Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i TechLife

THE IMAC PRO is a wolf in sheep’s clothing — somehow, Apple has packed a workstation with up to an 18-core Xeon processor in a frame the exact size of the regular 5K iMac. The only thing more amazing than the engineering feat of producing it is the price you might pay for one. But this is a truly pro machine, and that kind of power comes at a cost. Apple provided us with a very high-end unit for our review (described in the specs), but the ‘basic’ $7,299 model offers an eight-core, 3.2GHz Intel Xeon processor, a less-potent 8GB AMD Vega 56 graphics card, 32GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. It’s all hugely configurable — our beefy unit included the 10-core CPU at $1,280 above the basic 8-core…

TECHLIFE IS AUSTRALIA’S most practical mainstream technology magazine, having been in print since 2012, when we launched as a redesigned and modernised version of Australian PC User. The latter was first printed in 1990, and we take that 25-year heritage seriously and strive to be both ethical and transparent in our coverage of technology and any other topics we broach. Like our sister magazine, APC, we have two main goals here at TechLife: to track down the best of modern tech and to help our readers get the most from it. We’re also an open church in terms of platforms. We know most people aren’t wed to a single brand’s products and use a variety of devices in their lives. And like you, TechLife’s journalists want to know what’s good…

RESEARCHERS ARE WORKING ON A SET OF HEADPHONES THAT COULD HELP WITH VERTIGO CANS TO STOP THE WORLD FROM SPINNING AROUND YOU. Despite how common vertigo is — the sensation of the world spinning when looking down — diagnosis is usually difficult. For some people, the condition can be debilitating, and researchers from several German universities are developing a way to help chronic sufferers. The solution is called EQUIVert biofeedback system that works through a pair of headphones, which themselves have a built-in accelerometer and rotational sensors. The sensors pick up when users are standing straight or leaning, triggering verbal cues to play through the headphones, leading the user through a series of exercises that help users stay in the “equilibrium position”. The system has been designed to ease symptoms…

CHROME STORE FOXIFIED ALLOWS USERS TO INSTALL CHROME OR OPERA PLUGIN TO FIREFOX DIRECTLY FROM THE CHROME STORE OR THE OPERA ADD-ON WEBSITE. FOXY! Chrome Store Foxified BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. Free | tinyurl.com/tla77-foxified IF FIREFOX IS your browser of choice but you dearly wish you could use a certain Chrome or Opera add-on, we’ve got you covered. Chrome Store Foxified allows users to install Chrome or Opera plugin to Firefox directly from the Chrome Store or the Opera Add-on Website. As handy as this tool is, it must be noted that not all Chrome and Opera browser extensions will work on Firefox, but most do. The other handicap is that any updates made to the plugins will not be automatically added to Firefox. To enable updates, you’ll need to…

WHEN WE FIRST decided to proceed with a personal video recorder (PVR) roundup, many of us in the TechLife office were a little sceptical. A huge portion of our daily video content is no longer beamed to our eyeballs via radio waves; instead, we rely upon IP-based streaming media, be it TV catch-up services, Netflix or purchasing online movies. Even sourcing enough of these glorified, digitised VCRs proved difficult, with many big-name brands no longer making PVRs. Yet after testing seven of the existing models, our minds were changed. There is indeed a place in our content-loving culture boxes. That’s not to say they’re for everybody. If you absolutely abhor advertisements, free-to-air TV will probably annoy you thanks to the fact most stations are jam-packed with ads. And if you’ve…

* Many units can stream content from their hard drive to an external device, including your smart phone when you’re out and about. You can also use your phone as a remote control when you’re away from home, to set up recordings when someone tells you about an awesome new series while you’re at the office. * If you really want to tap into the best EPG recording, video aficionados rave about IceTV, an Aussie-made EPG that allows you to set up recordings from anywhere with an internet connection. While the company went through some issues a few years ago, they’re now back on their feet, and widely acclaimed as the easiest EPG to use. There’s a free 30-day trial, if you don’t take our word for it at www.icetv.com.au.…

WITH MANY STATES around Australia prohibiting the hand-held use of smartphones in the car, mounts are one of the most essential optional-extras you’ll have to consider buying for your vehicle. While not exactly a big ticket item, it can be a little bit of a minefield attempting to purchase a mount that’ll work perfectly in your car without first knowing a bit about what types of mounts work best in various scenarios. The most obvious are the windshield-mounted suction arms which do a good job of holding your smartphone at the right level for easy viewing, but are generally a little too far away to easily reach and have an annoying tendency to lose suction and fall off every now and then. Alternatively, you have the also easy-to-install vent mounts…

[ MAC ] What’s the best way to free up storage on my Mac My 2011 MacBook Pro, with a 320GB drive, is running out of space. Much of its storage is being taken up by music and movies. Can I move them to an external drive, or put them in the cloud? [ EUGENE HARRELSON ] Howard Oakley replies: Apple provides storage as part of iCloud, but to free up a lot of space on your Mac, you’ll have to rent more on iCloud — you get 5GB for nothing, and if you want more, you’ll incur a monthly charge; you can have up to 2TB of iCloud storage at this time — see support.apple.com/en-au/HT201238 . For movies and TV shows bought…

THINKING ABOUT UPGRADING your camera? Are you doing it to take better photographs and with a clear purpose in mind? Those were the questions we posed in last month’s TechLife (page 104) as we showed off the hidden depths in your current DSLR. You will be surprised to see that your current DSLR has an array of features that will cast aside its limits — perceived or otherwise. Last month, we demonstrated how to set up intervals, taking effective and creative multiple exposures, truly getting to grips with the LCD screen and more. All of these functions and hardware features have been present from the day you bought your camera; with some expert guidance, they will elevate your results — and save you some cash. As we’ve previously mentioned, new…

Sobro Smart Side Table SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE AND IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP. sobrodesign.com Bedside tables used to be tables — humble pieces of furniture that provided you with a surface to place a lamp, a book, a glass of water with your teeth in, and perhaps a drawer or two to store personal items. The Sobro, however, is sporting almost every smart function we can think of. With a wireless charging pad, fridge, Bluetooth speakers, LED lighting and a companion app, the Sobro ‘table’ really is more than a piece of bedroom furniture. It also claims that it can help you get a good night’s sleep. Its LEDs can be programmed to simulate sunset and sunrise, and also includes a white noise generator — although, the creators make the note that…

MAINTAIN CLEANLINESS AND STABILITY SHED USELESS SOFTWARE WITH ASHAMPOO UNINSTALLER 6 FULL VERSION WORTH $50 With Ashampoo UnInstaller 6, you can finally uninstall applications without worry. Even better: you can get rid of unwanted software instantly at the click of a button! Experience the most extensive installation monitoring technology to date, and remove applications without a trace. The newly developed snapshotting technology enables you to trace system modifications with great speed and incredible attention to detail. And don’t forget system maintenance: Numerous integrated maintenance tools will help keep your system lean and fast. Download link: www.ashampoo.com/techlifemagazine SHARE FILES WITH YOUR PHONE WITH EASE DRAG AND DROP BETWEEN DEVICES WITH ABELSSOFT SEND2PHONE FULL VERSION WORTH $16. Easily send yourself links, images or any other files between PC and Android…

COMING SOON: A LUXURY HOTEL IS SET TO OPEN IN SPACE GRAND OPENING SLATED FOR 2022. Called Aurora Station, this luxury hotel module will be launched into a low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 322km in 2021 and will have two-person private suites for a 12-day round trip. Stays will cost well over US$20 million and guests will be taken on trips to the International Space Station. A three-month training program will, however, need to be undertaken by any guest to get them astronaut-ready. [ SS ] NSW TO REVIEW WHAT HAPPENS TO SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS POST-DEATH LIST YOUR ONLINE ASSETS IN A WILL. What happens to social media accounts after a person has died will be reviewed by the NSW Government in laws that will overhaul legislation governing wills,…

AFTER IT WAS found that Facebook leaked the data of 50 million US users to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica (CA), the social media platform announced that the figures were closer to the 87 million mark and spanned the globe. CA was used by President Trump’s 2016 election campaign and the Brexit ‘Vote Leave’ campaign, and has since denied Facebook’s revised claim, stating that it only collected the information of 30 million individuals. According to Facebook, users from countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Mexico and the UK were part of the data haul. Australia itself was affected as well, although its 300,000 users only comprised 0.4% of the overall 87 million, of which the US made up the vast majority at 81.4%. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since…

1,200 NUMBER OF NEWSAGENCIES AROUND AUSTRALIA RESELLING CRYPTOCURRENCIES A partnership between Bitcoin and payment platform Blueshyft has enabled Aussies to purchase the cryptocurrency from over 1,200 newsagencies around the country, alongside another popular alternative, Ethereum. Customers are required to first install a digital wallet and sign up with Bitcoin Australia before they can place an order online, at which point, they’ll receive a QR code that they can take into the newsagency to turn the handed-over cash into Bitcoin or Ethereum. 33,333,333 NUMBER OF HOURS AUSSIES SPEND WATCHING CATCH-UP AND LIVE STREAMING FREEVIEW EACH MONTH The Freeview March report presented some interesting results on the viewing habits of the seven million Australians that use its on-demand and live streaming services. The two billion minutes (or 33 million hours) per month…

THE ALPHA A7 III sits on the bottom rung of Sony’s full-frame mirrorless camera range, and is designed to appeal to both keen enthusiast photographers and professionals. In the past, the A7 series cameras have always felt like poor relations to the A7R and A7S series. While the latter two have tended to capture the limelight with their high pixel counts and advanced video capabilities, the A7 cameras have always been regarded as the basic models, sporting a solid but unremarkable set of features. That looks like it could all change with this third-generation A7 camera. Borrowing many features from the top-of-the-range Alpha A9, as well as the Alpha A7R III, the Alpha A7 III looks anything but basic. DYNAMIC PERFORMER Sony hasn’t been tempted to increase the resolution, so…

THERE’S NO ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL FORMULA HERE, BUT THERE ARE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO RECHARGE YOUR BRAIN. THE ANCIENT GREEKS called it ‘eudaimonia’, meaning ‘what we give to the world’. Happiness is, perhaps, best defined as the persistent, heady mix you get from putting pleasure, satisfaction and whole lot of other feelings together. And while we think happiness is just another emotion, albeit an important one, the human brain considers it to be a means to an end. Happiness is the brain’s way of getting the body to do certain things, but it’s transient and — if the number of books on the subject is anything to go by — quite elusive. As far as the brain is concerned, the only way to be happy is to make sure there’s chemicals…

DOCUMENTARIES CAN BE an amazing way to transport viewers to a world — good, bad, exciting, secret or new — from the comfort of their living room or a cinema. But while you might assume that documentaries are so successful in conveying their message or story across by utilising the visual medium of film, we hope these following productions will make you reconsider. It turns out, taking a snapshot of a place, investigating a person or uncovering a conspiracy is less about seeing the documentary makers and their camera crew running after shifty-looking people hiding their faces and more about the meaty information and twists that they discover. And good news for us, podcasts are the perfect medium for grabbing your attention wherever you are. Why not try these for…

Outrider on Nuclear Weapons NEATLY INFORMING THE PUBLIC OF THE BIG ISSUES. outrider.org/nuclear-weapons Outrider is a relatively fresh website with a noble goal: in their own words, the team “believes in the power of an educated, engaged public”. As such, they hope to provide this education by presenting information in an engaging way, while suggesting genuine options on how to act on the world’s big issues — starting with nuclear weapons. Through an interactive map, you can use your GPS location or plug in a suburb or city, and see just what kind of damage would occur if one were to be detonated there. This demonstration offers information on fatalities, injuries, and the radii of fallout spread, heatblast and more, as well as allowing you to modify the type of…

THE NEW IPAD for 2018 is designed to deliver the best of Apple’s tablet efforts at a more affordable price. The cost is still higher than many other tablets out there — but the new upgrades bridge the gap between a ‘standard’ slate and the more impressive iPad Pro range. It comes with a range of storage and connectivity options, with prices starting at $469 for the 32GB Wi-Fi model, and the equivalent cellular version adding $200. In the looks department, the metal back, the well-machined buttons, the home button at the base of the tablet with TouchID integration are all present and correct. The screen is bright, with a resolution of 1,536 x 2,048 pixels, at 264ppi. It’s a shame not to see HDR or OLED supported, but Apple…

AIMED SQUARELY AT the Instagrammers, Facebookers and smartphone camera users, the Canon EOS M100 is for the selfie generation, made evident by the smartphone-style 180° flip-up touchscreen and minimalistic exterior design. This mirrorless camera comes with built-in Wi-Fi and NFC, with always-on Bluetooth, all to encourage sharing images to social media. Under the hood, the M100 sports the latest 24MP Dual Pixel CMOS sensor featured in some of Canon’s DSLRs and bigger (and more powerful) mirrorless cameras. In combination with the DIGIC 7 image processor, not only is the autofocus (AF) fast, but the M100 also delivers DSLR-quality images. The simplistic design makes the M100 look like a point-and-shoot, with all the tech buried inside, making it rather tricky to get the right settings for individual scenarios. The only way…

THE LOWLY BATHROOM scale may not rank highly on your desirable tech list, but Nokia’s done well to make the Body Cardio look alluring. Not that Nokia had to try too hard, as the company ported the sleek metal and glass number over wholesale in 2016 when it bought Withings, who originally made the scales (likewise the Steel HR, left). Still, once the Body Cardio is on your bathroom floor, you’ll be more than tempted to step on and see what it has to say about your weight, pulse rate, bone and muscle mass, and your water and fat percentages. (Be mindful of the exposed micro USB charging port in wet rooms — we can’t see any waterproofing credentials, though the scale should provide a year’s worth of use on…

WHILE ANDROID 6 MARSHMALLOW STILL POWERS OVER 20% OF ANDROID PHONES IN AUSTRALIA, DOUBLE THAT NUMBER ARE RUNNING A VERSION OF ANDROID 7 NOUGAT, AND NEWER PHONES ARE NOW SHIPPING WITH, OR BEING UPGRADED TO, ANDROID 8 OREO. ANDROID IS A brilliant operating system, plus it has a huge range of extra functions available through downloadable apps. But before you go filling up your phone with third-party apps, how well do you know what Android can do all by itself? In this feature, we delve deep into Android to identify the useful features that not everybody knows about. You might be amazed at what is already available. While Android 6 Marshmallow still powers over 20% of Android phones in Australia, double that number are running a version of Android 7…

THANKS TO APPLE’S integration of Qi-compatible wireless charging tech into its latest iPhones, there’s been a lot more interest in this mode of charging, which does away with the need to plug a cable into your phone. Select Android handsets have supported the wireless option for several years now, which uses magnetic induction and very close physical proximity to essentially transfer power through the air. That may sound like magic, but it does come with some caveats. The main trade-off is speed. A typical Android phone with fast charging takes around 90 minutes to fill up, but with wireless charging, you can basically double that at a minimum. We’ve also found that phone placement on the pad can cause quite noticeable variations in charging speed. If you use a phone…

SO YOU’VE GONE and bought yourself a $1,100-plus handset, and you’re terrified of your iPhone, Pixel or Galaxy smashing to pieces or accidentally going for a swim. Or, horror scenario, plopping into the toilet. An understandable fear, as getting the thing fixed starts at three figures, and insurance isn’t much better. You’re probably also locked into a two-year contract, so it’s in your best interest to keep the phone in fine working order. Those examples aside, you’re probably already settled on the idea of a phone case, and it’s true that a $5 cheapie from eBay will certainly protect it from scratches and bumps. However, opting for something better (and with a chunkier price tag) from a reputable vendor yields benefits. You’re more likely to have a warranty period on…

PCS, LAPTOPS, TABLETS, phones — we use them every day, but for many, there comes a point where the urge to start writing your own apps is hard to resist. If you’ve never coded before, don’t let that stop you. Python is one of the world’s most popular programming languages, taught in schools and used in industry and academic research. One reason it’s so popular is because it’s one of the easiest languages to learn. You can learn Python at university, but we’re going to show you in these four pages five key Python basics to get you started in coding your own programs. THE FIVE PYTHON BASICS Download the latest Python 3.6 programming language for your computer from www.python.org/downloads. Install it and launch ‘IDLE’, Python’s code terminal or ‘shell’.…

Extraordinary: the new normal While on my commute, I generally try to get up to date on all my tech news on my phone — when I don’t have a copy of TechLife on me, of course! I’m drawn to stories about SpaceX quite often, being both a fan of Elon Musk and also an avid science-fiction reader, and I think the giant leaps the company is taking with regards to landing rockets and how they’re recycling them is pretty extraordinary. But this latest article on Teslarati (www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-9-sea-landing-tess-exoplanet) included this rather stunning first sentence: SpaceX has successfully completed the first drone ship recovery of a Falcon 9 booster in nearly six months, bringing to an end a what will likely be the final drought of by-sea rocket landings in the…

WHILE US PRESIDENT Trump’s new national security advisor, John Bolton, has made clear that one of the ways to get back at Russia for meddling in US affairs is to launch “retaliatory cyber campaign”, major global corporations are determined to not let that happen. 34 global corporations, including Microsoft, Nokia, Cisco, HP and Facebook, have signed the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, a pledge to ally together and defend consumers against cyber attacks. The accord states that the coalition “will not help governments launch cyberattacks against innocent citizens and enterprises from anywhere”. The agreement will “empower civilians online” and “improve the security, stability and resilience of cyberspace”, with each company promising to not aid governments bolster their cyber capabilities. The companies have also promised to protect against “tampering and exploitation” of products…

Lexip THE GAMING MOUSE WITH TWO INTERNAL JOYSTICKS. tinyurl.com/tla77-lexip | Goal: €25,000 | Raised: €429,621 from 3,824 backers | RRP: €109 Lexip didn’t set out to create an office mouse or a peripheral for the casual gamer. This device is for people who need their mouse to do more than just click and scroll. It comes in both left- and right-handed options. Rejoice! There are two joysticks, one you can see on the inner side and an internal one that allows you to tilt the device. This apparently works really well, giving you the ability to tilt it forward or back 20 degrees and also side to side — a great boon for games with elements of flight simulation. The first joystick is for your thumb, and what it can…

IT’S ALL TOO easy to default to one of the big three telcos when it comes to your mobile plan. These carriers are highly visible, and are typically the first to offer plan options for the latest flagship phones. But unless you’re specifically looking for a contract plan that lets you pay a phone off in monthly instalments — which is typically how Telstra, Optus and Vodafone reel in customers — you’ll get a much better deal by holding onto your existing phone and seeing what’s available from network resellers such as Vaya, Kogan Mobile, Woolworths Mobile and Virgin Mobile. These providers — known as MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) — lease network capacity off one of the big three carriers, and typically provide cheaper plans with higher data allowances.…

God of War KRATOS IS GREAT AT RAISING HELL, BUT CAN HE RAISE A SON? $94.95 | PS4 | playstation.com/godofwar IT’S BEEN MANY years since Kratos exacted bloody vengeance on the Gods of Olympus for tricking him into murdering his own family, and he’s changed in quite a dramatic way. The Spartan warrior has left Ancient Greece behind and is now living a peaceful life with new family in the Norse realm of gods and monsters. But it’s not just the Norse mythology setting that sets the new God of War apart from previous entries in the series — its action-focused gameplay has been completely deconstructed and reimagined, offering a new over-the-shoulder camera perspective and an axe-based combat system that keeps Kratos mostly grounded. He’s also got a companion along…

NURAPHONE IS A truly unique beast in a world that’s taking its sweet time to evolve, and we commend the bold leaps it’s taking. From the moment you open the box, it’s immediately clear that this Melbourne-based company has taken the design process very seriously. It’s rare that the included carry-case is worthy of mention, but this hard-shell offering is the best we’ve seen — a magnetic clasp, solid construction and a magnetically-detachable cable organiser transform it from a token inclusion into an essential companion to the Nuraphone. The attention to detail extends to the unit itself, with a similarly sleek matte-black aesthetic and minimal-leaning design. The headband is sturdy and flexible and is coated in the same silicon as the earcups, yet doesn’t grease up or sweat as much…

OVER THE LAST few years, Gigabyte’s Aero range of laptops has attempted to bring premium gaming components to the ultrabook form factor, and this newly-refreshed Aero 15 is no different. Combining a 15.6-inch Pantone colour-calibrated screen, full-sized keyboard with number pad, dedicated Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU and a generous 94Wh Li-Ion battery within a slim 35.6 x 25 x 1.9cm chassis is an impressive feat of engineering. Add to that one of Intel’s new high-end 8th-generation mobile CPUs, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD and you have a cutting-edge gaming PC that slyly takes the shape of a professional ultrabook. Pushing the envelope this far has invariably led to some design choices that will be divisive — like dropping the web camera to the bottom of the screen,…

THE IROBOT APP KEEPS THINGS NICE AND SIMPLE OFFERING A SINGLE ‘CLEAN’ BUTTON ON THE APP’S HOME PAGE THAT INITIATES A VACUUMING CYCLE, BUT THERE’S ALSO A SERIES OF TABS FOR TWEAKING CLEANING SETTINGS, LOOKING THROUGH CLEANING LOGS AND SCHEDULING AUTOMATED CLEANING ROUTINES. UNLESS YOU HAVE exorbitant amounts of cash to burn, $1,449 is a lot of money to spend on a vacuum cleaner, but if that grand price tag includes the cleaning itself, then it starts to seem like a justifiable lifestyle investment. The Roomba 980 is the top-of-the-line automated vacuum cleaner from America’s top selling robovac company iRobot, and if you live in a single-level apartment or house, then this staircase-avoiding robotic cleaner is more than capable of pulling its weight. Guided by its iAdapt 2.0 floor sensors…

There’s no doubt that streaming video over the internet is going to continue to bite into the market share of free-to-air, but currently most Australians still watch more free-to-air TV than they do IP-based video. So it doesn’t appear that free-to-air is going to disappear in the immediate future, which means we’ll still have PVRs evolving along with it. The biggest difference in future PVRs will likely be the move to 4K support. Most mid-range TVs now support 4K resolutions, so it’s a no-brainer that PVRs will have to move to support it too. The problem right now is content; there really isn’t much. When that issue is solved, PVRs will face another quandary, in the form of storage. 4K requires more than four times the amount of storage space…

Plan your next trip Whether you need help with travel, days out, hotels or things to do while on holiday, the Trip Advisor app (free, Microsoft Store) has you covered. Not only can you find what you’re looking for, but you can book directly through the app, too, comparing prices to get the best possible deal. Look out for the areas of interest section, giving you ideas for your next break. Faster, easier web browsing All web browsers are pretty much the same, aren’t they? Not really.Opera (www.opera.com) has made a striking bid for uniqueness with a sleek, simple interface and the ability to sync your settings between multiple devices. Also, recent updates have introduced native ad-blocking, VPN for secure browsing and power-saving for laptops and tablets. Get useful system…

THE DESKTOP IS the backdrop to all that happens on your Mac’s screen. A key feature is the menu bar, which remains visible except when you’re using apps in full-screen mode, and the Dock, which can either stay visible or hide and show itself. You can save or drag files and folders to the desktop for fast access, and screenshots (when you hold ‘Cmd-Shift’ and press 3 or 4) are saved there by default. In ‘Finder > Preferences’, you can choose to show disks, devices and servers as desktop icons but, to save clutter, that’s no longer the default. Here, we look more closely at the desktop’s most important features. MISSION CONTROL FIND THE WINDOW YOU WANT. At any time, press F3, or Ctrl and the up arrow key, or…

SO YOU’VE DOWNLOADED a nice little collection of videos on your home PC or home server. Now you’d like the ability to go hide in your bedroom, backyard or basement and watch them on your tablet or phone, without having to fight for time on the big screen. To do that, you’ll need an app that’s capable of streaming the video from your PC or NAS to your mobile, and this month, we have your guide to the best such apps. (For more on mobile storage devices, check out our feature on page 72.) THE BEST MOBILE STREAMING APPS KODI Kodi.tv  Available on: Android and iOS (with effort) Once known as XBMC, Kodi is the god among media players, the one most people go to first when it comes to…