Table of contents for October 2017 in APC

Some might thing the President of the United States was too soft on the supporters of the ‘Unite the Right’ rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia, recently, 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…

“With data suggesting that approximately 94% of road accidents occur due to human error, the prospect of handing the reins over to a more capable — and statistically safer — AI driver is very tempting” For your humble writer, the concept of autonomous vehicles was — for a long time — nothing more than an image of Kryten from Red Dwarf engaging autopilot in the Starbug, only to then hear AI Holly complaining about how there’s no such thing and that it’s actually her doing all the work. Far from being a thing of the distant future, however, fully legal driverless cars could be here as soon as 2021, according to Tesla CEO (and world saviour) Elon Musk. With data suggesting that approximately 94% of road accidents occur due to…

DISAPPOINTED BY ISP-SUPPLIED NBN ROUTER So I finally got connected to the NBN a few weeks ago. I decided to stay with my old ISP and I already had cable internet, so I’m now getting my NBN via HFC. While I’m so far very happy with the speeds (80–100Mbps down and 35–40Mbps up, even at 8pm) my main gripe is with the ISP-supplied Sagemcom F@st 3864AC modem. For a modem with 2.4 and 5GHz, the power of its wireless signal is pathetic, so much so that, to get a decent signal to stream Netflix in the bedroom, a distance of only 15m, I’ve had to set up an old Netgear router connected via Ethernet cable to extend the signal. But that’s not the worst thing about the Sagemcom F@st 3684AC…

GRAPHICS CARDS  VEGA 56, $600; VEGA 64, $800 | WWW.AMD.COM Let’s be frank: the Vega 56 and 64 are what we wanted to see last year, right around the time AMD was busy launching Polaris for the mainstream market. But Vega wasn’t even close to being ready. So why did it take so long for AMD to get a high-end replacement for Fiji and the R9 Fury X out the door? AMD has talked about numerous architectural updates that have been made with Vega, and in the professional world, some of these could be massively useful, but as we’re APC, we’re at least equally interested in how these new cards stack up as a gaming device. So does it? RX VEGA 64 Let’s quickly talk specs. Vega includes 8GB of…

GAMING LAPTOP $2,998 | WWW.HP.COM/AU 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 gaming laptop 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 aesthetic, we were a little surprised to find that, under the hood, our test model 17-an053tx only had an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. However, the Omen manages to turn a confusing spec sheet into an assembled system that’s surprisingly competent. Somehow, this thick lump manages to string together a set of components that appeared to be incongruous into one nicely-balanced monster gaming unit. That said, it’s hard to…

GAMING MONITOR $599 | WWW.VIEWSONIC.COM.AU In the bad old days of the 2000s’ CPU wars, megahertz became megahurts as the pursuit of clock speed for the sake of clock speed pushed Intel’s engineers down an architectural dead end. Is something similar happening now with PC monitors and the quest for ever higher refresh rates? The ViewSonic XG2530 blows straight through the likes of 120Hz and 144Hz, and motors right on up to 240Hz. That is one hell of a refresh rate. It’s not the first monitor we’ve seen with such a capability, but it remains a startlingly high refresh rate. Moreover, it’s hard to put a finger on where to draw the line with this particular technology, to grasp what the human eye can even perceive. It’s worth…

USB-C DOCK $530 | WWW.BELKIN.COM/AU 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 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 mics. The show-stealers come in the form of the two Thunderbolt 3 Type-C ports, one of which will attach to your MacBook and provide it with up to 85W of power along with data transfer, and the…

WIRELESS CHARGING MOUSE MAT $149 | WWW.LOGITECH.COM Back in May, Corsair introduced the first mousemat (the Zeus) that’ll recharge the mouse that sits atop it, doing away with the need to ever plug in the latter or swap out batteries. But while the Zeus is just at concept stage, Logitech has, out of nowhere, been able to launch a fully-functional wireless charging mat that’s available right now. It’s natural to worry that the Powerplay charging system might have been rushed to market. Yet despite its rather sudden appearance, based on our testing, this is definitely a mature product — and one that more than lives up to its claims. The mat is made up of the mouse pad surface, the base charging mat and a wireless receiver. The…

The Big Boy of the Ryzen product range has finally landed in the APC lab! The Threadripper 1950X and 1920X have been put through the rigors of our testing, along with three AMD X399-based motherboards from ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI. Before we get to those, however, let’s take a closer look at some details for AMD’s new CPU, what it brings to the market and the impact felt by the performance and opportunity presented against the Blue Giant competition. The AMD X399 chipset paired with a Ryzen Threadripper CPU heralds the introduction of AMD’s first high-end desktop (HEDT) platform. The market was first created by Intel utilising the X58 chipset and associated CPUs utilising technology and architectural fundamentals drawn from the server product space. The HEDT concept introduced high core…

AMD X399 MOTHERBOARD $879 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU The word ‘zenith’ describes a point at which something is most powerful or successful. It seems, then, that this motherboard, the RoG Zenith Extreme is fittingly named. Leading a tight race through this month’s X399 benchmark suite, the Zenith delivered a consistently positive user experience from start to finish. As the only offering in the trio of boards tested that fits the Extended-ATX form factor, or ‘EATX’, the Zenith has extra precious PCB space upon which to mount and engage additional features. Perhaps a little unusual is the comparatively fewer M.2 slots mounted near the PCH and between PCIe slots, with a single port hidden beneath part of the PCH heatsink for passive cooling. With the Gigabyte and MSI X399s both sporting…

There’s hardly a day goes by without some new hacking controversy. From online sites getting compromised to people facing down ransomware demands, the always-connected era is one fraught with danger. Prevention is always better than cure, so what can you do to ensure you’re as protected as you can be? In this feature, we’re going to arm you with all the tools, tips and guides you need to close the door on drive-by hackers, malware and other online threats to your privacy and security. We’ll start by locking down your PC — ensuring your security software is up to scratch, you have a firewall that’s fit for purpose and that your personal data is encrypted and as difficult to steal as possible. Next, we’ll look at tightening the security of…

Even if you’ve yet to embrace the concept of the smarthome, the chances are you will still have a number of devices, as well as your PC, competing for bandwidth on your home network. Read on to discover how to reduce its vulnerability with a home network security audit. LOCK YOUR ROUTER Let’s start with the gateway between your home and the internet. If you’ve never carried out admin on your router before, then you will definitely find ways in which to strengthen its security. You can usually manage your router through your web browser by entering its four-digit IP address into the Address Bar. To do that, first open ‘Settings > Network and Internet’ and click ‘View your network properties’, then make a note of your router’s IP address…

“A good password management tool will generate strong random passwords, make them easy to access and protect them all behind a single, strong master password you can remember.” Do you rely on a limited number of passwords to secure accounts both online and off? You’re not alone. The sad truth is, though, that this represents an opportunity for hackers and identity thieves who, once they crack one of your passwords, can often crack them all. The way to solve this problem is to create unique, complex passwords for each account that you use, using a mix of upper and lowercase characters, numbers and even symbols. The trick then is remembering them all. The solution lies in employing the services of a password manager. A good password management tool will generate…

Microsoft is, without a doubt, far better than it once was when it comes to security. Its antivirus tool is no longer a joke, Windows firewall is more than capable and even its recovery and backup systems have improved over time. But it’s still not up to the capabilities of a full security suite. The likes of BitDefender, Kaspersky and Symantec have remained a step ahead when it comes to security, and still have better anti-malware, superior parental controls options and a range of system tools that Windows just doesn’t have built-in. So if you’re looking to up your security game, a third-party security suite is still your best bet, and to complement this month’s superguide, we’re going to look at our current three favourites. We have an editor’s pick…

“In a free package, it provides anti-malware, system tune-up, cloud-based password manager, secure browser, volume-limited VPN, web and search filter, and a software update checker.” BEST FREE WINDOWS SECURITY SUITE FREE | WWW.AVIRA.COM It used to be the case that, if you wanted a free suite, you had to DIY it together from various free apps. Not anymore. Of the suites available, Avira is currently our top pick. In a free package, it provides anti-malware, system tune-up, cloud-based password manager, secure browsing, volume-limited VPN (with 1GB/month), web and search filter, and a software update checker. You can manage multiple devices from a single desktop as well. It’s a pretty comprehensive package. It will not, however, rival a commercial suite. It’s good, but it’s not up to par with…

1 ULTIMATE SECURITY Check this box to turn up firewall security to the max. The Mac blocks all connection attempts over the network, apart from essential ones. 2 ALLOWED APPS This is a list of all the apps that are allowed to communicate over your network connection. Search online for any you don’t recognise to check it isn’t malware. 3 BLOCK ACCESS If you find an app in the list that you don’t recognise and which looks suspicious, click here and set its network access rights to ‘Block incoming connections’. 4 HIDE YOUR MAC There are easy ways for nefarious people to detect your Mac over a network. Enabling stealth mode stops this, and is useful when using a public Wi-Fi hotspot.…

1 LOGIN PROTECTION First, let’s make sure nobody can get into your Facebook account and post anything they shouldn’t and, if they do, that you’ll know about it. Head to www.facebook.com as usual and, on the right side of the blue header bar, click the downward pointing arrow and head to Settings. In the left column, click ‘Security and login’, then scroll down to the ‘Setting up extra security’ section. 2 NOTIFY ME Click Edit next to ‘Get alerts about unrecognised logins’, and select the appropriate options to receive a Facebook notification when a new machine logs in, or an email sent to any addresses you’ve confirmed with Facebook in the past, then save changes. There’s a link here to add a new address, which will take you to more…

OFFICE APPS TROUBLE WITH MAIL CONFIGURATION I’m trying to use Mail in Windows 10 and cannot make the server alterations required to send mail through another account. Where can I find them, please? Colin Travis Sadly, it isn’t possible to configure an email account in Mail to send messages through a different mail server, so instead, we pointed Colin towards eM Client, which is available at www.emclient.com. To do this, go through the eM Client setup wizard to configure your account and you should find that it will fail the sending mail test. At this point, you may be prompted to enter your outgoing account credentials, but if not, click the Menu button and choose ‘Tools > Accounts’. The next step is select your account and then switch to the…

In iOS 10, Apple extended the Split View feature for working in two apps side by side, so that you can view two web pages next to each other in Safari. You  can quickly split the screen in two from scratch or  open a link or move an existing tab to the right half of the screen. If you’ve  connected your iPad to a Bluetooth keyboard, you can quickly create a  new Split  View pane using ‘Command-N’. Split View  only works with your device in landscape mode, however, and you can’t resize the panes. With a second pane open, you can tap Private to set it to private browsing mode without affecting the other one. Once in Split View, each pane behaves largely as normal — you can open multiple…

1 ENABLE THE FIREWALL Gufw is the graphical front-end for UFW, the uncomplicated firewall, which is one of the simplest front-ends for iptables. Fire up Gufw and change the Status toggle to ‘On’ to enable the firewall. Gufw includes three profiles: public, office and home. The default is the home profile that denies all incoming traffic and allows all outgoing traffic. This will let you surf the internet without any issues. 2 DEFINE POLICIES You can alter the incoming and outgoing policies by selecting one of the three options in their respcetive drop-downs. The Allow option will allow traffic without asking any questions. The Deny option will silently discard packets, while the Reject option also sends an error packet to the sender. A good idea is to deny all incoming…

After having successfully lobbied to have all major Australian ISPs block access to selected piracy sites back in December 2016 (specifically The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and SolarMovie), Foxtel and other local movie and TV rightsholders have been adding dozens of additional sites to their list of claimed infringers. But as of August, the pay TV company has taken aim at an even bigger swathe of sites, targeting another 128 domains it says are linked to piracy. Some of the sites in the crosshairs include Putlocker, Watch TV Series, 1337x, CartoonHD, YesMovies, Watch Episodes and many more, including secondary mirrors and proxies of those key sites. The timing of this most recent court hearing lines up quite neatly with Foxtel’s airing of the latest season of Game of Thrones,…

ALL CONTROLLER The one controller to rule all your devices. CA$65 | WWW.ALL-CONTROLLER.COM If you like to game on more than one type of device, you’re likely to have discovered that you need a whole slew of game controllers to support them. The ALL hopes to change that by offering compatibility for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, Apple TV, Android TV, PS3 & 4, Xbox 360 & One, retro systems and Nintendo’s Wii, Wii U and Switch consoles — in other words, this ambitious Kickstarter project is promising a lot. Adding even more appeal, the ALL Controller has fully customisable button mapping and sensitivity controls, a built-in smartphone cradle for gaming on the go and even the ability to connect to drones. JB RED HYDROGEN ONE Adding another…

One of the most insidious tricks in the corporate PR book is the appearance of being environmentally friendly, because although well-meaning consumer habits can’t possibly help neutralise the climate havoc wreaked by politcal foot-dragging, we’d like to think it can! So, naturally, companies like to tout their green friendliness. But according to a report by the Repair Association — an organisation that roots for the dialing back of planned obsolescence, among other things — many tech giants are all talk and no(t enough) action. And it’s planned obsolescence and repairs where most companies seem to be lax. It doesn’t help that, as the report observes, many manufacturers actually hold positions on green electronics standards boards —  leading to a lot of fairly self-interested standard-setting. According to Repair executive director Gay…

AMD CPU $175 | WWW.AMD.COM Ryzen 3 is the latest and most affordable subset of the AMD Ryzen family. Coming in two different guises, the Ryzen 3 1300X is the faster offering, packing support for XFR and a slightly faster clock speed over the Ryzen 3 1200, and it’s completely unlocked. It is also more expensive than the 1200, although rolling in at $175, it’s still very much a budget offering. The big news — when compared to Ryzen 5 and 7 — is that Ryzen 3 doesn’t offer SMT support. Which means you get four cores to play with, but that’s it. No extra cleverness to make the chip handle eight threads at once. Much like an Intel Core i5, then, albeit one that is closer in…

GAMING LAPTOP $3,599 | AU.MSI.COM At Computex 2017, one of the things MSI was most keen on highlighting was the 120Hz screens it’s using in its latest gaming laptops, and while we agree there’s definitely appeal in playing fast-moving games on a 120Hz monitor with a 3ms response time, the benefits over a traditional 60Hz display do depend heavily on the GPU’s ability to run games at higher frame rates. In addition to basically committing you to high-end (and more expensive) gaming hardware, a 120Hz screen will also generally have a narrower colour gamut than your average 60Hz IPS display. For anyone playing lightning-fast multiplayer first person shooters, those limitations may be well worth the benefits, but if competitive gaming isn’t the primary purpose of your laptop, then…

PORTABLE SSD 250GB, $199; 500GB, $329; 1TB, $649; 2TB, $1,249 | WWW.SAMSUNG.COM/AU Samsung’s back with another super-fast portable storage solution, returning to the well that it first dug in 2015 with the T1 drive — and this USB external drive promises even quicker transfers speeds. With a similar brushed aluminium unibody design as last time (sans the two- tone styling), the T5 is almost exactly the same size as its previous-gen incarnation, shaving off just under a millimetre from the T3’s width. A USB Type-C port lets you switch between the included Type-C to Type-A and Type-C to Type-C cables, the latter being especially convenient for use with newer MacBooks and other ultraportable laptops, or even Android phones. For those who want to keep their files secure and…

GAMING MOUSE $149 | WWW.LOGITECH.COM If the G903’s $250 price point is too dear, or you don’t like its design, Logitech thankfully has another Powerplay compatible wireless mouse on offer: the ergonomically shaped G703 — an upgraded version of the G403. The G703 has fewer features and customisation options than the higher-end G903, but the main difference is a flatter and wider design that’s a bit more comfy for palm-grippers — although at 107g, it’s still lightweight enough that more finger-oriented grip styles work fine, too. The pain point for wireless mice is recharging them, but even if you’re not willing to fork out another $150 to get the Powerplay mat, the G703 manages charging fairly seamlessly. As with the G903, there’s a 1.83m braided USB cable included…

AMD CPU $1,440 | WWW.AMD.COM Delivering a product to this market is the final piece of the desktop CPU puzzle for AMD, following the release of Ryzen 7, 5 and 3 on the AM4 socket. Now with arrival of the TR4 socket and the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, featuring 16 cores, 32 threads, quad-channel memory, 64 PCIe lanes and extended frequency range (XFR) of 4.2GHz, AMD hasn’t just entered the arena, it’s thrown down a challenge to the reigning king, Intel. There are unique characteristics both for and against when assessing the comparison of the 1950X versus its similarly priced competitor, the Intel Core i9-7900X. Intel’s offering sounds different enough on paper. Starting with 10 cores and 20 threads in the 7900X, it is comfortably behind the 16 cores…

AMD X399 MOTHERBOARD $619 | WWW.GIGABYTE.COM.AU The Aorus X399 Gaming 7 is perhaps the best point of entry to Ryzen Threadripper ownership out of the three boards we tested for this roundup, based on the price point compared to featureset and user experience. Having said that, it’s a very tight race and we can see end-users being happy with any of the three. The Gaming 7 presents well with a sleek muted colour palette, accented by metallic highlights in both the VRM heatsinks and the expansion slot reinforcements. This contrast of matte surfaces and metallic lustre leads to a visually appealing and pleasant aesthetic. Furthermore, if lighting bling is your thing, the Gaming 7 comes packed to the brim with RGB LED integration across the DIMM slots, PCIe…

Now let’s make your internet connection more secure, starting with your DNS server. This is used to translate web addresses into their physical IP addresses. Normally, your DNS server is provided by your ISP, but it’s not the best choice for performance and security reasons. Alternatives such as OpenDNS are faster, more reliable and, crucially, apply more security checks to validate web addresses. With OpenDNS, you can sign up at its website (www.opendns.com) for things like parental controls and identity theft protection. Alternatively, log in to your router, locate where its DNS settings are stored, and then change them to the following addresses: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. The effect will be immediate. If you lose your connection, check that you’ve added them correctly. If you have any devices you use away…

“The parental controls are also excellent, second only to those offered by Symantec, with a cloud- based management and policy centre.You can also use the portal site to monitor devices attached to the license and even remotely trigger scans.” BEST WINDOWS SECURITY SUITE FOR PROS $72 FOR 5 DEVICES FOR 1 YEAR | WWW.BITDEFENDER.COM.AU For many years, BitDefender has been our pick for advanced users, and even a good pick for beginners as well, thanks to its autopilot mode. The set of features available is equalled by few suites. It has a firewall, antimalware and anti-spam, but also secure browsing, file locking to prevent ransomware encryption, anti-theft tools, game modes, parental advisors, social network protection, password manager, file shredder, security auditor, system cleanup and more. In this latest…

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: Every search term you type into Google Every search result you click on Every YouTube search you perform and every video you watch Ads you click on A complete timeline of your movements by tracking your mobile’s GPS Every time you issue an ‘OK Google’ voice command Potentially any time…

The latest major patch for Windows 10 — aka the Creators Update — has made a good stab at streamlining the raft of additional security options that first became available in the previous Anniversary Update, but thankfully, there’s still more than enough customisability to keep you feeling safe and protecting yourself from oversharing. With a over 18 subcategories of privacy options, there’s really a control for everything that you might want or need to shut off included in the options. In such a long list, however, that there are a few that aren’t explained particularly well, so as a rule of thumb, just turn sharing off for anything you don’t fully understand. Most software will prompt you to change particular settings if it requires special privacy privileges to work anyway.…

Photos, Apple’s bundled OS X app for sorting your images, does some amazing jobs automatically. Sorting images by their geo-tags, dates and auto-detecting faces and assigning identities spring to mind, and that’s before you consider the computational gymnastics required to sync the photo library on your Mac with your iCloud account and Apple mobile devices. Still, while you might be aware that Photos can be used to edit your images, for most, that stops at relatively straightforward changes such as rotating and cropping, or perhaps applying a few one-click filters. Here, we’ll look at the editing tools you might have missed. Tools that can elevate a good photo to a great one, or rescue a shot that was otherwise destined for the bin. Thinking about getting an  expensive third-party editor?…

1 ENCRYPT INDIVIDUAL FILES Head to ‘zC > Encrypt A File’. In the dialog box that pops up, click the button adjacent to the Source field and navigate to the file that you wish to encrypt. Then enter a password in the text box labelled Key. zuluCrypt will use this information to create a file with the same name, with the .zC extension at the end. Once a file has been encrypted, make sure you delete its original version. 2 DECRYPT THE FIL Head to ‘zC > Decrypt A File’. Point to the encrypted file in the Source field and alter the location of the unlocked file in the Destination field. Now enter the password with which you encrypted the file and click the Create button. When it’s done, the…

What have you done with your Raspberry Pi camera lately? While it gives us plenty of new ways to use the Pi, unless you’ve got your computer set up as a security webcam or you’re particularly a fan of time-lapse photography, the chances are that you’ve overlooked the Pi camera module for a while. If you’re a fan of animation or you simply want to extend the possibilities of the module, why not build a stop-motion camera? By using Python and an external button to capture images, the Raspberry Pi can actually be the perfect tool for animators. Better still, you can go beyond animating toys or bits of Lego and go old school by mounting the Pi on a rostrum and creating a cartoon. Even if you can’t buy…

This month, we’re combining Arduino, Python and Android to create a wireless light switch controlled by combining Bluetooth, your Android smartphone and your voice. Your Android phone provides the speech recognition and wireless control, Python provides the code to activate the speech recognition and Bluetooth communication, but here, we detail the Arduino hardware, including the Bluetooth module and LED light. HC-06 BLUETOOTH The Arduino Nano microcontroller board we’ve based this project on doesn’t have wireless connectivity built in, so we pull in the compact four-pin HC-06 Bluetooth module. It’s easy to code and just like working with a serial connection. There’s one condition, however — it’s designed to run on anything from 3.6V to 6VDC, but can only deal in signal levels of 3.3VDC. The signal it sends to the…

“Expect the voices to mock you about how you don’t know where you’re going — an ingenious way to subtly put you back on the right path without holding your hand.” Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice A one-way ticket to Helheim. PS4, PC | $44.95 | WWW.HELLBLADE.COM Opting to go the indie route for its latest release, British developer Ninja Theory has applied the same triple-A production values that brought it great acclaim in titles like Heavenly Sword and DmC to a more intimate, yet no less ambitious affair. A psychological horror game at its core, Hellblade follows a Pict named Senua as she takes an unnerving journey into a Celtic and Norse mythology-inspired underworld where she must battle psychotic manifestations caused by her severe mental illness. Needless to say,…

6% AMOUNT OF CURRENT NBN CONNECTIONS THAT AREN’T ABLE TO EVEN HIT 25MBPS The latest report on the NBN’s rollout suggests that 6% of the service’s Fibre to the Node (FttN) customers aren’t able to reach speeds of 25Mbps (even if they were to pay for a higher-tier service) while only 32% could possibly benefit from the highest tier, which offers speeds of 75–100Mbps. The company has suggested that a significant factor in this is the “coexistence” of ADSL connections on the copper wiring that forms part of FttN services, and that these ADSL services will likely remain active until mid-2022. 1.3x HOW MUCH MORE VALUABLE GOOGLE IS COMPARED TO FACEBOOK (BUT THE GAP IS CLOSING) As it currently stands, the value of Facebook is US$497 billion according to data…

Teardown is the word of the day, and we’re diving into Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop right now. Will this carpeted Alcantara-clad laptop excel in our teardown room? The power is in our hands. MAJOR TECH SPECS: 13.5-inch IPS PixelSense display, 2,256 x 1,504 resolution (201ppi) Intel Kaby Lake Core i5 (3M Cache, up to 3.1GHz) or Core i7 (4M Cache, 4.0GHz) CPU 4GB, 8GB or 16GB RAM 128GB, 256GB or 512GB PCIe ≠ SSD storage 720p front-facing camera with Windows Hello sign-in USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort and SurfaceConnect charging port 802.11ac Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n compatible, Bluetooth 4.0 KEY FINDINGS: We take a peek under the suspicious rubber footpads on the bottom of the laptop, but find metal feet instead of the screws we were hoping for. Looks like we…

“When it comes to raw performance, there’s pretty much nothing you can do in a larger case that you can’t do in a well-designed compact chassis.” “Since Ryzen launched, there have been scant Mini-ITX motherboards for us to get hold of, and the options for the new X299 platform aren’t much better.” One of the attractions of PCs is that they come in all shapes and sizes, and you can build whatever system you want. Some love a full ATX system, while others only ever consider a compact Mini-ITX build. While there have been plenty of form factors over the years, there are four common ones these days: ATX, Mini-ITX, microATX and Extended ATX (something of a niche). Of these, the battle generally comes down to a choice between…

2-IN-1 TABLET $1,475 | WWW.LENOVO.COM/AU The market is flooded with devices with detachable keyboards that offer up Windows 10’s capabilities as a tablet and desktop OS, including Microsoft’s own Surface range. The Miix 510 is equipped with a latest-gen Kaby Lake version of the Intel Core i5 and a strong central pairing of 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The Miix design language centres around two watchband-style hinges that give you more control and flexibility than the Microsoft Surface when it comes to the angle of the kickstand. It’s an effective bit of industrial design from Lenovo. The ability to poise the device at almost any angle is a boon. Another plus is that the keyboard cover is included with the device. Like previous models, the Miix…

GAMING LAPTOP FROM $4,277 | WWW.ORIGINPC.COM.AU The EON17-SLX from Origin PC has all the components and performance of a top-end desktop PC crammed into a portable machine. Sure, it’s heavy and bulky for a laptop, weighing 5.4kg (minus the two 330W power bricks) and measuring just shy of 5cm thick, but that’s to be expected, considering the components inside. The model we tested opts for a desktop-class Intel Core i7-7700K clocked at 4.2GHz. Combined with 32GB of DDR4-2400 RAM, the EON17 scored some of the highest benchmarks we’ve ever seen for a laptop. In Cinebench R15, it scored 893, which blows out our (admittedly out-of-date) APC Labs test laptop, and nearly matches the bar for desktops. Storage is also an area where the EON17-SLX excels, because its primary…

GAMING MOUSE $249 | WWW.LOGITECH.COM Logitech’s G903 wireless gaming mouse looks rather more like the angry fire-spewing alien beetles from Starship Troopers than a PC mouse. This symmetrical, black scarab will suite both left- and right-handers, but its thinner shape does make it best for users who err towards a claw or fingertip style gripping technique. Although there’s enough rump to support your palm, its overall shape seems primarily aimed at putting users in a position to be twitch-responsive and competitive. With a one-millisecond response rate, Lightspeed wireless and Logitech’s best PMW3366 full-range optical sensor, you have an exceptionally responsive wireless mouse that suffers from zero lag. It’s quite customisable, too, with a tri-click scroll wheel that can be toggled for notched or free-spinning scrolling. There’s a dual-direction…

GAMING KEYBOARD $150 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU ASUS is looking to change the playing field with this entry-level mechanical RGB gaming keyboard promising great specs at a price that most of us can actually afford. Lay your hands on this baby and you’ll immediately notice the rubberised plastic that covers every surface — this is a pleasure to touch but a smudge magnet. While the four included spare keycaps don’t get this rubber treatment, their orange-red colour ensures those W, S, A, D keys still stand out. The keyboard can lie flat or at a slight angle, but those who like a wrist rest should look elsewhere. The overall aesthetic is minimalistic and tasteful, which is quite refreshing. The only strong assertion that this is a gaming ‘board is the…

AMD CPU $1,150 | WWW.AMD.COM You may not look upon this $1,150 processor as a good value proposition. However, within the scope of a HEDT system and in comparison with the Intel Core i7 and i9 X-series range, perhaps even its stablemate the 1950X, the Ryzen Threadripper 1920X actually presents good value for money with broad spec capability and performance that marginally shadows the faster Core i9-7900X and 1950X, while a step ahead of the i7-7820X. Considering the 1920X’s price, this unit slots into the market in a gap between the Core i7-7820X and Core i9-7900X. In per-core performance, the Intel solutions are faster, but the overall package presented by the 1920X at $1,150 is an attractive offering in comparison with the Intel Core units. The Ryzen Threadripper…

AMD X399 MOTHERBOARD $639 | AU.MSI.COM The X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC is the final condenter in this roundup and it really reinforces the fact that, as PC enthusiasts, we’re living in an era where we’re spoilt for choice. Not only is AMD competitive again with Intel across a range of areas, particularly with high-end desktops, but the motherboards to support the new Ryzen Threadripper CPUs are consistently of high quality. This scenario has delivered choice to the end user and further increased the competition in the market — a welcome combo. With RGB LED illumination having penetrated nearly every aspect of PC component production, it’s no surprise that motherboard designs are now typically muted with metallic highlights. Though we prefer the industrial influence of the Aorus ‘board,…

“If you decide to use free protection, you’ll be relying on theWindows Firewall. It has all the tools you need to close the door to hackers, but it doesn’t use them fully.” Let’s begin by tightening the security of the computers in your home. First, take a look at your security software. If you’re currently using Windows Defender, we recommend that you switch to something stronger. If you’re happy to rely on free protection, then Avira Free Security Suite (www.avira.com) is an excellent choice. It’s light on its feet, easy to use and gives you protection that matches many commercial products. It includes anti-malware, system tune-up, a cloud-based password manager, secure browsing, a volume-limited VPN, web and search filter, as well as a software update checker. Plus, you can manage…

“What puts Norton over the top is its elegant, simple interface, its rich feature set that includes online backup, and what is the industry’s best parental control solution.” BEST WINDOWS SECURITY SUITE FOR BEGINNERS $80 FOR 3 DEVICES FOR 1 YEAR | AU.NORTON.COM Norton is one of the slickest, least intrusive and most accessible suites on the market now. It does a lot while asking very little. That’s true of a number of suites now, but what puts Norton over the top is its elegant, simple interface, its rich feature set that includes online backup, and what is the industry’s best parental control solution. The subscription for Security Premium includes a full sub to Norton Family Premium, a cloud-based parental control system with ] outstanding tools for managing…

“To make sure your data stays safe, work through our fundamental security tips to ensure that your Mac is well protected, that it isn’t ‘leaking’ details.” Security is a constant worry, so your choice of a Mac instead of some other kinds of computer is certainly a  good decision. However, while the Mac has enjoyed a reputation for security in the past, that doesn’t mean you can ignore the cunning ways you can be tricked into revealing information. For example, email attachments, phishing attempts and sharing too much at public Wi-Fi hotspots are just some of the problems that can affect your security. To make sure your data stays safe, work through our fundamental security tips detailed in the following pages to ensure that your Mac is well protected, that…

There’s a good reason Facebook is the most popular social network in the Western world. It’s easy to join, easy to connect with your friends and incredibly convenient. If you want to share something, it’s only a couple of clicks away. But is that really such a good thing? Do you want every one of your friends to see every little thing you post? Should anybody that stumbles on your profile be allowed to poke through your family pictures or find out your personal information? Absolutely not. Facebook doesn’t exactly hide its privacy features, but it doesn’t push them either. It’s up to you to decide how secure you want your account and posts to be. We’ll walk you through the steps and safeguards; use your own judgement over how…

1 CLEAN UP Dust spots are the bane of SLR users’ existence. Here, two particularly fine splodges are ruining our shot. Click the edit icon to get the toolbar up. Click the sticking plaster icon on the vertical list of options, then drag the mouse over your dust spot. 2 SAMPLE SELECTION The tool works by sampling a nearby area of your shot and copying it over your dust spot. To change where Photos samples from, Option-click the place you want to copy pixels from. Drag the slider, or press [ or ] to adjust the size of the brush. 3 STRAIGHTEN UP, FLY RIGHT Wonky horizons are a regular issue in landscape photography, so hit the crop icon and click and drag the rotation wheel on the right-hand side…

“It’s one thing to lock all the windows in your house, but you must still make sure no one got in before you closed them.” There’s an entire thread on Reddit discussing whether Professor Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody, from the Harry Potter books, ever uttered the catchphrase, “Constant vigilance!” Regardless of who to attribute the statement to, if you’re concerned about securing your Linux installation, whether as a home user or a system administrator, it’s good advice to adopt this mantra. The entire gamut of operations that you can employ to defend yourself from threats are spread over the next few pages. We will walk you through creating a digital moat around your machines to stop the marching invaders in their tracks. This involves using password managers such as Keepass2, using…

If you’ve been reading us for a while, hopefully, you get the sense we like to do a lot of do-it- yourself here at Masterclass Central, whether its hacking your Android phone, building your own Arduino projects or learning to code your own Python and Java apps. There’s no better way to learn about tech than getting your hands dirty, lifting up the bonnet and seeing what’s going on underneath. It’s this same philosophy that’s embodied in the Raspberry Pi single-board computers. However, at up to $75 for a new quad-core Raspberry Pi 3 on your Australian door step, their continued popularity isn’t helping bring the local price down. Still, get creative and you’ll find a number of alternatives available, some selling for under $35 — and they’ll even run…

Artificial Intelligence or ‘AI’ is pretty big business at the moment. You have the tech giants promoting their speech-recognition standalone assistants, particularly the new Google Home, not to mention Amazon’s Echo, Apple’s soon-to-arrive HomePod and a raft of other alternatives we’re yet to see in Australia. Typically, you can ask these devices questions, get them to turn on and off network-connected lights — think of yourself as Tony Stark communicating with JARVIS to create a ‘smart’ home. But if you have a late-model Android phone or tablet, about $15 worth of eBay-sourced electronics (which we cover in this month’s Arduino Masterclass, page 104) and some Python code, you can create your own speech-controlled wireless LED light, courtesy of Google’s existing speech-recognition tech inside Android. WHAT YOU NEED This project comes…

RIP, Steve The security robot who drowned himself. Steve the Knightscope K5 Autonomous Data Machine began his short career fighting crime as a patrol robot along the Washington Harbour on the 12th of July. Armed with multiple sensors (including anomaly and gun detection, forensic capabilities and 360° video streaming), the 136kg TicTac on wheels apparently failed to see the handful of stairs in his path and took a tumble into a fountain. Knightscope has said that Steve is in a “critical condition” and that there is no evidence that this is anything but an accident. He has been replaced by another K5. From all of us here at APC, we wish Steve a swift recovery. Ocean’s Fourteen? FISH TANK LETS HACKERS INFILTRATE A CASINO. A ‘smart’ fish tank has unwittingly…