A November

To Remember
B

Managing Director Noor Azman

Head of Department YK Cheah

y the time youre reading this magazine, chances are

the CHIP team (or myself, at least) will be extremely
engrossed in the recently-released game, Final Fantasy
XV. Fans of the popular JRPG series will no doubt be doing the
same thing, as weve been waiting for the game to be released
for close to 10 years now, and Im sure everyone is going to be
savouring every bit of it.
November is usually a pretty quiet month as many
consumer device manufacturers are gearing up for one of the
biggest consumer trade shows in the world, Consumer
Electronics Expo in Las Vegas. That said, were seeing quite a
number of companies, in particular Acer and Lenovo are
slowly, but surely launching products that were announced
at IFA, Berlin, here in Malaysia.
December is a holiday season, and as we havent done one
of these in a while, we decided to write a Holiday Gift Guide,
for those of us who want to surprise our loved ones (maybe
even ourselves) with devices that have come out throughout
the year. Some of these products may seem downright
expensive, but we think theres nothing wrong with splurging
a bit during the holiday season.
On top of that, the team have also put up our own wishlist
for things wed like during the holidays, just because we can.
A man can dream after all, right?
Weve got a fair number of interesting things in our labs
this month, starting with two NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti graphics
cards from ASUS and MSI. Looking for an inexpensive card
thats capable of playing most games with decent enough
graphical settings at 720p and 1080p? Look no further then
as these cards are for you.
We also have three pretty spiffy monitors from AOC, BenQ
Zowie and ViewSonic. The AOC G2778V, the BenQ Zowie
XL2735 and ViewSonic VP2468 are all amazing monitors at
very different price ranges, which means you get to pick and
choose which monitor is the right one for you.
There are more things here of course, but as usual, youll
have to turn the pages to find out more!

Nazrin Zain
Deputy Editor

EDITORIAL
Deputy Editor Nazrin Zain
Senior Writer Matthew Yap
Writer Nixon Ng
Contributors Edwin Lee, Christoph Schmidt, James E. Curtis, Caren
Stella Geiger, R. Mattgey, Jrg Geiger, Robert Di Marcoberardino,
Markus Mandau, Leo Joscha, Fabian von Keudell
Design & Layout Halijah Ismail
Cover Design Halijah Ismail
SALES & MARKETING
Senior Manager YK Cheah
Consultant Muffadzlee Dato Sufian
ADMINISTRATION
Admin Manager WP Lim
ONLINE
www.chip.com.my
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/ the publisher makes no representations and gives no warranty of any kind, implied,
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contents

062

COVER
STORY
NEWS &
TRENDS

006

044

062 Holiday Gift Guide

Get into the spirit of giving this holiday
season with our holiday gift guide!
Theres a bit of geekiness in all of us, so
spread the happiness around!

006 Local News

Coverage of the latest news and
events right on our shores

039 World Wired Web

All the latest tech happenings around
the world

036 Security Reports

Monthly dose of security news

FEATURES

044 LegalTech
Fintech is gaining steam here in Malaysia.
What should we be looking out in this new
technological innovation?

052 Introduction To 5G
You think 4G/LTE is fast? Theyre about to
be smoked by the new competition

056 Mandatory Monitoring

Giving away your personal data to
companies for freebies may come to haunt
you later

108

114

116

contents

052

TEST LAB

056
077 Test Lab: The Tools
Test Labs tools of the trade

078 Test Lab Contents

Take a pick and get started!

086 Reviews
Professionally conducted reviews
following our stringent tests and
benchmarks

LITE &
LEISURE

108 E-Sports Express

PRACTICE

114 New Keyboard For Your Laptop

REGULARS
086

Whats the latest gossip in the

e-sports world?

106 Shadowverse
Does this anime-style card game
have what it takes to be the next
Hearthstone?
Is your laptops keyboard giving you
problems? We show you how you can
repair it yourself

001 Welcome Note

118 Tips and Tricks

106

contents
chip download

CHIP Downloads
December 2016
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. 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 DECEMBER 2016 - holidayseasonjoy

Featured Tools

KeyDepot 2016

KeyDepot is a software that helps you manage your passwords. The tool allows the user to
save login information in customised categories and encrypt the data using 256-bit AES. It
also has a 1-Click Login feature, so that you can login to a site quickly without needing to
memorise the login info yourself. Theres also the option of saving the login data on the cloud,
useful for those that have multiple devices.

AnyTrans 5
Exclusively used for iPhone, AnyTrans is a management software thats better than iTunes. It
not only allows you to sync songs to your devices, it also does it much faster than the sluggish
iTunes. Transferring files between two iDevices quickly is also possible, which can be handy for
when you get an iPad or a new iPhone. In addition, it allows users to export important info such
as their contacts to iCloud and extract that to a desktop.

Steganos Online Shield VPN

Ads are annoying, but with Steganos Online Shield VPN, you can bid them good bye. This
software has a number of cool features, including one to block pesky online adds, bypass
region locks so you can access sites that may block your country, or keep your browser
activity anonymous. It has a simple interface, where the features available can be quickly
toggled on or off.

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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contents
chip download

The Monthly Downloads

Macrium Reflect Free
Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8/10
Backing up your data manually is a tedious process, which is why you should get something like Macrium Reflect Free to
help. This software can do backups of select partitions or entire drives, subsequently making them recoverable with a
few simple clicks.

CyberDuck
Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8/10
Need a secure way to connect to your server and upload files? CyberDuck has a user-friendly interface that can connect
to your servers or even your DropBox account. It then allows you to browse through files at the target location easily,
making it easy to edit or transfer files in between.

WinToHDD
Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8/10
We all know you can turn DVDs or thumbdrives into a Windows install/recovery drive, but WinToHDD makes it possible
to do so without an external medium. It does so by cloning your existing Windows installation into an ISO image, thereby
making it possible to reinstall Windows by mounting this image.

KeeWeb
Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8/10
For a free password manager, KeeWeb is a good choice. It manages your passwords, making it easy to sort them into
different categories. Moreover, it has a useful password generator that you can use if you dont want to come up with
new ones on your own.

TidyTabs
Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8
TidyTabs is more than just tidy, its downright neat. This program allows you to group windows together and separate
them as tabs, thus helping to reduce the clutter of having too many windows open. Definitely very handy with
productivity tools like Microsoft Office.

Z-Cron
Operating system: Win XP/Vista/7/8
If having schedules help keep people organised, the same can be said for computers. Z-Cron is a task scheduler that can
help schedule task for Windows PCs, like playing a music in the morning as an alarm, run an update check for drivers, and
more.

Outlook Google Calendar Sync

Operating system: Win 8/10
Using both Google Calendar and Outlook at the same time for some reason and want them synced? Outlook Google
Calendar Sync does just that. With it, you can sync your Outlook to Google Calendar and vice versa.

AudioGrail Lite
Operating system: Win XP/Vista7/8/10
While calling it the grail of all things audio is too audacious, AudioGrail does provide a lot of useful tools when it comes to
audio. It can organise your audio files via tags, analyse the quality, or help burn them onto CDs.

CloneApp
Operating system: Win Vista7/8/10
Sometimes your system is screwed so badly that the fastest way to fix it is to reinstall Windows, in which case lose all
your Windows configurations. CloneApp solves that problem by providing you with a way to backup the settings and
registry files, which means you dont have to configure them again afterwards.
chip malaysia

december 16

005

news

The Moto Z Plays already long battery life can be

extended incredibly with the Incipio offGRID Power
Pack for those heavy users

Lydia Foo Mun Yee, Country Manager Lenovo Mobile Business Group Malaysia and Kaylie Wong, Marketing
Manager Lenovo Mobile Business Group APAC officially launching Mozo Z, Moto Z Play and Moto Mods with
accompanying models

Lenovo Launches
The Moto Z and Moto
Mods
Could the Moto Z be a game changer when it comes to
smartphones?

enovo has launched the new Moto Z and

Moto Z Play, some of the most soughtafter smartphones that were shown off
at IFA 2016 in Berlin. The event saw Lenovo
revealing the new Moto Z, a durable yet razor
thin smartphone and at only 5.2mm making it
the thinnest premium smartphone. The body
is made from military aircraft-grade aluminium
and stainless steel, and features a 5.5-inch
Quad HD AMOLED display.
A powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM allows
the Moto Z to run smoothly. But having just
powerful hardware today doesnt mean itll
make the cut, thats why the Moto Z comes
with a high-resolution 13MP camera which
sports an aperture of f/1.8 and optical image
stabilisation with laser autofocus. The frontfacing 5MP camera on the other hand comes
with a front flash and a wide angle lens for

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great selfies and groupfies even when theres a

lack of light.
The other smartphone launched at the
event was the Moto Z Play that comes with
Motos longest lasting smartphone battery
ever. The device features a thin, lightweight
design with a solid aluminium frame and
elegant glass back. The Moto Z Play with its
Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 and 3GB of RAM,
youll have enough power and performance to
multi-task your way through the day.
The Moto Z Play features a 5.5-inch
display like the Moto Z, but only sports Full HD
resolution. But on the other hand the Moto Z
Play comes with a 16MP camera with Laser
and PDAF autofocus for great photos, and the
5MP front camera will definitely be suitable for
taking selfies and groupfies, with its wide-angle
lens and front LED flash.
Lenovo had more in store and revealed the

The Moto Z is able to stuff great hardware into a

5.2mm thick body and 5.5-inch display while still
retaining a light body

Moto Mods. Special add-ons and magnetically

attached mods allow you to seamlessly
add advanced functionalities to the Moto Z
and Moto Z Play. Give the Moto Zs a boost
with powerful stereo sound from the JBL
SoundBoost, or enjoy a movie or your favourite
show with the Moto Insta-Share Projector
that turns your Moto Zs into a 70-inch movie
projector.
The Hasselblad True Zoom adds an
advanced imaging functionality to the Moto
Zs. Adding 10x optical zoom and a Xenon
flash for crisp and blur-free pictures, and an
added bonus for photographers is the ability to
capture in RAW format. Both the phones and
mods will are already available in stores. The
Moto Z will retail for RM2,699, while the Moto Z
Play will go for RM1,799.
www.lenovo.com

news

ViewSonic Presents
IPS For Everyone
ViewSonic releases a whole line-up of IPS monitors to bring
IPS into every home and office

iewSonic, a leading global provider of

visual solution products, unveiled its
latest additions to the extensive line-up
of high-quality monitors. The models include
the VA19 series, VX76 series, VX3209-2K
QHD monitor for best entertainment viewing,
XG2703-GS for a realistic gaming experience,
and VP2468 for astounding colour accuracy
engineered for the professionals.
The VA2419-SH and VA2719-SH
SuperClear IPS monitors deliver sharp
colour representation and feature modern,
minimalistic and frameless design. A narrow
6.4mm frame makes viewing more effortless,
while the convenience of multi-monitor setup
capabilities provides flexibility for any viewing
setup. While the VX2476-SMHD and VX2776SMHD monitors boast a 6.6mm ultra slim
design with frameless bezels, offering beautiful
eye-pleasing design to cater to stylish, modern,
and tech-savvy individuals.
The 32-inch VX3209-2K with 25601440

WQHD resolution lets you enjoy more by

delivering amazing visual clarity with stunning
details. Featuring an 8.9mm slim bezel and
narrow frame, the VX3209-2K comes with a
unique White T stand. Also if youre a fan of
using VESA mounts, both the VA19 series and
VX3209-2K comes with a VESA-compatible
mount design. If youre a gamer on the other
hand, the XG2703-GS is the monitor for you.
The XG2703-GS sports NVIDIAs G-SYNC
technology to pull out the full potential of the
165Hz refresh rate, and provide a smooth
and fluid gaming and graphical experience.
The monitor also comes with ViewSonics
SuperClear IPS panel at a resolution of
25601440 and response time for 4ms. It also
features a fully adjustable ergonomic stand
with swivel pivot capabilities, and tilt and height
adjustment.
Finally comes the VP2468, a 24-inch Full
HD monitor meant for those who care about
colours like photographers and photo editors.

It features a 4-sided frameless design that

creates a seamless and pure visual experience
in multi-monitor setups. Its comprehensive
colour accuracy technologies makes it the
standard display for applications where colour
accuracy is crucial. For precise and uniform
colour, each VP2468 is factory calibrated to a
Delta E<2 value for superior accuracy of all the
included colour spaces, including sRGB, EBU,
SMPTE-C, REC709 and DICOM-SIM.
The VP2468 also comes with an ergonomic
stand that allows for tilting, swivelling, pivoting
and height adjustments. An added feature
is the auto pivot feature that automatically
changes your monitor from landscape to
portrait.
www.ap.viewsonic.com/my

The VP2468 targets the photographers, graphic

designers, and artists out there with its colour
calibrated display and the capability to daisy chain
multiple VP2468s

The VX3209-2K would probably find itself in setups

meant for watching movies, or working with a lot
of spreadsheets and documents thanks to its 2K
resolution and large display

Chaw Foo Hong, Country Manager, ViewSonic International Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (right) and Choong Wai Fatt, Sales
Manager, ViewSonic International Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. launching a new line-up of IPS monitors for the Malaysian
market

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If gaming is what you do, the XG2703-GS is aimed for

those who have G-SYNC compatible cards and want
that smooth 165Hz refresh rate at a 2K resolution

news

Canon Announces
Latest imageRUNNER
ADVANCE Colour
Series
Canon launches multifunctional devices that can be
personalised to deliver maximised productivity for each
user

anon has announced the launch

of its A3 models third generation
multifunctional devices, the
imageRUNNER ADVANCE (iR-ADV) series
namely the iR-ADV c7500i series (C7580i/
C7570i) and the C5500i series (C5560i/
C5550i/C5540i/C5535i) to fit the trending
designs of current work spaces. The iR-ADV
C7500i and C5500i series feature remarkable
print speeds in colour and monochrome to
produce outstanding business documents in
rich and vibrant hues.
The Canon iR-ADV C7500i series offers an

all-in-one solution that delivers maximised

productivity with advanced finishing options,
and scanned documents can be fed through
the 300-sheet-capacity document feeder
and converted to various file formats. Count
on the Canon iR-ADV C5500i device to scan
and convert documents to PDF or select
Microsoft Office file formats like Word of
PowerPoint for your convenience.
Besides user convenience, Canon strives
to create a personalised user environment
with My ADVANCE features incorporated
in both series where users can customise

workflows and preferences easily. This

can range from personalising display
language, initial display screen, frequentlyused settings, address lists and more.
The personalised My ADVANCE settings
help to create a great user experience
and to top it off, the same settings can be
integrated across the third generation of
iR-ADV devices via the new My ADVANCE
Synchronisation.
Engineered to produce remarkable
printouts, the new Canon iR-ADV C7500i
and C5500i series adopts the innovative V2
Colour Technology, as with the other third
generation colour series. Users can expect
unrivalled vivid and vibrant image quality
as the standard printer colour gamut is
expanded, and the colour reproduction of
dark areas is enhanced to attain incredible
depth and richness.
The Canon iR-ADV C5500i series comes
with a 1200dpi print resolution and is
capable of printing at up to 60ppm on
letter-sized paper. Whereas the iR-ADV
C7500i series on the other hand, will highly
benefit large printing scales and bigger
offices. Capable of producing up to 2400dpi
print resolution with R-VCSEL red laser
technology. The imageRUNNER ADVANCE
C7580i/C7570i and C5560i/C5550i/C5540i/
C5535i are available this month onwards at
authorised Canon distributors and dealers.
www.canon.com.my

From left to right is Halid Ayob, Corporate Systems Product Marketing, Canon Singapore Pte. Ltd.; Eric Er,
Senior Marketing Manager, Business Imaging Solutions Division, Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn Bhd; Alvin Lee,
Assistant Director, Business Imaging Solutions Division, Canon Marketing Sdn Bhd, and Rodney Fong, Marketing
Manager, Business Imaging Solutions Division, Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

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The Canon iR-ADV 3560i is perfect for medium

enterprises, with its vibrant colours and 1200dpi print
resolution

news

Symantecs Releases
Latest Cyber Security
Report
The report also shows that the majority of Malaysian
internet users dont follow good online security practices

ymantec has released its latest

Norton Cyber Security Insights Report,
which provides the latest trends in
cybercrime and the effects on consumers.
According to the report, the rise in
cybercrime has not made consumers more
careful with their online behaviour. In the
report, Malaysians were recorded as being
free with their passwords. They share their
online passwords with other people and
this is dangerous, because many users tend
to reuse the same string of password for

multiple sites, including their online bank

accounts.
In addition, for Malaysians who own at
least one unsecured device, it was found
that 38% of them brushed off the need to do
so because they only browse the internet
and dont do anything considered risky.
Another 74% of users were aware of the
need for protection of their online privacy,
yet they would still share their passwords
with other users. This complacent behaviour
of the Malaysian internet users is a cause

for concern.
Our findings show that people are
growing increasingly aware of the need to
protect their personal information online,
but arent motivated to take adequate
precautions to stay safe, said Chee Choon
Hong, Director, Asia Consumer Business,
Norton by Symantec. While consumers
remain complacent, hackers are refining
their skills and adapting their scams to
further take advantage of people, making
the need for consumers in Malaysia to take
some action increasingly important.
Nortons advice to all users it to adopt
basic online practices that can reduce the
risk of cybercrimes:
1) Create unique passwords that are strong,
using a combination of upper and lowercase
letters, symbols and numbers. Make sure
your accounts dont all use the same
password and change it often. A password
manager can be useful if you struggle to
remember your passwords
2) As a rule of thumb, dont click on any open
any attachments without confirming its
validity.
3) Change the default
password of any device
within your network.
Disable the wireless
access of any device
that doesnt require
a connection to the
internet.
4) Use a strong
encryption and
password for your WiFi
network.
5) Use a security
software to secure your
PCs or devices against
cyber threats.
6) Never access sites
with sensitive personal
information, such as
your bank details, on an
unprotected public WiFi.
7) Avoid sharing
anything on social
media that may pertain
to your personal
information, such as
bills that contain your
bank account number
www.symantec.com

Chee Choon Hong, Director, Asia Consumer Business, Norton by Symantec

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news

ECS Reveals New Generation

LIVA Z Mini PC

ECS reveals their LIVA Z Mini PC that boasts portability, performance and great powersaving capabilities

litegroup has revealed the LIZA Z

Mini PC, a fully functional computer
that fits in the palm of your hand.
Its launch touches upon the idea of having
an easy to carry, lightweight, and powersaving computing solution. Its powerful
performance and upgradeable flexibility
makes it a great choice as a high quality full
desktop alternative.
The new generation LIZA Z is designed
to simplify the complicated. It is equipped
with the latest 14nm Apollo Lake quad core
processors offering 30 percent better CPU
performance and 45 percent better graphics
performance that its predecessor Braswell
chips. It enabled hardware-accelerated
playback of HEVC/H.265 4K ultra HD video
from hardware decoding of HEVC and
VP9 codecs. It also boasts lower power
consumption and noise-free enjoyment
while playing YouTube videos and media,
keeping the operation much cooler and
quieter.
In addition, LIVA Z comes with dualchannel DDR3L memory, each slot supports
a maximum capacity of 8GB memory, a total
maximum of 16GB in dual-channel mode.
This gives you fast and efficient performance
for daily multi-tasking computing. Native
M.2 support gives LIVA Z the speed and

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performance you crave in a compact PC,

giving you data transfer speeds of up to
10Gbit/s, making it the perfect choice for an
operating system or application drive.
Health Winston, Director, Intel Desktop
Chipset and Customer Marketing, even
said The Mini Socket Technology Extended
(Mini-STX) platform brings the performance
and the configuration of traditional tower
desktops to mini PCs. The LIVA Z from ECS
is a great example of cooperation between

Intel and ECS to drive innovative solutions

on desktop.
In terms of storage and expansion, LIVA
Z offers dual 2.5-inch HDD/SSD drive bays
and expansion is made possible via SATA
6Gbps interface, so you can enjoy both
high speed data access as well as large
storage capacity. Other notable features
on the LIVA Z also include USB 3.0 Type-C,
Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11AC. Bluetooth 4.0,
COM Port as well as I/O ports. Moreover,
it can be VESA-mounted on the back of a
display too. When compared with a mid-size
and full-size ATX tower PC, LIVA Z enables
further reduction of power consumption,
which leads to outstanding performance and
longer usage times.
Furthermore, LIVA Z offers expansion
capability and I/O flexibility to enhance
overall system performance compared to
ARM-based mini PCs since it was designed
for a variety of demanding applications,
and is an excellent choice for industrial
and commercial applications which include,
Industrial Control, Digital Signs, Interactive
Kiosks and education applications.
http://www.ecs.com.tw

news

ZOTAC Launches
Worlds First AMD
Radeon Powered VRReady Mini PC
ZOTAC packs a whole lot of punch into a small package with
the MAGNUS

OTAC International launches the

MAGNUS ERX480, the worlds first
AMD powered Mini PC equipped with
the Radeon RX480. The new MAGNUS is
designed for gaming and entertainment and
hosts power that surpasses the requirements
for experiencing virtual reality gaming. The
MAGNUS is an ideal solution for both high-end
gaming, premium entertainment, and much
more.
The Radeon RX480 with Polaris
Architecture changes the gaming hardware

dynamic with an effective cost-performance

combination. Were excited to partner with
ZOTAC, a well-established gaming mini PC
manufacturer, to bring together the worlds
first and most powerful AMD based gaming
Mini PC equipped with the Radeon RX480, said
Spender Pan, AMD Corporate VP and President
of Greater China.
The MAGNUS ERX480 is VR ready and it can
also do more with newer standards, sporting
native 4K output at 60Hz and comes with
DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0, not to mention

quad display support which comes standard

to provide a multiscreen experience. Powerful
Async shaders and new geometry capabilities
enable unique support for DirectX 12 and
Vulkan. If thats not enough, the MAGNUS
comes with an Intel 6th generation Skylake
processor together with DDR4 memory support
to pull out the potential of the RX480 and
generate the performance needed to play even
the latest games with intricate details and silky
smooth frame rates.
The MAGNUS series continue to provide a
premium computing experience by taking care
of the details. It comes equipped with both USB
3.1 Type-C and USB 3.1 Type-A port for speed
and convenience. 802.11ac WiFi connection and
dual Gigabit LAN support also comes standard.
The MAGNUS measures at 8.27 x 7.99 x 2.45
inches, and is one of the smallest VR Ready
systems available. Plus a matte black finish
compliments the power and whisper quiet
performance of the MAGNUS ERX480. The PLUS
version of the ERX480 comes with a 120GB M.2
SATA SSD, 1TB of SAT HDD and 8GB of DDR4
RAM. Whereas the Windows 10 version comes
with everything the PLUS has with the addition
of the Windows 10 Home 64-bit OS.
https://www.zotac.com/my/

Albeit small the MAGNUS ERX480 still comes

standard with enough input and outputs for all your
peripherals and support for quad displays

The MAGNUS ERX480 leaves a small footprint in your

workspace or home, yet provides high-end gaming
capabilities tht you dont usually see in a PC of this
size

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news

Albern Murthy, CEO of Digi giving a speech during the

officiating ceremoney of Digis Digital Day

Digital Day was held by Digi to allow its employees to feel excited about what the future holds for everyone

Digital Day At Digi

Digi seeks growth opportunities in the digital space

igi recently hosted a Digital Day event

for its employees, an event where the
telecommunications giant dedicates to
exploring existing and new digital technologies
transforming the lives of many. The event is
themed Experience Tomorrow, Today and
managed to gather over 1,700 Digi employees
from all over the country.
The day was filled with impressive
technology showcases, as well as inspiring
talks with innovators revolutionising the future,
all in celebration of Digis transformation into
a digital company to become its customers
favourite partner in their digital lives by 2020.
Digis Chief Executive Officer Albern Murty
said, Digital innovation is disrupting every
industry and transforming our way of life
every single day. Mobile devices and data will
continue to play a central role in the future
as our customers move to adopt richer, fuller
digital lifestyles. The fusion of more powerful
devices, fast internet, emerging technologies
and customer analytics will see a new wave of
services that will not only connect people but
businesses, things, homes and every area of life
imaginable.

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The event showcased an array of

technologies in the fields of financial
services, IoT, virtual reality, robotics, artificial
intelligence, driverless cars, nanotechnology,
bone-conduction technology, and other cool
projects. Attendees were also inspired by
some eye-opening speaking sessions from
the following experts: Engineer Mohd Izmir
Yamin on developing low-cost robotics to
explore the moon, Adrian David Cheok, Director
of the Imagineering Institute on tricking your
tastebuds to make vegetables taste like
chocolate, Founder of Incitement Mohd Zikry
Kholil on mobilising social movements with
digital crowdfunding, Social
entrepreneur Dr Rajiv Bhanot
on easy access to clean
water for rural areas with
nanotechnology.
Part of the exhibition also
showed Digis 360 efforts
in digitising its business,
workplace and people which
the company has invested
heavily in, in the year, to go
digital. Among others, Digital

Adrian David Cheok, Director of the Imagineering

Institute on tricking your tastebuds on thinking youre
tasting something else

Day showcased the companys MyDigi app,

which it said will be key to its customers digital
journey moving forward.
Its Mobile Sales Agent app, a new retail
concept which it will rollout nationwide, 57
square and recent investments in startups such
as LocalUsher and Vase, new digital learning
platforms to build new skills for its employees,
and refreshed Digi headquarters that supports
the culture of everyday innovation.
www.digi.my

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Group photo of the various panelists with Dato Yasmin (middle) from MDEC

Sam Carlisle from Microsoft Studios made an

appearance at LEVEL UP KL

LEVEL UP Back To Up
The Game
Returning for a second year in a row, the gaming conference
sees the appearance of local, regional and international
developers coming together

nter LEVEL UP KL 2016, one of

South-East Asias premier gaming
conferences in Kuala Lumpur. Held
for the second year running, the conference
features business perspectives, technical
insights and sharing of future-shaping
trends via thought-leader keynotes, and
notable panels from all over the world.
LEVEL UP KL 2016 is part of the ongoing
efforts led by MDEC to build a world class
gaming ecosystem in Malaysia, with the
vision to transform the country as a Game
Hub in the South-East Asia by 2025.
The panels covered a wide range of topics
ranging from analysis on what makes a
good game, or what makes a game popular
among certain targeted markets, to the life
and challenges of working with a top IP.
Although we werent able to catch every
single panel, we are still able to share about
some important points when it comes to the
gaming industry. Such as, What is the value
of an IP?
Sometimes you dont need your own IP
to be successful, for example a company

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like Bushiroad well-known for their Trading

Card Game IPs. Although Bushiroad has
titles like Cardfight Vanguard or Buddyfight,
before that they had Weiss Schwarz which
is still popular today. The card game takes
IPs from others which are usually anime

Sho Sato from Media Create giving the low-down on

what happened to game talents in South East Asia

Sam Carlisle on the risk, challenges, pros and cons of external development for the present and coming future

news
is important to find a
demographic and focus
on it, instead of being a
jack-of-all trades and
trying to encompass
everything if youre just
starting out.
According to
publishers in the SEA
region theres huge
potential in SEA, but the
marketplace of ideas has
to grow from where it is
now. Instead of targeting
local markets, developers
should aim for the global
stage, but work with the
locals to tap into the
Indie developers are given a small slot between panels to showcase their games to the audience during LEVEL UP KL
unused potential of the
SEA region. Its always
titles, or characters and games. While using
games, for example a person who goes
important to do something that no one has
the IPs of others to enrich their own, they
through a lot of stress at work might choose
done, such as a brand-new game system
were able to build upon that to become
to play a calm and relaxing game, instead
or game mechanics. Dont be afraid to
successful, which shows you dont exactly
of a highly competitive action game. There
approach publishers, but always be prepared
need your own IP to succeed.
are also games that rely on pre-established
with screenshots and even better, gameplay
There were also panels that talked about
paradigms that make the stale, or too
videos and demos on YouTube.
how you can use other channels to help
similar to those around them.
Another interesting topic that was shared
promote or sell an IP. Take Final Fantasy XV
In addition, it was shared that game
was on the importance of elements like
as an example. With Final Fantasy Advent
publishers pick and choose games from
music to enhance the gaming experience.
Children as a precedent, Square Enix knew
developers usually on a case-by-case basis.
This is a major element, with many games
that an animated movie would be able to
Most companies will pick games that align
through the years being remembered for
draw a crowd, so they made a movie and a
to the core values of the company, so youd
having a fantastic soundtrack. Similarly,
short anime series. This served to increase
usually see a popular company having
voice acting in games, which started to
exposure to the game and generated a
games that are similar to each other. To
become common in bigger game titles in the
massive increase in hype.
get a higher chance of being picked up by
early 2000s, added a great deal of emotion
From the indie side, speakers discussed
a publisher, it is important to focus on the
and personality to characters in game.
about what they thought made video games
genres and core values of the company
Beyond the above examples, there are many
boring to people. With a wide variety of
youre gunning for. Publishers are definitely
ways to enrich a titles gaming experience
factors, difference of genres could be said
open to discussion to see how they can
and its up to developers to find the right
to be one of the main factors. A persons
work together with developers to develop
formula.
lifestyle could also affect their choice in
a game suitable for their country. Also, it
www.levelup.asia

Brie Code from Tru Luv Media explains to the

audience why different gamers like different games

From left to right Gabby Dizon, Altitude Games; Mikael Leinonen, MyGamez Ltd; Martine Spaans, Tamalaki
Publishing/FGL; and Langer Lee, Mixi, giving the audience and indie developers tips and advice on how to get a
company to publish your game

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The Acer Swift 3 holds its fort in the performance

department as well, powered by a 6th generation Intel
Core i5 processor

Acer Unveils Worlds

Thinnest Laptop, The
Swift 7

The Acer Swift 7 is a powerful machine, and is

currently the thinnest laptop in the world measuring
at 9.98mm in thickness

Thin and powerful is the way to go for Acer

cer unveiled its latest series of

ultrathin notebooks, the Acer Swift
series at IFA in Berlin a couple of
months back, and it is finally coming here
to Malaysia. Whilst Acer unveiled the Swift
7, 5 and 3 models at the European tech
event, Malaysians will have two out of three
models, the Acer Swift 7 and Swift 3 to
choose from.
The Acer Swift 7 is Acers thinnest laptop
yet, measuring in at 9.98mm in thickness
when the lid is closed. Clad in an allaluminum chassis, the Swift 7 also weighs in
at just 1.1kg, which also makes it one of the
most lightweight computing devices around.
Adding some toughness to this otherwise
very svelte notebook is the inclusion of
Cornings Gorilla Glass screen, which makes
the Swift 7s 13.3 inch Full HD IPS display
scratch-proof.
Powering the Acer Swift 7 is Intels latest
7th generation Kaby Lake Core i5 processor,
with 8GBs of RAM and 256GBs of SSD
thrown in for good measure. The Swift 7 also
sports a brand new HDR-capable camera,
which is able to brighten up scenery, making
webcamming a bright, lag-free experience.

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The Swift 7 is also equipped with

the latest 2x2 802.11ac with MU-MIMO
wireless technology to deliver up to three
times faster connections. Users can also
enjoy quick data transfer, connection to an
external display, and charging of the laptop
via two USB 3.1 Type-C ports. Speaking of
charging, Acer claims that the Swift 7 is
capable of lasting up to nine full hours on a
single charge.
Thinness is no excuse for poor audio
quality, and Acer is well aware of that, as
the Swift 7 features Dolby Audio Premium
and Acer TrueHarmony, which work
simultaneously to immerse you in clear and
bold virtual surround sound.
It also comes with an extra-large
precision touch pad which enhances
the overall multi-touch experience on a
touchpad. It doesnt matter if you are using
four, three or two fingers, your gestures fit
perfectly on the extra room provided by the
touch pad regardless of your finger size.
The Acer Swift 3 meanwhile is a
similarly-sized laptop, powered by Intels 6th
generation Core i5 processor, featuring 4GBs
of RAM and 256GBs of SSD storage space.

The Acer Swift 7 is the first laptop in the market to run

Intels new 7th gen Core i5 processor

Some of the more notable differences in

the Swift 3 include a slightly thicker chassis
at 18mm and USB Type-A ports instead of
Type-C.
Priced at RM4,999, the Swift 7 is
available immediately on 11street Malaysia
(www.11street.my), and in all authorized
Acer resellers nationwide on 23 November
2016 onwards. The Acer Swift 3 meanwhile
is available for purchase immediately
at RM2,899 from select authorized Acer
resellers nationwide.
www.acer.com.my

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More Than Just

Laptops
Acer unveils new devices alongside the Swift series

hile the Acer Swift series of laptops

were the highlights of Acers launch
event, the company also announced
a number of other notebooks, as well as a
brand new gaming monitor, all of which also
made their first appearances at IFA in Berlin
not too long ago.
These brand new products include the

Acer Spin 5 convertible laptop, the Acer Aspire

C22 AIO PC, and the Acer Predator Z1 gaming
monitor.
The Acer Spin 5 is a convertible laptop,
featuring Acers patented 360-degree dualtorque hinge, providing wobble-free touch
experience and easy convertibility to the four
useful modes; as a laptop or tablet, in a spacesaving display
mode, or in tent
mode for sharing
presentations or
watching movies.
The hinge also
makes it easy to
open but prevents
toppling over when
using the 13.3inch Full HD IPS
touchscreen display.
The crossed-hairline
brush finish on the
aluminium top cover
provides a fabriclike appearance,
making the Spin
5 easy to grip
while preventing
The Acer Predator Z1 monitor sports GSYNC and Tobii eyetracking features
the accumulation
of fingerprint
smudges.
Powered by

The Acer Aspire C22 is for for those who need a compact desktop PC for small spaces

Intels 6th generation Intel Core i3 processor,

the Spin 5 is also equipped with 4GBs of RAM
and 128GBs of SSD storage for fast boot up
times. Not only that, Acer claims that the Spin
5 also has a 10 hour battery life, which allows
users to go out and about without having to
worry about charging points.
In addition to its flagship laptops, Acer
Malaysia also unveiled Predator Z1, the first
27-inch, curved monitor with NVIDIA G-SYNC
technology. Its Tobii eye-tracking technology
allows new interactions like aiming, identifying
enemies and taking cover simply by looking
at objects on the screen. Gamers can now
use their eyes and intuition as their greatest
weapon.
They will be able to interact with the
characters more realistically and enjoy a
much more immersive and seamless gaming
experience. The super curved screen with FHD
1920 x 1080 (144 Hz) envelops the player while
putting every corner of the screen at the same
distance from the eyes, providing a uniform
viewing experience and reducing eye strain
during long hours of game play.
If youre looking for a PC that can fit compact
spaces, the Acer Aspire C22 might just be what
youve been looking for. The Aspire C 22 packs
all you need into a frame that is only 8mm
thin. Its slim design minimises display size
and reduces visual bulk. The simple yet clean
appearance fits well in any room and saves
space.
Powered by Intels 6th generation Core i3
processor, all of the components of the C22 are
housed behind its 21.5 inch Full HD display,
complete with LED backlighting that delivers
clear, crisp visuals that make the most of
movie on-demand, and provides clear browsing
experiences and sharper, clearer text.
www.acer.com.my

Users can rotate the Acer Spin 5s display 360 degrees, and use it a variety of
different ways

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The Y710 Cube is a portable PC. The handle allows

users to carry it around for LAN parties

Khoo Hung Chuan, Country Manager for Lenovo Malaysia and Singapore showing off the brand new Lenovo
IdeaCentre Y710 Cube

Lenovo Unveils
Compact Gaming
Machine, The Y710
Cube

The Y710 Cube sports a menacing look, showing that

you dont need to be big to be intimidating

The Lenovo IdeaCentre Y710 Cube is compact but powerful

ver the years, many experts have

argued that desktop PCs are on a
massive decline, and its death is
imminent. Fast forward to today, PC gaming
is still considered a core business market,
and for Lenovo, an opportunity to leverage
on current technology to bring gaming to
the masses. With the Lenovo IdeaCentre
Y710 Cube, the company is looking to bring
desktop gaming and even virtual reality to
everyone in a compact form factor.
Driven by the emergence of video game
streaming, virtual reality and augmented
reality as a means of enhancing and
expanding interactive entertainment, PC
gaming is still relevant today. Despite
fierce competition, we still see a strong

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opportunity to be part of the gaming sector

as part of our continued commitment to
users. Said Khoo Hung Chuan, Country
General Manager of Malaysia and Singapore,
Central Asia Pacific.
Powered by Intels 6th generation Core
i7 processor, the Y710 Cube also comes
equipped with 8GBs of DDR4 RAM, a
2TB HDD, as well as an NVIDIA GTX 1070
discrete graphics card, for the best gaming
experience, be it for traditional PC gaming, or
even with a pair of virtual reality headset.
The IdeaCentre Y710 Cube is confidently
capable of handling gaming at 4K resolution,
high-quality streaming and many other
complex computing tasks in real time, and
even has space for multitasking between

An NVIDIA GTX1070 graphics card powers the

graphics portion of the Y710 Cube

tasks.
It is also ideal for gamers who are
constantly on the move, as the Y710 comes
with a handlebar at the top of the case,
which allows gamers to easily transport the
machine around for LAN parties and such.
At the moment, there is only one
configuration of the Lenovo IdeaCentre Y710
Cube available in the market today, which
is priced at RM6,099. According to Lenovo
executives, there will be an i5 model with an
NVIDIA GTX1050Ti and a 256GB SSD that will
be made available in Q1 2017.
www.lenovo.com

news

Oukitel
Launches New
K7000
Thin smartphone with a battery case

hinese smartphone brand, Oukitel, has

been establishing itself in Malaysia as
one of the brands that offer decent
smartphones at affordable prices. Among its
options is the popular K series models, which
are great for those who want a device with long
battery life.
Seeing the reception to this series,
Oukitel has launched the new K7000 model,
a smartphone with a more than generous
7,000 mAh battery. Theres a trick to this
achievement, of course, which lies in the 5,000
mAh battery charging case called the Matrix.
This case essentially works as an external
powerbank for the Oukitel K7000, combining
with the K7000s own internal 2,000 mAh

battery. Designed to
look good, the Matrix
case can be charged
separately while the
phone is in use.
The K7000 comes
with a 5-inch screen
with a resolution
of 1280 x 720, a
MediaTeks MT6737
chip under the hood,
as well as 2GB of
RAM and 16GB of storage. Theres a microSD
card slot to expand the storage capacity, a
13-megapixel camera and fingerprint sensor
at the back, the last of which is rare on a

The Future Of
Endpoint Security
Symantec unveils most comprehensive endpoint security
software yet

ymantec recently announced the

availability of its latest Symantec
Endpoint Protection 14 software, the
next evolution of Symantecs long line of
endpoint software security solutions.
Endpoint Protection 14 is the industrys
first solution to use essential endpoint
technologies together with advanced
machine learning and memory exploit
mitigation in a single agent, delivering a
multi-layered solution able to stop advanced
threats and respond at the endpoint
regardless of how the attack is launched.
The new Endpoint Protection 14 solution
builds on Symantecs industry-leading 99.9
percent efficacy, with low false positives and
currently is 70 percent lighter in terms of
storage footprint over previous generations.
Having recently acquired Blue Coat, the

software also features combined threat

intelligence capabilities, protecting 175
million customers and enterprise endpoints,
processing nearly eight billion security
requests every day.
Symantec Endpoint Protection 14 is a
major leap forward in endpoint protection,
delivering the latest innovations in endpoint
security on a single platform and from
a security company you can trust said
David Rajoo, Systems Engineering, Director,
Symantec Malaysia.
Multi-layered protection, enabled by
artificial intelligence, backed by the worlds
largest and most powerful threat intelligence
force, and the cloud, this is literally the
smartest choice in endpoint technology.
Symantec Endpoint Protection 14 is an
essential element of an integrated cyber

smartphone in this price bracket.

Available in Rose Gold, Champagne Gold and
Space Grey colours, the Oukitel K7000 is now
available in Malaysia for RM499.
oukitel.11street.my

defense strategy that enterprises require to

combat todays advanced threats.
Some of the new features that make
the Symantec Endpoint Protection 14 such
a compelling software to use to protect
business endpoints include the ability to
transfer settings from one device to another
over the network, as well as the use of
machine learning to check threat telemetry,
which helps to deal with false positives.
Thanks to this, its also possible to push
patch updates as soon as possible, as prior
to this, it would take months or weeks
for security engineers to manually patch
endpoints.
Endpoint security is important, now
even more than ever, as Symantec reported
in 2015 that more than 430 million new
pieces of malware were detected, and
expects that the number to grow this year.
Cyber threats also come in many form; in
Malaysia, Symantec recorded a total of 5,069
ransomware attacks last year, where hackers
trap victims and expanded their attacks to
any network-connected device that can be
held hostage.
For businesses, Symantec Endpoint
Protection 14 is already available globally.
https://www.symantec.com/

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Hitachi Data
Systems Release
2017 Predictions For
Business And Tech

Next year will continue to see digital transformation being a

key driver

itachi Data Systems (HDS) has released

its thoughts on what the key trends
for Business and Technology Trends in
Asia Pacific would be like next year. According
to Hubert Yoshida, CTO of HDS and CTO for
HDS Asia Pacific, digital transformation will
likely remain as the core focus for enterprises
in 2017.
With digital transformation rising up
the agenda of CIOs across the world in 2016,
we expect to see an increasing number of

organizations striving to reach digital maturity

in 2017, said Skingsley. In fact, a Forbest
Insights survey shows that many of the
enterprises in the APAC region believe they
are ahead in the digital transformation race, as
compared to global enterprises. Whether this
is true is expected to be revealed in the coming
year.
In the survey, Yoshida and Skingsley
highlight five key trends for the technology
market of 2017. The five trends are: productivity

Huawei Marks
Another Milestone
For 5G

Trial showed efficiencies four to six times more than LTE

n a recent announcement by Huawei, the

company announced that it had conducted
a large-scale field trial in collaboration with
Japans NTT Docomo. The focus is the 4.5GHz
band, making it the worlds first large-scale
urban trial for 5G technology.
The field test was conducted in Japan,
Yokohama, using a real world urban scenario
to test total throughput and latency. It
successfully demonstrated the capability of
routing 11.29 Gbps total throughput and has
a low latency of less than 0.5ms. The results
presented the two telecommunications
company with important data in 5G
development and was a significant milestone in
the two companys 5G joint 5G field tests.
NTT Docomo and Huawei first signed

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a partnership to conduct these 5G trials in

late 2014, with the first
successful large-scale
outdoor trial completed
in China during 2015. The
two companies are now
aiming to conduct these
large-scale trials in Japan,
with the focus on key 5G
enablers such as Massive
MIMO, ultra-reliability
and low latency, mixed
numerology using f-OFDM
(filtered OFDM), and
combined performance
of SCMA (Sparse Code
Multiple Access), Polar

Russell Skingsley, Chief Technology Officer. Asia

Pacific, Hitachi Data Systems

gains will be more about people, process and

business outcomes; many enterprises would
be accelerating their transitioning to the Cloud;
the bimodal IT, referring to the traditional and
nonlinear IT modes; data would be centralised
for easier management; and lastly, there would
be a growing awareness of IoT in data centres.
www.hds.com

Code and f-OFDM.

Dr. Wen Tong, Huawei Fellow and CTO of
Huawei Wireless Networks said, Huawei is
now putting a lot of resource and energy to
5G NR foundational technology development,
market development and product solution
development. With the team weve put
together, the collaboration between Huawei
and DOCOMO is now on the fast track and the
progress is very encouraging, this achievement
is extremely important to form the foundation
of future 5G.
huawei.com/minisite/5g/en

news

ZTE Committed To
Help Malaysian
Businesses

The updated M-ICT 2.0 strategy identifies five key trends

elecommunications provider, ZTE

Corporation, has reaffirmed its
commitment to help Malaysian
businesses in the transition to a digital
economy. The corporation unveiled its new
M-ICT 2.0 strategy at the ZTE VOICE Towards
2020 Summit.
With the rapid increase of network traffic,
Malaysian operators are challenged to convert
existing service models to a more dataoriented one. This necessitates the use of new
technologies and services, many that could be
seen at the summit. ZTE has outlined five key
trends that would influence the development
of the industry in the next few years prior to

2020. The five trends are: Virtuality, Openness,

Intelligence, Cloudification, and Internet of
Everything.
Crucial to this development is the increase
in bandwidth and speeds of data traffic. At the
summit, ZTE showcased its Pre-5G Massive
MIMO and Gigabyte Access technologies, which
can theoretically deliver much greater efficiency
and bandwidth using existing infrastructures.
Another major showcase at the event was
ZTEs ElasticNet 3.0 elastic network solution.
ZTE believes that a future-oriented network
re-architecture should have one centre, dualengines and triple-layers. With the ElasticNet
3.0, a network would be re-architected to a

Jeff Zhou, Managing Director of ZTE Southeast Asia_

default_resized

cloud-based virtual data centre (VDC) thats

governed by software defined networking (SDN)
and network function virtualisation (NFV), hence
the idea of triple-layer re-architecture.
Jeff Zhou, Managing Director of ZTE
Southeast Asia, had this to say in a speech at
the summit: ZTE believes M-ICT2.0 will play
critical roles in the ongoing global economic
transformation and cause far-reaching impact
for the new future. To date, we have made
substantial breakthrough in the Malaysian
market, and as we continue to ramp up our
effort laid out in our M-ICT 2.0 Strategy, we look
forward to helping Malaysian businesses seize
opportunities in digital, open, sharing economy.
zte.com/global/solutions

The MSI VR One

Arriving In Malaysia
Experience VR on a mobile platform this coming holiday
season with the MSI VR One

or those whove been keeping up with

MSI and their venture in the VR-world
youre in luck. MSI had built deep
relationships with the VIVE Team of HTC
Corporation for quite a long and is determined
to deliver and promote the best VR experience
on the mobile platform. Thats right, the
MSI VR One, a VR backpack by MSI is now
available across multiple countries, and is soon
available in Malaysia as well, not exact date has
been given but its expected to arrive before
Christmas this year.
MSI believes in the growing importance
and applicability of VR in the business world,
and the MSI VR One is the ultimate solution
for creating new opportunities for B2B and
B2C. Imagine entering a house before its
construction completed, experience a test drive,
seeing merchandise before purchasing as well

as other types of convenience will always be

appreciated by potential and actual clients.
Both content creators and game developers

will enjoy working with the MSI VR One thanks

to its mobility and high performance. Not
to mention, teaching history or sharing an
imaginary world is another great potential
for VR. VR Gaming is indeed an incredible
experience becoming tempting for more and
more people. For those interested, the MSI VR
One comes in 2 configurations, the VR ONE
7RE that comes with a GTX 1070 is priced at
RM11,999 while the VR ONE 7RD with GTX 1060
will be priced at RM9,999.
http://gaming.msi.com

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Netflix Partner With

Double Vision To
Bring Local Content
To Streaming Service
Netflix to start showing local shows soon

n January this year at CES in Las Vegas,

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings pushed a
button that signalled Netflixs availability
throughout the world, affording consumers
the ability to stream various TV shows, movies,
documentaries and originals from the comfort
of their TV, computer, or mobile screens.
Fast forward almost a year later, Netflix is
now available in 190 countries, with 86 million
global subscribers, serving 125 million hours
of shows, over 100 original shows and movies,
and have even ramped production on original

production, with over 600 hours worth of

original programming made available in 2016
alone.
But perhaps the only things missing
from Netflix at the moment are local

ROCCAT Introduces
The ROCCAT Cross
A headphone aimed for the multi-platform gamers that
want a customisable piece of gaming gear

odays gamer demands a perfect gaming

experience, no matter which platform is
used. The ROCCAT CROSS replaces the
need for separate headsets on PC, console, or
mobile device. The Cross is a multi-platform
over-ear stereo gaming headset that you can
bring everywhere.
The ROCCAT Cross features large 50mm
neodymium magnet driver units, which ensure
studio-grade sound. The earcups as well as
the drivers are perfectly aligned to the ear,
providing maximum comfort and an immersive
sound experience everywhere you go. The
Cross delivers superior audio quality, not only
in games, but also in music, film and voice
communication.
It is also an on-trend headset with an
understated black design, sporting a snug fit
thanks to memory foam earpads that adapt

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uniquely to each wearer, providing a new level

of comfort. Also, at only 185g in weight, it is
over 70g lighter than competing headsets in
the same class. In order to provide a fluid multi-

content, as well as localisation, which

currently, some of Netflixs locally-based
competitors seem to have an edge over the
American streaming service.
Thats about to change soon, however,
as Netflix has recently signed an agreement
with Double Vision, one of Malaysias biggest
production companies and broadcast content
providers. Beginning later this year, Netflix will
be home to popular Malaysian drama titles,
including favourites like Kopitiam, Show Me
The Money and Age of Glory, to its over 86
million members around the world including
Malaysia.
As far as content localisation goes,
Johnathan Friedland, Chief Communications
Officer at Netflix says that it is definitely in the
works in the near future, as Netflix aims to
provide content experiences that everyone in
the 190 countries Netflix is in can enjoy.
www.netflix.com

platform experience, the ROCCAT Cross comes

complete with dual microphones, one designed
for PC and one designed for mobile use. Each of
the two mics is built into an anti-tangle cable,
both of which are provided together with the
Cross.
The mics are detachable and plugs into
a neatly-placed port on the underside of the
left earcup. While gaming on PC or console,
choose the boom-arm mic for superior voice
communication. While out and about, use the
discreet and unobtrusive in-line mic.
http://www.roccat.org/en-GB/Products/
Gaming-Sound/Cross/

news

ASUS Showcase
Products Commercial
Use
Many of the products in the brands lineup can be used for
commercial or retail needs

here are many who are not aware

that some of the brands churning out
consumer PC parts also dabble in more
commercial sectors. In fact, ASUS products can
be used for commercial purposes, a fact that
the company showcased in a recent products
briefing.
At the briefing, we got to see a product
category that is uncommon from traditionally
consumer-heavy brands like ASUS: digital
signage. Using a combination of ultra-small
form factor PCs like the ASUS Chromebox,
VivoPC or VivoStick PC, with ASUS display
technology, commercial companies can setup
digital signage that are capable of running a

wider variety of content at different levels of

cost. This setup can be used in retail stores,
banks, or even public facilities like train
stations. An example would be the ASUS CN62
Chromebox with the SV425 digital signage.
In the same way, these ultra-small form
factor PCs can be used in retail shops as the
end point for a point of sale system. This has
the obvious advantage of saving space and
drastically reducing power consumption, both
which are merits that smaller shops would
welcome.
Additionally, ASUS showcase featured
products like server racks, desktop
workstations, and even more niche products

Something that some sales exec may find useful, a

portable projector

Commercial and retail companies can easily use a

small PC like the VivoPC to create rich terminals

like a portable projector. These all have

usage for more commercial needs and clearly
demonstrated ASUS adapting to cater to a
wider range of markets.
www.asus.com/my

Cooler Master Forms

Partnership With
Malaysia Battlefield
Team

Cooler Master to help bolster local eSports scene together

with local group of gamers

ooler Master has recently signed a

partnership with Malaysia Battlefield
Team (MBT), a group of like-minded
gamers who have been competing in a variety
of titles locally and abroad.
Established in 2006 by eight Malaysian
gamers, MBT was originally formed to compete
in the Battlefield series of FPS games. Ten
years later, MBT is now a community with 60
members and a mission with a wider scope:
spread the awareness of eSports in Malaysia.
The community aims to do this by dispelling
near two-decade long negative impressions in
regards to gamers or video games.

A decade has certainly given MBT a wealth

of experience in Battlefield games. In addition,
the community is known for helping to host
local events, including CyberFusion 2015. This
year, MBT has begun to foray into Blizzards
competitive FPS title, Overwatch, and thus has
signed this partnership with Cooler Master.
Cooler Master will be supporting MBTs
endeavours by way of sponsoring products
from its range of PC enclosures, power supplies,
and more.
Founder of MBT, Nurhezri Mohd Passin,
thanked Cooler Master Malaysia for the
support, saying: We would like to thank

Cooler Master Malaysia for quick and smooth

negotiations on the partnership with MBT by
providing support to our members. We also
deeply appreciate Cooler Master Malaysia for
making the Malaysian Battlefield Team (MBT)s
10th Anniversary Celebrations a successful
one. We look forward to this partnership
and are confident it will lead MBT to further
achievements with Cooler Master Malaysia.
www.cooler-master.com

chip malaysia

december 16

033

news

HARMAN
Launches Latest
JBL Headphones
The audio company is keen on bringing its full
range of products to Malaysia

ARMAN recently had a launch in

Malaysia to showcase its latest series
of sports and lifestyle headphones, as
well as to talk about key trends in audio needs.
Consumers these days expect no
compromise in value and design under
varying activity and lifestyle conditions. Were
extremely pleased to expand our range of
wireless models to be one of the industrys
most comprehensive family of sport and
lifestyle headphones, specifically designed to
amplify everyday experiences, said Megan of
HARMAN.
In response to the growing trend, JBL has
been designing headphones to cater to people
who need them. Its lineup of audio devices are
divided into the Lifestyle and Sport category.
For the Lifestyle models, JBL has the E,
T and Everest Series. The E Series features

trendy, colourful models that all come with

a mic, with some being Bluetooth enabled.
In addition, they can be paired to multiple
devices, allowing you to switch between them
effortlessly. Ergonomically comfortable, the E
Series models tend to use materials such as
fabric headbands or tangle-free flat cables.
Then theres T Series models, which dont have
much bells and whistles, but still offer that
great audio experience with JBLs Pure Bass
audio signature. Not much was mentioned
about the Everest Series, but for the curious
it is a series of premium Bluetooth audio
earphones and headphones. Whats special
about this series is that it can connect to other
Bluetooth headphones to share the audio
playback wirelessly.
The other category is catered to athletically
active people; the Endurance, Reflect and

SHARP Mobile
Appoints Local
Distributor

Two new Android smartphones to be introduced to

Malaysian market

ocal distributor, Commtiva Technology,

has announced its partnership with
SHARP to launch SHARP Mobile in
Malaysia. In effect, the company has become
the brands main distributor here. Along with
the announcement, Commtiva also introduced
two new midrange smartphones the SHARP
Z2 and M1.
At the launch, Commtivas Sales Director,
Mr. James Lowerence, gave a briefing on
the new partnership. Southeast Asia has
a large population with high percentage of
smartphone ownership. We discovered that

034

december 16

chip malaysia

there is a lot of diversity in user preference

among smartphone users in the region, but
interestingly, the needs of budget-conscious
users have yet to be fully met, he said.
These statements indeed have merit,
because the second quarter of this year
saw smartphone shipments to SEA total a
massive 28 million units. In particular, our
country has always had a high smartphone
penetration rate, with us ranking world
number 9. According to statistics, 34% of
Malaysians use their smartphones to play
games while 43% watch videos on their

Under Armour Series fall under this category.

At the launch, HARMAN highlighted its Reflect
Series more. HARMANs Megan mentioned the
Reflect Response and Reflect Contour, both
designed to be sweat-proof, button free, and
have incredibly long battery for extended audio
playback. iPhone 7 users would appreciate the
Reflect Aware wired headphone, which comes
with a lightning connector instead of the usual
audio jack. While gym goers can opt for the
Reflect Contour and be rest assured that it
wont slip off easily, thanks to its Dual Lock
technology.
Most of these headphones and earphones
are already available in Malaysia. They can be
purchased at Hot Gadgets website, estore.
hotgadgets.com.my, or from Lazada Malaysia.
estore.hotgadgets.com.my

phone.
SHARPs Z2 has the right hardware specs
to support these needs without being too
costly. Housing MediaTeks Helio X20 chip, the
5.5-inch device can deliver good performance
along with a long running battery life. Its TriCluster CPU architecture helps reduce power
consumption by 30% and with the large 3,000
mAh battery, users can play games and watch
videos on it longer.
For those with more modest needs and
a love for pictures, the SHARP M1 is a good
choice. It comes with a 13-megapixel front
camera for extra sharp pictures and can
capture more view with its wide-angle lens. In
addition, shots taken with its rear camera are
supported by a built-in illuminated sensor,
which allow for higher quality low-light shots.
Both devices are now available, with the
SHARP Z2 retailing at RM1,199 and the M1
at RM899. The former will have two colours,
which are Gold and Silver, while the latter will
be sold in Hanayome White and Pure Pink.
sharp.com.my

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COVER STORY

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security report

USBee Snoops On PCs

Wirelessly
The USBee software taps into normal USB devices in order to wirelessly transmit data
from infected devices

f a computer system is to be totally

secure, it should ideally feature no
network connection at all Neither
Ethernet, nor WLAN, nor Bluetooth. As soon

as network features are built in, malware

programmes can use them to steal data
or download new malware components.
Such specially-secured systems are also
known as air-gapped systems.
Overcoming this air barrier is an
enormous challenge, but three
PASSWORD
researchers from Israels Ben
Gurion University have found
an elegant new solution to this
problem: Their software swoops
Victims PC
down onto a standard USB
device connected to the infected
computer, in order to send data
using electromagnetic signals. The
PASSWO
RD
second computer only needs a
powerful aerial and the right tools
in order to be able to record and
analyse these radio signals. In the
lab, this method of attack which
Eavesdropping laptop
is called USBee can transfer
USBee can, for example, use the cable of a keyboard to transfer
up to 80 bytes per second.

access data to a prepared receiver antenna

The transmission path varies depending

upon the USB device that is being used: For
example, a normal stick can transfer data
over a range of about 2.70 metres On the
other hand, if the USB device has a cable
that can be used as an aerial, the range
increases to more than eight metres.
However, USBee probably isnt used on a
wide scale in practice. After all, the software
requires a computer that is not connected
to the network to be infected. As proven
by the Stuxnet case, this isnt impossible,
but it does involve an enormous amount of
effort. Instead, USBee demonstrates how
systems that are believed to be secure can
be compromised, and makes it clear that
such scenarios need to be considered if
the situation involves sensitive systems.
However, intelligence agencies and the
authorities will probably sit up and take
notice of USBee Unless theyre already
using such systems.

Data Theft Of The Month

DATA BREACH REPORTS SHOW
THAT MILLIONS OF RECORDS
WERE BREACHED AS OF
SEPTEMBER 2016
The latest Data Breach Reports by the
Identify Theft Resource Center (ITRC)
revealed that as of September 8, 2016,
around 29 million records were exposed
in 657 reported breaches. While the
total is 16 percent less than the number
of breaches recorded in 2015, personal
data remains a prime cybercriminal
underground commodity.

036

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chip malaysia

MUSIC SERVICE LAST.FM:

43 MILLION ACCOUNTS CRACKED

DROPBOX: EMERGENCE OF 68
MILLION SETS OF ACCOUNT DATA

Also in 2012, 43 million sets of encrypted

user information were stolen from the Last.
fm music portal. At the time, the service
asked its users to change their passwords.
It has now become clear that this was good
advice: All 43 million accounts have now
apparently been decrypted. The data is
currently streaming through the internet.

The DropBox synchronisation service met

with a similar fate: Thieves were able
to steal user data from the service in
2012 The stolen data included, among
other things, e-mail addresses and hashform passwords. About half of these
passwords are protected by an old hash
function, so criminals might potentially
be able to crack them.

security report

Mozilla: Scanner
Checks Websites
For Security
M

Attacks
On Virtual
Systems
R

ozilla recently released Observatory, which is a free service that examines

websites in order to find out whether the parties responsible for them
are using an optimal procedure to secure their sites. It finds out whether
security features are available, and how well they have been implemented. The tool
also provides assistance in case of problems.

esearchers have been able to use an attack

called Flip Feng Shui to compromise virtual
machines that are using the same host system
as the attacking VM. The attack makes use of the
so-called rowhammer method, which is a well-known
loophole affecting the DRAM memory management
system as well as the de-duplication functions of the
VM software. De-duplication serves to share memory
blocks containing the same data between VMs. It
basically manipulates a singe bit in the memory
management system. It then becomes possible to install
new commands, which are then executed on the target
system. The researchers demonstrated how an SSH key
could be stored in the system that was under attack. A
hacker could then use this key to log onto the system.
The loophole makes it possible to use a so-called virtual
web server to attack another virtual server that runs on
the same hardware. The de-duplication facility must be
deactivated in order to provide protection against this
new method of attack.

Schufa: New
Feature For
Identity Theft
I

n the future, Schufa will be able to find out whether somebodys identity has
been stolen. A new database is supposed to rule out further misuse. Towards
this end, the separate Schufa credit report shall be expanded to include the
identity theft victim feature. Those who fall victim to identity theft must first
report it to the police and then notify Schufa.

Users secure smartphones

Danger Barometer

According to the industry association Bitkom, almost all smartphone owners secure their devices against
unauthorised access. Most of them use either a number query or a password, while only a handful of them use
patterns and fingerprints

High risk

Percentage of protected smartphones

100 %
77,000 accounts are
being hacked every
month on Steam,
from there hackers
could gain personal
information and even
find ways to profit
from those accounts

Medium risk

92 %

95 %

80 %

Smartphone users who use

security mechanisms
Security mechanisms used
74 %

60 %
40 %

33 %

Low risk

23 %
20 %
0%
Private
users

Professional
users

Retrieval of
password/
numeric code

Pattern
retrieval

Fingerprint
scanner
SOURCE: BITKOM

Number of the Month:

68,000,000

68,000,000 sets of account data were

hacked from DropBox back in 2012

chip malaysia

december 16

037

security report

Kaspersky Labs threat

Predictions For 2017

Keep yourself updated with next years threat predictions so you can be prepared and
prevent from being a victim

he predictions are prepared annually by

the companys expert Global Research
and Analysis Team and are based on
its wide0ranging insight and expertise. The
list for 2017 includes the impact of bespoke
and disposable tools, the growing use of
misdirection in terms of attacker identity,
the fragility of an indiscriminately Internetconnected world, and the use of cyberattacks
as a weapon of information warfare.
Kaspersky also expects to see the
appearance of memory-resident malware that
has no interest in surviving beyond the first
reboot that will wipe the infection from the
machine memory. Such malware, intended for
general reconnaissance and the collection of
credentials, is likely to be deployed in highly
sensitive environments by stealthy attackers
keen to avoid arousing suspicion or discovery.
Other top threat predictions for 2017 also
include attribution, which will become a central
issue in determining a political course of action,
such as retaliation. The pursuit of attribution

could result in the risk of more criminals

dumping infrastructure or proprietary tools on
the open market, or opting for open-source
and commercial malware, not to mention the
widespread use of misdirection to muddy the
waters of attribution.
There is also an expected rise of information
warfare that has been quite rampant in 2016,
and there is a risk that attackers will try to
exploit peoples willingness to accept such data
as fact by manipulating or selectively disclosing
information. Kaspersky also expects to see
more espionage campaigns targeted primarily
at mobile, benefiting from the fact that the
security industry can struggle to gain full
access to mobile operating systems for forensic
analysis.
Then theres the commodification of attacks
along the lines of the 2016 SWIFT heists, with
specialised resources being offered for sale in
underground forums or through as-a-service
schemes. While payment systems become
increasingly popular and common, its expected

to see this matched by a greater criminal

interest. It is also anticipated that there will
be a continuing rise in ransomware, but
with the unlikely trust relationship between
the victim and their attacker, based on the
assumption that payment will result in the
return of damaged data due to the entry of less
experienced criminals.
While IoT-device manufacturers continue to
pump out unsecured devices that cause widescale problems, there is a risk that vigilante
hackers could take matters into their own
hands and disable as many devices as possible.
Finally, over the next year we will see the kind
of tracking and targeting tools increasingly used
in advertising being used to monitor alleged
activists and dissidents. Similarly, ad networks
which provide excellent target profiling through
a combination of IPs, browser fingerprinting,
browsing interest and login selectivity, will be
used by advanced cyber-espionage actors keen
to precisely hit targets while protecting their
latest toolkits.

Intel Securitys McAfee Most

Hackable Holiday Gifts
In a season of joy and cheer, we must not forget to protect ourselves and should
remember to protect those around us as well if giving the gifts stated

ntel Security has announced its secondannual McAfee Most Hackable Holiday
Gifts list to identify potential security risks
associated with hot-ticket items this holiday
season. The number 1 most hackable gift
category was without surprise laptops and
PCs, followed by smartphones and tablets,
media players and streaming sticks, smart
home automation and drones.
Laptops and PCs make great gifts, however
malicious apps targeting PCs are unfortunately
common, and are not just limited to
Windows-based devices. Survey results also
revealed that 64 percent of consumers plan

038

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chip malaysia

to purchase either a smartphone or tablet

this holiday season. Just like PCs and laptops,
malware could result in personal and financial
information being stolen.
While media players and streaming
sticks have changed the way consumers
enjoy movies and TV, but consumers can
unknowingly invite a cybercriminal into their
living room by failing to update their device.
Also todays connected home devices and apps
give users the power to control their homes
from their smartphone. Unfortunately, hackers
have demonstrated techniques that could be
used to compromise Bluetooth powered door

locks and other home automation devices.

Finally, drone sales are expected to grow as
they can provide unique perspectives when it
comes to shooting video and photos. However,
not properly securing the device could allow
hackers to disrupt the GPS signal, or hijack
your drone through its smartphone app. So
make sure to secure your device properly, only
use secure Wi-Fi access points, keep your
software updated, use a strong password or
PIN and check before you click any suspicious
links. If done right you can keep your holiday
gifts safe from hackers and unwanted
cybercriminals.

world wired web

Shop At The
Touch Of A
Button

The Amazon Dash button allows

you to quickly order the things that
you need on a daily basis, but
critics see cost traps

re you running out of cat food or toothpaste? Has the dishwasher tab been used up? If Amazon has its way, such everyday objects will eventually
be delivered to your doorstep at the touch of a button. In order to make this a reality, the company is now introducing its so-called Dash buttons
in Germany. These devices are about as large as a cigarette lighter, and they set up a connection with Amazon using a WLAN. All you have to do
is press a button, and the device orders a product that has already been tagged with the app. Amazon currently offers 32 different Dash buttons, but
this service can only be used by Prime customers. The Dash button has a one-time cost of 4.99 euros(RM23.41), but this expense is only charged when
the first order is placed. You can use the service to order articles of daily use such as detergents, condoms or coffee capsules. Although the scheme
does promise to make your life more comfortable, Verbraucherzentrale NRW (consumer advice centre North Rhine-Westphalia) is somewhat
sceptical about the whole thing: Legal considerations have led the organisation to take legal action against Amazon. These are the most important
points of criticism: The buttons do not indicate clearly that a fee-based order will be placed once you press the button. Now, an app is being used to
connect the button to the mobile phone, which sends a push notification as soon as the button is pressed. However, those who do not cancel the
transaction within 15 minutes are considered to have made a legally-binding purchase.
Furthermore, Amazon reserves the right to change both the price and the shipping costs without informing the customer. The customer is only
informed if the price is increased by more than ten percent. The consumer advocates are also unhappy about the fact that Amazon delivers substitute
items if the desired product cannot be delivered. The organisation believes that this particular clause is unlawful. Furthermore, it has noticed that
Amazon doesnt really take its delivery promise (You will receive your new product before the old one has been used up) that seriously. According to
the announcement that appeared in the app, a test product that was ordered in September was only delivered in the month of October.

Snapdragon
Wear-CPUs For
Smart Watches

ualcomm unveiled
the new
Snapdragon Wear
2100 chip at IFA 2016. This
chip makes it possible to
build leaner and cheaper
wearables, such as smart
watches or fitness
trackers that use the
Android OS. The 4-core
chip offers modules for all
the usual radio interfaces
(such as WiFi, Bluetooth
and LTE), and its
supposed to significantly
increase the battery
service life.

Crowdfunding
For A
Universal
Docking
Station

hanks to the udoq charging station, mobile devices of all

brands and ages can be
re-charged and used at
the same time. Useful: You can
use the online configurator to
expand the station; the device
already features ports for Apple
Lightning, Apple 30-pin, microUSB and USB-C. The project is
supposed to be financed
through a Kickstarter
crowdfunding campaign.

chip malaysia

december 16

039

world wired web

TV Market:
UHD On The
Rise

hat do people think about the digital

routine of the future? According to a study
conducted by Kaspersky Lab and Statista,
theyre somewhat sceptical about the whole thing.
People are particularly concerned about data
protection and cyber-security. For example, 63
percent of the respondents have major misgivings
about using digital devices to monitor health and
fitness. 39 percent of respondents wouldnt want to
use an autonomous car, while 45 percent are
opposed to the use of drones. A third of them wouldnt want to make digital payments at the checkout counter. On the other hand, the study indicates
that people (79 percent of the respondents) are quite enthusiastic about intelligent guidance systems for traffic (e.g. for construction site warnings). 61
percent of the respondents also took a positive view of the option of being able to cast votes digitally. However, 69 percent of the respondents
expressed a fear that the increasing amount of digitisation from smart refrigerators to connected cars and fitness trackers would intensify the
trend that looks like its going to lead to totally transparent citizens.

Digital
Sceptics

Android Is Clearly
Dominant

hat do Germans think about the

digital routine of the future?
According to a study conducted by
Kaspersky Lab and Statista, theyre somewhat
sceptical about the whole thing. The German
people are particularly concerned about data
protection and cyber-security. For example, 63
percent of the respondents have major
misgivings about using digital devices to
monitor health and fitness. 39 percent of
Germans wouldnt want to use an autonomous
car, while 45 percent are opposed to the use of
drones. A third of the German population
wouldnt want to make digital payments at the
checkout counter. On the other hand, the study
indicates that people (79 percent of the
respondents) are quite enthusiastic about
intelligent guidance systems for traffic (e.g. for
construction site warnings). 61 percent of the
respondents also took a positive view of the
option of being able to cast votes digitally.
However, 69 percent of the respondents
expressed a fear that the increasing amount of
digitisation from smart refrigerators to
connected cars and fitness trackers would
intensify the trend that looks like its going to
lead to totally transparent citizens.

040

december 16

chip malaysia

recent survey conducted by Bitkom Research indicates that almost 75 percent of all German
smartphone users use the Android operating system. According to the survey, Android is
installed on 72 percent of all smartphones. This is followed by the iOS operating system (just
14 percent), which can only be used by Apple devices. Rank 3 is occupied by Microsoft Windows
Phone, which is used by five percent of the respondents. With a share of one percent, Blackberry
barely has a role to play. Amazingly, eight percent of the participants didnt know which operating
systems their smartphones were using. Googles Android operating system has been around for
eight years, and has now reached version 7 (Nougat).

8%
Not specified
1%
Blackberry
5%
Microsoft
Windows Phone
14 %
Apple iOS

72 %
Android

world wired web

Headphones
For The iPhone
7 From Philips
And Onkyo

wners of the iPhone 7 who love music are going to have to

switch over: The lack of a jack connection for headphones
makes it necessary to obtain new hardware. For example, those
who arent enthusiastic about the workaround solution involving a
Lightning-on-jack adapter can go for an Onkyo Bluetooth model. Both
the OnEar H500BT (ca. 230 euros [RM1079]) and the InEar E700BT (ca.
150 euros[RM703]) support the AAC format which is used by Apple
in order to facilitate a bit rate of 256 KBit/s. The OnEar Philips Fidelio
M2L (ca. 170 euros[RM797]) has an integrated amplifier, and is an
alternative that features a Lightning connector.

Drones As A Mobile Phones

Supplant Cameras
Daily Risk

he number of drones in the sky is rising In fact,

companies like DHL and Amazon want to use
them to make deliveries. However, the number of
incidents that can lead to millions in damages is also
on the rise: Multiple near misses with airplanes have
been documented, along with incidents involving
damages caused by crashes. The Allianz insurance
company is now calling for mandatory registration for
drone pilots.

very new generation of smartphones features better cameras, which can now
compete with most compact cameras. Germany has more phone-using
photographers than digital-camera-using ones. According to a survey conducted
by Bitkom Research, 69 percent of people take pictures with their smartphones, while
65 percent use digital cameras. Almost half of this group (30 percent) prefers to use a
high-value system or reflex camera. The current average price provides evidence of the
trend of more expensive cameras: Despite sinking sales and turnover figures, the
average price increased from 322 euros(RM1557.57) in 2015 to 339 euros(RM1590.41)
in 2016.

What the Germans use to take pictures

he recently-released Trips app provides offline

access to practically everything related to the
domain of travel: This covers planning, booking,
weather-related tips for flights and a lot more. The
free app is available for Android as well as iOS.

69 %

35 %

15 %

15 %

SLR
camera

System
camera

Compact
camera

chip malaysia

SOURCE: BITKOM RESEARCH

New Travel
App
Google
Trips

Mobile
phone
camera

december 16

041

feature
Can you start by giving our
readers a background on
ViewSonic?
ViewSonic is not a new brand in the market, I
would describe it as a heritage brand, and
this year marks our 29th year in the market,
and even back during the days of CRT
monitors we believe that we were pioneers
for monitors. During the past 10 years in
Malaysia, ViewSonic has been quiet in terms
of marketing and brand awareness, but
ViewSonic is a US brand and has obtained a
strong brand positioning, and can usually be
found in the top ranks when it comes to
displays. It was this year that our Chairman
noticed that APAC is a very important market
for our brand, and the limitations that we
faced were the lack of a management team
and key members in the market.
So pursuing our ambitions to grow in the
APAC region, we were able to build a good
management team and start to make our
comeback in the market. But Malaysia isnt
the only country that we set-up a legal entity
to provide localisation and customer
services. We have also set-up offices in
Korea, Japan, Australia and most recently
Thailand and the Middle East.

Could you tell us a little about

yourself and your role in
ViewSonic?

Viewing
Through The
ViewSonic
Glass
Recently, ViewSonic opened a local office in Malaysia, so we
asked for the chance to interview Chaw Foo Hong, Country
Manager, ViewSonic International Malaysia to share the reason
behind this and also ViewSonics plans for Malaysia By Nixon Ng
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My name is Chaw Foo Hong, Im the Country

Manager for Malaysia and also Thailand. My
role is to set-up a local infrastructure for
both Malaysia and Thailand. An
infrastructure doesnt just consist of team
members but also being able to filter through
products to find suitable products for the
local market. It also takes user benefits into
consideration, as users nowadays arent able
to trust any kind of brand which doesnt have
proper customer services and support. You
could say that my role is to make sure that
local users are able to get the right services
and support that they deserve. To show how
important our customers are to us, we
provide 3 years on-site pickup services
where we ourselves come to the user to pick
up the display, so the user doesnt have to go
through the hassle of coming to our office.

feature
ViewSonic has been in the
market for years, but it wasnt
till this year that a local office
was set up. Can you share the
reasoning behind this?
To ensure our brand can be localised, and our
office was set-up for the commercial sector
because commercial users had no place to
seek for services, and contacting the APAC
office is inconvenient for the customer. So
with this new office we can ensure that
users will have an easier time getting
services and technical support, and this in
turn will give users a good impression on
ViewSonic as a brand that is capable of
providing good service and support.

Youve just unveiled a new

series of monitors. What can
you tell us about the market
trends in terms of PC monitors
this year, and what are you
expecting for next year?
The monitor market has been quite
saturated especially when it comes to

desktop monitors. But this also led to the

monitor market reaching a stable level.
According to trends, we are expecting to see
tablets making a comeback next year, since
we see more and more users on mobile
devices. Maybe a user has a tablet instead of
a desktop PC and wants a bigger display
when at home or work. We think we could
see users buying a second display for home
and at the office for their mobile devices. We
also see more users purchasing monitors for
specific uses in the coming year, less users
are now using just one single basic monitor
for all their needs, but have turned to getting
specialised ones. There is just so much
content now that are of high quality, so youll
require a good display to truly experience the
content.

Is there a particular series of

monitor that stands out in
ViewSonics portfolio?
Indeed we do. We cover a lot of segments
but this time around we would like to
associate IPS For Everyone as our campaign.

So we have monitors for everyone ranging

from gamers, photographers, and even for
multimedia purposes. But its hard for us to
say exactly which monitor stands out the
most, because each of them stands out in
their own category. For gamers the XG2703GS would definitely stand out more, while
the VP2468 would definitely stand out more
for graphic designers and photographers.
The VX76 series meanwhile would definitely
be the go to choice for those who just want a
good monitor for watching multimedia
content and gaming.

Could you tell us what sort of

direction or plans that
ViewSonic has for Malaysia?
As we claim that ViewSonic is a visual
display expert, we are currently building up
our infrastructure and our availability in the
market. Our first aim is to reach a 5 percent
market share in Malaysia by 2017 when it
comes to monitors. Our next step is to
squeeze ourselves into the top 3 brands in
Malaysia when it comes to our projectors.

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legaltech

Heating
Up the
FinTech
Party
Weve covered FinTech before, but the fledgling industry is starting to stretch is wings. We
delve in a little deeper as to what it means for us
By Edwin Lee Yong Cieh

nquestionably, FinTech has continued to take centre stage in

recent months. Not only that FinTech players are raising
millions of funding from investors, governments and
regulators around the world (including Malaysia) are also looking to
regulate and facilitate the growth of FinTech industry in their
respective countries through creation of FinTech frameworks. To this
end, it is recognised that some form of policy and regulatory
framework is necessary to be put in place so that FinTech
participants can operate in a safe, efficient and transparent manner,
as rightly pointed out by the Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia,
Datuk Muhammad bin Ibrahim.

platform that allows startups or other small-and-medium sized

enterprises to obtain funding through small equity investments from
relatively large number of investors, using online portals to publicise
and facilitate such offers to investors. Investors receive shares in
return for their investments and can expect a return in the form of
dividends if the company performs well.
According to the SC, from May 2016 until October 2016, the
combined amount SMEs have raised through the six regulated ECF
platforms amounted to RM8 million for 11 Malaysian businesses.
The platforms have also received widespread interest from across 38
different sectors.

Equitycrowdfunding (ECF)

Peer-to-Peer Lending (P2P Lending)

The first player to the FinTech party scene in Malaysia is ECF. In

February 2015, the Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC), a
statutory body in charge of the securities and derivatives markets in
Malaysia, released guidelines to facilitate ECF market. Six (6) ECF
platform operators (Alix Global, Ata Plus, Crowdonomic, Eureeca,
pitchIN and Propellar Crowd+) were approved by the SC to operate
ECF platforms. Malaysia is the first country in the ASEAN region to
have introduced an ECF regulatory framework.
The SC describes ECF platform as a new form of fundraising

In April 2016, the SC released another guidelines and this time, it

sought to regulate the even more lucrative P2P Lending market. The
first round of application was opened from 2 May 2016 to 2 July 2016
and the SC had received more than 50 applications from interested
applicants.
Six (6) P2P Lending platform operators (B2B FinPAL, Ethis Kapital,
FundedByMe Malaysia, ManagePay Services, Modalku Ventures and
Peoplender) were approved by the SC in early November 2016. These
platforms are expected to launch their operations in 2017. Malaysia

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legaltech

is once again the 1st country in the ASEAN region to have formally
authorised such platforms to operate in the P2P Lending market.
P2P financing, as described by the SC, is a web-based innovation
that broadens the ability of entrepreneurs and SME business owners
to unlock capital from a pool of individual investors in small amounts
and provides a quick turnaround time to obtain financing for their
businesses, through an online digital platform. Individuals, however,
are not allowed to seek personal financing via a P2P Lending
platform.
Investors may now use P2P Lending platforms to buy securities
in the form of an investment note or Islamic investment note, which
are issued by businesses or companies. Once purchased, the issuer
of the investment note or Islamic investment note will be obliged to
pay the investors over a period of time, with interest or profits. Both
borrowers and lenders benefit from better interest rates and returns
on investment, respectively, compared to traditional financing
methods. In addition, there are no intermediation parties as money
change hands directly.

Bank Negara Malaysias FinTech Regulatory

Sandbox
Following a public consultation exercise in July-September 2016,
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) released the Financial Technology
Regulatory Framework on 18 October 2016. The framework seeks to
provide a regulatory environment that is conducive for the
deployment of FinTeech in the form of a FinTech sandbox. With this
framework, FinTech product, service or innovation can be deployed
and tested in a live environment within certain testing parameters
and timeframes.
In order for a participant to participate in the sandbox, the
participant must show the following:
(a) its product, service or innovation is genuinely innovative;
(b) it has conducted an adequate and appropriate assessment to
demonstrate the usefulness and functionality of the product, service
or innovation and identified the associated risks;
(c) it has the necessary resources to support testing in the sandbox;
(d) it has a realistic business plan to deploy the product, service or
innovation on a commercial scale in Malaysia after exit from the
sandbox; and
(e) it is led and managed by persons with credibility and integrity.
Additionally, in determining an application to participate in the
sandbox and the extent of regulatory flexibilities to be granted to the
participants, BNM has indicated that they would take into account
various factors which include, but not limited to the following:
(a) the potential benefits of the proposed product, service or
innovation;
(b) the potential risks and mitigating measures; and
(c) the integrity, capability and track record of the participants.
The test will run for a period not exceeding 12 months.
Participants may extend the testing period by submitting a written
application to BNM no later than 30 days before the expiry of the
testing period.
At the end of the testing period, BNM will work with the

participants to develop a transition plan for the deployment of the

solution on a commercial scale in Malaysia upon successful testing.
On the other hand, if the test fails or is discontinued, BNM will then
consult the participants and develop an exit strategy for them.

Beefing Up Cyber Resillence in Capital Market

Industry
While the SC is advocating the benefits of digital finance, the SC is
also mindful of the new forms of risks and challenges posed by
technology. To address this, the SC published a new Guidelines on
Management of Cyber Risk on 31 October 2016 to raise awareness of
industry-wide cyber resillence. The objective of the new guidelines is
to enhance governance measures and counter cyber risk so as to
protect investors within the capital market.
Against a backdrop of increased dependency on information
technology and Internet connectivity in capital market activities,
operations of market intermediaries, market infrastructure and
market-based financing platforms, there is a need to put in place
cyber security policies and procedures to safeguard and protect the
confidentiality, integrity and availability of information systems used
by capital market participants. Sound and vigilant management of
cyber security risk has been identified as a critical component to
further strengthen the resilience of the Malaysian capital markets.
The guidelines stipulate the following requirements:
(a) roles and responsibilities of the board of directors and
management in the oversight and management of cyber risk;
(b) cyber risk policies and procedures that should be developed and
implemented by capital market entities;
(c) requirements for managing cyber risk; and
(d) reporting requirements to the SC.
The guidelines will be implemented in phases. Entities will be
selected for the different phases based on, among others, size,
nature of activities and market share. With these guidelines, it is
hoped that this will minimise disruption to the capital market,
protect investors confidential data and preserve market confidence.

More to come 2017

The SC intends to introduce a Digital Investment Services framework
in 2017, which will enable approved licensees to offer automated
discretionary portfolio management which is a more cost-effective,
accessible and convenient channel for investors to manage and grow
their wealth. The aim is to achieve four key objectives, namely to
enhance access to financing, increase investor participation,
augment the institutional market and develop a synergistic
ecosystem.
With all these initiatives introduced by both SC and BNM, it will
definitely heat up the FinTech party in Malaysia!

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.

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feature

Technilexicon:
4K HDR
The UHD resolution delivers beautiful sharp pictures but only
HDR makes 4K movies and series into real eye-catchers. But
the manufacturers are still struggling with the standard specifications

DR or High Dynamic Range is

currently the talk of the town and
more and more providers like Netflix
and Amazon are transmitting their content
in UHD resolution with HDR option. On a
good TV set, HDR renders living colours and
an enormous contrast. Correctly
implemented HDR has a Wow-effect. The
element that makes jaws drop in exhibitions
and showrooms is proving itself to be a
difficult mission in your own living room:
Contents, standards and technology are still
in their infancy.

Amazon and Netflix as

forerunners
Netflix produces all of its own content only
in UHD resolution and puts them on the net
as such but not always in HDR. If you have a
HDR-compatible TV and web access of a
minimum of 25 MB/s, then you can view the
series Marco Polo and ChefsTable and
the movies The Do-Over and The
Ridiculous Six with HDR option. Other
productions like A Series of Unfortunate
Events, Bloodline or Hibana are also
available. An overview of the HDR contents
is presented by Netflix only via the
cumbersome keyword search for HDR
The provider has not set up a separate
category.
Even Amazon does not have a separate HDR
category. The search for HDR gives the
in-house production Mozart in the Jungle.
But it is not the only HDR content: Amazon
currently transmits around 20 series and
movies with HDR option but only viewers
who have HDR-capable TVs can view it the
Amazon video app on TV. Apart from the

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TV Displays Are Not Good

Enough

Regardless of UHD Blu Ray player, Sky

receiver or the new gaming consoles XBOX
One S and PS4 Pro: For the transmission of
HDR, an HDMI 2.0a jack is necessary in both
the players and TV. This jack supports the
copyright protection HDCP 2.2. The latest
UHD TV devices, often, have one or two
compatible HDMI jacks for this purpose.
in-house productions like Bosch, xRed
While the offer for HDR-capable players is
Oak, and Transparent, Amazon also offers
slowly increasing, the HDR support in TVs is
movies like Chappie, Elysium or Z in
still a problem. There are indeed some
High Dynamic Range. Also certain
models from Sony (4K HDR), Samsung
documentaries on YouTube are available as
(SUHD) or LG (Super UHD),
HDR. But the 4K
which bear one of the many
category, at present, is
HDR logos but that alone
seen only in the TV app.
does not say anything about
YouTube will provide a
the HDR quality. As per the
separate app with UHD/
specifications of the UHD
HDR contents for the
can be seen on HDR TVs. But the
Allianz, TV displays for the
PS4-Pro-console.
technology is still in its infancy
HDR playback should have a
Among the TV
black level of maximum
channels, only Arte and
0.005 cd/m2 and attain a
Sky confess to UHD and
maximum illumination of 1000 cd/m2. Good
HDR. When Sky brings out its UHD receiver
LCD devices, at present, attain only half the
Sky+ Pro in Autumn, the HDR transmission
luminosity. Therefore, the manufacturers
will also begin initial for football
experiment with new background
transmissions. The qualitatively best source
illuminations. Sony uses two LED- Modules
for HDR content are Ultra-HD Blu-rays as cv
in its in-house Slim Backlight Drive in order
you do not need to compromise much in
to overcome HDR illumination peaks. OLED
case of compression and bandwidth. In
devices have a strong black level but never
these parts, around 70 UHD Blu-rays are
attain the necessary illumination value.
available which also include The Martian
Therefore, the UHD Alliance permits an
and The Revenant.
exception here it is good for the
Format War For HDR Standards
manufacturers but does not consider the
While the HDR content spreads slowly but
HDR experience of the buyer.
steadily, a format war is raging behind the
The manufacturers of contents and devices
backdrop: With HDR10 and Dolby Vision,
do not agree regarding the colours: UHD
there are two standards pushing through in
Blu-rays cover a very large colour spectrum
the HDR market. HDR10 is used by UHD
with BT.2020. This spectrum is not achieved
Blu-rays and Amazon. It provides a colour
by any TV display. TVs get the HDR Premium
depth of ten Bits which allows 1024
logo when they achieve 90 percent of the
gradations. Dolby Vision (Netflix),
less restrictive theatre standards DCI-P3.
theoretically, comes up to 12 Bit and allows
Tests show that mainly Samsung, currently
a dynamic HDR calculation per scene, while
with its SUHD models, is impressive by
HDR10 transfers this metadata only once for
creating the HDR experience and
the entire movie. Technically and
astonishing viewers.

More colours
than in the
theatre

Photos: Sony (TV, HDR-Vergleichfotos); Sky (Receiver); Netflix/Saeed Adyani (Szenenbild)

By Robert Di marcoberardino

qualitatively, Dolby Vision is slightly ahead.

But since the user can hardly foresee which
standard will prevail, players and TVs both
should support these two standards, which
cannot be easily identified during purchase.
The correct format is also not the only
prerequisite for the playback of HDR.

Rich contrasts, real colours

According to the UHD Alliance, Premium certified TV units, the display test
DCI-P3 must display a maximum brightness of around 1000 cd/m2 and 90%
of the extended colours. Only in this manner can there be a contrast-rich HDR
effect. These specifications are not easy to implement.

More Light

Reflection
Layers

Reflection
Layers

In order to display the

brightness peaks in HDR
scenes, LCD TVs need
intelligent illumination in
the background. 1 Pure
Edge LED systems with
normal LED modules are
not enough. 2 Thus, Sony
uses a second LED module
for its Slim Backlight Drive.
This module can be engaged
if needed.

LEDModule
LEDModule

More colours

The two HDR Standards in comparison

UHD Blu-Rays
represent a colour
spectrum as per
BT.2020 (BT.709 =
Full HD). 90% of
the coverage of
the DCI-P3
theatre colour
spectrum is
sufficient for the
HDR Premium
logo as the
displays cannot
achieve more at
present.

HDR10 and Dolby Vision compete for market dominance. HDR10 is open and
upgradable, Dolby is in the forefront in terms of quality for the same
HDR10
Open

Proprietary

Colour Depth:

10 Bit

Up to 12 Bit

Static (per title)

Dynamic (Scene for scene)

Yes

No (SoC in Hardware)

Metadata:
Upgradeability:
TV Brand:
Media:

LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony

LG, Vizio

Ultra HD Blu-ray, Netflix, Amazon

Netflix, VUDU

HDR Contents
1 YouTubes TV app offers its
own 4K category. 2 In Netflix,

you can search for HDR for the

suitable contents only.

The upcoming Sky+ Pro Receiver rings in the UHD and HDR era for PayTV providers First comes HDR for self-produced football transmissions

Dolby Vision

Standard:

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10 Ways To Stay Safe

Against Ransomware
And Other Advanced
Threats
Protect your devices from hackers with these tips By Thiban Darmalingam, Barracuda Networks, Malaysia

t this very moment, someone is

clicking a link in a spam email or
triggering macros in a malicious
document.
In less than five seconds, all their data
will be encrypted and unless they pay the
ransom demanded, or all it takes is a few
seconds for the hacker to delete all their
data.
Unless of course they have a backup.
Unfortunately most people dont.
Ransomware is a multi-million dollar
crime operation that attacks anyone and
everyone; they encrypt data on the victims
computer and demand a large sum of
money to unlock it. According to security
experts, once encrypted, this
data may never be recovered.
Individuals, small businesses,
right up to global corporations
are now target of ransomware,
phishing, and advanced
persistent threats. A successful
attack can be terribly costly, and
not just financially. Brand
reputations, and profession
reputations can be damaged
beyond repair.
But there is a lot you can do
to reduce the risk. Here are our
top 10 tips for preventing
ransomware, phishing and APT
attacks:

Understand the targets

Any organisation that cant

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afford to lose access to critical data ought

to be worried about ransomware. Having
said this, the common misconception is
that small and medium businesses (SMBs)
are not attractive attack targets. However,
research suggests the opposite.
Everyone is a target, no company or
bank account is exempted.

Secure all internet threat

vectors
Modern, advance attacks exploits multiple
attacks vectors including user behaviour,
application and system. The six most
common attacks vectors are email, web
application, remote users, on-site user, the

network perimeter, and remote access. A

comprehensive security posture should
extend across these vectors. A firewall is
not enough.

Secure all attacks surfaces

The clear business benefits of migrating of
virtual and cloud environment means that
hybrid networks are increasingly the norm.
Effectively securing the cloud or SaaSbased application like Office 365 requires a
comprehensive solution designed to
centrally manage hybrid networks

Educate your users

It is crucial to educate the workforce so that

feature
coming your way. To stop
them, you need advanced
dynamic protection with
sandbox analysis and
access to up-to-the-minute
global threat intelligence.

Use a good backup

solution
A simple, reliable backup
system lets you recover
from many attacks within
minutes or hours, at very
low cost. When data is
corrupted, encrypted, or
stolen by malware, simply
restore from backup and
get back to business.

the organisation does not end up losing

huge sum of money. They need to be able to
spot and identify phishing threats. Good
security is a combination of enforcement,
monitoring and user education especially
against threats like phishing, spear phishing,
typo-squatting and social engineering.

Dont forget your remote

workforce
The mobile revolution drives productivity,
collaboration and innovation, but it means
much more of your workforce is outside the
network perimeter often connecting via

personal devices. This creates a huge

potential gap in your security if not properly
protected.

Keep your systems updated

Old versions of popular software are like an
open invitation to attackers. Always make
sure youve installed the latest, on all
devices. Vendors continuously issue patches
and updates whenever vulnerability is
discovered in platforms, operating system
and applications

Detect latent threats

Just say no to suspicious
link and emails!
Hackers often use current
news as click bait for
phishing attacks. Email
inboxes are full of malicious
attachments and links
just waiting to be clicked
on. Similarly, all
applicationswhether
locally hosted or cloudbasedmust be
regularly scanned and
patched for
vulnerabilities.

Keep management
simple
As both networks and threat landscapes
grow more complex, its easy to let security
managements become a major burden on IT
staff. And with complex, disjointed
management come more oversight that
causes security gaps. Minimize both risk and
cost with a simple, comprehensive solution
that provides single-pane-of-glass security
administration and visibility across your
entire infrastructure.
While these tips maybe more challenging
to implement than others, it is essential that
you educate and train all your users to
practice safe computing. Getting your users
to practice safe computing maybe the most
difficult, but it will also bring you the
greatest benefits.

Prevent new
attacks
With todays evolving
threat landscape,
sophisticated, targeted,
zero-day attacks are

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feature

Humans And Co-Bots: A

Recipe For Safety And
Success
What are co-bots, and how can they help manufacuring businesses not only be more efficient,
whilst helping people become better employees? By Shermine Gotfredsen, General Manager, APAC, Universal Robots

Humans and co-bots: A recipe

for safety and success
Technology has revolutionized
manufacturing and production over
centuries and decades. From the first stone
axe to the latest, state of the art assembly
line robots, machines have become an
integral part of the manufacturing
ecosystem, helping humans improve
efficiency and productivity since the stone
age. With the help of machines, humans
have been able to innovate, and work faster
and smarter, focusing on tasks that require
more brain than brawn. This has benefited
businesses and employment numbers
across the globe. In fact, recent research
has revealed that over the past five years,
robotics created an estimated 1.5 million
jobs, and is expected to create up to a

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further two million by 2020 .

With the manufacturing industry in
Southeast Asia still growing and evolving , a
group of small and compact robots, with
flexible arms and the ability to work
alongside people in tight spaces, are setting
themselves apart from traditional, bulky
industrial robots. Collaborative robots, or
co-bots, in short, are the latest evolution in
the realm of industrial robotics, and fast
emerging as a new and powerful industrial
tool. The term encapsulates the notion that
robots and humans working together can
deliver the best of both worlds: the speed
and repeatability of robotic assembly, with
the adaptability and intelligence of trained
humans.
While traditional industrial robots were
typically seen as gargantuan, stationary

objects, that weighed in excess of a ton, and

only affordable if you were a relatively large
business, industrial robots have now
evolved. Co-bots are affordable, generic,
programmable devices that can be taught
to perform a myriad of processes, from
being a fly swatter, to assisting in the Ice
Bucket Challenge, all while working
alongside humans.
Although todays intelligent robots are
capable of performing repetitive tasks, with
pinpoint precision and unfailing
consistency, the success of co-bots in the
workplace is still critically dependent upon
human safety.

feature

Safety: The top priority

While robots have evolved, manufacturing
still contains many basic ergonomically
hazardous tasks such as welding, grinding,
and the lifting of heavy objects. These tasks
place employees at risk of industrial
accidents and injuries. In addition, fatigue is
a real concern, as workers have to be
constantly vigilant to prevent carelessness,
which contributes to a fair amount of
workplace accidents.
Furthermore, manufacturers in Southeast
Asia are increasingly pressured to maximise
the usage of factory space to meet rising
customer demands, especially as the cost of
real estate in the region continues to rise.
Many employees have, therefore, had their
work spaces shrunk, which in turn, can lead
to unexpected accidents in tight spaces.
Enter the use of industrial robots as a
solution to this challenge. With these
considerations, and as industrial robots have

risen to
prominence, the
International
Organisation for
Standardisation
(ISO) established
the ISO 10218
Safety
Requirements
for Industrial
Robots standard
as a set of
requirements
and guidelines
for the inherent
safe design and
protective measures for the use of industrial
robots.
However, with the introduction of cobots, a new technical specification, ISO/TS
15066, was announced early this year that
guides manufacturers on the
implementation of co-bots, and how they
can operate safely with humans. For
example, Universal Robots (UR) robots stop
instantly when it comes in contact with an
unexpected object. As the safety system of
UR robots is approved and certified by TV
(The German Technical Inspection
Association), businesses are not required to
make investments to install and maintain
safety guarding and devices in most of the
scenarios (subject to risk assessments).
As manufacturing companies increasingly
emphasise workplace safety, co-bots
present a viable option in raising safety
standards in production lines. In deploying
safety compliant co-bots, workers are

assured that they will not end up

undertaking dangerous jobs, but instead
focus on safer, varied and engaging tasks.

Collaboration: A win-win
situation
Co-bots can make the working environment
a safer place to operate in, which is
particularly important in the manufacturing
industry. They are built to take on jobs that
are unsafe for humans, such as lifting heavy
loads, or in hazardous conditions and are
able to perform these strenuous tasks with
consistency and precision.
In addition, co-bots can also be used in
more repetitive, straightforward tasks, such
as packaging or gluing, leaving the human
brain to take on more stimulating
challenges. They can be placed right next to
human operators with no safety guarding,
after the relevant risk assessments. For
example, robots can be programmed to lift
heavy components, while human workers
can be assigned to oversee value-added
tasks such as quality control or production
planning.
With the growing trend of millennials
looking for intellectual challenges,
businesses can now place more emphasis
on skills upgrading. The advancement of
technology has led to the need for
specialists to operate machines. Companies
can now look to enhance the skillset of the
existing workers so they are able to operate
the machines, which in turn lowers the total
cost of operation, while still maintaining
control over their own manufacturing
processes.
Ultimately, the aim of automating
production lines is for robots to complement
their human counterparts and to function
as a tool to complete tasks in a simpler and
safer way.
As the manufacturing sector in Southeast
Asia continues on the rise2, manufacturers
should look towards automation as a
smooth and tailored process to meet the
demands of the industry. Pairing workers
with advanced technology, such as co-bots,
can enhance business operations and
facilitate smoother workflow in day-to-day
operations. All this leads to a better work
environment for humans, while enabling
businesses to gain an edge in todays
competitive world. A win-win scenario for
the industry as a whole.

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feature
E-Health

5G The New
All-Round
Network

Doctors can conduct operations

in networked hospitals without
leaving their homes Thanks
to telemedicine

The industrial sector is promising thriving digital

landscapes for fifth-generation mobile phone networks.
However, critics are warning that the price of the
promised revolution is too high
By Benjamin Hartlmaier

Autonomous
driving

ichael Lemke is an old hand in his

field. The PhD-holding physicist has
been working in the
telecommunications sector for more than 24
years. In just a quarter of a century, he has
seen a few mobile communication standards
come and go. He is now predicting a genuine
revolution for fifth-generation mobile phone
networks (5G).

Brave New 5G-world

The internet as we know it today will
disappear Because its always there,
predicts Mr Lemke, who is currently working

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for Huawei as a senior technology expert. And

in a wireless form, to boot, he adds. Mr Lemke
isnt the only one whos predicting big things.
The announcements made by the entire
telecommunications sector with regard to 5G
sound downright utopian: Mobile data rates
that would be ten to a hundred times higher
than today, latency periods of one millisecond
that would not even be noticed by human
beings, and mobile data volumes that would
exceed the current standard by a factor of a
thousand. Furthermore, all of this would
involve up to a hundred times more devices
per radio cell. From a technological point of

view, problems such as disconnection,

overloaded radio cells and volume restrictions
for mobile communication tariff plans would
be solved in one fell swoop. Imagine a
situation where you would always be able to
receive a signal even at the edge of the radio
cells because the network would follow you
around, explains Mr Lemke.
And the best thing about this technological
utopia is that it should become a reality with
the rollout of 5G in the year 2020 Thats less
than four years from now. In addition to the
high data transfer rates and gapless
availability, Mr Lemke considers the new

Lead story: Shutterstock/Sentavio (autonomous driving, industry 4.0,

smart energy), aurielaki (e-health), Antikwar (man with VR), Andrew
Rybalko (entertainment)

Self-driving cars
constantly monitor the
road and communicate
with other cars

feature
Industry 4.0
Thanks to optimal machine-to-machine
communications, robots will outnumber
humans in smart factories

Smart-Energy
Networked power plants
and electrical power lines
are permanently
connected to smart home
sensors

Media &
entertainment
Thanks to the tactile
internet and VR goggles,
people will be able to
experience the virtual
space more intensely than
today

networking options associated with 5G to be

an enormous leap: Everything that can be
connected will be connected, says the mobile
communications expert. 5G is supposed to
become the basis for the Internet of Things,
self-driving cars and the smart production
facilities industry 4.0. Whats more, providers
like Vodafone, Telefnica and Deutsche
Telekom and network equipment providers like
Huawei and Ericsson definitely dont want to
stop with streets and factories: Hospitals,
football stadiums, electrical power lines, ports
and entire cities are to be made smart in the
future.

However, the 5G vision currently exists

primarily in marketing catchphrases like
connected society (Ericssons term for the
totally-connected society of the future) and
gigabit society. In fact, the EUs digital
commissioner Gnther Oettinger even spoke
of a gigabyte society at this years IFA event.

From Gigabit To Gigabyte

However, the technical base for gigabit and
gigabyte societies has not yet been created.
On the contrary: Negotiations for the
standardisation of the wireless high-speed
communications of the future have just begun.

In order to achieve their target on schedule,

network equipment and internet providers are
working flat out behind the scenes on
developing key 5G technologies. In Germany,
the core focal point of this research is the
Dresden University of Technology, where 5G
Lab Germany is located: An inter-disciplinary
team consisting of 22 professors and about
600 employees is working on the network of
the future, and its being supported by titans of
industry such as Vodafone, Nokia, Ericsson and
Bosch.
Deutsche Telekom is right at the head of
the endeavour. In order to promote the
development of 5G, it has been financing its
own working group at the Dresden University
of Technology since January 2016: The group is
called the Deutsche Telekom chair for
communications networks. Professor Frank
Fitzek the chairholder is also the
coordinator of the host of scientists at the 5G
Lab.

The Tactile Internet

One of the focal points of the research being
done at the 5G Lab is the tactile internet. It
relies above all else on the extremely low
latency periods of 5G. This work is supposed to
make it possible for people to use VR goggles
and electro-mechanical gloves to interact in
real time with physical objects or human
beings that are hundreds of kilometres away
from them. This principle could potentially be
used in the field of telemedicine: In case of
complicated medical operations that can only
be conducted by a handful of specialists,
neither the surgeon nor the patient would
have to go to another location. The doctor
would simply use VR goggles and gloves to
perform the operation over the internet.
Huawei is also conducting research on
telemedicine and other 5G applications.
Although the Chinese network equipment
provider is not involved with the 5G Lab in
Dresden, it has set up its own test
environment in Munich. In collaboration with
the Bavarian government, the city of Munich,
the Technical University of Munich and M-net
(the local provider), Huawei is planning to
invest a total of 600 million euros in the socalled 5G Vertical Industry Accelerator (5G VIA)
up to the year 2018. The plan also includes
investment in a collaborative endeavour
involving the Munich Clinic, which is on the
right side of the Isar river.
However, nobody really knows what kind of

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feature
research is being done in the Bavarian capital.
When contacted, Huawei stated that details of
the activities being carried out in the test
environment cannot be released to the public
at this time. However, a press release that
was issued in February 2015 does make it
possible to guess how the investments are
supposed to pay off in the end. According to
the press release, the test environment makes
it possible to test the developed algorithms
[...] in a real environment, and under specific
scenarios, for the vertical markets of the digital
society extending beyond the year 2020.

What Are The Providers Planning?

Real-time feedback and extremely high bandwidth: These are the characteristics of the 5G network that form
the basis for the tactile internet. With the help of VR goggles and sensor gloves, research is being done on a
touchable internet in Dresden

network infrastructure to special requirements

(such as high bandwidth or low latency
periods). The prospect of being able to obtain
money from providers such as Netflix as well
as end users would translate to a profitable
deal for network operators.
However, the branch is facing a problem:
Such business models would violate the EUs
current net neutrality regulations. This
explains why the telecommunications industry
published a special lobby paper titled 5G
Manifesto before the BEREC (Body of
European Regulators for Electronic
Communications) revealed the exact
interpretation of the net neutrality regulations.
This document was more or less blatant in
its attempt to put pressure on the regulators
to refrain from being excessively strict with the

Your new
colleagues?
According to
the network
manufacturer
Ericsson, 5G
could one day
make this a
reality

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net neutrality regulations. This is what the 5G

Manifesto says: The telecom industry warns
that the current Net Neutrality guidelines
create significant uncertainties around 5G
return on investment. Investments [in 5G] are
therefore likely to be delayed unless regulators
take a positive stance on innovation and stick
to it.
If the plans of the telecommunications
sector pan out, net neutrality activists like
Thomas Lohninger would consider it to be
anything but a brilliant vision of the future:
This would surpass even the scariest notions
of the proponents of net neutrality, and using
the internet would be akin to using PayTV
services.

Preserving Net Neutrality

However, things definitely arent being made
easy for the telecommunications sector. At the
end of August, BEREC indicated that national
regulatory authorities like the Federal Network
Agency should check special services very
carefully for net neutrality violations. In
particular, services that are also being provided
within the framework of the normal internet
may not be classified as special services at a
later stage.
When it comes to telephone
communications, BEREC believes that the
Voice over LTE service is an example of a
permissible special service. On the other hand,
Skype cannot be considered to be a special
service. Similar requirements apply to the

Fotos v. li.: Ericsson; TU Dresden/5G Lab; Huawei; Ericsson

The term vertical markets reveals how

network equipment and internet providers
want to reclaim their investments from the
year 2020 onwards: They plan to do this using
new business sectors that are closely
associated with the 5G network structure socalled special services. In this regard,
algorithms such as the ones that Huawei is
currently testing in Munich are of critical
importance. In a procedure that the experts
call network slicing, they are supposed to
eventually divide the 5G network into various
virtual sub-networks These sub-networks
could also be marketed individually.
According to this calculation, when the
mobile network becomes available everywhere
in an unlimited manner, it would lead to the
rise of business models in which customers
wouldnt just be paying for open access to the
internet. They would also be asked to pay for
special services such as smart home
applications, virtual reality conferences or
autonomous driving. Network operators could
also get money from content providers and
internet start-ups whose products subject the

feature
video streaming as well: Providers can classify
linear IPTV which, like cable television, is
transmitted in the form of a broadcast as a
special service, but video-on-demand services
like Netflix and YouTube cannot be declared to
be special services. This means that network
operators will not be allowed to ask for lumpsum payments just because a particular
service is associated with high requirements.
Unsurprisingly, the providers have been
somewhat reserved in their reaction to this
decision. Telekom, a German
telecommunications company said that a strict
interpretation of net neutrality would
jeopardise innovative business models,
especially with regard to industrial
applications. According to the company, it was
now waiting for the results of the case-bycase reviews being conducted by national
regulators. Telefnica (the parent company of
O2) expressed a similar opinion, while
Vodafone did not want to comment on
BERECs decision.

How 5G is squeezing out todays standards

On the road to 5G, LTE will initially occupy other radio standards.
Eventually, both LTE and WLAN will merge into 5G. However, LTE is
going to be targeted in the initial phase
Frequency domain:

2 GHz

5 GHz

ab 24 GHz

Today

UMTS

WLAN

Research

LTE

WLAN + LTE

New 5G radio standard

By 2020

Although 5G
transmitters like
this Ericsson
prototype have a
high bandwidth,
their range is very
limited. Possible
application:
Street lamps

UMTS and WLAN Under Pressure

Even though it may look like 5G is not going to
of 300 MBit/s. The consequence of this
lead to wholesale violations of net neutrality, a
business game: Smartphones which do not
certain amount of adversity is on the horizon
support LTE, would be largely useless when
in other places. After all, the first junction on
youre on the move.
the road leading to 5G involves an expansion
The situation of the future of WLAN isnt
of the LTE standard And popular mobile
quite as dramatic. Since the 5-GHz band is in
communication techniques could
the public domain, every
turn out to be the casualties.
operator can use it without
5G developers are focusing on
a licence This rules out
the frequency domains in the
the total deactivation of
region of 2 GHz and 5 GHz, which
WLAN on principle.
are currently being used by UMTS
However, this frequency
and WLAN. These two frequency
range which is currently
bands are necessary in order to
relatively free of
guarantee long ranges for the
disruptions may become
network of the future. At the
a little cramped in the
same time, additional frequencies
future. Mobile service
are to be used to lead the LTE
providers such as Telekom
bandwidth to the 5G level in a
are currently working on
stepwise manner, without
introducing LAA-LTE
rebuilding the entire
(Licensed-Assisted Access
infrastructure.
LTE), which, like modern
Michael Lemke, Huawei
Does this mean that UMTS is
WLAN routers, transmits
on its way out? Vodafone is
on the 5-GHz frequency
predicts a mobile
communications
already toying with the idea of
band.
revolution
deactivating it. According to
According to media
confidential documents referred
reports, Johannes Nill
to by teltarif.de, the provider is considering the
stated at the CeBIT 2016 that the introduction
option of operating LTE on the 2-GHz band
of LAA-LTE might lead to a situation in which
instead of UMTS. According to Vodafone, this
undisrupted operations of 5-GHz WLAN
would facilitate an additional download speed
routers could no longer be guaranteed. When

"The 5G
network will
follow you
around

contacted by CHIP, AVM said that this worry

was based on the fact that there have not yet
been any practical tests that indicate that
LAA-LTE would not impede WLAN
connectivity.
However, the new 5G radio technology that
is currently being researched could turn out to
be a much bigger threat to AVMs business
model. These 5G transmitters transmit on very
high and as-yet-unused frequencies.
Therefore, even though they would have a high
bandwidth, their range would be very limited.
When it comes to 5G, just about every street
lamp would have to receive a transmitter, and
these radio masts would then be connected to
the backbone using fibre optics. The fibre
optics would then reach the pavement, and be
used by households as well. And if wireless
devices could eventually be connected to the
street lamps in front of houses, who would
need WLAN routers manufactured by
companies like AVM?

Will The Internet Disappear?

Without or without net neutrality violations,
and with or without the endangerment of
UMTS and WLAN, one thing is crystal clear: 5G
is coming, whether we like it or not. And to use
the words of Huaweis Mr Lemke, the internet
as we know it today will then disappear
altogether.

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The road to mandatory networking: Those who willingly give

away their data receive bonuses from companies However,
they may come to rue the day they freely give away their
personal information
By Felix Knoke

ontroversial, alarming and highly

dangerous Never before have
privacy groups and consumer
advocates been so explicit in their warnings
before the launch of a new bonus programme.
However, the Generali Group rolled out its
Vitality programme on 1 July 2016: Those who
willingly provide the company with
information about their lives, shop at partner
pharmacies and markets, disclose data from

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their fitness trackers and fill out

questionnaires dealing with psychological and
physical health receive department store
discounts and insurance deductions They
can receive deductions of up to 16 percent and
eleven percent on occupational disablement
insurance and term life insurance,
respectively. The whole thing works like a
daily hunt for points, and thus resembles a
combination of Pokmon Go and a bonus mile

The Price Of Uncertainty

Indeed, no points will be awarded at all for
reading the 44-page data protection
regulations. With these provisions, you will
basically be allowing the company to use the
fitness and health data Even for the
purposes of advertising. Whats unclear is
what exactly is going to happen to the data.
Nobody really knows who is going to receive it,
and how it is going to be used on behalf of or
against the interests of the policyholder. For
Sabine Petri, who is a data protection expert
and a lawyer working for the NRW consumer
protection centre, this uncertainty is enough
by itself to provide grounds for scepticism:
How will the health data be interpreted in the
long run? Could I risk my insurance cover in a

Photos: Fotolia/weseetheworld (Aufm.); O2; Verbraucherzentrale NRW (Portrt)

Mandatory
Monitoring

scheme. A visit to the gym adds 100 points, a

cervical smear test gives you 2000 points, and
filling out a psycho-analysis questionnaire
every three months leads to an additional 250
points. The more information you disclose
about yourself via an app, the website and
partner companies, the more substantial the
discounts.

Smart, but transparent:

IBM is developing
software that can
measure the mood of the
citizenry in smart cities

Generalis Vitality app keeps track of the

point progression. Subtext: Tell us more
about yourself!

few years by making a declaration today?

These are well-founded questions, especially
since the quid pro quo for the generous
handover of data turns out to be a flop. Sabine
Petri offset the costs associated with gyms and
discount cards against the potential savings,
and the result was quite sobering: Even if your
score is at the maximum level, you will end up
paying a few euros every month.
In addition to the specific risk in question,
Sabine Petri is also fearful of the general risk
associated with this scheme: To be more
precise, such data-discount exchanges may
eventually become the norm. If this happens,
those who want no part of it would have to pay
higher insurance tariffs.

Mandatory Self-Exposure
Such forced openness could also find its way
into many other parts of our lives And Nils
Zurawski, a surveillance researcher at the
Hamburg University, believes that Germany is
well on their way towards such a scenario. If
you want to get a slice of a better life, you will
have to disclose some information about
yourself, he summarised in an interview.
When it comes to the offline part of your life,
this happens in a somewhat hesitant manner
You are tapped and spied on in a subtle
fashion. You can receive benefits and discounts
at the expense of your privacy, but all of this is
totally voluntary. However, the internet has
shown that this can also be done in a different
way: Normal participation in the digital routine
requires radical self-exposure. Facebook is a
perfect example of this phenomenon: You are
constantly urged to feed the data machine by
joining networks That is, if youre asked at all.
Those who refuse to participate end up looking
like theyre stupid, and are accused of being
old-fashioned spoilsports or hate efficiency. If
you dont have a Facebook account and a

Automobile insurers use lower premiums to make

wireless surveillance look tempting

WhatsApp number, you will swiftly be cut out

of your circle of friends. A matter that was
purely voluntary thus turns into a social
compulsion This is the new normal.
This is particularly noticeable when it comes
to the labour market. All avenues seem to be
closed if you dont have a LinkedIn profile. Links
to publicly-available CVs are now part of every

digital job application portfolio. In fact, some

large companies start the application
procedure by asking applicants to upload their
LinkedIn profiles. From the point of view of the
human resource department, computer-based
screening represents an enormous gain in
terms of efficiency. The ones who get the short
end of the stick are the poor applicants, who
have to create a career profile in order to be
considered.

Monitoring At The Workplace

This involves
highly-sensitive
data!
Sabine Petri, attorney-at-law Data
protection advisor at the NRW consumer
protection centre

However, the networking wouldnt end after

the person gets hired. More and more
companies are using so-called human capital
management (HCM) software to optimise their
human capital, i.e. the knowledge and skills of
their employees. Such software turns the
employee into a data point. In fact, his private
social networks and health-related behaviours
are also monitored. IBM which manufactures
HCM software and Workday are working on
beautiful interfaces for mandatory networking
at the workplace. The employees themselves
are supposed to use intuitive and amusing
apps for all devices to track their performance
and efficiency. The term used to refer to this is

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feature
people analytics. Oracles HCM Analytics is a
big data service that uncovers trends within
the company The package includes powerful
analyses as well as deeper knowledge about
the employees. Such workplace monitoring is
supposed to make it possible for companies to
predict and influence future events. From now
on, your actual performance isnt going to be
the only thing that matters Your expected
performance is going to be part of the equation
too. Were getting close to the point at which
fitness data and statistical assertions
regarding individual life planning and lifestyles
will come into play in order to sharpen powers
of forecasting. This is the ironic part: The
machine-readability of human beings makes
them comparable to computers. In any event,
Deloittes business consultants said in a study
dealing with the future of human resource
development that human beings will eventually
work with machines They wont be kicked out.
Essentially, mandatory networking will find its
way into the workplace as well.

Is The Citizen Score On Its Way?

According to this template, the entire
populations living in smart cities and
cybernetic societies would be connected to
digital management and control systems. This
would entail the monitoring of movement,
behaviour, consumption and even feelings. All
of this is driven not by dark intentions, but by

The software manufacturer Oracle performed a self-experiment involving a fitness check at the workplace But
not all employees wanted to participate

the need to ensure that human emotions and

movements are machine-readable. We should
be grateful for the fact that all of this is also
being done on a voluntary basis, instead of
being done through surveillance alone.
However, the whole thing does raise a
time-tested question: How much personal
freedom are we prepared to sacrifice for
efficiency and security? Doesnt freedom also
equate to the freedom to make mistakes, and

to not live a machine-optimised and maximised

life?
Currently, such discussions are made
impossible by the lack of knowledge about the
extent of digital networking. All thats left is a
pure hunger for data. What is fed into the large
data machine is also fed out, and the users are
rewarded with mere breadcrumbs. It is now up
to them to ensure that it doesnt turn into a
compulsion.

INTERVIEW

Were being lulled by algorithms

> Mr Zurawski, what exactly do you have
against algorithms?
Nothing at all, but we should be aware of their
significance in our lives. We believe that theyll
lead to more prosperity, more growth and a
better society. However, everything is expected
to bow down to digitalisation: Traffic, living,
work, free time and politics. What lies behind
this is a desire for total care. However, the crux
of the matter is that everyone should be able to
decide whether he wants to participate.
> Are you afraid that a Big Brother might
emerge?
No, thats what we seem to want! I like to call it
the consumption of surveillance: We want
someone to look after us. Thats just part of our
lifestyle. Furthermore, the zeitgeist encourages
us to save, live our lives efficiently and make full

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use of everything.
> Why does the whole thing seem to work in
such a promising way?
We are enticed by the lifestyle. A good life is the
bait, and the fact that it will turn into a
compulsion is the hook. And the actual product
is the ability to better exploit us as customers.
They want our data and habits so that theyll be
able to sell us more items.
> Big data algorithms calculate the
specifications of the good life. But what if
theyre right? Whats wrong with having a good
life?
The danger is that were gliding into a world in
which our reactions and actions would be
dependent solely on what has been prepared for
us by the authorities or an algorithm company.
> The force of the good argument...

It would be dreadful if we were to simply be

guided from one good decision to the next.
Were being lulled by algorithms. I want to be
able to make mistakes too!
> Now youre beginning to exaggerate!
I really do fear that were sliding into a world
that revolves around engineering and science to
an excessive extent. In this smart world, you
would want to simply turn society into a better
place by turning
the right screws.
But a society isnt a
machine.
> Many thanks for
such an interesting
conversation!

Photo: Saskia Blatakes

German surveillance researcher Nils Zurawski on the illusive benefits of mandatory networking

feature

25 Years
Of Linux

Number of lines of code introduced by Alex

Deucher, the most active developer:
37,185

In the autumn of 1991, Linus Torvalds published the source

code for the most famous open-source system in the
world By Andreas Hentschel
Version number of the first Linux kernel
(17.9.1991)
0.0.1

Average number of Linux kernel patches

accepted every day:
185

Latest version number of the Linux kernel

released on 15.9.2016
4.7.4

Man-years of working time required for the

Linux kernel:
41,000

Share of the source code written by Linus

Torvalds in the very first Linux kernel:
100 percent

Approximate sum of money corresponding to

this working time:
USD 5,000,000,000

Share of the source code written by Linus

Torvalds in the latest Linux kernel:
Less than 2 percent

Source text lines in Linux version 1.0:

170,581
Source text lines in Linux version 4.7:
21,712,846

Number of top-500 supercomputers that use

Linux:
485
Year that saw the release of Slackware, the
oldest Linux distribution that is still being
developed further:
1993

Number of companies that contributed to

kernel 4.7:
222

Licensing costs that the city of Munich has

saved since 2009 through the use of Linux:
10,000,000 Euro
Sum of money that Linus Torvalds receives
every year from the Linux Foundation to
continue his work:
USD 10,000,000

Linux
Windows 10
Windows 8
Windows 7
Windows Vista
Mac OS X

40 %

Sources: Statista

30 %
20 %
10 %

July
2013

January
2014

July
2014

Number of security loopholes detected in

Debian Linux in 2016:
278

Number of security loopholes detected in

Windows 10 in 2016:
113

50 %

January
2013

Worldwide market share of Windows 7 (as of

July 2016):
36.8 percent

Number of developers who worked on kernel

4.7:
1,582

Percentage of desktop operating systems

July
2012

Worldwide market share of Windows 10 (as

of July 2016):
21.3 percent

Number of changes in kernel 4.7 vis--vis 4.6

12,283

When it comes to desktops, Linux has more users than Windows Vista.
However, its an unfair comparison. The open-source system dominates
the mobile world: Android is based on it

0%
January
2012

Worldwide market share of Windows Vista

(as of July 2016):
1.19 percent

Number of security loopholes detected in

Ubuntu Linux in 2016:
238

A side issue
60 %

Worldwide market share of Linux (as of July

2016):
1.42 percent

January
2015

July
2015

January
2016

Average number of days required for the

development of a new kernel version:
63
Average number of days required for the
development of a new kernel version:
About 370
Year in which the chubby penguin Tux
became the Linux mascot:
1996

July
2016

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059

Photo: lewing@isc.tamu.edu/The GIMP

Number of people worldwide who use Linux

desktop systems:
87,080,822

Worldwide market share of Linux (as of July

2011):
0.76 percent

feature

25.10.2001

2002

Release of XP

Service Pack 1

Bill Gates introduces the new

Windows XP in New York

The colourful interface of XP for

conditions then, became a trademark

2001

2002

The Start Menu

CHIP TIMELINE
Windows XP: The Most
Popular Windows
Long-runner since 2001:No other Windows version has dominated the operating system
market over an entire decade so successfully like Windows XP By Jessica Bodenstein and Elmar Friebe

n 25th October 2001, Microsofts bestselling operating system, Windows XP

was launched. At the Windows XP
Launch event in New York, Bill Gates
presented the new operating system under
the motto: "Windows XP is for everyone. The
"Who wants to be a millionaire? host, Regis

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Philbin was among the invitees, according to

whom, could not cope up with computers at
all. This clearly proved that everyone could
really operate Windows XP. An advantage of
XP was that it included a multitude of
programs which covered a wide spectrum of
the standard applications, which required

additional tools in previous versions. The

Windows Media Player for music playback,
photos or movies and the option of burning
data from Explorer on to a CD, were all made
available on XP.
With the Internet Explorer 6, a browser
was integrated, mails were sent and received

PHOTOS V. LI.: REUTERS/JEFF CHRISTENSEN; MICROSOFT

of XP showed two columns:

programs on the left side,
entries such as workspace on
the right

feature

2004
Sevice Pack 2
Apart from troubleshooting, there are
improvements included in this
service pack e.g. for Windows
Firewall

2003

2004

2008

2003

2008

XP Media Center Edition

Sevice Pack3

The Media Center Edition renders TV

and movies on PCs with TV cards
and can be controlled by remote
control

with Outlook Express. But the new thing was

that XP was based on a Windows NT Kernel
and no longer on MS-DOS. Thus, the operating
system would be more reliable. Apart from
the stability, the security was a central issue.
The Windows Firewall was introduced with XP
and helped protect against Internet attacks.
Another important security function brought
the internal backup solution for system
recovery if the system should crash, for
example, while installing a new program.
With Windows XP, the user could easily
connect to other networks wirelessly. Even

The last official service pack appears.

The earlier extended support for XP
ends on 8th April 2014

aesthetically, Windows XP clearly

distinguished itself from all predecessors as it
was colourful: With the Luna interface,
Windows XP was multicoloured and looks like
a friendly version of Windows. The green
countryside as the background has become
legendary since long. However, initial
skepticism spread the first implementation of
a mandatory activation procedure to use
Windows XP but this quickly failed in
satisfying the users: Windows XP has been
sold for 13 years and remained the most used
Windows ever for a long time. The three

distributed Service Packs contributed for

reliability not only in the consumer market,
but also in corporate circles. Even today,
Windows XP is still in use; 10.09 percent of all
PC users continue using the operating system
although Microsoft is no longer issuing any
security updates (as of May 2016). Thus,
Windows XP comes in third place behind
Windows 7 (48.57%) and 10 (17.43%). And its
not just private users who want to gladly
continue using it but some banks and offices,
which also includes local companies like CIMB
and Maybank as well.

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A Holiday Gift Guide

For The Geek In All
Of Us
Cant decide what to buy for your geeky loved ones? Here are some ideas were pretty sure he or she
is going to love By CHIP Team

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cover story

hat better way to spend money during the holiday season than on new smartphones, or a new
notebook for the upcoming year of 2017?
In this issue, we have drawn up a list of gadgets and accessories that are definitely in a lot of
peoples wishlists, including our own. The products here range from the obvious, such as smartphones and
notebooks, to niche products like motherboards, GPUs and accessories.
The recommendations made here are mostly based on the products that weve reviewed this year, while
others are from our own personal experience while using or trying out the products. We have segmented the
recommendations into nine popular categories to cater for the differing needs and preferences, as well as a
wishlist from the editorial team too, for some of our own personal favourites. We took the liberty to recommend
products and devices based on performance and affordability, so theres something for everyone and their
wallets.
We hope that this Guide will serve you well, and happy holidays from us at CHIP Malaysia!

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Huawei Mate 9
Performance, check.
Battery life, excellent.
Oh, and that large IPS
screen is great too. If a
big screen is what you
need, Huaweis Mate 9
phablet is the top choice
for this Christmas.

Samsung S7
Edge

december 16

Do you really
need us to give
you a reason for
this one? This
time around
its got greater
performance, a
superior camera,
better audio, and
isnt afraid of
a little splash.
Sure, it doesnt
have an audio
jack anymore.
But if you can
afford this, surely
you can afford a
wireless headset.

Moto Z

Want a smartphone
that can satisfy the
casual shutterbug
in you? Ignoring that
oxymoron, we think you
cant go wrong with
the Samsung S7 Edge
here. This smartphones
camera does so well,
youd start forgetting to
bring your compact cam
to trips. Unless youre
really into photography,
of course.

064

iPhone 7
Plus

chip malaysia

Maybe your financial advisor (bank account) is telling you to

go easy on it. In that case, check out the very interesting Moto
Z. Its got good specs, great design, and the unique ability to
combine with Moto Mods.

cover story

MSI GE62VR Dominator Pro

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

For gaming notebooks, the MSI GE62VR Dominator Pro is the one
that you should look at. This model provides the best value, as it
allows you to play all of the latest games at a still daunting, but
relatively reasonable price.

Built solid and packed with powerful hardware, the

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is sleek choice for business
professionals. Itll run all sorts of software with no issues
and keep your work files sale with security features.

HP Spectre 13

Acer Swift 7

Thin seems to be the name of the game this year, and with
the HP Spectre 13, not only is this wafer thin, but it also looks
gorgeous and comes with decent specs. If what youre looking
for is an ultra-portable with a sexy design, consider this
notebook.

Some of us just want the latest and trendiest. In that case, why
not check out the Acer Swift 7? Incredibly thin and light, its black
and gold colour scheme would turn heads when youre having
your team break at a caf. The price is sensible too, so at least it
wont burn as big a hole in your pocket.

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Bose QuietComfort 35

Sony MDR-1000X

If youre in the mood for some wireless freedom, then the

Bose QuietComfort could just be the headphone for you. The
QuietComfort 35 is perfect for you if youre regularly in transit
whether by train, plane or bus. Why? Because the QuietComfort 35
has world-class noise cancellation that drowns out ambient noise
and allows you to enjoy your music even when its noisy around you.
It connects via Bluetooth
so just save your
favourite tunes on a
Bluetooth capable
device. Not only
that, it has a 20
hour battery
life and only
takes a quick
15 minute
charge to juice
it for another
2.5 hours.

Another wireless and noise-cancelling headphone, the Sony

MDR-1000X is also a great choice for frequent travellers.
Its highly portable and stylish and can connect via a
silver-coated OFC cable if you want to go through a DAC
or amplifier. It has built-in noise cancellation optimisation
that you can adjust in almost any
location. If you want listen to
whats around you, then you
can activate its Ambient
Sound mode to hear your
surroundings. To make
it cooler, you can use
multiple gestures to
use different features,
instead of relying on
just buttons. Also if
youre into leather,
the housing is
covered in a
synthetic leather
that exudes a
luxurious look
and feel.

Massdrop x Sennheiser HD6XX

Beyerdynamic DT 1770 PRO

If youre an audiophile youve definitely heard of the Sennheiser

HD6XX, one of Sennheisers most popular headphone to date.
The Massdrop x Sennheiser HD6XX provides the same sound
as the HD650 albeit a much
lower price. It comes only
in Midnight Blue and
is terminated with a
3.5mm plug instead of
a 6.35mm one found
on the HD650. The
HD6XX can also be
disassembled by hand
to its component
parts, which makes
the HD6XX capable
of interchanging
parts with other
compatible parts.
This opens up so
many possibilities
when it comes to
aftermarket modifications,
or even your very own mods.

You cant go wrong with a Beyerdynamic especially the DT 1770

PRO. Thousands and probably more have enjoyed the DT 770
PRO, and the DT 1770 PRO is the evolution of that legendary
headphone. The Tesla drivers provide excellent sound accuracy
and detail, and not to mention a nice balance across ranges.
Also if you want a comfortable headphone, Beyerdynamic
makes some of the most comfortable headphones out there,
especially since they use velour pads. The
cable is detachable which opens up
potential for cable upgrades, so
if youre looking for
a headphone for
professional
use or even for
listening to the
classics, I dont
see why the
DT 1770 PRO
shouldnt be on
your to-buy list.

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Wearables
Pebble Time 2

Fitbit Charge 2

If youre looking for something a bit easier on the wallet, the Pebble
Time 2 might suit you more. Its got the looks and features to make
it one of the top choices, as well as some water resistance to ensure
that an accidental dip into the pool wont ruin it.

For those looking to get a fitness band, Fitbits latest Charge

2 comes to mind. Using its large database collected from
its user base, the tracking sensors on this combines with
Fitbits great software to keep exercise nuts motivated.
Highly recommended if youre too lazy to set goals for
yourself.

Apple Watch Series 2

Are you a diehard, can only have that fruit, fan boy? Then set
your eyes on the Apples Watch Series 2. Its now splashproof,
comes with a GPS, and infinitely fruitier. What more reason do
you need? Now weve saved you the time to think of an excuse in
case your spouse asks. Youre welcome.

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Cameras
Olympus OM-D E-M1 MKII

Leica Q Titanium Gray

Looking for a new camera, or looking to upgrade from an entry

level camera, well take a look at the OM-D E-M1 MKII. Aimed for
professionals and high end enthusiasts the EM-1 MKII sports
various features thatll give you the potential for excellent shots. As
fast or even faster than DSLRs the camera has sequential shooting
speeds of up to 60fps in S-AF mode and 18fps in C-AF Tracking
Mode, which means catching moving objects just got a whole lot
easier. We also love the advanced 5-axis image stabilisation the
camera has, which provides the much needed stabilisation for times
when you just dont have a tripod with you.

If you want to take beautiful shots with a beautiful looking

camera, then look no further than the Leica Q. The camera
has an integrated 3.68 megapixel electronic viewfinder,
allowing the user to see the finest details of the image. It
also has the fastest lens in its class, a Summilux 28mm/
f1.7 ASPH. With a classic focal range of 28mm, it reproduces
scenes with natural perspectives and proportions and is
ideal for street, architectural and landscape photography.
The cameras autofocus also functions in real time and is the
fastest in the compact full-frame camera category. Not only
that, it can shoot videos in Full HD at 30 and 60fps.

Sony 6500
Compact seems to be the way to go these days, and the
Sony 6500 definitely fits the bill. Just one of its many
great features is its high number count on phasedetection AF points, reaching a whopping 425. Another
would be its extended buffer for continuous shooting
that allows for up to 307 continuous shots in around 36
seconds. It also sports 5-axis SteadyShot which uses
gyro sensor to compensate for shake, and is effective
for shooting steadier, clearer movies and still images.
Since its an APS-C interchangeable lens compact
camera, you can use a wide variety of other lenses and
still benefit from the 5-axis SteadyShot.

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ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQ

BenQ SW2700PT

Why should you get this display? We think a better question is why
not? If youre looking for a gaming monitor, this should be one of
your main choices. 27-inches big, its the perfect size for gaming
and comes with 4K resolution so everything comes sharp even
with such a large screen. It will also pair well with NVIDIA cards as
it has G-SYNC built into it and comes with Ultra-Low Blue Light
and Flicker-Free technology, which we find help reduce eye strain
considerably. Finally, you can bend it like Beckham, ok maybe not,
but you can tilt, swivel, pivot and adjust its height, doesnt that
sound awesome?

This one is for the photographers, illustrators, graphic

designers and those who just want awesome colours. The
SW2700PT is a 27-inch IPS monitor with 99 percent sRGB
and comes with a shading hood so you can keep the pesky
light out when you need the most accurate colours. The QHD
2560x1440
resolution
also means
more pixels
for your
workspace,
opening
multiple
projects
would be
more viable
and efficient
now. Not
only that, the monitor has gotten the endorsements of
multiple professional photographers. The colour accuracy is
something you wont want to miss if youre into photos, art
and anything that has to do with enjoying media.

AOC AGON AG271QG

ViewSonic VX2776-smhd

Heres another gaming monitor you can look at which is just

as enticing as the last one. Also 27-inches but only with QHD
resolution. But fret not because QHD is perfect for 27-inch
monitors and a plus is if you dont have a graphic card that can
handle 4K, QHD would be less demanding on your PC. Did we
also mention that the monitor has G-SYNC as well? Well it does,
and its capable of going up to 165Hz. It also sports Flicker-Free
technology to reduce eyestrain and fatigue, whilst its ergonomic
base is easy to adjust to your liking. So if you need a high
performance monitor, you know where to find one.

Keep your eye out for this monitor if youre looking into getting
an IPS monitor. Its price to performance value is great, and
there isnt much you can complain about. The monitor sports an
almost bezel-less design and can be seen as one of the thinner
27-inch monitors out right now. Not to mention ViewSonic has
a 3-year Pick-Up Warranty, which means theyll come to you if
theres a problem with your monitor, leaving the hassle of going
to a service centre to them. If youre a console gamer, it also
has built in speakers and it also comes with a variety of inputs
ranging from DisplayPort to HDMI and VGA.

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Motherboard
ASUS Z170 Deluxe

MSI X99A Godlike Gaming Carbon

There may not ever be a white Christmas in Malaysia, but

you can certainly shop for PC parts that are white in colour
to at least have a semblance of one. ASUS Z170-Deluxe is
one of very few motherboards out there right now with a
white motif.
That said, the motherboard isnt just all looks. It supports
the new NVME storage technology, has built-in WiFi and
Bluetooth, support for both SLI and CrossFireX, and the
Crystal Sound 3 audio feature which includes things like
audio shielding, built-in amplifiers, Japanese audio capacitors
and more.

Looking to build a powerful gaming PC this Christmas? MSIs X99A

Godlike Gaming motherboard is the board to go for if money is of no
concern. Supporting Intels powerful Broadwell-E line of processors,
the motherboard also features a host of technologies such as carbon
fiber polymer heatsink covers, Mystic Light RGB lighting system that
lights up your motherboard like a Christmas tree, and Steel Armor
that help reinforce the RAM and PCIE slots.
The X99A Godlike Gaming Carbon also houses numerous
overclocking options that allow you to push your PC to its limits.
With the Audio Boost Pro 3, audiophiles also are spoilt for choice,
with a dedicated 6.35mm Golden Dedicated Headphone Out, isolated
audio PCB,
as well as
dedicated DACs,
amp switches
and front
headphone
outs. Definitely
one of the
most powerful
motherboards
out there
money can buy.

GIGABYTE GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5

ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Professional/3.1

Small form-factor computers are great, but back in the day,

compact computers meant sacrificing a lot of performance
for space. Thats no longer the case, and with the GIGABYTE
GA-Z170MK-Gaming 5 motherboard, you can have both, all in
one package.
Despite being a micro-ATX board, the GA-Z170MX-Gaming
5 houses a host of features that are hosted on larger ATX sized
boards. These include AMP-UP audio technology, which includes
the use of Japanese Nichicon capacitors, upgradeable OP-AMPs,
gold-plated ports and more. On top of that, the motherboard
also has M.2 ports for SSDs, freeing up SATA ports for more
storage drives.

If the ASUS Z170 Deluxe was a White Christmas build option,

the ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Professional/3.1 is the base for a Red
Christmas PC. This particular motherboard is feature-packed
with Killer LAN, Gaming Armor, which protects the boards PCIE
slots, extra large
aluminium heat
sinks and more.
The board
also supports
both 4-way SLI
and CrossFireX
multi-GPU
configurations,
and even
has a mode
specifically for
overclocking
with liquid
nitrogen. Want super-fast storage speeds as well? The X99
Professional/3.1 has you covered with not only USB 3.1 ports
and expansion cards that can be used with PCIE slots, but it
also has an Ultra M.2 slot that uses PCIE 3.0 x4 interface that is
miles faster than that of the SATA III standard.

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Graphics Card
MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X

ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1060

Is the NVIDIA GTX 1080 a bit out of your budget, but still want
a good 1440p/4K gaming experience? MSIs GTX 1070 Gaming
X may just be the card for you. The cards red motif is in line
with our Christmas-themed build, so its definitely one to
consider.
This particular GPU sports a factory-overclocked GPU out
of the box, and can be customised to your needs even further
thanks to the MSI Afterburner app. The brand new TORX 2.0
fans keep the GPU cooled during gaming sessions, but will not
spin when youre doing things like watching movies or just
working for a completely silent environment. As far as bling
is concerned,
the MSI
Gaming App
allows you
to change
colours of the
LED accents
on the card,
with various
lighting
effects added
in for good
measure.

Lets face it though, having an uber powerful GPU means nothing

if your monitor is limited to the typical Full HD resolution. With
this in mind, the NVIDIA GTX 1060 is the perfect balance of high
performance and value for money in this segment.
The ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1060 is our choice as the company
spared no expense in making the GTX 1060 card every bit as
good as the NVIDIA GPUs higher end counterpart. Sporting the
companys critically-acclaimed Direct CUIII cooler, the cards fans
will not spin until it reaches a certain temperature threshold. With
the GPU Tweak II software, you can not only overclock the GPU,
but also check the
cards performance
graphs to see how
it performs. As with
the other cards,
there is also an RGB
lighting system
built in with the
Aura RGB Lighting,
which syncs with
ASUS motherboards
that also have this
system built in.

ZOTAC GTX 1080 AMP Extreme

PowerColor Red Devil RX 480

Light up your PC like a Christmas tree with the ZOTAC GTX 1080
AMP Extreme GPU. NVIDIAs latest Pascal GPUs are selling like
hot cakes off the shelves, and this ZOTAC card is no different.
ZOTACs 1080 variant is so packed with features that its quite
difficult to figure out where to start from.
The card is overclocked out of the box, which means youre
getting incredible performance without so much as just installing
the thing into your PC. Manual overclocking can be done by
using ZOTACs Firestorm app, which allows you to adjust clock
speeds, fan control, and even monitor the 1080 AMP Extremes
performance.
For a bit fo
flair, ZOTAC
also includes
an LED
system called
SPECTRA
which allows
the LEDs on
the card to
change to
a variety of
colours.

Recommending PowerColors Red Devil RX480 might sound

ironic considering the theme, but a bit of mischief here and there
never hurt anyone, no? PowerColors Red Devil RX 480 may be
the only AMD option in our list, but its definitely on here for
more than just gags.
Powered by AMDs latest Polaris GPU, the card sports 8GBs of
GDDR5 RAM, and this single card solution is capable of running
up to six displays thanks to AMDs Eyefinity Technology, while
supporting low-level API tech such as Vulkan and DirectX12.
PowerColors Double Blades Fans absorb airflow into the
center and increase
up to 20% airflow
compared to
the traditional
thermal design.
It also avoids
dust deposition
at the bottom of
the fan that helps
to prolong the
life cycle of the
graphics card.

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Peripherals
Cooler Master MasterKeys Lite L Combo
Looking for a gaming mouse and keyboard, but dont want the
hassle of picking and choosing their weapons of choice can just
easily make do with Cooler Masters MasterKeys Lite L Combo.
The keyboard portion of the MasterKeys Lite L utilises Cooler
Masters own Mem-chanical switch, which combines membrane and
mechanical switches into one, for a tactile feel that doesnt feel too
harsh on the fingers. Both the mouse and keyboard also feature two
and six-zoned RGB lighting effects for customised lighting options.

Kingston
HyperX
Cloud
Revolver

december 16

In our opinion,
Logitechs G900 Chaos
Spectrum mouse is
probably the best
gaming mouse to
have come out in
2016. Its price tag
might be a bit steep,
especially for a
mouse, but if youre
looking for the best
money can buy, the
G900 is exactly what youll be looking for.
The G900 functions as both a wired and wireless mouse.
You wouldnt even be able to tell the difference, save for
the fact that you can now move the mouse unencumbered
by cables. It uses the PMW3366 sensor, and has a DPI
range of a whopping 12,000 DPI. Its ambidextrous design
also make it great for right and left hand users, while its 11
programmable buttons allow you to assign quite a number
of macros to it.

Corsair K70 RGB Rapidfire

Kingstons
HyperX Cloud
series of
headphones
have always
been one of
our favourite
lines of
headphones,
and with the
Revolver,
Kingston has
made the
headphones even better, and were recommending you
guys to go get one.
Featuring 50mm drivers, the Cloud Revolver is loud
and detailed. The headrest is also designed to make
sure that the headphones rest properly on your head,
and is not clamping on too tightly on the sides.

072

Logitech G900
Chaos
Spectrum

chip malaysia

The Corsair K70 RGB Rapidfire keyboard is the ultimate bling keyboard,
perfect for the holiday season. If its a no-holds-barred mechanical
keyboard that you need, you definitely cant go wrong with this one.
Featuring Cherry MX Red switches, the K70 RGB keyboards actuation
point is lower than that of many other variants at 1.2mm, allowing you
to move and execute actions faster than your competition. The anodised
brushed aluminium frame meanwhile is built to withstand a lot of torture,
especially during heated moments of gaming.

cover story

CHIP Editorial Team Wish List:

Nixon
ViewSonic XG2703-GS

64 Audio A3

Why did I pick this monitor? Im a huge fan of IPS and this monitor
fits the bill on everything I want. The monitor like I said, is a 27-inch
IPS monitor, but that isnt enough to make it on a wishlist right?
It also sports G-SYNC technology built into it and allows for high
refresh rates for more fluid and smoother gaming, if you have the
power to drive it. It also has a resolution of 2560x1440 which is
between FHD and 4K, a sweet spot especially since I dont have a
super powerful graphic card like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080.

As a self-proclaimed audiophile, Ive always dreamed of

getting a custom-IEM, for those who dont know what
they are. A custom-IEM is an IEM moulded specifically
for your ears, which means it wont fit anyone else but
yours. You would need to send the manufacturer an ear
impression usually from a hearing aid expert or hearing care
establishment. Well getting back to the IEM, the A3 is a midrange custom IEM that sports 3 drivers one each for low,mid
and high. The A3 is said to reproduce vocals and instruments
accurately making it perfect for budding musicians and
singers. Also custom-IEMs are superior in sound quality
when compared to traditional IEMs.

Schiit Magni & Modi Stack

Zowie ZA Series

Yes its once again another audiophile item, and yes

Schiit is its actual name and its pronounced exactly
how you would probably say it. The Magni and Modi
are actually 2 separate items, one is a DAC and another
is an amplifier, but they were made to work best with
each other. They sport a very minimalist style and small
footprint, and is capable of being stacked upon each
other hence the Stack. The Modi can receive audio
through USB and outputs through RCA. The Magni on
the other hand can work as a pre-amp for desktop
monitors, or just to drive your headphones. Both can
be upgraded to their UBER counterpart for Optical and
TOSLINK inputs for the Modi and even more power for
the Magni.

Im an avid gamer and have

quite an inclination towards
FPS as I grew up on Counter
Strike and Call of Duty. Ive tried
different types of mice ranging
from ambidextrous mice to
bulky heavy mice. The Zowie
ZA-series of mice are made to be
minimalistic, forgoing any extra
bling and features for a simple
yet well performing mouse. The
ZA-series comes in multiple
sizes so you can tailor it to your
hand size, and the reason why
its on my wishlist is because
it has great glide, smooth and
fluid, while the rubber cable isnt
stiff and doesnt cause any drag.
Furthermore, the tactile feel
from the mouse buttons is truly
enjoyable.

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CHIP Editorial Team Wish List:

Matthew
Acer Predator Z35

Oppo PM-3

With a dated nine-year-old monitor sitting at home, I find that its

time to get an upgrade. And if given a choice, Acers Predator Z35 is
my monitor of choice. The curved screen provides a more immersive
experience and the higher refresh rates is great for gaming too. Also,
a bigger screen is always better.

When it comes to headphones, the members of CHIP

Malaysia team have expensive taste (not that we could
actually afford
them!) A
new premium
audiophile
headphone
has long been
what I want,
but for this
wish list my
choice is the
Oppo PM3.
Comfortable
and with a
great sound
stage for a
close back,
its also
usable with a
smartphone.
Feel free to
buy me one if
youre in a generous mood!

Razer Blade 2016

Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum

Desktop PCs are fine and dandy, but having a compact

gaming notebook that I can bring on the go would
be fantastic. Of the many models released this year,
Razers iteration for its Blade series gaming notebook
this year strikes the right balance in performance,
battery life, and portability. Now if only I had an extra
kidney to sell

Those not in the know would consider my wish for a keyboard to be

modest, but make no mistakes the price of the Logitech G810 Orion
Spectrum is anything but modest. Sporting a relatively minimalist design
and a user-friendly software to customise my own chromatic lightshow,
this mech keyboard adds some bling and colour to my Christmas wish list.

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CHIP Editorial Team Wish List:

Nazrin
Sony PlayStation 4 Pro

Xiaomi Power Bank Pro

Video game consoles are probably some of the most clichd gifts
ever, but everyone whos been a kid once will definitely want one
two unwrap during the holiday season. And what better console to
want than Sonys brand new PlayStation 4 Pro?
The specs for
the PS4 Pro have
been upgraded
to include
support for 4K
gaming, and
smooth 1080p
60FPS gaming,
as well as
support for HDR
displays. Sony
already has a list
of games that
are optimised
for this console
at launch, so
its like youre
playing these
games with a fresh pair of eyes.

USB Type-C smartphones and fast charging are a common

thing these days. Not just amongst high-end phones, but
mid-range ones as well. Xiaomi, purveyor of very affordable
power banks has just the thing with its Xiaomi Power Bank
Pro.
Featuring a 10,000mAh charge, the Power Bank Pro has
both a USB Type-A and Type-C port, which allows users to
charge both micro-USB and USB Type-C devices. The Power
Bank Pro also charges quickly, which means you no longer
have to wait for more than a night to get your power bank
charged from empty to full.

iPhone 7

Xiaomi Mi Mix

The iPhone 7 is a lust-worthy device, despite a

number of shortcomings, such as lack of a 3.5mm
audio port and slow charging speeds. The iPhone
7s build aesthetics continue to be one of the best
in the industry, which still makes it one of the best
smartphones to own.
Powered by a new A10 64-bit CPU, the 4.7 inch
device comes at a thickness of only 7.1mm, encased
in a chassis made with a block of aluminium that feels
great to the touch. Not to mention that the 12MP
camera that takes amazing photos, alongside some
upgrades to the camera
software, including the
new Portrait Mode.

The definition of concept

devices usually means that
its a product for the future
that will be made available
in some shape or form.
Xiaomis Mi Mix is exactly
that sort of device, with the
biggest difference being that
it is available for purchase
now.
The Xiaomi Mi Mix is
a slippery phone, with its
body made of ceramic.
Powered by Qualcomms new
Snapdragon 821 processor,
it features 4GBs of RAM,
and an option of either 4GB
or 128GBs of storage space,
which unfortunately isnt
expandable via MicroSD. The
16MP camera sports EIS and
phase detection autofocus,
which helps in capturing some pretty great looking shots, both outdoors
and indoors

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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
MSI Z87 MPower

Processors
Intel Core i7-3770K
Intel Core i7-4770K

Graphics
Processing Unit
MSI GeForce GTX 980
GAMING 4G

CPU Cooler Cooler

Master X6

PSU, Storage & RAM

Power Supply

Memory

Cooler Master Silent Pro

Hybrid (1300W)

Kingston HyperX
KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX
Kingston HyperX FURY
HX318C10FWK2/8
Kingston HyperX Predator
HX430C15PBK4/16

Storage
Western Digital Black Dual
Drive
Western Digital My Book
Live Duo

AMD Platform
Motherboards
ASUS Crosshair V
ASUS A88X-Pro

Graphics
Processing Unit
ASUS Radeon R9 290X

Processors

CPU Cooler

AMD FX-8150
AMD A8-3850

Cooler Master Hyper 212

EVO

Benchmark Software
Operating
System
Windows 7 Ultimate
(64-bit)

Futuremark
PCMark 8
3DMark

Industry
Standard
Benchmark Tools
AIDA64
SiSoftware SANDRA
Speccy
Unigine Heaven

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TEST LAB

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12

10

14

15

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CONTENTS
1
18

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

17

11
12
13
14
15
16
17

16

18

ASUS Expedition GTX 1050 Ti

Western Digital Blue PC SSD
Transcend StoreJet 25CK3 SSD Upgrade Kit
MSI Core Frozr L
Pok3r Vortex RGB
MSI GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X
Zowie XL2735
Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime
MSI GT83VR 6Rf Titan SLI
AOC G2778VQ
ViewSonic VP2468
Sony MDR-1000X
ViDi LCD Action Camera
ASUS ZenBook 3
ASUS STRIX GL502V
TP-Link Archer C3150
D-Link DIR-895L Tri-band Wireless Router
Sony RX100 MkV

CHIP Awards
CHIP Editors Choice Award

086
087
088
089
090
091
092
093
094
095
096
097
098
099
100
101
102
103

Ratings
Each product review is rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for
different key parameters:

Awarded to products that receive unanimous

endorsement from all CHIP editors for its overall
brilliance

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

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

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Going 3D
SSDs have been around for a few years, but mainstream users are
still waiting for the day that they can get faster speeds. Transcend
has decided to up its game by introducing the SSD230, a 2.5-inch
form factor SSD that incorporates 3D NAND Flash technology. The
technology delivers stacks memory cells, bypassing the physical
limitation imposed on 2D NAND Flash. As a result, we can expect
higher capacities, performance, and enhances long-term reliability
from the SSD230. Currently, this model is offered in 128GB, 256GB,
and 512GB capacities, with a three-year limited warranty.
Transcend SSD230
Contact: Amble Action Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7968 6899
Info: www.transcend-info.com

Cooling Flow
If its cooling a CPU for more stable overclocking, liquid cooling
solutions can be better than bulky tower coolers. Cooler
Masters Seidon 240P is an All-In-One liquid cooling solution
thats designed to be compact. Its water block and pump are
integrated into a simple component, ensuring that you wont
run into clearance issues near the CPU. In addition, its included
dual Silencio fans deliver great air flow without being too loud.
The unit comes with the liquid pre-sealed for you, so all you
have to do is install it and start overclocking!
Cooler Master Seidon 240P
Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd, Build Technology
Supply Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7956 6300, (03) 7955 3699
Info: www.coolermaster.com

Audio Upgrade
The onboard sound for most motherboards have really
improved these days, but if you want to up your game, then
external sound cards help. BenQ Zowie Vital is an external DAC
that doesnt need any drivers to be used and delivers greater
sound and voice quality. In addition, its settings are controlled
using a touch panel that allows the user to adjust the volume,
bass and treble in game.
BenQ Zowie Vital
Contact: BenQ Marketing & Services Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7954 7800
Info: http://zowie.benq.com/

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first looks
Heading To The Nines
Youd think that after a few successful additions to the premium
smartphone market, Huawei wont be putting out anything new this
soon. But that isnt what happened and less than a year after the
Mate 8, Huawei has launched the Mate 9. The Chinese manufacturers
latest phablet comes with an upgraded Kirin 960, a massive 4,000
mAh battery, and the same dual-lens setup from the P9 in a vertical
placement. Oh, itll also ship with Android Nougat, neat!
Huawei Mate 9
Contact: Huawei Malaysia Mobile Hotline
Phone: 1 800 22 0086
Info: www.huawei.com/my

Berry Secure
Despite years of being in the shadows of Apple and
Android, BlackBerry isnt quite ready to throw in
the towel yet. Believe to be one of its last hurrah,
the DTEK60 keeps some of BlackBerrys staple
characteristics. Although it doesnt have a physical
QWERTY keyboard, its filled to the brim with security
features, which includes a fingerprint sensor, the DTEK
security app, storage encryption and more. It also has
a 21-megapixel, a decent battery life, and a scratch
resistant 5.5-inch Quad HD display.
BlackBerry DTEK60
Contact: Brightstar Corp Malaysia, Brightpoint
Malaysia
Phone: (03) 7960 4877, (03) 9274 6000
Info: www.blackberry.com.my

All Aboard The 3D Hype

With the other brands starting to explore and release SSDs
manufactured using 3D NAND Flash technology, theres no way
ADATA would miss the party. The Taiwanese companys latest
offering is the SD700, an external SSD that comes with IP68 dust/
water proofing and military-grade shock proofing. Its fast too,
capable of read speeds of 440 MB/s
ADATA SD700
Contact: Achieva Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7955 1768
Info: www.adata.com

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Marking A New Milestone
Olympus has been quiet the last few months, but the
company is about to release the OM-D E-M1 Mark II. Its
a micro four-thirds with a compact body and a fast 18 fps
continuous burst shot mode. Keeping in line with Olympus
style, it comes dustproof, splashproof and freezeproof. The
new TruePic VIII image processor and 5-axis stabilisation
ensure high quality, blur-free images. Furthermore, this
mirrorless camera is capable of capturing 4K videos in 24P
frame mode, allowing you to take videos in true cinema
quality.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II
Contact: Olympus (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 6411 0000
Info: www.olympusimage.com.my

In Sync With Quality

We live in an era of constant improvement. Thus, many look
towards getting feature-packed products. With PC monitors,
theres a lot to look out for and ViewSonics XG2703-GS aims to
deliver on many fronts. At 27-inces, the XG2703-GS features an
IPS panel with a max resolution of 2560 x 1400. It not only has
NVIDIA G-Sync on it, but also the Ultra-Low Motion Blur (ULMB)
technology from the same company. In addition, its max refresh
rate of 165Hz rate and 4ms response time help deliver smooth
visuals, which enhances the gaming experience.
ViewSonic XG2703-GS
Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd,
Servex (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7955 1136, (03) 8024 6688
Info: www.build.com.my, www.servex.com.my

The Game Cube That Is

What CPU should you get, what motherboard? If all you want is to
go to a store and buy a PC off the shelves that can play any game
immediately, then a ready-made system like Lenovos ideacentre
Y710 Cube is an option. This stylised desktop PC delivers the kind of
performance youd need, with up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM for extreme
multitasking. In addition, its NVIDIA GTX1080 GPU can play any
game at 1080p with maximum graphics settings, or even on 4K with
playable framerates.
Lenovo Ideacentre Y710 Cube
Contact: Lenovo Technologies Sdn.Bhd
Phone: 1 800 80 8575
Info: www.lenovo.com/my/en

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first looks
New Metallic Colours
Having launched the beefier PS4 Pro, it was expected
for Dual Shock 4 controllers with new colours to appear.
This has been made a reality by Sony, with the two new
colours being gold and silver. These are the first two
that come with metallic paint jobs, giving them a more
polished finishing. Obviously, both belong to the new
model of Dual Shock 4, which has a light strip on the
touchpad to show info such as the players characters
health.
Sony Dual Shock 4 Gold & Silver edition
Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
Phone: 1 300 88 1233
Info: www.sony.com.my

Catch This Z
When Motorola was bought over, many were worried that it would
spell the end of the Moto series of smartphones. Thankfully thats
not the case, since the company is now back with the Moto Z Play.
This smartphone boasts a thin metal body and a sweet 5.5-inch
AMOLED display. Moto is also covering all the bases here, providing
a 16MP camera with laser autofocus, an octa-core CPU with 3GB of
RAM for high-end performance, and a 3510 mAh battery for hours
of usage.
Moto Z Play
Contact: Brightstar Distribution Sdn. Bhd., Lazada Malaysia
Phone: 1 300 88 2744, (03) 2027 4766
Info: www.motorola.com

Wafer Thin
Weve seen our fair share of compact and thin laptops,
but Acers new Swift 7 is currently the thinnest one of
the lot. At first glance, it looks too small to house any
impressive hardware (theres such a thing as too thin
when it comes to PC hardware, after all). However, Acer
managed to pack a 7th generation Intel Core i5 processor
inside, along with 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, a
13.3-inch Full HD display, and 2770 mAh 4-cell battery
that Acer says will last up to 9 hours.
Acer Swift 7
Contact: Acer Sales and Services Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: 1 800 88 1288
Info: www.acer.com.my

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Affordable Hi-Res Audio
Is Hi-Res audio becoming a thing? Kworld seems to think
so and have designed an earphone that can deliver that
kind of quality. The Kworld S34 is targeted at those who
want to use it for both games and listening to music. Its
10mm dynamic driver is designed to deliver clear mids
and deep bass, making it good for games since it makes
voices clearer and the sound effects in game better.
Furthermore, it has a wide sound stage and passive
noise cancelling, both which are great to use when
listening to music.
Kworld S34
Contact: Nation-Tech Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 4280 6636
Info: www.gamdias.com.my

Audio On A Roll
Going out for picnics may not be much of a thing here,
but nevertheless a small portable speaker can make
your holidays more enjoyable. And with Ultimate Ears
Roll 2, you wont even have to leave out too much space
on your luggage for it. This portable speaker comes
with a bungee cord, so that you can attach it to your
bag while taking a stroll down a foreign beach. In fact, it
also has basic waterproofing, in case a family member
gets mischievous and decided to dunk you into the sea.
Ultimate Ears Roll 2
Contact: Ingram Micro Sdn Bhd., MCL Sdn Bhd., M-Link
Sdn Bhd., Kaira Technologies Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7955 8188, (03) 8023 3800, (03) 7728 9003,
(03) 7955 3669
Info: www.ultimateears.com

A Case Of Glassy Exposure

Are you the type with an obsession for RGB lighting? Show off the
innards of your PC with the Corsair Crystal 460X! This compact midtower has beautiful tempered glass panels on the front and left side,
allowing the lights from your PC components to shine through. It
comes by default with three 120mm static pressure fans at the front
with LED, further adding to the lightshow.
Corsair Crystal 460X
Contact: Cudo Technologies (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 2148 1177
Info: www.cudo.com.my

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first looks
Keys To The Rainbow
Theres really no end to the RGB phenomena, as another option is
added to the crowded RGB keyboard space. The ROCCAT Suora FX
comes with bright RGB backlighting that is fully customisable. Its
frameless design stands out from the crowd and also save space,
yet the build quality is superb. The mechanical switches are rated
at 50 million presses, which means owning one of these would help
you set up shop for a long time to come.
ROCCAT Suora FX
Contact: PLAY Interactive Asia Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: 1 300 80 7529
Info: www.facebook.com/pg/PLAYInteractiveAsia

Really Fine Indeed

Many Mac users often need a second display for their work. Well,
LG is on the ball for this as its UltraFine 5K monitor not only has a
large 27-inch screen, but also massive pixel count at 5120 x 2880.
It also has the colour output that graphic designers need, covering
a total of 99 percent of the P3 colour spectrum. In addition, it uses
an IPS panel for better viewing angles, contrast and brightness.
Theres also a front-facing camera and microphone for video
conferencing.
LG UltraFine 5K
Contact: LG Electronics (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7962 7777
Info: www.lg.com/my

Helpful Pointers
Tablets may not be that popular these days, but there are still
people who like having one. Some of them rather not smudge the
screen with fingerprints, so thats where a stylus like the Genius Pen
GP-B200 can help. With a design that makes it look and work much
like a ball pen, this stylus is compatible with Android and iOS tablets.
It has a special nib that is retractable and can be easily replaced when
necessary. In addition, it has a long 8-hour battery life.
Genius Pen GP-B200
Contact: KYE Systems Corp
Phone: (886) 2 2995 6645
Info: global.geniusnet.com

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ASUS Expedition
GTX 1050 Ti
Price: RM759
Contact: ASUSTek Computer Malaysia
Phone: (03) 2131 6650
Info: www.asus.com/my

GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti

Memory: 4GB GDDR5
Ports: HDMI x1, DisplayPort x1, DVI-D x1
Slot Size: Double
3D Mark
Fire Strike: 9,318 points
Fire Strike Extreme: 4,597 points
Fire Strike Ultra: 1,861 points
Time Spy: 2,538 points

By Nazrin Zain

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Go On A Gaming
Expedition
ASUS GTX 1050 Ti provides a compelling budget gaming
option

VIDIAs line of Pascal GPUs have been

selling like hotcakes over the past
several months, with users being able
to play games at resolutions higher that
Full HD on certain games even with cards
like the GTX 1060. That being said, the price
even for one of these cards can be a bit
prohibitive in Malaysia. The ASUS Expedition
GTX 1050 Ti aims to provide you with a great
gaming experience that does not drain your
bank accounts resources.
The beauty about the 1050 Ti comes in
several points. First of all, the card is a very
compact graphics solution, which makes it
perfect for various desktop PC solutions,
ranging from full-sized ATX machines, right
down to mini-ITX cases. The other selling
point of the card is also the fact that it runs
power that is delivered over the PCIE slot,
meaning that the card does not need to be
hooked up to the power supply to run.
The Expedition GTX 1050 Ti uses dual
ball-bearing dust-proof fans, and while
these arent exactly the same as the STRIX
or DirectCU fans that are on the higher-end
cards, ASUS still included features such as
the 0dB technology, which means the fans

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on the card dont spin unless the card is

under a certain temperature threshold.
The card features 768 cores operating
at a base clock of 1,290MHz and boost of
1,392MHz. This is paired with 4GB of superfast 7GHz GDDR5 memory. This means
that even at Full HD resolutions, you will
still be able to play most modern games at
relatively high settings.
And true enough, when we tested the
card with games such as Doom, Rise of
The Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto V,
the card is capable of churning great FPS
numbers even with some of the graphics
settings turned up.
That said, these cards are marketed
towards those who feel more at home
playing games like DoTA 2, League of
Legends and CounterStrike: Global Offensive,
and in the cases of these games, the card
runs these games flawlessly even at max
settings at 1080p.
Another thing to note is that the card,
even with the fan running at max, is still
silent, making it an ideal card if you need
your machine to be quiet even during the
heat of gaming.

There is a cutout on the cooler for a PCIE power plug,

but this card does not require it to run

Despite being a compact, mid-range card, the ASUS

Expedition GTX1050 Ti card still sports a healthy
number of video output

Performance
Compact

None

CHIP CONCLUDES
The ASUS Expedition GTX 1050 Ti is a highly
recommended card if youre looking to buy a
new GPU that doesnt tear a new hole in your
wallet.

test lab

Western Digital
Blue PC SSD
Price: RM1,130
Contact: Amble Action Sdn Bhd, Eternal Asia (M) Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7955 1768, (03) 5613 5600
Info: www.wdc.com
Size: 2.5 inch
Storage size: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Cell Type (SSD): TLC NAND
Connectivity: SATA III
CrystalDiskMark (Sequential Read): 400MB/s
CrystalDiskMark (Sequential Write): 450MB/s

By Nazrin Zain

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

A Long Time
Coming
WD finally outs its first proper SSD

ver since news broke out that Western

Digital has completed its takeover of
SanDisk, many have been clamouring for
the company to launch its own line of SSDs.
Whilst it has taken them a while, theyve finally
released one under its Blue category, called the
WD Blue PC SSD.
The WD Blue PC SSD isnt the companys
first foray into the SSD market space, as the
company has, prior to this product have a
hybrid SSD in the form of the WD Black 2 SSHD,
which provides flash storage and an RPM drive.
This time around, the WD Blue SSD goes full
flash for those who want both storage capacity
and high performance in one product, with no
compromise.
Available in three different storage options,
the WD Blue SSD gives users the choice to
choose between a 250GB drive, a 500GB drive
and a 1TB drive. In fact, the Blue SSD comes
in two different form factors, including the
standard 2.5mm SATA III drive, or the smaller
M.2 form factor, which also uses SATA III
connectivity to connect to the PC.

To keep costs down, WD went ahead with

the use of TLC NAND flash memory, which is
widely considered to be the cheapest type of
NAND in the market right now. That said, WD
has made some improvements to the NAND to
ensure that it has a higher write endurance rate
than other SSDs that use similar flash cells.
On paper, the 1TB model (that we also
received to review) has a Terabyte-write
number of 400, meaning that the drive is rated
to read and write 400TB of data before it will
show any form of deterioration. Thats going to
be years, even if you are using the WD Blue SSD
as your operating system drive.
Performance-wise, the WD Blue SSD
performs decently enough as can be expected.
During our benchmarking tests, we managed to
get an average of about 450MB/s read speeds,
with about 400MB/s on write speeds, which
seems par for the course.
On top of that, WD is also offering a threeyear warranty for the WD Blue SSD, so if there
are any problems with it during that period,
they will replace it with no questions asked.

The WD Blue PC SSD also comes in a M.2 form factor

None

Value for money

CHIP CONCLUDES
The WD Blue SSD is a welcome addition
to the line of budget-oriented SSDs that
are currently cropping up in the market.
These storage devices used to cost a pretty
penny to own, even for ones with very little
storage space, but as flash storage is more
mainstream now, so are high-capacity SSDs.

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Transcend
StoreJet 25CK3
SSD Upgrade Kit
Price: RM119
Contact: Amble Action Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7968 6899
Info: www.transcend-info.com
Connectivity: USB 3.0
Interface: SATA III
Dimensions: 129.5mm x 80.8mm x 18.8mm
Weight: 108g

By Nazrin Zain

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Giving Old Storage

A New Lease Of
Life
Upgrade your unused drives with this handy accessory

xternal SSD drives are almost unheard

of until a year or two ago, but they
do seem to be gaining traction
quickly. Ready-made solutions are often
very expensive, whilst 3.5 inch enclosures
are bulky, and often do not have support
for SSDs smaller form factors. Enter the
Transcend StoreJet 25CK3 SSD Upgrade Kit.
The StoreJet 25CK3 is a simple solution
that is meant for those who have spare
2.5 inch drives, be they HDD or SSDs lying
around, and want to use them as external
storage devices. The packaging of the product
itself is pretty impressive, providing users
with a plastic enclosure, a SATA III adapter, a
rubber wrap that helps absorb knocks, as well
as screws and even a screwdriver, to easily
help you open and close up the enclosure.
Installing a drive into the StoreJet 25CK3
is pretty straight forward stuff. As it is not
screwed out of the box, simply slide off the
rubber wrap, pry open the enclosure, and
inside you will see the SATA adapter ready
to have an SSD or any 2.5 inch drive plugged
into it. After it is installed, simply snap the
two pieces of the enclosure together, and use
the accompanying screws to seal everything

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into place.
For optimum protection against bumps
and shocks, the StoreJet 25CK3 enclosure
features a few things in place to ensure that
your drive is in a secure condition. Besides
the outer rubber wrap, there are also inner
rubber shock absorbers, and if your drive is
only 7mm in height, there are also spacers
in store that will increase its thickness by
another 2.5mm to allow your drive to sit flush
within the rubber absorbers.
At the back of the enclosure is a USB 3.0
port, which allows users to fully utilise the
SATA IIIs speeds. This may not matter much
if youre using a low RPM mechanical drive,
but if you have an SSD installed, the USB 3.0
standard allows you to maximise the read
and write speeds of the SSD.
Besides that, the StoreJet 25CK3 also
comes with a one-touch backup function,
which is used in tandem with the Transcend
Elite software, for express synchronisation of
files and folders, even ones on cloud storage
services such as Google Drive or Dropbox. On
top of that, the softwre allows you to encrypt
the files on the drive inside the StoreJet
25CK3 enclosure.

This button corresponds with the Transcend Elite

software, to back up your files both locally and on the
cloud

To maximise the transfer speed of the drives contained

within, the StoreJet 25CK3 uses USB 3.0 as its
connectivity standard of choice

Easy to use
Affordable

None

CHIP CONCLUDES
The Transcend StoreJet 25CK3 allows users
to use spare laptop drives, or even SSDs to
create external drives that have super-fast
transfer speeds. This is an inexpensive way
to use compact drives that arent being
utilised.

test lab

MSI Core Frozr L

Price: RM349
Contact: JW Power Marketing Sdn. Bhd., Mediaforte
(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 2148 1307, (03) 7960 6868, (03) 8070 3633
Info: my.msi.com
CPU Support: Intel LGA 2011-3/ 2011/ 1366/
1156/ 1155/ 1151/ 1150/ 775, AMD AM4/ FM2/
FM1/ AM3+/ AM3/ AM2+/ AM2
Air Flow: 19.79 - 71.27 CFM
Static Air Pressure: 0.16 - 2.09 mm-H20
Fan Noise: 17.2 ~ 33.6 dBA
Dimensions: 140 x 155 x 84 mm
Weight: 960 g

By Matthew Yap

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Silently Cool
MSIs foray into CPU coolers may seem strange, but the
companys accumulated experience in GPU coolers carried
through

or many PC gaming enthusiasts,

squeezing more performance out of their
CPU heavily depends on a good cooling
solution. Liquid solution may be all the rage
these days, but for those with more modest
needs, a tower cooler like MSIs new Core Frozr
L is be enough.
First thing to note about the Core Frozr
L is that its tall, not exactly the ideal cooling
solution youd want to use in an ITX casing.
The heat sink is about 15cm tall and uses a
nickel-plated copper base, which then connects
to four heat pipes that divert heat away to the
aluminium fins. The fan included is MSIs own
highly effective TORX design, with this one
being a larger 120mm version.
Inside the box, MSI included separate
backplates and screws for installation of Intel
and AMD CPUs. Theres also an extra black top
cover, which can be swapped in with the preinstalled one, as well as a pair of fan clips and
rubber paddings for another 120mm fan.
Installation proved to be a mixed bag. It
shouldnt be an issue if the user is building
outside of the case. But if its not, then the only
way to install the Core Frozr L is if theres a
cut out for the back of the CPU. Despite MSIs

claims to the contrary, the actual process

of installing can be quite a chore. The tiny
components are difficult to handle for those
with butter fingers, while the fan needs to
be removed first to install everything else.
Also, note that if you want to install a second
120mm fan in a push-pull configuration, there
might be some clearance issues with taller
RAMs.
With MSIs experience in GPU coolers,
we had expectations for the Core Frozr Ls,
expectations which it delivered. At max (nonoverclocked) load, it manages to keep running
temperatures at 61-degree Celcius. Next,
we ramped up the clock speeds and voltage
slightly, which yielded an average maximum
of 73-degree Celsius. By using a two-fan
config, we saw marginal improvements in
temperatures by 1-2 degrees.
Noise levels were equally impressive.
When idle, the fans spin at a default of 60%
max speed, or around 1800RPM. At this level,
the fan is completely silent with the system
inside an enclosure. The fans generate around
40 decibels when under 100% load, which is
also wont be noticeable from outside of a PC
case.

MSIs TORX fan has proven that its performance can be

excellent, so it makes sense for MSI to go with it here

Trying to put all these together isnt exactly hard, but

the smaller parts can be a chore

Price
Hard to install
inside of case

Silent
Performs well

CHIP CONCLUDES
Although the mounting system for it can
be improved, the Core Frozr L delivers
impressive cooling performance and low
noise levels.

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Pok3r Vortex RGB

Price: RM599
Contact: Ultimatch Solution Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7931 7187
Info: ultimatchsolutions.com.my
Keyboard Switches: Cherry MX Red/Blue/Black/
Brown
Interface: USB
Dimensions: 290 x 120 x 15 mm
Weight: 132 g

By Matthew Yap

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

The Road Warriors

Keyboard
Pok3rs Vortex proves that shaving all that extra bulk can
be appealing to those who need a wired keyboard they can
use on the go

ome people want their keyboards

compact and portable. The Pok3r
Vortex, a 60% keyboard, certainly fits
that description. We gave this peripheral a
try to see if its worth your Ringgit.
Arriving in a box with just the keyboard
and a detachable cable inside, the Pok3r
Vortex is small and minimalist. It casing only
covers the bottom to house the PCB inside.
Our review unit came with standard black
coloured keys, with a white-painted metal
plate to provide some nice visual contrast.
Unlike most keyboards, the Pok3r
Vortext is a 60% keyboard. Long story
short, it has a lot less keys compared to
a standard keyboard. What was cut out
include the numpad, as well as the arrow,
function, and navigation keys. Those who
use spreadsheet software often might find
it very inconvenient, but otherwise it works
just like any wired keyboard.
Despite the size, the Vortex has some
heft to it and a solid metal body; this
keyboard will definitely last for years. The
four rubber feet at the bottom keeps the
keyboard from sliding on tables, but lacks
the capability of elevating. Instead, the rows
of keys all have heights adjusted in a curve,
which should make typing easier.

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Its compactness is definitely its greatest

asset. The Vortex great for notebook users,
since you can stow this away along with a
mouse into your bag, if youre the type that
dislikes the chicklet keyboards that most
notebooks have.
Our overall experience with this keyboard
was relatively positive one. The curved key
rows made it so that the lack of elevated
feet a non-issue, while the keycaps made
typing on it a comfortable experience. At
times, we found idle fingers pressing the
wrong key without meaning to. But thats
due to Cherry MX switches not having an
actuation bump, so its easy to accidentally
press a key if our fingers were leaning on
them. This is easily solved by opting for Blue
or Brown switches.
A downside of this keyboard is that the
backlighting is complicated to program
and takes some getting used to. Theres
no software for you to easily program the
backlighting, for one, so everything has to be
done manually using combinations strokes
with the Fn or Menu keys. Also, some of the
key combinations are not apparent since the
corresponding keys arent labelled; we had
to check the manual on the Vortexgear to
find those.

An old school ECE switchboard can be found at the

back, making it possible to swap the functions of some
keys

The Vortex uses Cherry MX switches

Portable
Compact

Backlighting
hard to setup

CHIP CONCLUDES
Portable, great design, and bright RGB
backlighting. Its one major con is the
fact that the backlighting has to be done
manually.

test lab

MSI GeForce GTX

1050 Ti GAMING X
Price: RM859
Contact: JW Power Marketing Sdn. Bhd., Mediaforte
(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 2148 1307, (03) 7960 6868, (03) 8070 3633
Info: my.msi.com
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti
Memory: 4GB GDDR5
Ports: DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
Slot Size: Dual-Slot
Dimensions: 229 x 131 x 39mm
Weight: 527g
3D Mark
Fire Strike: 9,307
Fire Strike Extreme: 4,607
Fire Strike Ultra: 1,895
Time Spy: 2,513

By Nixon Ng

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Budget Gaming At
Its Finest

Although paying a slight premium, the value you get out

from the card is well worth the money youll be spending

f youve been a big fan of the GTX950 from

before, the GTX 1050Ti will definitely suit
you as well. The GTX 1050 Ti enters the fray
and becomes one of the best budget gaming
cards in the market right now. MSI knows that
gamers these days want the best, so once
again they slapped their Twin Frozr cooler on
the card providing gamers what they want.
The MSI GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X sports
the latest Twin Frozr VI cooler that we have
come to love. On the cooler we have MSIs
Torx 2.0 fans that help exhaust heat quietly
which works together with the Twin Frozr
cooler to provide a cool yet quiet gaming
experience. Like other graphic cards with the
Twin Frozr cooler, it has ZeroFrozr which keeps
the graphic card completely silent during idle
or light gaming, and pumps the speeds up
when it detects temperatures rising above a
threshold.
The graphics card comes factory clocked
at 1354MHz base and 1468MHz boost clock,
under the Gaming Mode profile. You can
download the MSI Gaming App to switch

between the OC Mode and Silent Mode profile

for either the extra boost in performance, or to
have a cooler and more silent experience albeit
at lower performance. Taking a brief look at its
performance, we can tell like the GTX 950 the
GTX 1050 Ti was aimed for the MOBA gamers.
MOBA games like League of Legends and
DoTA have some hefty graphic requirements
when pumping up the settings to their
maximum, and gamers are hardly able to resist
not having the best graphics at their disposal.
We were easily able to get a constant 60fps
and above when it came to the MOBA games
we mentioned earlier, but were also able to
play some of the newer games like Overwatch
at a constant 60fps as well.
Although aimed for the MOBA gamer
market, the GTX 1050 Ti performs way better
than its intended market, and at a lower power
consumption. The MSI GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X
only requires a single 6-pin power connector,
this is mainly for powering the Twin Frozr
cooler so MSI can provide the best overclocking
and cooling experience for their gamers.

Being a relatively small graphic card, it still is able to

retain a HDMI, DisplayPort and DVI connectivity

Only requires a 6-pin power connector, a 550W PSU

could power it no problem

Performance
Value

None

CHIP CONCLUDES
The MSI GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X is one of the
best budget graphic cards out on the market
right now, and the Twin Frozr VI cooler on it
just gives it another reason why you should
get it if youre in the market for a budget
card.

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test lab

BenQ Zowie
XL2735
Price: RM3,199
Contact: BenQ Marketing & Services Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7954 7800
Info: www.benq.com.my
Display Size: 27 inch
Resolution: 2,560x1,440
Connectivity: HDMI 2.0 x1, HDMI x1, DisplayPort
x1, DVI-D x1
Refresh Rate: 144Hz
Touch: No

By Nazrin Zain

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

For Serious
Gamers

Have pro-gamer aspirations? Youll want to see this

owie was acquired by BenQ a while

ago for the display brand to expand
into the e-sports scene, and they
perhaps have not made a bigger statement
than by announcing the availability of its
latest gaming monitor yet, the Zowie XL2735
E-Sports monitor.
As its name implies, the XL2735 is a 27
inch monitor, with a resolution of 2,560x1,440
pixels, and features a TFT display that is
vibrant and detailed. As far as I/O ports go,
the monitor sports two HDMI ports, one of
which is HDMI 2.0, which is required in order
for you to utilise the monitors 2K resolution
and 144Hz refresh rate, DisplayPort, which
does the same, as well as a DVI-D port for
hooking up to secondary machines, and even
comes with a headphone and microphone
port, as well as three USB 3.0 ports.
The monitor also comes with a variety
of preset modes for different genres and
games and viewing scenarios, and it can get
a bit troublesome to manually change all
these items, so with this in mind, the XL2735
also comes with the S Switch, a remote
control which allows you to switch between
three different display profiles, and even
cycle through various inputs that connect
to different devices that the monitor is

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connected to.
One of the monitors biggest features
is the DyAc Technology, which stands for
Dynamic Accuracy. This feature utilises the
displays 144Hz display to maintain clarity
during high-speed gaming sessions to allow
gamers to experience a smoother experience
without having to worry about ghosting
effects and such.
Inspired by BenQs design-centric
displays, the XL2735 features shields, which
are sort of like windows, which helps gamers
to concentrate on the game, while blocking
out distractions, while also having the effect
of preserving the colours of the display from
being washed out by ambient lighting.
More often than not, most display
manufacturers keep the front panel flush by
hiding the buttons at the bottom. No such
thing with the XL2735 as the buttons are
put front and centre, which makes it easy
to adjust the settings via the On Screen
Display.
Image quality-wise, we love how adaptive
the screen is. Regardless of the kind of
display you need, for playing computer
games or watching movies, or work on
documents, the XL2735 can handle all your
display need exceptionally well.

The S Switch allows gamers to seamlessly switch

between three preset display profiles for different
tasks

Vibrant display
Feature-packed

Price

CHIP CONCLUDES
The BenQ Zowie XL2735 is a monitor for
serious gamers with serious aspirations to
succeed in the digital battlegrounds. Its hefty
asking price is a testament to how much
Zowie and BenQ are banking on it to become
the go-to choice for e-sports professionals
around the world.

test lab

Samsung Galaxy
J7 Prime
Price: RM1,199
Contact: Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd
Phone: 1 800 88 9999
Info: www.samsung.com.my
Display: 5.5-inch (FHD)
Processor: Samsung Exynos 7870 Octa
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi
Memory: 3GB
Storage: 32GB expandable with microSD
Operating System: Android 6.0.1
Camera: 13MP (rear), 8MP (front)
Dimensions: 151mm x 75mm x 8mm
Weight: 167g
3DMark Icestorm Unlimited: 7,250 points
3DMark Icestorm Extreme: 3,937 points
3DMark Icestorm: 8,304 points
PC Mark Work: 3,576 points
Antutu: 43,798 points

By Nixon Ng

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Primed And Ready

A mid-range phone that ticks and tocks all the right ways

hones nowadays are most than just

communication devices, but also fashion
accessories. Although performance
always comes first aesthetics are an important
factor for many. For those out looking for a
mid-range smartphone take a look at the
Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime which we are just
about to review below.
Picking it up for the first time the J7 Prime
has some weight to it, but thats explained by
its full metal body. The full metal body has a
curved back and the finish gives the phone
a premium look, while also feeling durable
in hand. The display is protected by a 2.5D
Gorilla Glass which seems to getting popular
among manufacturers these days. The screen
measures at 5.5-inches but we found it quite
comfortable to grip nonetheless, and displays
at Full HD resolutions, great for watching videos
and movies.
The phone runs on Android 6.0.1
Marshmallow and is powered by a Samsung
Exynos 7870 Octa-core 1.6GHz processor
and 3GB of RAM. The built-in storage is 32GB
but can be expanded further up to 256GB

with a microSD card. Our experience with the

performance of the phone has been without
any issues. The phone scrolls through menus
smoothly, and launches apps timely with little
to no lag. Surfing the web as well had no issues,
while the display had sharp and crisp text and
colours that stood out well. The touchscreen is
quite sensitive but its to our liking as it had just
the right amount of sensitivity.
The J7 Prime sports a 13MP rear camera
with a lens aperture of f/1.9 which takes
great shots. We tested the camera in multiple
situations including low light scenarios and we
are honestly satisfied with the photos taken,
even those in low-light locations. Whereas
the 8MP front camera has the identical lens
aperture of f/1.9 which takes great selfies, and
the Wide Selfie feature allowed us to take group
selfies without the need of a wide-angle lens.
With its 3,300mAh built-in battery, the J7
Prime had no problems lasting an entire day
with basic usage and regular web surfing. If you
arent a heavy user you could probably get 2
days out of a single charge and probably even
more.

A 13MP f1.9 camera that takes great shots even in

low-light conditions

The curved back full metal body feels like a durable

rock in your hand, which is a good thing

Performance

None

CHIP CONCLUDES
The full metal body, 2.5D glass and satisfying
performance of the J7 Prime is definitely
something we would recommend to those
out for a mid-range smartphone.

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test lab

MSI GT83VR
6Rf Titan SLI
Price: RM20,999
Contact: MSI Malaysia Office
Phone: 1 300 22 1386
Info: my.msi.com
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i7-6820HK
Graphics: GeForce GTX 1080 SLI
Memory: 32GB
Storage: 1TB HDD, 512GB SSD
Others: WiFi, Bluetooth, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C, 1x
Thunderbolt 3, 5x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1x MiniDisplayPort, 1x HDMI, 1x LAN, 1x SD(XC/HC)
Dimensions: 458 x 339 x 42~69mm
Weight: 5.5kg
PCMark Work: 4,120 points
PCMark Home: 4,732 points
PCMark Creative: 5,875 points
3DMark Fire Strike: 19,796 points
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme: 14,650 points
3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 8,940 points
3DMark Time Spy: 9,882 points

By Nixon Ng

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Unleash The
Mobile Titan

Gaming on-the-go taken to the next level with desktop like

performance even on a mobile platform

f you think gaming on a laptop wasnt a

possible feat, were about to prove you wrong.
No, I think its better to say that MSI is about
to prove you wrong. One of the most powerful
laptops to date, the MSI GT83VR finds itself
sitting inside the CHIP office ready to be tried
and tested.
The massive GT83VR is definitely
aesthetically pleasing, with MSIs signature
red and black motif along with a dragon. With
its size you would be wondering what has
been put inside the laptop to make it so large?
The GT83VR has a fully-functional TKL cherry
MX brown keyboard built right into it, with
the touchpad on the right acting as both a
touchpad and a numpad.
The display is an 18.4-inch IPS display with
Full HD resolution. We would have liked to see
a display with high refresh rates of at least
120Hz especially at this price point, and weve
seen it before on MSIs other laptops so we

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were slightly disappointed on this. Under the

hood theres two GTX 1080s working in SLI,
32GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an Intel Core
i7-6820HK.
The laptop performs fast and smooth,
from starting up the laptop to multi-tasking
on multiple programs and browser tabs.
The combination of the i7-6820HK and GTX
1080 SLI plows through every game we put
it through, which is why a higher refresh rate
display wouldve been nice, as the laptop
definitely has the power to hit those high
frames consistently. You could say that the
laptops great performance and hardware is
slightly underutilised, but were not complaining
because it works just fine.
The MSI GT83VR can get quite loud when
hot, especially when the fan starts churning out
all that hot air. But the on the bright side the
laptop definitely keeps cool, and a cool laptop
means a laptop with a long lifespan.

A Cherry MX Brown mechanical keyboard is definitely a

welcomed addition to a laptop

Numpad is built into the touchpad and activated by

touching the Num button

Performance
Mechanical
keyboard
Dynaudio speakers

Loud when hot

Capped at 60Hz

CHIP CONCLUDES
The only thing that should be keeping you
from getting this gaming monster is budget,
and if you have the budget for it, we dont see
why you arent getting it already?

test lab

AOC G2778VQ
Price: RM999
Contact: Adventure Multi Devices Sdn Bhd.,
Eternal Asia (M) Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7955 7788, (03) 5569 2200
Info: www.aocmonitorap.com/v2015/my/
Screen: 27-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080), 72% NTSC
Panel: TN
Response Time: 1ms (Grey to Grey)
Refresh Rate: 75 Hz
Input: HDMI (v1.4), DisplayPort (v1.2), VGA, audio in
Others: Stereo speaker, Low blue light, Flicker free,
AOC Shadow Control, AOC GameMode, AMD Free
Sync
Dimensions: 640.3 x 470.7 x 299.1 mm (with stand)

By Matthew Yap

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Midrange
Excellence

This model from AOC bridges a gap between basic and

high-end gaming monitors

ne issue that weve noticed with gaming

monitors is that there are high-end ones
and then there are low-end ones, at
least for key specs like refresh rates and screen
size. Theres hardly anything worthwhile thats
in between, but AOC has one that might just
be the ideal bridge between the gaps the AOC
G2778VQ.
The G2778VQ is much larger than expected,
mostly because the thick bezels add a lot of
extra size to the main display. Most of the
body is black but theres a horizontal piece
of red plastic at the bottom of the main
display and one around the base of the stand,
which provide some much needed flair to its
otherwise simple design. Below the right side
of the main display are five physical buttons, all
labelled accordingly on the red plastic that was
mentioned. The stand is solid enough but can
only tilt, so if extra height is needed then youll
have to put a box under it or something.
One interesting feature that can be found
at the back is the stereo speaker thats
housed behind the grills. The I/O ports, facing
downwards, include a D-Sub, HDMI, DisplayPort,
audio out and line out. There are also four
mounting holes for a VESA mount, for those
who want to attach the monitor to a wall.

However, the pre-installed stand might need to

be removed first.
The OSD is simple enough to use and the
buttons are easy to reach. Using it, users can
toggle through preset modes like RTS, Racing,
or make two customised profiles manually.
Gaming on the G2778VQQ is a treat.
Although you wont be getting amazing
colour reproduction, its high response time
and AMDs Free Sync delivers smooth visuals
while gaming. At a max refresh rate of 75Hz, it
performs well enough for mainstream gamers
who cant afford the best PCs.
Since it has a HDMI port to go with the
DisplayPort, the G2778VQ can be daisy chained
to another monitor. This is highly useful for
those who use a gaming notebook as their
main gaming platform. Unfortunately, if your
intention is to run a triple-screen setup for
racing games, then the huge bezels would kill
the immersion.
In contrast, the quality of the speakers isnt
great. The max volume is loud enough, but it
lacks details across all frequency ranges and,
understandably, has no sub-woofer to provide
bass. Fortunately, theres a pass-through
for external audio output so headphones or
speakers can be connected to it.

Before mouting this monitor, the stand needs to be

removed first

The back looks plain, but it does have mounting holes

for a VESA mount and a stereo speaker

Sharp image quality

Affordable

Thick bezels

CHIP CONCLUDES
If you want a large enough monitor with over
60Hz refresh rates, but dont want to pay a
ridiculous premium for 120/144Hz monitors,
then this model is an ideal choice.

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ViewSonic VP2468
Price: RM1,299
Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn. Bhd.,
Servex (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7955 1136, (03) 8024 6688
Info: www.build.com.my, www.servex.com.my
Display Size: 24-inches
Resolution: Full HD 1920 x 1080 (IPS)
Connectivity: DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI,
Audio out
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Dimensions: 539 x 519 x 215mm
Weight: 5.65kg

By Nixon Ng

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

This Ones for The

Professionals
A monitor any professional or even regular consumer
would love having in their office, home and studio

hen it comes to colour accuracy

and reproduction IPS monitors
are definitely in a class of its
own. Professionals which require the most
accurate of colours for their photos and
images are getting IPS monitors all over
the world. Also the fact that it has 178/178
viewing angles means looking from the side
wont affect colour representation, and that
is important for multiple monitor setups.
The VP2468 is aimed towards
professionals whether in the office or in a
studio. The slim practically bezel-less design
allows for near seamless side-by-side
monitor pairing. The monitor comes capable
of daisy-chaining with other VP2468s using
DisplayPort, as there are ports specifically
for the use of chaining monitors together
without the use of a splitter, just additional
DisplayPort cables. The monitor is also
colour calibrated in the factory before being
sent out for sale.
Inside the box there will be a report
which tells you the best calibration settings
ViewSonic has chosen, in case you need to
recalibrate it. On paper the VP2468 achieves
99 percent sRGB colour coverage and Delta

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E<2 colour accuracy, these numbers are

important to professionals because it gives
them a preview of the colour precision they
would experience when they purchase this
monitor.
What we love about this monitor is its
vibrant and accurate colours, paired together
with an ergonomic stand that allows for
pivoting, tilting and height adjustment
to our whim. Theres also a whole lot of
connectivity options, ranging from HDMI and
DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort. Also theres
4 USB 3.0 ports for peripherals and et cetera
which just adds to the value of the VP2468.
In addition, the VP2468 sports Flicker-Free
and Blue Light Filter technology, which we
tested is able to reduce eye fatigue and
strain over long periods of usage.
Some bonus features would be
preset colour modes according to EBU,
SMPTE-C and REC709 so youll be able to
work accurately across different screen
applications. We almost forgot to mention
that the monitor supports Auto Pivot,
which automatically pivots your monitor
orientation from Landscape to Portrait when
you pivot it portrait style.

Portrait or landscape you can switch between them as

easily as turning a steering wheel

The ergonomic stand allows you to tilt, pivot and swivel

the VP2468 to your liking

Accurate colour
reproduction
Ergonomic design
Daisy chainable

None

CHIP CONCLUDES
Aimed for the professionals out there, the
VP2468 definitely hits the mark on accurate
colour representation, and the effort
ViewSonic puts into making calibration
reports just proves how much ViewSonic
cares about their users.

test lab

Sony MDR-1000X
Price: RM1,599
Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
Phone: 1 300 88 1233
Info: www.sony.com.my
Frequency response: 4Hz 40,000Hz
Impedance: 14-46 ohms(on/off)
Connectivity: 3.5mm plug/jack, Bluetooth, USB
Weight: 275g

By Nixon Ng

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

For The Weary

Traveller

Drown out the world around you, or maybe not with the
Sony MDR-1000X

he world around us is a pretty noisy

place, the sounds of cars horning,
engines revving, people shouting.
These are just a few things we now come
to call noise pollution, it can affect our work
believe it or not. Some people just want
their peace and quiet when transiting so
seeing that theres a huge market for it,
manufacturers definitely pounced on the
opportunity.
The Sony MDR-1000X is a headphone
meant for just that, and you can tell at first
glance that it was made for portability.
The carry case is relatively small and when
opened reveals a folded MDR-1000X that
even without its case, can fit into a small
bag if need be. The stylish MDR-1000X has a
comfortable headband and clamps just right,
and the feel of the synthetic leather on the
cups gives you a premium finish feel.
Though the main focus of the MDR1000X is its noise-cancelling technology, and
it definitely does a great job. Though whats
special about the MDR-1000X when it comes
to noise-cancelling is its SENSE Engine. It
has a personal NC optimiser which takes in
your personal characteristics and optimises
itself to suit you further. Furthermore, the
SENSE Engine allows you to use gestures
like putting your hand over the cup to

decrease music volume instantly so you can

speak with people around you.
Theres also the Ambient Sound mode
which is separated into Voice and Normal,
in Voice mode you can listen to your music
while being able to hear surrounding voices,
while Normal mode basically turns your
MDR-1000X into a pseudo-open headphone
to hear everything around you. The Sony
MDR-1000X achieves this by using a pair of
microphones, one on the left and another on
the right cup.
The Sony MDR-1000X has something
called Digital Sound Enhance Engine HX,
which upscales compressed digital music
files like MP3 and ACC. We definitely heard
a difference although we think native
un-compressed audio files like FLAC are still
the best choice. You can also connect the
headphone via Bluetooth or a detachable
cable, which also leaves room for getting an
upgraded cable if youre into that.
The MDR-1000X has great detail and
tight bass, but the mids are just alright we
wouldnt call it a forward headphone. The
soundstage isnt very large but that could be
the reason the mids werent as forward, or it
might get a bit messy. The comfort is great,
we were able to listen on the headphones
for hours.

Some of the buttons youll use to turn on the

headphone when you want to use its NC features

The synthetic leather covering the headphone cups is

stylish and feels great to the touch

Sound quality
Portability
Gestures

None

CHIP CONCLUDES
The MDR-1000X is a solid headphone with
great musicality, comfort and excellent noisecancelling technology.

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test lab

ViDi LCD Action

Camera
Price: RM580
Contact: Tat Chuan Acoustic Pte Ltd
Phone: (6015) 4848 0025
Info: www.tcacoustic.com.sg
Display: 1.5-inch
Image resolution: 12-megapixels
Video resolution: 1080p 30fps
Waterproof: Up to 40ft
Dimensions: 67 x 40 x 30mm
Weight: 57g

By Nixon Ng

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

The Peoples Action

Camera
Ready to go right out of the box, it shoots great and has
multiple shooting modes great for beginners

ction cameras are getting even more

popular than before these days,
especially since we arent limited to
expensive professional ones from GoPro.
With so many brands now producing action
cameras at much more affordable prices,
it wont be surprising to see tourists and
wanderlusters replacing their DSLR cameras
or phones with the much more convenient
and capable action cameras.
Then we have the ViDi LCD Action
Camera, aimed to provide users a straight
out of the box experience. The camera is
packaged in a very minimalist fashion,
and upon unboxing reveals a USB cable,
extension pole, and the camera already in
its waterproof housing with a 4GB microSD
card already inserted. The camera is fully
charged upon unboxing and is ready to use
right out of the box. The small LCD on the
back measures 1.5-inches but displays a live
feed clearly but with a slight fish-eye effect
probably caused by the ultra wide-angle

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lens.
Recording videos is made simple by
just pressing the corresponding buttons
on top of the camera, and recordings
coming just great. We werent able to test
the action camera at 40ft, but it definitely
works at depths an average person would
dive at. The ViDi action camera is capable
of shooting additional modes, Timelapse,
Loop-Recording, and Delay Timer. For the
Timelapse mode you can configure it to
either 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 10 seconds. While Loop
recording will help override your oldest
file to save space every either 3, 5, or 10
minutes depending on your configuration.
The action camera is capable of running
for an approximate hour and 20-30 minutes
while recording which is pretty decent in
our experience. The only issue we really had
was the tiny 1.5-inch screen even though
we would say theres still room on the back
for a bigger screen, but not actually a deal
breaker.

Although a bit small, the screen displays the live view

clearly even under strong light

You only need 4 buttons to control this action camera

Recording quality
Value

Small screen

CHIP CONCLUDES
An action camera that works right out of
the box, taking a stance on being simple
but effective the ViDi LCD Action Camera
is a recommended buy if youre looking to
take your first step into the world of action
cameras.

test lab

ASUS ZenBook 3
Price: RM7,999
Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd.,
ECS Astar Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 6286 8222
Info: www.asus.com/my/
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i7-7500U
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 620
Memory: 16GB
Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen3 SSD
Others: Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi
Dimensions: 296 x 191.2 x 11.9 mm
Weight: 910g
PCMark 8 Home: 2591 points
PCMark 8 Creative: 2693 points
PCMark 8 Work: 3220 points

By Matthew Yap

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Zeny Slim
ASUS answer to a certain companys highly popular
ultrabook scores big on style and compactness, but does
have some wrinkles that need to be ironed out

hen ASUS first created the ZenBook

series, the idea was essentially to
make notebooks that look stylish
and slim, a concept that is taken to the
extremes with the companys latest model.
Say hi to the ZenBook 3.
The ZenBook 3 is barely thicker than a
magazine and has a sweet dark blue brushed
aluminium body. Due to its form factor, there
are only two I/O ports here: a USB 3.1 Type-C
port on the right and an audio jack on the
left. At the bottom of the notebook and on
top of the function keys are the grills for the
Harman Kardon speakers while another pair
of grills on each side serve as ventilation for
the computer. To add more I/O options, the
included dock offers a USB Type-C port, USB
Type-A port, and a DisplayPort. Theres also a
universal dock that provides a variety of other
ports such as a SD card reader and Ethernet
port, but it has to be purchased separately.
It was easy to tell that the ZenBook 3s
greatest asset is its portability. Its compact
enough to easily be slipped into the leather
sleeve and held in the hand, or kept in a
messenger bag with essentials like a mouse
and universal dock should you need one. This
makes it ideal for those who are often away

from the office, or are frequent flyers, and

want something thats not bulky.
Housing a Core i7-7500U Kabylake
processor inside, the ZenBook 3 is an able
performer. While its not exactly what you
want to be gaming on, it can handle everyday
tasks. With 16GB of DDR4 RAM, its also
great for multitasking. However, when the
notebook is on high load it runs warm on
the right side of the unit, especially at the
bottom.
The very glossy display makes the screen
quite a fingerprint magnet and its also
highly reflective. Its visual performance isnt
bad though, with great brightness levels
and decent colour range. The audio quality
isnt too bad, though it lacks bass and isnt
particularly loud. Its serviceable if you want
to watch online streams on it, but isnt
optimal for entertainment.
Typing on the ZenBook 3s keyboard
requires some adjustment. For example,
users with longer fingers cant rest their
palms while typing, but instead angle their
wrist in order to avoid consistent typos when
the notebook is on their lap. Also, the keys
are mushy and have shallow key travel, which
feels unsatisfying when typing.

Although it doesnt add much, the mini dock provides a

much needed USB Type A port

From this angle, you can see how thin this device is

Universal dock
is optional
Keyboard

Ultra-portable
Design

CHIP CONCLUDES
Incredibly stylish and one of the most
portable mobile PCs you can find

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test lab

ASUS STRIX GL502V

Price: RM 6,799
Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn Bhd, Servex
(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 8024 6688, (03) 6286 8222
Info: www.build.com.my, www.servex.com.my,
www.ecsm.com.my
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10
Display: 15.6 inch IPS (Full HD)
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ
Connectivity: USB 3.0 x3, USB 3.1 Type-C, HDMI x1,
Memory: Up to 16GBs DDR4
Storage: 1TB HDD
PCMark Work: 3,815 points
PCMark Home: 4,529 points
PCMark Creative: 5,335 points
3DMark FireStrike: 9,612 points
3DMark FireStrike Extreme: 5,107 points
3DMark FireStrike Ultra: 2,498 points
3DMark Time Spy: 3,593 points

By Nazrin Zain

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

A Noteable
Upgrade
The ASUS STRIX GL502V, now with Pascal

he ASUS STRIX line of laptops have

been given a new lease of life, thanks
to NVIDIAs latest line of Pascal GPUs,
and the GL502V is one of those laptops that
have been given a brand new GPU. We take
a look at how this super thin gaming laptop
performs with its new internals.
The GL502V features a 15.6 inch Full
HD IPS display, powered by Intels 6th
generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor,
with 8GBs of RAM (upgradeable to 16),
alongside an option for an SSD that goes up
to 512GBs, together with a 1TB or 2TB HDD
for extra storage. On top of that, the GL502V
is now also equipped with NVIDIAs latest
GTX 1060 GPU, a perfect companion for the
ultimate Full HD gaming experience.
As far as I/O ports go, the GL502V comes
with three USB 3.1 ports, one HDMI port, one
Mini DisplayPort and one USB 3.1 Type-C
port, which has a transfer speeds of 10Gbps.
It also has an SD card reader, and an RJ45
LAN port for wired internet connectivity.
Besides the internal specs and perceived
performance, another thing that makes the
GL502V a great gaming laptop is how thin it
is. Measuring at just 23.5mm in thickness

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and weighing at 2.2kg, its a gaming laptop

thats meant to be used as both a desktop
replacement device, as well as a portable
gaming machine for LAN parties and such.
The GL502V also has a specially-designed
chiclet gaming keyboard with red-backlit
scissor-switch keys that offer you 1.6mm
of travel distance for tactile keystrokes. It
also features highlighted WASD keys so you
know where your hands need to be.
As far as performance goes, the GL502V
does as well as can be expected out of a
laptop that is decked to the nines with
some of the most powerful consumer PC
components that money can buy. During
our tests, we tried out games such as Doom,
Rise of The Tomb Raider and Shadow of
Mordor, and at 1080p, we managed to max
out most graphics options and still obtain
60FPS.
The fans do ramp up in terms of speed
and noise during the more graphically
intense sessions, but by no means is it
unbearable so. The chassis also warms up
a bit during gaming sessions, but again,
nothing too detrimental that it breaks the
enjoyment of the game.

The ASUS STRIX GL502V sports NVIDIAs brand new

GTX 1060 graphics card, a welcome upgrade for the
notebook

ASUS has not skimped on I/O ports with this machine,

as they even included a USB 3.1 Type-C port on it

Design
Performance

Noise

CHIP CONCLUDES
The ASUS STRIX GL502V is a great and
portable gaming notebook that does not
skimp on performance. Its thin size and light
weight makes it easy to bring around for
LAN parties or a private gaming session with
friends.

test lab

TP-Link Archer
C3150
Price: RM969
Contact: TP-Link Distribution Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 2031 1588
Info: www.tp-link.com.my
Ports: 1x WAN port, 4x LAN port, 1x USB 2.0, 1x
USB 3.0
MIMO: MU-MIMO
Network Standard: IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b,
IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IPv4,
IPv6
Encryption: 64/128-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPAPSK/WPA-PSK2
Dimensions: 263.8 197.8 37.3 mm

By Matthew Yap

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

High Speed LAN

TP-Link ticks all the right boxes with this router, while
keeping it priced relatively reasonable

igh-end wireless routers may seem like

overkill, but there plenty of use cases
high network bandwidth would be
required. And high-end routers like TP-Links
Archer C3150 is one of those that can deliver
the kind of throughput.
Unlike the more edgy looking AC3200
weve reviewed before, the Archer C3150 looks
simpler. The top contains the vents for the
router and a slim button that allows users to
switch off the LED indicators, in case its used
in a bedroom. In addition, it comes with four
detachable antennas that are screwed to the
back.
As for I/O ports, its the standard fare here:
four for LAN and another one to connect to
a modem. On the left side, theres a button
to turn WiFi on or off, a reset button, a WPS
button, and two USB ports (one 3.0) for use with
a printer or external storage.
Getting this router set up was really easy,
since theres a simple step-by-step setup
wizard to help. Once thats done, advanced
options can be configured should it be required.
There are a few pre-configured settings for
ISPs that offer IPTV, such as TMs UniFi, and
in exchange there will be ports assigned to

specific functions and thus cant be used for

anything else. The router also allows users
to customise their own settings, but the user
must then acquire the details from the ISP.
To add functionality, the Archer C3150s UI
has a few notable features, such as basic DoS
Protection and QoS, as well as more useful ones
like Parental Control and the ability to convert
the network into a VPN. The latter allows you
to access the computers or printer connected
to the network remotely, which we found useful
for secured remote troubleshooting. User can
also connect a small 2.5-inch external drive to
it, which is a cheaper way to get a NAS.
We tested the speed of the Archer C3150
by transferring files within the network. The
results: 91Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and
an average of 327Mbps for 5GHz. Also, the
rate of attenuation is below average, but it
will automatically switch to 2.4GHz band at
about 15 metres. Effectively, users would
want to stay within 10 metres of the router
to take advantage of the 5GHz bands higher
bandwidth and speed. Finally, theres the
transfer speed from connected USB devices,
with an average read speed of 60MBps and
write speed of 45MBps.

Standard 4 + 1 array of ports at the back, nothing

unusual here

The UI is easy to use and comes with pre-configured

settings for some local ISPs

Good local network

speeds
Useful functions

5GHz band range is

only average

CHIP CONCLUDES
For a router in this price bracket, the Archer
C3150 delivers great transfer speeds and
has useful features, making it an excellent
choice if you need those aspects on your local
network

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test lab

D-Link DIR895L Tri-band

Wireless Router

Price: RM1,799
Contact: Advancenet Technology Sdn. Bhd., Ingram Micro
Sdn. Bhd., Lab Seven (M) Sdn Bhd
Phone: (03) 8070 3633, (03) 7952 8188, (03) 80758811
Info: www.dlink.com.my
Ports: 1x WAN port, 4x LAN port, 1x USB 2.0, 1x
USB 3.0
MIMO: MU-MIMO
Network Standard: IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b,
IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac, IPv4,
IPv6
Encryption: WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK
Dimensions: 258.5 x 411 x 147 mm

By Matthew Yap

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

Ultra Network
Speed
This router by D-Link aims to deliver on the performance
front and looking good while doing so

f you live in a big house or do something

that requires a lot of bandwidth like online
streaming, youll quickly find that a run-ofthe-mill router isnt going to cut it. D-Links new
DIR-895L is a high-end WiFi router that aims to
deliver cutting edge performance and features.
Lets see how it fares.
The DIR-895L is one of the largest WiFi
routers weve seen. It comes with eight high
power antennas, six of which go on the sides
of the router and the last two are screwed to
the back. On the vibrant red top, there are some
LED indicators to show statuses like which
wireless band is enabled.
Next is the back, which has the standard
four Gigabit LAN and one Gigabit WAN port, as
well as extra ones to add extra functionality.
This includes two USB ports for use with
external devices, a WPS button for easy pairing
of devices to the WiFi network, and a button
that toggles between router or extender mode.
Setting up the router is easy enough, since
it comes with a simple and user-friendly setup
wizard. Compared to the old orange themed UI,
this router features a UI thats a lot cleaner and
easier on the eyes. It can also be operated from
a smartphone by using a mobile browser, or the

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mydlink Lite app.

It can also be used to create a personal
cloud storage at home using external storage
drives, though the mydlink Cloud app can be
a bit limited in functionality. Another notable
feature of the DIR-895L is its intelligent QoS. It
can be configured to automatically give priority
to certain programs like streaming services,
or manually configured according to individual
devices.
The DIR-895L excels in an environment
where a lot of bandwidth is required within the
network. With this routers dual-core processor
in full use, we managed to wirelessly stream
HD content from an external HDD to multiple
PCs, or play online games with minimal
latency at the same time. The throughput was
impressive, with the 2.4GHz band delivered
about 98Mbps, while the 5GHz bands can
provide over 500Mbps of bandwidth. At
78MBps, the download speed from connected
USB 3.0 devices is quite fast too.
As for wireless network range, the two 5GHz
bands actually have decent range and we were
able to stay connected to those bands within
15 metres before it switches automatically to
the 2.4GHz band.

As expected of high-end routers, there are USB ports

here for use with external storage devices

One of the more interesting features for the DIR-895L

is the QoS

Very fast internal

transfers speeds
Useful features

Price

CHIP CONCLUDES
Easily one of the best all-rounder on the
market in terms of performance. The price
for it is steep, but can be well worth it if you
need features like the iQoS and MU-MIMO.

test lab

Sony CyberShot
RX100 MkV
Price: RM4,599
Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
Phone: 1 300 88 1233
Info: www.sony.com.my
Sensor: 1 Sony R5 Exmor
Resolution: 21.0MP
Zoom Range: 24mm-70mm
Connectivity: USB, WiFi, NFC
Storage: SD Card

By Nazrin Zain

Performance:
Features:
Design:
Value:

An Incremental
Improvement
Sony RX100 MkV adds 4K video recording to the compact
scene

he Sony CyberShot RX100 line of cameras

have always been one of our favourite
point-and-shoot cameras, ever since
its first iteration came out all those years
ago. It is a favourite amongst the semi-pros
and professional photographers who dont
necessarily want to lug around their gigantic
DSLRs everywhere, and now, the latest version
of the RX100, the MkV, is set to wow users
again.
If youre familiar with the design of the
RX100 series of cameras, we can tell you now
that the design is exactly the same as that of
the previous MkIV camera. As a matter of fact,
when put side by side, you wont even notice
the difference between the MkIV and the MkV
cameras, unless you look at the notations at
the top of the camera.
The RX100 MkV sports a 1.0 inch sensor,
much like all of its predecessors, but this time
its using a Sony R5 Exmor CMOS sensor, with
an image resolution of 21.0MP. It also features
an extremely fast hybrid autofocus, which Sony
claims is capable of focusing in on an object in

0.05 seconds flat.

While the claims do sound quite
extravagant, we found that the autofocusing
is indeed very fast. Even in relatively dim
conditions, the camera is still quick to focus in
on images in a very fast manner. On top of that,
it has 315 focusing point, using every millimetre
of the cameras OLED screen to the fullest.
The image quality photographed with the
Mk V is excellent, regardless if youre taking a
photo in broad daylight, or at a late night rave
party at a dinky bar. Similar to the older models,
you do have the usual PASM dials, but there are
also a variety of other modes that can be used
to take more creative shots, such as macro, toy
mode, and such.
That said, the biggest feature of this camera
is its support for 4K recording. Thanks to
the stabilising system built into the camera,
pictures come out looking very vibrant and
sharp, although one downside is the fact that
the camera is only capable of recording at this
resolution continuously for only five minutes.

The electronic viewfinder on the RX100 MkV is almost

free of lag, and is very impressive

The dials on the RX100 MkV are the same as that of its
predecessors, so returning users will feel just at home
using it

Compact
Performance

Price

CHIP CONCLUDES
The Sony CyberShot RX100 MkV improves
on existing camera design and features,
while adding new capabilities to the mix.
The asking price is a bit steep, no doubt, but
if you do decide to go with this camera, it is
no doubt one of the best point and shoot
devices in the market right now.

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lite & leisure

PLAY

Shadowverse

Strategy card games can often be more miss than hit, but Shadowverse shows that it has
the right ideas to keep people coming back for more By Matthew Yap

t first, Shadowverse may seem like a

Hearthstone clone. But after giving
it a go, we can vouch that this CCG
(Collectible Card Game) is no copycat. In fact,
we dare say that this game is a much better
game than Blizzards own card game.
Shadowverse is a digital collectible card
game thats available on Android, iOS, and
Steam for PC users. It has a single player
story mode, but youll mostly be playing this
to collect the beautifully illustrated cards
and for the joy of beating the virtual tar out
of other players using your carefully crafted
decks.
The game starts a prologue designed to
introduce you to the games plotline and
mechanics, which many of you long time
TCG players should be familiar with. Once
the tutorial is over, you get free reign over
to explore the game. We love the simple,

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yet colourful UI here. The home screen

randomly displays one of your deck, while

some buttons that mobile gamers would be

familiar with can be found on the side. Then

lite & leisure

theres some buttons at the bottom to thats

go to access the PvP modes, modify your
deck, or buy new cards with the in-game
currency. If you plan to play the game on
both mobile and Steam, you can create an
account on either one platform then link it to
the other.
In a match, youll see the Leaders (chosen
character/class) for both sides, each with
20 Hit Points. Excluding the tutorial and
character intro stages, youll start with 1
Play Point (a resource to play your cards)
and three cards in your starting hand. Play
Points max out at 10 while your hand is full
when you have 9 cards. As for the board, you
can have a total of 5 Followers and Amulet
at any time.
There are two main PvP modes: the basic
one and the Take Two Arena. The basic PvP
mode pits you against another player in
Unranked, Ranked, or Private mode. Ranked
is where youll be spending most of your
time grinding, especially if you plan to climb
the ladder and make a name for yourself in
the currently-non-existing e-sports scene
for Shadowverse. We personally found the
Take Two Arena far more interesting. It
makes you construct a temporary 30-card
deck and gives you a series of five matches
to play. Whats great is that, depending on
how many matches you win, you can earn
additional card packs.
The first thing that any card game has
to solve is to balance out the disadvantage
of going second. Shadowverse went with a
two-fold perk for those who go second: Two
cards on their first turn and three Evolution
Points, with the advantage of being able

to evolve first on the fifth turn. An age

old Japanese card game concept, evolving
allows a player to power up a follower to
attack immediately after being summoned
to regain tempo or to press the advantage
when ahead. Its important to know when
and which follower to evolve, because its
can be the difference between victory or
defeat.
Lets talk about the seven classes, or
craft as the formal translation calls it.
Theres Forestcraft, Swordcraft, Runecraft,
Dragoncraft, Shadowcraft, Bloodcraft, and
Havencraft, each with its characteristic and
win conditions. For example, Forestcraft
can generate a lot of low-cost Fairies that
can be used in combination with stronger
cards, while Shadowcraft players can spend

a unique resource to power up the effects

of their cards. As of now, no class can
completely overwhelm another, making this
one of the more balanced card games thus
far. The different crafts are all equally fun
to play, though we recommend not playing
more than three crafts or youll struggle to
build strong decks fast enough.
Speaking of deck building, you can build
a deck of 40 cards that consist of Followers,
Spells and Amulets. The game provides you
with in-game resources to either create a
specific card, or draw booster packs in hopes
of getting cards that you want.
Shadowverse has been a pleasant
surprise. The game is relatively balanced,
has great visuals and good music. It does
suffer from a small pool of cards, which
limits the variety of decks you can build. But
we believe that with subsequent expansions,
Shadowverse has potential to make it big as
an e-sports title.

Shadowverse
Genre: Strategic Digital Card Game
Developer: Cygames
Info: https://shadowverse.com/
System Requirements Platform: Windows PC,
Mac OS, Android, iOS

Interesting
mechanics
Music
Freebies from
developers

Ranked play can be

grindy
Small pool of cards

Gameplay:
Graphics:
Sound:
Replayability:

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E-SPORTS NEWS

ROG Master 2016

Professional teams for Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 battle for a chance at a
prize pool of over RM600,000 By Matthew Yap

ponsored by ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG), the ROG Master 2016 concluded recently to great
success. Held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, the titles being competed were Counter
Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and Dota 2.
The tournament started with playoffs on the 10 to 11 November, which saw four teams in each
category qualifying for the main event at KLCC. For Dota 2, EHOME.X, Execration, Mineski, and Team
Secret all qualified with clean 2-0 sweeps. While in CS:GO, Risky Gaming, dreamscape, MongolZ, and
LeapFrog emerged victors of their respective playoff matches with the same scorelines.
There can only be one, however, and when the dust settled after the grand finals, MongolZ and
Team Secret were crowned champions.
Hailing from Mongolia, MongolZ defeated all of their opponents in the
tournament without dropping a single match. On the other hand, Team Secret
comprises of players from multiple nationalities. They also delivered top class
performances, despite a member that only joined the team recently.
KheZu (Maurice Gutmann), the new player who replaced FoReV (Lee Sang-don),
performed well with the team during the event. Were trying to figure out what is
best. Right now it feels like I fit in well, and thats easy for me to play because they
are helping me to improve. Theyre really good, and they know a lot. Im enjoying
myself, he said.
For many, the grand prize of 150,000 USD (about RM666,000) for Dota 2 and
50,000 USD (about RM222,000) for CS:GO was not something to sneeze at. The ROG
Master 2016 proved to be one of the largest e-sports event held in Malaysian in
recent years. Its relative success bodes well for the future and e-sports fans would
surely look forward for more to come.

Popular Dota 2 personalities, Paul Chaloner and Toby

Dawson, entertaning the crowd

The Mongol Z is the CSGO champions this time

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lite & leisure

How Is the e-Sports Career

Path Really Like?
In a time where the gaming industry is still not recognised by the general public of its
potential in Malaysia, Ameerah, an e-Sports Assistant from Garena gives us a short outlook
on how an e-Sports career path is actually like
Could you introduce yourself, and give a short explanation
of your role in Garena?
My full name is Ameerah Binti Idros, but people call me MeeraDrs. Ive been working
with Garena for about 1.5 years, and basically my role currently is a mix of here and
there. Im doing streaming, marketing, and also a little bit of event organising. Thats an
overall look on what I do, but I mainly concentrate on streaming and marketing at the
moment. I also do emcee-ing for events for Garena.

How did you get into gaming?

I got into this game called HighStreet 5. But it was only when I took my Diploma that I
found Garena, and played MStar on Garena with friends. Later on, my friend told me he
played League of Legends and told me it was something like DoTA 2. I decided to give
it a try, and thats when I started playing League of Legends.

So from playing games like League of Legends, how and

when did you decide that "I want to pursue a career in this
industry!?
I think it was when I saw SK Telecom winning Worlds Championship back in 2013. It was my first time watching an e-Sports event, and that was
in Staples Center, Los Angeles. You could say it was my first time getting to know about e-Sports and professional gaming. It actually caught my
attention that, this is something new, and not a lot people knew about in Malaysia. When I watched SK Telecom rise up to the challenge to become the
champions I thought to myself This is an actual career path that I can take, and Ive never found something Ive really been interested in doing before
like this.

How did your parents react when you told them you chose this as your career path?
I actually didnt tell them beforehand, but I saw that Garena was searching for Ambassadors. I just told them I was going for an interview, and didnt
tell them that it had to do with gaming. At first they didnt like it, but that was due to them not knowing what happens behind the scenes and it was
something new. But slowly I proved to them that I could make a living out of it, but itll take me some time. From there they could see that I was
passionate about it and willing to work hard for it, and from there I guess they started to support me.

How has the experience been so far?

My experience doing event organising started off when I became an Ambassador, and from there
I had a lot of title changes. But back then I would do weekly tournaments for players and selected
regions that we were given. Later on when I entered the office, I started getting involved in bigger
events like our East Coast Championship. My experience so far has been fun, and being in this
position working with all the different individuals definitely opens up your mind. My job might
be simple in the eyes of others, but behind the scenes theres a lot of details to take care of to
ensure everyone can enjoy the events.

Was it tough to find a job doing e-Sports in Malaysia?

In a way I could say I was lucky to get this job, because I had a few friends who applied and didnt
get it. But I believe if you show the passion that you want to do this, and with the correct medium
and ways you can apply for it. Theres more than just one type of job you can find in this industry,
you could be a team manager, coach, player, analyst, shoutcaster, event crew, production crew. So
if you arent qualified for one, just find one that youre passionate about and qualified for.

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E-SPORTS NEWS

Roundtable With The

Teams Of The CS:GO Minor
Championship Asia
Whilst we were given the opportunity to watch the first few rounds of the CS:GO Minor
Championship Asia, we also had the chance to throw some questions at the teams who
qualified for the tournament By Nixon Ng
In your opinion. What does it
take to be a good CS:GO team?
Why do you think that top
teams like Fnatic, Natus Vincere
and Virtus.pro perform so well?
Team Renegades: We believe that to become
a good CS:GO team, practice is key. You have
to put in a lot of practice like we do. Your
individual level of play is important because
youre part of a team, and your performance
affects the rest of your team as well, and
to improve on that point, you have to put in
a lot of practice. But other than that, there
is communication between teammates,
chemistry with each other, and strategies.
We also think its important to have the
right mentality when going into a game,
because your mentality will definitely affect
your play.
Team Athletico: We think enjoying the
game is an important factor when it comes
to being good at a game. Not only that,
although we think that practice is important,
its also important to have proper balance
in life. Gaming professionally is very time
consuming, it takes hours of playing
hard and smart to get better, but its also
important that we find other things to
do that can help balance out all that time
in front of a computer. This will help you
come in fresh into a game, and not bring
along baggage from a game you might
have lost previously. Also when it comes
to teammates, sometimes you have to
compromise, give in sometimes and you
might be able to see things from a different
perspective thatll help you improve without
you knowing it.

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lite & leisure

What kind of environment can organisations and

sponsors provide that could help foster a gamers
potential?
Team NXL: Like Malaysia, Indonesia has the same stigma that Professional
Gaming is not seen as viable by the general public. But to help combat
that, the Ministry of Sports in Indonesia has recognised e-sports as an
actual sport and players are recognised as athletes. We are currently
lacking in experience due to lack of access to larger tournaments and
inability to improve our play by going against stronger teams. If we had the
funding, we would be able to travel to large tournaments and gain access
to stronger teams, so it would be nice if we had larger funding.
Team FireDragoon: We also think that funding is a key issue. We would
like to see the government, organisations, and sponsors to invest like
they do for traditional sports. But they there are those who still think that
e-sports has no certain future, they want to know that in the future it is
sustainable. But over the years it has been proven again and again, that
e-sports is a viable industry and that there are millions of people following
it. Not to mention, with more funding that would mean there would be
more teams, which leads to more competitions and motivation to reach
the next level of competitive play.
Team BOT: In the gulf states e-sports is actually very popular, and as
there is no infrastructure for professional gaming and e-sports where we
are from, it also means theres no option for us to full-time in e-sports in
the Middle East. We would like to see the government and organisations
do something to support us as they do in countries that have a strong
e-sports infrastructure.

Have you ever had to sacrifice anything to

play professionally?
Team VG.CyberZen: Some people think that to play
professionally we have to drop everything and put all our
effort into gaming. But thats not the case, because we
were able to complete all of our studies before playing
professionally. Even while studying we were able to play
professionally part-time without any issues.
Team MVP: In South Korea e-sports is a true full-time
job, you can earn a wage and everything. But this didnt
mean we had to sacrifice a lot of things. Even when
professionally gaming, we have no exemption from military
services which is a must in our country.

Team TyLoo, as the team most voted

as their biggest competitor for the
championships, what do you think makes
your team such a threat to the others?
Team TyLoo: In China, we believe that we treat our players
even better than other clubs, but at the same time we
maintain a competitive spirit among our players. The
more competitive the players are, the more they will gain
and will motivate them further to improve their play. Our
team believes that teamwork is our number one priority,
because CS:GO is a team game, so we play as a team and
win or lose as a team.

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lite & leisure

CROWDFUND

Made Possible By The

Masses
Our monthly look at crowd-funded projects that are taking the Internet by storm
By Matthew Yap and Nixon Ng

Trickstick
POV (Persistence of Vision) devices arent really new, but
San Francisco based Electrikss Trickstick does it better
than most. The Trickstick capable of projecting colourful
visuals without the need of a surface, outputting visuals
with a greater colour vibrancy. Users can wirelessly stream
images from their smartphones to it and itll appear via the
Trickstick, seemingly out of thin air! Although its not super
useful, we reckon it could at least be used to impress
clients.
http://kck.st/2ei1wbR

TANKY

peaking of toys, theres also smaller drones that are more suitable
for entertainment and not commercial use. TANKY is a drone
thats not about taking photos from up in the air, but is really
about letting the user experience flying a remote-controlled toy. Its
able to flip, roll, and zip through trees, all according to the users whim.
With the build in camera and a pair of glasses that allows you to see
through that camera in first-person view camera, flying this drone is all
about having fun.
http://kck.st/2dTbvaM

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OAK

ince virtual reality became the hype, there are those who look to
giving non-digital games that little bit of extra. Enter the prototype
device called OAK, which is designed to bring Augmented Reality
(AR) to board or tabletop games. Its a dock thats designed to scan the
objects in front of it to generate pre-programmed visuals or apps.
Wouldnt it be awesome if it worked with something like tabletop
Warhammer 40K?
http://kck.st/2f6nCTm

lite & leisure

Sevenhugs
Smart Remote The Remote For
Everything
Do you dream of controlling everything in your home from a single
device? The Smart Remote allows you to just do that! A revolutionary
product that lets you instantly control any device ranging from TVs,
media players, speakers, lights, thermostats and more. Just point at
what you want to control and Smart Remotes screen automatically
adapts like magic. When pointing at devices, the Smart Remotes highdefinition touchscreen will instantly display an intuitive interface to
control that specific device.
http://kck.st/2eTQ72T

Oomiyu - Build
A Playful Paper
Robot Owl

omiyu is a maker kit that combines the art of paper craft with
powerful electronics to create a customisable animal robot. The
maker kit allows beginner inventors to build a fun, customised
and interactive paper craft robotic owl while getting a taste of basic
mechanical principles, electronics and programming. The Oomiyu is built
on top of an Arduino 101, which is powered by the Intel Curie module, to
create a flexible technology platform that can customised with other off
the shelf components and sample codes.
http://kck.st/2gsKLxm

Dashbot - Add AI To Your Car

The worlds first AI-powered hands-free car kit that
allows you to control your music, maps, and messages
without touching your phone. Dashbot connects to
your smartphone via Bluetooth and intelligently
controls your music, maps, and messages with just
your voice. Dashbot is designed to be 100 percent voice
controlled so you can keep your hands on the wheel.
Dashbot announces turn-by-turn directions, reads
your texts aloud, and tells you who is calling. It uses a
far-field beamforming microphone array and state-ofthe-art digital signal processing, that allows it to hear
you no matter how bumpy the road or how loud your
music is.
http://kck.st/2fuY0vj

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practice

New Keyboard For

Your Laptop
Throwing away a working Notebook because a few keys dont work? Using a Lenovo
ThinkPad X300 as an example, you can simply install a new keyboard

enovos ThinkPad notebooks are tough, therefore they enjoy almost

a legendary status among business users. However, when a witty
contemporary says that he has to translate the keyboard caps of his
X300 such that you can read his name on the keyboard, it is possible that
one or the other key will soon stop working. That is why, scrapping the
entire notebook now would be a total waste in case of the X300! As with
its Core-2-Duo processor and the 128 GB SSD, it no longer emerges as a
gaming machine but the ThinkPad X300 is good enough for Office jobs,
for photo editing or for playback of DVDs. This is all the more valid if an
alternative operating system like, for example, Linux is running on it.
Therefore, old-fashioned ThinkPads have, if nothing else, a high resale
value as the Chinese manufacturer who had acquired the PC division
from IBM at the end of 2004, is actually taking the service plans seriously.
The battery can be removed without a tool in case of the X300. And on
the device floors it is clearly marked with comprehensible symbols as to
which screws must be loosened in order to remove the hard disk or the
keyboard. There are notes on memory modules and Wi-Fi units. While
other manufacturers pass on service information and replacement parts
only to authorized workshops, Lenovo is unbelievably open-hearted on
its Support pages on the web. There is a plethora of service documents

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available under www.lenovo.com > Support > Technical Support, free of

cost, also available for download. Numerous video tutorials are of help
during repair. And replacement parts can be obtained at acceptable prices
directly from the manufacturer. All of this makes changing the keyboard
of the X300 extremely pleasant. In this Practice article, we will show you
the procedure and also tell you what tools are required.

How to proceed
1 Get The Tools Ready
Arrange for a Philips screwdriver PH01, a plastic spatula or a flat tool to
lift the keyboard and separate the connecting cable and a brush for
dusting. A vacuum cleaner can also be helpful here.

2 Get A New Keyboard

A new keyboard for the X300/X301 is available on eBay for 40 Euro
(RM160) onwards plus shipping costs.

3 Loosen Screws
There are only two screws that attach the keyboard to the body floor.
They are marked with a keyboard symbol. You can loosen the attached

Photos: iStockphoto/Csondy (Aufmacher Hg.); Vsanandhakrishna (Blume); CHIP Studios

By Martin Jger And Andreas Vogelsang

screws by putting pressure on the screwdriver tip.

4 Lift The Keyboard

Move the keyboard towards the screen. Then place the flat spatula under
the keyboard and lift it up from the frames. While doing so, be very careful
with the sensitive flat-ribbon cable.

5 Disconnect The Flat-ribbon Cable

Now flip the keyboard to the left and carefully disconnect the flat-ribbon
cable from the motherboard. Spring-cleaning of the casing once before
setting the new keyboard is recommended.

6 Remove Dirt And Dust

A lot of dust gets collected over time, particularly in the CPU fan on the
left upper corner. Use an anti-static brush, a pair of small bellows or a
vacuum cleaner to clean the same. Fix the fan while using the vacuum
cleaner.
To install the new keyboard, follow the image sequence in reverse
order

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practice

With Reflector

r
Without Reflecto

Make Your Own

Reflector
Whether in the studio or outdoors, you can brighten subjects or control light conditions
using a reflector. Make one yourself, and you will save yourself a bit of money
By Simon Kirsch

reflector belongs in every camera bag and gives good service for
many years to portrait photographers. However, for this, the
reflector must exhibit a corresponding quality. The manufacturers
are happy to pay dearly for the same. Therefore, often the alternative of
making one by yourself, makes sense.
Most of the tutorials are based on a thin rescue blanket made of GoldSilver foil as a reflector surface which is stretched over a cheap wood or
plastic frame. Such a combination is quite useful if youre starting out.
However, you should select expensive aluminium pipes for a more
stable reflector. You can buy these pipes in desired length or adjust the
length using a suitable small metal saw.
The thickness of the aluminium pipe should be at least two
millimetres. Instead of a rescue blanket which is anything but tearproof,
it is better to use an expensive canvas. The tightly woven material is to
resist rain, wind and weather.
Stitch the ends of the reflector area together in order to make the
connection of canvas to frame very stable. Subsequently, slide the frame
pipes through this and stretch the surface. The advantage against fixing
it using an adhesive tape is that the reflector can be rolled up easily and
becomes portable for transport. And finally, spray one side of the

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reflector with Gold colour using a graffiti spray can. When applying the
colour it is important to find the correct dimension. On the one hand, the
colour should be applied in an opaque and streak-free manner. On the
other hand, a colour layer applied too thick, does not allow any
movements it will develop cracks soon. Therefore, it is recommended to
apply colour only on one side.

How to proceed
1 Determine The Size
Spread the canvas on a level surface and place the suitable frame made
of aluminium pipes on it according to the planned reflector size. Since the
pipes will also serve as grips later on, use pipes which have a diameter of
two centimetres minimum. Note that the canvas protrudes about ten
centimetres.

2 Insert The Corner Connections

Simply insert the pipes into one another. If the connection has a lot of
play, then the reflector will not be stable. To avoid this, strengthen the
diameter of the corner connections with a linen tape. They should sit
tightly but must also be in a position to be loosened anytime by a

powerful pull.

6 Colour the reflector

3 Calculate The Corners
The corners of the reflector should be free in order to keep it in position.
For this, use a pencil and a geometry set square to mark the cut edge
where you have to leave around five centimetres from every corner of the
frame. Finally, cut the canvas to a symmetrical octagon using a scissor.

4 Fix Edges With Needles

Place the protruding edges around the aluminium frames and attach
them with needles to the reflector surface. Repeat the process for all four
corners. It is important that the tension is equal and there are no folds.
Sometimes you have to start all over so that the reflector surface can be
stretched up to the frames without any folds.

You can now give the reflector some final touches. Spray one side of the
canvas with Gold colour using a graffiti spray can and while doing so
ensure a uniform, streak-free application of the colour. Leave the other
side of the canvas white for a neutral brightness. Before colouring, tape
the frames using Painters crepe.

This is how the finished reflector looks

Perfect foundation
Canvas has many advantages, among
others, stability, light weight and
simple processing

Stable frames
Particularly important is the
torsional stiffness. Breakproof aluminium pipes can
withstand wind and weather
better

5 Stitch the joints together

If they are optimally fixed then you can attach them using a sewing
machine. Remove the aluminium pipes from the fish plats and now stitch
them together with a sstrong thread. Here, always insert the pipe again
to check the tension. If you do not have a sewing machine, then use a
cloth tape or a textile adhesive.

Tripod Mounting
Using a clamp, attach the
reflector to the tripod. But be
careful against strong wind:
The reflector will be a sail if left
unattended

Holding grips
If you want more comfort
while holding the reflector
then attach PVC pipe
insulations with a hot
adhesive

tips & tricks

02

Tips
Tricks
DECEMBER 2016

WINDOWS & OFFICE

Windows 10
Start Windows in safe mode to
identify errors

01

When the operating system is has

errors, starting Windows in safe mode is
recommended to look for errors. There are
several options for this in Windows 10.
In case of the older Windows versions, you
could invoke the safe mode by using a
key combination while starting Windows.
This works in Windows 10 till date via the
shortcut [Shift]+[F8] however the time
window is so small that the process mostly
fails. A more reliable way to go to the safe
mode by clicking on the Power button after
clicking on the Windows icon on the bottom
left. Click on the "Restart option while
keeping the [Shift] key pressed. The BIOS will
be displayed. Under "Advanced options, you
will now see the "Windows Start settings.

01
You can also trigger the safe start of Windows in
the ''System Configuration

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Windows
Download and install new fonts

02
Before installation, the appearance of the font can
be checked in a preview

Click on the button "Restart. Windows will

now go into the safe mode after pressing the
[4] key.
Another way is via the system
configuration: You can go to the same by
pressing the shortcut [Windows] + [R]. Type
"msconfig in the "Run window and confirm
with OK. Now activate the options "Safe
Boot and "Network on the "Start tab. After
clicking on OK, press the button "Restart and
you will then directly come to safe mode.
Even the command prompt has the option
to invoke the safe mode. After pressing
the combination [Windows]+[X], activate
the "Command Prompt (Administrator) and
confirm the security question. After typing the
command "bcdedit / set {current} safeboot
network, Windows will go into safe mode.
This can go faster if you place a
corresponding link on the desktop. To do
this, right-click on a free area on the desktop
and select a "Link under "New. Now
specify "shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00 as
path without the quotes and click on "Next
and "Finish. In future, clicking on the file
"shutdown.exe will be sufficient to start
Windows 10 in safe mode.
Finally, there are two more options for
these start variants: Insert the Windows 10
DVD and click on "Computer Repair on the
bottom right in the Installation screen. And
when worse comes to worst, start your PC
and immediately press the Power button
again till the computer shuts down. After you
have repeated this process four times, you
will come to the UEFI and can initiate the
safe mode there.

Windows, by default, has only a reasonable

selection of fonts. To add new fonts to
Windows 7, first download the desired font.
Once you have found something suitable,
open that font type which you want to install,
by double-clicking on it and go to "Install. If
you wish to install more fonts at one time,
move the desired fonts to "C:\Windows\
Fonts. To install these fonts, right-click on
them and click on "Install in the context
menu. You can now use the new fonts, for
example, in Word.
You can install new fonts in a similar manner
in Windows 10. Open the font that you want
to install by double-clicking on it and press
the button "Install in the upper area of the
window. You can install one or more fonts
also via the context menu. For this, select the
fonts and right-click on one of the selected
fonts. Now go to "Install in the context
menu, and youre done.

03

Windows
Change the way thumbnails are
displayed in Explorer

By deactivating the thumbnails in Windows

Explorer, you can unblock valuable resources
in your PC particularly in case of older PCs.
For this, in Windows 7, open a folder like
"Your Pictures and click on "Organise on
the top left. In the menu that opens, go to
"Folder and Search options. Subsequently,
the "Options window opens where you can
activate the tab "View. Now set a check mark
for "Always show icons, never thumbnails.
Windows will disable the thumbnails after
confirming with OK.

tips & tricks

within the document. This is helpful in case
of table of contents with longer texts in
order to quickly jump to a specific chapter.
If you wish to refer to a document which
you have not yet created, then you can do
this via "Create new document. You should
necessarily change the file path there in order
to find the document again. With the last
button "Email address, you can integrate
an Email function and also specify a subject
apart from the recipient address. For example,
if you send a Word document as a PDF, then
the readers can respond to you via mail with
just a click.

03

old version as far as possible. You will find a

selection of several versions on the website
dll-files.com, however these are paid versions.
Save the old "shell32.dll on an USB stick
and delete the file subsequently from the
computer. Then insert the new "shell32.dll
and restart Windows.

06

Outlook
Access the headers of an Email

The option "Always show icons, never thumbnails"

disables thumbnails

This action is not so different under

Windows 8 and Windows 10. Again open a
random folder and click on the "View tab.
In the following icons bar, press the button
"Options on the extreme right and then
"Change folder and search options. In the
"Folder options, open the tab "View, set a
check mark for "Always show icons instead of
thumbnails and confirm with OK.

04

Word
Create cross-references in the web or
to text sections via link

You can create Internet-hyperlinks in Word

documents with just a click. Links to a file are
also possible. First select the text which you
want to connect with the hyperlink. Rightclick on it and go to the context command
"Link. Now you can insert the link to a
specific Internet page or also to a file on
your computer with the help of the topmost
button "File or website. The second button
"Current document allows a cross-reference

05

Window
Replace or change the defective file
"Shell32.dll

If your PC reports that the file Shell32.dll is

missing, then do not let Windows start. If
you are still using Windows XP, Vista or 7,
then simply insert the Windows DVD into
your computer. After changing the booting,
the sequence, start Windows from the DVD
and subsequently the "Computer repair
options. Generally, Windows will now replace
the missing DLL file which helps in solving
the problem. Under Windows 8 and 10,
you only need to open the BIOS or UEFI. In
"Troubleshooting, select "Advanced Options
and enable the "Start help. If this does not
help, then go to "Recover system.
If these actions do not work, then
manually replace the file Shell32.dll. To do
this, start Windows in safe mode, open the
path "C:\Windows\System32 and search for
the file "shell32.dll. After right-clicking on the
same, go to "Properties and check the File
version in the "Details tab. The version of
the replacement file should exactly match the

06
You will find the so-called Internet Headers in
the Properties of a message

The Email header in Outlook contains a row

of technical details regarding a message,
for example, the result of anti-spam and
anti-virus checks. To view it, go to the tab
"Message in the opened mail. Now go
to the group "Selections and click on the
small arrow on the bottom right where the
"Properties windows will open. You will
find the comprehensible Email header in the
lower part. This header bears the somewhat
awkward name "Internet Headers.

07

04

05

In Word, you can refer to websites or sections in the

document via a hyperlink

On dll-files.com, you can replace all missing dll files

but not for free

Windows
Keep window with tool support
permanently in the foreground

There are certain windows which you would

want to keep permanently in the foreground
instead of having to search for them under a
pile of overlapping windows again and again.
An on-board resource of Windows which
helped achieve this objective is definitely
missing, but this function can be upgraded
with small tools. eXtra Button extends the
conventional window options "Minimise,
"Maximise/Reduce and "Close among others,
by the option "Always on top, to keep the
window in the foreground. With the tool
OnTopReplica, you can always keep a copy of

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tips & tricks

"Next twice, specify the FTP address of your
server. On the next page you can choose
whether you wish to Log in anonymously
or log in using a username. You can now
give an individual name to the server before
you finally click on Finish. After a short
time, a login window will open where you can
enter your log-in data. After this action, the
FTP server will appear as a drive in Windows
Explorer.

10

07

08

With this tool you can keep windows permanently

in the foreground, at the press of a button

In case of shut down problems, first switch off the

Quick Start option for testing

the desired window in the foreground this

is practical to keep a video playing. If you
want to use the window, then you have
to switch over to using the Taskbar. You
can also create your own key combinations
using the tool support. Install the program
AutoHotKey and create a file with the ending
.ahk. Enter the following command in this
script: "^!T:: Winset, Alwaysontop, TOGGLE, A
and start it with a double-click. The shortcut
[Ctrl] + [Alt] + [T] will immediately keep certain
windows in the foreground immediately.

(MEI)Version 9 from the Intel website

(http://intel.ly/2c1DGjt). Then download the
"Troubleshooting package Show and Hide of
Updates from the Microsoft website (https://
support.microsoft.com/de-de/kb/3073930)
and disable the automatic updates of
Windows 10. After that, install the new
Intel driver in Version 9, start the Microsoft
Troubleshooting packet and switch off
updates for the "Driver for Intel Management
Engine Interface (MEI). Finally, reactivate the
automatic updates of Windows 10 and restart
the PC.

08

Windows 10
Reactivate the non-working
Shutdown function of Windows 10

If your PC is consistently refusing to shut

down properly such that the only option
remaining for you to shut it down is by
pressing the Switch-off button for a long
time or by pulling-out the power plug, then
it is better to be proactive in solving this
problem. For example, the error may be
due to the Quick Start function. In order to
disable this as a test, open the Search with
the combination [Windows] + [S] and type
"Power Options. In the next window, click
on "Choose what the power buttons do.
Subsequently, go to the link "Change Settings
that are currently unavailable and delete
the check mark for "Turn on fast startup
(recommended) in the "Shutdown settings.
Click on Save Changes to confirm these
changes.
For PCs with Intel CPU, a device driver
could prevent the shutdown. The "Driver
for Intel Management Engine Interface
(MEI) Version 11 is the suspect. To resolve
this problem, first download the "Driver
for Intel Management Engine Interface

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PowerPoint
Highlight parts of a presentation with
a magnifying glass

10
You can change the size of PowerPoint elements
with Enlarge/Reduce

09

Windows
Integrate FTP server as a drive in
Windows Explorer

In order to simplify larger data transfers, it

is recommended to integrate an FTP server
as a drive in Windows Explorer. To do this,
right-click on the option "Computer or "This
PC and go to the context command "Add
network address. After pressing the button

09
With a few tricks, you can integrate an FTP server
as a drive in Windows Explorer

You can enlarge individual elements of a

presentation with a magnifying glass in order
to grab the attention of your audience. The
Office program offers two options for this.
If you wish to spontaneously use the
magnifying glass, start it directly in the
on-going presentation. If you move the
mouse in the full screen mode then some
transparent symbols, including a magnifying
glass, appear on the bottom left. If you
select the desired area, then PowerPoint will
magnify it. With the help of the mouse, you
can move this area randomly. You can close
the magnifying tool again by pressing the
[Esc] key.
If you already know which pictures or
texts you want to magnify, then set the zoom
beforehand. First insert the desired picture
in the presentation program and activate the
tab Animations. Subsequently, click on the
picture and select the animation Enlarge/
Reduce in the menu group on top. You can
now try dragging the image to the desired
size till the subsequent Zoom effect is to
your satisfaction.

tips & tricks

11

Window
Delete individual WiFi profiles in case
of network problems

11
Via a command line, Windows can display all the
WLAN profiles known to the PC

In case of Windows problems with the

network, it often helps when you delete
existing WiFi profiles. To do this, open the
"Run window using the shortcut [Windows]
+ [R], type "cmd and click on OK. In the
command prompt, type the command
"netshwlan show profiles and press the
ENTER key. Windows will now show you
a list of all networks, to which your PC
was connected. Then, type the command
"netsch wlan delete profile name=XXX. The
characters XXX stand for the name of the
network which you wish to delete. Windows
will delete this WLAN profile once you press
ENTER again.
Although this instruction also works under
Windows 10, there is a simpler way to do
this in that operating system. Open the
Start menu, go to "Settings and navigate
to "WiFi under "Network and Internet.
Click on "Manage WLAN Settings at the
bottom, select the desired network out of
the listed networks and click on "Do not
save. Windows 10 will then delete all the
information for this WLAN profile and you can
set up a new connection.

HARDWARE
PlayStation 4
What to do if the Sony console does
not display any picture

12

There are several potential causes for

picture failure on the PlayStation 4. The
cable connection is often responsible for the
problem. For example, if the HDML cable is
not set correctly then you will receive only

12

13

Cable damage, wrong resolution or old TV firmware

can block the PS4

If your Notebook no longer charges the battery,

then the driver may be responsible for it

sound or nothing at all. Hence, first check the

HDMI cable at the backside of the PlayStation
and push it in firmly into the port. If you still
do not get any picture, then check if the cable
is the cause of the problem. It will be faster
to find out whether the cable is damaged
when you use it as a connection of another
device, e.g. your notebook, with the TV. If you
see a picture, then the cable is okay.
This can also indicate that the HDMI port of
the PlayStation is defective.
Perhaps, a wrong resolution may be
responsible for the picture not appearing. To
change the resolution, keep the Power button
pressed while starting the PlayStation, till you
hear a second beep tone. The Security menu
of the console will now open. Here, select
"Change Resolution and press OK. Now set
the same resolution like the one for your TV.
If this action does not yield any positive
result, then you should get the firmware of
your TV checked and updated, if required. To
do this, open the Settings menu of the TV
and search for the option "Firmware under
the menu options like "Info or "System.
Subsequently, start a search for firmware
updates. For this, the TV must be connected
to the Internet. Once the search function
finds a new firmware version, install the
same to update the operating system to the
latest version.

the notebook and remove the power cable

and the battery. Wait for a while and then
place the battery into the notebook again,
connect the power and turn on the notebook.
The problem should now be resolved. This will
work if the battery is not firmly installed.
If you cannot remove the battery, check
the driver and re-install it. Open the Start
menu and type "Device Manager in the
search field. After clicking on the result link,
go to the arrow before "Battery in the Device
Manager. You should now see two entries
one for the power adapter and another for
the battery. Right-click on the Battery option,
e.g. "Microsoft ACPI-conform Controlled
Method Battery and call the command
"Uninstall in the context menu. Confirm
the security warning and restart the laptop.
The problem should be resolved after the
automatic installation of the driver.

13

Notebook
Successfully revive a laptop battery

As soon as your notebook issues an error

message like "Mains operation, Battery is
not being charged, youll need to fix it.
Removing the battery briefly from the laptop
to re-trigger the charging process is often
sufficient to solve this problem. Shut down

14

Home Entertainment
Special adapter kits transmit the
HDMI signal over a distance up to 100
metres

If you want to transfer Full HD movies

and videos from an external source like
a notebook on to your TV, then both the
devices must be connected by an HDMI
cable which is not so beautiful to look at.
A visually more elegant solution is setting
up a wireless HDMI connection. For this, you
will need a special adapter that will connect
the video inputs and outputs of the devices
involved. The two adapters will establish the
connection and then transfer the video and
sound signal.
The adapter kit Aten VE809 costs around
200 Euro, transmits HDMI signals over
maximum 30 metres and supports 3D and

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tips & tricks

to reduce the CPU temperature. To exclude
the possibility of a defect being responsible
for the increased CPU temperature, start the
stress test using the software Prime 95 (on
CHIP DVD).

WEB, TOOLS & PHOTOS

Gimp
Master the most important
manoevures of photo editing in Gimp

17

14

15

Special adapter kits transmit the HDMI signal over a

distance up to 100 metres

If the Speedport reports a "technical error, then

sometimes reconfiguration helps solve this
problem

Dolby 5.1 audio. The HDMI kit from renkforce

costing around 180 Euro is a bit cheaper but
has a range of only ten metres. In case of the
adapter set from PureLink, you can decide the
transmission distance yourself. The 10-metre
and the 30-metre bridging, both, cost around
200 Euro, the transmission beyond 100
metres will cost around 320 Euro. These kits
also support 3D.
Every set is made up of a transmitter
and receiver box. The transmitter box, in
most of the cases, can be plugged into the
port of the PC or Blu-ray players like a USB
stick. Connect the two adapters with source
and destination devices and with the power
supply if necessary. While positioning, you
should be careful that there are no obstacles
like walls or furniture which will interfere with
the video signal. After you have switched on
both the adapters, the wireless, delay- and
loss-free transmission of HDMI signals will
start.

15

17

16

CPU
Control the processor temperature
and reduce it if necessary

The temperature of the PC processor can

be checked using the tool SpeedFam (on
CHIP DVD). In case of less load, the CPU
temperature should be between 30 and
50 degrees C. In case of heavier load,
for example, like intensive programs,
temperatures may go up to 95 deg. C in
case of some CPUs. With SpeedFan, you can
increase the fan speed if needed, in order

WiFi
How to fix router problems

If your router displays the message "Technical

error in the network" then there may be an
interruption in the power supply or a failed
firmware update responsible for this. Switch
off the router, pull the power plug and wait
for ten minutes. In this time, check the DSL
cabling from the router to the phone jack.
After that, connect the router again to the
power supply where it will attempt to make a
connection.
In order to extend the error search to the
router configuration, open the web interface
of the router, click in the menu on "Status"
and check the router log for error messages
like PPPoE Error: Time exceeded (PADI is

122

not answered). In the log file, search for

the entry that documents a successful login.
If such an entry is missing then possibly,
the router is incorrectly configured. You can
then reset it where you have to keep the
Reset button pressed for ten seconds and
reconfigure it by clicking on For automatic
configuration of Speedport Routers.

december 16

chip malaysia

16
With SpeedFan, you can always check the CPU
temperature and can take countermeasures in an
emergency

Using the Colours tool, you can adjust the colour

tone and saturation of your presentations

If you don't have experience with the Open

Source tool Gimp, then you should try out
these features once.
Use image layers: Similar to Photoshop, you
can also work with different layers in Gimp. In
order to reveal the menu, click on "Dockable
dialogs" under "Window" and then select
"Layers". You can duplicate, merge and edit
the layers amongst each other by rightclicking on them. You can also hide or reveal
individual layers by clicking on the Eye icon.
Insert text in images: After you have selected
the option "Text" under "Tools", the text can
be positioned at any random position in the
image. Here, you can change the font as well
as the size and colour of the text.
Reduce photos: Open the file in Gimp, in
the menu bar click on "Photo" and go to the
command "Scale photo". You can specify the
size in pixels, centimetres or percentage.
Optimise colours: For this, go to "Colours"
under "Tools". You can now modify the tones,
saturation or contrast. Even the brightness
can be changed as per your liking.
Export photos:
Gimp saves your photo projects, by
default, in XCF format. However, you can
hardly start with this if, for example, you

tips & tricks

want to send or upload photos. Therefore, you
have to select the option "Export as" under
"File" while saving. You can manually specify
the file type or select it in the selection menu
below.

18

Photography
Achieve attractive light effect with
unleashed flashes

"Unleashed in flash means that you use the

camera and flash not as one unit but use
them spatially separated. You can connect
the flash(es) with the camera via cable or a
remote trigger. Some models already have a
remote control. For the wireless flashes, you
will generally need a camera like the Canon
550D, a wireless remote control like e.g. the
Yongnuo RF-603/C1, flash like the Yongnuo
YN-560 Mark III and tripods or light formers.
Depending on the subject, several flashes
are to be triggered in an unleashed manner.
You can use up to three clip-on flashes with
softboxes in the studio. Place the flashes
slightly offset and slightly skewed before the
subject and pay attention that there are no
strong shadows forming, particularly in the
eye area.
Additional tip: The eye reflex of the clip-on
flashes can have a very lively effect on your
photo.
Flashes can be unleashed not only in
studio photography. Particularly, the principle
of the Brilliant Flashes can be implemented
with a wireless flash. For special effects,
you can combine the flashes with unusual
positions and colour slides.
Close-ups can be illuminated quite well.
The best way is to position a flash somewhat
above and one at the height of the subject.

Additional tip: Stick a colour slide in front of

the flash and place it in a book in front of the
model. The photo will look as if the book is
sending out light beams.
If you want to know more about the
topic "Unleashed flashes, then visit the CHIP
Academy (www.chip.academy). You will find
a detailed workshop that will explain all the
important points of the topic Flashes in 2.5
hours.

19

In case of "unleashed flashes, you can achieve

special effects from the flashes separated from the
camera

20
In Paint.net, you can insert and bend the image
texts as you wish

centre point of the arch/bulge either towards

the text start or text end or upwards or
downwards. As soon as you approve the
appearance of the curved text, save your
settings by clicking on OK.

19
A few mouse clicks and you will have permanently
exited from a Facebook group

If a Facebook group, where you a member,

is increasingly getting on your nerves then
simply exit the group. This action is executed
rather fast.
Log in to your Facebook account. On the
left in the menu, you will find the option
Groups somewhat further down. Click on
the same. Facebook will now show you all
the groups which you are a part of. Click on
the symbol with the pen on the left next to
the group which you wish to exit. Now select
the option Exit Group there. For sake
of safety, set a check mark for the option
Prevent others members from adding me
to the group again and then click on the
button Exit button on the bottom right.

20

18

Facebook
Leave the groups of the social
network

21

YouTube
Download videos fast without using
any software

You can use the simple word magic and

download YouTube videos in a few seconds
without the help of any software. In YouTube,
search for a video and type the word magic
between you and tube in the URL bar.
After pressing the [Enter] key, you will come
to the video Save-Video.com. Now click below
on the button Download Video, select the
video quality or the MP3 format and then
click on the corresponding link. The download
will then start and the video will start playing
thereafter.

Paint.net
Put curved captions on photos

To visually pep up photos, a curved font

can be added even with the photo editing
tool Paint.net (on CHIP DVD) which is the
successor to the free MS-Paint. For this,
first type your text in Paint.net and then
activate the tab Effects. Under Distort,
select the option Arch. A new window with
various sliders will open now. You can use
these sliders to distort the text. With the
topmost slider, you can determine whether
the font should curve forwards (slider to
right) or backwards (slider to left). The other
two sliders in the Middle area move the

21
Type the word "magic in the URL and the YouTube
video will download in your PC

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125

16/11/2016
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31/10/2016 Nothing like eye catching colours to go
with the snappy Moto Mods upgrade of the Moto Z

2/11/2016
Day event

a rare appearance
A Tesla Model S made

at Digis Digital

15/11/2016 These cosplayers helped showcase the

new Lenovo gaming PCs on display

ten
got some new local con
3/11/2016 Netflix there
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show it to everyo

t and hes just about

to

and regionally got

8/11/2016 Games developers local L UP KL
from veterans in the industry at LEVE

celebr
The coach
28/10/2016
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to learn directly

g his
pon watchin

8/11/2016 Of course
the stuffy conferences,, LEVEL UP KL wasnt just about
booths like this VR one but also had some cool demo
here

12/11/2016 One of the biggest highlights of the ROG Masters

2016 for fans was having world renowned Dota 2 team, Team
Secret, all the way here to sign their stuff

16
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and

in the next issue

JANUARY

Beating The Addiction

We are glued to our smartphones every day and app developers have so many tricks to keep us there. However, there are ways to beat
that addiction.

Tech Trends In 2017

Another new year is just around the corner, so many would be
wondering whats the next big thing in tech. Our next issue
will feature an article with some of the upcoming technology
trends that are expected for 2017.

128

december 16

chip malaysia

The Heart Of The

PC
With the holiday shopping season underway, many are looking
to get a new PC. When it comes to core components, the CPU
and GPU are definitely the key. This article will look at the
latest offerings for these two types of components in the
notebook and desktop PC segment.