Digit July 2017 by 9.9 Media

THE STATIC PAGE | Siddharth Parwatay | Managing Editor

To niche or not to niche

loaded flagships from established brands. Going by early sales numbers, the positioning is working, but will it continue to? The next major phone they launch (One Plus 6 presumably?) will be expected to take on “mainstream” flagship phones. The alienation of the geeks is already underway for a few. Some take the changes of the brand to be akin to the bik gayi hai gormint sentiment, but some may look at it positively like the way they accept a change of their favourite band or artist’s music style. Success depends on which of these groups is larger. Another thing I’m wondering about is whether a brand can ever truly retain its enthusiast tag or title throughout its life cycle? Probably not. Do companies drop us enthusiasts, geeks, and early adopters somewhere along the road because we are a difficult lot to please, or is it just because there aren’t enough of us to matter? Brands that start out targeting enthusiasts seem to have only two options – attempt to go mainstream and fight the big guys, or hope that one of the big guys buys you out eventually. Pebble, NextBit and many others seem to have gone down the latter path. Coming back to OnePlus, I think the company was in a rather unique position, especially in India. Here the price-sensitivity of the average buyer is legendary. Furthermore, I posit that the tech awareness of the average buyer is also increasing, especially when it comes to understanding smartphone specifications. Combining these factors, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that India has a large enough base of geeky, price sensitive people to keep enthusiast brands afloat and maybe even make them thrive in the long run. With OnePlus vacating this position, perhaps geeks will soon find themselves hungering for a replacement, and I wonder who that replacement will be. One of the existing smaller brands, or a completely new startup? One thing’s for sure, the Next Big Thing (trademark) will come from nowhere, and will be unexpected, but it will start with us geeks. Only time will tell, and there are exciting times ahead for us geeks.

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LIKE PRETTY MUCH everyone else in the tech community, I watched the India launch of the OnePlus 5 with a lot of anticipation interest. All the leaks made sure that only a few details were truly unknown, so there was no anticipation, but I was certainly interested – more for the event than the phone itself. Leading up to the launch, I saw a peculiar shift in the way OnePlus has been promoting their phone. For sometime now, (since the Emily Ratajkowski Dash Charging days actually), the brand seems to have been teetering on the edge of deciding whether it wants to retain its erstwhile enthusiast focussed underdog image or shed it completely and take the mainstream plunge. If the star studded TV commercials featuring heavyweights like Amitabh Bachchan are to go by, OnePlus seems to have finally made the choice. The massive PR campaign they ran finally culminated in a cringe-fest of a launch event at one of the biggest venues in Mumbai and the event even managed to pull a few purely commercial stunts like an on-stage on the spot quiz competition with a `1 crore cash prize! Whether or not Amazon lent a hand in this massive publicity campaign, or whether OnePlus did it all on its own is immaterial, the message it sends is more important. Until now, OnePlus had the image of a scrappy upstart with great ideas, an intimate two-way relationship with the geek community, a marketing strategy that relied heavily on word of mouth and a focus on providing great devices whose pricing seemed “fair” if nothing else. Despite my dislike for the publicity stunts, the phone that OnePlus launched isn’t bad at all. It does lack “flagship” features such as waterproofing, and looks suspiciously like the iPhone 7 (or Oppo R11 from its parent company), but hey at least it’s got the latest and greatest SoC out there. And while it will be the most affordable 835-based phone we’re likely to see this year, at `33k it’s falls outside of what I like to call the “no brainer” zone – a zone some of their previous phones owned! The OP5 is straddling the line between absolute value for money, and the exorbitant flagship pricing you have to shell out for the bells and whistles

“OnePlus had the image of a scrappy upstart with great ideas and an intimate two-way relationship with the geek community”

Reach me at: facebook.com/ staticsid | @staticsid | editor@digit.in

www.digit.in | July 2017 | Digit | 1

THE RSS FEED | Robert Sovereign-Smith | Executive Editor

Texit? Techxit?

Since there are companies making alternative apps for all of those things (regardless of how good or bad they are), the same antitrust rules that applied to Windows in 2004 will apply to Android now. Given that every tiny feature of everything tech has many companies competing, does this mean customers in the EU will be forced to build their own tech from scratch soon? We (team digit) were discussing this and someone said, “GUIs for desktops and launchers for mobiles are also made by several companies… will we all get command line-only PCs and sans-launcher mobiles soon?” We don’t live in the EU, so this doesn’t affect us at all, yet. The problem with the EU is that all this fines business seems to be political in nature. The problem is, bad ideas seem to spread very quickly these days, especially amongst politicians, and we don’t want our politicians getting any ideas. As a consumer, I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. A monopoly is bad for me, because it means less choice, and perhaps higher prices. However, Google doesn’t charge me anything for search, and Android is open source. What does it do for innovation if we cripple big tech companies? With more interconnectedness of OSes and apps across all platforms, I wonder if it’s even possible to really strip an OS of all the features that others make apps for… more importantly, is it even worth it to do so? I’m used to ignoring ads on Google search and although I personally might even prefer a crippled Android device that I can set up from scratch, most smartphone users will not like that. If they do it to Google, they will have to do it to Apple too. Can you imagine Apple buyers (who supposedly love the ease of use aspect of their devices), having to download and setup everything from scratch? No Safari, no Apple Maps (ok maybe that’s a good thing), no apps whatsoever, just an App store icon on the home screen? This brings me back to that headline, which is an attempt to conflate technology and exit (like Brexit; I know, I know, it’s a pathetic attempt). Even if the big technology companies cannot leave, it sure as heck seems like common sense is exiting Europe!

M PL

THE EUROPEAN UNION recently fined Google 2.7 billion USD in an antitrust lawsuit. Why? Because when you search for a product, Google displays ads on top from its own shopping comparison service. Of course those are affiliate links to other sites (such as Amazon and Flipkart in India) that actually sell the products, and it clearly displays it as “Sponsored” content, but the EU deemed it unfair to other comparison sites. Now, I’m not usually one to side with big companies over anything, because like everyone else, I too secretly love it when the rich corporation gets a dent in its fat wallet. However, I find myself on Google’s side in this case. The problem with the EU’s argument is that whilst it looks to be fair to the little guy, it’s not really fair to the littlest guy – us consumers. The EU is known to be a little trigger happy when it comes to such things. They fined Microsoft twice – once for bundling Windows Media Player in Windows, and again for bundling Internet Explorer in Windows. The Microsoft battle still rages in court. The EU also fined Intel 1.45 billion USD in 2009 for giving additional rebates to PC companies like Acer, Dell, HP, etc., if they used Intel chips in more than 95% of their sales. That case is still in appeal, and is actually looking good for Intel (supposedly). Qualcomm faces a similar charge for reportedly undercutting a smaller competitor with a specific (unnamed) phone manufacturer. Apple has been awarded a whopping tax evasion fine of 13 billion Euros (about 14.75 billion USD) for escaping paying tax in Ireland… and here I thought the US was the lawsuit capital of the world! Coming back to Google, they will of course challenge this verdict as all the other companies have done before them. Has anyone ever paid the EU any money? With lawsuits, however, it isn’t just the individual case that matters, but more so the precedent it sets. After delivering a verdict against Microsoft in 2004 for Windows Media Player, the EU has no choice but to do the same with all the others. In fact, it’s already investigating and coming up with another case against Google for Android. Why? Because all Android devices come with Maps, Chrome, YouTube, Gmail, etc. bundled.

2 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

“Like everyone else, I too secretly love it when the rich corporation gets a dent in its fat wallet.”

Liked or hated this column? Let me know at: facebook.com/ raaabo | @raaabo | robert@digit.in

PARANOID ANDROID | Mithun Mohandas | Asst. Technical Editor

Consensual Robbery

something a lot more valuable that the hackers can hold you to ransom for. Your life. It would take a very cold blooded sort of hacker to hold a human life ransom and it’s not an improbable scenario. We are in an era which is increasingly moving towards a greater level of digitisation. Autonomous cars, autonomous factory machinery, remote controlled pacemakers, automated home appliances and security systems are just the beginning. There are even policing software which use facial recognition and body language patterns en masse to identify suspicious behaviour. Now imagine this autonomous, interconnected world is a reality and we then fall prey to a ransomware attack. What if someone were to lock you in your home and prevent you from leaving without paying a ‘toll’? Or if someone were to threaten to crash your daughter’s autonomous car, to make all robots on your factory floor to go on a murderous rampage, to shut off your pacemaker or pull off even worse acts which can easily be defined as terrorism. These things can happen and some of the vulnerabilities which can make such acts possible have even been reported in the press. The question is, what have you done to mitigate such an attack should it ever happen? People simply don’t care about something till it happens to them. There are very few who bother to take backups of their important files. People don’t even follow simple practices of forming strong passwords. We’re looking at you Mr./Ms. My-password-is-123456. One of the popular comebacks to this is the ‘you deserved it’ arguement. You didn’t use a strong password or didn’t take backups, hence, you deserved it. That’s wrong. Nobody deserves to be hacked, be held ransom or even be threatened with their life for a few bucks. Though there do exist means to reduce the chances of ending up in such a situation, it isn’t completely improbable. You need to start taking the measures prescribed to stave off such attacks. And you need to make it clear to your government that such acts need their requisite amount of attention. No digital product or service should be allowed to go scot free for not keeping their databases secure. With the advent of even greater number of devices going the digital way comes the need for a unified security framework to prevent attacks, identify vectors and punish those responsible.

M PL

NOT A WEEK goes by when you don’t hear about a new malware that’s making life hell for folks on the Internet. Previously it was WannaCry and this week it has been Petya. Those who’re clued into the who web security scene know that it started a couple of years back with CryptoLocker and every week there’s a newbie trying to unleash the next big ransomware onto the web to make a quick buck. While developers do prioritise security, there have been events which completely messed up their efforts. Recently leaked NSA tools have made life a lot worse for the common man and a lot easier for hackers. At the same time the average internet user is becoming more aware of standard intrusion vectors and the job of your average joe hacker is becoming slightly more difficult. But since necessity is the mother of invention, they’ve found their ways, after all, they need to eat too you know. Even they have little script kiddies to feed. What worries me is the next generation of such ransomware. What if they start evolving for the worse? (We’re all pretty certain that’s going to happen.) What if they stopped going after your precious personal data and went for something more valuable i.e. that Goa holiday photo when you finally had your first beer. Memorable? Indeed. Worth losing $300 over? Not at all. Most of us at Digit would rather not be bothered with the majority of files on our systems since we tend to keep backups. However, the vast majority out there have some of their most sensitive files kept right in the open. For example, let’s take my neighbour who had once given his iPhone to me to fix. The notes application on his phone had every single bank account details down to the pin numbers for each plastic currency. And this person is not alien to the current technology news. Even mainstream newspapers flash news pieces about WannaCry and all of its variants. Every other article mentions the dangers of not having multiple backups of your most sensitive files and yet we commit the most silliest of mistakes. It’s as if we want to be robbed. Ransomware these days are quite simple – they encrypt your data and hold you ransom till you pay up a couple of hundred dollars. The maximum that anyone has had to shell out for a single machine is 13 Bitcoins which works out to around $33,683 and that’s a lot. But there’s still

4 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

“What if someone were to lock you in your home and prevent you from leaving without paying a ‘toll’?”

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

Scontents A M PL E COVER STORY PAGE 50-61

R.I.P Photography Is technology replacing the need for genuine talent in the field of photography? Or is it changing the face of this art forever until it is no longer recognisable through traditional viewfinders?

TECH - PAGE 14-49

SCIENCE - PAGE 62-71

JULY 2017 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 07

6 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

30 | Intelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new Mesh Architecture

64 | Human Animal Hybrids

The race to pump more cores into your processor has begun heating up.

Think about nobody ever having to wait for an organ donor again.

AND MORE

SKOAR! - PAGE 97-111

ON THE DVD Periodic table and trends The periodic table - classification of elements Groups of the periodic table Counting valence electrons for main group elements The periodic table - transition metals Valence electrons and bonding Atomic radius trends on periodic table

Essential photography tools Adobe Photoshop Lightroom GIMP Mylio PhotoRec PhotoScape Recuva Stellar Phoenix JPEG Repair

102 | What a rip-off!

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The gaming industry while full of creativity is also rife with rip-offs. Here are some of the most blatant ones.

106 | E3 - Top Ten and more

The best showcases and reveals from this year’s E3! In no particular order of course.

AND MORE

ALT - PAGE 72-85

CULTURE - PAGE 86-96

76 | Strong Medicine

The future of health will be much different from the capsules, injections and transplant lists of today.

88 | PC Master Race : Life lessons Gather around mortals, as we give out life lessons from the best community on the face of the earth.

74 | Keyboard Trivia

Don’t call yourself a keyboard geek if you don’t know these facts!

78 | Infophilia

92 | Boo-Man on WWDC

All about cryptocurrency

What’s that stand for anyway? We Will Definitely Cheer?

AND MORE

Ethereum mining Eth Ethereum Wallet Go Thereum (Geth) MinerGate Image Mist browser NiceHash OpenCL Packages for AMD and NVIDIA

Indie games Dark Medieval Times Demo Eagle Island Flux8 From Light Grind Day Kill Commando Lucah Mayhem in Single Valley Spaced The Juice of God’s Future Tiny Robot Justice Squad Processing If you want to learn the fundamentals of programming through a visual aid, Processing makes it easier to understand through a graphics user interface and basic syntax.

E3 2017 A Way Out Official Gameplay Anthem Official Gameplay Reveal Ashen on Xbox One Assassin’s Creed Origins Beyond Good and Evil 2 Crackdown 3 Destiny 2 Detroit Become Human Dishonored Death of the Outsider DOOM VFR DRAGON BALL FighterZ E3 2017 ID@Xbox Games Montage Fallout 4 VR Far Cry 5 FIFA 18 Forza Motorsport 7 Life is Strange: Before The Storm Reveal Metro Exodus Minecraft Need for Speed Payback

www.digit.in | July 2017 | Digit | 7

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EDITORIAL Executive Editor Robert Sovereign-Smith Managing Editor Siddharth Parwatay Multimedia Co-ordinator Abhijit Dey Writers Arnab Mukherjee, Manish Rajesh, Yangerlong Jamir Interns Haran Rajkumar, Pradhyu Anand, Prithvi Sudhan

BAZAAR MSI VR One | Intel Core i9-7900X Sennheiser HD 200 Pro | OnePlus 5

WEST: Suvarna Shringarpure Mobile: +91-93249 28247

Beyerdynamic Byron | ASUS Prime X299

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DELUXE | Digisol DG-BR5400QAC | Bose SoundLink Revolve+ | Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB

EAST: Jayanta Bhattacharyya Mobile: +91-93318 29284

| UE WONDERBOOM | HP Omen 870-260ln AmpliFi Wi-Fi | MSI GT73VR 7RF Titan Pro

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TEST CENTRE Asst. Technical Editor Mithun Mohandas Reviewers Hardik Singh, Souvik Das, Shrey Pacheco Assistant Vikas Patil

DIGIT.IN Editor Soham Raninga Assistant Editor Prasid Banerjee, Sameer Mitha Features Editor Adamya Sharma Senior Sub Editor Karthek Iyer Mgr - Online Shauvik Kumar DESIGN Sr. Art Director Anil VK Associate Art Director Shokeen Saifi Visualiser Baiju NV Lead UI/UX Designer Shri Hari Tiwari Sr. Designers Haridas Balan, Charu Dwivedi, Peterson PJ & Manoj Kumar VP Intern Aman Agrawal PHOTOGRAPHY Sr. Photographer Jiten Gandhi Intern Rohit Kajaria

Brand.......................................... Page No. Seagate...................................Inside front cover Gigabyte..................................Inside back cover

HP.....................................................Back cover TP-Link.............................................................3

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

iBall............................................................. 9,37 LIC..................................................................11

IOCL................................................................19 India Antivirus............................................... 111

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

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

8 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

MXGP3 | Nier: Automata

MOBILE MONTHLY Yellow | VOI | Eggggg Injustice 2 | Topsoil Flick Heroes | Lode Runner 1

Published and printed by Kanak Ghosh for and on behalf of the owners, M/s Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx Pvt Ltd. Published at A-262, 2nd Floor, Defence colony, New Delhi110024 and printed at International PrintO-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.”

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GAMES REVIEWED THIS MONTH

Kaspersky.........................................................5

CONTRIBUTORS Writers Akshay Surendra, Anusha Sinha, Vishweshwar Jatain

ADVERTISING INDEX

COVER IMAGING AND DESIGN Peterson PJ

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.

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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

opening Most accurate video camera

Grass – the ultimate survivor

INBOX

and researchers have concluded that British propaganda about Dravidian Origin has resulted in most of the political divisions, civil and military conflict in South India and Sri Lanka? Do you know that even British Historians have concluded that there is no difference between the Indus Valley Civilisation and settlements in other parts of India of the same time? How can you touch such a delicate topic without proper research? 4. Do you know that the so called concept of Toba Volcanic Eruption is also not accepted today? I do not know if you have taken care to at least speak to a South Indian and find out whether your research is correct or not. It is not right to play around with scientific concepts that hold great respect such as “genetics” and “mtDNA” which suggest that Indians were not native to our land but migrated from somewhere else. You guys being students of science are not expected to misuse the science over this delicate subject. –R.Ravindran (This Letter has been shortened to fit)

M PL

Feedback for the June 2017 issue of Digit

Grass has the quintessential ability to respond faster to change and open its stomata wider which has ensured its survival http://dgit.in/Grassrootz

Researchers have made a video camera that can capture a staggering 5,000,000,000,000 frames/ sec using lasers http://dgit.in/over8000

Send your feedback at editor@Digit.in

standalone setups. About APK files, redistribution anywhere other than official app stores is illegal hence we can’t include them. I shall try and make the dmystify books more interesting for you, and will try and squeeze Chaos Theory into our schedule. –Robert

I am a reader of Digit from 2007 onwards. I have learnt a lot from your magazine since 2007 and even now I am learning from Digit. Digit keeps me updated about the latest news and arrivals on the electronics scene in general educates me in Electronics field. I am shocked and appalled at the article “Origins of Indians” at Pg 119 of your June 2017 issue. An informative magazine such as yours has fallen prey to the decades old theories of so called origins of Indians that were created only to divide us rather than unite us as a nation. The reasons are as follows: 1. From where did you get the information that there were two groups – North Indian and South Indian and they could be differentiated based on colour complexion? Do you know these differences were invented by British Colonials to keep north and south part divided? 2. Do you know that it is accepted by most of the historians today that Max Mueller’s conclusions about the Aryan Invasion theory was an utter fraud? 3. Do you know several papers

You guys are amongst the few very important people in my life. I started reading Digit since the May 2014 issue. There’s basically a “Before Digit”, and an “After Digit” era in my life. You really changed the way I looked at technology. This year I bid goodbye to my school as I completed 12th and in our farewell, I was titled Mr. Computer (how cool is that!) all thanks to you. Here are my suggestions: 1. No Steam-based games in the DVD please. Why not executable setups instead? 2. Instead of listing them in SKOAR! give the Android apks instead. (Just the free ones) 3. Please improve the Digit App and at least give an e-version to the subscribers by asking the subscription number and some mode of verification. 4. The dmystifys are starting to get boring. I really loved “e=mc^2”, “string theory” and “dark matter”. I expected more from “time”, and “fossils” was just plain boring. They are the first thing I read when I get the package. Do a dmystify on Chaos Theory, I couldn’t really understand it from the web. –Sumeet Singh As for including Steam games, that’s not been the case since Feb. Since then we’ve been only bundling

12 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

Wow. We seemed to have hit a nerve there. I assure you, we certainly did not mean the article in the way you’re taking it. This was merely a short article that discusses the various theories that have existed about the Origin of us Indians. The idea is to whet your appetite so that readers read more about it. Let me reply point-by-point. 1. Absolutely in agreement here. Divide and rule was very much an evil British political ploy. You’ve mistaken our reporting of past understanding of the Indian origin story as fact. We have merely reported that for a long time it was thought to be this way. 2. Yes, we know this, and are very clear about this. I quote from our article: “However, new research has questioned this theory and asserts that ‘there was no genetic influx 3,500 years ago.’ Researchers state that Indians are not descendants of Aryans.” 3. We have only said it’s one of the many theories, which is backed by mtDNA evidence. It’s not the only theory,

THIS MONTH IN TECH: Things kick off with our coverage from the showfloor of Computex 2017, then we move on to an in-depth look at Intel’s Mesh Architecture, and a list of amazing crowdfunded projects. Then we move on to our regular startup corner listing down cryptocurrency startups in India. As always, we have a wonderful roster of gadget reviews for you guys. Devworx deals with a neat guide to using Vim whereas you can also learn how to start mining Ethereum from this month’s DIY story.

LG’s transparent, flexible OLED display his giant OLED display was developed by LG in collaboration with the Korean government, and the company beat Samsung to the punch to score a grant of $110 Million from the Korean Trade Ministry. The challenge was to create a flexible UHD display, larger than 60-inches, to stay ahead of the competition curve, and LG seems to have done just that. You have to give credit to LG who makes stunning looking OLED displays. The company has been aggressively ramping up its OLED production and the future of its panels certainly looks bright. Adding another feather to its cap, LG has introduced the world’s first 77-inch OLED display, which is not only transparent, but is also flexible.

M PL

tech

Tech-love

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

The display can be comfortably rolled up to a radius of 80 mm and is 40 percent transparent. At 77-inches, the display also supports 4K video output, which is quite impressive. Another advantage of the screen is that it can simply be rolled up for shipping. http://dgit.in/LG77oled

iOS 11 Public Beta for iPhone is here A

pple has started rolling out the public beta for iOS 11, the much awaited software update to the iOS operating system, with nifty new features like screen recording, Instant Wi-Fi sharing, FLAC playback, Siri updates and much more. A public Beta means users will not have to pay the $99 developer fee to use the updated software. By installing the public beta of iOS 11, users will be able to get a glimpse of all the tweaks and new features planned for the final release of the software. Users can also send feedback to Apple about this pre-released version of iOS 11 by using the Feedback Assistant App. Check out our complete guide on how to install the update, explore the new features and everything else you need to know, here > http://dgit.in/iOS11new

14 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

tech

TECH WATCH

Computex 2017

Gaming laptops, insane CPUs, cabinets and more gadgetry from Computex, Taiwan.

long with their extensive lineup of graphics cards and gaming laptops, MSI also showcased their latest gaming desktop called the Infinite series. The Infinite A is packed with the latest trends in gaming cabinets; RGB lighting and tempered glass panels. The cabinet also comes with HDMI passthroughs on the front panel. The hardware on the Infinite A was quite obvious; it packs MSI’s own graphics cards, vertically, which is said to keep them cooler. As for the rest of the specs, there was no final word but we got to see the latest Intel Core i7 and i5 processors being used.

M PL

MD’s COMPUTEX 2017 press conference didn’t turn out to be all that we’d hoped for but we now have tentative dates for the launch of the upcoming Ryzen 9 ThreadRipper processors which will ship with the new X399 platform. An exact date or price wasn’t disclosed at the press conference but we were told that we should see the official launch of the ThreadRipper processors “later this summer”. As we approach launch day, we’ll have more details but this is what we know so far. The flagship AMD ThreadRipper will have 16-cores and 32-threads. Each and every ThreadRipper CPU will have 64 PCIe 3.0 lanes and will have support for quad-channel memory. You’ll need a motherboard with the new X399 chipset to run them. The pricing details were not revealed but we expect AMD to price the SKUs below what Intel revealed with their Core X-series of processors. For all we know, by the time the ThreadRipper officially launches, it’ll have more cores than 16 or 18.

MSI Infinite Series

AMD ThreadRipper

ASUS ZenBook Flip S B

eing a convertible, the ASUS ZenBook Flip S has opted for a 13.3-inch display panel giving consumers not only sufficient working space but also keeping it small enough to be comfortable while in tablet mode. The hinges turn 360 degrees and don’t seem to take up a massive footprint. The bezel, given the monicker of NanoEdge by ASUS, is 6.11 mm at its thinnest side which gives you an 80% screen-to-body ratio. The Flip S has an aluminium unibody design and to throw a few eyebrows up in the air, ASUS says they’ve used an aerospace-grade aluminium alloy (6013). They’re claiming another world’s first with the ‘0.3 mm’ thick liquid-crystal-polymer fan. If that’s true then it’s just crazy thin. The hinge on the ASUS ZenBook Flip S is only 3.9 mm thick and has been reportedly tested for 20,000 open/close cycles. Lastly, the 10.9 mm z-height makes this the world’s thinnest convertible notebook.

16 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

SPECIFICATIONS

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 GT73VR 7RF Titan Pro

AmpliFi HD

Intel Core i9 7900X 28 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

32 Bose Soundlink Revolve+

PLUS

30 Sennheiser HD 200 Pro 31 Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB 33 Beyerdynamic Byron 33 Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 34 MSI VR One 35 ASUS PRIME X299-DELUXE & MORE...

tech 35th anniversary of blade runner

On June 25th an iconic sci-fi classsic directed by Ridley Scott tuned 35. The sequel Bladerunner 2049 releases Oct 6. http://dgit.in/30BR2049

Snowden-inspired leaks in CIA

Disclosure of secret intelligence accelerated after revelations made by Edward Snowden says the CIA director. http://dgit.in/LeakUp

OnePlus 5

A speed demon, but no flagship killer

μm). It is however, a dual-pixel sensor, making it a lot more capable in terms of focusing speed and accuracy. OnePlus has put more focus on the lens than the sensor, with a large f/1.7 aperture, the OnePlus 5 is evidently better equipped to deal with low light situations in comparison to the OnePlus 3T, or for that matter many of the previous gen flagships. But, the biggest win for OnePlus 5 camera, in our books, would be the speed of capture, the focusing system, scene evaluation algorithms and image processing engine. Heading to the second telephoto unit (the dual camera bit), the 20 MP secondary camera on the OnePlus 5 brings in 1.6x optical zoom to the OnePlus 5. With as many as 20 megapixels crammed on 1/2.8-inch sensor with 1.0 μm pixel size, the telephoto performance is somewhat similar to the main camera. Fast and accurate focusing, instant capture and accurate white balance performance. However, the 20MP shots are on the softer side, the f/2.6 lens doesn’t help proceedings either, low-light shooting is certainly not its forte and you’d often find excessive noise creeping in. Overall, we’d rate the camera at a 7 on 10. At 3300 mAh, the battery capacity on the OnePlus 5 hasn’t really changed in comparison to the OnePlus 3T, what has though is the SoC. The 10nm based Snapdragon 835 sips lesser battery juice, while running faster and cooler. All of which adds to the overall battery efficiency of the device. Moderate to occasional heavy usage will get you through the day without setting any alarm bells. And, just in case you feel the need for a quick dash of extra juice, the Dash charge tech will ensure you get done with refueling in almost no time. –Soham Raninga

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f you are looking for pure performance (speed), a near-stock Android experience and bang for the buck in premium Android smartphone, there’s nothing better than the OnePlus 5. But, the OnePlus 5 doesn't come across as a flagship killer. Android flagships of 2017 have shifted gears in terms of looks and feature set, and the newest from OnePlus does fall a bit short in those departments. Design and looks: Starting with the looks, build and design. OnePlus 5 is a good-looking smartphone that does feel premium and well-crafted in every sense. Having said that, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the LG G6 make the OnePlus 5 look a little dated in the looks and design department. Simply put, while the OnePlus 5 is a wellmade device that does feel premium enough for its price tag, it doesn't look as sharp and appealing when standing Price 9 37,99 next to the 2017 Android flagships. As far as the 5.5-inch display goes, the PenTile RGBG AMOLED when it is supposed to display on the OnePlus 5 behave closer to real world treads on the borderline performance. But, that by of adequate sharpness FEATURES.....................76 no means can take away needed for a 5.5-inch BUILD............................87 the fact that the OnePlus device. The 5.5-inch IPS VALUE............................81 5 is the fastest Android RGBW display on the PERFORMANCE...........89 phone in the market iPhone 7 Plus, for example, today, not just in terms feels visibly sharper at the of synthetic benchmarks same 1080p resolution. but how it feels and performs on Overall, the display sharpness on the regular usage. From app load times, OnePlus 5 is fine and does not leave to multitasking, browsing and heavy you wanting. It’s only when you hold gaming, the OnePlus 5 makes light of a QHD screen based phone next to it, everything you throw at it. And yes, that you start discerning and realizing we never encountered any serious heat the difference. issues with the device. Performance: Plonk the fastest Camera: OnePlus flagships have available SoC on a 1080p device, layer never managed to lead and set an exit with stock Android goodness and ample on the imaging front. At 1/2.8” optimise the living daylights out of (6.4mm), the 16MP Sony IMX398 it. What you get is a OnePlus 5. Sure, sensor powering the main camera is they went a wee bit too far on the opticlose but no cigar in terms of sheer mising bit, making the phone perform sensor size or even the pixel size (1.12 at break neck speeds on benchmarks

REVIEWS

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT

PHONE: 1800 102 8411 | EMAIL: support.in@oneplus.net | WEBSITE: oneplusstore.in

www.digit.in | July 2017 | Digit | 29

tech

> code / creativity / community >

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

DEVWORX

Vimpower yourself Vim, a relic from the past? Or a tool that stood the test of time? There are those who swear by it and then there are those view it as crazy.

E VIM STARTER PACK

So you decided to man up and learn Vim? Don’t worry, this guide will cover the basics and will serve as a jumpstart to your journey to mastering Vim.

M PL

re you frustrated with your current editor? Not able to code as fast you can think? Worry not cuz’ we’ve got you covered with this amazing guide to the best editor in the world, Vim(You heard that right, emac).

WHAT IS VIM AND WHY SHOULD I LEARN IT?

In the 1970s, computer screens didn’t have a GUI and had very low refresh rates. So low in fact, that single keystrokes took whole seconds to register. Developers found that frustrating to work on with normal text editors. Something about necessity, mothers and invention and Voila! Vim was created, a text editor that could do extensive editing with just a few keystrokes. How does it do that? Well, Vim is what one calls a modal text editor which basically means, it has different modes that assign different functionality to the keys. In conventional text editors, there is only one mode where the keys input text and some keys perform functions when used in conjunction with the control key. In Vim, that is just one of it’s many modes called “insert”. Other modes have different bindings to the keys. For example, “x” deletes a character in “normal” mode.

Combine this with touch typing and you will be spewing code as fast as you can think. If you’ve dealt with Unix systems, you would know that Vim comes installed by default. Apart from that, Vim has a port to almost every platform imaginable. Hence, it would be a one time investment in learning it and you can use it everywhere. Some loyalists have gone a step further and have developed plugins to be able to

38 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

Initial Setup: Linux: If you’re on Linux, chances are Vim is already installed. Update to the latest version by running the following. $ sudo apt-get update

Windows If you have the Windows subsystem for Linux installed, Vim would have been installed by default. It can be accessed via the bash terminal. If you

This could go on for a while!

use Vim in services like, Gmail, web browsers and even iTunes. Additionally, Vim can be hacked and customized, extensively. It has it’s own scripting language called VimL to create plugins. Here are some popular ones • Fugitive - A Sweet git integration. • Syntastic - Syntax checker with support for almost any language you can think off. • Nerdtree - Adds a tree explorer functionality. • YouCompleteMe - The Autocomplete plugin.

don’t, you could install the executable from Vim’s website (vim.org). Mac Vim can be installed on a Mac via Homebrew. If you don’t have Homebrew installed, check out MacVim, the Mac port for Vim. Although it’s an unofficial port, Vim developers themselves recommend it. Once you have Vim installed, you can open a file by typing the following in the terminal. $ vim my_great_code.c

Image xkcd: http://dgit.in/RealProg

Haran Rajkumar | feedback@digit.in

The only downside to using Vim is the learning curve steeper than a cliff. But if you’re going to be spend hours every day programming for the rest of your life then learning Vim is the second best investment to touch typing.

S cover story A M PL E

cover story

It’s just a changing art form, and cannot stay what it was decades ago

Agent 001 | agent001@digit.in

M PL

ny activity that results in something that evokes emotions in viewer can be considered art. Photography invoke emotions in the viewer. It really is that simple. How good a photo looks in terms of clarity, is not what makes a photograph a piece of art. Rather, it’s the composition of the photograph (lighting, composition etc), the amount of thought and effort put into taking that perfect shot etc., that make up the characteristics that define good artwork. Just because you can do it from a smartphone doesn’t mean photography is no longer art. One of the main things tech innovation does is to make a task easier to do, and that’s all technology has done for photography. Remember the analog days when photography was a time consuming and expensive hobby, exclusive to the rich or professionals? When you couldn’t immediately see the results of the shoot, but had to spend hours developing it in a lightroom? All that changed when technology introduced us to digital photography. It levelled the playing field and brought photography to the masses. Technology is constantly improving the quality of photography and cameras, and I’m going to walk you through some of these developments.

Imaging: Peterson PJ

MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY

It has never been easier for someone to get started with photography. There are countless resources for photography online that teach photography. Forums to clear all your queries are a tap away. In fact, many of the mainstream photographers were self-made. Take Ana Bathe, the unconventional portraiture photographer for example; she was rejected by all the photography schools she had applied to and taught herself photography through online videos. The internet has also made it easier for photographers to showcase their work. Services like Patreon, 500px and deviantart have given photographers the ability to upload their content online and even monetize them. If anything, technology is helping the photography art form thrive and grow.

DSLR SALES DOESN’T AFFECT PHOTOGRAPHY There’s no denying that DSLR sales have dropped drastically since the advent of the smartphone. However, this does not directly equate to the death of photography as an art form. Photography has always served two purposes, documentation and creative photography. By documentation, I mean, taking photos purely for recording a moment. A large section of the population bought DSLRs for documentation purely because of it’s superior quality. With the improvement of smartphone cameras, that need just went away. However, they weren’t the “Artists” in the first place, so using a drop in sales to them doesn’t prop up the argument that the art form is dying. A similar trend can be seen in the sale of PCs. The overall number of PCs sold is decreasing at an alarming rate. But can you equate that to coding dying out? Obviously not, because we seem to have coders coming out of our ears these days! www.digit.in | July 2017 | Digit | 51

THIS TIME, GET READY TO FIND OUT SOME OF THE GEEKIEST secrets that science has to offer, starting off with the controversial area of Human-Animal hybrids. Moving on, let us show you how time travel has already been done (you heard that right), and in case you fell sick hearing that, we’ve got some health apps to cover that too. Also, by the way, planning to leave the planet anytime soon? Try Jupiter.

Colonising Mars over the next 100 years

sci

uman beings have been envisioning life on Mars for many years, and colonising the red planet has been every space exploration agency’s wet dream. India was the first to reach Mars on its maiden attempt with the Mangalyaan, US President Donald Trump wants NASA to put a man on Mars by 2033, scientists have also discovered evidence of water on the surface of Mars. And, somewhere in the middle of a worldwide race to reach and inhabit our closest planetary neighbour, Elon Musk has formulated a plan to transport a million human beings to Mars over the course of a Hundred years and 10,000 interplanetary voyages. ‘Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species’ - This is the title for Musk’s Mars plan, a detailed summary of his presenta-

M PL

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!

Humanity Master Race

tion at the 67th International Astronautical Congress, held in September last year. Musk’s SpaceX is already planning a Moon trip for two in late 2018, and the company aims to make humans an interplanetary species to escape an eventual doomsday event on Earth which may occur “some day” in the future. http://dgit.in/100mars

Cold Fusion, the future of power?

rom being a long standing joke within the scientific community, Cold Fusion is finally being taken seriously. LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reaction) a.k.a. Cold Fusion is a hypothetical nuclear fusion reaction that happens at near room temperature compared to traditional “hot” fusion reactions which require a high temperature and pressure. It promises to be clean, cheap and possibly a new limitless source of energy. Early failed replication attempts led to the mainstream scientific community dismissing the experiment as a hoax. . Despite that, a small percentage of determined researchers continued to experiment on cold fusion. http://dgit.in/CldFusion

62 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

sci

SPACE AGE

Exploring Jupiter: Few more secrets revealed

M PL

The largest planet in our Solar system has been in the spotlight for quite a while now. Here are some of the latest discoveries about Jupiter Prithvi Sudhan | feedback@digit.in IT JUST GOT AN OFFICIAL DATE

No not that kind of date. Scientists finally have figured out how old Jupiter really is – and it’s pretty darn old. In no big surprise to anybody, Jupiter is also the oldest planet in our solar system. Thomas Kruijer, who headed the teams over at University of Muenster in Germany and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Jupiter’s solid core formed just after the formation of the Sun’s nebula 4.6 billion years ago, according to the study. The gravi-

tational pull exerted by the Sun after its formation from a giant cloud of gas and dust, ended up making a ‘disc’ of sorts, and the leftover materials ended up making the planets. Jupiter was already 20 times as huge as Earth, just after one million years of formation (Just for comparison, 318 Earths can comfortably fit in Jupiter right now). But its growth rate slowed down and it didn’t end up reaching 50 Earth masses for 2-3 million years later. The fact that it also grew so large to have a humongous gravitational field also probably accounts for the lack of planets between Mars and Jupiter. The scientists managed to figure out the exact age of the gas giant by comparing pieces of meteorites that fell to Earth

from Jupiter. These meteorites, which are made of iron also have impurities of molybdenum and tungsten. These impurities are from two distinct reservoirs that were quite a distance off and did not merge until 3-4 million years after the Solar System formation. By dating the number of isotopes of these impurities that are present in the meteorite shards, the scientists are able to find how old exactly the gas giant is. Learn more at http://dgit.in/OldJupitr.

SENDING STUFF TO JUPITER!

After the success of our manned mission to Moon and our planned missions to Mars humankind’s sights are next set on Jupiter. There have been a number

Is metallic hydrogen just hydrogen that listens to the Big Four? 70 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

THIS MONTH WE KICK IT OFF ON THE RIGHT KEY by telling you all about mechanical keyboards, before moving on to our take on healthcare in a world where we are cyborgs. Infophilia takes you on a cryptocurrency ride, while DGT brings in some Computex, Kickstarter and Bentley goodness.

Why are eggs round? Or symmetrical? Or bottomheavy?

alt

enerally, eggs are ovoid, but they also come in all shapes and sizes. Many hypotheses have been put up to explain exactly what has driven this variation, with many accepting life history of different species or nesting explanations. This may be a result of the years of evolution brought out by different bird’s ability to fly or adapt to certain conditions. Over the years, scientists have come up with many explanations like, why birds with low calcium diet tend to make round eggs as they require lesser shell material, or how birds that lay eggs on cliffs and high altitude tends to be more bottom-heavy so they don’t roll off edges. But researchers from Princeton and Harvard have a different explanation to the study. According to them, egg shapes aren’t influenced by what the bird eats

M PL

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

The other side

or how big their clutch is, but rather by how good they are at flying. The team built a custom computer program that allowed them to collect and analyse the shape of various kinds of eggs, and using this information to build a map of eggs across different bird lineages, where they make their nest, size, and how good they they are at flying. Learn more: http://dgit.in/EggShapeonths.

Erasing a snail’s memory

ew study of snail neurons explains how it is possible to wipe out specific memories in snails and scientists think that one day, the same could be done to humans using drugs. In the study, researchers from McGill University could selectively erase certain kinds of memories on a marine snail. They found the memories are maintained by mainly two different types of Protein Kinase M (PKM) molecules, and by blocking one of these molecules, they could decide which memory to block. Memory maintenance in the brain is moderated by synapses that allow neurons to pass signals along one another. The properties of the synapses can increase or decrease in strength and that is how some memories last longer than others. And according to Samuel Schacher, a professor of neuroscience, by understanding this, we are able to reverse these long term changes in synaptic strength to contribute to different forms of memories. http://dgit.in/Snailm

72 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

DGT DESIRE

Safecast bGeigie Raku

SHOWCASE

Xbox One X

M PL

et’s start this showcase off Microsoft’s latest beast of a console. That’s right, we’re talking about the Xbox One X which was official revealed at E3 this year. We knew it was coming for a while now and we even got to see the specs on this baby a few weeks prior to the official reveal. Microsoft promises that the Xbox One X will be the most powerful console ever. We’re inclined to agree with them after

he bGeigie Raku is a radiation device with GPS and data-logging enabled which arrives in a kit and is supposed to be assembled together. It’s a part of the Safecast network. Safecast is a sensor network and is present throughout the world. Born due to the 3/11 Fukushima disaster exposing the complete lack of radiation data in the world, their goal is to collect and publish the readings to make it publicly available. The whole set with the Arduino and open hardware neatly comes in a Bento box with a Geiger system since the volunteers preferred something concise and compact. Accurate readings worldwide could be used with other medical data to meaningfully interpret many a phenomena which in turn could potentially save lives in the future. By using the CC0 public domain, it is available to everybody. The bGeigie Nano houses a pre-assembled main board that comes with plug/snap components which eliminates the need for soldering (like in previous models). The upgraded version comes with more processing power complemented by a bigger and better screen combined with onboard Bluetooth to allow measurement uploads through both Android and iOS. Along with being easy to hack and with a faster CPU, it incorporates more memory while remaining Arduinocompatible throughout. No editing configurations files are needed as it comes with a joystick controller. The devices have been professionally tested in labs in Japan, Germany and the US. It won the Good Design award in 2013.

alt

looking at that juicy spec sheet. The Xbox One X, like the Xbox One S, will support UHD 4K gaming but unlike the One S which simply scaled games up to 4K, the Xbox One X will be powerful enough to run games at 4K natively. Additionally, since most games don’t really run at UHD natively, many games will be getting special Xbox One X treatment to make full use of the console’s powerful specs. Look out for Xbox One X launch special games which will most likely release will 4K support. The Xbox One X is expected to release on November 7 2017. I wonder what they’ll shorten this down to, XboneX? Xbox X? XoX? Ah, whatever. We’ll let you know when one sticks.

Microsoft Modern Keyboard

he new Modern Keyboard is Microsoft’s successor to the Surface Keyboard, which is obvious just from looking at the Modern Keyboard. Actually they’re similar in just about every aspect except the Modern Keyboard comes with a fingerprint reader built into it. Additionally, you can use a cable to use the keyboard with a wired connection with your device as opposed to a wireless one;

80 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

which the Surface Keyboard was limited to. The fingerprint reader can be found in the second Windows key preset on the right hand side of the space bar. You can use it like you would a fingerprint

reader for your smartphones to instantly log into Windows and even websites. The Modern Keyboard will be compatible with Windows 10, MacOS, and Android. The keyboard is expected to launch priced at $130 (`8,400/- approx), which is about $30 more than the Surface Keyboard which isn’t really all that old. So if you recently purchased a Surface Keyboard, hard luck my friend. It happens.

THE CULTURE SECTION THIS MONTH starts off with the PC Master Race (We are all proud members here at Digit Labs), moving on to taking apart Apple’s annual developer conference - BooMan style! Also check out what our community members are up to with Discussions and Community.

What to stream on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video this month e put together our monthly list of TV shows, movies, documentaries and stand-up acts you can catch on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video this June. Take a peek

penberger raises some important questions about the role of the media in a capitalistic society. Release Date: June 23

M PL

cult

A lot to learn

Netflix • Okja Many intense debates have been stirred because of South-Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s movie – Okja, is the name of a very large, hippo-esque animal and the movie follows a young girl’s struggle to save its life from corporate greed. Release Date: June 28 • Gypsy The plot of the show unfolds as Jean Holloway (Watts) starts developing intimate relationships with her patients; losing track of her practice and making questionable choices while she’s at it. Release Date: June 30 • Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press Considered as one of the most important First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, etc) cases in the history of the US, this documentary made by Brian Knap-

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

86 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

Amazon Prime • Le Mans: Racing is Everything This limited series documentary follows the dangerous 24-hour long Le Mans sports car race, considered as one of the toughest test of endurance in the world. • Kanan Gill: Keep It Real Who doesn’t like Kanan Gill, the guy who gave us the Pretentious Movie reviews? Amazon has some great comedy specials and Gill’s hilarious stand-up act is definitely one of them. • War Dogs War Dogs is a movie from 2016 starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller. The movie is based on a true story about two men who set up an illegal (but highly profitable) business at the back of small-time military supply contracts, until they scored a big one from the Pentagon. Follow this link - http://dgit.in/JulyTVa to read our complete article online.

culture A beautiful sea view museum

Entanglement record broken

Renzo piano’s levitating art gallery ‘Centro Botin’ costing 80 million euros opens in Santander. It is a stunning work of art. http://dgit.in/FlyBuild

FEATURE

Quantum entanglement (interconnected photons) record broken as photons are beamed to 2 cities 1200km apart in China http://dgit.in/qe1200r

Glorious PC Master Race Wisdom

M PL

Boo-man | boo@digit.in

Gather around mortals, as we give out life lessons from the best community on the face of the earth Abhijit Dey | abhijit@digit.in

processor. Gradually, this mockery turned into reality when misled gamers started glorifying how powerful their gaming rigs were because it cost more with their unlocked processor, quadGPU and 128GB of RAM. Little did they know that games such as Assassin’s Creed Unity and Batman: Arkham Knight were on their way to the PC. So much for those big bucks spent on their giant electricity gobbling monsters. Being part of the PCMR isn’t simply about buying and assembling all the hardware from an “epic build of the month” video you just watched on YouTube. It’s definitely not about posting pictures of your amazing custom liquid-cooled RGB-enabled tempered glass rig on Instagram with the hashtag #hardcoregamer. Add passion to these theatrics and then we might be getting

hile you were lurking on the internet and chuckling at doggos, you may have come across the term “PC Master Race”. Casually thrown in for just about every gaming meme, it’s usually depicted by a long white-haired yellow guy as pictured above. It was coined by Yahtzee Croshaw, who reviews video games for the Escapist in a satirical series called “Zero Punctuation”. The primary intention of the term was to describe the elite bunch of PC gamers who blindly threw money at any new hardware that arrived in the market. Think of them as the same people who comment “first” on every YouTube video. But instead, their first is the first one to buy (and even *shudder* pre-order) the latest 60 core / 120 thread

88 | Digit | July 2017 | www.digit.in

somewhere. Before we move forward, let’s address the huge misconception that in order to qualify for the community, you need to own an over-the-top ultra high end gaming rig. You seriously don’t need to! You can be a member of PCMR with just a potato PC. Heck, you don’t even have to own a PC to be welcomed into the brotherhood. It all boils down to your enthusiasm towards learning about PCs and gaming in general. As you watch and learn, you slowly realise several things, which can be deemed as life lessons in the long run. And that’s exactly what we intend to do, by going full Mr. Miyagi on PCMR.

MAKE BETTER DECISIONS An expensive gaming rig doesn’t ensure the best performance. Speaking of CPUs, not all the games are optimised to take

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