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 EXPERT ADVICE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GREAT SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY!

WIN W MAC, ANDROID & i

ALPHA
A7R IV
OUR FAVOURITE
SNAPPER
THIS YEAR!
ISSUE 98 JANUARY 2020
APPLE NEWSSTAND & GOOGLE PLAY

SAMSUNG'S
GALAXY S10E
REVIEWED
A WORTHY BUDGET
ALTERNATIVE?

DISNEY+
TECHLIFER

Bowing down before the IS HERE

BUT IS THERE MORE
TECHLIFER

defining titles of the 2010s TO IT THAN STAR

WARS AND MARVEL?

PAGE 060

MICROSOFT'S
S CHIL
PAGE 094

LDPROOF
NEW SURFAC
CE WIN
NDOWS 10
LAPTOPS KEEEP LITTLE
FIND OUT WHICH IS FING
GERS AWAY
THE BEST ONE FRO
OM YOUR PC!
FOR YOU
 [ TECHLIFE #98 ]

EDITORIAL
UNFETTERED SPECULATION

[ YOUR LIFE ]

IS THAT A PICTURE’S WORTH?

I’M ONE OF those annoying types who constantly demands all

around them must stop so they can take “that perfect shot”.
Walking in the city at night? Gotta capture those wonderful neon
light installations in Chinatown. On the street? Wait, that graffiti is
too cool to ignore.
Even in my apartment; WAIT! That sunset is perfect, open the
window.
And with Summer now in full swing, you just know I’m going to
be taking the advice given in our Superguide this month – those
hazy afternoons (even if it is mostly bushfire haze, which is more
than a bit concerting really), well... too cool to ignore!
And with the holidays coming up, it’ll be great chance to catch
up with the decade’s best games. I’m embarrassed to say that more
than a few of them are on my pile of shame, but Summer is a
perfect time to round out my gaming resume. And upgrade my
PC... and maybe clean out my phone... And...
Anyway, have a great holiday, dear readers.
David Hollingworth, Editor

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 003 ]
 [ TECHLIFE #98 ]

WELCOME
IN THIS ISSUE

034

Bowing down before the

defining titles of the 2010s

068

The ultimate Summer

PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE
Mark Bauer explores ways to capture great images,
even as the days get brighter and longer...
[ 004 ]
 12
01

066

“IF 61MP ISN’T ENOUGH FOR YOU, SONY HAS

UPGRADED ITS PIXEL SHIFT MULTI
TECHNOLOGY, WHICH CAPTURES A SERIES
060 OF SHOTS THAT CAN BE LATER MERGED
INTO A SINGLE 240MP IMAGE”

[ THIS MONTH IN TECHLIFE ]

Intro Test Bench (cont)

[ 003 ] Editorial [ 065 ] Beats Powerbeats Pro
[ 066 ] GoPro Hero Max
Hotspot [ 067 ] Nokia 2720
[ 008 ] Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition [ 067 ] Jabra Elite 75t Wireless
[ 010 ] Essential tech news Earbuds
[ 012 ] Sony Alpha A7R IV
[ 014 ] Pop science Cover story
[ 016 ] Disney+ [ 034 ] Games of the decade
[ 018 ] Everybody’s talking ‘bout...
020 [ 019 ] News in Numbers Help Station
[ 020 ] Samsung Galaxy S10e [ 090 ] Your questions answered
[ 094 ] Child-proof Windows 10
Discover [ 098 ] Manage your workspace
[ 022 ] Digital Guru: Buying on Etsy [ 100 ] Use tech to aid mindfulness
[ 026 ] Emerging Tech [ 102 ] How to manage dual SIM
[ 028 ] New apps for every platform Androids
[ 030 ] Game news [ 104 ] Encrypt your thumb drive
[ 032 ] Mobile game reviews [ 106 ] Dialing home

Superguide Buyer’s Guide

[ 068 ] The ultimate Summer [ 109 ] The best tech products
photography guide
The back page
Test Bench [ 114 ] Ridiculous tech
[ 060 ] Microsoft Surface Laptop 3
065 [ 063 ] Asus Zenbook 14
[ 064 ] Acer ConceptD

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET
WWW TECHLIFE NET ] [ 005 ]
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[ 006 ]
NVIDIA GEFORCE® GTX1650 (MAX-Q) | WINDOWS 10 HOME | INTEL@ CORE I7-10710U

WINNER
ED’s CHOICE
AWARD
Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition
A SERIOUSLY POWERFUL PRO LAPTOP.
THE RAZER BLADE 15 Studio Edition is a
mobile workstation that’s packed with some
of the most powerful laptop components on
the market today, and is part of Nvidia’s RTX
Studio program, which brings its powerful
RTX Quadro professional GPUs to laptops.
While Razer is best known for creating
gaming laptops, the Razer Blade 15 Studio
Edition is aimed squarely at creative
professionals – especially those who need a
laptop or workstation that has some serious
graphical grunt to render high resolution
images, photos and videos.
In many ways, Razer’s move to catering to
creatives makes a lot of sense – after all, it’s
excellent gaming laptops already pack some
of the most powerful mobile components into
thin and portable bodies. By keeping largely
[ 008 ]
[ TECHLIFE #98 ]
HOTSPOT
YOUR GUIDE TO HOT NEW TECH
[ CUTTING EDGE ]
[ MATT HANSON ]
the same hardware (except for the
inclusion of a professional-grade GPU,
rather than one aimed at gamers) and
toning down some of its more outrageous
(and some could argue, garish) design
choices that are also aimed at appealing to
gamers – such as flashing LEDs.
The aim is to provide the power of one of
its gaming laptops in a design that won’t
embarrass you if you take it out in a
meeting or office.
Razer isn’t the only company that’s
pushing its gaming expertise to create
laptops aimed at creatives – such as Acer
and its ConceptD line. What does set it
apart, is that it is one of the few laptops
worthy of being included in Nvidia’s RTX
Studio lineup. But, can this undoubtedly
41/2
RAZER BLADE 15
STUDIO EDITION
US$3,999
www.razer.com
CRITICAL SPECS
2.6GHz Intel Core i7-9750H
(six-core, 12MB cache, up to
4.5GHz); Nvidia GeForce RTX
2080 Max-Q (8GB GDDR6
VRAM); 16GB DDR4
(2,667MHz); 15.6-inch, Ultra
HD (3,840 x 2,160) OLED
Touchscreen, DCI-P3; 512GB
PCIe SSD; Thunderbolt 3.
powerful laptop win over designers and
creatives away from the likes of the
MacBook Pro?
DESIGN
In many ways, the Razer Blade 15 Studio
Edition’s design is very similar to the Razer
Blade 15. In fact, it’s pretty much identical. So
you get that all-black unibody aluminum
case, along with those unmistakable green
USB ports and Razer logo on the lid which,
like the gaming version, glows green
when on.
If you’re worried about buying a
workstation that looks like a gaming laptop,
then you may be a bit put off by this, but at
least the design isn’t too over-bearing, and
the Razer logo isn’t too outlandish. So, you’d

The Blade’s screen easily beats
that of its MacBook rival.
The keyboard is the usual
RGB model, but you can
easily tone it down.
still get away with pulling it out during
a meeting.
In fact, in our review of this year’s Razer
Blade 15, we commented on how the design
appeared to be more conservative than
previous year’s models. So, while the Razer
Blade 15 Studio Edition looks pretty identical
to the gaming edition, that’s not such a bad
thing. Maybe, Razer tweaked the design of
the 2019 Razer Blade 15 in anticipation of the
Studio Edition.
While the MacBook Pro 15-inch makes do
with just four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports
and a 3.5mm headphone jack, the Razer
Blade 15 Studio Edition is far more generous.
On the left-hand side of the laptop there’s two
full-size USB 3.2 ports, along with a
headphone jack and proprietary power
connector, and on the right-hand side there’s
another USB 3.2 port, a Thunderbolt 3
(USB-C) port, HDMI port and Mini
DisplayPort.
SCREEN
When Razer says that the screen of the Razer
Blade 15 Studio Edition offers “Retina
shattering accuracy,” that’s not just
hyperbole, it’s also a dig at Apple and the
Retina displays of its MacBooks. That’s
because the Retina display of the 15-inch
MacBook Pro is 2,880 x 1,800, while the
Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition features a 4K
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
screen at 3,840 x 2,160.
Not only does the screen of the Razer Blade
15 Studio Edition beat the MacBook Pro’s in
terms of resolution, but it’s also OLED, which
offers stunning color vibrancy and contrast
ratios, and it’s a touchscreen to boot.
Put them side by side and there’s no
competition – the screen of the Razer Blade
15 Studio Edition absolutely blows away that
of the MacBook Pro.
The screen also has 100% DCI-P3 color
gamut, which is essential for any creative
professional (such as video editors) who
require accurate color reproduction on their
workstations. The display is also factory
calibrated, and it really is a highlight of the
Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition, and for many
people will make the high price worth it.
PERFORMANCE & BATTERY LIFE
While we didn’t test the highest-end model
with professional with the Nvidia Quadro
RTX 5000 GPU, the model we’re reviewing
features the RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics card.
This is still a mightily formidable graphics
card, and while it’s mainly aimed at gamers, it
still does an excellent job at running
professional applications as well, while the
Max-Q design of the GPU means Razer has
been able to fashion an impressively thin
laptop around this powerful graphics card.
Even though this is not a gaming laptop,
HOTSPOT
RAZER BLADE 15 STUDIO EDITION
The Studio Edition’s chassis
is more professional, but
still has some Razer flare.
despite its looks, we’re able to play some
games on it, and the Razer Blade 15 Studio
Edition does an excellent job, as you’d expect.
The RTX 2080 isn’t powerful enough to run
modern games with full graphical settings at
4K resolution – but you won’t find a mobile
GPU that can do that.
In our battery life benchmark test, which
runs a looped 1080p video at 50% brightness,
the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition lasted a
respectable five hours and 28 minutes. Now,
that’s not a huge time, but it’s better than
we expected.
However, it’s very likely that you’ll be using
the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition for much
more strenuous tasks than simply watching
1080p videos, and that’s when you’ll see the
battery very quickly drain away.
VERDICT
The Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition is a
brilliantly powerful workstation aimed at
digital creatives. Photographers, video editors
and games designers will appreciate the
powerful components inside, along with the
stunning 4K screen. However, it is very
expensive, and that might mean that anyone
who’s after a work laptop, but doesn’t quite
need that level of performance, will want to
look elsewhere. Australian availability is still
up in the air, but we’re very keen to see the
Studio Edition make its way downunder.
[ 009 ]
 HOTSPOT
NEED TO KNOW
APPLE’S NEW 16-INCH MACBOOK PRO
ALMOST CRACKS $10K
SPEND A LITTLE MORE THAN TEN BUCKS ON A
CASE, WE RECKON.
Apple recently announced that a new 16-inch
MacBook Pro would be taking the place of its
15-inch model, but with this new screen size
comes a new extreme price. If you want to fully
spec it out, you’ll be looking at $9,679 worth of
laptop. This nets you a ridiculous 8TB of SSD
storage and 64GB of RAM, amongst other things.
INTEL’S ATOM LIVES ON
THE CHEAPEST CHIP.
The first revamped Atom CPU is expected to be
seen in new low-powered devices soon – possibly
before the end of this year. The Lakefield CPU is
the first of the new family and is intended for
laptops. Built using a 10nm+ process, it uses a
new x86 core called Tremont, and is a quad-core
design with power consumption as low as 1.5W.
INTEL CASCADE LAKE CPUS HIT
BY SECURITY FLAW
DATA THEFT VIA ZOMBIELOAD 2.
ZombieLoad attacks were first detected in May
2019, when it was discovered they could use
malicious program to steal sensitive data from
memory locations that normally they could not
access. Now, a second generation, ZombieLoad 2,
has been found to be able to get around the
defences put in place after the initial attacks,
accessing data on 10th-gen Intel Core and 2nd-gen
Intel Xeon CPUs.
[ 010 ]
Tracker-blocking
browser Brave comes
out of beta
FIRST STABLE LAUNCH OF ‘PRIVACY RESPECTING’ BROWSER.
Brave is a web browser that promises to maintain the privacy of its users, protecting them from
a variety of third-party ads, autoplaying videos, and trackers. Since launching the beta in
January 2016, Brave was drawing in eight million monthly users before it officially let loose its
first stable release. A good majority of web ads include some form of tracker that ties your
identity to your browsing habits in order to better target you for advertising, and Brave
blocks these.
While users may rejoice at the idea of not being fed any intrusive advertising, ad-blocking
does negatively affect the websites that serve those ads. Brave is claiming to offer a solution to
this imbalance via a rewards program in which users can earn tokens by “viewing privacy-
respecting ads” and give them to the websites they visit most. The user is able to opt-out of
giving tokens to certain websites of their choosing and can also send them directly to their
favourite content creators – a YouTuber, for instance.
Google might be planning
a move into banking
SEARCH GIANT PLANS TO PARTNER WITH BANKS TO
OFFER CHECKING ACCOUNTS.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Google is currently working on a
project, code-named Cache, which will see it move beyond payments and into the banking
space. VP of product management at Google, Caesar Sengupta explained that the company
does not intend to sell customers’ data but instead it wants to help users handle more of
their finances online, saying: “If we can help more people do more stuff in a digital way
online, it’s good for the internet and good for us.” Google isn’t the only tech giant to look
into this move, with Apple recently launching its Apple Card through a partnership with
Goldman Sachs and Amazon reportedly in talks with JP Morgan Chase to create a
checking account for its customers.
While details surrounding Google’s move into banking are still scarce at the moment,
expect the company to say more as we get closer to the official reveal.

Creator of the web reveals plan to
save the internet from itself
COMPANIES AND GOVERNMENTS NEED TO DO BETTER WITH PRIVACY, AND
INDEED CENSORSHIP.
Tim Berners-Lee, regarded as the creator
of the worldwide web, talked last year
about a new plan for the internet,
designed to protect it from ‘sources of
dysfunction’. Now that contract – yes, it’s
that official – has been revealed.
The Contract for the Web sets out a
number of core guiding principles for
governments, companies, and users of
the web themselves, to try and make the
online landscape a better place on a
number of different fronts.
Tech giants will actually have to sign
up to support the contract – which
comprises of 76 clauses in total – and
actively abide by it (or at least that’s the
theory). Google, Facebook and Microsoft
are among the big tech giants to have
already signed up, among 150+ other
firms, although names notably missing at
this point include Amazon and Apple.
So what are the principles?
Governments are tasked with ensuring
that all citizens can connect to the
internet, and that all of the internet must
be available to them, all of the time. In
other words, every individual must be
able to get online, and there should be no
censorship.
Any interference in terms of what can
be accessed on the internet should “only
[be] done in ways consistent with human
rights law”, the contract notes.
HOTSPOT
NEED TO KNOW
Those are some big goals, of course, and data processing impact assessments that are
policies that clearly won’t go down well in made available to regulators which hold
some corners of the world. companies accountable for review and
In terms of making sure every citizen scrutiny, to understand how their products
across the globe has an internet and services could better support users’
connection, the contract lays out a privacy and data rights”.
guideline of access to broadband being Just as interesting is the section which
available to at least 90% of citizens by calls for “minimising data collection to
2030. Companies are also called on to what is adequate, relevant, and necessary in
make internet access more affordable, to relation to the specified, explicit and
that end. legitimate purposes for which the data is
processed”.
Privacy push It doesn’t stop there, though. A further
There’s another major push on the privacy point is to support independent research on
front, as you might expect, with the call how interface designs affect the process of
for both governments and companies to getting consent from users (as well as other
respect and protect considerations) and
the online privacy ANY INTERFERENCE IN how these could
rights of those who TERMS OF WHAT CAN BE “influence privacy
use the web. ACCESSED ON THE INTERNET outcomes”. In other
The call to SHOULD “ONLY [BE] DONE words, this sounds
companies, and IN WAYS CONSISTENT WITH like a call for no
doubtless the bit that HUMAN RIGHTS LAW”, THE more sneaky
the likes of Google, CONTRACT NOTES. wording or other
Facebook and potentially
Microsoft are scrutinising in particular, misleading UI tricks we’ve seen in the past
asserts what you’d expect in terms of clear (like clicking on a cross icon being taken as
explanations of any processes which affect consent for an OS upgrade).
user data and privacy, and the provision of The contract also says that there should
control panels to manage data and privacy be controls over how personal data is
options in an easily accessible manner. collected, and also used, which can easily
There’s also a stipulation that firms be viewed and adjusted by the user.
should carry out “regular and pro-active
[ 011 ]
 HOTSPOT
SONY ALPHA A7R IV

WINNER

ED’s CHOICE
AWARD

[ PICTURE PERFECT ]

Sony Alpha A7R IV

MORE THAN JUST A MEGAPIXEL MONSTER.
[ SHARMISHTA SARKAR ]

PRO PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE a demanding lot and likely going to be overkill for the average user as the file
41/2
Sony knows exactly how to please them. The Sony Alpha size of individual photos might be too large for many
A7R IV comes in with some impressive specs and computers to handle during post processing. Even if
features, including a bump in sensor resolution and the you plan on printing your photos, 50MP is way beyond SONY ALPHA A7R IV
$5,699
addition of near-perfect real-time tracking for eye sufficient. That said, the image quality from the A7R IV www.sony.com.au
autofocus (AF) when following both human and animal is impeccable – we just couldn’t find anything to
CRITICAL SPECS
subjects for stills and video. There are some significant complain about. 61MP full-frame BI
improvements to the camera’s weatherproofing as well However, if 61MP isn’t enough for you, Sony has Exmor CMOS sensor;
Sony FE lens mount;
and, to cater to the click-happy pros, there’s now dual upgraded its Pixel Shift Multi technology, which 3-inch 1,440K-dot tilting
UHS-II SD card slots. captures a series of shots that can be later merged into a touchscreen; 10fps
burst speed; 567
The 63MP sensor spits out 61MP photos with a single 240MP image (as compared to the 169MP ones phase-detect + 425
promise of up to 15EV (exposure value) stops of from the A7R III). While this is an amazing feature to contrast-detect AF
points; 4K/30p video;
dynamic range. That means your images will be have, you can’t do this in-camera. You will need to use up to 670 shots battery
bursting at the seams with details in both shadows and Sony’s Imaging Edge software (that comes bundled life; 578g.
highlights. While 61MP images sound impressive, it’s with the snapper) to overlay the individual images.

[ 012 ]
 HOTSPOT
SONY ALPHA A7R IV
THE NEED FOR SPEED pixel binning using the copped
d Super
e 35 Unless you’re used to Sony’s user interface,
The A7R IV’s 10fps burst speed is amazing mode before downscaling to 4K. digging into the dense menu system can be
in a camera with this kind of resolution, but frustrating, and if you’re expecting in-camera
it’s definitely not a sports specialist, with a WORTH THE UPGRADE? RAW processing – that has been available on
buffer depth of just 68 RAW or JPEGs. Once With in-body image many cameras for a
buffer limit is reached, the camera does take stabilisation (called while now – you’re
a while to clear the data being written to the SteadyShot) that offers going to be sorely
memory card. a top of 5.5
5 5 stops of disappointed
disappointed.
There is, however, an APS-C mode that, compensation, That said,
Sony promises, captures 28MP images, shooting handheld autofocus
tripling the buffer depth. In this mode, the (even for video) in performance is
567 phase-detection AF points cover the most low-light superb, while subtle
entire frame, but when using the entire conditions produces changes to the body
sensor width, the AF points spread out sharp results, makes the A7R IV a
across only 74% of the image area. Having particularly when lot more ergonomic
the APS-C mode also could potentially paired with an YOU’LL NEED TO ADJUST YOUR than before. To cut a
allow for the use of crop sensor lenses as excellent stabilised SHOOTING STYLE TO long story short, the
well, in case you have any lying around, lens, but you’d best not COMPENSATE FOR THE HIGH A7R IV looks
although we weren’t able to put this to get too reliant on LEVEL OF DETAILS THE 61MP stupendous on paper
the test. this feature. SENSOR CAN CAPTURE, BEING but the real-world
You’ll need to adjust CAREFUL WITH THE SHUTTER advantages of the
SURE SHOT your shooting style to SPEEDS AND FOCUSING. EVEN sensor over rivals like
To ensure you can clearly frame your shot, compensate for the SHUTTER SPEEDS OF 1/8TH OF the Nikon Z7 and the
Sony has upgraded the viewfinder. It’s now a high level of details the A SECOND CAN PRODUCE POOR Panasonic S1R is
0.5-inch OLED panel that refreshes at 61MP sensor can RESULTS WHEN SHOOTING very modest.
120fps, offers a magnification of 0.78x and capture, being careful HANDHELD WHICH, ON ANY To match the
boasts a better 5.78 million-dot resolution with the shutter speeds OTHER CAMERA WITH THE powerful specs, the
(up from 3.69 million). The rear LCD and focusing. Even SAME STABILISATION SYSTEM camera comes with a
display, though, is still the same 3-inch shutter speeds of 1/8th WOULD HAVE BEEN IN pretty high price tag
1,440K dot touchscreen. of a second can THE SAFE ZONE. which, for a camera
Other than the addition of real-time AF produce poor results of its calibre isn’t all
for video, there’s not much too much when shooting handheld which, on any that unreasonable. However, there’s a major
different here. You still can’t shoot 4K in other camera with the same stabilisation price difference between the 47MP A7R III
50/60p and neither is there 10-bit capture. system would have been in the safe zone. and its successor right now, so unless you
To get oversampled footage, the camera Video quality is great as well, although have a real need for those extra pixels, it
records 6K with full pixel readout and no rolling shutter effect is an issue. might be hard justifying the upgrade.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 013 ]
 HOT SPOT
POP SCIENCE
[ I FORKING LOVE SCIENCE! ]
Pop science
THE LATEST DISCOVERIES, INVENTIONS & SCIENCE NEWS
HELPING TO SHAPE THE WORLD OF TOMORROW.
Australian students in
bid to save finches
SAVING THE BIRD OF THE YEAR.
A PRIMARY SCHOOL in Australia is breeding
endangered finches – but although the
program is bringing awareness to the birds’
plight, it won’t save them, according to the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The southern subspecies of the black-
throated finch, called Poephila cincta cincta, is
native to northeast Australia. It is thought to
be extinct in New South Wales, and only an
estimated 1,000 are left in the wild in
Queensland, according to the ABC.
But inside the classroom, they’re thriving.
Brett Murphy, a science, technology, education
and maths (STEM) teacher at the Belgian
Gardens State School in Australia, created the
breeding program seven years ago, and with
the help of his students has been successfully
breeding the finches for the past six years. In
the breeding program, the team now cares for
120 finches, which includes the black-throated
finch (Poephila cincta) and other species, such
as the Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae).
Students take care of these birds daily, feeding
them and making observations of their health.
But while the breeding program is useful for
raising awareness and appreciation, it will not
save the finches out in the wild, Tony Grice, a
member of the Federal Black-Throated Finch
Recovery Team, told the ABC. The main
threat to the species is habitat loss, he said.
These finches thrive in open, grassy
woodlands with water nearby. “Some of that
loss is historical, and some, more recently, is
loss of the woodlands it prefers to live in and
degradation of those woodlands in various
ways,” Grice said. Breeding birds in captivity
won’t provide that habitat.
[ YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU ]
‘Chemical exposure’
linked to mysterious

HOT SPOT
POP SCIENCE
vaping disease
WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T VAPE.

THE NUMBER OF Americans struck with
mysterious, vaping-related lung illnesses is
rising. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) has announced that it is
aware of 450 possible cases of severe lung
illnesses linked to vaping that are under
investigation in 33 US states. Three deaths
have been confirmed in connection with these
illnesses. Many of the patients are teens or
young adults. All patients reported using
e-cigarettes, and many used the devices to
vape marijuana.
So far, the cause of the illnesses is unknown;
no single vaping device, product or substance
has been tied to all of the cases, said Dr Dana
Meaney-Delman, the manager of the CDC’s
investigation. Officials believe “chemical
exposure” is likely to be behind these illnesses,
but much more information is needed,
Meaney-Delman said.
The CDC announcement coincided with
the release of several new reports on vaping-
related illnesses. One, published in The New
England Journal Of Medicine, describes 53
patients from Wisconsin and Illinois who
developed respiratory symptoms after vaping.
Most of these patients were young, male and
healthy prior to their illness. Patients had
symptoms such as shortness of breath,
coughing and chest pain, nausea, vomiting,
fever and weight loss. All of the patients had
vaped within the prior three months, and 84
per cent reported vaping marijuana products.
The report seems to suggest that vaping-
related lung illnesses are a new phenomenon,
and not something that simply went
undetected in the past. The rate of monthly
emergency room visits for severe lung illness
in young adults was twice as high in June to
August 2019 as the same months in 2018, the
study found.
The CDC recommends that people consider
not using e-cigarettes while the investigation is
ongoing, and should not be used by children
or adolescents, young adults, pregnant women
or adults who currently don’t use tobacco
products. [ RACHAEL RETTNER ]

Tibetan mastiffs benefit from wolf genes

AWOO?

TIBETAN MASTIFFS ARE huge dogs that
survive high up in the mountains, and now we
know their ability to thrive in such harsh and
low-oxygen environs comes from an extra
shot of wolfishness in their genes. The bulky
dogs, which can weigh up to 70 kilograms, are
“renowned for [their] hypoxia tolerance,”
according to the authors of a new study into
these dogs’ genes. That means Tibetan mastiffs
can thrive at high altitudes, where the thin air
and low oxygen levels would kill other breeds.
According to the recent study, at some point
in the past the dogs interbred with wolves.
Their descendants inherited gene mutations
that code for two amino acids – small pieces of
a protein – that make Tibetan mastiffs’ blood
better at capturing and releasing oxygen. The
two tweaks alter the way the dogs and wolves
produce haemoglobin, the iron-containing
protein in blood that carries oxygen, the
researchers revealed.
They compared haemoglobin from Tibetan
mastiffs and Tibetan wolves with the
haemoglobin from other domestic dogs, and mutations came to dominate the species, and
discovered that Tibetan mastiffs and wolves they became the norm. Later on, the wolves
have a significant advantage over other breeds passed on the tweaked gene to Tibetan
in their ability to absorb and release oxygen in mastiffs, and those that inherited the
thin-air conditions. altered haemoglobin gene
From the genetic studies it came to dominate
appears that, in the distant past, the breed.
Tibetan wolves sometimes had [ RAFI LETZTER ]
these mutations in a stretch of
dormant DNA, which didn’t
code for a protein. At some
point, those mutations got
copied into an active gene,
thereby giving the wolves
altered haemoglobin.
Then, as the animals
moved into higher-
altitude environments,
the handful of wolves
that had
these

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 015 ]
 DISNEY+

WINNER

APPROVED Disney promised the whole

AWARD catalogue, and it has more
or less delivered.
[ MARVELOUS ]

Disney+
THE HOUSE OF MOUSE IS HERE TO TAKE ON NETFLIX, AMAZON AND STAN.
[ NICK PINO ]

FROM WHAT WE’VE seen of it so far, Disney Plus is a
force to be reckoned with. Out of the gate Disney’s
streaming service offers 4K HDR streaming with
dozens of shows and movies for a scant $8.99 with the
ability to setup multiple profiles and download shows
for offline viewing.
There isn’t as much content as we’d like on launch day
but what’s there is enough to fill a few weeks worth of
movie nights, especially if you’re a fan of Marvel movies
and Pixar films. It’s tough to say if Disney will be able to
release shows at a fast-enough pace for consumption
considering its current stance on syndicated content
(*cough* there isn’t any) but the groundwork of the
platform is rock-solid.
So what, exactly, can you expect in terms of
4
content? Well, right now there are several originals
including the hotly anticipated Star Wars spin-off,
The Mandalorian, plus The Lady and the Tramp DISNEY+
$8.99 per month or
live-action film and dozens of classics from The $89.99 per year
Disney Vault. There’s every Star Wars film in 4K www.disneyplus.com
HDR, a vast majority of the Marvel movies and most
every Pixar film you’d want to watch. But for every
Up, Monsters Inc and The Lion King there’s a Lion
King One and a Half, Davy Crockett and The River
Pirates and Twitches 2. When Disney said it was
going to put up its catalogue, it really committed to
putting up the catalogue, and that means there’s a lot
of filler.

Left: Yeah, we’ve signed up.

And yeah, it’s mostly for
Star Wars and the MCU.

[ 016 ]

What we like most is that, for a single
monthly fee, you can watch on four
simultaneous screens and save up to seven
profiles on the service, making it a great plan
for families looking to stretch their
entertainment budgets. Moreover, re-
watchable kids movies like Frozen and
Moana ensure that your little one always has
something to watch in a pinch, while shows
like The Mandalorian and The World
According to Jeff Goldblum give mom and dad
something to watch, too.
WHICH DEVICES SUPPORT IT?
Right from the start Disney Plus is available
on multiple devices and operating systems.
Chrome, Firefox and even Microsoft Edge
have no problem running the service, while
you can get the smartphone app from the
Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
Console folks aren’t missing out either, with
both the PS4 and Xbox One supporting the
app. However, it doesn’t look like the app will
be on Nintendo Switch at launch, despite
murmurs of support coming eventually.
And what about TVs? The webOS platform
for LG TVs has the Disney app already, while
Android TVs (Nvidia Shield TV, Sony TVs,
Hisense TVs) will be able to run Disney Plus
too. Google Chromecast, Roku streaming
devices, and Apple TV also support the app.
As we mentioned earlier, one subscription
gives you access to four simultaneous streams
with seven profiles on a maximum of ten
devices. During our tests we managed to use
one account on multiple platforms to watch a
different movie on each account at the same
time, which worked exactly as you’d expect.
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
DESIGN AND USER INTERFACE
If you’ve used Netflix or Amazon Prime
Video before, you’ll know what to expect
from Disney Plus in terms of design and user
interface. It’s basically row after row of
content, sorted by origin, streaming quality
and other miscellaneous categories.
The logos of Disney’s five big brands can be
found in a dynamic banner that directly link
to movies and shows from those brands,
while featured content – like The
Mandalorian, The Simpsons and Avatar - all
take up the top row.
Under the brand banners you’ll find the
Originals section that highlights content
exclusive to the service and, underneath that,
a familiar-looking recommended row that
you’ve probably seen on a streaming service
like Netflix.
As you scroll down the homepage you’ll
find more categories and groupings that
appear to have been editorially curated by
Disney – a nice touch compared to the largely
There’s more to Disney+ than just Star Wars... though that is a big part
of it.
programmatic catalog on Netflix. It’s here
HOTSPOT
DISNEY+
you’ll find shows and movies you wouldn’t
normally opt for and has been compared by
one of our editors to opening a present on
Christmas not knowing which surprise
you’re going to get.
CONTENT LIBRARY
So what do you get in terms of content? Well,
the big tent poles of the service are classic
Disney films, classic animated films,
throwback shows from the Disney Channel,
original content plus shows and movies from
Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and National
Geographic.
The most interesting bit, obviously, is the
original content as that’s part of Disney’s
strategy to eventually overtake Netflix. Right
now there isn’t too much of the way of
original content with the real standout title
being The Mandalorian that’s directed by
former Marvel pioneer, director Jon Favreau.
Other originals include the live action Lady
and the Tramp re-make, High School Musical
- The Musical - The Series, Encore, The World
According to Jeff Goldblum, Noelle and a
bunch of documentaries. There’s the Pixar
Spark Shorts, basically a collection of mini
movies that typically air before the latest
Pixar film, but only four of which weren’t
available elsewhere.
VERDICT
Calling Disney Plus an essential streaming
service feels a bit preemptive at this point as,
without a strategy to fill the well with new
content, the service is in real danger of
running dry in a few month’s time. That
said, what’s available here is a good opening
salvo against long-standing streaming titans
like Netflix and Amazon Prime, and the low
price tag makes it one of the most affordable
of all the services available.
[ 017 ]
 UNCHECKY
unchecky.com
We all love free software, but we don’t love
sneaky software – if you’ve ever clicked
DISCOVER
PASSWORD PROBLEMS

through an installer and not paid quite

enough attention while doing it, you’ll
know how painful dealing with the little
‘extras’ many packages tack on can be.
Unchecky makes that process so much
easier: it knows when you’re running a
software installation, it can sniff out those
devious checkboxes and, as its name
suggests, it can uncheck them on your
[ EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT ] behalf. No more unwanted software, no

Password problems
HAS ONE OF YOUR PASSWORDS BEEN COMPROMISED?
HERE’S HOW TO FIND OUT, AND HOW TO STOP THE DAMAGE.
PASSWORDS ARE A big issue for security.
They’re the keys to your accounts, yes, but
imagine that someone had swiped a copy of
your house key without you knowing: they’d be
able to get in whenever they liked until you
wised up and changed the locks. If one of the
services you use online has had some kind of
password breach – perhaps their own security
was not strong enough, or a hacker stumbled
upon a master key – the problem could be even
worse than that. Your credentials could be
floating around any number of illicit
communities, your house keys copied
and handed out to every ne’er do well in the
dark corners of the pub. But how would
you know?
First of all, you’ll need to keep a close eye on
your incoming emails. If any service you’ve
used has been struck by a data breach, they’ll
normally send a big apology and ask you to
reset your password, which you should
absolutely do. All being well, that affected
service will use this misstep as an opportunity
to sure up its defences, and your new password
more bundled adware. If an installer is
dodgy, if it’s going to install that software
anyway, but it’s likely Unchecky already
knows about it. Install something suspect
and it’ll flash up a big warning so you know
exactly what you’re getting in to. Unchecky
has a minimal performance impact and
updates itself, so it’s a fire and forget app.
will be better protected. You can also try
checking directly. The service Have I Been
Pwned (https://haveibeenpwned.com), run by
Microsoft regional director Troy Hunt, keeps its
nose to the ground on major data breaches, and
includes a way to search for the appearance of
your email address in any of them. Google has
recently started to offer a similar service in the
form of Password Checkup, which has been
integrated into the Google Passwords service at
passwords.google.com.
The last step is the most critical. Never reuse No unwanted software will get past
Unchecky’s watching eye.
a password on more than one service. Do this,
and a data breach on one would mean your
account credentials could potentially let
attackers into any of your other accounts.
Google Passwords can help you generate
Follow us on…
super-secure passwords and remember them on
your behalf, and there are stack of other services
out there (LastPass, Dashlane, et al) which can
do the same. If you’re offered the option of using www.twitter.com/techradar
two-step authentication for any service, use it
– that second layer of protection could also alert
you to a loose password.
www.facebook.com/TechRadar

THE 60-SECOND QUIZ

PENS AT THE READY, YOUR TIME STARTS NOW!
Which of these is According to Which?, Which company made
01 03 05
typically used by what would a litre of the first commercial
a laser printer?
A Toner
top brand printer ink cost?
A $232
laser printer?
A Xerox
Next issue on sa
B Ink B $3,573 B Hewlett Packard
C Paint C $18,756 C Canon

How many inkjet What temperature does Which of these is not a

02 04 06
cartridges are used a laser printer’s fuser printer technology?
worldwide per year? reach? A Dot matrix
A 11 million A 205ºC B Daisy wheel
B 101 million B 50ºC C Hammer action
C 1.1 billion C 425ºC

Answers 1A 2C 3B 4A 5B 6C
[ 018 ]
 The news in numbers
THE KEY FIGURES DRIVING THE LATEST ISSUES
AND TRENDS IN TECHNOLOGY.
[ ROB MEAD-GREEN ]

HOTSPOT
NEWS IN NUMBERS
10.12.19
IS WHEN THE NEXT BIG WINDOWS 10 UPDATE WILL BE AVAILABLE. KNOWN AS 19H2 AS IT
HAS PASSED THROUGH THE INSIDER TESTING RINGS, THE FINAL NAME IS THE WINDOWS 10
24%
OF AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES PLAN
NOVEMBER 2019 UPDATE. BRACE YOURSELVES.
TO ADOPT 5G WITHIN THREE YEARS.
WHILE 37 PERCENT ARE TAKING A
“CONSIDERED” OUTLOOK,
ACCORDING TO RESEARCH BY TECH

360%
RESEARCH ASIA.

7
IS THE SHOCKING RISE IN TAX-BASED PHONE SCAMS BEING REPORTED. THERE WERE
60,000 SUCH INCIDENTS IN THE SIX MONTHS TO JANUARY 2019, OVER THREE TIMES
HIGHER THAN THE PREVIOUS SIX MONTHS

OF THE HIGH–PROFILE PARTNERS IN

THE LIBRA ASSOCIATION – THE
TEAMS BUILDING FACEBOOK’S
PUTATIVE DIGITAL CURRENCY – HAVE
QUIT THE CONSORTIUM. THIS
INCLUDES BIG NAMES SUCH AS
PAYPAL, EBAY, VISA AND
MASTERCARD.

171,000
WAS THE PEAK NUMBER OF VIEWERS OF THE OFFICIAL FORTNITE TWITCH CHANNEL AS THE
POPULAR MULTIPLAYER GAME SAT THERE DOING NOTHING LAST MONTH. TO COVER
SERVER UPGRADES ASSOCIATED WITH THE END OF ITS FIRST ‘CHAPTER’, THE ENTIRE GAME
29%
OF THE GLOBAL SMARTPHONE
MARKET IS ENTIRELY CHINA,
WHERE OVER 100 MILLION
WORLD WAS SUCKED INTO A BLACK HOLE, WHICH STAYED FOR NEARLY TWO DAYS BEFORE HANDSETS WERE SOLD IN THE
REGURGITATING A NEW LEVEL. THIRD QUARTER OF 2018 ALONE.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 019 ]
 OTSPOT
OT
XY S10E GG
SAMSUNG

WINNER

ED’s CHOICE
AWARD

41/2

SAMSUNG
GAL Y S10E

msung.com
www.sam

L SPECS
Android 9; 5.8-inch,
display;
Octa-core ipset;
GB of ;
12 GB of storage;
3 mAh batttery;
16MP + 12MP rrear
camera, MP ffront
camera.

[ 020 ]
 [ SPENDTHRIFT-ISH ]

Samsung Galaxy S10e

HOTSPOT
SAMSUNG GALAXY S10E
FLAGSHIP SPECS AND SOLID CAMERAS AT A DISCOUNT.
[ DAVID LUMB, JOHN MCCANN ]

THE GALAXY S10E is Samsung’s flagship phone the smallest of the S10 line, the S10e is also the
footage and a 16MP f/2.2 ultrawide shooter. The
with 2019 specs and features at 2016 prices, lightest, coming in at 150g - which is another
S10 and S10 Plus have both of those as well as a 2x
giving consumers the opportunity to score all of feather in its cap when compared to the 208g optical zoom lens for a triple-lens array that’s
the cool new features in the Galaxy S10 at a iPhone XR. become standard on flagships like the Huawei
solid discount. While the S10e doesn’t have its pricier Mate 20 and LG V40 ThinQ. It’s possible that
In such a way, the S10e (‘e’ for ‘essential’) has siblings’ fancy in-screen fingerprint scanner,
users will miss the telephoto lens, but if the phone
plenty in common with the Apple iPhone 11, and Samsung didn’t leave a biometric fingerprint was going to ditch any of the three, we’re glad it
it’s easy to see it as the Samsung budget flagship pad on the back, opting instead to put a small
was one we wouldn’t use as often as the wide
for its line: both pack the standout perks of their capacitive sensor within an enlarged power and ultrawide.
generation in a handset that isn’t quite as svelte or button on the top-right side. It’s surprisinglyEven packing two cameras makes the S10e an
feature-rich as their costlier siblings. Now that responsive, though it works far better with upgrade over last year’s Samsung Galaxy S9, which
Apple’s budget flagship has an ultrawide camera thumbs. Why? Because you have to cover the had a single dual-aperture shooter. Taking wider
and improved software, the S10e’s list of novel whole sensor with your digit, and mashing your
shots is great for sheer functionality: the main
features is a bit shorter, though its smaller size is fingertip flat enough to envelop the button is
camera has a 77-degree field-of-view, but the
still appealing for some. tough from any angle. ultrawide has 123-degree
Naturally, there are compromises for the Just use a thumb. FOV, which captures a
phone’s lower cost. The S10e doesn’t get some of surprising amount of
some of the neat features packed in its pricier DISPLAY extra context on the sides
siblings, like an in-screen fingerprint sensor, The 5.8-inch of a shot. Best of all, while
curved screen sides or a telephoto lens. These AMOLED display lives dialing up or down zoom
perks have indeed appeared in more handsets up to the Galaxy S increments, switching
in 2019, like the Huawei P30 and OnePlus 7 Pro, name, with bright between wide and
so it’ll be curious to see if their exclusion gives colors and crisp detail. ultrawide lenses is
you flagship phone envy. If you don’t quite like virtually seamless – which
But we doubt you’ll be too jealous. The the color balance, you THE S10E COMES WITH is a departure from the
Galaxy S10e is a one-hand-friendly phone with can tinker with an easy TWO REAR-FACING MAIN clanky transition when
outstanding specs to match – a combo that will fix called Vivid Mode,
CAMERAS: A DUAL-APERTURE doing the same with the
F/1.5-2.4 12MP MAIN CAMERA
endear the handset to you. Its 5.8-inch which does what it says Huawei Mate 20 Pro.
WITH OIS FOR SMOOTHING
all-screen display is easy to hold and its chipset on the box and lets you OUT YOUR SHAKY FOOTAGE
is fast enough that it’ll compete with other further tweak it to be a AND A 16MP F/2.2 VERDICT
flagships for years to come, even if its warmer (more red) or ULTRAWIDE SHOOTER. It’s hard not to
compromises in display resolution and camera cooler (more blue) recommend the S10e to
fall short of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and picture. If even that anyone who prefers a
Galaxy S10 Plus. isn’t enough, you can tinker with the RGB levels smaller phone. Size queens, look elsewhere - this
individually. smartphone is for folks who want to text and
DESIGN Side-by-side with an iPhone XS Max, the browse apps one-handed.
As previously stated, one of the Galaxy S10e’s S10e’s screen kept up gamely, losing out only on Considering also the handful of top-shelf perks
more attractive features might, ironically, be its the darkest scenes in a media comparison (the cut to save costs, the S10e isn’t the trophy flagship
smaller size. As main flagships get ever-larger, a ‘Blackwater’ episode of Game of Thrones is good you flaunt to make the fellas jealous. Instead,
contingent of consumers have steadily gone for fodder for this. Just saying), where backgrounds think of it as the best flagship you could get from
smaller phones – just look at the popularity of of varying blacks average out into dark 2016 phone possibilities that still costs a 2016
the iPhone SE (RIP) – and the S10e is as gray smudges. flagship price.
manageable as top-tier phones get with a width This is somewhat expected, as the S10e has a That could leave the S10e open to competition
of 2.75 inches. (Curiously, the iPhone XS is the single 2280 x 1080 (438 ppi) resolution setting. from phones that trim features even closer to the
smallest of its generation, and the S10e is Samsung sets this as the default for its flagship bone to save costs, like OnePlus tends to do. We’ll
smaller than that phone by a hair.) phones, but both the S10 and S10 Plus max out have to see if the upcoming OnePlus 7 puts up a
The S10e otherwise looks like a shrunken at 3040 x 1440 for a higher ~550 ppi. strong fight – but even if it does, the S10e still
version of its pricier siblings, with a few might come out on top thanks to sheer
exceptions. Samsung didn’t include the Galaxy CAMERA availability. Nothing’s worse than knowing there’s
line’s Infinity Edge tapered display in this less The S10e comes with two rear-facing main a slightly better phone out there that you just
expensive model, so you’ll have to accept a flat cameras: a dual-aperture f/1.5-2.4 12MP main can’t buy.
front screen with more noticeable bezels. As it’s camera with OIS for smoothing out your shaky

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 021 ]
 [ TECHLIFE #98 ]

DISCOVER
ESSENTIAL APPS, TOOLS AND ENTERTAINMENT

[ GET CRAFTY ]

Buying on Etsy
A UNIQUE MARKETPLACE OF GOODS FOR ANY OCCASION.
[ TIM BOTHWELL ]

WITH THE HOLIDAY season now well and

truly upon us, it’s easy to become
overwhelmed by the sheer number of gifts
needed to be bought for your many friends and
family. Rather than volunteer as tribute in the
battle that is visiting your local shopping
centre, why not give Etsy a go. Over the last
two months we’ve looked at buying and selling
goods on the popular online shopping site
eBay, but now we’re shifting gears towards a
store of a different kind – one specialising in
unique, handmade and one-of-a-kind items
sold by people all over the world. Described as
a global marketplace of independent micro-
businesses, Etsy says its mission is to “keep The homepage is
commerce human”. On the site you’ll find personalised based on
your browsing activity.
hundreds of thousands of stores selling
anything from personalised jewellery,
hand-made art, custom wedding invitations,
even decorative cushions to make your couch
really pop! In this guide we’ll focus on getting
you up to scratch on the basics of browsing and
purchasing items before next month showing
you how to set up and sell goods from your
very own Etsy store.

THE BASICS
GETTING STARTED. If you’re new to Etsy, visit
www.etsy.com/ and click the sign in option in
the top-right corner of your browser. You’ll
then see an option to register for a new account
– just provide an email address, first name and
a password. Alternatively you can register
using either an existing Google or Facebook
account. The final step is to verify your email
address by opening up the link sent to
your inbox.
BROWSING. After setting up an account, it’s
time to make your way towards the Etsy
homepage. If you’ve already spent time
browsing the site, you’ll see that the homepage
has been personalised based on your activity.
Starting at the top, you’ll find a series of
suggested searches, plus any items that you’ve
recently viewed or favourited. Continue
scrolling to see just a few of the many
categories and items available for purchase. At
any time while browsing, click on an item to be
Be sure to read through
a store’s reviews before
making a purchase.
taken to a page consisting of photos, a detailed
description and reviews from (hopefully)
satisfied customers who’ve purchased that
product in the past. Also here you’ll find a link
to the seller’s store – all shops on Etsy have
their own page featuring every one of their
items up for sale, organised by category.
SEARCH. Sitting at the top of the homepage
(and every other page for the matter) you’ll
find a search bar – click it to see a dropdown
list of popular searches, or alternatively begin
typing your query. Given the large number of
items available on Etsy, it pays to be descriptive
with your search – for example, you can exclude
certain terms by placing a minus sign in front of
a word. After hitting enter you’ll be taken to a
page consisting of search results sorted by
relevance – you can also sort by recency, price
or reviews. If you know the name of an Etsy
store you can search for it here too.
SAFETY. Like all online shopping occasions,
common sense can go a long way in ensuring
you get what you pay for. Remember that many
of the sellers on Etsy are individuals or small
businesses, so you can’t always expect the same
level of service offered by larger retailers. Before

[ 022 ]
purchasing an item, be sure to read through

DISCOVER
BUYING ON ETSY
the description and reviews left by other
shoppers. On a store’s landing page you’ll also
see how many customers have purchased items Hover over a category to
from that seller in the past – a high number of reveal even more
sub-categories below.
sales combined with a majority of 5-star
reviews means things are unlikely to go awry.
It’s also a good idea to review a store’s policy so
you know where they stand on things like
returns. If you do experience any issues with
an order, you can ask Etsy for assistance
(which we’ll talk about later).

STEP IT UP A LEVEL On the messages screen

CATEGORIES. Have a rough idea of what you’re you’ll find conversations
both new and old.
looking for? Then direct your attention to the
row of categories displayed at the top of every
page. Whether it’s art, craft or wedding
supplies, every item on Etsy sits within one of
these categories – hover over one of them to
reveal an even larger collection of sub-
categories.

FILTERS. If you’re after something very specific,

you may want to try applying a filter to your
search. Displayed on the left-hand side of the
results screen, you’ll find options to limit
results to a particular category, colour, theme,
size, or price.

FAVOURITES. Keeping track of items you’re

interested in is easy thanks to the favourites
tool. To save an item, click the heart icon
displayed on or next to a product’s photo. You
can also do the same for entire stores by
clicking the icon shown on a shop’s homepage.
To see a list of your favourites, click the profile
icon displayed in the top-right corner of any
page and select View your profile from the
dropdown list.
PERSONALISATION. One of the biggest draw
cards of Etsy is the number of stores offering
personalisation. Many of the products
available for purchase can be customised in
some way, whether that’s through embroidery,
engraving, illustration or printing. For items
where this is available you’ll be asked to
provide a name or description of what
personalisation you’d like added.
CONVERSATIONS. Before parting ways with
your cash, feel free to contact the seller to ask
any questions about a listing. To do this, from
a product’s details page click Message Seller. A
list of your conversations can be accessed by
clicking your profile icon and selecting
Messages.
ETSY JOURNAL. In need of some craftspiration?
Pick from a series of
filters located on the
search results page.
At the bottom of the homepage you’ll find a
collection of blog posts covering different
topics and occasions while also calling out
some of the items available for purchase on the
site. Just a few of the articles in the Etsy Journal
include ‘A Jewelry Lover’s Guide to Citrine’,
‘Festive Entertaining Essentials’ and ‘How to
Shop for Statement Lighting’.
STEP IT UP A LEVEL
PAYMENT. Sellers can choose to accept a
number of payment methods for items sold via
their store. Popular options include credit or
debit card, PayPal, and Apple or Android Pay.
You can also save credit card information to
your account for future purchases.
Save items to a list of
favourites for easy
retrieval at a later date.
Many of the items available on Etsy can be made
one-of-a-kind through personalisation.
SHIPPING. As a global marketplace of
independent sellers, it’s important to take
shipping into account, especially for stores
located overseas. Sellers get to pick how their
items are shipped, with some offering a range of
both standard and express postage options.
When searching for items you can filter results
to include only those stores offering free
delivery.
ORDER TRACKING. Purchased your first item?
Congratulations! While Etsy will keep you up to
date on when you’re order is likely to arrive (also
shown on a product’s listing page prior to
purchase), from your profile you can also see the
status of your order plus a tracking number (if

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 023 ]
 DISCOVER
BUYING ON ETSY

An eBa
eBayy stor
storee subs
subscr
cr p i r
ide ts

The Etsy mobile app is great Local shows you nearby events and
for shopping on-the-go. markets that sellers are attending.

ADDITIONAL APPS
MOBILE APP.
https://www.etsy.com/mobile
Tap and swipe your way through the Etsy
marketplace on the go with the official mobile app.
Available for iPhone & Android devices, the app lets
you browse, order, pay and track purchases from
the comfort of your smartphone. Enabling push
notifications also means you’ll be notified
whenever your favourite items go on sale.
ETSY LOCAL.
Why limit your Etsy experience to the web when you
can visit stores in the real world. Etsy Local helps
you find nearby markets that Etsy sellers are
attending. Accessed here: www.etsy.com/au/
local/, simply pick a date and location to see
upcoming events and which stores are attending.
It’s a great way to see products up close in person if
you’re uneasy about purchasing over the web.
On a product’s listing page you’ll see an estimate for
how long an order will take to arrive.

available). Just click your profile icon and select

Purchases and reviews from the dropdown
list.

DISPUTES. While it’s unlikely that you’ll

experience issues with an order, sometimes
mistakes happen. Your first port of call will be
to contact the seller directly – they’ll have
three days to respond and resolve the issue. If If you’re experiencing issues with an order, the first Gift cards are a great option for those who are
step is to contact the seller. difficult to buy for.
the seller is unable to do this, you can then
lodge a case with Etsy to review. To create your
case, visit the Purchases and reviews section of
your profile and select the problem – either
that your order doesn’t match its description or
hasn’t arrived.

REVIEWS. Like eBay, Etsy sellers rely heavily on

good reviews to drive new customers through
their digital doors. With this in mind, it’s
common courtesy to provide feedback and a
star rating after receiving your order. To do
this, visit Purchases and reviews and select the
order you want to provide feedback on. You
can leave a review up to 100 days after
Many stores offer both standard and express
receiving an item. shipping options.

GIFT CARDS. Know someone who’s difficult to

buy for? An Etsy e-gift card may be the perfect
Sellers can choose to accept a Reviews are an
solution. Available at values of $25, $50, $100 number of payment methods. important part
and $250, simply visit www.etsy.com/au/ of the shopping
experience.
giftcards and pick from a range of designs
before adding a special message. Gift cards last
for four years and can be printed or emailed
directly to the recipient.

[ 024 ]
The home of technology

techradar.com
 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

[ YOUR TECH CRYSTAL BALL ]

Bleeding edge: the

DISCOVER
BLEEDING EDGE: THE BEST OF EMERGING TECH

best of emerging tech

TECHLIFE’S PRACTICAL MONTHLY ROUNDUP OF EMERGING
TECH EXPERIENCES, INCLUDING ALL THE LATEST VIRTUAL
AND AUGMENTED REALITY APPS, ALONGSIDE AI APPS AND
OTHER USEFUL TOOLS. Freddymeter
[ JOEL BURGESS ] FOR ANYONE WHO RECKONS THEY HAVE A BIG MOUTH.
$Free | freddiemeter.withyoutube.com/
THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF a new installment of the Half Life franchise
and a software update to the Oculus Quest that’ll make it capable of There are few greater joys than singing the
running PC VR via a tethered USB-C are pretty big wins for VR this lines to Bohemian Rhapsody as loud as you
month. Minecraft Earth is now out and if you are a fan of either can, but while it might be fun for you,
Pokemon Go or the original Minecraft, then this free to play smartphone generally the people around you don’t get
AR title is worth a go. Beyond this, AR is making some headway on quite the same satisfaction from your off-key
realistic lighting and quick scene capture that show the bright future of rendition. Fortunately, if you do happen to
the space. This month AI is analysing your skills at singing Queen blurt out “You couldn’t do better” to your
songs, using solar power to make cement, turning rubbish into recycling disapproving friends, you can now
and analysing the various writers’ contributions to Shakespear’s Henry scientifically test who is the better Queen
VIII, to name a few. impersonator thanks to an AI-driven singing
similarity test called Freddy. The free Google
AI and YouTube Music experiment lets you
see just how bad (or good) you are at singing
Queen’s four biggest hits.

Alphabet X labs make an

AI-powered, trash-sorting
Google Smart Compose robot Cerebras CS-1
GMAIL’S AI SENTENCE SUGGESTION COMES TO DOCS. AI IS HELPING PEOPLE BE LESS CRAP AT RECYCLING. SKYNET HAS A NEW NAME.
Free | services.google.com $NA | x.company/projects/everyday-robots $TBC |cerebras.net

Google is currently trialling its AI-powered
auto suggestions tool on the Docs G Suite app
for a select number of domain administrators.
This feature currently runs on Gmail and if you
don’t already know, prompts you with
contextually sensitive sentence suggestions
based on the way you tend to respond. This will
be a new and challenging arena for Smart
Compose since emails tend to be a little more
plain and formulaic.
Australia produces around 55 million tonnes of
waste a year and while 33 million tonnes of that
are recovered through recycling or energy
creation, over 21 million tonnes still gets sent to
landfill. Most of that is because it is too difficult
to sort, so Alphabet X’s new AI rubbish sorting
robot, the Everyday Robot, is a timely device.
The system uses image recognition to identify
waste products from a conveyor belt and sort
them into useful recycling categories. X
eventually wants its Everyday Robot to become
a live-in robot butler slave.
One of the biggest hurdles in AI is the number of
compute units you need, which means you
generally have to stack GPUs to quickly run deep
learning simulations, but the Cerebras CS-1
project has designed a system to run everything
you need for deep learning all on one giant chip.
As a result, this AI brain chip is 56 times the size
of the biggest GPU available. Its onboard 400,000
cores and 12 gigabit ethernet inputs generate
quite a bit of heat, so the water cooling system of
pumps and hoses is perhaps as impressive as the
processor itself, which is claimed to outperform
an AI rig with 1,000 top-shelf GPUs.

[ 026 ]
VIRTUAL REALITY
Half Life: Alyx
HALF THE LIFE, DOUBLE THE IMMERSION.
$84.95 | store.steampowered.com
After more than a decade of dormancy, Valve is
releasing a new Half Life title and it’s been built
specifically for VR. In addition to needing a
top-notch GPU and a pricy VR headset, the
demanding title apparently requires a
minimum of 12GB of RAM. If you have all of
these, or you plan to get a free copy of Half Life:
Alyx by buying one of Valve’s new Index VR
headsets then this truly first person shooter
looks like it has some immersive gameplay
features and a good dose of comic relief to keep
you interested.
AUGMENTED REALITY
Ubiquity6 Display.land
DIGITISE YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE FOR OTHERS TO SEE.
$Free | get.display.land
Imagine if you could point your smartphone at
a public space and then create a game level
design out of it... well using the Display.land app
from Ubiquity6 you now can. Using your
smartphone’s photogrammetry (merged depth
and image 3D rendering) some of the app’s
users have recreated everything from the
Colosseum in Rome to graffiti-festooned skate
parks in Barcelona. The smartphone app is
available for free on iOS and Android and after
just three months there is already enough
fascinating content in there to lose yourself in.
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
Oculus Link
THE MISSING LINK BETWEEN WIRED AND WIRELESS
VR IS HERE.
Free | oculus.com/quest/
If you’re one of the many who decided that
the Oculus Quest would be your headset of
choice then you’ll be pleased to know that
from November the already surprisingly
powerful Quest can now connect to a gaming
rig for more power-hungry VR experiences,
thanks to a software update called Oculus
Link. Working much like a traditional PC VR
headset, Oculus Link passes frames from a
PC graphics card to the Quest headset via a
USB Type-C cable.
The Relightables
GOOGLE TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD IN CUT AND PASTE
AR OBJECTS.
$NA | ai.google/research/pubs/pub48573/
Google Researchers have created a tool for
making far more versatile volumetric captures
by allowing them to change colour to fit the
lighting of the scene they’ll be rendered in. This
system is rather hardware-heavy, requiring a
giant spherical cage with hundreds of colour
adjustable LED lights. But by shining various
different colour patterns on a subject, the
camera array can detect the reflective properties
of an object in real time as it moves and glean
enough information to artificially relight a
digital model based on the context.
BILL GATES BUILDS SOLAR POWERED
CEMENT KILN
SHINING A LIGHT ON THE CARBON EMISSIONS
OF CEMENT.
Cement is made by charring lime at
thousands of degrees celsius until
DISCOVER
BLEEDING EDGE: THE BEST OF EMERGING TECH
it forms chemical compound that
bonds with its surroundings when
exposed to water, and while it is a bedrock of the
modern metropolis, the energy required to make it
means it is one of the leading sources of global
carbon emissions. In what could be one of his most
revolutionary inventions to date, Bill Gates has
helped design an AI system called Heliogen to
control an array of solar beamforming mirrors to
point at a cement kiln to eliminate the need for
fossil fuels to make cement.
NIANTIC LAUNCHES CATAN: WORLD
EXPLORERS SMARTPHONE AR GAME
LIFE-SIZED AR D GAMES.
Settlers of Catan, one of the most
popular boardgames ever made, is
being turned into an interactive
lifesize AR game that you can play
on your phone. Niantic has been trying lots of
things to find a successor to the wildly popular
Pokemon Go, and while its Harry Potter Wizards
Unite title undoubtedly has a bigger fanbase... it’s
unlikely to be as well suited to the AR format as this
long standing strategic board game.
AI USED TO DETERMINE OTHER WRITERS’
CONTRIBUTIONS TO SHAKSPEARE’S
PLAYS
NEURAL NETWORK DETERMINES WHO WROTE WHAT IN
HENRY VIII.
It is often theorised that some of
Shakespeare’s works were a
collaborative effort, but there is
limited evidence to suggest exactly
who was responsible for various sections… until
now. A Czech AI researcher has trained a neural net
on the works of John Fletcher and Shakespeare to
determine their writing styles and then allocate
responsibility for sections of Henry VIII. The AI
analysis determined that Fletcher wrote just under
half the play with a lot of the work interwoven
rather than segmented into distinct scenes.
STUDY FINDS WHITE COLLAR WORKERS
MOST VULNERABLE IN AI REVOLUTION
AI ACTUALLY HAS ITS SIGHTS ON HIGH-PAYING
ANALYTICAL JO
New research by the Brookings
Institution found that, contrary to
earlier evidence, highly-paid white
collar jobs were likely to be replaced
by AI software than positions that require menial
labour. The study compared word clusters of verbs
used in AI patents against the US’s Department of
Labor database of job descriptions in order to see
the types of jobs that most overlapped with AI tech
on the horizon. The results pinpointed market
research analysts, sales managers, programmers,
management analysts and engineers to be the
most at risk form AI innovation.
[ 027 ]
 [ TABLET & MOBILE]
Best new apps
JAMES O’CONNOR REVIEWS THE MOST INTERESTING NEW APPS FOR iOS AND ANDROID.
DISCOVER
BEST NEW APPS
WINNER
APPROVED
AWARD
Disney +
GO SEE A STAR WAR.
$8.99 a month | disneyplus.com
Now that Stan has lost all of Disney’s back
catalogue (but, sidenote, has maintained a
tremendous library that gives local Netflix
a serious run for its money), you’ll need to
migrate over to Disney + to watch Star
Wars and your favourite Marvel movies
without having to fish out the Blu-rays you
probably also own (thanks for calling me
out -Ed). Disney + will, more than likely,
have something you care about, whether it’s
a so-so new Star Wars TV series or every
episode of The Simpsons ever released, and
one account can be used across ten separate
devices, which is fantastic. Putting aside
whether or not Disney is openly damaging
the entertainment industry with its gross,
terrifying monopoly for a moment
(although, sidenote: yes it is), Disney+ is a
good service (that we review in full on p.16)
with a great app. The clean UI is very
readable, the search options are useful, and
while I wish you could search in landscape
instead of needing to switch how you hold
your phone whenever you exit content back
to the menu, that’s a minor quibble.
4 3
[ 028 ]
Daily Haloha
YOU SAY GOODBYE,
AND I’LL SAY HALOHA.
Free | www.dailyhaloha.com
Daily Haloha’s central philosophy is the idea
that we’re “all in this together”, and that the
simple act of sharing our cute answers to
equally cute questions will make us feel a bit
more connected. It’s very simple – every 12
hours you’re presented with a new fill-in-the-
blank, like “one of my personal superpowers
is ” or “an action I can take to make today
better is ”, which you answer. You swap
answers with another user, and pick from a
handful of reactions, which are then sent
back to them. You can also view a log of every
answer submitted. The app relies on the idea
that making a complete stranger potentially
smile once or twice a day is nice, and it
absolutely is – I was surprised by how good I
felt when I got a smile back for my asinine
response to a question. Still, Daily Haloha is
perhaps more harmless than actually helpful,
and so far it hasn’t revealed any grand truth
of human nature or made me feel legitimately
more connected to anyone. Regardless, it’s a
bit sweet.
Spkr
PODCAST PICK ‘N MIX.
Free | www.spkr.com/
Spkr is the kind of app that you’ll likely
come away from thinking “I suppose there
must be a market for this nonsense, right?”
It’s a podcast app that gives you themed
channels to jump between, and gives you a
bunch of little podcast samples from across
the genre. Jump into True Crime, for
instance, and you’ll be treated to some
short snippets of all the hot podcasts that
you’re probably already aware of. These
don’t seem to be sections that the
podcasters themselves have submitted,
mind; it’s common practice for podcasts to
make their own highlight clips or episodes
to entice new listeners, but the curated
feeds here mix together news reports with
out-of-context bits from long-form series
and a bizarre number of ads for the service
you’re already using. You can seek out and
listen to full episodes through the app too,
but the interface for doing so is a mess. It’s
true enough that podcast curation is less
than ideal across every major app, but this
is not the answer.
2
 WINNER
APPROVED
AWARD
MIA – Live NBA On
Demand
A SLAM DUNK.
$6.95 per month | missinginaction.com.au
MIA is basically what it sounds like – on
demand NBA at an affordable price. When
you sign up and log in, you have access to
the last ten NBA games played in the “On
Demand” portal, and there’s also a
continuous station that airs matches,
interviews, commentary, and other
basketball-related programming. You can
check the tables, watch shorter recap and
highlight clips, and watch games live as they
happen. Like Kayo before it, the start points
of broadcasts can be a bit off, and I found
that often the beginning of one game would
spoil the outcome of another. It’s also badly
lacking in playback options, with no skip
forward buttons or preview of the next clip
that’s about to play if you’re watching short
videos. But sports fans have long had to
either sign up to Foxtel or pay high fees for
season passes, and MIA represents a nice,
cheap system for casual fans to enjoy the
NBA. It’s a great entry point if you want to
start getting into the sport.
4 1
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
Spelfie
GIVE ME SOME SPACE.
Free | www.spelfie.com/
Spelfie’s on this list not because it’s particularly
worth reviewing, but because it strikes me as
an interesting object to talk about. The app is
functionally useless unless you happen to be
near the site of an upcoming event with Spelfie
functionality; so far there have been very few.
It allows you to take a selfie at one of these
sanctioned events, and then you’ll later receive
a photo taken from space by a satellite with a
powerful telescopic lens. It’s obviously going to
be used for marketing stunts, and while it’s a
logistically impressive concept you’re not
going to see anything as exciting as, say, a nice
photo taken out a plane window from
someone flying over Sydney. It’s an advertising
concept wrapped up in space fetishisation,
designed to let you help brands better sell their
products while consumers are made to feel
like you’re taking part in something bigger
because of the inherent symbolism of it all.
We’re not living in the sci-fi future we were
promised yet, but already space has been
corrupted by capitalism.
DISCOVER
BEST NEW APPS
Door Dash
CHEW ON THIS.
Free | www.doordash.com/
Food delivery service Door Dash is slowly
making its way into Australia, with restaurants
from Melbourne and Sydney now appearing
on the app. If we’re just talking about the app
itself, and the user experience, it’s honestly
hard to fault Door Dash. At launch delivery is
free on orders over $15, and all the information
you could want on each restaurant is laid out
clearly. There are helpful photos, the search
functionality is great, and the UI is inviting.
Plus, plenty of restaurants have already come
on board. So far so food, but it doesn’t take
much digging before you might start to
question whether this app, like Uber Eats and
Deliveroo before it, are businesses you feel
comfortable supporting. Door Dash is
notorious in the US for underpaying workers
and relying very heavily on tips; it’s unclear
what payments are like in Australia. There
have also been reports of restaurants being
signed up for the service against their will, not
realising that the pick-up orders they’re
receiving are for app users until the delivery
folks arrive. We might hold off until we hear
more about the worker’s experiences.
3
[ 029 ]
 DISCOVER
GAME NEWS
STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER
BREAKS SALES RECORDS
RESPAWN WANTS TO “KEEP TELLING” CAL’S
STORY IN STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER,
AND EA’S LATEST SALES FIGURES ALMOST
GUARANTEE A SEQUEL.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has become the
fastest-selling digital Star Wars game in its first
fortnight, and Electronic Arts’ best selling Star
Wars PC title at launch, the publisher announced,
beating both Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Star
Wars: The Old Republic against their original sales
figures in the same period.
RESIDENT EVIL 3 REMAKE IS
REPORTEDLY COMING NEXT YEAR
YOU GET REMAKE, AND YOU GET A
REMAKE, AND…
Resident Evil 3 is reportedly in active development
at Capcom and will be released sometime next
year, according to YouTuber Spawn Wave and
multiple sources that spoke with Video Games
Chronicle. Following the remarkable success of the
Resident Evil 2 remake that dropped this January, it
makes sense that Capcom would want to push out
another remake as soon as possible, and they
allegedly are.
[ 030 ]
The Stanley Parable:
Ultra Deluxe delay
announcement is the
funniest way to push back
a game
THE NEW EDITION WAS SUPPOSED TO COME OUT LATE 2019.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe edition is delayed, but you almost can’t be mad about it.
Developer Crows Crows Crows released a lengthy video featuring the game’s narrator allegedly
responding to letters and emails from the fans (they’re definitely fake, though).
The “letters” from “fans” serve as an ingenious way to comment on video game production
production and fan expectations, packaged neatly and tied with a sarcastic little bow. “To
characterise the game’s development as anything other than unhindered forward momentum,
would be grossly inaccurate,” the narrator insists. After a few letters state the impossibility of
completing the game before the end of the year, the narrator hits us with the ol’ reverse psychology,
and promises to give the fans what they asked for: a 2020 release date. Hilarious presentation and
accurate accents aside, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is definitely not coming out in 2019,
despite last year’s The Game Awards announcement.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe edition will be full of new content, with additional choices and
endings that will help us torment Stanley in new, creative ways.
Cyberpunk 2077 will be shorter but more
replayable than The Witcher 3
A Q&A WITH DEVS REVEALS WE’LL SPEND LESS TIME
IN NIGHT CITY THAN WE DID WITH GERALT.
Cyberpunk 2077’s main storyline and major side quests will be “a little shorter” than The Witcher 3,
according to a Reddit user’s account of a Q&A with the CD Projekt Red team. User u/shavod writes
that the developers believe the main story will be a little shorter than The Witcher 3, but the game
will have “much higher replayability” than the developer’s last blockbuster title.
Despite this, the devs claim to have only added up the main storyline and major side quests, not
“all the encounters and smaller quests”, which are currently unaccounted for. So, as far as
completionists go, the entire length of the game and how it compares to The Witcher 3 is still
unknown – it’s still entirely possible that a 100% run Cyberpunk 2077 ends up being longer than The
Witcher 3 (not including those two massive DLCs).

Apex Legends’ surprise launch
took inspiration from Beyoncé,
says Respawn
RESPAWN OPENED UP ABOUT THE GAME’S SURPRISING – AND SUCCESSFUL – LAUNCH.
Apex Legends shocked everyone when it
dropped in February, with great gameplay,
vibrant characters, and slick, new additions
to the battle royale genre. But creating an
entirely new game set in the Titanfall
universe gave the developers at Respawn
much to worry about, including how to sell it
to fans expecting a full campaign, Titans,
and incredibly agile pilots, and how to make
it clear that Apex Legends was not a Titanfall
sequel. After much deliberation, Respawn
decided to take a page out of Beyoncé’s book
and drop the game unannounced.
Respawn’s senior direct of brand
management Arturo Castro tells
GamesIndustry that the studio knew they
had to “rip the Band-Aid off” and not make
Apex Legends “a mode in a $60 game” but
“treat it as a new IP.” Doing all of this,
however, could potentially alienate Titanfall
fans entirely, especially across a typical
six-month marketing campaign period. Plus,
announcing Apex Legends to the world
would give other battle royales ample
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
opportunity to incorporate Respawn’s
gameplay innovations into their games – just
look at how quickly Fortnite and others added
a ping system after Apex Legends dropped.
The studio decided the best way to
introduce Apex Legends to the community
was the Beyoncé approach – as a surprise. “In
entertainment and other forms of these kinds
of products, the idea of long-form campaigns
was being challenged,” Castro says, “Beyoncé
famously drops her album, and day one it
becomes a massive hit.” Beyoncé’s last three
albums (Beyoncé, Lemonade, and her joint
album with Jay-Z, Everything is Love) were all
surprise drops that took over social media
and were gobbled up by fans. According to
Castro, Respawn asked, “Why couldn’t it
work for games?”
Ultimately, Apex Legends’ launch was a
mix of the Beyoncé Approach and influencer
courting, as the studio flew 100 top game
influencers to Los Angeles to see the game
and tease it on their social media channels
before its February 4 launch. Despite
DISCOVER
GAME NEWS
Respawn head Vince Zampella’s reservations
about this approach (according to Castro, he
called it “gross” and not unlike the Fyre
Festival hype train), the studio was confident
they had a gem on their hands. “Part of me
was like, ‘Yes, that is gross. Good call out,
Vince,’” Castro says. “But what I actually
thought was that’s why I knew it could work,
because we actually had the product to pay it
off. Fyre Festival had no product. We actually
had the product and the hype to build it up.”
Castro and the Respawn team wasn’t
wrong, Apex Legends has delivered on the
hype. It won the Golden Joystick for Best
Multiplayer, and is nominated in five
categories for this year’s The Game Awards:
Best Ongoing Game, Best Community
Support, Best Action Game, and Best
Multiplayer Game. Looks like the Beyoncé
Approach works.
[ 031 ]

DISCOVER
MOBILE GAMES
[ GAMING ON THE GO ]
Mobile games
TECHLIFE’S TEAM REVIEWS THE LATEST GAMES
FOR ANDROID & iOS SMARTPHONES & TABLETS.
[ JAMES PINNELL ]
Battle Breakers
SURPRISINGLY BLAND.
Free with IAP
EPIC GAMES, DEVELOPERS of the
insanely popular Fortnite, ha sfollowed up
itssuccess with Battle Breakers, a gacha/
strategy hybrid that is available across both
PC and mobile devices. Unfortunately for
fans, it’s a title that doesn’t have any of the
flair, creativity, humour or fun mechanics
of its cousin – instead, it’s a title chock-full
of very repetitive gameplay and a plethora
of various currencies.
Battle Breakers starts out with a unique
mechanic – you build a team of heroes and
tap your way through crystals, which may
either spawn enemies, items, coins and so
forth. You fight through enemies and bosses
by matching colours/elements against your
opponents’ weaknesses. For the first few
playthroughs it’s fun, and there are a few
variations to how strategies can work against
different sorts of scenarios.
But very quickly, you realise that the
game’s basic loop isn’t varied or fun enough
to make you want to play long term. In fact,
you can essentially let the game play itself
[ 032 ]
through any mission or event, which heavily
dilutes any challenge, and there aren’t any
variations to the base. There are plenty of
ways to farm the various currencies however
– I counted about six – and plenty of in-app
purchase packs to get heroes and so forth.
It’s disappointing that Epic Games has
developed something so banal and repetitive,
after generally being known for trying new
and potentially risky games. Their earlier
mobile games, the Infinity Blade series, were
stellar examples of pushing the platform
forward and were critically acclaimed for
their gameplay and graphical prowess. In
many cases, Battle Breakers is easily their
worst title, and puts them almost on par with
Nintendo as treating mobile simply as a
revenue stream.
2 4
WINNER
APPROVED
AWARD
Bullet League
2D BATTLE ROYALE.
Free with IAP
BATTLE ROYALE TITLES are the new hotness
when it comes to mobile developers – their
popularity combined with simple development
timelines (in many cases there is only one map,
and much of the level design involves
randomised item and location placement) so
variations on the theme are starting to appear.
Bullet League is easily one of the best I’ve
found so far, with much of that success owed
to its simplicity.
Players are dropped into a 2D platform-esque
map, with no weapons or items. The map
shrinks in a similar manner as it does in the 3D
versions of the genre, there is a circle around the
edges of the map which restricts to the center,
knocking out players who find themselves out
of it, and continues closing until only one
player is left.
After each map you are granted experience
and upgrades for weapon and item types, as
well as unlocks for different characters. The
upgrades system scales with your level, so you
aren’t likely to be dropped in a match with
overpowered and experienced players. I was
able to win quite a few games during my
playthrough, so it seems to have a high enough
player base to split across the various
skill bands.
 WINNER
APPROVED
AWARD
Golf King: World Tour
SIMULATOR FOCUSED 1V1.
Free with IAP
MOST OF THE more popular sports titles on
mobile have learned that in many cases,
players may only have 5-10 minutes to play
almost any game. 30-40-minute-long FIFA
matches are unlikely, as are 18 holes of golf.
Golf King relies on short, 3-5 par single holes of
golf with a single real-time opponent, with a
focus on realism, including considerations for
wind, elevation and surfaces.
Each match is concise and easy to control –
the game largely sets up each shot, although you
can tinker with it a bit – and chooses the correct
club. Most of the skill comes in finessing the
power and direction of how you hit the ball and
attempting to balance distance over obstacles
such as water and sand. You take turns with
your rival and can watch as they setup and take
their shots. The winner, effectively, sinks their
ball before their opponent.
Players can upgrade their gear – including
individual clubs, balls, and clothing – which is
provided via “card packs” that can be bought or
earned via play. Thankfully there isn’t a lot of
pushing towards in-app purchases, although
they are available, and ads are few and far
between. The golf itself is very addictive,
smooth and fun to play, with a decent variety of
holes and courses and a strong player base.
4 31/2
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
Archery Club
ARCHERY DUEL, YOU SAY?
Free with IAP
ARCHERY IS ONE of those sports that I’ve
always been fascinated with, but cost was
always a prohibitive factor in taking it up.
Thankfully, I have a mobile phone and Archery
Club, right? Well, it’s not the same as pulling
back a carefully strung bow with your fingers,
but at the very least you can compete with a
stranger without spending about $600.
Archery Club takes a very similar strain to
Golf King in its operation, except that the
differences in difficulty are much smaller,
relying on different target sizes and distances
rather than varied courses and holes. Coupled
with this is a very tight 20 second timer for each
shot, meaning many matches take less than two
minutes to complete.
The controls aren’t as tight however, with
movement feeling overly floaty, and as a result,
the outcome of most shots seem to be random.
Adding to this are a wide range of pay-to-win
adjustments in premium gear, which essentially
make almost every shot dead-on, meaning that
if you come up against someone who’s paid for a
few epic packs, you’re probably going to lose.
That said, the speed and relative enjoyment of
a tense and fast competition with a stranger is
very addictive, especially when archery is a
relatively unknown property in gaming. It’s a
shame it just isn’t very refined.
DISCOVER
MOBILE GAMES
WINNER
APPROVED
AWARD
Once Upon A Tower
RAPUNZEL, RAPUNZEL...
Free with IAP
ONCE UPON A Tower is a roguelike, which
effectively means that every time you play it’s a
randomised experience, and when you die you
start all the way at the beginning. On the surface
this sounds relatively aggravating, but in practise
it works for mobile games thanks to their short
and random replayability.
In this title you play as a princess, trapped in a
room above a treacherous tower full of traps,
enemies and… roosters? You make your way
down, carefully dodging, defeating and disarming
said obstacles on the way, attempting not to die
and collecting currency for upgrades and
equipment. The lower you get, the harder the
enemies and traps become, making effective use
of your funds and equipment essential for victory.
OUaT is a perfect example of effective short
experiences – it’s fun, controls are basic and
responsive, and the game’s difficulty branches on
a curve that’s accessible to most players. There are
no mandatory ads and any purchases just make
life a little easier for you if that’s what you are
looking for. Otherwise, it’s brutally difficult as you
reach the lower levels and strategy is almost
certainly required to finish.
4
[ 033 ]
 Bowing down before the defining titles of the 2010s.

[ 034 ]
 FEATURE
EH DECADE
D
FE U
GAMES
G OF TEH
We’re not going to lie – compiling this list almost saw our team come
to blows more than once. We have many decades of gaming between us,
and many decades of strong opinions to match...
Happily, over the years we’ve also come to appreciate the role that a
firm set of guidelines can have in ensuring participants don’t start
duking it out next to the office water-cooler. Only one game per series
was allowed, and only one per developer or publisher; these rules helped
stave off the Dark Souls vs Bloodborne argument, and averted a battle for
supremacy between Breath Of The Wild and Skyward Sword.
The key is always the adjective: we decided that, rather than seek to
name the best games of the 2010s – something every outlet under the
sun will be doing over the next month or two – we would instead choose
to celebrate the titles that defined the decade. The games that tell a story
about the trajectory the medium we love has taken over the past ten
years. That’s a long old time in the fastest-moving form of entertainment
on the planet, after all.
Many of the games featured in the following pages will not surprise
you with their inclusion. But we hope a few of them will. Combined, we
hope they help you put in context what we have come to think might
have been gaming’s greatest decade to date.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 035 ]
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Developer/publisher Frictional Games
Format PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Release 2010
Felix Kjellberg is out of Tinder. He is visibly nervous,
combing the bookshelves of Brennenburg Castle for
something, anything, with which to strike a light. The
screen has started to pulse and the sound of grinding
teeth can be heard as protagonist Daniel begins to lose his
mind. Kjellberg, broadcasting under the alias PewDiePie,
finds what he’s looking for, sighs with relief – and turns
around to see a gaping horror stumbling towards him.
The resultant stream of Swedish profanity will become
legendary, part of a reaction compilation viewed millions
of times on YouTube. It is 2010, and Amnesia: The Dark
Descent has just scared the Let’s Play into existence.
WELL, NOTORIETY, PERHAPS
It turned out that watching people in their bedrooms
freak out over horror games scratched multiple itches for
YouTube’s nascent userbase: it attracted game fans
curious to see someone else’s playthrough, sure, but also a
mainstream audience who were enjoying the ‘prank’ and
‘fail’ videos popular on the Internet at the time (later, it’d
spawn yet another genre, the ‘react’ video). Quite simply,
it was fun to watch a generally quiet Swedish boy lose his
shit. And he’d chosen the perfect enema in Frictional
Games’ virtual psychological torture device.
The Dark Descent was not a typical horror game for its
time: it didn’t really do the kind of bloody-face-and-
scream jump-scares that defined the early days of viral
media online. What it did do was build an atmosphere of
dread so thick you could cut it with a knife, or indeed a
piercing Scandinavian shriek. And this was in spite of it
being technically rather basic: its monsters patrol set
routes that are (theoretically) easily sussed, and aren’t
[ 036 ]
particularly shocking close up. But The Dark Descent’s
‘sanity’ system was Frictional’s newest, nastiest twist.
Staying too long in the dark drains Daniel’s sanity, and so
you must find tinder to light candles and oil
to keep your lantern burning. However, huddling near a
light source to dispel the hallucinatory effects of his
decreasing sanity puts him in danger of being spotted by
an enemy – and hiding is your only weapon in the fight
against your foes.
The result is a feedback loop of tension, created
partially by the game and partially by the player’s own
mind. The paranoia becomes such that you’re convinced
there’s a monster around every corner – the enemy count
is actually fairly low – as you fumble with objects, puzzle
pieces and door handles, pitting trembling hands versus
Frictional’s physics engine. Later, it toys with you by
confirming your fears: in the flooded cellar, you’re
pursued by an invisible assailant, rapidly approaching
splashes the only sign of your impending doom.
The “water monster”, as it came to be known on
YouTube in countless viral playthroughs, is emblematic of
The Dark Descent as a whole. Not only did it conjure up
the ubiquitous horror of the 100-decibel Let’s Play, it was
part of a shift towards a more inventive kind of horror
game, spinning frights seemingly from thin air by using
efficient design to engage the ultimate instrument of fear
– our own brains.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

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 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Broken Age
Developer/publisher Double Fine Productions
Format Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, Vita, Xbox One
Release 2014
Judged purely on its merits as a game, Broken Age seems
the unlikeliest of trailblazers. It is, and was – eventually
– a fairly modest contemporary point-and-click
adventure. Witty, likeable and well-acted, sure, but hardly
wheel-reinventing stuff. Then again, that was always the
plan. The game formerly known as Double Fine
Adventure – a name that seems to have stuck longer than
its actual title – became the catalyst for the crowdfunding
boom, precisely because it was more of the same. If
Kickstarter was established with a more general aim of
“bringing creative projects to life”, it was tailor-made for
creators with pre-existing fanbases, who could put the
kind of games that would no longer get publisher funding
in front of those fans and ask them to dip into their
pockets to get it made.
Tim Schafer was, in other words, the perfect test
subject. Here was a beloved game-maker looking to revisit
the genre in which he’d made his name. And the promise
of a new Schafer-scripted point-and-click adventure was
enough to lift Double Fine Adventure well over its
original US$400,000 goal. Seven times over, in fact; US$3
million worth of pledges later, and things seemed to be
well on track. But its estimated delivery date of just seven
months after the end of the campaign proved wildly
optimistic; Broken Age ended up releasing in two parts,
with the first half sold on Steam to raise extra funds for
the second – which didn’t arrive until more than a year
later. By then, it was April 2015. Needless to say, not
everyone was happy. Indeed, if Broken Age’s success
attracted plenty of smaller developers to the platform (its
record tally was beaten by Pillars Of Eternity,
coincidentally around the time of its original due date) it
[ 038 ]
also encouraged some to dream a little too big. Long
delays to Kickstarter launches became the norm rather
than the exception. Stretch goals became ever more
troublesome as studios, fuelled by fan expectations, bit off
more than they could chew. Still, it wasn’t Broken Age
alone that led to increasing skepticism surrounding the
platform, and crowdfunding in general – the disastrous
fallout from the Mighty No 9 campaign (not to mention
the mediocre end result) was surely far more damaging.
And it hasn’t stopped investors and fans from chucking
US$250 million and counting at Chris Roberts’ still-in-
development Star Citizen.
ITS INFLUENCE, THEN...
...has undoubtedly been a net positive. Before it
encountered any problems, Broken Age sparked a
crowdfunding gold rush – without it proving a viable
alternative for niche games and small studios, we might
well have missed out on the likes of Shovel Knight, Broken
Sword 5, Torment: Tides Of Numenera and Hyper Light
Drifter. And if that seems a slight stretch, consider this:
we’ve spoken to dozens of developers who’ve used
Kickstarter in the seven years since Double Fine
Adventure, and it’s quicker to name the ones who haven’t
mentioned Tim Schafer as their inspiration to give it a
shot. Even if some of them have struggled to recall the
game’s name, few have forgotten its game-changing
impact.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 039 ]
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Dark Souls
Developer/publisher Namco Bandai Games
Format 360, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Release 2011
You never forget your first time. Those endless runs
around the bonfire in the Undead Burg, one of gaming’s
great unadvertised training grounds: some
foes with swords, others with shields, spears or crossbows,
a place to learn the fundamentals of combat while also
earning souls with which to power yourself up. A little
later on (geographically, anyway; it took us a good few
evenings) Taurus Demon, the first boss, finally falling
dead. You pushed on. Solaire at his lookout posting. The
dragon that burned you to a crisp. The rats, the bull, the
Gargoyles, then, down below, the butcher that charged
after you, the slime that dropped on your head, and the
goat-headed bastard who sicced his dogs on you in an
arena the size of a postage stamp. We could go on, but let’s
fast forward a few weeks (or months or years, since
mileage in Dark Souls can vary) to when, to the backing of
a beautiful piano soundtrack, you put Gwyn, Lord Of
Cinder to the sword, and closed the book on your new
favourite game of all time.
It didn’t stay shut for long, of course. Perhaps you went
straight into the first of seven progressively harder New
Game+ modes; maybe you started a new character and
put to the test the build you’d been absent-mindedly
theory-crafting from the loot you picked up on your first
run. One thing was for sure: once Dark Souls clicked, it
was an obsession.
Few other games in this esteemed list sum up so finely
the arc of the decade in videogames. Elements that felt so
new in 2011 – whether you’d played 2009’s Demon’s Souls
or not – have now spread far and wide, the Souls DNA
detectable in everything from pixel-art platformers to
some of the biggest-budget games around. Its creator,
[ 040 ]
Hidetaka Miyazaki, began the decade as a relative
unknown, having joined FromSoftware in 2004 to work
on Armored Core. He ends it as the company’s president,
and one of the industry’s legends.
DARK SOULS GAVE...
...us a new genre, the Soulsborne or Soulslike, a byword
for an exactingly balanced and mechanically flexible
breed of game that punishes mistakes severely and
rewards victories in kind. It pioneered a new kind of
open-world design with a map that didn’t unfurl so much
as corkscrew, with Eureka-moment shortcuts and levels
that connected to areas you thought you’d left behind a
dozen hours before. And it was a masterclass in
restrained, player-led storytelling, cosying its lore away in
item descriptions and hidden questlines. It has been
copied far and wide. It has never been matched.
Yet its greatest contribution to the medium was its
timely reminder that the player should be respected, not
patronised. It emerged in an era where the player’s hand
was held tight; when developers terrified of your trade-in
pile lit the way forward in bright flashing lights, and
ensured the road was as smooth as possible. Miyazaki
designed Dark Souls from the foundational belief that the
player could surmount the greatest of challenges through
persistence and hard work. How right he was, and how
grateful we are for his trust.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 041 ]
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Destiny
Developer/publisher Activision
Format 360, PC, PS3, PS4
Release 2014
How telling – and for the purposes of this feature, how
appropriate – that only now, with the decade winding
down, is Bungie happy to call Destiny an MMO. When it
was announced in 2013, Bungie described it as a “living
social universe”; by the time Destiny 2 arrived in 2017, it
preferred the term “firstperson action game”. The only
descriptor that ever really stuck was “shared-world
shooter”, but Bungie was always dancing around what
Destiny truly was. That 2019 has finally seen the studio
describe its game as an “action MMO” shows us just how
different the industry is today to how it was back then –
and Destiny itself is at the heart of that change.
MMO was a dirty term then, particularly on console:
primarily because it suggested a monthly subscription,
but also because it evoked a certain type of gameplay.
Long-winded, repetitive grinds for randomised rewards;
forced multiplayer; a playerbase that looked down on new
players – these concepts were anathema on console at the
time, and Bungie and Activision knew it.
FIVE YEARS LATER...
...all that has changed. Destiny laid the foundations for the
era of GaaS, or ‘game as a service’. Bungie proved that you
could generate MMO-like levels of player engagement
without levying a monthly subscription, and without
needing to break the traditional console business model
of one big annual release and chunks of DLC in between.
To an industry that was obsessed with keeping the disc in
the tray to stave off the secondhand market, this was
manna from heaven. Hence the volume of games today
that seek to crib from the formula. RPG elements,
replayable missions, skills on cooldowns, randomised
[ 042 ]
loot, shared-world co-op: all of them widespread, and
almost all of it thanks – insert your own sarcastic
airquotes if you must – to Destiny.
Detractors portray the game, and its ilk, as little more
than Skinner Boxes, complex assemblages of cynically
manipulative game systems reeling in suckers who
happily pay up $100 to play the role of lab rat. And given
the lack of sleep we’ve had these last five years, all those
late nights chasing god-roll weapons with minuscule drop
rates, there’s an element of truth to that. But neither we
nor the many millions of other regular Destiny players
would submit ourselves to that were this not one of the
most sumptuous shooters we’ve ever played.
The crack of a sniper headshot; the AOE explosion from
a Firefly hand cannon; the superhero thrill of a Super
perfectly flung from on high – the gameplay side of
Destiny has been tested and fine-tuned far more than any
player-retention mechanic. Its structure lets you tailor a
session according to your mood, from meditative solo
farming for materials to the tightly wound co-op
puzzle-solving of one of its peerless raids, and everywhere
in between. It is a social game in a positive sense, a game
where friendships are formed and memories born in the
fires of combat – what game director Luke Smith
winningly described as “a bar I can go to in my pyjamas”.
Yes, it gave the industry the concept of the game as a
service. It has given us, and millions of others, so much
more besides.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

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 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Dota 2
Developer/publisher Valve Corporation
Format PC
Release 2013
With the emergence of the Wii and touchscreen
smartphones in the mid-’00s came the wide belief that
complexity is a barrier to popularity. Games should be
straightforward to pick up, since incomprehensibility will
lose you players. So Valve’s Dota 2, along with all its
sibling MOBAs, shouldn’t have become anything like as
popular as it is. Impossible to sum up in a sentence, the
MOBA is an idiosyncratic set of features that have been
inherited and borrowed from its history as a mod of
WarCraft III. It’s a hot soup of team sport, RTS and
RPG, and it exists because of, rather than in spite of,
its complexity.
Dota 2 is one of the two big pureblood MOBAs.
Pureblood in the sense that it is still under the
stewardship of IceFrog, who was instrumental in the
growth of the mod’s most dominant form, DotA Allstars.
The other pureblood, of course, is League Of Legends,
which was designed by DotA Allstars originator Steve
Feak. But while League is a vast corporate machine which
fills stadia and releases pop hits by character-fronted
bands, Dota 2 takes a different role for its developer. It’s
been a place where Valve has honed its understanding of
how to work with its players; it originally tapped IceFrog
to make a commercial version of Allstars in 2009, partly
because he managed the game so well. Back in 2013,
project lead Erik Johnson said, “It was like, this person’s
better than us. Communicating with and building a
community over time… this one person by themselves is
doing a better job than we do.”
Dota 2 is also a proving-ground for Valve’s continuing
experiments into harnessing player commitment. The
prize pool for The International, the game’s official annual
[ 044 ]
tournament, is crowdfunded through The Compendium.
This Byzantine battle pass system awards its purchaser
seasonal cosmetic items, quests and achievements when
they accumulate various levels of battle points through
play. It’s proved remarkably successful: July 2019’s The
International had a prize pool of US$34.3 million. Then
again, to play the game itself, with any hero and in any
mode, you don’t need to spend anything. It’s little wonder
that the same model has been adopted by other live
games, such as Fortnite.
AND, OF COURSE...
...Dota 2 is an extremely good videogame. Whether it’s
better than League or not is moot. The important thing is
that it takes the cerebral and most demanding approach.
In a decade in which the biggest games in the world have
been trailblazed by modders, Dota 2’s enduring
complexity is an expression of how modders’ risk-taking
can counterbalance the conservatism of the commercial
industry. And all the while, modders continue to mod:
Dota 2 has become the foundation of another fabulously
complex, idiosyncratic and popular gametype, Dota Auto
Chess. It’s proved so successful that Valve has already
released its ‘official’ take, Dota Underlords, and naturally,
there’s a version built around League, too, called
Teamfight Tactics. And thus the cycles of player-driven
evolution and experimentation go on.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

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 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Fortnite
Developer/publisher Epic Games
Format Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Release 2017
We think often of E3 2017, when we strode into a large,
mostly empty meeting room upstairs in the LA
Convention Center for an appointment with Epic Games.
A few staff hung around, chatting among themselves or
trying to look busy. In one corner, half a dozen PCs
running Fortnite, a sort of cross between Gears Of War’s
Horde mode and Minecraft’s resource-collecting and
building, sat mostly ignored. This was a tricky time for
Epic. Unreal Engine 4 was gathering pace, but wasn’t yet
the industry standard its predecessor was. Paragon, the
studio’s thirdperson MOBA, hadn’t taken off, and would
be cancelled six months later. And while Fortnite wasn’t
dead – at the time it was a month from its launch into
paid early access – it didn’t seem long for this world.
Two-and-a-half years later, Fortnite is one of the biggest
games on the planet, Unreal Engine is back on top and
Epic Games is one of the most important companies in
the industry. Whatever you think of Fortnite: Battle
Royale’s slightly grubby origin story (the breakout
battle-royale game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, was
built in Unreal, and the head start that gave Epic’s
engineers in making their own spin on the genre formula
prompted a short-lived lawsuit), only a fool would dispute
its impact.
BARELY SIX MONTHS...
...after the battle-royale mode’s release, a Fortnite emote
was repurposed as a goal celebration at the World Cup
final. Weeks earlier Ninja, the planet’s biggest streamer
thanks to Fortnite, had almost doubled the previous
record for concurrent viewers on Twitch when he played
Duos mode with megastar rapper Drake. Tabloid
[ 046 ]
headlines – always the biggest guarantor of a videogame
breaking into pop culture – fretted about how much time
kids were spending playing the game, or told of schools
that had banned Fortnite dances from the playground.
So, yes, it’s a pop-cultural phenomenon. But its impact
on the industry has been tremendous too. The lessons
Epic has had to learn, at pace, about how to keep a
popular online game stable while being constantly
updated have meant that Unreal Engine has come on in
leaps and bounds, to the benefit of developers everywhere.
The vast war chest Epic has amassed – US$2.4 billion in
2018 alone – has led to it giving away tech it once would
have charged for, launching a new no-strings-attached
investment arm, and a disruptive, and controversial, PC
storefront with industry-leading revenue terms. Its might
has broken down walls we once thought indestructible,
the fantasy of cross-platform multiplayer now an
unthinkable reality.
It’s a masterclass in how a notionally repetitive game
can keep players invested for the long haul. The Battle
Pass idea has already begun to spread, and will soon
become an industry standard. Skins and other cosmetic
doodads ensure the game feels fresh every time you boot
it up. And Epic has done wonderful work with the story,
resulting in the cataclysmic finale to Season 10 that saw
the whole game taken offline for a spell. It has defined the
current decade, but its future looks bright as well.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

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 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Gone Home
Developer/publisher The Fullbright Company
Format iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Release 2013
A locked door, a deserted kitchen. Drawers stuffed with
life’s flotsam, lives packed up in boxes. Gone Home’s
house describes a family in disarray, presenting a
coming-of-age story which expanded the narrative
potential for videogames. It commanded a complexity of
theme that was previously only the remit of interactive
fiction, using its firstperson perspective to bring them into
immediate and intimate focus.
Gone Home casts you as Katie Greenbriar, who’s just
returned from a period overseas to her family’s new
home. Her sister and parents are absent, and packing
boxes are everywhere. With no one around to explain
what’s happened, all you can do is to explore the house’s
corridors and rooms, picking up and interacting with the
litany of objects that litter the family seat to work it out
for yourself.
It’s a walking simulator, a clear heir to the ideas for
ambient narrative play that’d coalesced around Dear
Esther, which was originally made by Dan Pinchbeck as
part of an academic research project. But Gone Home,
more anxious to establish motivation and give its players
agency, pushed the nascent genre’s boundaries wider by
bringing in more influences from more mainstream
games. In doing so, it defined it. Its roots, after all, are in
immersive sims, the close family of games which
branched from Looking Glass’ Ultima Underworld and
System Shock to Irrational’s BioShock, blending RPG
mechanics with simulated worlds. And, as it happens,
Gone Home’s lead, Steve Gaynor, had designed
BioShock 2’s celebrated DLC, Minerva’s Den.
There’s no simulation in Gone Home, but immersive
sims had always injected narrative into their worlds
[ 048 ]
through level design, expounding characters and stories
in blood splatters, scatters of props and discarded notes
and diaries. Gone Home used the same tools but
transplanted them into the real world, presenting letters
and invoices to read, answer-phones to listen to, ‘zines to
flick through, posters to glance at.
THROUGH FAMILIAR OBJECTS...
...Gone Home created a heartfelt, personal story, one that
centres on a sister who has come out against the
understanding of her parents. It found compassion for its
characters in the way that the evidence of the family’s
breakdown is expressed through so many items, and thus
from many viewpoints. It helps, of course, that these
objects are so painstakingly detailed. Whether the
doodles on a hand-written envelope, the rebellious
grunginess of a punk gig flyer, the TV show details
scrawled in marker on a VHS label or the terse praise on
the back cover of a failed book, their precisely observed
details find poignant emotional depth.
Gone Home’s innovations only go so far, of course.
Reactive rather than active, it’s only able to tell stories
about the past because it requires a history for its players
to pick through. But it laid a new expectation for games to
take on new settings, new characters and new themes,
and to render them with greater subtlety and depth.
Narrative games of all kinds learned a great deal from
Gone Home’s quiet portrayal of domestic discord.
 FEATURE
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 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Grand Theft Auto V
Developer Rockstar North Publisher Rockstar Games
Format 360, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One
Release 2013
They really don’t make ’em like this any more.
The genre Grand Theft Auto invented is more popular
than ever, but these days most videogame open worlds
take us to far-flung, fantastical places; abandoning the
inner city for the sprawling sticks, taking us back in time
or dragging us into the far future. The era of copycats is
long over, the pretenders to GTA’s crown either killed
off or transformed. Rare indeed is the game that seeks
to take a bite of Grand Theft Auto’s cherry, and GTAV
is the reason. Even now, six years on, Los Santos is
remarkable. Sure, other games have it licked for sprawl
and scope, for density and fidelity, and for things for you
to do. But as a snapshot of city life in the modern-day US,
and as a videogame world that evokes a believable sense of
place, it is unmatched. Throw a beefy PC at it and, while
some technical elements are showing their age, it still
takes the breath away. In 2013, on 360 and PS3, it was a
staggering achievement. In 2019, it still is.
It helps that Rockstar has a real city to lean on. Los
Angeles is a city of extremes; of offensive shows of wealth
and desperate displays of poverty, a town of
contradictions where Hollywood stars and oligarchs share
hazy, smog-filled oxygen with gangbangers and the
homeless. As Franklin, the most traditionally GTA of the
three protagonists, says early on, as he and an accomplice
walk down an ominous-looking alley in the affluent
Vespucci Beach: “One block makes all the difference.” Los
Santos takes LA’s many juxtaposed contradictions and
pushes them even further, and if you find the whole thing
– characters, subject matter, story and setting –
objectionable, then well, that’s sort of the point. If you
root for anyone in GTAV, you do it in spite of yourself.
[ 050 ]
THERE WAS LITTLE TO LOVE...
...about GTA Online at first either. Once Rockstar had
finally spun up enough servers to let us out of the car park
and into Los Santos, we found a sparse set of repetitive
activities and an endlessly respawning gank squad on
every corner. It has been updated just about every week
since, and today GTA Online is arguably an even greater
success than GTAV itself. It’s the driving force behind its
enduring presence in the sales charts – at the time of
writing it’s been in the Top 40 for 307 weeks out of a
possible 316 – and is believed to have made over a billion
dollars US in microtransaction revenue. Most remarkably,
it has done so with a promo budget of virtually zero, and
barely any press coverage. No other game does quite such
a good job of showing you the latest shiny trinket – a
sports car, a superyacht, a lavish nightclub with
performance-captured crowd and DJs – and making you
want it instantly. How very Los Angeles.
GTAV is a landmark open world, and a tentpole online
game. But it may be some time before we see its like again.
After all, what place does a biting social satire of
modern-day American life have in a world that is already
long past parody? Real life is extreme enough as it is.
GTAV may have exaggerated all that was wrong with the
America of the early 2010s, but by today’s standards, it’s a
virtual utopia.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 051 ]
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Minecraft
Developer/Publisher Mojang
Format 360, 3DS, Android, iOS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Release 2011
This virtual Lego game has never been one for hard and
fast rules: as such, it seems fitting that it bend our Games
Of The Decade parameters ever so slightly. Minecraft
‘Classic’ may have been released to the public in 2009, but
it was 2010’s alpha version – the game’s first major update
– that truly took off, so much so that creator Markus
‘Notch’ Persson could afford to quit his day job and found
his own company. It hit version 1.0 in 2011; three years
later, Persson would sell Mojang, and the rights to his
plucky little Infiniminer tribute, to Microsoft for a cool
$2.5 billion.
The story of Minecraft is almost unbelievable. From the
humblest and most unassuming of origins – crude cubes
of dirt, able to be picked up and placed at will by the
player around a blocky world – sprang a phenomenon the
likes of which the game industry had never seen. Having
had Microsoft at its back for the past five years, Minecraft
has grown from indie smash hit to pop-culture keystone.
Its boss-eyed characters adorn the bedsheets of children
across the globe; an ‘Education Edition’ is used in
classrooms; and the world’s most famous streamers
continue to discover and rediscover its magic, helping
keep it ever-present in the videogame scene’s collective
consciousness.
THERE SEEMS TO BE...
...no end to Minecraft’s capacity to delight, nor indeed its
potential. Much of this can be attributed to Mojang’s
dedicated team, who, now with original programmer Jens
Bergensten at the helm, continue to provide regular,
quality updates and additions (returning to Minecraft
after a stint away is frequently surprising, as explorable
[ 052 ]
shipwrecks or polar bears appear where once there was
only trees and dirt). But the reality is that even if it were
never updated again, Minecraft’s immortality would still
be guaranteed. It is a portal to limitless creativity.
It was assembled on enduring foundations: clever
procedural generation that creates giant explorable worlds
where impossible landmasses could spring up around any
corner, a compulsive RPG structure and endgame that
prompts players to work towards specific goals. But the
key to Minecraft’s timelessness is the creativity it
encourages in its players. Famously, Minecraft – at least
the definitive version – offers no tutorial for any of its
mechanics, including its 3x3 crafting grid. From the off,
players are trusted to figure out the limits of the game for
themselves; as a result, they frequently push past them.
This is a game that treats its younger audience with the
same respect as it does its grown-up players, and is adored
for it. Minecraft and its communities have brought us
scale models of Westeros, working computers engineered
with the redstone system, the battle-royale genre, parkour
courses, a player-created mythological horror in the form
of Herobrine and more besides. Minecraft proves that, as
long as you provide the right tools to your players,
refusing to define the rules can be transformative – and
was perhaps the first-ever videogame to teach us that a
virtual world can be whatever you make of it.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

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 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
Spelunky
Developer Mossmouth Publisher Microsoft Studios, Mossmouth LLC
Format 360, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita
Release 2012
One of this decade’s most enduring preoccupations has
been with a game which was released in 1980. Rogue, a
simple turn-based ASCII dungeon crawler with
procedurally generated levels, has turned out to provide
an ideal template for today’s indie developers. What better
way for a small, cash-strapped team to make a long-living
game than one which consists of many simple mechanics
which work in concert, provides players with a new
map every time they play and inflicts permadeath to lend
meaningful challenge and slow their progress?
But the source for many of this generation of
Roguelikes, Roguelites, or whatever you want to call
them, isn’t really Rogue. It’s not even an RPG. Rather, it’s a
platformer, one which expertly blends twitch control with
careful planning, a game that presents its players with
such deep and rewarding challenge that over seven years
after its defining version was first launched, it’s still the
subject of speedrun record attempts and experimentation
with its many systems.
SPELUNKY...
...is a platformer in which you make your way through 16
procedurally generated levels to reach and defeat Olmec,
and then escape the dungeon with all the gold. You start
with three tools: a whip for defeating enemies and
breaking stuff, bombs for blasting through walls and
ropes for climbing. But you’ll also have the opportunity
pick up many more items which will transform your
abilities and the shape of your run.
While beating Olmec is a fantastic challenge, it’s just
the start of your mastery of Spelunky. To be a good player,
you must understand the ways in which its enemies and
[ 054 ]
traps and items interact, to know how to influence a run
to your own ends. To consistently beat the game is to
know how to get the things you need and how to react to
every situation. But more than that, Spelunky is shot
through with secrets: an alien spaceship, a giant worm’s
guts, Hell and the mighty King Yama. Learn what you
need to beat all of this, and maybe you’re ready to make
an eggplant run.
Designer Derek Yu wrote a fascinating book about
Spelunky’s development, a candid account of a design
process in which he almost discovered the game rather
than invented it. Much of what Spelunky is lies between
the tightly consistent rules that Yu and partner Andy Hull
set for all its traps and tricks and the ways they interact.
It’s in the battle that flares after a tiki man picks up a
boomerang from a shopkeeper’s shop and walks out with
it, and in the powder box that detonates with the
splatter of blood from a spider killed by a ricocheting
arrow. Even today, Yu’s surprised by what emerges from
his clockwork rules, and how players have exploited them,
from killing the unkillable ghost to breaking the
indestructible Moai statue. It’s only possible because
Spelunky is absolutely coherent, every happening
comprehensible with hindsight. And thus it remains the
shining star of the Roguelike, a game which inspired –
and continues to inspire – a generation.
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GAMES OF THE DECADE

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 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
The Legend Of Zelda:
Breath Of The Wild
Developer/Publisher Nintendo (EPD)
Format Switch, Wii U
Release 2017
Spare a thought for Horizon Zero Dawn. Yes, Sony’s
glossy, absurdly pretty open-worlder may have
comfortably topped the charts on launch week. Yet it
wasn’t state-of-the-art for long. Guerrilla had made
something pretty special – something close to the apex of
the sandbox genre as was possible. But all of a sudden it
felt like the past, as Nintendo brought us a glimpse of
the future.
Here was a daringly wide-ranging overhaul of one of
the most beloved game series ever. And yet it was also a
return to first principles: a Zelda game set in a world in
which your next destination isn’t set by a cheerful
quest-giver or a cosseting AI companion, but entirely by
you. This is a Hyrule in which it’s possible to lose yourself,
and yet you never feel lost. It’s a vast place, but there are
landmarks aplenty, with hills and towers from which to
gaze out and locate new places to visit.
IT CAN SOMETIMES SEEM...
...as though Nintendo develops its games in a bubble, but
this was clear proof the company had been looking
beyond Kyoto – leaning upon ideas from western
open-world games but remixing them so they felt new
and fresh once more. Take those towers: they reveal more
of the map, but rather than offer a jumble of icons to clean
up, they simply give you more potential destinations,
extending your to-go rather than your to-do list. (Indeed,
your ‘reward’ for collecting all Korok seeds lets you
know Nintendo hasn’t made this for achievement-hunting
completists.)
Some sneered that this was nothing more than
Nintendo discovering physics, or belatedly realising the
[ 056 ]
emergent joys of the immersive sim. Nonsense. There’s
plenty of physics-powered fun here, but Breath Of The
Wild is often more like a chemistry set, prompting dozens
of playful experiments. Throwing metal objects at
enemies during a storm to shock them with a bolt of
lightning. Shooting flaming arrows into long grass and
opening your glider to ride the resulting updraught.
Creating an airship with a boat and several Octo
Balloons, or using two minecarts and Link’s magnesis
ability to make a flying machine. Its anything-goes
approach extends to its puzzle shrines: if the intended
solution seems beyond you, there’s almost always an
alternative. If you can’t get hold of the orb you need to
complete an electrical circuit, for example, why not dump
a chain of metal weapons on the floor instead?
This player-led sandbox doesn’t arbitrarily withhold its
toys either. By the time you’ve finished exploring the
Great Plateau – the whole map in glorious microcosm –
you technically have everything you need. It’s another
reminder that Breath Of The Wild trusts its players to find
their own fun, confident that it has provided the tools
(and the spaces) to do just that. It may be a little while
before its impact is truly felt, but be in no doubt that
developers across the world have been studying Breath Of
The Wild since launch, learning from a game that has so
much design wisdom to impart.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

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 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE
The Walking Dead
Developer/Publisher Telltale Games
Format 360, Android, iOS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, Vita
Release 2012
Formed in the ashes of LucasArts, Telltale Games spent
six years building upon its legacy with a series of episodic
point-and-click adventures before the studio decided it
was time to shake things up. And so it released another
episodic adventure based on a popular licensed property
– this time with a stronger focus on story over puzzles,
alongside QTE-centric action sequences. The result was a
crushing disappointment.
Happily, the critical reception for Jurassic Park: The
Game didn’t discourage Telltale, and with its next major
release it hit paydirt. On paper, The Walking Dead didn’t
appear to be much of a departure from its immediate
predecessor: indeed, Episode One’s more conventional
puzzle elements felt little more than an afterthought. But
the writing was better, while in the central relationship
between protagonist Lee and surrogate daughter
Clementine it had an emotional hook. By the third
episode, Telltale dropped the pretence: this was no longer
a pseudo-point-and-click, but a new breed of adventure
game. Besides, its characters were enough of a puzzle in
themselves, with your decisions colouring their responses
towards you. And that oft-mocked acknowledgement of a
character’s response to your decisions proved a
masterstroke, not only letting the player know their
choices were having an impact, but also creating a sense
of unease. How exactly will they remember that?
FOR ONCE...
...player choices were no longer about pushing a character
along a binary good/evil scale. From the outset, it was
clear Lee was no paragon; the decisions placed in front of
him often felt like picking between two renegade options,
[ 058 ]
with even the lesser of two evils often resulting in a grisly
fate for someone. The knotty ambiguities of Robert
Kirkman’s fiction lent themselves beautifully to
interactive drama: if the comic book asked provocative
moral questions of its readers, here players could supply
their own answers. And so, with Telltale adhering closely
to a two-monthly schedule, each new episode became a
watercooler moment. Forums and social media buzzed
with discussions about choices and consequences.
Did you save Doug or Carley? Did you rescue Ben or let
him fall?
Awards duly (and deservedly) followed, but Telltale had
made too many poor moral choices of its own: stretching
its staff to breaking point, shedding much of its writing
talent and relying on an engine that had, like its necrotic
antagonists, been falling apart since Episode One. Regular
scheduling delays for subsequent series – each slotted into
the same, increasingly overfamiliar template – saw players
drift away until Telltale’s sudden closure in 2018.
Yet if the studio’s tale is a cautionary one, the legacy
of its finest game is assured. Here was proof of an
audience ready for mature storytelling, one that could
happily accept a lack of mechanical complexity in favour
of a well-written narrative they could shape. The likes of
Life Is Strange, Firewatch and Oxenfree – the latter two
directed by Telltale alumni – are testament to
The Walking Dead’s zombie-like endurance, and a
reminder that developers and players alike will indeed
remember it.
 FEATURE
GAMES OF THE DECADE

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 059 ]

WINNER
ED’s CHOICE
AWARD
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 13-inch & 15-inch
MICROSOFT HAS PITCHED AMD AND INTEL IN A LAPTOP BATTLE ROYALE BY POWERING EACH NEW SURFACE LAPTOP 3 WITH COMPETING CPUS. SO
WHICH ONE COMES OUT ON TOP IN THIS DEFINING BATTLE FOR LAPTOP SUPREMACY?
WITH AMD DOMINATING the desktop CPU
space this year, Microsoft has given it the
opportunity to compete against Intel in the
new Surface Laptop 3s. AMD was given the
task of designing a custom CPU for the
15-inch Surface Laptop 3, while Intel was
delegated the task of driving the less expensive
13-inch clamshell. Generally, laptop makers
give the bigger units more grunt for creative
professionals, while the smaller devices appeal
to those looking for something that’s better
value and more portabile – but because these
units have competing chip makers driving
them, they’re actually very different laptops
that try to achieve different things.
Before we dig into the differences, these are
both Surface Laptop 3s, so there are a lot of
consistencies across the units. Both the
13-inch and 15-inch models offer a Black
all-metal chassis or a Platinum metal clamshell
with the iconic Alcantara keyboard surround a
returning feature of the Surface Laptop 2. The
13-inch laptop actually offers additional
Sandstone metal and Cobalt Blue Alcantara
colourations for those that want to be a little
more adventurous with colouring.
[ 060 ]
[ TECHLIFE #98 ]
TEST BENCH
THE HOTTEST GEAR PRESSURE-TESTED
GETTING THE BASICS RIGHT
Both the Surface Laptop 3s come with
identical, soft and responsive, glass trackpads
and square ten-keyless keyboards that are easy
to use. This combined with the device’s USB 3
Type-A, USB 3.1 Type-C, 3.5mm headphone
jack and Surface Connect ports make it really
versatile against some competitors – since you
don’t need an additional dock. While there’s
no fingerprint reader, Windows Hello Face is
quick and secure enough to make for an easy
sign in process.
If you look at the general display specs, both
the monitors share the same 10-point
multitouch PixelSense Touchscreen display in
a 3x2 aspect ratio with a 201 Pixel Per Inch
resolution. The smaller model has a 13.5-inch
screen and an unusual 2256 x 1504 pixel
resolution while the 15-inch version’s
resolution is slightly higher at 2496 x 1664
pixels. This is definitely the sweet spot for
laptop displays since it offers greater clarity for
documents without taking the battery hit that
you get by going full 4K. The screens look
vibrant with an average brightness around the
400 nit mark, and while you do get access to
“BOTH THE SURFACE LAPTOP
3S COME WITH IDENTICAL,
SOFT AND RESPONSIVE,
GLASS TRACKPADS AND
SQUARE TEN-KEYLESS
KEYBOARDS THAT ARE
EASY TO USE.”
Windows 10’s HDR video streaming options
in both variants, the screens can only
reproduce around 63.4% of the Adobe RGB
colour profile – so it’s not ideal for creatives or
HDR playback.
BIG OLE BAG OF CHIPS
On the surface these two devices are identical
in many ways, but because of the use of two
distinct CPU architectures they are actually
very different. Both the 13-inch and 15-inch
Surface Laptop 3 devices can be configured
with a choice of two processors from their
respective manufacturers. So, the 13-inch
Surface Laptop comes with either a (1.2 to
3.7GHz) Intel Core i5 1035G7 or a (1.3 to
3.9GHz) Intel Core i7 1065G7 CPU, which are
both part of Intel’s recently announced 10th
generation processor range and so come with
the new Wi-Fi 6 support and faster
Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.
The 15-incher on the other hand, can be
configured with either a (2.1 to 3.7GHz) AMD
Ryzen 5 3580U or a (2.3 to 4GHz) AMD Ryzen
7 3780U CPU, chips that were launched
alongside the Surface Laptop 3 in October
 EST BENCH
RADAR
TE
2019
2019. These new AMD processors have four a broad overlap in configurations the Surface performance benchmarks 13 5-inch
benchmarks, the 13.5 inch Intel
cores and eight threads like their blue-blooded Laptop 3 is a great experiment. i5 model beat the 15-inch AMD Ryzen 5
competition, but they miss out on the Wi-Fi 6, version on almost every single parameter. For
offering instead FreeSync capability (which PUTTING THEM TO WORK PCMark 8 and PCMark 10 benchmarks the
isn’t all that useful on these moderately We tested the Surface Laptop 3 13 with the difference was less than 10%, but for HWBot
powered non-gaming PCs). Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB PCIe x265’s CPU heavy media encoding
The Intel-based Surface Laptop 3 can be SSD that retails for $1,999 and a Surface benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 had between 15 and
configured with either of the Intel chips Laptop 3 15 with a Ryzen 5 CPU, 16GB of 25% lower frame rates than the Intel Surface
mentioned above, 8 or 16GB of RAM, and RAM, and a 256GB PCIe SSD that costs Laptop 3 13.
between 256GB and 1TB of onboard storage, $2,799. While the latter has double the RAM A lot of this can be explained by the
and costs between $1,699 and $3,949, allocation and a 1.5-inch bigger screen, it’s temperatures that the processors are operating
depending on what you opt for. AMD’s Ryzen $800 more expensive, when those two factors at. Since the 15-inch AMD device didn’t peak
5 or Ryzen 7 Surface really only account for above 78 degrees in any benchmark, while the
laptop variants start at “BOTH THE 13-INCH AND about $500 of the price Intel 13 incher regularly spiked all the way up
$1,999 for the Ryzen 5 15-INCH SURFACE LAPTOP 3 bump, so AMD is to 100 degrees (and potentially beyond since
CPU, 8GB of RAM DEVICES CAN BE already on the back the sensors stop reading at this point). Intel has
and 128GB of storage, CONFIGURED WITH A CHOICE foot in terms of value. undoubtedly done some work in overclocking
while the Ryzen 7, OF TWO PROCESSORS FROM When you actually the Surface Laptop 3’s chips for maximum
32GB RAM and 1TB THEIR RESPECTIVE pit these two performance, a response we assume was
storage version comes MANUFACTURERS. ” processors against prompted by the new AMD competition.
in at $4,399. With such each other in Normally we would also conclude that AMD

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 061 ]
 PCMARK 8 - HOME CINEBENCH R15 - CPU 3DMARK TIME SPY PCMARK 8 - BATTERY BATTERY LIFE - 1080P PEAK CPU CRYSTALDISKMARK READ/
(SCORE) (MULTI-THREADED) (SCORE) (H:MIN) VIDEO PLAYBACK TEMPERATURE (ºC) WRITE (MB/S)
(H:MIN)
MICROSOFT SURFACE 3299 678 861 04:37 04:48 100 2327/1587
LAPTOP 3 13
MICROSOFT SURFACE
LAPTOP 3 15 3276 673 899 09:40 05:56 78 2021.7/823
MICROSOFT SURFACE
TEST BENCH
RADAR

LAPTOP 2 2703 581 443 06:07 08:08 73 1643.8/811.7

MICROSOFT SURFACE
LAPTOP 3463 326 373 04:48 08:48 73 647.5/234.2

“WHILE BOTH THE NEW SURFACE LAPTOP 3S SHOW BETWEEN 15%

AND 30% CPU PERFORMANCE BOOSTS OVER THE SURFACE
LAPTOP 2 INTEL CORE I5, 3D MARK GRAPHICAL
TESTS SHOWED IMPROVEMENTS OF UP TO 112%. ”
didn o much to optimise these chips, but the
one para ter the Surface Laptop 3 15s
outperform t ir smaller siblings is in battery
life, and the lowe erating temperature is
likely to be part of the lanation for that.
POWER AND PERFORMANCE
CE
Both CPUs run, on an average, at and
have roughly a 46Wh battery capacit
also have screens that are pretty close in
pixel count so, all things considered they
should have comparable battery lifespans.
However, in PCMark 8 Home Battery the
Surface Laptop 13 gets 4 hours and 37 minutes,
while the Surface Laptop 15 ran for a total of 9
hours and 40 minutes on a single charge.
When it came to 1080p movie playback the
difference wasn’t quite as drastic, but the
Surface Laptop 15 still lasted 19% longer than
the 13 inch model, with a total of five hours
and 56 minutes. This is a considerable
difference for two devices with similar
performance and goes a long way to justify the
performance loss you see in processing tasks
on the AMD 15-inch Surface 3.
While both the new Surface Laptop 3s show
between 15% and 30% CPU performance
boosts over the Surface Laptop 2 Intel Core i5,
3D Mark graphical tests showed
improvements of up to 112%. The new Intel
Iris Plus Graphics and the AMD Radeon Vega
9 Graphics are still a long way off being
gaming-grade GPUs, but we were able to get
more than double the framerates on light
games like Rocket League. We had a few
glitches with the new Intel GPU and some
3DMark benchmarks and while the AMD
Surface Laptop 3 got 85fps averages on Rocket
League in 1080p performance mode, the Intel
Surface Laptop 3 got just 55fps. Both show
improvement on the Surface Laptop 2’s 40fps
average using the same settings but if you want
a little extra gaming performance then the
AMD unit takes the cake at the moment.
[ JOEL BURGESS ]
41/2
ROS SURFACE LAPTOP 3 13-INCH & 15-INCH
99
ft.com
TICAL SPECS
Surface Laptop 3 15-inch (AMD): 2.1GHz AMD Ryzen 5
3580U (quad-core, 4MB L3 cache, boost up to 3.7GHz);
Radeon Vega 9 (1.3GHz); 16GB DDR4 RAM; 15-inch
2,496 x 1,664 PixelSense (201 ppi; 3:2 aspect ratio)
touchscreen; 256GB SSD; 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB-C 3.1,
headphone/mic jack; Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac); Bluetooth 5.

[ 062 ]

Asus Zenbook 14 UX434FL
THIS 13-INCH FORM FACTOR ULTRABOOK HAS A 14-INCH DISPLAY AND A SECOND TOUCHSCREEN TRACKPAD,
BUT IS THIS DUAL-DISPLAY MORE TROUBLE THAN IT’S WORTH?
MAYBE IT’S THE emergence of dual-screen
smartphones or a realisation that lots of people
use dual-screen workstations, but either way
Asus’ laptop division seems fixated on
inserting a second screen wherever it can on its
latest devices. We tested out a Zenbook Duo
recently and were pleasantly surprised by the
usefulness of the oversized touchbar/second
touchscreen, so we were actually looking
forward to testing out the ZenBook 14
UX434FL with the trackpad-touchscreen
combo interface. After a bit of use we learned
that excitement was the incorrect emotion to
have for this configuration – the correct one
would’ve been dread.
On the Duo the second screen is the same
width and the same horizontal resolution as
the main display and it directly abuts the
bottom edge of the primary screen, which
makes for a convenient transition from one
screen to the other. On the Zenbook 14
however, the second screen is trackpad-sized
and exists in the trackpad’s usual location in
front of the keyboard, which means that apps
are sometimes annoyingly resized or weirdly
arranged and moving things between the
screens feels disconnected and inconvenient.
Or, at least it would be if you could see it. The
GENERAL
PERFORMANCE
PCMARK 8 - HOME CINEBENCH R15 - CPU PCMARK 10 - EXPRESS
(SCORE) (MULTI-THREADED) (SCORE)
3,432 549 4,645
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
thing is, that second screen is almost entirely
obscured by your hand whenever you’re using
the trackpad... so, like, always.
Even though the screen isn’t ideal as a
computer display, it is smartphone sized, so it
could theoretically house apps that display
information or add convenience. Asus
definitely tried to consider this, but
unfortunately, it didn’t stick the landing. The
touchpad apps include mostly useless Office
tools, unwanted security software, and a suite
of MyAsus bloatware. Apart from the pushy
McAfee security software (which entirely
roadblocked use of the trackpad whenever it
wanted) most of these apps are benign enough
to ignore, except that in order to access them
you have to disable trackpad usage, and for
some reason Asus configured the software so
this happens regularly, whether you want it to
or not. Oh and the trackpad also crashes
whenever the laptop is under a heavy load.
The complete failure of this trackpad is
somewhat disappointing since the rest of the
physical design is nice. The clamshell is
wrapped in a full metal casing that buckles at
the folded edge to prop the back of the
keyboard up on a 4-degree incline. It’s also got
a bright FullHD 14-inch display with 6.45mm
GRAPHICS BATTERY &
PERFORMANCE TEMPERATURE
PERFORMANCE
3DMARK TIME SPY PCMARK 8 - BATTERY Peak CPU
(SCORE) (H:MIN) temperature (ºC)
1,004 04:10 96
TEST BENCH
RADAR
bezels and an 86% screen to body ratio. The
ZenBook 14 UX434FL we tested had a
powerful quad-core Intel Core i7-8565U CPU
with 16GB of RAM and a super fast Gen 2 1TB
PCIe SSD.
The Core i7-8565U is a powerful ultrabook
processor that’ll churn through work tasks and
the device also has a discrete Nvidia GeForce
MX150 2GB GPU so it’s okay at very light
gaming with a 10-20% performance bump on
10th gen integrated Intel and AMD graphics
processors. With a pretty average four hour
and 10 minute PCMark 8 battery life, this
ZenBook 14 really isn’t a bad ultrabook... apart
from the trackpad. [ JOEL BURGESS ]
31/2
ASUS ZENBOOK 14 UX434FL
$1,949
asus.com/au/
CRITICAL SPECS
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit; 14-inch LED display @ 1920 x 1080
pixel resolution; Intel Core i7-8565U processor; Nvidia
GeForce MX250 GPU (2GB); 16GB RAM; 1TB PCIe SSD (Gen
2); 50Wh battery (4h 10m PCMark 8 lifespan); 32.4 x 21.2 x
1.6cm; 1.45kg.
STORAGE
CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark
Read (MB/s) Write (MB/s)
3,462 2,347
[ 063 ]
 WINNER

ED’s CHOICE
AWARD
TEST BENCH
RADAR

THE STANDARD DESKTOP

MODEL IN THE CONCEPTD
RANGE (WHICH INCLUDES
LAPTOPS, MONITORS, AND
MORE) IS A HIGH-POWERED
SYSTEM, MEANT TO
INTEGRATE SEAMLESSLY
AND UNOBTRUSIVELY INTO
OFFICE SPACES WITH A
SIMPLE, AESTHETICALLY
PLEASING DESIGN.

Acer ConceptD 500

ACER ENTERS THE FRAY WITH NEW DESIGNER HARDWARE.
E

ACER HAS ZEROED in on a key problem with
the computer hardware market: Content
creators are experiencing a dearth of purpose-
built systems, instead opting to buy powerful
gaming PCs for their 4K video-editing needs.
That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, if it
weren’t for the fact that many working
professionals don’t want a giant, glowing RGB
unit shooting red and blue lighting all over
the place.
So, the ConceptD 500. The standard desktop
model in the ConceptD range (which includes
laptops, monitors, and more) is a high-powered
system, meant to integrate seamlessly and
unobtrusively into office spaces with a simple,
aesthetically pleasing design. Convenience is a
cornerstone of this system’s design; the
faux-wood finish on top includes a Qi wireless
charging pad hidden beneath, enabling you to
drop your phone atop the case for a battery
boost. At the front, a quick press reveals a
spring-loaded mount to hang a pair of
headphones on. The top I/O is covered with an
odd plastic shield that can be removed to access
it; we get the impression that it would be tossed
aside immediately by 95 percent of users, but
that’s fine.
As Acer describes it, the ConceptD 500 is
“elegantly honest.” There are no hidden bells
and whistles here, just high-quality components
inside a minimalist case. When powered on, the
gray plastic ring surrounding the wooden top
panel emits a (slightly feeble) orange glow. At
the rear, two silver clips at the top and bottom of
the panel allow for some cable management. It’s
also impressively quiet; the front panel appears
solid at first glance, but subtle gaps in the
triangular design allow for air to be drawn in by
the case fans, although said fans are pretty tiny.
Of course, it’s all about the hardware inside.
A Core i9-9900K processor powers this system,
backed up by a mighty 64GB of DDR4-2666
memory, prepped and ready for complex design
work. Graphics are handled by a RTX Quadro
4000 GPU, ideal for everything from 3D
architectural rendering to driving high-fidelity
environments in VR, and as the name implies,
we’ve got full ray-tracing support, too. The OS
boots from a high-speed M.2 drive, which also
ensures that any programs load rapidly. Two
more HDDs provide an additional 4TB of
storage for videos, images, and more.
The system also comes with a handful of
slightly unusual but still beneficial features.
Pre-loaded on to the desktop is ConceptD
Palette, a simple system-monitoring tool that
lets you check the usage of your CPU, GPU, and
memory at a glance. There’s also a system health
indicator LED on the top I/O, which pings
should something untoward occur. Lastly,
there’s an intrusion alarm. This triggers a
notification on boot next time the system
powers up, should the case be opened – a
tamper alert, essentially.
While this is a competent platform for 4K
gaming, that’s not what it was designed for;
instead, it excels at rendering, video editing, and
3D art. Versatile, it’s at home in the office space
of a graphic design business or the home office
of an architect. Cracking open the case doesn’t
show anything appealing, just a mess of cables
and unbranded silicon, but the target audience
isn’t likely to want to make modifications. If
you’re looking for a workstation PC to support
your tech startup or 3D animation firm, this is
the machine for you. [ CHRISTIAN GUYTON ]
41/2
ACER CONCEPTD 500
$7,049
www.acer.com
CRITICAL SPECS
CPU: Intel Core i9-9900K, Graphics: Nvidia RTX Quadro
4000, RAM: 64GB (4x 16GB) Kingston DDR4-2666,
Motherboard: Unbranded X299, Primary Storage:
Western Digital SN720 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, Additional
Storage: 2x Toshiba 2TB 3.5-inch HDDs, Cooling
Solution: Air cooler, PSU: LiteOn 500W 80+ Gold, Case:
ConceptD 500, Warranty: One year.

GENERAL GAMING
PERFORMANCE PERFORMANCE
CINEBENCH R15 MULTI CRYSTALDISK QD32 CRYSTALDISK QD32 3DMARK: FIRE STRIKE RISE OF THE TOMB TOTAL WAR: TOM CLANCY’S GHOST
(INDEX) SEQUENTIAL READ (MB/S) SEQUENTIAL WRITE (INDEX) RAIDER (FPS) WARHAMMER II (FPS) RECON: WILDLANDS (FPS)
(MB/S)

1778 3460 2784 4888 45 32 27

[ 064 ]
 TEST BENCH
RADAR
WINNER

APPROVED
AWARD

Beats Powerbeats Pro

IMPRESSIVE-FITTING WORKOUT ‘BUDS FROM BEATS.

THE POWERBEATS PRO are the next logical (Of course, if you have Hey Siri enabled, you of popular earbuds don’t really master.
step for Apple’s series of workout-focused can simply say the wake word with a voice The good news is that the Powerbeats sound
earbuds – true wireless is the way of the future, command for the same effect.) good both during a workout and during your
obviously. It also helps that the Pro is extremely time away from the gym. Yes, there’s a slight
And while Apple could’ve churned out a comfortable, and not just in terms of how it fits flimsiness to the sound if you take a critical ear
half-decent, sweat-resistant pair of true wireless in and around the ear, but also in terms of how to it – but it’s not the kind of thing you notice
buds and called it a day, the Powerbeats Pro are it feels when you’re listening to music. during your workout.
something special – they’re supremely Like other AirPod products, the Powerbeats Over the course of a few weeks we listened to
comfortable, sound decent and seem to never, Pro are the most at home when paired with a number of genres and found that, like you’d
ever fall out. other Apple devices. On iOS, pairing up the expect, the Beats brand still caters to EDM,
They might not be the best true wireless Powerbeats Pro is as simple as opening the case R&B and rap, and can now play most crunchy
earbuds in Apple’s audio arsenal now that the near your iPhone or iPad. Two touches later and rock and alternative with some authority.
AirPods Pro are here, your devices are synced. The true wireless Powerbeats Pro a big step
but they are Apple’s THEY MIGHT NOT BE THE As with the AirPods, up for the Apple-owned headphone brand.
most premium play into BEST TRUE WIRELESS you can then open the They have their limitations (see: lack of
the true workout space, EARBUDS IN APPLE’S AUDIO case to see how much noise-cancellation, limited noise isolation and
and are the buds we’d ARSENAL NOW THAT THE battery life is left on your IPX4 rating), but they are Apple’s most
recommend to most AIRPODS PRO ARE HERE, iOS device, and that premium workout buds. [ NICK PINO ]
workout enthusiasts. BUT THEY ARE APPLE’S helps further their
In terms of design, MOST PREMIUM PLAY INTO space-age feel. (It
there’s a lot to like about THE TRUE WORKOUT SPACE, would’ve been nice to
the new Powerbeats Pro AND ARE THE BUDS WE’D see their battery life in
– it has a sport look to it, RECOMMEND TO MOST the top-right corner of 4
while still being WORKOUT ENTHUSIASTS. the home screen like
practical enough to wear we’ve seen with other
around outside the gym. true wireless earbuds, but that’s not a BEATS POWERBEATS PRO
$349
On each of the two earbuds the Powerbeats dealbreaker.) www.beatsbydre.com
Pro have a center playback control button where Staying in your ear and connecting to your
CRITICAL SPECS
the Beats logo is, plus a volume rocker. That devices seamlessly is table stakes in this Charging case; Ear tips with four size options; Lightning
means you can control your music with category. What really matters is how good they to USB-A charging cable; Quick Start Guide.
whichever hand is free, which is a nice feature. sound when you’re moving – an area that a lot

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 065 ]

TEST BENCH
RADAR
GoPro Max
360 ACTION CAMS HAVE COME A LONG WAY SINCE GOPRO’S FUSION, BUT IS THE TECHNOLOGY
ADVANCED ENOUGH TO MAKE THE MAX A COMPELLING REPLACEMENT?
GOPRO’S HERO 8 Black sucks up a lot of the
air around action cameras, but its new Max
360 action camera is arguably a much bigger
upgrade with a more novel feature set. Like its
predecessor, the GoPro Fusion, Max uses two
180-degree fisheye lenses to capture
everything in its direct line of sight. The Max
however, is the first to stitch these two
hemispherical video files together
automatically into a single 5.6K video file,
which is a massive time saver. What’s perhaps
even more impressive is that the updated app
allows you to edit and publish spherical media
from start to finish entirely on a smartphone.
The app update’s major ticket is the inclusion
of GoPro’s OverCapture reframing software
which can crop your 360-degree video into a
2D format, giving you the ability to retroactively
track, frame, zoom, pan and tilt towards
anything captured in the spherical video. This
means that if you’re happy for videos to be
rendered in FullHD then you can simply press
record on the camera and forget about shot
composition or framing until you are ready to
edit. This novel shooting process expands the
types of shots media professionals will be able to
create and it’s a feature that is particularly well
suited to an action camera – since it saves you
from worrying about getting everything in shot
and lets you focus on what you’re doing.
[ 066 ]
WINNER
APPROVED
AWARD
The GoPro team is keen to point out that the
Max has a lot of the new features seen on the
Hero 8 Black, but that the Max pushes these a
little further. These include greater
HyperSmooth digital stabilisation, bigger
360-degree TimeWarp time lapse sequences
and wider SuperView shooting formats which
are all distinguished form the Hero 8 Black’s
features by an additional ‘Max’ prefix on each.
Max also gets decent 16ft (5m) water
resistance, inbuilt retractable mounting fingers
and is now compact enough to be compatible
with GoPro’s entire range of mounting
solutions.
To round out the top-line features, the Max
has a new six-microphone audio array that
captures true three-dimensional audio. The
additional microphones also provide additional
audio information that can be used by the
camera to cancel out background noise and
hone in on the sound you want. In practice this
is great for isolating voices through wind and
giving 3D sound, but the overall quality wasn’t
as good as the Hero 8 Black.
The Max even offers the same quality 1080p
live streaming capabilities of the Gopro Hero 8
Black, which is a unique bonus for any
professional action junkies. Unfortunately, the
avant garde spirit of the Max can cut the other
way at times, with parts of the app feeling far
less polished than the Hero 8 Black and far
fewer shooting modes than we’d like. For the
most part the automatic on-camera stitching is
well lined up, with artifacting only occurring at
the mounting point.
Admittedly the GoPro Max isn’t great at 2D
footage, so don’t throw out your Hero shooter
just yet, but this action cam totally changes
360-video form a quaint immersive medium
that required a lot of post processing to
something that is an easy-to-use ‘must have’ for
anyone wanting to make their action camera
footage more versatile and engaging.
[ JOEL BURGESS ]
4
GOPRO MAX
$799.95
gopro.com/en/au/
CRITICAL SPECS
Colour LED screen; 6K 360 video stitched to 5.6K spherical
clips @ 30 or 24fps, 1440p @ 60fps (4:3) max 2D
resolution; MP4, H.264/H.265 or AVC/HEVC file formats;
78Mbps max bitrate; 16.6MP stitched 360 photo; 5.5MP
Max SuperView 2D photo; 6.2MP 270-degree PowerPano; 2
to 30x TimeWarp speed; USB-C; 1600mAh Li-Ion battery
(50min lifespan for 360-video); 5m water resistance; 6.4 x
6.9 x 2.4cm; 154g.
 WINNER
APPROVED
AWARD
Nokia 2720 Flip 4G
RETRO CHARM, MODERN TOOLS, BUT A TOUCH CLUNKY.
HMD GLOBAL HAS tried its hand at nostalgic Nokia revivals a few
times now, but the company that owns the Finnish namesake has finally
brought a bit of modern utility to its novelty lineup. The 4G-compatible
Nokia 2720 Flip reinvents the handset of the same name from 2009,
adding in contemporary smartphone features such as support for many
Google apps and voice assistant (with a dedicated button). For those
wanting to kick bad smartphone habits – transforming it back into a
functional machine and not an addiction – its limitations will suit you
well. Access to Google Maps, Whatsapp, email, and a web browser
means that you won’t be left in the lurch when you really need to use
these tools, but their clunky operation via the number pad and small
2.8-inch primary display will ensure none of them get overused.
Checking the time, date and notification previews on the external
display is also a real boon and will suit those trying to tone down their
phone usage. But for those that are after a simple feature phone for their
less tech-inclined friends or family, some of the alternative products that
are specifically aimed at ease-of-use would suit better as many of the
aforementioned utilities are likely to just complicate matters. Similarly,
even though it certainly is an affordable handset, you can find plenty in
the way of ‘smarter’ handsets that retail at this price, and even older
flagships that have dropped considerably since launch. For those
wanting a retro novelty or to curb their phone usage without losing core
tools, the Nokia 2720 Flip is a great choice, but for those simply on a
budget or after accessibility, look elsewhere.
[ HARRY DOMANSKI ]
4 41/2
NOKIA 2720 FLIP 4G
$149
nokia.com
CRITICAL SPECS
KaiOS; Qualcomm 205; 2.8-inch (internal) + 1.3-inc (external) display; 2MP camera; 1,500mAh
battery (removable); 512MB RAM; 4GB internal storage (up to 32GB with microSD); 3.5mm
headphone port; microUSB port.
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
TEST BENCH
RADAR
WINNER
ED’s CHOICE
AWARD
Jabra Elite 75t
STILL AS GREAT AS ALWAYS.
THIS FOLLOW-UP TO Jabra’s excellent Elite 65t – one of the first sets of
true wireless buds that ‘just worked’ – bundles together more than a
dozen improvements in an effort to tackle with more-recent
competitors, such as Beats’ Powerbeats Pro, Sony’s WF-1000XM3 and
of course Apple’s AirPods. The upgrade has largely been a great success
– as before, they’re comfortable and fast to both pair and reconnect, but
the 75t’s more compact and discrete design also feels significantly
tougher and more robust than its forebear’s, and they’re still
exceptionally lightweight and well-balanced in terms of weight
distribution. An extra 2.5 hours battery life, or 7.5 total, means they can
effectively last a full working day, and the slimmed-down (and now
USB-C) charging case somehow includes 3.5 additional full charges (28
hours) within it. Audio quality is likewise first-rate, although by default
it’s tuned for extremely deep, rumbling bass. Thankfully, it’s easy to
adjust the sound profile to your specific tastes via a five-band equaliser
in the Jabra smartphone app – and the 6mm drivers in each bud are
flexible enough that we weren’t able to distort them by pushing the EQ
to extremes. That tuning is saved to the buds, too, so it’ll carry over to
other listening devices, like your laptop. The 75t sadly still have a couple
of the residual shortcomings from the 65t – specifically, if you want to
use one bud, only the right one offers this, and these aren’t a great set of
earphones for gamers, where a little lag between the onscreen action can
mess up lip-sync and be mildly distracting. Mercifully, this is less
noticeable when watching movies. Those gripes aside, this is a very
worthy upgrade, and one that brings Jabra back into the top tier of true
wireless makers.  [ DAN GARDINER ]
ASUS ZENBEAM 2
$299
www.jabra.com/au
CRITICAL SPECS
Bluetooth 5.0; 6mm drivers; IP55 water + dust resistance (with 2-year warranty); 3 sets silicone ear
tips; 20Hz - 20kHz frequency response; 4 x MEMs microphones; on-bud playback/volume controls;
voice assistant support; 7.5 hours battery life; carry/charge case with 28 hours additional charge
(35g); 2.5 hours charge time; 5.5g per bud.
[ 067 ]
The ultimate
Summer
PHOTOGRAPHY
GUIDE
Mark Bauer explores ways to capture great images,
even as the days get brighter and longer...
WITH SUMMER JUST around the corner, most
normal people are getting excited and looking
forward to long, warm evenings in the Sun, sitting in
the backyard with a glass of wine, eating ice cream
and spending weekends at the beach with the family.
Landscape photographers, however, are different.
They seem to have reached a consensus of opinion that
the summer months are a waste of time, when there
are few opportunities to get your camera out and
create decent photographs in the harsh summer sun.
As a result, instead of relaxing and enjoying the
summer months like the rest of the population, they
can get a little grumpy as they go into a kind of
reverse hibernation: hiding away for the summer and
not resurfacing until the autumn, which brings with
it much more photogenic light.
The usual advice given is to pack away the camera
and catch up on any editing backlogs you may have,
or to devote the time to research and scouting for
locations that will look good at other times of year.
There is some sense in this: you do need to make time
for these activities and you might as well do them at
times when the light is less photogenic. But it would
be a mistake to ignore the summer completely, as it is
a season which brings with it some unique
photographic opportunities.
A critical component in a successful photoshoot is
planning. Whether this comprises physically visiting
a location to seek out potential images, or simply
making contacts and speaking to relevant experts in a
certain field before committing to a trip, planning
can be seen as the foundation of a stress-free, highly
efficient and enjoyable photography session.
Location scouting is an aspect that most commonly
applies to landscape, travel and possibly event
photographers, since those focussed on such genres
are aiming to capture extremely context-specific
images. For these photographers location is not
merely a backdrop for their subject, it is often the
subject itself, so it is of great importance to
understand the environment and be able to predict
conditions to enable the capture of the best possible
perspectives.
When we first arrive on location, especially one that
is unfamiliar, we are presented with a mass of visual
information, which we must sort to find the ideal
image. Without a grasp of the common lighting,
terrain and weather, we are unable to rapidly arrange
a frame from the best perspectives, making best use
of colour, texture and tone. This can often result in
stress in changeable lighting and a final image that
fails to convey the best elements of the location.
Here we will explore the key considerations when
scouting for new locations, examining in detail how
to read the light, make the most of unpredictable
weather and how to exploit location-specific
characteristics. Learn good planning strategy,
understand the challenges of scouting ahead, know
what to look for in a location and recognise the
benefits and pitfalls of scouting resources.
 Deal with harsh light
Summer can mean difficult conditions,
but stunning shots are still possible.
ULTIMATE SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE
The reason most photographers don’t like
summer is because the quality of light is
generally less photogenic than other seasons.
The Sun rises quickly and gets high in the sky,
meaning harsh shadows and little textural
relief. There is more atmospheric haze, which
can result in the landscape appearing flat and
washed out.
The day length makes things tricky, too.
Let’s face it, getting on location in time to set
up for sunrise is a real effort and staying out
for sunset will get in the way of family life.
While it’s definitely worth making the effort
once in a while, there are ways of creating
successful landscape images in the less
photogenic times of day when the light is
harsher. Shooting monochrome is one option.
Harsher, more contrasty light can suit black
and white images and the focus falls more on
the fundamentals of composition: shape, line,
texture and contrast. Look for bold, graphic
compositions with a full range of tones from a
pure white to a true black. An ‘active’ sky full
of texture also works well with mono
[ 070 ]
landscapes. If you struggle to visualise which
scenes will work well in black and white, use
live view and a monochrome picture style to
help you choose.
A natural extension of monochrome is
infrared photography. Harsh, contrasty light
is ideal, with blue skies recorded as deep black,
contrasting dramatically with bright, white
clouds, and foliage becomes a ghostly white,
giving images an other-worldly look. And the
great thing is, the stronger the sunlight, the
stronger the effect.
Digital cameras have an infrared blocking
filter over the sensor so for best results, shoot
with a camera which has been converted.
However, you can experiment with infrared
by fitting an infrared filter such as the Hoya
R72. This blocks light from the visible
spectrum, leaving only infrared light to reach
the sensor. Long exposures are needed and
some cameras give better results than others.
 Sunrise and
sunset light
Sunrise and sunset can be
quite different in the
summer months. Sunsets
tend to be hazier, as dust
and pollution has had time
to build up, especially on
warm, still days. Although
distant detail can lost, the
haze can help post-sunset
colour to radiate across the
sky. By contrast, the
atmosphere tends to be
Above: Above right: Below: Left: Far left:
Black and Wild flowers After Crop field Classic clearer first thing because
white infrared These flowers the rain A heavy sky countryside of the greater humidity
Scenes with make a Following and dappled Summer is the overnight and the fact that
lots of foliage wonderful a thundery lighting adds best time to there is less activity to
make excellent frame for rural shower, the depth and the shoot country create pollution.
subjects. landscapes. air was clear perspective towns and
and the sky to help draw pretty, rural
dramatic. the eye. scenes.

[ 071 ]
 E
IDE
GUID
R
O R
M ER P
MATE
MA
Understand summer weather
Understanding the weather is key to successful summer landscape photography.
In Australia we tend to romanticise the
summer as being full of long, warm days
spent on the beach or at a local park, the
reality is that the weather is often quite
changeable: neither weeks of blazing sunshine
nor unending rain but often quite a few
heatwaves followed by thunderstorms.
This unpredictability is actually great news
though, as it can provide excellent
opportunities if you get your timing right.
Cloudy days can help diffuse the harsh sun
and create interesting lighting effects even in
the middle of the day. The sun poking
through gaps in the clouds can create dappled
lighting across the landscape or spotlight key
features; with the right filtration and
processing, these conditions can make very
[ 072 ]
dramatic images. Cloudy days are also standing directly underneath an electrical
excellent for coastal photography: stick an storm with a camera mounted on what is
extreme ND over your lens and turn waves effectively a lightning conductor is not the
into an ethereal mist and the sea into a best way to guarantee personal safety. It’s easy
glassy surface. to get caught up in the moment, so don’t
Clear skies are not popular with landscape forget to pick a viewpoint that gives a strong
photographers, but they can be common composition. If you don’t fancy shooting
during the summer. In these conditions, lightning, head out immediately after the
you’re better off sticking to the beginnings storm, as there will be exceptional clarity and
and ends of the day when the light is softer the sky can still be dramatic.
and the low sun reveals form and texture in
the landscape. Another option during periods
of clear skies is to head out in the evening and
try shooting the night sky.
Thunderstorms are quite common during
the summer and they can be dramatic to
photograph, though don’t take risks –
 Left:
Colourful afterglow
Post sunset, the colour in
summer can linger for a long
time. This was shot some time
after sunset.

Above:
Misty mornings
There are a surprising number
of misty mornings in summer;
look for cool, still nights after a
warm day.

Above Right:
Colour contrast
With fields of crops, look for
something to break up the
expanse; here, a single poppy
does the job.

Right:
Poppy field
One way to shoot poppy fields
is to get in close with a wide
angle to exaggerate the linear
perspective.

Don’t forget to
protect your skin
Even on cloudy days the Sun can be
strong, with harmful UV rays, which
can cause sunburn and more
serious skin damage. Make sure
you wear clothing with UV
protection, a good sunhat and
effective sunscreen. In the summer
it can be tempting to wear shorts,
T-shirts and trainers, but keeping
yourself properly covered will help
protect against insect bites. Ticks
are common in bush and grassy
areas and can transmit Lyme
disease – a very serious bacterial
infection. If you are bitten by a tick
and develop flu-like symptoms
afterwards, go to your GP
immediately.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
 Choose
suitable
subjects
ULTIMATE SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE

Summer light isn’t perfect,

but there is no lack of subject
matter.
Flowers
From late spring until mid-summer, bushlands,
fields and pastures come alive with flowers.
Bluebells flower in woods during May, as does
thrift on coastal cliff tops. In June and July,
fields of poppies stretch into the distance – and
in recent years, pale pink opium poppies have
also been grown for pharmaceutical use,
though you’ll need to photograph from a
distance, as most pharmaceutial fields are
strictly regulated in Australia. In mid to late
August, heather blooms, covering Tasmanian
hillsides with purple, while Christmas plants
and waratah make for strikingly red
compositions.
To shoot wild flowers, you can get in close
with a wide angle lens to exaggerate perspective
or use the compression effect of a telephoto to
create the impression of a thick carpet.
Alternatively, use a macro lens and narrow
depth of field to isolate them from their
surroundings.

Crops
Fields of crops such as canola, wheat and barley
also make great subject matter; for something
different, try shooting with a restricted depth
of field or a long shutter speed to create
motion blur.

Misty mornings
Most people associate misty mornings with
spring and autumn, but they are surprisingly
common during the summer – look for clear,
still nights and the temperature falling after a
warm day. If you think there’s a chance of mist,
get out early and head for the hills. Looking
down onto trees and buildings rising above a
low mist is a recipe for striking images.

The night sky

Clear nights in are perfect for shooting the
night sky, especially the milky way. You’ll need
a fast wide angle (with a maximum aperture of
f2.8 or faster) and a camera capable of good
results at high ISO. Focused on infinity, shoot
wide open with exposures of no longer than 15
seconds to avoid recording movement in the
stars – this requires very high ISO settings.

[ 074 ]
Be prepared
If you find a good location, you’ll need to
check when the light will suit it best – in the
morning, evening or some time in between.
There are plenty of apps that will allow you to
check the positions of the Sun at different
times of day, including The Photographers
Ephemeris and Photopills. Photopills is also
excellent for planning night-sky shoots, as it
shows the position the milky way’s core and
when it is visible.

Aboveleft:
Coastal sunsets
Colour can filter up through hazy
summer skies to create spectacular
sunsets and colourful afterglows.

Above:
The Milky Way
Summer is the perfect time to
shoot the night sky, with the core of
the milky way clearly visible.

Farleft:
Opium Poppies
Opium poppies have beautiful, pale pink
flowers and large fields can occasionally
be found being grown for medical use to
help draw the eye through the image.

Left:
Coastal clifftop
Beautiful coastal flowers appear
on cliff tops at the end of spring
and beginning of summer.

[ 075 ]
 R UI E
OG A Y GUIDE
IDE
SU ERG
PH
PH
MM

Add punch with filtration

Despite advances in software, filters remain an
essential tool for landscape photography.
There are some filter effects that are difficult or
even impossible to replicate in post-
production: for example, removing glare from
non-metallic surfaces with a polarising filter
or extending exposure length with a neutral
density filter.
By removing glare, a polariser restores
natural colour saturation and improves
contrast; the resulting images have more
‘punch’. The effect is especially pronounced on
foliage and blue skies, making it an essential
filter for summer landscape photography.
They are simple to use: polarisers have a
rotating front element and as you turn it, you
will see reflections and glare come and go, and
blue skies darken and lighten. Simply rotate
the filter while looking through the viewfinder
until you see the effect you like. The effect can
be very seductive and it is easy to over-polarise
a scene, so that skies look unnaturally dark.
Neutral density filters reduce the amount of
light coming through the lens, allowing you to
artificially extend exposure times. Although
most known for creating misty-looking water,
this is not their only use: they can create
interesting effects with moving clouds and can
also be used to blur the movement of crops.
When it comes to using filters, there are
basically two types – screw-in filters and
slot-in, system filters. Although the former are
often cheaper, they have the disadvantage that
you are likely to encounter vignetting if you
stack two or more filters together and if you
have lenses with different sized filter threads,
you’ll need duplicate filters. In addition to this,
using a polariser in combination with other
filters – especially graduated filters – is
awkward. System filters solve all of these
problems – they are designed to be stacked
without resulting in vignetting, polarisers are
easy to operate and rather than having to
duplicate filters of different sizes, you just need
to get an adaptor ring for each lens.

[ 076 ]
 Consider blending problems
One filter effect that is possible to re-create in software is the darkening of skies with graduated
filters. If the range of tones in the original scene is too great for your camera to capture, it is possible
to bracket exposures and then blend them in order to create a single image containing the full range
of tones. However, be aware that blending is not always successful if there are moving elements in
the scene such as foliage or tree branches and if you are bracketing long exposures, there is always
the possibility that the light can change significantly from one frame to the next, making a
natural-looking blend impossible.

Above left:
Spotlit landscape
Cloudy skies can create
drama even in the
middle of the day if the
light breaks through
a gap.

Above:
Night sky
On clear nights, try
shooting the night sky;
but make sure you
have an interesting
landscape below it.

Left:
Misty lake
On clear, still mornings,
there may be mist
rising off water at
sunrise so head for
lakes, dams, and rivers.

[ ] [ 077 ]
 Process Infrared is an ideal technique to
infrared images try during the summer months,
but careful editing is required.
Probably even more so than standard colour
files, infrared images need to be processed to
achieve their full potential. When they are
first opened in the raw converter, they are
quite a long way from the finished article,
usually lacking in contrast and being almost
sepia in appearance. In this tutorial we’re
going to look at monochrome infrared,
re-creating the look of black and white
infrared film.

IMPORT THE FILE. Import the file into

01 Lightroom and open it up into the
Develop module. The histogram has
space either side of the tones, indicating that
it is somewhat lacking in contrast, and it has a
somewhat sepia cast – normal for infrared files.

BASIC BLACK & WHITE CONVERSION.
02 In the Treatment bar, click on Black
& White, to render the image in
monochrome. In the Tone Panel and adjust
brightness with the Exposure slider and contrast,
using the Blacks, Whites, Shadows, Highlights and
Contrast Sliders.
BLACK AND WHITE MIX. Scroll down
03 the Black and White Mix to fine tune
to
individual tones. These are colour sliders,
which may seem counter-intuitive, but it’s like using
colour filters with black and white film; for example,
you can darken the sky with the Reds slider.
LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS. You may need
04 to make local adjustments to the image.
In this case, the grass was still a little
light after the global adjustments and needs
more contrast – so the grad filter was used on the
foreground to darken it and increase contrast.

ADD THE FILM LOOK. Infrared film has

05 distinctive glow, especially in the
a
highlights and is known for being grainy.
To simulate this look, you can add film grain in the
effects panel. Large, coarse grain works well. In the
presence panel, reduce Clarity for the glow.

CLEAN UP THE IMAGE. Add the final

06 touches to the image by cropping,
correcting distortion and removing dust
spots. In this case, the image was shot with an
old, IR-converted camera with no automatic dust
removal feature so dust-spotting was necessary.

[ 078 ]
 Left:
BEFORE Unprocessed raw
image
The unprocessed
image is a long way
from the final result:
lacking in contrast
and with a sepia cast

Ten tips for

summer landscapes
01
Shoot coastal sunsets. You often get
prolonged afterglows in summer.
Make the most of the colour by shooting at
the coast.

02
Shoot sunrise near water. After a cool,
still night, shoot sunrise near lakes
and rivers, where you may find mist rising.

03
Take enough layers. If staying out for
sunset, remember that the
temperature can drop rapidly in the evening,
so pack suitable layers.

AFTER Anticipiate thunderstorms. Hot

04
weather often brings thunderstorms.
Processed Image
The processed Look out for the build up of cumulonimbus
image has the clouds, which make dramatic skyscapes.
classic otherworldly
look of monochrome Embrace bad weather. Most summers,
infrared, with deep 05
black sky and you will get some rainfall. On rainy
ghostly pale foliage. days, shoot bush interiors or waterfalls – get
creative with ND filters.

06
Respect nature. Don’t walk into the
middle of fields of crops or flowers;
this can cause significant damage.

07
Avoid the crowds. Summer brings
crowds with it. Avoid them by getting
up early and doing your photography while
everyone else is in bed.

08
Exploit atmospheric haze. Atmospheric
haze isn’t always a bad thing and can
add depth to scene containing ranges of
mountains or hills.

09
Pick out shapes and shadows. With
harsh light and clear skies, use a
longer focal length to crop in on shapes,
patterns and shadows.

10
Photograph reflections .The air is
often a little more still in the summer
months, so head for lakes to shoot mirror-like
reflections.
 Find the best
location
SUPERGUIDE
ULTIMATE SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE

Hone your research skills and use the right tools to

collect the information you need.
Finding an ideal location for photography is a far
more complex process than many new
photographers appreciate. Picking the right
place to make images may seem like an obvious
step, but there are more considerations involved
than simply where to visit and from which
direction to shoot your images. Every location is
an extensive arrangement of potential frames,
overlapping and interacting with one another –
finding order in this cacophony of textures, light
and colour requires experience, timing and a
little experimentation. Deciding on the location
itself is a choice that is determined by
numerous factors.
On some occasions the decision to make
images at a location is merely influenced by
personal tastes and an ambition to capture a
pre-visualised composition. Perhaps you have
seen images made at a place by other
photographers and wish to attempt your own
interpretation. In other instances you may be
seeking a specific subject, which is exclusively
found at one or similar locations, such as a
wildlife subject or plant or insect for macro
photography. In all of these cases you are
working with a fixed location choice – your
decision-making is restricted by the demands of
your subject and is less open for adaptation.
Where you hope to capture animals or plants,
your timing will also have to be a consideration.
Certain species are only present at particular
times of the day or year, so when you go to visit
the site will add an extra dimension to the
planning and scouting trips you may make
before your main shoot.
Conversely, if an image style is what you seek,
rather than a specific composition or subject,
then timing may be of greater importance than
location itself, in which case your approach to
scouting should be adapted to find image
elements, such as water, forest, elevation etc.
Working free of the restrictions of a fixed locale
can provide more creative opportunities, but be
mindful of a greater range of factors. Will you be
able to use the common compositional
techniques? Who does the land belong to? Is it
accessible at the right times? Are there safety or
conservation challenges?
Part of the process of location scouting is
being able to identify when a site is unsuitable
– choosing not to shoot somewhere is as
important as deciding when a place is ideal.

Use online research resources

Use these tools when you’re unable to visit a site in person or prior to a scouting trip.

FLICKR. While known as a great
01 platform for showcasing work, Flickr’s
search features allow rapid recall
of images tagged with appropriate keywords.
Functionality is simple, while a map can be
displayed if the uploader provided location data.
The vast number of image contributors creates
an inclusive database of preview images even of
lesser-known sites.
GOOGLE MAPS. Providing interactive
02 remote exploration of even the most
geographically distant location, Google
Maps and Street View offer a fantastic resource
for assessing terrain, checking accessibility and
planning potential compositions. Due to coverage
and challenges of scouting affordability, these are
especially useful for travel and cityscape locations.
Save permalinks to maps for instant recall.
SOCIAL MEDIA. While not
03 necessarily the best choice of
photographic repository, Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram provide an exhaustive
collection of images of a huge variety of
destinations and viewpoints. A quick hashtag
search will call up multiple compositions in
most weather and lighting conditions, offering
you a detailed preview of expected conditions.

[ 080 ]
 REMEMBER A TORCH
When exploring locations
a torch is useful for safety
reasons, especially during pre-
dawn or dusk. It is also useful
for simulating lighting on small
areas of a frame, to predict how
detail will appear as the sun
changes position.

Left:
Beyond the obvious
By researching a location using online
resources before visiting you can seek
out potential, unique images to try,
saving time later during your shoot.

Above:
New opportunities
Even at well-known sites, extensive
investigation prior to a shoot can
reveal new elements to focus on that
may not receive as much attention
from photographers, creating novel
images.

Choose lenses for scouting

The lenses you choose for scouting trips may differ from those you use for your main photoshoot
When conducting a first visit to a new location there are certain markers you may look for, to provide creative ideas and confirm it as a place to revisit. While the
images you make on such a shoot may be portfolio-worthy, the kit you use should provide the best opportunity for capturing photographic ‘sketches’ rather than
final pictures. While not essential, you may find that using the ‘wrong’ lens for a final composition actually gives more usable, informative reference shots.

 
18-200MM SUPER- STANDARD
01 A popular 02 WIDE 03 35mm orA
focal Often 50mm optic,
range among travel a 10mm lens can on APS-C and full frame
photographers, the prove too inclusive of cameras respectively,
super-zoom gives unwanted foreground provides a perspective
maximum versatility of detail, so unless you similar to human vision.
composition, from wideangle have found good points These lenses are also usually
to medium telephoto. There is a trade-off of interest in all frame areas, a standard lens is compact and great choices when travelling on
in image quality, with overall lower better. However, if you need to carry one lens and scouting trips to multiple locations. While a prime
sharpness and the widest settings often displaying plan to shoot both wide and standard frames, lens is not the most flexible for varying composition,
barrel distortion, however this is the perfect lens for shoot at 10mm and crop multiple options later. they are good tools for visual ‘note-taking’.
trying many different framing possibilities.

[ 081 ]
 Plan for lighting
Read your environment and select the best times to shoot your location.
The one contiguous element in all images in
any genre of photography is lighting. Whether
you aim to shoot portraits, landscapes,
wildlife or macro images, the intensity,
direction, variance and controllability of light
will impact on the success of your images.
Unless you are working in a studio, where you
have full, unlimited control over every light
source and its spread, planning for changes in
lighting and learning to adapt your approach
to exploit that which is available to you is an
essential professional skill.
When scouting locations, light should be
high on your list of parameters to assess. This
may be a case of working out where the sun
will be in the sky at the time you intend to
conduct your shoot, or when it will appear at a
Choose a time of day While visiting a location decide when the best images may be captured
PRE-DAWN. Before the sun rises, the
01 cool hues in the sky complement
foregrounds with good contrast and
illumination. Cityscapes or landscapes with
artificial light sources are perfect scenes for this
time, as are reflective bodies of water. Reflective
foregrounds can appear dull due to low contrast.
[ 082 ]
pre-visualised place, to illuminate the scene as
you require. Furthermore, the direction of the
natural light and how much of it reaches your
desired shooting spot must be appraised, so
you can evaluate the need for additional
lighting, such as off-camera flash, and plan
workable flash ratios for a natural blend with
the ambient conditions. In either instance, the
challenge is visualising how a scene will
appear in the future – we cannot always visit a
location under the same lighting, so
estimating exposure and composition based
on probable lighting is essential.
The first of two core lighting factors is the
interaction with the environment. The angle at
which it strikes the terrain, the distribution of
highlights and shadows this creates, as
SUNRISE Once the sun is up contrast
02 is much higher. The surface of water
can quickly lose highlight detail, so
look for compositions with a lower perspective
to minimise their visibility in the frame, while
featuring the sun and its directional lighting in
the frame.
influenced by the shape of the land, and how
much light is reflected back towards the
camera can all be assessed by visiting a
location, either in person or by studying
online maps and images. Examining multiple
angles will enable you to predict if the sun will
be visible in your intended composition,
which may influence your exposure choices.
The second factor is timing. When choosing
a location you have to be confident you can be
in place to shoot when you need to be,
confirming accessibility at any time of day.
Furthermore, evaluate if you will be able to
move with the lighting, changing your
position as the sun tracks across the sky,
allowing you to capture multiple image styles.
MIDDAY/AFTERNOON While not
03 ideal for many landscapes, high-
contrast midday lighting compliments
modern architecture or strong black and white
landscapes. This may not be the best time to
scout locations as the light is not representative
of any other time of day you may visit.
 Use The Photographer’s
Ephemeris
Employ this popular web tool for

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predicting lighting angle and direction.
TPE is an established method of calculating lighting for future shoots.
Available as a web interface or as an application for mobile devices, the
software enables the photographer to enter information about the time
and date of a proposed photoshoot and will display a diagram of where
in the sky the sun or moon will be. This enables a shooting position
to be chosen in advance and with accuracy, to deliver images with the
ideal composition and an appropriate exposure.

Above left:
Predict the future
Part of the skillset of a
location photographer is
Add essential
being able to account for
how light may change over
accessories
time and how this will make Decide which additional
a scene appear in future.
tools to take based on
what you scouted

Left:
Seasonal variance
As well as the time of day,
on a longer timescale it is
worth visiting a location in
each season as you may
find images materialise that
did not present themselves
previously.
ND GRAD FILTERS. The
01 filter type you should
take on location
depends on the terrain you
find. For complex horizons, a
soft grad set is best to avoid
over-darkening the foreground,
but consider a 0.3 hard grad where
the horizon line will be partially visible
at sunrise or sunset.

 
TRIPOD TYPE. At
02 unfamiliar locations
experiment with
setting up your tripod on
different surfaces to confirm
it will be suitable. Confidence
that your tripod will support the
camera on rock, sand and grass
will save rushed position adjustments
in changeable light.

 
TRIPOD HEAD. Multi-
03 functional heads are
useful for everyday
photography but may not be ideal
for specific requirements. If you
find a location that’s suitable for
panoramic photography, consider
taking only a panoramic head.

EVENING Evening or late afternoon
04 in winter is a great time to explore
new locations. As well as providing
attractive final images, the lower sun provides a
good ‘modelling light’ for both sunrise and sunset
shoots, while providing more time to try different
compositions.
SUNSET Colours are generally warmer
05 than at sunrise, which makes sunset
ideal for almost any image, from
landscapes to portraiture. For the latter, the low
sun, paired with a diffuser, introduces an attractive
glow without the need for flash accessories.
DIFFUSERS. For portraits
04 or macro photography,
decide if you will need
diffusers to soften natural or flash
light. In confined areas a small
handheld diffuser will be suitable,
but where you intend to frame
wider images, a scrim may be better.
Try different options before your shoot.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 083 ]
 Discover potential
compositions
SUPERGUIDE
ULTIMATE SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE

Use your scouting trips to identify a multitude

of framing possibilities for you to employ.
Composition is likely the foremost ingredient
on a photographer’s mind when location
scouting, whether the intention is to capture a
pre-planned frame, or to seek out effective
images at an unfamiliar site. The question we
should ask ourselves before heading out to
find a location is whether our choice of
composition will affect our selection of site, or
if the inverse is true and we are willing to
adapt our framing decisions, based on the
picture opportunities provided by the location.
This can help us form a structured plan of
what to look for, what we hope to achieve in
the final results and therefore the lengths we
are willing to go to capture these target images.
More challenging locations often provide
image opportunities with a higher perceived
worth by viewers, but demand greater effort
on the part of the photographer when it comes
to travel time, physical exertion, shooting time
invested and risk to personal safety and that of
the camera gear.
The main things to look out for when
scouting for prospective compositions are the
opportunities available for creativity. While
any coastal spot may offer ‘nice’ views, those
that enable the photographer to employ
artistic compositional strategies, such as
leading lines, unconventional horizon
placement and variable camera heights should
stand out as the most promising choices. Also
of importance is how ‘workable’ the scene will
be – is the location conducive to multiple
perspectives, enabling the photographer to
change composition by physically moving to
many positions around the location? Where
this is not possible, you may decide that
although the frame you will be able to capture
is on your wishlist, it would be a better
investment to visit another place, which offers
multiple photo possibilities.
This varying of angle is critical when
assessing location suitability. By observing the
scene from multiple points of view, either on
site or using Google Maps, you will be able to
foresee how you can control context,
arranging your frame to isolate parts of the
environment. It will help you to plan how to
hide distractions or elements that make
images too context-specific, such as signage.

Right above: Right:

Compose for any occasion
Finding the best angle from which to study a subject
enables the photographer the confidence to be
creative under any weather or lighting condition and
to search for unique elements.
Check the entire image
When arranging compositions remember to consider
all areas of the scene including the fore , middle
and background to calculate the best way to align a
location’s strongest characteristics.

Improve scouting technique

Get more from your initial visits to a location and be better prepared to capture effective images.

WORK WITHOUT A TRIPOD. While you
01 may use camera support on your final
shoot, working handheld when testing
possible compositions allows you greater freedom
to try creative framing options. A more rapid re-
framing procedure enables a far more
efficient visit.
VARY THE FOCAL LENGTH. Once you
02 have secured some standard, ‘safe’
compositions, try changing lenses to
experiment with framing options at other focal
length extremes. A 70-200mm lens is an effective
tool for isolating smaller location details or lightly
compressing perspective.
SHOOT BOTH ORIENTATIONS. Switch
03 to an alternative framing arrangement
to see what effect this has on your
images’ context. A portrait frame will emphasise
foreground and scene depth. For every frame
consider rotating the camera to maximise image
possibilities in future shoots.

[ 084 ]
 Choose a shooting perspective
Find the best aspects of a scene and learn to exploit
location potential.
EXPLORE THE LOCATION. When
01 you first arrive leave your camera
gear packed away and explore on
foot. If completely unfamiliar with the location
check for potential subject matter, or if it’s well
photographed, look for the key aspects.
SELECT A LENS. Now that you have
03 picked out key areas of the scene
to focus on, pick a lens you feel will
best represent your subject. Unless there is an
obvious need for a specific lens, standard focal
lengths form a simple starting point.
CHECK THE FOREGROUND. Look for
05 unwanted detail at the very bottom of
your composition, which may impact
on the ability of the subject to hold viewer
attention. To address any minor issues, make
some small alterations to the pitch of the camera.
TAKE BEHIND-THE-SCENES SHOTS.
04 Use your smartphone or a second
camera to take contextual shots, to
remind you of how and where you set up your
camera for the test images. These can act as a
reference if you arrive in poor light, to maximise
time spent creating final photographs.
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SHOOT WIDE. Start with a wide
02 focal length and frame image that
incorporate a large amount of detail.
This compresses the scene into the confines of a
frame, which will help you identify where it is
best to try and direct viewer attention.
CHANGE CAMERA HEIGHT. Vary the
04 level of your camera to increase or
reduce the presence of foreground
detail in your shot. This will also alter the way
your subject is represented and can change the
wider context of the location.
SCAN FRAME EDGES. Before deciding
06 on your final composition, check the
periphery of your shot for distractions.
At this stage you should assess if you have chosen
the best balance between accurately representing
the location and producing a compositionally
successful image.
The
Photographer’s
image
By spending time
considering multiple
composition possibilities,
a photographer
can identify which
characteristics of a
location will best
represent it in the
boundaries of an
image frame.
[ 085 ]
 Incorporate effective
software fixes
SUPERGUIDE
ULTIMATE SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE
When scouting fails to deliver results use these quick processing strategies.
As we have seen, forward planning and
in-depth research play a critical role in the
success of a photoshoot, enabling the
photographer to fully exploit a location and
get the best possible images. However, there
are times when no amount of preparedness
can prevent conditions from becoming less
than ideal for the capture of the images we’d
aimed for. For example, unexpected weather
changes can introduce exposure errors or
create lighting which does not produce the
level of drama we had hoped for.
It may also present additional challenges for
setting up a camera safely and securely, in the
Perform extreme colour adjustments
Where lighting or environmental conditions are not as expected, software
can be a powerful solution.
MAKE BASIC TEMPERATURE
01 ADJUSTMENTS. Open the RAW file in
Camera RAW, Lightroom or Capture
and adjust the white balance. Try selecting Shade
from the Preset list and increase Temperature
and Tint further, to introduce a warm cast.
Increase Vibrance to improve understated colours.
SELECTIVE COLOUR. Use the Selective
04 Colour dialogue to tailor the balance
of hues within each colour channel.
This control enables the user to blend colours for
different effects, and for this image it has been
used to introduce more yellow and magenta
while holding slightly cooler shadows.
[ 086 ]
positions we had previously identified as the
best for shooting calculated compositions.
Safety must always be a priority on any shoot,
both for yourself and others, so setting up on a
steep incline, for an elevated, unobstructed
view of the location may not be as advisable in
rainy conditions as when the ground and
vegetation is dry. In addition, if you have had
to rely on internet resources to scout a site, or
if your reconnaissance visit was a significant
time prior to your ‘live’ shoot, you may find
the layout or terrain different from what you
expected. If a lens change was unable to
provide a solution, another means of altering
OPEN IN PHOTOSHOP. Many of the
02 steps in this tutorial can be conducted
in Camera Raw but here we will
use the power of layer masks in Photoshop
to achieve more interactive colour control.
Photoshop also offers multiple colour correction
features, which can easily be combined
MASKING. It’s easy to create an
05 unrealistic wash of warm colour just
by making global changes. Adjustment
layers are good as they can be removed
selectively using masks. To increase colour
contrast the warming effects were reduced over
the trunks and ground-level green moss.
composition is needed.
In both circumstances software processes
can enable you to correct some of the flaws in
your scene, to bring your images into greater
alignment with your expectations, or if your
are shooting as a working professional, the
expectations of your clients. While there are
currently no methods of totally recomposing
an image post-capture, combining intelligent
shooting practice, such as taking many
redundant frames, with careful post-
processing can produce images that more
greatly fulfill their intended functions.
HUE/SATURATION. The first step is
03 to strengthen the global warm cast.
Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment
Layer and make small alterations to the Hue of
the reds and yellows in the image, to emphasise
the dominance of these colours. Keep any
saturation changes you make subtle.
DODGE AND BURN. To introduce some
06 depth create a Brightness/Contrast
Adjustment Layer and change the
Blend Mode to Screen. Invert the layer mask then
paint in some areas of light with a white brush.
Lower the opacity if necessary and build up the
effect gradually.
Perform extreme colour adjustments
Where lighting or environmental conditions are not as expected,
software can be a powerful solution
DUPLICATE THE BACKGROUND To
01 make the process as non-destructive
as possible and ensure we can adjust
any automatic changes from Photoshop, make
a copy of the background layer (Cmd/Ctrl-J) and
work on this. The ability to use layer masking will
be useful later.
REPAIR SEAMS Photoshop will
04 automatically attempt to patch and
fill the space left by the move. Here
the pattern of the tree is complex so we masked
out the areas of mismatching sky colour on the
duplicate layer using a medium brush, with
moderate hardness.
Reduce camera shake
Put Photoshop’s Shake Reduction filter to work where you’re
unexpectedly forced to work handheld.
OPEN YOUR IMAGE Load an image
01 suffering from camera shake. This
image had to be shot handheld due to
newly introduced restrictions on tripod use. Use
Filter>Sharpen>Shake Reduction to load the filter
dialogue to improve apparent detail.
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
MAKE A SELECTION Use one of the
02 Lasso tools to make a selection of
the object you need to move within
the frame. We used the Polygonal Lasso here to
roughly draw an outline around the tree. Make
sure you try to follow the object’s shape as much
as possible.
EXTEND THE CANVAS To further
05 balance the composition we will add
more land and sky to the left of the
tree. Use the Crop Tool (C) to extend the canvas
and fill it with the Background Colour. Select
this new canvas with the Magic Wand (W), go to
Edit>Fill.
ADJUST FILTER STRENGTH Move the
02 Blur Trace Boundary slider to change
the radius of the filter effect. For
stronger blur use a higher setting. For the best
results add more blur sources to customise the
effect on a more local basis.
SUPERGUIDE
ULTIMATE SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE
MOVE THE OBJECT Here the tree is
03 a little too close to the frame edge
– a placement that was necessary to
compose out visual distractions. To move it further
into the scene, we used the Content Aware Move
Tool (J) to drag the selection to the right.
FILL EMPTY SPACE Choose Content
06 Aware as the method under the Use
dropdown menu. Photoshop will
sample the surrounding canvas to derive colour
and texture. This image has a uniform sky but in
more complex scenes, some retouching may be
necessary.
REDUCE NOISE Since the Shake Reduction
03 Filter is essentially a sharpening tool,
the process can introduce grain. If this
occurs, as happened on this high ISO file, move the
Smoothing Slider to compensate. Be cautious not to
blur too much detail.
[ 087 ]
 Address common
setbacks
SUPERGUIDE
ULTIMATE SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE
Learn how to predict frequently experienced
challenges to minimise on-shoot stress.
It is true that the best laid plans rarely
solve all problems relating to getting
what we want – a notion universally
accepted by photographers with
experience. Location scouting is an
essential step towards ensuring we are
as prepared as we can be to capture the
best aspects of a site once we arrive, but
there are certain factors we simply can’t
account for in our planning. Nature is
notoriously difficult to predict, hence
the requirement for adaptability to
weather, but there are other
contributors to the success or failure of
a photoshoot.
For example, people play a larger role
than is perhaps obvious in some genres.
Even landscape photography can be
impacted on by human factors. Land
itself is often owned by an estate or
individual, so it is possible to arrive
on-location only to discover that a
well-photographed scene is actually on
private land, which is currently closed
to public access. To proceed without
permission would be trespassing, so it is
always useful to research land
ownership before attending, Scouting is
greatly helpful in these circumstances
– learning of access issues early will
allow you time to contact the relevant
authorities or individuals to seek
permission ahead of your shoot. This
highlights the importance of
communication in any location
scouting process. Regardless of the
Location scouting
case study
Identify elements to
weigh up the costs
and benefits.
Core location
challenges
1. Unstable terrain
2. Busy foreground Setting the scene
Taking a step back to study this location by eye and via test
3. Open to the elements
shots allowed challenges to become clear and avoidance
4. Water vibrations
strategies to be calculated.
5. Flat horizon
[ 088 ]
What works – final image
Opportunity for movement
During initial scouting the photographer
could identify that these water channels
would introduce movement in longer
exposures, breaking up the static bottom
half of the frame.
subject or place you hope to shoot,
communicating your intentions can
solve many problems, from avoiding
unpleasant conflicts to reducing wasted
time for greater shoot efficiency, and
even improving your chances of a
fruitful photography session via insider
knowledge provided by people thankful
for your openness.
Another human factor is security –
some locations may impose access
restrictions or prohibit the use of
tripods. This may not be clear from
websites information pages, especially if Emphasised texture
By arranging the foreground
there have been recently updated carefully a good feature can be
policies, so consider contacting a venue made of the visible patterns in the
in advance of you scouting trip, to scene – a main attraction of
ensure you can spend more time the location.
planning your compositions when you
arrive. You may even be able to arrange
a special pass for photography if you
This image:
advise site management of your
Think context
intentions and requirements. It is worth looking for subjects that
Scouting setbacks are most common are not overly specific to a particular
when we visit a location or plan a shoot location. This will give you some
backup shot options should conditions
far in advance, or when we are unable prevent the capture of planned images.
to repeatedly visit that location. The
latter will always impose greater Right below:
pressure to capture the images we Look for the ephemeral
Look for things which may change
require, but the key strategy is to adapt
over time while visiting a location on a
your research procedure to your scouting trip. Identifying changeable
intended location. Alter your visiting features will help avoid unwanted
times, number of human contacts and surprises later.
advance planning on a venue-specific
basis to ensure you collect the
information you need.
Behind the scenes
Reconsider your choice of shooting position to vary interest in
your shoot series. Recording where you captured a successful
image can help plan future images.
 Strong subject Location scouting
As well as having good
foreground potential, the timeline
main reason for shooting
here was the castle, shown Correctly structure
in a wider context.
your location scouting

SUPERGUIDE
ULTIMATE SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE
strategy to be best
prepared for on-shoot
conditions.

PERFORM
01 INITIAL
RESEARCH.
If you plan to be
travelling through an
area, look online for potential places to make
images, or research how other photographers have
approached target locations you plan to visit. Find
out details regarding access and the best times of
day or year to conduct photoshoots.

Compositional direction
The subtle leading lines in
the foreground may not be a
reason to select a location, but
here they helped the decision
to choose this spot.
CHOOSE
02 WHEN TO
VISIT. Before
making a scouting
expedition, pick a time
that will provide the most informative experience.
Ensure that weather or tides will allow you to
make composition tests, as finding most of the
site obscured will not enable optimal
information gathering.

MAKE FIRST
03 SITE VISIT.
Go to your
location in person
if this is possible
to see how to make
planned compositions a reality and to explore the
surrounding environment. Ideally make this
visit within a week of your main shoot or make
detailed notes of potentially changeable elements
if you can’t.

IDENTIFY
04 CHANGEABLE
CONDITIONS.
A few days before your
shoot check weather
forecasts and tide times. Remember to account for
seasonal differences and the likelihood of shifts
during your shoot. Be certain that ideal tides
coincide with your preferred lighting.

 
ATTEMPT
05 YOUR SHOOT.
Attend your
location at the ideal time
of day for the images
you have in mind and
attempt to capture final, portfolio-worthy shots. It
is always good practice to capture more images
than you need, as frames either side of a ‘keeper’
are good references for future shoots.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 089 ]
 [ TECHLIFE #98 ]

HELP STATION
GET THE MOST FROM YOUR TECH

[ THIS MONTH IN HELP STATION ]

[WINDOWS] and follow the prompts. We recommend taking a
90 Q&A
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED   Local accounts in
Windows
drive image before you attempt to convert it back
– just in case something goes wrong.
With the recently released 1903 update, I IAN SLEIGHTHOLM

94 Windows decided to reinstall Windows from scratch.

CHILD-PROOF WINDOWS 10 During the setup process I was only given the [EMAIL]

98 Mac
MANAGE YOUR WORKSPACE
option to create a Microsoft Account using an
email address. Has the option to create a local   Archive Gmail offline
I’m running out of space in my
account on a PC been scrapped? Google account and realise I’ve got thousands of
JAY DERBYSHIRE Gmail messages clogging up the system. Rather
100 iOS
USE TECH TO AID MINDFULNESS
than deleting them all manually, is there some
The local option is still present in the 1903 way I can back them up offline and then delete
Android update, and in fact is slightly easier to find them to free up space?
102 HOW TO MANAGE DUAL SIM now – when prompted to create an account, ANDREW PARKHURST
ANDROIDS click ‘Offline account’ followed by ‘No’. Some
PC manufacturers have hidden the option The solution lies in downloading and running
104 Security & privacy during the setup process – if you can’t find it, MailStore Home (www.mailstore.com), a
ENCRYPTING YOUR FLASH DRIVES
restart the setup process while disconnected portable tool designed to archive email from a
Home networking from the internet to hopefully force it into view. variety of email clients and online sources,
106 HOW TO CREATE A PERSONAL WEB Similarly, the option for creating new local including Gmail. After opening it for the first
ADDRESS
user accounts in Windows itself is buried deep: time, choose Archive E-mail and follow the
head to ‘Settings > Accounts > Family & other prompts depending on your webmail address or
users’, opt to create another account and then email client. We recommend choosing to archive
click ‘I don’t have this person’s sign-in – and delete – all messages before a certain date.
information’ followed by ‘Add a user without a After you’ve run the task for the first time, you’ll
Microsoft account’. It’s also worth be able to browse and search your archive for
remembering that attempting to sign into emails using the tools supplied, plus restore them
certain Microsoft services – such as to Gmail if the need arises. Be sure to add the
downloading apps from the App Store – can MailStore folder, which contains your
lead to local accounts downloaded emails, to your backup.
SOME PC MANUFACTURERS being converted to CATHERINE ELLIS
HAVE HIDDEN THE OPTION Microsoft ones. If this
DURING THE SETUP PROCESS happens, you can try [SECURITY]
How do I check that
– IF YOU CAN’T FIND IT, converting it back
RESTART THE SETUP PROCESS again via Settings >  
my Mac is now safe
WHILE DISCONNECTED FROM Accounts > Your info from Zoom?
THE INTERNET TO HOPEFULLY – click ‘Sign in with a I had the old vulnerable Zoom software installed.
FORCE IT INTO VIEW. local account instead’ My Mac has now been updated to remove it. How
can I be sure that it’s worked?
TOM MARCHWOOD

Older releases of conferencing software

supplied by Zoom and partners installed a web
server in a hidden folder inside your Home folder.
This proved a serious vulnerability, as it’s left
behind even when the main app’s removed. Apple
pushed three software updates to its Malware
Removal Tool MRT to remove these. First check
the version of MRT currently installed, either
using a utility like my free SilentKnight from bit.
ly/mf344silkn, or by selecting the app at /System/
Library/CoreServices/MRT.app in the Finder. It
must be version 1.47 or later. Reveal hidden items
in the Finder by pressing Command-Shift-.. Select
your Home folder in the sidebar, and look for a
folder named .zoomus. Some methods of
You can still create local accounts in Windows 10. removing the web server replace it with a file of
that name, and lock its permissions to prevent the

[ 090 ]
 Store webmail
offline for future
access with
MailStore.

HELP STATION
Q AND A
folder from being reinstalled, so if you find a file
of that name don’t remove it. To remove it from
Microphone and Camera lists in the Privacy tab
of your Security & Privacy pane, install the
current app (without a web server), untick it in
those lists, then use the app’s uninstall
command in the File menu to remove it again.
HOWARD OAKLEY

[RECOVERY]
Recover files from
  deleted user account
After creating a new user account to fix a
problem, I chose to delete my original user
account, selecting ‘Yes’ when prompted to keep
my files, being told they would appear as a
folder on my desktop. My laptop then froze –
after 30 minutes I rebooted, but the files weren’t
on the desktop and the original account has
gone. How do I recover my files?
TOM HUNTER
It’s never wise to delete a user account
without having backed up its files first – for the
reason you’ve just encountered. Your chances of
recovering all of your lost files are slim, but you
may be able to get some back. Download the
portable version of Recuva from www.ccleaner.
com/recuva/builds to anywhere but your
system drive (a USB drive will suffice) to avoid
writing to the system disk. Run this and follow
the wizard to try and locate (and recover) the
missing files – perform a slower, but more
thorough, deep scan to maximise your chances
of successful recovery.
CARRIE MARSHALL
[HARDWARE]
USB music for the
  car without a CD
player
Most new vehicles no longer have a CD player.
My car has a USB port into which I’m supposed
to plug in a media device, controlling it with the
media/music app on the dash console. I have
dozens of CDs I wish to rip to a thumb drive to
play them in my vehicle. I want to see the exact
same design, background and playlist as though
I were playing a CD in VLC on my PC. I need
each CD to show up separately, so the tracks
aren’t jumbled together. How can I do this?
GERALD GIBSON
Gerald and his wife have two relatively new
4x4s, both of which have touchscreen displays
If you’ve got a recent version of MRT, no hidden
webserver folder, and no privacy listing, your Mac
should be free of old Zoom software.
and accept voice commands. With this in mind,
the best approach to take when preparing music
on a USB thumb drive is to stick to some
universal rules that should work across these
and other similar vehicles. For use in a car,
format the USB thumb drive in FAT32 format,
and avoid using sticks that are larger than
32GB – Windows doesn’t like formatting larger
drives to FAT32, and the cars might not read
them. Second, check your owner’s manual for
compatible file formats. If in doubt, be sure to
rip your CDs to MP3 format. If your files are
already in another format, use MusicBee’s
conversion tool (browse to the parent folder,
then select MusicBee > Tools > Convert Format
to convert to MP3). Voice commands also rely
on music files being correctly ‘tagged’ with
metadata – Windows Media Player and

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 091 ]
 occasional basis, but for the past few weeks
it’s been stuck on the same screen.
HELP STATION
Q AND A

LENA HOWARD

This could be down to several things – first,

MusicBee should add this while ripping, but
you can verify and edit metadata using
MP3Tag (www.mp3tag.de/en/) if necessary.
NICK PEERS
[HARDWARE]
MusicBee can convert
existing music to other
formats.
budget stretches to around $400, look at the
AMD Ryzen 7 2700 chip, which offers eight
cores – enough to run two dual-core virtual
machines while retaining four cores for your
main Windows installation. When it comes to
RAM, install as much as you can afford: 16GB
take a trip to Settings > Privacy >
Background apps and confirm both
Background Apps, and more specifically
Settings, are both allowed to run in the
background. If this is the case, head over to
Personalisation > Lock Screen and verify
Windows Spotlight is selected under the
Background drop-down menu. Assuming it
is, type “powershell” into the Search box and
click Run as administrator. Now type the
following command – all on one line – and
hit Enter:
Get-AppxPackage -allusers

  Virtual machine
hardware upgrades
I’m looking to purchase or upgrade my PC
specifically for the purposes of running a couple
of virtual machines so I can continue to run
older applications. What sort of hardware spec
should I be looking for?
PETE STUART
There are three critical components:
processor, RAM and storage. Look for a
processor offering at least six cores, such as the
latest AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i5. If your
would give 4GB to each virtual machine while
reserving 8GB for your main PC, but 32GB
would obviously double those figures. And
finally, purchase SSD storage (512GB can be had
for under $120) to ensure your VMs can run at
maximum speed.
MAYANK SHARMA
[WINDOWS]
Windows Spotlight
  screen stuck
My Windows 10 laptop used to rotate the
picture that showed on the lock screen on an
*ContentDeliveryManager* | foreach
{Add-AppxPackage “$($_.InstallLocation)\
appxmanifest.xml”
-DisableDevelopmentMode -register }
This will reset Windows Spotlight. Restart
and it should hopefully start working again.
CARRIE MARSHALL
[MAC]
Sleeping with an
  external display
When my MacBook Pro sleeps connected to
an external display, it has trouble waking up,

You’ll need PowerShell

access to reset the lock
screen.

[ 092 ]

Specific MacBook Pros
running some versions
of macOS have
problems waking
external displays.
sometimes requiring a restart. How
H can I
fix this?
DUNCAN BRACK
With any sleep problem like this, the first
step is to reset the System Management Chip
(SMC) and the Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM,
formerly PRAM). In many cases, that should
restore normal function, but running some
versions of macOS makes specific models
prone to sleep and wake problems, particularly
MacBook Pro models connected to external
displays. This probably relates to the EFI
firmware supplied with that release, and
updating to the latest version can fix it. Apple
now only provides those firmware updates as
Click File > Save in
order to export your
report, but be aware it
might take some time.
part
p off macOS and its securityy updates.
p There’s
a list of versions for recent models at bit.ly/
mf344efi. Another cause is an incompatible
kernel extension. Those are harder to address,
though most third-party extensions should now
be installed in /Library/Extensions – check
through that for anything old and unneeded.
HOWARD OAKLEY
[WINDOWS]
  Share your PC start-
up routine
I believe a start-up item is causing my PC
problems. How can I diagnose this with
someone else’s help?
KAREN FRASER
Autoruns is our go-to tool for getting a
HELP STATION
Q AND A
complete overview of what’s starting with your
PC. You can also use it to compile a report
when asking for assistance..
Download Autoruns from https://bit.ly/
autoruns. After downloading, right-click
A
Autoruns.zip and choose Extract All >
Extract. The Autoruns folder will appear after
the files are extracted. Double-click
A
Autoruns64.exe.
Wait while Autoruns scans your system –
this can take up to a minute or so. Once
scanning is complete, switch to the Logon tab
to get an overview of what starts with your PC.
You can also disable or delete start-up items
from here.
If you need to share your start-up entries
then choose ‘File > Save’ to save a report to
your Documents folder. Again this can take
some time, so be patient. Once done, close
Autoruns.
The uncompressed file is rather large –
locate it, right-click and choose ‘Send to >
Compressed (zipped) folder’. Once done, open
your email client and attach the zip file to your
message asking for help.
NICK PEERS
[ 093 ]
 [ WINDOWS ]

Child-proof
HELP STATION
CHILD-PROOF WINDOWS 10

Windows 10
KEEP TABS ON WHAT YOUR CHILDREN
ARE UP TO ON YOUR PC WITH PARENTAL
CONTROLS IN WINDOWS 10. SCREEN TIME
[ MARK WYCIŚLIK-WILSON ]
Use this to impose time
restrictions on how long
your child can use
Windows 10 – or their
BEING A PARENT is stressful and time- Xbox One console – for.
consuming enough without having to worry
about either what your child is using their (or
your) PC for, or for how long. To save you from
having to constantly monitor their use in
person, Windows 10 includes a powerful
collection of parental control options that can
act as your eyes and ears when you are busy with
other things.
Using built-in parental controls, it is possible
to place restrictions on the websites that can be
visited, the apps that can be run, and when the RECENT ACTIVITY CONTENT
PC can be used. While you might expect the You can see which apps RESTRICTIONS
and games your child has Enables you to block
options to be configured in Settings, you’ll need
been using, the websites access to games, apps,
to visit your Microsoft account online, and from
they’ve visited and their media and sites you don’t
there manage all the user accounts you have set search history. want your child to use.
up on your PC and added to your family. This
enables you to control settings from any
Internet-connected device, and monitor
your child’s PC use remotely.

[STEP BY STEP]
MASTER PARENTAL CONTROLS

SETTING UP CHILD ACCOUNTS ENSURE ACCOUNTS ARE LIMITED

01 To take parental control of a child’s account, it first needs to be
configured correctly. To do that, go to Start > Settings > Accounts >
‘Family & other users’. Click ‘Add a family member’ and create as many accounts as
you need for the members of your family – just follow the on-screen instructions,
indicating that you would like to create an account for a child.
02 If you’re setting up a child account from scratch, it will be as a Standard
User, so the account can’t be used to make potentially damaging
changes to Windows. If you’re using an existing account, check its status. In the
‘Family & other users’ window ensure none of the accounts are set as
Administrators. If any are, click them, then ‘Change account type’ and select
Standard User.

[ 094 ]
 TECHLIFE TOP TIP:
To use parental controls,
both you and your child
need to sign into Windows
using a Microsoft account.

HELP STATION
CHILD-PROOF WINDOWS 10
JARGON BUSTER
PARENTAL CONTROLS
Restrictions and
monitoring options that
limit what a child can do
FAMILY OPTIONS on a PC. This can include
Go to Settings > Windows blocking access
Security to access to websites, and
Microsoft’s parental age-limiting games.
control portal, known as
‘family settings’. MICROSOFT FAMILY
Microsoft knows families
use their PCs both
MORE SETTINGS together and separately.
Other options give you Individual user accounts
the ability to set spending can be linked into a
limits; and track a user’s ‘family’ so you can not
location when using a only do things like set up
compatible phone. a shared calendar, but
place restrictions on
users as well.

MICROSOFT ACCOUNT
An online account that
enables you to
synchronise settings and
personal data across
different devices, and
DEVICE STATUS manage parental
Enables you to see if the controls..
devices being used by
members of your
Microsoft family are
up-to-date and secure.

ADJUSTING FAMILY SETTINGS IMPLEMENTING BUYING RESTRICTIONS

03 While we refer to ‘parental controls’, Microsoft prefers to use the
phrase ‘family settings’. Any restrictions you wish to place on the user
accounts you have created need to be put in place through the Family section of
your Microsoft account. To access this, just click the ‘Manage family settings
online’ link on the ‘Family & other users’ page of Settings.
04 When you visit the ‘Your family’ section, you should see a list of any
accounts you’ve created. Beneath the name of the account you want to
impose parental controls on, click ‘Content restrictions’. You can start by using the
first two switches to prevent a child buying things through their account without
permission, and to send out emails when purchases are made.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 095 ]
 HELP STATION
CHILD-PROOF WINDOWS 10
SOFTWARE RESTRICTIONS
05 Scroll down the page slightly to the ‘Apps, games & media’ section
and ensure the ‘Block inappropriate apps, games & media’ setting is
enabled. Use the drop-down menu to choose the age rating you are happy for
your child to use. Bear in mind that ratings are somewhat subjective, and you
may not necessarily agree that a particular title is suitable for your child.
RESTRICT WEB BROWSING
07 Letting your child have unfettered access to the web can be scary – but
you can put limits in place. If there is a site you’d like to stop your child
from visiting, enter its URL in the ‘Always blocked’ section and click ‘+’. To ensure
the sites you approve of can be accessed, enter their URLs in the ‘Always allowed’
section. Tick the ‘Only allow these websites’ box to limit web access further.
LIMIT SPENDING
09 In Step 4, we mentioned how it is possible to require parental approval
before any purchases can be made, but there are more money-related
options in the Spending section. Here you can add some money to your child’s
account balance so they can shop online without having to pester you for money at
the time of purchase, and without the risk of spending too much.
[ 096 ]
CUSTOMISE APP RESTRICTIONS
06 It may be that an app you feel is suitable for your child is blocked by
an age restriction – but raising the limit may not be appropriate. For
example, Microsoft blocks some web browsers because they don’t offer the
same control options as Edge, but you can lift these restrictions. In the ‘Always
blocked’ list, click Remove next to any app you’re happy for your child to use.
LIMIT COMPUTING TIME
08 You can place a time limit on how long your child is able to use the
computer for by scrolling to the top of the page and clicking the
‘Screen time’ heading. Flick the toggle switches to the On position for any
computer or console listed that you would like to place limits on, and then use
the timetable that appears to indicate when screen time should be permitted.
MONITOR ACTIVITY
10 As well as placing restrictions on your child, you can also monitor
what they do online and on your PC. Head to ‘Recent activity’ and
you will be able to see not only which apps and games they’ve used, but also
the sites they have visited and the searches they’ve conducted. There
are shortcuts to impose restrictions if you see anything that you feel
requires action.
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[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 097 ]
 WITH A TRACKPAD OR
MAGIC MOUSE, CHECK
MISSION CONTROL’S
GESTURE IS ENABLED IN
HELP STATION
MANAGE YOUR WORKSPACE

THE RESPECTIVE SYSTEM

PREFERENCES PANE.
MISSION CONTROL
SHRINKS AND SPREADS
OUT YOUR WINDOWS —
CLICK THE ONE YOU
WANT TO BRING TO THE
FOREGROUND.

[ MAC ]

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR WINDOWS WITH A COMPLETE TOUR OF MISSION CONTROL

[ ALAN STONEBRIDGE ]

MISSION CONTROL PROVIDES an overview
of windows and ways to organise them. Enter
it by pressing the key with three small
rectangles. It’s in the top row on a traditional
Mac keyboard, and in the Control Strip on one
with a Touch Bar.
With a trackpad or Magic Mouse, check
Mission Control’s gesture is enabled in the
respective System Preferences pane.
Mission Control shrinks and spreads out
your windows – click the one you want to
bring to the foreground.
At the top is a bar where you create and
organize them. When you click the green
button on a window that supports full-screen
mode, it’s given a space in this bar. Hover the
pointer over the space for an option to return
to window mode. (Or, on desktops, for an
option to close them.)
The ‘Application windows’ shortcut in
Mission Control’s preferences is useful if there
are lots of windows open and the one you want
is from the current app – it only shows
windows from that one. Or you can put the
pointer over an icon in the Dock and double–
tap your Magic Mouse (or swipe down on your
trackpad).
Now let’s look at how to use it even more
effectively.

[ QUICK LOOK ]
MISSION CONTROL’S INTERFACE

A C
C
B
WHAT’S OPEN? D LET AN APP
The large area shows A
TAKE OVER
windows in this space. Drag Drag a window to an empty
one to another at the top to spot in the bar (even
organise your work. between spaces) to put it in
full-screen mode.

B D

MANAGE YOUR SHARE A SPACE

WORKSPACES Put the pointer over
Put the pointer over a space and an icon
the top bar to see appears. Click it to close
your spaces. Drag the space – but not the
the thumbnails to windows that are in it!
rearrange them.

[ 098 ]
[ STEP BY STEP ]
DO MORE WITH MISSION CONTROL
A DIFFERENT WAY IN
04 If you want to move a window
between spaces or displays, you
don’t need to press Mission Control’s key while
dragging it. Drag the window past the top of
the menu bar to enter Mission Control
one-handed, then drop it.
PEEK AT A WINDOW
07 This feature’s been around since
the days of Exposé, a predecessor
of Mission Control, but it’s easily missed if
you’re new to the Mac. Put the pointer over a
window and press the spacebar to take a
closer look at the contents.
MAKE SOME ROOM
10 Come to the Mac from iPad? You
can reapportion space between two
apps in Split View. Unlike on iPad, you aren’t
restricted to multiples of a quarter of the
screen’s width; macOS is more flexible so you
can get it right.
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
MOVE BETWEEN SPACES
05 At the desktop or in Mission Control,
swipe left or right (four fingers on
a trackpad, two using Magic Mouse).
If spaces are set to auto-rearrange,
you can change that in Preferences.
CHANGE YOUR MIND
08 Not the window you want? Either
press the spacebar again or click
outside of the chosen window to shrink it again.
You’ll stay in Mission Control and can apply this
to more windows until you find the one
you want.
WITH MULTIPLE DISPLAYS
11 It isn’t just windows you can drag
between spaces and displays
— you can drag whole spaces between
displays too. Rather than swipe between
apps, you can see several spaces side
by side.
HELP STATION
MANAGE YOUR WORKSPACE
SWITCH AND STAY PUT
06 Swiping between spaces to find a
window can feel inefficient. However,
when you click a space at the top of Mission
Control, you’ll be dumped back to the desktop.
Hold Alt while you click and you’ll stay in
Mission Control.
CHOOSE A SIDE
09 Before dropping a window into Split
View, move it between the target
space’s left and right halves. The + graphic will
follow the pointer, meaning you can pick which
side of the space the window will fill when you
drop it.
FEELING A BIT SEASICK?
12 If animations make you nauseous, go
to Apple > System Prefs > Accessibility
> Display and check ‘Reduce motion’. These and
other transitions in macOS are typically replaced
with a crossfade.
[ 099 ]
 HELP STATION
USE TECH TO AID MINDFULNESS
[ IOS ]
Use tech to aid mindfulness
REDUCE YOUR STRESS LEVELS WITH THESE RELAXING APPS
[ TIM HARDWICK ]
MINDFULNESS HAS TAKEN off in a huge way
in recent years, with scientific research
backing claims that it can help improve your
concentration and reduce everyday stresses. So
what exactly is it and how does it work?
Mindfulness is the psychological process of
bringing your attention to what you’re
experiencing in the present moment, rather
[ STEP BY STEP ]
FIND YOUR STILL POINT WITH HEADSPACE
GET HEADSPACE
01 Headspace is a mindfulness app for
iOS (free, App Store). Some content
requires a subscription (US$13/month or
US$100/year), but it includes 10 free guided
sessions as well as tasters for extras like Sleep
Sound and Kids Calm.
[ 100 ]
than thinking about the past or imagining the
future. Techniques for gently nurturing this
kind of centred awareness can include simple
guided meditations that focus the mind on
body sensations without judging them. Other
methods for developing the skill, such as
interactive sound therapy and the use of
coloring books, have also proven to be
CHOOSE YOUR GOAL
02 After you’ve created your Headspace
account, you’ll see the home screen,
where you can select a daily session topic and
add new courses from the library. Each one is
usefully summarised in text and icons.
particularly effective.
Here we’ll introduce you to three of the best
apps we’ve come across for achieving your zen.
With a little luck, setting aside a few moments
of your day with one of them will reset your
focus and sense of purpose.
BEGIN A SESSION
03 Find somewhere you won’t be
disturbed, make sure you’re sitting
comfortably, and tap Begin to start a Basic
session. Watch the short video, select a duration,
and then tap Play to start the audio-guided
meditation.
[ STEP BY STEP ]
RELIEVE STRESS THROUGH COLORING

INSTALL PIGMENT
01 Pigment for iPhone and iPad is
aimed especially at adults,
featuring a number of coloring tools and Apple
Pencil support. Download it from the App Store
to try the free seven-day trial, after which it’s
US$6 per week.
PICK A PAGE
02 Open the app and tap the Books
tab, where you’ll find over 4,000
professionally illustrated pages. Tap one to
select it, then tap the Brush icon to pick from
24 kinds of coloring tools, such as Airbrush,
Pastel, or Glitter.
HELP STATION
USE TECH TO AID MINDFULNESS
START COLORING
03 Tap the paint can icon to choose a
different fill; the spanner icon
switches the coloring mode between freehand
and advanced. Pinch with two fingers to rotate or
zoom, and drag them to pan. Focus on the
painting and relax…

[ STEP BY STEP ]
TRAIN BREATH AND BODY WITH CHILLSCAPE

DOWNLOAD CHILLSCAPE START A SESSION CREATE YOUR CHILL STREAK

01 Inspired by mood-regulating sound
therapy, ChillScape — Sonic
Meditation (free, App Store) combines calming
AI-generated music with interactive graphics.
Tap Autoplay to begin.
02 Take deep, slow breaths and
tap the bubbles that emerge out of
the solar-like center in space. Notice how the
low-pitched audio tones begin to merge with
the subtle melody that’s generated as you pop
the bubbles.
03 As you progress, the audio evolves to
produce new sounds. You can adjust
the duration of a session, and the more sessions
you complete on consecutive days the better your
‘chill streak’ will be.

JUST BREATHE
USING YOUR APPLE WATCH TO DE–STRESS.

Apple Watch owners can find sanctuary amid distracting

notifications by using Apple’s Breathe app, which uses a neat
combination of kaleidoscopic graphics, haptic feedback, and
a technique called ‘resonant breathing’ to bring calm and
relaxation to the wearer. Depending on your preference,
breathing sessions can last just one minute or up to half an
hour, during which Apple Watch’s biometric sensors monitor
your Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and log this data in the
Health app on iPhone. The higher it is, the less likely you are
to be stressed.

DEPENDING ON YOUR
PREFERENCE, BREATHING
SESSIONS CAN LAST JUST ONE
MINUTE OR UP TO HALF
AN HOUR

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 101 ]
 [ ANDROID ]

How to manage
HELP STATION
HOW TO MANAGE DUAL SIM ANDROID

dual SIM Android

GIVE YOUR ANDROID A SPLIT PERSONALITY.
[ CHARLES HANDMER ]

AS DETAILED IN our recent article on Cheap
Androids, an online search turned up a
selection of very low priced Android
smartphones available from non-telco
suppliers. We went on eBay and bought one at
around $60 and another at around $120.
No surprise, the $60 phone was not even
close to the advertised specs – it ran a custom
build of Android 4.2 that claimed to be 8.0 and
displayed fake info in the phone settings.
Turns out you shouldn’t believe everything
you read on the internet!
Fortunately the $120 phone was a pleasant
surprise: the Umidigi A3 Pro looks a lot like an
iPhone X but runs stock Android 9.0 and all
specs were as advertised. We are now using it
every day. A little underpowered, but
great value.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
One thing the two phones had in common was
dual SIM slots. 3G only in the $60 cheapy, and
dual 4G in the Umidigi. We had been carrying
two smartphones due to separate work and
personal requirements, so it was time to check
out dual SIM options.
Major suppliers in Australia have resisted
providing dual SIM capability in their
mainstream phones. The same applies to eSIM
technology, an electronic or embedded SIM
card which most new flagship phones now
feature. But things are changing, with Optus
the first to offer dual SIM smartphones on
their post-paid mobile plans.
However, these are generally expensive
top-end phones, and we had an inexpensive
solution in mind. So, how do Dual SIMs work
in everyday life?
DUAL SIM DUAL ACTIVE
With Dual Active SIMs you have two phone
numbers available at all times. You can make
and receive phone calls from either SIM at any
time. If you are on a phone call using one of
the SIMs, you can also receive an incoming
call on the second SIM, but only if both are
operating on 4G.
In go the SIMs, plus extra memory.
Note that some phones only have
space for a second SIM or a memory
card, not both.
DUAL SIM DUAL STANDBY
Dual Active is expensive, and most Dual
SIM phones are Dual Standby, which
means they can make or receive calls
through either SIM, but only one at a time.
If you are using either phone number to
make or receive a call the other number is
offline and incoming calls to it will be busy
or divert to voicemail.
WHY GO DUAL SIM?
* Carry one phone for both work and
personal phone numbers.
* Ideal for international travel – buy a
local SIM for calls and data to avoid
high roaming costs, while your
Australian number stays available for

The Umidigi A3 Pro is a good looking budget

smartphone.

[ 102 ]

Change the default SIM names and
colours so you can tell them apart. Setting up Multi Sim Selector.
incoming calls and messages.
* Take advantage of the best mobile deals –
for example have one SIM for calls and the
other for data.
NOT SO SIMPLE?
So, just install two SIMs and you’re good to go
right? Well yes, you have two numbers on your
phone, but then it gets complicated:
* When calls or texts come in, how do you
know which number they are from?
* When dialling out, how do you make sure
you use the right number?
* How do you manage mobile data?
* How do you manage contacts?
* How do you manage messages?
Having two SIMs in one phone is not the
same as having two phones. There are two
numbers, but just one screen, and one of
each app. Of course top-end dual SIM
smartphones may have comprehensive dual
SIM management built in, but we’re at the
other end of the market and our Umidigi runs
stock Android 9 with no custom interface. So
Dual SIM apps are needed.
We researched and tested dozens of apps of
questionable value...
NAME YOUR SIMS
The first thing to do is to make your two SIMs
easily identifiable. We slotted in Belong and
Aldi Mobile SIMs but by default they are given
the name of the network provider, so both
were called “Telstra Network” in the phone.
On Android 9 you go to Settings and look
for SIM cards under Network & Internet, tap
on each and you can set its name and colour,
activate or deactivate it, and set defaults for
data, calls and texts. These defaults are
required, but you can override them
[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ]
HELP STATION
HOW TO MANAGE DUAL SIM ANDROID
Choose the SIM, and Multi Sim Set some limits and control your
Selector learns as you go. second SIM.
when sending. number to silent after hours. We didn’t find one
that does that, but this simple app gives you
ASSOCIATE CALLS WITH SIMS reminder notifications to do it manually.
DUAL SIM SELECTOR / MULTI SIM SELECTOR
Dual Sim Selector/Multi Sim Selector CLONE YOUR APPS
(available at the Google Play Store) seems to DualSpace – Multiple Accounts & App Cloner
work well for call management. You set rules, (available at the Google Play Store) came
for example associate each contact, or groups preinstalled on the Umidigi. It is not a dual SIM
of contacts, with one SIM or the other. When app as such but lets you clone some apps so there
you choose that contact or dial the number the are two copies running on your phone – say
app directs the call through the correct SIM. independent pairs of WhatsApp or Messenger
If you have not set a rule, buttons are apps. But it is prone to glitches, displays ads, and
displayed for a few seconds that let you choose can’t clone everything, so it’s not for everyone.
a SIM. By default this then becomes a rule for So far we haven’t found a way of creating
that contact. The process is very simple and separate text message boxes for each SIM, but
quick. You can even set rules for “number will let you know when we do.
begins with” which could, for example, direct
all international calls through a chosen SIM
automatically.
We have found Multi Sim Selector an
impressive app and the free version does not
display ads. It does have a few limitations, and
you have to choose only one type of rule. At
$7.50 the Pro version is not cheap, but if you
want to automate your dual SIM smartphone
it may be the way to go.
DUAL SIM DIALER AND WIDGET
If you want something more basic than Dual
Sim Selector this lightweight free app (available
at the Google Play Store) might do the job. It
makes it simple to select SIM 1 or 2 for each call
you make. It is supposed to be able to set up one
tap homepage widgets for favourite calls,
among other things, but we did not find that
function in our testing. It was also prone to
dialling out unexpectedly when our testing
confused it, so while ad free, it’s not bug free.
DUAL SIM REMINDER
Ideally a SIM management app would include Run two lives on your device with DualSpace.
automatically functions like setting your work
[ 103 ]
 [ SECURITY & PRIVACY ]

Encrypting your
HELP STATION
ENCRYPTING YOUR FLASH DRIVES

flash drives
HOW TO SECURE YOUR MOBILE STORAGE IN 2020.
[NATHAN TAYLOR ]

FOR ALL THE high security VPNs,

end-to-end cryptography and phone
lockdown and anti-theft software we have
now, the good ol’ thumb drive remains
pretty much as vulnerable as ever. Flash Don’t close this window until you want to stop using SecurStick.
drives remain a major cause of corporate
and personal data breaches as people carry
around huge amounts of unencrypted data
on them, with their only security
mechanism being “I hope I don’t lose it.”
Now there are hardware encrypted flash
drives on the market, but they tend to cost a
lot of money, at least compared to a regular
flash drive. But you don’t need to spend that
money – there are software utilities that
will create an encrypted flash drive for you,
and this month we’re going to look at one of
our favourites: SecurStick.

WHAT SECURSTICK DOES

SecurStick is an all-in-one solution for Enter a password.
encrypting flash drives. When you use
other encryption tools, you might have to
create separate partitions on the drive – an
encrypted partition where you store your
data, but also an unencrypted partition
with the decryption software on it, so that
the device you’re trying to access the
contents of the drive on can see the
encrypted partition.
SecurStick bypasses a lot of that fiddling.
It will create a virtual “Safe Zone” on the
drive in which all files will be encrypted,
along with their file names. The software
will work on Windows, macOS and Linux, Logged in and rolling.
ensuring that you can read the encrypted
files on most platforms. It doesn’t require
that any software be permanently installed – the application itself supports English. Just
on the devices – instead it uses a portable download it from one of the download links. CAN I DO THIS ON A USB
executable that you run when you plug the It downloads as a Zip file, which you’ll HARD DRIVE?
The simple answer is yes. Though flash
drive in. have to unzip to access. Inside the Zip file is
drives are more common, any USB storage
a single executable file – this is the program
device can be encrypted in this manner. Your
GETTING THE SOFTWARE AND PUTTING itself; it doesn’t need to be installed. computer makes no distinction between
IT ON THE FLASH DRIVE Don’t run the program from your main types of USB storage. You can even secure
SecurStick is free for personal use, and can hard drive. Instead, plug your flash drive in SD cards this way, although you won’t be
be downloaded from www.withopf.com/ and copy or move the SecurStick executable able to use such cards in mobile devices or
tools/securstick/. file over to it by dragging and dropping it in any platform that’s not Linux, macOS
The website is in German (you can read it Windows Explorer (if you’re using Windows). or Windows.
through Google Translate), but don’t worry If you want to be able to access the flash

[ 104 ]

drive on other platforms, you can also
OTHER SOLUTIONS
SecurStick is not your only option, of course. If you have a Pro or Enterprise version of Windows, you
can use BitLocker drive encryption, which is built into the operating system and can most easily be
found by typing bitlocker into the Windows search bar.
Then there’s VeraCrypt (www.veracrypt.fr
( r), a program we’ve talked about before in this column.
VeraCrypt is powerful, but it does require that the program be available on every device on which you

HELP STATION
ENCRYPTING YOUR FLASH DRIVES
download the executables for those other want to access the data.
platforms from the SecurStick website. For ENC DataVault (www.encsecurity.com
( ) has excellent tools for encrypting flash drives, but it costs
example, if you want to be able to access $22.50. USB Flash Security (kashu-sd.co.jp) p is also very good, but the free version limited to just 4GB.
encrypted files on macOS, then download
the macOS version, unzip it and copy the
file over to the flash drive. That way, when
you plug the flash drive into a Mac, the
macOS SecurStick executable will be right
there on the flash drive to run.

ENCRYPTING FILES
Once you’ve moved the executable to the
flash drive, open up the flash drive and
double click on the application to launch it.
When you run it, a DOS box will appear
in your taskbar (if you’re using Windows).
Don’t do anything to that box; when you
close it, you’re closing SecurStick.
SecurStick is unusual in that it uses a web
browser for its UI. The DOS window is VeraCrypt is an excellent alternative.
essentially a background task, while you
control the actual application through a
browser. On Windows it will actually often
fire up Internet Explorer by default SecurStick) or by closing the DOS window, drive and take it to the other computer. When
(because, for some reason, that’s still the those files will no longer be accessible or you plug it in and open it, you’ll be able to see
default browser in the Windows Registry), visible, and the drive will disappear from File the SecurStick executable(s) that you copied
though you can use any browser by typing Explorer or Finder. onto the flash drive. Run the executable that’s
127.0.0.1/login into the address bar of your To access them appropriate for the
chosen browser. again, just run FLASH DRIVES REMAIN A new platform you’re
The rest is actually a simple process. In SecurStick from the MAJOR CAUSE OF CORPORATE using (Windows, Mac
the browser, it will explain that it will create flash drive once more. AND PERSONAL DATA or Linux), and enter
a “Safe Zone” – this is an encrypted virtual This time when you BREACHES AS PEOPLE CARRY your password in the
drive on your USB media. You’ll be asked to run it, you’ll simply AROUND HUGE AMOUNTS browser window, just
enter a password, and it will enforce the be asked to enter OF UNENCRYPTED DATA as before. A new drive
listed password rules. Don’t lose this your password. ON THEM, WITH THEIR will be created on the
password – there is no password When you do, the ONLY SECURITY PC with all the
recovery tool! drive will be encrypted files on it,
Once you’ve done that, a Safe Zone will recreated and will appear again in File and you can access all the files stored in it.
be created. In Windows, you’ll see a new Explorer or Finder, with all your encrypted Flash drive security accomplished, easy as
drive letter appear in File Explorer, and the files contained within. can be.
browser window will inform you that Safe To take the files to another PC, you just
Zone is logged in. perform the same process. Unplug your flash

USING THE DRIVE

When Safe Zone is logged in, you’ll see that
a new drive has been created for you in File
Explorer or Finder. This is the encrypted
drive: everything you move or copy into it
will be encrypted and only visible while
SecurStick is running and Safe Zone logged
in. So, to protect your files, just drag and
drop them into that new drive. In
Windows, the drive will likely be labelled
‘X’ and be assigned to the first available
drive letter (probably A:).
And that’s all there is to it. The files on
your flash drive are secured. When you
close the Safe Zone, either by logging off (by Logging in.
clicking the Logoff link, which will close

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 105 ]
 [ HOME NETWORKING ]
Dialling home
HELP STATION
DIALLING HOME
HOW TO CREATE A PERSONAL WEB ADDRESS
FOR YOUR HOME NETWORK.
[NATHAN TAYLOR ]
HAVE YOU EVER thought about setting up a
home server of some kind? Perhaps your own
Minecraft server, a remote control server, or
maybe a private VPN that lets you remotely
dial into your home network and securely
access your other devices. If that’s the case,
then you may have run across one big problem:
dynamic IP addresses.
Even in 2020, most internet accounts don’t
come with a fixed IP address. Every time you
connect to your ISP, you’re assigned a new
internet address. Sure, that IP address may
stick around for a long time if you don’t have
any power, router or internet outages; but
eventually it’s going to change. If you turn
your router off and on again, or lose internet
even for a moment – boom, new IP address.
That makes dialling home from across the
internet an issue, since you can’t be sure what
your “phone number” (ie. your IP address) is
going to be.
The No-IP dashboard.
[ 106 ]
This is where dynamic DNS (DDNS) comes
in. DDNS is a service that gives you a
permanent URL that you can use instead of
the IP address. So when you want to contact
your home network, you don’t have to know
your current IP address: you just enter a fixed
URL (for example, myhomenetwork.no-ip.
com) that will always point to your
home network.
A software agent, running somewhere on
your home network, keeps the DDNS service
apprised of your current home IP address.
The DDNS service then updates the URL to
always point to that IP address.
To give an example, say you want to set up
your own private VPN service to dial into
your home network remotely. In order to dial
in, you normally would have to know the IP
address of your home – and that IP address
changes from time to time. But if you set up a
DDNS service, you could configure your
Creating a hostname on No-IP. Note that free No-IP
hostnames expire after just 30 days, so you have to
recreate them every month.
VPN client to point at your DDNS URL
instead, let’s say myhomenetwork.no-ip.com.
That will always point it to your home
network, regardless of what your current IP
address is.
GETTING A DDNS ACCOUNT AND
CREATING A URL
The first thing to do if you want to set up
DDNS is to get an account with a DDNS
provider. Some examples of providers with
free services are shown in the sidebar, but for
the purposes of our guide we’re going to be
using No-IP – not because it’s our favourite
(that would be FreeDNS), but because it’s the
most widely supported by routers, along with
Oracle’s non-free Dyn service.
If you plan on setting DDNS up on your
router it may be your best option; but if you
plan to use software, any of the other listed
services will do.
To set up the service, just go to the website
and create a new account. For No-IP, go to
no-ip.com, and create an account. Note your
account details – you’ll need them later
during setup.
Log into your account to access to the
configuration dashboard. This is where you
can create a URL (called a hostname) for your
home network.
Now to create a hostname. Find the option
to create a new hostname, then type in a
name. What will happen is that the latter part
of the URL is fixed by the service provider
– you just provide the first bit. For example,
No-IP URLs might end with ddns.net. So you
could create the URL something.ddns.net,
assuming that something is not already taken
by somebody else (it’s kind of like creating a
new Gmail address or gamer tag – you have
URLS AND IPS
A URL is a human-readable web address like,
say, techlife.net. What it does is point to a
particular internet address – an IP address.
For example, when you type in techlife.net,
your computer will translate that to an IP
address (in this case, 185.113.25.34)
4 in order
to send the data across the internet.
 HELP STATION
DIALLING HOME
Enabling DDNS on a Linksys router.

to keep trying until you find one nobody else Enable DDNS, select your service provider,
is using). and enter your login details and hostname. FREE DDNS PROVIDERS
Once you’ve created a hostname, make a The router should connect to the service and Duck DNS – www.duckdns.org
note of it. That will be the permanent URL of maintain the link. Done and done. You can DynDNS Service – dyndnss.net
your home network. now log off and start using your new URL, Dynu – www.dynu.com
Now you have to set it up on your local safe in the knowledge that your router is FreeDNS – freedns.afraid.org
network, so that the DDNS provider gets a keeping it up to date. No-IP – www.noip.com
constantly updated IP address that they can Securepoint DynDNS – www.securepoint.de
point the URL at. There are two ways you can IN SOFTWARE
set up DDNS on your home network. You can In lieu of setting it up on a router, you can
set it up on your router, assuming your router install an agent on one of your PCs. This is the
supports it; or you can install an agent – a more flexible option, but it will need a
small resident program that runs on a computer that is always-on – it’s a good idea to
computer on your home network. install it on the same device that you’re
running your services from (for example, if
ROUTER SETUP you’re running a Minecraft server, install
Setting DDNS up on your router is convenient. DDNS on the same device as the
Your router is always on, and setup tends to be Minecraft server).
quite simple. However, your router must The particular DDNS provider will have an
support the particular app you can download
DDNS provider you’re EVEN IN 2020, MOST and install. Grab the
using, and most have a INTERNET ACCOUNTS app, install it, and then
very limited list of DON’T COME WITH A FIXED run it. Many will have
No-IP’s Dynamic Update Client.
supported providers. IP ADDRESS. EVERY TIME the option to run as a
Some don’t support YOU CONNECT TO YOUR ISP, service (which means
DDNS at all. YOU’RE ASSIGNED A NEW you can run it in the provider always knows what IP address to
Log onto your INTERNET ADDRESS. background, rather point the URL at.
router’s administration. than having an active And that’s that. You now have a permanent
To set up DDNS on your router, find the app on your Taskbar). You’ll have to enter web address for your home network. This
DDNS settings. Different router makers put it your account username and password, as well enables a whole host of other services (many
in different settings – sometimes network, as your hostname. of which we’re going to talk about in the
sometimes security (near the port forwarding As long as it’s running, the software will be coming months) and makes it that much
settings). On Linksys, for example, you can updating your DDNS provider with your easier to find your home network from
find it under Security. current IP address. That way, the DDNS anywhere on the world wide web.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 107 ]
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BLUETOOTH BLUETOOTH TRUE WIRELESS

SPEAKERS HEADPHONES HEADPHONES
BLUESOUND PULSE FLEX 2I AUDIO-TECHNICA BEATS POWERBEATS PRO

BUYER’S GUIDE
READY RECKONER
ATH-M50XBT
$699, bluesound.com $299, audio-technica.com $349, beatsbydre.com/au

More than a Long battery life and If you want true

Bluetooth speaker, sound that’s closer wireless buds with
with Wi-Fi and to the more neutral quality audio, there’s
ethernet included WRQHV RI KLĆ FDQV almost nothing to
this is more like a (though still with match these, and the
portable Sonos. It’s a slight extra kick ZD\ WKH\ ĆW PHDQV
$LU3OD\  FRPSDWLEOH of bass), plus great they cannot fall out
and works with comfort levels, make and get lost. Beats
streaming services these ideal for losing KDV NQRFNHG LW RXW RI
and internet radio. yourself in music. the damn park.

AUDIO PRO ADDON C3 AKG Y50BT JABRA ELITE 65T

$449, audiopro.com $249, au.akg.com $239, jabra.com.au

$ ĆQH EOHQG RI FODVVLF If you want an on-ear Jabra has solved

Bluetooth portability, alternative to the most of the problems
high-quality audio Marshalls, these that bedevilled
and Scandie style. ’phones from AKG earlier true wireless
Thanks to Wi-Fi, you remain a great option. buds. Sound is great,
can stream higher The sound is punchy connectivity is rock
quality sounds and the styling is VROLG WKH ĆW LV VHFXUH
indoors, then revert pretty cool without but comfortable, and
to Bluetooth in the WU\LQJ WRR KDUG they’re discreet.
garden.

ULTIMATE EARS OPTOMA NUFORCE BE LIVE5 SONY WF-1000XM3

MEGABOOM 3
$199, ultimateears.com $145, optoma.com $399, store.sony.com

The best waterproof These slick As it’s done with

speaker – it even earphones offer over-ear NC cans,
ćRDWV å RIIHUV  incredible sound Sony’s new buds
hours of battery life for the price, taking have demolished the
and a hefty sound, everything from pop competition with the
perfect for outdoor to classical in their EHVW DXGLR LQ WKH ĆHOG
parties. It works great stride. They’re made and noise cancelling
for kitchen audio to stay comfortable that will leave you in
duties, too. for their eight-hour a world of peaceful
battery life. bliss.

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO SOUNDMAGIC E11BT APPLE AIRPODS

YOYO M
$425, cambridgeaudio.com $125, soundmagicheadphones.com $220, apple.com/au

The best Bluetooth These are as good as Apple’s wireless

solution for buds that cost twice ’phones may not
audiophiles’ audio as much. Audio is sound as good as
ĆOHV WKLV LV DV \RX brilliant, connectivity some of the newer
can see, a stereo is rock solid, the rivals, but they still
pair. As such it’s necklace-style band beat them all for
more like a classic stays stable, and the battery life, ease of
KLĆ V\VWHP EXW ZLWK ĆWLVFRPIRUWDEOHDQG use and often comfort.
the convenience secure enough for They work best with
RI ZLUHOHVV exercise. iOS, of course.

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GAMING GAMING 4K
LAPTOPS HEADSETS MONITORS
ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS S STEELSERIES PHILIPS MOMENTUM
BUYER’S GUIDE
READY RECKONER

GX701 ARCTIS PRO WIRELESS 436M6VBPAB

$4,439, asus.com/au $399, steelseries.com $1,099, philips.com.au

The combination of The SteelSeries A simply massive

six-core processor Arctis Pro Wireless is 43-inch panel with
and top-of-the-line simply awesome. The up to 1,000 nits
Nvidia 2080 8GB dual-wireless audio of peak brightness
graphics make this system that allows and a 4ms response
powerful beyond for both 2.4GHz time. Thanks to the
belief, and yet it isn’t and Bluetooth Quantum Dot colour
that bulky. It costs, simultaneously is tech, images and
but no-compromise especially fantastic. videos have rich,
gaming is here. vivid colours.

MSI GS75 STEALTH 8SG LUCIDSOUND LS35X EIZO COLOREDGE CG319X

$3,599, msi.com $249, lucidsound.com $8,400, ezioglobal.com

This wolf in sheep’s For quality wireless Equipped with a raft

clothing couples a audio on Xbox One, of high-end features
GeForce RTX 2080 gamers should look this screen is ideal
with Max-Q Design here: it delivers for high-end photo
GPU with a Core excellent audio and video work, as
i7-8750H CPU and reproduction and well as general usage
32GB of RAM and also connects directly and gaming. Serious
a 17-inch display to the console hardware commands
to really aim for its without any dongles a serious premium
rivals’ jugulars. or cables. price, however.

MSI GT75 TITAN HYPERX CLOUD MIX WIRED SAMSUNG SPACE MONITOR
GAMING HEADSET + BLUETOOTH
$4,799, msi.com $278, hyperxgaming.com $899, samsung.com/au

This incredibly fast Premium design and This marries a 32-

and powerful system build quality meet inch high-quality 4K
lives up to its name top-rate audio here. panel with a unique
with a Core i9 CPU These work with space-saving design–
and GeForce GTX any gaming system, it clips (safely) to the
1080 to push pixels. and are also great rear of your desk,
A backlit mechanical wireless headphones so has effectively no
keyboard and 17-inch – they have built-in footprint. It’s easily
screen complete the Bluetooth, and the adjustable, though –
package nicely. mic can be removed. perfect for work.

ACER PREDATOR TURTLE BEACH ELITE DELL ULTRASHARP UP3216Q

TRITON 500 PRO 2 + SUPERAMP
$2,699, acer.com/au $328, turtlebeach.com $1,259, dell.com

A great place to Turtle Beach’s talent Dell’s high-end

join the ray-tracing is evident in its Elite 31.5-inch 4K display
bandwagon without Pro 2 headset with packs in a lot of
breaking the bank, SuperAmp. Excellent professional-grade
the RTX 2060 GPU audio reproduction features for superb
can be coupled with is paired with a colour accuracy. It
a Core i7 and 16GB modern, supremely hits 99% Adobe RGB
or RAM to produce comfortable design coverage and 87%
the best upper-mid- and plenty of DCI-P3, delivering
range gaming laptop. advanced features. great picture quality.

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NOISE-CANCELLING WIRED IN-EAR WIRED OVER-EAR

HEADPHONES HEADPHONES HEADPHONES
SONY WH-1000XM3 FLARE AUDIO FLARE PRO BOWERS & WILKINS

BUYER’S GUIDE
READY RECKONER
2HD P9 SIGNATURE
$399, sony.com.au  ćDUHDXGLRFRP $1,249, bowers-wilkins.com

With 30-hour These are both The P9s don’t just

battery life, very wired and wireless sound wonderful
quick charging, – the in-ear bit has a with hi-res audio.
Google Assistant, cable to a DAC box, They do a stellar job
amazing bass which you can then with poor quality
response and an play music through music, such as
incredibly clever over Bluetooth or compressed MP3s.
noise cancellation by plugging in. The You can have any
processor, these are sound is fantastic – colour you like as
superb headphones. huge and nuanced. long as it’s brown.

BOWERS & WILKINS PX AUDIO TECHNICA ATH-

KLIPSCH R6I II A1000Z
$549, bowers-wilkins.com $99, klipsch.com.au $699, audiotechnica.com

With useful motion- A more comfortable Forget about MP3s

sensing features, alternative to in-ear or EDM: these
the stylish PXes monitors, the R6i headphones don’t
have variable noise IIs deliver lots of ćDWWHURUVDFULĆFH
cancelling and bass and a lively, sound quality for
accurate B&W HQJDJLQJ VRXQG bass. But if you give
sound. We think the It’s maybe a little them a good amp and
Sonys are slightly bass-heavy for older a good sound source
better, but you may music, but it’s great they do incredible
well disagree. for modern stuff. things.

SONY WH-1000XM2 FLARE AUDIO FLARES JET 3 SENNHEISER MOMENTUM 2.0

AROUND EAR
$250, sony.com.au  ćDUHDXGLRFRP $299, sennheiser.com

With the XM3 model Maintaining the The best sub-$300

replacing these, you quality of the Flares over-ear headphones
PLJKW EH DEOH WR ĆQG Pro (see Bluetooth aren’t too picky
them cheap – and headphones), about sonic sources.
if you can, you’ll get removing the DAC They don’t quite
impressive noise element and thereby have the frequency
cancellation and slashing the price, range of our more
brilliant sound in a these audiophile in- expensive picks but
comfortable body. ear headphones are a they’re well built and
They’re still ace. tremendous option. good for the price.

BEATS STUDIO3 WIRELESS SOUNDMAGIC E11C BOWERS & WILKINS

P5 SERIES 2
$369, beatsbydre.com.au $99, soundmagicheadphones.com $199, bowers-wilkins.com

These Beats deliver Can we really be The little sisters of the

exceptional noise recommending a pair mighty P9s deliver a
cancellation that of headphones for beautifully warm and
reacts very well under $100? Yes we spacious sound for a
to all kinds of can! The grown-up lot less money, and
environments, they sound quality and their closed backs
get three hours of exemplary comfort of mean they’re less
charge in 10 minutes the 11c make them likely to annoy other
and they’re the best the sonic bargain of people when you
sounding Beats so far. the year. commute.

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2-IN-1
LAPTOPS LAPTOPS TABLETS
DELL XPS 13 MICROSOFT SURFACE APPLE IPAD PRO 12.9
BUYER’S GUIDE
READY RECKONER

BOOK 2
From $1,439, dell.com From $2,199, microsoft.com From $1,199, apple.com/au

The Dell XPS 13 is Pull the screen away The Apple iPad Pro
thinner and more from the keyboard 12.9 is unbelievably
powerful than ever. and it’s a tablet. powerful and slick,
Up to 1TB of SSD Connect them for ZLWK DQ H[FHOOHQW
storage, 16GB of more graphics power screen, thin and
RAM, a 4K screen and battery life. A compact design,
and fast Intel chips premium, fantastically great battery life and
help make it a top portable, and support for the new
quality all-rounder. supremely versatile Apple Pencil. Pricey,
system. but worth it.

MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK APPLE IPAD AIR (2019)

2 HP ENVY X2
From $2,199, microsoft.com $1,697, hp.com From $779, apple.com/au

Available in 13- or The big sell here With a sharp, vibrant

15-inch sizes, with a is the monstrous 10.5-inch screen,
3:2 screen that gives battery life, with Apple Pencil support,
you more height up to 22 hours on mega-powerful A12
than other laptops, one charge. This is processor and thin,
and plenty of power, because it makes use light body, this a
this is a light and fast of ARM architecture, Pro in all but name,
machine that’s also with a Snapdragon for a bargain price.
UHDOO\ ćH[LEOH 835 CPU powering The best all-rounder
everything. tablet.

HUAWEI MATEBOOK X PRO LENOVO YOGA C930 SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S4

$2,249, consumer.huawei.com/au From $1,997, lenovo.com From $1,099, samsung.com

This marries style Ultra-thin and 7KH ĆQHVW $QGURLG

and function, ultra-light, this is a tablet, this delivers
delivering incredibly premium bit of kit. D V\VWHP ZLWK D VKDUS
capable internal With i7 processors, OLED screen, S
hardware in a form SSD storage, a 4K 3HQ VW\OXV H[FHOOHQW
factor that also 13.9in display and audio credentials,
matches Apple’s Dolby Atmos sound, powerful internals,
MacBook range in it’s no surprise to see and a neat laptop-
terms of looks and the latest Yoga in our aping DeX mode.
feel. Best of the Best list.

ASUS ZENBOOK PRO 14 SAMSUNG NOTEBOOK 9 APPLE IPAD MINI (2019)

UX433FN PRO
$1,899, asus.com/au $1,720, samsung.com From $599, apple.com/au

A solidly specced The specs here are A little powerhouse

laptop that scores top, the price is of a tablet, packing
highly in a lot of competitive, and it an incredibly fast
departments and even comes bundled Apple A12 processor
has a unique large with a quality S-Pen yet weighing barely
touchpad that can stylus. It feels really anything. Be it editing
be used as a second well-made, too, photos, music or
screen. It will handle especially the hinges multiple 4K videos,
most computing on the 360-degree iPad mini can power it.
tasks with ease. screen.

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CHEAP
SMARTPHONES SMARTPHONES SMARTWATCHES
SAMSUNG GALAXY S10+ SAMSUNG GALAXY S10E APPLE WATCH SERIES 4

BUYER’S GUIDE
READY RECKONER
From $1,099, samsung.com/au From $779, samsung.com/au From $599, apple.com/au

A premium build, The modestly sized This truly straddles

LQFUHGLEOH ,QĆQLW\2 and pocket-friendly the line between
screen with 5.8-inch screen tech and fashion; it’s
HDR10+, brilliant on the S10e is a not just the best-
rear triple camera breath of fresh air. looking smartwatch,
system and blazing With Samsung’s but its plethora of
performance in impeccable levels of KHDOWKDQGĆWQHVV
Samsung’s slick new ĆW DQG ĆQLVK JUHDW features, plus strong
One UI make this the software and top app options, make it
Android king. specs, it’s a deal. the most useful.

APPLE IPHONE XS/XS MAX SAMSUNG GALAXY

HONOR PLAY WATCH ACTIVE
From $1,629, apple.com/au From $484, hihonor.com From $349, samsung.com/au

The phenomenal Pitched as a gaming Sleek and powerful,

speed, hyper- phone, but it’s just this is the best
premium build an all-round brilliant smartwatch for
quality, fantastic Android phone that’s Android users. The
camera and gorgeous a stone-cold bargain. screen and design
HDR screen with It has a high-end are on par with the
Dolby Vision processor, 6.3-inch Apple Watch, while
combine to create a screen, good rear a collection of new
truly brilliant phone. cameras, and a watch faces give it
fantastic design. DbPRGHUQHGJH

HUAWEI P30 PRO ONEPLUS 6 SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH

From $1,349, huawei.com/au From $589, oneplus.com From $349, samsung.com/au

A revolutionary 5x Still on sale, and The circular screen

optical zoom (with incredibly good with innovative
10x lossless hybrid value if you prize rotating bezel is the
zoom) meets a 6.47- speed and style over best way to control a
inch OLED screen, things like wireless smartwatch, and the
big battery, and ultra- charging. The Silk slick Tizen software
fast processor for White variant is easy to use. It
one of the smartest remains one of looks good too, and
Android phones the most beautiful a battery life of up to
available. ĆQLVKHV ZHèYH VHHQ six days is ace.

ONEPLUS 7 PRO SAMSUNG GALAXY A9 FOSSIL SPORT

From $956, oneplus.com $469, samsung.com/au From $399, fossil.com

:LWK D ZRUOGĆUVW The star of the show Fossil’s fourth

in screen tech and here is the rear- generation of
the fastest wired mounted quadruple smartwatches serves
FKDUJLQJ \RXèOO ĆQG camera system, with up what’s probably
this is an ambitious ultra-wide and tele the best Wear OS
phone, designed to lenses, matched smartwatch available
prove that OnePlus with a solid CPU, to buy today. Capable
can make higher-end generous RAM and and wearable, with
ćDJVKLSV DV ZHOO DV a decent battery too. good app support.
mid-range marvels. Properly excellent.

[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 113 ]
 THE BACK PAGE
RIDICULOUS TECH

[ THE HELL IS THIS? ] BLOQUED

Ridiculous tech exposed

THE EMF BLOCKING SHIRT THAT MEANS
YOU’LL ONLY GET HALF THE CANCER YOU
OTHERWISE WOULD.
From $25 | kck.st/2KpQHHM
WE SCOUR THE DARK AND OFTEN PERVERTED CORNERS OF THE We recently spent some time debunking the
INTERNET TO BRING YOU THE WEIRDEST TECH AROUND. YOU MAY fear mongering around 5G in our sister
WANT TO BRING A SICK BOWL OR A BOX OF TISSUES TO CRY INTO... publication’s October issue (APC 472), but
[ JOEL BURGESS ] for the cliff notes, AM radio stations (which
have been around long enough for us to
know they pose no risk of causing cancer)
Air Card emit microwaves at around 10 times the
THIS IS THE BLACK AMEX OF AIR SUPERIORITY. intensity of 5G towers. Despite this being
$40 | kck.st/2quN0tL
one of the easiest myths to debunk,
companies like Bloqued hope to hijack the
explanation in order to sell you its
For any budding tech disruptors, having a meticulously designed business card that displays how
silver-threaded shirts. Even if it does block
much better you are than others is a ‘must have’, but there’s a new card that may be even more
‘cancer-causing EMFs’ the shirt is only 40%
important. The Air Card is your very own personal air purifier that does away with all silver, so 60% of your upper body will still
conventional air purification methods, for a card that’s soaked in undisclosed chemicals to get cancer. Much safer to just cover the
generate highly reactive molecules that can interact with the small particles you might be allergic whole body in tin foil methinks.
to. It might only be able to remove 70-90% of the dust and pollen from a tiny box if you wait a
whole hour and there’s no knowing how toxic the newly created compounds are, but it’ll give you
a VIP pass to berate people who haven’t been ‘woke’ to the intricacies of air health just yet.

FITTO
A WEIGHT LOSS NECKLACE THAT
REMINDS YOU HOW FAT YOU ARE.
$283 | igg.me/at/getfitto/x#/
Weight loss is hard and you’re probably
going to need to try a bunch of different
Cow VR things before you find a system that works
for you… unless you invest in the FitTo food
RUSSIAN RESEARCHERS EXPERIMENTING WITH THE MOOTRIX.
choker necklace. Like all great weight loss
$NA | msh.mosreg.ru
products FitTo’s name makes absolutely no
sense, but its ingenious vibration system
We can’t tell if the Russian VR experiment to show dairy cattle virtual pastures is really passive aggressively reminds you that the
moo-ving the dial on the beasts’ happiness and productivity, or if it’s just milking the media’s food you’re about to stuff in your pie hole is
response, but the report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region the cause of the custom-built fat suit you
certainly claims it’s helping. In addition to custom-building beefy headsets the Unique wear, so there’s no need for clever titles.
Summer Field Program also hired VR designers to create the software to run a cow heaven... Simply wrap this sugar chastity belt around
the fields just beyond the dairy farm. The full results will be announced in a subsequent your neck and you’ll never have to worry
‘comprehensive study’, discussed at the VI International Agro-Industrial Dairy Forum. about a momentary lapse in feeling the full
weight of your excess weight again.

[ 114 ]
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on the latest tech.
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