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This week...

0808New CPUs In 2015As ever, the big processor making companies have gotnew chips to show, with all kinds of prices and abilities.Which ones should you be considering, though? We’vebeen looking at what’s going to be available, whatthey’ll be able to do and how much they’ll set you back

1414The Latest SSDsEven the earliest of solid-state drives are orders of magnitudefaster than traditional hard drives, but even so they’ve beenwith us for quite a few years now. That means there’s everyreason to upgrade, whether it’s for much-needed capacity or,amazingly enough, even more speed

2020Budget UpgradesThe latest and greatest stuff is all well and good, but notall of us can afford to buy these things. Thankfully, thereare plenty of cheaper options available for those withoutthe cash for the newest components or who simply don’twant to pay over the odds for a few extra benchmarkingpoints. We look at some of them in this special guide

3030Current GenerationCPUsIf you haven’t upgraded your processor for a while, thenyou don’t necessarily need to get the very newest chipsthat have just been announced. There are loads of greatCPUs that available to buy right now that can give yoursystem a significant boost

3636Current GraphicsCardsIf you’re a gamer or you want your PC to be able tobetter handle HD video, then a new graphics card is whatyou want. There are plenty of options when it comes tochoosing one, so we’ve been looking at what’s availableright now and which will give you the power you need

ContentsContents08

New CPUSNew CPUSIn 2015In 2015

14The LatestThe LatestSSDsSSDs

30CurrentCurrentGraphicsGraphics

CardsCards

4040Are YouMissing Out?You might think you PC has all the latest technologystandards, so you don’t need to upgrade. But progressmoves so fast, it doesn’t always stop to tell you it’s takenanother leap forward, leaving you behind. With that inmind, James Hunt considers what new tech you might bemissing and to go about adding it to you system

4444Do You Need DDR4?DDR4 is, of course, the newest form of PC RAM, followingon from DDR3. As you’d expect it’s faster and also muchmore expensive. Is it really necessary, though? We’ve beenlooking at just what it offers and if you really need it

4646MotherboardUpgradesChanging a motherboard is a big deal. It often meansyou’ll need to get new components to fit the newstandards it’s built on. Considering that, it’s importantto know what to look for, so we’ve go some essentialadvice for you

4848Using MultipleGraphics CardsSLI and CrossFire, as you probably know, allow you to usemore than one graphics card for improved performance.So, is it worth the the hassle and cost. James Hunt clearsup any confusion in this short guide

5252Custom FirmwareGot old gadgets lying around that have seen better days andare no longer supported by their manufacturers? Well, fretnot, because you might find you can unlock new featureswith custom firmware, so join us as we look at what’s around

Also InThis Issue...52 Intel Compute Stick

Intel is looking to trysomething new with anintriguing mini PC

64 PC SimulationsDavid Hayward lists somehis favourite sim titles

64 Artificial IntelligenceHow did it get startedand where is it heading?

92 Download DirectoryJames looks at whatnew software the webhas to offer

98 Retro Round-upDave Edwards returnswith another selection ofnews

100 What HappenedTo RealPlayerAt one point, it waseverywhere, but whatbecame of it?

104 iOS Puzzle GamesKeri Thomas puts his greymatter to the test

Issue 1350 5

DoYou NeedDoYou NeedDDR4?DDR4?4444 Group Test

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Issue 13508

Considering a system overhaul? Here’s what this year has to offer...

Whether and whento upgrade yoursystem are alwayshard decisions to

make, especially when thereare new platform refreshes dueat as-yet-undetermined pointsin the relatively near future.Commit too early and you canend up paying a premium forhardware that becomes obsoletewithin weeks, but wait too longand you might discover you’vebeen holding on for a refreshthat isn’t really worth spendingthe money on.

Of all hardware options, tryingto decide on a new CPU is possiblythe hardest decision – and Intelisn’t making that any easier this

year, with plans to bring newHaswell, Broadwell and Skylakeprocessors to market in a single 12month period. Even AMD’s gettingin on the act, though, with its newCarrizo hardware apparently just amatter of weeks away.

Fear not, though, if you’rethinking of buying a new CPU now– or if you’re planning to do so atany point this year – we have allthe information you need to helpyou decide when to pull the trigger.

Haswell-EXAs a platform, Haswell has beenaround a while, having had itsinitial release in 2013. It’s nosurprise, then, that 2015 has onlyone scheduled release that goesanywhere near the architecture,and that’s the Haswell-EX, avariant of 2014’s Haswell-Eplatform, which is aimed atinstallation in mission-criticalservers. Due to be formalisedany day now (maybe even by the

NEW CPUsCOMING IN

2015(And Should You Wait For Them?)

Trying to decide on a new CPU is possiblythe hardest decision – and Intel isn’t makingthat any easier this year

Issue 1350 9

CPUS IN2015

time you read this) Haswell-EX isexpected to be the most complexCPU ever made by Intel and willpush the boundaries in terms ofits server platforms.

Released as the Intel XeonE7 v3, Haswell-EX chips will runin configurations up to eightsockets, integrating as many as18 cores with hyper-threadingand an absolutely huge 45MBof last-level cache. New memorycontrollers (Jordan Creek 2) willalso aim to provide improvedperformance, though at presentit’s unclear whether that’llspecifically mean support forDDR4 RAM or a faster scalableinterface for DDR3.

As with other Haswell chips,the Xeon E7 v3 will use a 22nmtri-gate process with up to 5.56

billion transistors. Notably, it willsupport the TSX instruction set(Transactional SynchronisationExtensions), which speeds upthe execution of multi-threadedsoftware, but was disabledon current Haswell (and earlyBroadwell) chips because of abug in the implementation.

Admittedly, none of that’sexactly riveting and has little todo with what CPUs you’ll find inyour home system in the next yearor two – though it’s interestingthat 18-core processing is alreadytechnically, if not financiallyfeasible. Nonetheless, Haswell-EXis due to be released in Q2 thisyear, and will likely be the finaliteration of the platform, withsuccessive chips being based onBroadwell-E platform.

Should You Wait?The short version? No. Not unlessyou’re running a server farm outof your basement. Haswell-EXhas some exciting features, butit’s definitely not aimed at homeusers. Even if it were, 2015 isalready starting to look prettycrowded for Intel and Haswell’sgot a lot of competition bringingup the rear, so we’d recommendextreme caution!

BroadwellFollowing the 2013 ‘tock’ releaseof the 22nm Haswell CPUs,2015 sees the ‘tick’ release: a14nm die shrink of the Haswellmicroarchitecture, with all thebenefits that entails. In previousyears, that’s meant a triplethreat of cooler running, lowervoltages and around a 10%speed increase at the same priceas the previous generation chips,and there’s no reason to suggestthat will be any different whenHaswell replaces Broadwell.

However, one thing that willbe different is that Broadwellisn’t expected to be a full refreshof the Intel desktop line. Unlikeprevious tick releases, the low-end chips will be omitted fromthe update and remain availablein their Haswell incarnationsuntil Broadwell’s successor isreleased. This is likely because theBroadwell desktop line has beendelayed from its original release,and Intel doesn’t appear to beshuffling its successors back toaccount for that; a decision thathas left limited space in its releasecalendar (not to mention puttingstrain on consumer buying habits).

It hasn’t been officially definedwhere the cut-off point will be,but the smart money says thatPentium and Celeron chips will notbe replaced by Broadwell releases,while Intel Core i3 upwards will –although there’s a small chance thatthe Core i3 will also get skipped.Ultimately, it all depends on whatIntel feels are its ‘low end’ chips.

Broadwell CPUs will onlybe compatible with Intel 9Series chipsets (H97 and Z97)so, although it uses the sameLGA1150 socket, they will notbe compatible with Intel 8 Seriesmotherboards. If you have aSeries 8 board, though, there isn’t

The smart money says that Pentium andCeleron chips won’t be replaced by Broadwellreleases, while Intel Core i3 upwards will

Issue 135010

necessarily cause to despair: somemanufacturers are able to updatemotherboard firmware to providecompatibility, so check that outand see whether you’re able toupgrade your hardware to addBroadwell support.

The desktop version of thechip – Broadwell-K – is expectedto be quad core with a GT3e/Irisgraphics processing unit on-board.Notably, GT3e has 128MB of itsown RAM and supports Direct3D11.1, OpenGL 4.3 and OpenCL2.0. They benchmark in the rangeof NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 650M.The TDP of the chips will be inthe range of 65 watts, around 20watts slower than their Haswellequivalents. Although it’s alreadypossible to buy mobile version ofBroadwell CPUs in retail systems,Broadwell-K is expected to land onshelves late in Q2 2015, probablyaround May.

Beyond that, Intel will alsorelease Broadwell-E chips that willuse the same socket as Haswell-E– LGA2011v3. You probably won’tsee these until early 2016, though,and (as with the Haswell-EX earlier)these chips will be marketed under

the Xeon name and will be beaimed at high-end systems andservers rather than home use.

Should You Wait?If you’re looking to perform amajor upgrade on your systemsooner rather than later, andwere aiming for a Haswell boardand chip, then definitely wait.Broadwell is coming very soon andis likely to provide a far superioroption in both financial andperformance terms. That said, ifyou can wait until the end of theyear, you might be in luck…

Skylake And CannonlakeAlready previewing, Skylake isthe ‘tock’ release due to followBroadwell, and is currentlyexpected to launch at the end of2015. Although this would putit unusually close to the releaseof the delayed Broadwell, someanalysts predict that Intel willseek to maintain momentumby choosing not to push backBroadwell’s successors. That said,it’s possible that even if mobileSkylake chips are out by the endof the year, it’ll be the following

year before the desktop versionsare ready to sell.

Skylake will be manufacturedusing a 14nm process before beingshrunk to 10nm for the Cannonlake‘tick’ release in 2017. Both will usea new socket, LGA1151, and becompatible with Intel’s new 100series ‘Sunrise Point’ chipsets.

Major changes between theHaswell/Broadwell generationof chips and Skylake/Cannonlakeinclude the removal of theFIVR voltage regulator and theintegration of the PlatformController Hub on the CPU die formobile variants, essentially turningit into a system-on-chip design.

Interestingly, it’s expectedthat Skylake chips will retainbackwards compatibility withDDR3 to ease the transition toDDR4, which suggests that 100series motherboards may comein both DDR3 and DDR4 versions.

After 2015:Aftter 2015:AMD ZenPlanned forPlanned forrelease in late 2016, if noot early2017, Zen is going to bebe AMD’s2017 Zen is going to be AMD sserious attempt to gett backin the desktop gamee with ai th d kt ithground-up redesignn of an x86chip, and hopefullly putting therelatively disastroous Bulldozer erabehind it once aand for all.

Not much iss known aboutZen, officially. There are reportsthat it’ll suppport DDR4 (a virtualcertainty – itts predecessorExcavator dooes, after all)and that it will use a 14nmfabricationn process and supportthe new Soocket FM3, eventhough it won’t necessarilybe an APUU. Some leaks havesuggestedd that Zen will sellunder thee FX series with a sisterline beingg developed for an APUincarnatioon of the hardware.

In any case, it’s known that Zenwill be thee basis of CPUs code-named Suummit Ridge, so if you’reinterested in giving AMD a chanceg AMD a chancewithwith its newew hardware, that’s,rdw

you’rree waiting for.ng fowawhatat yyo It’s all aay offf right now,w,ghtofflongggn wwallong though,th

n’t holldd your breath on anyon anybred yon’t hso donon’soso dof this. We’ll let you know whenhennowyoulls.of thiZen is gettingg near.nens g

Issue 135012

Mobile platforms will be ableto take advantage of the newUniDIMM standard, which is a typeof SO-DIMM capable of carryingeither DDR3 or DDR4 memory.

Other improvements for theSkylake generation of chips includesPCI-Express 4.0 support (confirmedfor Skylake-E only), Thunderbolt3.0 support, SATA Express supportand Iris Pro graphics on all chipsas standard. All of the chips willbe quad-core, and the Pentium/Celeron lines will also be updatedafter missing out on Broadwellreplacements. Skylake will alsoend VGA support, so you’ll have tomove your monitor to either HDMIor DisplayPort!

Finally, for the mobile platform,Skylake laptops will use a wirelesscharging technology known as‘Rezence’, which all major vendorshave pledged to support. Rezencecan supply 50 watts at distancesof up to 5cm and is activated by aBluetooth smart link.

Should You Wait?If you can wait for Skylake, youprobably should. It’s debatablewhether it’ll actually make it

out this year, but the lack ofany confirmation might turnuncertainty about Broadwell intoa self-fulfilling prophecy. UnlessIntel denies a 2015 release, itmight be worth holding off ratherthan backing a lame horse.

CarrizoWith all the Intel releases goingon, it’s important not to forgetabout its rival AMD, which isalso releasing a new platform inMarch. The follow-up to Kaveri,the Carrizo line of chips willinclude Excavator cores (succeedingSteamroller) and a new generationof Graphics Core Next GPUs.

As part of an attempt to getthe drop on Intel, Excavator willsupport both DDR3 and DDR4memory controllers, though it’snot known at present if both ofthese will sit on the same die orwhether the processor will come intwo distinct variants. The platformis also designed using high densitylibraries normally included onGPUs to reduce the size and powerconsumption of the die, leading –we’re told – to an extremely handy30% increase in energy efficiency.

Carrizo APUs will use SocketFM2+ and feature four cores,with a TDP of 65 watts. They willalso incorporate a Southbridgecontroller. It’s notable thatthey will be based on a 28nmfabrication process, delayingAMD’s predicted shift to 20nm.Despite this, the processoris expected to be the fastestand most efficient APU yet.Indeed, efficiency is a big partof the push for Carrizo’s rollout,particularly because it isn’tshrinking its die process.

To achieve this, AMD hasintroduced Voltage AdaptiveOperation, which runs the chipat a low average voltage andspikes demand upwards onlywhen necessary – something thatwastes less power than constantlyshifting up and down.

Carrizo is planned to becompliant with HSA 1.0, whichimproves graphics performance bysharing resources in parallel andwill make it easier to run the chipson non-standard operating systems.A CPU-only variant named Torontowill be made available for serverand enterprise markets. Excavatorwill also be the final iteration ofthe Bulldozer architecture beforeit’s replaced by Zen (see box-out).

Although Kaveri representeda big improvement for AMD’sdesktop chips, few would denythat it has underperformed.Many attribute this to AMDreleasing the chip during aperiod of decline for the overallmarket. It’s hope that AMD’sfocus on the mobile market,with a new one-size-fits-allmotherboard for mobile Carrizodevices, will help them regainsome market share – but as ever,it’s hard to predict the directionthings will take.

Should You Wait?If you’re running an AMD systemand want to upgrade, thendefinitely. It’s almost upon us, andwhatever comes next is going tobe so different from Carrizo thatthere’s little chance of salvagingthe core components. If you don’tupdate now, it’s going to be along and pointless wait for yournext AMD system, which isn’t dueuntil late 2016 at the earliest. mm

We’ve often touted a solid state drive as being the bestupgrade you give a PC – and here are our favourites

If you’re upgrading a PC, it’s getting harder and harder toignore the positive effect that putting an SSD in a systemcan have. These days, memory and processors are so quickthat mechanical drives simply can’t keep up, and create a

bottleneck that hampers performance in all areas – from boottimes to framerates within games. Swapping your old harddrive for a solid state alternative will up your system speedsacross the board.

The benefits of a solid state drive aren’t just limited to speed,either. SSDs are more compact, make less noise and generate lessheat. They’re also less prone to failure and live longer. In almostevery way you can think of, SSDs are superior to mechanical drives,except for the small problem of them being considerably moreexpensive in terms of cost per gigabyte. This puts a dampener onmany people’s enthusiasm for them; for the same price as a 500GBSSD, you could fill a system with enough multi-terabyte mechanicaldrives to last you for years.

There’s no rule that says you can’t have both, though. SSDs mightnot be cheap – but they are, finally, cheap enough. Why buy fourterabytes of mechanical space you’ll never fill, when you could buya terabyte of file storage and 256GB of pure speed to run youroperating system and software from?

Assuming you’re convinced, the next step is choosing an SSD.Here, things get tricky: distinguishing the new from the old can bedifficult, and it’s hard to tell what makes one better than another.To try and help, we’ve taken a look at the current SSD retail marketto see what models you’ll find, and why you’d want to buy them(or not). If you want to stay on the cutting edge, this list of SSDswill be your guide.

What To BuyEven with the information in front of you, picking an SSD canbe a massive headache. To help simplify the process, we’vewhittled down the lines we looked at into this handy top 5,presented in the order you should look for them. If a drivedoesn’t appear here, that doesn’t mean it’s bad, though –just that something else might be better. It all depends onhow and why you want it!

1. Samsung 850 EVO2. Crucial M5503. OCZ Vector 1504. Intel 7305. Crucial MX200

THE LATEST

SSDSEXAMINED

Issue 135014

The Crucial M500 line was released in July 2013 as a successor to the M4 line,and it’s a strong reminder of the company’s credentials as SSD pioneers, evenif it’s since been surpassed by the M550. Still available in capacities of 240GB,480GB and 960GB, speeds are strong, but not excessively high: 500MB/s read and400MB/s write (80k IOPS read and write). The controller is the Marvell 88SS9187found in some of SanDisk’s SSDs, but without SanDisk’s customisation it doesn’tperform as well. The flash memory is 20nm MLC NAND. As a package, it’s thecombination of a low price and high capacity that makes it special. Costs rangefrom £80 for a 240GB drive to £315 for the 960GB, and at £154 the 480GBversion is still a great way to get a high-capacity SSD for a low price.

Released about a year ago, the Crucial M550 line improved on Crucial’s already-strong M500 performance to create one of the best SSDs on the market.Although it looks like a minor upgrade, numerically speaking, the M550 hasa new controller and manages to offer slightly more space than the M500 bydropping the amount of NAND flash kept in reserve. This means that drive healthis theoretically worse in the long term, but estimates show that the M500 wasoverly conservative about how many of its cells would fail. Read and write speedsare comfortably above 500MB/s for large files, and read/write speeds were vastlyimproved for small file sizes too. Capacities range from 128GB to 1TB, priced £70to £350. That’s not bad for a 1TB drive, but the 256GB is a steal at £120.

One of the most recent SSDs in this entire guide, the BX100 line was released atthe start of this year and comes in 120GB, 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities. It’sa budget SSD, which uses Silicon Motion’s much-praised 2246EN controller and16nm NAND, but drops some of the M-series enterprise features – so no hardwareencryption or SLC caching. The price ranges from £50 for the 120GB model to£285 for the 1TB model – so it’s as cheap a 1TB SSD as you can get despite beingright up to date, and while its write speeds aren’t fantastic (450MB/s), it’s not hardto absorb a 10% speed drop for a 30% saving on price.

Available in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities, the Adata XPG SX900has a few miles on the clock. It was originally released in February 2012, andsports the familiar and unremarkable SF-2281 SandForce controller, so there’s notmuch interesting about it. Prices for the various models range from £48 to £183,so they’re at the extreme cheap end of SSD pricing – but then, at their age, you’dhope so. The storage itself is made of 20nm MLC NAND cells, and speeds aren’thugely impressive on any model – all within the 520-560MB/s range. Not bad ifyou want a low-price SSD, but it’s hard to get excited about in any quarter.

The Neutron GTX is Corsair’s flagship line of SSDs, designed for high-enddesktops and notebooks. Available in capacities of 120GB, 240GB and 480GB,prices range from £86 to £288 with the 240GB model particularly well-pricedat £143. These SSDs have also been around a while (May 2012) but use the lesscommon LAMD LM87800 controller, which has better performance than theSandForce. Again, expect speeds of 500MB/s and above. One good reason tofavour the Neutron GTX line over any other is its use of Toggle NAND, which hasbetter performance than MLC and lasts a lot longer – hence the expensive priceon this rather old line of SSDs.

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Issue 1350 15

LATEST SSDS

The Crucial MX100 was a low-priced SSD aimed at mainstream users, but whichis in the process of being replaced by a 2015 refresh called the MX200. The onlynotable change between the two models is that the MX200 features SLC caching(called ‘Dynamic Write Acceleration’). Both drives feature a Marvell 88SS9189controlled with 16nm NAND and eDrive encryption. The MX200 is available in250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities priced £110-£380, and the slightly slowerMX100 is available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities priced £58 to £176.On average, the MX200 is about 10% more expensive than the MX100, whichisn’t bad for the latest-generation hardware.

The Samsung 840 EVO hit shelves in August 2013 and was the first to run on19nm TLC NAND flash. The use of TLC NAND was notable because no othercompany offered this type of NAND to the consumer, mostly because it was lessdurable than MLC NAND. It was more commonly found in flash drives rather thanSSDs. The controller in the 840 EVO is Samsung’s proprietary multi-core MEX SSD,which can achieve more than double the sequential write performance of thevanilla 840 – 540MB/s write and 520MB/s read. Prices range from £100 for the120GB version to £310 for the 1TB version.

Released in December 2014, the Samsung 850 EVO is a successor to the 840 EVOin terms of balancing power and price, but the internals have largely changed.It’s now using V-NAND TLC flash (which is some of the cheapest per-gigabyte yet)with over 500MB/s read and write speeds. Prices for the 850 line start at £70 for120GB and top out at £360 for 1TB, but the 500GB model is probably the best-priced at £200 for 500GB. Note that the 850 EVO shares a line with the 850 PRO,which is basically the same drive with enterprise features, a 10-year warranty andhigher pricing. Like all Samsung drives, it uses Samsung’s own controller.

Released in February 2013, the Kingston SSDNow V300 is available in 60GB, 120GBand 240GB sizes. Based on the same SandForce SF-2281 controller found in manydrives around this time period, performance is good, if not great. Sequential Read/Write are quoted as “up to 450MB/s” with 85k IOPS read and 43k IOPS write, but itsperformance is actually better than stated (the same 540MB/s read and 520MB/s writefound in other SandForce SSDs). You might wonder why Kingston would downplaythe performance of its own hardware, but it’s probably to drive people towards anenthusiast option, in the form of its HyperX line. Don’t be fooled, though: HyperXSSDs cost double what the V300s do, but their performance is only a little better –they’re certainly not twice as good!

In August 2014, Kingston released the V310 SSDNow as an upgrade to the V300line. Oddly, its performance was rated vastly lower than its predecessor, and it isonly available as a 960GB model (at £380 on its own, or £411 with an upgrade kitthat includes software and accessories to aid a quick drive clone). That’s expensivehowever you slice it, especially given its low speeds. Essentially, it was developedto appeal to people worried about how to transfer data from their old drive to thenew one. An almost baffling release, all things considered.

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Issue 135016

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Added to Intel’s SSD range in June 2013, the Intel S3500 drives are sold incapacities from 80GB to a massive 800GB. The drives use 20 nm MLC NAND flashand an Intel-built controller that gives them a maximum of 400k IOPS read and11.5k IOPS write, translating to 475MB/s read and 450MB/s write. If that soundslike an oddly unbalanced number of operations, it’s’ because these drives areaimed at the Enterprise market, which means they’re “read-oriented”. They’retherefore best left to non-desktop users. The price ranges from £100 for the 80GBmodel to £600+ for the 800GB, so in that sense there’s not much danger of youbuying one anyway!

First released in July 2013, the Intel 530 (Dale Crest) SSDs come in capacitiesbetween 80GB and 480GB and use 20nm MLC NAND flash memory with theultra-reliable SandForce SF-2281 controller capable of 540MB/s sequential readand 490MB/s sequential write (41k IOPS read, 80k IOPS write). Prices range from£65 for 120GB to £200 for 480GB, so there’s not a huge financial disincentive tobuy them, but it is possible to find similarly capable drives for less.

Available in just two capacities – 240GB and 480GB – Intel’s year-old 730 serieswas an attempt to replace the generic Intel 530 with a better, consumer-focusseddrive. The first completely in-house design since the Intel 320, the 730 uses 20nmMLC flash with read/write speeds of 550MB/s and up to 89K IOPS. It uses thesame NAND as Intel’s enterprise drives and has far better endurance than the530-series SSDs, but it does lack hardware encryption. It’s not the fastest drive inits price class, and £260 for a 480GB drive means it’s more expensive than most.It’s better than an Intel 530, yes, but it’s really competing with the Samsung 850EVO – and in that sense, it’s barely putting up a fight at all.

The Vertex 450 was released in July 2013 and uses OCZ’s Indilinx Barefoot 3 M10controller with 20NM MLC NAND, which offers speeds of 540MB/s read and 530MB/swrite with 85k IOPS read and 90k IOPS write. It’s actually slightly slower at readingdata than its predecessor, the Vertex 4, but faster at writing data. The hardwarecomes in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities and has built-in 256-AES encryption.£95 for 128GB and £361 for 512GB make its pricing unremarkable. Its successor (theVertex 460) came out about a year later and contained 19nm Toshiba NAND, thesame as the higher-priced Vector 150 (but with lower performance-validated parts).

Part of OCZ’s superior Vector line, the Vector 150 is an enthusiast SSD designedfrom the ground up by OCZ and designed to compete with the Samsung 840PRO. Available in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities, it contains 25nm MLCNAND and has a five-year warranty. Prices range from £75 to £240, making itcheaper than some of the competition while retaining read and write speedsabove 500MB/s. The existence of the Vertex 450/460 complicates this slightlyolder drive’s place in the line, but ultimately it’s got a good balance of price andperformance, considering how high-end it is. mm

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Issue 135018

Issue 135020

UPGRADESON A BUDGET

Can You Upgrade For £5?If you’re looking at a £10 minimum threshold and imagining the days when you have that much to spare on your PC, maybe there’s stillhope. There are upgrades you can make for a fiver. Not flashy ones. Maybe not even good ones. But at least you get something tangiblefor your money (and we’re not even cheating by listing cables, mousepads and blank DVDs!)

On Networks DSF005 5-Port Ethernet Switch (£4.98)Need to set up an Ethernet network and don’t need wireless or routing abilities? How about this five-port switch? A bargain at lessthan £1 per port. If you need to extend a router’s networking or simply link up some systems without trailing cables or unreliablewireless, this is easily the cheapest way.

Yvi Wireless Mini Mouse (£4.72)This optical wireless mouse uses a 2.4GHz radio connection to provide an eight-metre range and comes with its own storable USBreceiver and sensitivity switch button for flipping between precision and speed modes. Ideal for partnering with a laptop if trackpadsaren’t your favourite input method. One AAA battery is even included.

Aerocool Lightning Series Transparent 14cm Red LED Fan (£4.68)Want to cool down your case? This 140mm Aerocool fan can output 48cfm of air at up to 1200rpm. A transparent black frame andtransparent red blades with quad red LEDs give your system a stylish look, while the 11-bladed fan generates a consistent and highpressure air flow. And it comes with special low-vibration screws!

Give your PC a boost

without spending big Upgrading a PC doesn’t have to be anexpensive task. But how cheap can it get?In order to prove that you don’t have to

spend hundreds to improve the way your PC

works, we’ve come up with a list of suggestedupgrades for every price level. Whether you have£10, £35 or £70 to spend, there’s somethinghere that can make your life better.

Issue 1350 21

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£10 UPGRADESYou’ll struggle to get into the cinema on a tenner these days, so upgrading your PC in any significant way is pretty much out of the

question. But don’t think that having basically no budget stops you from performing any improvements. At this price you’re largelylimited to things that might make your system a little more convenient to use rather than any more powerful, but if you want to treatyourself for under a tenner, we have three suggestions that’ll give your system a little extra spark without burning holes in your wallet.

TP-Link TL-WN781ND N150 Wireless AdaptorIf your desktop system is still getting by with a USB wireless adaptor, why notupgrade to this internal one? You should get change from a tenner (we foundit on sale for £8), and its 150Mbps speeds are three times what Wireless Goffers. Its in-hardware processing reduces strain on the CPU (so it’s ideal forsystems that are already taxed), and you won’t have the inconvenience andprecariousness of a wi-fi adaptor hanging loosely out of a USB port anymore.

Furthermore, an external, detachable antenna provides better coverage thanany USB key, and its WPS protected setup makes connecting to your networkas simple as pushing a button. It’s not a particularly exciting upgrade, but ifyou’ve struggled on with a USB adaptor for years and still don’t have a WirelessAC network, now might be the time to change.

Transcend JetFlash 700 16GB USB DriveThere are plenty of USB thumbdrive models available for less than a tennerwith a capacity around 16GB. That might sound meagre, but it’s about asmuch storage as a low-end tablet or the average phone. Using a USB driveto transfer files is easier than uploading or emailing them, and it’s oftenless hassle than trying to get two networked devices to talk to one anotherreliably as well.

Of the many options available, we’re quite pleased with the TranscendJetFlash 700. The 16GB version can be picked up for around £8.75, andalthough it’s considerably more chunky than some of the micro-sized USBdrives on the market, that does at least mean you won’t lose it in your pocket.Crucially, it’s one of the few sub-£10 drives around that includes USB 3.0support, and the extra speed that gives you access to is more important thansaving the tiny amount of space you can make up by buying one of the USB2.0 options. Oh, and it comes with a lifetime warranty as well. Not bad!

Phobya High Density 30cm RGB LED FlexlightLots of modern cases include a window, but most of the time there’s verylittle interesting about the inside of a PC case. For £9, you can change thatwith a 30cm Phobya Flexlight. Using a four-pin molex extension, this LEDstriplight can be fixed anywhere inside or outside your case using pre-appliedadhesive strips. Waterproof binding allows you to combine it with a waterreservoir (if that’s your thing) and ensures that there’s no chance of the lightcausing shorting or damage if they touch your components. The lights haveextremely low power consumption, and their plug is a pass-through design,so you don’t have to sacrifice a power cable to run it!

The light itself uses a triple-LED design so it can be illuminated in red, blueor green, and if you buy a separate controller, you can set different patternsand behaviours for the LEDs to give your PC a flashy makeover (literally). 30cmlong, 10mm wide and with 18 LEDs, this is one way you can spend a tennerand make sure the results get seen.

£20 UPGRADESHaving £20 to spend gives you considerably more room to manoeuvre with regards to buying power and still costs little more than the

price of a meal out (for one, at least). Again, you’re not quite spending enough money to significantly upgrade your computer’s powerand capabilities, but £20 will give you the means to significantly improve some pieces of hardware. And if you don’t believe us, here are threesub-£20 upgrades we picked out.

Roccat Lua Tri-Button Gaming MouseIf you’re a casual game-player, you probably use the same mouse for first-person shooters as you do for navigating a spreadsheet. But what if we toldyou things could be different? For £20, you could buy a Roccat Lua Tri-Buttongaming mouse.

It won’t make your system perform any better, but it will significantlyimprove the way you interact with it. It contains a 2000dpi sensor that can becustomised on the fly, it has an ambidextrous left- or right-handed design, andthere are cool LED lights and rubberised pads for extra comfort and grip. It’llchange the way you play computers games, giving access to levels of precisionand comfort that you were previously denied. It’s not the best gaming mouseon the market, we admit, but if you’re trying to enter that world, it’s as gooda way to dip your toe in as any. And let’s face it, when was the last time youreplaced your mouse anyway?

Logitech S150 Stereo SpeakersIn the past we’ve championed the Logitech S120 as one of the best budgetspeakers systems around. Well, it’s been retired, and in its place stands theLogitech S150, which comes with a host of improvements and still costs just£12 for a pair of 1.2W stereo speakers, powered and connected entirely overUSB. If you’re using a tinny laptop speaker or you’re trying to find a speakersystem that’ll turn your phone into the portable sound system you know itshould be, these are what you need. As well as on-unit volume controls anda master power switch, there’s a convenient (and rarely seen) mute button.You even get a free carry case so you can protect them while you’re on themove. They look great, they’re sturdy and stylish and have strong metallic grillsprotecting the drivers. At less than £20, they’re an absolute steal.

Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 WebcamThe LifeCam HD-3000 might be a few years old now, but that only serves tomake it pleasantly cheap; you can indeed pick one up for under £20. It’s notexactly spectacular in technical terms – it has a 720p sensor that can recordat 30 FPS, and video calls are restricted to a resolution of 640 x 480 – but it’ssmall and sturdy, and a rubberised mount means it fixes securely to desktopmonitors or laptops. There’s even a built-in noise-cancelling microphone tokeep your talk clear and interference-free.

The bundled software is good fun for kids too, with a selection of ‘quirky’effects and more serious digital zoom and picture adjustment features. It’s not awebcam that’s going to excite anyone and no better than what you might findin the average laptops or tablet, but if you don’t have a webcam yet, there areno excuses when this one’s priced so low.

Issue 135022

£35 UPGRADESIf you’re trying to upgrade your computer system, £35 can get you all sorts of things. You can buy a router, a network card or a TV card

– basically any expansion or upgrade outside of the ‘big three’ of CPU, motherboard and graphics card – and even then you can probablyfind cheap versions of those available if you’re trying to fix up a low-end system. At this price limit, there’s the danger that any hardware youbuy might not represent an upgrade on what your system already contains, but stick to peripherals and you’re bound to see an improvement.

Veho 360 M4 Bluetooth SpeakersBluetooth speakers are typically quite expensive, but at £24.99, the Veho 360M4 is priced well, especially for the sort of portable use it’s designed for. It’s just6.5cm high and 5.5cm across, with a built-in battery (charged over mini-USB)that powers it for up to five hours of playback. A carry sock protects the unitwherever you choose to store it while you’re on the go. It is quite unashamedlydesigned for use on the move, rather than at home.

Its dual 2.2W drivers mean the sound isn’t exactly mind-blowing, but ifyou’re using it with a phone or tablet, it’s still likely to outdo the built-inones by some distance. A 3.5mm jack input allows you to connect it to non-Bluetooth devices, but what really makes it stand out from the pack is thebuilt-in micro-SD slot, which allows it to play MP3s and – combined with theon-unit volume and track controls – effectively turns it into a stand-alonestereo. It’s basically a stereo and speakers in one, and who doesn’t want thatfor under £35?

Cooler Master CM Storm DevastatorYou’re tried a gaming mouse, so how about this gaming keyboard? Althoughit retails at £39.99, we’ve seen it on sale for as little as £32.50, which makesit fair game for anyone with £35 to get rid of. The Devastator bundle actuallycomes with a gaming mouse, though it’s obviously not as good as one youmight spend £20 on in its own right. Most of the money is going into thekeyboard, which is great.

How great? Well, it’s got blue LED accent lights and backlight, anti-slipsurfaces and grips, a custom membrane that makes it more durable andimproves tactile feedback, laser-etched keys, a set of dedicated multimediashortcut keys and more besides. It’s wired, so you don’t have to worry aboutbattery power or input latency (just keeping a USB socket free), and there’s anon-board volume control. It’s great to type on, perfect for gaming, and it looksfantastic too. If nothing else, it tells you how Cooler Master got its reputationfor high-quality gaming hardware.

Sharkoon VG4-W ATX CaseA new case can give your system the visual makeover it needs to look cool,but don’t forget that a well-designed case can also improve performance,by allowing extra active and passive cooling features to be introduced. For£29.99, you can buy the Sharkoon VG4-W case, which comes with fourdifferent interior colors (black, green, blue or red), which are visible throughthe acrylic side window.

On the front there are two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports and twoaudio connectors, and inside you can fit a full-length graphics cards and upto seven expansion cards in total. Dust filters are pre-installed, along with twoextractor fans and room for optional water cooling. There are three 2.25”drive bays, an externally accessible 3.5” drive bay, three internal 3.5” baysand four 2.5” drive bays, all of which use tool-free fastenings. You’ll struggleto run out of space with the Sharkoon VG4-W, and its build quality meansyou’ll be able to hang onto it for years without having to consider another. Atthe rate desktop computing is changing, this might even be the last case youever need. Not bad for £30!

Issue 135024

£50 UPGRADESIf you can afford to spend 50 quid on an upgrade, your chances of getting something objectively good (rather than just good value)

increase substantially. This is the area where things like RAM, routers, hard drives and more start to reach their ‘sweet spot’ – the pointwhere you get the most value out of their purchase, relative to high-end items you pay a premium for and low-end items made expensive bytheir cost of manufacture.

Western Digital Green 1TB Hard Disk DriveThere are plenty of 1TB hard drives you could buy for under £50, but WesternDigital’s are some of the most reliable around, and if you’re investing inlong-term storage, that’s a quality worth valuing. Although we’d normallyrecommend the Western Digital Blue as a good all-rounder, that’s more use as areplacement for your main hard drive – and really, if you’re upgrading that youshould be seriously thinking about buying an SSD instead. If, however, you’readding a 1TB drive to your PC because you want a little extra storage, we quitelike the Western Digital Green.

That’s because Green drives are low-power, which means when you’re notdirectly accessing it, the power switches off, saving you money, preventing heatbuild-up and reducing overall noise levels in your system. It’s designed to be theperfect secondary drive, and that’s what it is. It still has a huge capacity, two-year warranty and access speeds as quick as you can expect out of a 3.5” harddrive. Until the day when a terabyte of SSD storage is this fast, the WesternDigital Green is a great way to give your system a massive chunk of extrastorage in a single hit.

EVGA 500B 80 PLUS Bronze 500W PSUAt £39.99, this 500W PSU is ideal for powering a high-quality mid-rangesystem. It’s got all the features you could want: an ultra-quiet 120mm fan, 40A+12V rails (good enough to power a graphics card), a three-year warranty and80 Plus efficiency rating to ensure that your PC gets a reliable, efficient supplyof energy without excess heat generation.

Although this is as good a PSU as you’ll find under £50, what makes itworth buying specifically are the details. A compact design with external powerswitch and fully sleeved cables aren’t standard by any rate, so features like thatmake it stand out from the competition. A new PSU might not be the mostdaring upgrade, but it’s always worth making. The consequences if your PSUgets too old are negative in the extreme, especially if your system is drawingclose to the unit’s maximum, and it’s the sort of component that can persistacross builds if properly managed. And hey, if you want a platform that canhandle more capable upgrades, like a new PSU or better graphics card, youneed to have the power to back it up.

Asus SBC-06D2X Blu-ray DriveThe Asus SBC-06D2X can be picked up for dead on £50, which is great if youwant to add a Blu-ray drive to your system. Although the current trend is todo away with optical drives in favour of cloud-based and digital storage, thatdoesn’t help if you like DVD extras and/or want to watch existing discs on yourPC. It’s still rare that any PC has a Blu-ray drive, but this is an upgrade youshould be able to get a fair amount of use out of.

As well as access to the huge storage of recordable Blu-ray media and HDvideo, the Asus SBC-06D2X is easy to swap between systems thanks to itsexternal interface, while the unique upright design ensures that it looks greatand doesn’t take up too much desk room. Obviously, it requires a compatibledisplay to get the most out of HD content. One quirk is that it’s powered byUSB and requires two cables to run, but if you have an adaptor going spare,you should be able to plug it into a conventional power source as well.

Issue 135026

£75 UPGRADESF inally, some serious money. £75 still doesn’t get you much in the way of GPUs and CPUs, but for everything else you’re looking at high-

end and premium hardware. Everything from routers to printers, to TV cards and storage – this amount of money gets you an upgradeworth shouting about, especially because in the grand scheme of things, it’s not unfeasibly expensive.

Seagate 2TB Expansion Portable Hard DriveWhile you can get an external 1TB drive for around £50, it makes a lot morefinancial sense to buy a 2TB drive instead. Essentially, the first terabyte costsyou £50, and the second just £25. And it’s not even a low-end drive thatwe’re talking about. Seagate’s hardware is famed for its reliability, so this 2TBexternal drive will keep your data safe however and wherever you want touse it, whether it’s bound to your desk or travelling around with you in a bagor pocket.

Feature-wise it’s fairly basic, but it has a USB 3.0 interface for high-speedtransfers, and that provides all the power it needs as well. It doesn’t need anydrivers or software to work, and it’s supported by all incarnations of Windowsfrom XP onwards. Sleek, sturdy and with enough space to keep your data safefor years to come, there’s no doubt that the Seagate 2TB Expansion drive is agreat way to relieve yourself of £75.

Fractal Design Kelvin T12 Hydro CPU CoolerIf you’re looking to overclock your CPU or simply want a quiet cooling solutionto minimise your system’s noise, water cooling is the way to achieve greatresults. And if you have a £75 budget to play with, you could do a lot worsethan invest in the Fractal Design Kelvin T12 Hydro Cooler.

Simple to install, with near-silent operation, the Kelvin T12 is a high-performance ceramic pump, strong enough to cool multiple components in asingle loop. Constructed from enthusiast-class components, the CPU block andradiator are made of pure copper for maximum performance and increasedproduct life, with no maintenance required. It’s expandable (not all watercoolers are), and the tubes are fastened with two-part brass fittings, providinga secure seal while being easy to open and reseal with standard tools. It’s notnecessarily an entry-level cooler (this isn’t a sealed loop component, after all),but if you’re looking to get your system some serious cooling performance, it’sas good as you could want.

TRENDnet TEW-800MB Wireless BridgeHome networks can always do with a little beefing up, and if you want toget the most out of your Wireless AC network, then an accessory like theTRENDnet TEW-800MB is the way to do it. This Wireless AC bridge costs £74and is capable of providing speeds of up to 1,200Mbps if connected to a802.11AC access point. That makes it ideal for situations where you might beattempting to stream high-definition media to a console, smart TV or set-topbox. In addition to connecting to a router over gigabit-speed wireless, it alsosupports four wired devices on its gigabit Ethernet ports, meaning it can evenserve multiple HD streams simultaneously and act as a network access point forwired devices.

In addition to blistering speeds, you also get plenty of convenient features:one-touch WPS connections, encryption support and backwards compatibility forall network types. If you’re running a large network or have a lot of traffic to dealwith, this wireless bridge is an upgrade that’ll solve all your problems. mm

Issue 135028

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Issue 135030

THE BESTCURRENT-GEN CPUsFOR YOURBUDGETIf you have a definite spending limit, here are your best options

Putting together a new systemtends to begin with selectinga the processor that fits yourbudget best, narrowing down

make, performance and price until

you have the one you need. What arethe best CPUs on the market rightnow, though? The industry evolvesconstantly; so are Intel chips still betterthan AMDs? Which of Intel’s platforms

is the best? Should you buy anFX-series CPU or a Fusion APU? Thesequestions and more will be answeredin our guide to the best current-genCPUs on the market right now.

Intel Pentium G3240 (£43)The cheapest Haswell CPU worth buying, the Haswell G3240 is a dual-corePentium clocked at 3.1GHz. A cut down version of the Intel Core chips,Pentiums differ in a few ways: there’s no Hypert-Threading on any dual-corePentium, only 3MB of level 3 cache, and they contain Intel HD GraphicsGT1 GPUs, which is only half as good as the HD Graphics 4600 chips foundon higher-end Haswells. The G3240 supports dual-channel RAM up toDDR3-1333, but all others support up to DDR3-1600.

Designed for use in office and low-end systems, Pentium chips don’trepresent particularly good value, but they’re also the fastest chip youcan buy new under £50. That said, don’t expect to get much graphicalperformance out of them unless you’re pairing them with a decent graphicscard – their GPU is designed for office use only.

If you’re building a budget system, the best reason to buy a HaswellPentium over any other chip is that it’s potentially compatible withBroadwell chips further down the upgrade line. The G3240 is a Socket1150 CPU, so pair it with an Intel Series 9 board and you could potentiallyswap in anything up to a Core i7 Broadwell chip at some point in thefuture. It might be the bottom rung, but at least it does get you on a ladderthat could carry you a lot higher when need dictates or budgets allow youto do a little bit of climbing.

UNDER £50

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AMD A6-7400K (£45)The AMD A6-7400K is a Kaveri-based APU that uses the FM2+ socket, withsix cores clocked at 3.5GHz. The retail price is actually somewhere above £50,but it is possible to find it cheaper without much difficulty.

AMD’s low-price chips are arguably superior to Intel’s when it comesto building a powerful system, as long as that system isn’t intended forgaming use. Indeed, the A6-7400K compares quite favourably with thePentium G3240. Multi-core performance is about the same and single-coreperformance is slightly lower, but the Radeon R5 graphics chip is far superiorto the Pentium’s on-board version and it supports DDR3 up to 1866MHz.Although the TDP is about 10 watts higher, so be aware of that if you’rebuilding a low-power system.

The thing that really makes the A6-4700K worth considering, though, isthat it can be overclocked. Done right, this will push performance up abovethe Pentium without much difficulty, giving you a better return on yourmoney. If you’re looking for a cheap gaming system, this ability – combinedwith a better GPU – is your best chance at getting one with a CPU under£50, unless you want to buy a graphics card too.

Intel Core i3-4160 (£90)Intel’s Haswell CPUs are great for gaming, but chips in the core line areexpensive and it’s often tough to tell whether you’re getting a good balanceof price and performance. That’s not the case with the i3-4160, which hitshelves in July 2014 and quickly proved itself to be a well-refined competitorto other Core i3 and Core i5 chips, standing out instantly thanks to its solidperformance and low price. Anyone trying to build a gaming or media systemon a budget would do well to consider it, especially if you’re wedded to theidea of buying Intel rather than AMD.

This dual-core chip has a 3.6GHz clock speed, two hardware cores, on-boardIntel HD Graphics 4400 and a pleasingly low TDP of just 54 watts. Although itcan’t be overclocked thanks to locked multipliers, benchmarks show that Hyper-Threading gives it gaming prowess beyond the suggestion of its model numberand price. It’s one of the best value Core i3s that Intel can offer, and for the sake ofa few quid it’s worth going with the faster version over any other.

Be warned that varying availability means you might find some slightly worsechips at a higher price than the i3-4160. In particular, the Intel Core T-serieschips are cherry-picked for low power performance, but this selection processadds a few quid onto their price. The Core i3 4130T, 4150T and 4160T are alleasily found for more than the vanilla 4160, but that’s because batches withlow power ratings are rarer. Unless you’re desperate to save a few watts on theTDP, go for a vanilla 4160 instead.

UNDER £100

AMD A10-7800 (£99)Brushing right up against the bracket for our intermediate budget, the A10-78800is a 3.5GHz FM2+ Kaveri APU with 12 cores, a 65 watt TDP and support for DDR3up to 2133MHz. Again, it matches its Intel equivalent quite closely in a number ofareas. The Core i3-4160 has the edge when it comes to single-core performance,but multi-core performance is actually a little better on the AMD chip.

This AMD isn’t unlocked, though, so you won’t squeeze any extra performanceout of it – and it’s 10% more expensive without being 10% better. The FM2+socket does mean you could upgrade to a Carrizo chip in a few months, but ifyou’re planning on that, we’d just to wait for the new line to be released.

Again, the best reason to consider the AMD chip over the Intel one is its GPU.It’s so much better (a Radeon R7, in this case) that if you’re trying to make agaming system without a stand-alone graphics card, you’d be better off with theAMD. As an all-rounder, however, it starts to noticeably struggle against Intel’schips, and that trend only gets worse. Unless you’re a staunch AMD supporter, thisis the best AMD chip we can actively recommend.

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Intel Core i5 4690K (£192)First seen on shelves in June 2014, the quad-core i5-4690K has a 3.5GHz baserate that’s 100MHz faster than Intel’s previous best i5, June 2013’s 4670K. Thattranslates to better single-core performance and slightly better value than theolder chip, which makes it more than worth tracking down instead. The 4690Khas a TDP of just 88 watts and on-board Intel HD Graphics 4600, though ifyou’re buying it for a gaming or media editing system you’ll want a propergraphics card in there.

The main advantage with the K-series chips is their overclockingcapabilities, and if that’s what you’re looking for then it’s a good idea to gofor the latest, fastest chip in the Core i5 line. The newer materials will standup to that little bit more stress. Obviously, if you want a faster Haswellchip you could look at the Core i7 series, but for single-threaded tasks (likegaming) there’s very little advantage to be had by paying extra. In any case,once you start buying in that price bracket the performance you get perpound starts to drop significantly. The Core i5-4690K is, by far, the gamingchip with the best speeds for the best price.

Remember, too, that if you’re definitely not planning to overclock yourchip you can save around a tenner by going for the locked version (withoutthe K suffix), and it’s probably worth doing that – the selling point ofK-series chips is their overclocking potential and if you know you won’texploit it, don’t waste your money.

AMD A10 7850K (£130)At the very top tier for AMD’s A-series chips, the quad-core, multiplier-unlocked 3.7GHz A10-7850K is currently priced at £130 – about half theamount that Intel’s top-end Haswell Core chips cost. That, if nothing else,illustrates the scale by which AMD and Intel’s performance differ. This isas good as AMD gets, and it’s not even competing with Intel’s mid-rangecore chips: the closest-priced Haswell CPU is the Core i3-4350, which is thefastest Core i3 chip and slightly cheaper than the A10. If your budget is upto £200, you can’t do any better than this for an AMD chip without goingfor an older CPU.

Again, what makes Kaveri attractive isn’t its single-thread performance,but the superior graphics capabilities. Again, the AMD chip has an R7 GPUwhich is outright superb compared to Intel’s HD Graphics 4600 – thoughif you’re building a mid-level gaming PC, it’s unlikely you’re looking to buya Core i3 without a graphics card. Literally the only useful thing the AMDchip does that the equivalent Intel doesn’t is support 2133MHz RAM.

The A10 7850K is unlocked, so there’s a little more performance tofind within it, but even then it’s struggling to match Intel’s line. AMDmight put up a reasonable fight when you’re building a budget system,but if you want one that’ll handle the strains of high-definition gamingor entertainment, this isn’t really the option to go for. Either way youneed a graphics card, and once you’ve hit that point, Intel has the edge inperformance, price and upgradeability terms.

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OVER £200

Intel Core i7-4790K (£275)Intel’s most expensive Haswell chip is actually the Haswell-E i7-5960X – aneight-core 3GHz chip (16-core with Hyper-Threading) that costs no less than£850. It is, of course, so expensive that buying one for a desktop system can’treally be called the act of a sane person.

If you’re going to go for a high-end Haswell chip – and let’s face it, if you’retrying to get the best PC, you want to – you should probably stick to the moreaffordable regions of the standard Haswell platform. The Intel Core i7-4790K isa 4GHz quad-core CPU with Hyper-Threading, and the fastest in the standardHaswell line. It doesn’t outperform the i5-4670K as much as you might think,but it does outperform it, and in a battle of sheer power that’s all that matters.The only downside is that it’s a lot worse in terms of performance per pound,but that’s been a standard problem with the Core i7 line ever since it wasintroduced. They’re not CPUs for people who are scrimping.

The fact that the 4790K is unlocked does mean you can squeeze a littlemore performance out of it as long as you have a sufficiently good cooler, butwe wouldn’t recommend that as a strategy. Unlike Core i5 chips, Core i7s arealready operating at their limits, so it takes some heavy-duty hardware to getthem past it by any significant proportion.

AMD FX-9590 (£200)As we’ve previously discussed, AMD’s Kaveri APUs don’t go past £130, butlet’s imagine that you want a high-end AMD chip for your budget of morethan £200. What can you get?

In this case, your only real option is the last-gen Piledriver-based FX-seriouschip, which has no on-die GPU. An eight-core chip clocked at 4.7GHz, it’s thefastest FX-series AMD manufacture, and probably always will be, since theFX-series seems to be dead now.

On the plus side, it’s the first AMD CPU in years that can actually holdits own on gaming systems (if you have a graphics card, otherwise it’suseless) but there’s a slight problem in that it’s still vastly underperformingfor its price. It competes with Intel Core i5 chips like the 4670K, rather thanthe similarly priced Intel Core i7s, and it still loses out to them – the evenwithout overclocking, the i5-4670K is substantially better at single-coreprocessing. The FX-9590 also consumes almost three times more powerthan the i5, isn’t any better at running multi-threaded software, and it runson a CPU socket (AM3+) which is essentially dead, making it an expensiveinvestment in a system with only a short lifespan left.

The only reason to even look at this chip is if you own an AM3+ systemalready and aren’t willing to upgrade. For £200, though, we’d be tempted tosuggest you just buy an Intel board and CPU instead. It’s no surprise, whenyou look at the FX-9590, that AMD refocused its desktop line around budgetAPUs. It’s simply not in the same league as Intel’s chips. mm

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THE BESTGRAPHICSCARDS FORYOUR BUDGETHow much do you really need to spend on a GPU?

L ike CPUs, there’s almost no limit to the power andcapabilities a good graphics card can provide. That’swhy it makes sense to pick your budget first and

choose a card that fits within that range – otherwiseyou’ll always be wondering what £10 more can get you.Graphics cards also have the added problem that older

cards might be slightly better than the latest model, andcheaper thanks to price drops.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide to finding thebest graphics card for you budget. Whether it’s new or old,AMD or Nvidia, you’ll be able to find the best card for yourmoney right here.

The Cheapest GPUsThe prevalence of integrated GPUs means that low-price cards are increasingly pointless, but that doesn’t mean there’s zero call forthem. If you want to rehabilitate an old system, repair a broken one or just give yourself a second option, there are low-end cards youcan buy. Here’s what we think of them.

MSI G210 1GB (£18.99)If you’re in the market for the most basic graphics hardware possible, Nvidia’s G210 is the chip you need to look for. Most majorcompanies have done their own version of the G210 design, but Asus makes the lowest price version – and if you’re frugal enough tobe buying this card rather than making a more extensive upgrade, we think price is the most important factor to consider.

Hardware-wise, you’re paying for a GPU from 2009, manufactured with a 40nm process. It has 1GB of DDR3 RAM and threeoutput ports: VGA, DVI and HDMI. The GPU is clocked at 589MHz, and the maximum resolution is 2560 x 1600. Despite its cost andage, it does support DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.1.

We mostly imagine this card going in very basic office PCs, but it might also suit a very cheap home cinema system. Asus’s versiondoesn’t have much in the way of notable qualities besides its price, but it is silently cooled using only a passive heatsink, which not allG210 cards are. That makes it best aimed at media systems, other silent systems or anything that needs a native HDMI interface addedon the cheap. And not much else.

MSI HD 5450 1GB (£19.98)MSI makes the cheapest low-end AMD card, the Radeon HD 5450, and it’s in much the same boat. There’s slightly more power in theHD 5450, but if you look at it percentage-wise it isn’t really a good deal. The extra power is enough to make it more practical, butthat doesn’t mean it’s actually practical.

Like the G210, the HD 5450 is several generations old and about as powerful as an Intel HD Graphics 3000 or the on-boardRadeon GPUs, the HD 6310 and the HD 6320. Again, you get 1GB of DDR3 RAM and support for DVI, VGA and HDMI output with amaximum resolution of 2560 x 1600. One advantage it has over the G210 is that it supports DirectX 11 (as opposed to version 10.1),but we can’t imagine this will matter much outside of the games this card isn’t powerful enough to play anyway.

While Radeon HD 5450 cards are more powerful than their Nvidia equivalents, it’s not power that matters at this level. If you’reinterested in playing HD video, then this card will make a slightly better choice, but ultimately that’s a low bar for anyone to clear.

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GRAPHICS CARDS

AMD: MSI Radeon R7 260 1GB OC Edition(£68)Most R7 260 cards are slightly more than £70, but if youlook around you can find the MSI Radeon R7 for justunder that price, with the added bonus that it’s factoryoverclocked. Only by a tiny amount, admittedly: theGPU is clocked at 1,050MHz instead of the reference1000MHz, but that’s enough to give it a slight edge overthe competition, especially when it’s also much cheaperthan them.

The card comes with 1GB of GDDR5 memory andfeatures MSI’s exclusive ‘propeller blade’ fan technology,which gives it superior cooling – though the fact thatit contains a single, larger-than-average 10cm fan alsohelps with that and means it’s quieter too. Connectorsinclude dual DVI and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort,and power consumption is a fairly untroubling 95 watts.Its maximum resolution is 2560 x 1600, and it supportsOpenGL 4.3 and DirectX 11.2.

In terms of the Radeon’s previous numbering system,the R7 260 falls somewhere between an HD 7770 (whichit’s a little faster than) and the HD 7790 (which it’s a littleslower than). If you can get your hands on the latter for alower price, then it might be worth going for that; there’snothing the R7 260 does that the HD 7790 won’t, butwith HD 7790s out of production, it might be more hasslethan it’s worth. Certainly the R7 260 is far better thanNvidia’s similarly priced equivalent, the GT 740, so in thatsense it’s the card to go for.

Nvidia: Gigabyte GT 740 1GB (£69.99)The GeForce 700 series may have been succeeded bythe 900 series, but if you’re looking for a gaming-capable budget buy, then the GT 740 remains your bestchoice. Specifically, we liked the look of the GigabyteGT 740, with its 1072MHz clock speed, 1GB of GDDR5RAM, max resolution of 4096 x 2160 and GigabyteWindForce cooling system. Interfaces include dual-DVI,VGA and HDMI.

As an entry-level 700-series card, it’s actually using theGK107 GPU originally found in the 600-series, but don’tlet that put you off – you have to go all the way up toa GTX 780 to get a card where that isn’t the case. As aDDR5 version of the GT 740, it has more than double thememory bandwidth of its DDR3 line-mate, and it’s stillrelatively fresh hardware – it came out in May 2014.

The sticking point here is that the GT 740 is noticeablyslower than the AMD equivalent, the R7 260. It does havea significantly lower TDP (65 watts), making it excellentfor low-power systems, but in almost every other way(including price) an R7 260 is better. Even the cheapest GT740 – the Zotac low-power version – is only a fiver less,which doesn’t offset its performance drop (but does makeit yet more appropriate for specialist systems, like HTPCs).

UNDER £70

Issue 135038

Nvidia: Asus GTX 750 Ti OC Edition (£120)The sub-£150 price range is a bit of a wasteland for Nvidiahardware. Even the most expensive of its sub-£150 cards,the EVGA GTX 750 Ti (with custom coolers) tops outat £130, and it’s significantly worse than any of AMD’ssimilarly priced cards.

While that sounds like a bad thing, it does mean thatNvidia has a slight advantage when it comes to budgetbuying. Indeed, the best GTX 750 Ti we could find wasAsus’s factory-overclocked card, and you can pick that upfor as little as £120. Not an insignificant saving to make,all things considered.

The Asus GTX 750 Ti OC edition has 2GB of GDDR5,a clock speed of 1072 MHz (against the reference designof 1020 MHz), a max resolution of 2560 x 1600 andinterfaces include D-sub, dual DVI and HDMI. Its TDP isa frankly meagre 60 watts, which puts it in a completelydifferent class to the AMD cards its priced against.Crucially, it’s the fastest card on the market that doesn’trequire an external power supply, which means that youcan convincingly upgrade virtually any system regardless ofhow low-end it is.

That does mean this card is good if you want to put itin a budget or specialist system – there’s no danger it’llneed a new PSU to power it, and you won’t end up witha system that sounds like a jet turbine readying for lift-off,but if raw performance is your goal (and with graphicscards, it so often is), then you’ll really have to aim for aRadeon card of some description.

AMD: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3GB (£144)There’s no contest, really. Originally retailing for £180, aprice cut has placed the Gigabyte R9 280 well within ourbudget, and it trumps even the most factory-overclockedR9 270X you can find for under £150 (which, forreference, is Sapphire’s).

The Gigabyte R9 280 we’re looking at is the 3GBGDDR5 version, which has a clock speed of 950MHz.The R9 270X actually benchmarks a little higher than iton pixel rate, but in all other categories the R9 280 iseither slightly or significantly better, which makes up fora loss in that one area. A TDP 20 watts higher than theR9 270X (200W vs 180W) is also nowhere near enoughto put us off.

The R9 280’s specs include a triple-fan cooling system,Dual-DVI, HDMI and a pair of Mini-DisplayPort adaptors,and a max resolution of 4096 X 2160. In this case, itabsolutely thrashes the nearest Nvidia equivalent, the GTX750 Ti. In every way you can conceive, it’s almost twice asgood, and yet there’s only a £15 price difference betweenthe two cards. Even if you go over budget and buy a GTX960, the R9 280 is operating well ahead of its competitionin most areas.

In case you can’t find an R9 280 for under £150 (andwe suspect they’ll move fast), then it’s worth mentioningthat the AMD card you’re most likely to find under £150– the Radeon R9 270X – is also better than the GTX 750Ti in most ways. So once again, AMD has the upper handwhen it comes to even mid-priced GPUs.

UNDER £150

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GRAPHICS CARDS

Nvidia: Zotac GTX 970 4GB (£259)If you’ve been worrying about Nvidia’s performance upuntil now, don’t worry. At the high end, things are a lotless clean cut in AMD’s favour. The Zotac GTX 970 is alatest-generation card with 4GB of GDDR5 RAM, a clockspeed of 1076MHz, 4K max resolution and dual DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort interfaces. It’s also an absolute beastof a card.

Notably, the GTX 970 benchmarks faster than its AMDequivalent (the Radeon R9 290X) in almost every way. Ithas a higher GPU and memory clock speed, and the TDPis almost half as much – 148W versus an insanely high290W on the R9 card. Technically speaking, Nvidia doesn’talways have the edge, because the memory bus is 256-bit, not 512-bit like the Radeon’s, but that doesn’t hugelyaffect performance in most cases.

At £259, it’s obviously an expensive card, and that willbe the most difficult hurdle to get over if you’re lookingto beef up a gaming system. But that’s arguably reflectedin the performance, and to put things in perspective, it’scurrently the cheapest 900-series card available. The next900-series card up is the insanely expensive GTX 980,which you won’t find for less than £461 and which couldeasily cost north of £500. With those stats in mind, thisdoesn’t seem like such a rip-off after all.

AMD: MSI R9 290 (£230)In many ways, this is the point where the tables turn onAMD. Their MSI R9 290X cards are the closest-pricedto GTX 970, but their performance (and efficiency) issubstantially worse to the point where it’s hard to find areason to recommend one. But if you want to save money,the R9 290 is as much as £30 cheaper than the GTX 970,but it has performance that’s in the same league.

The R9 290 is a 4GB GDDR5 card with dual DVI, HDMIand DisplayPort interfaces and a 1007 MHz overclockedGPU core. Its TDP of 250W is quite high, but well belowthe 290W of the R9 290X. It’s also worth noting that asan R9 card, it’s part of Radeon’s latest hardware line. Thisis as up to date as graphics technology gets, and the list ofAMD cards that are better is so short we might as well justlist it here: the R9 290W, the HD 7990, and the R9 295X2.

Although Nvidia has the edge in almost every area,this MSI card is, at least, a lower-priced alternative. Ifyour budget stretches to £275 then that may not be ahuge concern, but on the other hand, if you’re thinkingof building a dual-card SLI/CrossFire system that’s £60you’ve saved while sacrificing only a tiny fraction of theperformance. We can’t recommend it outright, in partbecause the power requirements are so ridiculously hugecompared to the better-performing Nvidia cards – but it is,at least, worth considering if your budget is low. NothingNvidia prices at £230 or under can beat it. mm

UNDER £275

Issue 135040

Is there an upgrade you don’t know you could benefit from? Read on to find out…

Most people decide toupgrade their systemswhen they slow down,

fill up or stop being suitable forthe software they want to run.But that doesn’t mean those arethe only reasons to get somenew hardware. Sometimes, thereason is to add compatibilityfor a feature that your currentsystem doesn’t support. But that

only applies if you know whatyou’re missing in the first place.

If you’re running an oldsystem, it’s likely that there aretechnologies and standardsthat you don’t have access to,even though you don’t realiseit. Upgrading old hardwarecan give you access to fasterUSB speeds, better wirelessconnectivity and support for the

latest software. But what doyou need to buy, and are thereany alternatives? In this article,we look at what the latest

standards are, why you’d wantthem and how to get them ifyour system is currently a littlepast its prime.

USB 3.1’s new SuperSpeed+transfer mode can deliver dataat up to 10Gbps

Issue 1350 41

ARE YOUMISSING OUT?

USB 3.0USB 3.0 is (as the namesuggests) the third major revisionof the USB standard. Its releaseimproved data transfer ratesand upped speeds to as muchas 5Gbps, as well as adding asecond communication path toallow full-duplex communication.It also offered superior powermanagement and improveddevice notifications over itspredecessor. In practical terms,the standard is ten times fasterthan USB 2.0, and its duplexability doubles that again.

USB 3.0 support has beenstandard on many systems fora while now, but if you boughtyour motherboard before 2011or have a compact or budgetmodel, then it’s possible thatit only supports the older,slower USB 2.0 standard. Ifyou’re unsure, you can usuallycheck USB ports for USB 3.0compatibility by checking thecolour. If it’s black or grey, it’sprobably USB 2.0 (or earlier).But if it’s blue, that’ll be a USB3.0 port.

If you don’t have USB 3.0ports, you do still have optionsfor adding them. All you needis a free PCI slot into which youcan fit a USB 3.0 controller.This isn’t just for adding USB3.0 support to old hardwareeither; you can also do this onany modern system if you justwant to add a few more of thehigh-speed ports so you don’thave to swap cables around allthe time.

Although there are plenty ofmodels available, the StartechPEXUSB3S4V controller picturedhere is particularly good value,adding four full-speed USB3.0 ports to any system witha spare PCI port at the cost ofjust £29.99. You can also pickup a two-port version for aslittle as £16.50. This will giveyour PC the ability to connectto any USB 3.0-supporteddevice at the maximum speedsthe protocol supports, even ifit doesn’t have a USB 3.0 portat present, with data deliveredto your system through thewide bandwidth of the PCI bus.Brilliantly convenient.

USB 3.1If you already have a USB3.0-compatible motherboard,don’t think that’s the end of it.USB 3.1 is coming, and if youwere already aware it, you mighttherefore be wondering if there’sany way you can add support forUSB 3.1 to your system.

But first, for those whoaren’t aware, what is USB3.1? From its name, you’veprobably guessed that it’s thenext revision of USB 3.0, butin practice it’s a lot more thanthat. Originally specced in 2013,it’s likely to come to marketmaturity in 2015 as consumerslook for next-generationhardware upgrades.

USB 3.1’s new and improvedSuperSpeed+ transfer mode candeliver data at up to 10Gbps,making it as fast as the firstwave of Thunderbolt devices,

while the completely redesignedUSB Type C connector alsointroduces a number ofimprovements: reversibleconnectors, faster charging forUSB-rechargeable devices andsmaller hardware overheads.Although you can get USB3.1 ports in standard (Type A)form, the Type C connectors aredesigned to be the long-termevolution of USB ports, andfor that reason they’ve beendesigned so that initially, USB3.0 devices with a standard (TypeA) connector can make use ofUSB 3.1 Type C ports using aconvertor (and vice-versa). Thisshouldn’t persist for long oncethe standard is up and running,but there will likely be a periodof adjustment for all involved.

At present, there aren’t anystand-alone USB 3.1 controllersthat you can buy. The only way

to get USB 3.1 support in asystem is to swap your currentmotherboard for one thatsupports the technology, whichis something of an extremesolution, admittedly, but notunheard of if you want cutting-edge technology.

The biggest problem is thatthere aren’t many USB 3.1motherboards actually on themarket right now. The BioStarGaming Z97X (v5) is on shelvesat the moment and features USB3.1 support, though only with apair of Type A ports rather thanany of the new Type C kind.It’s not exactly cheap either:you’ll pay around £320 forthis Haswell board, which putsit at the extreme high-end ofmotherboard pricing. And evenonce you have it, you’ll still needto wait for a USB 3.1 devicethat can make full use of the

USB 3 controller

USB 3.1 motherboard

USB vs USB Type C

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Issue 135042

new technology before you canactually enjoy owning it.

But still, if you want USB3.1 support, this is currentlyone of the few ways you canget it. We’d suggest that, forthe moment at least, USB 3.0is a good enough standard foranyone. But keep an eye out forUSB 3.1 support the next timeyou feel the need to upgrade.Just because it’s early daysnow, it doesn’t mean thingswon’t change fast once thetechnology matures.

Bluetooth 4.0The short-range wireless transferstandard Bluetooth has been inuse for over a decade, allowingeverything from quick filetransfers to audio streamingto mouse input. Although thetechnology has been specifiedup to Bluetooth 4.2, the mostrecent version in common useis Bluetooth 4.0, which wasfinalised in 2010 and has beencommon in Bluetooth hardwareever since.

Although most popularin mobile devices such aslaptops and tablets, Bluetoothconnectivity is less often foundin standard desktop systems,even though the ability toconnect to speakers, peripheralsand mobile devices wirelesslyis an undeniably useful optionto have. For their part, mostdesktop systems simply preferthe high-speed plug -nd-playconvenience of cables.

Still, if you have Bluetoothperipherals and a spare USBport, you can add support forBluetooth 4.0 to your systemfor less than £10. The BelkinBluetooth adaptor (modelnumber F8T065BF) is so smallas to be practically invisibleonce it’s in your PC, but itadds Bluetooth 4.0 supportwith a 10-metre indoor rangeand virtually no power draw.It’s compatible with Windowsand Mac hardware, and it’sbackwards compatible withall earlier versions of Bluetoothas well.

In an era where mobiledevices are increasingly

connected, this simple,inexpensive Bluetooth donglewill give your desktop PC theextra connectivity it needsto remain a vital part of anycomputing ecosystem. There’salmost no end to the extraoptions it gives you, fromsimplifying file transfers betweenyour phone and PC to allowingyou to connect multiple wirelessdevices without the need forproprietary, single-use adaptorsand RF receivers. If you don’thave a Bluetooth adaptoralready, there’s no bettertime than the present to takeadvantage of it.

Wireless ACThe latest consumer version ofwi-fi, Wireless AC (also knownby its IEEE name, 802.11ac) isthe fastest form of wi-fi currentlyavailable in the home. A singleWireless AC connection alonewill provide a connection of upto 433Mbps, but this is usuallypaired with a single WirelessN connection (150Mbps) togive a minimum speed of600Mbps (often annotatedas AC600). Various speedcombinations exist: dual N, dualAC (1,200Mbps) is common,but the fastest hardware hasa throughput of 3,200Mbps –

600Mbps on Wireless N and2,600Mbps on Wireless AC.

Upgrading to a WirelessAC network is going to beincreasingly essential as HDcontent delivery becomes morecommon. From online televisionto streaming video services toincreasingly complicated games,a high-speed network is goingto be a necessity for keepinghouseholds running smoothly,and that means if you’re stillrunning an outdated network onWireless N (or, worse, WirelessG), then upgrading is essential.

Don’t worry if you haveexisting Wireless N or G

Adding HDMI 2.0 to your system isn’tdifficult, but there is only one real wayto do it

Belkin F8T065BF (Bluetooth 4.0)

TP-Link Archer C20i

TEW-805UB

Issue 1350 43

ARE YOUMISSING OUT?

hardware that you want tokeep connected, though; tocomply with the standardsas defined, all Wireless AChardware must include a2.4GHz antenna, giving itWireless N compatibility aswell. This is useful, becausealthough Wireless AC isfaster than basic Wireless N,it does have a slightly shortermaximum range. IncludingWireless N compatibility doesn’tjust retain legacy support forold hardware; it also meansif you’re on the fringes ofyour network, you won’t loseconnectivity because the onlyavailable connection is a short-ranged Wireless AC one.

Converting your networkconnection to wireless ACrequires two things: a WirelessAC-enabled router/switch,

and a Wireless AC adaptorconnected to your system. Youcan get the former for as littleas £35 by buying the TP-LinkArcher C20i, which is anAC750 dual-band router, andyou can get the latter for just£9.99 if you buy the TRENDnetAC1200 dual-band USB adaptor(model number TEW-805UB).It’s not exactly peanuts, but£45 total isn’t a bad price forallowing you to take advantageof the latest network speeds.If nothing else, it’s a solidinvestment in the future.

HDMI 2.0Although HDMI is now astandard input and outputon virtually all graphicsdevices, the latest version ofthe protocol isn’t quite soubiquitous. If you have a USB

device released prior to 2014(or even during that year), thenit’s overwhelmingly likely that itonly supports HDMI 1.2 or 1.4.The chance of it supportingHDMI 2.0 is slim to none unlessyou’ve bought your hardwareincredibly recently.

At the moment, it’s arguablynot a huge problem if yourcomponents lack HDMI 2.0support. HDMI 1.4 supportsa maximum resolution of 4K,making it more than capableof support most users’ needs,while HDMI 2.0 is very muchdesigned with an eye on thefuture. Even a 4K displaydoesn’t need HDMI 2.0 toachieve maximum throughput.

HDMI 2.0 is advancing on theindustry, however, so you mightwant to get in early – especiallyif you’re a fan of above-HD

displays. The major revision ofHDMI adds support for UHD(8K) screen resolutions and 4Kvideo at 60fps by increasing themaximum TDMS per channelthroughput to 6Gbps (for a totalof 18Gbps). Other improvementsinclude Dual View; 25fps 3Dsupport; up to 32 channels ofaudio; support for more, higher-quality audio channels, andimprovements to technologieslike auto lip-sync.

Adding HDMI 2.0 to yoursystem isn’t difficult, but thereis only one real way to do it,and that’s by buying a Nvidiagraphics card with a second-generation Maxwell GPU in it.You can distinguish these fromtheir model number – GM20x– which in practice means aGeForce GTX 960 (GM206), aGeForce GTX 970 (GM204-200),GeForce GTX 980 (GM204-400) or the soon to be releasedGeForce GTX 980 Ti (GM200).These are the only designs thatsupport HDMI 2.0 right now.If you’re an AMD fan whowants to add support for thetechnology, you’ll have wait forthe Rx 300-series cards due outlater this year.

Of the available HDMI2.0-supporting cards, one of thecheapest is the Gigabyte GTX960, which you can pick up foraround £160 if you choose theZotac mode. It’s a good graphicscard in its own right, despitebeing the worst HDMI 2.0 cardon the market (that’s very mucha relative description), and if youhave yourself an 8K display, thenit’s probably worth spending themoney to make sure you canenjoy your Ultra-HD movies andgaming in full.

So there you have it. Fivetechnologies you might not evenrealise you’re missing out onand how to get hold of them.If you didn’t want to upgradebefore, maybe you do now. Justbe warned that we can’t be heldresponsible for any purchasingdecisions you make. If youwant to start chasing the lateststandards, just be warned: itcould get costly! mm

Zotac GTX 960

HDMI 2.0

Issue 135044

James Hunt assesses the benefits of the latest standard of RAM

It’s been close to a decade since DDR3memory was first introduced and fiveyears since it became the dominant

form of RAM in home PCs. In an industrywhere anything older than 18 months looksseriously out of date, DDR3 is starting toseem positively ancient. It’s no surprise, then,that the next evolution of the technology,DDR4 memory, is starting to creep into thelatest high-end hardware.

At this point, there’s a chance that thenext computer you buy will indeed supportDDR4. But what is DDR4 memory, and whatare the practical benefits of it? And mostimportantly, is it worth aiming to include inyour next system?

What Is DDR4?The RAM we use in our current computersystems is called SDRAM, which standsfor ‘Synchronous Dynamic Random AccessMemory’ – not that it matters much toconsumers, because all RAM you can buyfor your home computer is SDRAM. The bitwhere you get a choice is that your RAMcan, at present, be either DDR3 or DDR4.

DDR is shorthand for ‘Double Data Rate’,and DDR4 is the fourth generation of thattechnology. It probably won’t surprise you tohear that it was preceded by DDR3, DDR2and standard DDR memory. DDR SDRAMworks twice as fast as standard SDRAM,

DDR2 is double that speed, and DDR3 isdouble that speed. DDR4, as you may haveguessed, is twice as fast as DDR3.

As with previous RAM upgrades, DDR4hardware is not compatible with anyearlier versions due to a variety of factors.Different signalling voltage is one of thebigger reasons the two generations aren’tcompatible, but the modules will have adifferent physical interface to prevent anyconfusion. To use DDR4, you’ll need a newmotherboard entirely, and your old DDR3modules will have to be thrown straight inthe bin (or possibly sent somewhere more

productive), because you’re not going to beusing them any more.

The majority of improvements in DDR4are related to its speed. Faster clockfrequencies allow greater data transfer rates,which speeds up memory access times,allowing faster framerates, loading times anddata retrieval. DDR3 modules only officiallysupport speeds up to 2133MHz, while DDR4modules will start at 2133MHz and be ratedup to 4266MHz.

In addition to this extra speed, DDR4’spower usage is lower, because the modulesrun at a lower voltage – 1.05-1.2 volts,

IS

WORTHBUYING?

Issue 1350 45

DDR4

While you can buy DDR4, a muchbetter question is whether you shouldor not

compared to 1.2-1.65 volts for DDR3. Lowerpower usage means better battery life formobile devices, lower power bills and lessheat inside a system, which is good newsall around. DDR4 also supports a newtechnology called ‘Deep Power Down’,which means it can use near-zero powerwhen in sleep mode, since no refresh isrequired to keep the data active. DDR4 alsohas the ability to refresh individual chips on aDIMM, rather than the whole DIMM, whichcan improve latency.

DDR4’s improved speeds also allow it tosupport greater capacity modules. Last year,Hynix announced that it had developed a128GB DDR4 module based on a 20nmprocess. Most DDR4 modules are likely tobe 16GB a stick thanks to its higher-densitychips, whereas DDR3 typically supports nomore than 8GB. Larger-capacity modules dohave a slightly higher latency compared tosmaller ones, but the improvements in otherareas cancel out any negative effects youmight see.

In terms of physical appearance, DDR4modules will have more pins on theconnector (284 vs 240) but are the samelength because the pins are closer together.The new modules are taller than DDR3, butonly by less than a millimetre – 31.25mm,compared to DDR3’s 30.35mm – and thickerthan existing modules by 0.2mm, to allowfor more signal layers. As for the SO-DIMMvariants found in notebooks and other low-space/portable devices, they have 256 pins(rather than 204) and are 1mm thicker, buthave the same length and height as existingSO-DIMMs.

Can I Buy DDR4?DDR4 modules have been on sale for a fewmonths now, and it’s entirely possible towalk into a shop and buy them today. Butwhile you can buy DDR4, a much betterquestion is whether you should or not.

The vast majority of current systemssupport DDR3 RAM, and if they don’t, thenthey’re probably DDR2. There’s no pointbuying DDR4 on its own because it simplywon’t fit into your motherboard. Even if itcould, the timings and power supply wouldbe off in ways that would make it useless. Touse DDR4 memory, you’ll need to do a fullupgrade of your system.

The only way you can install DDR4modules at present is by basing your systemon Haswell-E, Intel’s latest ‘enthusiast’platform. As well as introducing the new

chip socket (called LGA2011-3), Haswell-Eis the first home platform to offer DDR4compatibility. Any motherboard based onIntel’s X99 Haswell-E chipset will requireDDR4 RAM. Meanwhile, AMD will supportDDR4 when it releases its new Carrizo APUsand compatible motherboards, which wasexpected to be this year, but has recentlybeen delayed until early 2016.

While upgrading to Haswell-E wouldof course result in a very powerful systemthat uses DDR4 memory, it’ll also cost alot of money. Crucially, the new RAM isgoing to represent only a tiny fraction of itsimprovements but a large proportion of itscost. 4GB of DDR4 RAM costs £50, which isdouble the price of DDR3.

Partly, that’s because the first batches ofDDR4 are intended for use in high-capacitysystems, which means it has to be high-fidelity as well. Servers are likely to makethe most use of DDR4, and it could besome time until home systems require RAMat speeds fast enough to make the priceworth paying.

Between the cost and limitedcompatibility, DDR4 isn’t going to becomethe industry standard any time soon, sothere’s no rush to get it in your system.Haswell’s successor Broadwell is due in thenext few months, but even that will still runon DDR3. Once again, only the enthusiastvariant (Broadwell-E) will support DDR4,and that’s aimed at people who demandthe highest-capacity systems. DDR4 won’tbe supported by the standard consumerversion of Intel’s platforms until Skylake,which you can expect to see in mid to late2016 at the earliest.

WhatAboutGDDR5?If you’re wondering how you can haveDDR5 RAM in your graphics card whenDDR4 has only just been released, thenyou’re not alone – but the answer tothis question is simple. The answer isthat you don’t.

The memory on graphics cards isactually GDDR5, not DDR5. GDDRmeans ‘Graphics DDR’ and althoughit sounds like a small variant of DDR,it’s actually a distinct technologythat’s largely based on DDR3, withsome enhancements that makeit more suitable to graphics use.GDDR5 RAM isn’t an abbreviationof ‘Graphics Double Data Rate RAM(fifth generation)’; it’s an abbreviationof ‘Double Data Rate Type FiveSynchronous Graphics Random AccessMemory’ – something totally outsidethe conventions of standard DDR’sgenerational numbering.

Actual DDR5 (with no G) is notexpected until to be available untilclose to the end of the decade – andthat assumes the technology even lastsuntil then!

Ultimately, there’s nothing about DDR4that makes it an upgrade worth chasingright now. Unless you can demonstrate thatlow RAM speeds are causing a significantbottleneck in any particular task, DDR3 is stillcheaper, more compatible and fast enoughto stick with – for now, at least. mm

Issue 135046

MOTHERBOARD

UPGRADES:WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Join us as we demystify the process of choosinga new board for your PC

When considering what hardwareto upgrade, it’s easy to getdistracted by the simplicity of

adding more RAM, a faster processor or asuperior graphics card. But what about yourmotherboard?

A fresh motherboard brings with it ahost of benefits. Unlike the incrementalimprovements that come with RAM orCPU upgrades, a new motherboard willinstantly offer extra features and expansionpossibilities that weren’t there before. It willquite literally remake your PC.

But the number of co-dependencies yourmotherboard accommodates also makes itone of the most difficult pieces of hardwareto upgrade – especially if you’re not buildingan entirely fresh PC. Current operatingsystems have taken a lot of the strain out ofswapping your motherboard for a new one,but it’s still a difficult process that requires afair amount of understanding to undertake.

CPU SocketsIf you’re buying a new motherboard, youcould start by selecting one that’s compatiblewith your existing CPU. Whether you’reupgrading your chip or not, making sureyou have the correct socket is important.While most hardware can be convinced towork with any modern motherboard through

converters or expansion cards, nothing willlet you get a CPU into a motherboard it’s notdesigned for.

There are several sockets you’ll find on amotherboard, which determine the type ofchip it takes.

LGA1150 is Intel’s current-generationsocket, supporting almost all desktop-sizeHaswell chips, from the lowliest Pentium tothe fastest Core i7. There’s a strong chance it’llalso be the socket Broadwell chips use whenthey’re released later this year, which means amotherboard with an LGA1150 socket givesyou plenty of upgrade opportunities for thefuture. Its predecessor, LGA1155, supports anySandy or Ivy Bridge chip, but is not compatiblewith Haswell CPUs.

LGA2011-3 is a socket that supports the‘enthusiast’ version of Haswell, Haswell-E.These super-fast chips use a different socketto regular Haswell chips and aren’t cross-compatible. Although physically similar toits predecessor, LGA2011, this socket doesnot support earlier generations of chips, andit’s too early to say whether Broadwell-E willuse it or another one, so be wary if you’relooking for this type of hardware. Again,its predecessor is compatible with Sandy/IvyBridge-E chips only.

If you want an AMD motherboard, thereare different sockets to look for.

AMD’s APU chips, which combined aCPU and GPU (like Intel Core chips) requirea Socket FM2 or FM2+ depending ontheir generation. The current generationof Kaveri chips use Socket FM2+, andtheir successor, Carizzo, will also use thishardware. Its predecessor, Socket FM2,accepts Trinity and Richland chips but notthe first generation of APUs (Llano), whichused Socket FM1.

AMD also releases FX-series CPUs (whichhave no GPU), and at present, these all usethe AM3+ socket, which is not compatiblewith any generation of Fusion APU.

It’s worth noting that Socket FM2+motherboards can accept a socket FM2 chip,but Socket FM2+ chips cannot be placedin Socket FM2 motherboards. This makesupgrading slightly easier – if you have anFM2 chip already, you don’t have to replacethe CPU to upgrade the motherboard.Neither socket supports FM1 chips, and FM1sockets only support FM1 chips.

The upshot of this is that if you’re buyinga new AMD motherboard, it makes senseto buy an FM2+ board. They have the mostpotential for upgrading and can accept atleast one generation of older chips. AM3+motherboards are acceptable if you alreadyown an FX-series chip you wish to retain,but the technology appears to be destinedfor cancellation fairly soon, so as investmentsgo it’s risky.

Once you’ve narrowed your choicesdown to a motherboard that supports

Issue 1350 47

your preferred chip, there are a few otherquestions that need answering.

The size and capabilities of the boardneed to be considered, for instance. If you’reaiming for a compact or low-power system(such as an HTPC or media server), then lookfor micro-ATX or mini-ITX boards. If you’reaiming for a regular desktop PC, a normalATX board is the standard choice. If you’reaiming for power, get a board with robustoverclocking features and plenty of supportfor cooling expansions.

The number of expansion slots is alsoworth taking into account. Smaller boardsmay only have a couple of slots, but that’sfine if they’re going in small systems. If youhave plans for a multi-GPU setup, make surethere are plenty of PCIe slots. Some features,such as on-board wi-fi or USB 3.0, mightnegate the need for one of your expansioncards, so take that into account as well.

Most motherboard upgrades won’tpresent any problems with RAM, thoughsmaller boards may have fewer slots, sotake that into account if you’ve currentlygot a full complement. There are twocircumstances under which you’ll also berequired to buy new RAM when you upgradeyour motherboard, however: if your currentsystem is old enough to use DDR2 or if yournew system uses DDR4. If you’re upgrading

from a DDR3 board to another DDR3 board,simply pull out your old RAM and put it inthe new board and it’ll work fine.

It’s worth noting that in the sameway that the ability to overclock isn’tsomething featured on all CPUs, not everymotherboard can do it either. If you’replanning to overclock, check that themotherboard’s chipset does actually supportit. Some can’t overclock at all, some willonly allow a limited overclock on the RAM,and others – usually the most expensivechipsets – can fully overclock both the RAMand the CPU.

Price & ManufacturerMotherboard prices run a reasonably widegamut, from £30 for the cheapest varieties(typically smaller or older models with fewercapabilities) to £300 for the most feature-packed and advanced boards. That leavesa lot of room to manoeuvre when you’relooking for the right one.

If you buy an Intel-based board, thenyou’re unlikely to find anything using thenewest chipsets for under £70. If you wantsomething more modern, we’d recommendspending somewhere in the region of £80-£120. Above that, you’re buying specialistoverclocking- and performance-focusedhardware that casual users don’t need.

AMD motherboards start just as cheap asIntel’s, but top out much lower. You won’tfind an AMD motherboard more expensivethan £200. That makes the sweet spot forcurrent generation purchases come in a littlelower, so if you budget between £60-£90for an AMD board, then you’re sure to getsomething worth owning.

Once you’ve decided on a model andprice range, you’ll then have to decidewhich manufacturer to go for. In the longrun, the difference between manufacturersis reasonably small, since they allmanufacture hardware using the samechipset specifications anyway. If you’rea casual user who doesn’t poke aroundinside your BIOS or case very much, youcan probably base your decision on pricealone without anything to worry about. Inparticular, Intel’s own-brand motherboardsare highly recommended for buyers whowant to get a good deal on the price butaren’t interested in flashy design elementsor additional features.

Pickier users are advised that Asus boardsare often considered to have the bestbalance between features and reliability,but it’s still a slim gap between Asus and itsclose competitors Gigabyte and MSI, so don’tworry if one of the latter manufacturers hasa feature (or price) you prefer!

Ultimately, upgrading a motherboard isn’ta particularly difficult process; it just requiresa few extra factors to be considered onceyou’ve made your initial decision. Don’t beput off! mm

Gigabyte G1.Sniper A88X

Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87

The difference between manufacturersis reasonably small

Issue 135048

CCS

ARE CROSSFIRE XAND SLI SYSTEMSWORTH IT?

T rying to keep your PC’sgraphics capabilities up toa high standard can feel

like being stuck on a treadmill.Even a good graphics card willonly remain competitive fora year or two before it fallssignificantly behind the pack,and unless you have a hugeamount of disposable income,the best visuals will alwaysremain a few steps ahead ofyour financial capabilities.

Of course, if you want to getgraphical capabilities beyondeven your wildest imaginings,then running a multi-GPUsystem might be the wayforward. It’s well-documentedthat the best graphics cards’performance can be equalled,if not bettered, using a pair ofcards instead of a single one.The power draw is normallyhigher, it’ll take up more roomin a system and it’s still far fromcheap, but the initial cost islower, which means better valueperformance.

But is it really worth themoney to run a multi-GPUsystem? And what are the truebenefits of doing so? We’velooked into it to try to find outwhether Nvidia’s SLI and AMD’s(CrossFireX) configurations willtruly give you a system worthpaying for.

What are SLI &CrossFireX?SLI is a proprietary Nvidiatechnology, which allows up

to four GPUs to act as a singledevice, sharing and processingload between them. SLI standsfor ‘Scalable Link Interface’, butthat’s not particularly importantto know. The upshot is thatSLI can link up to four GPUstogether – hardware permitting,of course.

Contrary to a popularmisconception, it isn’t necessarythat the exact same brand andmodel of card are used for SLI

systems, only that both of thecards use the same GPU andhave the same amount of RAM.The manufacturer, model andeven GPU clock speed can allbe different without causingany serious problems, thoughit’s obviously better if theyaren’t. Using the same brandwill minimise the chance ofunforeseen compatibility issuesbetween the hardware, driversand software.

AMD’s equivalent to SLIis a technology is known asCrossFireX and also allows forconfigurations of up to fourGPUs to be used together,but unlike SLI this includes theon-board GPUs found in AMD’sFusion processors.

Like SLI, best practice is touse cards of the same modeland brand, but CrossFireX isa little more flexible, allowingyou to combine multiple

We look at the benefits of usingmultiple graphics cards

Issue 1350 49

CROSSFIRE X & SLI

different GPUs of different brandand models. There are somerestrictions – the GPUs must befrom closely related lines, andthey will all run at the clockspeed of the slowest card, butin general you have a greaterrange of options with CrossFireXthan with SLI.

Compared to SLI, CrossFireXalso has a few advantages.The ability to use differentGPUs makes it easier to createa configuration in the firstplace, since you can staggeryour purchase of the hardwareor pick up a second cheaply afew months later from a muchlarger selection. CrossFireXconfigurations also have bettermulti-monitor support. SLI willonly run on up to three monitorsat once, while CrossFireX canrun on an essentially unlimitednumber, regardless of theresolution and display size.

Running cards in SLI orCrossFireX does require a systemthat can deliver the necessarypower. An insufficient orpoor-quality power supply willresult in instability and couldeven potentially damage yourcomponents. If you’re unsurewhat the power requirementsare for running two cards

together, you can use a systempower usage calculator (www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp) to findout how much wattage yoursystem requires and how big apower supply you should installto meet those needs (rememberto get a PSU with around30% higher output than yoursystem requires, to account forinefficiencies and aging).

Although performancecan differ wildly betweendifferent GPUs, models andmanufacturers, it’s generallyaccepted that Nvidia SLI offersa slightly better performanceincrease over CrossFireX,especially at higher resolutions,while CrossFireX is easier andmore cost-effective to set up.

What’s The Catch?Given the many advantages ofa multi-GPU system, you mightbe wondering what the catchis. Well, there are a few. Multi-GPU configurations aren’t magicbullets and don’t necessarilymeet all expectations.

Above all else, it’s importantto realise that using two GPUstogether doesn’t mean thehardware will give speeds twiceas quick as a solo configuration.

Indeed, you can be certainit won’t, because the twocards must use some amountof processor time just tocommunicate and synchronisetheir output with one another.Overall speeds also depend onthe software’s ability to takeadvantage of extra renderingpower and the presence of otherbottlenecks in a system.

In the best-case scenario,multi-card setups will be about80% quicker than one of thecards on its own. In the worstcase, they might actually beslower than a single card (whenthe improvement they offeris lower than the multi-GPUprocessing overheads). Mostgamers will see around 30%-50% improvements acrossthe board, but there are noguarantees of that.

Poor multi-GPU performanceis most often seen at lowresolutions, when a single GPUis already capable of running ator close to full-speed. The higherthe resolution, the better chanceyou have of seeing a gain from amulti-GPU setup – worth takinginto account if you only have alow-resolution monitor.

The phenomenon of ‘micro-stuttering’ is also a problem.

Experienced by some gamers,though inconsistently, micro-stuttering causes average framerates to look considerably lowerthan the frame rates reported bybenchmarking software, to thepoint where it may even lookworse than a single card alone.

The problem only occurson multi-GPU setups, and inparticular, only in dual-GPUconfigurations. It is caused by avariety of factors and manifestsas inconsistent frame updates,which cause the output to lookjerky or jittery. Although visible tohumans, the hardware sees nospecific defect, making it hard topin down and eliminate. Luckilythe problem is not widespreadand only affects specific cards onspecific games, rather than allsoftware and hardware generally.It’s usually repaired by patches ora driver update once the problemis noticed.

In addition to their extrapower requirements, multi-GPU systems also place otherconstraints on a system. Theextra heat generated by anadditional graphics card (or twoor three!) means that casesmay require extra exhaust fansto keep temperatures low.High system temperatures canaffect the performance of boththe graphics cards and othercomponents, such as the CPUand RAM, so it’s importantto maintain a low systemtemperature if you’re addingextra graphics capacity.

These extra fans (includingthe graphics card’s on-boardfans) also generate a significantamount of extra noise, so fansof quiet systems should beadvised that there’s no suchthing as a quiet SLI system!

Despite these issues, runningin SLI is generally a good ideaif you can afford it. Two mid-range cards are almost alwaysbetter than a single high-endcard costing the same price, andwhile there are potentially extrafinancial requirements involvedin buying a better PSU or newcooling components, these aregood investments for the healthof any system and are likely topay off in the long term. mm

Issue 135052

David Hayward has a brief look at new micro computer

ARM hardware has enjoyedsubstantial growth theselast few years, thanks to the

fact that the design processes usedto make the chips are relativelycheap, and they’re small enoughyet also powerful enough to fit intosome exceptionally tiny places.

The chief destination for ARMprocessors is, of course, mobilephones, but tablets and otherdevices are a significant factor.More recently we enjoyed ARM-and Android-powered microconsoles and handheld consoles,which again prove that you canhave quad-core power in a devicethat’s the size of your hand.

The miniaturisation of ARMtechnology didn’t stop there either,and soon enough devices werereleased that were not much biggerthan USB flash pens – ones thatplugged directly into the HDMI port

of your monitor or TV and deliveredan OS on a stick, for those whowanted a smarter approach totheir entertainment.

The x86 family of processorshasn’t had quite as much success.True enough, there were x86tablets before the more popularARM-based tablets and there stillare, but the numbers haven’t beenanywhere near as huge as thenumber of ARM chips sold.

ARM is dominant in the high-performance, low-power industry,which is where small deviceslie. The x86 is, naturally, moredominant in the desktop and servermarket, so for that reason, Intel(we’ll refer to x86 processors asIntel processors from this point on)has never been all that botheredabout creating the sort of low-power usage chips that ARM hasdone since its early days. Indeed,

Intel has had its fair share of low-power products, but nothing likewhat ARM has produced.

One CPU that Intel has producedfor some time, though, that hasmade a huge difference in thepower use of x86 architecture is theAtom. The Atom processor is a CPUthat has been made purely with lowpower, rather than speed, in mind.As it matured over the years, Inteladopted more technology, betterprocesses and finally, in 2012,introduced the Atom SoC (Systemon Chip) platform, designed purelyfor smartphones and tablets.

The Z-range of Atom SoC modelshas seen service in many differentdevices, from the Asus ZenFone, tothe VivoTab and MeMO Pad 7. Oneof the latest chips, the Z3735D, isbeing used in the Tesco Hudl 2 andit’s this architecture family we’reinterested in here.

THE INTELCOMPUTESTICK,WHAT IS IT?

Issue 1350 53

INTEL COMPUTESTICK

Amid the extreme and theglorious of the 2015 CES, a devicethat’s not much bigger than aChromecast took centre stage: theIntel Compute Stick. Its tablet-likehardware and presentation hadjournalists and consumers alikedrooling, and it’s not difficult tosee why.

HardwareThe diminutive device packs a fairlydecent hardware punch. In its heartyou’ll find a 64-bit quad-core AtomZ3735F CPU, the sibling of theHudl CPU, which runs at 1.33GHzwith a boost to 1.83GHz.

There’s 2MB of L2 cache on thisprocessor, along with a memorybandwidth of 10.6GB/s and an SDPof 2.2W. The graphics specificationis handled by an Intel HD Bay Trailrunning at 311MHz with a graphics

boost frequency of 646MHz. Whilenot an amazing graphical processor,the Bay Trail can outperform anAdreno 320, which is found inSoCs such as the Snapdragon 600range. Roughly speaking, it’s aboutthe same overall performance as aTegra 4 GPU.

The Z3735F is based on theSilvermont Atom architecture,which packs in a number ofimprovements over previous Atom-based processors. For one, there’san increase in performance –around 50% as stated on the Intelpages. And thanks to the smaller22nm processes and the CPUbeing designed with tri-gatetransistors, the energy efficiency ofthe CPU is greatly improved too,delivering a far more impressiveperformance-to-power ratio thanprevious models.

Alongside the processing powersof the Compute Stick, Intel has alsopacked in either 1GB or 2GB ofRAM, 8GB or 32GB eMMC storage,a full-sized HDMI output, micro-SDcard slot, a single USB 2.0 port andmicro-USB for power. Finally, there’sBluetooth 4.0 and built-in wi-fi802.11 b/g/n.

The RAM and storage selectionsare based on two versions that Intelplans to ship, which may be verysoon, depending on when you’rereading this (estimated aroundMarch). The 2GB version with 32GBeMMC storage is designed forWindows 8.1 (Bing Edition) as thecore OS and will undoubtedly costmore. And the 1GB version with8GB eMMC storage is designed forusers to install Linux on, so it’ll besomewhat cheaper.

SoftwareWindows 8.1 may not be everyone’scup of tea; the fact that it’s nearenough universally despised has hadsomething of a negative effect onsales, to say the least. But Windows8.1, in terms of the file system, is afar more efficient operating systemthan Windows 7. Booting timesand overall operation is snappier,and there’s more scope for futuretechnologies to make use of what itcan do.

It’s also slightly smaller than theprevious version of Windows, soeven with 32GB of eMMC storageavailable, you’ll still effectively haveat least 25GB free for your ownuse once the OS is up and running.And let’s not forget that this is anx86 PC, so whatever you can installon your ‘normal’ desktop, you’ll beable to install on this device too.

Linux, on the other hand, issmaller and faster still. But again,it’s not for everyone. Those whoprefer Linux over Windows will nodoubt already have an idea in mindas to what flavour of the OS they’llbe installing, and for our testingwe’ll probably see how the latestversion of Linux Mint runs.

One more note: we’re not sureif you’ll be able to install Windows7 or earlier if you wanted to. Weimagine you probably can, but sincethere’s been no real-world testingyet, we can’t confirm it. If you can,though, we suspect that it’ll drawa wider audience who really don’twant to stick with Windows 8.1.

The 1GB version with 8GB eMMCstorage is designed for users to install Linuxon, so it’ll be somewhat cheaper

Issue 135054

PC On A StickSo what can you do with theCompute Stick, and is it somethingwe should be getting a littleexcited over?

The enthusiast in us cries yes,we’re excited. The cynic, however,sees this as just another ‘thing’that potentially offers lots, but dueto its lack of computing powerdelivers very little.

Ignoring the cynic, though, let’shave a quick think about the usesthe Intel Compute Stick could offer.First of all, in its Windows guise, byhooking up a Bluetooth keyboardand mouse, the Intel ComputeStick can make for a handy browserstick, portable enough to be carriedwith you in your pocket – althoughthe power may be a bit bulky. Alsoit’s a handy hot desk computer,for those who simply require basicoffice computing, and it’ll workwell in colleges and universitiestoo, we imagine. We also imaginethat when connected to atouchscreen monitor, Windows 8.1will come into its own and work inthe way Microsoft intended it to,but we’ll have to wait to get holdof a Compute Stick before we canconfirm that idea.

While triple-A gaming isn’tgoing to be on the cards, there arestill many older titles andindependent games that can beplayed either stand-alone or througha browser. And while we’re on thesubject, don’t forget the thousandsof retro games available throughemulation, which the Compute Stickcould handle right up to PlayStation2, Wii, GameCube and the like.Plus, as a side thought on our part,imagine the custom arcademachines you could build with a PC

on a stick. There are several projectsalready forming in our mind.

In theory, the HD graphics shouldbe enough to allow HD content tobe streamed and played withouttoo much difficulty. Therefore, wecan assume that when connected toyour LAN and with something likeVLC installed, you’ll be able to watcheverything you have stored on yourNAS drive. So effectively, this couldmake for a decent, tiny media centre.

The other version of theCompute Stick, the 1GB variety,will allow the user to install anyversion of Linux that you can installon a normal desktop. Linux beingthe way it is, it will no doubt worktremendously well, and there’sno reason why all of the abovescenarios won’t work with it.

Clearly, the Intel Compute Stickhas a lot of potential, and if usedwithin the defining limits of itsprocessing power, it’ll happily doeverything you ask of it. Don’thook one up and expect to be ableto play Crysis on it, though.

The CompetitionThe Intel Compute Stick isn’t thefirst x86 PC on a stick, and due toits reception, it won’t be the lasteither. There are a few companiesthat have already been developingsticks based on the Atom Z3735Fand similar chips, and some are

already available. One of these isthe MeeGo Pad T01.

The MeeGo Pad T01 is a Chinese-made PC stick whose hardwaremimics that of the Linux version ofthe Intel Compute Stick and hasbeen available since at least Octoberlast year. It costs in the region of$110 (roughly £78), and you’ll haveto factor in import taxes on top ofthat. The key problem, though, isthe fact that you’ll have to bulk buyat least 500 units before you canget hold of one. Still, at least you’llhave plenty of spares.

Another Chinese-based company,Beelink, which is quite well knownin the micro computing market,has for some time been developingARM-based sticks with Androidinstalled for smart TV use. Recently,though, it’s announced that it willstart selling the same kind of thingsas the Windows version of the IntelCompute Stick, called the PocketP2, but with USB 3.0 instead of theCompute Stick’s USB 2.0 port.

There’s no word on price yet, andyou won’t get a lot of informationfrom their site either with regards asto when it’ll be made available.

The best competition the IntelCompute Stick has at present is thealready available Hannspree MicroPC (goo.gl/2TO9gW).

As with the Compute Stick, thishas an Atom Z3735F quad-core CPU,

Amid the extreme and the glorious ofthe 2015 CES, a device that’s not muchbigger than a Chromecast took centre stage:the Intel Compute Stick

Issue 1350 55

INTEL COMPUTESTICK

with 2GB of memory, 32GB eMMCstorage and Windows 8.1 installed.Display output is via the HDMI partof the stick, and there’s also a micro-USB, a single USB 2.0 port andmicro-SD card reader, in addition toBluetooth 4.0 and 802.11 b/g/n wi-fi.

Pricing varies depending on whereyou look online, but the averageseems to be around the £150 mark.For example, Office Nerd sells onefor £151 (goo.gl/R7G3Ca) andExpansys has them available for£169.99 (goo.gl/g0n4zp).

Either way, the Hannspree MicroPC is available now and offers thesame level of performance as the IntelCompute Stick.

ConclusionThe final price of the Intel ComputeStick is still unknown, but othershave speculated that it’ll be availablefor around $150 (roughly £98).Unfortunately, the whole dollars-to-pounds conversion thing rarely worksthat way when the product hits theshelves. For that reason, and basedon past experiences, the likelihood

is that the Intel Compute Stickwill probably cost the same as theHannspree Micro PC, at around £150.Then again, maybe Intel intends toput the cat among the pigeons andoffer a PC on a stick for under £100?

Whatever the final decision is,Intel may have a bit of a battle onits hands, since the Hannspree MicroPC is already available and will havehad a good head start by the timethe Compute Stick is even on theshelves. This advantage could workfor Hannspree, as it could be readyto upgrade it at the drop of a hatif needs be, leaving Intel trailingbehind. Despite the attention on theCompute Stick so far, then, if wewere the betting sort, we’d put ourmoney on the Hannspree Micro PCto come out on top. Time will tell,no doubt.

On a personal note, if the futureof x86 micro PC computing is viaa HDMI stick, then we’re happy toclimb into that bed – just as longas we always have the option ofsignificantly more power through ourdesktop PCs as well. mm

Windows 8.1 Bing EditionAs you may have already read, the

Intel Compute Stick is set to come installed withWindows 8.1 Bing Edition. If you’re at a loss as towhat exactly the Bing Edition is, then join the club.After a bit of reading up on it, though, we foundout the following.

The Bing Edition of Windows 8.1 is simply thecheapest possible Windows OS to have pre-installedon any device. Previously, the cheapest edition wasthe Core Edition of Windows 8, but apparentlywhen Windows 8.1 was released Microsoft changedthings around a bit, because it likes doing that, andmade the Bing Edition the cheapest.

How cheap is cheap, though? Well, it’s prettycheap, in that it costs nothing for a computermanufacturer to ship a PC, laptop or any otherdevice with the Bing Edition installed.

The Bing Edition, though, has a set requirement,in that the computer manufacturers have to shipthe OS with the default search engine as Bing forInternet Explorer. That’s it. You, as the users, onceyou’ve got hands on the system, can change towhatever browser and search engine you like. Butthe manufacturer has to make sure that the OSpoints to Bing for internet searches.So now you know.

I t l C

56 Issue 1350

Component

Watch

T he Radeon R9 290 has spent a while at the top of theheap, but now that AMD is gearing up for the releaseof R9 3xx series cards we thought it’d be interesting tolook back over the R9 290’s pricing and see how it’s

fared. 12 months ago, these were the best in their field, allcosting upwards of £300. What are their prices like now?

Deal 1: Asus R9 290RRP: £359.99 / Deal Price: £243.95While it was never the cheapest R9 card on the block, the AsusR9 290 has held onto its price surprisingly well. That’s probablybecause of Asus’s reputation for strong performance and high-quality components.This card isn’tparticularly special– it has the 4GB ofRAM found in all290 models, it’s gota GPU clocked at animpressive 947MHzand it has 2,816stream processors, butat £244 you need tocare about quality tomake this worth buying. One for overclockers, perhaps?Where to get it: Scan - bit.ly/1p3UiMr

Deal 2: PowerColor R9 290 OCRRP: £329.24 / Deal Price: £224.99The PowerColor R9290 is, as its namesuggests, overclockedfrom the referencedesign. That meansyou get a full 28additional MHz on theGPU over the referencedesign. Whether that’senough to make itworth buying dependson how badly youwant the fastest cardavailable, but weshould point out it’s not a straight comparison – this model hasjust 2,560 stream processors. It is one of the cheapest R9 290sstill available, however!Where to get it: Ebuyer - bit.ly/1A0dVrm

Deal 3: MSI R9 290RRP: £349.99 / Deal Price: £229.98MSI’s gaming series cards are geared heavily towards performancegamers, and this one is no exception. The clock is a massive

1007MHz in overclockmode, with 977MHzin gaming mode and947MHz in silent mode(although take thatdescriptor with a pinchof salt). At this lowprice, it’s definitely goodenough to be worthconsidering over thecompetition’s cards,especially if you’re trying to squeeze as much out of a systemas possible!Where to get it: Ebuyer - bit.ly/1BjvoN6

Deal 4: XFX R9 290RRP: £339.99 / Deal Price: £231.67The XFX card is broadlyidentical to the Asuscard, at least in termsof specs, so it isn’tnecessarily worthpaying extra for; it is,after all, mostly just areference board. Thatsaid, XFX has put itsown touch on it, witha few differences: solidcapacitors, ferrite corechoke and a dust-freeIP-5X fan.Where to get it: Scan - bit.ly/1B2jg4x

Deal 5: Gigabyte R9 290RRP: £369.99 / Deal Price: £219.98Another fairly standard R9 290 card, this one at least has theGigabyte name going for it, alongside the lowest price on themarket. Few card manufacturers are as respected within thegraphics card world, andif it seems like you’repaying a lot for an R9290 reference design,then remember thatyou’re buying qualityas much as power. Itwon’t run faster than itscompetitors, but it mightlast longer and hold upbetter if overclocked, andat this price it has to beour first choice.Where to get it: Novatech - bit.ly/1zOR57q

ComponentWatchJames Hunt picks out some deals on a powerhouse graphics cards

58 Issue 1350

Multi-billion pound deal signed and sealed

BT InksDeal ToBuy EE

I f you own a oneof Samsung’sSmart TV, thecompany that

made it is warning thatyou should pay closeattention to what you sayin front of it. The idea ofwatching what you saybehind closed doorsmight seem preposterousbut, as the world getssmarter, it seems that ourown personal space isgetting ever-smaller.

While the prospect ofbeing able to controlyour television via voiceactivation may haveseemed like the stuff ofTomorrow’s World, itcould turn out to be anightmare as thesesmart sets “listen” toevery conversation and

might share details ofwhat’s been said withSamsung or thirdparties.

With all this in mind,Samsung is effectivelywarning customers toavoid discussing personalinformation via itsprivacy policy concerningweb-connected TVs. Thedetails of that policyhave come to lightbecause of a Daily Beaststory that publishedsome of Samsung’swording.

Samsung has sincesaid that no voice data isretained or sold on, butnobody likes to think ofpeople listening in onwhat you’re saying inthe comfort of your ownliving room.

Okay... This is scary

Samsung:“Don’tTalk ToYour TV”

QUICK BITS... McAfee Labs has revealed in its latest security threats report that over 300 new threats are detected every

Memory stick specialistKingston would verymuch like you to knowall about its latest pair

of DataTraveler drives. The DataTraveler4000 Gen.2 and 4000 Gen.2Management Ready Flash drives aremost notable, certainly in its eyes, forthe incredible encryption at the heart ofthem, protecting sensitive informationwith high-level security.

The 4000 Gen.2 is FIPS 140-2 Level3 certified (that’s US governmentsecurity level) and additionally comeswith a tamper-evident seal for physicalsecurity from prying eyes and stickyfingers. Data is protected byhardware-based 256-bit AESencryption and the drive itself is madeof titanium-coated stainless steel.

The Management Ready model ismuch the same, but also offersoptional SafeConsole managementcourtesy of BlockMaster, with toolssuch as the ability to remotely resetpasswords. Both drives provide USB3.0 data transfer rates and come in

4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GBcapacities, backed by a five-yearwarranty. Clearly, you’d have to beseriously security-conscious, and mostlikely a small business owner, to beinterested in these – but then securityfeatures are one of the battlegroundsfor memory sticks these days.

Visit www.kingston.com for fulldetails of what these devices couldpotentially offer you.

DataTraveler drives promise next-gen protection

Kingston’sLatest SticksAdopt StellarEncryption

One of the best things aboutdesktop PCs is that they’re soeasy to tinker with. Naturally,you want your computer torun as smoothly as possible,but when something does gowrong or doesn’t behave quiteas it should, solving theproblem will often give you anenormous sense ofachievement. And let’s notforget how versatile they are,allowing us to install almostwhatever we like and tochange the operating systemcompletely, if we choose.

That, of course, isn’t sosimple with other electronicdevices, like tablets. But it’snot impossible. As thisweek’s look at customfirmware shows, there is stillsome scope to give yourhardware a makeover.Personally, I’ve been usingcustom firmware with mydevices for years now. Evenmy E Ink ereader had Androidon it at one point.

Sadly, I don’t have theability to code this myself, so Irely on the work of other. Sothanks to those guys,whoever they are. Long maythey continue.

See you next time…

Editor

T he much-touted dealbetween BT and EE hasfinally come to fruitionas BT has agreed on

definitive terms to acquire themobile network operator for anawful lot of money.

The acquisition will also meanthat BT is buying an awful lot ofpower, as it will know be ableto provide fibre broadband,

mobile and traditional landlinephone services, alongside TVpackages. EE is a significantacquisition in itself as it has thelargest 4G customer base of anyEuropean operator and BT isgoing to pay the handsome sumof £12.5bn for the privilege.

The conversion of thetelecoms industry continuesapace, then...

minute – thatʼs more than five every second

Odd...

Raspberry PiReboots After Flash

Anthony

Last week we brought you news ofthe latest version of the Raspberry Pibarebones PC. Now, we have somemore Raspberry news for you.

The BBC has reported that the Raspberry Pi 2has taken to rebooting itself whenever a cameraflash goes off near it. So, consequently, anyonetaking a photo to show their new kit off to theirmates had best make sure that flash is turnedoff. By all accounts, this is down to somethingcalled the “photoelectric effect”, discovered by

Albert Einstein. That describes a phenomenonwhereby metals emit electrons when hit by light,which in terms of the Pi 2 means that somesilicon junctions are malfunctioning when hit bythe camera’s flashes, causing the power supplyto drop out. Ingeniously, one forum user’ssuggestion for fixing the issue is to cover up theproblem cells with Blu-Tack. Brilliant.

The bug certainly hasn’t impacted on its earlypopularity, though, with 300,000 orders in itsfirst week of being launched.

60 Issue 1350 QUICK BITS... A BBC Learning poll says over half of the UKʼs 11-to-16-year-olds have done something “risky” or anti-social online

A s the ripples of Gamergate continue ever outward,the board that became synonymous with much ofthe aggression seen as part of it, 8chan, has hit theheadlines again. This time, one of its users released

documents containing personal details – including, Ars Technicareports, a mailing address – of one of the Silk Road trial judges,Katherine Norris (tinyurl.com/MotI1350a).

As a result, it seems that those behind the running of the‘Baphomet’ 8chan board, notorious for such activity, decidedto remove significant parts of the board’s history to get rid ofthe data and other incriminating evidence regarding so-calleddoxxing. Perhaps unfortunately for them, records exist of itelsewhere – which, you’ll find, is a bit of theme this week.

Honestly, if Seth Rogen had put the idea of a rousingmarch espousing internet censorship into one of hisfilms, we’d have called it too far fetched. Yet, this tune

(tinyurl.com/MotI1350b), called Cyberspace Spirit, is apparentlyvery real, the work of the Chinese authorities and does exactlythat. Ironically, the video of the song – apparently performed atthe behest of the Cyberspace Administration of China at a BeijingInternet Association event last week (tinyurl.com/MotI1350c) –has become hard to come by, as those responsible seem to havehad second thoughts about the wiseness of a tune that harksback to revolutionary songs of the past, and they’ve since goneabout, well... censoring it by removing all official references to it.

Of course, this is the internet... and, not for the only time thisweek, it bears noting that it’s very hard to hide something there.

C ongratulations to software engineer Laxman Muthitya,whose report of a vulnerability in Facebook has nettedhim the biggest reward for such a find ever handed out

by the company (tinyurl.com/MotI1350d). Indeed, so bad wasthe flaw – which exploited the Android app to allow the deletionof photo albums – that Muthiya went so far as to claim he had“the key to delete all your Facebook photos.” It’s a good job he’sa nice guy, then, isn’t it? Also: much richer now.

Facebook engineers were so worried by the flaw, described as“trivial to exploit by an attacker with little more than a script anda Raspberry Pi”, they immediately moved to patch it. Ironically, forsomething potentially so harmful, this was done within hours.

So we can all sleep safe in our beds knowing those pics of ourcat/lunch/drunken party are safe once again. Thanks, Laxman!

I t’s not often that we get to feature birds of prey in theMeanwhile column, so it’s only right that we take theopportunity to put that right with not one, but three, tales

from the world of sky-borne predators.The first comes from Redditor/Instagrammer hewlandrower/

Drewnold, who posted pictures and a short video showingthe aftermath of a large hawk crashing through his bedroomwindow and, presumably in a dazed state, promptly trashingthe place (tinyurl.com/MotI1350e). However, the rewardfor his tale of woe was great (at least in Reddit terms),specifically nigh-on 6,000 upvotes, 2,000 comments and oneabsolutely priceless picture of the a very annoyed looking eagle(captioned with NSFW language: imgur.com/PLmCRd7). Theprice of internet fame is, indeed, high.

Our second dose of avian antics comes courtesy of that everreliable source of viral video, the GoPro YouTube channel, whichcarried this adorable video of baby burrowing owls (tinyurl.com/MotI1350f) getting their pop-and-lock moves down DiCaprio-stylee (tinyurl.com/MotI1350g) while investigating one ofits cameras (tinyurl.com/MotI1350h). The footage, taken bywildlife photographer Megan Lorenz was not the only owl-relatedmeme of the week, though. As befits the time of year, the

#Superb_Owl (a play on ‘Superbowl’: tinyurl.com/MotI1350j) hashtag was rolled out again recently, withthe poster kids this year being a batch of burrowingowls (tinyurl.com/MotI1350k) who came with their

own backstory.So, burrowing owls are a thing, then?

What a wonderful world.

Aaaaaaaand Finally...You know we love Star Wars, right? Yeah,y’do. Y’know we like a robot or two,right? So, well, imagine the reaction inthe Meanwhile office when we clappedeyes on Robothespian delivering theLuke/Vader big reveal scene from EmpireStrikes Back (tinyurl.com/MotI1350l).Of course, we do a better version, but fora robot he’s not half bad...

W e’ve run stories similar to this one in thepast (like the case of Redditor Narratto,who confessed to the murder of his sister’s

boyfriend via an Advice Animal Meme (tinyurl.com/MotI1350m), but that didn’t make the story of MaxwellMarion Morton any less shocking. The grim nature of hiscrime makes it more so, in fact.

The 16-year-old is facing murder charges after allegedlysending a selfie picture of himself and the disfiguredcorpse of fellow student Ryan Mangan, whom he claimedto have murdered, to a friend over the social networkSnapchat (tinyurl.com/MotI1350n).

Obviously Morton did this believing, as is Snapchat’sunique selling point, that the evidence would promptly bedestroyed, but a screengrab of the gruesome scene, taken bythe recipient and later shown to his parents and police, hasnow become a key piece of evidence in his prosecution. It’sa shocking reminder that nothing can really be consideredprivate on social networks, but a reminder nonetheless.

Meanwhile... On The Internet...

Google Japan has posted an absolutelyastounding video showing Androidphones and tablets coming together toperform a version of Beethoven’s OdeTo Joy (albeit heavily modernised) inperfect harmony. Each phone wasgiven its own Androidify (tinyurl.com/MotI1350o) character, and the teamused USB connections to sync all theperformances together to create amesmerising final result (tinyurl.com/MotI1350p), which performed foraudiences in Tokyo earlier this month.

.AVWhy? Videos For Your Eyes...Not Necessarily For Your Brain

ow

W

AYoy’ritheLSOa

Issue 1350 61QUICK BITS... Over 16 million people have registered to play Destiny, according to publisher Activision

TurkeyPondersMinecraft’sViolenceThe government of

Turkey is taking aninteresting stance onthe oh-so-popular

video game Minecraft: it’slooking into suggestions from ajournalist’s report that thecomputer game is too violent.

A minister in the governmenthas launched an investigationinto the game as it has beensuggested that it leads to andpromotes aggression. If thisreport does indeed find that

Minecraft is too violent, then itcould be banned.

The journalist behind theinvestigation spoke to theminister involved on how playersget points for killing characters.PEGI describes the violence as“non-realistic-looking” andanyone who has playedMinecraft would doubtlessagree. So, an odd stance andwe’ll be keeping an eye on thisto see if the country does indeedban the game.

A fortnight ago, we presented you with this strange-lookingshow of solidarity between two of nature’s greatest enemies(if the cartoons we watched as kids were true). Let’s see whatyou thought might be going on:

• doctoryorkie: “New YouTube board members revealed.”• ~Wiz~: “Pet Smart.”• Thomas Turnbull: “Once we sober up we will be

fighting like cat and dog, but we have our memories tolook at.”

• Alex Davies: “Yes, they might seem smart, but theyhaven’t worked out how to use a front-facing camerayet.”

• Glen Richards: “Yeah, we’ve got specs appeal.”• Ed Winslet: “Technology: breaking down the barriers of

inter-species love.”• Ted Parsons: “No, I wanted to interview PopCap, not

PupCat.”• Robert Wheelhouse: “Feline fine…”• Sean Moran: “Best friends fur-ever.”• John Walker: “In the middle of filming, they realised

they couldn’t find the paws button.”

Thanks, all, and congratulations to our winner, Adrian Rea, whosuggested, “I’m sure I googled for images of ‘Datsun cogs!’”

To enter this week, head to the ‘Other Stuff’ section of ourforum (forum.micromart.co.uk) and say something funny(but not too rude) about the picture below or email us [email protected].

Caption Competition

I sn’t it just typical? Youreport that Google Glasshas been put out topasture, only for reports

to then come out that, actually,Google is starting it all upagain. The perils of journalism.

Yes, according to the NewYork Times Google is indeedworking once again on Glasswith the project having been‘reset’. Developed internally,with far less fanfaresurrounding it this time around,this new Glass will only bereleased once it’s finished andready for use. Google haslearned from its past mistakes,it would seem.

The problem would seem tohave been that by getting thegeneral public so involved andinvested in the project from thestart, Google over-exposedGlass before it was truly readyto be seen. According to thereport, some developersworking on the project becameso exasperated with thisapproach that they decided toleave it behind entirely.

With the new projectapparently being run by formerApple guy Tony Fadell, whopreviously worked on the likesof the iPod, Google will behoping for a much betteroutcome second time around.

Rises again, according to US reports

Google GlassMay NotActually BeDead After All

Country investigates game

ghtt agagoo wwee presentedd you with this strange

“I’m sure I googled

for images of ‘Datsun

cogs!’”

62 Issue 135062 Issue 1350

Snippets!

Canon’s 50MP Cams!While megapixels aren’teverything, Canon has madea serious play in the digitalcamera market with therelease of a couple of newDSLRs housing 50.6megapixel sensors. The 5DSand 5DS R, which carry thehuge full-frame sensor, arepitched at studio andlandscape photographers. 50megapixels, eh? The mindboggles, it really does.

Tech Is Queue CueResearch has been revealedsuggesting that newtechnology is most likely tohave consumers queuing up.Indeed, one-in-fiveconsumers admit to havingwaited in line to buy phones,tablets, consoles, etc. Ofcourse, Apple was the brandthat most consumers nameas creating memorableproduct launches, thankslargely due to the iPhoneand iPad – and key to theseproduct launches were theaccompanying websites, withover half of consumerswanting to see online offersand/or competitions,compared to one-in-eightwho have attended a launchevent for a product.

Drones Deliver FoodYou’ve seen Flying Monkeysin the movies, now you canwitness flying waiters inSingapore. No, really.Infinium Robotics inSingapore has developed thedrone waiters, which cancarry up to 2kg of food anddrink – though it the idea ofplates and bowls of hotfood floating above yourhead doesn’t weird you out,you’re a better person thatus. Frankly: not thanks.

These Maitre’Using infra-red sensors to make theirway around a restaurant,the drones could be a crucialdevelopment as there’sa waiter shortage in thecountry because of how lowthe wages are over there.

62 Issue 1350 QUICK BITS... The government says superfast broadband is now available to four-out-of-five UK homes

UbuntuSmartphoneComing. FinallyP lease welcome the

Aquaris E4.5, anUnbuntu-poweredsmartphone that’s

finally appearing after a failedcrowdfunding campaign andmonths of waiting. Onlycurrently available via flash salesaround Europe, it’s being drippedto market so developers cangauge if there’s much interestbeyond the niche Linux market.

The phone, built by Spanishoutfit bq, is very different tomost smartphones, as the UIuses ‘Scopes’ to show contenton one screen, so you don’thave to enter an app to get atinformation. The core specs ofthis €170 dual-SIM include a4.5”, 240ppi screen, 1GB RAMand 8GB storage space.

Wi-fi CoffeeMachine For Lazy,Lazy PeopleBrit company behind unique device

P itched as the‘intelligent’ way tomake coffee, wefeel this might really

be the laziest way to makeyourself a cup of joe. That’snot to say we don’t want one,mind you... Oh no.

Developed by Britishcompany Smarter, and we dolove a British success here at

Micro Mart, the iKettle wi-ficoffee machine can becontrolled via free Android andiOS apps and they will informyou when the machine needsrefilling and will even ask ifyou’d like a hot beverage whenyou step in your front door.

You can also set drinkingschedules and even link itwith a fitness/activity tracker

to automatically recommend astronger coffee when youwake up after a rough night’ssleep. Kinda sells itself, right?

The machine costs £150,which is quite a lot for acoffee machine, and will beavailable to buy in stores inMarch. The smart home justgot smarter. Or far, far morelazy. Paging Santa!

Flash sales initially

Issue 1350 63

Massive multi-million dollar fine in China

QualcommPays Up

Symantec Pay Up Too!Patent infringement bags another victim

CompactSpeakerPacks PunchBluetooth 3.0 connectivity and 10m range

A merican chip makerQualcomm hasagreed to pay themother of all fines

to Chinese authorities in order toresolve a long-standing anti-monopoly investigation.

The company is going to forkout nearly a billion dollars

($975m) to China’s NationalDevelopment and ReformCommission, an amount ofmoney that represents the largestsuch sanction in China’scorporate history. The sanction,imposed upon Qualcommbecause of high licensing feescharged to manufacturers, will

also see the company lowerroyalty rates on licences relatingto mobile patents in China andadhere to a bunch of otherstipulations that are frankly a bitboring to get into here.

The bottom line is that, byagreeing to this fine, Qualcommcan get on with the business of

operating in China in a way thatthe authorities accept, potentiallymeaning that its processors canmake their way into more devicesthan before. With a bigger sliceof the global market the ultimategoal, this is a high price to payfor a potentially even biggerfinancial return in the long run.

I magine being happy athaving to pay $17m to acompany in a legalwrangle. Difficult to do,

right? Yet, while we’re sure thebosses at Symantec aren’t exactlyskipping at having been orderedto pay that sum, it sure beatshaving to pay out nearly $300m.

The legal case, over inAmerica, revolved aroundIntellectual Ventures, a patent-holding company with over30,000 patents on its books. Ajury found that two of thosepatents were infringed uponand lawyers representingIntellectual Ventures wanted

$299 million as compensationfor those breaches. The jury,however, felt that was way too

much – which, ironically,amounts to slice of relativelygood-ish news for Symantec.

Portable bluetoothspeakers arecommonplace but, ifyou’ll forgive us,

here’s yet another one.The Bass Connect Speaker,

which can be purchased fromThe Hut (www.thehut.com),promises crystal clear treble anddeep bass with a Bluetoothconnectivity range of up to 10

metres, making this ano-brainer for listening to yourtunes around the house or inthe garden. The battery life ofup to five hours is decentenough for the £30 cost. As forcharging after that life is up,there’s a micro USB chargingcable included and the speakerworks on Android 4 and iOS 7devices and better.

Simulators have taken acertain amount of flakover the years, with people

mocking them for their nerdinessand poor presentation. Indeed,some of them really are terribleand fully deserve that reputation.But there are just as manyfantastic simulation titles as thereare bad ones, and that’s what I’dlike to look at here.

I love the fact that a simulatordone well, regardless ofwhether I’m flying a plane, starship or gently manoeuvring aseveral thousand ton ship intoharbour, can transport me tothe actual situation and fire theimagination.

Indeed, there’s a lot of joy tobe had from a good simulator.It forces you to use the yourgrey matter for once, instead ofpointing a gun at a horde of theundead and pressing a mousebutton. And there’s usually asimulator out there for everyindividual’s personal tastes.

Therefore, I thought I’d lista handful of my favourite PCsimulator titles (I don’t reallyregard them as games, as such,

but that’s up for debate), which Ithink covers an eclectic range ofconcepts and predilections.

Elite: DangerousI reviewed Elite a few weeksago now, and as you cansurmise from its content, I’mrather fond of this enormousspace trading simulator.

There are many who won’tregard the Elite series assimulators at all, but consideringthe level of trade, the flight, thedocking, the combat and thedynamics within the Elite universeand political shenanigansbetween the title’s factions,there’s more of the simulationthere than a simple point-and-shoot game.

Anyway, Elite: Dangerousis a simply amazing simulatorwhich is capable of puttingyou in the seat of your choiceof ship and allowing you toexplore over 400 billion starsystems that make up the MilkyWay. It’s a monstrous task tryingto become the Elite, but onethat’s sure to suck you into theenvironment around you.

Football ManagerI’m not a footballer, in anyway shape or form. I don’tknow any of the players, otherthan the ones who seem to becontinually in the eyes of themedia, and I couldn’t tell oneiconic ground from the next.

However, there’s somethingabout the Football Managergames that really captivatesme and has done ever sincethe old days of ChampionshipManager. The fact that thereare pages of stats, endlessmicromanagement and tacticalplanning is a sheer delight,regardless of the fact that Ihave no idea who’s who andwhat the best formation is fora particular match. Mind you,I have no idea how celestialphysics affect escape velocities,but I don’t worry too muchabout that when playing Elite.

Football Manager has thenecessary addictive ingredientsthat will keep you glued tothe screen and fascinatedwith every aspect, while yourlife passes on by beyond theconfines of the monitor.

Microsoft FlightSimulatorFlight sims have alwaysfascinated me. The level ofdetail involved, in both thegraphical splendour of theaircraft and scenery and thephysical world outside of thecockpit window, is simplyastonishing.

It’s great to be able to pilotanything from the smallestCessna 172m, through to themost advanced F-22 Raptor –and let’s not forget the massivejumbos that require an arcaneknowledge of flight dynamics.

It may not have the top slotin terms of the latest graphicalfeatures (that probably goes toX-Plane), but Microsoft FlightSimulator holds a special placein the heart as being one of thefirst flight experiences most ofus had on the PC.

F1 2014F2 2014 didn’t have the bestreviews when it was launchedlast year, and to be fair thereare some problems with it. Butfor the F1 and racing sim purist,

The Best PCThe Best PCSimulationsSimulationsEverEverDavid Hayward looks at some of hispersonal favourite sims

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More NotableSuggestions

War Thunder: Okay,so it’s more of a game asopposed to a simulation.But if you opt for moredifficult settings, then you’llsoon find yourself wrestlingwith pitch, yaw and othersimulation-like controls.

Train simulator:Personally, I find this a littledull. But each to their ownand, besides, it’s actually avery good simulator.

The Sims: I don’t like TheSims and never have done.But as above, there arethose who do, so it’s wortha mention at least.

X-Wing and Tie Fighter:Early space combatsimulator or more of agame than sim? It’s up toyou to decide, but I stillenjoy playing these two.

it’s one of the finest racingexperiences on the PC.

It is, when you look beyondthe niggles, a fantasticsimulation; where the levelsof detail on the tracks and thetechnical aspects of each vehicleare taken to an extreme degreein a package that actually makesyou feel like you’re a driverof a car that’s engineered tosuch perfection it makes themachinations of NASA looksimply archaic.

Hook up a good force-feedback racing wheel to yourPC and you’re in for one of themost exhilarating moments in PCentertainment. And if you takethe time to hone your skills andbuild up your career path, thenyou’ll get to drive some seriousERS-powered cars and hold yourbreath as your tires cling for dear

life while taking a bend a littletoo fast.

All in all, there’s a great timeto be had in F1 2014.

Pacific FightersPacific Fighters is an oldercombat simulator, but one that’sstill extremely good. The flightcontrols may be somewhatsimplified, and graphically it’s notquite up to the standards of amodern title, but you still get thethrill of the chase while trying tobring down a few Zeros.

The F6F Hellcat, a personalfavourite, was a wonderful planeto fly, and you could feel itsmanoeuvrability when at highspeeds. Likewise, it was alsoquite fragile, and once thoseJapanese 20mm cannons openedup, you knew your expiry datewas fast approaching.

It is looking its age these days,but if you do manage to dig outa copy, it’s worth giving it someappreciation for a few hours.

Falcon 4.0Another older combat simhere and one that has quitethe illustrious heritage behindit. The Falcon series is oneof the most detailed combatsims available. There are fondmemories here of Falconon the Atari ST and Falcon3.0 on a 486 with a mathsco-processor fitted to bring outthe finer details – despite theinherent bugs.

Falcon 4.0 was superb,including the light bedtimereading of the 600-pageaccompanying manual. Everyaspect of the simulation reactedto your time in the cockpit;enemy troops advanced orwithdrew according to themission you completed andwhat targets you neutralised.In fact, behind the scenes,this impressive war simulationwas extraordinarily complex forthe time.

Sid Meier’sCivilisationAre Sid Meier’s Civ titles gamesor simulations? To be honest,I’ve always viewed them as

simulations, due to the levelof micromanagement andstrategies involved.

The Civ titles have alwaysbeen firm favourites of mine and,despite the latest version seemingto lose some of the essence ofwhat makes a Civ title great, theyprobably always will be.

Whether it’s the fact thatyou can toil over expandingyour kingdom, improvingthe happiness of the citizens,scouring the landscape forresources and increasing yourscientific and technologicaladvantage or simply being aterrible warmonger, the feelingof wanting to be a great leader isall-consuming.

Over to youThere are plenty more favouritesimulations I could mention, butI’ll leave those for you to email usabout. mm

Issue 1350 65

I have no idea who anyof these people are

The graphical details in F1 2014 are

stunning, despite a few problems

with the simulation aspect

Microsoft Flight Sim is

quite extraordinary

The Falcon series ofcombat simulations stillholds up well

Sid Meier’s Civilisation is

an epic simulation

Issue 135066

Give YourGadgetsA FaceliftWe look at how custom firmware can give your old gadgets awhole new lease of life

When hardware reaches acertain point in its life, it’snormal for a company to

declare it deprecated or unsupported.This means that it stops issuingupdates and fixes for its software,and consumers are expected to moveon to the next device, whether theywant to or not.

But not everyone takes that lyingdown. If manufacturers don’t wantto update their devices, they reason,maybe they can. And so the hardwareis adopted by custom firmwaredevelopers, who want to add newfunctions and capabilities to hardwarethat the industry has lost interestin. This practice of creating newoperating systems and applicationsfor ‘closed’ devices is also called‘homebrewing’, and it’s popular on ahuge variety of consumer electronics,from obvious candidates like gamesconsoles and routers to more offbeatitems, like digital cameras.

Of course, aside from the amountof time it takes to develop firmware,nothing precludes the possibility of

writing custom firmware for currentdevices, but manufacturers are a lotless forgiving towards that. Installingcustom firmware might add newfeatures, fix bugs and vulnerabilitiesand extend compatibility, but it’llalso void your warranty, meaningthe hardware is unsupported andunreturnable. In some cases, it’soutright illegal to modify firmware,particularly if doing so bypassescopy protection.

But as much as manufacturersmight protest, custom firmwareis a great thing for hardwareowners, and to prove it, we’vebeen looking at some of the mostpopular firmwares in developmenttoday. If you have an old gamesconsole in the cupboard or an MP3player collecting dust, why not digthem out and see whether any ofthese packages can turn them intosomething more?

MP3 PlayersThe increasing power and capacityof smartphones has left many

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CUSTOM FIRMWARE

stand-alone MP3 players superfluousto requirements, but that’s not auniversal position. There’s still ahardcore group of musi lovers whoprefer a standard MP3 player for avariety of reasons. They’re highercapacity, easier to manage, havea longer battery life and are lessdesirable to thieves – not to mentionthe fact that some people might justnot have a smartphone.

Since most stand-alone playersare now unsupported by theirmanufacturers, it falls to customfirmware providers to addnew capabilities and features toexisting hardware.

One of the most popular piecesof custom firmware for MP3 playersis undoubtedly Rockbox. Originallydeveloped in 2001 to expand thecapabilities of Archos players,Rockbox has become an all-purposeMP3-player firmware upgradecapable of giving players additionalsupport for a huge number offeatures and formats. Released underthe GNU public licence, Rockbox isavailable free from its official website(rockbox.org), and now supportsdevices manufactured by Cowon,iriver, Olympus, Sandisk, Toshiba andmore – including, of course, AppleiPods 1G through 5.5G, as well ascertain Minis and Nanos.

In many cases, Rockbox canoperate without deleting the originalfirmware, making it a surprisinglyrisk-free way to modify your player;

if things go wrong, Rockbox can beerased, and the original, uneditedfirmware reasserts itself.

Whatever device it runs on,Rockbox can add support for all sortsof features. It allows any player –even iPods – to play formats suchas OGG, FLAC and WMA. It addsgapless playback, crossfading, aviewer for text and image files – iteven adds games and emulators! Thesupport for plug-ins allows for a widerange of features to be covered, aswell as mixed and matched. Someolder players can be upgraded withvideo support added, while playerswith microphones can be made torun on Rockbox’s highly accessiblevoice-operated user interface, whichis perfect for the visually impaired.

Unfortunately, as the release ofnew MP3 players has slowed down,so the development of Rockbox hasslowed too. March will be the secondanniversary of its last stable release,although up-to-date dev builds areavailable and still being worked on.

Mobile PhonesAndroid phones are surprisingly easyto modify in many cases, not least

because Android itself is an openand open-source platform. Wikipedialists 31 custom firmware projectsfor Android devices, and there aredoubtlessly plenty more that aren’tnotable or popular enough to havemade that list.

While the point of installingcustom firmware on most devices isto give new life to aging hardware,Android phones are different. Forthe most part, new firmware is anattempt to give users greater controlof a modern device, which is whysome projects are even based onLollipop, the latest release of Android.Rooting a device (as it’s known) givesyou greater control over all aspectsof behaviour, performance andappearance. Essentially, your phonebecomes as open and customisable asa desktop PC – with all the instabilityand unpredictability that implies.

Of the available firmwares,one of the biggest and best isundoubtedly CyanogenMod (www.cyanogenmod.org), to the pointwhere it’s essentially become alegitimate commercial enterprise,rather than an enthusiast project. Forthe most part, its default behaviouris close to stock Android, but it hassome improved components likea better file manager and superiorcamera app included with it.

But where CyanogenMod shinesis the sheer amount of settings youcan change. From low-level hardwareoptimisation to minor UI tweaks (likeadding a percentage amount to thebattery indicator), CyanogenMod cando it. It’s also hugely stable, thanksto a massive team of developers andtesters who constantly update andrevise it. It’s available for loads ofphone models (as well as tablets),and installation is as easy as youcould like. The latest version, releasedthis month, is CyanogenMod 12,which is Android 5.0 based.

On a different tack, LiquidSmooth(liquidsmooth.net) is a stripped-downbuild of Android, which is designedto get the most power out of even

The point of installing customfirmware on most devices is to givenew life to aging hardware

Issue 135068

the slowest hardware, which makesit good for older devices or peoplelooking to get superfast performanceout of their new one. It’s not for themeek – it has the ability to undervoltand overclock your hardware, withthe potential to cause damage tohardware and stress the battery, butthe potential rewards are great.

The only downside? LiquidSmoothisn’t available for as huge a numberof handsets as some other mods, butit is being constantly developed andis currently available as a modifiedversion of Lollipop, so there’s no hugeimpediment to giving it a try.

And although most customfirmwares are aimed at Android users,there is at least one, Whited00r,which is aimed at those who havean old iPhone that has been long-abandoned by Apple. Compatiblewith the iPhone 2G, the iPhone 3Gand the first two generations of iPodTouch, Whited00r (www.whited00r.com) is based on old versions of iOSbut adds features that bring it in linewith newer ones.

These include an iOS7 look andfeel, with updated icons and UIelements, updated push notificationoptions, access to the official AppStore and Cydia (the app store usedby jailbroken phones) and a servicecalled AppTimeMachine, whichcontains the last compatible versionof applications that dropped supportfor older hardware. There’s also animproved camera app, multitasking,a control centre and even voicecontrol features.

Despite all this, the main aim ofWhited00r is speed – keeping yourhardware running as smoothly aspossible, despite all the modifications.Given how slow official versions ofiOS run on modern hardware, that’s afeature worth treasuring.

If you hadn’t guessed, thisfirmware isn’t supported by Apple,which makes installing it a bit of ahassle and invalidates your warranty,but when the device is essentiallyimpossible to upgrade throughofficial channels, it’s probably worthtaking a chance on it.

RoutersUsing custom router firmware is agood way to unlock the capabilitiesof a router that are otherwise closedoff to you, whether because the

software is old and out of dateor because your ISP intentionallydisabled some of the hardware’sfunctions when it provided youwith it. In many ways, it’s likegetting an upgrade for free. Thisprobably explains why customrouter firmware is a popular area formodification enthusiasts.

Upgrading a router requires you toget root access to the router’s internalstorage so you can alter the files onit. Note that this isn’t the same aslogging into the web backend; youwant to access the actual web serverit runs, which is what allows youto see the web backend in the firstplace. For the most part, finding out

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CUSTOM FIRMWARE

the admin login details isn’t any moredifficult than googling your router’smake and model, but beware – ifyou’re not familiar with a commandline environment, there’s a lot ofscope for getting things wrong.

The world of custom routerfirmware is largely dominated by theOpen WRT project (openwrt.org).It originally emerged because Linksysbuilt the firmware for its hugelypopular WRT54G model using GPLcode, which meant it was obliged torelease the source of the modifiedversion, making it easy for motivateddevelopers to alter and improve.Since the inception of the project, ithas expanded to cover a much largerrange of devices.

Based on Linux, OpenWRT has hadseveral major releases, averaging one

a year since 2006. The current versionis called ‘Barrier Breaker’ (version14.07) and supports a huge numberof features, hardware-permitting,many of which are unavailable onthe majority of commercial routers.Perhaps most useful is its ability togive any supported wireless devicenew modes, allowing it to function asa repeater, access point, bridge, portalor a combination of the same. It alsoextends USB support to any piece ofhardware that Linux supports, so youcould conceivably control your routerusing a USB keyboard or create anetworked webcam (though you mayneed to install specific software onthe router to do this).

The huge amount of features andmassive modification potential ofOpenWRT is what gives it its fans,but it’s worth noting that not everyrouter supports every function, andmany models aren’t supported atall. A full list of supported devices isavailable on the OpenWRT site.

It’s worth noting that as anopen-source project, OpenWRThas become the basis of multiplederivative projects. Coova Chilli isa fork based on wireless hotspotmanagement and provision. PacketProtector is a version that adds extrasecurity settings, including built-inantivirus. BlueBox and AutoAP arevariants designed for use on themove, which scan for and thenautomatically connect to any openwireless connection.

But perhaps the most successfulfork of OpenWRT is DD-WRT, whichhas even been included as thefirmware on commercial routersfrom Buffalo Technology. DD-WRT isdesigned to be easily installed andconfigured, which makes it popularwith home users – especially thosewith limited experience of Linux.While DD-WRT has fewer functionsthan OpenWRT, it caters for theneeds of most home users and canprove far less time-consuming toinstall and activate. Unless you’re anetwork buff, DD-WRT (dd-wrt.com)is the version to go for.

There are other customised routerfirmwares available that aren’t basedon OpenWRT at all, although manyare restricted to specific chipsets andhardware. In general, the functionalityoffered is a subset of OpenWRT’s andfrequently no more convenient orcapable than DD-WRT is.

One interesting project ismaintained by OpenWireless.org. Thegroup exists to encourage users toallow free network access to anyonewithin range in the hope of creatingubiquitous and high-speed internetaccess across all urban spaces. Whilemuch of the project is based onrouters’ existing functions, it alsooffers custom firmware (at this time,only for the Netgear WNDR3800router), which is specifically usedto create and administer anOpenWireless network hotspot. It isbelieved that other devices will besupported in the future.

The huge number of projectsbased on OpenWRT does mean thatit’s difficult to pick one to use, butthe similarities packages show toone another does mean that onceyou’ve installed one, it’s usuallynot hard to install and configurethe others. If you’re interestedin custom router firmware, try afew out and see which you likethe most. Just remember that ifanything goes wrong, you maynot have an internet connectionavailable to help you fix it!

Digital CamerasStandard digital camera firmwareomits a huge number of features,often because manufacturers wantto save them for higher-end devicesthat cost more to buy. Enthusiastshave, of course, found a way toput these features back in, usingcustomised operating systems. Again,it can breathe new life into an agingcamera or expand the capabilities ofeven a brand new device.

One custom firmware calledMagic Lantern (www.magiclantern.fm) is particularly popular withphotographers, not least because itcan give supported devices the abilityto capture RAW video – normally afeature seen in high-end devices only.It also runs off a memory card, whichmakes it easy to try out, as you won’thave to modify (and risk damaging)your original hardware.

Other ProjectsWherever you find firmware, you’ll almost certainlyfind people trying to modify it. Here’s a list ofprojects that, although a little too specific tocover in much detail, might interest the owners ofcompatible hardware.

Hummy (hummy.tv) – Customised firmware forHumax HDR-Fox and HD-Fox T2 freeview set-topboxes, adding features like a media recorder, remoteGUI, EPG and media browser.

Fiio X5 Firmwares (bit.ly/1yMyfxE) – An archiveof modded firmware for the Fiio X5 lossless musicplayer, with new themes, adjusted menus and alteredinterface behaviour.

Buffalo NAS Firmwares (bit.ly/1Bkukat) –Custom firmware for Buffalo’s range of networkedstorage devices, porting Linux and other operatingsystems to run on their hardware.

Wololo (wololo.net) – Customised operatingsystems for the PlayStation Portable, allowing youto run emulators and other homebrew software onyour PSP.

Make Smart TV (makesmarttv.net) – A site withguides that help you convert your TV into a smartTV using secondary hardware, including customfirmware for tablets and consoles that can help withthe process.

Upgrading a router requires youto get root access to the router’sinternal storage

Issue 135070

At present Magic Lantern onlysupports Canon DSLRs and istilted slightly towards people whowant to shoot video as well asphotographs, with greater controlover audio capture, improved focustools, bitrate control and device/location logging on video and morebesides. Photography features includeexposure helpers, a software remoterelease, an ‘astro’ mode for exposuresup to eight hours and more besides.

If you don’t have a DSLR, however,you could try the Canon Hacker’sDevelopment Kit (CHDK). Intended toadd DSLR-like features to point-and-shoot cameras, CHDK is a firmwareenhancement that adds new featuresacross all aspects of photography,from better information on your LCDdisplay to RAW image processing,manual shutter control and HDRphotos, all of which are unavailableon most point-and-shoots. A low-quality sensor will always putan upper limit on the camera’scapabilities, but with CHDK you cansqueeze a bit more out of it or evenlearn about the features before youspend your money on a DSLR.

Similar tools exist for Panasoniccameras (Ptool – www.gh1-hack.info) and Nikon hardware (NikonHacker – nikonhacker.com),but neither is advanced as MagicLantern or CHDK, making Canon thehardware to look for if you’re tryingto improve your camera for free.

ConsolesUpdating the firmware on a newgames console can mean spendinga lot of money in replacementhardware if anything goes wrong– not to mention that it could beconsidered illegal if it also allows youto bypass copy protection. At the veryleast, you’ll void any warranty, so ifyour console does go belly up, you’llbe left holding it with no chance of amanufacturer replacement!

However, support for agingconsoles gets dropped quicker thana hot rock, so the temptation torepurpose your older hardware intosomething new is strong. The lureof free games and the ability to rununofficial code is undoubtedly amajor factor too, but not everyone isthat dishonest.

Indeed, on modern consoles,you don’t really get a chance tobe. Microsoft uses a system of

mod-detection so complicated thatseasoned hackers have yet to defeatit completely, and throughout itlifespan, thousands of mod-using

Xbox 360 users woke up to findtheir systems permanently lockedout of Microsoft’s online servicesas punishment for breaking the

Updating the firmware on a newgames console can mean spending alot of money

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console’s terms of use with anunauthorised modification.

Nintendo is slightly moreforgiving than Microsoft – if you

used hacked firmware on a Wii,Nintendo doesn’t take specificaction against you, but mandatoryupdates to the official firmwaredeletes unofficial software. For atime, Sony actively aided users whowanted to install Linux on their PS3,but that eventually changed too.

Installing fresh firmware onolder consoles, however, isn’t adifficult thing to do, and if youhave hardware sitting in a cupboardgathering dust, it might just makesomething of it.

For example, Evolution X forthe original Xbox is a replacementdashboard, which gives youthe ability to run games andapplications from any connectedstorage, and it runs an FTP serverso you can log in from a desktopsystem and upload new software.It can even be launched off a CD,if you’d rather not permanentlymodify your console.

Similarly, Cromwell is areplacement firmware, which isactually a version of Linux modifiedto run on Xbox hardware. Practicallyspeaking, it turns the Xbox intoa fully featured PC and can becombined with a keyboard andmouse. Because it doesn’t use anyof Microsoft’s code and can’t rungames, it’s completely legal.

Perhaps the most famous firmwaremod is XBMC, which began as a way

to transform the original Xbox intoa media centre and grew far beyondits roots to become Kodi, one ofthe dominant HTPC platforms inuse today. The original project is stillmaintained as XBMC4Xbox, so if youwant to turn an Xbox into a mediacentre, that’s where to start looking.

Interestingly, the PlayStation 3was designed at launch to run otheroperating systems, and for a timeSony even provided instructions forrunning Linux on the machine. Aftera time, support for this feature wasremoved (due to ‘security concerns’),leading to (unsuccessful) class actionlawsuits against Sony, but its initialinclusion ensures a healthy moddingscene exists around the hardwareeven today.

Unfortunately for anyone wantingto modify their console, most of thehomebrew software scene isdedicated to allowing systems to runpirated and otherwise hacked games,which is well outside the boundariesof legality. For this reason, there’salmost no interest from manufacturersin softening their stance on modifiedsoftware. Modifying consoles canstill be a fun and rewarding thing todo, but you have to approach it withthe full knowledge that you’reessentially getting into a fightwith the manufacturers – andsometimes that makes it more hasslethan it’s worth. mm

DVD Drives & PlayersCustom firmware for DVD drives and DVD playersis almost always designed to do one thing: removeregion protections. In many cases, it’s not that difficultto do once it’s been discovered how, but it doesalmost always require a lot of work on behalf of theoriginal modder. If the method for your particularhardware has been discovered, you’re in luck; if ithasn’t, there’s not much you can do. Indeed, if you’replanning to remove region protection, it makes senseto research the available firmware modificationsbefore you buy any hardware.

In the case of DVD players, all you need to do isdownload the firmware, burn it onto an optical discor extract it to a flash drive (if the player has USBcompatibility), then put it in the drive. The softwarecontained on the storage will take over, updatethe firmware, and your new capabilities will beimmediately accessible.

For DVD-ROM drives, you normally need torun a firmware-flashing application from withinWindows. These utilities are often available from themanufacturers’ websites but must be combined witha modified ROM to deliver the altered firmware.

Either way, if you want to find a variety of custom-modified firmware with all sorts of tricks up its sleevefor your particular drive, the best place to look isundoubtedly the forums of The Firmware Page atforum.rpc1.org. If you can’t find what you’re lookingfor there, it almost certainly doesn’t exist!

The

OF AIand where it might go next

HISTORY

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HISTORY OF AI

T he idea of artificial intelligenceis nothing new, and longbefore actual machines were

created by man, people dreamed upthe idea of intelligent, non-organicbeings. As far back as Greek myths,intelligent machines of sorts werementioned in tales, such as thebronze man, Talos, and other fictionalbeings like golems. The idea of thesewasn’t entirely scientific, of course,and were mere legend and myth,but the core idea was there. Thinkingobjects, able to decide their ownactions and act on them.

Move forward several centuries,and the idea of artificial intelligenceas we know it started to emerge.From the earliest complex machinesand computers, the idea of thinkingmachines that could operate on theirown has been debated and researchedin earnest. One man galvanised thisresearch, coming up with the criteriafor true artificial intelligence. That manwas Alan Turing.

In 1950, Alan Turing createdthe ‘Turing Test’ in a paper called

‘Computing Machinery andIntelligence.’ This was to be used to testany machine for the ability to exhibitintelligence and behaviour that wasindistinguishable from that of a human.It’s one of the very first methods ofdescribing AI, and to acknowledgethat machines could actually think forthemselves. It focuses on a person’sability to tell if what they were seeingwas actual intelligence or artificial.An example is a simple text-basedconversation, where a judge converseswith two others, one a person, theother a computer. The judge has todecide which of the two is real andwhich is an AI.

The Turing Test would continueto remain a central pillar of artificialintelligence research, despite manycriticising it as not actually testingintelligence. In fact, recently, there werecalls for a new Turing Test, but more onthis later.

Also in 1950, Isaac Asimov pennedthe Three Laws of Robotics, andalthough largely rooted in sciencefiction and used in many stories andmovies, they are considered by manyto be important in the creation ofAI, especially amid fears of actualcomputerised intelligence and thedangers it may pose. The three laws areas follows:

1. A robot may not injure a humanbeing or, through inaction, allow ahuman being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the ordersgiven it by human beings, exceptwhere such orders would conflict withthe First Law.

3. A robot must protect its ownexistence as long as such protectiondoes not conflict with the First orSecond Law.[1]

These laws were first used in a shortstory he wrote called Runaround. Thiswas featured in a story collection calledI, Robot. Many will no doubt be familiarwith this thanks to the 2004 Will Smithmovie of the same name. Actual AI,however, wasn’t far away.

Do You Want To Play AGame?In 1951, at the University ofManchester, the first actual AI programswere written and ran on a FerrantiMark 1 (also known as the ManchesterElectronic Computer). These programscould play both checkers and chess,making their own moves. The programswere crude, but the computerunderstood the rules of the games andcould act on them. The next year, IBMdeveloped another checkers program,but this was more advanced, able to

Artificial intelligence has been thegoal of many scientists for years, withvarious results. Aaron Birch looks atits history and possible future

Alan Turing is seen by many as apivotal figure in AI

Isaac Asimov’s fictional three laws are

just as relevant to real life applications of AI

Movies like Wargames shunted AI into

the public eye, even if it was exaggerated

for the time

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Issue 135074

actually beat an amateurhuman player.

Even though people hadbeen working within thefield of artificial intelligencefor many years, the actualterm wasn’t used until 1956.This was actually coined in1956, some time after theTuring Test’s creation. It wasfirst used at the DartmouthConference, where the fieldof AI was launched and wasgiven the name.

Sadly, when the scientificcommunity was picking upsteam in terms of researchand results, reduced fundingof AI in the early 70s led to adownturn in the field, whichsome call the ‘Winter of AI’.Interest waned, and peoplegrew despondent about thepossibilities of intelligentmachines. That is, in thescience world, but there was anothermarket that was eager for more.

By Your CommandPopular media kept AI alive andkicking, with major TV hits such asBattlestar Galactica and movies likethe The Terminator and 2001: A SpaceOdyssey making intelligent robotsstars of the screen. People loved theidea of thinking machines, especiallyones cast as the villain, but even thiseventually gave way to over-familiarityand saturation, and people grew tiredof the idea. A second so-called Winterof AI dawned in the late 80s and early90s, but sci-fi juggernaut Star Trekhelped to reinvigorate people’s interestwith the creation of fan-favouritecharacter Lieutenant Commander Data(played by Brent Spiner), who was avery different on-screen portrayal of AIand was an android who had the goalof becoming more human – a themethat would run throughout the TVseries and the later movies.

Although just a TV show, Star Trek:The Next Generation’s portrayal ofartificial intelligence was very differentand very important. Here we hadData, who was not an evil or maniacalmachine, but a good guy and onethat valued humanity above all else.In terms of intelligence, he was thevery embodiment of what scientistswould like to actually create and onethat would easily pass any and allintelligence tests. In fact, Star Trek itself

examined this in the early episode ‘TheMeasure Of A Man’, in which Data isput on trial to determine if he’s a meremachine or a life form.

Of course, this and other TV showsand movies were just fiction, but as isoften the case, it was very importantfor real research, as popular culturecan often shape real technology. TheEnterprise space shuttle, for example,was named so thanks to GeneRoddenberry’s series.

With renewed interest, real-life AItook a major turn for the better in1997, one that was globally famous,when the IBM super computer Big Bluedefeated world chess champion GarryKasparov. It proved that a machinewas actually capable of outthinking ahuman, even one at the top of his orher respective field, and was a majorstep forward for AI research.

Further similar events took placein the following years, including anOthello program called Logistellodefeating world champion TakeshiMurakami. The late 90s also sawthe first robot toys, including TigerElectronics’ Furby line and Sony’s moreadvanced AIBO robotic pets. The firstweb crawlers, programs that couldlook for and extract information fromthe internet, also emerged. It’s a periodwhere AI moved from exclusivity inthe lab and really rooted itself in thepublic consciousness. Helped by TV andfilm, AI was becoming a viable tool formaking money.

Intergalactic, PlanetaryIn the early 2000s, artificial intelligenceadvanced from toys and board gamesand reached for the stars. FollowingEarth-based robotic endeavours,such as the Nomad’s explorationof Antarctica, NASA’s Spirit andOpportunity rovers explored thesurface of Mars. Back to Earth, Hondabuilt the famous ASIMO robot,a humanoid robot with artificialintelligence and the ability to walk likea human.

This was all impressive enough, butthen in 2011, IBM made another leapwith its ‘Watson’ project. Named afterThomas J Watson, the founder of IBM,Watson is a cognitive system that canread and understand natural language,is capable of dynamic learning andcan formulate its own hypotheses. It’spresented with information from whichit can recover anything it needs and isable to be taught by users and interactwith them. Its most famous outinghas to be its appearance on US quizshow Jeopardy, where it was able tobeat two previous show winners withrelative ease, amassing one milliondollars. You can see much more aboutWatson, as well as the Jeopardychallenge at tinyurl.com/ps38y54.

Later in the same year, and althoughnot as impressive as IBM’s success,Apple brought AI to the masses with itsSiri personal assistant for the iPhone 4S.This was a system that could recogniseand respond to user questions and

TV stars like Battlestar Galactica’sCylons helped make the idea of AIpopular, even if the period mostly cast AIas evil

AI eventually found itself as a tool forthe toy market, with Sony’s AIBO beingone of the most famous

Star Trek’sLieutenantCommander Datais one of themost optimisticdepictions ofpossible future AI

Issue 1350 75

HISTORY OF AI

another big step toward bringing AI tothe public.

Google also delved into theworld of AI in 2012, when a GoogleBrain computer actually traineditself to recognise a picture of a catfrom millions of images found inYouTube videos.

Arguably the most impressive featfor an AI, however, came in 2014,when the chatbot Eugene Goostmanwas reported to have actually passedthe Turing Test, the first of its kind todo so. This occurred at a test sessionat the University of Reading, where itsuccessfully fooled 33% of the judgesand quickly sparked a lot of controversy.This ultimately led many researchersto call for a new, updated Turing Test.Many claimed other chatbots havehad similar results (with some evenbeing more successful). Goostman wascriticised for not being a true AI butsimply a well-coded program, one thatwas good at analysing data, rather than

displaying real intelligence. Critics thenwent on to claim that the Turing Testwasn’t good enough and was morea test to see if a machine can imitateintelligence, instead of possessing it,which isn’t an incorrect assessment, asthat’s what Turing had in mind whenhe came up with it.

Despite the divisive feedback, whatwas so important about the GoostmanTuring Test incident? Why was thismore impressive than the Watsonwinning Jeopardy or Big Blue beatingKasparov or even a robot exploringMars? Well, simply put, Goostmanwas able to fool people into believingit was real. This chatbot that pretendsto be a 13-year-old Ukranian boy,actually appeared to be a real person– one of the core criteria of the TuringTest – and you could argue that todo this, a measure of intelligence isneeded. Both Big Blue and Watson,although undeniably impressive, can’tcurrently do this, even though they maybe technically superior (we have nodoubt IBM could change this). They’resingle-task systems, programmedto achieve one thing – winning atchess and Jeopardy. Goostman can,or at least appears to be able to,handle unforeseen events and canadapt to any question given to it.There have been reports of less thanimpressive sessions with the bot, buton the whole, it seems very impressive,regardless of whether or not it employsactual intelligence.

Welcome To The Matrix?From such humble beginnings as simplestories and legends, artificial intelligencehas come from the stuff dreams aremade of, to machines that can walk,talk, beat people at games, explorefar flung planets and even fool peopleinto believing they’re also real flesh andblood. It’s a fast evolutionary tale andone that’s certainly not going to endany time soon.

For a time, the focus on artificialintelligence was seen as that ofcreating a humanoid robot thatphysically resembles a real person,but this has changed in recent timesinto researching actual intelligenceand chatbots, as well as automatedphone services that can recogniseand adapt to audio input. And theseare just the beginning. The successesof machines like Big Blue, Watsonand Goostman will be improved andelaborated on, and given the speed

at which we’ve arrived at our currentunderstanding of AI, we may wellsee more major leaps forward verysoon. But in which direction?

The internet has proven thatit’s a perfect playground forartificial intelligence study, andwe’ll no doubt see more and moreexperiments appear. There arealready many companies usingchatbots as so-called ‘live support’,and the technology for these isgetting more and more impressive.

Research on robotic machinesstill continues, with more and morecomplex and mobile results, so much sothat there’s a fear of a world dominatedby machines. In fact, this is such areal concern that artificial intelligenceexperts from around the world havesigned an open letter started by theFuture of Life Institute that urgesresearchers to work together to ensureAI never grows beyond humanity’scontrol. You can see this at tinyurl.com/o77ll8e.

This is an understandable fear,probably not helped by the prominenceof movies and other media that paintAI as a danger, but the truth is thatwe’re likely decades, if not more, awayfrom actual artificial intelligence thatcould pose any kind of real threat. Asgood as current AI may be, it’s a farcry from the kind of creations we seein fiction. Like so many good sciencefiction creations, though, there’s nodoubt we’ll end up emulating thethings we see on the silver screen. Withrecent concerns, however, this may wellbe more controlled.

If the scientific community takessuch things as the aforementionedopen letter about careful AI researchseriously, there will likely be a morerestrained and controlled developmentof AI. This may slow down results,much like the limitations placed onother areas, such as stem cell research,but in the end, we all know thatscience is rarely held back, and AI willbe no different.

There are many AI and roboticprojects being worked on by themilitary interests of the world, androbots are now routinely used inrescue operations by fire departmentsand are used in bomb disposal. Fittingthese robots with AI could lead toeven more effective results. Let’s justhope the aforementioned Future ofLife letter is adhered to, lest we allbecome human batteries. mm

NASA makesextensive use ofrobotics and AI,with Spirit andOpportunity beingprime examples

IBM’s Watsonis one of themost impressiveexamples ofproblem solvingand adaptive AI

The EugeneGoostman chatbotpassed the TuringTest, causingcontroversy asit did

76 Issue 1350

REVIEWSBackupper

Only a small percentageof computer disk drivesfail, and many peoplenever encounter a

problem, but just as youwouldn't drive a car without aninsurance policy that will replaceit in the event of a crash, youreally shouldn't use a computerwithout a backup solution inplace that can replace thecontents if it crashes.

There are many backupprograms, but one you maynot have heard of is AOMEIBackupper. There are severalversions, and the one on test isBackupper Professional. There isa free version that is surprisinglycomprehensive, but the Proedition has a few extras that makemanaging backup jobs easier.

The interface has clearly beendesigned to be simple andstraightforward to use. Thereare no complicated options,features or menus, and you canbe backing up a minute afterinstalling it. There are tabs downthe left-hand side, and selectingBackup lists the types you canperform in very simple language.File Backup enables files and

DETAILS• Price: £34.19• Manufacturer:AOMEI Technology• Website:backup-utility.com• Required spec:Windows, 1 GB RAM,1GHz processor, 110MBdisk space

selected the PC’s disk as thesource and a USB drive as thedestination. One click set it going,and it was fast. CPU activity wasminimal, but it ran the disks flatout, which made using the PCwhile backing up a bit slow, butthe job finished quickly.

Three levels of compressionare available to save spaceon the backup disk: backupscan be split (to fit on CDs orDVDs, for example), just theused disk sectors or all sectorscan be copied, the backup canbe encrypted, and there areincremental and differential typesthat save only the changes sincethe previous backup. Backups

Prepare for disaster but hope it never happens. Roland Waddilove triesa handy backup solution

can be scheduled, and thefacilities are flexible, rangingfrom every hour to the first dayof each month.

The restore facility enablesyou to restore all the files in thebackup or just the ones you select.Existing files can be left alone oroverwritten, and the location canbe the same or a different one. Inorder to perform a full restore ofthe PC’s internal disk, you mustcreate a bootable CD or USBflash drive. As with all Backupperfunctions, it's very easy. A coupleof clicks turns a USB flash driveinto a bootable device, andwhen the PC is started with it,Backupper runs automatically. It isidentical to the one in Windows,so you can easily select a backupand restore it.

The main difference betweenthe free and Pro versions isthe backup management. Oldbackups can be automaticallyremoved according to rules andmultiple backups merged. Thisenables it to continually back upto the same disk without everrunning out of space.

I love the freeware version,but the Pro edition costs £5more than the excellent ParagonBackup & Recovery 15 Home,and I would prefer it to becheaper. mm Roland Waddilove

folders to be selected, which isuseful for making copies of theDocuments, Pictures, Videos andMusic folders, and any othersyou want to protect.

The second option is SystemBackup, subtitled One-clicksystem drive backup. This backsup the PC’s internal drive, and itreally is one click. It automatically

Three levels of

compression are available to

save space

An excellent backuputility that is easy to useand works well

97

Quality

Value88Overall

Issue 1350 77

ONTEST

Reviews

Both Seagate andWestern Digital havereleased wirelessexternal drives in the

past year, and now it's Toshiba’sturn with the Canvio AeroCast.

This sticks firmly to the samemodel we’ve seen previously,where you need an installedapp to access any contentsfrom mobile devices. Technicallyyou can attach the drive as amountable drive on the PC, but\\10.10.10.254\share isn’t anobvious location, and a webinterface might have been muchmore helpful.

In this initial AeroCast design,you get 1TB of hard drive storageand an SD card slot so youcan easily transfer your cameraimages on to there for wirelessdistribution.

It supports six simultaneoususers, and the on-board batteryis rated to give you five hours ofuse before it needs a recharge.

Where the concept falls downis in the information it provides

the user – that being practicallynothing out of the box. You geta very small booklet, in which thetwo pages allocated to Englishinclude just four lines of textexplaining how to set up thedevice by downloading the iOS orAndroid app.

Toshiba doesn't even giveyou the wireless password – atruly head slapping moment.This information I eventuallyfound, along with the fullmanual on Toshiba’s EU supportwebsite, but it’s hardly anexercise in user friendliness.

The mobile applications comeswith no instructions, althougheventually I was able to trackdown some American videos onYouTube that Toshiba created

that help explain some of how itall works.

The important knowledge itincluded is that it's possible toset up the AeroCast to work inbridge mode, allowing a mobiledevice to access the stored filesand the internet simultaneously.And the AeroCast can also beused to stream directly to aGoogle Chromecast, should youalso own one of those.

But the problems I had gettingall this to work, like Toshibasuggested it should, were major.I loaded the drive using USB 3.0on my PC and then expected allthat content to be easily viewableon my Nexus 10 tablet. Not eventhe pre-loaded sample imagesappeared, disappointingly.

It transpired that the ToshibaAndroid app doesn’t like thelatest release of Android,Lollipop, because it did magicallywork on my KitKat-based MotoG LTE phone.

Those hurdles overcome, theAeroCast does what it promises,though most users might give uplong before they got success.

What the AeroCast does haveon its side is price, because it’smuch cheaper than the Western

Digital My Passport Wireless 1TBand even undercuts the SeagateWireless Plus 1TB.

If you can battle thoughthe information void and havecompatible devices, then thiscould well be the ideal travellingcompanion for long holidays,because you can bring plenty ofcontent along and share it easilywith everyone in your party.

Toshiba just needs to betterexplain out of the box how touse the AeroCast, and also a webinterface for the PC side wouldalso help. mm Mark Pickavance

A wireless capable harddrive for the technicallyminded user

78

Quality

Value77Overall

Toshiba Canvio AeroCast 1TB

DETAILS• Price: £109.46 (Dabs)• Manufacturer:Toshiba• Website:www.toshiba.eu/hard-drives/wireless-storage/canvio-aerocast/• Required spec:Windows 7 orlater, Mac OS X

Toshiba blends a 1TB hard drive with a wireless access point

Key Specifications• Capacity: 1 TB• Wireless LAN standard: IEEE 802.11b/g/n

compatible with WEP/WPA/WPA2 security• Battery life: Up to five hours• SD card slot: Yes. Auto-transfer to drive.• USB connection: USB 3.0• Mac NTFS compatibility driver: Tuxera NTFS driver

for Mac• Dimensions: 124 mm x 86 mm x 20 mm• Weight: ca. 260 g

78 Issue 1350

Acer Predator XB270HA

G-Sync Gaming Display

Computer displays aregoing through an oddphase at this time.

For those who likestrong colours and excellentviewing angles, there areamazingly priced IPS panels.And for gamers, there’senhanced twisted nematic film(TN) technology. It might haveless colour saturation and poorviewing angles, but it can alsodeliver the high refresh ratesthat gamers need to work withthe high frame rates modernvideo cards can easily generate.

The Acer XB270HA is a TNpanel made for that specificgaming market, offering a1ms response time and a144MHz refresh rate on asizeable 27” screen.

What confused me initiallyabout the review product wasthat it seemed to differ fromthe Acer Predator XB270Hthat I found on the Acerwebsite. Soon the pennydropped that this ‘A’ version(part coded UM.HB0EE.A01) hasan extra special feature. It’s an

DETAILS• Price: £359.99(Ebuyer)• Manufacturer: Acer• Website:www.acer.co.uk/• Required spec:DisplayPort outputrunning Windows 7 orlater

Nvidia G-Sync compliantscreen, critically.

What that means is that ifyou have an Nvidia Kepler orMaxwell GPU, then you canuse a special mode wherethe monitor’s refresh ratesynchronises with that of thevideo card throughput, entirely

stopping the tearing, lag andjuddering we’ve long cometo expect.

To make this possible, Nvidiabuilt some clever electronicsthat the video card can directlycommunicate with, allowing thecard to hold the display cycleuntil the latest frame is fullyrendered before displaying it.

The compatible cards aremost of the GTX 600, 700 and900 series models, along withthe GTX Titan. Few of thoseare especially cheap, and thismonitor isn’t either, so this isprobably only of interest towell-funded gamers.

Nvidia G-Sync is the latest feature for Acer’s gaming monitors

Having tried it, I can confirmthat it just isn’t marketing fluff.The whole gaming experienceis distinctly smoother, and itmakes big changes in framerate noticeably less jarring.

There are, however, afew major caveats to thisamazing technology, notleast that it's about £90 morethan Acer’s core XB270Hdesign that doesn’t supportG-Sync. In addition to the extracost, Acer decided to alsoremove the HDMI inputs onthis monitor, leaving it onlywith a single DisplayPort andmissing DVI also.

The whole gaming

experience is distinctly

smoother

Issue 1350 79

ONTEST

Reviews

While I entirely acceptthat G-Sync only works withDisplayPort, why remove theother inputs? That choice,and the lack of any speakerswhatsoever, makes repurposingthe screen highly problematic.

The only light on that horizonis that it did include a very niceUSB 3.0 hub with four ports,reducing desktop clutter andcabling complexity.

And, on the subject ofports, if you insist on it beingonly DisplayPort, where is thethrough-port to chain thedisplays? The answer, I’mtold, is that G-Sync doesn’tsupport chaining, and the onlyway to get multi-display is tohave a video card for eachmonitor (SLI).

It’s also entirely incompatiblewith anything similar thatAMD has cooked up, in thepredictably proprietary and

anti-customer way that Nvidiaoften does things. Since whathappened with PhysX, Nvidiahas learned nothing, I’d assert.

AMD for its part has its ownequivalent called FreeSync,which has been adoptedby VESA as an approvedcomponent of the DisplayPort1.2a specification.

So far, Acer, AOC, Asus,BenQ and Philips have all madeG-Sync monitors, and BenQ, LG,Nixeus, Samsung and Viewsonichave made FreeSync ones.

Critically, though, AMD hasalso convinced three majorLCD panel chip makers, MStar,Novatek and Realtek to supportDisplayPort 1.2a Adaptive-Sync in their future products,expanding massively the numberof displays that will supportFreeSync in the coming year.

For those that prefer G-Sync,the Acer Predator XB270HA isprobably the cheapest I’ve seenand a dramatic reduction on itsoriginal launch RRP.

Yet even at this price, thiscosts a bundle of money purelyto avoid screen tearing, and thatassumes you have a compatibleNvidia GPU handy and won’tbe forced to make a substantialinvestment there too.

Those that considerthemselves serious gamersmight consider it a price worthpaying, though this reviewerisn’t currently one of them.

Maybe if the XB270HA cost£30 more with G-Sync andhad a full selection of inputs,then I’d probably be moreenthusiastic, but it doesn’t. mmMark Pickavance

An expensive displayexclusively for hard-core gamers

85

Quality

Value66Overall

Display• Size: 27"• TN+film panel• Resolution: 1920 x1080 Full HD• LED backlight• Refresh rate: 144Hz• Brightness: 300cd/m2• Contrast ratio: 100M:1• Response time: 1ms• Viewing angle: 170°/ 160°

Connectivity• DisplayPort x 1• USB 3.0 hub (1up,4down)

Features• Tilt: +35°~-5°• Swivel: +60°/-60°• Pivot: 90°• Height adjustable:150mm• VESA 100 x 100• ComfyView• G-Sync

Power• Power consumptionon mode: 29w• Power consumptionsleep mode: 0.45W

Dimensions (WxHxD)• 640 x 408~558 x247mm

This costs a bundle of

money purely to avoid screen

tearing

80 Issue 1350

Case aesthetics is a verypersonal thing, isn’t it?The XFX Type01 Bravocase proves this point

perfectly, because while itdoesn’t rub me the wrongway, I can see others mightgenuinely hate it.

It reminds me of thosecorrugated industrial buildingsused to process minerals orcement, where there are gapseverywhere in the structure.

What is less subjective is thatthe Type01 Bravo can house agood sized ATX motherboard, aboatload of drives, up to eightfans and maybe even a watercooling system.

DETAILS• Price: £67.60 (Scan)• Manufacturer:XFX• Website:xfxforce.com/• Required spec: ATXsystem

over conventional drivesthese days.

Supplied coolingcomes from a140mm rear fanand a massive200mm one atthe front, with anobvious position foranother 140mmin the roof. Thatmight sound great,but the numberof places air canenter this designunhindered makesit impossibleto createany pressurediscrepancybetween insideand outside air,so exchanging allthe warm air insideeffectively will thereforebe a problem.

The size of the roof openingalso isn’t ideal, as it's too smallfor the dual 120mm radiatorsthat many closed water coolingsystems now offer.

Cooling isn’t a strong pointof the Type01, and someother design choices are alsorather suspect. One that reallyannoyed this reviewer wasthe placement of the USB andaudio front ports, directly onthe curved top, because usersare most likely to place externaldrives there, where they’ll thenslide off and dangle by theirUSB cables.

Having a curved top mightlook interesting, but it justnegates this space for anypractical use. It also might leadto people assuming that thisstructure is for picking up thePC, applying stresses that it justisn’t designed to handle.

These points somewhatundermine some of the positiveaspects of the Type01, likethe lovely cable management

XFX tries to lure gamers with its first foray into gaming case design

system and other systembuilder friendly features.

My biggest concern is thatthe Type01 Bravo wouldn’thandle much wear and tear,and even at this price that’ssomething to consider.

XFX should take note,because as its first case design,this isn’t a fiasco, and it canonly learn from its mistakesgoing forward.mm Mark Pickavance

For a case that can hold asmuch system as the Type01can, XFX IS selling this at avery reasonable cost, andthere are tons of cute featuresembedded in the design.

But the first impressionI had was that this is anunexpectedly heavy case,given the amount of plasticthat is used throughout it. At10.4kg, most of that masscomes from a central metalsuperstructure that’s beenpainted black to match thelargely plastic exterior.

As is the fashion, XFX wentwith a floor-mounted PSUarrangement, and that’s wherethe air filters are placed tokeep that flow clean. Three5.25” external drives canbe mounted on the front,along with a single 3.5”, andinternally there are removablecages for three 3.5” and five2.5” drives. The plastic traysare a little too flimsy for myliking, but there are plentyfor most people, given thepreference for SSD technology

XFX Type01 Bravo Mid Tower Case

A gaming case for thosewho like ‘different’ and‘plastic’

67

Quality

Value66Overall

Issue 1350 81

ONTEST

Reviews

Tesoro Kuven Pro 5.1 Headset

Before we begin, Kuven,in case you’rewondering, was thename for the helmet of

Hades, also known as the Helmof Darkness. It apparentlyrenders the wearer invisible toall, even the eyes of the gods,and it was forged for Hades bythe cyclopes during the waragainst the Titans, alongside thetrident of Poseidon and Zeus’sthunderbolts.

The Tesoro Kuven Pro 5.1headset unfortunately doesn’trender you invisible, and wecan confidently state that itwasn’t forged by a cyclops –although we have been knownto be wrong in the past. It is,however, a very well designed,comfortable and exceedinglygood headset.

These are in fact quite atechnical achievement. Eachear cup houses a set of fourdrivers that output one ofthe channels for a true 5.1surround setup: voice, front,rear, centre and sub. As aresult, each of the frequenciesare outputted to a very finedegree, hitting all the rightfrequencies to near perfection.

The design of the headsettoo is good. The leather-covered ear cups are filledwith memory foam and hugaround the ear as comfortablyas you could possibly wishfor; they’re also pivotedand can rotate in differentdirections to accommodate

DETAILS• Price: ~£70• Manufacturer:Tesoro• Website:goo.gl/r05vo3• Required spec:Windows 7, spare USBport

any ear and head size andshape. This also improves theoverall environmental noisesuppression, and the adjustableand further cushionedheadband allows you toenhance that comfort further.

As with previous Tesoroproducts we’ve reviewed, thepresentation is spectacular.The look of the headset, thedecorative Tesoro-emblazonedmetals plates on the outsidesof the ear cups and the purpleLED illumination throughoutthe device and its connectedperipheral make for a visuallyimpressive item to behold.

The peripheral is the desktopcontroller, which plugs intothe headset via a customTesoro connector and to thePC through a micro-USB cable.The desktop controller allowsyou to adjust the volume levelsof each of the sound channelsindividually by pressing theTesoro logo button, whichwill then cycle through thechannels as detailed by an LED.There’s also a button to enableand disable the microphoneand a final one to mute theaudio altogether. It’s a simplesetup but effective enough,and the degree of control

The Helm of Darkness is surprisingly comfortable

through the rotary knob isgenerally more than enough formost users. The more advancedaudiophile will no doubt usea combination of the desktopcontroller and their soundcardsoftware to achieve the bestoutput for their tastes.

Of course, the benchmarkof any headset is how well itsounds and how comfortableit is for longer periods of use.The Tesoro Kuven, thankfully,has a very good audio setupand despite the drivers beingmounted so close to each otherin the ear cups, the audio issurprisingly clear and managesto produce a higher-quality levelof audio output. Furthermore,the microphone delivers a clearvoice output and is also fullyadjustable through the desktopcontroller. As we mentioned amoment ago, the comfort isperfectly fine and more thancapable of several hours’ of use.

Overall, we liked the TesoroKuven Pro 5.1 Headset. It has agreater range of audio controlthan most other headsets we’vecome across, and the level ofengineering and design that’sgone into making them ascomfortable and as high qualityas possible is commendable.mm David Hayward

An excellent headsetthat’s ideal for users andgamers alike

98

Quality

Value88Overall

82 Issue 1350

H1Z1 Early Access

We’re not cruel orcallous people hereat Micro Mart. Infact, despite the

constant pressures of getting aweekly magazine out on time,we’re actually quite welltempered. That pretty much wentout of the window, though,when we came across our first‘real’ person deep in thewilderness of H1Z1.

H1Z1, if you’re not aware is thenewest zombie infested MMOfrom Daybreak Games (formallySony Online entertainment).It’s still in the early access alpharelease stage, but we were giventhe opportunity to see what allthe fuss is about with regards toa zombie apocalypse.

It’s an interesting conceptand one that’s become ratherpopular with the likes of DayZ.H1Z1 throws you slap bang inthe middle of America, sometimeafter the end of days occurred.Humanity has fallen, and what’sleft are numerous desertedtowns, burnt out cars and housesoverrun by weeds. Your job, ofcourse, is to survive and nothingelse – just stay alive.

To begin with, you havenothing but your bare fists,T-shirt, jeans and some kind ofbelt bag. From there, it’s up toyou as to how you go aboutfinding the tools necessary to lastthe day. Luckily, there are enoughabandoned vehicles and buildings

DETAILS• Price: £14.99• Manufacturer:SOE/Daybreak Games• Website:goo.gl/OA3rqQ• Required spec:Windows 7 or later,dual-core 2.6GHz CPU,4GB RAM, GTX 275/HD6870+

dotted around the place thatyou can scavenge food, water,clothing, tools and weapons.When you locate certain objects,you can either choose to usethem in the way in which theywere intended, such as wearinga shirt, for example, or youcan alter them to help craftsomething else – in the case ofthe shirt, it can be torn into stripsto craft bandages.

Once you begin craftingvarious items, other objectsbecome available. You can makebows, arrows, combat knives,axes, traps and so on. Withbetter items at your disposal,you’ll have more of a chance oflasting the night, and you canstart to stave off the hungerpangs and dehydration by killinglarger prey for food and usinglocal wells for water.

Trying not to die of hunger,thirst or exhaustion is the leastof your worries, though. Theworld is now plagued withzombies, who slowly shufflearound the world. Running intoone isn’t too bad, especially ifyou’re armed; should the thingspot you, then it’ll changedirection and head your way. Ifit gets to within a few yards ofyou, though, the slow shuffle issuddenly replaced with a brutalspurt of speed, and it’ll be onyou in a matter of seconds.

One zombie is fairly easy tohandle; two or three require somenifty manoeuvring to avoid beingcornered. Any more than that andit’s likely to be curtains for you.The undead, however, aren’t allthat bad, because they’re fairlypredictable. It’s the other playersyou need to watch out for.

There are two main modesof play, PVP and PVE. PVE isyou versus the environment,zombies and wild life. PVP iswhere things start to get nasty,and it provides a taste of whathumanity would most likely endup like should a zombieapocalypse ever really occur.

Coming across another player,one of two things often happens.One, you both mutually agree(via voice chat) that survival innumbers is the key. The other,either one of you tries theirupmost to wipe the other out.We fell foul to a few users,who practised their aim on usas opposed to the undead, andthe end was swift and brutal.When the tables were eventuallyturned, we have to admit, with amodicum of shame, that we didenjoy using a hoard of the undeadto spring a trap on some poorunsuspecting soul and reaping therewards of doing so after.

H1Z1 has its flaws at present,most of which are graphical. Butthese are minor imperfections

After the apocalypse, the undead are the least of your worries

in the bigger picture, which islike a huge, open-world versionThe Walking Dead. There arelots of unique and interestingfeatures here to be savoured andabsorbed: running into a bear, forinstance, hunting deer and rabbitor using them as a distractionwhile you sneak past a groupof the undead. And of course,there’s the feeling that someother player is watching you, andcautiously biding their time untilthey strike you down.

With these things combined,H1Z1 comes into its own andrepresents a game that whenfully complete will no doubt beone for your collection. For now,although problematic at times, it’scertainly worth looking into for amere £15. mm David Hayward

An interesting andabsorbing MMO that’llcertainly keep you awakeat night

78

Quality

Value88Overall

Issue 1350 83

ONTEST

Reviews

Mad Catz Strike M

W ith the launch ofthe M.O.J.O., MadCatz is making aname for itself as

the undisputed king of theAndroid-powered micro console.Because of the nature ofAndroid, though, and the factthat the M.O.J.O. is really just atablet on your TV, there comesthe inherent difficulty ofentering text.

The issue isn’t just with theM.O.J.O.; it’s with every devicethat’s hooked up to a TV anduses some form of controller asthe main method of input. Asmart TV, for example, uses theremote, a PS3 uses its controllerand so on. What’s needed inthese situations is a good old-fashioned keyboard.

Naturally, you could pair upany old Bluetooth or wirelesscompatible keyboard, butmore often than not the size of

DETAILS• Price: £59.99 (via PCWorld)• Manufacturer:Mad Catz• Website:goo.gl/Fs5QxK• Required spec:Android 3.0 or later,Windows 7 or later, OS X10.7 or later, Bluetoothconnectivity

such a keyboard is somethingof a turn off. The Mad CatzStrike M, however, has beendesigned specifically for this sortof scenario.

The Strike M is a small, stylishand capable keyboard, which islightweight and compact enoughto sit in a living room withoutgetting in the way or taking upyour lap when you choose to useit. It measures just 260 x 110 x15mm, weighs a mere 0.197kg,and it features some prettyimpressive functions.

For starters, it’s backlit, withclear visibility across all the keysincluding the gaming W, A, S,D keys, and you can alter thebrightness levels to your owntastes. It has an optical fingersensor, which acts as a kind oftouchpad, and there are a pair

of dedicated left- and right-clickmouse buttons either side.

As well as that, there are alsodedicated media controls for play,pause, skip forward and back andan integrated volume button. It’sBluetooth 4.0 and can pair withup to four devices at once, witha button to allow you to cyclethrough the paired channels,which are indicated by an LCDstrip along one side. Just to note,we didn’t have any problemspairing the Strike M with a PS3,Android tablet or PC.

The packaging comes witha micro-to-standard USB cablefor charging, a foldout stand forthe keyboard and a neoprenetravel case, complete with theMad Catz logo on the front. It’sdevilishly well designed andpackaged in such a way that

A tiny keyboard that packs a big punch

will undoubtedly tantalisethe consumer.

The same eye for detail hasbeen applied to the keyboarditself. The Strike M is availablein a range of colours; ourversion was red with a blackkeyboard, which lookedimpressive indeed. Althoughdiminutive, the keyboard hasa decent tactile feel to it with2mm travel and a 60g actuationforce. This is thanks to the MadCatz PULSE scissor key switches,which have been designed forlongevity and responsiveness.

However, despite all this, thekeyboard does present a slightproblem. For people like us, whohave giant sausage-like fingers,the microscopic size of keys maketyping quite difficult. If you’resimply entering a password orsearching for an item, it’s not toobad, as there’s very little contact.Typing out anything lengthy,though, is a chore.

It’s a niche device, in all honesty– one that fits snugly in the livingroom as a media keyboard or as atablet keyboard, but when in thatrole, it's excellent and certainlyworth every penny.mm David Hayward

A great little keyboard,perfect for media centreduties and tablet-likegaming

98

Quality

Value88Overall

DETAILS• Price: £34.99• Manufacturer: Canon• Website:goo.gl/eQaEXt• Required spec:Windows XP or later,Mac OS X v10.6.8 orlater

The Pixma range fromCanon has proved overthe years to be quitea solid workhorse and

very popular with consumers.The range is, for the most part,consists of good-quality printersthat tend to remain in activeservice for quite some time.

This particular Pixma issomething of an oddity among itscousins on the shelves, as Canonhas made the decision to buckthe trend for multifunctionprinters and has released astandard printer aimed squarely atthe home and SOHO user.

The Pixma iP2850 is a USB-onlyconnected printer that’sexceptionally cheap, at just£34.99. It’s an all-white designthat, when considered with thei-part of the title, puts you inmind more of an Apple productthan the run-of-the-mill printer.

which slides out from the bottomof the printer, and the raised lidfor cartridge access are welldesigned and solid enough totake a fair amount of abuse.

Obviously, depending on theenvironment the printer is goingto be housed in, the stark whiteplastic may not remain very whitefor long. But with some carethere’s no reason why the printerwon’t be as clean and aspresentable as the day youbought it.

The main issues, though, arethe lack of modern connectivityand networking and the fact thatthere’s only a single colourcartridge. The connectivity side ofthings can be fixed by hookingthe printer up to a router or NASdrive with a USB port and sharingcapabilities (print server too), butthat means you’re stuck with theprinter in a single location. Andshould you run out of magenta,then you’ll need to replace theentire colour cartridge.

Cost per page with thestandard black cartridge, at£10.40 from Amazon, comes toaround 6p per page. The standardcolour at £12.15 from Amazon isaround 7p per page.

It takes just two cartridges,black and colour, with options foran XL cartridge to squeeze out afew more pages of text. On paper,the yield of the normal cartridge is180 pages for both the black andcolour, with the XL cartridgescapable of knocking out 400pages for the black and 300pages for the colour.

The print speed was recordedat around eight pages per minutefor a page full of text, while acolour photo took roughly threepages per minute. It’s thereforenot the quickest printer inproduction, but rather thanrushing through the job, theiP2850 produced one of the best-quality text print we’ve seen in asub-£50 printer.

Furthermore, the colour print –printed on to glossy paper – wasan exceedingly high standard andquite surprising for a printer ofthis price. And it was fairly fasttoo, for a high-quality print. Weeven upped the details level to itsmaximum of 4800 x 600 for acolour glossy test, which was thenprinted after around 55 seconds.

The 60-page input tray flips upand settles back on its hinge toallow easy access to load up thepaper, and from there you canalso gain access to the cartridgeslots. Overall, the entire hingemechanism, the output tray,

GROUPTEST

Although laserprinting is nowaffordable enougheven for home users,the inkjet is far frombeing put out topasture, and manynew ones are beingproduced, with greatfeatures and usability.Plus you can get themwithout breakingthe bank.Proving that point,

David Hayward has sixfine examples on test– each of which costsno more than £50.

Inkjet Printers Under £50

Inkjet Printers

Under £50

Canon Pixma iP2850

67

Quality

Value66Overall

Issue 1350 85

GROUPTEST

Inkjets

Under £50

standard cartridge, comes outwith black at £8.50 from Amazonat 4p per page. Colour, £11.19from Amazon, was calculated atroughly 7p per page.

Finally, the print quality.Thankfully, the quality of boththe text test and the photo testwere very good. The letteringwas clear, with no signs of strayink blots, and the colours weregenerally good, althoughprobably not as deep or rich asthe Pixma iP2850.

The HP Officejet 4630 is agood enough printer for thehome office worker. There’s aSwiss Army knife kind offunctionality to it that’s hardto fault, although who usesfaxes these days? For a priceof just £42 (ignore the HPstore price of £69), it’scertainly one to consider.

AirPrint and a rubberisednumber pad for the fax function.

Getting everything up andrunning and using the moremodern aspects of the printerare also easy enough, thanks tothe accompanying software.Once up and running, theprinter performs well enough,with printing speeds of around8ppm for text and 5ppm forcolour, making the colour printsa little quicker than the previousCanon Pixma.

The standard black cartridgecan handle 190 pages, and theindividual colour cartridges(yellow, cyan and magenta) havea yield of 165 pages. The XLversions of each cartridge canoffer a lot more pages, obviously,with black XL having a yield of480 and the colours at 330 each.Price per page, based on the

DETAILS• Price: £41.92• Manufacturer: HP• Website:goo.gl/y88ePw• Required spec:Windows XP or later,Mac OS X 10.6 or later

The HP Officejet 4630multifunction printer isa product perfect formodern home offices.

It scans, faxes, copies, prints,is wireless and USB connected,and has automatic duplexing.The only thing it doesn’t dois make you a cup of tea inthe morning.

This particular model wasactually one of the first toaccommodate printing from asmartphone or tablet, and itfeatures AirPrint, the Appleprotocol from OS X Lion andiOS 4.2 onward. There’s also ascan-to-email feature, andthrough the wi-fi functionalityyou also get HP ePrint, whichallows you to send a print tothe printer's email address. Infact, you can administer theprinter remotely if needed.

The design is surprisinglycompact considering the dirtygreat 35-sheet documentautofeeder that sits atop theprinter. It’s actually quite a handyfeature and one that you’ll sooncome to appreciate, especially ifyou’re housing the printer onlimited desktop space.

It’s finished in a matt-blackeffect, with a glossy, polishedarea for the front control panel.The control panel itself isreasonably simple to understand,with touchpad buttons to cyclethrough the various menus, ahome button to return you tothe start and OK to enable thehighlighted selection. Alongsidethe LCD display you’ll findbuttons for the wi-fi, ePrint or

HP Officejet 4630

There’s a Swiss Army knife

kind of functionality to it

that's hard to fault88

Quality

Value77Overall

86 Issue 1350

This is the secondPixma in this group,and rather than beinga single-use printer

as before, this time we havean all-singing, all-dancingmultifunction device that’scrammed full of features.

The Canon Pixma MX525is the direct competitor tothe HP 4630, in that you cancopy, scan, fax and print, withsupport for smartphones andtablets, along with AppleAirPrint and internet printingfrom any device and location.It also goes one step furtherand adds support for cloudtechnologies, allowing you toscan directly to your Dropboxaccount and the Pixma cloud.

As before, there’s a 30-pageautomatic document feedersitting on top of the printer,but this time it’s in a nicelydesigned and compact mannerthat doesn’t feel like it’s simplybolted on as an afterthought.In fact, the entire designis compact and would fitcomfortably on a desk withoutgetting in the way. However,the plastic did feel a littlecheaper when compared to theHP model we just looked at. Itwasn’t anything too bad; it’sjust the chassis of the printerwasn’t particularly great.

Connectivity is certainlytaken care of here. There’s USB,fax phone sockets (RJ11), wi-fiand Ethernet, and there’s alsoa 62mm colour LCD screen tonavigate through the menuswith. The control panel itself is

Officejet 4630, and the printquality is slightly better too. Pluswe found this model being soldfor just £39.99, which is prettyamazing considering what youget. The only real negative,which is minor, was the cheapishfeeling of the plastic body. Thatsaid, as long as you don’t standthere fondling the printer, you’llnever notice.

DETAILS• Price: £39.99• Manufacturer: Canon• Website:goo.gl/P623Td• Required spec:Windows XP or later,Mac OS X v10.6.8 orlater

Canon Pixma MX525Inkjet Printers Under £50

spread across the front of theprinter, with various buttonsto directly enable or disablecertain functions or to switchthe printer to scan mode,for example.

Naturally the software canhandle all of this without youneeding to interfere with thebuttons and, as before, youcan also administer this printerremotely should the needever arise.

The MX525, like its iP2850relation, uses a pair of cartridges:a single colour and single back.As we mentioned before, thiscan be both a blessing and acurse, in that the overall cost issomewhat lower per cartridge,but depending on the volumeyou print, you may need to buymore colour.

Print speeds were roughlythe same as the previous

printers we’ve already lookedat, with text being about 8ppmand the colour glossy being3.5ppm. In terms of yield,both the standard black andcolour carts will cope with 180pages, whereas the XL versionswill yield 600 and 400 pagesrespectively. The cost per pageof the standard black, with a£10.72 cart from Amazon, is6p; the standard colour costper page, at £15.12 fromAmazon, is 8p.

The print quality is good,probably about the same asthe HP Officejet 4630, butwith the colour being a touchbetter, deeper and richer. It was,though, not as good as the firstPixma we reviewed.

Overall, the Canon PixmaMX525 is a great multifunctionprinter. There’s a touch moretechnology involved than the

78

Quality

Value88Overall

Issue 1350 87

GROUPTEST

Inkjets

Under £50

T he HP Deskjet rangeof printers have beenaround for what seemslike an eternity. The

old saying that you’re nevermore than six feet from a ratcould also be applied to HPDeskjets, as they seem to bethe choice of printer for nearlyevery small office and home inthe known universe.

The reason is, of course, thatthey're generally cheap to buy,cheap to maintain and can takea surprising amount of abusebefore they go on to that greatrecycling plant in the sky orwherever it is these things goonce they leave your possession.

The HP Deskjet 1510 isno exception. Although it’sa pretty unassuming lookingprinter, it’s designed to be asimple as possible while stilloffering basic multifunctionalduties for as little as £29 (fromthe HP shop).

It can scan, copy and printup to 60-sheets from the flipup paper tray, while spittingthe printed documents outthrough the pull down tray atthe bottom of the printer. Thecontrol of the printer is prettysimplistic; there’s no fancy LCDdisplay like we saw on the

the same goes for the colourprint. Although the qualitywas okay, it just wasn’t up tothe same kind of standard asthe previous HP or the twoCanons we’ve already tested.

So despite the low initialcost, it really isn't worth thehassle, and you'd be better offjust spending more on one ofthe other printers in this grouptest. The multifunction elementswork well enough, but slowprinting and poorer qualitymeans you’ll be left wantingsooner rather than later.

DETAILS• Price: £29• Manufacturer: HP• Website:goo.gl/qHo7tb• Required spec:Windows XP or later,Mac OS X 10.6 or later

HP Deskjet 1510

last couple of examples and,of course, since this is USBonly, there are no e-relatedfunctions or smartphoneabilities. The control panel,therefore, is just a press padaffair for power, cancel job,and mono and colour scans. Itworks, but we did find that weneeded to really give the pada good push to activate thebutton. It put us half in mindof getting the hit-and-misskeyboard of a ZX81 to work.

It actually uses the same HPcartridges as the previous HPmodel we reviewed, the 301range, with a single black andsingle tri-colour cartridge, sothe cost per page and yield are

exactly the same as before.However, the print speedsdiffered wildly.

Text printi came in ataround seven pages perminute, with colour beingmeasured at an astonishinglyslow less than 1 page perminute, it actually took aboutthree minutes for the printto finish. We’re not surewhy it took so long to spitout a colour print, the samecolour photo that we’ve usedon the other printers, butfor some reason or anotherthe printer decided to stopmidway through the printand take nearly 50 secondsto contemplate what it wasdoing next.

As for print quality, the HP1510 wasn’t brilliant. A pageof text was readable – therewere some smears and a dabof loose ink at some points,but the text on the page wasokay. It wasn’t as sharp asthe previous printers, and

56

Quality

Value55Overall

Despite the low initial

cost, it really isn't worth

the hassle

88 Issue 1350

The HP 4500 range ofmultifunction printerswere very much thedarling of the high-

street electrical store’s shelvesearly last year. This was thenewer range of inkjets from HPcovering 2013/14, and for themost part they did a reasonablygood job and flew off theshelves quick enough to replacethe older Deskjet 3500s.

This is a fairly slim, low-profile, all-in-one printeroffering print, copy and scanfunctionality. In terms ofconnectivity, there’s USB andwi-fi, with Apple AirPrint andHP ePrint support. As with the

DETAILS• Price: £49.99• Manufacturer: HP• Website:goo.gl/MWuOVh• Required spec:Windows XP or later,Mac OS X 10.6 or later

HP Envy 4507Inkjet Printers Under £50

Officejet, you can also senddocuments to print via yoursmartphone or tablet and, ifneeded, you can also administerthe printer remotely.

It’s a fairly discreet unit,looking not too dissimilar tothe HP Deskjet 3520 that cameout earlier in 2013. The samekind of LCD is used, as are thetouch-sensitive buttons fornavigating the system menu,enabling a highlighted functionor going back to the beginningwith a home option. There’salso the same three wi-fi on/off,help and ePrint buttons as you’dfind on the Officejet 4630.

Unfortunately, we found theEnvy 4507 to be a little toocheaply produced. The qualityleaves a lot to be desired, andthere were plenty of timeswhere the paper was fedthrough the printer at an angle,which then caused all mannerof problems when it came backout again. It was also the onlyprinter to actually jam from theword go. The first print sentthrough scrunched up like a

concertina and proved to bequite the pain to unfold andclear away. After that, the restof the pages were left with aslight fold along the top or withsome ink smudges.

The text test we ran sawa print rate of around eightpages per minute; the colourmanaged to score a faster thannormal five pages per minute.The quality of each, however,was less than average. Thetext was a little faded andnot anywhere near as sharpas the other printers, and thecolour was pretty drab and feltwashed out.

The print cartridges usedare the 301 range, once more,which means you’ll get thesame as the Officejet 4630.

This model is priced towardthe top end of the group,averaging out at around£49.99. Considering we’vealready looked at better-quality printers, with betterfunctionality and betterprinting, there’s not much hereto recommend this printer.

45

Quality

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GROUPTEST

Inkjets

Under £50

and far clearer than anythingelse so far.

The standard black and tri-colour cartridges offer 180pages each, with the option forhigh-yield versions to be fittedthat can take those numbersup to 600 pages for the blackand 400 pages for the colour.In terms of cost per page, thestandard black cartridge costing£10.72 from Amazon will setyou back roughly 6p per page.The standard colour cartridge,priced at £13.46 from Amazon,comes to 7p per page.

The Canon Pixma MG4250may not be the fastest printeron test, but it has by far the

A great home and office

printer, and its build quality is

second to none

Canon Pixma MG4000printers are the middlerung of its home andSOHO multifunction

range. They generally offerbetter performance and arequite heavy duty machinesused for mid-volume printingand scanning.

The Pixma MG4250 is thefollow-up to the MG4150 fromearly 2012, and aside fromthe design of the chassis, thismodel having a matt-blackfinish as opposed to the glossypiano black of its predecessor,there’s really very littledifference between the pair.

This is a print, copy andscan device with wi-fi and USBconnectivity, Apple AirPrint,Pixma Cloud print and GoogleCloud Print support, as wellas a memory card reader andautomatic duplex printing.

The design is very robust andfeatures some neat extras tohelp tantalise the consumer. Forone, there’s a full colour 62mmLCD located in the top corner,which can flip up and displaythe relevant printer menus andcontrols, as well as a previewof the contents of the memorycard – although for somereason, we couldn’t get thisfeature to work. Below the LCDare an array of control buttonsto navigate through the menus,increase the number of copies,select colour or mono printsand copies and cancel any jobs,among other things.

The input tray can handle upto a hundred sheets and is fed

best quality print. It coststoward the upper end ofthe group limit, at £49.99,although we have seen someexamples going for around afiver cheaper.

Al in all, this is a great homeand office printer, and its buildquality is second to none.Running costs are reasonablycheap, although we still havea problem with the tri-colourcartridges, which seems to bethe norm these days.

DETAILS• Price: £49.99• Manufacturer: Canon• Website:goo.gl/pI4Uvj• Required spec:Windows XP or later,Mac OS X 10.5 or later

Canon Pixma MG4250

through the front pull-downpanel. This too is remarkablywell built and feels like it hasbeen manufactured to a muchhigher standard than some ofthe other printers we’ve alreadylooked at.

Our full text page testmeasured the printing speed ataround 8.5 pages per minute,with the colour taking longerat two pages per minute.Although it’s not the fastestprinter, the quality of both thestandard text page and colourwere excellent. The text stoodout, with visibly sharper linesand edges to the lettering, andthe colours were deeper, richer

98

Quality

Value99Overall

90 Issue 1350

Canon Pixma MG4250

How We Tested

The Canon Pixma MG4250 had the best qualityprints and was superbly built too. For theprice, you couldn’t ask for better. Plus you geta card reader and all the benefits of havingnetwork connectivity as well as mobile, cloudand e-printing.

Each printer was hooked up to a Windows 7 PC via USB, as well as connected to a home network where possible. We ran a five-pagefull text print, along with a five-page colour photo and a high-quality glossy photo. And, where possible, we tested printing from asmartphone or tablet.

Canon Pixma MX525The Canon Pixma MX525 just managedto pip the HP Officejet 4630 to the HighlyCommended post this time. There were a fewextra touches we liked, and the print qualitywas a little better.

Canon PixmaiP2850 HP Officejet 4630 Canon Pixma

MX525 HP Deskjet 1510 HP Envy 4507 Canon PixmaMG4250

Price £34.99 £41.92 £39.99 £29 £49.99 £49.99

Dimensions 426 x 235 x 134mm 445 x 331 x 188mm458 x 385 x

200mm425 x 552 x 252mm 445 x 334 x 120mm 449 x 304 x 152mm

Weight 2.3kg 6.2kg 8.7kg 3.6kg 5.49kg 5.7kg

Connectivity USB USB, wi-fiUSB, wi-fi,Ethernet

USB USB, wi-fiUSB, wi-fi, card

reader

Mobile/TabletPrinting No Yes Yes No Yes Yes

Cost Of StandardBlack Cart £10.40 £8.50 £10.72 £8.50 £8.50 £10.72

Cost Of StandardColour Cart £12.15 £11.19 £15.12 £11.19 £11.19 £13.46

Cost Per PageBlack 6p per page 4p per page 6P per page 4p per page 4p per page 6p per page

Cost per pagecolour 7p per page 7p per page 8p per page 7p per page 7p per page 7p per page

Tray capacity 60-sheets35-sheet ADF,

100-sheets30-sheet ADF,

100-sheets60-sheets 50-sheets 100-sheets

EDITOR’S

CHOICE

HIGHLY CO

MM

ENDED

Issue 1350 91

By [email protected]

By postMicro Mart30 Cleveland StreetLondonW1T 4JD

Onlineforum.micromart.co.uk

GET INTOUCH…

Small ThingsI find it amusing when peoplecomplain that tablets andsmartphones aren’t somehow‘proper’ computers. Why? Is itbecause the hardware can’t beupgraded? If so, then I put ityou, sirs, that the same goes forthe majority of laptops. Do theyno longer count as computers?

Of course they do, so whatdoes that leave us with? Thesoftware? Well, if you have anAndroid device, you can installloads of different variations of thatoperating system, and they’re notall produced by Google.

So it must be their size.The mobile haters must begetting their knickers in atwist over the fact thesedevices are smaller than PCs,as if the miniaturisation oftechnology hasn’t been goingon for decades already. Guesswhat? The kind of computingpower you have in your homecomputer would have beenenough to fill several largerooms in the 1950s. So becauseit’s smaller than it used to be,does that mean your PC is somekind of abomination?

Should we go into our localcomputer shop, eye up the PCsand then tell the shopkeeper“Well, there are no vacuumtubes, so they’re not ‘proper’computers, are they?”

Of course, there’s a chanceyou do actually say thing likethat, in which case, I tip bybowler hat to you and say“How do you do?”

Chris Lloyd

Artificial &UnintelligentFirst, thanks for the mag – Ibuy it every week without fail.Now for the nitty of the gritty,and the question that seemsto be on many lips at themoment: are computers aboutto turn against us and takeover the world?

Seems a bit far fetchedto me, but that seems to bewhat some people are tellingus: warning the world thatartificial intelligent could in thefuture decide that human raceis no longer necessary and thensimply do away with us.

Am I scared? Not at all.Come on, people! It’s just notgoing to happen.

Computers can only do whatwe tell them to do, and unlesswe tell them to kill people,they’re not going to do that.Also, computers only carry outtasks because they’re askedto, because we need thingsdoing. They themselves haveno desires – and even the mostseemingly intelligent AI doesn’treally want anything. It can,of course, act like it wantssomething, but only if someoneprograms it that way in thefirst place.

Basically, at the end of theday, I don’t foresee a time whenwe create a truly intelligentcomputer, and ultimately theonly danger we face is fromother humans – as usual.

Ian Stone

They can’t treat their

customers like idiots, because

even the real idiots wise up

What I Think Of InkIn this day and age, printingis something of a dying art.Everyone’s moving towardspaperless offices, and peoplejust take their digital photosand look at them on serviceslike YouTube.

Not me, though, I like toprint my photos and put themin albums, just like people didin the olden days (or at leastbefore 1995).

I don’t have a ton of money,though, so I have a prettycheap printers, and as well asnot using the ‘official’ photopaper, I also use refillableink cartridges, because theofficial ones are much tooexpensive. Now, the printer’smanufacturer (I won’t namenames) disapproves of this,and in the user manual, it verysternly warns against non-official inks, because they couldblock up the printer, causinguntold damage and grief.

I’m not going to say Ihaven’t had any problems withblockages, because I have,but I don’t know if they’re thefault of the cheap ink. WhatI do know is that on the oneoccasion it became too broketo fix, I just bought a newprinter, because it was cheaper

than buying even one set ofofficial ink cartridges.

I’m no eco warrior, but evenI’m aware of how incrediblywasteful this is, but I can’tjustify paying what the printermakers are asking for their ink.It’s frankly a ridiculous state ofaffairs, and I fully lay the blameat their door. When will theylearn that they can’t treat theircustomers like idiots forever,because even the real idiotswise up after a while.

Bob Catford

Issue 135092

Welcome again to the latest instalment of TheDownload Directory. This month’s applications includeOcster Backup, a personal file-archiving application;

TransTools, a program designed to aid the manual translationof documents; TaskUnifier Pro, a to-do list and productivitymanager; and Recent File Seeker, a search tool that helps youlocate the most recently modified files on your system.

Ocster Backup: Freeware Edition 1.9.8Release Type: FreewareOfficial Site: www.ocster.comOne of the problems with modern backup software suites isthat they’re all a little too feature-laden. In an attempt to outdoone another, they turn the process of backing up your mosttreasured files into a chore that it’s easier to simply ignore.

Ocster Backup takes a more streamlined approach. Youdefine your backup task with the use of a wizard, and fromthat point on, all it takes is a single click to get your files placedsomewhere safe.

TheTheDownloadDownloadDirectoryDirectory

James Hunt scours the internet for the best freeware,a shareware and paid-for application releases

The program can copy your files to a secondary or externaldrive or upload them to Ocster’s servers for a small fee ($4.99a month for 10GB). You can define backups by file or folderand add exclusion filters to make sure it isn’t trying to backup things like large videos or MP3s that you might alreadyhave stored in the cloud. Backups can be compressed and/orencrypted, and an incremental backup process will ensure thatonly modified files get saved, which reduces the time a backupprocedure takes to run. Backups can be run manually, scheduledin advance or automated.

Despite this large feature set, the wizard interface preventsthe software from feeling bloated. You’re unlikely to beoverwhelmed with options, and a clear workflow means youwon’t get stuck trying to make sure you’ve set everything upbefore you hit go. It is, in many ways, better than many morecomplex backup suites.

The software is free but comes partnered with a morepowerful version called Ocster Backup Pro, which includessupport for data mirroring and the option to easily back up extra

Issue 1350 93

THE DOWNLOADDIRECTORY

data, such as web browser bookmarks or mailboxes. Support forversioning allows you to store and potentially retrieve files thatmay have become damaged or negatively altered even if they’vebeen backed up since. This version costs $49.99, however,which is pretty steep, and Ocster Backup’s main attributes – thatit’s a simple, personal backup tool – apply less once you pile onthe features.

Still, the free version is worth a look. If you’re not in the habitof backing up regularly, this might be the software you need toget you interested in doing so.Pros: Stripped-down feature set, clear workflow.Cons: Wizard mode might slow down experts.Rating: 5/5

TransTools 3.5Release Type: FreewareOfficial Site: www.translatortools.netFree for personal use (but paid if you want to use it in acommercial context), TransTools is a suite of tools aimed atpeople who use office software to translate documents. It’scompatible with the likes of Visio and Autocad, but we suspectthe most popular use will be by those who integrate it into theirinstallations of Word and Excel.

Indeed, the plug-in version is capable of linking up withvirtually any version of MS Office. There are plug-ins for Office2003 and earlier, and Office 2007 and later, in 32- and 64-bitformats where required. There’s no question that it’ll work withyour preferred software.

As noted, the features the software adds to your Officesuite aren’t entirely restricted to translation tools. A ‘DocumentCleaner’ tidies up files that were created through OCR and PDFconversion, standardising their formatting by correcting spacing,font styles and font sizes, removing unwanted frames, resettingindentation and more besides. If you have a document that’sbeen through the wringer, this’ll clean it up nicely.

The Excel version of the add-in has a number of spreadsheetspecific tools as well. A cell resize wizard makes sure all text isvisible, while the ‘extract’ function strips out copies of all textso you can view it in a single place. You can also then merge it

Despite the name soundinga little bit like it’s related tothe Windows Task Scheduler,TaskUnifier Pro is actually apersonal to-do list organiser

Issue 135094

BetawatchTo help you stay on the bleeding edge of softwarereleases, Betawatch is a guide to the experimentaland unfinished versions of some of the most popularapplications around. Can’t wait for new features? Nowyou don’t have to!

Firefox 36.0 Betawww.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/#betaAnother month, another iteration of Firefox, and thistime the software’s getting a rather extensive list ofnew features. Whatever you might accuse Mozilla of,allowing its flagship browser to stagnate certainly isn’tone of them.

New features in Firefox 36 include the ability to syncyour new tab page across devices, new preferenceoptions implemented and the addition of Uzbek tolocales. Security updates include the disabling of Flashprotected mode, an automatic dismissal of insecureRC4 ciphers where possible and the gradual phasingout of certificates with 1024-bit RSA keys.

HTML5 implementations also continue to beadded, including increasing support for MediaSource Extensions to allow native HTML5 playbackon YouTube, with full support on the way, and theaddition of ECMAScript 6 data types, Unicode-rangeCSS descriptor and CSS3 improvements includingobject-fit and object-position implementations.Nothing ground-breaking, but it’s all useful forkeeping web pages on the cutting edge.

Developers also get a few new features, includingDOM inspection improvements, more paste optionsin markup view, a bugfix for unexpected sessionlogouts and CSS gradient fixes. Again, nothing earth-shattering, but mostly nice to see.

As ever, the latest Firefox beta can be downloadedfrom the URL above, and if you stick on the beta channelyou’ll get to see the latest updates before anyone elsewith virtually no negative effects on your browser’sperformance or stability. We think it’s worth doing.

back into the original document once it’s been edited, which is afeature you can imagine being useful for translators.

It should be noted that the one thing this set of tools doesn’tdo is translate any text. Certainly, this software can help you keepformatting straight while you translate a document, but unlessyou’re fluent in another language, you’ll have to sit there withGoogle Translate in one window and your document in the other.

The software remains in development, and version 3.5 adds anumber of new features, which is always a good thing to see. Asidefrom its potentially niche appeal, there’s nothing here that doesn’twork. Only the lack of actual translation tools can be criticised; inany sense that matters, it’s actually a document cleaner!Pros: Excellent integration with Office tools.Cons: The remit is slightly misleading.Rating: 4/5

Recent File Seeker 2.0.0.0Release Type: FreewareOfficial Site: www.carifred.comWhen your system gets modified without your consent, it canbe frustrating trying to figure out what’s responsible so you canremove it. And even when you’ve reached that point, verifyingwhether you’ve been successful is just as infuriating.

Recent File Seeker aims to be a tool in that fight. Thesoftware scans your system, finds and lists and files that havebeen recently created or modified, and then allows you to dealwith them as you see fit. Although it isn’t primarily designed tolocate and remove malware, it’s certainly very effective a tool fordoing so.

Although the download is extremely small (just 300KB) andthe software itself is relatively basic, the effectiveness of itsperformance cannot be denied. The software includes a numberof options, allowing you to tweak scan behaviour to make itmore focused (only specific file types or locations) or moregeneral. You can check results based on the modified or createdtime stamps, and then save your results to a text file so youhave a comprehensive list that you can compare files againstlater. One particularly useful option allows you to excludeverified Microsoft files from the search, so there’s no danger ofyou accidentally wiping something important.

You’ll have to sit therewith Google Translate in onewindow and your document inthe other

Issue 1350 95

THE DOWNLOADDIRECTORY

Although some of the language is quite technical and the useof a filter pattern rather than checkboxes might be intimidatingfor some, the program is otherwise quite simple to use. Ifanything, it’s a little too simple, because it doesn’t even showyou an organisable list of its results. The text file is all you get.It also suffers from something any file-enumerating programdoes, and that’s the way a scan can take a long, long time onsome systems. You’ve always got the option to cut times downwith a narrower scan, but it’s fair to say that you can only reallyperform a scan the hard way.

Still, it’s a nice idea, with room for improvements. We’ve noidea whether the developer plans to add more features, but we’dbe happy to see it improved and expanded. This might be listedas version 2.0, but it does feel like a good proof of concept. Nowlet’s see a program that follows its idea to a more useful extent.Pros: Tiny download, brilliant idea.Cons: Not as fully developed as we’d prefer.Rating: 4/5

TaskUnifier Pro 4.3.4Release Type: FreewareOfficial Site: www.taskunifier.comDespite the name sounding a little bit like it’s related to theWindows Task Scheduler, TaskUnifier Pro is actually a personalto-do list organiser, which you can use to manage your productivity.

The program allows you to organise your tasks (which can bebroken down into sub-tasks) in the form of notes, calendars ora simple list. You can group tasks by a number of criteria, suchas the overall goal (e.g. ‘get job’ or ‘move house’) or location(home/work, etc.). Built-in and customisable task templatesallow you to simplify the process of creating new tasks andprojects by providing you a quickstart list of things to do. If, for

Despite the name soundinga little bit like it’s related tothe Windows Task Scheduler,TaskUnifier Pro is actually apersonal to-do list organiser

Issue 135096

example, doing your taxes requires the same steps every year,you’re only a few clicks away from setting it up.

The software is cross-platform and can sync tasks with serviceslike OrganiTask and ToodlDo, so you can maintain a unified listacross devices. However, OrganiTask has just announced that it’sshutting down in a few months, so maybe that’s not the hugelyuseful feature the developer was hoping for. Integration withGoogle Calendar is perhaps more useful, especially if you’re tryingto collaborate with several other people. Usefully, TaskUnifier Procan perform custom actions when you update a task, so it’s easyto keep everyone informed about progress.

Although a lot of this sounds good, there are two bigproblems with TaskUnifier Pro that make it a little less attractive.

The first is that the interface is incredibly ugly – busy,cramped, teeming with colour-coding and icons that make it avirtual assault on the eyes. Compared to the likes of design-firsttask schedulers like the mobile app Clear, it looks like a rejectfrom the mid-90s Visual Basic era.

The second, arguably bigger issue is that the developer hasannounced plans to stop maintaining the software. The Proversion used to be paid-for, but rather than continue to charge forsoftware that has ceased development (and won’t have any bugsfixed), it’s taken the admirable decision to release it for nothing.

It’s the moral thing to do, certainly, but it’s not exactly a pointin its favour. It wouldn’t have garnered an especially strongrecommendation if it was still going, but now that it definitelyisn’t, we’re not sure there’s any reason to check it out. At worstyou’ll get attached to a program that’s going nowhere.Pros: Multi-platform implementation, syncing with multipleservices.Cons: Looks awful, and development has ceased.Rating: 2/5 mm

When your system getsmodified without your consent,it can be frustrating trying tofigure out what’s responsible

ReDownloadedThis month, in our regular retrospective section, we’re lookingback at the April 2013 instalment of Download Directory tosee how the programs we reviewed have fared.

Recuvawww.piriform.com/recuvaReviewed Version: 1.46, Current Version: 1.51A broadly excellent undelete program from the app guruPiriform, the current version of Recuva is sadly almost a yearold now, with no indication that it’ll receive another update.The latest version of the software added improved scanningalgorithms, GUI fixes and bug removals, but after two yearsit’s disappointing more hasn’t been done with the software.Then again, it’s not like there’s anything better out there, somaybe the complacency is justified!

UltraVNCwww.uvnc.comReviewed Version: 1.1.8.8, Current Version: 1.2.0.5Another program that benefits from the absolute wastelandof software around it, UltraVNC is a highly configurable,highly powerful, completely free VNC client/server. It’s hadsimilarly little attention in the years since we first looked atit, and it’s similarly as good a piece of software as you couldwant. Hard to criticise, but we can’t help being disappointedmore hasn’t been done with it.

MalwarebytesSecureBackupwww.malwarebytes.org/securebackupReviewed Version: 1.0, Current Version: 1.3The cloud-backup service from anti-virus king Malwarebyteswas in beta when we looked at it, and since then it’s beenproperly launched. Its selling point is that it ensures backupsare always virus-free (so you’re never stuck with an infectedbackup), but beyond that, it’s not doing much to distinguishitself. Interestingly, the biggest development is that it’sreshuffled its price tiers. Worth a look if you want a newcloud backup service, but probably not if you already haveone you use.

TrueLaunchBarwww.tordex.comReviewed Version: 6.5, Current Version: 7.1We found this Quick Launch bar replacement to be clunky,bloated and ugly when we first reviewed it and, worse still, itcharged $14, which seemed expensive. Laudably, the softwareremains in active development with new versions every fewmonths, but it hasn’t improved significantly, and the price isnow $20. So now we’re even less inclined to recommend it.

Issue 1350 97

REMEMBERING...

Hands up all those who fondly recall taping Radio One’s Top 40on a Sunday night and having to hit the pause button on thetape deck the second the DJ started to talk– then writing ‘Top

40: 20/06/85’ or something on the label and pocketing it for playingthroughout the week while you did your homework.

The cassette tape was such a part of everyday life that we oftenforget just how much we handled these things back in the day. Formost of us, there was hardly a day that went by when we weren’t inpossession of a tape. Usually, the tape contained music, but often it wasthe latest game on the ZX Spectrum or C64.

Take a look back at an 80s school yard and you’ll see the youthsof the time exchanging cassettes, with the vast number of Spectrumgames they’ve somehow managed to copy scrawled in pencil on theinlay card.

Furthermore, you’d often find yourself with a pencil stuffed into oneof the spools of the cassette and waving it around to gather up thetape that was often chewed up in the aging machine it was fed into.And let’s not forget bypassing the write protection of a cassette bypressing some tissue or the torn corner of a piece of paper into the littleholes on the top.

On the whole, cassette tapes were pretty sturdy. If you had a decentplayer and kept the heads clean, then a tape would last you for manyhappy years of use. Car stereos were usually the worst offenders forchewing tapes.

ItsHistoryThe cassette tape can trace its history back to 1935, when the first reel-to-reel tape recorder was released, called then the Magnetophon.

It wasn’t until 1962 that Philips invented the compact cassette, andfrom there onward the design and function of the device improved untilit became the familiar pair of spools over which were wound the lengthof tape that usually offered either 30 of 40 minutes per side.

The cassette tape enjoyed nearly three decades of unrivalled success.It wasn’t until the early 90s that the sales of cassettes began tonoticeably decline. Of course, the main culprit for the drop in sales wasthe Compact Disc. CDs were better quality, eventually cheaper to makeand could hold significantly more data or music.

In the computing industry, the 8-bit machines had died out andtheir mode of storage, the tape, was far too slow and didn’t have thetechnology behind it to compete with floppy disks and the eventualoptical discs.

The cassette tape refused to die, though, and from around 2010there appeared on the scene a kind of renewed interest in this nowarchaic form of storage. Data was still out of the loop, unfortunately,although some programmers still make 8-bit games on tape, but themusic industry and audiobook developers saw a rise in sales.

TheGoodEasy to carry around, universal and rugged enough to survive a trip tothe beach. Tapes were the ideal portable medium for transporting audioand data.

TheBadFinding an old tape and having to explain to the kids why you recordedyourself singing along to Rick Astley hits in 1988. Then trying to explainthe fascination you had with The Bangles. All good times, though.

David Hayward recalls the mighty tape but admits he liked Rick Astley in his youth

Remembering…Cassette Tapes

DidYouKnow…• A C60 tape was around 300 feet in length, and a C90

was around 440 feet.• Just for fun, if you could load a modern game by tape

(as you did with the Spectrum, which took about 11minutes for 128K), then Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel at7GB would be 54,687 lots of 128KB. That would mean ittakes 67,51 C90 tapes to store the game, and 422 daysto load. I think.

• The longer the recording time of a tape, the thinner theactual tape was: C60 was about 18 microns thick, C90was about 12 microns thick.

• The actual plastic box that hold the cassette is called aNorelco Box.

he ZX Spectrum tapes were the first taste of data storage for many of us This was a fairly common sight back then

Issue 135098

Retro Round-up is actually a round-up of this month’s brandnew releases on retro machines. Last month’s column had atheme, in that we were looking at new releases that were only

available to buy on the original cassette/disc format. This month, wehave more of a mixed bag, with three free games and three paidones under the microscope.

Before we dive into these (and there are some marvellousgames this issue!), a clarification. When you buy a paid retrogame, all suppliers do also send you an emulator-file version ofthe game (whether that be by e-mail or on a CD) in addition tothe original media. Additionally, I doubt that any paid retro gamesare created specifically to be sold for profit; the main reason whycertain titles are distributed physically (with a small charge tocover the media) is because waiting for the game to be deliveredis all part of the experience.

If you were around in the 80s, you will recall this experience verywell – sending off your cheque and then waiting for the paddedenvelope containing your tape(s) to arrive.

If you weren’t, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. This ‘experiencefactor’ is often under-appreciated if you simply click, download andplay – which is usually the case with a free retro game.

Without further ado, let’s enter this familiar world where gamesdon’t always make sense, where ludicrous ideas make an odd sortof sense and where you cannot help but marvel at what can beachieved on some of the oldest computers still living and breathing...

Amstrad ActionOrion Prime is a gargantuan point-and-click adventure for thehumble Amstrad. You take on the role of a drug runner, whoworks a solitary and quite profitable flight-path between twoplanets. Until, that is, your life of Riley comes to an end when yourcraft is hit by a rogue asteroid belt and you limp into the belly ofthe Orion Prime space station. Eerily silent, it’s quickly apparentfrom the dead bodies littering every scene that whatever happenedhere before, it wasn’t good.

Orion Prime is a fascinating piece of software, particularly ifyour memories of the Amstrad extend little further than RolandOn The Ropes. Every location of your new prison is illustrated anddescribed in a flawless, detailed narrative. You make progress byclicking on whatever you can see to interact with it. Within the firstfew minutes, you’ll also need to play one of the first mini-games, avariant of a sliding-block puzzle reminiscent of the PS2 game 24.

It’s sophisticated stuff, thoroughly modern and playable with theminimum of fuss on the superb WinApe Amstrad emulator. To seemore, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF_Wwy-0BhI. Note thata limited number of discs were physically produced of Orion Prime.Alas, stocks are now long depleted and considered genuine collectors’items. You can now download and play the game totally for free fromthe official site, orion.cpcscene.net.

Not So Angry BirdsThe Dragon 32 is always getting ‘new’ releases, because it sharesa great deal of circuitry with the Tandy CoCo – so much so, in fact,that even 100% machine code games for the CoCo can now beconverted between the two machines with relative ease. Flagon Bird,however, is a genuinely new Dragon game rather than a convertedCoCo one (It’s also, unsurprisingly enough given the above, availableon the CoCo too!). The game is a version of Flappy Bird and isreleased by Bosco Software. Possibly one of the most addictive – andfrustrating – games ever written, Flagon/Flappy Bird invites you topilot a bird through a series of pipes by flapping its wings at the rightmoment. Easier said than done. Four games in a single minute can beseen here: ww.youtube.com/watch?v=nv5bo0Ez8IA

Flagon Bird is available for free from the Dragon Archive (archive.worldofdragon.org) – and you’ll also find a great deal of furtherinformation on its fans, both here and abroad, on the forumsof this site. To see a real master, why not visit Metr81’s YouTubevideo at www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vkt_99YfEg, where heputs my personal high score of 15 pipes cleared to shame with awhopping 254!

Anyone who’s interested in the hundreds of other new titlesfor this fiery Welsh green-screen machine should also check outwww.dragon32universe.info.

Beating The BeebThe bad news is that, for the BBC/Electron, 2014 saw the releaseof only a single game, but the good news is it’s a cracker. Producedby Retro Software (www.retrosoftware.co.uk), Castle Raider isa scrolling graphic adventure of the keys-locks variety, setting youthe task of exploring a huge castle and escaping with some of thetreasure. You can wander left and right and jump the patrollingnasties, while entering the doorways takes you to other areas of thecastle. You’ll need to map it all out to find the quickest route to thekeys you need to progress the quickest.

Dave Edwards invites you to loseyour soul, blunder around in thedark, watch the birdie, feel chillscreep up your spine and explore ascrolling castle – all on machinesthat were first offered for salemore than three decades ago

Retro Round-up

Explore a gigantic, abandoned spacestation in Orion Prime

Egghead is able to run, jump andclimb the ladders of his yacht in this

superb platformer

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RETRO ROUND-UP

Actually, the most impressive thing about Castle Raider isn’t thepremise but the actual scrolling itself. Limitations of the hardwaremeant that not a single smooth-software-scrolling game on theElectron ever made it to completion back in the day; even classics suchas Stryker’s Run scrolled on the BBC but became a flick-screen onits baby brother. Programmer David Boddie set himself the personalchallenge of writing code that could do it – and, on top of thatachievement, it’s fair to say that he hasn’t managed a bad little gamein Castle Raider too!

Castle Raider is available, again for free, on both tape and disc fromRetro Software. However, rather than charge you for the game itself,the site supplies an inlay for you to print out yourself.

Lost In The DarkZombie Calavera (Zombie Skull) is a platform game from theMojon Twins, released now by Monument Microgames in a superboversized box. Alas, the game inside the box falls somewhat shortof expectations.

You play Santos, and your task is to wander through roomscollecting crucifixes while jumping or shooting the roamingskeletons. While there’s nothing new there, some ideas are laid ontop of this tried-and-tested formula. Skeletons don’t die when shot;they instead turn into vampire bats, which ricochet around the roominstead. And colliding with anything that moves doesn’t just depleteSantos’ energy; it also throws him unpredictably around the room.

These are enough of a challenge alone, but thy’re only half thestory. The game is rendered entirely in dark blue and black, withSantos barely discernible at all in some positions in some rooms. Seewww.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lj2sl0k3yo for an example. Inaddition, having been supplied with a nice glossy booklet explainingthe Legend of Santos and the Zombie Skull, you’d expect the texttherein to be relevant to the game itself. Instead, it’s page after pageof waffle.

Zombie Calavera can be purchased from Monument Microgames(www.monumentmicrogames.com) for £7.00 (P&P included).

Fuzzy TelevisionsAnd now, a short digression...

Old analogue TV sets were great, weren’t they? One great bigtuning knob, an aerial that you needed to position differentlydepending on the channel you wished to watch and the comfortthat any problems with either could be easily remedied bywhacking the top of the TV as hard as you could. Students wouldprobably still be watching this way had the old analogue signal notbeen turned off. But it was – and those analogue broadcasts werelost into the ether.

But these signals have now arrived on El Stompo’s planet, and thealiens there have a bunch of TVs that should allow them to enjoy

their fix of EastEnders. Unfortunately, their TVs will only work afterEl Stompo has jumped up and down on each of them. This is thecharming scenario in Monument’s second offering, El Stompo.

What we have here is part arcade platformer and part logicpuzzle. The game has 35 screens featuring ladders and levels,patrolling aliens and the odd button, brickwork or television tostomp on. Each screen is progressively harder, with a surprisinglycolourful palette (‘No colour clash!’ screams the boxart, which is apeculiarly Spectrumesque claim!).

The backstory give the game its charm. For British playersonly, it also gives the opportunity to count the number of old TVprogramme logs they recognise. On top of this, El Stompo is actuallypretty enjoyable, dispensing with a lives or password system infavour of just presenting you with each scene in turn until you win it(rather like Angry Birds). You can see the first few levels here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMjzBpbgYT4

Hole In Your SoulPsytronik Software (www.psytronik.net) has an extremely largecatalogue of games for sale, and Soulless is one of its more recent.According to the premise, your crime was to call for a pacifistsociety and, as a result, you were captured, turned into a beast andhad your soul stolen, and your enemies locked you in a tomb for athousand years. Nice.

Soulless begins with a graphical demo showing this entire story,complete with an explosion of amazing C64 music. This is promisingstuff on such a dated machine, and the care and attention lavishedon the programming, graphics and music is similarly breath-taking.A development team of three big C64 names (Georg Rottensteiner,Trevor Storey and Mikkel Hastrup) is responsible. You’d wonder whatcould go wrong?

However, Soulless commits the sin of being rather run-of-the-mill graphical adventuring. Its main failing is that although itincludes a “massive map to explore”, progress through the roomsis linear; you’re not free, a la Jet Set Willy, to decide which roomto visit next. Instead, each game becomes a tiring trek throughthe same rooms in the same order, and it’s easy to collide withthe roaming nasties and be sent all the way back to room one.After only a few goes, I became quite dispirited and was headingback to Flagon Bird.

Time And TideAs you can probably gather, whether a game is free or paid in RetroWorld is largely unconnected to its quality. All of the games featuredthis issue are labours of love, where the main ingredient is passion.

This makes even the bad games seem good; particularly in thismonth’s selection. Assuming I make it off Orion Prime in one piece,I’ll be back next month to marvel at a new cave of wonders. mm

Retro Software’s superb BBC/Electronscrolling Castle Raider

El Stompo is a peculiarly British game,where old analogue televisions are

built into the platforms

Psytronik’s C64 game looks brilliant –yet it’s soulless not only by name but

also by nature

Zombie Calavera – and if you find ithard to make out what’s going on,

then you’re not alone

Issue 1350100

James recalls the not-so-good-old days of online video

These days, video on the webis so ubiquitous that you canforget what a chore it usedto be. There was a time

when it was a huge undertaking toget any sort of media playing in yourbrowser, let alone video. In the daysof dial-up, when content bitrateswere low and modem bitrateswere lower, one piece of softwareindisputably led in the field in termsof web-embedded media delivery.That program was called RealPlayer.

Given how the advent of HTML5and flash streaming has madewatching video as simple as clickinga button (or not, sometimes), it’shard to overstate just how essential

RealPlayer used to be for watchinganything online. Back then, whenpresented with a video, yourbrowser would baulk at playing it.You could maybe have downloadedthe file instead, but in the dayswhen MPEG was only just starting tocompress video to manageable sizesmost connections would’ve takenso long to download a news reportthat by the time you watched it, it’dbe out of date.

RealPlayer changed that.Before the software was released,playing video on the web was along, frustrating and ultimatelyunrewarding experience. After thesoftware was released… well, it was

still a long, frustrating and ultimatelyunrewarding experience, but at leastyou actually got to see something atthe end of it.

So, given the huge user base ithad at the time, how has it come to

WhateverHappened To

?

Issue 1350 101

REAL PLAYER

pass that RealPlayer, and its parentcompany RealNetworks, now seemto be all but forgotten?

Origin StoryThe first ever version of RealPlayerwas released in 1995 by ProgressiveNetworks, and was actually called‘RealAudio Player’. At the time itwasn’t unheard of for websites tocontain sound, in the form of shortWAV clips or MIDI music, but high-quality audio at low bitrates was closeto non-existent. The idea of streamingaudio direct from a broadcaster toa home audience over the Internetseemed like a sci-fi fantasy (or atleast, technically improbable).

So it was that the RealAudioformat and its associatedplayer came to exist. RealAudiocompressed music and speech sotightly that it could be deliveredover even the slowest connection.Sure, there was a significant loss ofquality – but that didn’t prevent AM

radio from becoming popular. Twoyears after release, the RealAudioformat was expanded to includevideo streams, with the visual andaudio halves collected under thename ‘RealMedia’.

The format saw plenty of success,and the software, now renamed‘RealPlayer’, gained significantpopularity when it was included inWindows 98’s installation package.That’s the scale of popularity we’retalking about here: every computerthat installed Windows 98 was giventhe chance to install RealPlayer sothat it could be used to watch videoand audio on the web.

That level of prominence is rarelyafforded to software originatingoutside of Microsoft’s campus,but the dominance of RealPlayer’sproprietary video and audio onlinewas so wide – it was even thepreferred format of the BBC at onepoint – that Microsoft wanted tomake sure Windows computers hadthe tools to experience it. Of course,the fact that Progressive Networkswas started by former Microsoftexec Rob Glaser may have been afactor in that as well.

The software wasn’t just capable ofplaying media in webpages. It allowedyou to play various types of audioand video locally, and it included aselection of ‘channels’ which allowedyou to watch or listen to free content.In a world without YouTube, it wasarguably the next best thing, and by2000, some reports suggested thatover 85% of all streaming contentonline was in a Real-based format.Things could scarcely have beengoing more to plan.

A Real DeclineOf course, there’s a saying aboutthe best laid plans. RealPlayer wassucceeding because it was thebest option for playing video andaudio over a slow connection – butconnections were speeding up, andcodecs were improving too.

Whatever HappenedToWinAMP?The peculiarities of the MP3 codec’s copyright andorigins meant that it took a long time for Windowsto play MP3s natively. When the format first beganto grow, supported by online piracy, third partyplayers were required. Of those, it was WinAMP thatestablished its dominance.

When it launched in 1997, WinAMP wasn’t theonly MP3 player around, but it was the best. It wasfast, simple to use, easy to install, and didn’t costanything (although there was a $10 shareware fee).It was not surprising, then, that by 1998 it hadbeen downloaded over three million times.

In 1999, AOL bought the application’s publishers,Nullsoft, for over $80 million. A much-derided AOL-sponsored ‘WinAMP3’ followed in 2001. Criticisedfor being less stable, it lacked compatibility withskins and plug-ins from the previous versions andupset users, many of whom stuck with the previousversion, WinAMP 2.8. In 2003, Winamp 5.0 triedto repair the damage (version 4.0 was skipped toindicate that it combined the new features of v3.0with the compatibility and performance of v2.0,because 3+2 = 5).

It looked like a new era, but it was probablya last hurrah. Only a month after Winamp 5.0was released, its primary developer and Nullsoft’sfounder, Justin Frankel, left the company. Thesoftware was maintained after that point, but afterhitting a peak of 90 million users in 2007, it slowlybecame less relevant. AOL almost shuttered thebrand in 2014, but it was instead sold to onlinemusic platform Radionomy, which promises a newversion of the software later this year.

Before Real Player wasreleased, playing video on theweb was a long, frustrating andunrewarding experience

Issue 1350102

At the same time, it was rare tofind anyone who actively enjoyedthe experiences RealPlayer had tooffer. It’s debatable whether thelow-resolution, low-detail, low-framerate video was a consequenceof the download speeds of the eraor the codec itself (or even just ineptuse of the codec) but it’s safe to saythat RealMedia gained a not-entirelyundeserved reputable for lookingand sounding awful.

If you don’t remember first hand,you can approximate the typicalRealMedia experience quite easily. Ifyou want to listen to a song or radioprogramme, simply play it down aloose phoneline and try to listen onthe other end. If you’re trying towatch a video, shrink it to the size ofa postage stamp and watch throughglasses smeared with Vaseline. It wasbetter than nothing, but worse thanalmost everything else.

Similarly annoying was thesoftware itself, which had atendency to get its hooks into everypart of your system. It installed itselfas the default player for virtually allmedia formats, once it was runningit’d bombard you with system-messages that were barely disguisedadverts, and then when you wantedrid of it, it would promptly fail touninstall correctly.

Even accounting for the fact thatthose tactics weren’t exactly uniqueduring the early attempts to makeshareware profitable, RealPlayer’sbiggest crime was that it often failedto work. It was large and bloated,and there was no guarantee, afterspending ages downloading a mediastream, that you’d be able to view it.

The file format did itself nofavours either. Although RealMediacould be downloaded, most sitesdelivered it in the form of streams,which meant saving a copy waseffectively impossible. If you tried todownload one, you’d get a simplefile that pointed to the stream,

which meant spending time andbandwidth downloading the mediaagain. Not a popular option in a pre-broadband world, where every fewbytes represented a wasted secondof you day.

The proprietary nature ofRealPlayer’s media was anothersticking point for users. Evenwith the software installed, therewas no way to view RealMediaformats in more conventional videoplayers. RealPlayer itself was farfrom streamlined, and insisted onfrequent updates. There was at leastone a new major version every yearand each update seemed to make itharder and harder to wade past theadverts so that you could get at thecontent you wanted to see. Flashiergraphics designed to improve thelook of the program simply slowedit down, irritating users rather thanimpressing them.

Dissatisfaction with the softwarereached a particular peak whensecurity researchers dissected thenetwork traffic sent by RealPlayer’shelper-app, the digital music libraryRealJukebox, and discovered thatit was transmitting a unique useridentifier and music titles withoutdisclosing this fact. One assumes thiswas for the purposes of targetedadvertising, but it also gave thesoftware the potential to secretlyleak personal or confidentialinformation. It was reissued with theoffending code removed, but at atime when concerns about Spywarewere relatively new, it causedsignificant negative press.

Although there was no massexodus from the software,its frustrations and irritationscombined to the point where,when MPEG4-based rivals suchas WMV and ASF came of age,they were quickly adopted asalternatives to RealMedia. MPEG2video had created files too largefor downloads, but MPEG4’s

superior compression and qualitysupport made it a viable rival.And, of course, these formatscould be played through anymedia player, rather than a singleproprietary program. By the timecoders released RealAlternative –a reverse-engineered codec thatenabled third-party players to view

It’s safe to say thatRealMedia gained a not-entirelyundeserved reputable for lookingand sounding awful

Issue 1350 103

REAL PLAYERREALL P

RealMedia – the RealPlayer’s fatewas long sealed.

In fairness, it’s hard to blameRealPlayer’s decline on any singledeciding factor. The rise of bettercodecs and general annoyanceswith the software were definitelypart of its disappearance, but sowas the expansion of Microsoft’sown Media Player, the appearanceof MP3 streams, and the constantimprovements to Broadbandtechnology. RealMedia was probablydestined to lose out to openformats eventually – the Player’sgenerally disagreeable nature onlyhastened that inevitable fate.

Keeping It RealOf course, it’d take some severemismanagement for a companywith the recognition and history ofRealPlayer to disappear completely.Although its flagship softwareholds only a shadow of its formerpopularity, the parent company –long since renamed RealNetworksto capitalise on its most popularproduct – is still going, involved innumerous strategic content alliancesand IP-protecting lawsuits, but withless emphasis on its consumer-focused arm.

Indeed, RealNetworks’ résumédoes look impressive. In 1995 itstreamed the first live baseballcommentary on the Internet. In

2001, it was the first to try sellingmusic from major record labelsover the Internet. It was involvedin early Netflix/Spotify-esquepremium content services, and in2005 it received $460 million fromMicrosoft to settle an antitrustlawsuit. Its proprietary Helix musicengine made it onto a number ofMP3 players, including those fromCreative and Sansa. It’s not like ithasn’t been trying to move forwardwith the times.

Of course, its most recentacquisition – casino gamingsite Slingo – was bought for itsgaming division in 2013. Originallynamed RealArcade, the divisionwas renamed GameHouse, and ifyou’ve played any amount of casualor social games, you’ve probablytouched one of its titles.

So where does that leaveRealPlayer? The software itself hasbeen through many rebrands overthe years. From RealAudio Player, toRealPlayer, through RealPlayer G2,RealOne Player, back to RealPlayerand most recently, RealPlayerCloud. The RealMedia format hasessentially been abandoned, andthe player is now focused on multi-platform streaming, with the latestversion incorporating an onlinestorage cloud that allows you toshare your videos across multipledevices. Essentially, the software isa video-centric version of Dropbox,with versions available for Android,Linux, iOS and Mac OS X, andcompatibility with ChromeCast andRoku platforms.

At this point, it’s hard to guesswhat the future of RealPlayer islikely to be. A return to its formergreatness is hugely unlikely, but it’sstill serving a reported 25 millionusers worldwide, which isn’t exactlysmall change. Perhaps the brand willcontinue to mutate when the hotthing that succeeds cloud streamingeventually arrives. Maybe it’ll end upbeing sold to a company with betterplans for it. Or maybe it’ll cling tolife on the strength of its brandrecognition alone.

One thing is certain, though:now in its 20th year, there’s noreason to assume that RealPlayerwill disappear completely any timein the near future – even if you’veforgotten it existed. mm

Whatever HappenedTo ICQ?Before Google Chat, before Facebook, beforeWhatsApp Messenger, there was ICQ: the firstbig instant messaging program. At the time, ICQwas a huge deal. For the first time users couldcommunicate directly with one another in realtime, regardless of what ISP they were using andwithout the complicated networks and politics thataccompanied IRC chat. The first version was releasedin 1996 by Mirabilis, and by 1998 it had beensnapped up by AOL for $287 million.

Clearly, the idea of instant messaging caughton. By 1999, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo had alllaunched their own-branded IM clients, and thatinstantly started to erode ICQ’s success – partlybecause the competition was larger and sportedmore familiar brand names, but also becauseICQ had a lot of character that not every userappreciated. Where ICQ favoured cutesy soundeffects, bright colours and gimmicky features,the likes of AIM, YIM and MSN Messenger werecomparatively stripped-back and professional indesign. Spammers and phishers also plagued ICQ’snetwork, making people wary of using it.

In 2003 a new CEO at ICQ returned it toprofitability and growth by incorporating advertisinginto the otherwise free software, but it neverreached its previous level of popularity. Multipleupdates failed to recapture the early glory, in theUS and Western Europe at least (ICQ remainedpopular in Eastern Europe and Russia), and in2010, AOL sold ICQ for $187.5 million to DigitalSky Technologies – a Russian firm that maintainsit to this day. The most recent version, ICQ 8, waslaunched in 2012, 2014 saw the company’s firstgrowth in user numbers since that acquisition.

Issue 1350104

When starting our regular appsgroup test over a year ago, wemade the decision not to include

games, because we felt gaming was aspecialised area best served elsewhere.This week we’re breaking that rule,because puzzle apps are different. Theystand astride the spheres of productivityand gaming, in that people who simplywouldn’t consider themselves gamers – oreven fans of games – will happily load

up a puzzle app to spend a few minutesrelaxing. Thus, this week, we take a lookat six of the best puzzle games, althoughwe’re careful to avoid any that comeseven close to offering an arcade gamingexperience. The apps reviewed below are100% cerebral!

As usual, all the apps are available inthe App Store and were tested on aniPhone 6 Plus and a Retina iPad – and dueto their design, all the games demand an

iPad or iPhone be held in portraitorientation. Most are free, but a minorityare available for less than the costof a cup of posh coffee. Often this isa price worth paying, because thein-app hard sell of upgrades’ in the worldof gaming can be extreme and, quitefrankly, annoying.

Shades: A Simple PuzzleGameBest referred to as a Tetris-like game,Shades simultaneously builds on theconcept of falling blocks while bringingentirely new strategies and techniques.

As the app’s name states, this reallyis a simple game. Blocks fall from thetop of the screen, and you must arrangethem to form horizontal lines of the samecolour shade by tapping in one of the

Put simply, Montezuma Puzzleis a curious mixture of Tetris, a jigsawand Sudoku

PuzzleApps

For iOSTake a break from all the hard work with Keir

Thomas’ round-up of six of the best basic yet

fun puzzle apps

Issue 1350 105

PUZZLE APPSFOR IOS

four possible columns. A swipe down in acolumn speeds up a block’s descent. Unlikein Tetris, the blocks are all the same size– flat rectangles – and they differentiateonly in shade. Forming a horizontal line ofthe same shade causes it to disappear, ina Tetris-like way, and the goal is to avoidcluttering up the screen so that blocksreach the top.

Complicating things is the fact thatblocks change colour if one of the samecolour falls on top of it, forming a newsingle block of the next darker shade.

Thus, the player is forced to workout entirely unique strategies comparedto Tetris. Disparate shaded blocks needto be stored out of the way until theycan be dealt with, while you can set upvertical columns of blocks gradated inshade so that they all change and mergeconsecutively in one move – providing themaximum possible score.

There are three skill levels – easy,medium and hard – and you’re given aclue as to the upcoming block shade by aclever timer bar at the top of the screenthat shrinks in size just before the newblock appears. The colour of the blockschanges each time you play a new game,

which is a nice way of adding variety andkeeping the player on his/her toes.

At £1.49, Shades isn’t free but itprovides the true puzzle app experience ofbeing able to lose yourself for as long asyou require without raising your heart ratetoo much. Recommended.

DotsThe very best puzzle games are thesimplest – and what can be simpler thanjoining dots? That’s the premise behindthis game, which shows a grid of differentcoloured dots and makes it your task todrag your finger between neighbouringdots of the same colour in order to jointhem up. Once joined the dots disappearand those above fall down to take theirplace, thereby introducing new dots atthe top of the screen too. Points are givenfor joining dots, obviously, with morepoints gained for those times you connecta significant number of dots. However,the big points (and also a special soundeffect/vibration on an iPhone) are sentyour way should you manage to get yourfingertip back to where you started. Thismight mean drawing a simple squareusing same-coloured dots, but by using

strategy and removing certain other dotsyou can make it possible to draw a hugeencompassing line that ends up backwhere it started, thereby earning a hugenumber of points.

All of this is timed, assuming you optfor the timed round option. You can alsochoose Moves mode, in which you’re givenjust 30 moves to get as many points aspossible. A £1.49 in-app purchase will giveyou Infinite mode too, in which you cansimply keep joining dots ad infinitum.

What do points make? In this game,they buy power-ups, which are not entirelynecessary but bring interesting strategiesto the game. There are three types ofpower-up. The first removes all dots of aparticular colour from the board – usefulfor getting rid of a certain colour thatis spread out from its neighbours. Thesecond freezes the countdown clock forfive seconds or adds five additional movesin Moves mode. Both these power-upscan only be used once per game. Thethird power-up simply lets you removeany individual dot, and you can use thisas often as you wish within a game.By default, five of each power-ups areprovided, and as well as earning more byplaying and getting high scores, you canhand over cash via in-app purchases tobuy more. Notably, and crucially, thesepurchases simply aren’t necessary to enjoythe game. In fact, occasional to moderateplayers of the game may not never evenrealise they’re an option.

Needless to say, the game mechanicswork very well, and Dots is as addictiveas bubble wrap. The game is entirely freewith zero in-game adverts, and the lack ofa hard sell for in-app purchases is utterlyrefreshing. By making purchases optional,yet introducing new aspects of gameplay,we reckon people are more likely to payup. This is surely how it should be done.

Montezuma PuzzlePity poor Montezuma. One of the moresuccessful South American kings responsiblefor uniting the Aztec nations (yes, I canuse Wikipedia), nowadays his name isappropriated for everything from bowelcomplaints to a brand of chocolate. Andhere he apparently endorses a series ofgames, of which Montezuma Puzzle is thefirst. However, aside from the vague SouthAmerican setting, which makes each levellook like a redressed Tomb Raider set, hisinput is somewhat negligible.

Put simply, Montezuma Puzzle is acurious mixture of Tetris, a jigsaw andSudoku. You’re shown a grid, underneathwhich are several Tetris-like blocks that

Shades takes the Tetris concept of fallingblocks and remoulds it into a clever colourmatching game

Dots offers a simple yet engaging style of

puzzle game that will keep you coming back to

play again and again

Shades simultaneously builds on theconcept of falling blocks while bringingentirely new strategies and techniques

Issue 1350106

you must drag and drop onto the grid sothat everything fits neatly. At that pointyou move to the next level. With smallersquare grids, this task is relatively easy,but with larger irregular-shaped grids, thenumber of permutations rises, as does thenumber of blocks. Add in the occasionalimmovable block already present on thegrid and things can get difficult – butnever impossible. Because of the perfectlyjudged skill level, the game encourages analmost Zen-like state of completing levelswithout applying too much thought.

If you do get stuck, you can tap thequestion mark button to be shown whereindividual pieces go. Three lights at the topof the screen indicate you have three liveswhen receiving this help but, in fact, youcan keep tapping the button to receivemore hints after you’ve run out of lives. It’sdown to your own sense of honesty, weguess, as to how you progress.

Over 400 levels are provided outof the box, with even more promised.There’s also a separate Montezuma Puzzle2 app that evolves the idea with newshapes and boards.

With a game as simple as this,there isn’t much to criticise, althoughwe felt placing the pieces on the boardcould be a bit fiddly. If you don’t getthem precise enough, the game assumesyou’re dropping them incorrectly and theyreturn to their home positions. This canget irritating.

The game is free but uses adverts togenerate revenue. These appear full screenwhen accessing the menu but, as far as we

could tell, never during gameplay, whichcan continue uninterrupted for hours.There appeared to be no other adverts oreven in-app purchases.

For a little mindless fun, MontezumaPuzzle really can’t be bettered and offersliterally days of enjoyment.

Where’s MyWater?With millions of dollars up for grabs in theworld of apps, perhaps it wasn’t surprisingthat Disney appeared on the scene, andWhere’s My Water is its most popular effort– and perhaps its only effort not implicitlytied to existing movies or characters. Thegoal of the game is to route a supply ofwater to crocodiles that live in the sewers.The main croc is Swampy who, despitebeing coldblooded, is addicted to hot baths.However, his pipes have been sabotaged byevil crocs elsewhere. The water he requirestypically starts at the top or bottom of thescreen, collected in a pool or shooting outof a pipe, and it’s your job to drag on thescreen to carve away dirt, as well as removealgae and ooze or trigger mechanisms, inorder for it to be routed to the correct inlet

pipe. The game claims realistic physics,but in reality the water acts more likeamorphous jelly. However, it’s easy to get togrips with this.

Each level also has three rubber ducksthat you can pop by running water overthem. These don’t do anything otherthan enforcing a cruel sense of failureshould you fail to get every one ofthem. However, they also provide replayvalue, allowing you to return to levels tocomplete them fully. Also hidden withinthe dirt are items that you can collect.

Although ostensibly a game for children,the skill level has been judged just right,and this particular 42-year old found someof the levels pretty tricky – particularlythose that scroll and involve multipleelements, forcing you to chain togetherseveral strategies.

Some levels add a time componentby causing the water (or ooze) to startflowing immediately, while others involvetiming the water flow so it works perfectlywith moving mechanisms. These add alittle excitement to the game but also felta little out of place. We prefer to take ourtime solving puzzles. Luckily each leveloffers an infinite number of retries.

Where’s My Water costs £1.49 andcomes with hundreds of levels, plus abonus ‘Lost Levels’ pack, although a freeversion is available offering 14 free levels.In-app purchases in the paid-for version letyou introduce new characters in order toreplay old levels in a different way, whichis a nice method of expanding the gamewithout penalising the player if they don’thand over more money. A small bannerad appears on cut-scenes, which is a littlecheeky, but this can be dismissed easily.

Where’s My Water is certainly popular,and there are several sequels expandingthe concept. We’d be lying if we said thegame wasn’t fun. However, we felt someof the levels were a little plodding, perhapsbecause we were doing the same thingeach time with nothing really evolving. Ifyou’re going to introduce characters anda backstory, then a constantly progressingnarrative also seems reasonable, but that’slargely missing.

With millions of dollars up forgrabs in the world of apps, perhaps itwasn’t surprising that Disney appearedon the scene

Montezuma Puzzle provides 400 levels of

entirely free fun to keep you occupied for hours,

if not days

Where’s My Water gives you the task of

providing bath water for a crocodile living in a

sewer – and why not?

Issue 1350 107

PUZZLE APPSFOR IOS

PoptileYet another evolved Tetris clone, Poptileis about as simple as puzzle games come.It starts with a grid of coloured squares.Tapping any causes that square to pop anddisappear so that those above fall to takeits place. If the square you tap bordersothers of a similar colour they all pop atonce, and you get more points for the moretiles popped in one go (including cascades,whereby tiles dropping down also popbecause they meet similar colours beneath).However, on each tap a row of random newsquares are added at the bottom of thescreen, pushing the rest upwards. Notably,new rows are not added every few seconds,as with similar games, which makes for amuch more sedate experience. The gameends should any of the four vertical columnsof tiles reach the top of the screen.

One of three different types of power-up become available once you pass certainscore thresholds (seemingly multiples of100) and are activated by tapping thebuttons at the right of the screen. The Stoppower-up simply lets you pop tiles withoutany more appearing beneath, but onlylasts a few seconds. The Target power-updestroys all tiles on the board that are ofthe colour you tap, while the -3 power-upsimply removes the bottom three rows oftiles – a potential life saver if any of yourcolumns are nearing the top of the screen.

And that’s about all there is to thegame. The music is soft and trance-likeand indicates the true nature of this game– you just start playing and enter a relaxedstate as you tap away.

Poptile is free of charge, and we didn’tspot any adverts while playing, althoughrather oddly there’s an in-app purchaseof 99p to deactivate ads. A secondin-app purchase of 99p lets you buynew themes (that is, colour schemes andtile patterns) but this is strictly optional.Perhaps surprisingly it isn’t possible topay up to buy extra power-ups – a policythat seems very fair to us. You can alsoget bonus themes by installing some ofthe developer’s other games, and thosewho are colour blind can activate a specialoption in the Settings panel that addssymbols to the tiles.

Note that there are two games calledPoptile in the App Store. The one reviewedhere is by 1Button.

Poptile is enormously fun and entirelyundemanding – perhaps the perfectpuzzle game.

Flow FreeThose over the age of 30 and who areinto electronics may remember hand-etching circuit boards. The trickiest partwas routing circuit lines. Each line couldn’ttouch any others, unless you wanted abrief explosion when power was applied.

While circuits nowadays are designedusing computers, the folks behind FlowFree clearly reckoned there was fun tobe had with the concept. As its mostbasic level, Flow Free is a join-the-dotsgame akin to Dots, reviewed above. Eachlevel opens to a grid of varying sizeswith coloured dots on it, but always twodots of each colour. Your task is to drawlines between these dots, just like joiningcomponents on a circuit board. The moredots you join, the trickier everythingbecomes, because all available squares getused up with existing lines. Frequently youhave to simply give up and start again with

a new approach, typically after findingfour out of five of the dots connect butthe sixth simply can’t.

If all this sounds too easy then you canopt for the time trial mode of play which– you’ve guessed it – imposes a time limitfor each board of 30 seconds or 1, 2 or 4minutes (the choice is yours).

If you get stuck, you can tap thequestion mark icon for a hint, but onlythree of these are provided. Five more canbe purchased as a 79p in-app purchase,while 20 can be had for £2.29. As the appname says, however, this is an entirely freeapp, and for the price of nothing you canplay literally hundreds of levels across gridsof increasing sizes. Once you’ve finished,more can be bought for 79p a go or youcan buy them all for a reasonable £2.99.You can also switch the theme (that is, thecolour scheme) for 79p a pop or for £1.49to make a bulk purchase of all of them.

The Settings panel lets you add labelsto the colours to aid those who haveproblems with colour perception, anda pretty terrific – and, sadly, unique –feature is the ability to share your progressthrough iCloud. In other words, installFlow Free on both your iPad and iPhone,and you’ll always be able to continue atthe latest level you’ve reached. All gamesshould do that, really.

A banner ad at the bottom of the screenis visible at all times, even while playing,and those ads that flash words or imagescan be distracting. However, consideringwhat you get – which is literally hours ifnot days of potential fun – we reckon thisis a reasonable price to pay. mm

Those over the age of 30 and whoare into electronics may remember hand-etching circuit boards. The trickiest partwas routing circuit lines

Poptile is about as simple as puzzle games get

and induces a trance-like state of relaxation

Flow Free makes you join the dots – but it’s

much more fun than it sounds

Lin

ux

Specialists

108 Issue 1350

David Hayward hasbeen using Linuxsince Red Hat 2.0in schools, businessesand at home, whicheither makes himvery knowledgeableor a glutton forextreme punishment

A few weeks ago Imentioned theUbuntu Phone – or,rather, the lack of it.

Now, it’s going to be madeavailable, but has Canonicaldropped the ball?

The Ubuntu phone as it willbe sold isn’t something to getexcited about. It’s called theAquaris E4.5 and has so farfailed to create even theslightest bit of excitement fromthe mobile world.

The first problem is the factthat the Ubuntu phone doesn’twork in the way we wereoriginally led to believe itwould, in that it’s not going tobe able to become a desktopmachine when you hook up akeyboard, mouse and monitor.Secondly, there’s only going tobe a flash sale of the phoneover the next few weeks, inlimited quantities, and it’ll onlybe available in mainlandEurope, with some units beingavailable in the UK.

Also, rather than the usualapp ecosystem in place, theUbuntu phone will be usingScopes to present desktopdashboards that will display thecontent from the relevantprovider. The problem here isthat new phone concepts tendto be near-dead on arrival.Without a blooming andcompetitive app market behindit, the Ubuntu phone can’thope to compete with Androidand iOS, Windows or evenBlackBerry. And when youfactor in the mediocrehardware it’s being sold on, wedon’t have much hope for thefuture of the Ubuntu phone.

Finally you have to askyourself why Canonical is evenbothering. It sold the idea ofthe Ubuntu phone years ago

Ubuntu Phone, AndUbuntu Phone, AndThe Death Of A DistroThe Death Of A Distro

Do we need another phone?

and promised them throughout2014, but they never appeared.Now it seems like it's goingthrough the motions purelybecause it has to, rather thantaking a step backward andsaying, "Sorry, it was a badidea. Look, we’ll make thedesktop OS better instead."

Having said that, there areenough people out there whocovet the latest ‘thing’, so whoknows, maybe the Ubuntuphone will find a foothold inthe already super-tight mobilemarket?

RIP CrunchBangCrunchBang Linux was a decentdistro; derived from Debian,with a customised Opebboxwindow manager and someGTK+ widget developments, itdid a reasonably good job.

But all things must come toan end, as they say, and nowit’s the time for CrunchBang toclose its doors. As its developer,Philip Newborough, recentlyposted on the CrunchBangforums, “I have decided to stopdeveloping CrunchBang. Thishas not been an easy decisionto make and I’ve been puttingit off for months. It’s hard to letgo of something you love.

“For anyone who has beeninvolved with Linux for the pastten years or so, I’m sure they’llagree that things have movedon. Whilst some things havestayed exactly the same, othershave changed beyond allrecognition. It’s called progressand for the most part, progressis a good thing. That said, whenprogress happens, some thingsget left behind and for me,CrunchBang is something that Ineed to leave behind. I’m leavingit behind because I honestlybelieve that it no longer holdsany value, and whilst I couldhold on to it for sentimentalreasons, I don’t believe thatwould be in the best interest ofits users, who would benefitfrom using vanilla Debian.”

So while the community willstill exist, there will be no moreofficial CrunchBang Linuxdevelopment, unless someonetakes up the mantle.

It’s always sad to see aproject die, but these thingshappen. Maybe somethinggood will come of it in thefuture?

Farewell CrunchBang. You’ll be

missed by many

Craig Grannell isa writer, designer,occasional musicianand permanentloudmouth. He’sowned Macs since1996, when Apple wasfacing certain doom,and is thereforepleasantly surprisedby its current success.Find Craig on Twitterat @craiggrannell

Ma

cYou've BeenYou've BeenFramedFramed

It’s quite rare these days that Iproperly look forward to apiece of Apple softwarearriving. Although I remain a

big fan of the Mac and iOSdevices, I spend the vast majorityof my time using third-partyapplications. I’d no soonerimmerse myself in Pages thanrepeatedly smack my headagainst the desk; instead,Byword and Scrivener are whereit’s at for writing. And although Ido admit to gritting my teethand bearing the likes of Mail,that’s largely because I’m a bitlazy when it comes to lookingfor alternatives and because Mailfor the iPad is actually prettygood; I always hope (in vain) thesame might one day be true forthe OS X release.

With Photos, though, I’mbucking this particular trend,because I can’t wait for it toshow up on the App Store. Inpart, this is because Photos foriOS just works really nicely. Onmy iPad Air, it’s fast andresponsive, zipping betweenlocal and cloud albums. Theautomatic categorisation is smartand suited to the way I navigatephotos, enabling me to rapidlymove between individualmoments, collections and entireyears of images. In a sense, it’severything iPhoto once wantedto be, but now very much isn’t.

By contrast, Apple’s desktopphoto solution feels like it’smade of lead. It beachballs sooften that you wonder if theentire thing’s written in BASIC,and scrolling through a largecollection of images is painful. Italso looks very much of its time.The interface is this darkmonolithic thing spat out duringan age when brushed metal

seemed pretty cool. It doesn’tmake your photos shine somuch as smother them in layersof grey.

At the time of writing, aPhotos beta has arrived as partof the OS X beta. Apple also hasa preview page up on its website(apple.com/osx/photos-preview). The app, as far aspossible, apes its iOS cousin,with similar navigation andediting features. It currently lacksthird-party extensions (althoughyou can bet they’re on the devroadmap) but does bundleprojects, making it absurdly easyto create your own prints andphoto books. For Aperture users,it’s probably not going to beenough – Mac-based prophotographers are going to haveto get used to Adobe Lightroomor try to keep an aging Macgoing indefinitely. But foranyone with more modestrequirements, Photos looks likeit’s going to fit the bill – albeitwith the caveat that it’ll onlywork on OS X Yosemite, whichremains a bit of a mess.

It’s a pity, though, that Appleisn’t taking this ‘back to theMac’ simplification further, in

order to deal with that otherbloated monstrosity: iTunes.Photos looks so great on aRetina display, and it’s so simple.It would be great to get Macequivalents of Music, Videos,App Store (as in, the iOS one)and the like. Instead, we haveiTunes 12, which pretends to besimple but is in fact iTunes 11with all the (very many)deckchairs rearranged.

Rumours even surfacedrecently that Apple is planningto bring ebooks and PDFs backinto iTunes, having only recentlyhoused them in the entirelyseparate iBooks app. I hope thecompany doesn’t take such aretrograde step. The future ofthe Mac will be a much morepleasant one with refined,focused, streamlinedexperiences. The likes of iPhotoand iTunes should be put out oftheir misery, left in the past, butnot forgotten – becauseeveryone should be eager to notrepeat the same mistakes.

Bye, iPhoto! Very much be a

stranger!

Apple's upcoming OS X release of Photos looks great. It's just apity the company won't think different elsewhere

Issue 1350 109

Mo

bil

eWindows Tablets AreWindows Tablets AreRidiculously Cheap Right NowRidiculously Cheap Right Now

Sometimes you just have to tell it how it is, says Ian McGurren

Ian is a professionalIT analyst, a semi-professional writerand a pretty amateurelectronic musician.He likes gadgetry andloves making gadgetsdo things they werenever designed to do

devices still costing £250 or more,and the user experience being notquite as finger-friendly as Androidor iOS. But unlike those devices,Windows 8.1 tablets will stand tallagainst any cheap tablet, laptop,media box or micro-desktop, andcost you considerably less.

There are loads of Windowstablets about now, all much thesame, though they're still hiddenaway for the most part, beingnot quite as glamorous as thenew iPad Air 2 or a SamsungTab S. You'll find them in Argos(Bush MyTablet 8 - £99), Tesco(Linx 7 with Nokia 530 phone- £99!), Staples (Linx 7/8/10 -£79/£89/£149) and on eBaydirect from China, though you'reprobably better off sticking withUK sales for now. Some, like theLinx, are even offering cashbackfor your old tablets too. So forthe price of a family trip to thecinema or a meal out and a fewdrinks, you can have a new tabletand computer, with Windows andOffice. That's unprecedented.

T here's a certain art to theheadline, something I doattempt to practise in mycolumns. But sometimes

the headline just needs to say itplainly, and the undeniable fact isthat Windows tablets areridiculously cheap right now andoffer staggering value for money.

Windows tablets have had astrange gestation in the mobileworld. Windows 8 itself wasroundly decried on its release,as it was a touchscreen-enabledOS being released on mostlytraditional computers, due tothe lack of many Windowstouchscreen devices. Then camelaptops with touchscreens, furtherconfusing buyers, until the then-premium Surface Pro showedWindows 8 could work bothas a tablet and as a traditionalcomputer. By then, however, withdominance of iOS and the riseof Android, Redmond's curiousbipolar OS did as poorly as itsmobile counterpart.

Now, however, sales inWindows 8.1 tablets are pickingup. Is it because the .1 bump hasimproved the UI? Probably not.Is it because of the excitementabout Windows 10? Unlikely. No,the reason here is a simple one:Windows 8.1 tablets are cheap,and not 'affordable' cheap, butrub-your-eyes cheap, with 8"devices around £100 and 7" oneseven less. With further discountsapplied in sales too, it has beenpossible to pick up a 7" 1280 x800 Windows 8.1 tablet, with aWindows 8.1 with Bing licenceand a year of Office 365 for amojo chew under £50. That'scheaper than the Office 365personal one-year licence costs inCurrys alone.

Of course, you can point outthat there are Android tablets foraround this price too, and they're99% a waste of the componentsthey are made from. Naturallyyou'd expect the same here too,so £49.99 it may be, but that's

probably just a waste of money.Surprisingly, that's far from thetruth. Most of these budgetunknown-name tablets areactually pretty good and certainlyworth their money. Take, forexample, a typical bestseller, theLinx 8.

The Linx is actually from aBritish company called Exertis,but you would be right in yourassumption that the hardwareis built in China. However, thedevice is well built, solid, and aseasy on the eye as any mid-rangeAndroid tablet. The 8” screenhas a 1280 x 800 IPS screen withgood viewing angles, a quad-core Intel Bay Trail CPU (Z3735Fhere), with 1GB RAM and 32GBstorage. It comes with wi-fi,Bluetooth, a micro-USB that canbe converted to accept input witha USB OTG cable, and, crucially, amini-HDMI out.

In use it's the same as prettymuch all Windows 8.1 tablets,and Windows 8.1 computers forthat matter – not surprising, giventhat's exactly what it is at heart:a Windows PC. It's quite easy toforget this though, especially ifyou stick with the tiled interfaceand buy purely from the (stilllacking) Windows Store. In thatsense it's a perfectly decent tablet,though its interface does take afew hours to feel right with. Butbeyond that, and beyond iOSand Android, this is a quad-corePC, and when plugged into amonitor or TV and coupled witha Bluetooth keyboard and mouse,it becomes a regular desktopmachine. What's more, the BayTrail CPUs have hardware videodecoding on board, meaningnot only do they handle HDvideo with ease, but you canuse your tablet quite easily as aSteam In-Home Streaming unit.Just hook up a controller andyou're away.

Windows tablets in generalhave some shortcomings, suchas the higher-end, full HD

110 Issue 1350

Ha

rdw

are

Andrew Unsworth hasbeen writing abouttechnology for severalyears, he's handy witha spanner, and hishandshaking skillsare second to none

Ifeel sorry for hipsters. Muchmaligned due to their goodmanners, their face fur styledon the Victorian beards of the

empire and, most damningly, theirpenchant for hell-red corduroys,hipsters have attracted more ireand verbal condemnation thanwould ever be visited on amohican-crowned punk orfootball casual.

However, hipsters’ good cheerand enthusiasm for absolutelyeverything is as infectious and life-affirming as it is genuine.

If you ask me, the only problemwith the hipster is that it doesn'tadd anything new to our culture.The hipster doesn't challengethe status quo and force socialand technological evolution.Everything the hipster does orloves seems to be drawn froman over-exposed reminiscenceof a 1970s that never existed, atleast not in Britain, which bringsme onto the topic of this week'scolumn: the Polaroid Socialmatic(polaroid.com/socialmatic). This

is a rectangular smart-camera witha built-in printer that lets you printpictures as soon as you’ve takenthem. It also has built-in wi-fi andBluetooth, and runs Android, soyou can upload your pictures tosocial media for the purposes ofhumble-bragging, should younot want to print out your effortsthere and then. Then there’s itslooks, which are clearly inspiredby popular consumer products ofthe 1970s. The Socialmatic is adecades old idea reinvented forthe 21st century, and hipsters aregoing to love it.

However, the PolaroidSocialmatic has much goingfor it other than its appearanceand built-in printer. It has a14-megapixel front camera and atwo-megapixel rear camera. Ontop of that there’s a whopping4.5" touchscreen, GPS, wi-fiand Bluetooth, 4GBs of internalstorage and a micro-SD card slotfor when 4GBs just isn’t enough.

I’m sure the Socialmatic will bea decent product, but I’ll reserve

judgement on the overall qualityof it until I’ve used one. Themajor thing that worries me isthe battery life. The Socialmaticseems to be wi-fi only, so the lackof a 3G or 4G transceiver meansthat its battery power won’t besapped to nothing by snap-happyusers uploading a constant streamof images to Facebook from thetop of Mt. Snowdon. However,that relatively big touchscreen, theGPS system, the printing systemitself and the computing powerneeded to run the Socialmatic’sAndroid operating system willuse up a tremendous amount ofpower. I couldn’t find a figure forthe Socialmatic’s battery life, butI’d expect it to be pretty low, withnightly charges necessary. Still,one look at it and I’m certain Icould live with carrying around acharger.

The Polaroid Socialmatic isclearly hipster-bait but, as with allgood hipster-bait, the Socialmaticis dearly, hopelessly desirable and Idearly, hopelessly want one.

Issue 1350 111

A self-printing camera? We'll give it a shotsays Andrew Unsworth

InstantInstantGratificationGratification

This week, Ryan takes an early look at Rise Of TheTomb Raider, and checks out the sudden sale of SonyOnline Entertainment...

Mine Croft

Plug&PlayThe rebooted Tomb Raider,released in 2013, gave us a morehuman, believable Lara Croft.Gone were the twin pistols, tinyshorts and outlandish physicalproportions. In their placewere grazed elbows, tears by acampfire and an island of terror.It may have been a bit ironicthat the Tomb Raider reduxwas heavily influenced by thePlayStation's Uncharted series ofaction adventures – a franchiseitself influenced by Tomb Raider'splatform-puzzle-shootingamalgam – but the more realisticslant was just what Croft needed.Reviews were positive, sales brisk,and a sequel was assured.

With Tomb Raider takingthe franchise back to zero,and telling the story of Croft'stransformation from quaking,marooned archaeologist toweather-beaten survivalist, thestage is set for a sequel thatsees the heroine getting downto the important business ofraiding tombs. Which seemsto be exactly what we'll get inCrystal Dynamics' forthcomingRise Of The Tomb Raider. Wherethe first game took place on aspooky island in the Pacific, Risewill greatly expand its canvas;this time, Croft's focusing

her attention on Siberia, andspecifically, an invisible Russiancity called Kitezh.

Within this new setting, Risewill seek to amplify the survivalaspects of its predecessor. Earlyfootage unveiled by Americanmagazine Game Informershows Croft stumbling througha dank Russian forest, hotlypursued by a colossal and veryangry brown bear. Faced withthese decidedly natural threats,Croft fights back with her trustybow and arrow (the twin pistolsof old are still nowhere to beseen), while a newly introducedcrafting system will allow her tomake useful things like first aidkits, Molotov cocktails and trapswith bits and pieces gleanedfrom her surroundings.

The crafting will be joinedwith other trappings from recentsurvival games: a day-nightcycle, inclement weather andnocturnal animals. It's also saidthat an incidental character fromthe previous game – bull-neckedcook Jonah Maiava – will becomeCroft's side-kick this time, thoughwhether that means he'll befollowing Croft around as an AIcharacter or merely showing up inflash-backs isn't currently clear.

What is clear, is that – aswell as running from bears and

building traps in the Russianwilderness – Croft will also getto dig around in lots of ancientchambers full of traps andmysterious runes.

"The most important thing tous," Crystal Dynamics say, "is tolive up to that promise of tombraiding, and make sure that asmuch as this is a game abouttraversal, exploration and combat,it's also very much about tombsand puzzle-solving."

Throw in the promise of otherlocations as well as Siberia – it'ssaid that part of the story willtake place in the desert – andit looks as though Rise Of TheTomb Raider will provide aninteresting balance of old andnew. That it's a timed exclusivefor the Xbox One means that aPC edition won't appear this sideof Christmas 2015, but if CrystalDynamics can deliver on thepromise of an evolved version ofthe solid 2013 reboot, then RiseOf The Tomb Raider should beworth the wait.

OnlineThe 15th January saw zombiesurvival MMO H1Z1 appear onSteam Early Access. Sony OnlineEntertainment's answer to thehighly successful DayZ, H1Z1'shad its fair share of controversy

112 Issue 1350

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Ryan Lambie has lovedvideogames since hefirst stared up in awe ata Galaxian arcadecabinet in his local chipshop. 28 years on, Ryanwrites about gaming forMicro Mart. He’s stilladdicted to chips andstill useless at Galaxian

Specialists

Lara Croft returns for a Siberian adventure in Rise Of The Tomb Raider. Expect more grazed elbows,archery, and this time, a big angry bear

Issue 1350 113

GAMING

Call Of Juarez and Dead Island,and we wish to continue thatwith Dying Light," the studiowrote. "We plan to activelysupport the coolest mods createdby players."

Although we don't yet knowwhen the tools will be available,it's a heartening move, and anincreasingly rare one from a fairlymajor developer.

Techland has already setup a modding forum (bit.ly/1zgnNd1), where you cankeep up to date with the tools,and what players plan to do withthem. Our favourite suggestionso far? A mod based on Japanesegame show Takeshi's Castle, withrobe swings and vault platforms.And, of course, zombies.

– not least its paid-for airdropsand the slightly odd decision tocharge £15 to gain early entry toa free-to-play game – but earlyimpressions have been cautiouslypositive for the most part.

Then, on the February 3rd,something surprising happened.All of a sudden, Sony OnlineEntertainment wasn't Sony OnlineEntertainment anymore – it wasDaybreak. The division had,we soon learned, been boughtup by a cash-rich investmentfirm named Columbus Nova, acompany already known for itsportfolio of tech businesses.

"Effective immediately," anannouncement on the company'ssite read, "SOE will operate as anindependent game developmentstudio where we will continueto focus on creating exceptionalonline games for players aroundthe world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company."

What this means is thatDaybreak is now free to developgames for the Xbox One as wellas PC and PlayStation consoles.So why did Sony suddenly decideto sell up? Speaking to financialwebsite Fortune, analyst MichaelPachter thinks he has the answer:the MMO market has changedconsiderably since SOE was

launched in 1996, and no longerthe growth area it once was.

"Unfortunately, free-to-play isgrowing most rapidly on phonesand tablets, and SOE wasn’t therebecause those aren’t really coreSony products," Pachter said."SOE didn’t support any of Sony’sconsumer electronics businesses,so it was easy to sell."

With Sony as a whole sufferingfinancially in recent years – itmade a net loss of $1.25bnin 2014's financial year, andhas warned that it could facelosses of around $2bn this timearound – the sale is thought tobe the company's move to focusits energies purely on gamesfor its own consoles, like theforthcoming Kill Strain.

For now, it looks like businessas usual for the former SOE'slarge catalogue of games,including Payday, Planetside 2and H1Z1. While Station Cash –the company's virtual currency– will be undergoing a namechange, and fan event SOELive is now cancelled, Daybreakpresident John Smedly has saidthat the expensive-looking,forthcoming MMO Everquest

Next is still in production."We're still making EverquestNext," he wrote in a recent post,"Nothing has changed."

IncomingBy now, you may well have playedTechland's free-running zombiesurvival game, Dying Light. Itshares much in common with thestudio's Dead Island, but with big-budget sheen and a more athleticturn of speed. In a hearteningmove, Techland has recentlyannounced that it's set to provide"extensive modding tools" forPC users, hoping to improve orchange the game – and they'll beavailable for free.

"Modders were a massive partof our gaming community since

Sony Online Entertainment is now independent

studio Daybreak. Games like H1Z1 and Everquest

Next are unaffected, though Station Cash will be

undergoing its own name change soon

Have you played Techland's

Dying Light and thought, "I'd like

to modify that?" Then good news:

the studio's currently working on an

"extensive" set of mod tools

Index

114 Issue 1350

w

AD INDEX

NOTE TO ADVERTISERSMicro Mart © Dennis Publishing, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD. Company registered in England No

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without the written consent of the publishers. ISSN 956-3881. Blimey.

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116 Issue 1350

Classifieds Please mention Micro Mart when replying to adverts

118 Issue 1350

Have you got any old kit lyingaround you’d like to get rid of?Fancymaking a few pounds whileyou’re at it?Why not advertisein theMicroMart classifieds? It’seasy and it’s free, just email whatyou’ve got, howmuch you’d likefor it, and your contact [email protected], andwe’ll do the rest.Thereare thousands of readers outthere looking for componentsevery week, and youmay havesomething unwanted they’ve beensearching for – so get in touch andsave your kit from going to the tip!

Corsair Vengence 16GB(2x 8GB) DDR3MemoryCMSX16GX3M2A1600C10. Neverused but box opened. Selling due towrong voltage, these are 1.5V andI needed 1.35V. Asking £85.00 inc.postage to the UK.Email: [email protected]

Used Asus Wireless Router forsale. Dual-band 4 x GB EthernetWi-Fi RT-N66U N-900. £65.00O.V.N.O. Selling cause I have noneed for it since upgrade to BTHome Hub 5.Email: [email protected]

Asus A8V motherboard, socket939. Clips holding CPU coolerbroke, CPU overheated & shutdown. M/B should be OK andthere is 4GB of ram on board.Free, collect only. North Wales.Tel: (01286) 678584Email: [email protected]

2 x 2GBDDR3 1600MHz RAM.Recently taken from a 2012macmini.As new £25.Email [email protected]

XFXGeForce Nvidia 8800GtsGraphics Card for Sale. £40.00 +Post/Packing. Perfect working order.Email: [email protected]

4X1 Gig DDR2 Ram (Ocz NvidiaSLI PC2 6400 epp 4-4-4-15)for Sale. £40.00 for all 4 + Post/Packing. In perfect working order.Email: [email protected]

Custom Built modifiedwatercooled gaming desktop. i54670K, R9 280X, Silverstone RV-01 USB3, 1000W PSU: parachordsleeving, Z87M OC Formula, 8GBKingston Fury 1866MHz, 180mmand 120mm Radiator. Numerousmods, Yellow and Black colourscheme! No Storage. Email forpics and info. Buyer collect:Gloucestershire. £800 ono.Tel: Adam (07426) 874117 Email:[email protected]

XFX GeForce Nvidia 8800GtsGraphics Card For Sale. £40.00 +Post/Packing. In perfect workingorderEmail: [email protected]

4x 1GB DDR2 Ram (OCZ NvidiaSLI PC2 6400 epp 4-4-4-15).£40.00 for all 4 + Post/Packing.Perfect working order.Email: [email protected]

CPU sale. Intel Core 2 DuoE4400 2.0GHz £10, IntelPentium 4 630 3.0GHz £7, IntelCeleron M 350 1.3GHz £5, IntelCeleron Mobile Dual core T15001.866Ghz £6, Intel Pentium 4630 HT 3.0Ghz 2MB cache £8,AMD Athlon 64 3200 £5 Athlon64 3500 £6 Athlon 64 3200 Dualcore £10 postage £2.Tel: Jeremy Gill (02089) 430683Email: [email protected]

Laptop DDR2 memory sale. 2Corsair Value Select 533mhz1GB £18 pair, 2 Hynix 800mhz2GB £26 pair, 2 Generic 533mhz1GB £15 pair,1 Generic 800mhz1GB £10,1 Nanua 666mhz 1GB£, 1 Samsung 666mhz 1GB £8.Postage includedTel: Jeremy Gill (02089) 430683Email: [email protected]

2 x 512MBPC3200DDR400.Thesetwo sticks were removed frommyworking system, now redundant. £5,plus £1 P&P.Tel: Alan (02084) 202322Email: [email protected]

DDR2 memory sale. 2 x NanuaPC2 3700 256MB £6 pair, 2 x HPPC2 4200 256MB £7 pair, 4 x HPPC2 4200 512MB £10 pair or £18for four.Tel: Jeremy Gill (02089) 430683Email: [email protected]

Asus M2N2-SLI Deluxemotherboard bundle. With AMDAthlon 64 4000 CPU, 4Gb Corsairram, fan, backplate, manual,driver CD. £40Email: [email protected]

Two 120GB Maxtor DiamondPlus9 Drives plus one 80GBDiamondPlus 10. Can be suppliedwith two plug-in caddies. Noreasonable offer refused.Tel: Alan (02084) 202322Email: [email protected]

IBM/LENOVO SFF BASEUNIT.P4/ 2.8 H-T, 2GB RAM, 40GBHard Drive, CD-Rom, 10/100Network, sound, USB, Cleaninstall XP-pro, fully updated,Office Suite, Anti-Virus, & allusual utilities, COA LicenceSticker & Install media, £25Tel: Pat (07710) 348638Email: [email protected]

FUJITSU-SIEMENSMINITOWER. Pentium D 2.8Dual-Core, 2GB RAM, 80GBHard Drive, DVD-RW, Gigabitnetwork, sound, Clean InstallXP-pro, fully updated, Officesuite, Anti-Virus & all usualUtilities, Legal COA sticker &System Image. £35Tel: Pat (07710) 348638Email: [email protected]

DELL OPTIPLEX GX240 SFF.P4/1.6, 20GB hard Drive, 768MBRAM, CD-Rom, 10/100 network,Sound, Front USB, Clean installXP-pro, fully updated, worksOK but slow by modernstandards, £15.Tel: Pat (07710) 348638Email: [email protected]

LGFlatronW2246S 22”monitorwith power andVGA leads. No deadpixels in very good condition. £50Buyer Collects (Verwood, Dorset)Tel: (01202) 826057 Email:[email protected]

2x 1GB PC2100-648.These twomatched sticks were removed fromone of my redundant systems. Plusone PC2700 (DDR 333Mhz) andone 512Mb PC3200 DDR400 stick.All for £5 plus £2 P&P.Tel: Alan (02084) 202322Email: [email protected]

SANSUNG GALAXY Tab 3 forsale. 2mths old, 8GB, wi-fi, £80open to offers. Willing to post ata charge.Tel: Christine (01386) 831836

HP Elitebook 8760w i7 2820QM@ 2.2GHz 32GB RAM 750GBHDD Quadro 4000M GPU. Only2 small marks on whole machine.Cost £3500 when new. £900 ONOTel: (07772) 926632Email: [email protected]

WD 2TB desktop hard disk.Formatted ready for an OS. Runsvery nicely. New laptop meansmy desktop items must go! £40includes free tracked postage.Tel: (01619) 501218Email: [email protected]

Toshiba C500D-B-11 laptop.Virtually new cost £279 will accept£150 O.N.O.Tel: (01217) 535324

Intel 3930K processor. Used, butnot overclocked. No box or fan.£220 ono. Will ship to UK address.Tel: Tim (01623) 624509 [email protected].

Amstrad PcW 9256 in goodworking order with software. Offers.Tel: John Adams (02088) 641202Email: [email protected]

Asus P8Z68-v LX socket 1155motherboard. Original box 1/0cover user guide driver disk fittedcore i3 2100 CPU 3-1GHz and 8GBPC1300memory. No fan.Workingfast and fine. £125 + free postage.Tel: (01619) 501218Email: [email protected]

To place an ad in our classifieds, simply fill in theform at www.micromart.co.uk or send your adby post to Maaya Mistry, Micro Mart, DennisPublishing, 30 Cleveland Street, W1T 4JD

HARDWARE FOR SALE

ClassifiedsPlease mention Micro Mart when replying to adverts

119Issue 1350

Asus p8h61-mle motherboardsocket 1155. Original box1/0 cover driver disk manualtogether with Celeron 91620dual core CPU and 4 9195pc1300 memory. Working fine.No fan. £70 + free postage.Tel: (01619) 501218Email: [email protected]

Toshiba Satellite SA60 laptop.Model PSA60E-092058EN.Windows XP Home Edition withCertificate of Authenticity. Forspares or repair - broken powerconnector on mobo. No powercord. Otherwise in very goodcondition. £40.00 + p&pTel: Peter Scarth (01452) 372350Email: [email protected]

SoundBlaster Audigy SE 7.1soundcard for sale. Perfectworking order. Selling due to notbeing needed any more. Just £12plus postage.Tel: Ian (01132) 629028Email: [email protected]

Apple Touch 32 GB iPod.Virtually new cost £199 will accept £100 O.N.OTel: (01217) 535324

400GB IDE drive 3.5 inchformatted ready for use. Only£20 plus £3 for p&p. I can loadgenuine XP Professional fromMicrosoft with genuine certificateof authenticity for an extra £10.Refurbished.Tel: DaveThomas (07828) 982930 or(01942) 706571Email: [email protected]

Amstrad PcW 9256 in goodworking condition with software.Offers.Tel: John Adams (02088) 641202Email: [email protected]

Panasonic KX-P7105 mono laserduplex printer. Some toner left.Up to XP only - hence £25. Buyercollects from N2, East FinchleyTel: (02083) 431527Email: [email protected]

Amstrad PcW9256 in goodworkingconditionw/ software. Offers.Tel: John Adams (02088) 641202Email: [email protected]

GEFORCE 1GBYTE 24- PCIexpress PC card. HDMI DVIVGA PC video card. £10 plusp&p £4.50. 2 for sale. £10 each.Tel: (01707) 339063Email: [email protected]

HP 4GB memory Microserverwith two hard disc drives. £110.One with Linux MINT. Otherwith Linux FreeNAS. Thiswill also run Windows 7 andWindows Server or Home Server.(Win 8 I’ve not tried it) Twospare HD slots with appropriatecaddies. Slot for your SATA DVDdrive also, (or use external usbor DVD drive if needed. four usbsockets on front, two on rear.VGA, network, power sockets onrear. Supplied in original HP boxwith CD and leaflets etc.Collect from Harrogate, NorthYorks, or posted via Hermesfor £12 (or less if I can do itcheaper). Cash on inspectionand collection (Highlands andIslands might obviously costmore to be delivered).Tel: (01423) 872045Email: [email protected]

400GB IDE drive 3.5 inch formattedready for use. Only £20 plus £3for p&p. I can load genuine XPProfessional fromMicrosoft withgenuine certificate of authenticityfor an extra £10. Refurbished.Tel: DaveThomas (07828) 982930or (01942) 706571Email: [email protected]

CRUCIAL 8GB (4x2).PC3-10600 unbuff.CT25664BA1339A. (4X2) =£48.00. (2X2) = £25.00. Boxedkit of CORSAIR Vengeance4GB (2X2) = £35.00. Pricesinclude P&P.Tel: BobWilliams (01507) 602914Email: [email protected]

Wireless Motorised IPSurveillance Camera. WhiteIn Colour - Control from yourmobile phone/tablet/pc whenout of the home - ideal for homesecurity, baby monitoring, hassound and remote recording etcBNIB - £25 Price includes postand packing.Email:[email protected]

EPSON PRINTERS T715 12multipack F.O.C. to good home,just pay postage £2.50. (Tescoequivalent original cartridges£120 current special offer!)Perfect crisp printing etc.Tel: Pete Dew: (07526) 988594EPSON PRINTERS T711 6multipack F.O.C., just pay postage£2. Perfect crisp printing etc. Mayhave others F.O.C. if model olderthan 12 months.Tel: Pete Dew (07526) 988594

Lexmark Printer Z601, stillworking and in good condition,£25.Tel: (01386) 832758

Intel 3930K processor. Used,but not overclocked. No boxor fan. £220 ono. Will ship toUK address.Tel: Tim (01623) 624509Email [email protected].

Apple Mac G4 Tower. 400MHZcpu, 640MB Ram, 2xHardDrive40GB,20GB. DVD & ZIP Drive.OS X v10.3 Panther+OS9. NOKEYBOARD OR MOUSE. £25ono Buyer collectsTel: (07941) 254296Email: [email protected]

Blueberry I-MAC. Goodcondition, all in workingorder, £55.Tel: (01386) 832758

Dell Inspiron 660 Intel i5QUAD CORE with ACER 23Inch LED monitor. AS NEW.Operating System: Windows8.1. MPN:620MT. Memory(RAM): 4 GB. Hard Drive: 1TB.Processor Type: Intel Core i5.Primary Drive: Optical DVD+/-RW, Processor Speed: 3.0 GHz,Features: Graphics Card GT6201GB. Acer LED monitor 23”HD. £520Tel: Hitesh Rao (01163) 198895

PRINTER CARTRIDGES.Suitable for Epson printer rangeT711 - T714. Work perfectly. 50pence each, plus postage (brandnew unused sealed). Over adozen available.Tel: (07541) 222678Email: [email protected]

PRINTERST481-T486 6multipackF.O.C. to good home, just paypostage £2. Perfect crisp printing etc.Tel: Pete Dew (07526) 988594

INKJET CARTRIDGES suitable forEpson Printers T711 - T714 range,and T481 - T486 range. 79 penceeach, plus postage.Work perfectly,good crisp printing quality.Tel: (07526) 988594Email: [email protected]

Powered PCI Express x1 To x16Riser Card Extension via USB 3.0 +Power Cable Adaptor. Allows youto add an extra Pci-ExpressX16 slotto your Pc converting an existingx1 slot to x16. Useful for addingan Extra graphics card to create aCrossfire triple configuration orfor Bitcoin data mining up to 7cards can be installed using theseadaptors. Quality model - Brandnew still boxed. £10. Price inc. P&PEmail:[email protected]

Laptop Removeable drive tray.Allows you to add an extra harddrive to your laptop by taking outthe CD/DVD drive. This deviceinserts into the Cd/Dvd EmptySlot and holds 1 Hard Drive.Excellent Engineers Gadget -Great for data recovery or justbeefing up your laptop. Two typesavailable - standard Sata To Sata orSata To Ide (Pata) Slot type. BrandNew Still In Box. £20.Email: [email protected]

Amstrad PCW 9256. In perfectworking order including on-topprinter with a few 3" disks. Offers.Tel: John Adams (02088) 641202Email: [email protected]

2 HP Laserjet 3100 printer-fax-copier-scanners. In good workingorder. £25 each.Tel: John Adams (02088) 641202Email: [email protected]

Lian Li PC-X2000 ComputerCase. Supports mATX, ATX,eATX; hot swap SATA drives,six 3.5" & two 2.5" hot swap discholders. Three 140mm intakeplus two 80mm and one 140mmexhaust fans. £140.Tel: Ian (01932) 856971Email: [email protected]

Classifieds Please mention Micro Mart when replying to adverts

120 Issue 1350

1.5TB SATA drive. Fullyrefurbished by governmentacknowledged company. All datataken off (some drives are stillunder Western Digital warranty)ONLY £40 including P&PTel: DaveThomas (01942) 706572Email: [email protected]

1TB SATA drive. Fullyrefurbished by governmentacknowledged company. All datataken off (some drives are stillunder Western Digital warranty)ONLY £38 including P&PTel: DaveThomas (01942) 706572Email: [email protected]

2TB Western Digital SATAdrive. Model WD2002FYPS64mb cache, fully refurbishedby government acknowledgedcompany. All data taken off(some drives are stillunder WD warranty) ONLY £50including P & PTel: DaveThomas (01942) 706572Email: [email protected]

Motherboard Bundle. 2.4Ghz AMDAthlon XP 32bit CPU 512MBRam5xpci 2IDE LAN sound good forgaming, office work, surfing the net,watching movies generally a goodall round system spec can slightly bechanged if required please email orcall me for a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email [email protected] SATA drive. Perfectworking order. Formatted readyto use. Only £25 plus £3 p&p.Genuine Windows XP withCertificate of Authenticity can bepre installed for an extra £10.Tel: DaveThomas (01942) 706572Email: [email protected] (2 x 2GB) of OCZ ReaperPC2 6400 ddr2 memory. Fastgaming memory, used but inexcellent condition, £49.95 incpostage.Email: [email protected]

500GB SATA drive. 3.5” formattedready for use. Software can beinstalled for an extra charge.Windows 7 extra £35 includesdisk and certificate of authenticity.Only £23 including P&P.Tel: DaveThomas (01942) 706572Email: [email protected]

HP 5101 5102 5103 Netbooks andNotebooks. Lots of parts availabledown to the tiniest screw. Contactwith requirements.Tel: (01892) 833413Email: [email protected]

Retro Commodore 64 with1541 disktrive tapedeck. All inoriginal boxes, mags. Pick upfrom Somerset. £75 ono.Tel: (01278) 691606

6 P3/4 PC bases for sale. £100 thelot. All with XP. Must be collected.Tel: (02387) 333212Email: [email protected]

MAC BOOK PRO A1151.Spares and repairs 17 " screen2.16GHz Intel CPU looks ingood condition screen appears towork. Please email or call me fora price and more information.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

Six p3/p4 PC with XP. £100 thelot. Buyer collects. Get in touchfor more information.Tel: (02380) 733312Email: [email protected]

Socket 775 System.Coolermaster Case, audio +USB. Asus P5KPL-AM EPUE6600 CPU. 250 GB Hdd.DVDRW, ATI 5450. Boxes,drivers. Samsung 19" MonitorHDMI USB. Keyboard mouse.Windows 7 Professional SP1.£100 collect from Louth,Lincolnshire.Tel: (01507) 602914Email: [email protected]

6 P314 PC bases for sale, £100.The lot all with XP must becollected.Tel: (02380) 733312Email: [email protected]

AGP, PCI and PCI-e graphics cards.Please email or call me for a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

2 x 2GB Samsung DDR3 pc3-8500 1066 SODIMM. 204 pinas new laptop memory. £15 incpostage to inland UK.Email: [email protected]

Dell OptiPlex 755 (80 GB, IntelCore 2 Duo, 2.33 GHz E6550,1GB memory, DVD/CDRW)Ultra small form factor. Fantasticsmall and very fast computer.You will need to load the drivers.XP Pro or Vista Business canbe loaded for an extra £10. Thehard drive and memory can beupgraded for an extra cost. £70plus £10 for delivery.Tel: DaveThomas (01942) 706572Email: [email protected]

Motherboard Bundle. 3GhzAMD 64bit CPU 512MB Ram5xpci 2xSATA 2IDE 1Gb LAN 6channel sound firewire. Comeswith driver CD and manual.Good for gaming, office work,surfing the net, watchingmovies, generally a good allround system. Spec can slightlybe changed if required. Pleaseemail or call me for a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

PC gaming hardware. I have 1xforce feedback steering wheel, 1xforce feedback joystick, 1x normaljoystick, lots of game pads. Pleaseemail or call me for a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

Vintage Apple MacintoshClassic II PC for sale. Completewith keyboard, mouse andmicrophone. Offers.Tel: 07733 628986Email [email protected]

Brand new USB brackets. Add2 extra USB2 ports to yourcomputer at little cost. Simpleto fit cable connects ontothe motherboard and uses aspare slot on the back of yourcomputer. No drivers required.Please email or call for a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

Laptop RAM. 2x1GB PC3-8500DDR3 1067MHz pulled form aworkingmac book pro but can beused in other laptops this is thequickest way to boost your laptop’sspeed. Please email or call for price.Tel: David (01616) 888119 Email:[email protected]

Internal 3 1/4 floppy drives.Choice of white/black/silver/noface plate. Please email or call mefor a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

Brand new Laptop bag. Still sealedin the plastic bag and never used(it came as part of a bundle).Please email or call me for a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

Brand new flatbed scanner. Stillboxed and never used (it came aspart of a bundle) Please email orcall for a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

Internal Card Reader. Compatiblewithmost memory cards. Also hasa USB port. Colour: black or silver.Please email or call me for a price.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

CISCO CONSOLE CABLES. Ihave a lot of Cisco console cablesall new let me know howmany youwould like please email or call mefor a price and more information.Tel: David (01616) 888119Email: [email protected]

Desktop cases. AT and ATXtypes and tower and flatbed formfactor different sizes and colourscan be posted or picked up fromManchester please email or callme with your requirements.Tel: David (01616) 888119 Email:[email protected]

160GB 31/2" desktop Hard driveIDE. Clean pull (little to no use) nobad sectors tested all you need todo is plug in and go. £20 +p&pTel: David (01616) 888119 Email:[email protected]

Asus Transformer Prime TF201Tablet PC. NVIDIA Tegra3,32GB Flash, 1GB RAM, 10.1"LED, Wifi, Bluetooth, 2 xWebcam, Champagne Gold,Android 4.2, with keyboarddock. £150.00.Tel: Rob Pratt (01189) 781753 Email:[email protected]

ClassifiedsPlease mention Micro Mart when replying to adverts

121Issue 1350

Computer Monitor. HP s2231a.1080p, 22 inch display, 1920x1080resolution. 60 Hz, contrast15,000:1. Price £40 ONOTel: Matthew Taylor (01842 813630)Email: [email protected]

Two Apple G4 iBook Laptops.12'' screen, 800 MGHZ CPU640MB RAM. OSX (Tiger) 30GBHDD batteries ok M/Chargers,nice machines. £105 each or£200 for the two.Tel: Matthew Taylor (01842 813630)Email: [email protected]

Gaming PC HAF-X case. ASUSP6X58D-E, i7 930 4GHZ 6GBCorsair i7 mem, gigabyte gtx470,Asetek CPU LCLC 240mmradiator + watercooling. Two12cm fans, PSU needs replacing.DVDRW, networking, originalsoftware, extra cabling. (Price:£400 ONO).Tel: Matthew Taylor (01842 813630)Email: [email protected]

Trying to breathe life back intoan old machine? Why not sub-mit a wanted ad to [email protected] see if any of the thousandsof computer enthusiasts whoread the magazine each weekhave what you’re looking for?

WANTED: Bluetooth dongle anddriver for Philips Crystal 650.Telephone: (01994) 231112Email [email protected]

WANTED:Working DotMatrixPrinter in Good Condition.Thanks!Email: [email protected]

WANTED: Acorn computer eitheran A5000 or A7000. Also book onteaching yourself binary.Tel: (07817) 861011Email: [email protected]

WANTED: Corsair PSU cable bag.Please email me if you can.Email: [email protected]

Wanted: HD 3850 Graphics card,must be AGP.Tel: (07817) 861011

Wanted: Fully working mainboardfor AMD socket AM2+/AM3,micro ATX size. Must use DDR2RAM.Tel: Brian Taylor (07570) 452557Email: [email protected]

Wanted: Factory system restoredisc for a Dell Inspiron 1750.Tel: Darren Day (07707) 556193Email: [email protected]

Do you have any old softwarethat you simply don't use? Whynot advertise is with us and seeif anyone else can make use ofit – you may well be surprisedto find that someone is lookingfor exactly what you don't need!

Windows XP Professional. Newand sealed. Book, software andlicense (certificate of authenticity)100% genuine and unopened.(Dell branded but will installon any machine) ONLY £15including P&P.Tel: DaveThomas (07828) 982930or (01942) 706571Email: [email protected]

Cyberlink PowerDVD 12Standard. Runs under Windows 8,7, Vista or XP. Original CD withunused product key £7.50Tel: Ian (01932) 856971Email: [email protected]

Nuance Omnipage 18. OCRfor Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP,Original CD with unused productkey £25.Tel: Ian (01932) 856971Email: [email protected]

Acronis True Image Home 2012.Bootable CD. Application runsunder Windows 8, 7, Vista orXP. Original Acronis CD withunused product key £5.Tel: Ian (01932) 856971Email: [email protected]

Windows 7 ULTIMATE 32 Bitand 64Bit DVD disks incl. SP1This is my "Get Genuine Kit" fromMicrosoft not OEM. New install orlegalise your copy with full ProductKey. only £50 incl. reg. postEmail: Dave [email protected]

Norton Family Premier 2.0. Runsunder Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP,Original Symantec unusedproduct key £15.Tel: Ian (01932) 856971Email: [email protected]

Microsoft Office 97 Professional.Original disc with key £18 incpostage and packing.Tel: Andrew (01376) 512118

Microsoft Office Small BusinessEdition 2003 with BusinessContacts. Legitimate OfficeSmall Office Business Editioncomprising Word, Excel,Powerpoint, etc. Comes withsmall piece of OEM hardwareand original license code (coa)£10 incl. delivery, cheque or PO.£10.50 by Paypal.Tel: (07794) 528857Email: [email protected]

Norton Utilities 16 for 3 PCs.Runs under Windows 8, 7, Vistaor XP, Original Symantec CD withunusedproduct key £12.50Tel: Ian (01932) 856971Email: [email protected]

Dell Windows XP Pro SP2Reinstall Original Cd. AllowsYou To Restore Your Dell PC /Laptop Without A Licence Key.Brand New Still Packed. £10. Priceincludes p&p.Email:[email protected]

HPWindows XP Pro SP2 Re-Install Cd. Allows You To RestoreYour HP PC / LaptopWithout ALicence Key. Brand New, Packed.£10. Price includes p&p.Email:[email protected]

Wanted:Windows 98 CDROMoperating systemwith boot disk,instructionmanual and serialnumber. Tel: Craig (07867) 930265or 01912093677Email: [email protected]

Wanted: LG GSA 2164 D softwaredisc to replace broken original.Tel: Glen Fremantle(01387)248976Email:[email protected]

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SOFTWARE FOR SALE

HARDWARE WANTED

SOFTWARE WANTED

Send your questions to:Aaron BichMicro MartDennis Publishing30 Cleveland StreetLondonW1T 4JD

Contact Aaron by email at:[email protected]

Please try to keep yourqueries brief and limitthem to just one questionper letter, simply so wecan squeeze in as many aswe can each week. Pleaseinclude relevant technicalinformation too.

Aaron

Meet Aaron Birch.He’s here to helpyou with anygeneral upgrading,software and systembuilding issues. He’sgot advice aplenty,and you’re verymuch welcome to it!

AARONASK

122 Issue 1350

Stalled TorrentsI've noticed recently that my ability to use torrentdownloads has become little to none. While Iused to be able to download torrents quickly, withdecent download rates, now they simply sit there,either with minuscule download speeds, and ETAtimes of years, or they have no time, and insteadan unlimited symbol.

I'm not sure what's going on, and as far as I cantell, I've got a perfectly fine Internet connection,and my broadband performs normally in all otherways, such as browsing and streaming video. I'verun speed tests, and they all seem okay, and Inotice no other problems. It seems to happen onany torrent too, not just specific ones (I assure you,I only use legitimate sites).

My torrent client is uTorrent, which I've used fora long time, and it's always worked well. Over thelast couple of weeks, though, it's become useless,and I'm no longer able to download torrents. Ihave to wonder, am I being limited by my serviceprovider in some way? If so, what should I do?

Bryan

Getting slow torrent download speeds could wellbe a sign of your ISP throttling your connectionsomething many will do if there's what they deem,excessive use. Some ISP's may also take steps tothrottle encrypted traffic, which includes torrents. If

this is the case, there's little you can do, as your ISPhas made this decision based on your usage. If so,you're in breach of the fair usage policy, which youhad to agree to when you signed up with the ISP. Ofcourse, this is all mere assumption until you find outfor sure, so a call to support may be worth it, to seeif you are, indeed, being throttled. If so, at least youknow why your speeds are poor to non-existent.

However, throttling may not be your problem.I've seen many reports that some torrent clientscan begin to malfunction, and quite a fewinstances of uTorrent causing problems that sounda lot like your symptoms. So, this may be thecause of your problem, and your actual connectionmay be fine. A good way to check this wouldbe to uninstall your torrent client, in this caseuTorrent, and reinstall it. This may fix the problem.

Another option would be to switch to anew client. Although uTorrent has long beenconsidered one of the best around, many wouldargue that it's degraded over time, and isn't asgood as it once was. A new favourite for torrentusers is qTorrent. This is another slimline client,and has become a big hit with users. You canfind this at www.qbittorrent.org. Install this, andgive your downloads a try, you'll probably findthings to be much improved.

qTorrent has become a favourite among users,

replacing the likes of uTorrent

Download.exeI've been keeping tabs on how well my PC isrunning, as I've noticed a few instances whenit's not performing as well as normal.

To this end I've been using the Task Manager tohave a look at what's going on with my system,and what's running. Doing this, I noticed an entrythat worried me. It's simply called download.

exe. There's no publisher listed, and the start-upimpact is high in terms of system resources. I wasimmediately concerned, so I disabled it.

I'd like to know what this actually is, and if Ishould be worried. What steps should I take toensure I'm safe?

Graham

Issue 1350 123

THEEXPERTS

In this situation, I'd certainly shareyour concern. Any unexplained entrythat appears in your Task Manager is apotential problem, but one simply calleddownload.exe that bears no publisheris especially concerning. Although it'spossible it's a legitimate program, andnothing to worry about, with no publisherlisted, it's also very possible that it couldbe some form of malware, so it would bea good idea to run a malware scanner, aswell as antivirus, just to be sure. For bestresults, run a couple of different malwarescanners. Hopefully, these will find anddeal with the problem.

To find out more about the actualprocess, and what it could be, you couldtry an enhanced version of Task Managercalled Autoruns. This free programprovides more information about entriesseen in Task Manager, and could helpidentify your mystery guest. You can grabAutoruns from Microsoft at technet.microsoft.com/en-au/sysinternals.

One thing I should make clear is thatthere's a high number of download.exeprogram variants reported, with a largerange of uses and potential problems, soyour entry isn't unique, it could be one ofmany different versions. It would appearas though the .exe files located within theWindows\System32 folder are less likely

to be problematic (although this couldstill be a possibility), while download.exefiles residing in Windows' temp folder are

more likely to be a threat. So, take noteof where the file physically sits before youdecide what to do with it.

UPnP?Recently, I've been looking into my router'scapabilities, as I'm not all too familiar withthem really, and noticed a feature called UPnP,which I believe is quite an old technologyused to forward ports (which I've alreadylooked into to find out what it means). Afterfinding this, I looked it up and found manypeople online advising that it's a security risk,and is a feature that it's advisable to turn off.

So, I'd simply like to ask what youropinion is. Is UPnP as big a threat as somesay, and should I disable it? If so, wouldthat mean I can't use port forwarding?

Lee

UPnP, or Universal Plug And Play, issimply a technology that makes it possiblefor programs to request port forwardingautomatically, meaning it doesn't have to bedone manually. On paper, it's a very usefulfeature, but as is so often the case withconvenience, it does also open up a potentialsecurity hole, which many have analysedand found to be a real risk. There are scriptsthat can run online that use flaws in UPnP,opening up your system to attack, and thiscan even lead to the use of unsavoury DNS

servers, which can redirect your browsingwithout you knowing about it.

As with a lot of security risks, however,this kind of explotation is also still fairly rare,but if you're concerned,then disabling UPnP isprobably a good idea.Many users do this toprevent any potentialthreats, and you can stillmanually apply any portforwarding you need.What's more, if you don'tuse any apps that makeuse of port forwarding,you may as well disableUPnP, as you don't reallyneed it. Your router'sdocumentation willhave details on manualforwarding methods.

For a lot more information on potentialUPnP issues www.upnp-hacks.org is a greatresource for those wanting to know moreabout the potential issues.

Autoruns is a free tool that provides much more information about running processes

Universal Plug And Play is simply

a technology that makes it possible for

programs to request port forwarding

UPnP is a common feature, but can be a security risk in rare cases

z

JASONASK

Send your questions to:Jason D’AllisonMicro MartDennis Publishing30 Cleveland StreetLondonW1T 4JD

Contact Jason by email at:[email protected]

While we try to cover as manyquestions as we can, we regretthat Jason cannot answer yourquestions personally, but he’ll coveras many as he possibly can eachweek. Please ask one question perletter and remember to include thefull specification of your computer,including its operating system.

Jason

Meet JasonD’Allison, a veteranof Micro Mart’s panelof experts. He’s hereto help with anytechnical questions,including anythingto do with tablets orsmartphones, as wellas PCs

PoweraidI’m planning to put togethera small PC for office use. Itdoesn’t need to be powerful –the hardest it’ll work is addingup a few numbers in Excel. I’mlooking at AMD’s AM1 platform,perhaps with an Asus AM1M-Amotherboard (about £23) anda quad-core Athlon 5150 APU(about £34). I’ve read that somepeople are powering PCs likethis with picoPSUs. What arethose when they’re at home?Would I need a special case?What’s the advantage? I’m abit old-skool, and talk of ‘DC-DC converters’ just leaves meconfused.

CM Kimberley,Cheshire

A picoPSU plugs into amotherboard’s standard 20-pinor 24-pin ATX power socket,just as a conventional PSU does.The difference is that the plugis the whole PSU: it’s a tinycircuit board no wider than thesocket itself and which typicallyprotrudes only a centimetre ortwo above it. There’s no bigblack or silver box at the end ofa bunch of cables.

What there is, though, is apower-brick. This converts thenominal 230V AC mains outputto a 12V DC output. It’s thesame as a laptop power-brickexcept that the output thereis typically 19V DC. A picoPSUhas a flying lead coming offit – as well as Molex and SATAconnectors – that terminates ina jack socket. This is mountedin the wall of the PC’s case, andthe power-brick plugs into it –again, exactly as with a laptop.

The term ‘DC-DC’ is usedbecause all a picoPSU does isconvert its 12V DC input to the12V, 5V, and 3.3V DC outputsneeded by the motherboard.The conversion from AC to DChas already been done by thepower-brick. A conventionalPSU is an AC-DC converter, asthe one unit takes care of thewhole job.

Should you go the picoPSUroute? The chief advantage, ofcourse, is that you could choosea much smaller case. Anotherplus is silence – there’s no fan.Well, having said that, the latestpicoPSUs can deliver up to160W, and some of the availablepower-bricks for those do have afan, but an 80W picoPSU should

be adequate for a PC such asthe one you’re proposing.

The choice is yours. Fit aconventional PSU if you prefer,but don’t be put off from usinga picoPSU because of someconfusion or misunderstanding.Hopefully I’ve helpedshow that the technologyholds no mystery. Price is aconsideration, though. An 80WpicoPSU and accompanyingpower-brick will cost around£35, yet a 300W no-nameconventional PSU can be hadfor barely a tenner. However,there’s no question that thepicoPSU would be better-madeand more power-efficient.

Bear in mind that ‘picoPSU’is a brand-name of ItunerNetworks (which also trades asMini-box). The term is now usedpretty generically, with lots ofthird-party or knock-off itemsavailable. Be careful. There arebig savings to be had, but therecould be concerns about qualityand reliability.

For a small-form-factor PC, a

picoPSU is well worth considering

124 Issue 1350

Issue 1350 125

THEEXPERTS

Chips With EverythingMy current PC’s starting to creak withage, being based on a Core 2 Duo. I wantto build a new one, this time using aHaswell-generation Core i7. I can’t decideon a motherboard, though. Obviously I’mlooking at LGA 1150, but there are somany chipsets – H97, B85, Z87, and so on.What are the differences? It’s not easy totell. I’m after a board with some qualityabout it – probably one from Gigabyte,Asus, or MSI – and if I’m honest I’mhoping to overclock. My budget’s about£75, however, so I realise I may have tocompromise.

Sam Halford, Essex

Eight chipsets are available for LGA 1150,and there are only subtle differencesacross all of them. The Z parts are aimed

at enthusiasts; the H parts are aimed atthe mainstream; and the Q and B partsare aimed at business users. Run your eyespast the table of main features I’ve drawnup.

As you plan to overclock, Mark, the Zparts are where the action is. These alsoallow the PCIe lanes from the CPU to besplit over two or even three slots, enablingSLI and CrossFire configurations. They alsopack the full complement of SATA 3.0 andUSB 3.0 ports.

Anyone after a board with a Q or Bchipset and needing specific business-orientated features should glance atIntel’s datasheets. There are loads ofsuch features, and only the Q87 chipset,with its vPro certification, supports thewhole lot. Here’s the datasheet for the six8-series parts: bit.do/Y7Kz. Go to page52. And here’s the datasheet for the two

9-series parts: bit.do/Y7KD. Again, flick topage 52.

Now, Haswell CPUs come in threeflavours: original, Refresh, and Devil’sCanyon. They’re all compatible withall eight chipsets, but boards using the8-series parts may need BIOS updates towork with CPUs other than the originals.Please see bit.do/Y7P3 and bit.do/Y7P6for further details. In your case, Mark, juststick to the Z97 chipset, as Z97 boardstypically cost no more than their Z87equivalents. Prices start at around £60 –well within your budget.

When the differences are so small, what

exactly is the point of selling eight chipsets

instead of just three or four?

Just Deserts*Have you discovered the hidden game inAndroid Lollipop (v.5.x)? I’ve just updatedmy Nexus 7 tablet and found the game inthe settings. As you’re a man who knowshis phones and tabs, I expect you’ve alreadyplayed it, but in case you haven’t, go andfind it and become an addict! Like me...

Joel, Gmail

Many thanks for writing in, Joel. I putLollipop on my lad’s 2012 Nexus 7 a monthor so ago (I’ve yet to get round to sortingmy mom’s 2013 model), and the first thingI did once the update from KitKat (v4.4.x)had completed was fire up the About screenin Settings and jab at the Android versionnumber. ‘Sad’ isn’t the word, I know. There’sbeen some treat or other hidden behind theversion number since Gingerbread (v2.3.x).

As I’m sure you’re aware, the Lollipopgame is an homage to Flappy Bird (whichis no longer available, of course, at leastofficially). For readers unfamiliar with thedrill, you have to fly Andy the Android – orBugdroid, to use his more official name –between a series of side-scrolling lollipops.

Think of it as skiing between slalom gates.Andy’s constantly tugged towards theground under gravity, so to keep him flying,you give him little upward boosts by tappingthe screen. It’s as though he’s wearing ajetpack. If he collides with anything but thesky, it’s curtains.

And for me it’s curtains an awful lot. Thegame is fiendishly difficult. So difficult, infact, that initially I assumed there was someaspect of the control mechanism I hadn’tproperly picked up on. But no. It really isthis hard – much harder than Flappy Birdever was. My high score is 2 – yes, I’vepassed through just two lollipops. If you’vemanaged a higher score, Joel, please let meknow. I won’t believe you, but please letme know.

* I’ve just realised, after all these years,that the phrase is *not* ‘just desserts’, eventhough that’s how it’s typically written. Infact, the phrase has nothing to do withpuddings, so using it in relation to Androidcode-names makes no sense at all. Hey-ho.

10 points? Yeah, right. Methinks someone’s a bit

handy with Photoshop!

Issue 1350126

This week we’re taking another look at crowdfunded games projects. Butdon’t worry, the projects we’ve chosen are guaranteed Peter Molyneux-free!

Crystal Quest ClassicCrystal Quest Classic is a revival of the 1987 video game CrystalQuest, which was popular on such diverse platforms as the Mac,Amiga, Game Boy and Xbox 360. This remake sticks to the originalgameplay, asking you to collect crystals while avoiding mines and 12breeds of alien bad guys in some high-octane, twitchy, retro-inspiredfun.

This remake has an official licence to proceed granted by PatrickBuckland, creator of the original Crystal Quest, and any version thatgets released will have his full approval. The idea is for the remadeversion to capture the vibrant look and feel of the original but inhigh-resolution and on modern platforms including Windows andLinux. The game will also come bundled with the CritterEditor, whichallows you to modify the look and sound of the game’s enemies ondesktop platforms, just like in the original!

Planned for release in August 2015, you can get a digital copy ofCrystal Quest Classic by backing the project for as little as $5. $20gets you early access to the alphas and betas, while for $50 you canget 20 platform-independent copies to hand out to your friends.Higher tiers involve exclusive T-shirts and memorabilia, includingphysical copies at the highest levels. The target is a fairly hefty$30,000, but with weeks to go, there’s every chance they’ll reach itin time. If you’re a fan of retro-gaming, this is the project for you.URL: kck.st/1vnjVq3Funding Ends: Monday, 9th March 2015

Crowdfunding Corner

Disclaimer: Images shown may be prototypes and Micro Mart does not formally endorse or guarantee any of the projects listed. Back them at your own risk!

OrphanIf you liked the look of Limbo but felt like there was more of agame to be found in the idea, why not take a look at Orphan? A2D platformer about a young boy who might be the sole survivorof an overnight alien invasion, Orphan sees you sneaking throughopen fields and dense forests, ducking behind rocks and trees, allwhile being pursued by an army of machines designed to destroyall life.

With gameplay inspired by classics like Another World,Blackthorne and Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysey, Orphan has anemphasis on stealth, item discovery and strategic combat. Asthe game progresses, the player will become more powerful andgameplay becomes more action oriented. Achievements based oncore gameplay and tons of secrets to uncover add extra value toreplays once the game has been completed.

A single copy of the game costs backers $15, including yourname in the credits and a digital instruction manual. $25 gets youall that and an art-book PDF, while $35 gets you beta access andan additional copy of the game. There are more tiers available,and the project is well on the way to its $32,000 goal, so backwith confidence!URL: kck.st/1BYIBdwFunding Ends: Tuesday, 3rd March 2015

Issue 1350 127

APP OF THE WEEK

App Of The Week

Plague Inc

Have you ever taken a momentto consider what it would taketo infect the whole of humanitywith a terrible disease, and

subsequently wipe out every last person?Okay, it’s not the kind of thing most of usthink about, we’ll grant you.

However, while a hundred years ago alethal virus could effect one region badlywithout spreading to become a globalpandemic, these days – with humanitythriving in every conceivable corner of theworld – a sneeze in Heathrow could leadto a catastrophe in Australia a few weekslater. It’s a sobering thought.

Ring A Ring O’ RosesWhich brings us to this week’s App, a gamethat delves into the nastier side of globalpopulation and travel links. Plague Inc is anolder app, but an interesting one: basically, towin, you have to kill off the Human race. Theway you attempt to do this is to infect theworld with a deadly plague. To begin with youhave a bacteria to bring down the end timeson humanity, which you must nurture andevolve during the course of play in order toincrease its infection rates and lethality.

You select the country in which to startyour plague, with careful considerationto the location and transport links ofthe country in question. For example,

a western rich country will be able tocontain the spread of the disease betterthan a poorer country, with a lowerstandard of hygiene.

The transport links are all important too,after all you’ll need to spread the illnessto the farthest reaches of the planet. Sosomewhere that has a busy airport andshipping lanes can help move the illnessacross to other countries and continents.Land borders are worth considering as well,since you could potentially evolve the plagueto infect birds, rats and other wildlife.

As you begin to infect the populationyou’ll score DNA points, which you canspend on evolving the plague to be morelethal, more infectious, better resilienceto drugs and research, and the ability tosurvive and infect people and animals indifferent climates. Eventually, the numbersof the infected will grow exponentiallyuntil there are no more healthy people left.

However, humanity isn’t going to takethis lying down. As the infection spreadsthe world becomes more hell-bent onstopping it and entire countries will shifttheir resources from more mundanematters to fighting the infection andultimately finding a cure.

To stop that, you’ll need to evolve yourinfection faster or make it more deadly soit can wipe out entire countries quicker.

If you succeed, then you can opt for aharder level to unlock a new plague type:virus, fungus, parasite, prion, nano-virus oreven bio-weapon.

ConclusionIt may not sound like a very nice game,and in all honesty it’s not. What it is,though, is quite thought provoking– it even caught the attention of theCDC (Centres for Disease Control andPrevention), which now uses it as ateaching tool for those that may be taskedwith helping to deal with such situations.

Plague Inc is certainly interesting, we’llgive it that, and we have seen somesuccess with our virus (which we lovinglyname ‘Bumface’) being spread globally andwiping out the world. It seems, then, thatit’s not a question of ‘if’ a virus can kill usall now, it’s more like ‘when’. mm

Spend your DNA points and evolve the virus Eventually infect everyone, and kill off humankind altogether

Spreading your deadly pathogen throughtransport links will ensure the end of humanity

David Hayward takes a moment to wipe out humanity

FeaturesAtAGlance• Free• Extra, paid for, add-ons that can

extend gameplay• An interesting strategy game• Rid the world of humanity

with amusingly named, butnonetheless deadly, pathogens

128 Issue 1213

In short, this is the worst type of hogwash imaginable,spouted for the most part by those whose grasp on mathsis as strong as mine on collective works of the Greek poetHerodas. The notion that you can have a means that issecure and simultaneously entirely open is one that onlypoliticians could imagine, given their relish of cake-and-eat-it buffets.

This is utter tosh, because if an encryption system hasa known and inherent way to circumvent it, then it’s nolonger secure. This idea seems the forerunner of a planwhere the security services are allowed real encryptionthat keeps things generally secure, and the public, whoreally probably need it even more, don’t get any that’sworth having.

That would make us meat on the table for identitythieves and would probably end online banking and

purchases in one economy dashing stroke.The more you think about the implications of what’s been

seriously considered, the greater the conclusion that theseremarks were made without any thought process at all, because

you can’t uninvent maths, and there are really good encryptionssystems that people have relied on for centuries that don’t need acomputer or the internet. If people want to keep secrets, they will,unless GCHQ has a super-secret machine that can read people minds.Empirical evidence suggests not.

To cap it all, they keep harping on about internet services are‘supporting terrorism’, because they use Twitter to communicate.However, I’ve never seen paper manufacturers dragged over thecoals for something written on their stock, or BT accused of helpingextremists keep in touch with Friends and Family.

Again and again, we’ve see the idea floated that because they’renot outing people as potential terrorists, in a manner much like howhumans are identified by aliens in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, thenGoogle, Facebook and their ilk are somehow in cahoots with them.And each time there’s some heinous act of savagery, wizened security

OffOffLoggingLogging

128 Issue 1350

EDITORIALEditor: Anthony [email protected]: Kevin KamalBonus John: John MooreContributors: Mark Pickavance,Shaun Green, Jason D’Allison,Joe Lavery, Sven Harvey, SimonBrew, Shaun Bebbington, RyanLambie, James Hunt, Mark Oakley,Ian Jackson, Roland Waddilove,Cashews, Almonds, Sarah Dobbs,David Hayward, Leo Waldock, IanMcGurren, Aaron Birch, DavidBriddock, Ian Marks, Craig Grannell,Kevin Pocock, Dave Edwards,Michael Fereday

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PRINTINGPrinted By: BGPDistributed By: Seymour

Certified Distribution:13,712 average copiesJan-Dec 2010

As I’m in my 50s, I’m well used to seeing politicians get upon a soapbox and prove beyond any reasonable doubtthat they should be kept away from rational people forgood reason.

But recently there have been some utterances that have boggledeven my mind, mostly on the subject of encryption. According tothese, the UK and US governments are both keen that encryptionnot only exists (because the ever reliable banks need it), but that italso always has a ‘back door’ so that security services can indulgetheir voyeuristic whims at every turn.

Issue 1350 129

experts come out fromunder their rock todemand even morepowers to add to thealmost limitless ones theyalready have but officiallycan’t tell us about.

As we’re now in thatexceptionally silly seasonthat prefaces a general election, I’m expecting politicians tomake increasingly wild assertions about how they’ll stop allthis terrorist nonsense with just the right piece of personalfreedom-infringing legislation. Like all the bills they’ve passedso far to protect us have… not.

As an uncommitted voter at this time, I’ll be voting forthe party that doesn’t demonstrate their general stupidityby claiming they’ll be banning encryption or how they’ll taxprime numbers – serving only to remind us that without a boxmarked ‘none of the above’, how tough a choice we’ve allsoon have.

Mark Pickavance

Across7 A radiogram made by exposingphotographic film to X rays. (13)8 German philosopher who arguedthat philosophical authoritarianismis inevitably oppressive and that alltheories should be rejected. (6)9 His inventions include automatictelegraph systems and the carbonmicrophone. (6)10 The apparent change in thefrequency of a wave due to relativemotion. (7)12 In heraldry, a subordinary oftriangular form having one of itsangles at the fess point and theopposite aide at the edge of theescutcheon. (5)14 Take on or follow a knownprinciple or course of action. (5)16 The excess of revenues overoutlays in a given period of time. (7)19 A still shot inserted into a film orvideo. (6)20 Marked by practical hardheadedintelligence. (6)22 The size of each grouping intowhich a range of a variable isdivided, as represented by thedivisions of a histogram or barchart. (5,8)

Down1 A unit of language that nativespeakers can identify. (4)2 Trick someone into committing acrime in order to secure theirprosecution. (6)3 An additional name or an epithetappended to a name. (7)4 A numerical scale used tocompare variables with one anotheror with some reference number. (5)5 Deliberately make unattractive. (6)6 A billionth of a volt. (8)11 Numbers designating places inordered sequences. (8)13 Values automatically assigned tosoftware applications or computerprograms. (7)15 Word used in a polite request.(6)17 An outbreak of public anger orexcitement. (6)18 Artifact consisting of a narrowflat piece of material. (5)21 Impairment resulting from longor arduous use. (4)

THIS WEEK'S CROSSWORD

LAST WEEK'S CROSSWORD

DISCLAIMERThe views expressed bycontributors are not necessarilythose of the publishers. Everycare is taken to ensure that thecontents of the magazine areaccurate but the publisherscannot accept responsibility forerrors. While reasonable care istaken when acceptingadvertisements, the publisherscannot accept any responsibilityfor any resulting unsatisfactorytransactions. Is there anygreater oxymoron in modern lifethan the ‘courtesty call’? “Hi,”they say when you answer thephone, “I’m just calling to seehow you’re getting on with yournew dishwasher/TV/computer/whatever.” Well, guess what?We’re fine, because if we didhave a problem, we’d call you.We’re not sitting all day in front

of a silent telly because we don’tknow where the volume controlis, just waiting for themanufacturer to phone in andsee how we’re doing. Does thatstop them phoning you, though?Of course not. And if you usecaller ID to ignore them, theyjust keep calling and calling,until eventually you give up andpick up the phone. Why are wethinking about this? Because webought a dishwasher about amonth ago, and ever since, thecompany we bought it from hasbeen stalking us. So for all thedishwasher sellers and anyother retail companies, pleaseleave us alone. We’re notfriends, so don’t feel bad that weonly talk to you when we wantsomething. And if we don’t talkto you, then what we want is abit of peace and quiet.

Across: 7 Skeuomorphism, 8 S-Pulse, 9 Newton, 10 SplitUp, 12 Trial, 14 Steam, 16 Marmite, 19 Kepler, 20 IQ Test,22 Andrei TupolevDown: 1 Skip, 2 Nuclei, 3 Impetus, 4 Print, 5 Shower,6 Assonant, 11 Patterns, 13 Maximus, 15 Allure, 17 Motion,18 Droid, 21 Skew

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Issue 1350 129

Issue 1350130

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The PDF – or portable documentformat – is one of those thingsthat’s so common we don’t reallythink much about it. Designed

originally to be used on different platformswithout losing formatting or becomingunintelligible, it’s still used commonly forthings like user manuals or other formaltext documents. Since 2008, it’s been anopen standard, which means you don’tneed to have proprietary Adobe software toopen or create them – so If you’re sendingsomething that needs to look exactly thesame to every recipient as it does to you,a PDF is a pretty good bet. What’s more, ifit’s a document that’s going to pass throughseveral people’s hands, sending a PDFmeans they’re less likely to (accidentally orpurposely) make changes.

There’s always a ‘but... ’, though. Indeed,there are plenty of downsides to this formatwe’re afraid. So here are some of ourbiggest frustrations with it:

Argh! Editing FailOne of the main reasons people usethe PDF format is so other peopledon’t tamper with the contents of theirdocuments. Sometimes you need to,though – if you’ve been asked to commenton a document, for instance, you mightwant to make quick changes to the text,and some companies even send PDFforms for job applicants to fill in, withoutformatting them properly. How do youtype into a document that is, essentially,an image, though? Argh.

Fix it: Well, Adobe would like you to buyAcrobat so you can edit PDF files, but thatcosts money. So you might want to turnto another piece of software, like SodaPDF,which is cheaper than Acrobat, or you couldtry a free online tool, like PDF Buddy, whichlets you upload and edit PDFs for free.

Urgh! Online ReadingPDFs are standard in publishing, becausedesigners know that what they’ve createdcan generally be replicated exactly in theprinted version. A PDF contains everything,from fonts to images, that needs to endup on the printed file. Just because PDFsare great for printing doesn’t mean they’regreat for on-screen reading – and definitelynot for reading on websites. This is a usererror issue, really, but when documentshave been prepared for printing and thenend up uploaded to a website, they’re notreally optimised for reading on screen.Paragraphs are too long, font sizes areawkward, and there’s no easy way tonavigate the document.

Fix it: There’s not much you can do fromthe reading side, but if you’re thinking ofjust dropping massive PDF documents onyour website, consider whether you actuallyneed to, or if the information can be betterpresented in another way. By which we meana shorter, simpler way. On a web page.

Bah! Copy And Paste FailMany, many times, when you’re readingsomething in a document on yourcomputer, you want to copy and pastebits of it out. Maybe you want to quote it,maybe you want to search for something,maybe you just want to save it for later,or incorporate it into another document.Copying and pasting out of PDF files usedto be really difficult, but most of the timenow it’s fairly easy… except, when youcopy something out of a PDF and intoa Word document, all the formattingdisappears and gets mangled.

Fix it: Nope. Sorry. No can do. mm

The Things ThatFrustrate Us About...PDF FilesOne of the most common document formats also causes a huge amount ofrage. Here’s why…

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