TechLifeの November 2017 の目次

THANKS TO THE September leak of one of Apple’s confidential support documents, we now know just how broken an iPhone needs to be before it will no longer get repaired under warranty. The 22-page guide (dubbed the ‘Visual/Mechanical Inspection Guide’) was intended for the company’s technicians, but was leaked via Dropbox and picked up by news outlet Business Insider. Dated March 3, 2017, the instructions cover the repair of the iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and their Plus counterparts. When assessing cracked screens, “single hairline crack ... without point of impact” is eligible for repair under warranty, while chips, multiple cracks, damage to the LCD display itself or single cracks with a point of impact can be repaired, but at the customer’s expense. When it comes to liquid damage, if the…

26% PERCENTAGE OF AUSTRALIANS THAT “DON’T FEEL THEMSELVES” WITHOUT THEIR PHONE More than a quarter of Australians “don’t feel like themselves and find it hard to function” when without their phone, according to research commissioned by Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei. Of those that were surveyed, 96% admitted to carrying their phones with them at all times, and if they had managed to forget it when leaving the house, 37% would head back to grab it and be late for work, 45% would be late for meeting a partner and 34% would be willing to be late for a first date. 1,078km NEW RECORD SET FOR DISTANCE TRAVELLED IN AN ELECTRIC CAR ON A SINGLE CHARGE An Italian Tesla Model S owner has driven a record-breaking distance for an electric car…

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE SAID, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Music has been an integral part of our culture and past since before recorded history, with the oldest known song about 3,400 years old. What they didn’t know then was that those old tunes had positive effects on the human brain, something only recent developments in neuroscience have been able to establish. Music, especially playing it, has been established to be very good for the brain, activating every part of that walnut-like organ to make us smarter, happier and more productive. PLAYING IS BETTER THAN LISTENING Brain scans have shown that professional musicians have noticeably more symmetrical brains — with areas for motor control, auditory processing and spatial coordination larger than average. Playing music seems to increase interlobe communication between…

[ NO CRUMBS, PLEASE ] CookiesOK SO LONG, POP-UPS. Free | www.cookiesok.com PRACTICALLY EVERY SINGLE website requires internet users to allow cookies to be stored on their machines. Although we’re probably all used to little pop-up windows showing up every now and then, this minor annoyance can become a thing of the past, thanks to a simple, no-frills browser extension called CookiesOK. This plugin is available for Chrome, Opera and Firefox, and is the automatic and “universal way to get rid” of the different types of cookie notifications websites throw at us. CookiesOK is able to detect the most commonly used scripts, like CookieCuttr and CookieGuard, and then some. The developers of this plugin have a database of scripts that gets refreshed every 24 hours, making this plugin quite effective…

Framed 2 SLIP-SLIP-SLIDING AWAY iOS, $7.99; Android, $6.99 | loveshackentertainment.com FRAMED 2, LIKE its 2014 predecessor, is an elaborate pun. Its puzzles require rearranging comic book panels to create a path through a stylishly rendered Hong Kong; its scarpering protagonist has been set up to take the fall for a murder he didn’t commit. Most of the game’s puzzles are about navigation. One early test, for example, asks players to reconfigure a series of boardwalks to avoid both a patrolling policeman and a pursuing attack dog — one panel out of place will often lead to capture — or worse. You may also need to reorder a set of narrow alleys, or untangle a maze of air ducts. Over time, more complex ideas are layered into Framed’s central conceit: some…

THAT AMPLE REAR CAMERA HASN’T BLURRED OPPO’S REPUTATION FOR MAKING SELFIE-FOCUSED CAMERA PHONES, THOUGH, SINCE THE R11 ALSO INCLUDES A GENEROUS 20MP FRONT-FACING CAMERA TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE KEPT ‘FRONT AND CENTRE’ IN YOUR SMARTPHONE’S SNAPSHOTS. SINCE IT ARRIVED in Australia some three years ago now, Chinese smartphone maker Oppo has managed to remain a cut above the competition, spruiking high-quality mid-range smartphones with the occasional genuinely unique feature. It’s rather fitting, then, that the most striking aspect of the company’s latest R11 flagship handset, is its razor-thin 6.8mm profile. As the successor to the R9s (the company consciously steers clear of even numbers) the skinny physique of the R11 is just one of the many impressive features that Oppo has built into this device. It’s also the first mid-range…

INSTEAD OF HAVING TO FIND YOUR PHONE AND FUMBLE THROUGH VARIOUS SCREENS TO FIND THE FUNCTION YOU’RE LOOKING FOR, YOU SIMPLY CALL OUT TO THE ECHO — WHICH, WITH ITS 7-PIECE MICROPHONE ARRAY, IS SENSITIVE ENOUGH TO PICK YOUR VOICE UP FROM ANOTHER ROOM — AND TELL ALEXA WHAT YOU NEED DONE. IT’S FRIDAY NIGHT. You’ve convinced your date to come back to your house for a night cap. As you fumble for the house keys, you call out to Alexa to play your seduction song of choice, Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’. You also ask her to change your lighting colour to red and dim the bedroom lights to 20%, followed by a request to turn the heater on. Later, you get Alexa to book an Uber to…

SEARCHING IN SAFARI is easy enough, but by installing a few extensions, you can make it more interesting and productive as well. Extensions are available from a variety of sources, but Apple’s Safari Extensions Gallery is the best place to get them — all the ones featured there have been certified by Apple as being safe. The extensions we look at here add new features to Safari. SearchPreview adds thumbnail images to search results pages, AnySearch increases the number of search engines from four to more than a dozen, and Ultralink turns text on web pages into information links, making it easier to learn. Bear in mind that, while it can be useful to have some extra extensions running, it’s not a good idea to add too many, as they…

UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN extra careful, it’s probably fair to say that Google knows you just about as well as you know yourself. The internet giant hoovers up vast amounts of information on millions of users, ostensibly to deliver better ads (or, more accurately, to sell that user information to advertisers in order to better target ads). This is especially true if you have a Google account. When you’re logged into your Google account, Google will keep a permanent record of the following: * Every search term you type into Google. * Every search result you click on. * Every YouTube search you perform and every video you watch. * Any ads you click on. * A complete timeline of your movements by tracking your mobile’s GPS. * Every time you…

Pizza Hut’s Pie Tops sneakers A PAIR OF CHEESY SHOES, ALMOST LITERALLY. pizzahutallaccess.com In our digital world, we’re getting increasingly used to everyday objects becoming ‘smart’, with the addition of chips to monitor your exercise or to help you perform certain tasks. One thing we were not asking for, however, was a pair of Pizza Hut-branded shoes that connect to a smartphone app to order pizza for you. First, you need to pair your sneakers to the Pie Tops app and then select your favourite order. Then all you need to do is press the tongue of your new shoes and be within reach of your phone, and be within a designated delivery area, and then go into your phone to confirm your location, and then wait some time... then…

ASHAMPOO DISK-SPACE EXPLORER 2018 & ABELSSOFT HAPPYCARD DETECT HIDDEN DRIVE WASTAGE WITH EASE FREE UP SPACE WITH ASHAMPOO DISK-SPACE EXPLORER 2018 FULL VERSION REQUIRES ONLINE ACTIVATION. The compact but powerful Disk-Space-Explorer 2018 provides a detailed overview of file distribution and disk space consumption. Unlike Windows Explorer, DSE 2018 lists results based on file types and helps quickly locate potential resource hogs. Bar and pie charts provide visual clues as to to the percentage of disk space usage for each file type. Users can finally find out exactly how much space their photos, songs, videos or any other files really take up. Download link: www.ashampoo.com/techlife MAKE BEAUTIFUL, PROFESSIONAL GREETINGS CARDS CREATE GREAT SALUTATIONS WITH ABELSSOFT HAPPYCARD FULL VERSION WORTH $45. Some invitation cards are so special that you’ll want to keep…

SOME MIGHT THINK the President of the United States was too soft on the supporters of the ‘Unite the Right’ rally recently held in Charlottesville, Virginia, but American tech companies aren’t sitting quiet. Big corporations have taken a stance and banned white supremacists and hate groups, or even people suspected to be supporters, from their services or platforms. Web hosting companies like GoDaddy and Squarespace immediately began dropping domain registrations for alt-right websites like The Daily Stormer, while Facebook removed the event page for the Unite the Right rally, followed by other pages owned by various other hate groups. Uber and Airbnb have banned white supremacist users, Spotify’s removed “hate music” from its streaming service and WordPress took down white supremacist blogs. Apple Pay and PayPal also banned sites selling…

TECHLIFE IS AUSTRALIA’S youngest technology mainstream magazine, having been in print since 2012, when we launched as a redesigned and modernised version of Australian PC User. The latter was first printed in 1990, and TechLife’s current editor has been working for the mag (in both its incarnations) for over a decade. We take that 25-year heritage seriously and strive to be both ethical and transparent in our coverage of technology and any other topics we broach. Like our sister magazine, APC, we have two main goals here at TechLife: to track down the best of modern tech and to help our readers get the most from it. We’re also an open church in terms of platforms. We know most people aren’t wed to a single brand’s products and use a…

No More Ransom THERE’S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN. www.nomoreransom.org With a spate of large-scale ransomware attacks occurring in the last few months, it’s no surprise that the issue is finally getting exposure. The No More Ransom website has been operating for a year or so, and it’s run by a collective made up of law enforcement agencies and private companies that hope to tackle the threat head on — specifically, by offering to help remove infections and (hopefully) undo any damage they may have wrought. The site’s landing page is simple and informative, stating that your data won’t necessarily be released, even if you do cough up the asking price, and offering some advice for prevention and removal of existing and already-thwarted ransomware (included links to specific decryption tools…

HP’S BEASTLY NEW gaming laptop is a bit of a puzzle. Weighing in at a hefty 3.8kg and with a body that’s up to 3.3cm thick, the physical dimensions of HP’s latest 17-inch Omen are as chunky and unwieldy as the gaming laptops of years gone by. While the outer chassis is wrapped in patches of carbon fibre that give it a futuristic gaming laptop aesthetic, we were a little surprised to find that, under the hood, our test-model only had an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. That becomes even more perplexing when you consider the graphics card is intended to drive a speedy 120Hz 1080p G-Sync display, a visual interface that requires a considerable amount of GPU power in order to add any real benefit to the system. However,…

THE DS1517+ ISN’T your average 5-bay network-attached storage device. Sure, it can handle all the normal tasks, from backups to running applications, but Synology takes the DS1517+ a step further, bridging the gap into server territory. By providing a PCIe expansion slot, Synology allows users to upgrade the DS1517+ and add features that best suit their particular network. Alternatively, it’s possible to drop in a dual M.2 SSD adapter card, to massively increase data caching and give a boost to higher performance applications. Combined with the flexible Synology DSM operating system, the DS1517+ has the potential to serve a wide range of key roles on a network that go beyond a normal NAS. All this potential doesn’t come cheaply, though, and without a doubt, it will be overkill for a…

YOU CAN TELL at first glance that Belkin’s latest Express Dock HD was intended to be a companion for the newer MacBooks. The aluminium finish and tapered design are undeniably sleek, and thanks to its moderate size, it neither dominates the desk nor gets carried away by the weight of the connected cabling. The dock has particularly strong video chops — it can support two external 4K displays via one of its Thunderbolt 3 ports and the DisplayPort, or alternatively, a single external 5K display. You’ll find the standard affair of ports — two super-speed USB-A 3.0s at the rear and one at the front, Gigabit Ethernet connection and two 3.5mm jacks for headphones and microphones. The show-stealers come in the form of the two Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports, one…

OVER THE LAST couple of years, we’ve seen the smartening of everything from barbeques to toasters and though many of these devices bring only superfluous ‘smart’ features, the Internet of Things market has laid some solid foundations for the smarthome. For now, the core smarthome devices are: lights, power plugs and security cameras, unless you’re willing to delve into more commercial smarthome systems that are generally expensive and require qualified electricians to install. That said, combinations of these three elements allow for a surprising amount of customisation. Smart bulbs now have the capacity to light a room with your choice of blue or yellow light, a feature that changes the atmosphere from energising to relaxing without affecting the overall visibility. Smart plugs turn any appliance you can think of into…

WE’LL STEP YOU THROUGH THE INSTALL PROCESS, BUT CRUCIALLY, WE’LL BE ON HAND TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE POST-SETUP PHASE. IT WAS TWO years since our previous Windows reinstall when we came to write this piece. That’s normally a reasonable time to wait between wiping your hard drive clean and starting again, although given the size of our Windows install (90GB and rising), it was clear we’d possibly waited too long. Despite 16GB of RAM, a fast SSD boot drive, and quad-core processor, Windows took what felt like an age to get going after booting, while there was a noticeable slowdown in performance. Unsurprising, really: since we last wiped the drive, we’d installed two major Windows 10 updates — the Anniversary Edition and the Creators Update. It was obviously time…

IN THE PAST year, we’ve seen a host of excellent mesh network solutions released. Google WiFi, Netgear Orbi, Linksys Velop, Ubiquiti AmpliFi HD, TP-Link Deco and others have made getting whole home Wi-Fi coverage easier than it has ever been before. So this month, we thought we’d take a bit of a deeper dive into mesh networking, and how you can get the most out of your mesh network. We’ll focus on positioning, and how you can maximise performance. UNDERSTANDING BACKHAUL The key to understanding mesh networks is a little thing called ‘backhaul’. In order to relay your data back to the router and onto the internet, the nodes or satellites have to be able to communicate with each other. How they do that depends on the product and the…

01 SHOOTING MODE You’ll have limited (if any) options for changing the AF point setup if you shoot in one of the camera’s basic modes, so switch to an advanced exposure mode. 02 AF POINT SELECTION Cameras with multiple focus points enable you to set different AF point patterns, from a single focus point and groups through to the entire AF point array. 03 SWITCHING POINTS Some cameras let you to move the active AF point using a dedicated controller. For others, you’ll need to use the rear control pad or the camera’s dials. 04 CUSTOMISATION Advanced cameras include handy features such as changing the position of the AF point as you rotate the camera, and reducing the total number of points. IN FOCUS You’ll need to half-press the shutter…

iTunes Match not made in heaven I’m well and truly cemented in the Apple ecosystem. I have a MacBook, an iMac, an iPhone and an Apple Watch. So does my husband. When the HomePod comes out, we’ll probably end up getting that, too, because we’ve got a spare bit of table space next to our Apple TV, Time Capsule and Wi-Fi extender. While I won’t even let the idea of switching to something Android-based cross my mind (I’m too old to learn something new), that doesn’t mean I don’t have my gripes with Apple’s goods. The topic of today’s aggravation is iTunes Match, a service whereby Apple uploads or ‘matches’ songs from your computer’s library to the iCloud Library so you can access it on all your devices. This has…

THE Z2 PLAY PARTICULARLY EXCELS IN MAKING OTHER PHONES LOOK BORING, AND FOR ANYONE WHO’S YEARNING FOR A HANDSET SO THEY CAN PROVIDE LIFE TO THE PARTY, THIS IS THE ONE TO GET. MOTOROLA Z2 PLAY $899 www.motorola.com.au CRITICAL SPECS Android 7.1.1; 5.5-inch IPS LCD display @ 1080p (403ppi); Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core 2.21Ghz; Adreno 506; 4GB RAM; 64GB internal storage (microSD card up to 256GB); 12MP rear, 5MP front camera; 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 5.0; Type C port; 3,000mAh battery; 15.4 x 7.4 x 0.7cm; 153g WHAT MOTOROLA’S NEW Z2 smartphone lacks in outright power it makes up with character. Physical gestures turn the camera or LED-light on in mere milliseconds from standby. Twisting the phone quickly wakes the lens, or making a chopping motion with the phone in…

nextPaper READ IT ALL ON A PAPER SCREEN  tinyurl.com/tla69-paper | Goal: US$280,000 | Raised: US$5,080 from 18 backers | RRP: US$430 One of the biggest draw cards for a Kindle or Kobo over other tablets is the E Ink display, making reading ebooks a real pleasure. Of course, your iPads and Galaxy Tabs are going to give you more use options, but what if you want to read your news articles, Wikipedia entries and Reddit discussions on digital paper? The nextPaper tablet aimed to take the power of digital paper and inject it with, well... the internet, meaning you’d get that gorgeous paper effect beyond your ebooks. Instantly transforming your webpages into something more suited to a book format, the nextPaper wanted to get you away from the glary computer…

A NEW STUDY, HOWEVER, POINTS TO THE FACT THAT, EVEN THOUGH PHOTOGRAPHY HELPS US REMEMBER THINGS, IT COMES AT THE COST OF OUR AUDITORY MEMORY. LET’S CHAT: HAVING A CONVERSATION SYNCS BRAIN WAVE RHYTHMS ‘N SYNC! According to a study conducted by the Basque Centre on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) in Spain, a simple exchange of words between two people begins to synchronise the brain waves of the participants, even if they are strangers. The researchers recorded neural activity in the brain and found that rhythms match, forming a “connection” between the people involved. “It involves interbrain communion that goes beyond language itself and may constitute a key factor in interpersonal relations and the understanding of language,” one of the researchers explained. This study confirms theories that brains “synchronise”…

PODCASTS ARE DEFINITELY increasing in popularity, what with the number of festivals now on the calendar and productions actually going around the world on tour. (This the fourth time now, Dave and Gareth...!) To celebrate the recent London Podcast Festival, we thought we’d mix things up a bit this week. Instead of selecting a single topic and finding five podcasts that address said topic, we thought we’d give you a slice of the action and talk about a few of our favourite podcasts from the festival. Of course, with so many great productions having featured at the festival, we can only bring you a few, but rest assured, we’ve bookmarked most of the others for future instalments! So without further ado — ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats and…

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle NO BAD HARE DAY! $89.95 | Switch | www.mario-rabbids.com FOR SOME, THE phrase ‘tactical turn-based strategy’ inspires visions of an impenetrably complex game genre, too daunting for anyone but the most hardcore of gamers. Chances are those same people would have no problem approaching Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (M+R) — a game that acts as a long overdue crossover between Nintendo’s Mario and Ubisoft’s Raving Rabbids franchises. While it operates under the facade of being a cute, simplistic game with a typical Mario aesthetic, it’s actually quite tense and deceptively deep, with strategic gameplay that’s pure XCOM. Like XCOM, M+R is also a story of invasion, only the invaders aren’t aliens, they’re (mostly insane) Rabbids who’ve descended upon the Mushroom Kingdom after misusing a…

AT 5.3-INCHES FROM CORNER TO CORNER, PHYSICALLY, THE 8 SITS FIRMLY IN THE AVERAGE SIZE BRACKET OF MODERN PHONES, THOUGH THE 1440P SCREEN DOES GIVE IT A LEG UP AND MEANS IT MATCHES MOST COMPETING FLAGSHIPS. LAST MONTH, WE reviewed the first batch of Nokia phones since the company parted ways with Microsoft in 2016, with the new handsets a trio of keenly-priced (if lowspecced) Android units. For the most part, they are Nokia in both name and spirit, with the famous Finnish brand now owned by Finnish company HMD Global, which counts several key Nokia staff among its ranks. Like those aforementioned cheaper siblings, this new flagship also runs a near-stock version of Android — a smart move, as the lightweight nature of the OS assures predictability in a…

THE ORIGINAL HUAWEI Watch was an Android watch with a premium metal finish that looked smart on the wrist, but with this sequel, Huawei has opted for a rugged sporty theme, with a chunky plastic body and sizeable bezel surrounding the watch face. While it’s unlikely to win any style awards, it is at least functional. The Watch 2 has a strong health and fitness angle, and its design means it will survive the rigours of a workout, training session or race. To that end, the default silicon strap is sweat-proof, and it can be easily removed, with handy pegs on the underside making it easy to detach from the watch body. The Watch 2 works with all Android smartphones running Android 4.3 and above, or iPhone 5 and newer…

EVER SINCE IT launched in 2011, Siri has been confined to Apple smartphones and computers, unable to break free in the way Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa or Google’s Assistant have. But now, nearly six years on from its debut, Siri is finally moving into living rooms via the HomePod, a Siripowered, voice-controlled Wi-Fi speaker with an A8 chip for brains. Apple’s new toy (shipping in the US this December for US$349, and a local price expected soon) is crammed with seven beam-forming tweeters and an upward-firing woofer, designed to project a sound tailored to the size of room it’s placed in. As much as it seems like a competitor to Amazon Echo or Google Home, the HomePod is concerned with music and sound quality first. Yes, it can turn off…

AS THE FIRST smart speaker to officially launch in Australia, Google Home has dramatically changed the smarthome game by connecting a well-established ecosystem of smarthome devices to a single, voice-activated command centre. The key ingredient in this equation is time, with Google Home’s voice- activated commands dramatically decreasing the time and energy required to switch lights and appliances on or off. This impressive feature set not only bolsters Google Home’s overall appeal, but also makes existing smarthome devices responsive enough to be desirable to a mass market. There’s a number of nuanced ways in which Google Home can supercharge your smarthome, and while most people will be sufficiently engrossed by the ability to turn your coffee machine or heater on by simply asking, Google Home and the Google Assistant it…

[ MAC ] Email reminders of events on Mac I’m looking for a simple calendar that’ll send me email reminders of appointments and events, and will run on both my iPad and my iMac. Apple’s own Calendar app doesn’t seem able to send emails, so unless I were to carry my iPad around with me all the time, I’d most likely miss its reminders. Can you suggest something that will do what I want? [ COLIN EYRE ] Ian Sleightholm replies: Due of the widespread use of Macs in conjunction with iOS devices, Apple has integrated all reminders of this type into notifications, which are accessible by swiping down from the top edge of your iPad’s screen, and through the icon at the far right of your Mac’s menu bar.…

MANY AN ARGUMENT about PC vs console gaming comes down to this — a preference for playing in one location or another. A lot of the appeal of consoles is that they’re designed to be played from the comfort of your lounge chair, while PC games usually require you be sitting at a desk. The thing is: that’s not necessarily the case anymore. There are easy and free tools that will let you beam your PC games to lounge room TV — or from a powerful PC with high-end graphics to a low-end laptop. There are also tools to go the other way — to beam console games to a PC or handheld. This month, we’re going to look at a few of those tools, starting with the ones built…