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Coming soon in June, so watch this space While you wait, here’s a killer maze for you to solve. Start here
THE RSS FEED | Robert Sovereign-Smith | Executive Editor
Senator, we run ads!
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keep you hooked so that you will consume ads and then hopefully buy stuff because of those ads, and in that way keep even the advertisers hooked. It’s the ultimate middleman game, and your data and you are the commodities being bought and sold. Most people don’t even know that Cambridge Analytica is hardly the biggest or baddest or best at what they did, they just happened to be the company who boasted the most about it and whose CEO was immature enough to make ridiculous claims on a sting video. But more on that in our cover story. For this column, I just want you to focus on those four words that Zuckerberg said. That is how Facebook keeps its shareholders happy, and that will always involve them treating you as a commodity. Always. And the thing you need to remember about commodities is that are they sometimes sold to those who misuse them for nefarious purposes, and the seller rarely can control that misuse, because they’re too busy trying to make an even bigger profit. Now, many of us are happy to be armed with this truth, and continue to use the platform. It’s like surfers who want to catch the waves despite the shark warning. However, many of you might not want that, and might prefer to do what the cover headline suggests. The cover story is for both those types of people, and I consider myself to be a part of the first type. There is a third type of person, who is far more carefree than the first two types… some of my friends had a Congressional Hearing party, and played a drinking game, where they had to take a sip of alcohol every time Zuckerberg said the word “Senator”. Needless to say it didn’t last very long as they all passed out quite drunk. Some days I wish I could be that carefree and oblivious. So which type are you? Do you not care, do use the platform smartly, or are you just going to delete yourself?
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THESE WERE FOUR WORDS that had many of us in splits, as we followed the Congressional hearing that Mark Zuckerberg attended in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica hullabaloo. Yes, a large part of the hearings seemed to reflect how technologically ignorant some of the politicians were. Zuckerberg trying to explain basic technology to ageing senators, in the most polite and politically correct way possible, was downright funny at times. However, it is when he said those four words, and then slowly let a wry smile creep across his face that many people realised the deeper meaning to that simple sentence. Of course there was no breach, because every single thing we share on Facebook, we do so willingly, and usually because we want people to know that stuff about us. Sure there are some things we only want to share with “friends” and not the general public or data gathering firms, but most of us have a ridiculously higher number of Facebook friends than people we actually know in real life. In essence, even our friends are not really our “friends”, so we can’t really complain about people getting our data. Facebook is a made up world where we go to get away from our (supposedly) boring lives, which makes us feel good about ourselves. To get that satisfaction, people have usually had to pay in the past, but Zuckerberg gave it to you for free. Or rather, as someone in Team Digit once said, it’s not free, and never will be. We’re not gullible little children who can be led astray with some free candy, are we? Based on the strong reaction to what is essentially the norm in the online advertising industry, it looks like many of us were expecting the ultimate free lunch. It’s like a modern day Hansel and Gretel tale, where Zuckerberg is the wicked witch who wants to boil us and eat us because we ate from his house of candy. Or are we now at the stage where Hansel and Gretel boil the witch? Of course Facebook like any other public internet company needs to make money, and that is their primary job, no matter how much they try to butter you up with platitudes and tell you it’s all about you. It’s Facebook’s job to
“Facebook is a made up world where we go to get away from our (supposedly) boring lives, which makes us feel good about ourselves. To get that satisfaction, people have usually had to pay in the past, but Zuckerberg gave it to you for free. Or rather, as someone in Team Digit once said, it’s not free, and never will be.”
Liked or hated this column? Let me know at: editor@digit.in | facebook.com/raaabo | @raaabo www.digit.in | May 2018 | Digit | 1
PARANOID ANDROID | Mithun Mohandas | Asst. Technical Editor
A question of choice
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So what’s GPP? Well, the terms of GPP have been kept extremely secretive but a few insiders have leaked information to international press wherein NVIDIA supposedly promises GPP partners get priority allocation of premium GPUs while non-partners would be limited from releasing graphics cards based on those GPUs. Moreover, GPP partners will get access to marketing funds and will have to align their gaming brand exclusively with NVIDIA. Now this affects both AMD and Intel. It affects AMD because Radeon cards will not be sold under the same brand as NVIDIA cards. In case of ASUS, which is supposedly a GPP partner, they can’t have any ROG Radeon cards, ROG will have to be exclusively NVIDIA. This obviously puts ASUS in a fix and as a result ASUS recently came out with the AREZ brand for radeon products. However, the damage here is that the ROG brand has been built over the years and is well known. The new AREZ brand will require a lot more effort from ASUS to equal the ROG brand. GPP affects Intel because all partners will not be able to use the new Kabylake-G CPUs with in-built AMD Vega graphics. KabylakeG has been shown to be very promising and poses a major threat to NVIDIA’s hold over the gaming laptop market. It’s been a couple of months since Kabylake-G was announced but we’re yet to see any laptops with Kabylake-G except Intel’s own NUCs. Only brands such as Dell and HP, who reportedly have not signed GPP, have announced Kabylake-G products. Every day, we’re seeing more and more news pointing to the finger at NVIDIA for the lack of Kabylake-G laptops in the market. GPP, if it truly exists, is thoroughly anticompetitive. Since both NVIDIA and their supposed partners have been tight-lipped about the program we can’t say anything more. All we can hope is for regulatory agencies to swoop in and save the day but if regulatory agencies are like the FCC in its current avatar, then there isn’t much hope to begin with. We’re doomed people! Be ready to pay through your nose for the next enthusiast PC component because if GPP is allowed to fly, then everyone else will follow suit.
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IT WAS NEVER about serving your best interests nor about doing it for the betterment of humanity. No matter how a company tries to portray its next greatest venture, they’re only doing it because they want to make money. Companies are always answerable to a select few individuals who sit on the board and we haven’t come across in any instance where a company put down a massive investment with no profit in sight. The money will come sooner or later but it will come. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal is something we had foreseen ages ago. We weren’t the only ones, practically anyone acquainted with the tech industry knew that privacy was only a word to be thrown around to assuage the doubts of the slightly cautions folk. The paranoid ones were never convinced and never will be. It’s not just free services, but when a company says that they love competition, they’re lying. No businessman likes competition, the high frequency of hostile takeovers attests to that fact. Sometimes companies don’t even attempt to compete, they’ve either joined hands to screw the consumer over like how major LCD panel manufacturers got together to fix prices of LCD panels in televisions, laptops and monitors. Then there are times when they formed secret agreements with OEMs to ensure that the competition’s offerings are not used. There’s an ongoing battle in the EU where Intel is alleged to have given rebates to computer makers from 2002 to 2005 provided they brought 95% of their CPUs from Intel. The makers included Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. We’re now seeing yet another such agreement propping up, this time it’s from NVIDIA. Obviously, NVIDIA has said absolutely nothing about the GPP (GeForce Partner Program) but based on what has been reported in the media so far, we can see it in action. These allegations against NVIDIA became more believable after a blog post by AMD’s Scott Herkelman where he advocates for gamers to have the freedom of choice when it comes to purchasing PC components. While he hasn’t named NVIDIA openly, it’s pretty clear that he’s talking about NVIDIA’s GPP.
2 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
“When a company says that they love competition, they’re lying. No businessman likes competition, the high frequency of hostile takeovers attests to that fact.”
Let me know your thoughts on this column at: @mithun_mohandas | mithun@digit.in
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MAY 2018 • VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 05
SALES DIRECTOR: Lalit Arun Mobile: +91-9582262959 SOUTH & EAST: Jayanta Bhattacharyya Mobile: +91-93318 29284 WEST: Suvarna Shringarpure Mobile: +91-93249 28247 NORTH: Mayank Sharma Mobile: +91-8800661912
BAZAAR D-Link AC1900 Huawei P20 Pro ROG Strix X470-F Gaming Dell XPS 13 9370 Microsoft Xbox One X Ryzen 5 2600X Logitech G433 iBall CompBook Premio V2.0 Logitech Z625 Corsair K68 Fractal Design Define R6
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EDITORIAL Executive Editor Robert Sovereign-Smith Features Editor Aditya Madanapalle Senior Writer Arnab Mukherjee Writer Manish Rajesh Intern Dhriti Datta
PRODUCTS REVIEWED THIS MONTH
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TEST CENTRE Asst. Technical Editor Mithun Mohandas Reviewers Abhijit Dey, Hardik Singh, Shrey Pacheco, Souvik Das, Subhrojit Mallick
DIGIT.IN Editor Soham Raninga Assistant Editor Sameer Mitha News and Features Editor Adamya Sharma Writer Shubham Sharma
ADVERTISING INDEX
GAMES REVIEWED THIS MONTH
Brand.......................................... Page No.
Far Cry 5 God of War Sea of Thieves
Samsung.................................Inside front cover ASUS.......................................Inside back cover
Seagate.............................................Back cover
Kaspersky.........................................................3
DESIGN Sr. Art Director Anil VK Art Director Shokeen Saifi Visualiser Baiju NV Lead UI/UX Designer Shri Hari Tiwari Sr. Designer Peterson PJ
Toshiba.............................................................5 iBall............................................................7, 25 Gigabyte.........................................................11
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TP-Link...........................................................13
PRODUCTION AND LOGISTICS Manager Operations Rakesh Upadhyay Manager Logistics Vijay Menon Asst Mgr Production & Logistics M P Singh Executive Mohd. Nadeem Ansari
India Anti Virus............................................. 111
Quantum....................................................... 112
4 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
Published and printed by Kanak Ghosh for and on behalf of the owners, 9.9 Group Pvt. Ltd. (Formerly known as Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx Private Limited) 121, Patparganj, Mayur Vihar Phase-1, Near Mandir Masjid, Delhi - 110091 and printed at International Print-O-Pac Limited, C/4-11, Hosiery Complex, Phase II Extension, Noida-201306 (U.P.) INDIA. Editor: Kanak Ghosh.
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MOBILE MONTHLY Arena of Valor | Marvel Strike Force | Read Only Memories: Type-M | Heir of Light | Shadowgun Legends | Honkai Impact 3rd | ChronoBlade
COVER IMAGING AND DESIGN Peterson PJ
DISCLAIMER For every Digit contest, there will be only one winner, unless specified otherwise. In the event of a dispute, the Editor’s decision shall be final.
CONTACT US TELL US WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT DIGIT If you have an opinion about anything published in Digit, or about technology in general, write to editor@digit.in or call at +91-22-678 99 700. To interact with the authors of specific articles, please write to the email address specified under the author’s name HELP! For copy-related issues, delivery status or any other complaints regarding our service, write to help@digit.in or call +91-22-678 99 678
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6 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
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http://www.facebook.com/skoar What is life without gaming? Catch up on all the latest in gaming news, reviews and shenanigans from our test labs
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contents
COVER STORY PAGE 49- 61
Delete Yourself
You need to know who has your data, how it’s used, and what you can do about it. We show you how to confuse psychographics, or take drastic measures...
SCIENCE - PAGE 73-85
CULTURE - PAGE 62-72
MAY 2018
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VOLUME 18 ISSUE 05
74 | Of Ice and Fire
Exploring marine clathrates, naturally occuring cage like structures made of ice that trap flammable gas under water.
76 | Reanimation
63 | The history of Stormtroopers
Tracing the evolution of Stormtroopers over the current Star Wars canon.
66 | Faking it
Bringing the extinct species of the planet back to life.
India’s e-commerce platforms need to be held accountable for counterfeits.
78 | The diet chart
68 | Breaking the sound barrier
We take a look at some of popular fad diets and figure out what makes them click.
80 | A brand new organ
Have you met Interstitium, the newest organ in the human body?
AND MORE 8 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
All about sound engineering as a career option.
72 | Boo-Man: I love selfies
This time, it’s about Boo-Man actually loving something so much, he actually wants you to do it.
AND MORE
ALT - PAGE 86-97
TECH - PAGE 14-48
ON THE DVD 18 | Holographic data storage
88 | Steam Spy Stats 2017
22 | The stock Android look on any Android phone
87 | JetBrains in India
24 | Agent001
90 | Auto Tech
TECH Pop! OS Pop!_OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with a custom GNOME desktop designed for minimal clutter
We have a chat with JetBrains about their plans for India.
The hottest in car tech this month.
GDC 2018 Highlights Autodesk keynote State of Unreal Unity keynote
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Because nothing beats Vanilla.
What do Steam Spy Stats for 2017 reveal about the world of gaming?
Agent001’s mobile game obsession has him hunting for a controller.
26 | To build a home
Furnishing and interior design startups are harnessing technology to build you a perfect home.
28 | Things to do after installing Windows 10
94 | DGT
Our selection of some of the best tech, gadgets, and geek entertainment from around the world!
AND MORE
SKOAR! - PAGE 98-111
An instruction manual that you should follow after you’ve formatted your PC.
30 | Devworx
We start you up with Preact JS, a 3KB lightweight alternative to React.
34 | Reviews
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The best in technology available today, reviewed by us.
41 | Intel Core i7-8700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
Let’s see how AMD’s second generation Ryzen CPUs stack up against the current desktop champion, the Intel Core i7-8700K.
44 | Teardown
A glimpse at what goes into making the HTC Vive Pro the VR headset that it is today.
46 | Lights! Camera! CGI!
106 | Ditch the couch
Video games that can help you battle your lethargy and get you out of your seat.
100 | Reevu: Far Cry 5
The fifth installment in the series is truly a Far Cry experience in all senses.
102 | Reevu: God of War
Computer generated imagery wasn’t always as realistic as it is today
A must have game for the PS4 that follows the journey of a father and son in one of the most awaited games of this year.
48 | Take My Money
104 | Reevu: Sea of Thieves
A universal VR headset, tabletop Street fighter and more stuff to crowdfund.
AND MORE
A beautiful pirate game that lacks depth
AND MORE
CULT Indie games Dementia Duck Jam Grandma Submerged The Librarian
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80 times thinner and 1000 times more data than your average DVD
Tails OS Tails 3.6.2 is a live system that aims to preserve your privacy and anonymity.
Godot Game Engine Godot is a 2D and 3D cross-platform compatible game engine released as open source software under the MIT license. Godot installer 2D and 3D demos Exported templates ALT Gulliver’s Travel (1939) Gulliver’s Travels is a 1939 American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, produced by Max Fleischer and directed by Dave Fleischer for Fleischer Studios about an explorer who helps a small kingdom who declared war after an argument over a wedding song.
SCI Official CERN videos Iconic moments that created history in the field of particle physics, along with explanatory videos on the particle accelerator. Acceleration in a particle accelerator A long shutdown for the LHC An animated overview of CERN Fast forward to physics Final reclosures of the interconnections LHC beating the world energy record LHC first physics LHC restart in 2016 All about the LHC in 10 minutes The Hunt for New Physics at the LHC In this lecture, SLAC’s Michael Kagan describes the cutting-edge tech used to image bottom quarks and its use in the search for new types of elementary particles that might appear at very high energies.
www.digit.in | May 2018 | Digit | 9
opening
Apple Music hits 40 million users
Ford’s new GoRide
Apple Music hit 40 million members and named Oliver Schusser as the new worldwide head of the service. https://dgit.in/applmusc
INBOX
Ford has launched a new on-demand medical transportation service for medical needs that are non-emergent. https://dgit.in/gorideford
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shall soon be out sometime in AprilMay-2018, I was wondering how Windows 7 would really install and operate on such AM4 systems. Is it possible? What are the caveats? How to make the two work? Some experiments and results of how to make it work may be a good article in one of the upcoming issues of your magazine. You could feature a series that basically focuses on certain hacks that enable certain features or enable certain compatibility between hardware & software which is not widely used or tested in general.This also includes caveats of overclocking. – Mangesh Patki
Feedback for the April 2018 issue of Digit Today, I published my Second blog on Medium.com (https:// dgit.in/IRCTC-hack). It focuses on the flaws/vulnerabilities/bugs present in the IRCTC Infrastructure. Hope you like it :) – Kanishk Sajnani (Ethical Hacker)
dress is case sensitive. I suggest you to put a small QR code next to the summary which upon scanning will take readers to the corresponding URL as many readers will have their smartphones in hand all the time. – Ravindranath Sarma Bollapinni
Hey Ravindranath, I realise how irritating it is to type in the URLs, and we made an attempt at trying to use QR codes but the mag looked so darn ugly with QR codes on every page that we dropped the idea very quickly. We are trying to figure out a simple solution which will make it less of a pain. Hang in there while we figure out something that doesn’t spoil the look of the magazine. – Robert
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Hey Kanishk, Did they finally get back to you about the vulnerability? Would love to hear more, and try and help you make such important sites more secure. – Robert
I have been reading Digit for about 5 years now. FastTrack has become my favorite for weekend reads. I join the large audience who appreciate and congratulate your team for the work you are doing. I have a small suggestion for Digit magazine. On the headers of many pages inside Digit magazine, you publish a crisp summary of article and then you provide a URL at the end to read more about the same. To read the article, I have to type in the URL in browser and I think the ad-
10 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
Send your feedback at editor@digit.in
Windows 7 is still a very popular operating system widely used. Despite of the free upgrade option, there’s a large percentage of users who did not upgrade to free Windows 10. Now that AMD has come up with newer desktop processors like Ryzen Desktop CPUs & Ryzen-G and probably second generation Ryzen
Microsoft has killed official support for Windows 7 and none of the CPU vendors support it either. However, owing to the fact that the x86 instructions are practically the same, installing Windows 7 shouldn’t be a massive pain in the rear end. One of the biggest issues with installing Windows 7 is that the USB drivers aren’t always loaded post the first restart into the installation media. So navigating your way around the installation menu becomes impossible. A simple way around this would be to slipsteam the motherboard’s USB drivers into the installation media. AMD chipsets use USB controllers based on an older ASMedia design and ASMedia drivers are very easy to find. An even simpler solution is to use a PS/2 keyboard and mouse. Once that’s taken care of you can download the first ever AMD chipset driver package and you will get Windows 7 support. Ryzen 2nd gen CPUs didn’t even get that much, so we’ll have to check if these newer CPUs can be run on Windows 7. – Mithun First of all, let me start off by saying that I absolutely adore the magazine and the articles. It is indeed a delight to read the magazine. Also, I would like to say thanks for the detailed product reviews because whenever someone asks me about a gadget I haven’t used, I pass off your
WHAT’S NEW
Chrome’s desktop browser now supports web-based VR on the Oculus Rift
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Here is a full list of VR headsets and the browsers that they support WebVR with: • HTC Vive: Firefox, Servo, and Supermedium (Windows / Firefox Nightly (MacOS) • Oculus Rift: Firefox, Servo, Supermedium, Chrome (Windows) • Samsung Gear VR: Oculus
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DOES THIS SECTION EVEN NEED AN INTRODUCTION? FROM COMPUTERS TO MOBILES, AND HEADPHONES TO GPUS, IT’S ALL HERE...
reddit user has discovered that Google’s desktop browser has included web-based VR support for the Oculus Rift. If you have the version 66.0.3359.117, go to its ‘flags’ settings by typing “chrome://flags” in the address bar. Once you’re there, look for the new ‘Oculus browser support’ listing. If this flag is enabled then Google Chrome will be able to use the Facebook-owned Oculus’ VR headset to let you experience VR content on the web. Pretty neat, right? To experience such content, one good place is the WebVR experiments section on Experiments with Google (https://dgit.in/ ExWebVR). WebVR is an application programming interface based on JavaScript that enables virtual reality experiences in a browser without requiring additional software. It is capable of detecting the virtual reality headset, determining its specifications, getting the position and orientation information from it, and use that to provide frame rates that are supported both by the PC’s graphics card and the headset itself. Chrome had added support for WebVR for Daydream based headsets earlier in September 2017.
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THIS MONTH IN TECH: We explore the world of CGI and check out Holographic Data Storage based on nanoparticle films technology. LevelUp shows you how to achieve a Stock Android look on any phone.
Canon’s pocket printer
Canon has launched its smallest printer yet with the Ivy Mini Photo Printer that can print 2x3 Zink photos. Zink is a special type of paper that has embedded ink crystals that does not need ink cartridges. https://dgit.in/CanonIvy
Intel axes wearables division According to The Information, Intel’s wearables division is being shut down. Despite significant investment over the years and multiple acquisitions, the division’s innovations failed to make a mark in the wearables market. https://dgit.in/IntelAx
14 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
Browser, Samsung Internet • Daydream: Chrome • Google Cardboard: Chrome • Windows Mixed Reality headsets: Microsoft Edge / Firefox and Supermedium via SteamVR • PlayStation VR: no support For now, Chrome on the desktop appears to only support Oculus Rift, however, the year has just begun and the developments will continue to expand. https://dgit.in/ChromeVR
Alexa is getting custom responses
Amazon has introduced easy-to-customise templates for Alexa skills that make it easy for anyone to customise Alexa’s responses depending on their needs. Alexa Skill Blueprints can range from a personal joke to custom responses for your babysitter. https://dgit.in/AlexaBlu
eBay app lets you scan barcodes
If you have the box for an item, you just have to scan its barcode (or search by name) and choose the item’s condition. After that, the app can fill in a basic description, photos and even the starting price using a mix of structured data and predictive analytics. https://dgit.in/eBayBar
level
A COLLECTION OF PRO TIPS FOR EVERYTHING. Without being limited to a particular topic, these tips are from popular software, to coding, to browsers, search, storage rules, password rules, mobile device hacks, bios cracking, tweaks explained and everything tech under the sun.
hit the home button on your smartphone by finding it in device after the installation ‘Apps’ in your phone Settings is complete. This will make and clicking on ‘Disable’ once the Pixel Launcher your new you’re there. default launcher. Tip: If you are against sideloading apps/ downloading apks from unknown sources, you can use Nova Launcher and customize it to Google settings ExDialer comes astoundingly close to Google’s native dialer and is free to download. or the Google Home Launcher.
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The minimalist, bloatware-free approach of Stock Android is revered by many avid Android lovers. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get your smartphone from other manufacturers to look the part.
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How to get the minimalist Stock Android look on any smartphone
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INSTALLING THE RIGHT LAUNCHER:
The Pixel Launcher will be able to provide you with the closest Stock Android look and feel, essentially google-ify your phone’s core aesthetic. You are going to have to sideload the Pixel Launcher on your phone as it is exclusive to Pixel devices only on the Play Store. The Method: First, you are going to have to allow the phone to download apks from unknown sources since it is not available on the Play Store for non-Pixel de-
GET THE GOOGLE DIALER LOOKALIKE:
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The dialer is one of the most frequently used apps on a smartphone. Google does not provide its stock dialer app on the Play Store so we will need to resort to a third-party look-alike which comes very close to the original: exDialer. The Method: Head over to the Play Store, find and install exDiIt doesn’t get more Stock Android than the Pixel Launcher. aler. Once it has installed, go to ‘Settings’ on your phone and find vices. Go to Settings, select ‘Apps’. Go to default apps and Security and then turn on set exDialer as your default ‘Unknown Sources’. Downdialer/calling app. load the Pixel Launcher’s APK Take it one step ahead from apkmirror (https://dgit. and disable your stock in/pixellauncher). Install the contacts/calling app on your apk onto your phone. Lastly,
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STOCK ANDROID has always been considered as the ideal state by the purists. Custom UIs on smartphones come loaded with features but their utility is questionable. The bloatware typically slows down the phone and consumes more battery life. The vanilla approach adopted by Google in their Pixel devices, and previously Nexus lineup, have been a highly sought-after commodity in the smartphone market. The redesigned layout of the Pixel 2’s home screen, as well as the ‘At A Glance’ calendar widget, adds functionality and elegance to the phone which is desired by a significant amount of users. The Google phones are no longer what we can call ‘pocketfriendly’. Many have resorted to rooting their device and obtaining their desired look, however, this is not an option everyone is willing to try. Users desiring the highly coveted ‘Stock Android’ experience can get it using just the right combination of third party applications, as well as changing the settings on their devices. Here is how it can be done.
22 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
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CHANGE YOUR MESSAGING APP:
Android Messages has proven to be one of the most popular, easy-to-use messaging apps across all platforms. It also sports a handy function where you can swipe the messages you deem unimportant away, only to have them return when the person texts again. The Method: Head to the Play Store and download the ‘Android Messages’ app. Avoid confusing it with duplicates by looking for Google
Simple, aesthetic and beautiful: Android Messages gets you closer to the Stock Android look
tech
Avengers OnePlus 6
Google’s Learn-To-Code App
OnePlus confirmed partnership with Marvel for an Avengers-themed OnePlus 6 which will be India exclusive. https://dgit.in/avngrsoneplus
AGENT001
Google’s new Area 120 app, Grasshopper goes live. It teaches aspiring coders JavaScript on their iPhone or Android devices. https://dgit.in/grasshopper
For better control
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agent001 | agent001@digit.in
veryone is into gaming these days and by everyone, I mean it. Toddlers are mesmerised by fancy glowing thingies on the screens of their parents’ phones and are whacking their way to the top of the leaderboards while grandparents are beating their grandkids in Candy Crush and Star Legends. Then there is me and countless others who make up the bulk of the gamer community that lie between these two extremes. Of late, most of the guys in the Test Centre have been playing way too many mobile games. Even the freshly joined intern plays a lot of mobile games in her spare time. What I’ve noticed is that more and more games with complicated game mechanics are making their way onto your smartphones. Take PUBG or Fortnite for example, even folks who’ve rarely downloaded video games on their smartphones can be seen shouting at the top of their lungs in multiplayer lobbies. Some of these titles are teetering at the edge of being playable on the mobile screen. Especially, titles such as Arena of Valor, which is a MOBA, can require some rigorous finger gymnastics during heated moments. Like some of the guys who’ve started playing Arena of Valor, I too have jumped onto the MOBA bandwagon with Mobile Legends 5v5: Bang
Bang. I’ve experienced it first hand, the feeling of helplessness that you experience when you simply can’t move your fingers quick enough to counter the enemy team’s nuker. This is where I decided, I’d have to buy a controller for my smartphone. Before I got a new controller, I decided to try some of the ones we already have in the Test Centre. First,
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Agent001’s mobile game obsession has him hunting for a controller
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too tight, you won’t get any numbness in your index or ring fingers. Then there’s the Dual Shock 4 controller for the PS4. It’s way smaller and gives a closer grip than the either of the Xbox controllers, however, getting it to work in Windows isn’t easy. There’s always DS4Windows that lets you use the DS4 controller with Windows and remap the keys in whichever manner
The Xbox 360 and PS4 controllers
we tried the Xbox One controller. Now Microsoft has truly done its research before building this piece of machinery. For those who game on the PC and need a controller for those console ports such as Dark Souls, the Xbox One or even the XBox 360 controller is the way to go. We honestly prefer the 360 controller over the Xbox One controller because it fits the hand better. As long as you avoid holding it
you want. Then there are the gamespecific controllers such as steering wheels and joysticks for flight simulators but all of these game-specific controllers are of no use for mobile games. That’s where a different breed of controllers come into play. Controllers for mobile games need to have a clamp, a good set of buttons that cater to all the popular games on the market and an accompanying
tech
> code / creativity / community >
FOR THOSE GEEKS WHO LIKE TO GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY IN CODE
DEVWORX
Getting started with Preact JS Arnab Mukherjee | arnab@digit.in
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You can even take it one notch higher and use destructuring as shown here: https://dgit.in/PRDestruc.
Removal of PropTypes Since PropTypes aren't exactly widely used, Preact has ditched them. If you still want to use PropTypes in your development, you can do so through preact-compat or manually.
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f you’ve used JavaScript UI frameworks then you might have observed that the framework is mostly the largest part of your app’s JavaScript size. In case of a particularly popular UI framework, React, this led to a bunch of developers into creating a lightweight alternative that ships with the same capabilities as React yet lets your code be the biggest part of the app.
ers has made it very popular among the developer community. Even companies like Housing.com, Uber and Lyft have used Preact to build mobile versions of their offerings at smaller sizes and improved performance.
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A tiny React alternative
INTRODUCTION
A lot of developers swear by React for interface needs. Hence, it is pretty natural to wonder why Preact is even needed. There are a few factors that make its case.
File size You cannot ignore the size difference between the two. React is at 45kB whereas Preact is, as we stated earlier, at 3kB. This is because Preact only keeps the essentials of React, and ditches the rest to remain lightweight.
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Preact is a 3kB alternative to React developed by Jason Miller, a developer at Google, and a bunch other contributors. Its goal was to provide the same API and features that React comes with, while being lightweight and super-fast! It succeeds on both counts. Its speed is not only due to its small size - it is one of the fastest virtual DOM libraries out there, due to its simple and predictable diff implementation. In fact, Preact’s goals can be put across in five points: • Performance: Render quickly & efficiently • Size: Small size, lightweight • Efficiency: Effective memory usage • Understandability: Understanding the codebase should take no more than a few hours • Compatibility: Preact aims to be largely compatible with the React API. All the above metrics, combined with Preact’s wide support for brows-
PREACT VS REACT
30 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
class vs classname In React, adding a class works something like this: # React code <div className="classhere">Content Here</div> While Preact supports classname, you can just use class for CSS classes. # Preact code <div class="classhere">Content Here</div>
render() For Preact, this.props and this. state are passed to render(). To understand the difference, take a look at the code here: https://dgit.in/renderPR. As it is evident, the code looks cleaner in Preact with the removal of this.
Removal of Children Children are not necessary in Preact since props.children is always an array. React.children is supported in preact-compat.
Lack of support for Synthetic events This has been done since Preact's target for browser support is not along the same lines of this extra overhead. Instead, Preact puts to use the browser's native addEventListener for event handling. Checkout GlobalEventHandlers (https://dgit.in/GEHDOM) for a complete list of DOM event handlers. Also, a complete implementation of events would eventually lead to more maintenance and performance concerns and a larger API, which is directly against Preact's original goal.
Component In Preact, components are an extendable class for building self updating, encapsulated pieces of User Interface with support for lifecycle methods. This is similar to React.Component. Check out the code here to understand it better: https://dgit.in/compPR.
COMPATIBILITY WITH REACT To ensure compatibility with React, Preact has a package called preactcompat which is intended to function as a compatibility layer between Preact
reviews
For better understanding of our ratings, here’s a quick guide to our overall score to
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Extremely poor product. Keep away!
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Ground-breaking product.
We’ve never seen anything like it before. A definite must buy!
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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.
THE LATEST PRODUCTS REVIEWED FOR YOU
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AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
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Huawei P20 Pro
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Logitech Z625 2.1 Speakers
Microsoft Xbox One
iBall CompBook Premio v2.0
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36 D-Link DIR-878 AC1900 Wireless Router 37 Logitech G433 38 Corsair K68 RGB 39 ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING 40 Dell XPS 13 9370 & MORE...
Facebook's new privacy controls Facebook announces new privacy controls in compliance with EU's GDPR for its 2.2 million users in Europe. https://dgit.in/fbeuprivacy
tech
Amazon US goes international
Amazon has launched international shopping from its US store, 45 million items available for shipping overseas. https://dgit.in/amazonus
REVIEWS
Fractal Design Define R6 Silent and sturdy
Price 3 13,08
Exteriors
Acoustic performance
Touted as a silent case, the Define R6 does manage to dampen the noise from the fans to an extent. But even though the front, top and other side panel have a dampening layer, the tempered glass side panel isn’t able to dampen the noise. Overall, with the other panels attached, you can expect a comparatively silent case than cases without such a layer.
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The Define R6 is available in both a tempered glass edition and an acrylic side-window panel variant. We reviewed the black tempered glass edition. The front panel has a hinged-design to swivel open. Despite the tempered glass the cabinet offers you a lot of mobility. Additionally, there PERFORMANCE...........83 are other modules such as BUILD QUALITY............90 HDMI pass-throughs or FEATURES.....................85 extra USB 3.0 ports that VALUE............................63 can be installed. While the
After testing the case with the installed fans, we found that adding more exhaust fans on the top didn’t really matter much.
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he Define R6 Black Tempered Glass edition stands on top of Fractal Design's new India series. Will the case be also able to deliver acceptable cooling for long with silent performance?
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side panels are implemented with tempered glass, the edges, however, are made of steel with studs and thumbscrews keeping it in place. The button mechanism on the Define R6 is amazing. Pushing the button on the top detaches the cover and you can take it off easily. The cover contains a dust filter and the same highdensity dampening material. There’s incredible support for both fans and radiators on the top panel. The Define R6 also consists of two expansion slots for vertical GPUs. However, there’s no riser cable or adapter mount included. All of the expansion slots are attached using thumbscrews. On the bottom, you’ll find a single dust filter takes the entire bottom area of the case including the two fan mounts on the bottom of the case and the PSU.
shroud level. Fractal Design provides six metal trays and they can be installed anywhere out of the 11 mounting holes. The extra drives don’t really hinder the airflow from the front intake fans. There are two SSD trays behind the motherboard plate. These trays can also be inserted over the PSU shroud. You get a max PSU length of 160mm with two fans which increases to 300mm with a single fan. There’s massive support for radiators in the case, especially on the top panel. The Nexus+ Smart Hub allows you to use six three-pin case fans and three four-pin PWM devices or fans. Assembling our test rig in the Define R6 was a simple process. By just spending a few extra minutes, we were able to achieve a clean setup. There was absolutely no problem in installing the components and the entire building experience was pleasing.
The Interior Slots that support both HDDs and SSDs are present in R6. Two drives can also be installed below the PSU
Thermal performance Surprisingly, being a silent case by classification, the Define R6 does a well in keeping the components cool without any temperature anomalies.
Our Verdict
The Fractal Design Define R6 tries to find a middle-ground between silent performance and cooling performance. Apart from an above average cooling performance, the Define R6 has an incredible build quality and delivers all the expected features at this price range. However, they miss out on including a USB Type-C connector on the front IO ports. With an amazing potential for future upgrades inside, this could definitely be a case you can consider for your high-end rig. –Abhijit Dey
SPECIFICATIONS
MOTHERBOARD FORM FACTOR: Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX | POWER SUPPLY STANDARD: ATX standard (max. length of 300mm) | I/O PORTS: 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 3.0, 1x microphone, 1x headphone | DRIVE BAYS: 6 x 3.5-inch HDD, 2 x 2.5-inch SSD | COOLING SUPPORT: 3 x 120mm (front), 2 x 140mm (front), 3 x 120/140mm (top), 1 x 120/140mm (rear), 2 x 120/140mm (bottom) | RADIATOR SUPPORT: Up to 280/360mm (front), up to 360/420mm (top), up to 120mm (rear), up to 240/280mm (bottom) | CLEARANCES: CPU cooler - 185mm, Graphics card 440mm | DIMENSIONS (H X W X D): 465mm x 234mm x 536mm
CONTACT
FRACTAL DESIGN | PHONE: +91-22-6740 2000 | EMAIL: NA | WEBSITE: http://www.fractal-design.com
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Microsoft’s first Linux product
Motorola launches 4 phones
Microsoft released its first Linux product, Azure Sphere, which is a software and hardware stack made to secure edge devices. https://dgit.in/linuxmicro
Motorola launched the Moto G6 and G6 Play as well as the Moto E5 Play and E5 Plus with big batteries and tall screens. https://dgit.in/moto
tech HEAD-ON
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Intel Core i7-8700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
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AMD just released the second generation of Ryzen CPUs, let’s see how it stacks up against the current desktop champion, the Intel Core i7-8700K.
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Mithun Mohandas | mithun@digit.in
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MD is back with a revision of their desktop CPUs and this time they’ve polished out most of the kinks and brought out a CPU that’s all set to set fire to the CPU battle yet again. The new lineup is led by the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X which is still rocking 8 cores / 16 threads but thanks to a new process node, it is supposedly more efficient and performant as well.
The Ryzen 7 2700X is retailing at an SEP (Suggested Electronic Price) of `24,490 and we’ve seen Indian retailers selling it for `29,488 which is roughly `2,000 more than the Intel Core i7 8700K that it’s set to compete against. The Intel Core i7-8700K is the current king of the hill. It has two fewer cores than the AMD CPU but its IPC is way greater and thus, it excels in single-core performance. Let’s see how they match up this time.
Both the Intel and the AMD CPUs ship with unlocked multipliers. The Intel Core i7-8700K has a lot of overclocking headroom and has been overclocked to 7405.12 MHz as of writing this while the Ryzen 7 2700X has been clocked to 6000 Mhz. The former has been out in the market for a long time so there are a lot more overclocking submissions on HWBOT and the next couple of months will paint a better picture of how well the 2700X overwww.digit.in | May 2018 | Digit | 41
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dia companies, or even tech companies in general. In the age of big data, “they” is just about anyone… anyone I email, anyone I give a business card to, any app I use, website I sign in to, any service I use… offline or online… just about anything I do. Thanks to Aadhaar, a driving license, passport, mobile phone, bank account, email, etc, all of us are going to exist as data somewhere. This isn’t new, and it isn’t news, and we’ve come to increasingly accept such agencies gathering data about us. What seems to be upsetting a rather large group of people, suddenly, is the realisation that this data is being weaponised by marketers against us. Whether it’s to entice us to buy something new, or to entice us to vote a certain way, a lot of people don’t like being reminded that all of us humans are actually gullible.
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irst off, my apologies for the clickbait headline. I hate using them, but sometimes there’s really no option, because the topic itself is what I consider to be clickbait. Next, I want to explain that I’m writing this in the first person, because I’m going to be sharing my own personal data here as a way of illustrating what “they” know about me specifically, as a way of showing you what they know about you. And while I’m throwing out explanations, I should also add that none of this surprised me at all, but it seems like a lot of people across the world are suddenly waking up to reality – a little too late, I might add.
NOT JUST FACEBOOK
Now I know everyone (hopefully) already knows this, but we tend to forget with all the hype around Facebook, the Congressional hearings, headlines from around the globe, etc. Thus, it’s a good starting point to this article. When I say “they” in the headline, it’s far more than Facebook, or social me-
52 | Digit | May 2018 | www.digit.in
NOT NEW Another thing we all tend to forget is that none of this is new. Civilisation itself is based on people with ideas try-
ing to sway your opinions, and we’ve done it successfully for far longer than we can go back in known history! If it’s not whom to fight for, it’s whom to vote for, or whom to buy from, and that basic human tendency is not something we’re going to escape. Ever. It’s certainly not something that’s been invented with the internet, or with Google or Facebook. If anything, it’s only misused because we’re always a lazy bunch, and always will be. Let me explain that. Even decades ago, when politicians (or their representatives) would come around door-to-door, campaigning to our grandparents, do we really think most of them went about trying to hear from all of the candidates in the fray? If the politician didn’t have the time or the money to show up, or pay someone to show up on his/her stead, our grandparents would just not hear from them, and probably never vote for them. Today, it’s a person or a company with money that will throw ads in your face everywhere and try and sway your opinion in that way. Social
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harvest the psychographic profile of an individual. This questionnaire could be disguised as a quiz, or a personality
test. The popularity of social media allowed researchers to procure psychographic profiles at scale, for a large
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ith the increased capacity of churning massive amounts of data, and pulling out relevant information, many aspects of human existence have gotten converted to numbers. You might have come to a point where you just want to opt out, but it is better to know what the problem actually is, before taking the step. Facebook and Google do provide you with all the data on you, as well as granular settings to control the ads that you see. There are also approaches you can use to shatter any echo chambers around you, and have a little fun with your social media accounts by totally confusing any profiling or advertising systems in place.
HOW YOUR DATA WAS USED
A psychographic profile is the indication of the attitudes, beliefs and fears of an individual. The methods and approaches used to farm your psychographic profile have actually been developed back in the 1980s. A simple questionnaire is all that is required to
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What a social media based psychographic profile looks like
WHAT’S NEW
Batman goes back to feudal Japan
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Playstation channel where Gorilla Grodd is working on his latest invention while Batman and Catwoman try to stop him. This takes place in Arkham Asylum but they aren’t able to stop him and end up going back in time. Will they get to return to their original timeline? We’ll soon find out. https://dgit.in/BatmanNPS
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GEEK CULTURE IS OUR WAY OF LIFE, AND ENCOMPASSES MOVIES, GAMES, COMICS, AND TRENDS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE
he first trailer of Batman Ninja was surprisingly brilliant, that got us hyped about it. Batman is sent back in time to feudal Japan where an alternate timeline exists with all the known characters including allies and villains. He’s joined by Alfred, Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl along with villains such as Joker, Penguin, Two-face, etc. Being in feudal Japan, Batman obviously doesn’t have access to his cool gadgets but he has equivalent tools from that time so that he can do what he does best. The animation looks impressive as all the characters receive a facelift with Japanese culture aesthetics from that time. Naturally, Katana fights and martial arts are going to be present throughout. From a recent video clip, we finally get to see how they travelled back in time in the first place. The clip comes from the
Fantastic Four rumours addressed
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ince Disney and Fox’s deal was announced, numerous rumours have been floating around the internet on the future of the MCU. With Fantastic Four, Deadpool and X-men coming back to Marvel, it’s only a matter of time until they make their way into the shared universe. For now, the deal hasn’t finalised yet and it will get over by 2019. Under Fox, it is rumoured that X-men:
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THIS MONTH IN CULT: We trace the evolution of Stormtroopers and dive into the world of sound engineering. Boo-Man, for a change expresses his love for something – selfies!
NEW DOOM MOVIE
After the terrible attempt at creating a “Doom” movie back in 2005, Universal Pictures is taking a shot at making a new movie. Doom is a highly popular firstperson shooter video game franchise known for its gory and violent gameplay that had a successful game reboot back in 2016. https://dgit.in/DoomMov
Deadpool 2 set to be a topseller
According to popular ticketing merchant, Fandango’s 18-year history, Deadpool is on its way to becoming the top R-rated film in pre-sales. The current record holder being Fifty Shades of Grey. https://dgit.in/DP2Fndng
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Dark Phoenix is going to be their last movie before all the characters are merged into the MCU. This opens up hundreds of possibilities of how these new set of characters could be
Masters of the Universe reboot
The reboot to the Masters of the Universe seems to be cursed as writers and directors keep coming and going. However, Sony has finally found a replacement for now in Aaron and Adam Nee. https://dgit.in/MoUDrctr
introduced into the MCU timeline. After the terrible Fantastic Four reboot, fans are looking forward to the well-deserved treatment from Marvel. There have been discussions on their possible appearance in the second part of Avengers: Infinity War. Recently, Marvel also announced a new comic book issue for the Fantastic Four coming out in August. https://dgit.in/FF4Russo
Netflix’s Witcher out in 2020
Executive producer and writer Lauren Schmidt confirmed that Netflix’s adaptation of the Witcher book series will likely see a premiere window in 2020. It has been in development since May of last year. https://dgit.in/NtflxWtchr
Fortnite and Prom?
Teens have found a new way to craft their â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;promposalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: using Fortnite to ask out their dates. https://dgit.in/fortniteprom
culture
PUBG Mobile Arcade Mode
PUBG Mobile launched a less-intense arcade mode which lowers the number of players from 100 to 24.. https://dgit.in/pubgmob
FEATURE
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Tracing the evolution of Stormtroopers over the current Star Wars canon.
Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in
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Clone troopers kill their Jedi Generals, and execute Jedi everywhere. After the execution of order 66, the stormtroopers served the Galactic Republic, and became known as the Imperial stormtroopers. During this period, the original Clone troopers started dying off because they aged at twice the rate of normal humans. The clones were gradually replaced with regular citizens from the galaxy, who were indoctrinated into unquestionable loyalty to Emperor Palpatine from a very young age. After the defeat of Emperor Palpatine, The First Order rose from the Ashes of the Empire. The stormtroopers then began to serve The First Order, their numbers were maintained by abducting children. The armour of the First Order stormtroopers were upgraded, and they were given newer weapons for more specialised roles. Apart from the equipment, the training methods was also changed by the First Order. The First Order training regime focused on improvisation and guerilla tactics. Through most of the history
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tormtroopers have evolved considerably over the course of the current Star Wars canon, but the release patterns of the parts of the story, has made the evolution is not strictly linear. While within the story, the armour has gotten better, the constraints of the time during which the movies were produced is visibly telling. For example, the knee guards of the stormtroopers went from being flexible in the prequel trilogy, to being rigid or non existent in the original trilogy, and back to being flexible in the sequel trilogy.
HISTORY
Essentially, there are three variants of the stormtroopers in the three trilogies. In Episodes I, II and III, the stormtroopers are Clone troopers. These are all soldiers cloned from a single individual, Jango Fett. Initially, the Clones were produced only on Kamino. The Kaminoans specialised in cloning technologies, but later on the clones were grown on other worlds as well. The Clone troopers obeyed the Jedi commanders, but they actually served the Republic Chancellor, Palpatine who would eventually make the
of stormtroopers, their only official personal identifications are serial numbers. Under the Jedi, Clone Commanders were given personalised names. Clone troopers, Imperial stormtroopers and First Order stormtroopers neatly coincide with the three Star Wars trilogies.
ARMOUR The basic armour of the stormtroopers have remained essentially the same from their inception. Jango Fett provided consultation for the design of the armour, but the blunt design also shows Kaminoan influence. The Kaminoans could see only in the ultraviolet range, which is why the original Clone trooper armour was stark white. The armour lasts practically indefinitely. The white armoured shell covered a pressurised black body glove.The body glove, along with a life support system in the backplate offers protection for brief durations even in the vacuum of space. The body glove also provides thermal regulation to the troopers. A space backpack with a longer life www.digit.in | May 2018 | Digit | 63
WHAT’S NEW
Bowhead whales may as well be jazzhead whales
acoustic data, not only were there never any song types repeated between years, but each season had a new set of songs.” The researchers cannot yet explain why only the male bowhead whales sing, or why the songs keep changing. https://dgit.in/bowjazz
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THIS MONTH IN SCIENCE:
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SCIENCE IS THE PATH TO KNOWLEDGE, AND FINDING OUT ABOUT HOW OUR UNIVERSE WORKS. YOU CAN’T BE A GEEK AND NOT KNOW YOUR SCIENCE!
esearchers from the University of Washington have published the largest collection of bowhead whale songs. The recordings show a huge variety in the types of vocalisations by the whales. The audio recordings were obtained off the coast of Greenland, and include 184 different songs. This is surprising - considering there are believed to be only 200 whales in existence, since they were almost hunted to extinction in the 1600s. The lead author of the paper, Kate Stafford, said, “If humpback whale song is like classical music, bowheads are jazz. The sound is more freeform. And when we looked through four winters of
Subglacial lakes could help find life on icy worlds
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cientists from the University of Texas have found the first subglacial lakes in the Canadian high arctic. Previously, subglacial lakes were known to exist in Antarctica and under Greenland. Unlike the other subglacial lakes that are believed to contain freshwater, the subglacial lakes found in the Canadian arctic are believed to be made up of salt water. The scientists believe
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We explore techniques to bring back extinct species, diets and whether they work at all, NASA editing images and superluminal electrons.
that these are the first known saline subglacial lakes, that are isolated from interactions with the outside environment. Studying these lakes could help
identify microbial life elsewhere in the solar system. The lakes found by the researchers are believed to be similar to subglacial lakes found on Europa. The Jovian moons Ganymede and Europa, as well as the Saturnian moons of Titan and Enceladus are the icy worlds that are the most likely locations for microbial life in the solar system. https://dgit.in/subglakes
Become a master of disinformation Researchers at the University of Cambridge have come up with a web application that they hope will vaccinate the players against the influence of fake news. To do this, the application takes you through the process and motivations behind creating and spreading propaganda. Users get to play as a news editor who pushes out fake news stories, while increasing their credibility. https://dgit.in/fakenewsapp
A new source of high energy protons Nearly 20 years ago, a team of researchers fired a powerful laser at a thin foil and discovered a stream of high energy protons and electrons ejected from the other side. The discovery is now being turned into an experiment that promises to contribute to particle physics. https://dgit.in/heprtns
Fossils explain ancient butterfly colours
Researchers have studied the tiny ridges and grooves in butterfly fossils from more than 130 million years ago, using an electron microscope. The butterflies are believed to have a metallic brown to golden appearance. https://dgit.in/abfs
India, US sign agreement to study neutrinos
The US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, and the Indian Atomic Energy Secretary, Dr Sekhar Basu signed an agreement on 16 April for collaborations between Fermilab in the US and the India-based Neutrino Observatory. https://dgit.in/inusnu www.digit.in | May 2018 | Digit | 73
sci
SpaceX next-gen Mars rocket
NASA’s Spacecraft: 3D-printed parts
SPACE AGE
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WHY NASA EDITS IMAGES
NASA’s Orion is being manufactured with 3D-printed parts which will be ready to embark on flights within a few years. https://dgit.in/nasaorion
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Eric Garcetti, mayor of LA, announced that SpaceX will build its new “BFR” spaceship at the new facility in the port of LA. https://dgit.in/spacexmars
The breathtaking photos of space released by NASA are often heavily post processed, but there are valid reasons why this is done
Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in
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ASA releases a steady stream of awe-inspiring images from its various astronomical instruments. However, most of the photos are manipulated, and are very different from the RAW images captured by the telescopes. For this article, we will be focussing on four of the telescopes and instruments by NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Curiosity Rover, the Cassini mission to Saturn, and the Juno mission to Jupiter. The underlying principles though, on how the images are captured, and why they are manipulated in a particular way, apply to most of the images released by NASA. Almost every image released by NASA involves multiple exposures.
The images are captured in black and white, to get the most detail and information in the particular wavelengths. These images are then layered on to create a composite colour image. It is necessary to adjust the objects in the image if it has moved between the multiple exposures. At other times, it is necessary to create a mosaic from multiple shots. At times, these mosaics are digitally mapped on to a sphere to create an image of the planet or moon. Flyovers of terrains involve creating depth maps from the mosaics of planetary surfaces. After all this, there is colour correction done, portions of the image are touched up, and finally we get the images that we see in the newspapers and on the internet. The astronomical instruments can view the objects they are observing in ultraviolet light, infrared light, and the visible light. Humans cannot see beyond the visible portion of the
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spectrum, so the false colour images are adjusted accordingly, with the ultraviolet and infrared features pushed into the visible range. The cover image for this article is actually a composite of 25 different images, taken over a period of thirteen hours, by the Cassini spacecraft. The human eye can see between 0.4 microns to 0.7 microns wavelengths. In this image the wavelengths of 2.3, 3.0 and 5.1 microns are represented by the visible blue, green and red images. All the data used in the image is from the infrared portion of the spectrum. The green portion is the day side, while the red portion is the night side. The night side is lit up by the thermal radiation produced deep within the atmosphere of the gas giant. At 2.3 microns the planet appears dark while the rings are bright, while at 3.0 microns, the rings are dark and the planet appears bright. This is because of the way the ice particles in the rings and methane in the Saturnian atmosphere absorb or reflect light at various wavelengths. In the composite image, the data from 2.3 microns is used for
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Digital immortality
Researchers are working on digital ressurections of departed loved ones based on algorithms derived from their emails and messages. https://dgit.in/bringback
R&D
AI predicts life on other worlds
The probability of life on other worlds can be calculated by AI, the study uses artificial neural networks (ANNs). https://dgit.in/aipredict
ELECTRONS
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TRAVELLING FASTER THAN LIGHT IN GLASS
glass or water, particles such as electrons can travel faster than light within the same medium. In such a situation, a special type of radiation is emitted by the medium known as Cherenkov radiation. This radiation has now allowed researchers from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in UK and
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Don’t worry, no fundamental laws of physics were broken, and Einstein’s theory of relativity remains as sound as ever.
Aditya Madanapalle | aditya@digit.in
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hen Einstein came up with his special theory of relativity, he proposed what is perhaps one of the most famous equations known to man. According to E=mc^2, which is a cornerstone of how scientists currently understand the universe, no particles with mass can travel faster than the light in vacuum. So far, every known phenomenon in the universe has toed the line when it comes to this rule. However, inside a material like
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The Cherenkov Effect in the Reed Research Reactor
Centre for Intense Laser Studies and Applications (CELIA) in France to track the life history of such ‘faster than light’ electrons. Pavel Cherenkov, a Soviet Scientist was the first to experimentally observe the radiation in a lab environment. Under the direction of Sergey Vavilov, Cherenkov studied the radiation by irradiating various liquids with gamma rays from a radium source. The phenomenon is also known as the Vavilov–Cherenkov radiation for this reason. It was not the first time that researchers had come across the bluish glow though. There is evidence to suggest that Pierre and Marie Curie were familiar with the glow from glass containers with radium salts within them. Il’Ja Frank and Igor Tamm theoretically studied the phenomenon, and developed an explanation that was consistent with Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. For their work, Cherenkov, Frank and Tamm shared the 1958 Nobel Prize in physics “for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect”.
WHAT’S NEW
Brain surgery practice
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save the life of a sick cow. If it’s the latter, then this is also the oldest known case of a veterinary surgery as of April 19, 2018. https://dgit.in/CowSurg
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THIS IS TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE AND SCIENCE WITH A DIFFERENCE, AND THAT DIFFERENCE IS USUALLY ENOUGH TO MAKE MOST NORMAL PEOPLE GO “WTF?”
n ancient cow skull was found with a hole drilled into it and it’s thought that it may have been due to surgical testing in ancient times. The cow skull, which was excavated from a settlement in France roughly 5000 to 5400 years old, was found with a surgically created hole on its right side. Normally, after a bone injury, the bone starts to heal. It wasn’t the case with this skull, indicating that the cow was already dead or died soon after. From what scientists can gather, it appears that ancient surgeons may either have practiced their surgery on a dead cow, or perhaps attempted to unsuccessfully
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cientists have discovered a species of ant that fight off enemies by detonating themselves. The ants, named Colobopsis explodens, cover their foe in a yellow toxic goo like substance when they explode. The ants were discovered in the Borneo jungle and dwell in the trees. While the detonation is quite powerful it also ends up killing the ant, much like what happens to bees
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As changes to Steam’s privacy policy practically handicaps Steam Spy, we bring to you what could be the last Steam Spy Stats for 2017. Also check out what JetBrains plans for aspiring developers in India before diving into some DGT and Auto goodness.
Leaked Apple memo warns about leaking info In an ironic turn of events, an Apple Inc memo warning employees that serious repercussions will be taken against those who leak info, was leaked. https://dgit.in/ApLeak
China’s cockroach farm
China is home to a cockroach farm that breeds over 6 billion cockroaches a year. The AI powered building ensures optimal conditions for the roaches survival, which are important ingredient in a “healing potion” used in China, called Kangfuxinye. https://dgit.in/rochfarm
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after they sting someone. The detonation literally explodes the ant’s whole body.
The Explodens ants are a rare find, and are the first new ant species to be discovered since 1935.
Hackers steal through thermometer
A casino was hacked through an IoT thermometer in its lobby aquarium and its entire high-roller database was stolen. IoT devices are increasingly being targeted by hackers looking to exploit the lack of security standards in the industry. https://dgit.in/fishack
When met with an enemy, the tiny reddish ants do not flee, but instead bite and latch onto their foe, point their backsides directly at the attacker and flex their abdomens so hard they tear their own body apart, which releases the fatal toxic goo stored within. This act is carried out only by the minor workers, all sterile females, who will sacrifice their lives by exploding in order to protect the bigger members of the colony https://dgit.in/explodens
Fortnite first, tornado later
As a storm was raging through the neighbourhood on a Sunday night, teenager Anton Williams continued his game of Fortnite despite witnessing his neighbours’ roof getting blown off. He did help his sister and nephew by asking them to hide in the bathroom. https://dgit.in/nadono
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BIG LAUNCHES THIS MONTH
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APRIL HAS SEEN A LINE OF NEW CARS BEING LAUNCHED — WITH EACH BEING DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER. Souvik Das | souvik@digit.in
MAINSTREAM LUXURY:
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2018 BMW X3
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MW India withdrew the older X3 last year in anticipation of the new generation’s arrival in India, and now, it’s finally here. The third generation, 2018 BMW X3 SUV has been launched in India today with two variants, and is priced at `49.9 lac and `56.7 lac, respectively. So, what has changed? Quite a fair bit, to be honest. The X3 does not look burly any longer – instead, it has this sense of flowing elegance that you would seldom see in SUVs. The new BMW X3 is based on an all-new platform that makes the car lighter, and along with the lesser body weight, BMW has added a few more horsepowers to it. As a result, the new X3 is still powered by the trusted 2-litre, 4-cylinder twin-turbocharged diesel workhorse, but now produces 190bhp and 400Nm torque. BMW has unveiled the X3 only with the standard Diesel engine, and the petrol engine will follow soon. Cosmetic changes are not major, except for smoother flowing design lines now in place of the sharper edges. Even the chrome-laden butterfly grille look different from before, although it does look a bit timid and car-like than before. On the inside, the new generation BMW X3 delivers a few more changes than on the outside. For starters, you get the new generation almost-digital instrument cluster, which replaces the traditional speedometer and tachometer for blank, dark digital panels.
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The infotainment system gets an upgrade, and is based on the iDrive firmware that also powers the 5-Series and 7-Series cars. The screen is bigger now, at 12.3 inches, and is a fully touch-operated unit that retains the iDrive controller. The circular main menu design is now replaced by the horizontal column-like tiles, but hope as we may, the X3 does not get gesture controls. It also gets parking assist, although the monochrome Head-Up Display (HUD) has not been continued here. Other features include High Beam Assist, a larger panoramic glass roof, six-colour ambient lighting system with footwell illumination
and exterior welcome light, the BMW Display Key, 9º reclining rear seats, wireless charging and a 600W, 16-speaker Harman/Kardon surround audio system. Much about the BMW X3’s original essence remains the same. It looks and feels agile, which fits with its positioning as a mid-size sports activity vehicle. It also retains the 550-litre boot space, and gets a space saver tyre strapped in underneath the rug of the boot. The dashboard, as always, remains almost exactly the same. The driver-oriented design gets a two-tone leather upholstery, and the buttons now get a faux-metal finish. But the overall
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