Chip - January 2014 My

welcome note
colophon
Looking At A
Fresh New Start!
O
h snap! Its 2014 already,
feature stories that cover the topics such as what are some of the
which means it is time
things you shouldnt search for on the net, how the internet is
to start thinking about
evolving, a look at the history of whistleblowers and many more.
those resolutions and start
Other than that, we also got to review some very cool stuff this
making them count. As for me, my main resolution for the year
would be to spend less time playing games (dont think itll work
month and we hope this doesnt slow down any time soon.
On top of all that, we also have some very interesting articles in
due to the recent Steam sales), spending more time with my
our Lite and Leisure section. This month, Nazrin and myself share
family and pet doggies and also possibly learning a new skill or
with you our favourite games of 2013 and also the titles we want to
two. On that note, maybe the apps featured in our Lite and Leisure
get our hands on in 2014. We also have a very interesting interview
Touch section will help me and hopefully you out.
with film producer, Linus Chung, who doesnt just share with his
Seeing as this is the January 2014 issue of the magazine, we

will be taking a look at the trends of 2014 as our cover story. 2013
was definitely a great year in terms of technology and 2014 seems
thoughts about technology and the Malaysian film industry but

also how we should go out and experience the world a little more.
On that note, I will end my little entry here and I would also like
like itll blow it right out of the water as we can expect to see some
to say thank you for all the support and we hope you continue to
really exciting new stuff such as new hardware for computers and
support us in our journey in 2014. As always, do drop us a letter or
smart mobile devices, display technology, stylish yet functional
message on social networks to let us know what we can do to
wearable tech and possibly even faster internet speeds.
satisfy your hunger for tech. Until next time, remember to stay safe
Besides that, weve also got a very good line-up of interesting
and live for the moment.
Jeremy Cheong
Managing Director Noor Azman
ONLINE
Head of Department YK Cheah
DISTRIBUTED BY
www.chip.com.my
EDITORIAL
@CHIPMY
Editor Jeremy Cheong

Writer Nazrin Zain
Contributors Anand Tuliani, Azril
Malik, Brian Pereira, Deepti Krishnan,
Dushyant Khilnani, Erick Rustomji,
Fabian von, Keudell, Francis DSa,
Jamshed Avari, M. Biebel, Manfred
Flohr, Markus Hermannsdorfer, Michael
Eckstein, Monali Gaikwad,
Tim Lee,Thomas Littschwager, Valentin
Pletzer, Tan Jee Yee
Design & Layout Halijah Ismail
Cover Design Halijah Ismail
CHIP Malaysia
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No part of CHIP magazine / free CD shall be
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or in tort arising out of or in connection with
the use of the information made available in
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magazine / the publisher.
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contents
january 2014
Its the start of the new year and that means new
technology and new devices. Find out our predictions on
what will be this years hottest and coolest trends that
will change the way you use your gadgets
The Internet is about to get an upgrade in

terms of speed, stability and security. Find
out what you can expect when the new
technology for the internet arrives
Planned
Obsolescence
contents
january 2014
FEATURES
032 LegalTECH
Trademarking is serious
business and it can get you in a
spot of trouble even on the net
048 Dangerous Queries

The World Wide Web is a hive
of danger. We find out what
lurks in its depth
NEWS & TRENDS
LITE & LEISURE

TEST LAB
069 Test Lab: The Tools

Test Labs tools of the trade
070 Test Lab Contents

Take a pick and get
started!
078 Reviews
Professionally conducted
reviews following our stringent
tests and benchmarks
106 Read
Cant get enough of sci-fi and
fantasy novels, find out which
are some of the best ones
released in 2013
110 Play
There were loads of great
games in 2013 and we list down
some of our favourites of the
year in a the various genres
008 Local News

Coverage of the latest news
and events right on our shores
024 World Wired Web

All the latest tech happenings
around the world
028 Security Reports

Monthly dose of security news
PRACTICE
REGULARS
114 Its All About Management
001 Welcome Note

006 Letters
119 Tips and Tricks
With a handy tool, you can now

get your PC to automatically
manage files just how you want
them to be with a few clicks.
contents
chip downloads
CHIP Downloads
Were back with our monthly dose of interesting, free and handy tools for you to enhance your PC experience. If you want to know how
you can get these files, follow the instructions below:
1. Head on our website @ www.chip.com.my and right at the top, click on the Downloads tab
2. After that, click on the respective months post (eg. January 2014). You will then be prompted for a password. The password can be
found on this page monthly.
3. Navigate using the tabs and pick the categories you want to download the files from. Once you find the file you want, just click on it
and youre good to go!
And its as easy as that!
PASSWORD FOR JANUARY 2014 - silicon
Featured Tools
Belvedere Automated File Manager
Manually transferring a large number of files from one
folder to another can be a very painstaking process, and
consumes a lot of time. Belvedere is an automated file
manager software which allows you to set rules and
automatically transfer files from one folder to another. All
you need is a few minutes to set a number of rules for
Belvedere to adhere to, and the software does the rest. It
can also use multiple criteria, such as the length, name,
size or date of creation, each with several options.
KatMouse Mouse Wheel Enhancer

KatMouse is a background app that enhances the
scrollwheel so that its a lot more intuitive to use.
One of the main features of KatMouse is that when
activated, the wheel will scroll the window that is
directly beneath the mouse cursor instead of the
window that is on focus. Another feature it has is
that you are able to use the wheel button to switch
between tasks which is nifty if youre transferring
files from one folder to another.
Essentials
Our list of essentials consists of programs and software such as graphic drivers, browsers, compression software and even Cloud
storage software that will improve a PC users experience. The links on our website wont provide you with the files, instead it will lead
you to the developers official website, where you can find the right file for you.
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january 14
chip malaysia
contents
chip downloads
December 2013
The Monthly Ten
Ocster Backup Pro 7
Ashampoo Photo Card
Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

If your computer contains a lot of
sensitive information and you need
to have it backed up in a secure
manner, Ocster Backup is capable of
doing that for you. It allows you to
create backups for the entire system
or of specific individual files. A
backup wizard is also available to
help you through the steps of backing up your data.

This software is great for those who
want to create customised greeting
and post cards on the fly. Photo
Card offers 60 greeting card
templates, so you can choose the
ones that best suit your idea for a
greeting card. Not only that, this is
also one of the first Ashampoo
products that can actually support touchscreen devices as well.
Powerdesk 8 Professional
AVS Media Player

If youre looking for a file browser
that is feature-packed and
lightweight, this is it. Not only does
it make it easier for you to transfer
files, it also supports over 30
archiving formats and it also has an
integrated FTP manager.

If youre looking for a media player
that is capable of playing a wide
variety of video and audio file
formats, consider the AVS Media
Player. It supports popular codecs
like MP4, DivX and MP3 and also the
playing of DVDs on a PC.
Desk Drive 1.8.5
Smart Defrag

Opening the folders to a USB drive
can be quite a chore sometimes as
you have to go through the process
of opening the Explorer window and
double clicking the drive. Desk Drive
makes it easy by placing a shortcut
directly to the drive on your desktop.

PC defragmentation is an important
task that many PC owners never
bother with as it takes a lot of time
to perform, depending on the size of
your hard drives. But Smart Defrag
will change that as it is works much
faster than the one in Windows.
Elementary OS Luna
RocketDock 1.3.5
Operating system: Linux

Elementary OS is a Linux-based
operating system that looks very
similar to Apples Mac OS X, and
has a veritable selection of software
that you can play around with. The
Software Center built into the
operating system also allows you to
add on to the existing selection of
software that are already there.

If youre a neat freak who requires
his or her icons of files and folders
to be at a specific location,
RocketDock may just be the solution
for you. The dock can be placed
horizontally or vertically on any side
of the desktop and be customised to
suit your needs.
LOGINventory 5
XNView Image Viewer

With LOGINventory, you can record
up to 20 devices in your network.
The software takes very little time to
scan connections and show a
detailed list of the devices that are
connected to your network. It also
gives you an overview of your home
network.

Viewing file images that arent JPG
and PNG can be annoying as more
often than not youd have to use a
resource consuming software.
XNViewer is a lightweight image
viewer and converter that is capable
of reading over 500 image file
formats, file conversion, image
editing and many more.
chip malaysia
january 14
05
letters
readers feedback
Letters
Letter of the Month
Concerns And Thoughts

Dear CHIP,
I am an avid reader of your magazine. I usually find it very
informative and useful, but one article in the December 2013
issue caught my attention. It was the article comparing iOS,
Android 4.3 and Windows Phone (WP) 8.
While your review of iOS was fairly balanced, I found your
article on Android and WP8 a bit misleading. Im a user of all
three operating systems, and therefore I know that you DO have
advanced camera controls in WP8 after you install the Nokia
ProCam app. You may justify your article by saying that it is
(strictly speaking) a third party application. However, an end user
wouldnt just rely on the apps/settings out-of-the-box.
Also I would like to point out that your review of the
confusingly sorted Settings menu, and the crude, unclear and
cramped tiles of WP8 are a matter of taste. I would like to point
out the old days when you would buy a phone; and the first thing
you would do would be to get accustomed to the new placement
of different functions/settings.
Its pretty much the same with iOS and Android being
modelled after each other, Windows is just different.
Srinivasan Sundaresan
Dear Srinivasan,
Were glad that you find our magazine informative, and it
always brings a smile to our face that people enjoy reading
what we write month in and out.
With regards to the Nokia ProCam app, it definitely is
indeed a very powerful camera app however, our article on the
advanced menu options is based strictly on apps and features
that come out of the box.
With regards to your query about the Settings menu on
WP8, you are also correct in saying that all it needs is some
adjusting to. That being said, compared to Android and iOS,
the Settings menu of WP8 is comparatively less intuitive, which
we attribute to the fact that WP8 is still a relatively new mobile
operating system which will only get better in time.
A Little Friendly Advice

Dear CHIP,
I am writing this latter to highlight two issues that have been
bugging me since I have become addicted to this magazine.
Issue no.1, my subscription will end this month (December).
To make a renewal I have to tear out the renewal form which is at
the back of the page. The problem is the form is always a part of
an article which I do not want to lose. This has been repeated year
in year out. May I suggest that you put an advertisement at the
back of the renewal form.
Issue no. 2, I have problems with the acronyms use in some
of your articles. It will be very much appreciated if you can kindly
put the actual words in bracket when an acronym first appears
in an article. I have been learning a lot from the CHIP all these
years and I hope the quality of this magazine will maintain if not
improve even further.
Cikgu Haling
Dear Cikgu Haling,
Were glad that you enjoy reading our magazine, and wed
like you to know that we have heard you loud and clear. We
will try to put our subscription form at a page where it does not
interfere with our articles, and we apologise for not noticing
this issue sooner.
As for the acronyms that we use in our articles, we will also
be sure to include the actual words when they appear for the
first time in our articles so that our readers (and you) will know
what they mean. Again, thank you for your feedback, and we
hope that you continue to enjoy reading our magazine.
Bring The CD Back!

Dear CHIP,
When I went to pick up the December issue of CHIP, I felt
something was amiss. And when I found out that you had
replaced with digital downloads I was really sad. It was one of the
reasons why I fell in love with CHIP. Now that it is no longer there,
it has left a little void in me. I commend your move to digital
downloads but I hope you will still find a way to retain the CD
as not everyone like myself has high-speed broadband and this
makes the CD much more useful.
Henry Liew
Dear Henry!
The CD is indeed one of the highlights of the magazine that
were very sad to see go. That said, we feel that the CD had to
go because of several factors. These include the fact that many
notebooks and even computers dont come with CD or DVD
drives anymore, and we felt it was high-time that a change
was made in the way we provide our users with useful apps
and software. Fret not however as our web interface is userfriendly, yet secure. You could always contact us via email or
Facebook if you face any difficulty using it, and well gladly help
troubleshoot any problems that you may face.
Write to us at letters@chip.com.my. Alternatively, log on to the forums at forum.chip.com.my and make yourself heard! The Letters page is an outlet for you to voice your
views and opinions towards the magazine as well as general tech trends. Feedback sent to us may be edited for suitability without altering the intended point-of-view. The
monthly winners for LoTM will be contacted for further details.
006
january 14
chip malaysia
news
local news
The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga will come in two variants, either

with an Intel Core i5-4500U processor or Core i7-4500U
processor. It comes with a starng price of RM4,600
Seen here with the new devices are (From L-R): Hon Kar Weng, Manager, Think Business Unit, ASEAN Relaonship Segment,
Lenovo Malaysia; Prakash Mallya, Country Manager, Intel Electronics Malaysia and Singapore; Khoo Hung Chuan, Country
General Manager, Lenovo Malaysia; Foo Mun Yee, Country Sales Manager Smartphone Division, Lenovo Malaysia and Jimmy
Chin, Consumer Segment Lead, Lenovo Malaysia
Ending 2013 With A

Bang
The Flex 14 and Flex 15 (in picture) is a device that was

designed for those who wants a reasonably priced laptop that
has the performance for work and play
Lenovo capped 2013 off with a launch that saw the

introduction of over 20 new devices to the Malaysian
market
013 has been a rollercoaster ride

for many but for Lenovo, it has
generally been a uphill ride. It really
shouldnt be a surprise as throughout the
year, Lenovo has launched many exciting
and innovative devices in the PC and PC+
category for the consumer and commercial
markets. Instead of sitting on the laurels,
Lenovo decided to end the year with a
bang that saw them introducing over 20
new devices to the market.
Despite the ongoing global economic
slowdown, Lenovo has maintained its
status as the number one PC supplier with
17.7% of the global market share, up to two
points year-over-year. Our strategy for such
resilient business momentum is through
our Protect & Attack strategy combined
with our commitment to innovation and
understanding of our customer experience.
We continuously strive to offer them
new technology and products that are
capable to adapt to their needs and new
usage scenarios as well as preferences,
said Khoo Hung Chuan, Country General
Manager, Lenovo Malaysia.
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january 14
chip malaysia
Lenovo did not only gain market share

in PCs, but will continuously introduce
more cutting-edge products, like the
devices we are introducing today, to
further make headway in our journey to be
a leader in the PC Plus segment, added
Khoo.
As we mentioned earlier, the launch
wasnt just limited to one category as
Lenovo brought out their latest desktop
and laptop PCs, All-In-One desktops,
tablets and smartphones. Some of the
more highly anticipated devices included
the Yoga Tablet, Yoga 2 Pro and ThinkPad
Yoga. Then there was also the new Flex 14,
15 and 20, a new and improved K900 and
several new additions to the A and P series
smartphones.
The device that was easily the talk of the
day had to be the ThinkPad Yoga. This new
laptop combines the flexibility of Lenovos
other Yoga devices and also the reliability,
business and security features that is
synonymous to the ThinkPad name. One
of its coolest features happens to be its
retracting keyboard when users rotate its
Seen here with the lovely model is the sexy Yoga Tablet
that sports a 1.2GHz MTK8389 quad-core processor, 1GB
RAM, 16GB storage and a 6,000mAh baery. It also has an
aordable price of RM999
screen when they want to use it in Tablet,

Tent or Stand mode. This helps prevent
accidental typing and also damage to the
keys when placed flat on a surface.
While the Yoga 2 Pro also made its
appearance, its limelight was sort of
stolen by its little brother the Yoga Tablet.
Lenovos new Android tablet will come in
two sizes, 8- and 10-inch. For those looking
for a tablet that looks very different, the
Yoga Tablet comes with a new design
that makes it very comfortable to hold and
bring around. It also boasts an 18 hour
battery life.
www.lenovo.com/my/
news
local news
Aer the presentaon, Johnson Seet, Head of Mobile

Notebook & Smart Handheld, Acer Sales and Services Sdn.
Bhd. (le), and Jerey Lai, Product Manager for Mobile
Notebook & Smart Handheld, Acer Sales and Services Sdn.
Bhd. posed for photos with the ICONIA W4
Acer brought with them mulple units of the Iconia W4 and it was a good thing as members of the media couldnt get their hands
o it
Heres Come
Another Icon
Acer dishes out more details on their latest Windows

8.1 tablet, the Iconia W4
lthough it may seem that Acer

has been overshadowed by their
many competitors throughout
2013, it hasnt really slowed them down or
deterred them as they continue to produce
and launch affordable and versatile
devices. Although it made its debut in
the final PC Fair for 2013, we finally got
a closer and more personal experience
with the Iconia W4 at a luncheon that was
organised by Acer.
Much like its predecessor, the Iconia
W3, the W4 is an 8-inch tablet that comes
with some very nice features such as a HD
(1,280x800) IPS display. The design of the
tablet is also reminiscent of its predecessor
but is slimmer as it is only 10.75mm thin
and lighter weighing in at only 415g. This
device was designed for the road warrior
and jetsetter who needs a tablet that can
keep them productive and also entertained.
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chip malaysia
Speaking of staying productive, this

tablet runs on a Windows 8.1 32-bit and
also comes pre-installed with Microsoft
Office Home & Student 2013. For those
who are wondering if this will be able to
run smoothly, it is powered by a 1.8GHz
Intel Atom Z3740 processor which of
course will naturally include Intel HD
Graphics. It also has 2GB of RAM and an
internal storage of 64GB and can be further
expanded with a microSD card. The tablet
also comes with a micro HDMI with HDCP
support so for those who prefer a bigger
screen when they are back in the office or
home, they can always hook the Iconia W4
up to a HD display.
As for accessories, one of the most
useful accessories that consumers can
opt to purchase is of course the Crunch
Keyboard. This accessory will definitely
be handy especially for users who prefer
Besides just being thin, the Iconia W4 actually comes with a

microSD slot and a micro HDMI
The Iconia W4 also comes with a 5-megapixel rear camera

that supports 2,5921,944 resoluon and Full HD video
recording
a more tactile typing experience. Other

than that, the Iconia W4 also comes with a
stylish and protective Crunch Cover and a
screen protector pack that comes with both
a matte and glossy screen protector. Both
these accessories are priced at RM99 and
RM49 respectively.
www.acer.com/my
news
local news
Dr. Mark Chia, SAS Malaysias Head of Analycs explains the importance of big data and analycs to the media.
Making Sense Of Big Data

SAS explains big data and why companies should prepare for it
ig data is a term that has been

flying around the local tech and
business ecosystem for the past
couple of years, and yet not many know
how it is able to affect their businesses
significantly. Big data, put simply is a
collection of data set that is so large that
it becomes difficult to manage even with
in-house database management tools
and data processing applications.
According to SAS, thanks to the
boom in smart devices and social media,
companies can easily check what is the
trends and products that Malaysians are
currently most into and tailor-make their
campaigns for optimum efficiency.
Whilst it is foreseen that big data
will see a similar boom starting from
2014 onwards, a number of large MNCs
and banks have already been utilising
big data for various loan packages
and campaigns to attract even more
customers.
If we were to put the amount of data
generated into perspective, the world
is currently generating 640GBs of data
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chip malaysia
a minute. A study done in 2009 states

that we produced 0.8 zettabytes of data,
and in 2020, that number will grow to
a staggering 35 zettabytes, if not more.
Ready or not, Malaysia has also begun
to become a part of this global statistic.
With analytics, retailers can
personalise messages for its customers
based on shopping habits, while
enterprises can actively check data
growth, meet customer demands
and needs, as well as snoop out the
competition. In more advanced nations,
analytics also allows media to use
targeted ads, check proof of return of
investments, circulation data and set
personalized marketing campaigns.
That being said, Malaysian companies
still needs to catch up to the rest of the
world when it comes to personalising
customer needs, which takes even more
years of capturing customer feedback
and analysing it. The country is also
one of the most lax in terms of digital
security, which needs to be rectified
fast so that companies feel secure when
running analytics with their sensitive

customer data.
Analytics is generally separated into
three different segments, which include
reporting, basic analytics and advanced
analytics. For a company who has never
used analytics or big data before, it
typically takes about three years worth
of information before using big data
analytics is worth your budget, and once
your infrastructure and staff are in place,
it typically takes three to six months to
get from reporting to advanced analytics
optimisation, depending on the sort of
data and report that you expect.
For small companies, the biggest
hurdle they face when trying to use
analytics is getting the information they
need in the first place, and an advice
SAS often offers to them is that they
best start with good data management
and sort them out accordingly, so when
the time comes that they need to use
analytics, the information is already
there and is ready to be processed.
www.sas.com
news
local news
Yap Hui Hui , Country Manager of Fujitsu PC Asia Pacic Pte Ltd. (Right) and Jennifer Toh, Business Development Manager of Fujitsu PC Asia Pacic (Le) showing a few of the notebooks that will be
part of the leasing programme
Making Notebooks
Affordable For
Businesses
Fujitsu unveils refreshed notebooks and new leasing
programme for businesses
s businesses are struggling to

maintain a balance between
spending and profitability, Fujitsu
has recently announced a new leasing
programme that will allow companies
to lease notebook devices. Partnering
with ORIX Rentec Sdn. Bhd., companies
can now equip their offices with a
range of Fujitsu notebooks, including
the LIFEBOOK AH544, LIFEBOOK E773,
LIFEBOOK E743 and the LIFEBOOK U772.
The Fujitsu leasing programme is
targeted towards the corporate and SME
side of our business. We are expecting
a growth of 30 percent in our corporate
business through this initiative. Said
Yap Hui Hui, Country Manager of Fujitsu
PC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. ORIX Rentec
has a vast experience of 40 years in
leasing services and as such, are the
014
january 14
chip malaysia
perfect partner to collaborate with for

our campaign.
Companies can start applying for
the lease programme from January to
March 2014, with the duration of the
lease lasting three years with an interest
rate of 0.5 percent per annum. By the
end of the leasing contract, customers
will then be able to decide whether they
want to refresh the leased equipment or
buy back the equipment at market value.
On a per device basis, the LIFEBOOK
AH552 can be leased for RM70.20, the
LIFEBOOK E733 for RM94.80, the E743
for RM98.40, and the U772 for either
RM137.10 or RM159.90 per month. On
top of getting the leased devices, Fujitsu
also includes product servicing into the
package as well, which is a value added
service to the deal.
LIFEBOOK AH544
LIFEBOOK U772
On top of unveiling the leasing

service, Fujitsu also revealed that they
will be refreshing a number of their
notebooks, including the LIFEBOOK
AH544, the LIFEBOOK E-series and the
LIFEBOOK UH544 and S904 with Intels
latest 4th generation processors, and a
longer battery lifespan.
my.fujitsu.com
news
local news
(From L-R): Datuk Yeoh Seok Hong, Execuve Director, YTL Comms; Tan Sri Dr Francis Yeoh, Managing Director of YTL Group of Companies; Gregory Bryant, VP, Sales & Markeng Group and General
Manager of Intel APAC & Japan and Prakash Mallya, Country Manager for Intel Malaysia and Singapore at the MoU signing to support the 1BestariNet Program
Improving
Education Via
ICT
YTL and Intel Malaysia collaborate to
provide schools with IT and cloud
infrastructure
n their continued effort to ensure that

schools in Malaysia are equipped
with ICT solutions to improve
learning and teaching conditions
via the 1BestariNet Program, YTL
Communications and Intel Malaysia have
recently signed an MoU to accelerate
the growth and progress of the initiative
started by the Ministry of Education.
The MoU seeks to deliver a cloudbased virtual learning platform and
high-speed internet connectivity to
10,000 schools nationwide, using the
Frog Virtual Virtual Learning Enviroment
(Frog VLE) via the 1BestariNet Program
and Intel-powered Chromebooks.
At YTL Communications, we believe
that access to knowledge via quality
internet connectivity should be readily
016
january 14
chip malaysia
available to
all Malaysians, particularly our young
ones. Said Tan Sri Dato Dr Francis
Yeoh, Managing Director, YTL Group of
Companies.
YTL have been working hard to
equip their 10,000 target schools since
2011, and alongside the 1BestariNet
Program that was recently announced
by the Ministry of Education, and its new
partnership with Intel, the company is
looking to reach that target as soon as
possible.
Intel believes in the power of
education to change lives. The right
technology solutions are essential
in order to realize that power. Intel
has been in Malaysia for over forty
years and is proud to work with YTL
Communications in helping realize

the countrys goal of education
transformation said Gregory Byant,
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Group and General Manager, Intel APAC
and Japan.
With this MoU in place, YTL and Intel
have also reiterated that schools in the
rural areas will be prioritized as they
are in need of an infrastructure upgrade
more urgently than those in urban areas.
The roll-out will be done in stages, with
YTL laying down the foundation to have
schools fitted with YES 4G internet
connection, with the Chromebooks
swiftly following alongside the Frog VLE
cloud-based education system.
www.intel.my
news
local news
The EB-G6000 series of projectors allows users to project on a

wide variety of surfaces
Yasuhiro Kasai, Country Manager, Epson Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. introducing the new projecon and label devices to the media
Intelligent
Projection And
Imaging Solutions
Epson launches new series of projectors and label

printers
f youve been in the projection and

print industry for some time, Epson is
a name that youll probably be very
familiar with. The company has recently
unveiled a series of projectors and label
printers that will not only revolutionise
the way companies do business, but
keep expenditure on the low side as
well.
The EB-G6000 series of projectors
are designed for use in large or bright
venues and is among the worlds first
projectors to feature the HDBaseT
interface, which allows for long-distance
transmission of uncompressed, high
definition video, audio and data. The
projector also has brighter ratings of
5,200 to 7,000 lumens, edge-blending
technology and such. On top of that,
018
january 14
chip malaysia
its two top-of-the-line models, the

EB-G6800 and the EB-G6900WU have
curved and corner wall projection
capabilities to project distortion free
images on surfaces that are concave,
convex and even spherical.
Also on display were 3D home
projectors, which included the
EH-TW5200, and the EH-TW8200.
Both these projectors utilize Epsons
proprietary 3LCD technology which
provides full-time colour reproduction
with three different LCD panels (Red,
Blue, Green) that deliver bright, accurate
colours and smooth projection of movies
without colour breakup.
Alongside the announcement of the
new projectors, Epson also showed
of several brand new colour label
The Epson GP-C830 is the worlds rst tractor-fed business

inkjet printers for high-volume print requirements.
printers which cater to niche, yet

demanding industries such as chemical,
warehousing, medical and other
labelling applications seeking to improve
efficiencies and reduce labelling costs.
The Epson GP-C830 and GP-M830
are the worlds first tractor-fed business
inkjet printers catered for high volumeprint requirements for such demanding
industries. Using Epsons Micro-Piezo
print head technology, these printers
are capable of delivering extremely
reliable printing with minimal downtime.
The DURABrite Ultra pigment inks
meanwhile produce durable, sharper and
clearer quality prints, and are capable
of producing high-mix, low volume
applications that require multiple label
variations.
The Epson EB-G6800 projector costs
RM23,000 whilst the EB-G6900WU will
set you back around RM25,000. Both
the EH-TW5200 and EHTW-8200 will be
available sometime in December and will
be priced at RM5,530 and RM10,800. The
Epson GP-C830 and GP-M830 meanwhile
are priced at RM6,500 and RM6,200
respectively.
www.epson.com.my
news
local news
Its Game Time
Great prizes are up for grabs with HPs latest

promotion
P Malaysia has announced that

they are holding a competition
for HP customers, two of whom
will get to win an all-expenses paid trip
to the Maldives, while 50 other runners
up will stand to win a wide variety of HP
merchandise which range from printers
to headphones and workstations.
In order to participate, customers
simply need to purchase at least
RM50 worth of HP products from any
authorised HP reseller in Malaysia.
Upon purchase, all they need to do is to
complete the slogan Its time to game
on with HP because.. in 15 words or
less.
The contest will run until 31 January
2014, where the top 50 contestants will
be chosen based on the creativity of
their slogans. These winners will be
invited to a grand final event in Kuala
Lumpur where the winners will be
decided through a series of interactive
games. At this stage, the

contest will be divided into
three rounds, where the
contestants will be whittled
down to 20 participants for
the second stage, and ten
in the third stage, where
the two winners will be
selected.
At the end of each
stage, each participant
will receive goodie bags
and HP products such
as printers, headphones,
monitors and such. As
mentioned earlier, the two
grand prize winners will
each be awarded a trip to
the Maldives, which will
include return airfares,
accommodation and
meals.
www.hp.com.my/gameonwithhp
A New Challenger
Appears
Challenger opens latest concept store in Sunway
Pyramid
hallenger Malaysia recently opened a new store in LG2 of Sunway Pyramid,

which it claims is a most sophisticated and unique lifestyle destination for
customers who are looking for the latest IT products, be it smartphones,
tablets, notebooks, computers and accessories.
Challenger prides itself for providing superior sales service before, during and
after sales, with has a principle to not only sell products, but also keep customers
satisfied and happy, so they come back for more. The latest branch is a concept
superstore which will provide the best of IT gadgets and products under one roof,
showcasing many of the markets leading brands, including Apple, Samsung,
Microsoft and many others as well.
The store boasts a number of demo sections which allows customers to get a
hands-on shopping experience before they decide to purchase any products. Product
experts will also be on hand to help give guidance and help on whatever info they
may need about any particular product that they have an interest in.
Not only that, Challenger Malaysia has also announced that it will open another
store in the Jaya Shopping Centre in 2014.
www.challenger.my
Ribbon cung ceremony ocially by COO of Challenger

Technologies Limited - Ben Tan (middle), Tan Chin Liong (le)
- Operaon Manager of Challenger Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd,
G.S. NG (right) - General Manager of Challenger Technologies
(M) Sdn Bhd
Challenger oers a wide variety of IT devices and accessories

for your needs
020
january 14
chip malaysia
news
local news
Spreading The
Christmas Joy
Line and Pavillion KL collaborate to open
first pop-up store in South East Asia
aving amassed 300 million users

in 230 different countries, LINE
has recently opened a pop up
store in Pavilion Kuala Lumpurs Tokyo
Street, selling a wide variety of limited
edition merchandise for a limited
amount of time. This collaboration is a
first within the South East Asia region,
making it a very special occasion.
Not only that, visitors of Pavilion
Kuala Lumpur were able to see a wide
variety of LINE Malaysia decorations
throughout the mall, with the main
attraction being the 15 foot tall Moon
mascot which is placed at the entrance
of Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. Other LINE
characters such as Brown and Cony will
also be making special appearances
throughout the period in which the store
is open.
We have been
receiving very
positive responses
and feedback from
the public with
The store sells a wide variety of limited edion Line merchandise such as pillows, gurines and
regards to our pop
notebooks
up store, Christmas
decorations and
promotions that were currently doing
mugs, head-pillows and notebooks. On
here at Pavilion KL. We believe that
top of that, LINE had also set up a few
our unique decorations have served
promotions, such as free head dolls for
to further brighten up the mood of
the first 300 customers who purchase
shoppers this festive season, said Wind
more than RM300 worth of merchandise
Koh, Head of LINE Malaysia.
at the store. Other promos include lucky
LINEs pop up store has been open
spins for every purchase worth RM120
from 2 December 2013 throughout the
and various happy hour deals.
month till 2 January 2014. Some of the
line.naver.jp/en/
merchandise which can be purchased
at the pop-up store on the sixth floor of
Pavilion KL include figurines, plushies,
League of
Gamers
Over 200 gamers converge to win prizes
in the AMD Gaming League
nvasion Cyber Zone cyber caf

recently saw an influx of several
hundred visitors one weekend as a
large group of hardcore gamers look to
grab a share of the RM5,000 ringgit in
cash prizes at the AMD Gaming League
event.
Hosted by both AMD Malaysia and
Invasion Cyber Zone, The Gaming
League featured competition for two
of todays biggest multiplayer games,
DOTA 2 and Battlefield 4. DOTA 2 saw
about 40 groups, which amounts to 200
players participating in the competition,
which offered a significantly bigger
chunk of prize money compared to
Battlefield 4.
That is not to say that there isnt
anyone who joined the FPS tourney
022
january 14
chip malaysia
as veteran
groups such as
the Malaysia
Battlefield Team
(MBT), Team
Synarchy and
AMD.Mineski, winners of the DOTA 2 tournament at the AMD Gaming League which was held at
Team MAG were
Invasion Cyber Zone cyber cafe.
around to liven
things up for the Battlefield 4 tourney as
eSports, Invasion eSports and nAra
well.
sTacks, who won RM1,000, RM300 and
As the cyber caf was super packed,
RM200 respectively.
Invasion also livestreamed several DOTA
On the Battlefield 4 side of things,
2 matches on the internet, complete with Team Synarchy won first place and
commentaries by Lily Collins a.k.a The
got themselves RM500, whilst Team
Porcelain Lily.
MAG came in as the first runner up and
Team AMD.Mineski won first place
received RM300.
for the DOTA 2 tournament and walked
www.amd.com
away with the grand prize of RM2,500,
with runners up being Lowyat.net
news
local news
A New Level Of
Eco-Friendliness
Fuji Xerox launches 14 intelligent and
environmentally-friendly digital multifunction devices
arly in the month of December, Fuji

Xerox Malaysia launched 14 models
of full-colour digital multifunction
devices for office use ApeosPort-V and
DocuCentre-V series. The launch was also
graced by Dato Seri DiRaja Mahdzir Khalid,
Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Energy,
Green Technology and Water as these new
devices are designed to not only transform
the office workspace environment to work
smarter but also more environmentallyfriendly.
At Fuji Xerox, we are committed at
developing printing solutions that are not
only ecological but intelligent as well to
help businesses maximize productivity
and efficiency. We have designed the
new ApeosPort-V and DocuCentre-V
series to know what you want as a user
and to provide the specific tools needed
to work effectively and contribute to a

greener environment while maximizing
productivity and cost efficiency, said Sunil
Gupta, President of Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific
(Malaysia Operations).
All the devices in the new line-up
combine Real Green solution and
innovative ground breaking technology
and are equipped with Smart Energy
Management that controls and powers up
functions that are selected by users which
in turns reduces power consumption and
carbon dioxide output.
Besides that, Fuji Xerox have also
managed to reduce the devices sound
emission by 61% as these new devices
are designed with fewer moving parts.
Another neat new feature in these printers
is the Smart WelcomEyes Advance, an
intelligent image recognition software that
Fuji Xeroxs new ApeosPort-V C & DocuCentre-V C Series are

set to make businesses work smarter
uses a real-time proximity camera and

pyroelectric heat sensor to detect when a
user approaches the device. When detected
it wakes up from sleep mode so that is
ready to use in a jiff.
www.fujixerox.com.my
The Giving
Never Stops
Intel Malaysia presents prizes to Generation
Today winners and also announces a new
trade-in rebate
n 10 December, Intel Malaysia held a little pre-Christmas

get-together to treat members of the media to lunch. On top of
that, they also took the time to fill us in with more details for
the Trade Up My PC program that was designed to for customers who
were looking to get a new laptop.
This PC trade-in program was kicked off during the very beginning
of December 2013 and will last till the end of January 2014. Consumers
Sameer Tupaki and the winners of the Intel Generaon Today contest
just had to purchase qualifying products from SNS Network or
ThunderMatch Technology outlets to qualify for the cashback rebate.
With the Christmas season just around the corner, it is very likely that most consumers have the latest gadgets and
computing devices at the top of their wish lists, said Sameer Tupaki, Marketing Manager, Intel Malaysia. There have been
many exciting products made available in the market since the launch of Intels 4th Generation Intel Core processor family earlier
this year. We couldnt be more excited to share them with our consumers especially through our PC trade-in program.
Other than that, Intel also took the opportunity to present prizes to the winners of the Generation Today campaign. Winners
of the contests took home with them brand new ASUS FonePads but the real spotlight was two brand new Vespas worth
RM12,000. The two lucky individuals who got a new ride were Koo Wai Hong and Leong Pui Yee who were the winners in the
Consumer and Retailer reward categories.
www.intel.my
chip malaysia
january 14
023
news
world wired web
Students Forced to
Build PS4
Smartphones
Becoming
Semicircular
Samsung and LG are showing off the first curved smartphones

but is it really more than just a gimmick?
n 2013, smartphone manufacturers have been

promoting cameras that are attached to their
devices, and the trend for next year is already
plain to see; curved displays. Just in time for
Christmas, Samsung introduced the GALAXY
Round, the first smartphone with left and right
edges curved upwards. According to the Korean
manufacturer, this design provides certain
ergonomic advantages and ensures that the
phone sits more comfortably in the hand and
near the ear. However, Samsung is claiming that
the design offers other advantages as well: If the
GALAXY Round is on a table, it can be tilted to
the side to blend in status displays such as the
clock and the status of the battery, and go
through images in a gallery or music files. That
being said, there are disadvantages to using
Sony unveils
the Xperia Z1
f Mini
ust a month after the

launch of the Xperia
Z1, Sony announced
a mini-version of its top
model, the Sony Xperia Z1
f Mini. Although the Z1 f
has the same technical
specs as its elder brother,
it features a smaller
4.3-inch display. The
device is powered by a
Snapdragon 800 CPU with
four 2.2-GHz cores, NFC,
LTE and a 20.7-megapixel
camera. This gives it an
enormous edge over the
mini-models of the
GALAXY S4 or HTC One,
whose hardware specs are
as scaled-down as their
sizes. The Z1 f will only be
sold in Japan for now,
under NTT DoCoMo.
024
january 14
chip malaysia
such a phone as well. The phone takes a second

to react to tilt inputs, and typing with the phone
placed on a flat surface will be difficult as well.
The hardware of the GALAXY Round is
similar to that of the S4, and it is being sold in a
few countries already for about 700 euros
(RM3,170). Not to be left out, LG also introduced
their curved display device, the G Flex in
November. Its six-inch OLED display is made of
plastic, and its curved at the top and the bottom,
not at the sides. LGs device also features a
battery that is curved. This made it possible to
make the overall device thinner. The G Flex is
also scheduled to be introduced in Asia for
practical reasons: Currently, LG can only
produce around 300,000 curved OLED displays
per month.
Pentax Features Industryfirst Single-Lens Reflex

Camera with Vibrating
Sensor
entax K-3, Ricohs new high-end single-lens

reflex camera, is the first camera to feature a
vibrating sensor. It is supposed to take over the
task that was previously being carried out by the
low-pass filter, namely, the task of blurring the
images in order to avoid the so-called Moir Effect.
The Moir Effect affects fine-resolution images of the
kind that are used in textile patterns, making them
look coarser than they really are. Compared to its
predecessor, the Pentax K-5, the K-3s ISO count has
been raised to ISO 51200, the display has expanded
to 3.2-inches, and a WLAN module is available that
can send
images
directly to a
smartphone or
a tablet. This
high-end
model costs
about
RM5,890.
nterns typically get the short

end of the stick when it
comes to working conditions
and pay, but Foxconn has
taken things a step too far.
Students studying IT at the
University of Xian are
currently doing mandatory
internships that involve
working on assembly lines to
churn out units of Sonys
PlayStation 4. The students
are in a bind, because if they
refuse, their participation in
important courses will not be
recognised. The university
defended itself by saying that
the work experience will make
it possible for the students to
draw valuable lessons about
society and life in general
which is why its an unpaid
job. However, after receiving
complaints from Sony,
Foxconn is now planning to
do away with the extra work.
Firefox
OS
Goes
Full
Steam
Ahead
The Mozilla
Foundation
recently
announced the
first large-scale
update for Firefox OS, its mobile
operating system. New devices are
expected to be delivered in parallel with
version 1.1. Smartphones using the
open-source operating system are
particularly popular in developing
countries. The update offers several
improvements in performance, and
boasts features that Android and iOS
have been providing for quite some
time, such as push-notifications.
Versions 1.2 and 1.3 should be here
soon, and LG and Sony are planning to
build smartphones featuring Firefox OS
in 2014.
news
world wired web
Panasonic
Halting
Production on
Plasma TVs
rom March 2014 onwards, Panasonic will no

longer manufacture plasma TV sets. The
Japanese manufacturer is reacting to five years
worth of losses in this market. Plasma TVs have been
losing out to LCD devices for a long time, and their
current market share is as low as six percent.
End of The Road

for Windows RT
teve Ballmer, the outgoing CEO of Microsoft,

has announced that there will only be one
Windows system for all devices. Thats the
death knell for the unpopular Windows RT, which
was installed on tablets. The uniform Windows
version will hit shelves no earlier than 2014.
Beta 31
turns
Chrome
into an appbrowser
oogle is strengthening the

bond between web apps and
its browser Chrome. The beta
of the new version 31 makes it
possible to deposit the icons of apps
on the browsers home page, which is
similar to what users can do on a
smartphone. App developers can
decide whether they want their apps
to be executed
in the browser
window or the
full-screen
mode when
they are
double-clicked.
Another update
for Google Maps
oogle has announced a large update for the desktop

variant of its map application. Thanks to the various
complaints that were received from users, the new mapview once again makes it possible to declare any number of
intermediate objectives. Apart from that, a citys points of
interest or restaurants can now be saved and sorted at will.
Google Maps uses this information to come up with the ideal
circular route for the sightseeing trip in question. When
combined with a Google account, Maps can now display
bookings and reservations for flights, hotels or restaurants.
Google Maps will also feature a
section that would automatically
list sporting or cultural events for
any particular location which is
currently under development. The
changes are expected to be
implemented in stages.
NVIDIA GRID
vGPU Technology
Now Available
Worldwide
VIDIA is taking remote working to the next level by announcing that the
NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology is now available worldwide with the launch of
Citrixs XenDesktop 7.1 and Citrix XenServer 6.2.
This technology essentially allows employees to remotely use any computing
device, including notebooks and tablets to access all their office productivity and
design applications virtually anywhere at any time.
Prior to GRID vGPU on Citrix XenDesktop,
customers could deploy GRID to virtualize GPU
access to end users on a one-to-one basis. Now,
they can quickly share access on one GPU to many
end users, and easily reallocate access depending
on changing project needs. This technology also
provides the flexibility to reallocate resources to
users based on constantly changing project needs,
making provisioning resources easy and fast.
chip malaysia
january 14
025
news
world wired web
Introducing The Next Generation

of Touch Displays
he next generation of touch-displays

will soon be making their arrival: At
a symposium dealing with humanmachine interaction (ACM) that was held
at the University of St. Andrews in the
UK, researchers from all over the world
introduced their newest developments in
the field of touch surfaces.
One of the novelties was a special film
that can be used to turn just about any
surface into a touch screen. The real kicker
is the fact that the film can be dissected
without being destroyed. In order to make
that a reality, researchers from the Max
Planck Institute for Informatics in
Saarbrcken collaborated with their
First
Bitcoin
ATM Goes
Live
he first Bitcoin ATM has been

put into operation in the USA.
The device can be used to
convert conventional currency into
the online currency, i.e. Bitcoin. All a
user needs in order to be able to use
the device is a Bitcoin-Wallet
application on his smartphone. It
generates a QR code with the data of
the Bitcoin account in question. The
ATM scans the code, converts the
inserted cash into the online
currency and transfers the respective
amount to the account. Such ATMs
are supposed to be able to accept
currencies from more than 200
countries. The fees are decided by
the manufacturers of the devices.
026
january 14
chip malaysia
American colleagues from MITs Media

Lab to develop two new wiring patterns in
which each touch sensor is individually
connected to the control unit at the centre
of the film. If peripheral sensors are
dissected, it does not cause the remaining
sensors to break down. The film is
manufactured using a procedure that is
similar to inkjet printing. Consequently,
the laboratory production costs sink to the
level of one US dollar per A4 slide.
Other developments that were unveiled
at the ACM symposium dealt with the task
of equipping the touch screens of the
future with a haptic feedback function. In
this regard, researchers from Disney
Research are banking on electro-vibration.

If you swipe your finger across a display
featuring this particular technology, it
imparts a distinct sensation that lets you
sense the height differences that are
present in the depicted contents.
Researchers from the University of Bristol
are charting a totally different path, one
that has nothing to do with the display:
Their UltraHaptics system uses ultrasound
to give feedback to a finger that is in front
of or above the display. Consequently,
items can be grasped and moved without
touching the screen.
NSA Servers
Malfunctioning
he NSAs new data centre in Utah has been

ready for 13 months, but the organisation
hasnt been able to put it into service yet.
The reason: On ten different occasions, current
fluctuations caused flashes that melted
components. Each incident caused damages to
the tune of more than US$100,000 (RM329,415).
The facility as a whole is supposed to be worth
about US$1.4 billion (RM4.6 billion).
Yahoo Mail: New

Functions and
Flickr Themes
n its 16th birthday, Yahoo gave its mail

service more functions and new
background themes that were inspired by
24 selected Flickr images. Along with 1TB of
memory space, the reworked Yahoo Mail also
offers features that were previously only available
to users of the paid version, i.e. Mail Plus, such as
disposable addresses and new mail filters.
Retroactive
Focusing for
Smartphone
Cameras
he smartphone
manufacturer Oppo has
become the worlds first
company to use MEMS camera
modules in its smartphones. The
advantages of using the cameras
include extremely fast focus times,
allowing the camera to take
several pictures in a row in a very
short period of time. This makes it
possible, for example, to
subsequently focalise different
objects in a photo the software,
which works in the background,
simply selects the corresponding
subframe. It is not yet known
when devices featuring the new
MEMS modules are scheduled to
go on sale.
Anti-Bacterial 3D
Printers
esearchers at the University

of Texas used a 3D printer to
create gelatine cages that
encapsulate bacteria. Scientists can
then investigate the germs within
these cages. The gelatine walls,
which are just a few micrometres
thick, are impassable for bacteria,
but bio-molecules can get through
the walls with no difficulty. This
makes it possible for the bacterial
strains to exchange messenger
substances. The team can influence
all the variables that are important
to its research, depending on the
type of cage being used.
Intel Delays
Introduction of New
Broadwell CPUs
hen it unveiled its quarterly figures in October, Intel announced that the launch of
its eagerly-anticipated Broadwell mobile processor was going to be delayed by a
period of three months. Although a limited number of pieces have already been
produced for test purposes, the failure rate of Intels first 14-nanometre CPU is still too high.
However, according to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, the defect that led to the delay has already
been rectified, and the new time-table should be on schedule. Broadwells energy
consumption level is expected to be 30 percent lower than that of its predecessor Haswell. It
is also expected to feature performance improvements of up to 10 percent and 50 percent
for the CPU unit and the graphics unit, respectively. Furthermore, the operations of the highresolution retina-displays are expected to be particularly energy-efficient in conjunction with
Windows 8.
Authorities Sent 37,200

Queries to Microsoft
etween January and June of this year, Microsoft received about 37,200
official queries from the worlds law enforcement agencies. Customer data
was handed over in about 79 percent of these cases, and 77 percent of these
instances involved the disclosure of login credentials such as names or addresses.
2 percent of the cases also involved the handover of data that was created by the
customers, such as documents. What is noticeable about the recently-published
report is the fact that the following five countries are responsible for three-fourths
of all queries: the USA, Germany, France, the UK and Turkey. Microsoft is not
allowed to disclose the number of requests it receives through the American FISC
(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), which is the court that channels requests
from agencies like the NSA. Attempts are currently being made in collaboration
with Google, Facebook and Yahoo to secure this right in court.
REQUESTS MADE TO MICROSOFT BY GERMAN

AUTHORITIES AND HANDOVER OF DATA
From
0.8 %
January to
June 2013,
Microsoft
15.9 %
received 5185
queries about
9670 users/
accounts
83.3 %
from German
authorities
LOGIN CREDENTIALS,
ACCOUNTING DATA
NO DATA AVAILABLE
REQUEST REJECTED
SOURCE: MICROSOFT.COM
Quanta Computer
Joins Futuremark
to Develop new
3DMark and PCMark
Benchmarks
uturemark has recently announced

that Quanta Computer has joined its
Benchmark Development Program.
The Taiwan-based notebook manufacturer
will work with Futuremark to create new
benchmarks for the PC and mobile devices.
Futuremark creates software which
allows users to compare the performance
of computers and notebooks, and both
PCMark and 3DMark are widely used by
more than a thousand specialist press
publications and millions of people
worldwide. The partnership with Quanta
Computer makes sense for Futuremark as
Quanta is the largest ODM (Original Design
Manufacturer) for notebooks in the world,
and having such a partner helping them
out can only improve Futuremarks
benchmarking software even more.
chip malaysia
january 14
027
news
security report
Data Theft Of
The Month
ADOBE: MILLIONS OF CUSTOMER
DATA STOLEN
Obstacles to anonymity
Tor users will have to use a special trick if they want to be truly secure when surng
NSAs Super
Cookies Scout Tor
Networks
Intelligence networks use quantum cookies to snoop and sniff out

anonymous internet users
onfidential PowerPoint slides

from the collection amassed by
whistleblower Edward Snowden has
provided information on how the NSA is
trying to infiltrate the anonymous network
Tor. The intelligence agencys goal in this
endeavour is the real identities of users of
this anonymous network. To reach their
goal, the NSA uses what they call quantum
cookies, which are very much similar to
the ones used by Hotmail, Google and
such. Within these cookies, the NSA stores
information regarding the websites and
services that are visited and called up by
the user.
In order to get these cookies onto the
users PC, what NSA has done is to place
their own servers directly on the backbone
of the Internet Service Provider (ISP). When
a user tries to access a particular page,
the servers pretend to be that websites
particular web-server. This works because
the servers can actually respond faster than
the actual servers, which may be miles
away from the ISP data centres. Not only
can these servers install malicious cookies
remotely, they can also read out the users
028
january 14
chip malaysia
internet traffic and enable the intelligence

agencies to find out who these anonymous
users are, even when theyre behind a VPN
like Tor.
Its Not Perfect

Whilst ingenious, the NSAs quantum
cookie method is not perfect. For example,
if a Tor user logs on to Hotmail and does
not close his browser windows afterwards,
his current Tor identity is preserved on
a cookie, and if he continues to use that
browser to surf an NSA-piggybacked
website, the quantum computer will be
able to trace the cookie from the Hotmail
login back to its source. One way to
circumvent this is to log out of any service
that youre using on Tor and close the
browser. Every new instance of Tor is a
new identity for its users, which means
that there is no way for the NSA to trace
back your online movement. That said, it
is unsure how long this method will be
helpful as intelligence agencies are already
working on a method to circumvent that
workaround.
Adobe has recently admitted that a

group of hackers had attacked the
companys servers and had about
2.9 million customer accounts stolen.
After recovering from the attack,
the company sent its customers
emails telling them to change their
passwords, and advised those who are
using multiple Adobe services to check
and ensure that their accounts are
not compromised as well. Besides the
accounts, the hackers also got away
with the source codes for ColdFusion
and Adobe Acrobat.
SWISSCOM: DATA BACKUP

STOLEN
Several copies of data tapes, alongside
security copies have been stolen by
unknown people from the IT centre
of the Swiss telephone company
Swisscom. The tapes contained email
addresses, alongside information
regarding internal projects, duty
rosters and contracts with private
individuals. The stolen data also
contained more than 600,000
telephone numbers.
KRANKIKOM: ACCOUNT DATA

STOLEN
Hackers have recently managed to gain
access into Krankikoms servers. The
company offers ticketing solutions for
over 200 movie theatres, including the
Cinedom cinema chain in Germany.
According to statements released
by the company, it is possible that
customer data, including account
information may have been stolen
during the attack. Krankikom has sent
out notices asking its customers to
check their bank account statements to
avoid unknown transactions of money
from their accounts.
news
security report
A New Approach to
Cybercrime
Danger Barometer
12,000 PCs are
globally affected
by Bitcoinmining malware
- according to an
observation done
by Trend Micro
High risk
Medium risk
Low risk
THE GOLD MINE OF

CYBER CRIME
Online crimes lead to annual damages
that costs up to the tune of about 13
billion euros (RM58 billion) in Europe
alone
USA
38
CHINA
37
EUROPA
8
SOURCE: SYMANTEC
ANDROID MALWARE AT
THE TOP OF THE LIST
Since the end of 2012, there has been more
malware for Android than for Symbian.
The statistics make it plain and simple: In
terms of security, Google has a lot of work
to do for the security of their mobile OS
before the start losing users
MALWARE FAMILIES OR VARIANTS
800
750
700
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
SYMBIAN
ANDROID
2004
2005 2006 2007 2008
2009 2010
2011 2012 2013
SOURCE: F-SECURE
Number of the Month:
US$209,400
(RM689,554) was the total researcher
James Forshaw received from
Microsoft for discovering weak spots
and bugs in their products.
data in the cloud will also see a rise as

providers continue to struggle to refine
the security strategy of this platform.
Mobile malware is also set to become as
sophisticated as its PC counterparts.
www.sophos.com
Fake Twitter Users

on The Rise
13
BRASIL
new Security Threat Report

released by Sophos recently has
outlined a number of significant
changes in the behavior of cyber
criminals over the course of last year,
and have forecast possible preferred
methods of attack in 2014.
Sophos predicts more high quality
and convincing phishing attacks to
compensate for harder to exploit
operating systems such as Windows
8.1. Attacks on corporate and personal
arracuda Networks has recently

unveiled a report on fake Twitter
accounts as part of its continuous
efforts to understand the impact of fake
accounts on social networks. The report
highlighted that 98 percent of tweets
from fake Twitter accounts came from
the webpage itself, compared to just 24
percent of real users who use the website,
a majority of whom prefer using third
party software or mobile apps to access
and update statuses on the social media
platform. 63 percent of fake accounts are

created by duplicating the information
of real users by appending their screen
name with a few characters while still
using the same profile photo, location and
description. Many of these fake accounts
are created as there is a demand for more
Twitter followers, some of whom are even
willing to pay for them.
www.barracuda.com
Kaspersky
Forecasts 2014
n 2014, Kaspersky Labs experts

expect cybercriminals to continue
developing tools to steal cash
directly or indirectly. To plunder pockets
directly, the fraudsters will further
refine their tools designed to access the
bank accounts of mobile device owners
(mobile phishing, banking Trojans).
Mobile botnets will be bought and
sold and will also be used to distribute
malicious attachments on behalf of third
parties. To support indirect thefts, it is
likely that we will see more sophisticated

versions of the Trojans which encrypt
the data on mobile devices, preventing
access to photos, contacts and
correspondence until a decryption fee
is handed over. The security company
also expects that Bitcoin users wallets
will be targeted by hackers as well as
the value of the crypto-currency is at an
astronomical high now.
www.kaspersky-sea.com
chip malaysia
january 14
029
feature
enhance home automation
During our preview session at the showroom, we got to meet Robert Wong, Managing Director, Stareld Enhance (M) Sdn. Bhd. (le) and H.F. Tsang, owner of Stareld (HK) and Teamwise Ltd.
(Dongguan, China) who were very happy to give us details on their home automaon system
Smarter
Enhancements For S
Home
Starfield Enhance proves home automation can be
affordable and hassle-free
Seen here is Darion Hong, Business Development Manager, Stareld Enhance Sdn. Bhd. giving us a demonstraon of the app and
how it can also be used as a TV remote control
030
january 14
chip malaysia
martphones, smart TVs, smart

cars, just about everything these
days can be made smarter. It
has even come to a point where homes
can also be made into smart homes.
Actually, the technology and concept
of smart homes or home automation
has been around since 2003. To many,
the idea of home automation sounds
great on paper especially since it was
created to not only help users conserve
energy and in turn save costs but also
provides users with a more worry-free
and simplified lifestyle. This is because
home automation allows users to control
the electronics in their home even when
they arent at home or even monitor the
security of their home while they are
away.
However, despite the positive values
it has, the idea hasnt really been
adopted by the masses and that is due
to a few reasons. The first being the
cost of converting a home into a smart
home, a normal (estimated) cost of
getting the installation done starts at
around RM50,000 and also depends on
the size of a house. The second reason
is because of the renovations and wall
feature
enhance home automation
These stylish touch switches oered by Stareld Enhance actually feature a lightning
arrestor to prevent power surges and also act as wireless signal repeaters
hacks that have to be done to change

the wirings and installing the system. On
top of that, with such extensive work,
the renovations will require at least a
month or two to be completed.
This all looks to change as theres
a much more cost-effective and
hassle-free solution thanks to the folks
at Starfield Enhance Sdn. Bhd. who
recently launched their ENHANCE
Lifestyle Automation system. We were
invited to the companys showroom and
given a detailed look at their system,
how it works and what makes it so
unique compared to the other home
automation systems in the market.
To begin with, the ENHANCE
Lifestyle Automation system utilises
wireless technology. But instead of the
standard wireless internet protocols, it
uses a 2.4GHz ZigBee wireless protocol
making it more stable, has a wider
range and is much more difficult to
hack. The other attractive point about
this system is the

fact that there is no
need for renovations
and wall hackings as
all it takes for it to
work is retrofitting
the switches
and plug points
around the house.
According to Darion
Hong, Business
Development
Manager at Starfield
Enhance Sdn. Bhd.,
or air-cond remote control. The app also

enables users to set schedules so that
certain electronics are turned on or off
at certain times of the day. During our
time with them, we also learned that
the Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry
OS versions of the application is
already in development. On top of that,
later versions of the application will
also feature an administrator setting
whereby, users can dictate which users
is able to control what device in a home.
To be honest, this all sounds very
impressive and most will expect to
installation can be
completed in mere hours
instead of days, weeks
or months. By adopting
the retrofitting method,
this also gives consumers
the flexibility to choose
the rooms they want the
system to be installed with
and even when they move
homes, they can even take
the switches and plugs
with them.
Like most home
automation systems,
The ENHANCE Sales Gallery in 8 Trium, Bandar Sri Damansara is ed with the
ENHANCE Lifestyle Automaon system so guests can have a more hands-on
this also provides users
experience with the system
with the ability to control
pay a hefty sum for a system like this
and monitor the system via apps on
but to our surprise and we are sure it
Android and iOS devices. The app is
will be to many consumers as well, the
free to download on both respective
ENHANCE Lifestyle Automation system
app stores and gives users access to a
is much more affordable compared to
full suite of controls and it can be used
other home automation solutions. The
for more than just turning switches on
company has recently struck up a deal
and off, as it can also be used as a TV
with Maybank to give their credit card
holders a very attractive deal. Their
Retrofit Starter Pack only costs RM4,999
and this includes installation. Other than
Maybank, Starfield Enhance Sdn. Bhd.
is also looking at forming a partnership
with Hong Leong bank come February
2014 and even Harvey Norman.
Finally, other than just partnering
with banks and also electronics retail
outlets, Robert Wong, Managing
Director, Starfield Enhance (M) Sdn.
Bhd. also mentioned that they have
approached developers and we may
soon see new houses already equipped
with the ENHANCE Lifestyle Automation
system.
e-enhance.com/catalog/
Displayed here are the many accessories consumers can have installed in their homes including security cameras, infrared
blasters and even mounts for their smartphones and tablets
chip malaysia
january 14
031
feature
legaltech
Trade Mark
and the
Internet
As sort of a continuation from his last months article, our resident
law practitioner decides to shed light on trade mark laws on the
Internet and why we should be very careful of the things and services
we offer online By Edwin Lee Yong Cieh
A practicising lawyer specialising
in telecommunications, media
& technology law, Edwin is in a
constant effort to educate users
on the many legal happenings in
the IT world
n the previous article, I wrote about copyright and the Internet.

This article talks about another form of intellectual property i.e.
trade marks. Titles, names, short phrases, logos or symbols are
not copyrightable. Instead, they may be protected in the form of
trade mark as long as they consist of the name of an individual or
company; the signature of an individual; they are invented words;
they have no direct reference to the character or quality of the
goods/services; or they are distinctive or capable of being
distinguished.
Trade marks are generally protected under trade mark
legislation (for registered trade mark) and common law tort of
passing off (for unregistered trade mark). Brand owners are always
encouraged to have their trade marks registered because that will
enhance their protection because registered trade mark owners
enjoy exclusive rights in connection with the class of goods/
services for which the trade marks are registered in. Courts in
many jurisdictions, including Malaysia, have recognised that the
protection of trade mark laws extends to the use of trade mark over
032
january 14
chip malaysia
the Internet.
However, in this Internet age where the use of trade mark
(whether authorised or unauthorised) is becoming so prevalent,
registering trade mark alone is not enough when it comes to
protecting and enforcing trade mark rights. The Internet presents
many opportunities and challenges to brand owners. Brand owners
will need to develop and implement a strong brand management
and protection strategy, alongside continuous monitoring,
protecting and enforcing their trade mark rights to prevent
misappropriation of the goodwill and reputation in their trade
marks.
This article outlines several forms of trade mark infringement
that currently takes place on the Internet.
Cyber Squatting
Cybersquatting is a form of trade mark infringement. It refers to
an act of registering, trafficking in, or using a trade mark belonging
to someone else with bad faith intent to profit from such act. For
example, in 2008, an individual from Ipoh registered www.google.
my as his domain name. When Google Inc. found out about it,
Google Inc. filed a complaint against that individual and won the
case because Google managed to prove that the domain name was
identical with its trade mark and that the individual had registered
and/or used the domain name in bad faith.
feature
legaltech
If a domain name dispute involves generic top level domains

(gTLDs) (e.g. .biz, .com, .info, .mobi, .name, .net, .org), the trade
mark owner can file a complaint with any of the approved dispute
resolution service providers accredited by the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) under the Uniform
Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). If a domain name
dispute involves country code top level domains (ccTLDs) (e.g.
.my), the trade mark owner can file a complaint with the Regional
Centre for Arbitration Kuala Lumpur under the Mynics Domain
Name Dispute Resolution Policy (MyDRP).
Auction Sites
Trade mark owners have brought legal suits against large auction
sites for allowing their users to misappropriate legitimate trade
marks on their sites to attract buyers to buy counterfeit goods. In
Tiffany v eBay (2010), Tiffany brought a trade mark infringement
suit against eBay for the sale of non-genuine jewellery of the
auction site. The US Court of Appeals rejected the claim of direct
infringement on the basis that eBay used the mark to describe the
genuine Tiffany goods offered for sale on the site. The court held
that eBays alleged knowledge of the availability of counterfeit
goods on the site was not a basis of such a claim and to impose
liability on such grounds would unduly inhibit the lawful resale of
genuine Tiffany goods. The fact that eBay also removed those
listings involving sale of counterfeit goods upon being notified by
Tiffany and suspended repeat offenders showed that eBay had not
contributed to the infringement.
Similarly, in LOral v eBay (2009), the UK court decided that
LOral failed to prove that eBay had procured sellers particular
acts of infringement and that eBay was not under a legal duty to
prevent infringement and that mere facilitation with knowledge
and intention to profit was not enough to establish a joint liability
trade mark claim. These two cases show that, while there is no
doubt that the individual sellers have infringed the trade mark
rights by selling counterfeit goods online, it is difficult to also argue
that the auction sites are jointly liable with the sellers.
Virtual World
Trade mark infringement also takes place in virtual world online
games such as Second Life, an online social community created by
Linden Labs. Second Life facilitates and encourages user generated
content, which can be sold to other users for virtual currency,
which can in turn, be exchanged for real currency. There is a real
risk that users may create and sell digital content which infringes
the trade mark rights of real life brands. For that reason, many real
life brands have established themselves within Second Life.
In the US case of Taser International Inc. v Linden Research Inc.
(2009), Taser filed a trade mark infringement suit against Linden as
Second Lifes users have created and sold virtual guns bearing the
Taser brand in Second Life. The case was settled out of court
subsequently. This case goes to show that brand owners will now
have to also monitor the unauthorised use of their trade marks in
both physical and virtual worlds.
Social Media
The popularity and the use of online social networking sites such
as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn have grown
exponentially across almost all jurisdictions around the world. The
To protect their very own trade mark and brand, many companies have set up their very own
accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twier. By doing so, this enables
them to keep an eye on those who may infringe on their trade mark
username features on social networking sites have created a new

form of cybersquatting. For example, a user who has registered an
account on Facebook is given a vanity URL for his profile page.
Hence, instead of www.facebook.com/id=8473659, a users vanity
URL is known as www.facebook.com/yourname. This obviously
posed a new risk to brand owners as users could, theoretically,
choose a name consisting of a trade mark not belonging to them.
In light of this risk, many real life brand owners have established an
official Facebook page.
Facebook has established a mechanism for reporting infringing
usernames. If a brand owner discovers that a third partys
username consist of his registered trade mark, he can complain to
Facebook by using the forms provided by Facebook and ask
Facebook to remove the contentious page or disable access to that
page. To further ensure that only brand owners get to keep their
username, Facebooks usernames are not transferable (hence
eliminating the problem of registering the username in bad faith
with the intent to profit from such act) and that usernames which
have been removed will no longer be made available to other
users.
Similarly, on Twitter, each user is given a username upon
registration, for .e.g. @yourname. Many brand owners have also
established an official profile on Twitter to communicate with its
customers and fans, while at the same time they also try to
eliminate the risk of users registering a username consisting of
their brand and tweet from that account, which may confuse
consumers and fans into thinking that they are interacting with an
official representative of the brand.
Twitter has also established a trade mark violation mechanism
that says it will suspend a users account if there is a clear intention
to mislead others through the unauthorised use of a mark. Twitter
uses verification badges to confirm the authentic of identities of
key individuals and brands on Twitter. The verified account will
have a blue verified checkmark badge located in the top-right
portion of a users profile page just above the name, location, and
bio.
The view expressed in this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter and does not constitute professional
legal advice. You are advised to seek proper legal advice for your
specific situation.
chip malaysia
january 14
033
feature
tech spelunk
Tech Spelunk
Sony PlayStation 4
Bells and Whistles
The PlayStation 4 requires you to be connected to the
Internet in order for you to make full use of its
capabilities, and as such, comes equipped with both a
RJ-45 LAN port, as well as support for Wi-Fi a,b,g and
n. As data becomes larger with every passing day,
Sony also had the foresight to equip the PlayStation 4
with USB 3.0 ports that provide users with blazing fast
transfer speeds when used with USB 3.0 flash drives
which are very common these days. The PlayStation
Camera, which is a remodelled PlayStation Eye can
also be bought as a separate accessory for the console.
Compute Power
If youve read our Tokyo Game Show event
coverage in our September 2013 issue, you would
know by now that the PlayStation 4, and all the
next-gen consoles in fact run on AMD processors.
s
Specifically, the CPU powering the Sony console is
an octo-core processor codenamed Jaguar that
is clocked at 1.6GHz. This customised 28nm chip
allows users to do a wide variety of background
processes, such as game and firmware
downloads, gameplay recording and even online
streaming.
Graphics Matter
Just like the CPU, the PlayStation 4s graphics
processing unit (GPU) is also powered by AMD,
which is an 800MHz chip with 1152 cores that
utilises the companys Graphics Core Next
architecture to provide the best in graphical
fidelity that a gaming console can offer. Sony
has promised that PlayStation 4 games will be
able to be played on 1080p natively, but also
said that it is powerful enough to output videos
in 4K resolution. Unfortunately, at launch time,
there is no support for games in 4K resolution.
034
january 14
chip malaysia
feature
tech spelunk
Sonys PlayStation 4 officially made its arrival here in Malaysia last month, much to the
jubilant cheers of many Malaysian gamers, most likely because its the first time that
we actually are able to get our hands on the console way before Japan, Sonys home
country. The PlayStation 4 is certainly an awesome-looking gaming console, and in this
months Tech Spelunk, we strip down the PlayStation 4 and take a look at what makes
this console tick By CHIP Team
Sharing is Caring
Cross-device Compatibility
Another big feature that is touted by the

PlayStation 4 is its Share feature. Not only
does this allow you to take in-game
screenshots, it also allows you to stream
your gameplay to a number of online
livestream services such as Facebook,
Twitch and Ustream. Not only that, you can
also share up to 15 minutes worth of video
footage as well. To start sharing, all a gamer
has to do is press the Share button which is
located beside the touchpad on the
DualShock 4 controller.
If you own a PS Vita, or are thinking of getting one, Sony has announced that
the Remote Play feature will be mandatory in PlayStation 4 games that do
not require peripherals such as the PlayStation Move or the Camera. This
feature allows you to stream your PlayStation 3 and 4 games on your
handheld console, in case someone else wants to use the television. If you
have multiple TVs, the PlayStation Vita TV also does exactly the same thing,
so your console can be in a different room, but you will still be able to play
your games in another.
DualShock 4: Not
Just a Controller
The DualShock Controller has seen
relatively very few changes ever since its
inception when the PlayStation first came
out so many years ago. No matter how
you cut it, the DualShock 4 is by far the
biggest upgrade seen in the Sony
controller, which now includes features
such as a touchpad where the Start and
Select buttons used to be, a headset jack
and an LED player identifier in between
the shoulder buttons. Did we mention
?
that it has a small speaker built in as well?
chip malaysia
january 14
035
feature
chip maps
RANK
3
The Fastest
Super
Computers
SEQUOIA USA
Computing power
(TeraFLOPS)
Elec. performance
RAM
No. of cores
OS
17.173
7.9 Megawatt
1.572 TByte
1,572,864
Red Hat Linux
(Enterprise)
The most powerful super

computer is about 330,000
times faster than a standard
Intel Core i7 powered PC
but consumes about 89,000
times more power
By Fabian von Keudell
THATS HOW FAST

COMPUTERS ARE
In the past ten years, the performance of computers
has increased by more than 20,000 percent
SPEED IN GFLOPS
SOURCE: TOP500.ORG
100.000.000
100.000
1.500
100
SUM OF ALL SUPER COMPUTERS

NUMBER 1 OF THE YEAR
0.1
1995
2000
2005
2010
RANK
2
NUMBER OF SUPER
COMPUTERS
1
Industry
Research
Science /Education
Government
4%
Others
3%
036
january 14
54 %
23 %
17 %
chip malaysia
TITAN USA
Computing power
(TeraFLOPS)
Elec. performance
RAM
No. of cores
OS
17.590
8.2 Megawatt
710 TByte
560,640
Cray Linux Environment
SOURCE: TOP500.ORG
RANK FIELD OF APPLICATION NUMBER
SOURCE: TOP500.ORG
The fastest computers of the world are used in the

following fields
feature
NUMBER OF
RANK
7
SUPER
COMPUTERS
PER COUNTRY
RANK
1
TIANHE-2 CHINA
JUQUEEN GERMANY
Computing power
(TeraFLOPS)
Elec. performance
RAM
No. of cores
OS
Computing power
(TeraFLOPS)
Elec. performance
RAM
No. of cores
OS
5.008
2.3 Megawatt
459 TByte
458,752
Linux
33.862
30252
17.8 Megawatt
1.024 TByte
3,120,000
Kylin Linux
1929
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY AND NVIDIA CORPORATION; DPA/PICTURE ALLIANCE; FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM JLICH; IBM; RIKEN RESEARCH; TACC
2013 ILLUSTRATION: HARRY FUCHSLOCH; ANDREA GRAF
718
RANK
6
STAMPEDE USA
Computing power
(TeraFLOPS)
Elec. performance
RAM
No. of cores
OS
RANK
4
RANK
5
5.168
4.51 Megawatt
192 TByte
462,462
Linux
MIRA USA
Computing power
(TeraFLOPS)
Elec. performance
RAM
No. of cores
OS
8.586
3.945 Megawatt
786 TByte
786,432
Linux
46
K COMPUTER JAPAN
Computing power
(TeraFLOPS)
Elec. performance
RAM
No. of cores
OS
10.510
12.7 Megawatt
1.410 TByte
705,024
Linux
13
NO
DATA
feature
focus
IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE BIG FISH
THE CASH COW IN-APP SALES
20 percent of freemium gamers shell out hard money. Depending on their

willingness to pay, they are called whales, dolphins or little fish.
In February 2013, the iPhone App Store in the USA earned

three quarters of its revenue from in-app sales
AVERAGE MONTHLY
EXPENDITURES
$ 20
$5
SHARE OF PAYING
GAMERS
10 %
40 %
$1
50 %
FREELOADERS
(CA. 8 PERCENT
OF GAMERS)
DO NOT PAY
IN-APP SALES INCREASE RAPIDLY
REVENUE FROM IN-APP

SALES FOR FREE APPS
REVENUE FROM PAID
APPS
REVENUE FROM IN-APP
SALES FOR PAID APPS
90 %
of the apps in the App Store are free

When Apple launched its App Store
in 2008, almost three quarters of the
apps were fee-based
$4.66
per user is how much money Clash

of Clans generates
The free iOS game relies on in-app
purchases and was the App Stores
highest-selling app in February
3 BIL.
US dollars through in-app purchases

on tablets: Thats what experts are
predicting for the year 2016. In 2012,
the worldwide revenue amounted to
the sum of US$301 million
In January 2012, in-app sales in Apples American App Store represented 53

percent of the revenue. Thirteen months later, it had risen to 76 percent.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE REVENUE-SHARE OF IN-APP SALES IN THE US IPHONE
APP STORE
80 %
SOURCE: DISTIMO
70 %
60 %
50 %
0
JAN. 2012 FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEP. OCT. NOV. DEC. JAN. FEB. 2013
Free Is The Way To Go
Browser games, online services and apps are increasingly banking on the freemium model.
The basic functions are free, while revenue comes from additional features
By Mario Rubenzer
euros is the average amount of revenue that game

manufacturers in Germany generated per mobile game in
the year 2012. Having sold about 19.2 million games for
smartphones and tablets over the year in question, the sectors
total turnover for 2012 amounted to 38 million euros which
doesnt sound like a lot, when you consider the fact that the games
sector recorded a total domestic turnover of 1.85 billion euros over
the course of the same year. The annual revenue generated from
free-to-play contents, i.e. additional elements that are acquired
within the game itself, was as high as 224 million euros which is
almost six times the revenue generated from the sales of mobile
games.
75
percent of users of free-to-play games turn their

backs on a game in fewer than ten gaming sessions,
without having spent a single cent. The millions in
euros of revenue come from between five and ten percent of the
gamers, who spend RM330 or more in just a single freemium
game. The manufacturers call such customers whales, which is a
038
january 14
chip malaysia
casino-related term. Things like armaments, speed bonuses or

other advantages produce an incentive to spend said money. The
price of features that are collected in this manner can far outstrip
the costs associated with a conventionally-distributed game. For
example, the children of the rugby player Sam Vesty bought
RM17,000 worth of virtual food for the Tiny Monsters on their
iPhone.
2,400,000
US dollars per day

is how much
money the Finnish
studio Supercell earns with its two freemium hits, namely, Clash of
Clans and Hay Day. Microsofts video messenger service Skype,
which is operated under the freemium model, generates a
comparable sum. The service is estimated to have attained a
turnover of RM3.6 billion in the year 2012, the lions share of which
came from its paying SkypeOut-users. However, such recordbreaking turnovers represent exceptions to the rule for now, at
least.
feature
focus
This Is How Freemium Apps Make Money

Users of free apps must often put up with advertisements, artificial delays in games and limited functions. The ones who pay are the only
ones who receive the full extent of the service. Were explaining the various monetisation methods that app-developers rely on
CURRENCIES
In free apps, one often pays in
virtual currency. These
currency units can be won,
earned via recommendations
or purchased.
SUBSCRIPTION
RETAIL SALES
Individual functions can be
purchased for several apps.
They could be levels, items or
navigation maps.
CANDY CRUSH SAGA
Music services like Spotify use

the classical subscription
model. You pay a monthly sum
to be able to use all the
functions.
SPOTIFY
VANITY ITEMS
POWER ITEMS
BOOSTER ITEMS
Currency packets
cost between
US$0.99 and
US$99. Users
can use them to
buy three types
of items in the
apps, two of
which affect the
progress of the
game.
Vanity items are pretty

accessories for characters.
They have no effect on
success in the game
Power items help users

master especially difficult
levels more quickly, and in
a better manner.
Impatient users buy booster items to avoid waiting

periods in freemium
games.
ANDROID
Android does not permit the deactivation of inapp purchases. The only available protection
comes from the Google password, which has to
be entered for each purchase. You can activate
this option in the Play Store settings. Those who
occasionally make in-app purchases end up
controlling the costs by purchasing credit
balances instead of providing their credit card
details.
IOS
If you want to avoid incurring the costs associated with in-app purchases, you can block them
altogether on your iPhone or iPad. All you have
to do is go to >>Settings<<, go to the >>General<< menu and select >>Constraints<<. Once
there, you activate the respective constraints
and use the slider to deactivate the in-app
purchases.
You can use Skype to call

telephones and send SMS
messages, but only if you have
the right credit balance.
SKYPE
ITEMS
HOW TO DEACTIVATE IN
APP PURCHASES
CREDIT
AD-FREE APP
Many free apps finance
themselves through
advertisements. To avoid
these, you must subscribe or
buy the full version.
ARE FREEMIUM APPS MORE SUITABLE

FOR CHILDREN THAN PURCHASED
GAMES?
Martin Lorber, youth protection officer at EA
The decision whether to acquire a commercial title or
a freemium one depends on the childs personal
preferences. In principle, children should use their
allowance to finance their in-app purchases, and
parents shouldnt dictate how their children should
spend their money. In an ideal scenario, parents would
supervise such digital gaming activities until the
children reach a certain age. The process of teaching
children how to handle in-app purchases should be part
of their upbringing.
Gregory Wintgens, PR manager at Gameloft

We would advise children to play the games that they
like, regardless of whether theyre freemium games or
premium games. Nevertheless, it is our duty to inform
parents that our games do contain fee-based elements.
If a child wishes to purchase an item in the game, he
should get his parents permission in advance. The
parents should then decide whether the child should be
allowed to spend money on the item.
feature
timeline
Mitchell & Martin

Daniel Ellsberg releases secret documents
about the true background of the Vietnam
War to New York Times, which make the
US government out to be a liar
1960
Daniel Ellsberg
Mark Felt
1972
Rudolf Hafner exposes the misappropriation of

public funds in Switzerland the Bernese
financial scandal costs the government a majority
in the subsequent elections
Mad cow disease (BSE)
1994
Chemist rpd Pusztai publishes a study, which reveal

how genetically modified potatoes weaken the
immune system of rats
Award
1999
Time Magazine chooses the three

whistleblowers Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley
and Sherron Watkins as Persons of the Year
WikiLeaks
2006
Paragraphs on the protection of

whistleblowers get added to The
German Civil Service Law
Bradley Manning
2010
The European Court of Human Rights

declares whistleblowing by employees as
part of the freedom of expression hence it
cannot be punished across Europe
Vatileaks
2012
NSA employee Edward Snowden

uncovers secret espionage activities of
the US secret service
Future
2015
NSA employees William Martin and Bernon Mitchell

defect to Moscow and tell journalists how NSA hacks
codes, how it spies with drones and prepares for
government downfalls
1971
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court in USA legalises

whistleblowing in a leading decision
FBI agent Mark Felt helps to clear up the

Watergate scandal but his identity
remains confidential for 33 years
1984
Bernese financial scandal
Vet Margrit Herbst spreads public awareness

about 24 BSE cases in Germany for the very first
time and much against the will of her employer
1998
Genetic Engg.
The International Whistleblower Award was

presented in Germany for the first time since then,
famous whistleblowers have been honoured with it
every two years
2002
Persons of the year
Julian Assange founds WikiLeaks, an online

platform for disclosures which becomes
famous owing to some spectacular releases
2009
Protective law
The US soldier Bradley Manning (now Chelsea

Manning) leaks confidential army documents to
WikiLeaks. Later, she is sentenced to
confinement for 35 years
2011
EU Court of Justice
Pope Benedicts valet is arrested because he is

supposed to have handed over secret letters
and documents to journalists
2013
Edward Snowden
After Obama retracted his statements about the

protection of whistleblowers in 2013, a new US
law was created with draconian penalties
feature
timeline
WHISTLEBLOWER
For some they are heroes but for others they are people fouling their own nests:
whistleblowers expose misconduct of companies and governments and thus uncover
numerous scandals
By Christoph Sackmann
n American NSA employee sits in Moscow and narrates

to a flock of open-eyed journalists that his employer
spies on communication in at least 40 countries
including the NATO allies. Does that sound familiar? No, we
are not talking about Edward Snowden but about William
Martin and the year is 1960. Martin has just defected from his
homeland via Mexico and Cuba along with his colleague
Bernon Mitchell a few months prior to the interview. In the
House of Journalists in Moscow, they narrate about how the
NSA hacks encryption codes, how it spies on other countries
using unmanned aircrafts called drones today and how it
prepares for the downfall of disagreeable governments. The
defectors are the prototypes for whistleblowers people who
make secret information public, often people who uncover and
bring unethical or illegal behaviour to light. The society loves
them for this; the governments and companies hate them
and more often than not, it costs them their freedom.
PHOTOS: DPA/PICTURE ALLIANCE; FOTOLIA/GRAFIK & ART; NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY; REUTERS/KEVIN
LAMARQUE, OSSERVATORE ROMANO, BOBBY YIP; THINKSTOCK/ISTOCKPHOTO; US ARMY; US GOVERNMENT
An American speciality
The most spectacular whistleblowing cases originate in USA.
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg revealed documents that proved that
several US governments have kept the public in the dark about
the purpose of the Vietnam War. He brought 7,000 pages in 47
folders to New York Times and Washington Post. US President
Nixon prohibited the release till the Supreme Court declared
whistleblowing to be legal as per a leading decision. Ellsberg
was still accused of espionage and faced charges carrying a
total maximum sentence of 115 years. However, the trial was
thwarted since Nixon illegally ordered the FBI to break into the
office of Ellsbergs psychiatrist. The FBI team that was
responsible for this break in was the same team that doomed
another famous whistleblower: Mark Felt, Associate Director of
the FBI. In 1971, he passed on confidential information about
the Watergate scandal to journalists on the condition that his
identity should be kept under covers. Felt revealed himself to
be the Watergate scandals whistleblower, Deep Throat,
after 33 years.
The responses to the unmasking of the ageing Felt were the
same as most of the cases involving his comrades. Many
considered him to be a hero; someone who had exposed the
illegal behaviour of the government. For many, however, he
was someone who fouled his own nest; an unfaithful employee
and traitor. Something similar happened to Chelsea Manning
around the same time. In 2010, the US soldier, known as
Bradley Manning then, passed on secret documents about the
Iraq war to the whistleblower platform WikiLeaks.

These included videos that substantiated the homicide of
innocent civilians. In the summer of 2013, Manning was
sentenced to 35 years of imprisonment and only narrowly
escaped the death penalty. At the time of the trial, a movement
was started for Mannings release and even prominent people
supported the whistleblower but it was to no avail.
A double-edged sword
There are also opinions that whistleblowing need not be a
good thing: in 1998, the Hungarian-British chemist rpd
Pusztai secretly published a study that proved that genetically
modified potatoes weakened the immune system of rats
which lead to their death. This was a big blow to the
agribusiness, which had just started to promote cultivation of
genetically modified plants. But it is debatable till today
whether Pusztais study holds water. Many recognised
scientists, like those from the Royal Society in London,
criticised the methodology of the experiments and thereby the
validity of the results and as many scientists supported the
whistleblower. The case causes quite a stir even today. Four
documentary films narrate about the study and Pusztai even
received the international whistleblower award.
This award has been given out every two years since 1999.
The Federation of German Scientists wants to honour
whistleblowers and encourage others to do the same. The
award winners include two German whistleblowers: in 1994,
vet Margrit Herbst went against her employer and disclosed 24
cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in
Germany, thereby triggering the discussion about the bovine
disease. In 2005, Brigitte Heinisch exposed the deplorable state
of affairs in a nursing home for the elderly, after which she
was dismissed without notice. The case was taken to the
European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in favour of
Heinisch: whistleblowing is at least in the private sector
protected by the freedom of expression. For the public sector,
there is a rule in the Civil Service Law in Germany since 2009
that allows whistleblowing. The State Office of Criminal
Investigation, Lower Saxony has set up an online portal for
anonymous tip offs.
Last year, Edward Snowden received the international
whistleblower award he was not present for the occasion. At
the moment, the former NSA employee is in Moscow without
a valid American passport. His predecessors Martin and
Mitchell voluntarily surrendered their citizenship in 1960.
chip malaysia
january 14
041
feature
technic lexicon
TPM IN DETAIL
TPM chips are essentially a complete PC as they are equipped with

CPU, RAM and Flash memory. We show you how the chip is built
and what measures the TPM takes to secure the Windows start up
process
CHIP
ARCHITECTURE
BROKEN DOWN
FLASH MEMORY
CPU
1
Contains the seeds (big

random numbers)
comprises:
Signature engine
(symmetric
encryption)
Signature engine
(asymmetric
encryption)
Hash engine
Random number
generator
Execution unit
2
The TPM chip has a CPU as
well as a volatile (RAM) and
non-volatile (Flash) memory.
3
The Flash memory contains
4
seeds among other things;
seeds are the big random
5
numbers, which serve as input
for encryption algorithms.
They are processed in
arithmetic units, separately for
symmetrical 1 , , asymmetrical
2 as well as Hash methods 3 .
The generator 4 calculates
large random numbers which TPM
are the basis for the attackChecks the individual
proof encryption method. The components when
execution unit 5 is responsible the computer starts
for examining keys and for the
initialisation of the chip.
WINDOWS
START WITH
TPM CHECK
When Windows starts, the TPM
chip compares the checksums
for individual components with
the values stored in the
memory. The UEFI executes the
boot process only if these values
correspond. When the computer
is switched on, the UEFI
firmware and the Windows
bootloader are checked first. If
both are intact, Windows loads
its Kernel modules, which in
turn start a signed driver for the
virus scanner. The TPM check
ends here and the virus scanner
takes over the task. It checks all
drivers from third party
suppliers for viruses and passes
on the boot process to the
Windows services.
UEFI FIRMWARE
activates the
hardware
RAM
Contains volatile, currently
used keys, open sessions and
register contents
WINDOWS
BOOTLOADER
starts the
operating system
WINDOWS
KERNEL
is loaded in the
memory
WINDOWS
SERVICES
boot the operating
system
HARDWARE
DRIVERS
are examined by
the scanner
A snap-in of the Windows Management console

shows the status and version of the TPM chip
ANTI-MALWARE
turns on the virus
scanner
TPM chips also generate keys for BitLocker, the

hard disk encryption in Windows
TPM 2.0
Cryptoprocessor for Windows
The encryption module TPM is being refreshed and will be present in every PC in the
future. This means more security and less supervision for the user
By Jrg Geiger
here has been silence on the subject of TPMs for a long time.
Trusted Platform Modules are small security chips, which
have been installed in computers, gaming consoles,
smartphones, tablets and set top boxes for years now. Currently,
about one billion devices are equipped with TPMs 600 million of
which are PCs, which are often used at workplaces. Since 2001,
conspiracy theorists have classified these chips as a surveillance
instrument of the industry for curtailing users rights: theoretically,
TPMs could be used to limit the illegal copying of films and music.
However the modules have not been used for this purpose in the
last 12 years; they have instead been used by Windows to ensure a
secure start and for encrypting hard disks via BitLocker. TPM
provides additional security against malware and skimming
despite being a potential master key for the NSA.
Yet, the library specification of TPM version 2.0 has caused
quite a stir because the TPM chips need to be activated ex-factory.
User had to activate the crypto chips manually. Moreover, the new
standard does not make it mandatory to have an Opt-out. It
would soon become difficult to buy devices without TPM 2.0
because Microsoft has modified the certification criteria for
Windows. Thus from 2015, TPM 2.0 would be mandatory
otherwise hardware manufacturers will not get a certification label.
ILLUSTRATION: VERONIKA ZANGL
TPM chip guarantees Windows security

Windows cannot be secured to perfection: if a hacker manages to
infiltrate into the system, the security of the software goes for a
complete loss. The best bet to secure the software in such a way
that a hacker can do nothing is to have a dedicated hardware chip
on the motherboard: the TPM is a small computer in computer, a
trustworthy module with its own processor, RAM, memory and an
input-output interface (refer image on left). The main task of a TPM
is to provide services that are 100 percent secure for the operating
system. TPMs store crypto keys, which are used for encrypting the
hard disk. A TPM also confirms the identity of the complete
platform against an external device and checks if the device has
been manipulated by hardware hacks. In practice, TPM coupled
with UEFI Secure Boot ensures a completely secure operating
system start.
The phase, in which the virus scanner is loaded as the first
programme from a third-party provider, has been named as
Measured Boot by Microsoft. The ELAM drivers (Early Launch
Anti-Malware) of the anti-virus manufacturer are signed by
Microsoft; the UEFI stops the boot process if this signature is
missing. The Kernel checks the virus protection when the system
starts. If the ELAM driver passes the test, it validates the remaining
drivers. At this stage, it is no longer possible for rootkits to creep
into the Windows start and take advantage of the fact that installed
virus scanners have not been loaded yet.
The current TPM specification 1.2 makes use of old technology
with the encryption algorithms RSA-2048 and SHA-1 that are
implemented in the hardware. The latter has come to be
considered as insecure. Instead of assigning fixed algorithms that
become outdated after a few years, TPMs in version 2.0 can be
flexibly equipped with symmetrical and asymmetrical encryption
methods such as SHA-2, HMAC, ECC and AES. In addition, TPM
2.0 can learn new crypto algorithms through updates. Thus, TPM
chips would also sell in China or Russia, where the use of regional
encryption algorithms is preferred. Even the way in which keys are
handled is different in version 2.0. So far, two fixed cryptographic
keys were used as the basis for all offered services. But TPM 2.0
works with very large random numbers called seeds. The required
keys are generated by the seeds as input via mathematical
functions. Therefore, TPM 2.0 also makes it possible to generate
keys only for one-time use.
Dispute about an Out-out for TPM 2.0

The main criticism on the TPM Standard 2.0 that was released for
review is the delivery condition. TPM 2.0 will always be activated
ex-factory. The explicit activation (Opt-in), i.e., the option for
making a conscious decision for having TPM, has now been
removed. TPM supporters argue that the developers of operating
systems have started activating other security measures such as
Firewall or virus protection automatically too.
The topic of Opt-out, i.e., to what extent users can deactivate
TPM, is slightly more critical. The hardware manufacturer will
decide whether or not there would be a deactivation switch for
TPM in BIOS or UEFI. Section 13.3 of the current Library
Specification just mentions in a note that the provision of
activation switches is explicitly allowed. Chip manufacturers such
as Infineon dont think not having a deactivation switch is
something very drastic yet: basically, it is left to the discretion of
the computer manufacturer whether a switch is integrated in UEFI
or not. If there is sufficient demand, there is no doubt that there
would be enough number of computers, in which the user can
decide whether they want to activate or deactivate the TPM chip.
According to Infineon, the final regulation should be a specification
for hardware implementation.
chip malaysia
january 14
043
feature
http 2.0
THE INTERNET IS GETTING REMOULDED

All data packets that are sent via Internet are embedded in several layers.
All these will now be renovated. This will ultimately make the web
significantly faster and safer.
APPLICATION LAYER
In the Application Layer, the HTTP protocol regulates how
the browser and the server communicate with each other
SECURE LAYER
The Secure Socket Layer ensures protected connections
via SSL/TLS encryption.
TRANSPORT LAYER
The Transport Layer uses the TCP protocol to determine
how data packets should be sent.
ADDRESS LAYER
All devices connected to the Internet can be accessed via
their IP addresses.
HTTP
SWITCHOVER FROM HTTP 1.1 TO 2.0
SSL/TLS
NSA-SAFE
TCP
MORE SPEED THROUGH UDP
IP
UPGRADE TO IPV6 ADDRESSES
Future Of The
Internet
PHOTO: DPA/PICTURE ALLIANCE; 123RF/ZENTILIA
Fighting Over The

This year, the implementation of HTTP 2.0 would make the web quicker and safer but only
if the NSA cooperates
By Markus Mandau
ROADMAP FOR HTTP 2.0

After 15 long years, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has planned an upgrade for the central Internet protocol
HTTP. The IETF intends to finalise the new rules for data communication by the end of 2014. Once thats done, we would
all need to switch over.
June1999
HTTP 1.1 was
introduced
2000
044
March 2012
First call for
suggestions for
HTTP 2.0
2012
january 14
Sept. 2012
First draft of
HTTP 2.0
July 2013
August 2013
First
The test
implementation
phase starts
plan for HTTP 2.0
2013
chip malaysia
November 2013
Revision of the security
model due to the NSA
scandal
2014
April 2014
Final
suggestions will
be accepted
Nov. 2014
HTTP 2.0 will
be introduced
as standard
2020
feature
http 2.0
HTTP 1.1 AND 2.0 A COMPARISON

The new version 2.0 may well be backward compatible with 1.1, but it is
based on new technologies. In light of Edward Snowdens release of NSA
material, we have focussed on the theme of security.
ENCRYPTION (HTTPS)
ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGIES
ENCRYPTION QUALITY
HEADER COMPRESSION
MULTIPLEXING: parallel
processing of several enquiries/
responses
FULL DUPLEX: data is transferred
in both directions at the same
time
PRIORITISATION OF DATA
PACKETS
PUSH-MESSAGES FROM
SERVER
CONNECTIONS PER PAGE LOAD
HTTP 1.1
HTTP 2.0
optional
continuous (planned)
involves compromised
methods
(RC4, Dual_EC_DRBG)
makes use of new, safe

methods (e.g., Perfect
Forward Secrecy)
determined by the client

(planned)
several
one
determined by the server
The only reliable way is

powerful encryption
EDWARD SNOWDEN, Whistleblower, in response to the
question, how one can protect oneself from NSA surveillance
on the Internet
YES NO
atisfaction is a deceptive feeling especially on the

Internet. More and more surfers are digging deeper
into their pockets to be able to afford a more
expensive broadband connection and not without reason:
they want to get a download speed of 50Mbps and more. But
soon disillusionment sets in because in reality, websites
dont load any faster than via the old DSL connection (refer
to diagram on pg46). Better hardware will not make the web
noticeably quicker till outdated Internet protocols, through
which browsers and servers communicate with each other,
continue to hinder the page view. The reason is that they
date back to a time when the Internet was used for loading
simple HTML pages with some graphics. The latest network
communication goes much beyond this. Today, it is perfectly
normal to have several hundred lines of script code on
websites as the loading of web elements from various
different sources. Other than that, constant interaction
between the surfer and the web server or active encryption
for privacy protection is often required.
The best example is HTTP, the central application protocol
that regulates communication between the browser and the
server. The latest version 1.1 was introduced as early as in
1999 and sporadically optimised at times. But the
fundamental drawbacks remained (see table at the top).
Thats why the protocol cannot make the best use of the
options that the available bandwidth offers.
Furthermore, it generates unnecessary data traffic owing
to its large overhead. It shouldnt really be a surprise then
that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which is
responsible for further technical development of the web,
has been working on the renovation of the connection
protocol since 2012. However, the roadmap for HTTP 2.0 is
ready: the specialists are aiming at introducing it by the end
of 2014. A draft for the implementation was released in July
and the first tests started in August.
Competing suggestions for HTTP 2.0

Last year, Google and Microsoft provided their own
suggestions for the technical development of HTTP 2.0. SPDY
(i.e.: Speedy), the protocol developed by Google, competed
with Microsofts HTTP Speed+Mobility. Both suggestions
claimed to solve the speed problems faced by HTTP 1.1. The
main point of difference between them was their take on
whether HTTP 2.0 should be encrypted throughout. While
SPDY has been accepted as the base for HTTP 2.0, the IETF
has done away with the mandatory encryption in SPDY
because it would require a certain amount of computing
power from mobile devices and thus reduce their battery life.
Plus the obligation for encryption hits the operators of small
websites hard because the certificate required for it costs
money.
The road to HTTP 2.0 was going smoothly until the
disclosures of Edward Snowden that thwarted these plans.
At the start of September, it became clear that the American
foreign intelligence service, the National Security Agency
(NSA), can even intercept data traffic encrypted with HTTPS
on a large scale. Encryption expert Bruce Schneier even said
that the US government has revealed the entire Internet.
Thats when the focus shifted to the topic of Security of
HTTP 2.0, which was, so far, relegated to subordinate
importance. Chairman Jari Arkko was the one to place it on
the agenda of the next IETF meeting in Vancouver in
November. This meeting would see a fundamental reevaluation of the protocol in connection with the Snowden
disclosures. Till then, the group is collecting suggestions on
how the integrity of the web encryption of HTTP 2.0 can be
guaranteed.
The HTTPS web encryption makes use of the available
SSL and TLS protocols to establish a secure connection.
Asymmetrical encryption, comprising a Public and a Private
Key, is carried out first: the server sends a certified Public
chip malaysia
january 14
045
feature
http 2.0
LATENCY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BANDWIDTH

R
Q
Starting from 4Mbps, websites do not load faster. Whats more important
is how efficiently the server provides the data.
Loading time (ms)
3.500
Elliptical curve:
LOADING TIME OF WEBSITES DEPENDS ON THE

BANDWIDTH OF THE INTERNET CONNECTION
3.000
The random numbers

that are used for
encoding in the web
are calculated using
two linked values
2.500
2.000
R=P+Q
1.500
1.000
SERVERS SELECT THE ENCRYPTION

When it comes to HTTPS, servers decide which protocol should be
used. Almost all can communicate via the patchy SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0.
Only a few can communicate via the secure TLS 1.1 or 1.2.
More security
SSL V2.0
SSL V3.0
TLS V1.0
TLS V1.1
TLS V1.2
==
26.9 %
15.4 %
==
LOADING TIME OF WEBSITES DEPENDS ON THE

LATENCY (RESPONSE TIME) OF THE SERVER
3.000
2.000
99.3 %
1.500
17.8 %
An authority like NSA, which records all the web traffic,

could decode this communication when it later gets hold of
the Private Key of the server for instance with the help of a
court order or through hacking. Therefore, a suggestion for
the comprehensive deployment of a different method of key
generation was made within the framework of HTTP 2.0 and
the encryption protocol TLS 1.3 which is also being
developed: there is no direct key exchange in Perfect
Forward Secrecy (PFS). Instead, the server and browser
communicate with each other via several messages and via a
crypto method (Diffie-Hellman) based on the independent
generation of a common symmetrical key, which is not sent
directly via the web. It only works for one session and gets
deleted after the session is over.
However, PFS requires the cryptographic methods used
for generating keys to be very secure. In the past, NSA has
actively worked on this method and apparently built
backdoors by which it lets itself get bypassed. We all know
about how the elliptical curve in the pseudorandom number
generator Dual_EC_DRBG was compromised. The values that
are located on these curves are used for generating random
numbers for the asymmetrical key pair. Even the other
chip malaysia
3.500
99.7 %
NSA backdoor into web encryption
january 14
Loading time (ms)
2.500
Key to the browser. Based on the certification, the browser

checks whether the key is valid, encrypts the Session Key for
symmetric encryption of the data traffic and then sends it to
the server. The server uses its Private Key to extract the key
for symmetric encryption from the message. Now the server
and browser have the same Session Key and can encrypt
further communication between them with it.
046
9
10
Bandwidth Mbps
1.000
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Latency (ms)
curves that were released by the US-based National Institute

of Standards and Technology (NIST) are under suspicion.
Meanwhile, Simon Josefsson has suggested to the IETF that
another elliptical curve 25519, which does not come from the
NIST, should be used for TLS 1.3. This way, TLS 1.3 would be
able to close the NSA backdoor.
But having a new TLS is not enough: it is suspected that
even the RC4 encryption method, which is also used in
HTTPS, contains a loophole installed by the NSA. RC4 is a
part of active security protocols from SSL 2.0 to TLS 1.2 and
is used in 50 percent of the encrypted data traffic on the web.
As a result, RC4 can no longer be considered for TLS 1.3, but
in the current implementation of the security layer, the
server decides which protocol should be used. While the
latest browser versions of Chrome and IE have already
implemented the current TLS 1.2, the majority of web servers
mainly use the outdated SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0 method (see
graphics above). It is not a secret that both have loopholes
that can be used by hackers. Hence, one of the suggestions
for HTTP 2.0 was to reverse the situation: in future, the
browser should determine which protocol should be used.
This would finally enable the user to determine how well an
HTTPS connection should be protected.
Mending the security loopholes in SSL/TLS

The current TLS attacks are also the consequence of the fact
that the packets are sent further only after they are
intercepted and/or manipulated. The Message Authentication
Code (MAC), which is transferred to every packet via the
Session Key during communication, plays a central role here.
It is made up of the hash value of the data packet and the
feature
http 2.0
SPDY: latest browsers like Chrome have already implemented

this protocol as the base for HTTP 2.0
THE PACKET TCP AND UDP PROTOCOLS
TCP
UDP
CONTROL IN CASE OF PACKET LOSS
PACKET SEQUENCE DETERMINED
ERROR DETECTION
ERROR CORRECTION
20 - 60 bytes
8 bytes
LATENCY (RESPONSE TIME)
slow
fast
OVERHEAD
huge
less
HEADER SIZE
Session Key. The MAC helps the recipient determine whether

the data packets also come from the sender. Like TLS, all the
current SSL security protocols function according to the
motto MAC then encrypt. Thus the hash value of the
unencrypted packet content is used to generate the MAC.
The proposal for a TLS upgrade has been made as a
countermeasure; it functions the other way round: Encrypt
then MAC, the hash value of the encrypted packet content is
used so that hackers can do nothing. But whether all these
measures will be enough to prevent secret services from
snooping around across the globe is anybodys guess. They
address all the known weak points. At any rate, the disputed
issue of whether HTTP 2.0 should be encrypted throughout is
back on the agenda of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Removing performance flaws

The members of the IETF are in agreement about the
technologies that should be used for eradicating
performance-related problems of HTTP 1.1. The base for this
would be version 3 of the Google protocol SPDY, which is
already supported by the latest browsers like Chrome, IE,
Firefox and Opera Apples Safari has yet to come on board.
SPDY addresses the structural flaws in HTTP 1.1: here, the
server needs to build a separate TCP connection for every
individual element. It therefore starts up several parallel
connections, which again leads to unnecessary data traffic
and potentially even to Head-of-Line-Blocking. In Head-ofLine-Blocking, the processing of data packets gets held up
because the packets always come in the sequence in which
they are requested, irrespective of whether the request is
SOURCE: MICROSOFT
HTTP 1.1 uses the slower TCP since it guarantees

performance. Since HTTP 2.0 performs some TCP tasks, it can
theoretically use the quicker UDP
defective or if its processing takes too long. Moreover, the

HTTP connection is always established by the Client. The
browser has to constantly enquire whether the content of the
website has changed. The server itself does not send any
updates.
On the other hand, once an HTTP-2.0 connection is
established, the browser and the server can open their own
streams for sending their data packets independent of each
other. This takes place in parallel and at the same time
through multiplexing. Compared to HTTP 1.1, version 2.0
enables parallelisation within a single TCP connection. This
particularly reduces a huge amount of load on pages of the
server, which needs to simultaneously process many
browser queries. The frames are also marked with a
prioritisation, so that the browser or the server can adjust the
decoding sequence accordingly. There is no question of
Head-of-Line-Blocking. Plus, the server can now send
messages to the browser via Push.
Even the packet headers have been optimised. In version
1.1, HTTP transfers these in text form and without
compression. This makes them unnecessarily large and they
need to be translated into a binary code before being
processed. Version 2.0 compresses the headers and sends
them in a binary code. This basically reduces the size of the
first frame of the data packet, which can be processed much
faster as a result. This considerably reduces the latency
(response time).
Many functions of HTTP 1.1 and TCP are interrelated, as
shown by the example of parallelisation, because the TCP
protocol provides services that are missing in HTTP: it
ensures that losses during data transfer are detected and
repaired and it also determines the sequence of the packets.
But these control functions again increase the size of the TCP
header and with it the latency. As for TCP, the connection is
established with a three-way handshake which again
increases the latency.
But some tasks that the TCP undertakes hinder HTTP 2.0,
or rather, HTTP 2.0 undertakes them now. Instead of the TCP
packet sequence, the frame prioritisation determines how the
data packets are processed. Google therefore recommends
using the faster but unreliable UDP (User Datagram
Protocol) as the transport protocol and to modify it slightly:
Google QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections) is based on
UDP but with an error corrected. The correction blocks that
are sent via QUIC render the error detection of TCP
redundant. TCP can also leave behind the complicated
handshake, because HTTP 2.0 already builds a stream
between the server and the browser, through which they
communicate with each other. In the long term, Google does
not intend to replace TCP, but integrate QUIC in it. We can
expect the switchover to be as smooth as that of HTTP 1.1 to
2.0. The user will quickly receive HTTP 2.0 via a browser
update. The browser will then automatically ask the server if
it supports 2.0. If it does, then its full steam ahead towards
the internet of the future!
chip malaysia
january 14
047
feature
dangerous searches
The Most Dangerous
Search Terms
rch
Spammers and hackers misuse Google to trigger the search
for malware. We find out which search terms are the mostt
dangerous
By Jrg Geiger & Claudio Mller
he significance of Google in our lives could hardly get any

greater than what it already is: more than 90 percent of the
market share of search queries in many countries; a myriad
of websites in the search index, whose size is more than 100
million Gigabyte. We search for so much on Google that the word
googeln (to google) has actually been incorporated into certain
dictionaries. As the start page of almost every user, Google is the
way to reach almost any website even to websites that are
potentially dangerous for users. These could be sites that spread
malware, annoying toolbars or deceptive offers. We wanted to find
out how reliable Google filters out such sites and which search
terms lead to the most dangerous sites (see table on the right).
We have not considered the search for pornographic and warez
pages because it is a well-known fact that the danger of malware is
very high in sites like these. So we limit ourselves to day to day
search terms. Moreover, we have only looked at the search hits
and advertisements on the first results page. Several so-called eyetracking studies from the past years from the Bundesverband
Digitale Wirtschaft (Federal Association of Digital Economy) and
the Cornell University (USA) among others show that users often
view only the first search results and the advertisements that are
on the top. Besides, most of the links that are clicked are among
the top links displayed. The click rate of the first search hit is
between 20 and 60 percent depending on the search term, while
that of result number four and lower is less than five percent.
These numbers must always be accepted with circumspection as
Internet use depends on many different factors. However, they
confirm what many people probably already know on their own or
from others: even if Google finds 100 million results for a search
term, it is only the first few that are clicked most of the times.
So it is easy to trick a person who googles. And this is good for
criminals and spammers because when the sites for specific
search terms, which they have prepared or manipulated, appear
right at the top of the Google list, many users click these the
048
january 14
chip malaysia
more popular the search

rch
term, the more this
happens. Christian Funk,
k, a
virus analyst at Kaspersky
ersky says: Particularly dangerous
are results that are followed
ed worldwide, be iit natural catastrophes,
the death of a popular actor
scandals. Evergreens are search
or or sc
terms for pirated copies of popular films, music or games,
especially in combination with the words free or gratis.
Virus attach through search results

We can easily confirm this assessment in our test. The search
query Breaking Bad Stream (Breaking Bad is a TV series) gave
us a Trojan after we were asked to download a player to stream
the series. Moreover, the search term infected our browser with
five unwanted plug-ins and our system with three auto-start
entries. We discovered such browser manipulations even when
downloading wallpapers and screensavers. During the test, we
mostly confronted scareware, for example false antivirus
programmes that showed virus warnings and ask you to buy an
anti-virus suite to remove the alleged malware. Some of the
unwanted programmes that got installed resulted in system
crashes or caused our browser to malfunction. However, we did
not come across a virus attack as soon as visiting a website. The
malware was always hidden in the downloads on the site. So one
cannot blame Google because checking the downloads of all sites
is technically almost impossible.
The second big problem after malware in Google search is
scams. We found such offers particularly for search terms
associated with money. If you look for, say, Credit without
Schufa (similar to Malaysias CCRIS) or a Cheap flight to
Mallorca, you will definitely get some search hits and even
adverts on the first Google page that will lead you to dubious
offers.
When looking for cheap flights for instance, the sites would
feature
dangerous searches
THE RISKS INVOLVED IN GOOGLE SEARCH

We analysed dozens of search terms in Google for malware and scams and have excluded the search for pornography
and warez sites. During the test, we checked all the search hits and adverts of the first page using the link scanners WOT
and Bitdefender TrafficLight. We opened the sites and when we found downloads, we downloaded and installed the first
offer on the site. The most risky search terms are given in the tables below.
are
Malw
ar
Toolb
HERES WHERE
MALWARE LURKS
PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED IN SEARCH
RESULTS
PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED IN
GOOGLE ADS
TROJANS / SCAREWARE /
ADWARE INSTALLED
BROWSER MANIPULATION
(TOOLBAR/ START PAGE / SEARCH
ENGINE)
BROWSER PLUG-INS INSTALLED
ADDITIONAL DESKTOP LINKS
CREATED
NEW AUTO-START ENTRIES/
WINDOWS SERVICES
SYSTEM ERRORS
SCAMS
ins
Plug-
Wallpaper free
GTA gratis
Breaking Bad
Stream
Free Music
Downloads
Hacking
passwords
Virus, spyware, scams,

harmful to minors
Virus, scams, dubious,

harmful to minors
Dubious
Scams, dubious, spam
Virus, spyware, scams,

harmful to minors
Dubious
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
13
1/0
2/0
3/2
3/2
Chrome refuses to start,

system becomes slower
Wallpaper pack for eight
Euros
Sporadic Windows crashes,

very high system load
Download access for ten
Euros
S
SCAM
Video subscription for 40

US dollars per month
are
Adw
Spam
HERES WHERE
SCAMS LINGER
PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED IN SEARCH
RESULTS
PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED IN
GOOGLE ADS
TROJANS / SCAREWARE /
ADWARE INSTALLED
BROWSER MANIPULATION
(TOOLBAR/ START PAGE / SEARCH
ENGINE)
BROWSER PLUG-INS INSTALLED
ADDITIONAL DESKTOP LINKS
CREATED
NEW AUTO-START ENTRIES/
WINDOWS SERVICES
SYSTEM ERRORS
SCAMS
Making money
online
2/0
Varying error messages,
system becomes slower
IQ test subscription for
seven Euros per week
Credit without
Schufa
Playing poker for

free
Insurance
comparison
Cheap flight
Mallorca
Dubious, spam, fraud,

harmful to minors
Dubious, spam, fraud,
harmful to minors
Dubious, spam, fraud, poor

customer service
Dubious, spam, fraud, poor
customer service
Scams, dubious, harmful to

minors
Scams, dubious, harmful to
minors
Scams, dubious, spam,

harmful to minors
Dubious
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
0/0
0/0
2/0
0/0
0/0
System becomes slower
Up to 250 Euros initial

capital depending on the
service
Slightly high front end fees

and interest, expensive
hotlines
Paid services for four Euros

a month
No, but annoying ad mails

through personalized search
Additional costs due to

previously activated
additional services such as
travel protection or
rebooking options
chip malaysia
january 14
049
mostly pawn off additional services such as travel protection or

rebooking options without explicitly pointing out to them.
Weak points in the Google algorithm

To understand how hackers make it to the top page of the search
results, it is necessary to know how Google functions. Google
indexes a bulk of approx. 60 billion websites on the web and a
programme (Crawler) calls up the sites. Simply put, the Crawler
collects the content of the sites with the help of texts and keywords
to decide which search request should be displayed. Google
calculates result ranking using a complex algorithm, which is
based on more than 200 factors. One of the important aspects here
is how relevant and topical the content is for the search request.
Another aspect is the significance of the site. Google measures this
with the help of links that point to the site, the backlinks.
Until about two years ago, cyber criminals could outsmart these
mechanisms. All they needed was to prepare their own sites, fill
them with content copied from genuine websites and post links to
these sites on link farms. These were pages that existed specifically
as backlinks. This form of search engine optimisation no longer
exists since Google has intensified the fight against spam in search
results as part of the Safe Browsing Initiative. So now the origin of
backlinks has become a crucial factor. When big, reliable sites link
to a small website, it automatically gets a higher reputation in
Google, says Jonas Weber, whose company webhelps provides
advice to website operators in the area of search engine
optimisation.
As a result of all this, cyber criminals today have to resort to
different methods. Instead of preparing their own sites and
manoeuvring them to the top of the ranking, they tamper with
genuine websites, which Google displays high on the results list.
This is possible because the Content Management System (CMS)
or Server Software of websites often have security loopholes that
can be used by hackers to add malicious codes or hidden links to
dangerous websites into the website. Frequently attacked content
management systems are OpenSource solutions WordPress (used
by many blogs) and Joomla as well as their plug-ins. According to
a study by Checkmarx, about seven out of ten e-commerce plugins are prone to web attacks.
Hackers find such vulnerable websites with special search
queries about outdated versions of used content management
systems. The information on the used version is mostly in the
source text of the site and is thus often indexed by Google.
Another method is the cross-site scripting attack, in which the code
is put into the site through input fields. This is possible when the
site is not programmed well and such inputs are not processed
properly. Occasionally, even Brute Force Attacks are sufficient to
hack access data of website administrators. Sucuri, a company
specialised in website security, has observed that such attacks
have again become rampant on WordPress and Joomla. But even
instances of phishing attacks on website administrators, which
then have to reveal their access data, can be seen time and again.
A fight against spam in search results

Currently, Google registers up to 50,000 websites (spam sites),
which have been manipulated with a malicious code, per week in
its search results but only about 5,000 websites that have been
especially created for malware distribution. Google has not
050
january 14
chip malaysia
HACKED WEBSITES IN GOOGLE SEARCH

Every week, Google blocks up to 60,000 genuine websites, which
have been manipulated by hackers to spread spam and malware
through them. There are fewer websites that are created only for
this purpose.
MANIPULATED WEBSITES
90.000
ATTACKER WEBSITES
FINDS PER WEEK
60.000
SOURCE: GOOGLE
feature
dangerous searches
30.000
0
2007
2009
2011
2013
WEBSITE HACKS OF THE PAST FEW YEARS

Gumblar and Martuz attacks infect about
330,000 websites worldwide
May 2010
An SQL injection attack on the server of an
ad banner module infects over 100,000
websites
April 2011
An attack on the web shop software
osCommerce infects about 5 million
websites worldwide
October 2011
The Blackhole Exploit Kit is infiltrated
into 106,000 websites and spreads
malware
April 2013
An attack via Java and Adobe security
loopholes infects 7,500 websites
August 2008
Approx. 2 million websites of the
web host GoDaddy are hacked
and spread malware
June 2010
The LizaMoon attack manipulates
around 500,000 websites
worldwide
August 2011
Through a security loophole in
Microsofts ASP.net framework,
hackers infect over 600,000
websites
July 2012
The DarkLeech Exploit Kit infects
over 20,000 websites
June 2013
HOW HACKERS MANIPULATE WEBSITES

Metadata: Manipulated keywords
for popular search queries improve
the Google ranking of sites to
misuse them for attacks
Ad banners: Ads are

displayed via hacked ad
servers. They lead to
dangerous sites or start
malware attacks
<meta name=keywords>
<iframe src=site.
php>
<a
href=http://
werbung.html>
<link rel=stylesheet href=datei.

css/>
CSS templates: Layout elements,

in which hackers insert keywords
and backlinks to improve the
Google ranking of spam sites
iFrames: The invisible

elements that hackers add to
a site; they run scripts and
load contents (malware) from
other sites
feature
dangerous searches
published any statistics for manipulation attempts in

advertisements (AdWords).
In our test however, we stumbled upon dubious and dangerous
sites even in advertisements. We found scam offers in text ads that
appeared above and around the search results.
Google is trying to take action against the misuse of
advertisements by examining user complaints among other things.
In addition, Google also analyses the AdWords advertisements
using algorithms to find fraudulent offers. This includes the text
analysis of advertisements (used keywords among other things) as
well as an examination of the sites on which the advert is linked
and the activity of the account that controls the ad (i.e., the IP
addresses from which the account is used). The penalties range
from rejection of an advertisement to the blocking of a website on
Google as well as permanent closing of the account.
Google is similarly conducting a campaign against spam in
search results. Here too, algorithms first check the sites, which also
remove infected sites from the search index. In case of doubt,
Search Quality Teams (see interview) assess the sites themselves.
However, the search algorithm itself is more important when it
comes to fighting against spam. With countless updates in the past
few years, Google has made manipulation very difficult. A very
important update for fighting against spam was the automatic
spell checker for search entries, says Jonas Weber from
webhelps.
Earlier, spammers very cleverly optimised sites so that they
appeared as results for incorrectly written search terms, for
example, Fotoschop instead of Photoshop. Thats hardly
possible today because Google corrects many typing errors in the
search field. Even the significance of keywords has been reduced
over time, especially because websites were loaded with these.
Panda (April 2011) and Penguin (April 2012) are two examples
of such updates. With these, Google has targeted SEO spammers,
who are getting more and more professional by the day. The
updates primarily aimed at rating reliable, self-created and unique
contents higher. Sites with copied contents on the other hand are
penalised. Even the origin of the links for a site is being assessed
differently. Therefore, link farms hardly contribute in improving the
rating.
All these updates helped tremendously to reduces the number
of spam sites in the search results, which is fundamentally a good
thing. However, the new method used by spammers, of hacking
genuine sites, is more difficult to identify for the users. And this
makes it all the more dangerous. Nevertheless, browsers have
become better at identifying dangerous sites and undesired addons. In our test, Chrome and Firefox informed us multiple times if
they had installed new toolbars. Read on to find out how you can
avoid and also remove spam.
WHAT IS GOOGLE DOING TO PREVENT SPAM?

We interviewed Sven Naumann, Uli Lutz and Johannes Mehlem (see photo, from left) from the German Search Quality Team at Google
in Dublin. They support website operators from there and work towards improving search results by fighting against web spam, among
other things.
Our test shows that Google also displays sites that spread spam
and even malware. Are spammers better at the art of search
engine optimisation than the operators of genuine websites?
It is true that people who circulate malware often try quite
aggressively to achieve high rankings in the search results of
search engines. Even if such a website escapes us every once in a
while, we can assure you that we take great care to ensure that our
users are protected from spam and malware. Since 2006, Google
scans for malware and marks them as such. This way, we keep
several hundred million users per week from inadvertently visiting
sites that spread malware. We publish details about that on our
Online Security News Blog and in a transparency report with many
interesting statistics (can be found on google.com/insidesearch, d.
Red.).
Last year, Google made two huge changes to the search algorithm
with its updates Penguin and Panda. How do these updates help
in the fight against spam in search results?
Panda and Penguin are two updates that significantly improve the
search results by reducing the visibility of low-quality sites and
spam. Although these updates attracted a great deal of attention,
we carry out about 500 changes in our search engine algorithms
every year. We constantly work at improving search results and at
fighting web spam.
What is Google doing to keep the search results free of spam?
In addition to the constant improvements through algorithm
updates, we rely on an international team, which traces new trends
and spam technologies. We also support webmasters in the
creation of search engine friendly websites and in taking
preventive measures against hack attacks. For example, we have a
full-fledged Help Centre and a blog, forum and Webmaster tools,
which you can find at google.com/webmasters.

Cyber criminals are increasingly hacking genuine sites to spread
malware through them. How are you tackling this problem?
We endeavour to improve our algorithms for the detection of
hacked contents. This is not an easy task, because hackers and
spammers mostly have excellent technical know-how. They often
have no qualms in breaking laws and are very active in disguising
their tracks. Lastly, it is the task of every webmaster to keep its own
server and his own website safe and to minimize the risks of a hack
attack. Since this is not so easy, we offer detailed help articles and
other features in our webmaster tools. We also collaborate with
initiatives such as stopbadware.org and provide our Safe Browsing
API, which often helps to keep users from visiting potentially
dangerous websites.
How do these mechanisms help users of Google search to surf
safely?
To protect our users better, we have introduced corresponding
warning hints into the
results pages. Moreover,
many browsers warn users
when they click on some
result. This is where the
data from stopbadware.org
is used. Currently, we show
40 million warnings very
week in the search results
and 200 million browser
warnings.
chip malaysia
january 14
051
feature
dangerous searches
Avoiding Spam
1
Setting Up Basic Protection Regular updates for Windows

and software and a virus scanner are most important. The paid
security suites come with an integrated surf protection. Some,
such as Symantec, also provide browser add-ons, which warn
against risks in the search results.
Using Linkscanner Link protection is also available as an
Activating Add-On Protection To avoid harmful browser
independent browser add-on (all tools mentioned on this page

can be found in the January 2014 Downloads section of our
website). WOT analyses search hits based on user feedback. This
basically provides protection from swindling attempts. The add-on
Bitdefender Traffic Light (see right) on the other hand examines
sites for malware attacks. If you dont want to install an extra tool
but find a link suspicious, you can check the URL online under
virustotal.com.
add-ons from getting installed accidentally, we recommend

that you activate the plug-in protection Click-to-play. Chrome and
Firefox both support this but IE unfortunately doesnt. In Firefox,
type about:config in the address bar, look for the plugins.click_
to_play setting and activate it. Chrome users can click Show
advanced settings under Settings and then click Content
settings under Privacy. Here, check the Click-to-play option
under Plug-ins. Now you need to give your approval for running
a plug-in with an extra mouse click.
Removing Spam
1
Starting The Offline Scan If you suspect a virus attack,
disconnect the Internet connection and shutdown the PC. On an

unaffected system, burn the Kaspersky Rescue Disk from our
website to a DVD. Alternatively, you can also install the emergency
help system on a USB stick. Now start the affected computer from
the DVD or the stick and press Enter when the green start screen
appears. Switch the language to English and confirm the
licensing terms with 1. Click Enter again. This starts the
graphics mode. Double-click Kaspersky Rescue Disk to Start
Objects Scan.
Removing The Toolbars Avast Browser Cleanup is a toolbar
killer that runs without any installation. After it starts, the

programme displays all the installed toolbars and add-ons in
Chrome, Firefox and IE.
Attention Before you proceed, you must close all browsers.

Click Remove all add-ons listed below and cleanup browser
if you want to remove everything or click Remove for
individual entries.
Resetting The Browser In case of browser manipulations
that are hard to remove, the only solution is a browser reset.

Firefox users can type about:support in the address bar and click
Reset Firefox. In Chrome, select Settings | Show advanced
settings | Reset browser settings. In IE, open Tools, [Alt] + [X]
and select Internet options | Advanced | Reset.
052
january 14
chip malaysia
feature
programmed deterioration
LCD-Monitor
Service life:
3600 hours
Defect:
Wrongly-positioned
capacitor defective
Inkjet printer
TV set
Service life:
Service life:
5000 pages
2 years
Defect:
Print head does not
work
Defect:
Board, no spare
part
Programmed
Deterioration
Electronic devices often break down sooner than they should. Could
the system be behind it?
By Christoph Schmidt
Our German counterpart

evaluates high-quality hardware
that usually lasts longer than
more affordable devices
t took the three-year old notebook less than ten minutes to crash
after each boot. When the owner brought the device to a
service centre, she suspected it may have had something to do
with the very silent fan. One of the staff volunteered to solve the
problem and although he was an IT technician who primarily
repaired notebooks, it took a good 20 minutes for the device to be
fully disassembled. Only by disassembling it could he access the
fan. It was immediately clear to everyone why the notebook wasnt
working any more: The fan was blowing against a thick outlet grid
that had collected a lot of dust. Over time, a lump of dust was
formed, which blocked the fan blades. The processor began to
overheat, and had to shut itself off after a brief period of time.
Apart from that, the technician noticed that the tiny little bolts
that fastened the stiff display-hinges into the base plate had been
pried out at a certain location. It was only a matter of time before

the display broke down completely. Having been told to get a new
fan and base plate on eBay, the owner left the service centre,
carrying her disassembled notebook in a carton. The device was to
be put back together again during her next visit.
Deterioration, sloppiness or malicious

intentions?
Sadly, several owners of electronic devices are quite wellacquainted with similar scenarios. And if the defect emerges
shortly after the warranty period expires, it gives rise to the
suspicion that the manufacturers may intentionally have created
flaws that result in a short service life and the purchase of a new
device.
However, this hypothesis is as difficult to prove as it is easy to
formulate, since all devices are subject to a certain amount of wear
and tear: Displays get darker, batteries get discharged faster, and
Flash memory cells in SSDs can only withstand a certain number
of writing procedures. We were able to detect these signs of
ageing at the CHIP test centre by gauging tested devices after they
had been used for several years. To establish the failure rates of
chip malaysia
january 14
053
Tablet
Service life:
2.5 years
Defect:
Agglutinated battery
die
BLOCKED FAN
This notebook fan, which is extremely hard to access, blows directly
against a thick outlet grid. It will inevitably get blocked as a result of
day-to-day use.
certain products and determine the reasons for the said failures,
you need a gigantic database. In Germany, theres a club called
Murks? Nein Danke! (Botches? No thanks!), which was founded
by the Berlin-based business economist Stefan Schridde, which
collects and publishes defect reports. However, it only offers a
rough overview of the issue at hand, since it only involves the
reporting of defects by users. Also, it does not set a benchmark for
how many keep working in a defect-free manner.
Schridde coined the term planned obsolescence, which he
uses to level the accusation at the manufacturers that they use
flaws and repair-unfriendly designs to ensure that their products
age and break down at a much faster than possible. The industry
and manufactures of course vehemently denies the allegation. The
consumerist Schridde, however, counters that argument as
follows: Things like undersized and heat-sensitive capacitors are
placed at hot locations, firmly-entrenched batteries and pasted-up
casings prove beyond all doubt that the devices are intentionally
designed to have short lives.
Either way, its not exactly in the individual manufacturers
financial interests to create devices that can last an eternity that
would increase the costs associated with development, testing, the
materials and production. And in a time of shrinking revenues, the
customers would hardly ever have to buy new devices. Each
manufacturer wishes to remain economically competitive is
practically compelled, during the design phase itself, to ensure that
the device is attractive and valuable enough to be sold, but also
that the owner of the device will sooner or later have to or choose
to buy a new one. Furthermore, the customers keep asking for
more and more features in ever-smaller (or, in the case of )
smartphones, larger) devices which the manufacturers also
contribute to with their advertisements and short product cycles.
When it comes to marketing, designs and features are usually
more important than quality and longevity.
MEASURABLE DETERIORATION
Shortening the service life
ASSOCIATION AGAINST PREMATURE

DEFECTS
The manufacturers can influence the lives of devices using a
054
january 14
chip malaysia
LCD displays become up to 45 percent darker in two years, as our

measurements demonstrated at the CHIP test centre.
PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE
Electrolytic capacitors are sensitive to heat and are often
unnecessarily positioned at particularly hot locations.
The German association Murks? Nein Danke! (Botches? No,

thanks!) collects reports of suspected defects, and plans to set up a
museum of botches.
variety of methods, which can also be combined with each other: A

manufacturer could build long-lasting devices that are easy to
repair, but release new models on a regular basis that are more
efficient and boast more features. After a few product cycles have
come and gone, the device might still be working like a charm, but
the customer will automatically desire the new model. This tactic is
most likely to be used in conjunction with professional and
premium products, although it cannot be guaranteed that such
products will actually last longer.
One variant of this pattern emerges in conjunction with smart
devices with firmware that can be updated: In such a scenario,
each update will enhance the operating systems hardware
requirements. Consequently, fully-functional devices will keep
slowing down until they become unusable, especially since
nobody wants to miss out on security-relevant updates.
The other method of shortening the live spans of devices:
Components that are prone to deteriorate are installed in a manner
that ensures that they cannot be replaced, for example, batteries
that can only be reached with the help of a special tool or physical
force. According to manufacturers, the use of batteries of this
nature facilitates the creation of mobile devices that are flat and
slim. Firmly-entrenched parts are quite irritating, but the most
recent trick really takes the cake: under-sized parts are installed at
sensitive locations, and the parts are absolutely bound to break
after a certain period of time or a certain number of actuations. The
self-blocking notebook fan and the excessively weak hinge-clamps
are examples of what can emerge when this method is put to use.
This category also contains monitors whose mains adapters house
capacitors that are positioned at locations that get quite hot. This
strategic placement ensures that the electrolytes evaporate after
the expiry of a short and calculable operating life. This category of
tricks also covers monitors with power buttons that are designed
to be weak, which ensures that they malfunction after a certain
number of presses. A classic defect that fills up internet forums by
the pageful is the one that makes inkjet printers stop working after
they complete a certain number of printouts. When this happens,
the devices issue error messages that claim that the print heads
are defective. However, the devices often work flawlessly after an
internal counter in a secret service-menu is reset.
UNUSABLE DUE TO UPDATES

New firmware on old hardware works only under certain
conditions. So Apple flashes older devices until they become
unusable.
THIS IS HOW EASY REPAIRS CAN BE

The Samsung Galaxy S III is slender and light, and can be taken
apart without very easily. The battery can be replaced without using
any tools.
PRINTER
BREAKS DOWN
ON SCHEDULE
The buttons on modern
printers often hide
counters that report nonexistent errors after a
certain number of print
operations have been
executed.
Little defects, heavy consequences

Devices that malfunction before their time dont just irritate the
owners: The extra expenses associated with production, transport
and disposal operations place heavy burdens on the people who
manufacture these products, our resources and the environment.
In their study Planned Obsolescence, consumerist Stefan
Schridde and economist Prof. Dr Christian Krei reckon that in
Germany, 2.6 percent of all the garbage in the country emerges
solely on account of planned obsolescence (ten million tonnes a
year). The claim is based on the estimate that seven percent of all
the expenses of private households can be traced back to planned
obsolescence. If planned obsolescence came to an end, it would
allegedly become possible to shut down five of Germanys 70
garbage incineration plants.
Those who believe that products with artificially-shortened
lifetimes help to enhance our economy are quite wrong. This is
how Christian Krei addresses the issue in the study: If human
labour, diligence and intelligence are spent on products that are
THE STRAIN OF SHORT LIFETIMES

According to the study titled Planned Obsolescence, the
phenomenon is responsible for 2.6 percent of the countrys garbage
production and seven percent of the energy consumption.
feature
designed to break down sooner rather than later, it represents an

irresponsible waste of resources which hurts all of us while
creating [] advantages for a select few. If the law manages to
prohibit planned obsolescence altogether, it would free up labour
forces and purchasing power, which could then be used to raise
our standard of living.
Solving problems and avoiding them in future

While it would only be possible to substantiate and combat
planned obsolescence through efforts undertaken at the
international level, theres very little that you, as a consumer
affected by the phenomenon, can do. If one of your devices stops
working in a suspiciously speedy manner, you should first Google
the type of device and the problem. Under certain circumstances,
the internet may be able to provide you with helpful instructions.
Case in point, it can tell you how you can speedily repair the
malfunctioning printer in a manner that involves no expenses
whatsoever. If the internet doesnt help, you should check whether
you can still raise warranty claims. If the answer is yes, you should
absolutely go ahead and raise the said claims, so that the
manufacturer will experience the consequences of their products
short life-spans.
If the warranty has already expired, you should think carefully
about whether or not you should send the device back to the
manufacturer, who could be more interested in selling a new
device than repairing an old one. Before dispatching the device,
you should run a check to find out what kinds of expenses are to
be expected. This check should also examine scenarios in which
the device might have to be disposed of without being repaired. It
would be more convenient to use a third-party workshop. When it
comes to cheap or old devices, trying to repair the devices on your
own can be quite revealing. If the situation involves a typical
instance of planned obsolescence, you should complain to the
manufacturer and publicise the incident in question via social
networks.
When a device is purchased, it is difficult to use external
impressions to accurately assess the devices longevity and repairfriendliness. Kyle Wiens, founder of the repair-related website ifixit.
com, described how he appraises new products in an interview
with the radio station CBC: I just ask myself how I can take the
device apart. If the casing is sealed using screws and the battery
can be removed without using any tools, it can be quite easy to
disassemble the device. If the device features none of these things,
it usually means that the casing is agglutinated, which makes it
incredibly difficult to carry out subsequent repairs. Before you put
the device under a microscope, you could use Wiens website or
YouTube to do some research on its repair-friendliness.
Those who attach a great deal of importance to longevity can
take advantage of the fact that commercial-related or professional
devices are usually more stable and easier to repair than typical
end-user devices. They are also supplied with spare parts for a
longer period of time. This is because the manufacturers have to
rely on long-term contracts with their major customers.
Consequently, it makes sense to choose an inconspicuous but
robustly-built commerical device over a designer notebook with an
over-sized CPU and GPU. A device of this kind might spare users
the frustration of having to deal with the fan and the hinges.
056
january 14
chip malaysia
FIRST AID FOR A PREMATURE DEFECT

Simple solutions for problems such as those involving printer-error
messages can often be found on the internet. The said solutions
could, for example, involve resetting the printer.
WHERE TO GO FOR REPAIRS

In certain countries, there are Repair Cafs that people can visit so
that little defects that have a big effect on the device, which are the
defects typically associated with planned obsolescence, can be
partially rectified for free
CHECK REPAIR-FRIENDLINESS BEFORE

PURCHASING
The website ifixit.com features detailed repair-related instructions
and assessments. They even have guides for the latest devices.
feature
Measured Deterioration
So now that you know a little more about programmed deterioration, we decided to re-test some older devices at the CHIP Test Centre
after they had been used for a few years, in order to determine the level of deterioration and here are some of our findings
APPLE IPAD 1
Power no longer
sufficient
LG IPS225V
Slight
deterioration in
contrast
The monitor, which features LED background
lighting, withstood two years of intense
office-based operations and came out almost
totally unscathed the contrast value was the
only thing that exhibited a measurable
deterioration. The LG monitor could turn out
to be a device that stands the test of time for
several years if the mechanics and the
electronics hold up. This shouldnt be taken
for granted for monitors in general.
1ST/2ND
CHANGE
MEASUREMENT
BRIGHTNESS
240/243
(CD/M2)
CONTRAST 189:1/176:1
COLOUR SPACE
101/102
(% SRGB)
= +1.1 %
6.9 %
=
= +0.9 %
Modern apps often fail to run smoothly on

the first iPad. At 256 MB, the memory
capacity is too low, and the operating system
cant be updated further than version 5.1
(version 7 is the latest one). Our test device
was used extensively in 2010, after which it
was not used as much. That explains why the
battery capacity has hardly decreased. With
only a decrease of about four percent, the
darkening of the display is barely visible.
Unlike the models that succeeded it, the
first iPad can be opened without using a hotair gun. In addition, its battery can be
removed without any application of force.
Even though it features long-lasting and
maintainable hardware, the iPad 1 was
outdone by other devices on account of the
fact that its memory is meagre and nonupgradeable.
1ST/2ND
CHANGE
MEASUREMENT
LIFE SPAN (H) 7:43/7:34
1.9 % =
BRIGHTNESS
335/323
3.8 %
=
(CD/M2)
GOOGLE NEXUS 7
Lifespan
decreases
The battery life of a Google Nexus 7 that had
been used extensively for about a year and a
half decreased by ten-percent, when
compared to our initial measurements. Even
so, it amounted to eight hours and 33
minutes, which was still quite high. The
display was just a little darker, but the
contrast value went up by about ten percent,
on account of the deeper shades of black.
The casing can be taken apart quite easily
with a spatula. Unlike the newer iPads, the
battery is fastened in place without using an
adhesive, and can be replaced quite easily.
The only flaw is that a splintered glass cover
can only be replaced if the display is replaced
along with it. That is expensive, but it also
prevents dust from getting into the device.
1ST/2ND
CHANGE
MEASUREMENT
= +1.5 %
LIFE SPAN (H) 9:33/8:33

BRIGHTNESS
300/298
(CD/M2)
chip malaysia
10.5 %
0.7 % =
= +11 %
january 14
057
SAMSUNG GALAXY NEXUS
OLED Weakens
PHILIPS 42PFL9900D
Brightness deteriorates
For four years, the Philips LCD TV was kept in the lobby of the CHIP
Germany editorial office, where it was kept running on a daily
basis from 1,000 hours to 1,800 hours. And it held up well, too.
However, the maximum brightness of the display, which was backlit using conventional fluorescent tubes, decreased by 23 percent.
The maintainability is primarily limited by the availability of
spare parts. Due to the short product cycles of television sets, this
availability is often limited to a period of two years. The results
generated by our test-TV, which was manufactured in 2008, cannot
unconditionally be carried over to the latest Philips devices, as the
development and production domains have been completely
transferred to the Taiwanese company TPV.
1ST/2ND
MEASUREMENT
BRIGHTNESS (CD/M2) 505/387
BLACK LEVEL (CD/M2) 0.24/0.18
1ST/2ND
MEASUREMENT
CHANGE
23.0 %
25.0 %
The AMOLED screen exhibits particularly

crisp colours and high contrast values. The
modest brightness level of the test device,
which was used regularly ever since it was
launched, wasnt quite the same anymore
as it was 40 percent darker. The current
brightness level of 177cd/m2 is no longer
sufficient for the device to be used under
direct sunlight.
The battery didnt cope well with the
persistent and extensive usage as well.
This could also be related to the upgrade to
the newest version of Android, i.e. version
4.3. On the other hand, the software exerts
a purely positive influence on the
performance: When it comes to the
JavaScript-heavy Vellamo benchmark for
browsers, the GALAXY Nexus scored about
50 percent higher than its previous score.
=
=
LIFE SPAN (H) 6:50/3:47
= +5.0 %

CONTRAST 210:1/187
MEDION ERAZER X7817
APPLE IPHONE 4
Worn-out battery
Display
deteriorates
For about a year, the gaming notebook was used on a nearcontinuous basis. Throughout most of this time period, it was
connected to the mains adapter, which didnt exactly benefit the
battery: The run-time for the office-mode decreased from six hours
ten minutes to four hours nine minutes. The number of charge
cycles could not be read out in a manner that would facilitate a
comparison with a business device, but the constant recharging
did weaken the
battery.
During operation,
the display was
usually downregulated, which is
why the background
lighting and the
maximum brightness
level did not
deteriorate to a
significant degree.
1ST/2ND
MEASUREMENT
LIFE SPAN (H) 6:10/4:09
058
january 14
chip malaysia
CHANGE
4.7 % =
4.9 % =
32.7 %
=
CHANGE
=
45.0 %
40.0 %
=
11.0 % =
Our iPhone 4 was used

extensively at first but after a
while it was not used as much.
That explains the minor decrease
of two percent in the battery
service life. Despite the low
degree of utilisation, the display
deteriorated quite significantly: It
became about 17 percent darker.
The maintainability of the
iPhone 4 could have been better,
too. In principle, the battery can
be replaced without any difficulty,
but this can only be done if you have a special pentalobe
screwdriver to unscrew the iPhones casing. The glass at the front
can only be replaced if the entire display unit is replaced along
with it.
1ST/2ND
MEASUREMENT
LIFE SPAN (H) 5:42 h
CHANGE
2.0 % =
16.6 %
=
4.1 % =
feature
EPSON EH-TW6000W
SAMSUNG SSD 470 128 GB
Weakened lamp
Reduced reaction-time
For about a year and a half, the Epson beamer was placed in a
conference room and used in conjunction with long PowerPoint
presentations. As expected, the brightness of the lamp decreased,
and the magnitude of the decline was as high as 25 percent. Unlike
flat-screen displays, this precipitates a comparable drop in the
projectors contrast value. Replacing the lamp should lead to
results that would be identical to the results generated during the
initial test, but at 250 euros (RM1,130), the original spare part also
costs about a seventh of the price of the device.
This SSD was used in a private PC for a good two years, during
which time it stacked up 1,800 operating hours. Due to its almostnew condition, the transfer rates have suffered practically no
decline whatsoever. However, the number of operations per
second, which is of decisive importance in terms of the SSDs
speed, took a dramatic decline.
However, this problem can be rectified by creating an image of
the drive and securely deleting it in the Samsung Magician
software application. After this has been done, the SSD will be as
fast as it was when it was brand-new, and it will even stay that way
after you play back the image.
1ST/2ND
MEASUREMENT
CHANGE
LUMINOUS FLUX
1.659/1.250
(LM)
CONTRAST 74:1/53:1
BRI. DISTR. EQUIP.
5,9/6,9
(%)
24.7 %
28.4 %
1ST/2ND
MEASUREMENT
INTEL SSD X25-M 80 GB
OCZ VERTEX 3 240 GB
Minor losses
The Intel SSD suffered only minor performance-related losses
after almost three years and 2,700 hours of operation in a test
PC. The transfer rates were practically unchanged, within the
context of the measuring tolerance. Furthermore, the decline in
the number of operations per second was not as pronounced
as it was in case of the Samsung device.
The secure erase trick (in case of Intel SSDs, the Intel SSD
Toolkit application is to be used) works just as well as it does
with the Samsung SSD. However, in this case, the incentive to
go through the somewhat complicated procedure is not as
compelling, given the minor losses.
1ST/2ND
CHANGE
MEASUREMENT
READING (MB/S) 272.7/272.7

WRITING (MB/S) 85.9/86.1
AVG. IOPS 12.120/8.784
0.0 %
0.3 % 1=
=
62.5 %
READING (MB/S) 265.1/265.1

WRITING (MB/S) 259.1/258.3
AVG. IOPS 12.566/4.708
1.0 % 9=
CHANGE
Slow writing
After the first measurement was carried out, the OCZ Vertex had to
withstand about 1.4 terabytes worth (which is six times its
capacity) of write-access operations. While that exerted no
measurable negative influence on the sequential reading rate, it led
to a significant decline in the writing-related performance.
However, this is only moderately important when the device is
used as a system disk.
The decrease in the number of input/output operations per
second (IOPS) was similar to the decline exhibited by the reading
rate. In practice, a secure erase operation would be helpful,
although the difference may hardly be noticeable.
1ST/2ND
CHANGE
MEASUREMENT
0.0 %
2= +0.2 %
27.5 %
READING (MB/S) 524.8/527.1

WRITING (MB/S) 316.2/196.4
AVG. IOPS 7.071/4.378
3= +0.4 %
37.9 %
38.1 %
chip malaysia
=
=
january 14
059
feature
know it all
The Next-Gen Console Duel
Both launched around the same time, these next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony are
highly-anticipated devices by gamers and are on manys wishlists. Here are their differences
and similarities By Pirmin Moselewski
MICROSOFT XBOX ONE
SONY PLAYSTATION 4
Primary markets for the Xbox

One:
Thats the estimated price for the
Microsoft
Xbox One
Primary markets of
PS4:
RM1,799
USA, UK Europe,
PS4
basic bundle with

is the cost of a
500GB storage. Theres also the PS Camera
bundle for RM1,899; Killzone: Shadow Fall
bundle for RM1,939
and Battlefield 4
bundle for RM1,969
Asia
with a controller and a Kinect sensor

when it comes to Malaysia
12
The Xbox has an
GPUs units with
The PS4 has an
8-core CPU with 8-core CPU with
853
1.75 GHz
,a
Mhz are installed in the
500GB
hard disk and
8GB RAM
Xbox graphics card
1.6 GHz
,a
500GB
hard disk and 8GB
RAM
According to Microsoft, 4K resolution
games and videos
800
Mhz are installed
in the PS4 graphics card
DVDs
Blu-rays
DVDs
Blu-rays
are supported by the

Xbox One
are supported by the

PS4
and
176Gbps
and
The PlayStation 4 will have
33
for
are supported
launch titles were announced for

Xbox One, including Call of Duty:
22 Ghosts
and Forza
Motorsport 5
76 Mil
launch titles; 18 of
these will be purely digital.
These include
The new iteration of the
costs RM249
RM129
is the monthly fee for the
of Xbox Live
Microsoft has not implemented
not
support older games
Region Lock
for games in Xbox One
8
wireless controllers
with a range of more than 9
metres
january 14
chip malaysia
videos
per year is the fee for
Plus
and
76 Mil
editions of PS3 were

sold over the counter
worldwide
Sony has not implemented
Region Lock
for
games in PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4 does not support older games
Remote-
The Xbox
With the help of
SmartGlass
app turns a tablet into a
Play PS4 games can be played on

the PS Vita
second screen for the console
Watch
Dogs
Assassins Creed IV
subscription to PlayStation
Xbox One supports up to
060
For the PS4, 4K

resolution is only
supported for
is
equipped with infrared
technology and a microphone
Gold membership
Xbox One does
The PlayStation 4 Eye
Kinect HD camera
camera
RM23
unit of the Xbox 360

were sold over the
counter worldwide
GPUs with
The 8GB GDDR5 memory of the PS4

achieves memory bandwidths of
The 8GB DDR3 memory of Xbox One

achieves memory bandwidths
68.3 Gbps
18
The new additions in the

PS4 controller include a
Share key,
which posts videos of the
current game online
PHOTOS: MICROSOFT; SONY; UBISOFT
RM2,250
cover story
Upcoming
Trends In 2014
Virtual reality, flexible displays, 8K cameras next year promises to be loaded with
technological innovations. Even computers and networks will be significantly faster,
better and safer
By Markus Mandau
062
january 14
chip malaysia
PHOTOS: 20TH CENTURY FOX FROM DIE BCHERDIEBIN; ISTOCKPHOTO/

GMNICHOLAS; LG DISPLAYS; VALVE; WIKIPEDIA/SERGEY GALYONKIN
trends of 2014
cover story
trends of 2014
PC: Efficiency And Power

Thanks to technical innovations, consumers will be introduced
to even more energy-efficient and powerful processors in 2014.
To optimise the PC platform, we will also see durable SSDs,
larger hard disks and a new memory standard
2
3
The new high-end PCs

Both the big CPU manufacturers are
launching chips that compute faster and
consume less power. AMD has taken the
first step: in addition to the new Opteron
processors 1 , which are based on the
power-saving ARM architecture A57 (see
next page), CPUs from the Kaveri
generation will be available for notebooks
and PCs, starting 2014 with an increased
output of 30 percent per cycle. Intel will
start with a Haswell Refresh and the
9-series chipset with SATA Express. This
interface for hard drives allows a speed of
12 Gbps more than thrice as that of the
current SATA 6G. This works well even for

the fastest SSDs. 2014 will also bring in the
first controllers for the Turbo USB 3.1.
The Broadwell generation of processors 2
with smaller transistors will hit the shelves
in the second half of the new year: the size
has shrunk from 22 to 14nanometres.
According to Intel, this would also reduce
power consumption by 30 percent but still
has the same performance level.
Notebooks with 15 hours of battery
runtime and more will become a norm. To
start with, Broadwell will be available as a
mobile variant with an integrated graphics
chip that performs well enough for

installing a gesture control la Kinect in the
new Ultrabooks by using a stereoscopic
camera. The most economical Broadwell
variant works well even without fans
although it computes considerably faster
than the latest mobile chips used in
smartphones and tablets.
With the Haswell-E, 3 Intel showcases the
high-performance variant of the latest CPU
generation. The eight core model will lead
the Performance Benchmarks, especially
since Haswell-E also makes use of the next
RAM generation DDR4.
24
CONTROL GATE
ISOLATOR
CHANNEL
2
READING HEAD
WRITE HEAD
10TB SMR drives
Vertical Flash cells for SSDs
Turbo memory in PC
In 2014, Seagate plans to release its 6TB

drives with SMR (Shingle Magnetic
Recording) technology SMR shows
potential for producing 8 10TB drives. In
SMRs, the write head magnetises bits in
tracks, which are as wide as those in the
perpendicular technology but here they
overlap one another like shingles on a roof.
The reading head, which is smaller than the
write head, traces bits only from the narrow
space, thus achieving higher data density
and higher drive capacity.
Samsungs V-Nand, a new type of Flash

cells, makes it possible to have durable and
large SSDs. Two dozen Flash cells are
stacked together in a semi-conductor layer.
V-Nand stores data as electrons in an
isolator. The Control Gate fills and empties
it. The data is read out via a channel.
V-Nand is constructed in a 30nm process
but achieves the storage density of a
normal 20nm Flash, which achieves only
3,000 deletion cycles while V-Nand
achieves more than 30,000.
DDR4-RAM has a bigger capacity and a

lower operating voltage, it is also clocked
higher than the current memory modules.
But next year we will witness an increase in
efficiency: Micron will start mass producing
its Hybrid Memory Cube, which, like the
V-Nand, stacks the memory layers. This
enables it to achieve higher speeds at lower
energy consumption. However, the PC
architecture needs to be modified for home
computers and there is little chance that
this would be done before 2016.
chip malaysia
january 14
063
cover story
trends of 2014
Mobile: Dynamically Flexible

All thanks to a new chip generation, tablets wont need to be connected to
a power point often. As for smartphones, they will come in all colours and
shapes and also equipped with flexible OLEDs and displays with Retina
resolution.
1
2
More power and longer runtimes

than the current A15/A7 generation (e.g.
the ones used in the GALAXY S4). ARM is
expecting a performance rise of up to 30
percent. Some ARM license holders have
anticipated this development: the A7 chip
used in iPhone 5s already runs on ARMv8
commands. According to insider news,
Apple intends to change its chip producers
in 2014 and not rely on the A8 1 with
28nm transistors from Samsung, but with
20nm chips from TSMC. If industry
rumours are to be believed, then Samsung
will dump the usual ARM blueprint for the
upcoming chip generation Exynos 6
2 and, like Apple, modify its own chips to

suit the requirements of its mobile devices
better by obtaining an architecture license.
Intel has started a performance race with
the current Atom generation Bay-Trail. The
first Bay-Trail tablets with Android and
Windows 8, for example the Omni 10 from
HP 3 are already available in certain
countries. Bay Trail with 64-bit will be
launched some time in 2014. At the end of
next year, we will witness a new Atom chip
with 14nm transistors, which will improve
the runtime of mobile devices to a large
extent.
Gesture control and Touch ID
Curved smartphones
Mobile with extreme resolution
One of Googles latest acquisition is the

start-up Flutter that has developed an app
for Mac OS and Windows, which makes
operating media players via gesture control
possible. Android and Chrome OS will also
be equipped with the Touch ID function.
Many Android device manufacturers are
participating in the FIDO (Fast Identity
Online) project. With FIDO, users wont
only be able to unlock a mobile device
using his fingerprint but it can also be used
as identity proof for online services.
The Samsung GALAXY Round and LG Flex

G (pictured above) are two smartphones
with a curved OLED display which should
be making their way over to Malaysia soon.
If these devices assert themselves in the
market, this trend would definitely continue
on in 2014 and other manufacturers would
likely follow. The curved shape also brings
about other developments such as curved
batteries. The scratch-proof Gorilla Glass
will also be replaced by Willow Glass,
which is very thin and extremely flexible.
Retina displays with ultra-high resolution

are popular among tablets and in 2014, the
QHD displays from LG will make higher
pixel densities popular among
smartphones as well. The LG display offers
a resolution of 1,440x2,560 at 538ppi.
Experts such as Dr. Raymond Soneira, who
works with the calibration specialist
DisplayMate, has mixed feelings about
such a high pixel density: as it adds no
value to videos and photos but makes texts
and graphics look better.
The British company ARM creates the

blueprints for more than 95 percent of all
mobile chips. It determines how quickly
and economically tablets and smartphones
compute. With the Cortex A53 and A57
expected to launch in 2014, we will have a
new generation with ARMv8 command set,
which would have support for 64-bit
processes. A53 and A57 cores will be
implanted together on a chip, where the
powerful A57 ensures good speed when
required and the weaker A53 maintains
low power consumption during routine
tasks. Both cores work more efficiently
FLUTTER
The user holds

his hand in
front of the
webcam
The webcam
recognises the
gesture
Flutter then
controls the
computer
SITE.COM
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chip malaysia
cover story
trends of 2014
Fun: Computer On You

Do you fancy wearing computers? 2014 will see an increase in the number of goggles, watches
and rings that will be equipped with chips and apps in 2014. Gamers will finally be able to immerse
themselves into virtual reality because of these new goggles.
1
Gaming in virtual reality

The Oculus Rift 1 goggles have brought
virtual reality (VR) back into the gaming
world. The latest prototypes have a
diagonal and a horizontal viewing angle of
110- and 90-degrees respectively. The
position sensor calculates head
movements of the user with a frequency of
1,000Hz. This minimises the delay in image
buildup, thus saving gamers from feeling
dizzy. The release of the retail version is
planned for the end of 2014 and is
equipped with features such as a Full HD
resolution, refresh rates of 90 to 120Hz and
more.
At the time of writing, development kits

along with the prototypes have already
been distributed to game developers so
that they can tune their products to the VR
goggles. Apart from that, there will be
drivers that optimise a series of games for
Oculus Rift like VorpX for Windows. This
driver makes 89 old games such as Need
for Speed work with the Oculus Rift.
The success of Oculus Rift has attracted
Sonys attention and it is planning to have
a VR goggle for its PlayStation 4. The initial
internal tests are allegedly in progress at
the moment. From the technological point
of view, there is nothing that should stop

the execution of these goggles; after all
Sony already produces 3D goggles such as
the HMZ-T3W 2 . In addition to gaming
consoles from Sony and Microsoft, a
gaming-PC will also be seen in living rooms
in the new year. Valve, who operates the
largest online service for PC games, Steam,
will be releasing its own platform that runs
on the Linux-based Steam OS. To ensure
that games run without jerking on large
displays, Valve has already published
hardware specifications for its Steam
machines and even developed a
Gamepad 3 .
Travel with your data goggles
High-quality 3D printers
Smart watch in your ring
Googles Glass will be going into

production and will get a dedicated app
store. A list of voice commands shows
what the Glass can do in addition to
displaying data. Other manufacturers offer
something different from what Google
does: the Virtual Retinal Display from
Avegant projects contents over a panel of
two million micro mirrors onto the retina of
the eye. This corresponds to the picture
viewed on an 80-inch TV from three metres.
Currently, affordable 3D printers utilise the

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) method
that produces average quality printing
results. Come February 2014, companies
like Formlabs will offer printers with better
printer quality such as the Form 1 (pictured
above), which uses stereolithography. In
this process, the object is hardened in
layers of 25 micrometres with a laser. The
material used includes metal and ceramic
powder in addition to plastic.
Wearable Computers are fast becoming a

huge hit with consumers thanks to devices
as they are designed to look stylish and
also packed with features. But Wearable
Computers involves much more than just
watches and goggles. The Kickstarter
product Ring Clock is currently pushing the
limits of what is feasible. This ring has 144
LEDs that show the time. This is why the
ring needs to be wirelessly charged quite
often. Come 2014, you will be able to grab
one of these for about US$200 (RM657).
chip malaysia
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065
cover story
trends of 2014
Multimedia: Tack-Sharp Images

HD is the past; 2014 ushers in Ultra HD
with four times more resolution. 4K TVs
will become more affordable as TV
stations have already started recording in
that format. A chip in the monitor will put
an end to flickering images when playing
games and recording.
Ultra HD displays in every device

4K monitors and TVs are the purest form of
luxury and cost as much as a small car. But
devices with resolutions of about
2,160x3,840 pixels will become more
affordable starting next year. This change
will be heralded by mobile computing
devices from Samsungs ATIV series. The
Ultrabook ATIV Book 9 Plus with a
resolution of 1,800x3,200 pixels is already
in some markets. But the ATIV Q 1 , with
Windows 8.1 and Android will only make
its appearance in 2014. Japan Display Inc.,
founded by Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi has
already introduced a 12-inch 4K display for

notebooks and tablets. It will be installed in
devices starting this year. 4K TVs such as
those from the M9 series from Toshiba 2
restrict themselves to diagonals that are
58-inches and higher. They deliver
significantly sharper pictures especially
with HDTV programmes. For intelligent
scaling, the TVs use their integrated multicore processors. Although the devices will
cost at least 3,000 Euros (RM13,500,
industry insiders say that the prices will
definitely decrease as the new year passes
and will be on par with the prices of HDTVs

with the same screen sizes. 4K TVs
however still havent solved their problem
of transmitting via HDMI 2.0 (see below).
Even TV material with 4K resolution is very
rare. Large 4K monitors will continue to be
used only by specialists, who work with the
necessary photo and video material, even
in 2014. But technology is doing something
on this front: Sony has announced a
30-inch OLED monitor in 4K resolution 3
as part of its Trimaster series but the
OLED factor makes it almost as expensive
as a compact car.
TV cameras with 8K resolution
Control chip in displays
4K image transfer and HDMI 2.0

0
Sky has recently started using 4K cameras

for recording football games for the
Champions League. Many stations are
planning 4K transmissions for 2015. The
Japanese will be going a step further at the
World Cup in 2014 in Brazil: the NHK
station will record the games with a handheld 8K cam developed by Astrodesign
with a resolution of 4,320x7,680 pixels.
NHK predicts that they will be able to
conduct an 8K broadcast in 2020, at the
Olympic Games in Tokyo.
NVIDIA has recently introduced a chip
To playback 3D 4K videos, a TV has to be

able to produce at least 60 frames per
second (fps), however, HDMI 1.4 is only able
to produce a maximum of 30fps. There are
two solutions to this, the implementation of
HDMI 2.0 or a little trick used by many
manufacturers: film data is projected via
HDMI 1.4 in the 4:2:2 colour space with 12Bit colour depth even if it is available as 4:2:0
with eight-Bit, like on a Blu-ray. 4K HDTVs
will be receiving firmware updates for the
4:2:0 transmission via HDMI 1.4.
066
january 14
chip malaysia
known as G-Sync that adjusts the refresh

rates of both the monitor and graphics
card. If G-Sync is installed in the monitor,
the GeForce graphics card can determine
the frequency with which the monitor
should display the images. This leaves no
room for delayed reactions and choppy
videos. ASUS, BenQ, Phillips and
ViewSonic have already announced new
monitors with G-Sync for 2014.
cover story
trends of 2014
Internet: Safe And Swift

New services such as the secure web memory Cloud RAID should put an end to the NSAs
snooping just like the next HTTP version. Providers will also upgrade and accelerate DSL
connections and LTE networks at the same time.
3 3
3
1
2
DATA MANAGEMENT
Split data
Encrypt data
Distribute
data
Amazon S3
Amazon
Azure
Connector
Microsoft
Azure
Google
Google
NSA-secure protocols and services

The fact that Merkels smartphone was
monitored only marks the proverbial tip of
the iceberg. An alliance between five secret
services, including the American NSA and
the British GCHQ, monitors and saves
most of the web communication. Thats
the reason the topic of secure encryption is
right at the top of the 2014 agenda of the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The
IETF is working on a new application
protocol, HTTP 2.0 that should be
introduced at the end of next year.
Adopting Googles SPDY (pronounced
SPEEDY) technology 1 could speed up

Internet connections. A new encryption for
HTTPS is currently under negotiation
because the NSA has compromised the
current one. Before HTTP 2.0 starts being
used, a series of projects that develop
NSA-secure services will start next year.
The Hasso Plattner Institute has suggested
a Cloud-RAID 2 It splits the data, which
the user stores on the web, locally in
several blocks, encrypts it and places it
separately on different commercial Cloud
platforms such as Amazon, Microsoft or
Google. Others have suggested the

provision of encrypted chat services: one of
the Pirate Bay founders started Heml.is. Its
aim is to create messenger apps 3 for
Android and iOS which surfers can use to
communicate with each other without the
risk of being monitored. Both apps are
currently in the closed alpha phase. Even
the developers of the P2P protocol
BitTorrent are starting a BitTorrent chat.
The Alpha client is running through the
open test phase at the moment.
Vectoring DSL from 100mbps
Backbone turbo for the Internet
The next LTE level is here
Vectoring doubles the VDSL speed because

the technology eliminates most of the
interfering signals between the Digital
Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer
(DSLAM) cross-connection cabinet and the
subscriber terminal. Various tests have
shown how well this works: those who live
at a distance of 400 metres from the
DSLAM can surf with up to 110mbps. Users
will need new modems and the DSLAMs
are upgraded for this. This is done with
Line-Cards (see image) from Keymile.
To accelerate the infrastructure of the

World Wide Web, providers such as Cisco
have adopted the Ethernet standard
802.3ba. Other network providers and data
centres will make use of it too at the end of
next year when they use speedy switches.
The present 10GB generation will be
replaced by 100GB devices like the 1830
PSS from Alcatel-Lucent (see image). The
change will be accompanied by more
intensive use of photonic, integrated
circuits.
While LTE is still fairly new in Malaysia and

coverage is yet to reach the whole country,
network providers in other countries have
levelled up the maximum speed to
150Mbps with LTE plus. For this to work,
users will require a category 4 LTE devices.
In 2014, providers are planning an LTE
upgrade to level 5, which will include
doubling the LTE antennas (4 x 4 MIMO).
This will increase the download rate to
300Mbps. However, this is only possible
with next-gen smartphones.
chip malaysia
january 14
067
test lab
test bed
TEST LAB: The Tools
Here at the CHIP Test Labs, we adhere to the high requirements set by the CHIP International
Testcenter standards. This means that everything here -- from our own personal knowledge and
to our trusted tools of the trade -- are meant to provide the most optimised, unbiased and
comprehensive review to every product that comes through our doors. As thus, our test bed
tools are specifically picked to get the most out of every test we perform
Intel Platform
Motherboards
Intel DZ77GA-70K
Intel DZ87KLT-75K
Graphics
Processing Unit
MSI GeForce GTX
680 Lightning
Processors
Intel Core i7-3770K
Intel Core i7-4770K
Cooler Master Silent Pro

Hybrid (1300W)
Storage
Western Digital
SiliconEdge Blue 256GB
SATA
Western Digital My Book
Motherboards
ASUS Sabertooth 990FX
MSI A75MA-G55
Graphics
Processing Unit
ASUS AMD Radeon HD
6970
Processors
CPU Cooler
Cooler Master X6
PSU, Storage & RAM

Power Supply
AMD Platform
Live Duo
Memory
Kingston HyperX
KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX
Kingston HyperX
KHX1600C8D3K4/8GX
AMD FX-8150
AMD A8-3850
CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 212
EVO
Benchmark Software
Operating
System
Windows 7 Ultimate
(64-bit)
Futuremark
PCMark 7
PCMark 8
3DMark 11
3DMark
Powermark
Industry
Standard
Benchmark
Tools
AIDA64
SiSoftware SANDRA
Speccy
Unigine Heaven
chip malaysia
january 14
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test lab
contents
TEST LAB
10
12
The
Technologica
Crux
3
21
14
Its a new year, and a fresh beginning for

us at CHIP Malaysia. No doubt you guys
may have been surprised at a few changes
that we had in store, and if you have any
comments about how to improve, do write
in to us so that we may improve.
Introductions aside, no doubt some of you
may be having fun with your newly
bought PlayStation 4. What games did you
get with it, and which ones are you guys
looking forward to in the near future?
In this months Test Lab, weve got quite a
few beasts that came through our doors,
and on the components front, these
include the ASUS Matrix Platinum Radeon
R9 280X, the ASUS Maximus VI Gene, the
MSI GTX 780Ti Gaming and the MSI Z87I
Gaming AC.
If finished products are more your thing,
weve also got a couple of gaming
machines courtesy of MSI in the form of
the MSI Gaming AIO as well as the MSI
GP60 Gaming Notebook. Other notebooks
on display include the ASUS Zenbook
UX301, the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK E743 and the
Dell Latitude E7240.
15
13
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
There are more of course, but as usual, to

find out what other products we reviewed
this month, youre going to have to turn
the pages and read on!
12
13
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chip malaysia
Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 Kids

ASUS Zenbook UX301
Canon EOS 100D
MSI GP 60 Gaming Notebook
Dell Latitude E7240
ASUS Matrix Platinum R9 280X
Sonic Gear Pandora 3
Fujitsu LIFEBOOK E743
Norton 360 Multi-Device
BenQ RL2455HM Gaming Monitor
Canon imageCLASS MF8280CW
Multifunction Printer
MSI Gaming All-in-One PC AG2712
Acer Liquid E2
078
079
080
081
082
083
084
085
086
087
088
089
090
test lab
contents
CONTENTS
11
20
18
16
17
19
5
2
14
15
16
17
CM Storm Reaper
ASUS Fonepad 7
MSI GTX 780Ti Gaming
Cooler Master G750M
091
092
093
094
Ratings
Each product review is rated on a scale
of 1 to 5 for different key parameters:
18
19
20
21
MSI Z87I Gaming AC

Corsair RM1000 PSU
ASUS Maximus VI Gene
Philips Brilliance 231C5
095
096
097
098
CHIP Awards
CHIP Editors Choice Award
Awarded to products that receive unanimous
endorsement from all CHIP editors for its overall
brilliance
PERFORMANCE : Refers to the efficiency of execution

FEATURES : Rates the abilities and unique characteristics
available
DESIGN : Varies according to product. Finished products form factor and build quality. Hardware components layout, size and cooling solution. Software - user interface
VALUE : Calculated from the performance and features of
the product in relation to the price
CHIP Outstanding Award

Reserved for products that combine astute technical
performance with good quality and design
CHIP Recommended Award

Given to products that possess singular quality
worthy of a recommendation
chip malaysia
january 14
071
test lab
first looks
An Encore From Toshiba

If youre looking for a tablet device that is both compact and provides you with a full
Windows experience, you cant go wrong with Toshibas latest offering in the form of the
Toshiba Encore WT8 Tablet. This little pocket computer comes equipped with an Intel
Atom quad-core processor which runs Microsofts latest Windows 8.1 operating
system and has a full version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013,
plus app optimised features such as dual stereo mics and an 8MP camera.
Not only that, the eight-inch Clear SuperView LED display features a
resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels with five point touch as well as a micro HDMI
slot and a microSD slot for expanded storage
Toshiba Encore WT8 Tablet
Price: RM1,499
Contact: Teledynamics Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 5568 7788
Info: pc.toshiba-asia.com
Going White
The printing industry is a large and complex one, where many types of printers are used
to print different products and materials. Some of these printers, especially the white
printer segment are not only bulky, but theyre slow to print as well, often costing
company a lot of money and time to use. OKI, with their newly announced C711WT
model, aim to fix that with new and innovative technologies. Instead of using inkjet,
dye sublimation or transfer film-ready technologies, the C711WT printer uses toners
instead, which is much more cost effective. It offers 4-colour printing (cyan, magenta,
yellow and white) at 8ppm using special media and 34ppm with plain paper. The colour
toner yield is 11,500 pages while the white toner capacity is 6,000 pages. it also features
flexible handling of a broad range of media including photo printing, layout proofs, film
printing, packaging, POS and T-shirt transfers at low running and printing costs.
OKI C711WT
Price: RM10,999
Contact: OKI Data (S) Pte Ltd.
Phone: (03) 2287 1177
Info: www.okiprintingsolutions.com.my
Sweet Tunes All Around

Heres yet another portable speaker from TDK, a brand that is known for its variety of
audio and storage products. The TDK A360 Wireless 360 Speakers may sound like a
mouthful, but it does exactly what it is advertised to do: deliver sound in a 360 degree
arc. The A360 is capable of streaming audio via Bluetooth 2.1 enabled devices and is
configured with the omnidirectional, room-filling TDK Signature Sound produced by
four full range left and right speakers and a ported subwoofer. On top of that, the A360
comes with a built-in battery that is capable of lasting about six hours on a single charge
and is water resistant with an IPx3 rating under international standards. It also has a USB
charging-only port that allows you to charge your mobile devices in a pinch.
TDK A360 Wireless 360 Speaker
Price: RM799
Contact: Digital Paper Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 5569 2002
Info: www.tdkperformance.com
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test lab
first looks
The Phablet You Never Knew You Needed

Much has been said about 2-in-1 devices and how the lines between devices are starting
to blur. While this has been mostly true for tablets and notebooks, many seem to have
forgotten that smartphones and tablets have almost no distinction between one another
as well, as ASUS Fonepad Note 6 can show you. This six-inch tablet with 3G and GSM
capabilities is pretty much an amalgamation of both phone and tablet sensibilities,
which combine to provide you with a device that does both without looking too tacky.
Powered by an Intel Atom Z2560 dual-core processor, the Fonepad Note 6 runs
Android 4.2 and comes with a choice of either 16- or 32GB of storage space, which
is expandable via MicroSD. If you like scribbling or writing down stuff in your
free time, ASUS has also included a stylus which you can use to do so with the
various apps that can be found in the device.
ASUS Fonepad Note 6
Price:
RM1,399
Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn. Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 6286 8222
Info: asus.com/my
A DSLR For Movie-making

Ever since the boom of the DSLR, camera manufacturers have been busy trying to one-up its
competition by providing users with more features than one would have hoped for. Canon, in this
case went the cinematography route, and has equipped its flagship EOS 1D model with
movie-making features, complete with certification, and gets its own moniker in the
EOS 1D-C The 1D-C, much like its 1D brother, features an 18.1 megapixel sensor which
is capable of taking videos up to 4K resolution. The videos are recorded in Motion
JPEG and encoded in H.264, capturing the details and essence of the video in a pure,
uncompressed format. On top of that, the camera has also been tested and certified by
the European Broadcasting Union for meeting the standards for HD content acquisition,
which makes it the first ever DSLR to gain that recognition.
Canon EOS 1D-C
Price: TBA
Contact: Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7884 6000
Info: www.canon.com.my
Bright and Cheerful

While it would be nice to own a Nokia Lumia 1020, not everyones up to
the task of splurging so much money on a smartphone. If youre looking
for a compromise that allows you to own a Lumia or a Windows Phone 8
smartphone, Nokia has just the thing for you in the form of the Nokia Lumia
525. This four inch smartphone is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon
S4 processor and is fitted with 1GB of RAM alongside 8GBs of storage space.
As with all other recently launched Lumia smartphones, it comes with the Nokia
Smart Cam app which allows you to take great photos with the phones 5MP
camera. Unlike many other Lumias however, the 525 comes with changeable covers
in orange, yellow and white to fit your mood and style.
Nokia Lumia 525
Price: RM499
Contact: Nokia (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: 1 300 88 1600
Info: www.nokia.com.my
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first looks
The Yoga, Now in Tablet Form

The Yoga Tablet is what Lenovo calls a multimode tablet as there are several ways of
using it. Powered by 1.2GHz Mediatek quad-core processor, the eight-inch tablet (which
also comes in a 10-inch variant) features a HD display of 1,280 x 800 pixels and runs
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The design of the Yoga Tablet is slightly different from what youd
ud
expect out of a tablet, as the Yoga Tablet has a cylindrical grip which houses both a large
ge
power button as well as a stand, which means you can use the tablet three ways: grip the
he
tablet with your hand, put it on a flat surface and have the grip tilt the tablet slightly, or pull
out the stand and let the tablet function as a display or frame of sorts.
Lenovo Yoga Tablet 8
Price: RM999
Contact: Lenovo Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: 1 800 80 8575
Info: www.lenovo.com.my
Mor
More Phones From Ninetology!
Who doesnt love a good, functional and affordable smartphone? If youre in the market
for a new Android-based smartphone that does not break your bank, Ninetology has
recen
recently announced the availability of the Ninetology U9 P1+. Powered by a dual-core
1.2GH
1.2GHz processor, this five inch smartphone also comes with a 5MP camera and 4GBs of
stora
storage space which is expandable up to 32GBs via MicroSD. The P1+ runs Android 4.2
Jelly Bean, which is one of the latest versions of the Android mobile operating system.
Nine
Ninetology U9 P1+
Pric
Price: TBA
Con
Contact: 9 Care Hotline
Pho
Phone: (03) 5569 3233
Inf
Info: www.ninetology.com
As Simple As They Come

It seems that MSI is starting to warm up to the Windows tablet ecosystem with the release
of its own W20 3M Windows 8.1 tablet. This 11.6-inch slate device is powered by a dualcore AMD A4 APU, and comes equipped with an mSATA SD for faster read-write access
performance. Not only that, as the W20 3M is using an APU, it also benefits from having a
discrete-class GPU in the form of the AMD Radeon HD8180 graphics processor, which AMD
claims is up to five times faster and smoother than its competitor. The tablet also comes
with an ultra-long Wi-Fi adapter which is capable of getting a signal from even 100 metres
away.
MSI W20 3M
Price: TBA
Contact: MediaForte (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7960 6868
Info: my.msi.com
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test lab
first looks
Gaming Loud And Clear

If youre looking for a new gaming headset to play with, Cooler Master has just got the thing
for you. Theyve recently announced a series of new headphones called the Ceres series.
The highest end of this series of headphones is the Ceres-500. The Ceres-500 is designed
with full ear coverage and breathable mesh ear cups that not only provide great comfort, but
noise isolation as well. Its foldable, swivel ear cup design gives gamers easier storage and
transportation around LAN parties or during downtimes in between battles. Ceres-500 offers
a dual usage mode to switch between Console/PC mode. A built-in amplifier paired with
40mm drivers provides gamers with a deep, full-range, and booming sound to give them the
competitive edge in a match.
Cooler Master Ceres-500
Price: RM189
Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn. Bhd., Build Technology Supply Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7956 6300, (03) 7955 3699
Info: www.cmstorm.com
Opal-certified SSD
Despite being prohibitively expensive several years ago, SSDs are now used in almost
every user situation, be it for home, business or enterprise. Corporations do require the
burst of speed SSDs can provide, but are often worried that the data stored within these
drives can be compromised. This is where Kingston comes in with the Kingston SSDNow
KC300. The KC300 has recently been tested for compliance with TCG Opal 1.0, which allows
IT administrators to manage security policies, password recovery, compliance logging,
automatic updates and user creation/deletion. The self-encrypting drive also provides
organizations with strong, easy-to-use and high performance built-in security and works with
a number of popular endpoint software applications that give users both flexibility and ease
of mind knowing that their data is secure.
Kingston SSDNow KC300
Info: Amble Action Sdn. Bhd., Convergent Distribution (M) Sdn. Bhd., Ingram Micro Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7665 3939, (03) 2144 1881, (03) 7952 8188
Contact: www.kingston.com
Compact and Stylish

The Leica brand of cameras has often been an object of desire for many a
photographer and socialite as Leicas are known for both quality, performance and
class. This holds true for even its latest compact camera, the Leica C. Featuring a
12MP 1/1.7 MOS sensor, the Leica C comes equipped with a 7x zoom lens, which
is outstanding for capturing intimate moments and fascinating portraits. Its large
sensor guarantees sharp photos with outstanding contrast. Not only that, the Leica
C also comes with support for Wi-Fi and NFC, which allows the camera to transfer
photos to smartphones or tablets without the need of a cable.
Leica C Light Gold
Price: RM2,475
Contact: Leica Store @ Avenue K, Leica Store @ Starhill Gallery, Leica Boutique @
Suria Sabah
Phone: (03) 2163 1818, (03) 2142 9633, (08) 848 7808
Info: www.leicastore.com.my
chip malaysia
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first looks
Double The Thunderbolt Power

It feels like weve seen and played with a lot of motherboards over the past few months,
but GIGABYTE has recently unveiled something new that has our curiosity piqued once
more. The GIGABYTE Z87X-UD7 TH looks like any other ATX motherboards weve seen,
but this time around, it comes equipped with the latest Thunderbolt 2 technology. The
new Dual Thunderbolt 2 controller from Intel builds on the success of previous revisions,
adding channel bandwidth aggregation to facilitate single channel transfer speeds
of up 20Gb/s, compared to a max of 10Gb/s on previous designs. Thunderbolt
2 specification incorporates DisplayPort 1.2, providing sufficient bandwidth to
simultaneously transfer 4K video content while streaming it to a 4K device.
Not only that, you can also support daisy-chaining of up to 12 devices and
triple digital display support.
GIGABYTE Z87X-UD7 TH
Price: TBA
Contact: Nation-Tech Sdn. Bhd., SDS Distribution Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 4280 6636, (03) 7788 8700
Info: my-gigabyte.com
The Elegant Big Brother

MSI have been pushing a wide variety of PC components and PC products to the
Malaysian market, and one such product is the MSI AE222 all-in-one computer.
This 21.5-inch compact desktop computer is made for those who are looking to
have a PC that is not only powerful, but is able to fit into compact spaces as well.
Powered by Intels 4th generation Core i3 or Core i5 processor, the AE222 offers
the best and most comfortable visual experience for corporate environments.
The MSI All-in-One PC also features an anti-glare display to reduce background
reflections which also helps to reduce eyestrain and enabling users to concentrate
better on the content of their computer. The AE222 also comes with a discrete
GPU in the form of an NVIDIA GeForce GT740M which allows users to do a spot of
gaming on the PC as well.
MSI AE222
Price: TBA
Contact: MediaForte (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7960 6868
Info: my.msi.com
Not Horsing Around

As the year of the horse looms about, Kingston has recently announced a set of limited
edition USB flash drives to be included in its DataTraveler Chinese Zodiac USB drive
lineup. With a capacity of 16GB, the USB drive is made by sturdy rubber materials
and supports many operating systems such as Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows
Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Mac OS and Linux. Furthermore, it comes with a
5-year warranty and free technical assistance as well. As a symbol of vitality, the horse
represents strength and beauty. This limited edition USB drive is designed to show these
traits and will be a special New Years gift to welcome the year of 2014.
Kingston Flying Horse Limited Edition USB Drive
Price: RM58
Info: Amble Action Sdn. Bhd., Convergent Distribution (M) Sdn. Bhd., Ingram Micro
Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7665 3939, (03) 2144 1881, (03) 7952 8188
Contact: www.kingston.com
076
january 14
chip malaysia
test lab
first looks
USB Ports On The Wall

Charging smartphones and tablet devices can be quite a chore sometimes, as some of
these devices often come without a proper plug, and you only have a USB cable to depend
on. Belkin has stepped in and provided a solution that benefits smartphone and tablet
users who are facing these kinds of problems with the Belkin 2.4A Full Rate USB Charger.
What the USB charger is essentially a wall socket that has a number of USB ports which
you can use to charge your mobile devices with. Unlike other chargers however, every
USB port is able to properly charge each device at full power, reducing the chances of slow
charging and worse, device malfunctioning. It is also very portable, allowing you to easily
charge multiple devices in one go whenever youre away on a holiday or assignment.
Belkin 2.4A Full Rate USB Charger
Price: TBA
Contact: Belkin International, Inc Malaysia
Phone: 1 800 81 2076
Info: www.belkin.com/my/
A 2-in-1 For Work and Play

The new ASUS Transformer Book T300 is a 13.3-inch laptop with a detachable Full HD display
that can be used as a standalone Windows 8 tablet. Powered by a 4th generation Intel Core
processor for seamless multi-tasking performance, Transformer Book has up to eight hours
battery life and features a sleek metallic design with a durable soft-touch finishing. The
keyboard dock features a full-size keyboard with backlit keys and a large multi-touch touchpad
that supports Windows 8 gestures, plus a magnetic dock connector that releases and snaps to
the tablet display in an instant.
ASUS Transformer Book T300
Price: RM3,399
Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn. Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 6286 8222
Info: asus.com/my
Worlds First Dual Drive

Western Digital are always at the cutting edge of storage technology, and despite the
companys lack of SSD lineup, theyve bid their time to unveil something thats even better,
a 2.5 inch drive that features both SSD speed and storage of a regular desktop drive, in
the form of the Western Digital Black 2. The Black 2, in WDs own terms is a dual drive that
combines both an SSD and a 1TB drive in the form factor of a 2.5-inch drive, which users
can slot into notebooks and use. Designed for enthusiasts, creative professionals, gamers
and PC builders, the WD Black2 drive provides improved overall drive capacity, performance,
and reliability, while offering the flexibility to choose how and where their data is stored.
Western Digital Black 2
Price: RM1,088
Contact: Amble Action Sdn. Bhd., Achieva Technology Sdn. Bhd. and Eternal Asia (M) Sdn.
Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7665 3939, (03) 7955 1768, (03) 5569 2200
Info: www.wdc.com
chip malaysia
january 14
077
test lab
review
Samsung
GALAXY
Tab 3 Kids
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM799
Samsung Malaysia Electronics
1 800 88 9999
www.samsung.com/my/
Specifications
Operating System: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Processor: 1.2GHz Dual-Core Processor
Screen: 7.0-inch WSVGA (1,024 x 600) TFT
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct,
Bluetooth 3.0, microUSB 2.0, 3.5mm Stereo
Others: 3-Megapixel Rear Camera,
1.3-Megapixel Front Camera, Kids Case, C Pen
Dimensions: 111.1 x 188 x 9.9 mm
Weight: 302g (without cover)
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Samsungs GALAXY Tab 3 Kids is the perfect device

for parents who want to make learning a little more
interactive and fun By Jeremy Cheong
Design
Value
Cute and colourful
Comes bundled with
Kids Case & C Pen
Decent performance
Good features
A bit pricey
Tablet is still plasticky
BENCHMARK RESULTS
AnTuTu:
11,075 points
3DMark (Ice Storm):
2,154 points
3DMark (Ice Storm Extreme): 1,124 points
Bundled with this tablet is the Kids Case that

provides the tab with extra protection and
makes it easier for kids to hold and also a C
Pen
078
january 14
One For The

Younguns
chip malaysia
or parents who want to use a tablet

as a means to educate their kids
and also stop them from possibly
causing expensive outcomes, Samsung
recently launched a tablet with the little
ones in mind. The Samsung GALAXY
Tab 3 Kids is clearly a smart move from
the Korean giants as there are so far no
tablets out in the market that cater to the
kids. So with that in mind, Samsung used
their entry-level GALAXY Tab 3 as a base
and created this colourful device. Besides
just the bright yellow colour, the Kids
version of the tablet retains most of the
features the GALAXY Tab 3 had.
The major change actually is in the
user-interface itself. When you first start
up the device, it immediately goes into
the Kids mode where the screen features
cutesy cartoon characters. This is also
where parents can choose what apps their
kids are allowed to use. You are able to
go back to the standard Android interface
to install apps but that requires you to set
a pass code, this definitely ensures that
you wont be getting an exorbitant credit
card bill at the end of the month.
To add on the package, Samsung have
also bundled a Kids Case and C Pen stylus
with the tablet. The Kids Case provides
the tablet with extra protection thanks
to its rubber bumpers that surround the

tablet and also has handle that makes it
easy for kids to carry. The Kids Case also
has a little compartment to slide the C
Pen into. As for the C Pen, it is just your
standard passive stylus that is nice and
chunky so it is easy to grip and quite
durable.
Performance wise, this is based on an
entry-level device, so it wasnt exactly
chart-topping but that shouldnt be a dealbreaker as most parents will probably
just install some simple games and apps
for their kids to enjoy. With its 4,000mAh
battery, it managed to last us about a day
and half of average use but were sure itll
last a bit longer when kids arent using it
so much. Theres even a feature where
parents can set a timer to the device to
limit their kids usage.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
As we mentioned before, this
is clearly a very smart move by
Samsung as the GALAXY Tab 3 Kids
is the perfect device for parents want
to give their kids a more interactive
way of learning and also at the same
time not having to worry about
headache inducing credit card bills or
even missing important files.
test lab
review
ASUS Zenbook
UX301
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM3,799
ECS Astar Sdn. Bhd., Build
Technology Supply Sdn. Bhd.,
Servex (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
(03) 6286 8222, (03) 7955 3699,
(03) 8024 6688
www.asus.com/my
Specifications
Exuding
Impeccable
Allure
ASUS once again pulls out all the stops with the
Zenbook and it is a thing of beauty inside and out
CPU: Intel Core i5-4200U (at 1.6GHz, Turbo

Boost up to 2.6GHz)
RAM: 8GB DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4400
Storage: 128GB SATA III SSD
OS: Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
Display: 13.3-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080)
multi-touch display
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (dualband), Bluetooth 4.0
Interface: 1x Microphone-in/Headphone-out
jack, 2x USB 3.0, 1x micro HDMI, 1x mini
Display Port
Extras: HD Web Camera, Bang & Olufsen
ICEpower, SonicMaster
Dimensions: 325 x 226 x 15.5 mm
Weight: 1.4kg
RATINGS
By Jeremy Cheong
hen it first made its appearance

in COMPUTEX Taipei 2013,
we were already smitten by
it and then when we featured it in our
Tech Spelunk section last month; we
just couldnt wait to get our hands on it.
Finally, ASUS came through and we were
able to spend even more time with their
latest Zenbook, the UX301 and we have
fallen heads over heels for it.
The Zenbook UX301 is just a thing
of beauty. Were not saying that the
previous Zenbooks werent good looking
but the silver-aluminium design was
getting a bit boring and with that ASUS
have gone and given the UX301 a new
design that isnt just super sleek and
portable but also durable as the lid and
palm rest is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.
This is definitely a great device to have
for those who work on-the-go and want a
device that turns heads for good reasons.
However, to get to be so slim,
ASUS had to make some compromises
especially when it comes to ports but
with that being said, the UX301 still
comes with most of the essentials and
even some nice extras like a micro
HDMI and even an SD card reader. On
top of that, the keyboard is also super
comfortable to type on and we didnt
find it too cramped at all. The touchpad

is also nice and responsive and the palm
rest has a nice amount of space that
makes typing very comfortable even after
long hours.
Our review unit of the Zenbook UX301
isnt exactly the most high-end in the
line-up but what it packs is actually pretty
good for most users and it scored quite
well in our synthetic benchmarks. Even
though it doesnt have a discrete GPU,
the Intel HD Graphics 4400 also produced
decent scores, which means you will be
able to do a little casual or light gaming.
Battery life also wasnt too shabby.
Overall, we were quite happy with its
performance because while it may not be
high-end, it should still allow users to get
a lot of things done.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
So it seems like we really have
only good things to say about the
ASUS Zenbook UX301 and who
could blame us, it looks good, has
solid performance and nice extra
features like the Bang & Olufsen and
SonicMaster technology. The only
little thing that might hold a user back
from picking this up in a heartbeat is
its price.
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Stunning design
Decent performance
Good range of
features
Super portable
Price
Limited on-board
ports
BENCHMARK RESULTS
PCMark 8 (Home):
2,795 points
PCMark 8 (Work):
4,359 points
PCMark 8 (Battery Home): 4 hours 23 minutes
3DMark (Cloud Gate):
4,466 points
It may lack some ports but bundled with the

Zenbook UX301 are a LAN and VGA port USB
adaptors
chip malaysia
january 14
079
test lab
review
Canon EOS 100D

Price
Contact
RM2,299 (EF-S 18-55 IS STM Kit)

Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn.
Bhd.
(03) 7884 6000
www.canon.com.my
Phone
Info
Specifications
Lens Mount: Canon EF Mount
Image Processor: DIGIC 5
Effective Pixels: Approx. 18.00-megapixels
ISO: ISO 100 12800 (Standard)
Built-in Flash: Retractable, Auto Pop-up Flash
LCD Monitor: 3-inch Capacitive Clear View
LCD II
Storage Type: SD / SDHC / SDXC
Connectivity: Digital A/V Out, mini HDMI,
Eye-Fi, RC-6 (remote control), 3.5mm
microphone-in
Dimensions: 116.8 x 90.7 x 69.4mm
Weight: 370g (Body Only)
RATINGS
Performance
Always thought DSLRs were a bit too big and bulky?

Canon will change that for you By Jeremy Cheong
Features
Design
Value
Superb portability
Very easy to handle
Responsive touch
screen
Good image quality
Small battery
Harder to handle with
larger lenses
Price
The controls on the top are all within reach of

each other and very easy to get used to
080
january 14
Littlest One That

Could
chip malaysia
ost of the time, when people

think of a Digital Single-Lens
Reflex (DSLR) camera, they
immediately think of a fairly large and
bulky device. However, during our time
when reviewing the relatively diminutive
Canon EOS 100D, many were actually
quite surprised when we told them it was
actually a full-fledged DSLR and not a
mirrorless or Micro Four Thirds camera.
Like we mentioned in our opening,
the EOS 100D is very small when
compared to other DSLRs. In fact, it is
so small we could easily operate it with
one-hand when it is equipped with the
18-55mm zoom lens. It also has a very
nice rubberised grip, which adds on to
the how easy it is to handle the camera.
Another great thing about it being so
small is the fact that buttons and dials can
be easily reached and it the layout doesnt
feel cramped at all. The only problem we
foresee with the EOS 100Ds size is for
those with much larger hands as there
may not be enough space or them to hold
on to the camera.
Other than being small in size, the
EOS 100D is also very light and yet very
hardy. This is because it is designed
using a combination of materials such as
aluminium alloy, carbon and glass fibre
and polycarbonate.
However, one little compromise Canon

had to make was its battery, which isnt as
large but can still last pretty long. Another
little niggle we had with the 100D, is that
after using it for a while, it actually heats
up. This is most likely due to the fact
that the heat-generating components are
placed closer together but it really doesnt
affect its performance.
Speaking of the performance, it actually
produces images with the same quality
you come to expect from a DSLR. The
images we took showed a great amount
of detail and colours were very accurate.
There was no noise when we shot in ISO
100 and 800 but starts cropping up at
ISO 1600. There were slight chromatic
aberration but the camera actually has
a mode where it reduces it and it works
fabulously.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
All in all, despite its size, theres no
denying that the Canon EOS 100D is
a DSLR as it comes with the same
set of features and even produces
great images. The only other little
downside to it is its price, which many
will argue that you can get a slightly
higher-end model. But for those who
want a travel companion, the EOS
100D is a no-brainer.
test lab
review
MSI GP 60 Gaming
Notebook
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM2,999
Media Forte (Malaysia) Sdn.
Bhd., AMT PC Distributors Sdn.
Bhd., Eternal Asia (M) Sdn. Bhd.
(03) 7960 6868, (03) 3344 1124,
(03) 5569 2200
my.msi.com
Specifications
Just What The

Gaming GP
Ordered
MSIs gaming notebook range continues to grow

and we give yet another G-series notebook a test
run By Nazrin Zain
eve lost count on how many

G-series notebooks that MSI
have sent to us recently, but
another has arrived. This time around,
we have the MSI GP60 gaming notebook,
which comes equipped with some really
mouth-watering components that gamers
will definitely love.
As weve mentioned above, the GP60
is a pretty big gaming notebook, featuring
a Full HD 15.6-inch display. Powered by
a 4th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, MSI
means business with this notebook. The
processor is accompanied by 8GB of RAM,
which is upgradable up to 16GB, as well as
an NVIDIA GeForce GT740M discrete GPU
with Optimus tech that switches between
Intels on-board GPU and the NVIDIA card
in order to conserve power.
A couple of interesting features that the
GP60 has is the inclusion of a solid state
hybrid drive, where the SSD partition has
the Windows install, and boots as fast as
a matter of seconds, and have the storage
capacity of more traditional drives. There
is also the Cooler Boost technology which
increases the fan speed of the GP60 to
help cool it down during intense gaming
sessions. The only drawback of this feature
is that the fan does get noisy when turned
on.
As with most, if not all MSI G-series

notebooks, the GP60 comes with a Steel
Series keyboard, which is one of our
favourites when it comes to notebook
keyboards. The key travel is just nice, and
typing on it for long periods of time does
not cause much discomfort.
Performance of the GP60 is a bit of a
mixed bag. Whilst the benchmark scores
on the 3DMark specifically are pretty
low, the games weve tested the GP60
with run pretty smoothly at very playable
frame rates. There are relatively no issues
computing-wise as the 4th gen Intel Core i7
processor performs as advertised.
Battery life on the GP60 is what one
would expect out of a gaming notebook.
With the brightness set to auto and Wi-Fi
turned on, the GP60 has a battery life of
about two hours plus, which isnt exactly
the best, but considering the specifications,
were hardly complaining.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
Considering its specs, the MSI GP60
is one of the more affordable gaming
notebooks out there in the market
right now. It functions perfectly well
as a desktop replacement machine, at
a fraction of the space.
CPU: Intel Core-i7-4700MQ @ 2.4GHz

RAM: 8GB DDR3 RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT740M
Storage: 1TB 5400RPM HDD + 24GB NAND
OS: Windows 8 Professional
Display: 15.6-inches (1,920 x 1,080)
Interface: 1x VGA, 1x HDMI, 1x USB 2.0, 2x
USB 3.0, 1x Mic-in/Headphone-out, 1x LAN
Extras: Keyboard by SteelSeries, HD Webcam
Dimensions: 383 x 249.5 x 32.3mm
Weight: 2.4kg (w/battery)
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Great specs and
performance overall
Hybrid SSD allows
users to have the bestt
of both speed and
storage size
Short battery life
Noisy when Cooler
Boost is turned on
BENCHMARK RESULTS
PCMark 8 (Home):
PCMark 8 (Creative):
PCMark 8 (Battery - Home):
3DMark Fire Storm:
4,235 points
3,524 points
2,421 (2 hours
15 minutes)
1,042 points
The GP60 comes with a variety of I/O ports

to satisfy the most hardcore of multimedia
junkies. You can also setup multiple displays
chip malaysia
january 14
081
test lab
review
Dell Latitude
E7240
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
TBA
Dell Asia Pacific Sdn. Bhd.
1 800 88 0301
www.dell.com.my
Specifications
CPU: Intel Core i5-4350U
RAM: 8GB DDR3 RAM
Storage: 128GB SSD
Graphics: Intel HD4400
Display: 12.5-inches @ 1,920 x 1,080
Interface: USB 3.0 x3, HDMI x1, RJ45 LAN x1,
SD Card reader, Docking port
Extras: 720p webcam
Dimension: 310 x 210 x 20mm
Weight: 1.36kgs
RATINGS
Performance
Dells Latitude E7240 is made for the traveling

workaholic By Nazrin Zain
Features
Design
Excellent performance
A lot of I/O ports
Below average battery
life
Loud fan
Cover smudges easily
BENCHMARK RESULTS
PCMark 8 (Home):
PCMark 8 (Productivity):
PCMark 8 (Battery - Home):
3,828 points
3,245 points
4,159 points
2,782 (2 hours
48 minutes)
This Ultrabook comes with a generous

selection of I/O ports as there is enough ports
to fit a number of external devices
082
january 14
Strictly for
Business
chip malaysia
ver since its first launch several

years ago, the Ultrabook has begun
to take form as the go-to device for
end-users who are looking for something
that is both portable and powerful. Using
the latest and best technologies available
at hand, Dell has recently announced
the arrival of a number of business-class
Ultrabooks, one of which is the Dell
Latitude E7240.
The E7240 features a 12.5-inch touch
display with a HD resolution of 1,920x1,080
and is powered by a 1.4GHz Intel Core
i5-4350U processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM
and 250GB of storage. These internal
specs, combined with the multitude of
ports that the E7240 provide, such as three
USB 3.0 ports, one LAN port, a HDMI
port and an SD card reader, all of which
are definitely useful for the travelling
businessman.
One thing of note is that the E7240s
somewhat understated design. Made
to look as minimalist as possible, this
Ultrabook is actually built using aluminium
and features a Tri-metal chassis that makes
the E7240 very hardy and able to survive
being knocked around. It also has a very
cool carbon-fiber backed display but the
matte surface does tend to smudge quite
easily, and the stains are a bit obvious
despite its all-black colour scheme.
In terms of performance, the E7240
performs as well as wed expect from
an Ultrabook. Booting up took seconds,

regardless if its from a powered down
or sleeping state, which in our opinion is
great. Performance is also excellent as the
Intel Core i5 processor coupled with 8GB
of RAM pretty much mow down any task
you throw at it, be it watching HD videos,
document, photo and even video editing.
Typing with the E7240s keyboard is also
a very pleasant experience as the key
travel is deeper than most conventional
notebooks and even Ultrabooks.
Battery life for the E7240 is
unfortunately is not all that impressive as it
clocks in at about three to four hours with
Wi-Fi turned on, and used for typical tasks
such as document editing, web browsing,
and a bit of video-watching on both
YouTube and locally-stored video files.
Another thing to note about the battery is
that it does heat up a bit after prolonged
usage, but not to the point where it makes
the device unusable. That being said, the
fan is kind of loud as well when the E7240
heats up
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The Dell Latitude E7240 may feel
boring in terms of look and feel, but
as any traveling workaholic will tell
you, its whats inside that counts.
The E72470 is equipped with some
pretty up-to-date specs and performs
admirably well too.
test lab
review
ASUS Matrix
Platinum R9 280X
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM1,499
Servex (M) Sdn. Bhd., Build
Technology Supply Sdn. Bhd.
(03) 8024 6688, (03) 7955 3699
www.asus.com/my
Specifications
Chipset: AMD Radeon R9 280X
Core Clock: 1,000MHz
Memory Size: 4GB DDR5
RATINGS
Tweak It Like
You Mean It
ASUS soups up the R9 280X for some truly

remarkable performance By Nazrin Zain
MDs R9 series of graphics cards

hit the markets like a storm, and
brought us some really compelling
graphics cards that perform well at a
price that is quite reasonable as well. The
R9 280X has been lauded as one of the
best bang for the buck GPUs of 2013, and
ASUS has spent little time in turning the
card into a beast. Introducing the ASUS
Matrix Platinum R9 280X.
As with ASUS other custom GPUs,
the Matrix Platinum is an enormous
card, eating up three expansion bays at
the back of your PCs chassis. This isnt
without reason as not only does the card
uses a tweaked variant of the DirectCUII
cooler, It is also capable of supporting up
to six displays via two DVI ports and four
DisplayPorts.
The Matrix also comes with LED load
indicators that show you a real-time
overview of the cards workload, which
changes colours from blue to pink to red
depending on how high the load is. Thats
not all of course as the Matrix comes with
a variety of on-board overclocking features
such as the VGA Hotwire, which can be
used with compatible ROG motherboards
that allows you to directly tweak the cards
voltage from the UEFI BIOS.
If youre not too concerned about
specific numbers of the voltages, ASUS
has also included the TweakIt instant
voltage adjustment which provides

overclocking control without the hassle
of having to restart your computer. Of
course using these overclocking features
mean that the GPU can be susceptible to
overheating. Whilst the fan speed can be
tweaked from the software provided, there
is a physical button on the card that you
can use to instantly get the Matrixs fans to
hit 100% speed, with the downside of the
card sounding like a small vacuum cleaner.
As with all the AMD R9 cards we
have tested, the Matrix Platinum is a
powerhouse. The graphics processor
is clocked at 950MHz, and can be
overclocked up to 1,100MHz, and pretty
much blows any and every test that we
throw at it out of the water. The more
interesting part is the fact that despite the
fan is set at 50 percent speed by default,
the temperature for the card rarely goes
beyond 70 degrees Celcius, even when
benchmarking with some pretty hardcore
settings.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The ASUS Matrix Platinum R9 280X
is big and powerful. And despite the
overclocking features that come with
it, its not all that expensive either.
You do need to be careful however
and check that your motherboard and
casing are able to fit this card.
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Powerful
Wide array of
overclocking features
LED workload
indicator
Fan is very loud at 100
0
percent speed
Will not fit in every PC
system
BENCHMARK RESULTS
3DMark Fire Storm:
3DMark Fire Storm Extreme:
7,758 points
3,879 points
On-board buttons such as the TweakIt voltage

controllers and the fan switch allows for easy
overclocking and cooling without the need to
shut down the PC
Youll need a relatively big chassis and

motherboard to be able to fit this triple-slot
monster in your rig
chip malaysia
january 14
083
test lab
review
Sonic Gear
Pandora 3
RM149
Leapfroglobal Distribution Sdn.
Bhd.
(03) 7803 6703
www.mysonicgear.com
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
Specifications
Frequency response: 40Hz 20KHz
Speaker driver: 2x 2-inch
Subwoofer driver: 3-inch
Input/output: Bluetooth, 3.5mm AUX-in jack
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Bluetooth connectivity
Works as a hands-free
device for smartphones
Audio quality
No built-in batteries
Almost Pitch
Perfect
The Pandora 3 is a great concept, but it needs a little

more work to be excellent By Nazrin Zain
Not only can you listen to songs with the

Pandora 3, it can also receive calls, and
functions as a hands-free device too.
You can choose to connect to the Pandora 3

either with a 3.5mm audio cable or Bluetooth
084
january 14
chip malaysia
ortable speakers are all the rage

these days as smartphones and
tablets flood the market, and
users seeing that they need a better pair
of speakers than the one their mobile
devices offer. Sonic Gear is a brand that is
synonymous with portable audio products,
and the third iteration of its Pandora
Bluetooth speakers aims to fill the needs of
many consumers.
The Sonic Gear Pandora 3 speakers
are pretty simplistic in design, its black
rectangular chassis housing a 2.1 speaker
system, which functions as a 2.2 system
thanks to Sonic Gears Dual Bass Reflector
feature. Some of the buttons and ports on
the Pandora 3 include an Aux-in port, for
direct connection from device to speaker,
a Bluetooth/Aux-in slider, volume and bass
dials as well as a play/pause button and
two track skip buttons.
Bluetooth connectivity is a standard on
many portable audio devices these days,
and the Pandora 3 does not disappoint
in this regard. When connected this
way, not only can you play songs from
your smartphones, but you can receive
calls on the Pandora 3 as well. The Play/
Pause button doubles as a phone answer
button as well, and the Pandora 3 has a

microphone built in as well so you can
answer your calls without having to use
your phone.
Despite Sonic Gears various gimmicks
such as the aforementioned Dual Bass
Reflector, the sound quality of the
Pandora 3 is so-so at best. The mids and
lows sound very subdued, and at louder
volumes, the audio just seems harsh and
the bass is muddled as well. It is also quite
unfortunate that the speakers can only
be used at places where there are power
sockets around as the Pandora 3 has no
built-in batteries, which would make it
perfect for outdoor outings such as picnics
and trekking.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The Sonic Gear Pandora 3 is a pretty
nifty portable speaker set that comes
with several nifty features which
can definitely be improved upon.
Whilst we appreciate being able to
utilise the Bluetooth feature and use
the speakers as a hands-free device,
Sonic Gear the audio issues require a
little more tuning as the Pandora 3 is
first and foremost, a speaker.
test lab
review
Fujitsu
LIFEBOOK E743
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM5,650 (Estimated)
Fujitsu PC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.
(03) 7728 4868
www.fujitsu.com/my
Specifications
It Means
Business
Fujitsus enterprise notebook means business

when it comes to productivity By Nazrin Zain
ore often than not, users have

to make a compromise when it
comes to choosing notebooks
and you either sacrifice portability,
performance or battery life. Fujitsu, a brand
that is well known for their line of home
and enterprise-class notebooks, aims to
provide an all-in-one solution in the form of
the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK E743.
The E743 is easily one of the slickest
notebooks weve seen from Fujitsu. Its
all-around aluminium chassis means that
the notebook is very lightweight and easy
to carry around. The model we received is
a 13.3-inch model, which has a resolution
of 1,600 x 900 pixels. Fujitsu has also been
very generous with the ports on the E743,
as it has four USB ports, three of which are
USB 3.0, one VGA port, one DisplayPort
and one RJ45 LAN port, an SD Card reader
and a docking connector for the port
replicator. Certain models also come with
Smart Card readers and SIM card slots as
well for 3G connectivity.
Powered by a 3rd generation Intel Core
i5-vPro processor and 8GB of RAM, the
E743 is made for business and enterprise
users who require the performance of a
desktop machine in a portable form factor.
This is particularly important for employees
who need to be on standby 24/7, so they
can troubleshoot any issues on the spot
regardless of where they are.

On top of that the E743 comes hardbundled with what Fujitsu calls the Port
Replicator, a dock that allows users to
expand their set of ports to include more
USB ports, another VGA port, one DVI
port and two DisplayPorts. There are also
other variants of replicators that include
extended batteries as well. This is definitely
useful if youre looking to turn the E743,
or any supported Fujitsu notebook into a
desktop replacement machine.
The battery life for the E743 is not all
too shabby as it was able to last about
3-4 hours on our tests, with brightness
set to auto and WiFi turned on. That said;
its nothing to shout about much as the
numbers are pretty average by todays
standards, and they do tend to dip down
more especially when used for far more
processor-intensive purposes such as
running virtual machines and the like.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The Fujitsu E743 is made for
business and enterprise users who
are constantly on call no matter
where they are. The addition of the
Port Replicator also means that the
notebook can also function as a
desktop replacement machine when
youre at the office.
CPU: Intel Core i5 3340M @ 2.7GHz

RAM: 8GB DDR3 RAM
Storage: 256GB
Graphics: Intel HD4000 Graphics
Display: 13.3-inches @ 1,600 x 900
Interface: USB 3.0 x3, USB 2.0 x1, VGA,
DisplayPort, SD Card Reader, LAN
Extras: Port Replicator, Full HD Webcam
Dimensions: 338 x 231 x 20mm
Weight: 1.7kg
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Comes with a wide
variety of ports and
features
for an office notebook
Price
Battery life is so-so
BENCHMARK RESULTS
PCMark 8 (Home):
PCMark 8 (Battery Home):
3,628 points
2,644 points
3,085 (3 hours
35 minutes)
If the ample ports on the laptop is not good

enough, you can always rely on the bundled
port replicator
chip malaysia
january 14
085
test lab
review
Norton 360
Multi-Device
RM249 (1 year 5 devices)

Symantec Customer Service,
Sales and Technical Support
1 800 88 0455
malaysia.norton.com
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
Specifications
Operating Systems Supported: Microsoft
Windows (XP/Vista/7/8), Mac OS X (v10.7 or
v10.8), Android 2.2. or later, iOS 5.0 or later
Minimum Hardware Requirement (Windows):
300MHz (XP), 1GHz (Vista/7), 256MB of RAM,
300MB of hard disk space
Minimum Hardware Requirement (Mac): Mac
system with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2GB
of RAM, 1.5GB of hard disk space
Device Requirements (Android): 1.8MB of
storage
RATINGS
Party Of Five
Keep five of your most used devices and data

within them protected with Norton 360 Multi-Device
Performance
Features
By Jeremy Cheong
Design
Value
Protects multiple
devices
Easy to set up on all
platforms
Intuitive interface
Plenty of features
Free 25GB backup
Limited options for iOS
No support for
BlackBerry or Windows
Phone
These are just some of the features that

come in the Windows version of the
security solution, most of them are very
straightforward and do exactly what their
description says
086
january 14
chip malaysia
ith most of us equipped with

more than just one device
these days, purchasing security
solutions for each device can be costly
and this is why many consumers either
rely on free security solutions or dont use
them at all. So for consumers who want to
safeguard their devices and data, theres a
solution and it comes from Symantec.
Previously known as Norton
Everywhere, the rechristened Norton 360
Multi-Device does just what its name says.
The review copy we received gave us a
one year license for up to five devices. For
those who dont have that many devices,
theres also one that protects up to three
devices and costs slightly cheaper. Either
way, we find both to be great investments
as the latest version of Nortons security
solutions come with a load of features.
Setting up the software on a desktop or
laptop computer is very straightforward,
you can either choose to install the
software via the CD or download the
software off the official site. Once that is
done, all you have to do is just register
the software, type in your product key and
you are all set. The user-interface of the
software for Windows is really intuitive
and easy-to-use. The fonts are easy-to-read
and each feature also comes with a short
description of what it does.
Speaking of features, it comes with your
standard security options such as running

scans, firewalls, antispam, antiphishing and
much more. Of course, there are more than
as there are parental controls, tune-up your
PC and even share files to a secure Cloud
storage known as Norton Zone. With the
Premier edition of this security solution,
you even get 25GB worth of storage for
backups, which can be done automatically
according to the schedule you set it to.
As for the mobile version, the Android
version is actually a full-fledged solution
that comes with antimalware, antitheft
and can even block dangerous sites and
unwanted numbers. It even has a neat
feature known as Sneak peek that captures
a photo from your front-facing camera
remotely. Things are little different on
the iOS side of things however as it only
has features such as backing up contacts,
tracking a devices location and triggering
the alarm to find a lost device.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
Affordable, feature-packed and
easy-to-use. These are just some
of the most important aspects of a
security solution and the Norton 360
Multi-Device excels in all of them and
more, which makes it one of the best
investments you can make to keep all
your devices and most importantly
data protected.
test lab
review
BenQ RL2455HM
Gaming Monitor
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM899
BenQ Marketing & Services Sdn.
Bhd.
(03) 7954 7800
www.benq.com.my
Specifications
Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 @ 60Hz
Screen: 24-inches
Response Time: 1ms (GTG)
Contrast Ratio: 1,000:1 (Native), 12M:1 (DCR)
Stand: Tilt
Connectivity: VGA, DVI, HDMI x 2
RATINGS
A Feast For A
Gamers Eyes
BenQ unleashes another gaming monitor with some

very cool display tweaking features By Nazrin Zain
ts not an exaggeration to say that

BenQ takes gaming displays more
seriously than many other monitor
makers out there. Whilst there are a lot of
PC displays out there that are made for
artists and designers, gaming displays are
still a very niche market. That however
hasnt discouraged BenQ one bit, as they
launched yet another new gaming monitor
in the form of the BenQ RL2455HM gaming
monitor.
The RL2455HM is a 24-inch LED backlit
display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080
pixels and utilises a TN panel. The display
is capable of recognizing up to 16.7 million
colours and has a 72percent colour gamut,
which in layman terms means that the
monitor is able of reproducing many
colours which is perceivable to the human
eye.
BenQ are also generous with ports
on the RL2455HM as the monitor comes
equipped with one VGA, DVI and two
HDMI ports. It also has built-in speakers
as well as one line-in and headphone-out
jacks, which is very useful for users who
have more than one machine connected to
the display.
Were also glad that BenQ has decided
to forego the popular touch-sensitive
buttons and used physical buttons instead

as this makes it easier for users to access
the monitors options panel and do
adjustments.
The RL2455HM comes with a new
feature BenQ calls the Black eQualizer,
which allows users to brighten dark spots
in either games or movies without overexposing white levels to retain the overall
quality of the picture. This feature works
as intended, although it needs to be set
manually beforehand.
For gamers who are particular about
ghosting effects and graphical tears, fear
not as the RL2455HM has a 1ms GTG
(Grey-to-Grey) response time, which means
that fast action scenes and sequences with
a lot of particles will be rendered smoothly.
On top of that, BenQ has also added
two RTS presets for RTS gamers, which
are specially customised for two games,
Starcraft II and DOTA 2.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The BenQ RL2455HM gaming monitor
is a bit pricey for a 24-inch monitor,
but if youre a hardcore gamer who
needs the absolute best in terms of
hardware; you cant go wrong with
this monitor.
Performance
Features
Design
Value
RTS presets for
Starcraft II and Dota 2
eQualizer feature
Expensive for a
24-inch monitor
The two HDMI ports on the RL2455HM allows

you to connect more than one HDMI-based
device to the monitor
Instead of touch-sensitive buttons, the

RL2455HM uses physical ones, which is a
welcome change as it makes switching modes
less cumbersome and awkward
chip malaysia
january 14
087
test lab
review
Canon
imageCLASS
MF8280CW
Multifunction
Printer
RM2,800
Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn.
Bhd.
(03) 7884 6000
www.canon.com.my
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
Specifications
Printing Resolution: 1,200 x 1,200 dpi
Printing Method: Colour Laser
Feeder Capacity: 150 pages
Dimensions: 432 x 485 x 429 mm
Weight: 23.6kg
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Canons latest imageCLASS printer is big and bulky,

but produces some amazing prints By Nazrin Zain
Design
Value
Superb print quality
Ink dries fast
Slow print times
Noisy
Small paper feeder
capacity
The LCD display panel allows you to easily

access the MF8280Cws various functions
The USB port allows you to connect a

USB flash drive and have the printer print
documents and photos from it or save
scanned pages to it
088
Print Quality
Matters
january 14
chip malaysia
eve seen a number of large

multifunction printers come
through our labs in the past
couple of months, and that trend isnt
stopping any time soon as Canon has
graciously sent us one of their latest
and largest imageCLASS printers yet
in the form of the Canon imageCLASS
MF8280Cw multifunction printer.
Unboxing and setting up the
MF8280Cw will most likely require more
than one pair of hands as the printer
is huge. Being a multifunction printer,
the MF8280Cw is capable of print, copy,
scan and fax. Despite its intimidating
size, navigating the printers features
and options is as easy as pressing
the directional buttons beside the
MF8280Cws seven-inch LCD display.
That being said, being such a big
printer, the MF8280Cw comes with a
host of features, including wireless
printing via Canons own Android and
iOS apps, Google Cloud Print and even
Apples AirPrint. It also has a USB port
which allows you to use a USB flash
drive as a print source, as well as a
medium for you to save your scanned
files.
The MF8280Cws paper feeder is
capable of handling up to 150 sheets of

paper, which is not that much when you
consider how big it is. On top of that,
its not very fast either, with a first time
out of about 12 seconds and an overall
14 pages per minute print out time. Yet
another little niggle we had with the
printer is that it is quite noisy and seems
to drone before and after printing until it
eventually stops.
That being said however, for all
its little faults, the MF8280Cw is near
flawless when it comes to print quality.
Printed documents look sharp with nary
a rogue ink smudge in sight, and dries
almost as soon as it hits the output tray.
For an office printer, it is also capable of
printing excellent photo-quality prints,
and you can easily set the print setting
for the appropriate paper via the LCD
panel on the MF8280Cw printer itself.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
If you can get past several niggling
issues that comes with setting up the
printer and its feature-rich learning
curve, the Canon MF8280Cw provides
an excellent finish to a document or
powerpoint slide that youve spent
many hours working on.
test lab
review
MSI Gaming Allin-One PC AG2712

Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM7,199
Media Forte (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
(03) 2287 1177
my.msi.com
Specifications
Uncompromised
Performance
The AG2712 is a stunning AIO from MSI that packs a
punch in features and performance By Nazrin Zain
aming and multimedia AIOs

appear to be all the rage these
days with PC manufacturers
taking advantage of current technological
capabilities and peoples need for a
powerful multimedia machine thats able
to fit in tight spaces. MSIs Gaming All-inOne PC AG2712 fulfills both these needs,
and more.
As we mentioned before, the AG2712
is a huge All-in-One PC that features a
full HD 27-inch anti-glare display that also
supports 10-point touch, powered by an
Intel Core-i7-3630QM processor, which is
clocked at 2.4GHz. Alongside it are 16GB
of RAM and a discrete NVIDIA GTX 670MX
graphics card, which allows users to
pretty much do anything and everything
expected of a gaming machine. Not only
that, it also has a 128GB SSD installed as
the OS drive, and a 1TB drive for all your
downloading and game storage needs.
MSI is also generous when it comes
to the I/O ports and the AG2712 comes
with six USB ports, four of which are
USB 3.0, a VGA port, two HDMI ports, a
microphone and headphone port, a TV
port, as well as an optical drive bay, which
you have the option of choosing between
a DVD or a Blu-Ray drive.
You have two choices when it comes to
setting up the AG2712, be it via the frame-
like stand, which allows you to have the

AIO stand up or lie down, or use the VESA
wall mount holes and hang the machine
on the wall. Unfortunately however, the
AG2712 does not come with a mouse and
keyboard, so you will have to source for
them separately.
Performance-wise, we mentioned
earlier that the AG2712 is capable of
crunching any task that is thrown at it, and
that is pretty much the case, be it playing
back 1080p videos, games such as F1
2013, and even a few touch-display apps
for good measure. The AG2712 is such
a good all-around multimedia machine
that we were equally as impressed by its
built-in THX- Tru-Studio Pro-certified 5.1
speakers, which sound superb, regardless
if youre watching a movie, playing games
or just listening to some tunes while
working.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
All in all, we are quite impressed
by the MSI Gaming All-in-One PC
AG2712. MSI clearly knows what
gamers and multimedia junkies
want in their space saver, and have
added little extras here and there to
ensure they enjoy an excellent user
experience regardless of whatever
task they may be doing.
CPU: Intel Core i7-3630QM (at 2.4GHz, Turbo

Boost up to 3.4GHz)
OS: Windows 8
Memory: 16GB DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX
Storage: 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD
Display: 27-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) LED
Anti-Glare Display
Connectivity: 4x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, Wi-Fi,
1x VGA, 2x HDMI,
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Excellent all-round
performance
Flicker-free display
Keyboard and mouse
arent included in the
package
BENCHMARK RESULTS
PCMark 8 (Home):
3DMark Fire Storm:
3DMark Fire Storm (Extreme):
4,098 points
3,828 points
2,161 points
1,055 points
The AG2712 has a wide selection of I/O ports
chip malaysia
january 14
089
test lab
review
Acer Liquid E2
Price
Contact
RM749
Acer Sales and Services Sdn.
Bhd.
1 800 88 1288
www.acer.com/my
Phone
Info
Specifications
Operating System: Android 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean)
Processor: 1.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Frequency: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz,
HSDPA+ / EDGE / GPRS
Screen: 4.5-inch qHD (960 x 540) IPS LCD
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 with
EDR, USB2.0, 3.5mm Stereo
Others: 8-Megapixel Rear Camera,
2-Megapixel Front Camera, Dual-SIM
Dimensions: 131 x 68 x 9.9mm
Weight: 140g
RATINGS
Performance
The predecessor to Acers Liquid E1 maintains its

mid-range status but comes with a few new tricks
Features
Design
By Jeremy Cheong
Value
Affordable
Dual-SIM
Decent performance
Limited internal storage
Weird design
Acers Liquid E2 comes with plenty of nice

touches including dual-SIM support
The design of the speaker grills on the back

of the camera looks weird but it gives the E2 a
distinct look of its own
090
True Blue MidRanger
january 14
chip malaysia
n our very honest opinion, Acer

has been doing fairly nicely in the
smartphone segment with their range
of Liquid smartphones. While they dont
churn out as many devices in a year
compared to the smartphone big boys
but Acer has devices that cover the
entire spectrum of users. Last month, we
reviewed their very first phablet, which was
designed for users who wanted a more
high-end experience. This month we got to
review their mid-range offering, the Liquid
E2.
The E2 is actually an upgrade of the
Liquid E1 that was launched in early 2013.
The resemblance is uncanny, from the
rounded edges, to the chrome speaker
grills on the rear of the device to the red
accented receiver, it is all still here and
quite frankly, the combination actually
makes the phone look a little weird. But
besides the weird design, the 4.5-inch E2
is comfortable to hold due to its fairly light
weight and soft touch plastic rear cover.
Due to its small size, using the E2 onehanded is no problem and it helps that the
physical buttons are also easy to reach and
find.
Other features of the E2 include dualSIM support and a microSD card slot,
which is a lifesaver as this device only
comes with an internal storage of 4GB.
The other two things we really liked about
the phone is the fact that it comes with an

8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel
front camera. Images captured using the
rear camera had accurate colours. Details
though were a little soft and images
werent as sharp as we liked them to be.
In terms of performance, there are
plenty of other mid-range devices out there
with better and more powerful hardware
compared to the Liquid E2 but with that
being said, it was actually very snappy
and buttery smooth thanks to its 1.2GHz
quad-core processor and 1GB RAM. Its
benchmark scores wont blow anyone
away but for what its worth, we wont
complain. Although more graphic intensive
games like Dead Trigger 2 may jerk and lag
a little.
Its 2,000mAh battery also performed
quite admirably as it managed to last us a
full day with average usage that includes
light web browsing, video streaming,
gaming and also making a few calls.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
All in all, the Acer Liquid E2 is actually
quite a good mid-range device it our
books. Yes, it may have some quirks
and weird design elements but it does
comes with a nice set of features and
combine that with its affordable price
tag, it is actually quite a nice little
package.
test lab
review
CM Storm Reaper
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM269
Ban Leong Technologies Sdn.
Bhd.
(03) 7956 6300
www.cmstorm.com
Specifications
Interface: USB2.0
DPI: Up to 8,200
Response time: 100Hz-1,000Hz
Features: Profiles, On-board memory, clutch
button
RATINGS
Performance
The Fragging
Reaper
Cooler Masters first premium gaming mouse has all
the right features to keep the most demanding
gamers happy By Nazrin Zain
f youve been following our magazine

for the past few months, this mouse
that were reviewing should be familiar
to you, as weve featured it in our Tech
Spelunk section. Cooler Masters CM
Storm Aluminum Series of peripherals
is one of the brands first ventures into
the premium market, and based from the
looks alone wed say that theyre moving
in the right direction.
As with many upmarket computer
gaming mice in the market these days,
the CM Storm Reaper is made out of
mostly rubberised plastic, which not
only provides an excellent grip, but a
comfortable one too. Adorning the top
of the mouse is a removable aluminium
cover which combines with the mouse to
provide users with an excellent looking
device.
The Reaper has eight programmable
buttons, including one clutch button at the
side that allows users to instantly switch
to a preselected DPI setting when pressed.
This is especially useful for first-person
shooter aficionados who need to properly
take aim in the middle of the game and
immediately turn and run away after.
Profiles, macros and DPI settings for
the Reaper can all be set via software,
which can be downloaded via CM Storms

website. Whilst most of the software is
pretty straight forward, certain features
such as the profile management and
macro library is a bit complicated and
does take time to get used to.
While the Reaper does indeed look
aesthetically pleasing, it is also very
comfortable to use regardless if youre
gaming or just idly browsing. During
intense gaming sessions, the rubbery
grip ensured that the mouse did not slip
out from our hands, the clutch button
works as advertised during a test run with
Battlefield 4. FPS gamers will definitely
enjoy being able to switch between DPIs
when sniping and immediately switch
back to the default DPI settings.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The CM Storm Reaper is definitely the
first of many upmarket PC peripherals
by the Cooler Master gaming brand.
Whilst the software does take some
getting used to, the fact that the
mouse fits so snugly in our hands,
and continues to be comfortable even
during long sessions of gaming is a
testament to the fact that CM Storm is
a gaming brand that is on the rise.
Features
Design
Value
Rubber grip ensures
comfort
8 customisable
buttons
Complicated macro
software
The Reaper comes with eight customisable

buttons and three different profile sets
The clutch button allows you to change the

DPI settings of the mouse temporarily as long
as the button is pressed
chip malaysia
january 14
091
test lab
review
ASUS Fonepad 7
Price
Contact
RM999 (16GB)
Build Technology Supply Sdn.
Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn. Bhd.,
(03) 7955 3699, (03) 6286 8222
www.asus.com/my
Phone
Info
Specifications
Operating System: Android 4.2 (upgradable to
Android 4.3)
Processor: Intel Atom Z2560 @ 1.6GHz
Screen: 7-inch LED Backlight WXGA (1,280 x
800) IPS panel
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, USB
2.0, 3.5mm audio, microSD
Others: 5 megapixel HD rear camera, 1.2
megapixel HD front camera
Dimensions: 120 x 196.8 x 10.5 mm
Weight: 328g
Tab For The

Budget Shopper
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
ASUS proves that not all tablets have to be

expensive to perform By Nazrin Zain
Value
for its price
Support for mobile data
a
connection
Impressive battery life
Plasticky build
BENCHMARK RESULTS
Antutu:
3DMark:
17,719 points
6,373 points
The Fonepad 7 comes with a microSIM slot so

you can use mobile data on the go
092
january 14
chip malaysia
nother month comes by, and we

have yet another tablet from the
guys at ASUS. If youre looking
for a seven-inch slate device thats both
affordable and functional at the same time,
you may want to take a look at one of their
latest tablets, the ASUS Fonepad 7.
Powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom
Z2560 dual-core processor, the Fonepad 7
features a seven-inch LED backlit display
with a resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels.
This IPS panel display is also capable of
supporting up to 10 point touch and comes
with a variety of goodies such as a 16GB
built in storage which can be expanded up
to 64GB via microSD as well as micro SIM
card support for mobile data connectivity.
Out of the box, the Fonepad 7 comes
with Android 4.2 Ice Cream Sandwich, but
after youve set up your Wi-Fi connection,
the device will prompt you to update the
devices firmware and operating system
to 4.3. The instructions are fairly straight
forward, although we do recommend
that you have the Fonepad 7 charged at
50 percent at least before performing the
update.
Regardless if youve upgraded it to
the latest version of Android or not, the
Fonepad 7 is an excellent tablet device.
Sure it does not have as many pixels as

the Nexus 7 does, but it does perform in a
similar fashion to the ASUS-made Google
tablet. The Fonepad 7 is capable of playing
back 1080p videos and a number of high
fidelity games as well. The Fonepad 7
is equipped with SonicMaster speakers
as well and they work great as well.
Its battery life impresses as well as we
managed to clock about 8 hours of use
with WiFi turned on.
One nitpick that we do have of the
Fonepad 7 however comes in the form
of its build quality. Whilst we are pretty
used to having the outer chassis made
of plastic, the Fonepad 7 does feel a bit
hollow, and for some, this may be a
deal-breaker. That said, potential buyers
get to choose between black and grey as
colours of choice for the Fonepad 7s back
plate.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The ASUS Fonepad 7 functions well
as an affordable tablet and shows
that even the budget stuff can work
as well as the expensive ones. We
definitely recommend this tablet
to those who want to save a bit of
money for other things.
test lab
review
MSI GTX 780Ti

Gaming
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM2,719
AMT PC Distributors Sdn. Bhd.,
JW Power Marketing Sdn. Bhd.,
MediaForte (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd
(03) 3344 1124, (03) 2148 1307,
(03) 7960 6868
my.msi.com
Specifications
Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780Ti
Core Clock: 980MHz (Boost Clock 1046MHz)
Memory Size: 3072MB DDR5
Ports: 1x Dual-link DVI-I, 1x Dual-link DVI-D,
1x HDMI 1.4a, 1x DisplayPort
RATINGS
Infused With The

Dragoon
NVIDIAs GeForce GTX 780Ti gets even more
formidable thanks to MSI By Jeremy Cheong
ack in May 2013, NVIDIA released

the mind-blowingly powerful
GeForce GTX 780. Six months down
the road, they decided to make what was
already a very powerful graphics card even
better by giving it the Ti treatment. On
its own, the card was already a gamers
dream graphics card but MSI decided it
wasnt powerful enough, so they went
ahead and made the GeForce GTX 780Ti
Gaming, which is a beast.
Of course, like most MSI Gaming
series graphics cards, this GTX 780Ti
now sports the more radical looking Twin
Frozr VI cooler and sports the signature
red and black colour scheme. Although it
looks sleeker, it is still quite big and easily
takes up the space of two PCIe slots. But
thats a small price to pay as the card is
very powerful and a single card should
be enough for even the most hardcore
gamers. The Twin Frozr VI cooler does
its job well as it is silent and even after
running all our benchmarks it was just
slightly warm to the touch. However, on
OC mode, it is wise to set the fan on full
blast although thatll make it quite noisy
but its better than a worn out card.
In terms of ports, this version of
the card retains the ports found on the
reference card as it had all the most used

ports today. But other than that, the card
has been heavily modified as right out
of the box; the cards core clock speed
has been given a boost from 875MHz
to 980MHz. On default, the card runs on
Gaming mode but with the MSI Gaming
App you can easily switch to OC mode or
Silent mode with just a click.
On default, the card sailed pass all our
benchmarks with ease and so far, this has
to be one of the most powerful graphics
card we tested for the year 2013. But if that
isnt enough power for you, you can either
manually overclock the card or go back
to the Gaming App and set it to OC mode
which bumps up the core clock speed to
1020MHz and will easily run even the most
demanding games.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
As always, MSI does a great job at
making what was once a formidable
card into an insane powerhouse. The
GeForce GTX 780Ti Gaming of course
comes with a very hefty price tag but
it will be an investment some gamers
are willing to make as they probably
wont have to upgrade their graphics
card for another two years.
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Overclocked out of the
box
Impressive
performance
Twin Frozr IV cooler
Good overclocking
headroom
Noisy when fan is set
to full speed
BENCHMARK RESULTS
3DMark (Fire Strike):
10,293 points
3DMark (Fire Strike Extreme): 5,238 points
Unigine Heaven (1,920 x 1,080,
4xAA, Ultra Quality, Normal
Tessellation):
92.5FPS
MSIs version of the GeForce GTX 780Ti

retains the originals ports, which is no bad
thing
chip malaysia
january 14
093
test lab
review
Cooler Master
G750M
Price
Contact
RM379
Bhd., SDS Distribution Sdn.
Bhd.
(03) 7956 6300, (03) 7782 4700
www.coolermaster.com
Phone
Info
Specifications
Type: Intel ATX 12V V2.31
Input Voltage: 100-240Vac (Full Range)
MTBF: >100,000 hours
Fan: 120mm intelligent fan
Dimensions: 150 x 140 x 86mm
Just A Tad
Neater
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Near silent operation
Good load balancing
Not fully modular
While it isnt fully modular, being able to plug

in only on the SATA cables you need does
make things more organised
Its a shame that these clips arent for all the

pins, they really help make plugging them in
to a motherboard or component less fiddly
094
january 14
chip malaysia
It may not be fully modular, but G750M from Cooler

Master will definitely help make your system a little
neater By Jeremy Cheong
ore and more desktop power

supply units are now being
designed with the modular cable
design because manufacturers know that
users prefer having the insides of their
desktops organised, which also helps give
it better airflow. Seeing as they are also
one of the most trusted brands when it
comes to PSU, Cooler Master have also
started producing modular PSUs, like the
G750M that caters to the more mainstream
consumer.
In their modular GM series that consists
of four different variants, G450M, G550M
and G650M, the G750M is of course the
highest end and while it may not state
that it is for gaming, it is actually good
enough to power mid-range to high-end
gaming rigs. Also, one thing to note about
the G750M and other GM series PSUs is
the fact that while it is supposed to be
modular, it is only semi-modular as only
the SATA cables are removable. While
some of you might feel a little confused,
dont be. The ability to remove the SATA
cables actually help a lot as not everyone
uses more than two hard disk or solid state
drives. The rest of the cables such as the
motherboard, CPU and PCIe are adequate
even for a system that runs on a multi-GPU
setup.
Theres really nothing much to talk
about in terms of the G750Ms design

because it looks like most PSUs save for
the honey comb mesh that helps increase
airflow. It also relies on a single 120mm
fan, which is nice and silent even when
under heavy load. Another neat feature to
note is that the CPU and motherboard pins
actually utilise a clip system that locks into
place, it would have been nice if it was also
used for the PCIe pins as this really helped
make plugging them in less fiddly.
In terms of performance, the G750M is
quite a good workhorse. We plugged it in
to our test system, which at the time was
equipped with an NVIDIA GTX 780Ti and
tested it using FurMark. Even when we
overclocked the card and increased the
benchmarks settings, the PSU was stable
and ran silently.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
As a conclusion, we have to say
that while the Cooler Master G750M
isnt part of a gaming series, it
definitely can be used to power up a
high-end gaming rig or even serious
workhorse. It isnt fully modular but
that is not really a big issue as you get
all the necessary power pins and can
still choose how many SATA power
cables or 4Pin peripheral or floppy
cables you need.
test lab
review
MSI Z87I
Gaming AC
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM799
Media Forte (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd,
ScanArt Data (M) Sdn Bhd
(03) 2287 1177
my.msi.com
Specifications
CPU Support: Intel Core Processor
CPU Socket: LGA 1150
Chipset: Intel Z87 Chipset
Memory Type: Dual Channel Memory
Diminutive In
Size, Big In
Performance
MSIs gaming ITX motherboard may be small, but

it packs quite a punch By Nazrin Zain
TX and Mini-ATX boards have grown

in both supply and demand as people
are looking to build tiny PCs for both
the living room and the office. These
motherboards form the base for spacesaving PCs, and it is no wonder then that
MSI have released a gaming variant of
their MSI Z87I motherboard, called the
MSI Z87I Gaming AC.
The Z87I Gaming AC motherboard
is marketed as a gaming motherboard,
and indeed it does come with a
number of features that MSIs Gaming
motherboards are known for, such as
the E2200 Killer Gaming LAN port, the
USB Audio Boost ports and on-board
Wi-Fi that supports the 802.11ac wireless
standard.
Getting the quintessential out of the
way, the Z87I Gaming AC has two DDR3
DIMM slots, five SATA III ports and one
PCIe 3.0 slot. A word of caution here
when using aftermarket coolers with
the Z87I, be sure that it is small enough
so that it does not block the PCIe port.
Unfortunately the coolers that we had
blocked the PCIe slot and we had to run
the test with Intels on-board graphics.
That being said, together with the
Intel Core-i7-4770K processor, the Z87I

Gaming AC motherboard delivered
some pretty impressive numbers on
the PCMark 8 benchmark. We also had
no problems testing out high definition
videos with the on-board graphics of the
Intel processor. Were also fairly certain
that with a proper graphics card, the
motherboard will function as a proper
full-fledged gaming board despite its
size.
As mentioned before, one of the Z87I
Gaming ACs main features is its built-in
support for 802.11ac, and alongside the
E2200 Killer LAN port, this motherboard
is a lean, mean internet and gaming
machine. The Audio Boost and USB
Audio Power features also mean that
youll be listening to the clearest,
most crisp music and in-game sounds
regardless if youre using speakers or a
headphone.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The MSI Z87I Gaming AC is a tiny, yet
great motherboard that works very
well if youre looking to build a tiny
multimedia PC for home use or even
for Steams Big Picture.
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Performance is as
good as full-sized
ATX-boards
Using large aftermarket CPU coolers or
graphics cards will
block ports and slots
BENCHMARK RESULTS
PCMark 8 (Home):
4,311 points
3,792 points
The motherboard supports the 802.11ac Wi-Fi

specification
Despite its size it still comes with quite a

number of I/O ports
chip malaysia
january 14
095
test lab
review
Corsair
RM1000 PSU
Price
Contact
RM770
Cudo Technologies (M) Sdn.
Bhd.
(03) 2148 1177
www.corsair.com
Phone
Info
Specifications
Type: lntel ATX 12V V2.4
Input Voltage: 100-240Vac
MTBF: 100,000 hours
Fan: 120mm
The Sweet
Sound Of Silence
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Fan does not move on
idle to medium
workload
Fully modular design
No manual fan control
The RM1000 is a fully modular PSU, which

means you can pick and choose the cables
you want to use to reduce cable clutter
The fan will only start to kick in at about 40

percent load, which not only helps minimise
power usage when idle, but also reduce
sound levels tremendously
096
january 14
chip malaysia
Corsair shows that PSUs can run without a spinning

fan By Nazrin Zain
orsair has been generous for

the past few months by sending
us quite a number of their PC
accessories to be reviewed. This time
around, theyve sent us a power supply
unit to remind us that they are also strong
players in the components market, and we
have to say, the Corsair RM1000 PSU is
quite something.
The RM series of PSUs range from
RM450, RM550, RM650, RM750, RM850
and the one that we received for this
review, the RM1000. The series number
corresponds to the wattage of the power
supply, which is a convenient indicator to
which variant you need and want to buy.
For neat-freaks who insist on having
their computers clutter and cable-free,
youre in luck as the RM1000 is a fully
modular PSU, which allows you to pick
and choose the number of cables that
you need to power up your computers
components. You dont need to worry
about running out of cables either as
Corsair has six SATA power ports, with
each cable being able to power four
SATA drives and six PCIe ports which are
used to power the CPU and PCIe-based
components such as graphics cards.
The main selling feature of the RM
series of PSUs is Corsairs claims that the
fan will not spin under light or heavy load.
Whilst we were quite sure that the RM1000
was able to power up our test bed with
relatively no issues, we were quite curious

about how true Corsairs claims are in
regards to the fan.
At idle, the fan does indeed not move
as at this point the PSU used just enough
power to have all the components running.
We then tested the RM1000 PSU with
a setup that included an AMD R9 280X
graphics card, and after running a variety
of tests such as 3DMark, Unigine Heaven
and Furmark, the fan was still stationary.
We switched the GPU with an NVIDIA GTX
780Ti and ran the same set of tests, hoping
for a higher power-draw, but the fan would
still not spin.
That being said, we believe that Corsair
are confident in the longevity of the PSUs
components as the PSU does run quite
hot due to the fan not spinning. It is also
unfortunate that there is no way for users
to force the fan to spin, as not everyone
likes to have their PSU heat up too much
before the fan kicks in to life.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The Corsair RM1000 PSU works and
functions as advertised and is very
silent due to a lack of movement from
the fan. We noticed no issues testing
out the PSU with our test bed despite
the fan not turning, so safe to say if
youre looking for a PSU that is truly
silent most of the time, you cant go
wrong with this one.
test lab
review
ASUS Maximus
VI Gene
Price
Contact
Phone
Info
RM799
Build Technology Supply Sdn.
Bhd., Servex (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd
(03) 7955 3699, (03) 8024 6688
www.asus.com/my
Specifications
CPU Support: Intel Core Processor
CPU Socket: LGA 1150
Chipset: Intel Z87 Chipset
Memory Type: Dual Channel Memory, Up to
32GB DRR3
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Pedigree Genes
The Maximus family from ASUS continues to expand

but its pedigree doesnt get diluted By Jeremy Cheong
ver since Intels latest fourth

generation Core processors arrived
in the mid of 2013, ASUS have been
supplying us non-stop with motherboards
based on said chipset. This is definitely
a good thing as this gives gamers more
choices when it comes to purchasing a
new motherboard with different features
and price range. So here we have yet
another Republic of Gamers branded
motherboard, the Maximus VI Gene.
The Maximus VI family has really gone
through quite an expansion as ASUS
have made definitely filled up the line
with motherboards that would cater to
every user demographic. The Maximus
VI Gene bears the same red and black
colour schemes as the other boards but is
a Micro ATX sized. While we really liked
the mini ITX sized Maximus VI Impact we
reviewed two months ago, we have to
say that the Gene is actually is a better
choice for those who still want a compact
gaming rig but want to be able to fit in
more components as it isnt as cramped
as the Impact. But with that being said,
our standard Cooler Master X6 CPU cooler
also encroached into the first PCIe slot.
So if you are looking to build a rig with
a multi-GPU setup, it is best if you used
a medium sized cooler or opt for liquid

cooling.
Like most Maximus motherboards, the
Gene is filled with a boatload of features.
There are the standard features such as
SupremeFX, GameFirst II and RAMDisk.
On top of that, users will also get an
adaptor called the mPCIe Combo II that
allows you to install mini PCIe 2.0 cards
such as a Wi-Fi module or a small formfactor m.2 SSD to your system. The board
also comes with the standard range of I/O
ports and has eight SATA3 ports.
In terms of performance, as the board
bears the Maximus name, you can expect
the best. On our standard test setup and
on default settings, the Gene produced
scores that befits high-end systems. For
those who want a little more, theres still a
little headroom for overclocking.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
For its price, you really cant go
wrong with the ASUS Maximus VI
Gene especially if you are looking to
build a compact gaming rig but dont
want to sacrifice on the number of
components you can bolt on, want
top-notch performance and a good
set of features.
mATX form factor

Good performance
Loads of high-end
features
mPCIe Combo II
None
BENCHMARK RESULTS
PCMark 8 (Home):
PCMark (Work):
5,500 points
4,558 points
5,183 points
Like most ASUS motherboards, the Maximus

VI Gene comes with all the necessary rear I/O
chip malaysia
january 14
097
test lab
review
Philips
Brilliance 231C5
Price
Contact
RM1,499
Bhd.
(03) 7956 6300
www.philips.com.my
Phone
Info
Specifications
Panel type: IPS LCD with 10 point touch
Backlight: W-LED system
Panel size: 23-inch
Optimum resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 @ 60Hz
Connectivity: 1x VGA, 1x DisplayPort, 1x
HDMI, 1x MHL-HDMI, 2x USB 3.0, 1x PC
Audio-in, 1x Headphone-out, Sync input
Extras: 1-megapixel webcam, microphone, 2x
2W speakers
Weight: 5.16kg (with stand)
Dimensions: 563 x 406 x 72mm (with stand)
RATINGS
Performance
Brilliant MultiTasker
This 23-inch LCD monitor really lives up to its

Brilliance product name as it has plenty of features
Features
Design
By Jeremy Cheong
Value
Stunning image quality

Lots of extra features
Full HD
Responsive touch
capability
Ports hard to locate
Only 1-megapixel
webcam
The touch sensitive buttons are very

responsive and located on a very easy to
reach area
098
january 14
chip malaysia
hese days, its hard to find a

laptop or desktop PC that doesnt
run on Windows 8 and whether
you like to admit it or not, Microsofts
operating system works best with a touch
screen display. This is why many PC
display manufacturers have also started
developing more and more touch capable
displays. With competition being quite
fierce in this area, Philips has taken a
different approach with the Brilliance
231C5, a 23-inch Full HD LCD monitor that
has 10 point touch capabilities and some
hidden tricks up its sleeves.
First off, lets talk about its design. The
231C5 actually reminds us of a desktop
All-In-One PC, just that it is much lighter
and slimmer. Like most touch capable
displays, it has a very glossy surface but
is quite easily filled with smudges and
fingerprints, so youd probably want
to keep a cleaning cloth in arms reach.
It also features the SmartStand design
that allows the monitor to lean at about
60-degrees back depending on what you
are doing.
Besides just the SmartStand and touch
capability, the 231C5 also features a
1-megapixel webcam that makes it easy
for users who are constantly on video
calls although the image quality of the
webcam is just okay and not fantastic.
Then theres also a slew of ports on the

back of the device that range from the
standard display outputs such as a VGA,
HDMI and DisplayPort to a MHL-HDMI
and two USB 3.0 ports.
On top of all that, this monitor actually
features two 2W RMS speakers that are
quite loud and clear. Of course, without
a subwoofer, the bass is a bit lacking but
for video calls and even watching videos,
it will definitely suffice.
Image quality is also something the
231C5 excels in as not only does it come
with an IPS panel so being at any angle,
you still get a clear picture but colours
were bright and vivid, fast movements
had absolutely no ghosting effects
and texts were crisp and clear with no
bleeding at all. So whether you want to
use it for multimedia, gaming or work, the
Brilliance 231C5 will have you covered.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
Its asking price may seem a little
steep but then again you will have to
think about all the other features it
comes with. If you have a desktop or
laptop that runs on Windows 8 but
lacks the touch display, the Philips
Brilliance 231C5 will definitely make
using the operating system a much
more natural experience.
lite & leisure

think
THINK
the thoughts of our uncertified tech junkie
Little Eyes In The Sky
Im sitting in bed with a bad case of the flu a million miles from home, in the darkest depths of winter with
a steaming mug of ginger tea beside me, when thoughts turn to... Drones By Tim Lee
hat word now has acquired sinister overtones, becoming

an ominous verb in the process. Protesters on international
news channels shouting Stop droning us! want to end
the wanton destruction rained down from above by military
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Various militaries around the
world are now using these flying robot planes to scan the
battlefield and deliver lethal payloads to unsuspecting targets on
the ground, freeing human pilots from the risk of being shot
down.
The American Federal Aviation Authority is coming up with a
ruling on drone usage in cities for commercial purposes, for
police and surveillance. Its the small copter drones that could be
a privacy nightmare they run quietly on battery power, they
can hover and hide and with the right innards, they can even
function autonomously. A small drone could be buzzing outside
your window, recording your every move and listening to your
conversation without you even realising it. The paparazzi pack of
shifty characters hunting celebrities with long zoom lenses could
be replaced by a pack of humming camera drones.
But enough with the bad press, Im more interested in having
fun with these little flying gadgets. For US$300, you can buy an
off-the-shelf Parrot.AR drone that runs on four tiny rotors and
can be controlled through a simple iOS or Android app. Theres
a live video feed from the onboard camera so you can pretend
youre an annoying gnat buzzing around for the ten minutes the
battery pack lasts.
To actually do stuff with drones, youll need a more robust
model with beefier frames, more powerful (and more) rotors and
smarter electronics. The most popular and cheapest models for
beginners are quadcopters with four rotors, while pricey sixrotor hexacopters and eight-rotor octocopters are used by
professionals for filming, aerial imagery, even delivering small
items. Shots that previously required expensive helicopter time
and specialist crews now can be done with a gyro-stabilized
drone with a gimbal mount and a lightweight GoPro camera
theres plenty of YouTube car review videos with swooping
100
january 14
chip malaysia
aerial footage and commercial spaceflight pioneer SpaceX is

using hexacopters to film its Grasshopper rocket taking off,
hovering a few hundred meters up, then landing on the exact
point it lifted off from.
Theres a burgeoning open source scene for DIY drones like
the AeroQuad quadcopter while the APM:Copter project has
Arduino-based autopilot modules for many configurations, and
theyll sell you a complete DIY kit for an autonomous drone
starting from US$600. You can fly these manually with a
common radio-controlled model transmitter, or they can fly
themselves using the autopilot and GPS modules and a laptop
for route programming. Just set the GPS waypoints and tasking
(for hovering, performing set maneuvers, or following an object
equipped with a radio beacon) on a tablet or laptop equipped
with the mission planning software, upload the commands to
the drone, and press some buttons to get it to fly off and do its
thing.
The best part is that both hardware and software are under
open source licenses so youre free to tinker. Some intrepid
hackers have replaced the limited Arduino flight microcontrollers
with a Raspberry Pi for even more computing power the copter
now runs full Linux so you can stream video from an onboard
webcam through a 3G connection, log in to view and modify
flight parameters, or create an inpromptu wide Wi-fi network by
daisy-chaining hotspot-wielding drones. I can imagine these
smart drones being perfect for outdoor event organizers, for
scientists to do remote sensing in inhospitable terrain and even
for the future farmer to view her fields from the comfort of her
tablet app.
Its all cool but theres still a hint of the sinister in there. Am I
being watched by a drone operated by some sneaky hacker? Is
my drone watching me at the same time Im watching others?
Well have to get used to the sight of little flying things buzzing
all around us doing who knows what. In the future, that fly on
the wall may not be a fly after all...
lite & leisure

eve
EVE
the world of tech through the eyes of the fairer sex
The Net Is Not All Fun And

Games
While technology has changed, people have not and when it comes down to it, there are a lot of depraved
individuals out and about especially on cyberspace. Most of them take advantage of the freedom of the
net and prey on girls and after a recent fiasco; here what I have to say about it By Maleika
ocial media is overused, abused

and quite frankly overrated. Dont
get me wrong, I personally own a
profile in the most used social network
sites used these days: Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter. But I cannot help
but question, why someone would need
to share every single one of their feelings
/ thoughts/ daily activities with the 500
people they are acquainted with? Back
when smartphones were a rare
commodity, (which is not too long ago),
people called that kind of behavior
ATTENTION SEEKING. Flash forward a
decade later, it is termed keeping in
touch with loved ones. Well I dont buy
it!
With the recent case of an Internet
blog that posted names and pictures of
young Malaysian girls - many of them
minors - taken without their consent,
most everyone might be blaming the
stalker behind the blog. Sure the guy is
to blame. But what I seem to wonder is
why those pictures of girls were available
on the internet in the first place? Sure
surefreedom of expression and rights.
But shouldnt kids (I stress the term KIDS
because they are underage) be
supervised when using the internet? Why
should they be posting up photos which
are accessible to just about anyone in the
first place?
Security! People need to remember
that it is a dog eat dog world out there.
We should be aware of the dangers not
only when walking the streets out there,
but also those available on cyberspace.
We need to learn about how to protect
ourselves. People need to think long
term. Actions have consequences.
Parents really have to play a more
proactive role when it comes to what

their kids are doing on the internet. Yes,
many will say it is a difficult task as most
parents are out working but there are so
many tools and software (free and paid)
that can help. Most security solutions
these days come with parental controls
that enable them to set which sites their
kids are able to access. Facebook is fun
but the creators of the site set an age
limit there for a reason. With newer
security solutions, parents are even able
to monitor what their kids are doing on
their smartphones. Again, should kids
below the age of 16 really be using a
smartphone?
Wake up and smell the coffee. We
need to be more concerned about what
they share. After all, you never know
when the information could fall into the
wrong hands. Okay, maybe I sound a
little paranoid. But I cannot help but think
of how over sharing and over excitement,
plus a slip of a finger can lead to a really
bad scenario of miscommunication. Take
for instance a girl friend of mine the other
day, who went absolutely ballistic when
she noticed that her boyfriend had been
tagged on Facebook, at a gathering with
his friends when he was supposed to be
home recovering from the flu. Given that
she is slightly insecure, but you can be
sure, that all hell broke loose for that
poor sick man. Turned out his
overexcited friend had tapped on the
wrong Paul. Small slip of the finger, BIG
consequence.
Enough of the rant. Just in case you
didnt know yet. Here are some ways you
can stay safe.
1.Do not share your profile for
EVERYBODY. Unless you are a celebrity
(does not apply to self-claimed

celebrities)
2.DO NOT tag your every move on your
social media profile. General public do
not need to know where you are every
second of the day. It just makes you
easier to track / stalk / robbed / hunted.
3.DO NOT post up every thought (brain
fart) that runs through that very creative
mind of yours. Save some information in
your personal diary.
4.DO NOT share photos with over
exposed body parts. Leave some mystery
to things. People generally like to guess
whats underneath.
5.DO NOT randomly add every Tom, Dick
or Harry (also applies to Mary, Jane and
Suzy) on your personal social media
profile.
chip malaysia
january 14
101
lite & leisure

people
PEOPLE
whom we meet and talk to
Shining Brighter Than The Spotlights

Ever since we got back into the grove of talking to Malaysians who live colourful lives, we have spoken
to a musician, app developer and this month we chat with a film producer who lives life to the fullest and
tells us why we sometimes should take a break from our gadgets By Jeremy Cheong
life-long film buff, Linus Chung

made home movies as a child by
shooting scenes with a cheap
consumer video camera and editing the
resultant footage on his family video
recorder. In 2004, he was a supporting
actor in one of the most highly regarded
movies in Malaysia, SEPET, which was
directed by the late Yasmin Ahmad. He
also created an independent animated
short film entitled Demolition Frog that to
date has been screened in over 11 festivals
all over the world including Berlin and
Festival Du Film Asiatique De Deauville. As
if his accolades werent impressive enough,
his short film House has been screened in
the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Short
Film Festival, Pusan Film Festival and
Rotterdam International Film Festival. He
now makes a living and supports his
passion for filmmaking by producing and
directing TV commercials and corporate
videos. Other than making films, Linus also
writes articles for magazines but above all,
he is a loving husband, doting father and

friend to Mother Nature who is constantly
on the frontlines to see that her beauty is
preserved for generations to come.
What inspired you to get into

the film making industry?
As a child, I loved playing with toys. One
day I came to the realisation that there is a
job thats akin with playing with toys and
thats making a movie. Except now the toys
are bigger and can even talk and you work
with a camera instead of just the view from
your eye.
With so many years in the

industry, what has been your
most memorable experience?
Ive been blessed with many very
memorable experiences but the most life
changing one was working with the late
Yasmin Ahmad. Before I met and talked to
her my impression of films were limited to
movies with big bangs and action heroes. I
learnt from her that there are things just as
beautiful in the subtle nuances and while I
still do enjoy big bangs now and then, I
now know about and appreciate films that
are about the human conditions and realise
that films can do so much more than just
excite...they are also wonderful tools to
educate, provoke a thought or to savour
the small nuances missed in life that are
mirrored back to us in a good film.
How would you describe the

Malaysian film industry in
terms of technology?
In my opinion, we have the intellectual
capability here for the application of
wondrous modern filmmaking technology
but we do not have the market nor the
investment to merit the need for such
technology and hence we are lacking.
While much of the special effects from the
film The Life of Pi were produced in
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Malaysia and I personally have a

hometown friend who worked on The Dark
Knight Rises, these are foreign initiatives
operating locally and does not reflect the
Malaysian Film Industry. The Malaysian
film industry is also quick to boast of CGI
effect but truly a lot of them fall short. Here
is where we should be more aware that
unlike other industry, the filmmaking
industry is an art form and the focus should
be on the creation of art and storytelling.
Compared to when you first

started, how much has the
technology surrounding your
work advanced?
Technology hasnt just advanced, it has
changed entirely. We used to shoot on film
which is a hundred year old technology
that utilised celluloid and a light sensitive
emulsion that will react to light and thus
capture the image. Today, the digital
camera uses a sensor that will translate
light into electrical signal that is stored
digitally as data. Other changes in
technology are the ever increasing storage
size of ever shrinking physical size of discs,
the ever increasing speed of the internet
and numerous software that now exist to
so call make your life easier
Between old school and

current gen technology in your
industry, which do you prefer
and why?
lite & leisure

people
While I work heavily on digital technology

and couldnt fault it as it gives me my
bread and butter; I do feel that the old
school method allowed for more what the
artist would regard as essence or soul in
the work produced. You need a much
greater understanding of the process to be
able to work on old school medium such as
film and that greater understanding
demands that you pay more attention to
the process as it is crucial that you
understand the various elements that will
ultimately determine the look of the image
produced. With digital, while considering
the elements can get you a better imagery,
many can also get pretty decent imagery
with a basic camera by simply turning on
the camera and setting the configuration to
Auto. As consumer models compete for
market share by bettering their product, the
line between a professional range and a
consumer range is slowly diminished This
consumer-centric ease of use culture really
takes away the artists need to master his
brush.
There is no doubt a good side though as
it has liberalised film making in its ease and
cost and now more people who would
once be unable to, can now tell a story.
At this point in time, what are

some of the current gadget/
device you really want to get
your hands on?
I am not particularly a gadget freak. I own a
smartphone but I do not even have a data
plan. The reason for this is simple,
technology is addictive. I do not want to be
addicted to technology to the point that I
cease to enjoy life for all its natural joys
and wonders. So while I relish cool
gadgets, I would say I will settle for a warm
loving dog or a parrot rather than an
addictive gadget. I am a living breathing
organic being and I like to mix with my
own organic form. In relation to work, Ill
get whatever gadget that best suits the
work I am currently doing.
How has technology and social

media helped in the causes you
support?
A lot of us have much more than we really
need and yet we are unhappy and in our
greed, we are depleting finite resources. It
is because of this, I am using social media
to share with people how I choose to live

life and raise my daughter to be grateful
and appreciate nature and animals . We
can be found at greatlittlestories.com or
you can find us at facebook.com/
greatlittlestories. How has technology
helped? Well, as I am not selling anything
but propagating an idea, I wouldnt have a
budget for media. Traditional media would
have cost a lot of money but fortunately via
technology and social media the circulation
of my belief system is cost free. I would
also like to invite you all to
savesarawakrivers.com, a site dedicated to
saving the rivers of Sarawak.
If others want to do what you

are doing, what are the devices
you would recommend to
them?
m?
d say take any imaging device you
I would
et a hold of and just start. Thats
can get
aking of an artist is it not?
the making
ionally artists are poor and
Traditionally
suffer for their art and would
make use of any media to
ss themselves. Dont
express
o reliant and be
be too
stuck in the I dont
have this so I cant do
that mentality. My
careerr started with
olition Frog,
Demolition
which I made on a
ra thats so old
camera
hat your phone
now that
d probably create
would
better imagery. Its
about one word.
e.
Create.
u were
If you
na
given
e sum
large
of money
and asked
esign
to design
vice,
a device,
whatt
ld it
would
nd
be and
whatt
ld
would
be itss
mostt
defining feature?
I would design a device that will kick some
sense into people, something to disallow
technology to take such a big stranglehold
on peoples time and remind them that life
is about loving, smiling, experiencing and
living. Not mere hash-tagging or
Facebooking. Actually, come to think of it,
this thing already existsits called a dog.
For those of you who are interested in

finding out more on what Linus Chung
does, you can always check out his teams
official Facebook page at www.facebook.
com/AeleaFilms or contact him personally
at linus.frog@gmail.com.
lite & leisure

touch
TOUCH
To Live Is To Learn
the best apps to spice up your day
This year, instead of making resolutions that hardly get fulfilled, why dont you learn something new
instead, you never know, it could change your life By Jeremy Cheong
014 is here and by now Im sure many of you have already whipped up a resolutions list. But let me ask you a question, does that
list actually help? Do you really achieve what you set out to do? Well, maybe this year, instead of doing things according to your list,
why not learn a new skill instead? Its not hard and thanks to your smartphone and tablet, you wont even have leave your home
and go for lessons. Here are some very handy apps for those of you who have an urge to learn.
Instructables
Price: Free
Platform: Android, iOS
Developer: Autodesk Inc.
Instructables is easily one of the apps that you have to have on your
smartphone or tablet especially if you love Do-It-Yourself projects. This
app has over a 100,000 tutorials that range from the most simple of
creations to the outrageous. Want to impress your friends by cooking
them a delicious steak and irresistible dessert? Just check the app. Want
to be the talk of the Halloween party with your insanely detailed Iron Man
costume? Check the app.
You never know what you will find in the app as its collection is made
up of DIY-addicts who are very happy to share step-by-step tips on how to
make really cool stuff. On the other hand, if you have a very special project that you would love to share with others, this app also allows
you to document and share them.
Duolingo
Price: Free
Developer: Duolingo
When it comes to language, we Malaysians are already quite an impressive
bunch as most of us can speak at least three different languages and on top of
that all the various dialects as well. So, if you are looking to add yet another
language to your already impressive repertoire, Duolingo is the go-to app as it
is an app that provides you with college-quality education for free.
Another great thing about Duolingo is the way it teaches you as instead of
boring
assignments, it
provides you with
challenges much
like a video game.
For now the app
offers you lessons in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and
English.
How To Tie A Tie

Price: Free / US$2.99 (Pro)
Platform: Android, iOS, BlackBerry
Developer: ArtelPlus (Android & BlackBerry) / Damir Nigomedyanov (iOS)
Lets face the facts here. Most of us guys these days, dont know how to tie a
tie. Its either we buy clip-ons or we get someone to do it for us (dad, brother,
wife). So instead of taking the easy way out, heres an app that provides
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touch
lessons on how to tie a perfect tie for different occasions. The app is filled with 27 different types of knots and comes with simple and
illustrated pictures. If you prefer animated tutorials, you can always opt for the Pro version. The app also features a virtual mirror that
shows you what needs to go where.
But other than just ties, the app also has lessons on how to tie bowties, ascots, pocket squares folds and even scarves. With this app,
instead of looking like a country bumpkin the next time theres a soiree, you will now be one of the most dapper looking chaps.
Gorilla Workout
Price: US$0.99
Developer: Heckr LLC
Working out in the gym, getting fit and living a healthier lifestyle is probably
one of the most common resolutions in many of our lists. But as always
though, we tend to come up with excuses that stops us from doing so. If
youre one of those who prefers to work out at home, then Gorilla Workout is
a great app as it is packed with over 40 fast-paced and no-equipment
exercises.
It has four fitness levels so it doesnt matter what shape youre in and
theres also an easy to follow day-by-day workout regimen containing
hundreds of unique routines. If you are one of those who want to know if you
are doing a workout right, the app even has real life video demonstrations
and detailed text descriptions for each exercise.
TED
Price: Free
Developer: TED Conferences
TED is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment and Design and it is just
filled with some of the most fascinating people from all over the world,
who share their ideas that are life changing and encourages every
individual to think and look at things differently. These talks are usually
conducted by education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks,
business gurus and even music legends.
If you need inspiration or just want to learn to look at life differently,
then this app will have you covered as it has over 1,500 TEDTalk videos
and audios of very inspirational stories and ideas. These videos and
videos are also constantly updated every week so you will never run out of
stories.
HowStuffWorks
Price: Free
Platform: Android, iOS, Windows Phone
Developer: Discovery Communications, LLC
HowStuffWorks started off as a website and is great for those who just love
reading and learning about new things. Now with the app, you can gain
access to over 30,000 articles, podcasts, quizzes and videos wherever you
are. The app even gives you the ability to tweet the HSW crew while you
are listening to one of their podcasts.
This app is just a must-have for those who are constantly looking to
better themselves with knowledge and want to find a more relaxed and
entertaining way of learning. Some of the interesting shows include Stuff
to Blow Your Mind, Stuff Mom Never Told You, Stuff You Missed in History
Class, The Coolest Stuff on the Planet and much more.
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read
READ
the books that shape our world of stories
Like many other things, 2013 was also a great year when it came to sci-fi and fantasy novels. These are
some of the books you should definitely read if you love either one of those genres By Jeremy Cheong
s you can probably tell by now, many of us here in

CHIP Malaysia love us a good read when it comes to
novels. The truth is, we dont just stick our nose into
books that were based on video games, superheroes or
popular nerd/geek culture. While those are just some of our
favourites, we actually just love sci-fi and fantasy and 2013
was a great year when it came to these two genres. So here
are our picks for sci-fi and fantasy novels that was released in
2013 which you should read and have a copy in your personal
library.
Publisher: Mulholland
Books
Released: 16 April 2013
According to author,
Austin Grossman, You
was written with his very
own experiences in the
game development
industry and also used
the movie Tron as an
influence to create this
thrilling story. The story
revolves around average
joe, Russell who takes a
job offer at the
prestigious Black Arts
games that is at risk of
being closed down if their
next game wasnt a chart-
American
Elsewhere
Author: Robert Jackson
Bennett
Publisher: Orbit
Released: 12 February
2013
Horror and sci-fi are two
genres that go together
like peanut butter and
jam. With American
Elsewhere, this marriage
of genres was done to
perfection by the author
as he gives the American
dream a twist with by
incorporating a tale of
alien invasion.
The story is set in a
little town called Winx, North Mexico, which doesnt exist on
maps and records. However, former police officer, Mona Bright
inherits her late mothers house in this seemingly perfect town
and due to her curiosity to learn more about her mothers past,
she decides to take up residence at said home. Little does she
know that the town of Winx harbours plenty of dark secrets
and the residents plan to keep it hidden from the world.
Bennett does a great job with the story as it may start out a
little odd but it quickly turns terrifying and haunting due to the
intimidating townfolk of Winx.
You
Author: Austin Grossman
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topping hit.
The company was created by two of Russells closest
friends but one of them has a death surrounded by mystery
that might have been related to the companys first big hit.
Things get even weirder when a game-breaking bug is
discovered in the games engine, WAFFLE. Russell is then
tasked to find the source
of the bug, which leads
him to explore the history
of the company, its
founders and his very
own relationship with
them. The further he digs,
the more Russell realises
that he is putting his own
life at risk.
The Ocean At The

End Of The Lane
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: William
Morrow and Company
Released: 18 June 2013
For Gaiman fans who
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read
have been waiting for the authors next novel for adults (his
first was Anansi Boys, released in 2005), this is it. What was
supposed to be a short story, ended up becoming this
beautiful masterfully written story that follows an unnamed
narrator who returns to his hometown for a funeral and gets
pulled back into an event that started forty years ago during
his childhood.
The main story begins when the narrator remembers the
day his fathers car was stolen and the perpetrator had
committed suicide in the back seat. His death allowed a
supernatural being to gain access to our world, leaving money
for people in most unpleasant ways. From then on, readers are
then thrust into a magical adventure that sees childhood
innocence tested, what happens when an individual gets
between mystic forces and what can be gained from the power
of true friendship. Even if you have never read Gaimans
previous works, this one will draw you in and make you a fan.
The Violent
Century
Author: Lavie Tidhar
Publisher: PS Publishing
Released: 1 November
2013
Were sure many of you
already know that we
love us some stories with
superheroes involved and
what could be better than
a story that features
superheroes set in an
alternate history and a
different version of World
War II and the Cold War.
But thats not all as the
story is also filled with
time travel and political
intrigue.
The Violent Century is about Oblivion and Fogg, both
guardians of the British Empire for seventy years. There were
inseparable friends, bound together by shared fate, that is until
that fateful night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second
World War, and a secret tears their friendship apart. After the
war, when they thought their past would be forgotten, it
catches up to them and they must now face up to the terrible
war and answer an impossible question: What makes a hero?
The Best Of All Possible Worlds

Writer: Karen Lord
Publisher: Del Ray
Released: 12 February 2013
Although this may be Karen Lords second novel, many critics
say that it exceeds her first work, which was the multipleaward-winning Redemption In Indigo. The Best of all
Possible Worlds is a beautifully written and moving sci-fi love
story. The story also

examines adaptation,
social change and human
relationships.
In the pages of this
novel, Lord weaves a
story about a proud and
reserved alien society
that finds their homeland
destroyed and have no
choice but to reach out to
the indigenous
humanoids of their
adopted world. While
they wish to preserve
their way of life, they
discover that in order to
preserve it, they may
have to change it forever.
This leads a man and a woman from the two clashing societies
with opposing characteristic to work together to save this
vanishing race and it is through this journey that they find their
destinies in each other.
Love Minus Eighty

Author: Will McIntosh
Publisher: Orbit
Released: 11 June 2013
For those of you out there
looking for a sci-fi novel
that puts a very creepy
twist to romance, this is
the one to pick up as the
author envisions a future
where wealthy men pay
to defrost cryogenically
frozen dead girls to date
or marry. It plays on the
premise that in the future,
love is complicated and
death is not the end. It
follows several
interconnected people
and how technology can
divide and unite.
In Love Minus Eighty, the story plays out around three
different characters, Rob, who accidently kills a jogger and
then sacrifices everything to visit her in a cryogenic dating
facility to seek forgiveness but ends up falling in love;
Veronika, a demure dating coach, who finds herself coaching
the very woman who is stealing the man she loves and Mira, a
gay woman who is accidentally placed in a heterosexual dating
centre who desperately finds a way to reunite with her frozen
partner.
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watch
WATCH
the movies that becomes us
Inspiring Technological
Advancements In
Movies
Much like our gadgets, movies have come a long way in terms of technology and this month, we take a
look at titles that made breakthroughs in the technological aspects of movie-making By Nazrin Zain
Star Wars
Release date:
1977
Director:
George Lucas
Widely
considered as
the great
granddaddy
of sci-fi
movies, Star
Wars was one
of the first few
movies to
incorporate
special
effects, which
combined
with George
Lucas then
visionary
directing and
story-telling,
made the
movie trilogy
not only one
of the best movies of its time, but one of the most visually
compelling and technically astounding as well. As if thats not
awesome enough for a movie that came out in the 1970s,
Lucasfilm also developed the THX sound reproduction
standard for Return of the Jedi, which is now used as the
audio/visual reproduction standard for movie theatres,
screening rooms and various other audio/visual setup.
Jurassic Park
Release date: 1993
Director: Steven Spielberg
Factual inaccuracies aside, Jurassic Park, featuring dinosaurs
that came from mostly the Cretaceous period was one of the
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most
celebrated
titles of the
1990s. The
movies very
realistic use of
both
animatronics
and computergenerated
graphics was a
cornerstone in
movie-making
technology.
Jurassic Park
would go on
to earn Steven
Spielberg
US$1 billion
and win over
20 awards,
distinctions
mostly
awarded for
the shows
prowess in
usage of visual effects. There are three movies in total in the
Jurassic Park franchise, with a fourth theatrical release set for
2015.
Avatar
Release date: 2009
Director: James Cameron
James Camerons second epic after Titanic was the movie that
was responsible for the boom of 3D movies that were
currently going through today. Double vision shenanigans
aside, Avatar is a visual feast for the eyes. The concept behind
for Avatar was conceived all the way back in 1994, where
Cameron wrote an 80-page screenplay for the movie. Actual
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watch
development of the movie however started in 2006, where the culture for the
Navi was first created. Cameron also described the filming process of the movie
as 60percent CG and 40percent live action, with the live action portion filmed
using a proprietary digital 3D Fusion Camera System which was developed by
Cameron and Vince Pace. Motion capture was also a major part of the movie,
with the entire process taking up 31 days to finish, which included capturing and
lighting the world of Pandora, and the various Navi characters of the movie.
The Hobbit
Release date: 2013
Director: Peter Jackson
The Lord of The Rings trilogy
had some excellent CG elements
thrown into the mix with
astounding cinematography, but
still used many traditional filmmaking techniques to bring a
very deeply satisfying story to
life. The Hobbit, the prequel to
the epic trilogy has Peter
Jackson use more of the same
methods and techniques, with
one very big difference. The
Hobbit was to be filmed in 48
frames per second (also known
as HFR) using 48 RED Epic cameras which are modified to allow Jackson to shoot
in 3D. Not only that, thanks to the RED cameras, he was also able to shoot the
film in 5K, which is the RED
Epics native resolution. If youre
wondering the kind of storage
need to store the recorded
footage, each camera has a
128GB memory card inside to
record the numerous scenes captured throughout filming.
Life of Pi
Release date: 2012
Director: Ang Lee
Based on a book by Yann Martel, Life of Pi tells of a story of a boy named Pi
Patel, who is stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a tiger named
Richard Parker. The story itself delves into many aspects of spirituality and the
need of a person to survive the harshness of the sea alone, but what sets this
movie apart as a technological marvel is the fact that for the most part, the tiger
Richard Parker is actually made entirely from CGI. Hyper-realistic art is taken to
a whole new level in this movie as the tiger looks, moves sounds and acts
exactly like how a real tiger would. Rhythm and Hues, the studio which was also
responsible for creating the lion in Narnia, spent a year in research and
development in order to harness the skill set necessary to bring Richard Parker
to life. It was also the first time the studio used something that is called remote
rendering, which utilises what is called CAVE, which stands for Cloud Animation
and Visual Effects.
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game review
CHIPS' Games Of 2013 Picks

ACTION ADVENTURE
Jeremys Pick
State of Decay
Developer:
Undead Labs
Platform: PC, Xbox 360
If youve read my review
of State of Decay, you
will know why I love this
game. Yes, its another
zombie survival horror
title but it has quite a few
elements to it that sets it apart from the others. The game truly
makes you understand what it is like to have to survive by needing
to scavenge for food, ammo and other resources while also
doing your best to maintain order among other survivors. This
open-world game looks great and the setting and surroundings
really add to the overall dread and feeling of hopelessness.
Nazrins Pick
The Last of Us
Developer:
Naughty Dog
Platform: PlayStation 3
Post-apocalyptic games
are a dime a dozen,
but they dont elicit
the kind of emotional
response this game did
to us. The Last of Us, a
brainchild of the geniuses at Naughty Dog, is not only breathtaking in terms of graphics, it also has a gameplay mechanic
that is both fresh and infuriating at the same time, making it
feel like a mix between survival horror and an action adventure
game. The characters feel humane and are very relatable,
which adds to the experience when playing the game.
ROLE PLAYING GAME
Jeremys Pick
Shadowrun Returns
Developer: Harebrained
Schemes
Platform: PC, Mac,
iOS, Android
Sadly, in 2013, I didnt
spend that much time
playing RPGs as I was still
lost in the wastelands of
Fallout: New Vegas. But the
one RPG I did manage to play however, was Shadowrun Returns.
Being a Kickstarter game, it wasnt as impressive in terms of
graphics and audio quality but it was still a very immersive game.
While the bundled campaign that came with it was quite good, it
was also quite short. However, there are plenty more to download
and you can even make your own campaign using the editor.
FIRST PERSON SHOOTER
Jeremys Pick
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Developer: Ubisoft
Montreal, Ubisoft
Shanghai
Platform: PC,
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Ubisofts Far Cry 3 was
one of the best FPS I
played this year and
when Blood Dragon was
announced, I thought it was all a big joke (it didnt help that it was
announced so close to Aprils Fools day). But little did I know,
that this would actually become my top-pick for shooters. The
game retained much of the same great controls, mechanics and
impressive graphics of the original game. What changed was the
setting as the game was filled with corny one-liners and overthe-top action. It was a beautiful homage to action movies from
the 1980s and 1990s. Plus its protagonist Rex Power Colt was
voiced by Michael Biehn (Kyle Reese in the original Terminator).
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Nazrins Pick
Final Fantasy XIV:
A Realm Reborn
Developer: Square-Enix
Platform: PC,
PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 4
This is an MMO per
se, but personally I feel
that FFXIV: ARR is the
first RPG in a couple of
years that has actually managed to capture both my attention
and time to the point that I sacrificed a tonne of sleep to play.
The gameplay mechanics in this game are amazing as there
is always the game content is always challenging regardless
if youre a newcomer or a veteran. The constant update of
content from the developers also mean that there is always
something new to do regardless of your level as well.
Nazrins Pick
Battlefield 4
Developer: DICE
Platform: PC,
PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 4, Xbox
360, Xbox One
When it works properly
and doesnt suddenly
disconnect you from
games for no apparent
reason, Battlefield 4 is THE go to game for first person shooters.
The single player campaign is a visual spectacle which shows
off what the new Frostbite 3 engine is capable of, and the
multiplayer segment has you pitting yourself against others
in a showcase of teamwork, fragging and explosions that will
leave you begging for more, that is until the game decides
to throw in a few game-breaking bugs to frustrate you.
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game review
2013 was definitely a great year when it came to gaming. There were blockbusting triple A titles
released throughout the year for almost every genre. So here are our picks for our favourite games
of 2013. Do keep in mind that while this list only consists of games that we actually played and if you
dont see your favourite title here, its probably because we havent played it yet By CHIP Team
STRATEGY
Jeremys Pick
Civilization V: Brave
New World
Developer: Firaxis
Games
Platform: PC, Mac
Civilization is a series
that you either love or
hate and for me its like
a drug. The moment
I start, I cant stop. It
starts with just a single turn that leads to another 50 turns at 4
a.m. The fifth entry in the series was already a very good game
but the two expansions made it what it was supposed to be in
the first place. With Brave New World, you dont just get new
content but also a revamped Cultural victory that made the game
a little more challenging for those who wanted to win a game
without having to go to war with neighbouring countries.
Nazrins Pick
Fire Emblem:
Awakening
Developer: Intelligent
Systems, Nintendo SPD
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
One thing I love about the
Nintendo 3DS is how a lot
of old games come back to
life on this platform. Fire
Emblem Awakening is one
such game, where both RPG and strategy elements combine to
bring some truly challenging and satisfying gameplay. The story
and character development in this game is amazing as well, as you
can develop meaningful relationships that also helps you a lot in
battle. If youre up for even more challenges, play in Classic mode,
and see your characters die permanently if they die in battle.
HANDHELD
Jeremys Pick
Soul Sacrifice
Developer: Marvelous
AQL, SCE Japan
Studio, Comcept
Platform: PS Vita
Business is really
starting to pick up for
the PlayStation Vita.
While it didnt have a
constant stream of great
titles released for it, it still had a few notable titles such as Soul
Sacrifice. For Vita owners who were hoping for Monster Hunter
to arrive and want to get that itch of hunting large monsters out
of their system, Soul Sacrifice is your best alternative. Instead
of being limited to a certain weapon type, this game lets you
bring six spells into your battle against grotesque demons.
Single player is fun but it is definitely much better with friends.
Nazrins Pick
Pokemon X & Y
Developer: Game Freak
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Many would argue that
the Pokemon series is
the raison detre for
Nintendos DS handheld
consoles. While well
argue that the statement
is a bit of an over
exaggeration, it is true that the game is one of the very few
big name system sellers that Nintendo has, apart from Mario
and Zelda. Pokemon X and Y continue the tried and tested
formula of collecting Pokemon from one specific region, to
breed and battle, only this time the game features upgraded
graphics (finally!) and new battle mechanics that make breeding
and exploration even more fun and rewarding than before.
MOBILE
Jeremys Pick
Real Racing 3
Developer:
Firemonkeys Studio
Platform: iOS, Android,
BlackBerry 10
Quite frankly, the biggest
mobile game of the year
had to be Candy Crush
Saga but I never really got
in to it. What I did get into
however was Real Racing 3. It had sleek graphics, a catalogue of
cars I can only own in my dreams that had realistic handling and
physics and a slew of real life tracks. While it didnt really have
a multiplayer mode, I could still challenge my friends due to its
Time Shifted Multiplayer system that still allowed me to challenge
them. If you love racing, this is a must-have in your app list.
Nazrins Pick
Plants vs Zombies 2
Developer:
PopCap Games
Platform: iOS, Android
If you have never ever
played Plants vs Zombies,
you must surely have
at least heard about the
game before. PvZ2 is a
sequel to the popular
vegetables vs zombies tower defence game, which garnered
millions upon millions of downloads on the iOS and Android
stores respectively. The sequel features more locations, more
enemies and more powerups as well as you and your neighbour
Crazy Dave travel through time to kill zombies and eat tacos.
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lite & leisure

game review
Games To Look Out For In 2014
Now that youve seen our picks for our favourite games for the year 2013, heres a look at
some of the games that we cant wait to get our hands on later this year By CHIP Team
Titanfall
Transistor
Developer: Respawn
Developer: Supergiant
Entertainment
Games
Platform: PC, Xbox One
Platform: PC,
Release Date: 11 March
PlayStation 4
Titanfall is like a breath of
Release Date: TBA
fresh air to the first-person
Supergiant Games made
shooter genre, as the
its way to the top of the
game looks to add new
indie gaming scene by
gameplay mechanics
releasing a massively
to an already stale and boring genre that hasnt changed much
popular platforming game in the form of Bastion. Using simple,
over the past few years. Titanfall looks to combine a somewhat
yet addictive gameplay and a dynamic narrative system, the game
modified first person shooter genre with rocket packs and mech
was extremely well-received by both casual and long-time gamers.
piloting for some truly out of this world gaming experience.
Transistor, Supergiants second project combines the actionadventure portion of Bastion and combines it with a bit of turnbased strategy mechanics for a new twist to a pretty old genre
The Order: 1886
Thief
Developer: Ready at Dawn
Developer: Eidos Montreal
Platform: PlayStation 4
Platform: PC, PlayStation
Release Date: Q3
3, Playstation 4, Xbox
Whilst there isnt much
360, Xbox One
to talk about The Order
Release Date: 25 February
in terms of specifics, the
Thief was one of the
trailer that was shown
first few PC games
at E3 last year unveiled
that introduced an
enough to tell us that
element of stealth
this game will be an FPS in the same vein as that of Killzone. Set
to gameplay mechanics, which forced you to sneak around
in the Victorian era circa 1880s, the game is based on a fictional
in order to accomplish your goals. The remake aims to do
story where an old order of knights keeps the world safe from
more of the same, but this time with improved graphics and
half bred monsters, who are a combination of animal and man.
gameplay mechanics, which has improved tremendously since

the game was first released a little more than a decade ago.
The Evil Within
Destiny
Developer: Tango
Developer: Bungie
Gameworks
Platform: PC, PlayStation
Platform: PC, Playstation
3, PlayStation 4, Xbox
3, PlayStation 4, Xbox
360, Xbox One
360, Xbox One
Release Date: 9
Release Date: TBA
September
If youve ever played
The original developers
a Shinji Mikami game
behind the massively
when he first started
popular Xbox
out at Capcom, such as the first few Resident Evil games and
exclusive Halo have announced a new project earlier last
Dino Crisis, you would remember the element of fear he puts in
year and are now on course to releasing Destiny, an action
his games. The Evil Within aims to achieve more of the same,
adventure RPG shooter game that is set in a mythical open
using current and next-gen graphics and game mechanics to
world. As with most games in this genre, Destiny is set in a
bring you a game that is grim, creepy and very very scary.
post-apocalyptic world where humans have spread out and

colonised planets in and around the solar system.
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lite & leisure

game review
BATTLEFIELD 4
A Battlefield Like No Other
By Nazrin Zain
mode. Fragging on any of these maps

is very satisfying, as the various game
modes offer a different way of approaching
the game, with Conquest being my
particular favourite as you need rock-solid
teamwork in order to carry out your teams
objectives, which is not easy when there
are 31 other people to coordinate with.
Bugfield 4
Despite how pretty the game looks and
how great it plays, it is also riddled with
bugs. such as severe lag, buggy audio
and graphics, and even game crashes
that make the game almost unplayable.
However, DICE have been hard at work
patching these bugs up.
The Battlefield series of games have long
Take The Battle Online
since been lauded as one of the best and
The single player campaign for Battlefield
On Point
most realistic first person shooter games
games have always taken a back seat in
Without a doubt, Battlefield 4 is an
that have been produced. Combining
favour of a more expanded multiplayer
amazing game. Origin issues and buggy
both realistic graphics and simulation-like
section. Players who are new to the game
gameplay and netcode aside, as long as
gameplay, gamers more often than not get
would do well to play the single player
DICE continues to iron out the bugs as fast
very hyped up every time a new Battlefield
campaign first as not only does it help
as they can, the game otherwise looks and
game is announced and released. Does
you familiarise yourself with the games
plays spectacularly. It is no exaggeration
Battlefield 4 live up to the hype? Check out
mechanics as you experience a wide
that the game is capable of making it to
our review of the game to find out.
variety of scenarios. The campaign is about
some peoples game of the year lists as
5-6 hours long, making it long enough to
one of the best FPS game of 2013, but
Pretty Things
experience what the game has to offer, and
having said that we also understand the
Without a doubt, the environment in
short enough to not make you bored of its
woes of those who have to deal with its
Battlefield 4, be it in the single player
storyline.
many bugs and issues.
campaign or the multiplayer maps is one
In the multiplayer mode, gamers get
of the best DICE has come up with as it is
to choose to play one of four classes,
almost at a hyper-realistic level, provided
including the Assault, Recon, Support
of course if you have the graphics card
and Engineer classes, each with its own
to run it. Despite the games demanding
play style. The Assault class is essentially
hardware requirements, you can still play
the all-rounded offensive unit who
DEVELOPER
DICE
the game on Ultra at 720p with an AMD R9
takes the front lines, whilst the Recon is
INFO
270X.
basically the sniper, who takes enemies
www.battlefield.com/
battlefield-4
The physics in the game are astounding
out from a distance. The Support class
FPS
Battlefield 4
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
PLATFORM : PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360,
Xbox One
too, as DICE has been liberal about making
meanwhile is a heavy weapons class who
things explode in this game in a somewhat
is able to provide cover for his or her
beautiful and spectacular fashion. There
teammates. The engineer meanwhile is a
are several moments in the game where
vehicle-focused class, as it specialises in
big explosions happen, where you get
destroying tanks, planes and such with its
Graphics
to see whole buildings go down, and at
anti-tank rocket launchers.
Sound
some point, a dam as well, which elicited a
RATINGS
Gameplay
The game comes with 10 maps at
big Whoa from us when we played the
launch, with a number of different modes
game.
including Conquest, Rush and Deathmatch.

Conquest offers the largest map, with 64
players being able to go all-out in this
Replayability
Breathtaking graphics, excellent
gameplay, Various modes and maps
Lots of bugs, including lag, netcode
issues, crashes and reset campaigns
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practice
detailed xxx
landscapes
More Details
From Landscape Photos
With a few clicks in Photoshop, boring landscape photos can easily
be transformed into atmospheric eye-catchers
The author of this tutorial writes
for CHIP PHOTO-VIDEO and is
also a successful fashion and
beauty photographer. When it
comes to finishing touches for
photos on the PC, he is definitely
the go-to guy.
ou know the problem: Its a beautiful landscape and you

are continuously taking photos and later, when at home,
you realise that a few of the JPEGs suffer from colour
cast and some lack of depth and structure of clouds. Color cast
and lack of contrast are often the result of an inadequate
image development in the camera. Obviously no
development has been made in this aspect in the traditional
sense. However, the raw data taken from the camera sensor is
processed for a picture - and it is also interpretation to a
certain extent.
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In this Practice article, we will show you how to transform

your picture into a scenic treat with just a few clicks and within
few minutes. Here the fine brightness differences in the clouds
and the rocks play a particularly important role. Therefore, the
third step is the most important part in this small tutorial. We
will show you how you can specifically edit these brightness
differences and thus give the picture more depth and plasticity.
You can also get a similar effect by using the Dodge and
Burn-Tool.
Generally applicable: The more meticulously you work on
the details, the more convincing is the result at the end.
Besides, if the color values are so close to each other that even
Photoshop cannot be of any help, then you should take the bull
by the horns and convert landscape photos into
monochromatic pictures using the setting Black and White.
You will finally get satisfactory results with your picture and
there will be no need to scrap it entirely.
FOTO: SEBASTIAN LANG
By Sebastian Lang
xxx
HOW IT WORKS
Straighten Image Open the landscape image file you want to

edit and copy the background layer with [Ctrl] + [J]. Then right
click on the Pipette tool and select the Lineal tool. Now draw a
line along the horizon and then select Image | Rotate Image |
Customise. Confirm with OK to straighten the image. Now
slightly cut the photo to remove the resultant sloping edges.
Desaturate Clouds For this step, first create a setting layer

Color tone / Saturation and reduce the Saturation to -45.
Then enable the Gradient tool and draw a vertical gradient from
the upper screen border till the start of the meadow to somewhat
reduce the saturation of the yellow clouds. Note that the color
White is selected as the foreground color.
Highlight Details Switch to the Background, select Layer |

New | Layer with Mode: Overlay and enable the box and the
lower window border to fill the layer with 50% Gray. Now with
[B] bring up the Brush tool and select a soft brush tip and reduce
the opacity to 5%. Highlight the very bright areas in clouds and
rocks with a white brush and darken the shadows accordingly with
a black brush.
Elevate Depths Go back to Layer 1 and duplicate it using
Enhance The Rocks Hide the saturation and gray layer, select
Customise Colours Display all layers again and create a
[Ctrl] + [J]. Right click on the new layer and select Convert to
smart object. Then go to Image | Corrections | Shadow/
Highlight and select a value of 7 for Depth to restore the
drawing in the shadow areas.
Layer 1 Copy and create a new layer comprising all layers

with [Ctrl] + [Shift]+ [Alt] + [E]. Now click on Filter | Other filters |
High-pass and select a Radius of 5.0 Pixels. After confirming
with OK, change the layer setting to Overlay. Then create a
mask, hide it using [Ctrl] + [I] and expose the rocks in the mask
with a white brush.
setting layer of the type Curves. Raise the upper area of the
diagonals and lower the lower part to enhance the contrast. Then
create another layer Color Balance and move the colors of the
Mid-tones and Lights towards Blue and Cyan to balance
the color cast.
5
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practice
file management
PROFITIPP
Managing Files
In Windows
Tasks are often repeated while managing files.
If you have the right resources, you will save a lot of time
By Dr. Peter Posse
This CHIP author knows the CPC

Schneider through and through
and was also enthusiastic about
IT journalism after studying
Physics in the 90s.
ou regularly delete temporary files and move downloads to

an appropriate folder. You can automate many of these
tasks with the help of the freeware Belvedere. You will find
this underestimated yet perfectly practical tool in our websites
download section. Its performance mainly depends on creative
ideas and their implementation while configuring filters. The
following clarifications and examples show the potential and
suggestions as to what all is possible and what is important for it.
Define your own rules with a mouse click

Belvedere latches on to the system in the background and is
available in the Info area of the taskbar. To configure it, right-click
on the icon and select the command Manage. Step 2 and 3
shows the basic settings for cycles and Recycle Bin. But be careful
because emptying the Recycle Bin too often destroys its
significance. You may need it right in the starting phase if an action
fails. Most of the settings are done in the tab Folders where the
monitored folders are on the right and on the left are the rules
defined for them.
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Click on the left Plus sign and navigate to the desired folder for
monitoring - for example G:\Download. Then select it with OK
and mark it in the list. Now click on the right Plus sign to define a
rule. In the Rule options, initially skip Enabled till the action is
tested. Instead activate Confirm action at the start for
confirmation. The option Recursive ensures that the subfolders
are also included. New rules must be confirmed with OK and
then opened with Edit Rule to finally try out the settings with
Test.
Hints and Tips from a Professional

Complex tasks can be automated through cleverly combined
requirements. Test all the actions before you switch to Enabled
as errors can easily occur during formulation. Avoid direct deletion
with Delete file but use the Recycle Bin via the command Send
file to Recycle Bin. Renaming with Rename file has only limited
options and does not have any unexpected results. For this, it is
better to use the action Custom to create a separate script. In
case of several requirements, pay attention to whether all
requirements must be fulfilled via ALL or only some of them via
ANY. While searching for file sizes via Size, an error emerged
so that all values have to be entered in Bytes irrespective of the
settings.
In case of several rules, the sequence is important with which
old data is first deleted and then the new one is copied.
practice
file management
8
HOW IT WORKS
Beautiful Views Install the inconspicuous but compact
Work Rhythm In the Preferences tab, Sleeptime
freeware Belvedere on a computer and take some time to

configure it. You will be amazed.
determines the waiting time till the program becomes active.

Reduce the value for tests, large intervals will suffice later.
Automatic Deletion With the help of Allow Belvedere to

manage my Recycle Bin transfer the management of the
Recycle Bin to the tool in the tab Recycle Bin. Activate the
following option and set the rhythm (or cycle) to 2 weeks.
Standard Archive All the monitored folders and the
applicable self-defined rules for them are present in the tab

Folders. You can add folders and rules with the symbol +.
Sort Downloads Choose from the options Extension and

is and enter an ending such as pdf. Select Move File
under the same and define the target folder next to it.
Eliminate File Remains In order to delete file remnants of old
Office documents starting with a tilde, select Name contains

as a prerequisite and enter the tilde (~). Select Send file to Recycle
Bin as the action.
Rename Files You can rename files with the help of Rename
file - say to insert the current year. It is better to then move the
file to avoid multiple changes.
Testing Before you activate actions via Enable, confirm a
rule with OK and open it again. Then check the behavior in

the edit dialog with the help of Test. Thus you will avoid
unexpected results and data loss.
tips & tricks

windows, applications & hardware
Tips
Tricks
log into your Google account. Here,

you need to first click Accept to give
permission to Google to use the location
data. A dialogue will now appear. It
shows your registered devices. You can
perform the remote functions only if the
device has a SIM card in it. Click Find
this device to view the last known
location on the map. You can call on your
number so that the phone rings and you
can find where you have misplaced it. Try
out these functions on your smartphone.
JANUARY 2014
MOBILE
01
iPHONE
Marking a place and finding it
again
Route so as to ensure that you find the

desired location.
SOCIAL NETWORKS
FACEBOOK
Identifying friends who can help
you in times of need
03
Occasionally, you feel the need to mark

a place, for instance the place where
you have parked your car, so that you
can find it easily later. You can make
use of various apps for this, but you can
also use the integrated app Maps to
perform this task.
When the current location is displayed,
click the options at the bottom right and
select Pin. Now tap the selection on
the blue arrow on the right and then tap
To bookmarks. You can even change
the suggested name to Parking lot and
Save it.
To find the bookmarked place at a
later point, tap the bookmark on the
top right and select the name. Now tap
Route, which starts from your current
location by default. The End field
should display the destination. If required,
click the pedestrian icon on top and tap
iPhone users have long been able to

find their lost or misplaced device and
now Android users can do the same
too with their devices. With this search
you can track your mobile phone and
even delete its data remotely. First,
you need to manually activate this
function on your device. To do so, go to
Settings and click Security. Under
Device management, select Device
administrators. In the next dialogue,
activate the option given for the Android
device manager. The next dialogue
explains which functions can now be
used. Confirm it by clicking Activate.
Your smartphone is now ready. To access
it remotely, go to the website https://
www.google.com/android/devicemanager
As time passes, a lot of personal data

and images get accumulated on your
Facebook account. To prevent them from
falling into the wrong hands and at the
same time to ensure that you have a
workaround if you ever have trouble
accessing your account, Facebook has
come up with a new function of selecting
three to five Trusted Contacts, who
can help you in case of an emergency.
When you click on Forgotten your
password?, you will a be given few
options to change your password. From
there, your trusted contacts can call a
security code and share it with you.
This way you will be able to reset your
password. To set this up, log into your
Facebook account and open Account
Settings. Then select Security and click
Edit next to Trusted Contacts. Follow
the link Choose Trusted Contacts and
acknowledge the message that appears.
To select a contact, directly type his or
01
02
03
You can use a pin to mark your parking space

and add a bookmark there to find it again easily
You can search for your Android device,

block it or delete data from it only when you
have manually activated the Android device
manager
You can define trusted friends and find your

way to your Facebook profile in case you have
trouble accessing it
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02
ANDROID
Finding your smartphone and
resetting it if required
tips & tricks

her name and select the respective friend

from the displayed list. You need to
define at least three friends before you
Confirm your selection. In the dialogue
that appears next, enter your current
password and click Send. This ends the
process; your friends receive a message
telling them that they have been selected
as your trusted contact and that they
too can make you one of their trusted
contacts.
04
WINDOWS
WINDOWS 8
Automatically log on to your
Microsoft account while starting
the system
05
FACEBOOK
Assigning pictures to your
comments
While it has been possible to comment

on status messages for quite some time
now, you can also do so by adding an
image at least on the PC. This is so
simple that you would think that this
function has always been there. But it
is not yet available in the smartphone
apps. On a PC, click the displayed camera
icon in the comment field, select the
desired image file and click Open (as
of now, you cannot add pictures that are
already on Facebook in this manner).
Then type your comment and send the
message. Likewise, it is also possible
to add emoticons (that we know from
chats) in comments. Although there isnt
any icon for that so that these can be
accessed easily, if you know the codes
and short keys, you can use emoticons
in comments on PC as well as in the
mobile app. For more information
about this and for short keys for many
popular emoticons, check out http://
facebookemoticons.com/emoticons/.
04
Comments are no longer restricted to text; you
can directly add images and emoticons in them
06
WINDOWS 8
Use Google Chrome correctly as
an App under Windows 8
06
05
Logging into Windows via the Microsoft
account can be automated with the correct
access data
You are using your existing Microsoft

account to log on to Windows 8.
This enables Apps like Skydrive to
immediately access your personal data.
But you still have to enter the access
data every time you start the system.
This is annoying when you are using
the computer, for example when at
home. Therefore if you would like to
implement automatic registration, this
can be done with the right settings. You
can store the registration information in
the Registry. To achieve this, press the
key combination [Windows]+[R], enter
"regedit" and press Enter. Acknowledge
the user account control by clicking
on Yes. Navigate to the key HKEY_
LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
Then double-click to edit the value
Auto AdminLogon on the right side,
change it to 1 and confirm with OK.
Now open the DefaultPassword by
double-clicking and enter your Microsoft
account password. You may need to
create this string manually. Likewise,
also edit the value DefaultUsername.
However, you have to prefix the domain
name "MicrosoftAccount" to your actual
username here. For example, the required
entry will then be "MicrosoftAccount\
example@email.com". Confirm the name
with OK, close the Registry and restart
the PC.
Google Chrome in Windows 8 can be used in

two different modes and it is easy to switch to
either mode
Google Chrome works in two modes in

Windows 8, App interface or Desktop
view. To change to the App view, click on
the right most Menu icon and select the
command Relaunch Chrome in Windows
8 mode. This requires installation as
a default browser. Similarly, you can
change it back to the standard view with
the command Relaunch Chrome on the
Desktop. Chrome remembers the last
used mode and will open up iny your
preferred mode regardless of where you
open from the next time. There are a
few special features in the App mode: A
few plug-ins do not work according to
the system, however you can add more
tiles to the start menu only in this mode
to directly open certain websites. To do
this, open the website and then click on
the menu icon and select the command
Bookmark | Bookmark this page to the
start screen. Confirm the action again
with Add to Start.
07
WINDOWS 8
Integrating Google Search as a
comfortable App in Windows
While searching directly from Windows,

Bing is the only default Internet search
engine. Users who prefer Google can
install the free application Google Search,
which is now integrated into the popular
search function and thus enables perfect
system integration of the Google search
engine. To find the app, you will have
to first access the Windows Marketplace
and search for Google Search and
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tips & tricks

To customise, position the mouse

pointer in the lower right screen edge to
open the Charms bar. Click on Settings
there and then click on Change PC
Settings. Select the category Search
and move the relevant slider for all the
rarely used or unrequired Apps such as
Travel, Games or Store to Off.
You can also Delete Process in the
same dialog.
07
Start searching from the Google App, browse
through the search results as usual and then
switch to the browser
then install it. Once it is installed, you

can use the search function in the app
giving full access to the process and
a language input is also possible. You
can further track the matches found - as
always via the browser. Right click to
open a menu on the lower screen edge.
You can continue browsing among other
things via On Page within the website
and highlight the search term or also
open the page in the browser, which
opens up the search result in your default
browser.
08
WINDOWS 8
Hide certain Apps from the search
function
In the redesigned search function,

Windows 8, by default, also offers all
Apps as possible search targets for
selection. As this can get quite confusing,
you can deactivate the rarely used
features and functions. The existing
search function in the respective App
remains unchanged the deactivation.
09
WINDOWS XP/VISTA/7/8
Setup a practical guest access in
WLAN
When friends are visiting you and they

would like to access the WLAN but
you are reluctant to share your own
password with them as this will give
them permanent access to your WLAN.
You can either change your password
but then you will have to change it for
all other devices on your own network,
which is tedious work. A practical solution
is to setup a guest access to the WLAN
which is offered by most of the routers
today. In this case there is an additional
advantage that the guest gets access only
to the Internet and not to your home
network.
For the setup, open the address of
the router in the browser, for example
http://192.168.0.1 and log on there
with your username and password.
The following options vary according
to the model of routers. For example,
for a D-Link router, click in the upper
window area on Advanced and select
the option Guest Zone in the next
menu on the left. Activate the option
Enable Guest Zone there. Besides this,
you can also setup a schedule with the
help of New Schedule to decide when

this access can be enabled. Change the
proposed designation of the network
name (SSID) in the field Wireless
Network Name. This designation is
different from your WLAN. The following
option Enable Routing between Zones
determines whether data is exchanged
between two networks and guests can
also access your own network. Leave
this option deactivated only for Internet
access. Finally decide the Security
Mode whether you want to provide
an unprotected WLAN via None or
preferably activate the usual encryption
with WPA-Personal. You can use a
simpler password for it. It should not be
the same as the password of your own
network. Subsequently save the settings
with Save settings and share the
necessary SSID and the key for it, with
your guests.
10
WINDOWS 7/8
Calibrate your monitor easily with
the help of built-in tools
An appropriate calibration of the screen

display is important for a realistic
presentation of photos. However, precise
and professional measurements require
expensive devices. You can get a good
approximation free of cost with the
built-in tools in Windows - and most of
them are sufficient for daily use.
To being calibrating, you can use
the Display Colour Calibration Wizard
(DCCW) by searching for it or you
can find it in the Control Panel under
Display and Adjustment | Display via
the link Calibrate Color. Then move
the program window probably to the
08
09
10
For more overview during the Desktop search,

simply hide all the unnecessary Apps in the
dialog of the search function
Allow your friends and acquaintances to

use the Internet without access to your own
network
The Windows built-in calibration tool helps to

ensure that monitors have the best settings
with the help of a few tests and instructions
120
january 14
chip malaysia
tips & tricks

second monitor to be calibrated and click

on Next. Now follow the instructions
in the program and, if necessary, keep
the instructions of the monitor ready
to make the device settings. Optimise
the Gamma value in the first step. For
this, adjust the slider so that the small
points disappear from the picture. Click
multiple times on Next to come to
the brightness optimisation. Adjust the
value there so that the clothing can be
differentiated and the characters in the
background almost disappears. Follow
the subsequent steps for adjusting the
contrast. When in doubt, use lower
values for brightness and contrast as it
is more comfortable for the eyes during
prolonged computer work. The next steps
for the colour adjustment are somewhat
difficult. You can make readjustments in
the program window with the help of the
sliders as well as those on the device.
The grey tones are balanced according
to your own perception. A comparison is
also difficult. Try holding a white sheet of
paper in bright daylight next to it on the
lower screen border so that light from the
monitor does not penetrate it. However,
this will not work in artificial light.
In the last step, you can test the
overall picture. For this click on Previous
calibration and switch to another
program for control or a photo display.
Repeat the test with the setting Current
calibration. Finally decide whether the
new settings are to be retained with
the Finish button or rejected with the
Cancel button.
11
12
After a short familiarisation, it is quite practical

when the mouse wheel scrolls KatMouse
directly via the mouse pointer
In spite of constant Browser updates, the

outdated Plug-ins can make the system
vulnerable. A brief check can solve this
problem.
momentarily deactivate the function in

case of problems with another program
and later activate it again. Here, you
can also access the settings with the
command Settings. In the General
tab, you can set the number of rows to
be browsed at one time or page-by-page.
You can define this more practically
and according to the program in the
Applications tab. Click on Add,
navigate to the program file such as
winword.exe and select it by clicking
on Open. Double click on this new row
to edit. Activate the option Custom scroll
settings and include the special settings
under it. Now you can browse PDF
documents by page. Whenever required
you can deactivate the function with the
help of Dont handle window at all for
image applications.
list all the harmful and secure Plug-ins

with its respective versions. Pay close
attention to the plug-ins with known
security loopholes marked in red. After
that follow up by clicking the link Update
now. Usually you will be brought to
the developer's page of the plug-in to
download the latest version. Subsequently
execute all the steps necessary for the
update.
Proceed likewise with the hints marked
in yellow for the older versions which will
update them to the latest versions via the
link Update. Restart Firefox and check
the status of the plug-ins again with this
method.
13
POWERPOINT 2007/2010
Using Windows Media Player in
Presentation
OFFICE
11
WINDOWS 7/8
Scroll directly under the mouse
pointer
Normally, when we are browsing, we

usually scroll with the mouse wheel even
when the mouse pointer is somewhere
else. The well-known UNIX behaviour to
always scroll in the window under the
mouse pointer can also be achieved in
Windows using the Freeware KatMouse
(available in the Downloads section of
chip.com.my). The quick installation
actually configures the required Registry
values and incorporates the program
in the Startup process. KatMouse will
then be automatically active and can be
accessed in the Info area of the taskbar.
Using the command Enable, you can
12
FIREFOX
Control and update Plug-ins
While the Browser updates itself

extensively and thus ensures a secure
environment, the installed plug-ins often
remain outdated and may result in
vulnerabilities due to security loopholes.
This can easily be avoided. A web service
from Mozilla can be of great help in this
situation.
To do this, select the command
Add-ons in the browser and click on
Plugins in the menu. Click on the link
above that says Check to see if your
plugins are up to date. This will lead
you to the website mozilla.org/en-US/
plugincheck/ which you can access just by
typing in the link. After a brief analysis of
the browser installation, the website will
At times, when you want to integrate

videos directly into a presentation, some
videos do not work correctly. Instead of
13
You can integrate videos as object of the
Media Player and allocate a file via the object
properties
chip malaysia
january 14
121
tips & tricks

integrating Windows Media Player into

the presentation, it is much better if you
played with the controls of the Media
player in the presentation. While the
access is faster with the command Video
| Video from File in the Insert tab, the
link to the Media player is not obvious
and is hidden deep in the commands
of Powerpoint. First, display the tab
Developer Tools. To make it appear,
select the command File | Options
and then the category Customise
the Ribbon. Activate the check box
Developer on the right side in the area
Main Tab and confirm the dialog with
OK. Now switch to the tab Developer
Tools and click on the button More
Controls. In the following menu, scroll to
the bottom to Windows Media Player
and select it with OK. Now, by keeping
the left mouse button pressed, drag the
desired area for the video display on
the slide. The inserted object can be
moved and adjusted in size later. Next,
right-click on the new object and select
the command Properties. Then click on
the empty input field on the right next
to URL. Enter the path of the desired
video file or copy the path and file name
from Windows Explorer. Files names can
also be entered if the video is located
in the same folder as the presentation.
This is recommended when you want to
forward the presentation. In this case, you
must also copy the video file as it is not
integrated into the PPTX file. The video
will automatically start playing upon
opening the corresponding file during the
presentation.
14
WORD 2010
Convert file format DOCX back
to DOCX
The conversion into the same format

appears silly at first but it is a must if
you want to edit documents composed
with Word 2007 in Word 2010. In the
older version, DOCX is subjected
to many limitations and cannot use
newer functions. These older variants
are retained also while saving. You
will see the additional [Compatibility
mode] in the program in the title bar
which otherwise can be seen only for
files of the old DOC format. You must
renew the file format in order to use all
functions of Word 2010. For this, open
122
january 14
chip malaysia
14
DOCX files from Word 2007 and Word 2010 are
not the same. You can convert documents into
the new format.
File | Information and click on the

button Convert. Subsequently confirm
the message for possible format change
by clicking on OK and check the
document.
OFFICE
15
ULTRABOOKS
Operate SSDs at maximum mode
to speed up the system
Ultrabooks are characterised by the fact

that a small SSD is used to accelerate
the system and to buffer the frequently
used programs so that the user gets
a feeling of an immediate system
response. The Intel technology "Rapid
Response" controls as how this takes
place in detail. Every individual who
uses an Ultrabook for the first time,
knows that this is actually a program.
Everything immediately seems to be
there and responds instantly. It is all the
more amazing that "Rapid Response",
by default, is like travelling with the
handbrake on. Therefore, for most
Ultrabooks, greater performance can be

gained with a small change in the driver
configuration. For this, start Intel-RapidStorage-Technology via the Start menu.
Click on Accelerate to check the current
configuration. The extended mode is
enabled by default. This is a more secure
operation method which behaves like
a RAID-1 system while writing. In this
case, you will unnecessarily lose out
on performance as the slow hard disk
determines the speed. In the maximised
mode, the behaviour of the system,
complies with that of the NCQ (Native
Command Queuing) of a hard disk:
First it is written on the fast medium
(here, the SSD) and from there on to
the hard disk in favourable moments.
The risk of data loss is rather low as the
data management of the Rapid Storage
driver allows deletion or overwriting of
SSD data only when the data has been
securely received on the hard disk. Even
then, before you changes mode, you
will be given a warning and you must
confirm to the change. Your Ultrabook
will run faster after a restart.
16
SCANNERS AND PRINTERS

Fix problems with automatic
document feeder
After years of operation, your multifunction device often draws several pages
in the feeder at the same time. Most
printers today, have instructions which
you should follow to clean the rollers and
separators. This can be done best with
a fine, lint-free microfiber cloth. Do not
use any detergent or solutions as they
could damage the surface of the rollers.
Use only very little water to moisten
15
16
Switching to the SSD operation mode clearly

results in faster writing speeds almost
without any risk
After a few years, the feeder of scanners often

do not work perfectly. A cloth and some water
usually helps.
tips & tricks

the cloth slightly. Rub the rollers and

the separators very carefully. The black
abrasion, toner and dust should stick to
the cloth.
This process results in just slight
improvements. However, if you plan to
rely on the printer for years to come,
then you should simply change the
separation pad. The rubber of the pad
has probably hardened and become
brittle over time. After sourcing for a
replacement part, the replacement can
usually be done fairly quickly.
17
very durably. It can hardly be too cold

for them. However they are affected if
it is too warm. Expose a Li-Ion battery
to a temperature of over 35 degrees
Celsius for several days and there will
be irreparable damages. Never leave
your Notebook under blazing sunlight. A
few Notebook manufacturers disable the
batteries when temperatures reach than
60 degrees, for protection.
18
LCD DISPLAY
Get rid of colour cast after
damage caused by heat
NOTEBOOK BATTERIES
Keep unused batteries in the
fridge so that they last longer
Notebook batteries are quite expensive

and for that reason alone, you should
handle the energy packs with care.
However, whats even more irritating
than the hole in your wallet is the
situation when the notebook battery
has completely discharged when you
urgently need it. To avoid this, most of
the manufacturers recommend charging
the battery maximum up to 80% and
storing it in a cool place away from the
Notebook - best between +4 and +10
degrees Celsius. To protect it against
condensation, its advisable to keep the
batteries in the refrigerator. A warmer
environment reduces the charge by
around 10 percent per month. If stored in
the Notebook, the batteries loose around
15% per day - just by doing nothing!! The
energy packs are at their best at room
temperature (20 to 25 degrees) when in
operation. The Lithium-Ion or Polymer
batteries used in almost all notebooks are
18
LCD crystals that have suffered under
excessive heat, can be restored to their old
form by keeping them in a deep freeze.
You took your notebook along with you

on vacation. The rays of the Sun were
good to you but have left behind a red
tint on the display of your laptop. You
can easily solve this problem when you
get home. Remove the battery, place the
notebook in a plastic bag and keep it in
the freezer of your refrigerator. The LCD
crystals can thus be restored from their
minor sunburn.
that the blue colour of the sky can be

intensified and clouds look much more
dramatic.
It is worthwhile to wake up early for
really beautiful pictures: when the beach
is almost empty and the light in the
morning is not so bright compared to
later in the day. However, if you want to
take photos in full light then reflections
that occur easily in the sunny beach
scenes can spoil an image easily - an
effective protection here is the lens hood.
But colours often appear as washed out
in the blazing midday sun even without
the reflections. Therefore do not rely on
the automatic white balance but manually
choose a better and suitable setting. The
subject selection is also important besides
the camera configuration: because not
every breath-taking beach panorama
makes a photo interesting, on the other
hand: Beaches in photos always seem
rather flat. It can be more exciting to
capture typical details (also) such as
driftwood, stones or shells. Portrait or
group photos on the beach can be a
real challenge: either the people are
looking towards the Sun and closing
their eyes or they have the Sun behind
them. For these situations, the flash has
to be used. Pictures with splashing water
depict dynamics and joy of living. You
can capture such moments at best with
the continuous shot function and short
exposure times.
Sunsets are a special topic: To capture a
beautiful romantic Sunset, get in position
at the right time. But do not take a photo
too early: Dusk sets in a bit later for the
camera. When you think that the light is
perfect, the pictures will probably come
out too bright.
PHOTOGRAPHY
CAPTURING TECHNIQUE
Perfectly plan and implement
your beach photosm
19
17
Notebook batteries age faster in warm
environments. Therefore, keep them in
the refrigerator!
Sand in the casing can damage your

camera. Take care of everything possible
in advance so that so that the cover
wont need to be opened unnecessarily.
The batteries should be full; the memory
card should have enough space so that
you don't have to change them at this
point. First, select the subject which you
want to photograph on the beach so
19
A sunset is often captured but rarely captured
as perfect as here in this photo
chip malaysia
january 14
123
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picture perfect
events & happenings
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126
january 14
chip malaysia
17/12/201
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28/11/201
and corner 3 - The Epson EB-G6
distortion frwall projection capabi 900WU has curved
lities
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various type to project
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events & happenings
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fan of the LINE a photo with them
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12/12/2013
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chip malaysia
january 14
127
in the next issue

february 2014
Next Issue
With news that the NSA has finally cracked the Tor Network and countries clamping down on
the use of Bitcoin, we take a look at what is increasingly looking to be the end of days for
Darknet, which has long since been the den for digital unsavoury.
Technic Lexicon:
Syncing Mobile To
Desktop
In next months Technic Lexicon, well show you how
you can synchronise important data between your phone
and various email apps on your computer, thanks to a
nifty little software called MyPhoneExplorer.
Timeline: From
Walkman to
Spotify
If you grew up in the 90s you will definitely know about the
boom in portable media players that was started by Sonys
Walkman and Discman music players. Next month, we take
a look at these devices that paved the way to what would
eventually become a cloud-based service that you can use
to listen to music via your PCs and smartphones without
having to actually have the files with you.
128
january 14
chip malaysia

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welcome note

which means it is time

to start thinking about

evolving, a look at the history of whistleblowers and many more.

those resolutions and start

due to the recent Steam sales), spending more time with my

get our hands on in 2014. We also have a very interesting interview

Touch section will help me and hopefully you out.

Seeing as this is the January 2014 issue of the magazine, we

thoughts about technology and the Malaysian film industry but

support us in our journey in 2014. As always, do drop us a letter or

smart mobile devices, display technology, stylish yet functional

message on social networks to let us know what we can do to

wearable tech and possibly even faster internet speeds.

Besides that, weve also got a very good line-up of interesting

and live for the moment.

Managing Director Noor Azman

Head of Department YK Cheah

Editor Jeremy Cheong

SALES & MARKETING

MPH Distributors Sdn. Bhd.

This edition of CHIP is a publication of

All information in the magazine / free CD

All views expressed in the magazine

International Members of the

The Internet is about to get an upgrade in

048 Dangerous Queries

LITE & LEISURE

069 Test Lab: The Tools

070 Test Lab Contents

008 Local News

024 World Wired Web

028 Security Reports

114 Its All About Management

001 Welcome Note

With a handy tool, you can now

KatMouse Mouse Wheel Enhancer

Ashampoo Photo Card

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

AVS Media Player

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

Desk Drive 1.8.5

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

Operating system: Linux

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

XNView Image Viewer

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8

Concerns And Thoughts

A Little Friendly Advice

Bring The CD Back!

The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga will come in two variants, either

Ending 2013 With A

The Flex 14 and Flex 15 (in picture) is a device that was

Lenovo capped 2013 off with a launch that saw the

013 has been a rollercoaster ride

Lenovo did not only gain market share

screen when they want to use it in Tablet,

Aer the presentaon, Johnson Seet, Head of Mobile

Acer dishes out more details on their latest Windows

lthough it may seem that Acer