Table of contents for July 2016 in PC & Tech Authority

Buzzwords are a part of life, some of them stick and describe something well, while others are thrown out there with relentless determination by PR and marketing people to hopefully attach perceived new functionality to something that already does its basic job well. There’s the old adage from the 1980s that goes something along the lines of ‘this year’s model is new because it has a calculator in it’. Like the primary school year I remember when that guy in class rolled out his new plastic ruler... with a calculator in it. And yes, we all wanted one. The current inundations are ‘4K ready’ and ‘VR ready’. Both 4K and VR are, of course, tremendously exciting, but some of the marketing going on is... a bit of a stretch. ‘4K…

Web publishers are increasingly turning the screws on surfers that use ad-blocking technologies such as AdBlock Plus, effectively depriving content providers of essential income. Restricting access to content and asking for a subscription are two of the tactics being used to persuade visitors to disable the blockers. Yet consumers are reluctant to do so, often because they see browser performance suffer, and because ads are becoming ever more intrusive and audible. Not to mention the privacy fears of advertisers tracking you from one website to the next. The battle is only set to intensify, as smartphone users look to block content on their handsets. Even more worrying for publishers is the fact that younger people are the most likely to block adverts. Sources: PageFair and Adobe 2015 Adblocking report/PubNation/Global Web…

BEASTLY SILENCE TI Computers Silent Gaming 6700K $2,285 • http://tinyurl.com/hy2vwfy A quiet gaming PC with all the performance you could need? Doesn’t sound possible, yet this system manages to pull just that offreasonably well. While claiming to be silent, the Coolermaster case doesn’t have any particular claim to silent fame from a design or engineering standpoint like extra baffling around the case fans or sound dampening materials. Most of its claim comes from the included whisper quiet 11dBA fans that come with it and in the included PSU. Along with this, the Strix graphics card can run fanless when idle and the Noctua D15 CPU cooler sports massive 140mm fans for superior quiet cooling and some gentle overclocking potential. KEY SPECS CPU: Intel i7 6700K @ 4.6GHz Cooler: Noctua D15…

Penetration testing, or pen testing for short, sounds like something only banks and the military should be concerned with. Certainly, for most small businesses, it isn’t something that usually appears on the security strategy radar. But should it? Wikipedia defines a penetration test as “a software attack on a computer system that looks for security weaknesses, potentially gaining access to the computer’s features and data” – which does nothing to reduce the scariness. However, if you think of it as being a controlled, time-limited test that emulates how an attacker would gain access to your network and your data, then the fear factor begins to diminish. There are plenty of security consultancies that offer pen testing as part of their portfolio, and some that specialise in doing little else. For…

The social-engineering risk is something that a traditional pen test, especially one using automated tools to check for system vulnerabilities, won’t adequately check. There are specialist pen testing offshoots known as “red teams” which take the notion of attack simulation to the extreme by actually sending the boys (and girls) round to attack you as if they were the real deal. However, the small business on a budget might consider implementing a social media honeypot. Ken Munro and his team at Pen Test Partners believe that there’s a real place for DIY pen testing in that it helps promote a proactive security stance, and a social media honeypot is a simple way to gather threat intelligence to help the business defend itself. A honeypot is simply something created to look…

The Linksys Max-Stream AC1900 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router EA7500 could be considered the little brother of the EA8500 we reviewed last August. With more devices possessing MU-MIMO compatibility now compared to a year ago and the 8500’s feature set trickling down the line into the mid-range EA7500, more people can tap into the benefits of MU-MIMO than ever before. In a nutshell, MU-MIMO (multi-user multi-in-multi-out) enables a router to only broadcast the bandwidth a given device is capable of receiving, rather than forcing all available bandwidth to it. Furthermore, it is able to perform this function to multiple devices at a time, rather than in sequence, as routers without MU-MIMO do. What does that mean in the real world? Uninterrupted streaming from multiple devices, that’s what. The EA7500 – like its…

“you could probably drop this thing from a weather balloon at 100,000 feet ” For those who really need a portable drive with very fast transfer speeds PLUS easy portability and don’t mind paying for those luxuries, portable SSDs are been a good option. They’re still a bit rare, largely because they’re not cheap. A typical 1TB WD or Seagate portable hard drive is less than $100 and will shift its files back and forth at about 100MB/s. A 1TB portable SSD will cost you closer to $600, and smash its files from one device to another at the sort of speeds you expect from an internal SATA 3 SSD – well north of 400MB/s. Last year’s T1 from Samsung brought a bit of sexy to the scene. We’d previously…

$280 • www.fitbit.com Fitbit’s latest addition to its fitness tracker range is a step away from its normal band-like design and now resembles more of a smart watch. With a bright OLED touch screen, interchangable bands and a slimmer profile then models such as the Surge, the Blaze doesn’t look out of place whether in the gym or the workplace. The Blaze tracks your steps, calories burned, stairs climbed, active time, resting heart rate and quality of sleep. It also has six sports modes which track specific exercisies using the built-in heart rate monitor. There is no built-in GPS, which isn’t a big issue if, like me, you always run with a phone, but if you don’t then the accuracy of distance the Blaze calculates you have run is a…

$69 • www.tp-link.com.au This is a basic and budget solution to fixing limited Wi-Ficoverage. At under $70 it’s one of the cheapest on the market, so it only offers a single Ethernet port and no USB option. However it does handle both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, and has a very simple installation wizard that’s all done in just a minute or two. Performance was a little disappointing, though, perhaps partly due to the relatively small flip-out antennas. Setting it up within five meters of the router with an uninterrupted line of sight, though positioned just a foot or so above the floor (where the power point was located, and thus a typical installation), the connection speed was mediocre, with web pages often taking several seconds before beginning to load. I…

$130 (SF450); $165 (SF600) • www.corsair.com Small form factor PCs were allegedly on the rise in 2015/2016, thanks to the predicted shift towards lounge room PCs and the Steam Box, neither of which appear to have gained any more traction than they had before. Still, small PCs need small PSUs, so we asked Corsair to send a couple from its new range for a closer look. The 450 and 600 watt units can be completely silent in low to medium loads with the fan idling at those loads. Even at full whirl, these use 92mm fans instead of the louder 80mm usually seen in SFFPSUs. We connected them to a test system and performance was faultless, and indeed, mostly silent. Corsair also use proper Japanese capacitors and claim use of…

On first impressions, the Asustor AS3102T seems like your average barebones NAS. Once you remove the side and top panels, which are joined as one single unit, the two drives screw directly into the chassis. This construction doesn’t do much to dampen the noise; it makes a surprising racket. Asustor doesn’t help its case for userfriendliness by providing its quick-start guide on CD, while advising those without an optical drive to visit the website to download it, along with the Control Centre utility required for initial setup. On the plus side, it’s a friendly tool that makes it easy to find and then initialise your NAS and drives, complete with a download of the latest firmware update. Once up and running it’s more impressive. For a start, the user interface…

A chunky, business-like four-bay NAS, the Netgear RN214 earns points straight away for ease of installation – with drives fitting neatly into pull-out rails on the screw-less caddies, the process takes just a couple of minutes. The rest of the setup is no more challenging, with a web-based routine that signs you up to Netgear’s ReadyCloud web portal for configuration. Netgear’s well-designed user interface encourages you to use the NAS much like a cloud storage service, partnered with a ReadyCloud app running on your PC or Mac. It’s effective, with a Dropbox-like look and feel and rapid synchronisation of documents and media files. The accompanying iOS and Android apps even allow for auto-uploads of photos and videos, just like OneDrive or Dropbox. However, if you prefer to map folders to…

This two-bay NAS is definitely speedy. With a 1.6GHz Broadwell Celeron N2050 processor and a healthy 2GB of DDR3 RAM, the Thecus N2810 is one of the fastest units on test, beating the Qnap TS-451+ with an average write speed of 106.8MB/sec in our large video file transfer test and coming a close second for read speeds. Only a slightly-less-than-stellar effort in our small files transfer tests prevented it from topping the PCTA Labs performance table. Connectivity is another strength, with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports supporting link bonding, three USB 3 ports, with one handy at the front, and an HDMI output that enables the N2810 to double as a media player as well as server. With built-in transcoding abilities it’s certainly equipped for the job. On other fronts, however,…

The core concept of Battleborn is MOBA to the core. Each of the 25 playable heroes fits into a specific class, Attacker, Defender or Support that roughly defines the role of the character. Attackers, as the category so subtly hints, are built for damage. They move fast, do high damage with their weapons and have relatively low health and shields. Defenders can soak up loads of damage either by having a large health pool or via some form of mitigation like a shield. Support characters work best boosting the effectiveness of other players through healing, shields, speed boosts and the like. Each of the characters has a skill helix that offers ten binary power-up choices. Rather than character progression being a permanent thing, Battleborn again takes a leaf from the…

THE GAME MAKING US LOOK EACH OTHER IN THE EYE Sitting on a bus or train, all eyes are on the small screens of phones. Even in the supermarket, you can pick up your groceries without interacting with a human. Mara Balestrini is hoping to change that. The director of research at Ideas for Change has been working with researchers on Jokebox, an “icebreaker” that tells a joke and punchline – but only if two separate people push the buttons. She describes it as “a technology prototype that can help us understand how to design novel interfaces, to foster social connectedness in urban settings by encouraging eye contact and co-operation between strangers”. That the world has come to this… HOW THE INTERNET OF THINGS COULD CHANGE HEALTHCARE The IoT maybe…

PAUL OCKENDEN Paul owns an agency that helps businesses exploit the web, from sales to marketing and everything in between @PaulOck Ilast wrote about “China phones” just over a year ago, but it’s a subject that’s been cropping up regularly since then. Folk often ask me whether it’s worth paying a premium for the latest Samsung or Sony handset, compared with one of the cheap-and-cheerful China phones available. China phones usually run Android – sometimes Windows Mobile – with specifications that aren’t quite on the leading-edge, but often not that far behind. The biggest differences you’ll spot are the unknown branding and the pricing. The higher-end China phones are typically around half the price of the equivalent handsets from the big-name manufacturers. The well-known brands are fighting back, with some…

DAVEY WINDER Davey is an award-winning journalist and consultant specialising in privacy and security issues @happygeek So Twitter is ten years old this year; it was founded on 21 March 2006 to be precise. My first tweet was 11 months later, on 7 February 2007, and said: “Right now I am mostly spilling Won Ton soup down my shirt.” I kind of wish I’d typed something more profound, which is apt as “tweet regret” is indicative of much Twitter business usage. Of course, back in 2007 few people were considering Twitter – or any social media for that matter – to be of much interest or use to the business community. How things have changed… and stayed the same. While only a fool would dismiss the benefits that social media…

The overall tension between security companies, Microsoft and remoteaccess software developer TeamViewer is bubbling up slowly into a period where names are being named and positions taken. A recent coordinated attack on Hungarian government networks caused Kaspersky Labs to release an extremely detailed forensic summary of its findings. In it, the firm has been so sure of the role played by TeamViewer’s software, that in part Kaspersky has named – a little controversially, it must be said – the malware after the product (for full details, see tinyurl.com/zyuc6k6). In turn, TeamViewer put out a statement that I read with some discomfort. While it’s always good to see a response, rather than ignoring the situation completely, in my opinion the series of comments at tinyurl.com/jkks2em misses the point of what’s happening…

WHEN CABLE IS JUST FINE I read your recent article “NBN Again” with great interest as it’s a topic that I can personally relate to. I too are in a HFC area and have been enjoying problem free cable Internet for the better part of 11 years. Only the odd occasion where I had to have a tech out to change the tap in the street due to corrosion. I’ve never suffered from congestion either. The exchange that my cable connection runs from is part of the FTTP build, however I missed out on FTTP as NBNCO used a main road as the boundary not the exchange boundary which is without a word of a lie, 500 meters further down. So my suburb is split over FTTP and FTTN technologies.…

Anthony Caruana has worked for almost every major masthead in the Australian IT press. As an experienced IT professional – having worked as the lead IT executive in several businesses, he brings a unique insight to his reporting of IT for both businesses and consumers. “Remember, being a great baker doesn’t mean you should run a bakery” By putting together some flashy images, a business plan and some other marketing material, everyday people can become venture capitalists. Sounds idyllic right? But what if it all goes pear-shaped? I’m a fan of crowdfunding. I like the idea that my relatively small investment – I can invest in some endeavours for less than $50 – can help an entrepreneur start their business. The Pebble smartwatch, which started as a KickStarter project, is…

THE DARK WEB IS GROWING INCREASINGLY POPULAR, BUT IS THERE ANYTHING MORE TO IT THAN SEX, GUNS AND DRUGS? CHARLES ARTHUR INVESTIGATES The description alone – “the dark web” – makes it sound like the stuffof horror movies or the Grimm brothers’ grimmer tales. Will the screen be darker? Are there tendrils? You can see the concern in the questions people ask on public forums: “Is it safe to browse the dark web? I don’t want to p*** offauthorities… I’m mainly curious to see what the hell it is, not the illegal content,” to quote one. But since the Snowden revelations of multigovernment surveillance in 2013, media and user interest in Tor and the dark web has rocketed. (They’re not quite the same, as we’ll explain.) Nor is it all…

While many of the tools employed by the professional pen testing services are custom built and consequently fall into “trade secrets” territory, there are a number of freely available resources that DIY testers can use. We asked our collection of pen testing experts for their suggestions. Metasploit (from Rapid7) is generally regarded as the de facto, go-to, open-source tool. The free Metasploit Unleashed training course from Offensive Security (tinyurl.com/q5h5o98) provides excellent guidance on using this resource effectively and safely. A free framework edition is available that can form the foundation of most network pen testing tasks. As an alternative, Kali Linux (kali.org) comes installed with reputable copies of the basic tools required for a pen test, including Burp, traffic analysis tools such as Wireshark, and automated vulnerability scanners and testing…

You won‘t find better reviews anywhere in Australia! It’s smartphone season, just in case the sheer number of reviews in this issue hadn’t raised your eyebrows. Every major player has a premium model, and we haven’t even attempted to cover them all in this issue. Most interesting, I think, is the relatively lowly (price-wise, at least) LG Stylus DAB+. What a clever – and now that we see it – blindingly obvious idea. To be able to enjoy high quality digital radio via your smartphone, and all without sucking down a kb of data in the process is magical. I expect others to follow suit, though digital radio has always struggled to gain a foothold in Australia. That’s due to a lack of marketing and awareness, but certainly isn’t a…

This is the modem router for those looking to step up from what the telcos provide. Unless you purchase a ‘premium’ router from a telco for an extra cost, you’ll probably be lumped with a basic router with only wireless N and a basic feature set. The X6200 seeks to correct this injustice with dual-band wireless AC and high-end functions. At first glance, the performance numbers are nothing to write home about. 433Mbps for AC and 300Mbps for N wireless connectivity are not rangetopping speeds by any stretch, but they will be sufficient for all but the most demanding home network needs. Wireless AC is becoming increasingly important, with the onset of highquality video and audio streaming services, and the X6200’s beamforming capabilities also ensures that bandwidth is directed to…

$449 • www.lg.com/au LG continues on its quirky smartphone streak, with the release of a midrange 5.7in phablet with a stylus and a DAB+ digital radio tuner. A dablet, if you will (I’m sorry). In a world of streaming music services, it’s refreshing to see someone go in a different direction and use an oft-forgotten platform to provide music to your ears, giving you access to your favourite radio stations (and some you’ve never heard of) without impacting your monthly download limit (provided you live in a major city, that is). As a phone, it’s moderately equipped. It’s running the latest version of Android, but it only has a 720p screen, 1.2GHz quadcore processor, 2GB RAM, 13-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front cameras and 16GB of storage (with SD card expansion…

$160 • www.hyperxgaming.com New favourite gaming cans, right here. As much as I love the Audio Technica ATH-ADG1 (my old favourites), these are easily as good for audio quality, yet are much more comfortable (which is really saying something, the ATH-ADG1’s are amazingly comfy), and incredibly are less than half the price. The sound is natural, clear and precise, and has the finesse to deliver gentle music gracefully yet can blast the heavy stuffbeautifully, keeping the bass tight but also full of power. Gaming is something else, it’s the clear and precise audio that you need with the phat oomph you love. The game mic is good, my friends report that they hear me as well as ever, so great for these cans and bad luck for my friends. They…

$89 • Au.ttesports.com Here I was, all ready to gently mock the overtly OTT design of this mouse, but having now used it for a week in the office it’s come home with me as my new favourite gaming mouse. By golly it’s good. Nothing disappoints, everything impresses. Straight offthe bat the movement of the cursor is perfect. Most mice have a touch of acceleration or lag, but the Level 10 is bang-on perfect. Every step of the four insta-adjust DPI settings are also perfect – usually there’s one or two that don’t feel quite right, not so here. I also love the DPI mode display right on top of the right mouse button. Ergonomically it’s a winner. The protruding slab on the left and stick-out chunk on the right…

If we judged NAS units solely by the number of lights and ports, this would be a winner. It’s festooned with blue and green LED indicators on the front panel and drive bays, and three USB 3, two USB 2 and two eSATA ports offer great expansion choices. The hot-swappable drives screw into two slide-out caddies, which click back into place with ease. Sound isolation could be better, though, with some clicking from the drives carrying through the chassis. Software setup and configuration involves visiting the Asustor website and downloading the Control Centre utility, but once installed finding and initialising the drive won’t take long, with the option to choose between RAID0 and RAID1. Those looking for a NAS for home entertainment will be even more interested by the HDMI…

The Qnap TS-228 looks surprisingly stylish for a budget NAS, with two bays positioned vertically in the chassis, concealed by a sleek slide-offshell. Supplied barebones, the drives slide into place and are held in without screws by a pair of clips, but this thoughtful design is spoilt by one fact – the shell is an absolute nightmare to get back on. Once you do, this NAS is relatively quiet aside from the noise from the hard disks themselves, which tends to come through. Things go much more smoothly with the software setup, where the combination of a web-based process and special codes attached to each individual NAS make it easy to get the Qnap running and configured as a RAID0 or RAID1 array. Better still, the TS-228 uses the same…

“My personal video library can’t rival that of Netflix, but there’s no buffering or dropped connections to spoil my entertainment” Is there a place for NAS in 2016? When we started these tests, I wasn’t sure. Five years ago, the idea of centralised backup and file storage for my home and small business was incredibly appealing. Now I use OneDrive and Dropbox as my go-to save locations, while Google Drive and iCloud Drive play a role in supporting my iOS and Android hardware. Similarly, I once had big plans to centralise all the music, movies and recorded TV in the home and make it accessible through our Android tablets and Roku media streamers. Now, with the likes of Netflix, NowTV, Amazon Prime and Spotify, that idea seems redundant. Unexpectedly, however,…

Blizzard doesn’t release a lot of games. In fact, for a company that’s been around for as long as it has, it’s downright tardy with new releases. But when you have a cashcow like Warcraft, we guess you can choose to be a little picky. However, that means that when Blizzard does release, a new game – especially in a genre it’s never tackled before (see World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, et al) – you know it’s going to be special. With Overwatch, Blizzard’s first foray into the remarkably crowded first person shooter market, Blizzard has absolutely nailed expectations. As of writing, it’s a day before the game’s full release, but we did get to spend a lot of time with the limited beta phase of the game. Often, betas can…

This isn’t the first use of VR in healthcare. For decades, it’s been used to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychological training (such as helping people with autism train for job interviews), pain management and rehabilitation. Dr Skip Rizzo, director for medical virtual reality at the Institute for Creative Technologies, has helped patients with third-degree burns manage their extreme pain: “Put them in a headset and give them a game environment to play in, and the perception of pain drops by at least half. It’s a pure distraction approach.” Dr Rizzo specialises in the use of VR to treat PTSD, drawing on an existing technique called prolonged exposure, where patients recount the incident that caused the trauma in order to help them process it. The headset can amplify that, “setting…

FEATURES + ASHAMPOO SNAP 2017 + PHOTO STAMP REMOVER + TODO PCTRANS PROFESSIONAL + VIDEOCOMPRESSOR 2016 DRIVERS + ATI CATALYST + NVIDIA FORCEWARE HELP + DISCLAIMER + DAMAGED OR FAULTY DVDS + USING THIS DVD + INSTALLING SOFTWARE EDITORIAL + CREATE AN ANDROID APP + BENCHMARK YOUR PC + UNDERSTANDING MALWARE TROUBLESHOOTING + SERIAL CODES + BLANK REGISTRATION WEBSITE + CAN’T FIND A FILE? + INSTALLATION ERROR WINDOWS CCLEANER + CLASSIC SHELL + CUTEPDF + DEFRAGGLER + FOXIT READER + GREENSHOT + APPLE ITUNES + LIBRE OFFICE + OPEN OFFICE + MALWAREBYTES’ A/M + SANDBOXIE + VLC MEDIA PLAYER + FLUX + 7ZIP MAC + ALFRED + BETTERTOUCHTOOLS + APPLE ITUNES + DROPBOX + FLUX + GOOGLE CHROME + MOZILLA FIREFOX + PLEX + SKYPE + TEAMVIEWER + VLC INTERNET…

ANTHONY DOWLING runs Ideal PC, a computer repair specialis A good portion of my time is taken up repairing systems infected by viruses, or trying to recover data that’s been damaged by an infection – although I should be clear: when I say “virus” here, I’m using it in the same way I do for clients, as a catch-all term. Otherwise, I tend to get a blank look and a polite nod. For the rest of this column, as I explain how I get rid of viruses, you can assume I mean any form of malware, worm or rootkit. There are a multitude of ways to remove viruses, from manual removal right through to fully automated systems. Manual removal involves a painstaking search through the system Registry and files to…

STEVE CASSIDY Steve is a consultant who specialises in networks, cloud, HR and upsetting the corporate apple cart @stardotpro “What I need from a service is all my stuff, at maximum speed, without any nasty surprises” Hashtag: 21stCenturyProblems. There can be no better example of this category of technical whinge, than finding that your Gigabit internet (and no, I don’t mean Ethernet!) connection won’t allow traffic coming inwards. It’s a connection so fast that it’s actively embarrassing to talk about it – but configured only so I can connect to those wonderful “cloud” resources faster than anyone else on the planet. What a great feeling, right? Wrong. I realise that a lot of people – even fairly technical people – think that web hosts are all going to deliver data…

AFP RAID FORMER MINISTER STEPHEN CONROY AND STAFFERS’ OFFICES AND HOMES OVER NBN LEAK And the government only learnt of the investigation as the raids were taking place Members of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have completed unprecedented raids on both the office of former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, and the individual suburban home of at least one Labor staffmember in connection to the set of embarrassing NBN leaks earlier this year. Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus confirmed the raids last month on ABC’s Lateline program, expressing concern around the timing and the actions of the raids during an election period. “These are extraordinary and unprecedented events and the Government has a great deal of explaining to do. All Australians are right to be concerned about the appearance of a raid…

CPU BROADWELL-E DROPS THIS MONTH Intel’s CPU refresh for its High End Desktop class X99 platform will launch this month. Broadwell-E will be the successor to Haswell-E found in the current generation of 2011-3 socketed X99 motherboards and will be a direct drop in replacement after a BIOS update. Intel sent us some early material about the new line up and while most of it claims a 20 – 30% uplift in performance. That’s comparing the new ten-core i7-6950X against the outgoing eight core i7-5960X. With 25% (two) more cores it’s a rather easy marketing claim to make. Certainly a ten-core CPU will be a first in the consumer space and is a great achievement, but we’re more interested if advances were made in IPC relative to the previous generation.…

John, TI Computers: “For customers who are very serious about system noise, we offer upgrade options from a selection of premium parts known to minimize system noise such as Asus Strix series graphics cards, Noctua fans, power supply with managed fan control, and a good chassis that helps to block the last bit of noise from leaking into the ears of my customers. On the top of that, each CPU and chassis fan inside our TI system builds are calibrated, and fine-tuned in house utilising the Asus Q’Fan Tuning function inside the BIOS, which not many people know. This extra step keeps the system nice and quiet at all times.” Jaya, Mwave: “In our experience the best way to reduce system noise is to properly plan your component choice when…

1 DON’T STRAY OUT OF BOUNDS When performing a test, it’s vital to stay within the scope, and certainly within the bounds, of your ownership. Many organisations, especially the small-tomedium sized businesses that are most likely to be doing their own pen testing, use hosting solutions or SaaS-based services to run their operational or revenue-generating ops. If you don’t seek permission from the service owner before testing, you could be facing unwanted legal issues. Typically, the larger providers have provision for penetration testing, but read their contracts carefully; some firms have unlimited liability clauses. If you accidentally take down an adjacent IP or system that’s part of their infrastructure, you could be liable for the incurred costs of any resulting down-time. It’s therefore important to check what you’re targeting and…

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

What makes an iPad “Pro”? Not long ago, you might have included a larger screen in the list of characteristics that turns an ordinary iPad into a Pro device, but the iPad Pro 9.7 turns that idea on its head. Visually, it’s almost identical to the iPad Air. It’s the same size and weight, and the main clues that it isn’t an Air are on the back, where the camera protrudes, iPhone 6-style. There are also three telltale black dots on the side that indicate the presence of Apple’s Smart Connector, for hooking up compatible keyboards. The main changes are all internal, where you’ll find an Apple A9X processor and up to 256GB of storage. The screen, too, is entirely changed and now supports the Apple Pencil. So back to…

The Galaxy S6 Edge was a misstep by Samsung, adding ￡100 to the S6’s price but keeping the spec precisely the same. This year, there’s a much sharper distinction: the S7 Edge has a 5.5in display that’s 0.4in larger than both the S6 Edge and the standard S7, moving this phone towards “Plus” territory. It does share features with the S7, but that’s no bad thing. I warmly welcome the return of microSD expansion, with support for cards up to 200GB, and weatherproofing – an IP68 rating means the S7 can be immersed in water up to 1.5m deep for up to 30 minutes. Style-wise, the phone looks very close to the S6 Edge. A glossy glass finish sandwiches a gleaming, coloured metallic substrate that catches the light in all…

“HTC’s all-in-one metal design is proudly on display again, as are the familiar lines that slice across the curved corners” TThe HTC 10 is an excellent phone, but it really has to be. $1099 SIMfree is $50 shy of the Samsung Galaxy S7, $20 more than the entry-level iPhone 6s, and over $400 more than the iPhone SE (see p60). Say what you like about HTC, that’s certainly a bold statement of intent. It certainly looks the part. By ditching the logo and speaker beneath the screen, HTC has grown the screen size – it’s now 5.2in to the M9’s 5in – and add a touch-sensitive home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. There are other changes, too, the most obvious being a USB Type-C port rather than micro-USB.…

$599 • www.parrot.com.au Yes... six hundred dollars... but what you get is truly beautiful French design, sublime comfort and lovely leather all over – including over the side ear touch control area. The noise cancelling is hands-down the best I’ve ever experienced – better than Bose, even. There’s next to no sound bleed either, so your fellow commuters will be left in peace. The audio is wonderfully crisp, even at extreme volumes (which they are certainly capable of), and it handles all music types accurately. Plus there’s an app to play with, if you like. Adjust EQ settings and fiddle with surround soundscapes, or just download artist profiles, if you’re into that. The Bluetooth connection worked flawlessly first time, every time, too. These are premium, and priced accordingly. A carry…

Buffalo supplies its compact two-bay consumer NAS populated, with a choice of dual 1TB, 2TB, 3TB and 4TB drives. Despite this, it’s kept the price surprisingly low, meaning you can grab the 2TB version for the same price as some unpopulated two-bay rivals. If you want to buy the entry-level version now and upgrade later, it’s no problem – open the front-facing door and the two Western Digital Green hard disks emerge neatly in their slide-out bays. It’s a shame that the software setup process isn’t so easy, requiring you to visit Buffalo’s website, download its NAS Navigator software, install it and then find your NAS before you can even get going. If the tool seems dated, the firmware isn’t much better, seemingly designed to resemble an old Linux desktop…

JON HONEYBALL Jon is the MD of an IT consultancy that specialises in testing and deploying hardware @jonhoneyball “The latest Office 365 incarnation has come into public beta and it’s a lot better than before” Iam a staunch advocate of Office 365. There are some good reasons not to use it, but overall I feel that the pluses most definitely outweigh the minuses. Now, I guess I need to add some caveats to that statement. First, when I say “Office 365” and I’m referring to the server side, I’m really talking about Exchange Server. I know that my E3 plans include hosted SharePoint server, but I see that as rather a historical product now, like Lotus Notes before it. Despite its strong capabilities, I’m not sure I’d start on a…