digit march 2013

The RSS Feed

Reincarnations of software down a big deal. It’s the games that should get cheaper first, because developers spend a lot of time porting games to all platforms, and trying to take advantage of certain unique features or, say, a particular console.

Now for the bad news. People like me who have PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 consoles, can probably forget about backwards compatibility. All the older game discs might not work anymore. However, I expect some of those games will be ported anyway, and most of them forgotten.

I don’t really know how the rest of the world feels about this, but I rarely find myself going back to old games to replay them. All except Quake III Arena that is, but that’s only because it’s just the Team Digit way...

Speaking of reincarnations, most of you will notice a rather odd looking booklet with this issue of Digit. We had contemplated starting a lifestyle supplement a few years ago, but then pretty much forgot about it. It’s not easy to bring out this much content on a monthly basis with the smallest team of writers I have ever seen for a magazine that holds the number one spot in any subject, but we’re also known to be suckers for punishment.

If Digit is for the serious technology enthusiasts, looking to better their knowledge, further their career and learn, dgt is perhaps for those same people and more. Everyone needs to unwind sometimes, just oogle at gadget porn (and no, we will not be going down the tasteless half-dressed women route ever).

Although we take our technology seriously, we’re also prone to desire, greed and temptation for some things, and logic and usefulness be damned. It’s in that spirit that we’re launching dgt this month, and we certainly hope you like it.

Keep in mind, however, that it’s sort of like a beta, and we really look forward to your feedback to help make it even better and more relevant to as many people as we possibly can. Write in with suggestions please.

E

A

Robert Sovereign-Smith Executive Editor

M PL

s far back as a year ago we heard rumours that the PlayStation 4 would be based on the x86 architecture. Actually, x86-64, or what we’ve come to lovingly call x64. Important to desktop lovers like myself, because it allows us our ridiculous amounts of RAM – 16 GB for me. While some people seemed disappointed with the shift away from the PowerPC architectures, most of us were excited, because it meant that games would be easier to port from Windows to consoles, and who knows, if some really brilliant PS hackers have their way, maybe even Windows in dual-boot on a PlayStation? I know, improbable, but the past has taught me not to say impossible.

In late January, on vgleaks.com it was suggested that Microsoft’s next console, codenamed Durango (or Xbox 720) will also be x86 (or x64) based. For Microsoft, obviously, this makes total sense. Like every other company around right now, they also want the interface to just disappear. Why does it have to matter if you’re consuming content on your phone, a laptop/PC or on your console?

The ultimate idea is to put everything on the cloud, and allow it to be accessed on any of your devices, whether at home or on the go.

The biggest advantage of having the same platform as the PC is that more titles can be ported easily, and also developers will be working in a familiar environment when coding for the consoles. This is why the games that release just after a new console version are usually not the best in terms of graphics and physics, etc. Once developers really get dug into a new console, only then can they use the power at hand, and are able to tweak appropriately.

Not that we expect the x86-based consoles to be nothing more than desktop processors, because we’re sure that tweaks and functionalities will be added on here and there to enhance things.

With x86 phones now available, the Lava Xolo for example, and Android making its way to desktops and smart TVs, the lines are blurring all across the place. And this is great for us consumers, because it means you will get a more integrated experience at the end of the day, and probably have to pay less money for not just the hardware, but also the software, as common platforms bring the development costs

editor@thinkdigit.com

SA

“The biggest advantage of having the same platform as the PC is that more titles can be ported easily, and also developers will be working in a familiar environment when coding for the consoles”

Liked or hated this column?

Write in to editor@thinkdigit.com and let me know your thoughts.

Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com 1

Contents March 2013

volume 13 \ issue 03

quick

navigator

E

001 Enter 016 COnnECTIONS

M PL

LIFE 032 DIGITAL Droolmaal

Brilliant case mods

054 toolbox Q&A Workshop Tips & Tricks

SMART 098 STREET Agent 001 Killer Rigs Price Watch

and 072 Tried Tested

SSDs Budget Smartphones Bazaar

SA

at work 104 Tech Smart SoHo

technology transform education?

38 Can Can technology wave a magic wand to address

Work@Tech Industry Connect

challenges faced by our current education system?

72

A matter of speed

We test 11 high end SSDs to tell you which one can help you assemble a speedy system

Tried & Tested

2 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

88 HTC butterfly

89 Gigabyte GA Z77X-UP7

Smartphone specs taken to the next level

Great looking board with a feature set that will appeal to enthusiasts

91 lenovo ideapad yoga 13 Offers a 360 degree tilting screen, versatility of use

DSLR lenses for portraits

Check out these awesome case mods designed and implemented by modders from all over the world

Opera crosses 300m users

If you can’t capture the perfect face shot, chances are you’re not using the right lens.

Check these out. http://dgit.in/WTPoAZ

As Opera crossed the mark of 300 million users, it has confirmed that it will switch to WebKit. It will also reveal the new “Ice” browser at MWC

Bionic arm that ‘feels’ touch

The wiring of this bionic hand will be connected to the patient’s nervous system for movement control and touch signals http://dgit.in/12QI91S

Drool maal

nCycle Of course you’ll require some form of chic transport when you’re roaming around the African bushes (more likely the parking lot in your resort). We present the nCycle. Still in conceptual stage, this cycle is the first of a new breed of truly modern electric bikes. Just imagine how cool you’d look as you whizz past a tourist bus, your screams fading into the distance as you’re chased by a murderous clan of meerkats.

Price: Unknown

Leica R3 Safari edition Embarking on a safari without a classy camera is like going to the Bellagio without your cigar. It’s something that’s just not done. This Leica, as with any other Leica built so far, is the ultimate statement in camera debauchery and the pseudo-military green shade with the “Safari” tag and an Armani Khaki suit are all you need to look like you’re a native of the land.

Price: $2,500 (body only)

Punt gun

Planning an African Safari?

Don’t leave home without these

Shooting a moving target can be quite a challenge, especially at range. There are a few solutions to that problem, such as practicing to improve your accuracy or maybe getting a more powerful rifle. We prefer the punt gun though. It’s a beast of a gun that fires a pound of shot and would probably vaporize your target and quite a bit of the region around it. Why bring a sniper rifle when you can take this along?

Price: Priceless (it’s illegal in most countries)

The Fury If a game of Far Cry 3 inspired you to go on this safari, be warned that a recurve bow is not as much fun as you think it is. This is what you need. The Fury, manufactured with an extreme degree of precision and care, is the ideal tool for a hunting trip. Surreptitious and deadly, and with the right costume, you’ll look like a true badass standing with your foot on the carcass of a deceased bullfrog.

Price: $600

Treadwall rock wall treadmill You can’t very well go on a safari without getting into shape, can you? This $10,000 contraption is exactly what you need.

With the ability to incline the surface at a steep, 20-degree acute angle and a lap of 20 feet, this vertical treadmill will get your upper body strength in the region of that of a normal human being (with diligent effort).

Price: $10,000

32 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com 33

32 Droolmaal

Documentaries The Pirate Bay: AFK Owned and Operated Zeitgeist series Influential eBooks The Communist Manifesto Don Quixote The Trial Candide Civil disobedience Common Sense Critique of pure reason The Divine Comedy Don Quixote Dream Psychology Economics First Folio

BlackBerry BlackBerry Z10- First look BlackBerry Native SDK BlackBerry 10 simulator BB Chrome Plug-in Essentials 7-zip Google Chrome nVidia graphics drivers Avast! antivirus CCleaner CPU-Z Defraggler .NET 4.5 Daemon Tools Free Download Manager Foxit Reader GPU-Z Hamachi

M PL

Don’t leave home without these if you are planning an African Safari!

On The DV­­­Ds

E

Brilliant case mods

34

Digital life

63 World View

Our pick of the best articles from around the world

67 devworx

Feature: Firefox OS; Sunil Shetty: Mobile Developer, eBuddy

Play Omerta: City of gangsters

Misc 3DMark Ashampoo Home Designer

Learn IIT-JEE Exam preparation GMAT Math problems Basic math explained

Skoar!

120 Dead Space 3 Visceral combat

121 Aliens: Colonial

Marines

SA

A classic desecarated

Ashampoo home designer pro

DVD

3d mark

94 sony alpha-99

97 Acer Iconia W510

Impressive full-frame SLT with good low-light performance

Long-lasting convertible with some nagging issues

Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com 3

March 2013 • Volume 13 • Issue 03 Products reviewed this month

Editorial Executive Editor Robert Sovereign-Smith Features Editor Siddharth Parwatay Multimedia Co-ordinator Anirudh Regidi Test Centre Manager, Test Centre Jayesh Shinde Senior Reviewer Nimish Sawant Reviewers Vishal Mathur, Sameer Mitha, Swapnil Mathur, Anirudh Regidi Intern Siddhant Sharma Product Co-ordinator Shweta Mali Assistant Vikas Patil

Production and Logistics Sr GM - Operations Shivshankar Hiremath Manager Operations Rakesh Upadhyay Asst Production Manager Vilas Mhatre Production Assistant Brahmanand Nikalje Manager Logistics Vijay Menon Asst Mgr Production & Logistics M P Singh Executives Mohd. Nadeem Ansari, Nilesh Shiravadekar

Brand Product Mgr Arun Yadav Asst Product Mgrs Kshitij Garg, Sourabha Shakya Mgr - Online Shauvik Kumar Co-ordinator / Scheduling Kishan Singh

M PL

devworx & Custom Publishing Asst. Editor Nash David

Contributors Writers Vishveshwar Jatain, Jait Dixit, Swapneel Rane Copy editing Infancia Cardozo

E

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

Bazaar 3M Natural View Acer Iconia B1 Acer Iconia W510 ASUS F2A85-V Pro Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO Cooler Master Seidon 120M ECS Z77H2-A3 Gigabyte GA Z77X-UP7 Google Nexus 4 HTC Butterfly iDance EB-X203 IRISCard Anywhere 4 JBL Flip JBL Micro II JBL Micro Wireless Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 Lenovo S560 Nokia Lumia 820 Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB Sony Alpha-99 Sony NEX-VG900 Sony VAIO SVT13126CNS Spice Stellar Pad MI1010

Thinkdigit.com Online Editor Soham Raninga News Editor Abhinav Lal Sr. Sub Editor Kul Bhushan

Design Sr. Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan Sr. Art Director: Anil VK Associate Art Directors: Atul Deshmukh & Anil T Sr. Visualisers: Manav Sachdev & Shokeen Saifi Visualiser: NV Baiju Sr. Designers: Raj Kishore Verma, Shigil Narayanan & Haridas Balan Designers: Charu Dwivedi, Peterson PJ, Midhun Mohan & Pradeep G Nair Marcom Designer: Rahul Babu Studio Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul Sr. Photographer: Jiten Gandhi

Circulation Sales National Co-ordinator Samir Mehta Regional Mgrs Jayanta Bhattacharyya, Norbert Joseph Manager Circulation Dharmendra Singh Executive Vijay Mhatre

Reader Services Lead Associate Itishree Mishra Executives Pinky, Sudhir, Shabana, Shilpi +91-22-67899678 / help@thinkdigit.com

Cover Design: Anil T

Published, Printed and Owned by Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt. Ltd. Published and printed on their behalf by Kanak Ghosh. Published at Bunglow No. 725 Sector - 1, Shirvane, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. 400706.

Printed at Print House (India) Pvt. Ltd. R-847, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Rable, Navi Mumbai 400701.

Editor: Anuradha Das Mathur

SA

Form IV Statement of ownership and other particulars about the publication DIGIT as per Rule 8 Nine Dot Nine Interactive (P) Ltd., Bunglow No. 725 Sector Place of publication 1, Shirvane, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400706, District Thane

1

2 3

Periodicity of its publication Printer’s name Nationality (a) Whether citizen of India (b) If a foreigner, the country of origin Address

4

Publisher’s name Nationality (a) Whether citizen of India (b) If a foreigner, the country of origin Address

Monthly Kanak Ghosh Indian Yes N/A Bunglow No. 725 Sector 1, Shirvane, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400706, District Thane

Kanak Ghosh Indian Yes N/A Bunglow No. 725 Sector 1, Shirvane, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400706, District Thane 5 Editor’s name Anuradha Das Mathur Nationality Indian (a) Whether citizen of India Yes (b) If a foreigner, the country of origin N/A Address Bunglow No. 725 Sector 1, Shirvane, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400706, District Thane Nine Dot Nine Interactive (P) Ltd. Directors 1) Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, 2) Mr. Asheesh Kumar Name & Addresses of individuals who own the news paper and 6 partners or shareholders holding more than one percent of 3) Mr. Vikas Gupta, 4) Ms. Anuradha Das Mathur 5) Mr. Kanak Ghosh the total capital Bunglow No. 725 Sector 1, Shirvane, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400706, District Thane I, Kanak Ghosh , here by declare that the particulars given above are true to best of my knowledge.

Sd/Dated: March 1, 2013

4 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

(Signature of publisher)

Solid State Drives ADATA Premier Pro SP 256GB ADATA XPG SX900 128GB ADATA XPG SX900 256GB Corsair Force GS 240GB Corsair Neutron 240GB Intel Series 335 240GB Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB OCZ Vector 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB Transcend SSD720 256GB Budget Smartphones HTC 8S HTC Desire C HTC Desire SV HTC Desire VC HTC Desire X HTC One V iBall Andi 4.5h iBall Andi 4.5q Intex Aqua 5.0 Karbonn A21 Karbonn A30 Karbonn A9+ Lava XOLO A800 Lava XOLO X500 LG Optimus L9 Micromax A90S Micromax Canvas 2 A110 Micromax Canvas HD A116 Nokia Lumia 510 Nokia Lumia 610 Nokia Lumia 710 Sony Xperia Tipo Spice Stellar Pinnacle Mi-530 Spice Stellar Virtuoso Mi-495 Videocon A30

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@thinkdigit.com 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@thinkdigit.com 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@thinkdigit.com. Remember to include full system configurations in your email.

To Advertise Email: sales@thinkdigit.com National Manager: Lalit Arun, Mobile: +91-95822 62959 South: Ram Sarangi, Mobile: +91-98864 06961 Jijo George, Mobile: +91-7676881480 West: Sajeed Momin, Mobile: +91-98192 44603 Suvarna Shringarpure, Mobile: +91-93249 28247 North: Debleena Majumdar, Mobile: +91-98101 19492 East: Jayanta Bhattacharyya, Mobile: +91-93318 29284

Help!

For copy-related issues, delivery status or any other complaints regarding out service, write to help@thinkdigit.com or call +91-22-678 99 678

Brand

E

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@thinkdigit.com

advertising index

Page No

ASRock.......................................................................25, 103 ASUS ..............7, 11, 15, 107, 109, 111, 113, 115, 117

M PL

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.thinkdigit.com/subscribe Product testing Want your product reviewed by Digit? Contact our Test Center at testcenter@thinkdigit.com or call +91-22-678 99 708

BITS Pilani...................................................................... 126

BlackBerry..........................................................................81 BYOND......................................................................119, 127 Circle.................................................................................... 45 Corona..................................................................................61 Cyber Solutions............................................................... 99

News and new product launches To announce new product launches and press releases, email us at pressrelease@thinkdigit.com

Eset...................................................................................... 43 Ganesh................................................................................ 35 iBall..................................................................................9, 63

Endorsements / reprints Interested in ordering article reprints or in using our logos? Get the requisite permissions by contacting us at reprint@thinkdigit.com 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@thinkdigit.com

India AV............................................................................105 IOCL.................................................................................... 55 Kaspersky..........................................................................BC Kyocera................................................................................23 LIC........................................................................................19 Liteon....................................................................................37

SA

Micromax.............................................................................13

Careers Want to work for Digit? Send us your resume at careers@thinkdigit.com

NVIDIA.............................................. IBC, 121, 123, 125

Sponsorship Want Digit to sponsor your tech event? Send your proposal to sponsor@thinkdigit.com

Quantum........................................................................... 128

Plustek.................................................................................87 Pradan ......................................................................... 52, 53 QuickHeal............................................................. 73, 77, 79 Sagar Matha.......................................................................47 Seagate................................................................................21 Top Notch............................................................................51

Interact with Team Digit

Toshiba..............................................................................IFC TPLink..................................................................................41 Trend Micro........................................................................71

thinkdigit.com/twitter

thinkdigit.com/facebook

UPBSN................................................................................ 49 Vu...........................................................................................17 Western Digital................................................................ 29

Forum

thinkdigit.com/youtube 6 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

thinkdigit.com/forum

Xerox....................................................................................... 5 ZoHo......................................................................................31

LG buys webOS from HP

Buzz

) I’ve been reading Digit for over 6 years

Feedback for the February 2013 issue of Digit

M PL

now and it’s THE BEST tech magazine ever. I specially love the Toolbox Q&A section. It has helped me resolve so many of my PC issues. Apart from that I also love the Tried and Tested section.

The moment I get my Digit, the first thing I search for is the Q&A section and it really excites me to read about new issues and their resolution. I thought the Q&A section in February was too short. I know it depends on the number of users who pose their problems but my question is has Team Digit ever found any problem whose solution you thought might be really useful for readers? Please include them too in the Q&A section. Come on, you people are true geniuses! Give us more knowledge.

One more thing about this issue: in the cabinets test, the review of a particular cabinet was written on one page but the image of that cabinet was two pages away, and this was the case for all of the cabinets. Please try to keep the review alongside the image of the product. Alternatively, keep the writing on one page and dedicate the other page to the images.

Today what I know about computers is all thanks to you people! Even in exams, instead of reading my programming books I prefer your Fast Track. It’s awesome! I would really love to see an FT on Python and Perl Programming.

Aman Kumar

E

12

Enter

LG has reportedly agreed to buy the rights to webOS from HP and use this OS in its line of Smart TVs

The latest news from the world of technology which includes MacBook refreshes and Intel’s Internet TV

gestion of having text and image separate in mind. We’re pleased to know that you rely on our Fast Tracks to help you in your exams, but please do not ignore your programming text books as they’re equally important. We’ll discuss the FT topics that you’ve mentioned in our edit meets.

Nimish ) I’ve just subscribed to Digit and received

SA

my first issue. There are some things I want to suggest to you regarding the magazine.

Digit has more ads and less reviews. I was subscribed to another tech magazine but it’s now only available in a digital format, so I switched over to Digit. But the reality is that magazine contained only 69 pages, but none of them were useless. If I start from the beginning of that magazine, the first two pages contains the suggestions and the questions asked by people, then the 4-5 pages contained a short review of the gadgets which are about to launch. You may be wondering why I’m telling you all this?

Well, because I want Digit to be like this − less ads and more reviews with a first look at gadgets. In this issue of Digit there were a few reviews of gadgets on the last pages of the magazine (really few). I also want you to review the gadgets of local companies like Portronics, Bose etc. So please reply and try to change your magazine a little.

Harsh Khurana

We’re really happy to know that you like our Q&A section. These days we get very few readers who first go to the Toolbox Q&A section. Sometimes we have to accommodate ads in the Q&A section which cuts into space for questions and their responses. In our Q&A section, we shortlist questions which we will print since it’s not possible to include all queries in print. The idea is to inform the reader about a new problem, and we rarely repeat the same issues in back-to-back issues. If we come across an interesting issue, that also goes into the Q&A section.

Regarding the cabinets comparison test, we sometimes keep the winners in the later pages to maintain suspense as to who the winners are. For this reason, the images and text won’t always be on the same page. We’ll definitely keep your sug-

8 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

You want a Gadget magazine, and Digit is not one. Digit is a “technology navigator”.

Anyone can fill pages with “reviews” of gadgets and more gadgets, but that will only be of use to you when you’re buying that particular gadget.

That said, we’re looking to add a little more lifestyle angle, maybe through another addition to the Digit package.

Keep your eyes peeled for that, but again I should tell you, it will be lifestyle with a difference, not an overdose of gadgets.

There’s more to technology life than the latest gizmos, and Digit aims to help people through all those aspects. We give you knowledge that helps you get jobs, have intelligent discussions, argue, have an opinion, and yes, even buy smart though our rigorous testing processes which are a bit more sophisticated than normal product reviews. That said, if you still feel that all of the other content including articles and software in Digit is just not to your liking, I would recommend you stop buying it.

We’re not going to become a “gadget mag” ever, so promising you anything else would be a lie, and we don’t lie to our customers, even if it means losing business.

Robert ) I’ve read many issues of Digit and am a

huge fan of the magazine. I feel I can learn a lot if I worked with Team Digit. Is it pos-

Web watch

Connections

18

Google, Facebook and your other usual suspects change the web landscape one feature at a time

App watch

22

App updates and 10 fun apps that you haven’t heard of. These apps will entertain you for hours

Blackberry dominated, but other stuff happened in the mobile space too Perhaps the most dynamic area of technology, mobile phones witness new developments almost every day HTC One officially unveiled

E

S

be delighted to know that they have not been forgotten. On stage, CEO Heins announced that all PlayBook tablets will get the BlackBerry 10 upgrade.

The HTC One, known till now as the M7, has been officially unveiled by HTC. The One is powered by the quad-core Krait 300 processor clocking in at 1.7GHz on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset, with Adreno 320 graphics and 2GB of RAM to help it along. The One has a 4.7-inch Super LCD 3 display, the same type as seen on the HTC Butterfly, with the Full HD resolution at 469ppi. A lot has been said about the Ultrapixel camera. On the spec sheet - the

M PL

ince we last met, a lot has happened in the mobile segment.

RIM made its series of announcements, rebranding itself, revealing new devices, a new OS, and upgrade paths.

HTC finally unveiled its next generation flagship, the M7, calling it the HTC One. In the meanwhile, the previous generation flagship, the HTC Butterfly, was launched in India.

Apple became the second largest mobile manufacturer in India, in terms of revenue and Samsung launched its new budget series, called Rex, taking on Nokia’s Asha series in India. Qualcomm also officially unveiled the Snapdragon 200 and 400 series processors.

However, the biggest news stories in the mobile segment in the month of February probably broke during Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, MWC was still four days away, and in the interest of getting the magazine on stands in time for our eager readers, there was no option but to forego those juicy nuggets. You can catch up the latest though, by visiting www.thinkdigit. com/latest/MWC_2013.html

New Snapdragon 200 and 400 SOCs announced

BlackBerry Z10

SA

Berry. This is our promise of one brand,” he said. “Our employees already work for BlackBerry, so from this day on we’ll be known as BlackBerry.”

As expected, there were two BB10 smartphones that were showcased. The first was the Z10, which is a full touch BB10 device. The second was the Q10. With this phone, BlackBerry stayed loyal to its majority demographic of users by offering the physical QWERTY keypad along with a touchscreen.

The popular BlackBerry Messenger now has Video Chat and voice calling, as well as the screen sharing features.

The much awaited profile feature, BlackBerry Balance, can let you use the same device as two separate devices – one with a profile for work and one with a profile for home.Existing BlackBerry PlayBook owners would

BB10 is here At RIM’s January 30th event, CEO Thorsten Heins announced that Research In Motion will be rebranded completely to BlackBerry. “From this point onwards, RIM becomes Black16 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

The Snapdragon 400 has dual Krait CPUs going as high as 1.7GHz and quad ARM Cortex A-7 CPUs topping out at 1.4GHz with an Adreno 305 GPU. The processors feature the Asynchronous Symmetric Multiprocessing (aSMP), which helps keep it power efficient under full load. There is support for TDSCDMA, DC-HSPA+ (42Mbps), 1x Advanced, W+G CDMA, and multi-SIM capabilities of Dual SIM, Dual Standby (DSDS) and Dual SIM, Dual Active (DSDA) setups and also a camera up to 13.5MP. Snapdragon 400 processors will come with the following numbering: 8226, 8626, 8230, 8630, 8930, 8030AB, 8230AB, 8630AB and 8930AB. The lower end Snapdragon 200 brings you quad ARM Cortex-A5 CPUs going as high as 1.4GHz per core. The Adreno 203 GPU handles the graphics.

It enables “high-accuracy” GPS and can handle HD video playback and supports dual SIM setups and offers camera support of up to 8MP. The Snapdragon 200 will be available in the following part numbers: 8225Q, 8625Q. No details on the pricing as yet.

The HTC One

camera has a 4MP sensor and can do 1080p@30fps video recording with HDR. The sensor allows 300 per cent more light in, allowing for even better shots in low light conditions. The camera also features gyroscope-based Optical image stabilization, for more stable videos, particularly ones shot on the move.

Brilliant case mods

34

Digital life

Check out these awesome case mods designed and implemented by modders from all over the world

DSLR lenses for portraits If you can’t capture the perfect face shot, chances are you’re not using the right lens.

Check these out. http://dgit.in/WTPoAZ

M PL

Embarking on a safari without a classy camera is like going to the Bellagio without your cigar. It’s something that’s just not done. This Leica, as with any other Leica built so far, is the ultimate statement in camera debauchery and the pseudo-military green shade with the “Safari” tag and an Armani Khaki suit are all you need to look like you’re a native of the land.

Price: $2,500 (body only)

E

Leica R3 Safari edition

SA

Planning an African Safari?

Don’t leave home without these

32 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

The Fury

If a game of Far Cry 3 inspired you to go on this safari, be warned that a recurve bow is not as much fun as you think it is. This is what you need. The Fury, manufactured with an extreme degree of precision and care, is the ideal tool for a hunting trip. Surreptitious and deadly, and with the right costume, you’ll look like a true badass standing with your foot on the carcass of a deceased bullfrog.

Price: $600

Cover story

Can

M PL

Us ?

E

Technology Educate

38 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

imaging: Anil t

SA

The challenges faced by our current education system seem insurmountable.

Fewer number of teachers, poorly designed courseware, and ineffective methods of assessing student achievement are just some of those challenges. Can technology somehow wave a magic wand? We show you some not-so-distant possibilities...

Plex Media Centre

57

Toolbox

Learn how to set-up Plex Media Center and manage your media collection

Tips and Tricks

59

This month we take a look at Android Jelly Bean 4.1 and Android backup and an interesting way to download YouTube videos

Overclocking, overvolting, PS3 woes, router issues and more We scour through sos@thinkdigit.com to answer your issues which the transistors run, in effect it will generate heat. For an entry level card such as HD 6570 it will be a challenge to keep it running for long. It all depends on the system stability and is a trial and error process. You may get your card running at the speeds you want and get a performance improvement, but at the same time you need to be Rufus aware of the fact that the specified life of the components is also reducing due to overclocking.

Sure using tools such as MSI Afterburner, you can increase the core clock and memory clock speed.But that is just half the story. After overclocking, you need to ensure that your system is stable by running benchmarks such as 3D Mark 11 or 3D Mark Vantage. A mild overclock can give you better frame rates, but stretching the clock speeds to a level where the card is not able to keep up with the games or repetitive BSODs are signs of a failed overclocking attempt. Overvolting is basically increasing the voltage of your components beyond manufacturer specification. If you are not careful with this, you may end up frying your components. Beware: Overclocking or Over-volting voids warranty. If you have no idea of overclocking, we would request you to read up on Overclocking.

We had done a feature in the December 2011 issue on overclocking graphics cards and CPUs, which you may want to refer to. Using the MSI

Afterburner tool, you can get a decent boost in frame rates by overclocking your HD6570, but do it in steps depending on the response of the system after running stability benchmarks.

SA

M PL

E

Overclocking woes My system specs: • Gigabyte H61 motherboard • Kingston 2 GB RAM • Intel Pentium G630 2.7Ghz • Stock Supercomp 450W PSU I contacted you earlier with a choice of card and you suggested me with a HD 6670 GDDR3. So what I got is the HD 6570 GDDR3 which has similar specs.

I searched online regarding overclocking the HD6570 and I found some results where core clock was overclocked to 830MHz. I have the following questions: 1. Can I overclock the HD6570 to the clock speeds of HD6670 and keep it stable enough to play stressful games?

2. The HD6670 GDDR3 is just an overclocked HD6570. Why buy it then?

3. Can I overclock an HD6670 GDDR3 to a stable 1 GHz core clock?

4. What is over-volting?

5. Some basics about overclocking?

I have no idea of overclocking any GPU or CPU like what's stable temp, what software to use, etc. The only thing I ever overclocked is Dual Core E2180 to a 2.7GHz.

You can overclock your card to a certain extent. But you also need to be aware that overclocking a card means that you are increasing the speed at

MSI Afterburner utility 54 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

Formatting issues

In the December 2012 issue, you provided a tool for making pen-drive bootable. I used it on an 8GB pendrive.

But after formatting the pendrive it shows only 1GB storage. Help!

Prakash Singh

All you need to do is download rufus from http://rufus.akeo.ie/ and run it. Select the pendrive in the dropdown menu and select a partition scheme (e.g. NTFS).

Make sure that "Create a bootable disk using...." is unchecked. Hit "Start" and your pendrive should be ready as new.

Gaming on Steam I wanted to ask a question about Steam. In the November 2012 issue you provided the Blacklight Retribution game. I would like to ask that if I don't have a broadband connection, could I still play games on Steam?

I recently tried Blacklight in Steam but it wanted an update of 5 GB. Without it the game doesn't run. I live in a very remote area thus I am unable to get a broadband connection – I use a prepaid mobile network connection on Vodafone with 2 GB allowance. So can I play Blacklight without the update?

Bagish Singh Unfortunately, Blacklight Retribution is a multi-player game and can only be played online. Since the time the game was released on Steam, it has received

Our pick of the best tech articles from around the globe

(Must reads)

(Gizmodo Corner)

E

The Pirate Bay sued an anti-piracy group for... copyright infringement. No Kidding!

The largest light show on earth

M PL

Talk about being at the crossroads of arts and sciences. Starting March 5, the San Francisco Bay Bridge will be arrayed with 25,000 algorithmically controlled LED lights. The display promises to be mind-boggling.

http://dgit.in/YFmHpg

Reinventing the emoticon

Smileys are passe. But everyone loves them, nonetheless. So how do you make the emoticon cooler, more relevant to us than ever before? Facebook and a Pixar artist are trying to do just that.

SA

http://dgit.in/YlLXAn

Apps that drain battery Wouldn’t it be just great to have a ready reckoner on what apps adversely affect your smartphone or tablet’s battery? Someone at US telecom giant Verizon was thinking about the same thing.

Yeah, that’s no joke. It seems the popular torrent host has finally met its match and is getting a potent dose of its own medicine. It’s suing CIAPC for copying Pirate Bay’s website design and CSS files, including the pirate ship logo. http://dgit.in/11Ue69R

http://dgit.in/WVN3a2

Strangest simultaneous inventions

We think of scientists as mad, isolated individuals, locked into their study or laboratory, working on a formula for the next big scientific revolution. As romanticized as this impression may be, it is hardly the case.

http://dgit.in/Y8LF1H

7 uses for an outdated iPad With Apple reducing the time elapsed between the launch of iPad 3 and iPad 4 to under less than a year, it’s bad news for the original iPad, iPad 2 and even iPad 3 owners – their tablets are old. Do not lose hope, as we tell you how to give them a fresh lease of life.

UltraPixel? What’s that?

With much success, marketers have long used soaring megapixel numbers on smartphone cameras to trick customers into thinking larger is always better. But HTC’s newly coined UltraPixel term is just plain confusing, even by marketing standards, don’t you think?

Graphene-led gadget transformation For the uninitiated, Graphene is the mother of all graphites, which is a form of carbon. The substance has a lot of potential in gadgets of the future. Here’s how it can lead a revolution of sorts in batteries of the future.

http://dgit.in/WOlT3q

http://dgit.in/VHOgmW

http://dgit.in/WOwOdr

Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com 65

Bazaar

Smartphones Test

78

Tried & Tested

Thinking of getting a budget smartphone but are overwhelmed by the choices on offer? We help you make the right one

88

Our regular roundup of the latest gadgets and components to have hit the market

A Matter Of

Nimish Sawant

M PL

Solid state drives are no longer in the realm of only high end system builders.

If a speedy system is what you are aiming for, an SSD is one component you should invest in. We are here as always to help out with the best of the best in the market

nimish.sawant@thinkdigit.com

scaling the `200 mark in 2011, coming down to the `100 mark last year and finally this year seeing some drives touching costs per GB as low as `50. Thanks to the shrinking of the NAND chipmaking process, prices have dipped dramatically.

Last year’s SSD test had all the drives sporting the same SandForce controller, with difference being just in the type of NAND memory being used.

This year we have a variety in the types of SSD controllers being employed by different SSD makers. Thanks to this, there is quite a variance in the performance numbers. Since

SA

G

E

Speed one are the days when you could press the power button of your machine and go and listen to a song while waiting for your system to start. Hard drives are great and they will live long thanks to their economical pricing but there isn’t a better time than now to start thinking about buying an SSD. A solid state drive not only gives you faster speeds and faster data access times vis-avis spinning hard drives, it also helps in faster system startup and application loading.

What’s more, the cost per GB has come down quite a bit –

72 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

the last comparison test had all the SSDs sporting a SandForce SF2281 controller, there was no need for a DRAM for caching purpose. SandForce controller supports on-the-fly compression of data using the DuraWrite technology thereby limiting the number of times the flash memory is written to – in essence increasing the SSD’s lifetime. However, this time around we had quite a lot of SSDs without the SandForce controller. Since the controllers on these SSDs do not support compression feature or have onchip buffer, most of them had a cache buffer (either a DDR2 or DDR3 or SDRAM) to cache data.

Features, design SanDisk is quite a known name as far as NAND memory chips go, so it was only a matter of time before we saw an SSD from the NAND maker. The SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB drive has a 7mm profile meant for use in notebooks. There is a spacer which can be stuck onto the SSD to provide a snug fit within the notebook. You also have a desktop version of the same SSD which basically bundles in a 3.5-inch tray. It comes in an allblack body with a simple sticker design on the front face.

On opening the SSD enclosure we found a quarterprofile PCB housing the SSD components. It sports a Marvell 88SS9175, a four-channel controller. Thanks to the four-

Strontium Gold plated USB Drives

ChangYou now in India

The chinese online game developer launched Gamiction.com, a new online gaming portal for browser based MMORPG games

M PL

E

Smartphones Test

Strontium released two new, premium USB drives. The Ammo USB flash drive is now available in lustrous gold and silver colours. http://dgit.in/13a7u6K

SA

A Smartphone Shootout For The

Budget Man! We compare some of the most popular budget smartphone to figure out which device is a bang for your buck!

Sameer Mitha sameer.mitha@thinkdigit.com

S

martphones have come a long way since they gained popularity back in 2009. The budget smartphones back then were

78 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

gimmicky and plagued with a bunch of problems such as underwhelming hardware and lackluster performance. Today, however, we have come a long way since that early boom of smartphones, and devices sold in the market these days are not

only capable of offering smooth performance along with a good interface, but offer great value for money and have the ability to run all the apps available on the app store quite well.

With the growth in the number of devices available

in this category, we have with us 25 phones that are not only popular but have made a name for themselves when you look at the sea of devices available under the 20k price point.

We have devices ranging from a mere `7,200 all the way

I N SIDE

Bazaar

M PL

The latest products reviewed For you

E

Page 91 Lenovo IdeaPad 13

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 93 LG Nexus 4

Page 95 Cooler Master Seidon 120M

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

30

Extremely poor product.

Keep away!

SA

10

31

to

50

Page 96 Sony-NEX-VG900

Strictly OK.

Not recommended

51

to

70

Decent product.

71

to

90

Very good product.

91

to 100

Page 97 Acer Iconia W510

Page 97 JBL Flip

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!

PLUS 90 | Gigabyte GA Z77X-UP7 90 | Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB 91 | ASUS F2A85-V PRO 92 | Sony Vaio SVT13126CNS 92 | JBL Micro Wireless 93 | Spice Stellar Pad MI1010 94 | Sony Alpha-99 94 | IRISCard Anywhere 4 95 | Acer Iconia B1 96 | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO 96 | Lenovo S560 97 | iDance EB-X203

& M ORE . . .

88 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

HP’s Android tablet?

Will Apple TV be a hit in India?

If rumours are to be believed, HP is making a high-end Android tablet and also a smartphone which it might reveal at MWC this year

The Apple device is officially available in India for about `8k, but does it make sense to have one in your living room? http://dgit.in/12QANLK

Bazaar

HTC Butterfly

Smartphone specs taken to the next level

Features......................... 90 Performance................. 90 Build Quality................. 85 Value for money........... 80

Specifications

Contact

experienced when we switched back to the One X+ or the Note II to feel the difference. Camera quality is rather disappointing. Photos are too soft and the area of focus is quite restricted.

Low light shots are not as good as the One X+ or the iPhone 5.

On regular usage the battery lasts for a good 12 hours on auto-brightness. If you switch on the Power Saver mode, you get an additional 10 per cent more battery life. Fairly okay, considering the number of pixels being powered on this big display, but a bigger battery like on the Note II would have helped.

The HTC Butterfly costs a lot of money. But, if you are after the very best Android phone in the market at the moment, this is the one to buy.

M PL

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core @ 1.5GHz; RAM: 2GB; Display: 5-inch S-LCD3; Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels; Camera: 8MP; Battery: 2020mAh; OS: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

W

hile it is a big phone, single hand operation is comfortable, helped by the nonslippery soft feel on the back. HTC Butterfly also has the IPX-5 water resistance rating. Charging status LEDs on the front and the back of the phone are a neat addition.

Butterfly is the first phone with a 1080p resolution, and the S-LCD3 display. The astonishing bit is the 440ppi figure (iPhone 5 display has 326ppi).

The level of sharpness is incredible.

S-LCD3 is a huge improvement over S-LCD2 in terms of colour richness and brightness levels.

Our benchmark tests peg this as the most powerful Android smartphone at the moment, comfortably trouncing the likes of the One X+ and the Note II. Apps open quicker than ever before as we

E

86

HTC India Phone: 1800-266-3566 Email: http://www.htc.com/ sea/contact/email/

Price90 45,9

Nokia Lumia 820

Competent, but missing the pull factor

W

SA

ith the Lumia branding, you do expect a certain amount of finesse and class adorning the phone, and the 820’s polycarbonate does feel like it is fairly good quality. While the back cover is replaceable, the plastic is a tad too hard and is coupled with a mediocre opening mechanism.

The 4.3-inch AMOLED display (480x800) is a tad too low, for a phone this expensive. The overall display quality is acceptable, but comes with only three brightness settings – low, medium and high.

Call quality is more than acceptable, and this is pretty much at par in terms of signal reception to the Lumia 900.

The earpiece is soft, and while it is quite loud, you will feel the need for a little more volume

Price59 27,5

if you are speaking on this while walking down a busy market alley.

The Nokia Lumia 820 comes with a removable battery rated at 1650mAh. It will last for a day and a half on regular use. The wireless charging option is available for Lumia 820, but the cover and pillow are optional purchases.

The 8MP camera is definitely an improvement over the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 900, in low light conditions. Pretty acceptable for daytime shots. But then again, Android phones in this price bracket offer better cameras - HTC One S and the Sony Xperia SL, for example.

The Lumia 820 does not have the pull factor, to make you want to spend `27,000 on it.

Vishal Mathur

Vishal Mathur

69

Features......................... 70 Performance................. 75 Build Quality................. 70 Value for money........... 60

Specifications

Processor: Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon dual core 1.5GHz; RAM: 1GB; Display: 4.3-inch AMOLED; Resolution: 480 x 800 pixels; Graphics: Adreno 225; Storage: 8GB internal + microSD card slot; Camera: 8MP; Battery: 1650mAh; OS: Windows Phone 8

Contact

Nokia India Phone: (STD code) 30303838 Email: http://www.nokia. com/in-en/support/ contactus/

Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com 89

Price Watch

Killer Rigs

Street smart

101

Our regular monthly round-up of the best components for your next rig, across budgets

102

Get your game on! Get the latest prices for your next gaming mouse, monitor or laptop

A frantic call from a friend launches the Agent on a new quest. Can he find the ideal gaming kit for his friend?

Agent 001

I

M PL

agent001@thinkdigit.com

E

Gaming Mice and Keyboards

As I was travelling, I thought about the options available. Being a gift for a kid, it was probably best to have a rugged keyboard, especially if this “nephew” was anything like the little terrors I knew.

A mechanical keyboard would be best, but preferably something cheap, as a kid wouldn’t appreciate the beauty of a true mechanical keyboard, and he’d probably lose all those detachable keys anyway.

Considering this, the TVS Gold mechanical keyboard would be the ideal option; a bit ungainly and maybe a bit too noisy, but it had the two distinct advantages of being a mechanical keyboard without easily detachable keys, and light on the pocket at the same time. That, coupled with the Logitech G400 mouse, the successor to the now legendary MX518, would be the perfect combo for any up and coming gamer on a budget. At about `1,500 for the keyboard and `1,700 for the mouse, they would be a real steal. The GK105 combo from Logitech, at `1,800 would also be a pretty good deal if he was on a budget.

This bundle was comparable to the Cyclosa from Razer but the mor accessible

SA

had just finished a marathon session of Dead Space 3 and was about to settle in for the night, day actually, and that was when I got the call, shattering my visions of dismembered necromorphs. It was from a friend and he was frantic, he wanted to get a gift for his nephew he said, it was a gaming kit that he had in mind and the plethora of options that he had to choose from had driven him up the wall.

There was something wrong here. My antennae were tingling but it took my sleep-deprived mind two whole minutes to put its mental finger on the issue. He was lying! I mean, I do love my nephews and all that but I don’t think even I would get that frantic over getting them a gift.

Something was wrong and I had to find out what. I let my friend drone on in the background, muttering a suitably nonsensical word of consolation every now and then as I tried to piece the puzzle together.

Now what did I know about my friend?

He had recently suffered the loss of a dear friend, a penguin (“knowing wink”), but that didn’t seem related. Ah yes, a recently acquired girlfriend. Hmm, how does that help? Valentine’s day of course; and she must be having a dearly beloved sibling or nephew! When it comes to matters of the heart, let no one say that Agent 001 failed his friend(s). I quickly cut my friend’s pitiful bleating short with a brusque, “Shut up. I’ll be there in 20. Meet me at the station” – strapped on a fresh pair of dungarees, polished my spectacles, grabbed my cap, and set off for the rendezvous.

98 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

CM Storm Recon

DPI switch on the Logitech mouse tipped the balance in the GK105’s favour.

The train pulled into the station and as the surge of the exiting crowd “gracefully” deposited me onto the platform, I looked around for my friend. Finally spotting him on a bench, the picture of pure and abject dejection, I grabbed him by the arm and unceremoniously flung him into a nearby cab, hollering a quick, “Lamington road”, at the driver. My friend’s expression during this whole event moved from dejection to surprise, momentary fear to one of pure relief and then to doe-eyed gratitude.

Bracing myself for the expected outpouring of gratitude, and also wanting to avoid it, I quickly bombarded my friend with questions on this alleged nephew of his. As it turned out, I was wrong about only one thing. This wasn’t just a kid we were talking about. This was a discerning young lad who knew his Corsairs from his Cooler Masters and wouldn’t be swayed by the mere cosmetic appeal of a device.

From what I could make out, he was an avid gamer and an FPS fanatic with a Steam library that would put our very own Big Daddy’s collection to shame.

For such a person nothing short of the ROCCAT Kone or Cyborg R.A.T. 5 would do, but finding them would be quite a task.

The TVS Gold would still be a pretty good choice but probably something with a bit more flair would be in order. My friend however insisted that he had a budget of only `5-7k though, so unfortunately, most mechanical keyboards were out

Become a Web designer

106

Small changes to your working style and the right office hardware makes you more efficient at work Jayesh Shinde

jayesh.shinde@thinkdigit.com

I

108

We talk about the storage sector trends and more with Gordon Wu of Transcend Inc

M PL

Speed Up Your Work

Industry Connect

E

Tech @ Work

Did you always want to create and design your own websites? We put the spotlight on a career designing websites

Take control of the Web

This is one thing you need to get done soon. If you still work on a good ol’ CRT monitor from yesteryear, then you have to switch to a contemporary 22-inch full-HD display at the minimum. While a 22-inch LCD monitor may offer a cool 1920x1080 pixel resolution, you can always decide to spend more and buy a 27-inch display screen with up to 2540x1440 pixel resolution. But what’s better than one HD monitor? Two HD monitors!

To have acres of pixels to play with on a computer display makes organizing and getting through your work that much quicker. Imagine trying to work on different spreadsheets side-by-side instead of constantly minimizing-maximizing several program windows – while the former is possible on a large-screen monitor or dual-display setup, the latter is an irritating, inefficient way to work. If you write a lot of original articles, having one monitor exclusively for researching is just a lot more convenient than tiny, squeezed windows on your screen. Also remember that buying two 22-inch HD monitors is cheaper than most 27-inch displays, and their combined screen area is easily greater.

We may sound too harsh when we say that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and e-commerce websites are among the most-visited during office hours and through work machines, but several trusted surveys agree. To keep your small office employees engaged in work and off time-wasting websites, it is necessary to consider the following plan of action.

At some level, you have to concede that employees will waste some time online, so there’s no point going all autocratic on your workforce. Impress upon yourself and others the importance of taking “Facebook breaks” just like having a tea, coffee or smoking breaks at a workplace. If you think your employees aren’t tech-savvy enough, you can get away by adding something like StayFocusd, a popular browser extension. It’s a simple yet highly configurable tool to help you allot “time-wasting windows” in a typical work day, picking on specific sites to block. After you or an employee uses up their non-work-related online breaks, they can’t access those websites (or any website that you have designated) for the rest of the day. Through StayFocusd, you can even ban the rest of the Web,

SA

n a digitally connected workplace, the advent of technology and the Internet is both a blessing and a curse. The danger is that of getting set in routines that don’t keep pace with time, thereby hampering your efficiency at work. Technology and the Web also has its distractions that most office goers find difficulty in resisting, especially after the lunch break – productivity goes downhill after lunch for all of us, doesn’t it? However, we aren’t trying to fix the world and human nature here, but merely attempting to give a few pointers on how making subtle changes on the way you work and the instruments you work with can help you achieve a lot more, not to mention freshen things up as far as the regular work routine is concerned. As a small business owner, these tips should help you get the most out of your small office workforce, including yourself.

Dual monitors

104 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

Icons of Trust try and gauge your feeling for the brand. We give utmost importance to your thoughts of a brand that you own products of, obviously. However, we also consider your sentiment towards brands you haven’t bought products from.

Awareness and availability

E

The survey is broken into multiple parts. The first bit is awareness, made up of unaided and aided questions. So, you’re asked questions such as, “Which brand springs to mind?” or “Can you name all the brands you know?”, etc. Obviously you cannot trust a brand you’ve never heard of, right? Neither will you buy products you don’t see around you, and that’s where availability comes in.

Satisfaction and credibility

Who do you

M PL

Trust?

How much do you trust the brands whose products you see on store shelves around you?

Robert Sovereign-Smith editor@thinkdigit.com

T

This bit of the survey quizzes respondents on how their experience with a brand’s products has been. Basically how satisfied are you with a product you’ve bought, and how much faith do you have in products you haven’t bought based on what you hear and experience around you.

SA

he Icons of Trust survey was started over a decade ago to help not just you, but also the brands that want to sell to you.

After all, if you don’t really know about or trust a brand just yet, it’s the brand who gains the most by listening to you and taking steps to allay your fears. This year, like every other, thousands of you responded to our call, and we want to thank you for taking the time to help improve the Indian technology industry as a whole.

So how does it work?

Pretty simple actually, most of you would have already taken the survey, and know that we ask a comprehensive list of questions about brands, to

Loyalty and quality

A good brand is able to offer you such a good experience with a product from one category, that you’re more positive about buying products in different categories from them. This establishes brand loyalty, and we measured the loyalty you have towards brands. We also quizzed you about your thoughts about the quality of products brands offer, and whether you’d recommend them to others as well.

Trust

Once we’ve tallied thousands of responses, we then assign weights to every question appropriately, much like we do for our comparison test findings. The rather simple looking end result is an overall “Trust Score” for every brand on a hundred. Being Digit readers, you also know that we are quick to penalise, and this often results in a negative score for some brands. Does this mean that a brand that gets a negative score makes bad products? Not at all! All this means is that brands that don’t do well in this survey have to take some extraordinary measures to build up trust with the Indian technology buyer, and perhaps need to change their strategies. Also, brands that lose ground to competitors are given a wake-up call, and can perhaps strive to regain your trust by increasing awareness, availability, satisfaction and quality...

Without further ado, we give you the results and findings of the Icons of Trust 2013 survey, for the 10 most responded to categories.

SKOAR!

120

Esc

Xenophages and Necromorphs vie for your blood (and money). Find out what we think

Community

122

The ICONS OF TRUST survey is complete and the winners are out. Also find out what are online communities are upto

The worst lessons in history Murderous

E

If the children are the future of our race, and the foundation on which we will stand, the teachers are the hard working masons who will shape that foundation. Unfortunately, sometimes they go a little too far. All these stories here are true. We kid you not.

M PL

A teacher was apparently shot to death by a rampaging gunman in front of 380 students. After the students panicked, vomited, screamed and cried and generally experienced the most terrifying day of their lives, the principal informed them that it was all an act and that they had to solve the “crime”. This takes being “scared straight” to a whole new level.

Ridungulous

Imagine going on a camping trip with your whole class and then being handed a packet of chocolate covered almonds while you’re in the middle of the woods dreaming of the comforts of your home.

Well that would be your unlucky day. The staff thought that it would be a “good” idea to coat the almonds in moose dung.

A “trust-building” activity they called it.

Shocking

You’re a happy-go-lucky kid whose lost in its own world and a cop offers you the opportunity to wash his car. What do you do? You wash it you little whippersnapper! ‘Cause if you don’t, he’s going to electrocute you with a 50,000V Taser. At least, that’s what Officer Christopher Webb did. He claimed it was an accident of course.

SA

Creative punishment

Life Lessons

Survival of the fittest is a concept that is very hard to explain to a kid. Someone who thoughtlessly clips the wings off a fly, but will care for the sickliest puppy.

A teacher in Florida decided to take matters into her own hands when she asked her students to bury a couple of rejected baby rabbits. Alive. Needless to say, they refused. But she did the job anyway.

118 Digit | March 2013 | www.thinkdigit.com

What do you do if you’re teaching a class of rowdy teens and need to get them under control? You strip and also threaten to throw one of them out the window. You don’t discipline the students or anything like that. That’s all passé. This is the new cool. How else would a frumpy old teacher get the message across to the younger generation?

The Slave Trade Slavery was one of the true evils (still is) of pre-civil war America and what best way to drive the point home than to bind the hands and legs of your entire class with duct tape? No one volunteered but the teacher picked one anyway (you can probably guess his race) and the poor kid was bound and shoved under a desk.

Just to prove a point.

M PL

Visceral combat Anirudh “Mad Zombie” Regidi feedback@skoar.com

D

E

Skoar!

SA

ead Space 3 is an undeniably superlative game. The combat is rock-solid, fast and frenzied and the amount of detail in the environment is just excellent. The game, regardless of what we might say or complain about in the course of this review, is a must-play for fans and gamers alike.

The game picks up a few years after the last game ended, with Isaac Clarke in denial and in hiding from the fanatical Unitologists as he tries to forget his past. Plans of galactic domination, absurd love triangles, ultimate weapons and a forgotten alien race barely manage to form an interesting story. Thankfully though, almost everything else is just so much more fun that you don’t even notice it.

The environments in Dead Space 3 are a little hard to describe, they are simultaneously massive and tiny. In the course of your journey you get glimpses of the sheer scale of the game, but you actually end up fighting in locations that are surprisingly small. Almost all the combat revolves around entering one miniature set-piece after another, clearing out rooms in sequence, trying to anticipate how your next action will trigger the next wave of enemies.

The pacing of the earlier games is gone, the weapons in Dead Space 1 and 2 were hard-hitting, but also required more precision and skill to manage. Health packs and ammo were scarce and every fight was a true battle. Dead Space 3 moves away from all of that. You get dozens of med-packs, hundreds of rounds of ammo and don’t even get me started on the stasis modules. You run through ammo and enemies

at an alarming rate; rate of fire and magazine size take precedence over precision and the tension of the game’s survival-horror roots are replaced by an adrenaline-fuelled, action frenzy.

There isn’t anything wrong with that much action, in such a well-built game, the action is bucket-loads of fun; it’s just that as a fan of the series, we were a little disappointed at the lack of “horror” or tension when we were playing the game. It almost feels like a transition from Counter-Strike to Call of Duty; which isn’t bad by any means, it just feels a little jarring if you’ve played the game’s predecessors.

The overall audio of the game matches, and maybe even surpasses the visual beauty of the game. The soundtrack manages to introduce a semblance of tension in scenes that require it but the sound effects, the moaning and groaning of the necromorphs, the weapon effects, etc. are simply superb.

Another aspect that is implemented very well is the weapon crafting. Unlike the first couple of games, you now have various resources to collect and you can use these resources to craft weapons. The crafting feels a little awkward at first as you’ve no clue what to do, but as you get the hang of it, you will craft some truly personal weapons that are welladapted to your play style. The one thing that takes away from this experience is the system of “micro”-transactions that have been introduced, a trend that is getting more and more prevalent in EA titles off-late. They feel more like some marketing chap’s idea to extract some more money from gamers; as a tasteless feature that had to be implemented however, Visceral Games have done an excellent job in making sure it’s well integrated into the interface. The new game+ and co-op modes that have been

120 Digit | March 2013| www.thinkdigit.com

included are excellent and serve their purpose well. Both serve to enhance Dead Space 3’s strong points by focusing on the action rather than the lack-lustre, but somehow fulfilling, story. Co-op mode opens up previously hidden or inaccessible areas and you even get a glimpse of some of the backstory that was missing from the main storyline. We would strongly suggest that you first finish playing the game in single-player before venturing into co-op.

Verdict

There is just so much more to talk about when it comes to this game and what we have written so far barely scratches the surface of what Dead Space 3 really is, but then again, too much talk can ruin it. The game is excellent, play it. We can safely say that this is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best games that you will play this year and, despite its minor flaws, well worth the money and the time you will spend on this game.

MOAR! » Developer: Visceral Games » Publisher: Electronic Arts » Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC » Price: `1799 (PC)

9