Digit June 2017 (Anniversary Special)

THE STATIC PAGE | Siddharth Parwatay | Managing Editor

To new beginnings

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Around the same time another tech giant went with a redesign of their own. Microsoft decided to completely revamp the way their desktop interface works by implementing the “metro” UI. They later dropped the name, and called it Modern UI. Call it whatever you want the redesign was hailed as a colossal disaster.

While iOS didn’t get rid of skeuomorphism – it only diminished it – Windows on the other hand, changed the entire way people were used to interacting with their favourite operating system. The UI became more geared towards touch, rather than mouse input. The beloved Start button disappeared. Making your users get out of their comfort zone (in incremental steps) is good every now and then but forcing them to think of their desktops as tablets is just absurd. Naturally the redesign failed. Microsoft did this strange stopgap thing with Windows 8.1 in which they allowed you to boot directly into “desktop mode” and brought back a weird version of the start menu back. It took another version till they finally got things right again.

If there’s any learning to be taken away from the two contrasting redesigns, it is that a successful redesign then can’t deviate too much from what is familiar to legacy users. And secondly it needs to take into account a lot of feedback from existing users. Heck, if the budget exists, focus group market research and beta testers isn’t a bad idea either.

If you’ll notice, as you browse through the magazine, the Digit that you love is still there within the pages. However, there’s a new attitude, presentation and style.

Some of you will also notice that we’ve been subtly taking in a lot of feedback from you guys by way of surveys and generally keeping an ear out for criticism and suggestions. Hopefully we’ve done justice to this redesign, and if not we can always have an 8.1 and eventually jump to a version 10.

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IT’S HERE! THE REDESIGN IS FINALLY HERE! As you can see I’m totally excited. The whole team is kicked about it actually. We’re also about to drop dead with exhaustion but that’s another story for another time.

This anniversary special issue is one of the biggest we’ve ever made, and it is also completely revamped in terms of the content strategy and design. Although I can barely contain myself, I’m not going to talk about the Digit redesign here. I figure, who better to talk about that than the veteran of redesigns – Robert. So be sure check out his insight into Digit’s new avatar on the next page.

As for me, I’m going to use the redesign as an excuse to talk about some of the more memorable redesigns of the technology world – why some of them succeeded, some failed and some just left us wondering what they were smoking.

A major paradigm shift in the world of tech interfaces came when interaction designers took a conscious decision to move interfaces away from skeuomorphism. For the unfamiliar, skeuomorphism is the belief that objects in the digital world should mimic those of the real world. Hence we have folders, files, trash cans, and floppy disk icons in our UIs. Referencing the real world so literally has its benefits – familiarity and easing the learning curve – but it also brings inefficiencies and restrictions. Why spend precious real estate and resources recreating true-to-life shadows, gradients, and all the bells and whistles? Besides, a lot of people believe that the recent generation that has grown up with technology doesn’t need these metaphorical training wheels. They couldn’t care less if the save icon had a big S on it or the picture of a floppy disk, because they don’t know what a floppy disk is to begin with.

When iOS 7 came out, Jony Ive spoke about the benefits of moving away from skeuomorphism. People were anyway used to touching glass instead of buttons, now those elements underneath the glass also needed a revamp.

Stripping the interface of physical world references like bevelling also led to what we now know of as flat design. And guess what, flat designs are not just easier on the eyes, they are easier to render too.

“A major paradigm shift in the world of tech interfaces came when interaction designers took a conscious decision to move interfaces away from skeuomorphism”

Reach me at: facebook.com/ staticsid | @staticsid | editor@digit.in www.digit.in | June 2017 | Digit | 1

THE RSS FEED | Robert Sovereign-Smith | Executive Editor

Digit Geek

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you like the word or not, the geek shall inherit the earth, and as Indians, we want to make sure we claim our share of that global inheritance.

Coming to this magazine, we’ve gotten rid of a lot of the old sections, though favourites such as DGT, Bazaar and devworx obviously remain.

We’ve broken it all into four main categories – Tech, Sci, Cult and Alt. This is because we think these are the four major aspects to being a geek.

Tech (or Technology) is a no-brainer. We couldn’t really be “Your Technology Navigator” without the Tech, now could we? Of course the Tech is now all up front, in your face, and right at the beginning of the magazine...taking centre-stage, and being the star. That’s not to say there isn’t technology through the rest of the magazine, because there obviously is, but we think these are the most important tech stories of the month.

Sci is obviously short for Science. Honestly, we haven’t really increased the science coverage of the magazine much, but we have grouped it all together, because we think it makes it easier to read. Of course we have all new subsections under it, which we will let you discover on your own. Hopefully, you will like the treatment we’ve given it all, because we think science is an integral part of being a geek.

Cult is short for culture, and it’s a tremendous part of being a geek that we have been missing out on thus far. We’ve done it all in bits and pieces through issues in the past, but, honestly, it’s impossible to be a geek without being aware of the latest in geek culture. What may often seem like useless information goes a long way in defining a person’s character, and opening them up to new experiences. Stay abreast with geek culture, and we guarantee you will impress better in both personal and professional settings.

Alt, as you would have guessed already, stands for alternative. Why? Because geeks are all weird in some way, and wacky, and know things that make regular folk go “wtf?!?” (what the fornication). This is also something we think is essential to building character. The idea is to give you more abstract stuff to talk about, to challenge you to think totally out of the box, and stay informed, so that you too (we hope) can sound as wise (and wacky) as someone like Elon Musk, when you talk. Just remember us when you become a billionaire, that’s all! :-)

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“WHY THE CHANGE?” is what anyone reading this will ask themselves. Some of you might like it, others might love it, and still others might hate it, we hope you all notice it! Often, people prefer something familiar over something new, and magazines are no exception. We’re like a spouse, who suddenly changes his or her entire appearance and character. Whilst some love it, and find it a way of spicing things up and not becoming too predictable, others might wonder who this stranger is lying in bed next to them – and magazines are awesome when read in bed, aren’t they?

Like old marriages, however, we think it’s important that your favourite magazine also keep you guessing from time to time. Of course, we think of Digit just as we would a person. Which means, Digit the brand has a character that we are all very clear about in our heads when we write for it. The definition keeps changing, and is malleable (just as a person is), but the definition is very close to how we think of you as individuals. If we took every single one of you, took only the qualities essential to being a geek and cobbled all that together to make a person, that would be Digit.

Whilst discussing the change, and whilst launching the Digit Geek sub-brand, we tried to narrow down what it means to be a geek today. Who is a geek? Is it cool to be a geek? Why geek, why not nerd? ...and a hundred other questions like those.

I’ll be honest, we haven’t finalised the plan.

Like our last redesign (many years ago), this too is a work-in-progress, and will no doubt change as and when we get feedback from you. I’m hoping you will take time to write to us and tell us your thoughts – and I don’t just mean about the magazine you hold in your hands, but about the whole concept of Digit Geek as well.

But what is Digit Geek? Is it a magazine? A site? An app? Actually it will be all of the above and more, and even we don’t know exactly what it will or should be. All that we know is that you geeks are the centre of our universe, and we want to find a way to help you be geekier somehow. If you want more indepth knowledge about technology, we want to find a way to give it to you, and whether you want that in print, online, in an app, or even over old school email, we don’t care how. We just want to empower you to be geekier than ever before. Why? Because whether

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“If we took every single one of you, took only the qualities essential to being a geek and cobbled all that together to make a person, that would be Digit. ”

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

PARANOID ANDROID | Mithun Mohandas | Asst. Technical Editor

Who needs CEOs?

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probably have a massive neural network that’s constantly learning user behaviour to figure out exactly what they need.

A couple of decades down the line, you’ll never have another charismatic Steve Jobs who had his share of eccentric rituals to figure out the next big thing. It’ll just be that one supercomputer that sends out a weighted list of probable trends. Perhaps even the board of directors wouldn’t have to be involved any more. They can sit back and enjoy the fruits of their investment while the CEE takes care of the workings of the entire company.

CEE, in case you were wondering, stands for Chief Executive Entity.

The good in all of this is the fact that once AI and industrial robots completely replace the human workforce, the human pursuit will change.

No longer will getting a job be necessary. We’ll not be grooming our children to learn the sciences with the hope that they’ll one day take up engineering or medicine as a vocation. Instead, each and every human can take up their passion and realise it to its fullest potential. As humanity is defined by its culture, we’ll have complete freedom to reach the zenith of our accomplishments.

The transition will be rough, not everyone will immediately realise the opportunities that AI opens for us. It’s this transition period, that will prove to be the most crucial. Since throwing AI into the mix tends to accelerate things pretty quickly (read runaway effect), should there be a conflict, then the AI will take care of it in the most ‘efficient’ manner possible. I’ll keep the term ‘efficient’ open to interpretation but at the end of it all, I hope we enter the best of our times.

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YOU’VE SPENT a few decades in the industry.

You’ve spent many a countless nights working on projects, studying the in and outs of each and every aspect. You’re skilled enough to replace and take up the responsibility if any link in the product development chain fails. Your experience transcends domain boundaries giving you a bird’s-eye perspective. And now, you’ve finally earned the respect of the Board of directors to be elevated to the position of a CEO. Too bad, they don’t need you anymore. An AI has been brought in to take up the most important role in the company.

You… you get to be a valued member of the “company”. Perhaps, you might even make it onto the board if the rest of the members allow it but that’s straying away from the point.

Much has been said about robots replacing those in the minimum wage bracket. The very demographic which tends to picket in front of towering highrises while the corporate overlords ho-hum over the revenue loss caused because the “resources” aren’t exactly at work. For the overlords, it’s practically a utopia if the insolent workforce were to be replaced by mindless robots that do exactly what they’re asked to and that too without any question. Aside from a little down time to recharge, these robots are the perfect solution. Machines don’t have to go back to their families. Machines don’t have to attend their daughter’s recitals or cheer at their son’s athletics meet. Machines don’t take away a cheque every week or month, and they definitely don’t need to be paid a bonus. Perfect! Little do the managers realise that their jobs face the very same uncertainty as that of the plebs do.

If I am to speak in the management parlance, then the economies of scale affect each and everyone in an organisation when it comes to being replaced by AI. You input less in terms of resources and gain an unending source of skill i.e. the AI. Throw away all those expensive training exercises to bring your workers up to speed with industry shifts. Throw away the more expensive conferences that your executives need to be sent to, to get their “training”. All that’s ever going to be needed is data and that’s just a click away.

Probably not even that far away since you’ll

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“Little do the managers realise that their jobs face the very same uncertainty as those of the plebs do”

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

Scontents A M PL E COVER STORY PAGE 70-85

Geek it up

Celebrating the geek is what it is all about this time. We take a look at the anatomy of a geek, and to do that, we bring out 16 of our geekiest stories ever, before finding tons of geeky stuff for all you geeks to get busy with rightaway.

TECH - PAGE 18-69

JUNE 2017 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 06

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30 | A closer look at NVIDIA Volta

CULTURE - PAGE 86-103

88 | The Indian Geek

NVIDIA’s next gen GPU architecture is all set to leapfrog all expectations.

From the geek elites to the budding ones, this guide is for every Indian who associates themselves with the word ‘Geek’. Come join the geekdom.

AND MORE

AND MORE

SKOAR! - PAGE 145-159

ON THE DV­­­Ds Gaming Clients Bethesda Launcher Blizzard App Gamejolt GameRoom GOG Galaxy League of Legends OnePlay Origin Playfire Steam uPlay

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Digit Archives For our 16th Anniversary we are giving away everything we’ve ever published in the last 16 months bundled in one MEGA PDF pack.

Essential Office Tools and Suites Evernote Grammarly Nitro PDF Reader OpenOffice Scribus

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150 | Why eSports sucks in India?

or is it something about us Indians that makes us consistently poor at gaming?

154 | Whimsical simulators

How their meme-like quality spawned a new genre and attracted impostors.

AND MORE

ALT - PAGE 124-144

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SCIENCE - PAGE 104-120

109 | Abiogenesis

130 | Happy Birthday

Exploring the fascinating story of how life first emerged in a non-living world - what would go on to become our Earth.

We take a trip to the future, a world where smartphones have died out to make way for the next big thing.

116 | To The Moon

126 | Who let the cats out – on the Internet?

Team Indus is not only fighting hard for the Google Lunar XPrize, they also plan to make India the first country to have a privately funded spacecraft land on the moon. Find out all about them here.

AND MORE

Ever wondered exactly how the Internet came to be so obsessed with the kitteh?

AND MORE

Top Android Emulators AMIDuOS Andy Bluestacks App Player KOPlayer MEmu Nox App Player Developer IDEs and Editors Brackets ConEmu Eclipse IDE for Java GitHub for Desktop Google Web Designer MySQL Netbeans IDE Pencil phpMyAdmin VirtualBox Visual Studio Code XAMPP

Free to Play Indie Games Alone: Chapter 1 DEMO Ancient Warfare 2 Barbershop Simulator Don’t bite me bro Dude Simulator Last Man Standing P.T. Silent Hills Remake Pillars PolyPirate Raft Survius Tube Tycoon Essential Gaming Software and Tools CAM Depressurizer Discord Evolve FFSplit Gameplay Time Tracker GameSave Manager Gameshow Garena+

To get access to the entire Digit PDF Archive head on to this link: http://dgit.in/dvdarch17umy www.digit.in | June 2017 | Digit | 7

TO ADVERTISE EMAIL: sales@digit.in

JUNE 2017 • VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 06

SALES DIRECTOR: Lalit Arun Mobile: +91-9582262959

Managing Director Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha Printer and Publisher Kanak Ghosh Publishing Director Vikas Gupta

SOUTH: Ram Sarangi Mobile: +91-98864 06961 WEST: Suvarna Shringarpure Mobile: +91-93249 28247

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

NORTH: Mayank Sharma Mobile: +91-8800661912

BAZAAR ASUS ROG GX700 | Xiaomi Redmi 4 CG Slate Kids Tablet | SteelSeries Rival 500 Dell Inspiron 7567 Gaming | Oppo F3 HP Z2 Mini G3 Workstation | CAT S60 AMD Ryzen 5 1500X | ASRock X370 Taichi HP Omen 17 Gaming Laptop AMD Radeon RX 580 8 GB BenQ Zowie XL2540 240Hz Gaming Monitor

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EAST: Jayanta Bhattacharyya Mobile: +91-93318 29284

PRODUCTS REVIEWED THIS MONTH

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

COMPARISON TEST-FLAGSHIP SMARTPHONES Samsung Galaxy S8 | LG G6 | Sony Xperia XZs

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 PHOTOGRAPHY Sr. Photographer Jiten Gandhi

Brand.......................................... Page No. Samsung.................................Inside front cover

Toshiba....................................Inside back cover Kingston............................................Back cover Seagate............................................................3

Lucideus...........................................................5 iBall............................................................. 9,53

PRODUCTION AND LOGISTICS Manager Operations Rakesh Upadhyay Manager Logistics Vijay Menon Asst Mgr Production & Logistics M P Singh Executive Mohd. Nadeem Ansari BRAND Brand Head Mitin Kumar Asst Product Mgr Madhuri Goel Co-ordinator / Scheduling Kishan Singh

Dawn of War III | Cities Skylines

MOBILE MONTHLY Fury Turn | Guns of Mercy | Binary Challenge League of Gamers | Don’t Get Spiked Battle Bay | Project: Drift

ASUS.....................................................13,39,43

SBI.................................................................15 Gigabyte.........................................................17

Coolermaster..................................................21 Corsair............................................................23 TP-Link...........................................................25 Kaspersky.......................................................27 Circle..............................................................29

India Antivirus...........................................93,159

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 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 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.”

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 AND DESIGN Peterson PJ 8 | Digit | June 2017 | www.digit.in

GAMES REVIEWED THIS MONTH

Seagate..........................................................11

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CONTRIBUTORS Writers Aabir Abubaker, Anusha Sinha, Anupama Mantri , Prithvi Sudhan, Vishweshwar Jatain, Nachiket Mhatre

ADVERTISING INDEX

DISCLAIMER For every Digit contest, there will be only one winner, unless specified otherwise.

In the event of a dispute, the Editor’s decision shall be final.

CONTACT US TELL US WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT DIGIT If you have an opinion about anything published in Digit, or about technology in general, write to editor@digit.in or call at +91-22-678 99 700. To interact with the authors of specific articles, please write to the email address specified under the author’s name 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

JOIN THE GROUP THAT SUITS YOUR NEED!

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

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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.

DIGIT FACEBOOK PAGES

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

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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 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

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!

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

NEWS & NEW PRODUCT LAUNCHES To announce new product launches and press releases, email us at pressrelease@digit.in

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ENDORSEMENTS / REPRINTS Interested in ordering article reprints or in using our logos? Get the requisite permissions by contacting us at reprint@digit.in BUSINESS ENQUIRIES Think we can help you grow your business, or maybe you can help us grow ours?

Get in touch with us at business@digit.in

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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

10 | Digit | June 2017 | www.digit.in

digit.in/youtube

digit.in/forum

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

opening Corrigendum 1

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Feedback for the May 2017 issue of Digit

Dear Harshit: Thanks so much for your message.

I am the publisher of Digit. At the outset let me tell you that your communication skills are great. You have no reason to be apologetic about it. Communication is a two way process - and you have jump started it by initiating the conversation.

What’s the point of having great language skills but never really putting them to use to communicate effectively?! As regards your specific feedback about the content, I am sure our editors will give it due consideration. Digit is thankful and proud of die-hard fans like yourself. Do keep reading Digit and writing to us.

Regards –Vikas

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INBOX

The Blueair Classic 280i hands-on from last month’s Greed Examined section wrongly mentioned another product’s model name as the headline. We apologise to our readers for this oversight. In order to clear the confusion we have reprinted the write up with the corrected headline.

Send your feedback at editor@Digit.in

dmystify got injured against those tapes! Better you keep the dmystify inside the mag. It’s not a compulsion to show its cover.

Chapter 3 - Feedback for SKOAR. Well, you guys really do an awesome review of everything. You should also write about the system requirements of the game you are writing about. It give a kind of relief to some guys like me!

Chapter 4 - Something “OffBeat”.

I know this is a tech magazine and it’s really awesome! You guys cover each and everything related to tech! But what I feel is that you guys should add an “ OffBeat” section which should have something interesting UN-related to tech such as “Food you should try this month!” Or “Places to visit this month!”

Chapter 5 - What about history?

Well, you guys should also write about a specific brand every month – how it was started, its struggle in the Indian market and how it got successful. It will be quite interesting!

Chapter 6 - Last words.

Team Digit, I’m a die hard fan of your mag and I’ll keep collecting money to buy your mag and you guys keep collecting the awesome stuff! Never stop your work and the fans will never stop appreciating! Love you guys!

Your #DieHardFan, –Harshit Singh

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Hey Team Digit!

First things first, my English is not so good. I hope you will be able to understand whatever I have written.

Secondly, this is gonna be a long mail. Hope you will have the time to read it!

Chapter 1 - My struggle for your mag.

It was March 2013 when I read your mag for the first time in the school library and I was like, “Man! This is awesome!”. And I kept reading and reading. Whenever I got some free time I read your mag. But I wasn’t able to afford it (economical issue, your mag isn’t expensive) so I collected money and ran to the railway station with pocket full of coins and 5/10 rupees notes to buy your mag. Later, I requested dad to opt for a 3-month subscription and I said I don’t want anything on my birthday. Dad subscribed to it and I was really very happy! After that I didn’t read your mag for a few months coz I wasn’t able to buy and then my dad was also posted in a hard area in Assam where there nothing is available (not even a newspaper!).

But this time I went for a holiday and while returning bought the April and May issue both (Damn! All my collected money is gone!)

Chapter 2 - Feedback for dmystify.

The things which always irritates me is – tapes! Both my April and May

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

Hey guys, I was just reading the cover story of May 2017; “Customize your phone” part. I couldn’t help but that notice that you recommended some applications for easy root. It’s quite bothering me that one of the largest tech magazine will recommend using a Chinese botnet root application which installs non removable sponsored apps which are converted into system apps.

Also I’d like you inform you that these are not secure and very shady. You mentioned XDA but forgot to tell how actively XDA and all other communities are strictly against these Chinese botnet installers.

They could cause some real damage to some of the readers of your magazine.

I just felt the need to report that as that could be harmful for some users.

I bet this was a honest mistake in your part and could have slipped in by accident. All in all, apart from that, rest of the content is top notch; easy to navigate, great format, so cheers on that.

–Shivanand Pegu Hi Shivanand, There is a lot of concern over these ‘1-step Rooting’ tools, and we’ve read those same XDA articles you have. In hindsight, we probably should have put a much stronger disclaimer explaining exactly what could go wrong when rooting.

Now let’s look at the individual tools mentioned.

THIS MONTH IN TECH: We start off with the latest in mobiles, apps, and gadgets, then we move on to NVIDIA Volta, take a quick journey through the origins of mapping, talk to some interesting startups, show you how to install Android O beta, 3D print your own phone case, compare flagship phones, see what Agent001 has to say, get inside the Nintendo Switch, follow up on our look at careers in Information Security... and so much more. Heck this section alone is as good as an entire magazine!

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Google I/O 2017 oogle’s yearly developer conference was kicked off with a wide array of announcements, ranging from VR activities to AI everywhere, and how Photos is growing faster than Chrome. Here are some of the biggest announcements from the I/O keynote.

Android O: The first public beta of Android O is officially available now. So if have a compatible Pixel or Nexus device, you can download it and explore all the latest features. See our workshop to help you do that later in this issue.

Google Assistant: Google’s AI Assistant that was only available one Pixel phones and Google Home last year, is expanding its presence to more devices and apps.

Interestingly, it will also be available for iOS. Virtual Reality: Google wants to get rid of all the hassle with VR right now like needing a decent-enough PC, jungle of wires or even smartphones to power one.

New standalone Daydream VR headsets are in development. HTC and Lenovo will be the first to deliver them.

Google Lens: Perhaps the most interesting launch from the event, the new Google Lens app uses the Assistant and added computer vision elements to identify the world around you. So, pointing to a flower will tell you its name, while pointing to a restaurant will give ratings.

New Chip for AI: Sunder Pichai, Google’s CEO, announced a new Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) – this is a special chip meant for Google’s TensorFlow AI platform.

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tech

Tech-love

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

Android Go: Basically a new OS designed to work on devices with 1GB of RAM or less, and targeted at the extreme budget smartphone or feature-phone market.

More at http://dgit.in/GIO2017

Wireless charging roads?

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he biggest drawback to owning an electric vehicle right now is big, expensive and very limited charge batteries, and of course limited charging points. The Israeli government is working with ElectRoad (an Israeli startup), to try out under-pavement wireless charging technology, so that the roads can charge the cars! With constant charging available, there would be no need for heavy, high-capacity batteries that have to sustain the vehicle over long distances.

Instead, we could switch to cheaper, lighter batteries even on heavier vehicles.

Granted, setting this up would be a huge one-time investment, but it would eventually pay off in the long run. Of course, this can only be done in smaller countries, and not in India with our massive road network. Maybe someday? http://dgit.in/WirelessBus

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> code / creativity / community >

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

Kousatav Ray | feedback@digit.in

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then you will notice that algorithms are the defining set of instructions in an order of execution that defines how a task can be performed.

We believe that there is an algorithm for every task. Some of it may be well-defined and well-documented, while the others remain to be discovered or defined by some bright young soul. Algorithms are not just limited to mathematics or computers alone. Do you like to cook? Pick up that recipe book, it is a fine example of an entire book with nothing but algorithms. Do you need to take a bath? Apply soaplather well-rinse-repeat. Got mail?

Clear the mailbox-open the enveloperead-reply if necessary-move on to the next one. An algorithm must contain a specific set of instructions in a very well defined manner that will give the same output every single time.

And indeed, such algorithms are the building blocks of computer programming and many mathematical computations. It is only by the use of such algorithms that humankind has been able to make technology and machinery reach the current levels of fault tolerance and error free operations. Algorithms help solve problems ranging across a spectrum that is vast.

They help us to solve a Rubik’s cube as well as deliver advanced medicines to a critical patient. Algorithms help in enabling a robot to play football, or to use your biometric information like facial recognition, retinal scan or fingerprint based authentication to authorize a transaction. Well documented algorithms existed as far back as in the times of the Vedas in India, ranging on a vast number of topics like mathematics, astronomy, medi-

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If you thought algorithms are only for coding wizards, you’re in for some fun.

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An unconventional guide to algorithms for Beginners

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ook around you.

Anywhere. Chances are, you are in an algorithm right now or are surrounded by hundreds or even thousands of them at any given point of time. In fact, probably you are playing one out even while you read this! Algorithms have existed since the inception of human reasoning or probably even before that. In fact, if you observe carefully,

*Windows on Github

*AlphaGo wins again

*Apple course

Microsoft is transferring the Windows codebase to a single Git repo hosted on Visual Studio Team Services. This has involved scaling Git to extremely large projects and teams with a project called “Git Virtual File System”. http://dgit.in/WindwsGit

AlphaGo, the AI created to play the game of Go better than anyone alive, has defeated a team made up of five Go champions in a demonstration match on 26 May, to prove once again that AI has arrived. http://dgit.in/AIWinGO

Apple released a free college-level computer coding course designed to teach students how to create apps, a move that’s part of the company’s push to highlight its role in the US economy. http://dgit.in/AplProg

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tech Eye-tracking for weather

Meteorologists believe that eye-tracking technology could provide the key factor to improving weather forecasting. http://dgit.in/weatherE

A new study by researchers proposes that our galaxy produces 9 trillion kilograms of antimatter every second. http://dgit.in/antimatter1

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COMPARISON

9 trillion kg antimatter/sec

LG G6

Samsung Galaxy S8

Sony Xperia XZs

FLAGSHIP COMPARISON:

Three of the best phones out there go up against each other. Is the winner a foregone conclusion?

Prasid Banerjee | prasid@digit.in

54 | Digit | June 2017 | www.digit.in

We’re halfway through the year, and three flagship smartphones are vying for your attention. It’s time to find out which one is the best.

With the first three flagships officially in the country, the smartphone wars of 2017 too have officially begun. The Sony Xperia XZs, Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6 are only the beginning, but we figured you’re probably looking to find out which of these you should buy, or, at the very least, which one pulls ahead of the others.

Truth is, flagships are losing their sheen by the day, but they still make the top of the line in the market today. They are signs of technology that’ll eventually make it to cheaper smartphones that are easier to attain. So, what are these three smartphones telling us? Read on to find out.

Imaging: Baiju N.V.

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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.

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Highly recommended.

Ground-breaking product.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never seen anything like it before.

A definite must buy!

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The Digit Test Centre receives hundreds of products every month. Each of these products is put through a series of tests and is finally given a score. The final score is arrived at after considering a number of factors and evaluating them in terms of features, performance, value for money, build quality, and, in the case of software, even ease of use.

THE LATEST PRODUCTS REVIEWED FOR YOU

INSIDE

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HP Z2 Mini G3 Workstation

Redmi 4

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AMD Ryzen 5 1500x

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BenQ Zowie XL2540 Gaming Monitor 60 | Digit | June 2017 | www.digit.in

PLUS

62 CG Slate Kids Tablet 63 SteelSeries Rival 500 63 Dell Inspiron 7567 Gaming 64 Oppo F3 65 HP Omen 17 Gaming Laptop 66 AMD Radeon RX 580 8 GB 66 CAT S60. & MORE...

tech 88-acre city for car test

Called City-K, South Korea is building a 88-acre 'city' for tech and auto companies to test autonomous cars. http://dgit.in/Kcity

Extracting methane hydrate

Teams from China and Japan are successfully extracting methane hydrate from the seafloor and this is a big deal. http://dgit.in/MethSea

REVIEWS

ASUS ROG GX800 Defining overkill

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he ASUS ROG GX800 has quite a few improvements over the ROG GX700 of which a few things stand out prominently. It sports an Intel Core i77820HK Kaby Lake processor which has a base frequency of 2.9 GHz and a boost frequency of 3.9 GHz. However, since the ASUS ROG GX800 has the Hydro Overclocking System for liquid cooling, they reportedly run the processor at 3.2 GHz at all times and when docked, the clock speed can hit a peak of 4.4 GHz. In case you’re wondering what the Hydro Overclocking System is, it’s that large attachment onto which the gaming laptop is seated to make the most of it.

Speaking of the Hydro Overclocking System, it consists of two radiators with individual fans for each radiator. These fans were calibrated with a factory preset load line on the ROG GX700 but with the ROG GX800, you now have control over the RPM. So you can have your own cooling presets which can be set in ASUS’ Gaming Center software.

While NVIDIA has launched the desktop GTX 1080 Ti, the laptop variant has only recently been announced. So we do see the GTX 1080 Ti in the ASUS ROG GX800, instead it has two GTX 1080s in SLI which is a pretty good deal for gaming. More than sufficient to run AAA games at UHD resolution on Ultra settings.

And to help with visual experience, the display panel is an 18.4-inch UHD panel with NVIDIA G-SYNC so you’ll experience no frame tearing. Also, the GTX 1080s are clocked at 1632 MHz and a boost clock of 1821 MHz. We managed to get a Fire Strike score of 24,468 which is ridiculously high. To put things into perspective, we tested the 1050 Ti based MSI GE62 7RE and that scored 7943 in the same test. So with two GTX 1080s you’ve got three

times the synthetic Dependscore. However, gaming ing on which performance doesn’t always game you are playing and scale the same way synthetic at which settings, the laptop benchmarks do. can reportedly provide an Next up is the RAM. hour’s worth of game time The 64 GB of RAM that and with the cooling unit, the GX800 comes with PERFORMANCE...........90 that drops down further. should be more than sufFEATURES.....................87 Though we’re wonderficient for anything BUILD............................85 ing who’d pull out such a As for the storage, the beefy laptop for just a 30 ROG GX800 has three min quickie.

Toshiba 512 GB NVMe Aside from the Acer Predator 21 X, SSDs with RAID 0 support. Game this is the most ridiculously highload times are really fast with such a specced laptops we’ve come across. setup. Even the operating system feels There’s the obvious disadvantage ridiculously snappy thanks to the fast with regards to heft as this is the most SSD as well as Intel’s improved Speed heaviest laptop that we’ve had the Shift in Kaby Lake CPUs. pleasure of testing. The entire unit The keyboard is another upgrade. comes with its own suitcase which has ASUS says they’re mechanical keys all the requisite padding to transwith 2.5 mm travel distance and they port the `7,97,990 laptop around. If have tactile feedback. They’re calling you have the money and don’t mind it MechTAG (short for Mechanical carrying a suitcase around, then the Tactile Advanced Gaming) keyboard GX800 is one of the few units that and it has 30-key rollover, and RGB checks all the boxes.

Aura backlighting. The Gaming Center software does have plenty of –Mithun Mohandas options to play around with the RGB SPECIFICATIONS Aura lighting and allows for customiPROCESSOR: Intel Core i7 7820HK | RAM: 64 GB 2800 MHz DDR4 | SCREEN SIZE: 18.4-inches | SCREEN RESOLUTION: sation too.

3840x2160 | GPU: 2x GTX 1080 8GB SLI | SSD: 3x 512GB M.2 Needless to say, the SLI configuraNVMe SSD in RAID 0 | ETHERNET: Gigabit Ethernet | BATTERY: 8-Cell 76 Whr | AC ADAPTER: 2x 330 W | WEIGHT: 5.7 kg. tion makes the unit power hungry and for that they have two 330W power CONTACT supplies which plug into the laptop ASUS TECHNOLOGY PVT. LTD. | PHONE: 18002090365 | EMAIL: and water cooling unit separately. reachus@asus.com | WEBSITE: http://www.asus.in/

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S cover story A M PL E 70 | Digit | June 2017 | www.digit.in

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COVER STORY

Geeks are not anti-social, they are just anti-unintelligence!

Anupama Mantri | feedback@digit.in

Credit: Illustration and design Peterson PJ

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emember the socially socially awkward Leonard Hofstadter with his black-rimmed round glasses from the American sitcom “Big Bang Theory,” or the dweeby physicist Sheldon Cooper from the same series? When you think of a geek, what comes to mind is the stereotypical image of a bespectacled geeky chap with high-waisted trousers or suspenders to pull them up.

This is because pop culture portrays geeks as people with limited social skills (and strangely high intellect) and other such clichés. But who is a geek really?

Are the qualities simply restricted to these stereotypes or is there more to the geek than meets the eye?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines geek as an “an unfashionable or socially inept person.” However, this is the informal usage of the term, which has the more positive meaning “a knowledgeable and obsessive enthusiast.”

A geek is essentially an individual who devotes extraordinary amounts of time and energy in the pursuit of their interests, which sometimes might make them socially awkward or introverted. A small section of the word still uses the word “geek” in a derogatory manner, even if it is to address an individual possessing immense intellectual ability, or mastery of a particular hobby and interest.

Usually people think geeks are limited to people with immense mastery of technology.

However, any person who has invested most of their life in the pursuit of a single passion can be called as a geek. So if you eat, sleep and breathe anything associated with sports for example, you can be labeled a Well maybe not this guy “sports geek”. www.digit.in | June 2017 | Digit | 71

THE CULTURE SECTION THIS MONTH covers everything from the Indian Geek, and how you can get your geek fix in India, interesting discussions from our community, a rant on specification junkies and theory warriors, the good old Digit diary, ripping the best phone in the world a new one, and more!

From BOREdom to GEEKdom

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pen, which can be used to leave messages on the accompanying screen. It even has USB ports, so you can sleep comfortably besides your beloved smartphone or tablet.

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ant to geek up your living space?

Check out these cool home accessories from popular online retailers to geek up your living space:

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A WAY OF LIFE

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

Feel the Filament Filament lights are all the rage and nothing says Geek like the awesome filament wall lamps from Pepperfry (http://dgit.in/ filalamps)

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Trippy tripod Tripod lamps can add that perfect amount of geek to your living room or study. This one from Urban Ladder (http://dgit.in/ TPodLamp) stood out in the crowd for us.

Another brick in the wall Don’t have brick walls? Don’t worry. Geeks are great at faking it with confidence, and now you can just buy a brick wall (http:// dgit.in/BrickWall3D) to cover up that shady patch you’ve been meaning to deal with.

By the power of snoozing Who doesn’t love snoozing? This ‘Digital Leave Message Alarm Clock’ (http://dgit. in/MSgClock) will let you do that and more.

The clock comes handy with a fluorescent

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Put it down in style We found these super geeky coasters on Amazon (http://dgit.in/VGcoaster) and we just had to include them in our list.

A coaster is perhaps the smallest home accessory you can invest in and they can be great conversation starters too.

Mural Me Jedi Although expensive, this Return of The Jedi wall mural (http://dgit.in/SWwall) will

look fantastic above your couch if you’re a Star Wars fan.

These are just a few of our suggestions to geek up your homes. But of course, if you are a true geek, you may want to try some DIY stuff as well. To find out more accessories and read our complete article online, follow this link – http://dgit.in/Geekdom1

culture Honor 6A launched

Google’s new AI program

Powered by a Snapdragon 435 chip and features a 720p screen. Price starts at 799 Yuan (approximately Rs. 8,000) http://dgit.in/honor6A

FEATURE

Google has launched a new venture capital program with the focus on artificial intelligence.

Find out more here: http://dgit.in/newGoAI

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Your guide to be an Indian geek

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From the geek elites to the budding ones, this is for everyone Abhijit Dey | abhijit@digit.in

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aving read this month’s cover story, we’ve hopefully been able to convince you that geeks aren’t a fringe group or a status which is unattainable. Popular culture has portrayed geeks as socially awkward beings and mostly associated them with computers and comic books. Now we all know the truth behind that and most of the geek myth-busting has been done in the first cover story. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you definitely should. Although it takes into account geeks on a grander scale, how could we ignore the resident geek culture already existing around us?

Yes, we are talking about the Indian or desi geeks who are always eager and enthusiastic about everything. On our quest to curate this guide, we scoured the internet and talked to a few geeks in order to make it easier for you to enter the geekhood.

The answer is endless hours of reading through forums and also because they have probably faced those issues themselves. Whenever you face an issue, you should assume that someone has already faced the same issue and someone else has probably found the solution. This is usually the case unless you’re using a new or exclusive piece of hardware or software.

Although you might have heard of popular forums like Overclock and Tom’s Hardware, it’s really difficult to come across solutions to region specific problems, essentially for India. But fret not, there are a favourable number of forums in India that caters to local issues. Forums such as Erodov, TechEnclave and The Digit Forum (shameless plug) cover almost all aspects of technology and gadgets. You can find dedicated threads towards buying and selling advice, along with service and RMA issues. Coming over to smartphone related issues, you might come across dedicated threads for regions including India on the company’s official forums. India Broadband Forum is a highly popular forum where you can search through and post your queries about your internet connection. Planning to start your own blog and have no idea where to begin? HellBound Bloggers is a serious forum for aspiring and existing bloggers who also have a closed group on Facebook. With the help of an emerging forum called

JOIN TECH FORUMS

Your PC refuses to boot up. Who you gonna call? Your geeky computer friend. Speaking of geeks, they’re always ready with solutions to even the most complicated problems. How do they do it? What’s the secret sauce?

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Indian Audiophile Forum, all your confusions about audio with definitions and buying queries can be easily posted and dealt with. Do you live and breathe video games? How about you spend some time at the Indian Video Gamer forum, interacting with fellow Indian gamers? Find links to all these forums below: • Erodov (erodov.com/forums) • India Broadband Forum (indiabroadband.net) • Indian Video Gamer (indianvideogamer.com/forums) • Headphone Zone (headphonezone.in/ pages/the-indian-audiophile-forum) • HellBound Bloggers (forum.hellboundbloggers.com) • TechEnclave (techenclave.com/community) • The Digit Forum (digit.in/forum)

WE’VE GOT THE GEEK ROUTE TO SCIENCE COVERED We’re going to kickstart this section by looking at the origins of us Indians, the latest in nanotechnology, exercises to avoid text claw, admit our ignorance about the origin of life, check out some new space age suits and find out all about Team Indus...

The $500 Billion plan to save the arctic

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he polar caps are melting, and they’ve been on the decline for quite some time. Most of us millennials have been reading about the melting ice caps since our early school days and that hasn’t stopped over the years. Over the years, we’ve banned some of the culprits such as CFC Aerosols and dampened the rate at which the ice caps were reducing but these ended up being half-measures. However, there’s a new idea by Steve Desch, Professor of Astrophysics at the School of Earth & Space Exploration at Arizona State University that shows promise. It entails building 10 million wind-powered pumps across the Arctic ice cap which would pump water onto the surface of the ice cap in winter to help thicken it. So what’s

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SCIENCE IS THE PATH TO KNOWLEDGE, AND FINDING OUT ABOUT HOW OUR UNIVERSE WORKS. YOU CAN’T BE A GEEK AND NOT KNOW YOUR SCIENCE!

Do you even science?

the catch? It needs $500 billion dollars to materialise.

Desch outlines his plan in a research article called “Arctic Ice Management” in the journal Earth’s Future. He emphasises upon the urgency of the issue as estimates peg that the summer Arctic could be icefree as soon as the 2030s. http://dgit.in/Arctic500

Prehistoric diseases return

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umans and diseases have been doing the tango throughout history. We have evolved to resist pathogens and they, in turn, have evolved to find new ways to infect us.

Then about a century ago, Alexander Fleming happened. He is, of course, the man who discovered penicillin. Thanks to him we’ve had antibiotics to fight off those pesky bacteria. But bacteria are evolving to resist antibiotics too. It’s an endless loop, a back-and-forth that maintains an equilibrium of sorts. But the balance might tip in the favour of bacteria and viruses soon.

As the permafrost melts, ancient viruses and bacteria which have been dormant for ages are being released from their icy prisons. http://dgit.in/icyBacteria

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SPACE AGE

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hat’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of an astronaut? The Spacesuit of course!

The dorky yet totally awesome fluffy white thing with a fishbowl head has become synonymous with space and space travel. They evoke feelings of awe and envy among kids (and quite a few adults) and bring about a longing to explore one of the final frontiers left for humankind as a whole. But have you really wondered about what the spacesuit actually is and what it does?

And there has been a gradual but steady evolution in design, bringing both form and function.

WHAT IS A SPACESUIT?

Spacesuits of the future One of the most iconic symbols of Space Travel and it’s decidedly awesome evolution.

Prithvi Sudhan | feedback@digit.in

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A spacesuit, when you boil it down, is simply a mobile, self-contained spaceship for one person. It has to keep the person inside alive, whether they are outside in the vacuum of space or inside the spacecraft. It’s used for deploying payloads, inspecting and repairing spacecraft and satellites, retrieving satellites and even construction of space stations. It has to regulate temperature while withstanding external temperatures of -450 degrees to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, provide air as well filter out CO2, have a communications array along with various sensors, extract cough excreta, maintain stable pressure, protect the astronaut against micrometeoroids and loads of other functions.

All of this is handled by various devices that are all rather seamlessly integrated into the suit itself.

There are three major classifications of a spacesuit including IntraVehicular Activity or IVA, ExtraVehicular Activity or EVA and Intra/ExtraVehicular Activity or IEVA. IVA suits are worn inside the spacecraft just for the risk of loss of cabin pressure. They are generally very comfortable to wear and relatively lightweight. EVA suits are meant for spacewalks and other outer excursions while offering maximum protection.

As a result, they are the heaviest and bulkiest. IEVA suits are for situations where you will not be outside in space

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but aren’t in the pressurised aircraft (like when you’re repairing an airlock) and so, are a mixture of IVA and EVA.

HISTORY OF THE SPACE SUIT

The very first spacesuits were exclusively IVAs, as suits that could reliably stand up to the conditions outside in the vacuum of space were a bit difficult for engineers to design. This was because they had no reference to what effect things like zero gravity had on the human body. In fact, the first IVA designs for suborbital flight were merely adapted deep sea suits and high altitude suits. There were plenty of theories for spacesuit design from soft suits made from all fabric (scrapped due to not be-

ing able to hold pressure well) to all hard material suits (Mecha armor, anyone?) which was scrapped due to extremely limited mobility and dexterity. A good balance of the two had to be found, incorporating the physical support and protection of a hard suit while retaining most of the mobility of a soft suit.

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space also wore the first space suit; “Skafandr Kosmicheskiy” #1 or SK-1. It was custom made for him and weighed a whopping 44 pounds, mainly accounting for the protection gear in the case of an ejection. The Russians didn’t really have a landing program per se so they designed the suit to protect Gagrin for rough falls (upto 8 km!) A month later,

JUST LIKE ALTERNATIVE FACTS, EXCEPT TRUE! This month: Why cats? Why aren’t dogs the internet’s favourite viral video animal? Can anything kill the smartphone? Wannacry? Yeah, us too. Plus, an interview with HP and of course, good old DGT to make you drool!

The Fidget Spinning Revolution

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new fad is sweeping across the world. You’ve probably all seen it – these tiny spinning devices have been exploding with popularity all over the Internet and it has (sort of) become an indispensable toy for every cool kid in school or even adults to fidget with.

Often marketed as a stress-relieving device and having dubious health benefits, a Fidget Spinner, generally made out of plastics or metal, is a palm-sized toy consisting of a bearing in the center that is supported by either two or three prongs that allow it to spin on your hand or any flat surface. These spinners have been around for some time now, but an interesting Google Trends results (http://dgit. in/SpinFdgt) for ‘Fidget Spinners’ show how they have suddenly peaked over the last two months.

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Alternative

Fidget Spinners are inexpensive and you can easily purchase one for as low as `200 on Amazon and eBay. But the interesting thing is, 95% of the fidgeters don’t seem to care about its therapeutic functionality and for some reason, it has become that ‘one gadget every kid wants/ needs to have today’. http://dgit.in/FdgtGeek

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A banana phone. Seriously.

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n a world of self-driving cars and Artificial Intelligence, someone is actually building a banana phone. Literally calling it the Banana Phone, this peculiar handset is not exactly a smartphone, but a smartphone accessory that wirelessly pairs with any Android or iOS smartphone using Bluetooth. Users can receive and make calls through the Banana phone when it is connected to their smartphones.

The company plans to route 1% of all sales of the Banana phone to their partner organisation, ‘Gearing Up 4 Gorillas’. “G4G focuses 100% on the conservation of the rare mountain gorilla in Virunga National Park. The founders behind the Banana phone want to raise a total of $30,000 on Indiegogo (http://dgit.in/IndieBanana), of which they have managed to collect $20,000 approximately. For a limited offer of $120, backers can get three Banana phones plus a sticker pack, a Banana phone Tshirt and chargers. A single Banana phone will set you back $40 (`2,583 approx). http://dgit.in/BananaPH

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alt OLED display for LG V30

Google Assistant vs Siri

LG is reportedly moving to OLED panels for its flagship smartphones with the launch of the V30 in Q3 this year. http://dgit.in/LGv30OLED

One of the big announcements from Google I/O 2017 was that Assistant is coming to iOS, taking a shot at Apple’s Siri. http://dgit.in/SiriGA

GEEK-KEY

Who let the cats out – on the Internet?

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wondered r e v e e ’v u o If y rnet came e t In e h t w exactly ho d with the e s s e s b o o to be s on. kitteh, read

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uch like the way energy flows through different species up a food chain, one can trace dependencies in how species are obliged to put up with personal discomfort for the sake of others. For instance, the devilish lamprey can piggyback on porpoises and whales for days on end, an unwelcome, unshakable parasite – pretty much an in-law. Human beings, on the other hand, have taken a zero-tolerance policy towards inconvenience. We dispatch with firm and often mean hands, the pestering presence of insects, reptiles, and even powerful carnivores.

Against this backdrop, it is particularly strange to see that many a human will drop the above mentioned zero tolerance policy to happily wait for a cat to rub against his leg four-anda-half times, lead her up to the open door, observe her arched-back dramatisation of being undecided, coax her to leave, and on occasion, get clawed for being friendly – before the blasted creature decides not to go out after all, thank you very much.

What is up with these animals?

What is it that grasps the human fascination so much that we will tolerate the worst possible behaviour from cats and cats alone, and yet reward it with love and cooing? Perhaps a better way to look at it is to question what is up with cat people? Dog people we can understand – may they live long and happy lives with their veritable wide eyed, cuddy soul-mates. Cat people

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though are a strange lot. They have propelled to the top of the charts an animal that perhaps has the least interest in popularity.

This perverse trend has spanned the millennia – from the Egyptians sending humans to toil on the pyramids but bowing down with a saucerful of milk for every passing feline, to the unquestionable global hold

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To the internets me mateys

of feline memes in the past decades.

Today, we think the unthinkable, ask the unaskable, and resolve to rightly get to the bottom of this mystery – why are cat memes consistently the biggest meme behemoths on the internet?

THE PROOF We begin with the evidence that cat

memes have indeed held the internet in the tightest vice, for the longest time.

A review of Google ngrams shows the interest in ‘cat memes’ being consistently higher than that in any other kind of animal memes. As if that’s not enough, any purveyor of the internet’s biggest user generated content hubs – be it Imgur, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, or even Whatsapp forwards - will have recognized the unquestionable dominance of cats in the general internet consciousness.

For slightly more deductive reasoning, consider this: Stanford computer scientist and popular machine learning expert Andrew Ng, in collaboration with his colleagues, created an ‘artificial neural network’ that used thumbnails from YouTube videos to identify the topic of the video. The paper, titled ‘Building High-level Features Using Large Scale Unsupervised Learning’ had a seminal result.

The neural network developed an extraordinarily good ability to identify cats, as compared to humans being, dogs, and a list of about 20,000 other entities. The reason for this is obvious - there are simply that many cat videos on the internet.

The writing’s on the wall – cats rule, at least on the internet. Much to the dismay of the furball currently demanding attention on the writer’s left, the mission is now to find out why.

DGT GREED

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oewe is a German television brand known for making high-end televisions. They like making TVs that catch the eye. The Loewe bild 9 is no different. The bild 9 is inspired by the Bauhaus and Art Deco movements of the 1920s. Designed by the Germanborn Bodo Sperlein, the TV stands out like a piece of art in any room. One of the things that stand out about the bild 9 are its stands. No pun intended. The bild 9 has three positions to chose from. Standing, wall-mounted or table-mounted. The wires are hidden away behind the frame so you won’t see a mess when the TV is mounted.

The stands itself support the TV in a way that makes it appear to be floating. The bild 9’s frames come in either gold or grey and the TV is accompanied by klang 9 wireless speakers. In terms of sound, the design of the speaker is as a soundbar with closed box design and passive base membranes. The display supports HDR10, Dolby Vision formats and Hybrid Log Gamma, so it’s

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Loewe bild 9 right up there in terms of quality. The Loewe bild 9 will also have both 55-inch and 65-inch options. The 65-inch display sports a resolution (in pixels) of 3840 x 2160 (Ultra HD). It is expected to cost $9000 (`5,80,000/- approx) for the 55-inch variant and $11,500 (`7,50,000/- approx) for the 65-inch variant when it launches in August.

All the options will be delivered with a back cover in graphite grey and Loewe assist system remote control, again in graphite grey, including batteries. Additionally it will have three USB ports and four HDMI ports.

Hysek Colossal Grande W

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atchmaker Hysek is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year since its inception in 1997.

They’re known for making incredibly complicated high-end watches that are just mesmerising to look at.

Their newest creation, the Colossal Grande Complication, is no different. The name is quite apt for this watch looks like a technical marvel. We’ve never seen a watch design quite like this one. You can actually see the insides of the watch, all the way to the back. Even the back panel is transparent which makes it look breathtakingly beautiful. The watch boasts a whopping

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1080 components which took three years to develop; each watch takes 240 hours to assemble. The Hysek Colossal Grande Complication will be available in only 18K rose gold and uses flat gears to display the time, rather than the conventional circular display. It displays time in the 24-hour format and also features a moon phase indicator in the centre. The moon phase indicator also doubles as a dual-time zone indicator. There’s only going to be 8 of these watches and while the prices have not been confirmed, you can expect these masterpiecesto cost around a whopping $700,000 (`4,54,19,500/-).

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