The Static Page
15 minutes of fame accidentally, like Zeddie Little the Ridiculously Photogenic Guy who was caught smiling at the camera while running a marathon. He became an overnight sensation and a full-fledged meme. Those seeking their 15 minutes today have several avenues brought to you through technology – social media, YouTube, Podcasting, Vines, Instagram, and what have you. Of course internet fame isn’t new, but what’s new is that now it’s not limited to just people like you and me. Even companies and startups have their flash-in-the-pan limelight moments too before fizzling out. Change, especially in the world of technology, is the only constant. Nothing is forever. Forget startups, even established companies and monopolies fall or at the very least undergo a metamorphosis. Nokia, Blackberry, Apple, Microsoft – just about any name you can think of – have found this out the hard way. If Google’s antitrust lawsuit and the recent tax evasion raid in the EU and Facebook’s misguided Free Basics foray are anything to go by, I’m pretty sure those two giants could have their brush with this phenomenon soon enough. Historically, there have been some companies and entities that have bucked this trend like the great motor companies of the world, but they will also undergo a transformative phase in the years to come, thanks to upstarts such as Tesla Motors. What about Digit? I am fortunate enough to at least be a part of more than half of this 15-year illustrious history and while it’s a good time to reflect on what Digit has achieved so far, what is more important is to look at the next 15 years. Digit has already been the tech navigator to at least one generation (mine included obviously), but will Digit be around when your kids are 15? I’m certain it will. The medium would have changed (Us paper toting luddites will be shunned by then probably), the kind of stories we do might be different, I might not be around, but Digit surely will be there, guiding yet another generation through the tech minefield.
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f you haven’t already figured out from the cover, I couldn’t be happier to shout it out one more time: it’s our anniversary issue this month! Not many of you know this, but beneath the excitement and glossy pages of every anniversary issue is the toil of a countless tired Digitians. A bunch of extremely stressed out writers, editors, and interns spend every waking moment that month (apart from a few CS:GO sessions) trying to figure out how best to give our readers the maximum in this one mega issue. Right from the brainstorming at the start of the month to the very last days of closing when we are barely able to keep our bleary eyes open, we are constantly trying to answer questions like “What can we do different this time?”, “Are readers ready for yet another CTC?”, “Could we squeeze in another poster or DVD?” and many other such heated discussions. This time we upped it a notch further, for this isn’t just any anniversary, it’s the fifteenth year since the first-ever Digit rolled off the presses in 2001! That’s a loooong time – almost an entire generation ago some would say; after all, many of our readers are exactly as old as the magazine is. Even younger perhaps. A lot has happened over the years, not just in technology but also in the lives of the people who’ve been working here at Digit. Those of you who are regular readers will know from Digit Diary that many of us do what we do as a passion; it’s not ‘just a job’. As a result, many of the columns this month are likely to be nostalgic. Can you really blame us? Another thing you’ll notice is the “15” theme in the entire magazine and package. Right from the stories in Digit and SKOAR! to the minibooklet and even the columns – it’s all to do with the number 15. For mine, I’ve decided to go with the often overused phrase “15 minutes of fame” that’s attributed to Andy Warhol. Andy supposedly said it when a bunch of bystanders were trying to get into the frame when he was being photographed. With the rise of social media, ordinary folks don’t have to rubberneck their way into celebrity photographs to get their 15 minutes of fame. Sure, they can do it to photobomb their pictures, but that’s an entirely different motivation. For a quick rise to nebulous stardom, technology has enabled just about anyone to have their 15 seconds or even 15 nanoseconds of fame - sometimes even
Siddharth Parwatay Managing Editor siddharth.parwatay@digit.in
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“Many of the columns this month are likely to be nostalgic. Can you really blame us?”
Let me know at: facebook.com/staticsid | @staticsid | editor@digit.in
Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in 1
Big Bytes
15 years ago, I went all in…
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I won’t ever forget that moment when I cold booted my very own PC to life for the very first time – how naive was I, right? I saw the boot screen fly by, the loading screen of Windows 98, and the system’s final sprint to the GUI desktop accompanied by beeping sounds and flashing LEDs. I was bewitched under a spell. I noticed that this wasn’t a barebones install of Windows – it came with bonus gifts like a ton of popular games pre-installed (pirated, of course). As I turned around to shake the “Good Guy PC assembler’s” hands, I think I may have let a solitary tear of joy run down my cheek. I was in heaven! I didn’t sleep that night. There was so much to do on my new PC, so many games to play – Need For Speed II Special Edition! The next day was a special one, too. As I called my best friend into my room, booting up my PC to show him the components inside, his jaw literally hit the floor. He was dumbstruck. My PC’s configuration (Intel Pentium 4 running at 1.3 GHz, 256MB of DDR SDRAM, RIVA TNT2 graphics with 32MB dedicated memory space, 40GB SATA hard drive, and a 3.5-inch floppy drive) was much better than his HP Pavilion 8750’s (Intel Celeron 633 MHz, 64MB of DDR SDRAM, onboard AGP graphics, 20GB SATA hard drive, and a 3.5-inch floppy drive). Now it was his time to cry and throw a fit at his dad. What fun! Yes, I didn’t build my first PC with my own bare hands, but by the mere fact that it was assembled by parts bought separately had a huge impact on me at the time. To show off even more of my new love of computers, I realized something – I had to convince my father to get me a VSNL pack that would let HyperTerminal connect to the Internet. Oh, and one other thing. Later that year was also the first time I ever picked up a Digit issue. The thought of playing the latest game demos bundled in the CD on my spanking new PC was just too hard to resist for my teenage self. And look where it led to!
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ostalgia can be a nice little escape from the present reality. It’s a happy place where everything’s hunky dory, life becomes simpler, more exciting and innocentseeming than everyone’s current predicament. Memories that are largely unaltered, yours alone for eternity. And I have a lot of fond memories from 15 years ago. It was a defining year of my life for more reasons that one. Technology, obviously, played a big part in it. For it was in the summer of 2001, right after my SSC results came out and there was no doubt in my parents’ minds that I had spent myself completely in the great academic rat race, managing to not fail any subjects and actually doing really well in quite a few, that they decided to give in to my one and only request. I had to upgrade the home PC and get rid of the old abomination that sat in my father’s room, which even the friendly, neighbourhood electronics guy wouldn’t dare to touch anymore. After half a decade spent playing with the rejected old PC from my father’s office, finally, I was going to get my first PC, and I had been given a budget to toe. The moment that I’d dreamt of every night for the past couple of years had finally arrived. So many thoughts raced through my head, but raising a mental middle finger in the faces of all my colony and school friends is the only spontaneous reaction I remember. I was laughing at their loathing and misery, literally feeling on top of the world. As I dialled the number of a PC assembler from a now defunct shop on Mumbai’s Lamington Road, I knew what I had to do. You see, my best friend’s father had gifted him a HP Pavilion 8750 desktop PC (http://dgit.in/HP8750) the previous year. While I enjoyed playing games on his PC and watching movies on CD drives, I knew deep down in my heart that my PC would have to be more powerful than his pre-configured, off-the-shelf HP machine. The stakes were high, but settling for an inferior machine was just not an option. I had to pull out all the stops. Which meant tears. Crying was a price I was willing to pay to nudge my father into widening his budget by a smidge, as the PC assembler tasked with besting my friend’s PC configuration proved to be a shrewd businessman. Within a couple of days, he came bearing gifts.
Jayesh Shinde Technical Editor – Test Centre jayesh.shinde@digit.in
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“Yes, I didn’t build my first PC with my own bare hands, but by the mere fact that it was assembled by parts bought separately had a huge impact on me at the time."
Let me know your thoughts on this column at: facebook.com/jayesh.shinde | @jshinde | jayesh@digit.in
2 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
Contents JUNE 2016
VOLUME 16 \ ISSUE 06
QUICK
NAVIGATOR
E
001 ENTER 024 DGT Desire
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Greed Temptation
SMART 082 STREET Agent 001 Killer Rigs Top 3
086 TRIED&TESTED Comparison Test Bazaar
103 WORLD VIEW 107 DEVWORX
decade that defined our mobile addiction
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TECH 111 SCI Tomorrow’s Tech
Top mobile phones of the past 15 years 48 15 Here’s a look at the most unique phones of the past
Space Age
117 ESC Unwind
Community
TRIED & TESTED
4 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
15 Indian startups that fizzled out
A number of startups emerge everyday but not many can face the heat. Here are the ones that dissipated with time
100
95 KINDLE OASIS
96 CHROMECAST 2
For a more premium experience
98 SAMSUNG GALAXY S7
A better streaming dongle
Incrementally improved
ON THE DVD Android Studio
The watch for your multi-sporting needs
FILL SCREEN FILL SCREEN WITH IMAGE WITH IMAGE DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD BLIPPAR BLIPPAR
Android Studio Plugins
Gaming Clients
.ignore Autoscroll Save BashSupport Builder CodeGlance ErLang Grep Console IdeaVim JFormDesigner Material design icons Scala
Desura Game Jolt Origin Play Fire GOG Galaxy Uplay
Gaming Tools
GameSave Manager TeamSpeak 3 Open Broadcaster Software MSI Afterburner
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MAKE THIS ISSUE OF DIGIT COME ALIVE
Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support.
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24 Garmin Forerunner 735XT
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (32/64-bit)
Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for Android platform development.
BLIPP...BLIPP...
FILL SCREEN IMAGE JUMPS IMAGE JUMPS WITH IMAGE TO LIFE! TO LIFE!
BLIPP...
IMAGE JUMPS TO LIFE!
DOWNLOAD BLIPPAR
Step 1
Step 2
Download the Blippar app
Keep an eye out for Blip the image and get access the Blippar icon next to video reviews, interactive to some images games, and much more!
Step 3
111 Exoskeletons
Is the Iron Man suit meant only for comic books? Think again
Essentials
Avast Antivirus Malwarebytes Anti-Malware OpenOffice VirtualBox VLC Media Player
Reverse Engineering
Alarm Clock Radio Coffee Maker Digital Camera DVD Player Universal Remote Control
Games
Brawlhalla Crazy Killer Creativerse Dirty Bomb Unturned Worm.is
NVIDIA Special Event Pascal GTX 1080/1080 Ansel
114 James Webb
Space Telescope
SA
The Hubble Space Telescope’s successor is sure worth looking
ANDROID STUDIO AND PLUGINS
DVD
GAMING CLIENTS GAMING TOOLS
100 JAYS U-JAYS
101 ASUS ROG G501
Unmatched comfort & great sound
A thin and light gamer
Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in 5
June 2016 • Volume 16 • Issue 06 TO ADVERTISE
Bazaar
Email: sales@digit.in Sales Director: Lalit Arun, Mobile: +91-9582262959
Editorial Executive Editor Robert Sovereign-Smith Managing Editor Siddharth Parwatay Multimedia Co-ordinator Abhijit Dey Writers Arnab Mukherjee, Nikhil Punjabi Intern Mehul Bhagwani, Manish Rajesh Ankush Maiti
West: Suvarna Shringarpure, Mobile: +91-93249 28247 North: Debleena Majumdar, Mobile: +91-98101 19492 East: Jayanta Bhattacharyya, Mobile: +91-93318 29284
Pebble Time Round Chromecast 2 Smartron t.book Lenovo Zuk Z1 u-JAYS Asus ROG G501 ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming ITX/ac Samsung Galaxy S7 Circle Gaming Adroit X7C
Comparison Test - Camera Phones:
ADVERTISING INDEX
LeEco Le 1s Eco
Brand................................................... Page No.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
Seagate........................................................................IFC
Moto G4 Plus
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Test Centre Technical Editor Jayesh Shinde Senior Reviewer Mithun Mohandas Reviewers Hardik Singh, Souvik Das, Shrey Pacheco Assistant Vikas Patil
South: Ram Sarangi, Mobile: +91-98864 06961
Kindle Oasis
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Managing Director Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha Printer and Publisher Kanak Ghosh Publishing Director Vikas Gupta Chief Operating Officer - 9.9 Tech Krishna Kumar
PRODUCTS REVIEWED THIS MONTH
digit.in Editor Soham Raninga Assistant Editor Prasid Banerjee, Sameer Mitha Features Editor Adamya Sharma Design Creative Director Tharakaram G Sr. Art Director Anil VK Associate Art Director Anil T Visualiser NV Baiju Sr. Designers Haridas Balan, Charu Dwivedi Peterson PJ, Manjith PB & Pradeep G Nair Contributing Designer Vijay Padaya Online & Marcom Design Associate Art Director Shokeen Saifi Sr. Designer Manoj Kumar VP Photography Sr. Photographer Jiten Gandhi
Contributors Writers Paanini Navilekar, Ashwin Krishnan, Dhinoj Dhings, Vishvesh Jatain, Ronak Gupta
Gigabyte.........................................................Back cover Bajaj.................................................................................... 3
iBall ............................................................................ 7, 83
Brand Product Mgr Soham Raninga Asst Product Mgr Sourabha Shakya Mgr - Online Shauvik Kumar Co-ordinator / Scheduling Kishan Singh
Circulation Sales Head - Circulation Samir Mehta Regional Mgrs Jayanta Bhattacharyya, Norbert Joseph Manager Circulation Dharmendra Singh
Reader Services Team Leader Sudhir Patel Executives Poonam, Bhishm, Nilesh & Narendra +91-22-67899678 / help@digit.in Cover Illustration & Design Peterson PJ
6 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
HTC Desire 828 Dual SIM HTC Desire 728G OnePlus X
Moto X Play
Lenovo Vibe Shot
Kingston............................................................................ 9
Vivo V3 Max
D-Link.............................................................................. 11
Xiaomi Mi 5
SBI Cards...............................................................13, 17
HTC One A9
Mediatek.........................................................................15
LIC...................................................................................19
Oppo F1 Plus LG Nexus 5X
Huawei Nexus 6P
Cooler Master............................................................... 21
MSI..................................................................................23
Apple iPhone 6S Plus Samsung Galaxy S7
TP-Link............................................................................31 RDP...................................................................................33
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Production and Logistics Sr GM - Operations Shivshankar Hiremath Manager Operations Rakesh Upadhyay Asst Production Manager Vilas Mhatre Manager Logistics Vijay Menon Asst Mgr Production & Logistics M P Singh Executive Mohd. Nadeem Ansari
Toshiba.........................................................................IBC
Circle................................................................................35 Corsair.............................................................................27
India Antivirus..................................................117, 119 Quantum...................................................................... 120
MAKE THIS ISSUE OF DIGIT COME ALIVE FILL SCREEN Step 1 WITH IMAGE
Published and printed by Kanak Ghosh for and on behalf of the owners, M/s Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt Ltd. Published at A-262, 2nd Floor, Defence colony, New Delhi-110024 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 DOWNLOAD adverBLIPPAR tised 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 FILL SCREEN WITH IMAGE are strongly advised to carry out their own independent assessment of the product or services advertised in the magazine.” DOWNLOAD BLIPPAR
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.
DOWNLOAD BLIPPAR
FILL SCREEN WITH IMAGE
BLIPP...
IMAGE JUMPS TO LIFE!
Download the Blippar app BLIPP... IMAGE2 JUMPS Step TO LIFE!
Keep an eye out for the Blippar icon next to some images BLIPP...
IMAGE JUMPS TO LIFE!
Step 3 Blip the image and get access to video reviews, interactive games, and much more!
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 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
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://www.facebook.com/ thinkdigit Your favourite magazine on your favourite social network. Interact with thousands of Digit readers and have some geeky fun! 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!
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Help! For copy-related issues, delivery status or any other complaints regarding out service, write to help@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 678
Join the group that suits your need!
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Agent001 Our very own secret agent will give you the lowdown on what to buy, from where and for how much. Send in all your buying advice or questions to the coolest agent ever. Write to agent001@digit.in
Digit Facebook Pages
Subscribe Want to subscribe to India’s #1 Technology Magazine? You should, because we have exciting offers for everyone, and you save money in the bargain. SMS: <DIGIT SUB> to 92200 92200 or visit www.digit.in/subscribe Product testing Want your product reviewed by Digit? Contact our Test Center at testcenter@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 708
News and 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
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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 at careers@digit.in
Sponsorship Want Digit to sponsor your tech event? Send your proposal to sponsor@digit.in
Interact with Team Digit digit.in/twitter
digit.in/facebook
digit.in/youtube
digit.in/forum
Forum
8 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
http://www.facebook.com/ IThinkGadgets Community of People who love mobiles, laptops, cameras & other gadgets http://www.facebook.com/ consumermate Expert buying advice and some awesome offers http://www.facebook.com/ devworx.in Community of software programmers who enjoy writing code and want to grow their career in software development
The RSS Feed
2001: A tech odyssey I use the word “you”, but that also includes all of us here. The people who make up Digit are pretty much you – we love tech, and this isn’t just some “job”. Almost all of the people who work here don’t want to work anywhere else because this just feels like home. All of us came from boring jobs, or college degrees, and the only thing we have in common is a love for all things science and tech; plus, all of us were readers and fans of Digit before we came here. What’s in store for the future? Well, our goal was always to be the honest and unbiased voice of reason in tech. We wanted to tell it like it is, no matter who it pissed off, and we want to continue doing so. Many of you would have sampled our regional language initiatives. We want to get tech to people in India in their mother tongue – a special shout out to our publishing director, Vikas Gupta, and the vernacular teams for making this happen. Apart from languages, we will also find newer platforms and ways to interact and connect with you more often, be it via social media, the website, apps or even the e-mag (if we ever get it out of beta!). We just want to show as many people as we can the wonder of technology, and how it can raise not just them but this country to higher levels. We want more billion dollar tech companies to be founded in India, by young Indians. We hope that you will continue to support us by keeping on reading, and spreading the word – give your old copies of Digit to people who haven’t heard of us, share our stories that you like on social media, attend our live video sessions, and most importantly, keep sending us your brutally honest feedback to help us improve. Here’s looking forward to 2031: Odyssey 2 – the next 15 years of this epic journey that we’re on together, where hopefully, we can play our small bit-part role in taking India (and you) to the very top of the science and tech world!
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ifteen years ago – more than a few lifetimes in tech terms – a little upstart of an Indian tech media brand decided to venture on a journey, alone, without established foreign backing. Yes, Digit was always run by a bunch of crazy Indian geeks, who decided that although India certainly wasn’t anywhere close to the centre of the technology world, it didn’t need to be. India was India, it was different, it was unique, and had unique needs. You have to remember that this was an age where Internet connectivity was still a luxury in India, and even PCs were not something just anyone could afford. Digit blew away all the established magazines, and has the distinction of being India’s top selling IT magazine for all 15 years of its life! Online is where the real challenge was, especially in the last 5 years, because everyone and his uncle has a tech blog, and all major media houses started up tech web sites and threw money around to try and grab all the eyeballs – it reminded us of the dot com boom actually. We recently got some more good news: in a competitive tech field that consists of some very big players – Times of India, NDTV, Network 18, etc. – Digit actually blows them all away by engaging with more of you than all of them combined (and then some!). If you watch world football, we’re like Leicester City from the EPL, except we’re the underdog that’s been champions for 15 years straight. So what’s our secret sauce? What magical witchcraft allows us to win against these Goliaths, and stay number 1 for 15 straight years? It’s not really as big a secret as people think, actually… because the secret to our success is, quite simply, you. We owe it all to you, because without your support, we’d be crushed out of existence by the aforementioned Goliaths. So before anything else, thank you for your continued support and keeping this dream alive. When I said India was unique, I was also talking about the Indians that make up India. Indians pride themselves on knowing more than others – we learn, we thirst for knowledge and we give undue respect to no brand. As technology enthusiasts, you are at the top of that pyramid; you’re the tech elite.
Robert Sovereign-Smith Executive Editor robert@digit.in
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“So what’s our secret sauce? What magical witchcraft allows us to win against these Goliaths, and stay number 1 for 15 straight years?”
18 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
Liked or hated this column? Let me know at: facebook.com/raaabo | @raaabo | robert@digit.in
DGT
) Being a CSE student I was introduced
A combination of jailbreak, Arch Linux and some software libraries lets you play PC games on the PS4. http://dgit.in/PS4hack
Feedback for the May 2016 issue of Digit
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to this magazine long ago – the 'F**k you Consumers' one. It shocked me, but I understood Robert's view. My favourites: Blippar | TED videos | Awesome FT | Encyclopedia | Videos of tested products | PDF archives | App suggestions. My Expectations: Focus on Windows phone apps too. I am a blogger since 2013, and I own a website where I make sufficient money thanks to you. Digit's FT ebook editions have helped me prepare for interviews, and I have three offers – Embedded Engineer, App developer and Network Engineer; I’m opting for app developer. Happy Anniversary Digit and keep feeding our minds with awesome stuff. –Chaitanya
Steam games on PS4
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Enter
All the latest lifestyle technology, gadgets to drool over and gizmo porn like never before. Desire, Greed and Temptation ahead...
We do add in Windows Phone apps when they’re exclusive, but because of market realities, we have to focus on iOS and Android. We’re thrilled that we were in some small way able to help you get started on your road to geekdom, still going on. Keep the flame burning, don’t forget to recommend us to your friends. – Robert ) Hey guys! I want to get help from you
We are regular with distributing such tools in our DVDs. We had included the Unity 5 Game Engine in our April 2015 DVD. If there's a major update, we'll surely add it in our DVD. Keep an eye out. – Abhijit
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regarding a JavaScript book. I also want to learn command prompt in Windows, so an article please. Also articles on hardware hacking/making? The DVD UI is outdated. Also, can you feature articles from labnol? I like his tips and tricks. –Adityan Singla
please give the free version of Unity Game Engine in the next DVD? Please. And again thanks for a wonderful magazine. Ajoy Kr Das
Thanks for your feedback. We will update the DVD UI soon, and work is already underway. We don’t publish articles that are published elsewhere, as we have a strict requirement of all articles being original, however, we might point you to relevant content on other sites as and when applicable, the same for books. – Siddharth
) Hello to all. First I want to thank you for a wonderful magazine. I’m Ankit, I’m 12 years old and the biggest fan of Digit. I am interested in gaming and I like SKOAR! very much. I have a request. Can you 20 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
) I am a final year electrical engineering
student, preparing for my IES exams, but I still read every single line of your magazine. I love the way you present your ideas. 1. Your YouTube channel is very dull and monotonous and lacks the flair and humour of the magazine. 2. Your editorial pages are wonderful –they are like the birthplace of ideas. 3. Manga and anime page was completely unexpected and being a fan of Naruto I liked it. I was wondering if you can drop some anime posters too. 4. I love to review movies, series as well as anime for you. Can I? 5. About the DVD, who cares about the UI, what matters is the top-notch content! Thanks for your time and hard work. –Himanshu Singh
Our YouTube channel is actually getting better (slowly). We’re writers, not video guys, but we’re trying. We will try and include non-gaming posters as well. We encourage all readers to write in with original articles that aren’t published elsewhere. We may not be able to publish everything, but we will certainly reply to all mails with our feedback. Thanks for understanding that the content is what’s important, not the interface, but even we have to admit that a change is needed; badly! – Jayesh ) To the tech demi-gods, I have been
buying Digit for the past two and half years since I can’t subscribe (or can I?) because I am your friendly neighbour from Nepal. I absolutely loved the April issue. I liked the Awakening , who wrote it? Could it be Robert? I always love to read Siddharth’s (love your beard, gonna grow one just like it), Jayesh’s and Robert’s section. I enjoyed reading SKOAR! and dmystify too, but I didn’t touch the Fast Track because I don’t really like the topic Big Data. I love Linux, and am using Arch Linux. Thanks to you, I have started to learn python programming. Now for suggestions and demands. I want Linuxrelated content in every DVD. Can you have a separate section for Open Source
SECTION
SUBSECTION
GREED
TEMPTATION
For those who just want more than should be humanly allowed, we have enough to satisfy your hunger...
If you’re wondering what to do with yourself or how to spend some time getting cultured, this section is for you...
THIS MONTH: Blueair Sense+, Kyocera DuraForce XD, Infocus M888, F.lens, EYSE, Jaybird Freedom Headphones and a lot more...
THIS MONTH: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, and App Watch with Laws of Cricket, Flock and Fitastik apps you must try...
DESIRE
SHOWCASE
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TECHNOLOGY WITH STYLE
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Garmin Forerunner 735XT The watch for your multi-sporting needs
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It also comes with a feature that lets you automatically change sports profiles whenever you switch sports, such as with triathlons where you switch between running, swmming and cycling. If all this is not enough, another notable feature that comes with the Forerunner is the Strava Live Suffer Score app, which will come preinstalled with the watch. Your Suffer Score is determined by calculating your heartbeat and telling you how intense your workout session was. This watch, like every Garmin watch, is water resistant. As it should be, since it’ll be worn while swimming as well. The Forerunner 735XT is priced at $450 (`30,300 approx).
he Forerunner 735XT is Garmin’s latest sports watch which is designed for athletes who play multiple sports, specifically triathlons. The Forerunner features a built-in optical heart-rate sensor, a tracker which tracks things like the number of steps you’ve taken and the number of calories you’ve managed to burn all day, and an active GPS. The Forerunner can show you notifications on your Android smartphones or your iPhones as well. You can access all of Garmin’s third party apps at their app store, the Connect IQ, which will let you download watch faces, widgets, and apps for the watch. What makes the Forerunner 735XT stand out
is that it can track cycling, swimming, hiking, cross country skiing, strength training, paddle boarding, and cardio in addition to running.
SkyBell HD Wi-Fi
GE PB911SJSS
Pocket-VR Viewer Boosted Board
At the $200 (`13,500 approx) price tag this Video Doorbell comes with 1080p clip recording, and additional storage space. It comes with an IFTTT channel as well as integration with third-party services.
The GE PB911SJSS is quite the cooking station. At the $1,100 (`74250 approx) price range, this electric cooking range performs better than most similar products that cost twice as much.
Speck’s Pocket-VR is a thin, foldable viewer that’s far more affordable than its pricier counterparts. This $70(`4700) alternative is designed only for the iPhone 6 and 6s or the Samsung Galaxy S7.
Hover Camera
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Beijing-based startup Zero Zero Robotics have come up with the Hover Camera. As the name suggests, this drone is primarily meant for aerial photography and video making. In addition to being foldable for extra portability, it also has the “Follow me” feature which is new in drones. Thanks to the strong carbon fiber frame that enclose the propellers, this drone is extremely safe. The device should be around the $600(`40,400 approx) price tag when it releases.
24 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
Boosted’s second generation Skateboards boast of increased power, extended distances, and water shielding, providing for a smoother, revamped ride. All at the price of $999 (`67,300 approx).
ILLUSTRATION: PETERSON PJ
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Cover story
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Cover story - Ridesharing, cab services, car rentals, driver 5forTravel hire, bus bookings
Trying to find a household help or a local repairman through your building’s security guard or neighbours might be harder than you think. You have no way to tell the quality of their services, other than word of mouth. Enter services like UrbanClap, Taskbob and Mr. Right, who have taken up the job of connecting you with professionals for tasks ranging from cleaning to repairs. So, instead of hiring a full time caretaker, you can actually go for the per-requirement approach and save your money along the way.
If there is one sector that has clearly benefited the most from India’s startup boom, it is travel. On demand Cab services like Uber and Ola have become second nature to us, and ridesharing services like sRide and BlaBlaCar are catching up really fast. And if you are planning a long drive and need a driver for the same, try Zuver, a driveron-demand app. Just in case you want to drive yourself but lack the wheels, car rentals like Zoomcar and JustRide have your back covered.
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One relocates to a new city or house for various reasons, ranging from a new job to the beginning of a ‘happily’ married life, but irrespective of how positive the reason might be, the vicious circle of brokers, restrictive landlords and changing terms make the whole experience one of the worst landmarks of your life. Thanks to startups like NoBroker and Zenify, you have a few ways out of that web now, with the help of broker free listings and detailed property characteristics. This is a great relief for all young professionals who have to move cities to advance their careers!
household services UrbanClap, Taskbob, 4Mr.Local Right
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hunting - nobroker, Zenify 1House
2Food - Swiggy
Food ordering startups are not entirely new to the Indian market. With Foodpanda and TinyOwl already in the same sector, it was quite a surprise when Swiggy climbed up the ranks rapidly. A big factor in this is the ease of use. Website or app, just log in, let the app detect your location and show you the restaurants and eateries around you. With no minimum order amount, the options range from local juice centres to premium eateries.
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- rentomojo, furlenco 3Furnishing
The price difference between renting a furnished and unfurnished house has prompted a significant rise in furniture rental services. Rentomojo and Furlenco
are your best options if you’re looking to do the same. These rentals have free installation and free relocation services, along with a wide array of options from furniture to appliances to home decor. One of the best features on these sites are their package offerings which are good enough for an overall furnishing of your room or house. 38 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
APPS AND WEBSITES TO ACCOMPLISH EVERYDAY TASKS
FROM FOOD TO HEALTH CARE, 15 EVERYDAY TASKS THAT YOU CAN NOW DO VIA APPS OR WEBSITES BY ARNAB MUKHERJEE arnab@digit.in
Cover story TV - hotstar, voot, netflix 6Watch
10Paying bills - Paytm
repair Just Like new 7Smartphone/tablet
- purplle, Vyomo, vanitycube 11Salon
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12News - Nuzzel
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It’s no breaking news that newspapers are in decline. And don’t even start with television news. This situation with news mediums has led the newer generation to switch to apps and websites for information. Nuzzel is one such app that integrates news reading with social media by analyzing your timeline for the in-trend and breaking news to bring relevant news stories to your
13File your taxes - ClearTax
Many of you might have torn your hair apart trying to file your taxes on time. After all, nobody likes paperwork, right? ClearTax has been around for a while and is an easy solution for your woes. They also launched a mobile app recently that is optimized to work on 2G networks and even allows offline filing.
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Watching TV has become a rarity nowadays, with most of the young audience switching to web series and international shows. With that in mind, video-ondemand and online TV services like hotstar, Voot and the global giant Netflix are growing everyday. In fact, hotstar has been live streaming most ongoing tournaments and even the Academy Awards this year.
Gone are the days when you had to stand in queue at some old office to pay your bills. With a number of mobile and online payment solutions available, we recommend Paytm due to its well integrated mobile wallet along with the many cashbacks that you can use for several things from cab services to online shopping. You can opt to permanently discontinue paper bills and save a lot of paperwork in this approach.
hat feeling of dread when a smartphone slips from your hand can be the worst. You probably already calculated the repair costs and the hassle you’d have to go through before the phone even hit the ground. Not anymore, with JustLikeNew and Bigfix
offering pickups and repair services for your smartphones and other electronics at your doorstep.
If Practo was your medical assistant, purplle is your grooming assistant. It lets you book appointments at beauty salons and spas around you, and contains details of the services offered at these places along with pricing. But if you still don’t want to step out of the house to feel groomed, try Vanitycube or Vyomo to call beauticians and grooming specialists to your doorstep and get your haircuts, styling, pedicures and all other grooming needs satisfied in the comfort of your own home.
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8Grocery - Grofers, Big Basket
Not everybody likes to lug their monthly rations and groceries back home from the store. Due to lazy people like me, Grocery delivery startups like Grofers and Bigbasket have overcome the initial scepticism and have started widespread usage in metros. With slotted deliveries, store choices and same-day delivery options, you can consider your grocery needs satisfied.
9Doctor - Practo, Portea, netmeds
An apple a day may not necessarily keep the doctor away, but there’s apps like Practo and Portea that make the whole experience more bearable! Through Practo you can find doctors based on specialisation, experience, and more. It lets you book appointments and also has a doctor’s side which lets them share prescriptions and reports directly. Netmeds delivers medicines directly to your home.
14Tutoring - Vedantu, BYJU
Even if you are not a student yourself, you might know someone who is. Edutech startups like Vedantu and BYJU are coming up with ways to bring students closer to learning. Vedantu offers oneon-one tutoring on a proprietary platform whereas BYJU’s offers quality content with the student’s learning process in mind.
15Fitness
Using all the above services while sitting comfortably on your couch will make you an unfit couch potato. We absolutely don’t want that to happen. Fitso is an exercise tracker which will keep track of your workout. You can even enroll a coach to guide you. HealthifyMe provides you with detailed information about the food you’re consuming, after a manual entry of the same. Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in 39
Recommended buys
Killer rigs
Street smart
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We tell you about the best components to look for at various PC rigs at different budgets
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The very best products you can buy right now spanning across 10 popular tech categories. Have a fun time buying!
Gaming mice have started advertising insane specifications but do you really need that much? Agent 001 agent001@digit.in
“I
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simply cannot tolerate my mouse going below 3,600 DPI” – Random Guy on the Train. My head immediately turned to see who had uttered that phrase, a phrase that just reeked of ignorance. I’m pretty sure that Douglas Engelbart probably twitched in his grave each time something akin was said. I had to get down at the next stop so spinning up a conversation about mice with a complete stranger was out of the question. So here we are, about to dispel a few misconceptions about mice. DPI or CPI or PPI? There have been numerous phrases to describe sensor sensitivity through the ages. The correct term is CPI (Counts Per Inch) and it refers to the number of steps a sensor will report when it moves one inch. Dots Per Inch, pretty much refers to the same thing but isn’t technically correct. The same can be said of Pulses Per Inch (PPI) when optical sensors were first implemented. Jargon aside, this metric simply tells you how sensitive the mouse sensor happens to be. So a 12,000 DPI mouse simply means that the sensor can generate a lot more data – unwanted data – that can be used to produce motion. This raw data is then processed to produce whatever DPI that the software has set. Here’s what the operating system uses to move the mouse cursor around the screen: Movement(vertical/horizontal) = mouse.sample(dt, dpi) x sensitivity Essentially what most people do, is that they ramp up DPI and drop sensitivity to get accurate tracking. So what remains to be seen is the sweet spot that is favourable for the player. Most profes-
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sional players hardly ever go above 800 DPI. So those ultra-super-premium-holylord-of-gaming mice with 12,000 DPI are not favoured by professional players. In fact, most people prefer reducing the sensitivity to such an extent that they like moving their mice across a greater surface. So while they may navigate the usual OS window at 3,600 DPI with the mouse hardly ever moving an inch from a spot, they’ll be all over the mouse mat while gaming. Another idiotic thing is mouse acceleration. Basically, the faster you flick the mouse the faster your cursor gets. So if you were to flick the mouse an inch to the right very slowly, you’ll trace an inch, but if you flick faster, your cursor will probably move 2-3 inches. Most professional players turn off mouse acceleration. And then there’s angle smoothing or just plain smoothing. The way a mouse tracks, it compares pictures of the surface to figure out which direction the mouse moved. Now, depending on what kind of algorithm comes into play, there will be certain moments when the algorithm gets confused and tracks in the wrong direction. This manifests as a minor blip, let’s say you were tracking your mouse horizontally in CS:GO and you notice that your cursor moved up a little, by about a pixel or two. This is a blip or a
82 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
ripple. Angle smoothing, disregards these blips. So you might be wondering, isn’t that a good thing? Well, if you are using Photoshop to trace something, it is actually beneficial. But in game, let’s say you are sniping your enemy and you want to move your cursor down by just one pixel to hit him square in the head. Angle smoothing will consider that one pixel to be an anomaly and will not move your cursor vertically. The sheer frustration that ensues can hardly be described. Lastly, there is the much debated issue of laser vs optical sensors. Firstly, the two sensors are both optical CMOS sensors if we are to be technically correct. It’s that they are illuminated differently, LED illuminated mice don’t pick up much detail but laser goes all the way and gives you much higher resolution. So if the surface is smooth, laser works much better, but the moment the surface gets soft, the laser picks up a lot more of the undulations. This is unwanted information which when processed would result in a lot of blips and ripples that the sensor then skips over, resulting in “acceleration”. Acceleration is the incorrect term, hence the quotes, this is actually an error with image resolution. This is why LED illuminated mice track much better than laser illuminated mice. Also, the error in optical mice is less than one per cent.
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Mitashi adds a new 65-inch Smart LED TV to its range of smart televisions that is priced at Rs.98,990.
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Tried & Tested
Mitashi launches Smart TV
All the latest and greatest products tested and reviewed so you make an informed buying decision
Perfect
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We compare 15+ smartphones from all the top manufacturers compared to tell you which one can take the best photos
Prasid Banerjee
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prasid@digit.in
hese comparisons should start the way those Honest Trailers on YouTube do. Over the past few months, our Facebook and Twitter feeds have literally been filled with questions about the best camera phone to buy. There are a ton of them, but determining ‘the best’, calls for a full blooded Digit comparison, and what better time than the 15th Anniversary, right? So, to take a page out of the YouTubers’ playbook, “Ok, ok! We’ll do best camera phones!”
86 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
Smartphone cameras have come a long way, but choosing one amongst the sea of devices remains a herculean task, of sorts. Unlike processors and RAM, the camera specs give you precious little information, unless you’re an expert of the field. Even so, a camera, especially the one on your handheld device, is best described by the final photo it clicks. In smartphones, cameras are quite dependent on the algorithm each company uses. That is not to say that hardware doesn’t matter; just that products are usually differentiated for the algorithm they come with. You would know a lot of people who buy a particular brand simply because of “how
good their camera app” is. You may even be one of those people yourself. To determine the best camera, one needs to of course test it, but when looking for the best camera phone, there’s more to test. It must have a good camera, but it also needs to be a good enough phone, right? After all, what’s a good camera without sufficient storage, or enough power? Let’s begin...
LeEco Le 1s Eco Its 13MP rear camera is perhaps the weakest part of this phone. That said, the Le 1s camera will get you by in outdoor sunlight. It can take satisfactory shots in daylight, but quality starts deteriorating as the light
INSIDE
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THE LATEST PRODUCTS REVIEWED FOR YOU
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Page 96 Pebble Time Round
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.
Page 97 Smartron t.book
Page 98
Samsung Galaxy S7
Page 100
u-JAYS
For better understanding of our ratings, hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a quick guide to our overall score to
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Extremely poor product. Keep away!
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31
to
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Strictly OK.
51
to
70
Decent product.
71
to
90
Very good product.
91
to 100
Page 101 ASUS ROG G501
Not recommended
Go for it, but there may be better products out there.
Highly recommended.
Ground-breaking product.
Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never seen anything like it before. A definite must buy!
94 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
&MORE...
Page 99 Lenovo Zuk Z1
VR Life!
Plants now charge phones!
Man sets Guiness world record by spending 25 straight hours in Virtual reality. http://dgit.in/VR_life
Bazaar
Pebble Time Round
Chromecast 2
A good streaming dongle got a whole lot better
A really light smartwatch that looks cute and pretty
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he Chromecast 2 has a circular design with the HDMI cord sticking out at one end making it a lot more convenient to place behind the TV. The Chromecast 2 is available in 3 colours – red, black and yellow (Google calls the yellow one lemon). The Chromecast 2 still needs external power to function. Overall the new design of the Chromecast is pretty attractive. A very cool thing about the Google Cast app is that it shows you all the apps that are compatible with the Chromecast. Surprisingly, the HotStar app doesn’t support the Chromecast and that’s a bummer. The Chromecast 2 boots up real fast, has better Wi-Fi range and connectivity than its predecessor and the apps load faster. But it still isn’t perfect. Mirroring an Android smartphone to to
Price9 3,39
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he Pebble Time weighs 28 grams making it extremely light to wear. There are times when you don’t even realize the device is on your wrist. The fact that its so light is one of the best features of the watch. The Pebble Time Round doesn’t have a touchscreen but has four physical buttons – three on the right and one of the left. The left button is the back button and on the right you have the up, down and action button. As the name suggests, it has a round display. The Pebble Time Round, it is very well built. It has a small footprint and feels light on the wrist. It isn’t as gorgeous as the LG Watch Urbane or the Moto 360 second gen. In fact, for some it may look like a toy. But the build and design is functional and that’s why I
Bioo lite, made by Arkyne industries harnesses photosynthesis to turn sunlight into electricty. http://dgit.in/photosynthesis_charging
Price99 13,5
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like it. What’s more, the Pebble Time Round looks pretty good, striking an attractive pose on your wrist. Its wristband may not look very manly, At best, using the Pebble Time Round conservatively, I got about two and a half day’s battery life. This was with keeping the backlight on, brightness low, and timeout at 3 seconds. Changing these settings resulted in a reduced battery life and the device lasted for about one day (a little over 30 hours). The apps library is large and there are some games that you can play on the watch which is addictive. The smartwatch is compatible with Android and iOS. It doesn’t have voice functionality like Google Now or Siri but you can reply to messages using voice commands. If you don’t want to flaunt the smartwatches made by phone makers, then go for this one.
70
Features.....................................68 Performance.............................62 Value...........................................75 Design.........................................71
Specifications
Thickness: 7.5mm; Band: 14mm or 20mm wide; Weight: 28 grams; Display: Always on Colour display; Splash resistant to IPX7 standard; Display: 2.5D gorilla glass display
Contact
Pebble Phone: NA E-Mail: support@getpebble.com 96 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in
Sameer Mitha
78 Features.....................................70 Performance.............................80 Value...........................................85 Design.........................................75
Specifications
HDMI connection; MicroUSB for power; Compatible with iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Mac and Windows laptops and Chromebooks.
Contact
Google India Phone: 1800-108-7879 E-Mail: https://apps.google.com/ intx/en_in/support/
showcase online content can be difficult. In particular, I tried to mirror my smartphones display and watch Game of Thrones via HotStar and apart from lagging, the mirroring kept crashing. Mirroring the smartphone to show local content worked smoothly. Coming to gaming, the game I tired to play was Injustice: Gods Among us. There was a noticeable lag during the screen mirroring of the game. The lag was under one second but it was well noticeable. There are some games recommended on the Google Cast app that will work smoothly, but rest assured that all apps & games aren’t supported. Overall, if you are someone that consumes a lot of content on your smartphone via entertainment apps and would like to seamlessly share photos you have clicked from your smartphone to the big screen, then the Chromecast 2 works like a charm. High end games and some mirroring issues aside, the device has good overall performance. Sameer Mitha
OUR PICK OF THE BEST TECH ARTICLES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
(MUST READS)
[ArsTechnica Corner]
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HIGH TECH BOARD GAMES
SOCIAL NETWORKING THEN
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Long before it was made accessible to the people or commercialised or even made smarter with AI, social networking meant being connected to a few hubs and a handful of nodes. Here’s the history of social networking from its birth to the internet boom, we share.
http://dgit.in/SNtHist
THE END OF CODE
Old school board games have been reborn from the old and the golden age to this technology age with digitally augmented board games using your smartphone. Three game designers opine on the change that has been brought in with technology along with its pros and cons. http://dgit.in/ARGmng
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Coding has been the base of programming, but it requires logic as well as it is vulnerable to hacks. With the AI revolution just around the corner, is it about time to unlearn coding as we might not have to code but train the future programs and computers, just as we do to our pets.
http://dgit.in/EOCde
DEEP LEARNING
Identifying a dog in a picture by a machine is good, but if the machine can also tell what breed it belongs to along with various other minute details, only then a machine can be termed to be ‘intelligent’. Here’s everything you need to learn about machine’s deep learning.
http://dgit.in/DeepLrng
THE $5 MILLION RISK Many startups disappear, everyday. There is a lort of risk involved. Nathan Latka, founder of Heyo, put his $5 million startup at risk.
http://dgit.in/NthnLtka
UK VFX industry’s success London’s VFX industry grew exponentially, especially after the Harry Potter series. What went in to create this great industry along with talent and technological advances in the past three decades and one company’s decision to bank its entire future on it.
Journey to Windows OneCore Software giants are trying hard to create one common platform for app development, so apps could run on all their operating systems across platforms. Microsoft has taken a step forward and has somehow achieved what it had promised to.
http://dgit.in/VFXLon
http://dgit.in/Win1Cre
A year with the Apple Watch Revising a gadget and re-reviewing it after weeks or months of usage is common for reviewers, but not many go back to review a piece of technology that they have been using for 365 days in a year. Here’s everything you should know about the Apple Watch. http://dgit.in/iWtch365 Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in 103
> code / creativity / community > Target=“_blank” is a major vulnerability http://dgit.in/TgtBlnk
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Everything you wanted to know about PHP 7
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>>The omnipresent PHP moved to version 7 directly from version 5. The update came out in December and we’ve allowed more than enough time for the initial set of kinks to be ironed out. Here’s what you need to know - by Vishal Kumar More
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s per W3Techs, of all the websites in the world whose server side language is known, PHP powers 82.2% of the websites. Of these 82.2%, 80.72% of the websites are using PHP 5. The best of the CMS (Content Management System) available today – be it WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or Magento are all built with PHP. PHP 5 was released back in 2004 and since then minor releases kept on adding many exciting features to PHP, including support of OOP (Object-Oriented programming) and many other features associated with that. Until recently, the latest stable release version of PHP was 5.6 which was released in mid-2014. Recently, the PHP community marked the release of its latest version – PHP 7. This new version of PHP brings along with it – dynamic performance improvements, minimal memory consumption, and a series of unparalleled language features to let you take your app to the next level. PHP 7 has brought along with it the all new Zend Engine 3.0 (not Zend Framework!). In comparison to PHP 5.6, apps built with PHP 7 turn out to be twice as fast in performance
and consume 50 per cent less memory. Thus, you can now serve more users concurrently, without upgrading your hardware. All thanks to Zend Engine. Aren’t we already in love with it?
*Coding Matters
*“Microsoft censors VB6 Open Source Petition >> Microsoft looks the other way as the VB6 community pleads the software giant to open source the aging programming language.
http://dgit.in/VB6Open
*“Cryengine now availalbe on Github
>> The popular game engine which powered the Crysis video game series among many others is now available on GitHub.
http://dgit.in/GitCryEngine
*“Declaring code is not code
>> Google CEO Larry Page testifies that Google never sougth permission for using Java in Android as it was free and open.
http://dgit.in/GooglevsOracle devworx> | June 2016 | www.devworx.in 107
Pants that track fitness!
Space age
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Sci-Tech
Lumo Run shorts and capris feature a tracker embedded in the shorts lining that plays coach after collecting your running data. http://dgit.in/fit_pants
Can the James Webb Space Telescope surpass the Hubble space telescope? Find out more
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Exoskeletons Do you think Iron Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suit is meant only for comic book pages? Think again.
Arnab Mukherjee arnab@digit.in
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hether it be from the Iron Man movies, or from yesteryears animated series Mobile Suit Gundam, or even the highly popular game Crysis, exoskeletons and armored suits have been portrayed to us in the form of extremely advanced sci-tech that can only be the brainchild of the most intelligent billionaires on the planet. While some of that might be true, exoskeletons are already more real than you think.
Some form of exoskeleton tech has been showing up in the news since the last five years, in the form of limb augmentations and locomotion assistance. It is only recently that power and speed enhancing exoskeletons are not only being announced, but also launched and used. And with the inhibitions regarding using technology to enhance our human abilities reducing everyday (check out last monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cover story), now is the right time to know more about what exoskeletons can do. Contrary to what it may seem like, we have been trying to build exoskeletons for quite a while now. Way back in the late Digit | June 2016 | www.digit.in 111
Windows smartwatch!
Community
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Esc
You can now run Windows 7 on a smart watch, if you have three hours to boot it up. http://dgit.in/windowssmartwatch
Come find out how to code your websites, both efficiently and securely
How we unwind A team must watch GoT
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A team must wait. Well, a team has waited an entire year and it’s been well worth the wait. Season 6 of Game of Thrones hasn’t disappointed yet, well, most of us haven’t been. Monday lunch hour is now for GoT hour except for Mithun who prefers to watch it way before everyone else. So much for being a team player.
Midnight snacking in Noida
Burnin’ for you
Special issues are always tough, and it’s a tough period for all of us. Arnab’s prayers to be relieved were answered sooner than everyone else’s and not quite ending in respite. The poor guy has fallen prey to the pesky Aedes Aegypti and is now holed up in a hospital. We wish him a speedy recovery.
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While on a trip to Noida to join the rest of our colleagues, we had a sudden hankering for food at 12am. Not that there’s anything wrong with Noida, just that you can barely find anything to eat at night. After two and a half hours of mindless roaming with empty bellies, we finally found sandwich pakodas at 3:30am.
And he is...
DIARY
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D... d... de... DEJA VU! Team Digit has achieved 80 per cent Drift compatibility i.e. people have started thinking along the same lines and have even begun blurting out the same sentences at the same dame time! *Read in plural voice* Facebook live has now become a regular thing. The shy residents of the Mumbai Test Centre have begun broadcasting live sessions in the evenings. Something the Delhi team has been doing for quite some time. We’ve been looking at ways to get more views so much that there appears to be a little rivalry brewing. If you’re ever in the mood to ogle at the cool gadgets we fiddle with, do keep an eye out on our Facebook page. No diary entry is complete without highlighting our shenanigans in CS:GO. Well, we’ve been strategising... a lot. Aside from break times, there’d be the occasional ‘a-ha’ or the more common ‘abey sunn’ followed by strategy plans that would be discussed anywhere between 15 minutes to over an hour. Strategies are only helpful for the first few rounds, it’s chaos after those initial rounds. We can almost say that we ‘enable’ comebacks... for the other team... *sigh* And now, it’s time for the interns. Ankush, apparently, has been compartmentalising information, i.e. he tells his folks that he is off to work and doesn’t turn up at work. We believe he’s spending quality time serenading someone. We’ll soon find out. Meanwhile, Mehul’s about to get the full wrath of everyone who’ve been unfortunate to proof-read his writing. Even Manish, the machine-less vagabond, who proof-reads Mehul’s writing has given up on his search for components and is busy plotting his revenge. To Mehul’s credit, he’s been devouring books like The Elements of Style in a bid to improve his writing.
PC, Laptop Tablet, Mobile
Saur(aa
92.72.70.70.50 98.22.88.25.62
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