Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i APC

While US President Trump’s new national security advisor, John Bolton, has made clear that one of the ways to get back at Russia for meddling in US affairs is to launch “retaliatory cyber campaign”, major global corporations are determined to not let that happen. 34 global corporations, including Microsoft, Nokia, Cisco, HP and Facebook, have signed the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, a pledge to ally together and defend consumers against cyber attacks. The accord states that the coalition “will not help governments launch cyberattacks against innocent citizens and enterprises from anywhere”. The agreement will “empower civilians online” and “improve the security, stability and resilience of cyberspace”, with each company promising to not aid governments bolster their cyber capabilities. The companies have also promised to protect against “tampering and exploitation” of products…

AMAZON ECHO SPOT Do you have a soft spot for smart speakers? $199 | AMAZON.COM.AU Smart speakers are pretty good at talking these days, but if a picture paints a thousand words, then Amazon’s new Echo Spot is the most ‘talkative’ smart speaker to land in Australia to date. As the first digital assistant to come with its own built-in screen, the Echo Spot is able to show you anything from the weather to your calendar, in addition to all the handy features your existing smart speaker can do. The touchscreen can even be synced up to security cameras, baby monitors and your smartphone contacts to help you keep an eye on the important things in your life. Plus, it looks quite swish. JB EMBRACE SMART MIRROR Tech…

With the arrival of mobile variants of AMD’s Ryzen chips and laptop variants of Intel’s 8th-gen Core CPUs, there’s some serious competition in the portable processor market. That’s good news, and with it comes a few questions. For instance, does AMD’s Zen architecture work as well on the move as it does on the desktop? And who makes the best processor for a wide range of portable applications? We’ll also try to make sense of how these chips fit into the idiotic array of CPUs that Intel has drawn together under that ‘8th Gen’ banner. Round 1 PRODUCT RANGE AND BRANDING For some time, the weakest element of Intel’s operation has involved branding, marketing and product positioning. The underlying hardware has been fantastic. However, the problem has extended beyond the…

When you unbox a Samsung smart TV and turn it on for the first time, companies including Google, Facebook, Netflix, Spotify and more are alerted to the occasion. And that’s before you’ve logged in or even expressed an interest in using any of those services: the TV does all this automatically. The Internet of Things is meant to streamline our domestic lives and, let’s just admit it, make us feel like the Jetsons. But according to a new tool created by Princeton University’s computer science department, a whole range of IoT devices pose significant privacy and security risks. And while the Samsung example above probably won’t ring alarm bells for most (who doesn’t already volunteer all their intimate information with Google and Facebook?), it’s the shadier and more ambiguous ways…

VR HEADSET $1,199 (HEADSET ONLY); $1,999 (BUNDLE) | VIVE.COM/AU The HTC Vive has always been the leading virtual reality experience when it comes to room-scale immersion. Although rival headsets such as the Oculus Rift have since expanded to help you physically move around, and the PlayStation VR does it to a point, no other headset has quite been able to replicate what the Vive offers. TECH ME ON HTC is now launching the Vive Pro, an upgraded headset with higher-res displays and a more ergonomic design. On the tech side, there are two big changes. First is an increase in pixels, climbing to 2,880 x 1,600 (1,440 x 1,600 per eye) and representing a 78% increase from the original. Second is high-res audio headphones built into the headset.…

GAMING LAPTOP $2,999 | AU.MSI.COM The GE line has traditionally been MSI’s value gaming-laptop proposition — offering a well-rounded set of powerful components in a package that isn’t cutting edge, but which also won’t cost a fortune. This year’s update keeps the tradition going with a minor price drop, CPU upgrade and some RGB lighting synchronisation. At 2.8cm thick, this range wedges itself into a gaming-specific size bracket with ample internal space for the device’s 8th-gen Intel CPU, dedicated Nvidia GPU and 16GB of memory. A 1080p 120Hz screen was the big new feature on last year’s GE63, and the speedy screen’s return is definitely still a highlight. Mind you, that screen doesn’t have an ideal colour gamut for editing photos or working on design projects, at just…

ULTRAWIDE MONITOR $1,699 | WWW.VIEWSONIC.COM/AU Ever since the first 21:9-aspect monitor rolled out five or so years ago, the super-wide format has been about as polarising as it gets with flat panels. Some loved it for its cinematic sizzle, others trash-talked the limited vertical resolution and consequent poor productivity proposition. Each successive generation has upped the ante in terms of vertical resolution. ViewSonic’s VP3881 is a 38-inch monster with no fewer than 1,600 vertical pixels. Thanks to that 21:9 aspect, the horizontal count clocks in at 3,840. In other words, this is a 21:9 respin of the 3,840 x 2,160 standard — 4K or UHD. However you slice it, the VP3881 packs a reasonable number of vertical pixels and, in turn, productivity chops for viewing docs. With this…

“The result is a good-sounding pair of speakers that don’t break the bank.” 2.0 PC SPEAKER SET $249 | WWW2.RAZER.COM/AU-EN If you’re in the market for a new pair of computer speakers, there’s a slim chance you’ll find anything as cool as the Nommo Chromas — these stereo speakers with RGB underlighting take the boxy form factor we’re used to and flip it on its head. The result is a good-sounding pair of speakers that don’t break the bank — the entry-level models, the Razer Nommos and the Razer Nommo Chromas only cost $169 and $249, respectively. If you’re looking for a little more power, then the Nommo Pros add tweeters, a separate subwoofer and an inline remote (with AU pricing yet to be announced). The Goldilocks of…

$349 | WWW.GIGABYTE.COM.AU 6 x SATA 6Gbps; 2 x M.2; 10 x USB ports on I/O port; 11-phase power; Realtek ALC1220 codec; 802.11ac Wi-Fi It’s not easy buying a motherboard at the best of the times, what with them all promising almost identical features and claiming to all have the same benefits over each other. Things get even harder when you’re trying to select between two ‘boards made by the same company, in the same range, such as this one, which goes up against the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi (right). The obvious difference here is the price. At $100 cheaper than the Gaming 7, this is around a third cheaper than its big brother. So we can immediately assume that the hedge trimmers have been taken to…

The Raspberry Pi was launched six years ago, and since then, it has grown into something amazing. We’ve seen four different major versions (Zero, 1, 2 and 3), and a couple of minor versions, most recently the powerful 3 B+ which launched in March. Online Pi retailer ModMyPi.com was there at the beginning, and was good enough to lend us some treats for this feature. Founder Jacob Marsh offers his take on the Pi’s remarkable success. “I didn’t realise that the Raspberry Pi would grow to what it is now, I don’t think even the Pi Foundation did. ModMyPi was conceived in a university bedroom. Now we have a global e-shop with more than 2,000 product lines, a $5.5 million turnover, seven full-time staff, and a 300 square metre warehouse…

1 ORGANISE YOUR WORKSPACE We know how tempting it is to just dive right in and spill the contents of all the bags over your already messy desk. Don’t do this. Instead, clear a nice workspace, read the instructions carefully and place all the tools you’ll need to one side. If you have to solder anything, then make sure this happens in a well-ventilated area, and have some desoldering wick to hand. 2 FIX THE MOUNTS The motors will usually attach to the underside of the chassis by way of some angled brackets. Find the right holes and attach these brackets with the appropriate nuts and bolts. The DiddyBorg uses metal posts to secure the brackets. Don’t forget to add washers if your chassis needs them. These help to distribute…

A simple Pi robot needs little more than a chassis, power source and wheels. But things are more fun when you kit the base construction out with some additional peripherals. We can use well-known Pi peripherals, such as the camera and the touchscreen, in new and innovative ways, or we can use other items — sensors, speakers, servos and more – to really ramp up the excitement levels. GRAB YOURSELF A CONTROLLER Controlling a robot via a web interface is all well and good, but even on a fast network, you’ll experience some degree of latency, which will make driving a little haphazard. A wired controller will work reliably, but obviously, this won’t be much use if you can’t keep up with your robot. With a Bluetooth controller, you can…

When you think of Google, search engines and emails may come to mind, but there is a lot more to the company than just these runaway successes. It is true that Google dominates search and email, but did you know that YouTube is owned and powered by Google? In fact, so are many other online services that you may already be aware of. Over time, Google has grown from a company that provides the best search engine on the internet to one that can power almost every aspect of our computing lives. Google now provides the most popular email service in the world and enables people to store billions of documents online. It provides ultra-fast broadband and the operating system for the most popular smartphones — it sometimes feels that…

The Chromecast is an extremely well-priced accessory that plugs into the back of a TV. Your Android device can then stream films and video clips to it wirelessly to offer a much better experience than watching on a phone or tablet. On top of this, you can ‘cast’ apps to the TV as well and enjoy games as you would with a dedicated games console. Viewing photos is easy and the actual Chromecast app will display a series of customisable photos on the TV when you’re not using it. Support for Netflix, YouTube, Optus Sport and other well-known services is included to round off a complete feature set. The setup process is simple and the system works reliably, which makes it one of the most useful accessories available for your…

Windows 10 comes with a number of apps already installed, and while these are designed to help you get started with your new laptop or PC as quickly as possible, you may find that you will never use many of these apps. So rather than keeping them, and having them clog up your Start menu and take up precious space on your PC, you can uninstall them. In this guide, we’ll show you how to find all the pre-installed Windows 10 apps, and help you decide which ones you don’t need. We’ll then show you how to safely remove them from your machine. Also, if you’ve recently bought a PC or laptop, then you may find that the manufacturer has also installed some apps of their own that you will…

1 OPEN IN EDGE If you often deal with PDFs, it’s possible that Adobe Reader is installed on your PC and will open if you double-click a PDF. To open a PDF in Edge, right-click the file, choose ‘Open with > Edge’. If you like Edge and want to open PDFs in it every time, right-click the file, select ‘Open with > Choose Another App’. Select Edge, then tick the ‘Always use this app...’ box. 2 HIGHLIGHT TEXT One thing you can do with a PDF is annotate it, highlighting part of it and leaving your opinion in a pop-up note to send back to the document’s creator. While PDFs aren’t directly editable, you can save these notes back into the document. To leave a note, select some text then…

1 GESTURES Swipe with two fingers to slide between pages of apps, hold down Opt/Alt to automatically enter the organisation mode (where the apps quiver and allow you to move them around). Do a four-finger reverse pinch to exit Launchpad quickly, or tap Escape on your keyboard. 2 HIDE APPS Hide unwanted apps by installing the free System Preferences add-on, which is available from chaosspace.de/ launchpad-control 3 FOLDERS Arrange your apps into folders by clicking and dragging one app onto another. This will create a folder that is automatically named for you. Rename the folder by clicking on its title and typing over the highlighted text. 4 PAGES Each dot represents a different page of apps inside Launchpad. You can navigate between pages by swiping with two fingers, or quickly…

Samba is easy to set up and it works across operating systems. It can also be used to share printers over a network using the CUPS service, which is easy to install. NFS also offers benefits for Linux users. Chief of these is that a user’s Home directory can be served over the network via NFS — handy for thin client devices, while storage devices such as optical drives can be accessed as if the user is sat at that remote machine. Installing NFS is simple, and there’s a guide at help.ubuntu.com/community/SettingUpNFSHowTo that will work with Raspbian. If all of this file server talk has sparked an interest, then we recommend using Diet Pi (dietpi.com). It comes with an automatic install script for many different file servers, Pi-Hole and other…

The concept of ‘artificial intelligence’ is driving almost everything at the moment, from cars to healthcare to smart speakers to smart farming. Yet, we say ‘concept of’ because artificial intelligence itself has become a bit of a ‘catch-all’ phrase for anything to do with computers and learning. Nevertheless, when Google recently announced it was transitioning into an “AI-first” company, much of that focus is being trained on the field of ‘machine learning’. It’s one of the top hot-button topics in the tech world at the moment and the scene of vast amounts of university research. However, what we love about machine learning is that it’s also an intensely practical field — this intersection of computer science, statistics and mathematics is being applied to problems in a seemingly endless array of…

The King of Kong has lost his crown Mitchell stripped of gaming titles. Billy Mitchell, best known as “that guy from the King of Kong documentary that nobody was rooting for”, has been discovered to be undeserving of his Guinness World Record and gaming titles. An investigation into his highest scores in the arcade games Donkey Kong (in which he was the first to score over one million points), Donkey Kong Jr and Pac-Man (where he achieved the world-first perfect score from 1999) has revealed that the scores were attained on a machine using the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) and not an authentic arcade machine. This being against the Twin Galaxies rules (the organisation that verifies information for Guinness World Records), Mitchell has subsequently been stripped of his world…

ISSUE 455, JUNE 2018 Please note that these exclusive APC & TechLife magazine downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 24/05/2018 to 11/07/2018 MAINTAIN CLEANLINESS AND STABILITY SHED USELESS SOFTWARE WITH ASHAMPOO UNINSTALLER 6 FULL VERSION WORTH $50 With Ashampoo UnInstaller 6, you can finally uninstall applications without worry. Even better: you can get rid of unwanted software instantly at the click of a button! Experience the most extensive installation monitoring technology to date, and remove applications without a trace. The newly developed snapshotting technology enables you to trace system modifications with great speed and incredible attention to detail. And don’t forget system maintenance: numerous integrated maintenance tools will help keep your system lean and fast. DOWNLOAD LINK: www.ashampoo.com/lpa/apcmagazine SHARE FILES WITH YOUR PHONE WITH…

US$25 million FORTNITE’S BATTLE ROYALE FOR iOS RAKED IN BIG DOLLARS IN THE U.S. OVER ITS FIRST MONTH While PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds’ might be considered the first game to make ‘battle royale’ gameplay mainstream, Fortnite took the popularity of the mode and ran with it — and has managed to gain some serious traction. In its first 30 days, the iOS version has managed to rake in over US$25 million, according to analytics company SensorTower, which predicts it could be grossing more than US$500 million by the end of the year. 5% NUMBER OF WEBSITES STILL USING FLASH PLAYER In July 2017, Adobe officially announced that it will be retiring its Flash technology by 2020, but it may be gone well before then, with less than 5% of websites worldwide still…

While phone makers and operating system developers of dubious numeracy skip straight from eight to ten, Samsung stays strong and gives us the Samsung Galaxy S9+ (sans notch, even). Only a teardown will tell if this phone is a true contender, or just a weird AR Emoji machine. MAJOR TECH SPECS: ■ Notchless 6.2-inch AMOLED display with resolution of 2,960 x 1,440 (570 ppi) ■ Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 or Samsung’s Exynos 9810, depending on location ■ 12MP OIS dual-aperture main cam — f/1.5 and f/2.4 modes — plus a 12MP 2x optical zoom secondary camera, and 8MP selfie cam ■ Headphone jack and microSD slot ■ IP68 water/dust-proofing rating ■ Android 8.0 Oreo KEY FINDINGS: ■ While it’s no S4, the S9 is a welcome respite from our more recent…

Quantum computing has caught the attention of large companies, academics and hobbyists alike. This article will cover the history, the different ways to make a quantum computer and the logic behind programming. You’ll also learn about some programming toolkits that you can use to get started. To run a quantum computer, the physics has to be understood so programmers can then manipulate and measure the final results. Scientists have observed quantum effects in photons, electrons and isotopes of many materials. This means engineers use superconducting materials such as niobium and aluminium to construct workable quantum computing systems. The logic gates are made of silicon wafers and are controlled using microwave emitters. These solutions may not be the best in the long run, but they’re the ones that are running now.…

NVME SSD FROM $161 (250GB) | WWW.SAMSUNG.COM/AU For the last few years, Samsung’s Evo family of NVMe solid-state drives have been ranked as the best SSD by us and many in the industry. Though these drives have never been the fastest, they’re hardly the most expensive — putting them in a middle ground for flash storage that’s five times faster than a typical SATA drive while still being affordable. The prices of Samsung’s NVMe drives have been going down steadily with each successive generation, and thankfully that trend continues with the 970 line. Three years and an equal number of iterations later, the Samsung 970 Evo continues to hold on to that crown. With vastly quicker sequential write speeds, this is incredibly fast, even compared to most modern…

GAMING LAPTOP $3,599 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU Six-core Intel CPU, Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics, IPS panel with 144Hz refresh and G-Sync support... On paper, ASUS’s latest RoG gaming laptop has all the makings of a high-frame-rate portable powerhouse. But like any laptop, what matters is the detailed implementation. ASUS says the thermal design of the chassis has been carefully tweaked since the previous model. The overall thickness is maintained, but the volumes have been optimised, and the number of thermal fin outlets has increased to four to improve heat dissipation. When the screen lid is lifted, a section of the chassis bottom levers open to raise the entire laptop by 9mm, which allows air to flow through the keyboard and maximise circulation. Nice. Speaking of the keyboard, it’s fully RGB…

AMD 300-SERIES MOTHERBOARD $169 | AU.MSI.COM An ITX Ryzen mobo, with a fantastic overclocking solution, and a kick-ass feature set, all on the B350 chipset. Wait, what? The understated brown PCB, the sub-high-end chipset, the simple, unsophisticated black heatsinks — it all mars an otherwise fantastic assembly of prime components designed to push the Ryzen ITX form factor to new heights. What’s so good about the B350i Pro AC? It all comes down to the power-phase design. There are nine phases in total here (with the closest competing ITX board housing a meager six in contrast), which helps provide the additional grunt needed to balance the power from a Ryzen core. At stock, the MSI B350i Pro topped our X265, Cinebench R15 Multi, Fry Render and AIDA64 memory…

OPTICAL GAMING MOUSE $109 | WWW.HYPERXGAMING.COM With this second mouse from HyperX, the rising star of gaming-peripherals has honed its focus while sprinkling on some welcome flourish. While the overall profile is flatter than the company’s first mouse, the Pulsefire FPS, the generally pared-back design and matte-black aesthetic has remained much the same. The most immediate addition to the Surge is its lighting capabilities, showcased by its 360º halo, which can be customised via HyperX’s NGenuity software. The latter’s intuitive and comprehensive, and also allows for the modification of DPI settings, button configurations (including ambidextrous support) and macro management. You can save up to three profiles to the on-board memory for on-the-fly adjustment. The customisation lets you tweak precise DPIs and configure specific lighting zones, if you desire.…

“This is the only board in the roundup to include eight SATA 3 ports.” $339 | WWW.ASROCK.COM 8 x SATA 6Gbps ports; 2 x M.2 PCIe x4; 8 x rear USB ports; ASRock Polychrome RGB lighting Who says you need to blow the bank to have a good night out on the town (or sitting at your desk playing games)? ASRock has yet again upped the ante when it comes to value, with this exceptionally affordable motherboard keeping up with those that cost up to 30% more, in both performance and features. There’s no need to cover the physical PCIe lanes, as they’re the same on every motherboard in this roundup. However, the top two x16 lanes have some of the sturdiest steel reinforcement we’ve seen; if only…

$449 | WWW.GIGABYTE.COM.AU 10 x USB ports; 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Intel Gigabit Ethernet; twin M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slots; extensive heat shielding The first thing you’ll notice when unpacking this motherboard is how damn heavy it is. Gigabyte has equipped it with arguably the finest air-cooled heatsinks of any X470 motherboard. An array of aluminium fins around the CPU’s power components are connected via heatpipes, and are backed up by a thick steel plate behind the board. Both M.2 slots also come with heatsinks, and they’re nice and chunky, unlike the slithers of aluminium often seen on other ‘boards. “There’s just a single automatic overclock button, along with two BIOS sliders.” The net result should be a ‘board that can handle the additional heat pumped out by tweakers with…

“If your robot has a camera attached, then you can stream the video for a delightful first-person video driving experience.” Having constructed our Diddy, we wanted to know more about what it could do. Not content with making glorious hardware, PiBorg also provides some great code examples to get you started. These will need some tweaking to work on other hardware, but should give you some idea of how to talk to the hardware in Python. Robot kits will provide scripts to deal with all the low-level communication. In our case this is all done through the ThunderBorg.py file (see www.piborg.org/blog/build/thunderborg-build/thunderborg-examples). This handles all the raw I2C coding, so you don’t need to worry about that, and provides much more human-friendly functions such as SetMotor1() , which sets the speed…

Initially, Android tablets struggled to compete in terms of apps available and even the suitability of each app. Many were simply stretched to fit the larger screen and this led to concerns about usability. But app developers were relatively quick to embrace Android tablets and create apps that were worthy of the platform. Samsung and other manufacturers then jumped on board, and today, we have a vast array of tablets available that push the boundaries of what a mobile device can do. If you want a mobile experience that’s close to a full computer in your hand, a tablet is the ideal way to go.…

Drones are currently receiving a lot of attention — much of it is quite negative — but the potential future uses for this technology are actually very positive. Google has already started testing drones in Project Wing to deliver goods to customers, which would potentially greatly speed up receipt and also cut a lot of waste out of the traditional delivery systems we still use today. It sounds bizarre, but Google has tested delivering a package using a drone, which lowers the package by a type of fishing line from 45m in the air. This type of technology would be ideal for so many of the items that we purchase currently and will likely be more environmentally friendly and safer as well. Concerns remain over safety and the privacy implications…

1 WHAT APPS CAN YOU EASILY UNINSTALL? When you first use Windows 10, you’ll see a number of pre-installed apps. Many of these can be removed quite easily, while others are more complicated. The easily-uninstalled apps are: Get Started, Get Skype, Get Office, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Money, News, Phone Companion, Sports, Optional Features, Windows Media Player and Windows DVD Player. 2 QUICKLY UNINSTALL THESE APPS To remove the apps listed in Step 1, all you need to do is find their entries in the Start menu, right-click their icon, and select Uninstall. A small message will appear letting you know that the app, and any associated data, will be removed from your PC. If you’re happy to proceed, click Uninstall once again. The selected app will then be deleted from…

1 CREATE FOLDERS Drag one app icon onto another. As you release your mouse, the two apps will form a folder, which will be named automatically. Rename the folder by clicking the title. 2 MOVE YOUR APPS You can easily re-order your apps within your Launchpad simply by clicking and holding on an app icon, then dragging it into position. 3 LIVEN IT UP Use Emoji icons in your folder names by opening a new TextEdit document, choosing ‘Edit > Emojis & Symbols’, and copy-pasting to the Launchpad. 4 HIDE UNWANTED APPS Hide unwanted apps by installing the System Preferences add-on, detailed in the boxout opposite. 5 SET UP A SHORTCUT KEY Choose ‘System Preferences > Keyboard’, and add a shortcut key into the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. 6 DELETE APPS…

Even if you’re totally disconnected with the realm of mortal beings, you’d still surely have heard of Docker and how it can solve all your IT problems. If you have somehow managed to isolate yourself from experiencing the fruits of Docker’s goodness, here’s your chance to absolve yourself. Traditional virtualisation technologies provide full hardware virtualisation. This is to say that the virtual machine or hypervisor takes chunks of physical resources such as CPU, storage and RAM, and then slices them into virtual versions like virtual CPUs and virtual RAM. It then uses these virtual peripherals to build virtual machines that behave like regular physical computers. The isolated virtual environment is useful for testing a new distro, but is an overkill when all you need to virtualise is a single program.…

Pre-paid Android phones now are just super cheap — walk into a Coles supermarket and you can often walk out with a quad-core Android phone for as little as $29. The cheapest phone I’ve ever purchased was a Boost Indy, a pre-paid rebadged ZTE B816 4.0-inch dual-core Android 4.4 phone for just $19. Sure, it’s not an earth-shattering device and I don’t make phone calls with it, but a battery-powered dual-core computer with screen, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for $19? That’s better value than a Raspberry Pi 3! Think of your phone as a computer and the instant change of mindset opens up the possibilities for pressing even cheap budget phones into many other applications. One example we’re looking at this month is turning your phone into a personal file server.…

PS4 | $94.95 | PLAYSTATION.COM/GODOFWAR It’s been many years since Kratos exacted bloody vengeance on the Gods of Olympus for tricking him into murdering his own family, and he’s changed in quite a dramatic way. The Spartan warrior has left Ancient Greece behind and is now living a peaceful life with new family in the Norse realm of gods and monsters. But it’s not just the Norse mythology setting that sets the new God of War apart from previous entries in the series — its action-focused gameplay has been completely deconstructed and reimagined, offering a new over-the-shoulder camera perspective and an axe-based combat system that keeps Kratos mostly grounded. He’s also got a companion along for his latest adventure, with his young son Atreus providing backup with his…

PC, PS4, XO | US$30 | WWW.VERMINTIDE.COM The original Vermintide was a delightful Left 4 Dead clone that put the fantasy trappings of the Warhammer universe to excellent use. Instead of boring old zombies, we got to battle hordes of ratmen called Skaven and instead of just shooting our way through, there was robust melee combat. Vermintide II is a massive overhaul that polishes what was there before to a fine sheen while adding huge amounts of variety. After halting the plans of Clan Fester in the original game, our heroes were captured. This game begins with you breaking out of captivity, in an elaborate tutorial level, just in time to discover that the Skaven have now joined forces with the barbarian Chaos Warriors from up north. Now…

The number of Aussies opting for the higher NBN speed tiers is increasing, according to the NBN Co’s March 2018 report. More than a million premises have signed up for high-speed broadband in the last four months alone. That equates to 37% of homes and businesses now on the NBN50 option, as compared to just 16% from March last year. NBN Co claims that this surge is due to lower wholesale prices that have allowed resellers (RSPs) to purchase more bandwidth. But while the price cuts have led to easy access to high-speed internet, it’s also increasing congestion during peak hours. According to the report, average network congestion is now higher than what it was in February. That’s not the only problem facing the NBN, though. The number of complaints…

Beyond the vivid imagination of Hollywood writers and computer game developers, AI and VR lead pretty peaceful lives. Rather than causing the annihilation of the human race (well, not yet anyway), AI is busily going about many useful tasks, from sifting through documents for certain terms to making up cookie recipes and sorting out Lego pieces. VR, too, has many uses for us squishy humans beyond gaming applications. In fact, it’s these alternative uses for the technology that are the most interesting at the present time. With both AI and VR lending a hand in the medical profession, crime fighting and education, it truly is an exciting area to explore. We’ve touched on virtual reality and artificial intelligence many times in this column, but what the hell, let’s do it…

APC is Australia’s oldest consumer technology magazine — having been consistently in print for over 35 years, since our first issue way back in May 1980 — and we take that heritage and responsibility very seriously. While our focus is obviously on the personal computer — it’s in our name, after all — the very definition of the PC has changed and shifted markedly since the early 1980s. As such, we touch on many other areas of tech too, from smartphones and apps to peripherals, accessories, online services and beyond. We have two main goals: to track down the best of modern tech and also to help our readers make the most of it. We’re also an open church in terms of platforms. We know most people aren’t wed to…

“The only thing more amazing than the engineering feat of producing it is the price you might pay for one” ALL-IN-ONE COMPUTER FROM $7,299 | APPLE.COM/AU Apple has packed a workstation with up to an 18-core Xeon processor in a frame the exact size of the regular 5K iMac. The only thing more amazing than the engineering feat of producing it is the price you might pay for one. Apple provided us with a very high-end unit for our review, but the ‘basic’ $7,299 model offers an eight-core, 3.2GHz Intel Xeon processor, a less-potent 8GB AMD Vega 56 graphics card, 32GB of memory, and a 1TB SSD. It’s all hugely configurable — you are able to choose a 14-core processor (for an additional $2,560) or an 18-core option…

2-IN-1 FROM $3,696 | WWW.DELL.COM/EN-AU Now that 2018 is going to be another year without a new Surface Pro, Microsoft’s competitors are putting out new top-of-the-line 2-in-1s with the idea of making 2018 their year instead. Enter the Dell Latitude 5290 laptop, a detachable device that the Texas manufacturer hopes will capture some of that 2-in-1 territory. The Latitude follows the typical template: it has a deployable kickstand, so the tablet portion can stand on its own, along with a magnetised type cover for easy tablet/laptop conversion, and an extra-large bezel and tactile rear panel for easy gripping. That said, the Latitude 5290 does bring some welcome wrinkles to the 2-in-1 blueprint. It has a nifty take on the kickstand — the leg auto-deploys by holding the tablet…

BROADBAND ROUTER $620 | WWW.DRAYTEK.COM.AU It’s been a while since DrayTek last updated its line of small business DSL modem routers, but the new Vigor is a worthy update, modernising many of the features of the Vigor2860 series without departing dramatically from that baseline. Aesthetically, the router is consistent with DrayTek’s previous routers: no frills, with LAN, USB, WAN, DSL and phone ports up front for easy access. Only the power plugs into the back of the router. This isn’t pretty when it’s all plugged in — it’s more like a rack mount in miniature than what you might have come to expect from more consumer-focused routers — but the DrayTek is designed to be practical, not pretty. That approach extends to DrayTek’s firmware itself, which is very…

“The clear CMOS button on the rear I/O panel is a godsend.” $469 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU 10 x USB ports on rear I/O, including one Type-C; 5 x 3.5mm stereo minijacks for audio out; dual antennae connections; ASUS Aura lighting When we asked the Big Four motherboard manufacturers to supply their premium X470 motherboards for this roundup, we weren’t quite expecting their submissions to be so, well, affordable. When we ask the same question regarding Intel ‘boards, it’s not uncommon to see slabs of silicon going for $700 or more. Yet at $469, and coming in as the most expensive X470 in our roundup, this ASUS motherboard is a prime example of why AMD is still seen as the bang-for-buck platform of choice. You might expect it to come…

The good people at ModMyPi were kind enough to send us a DiddyBorg v2 to play with. We’re super grateful for this and we thoroughly recommend you check out their store next time you need anything Pi-related. The Borg series was designed by PiBorg, brainchild of Timothy Freeburn, who explains that “the DiddyBorg is a six-wheel drive robot and is a homage to the Sojourner Mars Rover”. PiBorg teamed up with ModMyPi back in October 2017. Jacob explains this collaboration: “Tim and I were both around during the genesis of the original Raspberry Pi B. Where I was off making cases, Tim was designing motor-controllers and LED thingies (www.piborg.org/ledborg), so when ModMyPi developed into wider reselling, Tim’s products were some of the first that we picked up. “As the market…

You will likely know the most popular apps and services that Google runs, but there are other apps that the company has either acquired or developed over time that may surprise you. Some of these apps offer no obvious indication at all that Google is involved, but that they undoubtedly bear all of the hallmarks of the Google system behind the scenes. From community-based navigation to image editing, Google’s reach extends way beyond the obvious and into a variety of areas — many of which we’ve covered in our Android apps section (see page 45). The company is now even delving in to the world of home automation, too. There’s almost no area in the tech world that Google hasn’t attempted to touch. While some apps have been much more…

In the very early days of Android, the iPhone was receiving all of the headlines and was trying to drag early adopters away from traditional phones such as the Treo 650 and other smart niche devices. It was clear, however, that a new approach was needed for smartphones to gain mass market appeal and so Android was quickly developed to offer as complete a system as was possible at the time. Phones dominated by screens were created alongside more traditional units with hardware keyboards, but it would be fair to say that the early versions were somewhat experimental. Just like the iPhone, the features were limited not just by the ability to create powerful software, but also by the slow mobile networks available at the time. Google invested heavily, both…

It’s all too easy to view Android as a smartphone-only platform, but with Google’s expertise in general web connectivity, and with online services being able to connect multiple devices together as one entity, there is a lot to look forward to. You can already send all of your films and photos to your TV using an accessory and you will soon be able to use your Android device as your entertainment hub when driving. Add to this the ability to control various devices in your home and you can start to imagine where all of this will end up. Android does not have a direct affiliation to a desktop operating system like the iPhone (macOS) or Windows Phone (Windows), but this could potentially become an advantage. It could be able…

Imagine for a minute an operating system that is always protected from viruses and malware, and which you never need to update. Now, imagine being able to download from thousands of free apps that all work together and having every Google service available to you by just logging in once. It would be wonderful if it could run so efficiently that even laptops and desktops priced way below the average Windows device could run it smoothly and extremely fast. It would also be fantastic if it powered on instantly and you had a choice of devices to run it from that ranged from budget to luxury. Well, stop imagining, because that’s Chrome OS, which runs on a selection Chromebooks, some of which we’ve reviewed in these pages.…

Project Loon is an idea that will appeal to everyone, whether they need it or not. In many rural areas, internet connectivity can be difficult to maintain and this is especially true in some countries. Did you know that two thirds of the world’s population does not currently have access to the internet? This is without doubt because the cost of providing connectivity is not small and the time needed to build the infrastructure is great. Google’s idea is to send balloons into the stratosphere which will be able to send a valid connection anywhere using a vast network of balloons. It sounds daft, but it’s a bit like using satellites to make phone calls, but is potentially much more affordable and thus more accessible to a greater number of…

“A typical scenario is to take one full backup a month, then weekly differential backups and finally daily incremental backups.” BACKUP INCREMENTAL VERSUS DIFFERENTIAL My backup tool offers both incremental and differential backups to save on drive storage space. What’s the difference? Lewis Adam Both types of backup take up less room because they only record the changes made since the last backup was taken. Differential backups record the changes taken since the last full backup, while incremental backups record the changes made since the last incremental backup. Incremental backups are therefore smaller than differential backups, but more prone to failure because you need all previous incremental backups, as well as the parent full backup to restore your system. Differential backups only require themselves and the full backup. If your…

Reading PDFs on your PC sounds pretty basic — all you do is install Adobe Reader, and then just open every PDF file you get with that app. Well, it doesn’t have to be like that. You don’t need to install a third-party app, you can use one that came with your PC. Microsoft Edge’s PDF reading capabilities got a boost in the Fall Creators Update, and it’s now a very capable app for those times only a PDF will do. PDFs are easy to create but not to edit, and since they embed the fonts and graphics used to create their source document, you can be sure that what you’re seeing is just as the original author intended. Using Edge, you can read, annotate and even draw over PDFs,…

To celebrate the release of the new Raspberry Pi 3 B+, we’ll use it to create our own Samba server to store files and media for access across our home network. We’ll then use the same Pi to block ads and create a better browsing experience. SAMBA FILE SERVER First things first: Let’s make sure that we have the latest version of Raspbian. Download this from the Raspberry Pi website (www.raspberrypi.org) and then, using your favourite tool, flash the image to a blank micro SD card. When completed, eject the card and place it into your Pi, then connect your keyboard, mouse, screen, Ethernet and finally the power. Your Pi will boot up and, as this is the first boot, it’ll expand the filesystem to fully utilise the space on…

PC, PS4 | $99.95 | WWW.BANDAINAMCOENT.COM When it released in Australia back in 2013, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch represented a rare, mainstream moment for JRPGs, receiving the kind of attention normally reserved for Final Fantasy games. The reason was its pedigree: while its status as a new Level-5 game was only of interest to diehards, Studio Ghibli’s attachment to the project was key. The studio is, after all, best known as the animation crew responsible for Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo and more. It was like a match made in heaven. But Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom can’t lay claim to any Studio Ghibli association, so its arrival feels muted. Perhaps to compensate for this, Level-5 has transformed the Ni No Kuni…

PC, PS4, XO | $39.95 | WWW.EA.COM/GAMES/A-WAY-OUT Being able to play a game in co-op feels like a nice added bonus. It’s rare that a game is designed specifically to be played cooperatively — in fact, here, you can’t play without another human by your side or across the internet. From the same brain that created Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, this is another narrative-driven co-op adventure, one designed to be experienced together. And if you do, you’ll be rewarded with one of the most cleverly designed storylines in gaming yet. You play as one of two prisoners looking, literally, for a way out. Leo’s already in jail for armed robbery, assault and grand theft, whereas Vincent has just started his sentence after getting time for fraud,…