Digit February 2018 by 9.9 Media

THE RSS FEED | Robert Sovereign-Smith | Executive Editor

You’re the Navigators!

survey, where we ask you to rate brands based on your perceptions, and also a reader survey. This is not just for magazine readers, but for all Digit readers. However, obviously our magazine readers are our most special, most prized audience, and so what you tell us holds far more weight. Something else we’re trying is a diversification into a few new fields other than PC tech. Of course the magazine will always have core tech at its heart, and this is pretty evident from the fact that over 70 per cent of the magazine is dominated by that. However, as you have noticed, we’re also trying to help serve you better by starting an auto tech section on our site (digit.in) and catering to geeks specifically through our geek site (geek. digit.in). Then there’s always the fun of gaming that’s brought to life via SKOAR! We are also thinking of branching out into more categories that technology touches, and I’d like you to write in an tell us what else you’d like us to cover. This doesn’t necessarily have to be in the magazine – it could be in the form of an app, or online, or even something you get in your email, or a Facebook group… anything. Doesn’t even have to be in English, because we are very lucky to have some very brilliant vernac language editorial staff at Digit. If you have an idea for something we should be doing, let us know, because at the end of the day, we just want to make sure that we are doing all we can to help you and other Indian geeks like yourself get the most out of technology, whether it’s for a phone, a PC, troubleshooting, careers, DIYs… anything you can think of. In short, it’s your turn to be the navigator, and I hope you will step up to the challenge so we can all benefit together. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being the best magazine readers in India, and for allowing me the opportunity to experience an unforgettable 180 months in technology! Dare I hope for 180 more?

M PL

“DARN, I’M OLD!,” was my first thought when we started on this February issue that you hold in your hands. Feels like just 15 months ago I was a wide-eyed and excited reader who joined a team that were like gods to me. Only, it wasn’t 15 months, it was 15 years ago, but it feels like just 15 months. Yes, this is the 180th issue of Digit that I have worked on, and it honestly doesn’t feel that long at all! I guess time flies when you’re having fun, and boy do we have a lot of fun at Digit. It’s extremely rare to be able to find a job in a field that you are passionate about and would do for free anyway! Psst… don’t tell my bosses that, I very much like earning my salary… However, fun is something that is a doubleedged sword at times. Instead of celebrating my own personal anniversary, I’d prefer to apologise to all of you for certain aspects of this magazine that have been slowly declining. For starters, we are often late to print in the past year, and it’s getting on everyone’s nerves, and is especially disrespectful to you, our loyal readers. I cannot in good conscience blame anyone but myself for allowing this to happen, and I can only promise that this will be the last time. We’ve always prided ourselves on giving it our all, always, without fail, because we love this magazine and it isn’t just another “job”. I think I can safely speak for all of us and say that we honestly haven’t been giving it 110 per cent as we usually like to, and perhaps are more at 99 per cent right now, which is very unlike us. Some of you have written in and noticed a change in our stories, and you’ve liked it. We promise to raise the bar even higher than that, and really push the limits so that every issue you buy from now on will be even more of a treasure trove of information than you expect from us. In order to do so, however, I’m going to have to ask you to participate, and help us improve. You are going to have to get in touch with us. We’ve been your technology navigator for almost 2 decades, now we ask you to help us navigate your technology needs. In the coming months, we will be conducting a few surveys, including the Icons Of Trust

“I’m going to have to ask you to participate, and help us improve. You are going to have to get in touch with us. We’ve been your technology navigator for almost 2 decades, now we ask you to help us navigate your technology needs.”

PARANOID ANDROID | Mithun Mohandas | Asst. Technical Editor

Technoparanoia

trying to convey is that both human elements, and AI-enabled devices can easily act against you. Just watch any live stream from one of the many hacker conferences held each year. It’s absolutely mind-boggling. Every year some of the best minds on the planet expose vulnerabilities within objects that were deemed secure and guaranteed to be unhackable. This makes me wonder, is being paranoid really as bad as it’s made out to be? I’d say yesterday’s paranoia is simply today’s caution. Paranoia, without the negative connotation is simply someone being extra cautious. I’m not discounting the fact that there are individuals who indeed suffer from irrational fears, but after coming across some really disturbing attack vectors, I’m starting to think that technoparanoia is quite reasonable. This month’s cover story is all about exploring how existing and upcoming technologies can be used against you. We don’t claim to be experts in the field of AI but we’re better off than the average joe with regards to being up to date with the latest happenings in the world of technology, and some of the things we dug up were a bit too much, even for us. I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I’m going to keep my lips sealed and my eyes peeled. So, is the answer to all of these threats to simply hole up in the middle of nowhere like our cave-dwelling forefathers used to? Not quite. There’s always redundancy, an age old, tried and tested method. It’s not a solution to all attack vectors but you’ll be better off than those who don’t exercise caution. But is that still enough? Perhaps, it’s safest to disconnect from everything or perhaps, the cave seems a teensy bit more appealing. What would you do faced with all the information we’ve shared in the cover story? Disconnect and join me in my cave, or do you have a different approach? I’m all ears.

M PL

HAVE YOU EVER QUESTIONED each and every action of yours when you’ve had a bad day and wanted to figure out where it all stemmed from? It’s interesting to see how the chain of causality keeps on going endlessly till you hunt down the ultimate reason behind that absurdly bad day. The thing is, sometimes, you are satisfied by digging a couple of layers deep but sometimes, the digging never stops. You unearth more and more reasons and then the realisation starts to seep in. It appears that it was all purposely geared towards making your day bad. It’s as if there was an entity or collection of entities out to get you. A decade or so ago, this would have been seen as a mental disorder. I’d like to believe it’s quite normal these days. As many academics have put it so eloquently, data is the new oil and everyone is out to get it regardless of whether you give your consent or not. However, sometimes your data isn’t exactly what they’re after. The more devious ones aren’t afraid to take it one step ahead and hold your life ransom. After all, you might be willing to sacrifice your precious data, but your life… that’s where most people draw the line. It’s a common plot device that’s often used in dystopian movies. Given the current world events, it would appear that we’re all geared towards realising that dystopian future from the movies. No, I’m not talking about the remote future, it’s happening now. From simple ransomware that threaten to delete your data, to AI based filtering systems that’ll block you out of every single digital service by mistake, to malware sequenced into DNA. Yes, the threats are no longer limited to just digital vectors. You’d be quick to point out that computers don’t make mistakes, instead, it’s always the actions of the programmer or operator that trickle down to what we term as a mistake. The term is relative and very much based in culture. An incident that we term as a mistake could be seen by an AI as absolutely normal. Like how an AI tends to develop racial and gender biases when left to learn on its own. That’s a big no-no in human speak, but for machines, that’s a conclusion arrived upon by methodological pattern analysis. What I’m

2 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

“After all, you might be willing to sacrifice your precious data, but your life… that’s where most people draw the line.”

Let me know your thoughts on this column at: @mithun_mohandas | mithun@digit.in

To follow the latest in tech, follow us on...

facebook.com/digitgeek

digit.in/facebook

TO ADVERTISE EMAIL: sales@digit.in

FEBRUARY 2018 • VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 02

SALES DIRECTOR: Lalit Arun Mobile: +91-9582262959 SOUTH & EAST: Jayanta Bhattacharyya Mobile: +91-93318 29284 WEST: Suvarna Shringarpure Mobile: +91-93249 28247 NORTH: Mayank Sharma Mobile: +91-8800661912

BAZAAR MSI GE73VR 7RF Huawei Honor 9 Lite 4GB Comio C2 Jabra Elite 25e ZOTAC GTX 1070 Ti Synology DS918+ Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Razer Basilisk Nikon D850 Canon 6D Mark II V-Pro V510

EDITORIAL Executive Editor Robert Sovereign-Smith Features Editor Aditya Madanapalle Senior Writer Arnab Mukherjee Writer Manish Rajesh

PRODUCTS REVIEWED THIS MONTH

M PL

TEST CENTRE Asst. Technical Editor Mithun Mohandas Multimedia Co-ordinator Abhijit Dey Reviewers Hardik Singh, Shrey Pacheco, Souvik Das, Subhrojit Mallick

ADVERTISING INDEX

Brand.......................................... Page No.

DIGIT.IN Editor Soham Raninga Assistant Editor Sameer Mitha News and Features Editor Adamya Sharma Writer Shubham Sharma

Seagate...................................Inside front cover TP Link....................................Inside back cover

Seagate.............................................Back cover

LIC....................................................................5 iBall............................................................7, 27 India Antivirus............................................... 111

PRODUCTION AND LOGISTICS Manager Operations Rakesh Upadhyay Manager Logistics Vijay Menon Asst Mgr Production & Logistics M P Singh Executive Mohd. Nadeem Ansari

Quantum....................................................... 112

CIRCULATION SALES Head - Circulation Samir Mehta Regional Mgrs Jayanta Bhattacharyya, Norbert Joseph

READER SERVICES Team Leader Sudhir Patel +91-22-67899678 / help@digit.in 4 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

Middle Earth: Shadow of War

MOBILE MONTHLY Sonic Runners Adventure | Prizefighters Timber West | Mayhem - PvP arena shooter Like A Boss | Inside Jumanji: The mobile game

Hitachi..............................................................3

DESIGN Sr. Art Director Anil VK Art Director Shokeen Saifi Visualiser Baiju NV Lead UI/UX Designer Shri Hari Tiwari Sr. Designer Peterson PJ

GAMES REVIEWED THIS MONTH

COVER ILLUSTRATION AND DESIGN Peterson PJ

Published and printed by Kanak Ghosh for and on behalf of the owners, M/s Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx pvt Ltd 121, Patparganj, Mayur Vihar Phase-1, Near Mandir Masjid, Delhi - 110091 and printed at International Print-O-Pac Limited, C/4-11, Hosiery Complex, Phase II Extension, Noida-201306 (U.P.) INDIA. Editor: Kanak Ghosh.

“We do not endorse or recommend any product or service advertised in the magazine. The advertisement’s in this magazine are for information purposes only. We do not, expressly or impliedly, warrant or assume any liability or responsibility for the quality, accuracy, completeness, legality, reliability, usefulness or claims of any product or service advertised in the magazine. Our readers are strongly advised to carry out their own independent assessment of the product or services advertised in the magazine.”

DISCLAIMER For every Digit contest, there will be only one winner, unless specified otherwise. In the event of a dispute, the Editor’s decision shall be final.

CONTACT US TELL US WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT DIGIT If you have an opinion about anything published in Digit, or about technology in general, write to editor@digit.in or call at +91-22-678 99 700. To interact with the authors of specific articles, please write to the email address specified under the author’s name HELP! For copy-related issues, delivery status or any other complaints regarding our service, write to help@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 678

JOIN THE GROUP THAT SUITS YOUR NEEDS

https://www.facebook.com/digitgeek Your favourite magazine on your favourite social network. When mainstream tech is not enough, come over to the geekier side.

SOFTWARE ON THE DVDs To submit and suggest software or any other type of content, to be included in the Digit DVDs, write to dvd@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 707

DIGIT FACEBOOK PAGES

Q&A If you’re having trouble with your PC or a gadget, our experts can help solve your problems. Just write in to sos@digit.in. Remember to include full system configurations in your email.

http://facebook.com/thinkdigit Join the conversation within a community of over 1.3 million tech enthusiasts. There is something for everyone.

M PL

AGENT001 Confused about what product to buy? You can get technology buying advice from our team (and maybe even directly from our very own secret agent... if you’re lucky), by addressing your query to: agent001@digit.in

SUBSCRIBE Want to get an edge over everyone else at school, college, or even work? Subscribe to India’s #1 Technology Magazine, and you will find our secret sauce is the best! Plus you will save money. Just SMS: <DIGIT SUB> to 92200 92200 or visit www.digit.in/subscribe

http://www.facebook.com/techkranti Let’s wake ourselves up and gather the tools of tech to change the future of our great nation. Join The Revolution!

PRODUCT TESTING Want your product reviewed by Digit? Contact our Test Center at testcenter@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 708 NEWS & NEW PRODUCT LAUNCHES To announce new product launches and press releases, email us at pressrelease@digit.in

ENDORSEMENTS / REPRINTS Interested in ordering article reprints or in using our logos? Get the requisite permissions by contacting us at reprint@digit.in BUSINESS ENQUIRIES Think we can help you grow your business, or maybe you can help us grow ours? Get in touch with us at business@digit.in CAREERS Want to work for Digit? Send us your resume to careers@digit.in

SPONSORSHIP Want Digit to be a media partner for your tech event? Send your proposal in to sponsor@digit.in

http://www.facebook.com/ IThinkGadgets Community of People who love mobiles, laptops, cameras & other gadgets

http://www.facebook.com/devworx.in Community of software programmers who enjoy writing code and want to grow their career in software development

INTERACT WITH TEAM DIGIT

@digitindia

digit.in/facebook

digit.in/youtube

6 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

digit.in/forum

@digit.in

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

M PL

contents

COVER STORY PAGE 51- 61

Terrified of Tech

Technology will be breaking new boundaries this year too and will be capable of all new ways to do you harm.

SCIENCE - PAGE 70-79

CULTURE - PAGE 62-69

FEBRUARY 2018

VOLUME 18 ISSUE 02

72 | Siberian permafrost explosions

66 | Geeky movies of 2018

74 | Not a walk in the park

63 | Millenials are killing words

Craters in the northern reaches of the Russian tundra are a large scale environmental disaster.

How close are we to building a robot that moves like a human being?

76 | ‘Oumuamua

An asteroid ejected from the an alien system zipped past the Sun, and astronomers rushed to study it.

78 | Why is antimatter so rare?

Antimatter is incredibly expensive to create, very hard to store, and is extremely unstable.

AND MORE 8 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

2017 gave us a lot of movies to geek over, and 2018 has even more in store!

The “news” sites catering to bored millennials, are leading the charge when it comes to pulverising the meanings of newfangled words.

64 | Way too Late

Late tech launches in India have finally hit a nerve with Booman.

69 | Good guy Bungie

In response to a wave of criticism, Bungie wants to change Destiny 2, in a good way.

AND MORE

ALT - PAGE 80-95

TECH - PAGE 14-50

ON THE DVD Our top picks from the biggest technology show on the planet.

22 | Geeking out with your webcam Your webcam is capable of doing much more than stare at your face all day.

From the conservative list of the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, these are the known planets most likely to harbour extraterrestrial life.

90 | FutureCon

TECH CES 2018 Highlights Intel press conference NVIDIA keynote Samsung keynote Sony press conference

40 years from now, what would an interplanetary real estate conference be like? Find out in this sci-fi short story

VeltOS Based on Arch Linux, VeltOS runs our their own Graphene Desktop, a simple interface designed to stay out of the way while still giving quick access to all the applications and settings. Graphene is based on Google’s material design standards, and uses the Paper theme designed by Sam Hewitt.

M PL

24 | About time

88 | Exoplanets most likely to harbour life

Before everything, there was time. And with us, came the need to know exactly what time it was.

26 | Projectors vs TVs

Is it just a matter of choice? Let Agent001 show you how to choose.

92 | Call quality ratings

A visual representation of call quality ratings over the last few months, across the states and telecom service providers.

AND MORE

28 | Android apps to boost your productivity

SKOAR! - PAGE 97-111

It’s high time you threw all your procrastination into the bin and finally got productive.

30 | Reviews

The latest products put through our rigorous tests and reviewed for you.

37 | GTX 1070 Ti: ASUS vs ZOTAC Fighting it out with their arms tied behind their backs.

40 | Recommended buys: Top 3

108 | Desktop to Tabletop

42 | The Accessibility Question

102 | The death of net neutrality

44 | Google Firebase

106 | Building India’s eSports scene

From Mini PCs to professional gaming monitors, here’s what we recommend for your next gadget purchase!

Startups in India are bringing long-awaited accessibility to the disabled.

A backend-as-a- service platform for your next app project.

48 | Apple iMac Pro

Inside Apple’s most expensive product.

The only guide you need right now to the Indian tabletop scene.

..and its effect on the video game industry

We talk to Ronnie Screwvala and Supratik Sen, the driving forces behind U Cypher to know more about their plans for the future of eSports in India.

AND MORE

CULT Indie games Brother Wake Up I’m Still Here It’s Paper Guy Minimal Freeman Q: A Dystopian Queueing Simulator Quit The Game Rainswept

14 | The best of CES 2018

Open source starter pack 7-zip Audacity CDisplay Ex FileZilla GIMP LibreOffice Mozilla Firefox qBittorrent Shotcut Thunderbird VirtualBox VLC Media Player

SCI Lectures on atoms, compounds & ions A range of topics from Chemistry basics to naming conventions and lots more.

Open source games SuperTuxKart Teeworlds The Battle for Wesnoth Warsow America’s Greatest Comics America’s Greatest Comics was an anthology comic featuring Fawcett’s most popular characters, who were already appearing in other comics. Read through all the eight issues, now present on the public domain. ALT Movie - Jungle Book (1942) Mowgli, a young child who has been raised by wolves, is captured and brought back to his mother. Things take a turn when Mowgli and his friend Mahala discover cursed treasure in the jungle.

AND MORE www.digit.in | February 2018 | Digit | 9

opening INBOX

4000-year-old mummy mystery

Using DNA sequencing, scientists have discovered that the ‘Two Brothers’ mummies are actually half-brothers. http://dgit.in/mummydna

Tinder swipe spying

The lack of encryption on Tinder makes it very easy for strangers to be able to spy on your swipes. http://dgit.in/swipespy

( don’t judge me, I already told you that I am not a PC gamer in my previous mail). 4. Nowadays, the reviews and content of mobiles is increasing in the mag, but please don’t let mobiles’ content overtake the PC/gaming/consoles/ tech content. –Puja Mahajan

Send your feedback at editor@digit.in

M PL

Feedback for the January 2018 issue of Digit

Thank you for taking the time to write to us. Sadly, I can understand your sentiments as you are a gamer, but the problem we are faced with is that we have to cater to a wide range of tastes and likes across very different ages and other demographics. There are readers who are as young as 8 and also readers in their 80s who read this magazine. Yes, many gamers read this magazine, but then so do many car lovers. Most of the team are gamers, that is correct, but it is not all that we are. We are also geeks. We are gear heads. We are n00bs (about some things). We love science. Mobiles, PCs, and everything science and tech in the world. Similarly our readers also reflect that. 1. Many people wrote in asking for car posters, and claiming that gaming posters were boring. Similarly, many people want neither. We dedicate an entire SKOAR! section in the magazine for gaming, and of course we have our http://skoar.digit.in site where you can go and get a regular fix for your gaming needs. 2. I will pass on your suggestion to the boys. I wonder if anyone of us has a PS Vita? I doubt it. All PC Master Race specimens at Digit. 3. Yes this is a good suggestion. We should do a story like this once a year perhaps. We will try and make it a video though, and share it on our Facebook page. Follow our Digit, DigitGeek and SKOAR Facebook pages for more from us. 4. This is true, we try and find a balance, even though the balance is shifting to “gadgets” over PCs. We will do more PC-based reviews on a regular basis, that we promise. I sincerely hope you are less angry with us now. –Robert

For anyone interested in finding out the closest place to buy Digit from, just write to help@digit.in and specify your address or pin code and we will give you a list of places Digit should be available. You can also buy online from https://store.digit.in/store/ –Robert

This is a question many people ask. We don’t have openings right at this minute, but that shouldn’t stop you from writing for us. First, you have to share recent samples of your work of technology writing. This should be original work, and not have elements copy pasted from anywhere. Next, tell us what things you like to write about, and what article would you most like to write for the Digit readers. Based on this we gauge whether to give you a writing assignment or not. If we do, this will be published in our community section. If we like the article that comes out at the end, we may offer you freelance work in the future, which will be paid work. –Robert

Yours is a great mag but this mail is not for any sort of appreciation. My concerns/suggestions: 1. I am a gamer and I thought that you guys were also crazy about gaming... There was a time when I bought Digit just for the DVD and the SKOAR! Poster... I got the Jan issue just to find that you guys have gone for car posters... Yuck!!! Which gamers love car posters? And you were a tech and gaming mag, weren’t you? So, as an avid reader of Digit, it is my request to you guys to please return to gaming posters. 2. Please write something about the PS Vita or some of its games (contrary to popular belief, its not dead). Its an awesome gaming handheld with great specifications and can support console level graphics. 3. Can you expand the ‘how to’s’ section and tell how to build a PC

I have been a reader of your wonderful magazine for the past one year. In December edition of your magazine I read that you are willing to hire people for writing articles. I was interested in knowing the ‘process’ of how to apply for the concerned position. –Prakhar Vighnesh

Hello, I’m a fellow reader of Digit magazine and since I lost my November 2017 digit magazine I wanted to know how do I get one because I’ve tried nearby libraries and everything. –Rohit Khodaskar.

10 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

Best of CES

M PL

DOES THIS SECTION EVEN NEED AN INTRODUCTION? FROM COMPUTERS TO MOBILES, AND HEADPHONES TO GPUS, IT’S ALL HERE...

WHAT’S NEW

C’EST LA VIE

THIS MONTH IN TECH: CES is always expected to be a whirlwind of amazing gadgets and technology being unleashed upon the whole world, and 2018 was no different. Hence, we decided to dedicated this entire, expanded section to bring the best of CES to you. After all, as the title indicates, tech is life!

The first month of 2018 brought along this year’s CES, and with it, a host of new gadgets and technology. Here are our top picks from the biggest technology show on the planet.

TV pioneers

Samsung The Wall microLED modular TV, LG rolling 4K TV

his year’s CES was already being predicted to be significant for TVs when it was around the corner. Samsung and LG have fulfilled those predictions with their own innovative TVs at the event. Samsung has introduced The Wall, a 146inch modular TV with microLED technology. The modular aspect here is that you can take more than one of these and bring them together to cover entire walls as and when required, which essentially is an implementation that Samsung had showcased in 2016 on a smaller scale. Also, microLEDs are much smaller than regular LEDs and offer darker blacks and better pictures in general – so expect good quality as well. How can LG be far behind in the race for innovation in displays? This year saw the Korean giant bring out the first 4K rollable TV. LG had displayed an 18-inch rollable display in an earlier edition of CES, and this year the same has been expanded to a 65-inch unit that happens to be 4K as well – making it more believable as a

Updates to promising products

Apart from the brand new stuff unveiled at CES, we also saw a lot of updates to products promised in previous editions of the show. One such product was the SGNL wristband that will be shipping by March this year.

14 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

product that can actually ship to customers. Why would you need a rollable TV? For starters, you’ll save precious living-room real estate if your TV can be rolled up and stashed somewhere inconspicuous. But more importantly, as LG demonstrated, your TV can roll to adjust the display size according to the content. That means switching between 16:9, 21:9 or something even wider would just be at the click of a remote! While the prototype unit seems to have a hefty, covered base for the TV to roll back into, final products may come with sleeker implementations.

tech

Turn off slow down in iOS

Pacific Rim Uprising trailer #2

The next version of iOS will allow users to switch off the power management feature that slowed down the phones. http://dgit.in/iOS11-3

WORKSHOP

The sequel’s new trailer gives us a better look of the Jaegers and what the world looks like after the first movie. http://dgit.in/PCR2Trlr

GEEKING OUT WITH YOUR WEBCAM

M PL

Your webcam is capable of doing much greater things than staring at your face all day

Abhijit Dey | abhijit@digit.in

system. Although “home” surveillance might sound too much of a stretch, we will use “room” surveillance since we assume that the webcam is in your room. Our choice for a free software is Netcam Studio, offering all the required features to record and remotely access your webcam. You’ll have to setup the server with your preferred configuration or the pre-configured ones installed for network cameras. Along with motion detection, you also get the option to enable audio detection. If you need a powerful surveillance software for free, you should definitely go for this. During our gaming streams, we were trying to looking for a solution to set up a multicam setup over the network. We came across Yawcam and this small webcam software makes it

hances are that if you own a webcam, you have probably only used it for video calls on Skype or Hangouts. Or maybe, you might have used it to stream your gameplay on Twitch or YouTube. Apart from the above, there are a bunch of other ways in which you could put your webcam to use. And we aren’t talking only about the fun tools that simply add filters over your face. We are talking about serious (albeit impractical) software and utilities that actually offer additional useful features. The best part about this is that you don’t need an expensive webcam. However, if you want to completely geek out with the tools listed below, you could spend a little extra. It’s time to pull off the tape (if you’re among the paranoid ones) covering your webcam and geek out with the following tools.

HOME SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM With a webcam at your disposal, you might naturally be inclined to tinker around with a home surveillance

22 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

super easy to start a stream and access it within the network. If you have more than one webcam at home, you can even add multiple sources to the same Netcam server. This will let you create your own DIY home surveillance system. Yawcam can also be used as a basic remote surveillance system. Netcam Studio: http://dgit.in/NetcmStd Yawcam: http://dgit.in/2DExNvq

FACIAL RECOGNITION Another expected application of your webcam would be to use facial recognition to authenticate access to services. Earlier, you would come across many software that acted as a gatekeeper for your desktop. They gave you access only after recognising your face. But since Windows incorporated Windows Hello by default, those tools became redundant. However, you can still use facial recognition to authenticate your logins on several websites. There are a few Windows desktop apps (downloaded from the Microsoft Store) that support this feature through Windows Hello. But you’d have to individually install those apps. Intel’s True Key is like

tech AGENT001

Skype gets end-to-end encryption

Track you using camera dust

Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-toend encryption to Microsoft-owned Skype. http://dgit.in/SgnlSkype

2015 Facebook patent reveals how it could use dust on your smartphone lens to track images and location. http://dgit.in/DustTrack

Projectors vs TVs Is it just a matter of choice?

M PL

agent001 | agent001@digit.in

ES was the usual this year. A lot of incremental upgrades with quite a few interesting products and services, many of which had some AI service or the other. However, I couldn’t find many practical products which could be termed disruptive. So CES 2018 wasn’t all that great. One product did catch my eye, though. It was a projector of all things. What grabbed my attention was the price, a not so measly $30,000. That’s more than what most 4-wheelers in the country are priced at. For those who are curious, I’m talking about Sony’s LSPX-A1. More importantly, it got me thinking about getting a projector myself. Up until a few years ago, buying a projector, especially one that could compete with the likes of TVs was an expensive affair. Only those with deep pockets and a home with the right prerequisites could make the most out of a projector. Even with all the checkboxes ticked, projectors could never compete with TVs. The image quality was always washed out and should there be rapid motion on the screen, then it would get even worse. You would have to get an LCOS projector if you wanted picture quality closest to TVs. And those things aren’t cheap. Don’t forget, setting up a projector can take up

more space based on how you get it installed. Roof mounted short-throw projectors would take the least space whereas if you decided for a tabletop setup, then you’re wasting precious real estate since the space where the projector is placed and the space between the unit and the screen would be off limits to people and pets. Let’s keep the $30,000 projectors aside. Most folks would end up going with the cheaper units. These are very noisy and the onboard speakers are absolutely pathetic.

26 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

The noise I’m referring to is that of the cooling fan. And don’t even get me started on the lamp. The average projector offers about 2,000 hours of life which is very less. Adults spend 35.5 hours a week watching TV, so your average lamp would last a little over 56 weeks i.e. 1 year and 1 month. So getting a projector involves signing up for a

recurring expenditure of 15-20K per year based on your model. So you can see why most sane individuals wouldn’t get a projector. That money can easily be spent towards getting a nice 49-55 inch LED TV with 4K and HDR support. Now that OLED TVs are entering mainstream market, projectors are going to find it increasingly tough to sell. However, recent developments have made owning a projector even cheaper. For starters, the lamps are now much cheaper and they last up to 10,000 hours in eco mode. They’ve even become smaller than earlier. 4K HDR projectors have become quite compact and they even support most colour standards to their fullest. For roughly the same cost of a proper TV, you can get a projector that can display a much larger screen with the same resolution. The problem of real-estate, however, remains. Which is why I don’t see myself getting a projector anytime soon. And the brightness still hasn’t equalled that of TVs. There are 3200-3500 lumens projectors out there but in a well-lit room, it’s always a bit washed out compared to your average TV. We know how much projectors cost to make and how much they sell for. Even if retailers dropped their profits and started selling projectors for near

reviews

For better understanding of our ratings, hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a quick guide to our overall score to

to 100

Extremely poor product. Keep away!

Strictly OK.

Not recommended

Decent product.

Go for it, but there may be better products out there.

Very good product. Highly recommended.

Ground-breaking product.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never seen anything like it before. A definite must buy!

M PL

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

INSIDE

MSI GE73VR 7RF

32 Razer Basilisk

Synology DS918+

Canon EOS 6D Mark II

30 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

Honor 9 Lite 4GB

PLUS

31 Jabra Elite 25e 31 Cooler Master MasterCase H500P 32 Rapoo VPRO V510 35 Nikon D850 36 Comio C2 & MORE...

Microsoft's "small round" of lay-offs

Microsoft has carried out a "small round" of lay-offs, but the number is reportedly in the hundreds. http://dgit.in/msoftlayoff

Man bites battery, it explodes A man in China bit a smartphone battery as a test and it exploded in his face. http://dgit.in/manbitbat

tech REVIEWS

Jabra Elite 25e Wireless IEMs Classy and bassy

Price 3,999

The Jabra Elite 25e forms a pretty decent seal once properly worn and the overall sound signature weighs heavily on the lower frequencies. The highs and the mids are properly reproduced with minimal distortion. Even with the volume turned all the way up, we didn’t notice any significant distortion. When we ran it at peak volume level, it lasted us just over 16.5 hours which seems to be quite decent. However, in terms of real world usage it lasted about 2.5 days easily. –Mithun Mohandas

atering to both, music lover and professionals on the go, the Jabra Elite 25e makes for a pretty decent pair of headphones utilising the neckband design. What’s good about the Jabra Elite 25e is that it has quite interestingly improved upon some of the shortcomings of the neckband design while PERFORMANCE........... 77 staying classy. As is the FEATURES.....................78 trend with most audio BUILD............................80 devices these days, Jabra

M PL

magnetised so that they stick together when not in use. And since it’s easy to detect when the two buds have been brought together, Jabra has managed to make use of this to slip in some neat functionalities. You can answer a call by pulling the ear buds and similarly, you can bring them together to stop music playback or terminate a call.

has included support for Google Assistant and Siri. All of these have been included for a price of `3,999. The Jabra Elite 25e makes use of a variety of materials to ensure a balance between practical design and good looks. The ear buds are

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT

JABRA | PHONE: NA | EMAIL: jabrasupport.us@jabra.com | WEBSITE: http://www.jabra.com

Cooler Master MasterCase H500P A legend makes a comeback

he most striking detail about the H500P are the two 200 mm RGB fans on the front. But the front panel is lined with plastic, restricting the airflow. This limits the potential of the H500P. Price 9 Speaking of the panels, both the top 14,89 and front panel which are too flimsy. Even a slight jerk pops out the top panel. The pre-installed 200 mm fans on the front support RGB lighting. However, in order to enable RGB, you will have to connect the four-pin tempered glass side-panel has an RGB connector directly to your easy removal and insertion motherboard otherwise process, but the screw you won’t get RGB lighting. holding the panel to the Only newer motherboards cabinet felt too tight. PERFORMANCE...........66 support these new RGB The H500P does perBUILD QUALITY............81 headers. Apart from the form quite well. The Intel FEATURES.....................56 exterior panels, the interior Core i7-4096X stayed stahas good build quality. The ble at 34 degrees Celsius

without any load whereas it jumped to 59 degrees in our Prime95 stress test. The Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 GPU sat at 35 degrees when idle and the Furmark 1080p present benchmark pushed the temperature to 64 degrees. Essentially, the temperature delta was comparatively low among all the cabinets that we tested last year. –Abhijit Dey

SPECIFICATIONS

MOTHERBOARD FORM FACTOR: E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX | PSU FORM FACTOR: ATX standard | FRONT I/O: 2 x USB 3.0, Mic in and Audio Out, 2 x USB 2.0 | DRIVE OPTIONS: 2 x 3.5-inch HDD, 2 x 2.5-inch SSD | FAN SUPPORT: Front - 120/140 mm fan x 3 or 200 mm fan x 2, Top - 120/140 mm fan x 3 or 200 mm fan x 2, Rear - 120/140 mm fan x 1 | LIQUID COOLING SUPPORT: Front - 120 mm, 140 mm 240 mm, 280 mm, 360 mm, Top - 120 mm, 140 mm, 240 mm, 280 mm, 360 mm, Rear - 120 mm, 140 mm

CONTACT

COOLER MASTER CO. LTD. | PHONE: NA | EMAIL: sashank_B@ coolermaster.com.tw | WEBSITE: www.coolermaster.com

www.digit.in | February 2018 | Digit | 31

Facebook acquires new company

tech

Google I/O 2018

Facebook has bought out a company that authenticates driver’s licenses and government IDs, intentions unclear. http://dgit.in/FbGovID

The dates of Google I/O 2018 have been announced for May 8-10 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. http://dgit.in/GoogIO18

HEAD-ON

M PL

ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1070 Ti vs ZOTAC GTX 1070 Ti AMP EXTREME

Fighting it out with their arms tied behind their backs.

Mithun Mohandas | mithun@digit.in

VIDIA’s GTX 1070 Ti launch came roughly 16 months after their Pascal lineup debuted with the GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070. We’ve seen new GTX TITAN cards and even Ti variants release since then. The GTX 1070 Ti came as a reaction to the Radeon RX Vega 56 which sat sans any competition between the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080. The GTX 1070 Ti is based on the same GP104 that the GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080 are based off of; however, it offers four more active Streaming Multiprocessors (SM) than the GTX 1070 which makes a world of a difference in performance. If you already have a GTX card above the 1060, then you’re better off waiting for the next GPU architecture launch from either company. However, if you’re set on getting a GTX 1070 Ti, then allow

us to compare two of the best cards in the market to give you some perspective. The performance difference between the GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070 isn’t that much. So when you add another card between them, a new dilemma arises - pricing. You can neither price it too high since that would equal the GTX 1080 (a much better performer), nor can you price it so low that it competes with the GTX 1070. Moreover, when board partners release custom designs, you’d probably have certain 1070 Ti cards equalling the GTX 1080 in gaming. Getting the GTX 1080 becomes a no brainer in such a case, however, marketing the GTX 1070 Ti becomes a royal nightmare. So all NVIDIA GTX 1070 Ti cards are shipping with the same base clock speed of 1607 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz. This makes folks wonder why they’d even go with cards www.digit.in | February 2018 | Digit | 37

tech

> code / creativity / community >

FOR THOSE GEEKS WHO LIKE TO GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY IN CODE

DEVWORX

Google Firebase F

Firebase Authentication integrates tightly with other Firebase services, and it leverages industry standards like OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, so it can be easily integrated with your custom backend.

To open the Firebase Assistant in Android Studio • Click Tools > Firebase to open the Assistant window. • Click to expand one of the listed features (for example, Analytics), then click the provided tutorial link (for example, Log an Analytics event). • Click the Connect to Firebase button and add the necessary code to your app. That's it!

Key capabilities FirebaseUI Auth • Recommended way to add a complete sign-in system to your app. • Provides a drop-in authentication solution that handles the UI flows for signing in users with email addresses and passwords, phone numbers, and with popular federated identity providers, including Google Sign-In and Facebook Login. • Authentication component implements best practices for authentication on mobile devices and websites, which can maximize sign-in and sign-up conversion for your app. It also handles edge cases like account recovery and account linking that can be security sensitive and errorprone to handle correctly. • FirebaseUI can be easily customized

M PL

Sumedh Rasal | feedback@digit.in

your existing project or create a new one for you with all the necessary gradle dependencies.

A backend-as-aservice platform for your app

irebase gives you the tools to develop high-quality apps, grow your user base, and earn more money. We cover the essentials, so you can monetize your business and focus on your users. To add Firebase to your Android Project, you need a device running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or newer, and Google Play services 11.8.0 or higher.

Add Firebase to your app If you're using Android Studio version 2.2 or later, the Firebase Assistant is the simplest way to connect your app to Firebase. The Assistant can connect

FIREBASE AUTHENTICATION

Knowing a user's identity allows an app to securely save user data in the cloud and provide a personalized experience across all of their devices. Firebase Authentication provides backend services, easy-to-use SDKs, and ready-made UI libraries to authenticate users to your app. It supports authentication using passwords, phone numbers, popular federated identity providers like Google, Facebook etc.

*CODING MATTERS

*Facebook open sources Detectron

*Open Media Alliance AV1 Is Better Than JPEG

*HHVM Improves Type Inference

Available under an Apache 2.0 licence, you do need a machine that has a GPU, NVIDIA CUDA, for it to work. http://dgit.in/FBDTron

Tests in a trial version of Firefox showing that the Alliance's AV1 video compression tech produces video files a third smaller than rival compression techniques. http://dgit.in/Av1Demo

There's a new version of Hip Hop Virtual Machine, an open-source virtual machine designed for executing programs written in Hack and PHP. http://dgit.in/HHVMUpd

44 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

SA cover story M PL E Aditya Madanapalle & Arnab Mukherjee | feedback@digit.in

Illustration: Peterson PJ

CYBERSECURITY

is like fighting the Lernaean Hydra, every time you chop off a head, two new ones grow in its place. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving and refining their tactics. At the same time new devices continue to invade the market, and existing devices are getting smarter, increasing the opportunities for attacks. Botnets, which can be used for everything from cryptocurrency mining to DDoS attacks stand to become much more powerful. In 2018, expect some of the biggest cybercrime trends of 2017 to continue, including ransomware and smartphone malware. Cybercriminals will also find new and innovative ways to leverage distributed ledger technologies, machine learning algorithms, neural networks, and cloud computing. Expect a laser focus in targeted attacks, whether on individuals or organisations. With many kinds of cybercrime being sold on darknet marketplaces, it will be possible for relative novices to compromise devices without even knowing how to hack.

www.digit.in | February 2018 | Digit | 51

cover story

Hack-a-doodle-do

Credit: Kaspersky Lab

A deformed smartphone after a period of cryptocurrency mining

passing malware Loapi (http://dgit.in/ loapijoat) that can subscribe users to paid services, send SMS messages to any number, generate traffic and make money from showing advertisements, use the computing power of a device to mine cryptocurrencies, as well as perform a variety of actions on the internet on behalf of the user/device. It causes infected devices to show

M PL

he targets of hackers have shifted. Instead of typical desktops or laptops, hackers will now be focussing more on smartphones. The fact is that breaking into a smartphone gives them access to pretty much all about the user and his or her banking details. The smartphone has emerged as the most popular personal computing device around the world, and a single device incorporates what was previously a camera, a personal media player, a gaming console, a personal digital assistant, as well as a mobile phone. It was only recently that Lebanese group, Dark Caracal used Android spyware to steal hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data from more than 21 countries. Types of stolen data included audio recordings, text messages, call records, documents, photos, contact information, secure messaging client content, account data and enterprise intellectual property. It was all done via modified APKs of popular secure messaging apps such as Signal and WhatsApp. Expect more such attacks in 2018. We’ve seen the power of IoT botnets with Mirai, a botnet that used a host of compromised IoT devices. Since then, we’ve seen many more IoT devices come onto the internet, be it in the form of smart speakers, connected headphones, wearables or the regular smartphones, laptops and more. Since Mirai surfaced, quite a few variants have shown up - some of which cast a much wider and/or deeper net. These variants can be built in ways that fulfil multiple purposes - mine/hack cryptocurrencies or carry out DDoS attacks. The scale of the attacks are unprecedented, with major content delivery networks and dedicated DDoS prevention tools being unable to keep up with the intense firepower of Mirai based DDoS attacks. Such operations can be really taxing on the hacked devices and can cause temporary to permanent physical damage. Check out the all-encom-

visible signs of stress damage within a couple of days, to the point where the battery expands enough to deform the device. Cryptocurrency miners can put enough load on smartphones and IoT devices, to the extent of physically damaging them. As more parts of our lives are getting connected, there’s more loopholes for hackers to exploit since not all companies or users are incentivised or motivated to secure their systems. A recent hack in a major Las Vegas casino was traced to a connected fish tank on the premises. Hackers in 2018 are not as focussed on innovating as they are on scaling up. So, it’s more likely than ever before that you will be targeted as a part of a large scale attack on any of the several connected fronts in your life. As long as we adapt the major security protocols that we are actually supposed to follow in the first place, and are careful about the sources we install our applications from, we should be secure from most hacking threats in 2018.

Teach a man to phish and you feed him for a lifetime

52 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

hishing involves impersonating a trusted individual or company, to trick a user into compromising their sensitive data. For example, to gain your banking credentials or email login details, a malicious attacker might send you a link appearing to originate from the company and directing you to a web page that looks identical to the official website. Google and Amazon are among the most spoofed companies. More sophisticated attacks can say be personalised to each individual in an organisation, and bait the users with the promise of a chance to win a free gift. If everyone on a mailing list has been sent a fishy email, be especially wary of follow up emails supposedly from cybersecurity personnel, providing mitigation measures against the initial round of messages. Those could be phishing attacks as well. If the initial round of phishing emails was in the news, follow up attacks are more likely to succeed. Even suspicious users will see enough material in the news to convince them of the situation after looking up the claims of the attacker on the internet. Phishing remains one of the most effective and lucrative methods for cybercriminals. Emerging technologies promise to allow the attackers to craft even more convincing and targeted emails. One of the biggest additions to the toolkits of hackers, is AI. AI will allow cybercriminals to mimic various

WHAT’S NEW

Ant-Man and The Wasp plot revealed

INSIDE

Dr. Hank Pym with an urgent new mission. Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside the Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from the past”. The movie is set to release on July 6, 2018. http://dgit.in/AntmanWasp

M PL

GEEK CULTURE IS OUR WAY OF LIFE, AND ENCOMPASSES MOVIES, GAMES, COMICS, AND TRENDS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

arvel Studios has finally revealed another photo and the plot of the upcoming Ant-Man and The Wasp movie. Captain America rescued everyone held in the floating prison at the end of Civil War. And that’s where the movie stands in the MCU timeline. The plot is as follows: “From the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes Ant-Man and The Wasp, a new chapter featuring heroes with the astonishing ability to shrink. In the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, Scott Lang grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. As he struggles to rebalance his life with his responsibilities as Ant-Man, he’s confronted by Hope van Dyne and

JJ Abrams working on a new TV show set in space

t looks like JJ Abrams can’t get enough of creating movies and TV shows based on outer space. So much so, that even though he’s busy with several other ongoing projects, the visionary director wants to get his hands on some more. JJ is already working on Star Wars: Episode IX as the newly appointed director. He is also the producer to the upcoming Cloverfield 3 movie, and TV shows including Westworld,

THIS MONTH IN CULT: There are times when a big tech/gaming corporation listens to you and there are times when it doesn’t. While our readers contributed about the former, Boo-Man hates on the latter. Then we go on a rant about how Millenials are ruining words for everyone, before giving you a list of geeky movies in 2018 to keep track of.

Flashpoint movie gets its directors

The highly anticipated Flashpoint movie had been in limbo for a while but now Warner Bros. has finally hired Spider-Man: Homecoming writers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley for the movie. Ezra Miller will be taking charge as Barry Allen aka Flash. http://dgit.in/FlashpointDrctr

Tom Holland’s Spider-man could drop by in Venom

The Venom movie has been in the works for some time now from Sony with rumours still circling around the villain and plot. Fresh scoop suggests that Tom Holland’s Spider-man could make a cameo in the new Spider-verse. http://dgit.in/VnmSpdrmn

62 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

11.22.63, and Castle Rock. The new untitled drama project revolves around a family with a scientist mother, father and

The Tick season two greenlit by Amazon Studios

Production of the second season of The Tick has been sanctioned by Amazon Studios for 2018 with a 2019 release. Produced by Sony Pictures Television, the second half of the first season will be available on February 23, 2018. http://dgit.in/ThTck2

daughter. After a car crash, the mother falls into a coma. The daughter comes across her mother’s experiments taking forward the plot of the show. Already having displayed his expertise with the sci-fi genre, any news of him being involved in any such project automatically grabs attention. For this project, Apple, HBO and Warner Brothers Television are reportedly interested to get on board. http://dgit.in/JJTVshw

Fan film on Voldemort origins

You might have read and watched how Voldemort came back to power after his downfall at the hands of an infant. But what made him powerful in the first place was never explored. A fan film called Voldemort: Origins of the Heir tries to fill that gap. http://dgit.in/VldmrtOOTH

culture

If you are ever curious about what the Digit gang is up to, this is the place to get all the inside info. From the latest game we’re obsessing about to the newest intern we’re driving up the wall – it’s all here folks.

couldn’t push it to its limits on these roads. The best – well technically, the worst, but we’re all sadists here – part was that Siddharth wasn’t here to bask in the car’s glory. We made sure to point that out to him several times. Speaking of us being sadistic, we’ve got new interns on the way. We’re already rubbing our hands together in evil villain-esque fashion in anticipation of their arrival. Or we would if weren’t buried nose-deep in Warframe. We had to stop streaming for a bit thanks to closing but we’ll be starting again soon, and hopefully we’ll be far more regular this time around. We’re still trying to widen our pool of games, so do reach out to us and let us know what you’d like us to play, and as always, you can even join us!

M PL

asn’t it new years just yesfor a streaming session and he got terday or something? We’re hooked. Manish, who had played the already a month down! game before picked it up as well and January is usually pretty packed, long time Warframe veteran Aditya what with CES happening around was happy to have the company. this time every year. As usual, things Meanwhile, Abhijit, who has racked were pretty slow in the labs, despite up quite the playtime on PUBG, demanaging to close the issue cided to join a tournament along with somewhat on time last Siddharth, who plays PUBG just about year. Month. Last month. all day. The two were ready to break This month’s delay into the pro scene, guns blazcould probably ing, in quite the literal sense be attributed to here. Unfortunately, they three out of the never it made it past the QUOTE OF five people in qualifiers. There go their THE MONTH the labs grinding it out on dreams of going pro. Warframe. Or Grindframe This month, a BMW i8 “Do u kno da as some people very made it way to the labs wae?” rightly call it. Mithun had for review. An i8! What a decided to try the game out beast of a car! Too bad we

DISCUSSIONS

Every month we will highlight some of the more interesting discussions happening on our Digit Forum (digit.in/forum). Head over and join our forum if you want quick answers to your queries from some of the geekiest Indians online. In case you love giving gyaan, or even if you love arguing with others, the Forum is the place you should be.

Meltdown and Spectre CPU bugs

Satyapal Singh debunks evolution

Lax security is the user’s fault

Security researchers have identified two of the most critical vulnerabilities in modern CPUs. The community members are discussing the patching process, which involves using the bios update for motherboards from particular manufacturers.

MP Satyapal Singh has debunked evolution by pointing out that there was scientific evidence against the theory. The forum members are wondering what Darwin’s political motives were, and if Indian mythology has any parallels to evolution.

While the US and UK alleged that threat actors with ties to North Korea carried out the WannaCry ransomware attack, the forum members have pointed out a firefighting attitude towards cybersecurity enables malware to spread.

http://dgit.in/specmelt

http://dgit.in/singhevo

http://dgit.in/userfault

Join the discussions at: Web: geek.digit.in | Forum: geek.digit.in/community | Facebook: facebook.com/digitgeek

www.digit.in | February 2018 | Digit | 65

culture

Black Widow movie in the works

Mystery of Lukeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s robotic hand solved

A solo movie featuring Natasha Romanoff is apparently planned for a 2020 release. http://dgit.in/solowidow

FEATURE

When Luke Skywalker becomes one with the force at the end of TLJ, he takes his robotic hand with him. http://dgit.in/botforce

PACIFIC RIM UPRISING

Release Date: 23 March Giant robots fighting monstrous aliens is a good enough premise, but the trailer builds up the anticipation further by promising to explore drifting between three Jaeger pilots instead of the usual two. The Kaiju are bigger and more powerful than ever, there is a whole stable of lighter and faster Jaegers as well.

TOMB RAIDER

Lara Croft returns to the big screen after a gap of fifteen years, with a reboot of the film series starring Alicia Vikander. We thoroughly enjoyed the 2013 video game, and while the movie is based on that game, there are plenty of deviations that can be seen in the trailer. Expect a ton of action in an island setting, as well as a dose of mythical elements.

M PL

Geeky Movies to look forward to in 2018

Release Date: 16 March

2017 gave us Star Wars Episode XIII, Homecoming, GoTG2, Ragnarok and Wonder Woman, but 2018 has even more in store when it comes to geeky movies. The release dates are for India, but are subject to change.

Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in

ANNIHILATION

2.0

Release Date: 22 February

Audiences in India might have to settle for a Netflix version, and might not get to see this science fantasy horror film on the big screen. Annihilation is going to be strange and gorgeous. The novel by Jeff VanderMeer, the first in the Southern Reach trilogy is a great read, with eerie atmospheric horror reminiscent of the works of HP Lovecraft.

BLACK PANTHER

Release Date: 16 February

As the last film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before the release of Avengers: Infinity War, the build up of hype for Black Panther has been pretty intense. Fans are in for a treat as Wakanda appears to be a technologically sophisticated futuristic utopia. The curated soundtrack, Black Panther: The Album is produced by Kendrick Lamar.

66 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

Release Date: 14 April

The sequel to Enthiran (or Robot), 2.0 promises to be a kickass action film, with plenty of comedy thrown. With a budget of `450 crore, 2.0 is the most expensive film ever made in India. Rajinikanth returns as Chitti, while Akshay Kumar plays the villain, Crow Man. The world is not only for humans.

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Release Date: 27 April

There is not enough space here even to mention all the superheroes who are going to appear on screen in this one. The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy will work together try and stop the mad titan Thanos from collecting all the infinity stones. Avengers: Infinity War is easily the most anticipated movie of the year.

WHAT’S NEW

Researchers create videogame to explore workplace sexual harassment

they arise. At the end of the short game, you will be given an appraisal of your performance. The best thing is you can play the game in office, and give the impression of actually working. http://dgit.in/Gryscl

M PL

IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

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!

esearchers from MIT have come up with a game, called Grayscale, that lets players explore the various kinds of sexual harassment that occurs at a workplace. The gameplay takes place in the form of an email interface, where users have to respond to messages from various employees. Users have to respond to a wide range of scenarios, including an employee that touches another, a mail sent out to the entire office suggesting that yoga pants are inappropriate attire, and a woman having a tough time managing her newborn baby and her work commitments. As an HR professional, you have to deal with all these issues as and when

euroscientists have a pretty good understanding of what areas of the human brain are active when they are performing particular tasks, such as moving a leg or thinking of a response to a question. However, creating a complete map of how the neurons in the brain connect to each other is beyond the capa-

THIS MONTH IN SCIENCE: Mysterious explosions in the Russian tundra, AI in healthcare, humanoid robots, antimatter, and a visitor from far away stars.

Researchers develop technology to create wiring diagrams for the brain

bilities of existing technologies. Researchers from Caltech have developed a method using fruit

flies, that makes the neurons colour up when they are active. The researchers can then directly observe the neurons firing through an electron microscope, and a hole in the heads of the flies. The approach allows the researchers to create a wiring map of the brains of the fruit flies. http://dgit.in/mapbrain

No aliens at Tabby’s star

A sustained observation campaign of Tabby’s star or the WTF star has found evidence that there is no alien megastructure in orbit around it. The dimming events experienced by the star is likely to be caused by a far more mundane explanation - dust. http://dgit.in/wtfstar

Tiny origami inspired robot

Researchers from harvard have developed a tiny robot, known as milliDelta with flexible actuators and high performance composite materials. The robot is strong and flexible enough to manipulate objects on a tiny scale, and has potential applications in manufacturing and medicine. http://dgit.in/millidelta

70 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

Nefertiti was no Pharaoh

The unusually beautiful features of a bust of Nefertiti compelled Egyptologists to come to the conclusion that she was a ruler of Egypt, however this was not possible as Nefertiti was not born in a royal family. However, her daughter was born into a royal family. http://dgit.in/nfrtiti

Raspberry Pi Supercomputer

Students at the Ohio State University did not want to use academic supercomputers to test code, and so created a supercomputer out of many Raspberry Pi circuit boards. Buckeye Pi has 128 circuit boards and 512 processors, and will be used for Earth science simulations. http://dgit.in/2n1eHoN

sci

Hubble images cartweel

Hypatia stone puzzles scientists

Hubble has captured an image of the Cartwheel galaxy, which are actually two colliding galaxies. http://dgit.in/glxywheel

SPACE AGE

A mysterious meteorite embedded with diamonds was possibly formed before the solar system. http://dgit.in/hypatiastone

An artist’s impression of ‘Oumuamua.

‘OUMUAMUA:

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

M PL

THE INTERSTELLAR ROLLING STONE An asteroid ejected from the an alien system zipped past the Sun, making astronomers around the world rush to study the object before it travelled too far to observe.

Aditya Madanapalle | adityam@digit.in

of the sun could never capture it. It would flash inwards past the orbits of Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury, gaining speed as it did so, until it rounded the sun and headed out once again into the unknown.” The asteroid appears to have come from the direction of the star Vega in the constellation of Lyra. However, when the asteroid was in that location 3,00,000 years ago, the constellation appeared in a different place from Earth. At the time of the discovery, ‘Oumuamua had already crossed the point closest to the Sun, and was heading towards the constellation of Pegasus. Unlike Clarke’s book, astronomers actually interrupted the planned observation campaigns of telescopes to take a closer look at the curious interstellar nomad. There was very limited time on hand, it was highly unlikely that the object would ever visit the Solar System again, and researchers could only guess when an opportunity for studying an interstellar asteroid would arise again. For all these reasons, astronomers jumped at the chance to observe the asteroid. A group of astronomers used three telescopes in Hawaii and two telescopes in Chile to conduct follow on observations of ‘Oumuamua, in an effort to study its properties, and reveal its mysteries. Another group of astronomers studied the object through telescopes in Hawaii and Spain. A third team of international astronomers studied the object from a telescope in New Mexico. NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes also tracked the asteroid. Yan Fernandez from the University of Central Florida said, “On very, very short notice they were able to rework the telescope’s schedule — which is set months in advance — to get us 4 hours of time”. Director of the Gemini Observatory, Laura Ferrarese said, “Needless to say, we dropped everything so we could quickly point the Gemini telescopes at this object immediately after its discovery.” The findings were published in a paper titled “A brief visit from a red

n October, astronomers working with the Pan-STARRS1 telescope came across a highly unusual object in the Solar System. The object had been wandering between the stars for millions of years before encountering the Solar System, entirely by chance. While scientists had hypothesised the existence of such objects, they had never directly observed one. The International Astronomical Union had to rush to come up with a new naming convention for the unique object. The object was named ‘Oumuamua, based on the recommendations of the team that made the discovery. For the pronounciation, just add an “h” sound before the O. The name means a messenger from

the distant past. Apart from its extrasolar origins, the shape of the object was extremely elongated. The discovery and the shape of ‘Oumuamua, was very similar to a mysterious interstellar object in the Arthur C Clarke science fiction novel, Rendezvous with Rama. Olivier Hainaut from the European Southern Observatory even said in a press release, “This felt very much like the beginning of the famous science fiction story, Rendezvous with Rama.” Astronomer Jason Wright from Penn State noted on his blog, AstroWright, “Its discovery closely tracks the opening chapter of the book Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke, about the discovery of an interstellar spaceship on a similar trajectory to ‘Oumuamua.” One paragraph that equally applies to ‘Oumuamua and Rama is “It was a lonely wanderer between the stars, making its first and last visit to the Solar System – for it was moving so swiftly that the gravitational field

76 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

WHAT’S NEW

The Pornhub year in review

Barking Trains

There was a total of 3,732 PETABYTES of data transferred on the site. As mentioned on the site, “That’s enough data to fill the memory of every iPhone currently in use around the world”. To read more - http://dgit.in/PHYiR.

M PL

Geek-key

Among the top 5 most searched for terms, we had Rick and Morty sitting on number two and… Fidget Spinners on three.

THIS IS TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE AND SCIENCE WITH A DIFFERENCE, AND THAT DIFFERENCE IS USUALLY ENOUGH TO MAKE MOST NORMAL PEOPLE GO “WTF?”

he year isn’t complete without Pornhub’s annual Year in Review, where we take a look at the most searched terms in porn for the year of 2017. This year marks Pornhub’s 5th ‘Year in Review’ lister and boy there’s a lot of numbers and uhm, rather weird tastes. But who are we to judge! Some of the more interesting numbers worth noting were the number of visitors to the site this year: around 28.5 billion! That’s a whopping 81 million people per day. Other than that, you had a total of 24.7 billion searches performed on the site this year. That’s 50,000 searches per minute; 800 per second.

ccording to Japan’s transport ministry, last year around 613 animals were hit by trains. This caused commuters up to 30-minutes of delay on average, which in a country like Japan is apparently a big deal. Deer in particular take up a large percentage of the 613 animals. Deer are attracted to the iron fillings around the rail tracks. This because they need iron in their diets. The iron fillings created from the friction between the train and the tracks is a

AI IN SCI-FI When we do become a primarily space faring race, we’ll need a couple of more planets to colonise. Thankfully, our space telescopes have found plenty of habitable exoplanets. Fancy colonising one of these?

convenient supplement for the deer. Unfortunately, it also means that many of them suffer a very gruesome fate. Researchers from Japan’s Railway Technical Research

Institute (RTRT) have come up with a rather strange new idea to scare the deer away from the train tracks. It entails having speakers installed on the train which plays the sound of a deer snorting soon followed by 20 seconds on dogs barking. This has been found to be effective in scaring the deer away from the tracks. The RTRI is known for using some very strange methods to scare the deer away, but this one takes the cake.

Nike PlayStation sneakers

Nike and Sony have worked together with Paul George to create the PG-2 “PlayStation” sneakers. These might just be the nerdiest sneakers out there, every detail on the shoe points to its namesake in some way. And the sneakers’ tongues – one with the PG (for Paul George) logo and the other with PlayStation – illuminate when you press them! So fancy!

Japan’s crypto pop group

Kasotsuka Shojo, which literally translates to Virtual Currency Girls are Japan’s latest trending pop band. Each member represents one of the popular cryptocurrencies. They had their first concert this year and you had to pay in cryptocurrency to get it. http://dgit.in/CrypPop

80 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

Pet translator

Animal behaviour expert Con Slobodchikoff is one of the researchers trying to use AI to understand how dogs communicate. He hopes to use machine learning to help humans understand dogs. To this end he’s working on an algorithm to help covert barks into English. Read more here: http://dgit.in/wooftalk

The Photobomber pro This ad professional has found a great way to pass his time, and as a result, a really fun way for us to pass ours. He’s inserted himself into random stock images to some great comedic effect. That’s one great way to build your portfolio and get noticed. http://dgit.in/photobpro

DGT AUTO

M PL

alt

VOLVO XC60 REVIEW:

A NOTABLE INSCRIPTION

The 2017 Volvo XC60 is deeply impressive, and comes with technologies that are well beyond what any other car maker provides in India right now.

distracted. It’s neat, and one of the best designed systems in terms of looks, ease of usage, and premium feel.

Souvik Das | souvik@digit.in

On a well-marked road, the Volvo XC60’s radar, sensors and cameras easily recognised the lane markings, and the steering makes micro adjustments by itself to keep you within a particular lane. It is not visibly apparent, but you can spot it when you take your hands off the wheel as you approach gentle curves. You also get blind spot alerts on both the side view mirrors, which beep and blink red simultaneously to alert you if a vehicle is approaching. Furthermore, you get distance and speed maintenance, where the car’s sensors automatically gauge the speed of the car in front of you and its trajectory, and maintains distance. This makes a lot of difference on long highway cruises. It even slow down by itself when it recognises approaching cars. The road sign recognition helps you focus on the road, while bringing your attention to the speed limit. It also

driving dynamics and other prompts. The first screen includes FM/AM/Radio favourites, CD, Bluetooth, USB and iPod for audio sources, Sound Experience, Message prompts, car status, driving performance, a download centre, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The second screen shows the integrated sat-nav, audio source, phone controls and the in-car internet connectivity status. This is the screen that you’ll mostly be accessing, and the layout is easy to figure out. The third screen is the hub for all car functions, including all the advanced car functions, parking assist, the 360-degree camera, HUD, seat and headrest adjustments, and more. Each tab is further denoted by a green label when the feature is switched on, enhancing the ergonomics. The large size of the display also means that all the text is very clearly visible, and the muted colour theme ensures you aren’t

UVs are pretty much the only type of cars that sell in India these days, and the luxury segment is no different. At this point, the 2017 Volvo XC60 arrives in India with everything that you would expect from luxury SUVs – classy interiors, fancy LEDs, a fairly powerful engine and a lot of leather and wood. While all that sounds perfectly suited for the luxury SUV customer in India, what the XC60 really stands out for is the level of technology that it brings to the mid-sized luxury SUV segment.

INFOTAINMENT SYSTEM Volvo’s Sensus interface is seamless and easy to operate. There are three main screens along with a drop-down notifications panel that serves alerts on

86 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

ADVANCED DRIVER ASSIST

BACK TALK

and Bluemix local, which, were in some shape or form, a private cloud system. With the entire rebranding to IBM Cloud Private, the key change that we made is from an architecture level. The entire cloud native architecture which we support, whether you want to Docker, Kubernetes or Cloud Foundry, we aren’t restricting you to any one particular technology. A lot of our existing customer base who are on traditional middleware like Websphere, which has a large installbase, are trying to migrate. We’ve also made that migration process very seamless. So I wouldn’t say it is late. I’d say that it has been there for a while. We’ve just refreshed it to be more relevant to our large customers who are now ready to move. We see a lot of movement to the cloud from the bottom of the pyramid. Startups are already in the cloud, it’s the large banks and the large enterprises who’ll take time. And it’s not like the competition has made large inroads either. It’s about how you make the journey seamless and you need to ensure key sensitive issues such as security and performance. We’re ensuring that all of that it being done very well.

alt

M PL

Going the hybrid cloud way

mar, h Seema Ku it w n w o d it stem We s loper Ecosy e v e D r, e d a learn Country Le /SA, IBM to ia d In s p u rt cloud and Sta IBM’s hybrid t u o b a re o te. m Cloud Priva M IB rm o platf

Mithun Mohandas | mithun@digit.in How has the Indian developer scene evolved over the years? Seema: We work with a lot of startups and business partners, helping them develop and scale up. We have a team made mostly of developer advocates who are all experts in different fields. We cover cloud, AI, cognitive, blockchain and some of the more upcoming technologies. What we’ve seen is that the industry has shifted in terms of the influence that the developer carries. Gone are the days when the developer is told by the higher-ups as to which platform, language and database they’re supposed to use to build their applications. These days it’s mostly up

94 | Digit | February 2018 | www.digit.in

to the developers to decide what to use. You have polyglot programmers and a lot of scripting languages. Hence, we see a lot of decisions are driven by the developers. Which is why the platforms and tools we design are done with the developers in mind so that they can build their software faster and better. Coming to IBM Cloud Private, it seems like a hybrid cloud solution. And looking at the competition, everyone has had their hybrid offerings out already. Isn’t IBM a bit behind the competition? Seema: Well not really. If you look at it, then Cloud Private is not the first offering. It’s more of a refreshed offering. We’ve had a lot of rebranding to the cloud portfolio, we’ve had Bluemix as a brand name. We had Bluemix dedicated

Since you mentioned security, how does IBM Cloud Private compare to the rest of the competition? Seema: If you look at how the entire cloud architecture, be it private or public, the security aspect is built in end-toend. So it is not only about infrastructure security. If I’m building an application for example, it can be very vulnerable to a lot of security threats. So application security is something that needs to designed at the time the application is being developed. We have an offering called Appscan which runs checks and figures out vulnerabilities within your code to allow the coder to plug it themselves. The other thing is IBM QRadar which is a security intelligence portfolio based on predictive security analytics where we are able to detect threats before they even occur. The third aspect is data security. When you are putting your data out there, we have a data security solution on top of what we already have to ensure that the data is protected and only accessed by the right people. Read more - http://dgit.in/BTJan181

SUBSCRIPTION FORM

. DURATION

COVER PRICE

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

Start / Renew my subscription from

m m

Name ______________________________________________________________________________________________ (First Name)

(Middle Name)

(Last Name)

Occupation_______________________Company___________________________Designation_______________________ Delivery Address _____________________________________________________________________________________ City _______________________ Pin Code ___________________ State ________________________________________ Telephone_____________________ Mobile_______________________ E-mail ___________________________________ (Please mention an active email-id to receive your copy dispatch details)

(STD Code) (Phone Number)

Subscription Number ______________________________________ (Only for existing subscribers)

Payment Details

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

Subscribe online at www.digit.in/subscribe OR SMS “DIGIT SUB” to 92200 92200 For quick customer service, email us at help@digit.in OR call (022) 678 99 678

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 28th February 2018 | Price of assured gift may vary, but specifications will be unchanged.

SUB FEB 18

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_____________________