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THE RSS FEED | Robert Sovereign-Smith | Executive Editor
Analytica Apocalyptica million users hacked in 2015 (who knows how many people were blackmailed using that), 145 million eBay users in 2014, Equifax had 140+ million people’s very personal data hacked (birthdate, driver’s licence number, social security number, addresses, etc.), and yet none of those raised as big a storm as this. The problem is, it was Facebook, and everyone’s on Facebook, thus the obvious reaction. A #DeleteFacebook campaign started on Twitter – like that was a surprise! What was a surprise was that Elon Musk basically deleted Tesla’s and SpaceX’s Facebook pages on a dare. There’s no love lost between Zuckerberg and Musk, and so it was expected that Musk would pipe up on this Cambridge Analytica (CA) matter. Still, when another Twitter user dared him to delete SpaceX’s and Tesla’s pages before preaching, he did exactly that, leaving millions of fans on Facebook without any future information on the platform about his ventures. He was called a legend for doing so, and while we agree he certainly is a legend, we think he’s overreacting a tad. What’s next? Refusing to sell Tesla cars to anyone with a Facebook account? Even in India the blame game about CA’s meddling started with political parties taking pot shots at one another, and many Indian Twitter users trying to trend #DeleteFacebook. But what will that do? Give more power to Twitter, and make them the target of such data breaches in the future? No matter what we do, we’re going to do it online, and it’s too late to bring back the good old days where the anonymity of the internet was valued and cherished. Sure, the trolls I asked you to defeat in last month’s column might love anonymity, but as a society we’ve moved to a world where everyone wants the spotlight, not privacy. You cannot proudly use your name and details online and then complain about people using that information to profile you… that’s like walking nude on to a beach and then demanding no one look at you! May I remind us all, again, that privacy is dead, and we’re the ones who killed it ourselves. Stop thinking this latest Facebook breach is the end of the world, because analytica apocalyptica already happened, many years ago, when we decided to use our real names and faces online...
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LAST MONTH, the world went crazy about the Cambridge Analytica undercover videos and Facebook’s data breach. And I found myself standing about thinking, “Seriously? This surprises you people?” I’ve been saying for years that our data is being analysed, and that we’re being fed narratives that are brainwashing us. I hate quoting myself, but I find myself having to, for this topic: If you’re thinking, “Nah, that’s not possible. There’s no way all of our data is being analysed.”, you’re wrong of course. It very much is, has been for a long time, and there’s nothing you can do about it! That’s from the March 2012 issue of Digit, and people in Team Digit have been saying the same for a lot longer – ever since social media took off. Which is what brings me back to my incredulity at people being shocked that companies like Cambridge Analytica exist. Granted, having your CEO talk about Ukrainian call girls being used to entrap ministers is something no company wants to be caught doing, but are we really so gullible so as to think that it doesn’t happen? Especially when it comes to politics, and gaining power, do we honestly believe that such tactics weren’t being used for a heck of a lot longer than technology has been around? Sure, technology makes it a lot easier to, say, secretly record someone, but then as we saw with Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, that’s a doubleedged sword. The reason you love your chosen social networking site, is the same reason why it’s vulnerable to attack – because it knows so much about you, it’s able to find you things you like, but then again, your data can be used against you as well. Facebook was obviously in the line of fire. It is after all expected to babysit every American (or world citizen) who is too dumb to adjust privacy settings and not give access to third party apps. In fact, it’s the use of Facebook data that has blown this story out of proportion. If it was 50 million people’s credit card data being stolen there’d probably be less made of it. I mean seriously, look at the biggest breaches of the past decade. Yahoo! Had 3 billion users’ data compromised in 2013, no one batted an eyelid. Adult Friend Finder had usernames, passwords and email addresses of over 400
“Sure, technology makes it a lot easier to, say, secretly record someone, but then as we saw with Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, that’s a doubleedged sword.”
Liked or hated this column? Let me know at: editor@digit.in | facebook.com/raaabo | @raaabo
www.digit.in | April 2018 | Digit | 1
PARANOID ANDROID | Mithun Mohandas | Asst. Technical Editor
60bbl3d3600k™ (Gobbledegook)
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Some are caught before the product even goes to sale. For example, we regularly see renders from video game previews that are way better than the game will be when it launches. We call them “Bullshots” (bullshit screenshots). Then there are not so obvious ones like the 3.5+0.5 VRAM controversy with the 970 that were only caught after gamers noticed glitches during heavy usage. At the end, it turned out that the engineers were transparent about the memory issue while the marketing division went ahead and called it 4 GB anyways. It might appear that marketers are the scum of the earth, and they are, but they also play an important role. In the enthusiast tech industry, we shouldn’t let marketers have a free hand to do what they choose. In fact, the engineers can do a better job of bringing out actual statistics that matter, which makes the entire process more transparent and more competitive. Some might be quick to point out that the App Store revolution wouldn’t have happened if engineers did what marketers do. With say a CPU, Engineers would want to talk about the multithreading aspects or the radical change to the cache hierarchy which have real world implications. While for the same thing marketers would slap on a different brand name, call it the “Platinum Amethyst standard” and come up with more gobbledegook. I’d much rather have the former than the latter because the latter tells me nothing. This is why I like the PC tech industry. Companies spend 10-20% of their revenue back into R&D and come out with better products each year while the consumer tech industry spends way less in R&D and a lot more in marketing. The former forces the competition to spend more on R&D as well or they’d lose out on the technology race, thus, speeding up the rate of innovation. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t have it that way. What do you think?
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THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY, like every other, isn’t bereft of bullshit. On one hand you have the research centric domains where every term used is proper and indicative of a real world phenomenon. Then there is the marketing side which is hell bent on selling every aspect that doesn’t need selling. An engineer wouldn’t have seen the marketing potential of something as silly as contrast ratios. However, a marketer would pounce on the first inflatable statistic and come up with five different ways to use that statistic to their advantage. I’m no fan of Apple but there isn’t an example more relevant than the Cupertino giant. Most of Apple’s product portfolio consisted of repackaged features that other tech companies had launched ages ago. Apple’s contribution to it all? A marketing spin that puts all the other companies to shame. While in the short term these marketing tactics did earn Apple more money than they could handle, it also brought about a revolution of sorts as each and every tech company jumped on to the bandwagon. For example, take the App Store. Few know that the Electronic AppWrapper was the first “app store” to ever exist. It was demonstrated to Steve Jobs at a NeXTWorld EXPO back in the early ‘90s when the iPhone did not exist. Apple’s App Store wouldn’t come to be for a good 15 years. The question is, is marketing really that necessary? You didn’t know about AppWrapper or the fact that it existed before Apple’s App Store did. To top it all, every company in the smartphone business tried to build their own App Store and failed to achieve the same success with the exception of a few such as Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore. The app revolution happened because Apple knew how to market an existing thing really well. This resulted in an entirely new industry dedicated to developing apps. Kids as young as 9 have made apps and the entire industry was predicted to earn $77 billion in 2017. That’s how huge the impact of the app revolution has been. On the other hand you have the fallacies that are touted as the next big thing. I say touted because their bullshit reeks from a mile away.
2 | Digit | April 2018 | www.digit.in
“With say a CPU, Engineers would want to talk about the multithreading aspects or the radical change to the cache hierarchy which have real world implications. While for the same thing marketers would slap on a different brand name, call it the “Platinum Amethyst standard” and come up with more gobbledegook.”
Let me know your thoughts on this column at: @mithun_mohandas | mithun@digit.in
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EDITORIAL Executive Editor Robert Sovereign-Smith Features Editor Aditya Madanapalle Senior Writer Arnab Mukherjee Writer Manish Rajesh
PRODUCTS REVIEWED THIS MONTH
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4 | Digit | April 2018 | www.digit.in
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition Gravel Metal Gear Survive The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild MOBILE MONTHLY Flippy | Dice Brawl: Captain’s League Glitch Dash | The X-Files: Deep State The Battle of Polytopia | PUBG Mobile
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GAMES REVIEWED THIS MONTH
COVER ILLUSTRATION AND DESIGN Peterson PJ
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6 | Digit | April 2018 | www.digit.in
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http://www.facebook.com/skoar What is life without gaming? Catch up on all the latest in gaming news, reviews and shenanigans from our test labs
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contents
COVER STORY PAGE 54- 64
Beyond the Bull
We take a look at the misued tech jargon in the industry that we think is, essentially just bull, and rate them on a turd scale.
SCIENCE - PAGE 75-84
CULTURE - PAGE 65-74
APRIL 2018
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VOLUME 18 ISSUE 04
76 | Going with the flow
Understanding ocean currents, the giant conveyor belts of the Earth.
78 | Exotic states of matter
Researchers are coming across freakish states of matter all the time.
80 | Eco-friendly satellite propulsion Using water as a propellant for satellite propulsion might soon become a reality.
82 | In-situ resource utilisation
These missions to other planets will have to use the resources available locally to support their efforts.
AND MORE 8 | Digit | April 2018 | www.digit.in
66 | Books that should be made into TV shows A list some of our favorite science fiction and fantasy works that would make great TV shows
68 | Same old, same old
Nostalgia is being sold to you, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re buying it in truckloads.
70 | Meh-canical
Boo-Man is not a fan of knock-off mechanical switches.
72 | Computer Vision
Tech that gives computers eyes is the need of the hour and you could be a part of this field.
AND MORE
ALT - PAGE 85-94
TECH - PAGE 14-53
ON THE DVD 16 | Origins
86 | Armour design in Sci-Fi
18 | Alternatives to popular Android apps
88 | BMW i8
It’s time to try out something new.
TECH Old computer distros Bodhi Linux Puppy Linux ReactOS
The fancy beast from the future and everything that’s awesome about it.
94 | Microsoft India’s plans
Programming IDEs Aptana Studio Code::Blocks IntelliJ IDEA PyCharm Sublime Text 3 Visual Studio Code
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22 | Agent001
From a second skin that uses nanotechnology to powered exoskeletons to dominating mecha suits, there is a wide range of armour in science fiction.
RAM prices have started dropping and Agent001 can finally get around to buying some much needed memory.
26 | Analysing your apps
Startups offering app analytics services are changing the relationship between businesses and customers.
Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India talks about the company’s mobile strategy, the Xbox One X, Windows 10S and the Surface line-up in India.
AND MORE
28 | Android P on your phone If you follow this guide, you won’t have to wait for another year or more to get Android P features on your phone.
SKOAR! - PAGE 95-111
30 | Teardown
We take a look at what goes inside Galaxy S9+, Samsung’s flagship for 2018.
32 | DIY Cardboard Gun
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We made a working cardboard handgun... because why not?
34 | Electron 101
Build a basic chatting app with Electron JS, a popular framework for web-apps.
38 | Tune Wars
We pit all the music streaming services available today against each other.
44 | Reviews
The best in technology available today, reviewed by us.
51 | Take My Money
A retro console with modern smarts, a portable drone and more to crowdfund.
AND MORE
100 | Games as a Service
After lootboxes, game publishers are jumping on to the GaaS bandwagon.
104 | Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
This one’s an example of what happens when nostalgia is done right...
108 | Metal Gear Survive
... and this one’s an example of how to ruin a perfectly good franchise.
AND MORE
aberration and the human eye Virtual image Parabolic mirrors Derivation of the mirror equation Specular and diffuse reflection Refraction and Snell’s law Total internal reflection Dispersion of light
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Find out how the spreadsheet came to be such an important workplace tool
Essentials Avast Antivirus CDisplay Ex HWiNFO OBS Studio VLC
CULT Indie games Close Your Eyes Concourse X-Ray Down Under Inch by Inch Spongebob’s Day of Terror
Indie games Daredevil is a fictional character, an American comic book superhero that starred in comics from Lev Gleason Publications during the 1930s–1940s. (Not to be confused with Marvel’s Daredevil). SCI Geometric optics Convex, concave and multiple lens systems Diopters,
Introduction to electromagnetic waves Introduction Electromagnetic spectrum Red shift Polarisation of light Interference in electromagnetic waves Introduction to mechanical waves Introduction Properties of mechanical waves The equation of a wave ALT Man From Earth: Holoscene (2017) John Oldman, now 14,000 years old and teaching in Northern California, realizes that not only is he finally starting to age, but four students have discovered his deepest secret. Watch Man From Earth (2007) before watching this one.
www.digit.in | April 2018 | Digit | 9
WHAT’S NEW
Alexa gets brief mode
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e.g from midnight to your morning alarm, as ‘brief mode’ time. It could also work in conjunction with other apps to make Alexa talk less depending on the current context.
http://dgit.in/AlexaBrief
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DOES THIS SECTION EVEN NEED AN INTRODUCTION? FROM COMPUTERS TO MOBILES, AND HEADPHONES TO GPUS, IT’S ALL HERE...
s if almost on cue after Alexa scared people the world over with her creepy, random laughing, Amazon seems to have introduced a ‘Brief mode’ in Alexa that makes the assistant talk less. To be accurate, it changes verbal responses to commands with a ‘chime’ sound. Reddit users spotted the feature first. A specific user reported that after asking Alexa to shut off the lights, after responding with a confirmation, it informed that this would be the last time that a verbal confirmation would be provided. While the feature is limited so far, it could be combined with a do-not-disturb mode to set specific times,
Japanese supercomputer for nuclear fusion
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ith a new Cray XC50, Japan will be deploying the world’s most powerful supercomputer dedicated to advanced nuclear fusion research in 2018. To be installed in the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science (QST) , the system will also be put to use to serve the cause of ITER, the multinational
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THIS MONTH IN TECH: We learn about the origins of spreadsheets and then Level-Up with alternatives to popular Android apps. While we’re still on Android, we take a look at how to get the new Android P features on older versions.
Prepare for big VR news at F8 this year
This year’s F8 developer conference might see the launch of a standalone Oculus Go headset that was shown earlier last year, along with the “biggest VR news from Facebook till date”. http://dgit.in/OCVRF8
Xbox controllers on US submarine
The US has replaced a gear stick-like control for a submarine periscope with Xbox-controllers on the USS Colorado, the latest Virginiaclass attack submarine to be deployed by the US Navy. Utilising readily available tech reduces cost and training time. http://dgit.in/XBoxSub
14 | Digit | April 2018 | www.digit.in
fusion project that is planned to come online in 2035. As a resource, the system will be available to more than 1,000 European and Japanese researchers. While it will be the
fastest in its own domain of fusion research and plasma physics, it will merely break into the top 30 among all supercomputers. It might prove to be crucial in making fusion energy a reality as soon as within the next 10 years, which will lead to seemingly limitless power for humanity for millions of years. http://dgit.in/JapSup
Video referees for World Cup 2018
NASA to use portable antennae
After a general confirmation earlier in March, FIFA has finally officially approved the use of Video Assistant Referees, or VARs, in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The tool will help referees with difficult calls during a game. http://dgit.in/FIFVAR
The design, from ATLAS Space Operations, involves four antennae, weighing approximately 10lb each. They can be set up and taken down within a short amount of time. Also, the antennae will only require internet and power to function. http://dgit.in/NASAPort
level
A COLLECTION OF PRO TIPS FOR EVERYTHING. Without being limited to a particular topic, these tips are from popular software, to coding, to browsers, search, storage rules, password rules, mobile device hacks, bios cracking, tweaks explained and everything tech under the sun.
Abhijit Dey | abhijit@digit.in
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LAUNCHERS
This category used to be ruled by Nova and Go back in the day when third-party launchers started appearing. Although both of them are still doing well, the Play Store has been flooded with several other options. Recently, we’ve been using Evie Launcher and Lean Launcher. Evie Launcher offers a minimalist launcher while offering a lot of customisation features similar to Nova. Its advantage is a live preview of the changes you’re making. This is not supported on Nova. However, it’s limited in customisability for animations and you can’t add a home screen dock. If you’re interested in a more minimalist approach and don’t need a lot of customisations, go for Lean Launcher – which does the job of adding sleekness to your phone in a small package. Apart from the basic home screen and app launcher settings, you also get the Google Now feed with a left swipe. Evie Launcher: http://dgit.in/EvieLaun Lean Launcher: http://dgit.in/LeanLaun
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If you’ve been using apps after referring to a list of popular essential Android apps for a long time, maybe it’s time you tried out the alternatives.
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ALTERNATIVES TO POPULAR ANDROID APPS
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single utility or function will have an exhaustive number of applications on the Play Store. For example, you will find several third-party keyboard apps other than SwiftKey or Gboard. Some of these alternatives turn out to be well-made and they become popular rapidly. And once that happens, you will find more developers delivering their take on the category. There are high chances that you haven’t changed your default gallery application for years. Or maybe you have been using the same email app since you bought your first Android smartphone. Are you a power user who’s always on the lookout for alternatives to stock applications? Are you bored of using the same app for years and want to try something new? If you answered yes to both the questions, this compilation is just for you in no particular order.
WALLPAPER
Searching for images online and turning them into wallpapers can be tedious. Additionally, this only works when you know what kind of wallpaper you need. Wallpaper curating apps make it easier to discover good ones. You must have heard about Google’s Wallpapers or Backdrops that compile wallpapers across several categories and styles. If you want a bigger collection and better curation, you should check out Walli. We know that there are numerous wallpaper apps but our search stopped at Fondo. Apart from curation, all the wallpapers are categorised appropriately. You can also explore popular wallpapers within the app and add them to your favourites to access them later. Fondo: http://dgit.in/FondoWall
18 | Digit | April 2018 | www.digit.in
MUSIC PLAYER
With the rise of music streaming services in India along with price drops on data connections, local music playback has probably been forgotten. But if you’re one of those who still carry their own music with them, you should probably move past the default music player. Phonograph is a great option for a minimal music player that supports almost all audio formats including FLAC. You can customise the look of the app and even switch between a light and dark theme. If you’re not a fan of listening to a flat sound signature, you can play around with the in-app equaliser according to your taste. The app follows material design, so you can expect a card-styled user interface. Phonograph: https://dgit.in/PhngrphAnd
tech
> code / creativity / community >
FOR THOSE GEEKS WHO LIKE TO GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY IN CODE
DEVWORX
Electron-JS 101 Agnibha Bose | feedback@digit.in
WHAT WE ARE MAKING TODAY? Our goal for today is to create a desktop chat messenger. Something sort of like Yahoo Messenger. Where you can register, add friends and chat with them.
Every package has itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own reasons to be in the server. Bcrypt is to hash passwords, body-parser is to parse request bodies via express, cookieparser is to parse cookies, diskdb as a database, express as the server, express-ws for managing websockets, http-status provides handy constants to manage http response code, and finally jsonwebtoken for managing auth token. Now to start we are going to create a webserver at port 8692 that will be serving as our main backend. (code at https://dgit.in/CWSP8692) Our app will be consisting of 3 main functionalities. 1. Registering an User. 2. Login for an user. 3. Searching and chatting with an user. So for this purpose we have created a few routes where all of the functionalites lie. Coming to the front end of the application, we've created a single page application for the ease of understanding and also other features are explained in the next section. Now, for the front end we have created a single page index.html. The folder structure for the client looks like this
THINGS THAT WE ARE GOING TO USE TODAY
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To start with Electron js or simply Electron is an open source library developed by Github for creating cross-platform desktop application with pure HTML, CSS and Javascript. This is accomplished by combining Chromium and NodeJS into a single runtime and apps can be packaged for Mac, Windows and Linux. Electron started its journey on April, 2013 as the framework on which Githubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s widely popular and hackable editor Atom was going to be built upon. Both were made open source in the Spring of 2014.
and CSS (https://dgit.in/CSS). before we get started with the project.
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A basic guide to a popular JavaScript framework right now
We are going to create the FrontEnd part by using HTML and CSS. The Backend will be in NodeJS with the help of WebSockets and A HTTP Server. I am going to use ExpressJS for this purpose. The Github repo link will be shared at the end of the article and you can clone and try something else with the code. So our basic project structure looks like this.
WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO ACHEIVE?
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In this article we are trying to build a simple desktop application with the help of Electron and learn some new and cool techniques to create a desktop application from your current web application. Though in this era web-apps are dominating the scene but desktop applications are still widely popular and people tend to use desktop application more than webapps because of their availability and usability.
WHAT ARE THE PREREQUISITES?
This article is NOT for someone who is new to NodeJS. So, before you start, we are assuming that you have a little bit of knowledge about NodeJS. Also a little bit of HTML and CSS knowledge is required to create the frontend part of the project. Here are a couple of links to brush up on NodeJS (https://dgit.in/ NodeJS), HTML (https://dgit.in/HTML)
34 | Digit | April 2018 | www.digit.in
As you can see in the above image, hhere the client is the client side project which will have all the things that are written for the client, while all the webpages and the server will be on an express server to serve the requests. So our first goal is to create a server. For that we are going to install a number of pacakges. These packages are shown below.
And within view the files and folders are mapped in this way.
Now to start with Electron development the package that you need
tech
Money can buy some happiness
Fossils aid the search for aliens
Researchers have found out that money does buy happiness up to a certain point. http://dgit.in/buyhappy
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COMPARISON
Extremely rare fossils preserving the soft tissue of ancient animals could allow interplanetary rovers to accelerate the search for life. http://dgit.in/fossilife
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Tune Wars
From Indian platforms to international behemoths, everyone’s vying for your ears.
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decided to pit them against each other and find out who comes out on top. This is how it turned out.
difference here makes any comparison depend on all the add-ons you get with the subscription. When it comes to the library itself, Apple Music, Google Play Music and Amazon Prime Music SUBSCRIPTION OR PREMIUM rule the roost at more than 40 million PLANS tracks. Gaana, Saavn and Spotify Almost all the major music streamfollowing up at 30. Hungama Music, ing services available in India have along with the carrier backed Jio Music premium subscriptions at `99/month, and Wynk Music lag behind here with except for Amazon Music, which is 10 million or less tracks on tied to an Amazon Prime their platforms. subscription, as well as While most Indian Apple Music, that goes platforms get rid of ads for for a high `120 for an premium users, Amazon individual membership. Music doesn’t come with Wynk has a complicated ads. Instead, the entire price tiering depending on platform is locked behind OS. If you are an Android the premium Prime memuser, the subscription costs bership. This is similar to the usual `99/month. iOS what Apple Music does users have to shell out with only Beats Radio `120 per month, but iOS being available for free. users with an Airtel SIM Google Play Music, on get a discounted rate of the other hand, offers free `60/month. The little to no The latest entrant
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mazon launched its Prime Music streaming service in India towards the end of February, making it available to everybody with an Amazon Prime membership. With that, the count of formidable music streaming services in India increased by one and hence, arose the dilemma regarding which one to choose. On one hand you had homegrown services like Gaana, Saavn and Hungama that have gained a formidable following, whereas on the other hand you have international behemoths like Google Play Music, Apple Music and the new entrant, Amazon Music. There’s a third hand in play here as well - telecom operator backed platforms such as Jio Music and Wynk Music. All of them have their own payment models and perks, with each trying to garner the attention of the musically inclined in its own way. We
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reviews
For better understanding of our ratings, here’s a quick guide to our overall score to
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Extremely poor product. Keep away!
Strictly OK.
Not recommended
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Go for it, but there may be better products out there.
Very good product. Highly recommended.
Ground-breaking product.
We’ve never seen anything like it before. A definite must buy!
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The Digit Test Centre receives hundreds of products every month. Each of these products is put through a series of tests and is finally given a score. The final score is arrived at after considering a number of factors and evaluating them in terms of features, performance, value for money, build quality, and, in the case of software, even ease of use.
THE LATEST PRODUCTS REVIEWED FOR YOU
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INSIDE
Jonsbo C4
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Dell Inspiron 13 7373
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Samsung Galaxy S9+
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WD Black SSD 512GB
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Acer Predator 21X
45 HyperX Cloud Alpha 45 ASUS ROG MAXIMUS X FORMULA 46 HyperX Alloy FPS Pro 47 AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 48 ASUS ROG SWIFT PG27VQ & MORE...
Apple acquires Texture
No more major updates for Nexus 6P
Apple acquired the Netflix of magazines - Texture, while promising continued support for the Android app. http://dgit.in/textureapp
Google pulls major OS support for Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X and the Pixel tablet. http://dgit.in/nexuspixel
HyperX Cloud Alpha
An excellent upgrade to the Cloud series
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REVIEWS
escape into a second chamber. This should make these sound frequencies distinguishable from each other and reduce the muddy nature of the previous Cloud headsets. Conclusively, the Cloud Alpha performs great in both gaming and music. We were able to distinguish the footsteps from gunshots and explosions in the background. They sounded crisp and hence, they were easy to locate. Microphone performance was also impressive and it sounded more towards the neutral side. Of course, there’s some enhancement to boost your voice, but it’s only advantageous in voice communication. The only downside is that its expensive. –Abhijit Dey
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ood gaming headsets are the ones that deliver an immersive gaming experience without Price 9 10,49 compromising on build quality and comfort. The Cloud Alpha manages to tick everything from the list, thus, becoming a great choice for a gaming headset. As always, the Cloud series of headphones have shown brilliant build quality. The aluminium frame keeps the headset lightweight and flexible, while maintainHyperX is highlighting the ing a sturdy structure. Its new dual-chamber design in sturdiness is extended their earcups. It ensures to the earcups and the that the bass frequencies PERFORMANCE...........70 flexible microphone. From are separated from the BUILD QUALITY............80 the cables to the ear-cup highs and mids. EssenFEATURES.....................78 memory foam, there tially, HyperX has tuned VALUE............................50 wasn’t any compromise in the drivers to ensure
tech
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build quality.
that the bass frequencies
SPECIFICATIONS
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 13 Hz - 27 kHz | IMPEDANCE: 65 Ohm | DRIVERS: 50 mm | MIC FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 50 Hz - 18 kHz | MIC SENSITIVITY: -43 dB (+/- 3 dB) | WEIGHT (W/ MIC AND CABLE): 336 g
CONTACT
KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY | PHONE: 1860 233 4515 | EMAIL: sales_ india@kingston.com | WEBSITE: www.kingston.com
ASUS ROG MAXIMUS X FORMULA Beauty, brains and brawn
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henever a new mainstream Intel CPU ships, enthusiasts are always on the lookout for a MAXIMUS board for their upgrade. Enthusiasts look for every feature under the sun coupled with stability Price 0 and durability. And the ASUS ROG 26,6a0x) (+T MAXIMUS X FORMULA wonderfully fits that. Anything that’s not an interface is covered in this motherboard by a plastic shield. On one hand, this does protect the board but there’s also the downside of a heat retention PCIe expansion slot. The I/O because of too many closed shield comes affixed and there’s spaces. With the plastic shield no death of connectivity on equipped, the board looks this board. The same can be incredibly swanky and said for the overall I/O on when you turn it on, you’ll FEATURES.....................86 the board. However, the see an OLED display light BUILD............................82 plastic shield can get a bit up with the boards vital irksome when you’re stats right above the first
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playing around with the cables. If the board were to be installed in a chassis, then removing the CPU ATX power cable can be quite difficult because of the shield jutting out right underneath it. In case you were wondering, the rear of the board is well-shielded too with a massive cut-out for easy access. The board even comes with built-in water cooling support for the VRM heatsink. For the price, you’re getting a pretty decent feature set and not too much of the RGB swag. –Mithun Mohandas
SPECIFICATIONS
CHIPSET: Intel Z370 | MEMORY SUPPORT: 4x 4133(OC)MHz upto 64GB | LAN: 1x Intel 1219V | AUDIO: Supreme FX S1220 | STORAGE: 6x SATA III, 2x M.2 | EXPANSION: 3x PCIe X16(x16+x16+x4) | DIMENSIONS (LXWXD): 305 mm x 244 mm
CONTACT
ASUS TECHNOLOGY PVT. LTD. | PHONE: +18002090365 | EMAIL: reachus@asus.com | WEBSITE: www.asus.in
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cover story
Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in
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echnology has pretty much invaded every single aspect of life there is, just as we told you it would over a decade ago. Sadly, along with this popularity of technology, comes the tendency to misuse tech jargon and obfuscate truth. It’s not just individual companies you can blame, it’s the industry as a whole, because no one wants to be left behind... However, the result is that you are bombarded with what we’re calling “bull” but is really a polite shortening of the term bullshit, because often, you’re being sold exactly that as an added feature, or sometimes, even being sold it at a premium. So we asked ourselves what we could do to clean up the poo that’s being thrown at you, and the answer was this cover story. We’re going to tackle a few features that we think are, essentially just bullshit, and rate them on a turd scale between one and five turds (obviously, five turds being the worst). We’re merely scratching the surface here, and we’re sure you might come up with some suggestions of your own. If you do, write in to us and let us know. Now to the dung-mobile pooman, we’ve got turd ratings to give away! (We hope you will forgive our shameless toilet humour this one time).
SMARTPHONES SPECIFICATIONS WARS
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What’s the first thing you do when you hear that a new phone is being launched? Most will probably say, “look up the specs”, and that’s a wise move, usually, but in the past few years, there seem to be some turds creeping in. For one thing, all specs are just being raised, and that’s not always a good thing. Sure it feels like it’s better to have more RAM, battery life, megapixel count, processor speed, amount of storage, etc, but is it worth the extra money you’re charged for it? That’s debatable. The problem is that the difference between the specs sheet and real world performance is increasing. Having a CPU with more cores isn’t really worth it unless the software can make use of them, or else you just paid extra for useless cores. Sure, the software or apps that use 8 cores properly might be here in
a year or two, but by then everything else about your phone will be old and you will need to upgrade again, and spend premium once again! It’s why a phone made by a company that writes their own software might perform far better with 3/4 GB of RAM than another phone with 6/8 GB of RAM. Sometimes “on-paper” phones look good, but really the spec sheet is only good for wiping you-know-what.
just connected the wire directly to the phone instead. Hooray for this wireless crap! Because you can sometimes also charge some wireless headphones and a very limited set of devices on the “wireless charging” pad, we’ve give it three turds, or else it would get more... much more!
WIRELESS CHARGING Wireless usually means no contact, but this isn’t that. Wireless charging involves you spending even more money than your already expensive wireless-charging-capable-phone to buy a mat that uses a wire to connect to a power source, on which you then place your phone, and rub your hands in glee while your phone takes far, far longer to charge than if you’d
Look! No wires! Oh wait... nevermind...
SLOW MOTION VIDEO Don’t get us wrong, we like the idea of cellphone cameras being capable of higher frame capture rates, which means lovely slow-mo playback. We’re not pooed-off by that, we’re complaining about the fact that there’s just no standard for it. Whether you buy a top www.digit.in | April 2018 | Digit | 55
WHAT’S NEW
Avengers: Infinity War will explore Thanos’ origin
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balance to the universe. The final trailer also showed some glimpses of the father-daughter relationship between him and Gamora. We are guessing the story might put the audience in conflict about choosing whether Thanos is the bad guy, even though his methods are extreme. https://dgit.in/ThnsOrgn
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INSIDE
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GEEK CULTURE IS OUR WAY OF LIFE, AND ENCOMPASSES MOVIES, GAMES, COMICS, AND TRENDS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE
fter six years of teasing Thanos across several MCU movies, he’s finally coming for the Infinity Stones. Most of the popular superheroes in the franchise have gotten their own origin stories. And now the tables are turning where the most anticipated villain will get his own origin story in Infinity War. Screen Rant had an interaction with the writers of the movie, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. They mentioned that they don’t want to depict Thanos as a “relentless machine collecting stones like he’s going shopping”. It does make sense to build a backstory so that all his intentions make sense in the movie. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kevin Feige revealed Thanos’ motivation behind collecting the stones to be of bringing
Deadpool is here with the X-Force
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he Merc with a Mouth is back in a new trailer and they have finally revealed the official title of the movie. Nothing extraordinary, they are simply calling it Deadpool 2. The previous trailer showed some more of Cable played by Josh Brolin and the latest trailer gives us a peek into new characters. We already knew about
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THIS MONTH IN CULT: We’ve been seeing a lot of sci-fi TV shows pop up recently, so we decided to list down our favourite sci-fi books that we believe would make for awesome shows. That being said, Boo-Man, as usual, is pretty pissed - this time about fake switches on Mechanical keyboards. Happy reading!
JL to have anti-life equation?
Another day, another revelation on Zack Snyder’s vision for Justice League. In the ancient battle scene, when Steppenwolf slams his axe on the ground, a mysterious symbol probably depicting the anti-life equation appears. On being asked, Snyder just mentioned, “Do the math”. https://dgit.in/ZSyndrJL2
Doctor Doom movie?
Although the production of the movie is still to be greenlit, the creator the TV show Legion shared some of his vision. Noah Hawley mentioned that it will be a mixture of genres. https://dgit.in/DrDoom
Domino from the image reveal, and also had an idea that Terry Crews is there in the movie. The first woman appears to be an X-men member called Surge
The Karate Kid returns
Remember Mr. Miyagi from the original Karate Kid movies? Not the Jaden Smith one. If you do, it’s coming to YouTube Red as Cobra Kai and the bad guy is the good guy. https://dgit.in/CbrKYR
who has a long chain with electricity running across it. Rob Delaney is also seen in the movie as an X-Force member and then finally we get to see Bill Skarsgard from IT. The movie is expected to pick on several franchises including Brolin’s own character, Thanos. https://dgit.in/DP2Trlr
Chris Evans is done
According to New York Times, Chris Evans will be done playing Captain America after Avengers 4. He said, “You want to get off the train before they push you off”. https://dgit.in/ZSyndrJL2
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culture
Sci-Fi shows and movies on Netflix
Avengers Infinity War trailer breakdown
Netflix has a wide variety of Sci-Fi content available to geek out on, and we listed the ones we liked best http://dgit.in/netflixscifi
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FEATURE
Thanos and the Black Order have brought all their devastation in the final trailer. Hawkeye and Ant-man are still missing. http://dgit.in/aiwtrailerbrkdwn
THE ETERNAL CHAMPION
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BOOKS THAT SHOULD BE MADE INTO TV SHOWS
The series follows the adventures of the many incarnations of a single hero across a rich multiverse. These worlds feature fantastic elements, victorian era cyberpunk, advanced technology from the far future, and improbable mixtures of these elements. A show based on The Eternal Champion sequence by Michael Moorcock would require a big budget, but promises to be visually breathtaking.
We have been seeing some stunning TV shows based on fantasy and science fiction books, but there is a lot of untapped potential out there. Here we list some of our favorite science fiction and fantasy works that could translate very well into TV shows.
Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in AZAZEL
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One of the funniest creations by Isaac Asimov is Azazel. The two centimeter high wish granting demon and/or extraterrestrial is used by his friend, George to help people out of various tight situations. Azazel cannot use his powers in a way that directly benefits George. Hilarity ensues when the wish fulfilment does not go exactly the way George imagines it, and is usually counterproductive.
THE NANOTECH CHRONICLES
This is a hard science fiction book, with pretty realistic technologies, and featuring long discussions between researchers and engineers over the ethical implications of their developments, as well as how to meet project requirements. This can be an anthology series that explores the issue through different stories. The book follows the invention of nanotechnologies, as well as the effect it has on the human race.
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RAMA SERIES
The Rama Series by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee is an epic story spanning 6 books, with the reveals getting bigger and grander as the story progresses. It all starts with humanity investigating a mysterious cylinder sent towards the Earth by extraterrestrials with advanced technologies. Over the duration of the series, viewers will be treated to humans establishing a colony on an interstellar alien ship.
WHAT’S NEW
Intelligent aliens can be found by looking for their satellites
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THIS MONTH IN SCIENCE:
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to hunt for exoplanets, and are a common type of star to host the planets most likely to harbour life. While the approach could be used to find intelligent aliens, the study has implications for the security of humans as well. Because of our satellites, either we could find the little green men, or the little green men could find us. http://dgit.in/clrkexblt
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SCIENCE IS THE PATH TO KNOWLEDGE, AND FINDING OUT ABOUT HOW OUR UNIVERSE WORKS. YOU CAN’T BE A GEEK AND NOT KNOW YOUR SCIENCE!
researcher has proposed a new approach for identifying advanced civilisations elsewhere in the universe. The method involves using powerful telescopes to identify rings of satellites around the home worlds of intelligent aliens. The approach is similar to conventional methods of identifying exoplanets by identifying dips in the brightness of the host star. The study shows how such rings of artificial satellites can be distinguished from normal planetary rings of dust, rock or ice. Red Dwarf stars have been identified as the most promising type of star on which to use the approach. Red Dwarf stars are also a good place
From the ocean’s movements to moving satellites to outer space with water, science promises to be a ride this month!
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ASA is giving away tickets to the Sun for free. If you are interested, you can add your name to the mission on the Parker Solar Probe website. The probe will fly into the corona of the Sun, in an effort to understand how solar activity affects the Earth and other planets. The studies conducted by the probe has implications for future deep space missions to the outer
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The Schrödinger Equation describes astrophysical disks
NASA is allowing you to send your name to the Sun
It is not very often that the equations describing the subatomic realm also describe large scale astronomical structures. In a surprising discovery, a researcher from The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has found that the Schrödinger Equation accurately astrophysical disks around stars and supermassive black holes. http://dgit.in/schrodingerdiscs
MIT researchers develop body on a chip
MIT researchers have engineered tissues from 10 organs of the human body, and connected them through a microfluidic medium in a box. The system accurately replicates the interactions of body organs for weeks at a time. http://dgit.in/bdyonchp
Solar System. The atmosphere of the Sun affects all the planets, as it extends beyond their orbits. Those who send their names to the Sun will get a
Tiny baby bird fossil sheds light on avian evolution The fossil of a baby bird, the size of a cockroach has allowed researchers to better understand how birds evolved in the time of the dinosaurs. The bird died not soon after it was born, preserving fossilised details of a critical stage. http://dgit.in/fslbrd
ticket in the form of a certificate that they can download and print. The certificate is issued by NASA, and has the wordings “VIP Pass” on it. The deadline for submitting the names is 27 April, 2018. The names will be sent on the Parker Solar Probe on a microchip. Unfortunately, you will not be getting frequent flyer points for participating. http://dgit.in/sunticket
The cyclones that rage on Jupiter are unlike anything else
The massive cyclones around the polar regions of the gas giant have features not seen anywhere else in the solar system. The findings were reported based on observations by the Juno spacecraft. http://dgit.in/jnojptr www.digit.in | April 2018 | Digit | 75
sci
Alcohol speeds up your heart
A new study indicates that drinking alcohol will increase your heart rate. The more your drink, the higher it will be. http://dgit.in/HicHic
R&D
Omega-6 =| Premature death
Researchers have found that a high level of Omega-6 acids will reduce your chance of premature death. http://dgit.in/OM6Elixir
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on water as a propellant. Back in 2011, EFFICIENT PROPULSION SYSTEM Rohan Ganapathy, an aeronautical Before considering the microwave engineer from Hindustan College of Enelectrothermal thruster, the duo was gineering and Technology, Coimbatore, working on magnetoplasmadynamic was busy researching the MET thrusters. However, that thruster technology. With was short-lived because this some progress, Yashas Karanparticular system required a am, an electrical engineer from huge amount of power, which Sri Jayachamarajendra College can’t be generated on-board of Engineering, Mysore, also a satellite. joined him. Both of them had a Let’s briefly understand vision of turning the forgotten how the MET thruster works. propulsion system into reality. The basic idea here is to inject Rohan Ganapathy, CEO and Director After receiving a grant of Rs. microwave energy into a cav20 lakhs from JSW in 2013, ity containing plasma where they finally came out with a the microwave energy will be proof of concept by the end of absorbed and dissipated in the year 2015. the form of thermal energy. The company was incuAn electromagnetic resonant bated at the Indian Institute cavity creates an alternating of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. electromagnetic field where All the lab facilities and faculty free-floating plasma is cresupport has been provided ated and sustained. Along Yashas Karanam, COO and Director by the institute. Apart from with the microwave energy working on satellite propulsion and propellant gas, all the free systems, the other vertical of Bellatrix electrons and heavy particles start colincludes launch vehicles. liding with each other. This increases the For now, they are focussing on the temperature of the propellant and acmicrowave electrothermal thruster celerates it through the nozzle to generproject for which they have already ate thrust. In Bellatrix’s design, they received an order from ISRO for their were able to build this system and sucfuture satellite missions. Bellatrix cessfully run it using water vapour as Aerospace claims to be the only private propellant. Water is easy to store, transcompany in India working on satellite port, and easily available. Hence, the appropulsion systems. They are funded plication of this thruster in satellites can by angel investment and they are be a huge deal. A patent for this, applied actively seeking to raise funding on a in late 2016, is yet to be granted. much bigger scale for their ambitious future projects.
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Using water as a propellant for satellite propulsion might soon become a reality.
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An eco-friendly satellite propulsion system Abhijit Dey | abhijit@digit.in
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ravelling to outer space had been our wet dream and we finally landed on the moon. The dream was fulfilled, but it has now been extended to Mars. However, we are far from it and might not see that happening even in the next decade. Chemical rocket systems have a huge fuel requirement and takes up majority of the weight of the rocket. This propulsion system is mostly used for rocket launch vehicles but we’ll be focussing on satellite propulsion systems in this story. Satellites don’t require high thrust. Hence, electrothermal and ion thrusters become the standing candidates. Research is still going on to improve the efficiency of these existing systems. A space company in India thinks otherwise. Bellatrix Aerospace, a private company in India, is experimenting with microwave electrothermal thrusters (MET) that uses water as its fuel.
WHAT IS BELLATRIX AEROSPACE?
Bellatrix Aerospace primarily deals with satellite propulsion systems including microwave electrothermal thrusters, Hall Effect thrusters and nano thrusters. Their main focus is their Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (patent pending) for satellites that will run
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WHAT’S NEW
Amelia Earhart’s bones identified
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anthropologist in the world. To further solidify this, Jantz compared the bone length with Earhart using an old photograph of hers and a scalable object. Based on whatever information he had acquired, Jantz stated that “until definitive evidence is presented that the remains are not those of Amelia Earhart, the most convincing argument is that they are hers.” http://dgit.in/AmEarhart
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THIS IS TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE AND SCIENCE WITH A DIFFERENCE, AND THAT DIFFERENCE IS USUALLY ENOUGH TO MAKE MOST NORMAL PEOPLE GO “WTF?”
ichard Jantz, professor emeritus of anthropology and director emeritus of UT’s Forensic Anthropology Center, upon re-examining bones that were first examined in 1940 concluded that the bones most likely belong to legendary female pilot Amelia Earhart. The seven bones were first examined by physician D. W. Hoodless who had concluded then that the bones belonged to a man. However, using several modern techniques that weren’t available at the time, Jantz was able to determine the correct sex of the remains. In fact, the computer program he used to determine the sex is one he co-created himself and is used by nearly every board-certified forensic
China will ban people from buying plane and train tickets based on social credit
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hina is somewhat infamous for its social credit system and for good reason. Now news is out that starting May, China will start banning Chinese citizens who rank low on the social credit system from purchasing train and plane tickets. This is according to statements released by the National Development and Reform Commission of China.
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Fancy yourself some sci-fi armour? We show you the details of armour designs across science fiction properties. And before you’re done geeking out on that, we move on to the latest in the world of gadgets and cars with the DGT section. Also find out what Microsoft plans for India.
No, cockroaches can’t survive nuclear armageddon Chinese scientists have deciphered the entire genetic makeup of the American cockroach and have found that they have over 20,000 genes which help them adapt and survive to the harsh habitat they thrive in. None of those point to being able to survive a nuke though. http://dgit.in/roachplsno
Nuclear bunker neighbours unhappy
A former Yugoslavian, Jakov Loncarevic has spent two years building a “nuclear proof” bunker in Minyip, Australia. However, neighbours are fed up and the council has issued a warning to stop work on his bunker. http://dgit.in/nobunk
China’s social credit system is how the government rates its citizens based on various factors like criminal behaviour or
Boaty McBoatface completes its most perilous mission yet
The autonomous underwater vehicle named by the internet completed a two-month long mission where it explored a massive ice shelf in the Weddell Sea, south of Antarctica. http://dgit.in/mcbface
financial trouble. They also keep track of how citizens spend their time and spending habits, etc. On top of the tracking, now having a low score means you will have to deal with penalties and restrictions. China is still working to roll out the full version of the system by 2020. So far, only early versions are in play. http://dgit.in/chinarate
Ants take measures when treating other infected ants
It’s been discovered that when dealing with a superinfection, ant colonies designate ants that are more resistant to the infection to treat the infected ants to prevent spreading of the infection. http://dgit.in/antscare www.digit.in | April 2018 | Digit | 85
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Afrofuturism and Black Panther
Can we expect smart sci-fi films?
A question and answer session with a Georgia Tech expert on Afrofuturism on Black Panther http://dgit.in/bpgt
GEEK-KEY
The writer and director of “They Remain”, Philip Gelatt discusses the place of smart sci-fi films, including Annihilation and Arrival http://dgit.in/smartscifi
Armour design in Sci-Fi
From a second skin that uses nanotechnology to powered exoskeletons to dominating mecha suits, there is a wide range of armour in science fiction. MASTER CHIEF
GOLIATH POWERED ARMOUR
Used by the Martian Marine Corps in the sci-fi series, The Expanse, the armour provides effective protection against small arms fire. There is an integrated mini gun on the wrist with armour piercing or explosive rounds. Rockets can be fired from the backs.
CRYNET NANOSUIT
With two versions, the CryNet Nanosuit is made from advanced alien technologies. The suit can switch between armour, speed, strength and cloak modes depending on the operator’s needs. The advanced version actively monitors and adjusts the body chemistry of the wearer.
WARFRAME
Warframes are upgradeable suits, possibly with limited sentience, that can be controlled by the operators using a process called transference. Warframes have shields, and are very agile, hence are used for missions in various kinds of environments across the solar system.
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The Master Chief wears many versions of the Mjolnir powered assault armour in the Halo games. Filters remove toxins from the atmosphere, and integrated biofoam provides temporary medical care to combat wounds. There is also a neural lace connecting the suit and the wearer.
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Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in
MANDALORIAN ARMOUR
The armour of the Storm Troopers are based on the Mandalorian armour made from a durable metal known as beskar.
CLONE TROOPERS
The clone troopers were foot soldiers of the Galactic Republic. The various colourations indicated the units.
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STORMTROOPER
The Stormtroopers wore a black body glove, over which the white plastoid armour was placed. The helmets had a HUD.
DEATH TROOPER
Death Troopers were part of an elite squad used for intelligence purposes. Their helmets scrambled communications.
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BMW i8 REVIEWED:
Souvik Das | souvik@digit.in
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ou would not be blamed for being excited if you happened to spot a BMW i8 on road. BMW’s poster boy for the future is one of the rarest cars that you would spot on Indian roads, for multiple reasons. The BMW i8 is not the most luxurious or spacious car for its price point. It has a ground clearance of 113mm, which is so low that it will scrape against most speed breakers on our roads. You would also need to charge it regularly to make the most of its hybrid powertrain, but looking at the lack of easily accessible charging points in India (we found none in five days), it is rather inconvenient. However, the i8 is one for the future – a mighty good one at that, going by what it has on show. Practicality is not its forte, and to expect practical elements like soaring mileage and loads of comfortable seating space would be wrong. The BMW i8 is more of a proof-of-concept in production, giving a glimpse at
BMW’s futuristic performance car design, an eco-friendly powertrain that is also efficient and still powerful, and a bunch of technologies that are actually applicable and helpful on the road. As a result, the term ‘practicality’ here takes on a different meaning - for a car that is definitely ahead of its time, the BMW i8 delivers more than impressive mileage of up to 14kmpl, and if you’ve ever fancied driving something that resembles the Batmobile in ways, the BMW i8 is about the closest you can practically get to your dream, in India. Driving the i8 is a 1.5-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine. This rather tiny en-
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IT COMES FROM THE FUTURE.
gine delivers a staggering 231bhp and 320Nm torque, which by themselves are insanely high numbers. The small engine has been tuned to deliver more power than the 2-litre, turbocharged petrol mill that powers the Skoda Octavia RS - a full-size performance sedan. But, the i8’s powertrain is further enhanced by an electric motor to the front that produces 131bhp and 250Nm torque by itself, mated to BMW’s high performance Lithium ion battery. This leads to total power and torque figures of 362bhp and 570Nm torque. These figures may not be mighty by supercar standards, but on standalone terms, this engine-and-motor combination makes the BMW i8 really fast. You can put the car on eDrive mode, which shifts the car to electric power only. In this mode, you can drive only in Eco Pro and Comfort modes, and for up to 60km. Beyond this, or if you push too hard or switch to Sport mode, the car disengages the electric-only powertrain and switches to the engine, with the electric motor assisting the
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ASSURED GIFT / YOU SAVE (on cover price)
YOU PAY
Money Saver offers (With Fast Tracks & DVDs)* � 6 Months
` 1,250/-
` 999/-
Cash discount of ` 251/-
(20%)
� 1 Year
` 2,500/-
` 1,899/-
Cash discount of ` 601/-
(24%)
� 3 Years
` 7,500/-
` 5,499/-
Cash discount of ` 2,001/-
(27%)
` 1099/-
Cash discount of ` 401/-
(27%)
Magazine - Only Package (Without Fast Tracks & DVDs)** � 1 Year
` 1,500/-
*Includes regular issues of ` 200/- each and higher priced special issues per year ** Includes 12 regular issues of ` 125/- each per year
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Mail this form alongwith your cheque/DD to: Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx Pvt Ltd B-205, Arjun Centre Station Road, Govandi (E), Mumbai 400 088 Board line: 022-67899666 Fax: 022- 67899667
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TERMS & CONDITIONS: This is a limited period offer | Rates & offer valid in India only | Allow 5-6 weeks for processing of your subscription | Free assured subscription gift will reach you within 8 - 10 weeks of commencement of your subscription | Orders once placed will not be terminated or transferred | Specific colors and features of the guaranteed free assured gifts are subject to change depending on availability of the stock with the manufacturer | Destinations not covered by courier will be serviced by post under a certificate of posting | Replacements will be made upon receipt of the damaged goods within 30 days of sale | Above schemes are valid till 30th April 2018 | Price of assured gift may vary, but specifications will be unchanged.
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Enclosed Cheque/DD No.________________ (Kindly add ` 50 for cheques not payable at par in Mumbai) dated ______________ favoring Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx Pvt Ltd from Bank_____________________