Digit - April 2014

The Static Page
Resistance is futile
recent New Yorker article titled The

pointlessness of unplugging was the
source of much debate and heated
discussion this month at Digit. The article
was centered around an annual event which
urges participants to abstain from the use of
technology for a whole day. In essence, you
are to wrench yourself away from phones,
tablets, computers and televisions basically anything thats connected and throw
yourself into a self-imposed digital exile of
sorts. Sounds horrifying? To someone like me
it doesnt sound horrifying per se, but absurd,
and pointless for sure. Before I get into the
why, lets first understand more about this
emerging sub-culture.
As it turns out, people have been going on
these detox adventures for quite some time. I
remember marvelling at Paul Millers year
without the internet experiment which he
notably did as a staff writer at The Verge (still
havent figured out how that worked). The few
videos I saw before the experiment started
getting boring, had an underlying sentiment
that wasnt very positive. The experiment had
its highlights sure he finally undertook the
road trip he always wanted to take to see his
little nephews and nieces but overall, I felt
Paul started getting increasingly despondent.
Only subtle hints alluded to this of course, but
I wouldnt be surprised if at the end of the year
he went on to proclaim that the experience was
enriching or fulfilling or some other such
adjective. But I wouldnt buy into it.
Ive observed that digital abstinence drives
are mostly undertaken with unclear objectives. Some see the time spent in the digital
world as a waste and therefore desperately
want to reclaim control over the timesapping void that is the internet. Sure, if all
you do online is watch Justin Bieber videos
and giggle at 9GAG posts then yes, you not
only need to detox but also sign up for rehab.
But if youre spending your time productively
interacting with people and enriching your
knowledge, I dont see why the digital life you
lead should be considered inferior to the time
you spend doing those same things IRL (in
real life). Also, unpluggers dont unplug for
so called benefits of unplugging but rather
the kick theyd get from a triumphant return.

Such messages, ironically, arent uncommon
on our timelines: Just spent a week away
from Facebook. Wow so refreshing. Did you
miss me?
Robert is all for taking breaks from technology, and in fact argues that digital dependence can be crippling. If you asked me how
many phone numbers I remember off the top
of my head, Id be embarrassed to tell you the
answer. On a daily basis, facts, figures and
important information also admittedly slip
through the cracks these days. Instead whats
remained is a selective memory and neural
pathways that itch to find a search bar. But
can breaks from technology really improve
our mental prowess? The only purpose such
detox trips would serve is give you a greater
appreciation of technology for whence you
return to it. Much like what Vipassana does or
is supposed to do for the soul.
Dont get me wrong. Im all for spending
time with family, having a nice sit-down
dinner with conversations rather than a
zombie supper in front of the idiot boxs
glow. Or being in the moment and enjoying a
rock concert rather than tweeting about that
killer guitar solo I just saw. But thered be
no greater folly than to take this technology
abstinence a step further and cloister yourself
from it entirely. Theres no pride nor should
there be any in being a self-proclaimed luddite. Like the New Yorker article said, We are
only ever tourists in the land of no technology,
our visas valid for a day or a week or a year.
Nothing more.
Siddharth Parwatay
Assistant Editor
[email protected]
Can breaks from

technology really
improve our mental
prowess?
Got feedback about this column?

Drop me a line at:
[email protected]
Digit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com 1
Contents
april 2014
volume 14 \ issue 04
quick
navigator
001 Enter
016 COnnECTIONS
Mobile Watch
Web Watch
App Watch
Security Watch
055 Toolbox
Tips and Tricks
Workshop
Q&A
068 tried and

tested
Tablets
084 Sci-Tech
From the Labs
Tomorrows Tech
Space Age
093 Street Smart

Killer Rigs
Agent 001
Price Watch
@ Work
098 Tech Tech
Work @
Industry Connect
104 Esc
Tried &
Tested
Destruction
36 The Age ofthe state of the modern war machine.
We delve into
Whos got the best military tech?
Is stealth just a pipe dream?
The future of robotics is now

In conversation with Asst. Professor James McClurkin (Rice University)
71
Sony vaio flip 13
Interesting hybrid, let down by
poor build & expensive price
72
ASUS Rampage IV
Extreme Black
Edition
Decked to the hilt with features
2 Digit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com
88
73
Acer Travelmate P645
Does what it claims to do very well
indeed
F1- step forward
34
Digital life
Take a peek into some of

the things that are new in
Formula One.
Rise of the Machines
Blaupunkt navigator
Sloppy researchers, beware!
How Wikipedias curating content and keeping

trolls out of the system with one secret weapon
http://dgit.in/vergeflappybird
The San Diego in-car navigator from Blaupunkt

now comes with up-to-date maps of India
http://dgit.in/1jIhUAd
Stanford is starting an institute to track research

papers for sloppy scientific analyses and
references. http://dgit.in/1mgOe0Y
Drool maal
Ultimaker 2
KUBE
This is another fine specimen among 3D printers available

for purchase in the market. It prints through PLA (like on
the KUBE and Cube), but has a greater 3D print volume
stretching up to nearly a 10-inch cube. Unlike the original
Ultimaker, which was a DIY kit you had to assemble
yourself, the Ultimaker 2 comes pre-assembled. Apart
from being able to print through SD cards, this babys WiFi enabled for even greater convenience and connectivity.
Aesthetically, the Ultimaker 2 looks like a device straight
from the Apple mould, and it wont look out of place in a
stylishly designed living room with a corner dedicated to
the eye-catching 3D printer sitting among a collection of
its creations. Price: US $2,500.
The brainchild of Karan Chaphekar, a strapping young

man in his early twenties, hailing from near Mumbai,
KUBE is one of the best homegrown 3D printing
solutions that you can get in the market right now.
KUBE supports single extrusion (1-color printing) and
a volume of a 8-inch cube, which gives this monster
the ability to print relatively larger 3D models. The
printer has a LCD control and SD card print option, and
weve seen it in action. The KUBE neatly printed out a
full-scale model of an iPhone 4S case (with a Digit logo
engraved), and a lot of small objects, while we had it
in our Test Centre -- 3D models printed off the KUBE
displayed a high degree of craftsmanship. The KUBE
sells for Rs. 54,000 (US $900), while a smaller 6-inch
version sells for Rs. 36,000 (US $600).
Ditto+
Drool-worthy 3D printers
that are worth every penny
In your quest to purchase a 3D printer thats worth

your money, be sure to consider the Ditto+ printer
from Tinkerine Studios. They raised Ditto (a precursor
to Ditto+) through crowdfunded money over at
Indiegogo, and Ditto+ is its brand new successor. The
3D printer comes out-of-the-box with easy plug-n-play
functionality, and you dont need it connected to a PC to
print stuff on it. The Ditto+ has a built-in spool holder on
the back that should fit many spool sizes and includes a
feed tube to the extruder. If the prosumer machines are
out of your price range, the Ditto+ may be worth looking
into as it offers a big build area for most projects, and
a documentation and software combo thats simple
enough for entry-level users.
Cube 3D Printer
One of the most popular off-the-shelf 3D printers
available for purchase, Cubifys Cube 3D printer is a
great starting point for your formal introduction into
the exciting and inspiring world of 3D printing. The
printer has a print area of 5.5 inch cube volume, and it
can print in PLA (polylactic acid) as well as acrylonitrile
butadiene styrene blocks, giving you the flexibility of
precision vs time, depending on what youre trying to
print. It can print things in 16 colours, two of which
glow in dark, and there are 25 free models for you to get
started on the 3D printing journey. At $1,399, the Cube
3D printer may come across as expensive, but since the
whole space is new, this is what youd have to pay to get
a decent 3D printing experience.
MakerBot Replicator 2
One of the most popular 3D printers you can buy, a
machine that transcends the levels of a pro-sumer to
almost be as great as a professional industrial 3D printer,
thats essentially what the Replicator 2 is. This is a fourth
generation printer from MakerBot, and it looks and
acts like a fully functional consumer product. Its black
powder-coated frame, rugged black PVC panels, and soft
glowing LEDs give the MakerBot Replicator 2 an attractive
and durable sheen. Several independent reviewers of
the device claim it to be nothing less than the Mercedez
S-Class of the 3D printing world at the moment. Its
price? US $2,199 may seem too steep, but its justified
given its no-fuss, hassle-free 3D printing operation and
overall handling -- be it software or hardware.
032 Droolmaal
Gadgets and gizmos that will enrich your

lives. Provided youre rich of course.
047 World View

Our pick of the best articles from around
the world.
051 Devworx
>Code > Creativity > Community
061 Workshop
Just bought an Android?

Finding it hard to adjust?
Find out how to make it easier.
On The DVDs
PLAY: World of Tanks
Heres your chance to play the
game thats been voted as the
best multiplayer game for two
years running
Game demo
Galactic Command SE
Game Trailers
Abyss Odyssey
Alien- Isolation
Burden
Dark Souls II
Endless Legend
Swordsman
This War of Mine
Total War: Rome II
Wargame: Red Dragon
Ashampoo Snap 6
Linux
Calculate Linux Desktop
Audio books
The Art of War
Characteristics of cats
The Lost World
Tales of Space and Time

Tom Sawyer
YouTube FanFest
Complete coverage of the YouTube FanFest held in Mumbai
MWC 2014
Mark Zuckerberg on facebook
Samsung unpacked 2014
LEARN
The moral side of murder
Ethics in business
The badness of death
Immortality
Transcendence
Trailers and wallpapers
Essentials
Google Chrome
DC++
uTorrent
DropBox
Free Download Manager
Avast! Free edition
WinRAR
VLC Media Player
090 Sci-Tech
Battlefield: Space
What would space war
actually look like?
One GB of
audiobooks
DVD
74
ASRock H81 Pro BTC
Its time to start mining for
cryptocurrency
Learn: The nature of evil
75
Plantronics Voyager
Legend UC
Single solution for bluetooth on
smartphone and for VOIP on PC
April 2014 Volume 14 Issue 04

To Advertise
Products reviewed this month
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Editorial
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Assistant Editor Siddharth Parwatay
Multimedia Co-ordinator Anirudh Regidi
Test Centre
Manager, Test Centre Jayesh Shinde
Sr. Reviewer Vishal Mathur
Reviewers Anirudh Regidi, Kunal Khullar
Interns Prakrit Dhondiyal,
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Product Co-ordinator Shweta Mali
Assistant Vikas Patil
Thinkdigit.com
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Design
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Associate Art Director Anil T
Sr. Visualisers Manav Sachdev, Shigil Narayanan
& Sristi Maurya
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Sr. Designers Haridas Balan, Manoj Kumar VP
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South:
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advertising index
Brand................................................................................. Page No
ASRock H81 Pro BTC Motherboard

ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition
Hk Go + Play Wireless
Minix Neo X7 Android Media Hub
MSI A88X-G45 Gaming Motherboard
Nexstar HDD Dock (02A31B0017)
Pantronics Voyager CS dock
Plantronics Legend UC
Sony VAIO Flip 13
Steelseries 6Gv2
Tablets
Dell Venue 7
Dell Venue 8
Sandisk................................................................................ IFC
Asus...................................................................... IBC, 79, 81
DSK..........................................................................................BC
iberry Auxus Core X8

iBall Slide 3GQ1035
Micromax Canvas Tab
Google Nexus 7
Micromax..................................................................................5
MTV Slash 4X
Smartlink.................................................................. 7, 43, 45
Simmtronics XPAD
Nissan........................................................................................9
Turbo Dell Venue 8 Pro

Acer Iconia W4
Asrock............................................................................. 11, 41
Online & Marcom Design

Associate Art Director Shokeen Saifi
Sr.Designer Rahul Babu
Web Designer Om Prakash
Graebert.................................................................................13
Photography
Chief Photographer Subhojit Paul
Sr. Photographer Jiten Gandhi
Mediatek.................................................................................17
Contributors
Writers Mithun Mohandas, Samir Alam, Paanini
Navilekar, Tanmay Patange, Ashesh Lal, Niranjan
Iyengar, A. Pathak, Nicole Anklesaria, Prasad Naik
Copy editing Infancia Cardozo
Production and Logistics
Sr GM - Operations Shivshankar Hiremath
Manager Operations Rakesh Upadhyay
Asst Production Manager Vilas Mhatre
Production Assistant Brahmanand Nikalje
Manager Logistics Vijay Menon
Asst Mgr Production & Logistics M P Singh
Executives Mohd. Nadeem Ansari,
Nilesh Shiravadekar
Brand
Product Mgr Arun Yadav
Asst Product Mgr Sourabha Shakya
Mgr - Online Shauvik Kumar
Co-ordinator / Scheduling Kishan Singh
Circulation Sales
National Co-ordinator Samir Mehta
Regional Mgrs Jayanta Bhattacharyya,
Norbert Joseph
Manager Circulation Dharmendra Singh
Executive Vijay Mhatre
Reader Services
Lead Associate Itishree Mishra
Executives Sudhir, Shabana, Pradeep, Kanchan
+91-22-67899678 / [email protected]
Cover Design Shigil Narayanan
Get SKOAR! Interactive
Manav Rachna International University............ 14, 15
Xerox....................................................................................... 19
free on
Top Notch...............................................................................21
TP-Link................................................................................... 39
Cyber Solutions.................................................................. 63
Multivision...........................................................................101
Indias only
Digital Gaming
Magazine
Cover Story
MECHanical Marvels
The evolution of robots in games
India Antivirus.................................................................. 111
Published, Printed and Owned by Nine Dot Nine Interactive

Pvt. Ltd. Published and printed on their behalf by Kanak
Ghosh. Published at Bunglow No. 725 Sector - 1, Shirvane,
Nerul, Navi Mumbai. 400706. Printed at Print House (India)
Pvt. Ltd. R-847, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Rable, Navi
Mumbai 400701. Editor: Anuradha Das Mathur
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In the event of a dispute, the Editors decision shall be final.
Reviews
! Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
! South Park: This Stick of Truth
! Killzone: Shadowfall
! The Swapper
Preview
! Elder Scrolls Online Beta
Feature
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12
Read about all the latest

happenings in and around the
tech world.
) Dear editor,
I'm a regular reader of Digit and have

always liked how you simplify technology.
Like me, many readers must be fascinated
by the way you work and would really like
to know what happens behind the scenes
and how you manage to publish all the great
things that you do. Hence I have a suggestion for you.
You could choose one lucky winner from
your subscriber base each month to visit
your office for one day. We would surely
like to meet you in person and learn much
more. And also if all goes well, more readers
would start subscribing to the magazine to
get a chance to visit your office.
Being from an IT industry, I have a
fair idea of how tight deadlines can be but
it would be nice if you could make this
happen. Waiting to hear from you.
-Mandeep Jain
Great suggestion Mandeep. In fact as part
of the privileges of being members of Digit
Squad, many of our most die-hard fans have
exclusive access to our test labs. To join
simply drop a mail to [email protected]
and well take it up from there. As for getting
a glimpse into life here at Digit, Im sure you
must be getting some clues of the craziness
through Digit Diary.
-Siddharth
) Hello Digit!
I've been reading Digit since the past 4

years and this is my first letter. I accept Digit
as Indias No.1 Technology Magazine.
I truly appreciate each and every hard
working team member of Digit for bringing
new concepts and variety, and exploring
new ideas every month. I've never come
across any major negative point in the 4
years I've been reading the magazine.
The reason Im writing in is the March
2014 issue itself. I couldn't stop myself from
expressing my feelings to you, friends!
The March issue is the best issue I've come
across. The Top Ten of Everything is an
amazing concept. The issue helped me a lot.
I was quite confused about which device
to buy for under 13K. It was the March
issue that helped me buy the best device. I
brought a Moto G. I truly thank the Digit
Test centre especially Kunal Khullar and
the testers in the Smartphone section from
DRAM price fixing
A court settlement of $310 million has been reached

between many DRAM manufacturers accused of fixing
DRAM market prices. http://dgit.in/PriceChor
Feedback for the March 2014 issue of Digit
the bottom of my heart. Kunal Khullar has

explained everything about the Moto G
excellently. Another plus point for Digit is
the DVDs that are offered with each issue.
Ive learnt many things through the DVDs. I
love the TED Talks, and Digit TV was awesome! Truly a new and rocking concept.
Last, but not the least, the Fast Tracks
and the official website of Digit is quite cool.
The best Fast Track Ive come across is the
November 2010 Fast Track to Windows
7, which was very useful as Im using a
Windows 7 laptop. Keep up the good work
and continue spreading knowledge. And
remember, you guys are the best technology
navigator ever. Thank you!
-Praveen Vishwakarma
Thanks Praveen, were glad you like
the DVD contents and we were hoping the
March issue is a runaway success as we
were trying something new and guess what,
looks like it worked!
-Siddharth
) Hey Digit,
Ive wanted to write to you since a long

time and finally got the chance now that my
academic year is over. I first came to know
about this magazine during a computer fest
in our school, which you sponsored. You
guys were distributing 2-3 month old issues
for free. I somehow obtained 4 different
issues and when I got to reading them, I

discovered that they were pure genius. It
was like ambrosia for a geek like me to read
about this sort of stuff, which I could rarely
discuss within my friends circle.
After that, I bought the 2013 Collector's
Edition and had a great time reading it. To
me, it seems that you guys can never run
out of catchy cover pages and ever-amusing
cover stories. I bought the March issue after
that and boy, was it a delight. This was the
first time I had read the whole magazine,
cover to cover, in just a few days. I especially
loved the cover story but beg to differ about
the list of top smartphones.
But the other lists were pretty awesome.
I especially loved the Mobistar prank in
the Top 10 Trolls list, Dangerous Dave and
Snake in the Top 10 Games list, Nokia
Fakes Ad in the Top 10 Controversies list
and the hilarious Sim City and Yahoo! Mail
in the Top 10 Tech Fails.
The article on smartphones under 20K
was pretty cool. I want to especially thank
you for your good reviews of Moto G in your
past issues as I wanted to buy the phone
but my dad wasn't very enthusiastic about
it. Your brilliant articles on the phone convinced him and now I finally got the phone.
I adore and laugh at the small bits of
news stories at the top of every page. I
checked almost each one of them and they
were pretty cool but I want to be frank about
Fastest portable HDD?

Inbox
Lacies Little Big Disk is a drive that Lacie claims to be

the fastest portable hard drive in the world with transfer
speeds of up to 1,375MB/s http://dgit.in/LacieQuick
Letter of the month

) *Badaa Tssssssss* (if you didnt
get that, its a band salute for your

extraordinary work). I mean, yYou
guys perform unbelievable feats every
day in this extraordinaire magazine. I
sometimes suspect that I might find red
capes in the wardrobe of every Digit
team member. Let me introduce myself.
Im an 18-year-old Engineering student.
I havent subscribed to Digit yet (regretfully). Now, before you send minions
to torture me (yes, I think you do have
minions.), I want to tell you that
Ive been buying almost every
issue of Digit for years. And
whenever I buy a new one,
I still act like a happy kid
with hands flailing about.
Anyways, I just wanted
to discuss some things in
this letter (my first letter by
the way). Do you guys watch
Anime? Now Im going to go
ahead and assume that you
do, because the other option is unacceptable. It would be great if you could
publish a review on the top animes of
the decade, as reading about it from
your point of view would be great.
Secondly, congratulations on your
helpful videos. You may want to change
the settings of your room, as the sound
reverberates and its a little irritating.
Thirdly, hows Robert? Hes not
something. In DGT, the only interesting section was the TBA, but the others were okay
too. I didn't read much in the Fast Track but
I have to tell you, even though I appreciate
all the work you put into just one small
book, you need to have better topics for the
Fast Track. The DVD was awesome! I thank
you for offering me with the perfect physics
tutor. The wallpapers were pretty awesome
and I loved the U.S Air Force theme.
I know that Im still in school and can't
work, so I want to write for your magazine even if just one small paragraph. No
payment. No office. Just me helping you and
learning. Im sure youll love a geek like me.
One more thing: Raaabo is Robertright? I
just can't get enough of this magazine!
-Ayan Marwaha
there, is he? Dont tell him but you see,

when I first saw his photo and read his
page, I imagined him to be a guy with a
deadpan sense of humour. Am I right?
Hes an awesome editor. And its really
great the way Siddharth is handling
things. Statically. Pun intended.
Lastly, (relieved, arent ya?) do you
guys like solving codes? Cyphers? Of
course you do. Its a really interesting
topic. And it would be great if you publish a little something on it. *hint hint*.
Ive attached two of my self-made
cyphers. Hope you guys have
the time to solve them.
Super lastly, dont ever
stop Digit, as I fear that Ill
tumble in the darkness of
life without your guidance.
Too much? Okay scratch
that. Just never stop being
so awesome.
-Shivam
Cmon Shivam you know better than
to give us the solution! And your *hints*
have been taken under consideration.
Look for something in the upcoming
special issue. Also, most of the guys in
the team are into Anime. It was difficult
to reach a consensus but One Piece and
Bleach seem to have emerged as the
favourites here as well.
-Siddharth
Well we figured not everyone would
agree on our Top 10 lists but thats the
whole point. Differing opinions is what
makes the Digit community so vibrant.
Were glad we could push your dad into
going for the Moto G. Lots of people in
the digit office too have gone the G way.
Yes Raaabo is Robert. Do keep writing in
and happy reading.
-Siddharth
) Hello!
I'm a 17-year-old girl (yeah, you read
that right) from Mumbai, and obviously,
because I'm writing to you, I'm a fan of
Digit. Now I'm not going to bore you with
unnecessary, inconsequential details,
like this is the first time I'm writing to
you guys, yada yada, but I'll get straight
No updates for old cards
Nvidia announced that it will stop releasing

graphics driver updates for its older series of cards
before the 400 series after a few months.
to the point. Digit is an amazing magazine and I love the way you guys manage
to put an entire world into its limited
thickness. Its informative, funny at times
and very interesting. The editorial is brilliant. Now I'm not your typical geek, and
may not have very hard core technical
knowledge, but I sure do enjoy everything that is put in these pages. The links
mentioned on the top of the pages are a
great way to cover space and open up into
little tidbits of fun. I particularly love the
Digit Diary section, since it tells readers
a bit about those who actually make this
magazine and its a laugh riot most of the
time! The CDs are a wonderful addition
to the already wonderful magazine. The
DGT and Fast Tracks are also worth a
mention. Thanks to Digit, I can brag a
bit about my techie knowledge and it
really helps. Like all the other readers,
I want to complain about the ads, but I
know theyre there to stay. So I'll just say
that the ads are a bit more interesting
than they are in other places. It may be
because of the "Digit Effect"! Few words
can express my feelings better than these.
You guys have seriously awesome
jobs! (Did I mention amazing, fun and
highly enviable, considering the amount
of gadgets you get to review?) How did
you manage to get these jobs? Please
shed some light on that. I'll just say, keep
spreading the tech bug. I'd love to get
myself cured not!
Cheers!
-Urvi Talaty
Hi Urvi,
Thanks for your mail and words of
encouragement. The team's pretty kicked
about the fact that more and more girls
like you are joining the legion of geeks.
Do keep writing in and next time,
please tell us what you'd like to read
more of, what we're doing wrong and
where we can improve. We want to get
better and better with your help!
About getting this dream job, it's pretty
simple all of us were readers of Digit
once. We were passionate about technology, loved to write about it, so when
we finished our education we applied and
got in.
- Siddharth
e-cigarettes dont help you quit
Buzz
According to a recent study by researchers at the

University of California, e-cigarettes users dont help
users quit smoking. http://dgit.in/Esiggy
Panasonic HX-A500
This new wearable camcorder from Panasonic

is capable of shooting videos at 4K with 25fps.
Is it a GoPro killer? http://dgit.in/PanaPro
Welcome to the New Age

The future is here. Keep yourself updated with the newest buzz in technology
Enter: Morpheus
The president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida
has announced that Sony will
soon launch a new headset
which will bring VR gaming
and non-gaming software to
Sonys PlayStation 4. The virtual reality technology from
Sony has been dubbed Project
Morpheus. The headset is still
in prototype form.
Sony is planning to focus
more on virtual reality technology to enhance gaming experience on its consoles. Yoshida
says, Virtual reality is the next
innovation from PlayStation that
will shape the future of games.
Project Morpheus by revealing

a black and white prototype of
the headset for PlayStation 4.
Sony plans to demonstrate
Project Morpheus at GDC
(Game Developers Conference)
which is being held till 21 March
at Moscone Center in San Francisco, USA.
According to Richard Marks,
senior director of research and
development at Sony Computer
Entertainment America, Project
Morpheus will be used for nongaming apps as well. He also
added that Sony is working with
NASA on its Jet Propulsion Lab
which is an exploratory project.
Marks said that Sony is
focusing on six areas with its
Theyre not Lawrence Fishbournes pince-nez, but theyll do!
The early VR attempts of

Sony were demonstrated by
Yoshida using a modified version of God of War seen from
a first-person, as well as some
headset prototypes that date
back to 2010. Later, he unveiled
Project Morpheus: sight, sound,

tracking, control, ease of use and
content. The Japanese electronics
giant also wants to make the
headset a mass market device.
Morpheus will use Sonys
3D audio techonology that rec-
We will continue to improve

on this prototype by gathering
feedback from developers. Thats
why we unveiled it at GDC.
~Shuhei Yoshida
reates positional sound, such

as footsteps climbing up stairs
below them, or engine noises of
helicopters flying overhead.
Sounds will change along with
players head orientation creating a highly realistic audio
environment within an immersive 360-degree virtual world.
Content pushed to the Morpheus can be mirrored to a TV,
but it sounds like it can handle
asymmetric gameplay (different
things on each screen) as well.
An Open air design prevents the lenses from fogging
up. (Itll be interesting to see how
they prevent light leaking in)
Sony has already developed
some playable demo games
for the Project such as London
Studios The Deep, in which
players will descent into a diving
cage and encounter deadly
ocean predators. Other demos
include The Castle, which is
a medieval combat game and
CCP Games space dogfighting
game called Eve Valkyrie. A
special version of Square Enixs
and Eidos Montreals Thief has
also been developed.
Octo-Core and more

Intel has announced new processors at a media event held at
the ongoing Game Developers
Conference in San Francisco.
The processor will be available
in the second half of this year.
The new Extreme Edition

processor will support the
new DDR4 memory standard
and also the best performance
when it comes to gaming, video
editing, 3-D content and other
high-end uses.
Intel also showcased a new
4th gen Intel Core processor
code named Devils Canyon.
The new processor will give
enhanced performance and more
overclocking capabilities to highend users. The new chip, which
is due in mid-2014 includes
improved thermal interface and
CPU packaging materials.
The company also announced
plans of launching more
upcoming processors such as
Intel Pentium processor Anniversary Edition and a 5th gen
Intel Core processor which will
come with Iris Pro graphics.
The Pentium processor will be
a commemoration of more than
20 years of its Pentium lineup.
The 5th gen Intel processor is
code named Broadwell.
Intel Corporation, which is a
pioneer in desktop computing is
looking forward to announcing
some more innovative technologies later this year. The SoC
maker also wants to focus on
mini PCs and desktop all-inones (AIOs) due to their compelling form factors. The company
says that its desktop business
was particularly strong in Q4 of
Huggable robots
A new generation of inflatable and huggable robots

are touted to replace complex mechanical automatons.
Theyll also be 3D printed. http://dgit.in/RoboHug
2013 with its desktop platform

volume up by 7 per cent.
Intel demonstrated a portable AIO PC reference design
called Black Brook, a thin
and light system incorporating
exciting new capabilities that
enable compelling new user
experiences anywhere in the
home. Black Brook has been
built for the purpose of enabling
new technologies in the industry
and includes an integrated Intel
RealSense 3-D camera, a quad
microphone array, premium
audio and a full HD display.
The future of Intel
Lisa Graff, vice president

and general manager, Intels
Desktop Client Platform Group
said, Enthusiasts are the heart
and soul of the desktop and
they asked us to give them
more. We are delivering more
cores, better overclocking,
faster speeds.
With these announcements,
Intel wants to show that despite
the high growth of mobile
technology, PCs should not
be sidelined especially when
it comes to raw performance.
DSK-IC City students

shine at BAFTA 2014
DSK International Campus
celebrates the nomination of
its students at the internationally acclaimed BAFTA 2014
AWARDS. The concept of
Project Heera from the DSKIC
Game Design team revolves
around a diamond heists; a
multiplayer game developed to

provide a high entertainment
value to the audience.
The faculty and management of DSKIC are thrilled
to announce the nomination
of the Team Mazhlele which
consists of both Indian and
French students.
With the consistent efforts
towards promoting application based learning DSKIC
has been instrumental towards encouraging students
to participate at International
Competitions. This initiative
saw Team Mazhele participating and winning the Dare to
be Digital competition held at
Scotland. It was a ten weeks
program for designing a fully
functioning video game prototype, Project Heera. This
particular prototype got showcased and judged by the industry experts and got nominated
for the BAFTA 2014 for the A
Ones to watch category.
Mrs. Tanvi Kulkarni, Joint
Managing Director of DSK
International Campus, said, It
is encouraging for the students
but also the management and
faculty as we envisage towards
creating a niche industry in
India for Video Game Design.
Such projects are growingly
important for carving opportunities; for the students and for
companies tapping young talent.
With the radical developments
in the global gaming industry
and the explosion in the number
of new games landing, it is
becoming important to understand the technical aspects in
terms of need and offering of
customized platforms, designs
tactics with global appeal.
We are consistently working
towards providing live industry
projects to our students, as this
will create boundless possibilities for them in terms of exposure and career growth.
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special section
A Pick A College Initiative
NOW,
INCUBATE YOUR
DREAM PROJECT
Welcoming students and faculty to research, innovate

and break through
The all terrain vehicle can easily maneuver rough roads including stairs.
R. O P BHALLA INNOVATION AND INCUBATION CENTRE

(DOPBIIC), an initiative of Manav Rachna International University, is dedicated to Dr.O.P. Bhalla, Founder Visionary, Manav
Rachna Vidyantariksha, whose dream was to encourage both
researchers and students to bring their pioneering ideas to the forefront.
The centre strives to meet the needs of students and faculty members
who are inclined towards research & development, innovation and
novel ideas. DOPBIIC has been furnished with design, fabrication and
manufacturing facilities, which are available to the users on a 24x7 basis.
Students have only to conceive ideas and transform these into products
using existing facilities. The facilities are available to groups of students
participating in international/ national project competitions and also to
students and faculty members working on their projects. The proposed
areas are mechanical, automobile, electrical, electronics, computer
science, biotechnology, non-conventional energy etc. Ideas in these and
other fields are welcome. The focus is on applied research leading to
patents, research publications in reputed Journals/ Conferences and
The SUPRA Formula type car can attain speeds upto 120 kmph.
generation of IPRs, with the ultimate aim of improving employability

skills of the University Graduates. The centre also offers Skill Development Programmes in the relevant areas.
SOME OF THE REPRESENTATIVE

PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN:
ELECTRONIC PILLS BOX:
The Pills Box is a portable medication reminding device. It provides an
audio and visual alert on the scheduled time which helps patients in
taking correct medicine, at correct time and in correct dosage.
Designed to help patients take right dose at the right time.
USB & Bluetooth Compatible.
Scheduling can be done using Smartphone Application or PC.
Initiates audio visual reminders to remind the patients about different medicine timings.
Also reminds the patient about their next appointment with
the Doctor.
special section | A Pick A College Initiative
The Pillsbox helps infirm and elderly people not to

miss medication at the right time.
The smart skull saves lives in case of serious

accidents.
Swasthay Sanjivni makes sophisticated blood and

urine testing facilities available in remote areas.
It is necessary to keep the environment clean. The

smart bin makes it fun.
Fuel conservation is the need of the hour. This car

gives an average of 123 km/litre.
Short distances can be covered in manually driven

and electrically assisted vehicles. Saves fuel,
preserves environment and improves health.
SMART DUST BIN:

A smarter way to keep the earth clean..!!
Produces social messages when trash is thrown inside.
Encourages people to put all the garbage in the dustbin rather than
on floor.
Increases the waste collection.
SMART SKULL:
Simple, immediate and effective safety protocol for bridging
the time gap between an accident and information flow to
nearest kith and kin, police and/or hospitals. It is a Smart Helmet
that sends accident notification to the nearest hospital and the
patients relatives. The project got selected as one of the best
20 innovations in Wearable Technologies Innovation World Cup 2013
and participated in the official Award Ceremony on January 27 in
Munich, Germany.
SWASTHYA SANJIVANI:
It is an affordable, approachable, quick and automatic on-the-spot
blood and urine testing system with immediate confirmatory results
covering disease such as anemia, diabetes, jaundice and renal damage
in supervision of doctors. It won the Gold medal at National level for
HIV Plus project- a portable equipment for HIV and lab testing in Intel
Embedded Challenge in 2011 by Intel.
The project won 1st prize in Microsoft Imagine Cup 2013 in India,
in two categories (Innovation & World Citizenship). The project proudly
represented India in world finals at St. Petersburg, Russia.
TRACTOROBOT:
A robot controlled Tractor project fetched the Gold Medal at National
level with a prize of Rs. 10 Lakh in Intel Embedded Challenge Imagine
Cup 2011 competition.
ALL TERRAIN VEHICLE - 1
The vehicle has a powerful engine of 305 cc.
Has a ground clearance of 8 inches for better off road experience.
Works on a rear engine drive system.
Winner of BEST INNOVATION AWARD in BAJA SAE India.
EFFICYCLE
Load bearing capacity of 700 kilograms.
Vehicle involves ergonomic design.
It has an aerodynamic design in order to run at speed of 30 kilometers per hour.
A HYBRID vehicle having a motor of 1 horse power that runs on 48
volts and 35 Ah.
Acclaimed as most comfortable vehicle by SUBROS panel in Chandigarh.
FUEL EFFICIENT DIESEL CAR:
This Vehicle participated in Fuel Economic Vehicle Competition, Shell
ECO Marathon 2014 held at Manila, Philippines in February 2014. The
Vehicle cleared all safety and technical tests.
DOPBIIC is open to students and faculty of other Universities also
on membership basis. n
Web Watch
Connections
20
In this months edition of Web Watch we

take a look at what Google, Twitter and
Facebook are upto
App Watch
26
We bring to you an assortment of apps

that you must try out. These include
essential tools and some fun stuff too.
Phone launches,
inside scoops and other updates

Read on to get up to date with the latest happenings in the world of mobility
Holy pixel density,
Batman!
Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Oppo has officially
announced its latest smartphone called the Find 7. The
smartphone was unveiled at
an event in China, and features
a 5.5-inch Quad HD display with
2560x1440 pixels resolution
and a pixel density of 538 ppi.
The Oppo Find 7 features
a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 2.5 GHz processor
coupled with 3GB RAM. It has
32GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card support.
The Find 7 smartphone features a 13 MP rear camera with
dual-LED flash. It is capable of
recording 4K video and 720p
slow-motion clips at 120fps.
The smartphone comes with
Super Zoom mode that takes
10 consecutive shots quickly,
then automatically picks 4 best
shots and merges them into a
single 50 MP image. It also has
a 5MP front-facing camera for
video calling.
The Find 7 runs a custom
firmware called Color OS based
on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean). It
has a unique breathing noti-
fication strip below the display

that shows incoming calls,
unread messages and email
alerts. It has special MaxxAudio
speakers and an app dubbed
MaxxEq, to fine tune the audio.
The Oppo Find 7 packs a 3000
mAh battery.
Oppo has also announced
a 5.5 inch 1080p display version of the smartphone as
well. The device dubbed Oppo

Find 7A has slightly downgraded specs and is powered
by a Snapdragon 801 2.3 GHz
quad-core processor paired
with 2GB of RAM. It has 16GB
of internal storage expandable
via microSD card slot and packs
a 2800 mAh battery. Rest of
the specs including the camera
remain the same as the ones on
Find 7. The FHD Find 7A will be
available across stores in China
from tomorrow, while the QHD
Find 7 will be launched from
May or June this year.
Oppo also unveiled a smart
wristband called the O-Band at
the event. The band tracks your
sleeping patterns, sends alerts
for missed notifications and
records fitness data. It also comes
with an in-built vibration alarm.
Xperia users can

rejoice
Sony officially announced new
software upgrade including
Android 4.4 KitKat for its

devices. Sony has already
begun rolling out the update to
the Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1
and Xperia Z1 Compact smartphones. The Xperia Z, Xperia ZL,
Xperia Tablet Z and Xperia ZR
will start receiving the update
in the second quarter of this year.
Sonys Xperia T2 Ultra, Xperia
E1 and Xperia M2 are also scheduled to receive the update.
Googles Android 4.4 KitKat
as standard brings performance
and UI optimisation. Sony has
added new Status Bar and Quick
Settings, which the company
says is more intuitive and customisable. Theres new animation and livewallpaper across
the lock and home screens.
A lot of Sonys apps have
also been upgraded. One of the
highlights of the new update
is Sonys custom interface
experience Xperia Themes,
along with downloadable
UI packs from Sony Select.
Security Watch
Mobile watch
28
Arent we tired of Apple

rumours?
In yet another rumour from
Appleinsider, it turns out Apple
is going to stick to a 8MP camera
on the fabled iPhone 6. Despite
other smartphone manufacturers increasing pixel count on
their flagship phones, Apple is
reportedly sticking to an 8MP
camera on its next flagship
smartphone iPhone 6. According
to source at AppleInsider, Apple
is looking to enlarge pixel size
rather than increase the camera
sensor pixel count.
The new camera will be
similar to the one found on the
iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S which
feature 8MP cameras as well.
The current iPhone 5s is
a good example of how Apple
is not interested in playing
the numbers game when it
comes to camera sensor pixel
count. Instead of boosting the
number of pixels in the iPhone
5s camera, Apple enlarged each
pixels size to 1.5 microns in
diameter, a 0.1-micron increase
from the iPhone 5. The larger
surface area increased the sensors light gathering capabilities by 33 percent compared to
the previous iSight rear facing
camera, the website said. Apple
seems to be more focused on factors as if color reproduction and
the lens as megapixel count are
not important.
The upcoming iPhone 6
is expected to feature a better
Its a dangerous world out there full

of trojans, exploits, malware and
other baddies.
MS Word 2010 under attack
Reports suggest that a remote code execution

vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2010 is being exploited
in targetted attacks.
optical image stabilization (OIS).

The feature will help users prevent blurry photos especially
during shaking of the phone.
iPhone 6 is also expected
to feature a 4.7-inch display
with ultra-retina display and a
thinner body.
Nokias not far behind

on the rumour train
The rumoured Nokia Lumia
930 (Martini) and Lumia 630
(Moneypenny) handsets are
expected to go official at Microsofts forthcoming BUILD conference. Microsoft is gearing up
for some major announcements
at its forthcoming BUILD Conference, which is slated to begin
April 2 about the time youd
be reading this issue. Thanks to
a spate of rumours, we already
know Microsoft is likely to make
its new Windows Phone 8.1
update official at the event. But,
that will not be all. According to
new rumours, the company will
launch two new Lumia handsets
- Lumia 930 (Martini) and Lumia
630 (Moneypenny).
According to reports, the
Lumia 930 will be a GSM version of the recently showcased
Lumia Icon. However, the
smartphone will have a few
different features such as a 4.5inch display instead of 5-inch.
The Lumia 930 is rumoured
to feature 2.2GHz quad-core
processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB
of storage, a microSD card slot,
a 20 megapixel camera and a

2700 mAh battery.
Earlier reports suggested
that the Lumia 930 would be
launched on April 19 along
with handsets such as the Nokia
Lumia 1820, Lumia 1525 and
Lumia 1520 V. However, new
reports suggest the handset
will see the light of day ahead
of schedule.
The Nokia Lumia 630 is considered as the Lumia 620. The
smartphone will feature dualSIM option, 4.3-inch WVGA
screen, Snapdragon 400 chipset
and 5MP camera.
Both the Nokia Lumia 930
and 630 will run the new Windows Phone 8.1 OS.
Google Search:
Glass-like ?
Google has released a new
update for its search app for
Android that lets you use voice
commands to activate camera
and click pictures. Google has
stated in a blog post that the
camera will be activated in the
users preferred mode also.
Android users will just need
to tap on the microphone icon
on the Search app, or say Ok
Google to launch the default
camera app with voice com-
mands like take a picture for

launching the camera app in
camera mode, and record a
video for opening the app in
video mode. You dont have to
use the recommended phrases,
for example, even open camera
will also work.
Google announced on its
Google+ page yesterday, Now
with the Google Search App
on Android, you can just tap
the microphone or say OK
Google, then take a photo or
take a video.
Another feature announced
is listen to TV that works like
Shazam. If you happen to miss
the name of one of the songs
while watching, just go OK
Google and say listen to TV.
Youll find out the title, artist and
other cover versions, Google
notes. The update has been
launched in US only for now.
Google 3.0 update also
gives SwiftKey-like abilities to
the stock Android Keyboard.
The keyboard app will keep
track of your typing habits,
lingo, preferred words, etc. and
offer personalized suggestions
accordingly. Google has set the
feature on by default, but users
can change it in the Google Keyboard settings menu.
Bitcoin rules flawed

Web Watch
Researchers are uncovering holes in the

algorithms governing the mining and
distribution of bitcoins http://dgit.in/NMPjP3
Piracy goes mobile
Music piracy watchdog are starting to see a

trend, of smartphone piracy running rampant
in the US http://dgit.in/1oXRKMv
Twitter, Facebook and

Google dominate the web
Read on to find out what the triumvirate has been upto this month
Twitter flexes its
muscles
Twitter is reportedly testing a
new feature that will allow users
to go through a timeline for
favourited people. The new feature is dubbed as Fave People.
The new feature is currently available in Twitters
alpha Android app. Currently
in testing phase, it may take few
more weeks before the general
release. The app, which also
features a swipe-able top menu,
includes Fave People, alongside the more familiar Home,
Activity and Discover sections.
The feature is similar to
Facebooks favourited friends,
where users could star them
on their profile. The favourited
friends delivered a separate
timeline, along with an option
to turn on notifications for such
updates. Its not yet confirmed
whether the new feature will
ever see light of the day. The
new feature is considered to be
a simplified version of Twitters
current lists.
Mark Zuckerberg
calls Big Brother
Facebook CEO expressed
his frustration over NSAs
practices by calling US President Obama after new documents were leaked by Edward
Snowden showing that NSA
planned to infect millions of
computers worldwide with a
data extracting malware.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg called US President Barrack Obama to express his frus20 Digit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com
tration regarding the National

Security Agencys (NSA) surveillance practices.
Zuckerberg put up a status
update on Facebook saying,
Ive called President Obama
to express my frustration over
the damage the government is
creating for all of our future.
Unfortunately, it seems like it
will take a very long time for
true full reform.
The update came a day after
new documents were leaked
by whistle-blower Edward
Snowden which revealed that
NSA was using an automated
system called TURBINE to
hack into millions of computers
worldwide. The documents also
revealed that NSA was using
fake Facebook server and pages
to infect a targets computer.
Ive been so confused and
frustrated by the repeated
reports of the behaviour of the
US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve
security, we imagine were protecting you against criminals,

not our own government, Zuckerberg said.
Even though the social networking site has come under
attack from privacy activists
multiple times accusing it of
handing over data to intelligence agencies, Zuckerberg has
always denied Facebook giving
the US government any kind of
direct access to its servers.
This is what the big man had
to say in its entirety:
As the world becomes more
complex and governments
everywhere struggle, trust in
the internet is more important
today than ever. The internet
is our shared space. It helps us
connect. It spreads opportunity.
It enables us to learn. It gives
us a voice. It makes us stronger
and safer together.To keep the
internet strong, we need to
keep it secure. Thats why at
Facebook we spend a lot of our
energy making our services and
the whole internet safer and
more secure. We encrypt communications, we use secure protocols for traffic, we encourage
people to use multiple factors
for authentication and we go out
of our way to help fix issues we
find in other peoples services.
The internet works because
most people and companies do
the same. We work together to
create this secure environment
and make our shared space even
better for the world.
This is why Ive been so
confused and frustrated by
Instagrams dirty secret

Web Watch
How everyones favourite photosharing

app and network isnt playing fair. An
investigation: http://dgit.in/1hjoGZR
the repeated reports of the

behavior of the US government.
When our engineers work
tirelessly to improve security,
we imagine were protecting
you against criminals, not our
own government.
The US government should
be the champion for the internet,
not a threat. They need to be
much more transparent about
what theyre doing, or otherwise
people will believe the worst.
true full reform.
So its up to us all of us
to build the internet we want.
Together, we can build a space
that is greater and a more
important part of the world
than anything we have today,
but is also safe and secure.
Im committed to seeing this
happen, and you can count on
Facebook to do our part.
Clouds just got

cheaper
Google has upped the competition in the cloud storage segment as it slashes the prices of
Drive monthly storage plans.
Google is now offering its
100 GB plan for just $1.99,
which was previously priced at
$4.99. For 1TB, Google has more
lucrative offer. Its now available
at $9.99, earlier it was priced
$49.99. Googles 10TB plan is
now available with option of
adding more space, starting

at $99.99. For 20TB storage,
you have to shell out $199.00 a
month, while 30 TB is available
for $299.99. The standard 15GB
drive is still free.
On the other hand, Dropbox
offers 2GB of space free, while
extra storage starts $9.99 a
month for 100GB while Box
gives you 10GB of free storage off
the bat, and charges $5 a month
for 100GB. Whether its all the
footage of your kids baseball
games, the novel youre working
on, or even just your grocery list
for the week, we all have files
that are too important to lose,
says Google Drives Director
of Product Management, Scott
Johnston, wrote in a blog post.
Today, thanks to a number
of recent infrastructure improvements, were able to make it more
affordable for you to keep everything safe and easy to reach on
any device, from anywhere. If
you are an already paid Google
Drive user, Google will upgrade
your plan at no additional cost.
Google has so far made several efforts to ensure its cloud
storage offering is more convenient and affordable for users.
It allows users to view attachments and save files to Drive
right from Gmail.
No more @replies:
Will Twitter break?
Micro blogging site Twitter is
experimenting with a new version of its Android app that
removes @ replies entirely.
Vivian Schille, Twitters Head
DirectX 12 kicks ass
Microsoft touts performance improvements for

existing hardware in DirectX 12. New API offers more
low-level GPU access. http://dgit.in/1drdTBl
Of News hinted such a possibility at a recent event.

According to reports,
Schiller recently stated that
hashtags and @replies are
arcane, while speaking at
the Newspaper Association of
Americas mediaXchange conference in Denver. She hinted
that they may be removed soon
from the service to provide a
more streamlined approach
to help new users understand
the concept of Twitter.
Schiller has since downplayed her comments, but a
recent screenshot from the
alpha version of Twitter for
Android suggests that @ replies
may be removed in favour
of Facebook-like mentions,
although it is only an experiment at this point and there is no
suggestion that regular @ mentions are affected.The thinking
behind the change is that new
users may find Twitter easier
to understand with the removal
of the @ replies and hashtags,
but loyal users are quite likely
to protest against such changes.
Twitter currently has 241
million monthly active users,
an increase of just 3.8% over the
previous quarter. In its financial
results of the fourth quarter, the
microblogging site has registered a decline in its user base
which earlier grew at 10% in
the beginning of 2013.Twitters
advertising revenue was $220
million an increase of 121% y-o-y.
YouTube reportedly
going under-10
Internet giant Google is reportedly building a version of YouTube just for kids under 10
years. According to reports, YouTube has even gauged the interests of video producers willing to
create child-oriented content for
the online video platform.
The Kids-friendly version of
YouTube will not require con-
stant monitoring by parents over

what content their child sees.
The goal will be to offer a site to
parents that will be free of both
videos and comments that may
not be child oriented. Parents
could, for example, access a special app on a device or TV that
includes only kid-safe videos.
YouTube already has a
safety mode for filtering out
inappropriate content as well
as YouTube EDU, for educational videos for schools. However both the modes contain
advertising that can sometimes
be questionable and parents

cant ensure that the content is
specially tailored for a specific
age group.
According to reports, YouTube for kids is still in the development phase and no details
have been mentioned on how
it will work. One possibility is
that the usual ads on the video
platform may be removed or at
least tailored to suit child oriented content.
A representative from YouTube also said the following
about the news: While were
always working on new and
better ways for people to enjoy
YouTube, we do not comment on
rumour or speculation.
YouTube has over 1 billion
unique users per month that
watch over 6 billion hours of
video. The online video platform
has starting monitoring video
views and content for artificially
inflating video counts. The move
will ensure that advertising campaigns on the site reach the target
audience. The portal has started
specializing and is expected to
launch a music streaming service in 2014 as well.
come
what
may
Apart from our regular sections weve got

some really cool stuff in store for you next month
How to fake social stardom
Tales from the void
Get healthy with tech
recommendation engines
Craving more followers? Want more retweets? Facebook likes are your drug?
Dont worry weve got you sorted.
A brand new section featuring some

of our own home-brewed fiction. Time
to take a flight of fancy.
Fitness apps, wearable gadgets that

track your vital signs and even rumours
of Apple entering the game. Its all gotta mean something right? We give you
the low down.
comparison Tests
It is remarkable how algorithmically

driven engines are able to learn your
tastes so well. Well show you how
they work.
Indias
very 1st
4K monitor
tested
Top Monitors
Ranging from 22-inch to 32-inch, we

test all the monitors in the market
right now.
Projectors
Home entertainment projectors from

a budget of `50,000 to `1,50,000.
Which is Indias best 3D projector?
Nokia Refocus
App Watch
Nokia Refocus which was initially available for Lumia

Pureview smartphones only, has now been launched for
all Lumia smartphones http://dgit.in/RefocusIt
Introducing Haptik
It's essentially a instant messenging service

dedicated for customer support in the 21st
century. Try it out! http://dgit.in/1h46WVV
An assortment of must
have apps
This month in App Watch we take a look at apps you must try out. Why?
Because we said so
Wattpad
Wattpad is like a social network
for aspiring authors looking to
develop a fan base. Amateur
writers can share their work
and readers can choose from a
plethora of published writers
as well as undiscovered new
talent. The Wattpad community is highly supportive and
encouraging. Besides being able
to receive constructive criticism
and comments on their work,
aspiring writers can also read
other authors work making it
a great learning tool. Users can
even share accounts allowing
them to write collaboratively
with friends.
Readers can vote up the work
they like and these stories get
featured in the Whats Hot List

which changes daily according
to reads and votes. It also has
a Featured Stories List which
puts up work reviewed and
deemed notable by an editorial
review board.
Readers can keep track
of their favourite authors by
becoming fans and receiving
an email each time the author
releases new work.
A notable feature of
Wattpad is its crowdfunding feature called
Fan Funding. Authors
can post information
about their work and
offer rewards such as
naming a character in the
writers book after fans
in exchange for funds.
Wattpad has a clean
user interface and is easy to
navigate.
Download: http://dgit.in/1fUb4Di
Price: Free for Android & iOS
Comic Zeal
Download: http://dgit.in/1jvjXqB
Price: `302 (iOS)
Comic Zeal is perhaps the best
comic reader out there. Its especially meant for
people who have
their own collection of CBR and
CBZ comic files.
The
most
appealing thing
about Comic Zeal
is the way it organises your comic
library. All you
have to do is load your comics
onto your device using Wi-Fi,
USB or Dropbox. It automatically detects and arranges your
comics by series. You can also
manually arrange your comics
using swipe.
Once selected, the comic will
occupy the entire screen. To
adjust reading settings such as
brightness, panning, color and
animation, one can simply tap
TeamViewer
anywhere on the screen and is

provided all the options. Theres
a Smart Zoom feature that
remembers your zoom preference while flipping through
pages. You can set up reading
lists and track which comics you
have and havent read. While setting up these lists, those with a
penchant for categorising can
keep the same comic in two different lists thus creating multiple
copies. The comic will remain on
your device until you delete its
very last instance. This makes
editing your lists easier and you
dont have to worry about mistakenly deleting the original comic.
Bitolithic, the company that
developed Comic Zeal, is dedicated to continuously improving
the app by taking into consideration every user complaint that
comes its way.
So far, its only available for
iOS at a price of $4.99 (~`302)
which is a reduction from its
previous $8 (`485) price tag. An
Android-supported version of the
app hasnt been released yet nor
is it in the works, unfortunately.
Download: http://dgit.in/1jvjXqB
Price: `302 (iOS)
TeamViewer is a free remote access app that allows you to control your TV or computer from
anywhere. Its unlike apps like
VNC where you have to launch
the app each time you want to
control a device.
To use TeamViewer, youll
need to create a TeamViewer
account and download the installable from its site onto your computer. Then download the app to
your phone, set a username and
password for each device you
want to control and youre all set.
You can zoom in and out of
your desktop screen and even
switch between monitors, if
you have more than one connected to your computer. When
your devices are connected over
different networks, sometimes
speed drops. To overcome this,
TeamViewer gives you the option
of lowering image quality and
disabling screensavers. It also
easily overcomes firewalls and
proxy servers to enable control
of your work computer.
Discovering music
Here's how we're encountering new music in the

smartphone age, and why it just works beautifully
without a hitch http://dgit.in/1nW5k62
With TeamViewer, you can

switch off the TV/Computer from
a different room, control playback while watching a movie,
assist your friends and family
with their computer issues, and
even help colleagues at work
solve issues without leaving
your desk.
Download: http://dgit.in/1mqeohM
Price: Free for Android, Windows
in/1fUemq8 | iOS http://dgit.in/1h16kAs

Toshl
Meritnation
in/1fa8F82 | iOS http://dgit.in/1prYxMR

The internet has made it awfully easy for

digital thiefs to just copy-paste whatever they
want. An analysis: http://dgit.in/1fdizGa
ering the raw talent out there.

Download: Android - http://dgit.
Phone 8 and iOS
How do you get kids interested

in studying for school? Make an
app for it! Thats exactly what
Meritnation has done. It makes
studying for school fast, easy and
fun. One can get study material
for students from CBSE, ICSE,
Maharashtra (MSBSHSE), Karnataka (KSEEB), Kerala and
Tamil Nadu boards. Currently
it only deals with Classes 6-12
since younger students may not
have access to smartphones and
tablets. But its site has coursework for lower standards as well.
After downloading the app,
the student must register as a
user specifying which class s/
he is in. Study material is accordingly provided.
The UI is uncluttered and
very well organised, first by
Subject then by Topic. Once you
choose a topic, study material is
provided. After going through
the study material, you can
choose to revise or take a test and
move on to the next topic.
Videos, animations and
interactive exercises make
studying fun. Content is very
concise and to the point. Math
is explained step by step with
the help of videos.
Certain course materials
require you to pay a fee in order
to become available.
Rise of plagiarism
Sing! Karaoke by
Smule
Sing! is a global karaoke party
and social network with users from all around the world
participating. It has a huge collection of songs. While some
are free, others need to be purchased. The user interface is
pretty cool right from the get
go. The homepage shows you
which countries most users are
singing from. Clicking on a user
lets you hear them sing and
even join in if you like. Duets
and group singing are supported by the app and you can join
in an existing karaoke party
anywhere for free.
Most songs require you
to pay 99 cents if you want to
download and sing them by
yourself. Lyrics are displayed
on screen as are cues to show
you when to start and how well
youre staying on track.
Singers can record their
voices, add effects and share
their recordings online either
through Facebook or Smules
own network. You'll get scored
based on how well you can stay
on pitch. Of course, Smule offers
enhancements that make users
sound better which is probably
a much needed feature consid-
Toshl helps you monitor your

spending. It is well designed
and makes keeping track of
your expenses less cumbersome. Toshl helps you see exactly
where your money is going. It
can be configured for your whole
family to use across smartphones so that a family budget
can be maintained. There's also
a reminder every day for those
of us who won't diligently enter
expenses. You must enter your
income so that Toshl can sum up
and show you your net balance.
While entering data, you can
add generalised tags for regular
expenses so you neednt type
them out repeatedly. You can
set different budgets with these
tags for say Bills, Groceries,
Entertainment, Online Purchases, etc and see where youre
going overboard. Accordingly
you can find areas to cut down
on. Toshl is best used as a daily
budgeting tool.
All data is backed up very
securely to Toshl.com and no one
can gain access to it without a
username and password.
App Watch
than 400 topics. Each game

consists of seven questions
and points are given based on
how quickly and correctly you
answer these questions. You can
play against random opponents
or challenge your friends. You
can even challenge random
opponents who are the most
experienced in a particular
topic. The app tries to pair you
against opponents who are more
or less at the same level as you
are but occasionally you may
run into a much more experienced player. Depending on the
points you score you increase
your experience level per topic
and gain achievements.
QuizUp keeps track of all
your statistics and you can
review each game youve ever
played in extreme detail, down
to which questions you got
in/1mqfF8G | iOS http://dgit.in/1nTyGBW

Price: Free for Android & iOS;
`1,214 for Pro version
QuizUp
QuizUp is a trivia-based, highly
addictive game, originally made
for the iOS platform but recently
ported to the Android platform
as well. QuizUp is loosely based
on an old popular board game
called Trivial Pursuit.
Once you create an account
on QuizUp and log in, you can
choose to be quizzed on more
right and wrong. You can even

submit your own questions
which are added to its database post staff approval. Topics
range from Movies to Food and
even some academic ones like
Math and Biology.
Download: Android - http://dgit.in/
ONBeSs | iOS http://dgit.in/1kXAUeV
Need a laugh?
Security watch
Connections
Follow this link to get a random funny video of

men being bungling idiots:
http://dgit.in/heroindr
Heroin addiction caused by what?
An article on New Republic says heroin epidemics dont come and

go randomly. The largest cause, they say, is doctor-prescribed pills.
Find out more: http://dgit.in/heroindr
Your online privacy

may be at risk
We take a look at the important developments over the last month that could
have a major impact on your online security
Kul Bhushan
[email protected]
WhatsApp CEO
reassures users
about privacy issues
Facebooks $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp last month
was followed by concerns over
privacy of the apps 450 million
plus users. Privacy advocates
even sought to block the deal,
stating that the sale would hurt
WhatsApp users by allowing
their data to be merged into
Facebooks advertising business. WhatsApps co-founder
and CEO Jan Koum took to
his companys blog to assure
users that the company wont be
gathering additional user data
for Facebooks massive advertising business.
You dont have to give us
your name and we dont ask for
your email address, Jan said.
We dont know your likes, what
you search for on the internet or
collect your GPS location. None
of that data has ever been collected and stored by WhatsApp,
and we really have no plans to
change that.
He also emphasised that the
deal with Facebook is a partnership and none of WhatsApps
principles would change. If
partnering with Facebook
meant that we had to change
our values, we wouldnt have
done it. Our future partnership with Facebook will not
compromise the vision that
WhatsApp Co-Founder and

CEO Jan Koum
brought us to this point, he

added. Mark Zuckerberg also
stated in a recent interview that
Facebook had no plan to put ads
in WhatsApp. His primary goal
is to reach 1 billion monthly
active users by year-end with
a host of new services such as
free voice calling.
NSA capable of
recording all calls of
a nation!
The National Security Agency
(NSA) of USA has reportedly developed a surveillance
system, which is capable of
recording 100 percent telephone calls of a foreign country.
According to The Washington
Post, the new system enables the agency to rewind and
review conversations as long as
a month after they take place.
People with direct knowledge
of the effort and documents supplied by former NSA contractor
Edward Snowden have revealed
these latest activities of the intelthe next couple of years they

ligence agency.
will expand to more countries,
The program which began
retain data longer and expand
way back in 2009 is a voicethe secondary uses.
interception program called
MYSTIC. The system is said to
Mark Zuckerberg
have reached full capacity against
expresses frustration
the first target nation in 2011.
over NSA, calls
According to classified sumPresident Obama
mary from one of the docuFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerments, the collection systems
berg called on U.S. President
are recording every single
Barrack Obama to express
conversation nationwide and
his frustration regarding the
storing billions of them
in a 30-day rolling buffer
that clears the oldest calls
as new ones arrive. The
summary also says that
the call buffer opens a door
into the past, enabling
users to retrieve audio
of interest that was not
tasked at the time of the
original call.
The emblem of the program depicts
The documents further a cartoon wizard with a telephonesay that the analysts listen headed staff
to only a fraction of 1 perNational Security Agencys
cent of the calls, but the absolute number is said to be higher.
(NSA) surveillance practices.
Each month, these analysts send
Zuckerberg put up a status
millions of voice clippings, or
update on Facebook saying,
cuts, for processing and longterm storage.
The MYSTIC program is
special for NSA in a sense that
all of the agencys programs that
have been unveiled till now have
involved bulk collection of metatrue full reform.
The update came a day after
data and not call content.
The principal technologist
new documents were leaked
by whistle-blower Edward
for the American Civil Liberties
Union, Christopher Soghoian
Snowden which revealed that
said that history suggests over
NSA was using an automated
Intel X99 details leaked
Leaked details of the upcoming Intel Haswell-E X99

chipset show that it will support DDR4 memory amongst
many other new features http://dgit.in/IntelX99
system called TURBINE to

hack into millions of computers
worldwide. The documents also
revealed that NSA was using
fake Facebook server and pages
to infect a targets computer.
Ive been so confused and
frustrated by the repeated
reports of the behaviour of the
U.S. government. When our
engineers work tirelessly to
improve security, we imagine
were protecting you against
criminals, not our own government, Zuckerberg said.
Even though the social network has come under attack by
privacy activists multiple times
accusing it of handing over data
to intelligence agencies, Zuckerberg has always denied that
Facebook gives U.S. government
any direct access to its servers.
Windows XP support
ceases, govt systems
vulnerable to
hackers
Government systems running
Windows XP will reportedly
become more vulnerable to
attacks after Microsoft ends
support of the OS on 8th April.
The deadline will also affect
banks as more than 95 per cent
of the worlds ATMs run on
Windows XP.
Microsoft Windows XP
supports over four million government computers in the U.S.
alone and the lack of security
updates post the deadline will
make the government more

prone to exploits and malware.
Microsoft is offering a paid support extension for governments
and businesses, but this service
could prove more costly in the
long run than upgrading to
Windows 7 or 8.
There are certainly large
enterprise customers who
havent finished their migrations yet and are purchasing
custom support, a spokesman
for Microsoft said, declining
to name those customers or to
quantify the extra revenue it is
earning. The cost will depend
on both, the specific needs of the
customer and what support they
already have in place, so its different for every customer.
Microsoft mentioned the
Windows XP deadline 7 years
ago in 2007, but only one-third
of the worlds 2.2 million ATMs
have upgraded to a newer platform since then. To ensure that
the machines are protected
against viruses and hackers
many banks have agreed to
deals with Microsoft wherein
the company will continue supporting their ATMs until theyre
upgraded at significant costs.
RBS is upgrading its
machines to Windows 7 and it
will take about three years to
complete. JPMorgan has also
started converting its OSes to
Windows 7 and it will be completed by the end of this year.
Lloyds has extended its support contract with Microsoft
to 2016 while it updates 7,000
units. HSBC and Santander have
agreements in place with Microsoft already, while Barclays is still
negotiating a deal with Microsoft.
Google Docs
users targeted
by sophisticated
phishing scam
Symantec researchers have
discovered a sophisticated
People dont like hot food?
In a strange finding it was revealed that Microwave

sales have fallen or remained flat every year for
nearly a decade in the US.
phishing scam that targets

Google Docs users. According
to the researchers, the scam
uses a simple subject of Documents and urges the recipient
to view an important document
on Google Docs by clicking on
the included link.
The link goes to a fake Google
Docs login page, in which the
users then enters their credentials. The credentials are then
sent to a compromised web server
where theyre stored, before

redirecting users back to a real
Google Docs document, making
the attack look convincing.
Fake Malaysia
Airlines news used to
steal user data
Cybercriminals are exploiting
the disappearance of the infa-
Security watch
mous Malaysia Airlines

plane by luring customers with the latest
news in order to steal
their personal information, warns a new Trend
Micro report.
The internet security
firm has asked users to be
careful while clicking on
links shared on various
social networks for news
of flight MH370. TrendLabs has spotted various
executable files disguised
as video which allow
scammers to gather a
users data, such as his or her IP
address. Some of the fake links
are mentioned below.
[Shocking Video] Malaysia
Airlines missing flight
MH370 found in Sea.
Malaysia Airlines missing
flight MH370 found in Sea 50 people alive saved.
CNN UPDATE [Breaking]
Malaysia Airplane MH370
Already Found. Shocking
Video
The Malaysia Airlines flight

mysteriously disappeared from
the radar on March 8 carrying
239 passengers.
Given the heightened
interest in the missing flight, it
was only time (before) cybercriminals used it to their advantage, TrendLabs expert Paul
Oliveria said in a statement.
Mesmerize yourself
Feature
Head over to the link below to see some

of the most beautiful kaleidoscopic GIFs:
http://dgit.in/GetTransfixed
Viva la revolution
The next Assassins Creed game may be

set in the French Revolution, Find out more:
http://dgit.in/1gtrtocxx
The
Internets
Devolution
When net neutrality norms are flouted by big

corporations the world over, it alters the very nature
of the internet experienced by all of us
Jayesh Shinde
[email protected]
s people using the internet

are constantly adjusting and
evolving to a digital lifestyle,
so is the internet evolving as
an entity based on our behaviour. And its
evident if you look back to the birth and
the explosive growth of the internet to this
very moment. In a not so distant future,
most people wont remember how the
Internet was once upon a time free and
beyond the control of spying governments
or greedy corporations. Because its such
a powerful medium of our age something thats altering human behaviour
down to its very core everyones fighting
to exert control over it. Not surprisingly,
ISPs our gateway to the internet are
becoming more demanding on how we
access the internet. Some of the decisions

they take are having far-reaching implications, something that will span well
beyond just your monthly internet bill.
Net Neutrality 101

The basic premise of Net Neutrality is
that all data is to be treated equally. This
means that your ISP (which happens to
be the entity providing you with internet
connection) will treat your request to access
Flipkart.com, Google.com or ThePirateBay.
se, Pastebin.com, or Mega.co.nz without
distinction and on equal priority. The ISP
wont play favourites when it comes to
serving one site better than the other. We
trust them to be neutral gatekeepers that
let us access the internet for a fee, but in
doing so they do not knowingly alter our
experience of the internet in any way.
These, along with other explicit points, form
the guiding principles of the FCCs (Federal

Communications Commission) Open
Internet policy (read more here: http://dgit.
in/FCCnet) which was adopted back in 2010
in order to limit the power of ISPs to block
or discriminate against online content.
Whats at stake?
Earlier this year in January, a federal court
in America ruled against the FCCs Open
Internet rules and awarded Verizon (a
major telecom operator and ISP in the US)
to break free of FCCs regulations, which
they argued (and the court agreed) only
governs landline and mobile telephony
and not this relatively new information
services service known as the internet.
The reason why activists in the US and
most of the West are up in arms, treating
this landmark court verdict as a hammer
blow to the freedom of the internet because
To experience unrestricted Internet
How to find out whether your ISP is throttling / blocking your

Internet access? Dont just test your connection, but find out
what your ISP doesnt want you to know: http://dgit.in/1oTkRAB
FCCs net neutrality norms prevented

ISPs from blocking or prioritizing Web
traffic. Free from FCCs shackles, Verizon
and others can charge certain websites
(Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and similar high
traffic, high bandwidth sites) for preferential access or better service. Imagine
a scenario where ISPs have slow and
fast lanes, where most of the Web traffics crammed into the slow lane, while a
chosen few (who pay money to the ISPs)
are kept on the fast lane for uninterrupted
services. This can lead to potentially
detrimental consequences to the end user
common people like you and I, who are
increasingly dependent on the internet
for more than just getting things done.
Far-reaching consequences
ISPs wont just dictate terms to highvolume, high-traffic websites, but also to
their paying customers. Imagine a scenario
where YouTubes paying ISPs to be on the
fast, unrestricted lane to have zero performance bottlenecks. How long can YouTube
be free in such a scenario? This may also
result in increased advertising on YouTube
videos, and even a nominal charge collected by YouTube or the ISP exacted from
viewers through these notorious ISPs.
So far the internets been this level
playing field for one and all, big and small
entities vying for our undivided attention be it just another viral video or social
networks like Facebook or Twitter. But
as the power of the internet grows and it
starts overtaking traditional television,
music, other prominent entertainment and
communication options, we will see big
corporations (including ISPs and content
publishers) increasingly exert control
over it all. Essentially, the Internets going
to go the cable television way. There will
be only a handful of channels and services dominating the internet highways
as smaller, newer companies just wont
be able to match up to the established big
guys in their capacity to pay ISPs and
present their content on a fair footing.
We may unknowingly be living in a
golden age of the internet, because as things
stand there will be no fair competition
in the highly evolved internet of the near
future which is staring us in the face, which
will lose some of its current sheen. As we
Net neutrality Economics
A research paper by Prof. Barbara Van Schewick,

giving a diverse range of arguments around the
Feature
subject. A must read: http://dgit.in/1dhJcy7
move away from television and radio to be

entertained in new and unimaginable ways
on the internet right now, the future seems a
lot less exciting and dominated by handful
of sites and services, and stifled innovation.
As you read this, theres a raging debate
going on around net neutrality around
the western hemisphere predominantly.
Indian impact
According to several reports, we here
in India are already grappling with the
concept of net neutrality without realizing it for some time. But whats worrying the most is that theres no actual
law governing or upholding the norms
around the concept of net neutrality. And
the Indian Govt isnt moving speedily
towards creating one any time soon.
According to The Indian Express, the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI), in its guidelines for issuing
licences for providing Unified Access
Service, promotes the principle of nondiscrimination but does not enforce it.
It further goes on to state that Indias
EXPERT SPEAK
In a Computer Weekly interview last
year, Vinton Cerf, widely regarded as
the Father of the Internet, is a strong
proponent of net neutrality. This is what
he had to say on the hotly debated
subject: Freedom of access is the value
of the internet. It is fully connected. You
dont want a network provider to tell
you which places you can get to.
Information Technology Act does not

provide regulatory provisions relating to
Internet access, and does not expressly
prohibit an ISP from controlling the
Internet to suit their business interests.
However, whats important to note that
unlike the West, which has a large and
growing demand for fixed line broadband
connections, Indias seeing an overwhelming demand for cellular broadband
with the ushering in of the smartphone age.
With the advent of 3G / 4G data there has
been a huge rise in the number of Internet
users in India. This has led to telecom
operators (ISPs, in this case) staring at the
very possible scenario of increased network
congestion and clogging bandwidths. In the

absence of tight regulation, this scenario is
ripe for ISPs imposition of blocking websites or allowing premium Internet services
as part of VAS (or value added service).
And such things have already happening in India. Have you ever wondered
how BitTorrents work fast or slow on
different ISPs? Certain file-sharing services
are banned on a number of ISPs not because
they provide illegal content (thats almost
always a small percentage of the whole) but
due to their high-bandwidth requirements?
If one inspects such cases hard enough,
it wont be surprising to come across the
possibility that theyre in discord with net
neutrality principles. And its a disturbing
trend, if at all its gathering traction.
Thats not all...

Theres evidence of principles being
compromised for profit margins, too. Take
the case of Airtels Free Zone (http://dgit.
in/GoogAirt) which offers Google+, Gmail
and Google search for free for Airtels
cellular broadband subscribers. Googles
a big proponent of FCCs Net Neutrality
norms, and Airtel has made no bones about
its desire (in requests to TRAI) to charge
companies like Google for the data they
transmit over Airtels network. Why then
would these two seemingly opposing entities work together if not for mutual benefit?
The answer is simple: both are market
leaders in their respective domains, and
by joining hands they ensure no one else
can innovate and rise to topple them over.
Whats important in the debate around
net neutrality is to take the power away
from big corporations that distribute
content through the internet and the ISPs
that give us access to that content and
place it in the hands of the consumer -- the
ultimate entity that consumes the internet.
We as consumers need to have the right to
pick and choose which services the ISPs
should charge on our behalf and pay for
these freemium services, if we think
we cant live without it. If that doesnt
happen, then the whole net neutrality
debate will lead towards an internet that
will be starkly different from its founding
ideals and revolutionary vision. And its
everyones responsibility to protect the
internet from its impending doom.
F1- step forward
34
Digital life
Take a peek into some of

the things that are new in
Formula One
Rise of the Machines
How Wikipedia is curating content and keeping

trolls out of the system with one secret weapon
http://dgit.in/vergeflappybird
Ultimaker 2
This is another fine specimen among 3D printers available
for purchase in the market. It prints through PLA (like on
the KUBE and Cube), but has a greater 3D print volume
stretching up to nearly a 10-inch cube. Unlike the original
Ultimaker, which was a DIY kit you had to assemble
yourself, the Ultimaker 2 comes pre-assembled. Apart
from being able to print through SD cards, this babys WiFi enabled for even greater convenience and connectivity.
Aesthetically, the Ultimaker 2 looks like a device straight
from the Apple mould, and it wont look out of place in a
stylishly designed living room with a corner dedicated to
the eye-catching 3D printer sitting among a collection of
its creations. Price: US $2,500.
Drool-worthy 3D printers
that are worth every penny
Cube 3D Printer
One of the most popular off-the-shelf 3D printers
available for purchase, Cubifys Cube 3D printer is a
great starting point for your formal introduction into
the exciting and inspiring world of 3D printing. The
printer has a print area of 5.5 inch cube volume, and it
can print in PLA (polylactic acid) as well as acrylonitrile
butadiene styrene blocks, giving you the flexibility of
precision vs time, depending on what youre trying to
print. It can print things in 16 colours, two of which
glow in dark, and there are 25 free models for you to get
started on the 3D printing journey. At $1,399, the Cube
3D printer may come across as expensive, but since the
whole space is new, this is what youd have to pay to get
a decent 3D printing experience.
Sloppy researchers, beware!

Stanford is starting an institute to track research
papers for sloppy scientific analyses and
references. http://dgit.in/1mgOe0Y
Blaupunkt navigator
The San Diego in-car navigator from Blaupunkt

now comes with up-to-date maps of India
http://dgit.in/1jIhUAd
Drool maal
KUBE
The brainchild of Karan Chaphekar, a strapping young
man in his early twenties, hailing from near Mumbai,
KUBE is one of the best homegrown 3D printing
solutions that you can get in the market right now.
KUBE supports single extrusion (1-color printing) and
a volume of a 8-inch cube, which gives this monster
the ability to print relatively larger 3D models. The
printer has a LCD control and SD card print option, and
weve seen it in action. The KUBE neatly printed out a
full-scale model of an iPhone 4S case (with a Digit logo
engraved), and a lot of small objects, while we had it
in our Test Centre -- 3D models printed off the KUBE
displayed a high degree of craftsmanship. The KUBE
sells for Rs. 54,000 (US $900), while a smaller 6-inch
version sells for Rs. 36,000 (US $600).
Ditto+
In your quest to purchase a 3D printer thats worth
your money, be sure to consider the Ditto+ printer
from Tinkerine Studios. They raised Ditto (a precursor
to Ditto+) through crowdfunded money over at
Indiegogo, and Ditto+ is its brand new successor. The
3D printer comes out-of-the-box with easy plug-n-play
functionality, and you dont need it connected to a PC to
print stuff on it. The Ditto+ has a built-in spool holder on
the back that should fit many spool sizes and includes a
feed tube to the extruder. If the prosumer machines are
out of your price range, the Ditto+ may be worth looking
into as it offers a big build area for most projects, and
a documentation and software combo thats simple
enough for entry-level users.
MakerBot Replicator 2
One of the most popular 3D printers you can buy, a
machine that transcends the levels of a pro-sumer to
almost be as great as a professional industrial 3D printer,
thats essentially what the Replicator 2 is. This is a fourth
generation printer from MakerBot, and it looks and
acts like a fully functional consumer product. Its black
powder-coated frame, rugged black PVC panels, and soft
glowing LEDs give the MakerBot Replicator 2 an attractive
and durable sheen. Several independent reviewers of
the device claim it to be nothing less than the Mercedez
S-Class of the 3D printing world at the moment. Its
price? US $2,199 may seem too steep, but its justified
given its no-fuss, hassle-free 3D printing operation and
overall handling -- be it software or hardware.
Dont die at home

Feature
Do you know that drinking too much water can

kill you? All that and more can be found at
http://dgit.in/donteateva
Linux cryptoworm
Linux.Darlloz, an Internet of Things

worm has been found to infect and mine
bitcoins http://dgit.in/LinWorm
F1 - step forward
With a slew of rule changes being introduced in the current season of Formula 1,
heres a peek at some of the new changes
question about why the additional gear
was allocated: one could speculate that
with low capacity engines, drivers would
be prompted to push the cars harder. The
additional gear would result in smoother
delivery of power across the rev band.
The engine revolution
0-Whoa! in 2 seconds flat
A. Pathak
[email protected]
s a new F1 season rolls

around, fans all over the
world have fastened their
seatbelts to get in on the
racing action. The season testing in Jerez
(Spain) and the premiere Grand Prix
in Melbourne only reaffirmed the fact
that Formula One can still be a highly
competitive sport and not just a boring
merry-go-round of sorts. Further, the rule
changes has had some massive effects on
the fortunes of the competing teams.
This years rule changes focus on
safety, fuel saving and energy recovery.
Dubbed by pundits as one of the biggest
reconditioning exercises in the history
of the sport, the new changes affect the
engine, fuel limit and aerodynamics.
Heres a look at the major changes
impacting the sport that is considered to
be the foremost form of car racing.
Fuel Saving
While F1 isnt exactly Captain Planets
favourite sport, the new fuel limit might
help assuage the green guardian. This

year, the fuel limit has been slashed down
by a brutal 30 per cent, which means
almost 50 kgs less than the usual capacity.
While teams could previously guzzle
unlimited fuel, they usually used about
150 kgs per race. The new limit means
that drivers will be working on different
schemes to sustain the same amount of
fuel for the entire length of the race, especially in the earlier laps.
Gear up for this

Well, quite literally, the number of gears
in the cars have been upped from seven
(in 2013) to eight this year. While in the
previous season, teams could pick and
choose seven from a total of 32 ratios, the
ratios have now been slashed down to a
not-so-grand total of eight. Until last year,
teams could tailor the gearbox to meet the
requirements for each track. This year,
teams will be allowed to change their
ratios only once. What this means is that if
a team has had the misfortune of picking
the wrong set of ratios, they could potentially doom their chances of ever making
it across the finish line. And to answer the
After a bit of a tug of war, teams have

finally bid goodbye to the mighty 2.6-litre
V8 engine and have accepted the leaner
1.6-litre V6. While the V8 was naturally
aspirated meaning: all the power was
derived from combustion taking place in
the cylinders without the use of any fancy
bells and whistles the V6 has a turbocharger bolted on to it compensating for the
power that was lost when the two cylinders
and a litre of capacity were taken away.
The free revving capabilities of the V8
were also lost with the cylinders as the
new engine hits the rev limiter at 15,000
RPM as opposed to 18,000 RPM in the
previous season.
The lower rev limit helps produce lesser
exhaust gasses as more fuel is required for
a higher rev. Besides saving fuel (and the
environment), the cap also reduces wear
and tear on the engine. And considering
that this year the number of engines have
been restricted from eight to five, it seems
like a pretty good idea.
1.6 Litre V6. Furore or furball?
Who was Carl Sagan really?
HTC One M8
A profile piece on this famed scientist and

celebrity. What was his life like? Find out at
http://dgit.in/carlsag
HTC One M8 announced, will be

available for sale in India this month
http://dgit.in/HTCWanM8
The drop in capacity, cylinders and a

lower rev limit has dropped power from a
hair-chested 750 bhp to a lean and muscular 600 bhp has made the cars a tiny
bit slower. However, the teams seem to be
managing as the season progresses.
Fun Fact: Formula 1 is bringing back
the turbo for the first time since 1988.
The turbo noise

People ask, Why have a separate caption
for the noise created by the new cars?
Well, like many eccentric fans, one believes
that the raw noise emanating from the
engine is a part of the F1 essence. The cars
now, however, have a different sound as
the exhaust gases while the other

takes power from the rear wheels
while braking. The former is also
used to keep the turbo spinning so
that power is always available on
tap. The ERS stores more energy
than its earlier counterpart. All in
all, this essentially means that not
only is there more power, but more
torque as well for a longer period
of time.
Low downforce? Will it fly now?
Its interesting to note how F1 is
moving towards the hybrid engine
era. The sport joins the league of Le Mans
The new DRS flaps are flatter and open
which also uses hybrid engines, but Le
wider thus reducing drag and allowing
Man is more of an endurance race than a
easier overtaking.
festival of speed.
The nose job

One major change in the aerodynamics this season is that of the
nose of the car. It has been lowered
from a height of 550mm to 185mm.
However suggestive the new look
may be, it steps up driver safety as
there is now a lower chances of the
car doing belly flops on the race
track after getting hit.
Rhinoplasty reminiscent of Rhinos
the high pitched whine of the naturally

aspirated V8 has been replaced by the quieter but zippier sound of the turbocharged
V6. Good news for all the Delhi socialites
who developed severe headaches last year
after the Indian Grand Prix!
The shift in engines did, however,
ignite a fear among die hard fans that the
sport would lose its voice due to the more
tamed sound of the turbo; however, the
race in Melbourne erased all such doubts
as the new cars raged through the tracks.
To ERS is F1
The 2014 model is also harvesting power
from the shiny new Energy Recovery
System (ERS) which has been incorporated as a part of the power unit. The ERS
provides at least 160 bhp per 33 seconds
as compared to the 80 bhp per 6 seconds
provided by the earlier Kinetic Energy
Recovery System (KERS).
The ERS essentially has two supporting units. One draws energy from
Feature
Clipped wings
The car now looks sleeker with
its front wings narrower than the rest of
the body. The wings have been chopped
from a width of 1800mm to 1650mm. This
prevents drivers from clipping
each others wings. The changes to
the front wings have also reduced
downforce by a good 20 per cent,
making the race car a bit of a loose
cannon as it becomes harder for it
to stay in line.
So what does all this mean?
Considering that the sport was being

blamed for being too dependent on technology and repetitive not so long ago, the
new measures ensure that every team, no
matter how good, starts from scratch. The
purpose of all this fiddling seems to be
to level the playing field and bring focus
back to the core of F1, i.e, the driver.
While all of this has been done for
the benefit of the sport, the regulations
have no doubt produced a slower, heavier
car. The minimum weight of the cars has
been increased from 642 kgs to 691 kgs
to incorporate the weight of the hybrid
power unit. There was also a definite
3-second lag in the fastest lap this year in
Rear wing
The rear wing has also gone
under the knife as the lower beam
has been removed and the Drag
Flying high
Reduction System now opens
wider. If that made no sense to you
the Melbourne Grand Prix as compared to
then let us explain.
12 months ago.
The Drag Reduction System or DRS is
But the season has barely started and
essentially an adjustable rear wing. The
there are plenty of races to follow, as avid
function of the DRS is to allow a free flow
fans, were just happy that the element of
of air, reducing drag, which when engaged
unpredictability is, at long last, back in
in specific zones on the track allows the
this prestigious sport.
driver to simply go faster.
Cover story
Appetite for
destruction
Cover story
War is a terrible thing but it is also disturbingly fascinating

to the human race in general. Join us as we attempt to
breakdown the weapons of war to aid your understanding of
the destructive potential at mankinds fingertips
Anirudh Regidi
ar. The very word conjures up images of death

and destruction, glory
and sacrifice, martyrs and
madmen. All said and done however,
war is simply, as Wikipedia puts it,
an actual, intentional and widespread
armed conflict between political communities; a form of political violence.
There is no honour in war, no glory,
you do what you must to survive, to win,
thats all there is to it. One might take a
moral high ground as to the cause one is
fighting for, but in the end, defeating your
enemy by any means at your disposal
is your goal, and this usually means
complete and utter destruction, or doing
enough damage that the survivors have no
option but to surrender.
To that end, humankind has a mindboggling arsenal at its disposal, all
designed for combat at every conceivable
scale. Trillions of dollars have been spent
in the development of these weapons of
war, not to mention the millions upon
millions of lives lost to these very same
weapons and the many trillions in property damage. Regardless of this cost, mankind will continue to build these weapons
and will continue to fight each other until
some significant step in our evolution puts
an end to this appetite for destruction.
Mankinds very existence is a constant battle against the odds, a struggle
to survive, an incessant one-upmanship
that exists, if for nothing else, than to
prove a point of view. Some might argue
that its even simpler than that, that
humans have an innate desire to blow
stuff up, that they revel in destruction.
There is a kind of queasy joy in seeing
something blown to smithereens by the
calculated ferocity and disturbingly
creative minds of our species.
The visceral power of naval guns in action
Is it a sense of power that drives us?

We take as much pleasure in destroying
a sand castle as we do in creating it, the
more creative the destruction the better.
There is a certain sense of catharsis in
blowing something up, to feel that shockwave pass through your chest that shakes
There is a certain
sense of catharsis
in blowing
something up
you to the very core of your being. Admit

it, Diwali to you is more about the bombs
and rockets than it is about diyas and
lights and pujas. Youve led a very tame
childhood if you havent tried to blow up
an anthill with at least a bijli bomb and
youre not a geek if you havent, at one
time or the other, sought to recreate a controlled demolition that youve seen on TV.
At the same time the festival is also about
proving to your arch rivals that you had
more fun than them, fun that is defined
by the number of bombs you blew up and
the quantity of fireworks at your disposal
(your arsenal).
Cover story
Its with a sense of pride that you
light a 10,000 wala to mark the start
of festivities, your choice of crackers are
defined by their destructive potential. All
this is nothing more than an indication of
the appetite for destruction that we all try
to feed. This very same appetite, scaled
a million-fold is what most wars are all
about. Our appetite for destruction is
insatiable and no matter how civilised we
pretend to be, its an innate desire thats
been hardcoded into our DNA.
In this cover story we aim to satiate
that desire from an intellectual standpoint. Well be adopting a blinkered
perspective if you will, ignoring the horrific nature of war, the casualties, the pain
and suffering. Well be focussing on war
only from a more technological standpoint, the tools of the trade, the weapons
and the technology. We will marvel at the
ingenuity of the human race and ignore
the barbarity of war.
How do we fiFIght?
All of us know what war is, weve already
defined it earlier in the article. However,
how does one go about fighting a war?
The various weapons and technology
that were aware of have been created for
use in wars, but obviously, there is some
specific thought-process that went into
their creation. Why, for example, would a
tank require an APFSDS round instead of
a HESH round?
War is an armed conflict, but there
are many types of armed conflicts
ranging from civil to nuclear war,
varying only in the scale of destruction.
All war requires tremendous sacrifice. Its best we not forget that, ever.
There are many arguments as to how

a war is fought but the general consensus
is this, infantry are the focal point of
any sort of military operation (were not
counting assassination missions involving
precision munitions and lone targets deep
behind enemy lines). The whole point of
the rest of the military, be it the air-force,
navy or armoured units is to support the
infantry in their push to achieve their
objectives. There are many wholl argue
otherwise, but what were stating here is
There is a kind of queasy joy in

seeing something blown to
smithereens by the calculated
ferocity and disturbingly creative
minds of our species
Whatever the type of war being fought,
the basics of warfare dont change and
even Alexander the Great will have
an excellent understanding of todays
military tactics, once he wraps his head
around 20th century equipment of
course. The weapons have changed, but
the tactics remain the same.
just the general consensus of a group of

respected military tactitians.
Its a complicated game of rock-paperscissors and one might try to boil it down
to this: armour destroys infantry, aircraft
destroy armour, special infantry destroy
armour and aircraft, the navy provides support, special armour destroys aircraft and
so on and so forth. Not to mention a whole

other rock-paper-scissors thing going on
in the air (fighters, bombers, recon, etc.), on
land (tanks, tank destroyers APCs, LCVs,
trucks, etc.) and at sea (destroyers, cruisers,
aircraft carriers, submarines) and more. But
its never this simple. There are too many
variables. The weapons at our disposal are
now too powerful and portable to fall into a
clearly defined category.
Finding the perfect balance between all
these factors is what makes a great military force and the person with the ability
to understand and utilise them to their
full potential makes for a great general.
Understanding the true scope of military
might and the very nature of armed conflict is well beyond the scope of this magazine, but hopefully, the following pages
will give you a better idea with regards to
what you can expect in future conflicts.
With this story we aim to educate you
on the basics of warfare from a technological stand-point. A sort of rudimentary
guide-book to the weapons of war. This
is far from a comprehensive look at all
things military, but as always, the aim of
the article is to pique your interest in what
can be a very fascinating field of study. For
more information, head over to
http://dgit.in/DigitMay2k14
Cover story
Tougher
than nails
A study of modern armoured vehicles
Anirudh Regidi
rmoured vehicles form the

backbones of the army. Their
roles range from simple recon
to troop transport to armoured
support. Since World War II, armoured
vehicles have formed the spearhead of
any military invasion, busting through
defences and enemy armour alike. Earlier,
armoured vehicles simply meant tanks,
but now that definition has evolved to
encompass a wide variety of vehicles that
can be broadly classified as follows:
better protection than the unarmoured

variety. This class of vehicles is primarily
designed to be aggressively employed
during combat, hence the armour. Based
on armour and armament, these vehicles
can be broadly classified as follows:
Light armour
These are vehicles such as the Plasan
SandCat and the more popular Humvees
that are still in operation. These vehicles
Soft vehicles
A comparatively uninteresting category.
These are usually standard civilian
vehicles that have been modified for better
off-road performance.
Heavy armour
Unarmed soft vehicles

These are basically trucks and 4x4s
that are primarily designated for troop
transport and, in some cases, recon. These
vehicles can be maimed or destroyed by
almost any kind of firearm.
Armed soft vehicles

These are soft vehicles that are outfitted
with mounted machine guns and grenade
launchers and in some cases, even ATGMs
(Anti-Tank Guided Missiles). Such vehicles are still very vulnerable to any kind
of attack, but they can adequately defend
themselves in a pinch. The ATGMs are
particularly useful for hit-and-run attacks
when facing armoured vehicles.
Armoured vehicles
These are vehicles that are the true backbone of any army. They offer distinctly
AT weapons (Anti-Tank). Theyre usually armed with auto-canons, grenade

launchers and even mortar launchers and
TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked,
Wire-guided) missile launchers. While
such vehicles cannot usually go headto-head with tanks and other heavily
armoured vehicles, they can take out said
armoured vehicles if given the opportunity. Of note here is the Stryker I.F.V.
(Infantry Fighting Vehicle), a variant of
which houses the same 120mm smoothbore canon thats found on the M1A1
Abrams MBT (Main Battle Tank).
The age-old humvee is still a reliable tool
provide reasonably effective protection

from small arms fire and might even be
able to withstand RPGs, but anything
more powerful, including .50cal machineguns will be a problem. Such vehicles are
primarily used for patrol duty and rapid
transport in conflict zones. There isnt
much innovation to be seen here other
than thicker armour plate and certain
forms of ceramic/composite armour.
Medium armour
These vehicles are the bread and butter
infantry support vehicles. They feature
excellent protection against small arms
fire and can even survive hits from older
Now we come to the real meat of the army,

the tank, or the Main Battle Tank as its
now known. The tank is quite simply the
most fearsome and heavily armoured
ground attack vehicle that can be brought
to bear. Theyre the cavalry of the modern
age, the armoured spearhead of any
major assault. Tanks have evolved
quite considerably since they were first
introduced in WW1, but essentially, that
evolution has taken the form of advanced
armour and even more advanced antiarmour ammunition.
Armour and
armaments
Modern armoured vehicles are no longer
clearly defined in their roles. Theyre each
designed with a primary role in mind, but
advanced armour modules and guided
missiles have completely reshaped the
battlefield, an era where even a foot-soldier is as lethal as the most powerful tank
when armed with the right weapon.
Cover story
Modern armour is no longer specific
to a particular platform because most of
it has been designed as modular blocks.
Its perfectly feasible to equip even decades old military vehicles with blocks of
ERA and make it almost impenetrable to
the enemy.
Heres a quick guide to the evolution in
arms and armour over the decades.
That grill you see is spaced armour
Armour
Plate metal: Early armoured vehicle
were outfitted with plates of metal
as a form of armour. It was probably
the Germans who discovered (reports
are a bit hazy on this) that sloping the
armour greatly increased its rating,
further increasing the effectiveness of
the armour.
Composite / Chobham armour: The
increasing effectiveness of armourpiercing shells meant simple plate
armour would have to be inordinately
Reactive Armour: This is the most

advanced type of armour in service
today. One form of this armour is
Explosive Reactive Armour, where the
layers of composite armour are sandwiched together by a layer of explosive.
This explosive layer violently displaces
the plates when compressed, successfully dissipating the bulk of the energy
of the incoming projectile. The British
are working on a form of charged
explosive reactive armour. Essentially,
an electric charge thats carried by the
armour module itself triggers the fuse
on an incoming projectile, prematurely
detonating it.
Ammunition
Sloped armour
thick to provide adequate protection.

Composite armour is a mix of a very
tough ceramic compound sandwiched
between layers of metal. The ceramic
is hard enough to force most incoming
projectiles to shatter on impact.
Spaced armour: This type of armour
consists of multiple armour plates that
are separated by an air gap, as this
Stryker IFV proudly demonstrates.
HEAT and HESH rounds explode
on contact, doing no damage. Its also
effective against RPGs.
CM
MY
CY
CMY
Armour Piercing: Think of this as a

rifle bullet, except that its of a larger
calibre and fired from a tank. Plain Jane
AP rounds are basically a single block
of metal designed with the sole aim of
puncturing enemy armour.
APCR: Armour Piercing Composite
Rigid ammo was the first step in the
evolution of the AP round. This type of
ammo is essentially an AP shell with
a high-density core, usually made of
tungsten. The higher mass gives the
shell greater inertia, lending it greater
penetrating power.
APDS/APFSDS: This is the most
advanced type of AP round used by the
military today. The round is called an
Armour Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot or just APDS if it doesnt
have fins. This round is essentially a

slim metallic rod thats encased in a
sabot and fired from a gun. This thin
metallic rod however, is made from
the densest materials known to man
and the US uses depleted Uranium.
The kinetic energy of this round is
immense, punching through most
armour with ease.
HE: This shell is primarily used to take
down soft targets troops and trucks.
Its basically a high explosive charge
thats encased in a relatively thin shell
and is designed to explode on contact.
HEAT: High Explosive Anti-Tank
shells are a very innovative type of
shell used against armour. HEAT
rounds dont rely on kinetic energy to
penetrate armour. Instead, they rely
on the in-built explosive charge and
the design of the warhead to propel a
Kontakt-5 ERA
The best example of ERA in the modern
age is the Kontact-5 modules developed
by the Russians. This ERA is so good
that most NATO forces deem it to be
impenetrable to their current AT ammo,
including their Uranium-based APFSDS.
needle of super-heated copper through

the armour. This means that the effective range of HEAT rounds is from zero
to infinite. It is however, only effective
against plate armour and low-grade
composite armour.
HESH: High Explosive Squash Head
ammo hosts a head thats loaded with
plastic explosive in a relatively soft
casing. On impact, the head flattens against the armoured plate and
detonates, causing the inner side of the
armour to spall, i.e., unleash a cloud of
high-velocity metal shards, flakes from
the armour itself, that can prove lethal
to crew and equipment. This ammo is
useless against spaced armour.
Cover story
The future
soldier
No matter how modern the rest of the armed forces, its the infantrymen
who are indicative of the true power of the armed forces. We take a look at
the modernisation efforts of various armed forces the world over.
Anirudh Regidi
he heart of every army is the

infantrymen. Every military
operation is designed around
keeping the soldier alive and
well, whether it be via the employment of
drones, the CAS, etc. As long as the soldier still lives, an army can still fight. To
achieve this goal, many armies the world
over are working on various future soldier
concepts including Indias own F-INSAS
program (Futuristic Infantry Soldier As a
System). The goals of such programs are
very simple, to increase the lethality, survivability, mobility, battle command, and
training of their soldiers. The following
aspects of the basic infantryman are all set
to change in the near future.
A higher caliber
The first, most basic step in increasing
the lethality of a soldier is by giving him
a weapon that is more effective than his
enemys. The primary combat weapon of
any infantry soldier is his assault rifle.
It comes in many shapes and forms,
from bullpup layout of the L82A1 to the
standard M-16 layout.
The bullets that these rifles fire are of
various calibers and each have their distinct advantages and disadvantages. The
standard NATO round is of the 5.56mm
caliber, whereas the soviets and countries of the soviet bloc rely on the 7.62mm
round. The NATO round is smaller and
lighter and hence has lower stopping and
penetrative power at medium ranges,
but its far more accurate and can travel
farther and faster than the 7.62mm soviet
rounds. On the other hand, the 7.62mm
round offers amazing penetration and
stopping power but doesnt have the range

and the heavier round means that the
recoil is significantly higher.
The problem is that the 5.56mm now
is a bit inadequate for when faced with
modern infantry armour and the 7.62mm
is unnecessarily powerful and inaccurate.
The answer is a compromise between the
two calibers. Known as the 6.8 remington,
the round actually has a caliber of 7mm
but offers a good compromise between
range, velocity, stopping power and accuracy. This will most probably be the round
of the future.
Targeting computers
Sniping has always been a fine art and it
takes rigorous training and mental conditioning to make a good sniper. A sniper
OICW
The Objective Individual Combat
Weapon or OICW was supposed to be to
replace the M-16 that was the de-facto
weapon for NATO soldiers at the time.
The Weapon was supposed to incorporate an assault rifle, laser range finder,
target designator, a shotgun, grenade
launcher and an all-weather day and
night scope. Unlike most such weapons,
this wasnt one of those too-good-tobe-true dreams. The weapon actually worked as advertised. However, it
proved to be too expensive to manufacture and too heavy to be comfortable.
One cant have everything we suppose.
needs to be taught to measure distance

using environmental markers, adjust for
wind shear, bullet drop and atmospheric
pressure. In the middle of all this, the
sniper needs to be aware of his breathing

and has to time his shot perfectly. This
is where the modern targeting computer
comes in. The current spotter-sniper team
is usually equipped with a ballistic computer that can give estimates as to where a
bullet will drop based on various factors
that can be entered into the computer.
TrackingPoint, a startup based in
Texas has come up with a sniper scope
that makes all the adjustments for
you. Think of it as a smile-detection
shooting mode on cameras that take
the picture only when everyone in the
picture is smiling. The in-built computer
and the in-built range finder will do all
the calculations for you and can, if you
wish it to, take the shot when the timing
is just perfect.
Now this is just a startup were
talking about, but many armed forces
the world over have been experimenting
with similar technology for a while now
and while they dont claim to do what
TrackingPoint claims just yet, thats the
goal they aim to achieve.
BattlefiField networking
Another aim of the modernisation of the
future soldier is the connected soldier.
Information is key on the battlefield and
when you dont have information on your
own troops, you know that youre in a
tight spot. The hope is that troops can be
equipped with GPS sensors and various
encrypted radios that will allow them to
communicate with each other and with
the commanders themselves.
In this age of the Internet we cant
really imagine a world where Google or
Cover story
Apple isnt tracking every move you make,
in fact, it might very well be that the location of every Internet connected person
on this Earth can be mapped in real-time.
Why doesnt that work on the battlefield?
Well, ever tried connecting to the Internet
in the middle of Afghanistan? In Siberia?
In the middle of the Sahara dessert? Thats
the digital divide that military is desperately trying to bridge.
One way theyre doing this, a system
that was first introduced in the now
defunct Land Warrior program, is by
adorning their soldiers with an assortment of radios (WiFi and otherwise) that
would generate a sort of Personal Area
Network (PAN) that would keep, say, a
platoon connected with each other. Even
if one platoon member carries a more
powerful radio, he can communicate with
his commanding officers. Its a simple and
elegant way of keeping in touch with your
troops, though slightly expensive.
that the soldier is exactly that regardless of the situation by incorporating a

Microclimate cooling system within an
experimental bio-suit that theyre hoping
to implement sometime in the near future.
Its said to provide up to 100 watts of
heating or cooling as required.
Eyes and ears

A soldier has a lot to keep him occupied in
combat, equipment to manage, his sector
camera-equipped platform that the soldier

can access. Perfect for giving an overview
of the battlefield.
As you can see in the image below, the
soldier is actually commanding a drone
via an Xbox 360 controller and observing
the surroundings with his helmet
mounted HUD.
Another interesting module that is
supposed to be incorporated into a soldiers gear is supposed to be a very precise
Biometric sensors
A no-brainer in games and sci-fi movies,
biometric sensors are to be incorporated
into soldiers gear, allowing battlefield
commanders, medics, psychiatrists and
mad scientists alike can monitor the
status of the troops on the field. Everything from a sudden onset of stress and
anxiety to a downed soldier, and even the
precise nature of the wound is what these
embedded sensors hope to keep track
of. Coupled with the PAN, this means
precise, up-to-date information for, at the
very least, your platoon mates.
Climate Control
One of the things thats drilled into a
soldiers head is that he must remain cool
under fire. The pentagon aims to ensure
Spot the odd one out here. HINT: Someones not playing by the rules
to cover and his buddies to be aware of.

The latest generation of smart helmets aim
to take care of all that. Other than accomplishing the obvious, which is protecting a
soldiers head from shrapnel and gunfire,
the next generation head-gear will work
as armour as well as a fully functional
computer. An eye-piece will work as a
HUD, providing the soldier with all the
data he needs just a few centimetres from
his face. As a bonus, the eye-piece will
also be able to stream data from any UAV/
directional microphone. The directional

nature of the device will mean that soldiers can get precise, real-time updates as
to the direction of all incoming fire, much
like the indicators present in a game such
as Call of Duty.
As you can see, there are a lot of
exciting new toys in store for the future
soldier. Too many for us to cover here, but
if you want to know more, head over to
http://dgit.in/FutureForce for more information. It makes for an interesting read.
Cover story
The wild
blue yonder
The quest for control of the skies and the sea
Anirudh Regidi
e who controls the skies

controls the battlefield.
Whoever said that had his
head screwed on right. In the
quest to find that proverbial high-ground,
air supremacy is the highest ground
there is (barring satellites of course). Air
supremacy grants you full freedom of
movement, effective reconnaissance and
the ability to lay waste to ground targets
with relative impunity.
Helicopters are particularly suited for
rapid troop deployments and as mentioned
earlier, infantry are key to any military
operation and CAS (Close Air Support) is
the best way to support them. CAS can be
via bombing designated targets, calling in
and ranging in effective artillery barrages,
spotting the enemy and providing transport and evac as and when required.
To achieve air superiority, a number of
means are used. Air superiority fighters
are the most exciting example, fast and
nimble jets that are designed to make
mince-meat of the opposition. When
youre on home ground, ground-based
radar and missile systems are your best
bet, complemented by your own air-superiority fighters of course.
Every nation has its own ideas when it
comes to achieving air superiority. Here
are some interesting facts.
Stealth:: The dark secret

Stealth is the holy grail of the American
military, in fact, it might be the Holy
Grail for every military the world over.
The dream is to have an aircraft that can
sneak behind enemy lines, accomplish its
objectives and sneak out. Nobody actually
wants a dog fight. Why should you fight to

the death when all you would really like
to see is a blip on a scope and, at the press
of a button, its gone. This is the dream.
Unfortunately, it might remain a dream
for a long time yet.
The problem here is the lack of a completely reliable and unique friend or foe
identification system. Essentially, the way
things stand, you dont know if that blip
on your radar is friend or foe. Current RoE
(Rules of Engagement) prevent most pilots
from firing at targets unless theyve been
visually identified and even if you assume
stealth works as advertised (which is questionable), its not effective at visual range.
The second point against stealth is
the fact that it is, in many ways, a flawed
concept. The primary objective of a stealth
Is stealth dead
Whatever we may feel about stealth
technology and its shortcomings, the
technology still has its place in military
operations and if it wasnt effective, the
worlds mightiest armed forces will not
be vying for it.
Its entirely possible that were
correct in thinking what were thinking,
but were only civilians and the true
potential of any technology in any military application is something that the
military themselves are aware of. There
might be some self-delusion involved,
ideologies being bandied about, but we
just have to assume, or rather, hope
that they know best.
The F-35 fiasco suggests otherwise
of course, but you never know. Within
10 years, the F-35 might be the most
fearsome fighter there is. Then again, it
might be the biggest failure of all time.
aircraft is for it to appear invisible to

enemy radar. Unfortunately, to achieve
stealth, most aircraft need to compromise
on speed and agility to accommodate the
extra weight of the radar-absorbent paint
and reduce the infra-red signature of the
engines. Imagine if you had an entire fleet
of such aircraft, aircraft that you imagined
to be invisible and invulnerable, and you
launched said fleet against a rival. Suddenly, all your aircraft have been engaged
and are falling like flies! Whats gone so
catastrophically wrong?
The Achilles heel of stealth technology was apparently discovered in
the 1940s. The primitive radar systems
used by the British in WWII used radio
waves operating at long wavelengths and
without going into the technical details,
these long wavelengths are perfect for
detecting stealth aircraft. The Russians
were quick to pick up on this and they
have been, for more than three decades,
building and perfecting anti-stealth radar
systems which theyve been handing over
to anyone who asks for it.
Case in point is the shooting down
of the American F-117 Nighthawk by
the Serbian armed forces. How did they
do it? A little birdie suggested a few
modifications to their obsolete Soviet
radar equipment. Those changes painted
the F-117 on its return from a bombing
run and taking it down was just a matter
of course. A pilot downed behind enemy
lines and the ruins of the most advanced
American aircraft ever built adorning the
walls of a Serbian museum, and this was
15 years ago. How far do you think radars
have come since?
Cover story
F-35: The biggest failure
in aviation history?
The most expensive fighter ever produced,
the F-35 JSF is supposed to be the star of
the USAF. The pinnacle of US aircraft
design, the ultimate fighter aircraft ever
produced. In reality, the F-35 might be
the most expensive failure in US aviation
history. Born as a successor to the fabled
F-22, the F-35 was designed to replace
the entire fleets at the disposal of NATO
armed forces. An aircraft thats supposed
to satisfy the requirements of the army, air
force and navy simultaneously.
Built to accommodate the needs of
three different services and ideologies, the
F-35 has grown to be nothing more than
a massive compromise on all fronts. As it
stands, the F-35 is a massive, heavy, lightly
armoured, sparingly armed aircraft with
limited range, a limited flight time, limited
CAS abilities and inordinately expensive.
The research funding has gone beyond the
trillion dollar mark and for an aircraft that
costs 10 times more than the ones its all
set to replace, its doing a horrendous job.
The previous generation aircraft, the F-15,
F-16 and F-18 are all more than capable
of out-matching the F-35 in most combat
scenarios and while the F-35 is stealthy,
thats all it has going for it. Oh, and did we
mention that by some estimates, the F-35
needs to be serviced for 30 hours for every
hour spent in the air?
The most advanced air-force in the
world now has 200 seemingly useless
stealth fighters, about 1400 conventional
fighter aircraft that are at least three decades old and a bill thats running into the
trillions with nothing to show for it.
So whos got the best aircraft? Europe
and France would beg to differ, but
without a doubt, that title has to go
the Sukhoi Su-35. A mind-bogglingly

agile aircraft with a staggering power to
weight ratio that can render the wings
obsolete. An aircraft that can loop-theloop around an F-35 looping-the-loop,
this Russian marvel can track 10 simultaneous targets and engage four (probably more) simultaneously, it can be
equipped with the experimental KS-172
missile with a range in excess of a 100
miles and its easily the most agile aircraft in the world. As an air superiority
fighter, its simply unmatched.
point was driven home in the Vietnam War

as well, where the US dropped as many
bombs on Vietnam (in terms of weight)
as was dropped in the entirety of WWII.
Both instances proved that while massive
bombing campaigns might have some sort
of psychological impact, the actual militaristic value was not much.
Guided munitions are fast replacing
dumb bombs and the fact that massive
bombers such as the B-52 havent been
replaced in over 50 years are testament to
that fact (and also the B-52s durability).
The most expensive fighter ever built?
Bombing is passE
Gunships rule
Just to clarify, we mean large-scale bombing.

Its long been known that carpet bombing,
as a means of battering an enemy into
submission isnt of much use against a
determined opponent. Precision munitions
against important targets are far more effective. It was in WWII that the British deemed
it wise to carpet bomb the whole of Germany, it later turned out to be a futile effort
that wasnt worth the expenditure in terms
of cash and man-power both. The same
Close support aircraft have existed since

WWII and since the time of the IL-76, its
been proven time and time again that a
slow moving flying gun-carrier will do
a better job providing fire support for
troops than any type of fighter-bomber
aircraft. Gunship development didnt
really carry forward to the modern age for
quite a while, but, necessity is the mother
of invention and when US troops felt the
need for some sort of real firepower on
Cover story
Vietnamese soil, the gunship was born. The
original gunship was nothing more than a
DC-3 aircraft with a minigun in the door,
but even this was so absurdly effective
that the Vietnamese ceased all offensive
activities the moment they realised a gunship was in the air.
The concept was later fully fleshed
out and the result was the fearsome AC130J Hercules. A behemoth of a plane
that was armed with twin 75mm guns,
30mm minigun and a 105mm canon.
Coupled with the ability to loiter for
hours on end while providing fire support, the AC-130 Hercules gunship was,
and still is, one of the deadliest weapons
flying in the air today.
The DDG 1000, the stealthiest, most advanced guided missile destroyer in the world
Droning on
Drones are considered to be the future
of warfare. A remote war, a modern one
with no mess, no blood and guts and no
PTSD. A pilot sits at home and blows up
a dam halfway around the world. Is this
the ideal form of warfare? Some believe it
is. Aircraft such as the Globalhawk have
gained worldwide renown and some level
of infamy for their ability to strike targets
behind enemy lines with impunity. These
aircraft may be pilotless drones, but they
still cost more to manufacture than three
F-15 aircraft. But the savings in terms of
human lives? Priceless.
Drone warfare is still in its nascent
stages however and while aircraft like
the X-37B do pop up on our geek radars
from time to time, theyre yet to see
mass deployment. For now, push-button
warfare is a myth. In the future? Who
knows what may be.
Naval warfare
Of all forms of war, naval warfare is the
one that might have changed the most
since the end of WWII. Ships of that era
were massive gun platforms capable of
firing tonnes of projectiles in every salvo.
Today, ships are smaller, a fraction of the
size they once were (barring the aircraft
carriers) but many times as lethal. The
primary weapon of choice is now the
cruise missile, a guided missile system
thats capable of precisely laying waste to
targets thousands of kilometres away.
Interestingly, while ships do still
carry guns, theyre piddly in comparison to the 18-inch calibre behemoths of yore. Even armour has come
down drastically, with low weight and

stealthy profiles being given a much
higher priority than armour. This is
understandable considering that if
a missile does get through a ships
defences, its curtains for the crew
regardless of the armour. That said,
the chance of a missile, or even a shell,
getting through the formidable missile defence systems at the disposal of
most ships today is very slim. Also note
that guns on naval ships arent really
dead. A 5-inch Naval gun of today is at
least as effective, if not more so, than
most WWII era guns. Both in terms of
lethality and range.
Consider the 150,000 tonne Nimitz
class aircraft carrier for example. Outfitted with about 150 (estimated) RIM-7
Sea Sparrow or RIM-116 RAM type
missile defence systems, the carrier is in
theory able to defend itself against even
the most intense missile barrage. This
DDG 1000 destroyer

The most modern warship that were
currently aware of is the DDG 1000
stealth destroyer. A so-called Zumwalt
class guided missile destroyer, the ship
defends itself via the RIM-162 Advanced
Sea Sparrow missiles other CIWS
systems and of course, its stealth technology and a myriad of other features
that are classified for now. Offensive
armament is in the form of 155 guns
and Tomahawk missiles. Oh and that
155mm gun, it fires a precision guided
shell with an estimated range in excess
of 180km. Lethal indeed.
is even before we consider the Phalanx

CIWS (Close-In Weapon System), an
automated defence system that can lay
waste to incoming aircraft and missiles with its formidable 20mm canon
that can unleash a barrage of lead at 75
rounds per minute.
The advancement in drone technology also means that it wont be long
before ships will be outfitted with drone
launcher and recovery devices (some of
them might already be thus outfitted),
giving naval vessels unforeseen flexibility
in terms of their scope of operation and
mission parameters.
Still not satiated?

So far, weve only scratched the outer
surface of the myriad military tech available today. We havent spoken about the
advancements in missile technology,
tandem warheads, automated targeting
systems and more.
There have been major advances
in laser technology, rumours of
space-based weapons platforms that
are already in orbit and clandestine
research into weather control. War is
a terrible thing and it allows men to
get away with doing terrible things.
However, were not here to judge the
morality of war, were here to acknowledge our appetite for destruction and
revel in the destructive potential of our
species, morbid as that sounds.
We might be a destructive species,
but hopefully we have developed enough
sense to limit ourselves to simply flexing
our muscles rather than slugging it out.
Our pick of the best tech articles from around the globe
(Must reads)
[Ars Technica Corner]

Making smartphones affordable
Google reveals an OS for

watches
Everyone seems to be hopping onto the wearable techbandwagon, and Google certainly
seems to be in the lead. After its
massively popular Google Glass
project, theyve come up with
Android Wear an Operating
System for smartwatches. Follow
the link to know more:
http://dgit.in/wvAndroidWear
Robots might just put

you out of a job
They might not be powerful
enough to enslave the human
race just yet, but Bill Gates in an
interview admitted that robots
will soon be replacing humans in
labor-based jobs such as nursing,
waitressing and even driving.
Needless to say, corporations
and governments will have to
prepare themselves for any social
unrest that might result from
the unemployment.
Mozilla has made it clear that its Firefox OS based-phones will be targeting emerging economies, and it recently announced plans for a series of smartphones starting at just $25. Heres
how the foundation seeks to bring internet-connectivity to all with its HTML5 powered apps
on its low cost range of devices by Alcatel and Huawei. http://dgit.in/wvFirefoxOS
http://dgit.in/wvRobots
Apples foray into health

and fitness
Tech pundits had long suspected
that Apples next phone will
include the ability to track various
body metrics with health and fitness based apps, and some leaked
screenshots from 9to5Mac have all
but confirmed the rumours. The
app will track various aspects such
as your blood sugar, hydration,
blood sugar, heart rate and your
physical activity.
http://dgit.in/wvHealthBook
Roll your own IM service

If youre paranoid about entrusting
your private chats to a third party like
Google or Facebook, setting up your
own chat server is pretty easy. Heres
how you can set it up in a way that
any compatible IM client like Pidgin or
Adium can access it:
The language of animated GIFs

GIFs are short, animated images that
are usually served as a reaction to an
incident or a comment. Researchers
at MIT Media Labs have noticed that
these serve as a better indicator of
emotion than plain text, even empathy
which is unusual for the internet:
Standardizing mobile phone chargers

The days of different OEMs shipping
their phones with incompatible
phone chargers may soon be over.
The European Union recently voted
in favour of standardizing the mobile
phone charger in order to ensure
cross-compatibility:
http://dgit.in/wvXMPP
http://dgit.in/wvGIFGIF
http://dgit.in/wvChargers
(worldview)
Shorts
Google may kill Voice

Googles been on a spring
cleaning for a couple of years
now, and if rumours at 9to5
Google are to be believed,
Google Voice may be the next
service to face the axe. The
almost too-good-to-be-true
app allowed users in the US
make and receive phone calls
for free
http://dgit.in/wvGoogleVoice
Making the most of

McDonalds
George R R Martins
master plan
Infected Linux
Servers
McDonalds is universally
accepted as a terrible eating
option, but what if its the only
option you have? If youre stuck
with McDonalds, this handy
chart shows you what foods can
get you the best (and worst) bang
for your buck, calorie-wise and
weight-wise.
http://dgit.in/wvMcDonalds
Game of Thrones is
fast catching up with
the books.However,
the series creator, George R R
martin has a plan thatll ensure
that his books stay well ahead
of the TV franchise, which
includes the possibility of a
mid-season hiatus
http://dgit.in/wvGeorgeMartin
Linux is famed for its security,

but a recent report published
by ESET reveals that nearly
10,000 servers running Linux
have been infected by malware
that is redirecting users to
malware-ridden websites that
steal credentials as well as
sensitive financial information
http://dgit.in/wvWindigo
8 simple tips to improve battery life of your Android

mobile phones and tablets
Android OS, being a true multi-tasker, has the propensity to consume high battery
life. Thanks to the customization options provided within the OS, you can improve the
battery life of your Android device by following these simple tips.
- By Saransh Kataria
hen it comes to battery life, no

smartphone has a battery that
is sufficient enough to fulfill
our needs. Every person using a mobile
device feels the need of carrying an extra
battery with him/her. And, when it comes
to Android, the operating system is known
for sucking your devices battery within a
short time span. Here are a few quick tips
which only require tweaking of your devices
settings which would easily help you get the
best out of your devices battery.
Network selection mode

Though switching to 2G mode from 3G
wont save a lot of battery, but it can be
a real life-saver if you are low on battery
and need to save some juice for crucial
minutes later on. Switching to 2G network makes the device consume lesser
battery. This is generally because 2G
has a better reception and hence your
device doesnt have to shout out to the
operators every time asking for a connection establishment request. This in turn
uses lesser battery.
Note: If you are in an area with great 3G
reception, 3G is a better option since it consumes lesser power (that is the whole point
of evolving to a new protocol, right?) overall.
Heres how you can force your android
to use 2G:
1. Go to the settings menu by selecting the
settings icon from your applications.
Switch network to 2G
Disabling auto, adjusting brightness automatically
2. Under Wireless and networks section,

click on more.
3. Tap the Mobile networks option and on
the next screen, hit the Preferred network type option and you will get three
choices on screen.
4. Now simply choose the option 2G by
tapping on it.
Now your Android is running in a
2G-only mode.
if you can do it manually every time. The

auto feature is a good addition, but when
you do it manually, you can assess at what
level of brightness you are still able to read.
Also, just in case you are too lazy to do it
manually, you can use an application called
Lux Lite to do the hassle for you, though it
will keep running in the background consuming some battery on its own.
Screen brightness
Close background
applications
Although auto screen brightness is a safe

bet, for overly bright screens, manually setting the brightness would be a better way
Killing background applications doesnt

really improve on your performance
(KitKat onwards) but there might be some
(worldview)
What would Plato
tweet?
Google Drive becomes

cheaper
Streaming silence on
Spotify
Twitter has its share of

whimsical accounts that
give us our daily dose
of laughter. But what if Twitter
had existed thousands of years
ago? This NY Times article has
an interesting analysis of social
media against the backdrop of
Greek philosophy.
http://dgit.in/wvPlato
Google reduced the

pricing for its cloud
storage service
Google Drive, and now its about
the cheapest cloud storage
around. $1.99 a month will
get you 100GB, and $9.99 per
month will get you a full terabyte of cloud storage space!
http://dgit.in/wvGoogleDrive
American funk band Vulfpeck

has come up with a novel idea releasing an album thats nothing
but silence, and asking their
fans to stream it on Spotify every
night when they sleep. As Spotify
pays the band for every listen,
the band hopes to raise enough
funds to go on tour.
http://dgit.in/wvSpotify
applications which could be requesting

internet data in the background by pinging
the servers for requests, ensuring a connection establishment or updating in the background. You should consider killing these
applications instead, in order to reduce the
energy demands of the device which can be
done later on as well. Also, you can restrict
background data from the mobile data section to avoid background applications from
fetching data and in turn give your battery
some boost.
Disable GPS
People are generally smart enough to keep
their GPS off when it isnt needed, but what
they generally dont do is disable the location reporting and history when they are
actually using GPS. These two services are
pre-bundled with android and are enabled
by default as soon as you turn on your GPS.
The motive of these two is not stated clearly
anywhere, but they do keep a track of your
location and help Google Now and related
services use internet to send data to servers.
These two, according to Googles help page,
are there to improve your experience, but
overall they consume a lot of battery power
to survey your location. And chances are
you are good without these turned on. If
you wish to turn these off, you need to go
to Settings > Location > Google Location
Reporting and disable these.
Moreover, when you are not in need of
applications that require your precise location, you can set the mode to battery saving
to conserve some battery.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

You should keep your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
drivers off when you dont need them to
preserve your battery. Also, in case of
Wi-Fi, even if it is disabled, the device
constantly scans nearby surroundings for
Flappy 2048
Flappy Bird was all the
rage last month until
the developer took
it down. Meanwhile,
2048, a tile-based number game
where you need to move tiles to
combine them to a sum of 2048
is all the new rage. This website
combines both games within a
single page!
http://dgit.in/wvFlappy
available networks. You should turn it off

as well. Head to Wi-Fi settings > Advanced
and uncheck the Wi-Fi scanning option.
You will have to connect to Wi-Fi manually after doing so but its worth the effort
to prevent it from hogging on your device
for power.
Wallpapers and Themes

Live wallpapers are a flashy and fun thing
to have on your devices home screen, but
again they take too much battery and you
should consider not using them if you
really want your battery to last longer.
Also, using the default launcher for
your device uses lesser footprint (Google
Now Launcher) as compared to other
launchers and you should switch to it just
in case you are low on battery.
Darker themes consume lesser battery
as compared to brighter ones.
Disable Google Now cards

Google Now is a great assistant to have and
once you start using it, you will find that
it is unmatched in quality. Although you
may not use all of the Google Now services,
they still keep running in the background.
So you might wish to avoid the battery
drain by disabling the informational cards.
For example, Nearby Places card, which
is a seemingly cool feature, gives you the
hangout places nearby that you dont usually travel to. I think it is unnecessary and
one could live without it turned on.
To disable specific cards, go to Now,
scroll to the very bottom and touch the
magic wand icon located at the lower center
of the screen. From here you can customize
the cards you need and disable the ones
you dont. As a thumb rule, cards relying
on GPS (such as Travel Time, Nearby Places
etc.) will drain more battery. So you can disable those to boost your battery a bit.
Why scan for Wi-Fi when you dont need to?
Sync
Sync is a feature in which your device constantly contacts Googles servers for downloading emails, calendar records and other
information in the background. This uses
loads of battery power and you should shut
it down when it is not needed. Dont worry;
everything will be synced later when you
turn it on again.
Note: If you are really low on battery,
switching to airplane mode is the best way
to save some battery to be used later when
its crucial.
If you are still unsure of what is
draining your devices battery and wish
to monitor battery usage statistics by
various applications, you can do so in the
battery section of the settings.
(worldview)
(worldview)
Numberphile
A channel not just for
math nerds, but for
anyone with a passing
interest in numbers and
logic, Numberphile is a
repository of fascinating
videos. From proving that
the sum of all positive integers is a negative number,
to wonderful observations of Pi and much
more, theres a lot you can
learn from this channel.
http://dgit.in/wvNumberphile
(QR Code)
(Product Launches)
Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
Nokia X android
phones
Oppo Find 7
Lenovos latest ultraportable

laptop/tablet hybrid features
an eye popping 3200x1800
pixels packed into a 13.3
inch screen, an Intel Core i5
Haswell CPU, 4GB of RAM
and a 128GB Sold State Drive.
The base version starts at
$999 (approx. Rs. 61,000)
Nokias long rumoured

Android device finally saw the
light of day in the form of the
Nokia X - an Android powered low-end phone. Priced
at Rs. 8599, the device does
not run the usual Google
apps and services, instead
you get Windows goodies.
Oppos latest flagship, the

Oppo Find 7 was unveiled in
China this week, featuring a
stunning 2560x1440 5.5inch
display and a 13 megapixel
that uses software enhancements to capture images at
resolutions of 50 Megapixels
and record 4K video.
I
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Top 3
For a list of all the links from

this section, head over to
http://dgit.in/wwapr2014
Or point your phone to the
QR code above
50 Digit ||April 2014 ||www.thinkdigit.com
50 Digit April 2014 www.thinkdigit.com
Absolute
wO R D j umb l e
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Picks
Edward Snowdens TED Talk

The American whistleblower
hasnt relaxed his stance
on the issue of privacy. In a
recent TED Talk, Snowden
speaks via video conference:
http://dgit.in/wvSnowden
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Timepass
There are 15
technology terms
hidden in the
grid. Can you spot
them all?
Make sure your boss doesnt catch you goofing off with
one of these videos playing on your screen
The making of the Moto 360

Smartwatches have been
reserved largely for uber
geeks and industry insiders.
Heres glimpse into the
design process:
http://dgit.in/wvMoto360
Idiots guide to smart people

A hilarious video tells laypeople, or idiots on how to
avoid coming across as stupid
in social interactions with
smart people:
http://dgit.in/wvIdiotSmart
> code / creativity / community >

Making successful
games: Alok Kejriwal,
CEO and Co-Founder,
Games2win
Guide to Nokia X: Installing

Android apps, and how
to root the device
*side panel
*How developer
is the king of the
modern times
>>The ever changing

landscape of platforms
and emergence of cloud
computing has ensured a
lot of companies pay great
attention to developers
needs and demands
http://dgit.in/1jqAWPg
*Record-breaking
GDC 2014
o you just got yourself

a new Nokia X but the
new interface has left
you confused? Dont fret. Read
this guide to get you started
with the latest Android device
from Nokia.
Were only concerning
ourselves with two important
aspects here accessing Google
Play Store apps and Rooting
the device.
Although the Nokia Store
provides a good number of
the basic applications necessary but the list of required
applications is far from complete yet. The good news is
that you can install .apk files
from other sources just by
allowing the installation from
unknown sources in security
settings. But finding .apk files
can be a pain too. So you can

use alternate markets such as
1mobile market or the amazon
store which are good alternatives to Googles Play Store.
Note: If you are thinking of
installing Play Store using
this method, it wont work. It
requires Googles Play Services.
Rooting your device might be
able to get you Google Play services (guide on rooting Nokia X
coming soon).
Rooting your device: If you
are among the experimental
types, you might consider
rooting your phone to get complete access! Many people have
done so successfully to get full
access to the devices system.
Security: Data is always a
crucial aspect of the device;
especially in times like these
when the phones are becoming

smarter every day. The Nokia X
comes with 3 security methods
Screen security: The screen
can be locked by two methods,
password and PIN, the normal
security techniques on almost
every device these days.
Encryption: As in android,
you can encrypt everything
stored on the devices memory
so that only authorized people
can access it. As opposed to
Android, the data on Nokia X
can only be decrypted after a
factory reset.
SIM card lock: A common
feature that has existed on
Nokia phones for a long time
now is also present in Nokia
X. It prevents people from
accessing contacts stored on
SIM card.
>>This years GDC, held at

San Francisco last month,
had the largest attendance
till date: 24,000 devs and
over 400 sessions. Will that
result in record-breaking
games, though?
http://dgit.in/1m3QyFI
*Coding for
different platforms
>>Theres this school
of thought that a good
iOS developer doesnt
necessarily make you a
good Android developer.
http://dgit.in/1dKDSyo
For latest news, updates

and features, join us on
Facebook at
facebook.com/
devworx.in
devworx> | April 2014 | www.devworx.in 51
Introduction to
Automata Theory
>>Find out what it takes to program an automaton, apart from the
four main components of its component theory> by Ashesh Lal
utomata theory is the study of abstract machines

(like finite state machines), automata (self-operating
machines) and the computational problems that can
be solved using them. It comes under the broad topic
of Theoretical Computer Science, under Discrete Mathematics.
Essentially, Automata Theory is the study of self-operating virtual
machines to help with the logical understanding of input and output
processes, with or without intermediate stage(s) of computation/
function/process. Automata play a major role in theory of computation, compiler design, artificial intelligence, parsing and formal
verification and have been around since ancient times.
Automata (pl.) are defined to study useful machines under mathematical formalism. So, the definition of an automaton is open to
variations according to the real world machine, which we want
to model using the automaton (sg.).
There are four main components of any automata that define
its variant:
1. Input
a. Finite input: An automaton that accepts only finite sequence
of symbols.
b. In finite input: An automaton that accepts infinite words
(-words). Such automata are called -automata.
2. States
a. Finite states: An automaton that contains only a finite number
of states.
b. Infinite states: An automaton that may not have a finite
number of states, or even a countable (http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Countable_set) number of states. For example, the
quantum finite automaton or topological automaton has
uncountable infinity of states.
3. Transition function
a. Deterministic: For a given current state and an input symbol,
if an automaton can only jump to one and only one state.
Fig.1 This transition graph is an NFA for the regular expression

(a|b)*abb
52 devworx> | April 2014 | www.devworx.in
b. Nondeterministic: An automaton that, after reading an input

symbol, may jump into any of a number of states, as licensed
by its transition relation, i.e. the automaton non-deterministically decides to jump into one of the allowed choices.
4. Acceptance condition
We will be primarily concentrating on finite or countable infinite
input on finite state machines in the rest of this article.
Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA) and Non-deterministic Finite Automata (NFA) have the same computational
power and both are capable of recognizing the same languages,
called the regular languages that regular expressions can
describe. A tutorial on regular expressions can be found on
http://regexone.com/.
Now if we take the language to be L = (a|b)*abb. Then L will

be the set of strings that are accepted by this regular expression,
which is read as a or b, zero or many times, followed by the string
abb or all the strings in the alphabet {a,b} that end in abb.
Language L = (a|b)*abb = {abb, aabb, babb, aaabb,
ababb, baabb, bbabb,}
superscript (*) - Kleene closure zero or many
superscript (+) - Positive closure one or many
- Epsilon empty string
The NFA for this language L is depicted in Fig. 1. States are
represented by numerals in circles and the transition between
states is described by alphabets over the arrow. The start state is 0
and the end state (or accepting state) is 10, which is denoted by the
double-circle. Sometimes the end state is realized by making the
said state accept the transition labeled #.
An NFA accepts input string x if and only if there is a path in the
transition graph from the start state (0) to one of the accepting states,
Fig. 3 This is the transition graph for the regular expression

(a|b)*abb
Fig. 2 This transition graph is a DFA for the regular expression

(a|b)*abb
Fig. 4. This is an example of how the transition diagram looks like

in automata theory
such that the symbols along the path spell out x. So, the input string
bbabb is accepted because of the path 0-1-4-5-6-1-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.
[optional] Q. Find out three strings that are not accepted by the
NFA for L.
A DFA is a special case of an NFA where:
1. There are no moves on input , and
2. For each state s and input symbol a, there is exactly one edge
out of s labeled a.
This is the reason why a DFA shares the same notation as
an NFA.
While the NFA is an abstract representation of an algorithm
to recognize the strings of a certain language, the DFA is a simple
and concrete algorithm for recognizing strings. The DFA for L is
shown in Fig. 2
The input string abbabb will be accepted by this DFA because
of the path 0-1-2-3-1-2-3. Note that a string will be accepted by the
DFA only if it ends on the end state (3).
Deterministic Finite Automata (DFA) is the most standard variant and was invented to model and study real-life scenarios that
the Turing Machine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine)
was unable to demonstrate. Since the DFA is used to implement
or simulate when building lexical analyzers, it is fortunate that
every regular expression or NFA sharing the same language can
be converted into a DFA, which is beyond the scope of this article.
[optional] We can represent either an NFA or DFA by a transition graph, where there is an edge labeled a from state s to state
t if and only if t is one of the next states for state s and input a.
In this graph, as shown in Fig. 3 for language L,
a. The same symbol can label edges from one state to many different
states, and
b. An edge may be labeled by , instead of or in addition to symbols
from the input alphabet.
For searching *.java files, a DFA can prove to be very useful if
the filename is composed of ASCII characters (real language) only.
Automata simulators are used to learn and research automata
theory. An automata simulator takes as input the description of an
automaton and then simulates its working for an arbitrary input
string. The description of the automaton can be entered in several
ways. An automaton can be defined in a symbolic language or its
specification may be entered in a predesigned form or its transition
diagram may be drawn by clicking and dragging the mouse. Well
known automata simulators include Turings World, JFLAP, VAS,
TAGS and SimStudio
In conclusion, each model in the automata theory plays important roles in several applied areas. Finite Automata are used in
text processing, compilers and hardware design, and Context-Free
Grammar (CFG) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-free_grammar]
is used in programming languages and artificial intelligence and
also for study in human languages.
[optional] Lets see if you can figure out what this transition
diagram accepts as a language.
Answer: Unsigned numbers (with E used as exponent for base 10).
*the source code
DirectX 12 programming
>>The biggest piece of good

news to PC gaming is Microsofts
decision to enable low-level GPU
access. This will percolate down to
consoles and mobile GPUs, too.
http://dgit.in/NOvVkC
Facebook streamlines
Hack language
DARPAs contribution to
open source software
http://dgit.in/1h5vTQN
http://dgit.in/1iwWLsQ
>>Facebooks dedication to
streamlining programming
language Hack (used internally) by
making it open source
>>While the Pentagon can be

secretive about its operation,
its surprisingly open about the
software projects it funded
devworx> | April 2014 | www.devworx.in 53
We love Adobe flash to make simple, easy,

browser and mobile games (Adobe Air).
Many of our complex games are now being
built on Unity. We use many third party
analytic tools such as Flurry to keep track
of various things in our games. We deploy
many ad networks inside our games for
monetization, served via mopub.
>>We love Adobe

to make simple,
easy games. >>
>>We try to learn a few tricks
of the trade when it comes to
making a successful game from
Alok Kejriwal, CEO & Co-Founder,
Games2win > By Jayesh Shinde
What would you say is the USP of
your games?
The games are all about what you do or
cannot do in real life, presented in a gamified manner! Example, young girls want to
take care of small babies hence the success
of our #2 app in the world Super Mom;
Young men want to learn driving hence
the success of our #1 game in the world
Parking Frenzy!
We make real life fantasies come alive
via casual gaming.
Your games attract a lot of female players.
Why do you think that is? Is it an untapped
/ ignored market?
The reason behind it is partially based on
the fact that girls prefer to play simple,
casual, snacky games. Most of them do not
spend hours playing console games and
have simpler gaming devices like iPods,
iPhones and Tablets at their disposal!
Apart from creativity, what would
you say is the #1 contributor to your
games success?
Creativity is 50 per cent of the business.
The rest is sheer perseverance and analytics, analytics and analytics! We measure
everything that moves in a game and keep
iterating on it to make it better and better.
As a developer what different tools
do you use to develop games? Why
them specifically?
54 devworx> | April 2014 | www.devworx.in
As a traditional web, browser-based

games developer, how did you transition
to developing mobile apps? Tell us about
this journey?
This was a very tough journey! I remember
a very particular incident in my house that
triggered this shift in my outlook. One day,
my wife was looking for a laptop and my
elder daughter said, Mom, ask Mala where
it is (Mala is our house help).
Thats the day I realized that my kids
who would fight for the laptop in the
house had forgotten about it they were
so involved in their iPhones and tabs!
We approached the shift with lots of
caution and applied a very simple logic
the consumer was the same, only the
form factor was changing (desktop, laptop
to Phone). So, the same consumer would
like to play our most popular games that
they liked on our websites, on their mobile
phones too!
From our 700+ flash games library, we
chose the top 10 games and transitioned
them to mobile, using Adobe Air and other
such tools!
Youre a big proponent of Adobe Gaming

Solutions. Why is it so? What makes it
so different from other development
platforms?
Adobes Flash is Godsend. Its simple,
and easy to use. Lots of talent in India
knows flash. The best part of Flash is that
it allows us to export our games to mobile,
using Adobe Air and saves us the headache of building the game all over again!
What can you tell us about your future
game development endeavors? Any
games that we should look forward to?
Any particular focus area?
We are heavily concentrating on two
gaming genres that we understand Car
Racing (Parking) and Dress up. We want to
delight India with a special focus on Indian
games and you will see the Indianized versions of our best performing games being
released soon!
Any advice to budding game or mobile
app developers?
Mobile games and apps is a long, tedious
and punishing business. It is a hits and
misses business and while you may think
that your idea is the best in the world,
there is no guaranteethat you will have a
hit on your side.
Having said that, the glory of making
an Angry Birds or Candy Crush is overwhelming and thats the dream worth
fighting for!
*coding matters
What are devs? A view

from the future...
>>A flight of fancy with an eerily

plausible depiction of the breeds of
developers in the future. How will
history record their feats? And how
will their efforts alter the fate of
our civilization?
http://dgit.in/1jqEGAh
Learn to code in a fun,

exciting way
>>Try out Code Avengers for

interactive online tutorials that
teach you how to code games, apps
and websites with HTML, CSS and
JavaScript in a fun way.
http://www.codeavengers.com/
Tips & Tricks
Google Docs
Google Docs just got a booster
dose and its more potent
than ever.
Make use of
Shortcuts
To be a master, your fingers
must float over the keyboard
making tiny, intermittent movements. These tiny actions add up
to form the perfect document.
And unless you have mastered
the keyboard shortcuts available
to you on Google docs, you will
never realise its true potential.
Fortunately, these shortcuts
can be brought up whenever
you want through yet another
shortcut. Hit (Ctrl + command)
on a Mac to open up the shortcut
menu and your are on the steady
path to true mastery. The menu
can be opened in a separate
window too and can be pulled
up whether you are working on
a spreadsheet, document or are
even browsing the list of documents on your drive.
While the basic shortcuts
like the ones for bold, italics and
underline are still the ones you
would find on just about any word
processor or spreadsheet,, interesting ones like strikethrough,
superscript and
subscript can be
brought up with two or three
button combinations.
If youve ever noticed on
your Gmail inbox, theres a line
of dots on the extreme left of the
Google Docs................................................................20
iPad..............................................................................22
Fight spam..................................................................24
Tips & Tricks has its own page numbers, and does not follow the rest
of the magazines page numbers. This is done to ensure that you can
cut out and save T&T in a separate folder for later reference.
conversation. Long-pressing
the left mouse button here has
the same effect as the gesture
has on windows explorer
you can move your selection
around with your arrow key.
On Gmail and Google docs on
the other hand, you can move
that little selection bar up
and down with the J and K
keys. Go ahead, give it a whirl.
Two more interesting things
come up with the X and
S keys. You can check the little
box and toggle the star on or
off, respectively.
Ctrl + S, a thing of the past.

| www.thinkdigit.com
where you can choose from literally thousands of pre designed

templates. Everything from
cheese presentations to professional rsums can be found and
obviously you can contribute to
the extensive database.
When you submit your template to the online database, the
entire Google-verse has access to
it, so it wouldnt be advisable to
do that if youve prepared client
specific invoices and what not.
The reasonable walk around to
this conundrum is pretty simple.
Once youve uploaded/ created your precious document,
its time to get sharing and privacy settings in place. Then, hit
File > Make a Copy and check the
box if you want to share it with
other people and rename it.
Once the copy is made, it
opens up in a new tab for you
One amongst hundreds
Handling
Templates
Fresh out of ideas on the look and
feel of your next presentation?
Is the office newsletter that you
begrudgingly prepared looking
as dull as the only co-worker who
bothers to read it? Well, look no
further! For the good people at
Google have kept alive the template option from the days of yore.
You can either Google it and
hit the Use Template under the
template of your choice or access
from your spreadsheet/presentation/document by hitting
File > New > From template.
This will automatically take
you to Googles template gallery
Vol 14 | 20
to begin working. Sure its not

as cool as a template and you
will need to create a copy every
single time but it works.
Managing
add-ons
A new addition to the wonderful world that is Google
docs are add-ons and keep up
with the ethos of Google Labs
which is a playground for
Googles more adventurous
users users can actually create
their own add-ons.
To take a step back, add-.
ons are extensions for your
docs just like the ones you
have for your browser. Addons can be accessed by hitting
Digit | April 2014
Tips & Tricks

the Add-ons button found on
the menu bar.
Sound Smart
Every childs dream
is to own their very own thesasaurus and wreak havoc on
unsuspecting civilians. Then,
childhood is ruined on receiving
one and finding out that it is a
synonym finder or a wordbook. The first, most useful
and simplest add-on you will
add is the Thesaurus. A free
app that installs in minutes, you
can look up synonyms by highlighting the word in question
> tapping the Add-ons button
from the menu bar > clicking on
thesaurus and selecting Find
Synonyms for Selected Word
The thesaurus opens up on
the right and provides synonyms both in noun and verb
forms along with the antonyms.
Once the thesaurus is open,
you can search for synonyms
by double clicking a word or
selecting it and tapping the
Search button on the thesaurus.
Not too tabby
and the red x to discard it

making life much simpler.
Similar to Track Changes
is yet another app developed
by the same developer. Named
Messenger, this add-on makes
collaborating even simpler. The
changes made to the document
are shown in a green font with
a green highlight and deletions
are displayed in a red font with
a pink highlight.
Collaborate
If youve ever done a
group assignment or collaborated on a presentation with
a whole bunch of people, you
will know that how frustrating it is to get everybody on the
same page and how the frustration grows manifold when
somebody has made important
changes and hasnt informed
the rest of the team.
While the former was
solved when Google docs was
introduced, the latter was still a
problem until LetterFeed introduced Track Changes.
Once applied, track changes
keeps track of all the changes
that have been made on the
document on the sidebar to the
right. Changes made by other
users appear in the sidebar
which displays insertions and
deletions. The changes can be
applied by simply clicking the
green check button to approve
Broth has never tasted better
It even tells you if the other

person has viewed the changes.
Links to articles and images are
previewed automatically and
can be added by merely dragging and dropping it where you
want it to be placed on your file.
Rediscover
Clip-Art
No presentation is complete
without clip art. Pictures that
Digit | April 2014
can be stretched and shrunk

over and over again until they
are just right and give your
presentation that extra touch
of emotion
Sure it now sounds lame to
use clip art but that is slightly
attributed to the fact that the
clip art back in the day were
very basic and the number of
quality illustrations available
were equally limited.
ClipArt on the other hand
promises to be a game changer.
Not yet available for Presentations, it has a database of over
50,000 images that are free to
use, ClipArt adds much nicer
feel to your document with its
high quality illustration done
in a contemporary style.
A more mature audience, on
the other hand, would appreciate Gliffy diagrams. Gliffy
diagrams allow you to create
things from flow charts to floor
plans for your document.
Using Gliffy diagrams
involves signing in to Gliffy
with your Gmail id and all your
designing end up taking place
on their webpage. The created
designs are then updated on
the Gliffy diagrams sidebar for
you to drag and drop wherever
you desire.
Spread em
Wide
While add ons are readily available for documents, for spreadsheets it kind of behaves like
Schrodingers cat. While it is officially available for spreadsheets,
Vol 14 | 21
the version of spreadsheet on

which it is available isnt.
The new Google Sheets had
been built from the ground up
and cell and formula limitations
have all been removed. Since
its still in the test phase where
several features including spell
check are not available and can
be turned on from the Editing
section of Settings in your
Google Drive.
While the number of add-on
users for documents run around
50,000, at the most, the users
here are less than 10,000 at
the most. The kind of add-ons
available too are mostly ones
that bypass complex filtering
formulae that are normally
used in spreadsheets. So erasing
blank fields becomes super easy
with Remove Blank Rows and
names can be split across multiple rows with Split Names
without breaking in to a sweat.
A few interesting addons however are Find Fuzzy
Matches, Advanced Find and
Replace and Template Gallery.
Find Fuzzy Matches really
comes in handy when you are
working with duplicates that are
spelled slightly differently or
even contain spelling mistakes.
With three simple parameters,
you can narrow your search and
you can even correct the errors
in your sheet.
Advanced Find and Replace
not only allows you to search
according to name or number
but also using formulae and a
whole bunch of other param| www.thinkdigit.com
Tips & Tricks
Slow and steady
eters. Finally, template gallery, also available for documents gives you a cartload of
templates that fit your needs.
Write some
code
Google, being as awesome as its
known to be has actually provided users to create their own
add ons. If you know HTML,
CSS and JavaScript, you too can
become a developer for the add
ons thus completing the circle
of for the users, by the users.
iPad
Theres always something more
that you can do with your iDevice. With frequent software
updates and various hidden
gestures, theres always an easy
way to do your work on your
iOS device. If its not prominent
on the screen, it might just be a
swipe away. Here we look at a
few tips and tricks that will make
your iPad experience even more
convenient than it already is.
Control the
sound of music
While listening to music or podcasts on your iPad, use the center
button on any Apple-compatible earbuds with a remote to
control the player. Press once
to play/pause, press twice to
go to next track, and press
thrice to go to previous track.
Dismiss a
notification
Youre checking out pictures
with your friend, and sud-
denly a text arrives. You dont

want him to read your personal conversation. Swipe from
right to left and quickly get
rid of the banner notification.
So what do you do? You switch

your iPads keyboard to Thumb
mode. You swipe two fingers
across the keyboard, in a splitting action and voila! Now you
can type with thumbs using
both your hands. You can use
the dock and merge button on
the bottom right corner to drag
the keyboard up and down. Or
you can just press and drag the
dock and merge button up in
the original keyboard to split and
move it around. Not only does this
facilitate typing, but it also allows
for more room in the viewing
screen. The keyboard doesnt
hide half of the screen anymore.
Tap and scroll

to top
You scroll down and down
looking for an old email or in
any other app, but to come back
to the top, do you keep scrolling
back up? What you probably
dont know is that you can tap
the top bar of the app which will
take you right back up.
Type lightning
fast
Even though iPad is everything
that you want and more, we all
agree that it is not really convenient to type and text on it.
Its not comfortable like a fullfledged computer keyboard, nor
is it handy like a qwerty phone.
More and more interesting voice

commands can be used to have
Siri do your work. Use this simple
command before you sleep, and
Siri will wake you up in time.
Use your finger

to erase
So you have a long list of numbers, with a lot of confusing
calculations. The Calculator
app in your iPad is right there
to solve your problem. But
what if you typed a wrong
digit? Youll have to clear the
whole number. Now isnt that
awfully irritating? It isnt obvious but there is the provision
of a backspace in the Calculator
app. Just swipe your finger (in
either direction) on the number to delete the extra digit.
Baby-proof
your iPad
You might find yourself in

a foreign land, where your
cellphone network doesnt
work, or if you have an iPad
thats only WiFi enabled. But
that shouldnt stop you from
using your iPad as a navigator.
While you still have internet
access, say at the airport or a
lounge, look for the place you
want to go to in the Maps and
bookmark it. You can access
the Maps even after you lose
internet access. Now youll
never lose your way!
Guided Access, when turned

on, prevents users from accidentally doing something in
an app, or tapping somewhere
they are not supposed to. Next
time a child wants to play on
your iPad, turn on Guided Access and prevent your gadget
from any accidental or intentional tampering. It keeps
the iPad restricted to a single
app, and allows you to control
which features (parts of the
screen) are accessible.
Its fairly easy to set up. First,
turn on Guided Access by going
into Settings > General >
Accessibility > Guided
Access. Also turn on the Accessibility Shortcut. Now go to the
app that your child wants to
play with, and triple-click on
the home button. Then select
the areas on the screen that you
dont want to be touched. Set a
Change your Keyboard from this
To this
Picket your
device
While Guided Access only
restricts the user to one app,
it is not always feasible. Youd
want to let others use your
iPad, with certain checks. For
example, you dont want them
to delete any app, or purchase
new ones. Youd want to filter
out explicit content, or restrict
access to Photos, Contacts and
other data. You can set all these
up and more by going to Settings > General > Restrictions.
Enable Restrictions and set a
passcode. Youll be needing
that passcode later to disable it.
Let Siri set your

alarm
Backspacing in your calculator
Save Google
Maps offline
Vol 14 | 22
Digit | April 2014
Tips & Tricks

the bottom right corner of the
screen. Swipe it up to launch
the Camera app bypassing the
unlock screen. This nifty little
trick should come in handy at
a photo-worthy event, or when
someone else is using your
device to click pictures but you
dont want to unlock your phone
for them.
Convert iPad to
laptop
Notice the camera button?
passcode and Start the Guided

Access. It also disables the home
button, so the user is restricted to
the opened app. Triple-click the
home button and enter the passcode to end the Guided Access.
Do away with
the selfie-arm!
This will be a boon for those girls
who click a picture of themselves
for every expression. Plug in
your earphones (works even
with a bluetooth headset), open
the camera app and use the
volume buttons to click pictures.
Press and hold the button to take
a burst of photos. Now you wont
have to be embarrassed about
clicking selfies, cause no one
will know.
Take a perfectly
timed photo
If you have restricted the Control
Center on the locked screen of
your iPad, you need to unlock
it every time to access the
Camera. But there is another
way which is simple, but God
knows why is it less prominent.
There is a sleeky camera icon on
Detachable keyboard for iPads
By now, we all have made our

peace with Apples limited
Bluetooth connectivity, and
we have found other ways
of sharing data between our
iDevices and other non-Apple
devices. However, Apple
doesnt really restrict Bluetooth headsets and keyboards.
An external keyboard offers
tactile advantages of real keys
over the iPads touchscreen
keyboard. You can connect
almost ANY Bluetooth keyboard to your iPad (or iPhone
for that matter), without sacrificing the iPads portability
and touchscreen features.
Be a short-cut
ninja
There are a couple of keyboard
shortcuts that might save your
time. When finishing a sentence, tap the spacebar twice
to append the sentence with a
period and a space, so you can
start the next sentence.
If you text a lot but hate using
phrases like omg, fyi, afk
and the like very often, you can
use the Keyboard shortcuts. Go to
Settings > General > Keyboard > Add New Shortcut
and create a shortcut for your
frequently used phrases. This
can be a real time saver, and you
wouldnt have to explain yourself
every time you come up with a
new time-saver-abbreviation.
Want to Undo and Redo? You
dont need to keep tapping backspace to erase the last bit you
typed. Shake your iPad and click
on the Undo Typing option that
Digit | April 2014
pops up. Shake it again, to see

the Redo Typing option.
There are some frequently
required punctuation that can
be accessed from the first screen
of the keyboard, without having
to switch back and forth between
screens. For example, tap and
hold the exclamation mark to use
an apostrophe, or the question
mark to use the quotation marks.
Try pressing and holding other
keys for accented letters.
Turn your iPad

into a monitor
Watch movies on your iPad by
wirelessly connecting it to your
PC, Mac, or laptop, without
Fast-scrolling on your iPad
having to convert and move

your videos. Although with
the VLC app for iPad, you can
play all your movies without
conversion. But this comes in
handy when you want to turn
your iPad (iPhone, or iPod)
into a remote display for your
computer. You can mirror your
monitor, or extend it onto the
iPads screen for more room.
You just need the right app
for this purpose, and we recommend Air Display 2 (http://
dgit.in/airdisp2). Your computer
and iOS device must both be
connected to the same WiFi
network. With this, you can
also control your computer
wirelessly from your iPad. Air
Display also has a built in keyboard, or you can use a bluetooth keyboard if you like.
Vol 14 | 23
Apple headset remote
Remote Control
your Computer
Along the lines of remote display, you can also access your
computer remotely, while on
the go. Access your files, pictures, documents and launch
applications all from the touch
of your iPad. Again, youll need
an app for this magic to work.
We suggest LogMeIn (http://
dgit.in/logemin ) and PocketCloud Remote Desktop (http://
dgit.in/pcktcld ). But youre
looking at a subscription fee
to use them. Use the limited
period trials, and see which
one suits you best.
Lock screen
rotation click!
You probably use the slider on
the right side of your iPad to
mute, and lock the screen rotation using the control center.
You can switch their functionality depending on which one
of these functions you use more
often. Go to Settings > General > Use Side Switch To:
and tick on Lock Rotation or
Mute, as per your choice.
Buy once, use

forever
One good thing about the Apple
store is that you need to buy
an app only once, and you can
download it however many
times you want. Sometimes
your screen gets too crowded,
and you feel like you want to
Tips & Tricks

mails are bounced back to the
sender instead. Using unique
disposable Ids for different websites also reveals which of them
are responsible for the spam you
receive. Here are some good sites
for creating disposable email
addresses:
https://meltmail.com
http://www.easytrashmail.com
https://ssl.trashmail.net
Restrictions
get rid of some apps that you

arent using anymore. You can
get rid of them, uninstall and
free memory without worrying about re-purchase. You
can download it again later as
long as youre using the same
iTunes account. You can find
all your previously purchased
apps in a separate section, so
you dont really NEED to buy a
128GB device after all. However,
deleting an app also deletes the
data associated with it. So keep
that in mind before you tap that
cross on the wobbling icon.
Dont leave
footprints
Analogous to the Incognito
Window of the Google Chrome,
theres the Private Browsing
option in Safari. When you
open Safari, just tap on Private at the bottom left corner
to turn on Private Browsing. The
browser will no longer record
your browsing history and any
form data.
The list does not end here.
The more you use, the more
youll learn. Write to us if you
have discovered another nifty
little trick that we havent
already covered.
Fight spam
Any advertisement or message
in the form of an email, junk mail
or telephone that the receiver
did not specifically request for,
can be defined as spam. And
though one harmless email
Create long,
complicated
email Ids
iPad as a secondary (and

tertiary) screen
that most of us just ignore might

not seem very problematic, the
sheer numbers in which we get
these mails makes spam one of
the (if not the) most annoying
things on the internet. The fact
that it hampers the productivity
of adults and that the nature of
some of them might be objectionable to kids, makes it very
important to take key measures
to protect yourself against spam.
We list here some steps that you
can take to keep that annoying
spam away:
Dont use
primary
addresses to sign up
Probably the most intuitive
and basic advice but it holds
true. Do NOT sign up for any
kind of web forum, magazine
or membership with your primary work id. Always maintain separate mail Ids for work
and all your other activities.
Or, you could...
Use disposable
Email Ids
So instead of using your real
email address, you could just
use disposable email addresses.
How do they work? Its pretty
simple actually a disposable
mail id will forward all the
mails it receives to your real
mail address. So whenever you
realise that youre getting spam
through that particular mail ID,
you just disable it and all the
Once you post your email

address somewhere on the
internet, theres a very good
chance that youll end up
receiving spam. But, even if you
dont theres still a chance of getting spam mail. This is because
apart from scavenging them off
the net, they also use another
method to find email addresses
guessing. Spamware will send
mails with the most likely user
names at each popular domain,
and one of them might just be
yours. So to decrease the probability of getting one of these, try
and get an email ID that is relatively long, complicated and not
very commonplace. Of course,
that doesnt mean youd create
something absolutely inconvenient for a friend or a colleague
to type out.
Avoid
mandatory
registration forms
Sometime the internet is just
plain annoying. Especially
when you really want to visit a
particular page, but a compulsory registration is required
just to get through. Not only
does this waste time, but also
creates the added chance of
receiving spam mail from that
website to your email account.
Thankfully, theres an easy way
to sidestep this. As long as the
website doesnt involve financial transactions, and registration is required only to view the
website - http://www.bugmenot.
Vol 14 | 24
com is the one stop solution
for this. The website gives you

already registered user accounts
and passwords to the website,
allowing you to skip registration
and in the process, stay away
from spam mail.
Use Unchecky
to do away with
unwanted programs
When trying to install a program, many a times youll
find that in the course of the
installation thered be a hundred checkboxes that would
be prompting installation of
another, perhaps unwanted,
program. If you do the recommended installation, or forget
to uncheck a couple of boxes
thered be new software on
your internet even before you
realise it. If you download even
some amount of software from
the internet, you would have
encountered this particular
issue. Luckily, a beautiful yet
simple program called Unchecky can solve that problem for
you. It works by automatically
unchecking the boxes that are
hard to see, and also warns you
if you try to accept a potentially
unwanted offer. Best part is
that it is easy to install, and it
is extremely light. Give it a try:
http://unchecky.com
Use an Antispam program

An anti-spam program or a
spam filter reduces the number
of junk and spam emails that
appear in your inbox, making
it easier for you to check email.
Many of the better anti-spam
Unchecky the saviour

Digit | April 2014
Tips & Tricks

copy
pasting
each spam mail
is too much work.
To do this, youll
need to send the
spam mail as an
attachment to
Spamcop, and for
Unchecky takes care of bloatware and more
that youll need
to save the spam
mail as an EML file on your
programs though, like SPAMfighter Pro or Cloudmark Deskcomputer. Just go to the source
topOne Pro, are quite expenof the mail (as mentioned above)
sive. Thus, among the free spam
and copy paste the whole thing
filters out there, we recommend
into a text file, and save it as a
the average user to get his/her
.eml file instead. Once you have
hands on Mailwasher Free,
a bunch of .eml files that you
and though its last freeware
want to report to spamcop, all
version has limited features
youll need to do is attach them
compared to its commercial
and send them to your personal
submission email address. The
brother, its still pretty effective.
personal submission address is
http://dgit.in/mailwash
a unique address for every registered user, and is displayed right
Use Spamcop
below the welcome message on
Spamcop is a service
the Spamcop home page.
that determines the origin of
unwanted email, and then
Disguise your
reports it to the relevant ISPs.
Email Ids
Complaining about spam is
When posting on a community
one of the most effective ways
forum where theres a risk of
to ensure that you do not get
attracting spam, always dismore spam as once the ISPs
guise your email ID by adding/
are alerted, the spammers are
inserting something extremely
forced to lose their internet
obvious to it. For example, if
access and/or required to pay
your id is jamesbond@martini.
for breaking the policies of
use set by the corresponding
com, you could modify it to read
ISP. To submit a spam report
something like jamesDELETETHusing Spamcop, youll need
[email protected] so that only
to first open the source of the
the people who really want to
mail you can do so by removing
email in your email program.
the obvious DELETETHIS in
If youre using gmail, just
click on the drop down menu
the email account. Though it
might seem like its making
beside the reply arrow on the
original message, and click on
sending mails harder, this tiny
show original. Select the entire
bit of precaution can work wonsource, copy it and then paste
ders in stopping spam.
it into the input field
in the Spamcop website. Press Process
Spam and then click
on Send Spam Report
Now, and youre
done reporting the
particular spammer.
You can also submit
spam to Spamcop via
email, if the whole Use your GMail filters wisely
Digit | April 2014
Use filters to
fight spam
official number. Though it

is a good gesture, there is an
entire process associated with
registering these complaints
to 1909. That is where India
against Spam comes in. Its an
app that makes life extremely
easy for android users by
registering the complaint with
just a click of a button, eventually leading to a cleaner, spamfree inbox.
Gmail has this amazing feature

where it lets you use an address alias by just adding the
alias to your username with
a +sign. For example, mails
sent to james.bond+notstirred@
gmail.com will be delivered to
[email protected].
Best
part is that there are filters that
can be setup that allow you
to automatically take actions
for messages with particular
Use Google
aliases. This means that you
Voice to screen
can always divulge your email
phone calls for you
address on a website with
There are those times when
your alias ID, and then filter
were out and we need to write
it as you please, making sure
down our number in a form or
that these mails arent sent to
to register for something, and
your inbox unless specified.
were just not sure whether
To create a filter
in your Gmail account, all youll
need to do is click
on the arrow
mark right beside
the search bar
on your Gmail
page, and then
add the filters as
you want them,
and click on Create filter with Thats where your filter creation button is
this search, and
then decide what to do with
or not we can trust these guys
the messages that these filters
with our number. In cases like
apply to.
these, just sign up for a free
Google Voice account, and everytime you need to give your
Use India
phone number for something
against spam
like this, just give your Google
(Android)
voice number. Sure, you can forThe barrage of unwanted mesward your Google voice calls to
sages that a customer gets on
your phone number, but then
his phone is unbearable. So
many legitimate/important
knowing that youve only given
the Google voice number for
messages or calls are ignored
calls that arent personal, these
because of the number of spam
can be forwarded to your voice
messages that fill the average
mail. You can then check the
inbox on a daily basis. Iniemail that Google sends you
tially, there was this option of
a DND message that could be
about the phone call, and make
out whether or not the phone
sent, but then it wasnt very
call was worth your while. All
effective and the messages did
not stop. Now, TRAI (Telecom
of this without the hassle of
receiving a number of phone
Regulatory Authority of India)
calls to make sure you dont miss
has an option of reporting the
that one worthy call.
unwanted numbers to their
Vol 14 | 25
Blackberrys money
Workshop
How does Blackberry plan on make its money with

BBM? Find out from this enlightening article:
http://dgit.in/bbmunny
Pigs Rock!
If you ever wanted a reason to not eat pigs,

heres one: They are awesome! Read on to
know why: http://dgit.in/pigsrock
How to painlessly
migrate to an
Android phone
from any OS
You dont have to sacrifice your precious data while
switching to your new Android phone.
Niranjan Iyengar
[email protected]
f you own an Android device then

you probably owned something
else sometime before. If you owned
any other device, chances are your
biggest regret is the fact that you couldnt
transfer all your data. Well, as they say,
forewarned is forearmed. When youre
done reading this, you will be so well
informed that all the pretty girls will come
to you for help. Living the geek dream.
Lets try it out with a few mainstream
OS-es. If your previous device was a
smartphone its highly likely that it was
one among iOS, Blackberry, Android and
Windows Phone. So lets start with them
in alphabetical order and begin with
This is where the Android app Backup

Message & Call to Email/ Backup to
GMail comes in handy. Obviousness in
the name aside, this is a free app, which,
instead of backing up data on its servers
or on a memory card, sends all the data to
your GMail ID.
Android
If youre moving from one Android
phone to another then you have your
work cut out for you, because moving
contacts on the Android OS is as easy
as typing in your GMail ID. Since your
contacts are saved to your GMail address
book, your contacts are synced as soon
as you sign in to your device when
you upgrade.
The more difficult things to transfer
are your apps, your data and your SMSes.
Once installed, you will be required to

set up your GMail account and grant the
app permission to view and manage your
mail which includes deleting, composing
and sending mail too. Once set up, the
interface is three tabs in all- backup,
restore and settings.
The only sad thing here is the fact
that only SMSes, calls and MMSes can be
backed up and your photos, documents
and videos are left out in the cold.
Here is where My Backup comes into
play the light version of the lauded My
Backup Pro which costs `321.17 on the app
store, My Backup offers all the features the
Pro version does minus Wi-Fi Migrate. If
you choose not to use their servers which
makes restoring your data easier, all your
data can be backed up to your device and
transferred either by swapping memory
cards, transfer via your personal cloud
storage account or with a PC.
Blackberry
Android to Android, as easy as pie
If you are a Blackberry user, face the truth:

the only reason youve held on to your
phone from 2010 was because of BBM.
Now that its on everything else, its logical
to move on to an Android device. To make
that transition from your BB to your new
Android device, you need to back up
your BB. Migrating from Blackberry to
Epic battle
Workshop
Where do Android and Apple really stand

compared to each other in the phone market?
Find out: http://dgit.in/anvsios
iOS
Or is this as easy?
Android is slightly more cumbersome

because there is no GMail support any
more so your contacts will not come back
home like Lassie.
To get the job done in the easy way, you
will need to create a backup file for your
Blackberry. Either use the Blackberry
PC suite (available at in.blackberry.com/
support) or use apps like Data Backup
from Blackberry World and backup your
data. Transfer the backup file on to your
Android device either via PC, cloud or a
memory card. Once transferred, use 2Can,
a paid app that can restore all your data
from SMSes, to contacts, notes and tasks.
You can also view, edit and search for your
notes and contacts using this app.
The next best alternative is Easy Phone
Sync A software that works with the
backup files created on the Blackberry
PC suite. Contacts, messages, photos and
videos can be transferred by installing
and opening the Easy Phone Sync app
on your Android phone and connecting
it to the Easy Phone Sync for Blackberry
programme on your computer. Your can
browse for your backup file on your PC
using the software and transfer it along
with your SMSes and contacts and restore
them to your phone.
If your old phone was made by Apple inc.,

then transferring contacts is going to be a
breeze. Just download the GMail app for
iOS and sync your contacts. With a little
bit of time, all your contacts will be synced
with your Android. Just remember to turn
the Wi-Fi on on your iPhone if youre still
not using it.
Photos and videos too can be very
easily transferred. Just connect both
devices to a PC via USB and access them
them through your computer. Copy the
images and videos from your iPhone and
paste them in to your Android phones
phone memory or in to the memory card.
SMSes and iMessages on the other
hand need the power of applications and
iTunes. The first step is to back up your
iPhone using iTunes. Once complete,
copy the back-up file from your PC to
your Android device. Download and
install SMS Backup and Restore on your
Android. Launch the app and tap Restore
to restore all your messages.
What about my iCloud account? you
might ask, well, as of now iCloud is still off
bounds on Android browsers but the find
my iPhone feature is still available using
the Find My iPhone free- icloud app on
your Android phone.
You can find any of your apple devices
by simply signing in to your iCloud
accound using the app and track your
devices location. You can sign in to three
different accounts and track the whereabouts of your teenage kids too and see if
they are up to anything questionable.
Sony smartwatch?
Sony decides to create its own Androidbased Smartwatch. Read on to know

more: http://dgit.in/ssmartw
amounts some developers charge, you can

still do it with the Nokia OVI Suite and
out old friend SMS Backup and Restore.
To restore your SMSes, just download
the latest version on Nokia OVI Suite and
sync your messages after connecting your
phone to your computer. Once backed up,
disconnect your phone and close the OVI
Suite. It minimises to your system tray so
exit it from there as well.
The next step is to convert the back
up in to an xml file. Download and install
Nokia2AndroidSMS. Once it runs, t
should automatically find the SMS backup file. Hit convert and you have only two
steps to go.
Transfer the xml file to your Android
device and run the SMS Backup and
Restore app and hit the restore button.
Transferring contacts on the other
hand is much simpler and only requires
an app available on the Google Play Store.
Download ccdrs Rainbow Contacts. This
app can transfer contacts from virtually any device to your Android phone
through Bluetooth.
Install the app on your Android device
and turn Bluetooth on on the other phone.
When you tap on the Easy Fetch Contacts
button, the phone asks you to keep the
Symbian
In case you owned an old Nokia phone
running the Symbian OS, your work is cut
out for you for one simple reason. Known
simply as Mobile Transfer, this PC software is available at http://dgit.in/mobtransf.
This nifty and powerful little software
has the power to transfer everything from
contacts, call logs, messages and other
miscellaneous data from just about any
phone to any other phone. Since it is one
of the few that suppports and claims compatibilty with over 2000 different models,
in a way, it could justify the fact that the
full version costs about $40 (~`2,419.)
If youd rather not pay the exorbitant
As many devices as colours in a rainbow
Is your security tight?
Whodunnet?
Find out and take soime pointers about good security

and how to improve it. Check out this article:
http://dgit.in/secwa
It has been well-proven that the internet loves

solving mysteries. Here is a list of 7 mysteries
the internet loved: http://dgit.in/whodunnet
other device ready. Hit the OK button when

it is and select the device that contains your
contacts that need to be imported. Your
contacts are imported automatically.
Windows Phone
With no official GMail app for Windows
Phone, transferring contacts just took a
nose dive when it comes to ease of use.
But, assuming you have an account on
Outlook, Hotmail or Windows Live,
things get easier with a PC at hand.
The first step is to export your contacts
from the Microsoft account linked to your
phone. If the contacts are fully synced,
they should appear in the People section
of the drop down menu next to the Outlook button on the top left once you have
signed in from your PC.
Under People, hit Manage and select
Export in the drop down menu. You will
be asked if you would like to save the file
WLMContacts.csv. Save it and half the
work is done.
Two apps to move them all
Next, sign in to your Google account, the

one thats linked to your phone and click
on Contacts. Look for the Manage button
here and select Import from the drop-down
menu. A dialogue box will appear where
you can choose the file you would like to
import. Search for the file you saved from
your Microsoft account and hit Import.
If you sync your GMail account,
your contacts should be restored. You
could also install the Outlook.com app
and sync your contacts to your Android
phone automatically.
If you had enabled and auto backup of
all your images and videos to Onedrive
One PC many USERS, Savings
(previously known as Skydrive), they

can all be brought back to your Android
phone by installing the Onedrive app.
To bring your messages back, well, its
still not possible as of now. While there
are people who claim that it is possible, no
real easy to use methods have emerged.
Although for some reason, restoring
backed up SMSes is possible if youre
moving around within the platform.
What do you do once youve successfully managed to migrate? You could
either do a factory reset and get rid of all
your data, a safe thing to whether your
selling the device or not or just leave the
poor thing at the bottom of your desk
drawer until something happens to your
Android device and you desperately need
a backup phone.
Then again, you could do the responsible thing (if youre not selling) and try
recycling it at atterobay.com or envirocom.
in. Whatever you choose to do, we wish
you the best of luck.
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Disney meets its Maker

Workshop
...and decides to buy it. The company spent 500 Million

dollars on Maker Studios. To find out why and to know
more, read: http://dgit.in/Dis5mil
Spotify targets students
Spotify decides to give college students fifty

per cent off on premium subscriptions:
http://dgit.in/spotstudent
Apps
to fix the
Nexus 5
No phone is perfect. But it can be. We show you how.
Prasad Naik
[email protected]
he Nexus 5 is one of the best

smartphones available on the
market today. It looks great,
has a fantastic, high resolution
display, top notch hardware, the latest version of Android with the promise of quick
updates as soon as Google announces
them and solid overall performance, all at
a relatively wallet-friendly price. Its an
extremely sensible product that you just
cant go wrong with it.
But as is the case with everything, its
not perfect. There are some gripes we
have on both the hardware and software
side and while there is little we can do to
change the hardware, thankfully, we can
improve the software experience with
the help of a few simple applications. So
let us take a look at five apps that help fix
the Nexus 5.
Camera Awesome
The Nexus 5 camera has

received a lot of flak since
its launch. Contrary to popular belief,
though, the actual camera hardware is not
all that bad and you can get some pretty
amazing results with it. Unfortunately,
what lets the camera down in most cases
is the camera application that Google bundles with the phone it just isnt as good.
This is where Camera Awesome comes
in. Camera Awesome comes with a ton of
settings and features that lets you adjust
and play around with a whole bunch of

things before you take your shot. The
range of customisation options available
here is far superior to what you get on the
stock camera app, allowing you to have a
much better control over the final image.
And unlike some of the other third party
camera applications out there, Camera
Awesome also has a good UI design, which
makes accessing all those features easier.
An alternative to this app is VSCO
Cam. While it actually has fewer features
that even the stock camera app, it makes
up by having a ton of image editing features, including some gorgeous, professionally tuned filters for your photos that
will lend a touch of class you cant get with
other apps.
Light Flow
While the Nexus 5 does come

with a multicolor LED for notifications, by default the OS makes rather
poor use of it. It is awfully slow while
blinking in some apps and it wont even
bother glowing to show battery status
while charging or discharging.
Light Flow allows you to customize the
behavior of the LED on your phone. You
can choose when and how the light blinks
for various events and applications. You
even get control over the color of light that
should glow for a particular event or app,
so at a glance you know exactly what your
phone is indicating you about.
Light Flow is a premium app but there
is a free version that you can try out.
Fleksy keyboard
The popular Fleksy keyboard app for Android

now features cloud syncing and achievement
badges http://dgit.in/FleksySeksy
e-smoking: does it work?
According to a recent study by researchers

at the University of California, not at all.
Heres why: http://dgit.in/Esiggy
Workshop
ES File Explorer
The support for a full-fledged

file explorer, such as the ones
you get on a desktop operating system, is
one of the best features of Android. This
is why its so baffling when you find out
that Google does not actually include one
in stock Android, making it only slightly
more functional out of the box than iOS or
Windows Phone.
Thankfully, there is absolutely no
shortage of file managers on the Play
Stores for you to try. One that particularly stands out is ES Explorer with its
laundry list of features. Other than basic
file management tasks you can also open
and compress ZIP and RAR files, manage
other apps on your phone, remotely access
Dice Player
Google has traditionally left

stock Android bereft of a
proper video player. While most other
OEMs have one, including support for
a wide range of codecs and containers,
on Nexus devices you are relegated to
playing only MP4 videos in the default
Gallery app.
Dice Player takes care of that
problem completely. Its a fully functioning video player, with features like
hardware acceleration and subtitle
support. It also supports a wide range
of video formats so you can practically
throw anything at it and it will work.
The interface is also better designed
than some of the other players out there,
such as MX Player, its more reliable
and has less intrusive ads despite being
a free software. Its really is a must-have
if you plan to watch a lot of videos on
your phone.
the files on your phone, edit text files,

access FTP servers, use it as a client for
Dropbox, Box.net, etc. and much, much
more. It is more than youll ever need and
despite that the app is still free.
Only area where ES
Explorer leaves a bit to
be desired is in the UI
department. If youre
someone who prefers
form over function
and dont mind sacrificing some of the
features for a better UI
design, then you can
consider downloading
inKa File Manager.
Hello
With the introduction of

Android 4.4, Google merged the
SMS functionality with the Hangouts application, which was previously just an IM and
video call service. Unfortunately, this was a
very bad idea. While the app is designed to
merge SMS and IM from the same contacts
under one name, we all know no one really
uses SMS anymore for messaging their
family or friends. The only people who
still send SMS are the kind who want your
money for services you dont need.
This means that all your junk SMS, or
basically all your SMS get dumped together
in the same application as your Hangouts
chats, which just makes the experience of
using Hangouts worse. Thankfully, Google
has not made it compulsory to use Hangouts as your SMS app and you can actually
download third party SMS apps to use
instead. This means all your SMS go into a
separate app leaving your Hangouts alone.
Now you could use pretty much any app
for this purpose but we chose to highlight
Hello, here. This is one of the best looking
SMS apps out there, with simple and attractive UI. Its a perfectly good substitute for
the old messaging app on Android and
actually way better looking. And it has
some great features too, such as a message
preview that appears on top of your screen
and quickly dismisses itself, and the ability
to reply, mark as read or delete an SMS
from the notifications screen, as soon as it
arrives. All for a sum of $0.00.
Why the Big Bang?

Q&A
Learn the reason behind why the

Universe blew up 13.8 billion years ago
http://dgit.in/UniBlow
Portal gets 'droided
Portal decides to make an exclusive

appearance on the NVIDIA Shield as an
Android game http://dgit.in/portand
Slow USB transfer speeds,

overclocking issues, multi-monitor
fails. And more...
Well solve them all, Its Team Digit to the rescue
A shocking case!
My computer is working fine but the PC
cabinet is having a problem. Whenever I
touch the PC case barefooted, I get an
electric shock. I used an electric tester to
touch the case and saw that current was
flowing through every metal part of the
case. Will this damage the components in
my PC in an way? If yes then what should
I do? Please suggest a solution for this?
Keep up the good work.
-Chinmoy
In most cases, computer cabinets shock
users when there is no electrical
grounding or grounding is insufficient in
the wall sockets to which the computer is
connected to. Sometimes it is also due to a
faulty or cheap Power Supply Unit(PSU).
Stray current is never good for components and it sure can damage them. To get
rid of this, your only solution is to first call
in an electrician and tell him to check the
electrical grounding in your home and fix
it if its improper. You should now be able
to touch your PC case without getting a
shock but if the problem still persists, get
your computers PSU also checked, it can
also be the culprit.
Slow USB transfer

I recently built a new PC and installed
Windows 7 on it. Everything works absolutely fine on the system but whenever I
transfer data on storage devices over USB,
the transfer speed is very slow. I tried
to figure out a way of fixing this by going
to the Control Panel but I found nothing
helpful. Please help me resolve this issue.
-Nirav Gadre
Windows 7 has a few known USB
performance issues when it comes to
using USB storage devices. But rest easy

as Microsoft took care of that with
Windows Updates. So the first thing that
you should do here is to run Windows
Update and fully update your OS. Next,
you should also install the latest drivers for
your motherboard. Dont leave anything
out especially the drivers for discrete USB
controllers if any. Once youre done with
that, you should also try setting your USB
drives to performance mode. To do this,
right-click on computer > Click Manage >
Select Device Manager from the list of
options > right-click on the USB drive >
Overclocking help
I recently upgraded my CPU to an AMD
Phenom II 1100T from an AMD Phenom
II 965 BE. I'm having a few problems
trying to overclock the CPU in the BIOS
of my motherboard which is: MSI 890FX
A-GD70. Also, I need to know how can
I change the various voltages if the only
setting in BIOS is Auto? Finally, I just
want to overclock the CPU, not the RAM.
Which voltages should I tweak in the
BIOS? Should the voltage change be
higher or lower?
-Mukul Anand
Better performance
Select Properties from the menu. A

window will pop-up once you do that.
Click on Policies tab > Select the option
button labelled Better Performance. This
should improve the USB transfer speed.
But do remember that enabling the Better
Performance feature will also enable write
caching, so youll have to always use the
Safely Remove Hardware option when
disconnecting the USB storage drive to
prevent data loss issues.
Overclocking a PC though sounds

very exciting, its something you should
think twice before doing as youre always
in the risk of damaging the components of
your PC if something goes wrong. Since
youre using a MSI 890FX A-GD70,
changing the voltages is fairly simple.
Start up your PC > go the BIOS > Go to
VDD field which should be set to Auto
by default. Now you can use the plus or
minus buttons of your keyboard to
MS-DOS Source code
Microsoft releases the source code for MSDOS 1.1, 2.0 and Word 1.1
http://dgit.in/DosSource
increase or decrease the voltage. Please

note that you should be running the latest
version of your motherboards BIOS
which is a must. Now, as you only want to
overclock your CPU and not the RAM,
increase the setting for either the Adjust
CPU FSB Frequency or the Adjust CPU
Ratio. Tweaking the CPU FSB should
increase the DRAM clocks, while
tweaking the CPU Ratio should leave the
RAM out of the process. If you want to
keep your RAM within a particular
desired limit according to the CPU while
doing an FSB overclock, you can simply
change the FSB/DRAM Ratio until the
frequency is at the required clock. If for
some reason you decide that you want to
set it back to auto, simply go to that field
and type auto or select it. Generally
while overclocking, adding voltage and
not lowering voltage, is the key to
achieving higher overclocks. But tread
cautiously as the margin of error and risks
increases as you keep on adding voltage.
So dont add tons of voltage at one go
without knowing what youre doing.
Virtual Machine sharing

Lately Ive been doing a lot of tinkering on
Virtual Machines. I recently set up Windows 8 on a virtual machine so that I can
run it while Windows 7 runs on my other
monitor. I wanted to know whether there
is any way for the virtual machine that
has Windows 8 running on it to access the
les utilized by my Windows 7 installation? I want to do this as it would save a
lot of my time from having to download
les again and would allow
access to documents,
photos, etc. Thanks in
advance for your help.
-Bharat Shah
Since you havent
mentioned which Virtual
Machine software youre
using, were assuming that
youre using VirtualBox as
VirtualBox
weve recommended it to
our readers quite a few
times. To do what you asked for, go to the
Devices menu in the Virtual Machine
while Windows 8 is running and select
Install Guest Additions. Once the
NVIDIA NextGen
NVIDIA announces the launch of the next

generation of GPUs. Read more and find out:
http://dgit.in/nvdnxg
Q&A
NVIDIA control panel for tweaking multiple displays
installation is complete and you have

restarted or rebooted the virtual machine,
go back to Devices and select Shared
Folders > Add shared folder. From there,
choose where you want your shared
folder to appear on your Windows 7
(main) OS. If for example you want it on
the desktop then create the folder
required on the desktop. If you want it to
be a permanent change and make it
appear always, be sure you select the
options for auto-mount and make
permanent. Any le you copy into the
created folder on your main OS (which is
Windows 7) should now
appear in the folder on the
OS in your Virtual
Machine by clicking the
Windows Explorer icon
seen on the desktop.
Multi-monitor
woes
I have a decent PC and
I recently bought a new
monitor for use as a second
display for a multi-monitor
setup. My problem is that whenever I connect the second monitor, the display isnt
recognised. Ive checked both the monitors
by connecting them individually to the PC
and they work well. Its only when I connect

two at a time that I run into trouble. What
would be the reason for this? Please advise.
-Avinash Mulay
This can often happen when you set out
to configure a multi-monitor setup.
Usually, systems that are running the
default Windows drivers have known
issues with this. So to set it up, firstly youll
have to make sure that youre running the
latest graphics drivers. Go to your graphics
card manufacturers website to download
and install the latest drivers. Once youre
done updating the drivers, head over to the
control panel of the graphics drivers to
enable the second display. You will usually
find the menu for enabling the second
monitor under the Set up multiple
displays tab in most graphics driver
control panels. Next, if you are using a
VGA-to-DVI adapter, sometimes DVI ports
dont tend to work. So if there are two ports
on your graphics card, then you should try
them both to check which one works for
you. Lastly, press [Win]+[P] button
combination to select from among extend,
duplicate and other screen options for use.
After youve performed all the above
checks, you should be able to see both the
monitors work.
Column
25 years of spinning the web!
T
Jayesh Shinde
Manager - Test Centre
[email protected]
But is the web

dealing with
a quarter life
crisis? We would
be naive to think
that everything
on the web was
hunky dory.
o this day, I remember the exact

moment of my first encounter with
the World Wide Web. It was at a
friends place who much to my
envy had managed to cajole his father into getting him a PC with dial-up internet connection slightly before I could successfully sucker
my own father into it. And although out of
my pre-adolescent pride I vowed never to see
my friends face ever again, my curiosity got
the better of me. I was amazed with the whole
dial-up connection process and the popping up
of IE to display Yahoos homepage, signalling
the successful link to the internet. It remains
one of my most cherished memories, rivalled
only by my other first encounter with a true
tech marvel a 3D printer. Even all those years
ago, the internet and the world wide web in
it didnt reveal the scale of its impact itd have
on my life.
Of course, the web has transformed into an
entity beyond anyones wildest imaginations
surpassing even Arthur C. Clarkes prediction
of all-pervasive, internet-connected personal
computers. It has disrupted markets, created
new ones, brought the world and the human
race closer than ever before in any time in history. People dont read newspapers anymore
but websites and web feeds; from browsing
websites on PCs to apps on smartphones and
tablets; from shopping at brick and mortar
stores to clicking a button and ordering goods/
services online. The web has changed us. From
Yahoo and Google to social networks like
Facebook and Twitter, we have fundamentally
altered the way we find information and communicate with others of our species.
On the heels of companies that expanded
the scope of the web, came companies that
added software and services on the webs infrastructure, and now we are entering a phase of
the web (and the internet) thats increasingly
making it all-pervasive and invisible. The
number of people I encounter whove never
heard a phones dial tone, or dont remember a
pre-internet world (because they werent born
in it), is steadily increasing. Digital natives for
whom the web is the same as air and water. All
of this in a quarter of a century. Wow, would be
an understatement, dont you think?
But is the web dealing with a quarter life

crisis? We would be naive to think that everything on the web was hunky dory.
Spam continues to wreak havoc on the webs
infrastructure, despite Bill Gates infamous
2004 prediction that spam will be gone in
two years. Similarly, after Edward Snowdens
NSA leaks, Columbia Journalism Reviews
1995 prediction of the web means the end of
Big Brother couldnt be light years away from
reality as we know it today. The webs scope
and magnitude is so huge that countries and
companies have now started to put up fences
to regulate access to it. The webs wild wild
west days are all but over, as its set to become
more mature. Lets hope that in the process it
doesnt fully extinguish the spark that ignited
it in the first place, and the founding principles
governing its birth.
But lets not be overcautious and get carried
away with cynicism. The webs story is still
unfolding in front of our eyes, and from where
I can see its full of limitless possibilities.
All of us born before the mid 90s have
seen the web evolve and expand in front of our
eyes, and weve evolved along with it. Countless pen strokes and keystrokes have chronicled Tim Berners-Lees idea of a hypertext
web and how it came to be, so I wont repeat
the same here. Its time to just sit back and tip
your hat to the web, and where its taken thus
far. And the exciting journey all of us still have
to embark upon in the webs unknown yet
exciting future.
I N SIDE
Page 71
Sony VAIO
Flip 13
Bazaar
The latest products

reviewed For you
The Digit Test Centre receives hundreds of products

every month. Each of these products is put through
a series of tests and is finally given a score. The
final score is arrived at after considering a number
of factors and evaluating them in terms of features,
performance, value for money, build quality, and, in
the case of software, even ease of use.
Page 72
Harman/Kardon
Go + Play
Wireless
Page 73
Acer Travelmate
P645
Page 73
Minix Neo X7
For better understanding of our ratings, heres a

quick guide to our overall score
10
to
30
Extremely poor product.
31
to
50
Strictly OK.
51
to
70
Decent product.
71
to
90
Very good product.
91
to 100
Keep away!
Not recommended
Page 74
ASRock H81 Pro
BTC
Go for it, but there may be better products out there.
Page 75
Plantronics
Voyager Legend
UC
Highly recommended.
Ground-breaking product.
Weve never seen anything like it before.

A definite must buy!
PLUS
70 | Gigabyte H81M-DS2
70 | MSI A88X-G45 Gaming Assassins
Creed Edition
70 | Nexstar HDD Dock NSTD306WS3
72 | ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Black Edition
75 | Steelseries 6G V2
Corsairs new budget cases
Corsair pulled the covers off three new computer cases from the
Carbide Series SPEC range. Each of the three cases - SPEC-01,
02, 03 will be available for cheap. http://dgit.in/CarbideSPEC
Bazaar
Plantronics
Voyager Legend CS
Bluetooth Headset
Cam up
Here are some interesting and rudimentary

ways to use your phone camera more
productively http://dgit.in/ONtzn5
MSI A88X-G45 Nexstar

Gaming
HDD Dock
Assassins
NSTD306WS3
Creed Edition Finicky app implementation
A gaming goodie basket
Must have, if you keep juggling between

the smartphone and the landline
he Voyager Legend
has the signature
Plantronics design,
with the boom microphone arm design reminding
us of the Plantronics Discovery 975 headset. Despite
being plastic, the headset feels
very premium and well built.
To hook up the wireline
deskphone to it, there is the
interface cable that connects
your phone to the dock and the
HL-10 handset lifter accessory.
This lets you answer calls on
that particular phone as well
with the headset.
The latest update of the
Voyager Legend gets three
microphones, instead of two
microphones earlier. This has
made a remarkable difference
in the audio quality, in noisy
areas. The idea behind this
80
Features.....................................90
Performance.............................90
Build............................................80
Value...........................................60
Specifications
Compatibility: Desk phone and

mobile phone/tablet; Connectivity:
Bluetooth; v3.0 + EDR; Headset
weight: 18 grams
Contact
Plantronics India Pvt Ltd

Phone: +91 124 4105192 / 93
Website: www.plantronics.com/in
Price 7
4,68
Price 0
12,00
update is to improve noise cancellation, but while the caller

at the other end of the line
was able to hear me clearly
through the general disorder
on our streets, they also were
able to hear ambience. However, with the improved audio,
the call quality for both parties
is significantly improved.
Plantronics claims 7 hours
of talktime on a single charge
of the Voyager Legend, and
11 days of stand-by time. We
used it for a couple of hours of
calls for each of the three days,
and remained switched on
and ready 8 hours a day, and
the battery recharge prompt
still hasnt graced us! This is
surprisingly good.
Plantronics has positioned the Voyager Legend CS
more at the office user, than
someone who needs a Bluetooth headset for the smartphone. And quite frankly, itll
be an overkill for anything
lesser. Worth every penny.
Vishal Mathur
Price 0
10,3a5)
SIs latest
(+ T x
entrant in
its gaming series of
motherboards caters to AMD
processors. With an A88X
chip at its heart, this board
supports AMDs Kaveri APU.
Build quality is up to mark
as well, the CPU socket is
reinforced with a metal plate
on the underside and the CPU
socket can accommodate highend coolers with ease. A Killer
E2205 NIC ensures reduction
of lag at the user end and an
ALC1150 is as good as most
low-end sound cards, if not
better. Also theres a free game
inside. Overall, thumbs up.
hile the device

performs as expected
when connected via USB 3.0
its Wi-Fi performance isnt
stellar. Firstly, there is no
external antenna which limits
the drives range. On top of
that you can only have Wi-Fi
or USB 3.0 at any given time.
The app does allow you to
fiddle with the configuration
but it would have been better
had they provided the ability
to use an external player
with the app since there are
very few formats that the app
supports. The device has a
minimalist design. However,
the device more than provides
for your moneys worth.
62
67
Features.....................................58
Build............................................75
Features.....................................64
Build............................................60
Specifications
Specifications
Chipset: AMD A88X; Memory

support: 4x2400(OC)MHz upto
32GB; LAN: Killer E2205 Gigabit
Ethernet; Audio: ALC1150 7.1; SATA:
8x SATA III; Expansion: PCIe x16,
2x PCIe X16(x8+x4); Dimensions
(LxWxD): 305 mm x 244 mm;
Warranty: 3 years
Contact
Acro Engineering Company

Phone: 11-40525645
Website: http://www.
smcinternational.in/
Device Support: SATA I/II/III;

Form factor: 2.5-inch & 3.5-inch;
Interface: USB 3.0; File System:
NTFS, FAT32; System OS Support:
Windows XP, Vista, 7 & 8, Mac OS X
10.6+, Linux; Mobile OS Support:
iOS 4.0+ Android Phone 2.1+, Tablets
3.0+; Wi-Fi: 802.11n; Dimensions: 136
x 83 x 87 mm; Warranty - 1 year
Contact
Prime ABGB
Phone: 22-6740 2000
Website: http://www.primeabgb.com/
Moto X launched in India
Transparent speakers?
After its successful stint with the Moto G,

Flipkart launched the Moto X in India available
for `23.999 http://dgit.in/MotoXIndia
Clearview Clio are the worlds first and only transparent

wireless speakers featuring a single curved glass pane
Bazaar
with a minimalistic design. http://dgit.in/TranSpeak
Sony VAIO Flip 13
Interesting hybrid, let down by poor build & expensive price
he Flip 13 carries a lot of the design elements from some of the recent VAIO notebook refreshes. The lid and the palmrest
area get the brushed aluminum finish, and
the single colour tone across the entire construction. However, the hybrid mechanism does make
the lid thicker than what it ideally could have been.
Despite the use of materials that look good,
there is quite a bit of flex at multiple points on the
chassis, like the palmrest area, the lid and the base.
The palmrest area dips in and creaks relatively
easily even though your palms may just be resting
there as you type. The materials look good and they
dont feel bad at all, but the final build quality is
definitely inadequate for this price tag.
With a name like Flip, one must assume by
default that this is Sonys answer to Lenovos
largely successful line of Yoga notebooks. While
the Yoga machines would twist and turn over
backwards, the VAIO Flip actually does all the
hybrid stuff, with the lid. Very smartly, the lid is
divided into two, right down the middle. One half
remains as it is, while the other has a hinge which
allows you to push the display away from the lid by
pressing at the back.
In the tablet mode, the Flip 13 is fairly usable.
But, at 1.3kg, it is primarily designed to be used as
a laptop, with the additional flexibility of the tablet
mode that you may use from time to time.
The 13.3-inch display is 1080p, and is among
the crispest laptop screens in this size. The glass
coating does make this somewhat glossy, but
what you do get is adequate compensation with
very good native brightness levels, vivid colours
and very comfortable text readability. The IPS
panel has advantages with colour accuracy and
viewing angles.
The Flip 13s keyboard is similar to the island
style keyboard seen on the other VAIO notebooks.
The key size is adequate, but personally, I find the
spacing a tad too much, so much so that the fingers
have to search for the next key. Travel and response
is also on the softer side, clearly an indication
of how Sony have put this keyboard in without
wanting to compromise on the predefined slimness
of the machine. A large touch pad is a welcome
addition though, and works well for multi-finger
gestures, particularly makes scrolling a lot easier.
The unit has an Intel Core i5-4200U processor
clocking at 1.6GHz, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB solid
Price 0
9
99,9
state drive. This is the same processor that we have

seen on many ultrabooks and laptops in the last
few months, including Sonys own ultrabook. The
benchmark scores dont scorch any charts, but the
performance is consistent and smooth. The SSD
is what makes a world of difference in terms of its
performance. Thanks to its SSD, Windows boots
up in around 5 seconds, and apps open and close
quickly. You will hardly notice any system load
even during heavy multitasking.
The battery life is something that is fairly
impressive. In the stressing battery test, the VAIO
Flip 13 clocked 226 minutes. While this is some
distance away from the best battery life scores on
laptops and ultrabooks, this 3.5 hours approx in
the test will actually result in around minimum 5
hours of backup, in most usage scenarios.
Sony seems to have taken the idea of a Windows
convertible to heart. The latest from them is the
VAIO Flip 13, following on from the VAIO Duo.
But, things arent what they seem. In the traditional
laptop mode, this is pretty much the ultrabook you
would have wanted. But, the twisty and bendy bits
arent impressive, and the slide this out and twist
this here process is something that you will have
to remember - it doesnt come naturally. Unless
you want an ultrabook that can do all the Matrix
style show off, you would be better off spending
this much money on a more conventional laptop
or ultrabook. Alternatively, if the tablet mode is
something that you really want as an additional
capability for your laptop, then the Asus Taichi
is an option, that does the same thing in a much
neater way.
Vishal Mathur
69
Features......................... 80
Performance................. 80
Build................................ 60
Value............................... 55
Specifications
Processor: Intel Core

i5-4200U @ 1.6GHz; RAM:
4GB; Storage: 128GB SSD;
Display: 13.3-inch IPS (1920
x 1080-pixel); Graphics: Intel
HD; OS: Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Contact
Sony India Pvt Ltd

Phone: 1800-103-7799
Website: www.sony.co.in
Game your throne
Here is some interesting merchandize for

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Bazaar
ASUS Chromebox
ASUS Chromebox, the chrome OS-powered

mini PC is now available for pre-order online
for $179. http://dgit.in/AChromebox
Harman/Kardon ASUS Rampage

Go + Play Wireless IV Extreme Black
speaker
Edition
A slightly pricey, but very impressive
Bluetooth speaker
Decked to the hilt, this board has almost

everything youll need
t seems as a mix of
a stream iron,
an aliens
helmet, a
ghetto blaster from
the 80s and a
womans handbag!
Harman/Kardon
Price 0
9
While the predecessor
has clearly not
24,9
had combined 120
compromised on the
watts of power, the Go
quality of materials
+ Play Wireless is limited
used. The top now has the
to 90 watts - 2 x 15W Ridge
on/off/source-select button
tweeters and 2 x 30W Atlas
and volume controls on the
woofers. But, this all seems
non-slip rubber surface.
to be relevant only on the
The standout element, the
specification sheet, because
aluminum handlebar, runs
the performance of the Wirefrom edge to edge, also ending
less is extremely impressive.
up creating two of the four
One thing that stands out is
rubber-capped metal feet.
the ease with which the Go +
On paper, the Go + Play
Play Wireless handles vocals
Wireless is slightly down
and bass, without disapon power as compared to
pointing the fans of either.
the previous dock version.
The one niggle with the Go
+ Play Wireless is the midrange isnt very detailed. This
speaker is great for uptempo
music - trance, remixes and
rock music, but you cannot
Features.....................................75
really expect this to shine with
Performance.............................85
the classics. What continues
Build............................................80
to impress is the power this
Value...........................................75
speaker packs in. This thing
can go really loud, and is
Specifications
enough to drive a house party.
Drivers: 2 x 15W Ridge tweeters and
The Go + Play Wireless
2 x 30W Atlas woofers; Connectivity:
speaker packs in considerBluetooth; Compatibility: iOS,
able amount of power for its
Android, Windows, Mac; USB: Yes, for
charging only; Battery: D-cell
size. Buy this, if you want
one speaker that is equally
Contact
comfortable in a small room as
Harman India Pvt. Ltd.
well as a party at home.
Phone: 1800 108 1234
Website: www.harman.in
Vishal Mathur
79
here are very

few reasons for
which anyone
would invest
in the X79 platform and
when you do so youd
want to juice it for all
its worth. The ASUS
Rampage IV Extreme
Black Edition motherboard is one such board.
Surprisingly, its not the
most expensive X79
motherboard. As for
Price 0
75
features, weve noticed
overclock directly. The
35,Tax)
(+
that this board doesnt
BIOS allows you to cuscome with a FireWire
tomise so many options
or COM port. Then again
that youd constantly end
these are some niche connecup screwing up your bios contors that very few find any
figuration. Thankfully, theyve
use for. This board is made
included a secondary BIOS
for overclocking, everything
chip for these scenarios.
from the CPU socket to the
Mithun Mohandas
fact that theyve included
an external module catered
towards making the work of
an overclocker a lot less miserable. You even have built-in
WiFi and four PCIe x16 slots
Features.....................................69
of which two run at x8 conBuild............................................85
figuration.
The audio has an EMI
Specifications
shield and an OP-AMP to
Chipset: Intel X79; Memory
support: 8x2800(OC)MHz upto 64GB;
help drive high impedance
LAN: Intel 82579V Gigabit Ethernet;
headphones. There is even
Audio: ROG SupremeFX Black 7.1;
a feature called Sonic Radar
SATA: 6x SATA III; Expansion: PCIe
which portrays the direction
x16, 2x PCIe X16(x8+x4); Dimensions
from where certain sounds
Warranty: 3 years.
come from while playing
games. Purists might call this
Contact
a hack but we dont judge.
ASUS Technology Pvt. Ltd.
You can even hot-wire the
Phone: 18002090365
graphics card directly onto the
Website: http://www.asus.in/
OC Panel and then control the
77
SteelSeries Sensei wireless
SteelSeries recently announced the availability of its Sensei

wireless gaming mouse for $160. The mouse is SteelSeries
Engine 3 CloudSync compatible. http://dgit.in/NewSensei
Hasselblad Lunar
The camera that made it to

the mood and back $910,000
http://dgit.in/1oTOXUB
Bazaar

78
Features......................... 76
Performance................. 79
Build................................ 80
Value............................... 75
Specifications
Display: 14-inch, 1366x768

res; CPU: Intel Core i5
4200U; RAM: 4GB; HDD:
500GB; OS: Windows 8
Pro 64-bit; Connectivity:
Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11
bgn, Bluetooth, SD Card;
Battery: 3 cells; Other
features: Fingerprint
reader, TPM, Dust Defender;
Warranty: 1 yr
Contact
Acer India Pvt Ltd

Phone: 1800 103 3311
Website: ww.acer.co.in
Does what it claims to do very well indeed
he Travelmate is Acers notebook

series of business machines,
and the Travelmate P645 is one
fine specimen of the
bunch. Its built well, which
is a great quality to have in
Price 2
any business laptop, with
67,41
no creaky joints or parts
that flex overmuch all
credit to a metal alloy
body and metal hinges.
The 14-inch form factor of
the laptop weighs just 1.52-kg which
is great to carry it around the boardroom or longdistance flights.
The Travelmate P645 has good hardware
features, when it comes to processor, RAM, hard
drive, etc., and other basics, as you can see from
its specs sheet. All the parts used are latest and
this ensures the machine performs well, whether
its multitasking or some occasional entertain-
ment, as its multimedia

performance is quite nice.
The matte screen is great
for reading texts and its
non-reflective natures a
rarity on screens this day.
The P645s security features
include a fingerprint reader
and onboard TPM module to
encrypt all your sensitive data.
The laptop sports great battery life lasting over 4 hours on
benchmark test, which is indicative
of up to 7-8 hours of real-world usage.
Its only downer was the laptops keyboard which
had keys with very short travel, making fast typing
a bit difficult. But we are truly nitpicking here. If
you want a thin, ultraportable business laptop that
looks fine and performs admirably, the Acer Travelmate P645 is worth considering.
Jayesh Shinde
Minix Neo X7 Android Media Hub

Packing enough punch in a small form factor
ou might not have heard about Minix but

using the remote to navigate through the interthey seem to be an established brand.
face but it is quite cumbersome when you have
The Neo X7 is the latest that they have to
to type. So when the need to type arises youd be
offer and has a beefy 1.6 GHz quad core
better off with a wireless keyboard and mouse.
processor coupled with a Mali 400 (SoC RockThe device runs on Android 4.2.2 so you dont
chip RK3188). Its more than sufficient to play
need to worry about file formats since
1080p videos without any noticeable lag
there are numerous players available for
Price 0
in playback. Even after having a 1080p
Android that can play almost every format
14,99
movie play for close to an hour
under the sun, MX Player is the first
on the Neo X7, while playing
that comes to mind. Minix
trailers on the Youtube app for
even included a custom
extended periods did not cause
launcher with the device
the device to heat up. What
but we still prefer the
we did notice was that the
familiar vanilla android
Antutu benchmark would
interface. The MINIX
only run at 1280x720 and
launcher is pretty simple
not at 1920x1080 even when
with huge icons which
the screen was set to Full
can be seen from a long
HD-60fps.
distance, alas, the remote
The device is well built
is too finicky.
and you have the option of
Mithun Mohandas
70
Features......................... 65
Build................................ 75
Specifications
Processor: 1.6 GHz QuadCore Cortex A9; GPU: QuadCore Mali 400; Memory:
2GB; Internal Storage:
16GB; Connectivity: Wi-Fi
802.11n Dual-Band, 100 Mbps
Ethernet; OS: Android 4.2.2;
HDMI: 1.4a, Full HD 1080p,
SD/MMC card reader; Audio
In/Out: 3.5mm stereo, USB
2.0 HOST port x 3; Micro:
USB OTG port x 1; Power DC 5V 3A; Warranty: 1 year
Contact
Shri Satyam Electronics

Phone: 020-26898775
Email: NA
Website: www.
universalsmarttv.com
Origin Genesis
Treat yourself to the lap of gaming luxary with

the Origin Genesis, Read on to know more:
http://dgit.in/1gtqCDS
Bazaar
On the verge of vox
Nilay Patel moves from Verge to Vox.com.

Interesting career choice. Read on to know
more: http://dgit.in/1dictJ7
ASRock H81 Pro BTC

Its time to start mining for cryptocurrency
This way you can start off on a familiar platform

and then move onto something more complex when
the need arises. The H81 Pro BTC has one PCIe
x16 slot so that traditional GPUs can be mounted.
In order to utilise the remaining five PCIe x1 slots
youll need to make use of PCIe riser cards which
can communicate with traditional GPUs as well
but dont expect to get video output from them.
Buildwise the board cant fit six GPUs since
it is not only physically impossible but the heat
generated by doing so will also be detrimental
to all the components. Also there are two extra
molex power connectors on the motherboard
to supplement the GPUs and these need to be
connected to the same power supply as the
GPUs. Now thats a difficult prospect since
Price0
traditional GPUs require a lot of power in
0
5,5ax)
terms of wattage. Youll need to daisy chain
(+ T
a couple of PSUs to obtain enough power to
he world has gone nuts with cryptorun all the GPUs at full loaf. Even the ASIC
currency and everyone is into mining
PCIe bitcoin mining cards require a lot of power,
Bitcoins and other digital currencies like
the 600 GH/s capable card requires 350W which
Litecoins, Dogecoins etc., So much comis quite a lot. However, with six such cards your
puting power is currently is in use in this domain
mining potential rises to 600 x 6 = 3600 GH/s.
that the difficulty of mining these coins has risen
That translates roughly 0.366 bitcoins generated
considerably (the number of coins mined is directly
per day, thats $207 per day.
proportional to the difficulty).
The remaining components on the motherboard
One can mine these coins on all platforms, you
happen to be standard faire with the 5.1 audio
can use your phone or tablet, your CPU or your
output and gigabit ethernet port. And 16 GBs of
graphics card. However, these platforms are no
RAM is more than necessary for a rig devoted
longer viable. The simple reason is that the difto purely mining. Which is why a H81 chipset is
ficulty parameter is so high that in order to break
all that you need, anything higher is completely
even youd have to mine for hundreds of years.
useless. Our testing methodology pits this board
But thats not considering the electricity costs,
against other high-end boards and thus, this board
bring that into the picture and you are never going
scores lower. But you need to keep in mind that
to earn at all. Dont lose hope because now you
this board is for a specialised purpose and thus is
have ASIC miners which are basically simple
devoid of features that are generally available on
processors that can crunch a high volume of
other boards. USB 3.0 ports are not present on this
these calculations.
board because the bandwidth that would usually
Graphics cards are similar to ASIC in function
have been allotted for USB 3.0 has been repurposed
but the volume of calculations they can manage is
to make more PCIE slots available. Other than that,
considerably lower. Yet new ASICs have come into
this board even has a parallel port and a COM port
the picture that have been constructed to commuwhich means you can use legacy hardware with it.
nicate via PCIe which means one can still utilise a
One issue that we happen to have is that with
high computational workload on the motherboard.
this particular board they havent included any
These cards, however, do not need the full x16
riser cards which are absolutely essential in order
bandwidth that a PCIe port provides. x1 is more
to make use of this board in the first place. Other
than enough since the data being sent is simply a
than that, the ASRock H81 Pro BTC is worth what
hash and a set of instructions.
you pay for and great to dabble in bitcoins.
ASRock has come out with the H81 Pro BTC for
this very purpose of mining coins using your PC.
Mithun Mohandas
T
58
Features......................... 41
Build................................ 75
Specifications
Chipset: H81; Memory

support: 2x1600MHz
upto 16GB; LAN: Realtek
RTL8111GR Gigabit Ethernet;
Audio: ALC662 5.1; SATA:
2x SATA III; Expansion: PCIe
x16, 5x PCIe X1; Dimensions
Warranty: 3 years
Contact
Mediaman Infotech
Phone: 022 - 43441111
Email: sales@mediaman.
co.in
Website: http://www.
mediaman.co.in
Apple Boxd
Apple decides to enter the set-top box

market in association with comcast
http://dgit.in/1nTyGBW
The VR Experience
Man recounts his experience with Virtual

Reality and talks about the impact it had on him.
http://dgit.in/Q7hHNI
Bazaar
Plantronics Voyager Legend UC

Single solution for bluetooth on smartphone and for VOIP on PC
85
Features......................... 90
Performance................. 90
Build................................ 80
Value............................... 70
Specifications
Compatibility: mobile
phone/tablet and VOIP via
Bluetooth; Connectivity:
Bluetooth; v3.0 + EDR;
Headset weight: 18 grams
Contact
Plantronics India Pvt Ltd

Phone: +91 124 4105192 / 93
Website: plantronics.com
call, pick up the headset and put it to your

he UC package includes a Blueear - the call is automatically answered.
tooth dongle for connecting to
Similarly, remove the headset
the PC, and a charging case
from the ear during a call, and
that doubles up for storage
the call is transferred back to
as well. The case itself is brilthe phone.
liantly designed, with the
Plantronics has
smoked translucent lid.
positioned the Voyager
The battery in this case can
Legend UC offering more
be charged via the Micro
at the business user, more
USB port.
than someone who needs
Hooking up to Bluetooth
a Bluetooth headset just for
is a fairly simple activity. This
using with the smartphone.
works with any PC or Mac, and is
The price isnt the most afforddesigned for use with VOIP calls, like
able, but the dual usage is brilliant
Skype. The one headset solution for your
for the workstation. The call quality
phone and the voice over IP calls on the PC
Price 0
is brilliant, thanks to the improved mics,
works well.
12,99
and the battery life is very good. Consider
The sensing feature in the Voyager
this, if you want one solution between your
headset is extremely neat, and understands
smartphone and Skype.
when you are using the headset and when it is
lying on the table or in a bag. Receive an incoming
Vishal Mathur
Steelseries 6G V2
A rugged vanilla keyboard
It is one of the heaviest boards that weve had the

he Steelseries 6GV2 is a scaled down varpleasure of experiencing. The base of the board has
iant of the Steelseries 7G, with the palm rest
4 rubberised feet that give it a little traction, and the
taken out. Also missing are the audio and
increased weight helps keep the board from moving
USB ports. Other than the palm rest, the
at all. Something that arose after a lot of usage was
differences barely make any difference to the way
that of key-popping.
the keyboard affects your typing. If youve moved
The 2m cable is a huge boon and they keyboard
from a non-mechanical keyboard to the 6GV2 then
features 6 key rollover on the USB port which is
you can expect a lot of accidental key presses along
more than adequate for a gaming keyboard.
the bottom row.
The left Windows key has been swapped
However, that only takes a little getting
out for a Steelseries key that enables media
used to. The major advantage to the Steelrice
P
7,730
control. While this is a
series 6GV2 and its
welcome change while
higher-end variant
gaming, the inability
is that these units
to map this very key
are built to take a lot
to anything else is a
of punishment. The
little cumbersome.
construction of the
Overall, the keyboards made ample
board is quite durable
use of metal and plastic
and performs well.
adding to the overall
weight of the keyboard.
Mithun Mohandas
57
Features: ....................... 60
Build Quality: ............... 55
Value for money: ......... 55
Specifications
Key type: Mechanical Cherry MX Black; Key count:

104; nKRO: 6KRO; Macro
keys: 0; Body material:
plastic and metal; Backlit:
No; Game mode: No; Cable
length: 2m; Dimensions: 84
x 55 x 320 mm; Warranty:
1 year
Contact
Faxtel Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Phone: 91-022-2611 3055
Website: mumsales@
faxtelindia.com
Googles killer product

Tablets under `25,000
A long and insightful take on how Googles the

only company with a successful smartwatch in
the works: http://dgit.in/1fdpW0h
A rare scientific feat
Regale in the moment when a

Stanford physicists 30 yr old theorys
proven right. http://dgit.in/OUuUIC
A Clean Slate
We test ten affordable quad-core tablets from reputed brands
and a few from new kids on the block to see which one makes
the cut for your best needs
The webs next 25 years
The WWW is 25 years old, but how will it evolve

in the next quarter century? We investigate:
http://dgit.in/1gUo3oA
Kunal Khullar
[email protected]
he defining benchmark
of a Post PC era is that
tablets are becoming
hugely popular and are giving
a stiff competition to laptops
and ultrabooks. And why not?
They are much more portable
and offer almost all the features
and capabilities one can get on
a laptop. Most modern-day
tablets are easily as powerful
(if not more) as two-three year
old laptops.
The slate has been prevalent for quite a few years but the
modern age tablet gained popularity and traction in the year
2010. In our opinion the credit
goes to Apple for shaping the
tablet market when it released
the first iPad in 2010 and
pushed tablet segment into the
mainstream consumer market.
The company also brought in
capacitive touchscreens to the
tablet category which meant
that users could just tap away
with their fingers without
having to rely on a stylus pen.
A number of manufacturers followed Apples move and today
every hardware-based technology company operating in
Simmtronics XPAD Turbo
the consumer space has a tablet

to offer.
According to the International Data Corp. (IDC) the year
2013 saw a rise of 50.6% in tablet
sales with the worldwide tablet
shipments totalling to 217.1
million, an increase from 144.2
million in 2012. For the Indian
market, researchers have predicted that the period of 20132014 will see a boost of 50% in
the sales on tablets. These numbers are actually huge and are
a big threat for laptop makers
as the tablet has been marginalizing PCs and laptops for quite
some time. A large chunk of the
total number of tablets in the
market is occupied by Android
as it has become the dominating
platform in the mobile device
industry purely by number of
devices adopting it. Apart from
Android one can even get their
hands on a Windows 8.1 running tablet under a budget of
`25,000 which provides the
Modern UI, as well as proper
desktop mode just like a PC.
Today, manufacturers like
Apple and Samsung offer tablets in a premium range but a
large portion of consumers in
the Indian market opt for more
affordable tablets to fit their
budgets. While we are on the
subject, the budget category of
tablets has widened a lot and
with Indian brands bringing
in a mix of their own products,
there has been an increase in
variety as well. If we look back
to 2013, getting your hands on a
powerful tablet meant shelling
out a lot of money. But times
have changed and one can
easily get a tablet running on a
quad-core processor with plenty
of features under a budget
of `20,000 without breaking
a sweat.
For this shootout we have
picked tablets from well-known
companies and also some indig-
Universes size
A very easy explanation to

understanding the size and scope of
the universe. http://dgit.in/OUxCxH
enous brands which provide

some competitive features. The
focus here is on tablets selling
around `25,000 which attracts
the majority of the consumers.
We have included eight Android
tablets namely the Dell Venue
7 and Venue 8, iberry Auxus
CoreX8, iBall Slide 3G Q1035,
Micromax Canvas Tab, Google
Nexus 7 (2013), MTV Slash 4X
and Simmtronics XPad Turbo.
We have also included two Windows 8.1 tablets one from Dell
and one from Acer.
THE PLATFORMS
Android had stepped into the
tablet game by releasing a different version altogether (3.0
Honeycomb) which was specifically designed for tablets. It
did not gain a lot of popularity
back then, so Google scrapped it
off and made a unified version
(4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) that
would run both on smartphones
and tablets.
Today the platform is on
the verge of becoming the most
selling tablet operating system
and the numbers are just going
stronger by the day. Almost all of
the Android tablets that we have
tested run on Android 4.2 and
the only tablet with the latest
KitKat update was the Nexus
7. Hopefully manufacturers
will be announcing some new
tablet this year with Googles
latest 4.4.2 update. With almost
2 million apps available on the
Google Play store, Android
tablets are poised to take over
the industry.
When Microsoft had
announced that Windows 8
will feature an app ecosystem
on top of the traditional desktop
layout, it seemed logical that
the OS would be ported to
tablet devices. The good part is
that one can get a full-fledged
desktop/laptop experience but
the bad part is that using its
MTV Slash 4X
touchscreen on the desktop

mode is a real pain. The tiled
UI is similar to what we have
seen on Windows Phone devices
and the apps work in a similar
fashion. With the app development steadily going stronger,
Windows 8.1 tablets could soon
gain a decent market share.
PERFORMANCE
Tablets today offer a blazing
performance and manufacturers have to cram in some
high-end hardware to achieve
that. Apart from hardware, an
optimized OS is very crucial.
Now it doesnt make sense
buying a tablet with a good set
of specs but a sluggish interface,
does it?
The Acer Iconia W4 runs
on an Intel Bay Trail processor
with four cores which means
that the tablet can perform
functions as smoothly as one
can do on a laptop. Since the
tablet runs Windows, you can
install proper softwares like
PC games as well as apps from
the Windows App store. The
tablet didnt disappoint us at
any time as it managed to run
Chinas fighter drones

HD videos, open multiple apps

and softwares, and was pretty
smooth in the gaming department as well.
We also ran a couple of
benchmarks on the Iconia W4
and found the scores to be pretty
decent. Even in the battery test
we found that the tablet can continuously play full HD videos
for about 7 hours, which is quite
good for a tablet in our experience. But to be honest, it was a
pain to use the touchscreen in
the desktop mode as it requires
very precise tapping. Using a
mouse via Bluetooth made the
experience much better, but that
just kills the purpose of having
a tablet in the first place.
The only logical competitor
to the Acer tablet is the Dell
Venue 8 Pro. While this also is
Windows 8.1 tablet, the Venue
Pro 8 seemed slightly faster in
terms of performance. In the
benchmark and the battery
tests, the Venue Pro 8 proved
to be better than the Acer Iconia
W4 simply because it runs on
a faster processor with more
RAM and has a larger battery. In
the benchmark tests the Venue
Pro 8 achieved higher scores
thanks to its faster processor.
The Nexus 7 is said to be the
king of Android tablets and in
iBall Slide 3GQ1035

Nikes new shoe
See how Chinas battling smog and pollution

with the help of drones to catch polluters and
disperse smog: http://dgit.in/1dJqpXr
our opinion it is justified to

give the title to this tablet.
Running on a 1.5GHz quadcore processor with 2GB of
RAM, combine that with
the latest Android 4.4.2
KitKat OS and you have
a super smooth and powerful tablet. Be it gaming,
watching videos or just
browsing the web, the
Nexus 7 does it all with ease
and class. In the benchmark
scores the Nexus 7 fell short
by just a few numbers, but
on a daily basis the tablet
is actually much faster
and responsive. It is also
worth mentioning that the 5MP
camera on the Nexus 7 was way
better than almost every tablet
in the shootout. Among all the
Android tablets that we tested in
the shootout, the Nexus gave the
most battery backup off a single
charge cycle. The test proved
that the Nexus, even with the
full HD resolution, can play a
full HD video non-stop for 12
hours. Pretty fantastic!
The Android running tablets from Dell, the Venue 7
and Venue 8 seem identical
but there is a slight difference.
While the Venue 7 runs on a
1.6GHz dual-core processor,
the Venue 8 runs on 2GHz dualcore processor. This makes a
huge difference as the Venue 8
performed much better in the
benchmark tests. Although
we didnt notice a huge difference when we ran some games
and performed daily tasks
like email, web browsing and
social networking. The Venue
7 was actually quite impressive
because the tests concluded that
it is almost as powerful as the
Nexus 7 and available at less
than half the price which makes
it a great value for money. Both
of the Venue tablets come with
a similar 4100mAh battery, but
the Venue 8, even with the larger
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april 2014
iberry Auxus Core X8
display offered a slightly longer

battery backup.
In our opinion Auxus
CoreX8 by iberry offers the most
impressive hardware, including
an Exynos octa-core processor
with 2GB of RAM. And yes the
hardware does deliver as it aced
the benchmark tests in almost
every performance department. Gaming and watching
HD videos was a sheer pleasure
as the tablet managed to provide a very fluid performance.
The Android UI however was
a slight disappointment as it
wasnt entirely perfect as on
random occasions the tablet
lagged a bit, for no apparent
reason. Overall the tablet

delivers a surprisingly fast
performance even though it
comes from an underrated
brand, which is good to see.
The Micromax Canvas
Tab is just a stretched out
Canvas Doodle 2. This
tablet has a similar looking
UI as most of Micromax
smartphones which is
mostly stock Android
with a bit of extra apps
and customized icons. In
our benchmark testing,
the tablet gave an average
performance although it
manages to multitask quite
well and apps run quite smooth.
Graphically heavy games like
Real Racing 3 and Dead Trigger
2 showed signs of lag but games
like Temple Run 2 and Angry
Birds Star Wars did not give us
any issues. In the battery tests
we calculated that the Canvas
Tab can go on for five hours of
constant video playback. The
tablet also offers calling capabilities which is pretty decent,
although using the device as a
phone is a bit uncomfortable.
In the performance test the
iBall Slide 3G Q1035 got a very
average score. The tablet is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and to power up the large
april 2014
Dell Venue 7
Steam controller prototype
Its only been 6 months, but things are moving

fast on the Steam Controller. Check the latest
version: http://dgit.in/1nWkDLQ
how we tested
The market is dominated by Android tablets in terms of variety
and it makes sense because Google has vastly improved on the
platform. One can easily get an Android powered tablet for as low
as `10,000. Consumers use tablets to watch movies and videos,
browse the web, play games, read ebooks, catchup with people
on social networks and so on. In the corporate world, tablets are
vastly used to make and show presentations and even do a bit of
document editing. Photographers and graphics designers have
started shifting to tablets as these portable devices offer flexibility
as well as tools for editing on the go. Therefore, testing them objectively is a very important task, something that we take seriously
here at Digits Test Centre.
We have a balance of performance and design. Each tablet goes
through a series of tests based on performance, specifications and
the design. We see how well does the tablet perform on a day to
day basis by running a series of industry standard benchmarks.
Performance Benchmarks: The performance test includes
synthetic benchmarking, where we install and run apps like Quadrant, Antutu, 3DMark, GFXBench and Smartbench at uniform
settings and compare scores across the category. These benchmark apps help us rate the performance potential of every device.
Higher the scores, the better the tablet is supposed to perform
when used for productivity and multitasking.
Battery life: Having a long lasting battery is crucial these days
so another part of the performance test includes our standard
battery test to find out how long each tablet would run after a
10.1-inch 720p display there is

a chunky 6000mAh battery.
The UI did seem to stutter a
bit although apps and games
ran perfectly fine and we didnt
notice any major issues. Multitasking and multimedia content was very smooth and the
tablet managed to play almost
every video format with ease.
Gaming experience was decent

as graphic hungry games like
Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger2
were smooth. In the battery test
we found that you can play a full
HD video non-stop for 8 hours
after a full charge to 100%.
The lowest powered tablet
was the Simmtronics Xpad
Turbo which comes with a
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full charge. For this, we play a full HD video on each tablet after
charging it to 100 per cent with the maximum display brightness. After 1 hour of playback, we determine the battery loss
and calculate how long the tablet would last if we run the video
continuously.
Gaming experience: Gaming is something which has gained
a lot of popularity on mobile devices and tablets offer the perfect
dimensions for a comfortable gaming experience. Tablets relatively have large display panels so they require a lot of power as
well and the games are heavy on graphics which again stresses
the GPU. We played a few games like Dead Trigger 2, Real Racing
3, Temple Run 2, Asphalt 8: Airborne and Angry Birds to see how
well the GPU on the tablets can handle the high frame rates. We
also focus on how smoothly the game performs and if there is
any noticeable lag.
Build quality: Since a number of brands have started manufacturing tablets, the competition is stiff and to have a unique
look and quality of design, OEMs are providing consumers with
some really sturdy products. We have given points to each tablet
taking into consideration the build quality, material used, portability, thickness and the overall experience of using each tablet.
A high quality design can make a huge difference as the tablet is
still considered to be a lifestyle product.
Other parameters: Apart from the above, we also tested how
each tablet can handle multimedia content including HD videos in
various formats, music playing capability, speaker performance,
and also the camera quality. This helps us ultimately rate these
devices in a fair manner.
dual-core processor with a

mere 512MB of RAM. Running
on Android 4.2.2 the tablet was
quite sluggish and at times had a
slow response time. It has voicecalling facility and one can also
use a SIM to gain 3G data connectivity. Basic apps and day
to day productivity seemed
decent, but watching full HD
videos and playing games with

high-end graphics takes a toll on
the hardware.
The MTV Slash 4X is a quadcore tablet which is priced at
almost the same as the Simmtronics Xpad Turbo, however
it is much more responsive and
smoother in terms of performance. Its performance on the
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Slash 4X was comparatively

decent for a sub-`10,000 tablet
although we wish that the manufacturer had ironed out some
of the minor lags it experiences.
The tablet didnt manage to run
high-end games smoothly and
even crashed on a few occasions. Games like Temple Run
2 and Angry Birds seemed to
work just about fine. HD video
playback and other multimedia
content didnt show any issues
and everything was smooth.
There is calling facility on the
tablet and it works perfectly fine
with clear audio quality.
BUILD AND DESIGN

A high quality design and an
attractive look has become
a crucial factor for gadgets
these days. A very general rule
implies here, higher the price
better the quality. Tablets have
gone much slimmer and much
more portable than what they
used to be a couple of years
back and with such high competition, manufacturers have
been producing tablets with a
premium finish at an affordable price.
In the build and design test,
we have rated each tablet based
a number of things like the
quality of material, placement
of keys, the responsiveness of
the display, portability and also
the aesthetics of the tablet.
Dell Venue Pro
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The iberry Auxus

CoreX8 proved to the
most powerful tablet in
our performance test and
to be honest it has a fairly
good looking design. It
does resemble a lot to the
design philosophy that
Samsung uses with its
tablets and smartphones
with a curvy design and
glossy plastic finish. It
has a 7.8 inch display
and offers more of a 4:3
ratio. The home key is a proper
hardware key which is a bit low
on quality as it wiggles about.
The settings and back key are
capacitive placed on either sides
of the home key. The tablet offers
a proprietary charging port and
can be charged via the standard
microUSB port as well. The
back is all glossy plastic and
houses the 5MP camera.
The Windows 8.1 running
Acer Iconia W4 has a very
standard tablet design which
can fool you very easily as it
offers a brushed metal finish,
but the tablet is actually made
of plastic. It weighs about 430
grams which makes it feel a little
heavy although it seems pretty
compact due to its 10mm thickness. The 8 inch display offers a
resolution of 1280x800 pixels.
The screen is bright and vibrant
and offers good viewing angles
too. Overall Acer as has done
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In a step guaranteed to shake up the market,

Google has drastically costs for its cloud
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Micromax Canvas Tab
a good job with the Iconia W4

however we must confess that
8 inch displays seem too small
when using the desktop mode.
Both of the Dell Venue tablets
have an exactly similar design
and even the placement of the
volume and power/lock keys,
is similar. The back has nice
rubberized finish which brings
a really nice grip to the tablets. The only difference in the
looks department is the size as
the Venue 7 is smaller than the
Venue 8. Apart from the screen
size, one cannot tell these two
apart. The overall finish of the
tablets is exceptionally good and
loved the display, even though it
isnt full HD.
The Dell Venue 8 Pro
Window tablet shares its design
with its Android siblings and
has the exact form factor as the
Venue 8. The only difference is
that the Venue 8 Pro has a different texture at the back. Apart
from the screen size issue on
Windows tablets we addressed
earlier, we werent happy with
the placement of the Windows
start key. One has to reach all
the way for the edge; which is
less than ideal.
One of our favourite tablets
was the Google Nexus 7 (2013)
and although it isnt one of the
flashiest looking tablets, it is the
most practical. The 7 inch IPS
panel is crisp and has a full HD
resolution which means it has
the highest ppi among all

the tablets that we tested.
The design is pretty slim
and makes it easy to carry
in the back pocket of your
jeans. The 2013 version is
a great update from last
years Nexus 7 as it is way
more sleek and faster. The
Nexus 7 was the slimmest
tablet with a thickness of
just 8.7mm.
The Micromax Canvas
Tab looks a lot like a
stretched out version of the
Canvas Doodle 2. It has a nice
strong back which gives off a
metal finish, but isnt entirely
made out of metal. Although
we did love the quality of its
external casing. The 8-inch
display has a 1024x768 pixel
resolution giving it 160ppi pixel
density. Content on the display
april 2014
Google Nexus 7 (2013)
lack details and the display itself

is reflective. The viewing angles
are good but we wish the resolution was better. The Canvas
Tab is the second tablet in the
shootout which offers a display
with a 4:3 ratio. The ratio is not
a problem when browsing the
web or playing games, but when
you watch HD videos, there is a
waste of real estate as we know
HD videos have a widescreen
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aspect ratio. The rear houses a

camera without a flash and the
speaker. The top has the headphones jack, microUSB port and
the power button. The right of
the tablet houses the volume
rocker and a flap below which
rests the microSD card slot and
the SIM card slot.
The biggest tablet that we
tested in the shootout was the
iBall Slide 3G Q1035, boasting
a 10.1 inch display with a 720p
resolution. The tablet has a
plastic back with a brushed
metal finish and due to its big
size it is quite bulky and heavy.
The overall finish is quite decent
but somehow seems a bit clunky.
One of the corners has the
power/lock key and the volume
control keys and also a back key
to make operations easy on the
large sized tablet. The tablet is
equipped with stereo speakers
and an 8MP camera with an
LED flash. While the 8MP resolution camera sounds good for a
tablet, it didnt seem to impress
us all that much as the pictures
produced didnt have sharp
details and were high on noise.
There is also an HDMI out port
which enables you to connect
the tablet to a larger display.
The MTV Slash 4X which
is one of the most affordable
tablets in the shootout offers
dual-SIM capability along with
a 7-inch display. The design is
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Graphics performance of all tablets analyzed. Just see how the GPU stats vary among devices.
compact although the quality

of plastic used doesnt have the
best of quality. There is a 2MP
camera with an LED flash on
its back, and the top houses
the microSD card slot and the
SIM slots. The left edge has the
power/lock key and the volume
controls and the bottom has the
microUSB port and audio jack.
The Simmtronics Xpad
Turbo seems almost like a
phablet due to its small design.
It has an all-plastic finish which
seemed of low quality but again,
it is available under a budget of
`10k so there has to be a certain
compromise. The 7-inch display
offers a 1024x600 pixel reso-
april 2014
lution which is quite less and

the touchscreen was a bit slow
on response. The tablet offers a
SIM card slot so you can make
voice calls and also use the SIM
for 3G data connectivity which
is an added advantage. Overall
the tablet gives a bit of clunky
feel, but there has to be some
compromise if you are looking
at a very affordable tablet.
WINNERS
Dell Venue 8
After the thorough testing procedure, we finally come down

to conclude the winners. For
this tablet battle we are giving
away two categories of awards,
one to the tablet which offers the

april 2014
Below `15,000
Below
Brand
Simmtronics
XPAD Turbo
MTV
Slash 4X
Dell
Venue 7
Micromax
Canvas tab
iBall Slide 3GQ1035
Price
7,999
9,999
10,999
14,999
17,499
Performance (of 40)
14.65
21.64
26.87
21.36
20.79
Specs (of 30)
13.5
14.7
17.4
17.7
21
Build and Design (of 30)
18.89
19.78
21.56
20.67
20.89
Overall (of 100)
47.04
56.12
65.82
59.73
62.68
Rear camera
2MP
2MP
3.15MP
5MP
8MP
Front camera
VGA
VGA
VGA
2MP
2MP
CPU speed
1.2GHz
1.3GHz
1.6GHz
1.2 GHz
1.2 GHz
CPU cores
OS
Android 4.2.2
Android 4.2.2
Android 4.2.2
Android 4.2.1
Android 4.2
MicroSD card expansion
RAM
512MB
1GB
2GB
1GB
1GB
Display
7 inch
7 inch
7 inch
8 inch
10.1 inch
Display resolution
1024x600 pixels
1024x600 pixels
1280x800 pixels
1024x768 pixels
1280x800 pixels
Display PPI
169
169
216
160
149
Battery capacity
2800mAh
3000mAh
4100mAh
4800mAh
6000mAh
Weight
273gms
286gms
234 gms
NA
NA
SIM slot
Built-in Storage
4GB
4GB
16GB
16GB
8GB
USB OTG
HDMI Port
Battery after 1 hour of video
82%
73%
80%
80%
88%
Antutu
10787
15874
19541
13337
13281
Quadrant
3121
5925
8935
4050
4747
Smartbench 2012 (productivity)
2093
4055
3826
3554
3778
3dMark Unlimited
2857
5790
2552
2451
GFXBench 2.7 T-rex Offscreen
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
GFXBench 2.7 T-rex Onscreen
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
GFXBench 2.5 Egypt Offscreen
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
GFXBench 2.5 Egypt Onscreen
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Benchmarking
Best Buy and the Best Performer.

There is also a special category
of the editors choice, which is
purely our recommendation.
For the Best Buy, its a tie!
Both of the Dell Venue Android
tablets take away the Best Buy
Awards since both offer a great

set of specs and performance at
an affordable price tag within
their price brackets. Tablets
like the Simmtronics Xpad
Turbo and MTV Slash 4X are
available under `10,000 how-
ever if you want a much better

performance and a quality
design one should definitely
go for the Dell Venue 7 which
is available for about `11,000.
For an extra `7,000 we have the
Dell Venue 8 which offers a
larger real estate along with a

faster processor.
The Best Performer Award
goes to the iberry Auxus CoreX8
as the Exynos octa-core SoC
powered tablet churned out
some great numbers in the

april 2014
april 2014
april 2014
above `25, 000
`25,000
Dell
Venue 8
iberry
Auxus Core X8
Dell Venue
8 Pro
Google
Nexus 7
Acer
Iconia W4
17,499
23,990
26,499
26,990
26,999
31.45
32.54
29.96
29.75
25.98
17.4
20.7
18.6
18.6
18.6
21.33
19.33
19.56
20.44
20.67
70.18
72.57
68.11
68.8
65.25
5MP
5MP
5MP
5MP
5MP
2MP
2MP
1.2MP
1.2MP
2MP
2GHz
1.8GHz
1.8GHz
1.5GHz
1.3GHz
Android 4.2.2
Android 4.2.2
Windows 8.1
Android 4.4.2
Windows 8.1
2GB
2GB
2GB
2GB
2GB
8 inch
7.8 inch
8 inch
7 inch
8 inch
1280x800 pixels
1024x768 pixels
1280x800 pixels
1920x1200 pixels
1280x800 pixels
189
163
189
323
189
4100mAh
4800mAh
4830mAh
3950mAh
4960mAh
292gms
388gms
394gms
299gms
430gms
16GB
16GB
32GB
32GB
32GB
84%
75%
93%
92%
86%
22885
28476
NA
20493
NA
11000
8434
NA
5069
NA
4547
5020
NA
4525
NA
7316
9466
15463
10693
9984
NA
NA
849
NA
800
NA
NA
1173
NA
1147
NA
NA
4367
NA
3716
NA
NA
4075
NA
3918
benchmark tests as well as the

gaming tests. While the OS
felt slightly sluggish, the tablet
managed to still get the highest
scores in our benchmark tests
as well as multitasking and
gaming performance. It is also
pretty bold in the multimedia

department, running with any
issues while playing different
video formats and music playback. The only reason not to
consider the iberry Auxus
CoreX8 is the fact that it comes
from a brand which is not so

well known and after sales service could be an issue.
For the Editors Choice
Award, the Google Nexus 7
was a clear winner because it
is simply a no-nonsense tablet
with a simple design, a brilliant

display and the capability to
offer high performance. Its the
smoothest, most bug free tablet
that we tested and the quickest
to get updates than any other
tablet device.
Tomorrows Tech
Sci-Tech
88
Rice University Asst. Professor

James McClurkin talks about the
future of robotics
Space Age
90
Read to know whats going to

happen when the fighting breaks
above the stratosphere
Future Tech:
The Next Generation

All facets of the human
life improve with each scientific innovation, here are
some of those innovations
Samir Alam
[email protected]
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke
he challenges humanity has

overcome with innovations in
the sciences and technology is
staggering; from the first use
of stones to butcher dead animals by the
Olduvai in Tanzania nearly 2.5 million
years ago, to the upcoming use of electromagnetic thrusters in the Variable Specific
Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket to travel
to Mars at speeds of up to 1,80,000 kmph.
In the meanwhile, we as a species have
split the atom, put a man on the moon,
rewrote the genome, connected humanity
and developed technology that can store
the archive of human creation in our
pockets. And were not done yet.
The following are some of the most
critically relevant technologies of the
coming years that will not only shape the
way we live our lives but also determine
how well we live it.
A battery made using everyday materials being assembled at Urban Electric
make possible efficient storage of massive

amounts of energy for future use.
So far numerous different methods of
energy storage have been developed, such
as flywheels, compressed air, batteries,
hydrogen storage, pumped-water storage
(dams), superconducting magnetic energy
storage and thermal storage. Each of these
methods have varying efficiencies, for
example batteries allow for at the very
least 50 percent of the energy stored to be
retrieved whereas thermal storage techniques can potentially allow 99 percent
Grid-scale Electricity Storage

The problem with power has always
been that of storage. We could develop
the most revolutionary source of renewable energy in the future but without
an effective means of storage most of it
would go to waste. This is where research
into grid scale electricity storage comes
into play. The next generation of innovation is aimed towards fixing this gap and
Sendai Substation Li-ion battery pilot project
energy retrieval. But these efficiencies

have all been pushed to the maximum
range in different projects around the
world and broadly range between 90 to 99
percent efficient storage. The real challenge is making them cost effective.
In this regard most of the investment
has been in large scale batteries; a key
example is the largest grid scale battery
ever created, in Sendai Miyagi Japan
which has a storage capacity of 40,000
kilowatts (40 megawatts) and is expected
to be online in early 2015. This pilot project by Toshiba will augment the existing
power grid with energy generated from
the variable wind and solar generators.
On the other side of the world, chemical
engineer Sanjoy Banerjees start-up company in Harlem, New York called Urban
Electric has developed a cheap, safe and
efficient battery in a miniaturised form
using everyday non-toxic materials.
Alternatives to battery technology
which are better linked to renewable
A prediction on Internet of things

Gartner recently predicted that emerging wearable
connected devices will spark off a big supply chain
reaction. More here: http://dgit.in/IOTSpark
sources like solar are being developed

in the form of thermal storage. This
technology relies heavily on the natural
weather patterns of a region such as
sunlight to generate high energy output;
in Spain for example, parabolic troughs
or mirrors use the focused heat from the
sun to store energy in a non-toxic, nonflammable mix of sodium, potassium and
calcium salts. These molten salts can be
stored upto a week and used to generate
electricity in a superheated steam turbine
generator when electricity is needed. The
Solana Generating Station in the United
States is another example of one such generator in active service. It was built by the
Spanish company Abengoa Solar not only
as an environment friendly power station
but also has a storage of 280 megawatts
of energy.
The task of achieving the goal of
affordable, efficient energy storage is a
global one with many first world countries
leading research and development. And
the innovators who crack the barrier in
making grid scale energy storage more
efficient and affordable will not only
make power distribution better but allow
developing renewable sources of energy
like solar and wind to become a viable
alternative for large scale energy production and usage. And this breakthrough
could change the way countries are placed
in the struggle towards fulfilling their
energy needs.
Screenless Display
Despite the counterintuitive idea of a
screenless display we have seen it conceptualised for decades, and as of now it has
never been closer. The idea of a screenless
display device has been seen in all forms
of popular media from movies to video
An Oculus Rift demo
Windows vs Steam?
Read the article to see what Windows

has to say about Valve
http://dgit.in/1m2jMEN
From the labs
data input devices even allow

for the Rift technology being
used in areas beyond gaming
such as virtual robotic surgeries
and air-traffic control.
The real next generation
jump in screenless displays lies
with innovations in holographic
display technologies. Despite
its fledgling state in research
and development, its potential
Google Glass screenless display goes mainstream
is significant as it allows for an
interactive three dimensional image progames, and with its universal utility in
jection. Scientists are currently working
cell phones, cars, televisions and personal
with new materials and techniques to
computers, scientists have already started
make it a reality, such as the use of optic
producing a range of prototypes. These
lenses, helium neon and holographic film,
new devices could very well be the next
which allows for a basic rudimentary
standard device in every household.
holographic projection.
Designed with a variety of perspecThe most recent breakthrough came
tives, from projection control to hologram
in 2013 from researchers at the Massadisplays, these new devices are all part of
chusetts Institute of Technology in the
the next wave in display technology. The
United States, who have already created
most immediately accessible and perhaps
a holographic-oriented micro-chip that
most popularly known is in the form of
can support the display of images at 50
Google Glass. Almost everyone has seen
gigapixels per second. The Object Based
or heard of the wearable eyeglass-like
Media Group at MIT, that invented the
computer created by Google. The teche-ink technology found in e-readers like
nology behind Google Glass presents a
the Kindle, have used this chip to simulate
layer of augmented reality over the users
real-life objects and its ability to augsight using a small display device where
ment projected light in multiple directhe lens would be placed. The augmented
tions which make the use of 3D glasses
reality perspective allows the display of
redundant. Other researchers at Belgian
text, information and images about the
company Imecs NVision division are
users environment in real time as well as
utilising other approaches to the task
allows voice-activated interaction with the
which involves moving pixels created by
computer for other non-environmental
reflecting lasers off microelectromechantasks like email and phone calls. But this
ical systems or MEMS, which are nanois only the first iteration of screenless discomponents used to alter light particles.
plays that are in store for the future. The
These technologies have already
future is guaranteed to be stranger.
excited consumer technology firms, with
Another consumer accessible screenLG and Samsung investing millions to
less display device is the Oculus Rift
bring them to the users. In fact, Samwhich has already created waves in the
sung has already filed patents in 2013 for
gaming world. The headset
holographic televisions. And companies
isolates the user from the
like Obscura Digital and Dstrict (a design
outside world and presents
firm) have already experimented successvisual displays from any profully with interactive projection techgrammed source. This form
nology using 3D projection and infrared
of virtual reality display takes
motion sensing.
advantage of motion tracking
technologies to present an
experience that is only limited
Human Microbiome
by the graphics processor.
Therapeutics
The user-centric orientation
Moving away from purely consumer
combined with developing
related technologies and gadgets that
A new online video platform

From the labs
YouTube and Vimeo have a new competitor

Wonder PL which provides ad-free exclusive lifestyle
oriented video content. http://dgit.in/WonderPL
out potential cures by researching

microbes and companies like
Second Genome have already
begun their work analysing
microbe DNA. By understanding
the genetic mechanism of these
microbes scientists at NIH and
Second Genome believe that they
can augment these trillions of
organisms to enhance biological
MIT researchers played out scene from Star Wars to
test out their first hologram.
functions in humans like programmable organic nano-robots.
By augmenting the microbes present in the
promise to revolutionise the world, we
digestive tract researchers can make human
now look into the world of medicine and
digestion more efficient, allowing for less
healthcare technology. Even as we invest
wastage of nutrition, which could prove
billions in consumer technology for
invaluable in poorer nations.
improving how well we enjoy life there is
Other aspects of human biology like
even more being invested in how well we
resistance to diseases, concerns of obesity
live it and healthcare technology in human
and heart disease mitigation and cancer
microbiome therapeutics is a huge part of
prevention can also be addressed if scithat investment.
entists are successful in controlling how
Weve known for the longest time about
microbes operate in the human body. And
the power of the gene but only recently have
even though the field of human microresearchers of the current generation realbiome therapeutics is still in its infancy its
ised the practical benefit of larger biological
potential to radically change human life is
entities like bacteria and fungi, popularly
universally accepted.
known as microbes. The human body itself
is approximated to play host to over 10,000
microbial species and over 100 trillion
RNA-based Therapeutics
microscopic organism which are present on
Technology that affects billions of people is
the surface of the skin and also in our digesusually invisible. Developments in fundative systems - and they are a powerful part
mental sciences has become a natural part
of human healthcare.
of existence like the harnessing of electricity
Scientists are catching up to understand
and antibiotics. Without them life as we
the potential benefits microbes hold for
know it would be impossible. In this respect
humans with research such as the United
medical technology that creates life-saving
Statess government run National Institutes
drugs and treatments is one of the most
of Healths Human Microbiome Project.
important frontiers of innovation. And a
The four year old project has so far collected
new technique that is revolutionising how
genomic data from nearly 200 microbes
we provide treatment for millions of people
that could hold answers for human ailis in the form of RNA-based therapeutics.
ments. The projects goal is to catalogue and
Ribonucleic acid or RNA is a fundainterpret the properties of 900 microbial
mental part of any biological organism and
organisms from human volunteers who
instrumental in developing a new generaare suffering from a variety of diseases. The
tion of medications that are more powerful
investigation into how these
microbes interact with
human biology can hold
critical answers towards
creating new treatments
and cures for a multitude
of diseases, thus, saving
millions of people.
The private sector is
Genetic re-sequencing can allow scientists to repurpose
equally invested in seeking everyday microbes for medical use.
Android Wear
Google finally announced a special version

of its Android OS tailored for wearable
devices http://dgit.in/WearDroid
and safer than currently available options.

Even over-the-counter medications such
as Dispirin work by effecting specialised
enzymes (proteins) in the human body
through artificial chemical compounds. By
controlling the levels of these proteins in the
human body we are able to change human
biology such as relieving pain and reducing
cholesterol. And the use of targeted RNA
therapeutics is an extension of this process.
The next generation of medical
research is concerned with narrowing the
use of genetic research towards understanding more of how RNA-based treatments can benefit humanity. By delving
deeper into the molecular dynamics
of messenger RNA (mRNA) that give
signals to enzyme creation in human cells,
scientists have discovered a preemptive
means of preventing diseases - microRNA
(miRNA). According to current research
microRNA control is the earliest step in
RNA based therapeutics
the chain of biological interactions that can

put an end to the very origin of deadly diseases. At present most medications only
work towards inhibiting some microRNA
but further developments in RNA-based
therapeutics might change this forever by
creating anti-microRNA drugs.
Private firms like Regulus Therapeutics, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Isis
Pharmaceuticals are driving the research in
this field and are targeting a broad range of
diseases such as hypercholesterolemia (precongenital high cholesterol), brain tumours,
hepatitis and other life threatening diseases.
One of the most recent creations by Isis
targets microRNA that attack genetic hypercholesterolemia. Public research by the
American government is also developing
these techniques by experimenting with
anti-miRNA drugs that target the replicating ability of the hepatitis virus. If they
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been waiting for the game like everyone else
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2014) smartphone - Samsung

S5 - comes with a heartbeat
monitor pre-installed. Nike
has for years been promoting
its Nike+ products that
measure various biometric
aspects of professional and
amateur athletes through
sensors in their apparel. And
as more and more wearable technology arises, from
Every human action can be recorded as a data point and
give valuable insight like predicting diseases.
Apples iWatch concepts to
Sonys SmartBand, we can
expect a detailed documentation of a digare successful they would be able to create
itised record of our lives - essentially to be
a treatment and cure for nearly 200 million
quantified into measurable data points - this
people globally who suffer from Hepatitis C.
is the quantified self.
RNA-based medications are already
In this respect, doctors and patients are
used in antisense therapy where they are
uniting in many western nations to use
targeted towards specific genetic infections
this data to predict health patterns, early
and disorders in the human gene. Drugs
warning systems for diseases and even
developed in RNA therapeutics are so far
behavioural therapy which can promote
restricted to the specific gene of the target
a healthier lifestyle. Programs developed
disease but their scope as a technological
at Carnegie Mellon University are already
mechanism is enormous. And as scientists
using smartphone activity and logged data
discover more about critical diseases like
to predict depression in people. Other more
cancer, they find that by restricting the
commercial products like the Digifit and
creation of certain enzymes and proteins
MyFitnessPal apps record exercise and
they can drastically slow down or even cure
dietary data and use social media netcancer in human beings. But at this stage
working to make healthcare activities motithis is only a conceptual reality that comes
vated through social network competition
closer to reality as research progresses.
strategies. These systems make use of game
like systems where people can compete with
Quantified Self (Predictive
their friends on social media over XP points,
Analytics)
badges and achievements through real
Weve already heard a lot about big data and
world activities.
predictive algorithms over the last couple of
And even beyond the individual, cities
years. The idea that computer programming
and governments can use the anonymous
can help enterprises and individuals answer
data sets provided by their citizens to
important questions and even predict event
improve urban planning, environmental
outcomes has already begun shaping the
recovery and public services. A key
way we engage with technology. But the idea
example is the Livelihoods Project which
of the quantified self in predictive analytics
uses data gathered from tweets, check-ins
is a phenomenon that has grown out of the
on services like Foursquare and Instapotential that big data holds - to manage
gram to generate a dynamic geo-tagging
human health, lifestyle and efficiency for
model which can shed light on how local
the better.
demographics, public service distribution,
Big data hype tells us that since we are
economic growth and urban planning
nearing the age of the internet of things
activities are influencing the lives of
(IoT) - a time when we will be surrounded
people. This form of two way data sharing,
by millions of sensor driven products which
where planners can take advantage to
will be able to record our environments and
monitor large scale human behaviour
actions for analysis, the amount of personal
to shape a more efficient environment,
information generated is going to be overand individuals can take advantage of
whelming. This isnt that far from reality
environmental data to organise their own
as even the most recently launched (March
From the labs
lives is critical towards the efficient use of

resources in the future.
Promoters of the quantified self
movement advocate the use of these vast
individually specific data sets towards
predicting not only human health concerns
through the power of predictive algorithms
but also of easing how humans interact with
their environment such as through effective
traffic management or prediction of localised illnesses. As humans allow for greater
intrusion of technology into their personal
lives through sensors and tracking hardware, the need for software that can implement that data for more than corporate
CRM and marketing is critically needed.
From personalised medicine to nation wide
planning, the quantified self movement
and predictive analysis is intended towards
making big data a publicly useful source of
information, especially to answer questions
that can make life better for everyone.
Quantified self data is currently used

to motivate healthier habits by making
exercise a competitive game across a
social network.
Towards New Frontiers

All innovation have arisen to face new
challenges and break unimagined barriers.
Todays innovations will sustain the future
and allow humanity to flourish as modern
obstacles like global shortages in fuel, food
and health care become our most pressing
concerns. So as we turn to the next set of
challenges in scientific and technological
innovation that will determine our destiny
it is important to remember that no aspect
of human imagination is more intense
than that which yearns to further its own
existence. And when it comes to the next
generation of technology, existence is
exactly what is at stake.
Google now owns SCHAFT

Tomorrows tech
The best bot built at the DARPA Robotics

Challenge is now to be funded by Google, its
new owner http://dgit.in/SCHAFT
Vicarious raises $40 Mn
Secretive artificial intelligence firm gets

funding from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg,
and Elon Musk http://dgit.in/Vic40Mil
The robots were all

worried about may be us!
Asst. Professor James McLurkin from Rice University is a lifelong robotics fan. We
had a great conversation with him last month on his maiden trip to India on all things
robotics related. Whats more, we also tickled his fancy and got his thoughts on the
future of voice-based assistants, machine learning, the possibility of a humanoid
butler walking around in our homes, and the moral implications of creating sentient
AI and robots. Excerpts from our exclusive interview:
Jayesh Shinde
Mars, what if we had 2,000? We could definitely search the planet far more efficiently.
[email protected]
What sparked your interest in robotics?
Do you think theres a lack of awareness

of the impact of robots on our lives among
the general public?
JM: For me, robotics is the culmination of

a lifetime spent building better toys. When
I was younger, cardboard boxes, model
trains, and as I got older radio-controlled
cars, video games, and lots of LEGO. Ultimately, if you put that much technology
into a 15-16 year old, you move towards
building robots that was the most natural
inclination for me. I still like to think myself
as building better toys that everyone can
use. So, robots for everybody, yes.
What sort of robots do you build and study?
JM: Right now, we have four different

robots split into two different types. This
particular robot was built at Rice University in collaboration with our students
and the goal of this robot is to have research
grade features and qualities but built as
cheap as possible to minimize costs. The
ultimate goal of my work is to understand
distributed algorithms for multi-robot
systems. So if somebody gave me 10,000
robots, I need to figure out how to put them
together, how to program them, how to get
them to do tasks as a group.
And we see examples of this all over.
Ants, bees, termites, wasps, all of these
insect communities do very complicated
tasks as groups, that individuals cant do by
themselves. We dont want to copy nature,
because natures far too sophisticated for
us to copy, but understand the algorithmic
implications of these tasks whats the
James McLurkin, Asst. Professor, Dept. of

Computer Science, Rice University
input, whats the software, and whats the

output of these tasks that nature runs, so to
speak. There are various things that insects
do in their lifetime, which are useful to us if
we get robots to do them, too.
How will your technology, research and
robots be implemented in the real-world?
JM: As robots become universal, more

practical, cheap and accessible, it will
be uncommon to see individual robots
working on a task and groups of robots will
be common. I want to take that concept to
the extreme where Im not worried about
10-20 robots but 10,000-20,000 robots.
Enough robots to build buildings, to
reclaim land, to search the oceans for the
giant squid and other unexplored creatures. Right now we have two robots on
JM: We as humans have two views of

robots: the classic view concerning the
robot butler and then we have the giant
killer robots (Terminator bots). Most of us
wont see either of those possibilities for a
very long time, and hopefully well never
get to the giant killer robot stage. But were
going to see stuff like Googles robot cars,
whichs a hot topic right now, and this is a
problem well see getting solved within our
lifetime (of a self-driving car). But robots
are all around us, in a way. I flew here in
whats essentially a very large robot called
a 777, my dishwasher is robotic. So that
inherent need to sense, compute, act in the
physical world without human intervention is one of the keys to robotics.
The other area where were working
on actively as a community is artificial
intelligence (AI). In the example of Googles
self-driving car, there are basic things that
the car needs to understand, but it doesnt
need to be very smart. It does need to be
careful and good at driving, but it doesnt
need to be creative, draw inferences from
experiences that are new and novel. These
are things that we just dont know how to
do yet. The type of intelligence we will be
able to achieve is one thats given a large
amount of data, and analysing that data to
find the best possible solution to a problem.
But theres this whole other aspect of intel-
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ligence which is new thoughts, new ideas,

creativity, etc. These are things that we dont
even understand fully among us humans
yet, much less how to get that into a robot.
Do you think theres a lack of participation when it comes to academic research
concerning the field of robotics? Not enough
students interested in robotics?
JM: When it comes to academic research,

I see robotics as a good way to attract
students to computer sciences, mechanical
engineering, electrical engineering, or technology in general. There arent as many
people as Id have liked, but the number
of students taking robotics is increasing.
What excites me the most right now is
the Maker Movement, where theres this
huge DIY resurgence, which is helping the
robotics cause. When I started teaching, Id
get students who didnt know how to use a
screwdriver, but now I work with students
who tell me that the chips were working
with in the labs are out of date.
This is very encouraging from
the academics perspective,
to see that cultural shift thats
making it cool to do technology.
Technical interest in the community at large is also going up
which is an encouraging trend. Its a
very exciting time in the field of robotics
right now.
Whats your impression of Indian students?
JM: Im biased because the students I meet

are always the top students from India. Im
always impressed with the Indian students
I get to interact with. My perception of the
culture in Asia, India in particular, is that
educations respected here. Theres much
more desire to learn, and the social costs of
being interested in technology are lower,
and the possibility of being teased and ridiculed in the locker room for playing with
robots or video games or studying maths
is still a problem in the States. The choices
faced by kids when they reach middleschool at the age of 15 or 16 years, deciding
whether to do something they enjoy (which
is building mechanical robots, studying
software, or electronics) or do something to
look cool. Cool wins more than it ought to
right now. We want to tell students about
Geek Chic that you can do both. You can
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The firm has unveiled a plan to capture an
asteroid and then bring it back to earth for
research http://dgit.in/NASARock
Tomorrows tech
be cool, you can do technology, and the two

things dont need to be mutually exclusive.
that are going to take over the world, you

cant do that if you trip over your shoelaces.
The digital age has evolved to include

previously off-the-grid machines. How do
you see the field of robotics or AI adjusting
to this shifting landscape?
How has sci-fi influenced the field of

robotics and AI?
JM: The pervasiveness of technology,

with smart machines, and the internet of
things, is definitely advancing rapidly. The
simultaneous growth of machine learning
(which is different from AI) and predictive
analysis of behaviour where the computer
can look at what youve been doing and
take a good guess of what youll be doing
next is already a reality -- in some cases
like Amazons and online music streaming
services recommendation engines, for
e.g. We will see this behaviour increasingly and we might not even notice it.
The phones will get smarter, cars will get
smarter, your refrigerator will send you an
email when youre running short of milk,
JM: So theres sci-fi and theres science

reality, and they both advise each other at
some level. Where science fiction inspires
people, wakes them up when theyre 10-11
and they get old and they realize how
hard it is. Its still fun, but you realize how
daunting the technical challenges are.
As an inspiration, a well-informed sci-fi
can be really very impressive in terms of
taking things forward 50-60 or a 100 years
forward. This is where Asimov is a true
inspiration. In 2014, his writings feel a bit
dated because of the way theyre talking
and doing things, but even after 60 years
his logic, his principles make sense man,
he nailed so many things.
So yes, sci-fi inspires us, and the truly
good sci-fi leads us to want to strive for
We want to tell students about Geek Chic

that you can do both. You can be cool,
you can do technology, and the two things
dont need to be mutually exclusive.
and these things will happen bit by bit. The
first smart refrigerator will be heralded
as a breakthrough, as RFID tagged food
becomes the norm in our house, and there
will be a few media stories around it, and it
will fade. Well just get used to it.
But is there an inherent danger of things
getting out of hands and robots taking over
the world?
JM: There are two reasons Im not worried about that possibility. The first reason
is a philosophical argument: If we create
this thing, a sentient, self-aware robot, why
would it want to exterminate its creators?
Thats not logical, with an assumption that
we create something thats compassionate
and caring, something that isnt sadistic in
nature. The second reason why Im not worried about the possibility is because there
are currently no robots that can tie shoe
laces, there are no robots who can safely
cross streets. If were going to have robots
more. Science reality is what we have in the

present, the slow careful work doing basic
research, figuring out good applications,
and applying that to building products
that we can actually use. And each of these
phases have separate challenges. The basic
research is what Im focusing now as a professor, but with an eye towards products
that people can use, particularly towards
education. Advising the research about the
systems that have being doing it for 160
million years -- ants and bees are about
that old. The algorithmic solutions that
natures devised to these things are critical
to our understanding. We know ants and
bees are very successful in how they forage,
reproduce, and get around the world. We
just need to figure out a way to translate all
of that into robots.
For Mr. McLurkins biography, visit http://
dgit.in/1jqukQY. Also, dont miss to catch the
detailed version of this interview at: http://dgit.
in/JamesMcLurkin
Oculus Rift dev kit 2

Space Age
Makers of the Oculus Rift virtual reality

headset unveiled a newer version of the
developer kit http://dgit.in/OcuRift2
New gaming laptops
Gigabyte recently released its new gaming

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Battlefield Space:
The Realities of Wars on

the Next Frontier
and the most powerful weapon has a neutraliser and a successor.
So how far are we from that reality? How
will it exhibit itself? And will we survive it?
We take a look at these questions based
on the of facts as they exist today while we
continue to hope that evolve as only fiction.
Separating Reality from Fiction
Matter comes in many

forms but nothing is more
exciting than the exotic
kind. We explain why
exotic matter has gripped
the scientific imagination
despite its theoretical
strangeness
Samir Alam
[email protected]
War. War never changes.
Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks
here are three places on Earth that

can erupt into fiery chaos at a moments notice. The Indo-Pak border,
the Straits of Taiwan and the Gaza
Strip, all of these places are strife with conflict between well armed, highly motivated
and extremely volatile people. Here, a shot
over the bow can result in nuclear missiles
flying over head.
It is ironic then that in the trying times of

our desperate struggle that our better angels
whisper brilliance in to our minds - from the
harnessing of fire for our war against nature
to the creation of nuclear technology for
our war against each other. Technology and
innovation have always led humanity to walk
a fine line between genius and insanity, and
now the future of war stands at the pinnacle
of a new frontier on which to wage its terrible
fate - outer space.
Its important to note however that as
we discuss the possibilities of practical
space warfare we have to be cautious and
stay within realistic possibilities. As Hilberts paradox of the Grand Hotel explains
in theoretical inventions, the infinite range
of technological and tactical outcomes
are too varied for us to even consider. Its
something we have all experienced as
children - I double dare you! - I triple dare
you! - I dare you times infinity! - I dare
you times infinity plus one! Every grand
theoretical invention that we conjure up has
an equally powerful and plausible counter
weapon, every tactic has a counter tactic
In 2012 a group of over 25,000 petitioners in

the United States demanded that the
government build a gigantic moon sized
battle-station in space - a Death Star. Of
course, this demand was dismissed by the
American White House citing two reason the 852 quadrillion dollar expense and the
fact that their government did not support
blowing up planets. Despite the amusing
nature of this real world incident it goes to
highlight the practical realities and limitations of space warfare.
Since the 1970s in the critical moments
of the Cold War, the United States and the
Soviet Union have been looking at outer
space as the most suitable place for modern
war to take place. The exponential research
and development in long distance inter
continental ballistic missiles or ICBMs have
led to remarkable weapons in support of
those goals.
Long distance nuclear-kinetic weapons
such as Russias R-36M a.k.a. SS-18 Satan
which has a range of 16,000 kilometres,
enough range to target cities like Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, all of South
America and pretty much anywhere on the
surface on the planet in less than 30 minutes
of its launch from New Delhi. The SS-18
Satan is a precise device of mass destruction
with a velocity of 28,800 km/h capable of
deploying 10 Multiple Independent Reentry
Vehicles (MIRV) warheads of up to 750
kilotonnes of nuclear yield each. To put it in
perspective, that is a nuclear yield 375 times
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watt capacity sufficient to slice a tank

shell with ease. Other similar direct
energy weapon in service and development are the High Energy Liquid
Area Defense System, Tactical High
Energy Laser (THEL) or the Nautilus
laser system and the Mobile-THEL
have all proven successful in neutralizing incoming mobile targets such as
rockets and artillery shells.
If we theorise their use in outer
space we can easily see how their
The R-36M is already being outmoded by R&D in
long-range missiles by countries like the U.S.
strengths would play off against
their disadvantages. The notorious
over-heating of laser weapons is only limited
that of Fat Man - the bomb which was
by their heat-transfer support systems which
dropped on Nagasaki in August 1945, which
would allow them to stay cooled. It is easy
means that a single warhead on a single misto imagine a space-based improvisation that
sile is capable of generating over 5 million
would use the minus 270.45 Celsius temperhuman casualties at its point of impact in a
ature of space to cool the weapons allowing
country like India.
for near continuous usage. The Mobile-THEL
The frightening nature of this destruction
laser system is designed for quick bursts
makes space all the more alluring for a war
of attacks to minimise its heating but in the
destination. And to that end the innovations
sub-zero temperatures of space it could
in warfare have progressed with the same
potentially operate continuously.
belief. Technologies that can support the
advantages of a space assault on terrestrial
nations as well as the potential for minimisVelocitas Eradico - I, Speed,
ing collateral damage, outer space may in
Destroyer of Worlds
fact be the best place for war. And it presents
An alternative to the complicated and difits own set of challenges.
ficult to construct direct energy weapons is
the far simpler development of non-combustible high velocity inert projectile launchWar Is All Kinds Of THEL
Early on during the Cold War military strategists realized that nuclear weapons in space
were not a good idea. The nuclear fall out
combined with the unpredictable debris
showers towards the surface of the Earth
would leave every aggressor nation at risk
of unsuspecting damage. To compensate for
this side-effect more powerful conventional
weaponry or new innovations in weapons
design would be needed. The foremost of
The MIRV weapon is seen executed
these designs for space based weapon ineviin TV shows like Battlestar Galactica to
great accuracy.
tably came from the imagination of science
fiction - lasers, Advanced Tactical Lasers to
be more precise.
ers - railguns. The simplicity of the railgun
An invention of the Boeing Company, the
concept is built into its physics, which is the
Advanced Tactical Laser system was comacceleration of projectiles at supersonic vemissioned by the United States Special Oplocities using electromagnetic propulsion. By
erations Command in 2002. Within six years
rapidly accelerating a projectile to supersonic
the Boeing Company delivered the weapons
speeds we no longer depend on chemical
strapped to a C-130H Hercules transport
propellants like gunpowder which wouldnt
aircraft, and proved capable of defeating a
perform effectively in the vacuum of space.
ground based target by the end of 2009. The
The current design of railguns only
silent and invisible laser possess a 100 kilorequires a power supply of pulsed direct
Space Age
current and a heat resistant material in its

armature build. With these components
military railguns do not even need explosive rounds as the kinetic energy of these
projectiles is sufficient to cause considerable damage. The first weaponized railgun
is already in production and is known as
the General Atomics Blitzer system. This
weapon launches discarded round casings
of conventional artillery at velocities of Mach
5 (1600m/sec). The power and range of this
weapon is proven to be significant as in tests
the projectile continued to travel nearly 7
kilometres after having penetrated its 1/8
inch steel plate target.
In another test by the United States Navy
in 2008, a 3.2kg projectile was launched at
velocities of nearly Mach 7 producing 9.2 million joules of kinetic energy worth of damage.
By using the kinetic energy of such projectile
weapons in the relative gravity-free arena of
space the potential for damage is equivalent
to TNT explosive charges of the same mass.
And as these types of weapons achieve
greater velocity, their destructive capability
becomes all the more greater.
Starfighters of the Future

No discussion of space war can be complete
without talking about warships. Once it was
understood that space in the next frontier,
nations the world over have developed
The weaponized laser already in production

has surprising range and power for its size,
promising more in future versions.
their own space vehicles. Fortunately, the

development of spacecrafts has been driven
by scientific and exploratory ideals. But with
the creation of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle
(OTV) this fact might very well change.
The Boeing X-37 series of spacecrafts are
designed primarily to serve as reusable unmanned space vehicles intended to replace
the Space Shuttle as the primary means of
carrying out orbital activities. The X-37B vaDigit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com 91
Dark Souls returns

Space Age
One of the most awaited games

around: Check out the Dark Souls 2
review online http://dgit.in/1psouvE
A naval stealth ship equipped with a rail gun and advanced warning systems
riety of this design however is speculated to

be capable of so much more than the simple
duties we have witnessed the Space Shuttle
carry out.
The product of a clandestine 10 year project by Boeings Phantom Works black projects division, the X-37B is specially designed
for the United States Air Force with assistance from the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency and NASA. The offshoot
of the Boeing X-37 design it was merged
with DARPAs Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) which was specifically
designed to offer operational results of rapid
attacks and super fast manoeuvrability in
flight making it a formidable spacecraft
of aggressive engagement. But all official
statements on the issue have obviously been
to downplay its military potential.
The spacecraft has already been embroiled in accusations that it is used as a
spy satellite and weapons delivery vehicle,
specifically having been used to spy on
Chinas Tiangong-1 space station module.
And even as the Pentagon and the United
States government dismiss these allegations
its harder to argue that the craft is incapable
of such feats. And considering the nature
of the global arms race it is very likely that
countries like Russia and China are equally
invested in developing tactical spacecrafts
of their own. But so far there has been little
visible evidence from these opaque nations.
technical problems like weapons overheating

or targeting accuracy but the fact that it is
unlike anything, anyone, anywhere has ever
experienced. And despite millions of people
playing billions of games that simulate the
nature of space based warfare, the reality
isnt as convenient as plasma shields and
photon torpedoes.
In space the laws of physics work at their
purest - inertial momentum makes every
fragment and debris a potential weapon of
mass destruction, devices that could divert
asteroids are a more likely reality than
weapons systems capable of dealing with
the multi-axis space environment which demands superfast responses to unpredictable
Small sized graphics cards from Galaxy have been

seen online. Galaxy aims to release such cards for
the ITX form factor. http://dgit.in/MiniGalaxy
spatial movements. And in addition to these

basic facts, the vastness of space allows for
no stealth in executing attacks or hiding
from them.
As two armadas face off in orbit over a
planet or far off in the nothingness of the
void, even the most prototyped technologies of today wouldnt stand a chance when
developed to their full potential. Missiles and
lasers launched would have to work with
super-fast predictive systems which inform
the warhead of the target location. Over the
great distances between the warring fleets,
even the potentially superfast microseconds
in laser fire would leave ample time for
spacecrafts to correct for evasive manoeuvres. And even though a close range direct
strike would prove fatal for any target, it
would be equally deadly for the victor as a
counter strike would have little chance of
missing them.
We are at the very least two generations
of innovation from any feasible form of space
militarisation. At its current stage, we are
capable of only launching space-to-earth attacks and vice versa. The various technological innovations necessary for zero-G combat
involving futuristic fighter jets, automated
unmanned space based high-yield weapons,
as well as targeting munition systems that
can deal with the physics of space navigation are still a long way off. And in many
respects, the only reason to create those
specific technologies is to wage war.
In Space, No One Can Hear

You Scream
Reality Bites and then Booms

Despite the cutting edge developments
in warfare, weapons and technologies,
there are some inescapable realities that
todays militaries cant escape. The greatest obstacle to waging war in space isnt in
Mini GPUs spotted
The next generation of fighter spacecraft

is already here and its remote controlled.
Wed buy that for a dollar.
For most of us today the shadow of war is

far from our sights. But that doesnt mean
it isnt there, faded in the brightness of
our optimism. And as recent events in the
Ukraine have shown, old animosities can find
easy provocation, throwing even the most
progressive nations into old, fearful patterns.
The only things that have held us back are
international treaties like Outer Space Treaty
and the Space Preservation Treaty that remind us of our nobler intentions. But looking
towards outer space the grim reality is even
more prevalent in our imaginations, through
television and movies, novels and stories, a
part of us already accepts the inevitability of
war over the Earth, far above the surface in
the infinite coldness of space, where truly no
one can hear you scream.
killer rigs
Everything youll ever need to build your own PC. Whatever your budget.
Basic rig = 25,626
HTPC = 30,145
Entry-level gaming = 42,985
Mid-range gaming = 68,380
Intel Pentium G2020

Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2H
Corsair 2GB DDR3 1333MHz
Toshiba 500GB
AOC E2043FSK
None
NZXT Gamma
Corsair VS450
Creative SBS A120
Samsung SH-224DB/IDDS
Amkette Ash Black (Bundle)
None
3,450
2,999
1,600
3,150
6,570
0
2,490
2,268
1,550
1,049
500
0
0
`25,626
Entry-Level Gaming
Processor
Motherboard
RAM
HDD
Monitor
Graphics Card
Cabinet
PSU
Speaker
Optical Drive
Mouse
Keyboard
Sound Card
Total
AMD A10-6800K
ASUS F2A85-M-LE
G-skill F3-10600CL9S-4GBNT
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
AOC I2251FWE IPS
None
NZXT Gamma
Cooler Master Thunder 450W
F&D F680
None
RAM
HDD
Monitor
Graphics Card
Cabinet
PSU
Speaker
Optical Drive
Mouse
Keyboard
Sound Card
Total
Intel Core i7-4770K

ASRock Z87 Extreme4
ADATA XPG 2 x 4GB
(2 Kits)
WD WD30EZRX 3TB + Samsung 840
Pro 256 GB
Dell U2713HM
ZOTAC GTX 780 Ti
NZXT Phantom 820
Cooler Master V1000
Logitech Z906 5.1
LG Blu-ray WH16NS40 RW
Roccat Kone XTD
Ttesports Poseidon
ASUS Xonar Phoebus
Processor
Motherboard
RAM
HDD
Monitor
Graphics Card
Cabinet
PSU
Speaker
Optical Drive
Mouse
Keyboard
Sound Card
Total
AMD A8-5600K
MSI FM2-A75MA-P33
Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 4 GB
Western Digital WD20EZRX 2TB
None (your TV)
None (HD7560D onboard)
Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced
Cooler Master Thunder 450W
None
Microsoft Desktop 2000 wireless combo
Bundled
None
6,955
4,423
3,900
6,275
0
0
2,977
2,696
0
1,049
1,870
0
0
`30,145
Mid-Range Gaming
9,850
6,200
3,000
4,000
8,350
0
2,490
2,656
4,890
1,049
0
500
0
`42,985
Ultra high-end Gaming

Processor
Motherboard
Optional Accessories= 42,081
HTPC
Basic RIG
Processor
Motherboard
RAM
HDD
Monitor
Graphics Card
Cabinet
PSU
Speaker (2.1)
Optical Drive
Mouse
Keyboard
Sound Card
Total
Ultra high-end = 2,65,301
Processor
Motherboard
RAM
HDD
Monitor
Graphics Card
Cabinet
PSU
Speaker
Optical Drive
Mouse
Keyboard
Sound Card
Total
Intel Core i5-3470

Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
Kingston HyperX 8GB
(KHX1600C10D3B1/8G)
Toshiba 1TB DT01ACA100
BenQ G2420 HD
Nvidia GTX 750 Ti
Antec One - S3
Seasonic S12II 620 Watts
F&D F680
CM Storm Devastator (Bundle)
CM Storm Devastator (Bundle)
None
13,200
4,641
5,200
4,390
10,500
12,000
3,260
6,150
4,890
1,049
3,100
0
0
`68,380
OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES
23,200
13,356
16,790
22,984
51,000
55,700
16,836
14,811
23,525
6,099
5,200
5,300
10,500
`2,65,301
Surge Protecter
Controller
UPS
Webcam
Headphones
Mousepad
Wireless Router
Belkin 8 Socket Surge Protector

Xbox 360 Controller (wired)
APC 1000VA - BR1000G-IN
Logitech HD Pro C920
Sennheiser PX 100-II
Roccat Taito
TP-LINK TD-W8968
1,044
2,199
8,330
6,820
3,570
625
2,349
Sound Card
ASUS Xonar Essence STX
9,540
Lite-On eUAU108
1,800
External DVDWriter
Thermal Paste
CPU Cooler
Fan Controller
Case Fan
Total
Arctic Silver 5 (3.5 grams)

Cooler Master Hyper 212X
Deepcool Rock Master V3
Corsair AF120
600
2,649
1,695
860
`42,081
Price watch
Street smart
96
PnS cameras, cabinets, portable hard

drives and gaming keyboards get
featured this month
Mole in Microsoft?
An ex-employee of Microsoft was arrested

recently for leaking Windows 8 trade secrets.
More here: http://dgit.in/TraitorAlert
A little too early

for 4K
It may be all the rage at
the moment, but now isnt
the right time.
Agent 001
[email protected]
he display segment is all the rage

in 2014, weve got a lot of new
terms being thrown around with
4K and UHD pretty much dominating the discussion. These two terms are
used interchangeably but they really arent
the same.
Lets look into the whole high definition terminology. The current mainstream
standard is 1920x1080 which is also
termed as Full HD. Depending on the
actual signal this may be 1080p or 1080i
but lets put that one away for another day.
The next step in display panel resolution
is UHD or Ultra High Definition. This
is achieved by doubling the horizontal
and vertical pixel count of Full HD to get
3840x2160 resolution. 4K on the other
hand stands for 4096x2160 which you
can see is slightly greater than UHD. 4K
operates on an aspect ratio of 1.9:1 while
UHD has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Basically
4K is a production standard while UHD is
a consumer format. If you were to view 4K
content on a UHD panel then youd see two
4K and UHD arent the same

black vertical
bars along
either side of
the screen. Manufacturers call UHD as
4K just because it sounds a bit snazzy and
thats about it.
Pushing four times the pixels requires a
heck lot more graphical processing power
and current cards are already capable of
the same. Its been quite some time since
multi-display technologies have hit the
market but the implementation is a bit
different. There is a limitation on HDMI
which prevents it from pushing UHD
resolution on a single HDMI port. But
multi-display is all about using each port
for just one Full HD display.
Mobiles have started using beefier SoCs
which can render UHD resolution, the
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 is one such
chipset that has already made its presence felt in some flagships. If that wasnt
enough then there are TV channels that
have started projecting in 8K resolution.
And by 8K I mean QUHD
(Quad Ultra HD)
which requires much higher
bandwidth.
So with all the UHD capable
devices around us and with the
availability of content in UHD
format, wouldnt it be time to
move to a UHD monitor? Nope,
and heres why. All 4K (thats
what manufacturers call UHD)
monitors out there are using TN
(twisted nematic) panels. These

only reproduce the image properly for the viewer sitting right
in front of the monitor. Anyone
sitting at an angle is going to
experience a washed out display
with a darkened overall tone. TN
is great for fast response time but
offers not so great colour reproduction. IPS and VA panels in
UHD monitors are a while away.
If youve got any intention
of gaming on a UHD monitor then youre
going to be most disappointed. Firstly, the
GPUs can only push UHD resolution at
30Hz over HDMI, this means that youll be
stuck with crappy FPS which would likely
get capped at around 30 FPS given that a
single GPU is going to find it ridiculously
stressful to push UHD at max configuration. On top of that the sub 60Hz panel
will worsen your overall experience. You
can play at 1080p on your UHD monitor
at 60Hz. However, youd smack yourself
in the head for buying the UHD monitor
if you were never going to be able to play
games at UHD resolution. Also Full HD
looks really worse on an UHD monitor
since each pixel gets stretched to cover 4
square pixels.
So the way manufacturers have gone
about fixing this is by emulating one panel
to seem like two. Hence, by using MST one
display panel is made to seem like two on
the DisplayPort. This allows UHD @60Hz
on current 4K panels, Dells UP3214Q
uses this method to get UHD onto an
32-inch IPS panel for a good $3,500. So at
the end of the day you either plunk down a
ridiculous amount of money to get a proper
UHD panel or you can spend close to $800
and get TN panels running at 30Hz. Id
say give it a year or two, HDMI 2.0 which
is capable of carrying UHD signals was
released in September last year and itll be
some time before that becomes mainstream.
Thats when you should go in for a UHD
monitor and a good graphics card too.
Diablo 3 Trailer
Check out the trailer of Diablo 3

expansion: Reaper of Souls
http://dgit.in/d14b1o
Laptop under `40k

I want to buy a laptop under `40,000. I
dont have any brand preferences but need
something nice and well built to carry
around to college. Im an engineering
student and will use the laptop
predominantly for working on software
like MATLAB, and some others. That
doesnt mean it shouldnt be able to play
the occasional movie or entertainment
session. Portability isnt a concern for me,
please recommend the best machine in
the budget.
Sayali S.
You couldnt have picked a better time
to buy laptops, because of two things
happening in the market. Inventories of
older generation (Intel Core 3rd gen and
older) of machines are almost in their final
few weeks before getting exhausted,
The time is nigh to buy laptops
ensuring you get a very good deal on a

brand new older generation laptop. The
second thing thats happening is that
almost all OEMs have launched laptops
with the latest hardware in their respective portfolio -- fastest CPUs, greatest
graphics, and so on. So if you have money
to throw at them, you will get a very good
machine in either scenario.
You can take a look at Dells Inspiron
15R laptop selling at `38k on Dells website, and also Acers E1-570G (http://dgit.
in/1dphNL5) is a very good option to consider at your budget. However, if youre
looking at slightly lower price ranges, do
also consider the HP Pavilion 15-n205TX
and the new Lenovo IdeaPad G510. These
are one of the best laptops to buy in the
market at your budget, and they should be
able to handle your tasks -- both educa-
Metal Gear Sold 5
Read the Metal Gear: Solid 5 review if youve

been waiting for the game like everyone else
http://dgit.in/mgs5gzr
Agent 001
tional and entertainment related with

relative ease.
We would recommend you purchase
a laptop based on Intels latest 4th
generation of Core processors, because
their power efficiency is significantly
better than the 3rd generation chips,
as a result this will have a significantly
positive impact on your laptops
battery consumption.
Stock trading computer

My uncle wants to start online stock
trading at his home. But hes a bit tight on
budget, so can you please recommend a
sturdy but cheap pc configuration for him?
Hed have to sit for 8 hrs at his PC. I read
somewhere that at least 4GB of RAM is
required for the stock software. Is that
true? Thanks in advance.
Shubham
Here is what trading computers need:
1. A good processor: This can be anything from an Intel i3 to the latest i7.
The reason being that your OS and the
amount of software that you need to
have running simultaneously eat up a
lot of resources.
2. A multi-monitor setup: Traders like
to have multiple stocks on their display screens all the time and for this a
multi-monitor setup is essential. This
can be achieved by a simple graphics
card that specializes in multi-monitor
setup. This way the workload on the
CPU increases which might in turn
affect the software that you need to
run. The other option is to invest in
a moderately powered graphics card
and then run each screen at a moderate resolution.
3. The network connection: In order to
view what is happening on the stock
market floor from the comfort of your
home you need to have a low latency
internet connection. And to further
avoid any latency issues on your side
you need to have a NIC that has its
own processor like the Killer E2205,
motherboards with these chips are a
bit expensive.
4. Memory: Finally, to supplement your
processor you also need a dual channel
memory kit with a good bus speed.
Avoid clutter with a multi-monitor setup
4GB is a good start, but greater the

RAM is generally better.
If you are starting out then you need
not worry about these things, however, as
you get better and when every millisecond
starts to matter your hardware will need
to cope with demand. So you can make
do with the basic rig that we recommend
in the killer rigs section. However, if you
could write in to us with all the details of
all the software youll be running then we
might be able to help you out better.
Tablet for app testing

I want to buy an Android-powered tablet
under `10-12k. Which tablet is best? I
want to use it for app development.
Manoj Joshi
Nexus 7 - Economical and powerful
If youre focusing on developing

Android alone, theres no better environment than to test drive your apps on
vanilla Android, devoid of skins present
on OEM devices. For this alone, we would
highly recommend picking up the last
generation of Nexus 7 tablet, which is
currently selling at `8k on some online
shopping portals.
Photowall for Chromecast

Photowall is an app from Google for iOS
devices that lets users doodle on pictures and
beam them to TVs http://dgit.in/PhotoCast
Crabster underwater robot

The Crabster CR200 is a crab-like autonomous
underwater drone being made to scuttle the
ocean floor for treasure. http://dgit.in/Crabster
Price Watch
Spend Smart
We list out the hottest selling gadgets and gizmos across different categories
from PnS cameras to gaming keyboards.
PnS Camera
Brand
Canon
Olympus
Pentax
Panasonic
Fujifilm
Casio
Sony
Nikon
Kodak
Samsung
Canon
Olympus
Panasonic
Fujifilm
Sony
Nikon
Kodak
Samsung
Model
Powershot SX50 HS
Stylus VG-165
Efina
Lumix DMC-TZ25
JX500
Exilim EX-H5
DSC-RX100
Coolpix P530
Pixpro AZ361
ES95
Powershot A1400
VG-170
Lumix DMC-FZ200
X-S1
Cybershot DSC-W730
Coolpix S2700
M522
GC100
Screen size
2.8 inch
2.7 inch
2.5 inch
3 inch
2.7 inch
2.7 inch
3 inch
3 inch
4 inch
2.7 inch
2.7 inch
3 inch
3 inch
3 inch
2.7 inch
2.7 inch
2.7 inch
4.77 inch
Sensor size
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
2/3 inch
1/2.3 inch
1/2.3 inch
7.7 mm
1/2.3 inch
Resolution
12.1 MP
14 MP
14 MP
12.1 MP
14 MP
12.1 MP
20.2 MP
16.1 MP
16 MP
16.1 MP
16 MP
14 MP
12.1 MP
12 MP
16.1 MP
16 MP
14.2 MP
16.3 MP
Sensor type
CMOS
CCD
CCD
MOS
CCD
CCD
Exmor R CMOS
CMOS
CCD
CCD
CCD
CCD
High Sensitivity MOS
EXR CMOS
CCD
CCD
CCD
BSI CMOS
Optical zoom
50x
5x
5x
16x
5x
10x
3.6x
42x
36x
5x
5x
5x
24x
26x
8x
6x
4x
20.9x
Max ISO
6400
1600
1600
6400
3200
3200
12800
6400
3200
3200
1600
1600
6400
12800
3200
3200
1000
3200
Price (`)
25,400
4,241
3,785
11,500
4,999
7,795
33,899
19,950
16,400
5,500
5,999
5,299
33,900
45,999
7,730
5,593
5,999
22,500
Cabinets
Brand
Model
Form factors supported
Front
Fans
USB 3.0 mounts
Thermaltake
Thermaltake
Xigmatek
Xigmatek
Corsair
Corsair
Corsair
Level 10 GT Snow
Level 10 GTS
Assassin
Recon
Obsidian 900D
Carbide 300R
Vengeance C70
mini-ITX, Micro ATX, ATX, EATX

mini-ITX, Micro ATX, ATX
mini-ITX, Micro ATX, ATX, EATX, HPTX
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
5
5
8
2
15
7
9
2x 120mm
radiator
mount
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Cooler Master Cosmos II
mini-ITX, Micro ATX, ATX, EATX, XLATX, SSI CEB, SSI EEB
10
Cooler Master
Cooler Master
Bitfenix
Bitfenix
Antec
HAF912
Elite 344
Merc Alpha
Colossus
One S3

mini-ITX, Micro ATX
N
Y
N
Y
Y
Antec
Titan 650
mini-ITX, Micro ATX, ATX, EATX, XLATX, SSI CEB, SSI EEB
Antec
Twelve Hundred V3
Expansion Cabinet
slots
depth
Price (`)
8
7
8
7
10
7
8
23.2 inch
20.1 inch
19.6 inch
15.6 inch
25.6 inch
18.7 inch
20.9 inch
20,255
9,000
6,525
2,410
28,415
5,100
9,585
11
26.1 inch
25,120
7
3
8
4
5
Y
N
Y
N
N
8
4
7
8
7
19.5 inch
17.1 inch
19.3 inch
22.9 inch
19.2 inch
5,700
2,340
3,470
11,405
3,685
23 inch
6,470
20.2 inch
13,455
Awesome GoT swag

Game of Thrones fans, get your geek on with 20
amazing new items from the series available for
purchase on Etsy. http://dgit.in/GimmeGoT
Unreleased Graphics Cards

Check out this list of 10 rare graphics cards
that didn't see the light of a retail stores
window ever. http://dgit.in/RareGPUs
Price Watch
Portable hard drives

Brand
ADATA
ADATA
Buffalo
Buffalo
Dell
Hitachi
Hitachi
HP
ioSafe
Lacie
Lacie
Samsung
Seagate
Seagate
Silicon Power
Sony
Sony
Toshiba
Transcend
WD
Verbatim
Model
HV620
HV610
MiniStation 500
MiniStation 1TB
Backup Plus
Touro Pro 1TB
Touro Mobile 500
P2050
Rugged 1TB
SSD Rugged
Rugged Triple
M3 Portable
Wireless Plus
Expansion
Diamond D03
External 2 TB
HD-EG5/P
Canvio
StoreJet 25H3
My Passport
Store 'n' Go
Interface
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
2x Firewire 800
USB 3.0
Firewire 800
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 2.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
USB 3.0
Capacity
2 TB
1 TB
500 GB
1 TB
1 TB
1 TB
500 GB
500 GB
1 TB
256 GB
500 GB
1 TB
1 TB
500 GB
500 GB
2 TB
500 GB
1 TB
2 TB
2 TB
500 GB
Warranty
3 years
3 years
3 years
3 years
2 years
3 years
3 years
2 years
1 year
2 years
2 years
3 years
3 years
1 year
3 years
3 years
3 years
3 years
3 years
3 years
3 years
Dimension
115 x 78 x 21 mm
18 x 90 x 115 mm
82 x 118 x 16 mm
76 x 115 x 14 mm
123.4 x 81.1 x 14.5 mm
80 x 126 x 15 mm
0 x 126 x 15 mm
85 x 16 x 120 mm
27 x 110 x 150 mm
89 x 140 x 24 mm
90 x 28 x 145 mm
82 x 19.6 x 112 mm
27 x 89 x 19.9 mm
15.5 x 81.1 x 122.3 mm
117.55 x 75.5 x 14 mm
86 x 21.5 x 126 mm
80 x 16 x 126 mm
16.5 x 79 x 118.9 mm
132 x 81.3 x 20.3 mm
111 x 82 x 21 mm
121 x 80 x 15 mm
RPM
5400
5400
5400
5400
5400
7200
7200
5400
7200
NA
7200
5400
5400
5400
5400
5400
5400
5400
5400
5400
5400
Buffer
64 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
32 MB
8 MB
8 MB
32 MB
NA
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
8 MB
Cost/GB (`)
3.32
3.70
8.30
6.78
3.70
6.10
5.64
7.48
18.07
143.35
17.18
4.73
12.01
7.56
10.44
4.80
7.81
6.15
4.11
5.85
8.39
Price (`)
6,790
3,790
4,250
6,940
3,799
6,250
2,890
3,832
18,500
36,700
8,799
4,850
12,300
3,875
5,350
9,850
3,999
6,300
8,425
12,000
4,299
Gaming Keyboards
Brand
Model
USB Ports Mechanical
nKRO
Macro Keys
Game Mode Backlit
Palm
Rest
Price (`)
Mad Catz
Steelseries
Tt eSPORTS
STRIKE3
Shift
Meka G1 Illuminated
0
2
2
N
N
Y
7
7
104 (PS/2)
12
12
12
Y
N
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
9,891
3,397
9,900
Tt eSPORTS
Challenger
Certain
combinations
5,900
Roccat
Roccat
Razer
Razer
Logitech
Logitech
Cooler Master
Cooler Master
Cooler Master
Steelseries
Corsair
Corsair
Corsair
Mad Catz
Isku
Ryos MK Pro
Blackwidow Ultimate
Deathstalker Ultimate
G19s
G510s
Quick Fire Ultimate
Quick Fire XT
Quick Fire TK
Merc
Vengeance K95
Vengeance K60
Vengeance K90
STRIKE7
0
2
1
0
2
0
0
0
0
2
1
1
1
2
N
Y
Y
N
N
N
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
nKRO
10
10
6
6
nKRO
nKRO
nKRO
7
nKRO
20 (USB)
20 (USB)
7
5
5
5
5
12
18
0
0
0
34
18
0
18
4
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
NA
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
N
N
N
N
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
6,600
12,000
10,400
23,300
14,760
8,996
9,539
4,999
7,999
5,449
9,697
5,900
6,500
18,127
Azure rebranded
Industry Connect
Tech @ Work
102
Microsoft intends to rebrand Windows

Azure as Microsoft Azure. Read more
here: http://dgit.in/NuAzure
VA Shiva, the person who gave

email its current form talks about
the future of communication
Career in Database
Administration
The explosion of information and the evolution of Big Data has given rise to one
of the most lucrative careers in the IT sector. Find out how you can ride this
information bandwagon.
Priyanka Mathur
tions cover a myriad of profiles such as

information research scientists, computer
system analysts, computer programmers,
network system administrators, web
developers and database administrators,
to name a few.
[email protected]
ig Data is such a common

buzzword these days, so let
us tell you what the fuss is
all about. In simple words,
Big Data is data that is so diverse, fast
changing and substantial that those who
work with it must go beyond conventional
technologies, skills and infrastructure to
use it efficiently.
The boom in the IT industry has come
in tandem with an upsurge in the amount
of data associated with every organisation.
Big Data is this ever-increasing volume
and velocity of data that we have to deal
with today. Over the past couple of decades, theres also been a shift in the type
of data stored, which now significantly
comprises of social media, mobile data and
machine data, apart from the run-of-themill text and numeric relational data.
According to Kamal Brar, Vice
President, APAC at MongoDB (provider
of commercial Open Source NoSQL
database software), theres high demand
The scale of data

1 Bit = Binary Digit
8 Bits = 1 Byte
1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
1024 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
1024 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
1024 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
1024 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
1024 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
1024 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
1024 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte
Background
Big Data getting bigger
Today, an increasing number of organisations are gathering data about their

consumers and competitors to gain useful
market insights that can be translated into
a business edge. Big Data is only going
to get bigger, and soon it will outstrip
the capacity of the people being trained
to manage it. And the job doesnt simply
involve crunching numbers, but also analysing (transforming and processing) data
in a way that renders it useful. While the
industry has created jobs, it needs people
who can find innovative ways to efficiently
utilise this humongous amount of data.
for Big Data Management technology in

India. The sheer volume of online data has
increased in the past decade. In the early
2000s, the size of a traditional relational
database was 7 TB. Today, individual users
are clocking around 4-5 Petabytes of data.
The worlds information is
doubling every two years. In
its 2011 report, IDC estimated
the size of the digital universe
to be 1.8 Zettabytes. According
to the study, by 2020 the world
would generate 50 times the
amount of information and 75
times the number of information containers while information managing IT staff will
grow by 1.5 times (approx).
The US Bureau of Labor
Statistics reports that by 2020,
computer jobs around the
world are expected to increase
at a rate of 14.3 per cent at
Investment in Digital
a faster rate than any other
Universe (IDC Digital
occupation. Computer occupa- Universe Study 2011)
How data has

changed in the past
decade
What has changed is how we
manage and mine that data.
Traditionally a lot of data that
we had was transactional in
nature. Today, we store data
which is very different in
the way its captured like
social media and machineto-machine data, Kamal elucidates. This sensory-based
data is being captured not on
an hourly basis, but every
millisecond.
The data today has multiple dimensions, so organ-
Luxottica Glass
Google ties up with luxury brand

Luxottica to release new Glass models
http://dgit.in/LuxGlass
ising it requires a different approach. For

example, people are complicated; they have
friends, a transaction history, tweets and a
plethora of other social media components,
which form a rich complex structure that
you need to understand and analyse. The
software that you use should allow you to
quickly inject the data into the data store,
and allow it to have an analytic framework
around it. It should be able to quickly
retrieve data thats important to you.
The evolution of data has led to the
development of new database platforms
such as Hadoop and NoSQL, which meets
the above requirements. These platforms
are designed to store large volumes of
complex data, which dont nicely fit into
tables. Presently theres high demand for
online and mobile data storage, which has
also affected the hardware being employed
to keep large volumes of data online rather
than moving them to archives.
Chrome Now
Google Now notifications will be

available on Chrome desktop browser
http://dgit.in/ChromeNow
Digital Universal Paradox (IDC Digital

Universe Study 2011)
Why Database Administrator?

A Database Administrator, or DBA, manages the database in a way the industry
demands. To do so, he uses his programming and administration skills. We mean
that the database administrator is responsible for the installation, configuration,
upgrade, maintenance and security of an
organisations database. The overall goal
is to keep the servers up and running at all
times and provide the users with access
to the required information when needed.
The DBA must protect the database from
damage accidental or intentional and
minimise the chances of data loss. While
this is the traditional role of a DBA in an
organisation, modern times call for more.
Now just getting the required information
isnt enough, the database admin must find
a way to efficiently exploit the information.
In a time where everything in this world
relies on data, and that too digital data, we
cant compromise on accuracy and timeliness, when the slightest lack of precision
or delay by microseconds may cause a
company to lose millions, says Avinash
Mathur, an Oracle DBA for a reputed IT
consulting firm.
The role of a DBA is evolving, explains
Kamal. Traditionally, it was about managing a stable, relatively slow moving
technology, which is the relational database.
Today, a DBA has to deal with many aspects

and not just administration. He continued,
Their role is moving towards making decisions on how they can manage more complex systems built on Big Data technologies,
that encompasses things like Hadoop,
NoSQL-based MongoDB, and potentially
existing legacy relational data stores.
Competencies required
for DBA
If youre considering a career in databases,
you must be skilled in Structured Query
Language, or SQL, as its more commonly
known. SQL is a programming language
designed especially to manage and access
data in a relational database management
system (RDBMS). What is an RDBMS,
you ask? A relational database is the
most common database model that weve
all used at some point in our lives. The
spreadsheets that you make are a befitting example of a relational database. If
you havent heard of it before, dont worry.
RDBMS is just a fancy term geeks use to
refer to a collection of tables, in which data
is organised in rows and columns. A database administrator is expected to know
about popular relational database systems
such as Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL
Server, PostgreSQL and IBM DB2.
Work @ tech
Relational databases are the most

common and convenient way of organising data. However, theres an increasing
demand for other tools to manage data,
since it isnt always feasible to organise
data into rows and columns. Oracle DBA,
Avinash tells us that there are various
other tools available in the market for Big
Data analytics:
Hadoop
NoSQL Database
Pentaho Business Analytics
Karmasphere Studio and Analyst
Talend Open Studio
Skytree Server
Apart from these, a database administrator should have a good understanding
of the operating system and network architecture (client/server, intranet/internet,
etc) hell be working on. Companies want
to hire developers who have an understanding of the different data storage techniques and the type of technologies that
are used to build applications, according
to Kamal.
Everyday responsibilities
Lets talk in detail about the job responsibilities of a database administrator. This
will help you get a good picture of what
sort of work your duty will entail.
Database administrators decide who
gets access to which part of the database by assigning privileges to the end
users, specific to their needs. He implements authentication and authorisation mechanisms to establish security
of the database.
He allocates the storage for the database
in co-ordination with the IT department of the organisation. Both, present
and future needs of the company
are kept in mind when planning the
storage capacity of the database.
Database administrators should be well
aware of the functioning of the database
management system, and tackle all the
technical problems that may arise.
He writes and continually updates
the documentation for the database.
A database with an inconsistent or
obsolete documentation is difficult to
maintain especially for people who
didnt originally design it and will be
working on it in the future.
Knock on G2/G2 Flex

Work @ tech
A highly crucial duty of the administrator is planning the backup and

recovery of the database. He should
strive for high availability of data.
Providing information that the user
wants (and in the required format)
is one of the main responsibilities of
the database administrator. In order
to fulfil this duty, s/he must integrate
various software tools with the database system.
They understand the clients requirements and interact with the design
team to create a database as per the
formers needs. The DBA must have
good communication skills to understand what the client wants and convey
it to the designers.
They assist the end users (the clients) in
using the system.
Database administrators also manage
metadata, which is the information
about the database itself, rather than
the data that it contains. DBAs have
complete access to metadata, allowing
them to change the database design.
Administrators are superusers of
the database, which means that they
have full access to all the data and the
authority to change it. They should
exercise this privilege with utmost care
and precaution.
In a team of DBAs, s/he must act as
a mentor to those in the lower levels
of hierarchy.
Academic requirements &

certifications
To embark on a career as a database
administrator, a Bachelors or Masters
degree in Computer Science or Information Technology or BCA/MCA is a good
place to start. Some employers may
require a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). The industry always
requires people who understand both,
marketing and IT.
A DBA needs to have a solid foundation of engineering, but he would need to
take additional certifications which will
help him learn a specific technology, like
MongoDB or Oracle, Kamal shares. If you
want to specialise in database technologies, various certification programs such
as OC Certification (Oracle Certifica100 Digit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com
The KnockCode feature will be

included on the G2 and G2 Flex
models http://dgit.in/LGKnock
tion Program http://dgit.in/1ghJxBA) and

MCDBA (Microsoft Certified Database
Administrator http://dgit.in/1iJRBu6) can
help you.
You can do certification courses in
Database Management, and related fields
from NIIT or other such reputed institutes.
Based on your circumstances, you can
opt for either correspondence or full-time
certification programmes with flexible
timings. Go to http://dgit.in/1dwr5iV to make
your decision on a course easier.
Although a formal degree in computer
science is not required to perform this job,
most companies hire professionals with
SpaceX Dragon launch
The Dragon spacecraft will be launched

on March 30 to resupply the ISS
http://dgit.in/DragonLaunch
manage. With global outsourcing, its rare

for a DBA to work in a 9-5 job, in India in
particular. Avinash, a Lead Oracle DBA
himself, says that handling databases is
a 24x7 job. You can look forward to shift
work and support on call if needed. You
might even have to work weekends.
The remuneration
Income is usually a major factor in
choosing a career. While Digit advocates
doing what you love and loving what you
do, we all want to be paid well in our jobs.
Unfortunately, in our country, database
administrators arent paid as well as in
RDBMS with tables
comparatively advanced degrees and specialisation, with their pay scales adjusted
accordingly. Low-level jobs that dont
require formal education are outsourced
and dont pay well.
What to study?
When selecting courses during your
degree go for Data Structures, Database
Management, Data Warehousing, Algorithms, Operating Systems and Operations
Research, which teach students complex
decision rules and their application on real
data sets. Also, advanced courses in Statistics may also be useful in data analytics.
Apart from all these, a DBA must have
sound understanding of basic programming concepts and familiarity with related
technologies, mainly Java (JDeveloper,
J2EE, Apache).
Expected working hours

As a database administrator, your working
hours depend on the type of systems youll
developed nations such as the U.S. Talk

about the hardships of a developing nation.
According to Kamal Brar, your salary
is subject to your place of graduation
as well as the type of organisation you
joined. A research report (http://dgit.
in/1di9tgc) by PayScale, informs that a
database administrator in India earns
anywhere between `1.8 lakhs p.a. to `9.8
lakhs p.a., if youre working with companies such as Accenture, Cognizant,
Infosys, TCS, IBM, Wipro, Tech Mahindra
and the likes.
In the end, its a competitive market so
a highly inclusive skill set coupled with
years of work experience will ensure
higher pay and likelihood of being hired.
In todays IT sector, nothing is isolated
and you must have comprehensive knowledge about all the related fields. Here,
were not implying that you should be a
jack of all trades and master of none. Your
skill set should fundamentally revolve
around databases.
TECHNO HOLI
TECHNO HOLI
Attractive
Attractive
CASH
CASH
PRIZES
PRIZES
Certificate of Participation
Certificate of Participation
th
th
2014
2014
th
th
6 & 7 March
6 & 7 March
od d
o
Fo && e e
Fo
nn
Zo o
nn Z
Fu u
F
th
th
th
66th March 2014- Theme: MAD DAY
March 2014- Theme: MAD DAY
CAD
CAD
Blind Remote Race
Blind Remote Race
Electronic Mania
Electronic Mania
Robo Race/ Line
Robo Race/ Line
Treasure Hunt
Treasure Hunt
Open Stage Fun
Open Stage Fun
Roadies
Roadies
Quiz Competition
Quiz Competition
Mobile Texting
Mobile Texting
Workshop by Google Group
Workshop by Google Group
on Android Gaming
on Android Gaming
7 7 Side Football
a a Side Football
Technical T-Shirt Painting
Technical T-Shirt Painting
77 March 2014
March 2014
Car Driving
Car Driving
Gully Cricket
Gully Cricket
SWAROOP
SWAROOP
Science Exhibition
Science Exhibition
LAN Gaming
LAN Gaming
Workshop by Microsoft
Workshop by Microsoft
Video & & Photography
Video Photography
Basketball
Basketball
Battle ofof Band & Singing
Battle Band & Singing
Robo War/Line Follower
Robo War/Line Follower
Collage Making
Collage Making
Play Back Mobile App
Play Back Mobile App
Best Technology out
Best Technology out
ofof Waste
Waste
For more Detail Contact:

For more Detail Contact:
Mr. Akhilesh Chauhan - 9893346636 | Mr. Ankit Jain - 9827596927
Mr. Akhilesh Chauhan - 9893346636 | Mr. Ankit Jain - 9827596927
Student Coordinators : Gaurav - 9713518219 | Aman - 8720000019 | Swapni - 9407151544 | Arnab - 8103230094
Student Coordinators : Gaurav - 9713518219 | Aman - 8720000019 | Swapni - 9407151544 | Arnab - 8103230094
www.indoreinstitute.com I [email protected] I [email protected]

www.indoreinstitute.com I [email protected] I [email protected]
https://sites.google.com/a/indoreinstitute.com/technoholi/home
https://sites.google.com/a/indoreinstitute.com/technoholi/home
Media Partner:
Media Partner:
Apple doesnt like Bitcoin

Industry Connect
Apple removes Blockchain, the last

Bitcoin wallet app from the app store.
http://dgit.in/BTCnoIOS
Stick out like a sore thumb
And maybe youll get noticed says a research study that

analyses subtle cues that help nonconformists break
from the pack and thrive: http://dgit.in/bdiffrnt
Sameer Parwarni, Founder

& CEO of CouponDunia.in
We speak with Indias leading budgeting website, that helps users find the
best deals on various e-commerce websites.
Vishal Mathur
Can you give us some numbers on

CouponDunias registered users? Among
them, which is the most active demographic?
[email protected]
e speak with Indias

leading budgeting website, that helps users find
the best deals on various
e-commerce websites, including the likes
of amazon.in, Flipkart, Myntra, Zovi
and Infibeam, including many others.
We speak with Mr. Sameer Parwarni,
Founder & CEO of CouponDunia.in, and
get an idea about the journey, the challenges and the future plans.
In a market crowded with e-commerce
websites, how does CouponDunia.in plan to
get the customers attention?
To begin with, CouponDunia is not an

e-commerce website. Were a coupon website. For virtually every e-commerce store
in India, we list coupons and offers that
can be availed to save on a purchase. These
coupons and offers are all free. Everyone
loves saving money so the response weve
received in the market has been excellent.
We can boast to be the most popular coupon
website in India due to our focus on helping
people save money.
Can you tell us something about
CouponDunias journey? And what is the
vision for the future...
I started CouponDunia in December 2010

while living in the Boston area. Running
a site for Indian consumers while in the
USA came with a whole set of challenges.
It was virtually impossible to hire people
and totally impossible to meet clients. Even
calls were tough due to the time difference.
I hadnt ever lived in India, hadnt visited
India since 2004, and didnt speak Hindi so
there were even cultural issues to overcome.
We have almost 10 lakh newsletter subscribers and over 1.7 million monthly
visitors. The most active of these users are
usually males between 25 and 31 years of age.
Which categories of products and which
website deals are the most sought after on
your portal? Please share some figures also
specific to gadget categories.
Sameer Parwarni
Founder & CEO, CouponDunia.in
But despite these issues we did really

well. On the people front we hired contractors in the Philippines to add coupons. I
became virtually nocturnal to have as much
time as possible to deal with clients.
It then got to a point where it became
clear that I needed to shift to India to allow
CD to reach its full potential. So I finally
moved here in August 2012. From there
weve grown even further. At that point we
had 4-5 employees and now we have almost
40 and have expanded our operations into 4
new countries.
Going forward we plan to continue to
expand internationally. Our domestic plans
are to go from distributing coupons that can
be used offline.
Electronics is definitely the most sought

after category. Last December, our users
bought about 2.5 crores worth of electronics
from Flipkart alone. Fashion and travel are
also very popular. Coupons that are applicable on all products or multiple categories
do really well as the user has a huge range of
options to choose from.
What is your strategy to take on the
competition?
What differentiates us from our competitors

is the quality and accuracy of our content.
Were constantly striving to provide a
better user experience through design and
algorithm upgrades as well as exclusive discounts. Since we have the largest audience of
discount seeking users, merchants are more
willing to share better coupons with us than
our competition.
How does CouponDunia generate

revenues?
Does CouponDunia have any role in the

buyer-seller interaction/transaction? Do
you take any measure to ensure validity and
safety of transactions?
Its a pretty straightforward business

model. We send our users to our partner
merchant sites where these users makes
purchases. For every purchase made by
a customer sent by us, the merchant pays
us commission.
We make transactions more likely to

happen by ensuring consumers get a good
value. Shoppers hesitate to buy due to the
unknown of whether they are getting a fair
price or not. We take that fear away and
hence more sales happen.
If Google was a guy 2
After the hugely successful College Humour

video, theyre back with another edition:
http://dgit.in/googguy
Why to NOT work in silicon valley

PC Mag analyst Sascha Segan writes an opinion piece
on why he wouldnt want his daughter to ever work in
the valley. Find out why: http://dgit.in/unowrk
Industry Connect
Interview with VA Shiva

Ayyadurai creator of EMAIL
We sit down for a chat with the person who gave email its current form.
Mithun Mohandas
So how did you go about coming up

with EMAIL?
have a public key on your phone to access

your email. And with quantum computing
coming up, you could bust all these security systems overnight so these security
systems will have to scale accordingly.
The first part of the book talks about this

whole journey. And at the Email is this
business communication system. And
because of that its a formal messaging
system and I called it EMAIL. In Fortran
they had a naming convention where all
variables had to be in uppercase and 6
characters only. And the OS was the HP OS
called RT4 and that had another constraint
where if you wrote a program, the program
name could only be 5 characters, so I called
it EMAIL. It was not an obvious term,
infact when I wrote it I thought maybe I
should call it EMALL. I didnt know how to
pronounce it, if it were 9 characters then Id
have called it Electromail.
It wasnt a simple program, it was
50,000 lines of code. And we worked on
64K memory and we had to have another
layer to perform memory swapping.
And it had a nice UI because we had to
convince secretaries whod never seen
computers. It wasnt like morse code and
it had to be made easy. It didnt have GUI
but we had an easy to use interface and
one of the things it had to be was bulletproof. That was one of the mottos when
we wrote code. So we used a relational
database and wed never transport the
message but a pointer. So one of the ideas
was that wed save the message only once.
And for that I won one of those awards
it was called the Westinghouse awards,
today its called the Baby Nobles. Back
in 1978 no one knew what software was
since it was new. The copyright act of
1976 was amended in 1980 to support
copyright of software. So I got the first
In 2007, a new field developed called system

biology. After the genome project ended
in 2002, there have been some fascinating
experiments where theyve changed conditions and you could turn on or off certain
genes. So when you eat certain foods or
meditate or perform certain actions that
those phenomenon could turn on or off
genes. I said to myself that I knew how to
build large scale systems so why not create an
electronic version of the human cell system.
We called it Cytosolve. Then we had high
throughput imaging started happening and
since we could observe the rates of interactions in the human body. We could now
calculate rate constants. So what if we could
create the molecular pathway model of the
human cell. So I took that up for my Ph.D.
People in the wet labs had already done a
lot of experiments so if you could combine
these computationally and mechanistically
then we should be able to model disease. So
we looked at pancreatic cancer and looked at
all the different studies done. So the strategy
in cancer is to restart the normal apoptosis
for cell and stop metastasis. We looked at
the literature and we found all the different
pathways that looked at apoptosis and built
a model for the same and then we made a
model for cellular proliferation. Then we
looked at all the existing generic drugs and
with a combination we were able to lengthen
the proliferation cycle. So with a hybrid
approach we were able to reduce the dosage
of these drugs. So by looking at everything
like a system we were able to do something.
[email protected]
So what are you working on currently?
VA Shiva Ayyadurai,
the creator of EMAIL
copyright for EMAIL - computer program

for inter-office mail system.
So how do you see email evolving?
What were going to start seeing are more

gestural stuff and thats going to change the
way were going to interact with devices.
And I dont think its that long ahead where
you re gonna see more and more signal
processing occurring looking at thoughts.
At some point in the future were gonna be
able to map what were thinking and its
going to be a very different world where
well see more devices like google glass.
Email is very insecure, whats happening
on the security front?
In corporate areas they have two types of

email, one is the open email and the other is
secure email. Theyll have a normal interaction where youd be sent a non-secure
email and that would tell you that you have
a secure email and that would send you to a
secure server through private key or public
key. And were going to see more and more
corporations move to secure mail and youd
Slack off!
Community
Unwind
106
Follow our thriving communities on

facebook, twitter and our forum and
you just might get featured here
110
...but productively. Here are some

constructive ways to waste your
time online.
Wondrous Weapons
Wartime is a hard time for humankind, but its also a time for invention, a time where genius
and madman walk hand-in-hand bringing to life their (sometimes) warped creations to life!
Look! A Komet!
Bat-shit crazy
How is this for a proposal? Youre a top

of the line pilot employed by the worlds
best air-force who is then asked to strap
himself to an experimental rocket-plane
that might blow and jettisons its wheels
on take-off and can only fly for eight minutes before running out of fuel and then
has to glide back to Earth and land on
skids. Thats the ME 163 Komet for you.
You might call the American armed

forces batty, but you have to give them
points for trying. A dentist suggested
that the USAF strap timed incendiary
devices to bats and unleash them on
a hapless Japanese populace. As a
weapon, the bats proved themselves
to be singularly uncooperative and set
even set ablaze their home base.
Somethings screwy here

Innovative means of propulsion are well
and good, but what works for certain
types of boats will most certainly not
work on land. The Russian corkscrew
tank concept proved itself to be surprisingly effective on snow, but would
literally grind to a halt on civilised city
streets. Russia, its time to stop screwing
around. For good.
Balls of steel
Bazooka Vespa
Whats a Frenchman without his scooter?
Too lazy to build tanks, or even fourwheeled vehicles, the French decided
that itll be a good idea to mount a 75mm
recoilless-rifle on a scooter. Imagine the
ignominy of getting shot by a serious
looking Frenchman bearing down on you
on this Vespa, hurling frustrated French
invective in your general direction!
Trench warfare bogging you down? Then

why not just build a steel ball, load it up
with a handful of troops and stick a few
machine-guns onto it and let it roll to
the enemy. A simple enough concept
in itself, till you realise that the tank is
literally a ball of steel. There isnt even a
viewport for the gunner. Thankfully, the
project was scrapped at an early stage.
Liberate yourself
The FP45 was the most awkward pistol
ever conceived. It only held one shot and
was limited to a range of 25 feet. If you
missed that one shot however, you were
required to open up the breach, shove a
dowel down the barrel, eject the spent
casing, insert a new bullet and close the
breach. All this while a furious opponent
is pumping you full of lead.
SALE! SALE! SALE!
Movie Madness
Ashampoo is offering WinOptimizer11 at

50% exclusively for you, dear reader.
http://www.winoptimizer.com/
Having trouble populating your bucket list?

Heres a 1000 movies to see before you die!
http://dgit.in/1ixeD6W
Unwind
How we unwind
Audio extravaganza
Theres a set of speakers that weve all
been harping about and eyeing for many
months now and when the distributor
decided to cut a deal for us, we pounced
on the offer, ordering half a dozen of
them. Were now fastidiously blowing
the roof of our homes and keeping the
neighbours awake at night.
A larger Vu
Yay! Its party time
We thought wed seen it all when a 55

Vu TV passed through our office a while
ago, but when the 65 Vu dropped in, we
dropped everything we were doing and
just ogled at the awesome glory of that
display. As usual, our meal times are never
complete without some sort of HD content
gracing that lovely screen.
We are an anti-social bunch at Digit

and wed rather be enjoying a game of
Quake than sitting around socialising.
However, with the directors breathing
down our collective necks, we had to
present ourselves at the office party.
We did have a surprising amount of fun
however, so all was not lost.
diary
Things took a turn for the surreal this month. With action
around every corner, the team found themselves a bit winded
and disoriented. With the team down to its last tether in manpower, the road has been rough but as youve got yourself a
magazine to read (we hope youve got yourself a magazine to
read), things turned out just fine.
On a brighter note (450 lumens to be exact) a 65 VU TV
dropped by, hijacking our meal times and ignominiously ejecting Mithun from his corner of the office (the price of hooking
up a TV to your PC).
While Mithun crooned over his 65 toy, the gloom over
the Ants departure still loomed over our team. Even the rats
seemed to have forsaken us in mourning but the real loss,
that heart-clenching, tear-inducing loss, was felt by our now
seemingly benevolent leader. He spent the first couple of
weeks in a daze, sluggish and slow, expressing little interest
in life, only venting his frustration in the dozens of laps that
he churned out at his favourite swimming pool. Sid isnt one to
take things lying down however (editors are made of sterner
stuff than the average human) and went and got himself a
girlfriend, who was probably attracted by his unusually stern
demeanour, but we digress. As the saying goes, everything
happens for a reason (note that the name of said woman has
been withheld to avoid backlash from his secret admirers
congregating in common cause).
Not all seem to be in mourning however, especially
Raaabo, whose first decree was proclaiming exclusive rights
over the rig of the dearly departed. After exterminating the
Ant infestation from the rig, he proceeded to complain about
internet speeds and badly placed windows keys in over-ex-
pensive mechanical keyboards while simultaneously crooning

over the joys of having a real PC at his fingertips. True geeks
never change.
In the middle of all this joy (and some sorrow) Regidi and
Pony seem to be having a horrible month, overall. Regidi was
assigned bed rest after pulling a badass Bloody Mary (bled
from his eyes for days, or at least thats what the rumours
say), he still managed to walk into work once in a while and
single-handedly saved the cover story whilst sporting his
bloodshot eye, completely unfazed. A Rambo amongst geeks,
this one.
As bad as a subconjunctival haemorrhage might seem,
the Ponys tale was more disturbing. <hushed whisper> Hes
told this to us in the strictest confidence of course, and we
ask you to do the same </hushed whisper>. It turns out that
during one of our all-nighters the Pony was caught with his
pants down, literally. An impromptu trip to the crapper found
the minion stuck inside with no water or toilet paper at hand.
After weighing his options, our worthy minion decided that his
best bet was to make a break for it, a quick and stealthy dash
(it was the middle of the night after all) to the WC at the other
end of the office for much needed supplies. The picture of
him loping across the balcony in almost all his naked glory is
something we shudder to contemplate, but its something we
would have never had the guts (or rather, had more sense) to
do. Either way, the dash was accomplished speedily, stealthily and successfully (the six hours spent playing Thief had
something to do with it).
Its been an exceptionally mad month and things will
hopefully return to a modicum of normalcy next month.
HTC One Minimalist

Digit Squad
HTC One will be available in a minimalistic version

as well on launch. Intrigued? Read on to know more:
http://dgit.in/htcmini
Rumr
Heres a new app on the market that allows

you to chat with your friends anonymously
http://dgit.in/rumrapp
This month we highlight some aspiring tech

writers and their spirited attempt to get published
in the magazine. Lets have more!
Ten cool Developer tools that you

probably didnt know existed
Mohit Chhabra
Commission Junction
http://www.cj.com
Monetisation is important for every developer to earn his daily bread. Commission
Junction is an alternative to Google
Adsense (which is quite difficult to
activate). Post ads on your site through
CJ and start earning from your blog
straight away.
very Web Developer wants to be

productive, save time and hassle.
So heres a list of free tools that you
probably didnt know existed.
Responsive Design Check

(http://www.mattkersley.com/responsive/)
With multiple devices hitting the market, its
getting difficult for developers to support all
form factors. This tool will help you check
how your site will look in various iFrames.
Ideal for previewing how your site will look
on an iPad, iPhone or other devices.
Mobile-Ready Evaluator
http://ready.mobi/launch.jsp
This tool generates a free report once
you provide a site URL. It gives you
both, a score (from 1 to 5) and an indepth analysis of pages to determine
how well your site performs on a
mobile device. If the score is low, think
about revamping the site since a majority of internet users access sites via
mobile devices.
Launch List
(http://lite.launchlist.net/)
An easy-to-use to do list tool for web designers and developers to check their work
Webpage Loading Speed

Tester
http://cloudmonitor.ca.com/en/checkit.php
The last thing users want these days is to
see your web page loading. This is a great
tool to test your site speed from different
parts of the world.
Privacy Policy Generator

Pages should adapt to the screen size
can create workflows, create 3D

images with Blender and still images in
real scenarios.
www.generateprivacypolicy.com
Who wants to write those lengthy policies
which no one is interested in reading? Use
this free tool instead.
Emulate your website
before launching any project. Just select yes

or no on the basis of your project conditions
and see if you are good to launch or not.
Picksum Ipsum
http://www.picksumipsum.co.uk
Bored of using lorum ipsum as a sample
text in your projects? Try Picksum Ipsum,
an alternative lorum ipsum generator that
uses lines from famous actors! From Jim
Carey to Morgan Freeman, everyone has
something to say.
Easy legalese generator
Free Hosting
www.pages.github.com
Need free hosting for your site? GitHub
gives you just that. All you need to do
is get hold of a domain and point to
your repository.
Place It
Is your site mobile-friendly?
https://placeit.net/
A free tool to market your product. You
Dummy text for dummies
Google interview advice
Feel like landing a job at Google? Heres

what its looking for! Check out this article:
http://dgit.in/ggljobs
Bioshock buried?
Check out this review of Bioshock Infinite:

Buried at Sea if youre doubtful about the DLC
http://dgit.in/biosbas
Digit Squad
Head over to our online communities for some of the best discussions, buying advice and user
reviews. Of course, youll meet like-minded (and not-so-like-minded) geeks and have some of
the most memorable discussions of your life: http://dgit.in/dforumt
special section
Advertorial
www.dsksic.com
in pursuit of a career
in video games
career in video game is often misunderstood. Many people

amounts of hard work, dedication and acquire design skills to be sucassume that it leads to a job where one gets to play video
cessful video game designers.
games all day long. However, this perception depicts the
Similar to stereotypical professions like Engineering, Medicine, and
peoples unawareness of the gaming design industry and its
Pharmacy amongst others, Video Game Design requires one to master the
art of dreaming, planning, designing and creating the games for different
potential. The year 2013 brought with itself more than 500 game title
releases with compatibility spread over 21 gaming platforms. Considering
audiences. Designing the video games for computers and specific game
that it takes roughly two years for a game in its production pipeline,
consoles can then be another choice of specialized skill set on the path
that itself speaks volumes of the amount of work global game design
to a challenging and rewarding career. This is where you need specialized
teams put into these game projects. Of the total consumer spend on
coaching and experts in the field who can guide you towards your goal
the gaming industry of $20.77 billion in the year
of having an impact in the video games industry.
2012, $14.8 billion is simply on the content. To
The DSK international Campus curriculum folClearing the
summarize, there is no other sector in the world
lows an industry renowned process while offering
that has experienced the same explosive growth
the degree courses to the designers. With specialmisconceptions
ized degree programs in interactive media and game
as the video game industry; an opinion shared by
design, the course consists of comprehensive knowlreputed industry experts. A career in this highly
regarding earning
edge of the game-play theory. The course actively
competitive industry is bound to be challenging
a living making
promotes and attempts to evoke imaginative and
but immensely rewarding at the same time.
creative thinking as a talent development process.
Creating a game of any level is about as difvideo games, and how
ficult as filming a feature-length movie. While
Each game design project involves a vast range of
DSK SUPINFOGAME
one can make the basic frame for a game without
activities which are split up into different project
detailed technical knowledge, one will find it very
processes. This gives the designers the chance to
empowerS you TO GEt
difficult to design the details of the game without
work collaboratively in diverse teams as well as
ahead of the curve
a degree in game design and practicing the varuse their skills independently during the project
ious other basics associated with it. Storyboard
sessions. The multi-cultural diversity helps them
ideation, thorough research, characterization,
in getting familiar with international work cultures
designing the gaming environment, figuring out the compatible platforms,
and global game design trends. A significant focus on good communicacoding the artificial intelligence, making extensive use of the game-play
tion and presentation skills continue to add to their core abilities of game
theory, and designing the right balance between surreal graphics and
makers. The primary requisites are the emphasis on strong storytelling and
aesthetics still constitutes to only 50 per cent of the total activities
narrative development skills with proficiency in maths and programming.
involved in a gaming project. This followed by continuous upgrades and
Specializations like Audio, Design, Production, Programming, Visual
patch releases to keep the game in sync with the real-world changes
Arts and Business work together to weave different aspects together
makes up for a massively enriching project life cycle.
to complete a gaming product. As a graduate in the video game design
profession, the designer could progress their career in Game Design,
This career is therefore not for those who can only dream and play
games throughout the day but is aimed at people who can add astounding
Art and Programming verticals. The possibilities are truly endless. n
The RSS Feed
Dont blame the tech
m sure all of you have been following the tragic but mysterious
circumstances of the disappearance of
Malaysian Airlines MH370. Every one
I know, including many of us here at
Digit have been left flabbergasted by the sheer
unexpectedness of this incident how do you
lose an airplane? This is 2014, right?
How does a commercial airplane, which has
already been proven to be a potent missile by
Al-Qaida nearly 13 years ago, drop off the sensors of not just regular air traffic control, but
also military scanners? It did, after all, divert
from its flight path, not respond to communications and had ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) and
its transponder turned off! Am I the only one
who pictures frantic war rooms and fighter jets
being scrambled?
The latest news (as I write this) is that
satellite data puts the last known location of
the plane somewhere in the southern Indian
Ocean. Given how hard it is to salvage anything from the middle of an ocean, we have
to accept that we may never have satisfactory
answers for what really happened. Technology
has failed, spectacularly, or has it?
Take the simple example of the ACARS
system, which is basically a text-based system
that tells ground control the location, speed,
altitude and direction of a flight. Why should
such an important system have a switch or
circuit-breaker that a pilot can throw on or off?
Arent we giving the pilot of a plane way too
much power? Controls, yes, I wouldnt want to
be in a plane flown by wire from the ground.
Give me a human pilot any day, but allowing
them to turn off critical tracking systems?
Perhaps theres some logic for it, but I think its
time to re-look at established logic.
The transponder is another example of
technology that needs improvement, because
it relies solely on ground-based devices asking
it a question (in machine language) to which
it responds. The range is limited however
about 100 kilometres. As long as youre flying
over populated land masses, the transponder
works well, but over large bodies of water it is
pointless. Again, pilots have a simple switch to
turn the transponder off, even in mid-air, why?
While the black box is mostly foolproof, it

only records the status of equipment detecting
whether theres been a mechanical or system
failure but in this case it might read something like, All systems go. Cause of crash: ran
out of fuel. What answers about MH370 does
that give us? Nothing.
Thats where we turn to the cockpit voice
recorder for answers, which, however, might
also be useless, because the voice recorder
only records the last two hours of conversation
between the pilots, and not the whole journey!
Why? Because weve convinced ourselves that
crashes happen immediately after a problem,
and thus two hours suffice.
Im aware that such systems have a myriad
level of complications when being designed,
but still, surely even a few GB of storage can
record an entire flights conversation! I can
record 100 hours of HD video on my cheap
DVR, but planes that cost tens of millions of
dollars can record only two hours of audio?
I guess there are two major reasons this
story has struck a chord with me:
First, I belong to a family who has grieved
a relative lost at sea, and thus I can relate
to the pain of the families of those on board
MH370. Back then, I was asking how 21st
century, multi-million dollar merchant navy
ships still dont have basic technology such
as CCTV cameras observing the deck to make
sure that just in case someone fell overboard,
the company would be able to provide proper
evidence of what transpired. The technology
exists, is used all around us, but sometimes
isnt implemented where its needed most.
Second, because at about the time MH370
went missing, I booked a holiday to Australia
for my family on Malaysian Airlines, flying
Boeing 777-200s
Robert Sovereign-Smith
Executive Editor
[email protected]
I can record 100

hours of HD video on
my cheap DVR, but
planes that cost tens
of millions of dollars
can record only two
hours of audio?
Liked or hated this column?

Write in to
[email protected]
and let me know your thoughts.
More martian water?

Feature
NASAs HiRISE finds another gully on the

martian surface and possibly existence of
liquid water http://dgit.in/Mars2O
Sea fossil
New fossil points towards a massive

sea turtle that lived 75 million years
ago http://dgit.in/SeaFossil
Slack
Off!
Y
Prakrit Dhondiyal
[email protected]
ou can either sit in your cubicle

all day liking pictures off your
facebook feed, scan 9GAG
for a few chuckles or you can
take a leaf from our book and look deeper
for something more meaningful. Weve
decided to put together a list of websites
that put a little bit of constructiveness
into slacking.
For DIYers
Most websites for DIYers have rather
obvious titles. Take this one, for instance:
How To Do Things (http://bit.ly/zeu5BM).
This is a website that teaches you how to
do things (no $#!t, Sherlock!). From subjects ranging from How to throw a great
birthday party to How to make a wind
chime from spoons to the unconventional
How to fart silently and Where to stash
your ahem sandwiches. Other than
some very entertaining articles, How to Do
things does serve to help in unusual situations when you dont know where to turn.
Wonder How To (http://dgit.in/wonhto)
is a similar website for most people who
like doing things themselves, or simply
spend their time wondering how to do
anything on their own.
If youre interested in personalized
DIY options, but dont really intend to
put your own blood sweat and tears in
the mix, Fiverr (http://dgit.in/fyver) is a
place where you can hire people for their
posted services for the minimal charge
of $5. Graphic designers, songwriters,
marketing and advertising professionals, you name it. Its a hub for people
to hire freelancers for projects at affordable prices. A go-to website for both,
the people hiring and the people hoping
to get hired.
...but productively.
Here are some
constructive ways
to waste your time
online.
For the Readers out there
Live and Learn
How fast can you read? Sure, it may

be 800-900 words per minute, but
reading without understanding or
retaining is a fundamental mistake
made by a lot of readers. Spreeder
(http://dgit.in/spreedr) is a basic speed
reading software that helps you
increase your reading along with
comprehension speed.
This is for all the nerds in the house. Some

people consider a constant source of information as a source of entertainment, these
knowledge-addicts decide very naturally
to do something very obviously constructive in their free time, and are not reliant
on educational games or activities to keep
them hooked on. To these people, studying
and learning is a relaxing task in itself.
Big Think - Changing the way you think
Sometimes, when youre bored, you may

not really have any time to waste. But you
need to get out of your work rut and distract
yourself with a short story or maybe even a
small sonnet. Classic Short Stories (http://
dgit.in/clashrts) is a website with a widely
appreciated collection of some of the worlds
most famous short stories. So if youre a
reader, give this website a gander.
Poem Hunter (http://dgit.in/pohntr), on
the other hand, is a comprehensive online
database of published poetry ranging from
the classic to the contemporary. Whether
youre looking for John Donne and Shelly
or Ray Carver and Paul Auster - Poem
Hunter has it.
Some websites offer distance learning

courses, educational videos and experiments for people to watch and learn.
Khan Academy (http://dgit.in/khnac) has
been popular since its inception back in
2006. It has become even more popular
since then. The resources of Khan Academy
are available for free to anyone around the
world and has a reach of over about 10 million students and has delivered over 300
million lessons till date.
Ted Ed (http://dgit.in/tedEdu) is the
youtube channel maintained by TED
(Technology, Entertainment, Design) the
non-profit devoted to ideas that are worth
spreading. Ted Ed, similarly, is a youtube
Safe nuclear storage
Californium, a fringe element is quite resistant to

radiation damage and could improve the way nuclear
waste is stored http://dgit.in/NukeCf
channel made for the sole purpose of educating people worldwide.

Though more professionally-based, this TED channel propagates
interesting and probable theories. Its a fun visit.
Draw Space (http://dgit.in/drwspac) is an online portal meant to
help budding artists learn the basics of drawing and sketching. It is
a massive library of free and easily downloadable lessons. These lessons have been authored by world-renowned speakers. Draw Space
is a community that consists of over 3,20,000 drawing enthusiasts,
professional artists, art educators, and authors of art books.
DuoLingo (http://dgit.in/dulng) is a website and an app to learn
more than 18 different languages ranging from Italian, Portuguese,
Spanish to Korean. Duolingo encourages self-education, and
pushes you teach yourself a new language. Definitely a constructive use of your time.
Big Think is a website that stands as a constantly evolving road
to the best thinkers across the planet it stands as a valid testament
to the ideas that can help people think flexibly and act decisively in
the big, bad ever-expansive world. Always fun to read, with articles
spanning various philosophies and life lessons.
Learning through entertainment

Theres a lot to be said about learning new things
through the medium of entertainment. Studies show
that game-based learning surpasses traditional methods
of learning (http://dgit.in/gmbslrn) with respect to some
innate skill-sets like strategising, hand-eye coordination, etc. Similarly, the smart usage of audio-visual
medium also proves extremely effective (http://dgit.
in/mmlrn) with respect of information retention and
memory enhancement. Keeping all this in mind, there
are some ways the internet can be used to find educational entertainment specifically, methods that can
be used as a source of entertainment and learning.
Unplug The TV (http://dgit.in/unplugTV) offers an
alternative to television programming. The website is a
simple page that flashes random videos for you to watch
as an alternative to the terrible material that is shown
on TVs today. The subjects of these videos range across
random well-made web series, educational material,
short documentaries and sociocultural videos.
Keyman (http://dgit.in/keymangame) is a typing game
based on Pac Man. The difference is that Keyman
doesnt map specific keys for movement. Instead, it
assigns random letter keys which change after every
use. The result is players frantically hunting for the
appropriate key to move Pac Man (or should we say
Keyman?). This game is handy for people who want to
test their muscle memory when it comes to typing on a
keyboard. A challenging game for people who want to
practice typing efficiency.
Free Rice (http://dgit.in/1dfM3pC) is a non-profit
website that is owned by and supported by the World
Food Programme under the United Nations. As the
name suggests, the web portal aims at giving free rice to
impoverished countries. All you need is a decent Eng-
Designer space suits
NASA wants you to pick their next space

suits design from among the latest
prototypes http://dgit.in/NASASuits
Feature
lish vocabulary. The site throws words at you with four options
from which you have to select the synonym. Each correct answer
donates 10 grains of rice. Improve your vocabulary and help out
the needy in one fell swoop.
Any website that can make math fun has to be on this list.
Mathrun turns math problems into a test of brain speed, refining
your thought processes to think Math.
Enrichment through Appreciation

js1k (http://dgit.in/1iKHWCQ) is a place for coders to test out their
skills at javascript. What started off as a joke evolved into a reputed
online competition. js1k asks coders to create something innovative using not more than 1 kB of Java code. And it has had some
interesting results. From a lightweight chess program to a simulator
for Luke Skywalkers famous Death Star run from A New Hope,
this website showcases all the submitted entries for all to see.
Music Theory (http://dgit.in/1fWmXds) is a database for anything
and everything related to musical research and theory. For people
interested in technical questions about music, the sites a very useful
source for information and articles.
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What are the arguments made for and against technology abstinence?

What are the arguments made for and against technology abstinence?

What are some examples of websites mentioned that can be used productively?

What are some examples of websites mentioned that can be used productively?

The Static Page

recent New Yorker article titled The

the kick theyd get from a triumphant return.

Can breaks from

Got feedback about this column?

Digit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com 1

068 tried and

093 Street Smart

The future of robotics is now

2 Digit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com

F1- step forward

Take a peek into some of

Rise of the Machines

Sloppy researchers, beware!

How Wikipedias curating content and keeping

The San Diego in-car navigator from Blaupunkt

Stanford is starting an institute to track research

This is another fine specimen among 3D printers available

The brainchild of Karan Chaphekar, a strapping young

In your quest to purchase a 3D printer thats worth

32 Digit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com

Digit | April 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com 33

Gadgets and gizmos that will enrich your

047 World View

>Code > Creativity > Community

Just bought an Android?

Tales of Space and Time

Learn: The nature of evil

April 2014 Volume 14 Issue 04

Products reviewed this month

Acer Travelmate P645

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