Table of contents for November 2016 in PC & Tech Authority

UNTETHERED VR A backpack PC designed for a fully go-anywhere vr experiene. Ben Mansill straps in I t was not long after the world saw the potential of virtual reality that innovators got cracking on peripherals, accessories, and extras to enhance the whole experience. And to get on that big juicy gravy train, which is now gaining interesting momentum. Thus, we now have the MSI VR One. Its function is simply to untether you from the PC as you get into the virtual zone. So, inside is a complete PC with enough grunt to power solid VR, which includes a new and overclocked Nvidia 10-series Pascal GPU, and a pair of battery packs that MSI claim will have you at it for around an hour and a half. Better yet,…

I remember a time when you couldn’t care less about your input peripherals, the fanciest thing you could do was get a gel wrist rest for the keyboard or a mouse pad with a jazzy printed design. Then mice started becoming designer items with fancy specs to increase accuracy, response times and comfort thanks to the revolution brought in by optical sensor technology. This mouse boom pretty much came at the cost of mind space for the trusty keyboard, which to my recollection went into a sort of dark age. Sure there were gamer/enthusiast-focused keyboards during that time, but short of the Logitech G15 (which I had to Google to recall) I can’t really think of any other models from that period off the top of my head. Unlike the…

Imagine receiving navigation directions through your sunglasses, or assembly instructions via safety goggles – according to WaveOptics, this is how augmented reality will eventually hit the mainstream; not via bulky VR-style headsets. With this in mind, the startup’s technology could prove important: WaveOptics’ display system is tiny enough to be embedded into an average pair of glasses by simply connecting to your phone. WaveOptics’ co-founders Sumanta Talukdar and David Grey share a background in heads-up displays, working for defence firm BAE Systems. Now, they’re extending what they’ve learned making headmounted AR for soldiers to other industries, including gaming. Here’s how this startup is making AR happen. WHAT’S YOUR GOAL WITH WAVEOPTICS? When we started, we said that any solution we came up with would have to tick three boxes. Box…

Thanks to superfast SSDs, abundant RAM and progressive optimisations to the operating system itself, Windows starts up far more quickly than it used to. The startup process that used to entail a minute and a half of disk grinding now whizzes by in less than ten seconds. That doesn’t mean the process is simple. It’s a multi-step chain of technical procedures, and if any one of them goes wrong, you’ll be left staring at an error message or a blank screen – or possibly a blue one. If you’re to have any hope of recovering from a situation such as this, it’s a good idea to understand what’s going on in those frantic seconds after you press the power button and before the familiar Windows desktop appears. And even if…

Hostage crisis BEN MANSILL HOPES NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO YOU Fact: we all need good security software on our PCs. I know it’s a tiresome annoyance to pay up for a subscription every year or two, but there’s no way around it. The freebie Windows Defender does a decent basic job, but as you can see in this month’s group tests the paid-for products are much better, and you don’t want to muck around when it comes to some bastard, or kid, possibly, using one of the many polished point and click ransomware apps, stealing your life away. It’s not all about viruses. Oh if only it were... the good old days when it was almost exciting to be infected, because the worst that happened was being subjected to…

With the release of Nvidia’s new mobile Pascal series, gaming notebook performance has taken a giant leap forwards. Last month’s review of the Asus GL502 with Geforce GTX 1070 mobile showed that we’ve entered a new era of gaming performance on the go, almost doubling the performance of what we can expect. Now along comes Metabox to show us what can really be done with this new hardware. It packs twin GeForce GTX 1080 cards into a humungous shell and absolutely obliterates any mobile performance numbers we’ve ever seen before. There’s a reason it’s almost seven grand, and those twin GTX 1080s are why. Like the mobile Geforce GTX 1070, Nvidia hasn’t taken a chainsaw to its mobile variant of the GeForce GTX 1080. It packs exactly the same number…

W e all know that it’s possible to have multi-room speaker systems if you’re willing to spend up big on Sonos’ proprietary Wi-Fi speaker system, but what if you want to do it on the cheap, and only to one room? This is where the Qualcomm SPK-WFADAPTOR comes into play – it’s a tiny Wi-Fi hub that plugs into your existing Wi-Fi network to off er wireless music to any speaker in your house… with certain conditions. It’s a tiny box around the size of a pack of cards, and comes with both Ethernet and 802.11abgn support, and plugs into your existing speaker system via optical out (for AV receivers) or 3.5mm stereo minijack for basic speakers. This is its biggest downfall though. Those of you with high-end speakers will…

W hen we did our X99 round up a couple of issues ago the MSI X99 XPower Gaming Titanium was our favourite board of the bunch. It had all the features you could want in a premium board without going overboard and had the looks and performance to match. The X99A Tomahawk thankfully has taken much of the DNA found in that top-end Xpower board and has brought it down to a more reasonable price for the masses. From the updated UEFI interface to the strengthened PCI-E x16 slots, RGB LED header and even the BIOS error code readout display that reverts to showing CPU package temperatures after POST has completed, it’s obvious that MSI has tried to include as much of the high-end features on this board as possible.…

The wonderful thing about All-in-One water coolers is how easy they are to install. Rather than having to fiddle around with proprietary components and diff erent fittings, an AIO should be able to be installed in less than 10 minutes. It’s a lesson that Cooler Master still needs to learn, as the Masterliquid Pro 120 is an absolute pain to install. Unlike Corsair’s eff orts, which take less time than a cup of tea to install, the myriad of intricate pieces included in this kit makes it a truly tedious endeavour. The first time we installed it, our CPU started hitting temps of over 80C, showing that we’d done it wrong, so we had to spend another hour or so getting it right. Apart from the horrid mounting mechanism, Cooler…

B itdefender’s signature feature is its Autopilot mode, which silently makes all the security decisions for you, so you really can “set and forget” the software. That makes it a great choice for the less technically minded, or for those who don’t want to be interrupted by potentially irritating pop-ups. Our only slight concern is that Bitdefender isn’t immune to false positives. It was one of three security packages to wrongly flag a handful of legitimate applications during testing, the others being BullGuard and Windows Defender. It might be frustrating to have your security software silently making erroneous decisions for you, but if you’re regularly installing lesser-known software packages then you probably aren’t the sort of person who’ll be using Autopilot anyway. And there’s plenty of depth here to satisfy…

S ome people will tell you that Norton is a resource hog; in reality, that hasn’t been true for many years. Indeed, this month Norton Security Premium – the “Internet” has been dropped, implying a broader remit – proved one of the nimblest suites on test. With the software installed, AV-Test found that applications launched a negligible 6% more slowly – a tiny fraction behind Bitdefender’s first-place 4%. An 18% impact on website loading placed it very near the top of the table, too. The interface is very clean, to the extent of looking a little bare. Norton’s features divide into Security, Identity and Performance. Click on the first of these and a new set of buttons appears allowing you to launch a scan, update the databases and check your…

T here are lots of attractions to buying online, particularly from overseas retailers. Service is good and you can check ratings and online feedback easily, the range of products is broader than local stores and prices are often better even when you take into account shipping and exchange rates. But it’s not always smooth sailing and the government is making moves to level the playing field, insisting overseas retailers will need to add and collect GST for the government. Also, while the majority of transactions go through smoothly there are occasions when a product needs to be returned for a refund or replaced while under warranty. Let’s start with the government’s changes to the rules around GST. Businesses in Australia with revenues in excess of $75,000 must register for GST.…

It may not have caught the public imagination in the same way it has in Pokémon Go, but AR is already being used within a host of businesses. As the technology shrinks and is embedded in safety goggles, helmets and other pre-existing workplace equipment, its popularity can only grow. Here’s how industries are already using AR to improve productivity, enhance safety and boost sales figures too. RETAIL Online shopping is convenient, but with clothes in particular, people prefer to try them on first. AR offers the promise of virtual changing rooms: Webcam Social Shopper enables potential buyers to see how a shirt or dress fits. Modiface Mirror even means that you can virtually try on eyeshadow colours to see what suits you best. (Try it yourself at modiface.com/mirror.php.) It’s already…

The advent of mobile virtual reality headsets has seen an abundance of portable virtual experiences, some exclusive to Samsung, others available to all. While not as visually impressive as computer-based virtual reality, support for mobile VR is growing in both software and hardware. Most smartphones of the last two years are VR-compatible. iOS and Android users can choose from the Merge VR Goggles, or the more expensive and well-known Zeiss One, which comes with a slide-in smartphone tray. Google developed a cheap headset made out of cardboard compatible with most iOS and Android devices, too – called Google Cardboard, funnily enough. The headset is also compatible with Sony, HTC and Samsung Galaxy phones, and is very light and inexpensive, weighing only about 85 grams. Its price varies from a dollar…

A t first glance it’s easy to mistake the Miix 700’s sleek form for a Surface Pro 4. Look closer, however, and it soon becomes clear that this is no carbon copy of Microsoft’s tablet. Subtle touches echo the design of other devices in the Ideapad range, with the kickstand’s “watchband” hinge transplanted directly from the Yoga 3. With a metal chassis and sturdy build, this is one handsome device. Weighing 780g and measuring 292 x 210 x 9mm without the keyboard attached, the Miix 700 is just as lightweight as its most feathery of rivals. It’s a smidgen thicker and heavier than the Surface Pro 4, but noticeably lighter and thinner than HP’s Elite x2 1012. The specification is promising for the money, too. You get an Intel Core…

C hromebooks are typically basic laptops that sacrifice looks for aff ordability, but Acer has other thoughts. The Chromebook 14’s wedged shape, silver aluminium chassis and sunken keyboard are all reminiscent of Apple’s MacBook; on looks alone, only the brushed finish of the lid and Acer logo give the game away. You might expect that one touch would reveal a cheap, plastic finish, but it’s actually 100% aluminium alloy. Where it can’t rival the Apple is vital stats: it’s 17mm thick compared to the MacBook’s 13.1mm, and almost double its weight: 1.68kg to 920g. Still, the whole laptop feels reassuringly expensive and barely flexes a millimetre if you try to twist it. (Plus, there’s the small matter that you can buy five Chromebook 14 devices for one MacBook.) The Scrabble-tile…

W e’re still waiting with baited breath for AMD’s Polaris architecture to hit the laptop world, but in the meantime Nvidia is steaming ahead and getting Pascal into the hands of the big players. This month we’ve already reviewed a dual GeForce GTX 1080 beast, but MSI’s brand new GT73VR opts for just a single GTX 1080. Let’s just say the results are not disappointing, despite this drop in component prowess. Given the lower power requirements of Nvidia’s new Pascal architecture, we’re a little surprised at the size of these first Pascal-powered behemoths. Weighing 4.14kg it’s your usual gaming behemoth, and not the kind of machine that will build a reputation for mobility. Funnily enough, MSI promotes the fact that it’s the thinnest 17.3-inch gaming laptop on the market, measuring…

T he Samsung C27F591 27in Curved LED Monitor is the tech giant’s latest attempt at bringing curved monitors to the masses, and while it does some things very well, in some other fundamental ways it’s tragically flawed. It’s certainly a pretty device. Its gloss white finish is a welcome departure from the flood of black monitors out there, and it looks equally at home in a trendy office as it would on a gamer’s desk. The round base has a small footprint, which is great for preserving desk real estate. Unfortunately, the monitor doesn’t have any height or swivel adjustment; only the tilt angle can be adjusted, and not by very much, at that. Its small base also meant the whole monitor was somewhat wobbly, which took away from its…

Q NAP’s perfectly excellent little two-bay NAS has received a perfectly excellent update that gives it just a little bit more functionality - as if it didn’t already have enough. While it has always been possible to plug in a client USB drive to the front of the NAS, the TS-251A adds a second USB port that allows the NAS itself to work in client-mode. This means now you don’t even need a home network to set it up or use it: the N in this NAS stands for ‘USB direct’. Uh... just go with it. Also joining the front fascia is an SD-card slot for yet another more option to load files onto either of the HDDs in the two bays (or both at once depending on your preferred…

I f you’re among the growing numbers of self-employed Aussies who work from home in a garden office, you likely have a problem. As far as the fleet of Amazon couriers, postmen, tradesmen and other visitors arriving at your front door are concerned, you might as well be working in Baghdad, because your doorbell isn’t audible from your desk. That urgent delivery you’ve been waiting for all morning? Sorry, that’s been returned to the “local” depot 30 km away. Enter Ring, a Wi-Fi-enabled video doorbell that won’t only ping your smartphone when you’re working from that home office, but will do so when you’re shopping in Coles, away for the weekend, or even out of the country altogether. It’s the ideal device both for those who are home all the…

1. PAY THE RIGHT PRICE A few firms offer free antivirus software, but most packages you’ll have to pay for. The headline price you see on the publisher’s website isn’t the whole story, though. Often you can save money by investing in a two-year licence rather than a regular annual subscription. Some publishers also offer a scale of prices depending on how many computers (or other devices) you want to protect. Before you sign up, be sure to check third-party retailers too – most of the suites we tested this month were significantly cheaper on Amazon than on the publisher’s own website. The same applies when it comes to renewing your subscription: the program will present a link that you can click to easily renew at full-price, or may even…

B ullGuard Internet Security is a lowcost suite that we’ve often seen preinstalled on custom-built PCs. Indeed, it might already be lurking on your hard disk, in which case you’re probably wondering whether it’s any good. Spoiler alert: while not the best suite we’ve seen, we’re happy to say it isn’t bad at all. Let’s look at antivirus performance first, because if a suite lets you down here then its other qualities are irrelevant. In AVTest’s zero-day tests, BullGuard couldn’t quite match the 100% scores achieved by Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Norton and Trend Micro – but with a 97.6% protection rate, it wasn’t a million miles behind. In the general malware test BullGuard achieved a clean sheet, correctly blocking every single threat. In all, it’s a package we’d be happy to…

T rend Micro Internet Security makes a great first impression, with a tasteful grey and white front-end that coordinates well with the Windows 10 visual style. Perhaps inevitably, once you start clicking around, the veneer comes off a little. The diff erent panes of the interface open with clunky animations, and secondary functions open in separate windows. All the same, it’s a more elegant presence on your desktop than Bitdefender’s drab tones, or BullGuard’s boxy buttons. Feature-wise, Trend Micro Internet Security is pretty well equipped. All the real-time scanning functions you’d hope for are present. As well as picking up viruses, the software can identify system components and applications that are known to be vulnerable, as well as files that are harmless but which waste space – such as temporary…

W e love Android – but with dozens of versions of the OS out there, running on thousands of devices contracted to diff erent networks, managing risk for the platform is no easy task. In the future, Google hopes that machine learning will identify security holes and protect Android from malicious apps. For now, it relies partly upon a pair of in-house tools. For apps, there’s Bouncer – an automated system that analyses apps submitted to the Play Store for malicious or buggy code. To test the OS itself, Google uses a system called Clusterfuzz, which throws random inputs at Android with the aim of exposing bugs in the code. As a fallback, it also operates the Android Security Rewards programme, which pays up to $50,000 for third-party reports that…

W ar, as they say, is all hell, and there were few more hellish conflicts than World War I. Just saying the three words conjures up images of muddy, diseased trenches, battles of attrition fought over a mere few yards of blasted landscape, and the massive loss of life in battles such as The Somme. So, how do you make a game of that? It’s a question that’s plagued wargamers for years – both video and tabletop, and more than a few efforts have been made. And, having now played in Battlefield 1’s limited – and sadly now closed – open beta, it seems DICE is taking a similar tack to many of the games that have come before it, in not focusing on those dreadful trench battles, but looking…

It’s been an exciting time of the year for graphics enthusiasts. With both AMD and Nvidia launching entirely new product lines, we’ve been spoilt for choice. The only problem is that you now probably want a new monitor to take advantage of their new features. Whether it’s gaming at 4K at 60 frames per second, or checking out the stunning colour and contrast offered by High Dynamic Range (HDR) displays, these new graphics cards offer a huge new range of features and connection options. Unfortunately, most of today’s displays haven’t quite caught up with the gold mine of new features now offered by the latest graphics cards. In fact, once you discount the performance improvements, much of what makes today’s new graphics cards so special is kind of useless, as…

R emember Dick Smith’s Electronics sets? Remember how you had to screw wires into a breadboard to make basic circuits? There are plenty of new-age versions of that these days, and littleBits is one of the most premium. Each ‘bit’ is a solidly-built chunk of electronics with a specific function, colour-coded, and connectible to other bits via magnets. It works really well. Now, most of the littleBits kits are aimed at kids (“build a secret treasure box!”) but this one has some real chops. Co-branded with synthesiser legends KORG, it is what it says on the tin: a basic analogue synth. With keyboard, sequencer, two oscillators, an envelope, delay and filter, it has all the important elements of an analogue synth, and thanks to KORG’s design guidance it produces a…

M ake no bones about it, if you’re building a new home, you need to install Ethernet into every room in the home, leading back to a central closet where you can host an 8-port switch. If you own a home, we highly recommend saving up and spending the $500 or so that is required for an electrician to come in and install Ethernet into your major areas. But not everybody has that choice, such as renters, and those who don’t want to spend such large amounts of money. This is where Ethernet over Power kits are incredibly useful, and they’re far more reliable than they used to be. Sure, they still rely on the condition of your electrical wiring, and if you want to connect two points in your…

A_vast Free Antivirus has long been our favourite free security package. This is partly down to the excellent protection stats it has maintained over the years – and we’re happy to say that those haven’t slipped. AV-Test found that the software achieved an excellent 99.4% protection rate against zero-day threats, and an even more impressive 99.9% against established malware. That’s a better performance than free rival AVG, and a long way ahead of Windows Defender. It even outpaces paid-for packages from BullGuard, Eset and McAfee. Avast is one of the more pleasant packages to use, with the latest version o. ering a tasteful white and orange interface. Considering it’s free, the feature set isn’t bad either – although it isn’t as generous as the four-tab interface (divided into Scan, Tools,…

K aspersky Internet Security has won more Labs awards over the years than we’d care to count – and this month its winning form was once more on display. While most of the suites on test off ered a decent level of protection, Kaspersky was one of only four contenders to achieve a perfect 100% score across all of AV-Test’s protection tests – the others, for the record, being Bitdefender, Norton and Trend Micro. Even better, Kaspersky’s suite simultaneously proved one of the more lightweight security products in terms of its impact on system performance: launching applications was slowed by a mere 8%. It didn’t do so well in the website test, however: AV-Test saw an average slowdown of 25% here. When it comes to features, Kaspersky Internet Security initially…

T he web can be a hugely eff ective means of promoting a small business, or a sole trader’s services – and it’s also one of the cheapest. Unfortunately, micro-organisations frequently shy away from setting up their own site, perhaps owing to a lack of time or in-house expertise. A website doesn’t have to be complicated. A one-page site, off ering a top-down overview of what you or your business does, is quick to build, easy to maintain, and often highly eff ective since the visitor doesn’t need to click around to hunt down the information they’re after. Such a site also gives you more control over the reader’s “journey”: since the visitor can only move up and down, your calls to action can’t be missed. One example of a…

Myst changed what a ‘computer’ game could be. Built on Mac in 1993 to take advantage of Quicktime and Hypercard, it was a surreal mind-trip, a series of beautifully illustrated picture-postcards and occasional minimal animation. Supplied in a big box with a blank notebook, its esoteric puzzles kept a generation occupied for hours, days, even weeks. It created a new kind of player, who until Myst had never considered running a game on their precious accounts-keeping machine. Myst became the best-selling PC/Mac game of all time, a title it held until it was toppled by The Sims in 2000. But Myst wasn’t creator Cyan’s masterpiece. That was Riven. Riven was a picture-postcard game too. Minimal animation but the graphics... it wasn’t just that Riven had amazing art, it was that…