Table of contents for February 2017 in PC & Tech Authority

One of the tweaks we made to PC & Tech Authority in the last year is adding System News, and I like it. Hopefully, you do too and get something from it each issue. With System News, the aim is to speak to several PC resellers each month, hitting them with a set topic that has a real bearing on how they build and sell PCs, and how you buy them. Honestly, the value of these people’s input is stratospheric. These are proper coalface players and their opinions matter. They are the ones that manage their shops and the complete set of decisions that comes with that. They decide which brands and products to build around, how to diversify their price and performance range, and the critical pricing decisions. We…

Level up MechWarrior has been beloved by fans of giant stomping robots since the game’s first release in 1989, but it’s been a long time between drinks. MechWarrior 4: Vengeance was release in 2000, and it’s taken 16 years before someone’s resurrected the game. But that’s what Piranha Games has recently announced – MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries will be out in 2018, nearly 20 years after MW4. The new game follows the usual storyarc – you’re an inexperienced mech pilot, caught up in the Third Succession War. As the game progresses, you’ll be able to take on contracts from various factions, in a campaign where the player’s choices can shape the game’s outcome. While the focus of the game is on combat between walking skyscrapers covered in lethal weaponry, the game…

CPU ZEN COMING IN THREE RANGES Much like Intel’s Core CPU range is divided up into three tiers; i3, i5 and i7, AMD’s upcoming new Zen based CPUs will also come in three tiers, and for the first time we now know the tier monikers: SR7, SR5 and SR3. The lowest end Zen processor is expected to be priced roughly equal to, or just a little more expensive, than AMD’s current top end A10 CPUs, putting the starting prices at about $200. While they’ll be AMD’s most expensive CPUs to date, that kind of money still only tickles Intel’s current low end Core i5 prices. But with Zen expected to duke it out performance wise with Intel’s HEDT parts that are three times more expensive at a minimum, AMD’s Zen…

Jaya, Mwave: “AMD graphics cards in the low to mid-range segment are performing quite well, specifically the RX 460 and RX 480 series, as are systems bundled with them. However, a lot of AMD fans are holding out on AMD CPUs for the time being, patiently awaiting the release of Zen CPUs which should be announced over this holiday season. You can check out our popular Orion configurator based o. BF1 and an RX 480” John, Ti Computers: “We are unfortunately unable to recommend AMD desktop system platform to our customers at the meantime due to its relatively lowered return of investment restricted by its performance, energy e. ciency and support for modern specification against Intel. The situation is unfortunately not any better on the notebook front. We understand it…

After the dizzy yet slim heights of the Moto Z (see PCTA 230 p53), the Z Play initially seems to sit in an odd place. It’s close to $100 more expensive than the OnePlus 3, but concedes huge ground when it comes to speed. Yet it’s $300 cheaper than the Moto Z, o. ers all the same addon capabilities, and presents the best battery life we’ve seen in years. That’s partially reflected in the Z Play’s 7mm girth compared to the Moto Z’s ridiculous 5.2mm. It still has the camera hump, but as is the case with the Moto Z, you can solve this issue – and the fact that the metal finish is a magnet for fingerprints – by adding the bundled backplate. Oh, and one more di. erence:…

Buying a really good monitor used to be easy. The more money you spent, the obviously better the specs. Expensive monitors had higher resolution, used better panel tech, reproduced more colours more accurately, and had lower response times. That was then and this is now. Your requirements are less straightforward. On the surface, Asus’s latest ROG (Republic of Gamers dontcherknow) monitor seems a bit pokey in the numbers department. Only 24 inches? Only 1920x1080? Only TN panel tech? What gives? What gives is that this display is dedicated entirely to the gaming arts. Those two million pixels are backed by an Nvidia G-Sync module. This, in essence, dynamically matches the display’s refresh rate to the frames-per-second the GPU is currently generating. It means no awkward divisions of framerates (47 doesn’t…

Fitbit’s first fitness tracker suited to swimmers builds on the company’s great talent: being able to keep track of all the things you do – from walks and runs to bike rides and gym sessions – automatically. The tracker itself is a tiny plastic lozenge, adorned with five status LEDs to indicate charge status and notifications. It has a vibrating motor inside to remind you to get up and move about, wake you up silently in the morning, and notify you of incoming text messages and phone calls. It comes with a plastic wrist strap in a variety of colours, but you can upgrade to gold-plated bangles and more. Available for both iOS and Android, the app is central to everything you do. Swims are listed on your dashboard as…

The Spark 3 comes in confi gurations ranging from around $200 to $400. While they all have GPS built in for phone-free running, each of the following adds a little to the price: heart-rate tracking (“Cardio”), storage (“Music”) and headphones. The unit is controlled by a four-way button that protrudes through the strap from beneath the screen. The watch face pops out of the strap for charging, but don’t expect style from even the thirdparty straps available. The screen is quite dark, but it uses power-saving reflective LCD tech, so it’s always on. That’s useful, because with the Spark 3 you can set o. on a run and the watch will track the route onscreen for you, meaning you can retrace your steps and find your way back home. As…

$459 • www.zqracing.com.au Putting together a chair like the Alien may be somewhat non-trivial, but the end result is entirely worth it. Modelled after the kind of deep bucket seats you see in racing vehicles, the Alien is made of PU leather and vinyl, and features an adjustable (and removable) lumbar cushion and neck support. The armrests can be raised or lowered, or similarly removed, and once you get the chair ‘just right’ it makes long sessions in front of the computer a much more comfortable a. air. It’s built to take a beating, too, so if you’re a gamer that gets rather active while playing Battlefi eld 1, it can handle it. It’s ostensibly designed and styled for gamers, but its sturdy construction and versatility make it perfect for…

$39.95 • www.belkin.com If you’re going to pay forty bucks for a cable, you might as well get something with premium features to match the premium price. Belkin’s latest sits upon my desk, and by golly it’s nice. After freeing it from it’s also-lovely packaging, complete with magnetized front fl ap that closes like a Mercedes car door, the braiding impresses first. It’s so soft and fl exible, so that’s nice, but underneath it lies the magic. There are four layers of di. erent materials used for protection before you even get to the cables, and running alongside the cables for the length of it all is a string of Kevlar for strength. I’ve personally never had any one cable for long enough for things to fray or somehow break,…

With its boxy body and wideshouldered 145mm antennae, the Asus PL-AC56 extender unit isn’t discreet. Only Asus’ own RP-AC66 repeater is bigger. Happily, it’s a fantastic performer. That starts with Asus’ powerline technology, which coped brilliantly with our ageing mains circuit. In our central hallway, we hooked up a laptop to one of the extender’s three Gigabit Ethernet ports and enjoyed download speeds of around 20MB/sec. Even at the furthest spot from our router – upstairs, at the rear of the house – it kept up a solid 11MB/sec. Of course, what we’re interested in is Wi-Fi, and the PL-AC56 shines here too. With the extender returned to the hallway, we saw an excellent 15.4MB/sec download rate over 802.11ac wireless. Even over 2.4GHz 802.11n, the PL-AC56 kept up a strong…

ACCIDENTS Questions remain over how to program a self-driving car to decide who to hit in a collision – for some, at least. Mercedes has suggested it’s willing to run over pedestrians to protect the passengers, although it hopes to avoid such situations using its AI. Accidents will happen, however, and we’ve yet to decide where the fault will lay and whose insurance will pay. WEATHER There’s no self-driving car in existence that can happily manage a sunny motorway as well as a snowy rural road. Ford is working on the issue, teaching smart cars to manage slippery streets, but that’s only the beginning of localisation challenges, from street signs to different driving styles. EDUCATION Cars already have autonomous features, and self-driving cars will likely arrive through the addition of…

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RURAL NBN When the NBN was originally sold it was sold on the basis of the benefits to regional areas. Then the ALP announced than many regional areas would have to make do with an inferior satellite service! Now we have city consumers complaining about having to settle with FTTN when they would love to have FTTP. So now all arguments re the NBN are all city based. Mobile black spots will never be totally eliminated until we are allowed to roam on any network without huge financial penalties. this is made hard as mobile phones work on di. erent bands! Peter RURAL NBN 2 All you have to do is look at the comments of a few NBN co posts on FB to see how disappointed regional Australia is…

I've been looking for a reason to get back into Hearthstone, and the newest expansion - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan - looks to be making an offer I can't refuse. The new content update adds the crime-ridden city of Gadgetzan, and the three families that rule that wretched hive of goblins and villainy. There are 132 new cards to collect, each split between three crime families. “With Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, we’re introducing some exciting new mechanics to give deck-builders all-new ways to play Hearthstone,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, in today's release. “It’s going to be fun to see the influence of the three crime families spread throughout Gadgetzan as players align themselves with the Grimy Goons, the Kabal, and the Jade Lotus.” The expansion…

TOURNAMENT GAMER MWave Chiefs eSports Club Gaming PC $1,650 • http://tinyurl.com/htgtyzp This system is apparently what Mwave supply to a professional League of Legends (LoL) team in the Oceanic Pro League to use in competitions. While not the most powerful box around it definitely punches above its price weight. The GTX 1060 is perfect for LoL and other MOBAs while still giving it legs for more strenuous triple A titles so long as your gaming at 1080p. The CPU can’t be overclocked and being a B series motherboard don’t expect much support there either, so if you buy this system don’t expect to overclock down the track. KEY SPECS CPU: Intel Core i5 6600 Cooler: OEM Motherboard: Gigabyte B150 G1.Sniper M7 Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming G1 Memory: Kingston…

Your laptop, smartphone, website and credit card are all routinely targeted by cybercriminals. You know that and, being a PC & Tech Authority reader, you probably mitigate against the bad guys just in case they succeed in attacking your devices and data. But what about, to channel Donald Rumsfeld, the “unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know”. The world is connected, and pretty much every inanimate object is now being hooked into the network. That means the threatscape is becoming broader and longer, with avenues of attack expanding exponentially. Awareness is the key to mitigation, but that means applying some sideways logic. Many years ago, I broke the story of how TomTom satnav devices had left the factory with malware on board. The device itself wasn’t…

You won’t nd better reviews anywhere in Australia! From what I’m hearing from friends in the channel combined with o. the cu. comments from the manufacturers, curved TV sales are tanking, but curved monitors are doing quite well. I nd that particularly interesting and have had a few animated discussions with industrytypes as to why. I know from personal experience what the answer is, and that’s the common response I also hear when I talk to others in the industry. Curved TVs simply bring no bene t whatsoever, while curved monitors are genuinely useful and delightful to use. It’s all about distance and immersion – and you don’t need to be a gamer to appreciate the joys of having a monitor that envelops you a bit better than a .…

W_ant to get in on the ultrawide action, maybe with a bit of a curve, but don’t want to miss out on all the silky smooth goodness that 144Hz brings? LG has the answer: the gaming version of its excellent curved ultrawide, the 34UC79G. Okay so to be a gaming monitor and hit that 144Hz refresh and 1ms response time with “motion blur reduction”, LG did have to carve o. a few pixels. This is a 2560x1080 display, and we do miss the crispness the company’s (more expensive) 3440x1440 monitors bring to the table. Of course, neither of these are 4k resolutions so all ultrawides must play the same waiting game for now. The 4k tech needs to get cheaper. Where this ultrawide wins over some of its competitors is…

Fitness trackers shootout Unlike its other devices, Fitbit wants the Blaze to be seen. You can even swap straps to match your clothes, with the watch popping easily out of its shell – indeed, you must do so to charge it. In that respect it’s similar to its siblings. The 1.66in, 240 x 180 colour screen is bright and sharp, and o. ers a handful of di. erent watch faces. Flipping it over reveals a prominent heart-rate sensor and four connectors for the proprietary charging dock. The heart-rate sensor is an always-flashing green light, but despite this the battery lasts for around five days. The Blaze comes with a black rubber strap as standard, with extras selling for upwards of $30 each. It’s comfortable to wear, which is just as…

A CORNUCOPIA OF FITNESS_RELATED GADGETS HAS GONE ON SALE RECENTLY, BUT WHICH PRODUCTS BEST SUIT YOUR LIFESTYLE AND NEEDS? The Vivosmart HR+ looks stylish in an understated way. The screen – a sharp monochrome 160 x 68 display – dominates the top of the band, with the rubber strap connecting at the same width to provide the illusion of a single band. Despite this, you can’t sub it out for another strap. It’s comfortable to wear but a bit bulky, which isn’t surprising when you consider all that’s inside. There’s GPS, a heart-rate monitor, ANT+ compatibility – and it’s waterproof for swim tracking. It’s also easy to use. You set o. the tracker for specific activities by pressing the small button embedded in the strap. The Vivosmart achieves satellite lock…

From $899 • www.intel.com.au The ultimate quest for the serious gamer is to fi nd a small, silent PC that can go under the TV but which still has enough grunt so streaming games is an option, rather than a necessity. The Skull Canyon NUC isn’t silent, but it does have some features that make it an impressive choice. For a start, it has Intel’s i7-6770HQ which comes with Iris Pro 580 graphics. That’s basically the cutting edge when it comes to an integrated GPU. On a Full HD TV, that means a huge number of games can run directly o. the NUC itself. That this little machine can take 32GB of RAM doesn’t hurt either. But if you have a 4K TV, the Skull Canyon can also let you…

$1,179 - $1,720 • www.lifefx.com The big problem with Intel’s otherwise useful New Unit of Computing (NUC) is that you can’t drive a truck over it. Or at least, not the standard casing. It’s as fragile as any old PC. Which is where the Aleutia R50 comes in. Designed and built in the UK, is mostly aluminium, with a funky wraparound copper stripe that’s not just there for show. The copper is in turn part of a single piece that sits on the CPU inside, and so acts as a very e. ective heat sink. Everything is tight enough that, with unused ports covered, the R50 is rated as dust-proof. And can be driven over, apparently. Specs range from an i3 with 8GB of RAM, a 250GB M.2 SSD and…

$299 • www.plantronics.com Priced around half what you’d pay for really good Sony or Bose Bluetooth NCs, the BackBeat Pro 2 deliver half the goodness, which is more than enough for most. The NC is decent and will serve well on a long haul flight, but they could do with more padding and bigger cups for comfort. Bluetooth worked well, though they sounded better with a direct cable. Alas we couldn’t get NFC working at all despite many attempts. We tested another Plantronics set with the same phone and they worked instantly. Wearer detection is good, with seamless music stop and play when you remove them from your head. There’s also very little sound leakage. When I heard the price I was shocked as these are an excellent alternative to…

T_he TP-Link RE450 is one of this month’s most sizeable devices, but it’s a friendlier design than the bricklike Asus and Devolo extenders. There’s a certain stylistic chic to the plasticky antennae, and to the softly glowing blue ring that encircles the WPS button (this turns red if you position the unit too far from your router). It’s also the slimmest of this month’s repeaters: protruding only 37mm from the wall, it’s less intrusive than the picture might suggest, although the width of the casing ensures you won’t be plugging anything into the adjacent power socket. Although the RE450 has no physical link to the router, its three aerials maintain an impressively speedy connection. With the repeater installed in our central hallway, we measured download speeds of 34MB/sec from a…

L_inksys’ premium repeater promises wireless performance that’s up to four times faster than the cheaper RE6300. In fact, in our fi rst test the RE7000 did somewhat worse, serving up a distinctly mediocre 7.6MB/sec to an 802.11ac client positioned directly in front of the unit. This was a disappointing start, especially since hooking up our test laptop to the repeater’s Gigabit Ethernet port yielded an exceptional download rate of 38.4MB/sec. Happily, the RE7000 redeemed itself by outpacing its sibling in all other areas of our home. The di. erence in performance was particularly striking out on the terrace, where the RE7000 more than doubled the RE6300’s 2.8MB/sec average. The only real disappointment was the discovery that the RE7000 still stumbles when it comes to 2.4GHz networking. Our connection in the…

The brains at the heart of Tesla’s Autopilot is Nvidia’s Drive PX 2 computing platform, the first to feature the new Pascal GPU, alongside 12 CPU cores for 8 TFLOPS of processing power. Alongside enough brute power to manage the machine learning and artificial intelligence required in a selfdriving car, it’s also an automotive-grade product rated to handle the “harsh environment” of the road, including temperatures between -40C and 80C, noted Danny Shapiro, Nvidia’s senior director of automotive. The Drive PX 2 is a platform for car manufacturers on which to build their autonomous systems, similar to Nvidia’s approach to gaming. Nvidia makes the hardware, software, tools and libraries for developers, to help them get on with making games without each having to write code for specific items. For self-driving…

There are now three different ways to play the game. Normal mode is basically the game as it stands now, and what the devs are calling "the original chilled experience". Creative Mode is all about exploration and base-building, while Survival Mode is a more challenging experience, and is probably what a lot of players were originally expecting - a much more lethal way to play the game. The base-building in the update lets you take over an uninhabited base and then build upon it using a range of modular add-ons. Additionally, you can recruit alien buddies and research new technologies, teleport from distant space stations, and even store resources. The patch is out now for PC and PS4.…

1 CPU and cooler mounts If you’ve never built a PC before then please read our PC building masterclass feature before you start. As the cooler will block the DIMM slots, you’ll need to install the memory before the CPU cooler. Install the CPU and cooler mounts first, as the large mounts are quite fiddly to install with the memory in the way. Lift up the lever by the CPU socket, slot the CPU into place, push down the lid and lever to hold it in place, and then apply the thermal paste to the CPU, making a thin ‘X’ shape over the metal heatspreader. The cooler mounts use a backplate with screws that secure to four silver bases on the CPUsocket side of the motherboard. These bases house four…

2D TESTS Desktop PCs and laptops are tested using our own custom bench testing suite, which has been carefully designed to test all aspects of a system and rate them in a way that’s useful to you. Our benchtesting cover three main tests: a typical video editing test, a demanding 4K video editing test and a multitasking test that stresses all aspects of the system. We look at the time it takes for each test to run, which is then compared to our reference PC to produce a normalised result. This score is shown on a graph, and to help you understand just where the PC we’re reviewing sits in the grand scheme of things, we will often include other system’s scores. The median score of 100 is based on…

We first reviewed AMD’s Radeon RX480 a couple of months ago, and it was an interesting move on the company’s behalf. Launching a new range that ignored the high-end and went straight for the mainstream, with the promise of a. ordable VR performance for all, it was a solid product that su. ered from the weak Aussie dollar. As a result, it wasn’t quite the great value proposition that overseas buyers enjoyed. Since then we’ve seen prices plummet though, making it a killer mid-range product. Asus has just launched the first custom-version of the RX480, but it’s of the 8GB version, and only costs a mere $30 more than the most a. ordable RX480 8GB cards. And for that extra $30, Asus has managed to deliver a range of goodies.…

Of the three gaming-specific monitors we’ve reviewed this issue, the XG2703 might just be the best. The best compromise that is, between the ultra-high-resolution world of 4K professional displays an the ultra-fastrefresh rate world of gaming. The Viewsonic display is a 27-incher. That’s a size we’ve becomes used to over the years. Native resolution is 2560x1440. Sure, you can get 4K at this price, but this monitor has a max refresh rate of 165Hz - though you do need to use a DisplayPort 1.2a connection to get that. Panel tech is IPS which means excellent viewing angles and consistency across the display. It’s all here. Even a pair of 2W speakers which will get you by should your headphones conk out. (Speaking of which, there’s even a little hook to…

Hot off Corsair’s case production line is the new Crystal 460X. Looking at the pictures, you’ll see what makes this so unique, thanks to the use of beautiful, smoky, tempered glass on the front and left chassis panel. It’s the kind of case built to show o the hardware within, and is one of the most elegant solutions we’ve seen for this kind of display piece. Looking at the front of the case reveals three huge SP120 RGB fans behind the darkened glass face, with RGB lighting behind. Their speed, colour and mode (breathing, flashing, o , always-on, etc) can be controlled via Corsair’s simple software, or there’s also a hardware fan controller hidden behind the right-side panel. There are also three SSD mounts hidden behind the motherboard plate, and…

This second-generation Charge device is a huge improvement on its predecessor. All-day heart-rate monitoring comes as standard, the larger OLED display provides all the information you need in one glance, and you can now remove the straps and replace them with some that are of a colour of your choosing. Just tap on the screen to scroll through steps, heart rate, distance travelled, calorie burn, stairs climbed, active minutes and hourly activity. All the while, the time and date stays fixed to the top of the screen so it will always function as a watch. The bigger screen also allows you to receive basic text and call alerts. The single button acts as a trigger when you want to do something specific, such as setting a stopwatch, starting a run…

T he Misfit Ray is a tiny metal cylinder, in a range of colours, which secures to a strap or chain to create a unisex piece of jewellery. It includes a poolfriendly black silicone strap, with a leather version costing an extra $40. There’s no charging cable in the box, because the Ray doesn’t need one: it runs on three supplied button-cell batteries, which should last six months. There’s no display, with the Ray relying on a single indicator light and vibration. Tap it and a light flashes di. erent colours to tell you whether you’re under 25% of your goal (red), between 25% and 50% (red then orange) and so forth. There are idle alerts for when you’ve been sitting too long, and silent alarm options too. Push notifications…

$100 • www.plantronics.com First impression of these headphones was good, they felt nice and looked the part, and specs did them no harm either with up to eight hours battery life, Bluetooth 3, IP57 waterproof/sweatproof rating, touch controls and a flexible neckband that even has a reflective fi nish to keep the cars away when running in the dark. So it was all looking good, until I put them on, and they just don’t fi t well and after a short time became uncomfortable. This is a common problem with in-ear earphones as we all have di. erent shaped ears, normally we are given extra ear-buds to cater for di. erent shape and size ears, but in the box for these there were no extras, there was nothing except a…

$69 • www.mwave.com.au I_n tune with the newish trend for austere designs comes the Dream Machines DM1 Pro S. It’s an upgrade to the DM1 Pro which has a few fans thanks to the actual genuine ‘by gamers for gamers’ cred these guys have. New to the updated model comes an increase to 12,000 as the maximum DPI, as well as a speed boost to 7 M/S, which is astonishingly quick and in serious pro-gamer territory. At its heart is a Pixart 3360 optical sensor, and Dream Machines has tuned it to the needs of the gamer. As such there’s absolutely no acceleration all movement is naturally. The cursor simply moves instantly to where you imagine you want it. Lovely. It’s super light at just 85g and there are no…

Extending the range and speed of your Wi-Fi can be as simple as plugging a small box into a mains socket and pressing the WPS button to connect it to your router. So should you rush out to your nearest retailer and pick one at random? Definitely not. If you want to get the best performance – and the best value for money – there are some key issues to consider. You may not even need to buy one at all... 1. UNDERSTAND WHAT AN EXTENDER DOES An extender relays the wireless connection from your router to another area of your home or office, so that the signal there is almost as strong as it would be next to the router. This can provide a fast, stable connection in rooms…

The RP-AC66 repeater looks a lot like the extender unit from Asus’ PL-AC56 powerline kit, and it’s almost as huge. With radio transmitters, bigger often means better and the RP-AC66 impressed us with its 5GHz coverage, keeping up a consistent service throughout our “test home”. Speeds in the bathroom and study were barely any di. erent from those on the terrace and in the hallway. That a great achievement: it means you can enjoy a stable connection all around the house, without worrying about switching between networks. (If you’re partnering the RP-AC66 with an Asus router, you can also use the Roaming Assist feature to automatically shunt connected clients to the transmitter with the stronger signal.) Keeping that degree of consistency over 2.4GHz proved too much to hope for –…

The extenders in this month’s labs are pretty a. ordable – but if you have an old router lying around, you may be able to use it as an extender and skip the shopping trip altogether. One option that should work for any router is to configure it as a wired access point. To begin, give your old router a factory reset to clear out any old settings that may interfere with its new role. Go into its configuration interface; if it asks you to set up an internet connection, skip this. Instead, head for the IP address settings page and turn o. the DHCP server, so that it won’t try to dole out IP addresses to clients that connect – we want your main router to handle that side…

SAIL AWAY Why clutter up Amsterdam’s cyclefriendly roads with self-driving buses when autonomous boats can carry people around? In 2017, the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions plans to trial floating robots to ferry around commuters and even act as temporary bridges or stages for events. They’ll also be equipped with sensors for environmental tracking and help clean up floating rubbish – including the 12,000 bicycles that go for a swim in Amsterdam’s canals each year. Clever idea, but the best part is the name: Roboat. The Dutch aren’t alone in turning to autonomous boats. Rolls-Royce has unveiled plans for sensor-driven ships – like those remote-controlled toys splashing in park ponds,only bigger. Its Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) is considering sensors and infrared detectors similar to those on self-driving…

“_We think it’s important to discuss cybersecurity for small and mediumsized businesses,” said Eugene Kaspersky, welcoming guests to Malta. Yes, that Kaspersky of security vendor fame. While he wasn’t actually in Malta, his words were plastered all over the hotel where assorted journalists, analysts and researchers were assembled to “save the world”. Speaking at the start of this cybersecurity conference, team director of Kaspersky Lab Research & Analysis, Marco Preuss, revealed that the company had stopped more than 80,000 ransomware threats for Android devices alone during the second quarter of 2016. Overall, across all platforms and devices, Kaspersky has seen ransomware attacks rise by 450%, from 131,000 in 2014/2015 to 718,000 in the same period during 2015/2016. But as a small business, why should you care? Chances are that, as…

We live in a time of increased political turmoil. The impact of Brexit has caused much anger and confusion, much of it driven by the realisation that there wasn’t much of a plan other than “let’s leave”, and now something needs to be done. In America, Mr Trump has trumped Mrs Clinton, despite Mrs Clinton getting a million more votes from the electorate. Politics is a topic I prefer not to understand. I fear my head might explode if I had to try to reconcile all the mysteries of the political landscape. But one thing does worry me. Are we to trust the governments of the world to be able to look after our data? By “look after”, I mean take an appropriate view of security. And by “one thing…