internet connection should ideally be encrypted. This can happen with the Automated Certificate ACME By Jorg Geiger
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ometimes it is the small things that effect great changes. In its Developer Conference I/O back in 2014, Google spoke about making HTTPS connections the standard on the Internet. Unencrypted traffic would be done away with in the long run and HTTP would initially operate only via TLS (Transport Layer Security). However, since then, nothing has been done. The main obstacle was the complicated and expensive certificates, which site operators had to take care of by themselves. It was only later that Google started favouring encrypted websites in its search engine ranking.
Free TLS certificates Up to the end of 2015, TLS was reserved for professional services, experienced Admins and persistent hobbyists. This was because getting one can be very tricky. Things changed upon the launch of the certificate body, Let’s Encrypt, at the end of 2015. Let’s Encrypt is supported by the Internet Security Research Group (https://letsencrypt.org/isrg), whose members enjoy a superb reputation in the IT industry. The speciality of Let’s Encrypt is not only the free X.509 certificates, even its setup is deliberately kept simple. The certificate management is pleasantly uncomplicated and several of the steps function automatically via the newly defined ACME (Automatic Certificate Management Environment) protocol, through which a web server communicates with the certificate server. ACME is currently available as an Internet draft (https://tools.ietf.org/ html/draft-ietf-acme-acme-07) and is on the way to becoming an official standard of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). In practice, ACME has proven its worth, since Let’s Encrypt had already brought about
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40 million TLS certificates to the digital people via ACME
ACME V2 takes off in 2018
There are many such challenges, one example is
as of mid-2017. Obviously, to host a particular file in a the highlight of encryption as the official IETF standard with directory of the web server. certificates is that it is not But the ACME Client can new technical developments simply handed to everyone also complete this task for each desired domain, but the ownership is without the assistance of the domain bearer. carefully examined. Before ACME, it was a Without the implementation of the ACME manual and not a very transparent process. Client, the additional steps are a bit more But the new protocol is based on the diverse. Website owners frequently receive a messages in the open JSON format. It accepts couple of windows with detailed settings the automatic test of Internet domains, issues presented. For instance, an email address can digital certificates for TLS encryption and be configured for notifications, if the certificate configures them on the web server. needs to be extended. Furthermore, it can be determined whether access to the website via Certification in practice HTTP should also be allowed or if it should be Behind the complicated term, Automatic limited to HTTPS access only. After a few Certificate Management Environment, is a minutes, the setup is complete and the simple process. Users only need a functioning website should be completely configured. website, an associated domain and the administrative access to it. An ACME client is On the way to becoming a web standard subsequently installed on the web server that hosts this site. Often, a command such as ACME and Let’s Encrypt are very closely ‘‘letsencrypt –auto –apache –d domain” should related so far. With the upcoming rise to the suffice in order to initiate a series of actions, official IETF standard, the protocol will break which are valid for all domains and subaway a little from the free certification body domains specified according to the ‘‘-d” from 2018 onwards, since the intention is to parameter. The client now reads the support more than just Let’s Encrypt. There configurations of the web servers without the will be other technical improvements under assistance of the user, generates an the name ACME V2, which relate to functions asymmetrical key pair, creates a user account under the hood in particular. For example, for the web server for the certificate body and there should be more opportunities for applies for the certificate. Even non-experts challenges, so that verification of domain can apply for the certificate for their domains ownership can be more accurate. Also, the (details of the procedure are in a graph on the client-server communication will be improved next page). Note that ACME has integrated a with the next version. Unfortunately, those mechanism in this automatic system to test who already use ACME cannot automatically ownership. On request of the web server, Let’s switch to ACME V2 later. Users must at least Encrypt provides a task that can only be upgrade the existing client before the completed if one has access to the domain. switchover.
feature
ACME increases HTTPS circulation Most internet users may prefer encrypted web connections that cannot be recorded. But before this, those who wished to encrypt their web connections had to spend money and fiddle around with complex technology. However, Let’s Encrypt changed this at the end of 2015 with ACME - the Automatic Certificate Management Environment.
Active Let’s Encrypt certificates
HTTPS proportion is increasing
From the beginning of 2016 to mid-2016, Let’s Encrypt has handed out almost 40 million free TLS certificates, courtesy of ACME.
An anonymous evaluation of Firefox usage statistics shows that the amount of HTTPS connections is continuously increasing.
Million certificates
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Automatic certificate with ACME
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WWW.ABC.DE
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A command in the ACME client on the web server initiates the automatic certificate process. The core of the exchange between website and certificate body is the determination of the domain ownership. The ACME server thus provides a task to host a file in a particular directory.
Let’s Encrypt
ACME client requests certificate for own domain
Sets task to prove identity Resolves task
Provides solution of the task Tests solution.
Readiness for certificate creation
Cancellation in case of incorrect solution
Transfers detail settings for certificate Issues ready certificate
Details of the TLS encryption can be determined in a simple graphical interface, including settings like whether connections has to be exclusively via HTTPS
CERTIFICATE
Complete certificate
Security test has been passed
The free TLS certificate is installed by the ACME client. Subsequently, the registered domains are immediately configured in all browsers with the previously created certificates.
Those who get a certificate via Let’s Encrypt can easily verify whether the ACME client has succeeded. The SSL test by Qualys delivers a more or less accurate assessment.
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2,584,000,000 Smartphones all over the world have the Android operating system installed as of today
2008
First Android device The HTC Dream had a touchscreen, but it also provided a keyboard and trackball for navigation
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CHIP TIMELINE Android: Market Leader Due To Open Standards
Instead of a smartphone, Google announced Android as a new operating system for Smartphones a decade ago. It was intended to be open source, standardised, innovative â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and capable of market dominance By Patrick Hannemann
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he year 2007 was the beginning of the huge smartphone boom. While Apple installed several innovations in proprietary software and hardware, Google strived for an open standard. Consequently,
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the Internet group created the Open Handset Alliance on 5th November, with 33 major suppliers such as T-Mobile, Broadcom, Intel, HTC, LG, eBay, Samsung and Motorola. The most important product of this merger:
Android, which was bought out by Google in 2005. In 2007, the market was still very fragmented â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Windows Phone, Blackberry, Symbian, Bada and other small systems rivaled each other. At the time, the first
Photos v. li.: Michael Roryl/Wikipedia/CC BY SA 2.0; HTC; dpa/Picture alliance/AP Images/Mark Lennihan
New operating system Google founded the Open Handset Alliance and announces an open source Android the next year.
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2017 Obvious market leader There are well over 2.5 billion devices in the world right now using Android as their operating system, and this is even before Android Oreo is available to most devices
2011
New frontrunner After overtaking Apple’s iOS in 2010, Android overtook Symbian to become the front runner of Operating System for smartphones
2010
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Quad-Core The HTC One X is the first HTC phone to sport a quad-core processor
commercial Android Smartphone, the HTC Dream from 2008, was far the ones we know today, because HTC did not want to part with the plastic keyboard just yet. Things happened very quickly after that. First, Android overtook iOS sometime in 2010 and Symbian one year later, after which it was completely discontinued in 2013. Despite Android securing pole position, the market failed to follow suit. Many manufacturers developed their own interfaces for the system on this basis, including Samsung TouchWiz, Huawei EMUI, HTC Sense, LG UX, Sony Xperia UI or Google’s Pixel UI. This includes custom ROMs such as the
CyanogenMod, later Lineage OS, which were even taken up in part by manufacturers, to give new impulses during the further development and enabling the update of old devices. The advantages of the custom systems were better performance, less bloatware and quicker security patches. As of today, there are over 2.5 billion devices with Android as the operating system, which makes up about 86.1 percent of the market. In contrast, iOS, with a mere 600 million (13.1 percent), is far behind – and yet, Apple earns a lot more than Google, as iPhones and iPads stay out of the tough price war that Android offers. In 2010,
iPhones cost around RM2,000 on average, while Android phones were sold for around RM1,420. Today, you can get an Android phone for less than RM900, while an iPhone 8 costs at least RM3,649. There are also roughly 24 million devices in the wild that utilise different OS for their phones. The consistent standards and comparably low prices of Android devices has made it more popular and more userfriendly over the years. With its ease of use and the tremendous number of devices using Android, it is to no one’s surprise that the green little robot is doing well.
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Machines On The Frontlines The elite group of international robotics research warns against the terror potential of intelligent weapons and demands its ban. But is a ban on AI for machines possible at all?
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n 1899, politicians from 26 countries met at The Hague peace conference and agreed upon the decision to prohibit ‘‘the casting of bullets and mines from aircrafts or similar new methods.” This NO was not unfounded as the Wright brothers were successful in inventing the first airplane in 1903. But the prohibition was effectively overthrown in the second peace conference in 1907, which states: ‘‘It is prohibited to bombard undefended cities ....with any means whatsoever.” With this gimmick, politics paved the way for the military that had long since realised the potential of aerial warfare. Even the minimum consensus to spare undefended cities, came to an end in 1937 in the bombarding of Guernica. 110 years and innumerable bombardments later, the weapons have changed but some of the problems remained. With Artificial
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Intelligence (AI), the gradually maturing technology is poised to dramatically change the life of people and their death. After all, machines that can think, are probably also good in waging wars. Unless they develop a consciousness and have pacifist leanings instead.
Machines with license to kill The knowledge and enormous potential of artificial intelligence has called for a gathering of the elite of the AI industry. In an open letter to the United Nations, AI scientists like Jürgen Schmidhuber and entrepreneurs like Tesla-boss Elon Musk, demanded an enforced ban on weapons. Musk considers an AI race as the ‘‘most probable reason for a third world war.” This issue has also come up
Photos i. UZS v. li.: Getty Images/serpeblu; Reuters/Mike Blake; Department of Defense/Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel Rolston
By Roman Leipold
feature in politics, in which Russian president Putin claimed: ‘‘The one who gains dominance in the AI domain shall rule the world.” But is a prohibition of or ban on AI weapons even possible? This is an unclear topic stemming from multiple aspects, such as the definition of ‘machines’. There are many names circulating, from ‘battle robots’ to ‘intelligent weapons’, but politics and science prefer to use the term ‘‘Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)”. Autonomous means that the robots can independently execute their assignments, without the need of human intervention, and make logical decisions in foreign environments. Unmanned drones, that are used for specific button-killings, do not fall under the scope of LAWS in their current design. The restrictions on lethal weapons that have a license to kill should be the focus of this difficult debate. However, this gives rise to subsequent problems, because when a robot identifies an enemy in a war, it does not make any ethical difference whether the machine directly eliminates him or whether it prompts an operator sitting thousands of kilometres away for a decision. The question would be whether the decision maker - made of flesh and blood has better information and enough time to reject the suggestion of the machine. In this context, experts talk about ‘‘meaningful human control” i.e. considerable control by a human. This term goes too far in the USA. In a directive, the defence minister prescribed a design of LAWS that allows ‘‘appropriate human assessment”. ‘‘Appropriate” here meaning that the human can but need not have the last word. It’s because of this form semantics that USA and some other 45 countries that work with LAWS do not wish their developments to disappear in the poisonous cabinet of the United Nations.
‘‘The greatest risk of our civilisation” Tesla-boss Elon Musk always warns us against autonomous weapons. ‘‘I have access to the latest artificial intelligence that there is and I believe that people should be concerned about this issue,” he said.
USA banks on the algorithmic war For the US Defence Minister, there is no other way to bypass AI. Three years ago, Pentagon proclaimed its ‘‘Third Offset Strategy”, which should cement the military leadership claim. The nuclear equipment at the start of the cold war was at the centre of the first offset strategy. A second realignment at the end of the 70s activated a digital offensive that generated innovations like the GPS navigation system and the stealth bombers invisible to the enemy radar. The current strategy should be to focus on the algorithmic war. Bob Work, Vice Defence Minister of the Obama and Trump government, has clarified on the transformation in the NATO meet in Brussels that the US Military is now undergoing. ‘‘AI and autonomy take the human-machine operations to a completely new level. Machines and humans will do what they do best every time. We call this human-machine symbiosis.” Who can kill better in this symbiosis? Humans or machines? LAWS critics like the initiative ‘‘Stop Killer Robots!” see red with such statements. They consider AI-managed liquidations as unethical and see themselves in the predicament to demand an exclusive right to kill for humans, as they cannot eliminate war completely. Mr. Works claims that a soldier is always bound with the decision, which leads to ‘‘appropriate” control. A robot will lose its value if it needs to have a discussion with a human that reacts and thinks much slower, especially in cases of surprise enemy contacts. If there is a battle between the AI weapons, then a few tenths of a second can be the difference between victory and defeat.
Proven Man-Machine symbiosis Remote controlled machines or semi-autonomous robots reduce the risks for human experts during bomb disposals.
feature Therefore, the physicist and political scientist Marcel Dickow writes in a study that the decision-making competencies will shift to the machines. ‘‘Autonomy solves the problem of broadband restriction for remote control as the data processing largely takes place on board,” he claimed. In case of such autonomous battles, when the machines identify the matter among themselves, there would be surprises. According to US Minister Work, ‘‘We will recognise the progress the others make when we fight against them. And when their AI is better than ours, it would be a dark day.”
‘‘The wars of the future will be led by drones” According to the view of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, dominance on the AI sector will inevitably lead to world dominion.
Algorithmic strategies Bob Work, deputy US Defence Minister, promotes artificial intelligence and Big Data strongly, saying ‘‘This will change the way we fight wars.”
‘‘It does nothing – not yet” In the latest design, AlphaDog relieves soldiers when it comes to transport. The partner with the cold snout achieves speeds of 12 km/h in the field.
Even when a soldier finds time to review a decision taken by the AI, it can be overwhelming. LAWS of the future will convert themselves from programmed assistance and expert systems into learning machines with more general intelligence. This machine learning works vaguely like how the neurons in a human’s brain work. Here, artificial neuronal networks learn to solve problems via sample detection in millions of run-throughs. The progress of this deep learning is quick and the AI experts themselves don’t always understand how the networks think. Also, a highly talented GI would have frequent problems to mentally follow his partner in the manmachine symbiosis. Yoshua Bengio, an eminent expert in Deep Learning, has also signed the open letter to the United Nations (UN). The Canadian believes that the UN must immediately act in the same way it has done in the past when it came to ‘‘morally wrong weapons”, which according to Bengio include chemical, biological and atomic weapons. The problem here is that apart from expertise, one would also need the right material - that is not available in the market - to create an atom bomb. If you want to write or hack the algorithm for an AI weapon, then you will also need expertise, but the hardware side doesn’t pose any serious problem. On the other hand, a ban would also prevent more peaceful AI research, due to many developments that are meant for multiple purposes. An autonomous car may prevent accidents, but can also monitor border installations as done in Israel. South-Korean robots can take care of pensioners and transfer recruits. Drones, like those used by IS, are available for purchase on Amazon. Thus, a ban of such an extent has remained elusive. Some stupid fellow sitting at the top of a government or criminal organisation would likely be the one who will let the AI genie out of the bottle. However, the appeal to the United Nations does not fall on deaf ears. With patience and commitment, German ambassador Michael Biontino has come to a point that the UN is setting up a ‘‘group of governmental experts (GGE) on LAWS” at the Geneva Conference of Disarmament. The process is tough and sometimes painful. In fact, the first meeting of experts in August was cancelled because some of the member countries are falling behind in their corresponding UN-contributions. Till now, 14 countries have voted for a LAWS ban. This is in slight contrast to the currently applicable coalition contract of 2013 where an ‘‘international law-based condemnation of fully automatic weapon systems, which strips the people of the decision regarding weapon use” was established. The term ‘‘Condemnation” can mean only a ban or also non-utilisation. The coalition has supported the
Photos i. UZS v. o. re.: U.S. Army/file graphic; U.S. Army; Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs; US Marine Corps/Cpl. Eric Keenan; Department of Defense; Reuters/Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool „The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.“
Intelligent weapons: The soldier as sorcerer’s apprentice
feature setting up of the GGE in any case. Non-utilisation is also as unrealistic as a ban, because unlike atom bombs with their deterrent potential, LAWS can be dispensed and tactically used without burning up the world. It is also difficult to draw a clear line between automatic, semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons. For example, a swarm of hundred micro-drones can be remotely controlled by an operator, but it can also be organised by the AI itself. Another contradiction that affects the chance of a utilisation ban is that self-learning systems need a lot of training data to optimise themselves. Ironically, the best way to get this data is through actual use of the systems. Thus, every battlefield becomes a playground for algorithms, without which you will be left with less-intelligent weapons. USA does not use AI just for individual weapons systems. The country’s Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) is an example of how the warfare of the present and future will look like. NCW links Big Data with artificial intelligence and networks all forces, from the satellite monitoring up to diving robots. It also keeps all information regarding one, or even several parallel operations, ready for all participants. The main challenge of the system is to deal with this huge amount of data, which is a task that can only be accomplished by algorithms. AI delivers the information and orders that it needs currently - precisely and practically in real time, for every individual soldier and every individual robot. A soldier, for example, can change his perspective as seen in a video game and consider a scenario from the perspective of another fellow soldier. In maximum peculiarity, NCW converts all the members of an operation into a gigantic synchronised super-weapon - an organism whose brain is artificial intelligence. Only this AI completely knows what has happened and what must be done.
Imagine, it is war and no one looks The use of Big Data and AI increases efficiency and reduces your own losses, but it does not necessarily reduce the number of war victims. If a machine makes the wrong decision, then it will be interesting to see who will take the responsibility. According to LAWS expert, Dickow, robotics has three politicostrategic advantages. ‘‘It allows execution of operations extensively without endangering your own soldiers; facilitates deployments in inaccessible regions; and discretely handles conflict with the use of secret methods and resources,” he said. A war that involves lives of technologically superior soldiers, seems to turn out faster from the public’s perspective. The targeted killings by US drones have killed at least 2,200 people in Pakistan. Since the US did not have a single victim in this context, the public took less notice of actions that are hardly covered by international law. This chance to get through with few losses and without public control would clearly reduce the inhibition threshold for the AI war. As a ban on LAWS appears to be hopeless, it could be even more worthwhile to constantly debate political decisions about war and peace in public. This kind of control would be more logical and appropriate.
Artificial intelligence coordinates military deployments The Pentagon controls multi-domain operations with AI. Individual orders to all participating units are issued by the system in real time.
Emotionless decisions with Big Data The immense data loss is the main problem of modern armies. Big Data analyses give the desired information.
Incalculable like the natural model This swarm of micro-drones of the Pentagon that is controlled by AI moves as if it was magic. Each of the 16-cm small drones interacts with each other. There are no leaders, and newcomers are seamlessly integrated.
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Valley Of The Clueless Silicon Valley is supposed to be the birthplace of a new world, but its pioneers seem to have lost touch with reality. Instead of sounding like they’re going to make the world a better place, their promises of salvation sound like they’re coming from an ivory tower By Felix Knoke
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hey dream of self-driving cars, life without death and threedimensional supertunnels. Of reaching the stars, creating super-intelligences and eliminating the need to work altogether. However, the elite of Silicon Valley don’t really seem to be thinking too hard about the consequences of their plans. Now that they’ve seen the future, they’re calling for the world to essentially turn itself into a commodity to make it possible for them to set up their technotopia.
Overlooking the problems for rowdy solutions Progress is the great promise made by Silicon Valley. For example, as long as micro-chips keep getting smaller, batteries keep getting
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bigger and programmes keep getting smarter, our lives will continue to improve. This is obviously a load of nonsense, but yet it gets repeated in newer and newer forms. In fact, all you have to do is take a look at the companies that sing the things-will-fall-intoplace song the loudest. One of them is Facebook, with its ideal world actually a place of digital ghettos and total commercial surveillance. Another one is Twitter, which is a hotbed for hate and extremism. There’s Google with its research on immortality and attempt to make the internet available to all and sundry, but it’s financing these activities by selling its users’ privacy. And finally, Apple gets its goodie-two-shoes image manufactured under conditions that are partially inhuman.
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Photos: Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein, Stephen Lam, Joshua Roberts, Stephen Lam, Cathal McNaughton, Lucas Jackson (Aufmacher i. UZS. v. li. o.); The Boring company (Bohrmaschine)
Empty promises in a world devoid of utopias ‘‘We want to make the world a better place” is the famous mantra of Silicon Valley. For a long time, this mantra summed up the Silicon Valley’s technological transformation and acceleration through the use of the internet; it was an expression of the aspirations of techie gold diggers and a technology-oriented mind-set. However, thanks to the dotcom crash, the valley in California has turned into the cradle of a new world view. Its promise of salvation is that there’s a solution for every problem and that it happens to be the place where the chosen few are creating the future. He who dedicates himself to the tech-credo can look forward to material riches, as well as the fame that attaches itself to a person who has invented the future. This doesn’t attract folks who want to reinvent the wheel, but those who want to invent a new wheel instead. Such an attitude is a perfect fit for a world that’s suffering from a chronic lack of utopias, especially since it can be marketed so well. In Silicon Valley, the hope for a better tomorrow was first re-labelled as commercial demand, after which the future itself was monopolised. Finally, this hope was turned into a lifestyle product and re-sold to the masses that were already thirsty for the future. Every new mobile phone, every new internet service and every app update thus becomes a commodity-shaped promise. A lofty promise in the form of ‘‘if you decide to go with us, you’ll be one step closer to the future.” In reality, Silicon Valley uses totally exorbitant rhetoric to coat its products and ideas with a thick layer of pseudo-religiousness. All you have to do to realise this is pay attention to how often they
Potholes and asphalt patches. That’s what Silicon Valley’s infrastructure looks like. Will Elon Musk’s 3D tunnels solve this problem?
Silicon Valley in figures Growing gap between poor and rich On an average, the richest one percent of the residents of Silicon Valley earn 31 to 46 times as much money as the average member of the remaining 99 percent 1989
2013
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Source: Silicon Valley Index 2017
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San Mateo County
San Francisco County
Pay gap: Extra income of men with university degrees 35–50 %
Santa Clara County
Households relying on government aid: 29 % (58.8% for Hispanics/Latinos)
Average income: 105,527 USD Average rent: 2,783 USD (two-bedroom flat) Living expenses For a family of four: 65,380 USD No. of homeless people: 7,400 Between the ages of 18 and 25 years: 28 % Poverty rate: 8.3 % Child poverty: 9 %
Percentage of households with annual income of over 150,000 USD: 33.8 % (2015) The top earners vearn, on an average, 4.8 times/85,652 USD more than the bottom earners 36% of all school students receive subsidised or free school lunches *1 USD = RM4.2
Percentage of women – 2017 As usual, the equal rights scenario looks quite bad in Silicon Valley. The percentage of women in tech companies is in the meagre range of 26% (Microsoft) to 33% (Facebook). Facebook Apple Google Microsoft
Source: Research is Beautiful
Technology isn’t going to give rise to a new world. If anything, it’s just going to embody and strengthen the existing one. If you try to seek refuge in it, you will encounter many contradictions. They are essentially the symptoms of a sector whose loud thirst for solutions has basically prevented it from seeing itself as a problem. If there’s one person in whom aspirations and reality are particularly widely divorced from each other, that person would have to be Elon Musk. He is the world’s favourite nerd, a person who comes into his own when he’s in front of cameras on stage. He’s also a man who weeps when he’s deeply stirred (unlike his employees, who occasionally burst into tears because of him). He wants to use recycled rockets and electric cars to invent the mobility of the future, set up a battery empire and get rid of the worker class. And ever since Twitter provided him with a flash of inspiration, he has been dreaming of complex tunnel systems in which suspension carriages would be used to transport people, vehicles or loads at the speed of sound. According to this particular company’s founder, 3D transportation would involve either flying cars or tunnels, so he’s trying to make it happen with the latter. In fact, his The Boring Company has already built a test piece. A wide vision, a massive creative urge and amazingly deep pockets – all of this goes down quite well in the goal-oriented Silicon Valley. But isn’t this tunnel vision just a bit too cynical, given the infrastructure crisis that the USA is grappling with? In fact, gaping potholes can be found right in front of Tesla’s headquarters. And who would actually be able to benefit from such a high-flying project? Only a handful of rich folks would be able to afford (and who really need) such a jump in mobility. However, to paraphrase Steve Jobs, reality wouldn’t exactly put a Musk-shaped dent in the world.
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Average commute time in Silicon Valley: 56 minutes
Percentage of public transport users: 6%
Percentage of Teslas out of all e-cars: 17 %
Broadband Percentage of households without broadband: 12 % (33% for households with income of less than 35,000 USD)
Source: Silicon Valley Index 2017
Percentage of bicyclists: 2%
Average travel time in Silicon Valley: 26 minutes
It all started with the former head of Apple, Steve Jobs, who used religious pathos to make investors and users believe in his project.
Is this Trump’s successor? The fact that Silicon Valley is pushing towards Washington is old news. Peter Thiel, one of the most controversial nerds, is actually sitting in the White House as an advisor to Donald Trump. However, a rumour has been making the rounds in recent months, one that claims that Mark Zuckerberg is going to be the Democratic candidate against Donald Trump in 2020. Naturally, there are quite a few indicators that seem to be pointing in this direction, such as his unusual journey through US states, the appointment of the experienced political strategist Joel Benenson, and his world-changing plans involving Facebook and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. However, the most important indicator may well be a curious
change in Facebook’s offering of stock, which is supposed to ensure that Zuckerberg has a say in Facebook’s affairs over the long term. This is to be the case even if he leaves the company – for as long as he holds ‘‘a government or official position.” Our verdict: Too horrifying to be true...
A smooth landing in a hard reality Ironically, this fusion of hope and technology has made it possible for the tech companies to pull off the very thing that their foremost critics have been attempting in vain for several decades. However, unlike the ethically and politically interwoven cyberspace utopias dreamed up by the system-critical nerds of the eighties, this new technological Gospel is downright hollow. Instead of creating value, the companies of Silicon Valley are primarily trying to enhance their own value. The religious veneer is merely supposed to hide the uncompromisingly capitalistic and often exploitative circumstances and consequences of their actions. One thing should have become crystal clear a long time ago and that is the world that Silicon Valley pictures would only be a true tech-paradise for a handful of people. For many, it’s a hard reality. This applies, for example, to the long-established residents of Silicon Valley and the many employees working for the tech companies, who can no longer live an affordable life within a radius of a two-hour drive. Against this backdrop, it’s not surprising that Silicon Valley is now beginning to put itself in the crosshairs. Protests that take place within, beyond and between the companies are now forcing longoverdue discussions about attitude and responsibility. This is reflected in the dispute that resulted in the termination of Uber CEO
Photos i. UZS v. re. o.: Google 2017; Reuters/Robert Galbraith, Beck Diefenbach; Getty Images/Henrik5000
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speak about a mission to bring about solidarity, rewrite history, go back to our roots, fight evil and strengthen that which is good. Black or white, future or oblivion, solution or problem – these are the choices that Silicon Valley presents you with. In other words, ‘‘you’re either with us, or far behind.” If you look at all of this from a distance, you will realise that it’s ludicrous. Technology as a spiritual experience and business executives who inspire the masses? Pop culture is the only other industry in which an advertising gimmick is glorified as a spiritual experience and one of its branch turns its protagonists into figures of redemption. The only difference is that someone like Prince never wanted to build pipelines and Rihanna never wanted to advise President Trump on matters related to popular culture. Nevertheless, Silicon Valley has managed to pull off quite a masterstroke where products and promises have become the same thing. In the spirit of capitalism, they have interpreted a sense vacuum as commercial demand and are now quenching this demand with something that always needed to be modernised: Technology. And they’re obviously ‘‘the only ones who are capable of doing this” (the rest have been bought out, removed or chopped up). In order to ensure that things stay this way, their own avant-garde (i.e. the group of company CEOs) has been endowed with the role of a prophet. In fact, these circumstances alone are enough to help you recognise the ingenious manner in which economics and world views have been fused to form the so-called Californian ideology. These chief executives have seen the future. They claim that with their market savvy, capitalistic audacity, self-righteous and forceful announcements and fantastic riches, they essentially embody a belief in progress: The better man wins. From their point of view, the ideal scenario would be one in which the entire world is first privatised, and then re-arranged by their engineers and controllers. Those who get in their way are enemies of progress.
feature Travis Kalanick due to a corporate culture that had been poisoned by sexism and bullying; the criticism that has been levelled at Apple’s production conditions; and the role played by the sharing economy in the self-exploitation and casualisation of wide sections of the population. This narrative also includes the public dispute between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg over the dangers of untamed AIs, entry into and ejection from President Trump’s circle of advisors and tech-investor Peter Thiel’s role as a shadow president. It all comes down to things like the rampant hostility towards women, the uneven distribution of Silicon Valley’s streets are just as dilapidated as the rest of its infrastructure, even in front of Tesla’s headquarters (see opportunities across different above). segments of the population, the negative effects of a corporate strategy that is excessively focussed step backwards into gloomy working hours. The mechanisms of on expansion and the social damage that can be done by unregulated surveillance and optimisation dominate parts of our lives, while dark communities. designs and gamification manipulate us into being unhappy. And what exactly is happening to our data behind the scenes? Furthermore, this is just the beginning. What’s going to happen when automation slashes jobs on Even if this is less a symptom of a newlya massive scale, the democratic system gets discovered awareness of values and more a replaced with the evidence-based politics of data result of considerations involving the many points and black boxes, and entire sections of companies’ competitiveness and fear of society are left out in the cold due to the Sergey Brin, founder government intervention, it has become clear digitalisation of participation? These are the Google’s founder on founders in that the era of uncompromising growth has come concrete consequences of Silicon Valley’s yearning adversity to an end and work is now being done on the for the future. genuine substance of the matter. It sounds like you’re engaging in polemic criticism One reason for this may well be the fact that plans that affect the when you point out that Silicon Valley – one of the richest areas in entire world fit in a little better with a moral compass that doesn’t the world – can’t even create a world that’s a little better in its own always point exclusively in the direction of success. After all, he who backyard. wants to be great must also have greatness within himself. Doesn’t that raise an important point, speak volumes about what But haven’t things already gone a little too far? Do we really have all the promises are worth and the kind of world that could actually to leave the task of making the world a better place in the hands of emerge from such a reckless pursuit of growth? Would the future Silicon Valley? And wouldn’t it be better if we tried to prevent this really be in good hands if it’s left to dreamers like Musk, technocrats from happening? It would definitely be useful if we could do away like Nadella and Pichai, cynics like Bezos and pseudo-politicians like with the myth that the future can only be invented in Silicon Valley, Zuckerberg? If they really considered the future to be important, they that the whole thing begins with a piece of technology. would attend to the real problems, because technology doesn’t turn the world into an ideal world. Unless you go to the roots of the Good for business, but is that enough? problems, new technology will merely keep reproducing old Silicon Valley has proven that inventing the future can make you rich problems. And the more stubbornly one tries to capture the future, beyond your wildest dreams, even though it does often come at a the heavier the burden that is placed upon the present, which is very high price. However, the central promise of Silicon Valley – i.e. essentially shelved for the moment. Under such circumstances, it that its inventions will enrich and simplify our lives – has not been wouldn’t matter if Elon Musk managed to drill into the depths or kept. On the contrary, it’s becoming clearer all the time that old send rockets to Mars, because he would just come up against the conflicts are being strengthened because of the internet. In the same same problems there. That might be good for business. But is that way, platform capitalism, crowdworking and Industry 4.0 threaten a enough?
He who wants to be great must exhibit greatness
‘‘Silicon Valley shines in difficult times”
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Wired Advantage Despite its age, the gigabit-LAN cable still beats new wireless standards, and it even has some room for improvement – for ten times the network speed. It can also be used in a normal manner By Christoph Schmidt
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or the longest time, the only technological progress in regards to home networks has been in the area of wireless networks. Manufacturers are always promising faster and faster connection speeds, but in truth a wireless network is utterly eclipsed by the gigabit Ethernet cable that has become commonplace since the turn of the millennium. We’ll show you how you can either use a fast cable temporarily whenever you need to transfer large files, or install it to your environment permanently in a manner that ensures it remains practically invisible. Also, a cable network has a lot more potential in the speed department, because previously-unaffordable 10-GBit solutions are gradually beginning to show up in the high-end consumer market. With a little bit of luck on eBay and a lot of configuration, you can even set up a 10-GBit connection between two PCs for an affordable price. But first, let’s take a look at the simplest and cheapest solution to wireless network problems like a lack of reliability, speed and range: The 1-GBit LAN cable. Although it is often banished from residential environments for practical or aesthetic reasons, these reasons can be resolved quite elegantly (refer to the box in the upper part of the next page). In fact, the troublesome cable doesn’t even need to remain connected permanently. For example, if you ever need to swap extensive back-ups or large files between two computers, you can simply use a cable to temporarily connect the two machines to the router. You could even get cheaper LAN cables from online shops that
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specialise in network hardware than electronics markets or Amazon. In fact, you could get ten-metre-long Cat-5e cables for prices ranging from about 2.49 euros (approx. RM12) onwards. Cable lengths of up to 100 metres are allowed for each connection and often don’t require you to configure anything at all.
Set up a direct connection for rapid transfers If both computers are too far away from the router, you can use a normal LAN cable to directly connect the LAN ports of the PCs to each other (this also works if you want to use one of the 10-GBit direct connections described below). In order to ensure that the file exchange procedure works properly, you must now manually configure a new mini-network between these computers. To do so, access the ‘‘Control panel | Network and internet | Network and sharing centre” section. Once there, you will see the previous (wireless network, if applicable) connection to the router and the internet, as well as the new Ethernet connection, which only goes to the other computer. Click this item, followed by the ‘‘Properties” option. Now, double-click on the ‘‘Internet protocol, version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” option. Activate the ‘‘Use the following IP address:” option, and enter the ‘‘IP address:” of ‘10.0.0.1’ and ‘10.0.0.2’ for the first and second computers, respectively. The ‘‘Subnet mask” should automatically jump over to ‘‘255.0.0.0”, but if it doesn’t then go ahead and enter it manually. Once this has been done for both computers, they will be able to
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Installing & hiding cables The LAN cable is certainly fast, but it’s also ugly and hard to feed through doors. However, certain workarounds are available. > Ribbon cables are, depending on the type, 2-3 mm thick and about 1 cm wide. They can be made to disappear beneath a carpet or behind baseboards. Although a particularly well-shielded cable (Cat 6a or Cat 7) does guarantee high transfer rates (10 GBit/s) even over long distances, such cables are thicker and less flexible compared to Cat-5e cables, which are sufficient for most purposes. However, you should be careful when you’re dealing with cheap products without a ‘Cat’ imprint, since they can bring the speed down to just 100 Mb/s. > Doors and windows are insurmountable for LAN cables,
because neither round nor flat cables can pass through the slots. Drilling through walls usually isn’t an option either. However, electronics retailers offer ‘Ethernet door lead-throughs’, which consist of a particularly flat and flexible cable piece with a port at each end. In order to be able to attach the lead-through using double-sided adhesive tape or screws, you should take a look at the door or window frame and find a location where the continuing cables can be installed, and where the gap between the door/window and the frame is somewhat larger. Since shielding is difficult, be warned that the speed usually nosedives to 100 Mb/s, but even this is usually better than a sluggish wireless network. It’s enough for an internet connection.
A ribbon cable can be made to disappear behind a baseboard, so that it remains protected against (robotic) vacuum cleaners
Door lead-through LAN cable
If a LAN cable needs to go through a door or window frame, a door lead-through can be helpful
communicate through the cable. On the first computer, enter ‘\\10.0.0.2’ into the address bar of Windows Explorer in order to access the second computer’s shared network folders. If this doesn’t work, you will have to define the 10.0.0.x network as a private network on both computers. To do so (in case of Windows 10), click the ‘‘Network” option in Windows Explorer, after which the warning ‘‘Network discovery and file share are deactivated...” will be displayed in the Explorer window. Click it and select the ‘‘Activate ... network discovery” option, followed by the ‘‘No, turn the ... network into a private network” option.
Photos: Getty Images/adrianaadie (Aufm. gr. Bild); Asus (4 Produktfotos); CHIP Studios (SFP u. Türdurchführung); Nikolaus Schäffler (Kabel verlegen)
10G Ethernet demolishes speed limits Given the increasing file sizes and faster SSD drives in PCs, even GigabitLAN can run into bottlenecks. Those who frequently want to transport large files via their local network would therefore benefit from an even faster solution: 10-GBit LAN. However, the hardware in question is relatively expensive, because this solution was previously only used in computing or data centres. There are two technical approaches that should be of interest to end customers: 10GBase-T and the alternative to it, i.e. SFP+.
10-GBit Through A Normal LAN Cable When it comes to the 10GBase-T technology, the cables, connectors and ports look exactly like the corresponding items associated with 1-GBit Ethernet systems. Thanks to its backward compatibility and the low-price cables, 10-Gigabit should eventually be able to succeed Gigabit-Ethernet, because some high-end motherboards are already beginning to include this
Fast and extra direct connection You will have to assign IP addresses manually in order to use a 1-GBit or 10-GBit cable to directly connect two computers to each other.
PC boards with Turbo LAN Some of the latest motherboards, such as the Asus ROG Zenith Extreme, also support 10G Ethernet. In this case, this support is provided in the form of the extra ‘ROG Areion 10G’ module.
feature Retrofitting a 10-GBit card It makes sense to retrofit 10-GBit LAN devices to all PCs that are equipped with fast SSDs, and which have an equally fast counterpart station. An example is the ASUS XG-C100C expansion card, which can fit into any PCIe slot (x4 and above).
Switch for 10-GBit Ethernet Both left-side ports of the ASUS XG-U2008 support 10-GBit through a normal LAN cable
Cheap SFP+ kit from eBay A brand-new SFP+ card costs around RM980, while a 3-m cable costs about RM393. For private use, you might want to consider used products instead. We bought a kit containing two Mellanox ConnectX-2 cards and a Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU3M cable for about RM358. It worked flawlessly and was blazingly fast.
standard. The first-ever 10-Gigabit network card for consumers was recently launched by ASUS and this XG-C100C carries a price tag of about RM540. We installed two of these in two PCs (these PCIe x4 cards are also compatible with x16 or x8 slots), installed the drivers from the ASUS website and connected the computers directly as described above. Then, we ran the iPerf network benchmark and saw that our setup attained throughput rates of approximately 6.6 Gb/s. A 1.6 GB file was copied in 3.6 seconds, which in turn translates to a write speed of 447 MB/s. This indicates that the drives of the PCs are actually turning into the bottlenecks in this scenario. We therefore used a RAM disk on both sides while running file transfer tests, so that we wouldn’t just be gauging the slower SSD. With a throughput of 6.6 Gb/s, 10GBase-T does come close to the promised rate of 10-Gb/s, but it doesn’t quite manage to go all the way. The discrepancy can be attributed to the linking of the network cards in the computers. Still, this speed is already the kind that you can expect of a PCIe lane’s transfer capabilities, due to its protocol overhead. Comparisons involving different cable lengths (2-10 metres) did not reveal any differences, but this is only if Cat-6a cables (which represent the minimum official requirement for 10G) are used. In fact, we even managed to attain the same transfer speeds using Cat-5e cables with a length of up to 3-metres. In addition to the 10G network card, ASUS also offers a switch featuring two 10-GBit and eight 1-GBit ports - the XG-U2008 (approx. RM1,277). This device makes setting up and using the system significantly easier, because all the 10-Gigabit and 1-Gigabit computers are kept within the same network. We left one of the 1-GBit ports connected to the existing router, while two computers were equipped with the 10G cards – such as a file server and a ‘workstation’ PC – were then connected to the two 10G ports. With this setup, we can easily connect any clients that need to access the file server/workstation as quickly as possible to the remaining gigabit ports of the XG-U2008. This ensures that multiple clients will be able to use the full 1-GBit speed in situations involving simultaneous accesses. Devices that do not necessarily need to be connected to the 10G computers at such a high speed should be connected to the original router instead. A pleasant surprise we discovered during our tests was that the speed attained by the XG-U2008 was about five percent higher than that of the direct 10G connection.
SFP+: Server Technology For Home Use ‘‘Small Form-Factor Pluggable” is another standard that facilitates 10-GBit connections. It was developed for computing centres and one of the requirements was that it should be possible to quickly replace the actual transfer hardware. Consequently, an SFP network card is nothing more than a kind of adapter, which hosts the transfer controller (transceiver) that is located in the cable connector. Copper or fibre optic cables can therefore be used in all SFP+ network cards. The cables become expensive because of the flange-mounted controllers and even short ones can cost at least RM390. The PCIe network cards for SFP+ are structured in a simpler manner. Nevertheless, they are quite expensive on account of the small size of the market and that applies to SFP+-friendly switches as well. This technology should be of interest to end-users, because purchasing used
ones is an affordable way to get 10-Gigabit hardware. Secondly, you will also be able to find some affordable routers and NAS hard drives that are compatible with the standard in question.
Used pro-hardware in the PC Used hardware from computing centres can often be obtained at a low price after changeover operations have been carried out or leasing contracts have expired. This also holds true for SFP+ cards and cables. In order to ensure that we wouldn’t make a bad buy on account of the confusing choice of products, we purchased a complete SFP+ set that consisted of two ‘Mellanox ConnectX-2’ network cards and a Cisco SFP+ cable, all of which cost us about RM358. The process of setting up the system in the form of a point-to-point direction connection arrangement was simple enough. After the PCIe x8 cards had been installed in both computers, Windows 10 installed the driver automatically. All we had to do after that was connect the long connectors at the proper points and set up the IP addresses as described above and the 10-GBit SFP+ network was ready. Although the throughput attained by setup in the iPerf benchmark was about 20% less in comparison with the 10GBase-T system, it was 25% faster when an actual file was being copied. This discrepancy is related to the CPU load that arises due to the usage of RAM disks. In other words, the inexpensive SFP+ kit is an excellent alternative if you can’t afford new 10GBase-T cards.
ad-WirelessRouter The Netgear Nighthawk X10 (approx. RM1,965) is the first consumer router to feature a 10-GBit-compatible SFP+ port, which allows you to connect a NAS to it and get high speeds. However, bottlenecks do remain present on the client-side, regardless of whether the devices in question are connected via WiFi or to multiple Gigabit LAN ports.
NAS: SFP+ shows potential A four-bay NAS device using magnetic hard disks and set in a RAID configuration can deliver quite a lot of speed, provided that the LAN port is not faulty. The QNAP TS-431X-2G shovels 337 MB/s into a PC that is connected directly to it via SFP+.
Photos i. UZS v. re. o.: Netgear (2); Qnap (2); CHIP Studios (2); Asus (3)
Routers and NAS devices with SFP+ When Netgear equipped its Nighthawk X10 (approx. RM1,965) with a 10-GBit-compatible SFP+ port, it became the first router manufacturer to do something like that. It could be used with devices such as a powerful NAS device featuring an SFP+ port, allowing multiple clients to access the device at full gigabit speed. We tested the QNAP TS-431X-2G (also around RM1,965; this is the cheapest NAS device featuring an SFP+ port), which breaks through the Gigabit threshold quite convincingly when four drives are used. When a direct connection was established with a PC featuring a Mellanox SFP+ card, the device carried out Windows file transfers at rates of about 337 MB/s. This is equivalent to the entire capacity that is to be expected from the RAID-5 configuration (featuring four hard drives) that was used. When we used SFP+ to test the device together with two 1-Gigabit clients using the Netgear Nighthawk X10, we noticed that the speed didn’t increase at all in situations involving simultaneous downloads from the NAS device to the two PCs; each PC only managed to receive data at 50% of the full Gigabit speed. In fact, each of the PCs could only make use of the full Gigabit speed in situations involving simultaneous uploads and downloads. In such a form, an SFP+ connection on the router hardly leads to any usable advantages, especially since there are no clients that can receive more than 1 Gb/s via AC wireless networks. Conclusion: Even a conventional 1-Gigabit cable is faster than the best WiFi networks, better yet if you can install the cable in a way that keeps them hidden. If so, a 10-Gigabit network can provide huge reserves of speed. Unfortunately, it is currently only feasible or affordable to connect not more than two devices to each other at such a high speed. The solution involving the 10GBase-T switch is clearly the most convenient one, while the point-to-point connections are essentially super-fast special solutions. In any event, the 10-Gigabit cables even provide enough capacity to operate routers compatible with future wireless network standards.
iPerf network benchmark and copying speed We used iPerf to measure the LAN throughputs of the various 10G solutions in Gb/s and also measured the transfer speed between Windows PCs. For the purposes of comparison with HDDs/SSDs, we’re specifying these values in MB/s.
High data throughput isn’t everything The ASUS 10G card comes out on top in terms of pure data throughput, while the SFP+ solution attains higher net file transfer rates. An SFP+ port enables NAS devices to show the true potential of RAID setups. iPerf throughput (Gb/s)
File transfer (MB/s)
Asus XG-C100C 10G Base-T (PC > PC) 6,6 Gb/s 447 MB/s Asus XG-C100C (PC > XG-U2008 > PC) 6,9 Gb/s 468 MB/s Mellanox ConnectX-2 SFP+ (PC > PC) 5,6 Gb/s 574 MB/s Mellanox ConnectX-2 (PC > Qnap-RAID 5) ns 337,0 MB/s
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The Safest Browser In The World Browser in the Box runs in a hardened and safe environment, from which malware cannot escape and infect the computer
Photos: Getty Images/Henrik5000 (Globe), Nuzhdin (Box a. background)
By Andreas Th. Fischer
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Unassailable Browser
Even when surfing on reliable websites, malware can enter via manipulated banners or an add-on loophole. This is because the browsers installed in Windows run directly on the operating system and are misused for attacks on it. Browser in the Box, or BitBox, follows another approach. The manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity has installed the browser in a slender virtual machine (VM). Another operating system runs in it, invisibly in the background with Linux.
Many security loopholes in popular browsers Since 2015, hundreds of security loopholes were found in Firefox and Chrome, so using BitBox is a good answer to this problem. Loopholes
Sources: cve-details.com, chromereleases. googleblog.com, mozilla.org
T
he web browser is one of the biggest gateways for malware, which can sneak into the system via drive-by downloads, exploits and security loopholes. Once they are in the computer, they go on a rampage; banking Trojan horses manipulate transfers, key loggers spy on keyboard entries and steal passwords, while other malware encrypts data and demand for ransoms. Despite all the efforts of browser developers, who have already eliminated hundreds of security loopholes in their programmes, almost nothing has changed in this precarious situation for years.
190 180 170 160 150 140 Firefox Chrome 2015
Firefox Chrome 2016
Firefox Chrome 2017 (Up to August)
Multi-level protection for more security This gives an advantage where Internet threats have almost no effect on Windows. Even if the malware conquers the browser with the Linux protection AppArmor and finds a loophole, it is confronted by the underlying Linux system. To escape from this system, it would have to conquer the virtualisation software, which again runs only on a severely restricted user account in Windows. Malware would have to function like Windows on Linux and bypass the virtualisation environment as well as additional security measures. The combination of all these countermeasures protects the system reliably, but doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come at the expense of comfort. Only the process of booting up the browser for the first time takes a little while. BitBox is offered in two versions - Chrome or Firefox. Each version comes with all the standard functions offered by the two browser developers. It can be operated as a standard browser on Windows as well. Bookmarks and add-ons are also retained after a restart, plus downloading files and printing out web content is possible. In the following pages, we show you how you can set up and configure the Firefox version. On the next page after that, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll show you the Chrome version. Finally, we also have important tips for you as to how you can secure the normal Windows browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Internet Explorer in a better manner.
Online banking with Firefox BitBox is safe from Trojan horses, as they cannot access the content in the virtual engine.
Installing Browser in the Box As a virtualisation software, BitBox uses the reliable Open Source programme VirtualBox in a slightly adapted version. Therefore, you need to first uninstall an already existing version of VirtualBox on
If configured correctly, you can also use the VirtualBox for other virtual systems after the installation of BitBox.
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Familiar comfort while surfing If you ‘‘allow” these settings during the setup, BitBox functions as comfortably as any other Windows browser.
your computer before you can install BitBox. Pre-existing virtual PCs remain unaffected and you can continue to use them. For setting up and configuring BitBox, start the installation routine, accept the license conditions and select ‘‘Expert Mode” in the next dialogue box. You can now adapt the security settings for BitBox and configure things like whether you have the permission to copy a URL in the safe browser using the clipboard, or whether you may download files from the Internet. For the sake of convenience, it is recommended to set all the options to ‘‘Allow” and then click ‘‘Next”. You can also specify which data should be saved permanently, which we also recommend setting to ‘‘All (configuration, bookmarks)”. After clicking ‘‘Next” again, you have the option to configure individual proxy and DNS settings. In the following dialogue box, you can define whether you wish to activate the print option. Remove the checkmark in front of ‘‘Restrict the folder of VirtualBox for normal users” if you also wish to use VirtualBox for other virtual machines. Finally, click ‘‘Install | End”.
Using And Configuring Bitbox In Windows 10, you can specify in this window, which URL format Browser in the Box automatically adopts.
You can use BitBox for different purposes and the software is definitely suitable as a standard browser, so you can use it to surf the internet normally. If the extended start time bothers you, we recommend BitBox only for especially sensitive use cases such as when performing online banking transactions.
Starting Browser in the Box
If you confirm this dialogue box with ‘‘Yes”, Windows will use BitBox as the default browser for the operating system in future.
Hardware prerequisites The hardware requirements for Browser in the Box are somewhat higher than a normal Windows browser, because in addition to the programme for surfing on the Internet, a virtual engine will be running in the background. However, the requirements are not too outlandish. In fact, the developer suggests that a computer with a 2 GHz dual-core processor as well as 4 GB RAM is sufficient for the smooth use of BitBox.
In principle, the browser would work even on much weaker hardware. However, if you use the latest processor, we recommend a setup with 8 GB RAM and an SSD on which the files will be saved. This way, BitBox starts much faster than on the specified minimum system. All Windows versions from Windows 7 onwards are compatible with the browser.
After the installation, you will be able to see the new link for ‘‘Browser in the Box” on your desktop. Double-click on it to start the browser. A small window will now appear, where you can define whether BitBox should act as the default browser in Windows. Selecting yes gives you various advantages, like having the browser starting automatically every time you click on a link in an email. Doing so also allows to you specify, in Windows 10, whether BitBox should open only HTTP and HTTPS links or FTP links (see left). Regardless of the decision, the virtual machine will reboot in the background in the meantime. Its window can also be operated like any other Windows window, where you can change its size using the cursor, select the entire screen or close it by clicking the ‘‘x” button on the top right. Only the initial bootup takes a little longer, because the software has to run some one-time configurations in the background.
Customisations When starting Browser in the Box for the first time, you will see the homepage of the software manufacturer. If you wish to set a different homepage, go to ‘‘Edit | Settings” and select the ‘‘General”
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BitBox also has a Chrome version tab. Now enter your ‘‘Homepage” and close the settings tab. This change is retained even if BitBox restarts, which is important since the browser reboots by default. In addition, it creates a snapshot during the initial bootup and uses it consistently, so that no malicious code can run during web browsing. All the personal changes that you make are saved by BitBox in the ‘‘C:\ProgramData\ Sirrix AG\BitBox\userdata\<username>\persistent” folder. The browser adaptations are reloaded from there during every restart.
Importing bookmarks You can also continue to use your Firefox bookmarks in Browser in the Box. To do this, open the normal Firefox in Windows and press [Alt]. Select ‘‘Bookmarks | Manage bookmarks”and click ‘‘Import and Save | Export bookmarks to HTML” in the new ‘‘Library” window. Save the bookmarks file to the desktop. Start BitBox, then right-click the ‘‘bookmarks.html” file on your desktop and select ‘‘Send to| Browser in the Box Upload”. Switch to the BitBox window and go to ‘‘Bookmarks | Manage bookmarks | Import and Save | Import bookmarks from HTML”. Finally, confirm the import with ‘‘Open”.
Downloading files Just like every other browser, you can download and save files with BitBox from the Internet by clicking on download links. BitBox then moves the file from the virtual machine to the normal Download folder of Windows and checks it with the installed virus scanner in the process, before it is deemed available for further use.
Chrome is becoming more and more popular, so the BitBox manufacturer has taken this into account and has launched a version with the Google browser. However, users must decide which version they want to use in the long run. It is currently not possible to install both the BitBox versions in tandem on one PC. According to Clemens Alexander Schulz, BitBox specialist at the
manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity, this is a known problem that will be addressed in the future. A schedule for such an implementation is still not available, but according to Schulz, it should be possible to open Office documents directly within the virtual machine and edit them even with the Chrome version. This process is still not possible with the Firefox version.
If you want, you can also use the Chrome version of BitBox instead of the Firefox one. However, both cannot be used at the same time.
Printing web content Printing an online bank statement is easy. To do this, the software creates a PDF file that is automatically exported from the virtual machine and then transferred to your printer and printed. Open the page in BitBox, which you want to print, then press [Ctrl] + [P] and click ‘‘Print”.
Adding more add-ons The functionality of BitBox can be extended by add-ons and we’ve listed a selection of the central security add-ons in the next page. To install an add-on, either proceed via the add-on search that you can access using ‘‘Tools | Add-ons | Extensions”, or you can install it manually. To do this, right-click the add-on in Windows and select ‘‘Send to | Browser in the Box Upload”. Then go to the add-on menu in BitBox, click the cog wheel icon and click ‘‘Install add-on from file”. In the next window, select the desired add-on and click ‘‘Open | Install”.
Enter a ‘‘homepage” in BitBox, which will open automatically while starting. This is practical for online banking for instance.
Changing the default search engine The default search engine used by BitBox is Google. But if you prefer a different one, you can change it easily. To do this, click on the magnifying glass in the small search field of the browser and select ‘‘Change search settings”. In ‘‘Default search engine”, go to the small Transfer bookmarks while switching You can easily import your bookmarks from Firefox to BitBox with hardly any effort.
feature triangle right next to ‘‘Google”and look for another search engine from the list. If the one that you prefer does not appear in the list, scroll down and click ‘‘Add more search engines”. Select a new search engine here and confirm your choice with ‘‘Add to Firefox”. Place a checkmark in front of ‘‘Set this as the default search engine” and confirm with ‘‘Add”.
Quick start from the toolbar
BitBox converts the pages to be printed automatically into a PDF file, then sends them to Windows and prints them normally there.
After BitBox boots up, its icon will appear in your Windows system tray. However, Windows does not display it automatically. To get it to appear, click ‘‘Show hidden icons” and then right-click the BitBox icon. Select ‘‘Settings” to adjust the configuration. A few options that were set during the installation can no longer be changed, but you can still choose which folder to use when downloading files.
Using VirtualBox as a virtual engine As mentioned at the start, you can still use the VirtualBox provided by BitBox, except it’s no longer an entry in the Windows start menu. Instead, you need to create a direct link to the ‘‘VirtualBox.exe” file on the desktop. The programme is available on ‘‘C:\ Program Files\ Oracle\VirtualBox”.
Another folder for downloads can be selected with the help of the somewhat hidden ‘‘User settings” for instance
Essential add-ons HTTPS Everywhere
uBlock Origin
Disconnect
Encrypted surfing
Stopping malware ads
Blocking trackers
By now, a relatively large number of websites provide encryption for their content with HTTPS. Thus, nobody should be able to spy on your communication with the site. Unfortunately, this encryption is not activated at all times by default, or there might not be any automatic redirection from the unencrypted version. The add-on HTTPS Everywhere ensures that you always surf the encrypted version of a website.
An ad blocker can help you while also securing the system. It not only helps you to block many ad services, but also prevent drive-by downloads, which can even spread on reliable websites via infected banners. Adblock Plus is commonly used, but uBlock Origin is not only faster, it also offers elaborate functions for logging and configuring the filtering.
Disconnect is a good supplement add-on for an ad blocker such as uBlock Origin. This addon prevents surfing habits from being monitored and analysed across multiple websites. In addition, it vividly visualises which tracks are installed on a site and will block them using its Disconnect function. The add-on can block advertisements, analysis sites, social media and undesired external content.
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Safeguarding the privacy If requested, Firefox ‘‘forgets” the visit to specific websites completely.
Protecting all browsers The security and data protection level can be increased even in standard browsers. With our tips and tricks for Firefox, Chrome and Edge, you‘ll be able to do quickly and easily upgrade your browser‘s security
Firefox Safety on the Internet with the Mozilla browser In addition to the add-ons shown on the previous page, NoScript is also among the most important security add-ons for Firefox. With NoScript, you can decide which scripts may or may not be run by a website. It not only blocks out hazardous codes, but also prevent major advertising networks and other trackers from recording your web getaways. NoScript initially blocks all scripts on a visited website by default. This means that you need to configure it yourself if you want to allow scripts from harmless sources. Click the NoScript icon to the top right and select ‘‘allow mozilla.org”, for example.
Clear up browser history Firefox offers different options to erase traces in the browser history. On one hand, you can press the key combination [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Delete] to go to the ‘‘Delete new history” window. Select e.g. ‘‘The last hour” there and in it, which ‘‘Details” such as ‘‘Visited sites & download history” you want to delete. On the other hand, you can also
delete only data related to individual visited websites. To do this, press the [Alt] button and select ‘‘History | Show all history”. Search for an entry with the related website and right-click on it. Select ‘‘Forget about this site” from the menu.
Viewing Crash Reports If Firefox crashes, the browser sends a crash report to Mozilla. You can view the contents of the report by typing ‘‘about:crashes” in the address bar of the browser to get an overview of the reports. Click on any one of the displayed links to open a particular crash report.
Stop auto-start of plug-ins A few years ago, Firefox started using a function called ‘‘Click to Play” to prevent the auto-start of plug-ins such as Flash, which is riddled with security loopholes. However, the setting is well-hidden in the advanced configuration of the Mozilla browser. Enter ‘‘about:config” in the address bar, confirm the security warning displayed and search for the ‘‘plugins.click_to_play” entry. Ensure that its value is set to ‘‘true”.
Activate TLS 1.3 The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is required for secure connections. Version 1.2 is the latest one, but its successor – version 1.3 – is already available to activate. Since it’s not activated by default, you have to do it manually by entering ‘‘about:config” in the address bar and search for ‘‘security.tls. version.max”. Double-click it and change the value to ‘‘4”. Then go to www.ssllabs.com/ ssltest/viewMy Client.html and check the entry after ‘‘TLS 1.3”. It should now be set to ‘‘Yes”.
Blocking a referrer With the Version 53 that appeared this year, Firefox has introduced a new option to keep track of referrers. A referrer informs a visited website about the other address from which a user came from. To configure this, enter ‘‘about:config” in the address bar and search for the ‘‘network.http.referrer. userControlPolicy” setting. Double-click the setting and set the value to ‘‘0” to block all the referrers. With ‘‘1”, you allow only referrers within a domain. The standard is ‘‘3”.
Modern encryption Just one trick and you can activate TLS 1.2 or the new version 1.3.
Eliminating referrers This setting prevents the creation of user profiles made about you.
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Reducing data collection Chrome collects more data about surfing behaviour than many users would like it to.
Chrome
Click that option to open the settings for ‘‘Privacy and security”. Deactivate the first three settings: ‘‘Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors”, which ensures that
Preventing snooping in Chrome If you do not change specified settings in Chrome, the browser will provide information to Google every time. This is so that as soon as you cannot access a website or start a search query, it’s enough for you to just start typing a URL. When you do that, Google sends your browser suitable results using a prediction service. In addition, Chrome automatically loads linked websites in the background that you may want to visit. This gives the impression that you have visited a specific website although you have never done so yourself. Many of the built-in settings listed here can be configured, so that the browser is more secured.
Google is informed in case of all connection errors; ‘‘Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLS typed in the address bar”, which sends everything you enter in the address bar directly to the search engine giant; and ‘‘Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly” to prevent loading of websites that you’ve never visited before. This does increase web browsing speed, but places, among others, cookies of these websites on your hard disk without being asked to. Most of the other sensitive options were already deactivated by Google in this respect. Nevertheless, it is worth conducting a brief check of the entire list to avoid data protection problems.
Data protection settings In addition, Google Chrome offers a few data protection settings that are supposed to be configured immediately after the installation. To open them, right-click the icon with the three dots in. Next, select ‘‘Settings” and scroll down until the ‘‘Advanced” option appears.
Concealing location The browser informs websites you visit about your current location, but you can use the Chrome add-on Location Guard to put a stop to these inquiries, or to at least distort the transferred data such that your privacy can no
Cleaning Chrome This Google tool removes malware and cleans the browser.
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Concealing your location The Location Guard addon prevents an accurate localisation of your location.
longer be violated because of this. After installing the Chrome add-on, you will first see a brief introduction of your available options. You can then configure the protection individually by clicking the Location Guard icon in the browser and selecting the ‘‘Privacy Levels” in the ‘‘Options”.
Rescuing Chrome from malware With the Chrome Cleanup Tool, Google has developed its own software that is supposed to remove malware from the browser. This tool is available on www.google.com/chrome/ cleanup-tool/index.html. You can download and run this on your PC. If malware is found, you can delete it using ‘‘Remove suspicious programmes”.
Deleting saved data Just like other browsers, Chrome saves parts of websites, cookies and other data to be able to re-open them faster when visiting them again. Press the key combination [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Delete] to open the ‘‘Delete browser data” window. Select the time frame as well as the elements to be deleted and confirm it by clicking ‘‘Delete browser data”.
Clearing up surfing traces In this window, you can delete all web browsing records that Chrome collects.
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Setting data protection As compared to Firefox and Chrome, Edge offers very few data protection options.
Edge Surfing more safely with Microsoft Edge Edge is the default browser for Windows 10, replacing the old Internet Explorer, but has significantly fewer options. Thus, only a few data protection settings can be configured. Nevertheless, it is possible to deactivate the voice assistant Cortana. To do this, click the icon with the three dots to the top right in Edge. Select ‘‘Settings” and go to the ‘‘View Advanced Settings” right at the bottom. Next, set the button under ‘‘Have Cortana assist me in Microsoft Edge” to ‘‘Off”. Lastly, activate the ‘‘Send Do Not Track requests” option.
Additional data protection settings In addition, deactivate the ‘‘Show search and site suggestions as I type” as well as ‘‘Use page prediction to speed up browsing, improve reading, and make my overall
experience better” options. Doing so will prevent your data from being sent to Microsoft even when you are typing an address or a search term. In addition, the browser does not load sites that you have never visited in the background, so you won’t have to worry about sites building a profile on your browsing habits. Microsoft has provided other options for protecting your private data in Windows 10 under ‘‘Start | Settings | Privacy”. You can prohibit Edge from using an ‘‘advertising ID for App-comprehensive experiences” among other things.
Blocking trackers The extension Ghostery adds a useful tracking blocker to Edge.
from the Store”. One the Windows Store with all available extensions for Edge opens, select ‘‘Ghostery | Download | Start | Activate”. This software blocks numerous trackers that want to collect data about your browsing behaviour. Once installed, Ghostery automatically opens a tab where you can adjust the settings according to your needs. With other extensions that are available in the Windows Store, password managers such as LastPass or Norton Identity Safe can also be integrated into Edge.
Blocking Flash Security extensions It took a long time, but a few extensions are now available for Edge, some of which you can use to add new functions to the browser. An example is the tracking blocker Ghostery. To install an extension, click on the icon with the three dots found on the top right in Edge, then select ‘‘Extensions | Get extensions
Malware always enters external PCs via Flash. Therefore, more and more browsers offer an option to deactivate Flash. To do that in Edge, go to ‘‘Settings | View Advanced Settings” and deactivate ‘‘Use Adobe Flash Player”. Instead of a Flash video, Edge will display a white box instead. Like the other browsers, Edge still does not support Click-to-Play.
Internet Explorer Microsoft frowns upon this fact, but even two years after the release of Windows 10, many people are still using Internet Explorer (IE) rather than the newer Edge browser. IE version 11 is the latest version that developed by Microsoft and will also be the last one. Unlike modern browsers, IE uses a zone mode. Depending on the zone, users can specify different security settings. For example, IE’s ‘‘Internet” zone is to protect users from unknown and risky sites. The highest level of security is supposed to be applicable here. To configure this, click the cogwheel icon in IE
found at the top right and select ‘‘Internet options”. Switch to ‘‘Security” and click on ‘‘Internet”. Then move the slider all the way to the top. Next, click ‘‘Confidential | Sites” to save the address of websites that you trust. Enter the name of a website in the field under ‘‘Add this website to the zone” and click ‘‘Add”. Finally, confirm your changes with ‘‘Close | OK”. After that, go to your add-on list using the settings and select ‘‘Manage add-ons”, then deactivate all unnecessary or risky add-ons such as Shockwave Flash.
The zone model in the Internet Explorer is now ageing.
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Life Changing Wearables Wearables like fitness wristbands or smart watches are considered as toys by many. But they are saviours for people who are visually or hearing-impaired By Richard Meuser
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York bestseller author, but there were still some minor yet critical hurdles. Simple things like reading a comic book or finding the correct type of olives in the supermarket shelves had seemed impossible, until now.
More than Alexa and co With a newly developed system called Aira, Hingson achieved what people with normal sight would need. He assembled a piece of furniture according to building instructions illustrated in Ikea-style. The Aira concept is simple and is made up of a camera in glasses like the Google Glass or Vuzix, which is then paired with the smartphone of the user. The camera recordings are transmitted in real time via Internet to a screen, where an Aira employee will be on hand to explain what is in front of the blind person using the service. It should make shopping experiences much easier that way. Half a year after its start, Aira already has close to 500 subscribers. Sometimes, the customers are a bit unusual, like a blind sportsperson who wanted to run in the Boston Marathon.
Reading aloud instead of seeing Currently, Aira users are still sharing their video streams with human
Photos: Getty Images/rzoze19 (Aufm.), Bill Clark (M. Hingson); Hersteller (2)
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uide dogs, canes, three-point binding - these were the only equipment for the visually impaired for the longest time. After Louis Braille invented the script (named after him) for the blind, over one and a half century passed before new resources with restricted sensory perceptions were invented. Of all places, help came in the form of wearables. Plenty of people have used or at least know about fitness or health wristbands that record heart rate, number of steps or running distances. But after the initial hype, interest in these portable micro-computers has mostly died down. Small, colourful, and often overpriced - that is the reputation of these tiny gadgets. Nevertheless, there are concepts for medical application made available recently. Thanks to the miniaturisation of the powerful computers, which can help the users to compensate for disabilities like blindness or deafness. They are based on developments that are also included in solutions for the broader market, with virtual assistants and text-in-voice systems playing a big role in these cases. For Michael Hingson, who has been blind since birth, participating in the development of the first commercially marketed reading system for the visually impaired and blind people after his studies didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t require much motivation. The use of voice control on his smartphone and virtual assistants like Alexa simplified daily routine work for the New
Wearables - from Eniac to the tiny employees. These ‘‘Aira agents” work similarly to how Uber drivers operate. They log in with the service, accept the call of the customer and ‘‘translate” its video stream into descriptions of what is seen. The prices are by no means affordable. For example, if customers want to have 750 minutes of service time, they have to pay 300 US dollars (approx. RM1,258), or 1,000 US dollars (approx. RM4,192) for 50 hours and 2500 US dollars (approx. RM10,480) for 166 hours. To reduce the cost, Aira’s founder Suman Kanuganti hopes that this task will be left to artificial intelligence in the future. Here, OrCam MyEye is already one step ahead. It has AI to evaluate the images delivered by a small camera and read the information to the user via a headphone - from street signs to placards, novels, newspapers, menu cards up to the daily post. The device can also detect the faces of up to 100 people and 150 daily objects that have been pre-saved. As opposed to Aira, this concept makes its users autonomous and also protects his/her privacy while doing so. Microsoft follows a similar method with its Seeing AI app, a program that is currently available only on iOS in English and aims to help blind people to better recognise their surroundings. To do this, the user must first take a photo of his environment. Seeing AI should be able to identify text, cash, products or even an individual from the photo. The captured content is then read out in a sentence. At the moment, the algorithm is still in the experimental phase and does not have any automatic object recognition.
‘‘I think there is a world market for maybe five computers,” predicted IBM’s boss Watson in 1943. Gross underestimation as we now have hundreds of millions of PCs, notebooks and tablets, as well as smartphones and even wearables that are in use around the world today. The latter only started appearing in 2014, but are available in different areas of use today:
Health and fitness Wristbands measure pulse, steps and calorie consumption. More complex devices differentiate between running, swimming and cycling, allowing the user to always be able to monitor their own health at all times. Garmin vivoactive Smartwatch
Lifestyle The luxury brand Louis Vuitton introduced the smartwatch ‘‘Tambour Horizon” in July 2017, for about 2500 Dollars (approx. RM10,480). This watch doesn’t provide any fitness or health info, but instead gives you flight data and city guides. Besides that, smartwatches can also be status symbols for some.
Seeing with tongue or ears In Wisconsin, neuro-scientists are following a different approach. With the help of a system developed by a company called Wicab, users will receive visual signals via their tongue. The Brainport-christened device converts light signals, originating from data glasses of the user, into electrical impulse patterns for an electronic mouthpiece. After specific training, the users can orient themselves and move in a room, as well as recognise objects with the help of the weak electrical pulses in the hightech lollipops, which was described to feel like a type of fizzy powder that tingles. Neil Harbisson has used this wearable technology for quite some time. Born completely colour-blind, he sees the world only in grey tones like a black and white movie. To extend his sensory perception, he had an antenna planted in his skull. It has a sensor at one end that converts colours from the surrounding into acoustic waves, which act as a sound board for Harbisson’s cranial bones. With its help, the founder of the ‘‘Cyborg Foundation” can perceive apparent and even invisible colours like Infrared and Ultraviolet as tones. ‘‘Infrared waves sound particularly high,” said the Cyborg activist, adding that he tends to hear them in the supermarket, due to motion detectors. He also emphasised that to him the antenna is not a device, but a new sensory organ.
Data hand gloves as sign language interpreter For deaf people, life seems easier at first glance; they can easily orient themselves unlike the blind or visually impaired. Unfortunately, they can only speak with their hands, despite very few people being able to master sign languages. A few years ago, several scientists and engineers presented a solution that has an impressive effect at first. This device is fitted with sensors that measure movements, gestures and finger curvatures of its wearer and transfers this data to a computer. If the software detects a specific gesture, then the corresponding word or
‘‘I still believe in dreams” Michael Hingson Best-seller author and motivational speaker
proverb is output via a loudspeaker. A research team from the University of San Diego has since went public with a corresponding data hand glove, which handles the transmission of the American sign language (ASL). Its components should cost just 100 US dollars (approx. RM419). Such systems are developed at universities worldwide, from Mexico, USA, Germany to Ukraine. The media are glad for these inventions, glorifying them as ‘‘innovations” and the start of an era where the hearing-impaired are acknowledged. However, the concept has its pitfalls and limits. A data hand glove will never be able to translate sign language as well as an interpreter, because interpreters can also observe the body language and facial expressions of his/her counterpart. Namely, it depends on the facial expressions when it comes to whether a sentence is formulated as a question or answer. This is something the hand glove cannot record and as a result will not be able to translate them.
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Help for the blind
Aira A spectacles-camera transfers images in real-time via Internet to a screen. There would be an Aira-employee on the other end who explains to the blind persons exactly what is in front of him.
Brainport converts light signals of a data-glass into electrical impulses for an electrical mouthpiece. Blind people can orient themselves and move with the help of the hightech lollipop.
the use of both hands. There is another point of concern in that this type of translation represents a one-way street. The deaf can be understood better with the help of the smart hand glove technology and be able to communicate. However, as soon as the other party has a question, the conversation will come to an end, because like many others it’s unlikely that the person understands sign language. Obviously, not all deaf people would want to go around wearing data hand gloves, especially when they can’t pass the devices off as fashion accessories. From the user’s perspective, the important aspects quickly become clear for technical resources. Jan Schuler from Baden-Württemberg is responsible for the digital recording and unification of thousands of machine components for a provider of measurement and control technology. After he went blind in 2009, he took training made specifically for blind people, which helped him in getting back into his old company. Easily accessible programs are crucial for everyday office work, said Schuler. For example, it helps him operate all Microsoft programs only via the keyboard. Schuler receives additional help through the screen reader, which informs him of what the computer is doing via voice output. However, when it comes to correct spelling of names or product names, this acoustic control is not enough, he lamented. For such cases, he also has to use a Braille keyboard, so that he can ensure that his inputs are correct. On the contrary, gesture control proves to be an important tool, especially for smartphones, which don’t come with a physical keyboard. The finger can also be slid over the screen like a cursor, so as to interact with the program icons present under it. When a link appears coloured on the PC screen upon hovering, the name of the respective application will be read out loud, for example, with Apple’s Voiceover for iPhone.
MyEye from OrCam AI evaluates camera images and reads the info to the user via a headphone. The device saves individual faces of up to 100 people and 150 objects.
Help for the mute Slight movements of the hands and the loudspeaker for the data hand glove starts making a sound. Sensors measure movements of hands and fingers to interpret the sign language.
Communicative one-way street Moreover, the smart hand glove from San Diego is restricted to the 26 alphabets of the ASL. When it comes to the British sign language (BSL), the device will not be able to successfully form the words as BSL requires
Schuler has reservations when it comes to camera glasses. ‘‘I would prefer not to wear such glasses, as I would be compelled to stare at everyone and everything so that the software can identify the images correctly,” he explained. But still he considers the basic concept to be promising. ‘‘Machine learning is the future. When you have sufficient computing power, then the dream of extensive independence could also be true for the blind,” he added. In the future, it will depend a lot on what the progress will be when it comes to development of self-learning algorithms. Currently, it lacks the combination of various capabilities within a single program. Thus, the software could navigate self-driven cars according to street maps and traffic rules, or help a blind person cross a busy intersection without the help of a guide dog or helping scouts. Another example is the Pinterest AI that recognises dinner photos and sends suitable pins, which could recognise that the dessert in a restaurant contains strawberries that should be avoided by someone allergic to them. The development of artificial intelligence has come to a point where some tasks, that have traditionally been the domain of humans, are also being managed by algorithms. Computers have long been superior when it comes to running logical thinking processes. Howerver, while winning a game of Chess is no problem for an AI, language recognition or identification of visual objects is difficult. Still, programs have come very far, being capable of mastering highly complex perception processes. A day will come when algorithms are so smart that they can really help users with disabilities, but that day isn’t anytime soon.
Photos v. o.: Aira; Wicab; ORCAM; Timothy O’Connor/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
The user perspective
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Holiday Gift Guide 2017 Our year-end handy tips to point you to the right gift to the right person By CHIP Team
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t’s that time of the year again when we start to think about what to buy as presents for our family and friends. With events like Singles’ Day, Black Friday, and Christmas itself, you may be wondering: ‘‘What should I get for that person?” Because every individual is unique, there is no one ideal gift for all. Thus, we’ve decided to come up with a guide based on different categories of tech aficionados.
The Reasonable Student Good things can be reasonably priced and affordable if you save your money. Students often target products that are priced reasonably and will benefit their student lives.
The Businessman Always busy and often on the go, businessmen need products that assist them with their work, or can help them when they are out and about, all while staying classy at the same time.
The PC Enthusiast The latest motherboard, crazy fast graphics card, or that shiny new custom waterloop – such are things that PC enthusiasts and modders are crazy for. For them, money is no obstacle.
The Active Lifestyle When you’re out and about, whether it’s for a jog in the park or a hike in the great outdoors, sometimes you just want to bring a little piece of technology with you.
The Gamer There is no superior gaming platform and gamers know that. They appreciate accessories, peripherals and hardware that help them game better, or to do so comfortably.
The Couch Potato The first thing they do when they get home is to switch on the TV or power up their console in the living room. Couch potatoes love hardware that enhances their entertainment time.
The Traveller Be it daily commutes or going on a vacation, the traveller is one who looks for things that can make their trip a more enjoyable and comfortable one.
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The Reasonable Student Fiio X1 II Who doesn’t love music? The Fiio X1 II is a dedicated audio player that supports a large variety of audio formats, including lossless formats like FLAC. You can carry your favourite tunes with the highest quality of formats and connect it to almost any Bluetooth speaker or headphone, and even your car to replace your lousy head-unit.
Acer Chromebook 14 Honestly every student now needs a computer of their own, a great choice would be a Chromebook, a simple and minimalistic notebook which has all the tools you need to do college work. The Acer Chromebook 14 is light and portable, leaving as small of a footprint as possible for a notebook. Affordable and portable, you can’t ask for anything else!
KZ ZS5 IEM Not a very well-known brand, but highly recommended as an excellent budget IEM for those who are just getting into the audio scene. It’s stylish and has four Balanced Armature drivers inside, sometime you’ll find hard to get at that price.
Canon PIXMA MP287 Every college student has to print their assignments some day or sometime in their life. Well, how about if you’re majoring in arts or photography? The PIXMA MP287 is a great affordable inkjet printer that prints quality pictures and clear and crisp text, all you’ll ever need and more as a budding artist or photographer.
Moto G5 Plus When you’re strapped for cash and need a beater of a phone to carry you through your student life, then the Moto G5 Plus sounds just about right. You get a Snapdragon 625, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of space, which means it has all the space and performance you’ll need. Battery life is also quite decent and should be looked into if it fits what you need.
iKBC C87 When you need to hand in a 5,000 word research paper, thesis, or assignment you’ll be doing tonnes of typing. If you spend a lot of time typing, then a mechanical keyboard like the iKBC C87 is great for that purpose. It’ll definitely last throughout you battering those keys as you crunch assignments, and might even last you your entire life.
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The Businessman Samsung Galaxy Note8 Allows you to take notes on your phone without having the need for a notepad, a powerful device with great multitasking capabilities, and can even be used with Samsung DeX to transform your smartphone into desktop.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Need a powerhouse of a laptop that can perform most of what you would require in an office without breaking a sweat? Try the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It packs a 14-inch display, while remaining relatively light at 1.13kg. It can also last up to 15.5-hours, and has rapid charging capabilities.
LG Watch Sport The latest smartwatch from LG comes with several useful features for the go-getter. You can receive and send messages and calls via the smartwatch, make payments with NFC, and get notifications without needing to draw your phone during meetings.
Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 Wireless, equipped with active noise cancelling and paired with a mic, the BackBeat Pro 2 is a headset capable of delivering high quality audio along with clear voice clarity. With active noise cancelling, you can easily swap from your own personal bubble to listen in on announcements and conversations around you.
Sony MP-CL1A This portable projector is so compact and lightweight that it can easily be slotted into your pockets. Connect your device via HDMI cable or Wi-Fi, and voila. You can now take your presentations anywhere, while not being weighed down by heavy projectors.
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The PC Enthusiast MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio Most, if not all, PC enthusiasts happen to be gamers. For them, MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio provides the best graphical and cooling performance that money can buy to date. Best of all, it does this without sounding like a tractor engine.
ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme X399 Those who are looking for an enthusiast motherboard platform for the best multi-core processor now on the market will love the combination of features, performance and stability of the ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme X399. It comes with plenty of RGB LEDs that can also sync with external RGB LEDs via its Aura Sync feature, great for turning the inside of your PC case into a disco.
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240
GIGABYTE AORUS Z370 Gaming 7 For the right mix of good value in performance and features, GIGABYTE’s AORUS Z370 Gaming 7 is a top choice for those who want an Intel Coffee Lake-based system. It has RGB LEDs, Intel Optane support, dual Gigabit LAN ports, and more. What’s not to like?
All-in-one liquid coolers are more affordable options for people to take overclocking into a level that air-cooling just can’t compete with. A great all-rounder is the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240. This AIO provides you with near silent water-cooling and a highly-efficient 240mm radiator.
G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Phanteks EVOLV SHIFT More and more ITX cases are being released and Phantek’s EVOLV SHIFT is one of the more interesting options around. Although as tall as the average tower cooler, it’s less bulky and comes with beautiful tempered class on the sides. All sides can be opened to make it easier to access the inside and install your components, making it one of the better mini-ITX cases around.
No PC can run without RAMs and overclockers will always insist on those that can be pushed more than most. The G.SKILL Trident Z RGB is the only kit currently that can go up to 4,266 MHz, making it the fastest RAM available as of the time of writing. It also comes in a sleek black metal heatsink that has some RGB lighting to add some bling to your PC build.
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The Active Lifestyle DJI Spark When you’re out on an epic adventure to lands unknown, you’ll want to capture anything and everything from as wide a view as possible. With the Spark, you’ll have this floating hovering thingy (drone) to fly to heights unachievable with the human body and take videos and pictures of you to show off to your friends next time they come around.
Olympus TG-5 A real tough nut to crack indeed, the Olympus TG-5 is built like a tank and perfect for those extreme excursions. Also something great to have if you have the tendency to knock into stuff and drop your gear. It’s light and is a full-fledged camera for taking great pictures even when the environment itself isn’t great.
Sony SRS-XB40
Jabra Elite Sport After all the extreme and tiring activities, you just want to have a nice leisurely stroll/ jog/intensive hardcore marathon run in the park don’t you? How else can you enjoy your time at the park than with music? The Jabra Elite Sport is wireless, so you have no pesky cables dangling around. And with the Hear Through function, you’ll also run safer.
Fitbit AltaHR Stylish and small the Fitbit AltaHR sports Fitbit’s slimmest design yet. You’ll forget about the little bangle around your hand sooner or later, while it stealthily collects data from your body. Track your daily routine and push yourselves to hit those #fitnessgoals you’ve been posting all over social media.
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Didn’t we say that music makes the world go round? Oh we didn’t? Well, there you go! The Sony SRS-XB40 portable wireless speaker lets you bring your tunes anywhere. Being splashproof, you can even bring it with you into the shower to have a nice relaxing session of shower karaoke, or just blast those tunes when out in the middle of nowhere around a fireplace.
Casio G’z EYE GZE-1 Probably one of the toughest cameras out there, the G’z EYE is waterproof up to 50m and shockproof up to 4m. IP6X dustproof and capable of withstanding temperatures of up to -10-degrees Celsius, you can bet this doesn’t blink in the face of danger. Pair it to your smartphone with an app and you can bring it rock climbing, skateboarding, mountain biking, or whatever extreme sports you’re into at the moment.
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The Gamer Microsoft Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Whether on a console or a PC, the Elite controller connects to both platforms and supports the latest games. Not only can it easily switch between your Xbox and PC through wireless connectivity, it has extra paddles for a mechanical advantage. Also, it comes with different thumbsticks to suit your size and playstyle.
Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum Communication and immersion is key when gaming online, regardless what platform you’re on, and with the G633 you get to kill two birds with one stone. The earpads are amazingly comfortable and even fits on bigger ears, while providing excellent sound quality and voice clarity thanks to a noise-cancelling microphone.
Secretlab OMEGA 2018 Every gamer needs to keep themselves comfortable for long hours of gaming, and the OMEGA 2018 from Secretlab is not only extremely comfortable, but makes you look rad. Whether you’re going to lounge and watch movies on your console or wage war on the cyber battlefield, you can be sure the OMEGA keeps you comfy.
MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro 4K
AOC AGON AG322FCX Immerse yourself deeper into the game with a large curved monitor, a 31.5-inch display that can replace a TV. Being a VA panel, it has greater contrast levels, allowing for better visibility when playing games like DOOM or Resident Evil 7, both games that have plenty of dark scenes. Not only that, the AGON also has a refresh rate of 144Hz with Free-Sync technology.
If you’re into VR maybe you already have PSVR, but why not take it to the next level with the HTC Vive or have a portable VR setup with the Oculus Rift? The MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro 4K lets you bring VR wherever with you, with the portability to carry around easily and the performance to play VR games wherever you are.
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The Couch Potato PlayStation 4 Pro The PlayStation 4 Pro is an upgraded version of the original PS4, with 4K capabilities among other things like better performance and so on. There are plenty of memorable games in the long list of games that has been released, and there are still plenty of hard-hitters coming very soon as well.
BenQ W11000 4K UHD Projector When a 50-inch TV is not enough, you can always opt for projectors to deliver even larger cinematic experience. The BenQ W11000 can project 4K at a brightness of 2,200 lumens and in 1.07 billion colours. You can connect it to different devices via the HDMI or D-Sub ports.
Logitech Touch Keyboard K400 Plus To simplify your searches on the TV or PS4, using a keyboard would be highly beneficial. Simply connect to the TV or your PS4 via USB or Bluetooth, and do your search the easy way. Also great for saving time when sending messages on the PS4 Messaging System by using a keyboard instead of the controller.
JBL Bar 5.1
Sony Bravia A1 OLED TV
When you are watching TV or gaming, you would need surround sound and more oomph in your audio. The JBL Bar 5.1 can take care of that. You can also remove the speakers from the bar, and place it near you or strategically to deliver surround sound. It also has a 10-inch wireless subwoofer to deliver you amazing bass.
For TVs, they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come better than the Sony A1 OLED TV. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s available in 55-inch, 65-inch, and 77-inch sizes, featuring the latest Sony 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme and a new Acoustic Surface technology for audio. You can feel this TV vibrating from the sound as it immerses you with audio right out from the screen. Besides, you will need a 4K TV to play 4K games from your PlayStation Pro.
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The Traveller Nintendo Switch Thanks to being a handheld console, the Nintendo Switch can be brought with you almost anywhere. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also light, has a good library of games that will devour all your time, a decent battery life and can be charged with a power bank.
Acer Switch 5 The Switch 5 is a convertible laptop that allows you to completely detach its keyboard from the screen. Use it on-the-go without the keyboard, or just connect it to the keyboard and use it as a powerhouse laptop in a cafe while you enjoy your cup of coffee.
Canon PowerShot G9X Mark II A camera is a necessity when it comes to travelling, especially for holidays and the PowerShot G9X Mark II is your perfect companion. It is light, capable of shooting amazing photos with its 20.1-megapixel sensor, and you can transfer images instantly from your camera to other devices easily.
Sennheiser HD1 Free The HD1 Free is a pair of wireless earbuds that will work with most Bluetooth devices without an issue. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capable of providing you with great sound and is comfortable for prolonged wear. A 6-hour battery life keeps it going for daily commutes, while the integrated mic is useful for calls.
vivo V7+ When going about your daily routine, you need a smartphone that can ticks several boxes. A good screen, decent battery life, can be used for gaming, and a good camera is often preferred. The vivo V7+ helps you with all of that, without having to break the bank.
Anker PowerCore+ 20100 Anker is a reputable brand that hails from California, and has a long list of products under their belt. As its name suggests, it has a 20,100 mAh capacity, USB Type-C support, and can charge plenty of other devices swiftly, especially with QuickCharge 3.0. You can also charge up to three devices simultaneously.
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TEST LAB: The Tools Here at the CHIP Test Labs, we adhere to the high requirements set by the CHIP International Testcenter standards. This means that everything here -- from our own personal knowledge and to our trusted tools of the trade -- are meant to provide the most optimised, unbiased and comprehensive review to every product that comes through our doors. As thus, our test bed tools are specifically picked to get the most out of every test we perform
Intel Platform Motherboards Intel DZ77GA-70K MSI Z87 MPower
Processors Intel Core i7-3770K Intel Core i7-4770K
Graphics Processing Unit MSI GeForce GTX 980 GAMING 4G
CPU Cooler Cooler
Power Supply
Memory
Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid (1300W)
Kingston HyperX HX424C15FBK4/16
Western Digital Black² Dual Drive Western Digital My Book Live Duo
Motherboards ASUS Crosshair V ASUS A88X-Pro
Graphics Processing Unit ASUS Radeon R9 290X
Processors
CPU Cooler
AMD Ryzen 7 1700
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Turbo
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Turbo
PSU, Storage & RAM
Storage
AMD Platform
Benchmark Software Operating System Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Futuremark PCMark 10 3DMark
Industry Standard Benchmark Tools AIDA64 SiSoftware SANDRA Speccy Unigine Heaven
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CONTENTS 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Acer Predator Helios 300 Huawei nova 2 Plus HUAWEI MediaPad M3 Lite MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON AC AOC I3294VWH Samsung Galaxy Note8 Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro BenQ EW2775ZH Wiko VIEW ASUS ZenFone 4 iKANOO i988 ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti Brook Sniper Sony BRAVIA A1 OLED TV Western Digital My Cloud Home Duo GAMDIAS Achilles P1L D-Link DCS-8100LH
CHIP Awards CHIP Editorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Choice Award
080 081 082 083 084 085 086 087 088 089 090 091 092 093 094 095 096 097
Ratings Each product review is rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for different key parameters:
Awarded to products that receive unanimous endorsement from all CHIP editors for its overall brilliance
CHIP Outstanding Award Reserved for products that combine astute technical performance with good quality and design
CHIP Recommended Award Given to products that possess singular quality worthy of a recommendation
PERFORMANCE : Refers to the efficiency of execution FEATURES : Rates the abilities and unique characteristics available DESIGN : Varies according to product. Finished products - form factor and build quality. Hardware components - layout, size and cooling solution. Software - user interface VALUE : Calculated from the performance and features of the product in relation to the price
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first looks
Full-Frame Deliciousness The Sony a7R III features a 42.4-megapixel, 35mm full-frame, and Exmor R CMOS sensor, allowing you to take amazing shots with enhanced resolution, sensitivity, dynamic range, processing speed and shooting response. This is all packed in a compact body, so you can take it where your regular bulky camera couldn’t. It also has wide standard ISO range of 100-32000 and you can shoot in 14-bit RAW format. For portrait shooters, it also sports an improved Eye AF, which focuses heavily on your subject, even when they are moving, looking away, or obstructed. With the new Pixel Shift Multi Shooting, it can reproduce still image in true-to-life detail, so you will not miss important details of your subject. Sony a7R III Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 300 88 1233 Info: www.sony.com.my
Scan Your Documents Mate The Xerox DocuMate 3125 is a compact desktop scanner that can assist you with scanning your physical documents into PDF easily and quickly. It can even scan plastic cards, so business cards will not be an issue. It can scan up to 44 images per minute in duplex setting. It also has a 50-page Automatic Document Feeder that will handle your documents of varying sizes. With just a push of a button, you can scan the documents to the destination of your choice. The scanner is also bundled with several software that will help with editing PDFs, improving your workflow, and so on. Look no further than the DocuMate 3125 for a compact and easy scanner solution. Fuji Xerox DocuMate 3125 Contact: Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific Pte Ltd (Printers Channel Malaysia) Phone: (03) 2191 1888 Info: www.fujixeroxprinters.com.my
Show Off Your Fangs Fang is ILLEGEAR’s first venture into gaming peripherals and is also the brand’s first gaming mouse. It comes with an eSports grade 10,000 DPI optical sensor, built with Omron switches, seven programmable buttons, and up to 16.8 million RGB colours. It is sized at 122 x 66 x 38 mm, to maximise comfort and built with a clean and ergonomic design. The mouse is also coated with 92% black-matte UV coating, features two rubberised side grips and comes bundled with a Command Centre software that allows you to customise the RGB colours, macro keys, and so on. ILLEGEAR FANG Contact: ILLEGEAR Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 2858 7399 Info: www.illegear.com
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first looks RGB-Enabled M.2 Heatsink With RGB capable RAM, it is to no one’s surprise that this was coming. The ADATA XPG STORM Heatsink is ADATA’s latest product to grace your components. M.2 2280 PCIe SSDs are currently the fastest storage in the market right now, but are hotter compared to other storage devices. Without a proper heatsink, SSDs might get damaged in the long run. That is where the XPG STORM comes in. It will cool your M.2 SSD by at least 25% and unlike other heat sinks, which are hidden and trying to stay out of the limelight, this device is RGB-capable and can be synced together with other components that utilises ASUS AURA Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, and so on. ADATA XPG STORM RGB M.2 2280 Heatsink Contact: Achieva Technology Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7955 1768 Info: www.adata.com
Choose Your Box The Cooler Master MasterBox MB600L is a mid-tower chassis that lets you choose your own style trim. It comes in Red, Blue or Silver trims on the side and you can even choose whether you require an Optical Drive Bay. If you decide to go for the version without drive bay, the front cover of the whole case will be solid, and if you want one with drive bay, there will be a cutout for your drive bay. The chassis can fit ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX boards, while also supporting up to four fans and a watercooler. As for GPU, you can have cards as long as 400mm. Cooler Master MasterBox MB600L Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd, Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7956 6300, (03) 7955 3699 Info: www.coolermaster.com
A Bigger U The HTC U11 that was released this year turned some heads and was one of the best phones in the market. But HTC has decided to up their game and offer users a U11+, equipped with a bigger 6-inch Quad HD+ display, 3,930mAh of battery, and more features that help you use the phone easier with one hand. Edge sense is also kept, allowing you to access your favourite apps with just a squeeze of the phone. For the camera, it has a 12-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera. The phone is also better at water protection, as it is now IP68 rated, and comes with a new colour variation – Translucent Black, which allows you to see the inner workings of your device. HTC U11+ Contact: Brightstar Distribution Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 300 88 2744 Info: http://www.htc.com/my-en/
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first looks X To Everything The Brook X One Adapter allows you to use a single Xbox One controller to control other consoles such as PS4, Switch and PC, wirelessly! You need not fumble around to look for your original controllers or even bother to replace them if they’re broken. The X One Adapter is easy to use, simply remove the battery and cover of your Xbox One controller, connect the adapter, and connect to the console, and voila you are done. When your adapter is low on battery, you can charge it with a micro USB cable. X One Adapter Contact: Zeroplus Technology Co Ltd Phone: +886 2 66202225 Info: http://www.brookaccessory.com/
Made For Fans The Galaxy Note Fan Edition in Samsung’s listing has mentioned that it is a new device that has been reengineered and repurposed from unused and unopened components from Galaxy Note 7 devices, replaced with safe batteries. It comes with a 3,200 mAh battery, that passed through 8-point rigorous battery safety checks, and sports a 5.7-inch dual edge Super AMOLED display, as well as a 12-megapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel front camera, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It is also packed with plenty of features to make it a device worthy of being in the Note series. Samsung Galaxy Note Fan Edition Contact: Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 800 88 9999 Info: www.samsung.com.my
Wireless In Your Own World The Sony WF-1000X is Sony’s latest venture into wireless headphones. The WF-1000X is truly wireless and has no noticeable wires anywhere, so you can stay tangle free. They are in-ear as well, so they will stay snug in your ears. They are equipped with Digital Noise Cancelling capabilities, allowing you to listen to your tunes without being distracted by noisy coworkers. With Smart Listening, the headphones will automatically adjust its ambient sound depending on your activity. If you are walking, they will allow you to listen for oncoming traffic and so on. It can last up to 9 hours and can be charged with the carrying case. The headphones will also automatically turn off when not in use. Sony WF-1000X Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 300 88 1233 Info: www.sony.com.my
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first looks Project Your Views The Epson S41 is a multi-functional projector packed with features to the brim. With white brightness of up to 3,300 lumens, stunning colour reproduction and high contrast ratio of 15,000:1, it can ensure crystal clear images. A home screen can also be accessed on the projector for your commonly used functions for easy access. Auto Power On will automatically turn on the projector whenever a signal is detected via VGA or USB cable, saving you the hassle of setting up. It is also built with a front-facing exhaust that is intelligently positioned to not expose anyone on the sides or behind the projector with heat. With built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, you can also easily share and transmit images from smart devices using the Epson iProjection app. Epson S41 SVGA 3LCD Projector Contact: Epson Malaysia Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 5628 8288 Info: www.epson.com.my
COVR-ing Your Grounds D-Link, one of the household name for home networking products has launched a new Wi-Fi System that is set to cover most of your needs. The COVR-3902 comes with an AC2600 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Router, and an AC1300 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Range Extender. With this setup, your Wi-Fi should be able to reach previously harder to reach areas for stronger Wi-Fi connection. The COVR-2600R router is equipped with 4x4 quad stream that can reach a top speed of 1,733 Mbps at 5GHZ, or 800Mbps at 2.4GHZ. If a singular Wi-Fi Range Extender is insufficient, you can add more units to increase the coverage area. D-Link COVR-3902 Wi-Fi System Contact: Advancenet Technology Sdn Bhd, Ingram Micro Sdn Bhd, Lab Seven (M) Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 8070 3633, (03) 7952 8188, (03) 80758811 Info: www.dlink.com.my
Be Masterful The MasterSet MS120 is a mouse and keyboard combo package to simplify your gaming peripheral needs into a single bundle. The keyboard sports new memchanical Clicky switches, which are tactile membrane switches that are similar to fully mechanical switches. Each key will have its own RGB LED, which can be set to display differently depending on modes. The keyboard has a black body and responsive 26-key anti-ghosting, while the mouse paired with it has four sets of DPI levels at 500, 750, 1500, and 3500. RGB is also present on the mouse, but can only be configured in three zones. Cooler Master MasterSet MS120 Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd, Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7956 6300, (03) 7955 3699 Info: www.coolermaster.com
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first looks Meet The Q Silver The Leica Q was announced some time ago, but this time, it comes with a brand-new Silver colour. The Leica Q uses a Leica Summilux 1:1.7/28mm ASPH lens that is perfect for low-light photography, street photography, landscapes, cityscape and landscapes. It also has an integrated viewfinder with 3.68-megapixel and is capable of recording videos in Full HD, either in 30 or 60 fps. A Wi-Fi module is also installed in the camera to wirelessly transfer your pictures and video. Leica Q Contact: Leica Store Malaysia Phone: (03) 2163 1818 Info: http://www.leicastore.com.my/
This Is The Router You Are Looking For The RT-AC86U is ASUSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; latest router that will help you maintain a great gaming experience with several different features. It features Ultrafast Wi-Fi utilising concurrent dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and is boosted with NitroQAM technology to deliver speeds of up to 2,166Mbps on the 5GHz frequency, along with impressive AC2900 bandwidth with MU-MIMO technology. It also has high-performance antenna with RangeBoost to help eliminate gameinterrupting Wi-Fi dead spots. For the gamers, Adaptive QoS will automatically prioritise game traffic, while WTFast game accelerator will reduce ping by 30-60%. With MU-MIMO, you can connect up to four devices at the same time while not impacting performance. ASUS RT-AC86U Contact: ASUSTek Computer Malaysia Phone: (03) 2131 6650 Info: www.asus.com/my
Projecting 4K The BenQ W1700 is a projector that is capable of displaying True 4K Ultra HD images at 8.3 million pixels and is equipped with BenQâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CinematiColor technology for supreme colour accuracy. It is also HDR projection-optimised to deliver stunning true-to-life image quality. Designed for home use, it has a short throw of 100 inches just at 3.25 meters, so you do not require a huge house to have a cosy projector setup. To make it easier to setup, it has auto vertical keystone correction, so your images and movies will not look warped. It is also sports 3D capabilities, so you can purchase 3D glasses to watch your favourite movies in 3D. BenQ W1700 Contact: BenQ Service & Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7954 7800 Info: www.benq.com.my
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first looks Hunting Monsters Sony recently announced a new variation of their PlayStation 4 Pro - the PlayStation 4 Pro Monster Hunter: World Rathalos Edition. Instead of your usual PlayStation 4 Pro, you can now purchase this one, designed with a silhouette of an angered Rathalos, a well-known monster within the Monster Hunter series. Aside from that, a gold print logo can be seen on the console. As for the bundled Dualshock controller, it is coloured in burgundy and topped with wings of the wyvern on the grips. A Blu-ray disc of Monster Hunter: World will also be bundled together with the package, along with some additional themes and so on. Sony PlayStation 4 Pro Monster Hunter: World Rathalos Edition Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 300 88 1233 Info: www.sony.com.my
Wi-Fi N-abled GIGABYTE, a brand renowned for their motherboards has just launched a new motherboard in Z370N WIFI. It is a Mini-ITX motherboard that supports the latest 8th Gen Intel Core processors. In addition, it has two DIMM slots, is Intel Optane Ready, comes with Thermal Guard for its M.2 slot, a RGBW Pin Header, Realtek ALC1220 with audio capacitors and more. It also sports an Intel 2x2 802.11ac Wireless module and uses the Smart Fan 5 feature to ensure that your components will stay cool while gaming. Two HDMI slots and a DisplayPort are built onto the motherboard, and it can support DDR4 RAM at speeds of 4,400MHz and beyond with XMP. GIGABYTE Z370N WIFI Contact: Nation-Tech Sdn Bhd, Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 4280 6636, (03) 79566300 Info: www.gigabyte.my
Wireless Powered Recently in Malaysia, JBL announced a plethora of devices that will be made available locally, and the JBL E65BTNC is one that will be coming very soon. It is a wireless over-ear headphone with noise cancellation capabilities. It sports JBLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very own Signature Sound that can be found in theatres, studios and arenas all around the world. With Active Noise Cancelling, you can be immersed in your own music without being distracted by the outside world. It can last up to 24 hours with Bluetooth and ANC off, but if you turn on ANC, it can last up to 15 hours. With rapid charge, you can have 24 hours of playback on just two hours of charge. JBL E65BTNC Contact: Hot Gadgets Distribution Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 5162 7318 Info: www.jbl.com
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AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Price: RM4,799 Contact: AMD Malaysia Sdn Bhd Phone: (03)-8316 3512 Info: www.amd.com Architecture: Ryzen Process: 14nm Base Clock: 3.2 Boost Clock: 4.0GHz Cache: 32MB TDP: 180W Cinebench: 2,989cb PCMark 10: 4,200 points Performance: Features: Design: Value:
By Nixon Ng
Let Er’ Rip! There comes a time in a person’s life where you want to rip something to shreds, but AMD offers a more…passive alternative
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f you want the top of the line then you’ve come to the right place, at CHIP we get an influx of some of the latest and greatest gadgets, gizmos and hardware. We do not lie when we say top of line, because we had the opportunity to play around with AMD’s latest and most powerful processor the Threadripper 1950X. A little about the 1950X before we get into the review, the chip has 16 cores and 32 threads with a base clock of 3.4GHz, boost clock of 4.0GHz and an XFR of 4.2GHz. It also has an L3 cache of 32MB and support for DDR4-2666 quad-channels. In addition, AMD has slapped on a TDP rating of 180W for the 1950X. That’s really high, so you’ll definitely need at least a 700W PSU minimum in our opinion. Finally, it has a total of 64 PCI-e lanes translating to greater bandwidth for PCI-e hardware. Threadripper has a funky way of installation, where AMD provides you with a proprietary screwdriver that’ll be used
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for the setup. You have to open the tray up and slide in the processor and then screw it in, which keeps the processor absolutely secure. A socket mount for coolers is included, making it easy to install coolers. All you have to do is get the corresponding mount for your cooler and just screw it in. Performance wise, the processor doesn’t disappoint, achieving an average of 2,989cb on Cinebench and a PCMark 10 score of 4,200. The 1950X definitely shows its capability when it comes to multi-core processing. For gaming, it might not support some of the older games due to its core count, so AMD fitted in a new Gaming Mode in an updated Ryzen Master Utility software. The Gaming Mode basically lets Windows use only 8 cores instead of the full 16 in case of incompatibility. With the Threadripper 1950X, you’ll have no problem playing the latest games and using it for content creation, giving you the best of both worlds.
One of the largest chips we’ve ever seen
+
Performance XFR High core count
None
CHIP CONCLUDES If you’re looking for a processor that does it all, then the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is definitely the top choice.
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Acer Predator Helios 300 Price: RM 5,999 Contact: Acer Sales and Services Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 800 88 1288 Info: www.acer.com.my Operating System: Windows 10 Home Display: 15.6-inch Full HD LCD Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ Connectivity: IEEE 802.11ac / LAN Memory: 8GB (Max 32GB) Storage: 1TB HDD + 256GB SSD Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Dimensions: 26.8 x 390 x 266 m Weight: 2.70 kg PCMark10 Essentials: 7,296 points PCMark10 Productivity: 6,725 points PCMark10 Digital Content Creation: 5,470 points 3DMark TimeSpy: 3,815 points 3DMark FireStrike Ultra: 2,774 points
By Rikco Shim
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
The Sun Is Now Your Prey A short dive into the latest Acer laptop within the Predator series, the Helios 300
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or many, Acer has been their go to brand when it comes to affordable laptops, but for their Predator series, they have upped the ante for the components built into the laptop. With that, the price has increased as well. The Helios comes with your regular looking Predator design of black body with red trims. Sadly, not much thought has been given to the design of the laptop to make it particularly different from other laptops, aside from a few minor differences in trims and the fan exhaust. But then again, there is beauty in simplicity and in familiarity. It sports a 15.6-inch Full HD display, an Intel 7th Gen i7 processor, 8GB of RAM which can be upgraded to 32GB, ample storage, and is powered by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX1060. Onto the gaming side of things, it handles as well as you would expect, with not many dips in FPS when playing Battlefield 1 or Witcher 3. It is also worth mentioning that the fans do get slightly loud when it comes to gaming as you need the fan to run at full speed to keep your laptop cool. Luckily, the wrist rest
area and keyboard area remained cool, as to give you a comfortable gaming experience. However, the touchpad is a little finicky as it is slightly harder to click into, but can be solved with a simple addition of an external mouse. Wrapped around the sides is a healthy number of I/O ports, including a HDMI port, and four USB ports, with one of them a USB Type-C port for compatible devices. A card reader can also be found on the side of the device as well, along with a LAN port. A major demerit to the chassis is that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a fingerprint magnet. If you want to keep it in pristine condition, you will need to clean it every now and then, especially if the Helios 300 is the main machine that you take to work and use at home. While issue could be easily solved with either a skin or a laptop cover, those are rarely seen nowadays. At only 2.7 kg, the laptop is not too heavy that you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t lugged it around for your everyday travels. And with a GTX 1060, it can handle most games that you throw at it, provided that you do not configure every setting to Ultra for your games.
The rear exhaust of the laptop, with one side of the fan covered and the other open
Using the PredatorSense app could easily boost the gaming capabilities of the Helios 300
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Does what it sets out to do
Fingerprint magnet chassis design
CHIP CONCLUDES A decent gaming laptop that does well in gaming without pulling any extraordinary punches and remains relatively cool, even if it is on the louder side of things, which can easily be drowned out by music. chip malaysia december 17
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Huawei nova 2 Plus Price: RM1,999 Contact: Huawei Malaysia Mobile Hotline Phone: 1 800 22 0086 Info: www.huawei.com/my Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat System on Chip: Kirin 659 Memory: 4GB Storage: 64GB, expandable with microSD Display: 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 IPS Camera: 12+8MP (dual-rear), 20MP (front) Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2 + A2DP + LE + aptX, 802.11n, Wi-Fi Direct Dimensions: 153.9 x 74.9 x 6.9 mm Weight: 169g Antutu: 60,958 points PCMark for Android: 4,607 points 3DMark Slingshot Extreme: 409 points
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Luxurious Midrange
Midrange devices are dimes of a dozen, but one way to stand out is to look prettier than the rest
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he smartphone market has hit a saturation point, particularly in the midrange segment where selfie phones are plenty. But what if you want one that excels at selfies, while also having a good rear camera? We look at Huawei’s nova 2 Plus to see if it’s a good choice in this regard. Being a 5.5-inch device, the nova 2 Plus has a thicker and wider body that’s just nice for people with larger hands; easy to hold and not uncomfortably large. It has really thin bezels on the side, giving it a pretty good screen-to-body ratio. The sides and back are brushed metal that feel smooth to the touch, yet provide enough grip to ensure that it doesn’t slip off. The layout of the components are standard here: Buttons on the right, SIM/SD card tray on the left, and fingerprint sensor at the back. For cameras, the back features a 12 plus 8-megapixels camera, while the front camera is a 20-MP camera with a depth sensor next to it. At the bottom is a 3.5mm audio jack, speaker, and USB Type-C port in the middle. Due to lack of space remaining at the bottom, the microphone was moved to the top.
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For entertainment, the nova 2 Plus is a mixed bag. It has a useful dedicated player that can be left as a ‘window’ layered over the screen, allowing you to browse the internet or use certain other apps at the same time. However, the video ends up being too small and the screen’s output quality isn’t great either. On the other hand, the device has excellent audio quality thanks to its AK4376a audio chip. Of course, that’s with the use of external speakers or headphones. With aptX, Bluetooth speakers or headphones are great options here due to the low latency. The front camera is where the nova 2 Plus does the best; you get crisp, high-resolution images with it. Also, thanks to the depth sensor and beautifying feature, it’s possible to get selfies with Bokeh effect. However, the rear camera is just average. Although the quality isn’t bad, the lack of image stabilisation can often net you blur or shaky photos. As for performance, the Kirin 659 chip does well enough for more general use. But it doesn’t handle demanding apps very well, especially high-end mobile games.
The back is a smooth aluminium, but has enough texture to provide a good grip
A 20-megapixel can be found in front, providing users with very detailed selfies that have the Bokeh effect
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Large storage High-res selfies Audio
Rear camera no OIS
CHIP CONCLUDES Its 20-megapixel front camera is great, but the device’s dual rear camera and overall performance could be better.
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Huawei MediaPad M3 Lite Price: RM999 Contact: Huawei Malaysia Mobile Hotline Phone: 1 800 22 0086 Info: www.vmall.my
Operating System: EMUI5.1 System on Chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 Memory: 3GB Storage: 32GB Display: 8-inch Camera: 8MP rear, 8MP front Battery: 4,800mAh Dimensions: 213.3 x 123.3 x 7.5mm Weight: 310g Antutu: 46,611 points PCMark for Android: 3,713 points 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited: 9,963 points
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
A Lite Friend
Huawei didn’t go wrong with the M3 Lite and it’ll be a great companion to bring about on-the-go
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ablets used to be all the rage few years back and its popularity has been fizzling out over the years. But that doesn’t mean there’s no need for tablets, as many business and even educational institutes use them to innovate the way they do business and educate the future generations. There is still consumer value in tablets, especially for parents who want to use it for ‘‘edutainment”, or people who want to bring their movies and mobile games around. The Huawei Mediapad M3 Lite fits that description well. It has a 8-inch display with an IPS LCD touchscreen, with an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a resolution of 1200 x 1920. It comes with a free case in the box, so right away you’ll have extra protection that also acts as a stand. The tablet alone looks luxurious and when the cover is attached it gives off a professional vibe. Its size makes it great for carrying about, as it’s slim and light enough to slip into a handbag and
forget about. When it comes to everyday usage the tablet has the hardware to handle your everyday tasks like web surfing, blogging, watching VoD’s and playing games. We can see gamers who like playing games like Mobile Legends, FGO, Hearthstone and Summoners War enjoying this tablet a lot. Sound wise the M3 Lite performs quite well. It’s loud and clear enough to enjoy your movies by yourself or with a few friends, but probably not in a noisy environment. The tablet also has a pair of cameras, one on the back and one on the front, perfect if you want to have video calls. Battery life is pretty decent as it has a built-in 4,800mAh battery, which can get you through the day, unless you have everything turned on and are playing games throughout the day. We usually aren’t fans of manufacturers using their own OS because it usually comes with bloatware that annoys us, but the EMUI on the M3 Lite was clean and that’s good.
Harman Kardon tuned speakers for audio delight
The free case provided gives it a luxurious feel
+
Performance Overall design
None
CHIP CONCLUDES A good buy if you need a tablet as its slim and portable, while still offering the performance you need to achieve your everyday tasks and mobile gaming.
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MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON AC Price: TBD Contact: JW Power Marketing Sdn Bhd, Mediaforte (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Adventure Multi Devices Sdn Bhd, Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 2148 1307, (03) 7960 6868, (03) 7955 7788, (03) 7773 0399 Info: my.msi.com Socket: TR4 Chipset: AMD X399 RAM Slots: 8 Memory: DDR4 3600+(OC)/ 3466(OC)/ 3333(OC)/ 3200(OC)/ 3066(OC)/ 2933(OC)/ 2667/ 2400/ 2133 MHz Ports: 1 x Clear CMOS button, 1 x BIOS FLASHBACK+ button, 1 x PS/2 keyboard/ mouse combo port, 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports (1 x BIOS FLASHBACK+ port), 8 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports, 1 x LAN (RJ45) port, 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port, 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port, 5 x OFC audio jacks, 1 x Optical S/PDIF OUT connector PCMark 10: 4,213 points
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design:
Carbon Over And Game
What do you do when you have a need for performance and aesthetics? Check out MSI!
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SI’s the name and Threadripper’s the game, so if you’re looking for a Threadripper motherboard it’s hard to go wrong with one from MSI. It’s packed full of features that’ll make enthusiasts wanting more and modders from keeping their wallets closed. Not to mention the performance that comes with those looks. Modders out there will probably love the carbon theme, and why wouldn’t you? With RGB Mystic Light Sync there’s just so much you can do when it comes to illuminating your PC. There’s also mounting specifically for 3D printed parts to further accommodate the modder’s spirit within you. Mystic Light and the 3D X-Mounting opens a lot of avenues for modding with different combinations of components, ranging from coolers to gaming peripherals. If you maybe want to change things up, there are additional heatsink covers provided in the box for you to swap whenever you feel creative. But aesthetics aren’t the only thing
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going for the board, since it’s a solid product from top to bottom. All PCI-e x16 slots are protected with MSI’s Steel Armor and each M.2 slot is protected by an M.2 Shield, which acts as a heatsink to stave off throttling. Speaking of heat, the board has an abundance of headers meant to cater to watercooling builds that’s only limited by your imagination. The headers give you full control of your fans, which can be done using the MSI Command Center or even in the BIOS. Before we forget the board also comes with a WiFi card module in case you prefer it. When it comes to overclocking, the board is packed with all the bells and whistles for a successful overclock. It comes with 13 power phases, load-line calibration, OC Engine 2 that ends up translating to our smooth and worry free overclock. There’s also BIOS Flashback+ to flash over the BIOS to an older one if you ever screwed up with a new one. Flashback even works with just the power cables attached.
Four times the Steel Armor goodness
The carbon pieces are swappable for different colours
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Easy overclock Debug LED Feature packed
None
CHIP CONCLUDES If you’re in the market for a motherboard for overclocking, modding, and hardcore gaming you can’t make a mistake with the MSI X399 GAMING PRO CARBON AC.
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AOC I3294VWH Price: RM999 Contact: Adventure Multi Devices Sdn Bhd, Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7955 7788, (03) 7956 6300 Info: http://www.aocmonitorap.com/ Display Size: 31.55-inch IPS Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Ports: VGA, DVI, HDMI Refresh Rate: 60 Hz Response Time: 5ms (GtG) Viewing Angle: 178 degrees (H/V) Dimensions: 503 x 724 x 183 mm Weight: 5.5 kg
By Rikco Shim
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Made For Your Viewing Pleasure One of the latest large-scale monitor from AOC that will surely assist you in monitoring
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he AOC I3294VWH is an almost bezelless monitor that sports a 31.5-inch IPS display, 60Hz of refresh rate, 5ms of response time, and 178-degrees of viewing angle. It stands out to be ideal for movie enthusiasts with its large screen for movie binging, or for security offices with its multimonitor capabilities. First up, the looks of the monitor. This is a sleek, slim and sturdily built display. It’s black in colour, resting on top of a silver metallic stand. With its slim bezels, multi-monitor setups will work without an issue, provided you have room for monitors of that size. If you wish, you can also mount the monitor up with VESA mounts as well. To configure the monitor’s settings, a joystick controller that’s located at the back of the monitor helps. Note that AOC has omitted the inclusion of a DisplayPort on the monitor, so you will just have to use a HDMI cable instead. The monitor also comes with several features that enhances your viewing experience. With Flicker Free Technology, the monitor will not flicker in low-light environments, which can sometimes be seen on lower-end or older monitors. This helps
with reducing discomfort when viewing for long periods of time. In the settings, you can also find a Low Blue Mode setting, which filters blue light that is harmful to the eyes when turned on. It also has Clear Vision which upscales images take from SD sources and turn them to HD to reproduce sharper and more vivid images. And for multi-tasking, the Screen+ software (bundled together) can split your desktop into four self-contained panes. You can now have a multi-monitor setup within a single monitor, and if you wish, add in an additional monitor for even more screens, which is perfect for CCTV monitoring and so on. In our test and setup, the monitor was easy to setup, requiring only a total of five screws to get everything in place. Once you have tightened the stand at the back of the monitor, simply cover it with the hard cover provided, screw on the legs of the stand, and voila, you are done. For our testing, we ran it through some games and movies and it did not run into any problems. Colour reproduction, shadows, and so on popped up when it should be. The Low Blue Mode also worked without hassle.
Thin bezels, allowing easy multi-monitor setup
Sadly, too little ports, allowing only a maximum of three monitors and with no DisplayPort
+
Design Price
Could do with more ports
CHIP CONCLUDES A good monitor with nice design and build, won’t break the bank, and performs well at what it set out to do.
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Samsung Galaxy Note8 Price: RM3,999 Contact: Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 800 88 9999 Info: www.samsung.com.my Operating System: Android 7.0 System on Chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Memory: 6 GB Storage: 64 GB Display: 6.3-inch Super AMOLED Quad HD+ Camera: 12-megapixel + 12-megapixel (Rear Cameras), 8-megapixel (Front Camera) Battery: 3,300 mAh Dimensions: 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.6 mm Weight: 195 g Antutu: 175,415 points PCMark for Android: 6,044 points 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 2,276 points 3DMark Sling Shot: 2,851 points
By Rikco Shim
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
A Noteworthy Contender
Samsung’s latest device from the Note series outshines the other competitors in the market
T
he Samsung Galaxy Note8 is currently Samsung’s best device in the market right now, bar the Note FE. But back onto the Note8, the Note8 is a device that easily tops many people’s list for their smartphone of the year and it certainly deserves the recognition. One of the mainstays of the Note series is the S Pen. This year, Samsung has added more functionality to the popular stylus, giving Note8 users more reign over features such as automatic translation for sentences, currency conversion, and one of our favourites - the ability to create, edit and pin a note onto the Always On Display. It’s an extremely useful tool for people who constantly need reminders for what they have to do or buy during their grocery run. Bixby is also present on this device and, similar to the Galaxy S8, you have both it and Google Assistant running together as your voice assistant. It’s like having two personalities sitting on your shoulder, instructing you what to do. Luckily in one of the latest updates, Samsung now allows you to swap the Bixby button to something else or completely
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disabling it. The camera is also improved over the last device, with it sporting a dual-lens camera setup for the rear. It’s now a 12-megapixel telephoto camera that’s combined with a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, both of which are also equipped with Optical Image Stabilisation for clearer images when taking pictures with shaky hands. When taking pictures, you can easily switch between the telephoto camera and the main camera by clicking the 1x or 2x button on screen. It also has the Live Photos feature, Samsung’s version of portrait mode, which allows you to adjust the background blur for a Bokeh effect. The device is amazing to use and zippy. With a 6.3-inch screen, you can enjoy content on a bigger screen that outputs fantastic image quality. It is hard to fault this device, as it ticks plenty of boxes for people who are into the market for a device that can tackle most tasks. The battery life is decent and could last you a whole day with minimal use and it also sports a headphone jack, for those who prefer wired connections over Bluetooth devices.
Not the best place for the fingerprint sensor, right beside the rear cameras
Memos can be taken with the screen off by just taking out the S Pen
+
Great Display S Pen Live Photos can take amazing portrait shots
Price Battery Life
CHIP CONCLUDES A marvellous device that can handle almost everything you throw at it and is easily one of the best smartphone for 2017, although on the pricier side.
test lab
Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro Price: RM799 Contact: Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 800 88 9999 Info: www.samsung.com.my Sensors: Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, HR Sensor Usage Time: 3 ~ 4 Days Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, Display: 1.5-inch Super AMOLED Storage: 4GB Dimensions: 51.3 x 25.0 mm Weight: 34 g
By Rikco Shim
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
A Band In Disguise A fitness band with some smartwatch capabilities
R
ecently Samsung released the Gear Fit2 Pro, and we managed to get our hands on it. The Fit2 Pro comes in Black and Red, and helps you with tracking a plethora of activities on a daily basis. For the looks, it opted for a sportier design, similar to other fitness bands in the market. With only two colours, it might not suit everyone’s tastes. It also gives off that plastic vibe and might not fit your attire if you are wearing a full suit for a fancy dinner and so on. If you do not mind its looks, you are getting one of the best fitness bands around right now. Watch faces and apps available to the band can be configure and customise easily using the Samsung app. It’s also fortunate that Samsung has improved and added more support to Apple devices, this time around. However, there will still be issues with apps and so on. To squeeze out every feature available for the Fit2 Pro, your best bet would be to use a Samsung device, or at least an Android Wear capable device. The benefit of using this device over other fitness bands is that it can replicate some of the features that are only available on smart watches such as notifications and built-in storage for music. You can also have Spotify running on the device. Simply download the app, turn on Wi-Fi, and you can download
your playlists from your smartphone onto the band. A definite plus for someone who doesn’t want to go through their storage to rummage for music. You can also push notifications from your phone to your band, so you don’t have to pull out your phone every time it rings. Instead, with the 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display on the watch, you have ample space to read your notifications without needing to squint. As for tracking, there’s Heart Rate Monitoring that tracks your heart rate constantly, Speedo On for swimming, Steps to track the number of steps you take when wearing the band, Floors to track the number of floors you go through and so on. However, with all these tracking and notifications, the band will use up battery faster, and during our tests, it lasted an average of two days before needing a charge. If you wear it to bed, the battery will drain faster as it is constantly monitoring your heart rate while you sleep. Overall, if you are in the market for a fitness band and is an active person who does plenty of different exercises, this is the perfect fitness band for you. As long as you do not mind the aesthetics, the somewhat short battery life, and if you are already using an Android device.
Some of the tracking features on the Fit2 Pro includes water and coffee intake
The heart rate tracker at the back of the device
+
Offline spotify Great display
Short battery life
CHIP CONCLUDES A great fitness band that comes with plentiful features, but not made for everyone since you can’t swap the bands easily for personal aesthetics, and battery life is short.
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BenQ EW2775ZH Price: RM1,999 Contact: BenQ Service & Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7954 7800 Info: www.benq.com.my Display Size: 27-inch Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Connectivity: D-Sub, 2x HDMI, Line-in, Audio-out Refresh Rate: 60Hz Others: 1x headphone jack, 1x mic jack Dimensions: 461 x 614 x 181 mm Weight: 6kg
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Optical Care Working in front of a monitor for many hours can be tiring on our eyes, so BenQ has options that alleviate the strain
I
t seemed like it was only yesterday when the desktop monitor was created for PC use. Back then, all they do was output low resolution video without much in the way of adjustments. Fast forward to today and some monitors now have a plethora of interesting features built in them. An example would be the BenQ EW277ZH we have for review here. Fancy isn’t the name of the game, as is often the case with BenQ monitors. The EW277ZH has a no-nonsense, all-black body that’s mostly covered in matte plastic. Its stand, which comes separated inside the box, is easy enough to attach to the main body and remains snug once screwed in. Since it’s glossy plastic, it also provides a bit of contrast to the main body. However, its main disadvantage is that it can only tilt; no swivelling and height adjustment. One of the great things about this monitor’s physical design is that there are no thick physical bezels on the front, resulting in a much larger viewing space. Thanks to that, BenQ had the liberty to shrink the overall size of the monitor, making it slightly smaller compared to most of its other 27-inch counterparts.
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In terms of I/Os, the EW277ZH’s list is quite sparse. It comes with a D-Sub port of all things, two HDMI ports, line-in and audio out. With the line-in, you can plug devices like game consoles to it and get audio via the two 2W speakers at the back. The audio out is also useful for those who prefer to use a proper speaker or headphone with the monitor, considering that even at max volume it isn’t very loud. In addition, the buttons for the OSD are located below on the bottom right of the monitor, where you’ll also find a button for the Brightness Intelligence function. By turning Brightness Intelligence, the monitor will optimise the brightness of the monitor and OSD according to the ambient light, thereby reducing the strain on your eyes while still maintaining high quality image output. Besides that, the EW277ZH also has Low Blue Light Plus and Flicker Free to further reduce eye strain. As a VA panel, this monitor has a contrast ratio that’s higher than TN panels. This results in more vibrant and accurate colours and shades. On the flipside, its max refresh rate is only 60Hz, so playing action games on it will not be as satisfactory.
For a monitor priced at this range, the lack of a DisplayPort is expected but a bit disappointing
The thin bezels make the screen seem bigger than its size suggests
+
Thin bezels High contrast
Limited ergonomics
CHIP CONCLUDES A good monitor that focuses on functions that minimises eye strain from staring at it for hours on end.
test lab
Wiko VIEW Price: RM899 Contact: Wiko Mobile Malaysia Sdn Bhd Info: http://my-en.wikomobile.com/ Operating System: Android 7.1 Nougat System on Chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 Memory: 3GB Storage: 32GB Display: 5.7-inch Camera: 13MP rear, 16MP front Battery: 2,900mAh Dimensions: 151.5 x 73.1 x 8.7mm Weight: 160g Antutu: 34,933 points PCMark for Android: 3,295 points 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited: 6,009 points
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
See More, Be More
Wiko once again throws features you usually find on higher end flagships onto lower priced models and it works
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e’re not sure how we feel just yet about the 18:9 aspect ratio that’s becoming popular on smartphones these days. An 18:9 aspect ratio makes the body of the smartphone look longer and less wide, achieving a very slim and stylish look to some. You’ll usually find this feature in the higher end of the market, but the Wiko VIEW has it at the price of a mid-range smartphone. With a screen display size of 5.7-inches, the Wiko VIEW has a pretty hefty sized screen but fits well in hand thanks to the curved edges. It also comes in a HD+ resolution of 1440x720 and extends to where it almost touches the side borders for a nice, near no-bezel feel. The 2.5D glass makes anything displayed pop out slightly for a nice effect, and when matched with the classy metal finish casing, it definitely looks like something more than its price. The colours produced on the display are vibrant and the text are crisp and clear. If you’re someone who spends a lot of time reading articles and novels, or just web browsing in general, you can be sure
that the VIEW has a comfortable ‘‘view”. Performance wise, the VIEW doesn’t stand out and you can expect to get performance equalling to what you’re paying for. Launching apps isn’t as fast as we hoped for, but once fully launched it runs just fine. The phone weighs in at 162g but most of it comes from the battery, which reminds us that Wiko has left the removable battery of the VIEW in the box, so you’ll have to insert the battery yourself upon purchase. A nice added bonus is Wiko providing a transparent silicone case. We definitely like the initiative Wiko has taken to provide protection right out of the box. Battery life is fairly decent, capable of lasting through the day with regular use and charges up quite fast when using its charger. There’s also a 13MP rear camera for daily shots, but Wiko raises the ante up front with a 16MP front camera that also has its own selfie flash, so we can see this catering towards selfie lovers. Some other extra features include Dual SIM slots and a fingerprint sensor, which adds value to the Wiko VIEW.
The 2.5D glass is a nice touch to the VIEW
+
Design 2.5D Glass
None
CHIP CONCLUDES If your budget is within the confines of the Wiko VIEW, it doesn’t hurt to check out the phone as you might love it and its features.
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ASUS ZenFone 4 Price: RM2,099 Contact: Dynamics Distribution Sdn Bhd, ECS Astar Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 8024 2100, (03) 6286 8222 Info: www.asus.com/my Operating System: Android 7.0 with ASUS ZenUI 4.0 System on Chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 Memory: 6GB Storage: 64GB Display: 5.5-inch IPS Camera: 12-megapixel + 8-megapixel (Rear Cameras), 8-megapixel (Front Camera) Battery: 3,300 mAh Dimensions: 155.4 x 75.2 x 7.5 mm Weight: 165 g Antutu: 64,692 points PCMark for Android: 4,947 points 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 833 points 3DMark Sling Shot: 1,356 points
By Rikco Shim
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
A Phone With Zen
ASUS’ latest phone that sits on the top of their ZenFone 4 series
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he ZenFone 4, the latest smartphone from ASUS in the ZenFone 4 series, was recently made available locally. At first glance, the device looks similar to the ones that we’ve reviewed in the past, such as the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro and ZenFone 4 Max Pro. But this time it comes with a dual camera setup on both the front and rear camera. It is worth mentioning that the ZenFone 4 is running on an older processor, specifically the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630. It does hold its own against other budgetlike contenders for 2017. The device is easy to use, and with a 5.5-inch IPS display, it is also easy to hold compared to other bigger phones in the market right now, unless you have giant-sized hands. For its camera, the rear camera setup features a 12-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera. You can easily swap between the cameras with a touch of a button. It is also worth noting that the wide-angle camera does have a slightly fish-eye effect to it, but it does help when trying to include more people into your wefies. You can also take 4K UHD videos with the rear camera, at 30 FPS or 1080p full
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HD videos at 60fps. As for ports, it uses a USB Type-C port for charging and transferring files to your computer. This allows the device to be charged faster and with a cable that’s steadily growing in numbers. It shows that ASUS is still thinking ahead with their build and design of the smartphones. For music enthusiasts, a 3.5mm headphone jack is still present on the device, allowing you to listen to your tunes with wired headphones and so on. Similar to the other ZenFone devices, it comes jam-packed with plenty of features such as the PixelMaster, which allows you to shoot in 12 different camera modes, a portrait mode for better portraits, and even in RAW format for those who like to edit their photos. SelfieMaster is also present on the device and allows you to tweak your selfies to fit your desires, all without needing an external program to do so. You can even stream with BeautyLive, an app that automatically beautifies your face when livestreaming. Audio is also a priority for ASUS, as proven by the inclusion of Hi-Res Audio, DTS Headphone X, and dual speakers for better and louder audio quality.
The dual rear-camera setup
The bottom of the phone, featuring a USB Type-C connection, with 3.5mm headphone jack
+
Plenty of features
Price
CHIP CONCLUDES Overall, an improvement in the smartphone department from ASUS, but lacks punch that would make it stand out for 2017. Its pricing puts it in a weird position as there are devices that cost only a little more and perform better.
test lab
iKANOO i988 Price: RM255 Contact: ICMD Company Limited Phone: inquiries@icmdworld.com Info: www.icmdworld.com Frequency Response: 90Hz-20KHz Output Power: 10W x 2 Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, 3.5mm, microSD Dimensions: 200 x 60 x 60mm
By Nixon Ng
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Speak Your Mind iKANOO has impressed us once again with the i988, a speaker worth placing in your backpack
M
usic is life, and what is life without music? You can bring music with you anywhere on your handphone, mp3 player and car radio to mention a few. But what would you use to play those music? Maybe a headphone or earphone, but what if you want to share your music with friends? Then no doubt you’re going to use a speaker instead of your device’s tinny little speakers! In the Test Lab this month, we got the iKANOO i988 portable speaker to take for a spin and boy does it deliver. The speaker came in a simple box with a charging cable, AUX cable(3.5mm), and a small instruction booklet. Setup is amazingly easy that we didn’t even need the instruction booklet. All you have to do is switch on the speaker and pair it with your Bluetooth-enabled device and voila, play your music. You can also use the AUX cable to play music from your audio players, or if you have a spare microSD card lying about, you can just jam that in and start listening to your tunes.
The controls are also fairly straightforward. You have the power button, play and pause button, and the volume control buttons. Everything about the speaker tells us how well built it is, from the great finish to its solid weight and feel. You definitely won’t be knocking this off a table lest you want to hurt your hands. We won’t recommend throwing this into a messenger bag, but its weight should feel just right in a backpack. Built into the i988 is a 20W speaker that’s loud and proud. It could blast music clearly from across our office, albeit with a slight distortion at times. But honestly it’s already quite a feat for its size and the sound quality is in no ways bad. Bass isn’t its forte, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have ‘‘oomph”. The issue is that its ‘‘oomph” is sometimes out of control on higher volumes. We found it more suited towards mellower genres, but it also sounds great for orchestral music.
AUX, microUSB and the microSD port
Controls are easy enough to understand from sight
+
Simple yet elegant design Easy to use Sound quality
None
CHIP CONCLUDES Not a true blue high-end speaker, but with its simple design you also get great sound at loud volumes.
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ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti Price: RM2,649 Contact: ASUSTek Computer Malaysia Phone: (03) 2131 6650 Info: www.asus.com/my
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Memory: 8GB GDDR5 Clockspeed: 1,607/1,683 MHz (Base mode/Boost), 1,683/1,759MHz (OC mode/Boost) Ports: 1x DVI, 2x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort Slot Size: 2.5-slot Other: 256-bit interface, 2,432 CUDA cores Dimensions: 298 x 134 x 52.5 mm 3D Mark Fire Strike: 18,005 points 3D Mark Fire Strike Extreme: 9,196 points 3D Mark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,859 points 3D Mark Time Spy: 7,112 points
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Bridging The Gap A new GPU between the 1070 and 1080 needs to deliver value most of all and ASUS managed to do that here
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hen images of a new Nvidia graphics card were leaked out on the internet, many rightly predicted that it would be a new GeForce GTX 1070 Ti. Now, ASUS has gone and made an enhanced version of the GPU and sent us a unit for review. We put the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti Advanced Edition through its paces to see how it performs. Like many of the other ROG Strix GPUs, this GPU comes in an all-black design. It comes with three 80mm fans that are based on ASUS’ patented wing-blade design, which can deliver greater air flow and static pressure over the heatsink. The heatsink itself is visibly larger than most, directly contributing to more area for heat dissipation. To ensure that the GPU doesn’t bend from the weight of the card, a black back plate with a RGB-lit ROG logo was added. Being a rather big card means it has a lot of I/O options, including a DVI, two HDMI and two DisplayPorts. Not only is it able to support multiple monitors, it has enough bandwidth and max digital resolution (7,680 x 4,320) to output to two 4K monitors simultaneously. The ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 Ti Advanced Edition only requires a single 8-pin PCIe
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connector to power it. It draws about 180W of power and together with our testbed setup drew about 280W from the wall, meaning that most users will be fine with a highefficiency 500W PSU. In terms of overclocking, considering it’s already pre-overclocked to 1,683 MHz and only has a single 8-pin to power it, we were pleasantly surprised that it could still be pushed a bit farther. We managed to push the GPU to 1,783 MHz on our setup, a full 100 MHz higher than the boosted clock speeds. Like many GPUs today, the fans on this one don’t spin unless it’s under heavy load. And even when it does, there’s barely any noise generated. Despite not seeming to have to work overtime, the thick heatsink and fans work well together to keep temperatures well within the 55-degrees Celsius range, making it one of the coolest GPUs we’ve encountered. On idle, it rarely goes above 23-degrees Celsius. With this graphics card, playing on 4K on high refresh rates on a single monitor is possible. It delivers enough performance to breeze through AAA titles like Battlefield 1 and Rise of the Tomb Raider on with maxed out settings and smooth frame rates.
The left side of the heatsink, right over the GPU chip itself, is made thicker to provide better heat dissipation
A backplate is included and it also has RGB lighting embedded inside it
+
Low temperatures Near silent
None
CHIP CONCLUDES Although there’s still a gap between this model and the higher range 1080 cards, at its price-to-performance ratio this GPU is fantastic value.
test lab
Brook Sniper Price: TBA Contact: Zeroplus Technology Co., Ltd. Phone: (886) 2 6620 2225 Info: www.zeroplus.com.tw Ports: 3x USB, 1x microUSB, 1x audio out Connection type: USB Others: Bluetooth (for app configuration) Dimensions (D x W x H): 87 x 45 x 118 mm Weight: ~200g
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design:
Console Gaming Upgrade Not everyone has nimble thumbs that excel at manipulating thumbsticks, so this device is an incredible invention for such people
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ccasionally, we get niche products that are way more interesting than the standard fare we usually see here at CHIP Malaysia. Of the ones we have this month, we consider the console accessory the Brook Sniper - as the most unique one. The Brook Sniper is a mouse and keyboard converter for consoles, including the Sony PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Xbox One. This device is about the size of the average mini PC and comes in a black plastic body with red plastic piece across the centre. There’s also two transparent plastic strips on either side of the device that light up when it’s in use. Layout of the Sniper is quite straightforward, with the most important part being the four USB ports - two in front and another two at the back. The two in front are for a mouse and keyboard, which enables you to use them on consoles. This is highly useful if you want to play FPS titles on consoles, like Destiny 2 or Call of Duty, and are terrible at aiming with the thumbsticks on controllers. Next, the third USB port at the back is used for connecting a console’s controller to it, useful for when you want to switch back to using it for certain
games. The last USB port is the one you need connect the relevant peripheral to your console. Hooking it up isn’t hard, since all you need is to connect the cables. However, to have it configured properly, the Brook Sniper app needs to be downloaded from either the Google Playstore or Apple Store. Once that’s done, switch on the Bluetooth on the smart device you downloaded the app to and connect it to the Sniper. With the app, you can set different keys on a keyboard to emulate the buttons on your controller. It also has support for macro programming, so you can quickly setup button combos for certain games like hack-and-slash titles. We tested the Sniper by hooking up a mouse and keyboard to it, then connecting it to a PS4 to play Wolfenstein II. Being able to aim and shoot with a mouse is definitely useful and there’s not much input lag too, if at all. We had to tweak the mouse settings through the app and cursor sensitivity in-game to get the smoothest mouse control, so it’s not entirely plug-and-play. But overall, our experience with the device is smooth and it’s definitely geared towards FPGS titles, with pre-loaded settings for games like Overwatch and Battlefield 1.
Plug your mouse and keyboard into the two front ports to use them on your console
To configure the Sniper, an app must first be downloaded then connected to the device via Bluetooth
+
Easy to configure No input lag
None
CHIP CONCLUDES Very unique device that makes playing FPS easy on consoles, though some tweaking of the settings are required for better user experience.
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test lab
Sony BRAVIA A1 OLED TV Price: RM16,999 (55-inch), RM29,999 (65-inch), TBA (77-inch) Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Phone: 1 300 88 1233 Info: www.sony.com.my Display Size: 55-inch, 65-inch, 77-inch Display Type: OLED Processor: 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme Operating System: Android Resolution: 3840 x 2160 Connectivity: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.1 Ports: 4x HDMI,3x USB, 1x Audio Out Dimensions: 1228x710x339 mm (55-inch), 1451x832x339 mm (65-inch), 1721x993x399mm (77-inch) Weight: 39 kg (55-inch), 49 kg (65-inch), 62 kg (77inch) Others: Motionflow XR, TRILUMINOS Display, Dolby Sound, ClearAudio+
By Rikco Shim
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Sony A1 BRAVIA OLED TV
Sony’s latest and greatest television comes with sound vibrating out of the big screen
I
f you’re in the market for a brand-new television with amazing features, then you might be interested with the Sony A1 BRAVIA OLED TV. It comes with some unique features that separate it from the rest of the market. The A1 is built with a simple ‘‘One Slate” design, much like a work of art. It comes with a few select screen sizes of 55-inch, 65-inch and 77-inch. The display is near bezel-less, with no visible speakers or gigantic branding in the front that will distract you from immersing yourself with what you are watching. Only a tiny Sony logo and a light indicator can be seen at the bottom of the TV. Sony has done away with front-facing speakers and replaced them with four Actuators that are located behind the screen. These actuators send sounds through the display, along with positional audio, so you can feel that the actor is talking from the left side of the screen when he is talking from the left. Sony staff has assured that the lifespan of the TV will not be shortened due to vibration.
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During our testing, we were even encouraged to put our hands on the TV to feel the vibrations. A subwoofer, which will bounce back bass into your face, is placed inside of the stand. This 4K TV uses its 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme to upscale content from any source, but don’t expect to upscale a 480p video up to 4K. During our test, we were blown away by the quality of the TV. Colours were bright and popped out thanks to TRILUMINOS and the blacks are truly black; you won’t notice a tint of grey/white when looking at a dark corridor. With OLED TVs, most people are afraid that you will screen burn in. But Sony has a solution in a a panel refresh function, which you will have to run once a year to keep your display in tip-top shape. The TV runs on Android 7.0, with an update to Android 8.0 coming very soon. Its content bar allows easy switching from Netflix to YouTube, without needing to fumble around different menus. If you wish, you can even enable voice search for easier content search.
The controller for the TV, it even has a dedicated button for Netflix!
One side of the actuators located behind the TV, vibrating your TV while delivering sound
+
Design Picture clarity
Price, unless you can afford it
CHIP CONCLUDES The Sony A1 BRAVIA OLED TV is a work-of-art with TV capabilities. It can spice up your living room while looking sleek and provides you with an amazing viewing experience.
test lab
Western Digital My Cloud Home Duo Price: RM1,599 Contact: Amble Action Sdn Bhd, Eternal Asia (M) Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 7955 1768, (03) 5613 5600 Info: www.wdc.com Interface: Gigabit LAN Transfer Rates (average): 115 MB/s Formatting: exFAT Ports: 2x USB Dimensions: 179 x 102 x 160 mm Weight: 450g
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Smooth Backups It can be annoying to sort through all your photos whenever you get back from a vacation, but not if everything is backed up automatically
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ith the increase in media resolution and capture devices, a safe central backup that is quick is important for many. This is an area that Western Digital intends to address with its latest My Cloud Home series. Recently, we got our hands on the two-bay version called the My Cloud Home Duo and below are our findings. The My Cloud Home Duo is half white and half grey in colour, a colour scheme that’s a hallmark of the series. In terms of size, this two-bay device is rather bulky and hefty. Combined with the fact that it doesn’t have wireless connectivity, it’s definitely not a portable device. You’ll find only four ports at the back of the device - two USB ports for you to connect other external storage drives or smart devices to it, as well as a Gigabit Ethernet port and the power input port. Above all the ports is the power button, which has a small profile and doesn’t really stand out; ostensibly, so that the device can look pretty if you decide to put it in the living room. Finally, there’s a tiny recessed reset button that can only be accessed with a paper clip. An internet connection is required for the My Cloud Home Duo, since it’s meant to be a
personal cloud storage device. As mentioned, wireless connectivity isn’t supported so you’ll have to use a LAN cable. Once connected, go to mycloud.com/hello to login or create a My Cloud account and it should automatically detect your device. But if it doesn’t, an info card included inside the box has the code to manually add it. The entire process is painless and doesn’t even take two minutes. Files can be copied to and from the My Cloud Home just by drag and drop, regardless if you’re using the browser or PC app. You can even download the mobile app on Android or iOS and transfer files while on the go as well. It does so seamlessly with small file volumes, though it can slow down when the drive is in use as a media server or when transferring large volumes of files. Besides the basic storage functions, you can also use the My Cloud Home Duo as a Plex media server, or add IFTTT applets to automate things for you. Our favourite feature is the photo auto-backup for mobile devices, which will backup our phones’ photo gallery to the drive whenever it’s connected. Also, all our files are mirrored thanks to RAID 1 mode, which means all files have a duplicated copy in the secondary drive.
All the ports of the device are at the back
Photos and videos from your smart device can be automatically backed up to the device by enabling this on the mobile app
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Easy to use and setup Auto-backup for mobile
No wireless connection
CHIP CONCLUDES If you’re looking for a personal cloud storage that will backup the content on your smartphone’s camera easily, this is it.
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test lab
GAMDIAS Achilles P1L Price: RM1,699 Contact: Nation-Tech Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 4280 6636 Info: www.gamdias.com.my
Foam type: High-density foam Frame: Steel Upholstery material: Leather Style Vinyl Mechanism type: Multi-functional tilt Hydraulics: Class 4 heavy duty gas piston Supported height: 160 to 190cm Supported weight: Around 200kg
By Matthew Yap
Performance: Features: Design: Value:
Flashy Seating GAMDIAS is all about gaming accessories and its first foray into the gaming chair category has a lot of positives
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etting niche products for review is always interesting, so when GAMDIAS sent us a huge package a while back, we immediately realised it was the GAMDIAS Achilles P1 gaming chair we saw at COMPUTEX this year. The Achilles P1 is the largest model in GAMDIAS’ new line of gaming chairs. It comes in a huge box that’s packed in an organised way. The entire package is quite bulky, so while you can unpack it alone, it’s better to have help. Inside the box, you’ll find the backrest, seat, and chair legs. The other smaller parts like the wheels, gas lift, multitilt mechanism, and two cushions are kept in bubble wraps or small boxes. Compared to a few gaming chairs we’ve seen, the assembly process is a lot more streamlined, which means it can be put together much faster. In practice, this chair can be assembled by one person, but having help makes it possible to complete the process within a few minutes. To make things easier for the user, there’s also a simple installation guide and two different Allen keys included in the box. The Achilles P1 comes with a large range of features that makes it very ergonomic. First, there are the arm rests that can tilt, as
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well as move up, down, sideways, or front and backwards. The backrest can also be tilted so that it leans forward, or backwards up to 150 degrees. In addition, the multi-tilt mechanism and the gas lift allows the user to have seat height adjustment of about 10cm and lockable rocking angle, while a footrest is also there for extra comfort. The Achilles P1’s armrests are wide and have enough padding for people with big arms. However, since they are spaced out optimally for positioning your hands to game on a keyboard and mouse, it’s a bit more awkward for work since one of your arms will always be hanging out while trying to type on a keyboard. But the backrest and seat are very comfortable, so you can sit in front of the PC for many hours. Note that because it’s a bucket seat, it might not fit those who stockier or larger in size. To get the RGB at the back of the chair lit, you either need to connect the chair’s USB port to a PC or power bank. Then, you can use the GAMDIAS’ HERA app to configure the lighting effect, colours and brightness settings. In practice, you don’t really get to see the light of the chair due to it being at the back, unless you’re in a completely dark room.
The lumbar cushion is quite thick and might make the user sit farther forward than preferred
The RGB lighting on the back can be configured using the HERA desktop app
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Lots of ergonomic features Very comfortable
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CHIP CONCLUDES The RGB feels very gimmick-y, but the easy assembly and comfort makes this one of the best gaming chairs currently available.
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D-Link DCS-8100LH Price: RM569 Contact: Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd., Ingram Micro Sdn. Bhd., Lab Seven (M) Sdn Bhd Phone: (03) 8070 3633, (03) 7952 8188, (03) 80758811 Info: www.dlink.com.my Ports: microSD Resolution: HD 720p Vision angle: 180-degree Microphone: Yes Remote Access: Yes Performance: Features: Design: Value:
By Nixon Ng
Almost A Circle
D-Link is definitely one of the best IP camera brands and even after testing quite a number ourselves, D-Link always does right by us
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here’s just so many uses you can have with an IP camera. One is to monitor your home for anything suspicious, but that’s not the only thing you can use it for. How about watching your pets at home while you’re out, or even checking out whether you left something open or forgot to switch off some lights? If you need you something easy to setup, then you can check out the D-Link DCS8100LH that has a 180-degree angle view. The camera is palm sized when folded and you can easily bring it wherever you want to, as well as easy switching where you wish to set it up. Rotation of the camera is a little stiff and we wish it could be smoother. But the body is well built and feels solid all round, with some nice weight to it. The camera supports 2-way audio communication between the camera and device you’re using for monitoring. For example, you could use your smartphone to
communicate with whoever is on the other side of the camera, give instructions to a helper or relay some chores to your children. It captures video in HD 720p resolution and can record using the built-in microSD card slot, which supports up to 128GB cards. It can also record directly to your mobile phone on the My D-Link app. When in use, we found the video captured to be clear and easy to watch through the app, plus communication between the camera and our device was also clear. Some of the other features include sound and motion detection, which will send alerts to you if there’s any suspicious sounds or movement in your home when it’s supposed to be empty. It also has night vision capabilities of up to 16-feet to keep your alert during the night. Setup is fairly easy as everything you need is already provided in the box. Once plugged in, it should be ready for use when you slot in a microSD card or sync it with your smartphone.
Microphone and power port found on the back
Record video with a microSD card up to 128GB
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Portable Easy setup
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CHIP CONCLUDES We can recommend this camera to those who need an IP camera to watch over their home without it standing out too much.
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Blast From A Geek’s Past
Nostalgia can become a strong emotion when it comes to gaming, so join us as we travel back in time to reminisce and play the games of days long past By Rikco Shim
Brawling & Studying Your Way Past Bullworth
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ully is an open world RPG that was released on the PlayStation 2 way back in 2006. Prior to the release of the game, it gathered some rather negative controversy, as it was a game that revolves around bullying. However, after the game was released, many of the reviewers gave it high scores and accolades due to its missions, gameplay and story. The game is developed and published by Rockstar, was already in the limelight with plenty of topnotch games under their belt at the time. Onto the game itself, you play as Jimmy Hopkins, a kid that grew up in a torn family, and solves problems with his fists instead
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of talking. Before landing in Bullworth Academy, he had been expelled from seven different schools. Bullworth is his last chance to avoid jail, and we control his journey henceforth. Jimmy is usually a bully, but all he is trying to do is stand up to other bullies, and taking a stance in protecting what he believes in. You need to attend classes, protect friends, deliver newspapers, play minigames, bike and skate around, and get in relationships. There is plenty to do in the game and it would be very hard to say that the game is boring – unless you’re not a fan of free roam games. If you miss classes on
purposes, you will be chased by prefects or police in the world. Mini-games such as Go-Kart racing, Boxing, Lawn Mowing and more can also be undertaken by Jimmy, offering different rewards upon completion. As a fairly kid-friendly game, the typical violence from other Rockstar games can not be found in this game. There are no guns aside from slingshots and you can’t kill characters, merely knock them out. You can’t steal cars either, but you can drive a go-kart, ride a bike/moped, and skate around in a skateboard. Customisations are also present in the game, allowing you to dress Jimmy up however you like it, when you are not in
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Trying to negotiate with a bully
school that is. Within the academy, when you are out of school uniform, prefects and teachers will chase after you, and you can get sent to detention. Characters in the game are unique, with an odd mix of weird adults and kids, making it a different experience. This game was created with a kid’s point of view, so we might be seeing things that are not actually there, but we’ll leave the conspiracy theories to you. The weather and events change depending on the time, as those are usually important things to kids. There are several missions revolving around Halloween,
Christmas and so on. As for weapons, you can only use your fists, marbles, stink bombs and so on. Overall, the story of Bully is unique in its own way. If you’ve not played Bully, then it is a game that you should try. You’re put into the shoes of a kid and you get to experience life as a kid as well, instead of all the blood, slash and gore games that we get nowadays from Rockstar. There are plenty of twists and turns in this game, but the story itself is interesting. Most of the characters you meet are super weird and they have their own style of interaction with Jimmy. We would
definitely love to see a new Bully game, and since Red Dead Redemption is getting a sequel/prequel, we can all hope for the best. Currently, Bully can be purchased on Android, iOS and PC. The Steam version actually crashes more often than not on Windows 10, but luckily there are fixes that can be applied to the game via a simple Google search.
Bully Genre: Open-world RPG Developer: Rockstar Games Info: https://www.rockstargames.com/ bully/ Platform: PlayStation, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, Android, iOS Characters ++ Story Mini-games
Pacing of the story can be be slow sometimes Too little characters
Gameplay: Sound: Replayability:
Lockpicking a locker. If caught by a prefect, it can have dire consequences
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Crusade For Liberty
This sequel dives right back into the action, as a new episode in the fight for freedom unfolds on American soil By Matthew Yap
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hooters are a dime in a dozen these day and most offer little in the way of a compelling storyline. But MachineGames has always enjoyed success with making games that do, especially for the FPS genre. This was proven when it released Wolfenstein: The New Order in 2014 and now they have done it again with the series’ sequel – Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Continuing from where The New Order left off, The New Colossus begins with a prologue where the protagonist – William ''B.J” Blazkowicz – is given a choice of which comrade he wants to save, a choice that determine key plot points in the game. Rescued by the Kreisau Circle, B.J wakes from his injury induced coma to an enemy
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attack on the Nazi submarine the Circle had commandeered and must hit the ground running, or rolling in this case, in the ongoing rebellion against the Nazis. At the beginning, B.J is badly injured and has to wheel himself around in a wheelchair. That doesn’t stop him from turning Nazis into honeycombs. Wolfenstein II is certainly unapologetic for its violence-solves-all approach and there will be many FPS fans that like that. The beginning scenario in the U-boat functions as the tutorial part of the game, in case the player hasn’t played the first game. However, the gameplay isn’t complicated and most will be able to jump right into the action without missing a beat. The typical shooter FPS elements apply in this game, so you’ll get to use multiple
gun types, jump and crouch (once you get back on your feet again later on). B.J can also punch his opponents in the face, or sneak up on then for a grisly kill by using a hatchet. As you progress through the game and perform different actions, some of them will reach milestones that then unlocks perks for you. For example, killing a certain number of enemies by dual-wielding guns will increase your total ammo capacity. You will also occasionally find parts that can be used to upgrade your weapons, such as a suppressor for your pistol, increased damage for rifles, and etc. When you’re not killing alternate universe Nazis, you’ll be looking to complete set objectives for the missions in the game. There are also collectibles in the game, such
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While the gameplay itself isn't revolutionary, the story in Wolfenstein II is worthy of praise.
as the Starcards and concept arts. Even if you’re not a fan of scrounging around corners for them, you would want to find upgrade kits for your arsenal of mass murder. From traversing the depths of the submarine for hidden enemies, to the abandon streets of an American city now conquered by the Reich, the game never gets dull as action (or another cutscene) is always around the corner. One of the more unique aspects of this game is the power suit, which gives B.J. high armour, super strength and an ability to dual-wield even the biggest guns in the game. Wolfenstein II certainly encourages you to do this and you likely won’t even feel any reduction in firing accuracy.
As mentioned, missions in Wolfenstein II are mostly objective-based. In each mission, you have to complete set objectives to beat it. Of course, you’ll be waylaid by multiple types of enemies while doing so. You can either choose to go guns blazing and kill everything in your way, or be more cautious and stealthily take down the Nazi officers to prevent them from sounding the alarm. Whichever way you choose is up to you, since the game doesn’t limit your playstyle in that sense. Choosing the second method tends to slow down the pace of the game, as you’ll be spending time studying the patrol route of the enemies and the surroundings, to find the best time to strike. However, unless you’re playing on the easiest
difficulty, charging in Rambo-style isn’t always the best method either, because you might find yourself outnumbered and dead within seconds. A mix of both is the best, so you’ll have to know when to switch tactics. The narrative in Wolfenstein II is fantastic, easily the best thing about the game. It’s shockingly bloody and doesn’t shy away from depicting social woes like racism, abuse and more. MachineGames has built a dystopian alternate world where alien technology helped the Reich achieve victory in the world wars, loaded with a rich cast of characters that have distinct personalities and feel very real. Our only lament is that this epic tale is a short one, as is typical for FPS titles.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Genre: First-person shooter, action-adventure Developer: MachineGames Info: Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC (Steam) System Requirements Platform: wolfenstein. bethesda.net
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Great storyline Rich characters
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Short campaign
Gameplay: Sound: Replayability:
Dual-wielding two machineguns like this is one of the unique aspects of the game.
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lite & leisure E-SPORTS NEWS
E-Sports Express Latest E-sports updates from the region and around the world
By Matthew Yap & Nixon Ng
It’s raining gold Esports doesn’t intend to shy away from charity and Dota 2 is ready to host one of its own charity event with the Midas Mode tournament. The tournament’s prize pool of 60,000 USD (approx. RM248,760) will be divided amongst the top three teams. In turn, the three teams get to designate a charity of their choice, to which the prize money will be awarded to.
Year ends at the Summit The year is about to end and things will slow down for the coming year-end holidays, which western countries celebrate. To cap off an interesting year, Beyond The Summit’s own Dota 2 Minor – The Summit 8 – will be the last tournament of the year 2017. With a prize pool of 300,000 USD (approx. RM1,243,800) and Dota 2 Pro Circuit Points up for grabs, many will certainly be eyeing this event this holiday season.
Community prizes for Shadowverse Cygames, developer of the digital card game Shadowverse, has announced that it will support tournament organisers with in-game prizes. Outside of North Asia, the online platform Battlefy will be the game’s exclusive tournament platform, allowing Shadowverse players from across the world to compete for the rewards. There are some requirements and rules to follow, which Battlefy has posted at https://blog.battlefy.com/shadowversecommunity-prizing-dc32f0746776.
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Mobile Legends Professional League eGG Network, the first 24/7 gaming channel in Southeast Asia, is partnering with Moonton, developer of the popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, to present the first ever Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) for mobile gamers in Malaysia and Singapore. With a total prize pool of 100,000 USD (approx. RM411,800) the MPL will be a 20-week long league consisting of 13 weeks of live broadcasted matches split into Qualifiers, Regular Season and Playoffs. The Open Qualifiers begin from 14th November to 10th December 2017 and consists of three groups, two of which will consist of Malaysian teams and the third one for Singaporean teams. Each group will have a maximum of 512 teams and for the first seven rounds all games will be Best of 1 matches until Round 8, where they will switch to a Best of 3 format. A total of 10 teams will reach the Regular Season starting from 12th January to 11th March 2018 and the top 8 teams from the Regular Season will then proceed to the playoffs, where a single elimination format will be used with Best of 3 matches. The Finals will use the Best of 5, which is as expected. Those taking home the MPL trophy will then be invited to the MLBB Worlds tournament to compete. Registration is split into three Qualifiers, so interested parties must note the dates. Malaysians are able to register for Qualifiers from the 14-21 November 2017 and 28 November - 5 December 2017, while Singapore will have qualifiers from 21-28 November. To keep up with the latest information and tournament schedules, do follow eGG Network. mysg.mpl.mobilelegends.com
Vasilii Banned Till 2020 Riot Games made the decision to ban Li "Vasiliiâ&#x20AC;? Wei Jun until the year 2020 after the player threatened his girlfriend with physical violence during a livestream. Although no physical harm has occurred when investigations have been made, Riot believes that just the threat of domestic violence and abuse is reason enough for him to be punished harshly. His now ex-team Newbee also decided to terminate his contract after hearing the threats of domestic violence. Vasilii is known for his short temper and has been charged with destruction of property before, as well as walking off mid-match in an unsportsmanlike fashion.
Huni and Peanut Leave SKT T1 It was not long after the finals of Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2017 did SKT announce that they would not renew the contracts of both Peanut and Huni. Peanut has jumped on board to Longzhu Gaming while Huni, as of time of writing, is in the process of joining team Echo Fox. The two are great players who will definitely find a place in other teams easily and we hope to see them again next season.
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lite & leisure E-SPORTS NEWS
The Highest Stage In League The final tournament of the year has finally ended and so has the reign of the previous kings
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here's no denying that this year has been an amazing year for League of Legends, especially with the fall of the giants - SK Telecom T1. There were many that foresaw their eventual defeat earlier in the year due to their inconsistent play, but Season 7 has finally come to an end and so has the reign of SK Telecom T1. Each year at World’s, it isn’t just about the teams and the winners. Similar to every other major eSports tournament out there like The International, these tournaments also show the world that eSports is real, feasible, and possible career. At the end of each match you can see joy, happiness, and relief, or even dejection, sadness, rage, and disappointment. With each year the tournaments become bigger than ever, and eSports continues to grow on a global scale. This year in World’s, we got to see new faces as well as old. It’s plain to see that the Koreans are still at the peak of the game (SKT T1, Longzhu), but China is not far behind (Team WE, RNG) and hopefully we will see a team capable of breaking through the Korean walls. It was also good to see a team from our very own Garena Premier League (GIGABYTE Marines) making their way into the top 10 teams at World’s. For those who’ve watched the Grand Finals, you could feel how nerve wrecking it was watching the games. Samsung Galaxy were able to take three consecutive games from SKT T1 to consolidate their title as the champions of World’s 2017. All three games showed us how well SSG could work together as a team, understand their opponents, and how they wouldn’t let SKT T1 get into their game.
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lite & leisure TOUCH
Gaming Apps Of The Month These are the apps that we have currently installed on our mobile devices. We think they should be on yours too By Rikco Shim
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Android, iOS (FREE)
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ans of Animal Crossing, wait no longer – Pocket Camp is here. Many fans have been harping for a new Animal Crossing game for a while now, ever since it’s last iteration, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, on the Nintendo 3DS way back in 2012. It has been five years since then, and Nintendo decided to oblige the fans, and give them what they want…or did they? Pocket Camp plays similarly to any other Animal Crossing game. You have your villagers – ranging from Penguins, Cats, Dogs and so on. Our favourite assistant, Isabelle is also present in this game, assisting and guiding you in what you need to do. Besides that, you can also collect fruits, catch bugs and fish. Missions or requests in this game are given by your villagers to increase your friendship level with them. For
Arranging the decorations around your campsite
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example, Jay the bird will ask for three Fruit Beetles. Simply go catch some, meet up with Jay, and your request is complete. You gain friendship points and level with them. Character customisation is also available and you can change different things, ranging from clothing, hair and so on. And as you'd expected from a mobile game, microtransactions are present in this game. Microtransactions in this game are known as Leaf Tickets, which allow you to purchase a plethora of items ranging from speed up tickets, inventory expansion, decoration pieces and so on. Of course, you can earn Leaf Tickets in game by levelling up and accomplishing timed goals. Purchases are optional, but if you wish to speed up your progress in the game and purchase
Fishing in Pocket Camp, you can also collect shells by the beach
every single collectible, then you might have to spend some hard cash for them. However, it is good to know that there are currently no villagers that are locked behind Leaf Tickets, and unlocking them slowly will provide you with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Friends or online friends can also help out in your venture to be the best campsite in your town, or to be competition for you. Often, villagers that like you enough will stay in your campsite, and if one of your friends has one of your favourite villagers, you’d of course try your best to get them to your campsite in your own game. This could potentially just be a thing that taunts you to spend that few bucks to speed up progress. Overall, Pocket Camp stays true to the Animal Crossing formula – fun, charming and cute. Although with a slightly reduced experience, it still is an Animal Crossing game. Microtransactions are optional and don’t stand in the way (currently). Trade ID codes with friends, and decorate your campsite to be the ultimate host.
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South Park: Phone Destroyer Android, iOS (FREE) outh Park, the well-known cartoon that features jokes so far above the norm, crazy levels of satire, fart jokes larger than life, and so on. In the past, they had an episode called ''Freemium Isn’t Free” where they explored the capabilities and addiction in gambling that microtransaction can bring out. However, they are not the first cartoon to venture into mobile games. Examples can be seen with The Simpsons: Tapped Out, where you build your very own version of Springfield, and Pocket Mortys, a Rick and Morty game
that parodies Pokemon. When you start up the game, it has a disclaimer stating that the game contains inapp purchases, and that the game should not be played by anyone. This is already them showing that they can dish the punches and take them. Card packs in this game give you cards with varying rarity. You can also get free card packs that are weaker than purchased packs, but at least they’re free and they are powerful enough for you to progress in the story. Onto the game itself, it is a real-time strategy game, which is played using collectible cards. Cards are "summoned” and require energy to be placed on the battlefield. You can have a maximum of 10 energy, so you need to be wise on how you manage your resources. Some of the battles are usually
The disclaimer when you start the game
The battle screen, fighting Pirate Ship Timmy
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played from left to right, with you charging from the left, defeating enemies and fighting the boss. You win when all the enemies are defeated on the battlefield. After clearing a level, you can have access to three lockers containing cards. This is one showcase of how RNG plays a part in this game. PVP can also be accessed in this game, where you take your best cards against live opponents and battle it out, with the one remaining declared as the victor. You have your usual stores, card upgrades, character levels and more that are added in the game. As for the story, you play as the New Kid, with a powerful weapon - your smartphone. The story plays out as Cowboys vs Indians, but characters will sometimes be dressed up as robots, pirates and so on. The usual South Park humour and expletives are included in the game, so this is not a game for your little kid to play. The game hits a few sweet spots. Being a South Park game, you will most likely enjoy the it if you are a fan. Even if you are not, the RPG elements and the collection elements will most likely keep you hooked. Characters will even message each other during battle to add some more interaction and depth to the story.
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lite & leisure CROWDFUNDING
Made Possible By The Masses Our monthly look at crowd-funded projects that caught our eyes By Matthew Yap and Nixon Ng
YoloBox Looking to stream quickly and easily? Look no further, because the YoloBox is the device you need. Rather than require multiple cables and equipment to stream, the YoloBox allows you to do it just by connecting (through WiFi or HDMI cable) your chosen capture device to it, be it GoPro, video camera, or even a drone. http://kck.st/2zUsMJU
QUARTZ Bottle People who are always outdoors or on a trek will appreciate being able to have clean water anytime. With the QUARTZ bottle, you get just that. The QUARTZ is basically a water bottle that is self-cleaning and uses UVC light to purify water inside it, ensuring that your bottle is always clean and that the water inside 99.99% bacteria free. http://kck.st/2yDfl3P
Vinci 2.0 Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to make way for something new, something called a smart headphone. The Vinci 2.0 handles calls and music, while tracking your fitness at the same time - all in a compact body. It comes with the Alexa voice-controlled AI and noise cancellation, allowing you to have an easy time in the gym or while jogging, without worrying about noise or the headphone falling off. http://kck.st/2yIeKtI
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lite & leisure
GameShell
Fingbox
GameShell is the world’s first modular, portable game console with a GNU/Linux embedded operating system. It allows you to play thousands of classic games from Atari, GB, GBA, NES, SNES and many of history’s greatest consoles. GameShell uses the powerful Linux operating system and every game published on it will be free, open-source and modifiable. Two classic games, Cave Story and Doom, are already included and more will be available in the future. You can add emulators for classic consoles, install your favourite games, and play it anytime and anywhere. http://kck.st/2z0JlXo
Fingbox is the digital caretaker that watches over your network to detect intruders, block devices, warn you about network threats and analyse the quality of your Internet connection. Over 20,000 homes have already chosen Fingbox to secure and troubleshoot their network. With features like remote monitoring, digital presence detection, network and device alerts, internet pause for parental control, a digital fence and internet security checks. Fingbox protects your home and family online. http://bit.ly/2ipJYzA
Migo Migo is the smallest portable 3D printer you have ever seen, it is internet-enabled and offers you a complete range of professional features. Migo has an aluminium shell and components, as well as a minimalist design that is meticulously designed to industry standards. The printing platform is 100 x 120 x 100 mm, a full 28% of the printer’s total area. Weighing a mere 2.5kg, the Migo can go anywhere effortlessly, a true portable printer. http://kck.st/2yZLbaV
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practice
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Creating 3D Objects For Your Website With Tridiv, you can create three dimensional spaceships or logos in CSS, which you can integrate into your website or blog via a simple code By Markus Hermannsdorfer
How to proceed 1 Start the Tridiv modeller Go to the website tridiv.com. To start a new project, click on ‘‘Start using the app”. Alternatively, select one of the three displayed samples under ‘‘Examples”. If you do not see anything or a distorted image, then your browser does not support the Webkit technology. Changing the browser is the only option here.
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2 Load the base forms in the editor Ensure that the ‘‘Editor” is enabled and in the icons bar, click on one of the four basic forms - Cube, cylinder, prism or pyramid - to load them into the Editor.
3 Change the form of a body You should now see a small circle with different icons in their basic forms. Click on the body. With the help of the icons on the circle, you can rotate the base forms, change the size, duplicate the bodies or remove them from the Editor.
4 Set the colour and transparency You can change the transparency of the body with the help of the ‘‘Opacity” slider on the right margin of the picture. The value ‘‘0” makes the picture completely transparent, while ‘‘1” removes the transparency. You will find the button ‘‘Colours” directly under it and using this button will help you assign one colour to all sides of the body. You should know the hexadecimal value of the colour for it as well, which you can find out at www.html-color-codes.info.
ILLUSTRATIONEN: TRIDIV
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or this Practice, we will need a browser that supports the Webkit technology. Chrome, Safari, Opera and the Edge browser from Microsoft integrated in Windows 10, all support this feature. The web service Tridiv is developed by Julian Garnier and displays an interface on these browsers, imitating the rendering program Blender. Using simple bodies, you can create complex objects, layer them with textures and integrate them in your own website or blogs. This, optionally, is done via an iFrame or via a shortened web address. Tridiv also gives the complete code in HTML and CSS, so that you can make changes or add functions later. In steps 1 to 5, we will explain to you the basic working with Tridiv and steps 6 and 7 deal with the optimisation of your object. Finally, you can integrate the completed 3D object in your own website.
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5 Wrap text around the object If you want to paste an image on the body, then you have to first upload it to your web storage or your blog. In Tridiv, click on ‘‘images” and enter the URL of the uploaded image. Here, you can also select whether the entire body, or only certain parts, should be covered.
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6 Design complex objects Now add other basic forms, move them to the right position and adjust the colours and textures. Using the techniques learned up to now, you can create everything from a simple company logo up to a Star Wars spaceship.
7 Optimise light setting and CSS code
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When you have constructed your object, go to the ‘‘Preview”. You can choose between a static or a dynamic light source there, adjust the brightness of the light and change the background colour. Since the calculation of the dynamic light is elaborate, we recommend using a static light source for complex models like the Star Wars spaceships. You will occasionally get a corresponding warning message from Tridiv. Apart from the finished object, the program also shows the final code. If you wish to change or review this code, then click on ‘‘Edit on CodePen”. You will come to a new website that will display the code in HTML and CSS and your object. If it appears different than that on the Tridiv page, then click on ‘‘Settings”, go to the tab ‘‘CSS” and activate the option ‘‘AutoPrefixer” in the following dialog. Confirm with ‘‘Close”. You should now see the object correctly. Click on ‘‘Save” in order to save the optimised program code.
8 Integrate object in your own website
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Go back to the Tridiv page. In ‘‘Preview”, you have two options to integrate the finished object in your own website or a blog: Click on ‘‘Short URL” in order to generate a web address that refers to your object saved in Tridiv or alternatively, or click on ‘‘Embed” to integrate the object as iFrame. Copy the displayed code there on to the clipboard and insert it at a suitable place on your website or blog.
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practice
Take Off With Photoshop Here’s a creative project for users: Raising your subjects into the air! After you’re done with the shooting, you can edit the images with Camera Raw and Photoshop By Sabrina Raschpichler
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ot all creative shots are made spontaneously and work is often required. For a photo where the subject seems suspended in the air, you’ll need a good backdrop behind the subject who is in the spotlight. This project requires dedication and creativity, but the effort is well worth it. If you protect your equipment properly, you will even be able to carry out this project in bad weather. In fact, pure sunlight is somewhat counterproductive, because the sun produces hard shadows. Taking the photos on a cloudy and windless day will be easiest. Depending on the lighting conditions, a powerful flash output would be necessary to illuminate the subject. On the other hand, the background should be a little darker. Since you’re going to be taking pictures with a large aperture, it would make sense to use a neutral density filter. This comes in handy when you can no longer regulate the brightness without adjusting the aperture. Even though you can improve depths and lights in the RAW converter, that
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certain something should emerge during the initial photography itself, so that Photoshop will be used merely for fine-tuning or artistic disassociation. When it comes to the light setup, you should pay attention to the following: Make sure the light source is placed at a 45-degree angle in front of the subject. The lamp must be in the subject’s line of vision, so that it will properly illuminate his or her face. Furthermore, you can experiment with the distance between the subject and the light. The larger the distance between the light source and the motif, the harder the shadows.
This is how it’s done 1 Set the scene First, use a tripod to fix the desired image section, and set the light. To do so, you should take a few trial pictures with just the model. Make sure you use a wide-angle lens. This makes for a higher
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degree of dynamism, and objects with a small camera-to-subject distance tend to move strongly into focus.
should process the clean shot and the image containing the model at the same time, because the trampoline can only be airbrushed out in a clean manner if the backgrounds are identical.
2 Start shooting An aperture of f/4 provides the ideal depth of field. Place the sharpness point on the model’s eyes and focus manually, so that the focus will not move. It’s important for the distance between the model’s feet and the trampoline to not overlap.
3 Take ‘clean shots’ You will need an extra photograph that does not contain the subject, so that you will later be able to remove the trampoline from the image without leaving any traces behind. The telescopes, camera settings and light will remain the same. Therefore, you should take a photo without the subject after the shooting has been completed.
4 Readjust the picture Take your pictures in the RAW format, so that you will have the largest possible amount of wiggle room during the post-processing phase. Adjust the depths, lights and colours in Camera RAW. You
5 Create the perfect illusion When you get to the touch-up process, open the photos in Photoshop. Now, set the blend mode for the upper levels to ‘‘Difference” and move the two images on top of each other as precisely as you can. After you have switched the mode back to ‘‘Normal” and placed a screen over the level, you can remove the trampoline with a brush.
6 Add the finishing touches Use the [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Alt] + [E] key combination to join the levels. Also, use the ‘‘Pencil” to select the interior of the screen (along with the model). Hold down the [Ctrl] key and click the respective region. Now, use the ‘‘Load path as selection” option, the [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [R] key combination and the ‘‘Smooth edge: 0.9 pixel” option, in that order. Then, use the ‘‘Dodge tool” to brighten up the photograph. You can use the screen to define the regions.
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tips & tricks "Uninstall” after clicking on it. Microsoft has greyed out this button in Paint 3D and rendered it unremovable via that method. Nevertheless, Paint 3D can be controlled via the Windows PowerShell. Open the console by typing "PowerShell" in the search window, type the command "Get-AppxPackage *mspaint* | RemoveAppxPackage” and press the [Enter] key. If the input fails, you might not have Powershell running on Admin rights. Try that and Paint 3D should disappear thereafter. You will find the tried and tested version of Paint immediately under the option "Windows Accessories”.
Tips Tricks DECEMBER 2017
WINDOWS & OFFICE Windows 10 Connect your Android smartphone to Windows 10
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As of late, you can also connect Windows 10 with your Android smartphone - at least when you are a member of the Windows Insider program. To use this function, you must have at least Windows 10 Build 16251 installed on your PC - another preview of the aforementioned Windows 10 Fall Creators update. You can then connect your smartphone with Windows 10 under "Telephone” in the "System Settings”. Subsequently, you will receive an SMS and you have to install the app "Microsoft Apps” on your smartphone so that you can complete the connection. In
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the browser of your smartphone, you will now have the option to share a website with your PC or continue reading it there. To do this, go to the "Options” or the three dots on your smartphone browser and select the option "Continue on PC” under "Share”. The feature should also be available in the foreseeable time for iPhones.
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Windows 10 Uninstall the new drawing app, Paint 3D
The Creators Update from April 2017, among others, includes a new iteration of the drawing program Paint. With Paint 3D, Microsoft relies strongly on 3D technology. If it is not for you, then simply uninstall Paint 3D. However, this does not work like other the other apps, which you can remove via the "Settings”, "Apps” and the list "Apps & Features” and press the button
Word Label and print envelopes
Labelling an envelope by hand is usually done quickly but the result will not always turn out to be good in all instances. Fortunately, an envelope can be printed quickly with Word, which also gives it a more professional look and better readability. In Word, open the tab "Mailings” and click on "Envelopes” under "Create” Menu. In the following dialog window, go to the tab "Envelopes” and enter the recipient in the top area and the sender address in the bottom area. If you wish to skip the sender information,
03 Creating easy labels on envelops using a simple trick found natively on Microsoft Word with "Mailings”
01 By clicking ''Continue On PC” will allow you to resume your browsing on your PC without missing a beat
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02 Removing Paint3D from Windows 10 via Powershell by typing these into it
tips & tricks then set a check mark for the option "Skip”. After you have entered the address, you should check the print settings. To do this, click below on "Options” in the dialog window. In the tab "Envelope options”, you can set the format of the envelope, for instance, "DL” for "DIN long”. "DL” corresponds to the popular letter format where an A4 sheet is folded into one-third, while "C6” corresponds to an envelope where an A4-sheet is folded twice in the middle. And on the "Printing options” tab, you can set how the envelope should be entered in the printer. Once you've configured everything according to your preference, then you can click on "Print” to print the envelope or set it up as the first page for the document. You can thus print the envelope along with the letter.
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in the "Number” group of the menu group of the "Start” tab. Here, click on "Other number formats”. Now, open the window "Format cells” with lot of text and number formats. You will find a suitable selection under "Type” in the "Time” category. When all the inputs are present in the correct format, then Excel should not have any more problems with the conversion and you can now run any computing operation you require, be it addition or subtraction of time.
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Windows 10 Find and change Skype settings
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Excel Calculate the table program with time
Timespans of all types can be very easily calculated with Excel. In the table calculation, each time entered corresponds to an absolute value. One day is "1”, while twelve hours equals to "0.5”. Thus, Excel recognises that your input is a time and you have to enter it in the format "Hours: Minutes”. For example, type "9:15” and confirm your input by clicking on the [Enter] key. You must allocate the number format "Time” to the cell so that Excel will also show the time as such. You will find a list with suggested number formats in the combination field above
The settings for Skype are hidden in plain sight of the new Windows 10 app. To reveal them, first click on your profile picture in the top left corner. An extensive menu will open and at the very top, you will see your profile picture and your name under it. You will also see the blue link "Settings” on the page. As soon as you click the link, you can make changes to the webcam and loudspeaker. For example, if there are many loudspeakers installed then you have the option to set the correct one. You can also completely block incoming calls, restrict people on your contact list and disable the notification tone for chat messages if you want some peace.
05 Accessing your Skype settings will allow you to make some changes for Skype
04 You can easily add a time formula via "Date & Time” Menu under "Formulas” or add it by clicking on the fx button, and selecting "Time” under the "Date & Time” category
Outlook Activate and use Fax function in Outlook
It is a fact that Faxes are no longer a form of communication like before. But Fax is still being used, particularly, in the corporate field since sending faxes via Outlook is very easy. To do this, click on the button "New Email message” on the top left. In the known window, where you, otherwise, write an Email, type a Fax number instead of the mail address in the field "To:”. For international faxes, type the country code before the number, for example, "+60" for Malaysia. If there is a problem in sending the Fax, then open the Control Panel and go to the applet "Programs and Features”. After clicking on the option, "Turn Windows features on or off” in the left column, open the "Printing and Document services”. Here,
06 You can turn the Windows Fax and Scan feature on or off via "Programs and Features” within Control Panel
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tips & tricks set a check mark for "Windows Fax and Scan”.
08 Change up your SmartArt style in PowerPoint via the available options under the "Design” tab
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Windows Check and if necessary repair "wusa.exe” process
One fine day, if you discover the process "wusa.exe” in the Task Manager. But note that you shouldn't terminate it, as it is responsible for automatic updates in Windows. If "wusa.exe” is active, then it means that an update is probably running in the background. Instead, you may might also want to check the path of the file, which is supposed to be present in the directory "C:\Windows\ System32”. If it is outside this folder then most probably is a virus that has disguised itself as wusa.exe. Error messages in correlation with "wusa.exe” may have different causes. First, ensure that there is no virus present. To do this, check your computer using AdwCleaner and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, both of which can be found on (https://www.malwarebytes. com), then clean your computer if necessary. If the "wusa.exe” is damaged, then reinstalling Windows could help. Even damaged Registry keys might trigger error messages. Therefore, check the Windows Registry for error using programs like CCleaner (on https://www. piriform.com/) which can remove errors with just a click.
via "Insert | SmartArt”, choose one to your liking. Then, you have the option to customise the SmartArt graphics. You can then select from different layouts, insert a new shape or add a text area. The image can be individually designed on the "Design” tab. At this point, you can also format the background or even, for instance, define the slide size as per your presets.
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Windows 10 Record screenshots with Add-ons and special tools
You have a lot more options for capturing screenshots with browser add-ons and special tools than using the popular shortcuts [Windows] + [Print]
the "Add-ons” area with the help of the Search function. Once you have, just press the "Add” button. After that, you will be able to find the tool on the top right your browser's bar. Click on it and you will be able to choose the screen area that you want to capture. The add-ons have the advantage of retaining only the screen contents, while omitting elements like the search bar or opened tabs. After the capture, a new tab will open for you to edit the screenshot. Of course, you can also perform the editing using any other photo editor. An alternative to the browser addons are Special Tools like the popular ShareX (https://getsharex.com/), which also runs under Windows 10. After the installation, you can decide whether you want to capture a full-screen screenshot,
09 Easily take screenshots from your browser using add-ons, such as Awesome Screenshot
07 wusa.exe should be located inside your System32 folder. If it is in another folder, it could be a virus
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PowerPoint Edit images on PowerPoint slides
SmartArt graphics can be enhanced to your preference in PowerPoint. After you have first placed an image on a slide
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and [Ctrl] + [Print]. For Mozilla Firefox, the add-ons Awesome Screenshot Plus and FireShot are recommended. Google Chrome also has access to Awesome Screenshot and FireShot. The installation is imaginably simple and you should be able to easily find the extensions in
a random section and or a rectangular photo. Microsoft also offers a separate screenshot tool for Windows with Snip (on https://mix.office.com/snip). It will be discontinued by May in 2018, but still works. After the installation and startup, Snip positions itself as a tiny, black field in the middle of the upper edge of the screen. Move the mouse to it and click on the "Capture” button to get started. The mouse pointer will now transform into a crosshair cursor, which can be used to click a window of your choice, or you can define a photo section by keeping the mouse button pressed. Once the capture is done, the photo will automatically be saved on the clipboard and can then be saved.
tips & tricks
10 Simply merge multiple Word Documents into one with "Text from File”
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Word Pool different text documents into one file
Several Word documents can be very easily merged into one single file. To do this, first open the document that should be at the start of the new file. Next, go to the "Insert” tab, click on the small arrow next to the button "Object” in the "Text” group and then activate the option "Text from file”. In the following window, "Insert File”, select the documents that you want to pool into one file. While doing so, you can also hold down the [Ctrl] key and select multiple files at the same time. Once you have found all the documents, click on the "Insert” button to merge them into one single Word file.
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that happens, often times the best solution is to reinstall the program. Sometimes, plug-ins for Microsoft Office are responsible for this problem, due to incompatibility with the current version. Therefore, search for a suitable version or uninstall the plug-in in question so that you can use Office optimally again. This error can also occur while programming in Visual Basic, so you'll have to check whether your code is error-free and that no blanks or typing error are causing you problems.
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Excel Document working time and overtime with Excel template
A timesheet (overtime calculator) can be very comfortably managed with Excel. To do this, first get hold of the
table calculation template from https:// templates.office.com/en-us/TimeSheet-TM10000091. After you have opened the template, enable editing and you should be able to key in details like your work hours with Date, Time In, Lunch Start, Lunch End, Time Out and Hours Worked. This will allow you to create your own proper Time Sheet, while keeping it professional.
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Windows Eliminate malicious Trojans without leaving any traces
The malware idp.alexa.51 should be eliminated as fast as possible, because it hides a Trojan inside that is spread through online games. A gradual procedure is recommended to remove it completely. Since the adware will install more other malware on your PC, first take care of any apparent malware. Open the Control Panel and go to the applet "Programs and Functions” (Windows 7) or "Programs and Features” (Windows 10). In the list under "Uninstall or change
Windows Analyse cause for ActiveX error
Sometimes, Windows might issue the error message "ActiveX components cannot create any object”. That statement will often vary. If you get the message at the start of a program, then it's possible that a key component could not be found and you will not be able to use the software. When
12 A template of a timesheet can be easily downloaded from Microsoft’s official site
11 Searching for a suitable version could solve the issue you’re having with an ActiveX popup
programs”, search for all software that appear unknown to you. Sorting the list by installation date should help, so that you can focus on and trace down programs that have been recently installed on the system. If you remember the date that you discovered the Trojan, then it's a good idea to remove all programs that were installed on that day. idp.alexa.51 also has negative effects on your browser, as the malware generally infects the add-ons and home page of the browser. Therefore, for security reasons, you should reset your browser. For example, in Chrome, simply go to "Settings” and scroll down, Click on
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13 Resetting Google Chrome will help in taking everything to a default state before your computer is invaded
"Advanced” and scroll to the bottom, you can find a "Reset” button, and proceed accordingly. The next step is to remove all remnants of idp.alexa.51. Start with a complete search using your virus scanner, such as AdwCleaner and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (found at https://www.malwarebytes.com). Finally, check the links of your browser, because undesired changes could have occurred at these places. To do this, right-click on the link of the browser on the desktop and open the "Properties”. Ensure that the path for the actual file is specified in the field "Target” on the "Link” tab has no other extra codes after ".exe”. Check it for all browser links, even the ones pinned to your taskbar.
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Word Convert text files into different image formats
formats, for example, also as a JPG file. The PDFCreator (on http://www.pdfforge. org/pdfcreator/download) can help you with that. After you have installed the tool, open the Word file that you wish to convert into JPG format and go to the command "Print” in the tab "File”. Now select "PDFCreator” as a "Printer” in the collapsible menu. The program starts after clicking on the button "Print”. Now, press the button "Edit” to go to the "Profile Settings”. There, you can change the colours, resolution, quality and output format for the image. Back in the start window of the PDFCreator, press the button "Save” again. Finally, select the save location for your file, set the format to "JPEG file (*.jpg)” under "File type” and click on "Save”. The same method allows you to save your Word documents as PNG or TIFF files as well.
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Windows How to resolve "irql_not_less_or_ equal”
You can save a Word document in many The error message "irql_not_less_or_
equal” points towards a driver problem. First, you should check whether all drivers are updated. However, a faulty hard disk or graphics card may also be responsible for the message. You can find out whether if those components are the problem by testing them in another PC. And finally, defective memory slots can also cause this error message. If that's the case, you should check all slots individually and swap your RAM to another slot if necessary. With the help of the tool Speccy (https://www. piriform.com/speccy), you can determine whether an overheated CPU could have triggered the error message. In addition, we recommend that you install all available updates for your computer and clean dust and dirt from your computer regularly, so that the fans also can work effectively.
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Excel Give random names to individual Excel cells
Cells can be provided with names in Excel. To do this, click on the cell you want to give a name to. In the "Name Field” on the top left, Excel will show you the current name of the clicked cell i.e "G8”. Set the cursor in this field, type a name of your choice and press the [Enter] key. You can also use the menu command "Formula | Define name” for
14 Using PDFCreator, you can turn your Word documents into JPG easily with a few steps. Clicking on "Edit” will allow you to make further changes to the JPG you’re about to save
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15 Your BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) could be caused by an error with "irql_not_less_or_equal”, these few steps could help you figure out the issue
tips & tricks www. veracrypt.fr/ en/Home. html ). The program is based on the popular TrueCrypt, which is no longer in development. It is supposed to be immune against Brute Force attacks. With VeraCrypt, 16 you have You can name your cells using the highlighted box located on the left side of Excel the option to encrypt a folder, an entire partition, a drive or even assigning the name. A name may be the whole system along with system up to 255 characters long and include partitions. While doing so, you can also letters, numbers, underscore and dot, create a hidden VeraCrypt partition and but you must begin the name string protect it using the secure partition with either a letter or an underscore; no feature. In VeraCrypt, first select the hyphens and space. Also, the names may not seem like cell references, for example, path to the sensitive data and specify which encryption algorithm should the in the form "A5,C23â&#x20AC;?. tool use; there are several options for it. By clicking on the "Mountâ&#x20AC;? button, you can start the encoding process, which HARDWARE can take up some time depending on SSD Protect disks professionally against the volume of the data to be encrypted. unauthorised access Users who have already have experience of using the encryption program TrueCrypt should be able to quickly work If you have sensitive data stored on your around with VeraCrypt, since it works SSD disk, then it is logical to encrypt the similarly. Flash memory. You can do this either using built-in Windows tools or thirdparty software like VeraCrypt (on https://
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17 Using VeraCrypt can help encrypt your sensitive data
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18 These few steps could help you speed your NAS back up
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NAS Analyse and cure whatever that is causing your NAS to be slow
If you think that your WD My Cloud network hard disk is conspicuously slow, then you should locate the root of the problem. First, check the connection of the NAS to your PC. It should be strictly connected via Gigabit LAN so that the data exchange is sufficiently fast. It is applicable for the device that accesses the WD My Cloud. Your computer should also be connected in a similar manner, via Gigabit LAN cable. If you're using a switch in your home network, then make sure that it also supports Gigabit LAN. The number of other users that are accessing the NAS can also be the reason for the speed throttling. However, this is mainly applicable for extensive data transfers. For the sake of having optimal speed and also security, make sure that the firmware of the WD My Cloud is up-to-date. Also, make sure that the apps on the NAS do not use a lot of processing power. You can check this on the user interface of the network disk applications. If there is any that is causing problems, it should be uninstalled, especially if it's not really needed in the first place. Restarting the WD My Cloud is also a simple solution that's always worth a try. It can work wonders in many cases.
tips & tricks If that does not help, then check the surrounding. Phones or routers can interfere with the connection between Xbox One and Controller. Even metallic objects should not be kept near the devices. After you have checked the surrounding, remove all external components like headsets or an external hard disk, from the console and disconnect the power. Remove all the plugs and wait for a minute to eliminate the error. If all fails, it could just mean that your controller is malfunctioning, and you should purchase a new one.
19 Annoyed by loud commercials? Try checking if your TV has "Automatic Volume”
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Television Balance the changing volume using the settings
Sometimes when a commercial starts, your TV might automatically raise its volume, annoying you in the process. The reason is because, most of the channels increase the volume of the TV unit at the start of commercials slot, in favour of a uniform volume. If you don't like having to constantly reach for the remote control to adjust the volume, then you should check the settings of your TV. In many models, you will find a menu option called "Automatic Volume”. This function ensures that the TV will adjust the volume by itself and reduce it if necessary. Different TVs will have different names for it, so try and look for one that functions fits "Automatic
Volume” the most. Subsequently, if you notice any negative effects after turning on "Automatic Volume”, then it is best to revert to the original settings.
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Smartphone Successfully expose cell phone hacking attempts
With the so-called "silent SMS",
Xbox One Restoring the connection between the controller and console
If your Xbox One fails to recognise a controller after pressing the Xbox jewel, it could be a problem with the console. But the battery on the controller could also be dead or running on low. Therefore, connect the controller to the console via cable to charge it. If the battery is defective, then open the box from the back of the controller and change the battery. You will have to use two AA batteries till you get a new one.
21 Using SnoopSnitch will inform you about some potential snooping attacks
20 A faulty battery could cause your Xbox One controller to have issues communicating with the console
investigation authorities can find the location of a smartphone owner without him noticing it as he neither gets an sound signal nor a notification. Detailed movement profiles can be created by locating the cellular cells, in which your smartphone is used. The Android app SnoopSnitch (can be downloaded from the PlayStore) helps in exposing these sniffing attacks. It collects and analyses data about the radio cells
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tips & tricks used and warns you as soon as your smartphone receives a silent SMS from the investigators or has logged in to a fake base station (IMSI Catchers) used by hackers and criminals. You can also find out the security level of the cellular network used. However, the source of the silent SMS can’t be tracked. If you still feel that you’re being tracked, swapping to a new phone could help.
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RAM Identify and install new memory (RAM) modules
To make an older PC run a bit faster, it is often enough to just add RAM. But before doing so, check which RAM module do you need for your computer. Tools like SiSoft Sandra (https://www. sisoftware.co.uk/) or CPU-Z (https:// www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html) will help you with it. To install your new RAM, shut down your PC and remove the power cable to ensure that no power will be going through. Next, remove the side panel for access to the motherboard, but make sure not to touch it. No tools are required when installing the RAM module. You just need to find a free slot on the motherboard and insert the new RAM module. If all slots are occupied, then change one or - better - both the modules. You will always find an attachment clip on the left and right side of the old RAM modules. Press down on the clips to unlatch them, then remove the modules. Now press the new module in the slot and lock it in place with the
23 Using online sites like picresize can easily help resize your pictures for easier uploads
clips. After that, assemble the PC and switch it on. Now, in the Control Panel, go to "System and Security” and then to the applet "System”. It should show you how much RAM you have under "Installed memory (RAM)”, make sure the number matches what you've installed. If it is lower, try re-seating the RAM after shutting down the PC.
any photo program - or a clever special tool like "picresize” from (http://www. picresize.com/); plenty of others can be found online. If you wish, you can also use Paint. There is a "Resize” button that can be found under the "Image” menu. With it, you can quickly resize by Percentage or Pixels, making it a quick and easy fix that does not require external software.
WEB, TOOLS & PHOTOS Photography Reduce JPG, PNG or BMP images in a jiffy
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Many photos exceed the prescribed file size by web services or Email providers when they are being uploaded on to the Internet. Uploading these files can be very time consuming especially when you have very little upload bandwidth. To reduce the file size, you can use
24 Google Maps can be your navigation guide by just clicking into "Driving Mode”
22 Checking the "System” page under "Control Panel” can show you a few system details including RAM
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tips & tricks
24
Google Maps Use navigation function in Driving Mode
With "Driving Mode”, Google Maps can replace full-fledged navigation system on your Android of iOS smartphone. To use it, first check whether the latest version of Google Maps is installed. Then, turn on the app, press button with three horizontal lines on the top left, then tap on "Start Driving” and set your destination. After that, start the navigation, tap below on the white bar and on "Directions”. Here, Maps will show you the description of the entire route. You will also receive more information like tips for toll road sections and traffic. If Maps already has sufficiently saved locations and routes, then the service will automatically suggest routes that you may possibly want to take.
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Internet Determine the latest Ping value of your online connection
The ping value denotes the time span between the sending of a data packet to a recipient on the web and arrival of the response packet. The lower the ping value, the faster data is being exchanged. This is important for online gaming or video calls where stutters and sound blackouts are particularly annoying. You can measure the ping value on various websites such as Speedtest on (http:// www.speedtest.net/). To do so, terminate all programs first, so that you do not get inaccurate results. Next, click on the "Begin Test” button. The service will run and tell you the ping value once done. You can also determine the ping value using the command prompt. With it, you have the option to specifically select a server, for example, connection to Google. Press the key combination [Windows] + [R] and type "cmd" in the "Run” window. In the command prompt, type ("ping -t google.com") and press the [Enter] key. Let the test run for a few seconds and interrupt it with the shortcut [Ctrl] + [C]. You will now see a summary of your pings, with an average ping value of the specified server provided. For instance, to test the connection for Skype or for an
25 Use Speedtest to easily determine your ping value
online game, simply replace "google.com" by the server address of your respective program.
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Photography Set the aperture correctly for manual photos
If you prefer not to use automatic programs, then you can manually adjust the selection wheel. In this mode, you also have to configure the aperture setting. It controls how much light enters through the lens on the image sensor. The size of the aperture opening
is shown in numerical form. A lower f-number denotes a larger aperture 'opening'. For example, the f-number f/1.8 lets more light into the camera than f/22. You must balance out the different lighting effects caused by the different aperture settings. For example, if less light falls on the image sensor due to a higher f-number, then it is recommended to increase the exposure time to avoid under-exposure. Even other settings can be balanced with the aperture. For instance, if you want to reduce the ISO value for the light sensitivity, then you can open the aperture more. But you can also change the sharpness with the aperture setting. A wideopened aperture i.e. a small f-number, can blur the background of your motif. For successful portrait photos, it is recommended to keep a low f-number.
26 Using Speedtest could easily determine your ping value
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picture perfect
DotA? Defen
se of the A
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7/11/2017 Who wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be happy taking a ride with Garmin?
16/11/2017 The light side of the force is high
ly outnumbered!
2/11/2017 All smiles with the new Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop
22/11/2017 Selfie time with the vivo V7
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picture perfect
9/11/2017 The new HP Spectre 13 laptop, oh so
light!
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Posing with the new JBL JR300BT, wireless headph for kids ones
8/11/2017 16/11/201 the differen siaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skit onncelling ay al M y n So e noise ca and selectiv
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YUMMMMMMM SENG, toasting for a blessed year for Harman products
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in the next issue JANUARY
Viva La SSD SSDs are now capable of multiplying their capacity with increasing development in 3D NAND Flash technology. Soon, the complaint of ‘‘SSD storages are too small compared to large magnetic disc” will no longer apply
No Longer A Small Group When Credit Goes Bad The recent Equifax hack scandal in the United States gathered some worldwide attention. We take a look at what data was stolen and suggest some ways to reduce the chance of this happening again
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The Alibaba Group is steadily taking over the internet with replacements of popular internet groups such as eBay, PayPal and Amazon Web Services with: Taobao, Alipay and Alibaba Cloud respectively. What do they offer, when compared to their international competitors?