TechLifeFebruary 2019的目錄

FOLLOW OUR GUIDE, AND YOU’LL BE POSSESSED OF A LOUNGEROOM SETUP THAT IS ALMOST AS IMMERSIVE AS THAT OFFERED AT ANY CINEMA CHAIN. I USED TO go the movies a lot. Every couple of weeks, I’d buy a ticket or two – yes, I’d often go alone, don’t judge – and I’d go watch something new. Art house, action, drama, even documentaries when I could find them. I even spent a few years going to be various movie festivals. I loved the cinema experience. Fast forward to today, and the only movies I for go out for are big budget franchises, like Marvel or the Star Wars films. These movies offer what is now a very rare experience for me: something that is actually worth shelling out the stupid cost…

WHILE ALPHABET INC. initially intended to shut down its Google+ social media platform by August 2019 following a data breach, the company has pushed forward the date to April after the discovery of yet another critical security flaw. In Google’s announcement, it stated that third-party applications briefly had access to approximately 52.5 million users’ personal data, adding that “no third party compromised our systems, and we have no evidence that the developers who inadvertently had this access for six days were aware of it or misused it in any way”. The nature of the data that was exposed for almost a week was, thankfully, not financial in nature, but did include the affected users’ name, email address, occupation, images, age and more. As a result of this leak, the service’s…

EMPATHY GAP When we are being logical (cold), we don’t understand how our decisions would differ if we were emotional (hot). Conversely, when we are emotional we don’t realise how much our decisions are being influenced by emotion. ANCHORING BIAS We make our decisions from the first piece of information that we learn about a subject. This is why we are more inclined to buy something when we see the original price placed next to the reduced price. FREQUENCY ILLUSION Have you noticed that when you learn a new word you start seeing it everywhere? Our brains have a habit of trying to see patterns, so we notice things more if they are interesting to us – like a new word. OSTRICH EFFECT Humans often (metaphorically) bury their head in…

SONY HAS BEEN in something of a brand wilderness for some years now: it acts like a premium brand, and charges like a premium brand, but its products aren’t quite up to snuff when compared with the best competitors. However, with the A9F Sony has made a big effort to get back in front and it looks to have paid off. The A9F uses LG’s 4K HDR OLED panel but it’s jam-packed with its own image-enhancing technology and other accoutrements. While it’s easy to get blinded by TV tech marketing terms, it’s worth going over what Sony promises before seeing how it delivers. First up there’s the new X1 Ultimate image processor which, along with handling the general image processing, promises to automatically identify hundreds of different on-screen objects (using…

Human Terrain GET A GRIP ON THE REALITY OF POPULATION GROWTH. pudding.cool/2018/10/city_3d/ This particular web experiment is found on a site we’ve previously featured (and continue to love) here at TechLife – pudding.cool – but the experience this particular project offers is too interesting and timely to pass up. As we all know, the world’s population is growing, and in recent years in particular, it’s been doing so at a rather alarming rate. So much so, in fact, that the sheer scope of the millions and billions of people in different cities and countries around the world is often hard to fathom. That’s where Human Terrain comes in. This page helps visualise the immensity of the human population by showing a map with towers that represent the relative size of…

A large Monster Hunter: World expansion called Iceborne is coming in autumn 2019 (on console, with the PC release coming later), Capcom announced last month. Iceborne will add a higher quest rank analogous to the G rank difficulty of previous games, as well as new and returning monsters, a post-game story set in a chilly new biome, and a visit from The Witcher 3’s Geralt. Many Monster Hunter: World players have been clamoring for a G rank expansion for months, so it’s undoubtedly the leading act in Iceborne. But Capcom says there’s plenty more in store, including “new moves” which sound like they’ll expand on existing weapon move sets - perhaps through unlockable finishers, or even Monster Hunter Generations-esque hunter arts? Apart from new monsters, we know Iceborne will also…

AND IF YOU THINK THE COLORS MIGHT BE GARISH IN ANY WAY, FEAR NOT. THEY’RE MESMERIZING, SOOTHING, AND YOU COULD STARE AT THEM FOR HOURS WITHOUT TIRING OF THEM, EVEN AT 100% BRIGHTNESS. LIKE THE ORIGINAL Nanoleaf Light Panels, the Canvas is also a pricey investment for any smart home – yet after using the basic starter kit, we’re happy to admit we’re already considering splurging on an expansion pack to add more panels to our wall. And if you think the colors might be garish in any way, fear not. They’re mesmerizing, soothing, and you could stare at them for hours without tiring of them, even at 100% brightness. The Canvas can add personality to any space – large or small. They’re perfect to set the scene for a…

TELEVISIONS ARE SO common in homes today that they’re generally seen as part of the furniture. But the varying specifications between different sets can make purchasing a TV, or at least choosing which one to purchase, a hellish and confusing experience. The average television size is getting bigger every year, and in turn our expectations of size and suitability are constantly changing. The 75-inch TV is the fastest growing sector of the market, but such huge sets wouldn’t even get close to fitting in many people’s homes. Whether you’re upgrading from an old set or making your first television purchase, we’ve put together the guide you need to figure out how big a TV display you actually want. THE SMALL-SIZE TVS (24-32-INCH) For those balking at the idea of picking…

BUYING THE BEST soundbar will give your TV the home theater the sound that it deserves. And the powerful all-in-one speaker setup will go well newer slim displays, so they don’t stick out next to your svelte screen. Soundbars traditionally sit in front of your screen (though many can also be wall-mounted) and take over the heavy audio lifting from your television. Soundbars are also the perfect solution for smaller homes that can’t quite fit a 7.1 channel speaker system. Despite most only featuring front-facing speakers, they can project sound in such a way that makes it seems as though there’s booming audio coming from behind you. The top soundbars offer even more advanced features, like Dolby Atmos support and even multi-room audio functionality, which allows you to stream the…

IF YOU’RE A student making your way through the education system, whether at school or university, a good notebook is increasingly a must-have item in your arsenal of technological weapons with which you can aim to get better grades. Of course, there’s a bewildering array of laptops out there, so what should you focus on when choosing a machine to use to further your education? Let’s start with a few general pointers. SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS First off, consider build quality, because ideally you want a portable which is built to take a few knocks. We obviously don’t mean a fully rugged laptop, but ideally the model you choose should have a fairly solid chassis, and be able to stand being chucked in a rucksack (or similar) and possibly getting…

THERE IS UNTAPPED potential in your input devices. Luckily, this can be unleashed using BetterTouchTool. In this issue, we’re outlining how it can power up your keyboard and mouse. Once you’ve opened BetterTouchTool, it’ll appear in the menu bar. Click its icon and choose Preferences to open the configuration window. Underneath the toolbar, you’ll see tabs that detail input methods you can tailor. As you start experimenting with actions and gestures, you will quickly find out how powerful – and useful – that BetterTouchTool can be. Avoid gestures you’re not comfortable performing, and creating shortcuts that clash with existing ones in apps you use. (If necessary, restrict where shortcuts work by using the App Specific sidebar item.) You can get a 45-day trial from folivora.ai. A two-year licence costs $10;…

IN MID-DECEMBER, JUST before Parliament adjourned for Christmas, the Federal Coalition government – with the support of Labor – rammed through a bill widely despised by the tech industry: The Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Bill 2018, popularly known as the “Encryption Bill”. The function of the bill was to force software and telecoms companies to provide assistance to the Australian government, secretly allowing the government access to communications on their networks and devices on request. All companies could be potentially subject to it – software and hardware providers as well as network providers – so long as they operate in Australia. For the security conscious among us, this presents a major problem. Many platforms that we trust to keep our communications private can no longer be…

Ovie Smarterware MAKE YOURSELF FEEL EVEN MORE GUILTY ABOUT NOT EATING THE LEFTOVERS. Starter kit US$117 | ovie.life/store 2018 was the year of the smart home device and in December a crafty Kickstarter found the last remaining relic of the industrial era and made it palatable for humanity 2.0. Smarterware – the ingenious portmanteau ‘smart’ and ‘tupperware’ – is a smart tupperware container. While it maintains freshness, just like its predecessor, it’ll also send you daily reminders to eat the leftovers in your fridge before they go bad. Smarterware is promising to connect to Alexa to catalog foods and it knows how long each food-type should keep, so it’s not the most ridiculous device of 2018; but do we really need more guilt when avoiding leftovers? Pivot Yoga wear SMART-PANTS…

CREATE PROFESSIONAL CDS, DVDS, AND BLURAYS ARCHIVE AND PRESENT WITH ASHAMPOO BURNING STUDIO 19 FULL VERSION WORTH $40 Ashampoo Burning Studio 2019 is a powerful disc burning software for CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs. Core features include burning of files, audio and video to standard blank discs but also specialized media such as BDXL or M-Disc. The built-in disc ripping supports auto-detection of track names and audio files can easily be turned into custom audio discs complete with individually designed covers and inlays as well as playlists for easy playback. The program can also finalize discs to make them playable on older retail players. Ashampoo Burning Studio 2019 features disc spanning that automatically spreads data across multiple volumes and avoids size constraints. Download link: www.ashampoo.com/techlife NEVER LOSE YOUR…

NOT TOO LONG ago, Microsoft began asking Windows 10 users why they prefer using Chrome as a browser over Edge. It seems we may have an idea why the company was doing so – Microsoft is washing its hands off Edge, according a report published by The Verge. Sources have told the online publication that it will be replaced by a Chromium-based browser which will become the default option on Windows 10. With Chrome clearly the market leader amongst web browsers, the decision to switch to a Chromium-based option for better compatibility with Windows 10 is, perhaps, a wise choice, especially since Microsoft has struggled with Edge over the years. That struggle, a former intern at Microsoft says, was likely because Google kept switching things around with its websites and…

WHILE SONY WENT through an evolutionary process to perfect its full-frame mirrorless cameras, Nikon struck gold in the first go, as we saw with the Z7 (see TechLife 82, page 14). However, it was the second alternative to this premium snapper that had us excited, and Nikon has delivered again with the Z6. The two new Z series cameras share the same design and have similar spec sheets, what sets them apart are resolution, the autofocus (AF) system, and the burst speed. To cut a long story short, the Z6 is the high-speed, low-light performer that’s cheaper than its premium sibling, making it the more versatile of the pair. CUT THE PIXELS With both camera sharing identical bodies, it’s what’s under the hood that’s making all the difference. Instead of…

IMAGES ARE VERY LARGE AND TAKE A LONG TIME TO CREATE, SO YOU WON’T WANT TO MAKE ONE EVERY DAY. FOR EVERYDAY BACKUPS, YOU’LL ONLY WANT TO COPY THE MOST IMPORTANT DATA ON YOUR PC – YOUR DOCUMENTS, PHOTOS AND MUSIC, FOR EXAMPLE. An image is an exact copy of an entire drive or partition, including all installed programs and system files. If you need to reinstall Windows, you can boot from the image file and avoid having to reinstall all your programs and reconfigure your Windows settings. Note that you can’t use an image to restore your system on a different PC. Images are very large and take a long time to create, so you won’t want to make one every day. For everyday backups, you’ll only want to…

CRYPTOCURRENCY WAS BIG news for a while. The virtual money system, which essentially works by exchanging unique tokens online (and, in rare occasions, exchanging those unique tokens for goods, services and real money) caught a lot of public attention, mainly because it seemed to be a machine for generating free money. That statement is about a fifth true. Some people did profit, but the majority did not; the cryptocurrency value spike of 2017 is, by all accounts, over for now. The market seems to have stabilised, and the majority of the hype has died down. But perhaps, posit some developers, the concept behind cryptocurrencies is strong enough to support new ideas? We’re sceptical, but there are certainly schemes out there that have been inspired by the crypto boom. Initiative Q…

TELL US WHAT YOUR SIDE PROJECT DOES Blue Notes recreates classic Blue Note album sleeves from the 1950s and 1960s using HTML and CSS. All the layouts and typography are responsive. WHY DID YOU CREATE IT? My first real exposure to graphic design came through the jazz, funk and hip-hop scene of the early 1990s. Late last year I wanted a side project that would showcase my love for graphics, typography, layout and web development. Recreating these sleeves seemed like a great way to do this. WHAT WERE YOU HOPING TO ACHIEVE? While this project was part homage and part test of my chops, it was also inspired by a desire to create and experiment with radically different layouts. My focus was on recreating the sleeves as exactly as possible…

THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT SOME OWNERS OF NINTENDO’S LATEST CONSOLE ARE DAYDREAMING AT THE THOUGHT OF PLAYING RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 ON THE PORTABLE HANDHELD SYSTEM We might have The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Skyrim on the Nintendo Switch to satisfy our open world needs on the go, but there’s no doubt that some owners of Nintendo’s latest console are daydreaming at the thought of playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on the portable handheld system. And, according to Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime, the idea of Rockstar’s technical powerhouse running on the platform isn’t totally crazy. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Fils-Aime was asked whether Red Dead Redemption 2 is something that the company would be interested in having on Switch, and his response is…

$69 | Switch |www.smashbros.com IT’S HARD TO talk about a Super Smash Bros. game without comparing it to its ancestors. While somewhat similar, each game before it, Ultimate has a different speed, roster and overall feel. Some prefer the slower pace of Super Smash Bros. 64 and Super Smash Bros Brawl, while competitive players focus on the much faster Super Smash Bros. Melee and Wii U. Ultimate finds a nice home in between the all the above. The minute-to-minute gameplay only gets more different from the Wii U version the more you play. Individual characters have adjusted movesets and various buffs and nerfs. Many changes, like letting Samus charge her beam midair, feel small on their own. Yet tweaks upon tweaks add up to something much more significant. That doesn’t…

IN MANY WAYS the MateBook X Pro is a pastiche of great ideas pioneered by other ultrabook manufacturers. Initially it looks a lot like a Macbook Air with its slim rounded chassis, rubber dome feet and cutaway edge tabs for ventilation. It’s also borrowed elements form the Macbook Pro’s style guide including keyboard-surround speaker grills, a generous 16 x 9 style trackpad and a simple black and white key-colouring scheme. It’s even taken some inspiration from Microsoft using the 3:2 aspect ratio that the company has pushed on all its Surface devices with the MateBook X Pro’s 13.9-inch 3000x2000 touchscreen display. We’ve seen the appropriation of borrowed ideas backfire in the past, but in this instance it really does seem like Huawei has taken the best bits form existing laptop…

WITHOUT LEATHER IT would be impossible to tell a really important book from the latest Mills and Boon, we wouldn’t have anywhere to store our money, we couldn’t hold up our trousers, we wouldn’t have chapps and if HP had its way, we wouldn’t have laptops either. So integral is the leather folio to the professional convertible that HP have chosen to literally glue beef-skin to its latest 2-in-1. And while this may mean HP’s latest device has to endure being called names like the MeatBook, gluing your folio case to the laptop isn’t always as bad as it seems. The Spectre Folio’s 13.3-inch touchscreen display has a magnetically mounted pivot point in the middle of its back that allows you to use it as a traditional laptop with a…

IF YOU RECENTLY purchased some new speakers – or bought speakers years ago and haven’t quite figured out what to do with them – we’ve got good news: setting up your new audio furniture isn’t nearly as hard as it used to be. In fact, it’s really easy. Of course, this wasn’t always the case. At one point in time, an entire industry of independent audio retailers did a brisk business of not only selling speakers, but expertly setting them up, too. Setting up sound systems can be tricky because speakers come in different shapes, sizes and configurations. You could buy a stereo setup, with or without a receiver. You might buy a subwoofer. Or you may have opted for a single powerful speaker or soundbar that takes up less…

[ SECURITY ] What’s Adaware’s web companion? I’ve suddenly become aware of an icon in my Taskbar notification area – clicking it brings up a screen pointing to Adaware Web Companion, with some kind of security tool for my web browser. What is this, and is it safe? STUART FENTON Matt Hanson replies: This almost certainly got on to your computer alongside another program – in other words, a Potentially Unwanted Program, or PUP. The first warning can be found on the program’s own FAQ, with “How do I uninstall Web Companion from my computer” the second article in the list. Click Start > Settings > Apps and scroll down until you find and entry for Web Companion near the bottom of the list – you’ll see when…

THE MAC MINI 2018 proves once and for all that Apple hasn’t forgotten about the small form-factor Mac. Despite being a fan favorite, the Mac mini hasn’t seen a substantial update for more than four years, but with the Mac mini 2018, the smallest Mac is competitive once more. On paper, the new Mac mini was worth the long wait, with Apple claiming that it’s five times faster than the last Mac mini. This performance increase is thanks to some impressive spec bumps, including a maximum RAM configuration of 64GB with a six-core CPU. The Mac mini 2018 is being marketed as a tool for creators, with Apple claiming that it’s 30 times faster at encoding HEVC video than its predecessor. It also has a bunch of ports on the…

1 “bazillion” NUMBER OF PHONE CALLS ALLEGEDLY MADE BY A TINY GECKO USING A TOUCHSCREEN DESK PHONE IN AN ANIMAL HOSPITAL IN HAWAII. THE CALLS WERE INADVERTENTLY MADE BY THE GECKO, THANKS TO THE STICKY PADS ON ITS FEET, AFTER HE’D SNUCK INTO THE KE KAI OLA MARINE MAMMAL CENTRE ON THE US ISLAND. 220 GB AMOUNT OF DATA APPARENTLY LOST BY ONE WINDOWS 10 USER AFTER UPGRADING TO THE OCTOBER 2018 UPDATE (VERSION 1809), WITH NUMEROUS OTHER REPORTS OF SIMILAR ISSUES FROM USERS WHO’D SIGNED UP TO WINDOWS INSIDER. MICROSOFT TEMPORARILY HALTED THE ROLLOUT OF THE FEATURE UPDATE IN OCTOBER UNTIL IT WAS ABLE TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE. 2 SECONDS 0-60MPH TIME OF THE PB18 E-TRON ELECTRIC CAR CONCEPT UNVEILED BY AUDI AT THE PARIS MOTOR SHOW. The car…

Sir David Attenborough warns climate change will lead to the “collapse of civilisation” PLANET EARTH AND BLUE PLANET IN JEOPARDY. Speaking at the United Nations Climate Summit in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018, Sir David Attenborough’s iconic narrative took a dramatic turn. Calling climate change “a man-made disaster of global scale”, he warned that if something wasn’t done, it would lead to the “collapse of civilisation” and “the extinction of much of the natural world”. He urged world leaders to take action, saying, “The continuation of our civilisations and the natural world upon which we depend is in your hands.” As per a recent report released by the UN, even a 1.5 degree increase in global temperature this century will result in catastrophic consequences, including floods, the loss of 90%…

Brawl Stars ARENA BASED BRAWLING Free with IAP | https://supercell.com/en/games/brawlstars/ FROM THE DEVELOPERS behind the critical and commercial mobile multiplayer successes like Clash Royale and Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars is a fast paced, easy to learn but tough to master brawler where players fight as team of three to meet map objectives and take out their opponents. Set in the same trademark cartoon style that Supercell is known for, there are a vast array of maps, game types, brawlers and weapons to choose from. Highlights include Heist, where your team must manoeuvre their way around your enemy’s defences to crack open a safe, and Brawl Ball, where soccer becomes a little more interesting when weapons enter the field. Each map is a mixture of 2- and 3D assets, which…

BEING NEW TECH, HDR prices are creeping upwards. Much of what you pay depends on how well a display renders HDR content. Run-of-the-mill IPS and TN panels struggle to improve perceived contrast with their edge-array backlights; there’s only so much a dynamic contrast feature can do to push the boundaries of HDR. 1000 nits. That output level costs dearly right now; only a full-array, zone-dimming model will do. Witness, the 27-inch Ultra HD Dell UP2718Q, which sells for nearly $2,449 at time of writing. In the case of BenQ’s EL2870U, our testing revealed a product better-suited for gaming than HDR demonstrations. The BenQ EL2870U is great when watching movies or performing general computing, and value-conscious buyers will have trouble finding something better. But if you’re willing to pay for ultimate…

TAIWANESE NAS-MAKER SYNOLOGY has slowly been building itself a respectable reputation in the router market, releasing three models in as many years, with this tri-band, Qualcomm-powered MR2200ac the latest addition to the family. Like its forbears, the RT1900ac and RT2600ac, this is another highly-capable and feature-packed unit where the real star is theOS. Simply named ‘Synology Router Manager’ (or SRM), the latter takes its cues from the company’s NAS operating system, combining a very easy-to-use desktop-like interface (which you access via web browser) with features that are frequently more advanced than you get from long-established router manufacturers. The MR2200ac differs from its predecessors in that it’s geared for mesh networking. Although it can work fine on its own as a standard modemless broadband router (albeit a fairly simple one, hardware…

WHILE ROLI FIRST introduced itself to the world with the seriously premium Seaboard controller, the launch of its more affordable Blocks range aims to bring its unique multidimensional flavour of music control to the masses. The Songmaker Kit combines three of the modular, wireless block controllers – the Seaboard, Loop, and Lightpad M Block – alongside a travel case for the trio and a host of music software to get you going. This includes the full version of the company’s flagship Equator software synthesiser, which was explicitly designed for the Seaboard’s 5D control scheme, along with the lightweight Player versions of Strobe2 and Cypher2 soft-synths from partner company FXPansion. When put alongside the other Lite or trial versions of bundled software, the Songmaker Kit is tremendous value for those starting…

WHAT IS HDMI 2.1? The new standard for HDMI connections was confirmed back in November 2017, but has yet to trickle down into mass-market television hardware. When it does though, it will mark a big step for both the AV industry and the home viewers wanting to get the most of their TV series, films, broadcasts, and gaming consoles. When High Definition Multimedia Interface (or HDMI) first arrived on the scene, everyone rejoiced at no longer having to use bulky SCART connectors, or those confusing component video cables, ever again. Instead HDMI offered high definition video with a connector that was just a little bigger than a standard USB plug. Over the years the HDMI standard has seen continuous improvement, with extra features being added as the needs of televisions…

SEARCH Use this box to search for files and apps on your PC, and items on the web. You can access Cortana here, too. APP PREVIEWS Hover the pointer over the icon (without clicking the mouse button) to see a preview of the relevant window. TASKBAR SETTINGS To customise the Taskbar right-click it, then select ‘Taskbar settings’ to open the window that shows the settings here. APP ICONS Icons for open apps will be shown here. To keep an icon in the Taskbar, right-click it and choose ‘Pin to taskbar’. TOOLBARS To add further functionality to the Taskbar, right-click it and add some toolbars. This one is for web addresses. TECHLIFE TOP TIP: To access more advanced features on your PC, right-click the Start menu for a handy hidden menu.…

TELEVISION TECHNOLOGY HAS come a long way in a short time, and has brought with it a whole raft of abbreviations, acronyms and similar sounding names. These technologies often have several variants, each with their own acronym. So, we attempt to explain the difference between 4K, UHD, OLED, QLED, HDR (and variants thereof). 4K With the increasing availability and affordability of TV sets and all-important content, 4K (also known as Ultra HD, 4K Ultra HD, UHD) technology is here to stay – until it’s leapfrogged by 8K. WHAT IS 4K ULTRA HD? Officially, 4K resolution is 4096 x 2160 pixels. However, in order to shoehorn this into a 16:9 format, it was altered to 3840 x 2160 – four times the number of pixels on a Full HD screen (1920…

IN PHOTOSHOP AND Elements, it’s important to give your artwork and photos a clear focus. Sharpening tools exist for that reason, and highlighting certain parts of your image canhelp give a picture shape, draw attention to the right areas, and add dynamism. With this in mind, it’s important to remember the role of a blur filter. Blurring your images can help direct the viewer’s focus towards the main subject of your photo, such as the centre of the star trails in the image above. You can sharpen this subject to draw more attention to it, granted, but another way that you can show some depth of field between a subject and its background is simply to blur the background a little, too. Blurs can be used for so much more…