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9

ROBOT WARS
Many casualties, hopefully not YOU
Y
esterday I sat through a
keynote by Eugene Kaspersky
at Sydneys CeBIT event. I
usually steer well clear of CeBIT due
to its heavily enterprise nature. One
can only tolerate so many empty
server racks on display from keen
vendors, or NSW is on the move!
government exhibitions before the
brain fades completely. I commented
to a colleague who covers these things
that it was all too terrifyingly real
world for my consumer electronics
tastes, to which he replied that
this was the tech that pays for
everything.
But I went along to hear the
boss of Kasperskys keynote, titled
Threat Landscapes: What Australia
Can Expect Now & In The Future.
Unfortunately Mr Kaspersky rolled
out a stock presentation that didnt
mention any Australia-specific
threats or statistics, not once. A few
anecdotes here, a few (admittedly
good) jokes there, and it was done.
Later in a press conference he was
grilled by a serious bunch of journos,
and again deferred to broad and often
irrelevant stories.
So that was a disappointing waste
of time, and we all expected better
there was much grumbling among
the other journos about the almost
complete lack of real Aussie-relevant
information. I was saving writing this
page until after the keynote, fully
expecting much juicy info to share
with you.
But all is not lost. One of Eugenes
better jokey tales was about the
number of new threats the world faces
each day, and how theyre dealt with.
Note I say the world because we all
expected Australian stats, not global.
But moving right along...
So apparently there are 300,000
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TECH DESK LOGIN
new threat types (viruses, malware
etc.) every single day. They are
generated by computers, which subtly REAL TECH ADVICE
modify the code within existing threats
so they circumvent known code and
YOU CAN TRUST!
the blacklists they appear in. Thats an O Our tests are performed by
awful lot of evil computer code to deal experienced reviewers in our Labs in
with, and is way beyond the capability accordance with strict benchtesting
and capacity of mere humans to battle procedures
by hand on a daily basis.
O Our brand new benchmarks have
Thus, to make it a fair fight security
been tailor-made to reflect real-
outfits like Kaspersky use their own
world computing needs
machines to do battle with the enemy
code, tearing it apart as it is detected, O We put tech through its paces
analysing it and making decisions seriously. From processing power to
about whether it is benign or malignant, battery life, from usability to screen
and updating their respective security brightness, our tests are exhaustive
products.
Every day across the world computers O We will always offer an honest and
are waging war with other computers, unbiased opinion for every review
serving us, the human masters. All
without human intervention, and in
most cases, all contained within server THE TEAM...
racks, with perhaps a daily report Digital Editor Tech
on total fights fought being the only and Gaming
time human eyes are set upon the David Hollingworth
battlefield. E dhollingworth@nextmedia.com.au
So, thats this months cool story. Id T @atomicmpc
mention how proud Eugene was that
most of the worlds hackers are Russian
yes he really said that because, he Senior Labs Editor
boasts, that just shows how talented Bennett Ring
they are at technology, and what a
great tech-based education system
Russia has to cultivate such talent, but National Advertising
Im out of space. Manager PC&TA
Sean Fletcher
E sfletcher@nextmedia.com.au
Group Advertising
Manager Tech and
Gaming
Cameron Ferris
E cferris@nextmedia.com.au
Ben Mansill
Editor Art Director
bmansill@nextmedia.com.au Tim Frawley
E tfrawley@nextmedia.com.au
CONTACT US...
Call us (02) 9901 6100
E-mail us
inbox@pcandtechauthority.com.au
Facebook
www.facebook.com/
pcandtechauthority
Twitter
@pctechauthority
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 3
CONTENTS

REGULARS
Q FEATURES Q FUTURES
Upgrade Australia wrap Technology and medicine Davey Winder
Our big night went off, see the How tech is changing health care .............84 Davey delves deep into the world of
photos and hear about what encryption. First, remembering how PGP
went down ...................................................... 24 began, and then through a service that
Q REAL WORLD COMPUTING promises to secure your email ................ 108
Best free apps Jon Honeyball
All of them are on the DVD! ....................... 28 Jon explores the advantages Steve Cassidy
of Apples new file system, before Robot cheerleaders fail to excite
Automate your life explaining why we all need to sit up Steve on a visit to trade show CeBIT,
How to set automated rules to make life and listen when it comes to surround but a plea for more open standards
easier and work more productive .............. 38 sound for VR .................................................100 in IoT does set his pulse racing .................110

Paul Ockenden
Q TECHDESK Paul finds the new Raspberry Pi Q ALIST AND KITLOG
News Zero W is an excellent platform for The best of the best ..................................92
IoT under attack, Apples next MacPro and creating a thing, and a tip for
streaming music stats .....................................8 Netgear Orbi owners................................... 103
Q DVD CONTENTS
Game news Smart cities Installation and features guide ........... 98
A look at trends in gaming we dont Dr Larissa Suzuki shares insights
necessarily love ............................................... 12 from her PhD thesis, which now
forms the basis of Londons city data Q EPILOG
Chip news strategy. ..........................................................106 Spies amongst us
A huge month as all the players release Jon Honeyball on government spying and
interesting new products! ............................ 14 what can be done about it ........................ 114

4 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 CONTENTS

REVIEWS
VALUE SMARTPHONES
Group test 64 Q PCS & LAPTOPS
Samsung Galaxy A6 ............................................78
HP Pavillion Wave .................................................53
Samsung Galaxy S7 .............................................79
Gigabyte Aero 15....................................................54
Sony Xperia X Compact ....................................80
Asus VC66R............................................................55
Pioneer Dreamvision 32 AIO PC7X ................58
Q PERIPHERALS
Asus FGX533 ..........................................................59
Netgear AD7200 ...................................................56
Netgear AC5300 ................................................... 57
Q HANDHELDS Netgear S8000 media switch......................... 60
Apple iPhone SE................................................... 68
Oculus Touch Controller ......................................61
Google Nexus 5X.................................................. 69
LG G4 ........................................................................70 Q COMPONENTS
Motorola Moto G4 ................................................ 72 Intel Optane ........................................................... 50
Motorola Moto G5 ................................................ 73
Motorola Moto Z Play .......................................... 74 Q GAMES
Oneplus 3T..............................................................76 Prey ........................................................................... 88
Samsung Galaxy A5 ............................................ 77 Endless Space 2 ................................................... 90

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www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 5

 INBOX TECHDESK
INBOX
You have mail
ULTIMATE ATARI
Check this lot out Ben all the old
computers we fondly remember!
These all still work and I have all of
the software as well. The 8bit Atari
days were special to me, I did a lot of
programming and the sound of a set of
daisy chained happy drives churning
away was special.
Ive taken a photo for you which
includes a couple of extra Atari
machines and also two of the Atari
810 happy disk drives. Also just for
interest is a photo of a review of my
fractal program coded on the Atari ST
published in Atari ST User issue 53 July
1990.
Some of the other memorable and
fun times included the anticipation
of hand typing in the program listings
from magazines and the trepidation
of entering run. Also fun were the
hardware mods like tting happy
boards, upgrading the Atari 500 ST to
1 meg, and also adapting Commodore
screens to the Atari machines because
as you can see from the photo, the Atari
color screens were tiny. Despite the
memories, I wouldnt go back because
the gear we have today is fantastic in
comparison.
Ian Connor
Want to get in touch?
MAIL: Inbox, Level 6, Building A, 207 Pacific
Highway, St Leonards NSW 2065
WEB: pcandtechauthority.com.au
EMAIL: inbox@pcand techauthority.com.au
Please limit letters to 200 words,
where possible. Letters may be edited
for style and to a more suitable length.
6 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
Ben Mansill replies: Ian, youre a total
champ! Youre doing good work there,
preserving those fantastic old machines
and all in full working order. Sensational,
and thanks so much for sharing.
Does anyone else have a similar home
museum? Send in your pics and stories!
PC > TABLET
While I use a 12.9 iPad Pro for most day
to day work, there is still a great deal that
requires a full blown, very fast PC.
Apples A10 and this years A11 are the
most powerful ARM processors available,
yet they are still so far short of an i7 or
Ryzen as to make the death of a PC
suggestion laughable, with a caveat.
For the vast majority of people I
interact with day to day, and some office
workers, a top of the line tablet and
decent keyboard would be sufficient
(as would a 15 year old PC) however for
higher end creatives, full on nancial staff
and gamers, get real.
amcmo
WINDOWS WINS
Windows 10 S will become the default
OS, not least of all because it points
toward the ultra mobile world Microsoft
are creating with the creation of 3-in-1
devices capable of interacting with mixed
reality. Win32 and the future do not click
into place.
The Microsoft store is a massive place
with close to a million programmes
available. The app bridges are being
used to capacity. As of last week at build
they have a continual backlog of about
1000 win32 apps waiting to be ported....
and that list is growing. ITunes are even
making an appearance. Let that sink in
for a moment... its a very strong indicator
of A) the Microsoft play book and B) the
direction and size of the store.
In another nod to the ultra mobile
direction Microsoft are going, theyre
soon going to offer e-sim mobile
packages in the store. The majority of
mobile companies are on board. Again,
take a moment to reect on this....every
windows 10 S device sold will have
cellular capability. Thats huge.
Google and Apple have walled gardens
and consumers like them. Note I said
consumers...normal people, regular users,
people who dont know or care about
win32, x86 or arm architecture. They just
want to visit a store and get what they
need. Why are these rms allowed to
create that safe experience but you grind
Microsoft for doing the same?
Lastly, windows 10S is not a return to
RT, in one sense because the store is far,
far more developed than it was 4 years
ago, but also primarily because windows
10s is actually windows 10pro, with a few
additional locks that can be unlocked
with one click of a mouse. If you pick up
a device running S and want pro, you
have the option to unlock that device.
Microsoft are giving you options.
John Craig
WANT TO READ MORE?
Go to www.pcandtechauthority.
com.au and join in the conversation.
Also check out the Atomic forums:
http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au
 Color

Adobe RGB
 NEWS TECHDESK
TECH NEWS
The latest trends and products in the world of technology
WHO WANTS TO KILL
THOUSANDS OF IOT DEVICES?
Permanent denial-of-service attack hints at price war among Internet of Things hackers
S
ecurity experts are puzzling over
the motivation behind a new threat
that can permanently damage IoT
devices.The devices have been a target
before because they are often poorly
secured with old versions of Linux and
default passwords. Botnets built using
IoT devices infected by the Mirai malware
were blamed for attacks that brought
down several websites last year.
Researchers have been monitoring
the progress of a new form of attacks
permanent denial-of-service (PDoS)
that are targeting IoT devices with the aim
of damaging them beyond repair.
Theyre a step beyond DDoS attacks.
If you DDoS a service it recovers straight
away after the attack, but with PDoS its
more permanent stop the attack and its
still broken, explained Pascal Geenens, a
security researcher at anti-DDoS company
Radware. People need to come in and
APPLE PROMISES
NEW MAC PRO NEXT YEAR (MAYBE)
I
n an interview with Apple blog Daring
Fireball, executives admitted the
company had made mistakes with
its previous conguration, which meant it
couldnt refresh the machines to meet the
changing requirements of pro customers.
The slim, quiet design meant it couldnt
be upgraded to more powerful processors
without causing the cylindrical system to
overheat.
I think we designed ourselves into
a bit of a thermal corner, said Apples
senior vice president, Craig Federighi. We
designed a system with the kind of GPUs
that we thought we needed, and that we
thought we could well serve with a two-
GPU architecture.
That was the thermal limit we needed,
or the thermal capacity we needed. But
workloads didnt materialise to t that as
broadly as we hoped. Being able to put
8 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
intervene and make repairs, so rather than
being able to build a botnet the device is
effectively knocked offline.
Considering the effort that goes into
developing an attack, the question is what
motivates the attackers, who were
discovered using honeytrap machines
looking for DDoS malware. There are
several theories behind it, said Geenens.
One is that it could be a vigilante whos
said okay, Ive had enough of this danger,
so lets destroy all these devices that are
still vulnerable and whoever left those
devices in a vulnerable state with out-of-
date rmware or old passwords should be
accountable for this.
Another theory is that its a turf war.
With vulnerable machines easy to nd
often outside the normal rewalled
architecture that blocks inbound ports
hackers dont need to invest time and
money phishing or getting malware onto
larger single GPUs required a different
system architecture and more thermal
capacity so it became fairly difficult to
adjust.
The unusually early
announcement suggested
the company wanted to
dispel the growing fear that
Apple had abandoned pro
users.
The company said it had
gone back to the drawing
board for a new Mac Pro,
but didnt specify an exact
launch date, save to say
that it wouldnt be ready
this year. We want to
architect it so that we can
keep it fresh with regular
improvements, and were
committed to making it our
Windows machines to build a botnet.
Prices have been down for a few months,
since Mirai, Geenens said. It can cost as
little as $2 to perform an attack of ve
minutes for 100Gbits/sec with a thousand
bots, and thats because its so easy to
compromise IoT and build a bot.
It could be someone who has been in
business for longer and had a Windows
botnet, and he sees the prices and his
margins erode. He wants to attack them
and close them down.
PDoS attacks
aim to damage
IoT devices
beyond easy
repair but
why?
highest-end, high-throughput desktop
system, Apples marketing chief Phil
Schiller claimed.
In the interim, Apple said it
would improve performance
of its lower-end $4,899 Mac
Pro to match its current
top-spec machine, while
the $6,499 model would get
faster processors.
The $4,899 model will
move from four Xeon CPU
cores to six, and from dual
AMD G300 GPUs to dual
G500 GPUs. The $6,499
model goes from six CPU
cores to eight, and from dual
D500 GPUs to dual D700
GPUs.
The Mac Pros slim, cylindrical design
backed Apple into a thermal corner
 L a u n c h i n g
new possibilities

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M.2 form factor offering exceptional storage capacity. The Samsung SSD 960 PRO and 960 EVO
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and up to 2TB capacity.*
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* Maximum performance values for the 960 PRO. Results may vary based on the user environment.
 NEWS TECHDESK

The ups and downs

of new media
Our media consumption habits are unpredictable. Only a couple of years ago, podcasts
were fast becoming a dwindling niche and paper book sales were in terminal decline.
Now ebooks have swung into decline, while podcasts and audiobooks are more
popular than ever largely thanks to the ubiquity of the smartphone. We track the
fluctuating fortunes of different types of media over the past few years.

MUSIC PODCASTS:
Format growth Listener growth
and decline Percentage of people who
listen to podcasts at least
2013 once a month
Streaming 6.2%
Digital albums 27.2% 25
Track-equivalent albums 15.2%
Physical albums 51.3% 20

2014 15

Source: Edison Research

Streaming 12.6%
Digital albums 25.3% 10
Track-equivalent albums 13.3%
Physical albums 48.8% 5

2015 0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Source: Official Charts Company

Streaming 22.1%
Digital albums 21.1%
Track-equivalent albums 10.9%
Physical albums 45.9% Listening devices
computer vs smartphone
2016
Streaming 36.4%
Digital albums 14.6% Computer 58%
Track-equivalent albums 7.9% Smartphone 42%
1. Track-equivalent albums are an industry measure equating to ten separate 2013 Computer 43% 2014
song downloads, which is regarded as the equivalent of one album.
Smartphone 57%

US music revenues
from streaming by %
60
Computer 36%
50 Smartphone 64%
2015 Computer 29%
2016
40
Smartphone 71%
30

20
Source: Edison Research
10

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Source: RIAA
10 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
 NEWS TECHDESK
GAMING NEWS
Just for the fun of it
GAME TRENDS
Daniel Wilks dons his RGB hat and examines the good, bad and ugly in gaming trends
COLOURED LIGHTS
How do you know that something is
made for gaming? If you think you
should be looking at the performance
of a component, most manufacturers
appear to think youre wrong. What you
should be looking for are RGBs. Over
the last few years programmable RGB
lighting has managed to spread from
the keyboards and other peripherals
that featured programmable lighting
and infect nearly every other component
imaginable. You can now get RGBs
on your mobo, graphics card, RAM,
case fans, power supply, mouse pad,
speakers, headphones, microphone,
mouse, controller and almost anything
else you can think of. Dont be surprised
to see RGB CPU coolers (too late AMD
just released an RGB CPU cooler. Ed),
USB drives, monitors and even cables
(there are already RGB cables, I think
youre subconsciously blocking out these
new realities Daniel. Ed) by the end of
the year.
THE YEAR OF VR AGAIN
2016 was meant to be the year of
VR, and in terms of
12 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
VR becoming available it was. In terms
of VR having any appreciable impact
on the market, no so much. Out of the
six major VR brands released in 2016;
Google Daydream, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift,
PSVR, Samsung Gear VR and Google
Cardboard, only two have managed
to sell over one million units globally.
Google Cardboard leads the pack with
around 90 million units shipped, with
Samsung Gear VR lagging well behind
with around two million sold. PSVR is
close to cracking one million and the
remaining three will reach that mark if
they combine forces. Given the number
of developers who have dedicated
considerable resources to developing
games for VR platforms, be prepared
for some serious marketing and hype as
they attempt to make VR appear much
bigger than it is.
ESPORTS
Parents should be prepared to nally put
to rest the argument that their kids will
never make anything of themselves if
they just sit around playing games, given
the rapid rise of esports as a global
phenomenon. In 2016 the total
prize money awarded to players
totalled $93,505,160.63 USD,
and the total revenue for
esports rose from $194 million
to $463 million between
2014 and 2016, with revenue
expected to top more than
one billion dollars by the end
of 2018. Rather than telling
kids to turn off the TV and do
their homework, it might be
better for their future to tell
them to quit school and get
really good at League of
Legends.
PAY TO KEEP
PLAYING
Why pay once when
you can pay to keep
playing? While more
and more Massively
Multiplayer games are moving away
from a subscription based revenue
stream, more and more single-player
and multi-player game developers and
publishers seem to be looking for ways
to keep players paying for games they
already own. 2016 was a big year for
season passes a lump sum payment
guaranteeing you a bunch of DLC
available after launch (aside from the
last and best one that is really the only
one you probably wanted in the rst
place, forcing you to pay for DLC on
top of the season pass). Expect to see
more of this in the coming year, with
season passes for anything that could
possibly have a season pass, more
paid DLC that you can poke a stick at,
microtransactions required to unlock
content already in the game.
GOODBYE RETAIL
Have you ever opened a game box,
inserted the disk into your drive and
discovered that it contains nothing but
a Steam code, forcing you to download
the game? Get used to it. More and
more developers are ignoring retail for
digital distribution, whilst still paying
lip-service to shops with boxed codes.
GIRL GERMS
Although growth is not as rampant
as it was when GamerGate was still
a thing that people pretended to care
about ethics in games journalism for,
online harassment is still going strong
in 2017 and looks to maintain its steady
foothold in the gaming arena. Around
half of all women face sexualised
harassment online, with that number
going up to 76% for women under 30
according to a 2016 Australian study,
with that percentage growing markedly
when you concentrate solely on the
online gaming statistics. Sorry to end
on a bummer, but this isnt going to
change any time soon, or at least until
authorities and service providers start
taking a much rmer stance against any
harassment.
 NEWS TECHDESK
CHIP NEWS
AMDs marketing department goes into overdrive announcing an Epyc number
of new products, meanwhile deep learning and AI are the flavour of the month
for GPU makers. Mark Williams covers a busy month in chip news
CPU
AMD FINALLY BACK IN THE
SERVER GAME
AMDs new server grade CPUs previously
known by its codename, Naples, has
been unveiled at its nancial analyst day
as Epyc. Oh yes I just bought an Epyc
server! will be causing meme levels
of Picard facepalms everywhere. I like
it. And whats not to like? A 32-core,
64-thread monstrosity sitting in a single
socket truly is Epyc.
Its not a single chip monolithic design
though, a de-lidded Epyc CPU was shown
and its actually four octo-core CPUs
combined together on the one MCM
package.
The magic tying them together is
AMDs innity fabric which weve seen
before in the Ryzen desktop parts. AMD
is exploiting this Innity Fabric for not
only module to module communications
on the same package but also socket
to socket in two and four socket server
congurations as well.
AMD demonstrated a dual socketed
GPU
NEW ULTRA-LOW END PART
Nvidia has released its entry level
graphics card in the form of the GT 1030.
With just a 30W TDP, this featherweight
draws even less than the 50W of AMDs
competing RX 550, however it appears
this is achieved by halving the memory
bus to 64-bit and only supporting 2GB of
6GHz memory compared to 2GB or 4GB
of 7GHz on the RX 550.
The GT 1030 has a GP108 core with 384
shaders running at 1468MHz, just 10% of
what you can nd inside the GTX 1080 Ti
or Titan Xp. Nvidia are spruiking this card
as a replacement for Intels integrated
graphics and not directly against AMDs
part so it could wind up being slower.
The card will come in a plethora of
shapes and sizes, notably half-height,
half-length and passively cooled variants.
NEW ULTRA-HIGH END PARTS
Nvidia has given a sneak peak of its
next generation GPU microarchitecture
dubbed Volta. Showing off a product
14 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
Epyc server compiling a Linux distro
against Intels fastest dual socket server
currently on offer. The Epyc system did
the compile in just under sixteen seconds,
compared to Intels twenty-two seconds.
Speedy!
AMD RIPS INTO HEDT
At the same analyst event AMD didnt
reveal much more about its upcoming
HEDT parts weve known to be in the
works. They did conrm that a 16-core
32-thread SKU will be coming and they
announced the name of these upcoming
product range: Ryzen 9 Threadripper.
I must hand it to AMDs marketing
for data crunching, AI and other HPC
work, Nvidia revealed the Tesla V100, its
successor to the Pascal based P100.
Having a gigantic 815mm2 die size
on a 12nm process node this chip is
at the absolute limits of current chip
fabrication capabilities. They literally
dont get any bigger than this. With all
that die space, Nvidia has crammed in
5120 CUDA cores, some 33% more than
the previous generation.
With core clock speeds of 1455MHz
and 16GB of HBM2 sitting on a
4096-bit bus giving a jaw dropping
900GB/s of bandwidth the V100 can
pump out 15 TFLOPs of FP32 compute
performance, easily beating the 10.5
and 11.3 TFLOPs of current P100
and Titan Xp products respectively.
Consumer Volta parts arent expected
until next year.
Not to be outdone, after pointing
out that it didnt have any products in
this space and just wanted to show the
ag, AMD revealed its rst entry into
department; these names are
fantastically well suited to the products.
Given that Epyc chips are a 4-chip MCM
package, it stands to reason Threadripper
will be a 2-chip MCM package mini Epyc
style product, perhaps with lower end
SKUs using just one chip for an octo-core
variant. Threadripper will slot into a new
X399 platform and support quad channel
memory and will go head to head with
Intels upcoming X299 HEDT platform an
i9 range of CPUs.
APUS AND RYZEN 3
The nal tidbits from AMDs event was
that Ryzen 3 and APU parts will ship
Q3 this year with the APUs to have new
Vega level IGPs. Asus tripped up later
and accidentally released Ryzen 3 and
APU specs on one of its motherboard
compatibility spec sheets. This conrmed
the Ryzen 3 1200s existence as a quad
core 3.1GHz 65W part. The APUs listed
showed dual and quad core parts ranging
from 35W to 65W and 3.0-3.8GHz clocks.
the HPC market, dubbed Vega Frontier
Edition (VFE). As you can tell by the
name its powered by AMDs new Vega
GPU architecture. Compared to its last
high end product, the HBM1 powered
Fury X, the VFE has 4x the HBM(2)
memory at 16GB and a bandwidth rating
of 480GB/s, 3x the FP16 compute at
25 TFLOPS and 1.5x the FP32 compute
at 13 TFLOPS using a core clocked at
1600MHz.
As you can see by the memory
bandwidth and FP32 numbers its less
performant than Nvidias upcoming
V100, but to its credit showed a
benchmark where it beat Nvidias current
P100 in DeepBench by a solid 33%, so
its no slouch. It is power hungry though,
with a 300W TDP therell be a water-
cooled edition to keep the temperatures
in check. One can only wonder how much
power Nvidias massive V100 chip draws.
Consumer Vega cards should be
announced at Computex with availability
a week or so later.
 Order online at
www.viavision.com.au *While stocks Last
MOST WANTED
Anthony Fordham gets his gear on

Mixxim Mixxtape
This plucky little audio player company not to be confused with Mixxim,
one of the UKs leading ready-to-pour concrete manufacturers lives in
a beautiful dream world where the 80s never ended, and the millions
of playlists that angsty teens swap with each other via Social Media
dont count. Or exist. The only true mixtape is an actual tape, mixed!
So its ironic that Mixxims Mixtape isnt an actual tape, but this irony is
softened somewhat by the way it can work in a tape deck...

WANTED: This is a compact digital audio player with a microSD card slot
(64GB max), a 330mAh battery for 12 hours of tunes, a little LCD display
and basic touch controls. It supports most standard-resolution audio
formats, has Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR, a headphone jack and a USB port. So far
so typical, but the clever bit is a magnetic... thingy... that sends a tape-like
signal to a standard tape deck when you shove it right in there. You... you
have a tape deck, right?

NOT WANTED: So rather than tediously listening to Spotify via your

phone, you can download tracks onto a microSD card, put the card in the
Mixxtape, put the Mixxtape in the tape deck and hear the music played
Dyson Pure
back in all its muted, hissy glory! Romance would be a lot cooler if kids
still made mixtapes for the girls they liked says Mixxims Kickstarter
Hot + Cold Link
You can buy a $25 floor fan from Aldi
campaign, displaying perfect tone-deafness to the sexual politics of 2017
and a room heater, too, for another
and also the way streaming music services have actual AIs to make new
$50, but does the combined versatility
mixtapes for you every time you log on...
of that $75 investment match Dysons
$800 solution? Which of these things
has an app, and looks like it comes from
the future? Not the Aldis, we can tell
you that. The Pure in the product
name denotes the filter inside, which
needs changing or cleaning every
couple of weeks. Bad air in, good air
out, and all about. A regular Dyson Hot
+ Cool fan is $500, so including a $300
air filter as part of the deal doesnt feel
exorbitant, at least in Dyson terms.

WANTED: The Hot it creates is good,

but its more on the generously-warm
side of the scale than a burning heat.
A thermostat kicks it into being when
needed and it can punish you with a
tight jet, or fill the room with a wide
dispersion.

NOT WANTED: The Cool is not

spectacular and youll need to crouch
in front of it wearing a wet shirt to
really feel the temps drop. But its just
a regular fan, despite looking like a
mini-air-con unit, so performance was
within expectations.

16 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 TECHDESK MOST WANTED

Brydge 12.3 Keyboard

There are times when we love the type cover on the Microsoft
Surface Pro 4... but there are also times when we dont. Flexibility
is all! So adding a rigid, heavier aluminium half-shell keyboard
gives the Surface the opportunity to act like a normal laptop
when it needs to be. The Brydge has backlit keys, an adaptive
trackpad and still lets the Surface bend over through 180 degees
like any other hybrid.

WANTED: There are times when the kickstand doesnt cut

it, and more options on this expensive computer are always
welcome. The keys have good travel, and theres also a version
with a built-in 128GB high speed SSD drive. Handy!

NOT WANTED: Some might say if youre going to turn your

Surface Pro into a regular laptop... why not just get a regular
laptop? Or a Surface Book? It also adds considerable bulk. This
makes the whole kit one of the thickest laptops on the market.
Sonicam VR Camera
What if you could make professional-quality immersive
360-degree video with perfectly synced 3D-positional
audio, all with one tiny device... and one that looks like
some kind of evil Star Wars spy robot or Death Star
spore, too? Sonicam makes this ancient dream of all
free citizens a reality! Seriously though, Sonicam wont
be the last compact camera marketed to budding VR
filmmakers, but its among the first to be so much more
than a $249 gimmick.

WANTED: There are nine F2.2 glass fish-eye lens

cameras (8 around the middle, one on top) each with
its own Sony Exmor R CMOS. It shoots 4K video at
50Mb/s bitrate, and most importantly has 3D positional
audio thanks to 64 MEMS microphones. Theres also
in-camera stitching for a live preview.

NOT WANTED: Max framerate for 4K is only 30fps,

and despite being a US$3,999 pro-grade camera,
Sonicam only takes SD cards for internal storage
($4,000 should buy you more options). Kickstarter
backers got the cam from $2,000... so chances of it not
meeting its October 2017 release date are statistically
significant.

Betterspot VPN Router

Spend too much time trawling Indiegogo or Kickstart for cool new gadgets,
and youll come to the realisation that tech trends absolutely reflect
the issues of the day. Point: concerns about metadata retention and
government surveillance have led to a proliferation of secure connection
routers. Heres one! Betterspot makes the business of VPNs and
anonymity easy. Plug it in, set it up, and youre considerably less trackable
online.

WANTED: VPNs are only getting more popular, but using them with just
a PC can be tedious remembering to log in etc. This makes the process
automatic, and largely invisible. You can choose to use a VPN service, or
even run in Tor mode. Shady!

NOT WANTED: Dont think a product like this can hide you from the
feds, its not THAT secure. Also, in this bandwidth-benighted country,
routing everything through a VPN may slow your internet connection,
and VPN services have an ongoing subscription fee.

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 17

System news SHOP TALK
MARK WILLIAMS FINDS THAT INTEL HAS A HIT ON ITS HANDS What are your thoughts on
IN THE FORM OF THE 600P SERIES. WILL OTHERS FOLLOW? the Intel 600P series SSDs? Are
they a popular product and is
that why some stocks have

W
hen I went to build a new PC is also slower to write to. So, by setting
recently I knew I wanted an NVME aside some TLC as faster but less dense
been low recently?
SSD as the primary storage device. SLC (4GB for 128GB, 8.5GB for 256GB, Jaimie, Leader Computers:
With the way the market is currently I knew 17.5GB for 512GB and 32GB for 1TB drives) At Leader we have seen
a drive with a capacity of around 256GB to act as the drives write cache Intel can fantastic take up on the Intel
would be in the sweet spot for capacity mask the real speed of the underlying NVME based 600P series, their
versus price. Searching around, Intels TLC, so long as the cache doesnt get full, price point put NVME within
600P 256GB model quickly came to my whereupon youll be writing directly to TLC reach of the average punter
attention as the cheapest M.2 NVME SSD which is slower than most SATA MLC SSDs. for the rst time, especially in
on offer. However, there was a problem, Not something you want to advertise on an the 128 and 256GB sizes. At
it was out of stock almost everywhere I NVME M.2 SSD. the time they were released,
looked! But here is the genius of it; consumers all of the other brands were
I ended up settling for a slightly more will very rarely ll the cache during typical signicantly more expensive
expensive and capable Samsung 960 EVO desktop usage. Often theres enough time and they have had to adjust
but this got me wondering, where are all between large writes for the SLC cache to their pricing substantially to
the 256GB 600Ps? get ushed out to the TLC, so for the most compete. Along with Intels
It seems that Im not the only one who part youre always working with the fast new Optane technology,
nds the 256GB 600P an attractive SLC. the 600P is one of the best
offering. As Jaimie and John both conrm This makes the 600P cheaper but performance upgrades you can
in Shop Talk at the side of this page, Intels also well suited to consumers and their make for the money.
600P series is selling like hotcakes and typically bursty workloads. There have been shortages
with 256GB at the sweet spot and being Could this style of NVME drive become on the 256GB, this is mainly
the cheapest product on offer it would more popular in the future? Intel has paved due to their excellent value
appear demand was outstripping supply. the way and proved the case, now its a proposition, I dont think Intel
Intels design choice with this product question of whether Samsung, SanDisk forecasted as well as they
was clearly a good strategy. Unlike the and the like will follow suit with cheaper could have and there have
superior performing Samsung 960 EVO TLC NVME products too. been some NAND shortages
and other NVME in general which may also
products around have contributed. The 250GB
at the moment size was hard to source in
which utilise MLC several brands, both NVME
NAND ash for the and standard SATA SSD, so
entire drive which the Intel at only a small price
gives moderate premium sold extremely well.
chip level storage We sell as many 600P drives
density and speeds, as we can get our hands on,
Intels 600P range denitely our top performer!
uses TLC NAND
with some of it John, TI Computers:
partitioned off and Yes, the Intel 600P 256GB
used in SLC mode. model is indeed very popular
The idea being that and were sold like hotcakes.
because TLC has It is hard not to use it in the
the highest data system considering the
storage density, signicant performance gain at
fewer chip are such tiny additional investment
needed or are over SATA SSDs. We are
simply smaller to however unsure whether this
produce at the is the real reason behind the
same capacity, shortage. It can also just be a
thus cheaper. short supply before the end of
The problem of nancial year.
course is that TLC
 SYSTEM NEWS

Market snapshot
A SAMPLING OF PC SYSTEMS AVAILABLE THIS MONTH

BALANCED FORCE NOT QUITE THE KING OF GODS

Scorptech Computers Venom GMR Zeus Advanced

1070 Quiet Gaming PC Gaming System V4
$2,349 http://tinyurl.com/lacenkr $2,399 http://tinyurl.com/kmnhyln
This is a great system. A top end speedy quad core CPU ideal This is a good example of a system thats one step below the
for current games is paired with a capable GTX 1070 for solid high end. The non-K 7700 CPU is 300MHz slower at peak than
high graphics quality 1440p gaming. Matched with a sizeable the 7700K and isnt overclockable. The H
512GB NVME SSD and a comfortable amount of series motherboard is a step below the top
DDR4 memory is doesnt get much better end Z series which also doesnt allow
without breaking the bank. Really the overclocking. The GTX 1070 GPU is
only thing an owner would want a step down from the top end GTX
to upgrade in a year or two is 1080 series. With storage capacities
the graphics card, the rest of of the RAM, SSD and HDD all in the
this system will easily handle sweet spot this is an ideal system for
the next three or more years of a serious gamer without blowing the
gaming with ease. Dropping in a budget.
hard drive for some extra mass The problem is that this should
storage down the track might be cheaper than the asking price. In
also be worthwhile considering. this price bracket, there are better
options around.
KEY SPECS KEY SPECS
CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z270X- CPU: Intel Core i7 7700 Cooler: OEM Motherboard: Intel H270 chipset based Graphics:
Gaming K3 Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 G1 Gaming, 8GB Memory: Corsair Nvidia Geforce GTX1070 8GB Memory: 16GB DDR4 2400MHz Storage: 240GB SSD, 2TB
Vengeance LPX 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 Storage: Intel 600P Series 512GB SSD Power HDD Power Supply: CoolerMaster B700v2 700W Case: In Win 303 Black + Tempered
Supply: Corsair CX550M Bronze 550W Case: Fractal Design Dene R5 Black Glass

LIGHT EM UP THE BEAST HAS RYZEN

Mwave PC Case Gear

Aorus P3 Gaming PC Ryzen 570 Gaming System
$2,060 http://tinyurl.com/k4zy875 $1349 http://tinyurl.com/mwkdqsz

This is pure eye candy. Utterly beautiful A quad core CPU in this price bracket isnt new,
to look at with its see through acrylic but one that also supports simultaneous
housing and striking white back pane multi-threading (or as Intel calls it,
that everything attaches to and Hyperthreading) is quite refreshing
seemingly hangs suspended from with and puts to shame Intels current
RGB lighting everywhere. It looks like budget quad core product line-up.
an art installation. But like candy its So theres a lot of multi-threaded
also bad for you. For the price i5 7600K power here. The RX 570 will satisfy
or even i7 7700 CPU systems can be most 1080p gaming requirements
had along with much faster GTX 1070 graphics cards. Oddly the too.
PSU is rather over powered for this systems requirements and The only pinch point with this build is
unnecessarily adds to this overpriced systems cost, likely done the SSD which is just enough for the OS,
just to get extra RGB lighting in. Not that your friends and family programs and perhaps one triple-A gaming
will notice as theyll be dazzled by all the RGB lighting. title. Owners may nd theyll be using the HDD
for installing games more than they might like.
KEY SPECS
CPU: Intel Core i5 7500 Cooler: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Riing RGB 360 Motherboard: KEY SPECS
Gigabyte AORUS Z270X Gaming 5 Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming G1 6GB CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Cooler: OEM Wraith Spire Motherboard: ASUS Prime B350M-A
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB DDR4 2400Mhz Storage: WD Green 240GB M.2 SSD Graphics: ASUS ROG Radeon RX 570 Strix Gaming 4GB Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 750W RGB Case: Thermaltake Core P3 8GB DDR4 Storage: Kingston SSDNow UV400 120GB SSD, Seagate Barracuda 1TB Power
Snow Edition Supply: Be Quiet! Pure Power 9 500W Case: Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 Claw
 INVESTIGATOR TECHDESK
CHECK BEFORE
YOU LEAVE
When you dont get exactly what you paid for
I
ts not uncommon although it
should never happen that you buy
an item from a retailer only to nd,
when you get home, that the wrong item
was packed for you.
This happened recently with a
colleague who purchased a laptop from
a large retail chain. He got home to nd
the model he was handed at the counter
only had 4GB of memory and not the
8GB he paid for.
It was a straightforward exercise to
correct the issue. All he had to do is
return to the store with his receipt and it
was all sorted out. Of course, this gets a
little more complex with online retailers
or when you make a special, long trip to
buy something.
But consumer protection laws are
clear about getting what you paid for.
So, spare a thought for Paul from
Bendigo. Back in 2012, he purchased an
iPhone 4s (or so he thought) from Dick
Smith. He was after an unlocked model
and found what he was looking for.
Now, Bendigo is not just around the
corner from suburban Melbourne so he
Anthony Caruana
has worked for almost every major
masthead in the Australian IT press. As
an experienced IT professional having
worked as the lead IT executive in
several businesses, he brings a unique
insight to his reporting of IT for both
businesses and consumers.
20 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
trekked into the city to make his purchase.
Just recently he had cause to check
some of the details on the phone - an
unlocked 8GB iPhone 4s he bought for
$520.00. On checking the model number
on the back of the iPhone he discovered
hed been sold and iPhone 4 not a 4s.
Were in some pretty murky consumer
protection waters here. This is a
transaction that took place ve years
It was a
straightforward exercise
to correct the issue
ago from a retailer who has failed with
the brand name being the only survivor,
purchased by a former competitor.
To all intents and purposes, Paul doesnt
really have anyone to go to.
One of the problems, says Paul, is the
iPhone 4S came in an identical chassis
to the iPhone 4. Sit them side by side
and youd be hard-pressed to tell the
difference. And the model numbers on
the back are extremely small. I know that
when Ive had to conrm a specic number
that end up taking a photo and zooming in
to be sure.
According to the ACCC: The retailer
who sold you the product or service
cannot refuse to help you by sending you
to the manufacturer or importer. You can
approach the manufacturer or importer
Can you
tell which
one is an
iPhone 4
and which
one is an
iPhone 4s?
directly, however, you will only be entitled
to recover costs from them, which include
an amount for reduction in the products
value and in some cases compensation
for damages or loss. You cannot demand
a repair, replacement or refund from the
manufacturer.
Pauls problem is the retailer no longer
exists. He could take the item to Apple and
plead his case but given the time since the
purchase its not clear whether Apple is
obligated to do anything as they were not
at fault or even part of the transaction.
There is a lesson to learn from Pauls
experience. When you buy something, it is
important to check the box carefully. Paul
made some strong comments about what
he thought Dick Smiths motives might
have been in selling him an older model
that looked identical to a newer item.
As theres no evidence to support that
supposition, Ive not repeated them.
My feeling is this was a genuine
mistake made at the point of sale. If it
was a decided course of action then I
suspect wed have heard of this being a
widespread issue.
The fact remains that there is a serial
number printed on the device and the
packaging also has a product serial
number and the model and specication
on it.
Before you leave a store, make sure
that what you ordered is what has been
handed over the counter.
NEED HELP? EVER HAD AN
ISSUE AS A CONSUMER?
INVESTIGATOR CAN HELP.
If youve had an issue or had something
happen and you think investigator
could help, email your problem to
investigator@pcandtechauthority.com.au
 ACS TECHDESK

BIGGER
THAN BIG
Its exceedingly hard to envisage
a data-driven future, but we are
hurtling towards one none-the-less

A
popular stat repeated in
recent times to help try and
understand this comes from
Monash University, stating that 90%
of the worlds data was created in the
last two years alone. And that was
calculated in 2015 imagine where we
are today?
Ever keen to try and help blow your
mind, Monash also put it another way:
that by next year, 2018, we will have
stored more bytes of data than there
are stars in the universe.
And theres a key word there store. I
highlight this not in the sense of merely
having a place to put it we dont as
a civilisation seem to have an issue
with creating ever-denser storage
mediums but instead in terms of
what we do with it. Just how do you
manage and manipulate ever growing
datasets on scales that are truly hard
to comprehend?
IBM is in on the game too, throwing er, inuenceable people are to your Locutus, is that you?
out a stat that suggests that we advertising. there are stars in the universe.
already produce 2.5 quintillion bytes of But all this is dependent on making But this is where we are heading. HPs
data every day. sense of all that data, and quite frankly machine is a prototype, and while its
Consider that today we already live no matter how beastly you consider that easy to be a pundit on its future as a
lives that create a constant data trail machine under your desk or the racks new type of machine it requires a new
everything we do from browsing a of servers in your server room, building operating system and new software,
website, to walking down the street making it incompatible with everything
with a GPS-enabled smartphone, to existing today it does point to a future
making purchases with credit cards
Its not mind boggling. where we are going to need new forms
all of it is tracked. All of it leaves a Were well beyond of technology to manage and process
trail. All of it builds a prole about you the multiples of quintillion of bytes of
which companies around the world being boggled data produced and collected every day.
are scrambling to interpret into useful And thats just now can you imagine
insights that can be utilised to raise machines capable of processing it in the volumes of data produced in a
prot margins, or deliver entirely new a reasonable time is actually quite the future lled with even more data-driven
products. challenge. products such as autonomous cars,
At the time of writing, Google Hence also at the time of writing HP drones, IoT and an ever-growing world
announced a wonderful a new feature had just unveiled The Machine, an aptly population?
where it will track your shopping trips titled new type of computer that is Its not mind boggling. Were well
to allow advertisers to compare your designed to put memory rst. beyond being boggled. Its an entirely
credit card purchases matched against Specically built to store and process different concept of a digitally-driven
advertising, to see just how malleable exceedingly large volumes of data in a humankind, and an entirely different
single bank of memory 160TB in its concept of the value of data, how it is
Ashton Mills initial conguration, though HP says in produced, how it is stored, and how it is
has been writing about technology for future this will scale to exabytes and used.
20 years and still gets excited for the
latest techy gear. Hes also the Outreach then that holy grail of computing metrics Which, of course, speaks to nothing
Manager for the Australian Computer yottabytes. Imagine addressing about privacy and just how much of the
Society (www.acs.org.au), you can email thousands of yottabytes of memory as data trail you create every day is yours
him on ashton.mills@acs.org.au. a single bank well, we cant. Its like to own.
trying imagine more bytes of data as But thats a topic for another time.

22 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 AUSTRALIA 5.0
WE MAKE PC TECH FUN WITH OUR SENSATIONAL FREE
EVENT FEATURING COOL GEAR, FREEBIES AND LOADS OF
FUN, FOOD AND MAYBE A COUPLE OF DRINKS, TOO

O
ur fifth event was the best yet,
with a record breaking number of
stands all showing off lustworthy
PC gear. As always, it was quite
apparent that everyone who came along had
a great time, with almost everyone leaving
with free gifts. The biggest winner of the
night was Alex Chong who took home the PC
PowerPlay Beast PC worth almost $7,000!
Over the course of the night our master
builder Josh Collins assembled the Beast using
the very best components from In Win, AMD,
Cooler Master, Aorus, MSI, G.Skill, Razer and
Microsoft. This went down rather well, as you
can imagine, so were looking at doing this at
every Upgrade Event, evolving the Beast as
technology marches along so be sure to come
to the next one, which will be in Sydney later
this year, and you could win the mighty Beast.
Case mods were a highlight, and their
illustrious illumination and artisan
craftsmanship dazzled the halls.
Congratulations to Ethan, who won Best
Case Mod, scoring the most votes from all
attendees on the night. Ethan took home a
Samsung 960 Evo 1TB SSD along with prizes
from Eset including $1,250 in cash.
Its always a treat for us to meet and chat
to readers, young and old. Thanks so much to
everyone that came along it was thoroughly
enjoyable to hang out and talk tech and hear
about what you are most interested in.
AMD attracted a lot of interest in the
fabulous new Ryzen CPU, with staff fielding
questions from attendees all night long.
And of course we built a Ryzen-based PC
PowerPlay Beast PC on the night so there was
no shortage of Ryzen excitement at Upgrade
Australia!
Asus showed off a wide range of gear
including its legendary motherboards and
monitors. Asus had its Aura Sync technology
for all see, showing off a spectrum of RGB
disco beyond anything else. MSI, too, dazzled
with a huge array of booty, including a never

PLATINUM
SPONSORS
 UPGRADE AUSTRALIA

seen before unveiling of a very cool limited

edition Camo Squad gaming laptop.
Over at Seagate the company
demonstrated its cracking range of high
performance BarraCuda, IronWolf, SkyHawk
and FireCuda drives. Razer had a great stand
with loads of action and excitement, and we
know people were keen to get their finger
tips on the latest Blackwidow Chroma V2
keyboard, plus the Deathadder Elite and
Kraken Pro V2 as well as the OSVR VR HMD.
Aorus had the latest high performance
gear and the legendary Dino was up to his
usual tricks, giving the audience a great
show. We also had Rectron, which is one
of the main distributors to PC shops in
Australia and it was fantastic to see people
try out new gear they wouldnt otherwise be
able to get their hands on. Rectron had the
latest from Antec, Fractal Design, Galax and
IG-Touch panel.
In Win laid out its gorgeous range of cases,
including the magical Infinity case and the
new tou 2.0. A pro-modder for In Win was
on hand to give modding demos, too. Cooler
Master had its first Upgrade Australia stand
and it was a great chance to see and play
with the keyboards that are very high in our
list of favourites, plus entries from the Cooler
Master Case Mod World Series 2017. PLE, as
usual, brought something special along and
it was a sim racing rig set up with an HTC
Vive VR headset. Many tried VR for the first
time that night and left with a smile. PLE also
talked about its custom PC building services.
Samsung owns the high performance
SSD scene, so it was terrific to have
Samsung experts there talking about how
its technology achieves such breathtaking
performance.
Qnap had a top spread of NAS products for
home and business, these guys are at the top
of the game and we think everyone needs
a NAS. Qnaps Hybrid Private Cloud was also
there. HyperX had a focus on gaming to
show off gear including the fantastic Alloy
FPS keyboard and Cloud Stinger headphones,
plus it was nice to be able to sit down for a
while and hit a few rounds of CS: GO.
Another Upgrade Australia, another
bunch of PC & Tech Authority and PC
PowerPlay readers we met, who came, saw
and likely left with freebies. And of course
another great opportunity for the leaders
in PC tech to lay on an extravaganza for you
to all enjoy. Thanks for coming, we hope to
see see you at the next one so look out for
announcements in the magazine and online
at www.pcpowerplay.com.au and www.
pcauthority.com.au and subscribe to our
free newsletter so youll be the first to hear
about it.
 UPGRADE AUSTRALIA

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SPONSORS
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all free security products, it does
encourage you
to upgrade
to a paid-for
subscription,
but we found it
less aggressive
than rivals AVG
and Avira. Once
youve turned
off unwanted
notifications,
and learnt
which buttons in the interface open up
adverts, it will rarely bother you.
Avast Free Antivirus also comes with
Avasts SafeZone browser, a Chromium
derivative thats designed to protect
you from hijacking and snooping. This
includes an ad blocker, a password
manager and a video downloader
that you can use to save media from
YouTube, Facebook and other sites.
malwarebytes.com
A 1.6MB download, the Junkware Removal
Tool is so minimalist that most people simply
refer to it as JRT. Press Enter and it will rapidly
scan Windows for annoying malware and
things such as unwanted browser extensions
and PUPs that is, potentially unwanted
programs. Its a fantastic little tool.
EDITORS PICK
KeePass
keepass.info
You need unique passwords for
everything, and these need to be long
(25 characters minimum), complex and
random, in my opinion. Your brain cant handle that;
a password manager can. What puts off some folk is
the annual subscription cost, and worries about the
security of password databases in the cloud. So use
a free one that bypasses the cloud for local database
storage. In that regard, they dont come better than
KeePass.
I keep my software-encrypted KeePass database
on a hardware-encrypted USB stick, which doubles
up the security layers. I access this using the free
KeePass2Android app on my smartphone, which
requires my fingerprint to turn on the device and
again to access the app. Those security layers add up.
KeePass supports the Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES) with the SHA-256 hash. This encrypts the
complete database, not just the password fields,
including any notes.
What else is great about KeePass? Well, its multi-platform, including Windows,
macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. Theres a password generator included in the
package, and the import function puts many competing products to shame.
Theres no in-browser autofill by default, but third-
party extensions are available. Its configuration options are many, but PCTA readers
will have no issues stepping through them.
 FEATURE FREE SOFTWARE
F-Secure Rescue CD
f-secure.com
This tool was originally recommended by computer repair specialist
Anthony Dowling: its a resource he often turns to when faced with
an unbootable PC. Despite its name, it can be installed to either a CD
or a USB drive.
Its essentially self-contained antivirus software, and on booting
from the drive, youre thrown into a simple text-based environment.
From there, you scan for malware and then remove it. F-Secure does
throw in some heavy caveats that using it could break your install
if it renames essential system files so its more the battering ram
of removing malware rather than the user-friendly sliding door.
RogueKiller
adlice.com
If youre worried that something might be lurking on your system,
RogueKiller is an excellent first port of all. Like a Windows-
equivalent of the Terminator, it hunts down and removes a wide
range of malware, including rootkits. Its more thorough than the
Junkware Removal Tool, but that also means it takes longer to run
a scan almost an hour in the case of our 256GB system drive.
Its a little paranoid, so check files it flags before you delete them
(bleepingcomputer.com is a great resource ifyou want to see if a
file is worth keeping; check its Am I infected? forum at tinyurl.
com/kpy9ltm).
30 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
Secunia PSI
exerasoftware.com
It hasnt been updated for a
while, but Secunia PSI remains
an excellent way to keep all
your software up to date
automatically. And keep your
system more secure by doing so.
On first load, Secunia PSI scans
your system to check which
programs youve installed and
then checks for updates against its database. You can control
whether it installs updates automatically (the recommended
option), in which case it does so in the background wherever
it can. Where you have to log in think paid-for software such
as Adobe CC it will let you know when a manual update is
required.
EDITORS PICK
Unchecky
unchecky.com
Most of the programs in this security section are there
to solve problems after the event, but Unchecky prevents
all those unwanted free extras being downloaded in the
first place. As such, its a wise program to install on family
computers as well as your own.
Its modus operandi is to flag a warning whenever youre
about to install something that might be unwanted toolbars,
browser extensions and the like but the best thing is that,
once youve installed Unchecky, you can forget about it. It just
sits there, automatically updating itself. Exactly how I like
my programs to behave.
VeraCrypt
idrix.fr/veracrypt
While BitLocker is an excellent encryption tool, it does
have one rather annoying problem: its only available to
people running Pro or Enterprise versions of Windows
(Ultimate and Enterprise, in the case of Windows 7). The
free, open-source VeraCrypt steps into the gulf, and its
packed with options. If nothing else, you should consider its
full-disk encryption mode.
If you just want to encrypt a folder, file or partition,
though, then there are options to do just that. Heck, if recent
headlines are pushing your paranoia levels into the red zone,
then you can create a dummy Windows install disk and a
totally hidden volume containing your real Windows.
The final good news is that VeraCrypt wont slow you
down (you can even keep using Windows while your diskis
being encrypted), meaning there really is no good reason not
to add this cost-free extra level of security to your system.
Google Chrome
google.com/chrome
Browser choices are as personal as fashion, but there are many
reasons why Chrome remains our and indeed, the worlds default
browser.
Cross-platform sync is perhaps its chief attraction, with seamless
password sharing between both Android and Windows browsers,
and the ability to pick up tabs left open on other devices. Didnt get
achance to finish reading that important report in the office? With
Chrome, you can easily read it on the train on the way home using
your smartphone.
Chromes omnipotence hands it arguably the best library of
extensions of any browser (Edge, for the record, has a mere 21).
Pushbullet, Wikiwand and Social Fixer are among those wed urge
you to install.
While Chrome certainly isnt the sleek gazelle it lauded itself as at
launch, now almost a decade ago, its reputation as a resource hog is
over-cooked too. The fact that upcoming rivals such as Vivaldi are
choosing the same Chromium engine indicate that Googles browser
technology is now seen as the industry standard.

Coding & Notepad++

notepad-plus-plus.org
Notepad++ was created for
programmers, with some preferring
its simplicity to full IDEs (integrated

Productivity
development environments) such
as Visual Studio. Built on Windows
Notepad, the interface is a bit old-
fashioned and the menu cluttered,
but its sheer speed makes it a pleasure
to use. Programmers particularly
appreciate the code completion, the
colour coding, and that they can switch
to a different language so easily
although even non-coders should give
it a whirl as a way to jot down notes and
LibreOffice type up pieces without distraction.
libreoffice.org Its also one of the most popular pieces
LibreOffice is far more than a free alternative for people loathe to shell of open-source software out there. With
out for Microsoft Office its a decent suite in its own right. Now at version anactive community behind it and
5.3, the software includes old favourites Writer (forword processing), Calc thats understating things there are
(spreadsheets) and Impress (presentations), as well as Draw (design), Base so many plugins that one of themain
(databases) and Math (for, quelle surprise, maths). complaints about the software isplugin
Apart from the slightly cartoonish look of the icons, theres little management.
to distinguish the suite from Microsofts offerings. This extends to Not that such things deter reader Dave
functionality, with powerful tools in place to improve the look of your Poyser, who recommended the software.
document, keep your spreadsheet ticking over and make sure your I use Notepad++ daily for all sorts of
presentations, if youll pardon the pun, impress. A favourite feature of editing, he told us. Its crammed full of
ours is the smartphone-esque AutoCorrect function, which draws on features that I use whether Im editing
previously typed words to bring up a suggestion after three letters. config files, or writing code. On a new
Compatibility is also good. For example, you can save aWriter document build, this is a second install after Office
as a Microsoft Word DOCX or XML file, as well as in RTF, TXT and the for me.
standard OpenDocument formats. As a mini-test, we pasted in Edgar
Allen Poes The Raven, formatted it, saved the document and watched
as it opened intact in Word. Also note version 5.3s new cloud capability,
LibreOffice Online, allowing
you to run it on your own
private cloud infrastructure.
If you want a hassle-free
way of creating documents,
tracking your expenses, or
even tinkering with that
pesky quadratic equation,
LibreOffice is an excellent
resource.

32 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au


My favourite free
programming tools
Can you imagine how much a large software company would
charge you for a code development system that supported
programming languages such as C#, Visual Basic, F#, C++, HTML,
JavaScript, TypeScript and Python, and allowed you to deploy
your code onto Windows, Android, iOS or web servers? Such a tool
sounds really expensive, doesnt it?
Well, as youve probably guessed its
free, and the software Im talking about is
Visual Studio Community from Microsoft
(visualstudio.com/vs/community). Its
a great mature platform, and for many
programmers it provides everything they
need without stumping up for the paid-
for version of Visual Studio.
Sharing a similar name, look and feel
but not much else is Visual Studio
Code(code.visualstudio.com), also from Microsoft. Its a lean tool
compared to the other Visual Studio offerings. This lack of bloat can
be an advantage, especially for small teams and one-man bands I
find its fast turnaround can make the development process more
productive.
As well as having excellent source-code editing
facilities, with code completion and colouring
support for pretty much any language, it also offers
an interactive debugger and version control via
integrated Git support. But the best thing about
Visual Studio Code is that its available for Linux and
Mac, as well as Windows.
My next free tool involves going outside the box
slightly. Im nominating the Raspberry Pi. Okay, so
the hardware itself isnt free (although the Pi Zero
Opera
opera.com
Opera has long been the alt-browser, to use the modern
vernacular. And while it might have changed hands (Operas
original creator is now running interference with a browser
of his own, Vivaldi), Opera continues to innovate.
Its the only faintly mainstream browser to come with a
built-in VPN, for instance, although if youre planning to use
it to beat Netflixs regional restrictions then think again:
the streaming service spotted the proxy and blocked the
stream in our tests.
Perhaps more useful is Operas battery-saving mode.
Yank the power cord out of your laptop and the browser
enters a low-power mode that conserves juice by reducing
activity in background tabs, pausing plugins and animations,
rescheduling JavaScript timers, and tuning video-playback
parameters, according to the company.
That, combined with effective built-in ad-blocking, seemed
to have some effect. With the exact same five tabs open,
Chrome consumed around 1% of our CPUs capacity and
125MB of RAM, according to Windows Task Manager, while
Opera was barely registering on the processor and required
115MB.
FREE SOFTWARE FEATURE
We asked Paul
Ockenden to share his
personal picks based
on years of experience
is astonishingly cheap assuming you
dont get ripped off by resellers), but the
ecosystem that surrounds it usually is.
There are one ortwo paid-for tools, but
theyre rare.
The most common Pi OS package,
Raspbian, comes with pre-installed
versions of Python, C, C++, Java,
Scratch, Perl and Ruby. Via the magic of
the apt-get install command, theres
also a whole world of software, tools
and libraries available, and git clone
gives you access to code on GitHub. The Pi is a great introduction to
free programming.
With my web developer hat on, a real favourite free tool is CodePen
(codepen.io). Its an online playpen where you can try out HTML,
CSS and JavaScript mini-projects, and see instant, live results. It runs
in any web browser, and can be a quick way to mock up things such
as how the navigation buttons on a website will work. There are
paid-for plans available, but for smaller projects the free version is
perfectly adequate.
A free tool for web developers is Googles
PageSpeed Insights (tinyurl.com/m65jex6).
This will analyse your website as both a desktop
and mobile user see it, and suggest code and
configuration improvements to make the site load
faster quicker websites encourage people to stay
longer; faster-loading sites are also ranked higher
by search engines. Theres an API that you can use
to automate the tests, perhaps hooking them into
your CMS.
Tawk.to
tawk.to
In arguably the most interesting
response to our plea for free software
that readers love, Tim Parkinson
suggested the messaging app tawk.
to. It lets you communicate with your
sites readers in many ways.
I love tawk.to as it shows me instant
activity on my website, Tim wrote.
It shows me the immediate effects of
social media posts or direct marketing.
You can post something to Twitter and
within seconds you can hear it pinging
like a cash register when people read
your blogs on your site. You can also see
where they are, the referral page and
what page they are on.
You can live chat to them or they can live chat to you. It has
a mobile app as well, so you can do all of this via your mobile. All
this from a simple piece of code that you add to the header of
your pages.
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 33
 EDITORS PICK
Freemake Video Freemake
Converter Audio
freemake.com Converter
The whole line of freemake.com
software from Freemake This is simplicity itself to use: select
is brilliant, Jake Harris an audio or video file and choose to
told us, but for me, convert it to MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC,
themost useful of their AAC, M4A or OGG. Its also speedy,
applications is Freemake taking just 25 seconds to convert
Video Converter. Ive a 6.4MB M4A song to crisp, high-
been using it for around five years now and it has become my go-to way of managing all quality MP3, which we could then
the different video file types on my PC. play directly in VLC Media Player
Freemakes software can deal with almost any file format, as well as download (see opposite). Be warned, however,
and convert videos from places such as YouTube. There are very basic video-editing that Freemake cheekily tried toadd
capabilities, such as being able to cut, join and rotate videos. The software is consistently an additional piece of software,
updated to support new devices, meaning you can select the device you intend to play Pro PC Cleaner, to the download so
your video on and it will automatically know which format works best. you may want to install Unchecky
For me, Freemake Video Converter provides all the features Id once use HandBrake first. For giving old songs new life in
for, whilst keeping to a clean and simple user interface. adifferent format, its ideal.

Media &
Entertainment
Kodi
kodi.tv
Kodi is perhaps the most
controversial choice on this
list. Formerly known as XBMC
Media Centre, Kodi is ostensibly
a media entertainment hub,
yet its now earned notoriety
as a means to stream pirated
content through a series of add-
ons. Well let your conscience
dictate whether that crosses
any moral boundaries,
nevermind the legal ones.
Kodi can be installed via
the Windows Store, although
beware that its ten-foot
interface is designed to be
viewed from distance, much like
a Sky EPG, so everything seems
enormous close-up. It can be a
little intimidating to set up and
youll need to learn how to install
add-ons to get the most from
Kodi.

34 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 FREE SOFTWARE FEATURE

Plex
plex.tv
If you just want to play the odd video file, VLC
will do you fine (see below). For those with
bigger ambitions, Plex is the way to go. Its a
complete media library system that can stream
movies and music to any device in your house
or outside of it.
Its built on a client/server model, so youll
need to configure one machine on your home
network asa media server. This might be a PC
or a Mac; alternatively, you can run Plex on a
Linux-based NAS appliance check the website
to see which brands are supported.
Once this is done, the magic begins. Plex scans
your video and music files and based on filename
recognition organises them into a rich visual
library, with preview images, episode information, subtitles and
more, all automatically filled in from free online sources.
You can then browse and play media using either the Plex client for the optional Plex Pass you can open it up to friends and family
app or a smart web interface. Enable remote access and you can too, with their own custom playlists and restrictions. Its like your
access your library even when youre out and about, and if you pay own personal Netflix, and its completely free.

Sonic Dash VLC Media Player

Windows Store videolan.org/vlc

The grande dame of the free media player

world, VLC Media Player still has the same
aim as when it launched in 2001: to easily
play almost any audio or video format for
free. And it does.
Once set up as your default media player,
bringing VLC Media Player to life is a silky-
smooth process: pop in a DVD, click on a file,
choose a stream or open your webcam and
get started. If youre playing a video, the
software has a few neat tricks up its sleeve,
such as setting the screen as your wallpaper
so you can continue browsing, custom
bookmarks, automatically saved snapshots
and fun visual effects (our personal
Do you like your games to be simple, colourful and with a hefty dollop of nostalgia? favourite is the trippy Psychedelic setting,
If so, Sonic Dash is the game for you. Now in its third year on Windows, its which certainly breathed terrifying new life
lurid visuals and worlds should put a smile on the face of anyone who fondly intoDads Army).
remembers Segas ring-collecting blue hedgehog from his beginnings in the Furthermore, the interface is fully
1990s. customisable, allowing you to get rid of,
But Sonic Dash isnt just for diehard fans. It takes the tired Temple Run format for example, the loop or shuffle button
and, well, runs with it, fleshing out a flimsy premise with additional content. when playing an album. Moreover, power
This comes in the form of unlockable characters (including Knuckles and Tails), users can make the most of VLC Media
combos, power-ups and boss levels inwhich you can take on rotund adversary Players module for batch-converting media
Doctor Eggman. files into a different format, whichcan
As ever with free games, there are a couple of drawbacks. The first isa liberal be used alongside Freemakes software
smattering of adverts, but most of them can be promptly dismissed after a few (see opposite). If that wasnt enough, the
seconds. The second is the looming presence of in-app purchases, which can developers have also thrown in a few treats
become wearing. for Windows 10 users, including Cortana voice
Nevertheless, Sonic Dash is ideal for anyone in need of a mindless break just commands (Hey Cortana, play Slipknot) and
dont blame us if youre still playing it two hours later Live Tiles.

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 35

THE ESET
ADVANTAGE
STAY SAFE ONLINE WITH CONFIDENCE
T
he Internet can be a dangerous place, full of
malicious hackers trying to take advantage of
honest and innocent users. Hackers constantly
pretend to be companies or websites they arent,
attempting to fool you into clicking their deceiving
links and giving them your personal information so
your computer becomes a member of their robot army.
Even the most attentive Internet user can slip up by
clicking something theyre not supposed to and end
up in a world of pain. Even a simple lapse in installing
vital Windows updates that fix flaws leveraged by
hackers can wreak havoc.
Thats why anti-virus, or more
accurately for 2017 Internet security
software, exists. Anti-virus programs sit
ESETs anti-virus
in the background, valiantly monitoring software detected
your computer, on the hunt for activity
that resembles something trying to ruin 98.80% of threats
your day. It would be foolish not to have
anti-virus software installed on your computer just
like you wouldnt drive your car without wearing a
seatbelt, you shouldnt use the Internet without anti-
virus software.
Dedicated anti-virus software is obsolete though,
right? Microsoft has one built-in to Windows - for free!
Who better to protect your computer than Microsoft,
who know the operating system inside out and
have a vested interest in ensuring your Windows
experience is not sullied with malware and viruses?
Sorry to break it to you, but that hasnt been the case
for years. Windows Defender is the bare minimum in
protection against Internet nasties.
In real-world
detection tests from
the respected AV-TEST
outfit, ESETs anti-virus
software detected
98.80% of threats,
whereas Windows
Defender managed a
paltry 88%, putting
it amongst the worst
performers. Windows
Defenders false alarms
rate is much higher too.
In AV-Comparatives
March 2016 test,
ESET didnt present a
single false alarm, yet
Defender jumped the
gun 13 times. Defender
even has a higher
impact on system
performance.
36 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
ESET INTERNET SECURITY
Dedicated anti-virus software such as ESET
Internet Security is not only better at basic
protection, but offers levels of protection Windows
Defender doesnt, and never will. ESET implements
various features to go the extra mile in protecting
you online.
Ransomware Shield: This monitors and evaluates
all executed applications using behavioral
heuristics and actively blocks known behaviors
that resemble ransomware.
Anti-Phishing: Thwarts attempts to acquire
sensitive information such as
usernames or passwords by
fake websites masquerading as
trustworthy ones.
Banking & Payment Protection: A
special secured browser through which
you can safely pay online that protects
you from keyloggers.
Webcam Protection: Monitors all the processes
and applications running on your computer, to see
which ones want to use your webcam. It alerts
you to any that unexpectedly try to access your
webcam, and lets you block them.
Small System Footprint: ESET is famous for
having a small footprint that leaves more power to
programs you use daily and extends the lifetime of
ESET Internet Security
hardware.
and ESET Smart
Security Premium
provide rock solid ESET SMART SECURITY PREMIUM
protection ESETs Smart Security Premium offers more
features than anyone serious
about securing their computer even
considers.
Password Manager: Lets
you safely store and prefill your
passwords to avoid password reuse
and create strong passwords.
Secure Data: Encrypt files and
removable media, such as USB keys so
if someone does gain physical access
to your data, they cant do anything
with it.
Anti-Theft: Helps you track and
locate your laptop in case it goes
missing because of a loss or theft.
Mark a device as lost and it activates
the webcam and takes screenshots to
see whos got it.

THE ESET
EXPERT
We sat down with Nick FitzGerald, Senior Research
Fellow at ESET to discuss the current threat landscape
What are the latest trends in the type of
threats and vulnerabilities ESET works
to prevent? Is there a particular type of
malware in fashion right now?
Well, right when you asked, everybody
was, and still is, talking about the
WannaCryptor (aka WannaCry)
ransomware worm. The reason
WannaCryptor has received so much
attention is that it combines one of the
most common current forms of malware
ransomware with fast-spreading
network worm functionality. The worm
also depended on an element of luck for its
success. It used the so-called EternalBlue
exploit from the recent Shadow Brokers
leak of what are reputedly NSA hacking
tools. EternalBlue exploits a vulnerability
in a very old part of the Windows
networking code that was present in
all versions of Windows from at least
Windows XP, and maybe even earlier.
Despite all this though, I dont think
that WannaCryptor is the beginning
of a trend. The worm functionality of
WannaCryptor has seriously jarred quite
a number of people out of what may
have been an element of complacency.
I strongly suspect that many network
firewalls and other security perimeters
and controls will have been checked a
little more thoroughly than usual over
the last few days.
How does ESET stay on top of the
constant malware and virus threats
that seem to constantly be popping up?
It may be rather anti-climactic, but the
answer is that its mostly done through
automation. The huge volume of samples
of new malware and other suspect
WHAT ABOUT THE WANNACRY MALWARE SCARE?
Ransomware is an insidious piece of
software that finds its way on to your
computer the same way as malware
(i.e: downloading a dodgy program via
an email link, banner ad or app that
misrepresents itself), but instead of
turning your computer into a hackers
slave, every single file is encrypted.
If you want your files unencrypted,
activity our products see
and log is constantly being
mined for interesting
patterns and new developments. Of
course, there are human researchers
overseeing all this, as often their
experience means they see things better
or sooner than the automated systems.
Further, human researchers oversee the
testing and validation of new detection
patterns and other technologies we
deploy, either through the cloud or
directly to the endpoint security
software.
Whats a typical malware analysis
look like? How does ESET counter
increasingly ambitious hackers?
The new, possibly more challenging and
interesting material tends to stick out like
the proverbial sore thumb. Usually what
follows is nothing like typical. Sometimes
it takes thinking outside the square, such
as how researchers thought to look for
what turned out to be early IoT malware
and such.
Do you have a favourite piece of
malware? Something nasty, but you
kinda admire the ingenuity of it?
Not that Ill identify publicly! Seriously
though, you do occasionally come
across something whose elegance,
or whose key ideas are so simple yet
had not been thought of or tried before,
gives you pause to admire the ingenuity
or skill that resulted in this piece of
malice being built. Mostly though, you
just groan at the unending ordinariness
of it all, or even have to laugh at the abject
stupidity and you are left scratching
you have to use Bitcoin (a relatively
anonymous payment method) to pay the
ransom and have your data released.
Luckily, ESET Internet Security
includes Ransomware Shield. When
Ransomware Shield
is enabled, all executed applications
are monitored and evaluated using
behavioural and reputation based
ESET ADVERTORIAL
your head wondering how many more
errors and bugs would have been needed
to render the code entirely useless, as
opposed to its current state of near-
uselessness.
When ESET detects a vulnerability,
what is the typical time frame from
when the issue is detected and a
response is released to customers?
In the case that we become aware of
vulnerabilities in our own products, we
work as quickly as possible to remediate
and release updates to fix the issue. As
the complexity of vulnerabilities can vary
greatly, it is very difficult to put a likely
or typical timeframe on preparing and
shipping such remediations, but in the
few such cases since I have worked for
ESET, our responses have been measured
in days rather than weeks or longer
timeframes. Further, it is often the case
that we could ship detection updates
to detect and block attempts to exploit
such vulnerabilities, thus protecting our
customers until we can ship a full repair.
In the case that we become aware of
vulnerabilities in the products of others,
we work to responsibly disclose the
vulnerability to the affected vendor
and assist them in remediating the
vulnerability if they wish to work with
us. Again, it is likely that we could ship
detection updates for exploitation
attempts to help protect our customers
until the affected can ship an update to
fix the issue.
heuristics. When behaviour that
resembles ransomware is identified,
such as trying to encrypt data
unexpectedly, the process is blocked and
you are notified of whats going on. Its
not a total replacement for a solid backup
of your important data, but another
line of defence to ensure your normal
activities are not disrupted.
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 37
DO
SERVICES SUCH AS IF THIS THEN
THAT (IFTTT), MICROSOFT FLOW
AND ZAPIER CAN MAKE YOUR LIFE
EASIER BY AUTOMATING DULL, TIME-
CONSUMING TASKS. BARRY COLLINS
AND MAX FIGGETT SHOW HOW TO
MAKE THE MOST OF THEM

MORE
WORK
LESS
IFTTT PAGE 39
MICROSOFT FLOW PAGE 43
ZAPIER PAGE 46
 DO MORE, WORK LESS FEATURE

W
ere all plugged into dozens of
different web services and devices
but all of them work in their
own little silos. You might have an Android
smartphone, Philips Hue lights, an Apple
iPad, accounts with Dropbox, Gmail and
Wunderlist, but making this diverse set of
digital accoutrements work with one another
is tough.
Services such as If This Then That (IFTTT)
are the glue that bind these services together.
Using a simple web interface or app, youll find
its possible to get your iPhone talking to your
smart plug, your Spotify playlists backed up
in a Google spreadsheet, your eBay listings
automatically tweeted to potential buyers.
Better still, it can make smart home devices
even smarter. Alexa can be told to dim your
lights, turn down the heating or lock the
garage door, even though Amazon itself
doesnt support the smart devices. Someone
ringing your smart door can trigger a hallway
light to switch on, perhaps sufficient to
convince a would-be burglar that someone
really is home after all. Your neighbours could
even be alerted to potential fires in your home
while youre sunning yourself on a beach.
In this feature, weve delivered more than
80 ways of making services IFTTT, Zapier
and Microsoft Flow do the heavy lifting, to
do the hard work while you get on with
your life. Well show you how to automate
a huge number of tasks, and how to create
your own applets and make your devices do
your bidding for you. Its time to automate
everything.

SAVE TIME WITH IFTTT

I
FTTT is powered by applets (previously
called recipes), which are essentially
user-defined scripts for particular
services. Each applet needs a trigger (the
if this happens) and an outcome (then do
that). Applets can deal with a single service
(for example, if I leave the office, unmute my
Android phone), or bring together multiple
services/devices (if I add a song to a Spotify
playlist, tweet a link to the track).
The IFTTT.com website contains many
pre-prepared applets for the dozens of
different services and devices that IFTTT
is compatible with. If you cant find an
applet to do what you want, you can
create your own by clicking on My Applets
| New Applets and follow the on-screen
prompts.
However, in our experience, IFTTT
applets can be flaky. Some work
flawlessly, others inconsistently, some
not at all. If you find a pre-prepared applet
doesnt deliver the goods, its often worth
trying to create a new applet with the
same functionality yourself: a script that
works for one person may not work in
quite the same way for another.
IFTTTs site can also be temperamental.
Users report problems activating applets
in Google Chrome on an external display
with a touchscreen laptop a long-term
bug. The site works fine in Microsofts
Edge browser.

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 39

PHONE GET FREE MANAGE YOUR
SILENCERS STUFF! STOCK PORTFOLIO
3 applets 4 applets 4 applets

Lets start with the basics applets that IFTTT is excellent at keeping an eye If you havent got time to keep a beady eye
stop you getting disturbed by pinging out for bargains. The service will on your stock portfolio, you can employ
notifications in the middle of the night, trawl all manner of sites for free IFTTT to do it for you. Theres a slight catch
or while youre in important meetings at music, apps, games and other stuff. here, with IFTTT betraying its American
work. Unfortunately, IFTTT can only be Heres a selection of useful applets roots only stocks listed on the NASDAQ
used to control Android phones iOSs that will help ensure you never miss and other US exchanges can be tracked.
phone functionality is strictly locked out on a bargain. Still, if youre an investor in the major tech
down by Apple, denying third-party apps Google releases a new song for free firms, youll likely be covered.
the ability to perform tasks such as mute/ every day on Play Music. Get a daily If you want to make sure youre alerted
unmute the handset, log calls or access email with a link to the song using to a sudden crash in a companys share
text messages. the following applet: tinyurl.com/ price, this applet will send an Android
To silence your phone during the twilight n7g4u78. phone notification when a selected stock
hours and switch the ringer back on again If you use the Steam games service, dips below a predetermined level: tinyurl.
in the morning, you com/mgbuwyf.
will need two separate Alternatively, if you
applets: want to be alerted if the
To mute the phone at price falls by a certain
bedtime: tinyurl.com/ percentage, activate
kva7k43. this applet: tinyurl.com/
To unmute your phone m6yhcbq.
in the morning: tinyurl. Likewise, if you
com/m2z88u7. want to get out when a
If you click on the particular stock begins
settings cog on both to peak, this applet is
applets, youll find your friend: tinyurl.com/
options to adjust both lrvfk58.
your bedtime and the If youre more of a
time you want the phone long-term investor, and
to wake up again, both just want to keep tabs on
rather awkwardly broken your portfolio in a Google
down into hours and spreadsheet, this applet
minutes. The wake-up will automatically update
applet also lets you set a sheet with each days
the ringer volume as a closing price: tinyurl.com/
percentage, for those mpo6y7a.
who dont like to be There are many other
awakened by a 100% ringtone blast early you can be sent email notifications applets for price falls or rises of particular
in the morning. Note, even on silent, any when free game keys are posted to stocks, exchange rate fluctuations and
alarm set on your phone should still work. Reddit using this applet: tinyurl.com/ the price of commodities such as gold or
What about preventing the constant lfaj3cf. bitcoins. Take a look at the many options
chirping of Twitter Want to make sure you dont miss available at ifttt.com/search/stocks.
or personal phone out when leading apps have their
calls while youre price dropped to zilch for promotional
in meetings? giveaways? iOS users
The following should enable the
applet will silence following applet,
your phone which lets you
whenever theres adjust the country
an appointment youre living in, the
in your Google category of apps
Calendar: tinyurl. youre interested in,
com/kjew8s6. and which device you
The downside own (an iPad, say) in
to this applet is the settings: tinyurl.
that youll need com/n2hzvfl.
to remember to Theres also a
unmute your similar applet for
phone manually Android users:
after the meeting
has finished. tinyurl.com/ kfb4pf5.

40 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au


MONITOR THE
EBAY AUCTIONS
4 applets
Youve got your eye on a Canon 1D, or a
vintage ZX Spectrum, or a rare B-side by
Squeeze. Whatever it is, it will likely end up
on eBay, but trying to keep abreast of all
the latest listings is a tricky manual job. Let
IFTTT take the strain.
The following applet lets you specify a
search term, a maximum price and then
saves all of the new listings to a Google
spreadsheet: tinyurl.com/lkcu2bv. If
youre desperately seeking a rare item,
IFTTTs mobile app will ping an optional
notification every time the applet is
triggered, so you should be alerted to any
new listings in short order.
Google Sheets is only one of the many
destinations that can log results for eBay
searches. Check out the eBay channel (ifttt.
com/ebay) and youll see options to ping
results into OneNote, Slack, Pushbullet,
and all manner of different services.
What about if youre selling gear? This
applet automatically shares your new
listings on Twitter, handy for power sellers
who want to attract attention to listings on
social media: tinyurl.com/lut2apa.
Theres also a
straightforward applet for
people who want to keep all
of their eBay orders, both
incoming and outgoing,
in one place: tinyurl.com/
lkla8no. It scans your Gmail
inbox for emails from eBay
that contain the subject line
shipped or order and then
automatically logs them in
a Google spreadsheet. Its a
useful tool if youre juggling
multiple eBay transactions
every week.
MASTER
YOUR MUSIC
COLLECTION
3 applets
Spotify subscribers will be
familiar with the often brilliant
Discover Weekly playlist, an
automatically generated two
hours of new tracks every
week thats personalised
to your music tastes. The
problem is that every
Monday that list regenerates,
meaning its easy to lose
that great track you
listened to in the car last
week. The following applet
automatically creates a
Discover Weekly archive
playlist, meaning that all
the tracks curated by Spotify
are retained for future
listening: tinyurl.com/
ml9so6h.
Theres a
similar service for
the Release Radar
playlist, too: tinyurl.
com/ltsylfc.
Do you have
Spotify playing in
the office? Want
to alert colleagues
every time youve
found a banging
new tune? This
is a very clever
applet that sends
a message to a
specific Slack
channel every
time you add a
song to a specified Spotify playlist.
So you could have an #OfficeTunes
Slack channel thats updated with
everyones recommendations, for
instance. The applet can be found
here: tinyurl.com/lejv8u4.
DO MORE, WORK LESS FEATURE
STOP THE PIPES
FREEZING!
5 applets
Anyone who uses a garden office or works
from the conservatory will know that, no
matter how good the insulation, the office
will take a good hour or more to warm up on
a cold winters morning. IFTTT can help you
avoid an unwanted morning chill.
The Weather Underground channel
lets you set alerts based on the current
temperature in your region. Consequently,
if the mercury dips below, say 5C, you can
set IFTTT to switch on the heater connected
to your WeMo smart plug or even your Nest
thermostat. Youll need to create the applets
yourself, using the Weather Underground
channel (ifttt.com/weather) and whatever
smart plug/thermostat device you use.
There are several from which you can
choose.If you want something a little more
low-tech, you can set Weather Underground
to email you in advance if its going to rain
tomorrow, or to automatically add a weather
forecast to your Google Calendar at 6am
every day (tinyurl.com/labj7p2). At the
other extreme, you can get mobile alerts if
the pollen count forecast is high (tinyurl.
com/mn6e2uu), or the forecast UV index
carries a high risk of sunburn, giving you
time to slap some suncream on the kids
before school (tinyurl.com/ kyc2y8j).
 MAKE ALEXA EVEN SMARTER 6 applets
Amazons Alexa has taken homes
by storm, either via Amazons
own range of speakers or third-
party products. However, the
range of devices and services
that Alexa plays nicely
with by default is pretty
limited. IFTTT provides
the bridge between Alexa
and a whole host of other
smart home devices and
services.
First, a warning. Alexa
support on IFTTT still
seems patchy. We couldnt
get any of these services
to work on one of our test
devices, and readers have
reported similar problems. It
seems there are still kinks to
be worked out. However, were
assured that all of the following
do work in some instances,
meaning its a case of suck it and
see.
If youre constantly asking Alexa
to add items to your to-do list, you
might be frustrated that it doesnt
integrate nicely with your chosen
to-do list app: only Any.do and
Todoist are supported by Amazon
itself. With IFTTT, Alexa to-
dos can be synced to Google
Calendar (tinyurl.com/lc9jx5t) ,
Wunderlist (tinyurl.com/kat97kw)
and Evernote (tinyurl.com/
lv6c6qp), among other services.
Other smart home devices
can also get the voice-control
treatment. This applet (tinyurl.
com/k77jdzb) lets you tell Alexa
the precise temperature for your
Nest thermostat; this one lets you
switch off the Hue lights at bedtime
(tinyurl.com/kzt6u7h); and if you
have all the correct components,
telling Alexa to trigger lock-down
will switch off your Hue lights, shut
your garage door and silence your
Android phone with this recipe
(tinyurl.com/mcvzchf).
We suggest you test Alexa/
IFTTT integration with some free
software services before investing
in any smart home hardware,
however.

MAKE A BUTTON 2 applets EMERGENCY

One of the newer features of IFTTT is
the ability to create your own buttons
on both smartphones and tablets.
These buttons appear in the form of
widgets (or icons) on your Android or
iOS devices homescreen, letting you
perform reasonably complex tasks at,
well, the press of a button.
Theres a wide selection of pre-built
button applets that you can use, once
youve installed the IFTTT mobile app
on your device. You can, for example,
track the number of hours youve spent
working on a spreadsheet (handy for
billing purposes) by simply pressing the
button when you start, and again when
you clock-off (tinyurl.com/mntvvk3).
Another sneaky option for Android
users is the ability to press a button
to make your phone ring, helping you
get out of an awkward water-cooler
conversation in the office, or escape
when the Jehovahs Witnesses come
knocking at your front door (tinyurl.
com/mgta945).
However, the buttons are best
deployed with your own recipes. Weve
set one up to send a text message
saying Im on my way home to the
other half, for example, effectively
creating an SMS macro. You could use
a button to toggle a smart plug, switch
lights on or off, or let your team know
youve arrived in the office by posting
a message to a Slack channel. The
possibilities are almost endless.
SERVICES
3 applets
IFTTT isnt all about showing off and
convenience it can actually be of genuine
assistance in emergencies, too. A common
mini-crisis can be averted by the applet that
automatically sends a text message to your
significant other if your phone battery is
running low, for example, potentially avoiding
a panic when they keep getting your voicemail.
Thankfully, the applet (tinyurl.com/mxzrpcn)
lets you edit the message sent, so you dont
have to use the decidedly cheesy: Hi babe,
this is an automated text letting you know my
phone battery is almost dead.
If you have a Nest Protect smoke detector in
your home, youre probably already set up to
receive phone messages if the device detects a
fire while youre out. But what if youre away
on holiday? With IFTTT, a Nest smoke alert can
be used to send a text message to a friendly
neighbour, who can perhaps enter the house
and check if its a false alarm. The applet is here:
tinyurl.com/lpfqvnz.
How about deterring burglars? Owners of
the Ring doorbell can already answer their door
remotely, but it wont be long before thieves get
wise to smart doorbells and chance their arm
anyway. But what if pressing the Ring doorbell
also switched on a light in the hallway? That
might be enough to convince a potential thief
youre home after all. Theres a recipe for Ring
doorbells and WeMo light switches at tinyurl.
com/lpdkxgw, with options for other smart
home solutions such as Philips Hue.

42 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 DO MORE, WORK LESS FEATURE

GO WITH THE MICROSOFT FLOW

Microsofts IFTTT rival may be the new kid on the block, but it has much to offer

A
s the name suggests, Microsoft Flow
aims to smooth the automation of
tasks, streamline communication
between apps and, most importantly, make
power users lives easier without the need
for time-consuming scripting.
Released to take on established services
such as IFTTT and Zapier, Microsoft Flow is
designed to be implemented in businesses
of all sizes. It can, therefore, automate
jobs involving a wide range of services
(110 to be precise), including big names
such as SharePoint, Office 365, OneDrive,
Dropbox, Gmail, Google Drive, MailChimp,
Slack, Todoist, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest
and Instagram, as well as comparatively
obscure choices such as Toodledo,
Typeform, SendGrid and Redmine.
As with IFTTT, you can create your own
applets, unappealingly called Flows, by
picking from a dropdown list of services
and triggers (for instance, when a file
is created in Dropbox) to put together a
flow diagram of actions and conditions.
To begin, head to flow.microsoft.com, sign
up, click on the My Flows tab and select the
Create a Flow from blank box. After that,
sign in to your chosen services and get
cracking.
That said, while the process may sound
intuitive and simple, in practice Flows
can be somewhat buggy and sometimes
leave you scratching your head an issue
compounded by the lack of advice on the
website.
Dont despair: theres a truckload of
ready-made templates to save the day.
Some are less useful than others, but they
can be an invaluable resource for doing
those small, annoying chores that eat into
your day. For example, Microsoft Flow can
create Google Calendar notifications for
Slack, track your working hours, and let
you know when your boss is trying to get
in touch.
Moreover, the free version of Flow is
generous 750 automations per month and
unlimited Flow creation although some
services are locked off to non-premium
users. The paid plan, which starts at US$5
per user per month for 4,500 automations,
contains Salesforce, Bitbucket, Eventbrite,
Harvest, FreshBooks, Stripe and more.
Weve skimmed the cream of Flows
template crop to help you forget about
mundane digital tasks and focus on the
important stuff.

ABOVE: To create your

own Flow, pick and mix
from the list of services
and triggers
TOP RIGHT: Theres
a wide selection of
useful ready-baked
templates to choose
from
RIGHT: The services
that integrate with
Microsoft Flow include
most of the big names,
as well as less well-
known choices

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 43

NEVER MISS AN EMAIL FROM YOUR BOSS 4 applets
Have you ever missed a deadline because an email from
your boss got lost in your cluttered inbox? Well, theres
a Flow for that (tinyurl.com/lqxlwrw). Working with
Office 365s Outlook and the Flow app, the template
sends you a push notification every time your boss
(or another VIP) sends you an email, meaning you can
respond promptly and garner brownie points. No wonder
its the fourth most used applet on the site.
If you want to make doubly sure that nothing slips
under the radar, Microsoft has crafted an applet (tinyurl.
com/losey9u) that sends you a text when your boss gets
in touch. The Flow utilises Twilio a platform that uses
web service APIs to send and receive SMS messages
meaning you can quickly hurry back from lunch to
polish off that last-minute report. Speaking of which,
theres also a template that automatically saves Outlook.
com attachments to a Google Drive folder (tinyurl.com/
lzceudj), so you can plunge straight in.
If that wasnt enough, you can even instruct
Microsoft Flow to notify you if the language in your
boss missive is very negative: for example, Why
havent you brought me a coffee yet? Youre fired! :(. The
template (tinyurl.com/lq7h45f) uses text analytics to
examine the content of the email, effectively giving you
advance notice when bad news is on its way.

COLLECT DATA FROM SOCIAL MEDIA 6 applets

Keeping track of what people are saying
about your company on social media
can be difficult. Luckily, Microsoft Flow
simplifies the process with a selection
of handy tools that will alert you to
mentions, store information, and provide
a troll warning.
First, you can choose to be alerted via
email when a specific user be they an
important client, firm or even a celebrity
sends a tweet (tinyurl.com/kku7wzx).
This applet is particularly useful for very
active or popular Twitter profiles, saving
you the hassle of wading through a long
list of notifications or hashtags.
Looking for a more user-friendly
way of storing and reusing your
Instagram snaps? Theres a Flow to help
(tinyurl.com/mk4blop): the template
automatically saves an image to a
specific Google Drive folder when you
post it on Instagram, avoiding the need
to laboriously re-upload it.
For a wider insight into how your
product, service or campaign is being
received on Twitter, use the Log the
latest tweets about your product in
Excel template (tinyurl.com/kt549yr).
This records the tweet content,
author, date sent and even the number
of times its been retweeted in a
spreadsheet. To get started, create an
Excel file on your favoured cloud
storage platform, follow the column
instructions, set the keyword you wish
to track, and watch the praise roll in.
Similar tools exist for Facebook (tinyurl.
com/k6jl8ba) and Instagram (tinyurl.
com/m47jdl9).
You can also be notified when someone
is less than complimentary about a
keyword a kind of troll klaxon. The
Flow (tinyurl.com/lkbktn3), which uses
the Cognitive Services Text Analytics
API, will detect a negative comment,
translate it if necessary, and send a push
notification to your Android or iOS device
with a link to the tweet.
 DO MORE, WORK LESS FEATURE

MANAGE YOUR CALENDAR

7 applets
Keeping your digital calendar up to date can be a mind-numbing
slog, fraught with potential pitfalls such as forgetting to jot
down an important meeting, arrangements getting lost in
the digital ether, and selecting the wrong day. Fortunately,
Microsoft has constructed an assortment of Flow templates
to lend you a helping hand when keeping on top of your
commitments.
A common business bugbear is that people or companies have
multiple calendars on different platforms, ramping up the risk of
double-booking. Dont be one of them: using an applet, you can
share events across Google Calendar and Outlook.com (tinyurl.
com/lx23l4c), as well as between Google Calendar and Office 365
(tinyurl.com/k2qsfv5).
However, the Flows arent limited to just Google Calendar
and Outlook: there are also applets that post in a Slack channel
of your choice when a meeting is about to begin (tinyurl.com/
mz58do5), create events for Todoist items (pcpro.link/273todo),
open up a calendar task in Wunderlist (tinyurl.com/m7gbgk3),
extract a deadline from a Trello card (tinyurl.com/lgryvxv), and
automatically generate a OneNote page for a meeting (tinyurl.
com/lx533s3) so you have somewhere to take notes.

KEEP ON TOP OF PUSH FLOWS BUTTONS 7 applets

SHAREPOINT Like IFTTT, Microsoft Flow has reduced a the Tunbridge Wells wilderness (see
7 applets number of tasks to a simple button press screengrabs below).
on your iOS or Android mobile device and The more complex one-press actions
As youd expect, Microsoft Flow integrates offers the opportunity to build your own. include sending a simple Im working from
well with SharePoint the firms document The pre-baked Flow templates include home email to your manager (tinyurl.
storage and management app offering an simple buttons for setting a reminder com/kd8rrxw), tracking your working
assortment of nifty reminders, alerts and in ten minutes (tinyurl.com/klk8ryu), hours in an Excel spreadsheet (tinyurl.
time-savers that run in the background. checking the weather (tinyurl.com/ com/ksvwu3f), letting colleagues know
First, theres the ability to send a lr49ekw), and being emailed your own that youre ill (tinyurl.com/mpey7n3), and
customised email to yourself or someone coordinates (tinyurl.com/lahw537), in texting a contact that youre late for a
else whenever an item is added to a specific case youre being chased by a bear in meeting (tinyurl.com/khwuesz).
SharePoint list (tinyurl.com/ldk5s62),
meaning there are no nasty surprises when
you next peruse the archive. Its a very neat
utility and the third most popular applet.
Moreover, you can order Flow to notify you
when a SharePoint item is modified via email
(tinyurl.com/mxhbhhb) or Slack (tinyurl.
com/mevycql), as well as easily copy files
between SharePoint and Dropbox (tinyurl.
com/krcz792), Box (tinyurl.com/k6ooxto),
Google Drive (tinyurl.com/k4t94p4) and your
Windows PC (tinyurl.com/mpxyq4h).

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 45

 ZAP YOUR WORKFLOW INTO LIFE
With its built-in applets and Chrome extension, Zapier is a godsend for busy users
S
implicity is the name of the game
with Zapier. Released in 2012, the
automation service has become the
go-to alternative to IFTTT, being rightly
lauded for its clarity, ease of use and huge
selection of apps.
While Microsoft Flow can often feel
unwieldy, Zapier according to its
website wants to empower businesses
everywhere to create processes and
systems that let computers do what they
are best at doing and let humans do what
they are best at doing. Its an admirable
ambition thats reflected in the speed with
which its applet templates satisfyingly
called Zaps can be modified: providing
youre signed up with the necessary web
apps, the process can take under a minute.
Its really that simple.
As with both IFTTT and Flow, you can
also create your own Zaps from scratch.
To begin, sign up at zapier.com and click
the unmissable bright orange Make a
Zap! button. You can then construct a
recipe from a list of apps, triggers and
actions, testing each stage as you go
along to ensure that nothing goes awry
a useful fail-safe tool.
GROW YOUR
LINKEDIN
AUDIENCE
3 applets
LinkedIn can often be treated as
something of an afterthought, as less
important than Facebook or Twitter,
but keeping your business or personal
profile updated with new content is key.
Fortunately, theres a range of Zaps to
help keep your LinkedIn spick and span
and grow your audience.
You can set WordPress posts to
hit LinkedIn (tinyurl.com/lda3yb4),
removing the need to copy and paste a
link. To make life even simpler, theres
also an applet for sharing Twitter posts
from a profile to LinkedIn (tinyurl.com/
l9umjga).
Another useful Zap integrates with
Google Sheets, so you can post Google
Slides presentations be they about
a new product or even a rebrand to
your firms LinkedIn page (tinyurl.
com/k8znj8v). Simply update a row on
Google Sheets
and Zapier will
find the relevant
presentation on
Google Slides.
46 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
And the list of supported apps
is vast, with over 750 services
to choose from. Apart from the
usual suspects such as Gmail,
Google Drive, Slack, Twitter,
Facebook, WordPress, LinkedIn
and so on, Zapier offers a
selection of its own built-in By
Zapier applets for, among other
things, formatting, scheduling,
parsing emails, coding and
receiving SMS messages.
All sound too good to be true?
Well, the free version of Zapier
is rather limited, restricting you
to just 100 tasks per month and
five Zaps at a time. Moreover,
Zaps in the free plan can only
work in 15-minute blocks so
if an applet springs to life at
9am, you cant run another until TOP To begin crafting your own Zap, select a
9.15. Naturally, these figures increase trigger app and set up an action
incrementally as you work up through the ABOVE The choice of support apps is absolutely
paid plans, which range from US$20 to a huge over 750 by our reckoning and includes
crowd-pleasers such as Facebook and Gmail
whopping US$250 per month for 50,000
tasks. will become invisible digital butlers,
Weve sifted through the hundreds of working behind the scenes to make your
Zap templates to pick out the ones that life easier.
KEEP ON TOP OF PUSH IT REAL GOOD
FORMATTING 3 applets
3 applets
Another of Zapiers built-in apps, Push,
Zapiers own Formatter service irons out
reduces sometimes complicated tasks to
potential formatting issues between
a couple of clicks of its Chrome extension.
web apps, making sure that nothing is
For instance, you can add a text note to
lost in translation between, for example,
Evernote (tinyurl.com/m8phsxr), send
OneNote and Google Drive.
yourself an email (tinyurl.com/lxokpfm),
For example, do you find yourself
and quickly add a Google Calendar event
jotting down a note or idea in OneNote
(tinyurl.com/m7bf3mf) from a box in the
and then completely forgetting about
browser.
it? If so, theres a Zap (tinyurl.com/
ml9fyrw) that will automatically create
a Wunderlist task whenever a new note
is added, preventing anything from
slipping through the cracks.
Similarly, if you use both Microsoft
OneNote and Evernote, a Zap that
shares data between the platforms is
essential (tinyurl.com/myyxbq2). Every
time a new note is added to a section
in OneNote, it will pass over the title to
Evernote so you dont have to enter the
same data twice and can work across
the apps.Another useful formatting
time-saver is that, if you regularly post
on a WordPress site, you can set up a
Zap that immediately posts the link to
Facebook with a shortened URL (tinyurl.
com/nysocsb). Its an easy way of keeping
 DO MORE, WORK LESS FEATURE

DIGEST
SOCIAL MEDIA
1 applet
If, like most of us, you dont have a dedicated
marketing team managing your social media
and profiling new followers, Digest by Zapier
is here to help. Working on either a daily,
weekly or monthly basis, the Zap (pcpro.
link/273digest) sends you a summary of
your new Twitter followers via Slack, giving
you an overview of who is interested in your
business (or just you).
QUICKLY ADD
CONTACTS
1 applet
If your job involves coming into contact with a
lot of new people, its worth investing in a Zap
that allows you to speedily add new entries
to Google Contacts (tinyurl.com/kwjk3lc). To
do so, create a Google Sheet, enable the Zap,
and every time you add or update a row with
a name, email address and telephone number,
Zapier will create a new Google Contact. Its
handy when youre copying over large blocks of
data.
DELAY
2 applets
Picture the scene: youre snowed
under with a project ,or nearing a
deadline, but keep getting distracted
by less important things or well-
meaning colleagues. Sound familiar?
Luckily, another of Zapiers homemade
apps is here to help: Delay. Its an
uncomplicated tool that works via a
Google Chrome extension, allowing
you to quickly prioritise time-sensitive
tasks and put others on the back
burner.
First, using the Zapier Chrome
extension and Slack, you can type in a kpjdxjv). Think of it as a trusty digital
message or job for your future self (for Post-it note.
example, feed the cat or remember Another Zap allows you to enter a
to make lots of money), set a delay note into the extension and then, after
and receive a Slack notification when a delay, receive a reminder via SMS
the deadline expires (tinyurl.com/ (tinyurl.com/lnpubls).

ALWAYS BE AHEAD
OF SCHEDULE
4 applets
Zapier offers a range of scheduling applets
that take the pressure off and automate time-
consuming daily tasks.
First, you can set Gmail to automatically
fire off daily emails to yourself or others
(tinyurl.com/kw77kav). Its an excellent
way of sending out reminders, sharing new
information, and managing your firms
workflow. You can also command Zapier to
create a new Evernote note every morning
(tinyurl.com/kpgofvs), and send an SMS to
yourself at a certain time every day (tinyurl.
com/m9zda8f).
Lastly, and perhaps least usefully, theres
even a Zap that triggers a random Good
morning GIF in your #general Slack channel If something catches your eye while browsing, open the
at 8am every morning (tinyurl.com/mokaelg). Chrome extension and type a note into the box
So you can begin the day as you mean to go on Using Push by Zapier; the reminder can then be sent to your
Gmail email

A very simple Zap allows you to enter a note into the Zapier
Chrome extension and then, after a delay of your choice,
receive a timely reminder via SMS

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 47

IN THE LABS
Our reviews are our pride, and our joy

Testing times
BENNETT RING EXPLAINS OUR UPDATED TESTING PROCESS THAT WE USE FOR MAINLY FOR GPUS AND CPUS

Were updating all of our benchmarks with included in the game that was built for the settings, we can put the strain on
the exception of the ever-reliable 3DMark. AMD products, as this would put Nvidia either the CPU or the GPU, or both. Again,
Were sticking with 3DMark because its the products at a disadvantage. we run the test three times to get the
most widely acknowledged, independent One game that is fantastic for putting average score, as there is a slight amount
benchmark on the planet. While certain CPUs through their paces is Total War: of variance between each run.
game engines are built closely with the Warhammer. The Built-in Benchmarking We also have a variety of other
assistance from AMD or Nvidia, 3DMark is feature contains hundreds of individual benchmarks up our sleeves for testing
built to give neither vendor an advantage. units, each with their own unique AI other components, such as Wi-Fi
Its been in use for over 15 years, and is running. When lowering the GPU-intensive performance or SSD performance,
built by a team who strive for one thing settings in the incredibly detailed options including but not limited to SiSoft Sandra,
repeatable, accurate tests that are as menu, we can put all of the load on the Zoltn Pallagis WiFi Speed Test, and
scientifically accurate as possible. CPU, which is why youll see some very CrystalDiskMark. However, youll see the
The next test on our list is Rise of the interesting results in the following above four tests most commonly used.
Tomb Raider. We chose this test for several benchmarks. It also has beta DX12 support, Note that we also reboot the PC between
reasons. Firstly, it now officially supports rounding out our reasons for making this each and every benchmark, as well as
DirectX12, an area that is becoming more our third benchmark. Like Rise of the Tomb update Windows and the graphics drivers
important in the coming years. Secondly, Raider, we run it three times and average prior to testing; this is why we have to
its very GPU-centric when set to Ultra, the result. retest older samples in comparison to new
with dozens of different shaders that tax Our final pick of the bunch is the latest products, as driver improvements can
GPUs incredibly. Finally, there are three in the Tom Clancy Ghost Recon series, change their performance over time (in
built-in benchmarks, but we only use the Wildlands. Firstly, because its utterly some AMD cases, by up to 20%).
result from the Geothermal Valley test, beautiful. The huge amount of detail So there you have it our new range of
to keep things simple. We run the test spreads across massive draw distances cutting edge benchmarks. All designed to
three times, and then average the result. makes it one of the most demanding games help us help you make the right buying
We also disable the Purehair technology currently on the market. By fiddling with decisions for your gear.

PIONEER ASUS NETGEAR

DREAMVISION FX553VD AC5300
58 59 57
EDITORlAL & PRODUCT SUBMISSION: PC & Tech Authority welcomes all information on new and upgraded products and services for possible coverage within the news or reviews pages. However, we respectfully point out that the magazine is not
obliged to either review or return unsolicited products. Products not picked up within six months of submission will be used or donated to charity. The Editor is always pleased to receive ideas for articles, preferably sent in outline form, with details of authors
background, and where available samples of previously published work. We cannot, however, accept responsibility for unsolicited copy and would like to stress that it may take time for a reply to be sent out.

WHAT OUR A-LIST MEANS WHAT OUR AWARDS MEAN WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN
Our A-List award is PC & Tech Authoritys VERY POOR
reserved for the best comprehensive Real World
products in each category testing sorts out the best POOR
we review. With a winner products from the pack. Any ORDINARY
and an alternative pick in product recommended by PC
each, thats 92 products & Tech Authority is well above
VERY GOOD
you know are first class. average for features, value for OUTSTANDING
money and performance. 0 1 2 3 4 5

48 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 INTRO REVIEWS

REVIEWS
HOW WE TEST
Our benchmarking tests are the best in the
business. Read on to find how they work
2D TESTS
Desktop PCs and laptops are tested using our own custom
bench testing suite, which has been carefully designed to
test all aspects of a system and rate them in a way thats
useful to you. Our benchtesting cover three main tests: a
typical video editing test, a demanding 4K video editing
test and a multitasking test that stresses all aspects of the
system. We look at the time it takes for each test to run,
which is then compared to our reference PC to produce a
normalised result. This score is shown on a graph, and to
help you understand just where the PC were reviewing
INTEL
OPTANE
sits in the grand scheme of things, we will often include
50
other systems scores.

PC&TA LABS BENCHTEST PC Q PCS & LAPTOPS

Intel Core i7-7700 CPU; 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4
HP Pavillion Wave .........................53
RAM; ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming K6 motherboard; Corsair
Neutron XT SSD Gigabyte Aero 15............................54
Asus VC66R....................................55
On occasion we will run publically available bench testing
Pioneer Dreamvision 32 AIO
software, predominantly PCMark 8 from Futuremark.
PC7X..................................................58
This is run in the Home setting, in Accelerated mode. You
can get PCMark 8 as well as 3DMark (below) from www. Asus FX553VD ...............................59
futuremark.com

3D TESTS
For video cards, as well as Integrated Graphics Processing
Units, we use:
3DMark Firestrike
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Total War: Warhammer
Ghost Recon Wildlands
3DMark is designed specically to test video cards, and
you can download and run the same tool as us to help you
gauge where your own GPU ranks compared to what we
are reviewing.
The games were selected because they are relatively
well balanced in performance between AMD and Nvidia,
favouring neither. Rise of the Tomb Raider supports DX12.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is a cutting edge 3D engine and
can be optimised to stress either the CPU or GPU, while
Total War: Warhammer is particularly good at stressing
CPUs, and has beta DX12 support.
Tests are run using three resolution ranges, depending
on where the GPU sits in the market:
Q HANDHELDS
Apple iPhone SE........................... 68
Google Nexus 5X.......................... 69
LG G4 ................................................70
Motorola Moto G4 ........................ 72
Q PERIPHERALS
Motorola Moto G5 ........................ 73
Netgear AD7200 ...........................56
Motorola Moto Z Play .................. 74
Netgear AC5300 ........................... 57
Oneplus 3T......................................76
Netgear S8000 media switch. 60
Samsung Galaxy A5 .....................77
Oculus Touch Controller ..............61
Samsung Galaxy A6 ....................78
Samsung Galaxy S7 .....................79
Sony Xperia X Compact ............ 80

Entry level: 1920 x 1080

Mid-range: 1920 x 1080 2560 x 1440
Q GAMES
High-end: 2560 x 4K Prey ................................................... 88
Endless Space 2 ........................... 90
BATTERY TESTS
Screen brightness is set to 120cd/m2, playing a 720p video
on loop until the device runs out of power.

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 49

Intel Optane
Memory 32GB
INTEL USHERS IN THE NEWEST TYPE OF DATA STORAGE IN
OVER THIRTY YEARS, MARK WILLIAMS TAKES IT FOR A SPIN
M
emory. Whether volatile or
non-volatile, every computing
device needs some. From your
bedside clock, to your car, microwave,
smartwatch, phone and of course
computer. Whether its to save your data,
preferences, or to simply load basic
operating code when powered on so the
device knows how to work and behave
to inputs, its necessary to our modern
daily lives.
Interestingly all of these devices use
some form of storage rst invented
between thirty-three and seventy years
ago! RAM has been around since the
1940s, PROM the 1950s, SRAM and
DRAM the 1960s, EPROM and lesser
known bubble memory the 1970s, with
NOR and NAND ash memories being
the most recent from the 1980s.
Thats right, the newest NVMe SSDs
we love so much today has lineage going
back over three decades. Current NAND
based SSDs are great and the new NVMe
protocol has helped to unleash this
technologys full potential, but the very
nature of NAND ash memory has some
innate problems. All of which come
down to how data in NAND is stored.
Intel and Micron teamed up in 2012
to research and develop a new type of
memory storage that removes the aws
that NAND ash has. What they came
up with is something called 3D Xpoint
(pronounced crosspoint).
50 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
NAND FLASH REFRESHER without incurring the time penalty of
Data is stored in NAND in a somewhat reading to controller memory rst and
complex structure. Each physical NAND processing delay. Its also why write
chip is logically divided into blocks, each amplication is a problem, with a nite
containing pages, which in turn contains number of erasures per bit before failure,
words which are a strings of several just to re-write a single bit you must use
bits. To read a single bit of data, the an erasure cycle on all bits within the
chip needs to access the correct block, same page, wasting time and life span
activate the page, target the correct on bits you dont want to touch.
word, activate the entire word then read
the desired bit. When it comes to writing, HOW 3D XPOINT WORKS
things get more complicated. To write a Firstly, 3D Xpoint really is 3D, unlike 3D
single bit to a fresh unused NAND chip NAND or V-NAND as Samsung likes to
the drive controller needs to activate call it which is just layers of 2D NAND
the pertinent block, then write the entire stacked on top of each other allowing for
page including all words and bits to be denser packaging. In Xpoint wires form
contained within at once. This might be
Optanes internal structure is a true 3D lattice
a surprise but NAND ash isnt directly
re-writeable. Whole pages must be rst
erased before the page and anything
within it can be written to or updated.
So, if you want to overwrite a single bit or
word in an already used page the entire
page needs to be read into the drive
controllers memory temporarily, the
whole page erased, the new data added/
altered in the controllers memory before
the page then gets written back in its
entirety to the chip.
Therefore, read speeds are always
faster than writes on NAND ash and
is why TRIM was introduced early on to
effectively self-defrag pages so whole
clean pages are available to write

a criss-cross lattice above and below a
bulk material, with the top wires of the
rst layer acting as the bottom wires of
the second layer. Increasing capacity can
simply mean adding more layers on top.
The advantage of this criss-cross
wiring pattern is that is allows bit
level access. Activate a wire and the
associated cross wire above or below
to access a single bit of storage. Its that
simple. This is why Xpoint is proving
to be more than just mass
storage. The simplicity of this
design means the controller
has far less work to do, greatly
reducing response times. With
no transistors required per cell
Xpoint has roughly four times
the density of DRAM, and due to the
bit level access, write amplication is
not an issue and is part of the reason
why Xpoint has endurance ratings
some threefold that of NAND at the
same capacity. All this means Xpoint
sits between DRAM and NAND in
performance and effectively creates a
new tier of storage/memory.
OPTANE, INTELS FIRST XPOINT
PRODUCTS
Micron will be bringing Xpoint products
to market soon too but Intel is the
rst from the partnership to release
a product line dubbed Optane using
this new technology. Theres only three
products currently; the 375GB Optane
DC P4800X PCIE card which is aimed
solely at big data centres, and two
Optane Memory products of 16GB and
32GB capacities in the M.2 form factor
using two PCIE 3.0 lanes.
Intel isnt letting tech reviewers get
their hands on the P4800X yet, so well
make do with the consumer grade
Optane Memory 32GB.
OPTANE MEMORY
Much like NAND SSDs in the early years
when capacities were too small to
be effectively used as a drive on their
own, Optane Memory is likewise being
marketed as drive caching devices to
speed up hard drive usage. This didnt
Optane effectively creates a
new tier of storage/memory
performance
stop us running tests on the Optane
Memory which when not congured as
cache still shows as a normal storage
device, to see what the underlying Xpoint
technology is capable of on its own.
Unfortunately, Optane Memory
caching currently only works with the
latest 200 series Intel motherboards
paired with a 7th gen Core processor. We
also had to update our test lab systems
BIOS to support Optane. On top of
that the caching only works with the
operating system drive, theres no ability
to choose which drive it caches.
Setting up Optane Memory as a cache
takes a little while but isnt difficult.
First make sure your OS drive is in AHCI
mode, boot into Windows and install the
Optane driver. The system restarts, sets
the motherboard storage controller into
a special Intel RST with Optane mode,
then reboots into Windows. Part two
of the setup formats the Optane drive
ready for use, then reboots again. Before
At this stage Optane is being sold as a cache that sits between RAM and a HDD or SSD
COMPONENTS REVIEWS
hitting the Windows welcome screen
again Optane shows an enablement
process (doesnt happen with the
smaller 16GB version). When thats done
youre back to the desktop and ready to
get going.
Once activated we started to feel the
caching inuence. The Optane cache
requires something to be run or accessed
at least once to train it and start
caching, so after launching programs or
Windows a couple of times the
speedup became noticeable.
The Seagate 10TB hard drive we
paired Optane with exhibited
noticeably less disk thrashing
when booting into Windows
or loading a program. Not SSD
levels of performance but the HDD was
clearly getting a helping hand.
RESULTS
The start-up times graph shows what to
expect when Optane Memory is paired
with a hard drive. Windows booted 22%
quicker, and with Anti-Virus and other
services loading up in the background
after that, Steam wound up auto
launching some 28% faster too. Firefox
with one hundred tabs open took the
same amount of time to load the initial
webpage on start (likely CPU limited)
but waiting for Firefox to stop accessing
the disk afterwards reduced by 14%.
File access and game load times were
impressively reduced too, with Ashes of
the Singularity loading 44% quicker and
waiting for Photoshop to start and load
a 120MB 3D le was reduced by a most
impressive 65%.
Optane Memory caching clearly works
well!
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 51
 REVIEWS COMPONENTS
But how does the underlying Xpoint
perform compared to NAND? Digging
into the graphs, with sequential reads
Optane gets beaten simply because this
product is hampered by only having two
PCIE 3.0 lanes of connectivity versus
the RD400 and 950 Pros four lanes.
Sequential writes beat a heavily-used
RD400 drive but gets slaughtered
by a relatively unused 950 Pro drive.
However, over time as the 950 Pro gets
used that stat will decline down to
nearer RD400 levels. Optane wont.
Once we go to random read/writes
Optane starts to shine. With access
times an order of magnitude faster
than NAND, Optane blasts past the
competition.
NAND is great in straight line read/
writes but once randomness kicks in
(say as the drive gets lled) they slow
down and is why the heavily used RD400
shows some particularly bad write
results compared to a near-fresh 950
Pro.
To illustrate this point, while
duplicating over 14GB of 750,000 tiny
les back onto each drive (so the drive
is reading and writing already when
the benchmark is run again), Optane
remains orders of magnitude more
responsive (ms) and performant
(MB/s). Optane can multitask
where NAND fears to tread.
As a rst product, the
underlying 3D Xpoint tech
is clearly already showing
advantages over NAND.
Optane remains
orders of magnitude
more responsive and
performant
CONCLUSIONS
So Optane Memory caching works
well in making a HDD based PCs more
responsive. However, there are some
issues worth mentioning. The Optane
driver cannot be uninstalled. Optane can
be disabled afterwards but switching
your storage controller back to AHCI
causes Windows to not boot.
While Optane caching was enabled
we noticed the other NVME M.2 drive
plugged into the system didnt show as
a device until the controller was reset to
AHCI again.
Every third boot or so caused
the Optane drive to go through an
enablement cycle before getting to
Windows, adding another two minutes
to the boot time, something the 16GB
model apparently doesnt suffer from.
Finally, disabling Optane caching
took some thirty minutes waiting for the
drivers to nish the process.
Optane Memory works, but with
all these negatives its very hard to
recommend its use. For laptops itll be
great, paired with a HDD to get higher
storage capacity and a more responsive
system instead of a highly expensive high
capacity NAND SSD. Low end desktops
where money is of concern may also
nd Optane plus a HDD to be a good
compromise.
Outside of those situations it seems
best to wait until larger Optane drives
come and can be used as regular
drives or the software integration gets
better. For now, Optane Memory is very
promising but this implementation of it is
somewhat disappointing.
KEY SPECS
$129 www.mwave.com.au
32GB 8 M.2 2x 3.0 PCIE connectivity
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5

HP
Pavilion
Wave
600-a051a
LOOKS GOOD FROM AFAR,
BUT IS FAR FROM GOOD
I
f theres another segment almost as
popular as ultraportable convertibles,
its mini-PCs. Both have been driven
forth by the ever decreasing amount
of power required by todays CPUs, not
to mention SSDs as small as a row of
stamps. One of the more intriguing mini-
PCs to cross our desk lately is the HP
Pavilion Wave.
The most interesting facet is the
custom-case. Its covered in Audio fabric,
which makes it look more like a speaker
than a PC. Its also darned small, with
a height of just 25.9cm, and a width of
16.8cm. To be honest, its the sexiest,
least-PC looking mini-computer weve
ever seen. If only it wasnt so damn slow
But before we get into the woeful
performance, lets take a closer look
at that extraordinary design, which HP
refers to as the Tesla design. Thankfully
HP has included a wireless mouse and
keyboard with the PC, as the number of
USB ports isnt exactly prolic. There are
twin USB 2.0, a single USB 3.0, and nally
a USB 3.1 Type C on the rear of the case,
along with a single USB 3.0 Type A on the
front. Theres also a HP 3-in1 card reader.
Tucked away at the rear are the video
outputs as well, with a single HDMI and
DisplayPort, though theres no mention
whether they can handle 4K at 60Hz.
We tried watching several Sony sample
4K videos, and the framerate hovered
around 10fps. Its no surprise really, given
that theyre the visuals are powered by
a rather lowly AMD R9 M470 with just
2GB of dedicated memory. Its also most
denitely not up to the task of playing
anything more demanding than Solitaire.
Making matters worse, we couldnt even
run 3DMark, as the machine would crash
every time, even after updating the AMD
and HP drivers.
The entire chassis operates as a
speaker, with sound pumped out from
the top vent. It uses Bang and Olufsen
Play internal speakers, and theyre not
too shabby. The lack of subwoofer means
it wont be rattling any desks, but for
integrated speakers they do a decent
job. The 1x1 Wi-Fi antennae/receiver is a
little disappointing, given that 2x2 is the
standard these days, but theres also
a Gigabit Ethernet port on the rear to
ensure fast le transfers.
Given the interior capacity is so
small, its no surprise that this unit isnt
upgradable. So youre stuck with what
your $999 gets you, which to be frank
isnt a whole lot. Intels Core i5 6400T is
the beating heart of the system, though
its more of a struggling pump than a
healthy source of power. This chip design
is almost two years old, though it is
thankfully a quad-core design (theres no
HyperThreading though). The main issue
is its frequency, with a base of 2.2GHz and
a Turbo of just 2.8GHz. HP has endowed
this with a mere 8GB of DDR4-2133MHz
memory, but where things really slow
down is the hard drive. Rather than go
with the super-speed, ultra-small SSDs
LAPTOPS & PCS REVIEWS
that are now commonplace in mini-PCs,
HP has favoured quantity over quality.
The Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB
Barracuda Desktop drive is a scary
throwback to the days before SSDs. Using
the Wave is like going back in time three
years, where it would take more than a
few seconds to open even the simplest
of applications. Were positive that
upgrading this to a snazzy NVMe would
improve the speed of this unit no end, but
alas instead youll spend most of your
time admiring this machines stunning
good looks as you patiently wait for it to
do the simplest of tasks.
One of PC & Tech Authoritys sister
magazines, Hyper, recently showed
that its possible to build a mini-PC that
it at least ve times faster than Wave
for a cost that is just 40% more. What
youre paying for with the Wave is the
immensely beautiful Tesla chassis and
thats about it. Were sorry, but when
performance is this bad, we simply cant
recommend it, no matter how damn good
it looks. Although, we do look forward to
seeing what savvy modders will be able
to build inside such a unique case once
they gut it
Bennett Ring
KEY SPECS
$999 www.hp.com
Intel Core i5 6400T (quad-core, Turbo 2.8GHz) 8GB DDR4-
2133MHz AMD R9 M470 w/ 2GB GDDR5 GPU
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 53

Gigabyte Aero 15
A FULL-METAL POWERHOUSE
U
nlike other manufacturers who are
making a beeline for ultraportable
13 and 15-inch laptops, the new
Aero 15 from Gigabyte is focusing more
on high-end performance at the cost
of slightly less mobility. Thats not to
say that its behemoth; its still just 2.1kg
and has a footprint of a 14-inch laptop,
despite the larger 15.6-inch display,
largely thanks to the tiny 5mm bezel.
However, its denitely got more grunt
than were accustomed to in this form
factor, even including a discrete GPU for
gaming.
We were rather surprised to see
that the display is a mere 1920 x 1080
resolution, as it looks almost as crisp as
some of the 4k displays weve seen in
this size. Its certied with X-Rite Pantone
certication, ensuring that what you see
on screen is whats going to be printed,
making this machine especially suitable
for image designers and graphics workers.
Youll get good glances in the next boardroom
meeting when you roll this funky unit out
54 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
A 4K option will be available later in the
year, which will likely see a sizable jump
in price.
The chassis has been machined entirely
from aluminium, and feels extremely
well built, with absolutely zero keyboard
ex. If youre feeling a little showy, theres to get similar sized machines at more
a bright orange option available; were
quite happy to stick to the subtle black.
Each key has its own RGB backlight, but
we did nd the resistance a little heavy
for our liking. The touchpad is also a little
iff y sometimes it worked absolutely
beautifully, other times it would skim and
ick all over the place. It also didnt seem
to recognise basic Windows gestures,
such as window scrolling. The keyboard
supports macro recording, though there
are no dedicated macro keys; thankfully
there is a full numpad.
Gigabyte has equipped the Aero 15
with a solid range of connection options.
On the right resides twin USB 3.0 Type A
along with a single USB 3.1/Thunderbolt
3 Type-C connection. Theres also an SD
card reader on this side. Heading to the
left reveals a single USB 3.0
Type A connection, along with
Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, Mini Display-
Port and a combo headphone/
mic 3.5mm minijack. Its nice to see
a machine this small with Ethernet,
as it seems to be a dying feature as
laptops become too thin for
its dimensions. Integrated
802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
v4.2 are included for wireless
connectivity. Were a little surprised
The chassis has been
machined entirely from
aluminium, and feels
extremely well built
at the placement of the cameras, which
are at the bottom of the screen, so during
voice chats you wont be making eye
contact with your correspondents.
On to the hardware within, which
is where the Aero 15 really takes off.
Powering it all is Intels all-consuming
i7-7700HQ CPU, a quad-cored,
HyperThreaded beast that hits 3.8GHz
when necessary. This has been paired
with 16GB of DDR4-2400MHz, while
storage is delivered via a sizeable
Samsung 512GB M.2 SSD with NVMe
support. However, we should point out
that only 461GB of this is usable, and
theres no secondary drive included with
this model.
Rounding out the powerful hardware
is Nvidias excellent GeForce GTX 1060
GPU, which is adequate for a screen of
this resolution. The overall high-level of
interior specs goes a long way to explain
the rather hefty price tag; its possible
affordable prices, but they wont have
such a healthy spread of high-end specs.
As our benchmarks show, they combine
to deliver a powerful machine, with
surprisingly lengthy battery life.
We just wish the keyboard and
touchpad were a little more nger-
friendly. Given how often youll be using
the keyboard in particular, the fact its so
stiff will give your hands a good workout
whenever you use it.
Bennett Ring
BENCHMARKS (1080 ULTRA DETAIL) MINIMUM AVERAGE
SHADOW OF MORDOOR 66FPS 90FPS
GRID AUTOSPORT 74FPS 99FPS
0 20 40 60 80 100
PCMark 8 Home accelerated: 217 minutes
3DMark Cloud Gate: 25380
3DMark Fire Strike: 9647
KEY SPECS
$2,899 www.gigabyte.com.au
15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 Wide Angle Panel Intel 7th
Generation Core it-7700HQ (quad-cored, HyperThreaded,
3.8GHz Turbo) 16GB DDR4-2400; 512GB Samsung M.2
NVMe SSD
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5

Asus
VivoMini
VC66R
SMALL FORM FACTOR;
OVERSIZED PRICE TAG
W
elcome to Asus upgrade to its
prior prosumer mini-PC, the
VC65R. Its slightly larger than
your everyday NUC style PC, but Asus
has upgraded nearly every component
within. The result is a powerful media
box, but one that comes with a price tag
that is hard to swallow.
The interior of the chassis is two litres,
and squeezes in a standard Mini-STX
motherboard based on the Intel H170
chipset. Its small enough to t onto the
back of most displays using the included
VESA mounting kit, though it is 74.1mm
deep, which will push your display
further out from the wall.
Asus is really pushing this as a 4K
playback media device, and we found it
played back 4K video les effortlessly.
This is thanks to the Intel 7th Gen
Core i5-7400 within, which features
hardware acceleration thanks to the
Intel HD Graphics 630 iGPU and media
acceleration engine (note that this
can up or downgraded at the time of
purchase). This CPU can handle both
VP9 and HEVC 10-bit acceleration,
which is what makes it such a potent 4K
playback device. Despite having a mere
65W TDP, its a quad core chip that can
Turbo all the way up to 3.5GHz. Asus
claims that under normal operating
modes itll only use around 19W of
power, which probably explains why its
so quiet, hitting a mere 19dB of fan noise
when idling.
Its possible to install up to three
different hard drives inside the chassis,
though our version only had a single
Despite its small size theres no shortage of ports
LAPTOPS & PCS REVIEWS
256GB Hynix SSD. With
one M.2 drive in place, theres
room for two more 2.5 inch drives,
or a single 2.5-inch drive and ultra-slim
optical drive. Putting a Blu-ray drive in
would make this a very capable media
box indeed; its just a shame there arent
any Ultra-slim Ultra HD Blu-ray players
on the market yet, which would make
this an all-rounder 4K playback box.
Thanks to the H170 motherboard, the
drives can be connected in RAID 0,1,5
or 10 modes, which would make this a
rather powerful albeit expensive
NAS solution.
A mere 8GB of DDR4-2400MHz of Putting a Blu-ray drive
memory was included in our review
sample, but this can be upgraded to
in would make this a
32GB. Just bear in mind that itll have very capable media box
to be of the SO-DIMM form factor due
to the small size of the memory slots.
indeed
Intels integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi 8260
chipset is included, which is a dual band Overall this is a very versatile mini-PC,
solution using 2x2 antennae, which also able to operate as a standard desktop
delivers Bluetooth 4.1. PC, media player or point of sale system.
Up to three displays can be However, it does so at a very high price
connected simultaneously to the point when compared to the likes of
VC66R thanks to the four different video Gigabytes Brix systems or even Intels
outputs DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort NUC range, though these dont include
and VGA. Unfortunately we werent storage or memory. We appreciate just
able to connect up three monitors how much Asus has managed to t
simultaneously, but its highly doubtful into such a small form factor, its just a
the Intel iGPU would be able to run pity that the price is far too high for the
three independent 4K streams. As far hardware within.
as USB options go, theres plenty here Bennett Ring
two USB 3.0 Type-A on the rear, plus
another three on the front, though only
two of those are USB 3.0, one of which is KEY SPECS
Type-C. $1,259 www.asus.com.au
Intel 7th Gen Core i5-7400 (quad-core, 3.5GHz Turbo) 8GB
DDR4 memory 177.4 x 153 x 74.1 mm (WxDxH)
BENCHMARKS
PCMark 8 Home accelerated: 3788
3DMark Cloud Gate: 6841
OVERALL
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www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 55
Netgear
Nighthawk X10
AD7200 WiFi
Router D8500
A PREMIUM PRODUCT WITH A PRICE TO MATCH
T
he Nighthawk X10 WiFi router is by
far and away the most technically
advanced home Wi-Fi router Ive
had the pleasure of testing, with a future-
proof feature set and capabilities normally
reserved for enterprise-grade equipment.
Lets start with the design. This is a
behemoth of a router, with piano black
panels and a grilled faade that lets you
see the cooling fan within. This thing looks
reminiscent of a high-end graphics card
with four antennas attached to it.
Those antennas although non-
removable all have subtle blue LED edge
lighting, further adding to the routers
space age sensibilities. These LEDs can
be switched off with a toggle switch at
the back, should you not want an ambient
blue glow in the room.
On the left are two USB 3.0 ports for
plugging in storage or printers. If you
choose to use the router as a Plex server,
youll need one of those ports to install the
app on a USB stick or similar.
Around the back are six Gigabit Ethernet
ports, with ports 1 and 2 serving as
aggregation ports. This is great if you have
a NAS or a network switch that can take
advantage of the technology, feeding the
network even more throughput than is
usually possible with a single LAN port.
For real speed-hungry users, a bit of
enterprise-grade technology has made its
way to the Nighthawk X10 in the form of
a 10Gbps SFP+ port. This is the rst time
this connection has made its way into the
home networking world.
If youve got the equipment to use it,
such as a high-end NAS, then youll have
56 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
absolutely no issues pushing content
through at speed. For 95 percent of the
home user population, however, itll
probably just sit there unused.
Which leads me nicely into the X10s
wireless capabilities. Wireless N and AC
are available, as youd expect, and both
provide solid if not spectacular speeds.
Using quad-stream (4x4) and MU-
MIMO, the router is more than capable of
servicing multiple connections to multiple
devices at multiple speeds with aplomb.
I ran Netix on a 12in iPad Pro, a Google
Pixel XL streaming Stan, and Samsung
Galaxy S7 streaming Extreme quality
tracks on Spotify all on the 5GHz network,
and all started and played without a
hitch. Pretty impressive considering Im
encumbered with an ADSL2+ home
internet connection that tops out at
14Mbps.
Wireless-N connectivity was also OK,
with reliable connectivity achieved from
one end of my three-bedroom house to
the other, through several walls and a
kitchen an area notoriously difficult for
Wi-Fi signals to penetrate in any home.
One thing its wireless-N wasnt though
was fast if youre looking for speed,
youre best jumping onto one of the higher-
frequency bands.
Speaking of which, the X10s party
trick is the inclusion of 802.11ad, which
promises theoretical throughput speeds
of 4600Mbps on the 60GHz network. This
would be just the thing to complement a
dual-Gigabit or 10Gbps-connected NAS
for streaming 4K content to a Wireless-AD
capable device. Sadly, there is a catch,
and it comes in the form of the laws of
physics. You see, when it comes to radio
frequencies, you can have long-range or
you can have high-throughput, but not
both. This is already evident when you
compare wireless-N and wireless-AC.
Wireless-N is a lower frequency, which
makes it more capable of penetrating
through walls and giving you greater range.
Wireless-AC, at more than double the
frequency of wireless-N, gives you much
higher throughput but sacrices range.
Wireless-AD operates at a frequency
ve times that of wireless-AC, so as youd
expect, throughput is blisteringly fast
when youre up close and personal with
the router. However, walk several metres
away from the X10, and your connection
drops off severely. Move into the next
room, and connectivity is just about
non-existent. This technology then is
purely reserved for same-room network
connectivity. When smart TVs and digital
hubs eventually start adopting wireless-
AD componentry, youll be one step closer
to 4K video streaming nirvana.
Sadly, wireless-AD capable devices
are few and far between at this stage.
Whats worse, 802.11ad is not backwards-
compatible like its predecessor 802.11ac,
but the recently announced 802.11ax by
Qualcomm will be, and that standard
promises not only multi-Gigabit
connectivity but energy efficiency as well.
So where does this leave the Nighthawk
X10? If you have to be on the absolute
bleeding edge of home networking
technology and have the latest and
greatest high-end equipment to go with
it then its a great buy. If you want to
future-proof your home Wi-Fi, then
the X10 will gladly step up to the plate
and knock it out of the park provided
802.11ad becomes widely adopted.
However, $799 is a lot to ask for
functionality you either wont use
or cant use yet, making it a difficult
recommendation for anyone except the
earliest of early adopters.
Peter Gutierrez
KEY SPECS
$799 www.netgear.com.au
Quad-core 1.7GHz processor 7 x Gigabit Ethernet ports (1 x
WAN, 6 x LAN w. dual Gigabit aggregation), 1 x SFP+
10Gbps port Triband (1 x 2.4GHz @ 800Mbps, 1 x 5GHz @
1733Mbps, 1 x 60GHz @ 4600Mbps)
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Netgear Nighthawk
X8 AC5300 VDSL/
ADSL Modem Router
D8500
ONE OF THE BEST MODEM ROUTERS
WE HAVE EVER TESTED
N
etgears Nighthawk range of
wireless routers have been among
the most technically advanced
and expensive routers for power users,
and the Nighthawk X8 AC5300 VDSL/
ADSL Modem Router continues this proud
tradition.
While the design is a little more
subdued that its wedge-shaped
predecessor, the Nighthawk X8 is
nonetheless a fetching bit of kit, with an
undulating ventilation grid on the top, a
column of white LEDs to signal internet
connectivity, Wi-Fi channel status and
Ethernet connectivity, and three buttons
on the front to enable/disable the LEDs,
WPS and Wi-Fi, respectively.
Speaking of LEDs, the four external
antennas possess their own blue LEDs
that circle the tips. While dismissing
them as a design touch at rst, I came to
appreciate them for signifying the status
of the Wi-Fi at a glance, saving me an
arduous walk across the living room.
These external antennas have built-
in ampliers for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz
networks, and complement the four
internal 5GHz antennas nicely.
USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports lie
underneath a panel on the right side,
enabling connectivity to printers, USB
storage, and the like. If you download
Netgears ReadySHARE Vault app, you
can also turn the Nighthawk X8 into a le
server and back up your connected PCs to
any attached storage.
This router is denitely for bandwidth-
hungry households, with theoretical
Gigabit throughput for the wireless-N
channel and 2.166 Gbps for each of the
wireless-AC ones. Furthermore, the
two 5GHz bands can be combined into
a single 5GHz connection, providing as
much bandwidth as you could possibly
ask for (as long as you dont stray too far
away).
MU-MIMO and beamforming tech
come part and parcel with the router,
and using tricky software smarts, is able
PERIPHERALS REVIEWS
to load-balance slower network devices
on one 5GHz channel, leaving the other
one for the gamers and streamers on the
network.
Setup on my ADSL2+ connection was a
relatively quick and painless experience,
and I was up and running in short order.
That the wizard encourages rst-time
users to change the routers password as
part of its process was a welcome sight.
Performance was, as youd expect,
blisteringly fast. While simultaneously
streaming HD Netix and Stan to a Google
Pixel XL and a 12in iPad Pro respectively,
streaming Spotify at Extreme quality to a
Galaxy S7, and watching 1440p YouTube
videos on an Ethernet-connected desktop
PC, the Nighthawk X8 chugged along with
nary a stutter, serving all devices with
aplomb. Wireless range was impressive
too. While the dual 5GHz channels
predictably dropped off somewhat after
moving a few rooms away, the 2.4GHz
channel covered my entire three bedroom
house and backyard with ease, even
reaching my neighbours house 30 metres
across the road.
$699 may seem like an eye-watering
amount for an ADSL modem router, but
if you want a no-compromise device that
will serve you well both now and into the
future, the Nighthawk X8 is one of the
very best.
Peter Gutierrez
KEY SPECS
$699 www.netgear.com.au
Dual-core 1.4GHz processor 7 x Gigabit Ethernet ports (1 x
WAN, 6 x LAN w. dual Gigabit aggregation) Triband (1 x
2.4GHz @ 1000Mbps and 2 x 5GHz @ 2166Mbps each)
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 REVIEWS LAPTOPS & PCS
Pioneer Computers
Dreamvision 32
Gaming PC 7X
AN AIO THAT PROMISES REAL GAMING PERFORMANCE
T
here was a time when only Apple
could build a decent All-in-One,
but those days are well and truly
over. The miniaturisation of components
for laptops has meant we can now have
Windows-based AIOs that dont overheat,
arent ridiculously fat, or insanely priced.
This 32-incher from Pioneer shows how far
AIOs have come in recent years, but also
highlights a few issues that they still need
to work on.
The large 32-inch screen means this is
the perfect size for your office desktop or
even bedside table, but we should point
out just how fat it is. Its approximately
15cm deep, so mounting it on a wall isnt
possible, especially as the venting system
would be blocked. Given the large number
of vents on the rear, its not surprising to
see that this machine is basically silent
during our gaming tests, but there is one
bug-bear theres a high-pitched whine
that comes from within. Were not sure if
its from a fan or coil noise, but its always
noticeable.
58 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
The large size of the screen is
appreciated, but its rather low resolution,
at just 1920 x 1080, making the pixel
structure extremely obvious. Wed have
much preferred a higher resolution for a
few hundred dollars more. At least its
IPS though, so the colour, clarity and
viewing angle are all very respectable.
Unfortunately theres no way to change
the angle of the screen, as the two feet
its mounted on arent exible at all. One
feature that would have really doubled the
versatility of the screen is a TV tuner, but
unfortunately there isnt one included. Its
a strange oversight as many AIOs include
this feature, though theres always the
option of buying a USB tuner.
Unfortunately most of the USB ports
are hard to reach though. Theyre on the
bottom, which means you have to lift it
up every time you want to plug something
in, along with the video outputs. Theres
four USB 3.0 Type-A, Ethernet, three
3.5mm minijacks for twin speakers and
a microphone, DVI-I, VGA and two old
school keyboard/mouse connections.
Thankfully there are two more USB 3.0
Type-A connections on the front along
with two more 3.5mm minijacks, but
theres no sign of any USB 3.1 Type-C/
Thunderbolt 3 connection. A two mega-
pixel camera is included, but its on the
bottom, so when used in a normal desktop
setup your viewer will see your chest and
neck; theres no way to change the angle.
Packed away inside the large plastic
boxes on the rear is a decently specced
up PC. Intels Core i5-7600 four cores
boost all the way up to 4.1GHz under load,
while a decent amount of DDR4 memory
is included, at 16GB. An Asus Prime H270
Plus motherboard is included; at this
price wed have preferred a Z270 based
motherboard, but in reality theres no
performance difference, just fewer PCIe
lanes. A hefty 512GB Intel 600p Series M.2
SSD is included, which supports NVMe
though only 476GB of the space is usable.
This is backed up by a mechanical WD 1TB
HDD. Rounding out the technical goodies
is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB
of dedicated memory.
As a result, this machine turned out
some decent results in our benchmarks.
However, its worth considering that it
costs close to three grand its possible to
build a machine twice as fast for the same
price, but it wont be an All-in-One. Theres
also the issue of the low resolution display
and lack of TV tuner. Yet as far as AIOs go,
Pioneer has delivered a solid overall build.
Bennett Ring
BENCHMARKS (1080 ULTRA DETAIL) MINIMUM AVERAGE
SHADOW OF MORDOOR 64FPS 95FPS
GRID AUTOSPORT 95FPS 126FPS
0 30 60 90 120 150
PCMark 8 Home accelerated: 10588
3DMark Fire Strike: 10588
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme: 5774
KEY SPECS
$2,680 www.pioneercomputers.com.au
32-inch IPS panel Intel Core i5-7600 (quad-cores, 4.1GHz
Turbo) 16GB DDR4 512GB Intel M.2 NVMe SSD; 1TB WD
HDD.
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5

Asus FX553VD
NOT YOUR AVERAGE 15 INCHER
F
rom the exterior, and the price point,
this looks like a rather standard
productivity focused 15.6-inch
based laptop. However, dig a little deeper
and youll see that Asus has endowed
this with some gaming prowess, despite
it looking or costing nothing like your
normal gaming laptop. If you just want
a super-portable mobile laptop or
convertible, this is not for you but if you
want something that is happy to run Excel
during the day and Overwatch at night, its
actually a rather interesting proposition.
From the exterior, this looks like a
relatively mid-range office productivity
laptop. There are a few orange highlights
that suggest its a bit more than that,
but overall it doesnt scream Gamer-
machine during your weekly meeting with
the boss. That price might give it away a
little though; if there wasnt some kind of
discrete gaming GPU within, you could
easily pick up a competing model for
$500 less. From what we can tell and
its getting harder and harder to tell every
day due to various coatings the entire
chassis is made from a plastic exterior.
Weighing in at 2.5kg with battery in place,
its also rather heavy compared to the
ultra-light weights weve seen in this form
factor of late.
The consolation for this is some rather
beefy hardware within. The 15.6-inch IPS
screen is a basic 1920 x 1080 model, and
we really do mean average. Compared
to other laptops in this price range, the
colour quality and clarity of the screen is
rather lacking. However, the darling of the
laptop world is powering this machine,
Intels 7th Generation Core i7-7700HQ
CPU. With quad HyperThreaded cores
that boost up to 3.8GHz, this machine
has CPU cycles in spades. Itll cut
through anything you throw at it without
a problem, a fact helped by the chunky
16GB of DDR4 memory feeding it data at
high speed.
Unfortunately the main OS SSD is
rather lacking. At just 128GB, with only
118GB of that usable, youll be lling this
M.2 SSD quicker than you can click on
installing the Adobe suite installation
button. We had to mount most of our
benchmarks on the secondary drive, a 1TB
mechanical drive, as it kept spitting up an
error that there just wasnt enough space,
despite there being a healthy 75GB of free
space on the main SSD; were guessing a
LAPTOPS & PCS REVIEWS
BIOS update will x this bug in the
future.
Making this a somewhat decent
gaming machine is the inclusion
of Nvidias entry-level GeForce
GTX 1050 GPU. As our
benchmarks show, its
doesnt really have the chops
to play todays latest games at
Ultra detail, though its ne If youre
more of a casual gamer. Still, at this
price it seems a little underpowered;
a GeForce GTX 1060 would have
delivered massively improved
performance. At least its not
too noisy, hitting the 50dB fan
noise that seems to be the basis
for all of the new Nvidia mobile GPUs.
Unfortunately battery life was pretty
abysmal, hitting just 129 minutes in our
PCMark 8 Home Accelerated battery test.
If youre expecting full-day performance
from this machine, wed suggest that
youre going to be disappointed.
As far as other features go, things
are pretty much par for the course.
The inclusion of a Blu-ray drive is
interesting, but comes at the cost of USB
connectivity. There are just two USB 3.0
and a single USB 2.0 Type A connection,
along with a single USB 3.1 Type C
connection. Theres also HDMI out and an
Ethernet in, but thats about it.
Asus has tried to deliver a rather unique
machine; with a business form factor but
the inclusion of a GeForce GTX 1050 to
give it a little gaming grunt. However, for
the price we think youre better off with
something like an Alienware with external
GPU accelerator, which will deliver a
much more portable office machine, with
real gaming performance when you get
home.
Bennett Ring
BENCHMARKS (1080 ULTRA DETAIL) MINIMUM AVERAGE
SHADOW OF MORDOOR 30FPS 43FPS
GRID AUTOSPORT 68FPS 81FPS
0 20 40 60 80 100
PCMark 8 Home accelerated: 129 minutes
PCMark 8 Home accelerated: 4113
3DMark Fire Strike: 5426
KEY SPECS
$1,999 www.asus.com.au
15.6-inch IPS panel Intels 7th Generation Core i7-7700HQ
CPU (quad-core, HyperThreaded, 3.8GHz Turbo) 16GB
DDR4 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 59
 REVIEWS PERIPHERALS
Netgear S8000 Switch
NOT YOUR NORMAL SPLITTER
A
switch, is a switch, is a switch.
These boring beige boxes
generally do one thing, and
one thing only split a single Ethernet
connection into multiple Ethernet
connections. Theres been basically zero
innovation of the eld of these devices
for many years, but Netgear is trying
to change that with the S8000. Rather
than a box that equally distributes your
bandwidth amongst all of the connected
devices, theyve endowed it with Quality of
Service (QoS) features to ensure that your
most important traffic gets through rst.
But does it actually make a difference?
Considering most routers these days
already have QoS built into them, the
S8000 isnt really necessary unless youve
got a multitude of Ethernet connected
devices. Its an 8-port switch; so youll be
able to hook up seven discrete devices,
as one of the ports will be used for your
input connection. Even just looking at the
design of this device shows that Netgear
is trying to do something different. Where
most switches are a simple little box,
Netgear has instead gone for the styling of
a stealth ghter. Its surprisingly heavy as
60 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
well; where most switches are built from
basic plastic, Netgear has gone for a full
metal jacket on this product.
Unlike most switches, this one includes
software to control the various settings
that are included. We have to say that its
not the most intuitive interface around;
most network novices wont understand
the terms that it bandies about, such as
ow control, IGMPv3 IP header support or
multicasting. Itd be nice if the interface
explained each of these terms in detail.
However, it does make it simple to assign
priorities to certain ports for gaming or
media use. The Gaming pre-set mode
allows the rst port to be given the fastest
access for gaming, while the Media
Streaming option enables the second
port to prioritise media streaming. But to
congure the remaining ve ports (port
8 is used as the uplink port to your main
Internet connection), youre going to
have to dig deeper into the conguration
options, where things get a little more
complex.
This software can also be accessed
via a Smartphone app, but digging into
the more advanced options is far more
complicated than necessary. For example,
to give a certain port a boost in the priority
list is not easy to gure out how to do at
all. Apparently the built-in QoS support
should do this automatically, but itd be
The included app sets it apart from most switches,
allowing each port to be assigned a priority
nice to be able to assign priority manually
to each port, so that you can be sure youre
main PC is getting priority, while other
devices are secondary. To do so youll need
to dig into the Prioritisation menu, where
youre asked whether or not youd like to
use 802.1P/DSCP mode, or do it manually.
Like we said, the terminology in use here is
well above what most home users will be
comfortable with. If you know what youre
doing though, its possible to limit the
bandwidth per port, which means Mum
and Dad can hog 90Mbps of their NBN
connection, while leaving the little ones to
survive on a mere 10Mbps.
Its possible to use Link aggregation to
patch together up to four ports to deliver
4Gbps of bandwidth to a certain device,
which will come in handy with other
devices that feature multiple Ethernet
connections, such as Netgears very own
ReadyNAS devices. Theres also a test
feature that allows you to see if there are
any issues with your cabling, which is most
handy indeed we would have saved
many hours not having to disconnect every
device just to nd a faulty cable.
As expected, speeds are bang on for a
Gigabit Switch. Yet for most home users
its probably total overkill, as their router
undoubtedly has QoS already built in.
On the other hand, if youre managing a
small office and need to precisely control
the bandwidth available to each device,
the $100 jump in price over a basic 8-port
switch might just be worth it.
Bennett Ring
KEY SPECS
$149 www.netgear.com
8-port switch integrated QoS features manual port
speed control Link aggregation up to four ports
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0 1 2 3 4 5

Oculus Touch
OCULUS IS BACK ON EQUAL FOOTING
W
hen the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
arrived, PCTA was lucky enough
to be one of the rst magazines
in Australia to receive review samples.
After a week of testing we came to the
conclusion that the Rift was the superior
HMD, while the Vive was the superior
overall package, and it came down to one
reason the lack of motion controls for
the Rift. Instead we had to make do with a
crummy Xbox controller, and it really took
away half of the VR equation. Well, were
pleased to nally see Oculus motion
solution arrive in the form of the Touch
controller. The million dollar question is
whether it brings the Rift platform up to
the same level as the Vive?
We expected Touch to cost around
US$299, so the release price of a mere
US$99 is simply astonishingly good value.
For this you get two touch controllers and
a second tracking camera, identical to the
rst. Now that your Rift has two cameras,
Oculus suggests setting up a camera on
each side of your display, but we found
this to be a terrible suggestion. The
problem is that unless your display is right
at the front of your desk, your desktop will
occlude tracking below desk level, which
is a huge problem when youre leaning
down to pick things up.
Thankfully the Rift community are a
savvy bunch, and theyve come up with a
better solution mount them the same
way as the Vives. That is, diagonally
opposite, at ceiling height, pointing
downwards. This allows much better
coverage, and also enables room-scale
tracking, though its not the same size
as the Vive, at around 7 feet diagonal.
However, you can purchase a third
camera (US$79), which will increase
the play size to around 11.6 feet
diagonally.
Oculus really needs to
work on their setup tutorial
for the Touch controllers, as
its confusing to say the least.
Once again the community has
saved the day, with third party
software that show exactly
WEARABLES REVIEWS
we think the Rift may
end up being the
superior of the two
products (HTC Vive)
where your controllers are being
tracked, and any problem spots. Like
the Vive, having room-scale tracking
means that the Rift now displays a blue
wall whenever you approach the edge of
your play space.
In terms of ergonomics, the Touch
are hands-down the winners, no pun
intended. Theyre held like pistol grips
instead of the wand-like design of the
Vive controllers, which makes them far
more suitable for pointing at things, and
especially in games involving guns
which unsurprisingly is a large amount
of titles. There are two triggers on the
main grip, one for your pointing nger,
the other for your middle nger. On top
of each controller are two main buttons,
along with a thumbstick that also clicks
in. Finally theres a menu/settings button
each controller.
Once wed spent a few hours nally
getting the tracking to work adequately,
we have to admit that the Oculus tracking
system doesnt feel quite as accurate
as the Vive. Its not a night and day
difference, but looking down the sights
of guns or using bows and arrows shows
theyre not quite as on point as the Vive.
They also seemed prone to lose tracking
a little more often, glitching out now and
then. Theyre also powered by non-
rechargeable batteries, whereas the Vive
controllers can be plugged into USB and
recharged.
Despite the quirks with losing tracking
and the setup issues, we should take
into account that Vives controllers had
issues at rst, and theyve had a year of
extra polish. Give Oculus some time to
iron out the kinks, add a third camera and
we think the Rift may end up being the
superior of the two products, especially
once price is factored into the equation.
Bennett Ring
KEY SPECS
US$99 www.oculus.com
Kit includes two controllers and camera IR-based tracking
solution single triple A battery for each controller.
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 61
 ADVERTORIAL SEAGATE
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62 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
IHM FOCUSES ON THREE KEY CAPABILITIES
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POCKET
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64 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
 SMARTPHONES GROUP TEST

MONEY
SMARTPHONES
WITH FLAGSHIP PHONE PRICES GOING THROUGH THE ROOF, YOU COULD
SAVE HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS BY HUNTING FOR A BETTER DEAL
WHETHER ITS AN UP-TO-DATE BUDGET HANDSET THAT PUNCHES ABOVE
ITS WEIGHT, OR A TOP-FLIGHT MODEL FROM YESTERYEAR. WE ROUND UP
THE 11 HANDSETS THAT OFFER HIGH QUALITY AT A LOW PRICE POINT
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 65
I
t seems almost churlish to complain
that premium smartphones come
with premium prices attached,
especially when they do make an effort
to earn it: to name just a few, theres the
new Samsung Galaxy S8, with its vast
edge-to-edge display; the incredibly
powerful iPhone 7; and the Google Pixel,
which features the best rear camera on
any handheld.
And yet, for many appealing phones
the costs are hard to stomach. The
iPhone 7? Yours for
$999, minimum.
Google Pixel?
Many cheaper phones now deliver the kind of
A cool $900 for performance, display quality, battery life and build
the base model.
The Galaxy S8 is quality wed expect from devices costing a lot more
another offender,
starting at $999.
Fortunately, while the top end
of the market is exploding, weve
been consistently impressed by a
lot of cheaper phones recently
specically, how they deliver the kind
of performance, display quality, battery
life and build quality wed expect from
devices costing a lot more. For some, like
the OnePlus 3T, this is a conscious design
goal; others, like the Motorola Moto G4,
just happen to be excellent pieces of
hardware.
We therefore wouldnt hesitate to
recommend a great lower- or mid-range
smartphone over an overpriced agship,
66 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
but then, thats not your only option.
Even with the never-ending churn of the
annual smartphone release cycle, you
can still get older high-end models new
and unwrapped, and the inevitable price
drops that come with their age mean
that its possible to nd these premium
products at heavily discounted rates.
Therein lies the best thing about
avoiding a smartphone rip-off: youve
got a huge amount of choice when it
comes to value handsets. Allow us to
make things a bit easier with this test
of 12 possible purchase candidates
weve skipped any duff phones and only
included those that are at least very
good, so you can be sure that with any of
them, youll be getting a fair deal.
CORE DRAW
If pure performance is what youre after,
its generally better to go with an older
agship rather than a new budget phone;
they might not be the fastest any more,
but the best processors of 2015 and
2016 can still easily outpace anything
built to sell for peanuts, especially when
it comes to games. For demanding 3D
titles at their best, youre looking at paying
around $600 and up.
Not that cheaper alternatives are
necessarily slow. Hexa- and even octa-core
processors arent uncommon even in the
$300-$400 range, so its actually rather hard
to nd something that doesnt stay slick and
responsive throughout everyday multitasking.
Special mention goes to the Apple A9 chip
found within the iPhone SE; dont be deceived
by the fact that its dual-core, as Apple has
somehow optimised it to run so well with iOS
that its one of the best-
performing phones
here.
INCHING FORWARD
Its important that you
choose a smartphone
with your ideal screen size, as theres no
single best spec here. The 4in iPhone SE is
wonderfully portable but doesnt offer nearly
as much real estate as, say, the 5.5in Moto
G5, which is arguably better for watching
videos and web browsing but could prove
uncomfortable for small hands.
Otherwise, display quality can be measured
in conveniently objective terms. We test
for how much of the sRGB colour gamut
a screen can cover (ideally, at least 90%),
plus the contrast (higher is better) and peak
brightness. A high brightness (over around
400cd/m2) will make the screen easier to
read when exposed to direct daylight, though
you can get away with a lower gure if youll
 SMARTPHONES GROUP TEST

and youll have to be very careful with

saving music and movies.

SENSOR SENSIBILITY
Perhaps the most common pitfall for
budget smartphones is the quality of the
camera. Many models boast of having
12-megapixel, 13-megapixel or even
16-megapixel rear snappers, but image

Its important you choose

a smartphone with your
ideal screen size
size is only one aspect, and the ability
to capture ne details and cut down on
visual noise are even more important.
Here, a lot of cheaper devices can
struggle, especially indoors.
Well cover each phones main camera
in more detail in their respective reviews.
primarily be using your phone indoors. because onboard storage can ll up To be fair, there are a few models that
As for resolution, 1,920x1,080 is at a surprising rate, particularly if its a do manage to excel at photography: the
perfectly ne even on larger phablets; relatively low capacity such as 16GB. Our Moto G4 is your best bet at the budget
anything higher is nice to have, but its advice would be to aim for a minimum of end, while the LG G4, Nexus 5X and
harder to tell the difference on such 32GB of integrated memory, ideally with Samsung Galaxy S7 all impress at higher
small screens compared to Full HD vs microSD support as a fallback; any lower price points.
Quad HD monitors. That said, try not
to settle for anything lower unless the
screen is also smaller than average, THE BEST PHONES FOR
as is the case with the Sony Xperia X
Compact.
Got something specific in mind besides all-round quality? These are
the great-value handsets that most effectively fill their niche
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
Battery life is a no-brainer: the longer, the STYLE CUSTOMISATION
better. Naturally, a higher milliampere Samsung Motorola Moto Z Play
hour (mAh) count is preferable, but Galaxy S7 The Moto Z Plays versatility is mainly
Its the most derived from its modular design. There
variables including the processor
expensive are loads of clip-on attachments
power, screen size, and brightness and
smartphone in this available, from simple expanded batteries
frequency of use mean you shouldnt rely
group test, but not to booming speakers and camera grips
on hard specs alone.
only is the Samsung with added optical zoom capability.
Thats why we run a benchmark test, One the Moto Insta-
Galaxy S7 still a
which involves looping a video le with sizable wad of cash Share even turns
the screen brightness set to 170cd/m2 less than the newer the handset into a
and measuring how long this takes to Galaxy S8, its also projector.
run a full battery dry. Most phones fall the most luxurious Its all very
around the 12-hour mark, which indicates model here. From its impressive stuff,
the ability to make it through a full day of glass and aluminium although its easily
normal use on a single charge. construction to its possible to spend
sleek, tapered edges more on these
LOST IN SPACE and gorgeous display Moto Mods than
There was an odd period throughout late which is almost you did on the
2015 and early 2016 in which smartphone bezel-less on the left actual phone.
manufacturers seemingly agreed that and right edges the Luckily, you can
expandable storage wasnt actually that S7 is a perfect show- still add a personal
important, and that they just wouldnt off handset. touch on the
bother with microSD slots presumably Its not just trading (relative) cheap with
another brave decision along the lines looks for practicality, interchangeable
of the iPhone 7s missing headphone either. That glass on backplates these
jack. both sides is highly damage-resistant cost $20 and come
Corning Gorilla Glass 4, and the handset in some unusual
Luckily, sanity has re-asserted itself,
meets the IP68 standard for dust- and water- nishes, including
and most handsets these days adhere
proong, so it will survive a dunk in any puddle nylon fabric and oak
to the gold standard of expandable
or sink. wood.
microSD compatibility. This is good

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 67

Apple iPhone SE
WELL BUILT AND WITH A TOP CAMERA AND GREAT BATTERY
LIFE, THE IPHONE SE IS THE BEST 4IN PHONE OUT THERE
F
inding an affordable iphone is
practically impossible if you stick
to the main series of handsets.
Even the iPhone 6, which is now two
generations old (having been replaced
by the iPhone 6s and, most recently, the
iPhone 7), goes for about $1,000 SIM-free.
And thats if you can actually nd it new,
among the far more prevalent refurbs.
Hope remains with Apples smaller 4in
models. For minimum expense, theres
the iPhone 5c, which has fallen well below
the $250 mark, albeit at the cost of a
plasticky build and slow performance.
By contrast, the much more up-to-
date iPhone SE has nailed pretty much
everything: its got the build quality, its
got the processing power and its got
the camera, all packed into a neat metal
chassis.
Whats more, on the same day we
began work on this group test, Apple
announced that the 16GB and 64GB
storage options would be replaced by
32GB and 128GB models respectively,
addressing our previous criticism that the
cheapest models capacity
was too low. All other hardware
remains the same. The iPhone SE has nailed pretty much
Weighing 113g and at 7.6mm
thick, the iPhone SE is exactly
everything: its got the build quality,
the same size as the old its got the processing power and its
iPhone 5s, and is compatible
with the same range of cases
got the camera, all packed into a neat
and covers. While the SE is
the lightest iPhone currently
available, its actually the thickest of the
current crop.
This doesnt particularly matter, as it
makes the handset easier to grip, and it
means that the camera sits ush with
the rear of the case. Besides, overall the
iPhone SE is comparatively tiny by todays
standards, slipping easily into any pocket.
DENSITY SLICKER
Moving back to a 4in screen, Apple has
re-used the iPhone 5ss resolution of
1,136x640. This is one of the lowest-reso-
lution phones here, not even hitting stand-
ard HD, but the pixel density of 326ppi
actually matches that of the 2015 iPhone
6s, which has a resolution of 1,334x750.
Both phones are denitely sharp enough,
and text looks clear and easy to read.
Image quality isnt quite as good as
Apples pricier iPhones, but the iPhone
SEs screen performs better than stated:
Apple claims maximum brightness
68 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
of 500cd/m2 and a
contrast ratio of 800:1,
but we measured it at
577cd/m2 with a contrast
ratio of 892:1. While this
contrast ratio still isnt
great, its colour accuracy
coverage of 94.6% of
the sRGB colour gamut
goes some way to make
up for it.
Apple has tted a
12-megapixel camera
into the iPhone SE, the
same as in the iPhone 6s.
Its a great all-rounder,
ably adapting to most
situations to produce
well-exposed shots with
plenty of detail in them.
The HDR mode captures a particularly
excellent dynamic range, without over-
processing the nal shots.
Theres also a True Tone LED ash,
which measures ambient light then res
the ash at the same colour temperature,
metal chassis
reducing the tell-tale signs of a regular
ash. You also get all the shooting
modes that the iPhone 6s has, including
panoramic shots and 4K video.
CLOUD A9
Performance is excellent, thanks to the
iPhone SE having the same 1.8GHz A9
processor and 2GB of RAM as the 6s line-
up. In Geekbench, the iPhone SE scored
2,550 in the single-core test the same
as the iPhone 6s and faster than the 2,115
scored by the Samsung Galaxy S7. In the
multicore test, the S7 takes the lead with
a score of 6,437, but thats a quad-core
device: the iPhone SE has a dual-core
processor and still scored 4,444.
As with all of Apples phones, the slick
combination of the processor, iOS and
Safari makes web browsing a super-
smooth experience: the Peacekeeper
browser benchmark score of 4,761 is one
of the best weve seen on a smartphone.
The iPhone SE
absolutely delivers
on battery life, too.
Its 1,624mAh battery
might sound pretty
tiny compared to the
3,000mAh+ batteries
found on Android phones,
but its smaller screen
requires a lot less power.
As a result, it lasted an
incredible 16h 46m at a
brightness of 170cd/m2
in our battery test. This
is just shy of the Galaxy
S7s run time, and 1h 48m
longer than the iPhone 6s
lasted.
Since launching with
iOS 9.3, the iPhone SE has
been updated all the way up to iOS 10.2
with 10.3 coming very soon, if its not
out already by the time you read this.
This means its been able to benet from
third-party integration for iMessage and
Siri, redesigned Maps and Music apps
and the Memories feature for
sorting images in Photos. Apple
Pay support remains, though
the iPhone SE uses an older
TouchID sensor, which isnt
quite as fast or error-proof as
on pricier iPhones.
MAKE ROOM
As mentioned, the original 16GB
and 64GB models have been discontin-
ued, replaced by 32GB ($679) and 128GB
($829) variants. The price bumps are a
shame (bear in mind these are largely the
same phones that launched back in March
2016) but otherwise, thats ne by us; 16GB
isnt much space at all, especially with the
lack of expandable storage.
The iPhone SE surpassed our
expectations when it rst came out, and
now the minimum storage issue has
been dealt with, its become even better.
Really, the only thing it lacks compared
to the iPhone 6s is 3D Touch. For anyone
who still hankers after a powerful 4in
smartphone, its an amazing choice.
KEY SPECS
$679 www.apple.com/au
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5

Google Nexus 5X
ITS OVER A YEAR OLD, BUT THE NEXUS 5X REMAINS A
SUPERB ANDROID HANDSET FOR A REASONABLE PRICE
W
hile were fond of the Pixel and
Pixel XL, Googles most recent
smartphones, they both went
down the ultra-premium route, abandoning
the surprising affordability of the previous-
generation Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X.
Happily, the latter is still an excellent
choice. It doesnt make the best rst
impression; made of plastic, it looks like a
budget handset, with utterly featureless
side buttons that are so simple as to
appear an afterthought.
Its great to hold, though. The plastic
nish provides plenty of grip and, at 136g,
its among the lightest phones around.
The shape is good too, with the rear panel
neatly meeting the front bezels. The front-
facing speakers provide better audio than
any tiny port tucked away at the bottom
of some agship smartphones.
POKES ON YOU
Underneath the unassuming exterior
lies a powerful smartphone packed with
features. The circular rear ngerprint
sensor is placed just below the rear
camera, so you may have to adjust your
grip if youre used to holding your phone
by the edges, but otherwise its easily
accessible. Resting your nger on the
sensor switches on and unlocks the phone
almost instantly. Its accurate too, learning
ngerprints even quicker than the sensors
in Samsungs agship phones, and
recognising them more consistently.
Theres also a USB Type-C port. Its
a little chunkier and feels sturdier than
Micro USB, and the reversible design helps
minimise ddling. However, USB Type-C
cables still arent exactly common, and
Google includes only a Type-C to Type-C
cable in the box. Theres no video output,
and data transfer rates are only at USB2
speeds. Wireless charging has been
dropped, too, but Type-C allows for fast
charging, reaching 50% from at in just
30 minutes.
A 2,700mAh battery is par for the
course, given this is a pretty slim 7.9mm
handset. In our continuous video playback
test, it lasted 10h 14m. This is one area
where the 5X hasnt aged well, as many
more recent phones beat this by miles.
Still, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808
chipset means the Nexus 5X is no slouch.
It consists of two high-performance
Cortex A57 cores running at 1.8GHz, and
four power-efficient Cortex A53 cores
running at 1.44GHz.
SMARTPHONES GROUP TEST
A Geekbench
multicore score of
3,489 puts it alongside
the similarly specied
LG G4. Its not the
best, but in practice
everything is quick
and smooth. Its well
ahead of the Moto Z
Plays Snapdragon
625, which scored
only 2,599. In terms of
gaming, it doesnt run
3D titles as smoothly
as most high-end
smartphones, but
it played our usual
selection of Android
titles without a hitch.
Amidst all that is a decent Full HD
In most areas, the Nexus
LCD screen. Even at 5.2in across it has 5X may be pretty good,
a whopping pixel density of 424ppi
and, despite higher resolutions being but its camera is truly
available, theres no serious advantage
in day-to-day use. In objective tests, the
excellent
screen stood up well, covering 94.8% of The Nexus 5X was quick to shoot in
the sRGB colour gamut, with 415cd/m2 HDR mode, and you can jump straight to
maximum brightness, a contrast level of the camera by double-clicking the power
1,309:1 and a black level of 0.32cd/m2. button. Googles camera app is ne for
Weve seen brighter LCDs at this price, basic snapping, but lacks any manual
but the Nexus 5X nails consistency. It controls or fancy features.
also has a pleasingly at colour output,
without the boosted and garish shades THE SWEETEST THING
seen elsewhere. Being a Google device, the Nexus 5X
In most areas, the Nexus 5X may was among the rst smartphones to
be pretty good, but its camera is truly be updated to Android 7.0 Nougat. This
excellent, coming out on top against adds a good few improvements and
the very capable Samsung Galaxy S6. new functions to the already-great
Twelve megapixels on a typically sized Android 6.0, such as native split-screen
1/2.3in sensor sounds unremarkable, but multitasking, bundled notications and
each pixel is bigger than most, measuring a Data Saver mode, which can block
1.55um. By comparison, the S6 reportedly background apps from using data.
has 1.12um pixels on its 16-megapixel The Nexus 5X isnt the best-looking
sensor. phone, nor the best designed. It isnt the
The Nexus 5Xs photos were packed fastest, it doesnt have the best battery
with detail, compared to the more life and the screen isnt outstanding. Dont
smoothed off appearance of the Galaxy be fooled by the lack of standout features,
S6s efforts. Outdoors, you can see great however it also has a distinct lack of
detail in brick walls and a sharper image weaknesses, and few handsets can claim
overall. Colour balance was spot on, too, the 5Xs comprehensive competence. As
with the camera matching the output of such, its a device thats far greater than
the S6 almost exactly. the sum of its parts.
It dealt well with higher-contrast
scenes, eliminating noise from large KEY SPECS
areas of colour without removing detail $429 www.google.com.au
elsewhere. Colours remained accurate
OVERALL
indoors, with great detail in complex
textures and well-balanced exposures
across our various lighting setups. 0 1 2 3 4 5
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 69
 GROUP TEST SMARTPHONES
LG G4
WITH ITS VIBRANT SCREEN,
VERSATILE CAMERA AND
SURPRISINGLY COMFY LEATHER
REAR, THE LG G4 STILL HOLDS
ITS OWN
A
lthough lg didnt stick with the g4s
leather backing for its G5 and G6
handsets, it was still a fantastic
agship smartphone when it launched
in 2015 and now that its over $600
cheaper than on release, it makes a great
alternative to newer mid-rangers.
Measuring 149x75x8.9mm, its not
the slimmest of phones, but the leather
cladding adds a real premium feel. The
same goes for the 5.5in display, which has
a 2,560x1,440 resolution producing a crisp
534ppi. LGs IPS Quantum panel helps out
here, showing lovely rich, vibrant colours
and eye-searingly bright whites. We
measured peak brightness as 505.66cd/
m2, so colours look just as punchy out in
the sun as they do indoors.
Blacks were deep at 0.27cd/m2, and
the huge contrast ratio of
1,715:1 stands up to 2017 The G4 has a colour spectrum sensor,
standards. Its sRGB colour
gamut coverage of 96.3% which LG says is able to interpret colours
is also respectable for an
IPS screen, though this does
in the same way as your own eyeballs
point to LG overstating the
G4s capabilities somewhat it was
supposedly able to reach 98% of the
wider Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) colour
gamut, which equates to about 120%
sRGB coverage. This, evidently, was not
backed up by our testing.
The G4s other headline feature is the
16-megapixel camera, which makes it the
rst to have a colour spectrum sensor on
the back, which LG says is able to read
and interpret colours in exactly the same
way as your own eyeballs. Indeed, colours
looked very natural in outdoor shots.
ABLE SETTINGS
Manual mode is the star here, though.
This gives you control over white balance,
manual focus, shutter speed and ISO live
onscreen, giving you plenty of exible
controls to be a little more creative with
your photography. Photo enthusiasts will
also appreciate the ability to save photos
as Raw les.
LG has also included a quick launch
mode, so you can take instant snapshots
without having to unlock the phone rst.
Its certainly very handy, but we wish it
hadnt been mapped to the rear lower
volume button, as this is possibly one of
the least accessible buttons on the entire
phone, particularly if youre trying to shoot
70 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
in landscape mode.
Rather than the Qualcomm Snapdragon
810 favoured by other 2015 agship
phones, the G4 contains the slightly
slower hexa-core 1.8GHz Snapdragon
808 chip, plus 3GB of RAM. This showed
in our benchmarks: in Geekbench 3,
the multicore result of 2,547 is a long
way behind both old and new high-end
smartphones, from the Galaxy S6 to the
OnePlus 3T. Likewise, the G4s single-core
result of just 692 has even been surpassed
by budget phones hardly a ringing
endorsement for something that cost
$929 on its release.
However, benchmarks are only part
of the story, and the G4 feels beautifully
smooth when multitasking with different
apps or browsing media-heavy web
pages. It also coped well with games, as it
ran Hearthstone, Threes! and Alphabear
perfectly well, despite its somewhat
average benchmarking results: it only
produced 921 frames in the offscreen
GFXBench GL Manhattan test, which
equates to 15fps.
SWAP MEET
The G4 has a few more advantages as
well: it actually has removable storage
(microSD support up to 128GB), which
the Galaxy S6 and Nexus 5X neglected to
include, and the battery can be removed
and replaced, something you cant do
on metal unibody handsets. The G4s
battery benchmark result of 11h 58m isnt
amazing when compared to more recent
alternatives, but you could carry around
spares. We can also see the rst glimpses
of the LG G5 modularity in the G4s ability
to take larger, third-party battery packs.
Following an update from Android 5.1,
the G4 currently runs Android 6.0 7.0 (or
more likely, 7.1) isnt expected to roll out on
this older model until later in 2017, which
is a shame. Whatever Android version is
installed, it comes with LGs UX interface
over the top. Unlike most custom skins,
we quite like this one; its Knock Code
feature offers an effective alternative way
to unlock your smartphone, by tapping out
a specic pattern on the screen, while the
Smart Settings menu can enable things
such as changing the sound prole once
you get home, or automatically opening
Spotify when you plug in headphones.
Meanwhile, Smart Power Saving will
warn you when apps are using too much
power, and create a Smart Notice prompt
to let you shut them down in order to help
save battery. Likewise, the G4 will put the
CPU to sleep when theres
nothing happening on the
display, helping you squeeze a
few more hours out of it when
the phone is locked.
AGE BEFORE BEAUTY
The G4 may not be as powerful as other
agship smartphones especially
those that have been released in the
past two years but it certainly has a
wealth of features to help it stand out
from the competition. The leather back
is surprisingly elegant, and we denitely
prefer it to the slippery glass of the
Samsung Galaxy range. The G4 cameras
unique colour spectrum sensor also puts
it neck-and-neck with the camera on the
back of the S6, and its display looks just
as sharp and punchy as Samsungs Super
AMOLED panels.
Its also an unusually exible
smartphone; not to the extent of
modular devices such as the Moto Z
Play (nor indeed its successor, the G5),
but the inclusion of a microSD slot and
a removable battery makes the G4 a
very accommodating handset indeed.
There are many faster and longer-lasting
alternatives, but at less than $300 this is
absolutely worth the cash.
KEY SPECS
$270 From www.lg.com
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
Motorola Moto G4
FAST SPEEDS, AN EXCELLENT CAMERA, LONG BATTERY
LIFE THE MOTO G4 IS A BUDGET MASTERPIECE
W
ell get to the newer moto g5
soon, but its worth noting that
for over a year now, the Moto G4
has been the yardstick by which all other
budget smartphones have been judged.
Its only recently that genuine alternatives
have arrived, such is its phenomenal
balance of quality and thriftiness.
In particular, its octa-core 1.5GHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor
and 2GB of RAM give it serious power. In
Geekbench 3, the Moto G4 scored 717 in
the single-core test and a massive 3,107
in the multicore test, about what wed
expect from a good mid-range device.
Indeed, these scores are on a par with
those of the HTC One A9, which costs
twice as much.
Its lovely to use on a day-to-day basis,
and its even a pretty capable gaming
machine, too. While its GFXBench GL
offscreen Manhattan 3.0 score of 412
frames (around 6.6fps) cant match, say,
the Nexus 5X, we still managed to play
Hearthstone without too much stutter,
and simpler games such as Threes!
worked like a dream.
Web browsing has also been
signicantly improved over the 3rd Gen
Moto G, its direct predecessor. Despite a
curiously lower Peacekeeper score (632
to the Moto Gs 731),
scrolling through
media-heavy
Its octa-core processor
pages was much and 2GB of RAM give the
smoother on the
G4, and images, G4 serious power its
videos and adverts lovely to use on a day-to-
all loaded faster
too. day basis, and its even
a pretty capable gaming
HOUR SURGE
All this power machine
doesnt come at
the cost of battery life, either, as the Moto
G4s large 3,000mAh battery lasted an
impressive 13h 39m in our continuous
video test. Thats fantastic for a budget
smartphone, beating the much more
expensive LG G4 and Samsung Galaxy
S6 (although only by two minutes in the
latters case).
Be mindful, however, that the Moto G4
is very much in phablet territory, with its
screen measuring 5.5in diagonally. That
makes it quite a handful, and the at back
makes it slightly less comfortable than
the previous Moto G, at least in our hands.
Fortunately, though, it didnt take long to
get used to.
72 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
Still, the overall design
could be better: the subtle
crosshatch pattern on
the rear isnt particularly
elegant and its lost the
3rd Gen Moto Gs IP67
waterproong, though its
water-repellent coating
should still provide
adequate protection from
splashes or a light rain
shower.
Those who like to
customise their handset
using Motorolas Moto
Maker service might also
be a little disappointed,
as the G4s options are
decidedly less fun than
those of its predecessors. It doesnt cost
any extra to change the colour of the back
panel, but the shades on offer are rather
more muted than the bright yellows and
searing limes of yesteryear. The choice of
metallic accents around the camera are
also rather uninspiring, but considering
its free, you may as well personalise it as
much as you can to get the look you want.
The only thing you do have to pay
extra for on Moto Maker is if you want to
upgrade the Moto G4s storage to 32GB.
This costs an extra
$70 or so, but when
the G4 comes with
a microSD slot that
takes cards up to
128GB anyway, this
seems like a bit of a
waste of money.
VISION
ACCOMPLISHED
Its a shame the
display (and by
extension, the whole handset) isnt a
bit smaller, but at least Motorola has
provided it with a 1,920x1,080 resolution,
giving it a sharp pixel density of 401ppi.
Our colour-calibration tests showed it
was displaying a respectable 90% of
the sRGB colour gamut, and its contrast
ratio of 1,693:1 is most impressive as
well. Its also considerably brighter than
its predecessor, as its able to reach a
peak brightness of 539.51cd/m2, making
it much easier to see outdoors in direct
sunshine. These are, again, brilliant
results for a budget smartphone, and
its punchy colours look great regardless
of whether youre browsing the web or
looking at photos in your
gallery.
Speaking of which, the
G4s rear 13-megapixel
camera remains our
favourite budget
smartphone snapper
and that includes the
one on the Moto G5.
Despite sharing the same
resolution as the 3rd Gen
Moto G, the difference
in quality is plain to see,
as the Moto G4 captures
far more detail, and
everything looks that
much sharper.
Outdoors, for instance,
colours looked accurate
and its exposure was expertly judged. It
blurred the occasional bit of brickwork,
but overall it produced truly excellent
photos. It looks as if Motorola has toned
down its HDR mode this year as well, as
rather than make images appear overly
articial, it simply makes them look richer
and more vibrant, so youll probably want
to leave it on to get the best exposures.
CUT TO THE QUICK
Motorola also simplied the camera
apps UI an action reversed for the G5,
in some ways to give it a dedicated
onscreen shutter button and easy
shortcuts to toggle the ash, HDR and
timer on and off. Tap the screen to
focus, and you can easily adjust the lens
aperture using the onscreen slider as well,
which works brilliantly and shows you
your results in real-time.
The camera was also an excellent
performer indoors, as noise was kept to
a minimum even in low-light conditions,
and detail levels were still pleasingly
high. Some of the objects in our still-
life arrangement were a touch grainy in
places, but switching on the excellent
LED ash quickly sorted this out.
Weve covered the G5 in more detail
on the next page, but in short wed rather
stick with the G4. That a smartphone
can achieve so much for so little is as
astounding today as it was in 2016.
KEY SPECS
$232 www.motorola.com.au
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
 SMARTPHONES GROUP TEST

Motorola Moto G5
THE HEIR TO THE KING OF BUDGET SMARTPHONES
ISNT AS GOOD AS WED HOPED

T
his should be an exciting occasion: Under the hood, its than the G4. Exposures
the follow-up to 2016s best budget a similar story. The are balanced and focus
phone by a mile, the Moto G4, base Moto G5 comes assured.
updated with stylish metal bodywork with a Qualcomm Its an accomplished
and the latest Android 7.0 Nougat. Sadly, Snapdragon 430 snapper and the
though, the new Moto G5 is a device we and 2GB of RAM; improved camera
can only appreciate with caveats. we tested the software is a bonus, too.
Lets start with the good. As mentioned, slightly higher-spec We particularly like its
both this and the larger Moto G5 Plus 3GB version, but ability to automatically
(which well cover in more detail in a this didnt prevent detect hand shake and
future issue) have ditched the plastic it landing slightly snap multiple frames,
backplates of previous Moto G handsets behind the Moto upon which it offers you
in favour of a sleeker, slinkier metal design. G4 in Geekbench the choice between two
Although theres the risk that this will benchmarks, with frames, the second of
scuff, scratch and dent rather more easily scores of 578 in the which is often sharper
than the textured plastic rear of previous single-core test and than the rst you red off.
generations, out of the box the Moto G5 2,379 in the multicore In the low light of
looks very ne indeed. test. It also merely indoor scenes, however,
In fact, this is a lovely phone to hold matches the G4s images arent great.
not slippery, and with just the right 7fps average in both Photographs of our still-
amount of grip and the ne-grained GFX Manhattans life scene exhibited
matt nish on the rear is a big step
forward in terms of sophistication. Note,
onscreen and
offscreen tests, so
Not only does the Moto signicantly higher
levels of noise,
however, that the phone isnt all metal its no better for G5 fail to improve on smearing and hand-
only the rear panel is. The edges are gaming. shake induced blur
constructed from plastic just as they were So, not only does its predecessor, but it than on the Moto
before. the Moto G5 fail lags even further behind G4, and enabling
to improve on its the ash doesnt
DOWNSIZING MEASURES predecessor, but it newer budget challengers, help much either.
The Moto G5 is also a little more practical
than its pricier brother, with a removable
lags even further
behind newer
namely the Honor 6X and Although it doesnt
wash out the image,
battery, microSD card support (up to budget challengers. Lenovo P2 it does add an
128GB) and dual-SIM support. The Moto We were hoping unnatural orangey-
G5 Plus has both a microSD slot and that the trade-off for this would be pink tinge to the whole scene that looks
dual-SIM support, but you cant replace improved battery life, but in our video test, far from attractive.
the battery. the Moto G5 achieved a time of 11h 51m,
Both phones now include a new which is 1h 48m short of the Moto G4. This ECONOMIC WARFARE
front-mounted ngerprint reader and, isnt disastrous, of course, but heavy users One thing we cant fault is the price. This
thankfully, have Android 7.0 Nougat pre- may well nd that they need to top up sub-$300 device packs a punch for that
installed. Theres also NFC, so you can the phones charge more often that they kind of money, and as it turns out, you can
nally use Motos cheapest handset to would the G4 another disappointment. take a few steps back from something as
pay for goods. excellent as the Moto G4 and still be left
One key thing to note with the Moto G5, FOCUS POCUS with a pretty good handset.
however, is that the screen is 0.5in smaller Motorola says it has improved the camera That, however, is also the issue. The
than on the Moto G4. Its a surprising over the G4, though, adding phase-detect Moto G5 only makes improvements in
downgrade but on the plus side theres no autofocus to speed up capture. However, a few minor ways, and has got worse in
denying the Moto G5 is more pocketable the snappers core specications remain others. Thats not a recipe for a must-have
and easier to use one-handed. the same, with an aperture of f/2 and device when the Moto G4, are readily
Since the resolution has stayed the resolution of 13 megapixels. available as alternatives.
same, at 1,920x1,080, it also looks just These look to be impressive As such, the only way we can
as sharp. Alas, along with the reduction specications on a sub-$300 phone. recommend the Moto G5 is if youre
in size, our testing reveals the Moto G5s They were last year, and the Moto G4s utterly determined to have the very latest
screen has also taken a hit on quality. camera was very good indeed at the price. product.
Peak brightness is down from the G4s However, on the evidence of our tests the
539.51cd/m2 to 471cd/m2, and sRGB new camera module in the G5 isnt all that KEY SPECS
colour coverage is also down to 85.8%. wonderful. $399 17GB, $449 32GB www.motorola.com.au
The result is a slightly duller, less vibrant Outdoors, in brightly lit conditions, the
OVERALL
display, and while the difference between Moto G5s rear camera does perform
the two phones isnt night and day, its still splendidly, capturing photographs with
disappointing that the Moto G5 is inferior. even crisper details and richer colours 0 1 2 3 4 5

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 73

 GROUP TEST SMARTPHONES
Motorola Moto Z Play
THE MOTO Z PLAYS STUPENDOUS BATTERY LIFE AND MODULAR DESIGN MAKE IT A GREAT BUY
L
ike the Oneplus 3t, the Moto z play
aims to provide agship-quality
features while undercutting them on
price. Take, for example, the big 3,510mAh
battery inside that even dwarfs the
2,600mAh of its own bigger brother, the
Moto Z. It thus lasted almost twice as long
in our continuous video loop benchmark,
clocking in at an outstanding 23h 45m.
Its clear where Motorola has stashed
all those extra milliampere hours in the
Moto Z Play. Measuring a sizable 6.9mm
at its thinnest point, the phone feels
positively behemoth-like compared with
the svelte 5.2mm Moto Z, and its lightly
chamfered edges are sharper and harder
against your palm. Thats not to say the
Moto Z Play is uncomfortable to hold, but
it denitely feels a little gawky compared
to its luxuriously slim stablemate.
Girth aside, however, the Moto Z Play
looks every bit the top-end smartphone.
Its front-facing ngerprint sensor is every
bit as quick when it comes to unlocking
your phone, and its glass rear and metal
frame represent a huge leap forward in
overall build quality compared to the
rubberised rear of last years Moto X Play.
It also shares the Moto Zs main
party trick: its modularity. While its rear
connection point might not look quite as
elegant as its big brothers, it supports all
the same Moto Mod
accessories, allowing
you to augment your
smartphone with
stereo speakers, an
upgraded camera or
just even more battery
life.
RULE THE BOOST
Its all easily done
each mod simply
snaps on to the back
of the phone with
strong connecting
magnets. You might
need to dig your nails
in to prise them off,
but its denitely less
hassle than the system
on the modular LG
G5. Motorola is also
planning on making
these mods compatible
with at least two
more generations of
Moto Z phones, so
you should be able to
carry on using them
74 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
even if you upgrade. Our favourite mod
so far is the JBL SoundBoost speaker,
which is a massive improvement on the
handsets own tinny speaker, and includes
its own 1,000mAh battery.
Where the Moto Z Play starts to deviate
from the Moto Z is its internal hardware;
the former has to make do with the mid-
tier octa-core 2GHz Snapdragon 625.
It also has 3GB of RAM, rather than the
Moto Zs 4GB. This is still a pretty potent
combination for everyday tasks, but the
difference showed in our benchmarks. In
Geekbench 4, the Moto Z Play scored only
798 in the single-core test and 2,599 in
the multicore test, making it almost half
as fast as the Moto Z overall.
To be fair, this is to be somewhat
expected for a mid-range phone, but
when you consider the OnePlus 3T also
has a Snapdragon 821 chip, the Moto Z
Play starts to look slightly less special.
The same goes for graphics
performance: it achieved a mere 636
frames (an average of 10fps) in GFXBench
GLs onscreen Manhattan 3.0 test. The
OnePlus 3T, by comparison, achieved a
47fps average.
BLANKET COVERAGE
The Moto Z Play shares the Moto Zs 5.5in
AMOLED panel, but with a 1,920x1,080
resolution, rather than
2,560x1,440. In the
cheaper phones defence,
we were hard-pressed
to tell the difference
in terms of overall
sharpness. The Moto Z
Plays vanilla version of
Android 6.0 looks just
as crisp as it does on the
Moto Z.
More importantly,
the quality of the Moto
Z Plays display hasnt
diminished in the
slightest: it still covers
a fantastic 100% of the
sRGB colour gamut,
produces perfect blacks
and has superb contrast.
Its maximum brightness
only peaks at 355cd/
m2, but this will only be
a problem on the very
sunniest of days.
The Moto Z Play
actually has a higher-
resolution camera than
the Moto Z, producing
16-megapixel images rather than 12. You
wont nd any optical image stabilisation
here, sadly, but you do get a hybrid laser
and phase detection autofocus, a wide
f/2.0 aperture and a colour-balancing
dual LED ash. Shots turned out sharper
and more dened on the Moto Z Play;
there was perhaps a fraction more
grain and noise than on the Moto Z, but
wed rather have a bit of grit than have
everything smoothed over.
Colour reproduction was top notch,
even in gloomy, overcast weather
conditions. Indoors, shots were once
again a little grainy and mottled in
The Moto Mod
accessories allow
you to augment your
smartphone with stereo
speakers, an upgraded
camera or even more
battery life
places, but there was very little noise,
and artefacts were kept to a minimum.
Colours were pleasingly punchy and
contrast levels remained solid across all
lighting conditions. Wed recommend
sparing use of the ash, however, as
this tended to turn everything rather
warm and orange rather than correctly
balancing out white.
PLAY TIME
As with last years Moto X Play and Moto
X Style, its Motorolas mid-range phone
that takes the crown here. The Moto
Z might be faster, slimmer and have a
higher-resolution display, but the Moto
Z Play is better value. You not only get
stonking battery life, but also a great
camera and equal access to Lenovo and
Motorolas new Moto Mods.
Its arguably worth paying extra for the
OnePlus 3Ts superior performance, but if
youre looking for something a bit different
that can turn its hand to any task, you
wont be disappointed with the Moto Z
Play.
KEY SPECS
$450 From www.motorola.com.au
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
OnePlus 3T
THE ONEPLUS 3T IS A SMALL
UPGRADE WITH A BIG PRICE
INCREASE, BUT ITS STILL FANTASTIC
VALUE
T
he arrival of the OnePlus 3T at
the end of 2016 was a bittersweet
occasion. This was an update to
one of our favourite high-end phones,
the OnePlus 3, and made several small
but welcome changes to the processor
and battery yet these incremental
improvements came with a steep price
increase, which seemed antithetical to
the OnePlus ethos of creating agship-
standard devices at knockdown prices.
You couldnt even get the older model
for less, as it was canned with such
remarkable speed and force that it
disappeared from all but the shadiest of
grey market stores.
That said, by any reasonable measure
the OnePlus 3T is still a bargain. Going
in at $539 for the 64GB model, or $709
for the 128GB model, it packs a 2.35GHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor,
which is a straight upgrade from the
OnePlus 3s Snapdragon 820, and a
convincing statement that the 3T is
still looking to compete with top-tier
smartphones on performance while
severely undercutting them on cost.
Battery size has also grown from
3,000mAh to 3,400mAh, complemented
by the new Dash Charge system, which
promises a days charge in half an hour.
SNAP HAPPY
Along with the processor upgrade, the
OnePlus 3T inherits its predecessors
impressive list of core specications.
Namely, that Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
is backed up by 6GB of RAM and includes
Qualcomms Adreno 530 graphics
processing unit. As youd imagine, these
top-of-the-range specications result in a
smartphone thats an absolute pleasure
to use, and one that comfortably handles
anything you throw its way.
In Geekbench 4, it scored 1,903 in the
single-core test and 4,273 in the multicore
test. Besides being clear if moderate
improvements over the OnePlus 3, which
scored 1,689 and 4,026 respectively, these
also show the OnePlus 3T holding its own
against the Samsung Galaxy S7, which
remains signicantly more expensive even
now that the Galaxy S8 has arrived.
Graphics performance is unchanged
from the 3, as youd expect from the two
OnePlus handsets sharing a GPU. The
OnePlus 3T matches its predecessor with
a superb 47fps average in the GFXBench
76 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
GL onscreen Manhattan 3.0 test. Thats
actually 9fps better than the Galaxy S7, so
youll have no problems running intensive
3D titles.
Weirdly, however, the larger 3,400mAh
battery actually fared worse in our video
loop test (running at the usual 170cd/m2
brightness). The OnePlus 3T lasted 13h
22m, compared to the OnePlus 3s 16h
56m. That said, anecdotally we seemed
to get slightly better longevity out of the
newer phone in normal day-to-day use.
DASH BLAST
The Dash Charge tech is also impressive,
though the claims of a days power in half
an hour need a little extra scrutiny. While
its true we were able to jump from 49% to
92% battery in 30 minutes (it took another
24 minutes to hit 100%), not everyone
would nd 43% capacity enough to get
them through a day especially if theyre a
power user. Your mileage may vary.
The OnePlus 3Ts rear camera is great
as well. Its a 16-megapixel snapper with
an f/2.0 aperture, phase-detect autofocus
and optical image stabilisation. Its short
of laser autofocus for optimal low-light
performance, but its generally solid.
You might think that bringing the front
camera up to the same 16-megapixel
count would produce similarly good
seles, but sadly that isnt the case. We
found that shots taken on the front-
facing camera had a nasty combination
of overexposure and unimpressive colour
balance, whether they were taken in or
outdoors. Its not a patch on the Google
Top-of-the-range
specifications result in
a smartphone thats an
absolute pleasure to use
Pixel XLs 8-megapixel snapper, proving
that pixel count isnt everything.
Thats about it for the new additions;
now we turn to the design and display,
which remain largely unchanged from
the OnePlus 3. Technically the 3Ts rear
panel is slightly atter, but only hardcore
OnePlus fans are likely to notice that at a
glance. The anodised metal chassis looks
the same, and it still feels comfortably
secure in the hand, even one-handed. It
has support for dual SIMs, meaning this
can be your work and home phone, and it
still charges via USB Type-C.
PIXEL OF HEALTH
At 5.5in, it remains a big beast of a phone,
although that screen is still a 1,080x1,920
AMOLED panel. Thats a lower resolution
than some of its pricier peers, and
undoubtedly where some of the cost
savings are made, but unless you plan
on using this for virtual reality, then its a
sacrice worth making. On a screen this
size, diminishing returns tends to kick in, so
most 1080p content is tough to tell apart
from that shown on a QHD or 4K display.
For everyday usage, the OnePlus 3Ts
screen is just ne. We measured a good
maximum brightness of 421cd/m2 and
perfect contrast. Switch to sRGB mode
and the screen covers 93.2% of the colour
gamut, and it does so while looking sharp
and vibrant.
The OnePlus 3T is a brilliant
smartphone, and objectively improves
upon the amazingly good OnePlus 3 in
a couple of small but signicant ways:
namely the processing performance
and charging speed. Its not ideal that
these tweaks have resulted in a price rise,
especially since one of the other hardware
upgrades the bigger battery has such
mixed results, but thats not to say that the
OnePlus 3T is a rip-off.
In fact, while its not quite as incredible
a bargain as the OnePlus 3, it still gives
you demonstrably more bang for your
buck than anything in and above its price
range. It is, once again, a agship-killer.
With the OnePlus 3 having vanished from
mainstream sellers, the OnePlus 3T is an
easy endorsement.
KEY SPECS
$539 oneplus.net
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
SAMSUNG HEADS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION WITH THE KEENLY PRICED GALAXY A5
T
his isnt nearly the cheapest
Samsung handset around, but the
latest Galaxy A5 is appealing as a
value purchase because it has much more
in common with the Galaxy S7 than it does
the budget Galaxy J series.
For starters, theres the agship-
bothering build quality. The Galaxy A5s
clean metal frame and all-glass front
are incredibly handsome for a sub-$600
smartphone, and its tapered back helps
it t snugly into the palm of your hand. Its
also the rst iteration of the A5 where the
rear camera is totally ush with the body.
Its a lovely phone to hold and behold,
then, but then last years Galaxy A5 was
pretty nice, too. The key differences lie
beneath the phones glossy exterior, with a
new processor, more RAM and a higher-
resolution camera.
GLASS WITH FLYING COLOURS
More similarly to last years model, the
new A5 comes equipped with a 5.2in,
Full HD, Super AMOLED display, racking
up a pixel density of 424ppi. Thats not
sharp enough for it to be compatible
with Samsungs Gear VR headset, but
theres nothing stopping you using Google
Cardboard instead.
More importantly, it looks superb in
everyday use. Colours are striking, covering
a perfect 100% of the sRGB gamut, and
while our X-Rite colour calibrator did spot
some slight inaccuracies
in some of the darker
shades of green, its so
marginal that you wont
spot this with the naked
eye.
Its also a reasonably
bright Super AMOLED
screen, too, with the
calibrator picking up
a peak brightness of
355cd/m2. Its not
as dazzling as, say,
the Sony Xperia X
Compact or OnePlus
3T, and youll need
to shade the screen
to read it in really bright
conditions, but for the
most part its adequate
for outdoor viewing.
The adaptive light
sensor on the top of
the phone also bumps
up brightness to a
maximum of 451cd/m2,
should the need arise.
When it comes to performance, the
Galaxy A5s octa-core Exynos 7880
(clocked at 1.9GHz) and 3GB of RAM keeps
Android feeling snappy. It does fall behind
the OnePlus 3T in our benchmarks, scoring
767 in the Geekbench single-core test and
4,054 in multicore (compared to the 3Ts Using the rear camera, we were able to
1,903 and 4,274). The multicore score in
particular is a great showing.
The A5 is just the ticket
if youre not fond of
handing over flagship-
sized sums of cash but
want something sleek
The phones graphics performance
is somewhat less impressive. Running
GFXBenchs onscreen Manhattan 3.0 test,
it gained an average frame rate of 14fps,
which is 33fps slower than the OnePlus
3T. Its not so bad in practice Sky Force:
Reloaded ran with minimal hiccups, even
when there was lots happening on the
screen, but were concerned about how
it might handle more intensive games
that might come out in the next couple of
years.
ALL-NIGHTER
Battery life is much better. This years
Galaxy A5 ships with a
3,000mAh power pack, and it
put in a sterling performance
in our video playback tests.
With the phone in ight mode
and the screen calibrated
to 170cd/m2, the Galaxy
A5 lasted 22h 5m before
giving up and shutting down,
handily beating the Galaxy S7
and OnePlus 3T and coming
fairly close to the Motorola
Moto Z Play. Theres fast
charging via USB Type-C, too.
As for software, we
were more than a little
disappointed to nd that
Samsung Galaxy A5 isnt
powered by Android 7.0
Nougat straight out of the
box. While weve been
assured therell be an over-
the-air update in the near
future, youll have to wait a
little longer for the latest,
greatest version of Googles
OS.
SMARTPHONES GROUP TEST
Returning our attention to that newly
ush rear camera, Samsung has boosted
the resolution to 16 megapixels, and done
the same to the front-facing camera
thats a sizable improvement over the 2016
Galaxy A5s 13- and 5-megapixel cameras.
capture some very detail-rich shots of the
streets outside our office on a clear day.
Switching on HDR didnt yield massive
improvements, even if the image was
already well exposed to begin with. A tad
more cloud detail could be spotted in the
HDR shot, but not much else.
Indoor snaps werent a problem, with
shots of our low-light still-life arrangement
picking up an abundance of vibrant colour.
Visual noise is kept at bay as well, and
theres no muddying of the ner details.
Samsungs camera software has seen
a bit of an update, too. In a similar move
to Huaweis slick Camera app, specic
shooting modes can be accessed via quick
swipes to the left and right, rather than
having to navigate through convoluted
menus. Its the almost-perfect one-
handed experience especially with the
new movable virtual shutter button, and
especially handy for sele enthusiasts.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Theres also Samsungs new Food Filter,
which applies a basic depth-of-eld effect
and some colour tinkering to supposedly
make your food photos look their
Instagram-worthy best. Photos with this
lter applied were a tad oversaturated,
though, and we werent keen on the
extreme background blur. Its a frivolous
and ultimately ignorable inclusion.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 might be
grabbing all the headlines at the moment,
but that doesnt mean the Galaxy A5
should be overlooked. Its just the ticket if
youre not fond of handing over agship-
sized sums of cash.
The OnePlus 3T looms large as an
alternative, but its battery life isnt nearly
as good. As such, the Galaxy A5 takes a
well-deserved place as one of the best
mid-range handsets you can buy today,
and has enough premium touches to
make it worth considering alongside older
agships that have come down in price.
KEY SPECS
$584 www.samsung.com.au
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 77
Samsung Galaxy S6
WHAT WAS AN IMPRESSIVE STEP FORWARD IN 2015 IS
STILL A HIGHLY COMPETITIVE SMARTPHONE TODAY
E
ven at the ripe old age of two years
old, the Galaxy S6 still impresses
after all, it was the rst Samsung
smartphone to look and feel like a truly
premium product, without the plasticky
panels of what came before.
Its not as eye-catching as the S6
Edge, with its tapered screen, and also
doesnt feel as grippy in the hand, due to
the S6 having smoother, more rounded
edges. Still, these are minor quibbles,
and theres much more to like about the
design than not. It only weighs 138g, for
starters thats a good 17g less than
the LG G4, which is also 1.9mm fatter
and while the glass backplate attracts
ngerprints, it and the aluminium frame
make for a vastly better-looking device
than the old Galaxy S5.
Theres also the matter of the stunning
5.1in Super AMOLED display. The
2,560x1,440 resolution gives it a pixel
density of 577ppi, which remains among
the highest youll see on any smartphone
outside of certain 4K outliers. Colour
accuracy and contrast were through the
roof, with sRGB colour gamut coverage
of 100% and an Innity:1 contrast ratio.
We measured a so-so peak brightness
of 346.49cd/m2 indoors, but the Galaxy
S6 has the same automatic brightness
mode as later Galaxy phones, allowing it
to reach a massive 577cd/m2 outside.
CARDS NOT ACCEPTED
Unlike the S5, the S6 doesnt have a
replaceable battery. To be fair, this is
something that could be said of the
vast majority of agships (as well as
most mid-range and cheaper handsets),
but its still a mild shame. As some
recompense, the S6 supports WPC (Qi)
and PMA (Powermat) wireless charging.
The Micro USB port on the bottom of
the phone also supports fast-charging,
which gave us about four hours of use
from 10 minutes attached to the mains.
We do prefer the reversible USB Type-C
port on the Galaxy S8, for conveniences
sake, though it should be easier to nd
spare cables for the S6.
Battery size is also down from the S5,
but this shouldnt be too much of an
issue. The Galaxy S6 lasted 13h 37m in
our battery benchmark, a performance
which may have been thoroughly
outdone by the Galaxy S7, but still
translates into a good days worth of
regular use.
Theres a decently fast, thumb-
78 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
oriented ngerprint scanner shooting, and a
built into the home button double-click of
you can use this with Samsung the home button
Pay, to make payments with activates the
the phone instead of having camera in under a
to pull out a contactless second, ensuring
bank card but sadly other youll never miss
creatures comforts, such as a shot.
waterproong and a microSD We were
slot, are missing as well. Youre pleased with
therefore limited to whatever the quality of
amount of onboard storage our test photos,
you choose, from 32GB, 64GB as colours were
and 128GB avours. bright and vibrant
with plenty of ne
WIZ KID detail on show.
On the plus side, Samsungs A few patches of
64-bit, octa-core Samsung bright sky were
Exynos 7420 processor overexposed, but
makes the S6 very snappy turning on HDR
indeed. It scored 1,427 in the mode instantly
Geekbench single-core test xed the problem.
and 4,501 in the multicore test, HDR also left the
so remains among the best of rest of the picture
the best even in 2017, and while the S7 intact, keeping the high level of detail and
and OnePlus 3T are more future-proofed accurate colours we saw in Auto mode
for gaming performance, you can still run without making it seem unnaturally harsh
or articial.
We hear a lot about
RETURN OF THE KING
flagship killers. Well, Theres no doubting that the Galaxy S6
heres a genuine is a much better phone, both in terms
of features and build quality, than the
flagship that costs even Galaxy S5 and, more pertinently, it
remains a great device by more recent
less than the best killer standards.
on the market There is the question, however, of
whether its worth opting for a two-
any intensive 3D title on the S6 with ease. generations-old handset when not only
TouchWiz, Samsungs Android skin, is there a newer, even better model
is more streamlined than it has been in available, but that the later version the
previous versions; there are still about Galaxy S7 has beneted from a big
two screens worth of pre-installed price drop thanks to the Galaxy S8. The
apps, but its cut back on the bloatware. most obvious answer to that is, of course,
The main issue is that, like most custom that the Galaxy S6 is even cheaper.
skins, it seems to delay Android updates. We hear a lot about agship killers,
The S6 has long been running 6.1 phones that make a few compromises
Marshmallow, having launched with here and there to offer premium
5.0 Lollipop, but a timeframe for the performance at a mid-range price. Well,
supposedly upcoming 7.0 Nougat update heres a genuine agship that costs even
has been left vague. less than the best killer on the market
The Galaxy S6 includes a 16-megapixel and theres denitely some appeal in
rear camera, which protrudes slightly that.
outwards from the back of the handset.
This is the same resolution as the KEY SPECS
Galaxy S5s camera, but theres now $369 www.samsung.com.au
a brighter f/1.9 aperture lens, which
OVERALL
Samsung claims lets in 34% more light
than the S5s f/2.2 lens. Optical image
stabilisation reduces blur in low-light 0 1 2 3 4 5

Samsung Galaxy S7
THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 IS STILL ONE OF THE BEST SMARTPHONES
OUT THERE, NOW WITH ANDROID NOUGAT AND A LOWER PRICE
Y
ou might be wondering what the
Galaxy S7 is doing here arent
we meant to be looking at more
affordable current phones and older
classics? Well, youd be right in that the S7
isnt exactly chump change, but then by
the time you read this, the Galaxy S8 will
have arrived to replace it as Samsungs
premier smartphone. That means price
drops for last years model.
This is great news for bargain hunters, as
the S7 quickly became our favourite-ever
Android handset when we rst reviewed it.
Not that rst impressions were that great:
our testing sample had ne scratches in
numerous places on the display and the
ngerprint sensor, and while the glass
back was in better conditions, it was and
remains an absolute ngerprint magnet.
RESISTANCE MOVEMENT
The S7 is 1.1mm thicker than the Galaxy
S6 and, at 152g, is 20g heavier, but neither
are things youll notice in everyday
use. Samsung has also made some
big improvements in the form of IP68
waterproong and a microSD slot for
expandable storage. The S6 was sorely
missing both, and the S7 is far more
exible and durable for it.
Our only major quibble is with the
front-mounted ngerprint sensor. Its
much lower down than where our thumbs
and ngers would normally rest, and it
will only unlock the phone once youve
pressed the home
button or woken it
up with the power The Galaxy S7 is far more
button. It didnt flexible and durable than
always recognise
our ngerprints the S6 thanks to IP68
successfully, either.
Samsungs
waterproofing and a
Super AMOLED microSD slot
displays have
always been one of the highlights of
its S-series smartphones, and the S7s
screen is no exception. It may not have
the curved sides of the S7 Edge, but this
5.1in, 2,560x1,440-resolution display has a
super-sharp pixel density of 577ppi and its
quality is top notch. Covering a full 100%
of the sRGB colour gamut, it can produce
pitch perfect 0.00cd/m2 blacks, and a
super-high contrast ratio makes it lovely to
look at, whatever the task.
With a peak brightness of 353.74cd/
m2, its not as bright as most LCD-
based smartphones, but switch to
Auto brightness and shine a torch on
SMARTPHONES GROUP TEST
its adaptive light sensor and to run demanding
the brightness will shoot up to games without
around 470cd/m2. Its the same hitches. Samsungs
thing Samsung did with the added Game Launcher
S6, and it makes using the S7 comes in handy
in sunshine much easier than as well, as it can
some of its other Super AMOLED disable notications,
handsets. capture footage and
It also has the added benet screenshots or lock
of Samsungs Always On the Back and Recents
Display technology, which can buttons while you play.
be used to display information The Galaxy S6 came
such as the date, time and the with an excellent
phones battery status when camera, but for the S7,
the screen is turned off. It can Samsung took a risk
also show calendar information, in order to improve
but its a shame this widget image quality further,
isnt actionable like traditional reducing the main
Android notications. snappers resolution to
This drains a little under 1% 12 megapixels instead
of the battery per hour, but you of sticking with the
wont have to worry about the S6s 16-megapixel
S7s overall stamina it lasted sensor.
17h 48m in our continuous video playback That may sound like a step backwards,
test, an exceptional performance which but each individual pixel is bigger, up from
puts the S6s 13h 37m to shame. Fast- 1.12um on the S6 to 1.4um on the S7.
charging has also been improved, allowing
us to regain 50% charge in just 10 minutes, LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN
and it supports wireless charging via the As a result, the S7 takes very similarly
usual Qi standard. high-quality shots to the S6, both indoors
and outdoors. Detailing is excellent,
DRAGON SLAYER theres plenty of contrast, and colours are
In some territories, the S7 runs off lovely and bright. It tends toward a slight
Qualcomms Snapdragon 820, but in overexposure in shots with a challenging
the UK and Europe this is replaced by dynamic range, but thats preferable to the
Samsungs own alternative of darker shots, and we could
octa-core Exynos rectify it by switching to HDR mode when
8890 processor. possible. Its mainly in the shutter speed
This makes it one that the S7 proves itself superior. For
of the slickest and instance, in a low-light shot, the S7 took
most responsive the photo at 1/25 sec, whereas the S6 shot
smartphones
around, scoring
at 1/15 sec. This means the S7 will be more
reliable in low-light situations and less
a massive 2,115 in likely to blur moving subjects, making it the
Geekbenchs single- better camera overall.
core test and 6,437 in the multicore test. Our only remaining issue with the
Samsungs TouchWiz interface (laid over Galaxy S7 was its price, but now it can
Android 7.0 Nougat) simply ies, and apps be picked up for not much more than a
loaded almost instantly. Web browsing OnePlus 3T. Its certainly better value
is similarly quick, with the S7 scoring an than the Galaxy S8, which will leave a
impressive 1,882 in Peacekeeper and $1,200-sized crater in your bank account.
coping extremely well when scrolling Proof that a bit of patience can net you a
through media-heavy pages. top-tier smartphone at middling prices.
The Exynos 8890s graphics capabilities
are equally impressive. In the offscreen KEY SPECS
Manhattan test of GFXBench GL 3.0, the $900 www.samsung.com.au
S7 managed a score of 2,336 frames,
OVERALL
which equates to around 38fps. The
cheaper OnePlus 3T beats it with 47fps,
but this still demonstrates the S7s ability 0 1 2 3 4 5
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 79
Sony Xperia
X Compact
SONYS 4.6IN HANDSET BOTH IMPROVES ON AND
STEPS BACK FROM THE LUXURY Z5 COMPACT
S
ince the next cheapest option in
sonys smartphone range is the
rubbish Xperia XA, the dinky Xperia
X Compact looks like the familys best
balance of affordability and quality.
It is, however, something of a
Frankenphone, combining some features
from the top-of-the-line XZ with some
from the older Xperia X, all in its 4.6in
chassis. So instead of the octa-core
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor
from the XZ, the X Compact has the hexa-
core Snapdragon 650 from the X yet it
inherits its camera lock, stock and barrel
from the XZ.
Honestly, this is a slightly disappointing
departure from Sonys previous Compact
models, which were typically just as
powerful as their agship brethren, just in
a smaller body.
SQUARES BREADTH
The t-and-nish isnt great either, with
unsightly gaps at the top and bottom of
the rear panel ready to gobble up unsightly
pocket uff. It might be less fragile than
the Z5 Compact but surely Sony could
have found a way to make its replacement
look nicer than this. Theres no
dust- or water-proong, either.
The phone does at least The screen is only a Standard HD panel,
full its principal raison dtre: but thats sharp enough considering its
its both more pocketable and
easier to use one-handed size. Photos and video look superb
than most of the 5.5in-plus
behemoths favoured by manufacturers for
their mid-range and higher smartphones
these days. Its also good to see that Sony
has kept both the dedicated camera
shutter button and the ngerprint reader,
which is once again integrated with the
side-mounted power button.
As for the main camera, the sensor
size, pixel count and aperture all remain
unchanged from the Z5 Compact,
but Sony has made a few minor
improvements. First up is laser-assisted
infrared autofocus, which Sony says helps
the camera to focus more accurately in
low light. In good light, the hybrid phase
and contrast-detect autofocus system
(again, copied from the Z5 Compact)
takes over. This seems to work reasonably
well, but then we didnt particularly have
any problems with the way the focus
worked on the Z5 Compact, so were not
80 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
convinced its a
huge leap forward.
Next up is a
colour sensor,
similar to the one
introduced by
the LG G4. This is
supposed to deliver
more accurate
colours under a
wider variety of
lighting conditions,
and does indeed
seem to work
pretty well. Under
uorescent office
strip lights, halogen
and LED lighting, the X Compacts camera
always seemed to get the colour balance
spot on where others, even the Samsung
Galaxy S7, would veer a little off base.
BLAME TO FRAME
Despite these improvements, Sonys
smartphones continue to be plagued by
the same old problems. Even with the
cameras manual mode enabled which
is the only way of getting 23-megapixel
images out of the camera, by the way
ne details are lost in a storm of grain and
JPEG compression.
Were not huge fans of the X Compacts
wide-angle 24mm lens, either. On the
positive side, it lets you cram much
more into your photographs than most
smartphones, whose lenses are typically
closer to 28mm. But the downside is
noticeable optical distortion, where
buildings and straight lines look warped at
the edges of the frame.
Fortunately, the move to a Snapdragon
650 CPU hasnt had too much of an
adverse effect on performance. Its no
slowpoke, that much is clear from using
the phone from day to day launching
apps, icking between them and
navigating around feels slick and quick.
The fact that the screen is limited to
a resolution of 1,280x720, rather than
the Full HD favoured by most
other mid-range devices, might
be off-putting to some, but it
does have the positive effect
of helping games to run better.
Here, the X Compact performs
well, even with demanding
games such as Sky Force
Reloaded.
Indeed, in the GFXBench
Manhattan 3 onscreen test,
which is run at the phones
native resolution, the X
Compacts Adreno 510 GPU
gains an average frame rate
of 32fps, which is only a little
less than what the Galaxy S7
managed. Sadly, though, this is
one area in which the older Z5
Compact trounces it, scoring
47fps in the same test.
At least the X Compact puts
up more of a ght in Geekbench,
scoring 1,445 in the single-core
test and 3,778 in the multicore
test competitive with the Z5
Compacts respective scores of
1,369 and 3,795. These also put it ahead
of Googles Nexus 5X and the Moto Z Play,
though its still some way off the OnePlus
3T in terms of horsepower.
SMALL WONDER
The screen is, as mentioned, only a
Standard HD panel, but thats sharp
enough considering its small size. Whats
more, photos and video look superb on
it, whether you have Sonys X-Reality
image turned on or not, and
measurements with our
colourimeter suggest that its
an excellent screen as well.
Contrast, maximum brightness,
and colour reproduction are
all top notch. Indeed, the
X Compact manages to outdo the Z5
Compact, with a maximum brightness of
535cd/m2 to the Z5 Compacts 461cd/m2.
Battery life has improved as well. In our
video benchmark, the X Compact lasted
a strong 14h 41m, which is a full 1h 20m
longer than the Z5 Compact.
It may be a disappointment in some
areas, then, but with its enhanced camera,
longer battery life and still-respectable
performance, the Xperia X Compact is still
a good phone overall, and will particularly
suit Android fans who want to stick to a
smaller form factor.
KEY SPECS
$480 www.sonymobile.com/au
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
 SMARTPHONES GROUP TEST

AWARD RECOMMENDED BEST BUY RECOMMENDED BEST BUY

MANUFACTURER APPLE GOOGLE LG MOTOROLA

MODEL iPhone SE Nexus 5X G4 Moto G4

RATING

HARDWARE

Hexa-core 1.8GHz Hexa-core 1.8GHz Octa-core 1.5GHz

Dual-core 1.8GHz Apple
PROCESSOR Qualcomm Snapdragon Qualcomm Snapdragon Qualcomm Snapdragon
A9
808 808 617

RAM 2GB 2GB 3GB 2GB

SCREEN SIZE 4in 5.2in 5.5in 5.5in

SCREEN
1,136x640 1,920x1,080 2,560x1,440 1,920x1,080
RESOLUTION

SCREEN TYPE IPS IPS IPS Quantum IPS

FRONT CAMERA 5 megapixels 5 megapixels 8 megapixels 5 megapixels

REAR CAMERA 12 megapixels 12.3 megapixels 16 megapixels 13 megapixels

FLASH LED (True Tone) Dual LEDs LED LED

GPS Yes Yes Yes Yes

COMPASS Yes Yes Yes Yes

STORAGE 16GB/64GB 32GB/128GB 32GB 16GB/32GB

MEMORY CARD
None None MicroSD MicroSD
SLOT

WI-FI 802.11ac 802.11n 802.11ac 802.11ac

BLUETOOTH Bluetooth 4.1 Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth 4.2

NFC Yes Yes Yes No

WIRELESS DATA 4G 4G 4G 4G

DIMENSIONS 124x59x7.6mm 147x73x7.9mm 149x75x8.9mm 153x77x7.9mm

WEIGHT 112g 136g 155g 155g

FEATURES

OPERATING
iOS 10 Android 7.0 Android 7.0 Android 6.0
SYSTEM

BATTERY SIZE 1,624mAh 2,700mAh 3,000mAh 3,000mAh

BUYING INFORMATION

PRICE $679 $429 $270 $232

WARRANTY One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB

DETAILS www.apple.com/au www.google.com.au www.lg.com www.motorola.com.au

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 81

 AWARD RECOMMENDED BEST BUY RECOMMENDED

MANUFACTURER MOTOROLA MOTOROLA ONEPLUS SAMSUNG

MODEL Moto G5 Moto Z Play 3T Galaxy A5 (2017)

RATING

HARDWARE

Quad-core 2.45GHz
Octa-core 1.4GHz Octa-core 2.0GHz Octa-core 1.9GHz
PROCESSOR Qualcomm Snapdragon
Snapdragon 430 Snapdragon 625 Samsung Exynos 7880
821

RAM 2GB/3GB 3GB 6GB 3GB

SCREEN SIZE 5in 5.5in 5.5in 5.2in

SCREEN
1,920x1,080 1,920x1,080 1,920x1,080 1,920x1,080
RESOLUTION

SCREEN TYPE IPS Super AMOLED AMOLED Super AMOLED

FRONT CAMERA 5 megapixels 5 megapixels 16 megapixels 16 megapixels

REAR CAMERA 13 megapixels 16 megapixels 16 megapixels 16 megapixels

FLASH LED Dual LED LED LED

GPS Yes Yes Yes Yes

COMPASS Yes Yes Yes Yes

STORAGE 16GB/32GB 32GB 64GB 32GB

MEMORY CARD
MicroSD MicroSD No Yes
SLOT

WI-FI 802.11n 802.11n 802.11ac 802.11ac

BLUETOOTH Bluetooth 4.2 Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth 4.2 Bluetooth 4.2

NFC Yes Yes Yes Yes

WIRELESS DATA 4G 4G 4G 4G

DIMENSIONS 144x73x9.5mm 156x76x6.9mm 153mmx75x7.4mm 146x71x7.9mm

WEIGHT 145g 165g 158g 157g

FEATURES

OPERATING
Android 7.0 Android 6.0 Android 7.0 Android 6.0
SYSTEM

BATTERY SIZE 2,800mAh 3,510mAh 3,400mAh 3,000mAh

BUYING INFORMATION

PRICE $280 $370 $539 $584

WARRANTY One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB

DETAILS www.motorola.com.au www.motorola.com.au oneplus.net www.samsung.com/au

82 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 SMARTPHONES GROUP TEST

RECOMMENDED BEST BUY

SAMSUNG SAMSUNG SONY

Galaxy S6 Galaxy S7 Xperia X Compact

Octa-core 2.1GHz Samsung Octa-core 2.3GHz Hexa-core 1.8GHz

Exynos 7420 Samsung Exynos 8890 Snapdragon 650

3GB 4GB 3GB

5.1in 5.1in 4.6in

2,560x1,440 2,560x1,440 1,280x720

Super AMOLED Super AMOLED IPS

5 megapixels 5 megapixels 5 megapixels

16 megapixels 12 megapixels 23 megapixels

LED LED LED

Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes Yes

32GB/64GB/128GB 32GB 32GB

N/A MicroSD MicroSD

802.11ac 802.11ac 802.11ac

Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth 4.2 Bluetooth 4.2

Yes Yes Yes Verdict

E
very single device here will serve you well, even
4G 4G 4G
the comparatively disappointing Moto G5. Still,
a few models stand out as particularly great-
143x70x6.8mm 142x70x7.9mm 129x65x9.5mm
value buys.
Googles Nexus 5X, released in 2015, also
132g 152g 135g
distinguishes itself as a powerful mid-range phone
with a great camera, now at a price that makes
it an even better choice. We can say something
similar about the LG G4, which offers true agship
Android 6.1 Android 7.0 Android 7.0 credentials for only $230. Wed have liked another
price drop for the iPhone SE, but considering its
been upgraded with superior storage, it remains the
2,550mAh 3,000mAh 2,700mAh
best Apple smartphone for the money.
Creeping further up the price brackets, the
OnePlus 3T is a superb combination of value,
$369 $900 $480 newness and genuine top-end hardware, though if
you dont mind an older model, the Samsung Galaxy
One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB S6 performs as well or better for a few pounds
less. Speaking of Samsung, its worth mentioning
www.samsung.com/au www.samsung.com/au www.sonymobile.com the Galaxy S7, 2016s most capable Android phone,
which is now less expensive than the one replacing it.

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 83

DEEP LEARNING
AND HEALTH
THE HURDLES
MACHINE
LEARNING
MUST LEAP
Startups and Silicon Valley giants are pushing
into medicine with artificial intelligence and
deep learning. Nicole Kobie reveals how smart
use of data could save your life
D
ata is important in healthcare.
How a chart is read, if a doctor has
time to take a second look at that
scan of your chest, and whether theres
enough evidence to make you book an
appointment with your GP could mean
the difference between life and death
for you and of lower-cost preventative
measures and expensive treatments for
insurance companies.
Currently, we rely on doctors and
nurses to interpret key information but
machines are already coming to their
aid, scanning images for signs of cancer,
analysing data for symptoms of kidney
failure, and more. In the future, apps will
allow you to ask Alexa for medical advice,
tools will assist GPs with triage and hunt
for signs of cancer in medical scans, and
chatbots could help treat mental illness.
Google-owned DeepMind is working on
projects to analyse patient data to predict
kidney failure, spot head and neck cancers,
and to read complicated eye images.
However, those projects are under scrutiny
because of data-sharing agreements with
Googles parent rm Alphabet, problems
that could delay the life-saving and
budget-rescuing potential of deep
learning and other forms of machine
learning.
NECESSARY DATA
The coding and engineering that goes into
deep learning is only the start. No matter
how a machine-learning system operates,
it follows the old IT axiom: garbage in,
84 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
garbage out. They need to be trained on labelled incorrectly, the mistake could be
high-quality, accurate data before they learned by the algorithm which means
can read our medical charts and interpret doctors errors are passed on to the
images. machines.
Without data there can be no
application, explained Natalia ALGORITHMIC ASSESSMENT
Simanovsky, business development lead Diagnosing disease will remain the job
at data management platform Cvedia, of human doctors for a long time to
speaking at ReWorks Deep Learning in come, but AI could help narrow down
Healthcare Summit. You need lots of potential causes of symptoms, acting
data. as an assistant to human physicians,
Thats complicated by privacy concerns explained Daniel Nathrath, co-founder and
and not helped by previous missteps CEO of Ada Health, speaking at ReWork.
by technology companies entering Doctors have the disadvantage of being
healthcare, which have had a chilling human, meaning they have biases, make
effect on the ease of getting data. Plus, mistakes and suffer limited brain capacity.
when data is made available, its often in
legacy formats that must be converted,
which adds yet another barrier.
Even when data is accessible
and properly formatted, it
Trust
needs to be of good quality.
Simanovsky noted that
me, Im a
training a skin-scanning
system requires not only doctor
a large number of high-
quality medical images, but
correct labelling to avoid
passing mistakes on to
machine-learning apps.
We need to work with
dermatologists to ensure
these images are
correct, she said. If an
image is

Its impossible to have it all in your head;
theres where AI has an advantage, said
Nathrath. Were not replacing doctors;
were augmenting the intelligence of a
doctor.
Machine-learning analysis is particularly
useful for people with multiple health
issues known as comorbidities and
thats applicable to most older people,
notes Marzieh Nabi, director of business
strategy at Xerox PARC. Doctors arent
diagnosing your complaints one by one:
they need to consider multiple causes
DEEPMINDS DATA USE
DeepMinds work with kidney patients is
perhaps the best-known example of deep
learning or articial intelligence used in
medicine not because of the project itself,
but because of the criticism it sparked on
data management.
Owned by Googles parent rm
Alphabet, DeepMind is a Brit-
ish deep-learning startup,
which in 2015 announced
it was working with the
Royal Free Trust in Lon-
don on a kidney disease
monitoring app called
Streams; the app would
analyse data and suggest
interventions to avoid kidney
failure.
Shortly after the trial kicked off, a
report in New Scientist revealed that the
hospitals had shared a wider range of
patient data than expected, across 1.6
million patients. The NHS and DeepMind
responded by tweaking the data-sharing
agreement, but an academic report from
the New Scientist reporter, Hal Hodson,
and a Cambridge researcher, Julia Powles,
said the inexcusable use of data should
offer lessons for future projects.
What could DeepMind have done better
to avoid such criticism? At the founda-
tion level, no patient was contacted and
no effort was made to address the pivotal
consideration in use of health data: that
What seems to
be the problem
Dave?
of symptoms and think about
how medications will interact
something that isnt often
tested in drug trials. Deep-
learning tools could be
applied to pre-existing data
sets to analyse how drugs
interact and how diseases
progress, Nabi noted,
making it easier for doctors
to decide how to address
all thats wrong with your
health without the treatments
conicting.
Such diagnostic support could
help health services with stretched
budgets, assisting medical staff to
FUTURES
patients understand when and why their
data is used, and they have realistic op-
tions for effective choice, said Powles.
She called for other NHS health projects to
consider consent and value before starting
work. [Our] paper talks about
here-and-now issues, such as
patient autonomy, conden-
tiality and legal compli-
ance, she said. We also
talk about the essential
keys to innovative health-
care advances that work
for everyone, such as en-
suring that the public gets
value for data, that there
is effective oversight and ac-
countability, and that egalitar-
ian, public interests are preserved
over purely commercial ones.
Failures to get data sharing right only delay
the use of the technologies problem-
atic when they could be helping improve
peoples health. Powles pointed to the Con-
necting Care project in Bristol, Somerset
and Gloucestershire hospitals in 2015 as
a better example. That saw third-party
providers linked to an electronic patient
record, but rst mass-mailed all patients
to explain why the data processing was
happening, allowing people to opt out if
they so wished. That case shows deep
learning and data protection dont need to
be in opposition.
work faster and better, but it could also
help people in areas where doctors are
scarce. There are one billion people with
no access to doctors, Nathrath said.
Even in developed countries, people wait
weeks.
TREATMENT TECHNIQUES
We often judge doctors on their bedside
manner on how well they listen and
communicate in return, and how they
make us feel. Its one area machines
struggle, since understanding natural
language isnt easy. One thing human
doctors are still better at is empathy, said
Valentin Tablan, principal scientist at Ieso
Digital Health. This will be something
good doctors do more of in the future.
But, once speech is unpicked, deep-
learning tools could also be used to offer
treatment to those suffering with mental
health issues and thats as many as
a quarter of us, with suicide the leading
cause of death for younger men, noted
Tablan. Unlike cancer, which we dont
always know what to do about, we do
know what to do with mental health,
he explained, as cognitive behavioural
therapy (CBT) is proven to offer respite for
many people.
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 85
 FUTURES
Get better,
or there will
be...trouble
However, its a human-intensive process
thats high cost, leaving those in rural or
poor areas unable to access the therapy.
Furthermore, the remaining stigma
surrounding mental health issues means
some people fail to seek treatment in
person.
Tablan said deep-learning systems are
already assisting with triage, by suggesting
diagnoses and tracking indicators to
prevent relapses. Following recent trials,
his rm has posted a 44% accuracy rate
in triage which is on par with human
doctors. The aim is to extend such
technologies beyond diagnosis into digital
therapists, with patients speaking to bots
as part of their treatment.
DOCTORS JOBS
Medical staff have difficult jobs and
thats even before budgets start shrinking.
Its not about replacing doctors; its about
helping them do tough jobs, said Tablan.
Technology such as deep learning
could help them work more quickly and
accurately, but it remains early days. The
companies and research mentioned here
are discussing trials; theyre not nished,
usable products. Thats partly because
the data to train deep-learning systems
isnt easily available, with privacy a key
concern, but also because the technology
is still imperfect for example, anyone
with an Amazon Echo in their home will
be aware of the limits of AI for nuanced
conversation, which is at the heart of any
diagnosis.
Its important not to oversell what AI is
able to do, explained Aureli Soria-Frisch,
head of R&D for AI rm Starlab. Any kind
of mechanical, articial system makes
errors. 100% performance doesnt exist in
any system.
86 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
HOW MACHINE LEARNING
HELPS HEALTH
There are numerous ways that deep learning, AI
and machine learning can boost health, from
diagnosis to treatment. Here are five projects that
could change how we identify and treat illness.
ADA vision see shapes and movement, helping
Ada is a them to make their way around the world.
smartphone app Since everyones sight is different, OxSight
that talks to uses machine learning to help customise
you like a really the experience and learn the best way of
good doctor displaying information.
would, taking
into account your
history and symptoms. BABYLON HEALTH
Its now being ported to Amazons Echo, Babylon makes AI-driven chatbots using
so you can ask such questions to the Alexa the smart app as a digital 999 system.
voice assistant, too. Rather than act like Patients enter their symptoms into
a symptom checker online, each aspect the app, which analyses the data and
of a question is actually computed for asks for more information if necessary,
results, offering advice and next steps helping to decide the seriousness of the
including whether you should go and see illness or injury. The app isnt for extreme
your human doctor. Naturally, there are emergencies, but rather
disclaimers: Ada is not a medical diagnosis, smaller queries, with
Babylon claiming
so see a doctor if youre worried.
that the system
takes an average
DEEPMIND AND MOORFIELDS of a dozen
DeepMinds kidney app was its rst messages over a
project; the second is a partnership with minute and a half
Moorelds Eye Hospital, which aims to to come to a decision.
help optometrists detect common eye
disorders by letting deep-learning systems
look at scans. It takes a long time for ARTERYS
humans to read the complex eye scans, This medical
but DeepMinds system will imaging analysis
train using a million tool is the
images, with the rst machine-
aim of reducing learning app to be
the time doctors approved by the
spend staring at US Food and Drug
images, instead Administration (FDA).
boosting their time Arterys learns as it goes, helping doctors
with patients. examine heart images and data for
diagnosis. To get FDA approval, it needed
to post results on par with humans and
OXSIGHT it does so in seconds; human experts can
OxSight pairs take as long as 30 minutes on the same
augmented reality task, the company said.
and machine
learning to help
people with a
residual level of
sight, offering a
simplistic view of the
world, said Stephen
Hicks, founder and head of innovation at
OxSight. That lets people with reduced
Prey
FLY ME TO THE MOON
LET ME DIE AMONG THE STARS

A
rkane Studios, the developer
behind Prey, is best known for its
Dishonored series a game where
you get to explore fantastic-yet-discrete
locations, develop mystical abilities
that let you manipulate each level, and
discover a rich world and its backstory.
Prey is cut from very similar cloth; but
whereas Dishonored has a very worn,
medieval feel, Prey looks to a future built
upon an alternate historical timeline. In
this world, JFK lived, the US joined with
the USSR to explore space together, and
contact was made with a mysterious
alien presence, the Typhon.
Now, in the games present time
of 2032, the Transtar corporation is
operating out of a vast space station,
and trying to monetise the aliens by
combining their unique talents with
human DNA. If this sounds like a really,
really bad idea, congratulations, you are
correct this is a terrible idea that, before
the game even starts, as started to go
terribly wrong.
The game also comes with a literal
false start, thats more than a little
reminiscent of the opening of Half Life
budding scientist goes to work for
some lab experiments, and things well,
another scientist gets kind of killed by
a shape-changing alien beasty. Then
you wake up again, at the start of that
seeming same day Turns out and
you learn this very early youve been
experimenting upon yourself and now
your memory is effectively shot.
As set ups go, its very strong. Youre
obviously a person of some importance,
a member of the family that runs the
company in fact, but you still dont have
any backstory youre a blank slate. As
you explore the station in between
sneaking past strange aliens, or having
nerve-wracking ghts with them you
pick up recordings, books, notes, and all
manner of other details that ll in the
world and how its gotten to this rather
spectacularly crappy point.
Which is, you, alone, on an alien-
infested space station lled with
malfunctioning equipment and dead
people.
Thankfully, youve got a lot of rather
cool toys at your disposal. There are
guns, but while Prey is a rst person
game, shooting isnt what its about.
Ammunition is limited, and your enemies

88 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 GAMES REVIEW

rather tough - this is a game about

outwitting your enemies, rather than
blowing them away. Combat is possible,
but youll have to pick and choose your
targets. Each level is also complex
enough that there are multiple paths to
each objective; you can use the awesome
GLOO gun to not only stick enemies to
the spot, but also to build impromptu
stairs to hard to reach places, or you can
mod yourself for boosted strength, and
move crates and other gear around. Or
you can just explore, and nd not only
extra gear and loot, but also service
passages that might bypass doors and
enemies completely.
The modding system is based around
neuromods alien-DNA-powered
changes to your physical self, and the

this is a game about

outwitting your enemies,
rather than blowing
them away
main product of Transtar. That theyre
also super-unstable is kind of beside the
point. But they let you unlock three trees
of cool skills, from being able to slow
down time to run rings around badguys,
to advanced hacking and repair skills that
let you unlock doors or x up busted gear.
The game also features a crafting
system, which breaks down junk loot
into basic components, which you can
then build into more advanced gear,
ammunition, or even weapons. New
blueprints are littered around each level,
and as you gain neuromods, theres
always new skills to unlock. Combining
all of this together to get past each
challenge is rewarding, and offers some
impressive replay value. Not as much,
perhaps, as Dishonored, where each level
is more based on a singular challenge,
but theres still a lot of different ways to
play Prey.
Inspired as it is by games like Half
Life and System Shock, if Prey has one
aw its that it feels like ground already
trodden, but it least its still very solid
ground, and Prey is a ne game, with a
look and feel all its own.
David Hollingworth

KEY SPECS
https://prey.bethesda.net
Genre: FPS Developer: Bethesda Softworks Publisher:
Arkane Studios Platform: PC, PS4, XBox One

OVERALL

0 1 2 3 4 5

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 89

Endless Space 2
RARE EARTH FOAMS OR ASTROFINANCE? CHOOSE NOW!
A
developer that wants you to
buy its new space-themed 4X
strategy game faces a unique
challenge. Because these games are all
the same. No really - 4X (explore, expand,
exploit, exterminate) games set in space
have no distinguishing characteristics
whatsoever. You cant tell them apart.
Calm your space-jets, Ouroboran
Apostles of the End Turn, Im wasnt
talking to you, I was talking to the
underpeople. The normies. YOU, as 4X
fans and veterans, can absolutely identify
the subtle nuances in each title, and
know that 150 hours in Distant Worlds is a
profoundly different experience from 150
hours in Stellaris. If youre Zen about it,
anyway.
Ever since Australias own Roger Keating
and Ian Trout wrote Reach for the Stars
way back in 1983, 4X has remained not
so much hostile to new converts, as it is
brutally indifferent to their confusion and
ailing attempts to get a grip on all that
hypercomplexity. These normies, they
90 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
lack the specialised adaptations in the left
fusiform gyrus of their brains, is what Im
saying. Dont hate them. Pity them.
Endless Space 2 begins as all space-
based 4X begins: you get a single star
system, a single homeworld, a single
colony ship, a single scout, (sometimes
a single attack ship, depending on race),
and a single-minded mission to dominate
the galaxy. Lesser gamers pursue victory
by military conquest, by technological
advancement, by even, perhaps, the
rather reductive accumulation of mere
points, but we Ultranauts of Iterated
Fate, we prefer the diplomatic victory,
dont we? Because we always want what
we cant have. Which means, of course,
diplomacy in ES2 sucks.
Seriously, wed happily eschew racial
sub-factions or ve types of resources, or
even these hand-drawn heroes and their
milquetoast buffs. We just need - NEED
- an incredible self-learning AI, diligently
programmed by, like, the guys who did
IBMs Watson, to mess with our heads. To
break us, to stomp us, and then to mock
us.
When an alien pops up on your screen
and demands cash money lest it unleash
its three rusty corvettes against your 25
gleaming battleships... wouldnt it be
great to spend forty minutes wondering
just what the hell this AIs long game
is, wondering what youre not seeing,
because attacking a battleeet with three
garbage scows... there HAS to be a plan
right? Alas, in ES2 there is no wonder,
and there is no plan. The AI is doing this
because the AI is dumb.
Still, let us put aside our
disappointment, and cleanse the bile
from our palates with the refreshing
sorbet of ES2s Major Factions. Far from
mere Humans of Different Hues, each
is properly different. The Unfallen are
basically ents, you know, tree people.
The Riftborn are refugees from an
orthogonally-alternate universe. The
Horatio are billions of clones of one crazy
hyperbillionaire. And so on.

It all goes into the mix, and that mix is
further enhanced with sub-factions and
different population types on the one
planet, and bonuses for encouraging
population diversity, and intra-factional
politics, and being overridden by your
own senate, and possible descent into
anarchy, and... and this does indeed result
in a game of considerable complexity.
Because you, you plucker of Fractal Fruit
from the Great Decision Tree, you want
this complexity. You demand it!
And to support it, Amplitude has
crafted a beautiful, elegant interface.
A skinny-fonted sanctum sanctorum, in
which you hold the fate of billions. No,
trillions. Icons and numbers oat in the
darkness of deep space. Each is familiar,
yet also unfamiliar. What devilry is this?
You ail, mouse-pointer icking to reveal
tooltip after tooltip. And then you realise:
even as a Master you must learn, and
again you must learn...
ES2 was in Early Access for a year or
so, so others have come before you and
learned already. They played a thousand
games, and made YouTube videos where
they break ES2 down into its component
parts and answer important, stat-based
questions like: Given that it costs me
fewer command points to build three
small ships with 400HP each, than it does
You, you plucker of
Fractal Fruit from the
Great Decision Tree
a big ship with 1200HP, and overall eet
strength remains the same, why would I
bother spending 30 turns researching the
big ship when I can just spam these little
ones?
ES2s complexity invites these
questions, as well as questions about
resource levels, population levels,
population happiness, population
political identity, which anomalies are
worth analysing, the value of ancient
artefacts from the eponymous Endless
precursor race, upgrades, ship formations,
the battleplan system, terraforming,
optimised resource extraction...
Does any of this even matter? Look, as
a wanderer among the Nested Always-
Futures of One More Turn, you know that
the next 4X game you sink 1000 hours
into wont win your favour with a sleek
interface, nor will you spurn it because of
the nuanced stupidity of its rock/paper/
hyperkinetic-darkmatter-quantum-
torpedo combat system. Its more subtle
than that, a feel, a vibe. ES2 is hard to
score, because to the 4X casual (does
GAMES REVIEW
this person even exist?) it works no better
or worse than any other 4X game. But
for you, an Antimatutinal Arbiter of the
Quadridimensional Irrealis, can Endless
Space 2 ever hope to join the ranks of the
greats like Galactic Civilizations II, Master
of Orion 2, or even Distant Worlds?
Alas, despite its many interesting
aspects of newness, I suspect the answer
is no. ES2 is beautiful, it is sleek, but it
joins a genre stuffed with exemplary
achievements in gameplay design, and it
is remarkable only for being new.
Besides, playing Endless Space 2 is, like
all new 4X games, just another excuse.
An excuse we Philosophers-Militant of
Stepwise History keep making, to avoid
that ultimate test of our faith: Aurora. The
Most Insanely Complex 4X Game Ever
Made. Im told its not so bad. They say
after 100 hours, youll have almost learned
how to read the system map...
Anthony Fordham
KEY SPECS
www.endless-space.com
Genre: 4X turn-based strategy Developer: Amplitude
Publisher: SEGA Platform: PC
OVERALL
0 1 2 3 4 5
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 91
The A-List
THE VERY BEST GEAR YOU CAN BUY

THE BEST PC IS A MAC?

The fact that our best desktop PC
here has long been a Mac bothers us,
and maybe some of you, too. Were
not saying that this particular Mac
is the best computer you can put on
your desktop, because we all know
that you can shop at any of the terric
Australian online or physical shops
and spec-up a machine that leaves
this in the dust. But the reason we
dont select a machine from any of
these places is due to several factors.
First, theres tremendous variability
most of these boxes are intended
for customisation when you place the
order, sometime with many things
changed. Its also true that many
advertised PCs dont exist other than
on paper until the orders start coming
in. Things change quickly, too, with
models constantly updated and
thats a big advantage the PC has over
the Mac. So we worry that a particular
model may no longer be sold after just
a couple of months.
The other thing is that we could put
PC DESKTOP
in any of the good All-In-One machines ALL-IN-ONE
from the likes of Dell and HP, but the Apple iMac 27in with Retina 5k display
iMac we have on the right is simply +++++
better than any of them, thats why its PRICE $2,799
here. SUPPLIER www.apple.com/au
I hope thats cleared things up a bit The Apple 27in iMac with Retina 4K display is great. The best
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for the latest on the best and most 6200; 8GB RAM 1TB HDD 27in 4096 x 2304 Retina 5K IPS display SDXC card slot 4
interesting PCs you can buy this right x USB 3 2 x Thunderbolt 2 Gigabit Ethernet 802.11ac Wi-Fi
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PERIPHERALS NAS Synology

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EPSON WF-3620
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trays; 331 x 215 x 178

92 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 A-LIST REVIEWS

LAPTOPS

VALUE GAMING PROFESSIONAL ULTRA PORTABLE

Asus T100HA
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Performance that delivers everything
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Asus GL502VS
+++++
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Asus has built a very solid machine
around an incredible new GPU. This has
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we can expect from a laptop, putting
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SPECIFICATIONS GeForce GTX 1070 GPU Intel
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Microsoft
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+++++
PRICE $2,299 $4,206
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Truly beautiful, undeniably powerful
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SPECIFICATIONS 13.5in 3000x2000 IPS display Intel
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2x USB 3.0 Mini DisplayPort
Dell XPS 13
+++++
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www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 93

The Kitlog THE GAME BOX
AMD GPU UPGRADE
As AMD does, a new year brings a slightly INTEL CORE I5 6600K
tweaked set of GPUs. Technically its not a

CPU
PRICE $319
new family of GPUs, but the improvements Gaming generally doesnt make use
we see in the 500-series make it the of hyper-threading which makes
sensible choice to replace the AMD RX 480 this the CPU of choice for this box.
weve had in the Game Box.

MOTHERBOARD
Were jumping straight from the 480 to
the 580, and sticking with the 8GB variant.
When matched with the LG UC79C (or a
ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING
PRICE $229
similar resolution monitor), the 8GB of Our Skylake Value Award winner, it packs
memory is ample to hold textures and in a complete set of features yet is priced
there should be no symptoms of running reasonably. Good audio also means we dont
short of memory. need a sound card.
Best of all these improvements in the
GPU come at the same price as the 480, so
8GB OF DDR4
MEMORY

with that comes better overclocking, lower

power consumption and slightly higher PRICE $65
performance. The speed and brand makes so little
difference to performance we cant
recommend one over another.
VIDEOCARD

AMD RX 580 8GB

PRICE $380
More than enough power to run our
chosen monitor and with FreeSync
working, at a very reasonable price.

THE PERFECT PC

INTEL CORE I7 6700K

CPU

PRICE $459
Intels top-shelf unlocked i7 CPU.
MOTHERBOARD

GIGABYTE
GA-170X GAMING G1
PRICE $715
The most complete
100-series motherboard
you can buy today.

32GB OF DDR4
MEMORY

PRICE $200
For a general-purpose build 16GB is
all you need, but go big if you know
you need more.
VIDEOCARD

NVIDIA GTX 1080 TI

PRICE $1,189
The fastest graphics card of them all.

94 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au

 KITLOG REVIEWS

TOTAL: $2,932 RIG ONLY: $1,661

COOLERMASTER BITFENIX RONIN
NEPTON 140XL
COOLER

CASE
PRICE $106
PRICE $85 Bitfenix continues to deliver great
Easy to install AIO CPU cooling, budget cases that look terrific and
relative quiet and performance to are easy to build in.
rival twin-radiator units.
SYSTEMDRIVES

KEYBOARD
SAMSUNG 850 PRO 512GB COOLER MASTER
PRICE $319 QUICKFIRE XTI
This SSD offers greatly improved PRICE $149
durability. Supplement it with a hard Good looks, solid and reliable
drive of your choice if needed. build and many gaming features.

LG UC79G TT ESPORTS LEVEL 10 M

DISPLAY

MOUSE
PRICE $85
PRICE $940
Mouse perfection. Lovely on-screen
Ultrawide 2560x1080, curved, 144Hz with
and on-pad movement, super
FreeSync, this is the gaming screen to
accurate and delightful to use.
bury your head in.
POWER SUPPLY

HYPERX
CLOUD REVOLVER COOLER MASTER G750M
AUDIO

PRICE $119 PRICE $129

For the price they sound Outstanding value for money, its
almost as good as $500 powerful enough for even performance
audiophile cans PCs packing twin GPUs.

TOTAL: $7,366 RIG ONLY: $5,179

CORSAIR H100IGTX ANTEC S10
WATER COOLER
COOLER

PRICE $255
CASE

PRICE $159 If you absolutely must have what is

Excellent cooling that is easy very nearly the best case weve seen,
to install with advanced this is the one.
monitoring.

SAMSUNG 960 LOGITECH G610 PRICE $139

KEYBOARD

PRO 2TB SSD Stunning looks and a delight to type on.

SSDS

PRICE $1,799
Significantly faster than any
STEELSERIES APEX M500
PRICE $135
other SSD on the market.
A similar alternative to the G610.

ANY HDD CM STORM REAPER

MOUSE
HDDS

PRICE $99 (2TB) PRICE $49

Supplement the SSD Very solid and feels fantastic under
with cheap HDD storage. the hand with sweet on-screen
movement.
POWER SUPPLY

ASUS PA329Q CORSAIR HX1000I

PRICE $305
AUDIO

PRICE $1,999
32-inches of 10-bit colour at 4k res, 100% Corsairs mighty HX1000i
RGB for professionals, and a luxurious pumps out extremely reliable
delight for gaming and general use. power, even when under
full loads.

www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 95

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98 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au


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JON HONEYBALL
THIS IS A CRITICAL STEP
FORWARD FOR PERSONAL DATA
SECURITY AND A BLOW TO
INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
Jon explores the advantages of Apples new file system, before explaining
why we all need to sit up and listen when it comes to surround sound for VR
T
he launch of a new le system is a
rare event. There are good reasons
for this: moving over an entire
community of users from one le system
format to another is a big deal. No,
scratch that its a huge deal. And its the
sort of hugeness that means you can do
this only once a decade. Even that would
be considered almost rashly hasty.
If you think about it, the PC/Windows
world has seen remarkably few le
systems over the history of the PC.
We started with MS-DOS, and then
subdirectories were added oh, the
naughty radicalism of that move! MS-
DOS evolved from FAT to FAT32, and then
stopped. NTFS came with Windows NT in
1992, and it had tiny evolutions in the rst
decade, before it also stopped.
Then Microsoft came up with ExFAT,
which can be described as FAT64, or
FAT-with-some-NTFS-bits-added,
depending on whether your view is top-
down or bottom-up. ExFAT has been fairly
successful, although take-up by third
parties remains slow, no doubt as a result
of the licensing cost that Microsoft applies
for ExFAT inclusion in your product.
So the news that Apple is moving to
the new Apple File System (APFS) is
signicant, simply because its such a rare
event. Apple has decided that the existing
one is old and tired, coming as it does
from the era of the oppy disk drive. All
this is true, but Apple has tweaked it into
multiple versions targeted at its different
platforms. So theres an APFS for macOS.
One for iOS. Another for Watch (yes, the
Watch needs to have a le system, even if
you cant directly access it yourself).
By moving to APFS, Apple has brought
together all the capabilities required into
JON HONEYBALL
Jon is the MD of an IT consultancy
that specialises in testing and
deploying hardware
@jonhoneyball
100 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
a single platform and has strengthened
and extended it signicantly. One notable
move is in the handling of encryption.
iOS supported full disk encryption, which
was a good thing. APFS goes further and
allows for full disk encryption of both
les and metadata, and also allows for
multi-key encryption with per-le keys for
le data and a separate key for sensitive
metadata. This is a critical step forward
for personal data security, and somewhat
of a blow to the intelligence agencies that
want access to everything right now.
The news that Apple
is moving to the new
Apple File System
(APFS) is signicant,
simply because its such
a rare event
Whats interesting about APFS is that
Apple is making very little noise about
it. It isnt even mentioned in the release
notes for 10.3, which is odd given how
signicant the change is. It might explain
why the 10.3 update takes some time to
process, because it has to trundle through
the le system and change all the AFS
stuff to APFS. This isnt the rst time
such changes have been done on the
y readers with long memories will
recall how Microsoft originally hadnt
written an NTFS formatter program,
but had a tool that converted FAT
format to NTFS, using the infamous
convert d: /fs:NTFS command.
Part of getting users onto APFS is
that the transition has to be totally
seamless.
Last time I checked, the APFS
support in macOS betas was for
data volumes only you couldnt
boot from it. Clearly, this isnt
acceptable for a mass rollout of
APFS in the forthcoming autumn update
to macOS, so Im sure Apple is quickly
xing this limitation. But be clear that
macOS will be changing from AFS to
APFS this year.
Some are claiming that their iPhone
runs longer on battery using the APFS
le system, because its faster and more
efficient. I think its much too early to have
a view on this, but its possible that it
will speed up older iPhones (and related
devices).
COLOUR SPACE OF
AMOLED DISPLAY
Heres an interesting problem. Ive
recently been conducting various
measurements of tablet screens.
The tools I use are about the best
that money can buy the Klein meter
(kleininstruments.com/k-80) feeding
into the excellent CalMAN software from
SpectraCal (calman.spectracal.com).
I measured the iPhone 7 Plus, which
displayed truly superb performance. Its
accuracy to the sRGB colour space is so
good that you can carry out colour-correct
work onscreen with high condence that
Some claim
Apples new file
system speeds up
their older
devices

your edits will reect in the nal output
correctly. If you use a screen with poor
colour accuracy, then youll make changes
but have no idea if theyre correct or even
appropriate to the underlying desired
modication. It truly is a case of the blind
leading the blind.
So colour accuracy matters. Normally,
you could measure the performance of
a screen, then generate a new ICC le
that contains details of the colour errors
and how to correct them. Then you apply
this ICC le to the display and it displays
colours correctly.
Unfortunately, Apple doesnt allow
you to rewrite the ICC le for the iPhone
or iPad screen. While this is of itself
somewhat disappointing, the reality is
that the screen is normally sufficiently
close to the correct colour that tweaking
isnt really needed. I say normally
because Apple, like any large-scale
manufacturer, has to use multiple
suppliers to satisfy the mind-bending
Until we have a known
and dened colour
space for domestic still
images, were left with
a problem
production numbers that are demanded
by customers, especially in the initial few
months when the New Shiny has just
landed and everyone wants to be seen
holding it.
So Apple buys screens from multiple
sources, and they dont always agree
in terms of colour accuracy and even
maximum brightness. The differences
arent huge, and Im not convinced that
they would justify the creation of a
custom ICC prole for a typical man in
the street user. But it would be nice for
the professional, nicky user who wants
to know that its correct.
I then put a Samsung tablet onto
the test rig a Galaxy Tab S2, which is
quite rightly a highly regarded product.
I red up the meter and CalMAN again,
and measured the display accuracy.
It was all over the place. I mean, truly
horribly wrong. This caused much head-
scratching, until I realised that this tablet
uses the current state-of-the-art Super
AMOLED display, which claims to offer a
bigger colour range than a normal display.
I dug into the display settings, and
found that I could set it to Basic mode.
This was almost spot on to the sRGB-
expected colours. But when I went back
to normal, default mode, the colours
were wrong. Wrong as in much
JON HONEYBALL REAL WORLD COMPUTING
Kleins K-80 colorimeter is my tool of choice for measuring colour accuracy of screens
too shouty and loud, if I can use the term
we use here in the lab. Super-saturated,
bold and bright colours. It certainly looks
impressive, but it isnt correct.
Now this does matter, because an RGB
value of 255.0.0 has an expected red
performance when displayed. It maps
through to the original colour value that
the camera saw. Take 255.0.0 and apply
it to a Super AMOLED display, and youll
get a very strong red. It will be punchy.
Its correct in that it is indeed a super-
saturated red. But it isnt the same red
that was intended when the camera took
the photo.
Herein lies the problem. In the lm/
video world, weve known about colour
issues for years, and theres even a
specialised step in the production process
that exists to handle colour imbalances,
called grading. We have multiple colour
spaces to choose from in the high-end
lm/video world and we know that we
need to take control of it. However, this
isnt true when it comes to photography,
and especially not in the world of the
smartphone camera, where the user
simply points and shoots.
Until we have a known and dened
colour space for domestic still images
that encompasses the enhanced colour
space of Super AMOLED, were left with
a problem. Do we set the display to the
sRGB colour space and disallow the
enhanced colour space that the display
can stretch to? Or do we show enhanced
colour, knowing that its incorrect,
however nice it might be to look at?
Then, another question: how should we
report on such a display? Do we measure
it in default user mode, in which case
its wrong, despite it just looking like very
loud colour. Or do we switch it down
to sRGB mode and report on its ne
performance, clear in the knowledge that
almost no user will switch away from
Super AMOLED mode?
Its certainly a quandary, and one to
be aware of when considering all the
pathway components used in a colour
lm and stills environment. Dont assume
that things are as you might want, out of
the box.
SURROUND SOUND STUFF
Back in the 1970s, Peter Craven and
Michael Gerzon developed the Soundeld
microphone. This is essentially a single-
point microphone array, comprising
four capsules in a tetrahedron array.
The output from this array, known
as A-format, is processed via some
straightforward maths to generate a
four-channel signal called B-format.
The channels on B-format are named
X, Y, Z and W. X is front to back; Y is left
to right; Z is the up to down; and W is an
omnidirectional signal.
Once you have a B-format feed, either
live or recorded, you effectively have the
data necessary to create a virtual sphere
of sound, representing all the sound
sources around you whether they be
Are the colours of your tablet screen accurate enough
for colour correction work?
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 101

Rodes first VideoMic Soundfield mic will be released later this year
behind, up, left, or in the top-right corner
of your perspective.
Now things get really fun. From the
B-format feed that creates a virtual
sphere, you can place virtual loudspeakers
into that sphere and then map them to
real, physical speakers that are mounted
around you. It might be an eight-speaker
cube. Or a 12-speaker array. Or some other
custom array. Providing you have a way
of mapping the virtual speakers to the
array, you have a way of recreating the
physical sound eld that was present at
the Soundeld microphone.
And, of course, if you have a high-
quality digital recorder, then recording
the four channels of B-format means you
can play it back later, and resynthesise
the sound eld. Or ddle with it to your
hearts content. Theres superb software
available for working with B-format; my
favourite is from Harpex (harpex.net). It
allows me to take B-format and output
to binaural, which is surround sound
optimised for headphones. Or even
to Dolby Atmos format. Noisemakers
(noisemakers.fr) from France has a full
suite of fascinating plugins too, some of
which are pay-for and others are free.
Calrec productionised the Soundeld
microphone in the late 1970s, and its
been a stalwart of the surround sound
world ever since. I remember using one
for recordings throughout my undergrad
years, from 1982 to 1986. Indeed, I wanted
my nal year research project to be a way
of capturing head movement such that I
could then post-process the virtual sphere
in a way to handle the head movement.
So if you were listening on headphones,
which is vastly easier than a huge
arrangement of a dozen or more speakers
mounted on a framework, moving your
102 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
head would allow the sound eld to stay
correctly orientated in space, irrespective
of your head movement. Unfortunately,
at the time, the accelerometers and
processing necessary was simply beyond
what was achievable for a reasonable
cost.
But times change. Roll forward to a
few months ago, and the Soundeld
platform was sold to Rode microphones
in Australia, as I mentioned in this column
two months ago. Rode is world-renowned
for its high-quality microphones, sold
at reasonable prices. Its engineering
is absolutely state-of-the-art for the
complex process of making microphones.
It has made a fortune from selling mics
that go on top of cameras to accurately
capture the sound for news, interviews
and so forth, and also makes a range of
top-notch sound recording mics.
It has already announced a VideoMic
Soundeld for release later in the year.
I couldnt be more excited by the news,
because it will bring B-format to a far
wider range of customers. Soundeld
mics have been the playthings of the
wealthy the need for four channels to
store B-format was quite a pain in the
Harpexs software allows me to optimise B-format
for headphones
early days, because four-channel digital
recorders were rare. And the mics werent
cheap around $10,000 for one isnt a
price to be sniffed at.
So why am I discussing this once again?
Because surround sound is becoming
increasingly important. Theres a big push
towards VR now, whether youre working
at the cheap end of the market using a
smartphone and a cardboard headmount
from Google, or you have the money to
pay for an Oculus Rift. But be in no doubt
that VR is pushing full surround sound
to centre-stage, and that means that
B-formats time has really come.
Still dont believe me? Just look at all
the work broadcasters are doing with
VR with binaural fed from microphone
arrays, including B-format. Or Googles
work with its Spatial Audio system
(https://developers.google.com/vr/
concepts/spatial-audio) and its support
on YouTube. If you just want surround-
sound playback, you can use YouTube/
Google on headphones from a computer
running Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Edge.
On Android and iOS, you can use the
appropriate YouTube app.
With the cost of entry collapsing, the
desire to capture full surround sound with
orientation information is growing. This
is a true resurgence of the work done by
Gerzon and Craven all those years ago,
and its certainly worthy of your attention.
STORAGE STORIES
My plans for a second Synology NAS
came to fruition with the purchase of
a 2415+ 12-bay monster. I started off by
tting it with ten Seagate SkyHawk 8TB
drives, along with two Samsung 850 Evo
250GB SSDs for cache. I should have
known I was in trouble when I powered it
up for the rst time.
Two of the drives failed. I returned them
to Amazon and received replacements.
Then another two failed. At that point,
I contacted Amazon and returned the
entire stack of Seagate drives for a full
refund. I replaced them with trusty WD
Red drives from another supplier. Since
then it has been trundling along just ne.
My plan is to use the built-in Synology
Hyper Backup tool between the two large
arrays, with one array held in the lab and
the second over the courtyard at my ISP
on the other end of the Gigabit bre link I
mentioned a few months ago.
Am I worried about the drive failures?
No, because the whole point about
redundant systems is that they are
redundant. I have no idea why I had
a bad batch of Seagate SkyHawks
from Amazon, but having got to four
failures out of 12 drives (ten plus the two
replacements), I decided it was time to
walk away.

PAUL OCKENDEN
THE ADDITION OF WIRELESS
SUDDENLY MAKES THIS A
FAR MORE USEFUL LITTLE
BOARD FOR IOT PROJECTS
Paul finds the new Raspberry Pi Zero W is an excellent platform
for creating a thing, and provides a tip for Netgear Orbi owners
I
thought Id follow on from last
months column by starting to show
you how to build a genuinely useful
Internet of Things (IoT) thing. And
to prove theres plenty of choice in the
marketplace when it comes to ultra-
cheap wireless platforms, Im going to
change boards. Last month was mostly
about the ESP8266-based NodeMCU
development kit; this month Ill focus
on the Raspberry Pi Zero W. Why? Well,
because its fairly new (the W wireless
variant rst went on sale at the end of
February).
Im sure many of you already know
this, but the Raspberry Pi Foundation
is a charity, founded in Cambridge, and
its stated aim is to promote the study
of computer science and related topics,
especially at school level, and to put the
fun back into learning computing.
The foundation is primarily
supported by Cambridge Universitys
Computer Laboratory and hardware
manufacturer Broadcom whose
chips youll nd at the heart of the
device.
There have been several Raspberry
Pi models over the past four years, but
there was a real buzz in late 2015 when
the Pi Zero hit the streets. It was small,
and low cost about $12. It wasnt as
powerful as the Raspberry Pi 3, but with
a single-core 1GHz processor it was no
slouch, either.
It was missing wireless, however.
The board had only a single USB port,
so if you added a USB wireless dongle
it meant youd effectively cut the Pi off
from any other communication. You
could add a USB hub, of course, but then
the whole small and cheap ethos was
PAUL OCKENDEN
Paul owns an agency that helps
businesses exploit the web, from
sales to marketing and everything
in between @PaulOckenden
PAUL OCKENDEN REAL WORLD COMPUTING
out of the window.
Which all goes to explain my
excitement over the launch of the Pi
Zero W. Its essentially the Pi Zero with
added Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Wi-Fi
is 802.11bgn; no 802.11ac and no 5GHz,
but given its price is less than a tenner, I
dont think anyone will be surprised. The
on-board Bluetooth is 4.1 with low energy
(BLE) support. The addition of wireless
functionality suddenly makes this a far
more useful little board for IoT projects,
and puts it on a par with the NodeMCU
development board, for example.
I want to get a little nerdy for a
moment about the Pi Zero Ws onboard
2.4GHz antenna. Normally youd expect
this to be a track on the PBC with a
length thats an exact fraction of the
12.5cm wavelength
found with 2.4GHz radio signals.
This makes use of the fact that since
resonance occurs at whole number
fractions of the wavelength (1/2, 1/3,
1/4 and so on), shorter antennas can be
used. They arent as efficient as full-wave
antennas, but without such fractional
antennas many electronic gadgets
would have to be bigger. For example,
an 800MHz mobile phone signal would
need an antenna thats 37.5cm long!
Fractional wavelength PCB tracks
arent the only option, however the
other major player is the ceramic chip
antenna. There are several types, but
the common factor is that they use a
material with a high permittivity (which
my dictionary denes as the ability of a
substance to store electrical energy in an
electric eld.) The key is that in high-
permittivity materials the wavelength of
a radio signal is reduced, so the antenna
can be made smaller as a result.
Until now, those have been the
only two choices, but the Pi Zero W
introduces a third type of antenna. If you
look carefully at a photo of the board,
you may notice a tiny triangular shape
etched into the copper of the PCB. This is
an amazing new type of 2.4GHz antenna.
It acts as a tuned resonant cavity, and
the geometric shape, together with a
couple of associated capacitors, allow
the structure to capture Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth radio traffic. The technology
is licenced from Swedish company
Proant, and is similar in concept to the
traditional slot or notch antenna
but in this case its so small that Proant
has called the product design niche
rather than notch. I suspect that
probably passes for a joke in Sweden!
I was sceptical at rst, but it works
well. And, more importantly, it keeps
the board small and cheap. Signal
strength is decent, but if you need
The Raspberry Pi Zero, now with Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth
more youll nd there are pads on the
board onto which you can solder a
standard U.FL RF connector, for use of an
external antenna. For most folk, the little
triangle will be adequate.
ITS A SETUP
The kit I looked at last month was
congured by loading rmware and/or
code via the USB connection. The normal
Raspberry Pi setup is different to this.
Since the device is actually a computer
running an OS, the usual way to get things
running is to connect a USB mouse and
keyboard (because theres only one
socket on the Pi Zero boards, a wireless
desktop combo is the easiest option),
with a monitor connected to the HDMI
port. It isnt dissimilar to setting up a new
desktop computer.
The thing is, unless you have a suitable
mouse, keyboard and screen lying
around, plus the various connectors/
converters to plug into the micro-
USB and mini-HDMI, you could easily
nd yourself spending far more on
peripherals and leads than you did on
the Pi itself. Also, because were going to
set it up as an IoT thing, the keyboard,
mouse and monitor wont be needed
beyond the initial setup.
Luckily, with some ddling its possible
to congure the board without using a
keyboard and screen. There are just two
things we need to do: the rst is to get
the onboard Wi-Fi connected to your
network; the second is to enable SSH, so
we can open a remote command prompt.
But Im jumping ahead of myself here.
The very rst thing youll need to do is
to create a microSD card containing
the OS for the Pi. There are several
options available (see raspberrypi.
org/downloads), including a version
of Windows 10. However, for most
people, the most sensible option will be
Raspbian a avour of Debian Linux.
If you look at the download page
(raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian),
youll see two versions listed one with
PIXEL, and a Lite version. PIXEL is the
Raspberry Pi desktop environment,
and since well be operating without a
monitor, there simply isnt a need for that.
Download the Lite version.
It will be easiest to download the ZIP
version. Once unzipped, youll see an
IMG le, just under 1.5GB in size. Flash
that onto a microSD card. Even if you
dont have one kicking around, theyre
incredibly cheap. If your card reader only
has a full-sized SD card slot, youll also
need an adapter.
If youre using Windows then the
recommended ashing tool is Win32 Disk
Imager (tinyurl.com/odxlnmf), whereas
Mac users can either use dd from the
command line, or use Etcher (etcher.io),
which will be easier for novices. However
you do it, youll end up with a microSD
that can be used to boot the Pi Zero W.
But were not done yet. First we
need the board to hop onto your Wi-Fi
network, and to do that it will need to
know your network name and password.
Now if you were using a keyboard, mouse
and screen, this would be easy: you could
simply select the network using the Pis
GUI. But since were doing this using a
headless setup, youll need to add the
details manually. Eject the card from
your card reader (using the OS tools,
rather than just pulling out the card) then
re-insert it. It should mount like a normal
disk, and youll see a le system in place.
The card has two partitions: one called
boot, the other root. The root partition
uses an ext4 le system and contains
the normal Linux le structure, which is
mounted as / once the Pi boots its
where pretty much everything to do with
the Pi lives. The boot partition is a FAT le
system and is used only during booting.
Youll see it mounted as /boot once you
have the Pi up and running.
When you insert a Pi microSD card into
the card reader on a PC or a Mac, youll
see this boot partition is visible with full
read/write access. But the main root

The antenna is that little triangle between the HDMI
and USB sockets
partition normally isnt accessible youll
need to install additional software to
view it. Luckily, we dont have to do that.
The designers of Raspbian have created
a facility where if you put certain les in
the boot partition, theyre copied over
to root when the Pi starts up (and then
deleted from boot).
To get your Pi Zero W connected to
your wireless network, youll need to
place a le called wpa_supplicant.conf in
the root folder of the boot partition, and
in that text le include the following text:
network={
ssid=Your_wi _network_name
psk=Your_wi _password
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
} need to add the ssh le again.
Then plug the Pi Zero W into a USB
power supply (or a USB port on your
computer, which should have enough
power to drive it) and you should see the
green LED ash for a while, and then stay
lit green.
Next go to your wireless router and
view the list of connected devices. If
everything has gone to plan, youll see
your Raspberry Pi listed, along with its
IP address (it will have a MAC address
starting with B8:27:EB). If you dont have
admin access to your wireless router,
just run a network scan its easiest to
do this from an app on your phone and
youll see the Pi listed as raspberrypi.
Once you know the IP address youll
nd you can ping it, but you wont be
able to open an SSH connection thats
because SSH is disabled by default in the
latest versions of Raspbian. This change
was made shortly after the tech world
became paranoid about IoT devices
being taken over and used as part of a
botnet.
To enable SSH, at least initially, simply
power down the Pi, plug the SD card
back into your PC, and create a blank le
called ssh (with no extension) in the root
of the /boot partition. Then pop the card
PAUL OCKENDEN REAL WORLD COMPUTING
back into the Pi and reboot it.
Incidentally, youll probably see that
the green LED continues to ash, rather
than appearing solid after a minute or so.
Its because you pulled the power, rather
than performing a clean shutdown.
Dont worry, though everything is ne.
Just give it a few more minutes and the
ashing will stop once the system has
checked that the le system is clean.
You should see a solid green LED once
it has booted, and not only be able to
ping the device (its IP address may have
changed) but also connect to it via SSH.
The username is pi and the password
raspberry. Its important to remember
that the ssh le gets deleted, so you get
only one shot. If you reboot the Pi, youll
Incidentally, if you dont have an SSH
client then I recommend PuTTY for
Windows users (tinyurl.com/mgyxbev)
and vSSH for those of you on a Mac
(tinyurl.com/ovetpzl). Both are excellent.
Once you can access the Pis
command line youll be able to do things
like ping www.google.co.uk to test
connectivity. Unlike ping on a Windows
PC, it just keeps going, so youll need to
use Control+C to stop it.
Rather than messing around with
ssh les, we can congure the Pi to
have SSH permanently enabled. Type
sudo raspi-cong, go into Interfacing
Options, select SSH and then the option
to enable it. While youre there make
sure IC2 is enabled, too, as well need
that in a moment. You can also change
the password for the pi account from
raspi-cong and thats probably a
good idea. Then select Finish to exit
raspi-cong. Incidentally, sudo is a little
like running something as administrator
on a PC. The Pi login doesnt have access
to write these conguration changes,
but preceding the command with sudo
A quick hack allows you to see which Orbi unit your
devices are connected to
There are a few OSes available for the Raspberry Pi,
but Raspbian is the best place to start
means to run it as a super-user.
Now you can reboot the Pi as often
as you like, and it will hop onto your
wireless network and enable SSH access.
No more messing around with les in
the boot partition. Incidentally, rather
than just pulling the plug, the correct
way to shut down the Pi is by using
sudo shutdown by default, it will take
a minute. Or you can reboot by using
sudo reboot. This way, you wont get the
ashing green LED mentioned earlier,
while the device scans the le system for
errors.
Next month, Ill show you how to turn
your newly congured Raspberry Pi Zero
W into a useful IoT thing.
INTO ORBI
I continue to be impressed by Netgears
Orbi whole house Wi-Fi system. Its
incredibly fast and bathes the whole area
in a really strong Wi-Fi signal. As I move
around the house, I nd my gadgets hop
instantly and seamlessly between the
main router and the satellite. Its so much
better than using conventional Wi-Fi
extenders and boosters. And the latest
rmware update offers a guest access
facility (addressing one of my complaints
the last time I wrote about Orbi). Its
fantastic kit, but a real shame that there
isnt a xDSL version, so you still need a
separate modem if you have a telephone
line-based internet connection.
One little tip. If you have an Orbi, go
to orbilogin.com/debug.htm and enable
telnet (note that this link only works if
you have an Orbi setup). Then telnet into
the router and execute the following
commands:
nvram set enable_adv_attached=1
nvram commit
Dont forget to go back to the
debug page and switch telnet back
off afterwards! Now when you view
the attached devices in the Orbi user
interface, youll be able to see whether
theyre connected to the main router
or the satellite. This is incredibly useful
when it comes to nding the best
position for each unit, and Im surprised
that it isnt enabled by default.
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 105
DR LARISSA ROMUALDO SUZUKI
UNLESS CITIES CHANGE
THE WAY THEY DESIGN, WELL
NEVER DELIVER ON THE TRUE
PROMISE OF SMART CITIES
How do you design a smart city? Dr Larissa Suzuki shares insights from her PhD thesis
E
very day nearly 180,000 people
move to cities, resulting in more
than 60 million new urban dwellers
each year.
Such rapid growth puts pressure on a
citys infrastructure (transport, energy,
water, housing), and scarce infrastructure
aggravates civil issues such as law and
order and the delivery of basic services.
For instance, studies suggest a typical
driver spends 106 days of his/her life
looking for parking spaces. In response to
pressure from organisations and citizens,
smartening up cities has become a
priority for policy makers.
The smart city label has been applied
to a range of technology developments
powered by city data and digital
technologies. Its hoped these will
help cities plan for population growth,
introducing a more sustainable model for
urban development.
Weve already seen progress. Smart
electricity grids, energy-efficient buildings
and intelligent road crossings are
examples of existing solutions. These are
powered by data collected from many
systems and stakeholders; matching
high-quality data with digital services has
the potential to drive economic growth,
improve government transparency, and
create innovative city services.
TRUE SMART CITIES
Im a computer scientist and am
passionate about how technology can
benet mankind. However, its tempting
to fall into the trap of simply focusing
on infusing technology in cities and
disregarding true societal needs.
Despite the potential of smart cities,
there are no fully implemented smart city
initiatives, and unless cities change the
DR LARISSA ROMUALDO SUZUKI
now oversees the tool designed
to improve coordination of
infrastructure planning and delivery
106 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
way they design, well never deliver on
the true promise of smart cities. This is
because smart cities have been designed
mainly as centralised technology top-
down projects led by corporations, which
put municipalities under pressure to
deploy their projects and in which citizens
appear as consumers at best.
A true smart city is one where efficient
urban services are available to all
including the disabled, senior, visually
impaired and children. Our societies are
stratied, and too many of the planned
smart services (smart cars, for example) you must understand the unique needs
will probably only be available in
the next few decades, at least for a
privileged few. There are one billion people
with some form of disability, and despite
this huge demand, cities havent tailored
their smart services to them.
Adopting a more disciplined and
societal-needs orientated approach can
give cities the clarity they need to think
strategically about how they can function
better. My PhD research provides a
framework that helps cities on this journey.
CORE PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
To unlock smart services for all, cities need
to embrace not only technology but many
other non-technological elements. They
must address the needs and expectations
of all users of services, reduce the digital
divide, and build public trust around new
services and data sharing. Therefore, a
one-size-ts-all approach will never work.
My PhD research framework named
SMARTify is built around ve core
domains, all of which are designed to
support the delivery of a citys own smart
cities vision.
1 SERVICES DESIGN
Providing access to smart things
designed without all society in mind isnt
providing access at all. To design services,
and expectations of all users, including
senior citizens, disabled people and
children.
We must establish which infrastructure
and datasets are subject to greatest
demand, and use them for the trial of new
technologies and services.
Enabling integrated and responsive
urban services often involves joining up
data silos. It raises many security and
privacy concerns around personal data
(social media, GPS traces in phones),
smart cards (transport usage patterns)
and smart metering (lifestyle patterns).
When designing services, cities must
address the privacy aspects of personal
data, and dene data management
Rapidly increasing numbers of city dwellers are
driving the need for smarter cities

strategies to ensure compliance
with national and international Tailor-made and
useful data and
data protection regulations.
digital servies
to all
2 TECHNOLOGY DESIGN
The main technological
challenge in smart city design
is the fragmentation in urban
services, infrastructure and data
provision. City data and digital
services are provided by many
stakeholders, systems and
applications. This fragmentation
creates a range of technical,
strategic and organisational
issues around interoperability,
cross-domain data exploitation,
and policies and regulations Maximisation
in data-orientated business of the efforts
models. of all society
The economic benets and
potential of smart cities relies
upon the delivery of service innovation
powered by interoperable technology.
It can be facilitated by organising cities
technological assets around a common
platform that can manage data and
services, and physical assets.
An initial step towards this endeavour is
performing a city data-mapping exercise
for a detailed picture of existing data and
digital services. It includes identifying
current and future:
Data sources, volume, variety, temporal
factors and security sensitivities
(personal/private data);
Processes and resources needed to
manage data/services (computer and
network power to respond to data
requests, data storage requirements).
Once a data and services inventory
is created, its time to review existing
metadata schema for each data type
to identify standards with the greatest
potential for reuse, and ll any gaps.
Reducing technology and data
friction using reliable standards for
interoperability can help create new
integrated urban services.
3 VALUE NETWORK DESIGN
Cities nd it tremendously difficult
to specialise in all the competencies
involved in designing smart city services.
Even powerful organisations such as
Google and Apple need to collaborate
with members of their value network
(developers) to provide inventive
applications to end users.
Adopting the concept of data-driven
value networks (DDVN) helps cities to
decentralise their data and technology
infrastructures and form an ecosystem of
expert collaborators.
There are three types of partners in a
DDVN. Partners should be chosen based
DR LARISSA ROMUALDO SUZUKI REAL WORLD COMPUTING
charging users to utilise
City-wide exploitation premium services and data
of data
may help recover such costs
and fund the release of data
and services.
Structural partners can
support the development
Services Technology of practical and diverse
business models for data and
digital services. Establishing
Governance business models and licencing
agreements, including the
Open Government Licence
(OGL), can maximise the use of
Value Value data and services. It may even
Network Design increase competition on the
platform as data providers ght
Transformational (and collaborate) to provide the
business models best-quality data and services
and innovation to citizens.
The SMARTify framework is designed to support the
5 GOVERNANCE DESIGN
delivery of a smart city vision A strong leadership strategy can enable
technology, data and digital assets to be
on the specialisation they can bring, exploited to its full effect to deliver smart
whereas cities should deeply specialise city design and planning.
in their core competence governance of Designing smart cities as open
the DDVN. platforms can create governance
Supporting partners specialise in arrangements that provide a context in
managing data and digital services, and which distributed innovation, driven by the
making resources available to contributing members of the platform ecosystem in
partners. Disclosing technical blueprint the smart cities, can emerge.
details, for example, encourages open Open and transparent engagement
innovation, and enables partners to openly with partners on the strategic direction
utilise resources. of the smart cities vision can guarantee
A DDVN enables cities to become a the delivery of the actions and prevent
platform for the dissemination and active regulation problems during rollout. The
consumption of services that will provide intended benets of the smart city vision
society with a high quality of life, while should be clearly articulated, measured,
also meeting their ambitious sustainability managed, delivered and evaluated in
agenda. The success in designing smart practice by all partners.
cities will be co-determined by the way Besides working closely with the
cities nurture, incentivise and coordinate members of the DDVN, cities should
this network. actively promote services and innovation
to demonstrate the value of smart cities.
4 VALUE DESIGN This can be achieved through government
Smart cities data and services have websites, hackathons, engagement with
social, economic, environmental and community groups and addressing digital
nancial value. It can be generated literacy to drive uptake of services.
through the independent use or reuse of
data and services, or by combining them MEASURING SUCCESS
with other sources to become inputs So how do you know youve built a smart
into applications, services and decision- city? First, cities must keep their smart
making. city vision in mind, and continuously
For instance, city data can be input assess their progress using critical success
into complex algorithms and analysis to factors. For instance, wider participation
create insights through dashboards or among all the population, a reduction
visualisations. Cities must explore the in pollution-triggered deaths, increased
value cases for the exploitation of data innovation. Based on those assessments,
and services. they can then amend and improve their
On the ip side, the provision of digital smart city design.
services and data isnt free. Understanding Ultimately, a smart city design thats
the associated cost entails engaging aligned with a citys own smart vision
with existing and potential publishers, will provide it with a balance between
so that effective ways of recovering such social, environmental and economic
costs can be explored. In some instances, opportunities.
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 107
DAVEY WINDER
THE US GOVERNMENT HAS COME
CLOSE TO MAKING IT ILLEGAL TO USE
SECURE COMMUNICATIONS ONLINE
Davey delves deep into the world of encryption. First, remembering how PGP
began, and then through a service that promises to secure your email
W
ay back at the start of the
1990s, Phil Zimmerman
wrote an essay displaying
remarkable perception of what was to
come as the internet matured. Email
messages are just too easy to intercept
and scan for interesting keywords,
Zimmerman wrote. This can be done
easily, routinely, automatically and
undetectably on a grand scale.
Remember that this was almost 20
years before Edward Snowden blew
his snooping whistle loudly and with
such reverberations within the world of
cryptology. Zimmerman then stated:
The government will protect our email
with government-designed encryption
protocols. Probably most people will
acquiesce to that. But perhaps some
people will prefer their own protective
measures. Phil Zimmerman was, in case
you need reminding, the creator of Pretty
Good Privacy (PGP).
His journey towards fame or
infamy, dependent upon your views
of government and privacy began
in 1991, when the US Senate had
added a resolution to a bill that would
encourage the industry to add
backdoors to networking (including
the emerging internet) equipment. The
wording of that resolution resonates
with more recent and, sadly, more
successful attempts to blow the doors
off the privacy of communications.
providers of electronic communications
services and manufacturers of electronic
communications service equipment
shall ensure that communications
systems permit the government to
obtain the plain-text contents of voice,
data, and other communications when
appropriately authorised by law.
DAVEY WINDER
Davey is an award-winning
journalist and consultant
specialising in privacy and security
issues @happygeek
108 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
Scary stuff, huh? And its worth repeating
that this was 26 years ago. That US
bill didnt succeed, but it sure caught
the attention of computer science
graduate and software engineer Mr
Zimmerman, who realised how close the
US government had just come to making
it illegal to use secure communications
online. He wasnt wrong, either: soon
afterwards, public key cryptography
had become a protected weapon
(munitions was the term used in law)
with strict export controls.
Zimmerman had the foresight to get
his PGP software, based around the RSA
public key crypto algorithm, released as
freeware. Along with the source code and
documentation, he sent a copy of it to his
friend Kelly Goen, who in turn uploaded
the source to Usenet and a whole bunch
of bulletin-board systems. The code, like
the truth, will out and out it was.
Within a couple of years the
government came calling; not the FBI,
but US Customs. Zimmerman and Goen
were charged with exporting protected
munitions without the appropriate
licence, and a federal grand jury
indictment followed. In fact, it followed
them for three years until the powers
that be realised that the duck they had
been chasing had died a long time ago.
Not that this stopped the US government
from starting a criminal investigation,
which also failed to produce charges that
stuck.
Things went a little downhill from
there with regards to the romance of
the privacy defender story (if you see it
through nerd-tinted spectacles like me).
Zimmerman founded a company called
PGP, which was acquired by Network
Associates, which was acquired by
McAfee, and which sold a commercial
application of PGP. It gets even messier if
you delve into licensing agreements and
legal agreements between RSA (which
owned the algorithm that PGP was
based upon) and Zimmerman. The story
kind of ends with Zimmerman agreeing
not to distribute PGP any longer and RSA
agreeing not to sue him as a result.
As one story ends, another begins.
That code, the PGP version 1.0 software
that was pushed out into the public
domain, had developed an organic
momentum all of its own. Helped by
MIT, PGP 2.5 eventually emerged from
the ether and RSA became annoyed,
but legal complications over interests in
the algorithm patent meant that legal
actions werent taken. It also meant
that PGP could take on a new life, and
Zimmerman was once again at the
forefront of it.
He published a book with the
source code of the new PGP version
programmed in C and printed it in a
font designed to be scanner friendly.
The US had made it quite clear, all the
way to the Supreme Court and on many
an occasion, that written expression
couldnt be against the law. Zimmerman
had got another one-up on the man, as
it were. Apart from the fact that it was
actually still illegal to export PGP 2.5,
thanks to that munitions classication.
Thankfully, a European privacy-friendly
programmer, Stle Schumacher, adapted
the code enough to make version 2.6xi
legal anywhere in the world.
Which is where we nd ourselves
today. Now theres something called the
OpenPGP standard via the Free Software
Foundation, as the original source code
is currently owned by Symantec, and
most folk will use the GNU Privacy Guard
(GnuPG) along with an email client such
as Mozilla Thunderbird. Or they would
if it were easier to install and congure.
It involves getting on very friendly terms
with the command line interface, or
investing time to learn how a PGP client
with a graphical UI works under the
bonnet, or ashing the cash to subscribe
to a service that does most of the dirty
work for you.
A NERDY NICETY?
And now we stumble upon the real
problem with PGP, or rather the real
problem with encrypted emails and
encrypted messaging in general. If its too

complicated, only geeks will use it to talk
to other geeks. I want to talk to my family,
friends and assorted non-geek contacts.
If its too expensive, only those who really
want it and can afford it will use it. End-
to-end email encryption is great in theory,
but in practice it only works if both sender
and recipient are using the same secure
application. Thats where its always been
a busted ush for becoming anything
other than a nerdy nicety.
If Bob wants to send Alice an
encrypted message, he rst has to
send one saying: I want to send you an
encrypted message, to do so you need
to download and use this app. If Alice
discovers that the app is too complicated
or not to her liking, she wont bother;
ditto if that app costs a few quid a month
to use or demands she opens up a new
email account with some weird address.
It has to be simple to set up, easy and
functional enough to accompany, if not
entirely replace, her email client of choice
and it needs to be free, or as good as.
SecureMyEmail (SME) is the closest Ive
come across so far to meeting these
requirements.
SME comes in a number of OS avours,
including both Windows and Mac via a
version of Mozilla Thunderbird with the
SME plugin already installed. However,
Ive been testing the Android app, so for
the purposes of this review that should
be borne in mind. iOS users will have to
wait, Im afraid, although Im assured
that there is a version in the pipeline. The
same goes for email clients other than
Thunderbird, with Apple Mail already
underway and Outlook in the planning
stage.
Back to Android, where the app is
a doddle to install and congure. And
if youre an old hand at this PGP thing
then you can use it with your existing
keys easily enough. Again, Im writing
this overview from the perspective of a
user thats new to the encryption world,
and for them there really is nothing to
be afraid of. Id happily invite my mum
or eldest grandchild to use SME, safe in
the knowledge that they could follow the
instructions without fear of failure.
I like the fact that it doesnt require
you to register a new email address at
securemyemail.com; you simply use your
DAVEY WINDER REAL WORLD COMPUTING
existing email address, be that with a
mail provider or your own mail server. I
also like the fact that, while not free, its
close at 99 cents per email address per
year. There are lifetime subscription plans
for the more adventurous, but for most
why worry when youre risking only 7p
per month?
I also like the fact that it allows the
more advanced user to exploit the full
functionality of PGP crypto. So, the
SME client app is fully PGP compatible
in that it creates real PGP keys that you
can use wherever other software or
services require them. Hit the Advanced
Settings option and youll nd all the
key management, on-demand key
regeneration, importing and exporting
tools that the crypto-savvy user could
want.
Those among you who are privacy
savvy can also rest assured that the SME
creators have given proper thought to
data sovereignty issues. The company
behind SME has a Swiss incorporated
management company and data is
housed in Swiss data centres. The
encryption happens on your device,
before any data including attachments
(which are also encrypted) are sent.
This means your data will remain
encrypted in transit and at rest on your,
or your email service providers, servers.
By using native software rather than
a webmail client, for example your
private key isnt only generated on your
device, but it remains there. Decryption,
likewise, is done on the recipients device.
SECURITY CONCERNS
Without getting too deep into the math,
during the initial setup of SecureMyEmail,
a unique 4,096-bit key pair and
passphrase will be generated. How
secure is all that? Good question, and the
answer if we accept that there are no
known backdoors, side-channel attacks
or quantum computers to take into
consideration is long enough to future-
proof it for the foreseeable future.
The connections between my Android
device and the SME servers in Geneva
havent been forgotten either, which
comes as no great surprise to me, since
the people behind SME also run a VPN
business. This translates into multiple
Swiss servers and company incorporation mean data
sovereignty isnt an issue for SecureMyEmail
layers of this particular security onion:
the APIs are set to opt for Transport Layer
Security 1.2 in preference; ephemeral key
support is deployed to enable perfect
forward secrecy (compromise of long-
term keys doesnt compromise past
session keys in effect); and HTTP Strict
Transport Security (HSTS) protects
against protocol downgrade attacks,
among other things.
What else do I like about SME? Well,
theres the easy method of using your
private key to sign and verify your email,
so the recipient can be sure it has come
from you and not a man-in-the-middle
attacker pretending to be you.
Talking of identity verication, I like
the novel approach SME has taken
with the use of a more modern version
of the PGP web of trust by employing
your social media networks. Using the
OAuth authentication functionality of the
social network itself, the user can opt to
SME is easy to use, but
also allows the more
advanced user to exploit
the full functionality of
PGP crypto
allow authentication against your social
network account. Again, its another neat
way of allowing your contacts to ensure
you are who you say you are; they click on
the Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter button,
and can immediately see if the account
matches up with you.
Im not a huge fan of the Thunderbird
mail client, for reasons going back
many years, so I probably should give
it a try. For now, though, Im just using
SME on Android and the client isnt
bad, although it could still do with
some polishing. It does the basics, plus
incorporates encryption almost invisibly.
It wont replace my Android mail app
of choice, but it doesnt have to and
thats the beauty of SME. Since the
service doesnt require you to register
a new email address, or otherwise
interfere with your existing email, you
can continue using your mail client or
app of choice. Nothing changes, apart
from when you want to send or read a
received encrypted email and you re up
the client. If you do fancy giving SME a
try and theres a 30-day free trial before
youre asked for your 99 cents feel free
to start a secure conversation with me
using my happygeek@gmail.com address
to see how it all works.
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 109
STEVE CASSIDY

WHEN THINGS GET EXTRA

TURBULENT, THE SILLY
QUESTION MOVES THE
CONVERSATION FORWARD
Robot cheerleaders fail to excite Steve on a visit to trade show CeBIT,
but a plea for more open standards in IoT does set his pulse racing

I
f theres a single measure to apply
to modern businesses then this year
is all about agility. Despite the fact
that nobody has standardised the unit
of agility, everybody thinks they can
measure it and demonstrate what it
means. When trying to make sense of this
type of problem, I fall back on a simple
technique known as derailing someones
smooth sales presentation with a silly
question.
You see, silly questions are much more
powerful than sensible ones. Especially
when someone agile has been through
and whipped up a show, a market, an
economy, or the whole world into a
turbulent mess in their passing wake.
When things get extra turbulent, the
silly question moves the conversation
forward, by reminding us that there really
are no sensible anchors in R&D, other
than the ones we make for ourselves.
The same goes for silly topics. One of
my invitations for this years CeBIT show
in Hannover made mention of robot
cheerleaders. As neither robots, nor
cheerleaders, form part of my natural
bailiwick, I was more than happy to have
a look which is the reason for the hastily
snatched screenie of my heartbeat ECG
(below).
Even without cheerleaders, I was mildly
excited mostly because the last time I
saw this data it involved some translucent
gel and a young chap nervously shaving
my chest.
Its difficult to get clear electrical data
such as this without those precursors,
so the device I was holding that looked
like a gamers steering wheel controller
was quite the breakthrough in wearable,
touchable contact sensors. The
cheerleaders I mention were part of a
video showing two exceedingly deadpan
gentlemen, both wearing eshy-looking
exible biosensors; as they stood up,
little robots in front of them stood up too.
There was a lot of late 20th-century pop
video surrealness about it all and for
me, the killer problem was the overreach.
Nothing in the video proved that the
movements of the little plastic homunculi
were triggered by the eshy plastic things
stuck on the humans heads. There
wasnt a choreographic link. The humans
got up and sat down in a very Daft Punk
way, careful and rigid they behave more
like toddlers, clambering on and off their
feet.
Nobody robot or human ever
made any moves Id associate with a
cheerleader. Ive included a picture of
the video screen, but I wouldnt blame
the editor if he threw it out: it was a bad
picture in a bad situation. [Fear not, its on
the opposite page Ed.]
Which brings me on to the more
obvious robots, and indeed those that
were being told to expect great things
Theres clearly something about CeBIT that sets my pulse racing
from in the near future. Cast your gaze
to SoftBanks Pepper, opposite, which
was originally developed by Aldebaran
(softbank.jp/en/robot). Its looking at
machines such as this that devalues
the achievement of the guys producing
the ECG electrodes, because Pepper
is meant to be programmed cute.
Cuteness isnt on my radar. When
I want to think about how a system
works overall, I dont add cute to my
list of tests but Pepper is all about the
cutes. I found the various Peppers on
the SoftBank stand in a series of strange
postures, something that also seemed
to rather badly affect the attending
technical team. Pepper, you see, is a
curious combination of attributes, with
a surface a bit like a washing machine,
big doe-like eyes, a wasp waist and
hourglass gure, a huge touchscreen on
its upper chest, and very human-looking
ribbed plastic hands. Oh, and its short.
To my mind, Pepper is about the size of a
seven-year-old girl.
I think I could have found this
disturbing, had the Peppers been

STEVE CASSIDY
Steve is a consultant who
specialises in networks, cloud, HR
and upsetting the corporate apple
cart @stardotpro

110 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au


The robots were out at this years CeBIT...
operational. There was much work-in-
progress, with actual engineers doing
stuff. I was naughty and sneaked a
snap of the laptop that appeared to be
responsible for Pepper programming.
It was a very strange display, especially
sat alongside the dancing assembly-line
arms of Epsons stand, where cuteness
and the accompanying exploitation of
humanitys Skinnerian response takes
a total backseat against the speed-of-
movement, force-applied, jobs-done
world of industrial robotics. Not that
Epsons team was therefore brutalist
or uncaring: I asked about the power
consumption of its huge paper recycling
device (the PaperLab), and they were
happy to inform me this was a staggering
6.5kW. Not great news for PaperLab
fans, but the news was a lot better on the
current-generation office-sized inkjets,
which squirt on the ink that PaperLab
removes at a much more liveable 140W
STEVE CASSIDY REAL WORLD COMPUTING
power draw.
The absolute top mark for me on the
intrusive, transformative, personal
front in technology came during a short
appointment pause, waiting to see
Fujitsus Dr Joseph Reger. He and I are
somewhat like the good and bad Jedi
knights of the press Q&A session; theres
no question I can think up that he cant
answer. He got an easy ride from me that
day, because while waiting for him I was
suckered into trying out the 3D glasses
... including
Pepper, a robot
with added
cuteness
developed by a spinoff/joint venture
of Fujitsu, with a name so thoroughly
Japanese that I now cant read back the
business card I was given.
And I really wanted to follow up,
because these glasses use a full-colour
laser to paint the virtual screen you see,
directly on the back of your eyeball. As a
result, the dangling lens in front of your
eye is super-tiny, only really needing
to bend the lasers beam as it scans
across the presented image. And since
its a laser, and at any one moment a
single point of light, it doesnt need to be
corrected for any faults in your eyeball. I
nd most VR headsets a pain, because I
rst wore glasses at the age of six; these
are revelatory. Take my glasses off and
I cant see ten inches but I can see the
virtual display of the Fujitsu glasses, in
gloriously clear and focused HD.
The barriers between me and a
perfectly tailored VR display are still
difficult to overcome, however, because
this system requires that you keep your
eyes fairly still, and I already know from
my frazzled optician and a professor that
Im an eye mover, not a head mover.
When this technology catches up with
people like me, though, theres a distinct
chance Ill be a near-instant convert. All it
would take would be a high-performance
camera, some additional processing of
the visual eld for reality augmentation,
and Id be completely sold on doing
without cumbersome lenses, awkward
contacts and the like.
Which isnt where I expected to
be taken with an investigation that
began with the teasing proposition
of robot cheerleaders. However, its
a measure of how far the entire IT
business has come in just the past
few years. I can remember walking
around earlier CeBITs and losing count
of all the laptops and servers, even the
server racks. This year has seen a change
to a selection of machinery that uses
computers to get stuff done, rather than
being computers that can run anything
you care to put on them. All that said, I
think the claims being made for robotics
are at least ve years too soon, before
we even starting to look at the social
implications.
AGILITY VS OPENNESS
I was sitting in the press pack seats on
the Software AG stand when the bigwigs
swung past. Its normal to have at least
Angela Merkel come by and say a few
things. This time we had one of her
ministers, who had a lot to say about
the wonders of the software integration
and services sector. I wasnt there for the
politicians the media circus surrounding
Ms Merkel this year was boosted by the
www.pcandtechauthority.com.au July 2017 111
 REAL WORLD COMPUTING STEVE CASSIDY
presence of the Japanese prime minister,
which made it even more difficult to stick
to any appointment on the sprawling
fairgrounds of Hannover Messe.
I was there for the speeches of the
people doing the work: theres something
about the presence of a few world
leaders that makes these chaps raise
their game. Perhaps because that huge
rugby scrum of mainstream media
reporters and camera crews might sit
down for a rest now and again, and the
right soundbite is gold for those guys.
This years surprise for me, apart from
the abrupt shift from PC makers and
devices, over to device makers who might
occasionally use a PC, was a closing
comment from Karl-Heinz Streibich,
Software AGs CEO.
Looking out across the hall of stands,
hed had time to understand something
that Ive been struggling with for some
time when looking at the world of
small, simple computers now intended
to control or report on just one or two
physical sensors: the vast array of the
Internet of Things. My problem has long
been that being able to miniaturise a
complete PC leaves far too many holes
open in the whole system holes that
were really only learning to plug now,
as the risk level of unintended breaches
or uses for all those tiny little general-
purpose computing devices rises.
I thought Id understood what the
industry would do about this during
a visit to the IoT World Congress last
year in Barcelona. There, the exhibits
were all about diverse sets of sensors
and components, jointed together in
a noticeably proprietary and often not-
even-Ethernet network, then brought
together and made IoT-friendly by a
gateway device, sitting between their
proprietary world and a general-purpose
WAN or LAN.
Herr Streibich doesnt like this
approach. He made an impassioned plea
that IoT implementers should always go
for the most open hardware they can
nd to populate their estate of sensors,
cameras, connections and actuators.
Open wins over proprietary, he said a
strange viewpoint from a business whose
lifeblood is the proprietary nature of its
software product portfolio.
So I waited until the Q&A and gave
him a second go at this topic. As I
understand the current state of play in
IoT, the biggest successes are found in
the one-trick ponies: businesses that can
take advantage quickly, because their
grasp of their own equipment and what
that means for their IT is pretty much
underwritten by proprietary control of
the entire hardware and software stack.
Lexmark is a good example of this.
112 July 2017 www.pcandtechauthority.com.au
German chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese
prime minister Shinz Abe walk the floor
By owning all the printer rmware, it can
control exactly how it works as a plain
IoT equal-status internet member device,
even though all it does with that lofty
status is to ask for new toner cartridges.
Surely, I asked, there has to be some
proprietary-ness in the mix, to make such
deployments really work?
His response conrmed something
that Ive been quietly thinking for some
time. All the problems with IoT even the
Being able to miniaturise
a complete PC leaves far
too many holes open in
the whole system
daft ones that come up around gussied-
up consumer devices are failures in
transparency. You cant interrogate your
poorly coded, insecure IoT fridge over
your own network because it isnt an
open standard with a neat walkthrough
somewhere on the web.
Its pretty simple to be transparent in
software, with debuggers and compilers
and the like, but the R&D houses have
been concentrating so hard on getting
anything with an IoT badge on it out
of the door, theyve barely thought
Open hardware is the key to IoT success, according
to Software AGs CEO
about how to allow the purchasers and
operators of their kit to snoop around on
the inside of the tiny computer theyve
co-opted to some incredibly boring job.
Take a look at the NAS box market. I
think of NASes as the precursors of the
IoT: theyre computers and they started
out doing just one job handing out
les. It didnt take long for that list of
jobs to expand, and the software writers
wasted no time in making it easy for the
enthusiast or home user to get inside the
box and take a look around.
It neednt be all that easy SSH shells
and telnet access require jumping through
a small number of hoops before access
is allowed but thats okay too, as a way
of keeping out the idle and destructive
ddler. Once inside and working with a
command line, even a humble NAS can
be made to do all sorts of useful things,
such as adding on background le sync
services, or getting the machine to work
as a media le server as well as just a
plain old le server. (Okay, so maybe I was
being harsh, criticising IoT for only giving
decent CPUs boring jobs to do; described
this way, the life of a NAS box sounds
pretty boring too.)
The point here is the open-ness. As
Herr Streibich was insisting, you can
see the advantage to being able to
completely describe what that little lump
of chips and LEDs in the corner of the
room is up to, and the more proprietary it
gets, the less likely it is to be successful.
The next time youre considering an
apparently IoT CCTV system, or a ashily
not-quite-IoT home heating controller,
see what happens when you ask the
vendor if the system is based on any
recognised, open standards, and how
open it is to you taking a good look around
inside the tiny little OS and lesystem it
comes with. If youre told this isnt needed
or not normal, maybe make a different
purchase. Openness and transparency
are the only good defences we have.
 EPILOG

IF YOURE SURPRISED THE NSA CAN HACK

YOUR COMPUTER, SAYS JON HONEYBALL,
YOU NEED A REALITY CHECK
Colour me shocked. It appears have been mass deployments of Then we come to Microsofts
the NSA has been collecting a EmeraldThread or EternalRomance or interesting claim that these exploits
treasure trove of hacks for Windows, EclipsedWing or any of the other rather have been patched already, but only
both desktop and servers, covering all charming codenames. (Nasty1 and very recently. One wonders whether the
versions of the OS bar Windows 10. And Nasty2 and ReallyNasty3 just dont have NSA told Microsoft about the leak once
this toolbox of capabilities, which also the same ring to them.) it knew its toolkit was compromised and
included ways to get into banking and But then we come onto the real Microsoft went into top gear to get xes
other related systems, has leaked to the problems. The tools have now been out as soon as possible.
public.I suspect your jaw isnt gaping in released into the wild, and it doesnt It does mean, of course, that the old
surprise. Whats followed has been just take much effort to download them. mantra about running only the most
as predictable. This means there will be a ood of script current and fully patched versions of
First, theres shock that the NSA kiddies trying them out and targeting applications and operating systems is as
might have built such a collection of everyone from NASA to the takeaway true today as it has ever been. Microsoft
exploits. Sorry, what do you expect down the street. Thats a whole pile of rather coyly states that Of the three
the NSA to be doing? Creating toolkits grief no-one needed. remaining exploits, EnglishmanDentist,
that can be used against undesirables EsteemAudit, and ExplodingCan, none
is what it exists for. Injecting custom There will be a flood reproduces on supported platforms,
spyware onto the laptop of a terrorist which means that customers running
could bring up incredibly useful of script kiddies trying Windows 7 and recent versions of
intelligence information, after all.
Then theres the public horror that
them out and targeting Windows or Exchange 2010 and newer
versions of Exchange are not at risk. So if
the NSA didnt tell Microsoft about everyone from NASA youre on XP, youre on your own.
the exploits. Why is anyone surprised? Its also true that weve managed to
Sure, its good practice for security
to the takeaway down get ourselves into a situation where OSes
researchers to tell Microsoft (or Apple, the street are so complex that it is now effectively
Facebook, Google, whoever) that impossible to ensure they are secure.
theyve uncovered a security hole. It would be interesting to analyse The approach taken by Apples iOS,
There are processes in place by which which antivirus packages would protect forcing a walled garden approach on the
such reports are made, the vendor is you against these exploits. My hunch, developers and the execution of code,
given time to patch things and issue an backed by discussions with friends in the is arguably the most secure widespread
update, and then the exploit is made industry, is almost none. end user platform available. But that
public once the patch has been issued. Even so, now the toolkit has leaked, still doesnt mean that the core OS itself
Its all very gentlemanly, and some its of much less use to the NSA, and any is secure. Is open source the answer?
companies even offer nancial rewards. other organisations that might have had Maybe, but exploits are found there too.
Would I expect the NSA to tell access to it. That cant be a good thing. You may be thinking Ill use this nal
Microsoft about the exploits? Of course Dont confuse that statement with any paragraph to deliver the answer. Sadly,
not. Keeping such aws hidden from desire on my part to see government- there isnt one. If ASIO or the NSA want
Microsoft meant they were exploitable mandated encryption backdoors being to access my computers, they will either
for as long as possible. forced into end user applications. I see a hack their way in, use a backdoor that we
No-one is suggesting the NSA, or difference between what an organisation dont know about, or just turn up with a
any other equivalent organisation, such as the NSA or ASIO does and the warrant and remove every device tted
is using these tools against the far more widespread misuse of data- with a mains plug. And there is nothing I,
wider population. I dont think there snooping that we have seen. or you, can do.

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