welcome note

colophon

Right Here In The

Middle
J
une was one heck of a
month wasn’t it? We went
through what had to be
the hottest and most
uncomfortable weather due to El Niño. Some of us got to spend a
week in Taiwan to be part of COMPUTEX Taipei 2014 and as
always it was great fun. Many of us gamers were left with empty
wallets and bank accounts thanks to the Steam and Good Old
Games Summer Sales, which had plenty of great deals. Now it’s
just down to finding the time to complete the games.
While COMPUTEX was still pretty big this year, it felt a little
quieter this year compared to the previous years I found myself in
the exhibition halls. There also seems to be a shift as commercial
products and solutions seemed to be much more interesting
compared to consumer and end-user offerings. With that said
though, we still managed to see a slew of very interesting
upcoming products so do check out and enjoy our extensive
coverage of the event.
Other than COMPUTEX, there were three other major events
that also happened this month, Apple’s Worldwide Developer
Conference, Google’s I/O developer conference and of course the
Electronic Entertainment Expo. Google is definitely going strong as
they unveiled a laundry list of new innovations and we managed
to compile information on some of the most interesting ones. As
for E3, you will find a list of the games we can’t wait to be released
in the Lite & Leisure - Play section.
On top of all that, we have our standard offering of interesting
feature articles and in my very opinion the one that really piqued
my interests were the ones about new battery technology,
Universal Flash Storage 2.0 and also the one about wearable
sensors.
Well, that’s pretty much all I have to say for this month. Here’s
to hoping that July would be a calmer month so we can get the
magazine back on track and also give me a little breathing room to
clear up my backlog of games. Until next time, remember to stay
safe & live for the moment.

Jeremy Cheong

Managing Director Noor Azman ONLINE DISTRIBUTED BY

Head of Department YK Cheah
EDITORIAL
Editor Jeremy Cheong
Writer Nazrin Zain, Nicolas See Tho
Contributors Anand Tuliani, Azril
Malik, Brian Pereira, Deepti Krishnan,
Dushyant Khilnani, Erick Rustomji,
Fabian von, Keudell, Francis D’Sa,
Jamshed Avari, M. Biebel, Manfred
Flohr, Markus Hermannsdorfer, Michael
Eckstein, Monali Gaikwad,
Tim Lee,Thomas Littschwager, Valentin
Pletzer
Design & Layout Halijah Ismail
Cover Design Halijah Ismail
SALES & MARKETING
Senior Manager YK Cheah
Consultant Muffadzlee Dato’ Sufian
ADMINISTRATION
Admin Manager WP Lim
www.chip.com.my
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 contents
july 2014

045
Highlights From
COMPUTEX Taipei
We show you the hottest technology and gadgets from the biggest players in
the industry who made their presence felt in this year’s event

034
Put It On You
Wearable technology, gadgets and sensors are
now one of the fastest growing markets as most
manufacturers are already on the bandwagon and
finding the best way to make wearables useful and
unintrusive
039
A Juicey Article
When we say juice, we mean power and to be precise,
this article is all about batteries and how researchers
and finding alternative materials to make them more
efficient
 contents
july 2014

008 114 107

028 032 111

FEATURES
028 LegalTech
Take a trip back two years
ago to find out what caused
Malaysian netizens to blackout
the internet for a day
032 Timeline
A look at how the USB came
to be
NEWS & TRENDS
008 Local News
Coverage of the latest news
and events right on our shores
023 World Wired Web
All the latest tech happenings
around the world
026 Security Reports
Monthly dose of security news
TEST LAB
071 Test Lab: The Tools
Test Labs’ tools of the trade
072 Test Lab Contents
Take a pick and get
started!
080 Reviews
Professionally conducted
reviews following our stringent
tests and benchmarks
PRACTICE
114 No More Surprises
Giving your kids access to
your tablet to play games can
sometimes cause unwanted
surprises. Here’s how you can
prevent that from happening
LITE & LEISURE
106 Read
We highlight two novels that
are must reads if you like how
writers use “time” as a plot
device
111 Play
The Electronic Entertainment
Expo happened in the month of
June and here are nine games
we are super psyched about
REGULARS
001 Welcome Note
006 Letters
119 Tips and Tricks
 contents
chip downloads

CHIP Downloads
We’re 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 month’s post (eg. July 2014). You will then be prompted for a password. The password can be
found on this page monthly.
3. Navigate using the tabs and pick the categories you want to download the files from. Once you find the file you want, just click on it
and you’re good to go!

And it’s as easy as that!

PASSWORD FOR JULY 2014 - binary

Featured Tools
PC Decrapifier Ninite
When you buy a new PC or This month, we are bringing
laptop, you expect it to be you a utility combination of
performing at its peak, full of application. After using PC
power and speed with Decrapifier to free your PC of
performance notwithstanding. waste, use Ninite to install the
Sadly, the reality is, every essentials for every PC. Ninite
boxed PC or laptop comes has a custom installer that
with a sizeable amount of loads all your favourite
bloatware, which puts a dent onto your PCs performance. With PC programs like Chrome and VLC into your system. You can even
Decrapifier, you can eliminate all this excess waste of space and choose which apps to install to best suit your needs. This app
performance with minimal effort and time. This is a must have for makes your brand new PC get the headstart it deserves.
all new PCs.

Everything Enhanced Steam Plugin

Disclaimer, it does not do Steam users will find this
everything. This tool makes plugin to be an eye opener as
the Windows file search it has a lot of features packed
obsolete. With Everything, you into a Chrome extension to
can now search for files within make Steam more interactive.
your computer with a search It provides information like
engine that works like an regional prices, DLC category
offline Google instant-search. information, price breakdown
Once you have used this app, you will find it impossible to return of multiple purchases, pricing and purchase history, wishlist
to the old search button. For an improved performance, place this highlights of games and how much you can save on a bundle deal.
app on your taskbar to make it accessible with just one click. The list of features goes on and on.

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 user’s experience. The links on our website won’t provide you with the files, instead it will lead
you to the developers’ official website, where you can find the right file for you.

004 july 14 chip malaysia


July 2014
The Monthly Ten
Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2013
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
Currently, there are many vendors
for free Office software in the market
and one of the best happens to be
the free edition of Kingsoft Office
Suite. This software has the same
basic features and function of the
Microsoft Office within these three
modules aptly named Presentation,
Spreadsheets and Writer.
PCtransfer 1.0
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
Configuring a new computer by
transferring data from A to B can be
an enduring test of patience. This
software makes backups of not only
your Word, Excel or PowerPoint
files, but also images, videos and
self-defined files on a different drive.
Krento 3.1.50
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
Krento helps you organise folders,
programs, and websites to ensure
that you have an easy navigation to
your program folder. Under
“Settings”, you can also create your
own program groups and tiles to
change the look of your desktop.
Universal Media Server 3.5.0
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
You should make use of Universal
Media Server if you want to enjoy
your videos, photos and music on
your TV, smartphone or tablet
instead of just on the PC. This
program supports DLNA and UPnP
standards and therefore generally
recognises all connected clients on
which content can be streamed.
oCam 21.0
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
Whether it is photos or videos,
oCam will be able to record screen
content for you. You can use it to
create screenshots and screencasts
which makes it one of the few
applications able to manage this
task.
contents
chip downloads
Zero Install 2.5.1
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
Was there a time when you feel the
need to try out a program or felt like
just using it once without installing
it? Well now you can, with Zero
Install. This is a free tool that
maintains a catalogue of freeware
such as Blender, LibreOffice and
VLC Player to which you can
downloads and use without any prior installation.
Maxthon Cloud Browser 4.3.2
Operating System : Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
Maxthon Cloud Browser combines
the technologies of Chrome and
Internet Explorer. It also comes with
a download manager and a built-in
ad blocker. Additionally, you will
also be able to extend the browsers
functionality with extended add-ons.
FBackup 5.0.414
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
FBackups helps you create backups
of the most important files or the
entire PC on an external hard disk
drive or network drive. Just select
the files you want to back up and
designate the storage location.
Creating backups is good practice.
Wise Program Uninstaller 1.61
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
Most of the time our PC is cluttered
which is mostly caused by unused
programs that have been neglected
over time. This would mean that it’s
time to clean up the system and
Wise Program Uninstaller is the best
tool for the job. You can use it to
remove applications as well as
residual entries in the registry.
Clonezilla
Operating System: Win XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8
Clonezilla is a partition and disk
imaging/cloning program. It allows
users to start system deployment,
bare metal backup and recovery.
There are two variants available;
Clonezilla Live and Clonezilla SE.
This software is suitable for a single
machine backup and restore.
chip malaysia july 14 005
 letters
readers’ feedback
Letters
Letter of the Month
Kingston DataTraveler G4/16GB USB Drive
Loving The Reviews
Dear CHIP,
As an avid reader of your esteemed magazine for many
years now, I would like to commend you for your continued
improvements in the review section of the magazine. The
reviews for the latest devices keep getting better and they
contain a lot more details. I really like this as I find that
the reviews are a good guide to read before making any
purchases when it comes to new devices or hardware.
I would also like to know if it is possible to ask you guys
to create a tutorial section where you teach newbies how to
build a computer, and methods on how to take care and clean
your PC once in a while?I think this will be of great relevance
to your readers. Thanks CHIP!
Saiful Mohktar
Dear Saiful,
We at CHIP magazine would like to thank you for your
unwavering support, and we are pleased to know that
you have enjoyed our Test Lab section. The products we
review go through a range of testing and we are focused
in providing our readers with accurate and useful results
which can help them in their future or before make a
decision when it comes to gadget shopping. As such,
we shall continue to further improve our reviews to give
readers a better insight on different devices.
As for your suggestion, we already have a Practice and
Tips & Tricks section where readers can read through to see
how they can actually get the most out of their computers
and notebooks. Perhaps what we can do is write a feature
on what things to look for when buying a desktop PC or
notebook.
For your very positive and encouraging feedback, we
would like to show you our appreciation by gifting to you a
Kingston DataTraveler G4/16GB USB Drive.
Write to us at letters@chip.com.my. Alternatively, log on to the forums at forum.chip.com.my and make yourself heard! The Letters page is an outlet for you to voice your
views and opinions towards the magazine as well as general tech trends. Feedback sent to us may be edited for suitability without altering the intended point-of-view. The
monthly winners for LoTM will be contacted for further details.
006 july 14 chip malaysia
Best Things Are Free Things
Dear CHIP,
I am a long-time reader of your magazine,and I would like
to thank you on the usefulness of the free downloads that are
featured every month. I have to say that most of the applications
are incredibly useful and I had no idea that there are so many
free programs that can do the same tasks and have the same
features as paid software that can sometimes be very expensive.
My only request is that if it is possible, could you guys please
retain the software from previous months? This would actually
be very useful for readers who didn’t manage to download the
software while they were still up. Good job guys, and I hope you
guys continue to recommend more useful applications.
Arunan
Dear Arunan,
Firstly, we would like to thank you for your continued
support for our magazine and we are glad that you have
enjoyed our recommendation of free applications. We
constantly keep a lookout on latest gadgets and softwares that
help improve user productivity and reduce cost restraints.
Users won’t have to worry about the software that we offer
on our website, as most, if not all the software that we offer
to you guys are free of charge. All you need to do is to just
Google the name of the software, and you’ll be able to find the
software you need on its homepage. You can also be assured
that there will be many more useful applications to come in
future issues of the magazine.
Game On Point
Dear CHIP,
As a hardcore gamer and a constant reader of your magazine,
I would like to point out my enjoyment of reading your reviews
and the exciting Play section. The reviews are concise yet fun
to read and the criticisms on the games reviewed are unbiased
too. I really hope I can see more unique and fun reviews in the
following months to come.
Chen Poh Lei
Dear Chen,
We would first like to thank you for reading our publication
and we are happy that you have enjoyed our Play section.
As gamers ourselves, we pride ourselves in our ability to
both enjoy the game yet criticise it in different perspectives
providing a fun yet unbiased review. If there are any games
you would like for us to review, don’t forget to write to us, as
your suggestions will be greatly received. Also, we’re quite
sure you would enjoy this month’s Play. While we may not
have any reviews, we have compiled a list of games that were
showcased during the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
 news
local news

This is a custom gaming rig made with GIGABYTEs very own motherboard
which supports high performance gaming devices

Featured here is a range of Black EdiƟon Motherboards and the Ultra

Durable series motherboard which is built to last
Hunter Lee, Product Manager for GIGABYTE leading the product demonstraƟon and explanaƟon

GIGABYTE On
Cloud 9
GIGABYTE looks to take on the competition with
their very own range of Intel 9-series
motherboards
GIGABYTEs latest range of G1 Gaming Motherboards which all come

G
IGABYTE released their latest
range of motherboards that
supports the needs of consumers
of every level during their launch event
held on 28 May. As always, the person
giving the presentation for this event
was Hunter Lee, Product Manager for
GIGABYTE Technology. Their latest line
of motherboards will incorporate the Intel
Z97 chipset and these new motherboards
will cover the four unique categories from
GIGABYTE which are the G1 Gaming
series, Black Edition gaming series, SOC
Overclocking series and the Super Durable
series.
The presentation started off with
the Gaming G1 series which places the
motherboard design focus on the gamers
who strive to create the perfect rig. This
motherboard series features extreme
graphics support with AMD CrossfireX and
NVIDIA SLI. These gaming motherboards
also have audio enhancement upgrades
such as the Creative Soundblaster, included with KILLER Ethernet Game Networking
EAX Advance HD 5.0, Creative
Alchemy, Voice FX and SBX Surround. In
addition to that, they will also be featuring
the swappable OP-AMP technology with
Gain Boost. Following their tradition of
gaming motherboards, this generation
retains the KILLER Ethernet networking
feature for seamless online play.
The next product to be on display was
the GIGABYTE SOC Overclocking series
which are focused on the overclocking
aspect of the motherboard. These
motherboards are equipped with special
features unique to overclockers such as the
OC Ignition, Brace, Touch, DIMM and PCIe
Switch and Connect. These features are
placed on the motherboard itself because
most overclockers test their system in a
bareback state without a chassis, thus this
makes it easier for the user to access the
features easily. Another feature on these
motherboards are that the data will be
monitored in real time thus providing live
feedback in order for them to better tune
their devices. Additionally, it also holds 4x
Crossfire SLI to support multiple graphic
cards.
The next two motherboards are the
Ultra Durable Black Edition motherboards
which are especially durable thanks
to the extended server level, 168 hour
durability test before being shipped out.
It will maintain support for 4th and 5th
Generation Intel Core processors as well as
multiple graphics support. The GIGABYTE
Ultra Durable motherboards are the entry
level motherboards in the 9-series. It will
have extreme multi graphics support,
basic overclocking features and some
motherboards within the Ultra Durable
series will have a 2-way SLI Graphics
support.
www.gigabyte.com/my

008 july 14 chip malaysia

 news
local news
Khoo Hung Chuan, Country General Manager of Lenovo Malaysia and Jimmy Chin. Consumer Segment Lead, Lenovo Malaysia
showing oī the new devices Lenovo Malaysia launched at the event
Miix And Match
Lenovo unveils line of new tablets and notebooks that
covers wide demographic of users
A
fter just launching the brand new
ThinkPad X1 Carbon, Lenovo
also announced the availability of
brand new tablet devices and notebooks
that are not only wallet-friendly, but
are also great performers on their own
accord.
The Lenovo A7-30 is a 7.0-inch
tablet, featuring an LED display with a
resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels, powered
by a 1.3GHz Mediatek MTK 8382 quad-
core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB
of storage space, which is expandable
up to 32GB via a microSD card. It runs
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, with an update
to 4.4 Kit Kat expected in the very near
future. Besides that, the A7-30 also has
a 3,500mAh Li-Po battery that allows the
A7-30 tablet to last up to two weeks on
standby.
The Lenovo A8-50 meanwhile is
an 8.0-inch slate device powered by
the same 1.3GHz Mediatek quad-core
processor that powered the A7-30, and
also has 1GB of RAM, but a bigger
built-in storage space at 16GB. This too
is expandable up to 32GB via a microSD
card.
010 july 14 chip malaysia
Much like the A7-30, the A8-50 also
runs Android 4.2 out of the box, and
an update to 4.4 Kit Kat will also be on
the way in the near future. Besides the
slightly bigger screen with a resolution of
1,280 x 800 pixels, the A8-50 also has a
SIM card slot, which allows it to not only
access mobile 3G networks, but make
voice calls like you’re on a smartphone.
If an inexpensive, yet powerful enough
notebook is what you’re looking for,
Lenovo has just the thing for you as
well, as the company also introduced
the Lenovo G40-70. Powered by a 4th
generation Intel Core-series processor,
this 14.0-inch laptop also features 4GB of
DDR3 RAM, up to 1TB of HDD space and
an AMD Radeon R5-M230 discrete GPU.
The star of the show however goes to
the Lenovo Miix 2 11.0-inch convertible
notebook, powered by a 4th generation
Intel Core i5-4202Y processor, up to
8GB of DDR3 RAM on board, running
Windows 8.1 on a 128GB SSD.
On its own, the Miix 2 is a tablet
device, with its 11.0-inch display featuring
a Full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixel
display. On it is a card reader and three
The Lenovo A8-50 meanwhile is an 8.0-inch slate device that
can also make voice calls and supports 3G connecƟvity
The Lenovo Miix 2 is an 11.0-inch converƟble tablet, powered
by an Intel Core i5-4202Y processor, up to 8GBs of RAM and
a 128GB SSD
USB ports, one of which is actually used
to power and charge the tablet device.
When docked into the tablet dock, it turns
into a notebook device.
Turn the Miix 2 180 degrees, and dock
it into the keyboard dock again to engage
the Miix 2’s third mode, which is the
Stand Mode for movie or photo viewing.
The Miix 2 also has a motion gesture
feature where it uses the front-facing
webcam to detect motion gestures to
play and pause videos.
These devices are available in
Malaysian Lenovo stores and authorised
retailers already. The Lenovo A7-30
tablet will retail at RM399, with an option
for a folio case and screen protector
at RM29.90. The Lenovo A8-50 tablet
meanwhile retails for RM699.
The Lenovo G40-70 and the Lenovo
Miix 2 are already available in stores,
with the G40-70 starting from RM1,699,
while the Lenovo Miix 2 will cost
RM2,999.
www.lenovo.com/my/en/
 news
local news
Gary Xu, Country Director, Consumer Business Group, Huawei Technologies Malaysia, highlights the latest features and
innovaƟons on the Ascend P7
Ascending The
Ranks
Huawei unleashes their latest 4G LTE enabled
flagship, the Ascend P7
O
n 10 June, Huawei, the third largest
smartphone manufacturer in the
world launched their latest array of
ultra-fast 4G LTE devices with the highlight
of the launch event showcasing the highly
anticipated Ascend P7. This blindingly fast
LTE device is the front runner of Huawei’s
LTE offerings to the Malaysian mobile
market as it provides a new definition of
excellence.
The Huawei Ascend P7 comes with a
5-inch FHD touchscreen display and sports
a stylish metallic appearance forged by
a seven-layered rear surface treatment
creating a refined “spin effect” micro
pattern design. It has a comfortable grip as
well as next generation sophistication such
as the inclusion of a strong Corning Gorilla
Glass 3 in both front and rear covers.
Powering the Ascend P7 is a 1.8GHz
HiSilicon Kirin 910 quad-core processor,
2GB RAM and the latest Android
KitKat 4.4.2 operating system which is
complimented by the Emotion UI 2.3 that
012 july 14 chip malaysia
is designed for effortless navigation. For
further customisation, users can also
access the smartphones management
software to customise the permission,
network and notification manager to gather
their preferred settings. The device also
runs on a powerful 2,500mAh lithium
polymer battery which is equipped with an
advanced power-saving mode which can
keep the phone on standby for a day with
ten percent power remaining.
Moving onto the special camera
experience on the Ascend P7, it enables
amazing high definition images with its
13MP non-spherical lens Back-illuminated
sensor (BSI) rear facing camera. In addition
to that, the camera is supported by Image
Signal Processor (ISP). To ensure that
users won’t miss any important moments
that appear by surprise, the rear-facing
camera can be activated within 1.2 seconds
by clicking the volume down button twice
while the smartphone is locked. Another
aspect that the Ascend P7 outdoes other
The new Huawei Ascend P7 is sleek, fast and easy to use,
perfect for the modern user
Besides the Ascend P7, Huawei had also displayed other line-
ups such as the Ascend G6
smartphones is the front camera as it was
given some interesting features as well.
It is fitted with an 8MP non-spherical lens
with IMAGESmart 2.0 software. It has also
been designed to create better selfie shots
with the 10 level auto-facial enhancements.
The Ascend P7 will also give users
unbounded connectivity as it is equipped
with Huawei’s unique dual antenna design
that improves signal receptions and
enable unlimited media viewing with the
ultra-fast LTE. It will also incorporate the
smart network switching technology which
allows you to stabilise the connection even
with the weak signal reception to further
minimise battery drainage.
Besides their flagship Ascend P7,
Huawei has also further expanded their
influence in Malaysia by introducing a
line-up of LTE enabled devices such as the
MediaPad X17.0, MediaPad M1 8.0 and
Ascend G6.
www.huawei.com/my/
 news
local news

(From leŌ):Donny Ling, Director of Imaging CommunicaƟons Products Division, Canon MarkeƟng (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.; Wataru Nishioka, President and CEO of Canon MarkeƟng (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
and Nicole Lim, MarkeƟng Manager, Canon MarkeƟng (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. oĸciaƟng the Canon SocialSync event

Socially Sync With

Canon
Canon unveils new products and services

C
anon is a brand that is very well
known for their image capturing and
printing devices. On 11 June, Canon
Malaysia announced the availability of the
Canon iMage Gateway service, alongside
two cameras to the Malaysian market.
The Canon iMage Gateway is a free
online photo-sharing service that has
recently been expanded across the South
Asian and South East Asian regions. It
provides users with 10GB of free album
storage, and it allows you to create albums,
tag and rotate your photos as well as
upload photos directly from supported
Canon cameras to social network platforms
such as Facebook and Twitter.
With 10GB worth of online storage
Gateway’s simple mobile web interface,
they can access their photo library and
share images in their photo albums. The Canon G1 X Mark II is a fully-featured pro-sumer compact
Also unveiled at the event were two camera that is lled with great features
cameras and one photo printer. The
first camera on display was the Canon
PowerShot G1 X Mark II, which offers
high-end features that deliver superior
images which are comparable to that of an
interchangeable lens camera.
It features a large 1.5-inch CMOS sensor
which is 4.5 times bigger than the size of
the typical 1/1.7” sensors that are used in
compact cameras. It also boasts a high
pixel count of 12.8MP, an aperture of f/2.0
and a 24-120mm equivalent zoom lens, The Canon PowerShot N100 meanwhile is an easy to use
which makes it look, feel and sound like a portable shooter for casual users

space, users will be able to store about
13,000 4R-sized photos and even 24 hours’
worth of videos in their storage library.
On top of that, users can also configure
security settings which allows users to set
whether or not they want to allow their
photos to be downloaded by others.
Users with smart devices that run
Android 2.3 or iOS6.0 and above will also
be able to manage their account from
anywhere they are. With the Canon iMage
professional compact camera. Its 31-point
autofocus system allows for a more
accurate focusing.
The Canon PowerShot N100 meanwhile
is a fun, easy to use compact camera
that comes with both a rear-facing and
a front-facing camera. The main camera
features a 24-120mm f/1.8-f/5.7 lens while
the rear-facing camera has a 25mm wide
angle lens. Powered by a 12.1MP CMOS
sensor, it provides superb image quality
even in low light conditions. The N100’s
3.0-inch LCD panel can also be flipped to a
90 degree angle which allows users to take
photos from a number of angles.
The Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II is
now available at Canon authorised dealers
for RM2,899, while the Canon PowerShot
N100 will cost RM1,099 and is available at
select Canon authorised outlets.
www.canon.com.my/

014 july 14 chip malaysia


The Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series has plenty of mulƟmedia features to enhance your movie watching and gaming
experience
Inspired By Dell
Dell presents the latest range of Inspiron
Series which span from laptops to All-in-
One desktops
D
uring the second week of June,
Dell held an event to showcase
and launch their latest range
of devices which include the latest
members of the Dell Inspiron Series,
which ranges from the Inspiron 14 and
15 3000 series laptops; Inspiron 14 and
15 5000 Series laptops; Inspiron 20 3000
Series and 23 5000 series All-in-One
(AIO) desktops. These new laptops and
desktops are made for performance and
comfort with features aimed at providing
users with higher productivity in their
daily lives. These latest addition to the
series come with powerful processors,
high capacity hard drives, and a
responsive 10-finger touch display that
has Full HD resolution.
First to be displayed was the Dell
Inspiron 3000 Series which comes
with the tagline” Big Entertainment
with Bold Features”. With features
that have unmatchable value, the new
Inspiron 14 and 15 3000 Series have a
variety of hardware configurations to
ease consumer choice based on their
preference. The latest devices in this
series will have built-in DVD drives, 1TB
of storage and optional touch panels as
The Inspiron 14 5000 is three Ɵmes more producƟve than your average laptop
The latest Dell AIO is sexy and slim and it is powered by 4th GeneraƟon Core I
processors
well as amazing battery life. In the same
tradition as other Dell products, the
Inspiron 3000 series undergoes realistic
stress tests to ensure that their devices
will be the perfect companion for you
while handling real life hazards.
The following product was the Dell
Inspiron 5000 Series which comes fully
packed with user friendly features and
is made especially for those who spent
most of their day in campus or spend
lots of time contacting family members.
Modern families will enjoy an able
mobile computing experience which
has enhanced options such as a back-lit
keyboard and a Full HD touch display
(15-inch laptops only). The 5000 Series
has a beautiful display highlighted
within an astounding, brushed
aluminium lid while the 10-finger
capacitive touch option makes scrolling,
zooming and tapping an easy going
experience. These laptops are powered
by 4th Generation Intel Core i processors
which enables a stretch in battery life
with up to eight hours, nine minutes for
the Inspiron 14 5000 and up to seven
hours, 33 minutes for the Inspiron 15
5000. When studying becomes too
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tiresome, lay back with the immersive
entertainment provided by the 5000
Series as the laptops comes equipped
with Waves MaxxAudio for a rich audio
experience.
The last device that was highlighted
during the product demonstration list
was the Dell Inspiron 20 and 23, new
All-in-One devices to hit the market.
A thinner design and inclusion of the
latest processing technology makes the
new Dell Inspiron 20 3000 Series and 23
5000 Series AIO desktops an impressive
package for the value it provides.
Besides housing an Intel 4th Generation
Core i processor, it will also come with
a Full HD display designed with a sleek,
edge to edge glass with the optional
10-touch capacitive touch function.
Consumers will find that they will have
a plethora of choices with the Inspiron
20 3000 Series as it also comes with HD+
features for an enjoyable experience.
Like the 5000 series, the latest Inspiron
AIO’s will also come with Waves
MaxxAudio to provide amazing audio
and it will also have the same Dropbox
package for ease of content sharing.
www.dell.com.my
chip malaysia july 14 015
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Hatano Satoshi (leŌ), Managing Director, Sony Malaysia, and Hideyuki Wada, Head of MarkeƟng, Sony Malaysia, oĸcially
launching the three camera devices
Cameras For One
And All
Sony unveils brand new cameras and camcorder that
will definitely excite photographers and videographers
S
ony have been relatively quiet
on the camera front for some
time now, but they made a loud
statement with the announcement of the
availability of two new cameras and one 4K
camcorder in the form of the Sony Alpha
77 MkII, the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 MkIII
and the Sony FDR-AX100E.
The Sony Alpha 77 MkII DSLT builds
upon the heritage of its predecessors,
the Alpha 77 and the Alpha 700. The new
camera provides photography newbies
with easy to access features, a slew of
enhancements and a weather resistant
body that is capable of taking its share of
wear and tear.
Its 24.3MP Exmor CMOS sensor allows
users to take photos in a wide ISO range,
up to 25,600 sensitivity range without
too much noise. It is also powered by an
BIONZ X image processor that not only
provides professional-looking photos, but
also high quality videos that are recorded
in Full HD 50p as well.
The A77 MkII’s detection and autofocus
are sharp, thanks to an advanced phase
detection autofocus system. With
016 july 14 chip malaysia
approximately two times wider coverage
and up to 79 autofocus detection points,
this allows for super-accurate focusing,
even with horizontally-striped subjects that
has a lot of cameras confused.
The AF system also performs very well
in low-light conditions, accurately locking
onto subjects in scenes with illumination
levels as low as EV-2, where even the
human eye finds it difficult to catch any
details.
Framing and composing photos can
often be a problem with large cameras,
and whilst more and more DSLRs come
equipped with tilting displays, the A77 MkII
goes a step further by providing users with
its 3.0-inch XGA OLED Tru-Finder 3-way
tilting LCD that’s not only perfect for low
and high angle shots, but for landscape
and portrait photos as well.
The Sony Cyber-shot RX100 MkII
meanwhile is a compact point-and-shoot
camera that comes with features that can
be similarly found in a DSLR. Featuring a
20.1MP 1.0” Exmor R CMOS sensor and
BIONZ X processor, coupled with the bright
ZEISS Vario-Sonar T 24-70mm f/1.8-2.8
The Sony A77 MkII is Sony’s latest DSLT camera, featuring a
24.3MP Exmor CMOS sensor, Sony’s own BIONZ X imaging
processor, and a 16-50mm F2.8 constant aperture lens
The Sony AX-100E 4K camcorder records in 4K excepƟonally
well, but you will need an SDXC card at least in order to do so
lens, this camera lets you shoot photos like
a pro without the bulk of a large camera.
This pocket-friendly camera captures
everything from expansive landscapes
to soulful portraits. Thanks to a large
f/2.8 maximum aperture, it also captures
the image of the subject sharply, with a
smooth, creamy bokeh background. The
lens’ impressive light-gathering capabilities
also allows fast shutter speeds to
accurately capture fast-moving subjects.
If videos are your thing, you’ll also
be happy to know that Sony has also
unveiled the Sony Handycam AX100E,
which is capable of recording videos in 4K
resolution. It is approximately 75 percent
smaller than the FDR-AX1E, which is great
for comfortable one-handed shooting,
while still leaving room for Sony’s
impressive video-recording technology.
All these products are already available
in the market, with the Sony Cyber-shot
RX100 MkIII priced at RM2,999, the Sony
A77 MkII at RM3,999 for body only, and
RM2,999 with the 16-50mm f2.8 constant
aperture lens included, while the Sony
AX-100E costs RM6,999.
www.sony.com.my

The Acer Iconia A1 displays a 7.9 inch body with a premium
white nish
The latest Iconia One 7 comes in various colours for the
modern trend seƩer
R
ight after an impressive showcase
at COMPUTEX Taipei, Acer
launched a whole line of new
devices to satisfy the different lifestyles
of modern day Malaysian consumers.
The launch saw a host of surprisingly
portable new Acer Iconia tablets,
affordable Aspire E-series notebooks,
the new Acer Aspire All-in-One (AIO)
series and the flagship 2-in-1 notebook,
the Aspire Switch 10, being introduced
to create the bridge between people and
their surroundings.
Starting off with the Aspire Switch
10, this device is a merger between a
notebook and a tablet which has the
ability to switch between four modes
for touch, typing, viewing and sharing.
This device marks the use of the Acer
Snap Hinge design enabling the switch
between modes to be transitioned
seamlessly while also being able to
dock onto a keyboard and provide
optional storage capabilities. It also
comes with a 10-inch display with IPS
technology and a wide viewing angle of
up to 178-degrees. In addition to that, it
provides quality display with crisp and
vibrant images courtesy of the Zero Air
Gap technology coupled with the Acer
Jeīrey Lai, Product Manager Mobile Notebook & Smart Handheld Acer Sales & Services Sdn. Bhd (right) providing the product
demonstraƟon for the new Acer devices
Switch To Aspire
Take a look at the latest list of products launched by
Acer that ranges from tablets to notebooks
Lumiflex solution.
For those looking for smaller options,
Acer has also launched their Iconia One
7 and Iconia A1-830 tablets during this
event. The Iconia One 7 is a portable
and slim 7-inch tablet powered by an
Intel Atom processor with wide angle HD
display complete with IPS technology,
dual camera and 40 percent more
battery life. Its predecessor the Acer
Iconia B1-720. It also comes in various
vibrant colours to suit different user
tastes. Its slightly larger cousin, the Acer
Iconia A1-830 has a stylish, premium
look with a 7.9-inch body and it is only
8.15mm thin. It is powered by a 1.6
GHz Intel Atom Processor with Hyper
Threading Technology giving it the
power needed for smoother graphics
displayed on its Wide Viewing Angle IPS
display.
Another exciting reveal was the Acer
Aspire E-series notebooks which comes
in a selection of colours for personality.
It has a long battery life clocking in at up
to 7 hours as well as a 15.6 inch display
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powered by Intel Quad-Core processor.
All these new notebooks will be
preloaded with Windows 8.1 with Bing.
Last but not least is the Acer Aspire
All-in-One series which comes equipped
with a vibrant and clear wide viewing
angle viewing, designed to complement
the modern way of living. The Acer
U5-620 is made for users with a good
taste in design and seeks performance
that can make the PC into the home’s
digital entertainment hub. This model
was also selected as the Computex
Taipei Design & innovation Award
for outstanding industrial design. The
mainstream Aspire Z3-615 however,
offers a bigger screen at a lower price
without cutting down on quality. At 19.5
inches, the Aspire ZC-606 is a slim AIO
with amazing visual experience and
entertainment qualities.
All of these products are now
available at major Authorised Acer
resellers nationwide.
www.acer.com.my
chip malaysia july 14 017
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Hugo Barra, Vice President of Xiaomi InternaƟonal with the Redmi Note (leŌ) and the Redmi 1s (right)
The Reds Are
Coming
We meet up with Hugo Barra, Vice President of
Xiaomi International to learn about the upcoming
Redmi 1s and Redmi Note
X
iaomi has really taken Malaysia
(and quite frankly the world)
by storm, as they continue to
expand to newer markets and break
records as their devices are sold out in
just a matter of minutes once the stock
gets replenished. On 19 May, Xiaomi
launched their flagship the Mi 3, which
continues to sell like hotcakes. During
the aforementioned launch event,
Xiaomi also showcased the Redmi 1s
and Redmi Note and we got to check
them out meeting with Hugo Barra, Vice
President of Xiaomi International.
Both these soon-to-be-released
devices are designed for consumers
who prefer devices that are a little more
affordable. However, with that being
said, both the Redmi 1s and Note still
come with very impressive hardware
and features that should satisfy just
about any user.
First up, let’s take a look at the Redmi
1s, which we have already seen before.
This device is actually sort of a refresh/
upgrade from the previous Redmi that
018 july 14 chip malaysia
was launched in other countries. It’s a
very nice choice for those who prefer
smartphones with a smaller form factor.
Other neat features are the fact that it
supports dual SIM cards and even comes
with a Lite Mode. Lite Mode is designed
for the older/senior demographic as it
makes text and icons larger and easier
to read. There’s even an option for the
phone to read text to the user.
When released the Redmi 1s will
be priced at a mere RM419 which is
very affordable considering that the
device is powered by a 1.6GHz quad-
core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 CPU
coupled with 1GB worth of RAM and
an 8GB internal storage which can be
expanded up to 32GB using a microSD
card. This 4.7-inch device also has a
2,000mAh battery and a 8-megapixel
rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front
camera.
While the Redmi 1s caters to those
who prefer a smaller device, its bigger
brother, the Redmi Note on the other
hand is designed for those who want a
The Redmi 1s (leŌ) and the Redmi Note (right) side by side
During the meeƟng, Hugo showed us what the Redmi Note
could do
phablet experience without having to
fork out a large sum of money. Some of
its shared features with the 1s include
support for dual SIM cards and also Lite
Mode.
For an asking price of only RM509,
users will actually be getting quite a
decent deal as the under its sleek shell,
the Redmi Note packs a 1.7GHz octa-core
MediaTek MT6582 processor, 2GB RAM,
8GB internal storage and also support
for microSD card up to 32GB, 3200mAh
battery, a 13-megapixel rear camera and
5-megapixel front camera.
Other interesting and exciting news
Hugo shared with us during the meeting
was regarding Xiaomi’s plan to set up
dedicated service centres known as
Mi Homes around Malaysia. These Mi
Homes are places where customers can
send their devices to get fixed, purchase
accessories and also have a hands-on
experience with the devices. However,
purchases will still have to be done
online.
www.mi.com/my/

The Future Of
Computing
Intel’s new processors shaping the future of end-user
computing
D
uring COMPUTEX Taipei last
month, Intel unveiled a series of
new devices running its Haswell
as well as Haswell-refresh processors. The
microprocessor company’s push for 2-in-1
devices and various other computing form
factors started several years ago, and have
finally begun to bear fruit now.
According to Leighton Philips, Director
of Product Marketing and Pricing for Intel
Asia Pacific and Japan, the traditional
desktop computer has seen a decline in
demand, with end users, be they for the
home or business beginning to opt for
different desktop form factors, such as mini
PCs, all-in-one computers and desktop
replacement notebooks.
That being said, one of the biggest
growing segments for Intel’s desktop
processors is in the enthusiast and gaming
industry. With 700 million PC gamers
worldwide, the company projects that in
2015, the PC gaming industry will see a
profit of US$25 billion, making it one of the
most profitable entertainment industries in
the world.
Prakash Mallya, Country Manager for Intel Malaysia and Singapore and Leighton Philips, Director of Product MarkeƟng and
Pricing for Intel Asia Pacic with Intel’s prototype products which should hopefully pave the way for future compuƟng devices
It is with this in mind that Intel looks to
refresh their high-end processor line-up
with the Intel Core i7-4790K processor,
codename Devil’s Canyon. It features a
4.0GHz base frequency, fully unlocked,
meaning you can overclock the processor
to breakneck speeds, while supporting the
LGA 1150 socket at the same time, so that
users can still use the Z87 motherboards
that they may have already owned.
The advent of Intel’s 4th generation
Core series processors meant that OEMs
can design convertible notebooks that are
not only thin, but perform extremely well
too. That being said, one of the biggest
issues bothering manufacturers is the fact
that the processors, even the notebook
models still require a fan to cool it down.
At COMPUTEX, Intel also unveiled
the new Intel Core m and Core m vPro
processors, designed specifically for
fanless 2-in-1 detachables and convertibles.
This new processor will allow notebook
makers to explore even thinner form
factors, and as an example, we were
briefly shown a concept of what these
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Core m powered notebooks can look like
in the form of the Llama Mountain 2-in-1
reference design notebooks.
Featuring a 12.5-inch QHD resolution
display, this notebook is 7.2mm thin, and
this is achieved thanks to the processor’s
capability to run without the need of a fan.
The battery life on the Llama Mountain is
rated to be around the nine hours mark,
which makes it an excellent device to bring
around for work.
WiDi, or Wireless Display has been
around for a number of years now. While
it has not seen a strong adoption rate,
Intel hopes that the upgraded version of
this technology, called WiGig, which is not
only capable of connecting to two display
devices, but can also deliver wireless LAN
capabilities, all thanks to a connectivity
rate that is over 10 times faster than IEEE’s
802.11n wireless standards, according to
the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig).
This technology is likely to be available
for mass production in the first half of
2015, with notebooks, convertibles and
detachables looking to be the main
beneficiary. Interesting things are abound
thanks to Intel’s and we look forward to
seeing what the future holds.
www.intel.my
Leighton showing oī Intel’s Llama Mountain, a 12.5-inch
reference notebook running Intel’s new Core M processor for
converƟble and detachable notebooks
One of Intel’s concept Mini PCs, which is no longer than the
length of a pen
chip malaysia july 14 019
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(From right): Victor Ng, Manager, Product MarkeƟng, Mobile Division, Samsung Malaysia Electronics MaƩhew Ng, Sales Director,
Mobile Division, Samsung Malaysia Electronics and JusƟn Joo, Business Manager, Mobile Division, Samsung Malaysia Electronics,
alongside representaƟves from local distributors showing oī the new Samsung GALAXY Tab S 10.5 and 8.4 inch tablets
S Marks The Sweet
Spot
Samsung gives end-users yet another choice when it
comes to tablets in the form of the GALAXY Tab S
S
amsung has been announcing
and launching a dizzying array
of tablets over the past half a
year, and it doesn’t look like that train is
about to stop anytime soon as Samsung
Malaysia launched its latest flagship
tablet device in the form of the Samsung
GALAXY Tab S.
First unveiled in New York a couple of
weeks ago, the Samsung GALAXY Tab S
comes in two different sizes, a 10.5-inch
slate, and a slightly smaller 8.4-inch form
factor. The difference between the two
is only in terms of display and battery
size, as everything else, be it the CPU and
display resolution are all similar.
Both the Samsung GALAXY Tab
S tablets are powered by a Samsung
Exynos 5 Octa-core processor, combining
two CPUs, a 1.9GHz quad-core and
1.3GHz quad-core processor. The Tab S
also comes equipped with 3GB of RAM
and 16GB of built-in storage, with an
option to expand it up to 128GB via a
MicroSD card.
The Tab S runs Android 4.4 Kit
020 july 14 chip malaysia
Kat, and both tablet sizes comes with
a WQXGA resolution of 2,560 x 1,600
pixels, which is made better thanks to
the use of the Super AMOLED display
which delivers more than 90% Adobe
RGB colour coverage, which also features
a remarkable 100,00:1 contrast ratio that
provides deep and realistic images.
The Tab S also has a new display
feature called Adaptive Display that
ensures the best visual experience
regardless of the environment by
adjusting gamma, saturation and
sharpness based on the application that
is being used and the ambient lighting of
the environment it is being used in.
More importantly of course is the fact
that the Samsung GALAXY Tab S comes
with support for LTE connectivity. Both
the 10.5 and 8.4 inch models are able to
connect to LTE 800, 900, 1,800, 2,600+850
and 2,100 bands, which means that it will
support a majority, if not all LTE networks
in Malaysia and around the region.
Both the GALAXY Tab S models
feature a sleek 6.6mm profile and weigh
The Samsung GALAXY Tab S 10.5 is powered by a Samsung
Exynos 5 octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of built-
in storage
The Samsung GALAXY Tab S’ rear sports the same perforated
cover as the GALAXY S5, and an 8MP rear-facing camera
in at 467g and 298g respectively for the
10.5- and 8.4-inch models. Despite its
lightweight design, both the GALAXY Tab
S 10.5 and 8.4 tablets pack a 7,900mAh
and 4,900mAh, which is made to last
longer thanks to Samsung’s Ultra Power
Saving Mode, which cuts down app usage
to ones that are absolutely necessary,
while also turning the display into
grayscale mode, which greatly reduces
power consumption.
Besides the hardware, Samsung
Malaysia has also hooked up with a
number of local ecosystem partners, and
each purchase of the Samsung GALAXY
Tab S comes with a number of goodies,
including a free 12-month subscription to
eight lifestyle magazine titles from SPH
magazines, a free six-month subscription
to The Star e-Paper worth RM150, access
to My GALAXY Music, where consumers
get to download up to 500 DRM-free
songs within a six-month period, as well
as a pre-loaded GALAXY Life app.
Both the Samsung GALAXY Tab S
10.5- and 8.4-inch models will retail for
RM1,999 and RM1,699 respectively,
and will be available at all Samsung
experiential stores and authorised
resellers nationwide starting from July 11
2014.
www.samsung.com/my/

BlackBerry Astounds With
The Z3
BlackBerry reveals their latest smartphone to compete in the very competitive
smart mobile industry
T
hings haven’t quite been the same
for BlackBerry and they have been
quite quiet for a while now. So when
they unveiled their new smartphone the
Z3 to the Malaysian market on 24 June,
we were quite excited. The BlackBerry Z3
is a smartphone that aims to bring more
ways for users to connect and share with
a foundation built on reliable and secure
communications.
The BlackBerry Z3 has a 5-inch LCD
GFF/Cover Glass touch panel with 540x960
qHD resolution, 1.5GB RAM, 8 GB Flash
and a hot swappable microSD slot. It is
powered by a Dual Core 1.2GHz Qualcomm
8230. Its cameras are a 5MP rear facing
camera with Auto Focus , Camera Flash,
Image Stabilisation, 5x digital zoom,
1080p HD video recording, 2DOF video
stabilisation and a 1.1MP front facing
camera. It will also support Bluetooth 4.0.
The new BlackBerry Z3 will also have
plenty of new and improved features such
as the Blackberry Hub which allows users
to access all their work and personal email,
BBM and text messages in one place with
the ability to peek into the BlackBerry
Ben Quirin, Managing Director of Indochina, was in charge of showcasing the Z3’s features
Hub from anywhere, all possible with
a single swipe. BBM on the BlackBerry
has also included all the popular mobile
social features such as the BBM voice
which creates the illusion of speaking in
the same room as your friend even when
you are far apart. This works by using
the Screen Share and BlackBerry Natural
Sound together letting you hear nuances
and variations in a BBM Voice chat.
BBM Channels will also support several
Malaysian channels.
One of the most prominent features for
BlackBerry is the typing experience that
is provided. The tradition continues in the
Z3 with the BlackBerry Keyboard learning
the words you use and how you use them
which then provides suggestions to the
user for a faster more responsive typing
experience. This feature also includes
typing support of up to three languages at
any one time.
Users who enjoy taking pictures will
be pleased to find that the Z3 has a new
feature called Time Shift which allows
them to take group shots of people smiling
with their eyes wide open, while users can
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make use of the Story Maker feature to
compile a collection of photos and videos
together complete with music and effects
to create a HD movie that can be shared
instantly on YouTube. Blackberry has also
upgraded their browser software to break
records with its performance reaching
breakneck speeds while adding multiple
features like tabs, reader mode and content
sharing.
The New BlackBerry Z3 will be available
through BlackBerry authorised partners and
carriers and will sold nationwide starting
on July 7, with prices at RRP RM 669.
www.blackberry.com.my
The new BlackBerry Z3 has all the latest features that
BlackBerry has to oīer, such as Time ShiŌ and Story Maker
chip malaysia july 14 021
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The Path To
The IoT
Intel is confident that the Internet of
Things will open plenty of
opportunities for Malaysia
I
n November last year, we were
given the opportunity to head to
Taiwan where Intel spoke about their
endeavours at kick-starting and bringing
the vision of the Internet of Things (IoT)
into our lives. From there on, it wasn’t
the last we heard of IoT as Intel has been
constantly giving us updates on where
the road is heading when it comes to IoT.
On 24 June, we joined Intel and other
members of the media in a roundtable
session where we got to find out how IoT
will enrich the lives of Malaysians.
IoT is all about enabling a richer way
of living and working by making devices
that weren’t “smart” before “smarter”.
These other devices can range in shape
and size, for example it could be used
in a heart monitor implant that alerts
Going Beyond
Cloud Nine
Ninetology launches its first LTE-enabled
smartphone
I
f you’re looking for an affordable
LTE-enabled smartphone, you’ll be
happy to know that Ninetology ASEAN
unveiled and launched its first ever
LTE-enabled device in the form of the
Ninetology U9 Z1T on 19 June.
Featuring a 5.0-inch IPS display with
a resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels, the
U9 Z1T runs on Qualcomm’s 1.2GHz
Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor,
alongside 1GB of RAM. It also has
a built-in storage of 8GB, which is
expandable to 32GB via a microSD
card, and runs Android 4.3 Ice Cream
Sandwich.
At the back, Ninetology has fitted the
Z1T with a 13MP rear-facing camera and
a 1.6MP front-facing camera, and what
powers everything is a 2,000mAh capacity
022 july 14 chip malaysia
family members
in case of
emergencies (From leŌ): Sim Hon Wai, General Manager, MDT InnovaƟons Sdn. Bhd.; Christopher Kelly, Director of
to a car with a Intel Architecture Group, Intel Malaysia; Prakash Mallya, Country Manager Sales & MarkeƟng, Intel
Malaysia and Mr. Hasannudin Saidin, Director of Digital Entrepreneurs Division, MDeC were the men
built-in sensor who gave us all the details on how IoT will open up plenty of opportuniƟes for Malaysia
to keep the
driver informed on its fuel-efficiency. Systems Group based out of Intel in
“The term “the Internet of Things” Penang.”
was actually coined nearly 20 years ago As driver of the national ICT initiative,
by professors at MIT to describe the MDeC is committed to facilitating the
world where “things”, which can be development of IoT in Malaysia as
devices or sensors, are both smart and they strive towards a developed digital
connected, with the ability to collect economy by 2020. Malaysia already has a
and share data,” said Prakash Mallya, lot of the IoT ecosystem elements in place
Country Manager Sales & Marketing, Intel and having private sector partners such
Malaysia & Singapore at the roundtable. as Intel Malaysia will undoubtedly drive
“In Malaysia, Intel has been working technological uptake on IoT amongst local
with local talent develop the groundwork SMEs.
and foundations of IoT via our Intelligent www.intel.my
battery, which has a talk time of
up to nine hours and stand-by
time of up to 96 hours.
Not only that, Ninetology also
took the opportunity to launch its
eChannel portal, which was set
up to provide customers more
avenues to buy their phones,
besides the experiential stores
and dealers nationwide.
The Ninetology U9 Z1T is now
available at all Ninetology stores
and dealers nationwide for a
retail price of RM899. However,
if you were to purchase it with
select mobile network operators,
you can get rebates of up to
RM200 for the phone. The Ninetology U9 Z1T smartphone is an LTE-enabled device, powered by
a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, running Android 4.3 Ice
www.ninetology.com/v2/
Cream Sandwich
 news
world wired web

Google Unveils Slew Of

Announcements At I/O
Event
G
oogle’s I/O Developer Conference
may have been named as such,
but there is plenty for the layman
to look forward to as much as there is for
the developer to sink in. A number of
intriguing concepts were announced last
year, and after a year, some of these
concepts have taken root and it’s just a
matter of time before the technology is
set for the consumer market.
At this year’s conference, Google
unveiled even more new and up and
coming technology, which is set to
invade more than just your mobile
communications devices. These
announcements are definitely timely as
Sundar Pichai, Google Senior Vice
President announced that Android now
has more than one billion active users a
month.

Android L
W
hile the announcement of the developers’ preview of Android L itself has been leaked beforehand, we had to wait until
the I/O event to learn more about what it means to Google’s mobile operating system environment.
Flat looks to be the design scheme of choice for mobile operating systems this year as Google unveiled Android L to
the world. The new design sports what the company calls “material design”, a design concept that is set to be adopted on all of
Google’s mobile, desktop and various hardware platforms in the near future.
The newly redesigned Google apps also look much simpler, with more focus given on typography and content, giving the
apps an overall cleaner look. With the new Android L, app designers will also be able colour parts of the Android UI to match the
overall look and feel of the app.
Notifications have also been reworked on Android L, as it will allow you to read, open and close these alerts straight from the
lock screen. These notifications are individually shown in their own notification cards, so you can pick and choose which ones
you want to open, dismiss or leave be.

Android One Program Google Drive

O
ne of the biggest announcements at I/O this year has got to be the
introduction of its Android One program, an initiative and set of
standards for Android-based smartphone manufacturers who wish to
For Work
A
create affordable smartphones for the mass market. re you running a business, and fancy
In order for smartphones to be eligible for the ‘Android One’ status, yourself getting your employees
Google has also set a specific number of guidelines for them to follow, which unlimited cloud storage for a small fee?
includes both hardware and software requirements, which includes the Google Drive has been constantly upgrading
omission of vendor-specific UI modifications such as TouchWiz and Sense. their cloud storage infrastructure, adding a
What this means for the end user is that Android One devices will be a lot bevy of software-based solutions to it as well,
more streamlined, with updates hopefully coming in a timely fashion as as it tries to one-up Microsoft’s own Office 365
phone manufacturers will not office productivity suite.
have to worry about its UI not For just US$10 (RM32) a month per user,
fitting in the new Android OS Google Drive For Work users get unlimited
version. cloud storage space, and can upload up to 5TB
Just as an example, one of of files per transfer. This package will
the first Android One devices definitely be great for those who are working
to hit the shelves will be from in the creative industries, such as advertising
companies such as Micromax and post-production who will appreciate the
and Karbonn, which will retail storage space and ease of use provided by
for less than US$100 in India. Google Drive.

chip malaysia june 14 023

 news
world wired web

Tel Aviv
Builds Sky
Cars
T
el Aviv is taking to the skies with their
elevated network of sky cars that are
being built on the campus of Israel
Aerospace Industries (IAI) followed by a
commercial network according to skyTran,
the manufacturing company for the sky
cars. These two person modules will be
suspended from elevated magnetic tracks
as an alternative transport method to busy
Android Wear
W
ith wearable technology fast picking up pace in the consumer market,
roads, and is expected to be up and Google first announced Android Wear earlier this year, and at I/O, the
running by the end of 2015. The firm company took the opportunity to show off how it works.
believes that the test track will prove that Far from it being an operating for stand-alone devices, Android Wear is more of a
the technology works and that will lead to a companion software that relays information from connected Android devices to your
more commercialised system. The idea is wearable devices, such as watches.
for users to call up a vehicle on their If you’re familiar with Google Now, Android Wear’s notifications function similarly
smartphone which will meet them at a to Now’s contextualised cards where you can swipe vertically to see. Not only that,
specific station, which will then allow them you can also perform the “OK Google” voice prompt feature to create reminders,
to head to their destination. These vehicles alarms and calls. So synced is Android Wear to your device that whenever you install
are expected to travel at speeds of up to an app from the Play Store to your phone, if there is an Android Wear version
70km/h, while the planned commercial available, it will also install itself onto the wearable device that is linked to your
version should be able to achieve faster Android phone or tablet.
speeds.

Predator Android Auto

Cloaking On R
adio manufacturers have tried to install Google’s Android operating system
into their car entertainment systems before, which was met with mixed results,
more often bad than good. Google is entering the automotive entertainment
scene, currently being occupied by BlackBerry’s QNX and Apple’s CarPlay systems.
The An interesting point to note about Android Auto is that it can be completely
controlled by voice alone. Taking design cues from Google Now again, the system

Internet places Google Now cards which display maps and other various information that is
pertinent to your drive back home.
The apps that appear on Android Auto are actually run from the phone, which

T
he iCloak Stik is a plug and play
device that is designed to make actually makes it much easier for developers to have Google Auto apps up to date.
online privacy a fortress to the Currently, the apps that are available on Auto include Google Maps, Google Play
masses. It does this by enabling the Music, and from third party developers, there is Spotify, Pandora, Joyride and
average computer user route their TuneIn, amongst others.
browsing data via the Tor or l2P Google also announced that the Android Auto SDK can now be downloaded, so
anonymising networks so that it cannot be that developers can start
tracked. This particular device also makes it creating apps that can be
possible for users to choose a particular used in users’ vehicles.
country to show where they appear from The company also
which can bypass region-locked content. mentioned that 25 car
Each time a user connects into the Internet manufacturers have
with the iCloak it will generate a new and already pledged their
random MAC address which means that support for the platform
your hardware cannot be traced. The iCloak and will be launching
will also delete all your browsing activity Android Auto-compatible
without a trace as you disengage the device vehicles sometime this
each time you use it. year.

024 june 14 chip malaysia

 news
world wired web

Will 4G Be
Obsolete Soon?
L
TE has become a standard that the
modern society is basing mobile
internet speeds upon, but is it about
to be obsolete soon? It just might with
Ericsson, who recently tested a
connection speed of 5 gigabits per
second over the air, which will soon be
part of its plans to incorporate 5G
technology. However, it is still in its
alpha stage and it won’t see any real
deployment until 2020. That being said,
the 5Gbps benchmark has achieved what
is 250 times the performance of today’s
standard LTE connection, which
marks a new record for the wireless
industry and is a preview of what
can be possible in the future. The
breakthrough in connection speeds
will benefit not only smartphones testing however is done in controlled
but also automobiles, medical conditions, the perfect scenario where
equipment and other devices. To everything is at its optimal state. Japan’s
understand the scope of what 5Gbps NTT Docomo and South Korea’s SK
could do, imagine a 50GB movie taking Telecom have already committed to
80 seconds to download. These are conducting 5G trials with Ericsson, but
speeds which surpass even Google no carriers have been confirmed yet.
Fiber’s 1Gbps wired connection. The

Audi Expands Into

The Driverless Realm
T
he Audi Cruise RP-1 Kit system does not make your Audi a fully autonomous
car, but it does takes cruise control to a whole new level. During long travel
times, this driverless system takes over the driver controls to allow the user
to make use of the travel time doing other productive activities. The driver will still
need to be present for off highway trails and to make lane changes. This system is
available to consumers at a hefty price tag of US$10,000 (RM31,850) and it will only be available for Audi A4 and S4 models for
the time being. The system works in a sensor pod that gets mounted on the roof of the car which then utilises cameras, data and
radar to analyse the vehicle’s surroundings. With all the data collected, it can then make changes within the lane boundary and
watch for nearby vehicles or other obstacles. The Cruise RP-1 is expected to launch in the first half of 2015.

Lego Delves into Google Gone

Augmented Reality Cube-delic
L T
ego has long surpassed its tradition of being only a children’s game and he Cube is an in-browser interactive 3D box
soon another barrier is going to come crashing down as Lego announces that features a different video and audio track
a new way to play its favourite plastic bricks in both physical and virtual on each face, designed to be an interactive
worlds. This new line of playsets are called Fusion, and it will be available in platform for creative storytelling built by Google
August. This set combines the construction routine of old but is integrated into Creative Labs. Currently, The Cube only runs on
video games through an augmented reality technology. Each Fusion Lego set Android and Google Chrome and it intends to show
comes with its own distinct type of bricks which have special Fusion capture that Google can
plates which lets the smartphone or tablet camera detect the type of bricks combine both art
being utilised. The Fusion app and algorithms to
will be free to download for all create something
mobile platforms, and will really special.
prompt players to create on the Google calls The
capture plate in a way that Cube a platform for
allows the app to capture import indicating how art
and manipulate the real can be introduced
construction model into a model in different and
within the virtual world. interactive ways.

chip malaysia june 14 025

 news
security report
Even with the latest update, iOS 8 sƟll has some security concerns that could be exploited
iOS 8: What It Means
To The Security Of
iPhones And iPads
A
t the Worldwide Developers
Conference held in early
June, Apple unveiled its latest
operating system, iOS 8. Whilst it does
indeed come with a gamut of features
and improvements, the security experts
at Symantec do have some concerns
about some of these features from a
security point of view.
One of the features unveiled are
third party app extensions, which
allows for apps to communicate with
one another. What this means is that
Apple is breaking its app sandbox
policies, allowing for a wide range
of new interactions between apps to
happen. Theoretically, this sounds great
for many app developers, and in fact
one of the biggest benefactors of this
new app communication policy would
be password managers that can now
have seamless integration with a variety
of apps that require a username and
password to use.
Whilst Apple’s app screening process
is quite strict, there is still a worry that
a few of these malicious apps that take
advantage of the new extensions by
intercepting data traffic and creating
keyloggers that will secretly save
your personal data and send it to a
026 july 14 chip malaysia
C&C server where it will be used for
malicious purposes.
The Healthkit and Homekit features
meanwhile are great as it means that
not only do you get to keep up to date
with your body’s health, you can also
use the smartphone to automate various
features of your house, making it easier
to secure your home even when you’re
away from home. The main concern
here is the fact that it poses some BYOD
problems, possibly for companies, and
is a possible threat as hackers would
attempt to hijack the phone in order to
gain access to these remote activation
features.
All is not lost however as Touch ID
is a heaven-sent feature for users who
don’t want to use a passlock to lock their
phones. With the Touch ID, users only
need a swipe of their finger to unlock
their phones, and it has been recorded
that 83 percent of iPhones now have
some sort of passlock mechanism to
secure their iPhones.
Whilst all these features look set to
improve the already impressive iOS
feature set, users of the iPhone and
iPad need to take extra care so that their
mobile devices are not tampered with by
hackers and malware.
Data Theft Of
The Month
BSI: 18 MILLION ACCOUNTS
HACKED
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of
Verden recently shared a data record
containing 18 million email addresses
and their passwords with the BSI.
The operators of a botnet used these
accounts to mass send spam emails,
and three million users were affected.
It is still unclear how many of the
infected accounts are still active, and
as a precaution, GMX and Web.de has
blocked the email-sending function of
the affected accounts. These accounts
are reactivated only when a new
password has been assigned to them.
BOXEE: 158,000 ACCOUNTS
HACKED
Web-based TV service Boxee.tv has
recently fallen prey to a hack attack.
The hackers published an 800MB
file on the World Wide Web which
contains the names, email addresses
and birth dates of 158,000 users. The
company has since advised its users to
create a new password so as to avoid
further hacking attacks in the future.
OCULUS: LOOPHOLE
DISCOVERED IN DEVELOPER
FORUM
Oculus, the manufacturers of the
Oculus Rift VR googles has recently
discovered an SQL loophole in
its developer forum. Through this
loophole, hackers could potentially
steal user data of registered
developers, but the company has
also stated that it has eliminated the
bug in time, and cautions its users to
change their account passwords as a
precaution.
 news
security report

Danger Barometer
According to
Infowatch’s 2013
High risk
Mobile Trojan
Svpeng: Financial
Global Data
Leakage Protection
Report, 1,143 leaks
of confidential
information were

Malware with
recorded and
reported
Medium risk

Low risk
The targets of phishing
crooks
According to a study conducted by
Kaspersky, criminals are primarily
interested in bank accounts. However,
online shops such as Amazon for instance
are also lucrative phishing targets
BANKS
Ransomware
K
aspersky Labs has recently
detected a mobile Trojan called
Svpeng that is currently operating
in the USA and the UK. It combines the
functionality of financial malware with
ransomware capabilities. This mobile
Trojan is not new, as it is a popular
mobile Trojan in Russia, but this is the
first time that it is seen operating outside
of the Soviet nation.
The Trojan checks a user’s phone for
a list of certain financial applications
–probably more for future usage, when it
71%
starts stealing login/password of online
banking as it does now among Russian
banks accounts. In the USA, the bank
apps the Trojan checks for include USAA
Mobile, Citi Mobile, Bank of America
Mobile Banking and Chase Mobile,
amongst others. After infecting devices
that have these apps installed, it then
locks the screen of the mobile device with
the imitation of an FBI penalty notification
letter and demands $200 in the form of
Green Dot’s MoneyPak cards.
www.kaspersky.com.my

SOCIAL NETWORKS 35%

ONLINE SHOPS 21%

ONLINE GAMES 2%
Android and iOS
Malware Detected
SOURCE: BLUECOAT

Zero-Day attacks on the

rise
According to a study conducted by
Symantec, 23 new Zero-Day attacks
as Italian ‘Legal’
Spyware Tool
appeared last year. This is nine more than
in 2012.

No. of Zero-Day attacks

30 23
Attacks

M
25 obile malware is a big known that HackingTeam’s mobile
20 14
Attacks deal these days, with even Trojans for iOS and Android existed,
15 government-sanctioned nobody had actually identified them
10 organisations creating malware tools before or noticed them being used in
5 to spy on behalf of the government. attacks. During the recent research, new
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Kaspersky recently published a report variants of samples were also received
that the computer security company from victims through the Kaspersky Lab
SOURCE: MCAFEE has mapped a massive international cloud-based KSN network. In addition,
infrastructure which is used to control the company’s experts worked closely
Remote Control System (RCS) malware with Morgan Marquis-Boire from Citizen
Number of the Month:
implants, and the modules that function Lab, who has been researching the

500,000 at the core of this RCS are part of the

‘legal’ spyware tool, Galileo, developed
HackingTeam malware set extensively.

Euros were stolen in a single week in by the Italian company HackingTeam. www.kaspersky.com.my
The Luuuk banking fraud campaign Although in the past it had been

chip malaysia july 14 027

 feature
legaltech

The
Implications of
Section 114A Of
The Evidence
Act 1950
It has been two years since the introduction of Section 114A, a
new law that created shockwaves and disapproval from netizens of
Malaysia. Till today, we have yet to receive any updates on what is
going on with this law. We take a step back and look at why it caused
such an uproar By Edwin Lee Yong Cieh
A practicising lawyer specialising
in telecommunications, media
& technology law, Edwin is in a
constant effort to educate users
on the many legal happenings in the Web. Section 114A will have an impact on anyone who
the IT world uses the Internet, computers, or mobile devices; those who
administer, operate or provide spaces for online community

T
his month marks the 2nd year anniversary of Section
114A of the Evidence Act 1950 (“Section 114A”), which
came into force on 31 July 2012. Much has been said
and written about this onerous provision under the Evidence
Act 1950 since it was passed by the Malaysian Parliament in
2012. The call for repeal or review of Section 114A also fell on
deaf ears as the authorities have not taken any action thus far,
save for a short tweet by the Prime Minister saying that he had
instructed his Cabinet to review this notorious provision of the
law.
The intention of Section 114A, according to the
Government, is to facilitate the identification and proving of
the identity of an anonymous person involved in illicit or
harmful content published on the Internet. However, this
controversial provision has attracted a lot of criticism and
sparked many debates, particularly from the netizens in
Malaysia, who viewed this provision as a move by the
Government to threaten the right to freedom of expression on
forums, blogging and hosting services as well as any business
premises which offer free Wi-Fi access to their customers. The
protest against Section 114A led to the occurrence of the very
first Internet Blackout Day in Malaysia that took place on 14
August 2012, which was an action to create awareness about
the negative impacts of Section 114A and to show protest
against this draconian provision under the law.
In a nutshell, Section 114A creates a legal presumption that
any registered user/subscriber of a network service, or any
person who has in his custody or control any computer on
which any publication originates from, is presumed to be the
publisher of a publication sent from a computer which is linked
to that network service or that computer, unless the contrary is
proved. It also provides that any person whose name,
photograph or pseudonym appears on any publication
depicting himself as the owner, host, administrator, editor or
sub-editor, or who in any manner facilitates to publish or re-
publish the publication is presumed to have published or re-

028 july 14 chip malaysia

 feature
legaltech

published the contents of the publication unless the contrary is

proven.
Section 114A allows the prosecution in a criminal case or a
plaintiff in a civil suit to rely on a presumption of fact to prove
the identity of the person responsible for an internet
publication. It shifts the burden of proof from the prosecution/
plaintiff to the accused person/defendant in the sense that the
accused person/defendant will be deemed as the publisher of
the content, unless the accused person/defendant proves
otherwise.
The implications of this wide and draconian provision could
be very serious. For example, if a person hacks into another
person’s mobile device or Facebook account, and uses that
device or Facebook account to post a defamatory statement
anonymously, the victim of the hacked device or Facebook
While there hasn’t been much hulabaloo over SecƟon 114A in the recent Ɵmes, doing a quick
account will be deemed as the publisher and could be sued for search on Topsy will net you a stream of angry and upset tweets from two years ago
defamatory statement that he did not post. Bloggers and
forum administrators also opposed to Section 114A, simply
because if a reader of their sites post a libellous or seditious
comment, the bloggers and forum administrators will be
deemed as the publishers of the comment and could be
charged for sedition or sued for defamation. Café operators
that offer free Wi-Fi access at their cafes could also be
potentially liable for the conducts of their customers who use
the Wi-Fi network to post unlawful content, simply because the
operators are the “registered users/subscribers of the network
service” which are linked to the content originating from a
computer/mobile device using the Wi-Fi service. In short, if an
unlawful, illicit or harmful content is tracked back to your
username, electronic device or network service, Section 114A
presumes you as the publisher of the content. As most of the
times, the authorities cannot trace the identity of the actual
While it may have been a Malaysian issue, the “birth” of SecƟon 114A and the issues it would
author who posts or makes those seditious, defamatory or cause made its way to plenty of internaƟonal news websites
libellous postings, Section 114A now enables the prosecution
to hold these people as “publishers” and make them prosecution to prove the commission of the offence by the
accountable for those unlawful content, even though they are individuals. Furthermore, dragging such individuals into court
not the actual authors of the content. would cause unnecessary embarrassment, cost and
Do note that Section 114A is a rebuttable presumption of inconvenience that no amount of compensation can make up
fact, not a direct presumption of guilt. Notwithstanding the for.
presumption, the prosecution/plaintiff would still need to The Government has justified this Section 114A by saying
prove the other elements of the offence/claim. For example, if that the cross-border nature of the Internet has made it
a person is charged under the Sedition Act 1948 for uttering a extremely difficult for the authorities to trace the identity of the
seditious statement, that person will be presumed as the culprits, who often post malicious and defaming content
publisher under Section 114A, but not necessarily guilty of anonymously. But this cannot be a valid justification, simply
sedition. The prosecution would still need to prove that those because if it is difficult for the authorities to gather the
words are “seditious” before that person can be made guilty. required evidence, what makes them think that it would be less
Be that as it may, Section 114A essentially goes against the difficult for the ordinary individuals to prove their innocence?
very fundamental principle of natural justice that “one is It is indeed a tough balancing act, and the Government will
presumed to be innocent until proven guilty”. Most ordinary have to get it right in protecting the people’s interests while
individuals would not have the resources to defend themselves safeguarding the right to freedom of expression on the
in court, compared to the entire machinery that the authorities Internet.
have, such as the police force, the Attorney General’s
Chambers, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia The view expressed in this article is intended to provide a
Commission, etc, which have the technology, manpower and general guide to the subject matter and does not constitute
resources to do the investigation. Under Section 114A, professional legal advice. You are advised to seek proper legal
individuals will have to bear the disproportionate burden to advice for your specific situation.
prove their innocence when it should be the job of the

chip malaysia july 14 029

 feature
tech spelunk

Noticeable Improvements
The number one question people will likely have about the Devil’s Canyon
Processor is “Is it worth the investment?” This matter is really quite subjective, and
really depends on what you’re looking to do with the processor. If you’re aiming to
do extreme overclocking with the processor, its capability to drive higher voltage
values for ramped up performance will definitely drive you in good stead. Its new
thermal cooling features will also ensure that the chances of it overheating are kept
as low as possible, as long as you know what you’re doing.
As far as usual computing tasks are concerned, the performance between
Haswell and Devil’s Canyon may be somewhat noticeable in terms of numbers
depending on the task.

What’s New?
As far as physical looks are
concerned, the Intel Core i7-
4790K processor does not
differ all that much when
compared to the reigning
powerhouse, the Intel Core i7-
4770K. What Intel has done
however, is that the newer
processor comes equipped
with a new Polymer Thermal
Interface Material which aims
to reduce the overheating
issues that are commonplace
with Haswell and Ivy Bridge
processors whenever they hit
speeds of 4.4GHz and above.
There are also more
capacitors underneath the
processor, which helps to
regulate power delivery to the
processor.

030 july 14 chip malaysia

 feature
tech spelunk

When Intel announced its Haswell processor last year, it also signalled what appeared to
be a major push in computing in different form factors, such as 2-in-1 notebooks, tablets,
and alternative form factors to the traditional desktop computing. What the company
likely didn’t expect however is that the enthusiast market has seen a remarkable growth
over the past year, and sensing that this continuously growing niche market has a
potential for something special, they announced a refresh to the Haswell processor,
codenamed Devil’s Canyon. By CHIP Team

Choices, Overclocking
Choices Prowess
If the Intel Core i7- Intel’s K processors have had a
4790K is a bit out of base clock that was clocked at
your reach in terms 3.5GHz and had options provided
of cost, fret not as to users via Turbo Boost to
there is not just one overclock them to the 3.8-4.0GHz
Devil’s Canyon range, which is quite impressive on
processor that Intel its own merit, all things considered.
has unveiled. The Devil’s Canyon CPU steps it up
Potential users can a notch however, as at stock, the
also scout out the Intel Core i5-4690K processor, clocked at 3.5GHz, and can be processor runs at 4.0GHz, with
overclocked to 3.9GHz via Turbo Boost. Turbo Boost numbers of 4.4GHz,
If a more budget option is what you’re looking for, Intel also has the Intel Pentium which actually does run quite stable
20th Anniversary Edition dual-core processor, featuring unlocked core multipliers, and even when being cooled by a tower
an overclockable 3.2GHz base frequency. ccooler.
Tests and overclocking
sshowcases at COMPUTEX Taipei
earlier last month has shown that
e
tthe new processor can easily clock
5.0GHz and beyond with liquid
5
nitrogen cooling, although the
n
numbers shown with a much
n
ssimpler water-cooling block are
already good enough for
a
enthusiasts to shout praise about.
e

C
Compatibility
Matters
M
T main worry with the new
The
Devil’s Canyon and Broadwell
D
processors is compatibility. All
p
tthree processors share the same
LGA1150 socket, however Intel
L
processors have been known in the
p
past to be quite rigid with the list of
p
ssupported motherboards when it
ccomes to new processors.
Users will be happy to know
tthat Intel has unveiled a list of Z87
motherboards that will be capable
m
of supporting the new Z97
o
processors, and the list is a lot
p
more extensive than one would
m
expect.
e

chip malaysia july 14 031

 feature
timeline

Ambitious
niche project
USB 1.0 initially
wasn't so successful
due to "teething"
problems

1994
USB 0.7
The first developer version of
the universal serial bus is
introduced

1994 1995 1996 1997

Universal Serial Bus

Development period: 2 years
Cable length: Up to 5 metres
Devices per connection: 127
Prevalence: In 2010, 3.5 billion
devices with USB ports were
sold

CHIP TIMELINE
USB
There is now order where there was initially nothing but chaos: In 20 years, the
universal serial bus has standardised the ports on PCs and notebooks
Before the USB port became a main stay was the catalyst that caused industry's few teething problems that needed to be
on most computers, the mouse and heavyweights such as Compaq, DEC, fixed. The maximum transfer speed of
keyboard were connected using the PS/2 IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel to 12MBit/s was quite slow, and the process
port; printers were connected via a come together and solve the issue. of using a hub to expand the consistently
parallel interface; joysticks had to be In 1996, after the end of the sparse number of USB ports was a
connected to game port; a serial developmental period that lasted for problem as it would very easily get
interface was required for the modem about two years, the group unveiled the detached. However, revision 1.1 rectified
and the ZIP drive was pinned to the first version of the Universal Serial Bus most of these defects and helped the
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI). (USB). However, USB 1.0 wasn’t quite USB port gain an rapidly increasing
Simply put, it was interface-chaos and it such a major hit, as the system had a amount of acceptance.

032 july 14 chip malaysia


2000
USB-Stick
The first USB sticks are sold under
the names ‘ThumbDrive’ and
‘DiskOnKey’
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
However, the final breakthrough only
emerged at the beginning of the new
millennium. The new standard called
USB 2.0 facilitated higher transfer rates
that were in the neighbourhood of
480MBit/s, paving the way for a small
piece of peripheral equipment that is
named after the interface, and which has
now become an indispensable part of
the IT landscape: the USB sticks. In the
age of 3.5-inch diskettes, its initial
storage capacity of 8 megabytes was
already considered impressively large.
Nowadays, several hundred gigabytes
2006
Wireless USB
Wireless USB is expected to bridge
the gap between Bluetooth and
WLAN
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
1998
USB-Hubs
After the release of USB 1.1, it
became possible to duplicate USB
ports
can be stored on a USB sticks as small
as a fingernail.
Since the universal serial bus was
increasingly turning into a data interface
for sticks, external hard drives and
optical drives, the 2.0 standard was soon
considered to be much too slow. The
end of 2008 therefore saw the adoption
of USB 3.0, which was also dubbed
‘Superspeed’ on account of the fact that
it boast data transfer rates of up to 5
GBit/s. Very soon, we will be ushering in
the all new USB 3.1, which is said to
have double the transfer rate of 3.0 that
feature
timeline
2014
Micro USB
The EU resolves upon uniform
charging cables corresponding to the
USB standard for smartphones and
tablets
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
2002
USB toys
Current-carrying USB ports are
‘misused’ for fans, lamps and
the like
PHOTOS (TOP-DOWN): NIKOLAUS SCHÄFFLER; WIKIPEDIA/BOY/CC BY-SA 3.0;
goes up to 10GBit/s.
Although USB was more of an
ambitious niche project during the initial
THINKSTOCK/HEMERA/ALEXANDER ZIGANENKO
M-SYSTEMS; CHIP; WIKIPEDIA/ALFRED HUTTER;
years, the interface has now become
pretty much universal. In the year 2014,
there are hardly any peripheral devices
that are not connected to PCs or
notebooks via this handy connector.
USB has even become the standard
interface for smartphones and tablets,
the gadgets of the post-PC era. This has
also been recognised by the EU, which
recently issued a directive banning other
charging cables for mobile phones.
chip malaysia july 14 033
 feature
wearing
xxx
sensors
Glyph Vuzix Glasses
The ear piece of the Like Google Glass, Vuzix
headphone is also a M100 displays
projector that projects information from a
images directly to the linked Android device
retina – which gives and can be controlled
users the impression of using gestures
viewing the im
images
g on Price: est. €725
a large screen
en (RM3,175)
Price: €360 (RM1,576)

Bragi
The in-ear headphones work as mobile
phone microphones and MP3 players Contact lenses
and constantly measure the pulse of the Google is currently
wearer testing contact lenses
Price: €220 (RM963) that can measure blood
sugar from tear fluid
Price: Not known
Narrative Clip
The camera captures a
5 megapixel image
every 30 seconds and
uses these to create a
pictorial diary for the
wearer
Price: €200 (RM875)

Jawbone UP24
4 Logbar Ring
The fitness wristband d The wearer can write SMS’s or operate
records sleep and home automation functions using
activity details of the
e personalised gestures
wearer and coaches Price: €135 (RM591)
her/him to quickly
achieve a goal she/he e
has set for herself/
himself
Price: €149 (RM652)

Com
Computers
mp M body
On Your Body An interesting
product for
g

In the future, we won’t just be professionals:

“wearing” sensors, instead, we the clothes
detect muscles s
may be looking at sensors being that are most
implanted in our bodies. There are subject to
already in-ear headphones that stress and
Heapsylon Sensoria help monitor medical conditions
display this in
These socks track pressure points an app
and help in working out Price: €890
and provide tips for smoother
walking motion (RM3,896)
Price: €145 (RM635)

Moov
A
Acceleration sensors measure
movements in real time. A virtual
coach also gives tips
Price: €50 (RM218)
 INFO feature
Wearables for allxxx

Wearable
Growth market
By 2018, the turnover made by weara-
bles is predicted to reach about US$8.3
billion (RM26 billion). The projected
growth is 18 percent per year.

Sensors

SOURCE: MARKETSANDMARKETS.COM
9 Turnover in billion Euros
8
7
6
5
Wearable technology in the future will read vital signs, look 4
trendy and will manage to be unobtrusive By Fabian von Keudell 3
2
1

M
anufacturers of wearables gadgets
are expecting a turnover of
US$4.5 billion (RM15 billion) in
2014. By 2018, this shall increase to US$8.3
billion (RM26 billion)). Experts agree that
devices oriented towards fitness and sports
will be the main crowd attractors. The
Austrian start-up Runtastic shows that this
soon be able to do much more than 0
monitor the medical condition: 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
manufacturers are already implementing
features that track and evaluate active
movements like the Moov sensor or Electronics
measure blood sugar levels from tear fluid For Babies
like Google’s contact lenses. However, for The start-up
these devices to be successful, it is company Pixie

MANUFACTURER ILLUSTRATIONS: ISTOCK.COM/BALDARI (PUBLISHER); ISTOCK.COM/BORTONIA (LEFT); THINKSTOCK/ISTOCK/ZUURA (RIGHT)

industry will prove to be successful. The important that the sensors are integrated Scientific is
apps, with which users can log their into everyday life as unobtrusively as developing smart
achievements in sports, have already been possible. As a result, wristbands and diapers, which use
downloaded more than 46 million times. smartwatches have the highest prospects special sensors to
The perfect addition to this is fitness of success. Bragi integrates its sensors in determine bacteria
wristbands: according to the statistics headphones. But it isn’t all just for humans and sugar content of
company Canalys, eight million so-called as manufacturers are launching wearables the urine among
smartbands like the one from Jawbone, for pets as well. other things. These
were sold in 2014 alone. The devices will sensors are made of
harmless chemicals.

Whistle
Measures the movement
and food intake of dogs
and sends this
information to the Cloud
Price: €95 (RM416)
A Step Closer
To Robocop
Policemen will wear
Otto Pet Care
A pet collar measures calorie up to seven
consumption and adjusts food additional devices in
rations accordingly future. These will
Price: €390 (RM1,707)
record vital signs in
real time, detect toxic
substances in the
ambient air and
constantly exchange
this data wirelessly
with their
headquarters.

US$77 MIL.
is the estimated turnover of
manufacturers of batteries
for wearables in 2018
PHOTOS: MANUFA

61 PERCENT
of the latest wearables are
fitness trackers
 feature
eature
technic
hnic lexicon

Triple Speed
Speed comparison – eMMC and UFS Comparing the features of eMMC
MC and
nd UFS
The flash memory used in smartphones and tablets these days are When it comes to the storage component, speed isn’t everything.
usually eMMC. However, eMMCs are about to make way for UFS Here’s a comparison between the most important features (such as
2.0, which boasts much better performance the power consumption and the maximum addressable memory) of
SPEED COMPARISON – EMMC VS. UFS (FIGURES IN MBYTE/S) eMMCs and UFS.
eMMC 4.41
104 Function eMMC UFS
(NEXUS 7 2013)
Number of partitions/bootable 4/ q 8/ q
EMMC 4.5
(GALAXY S4)
200 Protected partition possible q q
EMMC 5.0 Maximum storage capacity Up to 2 TByte More than 2 TByte possible
400 Multithreading q q
(GALAXY NOTE 3)
EMMC 5.X Connection type Parallel Serial
600
(AB 2015) Instruction set Native SCSI
UFS 1.1 Communication channel Half-duplex Full-duplex
300
(NICHT VERBAUT)
Command Queuing q q
UFS 2.0
(VEGA IRON 2)
1.400 Trim/Secure Erase q/q q/q
Power consumption – Operation/ ca. 1 mW/under 0.5 mW ca. 1 mW/under 0.5 mW
Standby
Q YES Q NO

This is how UFS 2.0 saves and reads data

App CPU-Chip Speicher-Chip
Flash cells
 4
Logical
Unit 0

Logical
UFS-Host Unit 1
Kontrolle
Daten

UFS  2 UFS-  3
 1 drive Host Controller Device
manager
Kontrolle
Logical
Daten Unit n

1 Start data transfer 2 Regulate commands 3 Full-duplex 4 Multithreading

In case of smartphones and tablets,
the active apps initiate data
transfers from and to the mobile
memory on a near-constant basis.
The apps’ connection is set up via
the UFS host, which is part of the
system CPU on the chip.
The UFS driver directs the reading
and writing commands to the host
controller, which re-sorts them for
optimal processing: It distributes
the queries such that the flash cells
in the memory chip are used in a
uniform manner.
The communication between the
UFS host and the memory chip
takes place in the full-duplex mode.
This means that UFS 2.0 allows
simultaneous reading and writing –
an eMMC can only use the half-
duplex mode.
The memory can process many
different queries in parallel. For
this, UFS 2.0 uses the SCSI
commands, which make it possible
to independently address
individual sections of the Flash
memory as a logical unit.

036 july 14 chip malaysia


UFS 2.0: Turbo Charged
Memory For Mobile Devices
The flash memories in smartphones and tablets are much slower than SSDs in computers
– UFS 2.0 is expected to change that. Here’s a look at the upcoming turbo-charged memory
for mobile devices By Jörg Geiger
F
lash memories ar are tremendously fast. According to our score
list with SSDs, the flash memories in computers and
notebooks can re read and write at the rate of about 500 MByte
per second if the right kind of interface is used. However, the
situation is slightly dif
different when it involves mobile devices: No
flash memory can rea reach a speed of 500 MByte per second
regardless if it is for w
writing or reading. In practice, speeds of about
50 MByte per second are the best these devices can produce,
because these devices do not feature the SATA SSDs associated
with PCs. They use an embedded multimedia card (eMMC), which
utilises a much slower storage interface.
eMMCs are part of the built-in SOC systems (system on a chip),
and are currently found in just about every popular smartphones
and tablets. From a historical point of view, smartphone memories
are descendants of the multimedia cards associated with
digicams, which were earlier used as alternatives to compact flash.
FOTOS: ASUS (O.L.); SAMSUNG (O.R.); © COPYRIGHT BLENDER FOUNDATION/WWW.SINTEL.ORG (U.L.) INFOGRAFIK: VERONIKA ZANGL
On average, a new version of eMMC appears every year. For
example, in Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, the memory is interlinked
using eMMC 4.1. This means that speeds exceeding 104 MByte
per second cannot be achieved. This benchmark is expected to be
surpassed by the first-generation UFS (Universal Flash Storage),
which was standardised in 2011 by the JEDEC (Joint Electron
Device Engineering Council) as an alternative to eMMC. However,
UFS 1.1 didn’t gain acceptance, since it hardly offered any
advantages vis-à-vis eMMC – all this changed when UFS 2.0 came
about in September 2013. This new storage method features
transfer speeds of up to 1400 MByte per second, the new turbo
memory may actually appear in the market this year.
UFS even manages to outpace SSDs
The energy consumption is an important factor associated with
the relatively sluggish eMMC connections. When it comes to most
mobile devices, conserving the battery’s power is more important
than speed, and eMMC is very good at this. However, despite its
better performance, the new UFS 2.0 is actually has power
consumption that is on par with eMMC. Approximately 1 mW of
power is consumed during operations and similarly both
standards share the same power consumption levels, which is
below 0.5 mW, when in the standby-condition. When UFS 2.0 is
subjected to a full load, it actually consumes more power than
eMMC. But, since it can finish its work relatively quicker, it can go
back to the standby state faster. The second reason for the
widespread use of eMMC has to do with costs. This type of
storage interface allows for an inexpensive mass production
process. UFS 2.0 is significantly more expensive and should, at
least in the beginning, fit in better with higher-end devices.
feature
technic lexicon
However, UFS 2.0 produces transfer speeds that are more than
three times higher than the transfer speeds associated with the
current eMMC 5.0 standard. The increased speed can be attributed
to clever design decisions. For example, data can be exchanged
between the UFS host and the flash memory using the full-duplex
procedure: Unlike eMMC, the memory access operations allow
simultaneous reading and writing. Furthermore, additional control
channels ensure that the data is delivered securely. Unnecessary
waiting periods (such as those that come about because a lengthy
writing operation is imminent) are a thing of the past. The entire
communication is passed on to the UFS host controller in the CPU
chip via the UFS driver. This is where the next accelerator comes
into play: The controller can sort the incoming commands in a
manner that ensures that they can be processed as quickly as
possible. UFS 2.0 then transmits several commands from a queue
in parallel with the memory chip (command queuing).
With built-in memory-intelligence
Command queuing involves a prioritisation process: The speed at
which a video player receives its data is higher than the speed at
which the browser-download is saved in the background. The
commands for the serial connections are not brand-new, but have
been borrowed from the SCSI protocol, which is also used in USB
3.0. Consequently, UFS 2.0 makes it possible to address memory
blocks in parallel as independent logical units (LUN – logical unit
number). This involves another speed-related advantage
compared to eMMC. If an eMMC is used, the entire system has to
wait for a operation to be completed before the next one can be
initiated. UFS 2.0, on the other hand, is great at multi-tasking, thus
lending optimal support to multi-threading.
In addition to offering speed-related advantages, UFS 2.0 also
supports more memory than an eMMC. Due to the hard-coded 32-
bit addressing system in an eMMC, the system can only offer a
flash memory of 2TB. That’s more than enough for the latest
smartphones and tablets. UFS is flexible when it comes to the
addressing system, and can leapfrog the 2TB hurdle. The precise
amount of memory that can be addressed depends on the UFS
implementation. UFS allows the establishment of up to eight
partitions, and can even boot up using said partitions.
Furthermore, the partitions can be equipped with a protective
function, so that they can preserve sensitive data like encryption
keys. The brand-new UFS 2.0 is available for Qualcomm’s
upcoming Snapdragon 805 SOC, which is expected to dominate
the market later this year and early next year. The Pantech Vega
Iron 2 is the first smartphone to feature this SOC, and other
devices will definitely follow its footsteps soon enough.
chip malaysia july 14 037
 feature
new breed of batteries
The New
Wonder-Batteries
It goes on and on and on … the upcoming generation of batteries increases the runtime of
mobile devices tenfold and makes electric cars a viable option By Markus Mandau
W
here batteries are concerned, it’s either all or nothing –
no energy revolution or electric cars without better
batteries. And we will still be stuck with mobile
computers that spend half their time charging.
Moore’s law, postulated by the IT industry, promises double the
effectiveness every two years, but battery development is lagging
hopelessly behind. The effectiveness is increasing by a mere
seven percent per year. Of course, lithium-ion battery of an up-to-
date smartphone does last longer than older devices, but that can
be attributed mainly to the optimised performance of the chip and
better display technology. It is hardly due to the battery.
Lithium-ion batteries are dominating the market as of now
thanks to their light weight and high energy density. Billions of
batteries are installed in mobile devices every year, and also in
cars like the Tesla, or in Europe’s largest battery park in Schwerin,
Germany for energy storage from renewable energy. But the
current technology has reached its limits. Fortunately, the next
038 july 14 chip malaysia
generation of lithium-ion batteries is almost ready for the market.
They do ample justice to the storage material, lithium, which
theoretically allows a ten-time higher storage density (further
details can be found on the right side of page 39).
New materials for better batteries
Besides that, research is already being done on other materials
and types, because although lithium facilitates a passable energy
density, other solutions can be much better and cheaper. Of
course, nature always ends up providing us with the best blueprint
for high-end batteries. The research labs of universities are
developing the first organic energy storage systems. But it will
take more than another decade before the bio-battery is ready for
the market. Small-sized memories that charge independently via
energy harvesting could help by serving as a stop-gap measure
(see page 42).
 LITHIUM AND SILICON feature
Double the runtime
Lithium stores the energy in the latest batteries. It will be a lot more

Optimising Mobile effective if the lithium is stored in silicon. But that too poses a
problem: the silicon expands in the process.

Batteries This is how a Li-ion battery works

Market researchers from Gartner say that more than two billion A Li-Ion battery stores its energy in lithium (Li). When the anode is
mobile devices have been sold this year, and each one of those charged, the Li atoms are stored between the graphite layers (LiC6).
devices uses a lithium-ion battery. This technology has been They emit electrons while discharging and travel as Li-ions (Li+) into
setting the standard for energy storage for the last couple of years, the layer structure of the cathode (lithium cobalt dioxide).
also because the batteries are so light. However, with an energy
density of 150 to 200 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg), they
Cathode Separator Anode
achieve only a tenth of what could theoretically be achieved with
lithium. This is generally a material problem: A Li-ion battery + –
discharges or dispenses its electrical energy by moving lithium-
ions (refer to the right). While charging, the positively-charged ions
Discharging
of the cathode (positive electrode) move through an electrolyte
Li +
solution between the graphite layers of the anode (negative
electrode), settle there and assimilate the electrons of the charging
current. While discharging, they emit the electrons into the electric
circuit and the lithium-ions travel back to the cathode, in which
they combine with the metal (usually cobalt) and oxygen. The
storage capacity of a Li-ion battery depends upon how many
lithium-ions can be placed between the graphite layers. Silicon is a
AIuminium Copper
material that stores the lithium in the graphite more effectively. Six
carbon atoms are required to bind one lithium-ion. Compared to Oxygen Cobalt, Nickel Lithium-Ion Graphite Electrolyte
that, one silicon atom can capture four lithium-ions. (anhydrous solution)

Silicon rods as a storage element

Silicon increases the power density Porous silicon 1 in the anode increases the effectiveness of Li-Ion
The power density also shows a dramatic increase if silicon is
batteries by up to 50 percent. The start-up Amprius has already
inserted between the graphite layers. However, it expands by a
produced the first silicon batteries. Silicon nanotubes 2 are even
factor of three or four when it is combined with lithium, and the more effective, and can make it possible to double the storage
graphite layer tears after a few charge cycles. The start-up density.
Amprius, established by Stanford University scientists, has solved
this problem. Amprius is supported by illustrious personalities like 1 2
Google’s Eric Schmidt and Nobel prize winner Steven Chu (US
Secretary of Energy up to 2013). The first Amprius batteries are
supposed to have been installed in mobile devices since last year.
PHOTOS: ELIZA GRINNELL, HARVARD SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES (S.90);

In the process, three methods for solving the graphite problem are
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER/BETABATT, INC. (S.91 U.L.) INFOGRAFIKEN: VERONIKA ZANGL

at the start-up’s disposal. The first one involves porous silicon,

which one can imagine to be like a sponge. It hardly becomes
larger when lithium is stored, so the graphite layers remain intact.
This enables Amprius to make batteries that store 50 percent more
energy than the usual ones: 280Wh/kg.
A layer of nanotubes made of silicon (see right) store more
effectively than porous silicon. Consequently, prototypes have just Energy storage with a pomegranate-like design
about doubled the charging capacity to 350 Wh/kg. Sponges and Silicon binds many lithium atoms (Li21Si5), but expands in the process.
tubes must be covered with graphite as before. Otherwise, the The Stanford researchers have taken a lead from the structure of a
silicon reacts with the electrolyte solution and consequently pomegranate to prevent the graphite from tearing: They place the
decomposes over time. Yi Cui, professor of material research at silicon in graphite shells that are large enough to also assimilate the
Stanford and technical head of Amprius, has recently come up lithium.
with a third method (see right). The Stanford researchers have Discharging Charging
inserted a bunch of silicon particles into a carbon sheath, which is
not in direct contact, but allows room for the silicon particles to Li21 Si5

grow. The lithium can be stored there, and the cover remains
intact. The capacity of the prototype decreased by just three Li +
percent after 1,000 charging processes – better than all previous
silicon solutions.

Graphite shel Silicon Anode Graphite shell

 feature SULPHUR AND ZINC
new breed of batteries
Triple Runtime
When it comes to a material-related comparison, Li-Ion batteries are
not quite up to the mark. Sulphur increases the capacity of lithium

Surpassing Li-ion batteries. It is recommended that metal batteries, which use

atmospheric oxygen, be used for wearables and electric cars.

T
he effectiveness of batteries is directly related to the energy
density of chemical substances. One look shows that other
material combinations like lithium-sulphur or metal-air Sugar as the ideal storage material
stores energy much better. Lithium-sulphur batteries (LiS) ensure Li-ion batteries outperform the older models made of lead and
an improvement in the cathode. Just like silicon in the anode, nickel-metal-hydride in terms of energy density, but it can get even
sulphur in the cathode can assimilate more lithium. With an energy better: The next generation uses sulphur and zinc. Only the bio-
density of 350 Wh/kg, the LiS prototypes developed so far exceed battery outperforms it.
the storage densities of Li-ion storage systems, and they still
PROJECTED ENERGY DENSITY (MJ/KG)
haven’t reached their limit. Two problems prevent higher
LEAD BATTERY 0,11
efficiency: The theoretical energy density can only be attained in
practice if pure lithium is used at the anode. That is difficult as it NIMH BATTERY 0,36
reacts with the electrolyte. Sulphur does the same thing, forming LI-ION BATTERY 0,5

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA
polysulphide ions, which then also travel to the anode and breaks
ZINC-AIR BATTERY 1,2
down the lithium or bind it in the form of Li2S. Such a battery is
LI-SULPHUR 1,8
good for only a few charging cycles. BATTERY
A research team, led by Professor Holger Althues, has been GLUCOSE 17,0
successful in protecting the sulphur. They covered it with a carbon
present future battery materials
coating and used a similar sheath at the anode. The prototype can
withstand 2,000 charging cycles. Come year 2020, Althues expects Sulphur for next-generation batteries
market-ready LiS batteries with energy densities of 600 Wh/kg, Sulphur can place a lot of lithium in the cathode, which increases
which is three times that of Li-ion batteries. Such good values are the energy density. The Li-sulphur battery from Berkeley also uses
also achieved by a battery developed at the University of Berkeley. graphite oxide as a circuit carrier and CTAB (a disinfectant) as a
In the cathode, the battery deposits the sulphur on the carbon protective layer, since sulphur filled with lithium expands.
compound graphite oxide and coats both with CTAB
(cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide). CTAB (a disinfectant) also
remains intact when the sulphur expands by 75 percent when the + Separator –
lithium is assimilated. The researchers have also developed an Li + Discharging
electrolyte that does not react with lithium. The Berkeley battery
achieves 1,500 charging cycles with an energy density of 500 Wh/
kg.

Storing energy with metal and air

So far one thing has been certain: Batteries must be airtight, or the
lithium will react to oxygen. However, Metal-air batteries use this Sulphur cathode Lithium-Anode
reaction to their advantage: During the discharging process, metal
atoms in the anode react with oxygen in the air and emit electrons. Electrolyte
They then travel to the cathode in the form of ions through the Graphite oxide
electrolyte. At 1,100 Wh/kg, the potential energy density easily
outstrips that of Li-ion battery. Zinc-air batteries have been around
for decades, but the zinc breaks down during the discharging
process. To prevent this from happening in batteries, the oxygen
must escape during the recharging process at the cathode, so that CTAB Sulphur
zinc will be formed again from the metal ions. A special catalyst
like a potash lye is also required as air protection for the zinc Flexible zinc-air batteries from the printer
electrode, so that it does not oxidise inadvertently. Zinc air batteries support a light structure, as they use oxygen
Weak zinc-air batteries with energy densities comparable to during the discharging process. The start-up Imprint Energy has
those of Li-ion batteries are already being used nowadays (e.g. in developed such a flexible battery which is well-suited for wearable
hearing aids). The start-up Imprint Energy has even developed computers – but not so much for smartphones, since the battery
printable batteries with a polymer-catalyst, which are particularly needs a constant supply of air
suitable for small devices because of their flexibility. As zinc-air
batteries necessitate a constant air exchange operation, they are
not too compatible with mobile devices, but are ideal for electric
cars, as they do not contain any flammable materials. The energy
saved is hardly lost over the course of decades, which also makes
them perfect for intelligent electricity grids.

040 july 14 chip malaysia

 RHUBARB AND SUGAR feature
Ten-fold runtime
Wet cells stand a very good chance to be the batteries for electric

Harnessing the cars, but they use expensive and toxic materials. Organic
substances could be the answer, especially since they have
extremely high energy densities to offer.

force of nature
Heavy upscale vehicle with electric tank
O
nly solid materials provide the electrons in present day
batteries. The traditional concept of redox-flow or wet cells The Quant e was an eye-catcher at the Geneva car show this year.
relies on liquids. Two dissolved metallic salts swim next to The 2.3-tonne car is powered by a 400-litre wet cell, and is claimed
each other in separate circuits. They are put into motion by means to offer a range of 600 kilometres – if one is to believe the lab
of pumps and come into contact with each other at a permeable simulations.
membrane. The ions are thus exchanged, whereby the cell
discharges and recharges when power is supplied. This makes
perfect sense for electric cars: Instead of spending countless hours
at the socket charging the vehicle, it can be refuelled (just like
petrol-refuelling). In the process, one would simply exchange the
used liquid for a new liquid, and the liquid-battery would be
charged again. The Quant e, which was unveiled at the Geneva car
show, is such a car, and it allegedly has a range of 600 Kilometres.
It requires large tanks that can hold 400 litres, and it weighs more
than two tons. Furthermore, Redox-flow cells have to cope with
two main problems before they can become suitable for daily use
in conjunction with electric cars: They only function with
expensive and toxic substances like vanadium, and they lack a
robust membrane.
Only research laboratories have the answers to the material
problems of wet cells. A wet cell without a membrane has been Organic wet cell made of rhubarb
built at MIT, in which the two liquids in a laminar flow do not mix The redox-flow battery from Harvard achieves eight times the
in the course of exchange of ions. The researchers could thus work storage density of wet cells. For this, it uses AQDS (anthraquinone
with bromine, which is reduced to hydrogen bromide during disulfonate) – also present in rhubarb – and bromide. When
discharge; no membrane can normally tolerate this acid. When hydrogen ions are exchanged, electrons are released or loaded.
bromine is used, the energy density of a vanadium wet cell can be
doubled yet again.
PHOTOS: LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY (T.L.), IMPRINT ENERGY, INC.(B.L.); NANOFLOWCELL (T.R.);

The bio-batteries surpass the rest 2HBr AQDS

Organic substances are actually quite well suited to be used as Membrane
energy carriers. They are reasonably priced and are normally not
toxic. Researchers from Harvard have managed to develop a wet
cell that draws its storage strength from Quinone AQDS, a 2H+
component of rhubarb. However, even they cannot do without Hydrogen
bromine (see right). At 6,000 W/m2, this first bio-cell features
Tank for Tank for
several times the power density of a vanadium wet cell (800 W/ the electrolyte the electrolyte
m2), and there is a dramatic reduction in the material costs. It is
Wet cell
still unclear whether the bio-cell can sustain thousands of charging
VIRGINIA TECH COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES (B.R.)

cycles, but it has already managed to sustain several hundreds of + –

charging cycles.
Br2 AQDSH2
Just like the rhubarb cell, the sugar-air battery from Virginia
Tech displays similar effectiveness in operation. The sugar battery
Pump Pump
achieves ten times the storage density of present-day Li-ion
batteries. The anode made of maltodextrin floats in a solution
consisting of different enzymes, which break it down successively Sugar battery
and thus release electrons. Although lead researcher, Percival
The battery from Virginia
Zhang, predicts that his sugar battery could very well be used in Tech uses sugar
mobile devices in three years’ time, similar bio battery forecasts (maltodextrin) as an energy
have proven themselves to be unrealistic in hindsight. Sony had store, which is broken down
also announced a bio-battery seven years ago but there have been by enzymes during the
no updates to date. Experience has taught us that wonder- discharging process. It
batteries need a long time to develop. It could well be another contains ten times the
decade before we are capable of using the force of nature. storage density of a current
Li-ion battery.
 feature INFO
new breed of batteries

Innovative chips absorb

Charging without energy from radio waves

and thereby exchange
messages; they do not

a socket need electricity

B
atteries and sockets are not the sole providers of power. In
the future, it will also be possible to generate electrical
energy for your smartphone out in the wilderness. American
and Chinese material researchers have developed tiny generators
that can use even the faintest vibrations for a charging process.
The generators are made of PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride), a PVDF nano
plastic that produces electricity via pressure and strain. The generators can
fluoroplastic is normally used for seal coatings and filters, and also be used in
in loud-speakers and microphones. To make the generator, the every kind of
smartphone;
PVDF compound is interspersed with particles of zinc oxide, which
the faintest
are then etched using hydrochloric acid. What this leaves behind is
vibrations
a spongy structure made of a soft, flexible material with large charge the
holes. This reacts extremely sensitively to all types of vibrations. plastic sponge
A PVDF film is obtained at the end of the manufacturing
process. Thin foils of copper are spread as electrodes on both sides
of this film. When these nano-generators are mounted on a Batteries hold cars together
smartphone (see right), you can just leave the device on the Batteries are normally installed on the floor or in the trunk of
passenger seat while driving a car. The battery is recharged just by electric or hybrid cars. But one cannot go very far this way, es-
the vibrations; the prototype attained peak values of 11 volts and pecially where small cars are concerned: There isn’t enough
9.8 microamperes in conjunction with 40-Hertz vibrations. Another room for the battery. The European research project StorAGE
advantage: The materials used are cheap and non-toxic. wants to tackle this problem, and Volvo, a participant in this
Theoretically, it would even be possible to implant the PVDF project, has come up with a solution. The manufacturer develo-
ped light-weight batteries, which now consist solely of a filled
sponge in the human body as a source of power. The nano-
mat. Their electrodes, which are made of carbon fibre, sur-
generators can also be used as a charging device for tiny sensors.
round lithium-coated carbon nanotubes. The whole thing is
But there is another method altogether for this purpose, which
cast in a polymer resin, and a glass fibre mat serves as an insu-
uses the energy from radio waves.
lating layer. The battery is so flat, flexible and robust that it can
be used as a load-bearing component of the vehicle. In princi-
Using the energy from radio waves

PHOTOS: SENSOR SYSTEMS LABORATORY/UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON (T.); XUDONG WANG (M.); VOLVO (B.)
ple, the entire interior together with the car body is available for
Experts expect more than 50 billion micro devices to communicate lining the car with flat batteries. Another advantage is that they
with each other by the year 2020. They need energy for that; can be charged more quickly than the usual batteries – either
though it is rarely possible for sensors installed somewhere by the by means of recovering the braking energy or even via the so-
roadside to be charged. Researchers at the University of cket. In a trial vehicle, Volvo has installed the energy packets at
Washington have developed a radio-based communication the doors, under the boot lid and at the wheel arches. One nice
system, which employs the energy of transmitted television and side-effect is the loss of weight through the carbon fibres: The
mobile radio signals. Though the yield is low, it is sufficient for manufacturer expects the weight of a car equipped with these
transmitting messages. The system transmitted up to 1,000 bits batteries to be 15 percent less than that of its conventional
per second in tests and used the waves of television broadcasters, sheet-metal counterpart with an electric drive. For starters, the
which were radiated from 800 metres to 11 kilometres. new energy storage system could replace the good old car bat-
Every time we move our body, even we produce a little bit of tery. But it could well be another couple of years till it is used in
energy, which can be converted into electricity. The dynamo on a an electric car.
bicycle is the best example. It would be really great if one could
also use this energy to charge up one’s smartphone. Researchers
from Georgia Institute of Technology have built a generator that
generates power from friction. This has four flat discs lying one
above the other. Three of these four are firmly mounted and look
like flat layers of cake. The electrodes are installed on top of these.
A copper disc moves above this. Voltage is generated when this
rotor rubs against a gold-coated sheet lying beneath it.
Consequently, the generator generates a steady alternating
current and supplies up to 1.5 watt. The whole device is small and
can fit into a trouser pocket: With a diameter of 10 cm and a
volume of 0.6 cubic centimetres, it weighs just 1.1 g. We will Volvo has developed ultra-light and flat batteries, which can
always have a power source handy in the future – with just a little be accommodated anywhere in an electric car
bit of rubbing.

042 july 14 chip malaysia

 feature
know it all

Bitcoin
The digital currency triggered a gold rush on the web in 2013 but the hype has cooled down
quite significantly. Yet purely in terms of figures, this currency is here to stay for another
126 years By Benjamin Hartlmaier

Pseudonym of the Bitcoin developer, whose identity is still unknown Satoshi Nakamoto
The year in which Bitcoin was developed 2008
Official abbreviation of the currency BTC
No. of computers that calculate new Bitcoins daily 20,000
Approximate no. of new Bitcoins that are calculated daily 3,600

PHOTO: 123RF/3DART SOURCES: ENTREPRENEUR.COM, BBC.COM, DE.BITCOIN.IT, BITCOINMAGAZINE.COM

No. of Bitcoins that were present in November 2013 12,000,000
No. of Bitcoins that can exist at the same time 21,000,000
The year in which probably the last Bitcoin shall be developed 2140
Date of the first Bitcoin transfer 1. December 2009
Appreciation of the currency within five years 1,000 percent
Highest value ever reached per Bitcoin RM4,029
No. of Bitcoins that a forum user exchanged for two Pizzas in 2010 10,000
The value of these Bitcoins in 2013 RM40,310,000
Bitcoin depreciation from November 2013 to February 2014 68 percent
Name of the (former) most important Bitcoin trading centre Mt. Gox
Share of all Bitcoin transactions carried out from Mt. Gox 60 percent
The day on which Mt. Gox announced bankruptcy 28 February 2014
Share of unused Bitcoins 64 percent
Name of the man, who inadvertently threw away a hard disk with Bitcoins in 2013 James Howell
No. of Bitcoins that were on this hard disk 7,500
The then value of these Bitcoins RM24,120,000
The city with the first Bitcoin ATMs Vancouver
The first country to declare Bitcoins as illegal (in July 2013) Thailand
The first car manufacturer to accept Bitcoins Lamborghini
The first artist, whose music could be paid for in Bitcoins Mel B
Estimated share of male Bitcoin users 95 percent

chip malaysia july 14 043

 cover story
computex taipei 2014

COMPUTEX
Taipei 2014
COMPUTEX is the place to be when it comes to all the latest
and most innovative tech and we got to see some of the
best By CHIP Team

T
his year’s COMPUTEX Taipei was held from 2 to 7 June. In those six days, there
were plenty of exciting announcements and showcases from some of the biggest
brands in the industry. From the smallest processor to the largest servers, there
was just an endless list to check out. CHIP Malaysia were there as part of our annual
pilgrimage to bring you this coverage from the largest ICT show in Asia.

044 july 14 chip malaysia


ADATA
ADATA may be one of the top brands
when it comes to storage and memory
solutions but they understand that
focusing on just one or two products
may not be enough to sustain their
existence. This is why the company is
now dabbling in other product segments
and we got to check out some of the
more impressive devices they are
offering to consumers.
While they may have expanded
their catalogue, their pride and joy
still remains focussed on storage and
memory, which is why when we visited
them, the first thing they introduced to
us was their latest high-performance
memory modules, the DDR4 XPG Z1,
designed for users who demand the
best in performance. This DDR4 memory
module will come in 8- or 16GB variants
and can hit speeds up to 3,200MHz. It
also sports a very extreme design.
We have to admit, the DDR4 XPG
Z1 was very impressive however, there
aren’t motherboards in the market that
supports DDR4 RAMs just yet, worry
not as ADATA also have a brand new
set of DDR3 memory modules, the XPG
This is the DDR4 XPG Z1, a stylish looking memory module
that is also the world’s 1st DDR4 OC module
V3 series. The XPG V3 will also come in
8- or 16GB kits and can also hit speeds
of up to 3,200MHz. One of its defining
features is also its replaceable
heat sink that allows users to
customise the memory modules
colours to suit their system.
Besides just memory
modules, ADATA has also
expanded their range of SSDs
and storage solutions and gone
are the days where SSDs only
came with a paltry amount of
free space. Take for example,
the Premier Pro SP920, this
SSD will come in a 1TB version
so users will now no longer
have to spend more on getting and
SSD and HDD when building a system.
The Premier Pro SP920 uses the latest
The DDR3 XPG V3 will come in a slew of colours
Tired of having to deal with cables? The Elite CE700 Wireless
Charging Stand will solve that problem
cover story
computex taipei 2014
M.2 SSDs are much sought aŌer especially for users who want
to build a compact gaming rig
Marvell solution and can achieve read
speeds of up to 560MB/s and write
speeds of up to 500MB/s.
When it comes to storage solutions,
M.2 is definitely the next big thing as
most of the latest motherboards are
M.2 ready. So to cater to users who
are looking at equipping their rig with
an M.2 SSD, ADATA have the Premier
Pro SP900 M.2 2280 SSD that uses the
LSI SandForce solution and deliver
read speeds of up to 550MB/s and write
speeds 530MB/s. It will also come in
three capacities, 128-, 256- and 512GB.
As we mentioned earlier in the
article, besides just SSDs and memory
modules, ADATA have branched out to
other product segments and one of their
highlights during COMPUTEX was the
Elite CE700 Wireless Charging Stand.
For users with phones that support
wireless charging, this stylish looking
device will allow you to charge your
device easily without having to plug
and unplug cables. Another neat device
is the Durable UD320 USB OTG Flash
Drive that does more than just serve as
storage as it can also be used to attach
gamepads and even a mouse to your
smartphones and tablets.
While it may look very Ɵny, the Durable UD320 actually comes
with either 16- or 32GB storage capaciƟes
chip malaysia july 14 045
 cover story
computex taipei 2014
ASRock
Over the last few months, ASRock has
been very aggressive as they set out
to prove that they have what it takes to
take on the hardware big boys of the
industry and with what they showcased
during COMPUTEX, they might just live
up to that promise as they too have a
wide range of motherboards that come
with a bevy of features and also very
affordable price.
When it came down to their
motherboards, we had actually seen
most of them during ASRock’s Intel
9-series motherboard launch here
in Malaysia. However, these up and
comers did have some surprises at their
booths. Much like the other hardware
manufacturers, ASRock have also split
their range of motherboards into three
categories, Extreme series, Fatal1ty
Killer Gaming series and OC Formula
series. Out of the three we were already
acquainted with the Extreme and
Fatal1ty Killer Gaming series and we
A model posing with the ASRock Z97 OC Formula
046 july 14 chip malaysia
We nally got a chance to see the OC Formula series
motherboards in the esh
finally got to see the OC Formula series
in Taiwan.
The OC Formula series is quite
obviously designed for the OC
enthusiasts and much like the boards in
the other series, this two features the
Super Alloy technology that improves
the motherboards reliabilities with
components such as 12K Platinum
Capacitors, NexFET MOSFET, Dual-Stack
MOSFETs (DSM), Premium Alloy Chokes
and XXL Aluminium Alloy Heatsinks.
However, unlike the other boards, the
OC Formula ones come with extra
features such as conformal coating for
waterproofing, the OC Formula Monitor
Kit and OC Formula Cooling Kit. For now
the OC Formula series is made up of
two motherboards the Z97 OC Formula
and Z97M OC Formula and both support
The limited ediƟon Z97 and Z97M Anniversary motherboards
are great soluƟons for users who are on a Ɵght budget and
don’t want to compromise on performance
The refreshed M8 looks exactly the same as its predecessor
but the changes on the inside is what really maƩers
Intel’s latest 5th Generation Core I
processors.
Other than the OC Formula boards,
there were another two that also caught
our attention and these were the Z97
Anniversary and Z97M Anniversary
motherboards. These boards were
designed to be used with the Intel
Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258
CPU and while they do work with the
standard 5th and 4th Generation Core
I processors, using the Anniversary
Edition CPU will yield much better
results as ASRock have equipped both
boards with the “Pentium Anniversary
Boost” technology that enables the
PC to go from 3.2GHz all the way up
to 4.2GHz. These boards however will
be released in limited quantities as the
processors will also be limited.
Finally, we also got to take a look
at the ASRock’s mini PC, the M8. This
award winning mini PC was actually
launched here a year ago but ASRock
have given it an upgrade and it
now runs on the latest Z97 Mini-ITX
motherboard. The M8 also now sports a
600W PSU so it will be able to support
high-end graphics cards like the AMD
Radeon R9 290X.
In may seem a liƩle small but users will be able to easily t in
a high-end graphics card like the AMD Radeon R9 290X into
the M8

ASUS
In a few short years, what was once
a company that mainly focused on
creating motherboards and graphics
cards for computers is now a consumer
electronics juggernaut, as ASUS have
a myriad of products in almost every
category you could think of. During
this year’s COMPUTEX, ASUS went all
out as they had new products when
it came to motherboards, graphics
cards, notebooks, smartphones, tablets,
monitors, routers and even mini
Here’s the super powerful ARES III that uƟlises the power
of dual Radeon Hawaii XT GPUs and has 8GB of super-fast
GDDR5 memory. It also features a custom EK water block
Seen here on the leŌ is the ASUS Crossblade Ranger which is
an AMD A88X based gaming motherboard
A model poses with one of ASUS’ latest ROG gaming
motherboards
cover story
computex taipei 2014
The ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP550 is a very beauƟfully
designed and powerful notebook that can be used in few
diīerent modes
The ROG GX500 is just 19mm thick and is the thinnest in the
15.6-inch gaming notebook class. It weighs a mere 2.2kg but
packs the latest Intel Core i7 CPPU and NVIDIA GeForce GTX
860M GPU
ASUS was the rst to launch a hybrid AIO, now they can also
boast that they are the rst to launch a Portable AIO. The
PT2001 is a 19.5-inch device that weighs only 2.3kg making it
easy to carry around
projectors. ASUS truly has transformed
into a powerhouse. The ROG GX500 is just 19mm thick and is the thinnest in the
Seeing as how they now have a 15.6-inch gaming notebook class. It weighs a mere 2.2kg but
packs the latest Intel Core i7 CPPU and NVIDIA GeForce GTX
hand in almost every product category, 860M GPU
it is great to see that ASUS hasn’t
slowed down in terms of their desktop
components for gamers. During
COMPUTEX, they announced a selection
of impressive ROG stuff which include
the Maximus VII Formula, Maximus
VII Impact and Crossblade Ranger
motherboards, Ares III graphics cards,
Gladius mouse, GK2000 keyboard, GR8
console PC, GX500 notebook and G20
desktop. No, this is not some space-age technology, it is the very
Besides just the ROG line, ASUS also impressive ASUS RT-AC3200 router that delivers combined
data speeds up to 3,200Mbit/s
unveiled an all new line of products for
gamers under the STRIX line and there this line.
will be a new set of graphics cards, Other than just devices gamers,
keyboards, mice and headphones under ASUS also unveiled a whole slew
of products in their
consumer electronics
division and this
includes the likes of the
world’s fastest tri-band
802.11ac Wi-Fi router, the
RT-AC3200, Portable AiO
PT2001 and Transformer
Book Flip. At their booth,
ASUS even showcased
the world’s largest
32-inch curved UHD
monitor.
chip malaysia july 14 047
 cover story
computex taipei 2014

unit. When it connect to the PSU and they’ll

Cooler comes to
PSUs
be able to adjust the fan
speed, calculate

Master
When it comes to COMPUTEX Taipei,
there’s no way we would miss out in
visiting Cooler Master’s showcase.
However, this year, they did something
a little different and while they had some
very interesting products on show in
their booth, the more important and
interesting stuff was actually hidden
away in a private conference room.
Also, due to the fact that these products
weren’t exactly in the final versions, we
weren’t allowed to take photos of the
products but it was a good thing though
that Cooler Master was able to share the
information with us.
In total, Cooler Master launched
three products during COMPUTEX and
they were the Digital 1200 Titanium
PSU, Novatouch TKL keyboard and
the Nepton liquid cooling series.
Cooler Master also showed us some
new chassis with very
interesting designs,
however, as they were still
being finalised, nothing
more was shared with us.
All we can say is that by
looking at the prototypes
and if Cooler Master stuck
to those design, fans will
have some very awesome
looking chassis to look
forward to.
Firstly, let’s take a
gander at the Digital 1200
Titanium power supply One of the cool things about the app is that it is able to calculate just how much
money your system is using
these
days,
wattage and
more.
Platinum The next
is quite the product
norm and Cooler
we were
for power Master’s shown was the
users, this latest keyboard Novatouch TKL
also oīers support for
is the rating widely available Cherry MX keyboard. At a glance,
to go for. keycaps so users can customise the keyboard looks very
the keyboard to their preference
However, in simple and quite common,
a few months however it is what is hidden
down the road, Cooler Master will under the keys that makes it interesting.
be release this PSU with an 80 PLUS This keyboard uses switches known as
Titanium certification, which means Hybrid capacitive switches which are
it is even more efficient compared to designed for heavy-duty typing and
Platinum. What makes this PSU even gaming. This new Hybrid Capacitive
more attractive is the fact that users switch provides actuation of just 45g
will be able to monitor and control over the entire keyboard and is precision
aspects of the PSU using your Android tuned to provide smooth but tactile
or iOS smart mobile device and an feedback and produce low noise.
app. The PSU comes with a built-in Finally, we also got a chance to check
Bluetooth module and once a user has out the Cooler Master’s latest Nepton
downloaded the app, they just have to liquid cooling series which consists
of four different systems, the 120XL,
140XL, 240M and 280L. What makes the
Nepton special is the fact that it features
the Advanced Silent Driver that provides
a high flow rate of 120 litres per hour, all
the while maintaining a low noise level
of just 11dBA.

The Nepton liquid cooling series also uses the all-new Silencio
fan that oīers 11dBA noise levels and high air pressure rated
at 1.2 mmH20

048 july 14 chip malaysia


LeapFrog
LeapFrog has been around for many
years now and it’s amazing to see how
much this company from Singapore
has grown to what it is today. If you
didn’t know LeapFrog is the parent
company of brands such as SonicGear,
PowerLogic and Armaggeddon. During
our visit to their booth, we also found
that the company is further expanding
their product line-up with the addition of
AudioBox and Elysium.
On the Armaggeddon side of the
fence, we were shown a few new
products and the first being a new line
of in-ear gaming headphones, the Nuke
7 and Mark 5. These are great choices
They may be in-ear headphones but they are built for gaming
so you can expect top-notch audio quality from the Nuke 7
and Mark 5
for gamers who prefer headphones that
are portable and can be stored easily.
Both also sport very stylish designs and
will definitely attract the attention of
gamers.
Besides the two new in-ear
headphones, LeapFrog will also be
releasing two new gaming keyboards
under the Armaggeddon brand, the
cover story
computex taipei 2014
For users who want a high-end audio experience, the Elysium
LibreƩo is one to look for
come out from this line is the Libretto,
a Bluetooth headset that comes with a
very stylish and classy design.
And last but not least, we got to
check out some new speakers from the
The latest keyboards from the Armaggeddon line looks good AudioBox brand. This brand features
and comes with plenty of features that gamers clamour for
speakers that come with very funky and
Kalashnikov AK-770i and AK-700. Both
have an exactly identical design and
use membrane switches. The main
difference between the two is that
the AK-770i is fully backlit and has
a pulsating effect with three colour
options while the AK-700 only has a
backlit logo.
LeapFrog will also be launching quite
a good number of new speakers in the
SonicGear range but the device that had
the spotlight was the Pandora 7. This is Speakers from AudioBox are designed for users who want
something a liƩle more unique and colourful in terms of
design
colourful designs to cater to users who
want speakers that look a little more
stylish compared to just black wooden
crates. The highlighted products here
were the A100-U and A300-U. Both
stylish little speakers that pack quite a
Like the previous Pandora speakers that came before it, the punch.
Pandora 7 will come in mulƟple colour variants
a Bluetooth enabled portable speakers
which has a total system power (RMS)
of 20W and comes with two 3-inch
mid-range speaker drivers, a 4-inch
subwoofer driver and 2x bass driver
reflectors. For such a small device, it
actually produces very decent audio
quality.
Finally, we got to check out the two
new product lines by LeapFrog. The
product that was introduced to us first
was from the Elysium line, which is now
LeapFrog’s go-to brand for high-end
products. One of the first products to
chip malaysia july 14 049
 cover story
computex taipei 2014

Acer
Acer has had quite a rough time over the last few months but after their recent
reshuffle. It seems that they are now back on track and ready to once again be a
major player in the field. At COMPUTEX, they showcased a large number of devices
and some of them were subsequently launched here in Malaysia two weeks after
COMPUTEX. So instead of looking at the devices that were launched, we’re here
to highlight the devices that have yet to be launched, which is mainly made up of
smartphones.
These days, dual SIM smartphones are quite common, however, triple SIM
support is literally unheard off until
recently as LG and Samsung launched
triple SIM devices. However, the triple
SIM devices from said companies come
with fairly entry-level specs; Acer is
planning to outdo them with the Liquid
E700. The E700 is device that sports a
5-inch HD IPS display and is powered The Liquid E700 is also a very stylish phone thanks to the Zero
by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582 Air Gap design
CPU and has 1GB RAM. It also has 4GB
of internal storage which can be expanded via microSD card. Furthermore, it even
comes with an 8-megapixel f/2.0 rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera. To
support the triple SIM slots, Acer also put in a large 3,500mAh battery to the Liquid
E700.
Other than the Liquid E700, we also got to check out the Liquid Jade which will
be bundled with Acer’s very first fitness band, the Liquid Leap. The Liquid Jade is
This super stunning phone is the Liquid Jade that is only a stunningly designed device that has a 5-inch HD IPS display, 1.3GHz MediaTek
7.5mm thick and weighs 63g and yet it comes with a nice set MT6582 CPU and 1GB RAM. It also comes with a 13-megapxiel f/1.8 rear camera.
of features
As for the Liquid Leap, it actually doesn’t really need the phone to function as a
fitness tracker. Of course, it will come with some benefits when connected to the phone as users will be able to use it to perform
simple controls. It will come in a variety of colours which include Moonstone White, Mineral Black, Aquamarine, Fragrant Pink
and Vivid Orange.

AMD
AMD was one of the exhibitors that actually made a major announcement during COMPUTEX and this was because the launched
a new range of Kaveri chips for laptops and mobile devices. This means these portable devices will now be able to handle
games and high-performance applications smoother.
The official names of these Kaveri chips are called the AMD FX Series and AMD Pro Series Accelerated Processing Units
(APUs). Like most AMD processors, they combine both graphics and central
processing unit functions on the same
chip. They will include up to four CPUs
and eight graphics processing units
on a single piece of silicon. With this
configuration, it is said that the Kaveri
APUs can run at up to 818 gigaflops and
also have support for AMD’s TrueAudio
technology.
The new chips will also benefit
from Mantle, which is AMD’s very own
applications programming interface that
is twice as fast as DirectX. The A-series
chips will also support screen resolutions
up to 4K UHD. Finally, battery life is also
AMD’s partners such as HP already have new devices such as
said to gain quite a boost with the new Another device that is already using the new Kaveri chips is
this EliteBook 825 G2 that benets from the performance of
the new Kaveri chips chips as tests have shown that a device can the Lenovo Z50
last up to 9.2 hours while web-browsing.

050 july 14 chip malaysia

 cover story
computex taipei 2014

Apacer
Every year during COMPUTEX Taipei, Apacer goes that extra mile to showcase why
they are one of the leading manufacturers when it comes to storage and memory
solutions. It doesn’t matter if it’s designed for consumers or commercial purposes;
Apacer always has something new to show. This year, they announced that they
are now splitting their products into three different categories: “Best Protection &
Solution”, “Best Smart Life” and “Best Gaming Performance”.
One of their most interesting products comes from the “Best Smart Life” category
and it is called the Apacer Cloud Drive.
This is the company’s very first cloud
storage product but thanks to their years
of experience in digital storage and
This super hardy SSD can withstand water, dust, corrosion and
information security, the cloud drive is a will even work in sub-zero climates, which means it meets the
great device for users who want to backup, needs of military, aerospace and naƟon defence industries
access and share files easily. With this
at home, users will no longer have to
pay for subscription fees or worry about
security breaches as they will have their
very own Cloud.
Last year, Apacer showcased how they
have managed to devise a method where
an SSD can still function even when in
With the Apacer Cloud Drive, users will be able to access their water. This year, they took it up a notch
les from anywhere anyƟme
and showcased its wide-temp waterproof
SSD frozen in an ice of brick, which is equipped with SSD protection technology that
can be fully customised.
Apacer is also a manufacturer that caters to gamers and this year, they launched
DDR4 overclocking memory modules that have a “military weapon” motif. These
new range of memory modules will of course boast the best performance and meet These are the new DDR4 RAMs that come with a very radical
design
the demands of hardcore gamers and overclockers.

Antec
Antec certainly drew quite a large crowd to their booth this year and it wasn’t just because they had a Ferrari deck out in Antec
decals there for visitors to take photos of and with. Instead, many were there to check out what this well-known manufacturer
had to show case this year.
Much like last year, Antec had a wide range of offerings on display ranging from PC chassis to power banks and more.
However, they told us that their main highlights this year would be their High-Current Pro (HCP) series PSU. Dubbed the pinnacle
of power supplies, the HCP PSUs are available in four variants, 750W,
850W, 1000W and 1300W. All three are 80 Plus Platinum certified which
means they provide users with the exact wattage of electricity, which is
stable and continuous.
Designed for the hardcore
overclocking crowd, the HCP
PSUs also come with the
OC Link feature where two
PSUs can be linked together
to become one. So if you are
looking to build a rig with four
NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan
Blacks in SLI configuration, this
will come in very handy.
Seen here is the lineup of the Antec’s High-Current Pro Series PSUs
The HCP PSUs are fully
modular and they come with a revolutionary 20+8-pin MBU socket and innovative
16-pin sockets that give these PSUs ultimate flexibility by doubling modular
All HCP series PSUs are fully modular and they come
connectivity. It supports two different 8-pins connectors and will even be able to with features such as the OC Link and more than enough
accommodate future connectors of 10, 12, 14 or 16-pins. connectors for most users

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Avexir
When it comes to memory modules for gamers and overclockers, manufacturers
usually make them as flashy and attractive as possible. They do so by giving them
custom designed heatsinks and some
even go to the extent of giving them
some LEDs. If you like that sort of thing
and like to give your system some bling,
then Avexir is the go-to people as they
have the flashiest RAMs to date.
Last year saw the introduction of the
Blitz 1.1 and this year we have the very
uniquely designed Blitz 2.0. Not much
information was shared regarding the
Blitz 2.0 as it is still a work in progress.
However, one thing we can say is that
the memory really glows and looks really
cool with its electro-optical flint-like
effect.
Another highlight that was shown
to us was the Blitz 1.1, which may be The Blitz 2.0 is truly something diīerent and turned quite a lot
of heads to look at it
an older model but it will definitely still
satisfy most users. The Blitz 1.1 comes in a 4- or 8GB kit and can support dual or
quad channels. They also have speeds that can go up to 3,200MHz. One of the most
unique thing about the Blitz 1.1 is the fact that it comes in multiple designs and they
actually match well-known motherboard designs. For example, if you are using an
Seen here are RAMs that sport the same design as GIGABYTE MSI Gaming motherboard which sports the red and black colour scheme and Dragon
and MSI’s motherboards logo, Avexir has a kit that looks exactly the same.

Cougar
Although Cougar has been in the industry for seven years, they have remained
relatively under the radar. However, things are clearly about to change after
their showcase at COMPUTEX as they are bound to get the attention of gamers
everywhere with their new range of gaming peripherals, PC chassis and PSU.
Before even entering their booth space, you will already be able to see their
display that showcases the awards they picked up for two of their latest gaming
keyboard, the 700K and gaming
mouse, the 700M.
First, let’s take a look at the 700K.
This beauty is designed for fans of
MMOs. It is a super sturdy keyboard
as it has a metal-frame. It already
looks impressive enough as it is but
to give it some extra flash, Cougar
gave it full backlighting. For the best
response and tactile feedback, the
700K uses Cherry MX mechanical
The 700K comes with all the features you’d expect from a high-end keys. The 700K also features onboard
gaming keyboard and more
memory that allows gamers to save
their macro settings on the keyboard itself.
Next up, we also got to check out Cougar’s very first gaming mouse, 700M that
also netted them the iF Design award. The mouse has an aluminium-frame and
features adjustable palm rests, which can also be swapped out for a smaller “Sport
Mode” palm rest that comes bundled with the mouse. Like most high-end gaming
This award winning gaming mouse will come in two diīerent
mice, the 700M also features weight modules that can easily be swapped in and out colours and its scroll wheel can be programmed to emit
on the bottom of the device. diīerent colours

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Ducky Channel
Over the last few years, Ducky Channel has gained quite a reputation especially
among gamers who are looking to invest in a mechanical keyboard that is bang for
the buck. This year, they displayed quite a good number of new keyboards that will
certainly gain them an even larger following.
As the successor to the fairly well-received Shine 3, the Shine 4 looks to continue
that lineage of keyboards that provides users with a good range of functionality and The Shine 4 is designed for gamers and users who really like
their peripherals ashy
features. The Shine 4’s keys’ backlights can be customised to look radical and they can
even change colours over time. Another interesting feature of the Shine 4 is the two
very large dials that are used to control the brightness of the keyboard’s backlights
and also volume. Like most Ducky Channel keyboards, this will of course make use of
Cherry MX keys.
One of Ducky Channel’s latest
keyboards is the Mini. Not much was
shared regarding this new keyboard
but by the looks of it, it will definitely
gain the attention of gamers who
prefer bringing their own keyboard for If you have limited desk space, the Ducky Channel Mini will be
competitions or for users with limited desk a very nice keyboard to have
If you’re an individual who does an insane amount of typing in space.
a day, then your best choice would be the Ducky Premier Finally, we also got to check out the Ducky Premier. Unlike the rest which are
usually catered to gamers, the Premier is more for typing purists. The keycaps are made with durable PBT plastic and are said to
be able to last a long time. To enhance the keys durability, the Premier also uses dye-sublimation to dye the colour of the plastic
to ensure it will never wear out.

Gamdias
GAMDIAS may be quite a new name in the gaming peripheral industry but they are
working hard at getting their name out there as they have been releasing plenty of
impressive and innovative gaming peripherals to the market as of late. At the recent
COMPUTEX Taipei, we got to check out some of their offerings which included the
high-end GKB2010-HERMES mechanical keyboard and the ZEUS professional eSport
edition mouse, the GMS1100.
The HERMES Ultimate Black Mechanical Keyboard features 13 additional macro The HERMES UlƟmate Black Mechanical Keyboard also has
keys which are ergonomically situated on the keyboard for both left and right handed six levels of illuminaƟon on individually backlit keys as well as
AnƟ-ghosƟng with full N-key rollover with a Windows key lock
gamers, a solid build magnetic wrist-rest that can double as a dust cover to prevent during In-Game Mode
damage to the keyboard from both food and drinks and it also incorporates Cherry MX
Blue mechanical switches which provides a 20 percent faster response time. The HERMES also has a 32-bit ARM Cortex premium
micro-processor that provides superior computing performance and 512KB onboard memory that stores up to 10 profile settings,
unlimited on-the-fly macro key settings, and voice recorded keys.
As for the ZEUS professional eSport Edition mouse, the GMS1100, this gaming
mouse has been nabbing awards ever since it was released and for good reason
as this monster of a gaming mouse has 8200 DPI, 11 smart keys with nine being
programmable for use with games, macros, profiles, media controls, Windows
functions for FPS, MOBA or MMO
games. The ZEUS is also the first ever
gaming mouse that provides tool-less
side panel adjustments on the go which
The ZEUS Laser Gaming Mouse features the Weight Tuning
System x5 which provides users with the ability to modify can be changed according to the user
the total weight displacement with ve 4.5g mini weights to preference. It also has a unique design
enhance mouse control
which places wheels at the bottom of the
mouse while making sure it does not interfere with the gliding experience.
Finally, we also got to check out the GHS3200u-EROS V2 (USB) headset that
features simulated 7.1 thrilling surround sound with 50mm gaming-class drivers. It
has a lightweight build with a suspension headband support. It will also have a steel Besides just using the GHS3200u-EROS V2 with your PC, you
can also use it with your PS4
goose neck microphone that is malleable in all directions.

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GIGABYTE Notebooks & Peripherals

Much like the other Taiwanese powerhouse, GIGABYTE has also successfully made their mark in many different markets and
while it may seem like they would have their hands full with their line-up of Intel 9-series motherboards, they had more to
showcase at COMPUTEX.
While they didn’t really have any new graphics cards at the show, they did have an all new air cooling solution for graphics
cards known as the WINDFORCE Air Cooling System 600 Watt Edition. This is the
next stage in evolution for GIGABYTE’s patented WINDFORCE coolers and with the
new improvements, this air-cooling system can dissipate up to 600W heat.
To achieve this feat, GIGABYTE employed the patented Triangle Cool technology
and a new fan design that has D stripe curves that splits the air flow and reduces
the calm zone therefore increasing the cooling performance. On top of that, the
WINDFORCE 600W also has a special fin architecture that has is able to cover 45%
more heat dissipation areas.
GIGABYTE has always had an
This new air-cooling system is 33% more eĸcient compared impressive range of gaming notebooks
to reference coolers
but unfortunately they never make it here
to Malaysia. This may change though
as GIGABYTE recently launched a new
series notebooks under the Auros brand.
The flagship of the line-up is the X7 a
17.3-inch laptop that weighs only 3kg
and is less than 22.9mm thick, making
this one of the slimmest 17-inch gaming The Auros X7 is a true powerhouse of a gaming notebook that
notebooks in the market. Of course, is easily very portable
it won’t win gamers over just with its
looks but it definitely will in terms of hardware as the X7 boasts dual NVIDIA GTX
860M GPUs, which gives it a total of 8GB GDDR5 memory. For even more impressive
performance, it even comes with three mSATA SSDs in RAID 0 configuration giving it
a 1,500MB/s transfer speeds.
Also part of the Auros line, GIGABYTE has the Thunder K7 mechanical keyboard
that features a detachable numpad and uses Cherry MX Red switches. As for mice,
If you want a good set of gaming peripherals, the Auros there’s the Thunder M7 gaming mouse that is optimised for MMOs as it features 16
Thunder K7 and M7 might just be worth checking out
programmable keys.

Intel
Intel truly made the most out of the time they had in COMPUTEX as not only did they
announce and unveil the latest Core M CPU, they also had some very nifty and exciting
innovations that were on display at their booth. Instead of showcasing finished
devices, Intel was more focused on showcasing concepts and the capabilities of their
solutions.
One of the most interesting demos at the Intel booth was RealSense. This solution
was developed by Intel to make interactions between users and PC a more natural Here’s a demo of how accurate RealSense is. As you can tell
and intuitive experience. In the coming future, devices such as laptops, tablets, the avatar’s expression is almost similar to the person
2-in-1s and all-in-ones will be equipped with a tiny 3D camera that will help to make
interaction more intuitive. According to Intel, there are already over 40 applications in
development and the 2014 RealSense SDK is expected to reach developers by Q3 2014.
RealSense has quite a few practical uses such as mimicking a user’s hand gestures
using a robotic arm or replicate even the subtlest emotional facial expressions in the
form of a digital avatar.
Other than RealSense, Intel also took the time to showcase the capabilities of the
Devil’s Canyon CPU. The unlocked ‘K’ variant of the Intel’s 4th Generation Core i5 and
i7 processors impressed even the most discerning of powerusers as the CPU can easily
be overclocked up to speeds of 5GHz. But if 5GHz isn’t enough, then users can always
At Intel’s booth a rig was set up to show that the Devil’s
Canyon CPUs can reach clock speed up to 5GHz and remain
try to make it reach 6GHz which was a feat achieved during the Intel OC Challenge.
stable

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i-Rocks
The name i-Rocks is quite a new one and if you haven’t heard of it, we don’t blame
you. But it’s about time we all started taking notice of this peripherals maker as they
had some really interesting products showcased at COMPUTEX this year and they
actually have products here in Malaysia.
One of i-Rocks focus is towards the gaming demographic and they have found
a way to perfectly bridge the gap between membrane keyboards and mechanical
keyboards, with products like the K10, which uses POM key switches that gives
Other features of the Golem K50 include two USB ports on
players that tactile feedback that feels like a mechanical keyboard. One of the
the back and turbo typing that oīers three adjustable repeat
highlights at their booth this year was the Golem K50. This gaming keyboard uses rates
a 4.0mm high X Scissor-structure that
gives the keys a soft touch and great response. The X Scissor-structure also lowers
the noise and actuation force of the keys, thus increasing input speed and stability.
Its membrane is said to be able to last up to 30 million hits.
Also part of the Golem series is the A12 Hi-Definition Gaming Headset that takes
illumination and flashiness to a whole different level. Instead of just certain parts
that light up, the A12 features earcups that have a 3D pulsating colour-changing
backlight, which is bound to draw
attention. However, it isn’t just all
about looks as the A12 features
If you’re all about ashing lights and great sounds, do check hi-definition 53mm drivers that
out the Golem A12 produces crisp, clear and full
bodied audio. It also has a flexible
noise filtering mic, which is great for chatting or trash-talking opponents.
Last but not least, i-Rocks also has a new accessory to cater to the mobile
gamer. The G01 is a Bluetooth gamepad that turns your smartphone or tablet
into a handheld game console. It features an extendable design so that it can
easily fit devices in various sizes and even works when devices are set in Like most Bluetooth gamepads, the G01 comes with a very familiar
buƩon and control layout
portrait or landscape mode. Other than just using it with mobile devices, it can
also be used as a gamepad of your PC.

Microsoft
Visitors to MicrosoŌ’s booth can check out how the company
is taking educaƟon to the next level and making the smart
classroom into a reality
MicrosoŌ also had their Smart Surveillance demo on display
Similar to their showcase last year, Microsoft was all about letting visitors know just
how their devices can be used in different situations and environments. While they
did have devices to showcase, they were all mainly devices from their partners and
mostly made up of products that are already in the market.
With that being said though, during a keynote session, Microsoft did showcase
over 40 brand-new devices which included all-in-ones, laptops, 2-in-1s, tablets and
smartphones. Some of the highlighted devices were Toshiba’s 7-inch tablet and
also the HP Pro x2 612 2-in-1 that is packed with business-ready features such as
dual batteries, a Wacom Stylus and breadth of security features. Also, the Microsoft
Surface 3 was also making the rounds but unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it as it
was constantly being whisked away for
demos.
As always though, it was the
implementation and integration of
Microsoft’s Windows and other solutions
into different environments that drew the
crowd as users could check out how they
enhance places like the office, classroom,
retail outlets and more. Productivity,
entertainment and security, these were
all highlights at Microsoft’s booth and With MicrosoŌ’s soluƟons, retail outlets will also soon evolve
were quite exciting to check out. and move into the future where customers can easily search
or make orders

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NVIDIA
While NVIDIA didn’t have a booth in the exhibition grounds this year, you could still
say they were present at COMPUTEX as they held demoes and presentation as the Le
Meridian Hotel, which was very near the Taiwan International Convention Centre. This
time around, instead of their desktop graphics cards, NVIDIA was more focused on the
mobile side of things and GRID. Workspace virtualisaƟon is here and it is brilliant thanks to
NVIDIA has been working on and perfecting their GRID technology for quite a while NVIDIA’s GRID technology
now and we’ve been constantly getting
news about this content streaming technology. At their demo space, NVIDIA actually set
up a working GRID display and showed us just how it will benefit businesses looking to
go down the virtualisation route for their workspace. During the demo, we saw tablets,
MacBooks and consumer grade desktops run resource heavy rendering and design
applications super smoothly as it was actually harnessing the power of GPUs in the
GRID VCA.
Other than just for work, NVIDIA also showcased how GRID is able to change the
gaming industry. Again, this is incredibly impressive as it allows gamers to play PC
games with the highest settings on their mobile devices. When we were there, we got
Game anywhere anyƟme you want with no compromise as
to try out Street Fighter X Tekken and
GRID is also being deployed for gaming Borderlands 2 streaming from an NVIDIA
Shield onto a HD TV and there were no
lags whatsoever.
Besides just GRID, NVIDIA also took
the time to talk to us about their latest
Tegra K1 mobile CPU and what their plans
are for the future of Tegra. According to
NVIDIA, they will be launching “Erista”,
Maxwell-based Tegra chips, this year.
Finally, we also got to see NVIDIA’s The world’s rst NVIDIA Tegra K1 powered tablet, the Xiaomi
Mi Pad was also on display
and the world’s very first embedded
This Ɵny liƩle device has enough power to run simulaƟons
supercomputer, the JETSON TK1 that is super tiny but has enough performance power
such as NVIDIA’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to be used in industries such as robotics, automotive, medicine and defence.

Plextor
Plextor has been around for a long time and they are considered as one of the most
trusted manufacturers when it comes to storage solutions. During their time at
COMPUTEX, they announced the availability of their latest M6 Pro Solid State Drive that
is designed for the gamers, performance junkies and media professionals in mind.
On the surface, the M6 Pro looks very much like your standard 2.5-inch SSD save
for its brushed metal styling. However, this SSD has been put through its paces and
is Plextor’s very first consumer SSD that
passed its recently adopted and ultra-strict,
enterprise grade Zero-Failure Zero-Error
test that puts the SSD through 1,008 A model posing with the Plextor M6 Pro SSD
gruelling hours. The M6 Pro also features
an all new technology known as PlexTurbo
that gives systems a boost in terms of
additional storage speed, extended flash
life and data loss protection.
Seeing as the M.2 connectors are
The M6 Pro may look like your standard 2.5-inch SSD but its now making their way onto most
performance is out of the ordinary motherboards, Plextor also has a range
of M.2 SSDs at the ready. But that wasn’t all as Plextor also has PCIe Gen2 x2 SSDs to
offer users and the most impressive is the M6e. This PCIe SSD will be available in three
variants, 128-, 256- and 512GB. All three are able to deliver sequential read speeds of Here are the very impressive numbers from the M6 Pro
up to 700MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 500MB/s.

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PNY
It’s no secret, these days, the main source of revenue for many manufacturers are from
smartphones and tablets. This is why company’s like PNY, who used to produce mainly
memory products and PC peripherals have branched out to capitalise on the smart mobile
device market and have a wide range of accessories tailor made for these devices.
Before we dive in to the mobile accessories, we shall first take a look at PNY’s latest
solid state drives that are designed for users who are looking to give their rig an upgrade,
PNY has the SSD Prevail 3K, Optima and XLR8. All three are designed for specific users, These three SSDs from PNY will help users improve the overall
the Prevail is catered to commercial usage while the Optima is an entry-level SSD while performance of their systems
the XLR8 is for high-end consumer rigs.
These SSDs will be available in three storage capacities, 120-, 240- and 480GB. In terms
of performance, both the Optima and XLR8 have sequential read and write speeds that can
go up to 400MB/s. As for the Prevail, it has read speeds that go up to 450MB/s and write
speeds of 420MB/s.
While most mid-range and high-end smartphones these days come with internal
storage that ranges from 16- to 64GB, it
may not be enough for the more hardcore Besides jus the Panda and Robot OTG adapters, PNY also has
user. Also, some smartphones don’t come the Pencil adapter and even OTG card reader
with a microSD slot, so to remedy this,
PNY have launched a few On-The-Go adapters. The two that PNY showed us was the very
cutely designed Panda and Robot adapters. As these are just adapters, users will have
to attach them to a USB flash drive and the perfect one is PNY’s very own Mini M1 flash
drive that comes in 4-, 8-, 16- and 32GB capacities.
Finally, the last mobile accessory they showed us was the Power-T82, 8,200mAh
power bank that is sports a seriously stylish metallic and slim design. Besides the large
The Power-T82 (third) is a very stylish powerbank that has a capacity, it also comes with smart power management and high power discharging
large capacity and niŌy features
efficiency.

QNAP
In today’s market, there are quite a few names that comes to mind immediately when we
talk about Network Attached Storage device and one of them happens to be QNAP. Over
the years, QNAP have created NAS devices not just for the office environment but for
homes as well. This year is no difference as they introduced a number of NAS devices that
would fit in perfectly into homes.
When we were first shown the HS-251, we initially thought that QNAP had now gone
into the home entertainment market. That isn’t too far from the truth though as the The HS-251 is designed to t in nicely in living rooms
HS-251 is a silent and fanless NAS solution designed for the home theatre enthusiast
or audiophiles. It is powered by a 2.41GHz dual-core Intel Celeron processor coupled
with 1GB DDR3L RAM and even has hardware transcoding capabilities. With hardware
transcoding capability, users will be able to stream any format of videos to a device
and play it, even if it does not support that file format. This two-bay device can also be
connected to a HD TV or Hi-Fi amplifier via the HDMI, turning it into a media centre.
For offices or homes that require a NAS with more than 8TB of storage, QNAP also has
the new TS-X51 series. In this series there
are four variants starting with the 2-bay
TS-251 and ending with the 8-bay TS-851.
All four are powered by the same CPU as
For users that prefer a more convenƟonal NAS design or more the HS-251 and have two RAM slots, which
storage space, there’s always the TS-X51 series
means it can have up to 8GB of RAM, to
help improve overall performance.
Last but definitely not least, QNAP also showed us the IS-400 Pro, a 4-bay industrial
NAS designed to be able to survive in tough or mobile environments such as factories
settings and transportation. The IS-400 Pro is made entirely out of aluminium which
improves heat-dissipation. Also, it can withstand temperatures between -20 degrees The IS-400 is a super rugged NAS that is powered by a 1.1GHz
dual-core Intel Celeron CPU and has 4GB RAM
Celsius and 50 degrees Celcius.

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ROCCAT
German gaming peripheral makers, ROCCAT were also present at COMPUTEX Taipei this
year and with so many new competition, ROCCAT had to kick it up a notch to avoid being
overshadowed by the competition. However, this has never been a problem for ROCCAT
as they constantly find ways to outdo their competition and at this year’s show they
showed us some things that will definitely get gamers excited.
ROCCAT started off our tour of their booth strong as the first thing they showed us is Another cool thing about the Tyon is that the scroll wheel and
mouse rim can be set to emit diīerent colours
the soon-to-be-released Tyon gaming mouse, which comes with plenty of features that
might just change how gamers use their mouse. First up, the Tyon features a 8,200dpi Pro-Aim laser sensor and also 576KB onboard
memory so gamers can store their setting and macros on the mouse itself.
But if that all sounds pretty common for gaming mice, wait till you find out what else ROCCAT has incorporated into the Tyon. While
the Tyon only has 16 programmable buttons, the Easy-Shift[+] feature enables gamers to assign a secondary function to each of the
16 buttons, effectively giving the mouse 31 functions. It is only 31 as one of the buttons is the dedicated Easy-Shift[+] button. On top
of that, the Tyon also features the Dorsal Fin-switch located beneath the scroll wheel
that is designed to move more viral functions away from the keyboard. Then there’s
also the X-Celerator, single-axis analogue thumb paddle which is used for tilting left and
right, pitching up and down and increasing or decreasing throttle, handy for games like
Battlefield 4 where vehicles come into play.
Other than the Tyos, ROCCAT also showcased the Ryos TKL Pro, a much smaller
version of their well-loved Ryos mechanical gaming keyboard. Its features are mainly the
same as the larger Ryos and it also comes
with individual key illumination and also
The Ryos TKL Pro’s lights can be set so that they light up only
a very cool effect known as “breathing”.
certain keys for specic games It will come in four different Cherry MX
switch options when launched.
Finally Roccat also showed us their new Military themed Kone Pure gaming mice,
Sense mousepad and Kave headphones. These peripherals are essentially the same
devices just that they now come in cool new colours called Camo Charge, Naval Storm
and Desert Strike. If you love military themed accessories, then the new military
colour schemes by ROCCAT will keep you happy

Sapphire
What has now become their standard mode of operation, Sapphire made themselves
at home in a private room on the fourth floor of the Taipei International Convention
Centre, where they were separated from the noise and activities in the exhibition
grounds. This of course gives those who visit them a more personal experience and
that’s a good thing as we could take our time with Sapphire’s latest products.
The first thing we had to check out was of course the Sapphire R9 295X2 8G GDDR5
graphics card. This monster of a card boasts a core clock speed of 1,108MHz, has 2816
x2 stream processors and an effective video memory of 5,000MHz. It comes with four
mini DisplayPorts and a single Dual-Link DVI-D. With these ports the R9 295X2 is able
to support up to five displays. Gamers who equip their rigs with this graphics card probably
won’t need an upgrade for the next two years
With so much power, it is bound to
generate quite a bit of heat and this is why Sapphire have equipped it with a water cooler.
For gamers who want a powerful graphics card but with a slightly cheaper price tag,
Sapphire also has plenty of new cards based on AMD’s latest Radeon graphics cards.
One of which is the Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290X 4G GDDR5 Tri-X OC Version. This card
combines both of Sapphire’s Vapor X and Tri-X triple fan technology which helps the card
stay cool even when under a heavy load.
The card is also overclocked out of the box and has a core clock speed of 1,030MH and
an effective memory of 5,300MHz. With these numbers, gamers will be glad that Sapphire
This high-end graphics card is also dual BIOS and UEFI ready have incorporated a very effective cooling system.
to support Windows 8
For the more casual user, Sapphire also has cards like the Flex R5 230 1G DDR3 that
sports a passive cooler so that the card remains quiet at all times. This low-profile card is also great for users looking to build a small
HTPC or simple work rig. It comes with a core clock speed of 625MHz and effective video memory of 1600MHz.

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SanDisk
Never one to be left out of the crowd, SanDisk was also at COMPUTEX Taipei and they
had some pretty interesting things to show. In fact, they had not just one but two new
SSDs, one for consumers and the other for enterprises at their booth.
First up, let’s take a look at the recently launched Extreme Pro SSD, which is drive
designed for consumers who demand the best in real-world performance. So this naturally
means, gamers, PC enthusiasts and media professionals. This new drive will come in three
different capacities, 240-, 480- and 960GB. Pricing for each variant is US$349 (RM1,111),
US$669 (RM2,131) and US$1,099 (RM3,500) respectively. If you’re a user that craves performance then the Extreme Pro
SSD might be the upgrade your rig needs
All three variants of the SSD boast sequential read speeds of up to 550MB/s and
write speeds of up to 520MB/s, which means games and applications will load up in a blink of an eye. The Extreme Pro SSDs also take
advantage of SanDisk’s nCache Pro technology, a two-tiered caching architecture that
helps in optimising speed and endurance giving the SSD the thus making the SSD perfect
for heavy workloads and multi-tasking. On top of that, it also supports the SSD Dashboard
application, which gives users tools to monitor the drive’s performance, health and
temperature, update its firmware, schedule TRIM, secure erase and more.
As for the enterprise side of things, SanDisk also launched the Optimus MAX 4TB SAS
SSD that was design to help organisations transition to a leaner infrastructure model.
The Optimus MAX was also designed for read-intensive application workloads such as
Data Warehousing, Media Streaming, Web Servers, Video on Demand and Web-based
applications.
Other than performance, the OpƟmus MAX is also durable as This SSD is powered by SanDisk’s innovative Guardian Technology Platform
it has an MTBF Ɵme of 2.5 million hours that provides users with a comprehensive suite of enterprise features which include
FlashGuard, DataGuard and EverGuard. The Optimus MAX will only be available in 4TB storage capacity and has a sequential read and
write speed that goes up to 400MB/s.

Synology
As one of the top storage solution manufacturers in the market today, Synology’s
showcase in COMPUTEX Taipei is always filled with interesting and innovative new
products and this year was no different as they launched a few Network-Attached Storage
devices that come in form factors never before seen in the industry.
Easily one of the most intriguing products Synology had this year is the pint-sized
EDS14 which is a compact Embedded DataStation that can easily fit in a user’s pocket or
backpack without being a burden. To add to its portability, the EDS14 is also vibration-
resistant and can survive extreme conditions and temperatures of -20 degress Celsius to For its innovaƟon, the Synology EDS14 actually own the
COMPUTEX Best Choice award
50 degrees Celsius.
The EDS14 is clearly designed for portability and easy deployment as it features a high-speed SDXC USH-I SD storage and also
supports 3G/LTE when users are in areas that don’t have LAN cables ready. Speaking of LAN cables, the EDS14 comes with dual LAN
ports with failover support.
Also making an appearance at COMPUTEX is the DiskStation DS414slim. While it isn’t
as small compared to the EDS14, it is still much smaller compared to traditional NAS
devices. It was designed specifically for homes and offices that prefer a NAS that doesn’t
take up too much space. With that said, the DS414slim is actually a four bay NAS server
that uses 2.5-inch HDDs.
Powered by a 1.2GHz Marvel Armada
370 CPU with Floating-Point Unit , coupled
with 512MB of RAM, the DS414slim is said
to be able to run intensive applications and
Despite its small size, the DS414slim comes with many of the delivers average read and write speeds of
same features found on Synology’s larger NAS-servers
110.91MB/s and 54.53MB/s respectively. It
also comes equipped with two USB 3.0 ports to accelerate data transfers.
Finally, for homes that want a NAS-server to use as a media hub, there’s the
DS415play. This is yet another NAS-server with a smaller footprint that is also powerful
as it is capable of Full HD transcoding, which means users can watch any movie on any The DS415play isn’t just ideal as a media hub but also
personal Cloud storage
device regardless of file format.

chip malaysia july 14 059

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computex taipei 2014

ThermalTake
When ThermalTake first started out in the industry, they were very much focused on
providing users with top-of-the-line PC chassis and coolers for gamers and overclockers.
Years later, they then created the Tt eSPORTS brand, where they designed their very own
gaming peripherals such as keyboards, mice, headphones and mousepads to give gamers
yet another choice when it comes to peripherals.
For this year’s COMPUTEX, Tt eSPORTS main draws when it came to gaming mice was
the Level 10 M which took home the 2014 Best Choice Award. Like the very impressive The main diīerence between the wired and the hybrid
Level 10 chassis, the Level 10 M was also designed in collaboration with BMW Group version of the Level 10 M other than the connecƟvity is the
DesignworksUSA, which is why it comes with a very radical yet surprisingly comfortable programmable buƩons. The wired version has 11 while the
hybrid only has eight
design.
Some of the notable features of the Level 10 M include a 3D-Steering Axis system that allows gamers to customise the angle at which
the mouse sits in the palm of their hands and the Air-Through Ventilation system that helps keep palms cool and dry. The Level 10 M
actually comes in two variants, one relies on USB and the other a Hybrid mouse that can be wired and wireless. Both variants have a
8200DPI laser sensor and can be customised with five profiles.
Moving on to the keyboard category, TT eSPORTS unveiled the POSEIDON ZX
tenkeyless mechanical gaming keyboard. This keyboard is of course part of the brands
famous POSEIDON series and features Tt eSPORTS certified mechanical blue switches.
Being a tenkeyless keyboard, it’s now 80% shorter compared to the regular one and gives
gamers a little more space for their mouse
and is easier to bring around.
Like most of the POSEIDONs that
The main diīerence between the wired and the hybrid
version of the Level 10 M other than the connecƟvity is the came before it, the ZX features full LED
programmable buƩons. The wired version has 11 while the backlighting, N-Key rollover via USB,
hybrid only has 8
dedicated key to disable the Windows key,
accessible media keys and adjustable brightness.
Setting our sights back on ThermalTake itself, the company is now focussing heavily on
providing users with complete solutions when it comes to liquid cooling. From radiators
to coolants to fans, ThermalTake has them in all colours, shapes and sizes to fit just about
any chassis and user preference. ThermalTake is giving hardcore gamers and PC modders an
easier way to source for liquid cooling parts as they have
everything in place

Transcend
Over the course of their existence, Transcend has gained a reputation of being one of the
best manufacturers when it comes to storage and memory solutions for Windows based
PCs. On top of that, they have also made a name for themselves when it comes to external
hard drives and USB flash drives. This year at COMPUTEX Taipei, Transcend went down a
slightly different path and showcased a slew of Mac-compatible products.
One of the first Mac-centric products is the JetDrive SSD upgrade kits for the MacBook
Air and MacBook Pro. Each JetDrive SSD comes complete with tools, instructions and a
slick aluminium USB 3.0 enclosure so that users can reuse and keep their original SSD
save from dust and liquids.
The JetDrive 420 has a sequenƟal read speed that can go up
All in all, the JetDrive SSD series is made up of four different kits, the JetDrive 500, 520,
to 485MB/s and write speeds that go up to 410MB/s 720 and 420. The JetDrive 500, 520 and 720
all come in a stick like form factor, whereas
the JetDrive 420 comes in a more traditional 2.5-inch form factor. Storage capacity of all
four of these new upgrade kits reach up to 960GB.
Other than the JetDrive SSDs, Transcend also released the JetDrive Liter Expansion
Cards that is able to instantly boost the total available capacity of a user’s MacBook Pro
without having to upgrade to a more expensive SSD. These expansion cards come in a
very low-profile design and integrates itself seamlessly into a MacBook. While it may seem
a little fragile, the JetDrive Lite is manufactured using a special Chip On Board technique
that makes it resistant to water, dust and shock.
The JetDrive Lite also comes in four variants, the JetDrive Lite 130, 330, 350 and 360. The JetDrive 500, 520 and 720 on the other hand have
Out of the four, only the JetDrive Lite 330 has a maximum capacity of 64GB whereas the sequenƟal read speeds that go up to 520MB/s and write
rest can go up to 128GB. speeds that go up to 440MB/s

060 july 14 chip malaysia


Get On Board
With GIGABYTE
GIGABYTE’s motherboard division expands with
plenty of impressive new offerings for consumers
Henry Kao, Vice President of GIGABYTE Motherboard Business
Unit, kicked oī the event with a very light-hearted and
informaƟve speech
Colin Brix, MarkeƟng Director of GIGABYTE Motherboard
Business Unit Technical MarkeƟng gave us the details on what
makes their motherboards unique
cover story
computex taipei 2014
M
uch like the rest of the
Taiwanese component makers,
GIGABYTE had the home
ground advantage and with that in mind
they pulled out all the stops to impress
members of the media from all over
the world. Like the other companies,
GIGABYTE has moved into many
different product segments but when
it comes down to it, their main focus
is of course still components such as
motherboards and with that said, their
motherboard division alone is able to
draw quite a lot of attention.
A day before COMPUTEX truly kicked
off, GIGABYTE held their very own
press conference where they officially
launched their range of Intel 9-series
motherboards. All in all, the company
launched 36 new motherboards and
they aren’t planning to stop there.
These boards will also be split into four
different categories; Ultra Durable, G1.
Gaming, Overclocking and the newest
entry being the Black Edition. Each
series of motherboard comes with
a range of variants that will make it
easy for consumers to find the perfect
motherboard for them be they casual
users or hardcore performance junkies.
During this press conference,
GIGABYTE also invited world-class
overclockers to the event where
chip malaysia july 14 061
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computex taipei 2014

they used one of GIGABYTE’s latest

motherboards and tried to break the
world’s DDR3 memory overclocking
record, which they succeeded in doing
so as they managed to get it to go up
to 4.5GHz. This is a testament to how
well-built and stable the Overclocking
boards are.
Another exciting announcement made
during the press conference involves
consumers. To show their appreciation
to their fans, GIGABYTE have organised
a VIP Lucky Draw program. This lucky
draw program is eligible to those who
purchase a Black Edition motherboard
and signs up for the lucky draw. This
means whoever purchases the Z97X-
Gaming G1 WiFi-BK, Z97X-UD5H-BK or
Z97X-UD3H-BK can stand a chance to
win an Intel i7-4770K CPU, 23-inch LCD
Monitor, 2x 8GB DDR3 Memory, 128GB This Ɵny motherboard can be used as a base to a very powerful mini-ITX gaming rig
SSD or 1TB HDD. As if those prizes
aren’t exciting enough, there’s a grand He highlighted
prize which is an all-expense paid trip to to us some of the
Taiwan. motherboards that
A few days after the press conference, consumers would
we then made our way to the 36th floor definitely love to
of Taipei 101, which has now become take note, such as
the company’s standard venue for their highest-end
those who want a more personal look offering in the
at what the company has to offer away Ultra-Durable series,
from the hustle and bustle of the Taipei the GA-Z97X-UD7
International Convention Centre. For this TH that features
private little tour, we were chaperoned all of GIGABYTE’s
by none other than Hunter Lee, Product latest technology
To prove their point that it is unnecessary to just aim for the high-end, GIGABYTE had a demo rig
Manager for GIGABYTE Technology. and what makes it using the G1.Sniper H6

even cooler is the fact that it has dual

Thunderbolt 2 ports.
For users who are looking to build
a micro-ITX gaming rig, the GA-Z97N-
Gaming 5 is the perfect base to start
with. In terms of size, it is of course
much smaller but it comes with high-end
features such as gold plated display
and audio ports, high-end Nichicon
audio capacitors, Killer E2200 gaming
networking and more.
However, as always, GIGABYTE also
has a selection of good motherboards
designed for consumers who are on
a budget and can’t afford the most
high-end components. For the more
casual gamer, they can always look
to the G1.Sniper H6, which is a more
mainstream level motherboard but still
comes with all the features you’d expect
The highest-end motherboard in the Ultra Durable line is great for users who work with loads of large les as it has not one but from a gaming motherboard such as
two Thunderbolt 2 ports AMP-UP Audio technology, Audio Noise

062 july 14 chip malaysia

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computex taipei 2014

Guard, DAC-UP USB Port, high-end motherboards,

Nichicon audio capacitors, Killer E2200 Hunter
Ethernet and much more. showed us the
On the overclocking side of things, G-Powerboard,
while this wasn’t exactly on the side of a nifty little
accessory
for the most
hardcore of
overclockers.
This
G-Powerboard
is used for
overclocking
graphics cards
as it allows
users to route
more power
We got to check out how GIGABYTE stress tests their motherboards in a special room. Black EdiƟon
to the card. motherboards are put through a 24/7 test and with diīerent soŌware
This is used
to replace a graphics card
already bolted on power
The G-Powerboard may look preƩy simple but it is a must connectors.
have accessory for overclockers who want to top the world After our little visit to their
records in terms of graphics
little space in Taipei 101, we
then boarded a bus over to
GIGABYTE’s HQ where we
got to check out what goes
on behind-the-scenes when
it comes to manufacturing
a motherboard or graphics
card. The experience was
quite an enlightening one
and we definitely learned
quite a bit at the end of the Before being sent to the next test session, minute details of the boards such as
This is because it allows you to route more power from the soldering gets double-checked
PSU to the graphics card tour.

The GA-Z97X-SOC Force LN2 is best when used with Liquid

Nitrogen

Right as we entered GIGABYTE’s headquarters, we were

The Ultra-Durable series of motherboards are designed for users who want the best balance in terms of performance, stability greeted by this model made out of recycled motherboard
and durability components

chip malaysia july 14 063

 cover story
computex taipei 2014

MSI Reinvigorates And

Innovates Components
While their main focus may lie in their GAMING and Overclocking series, MSI
proves that they have the vision and products to move into different markets

W
hen it comes to COMPUTEX
Taipei, you can always expect
Taiwanese manufacturers
such as MSI to draw a crowd to them as
not only do they have exciting activities
throughout the day but they also have
loads to showcase. Despite the fact
that MSI launched their latest line-up of
Intel 9-series motherboards in Vietnam
a month before the big show, we were
still surprised to find that MSI still had
a few tricks up their sleeves, which they
brought out in their showcase in the
Taipei World Trade Centre Nangang
Exhibition Hall.
Just like every other year, MSI
brought out all their latest motherboards,
graphics cards, laptops, all-in-one
desktop PCs and even Point-Of-Sales
machines to the show. For now, let’s
set our sights on the component side of
things. When it comes to their GAMING
It was hard to miss MSI’s booth as they adorned it with cool displays such as this one
and Overclocking motherboards, you

064 july 14 chip malaysia

 cover story
computex taipei 2014

Overclockers Coldest (leŌ) and Lucky_n00b (right) sharing some laughs with fellow USB 3.1 hasn’t even made it to the mainstream market yet but MSI is already ready with
overclockers who came to congratulate them for their achievement motherboards that are equipped with it

organisations that utilise a

good number of PCs such
as Internet/Cyber cafés.
These boards will come
bundled and make use
of MSI’s new proprietary
software known as the Eco
Center Pro. This handy
tool will allow users to
select and disable specific
unused features of the
motherboards such as
LEDs, ports and save
It was denitely no easy feat for the pair to get the processor all the way up to A close-up shot of one of MSI’s new ECO series motherboards that configuration to the
6.4GHz
BIOS. This is truly a handy
would have read about them in our feature so users won’t have to constantly
coverage of their launch last month. turn off the things that aren’t needed.
During COMPUTEX, MSI made no new Besides the new range of ECO series
unveilings to both these series. They motherboards, we also got to check out
did however show us something we some cool new motherboards that are
didn’t quite expect, a line of eco-friendly part of MSI’s Classic series, which are
motherboards. designed for the more mainstream or
Known as the ECO series, these normal consumer. With that said though,
boards are designed conserve power and some of these boards come with features
will mainly be targeted at businesses or that will keep enthusiasts happy as well

The ECO boards will come in the latest 9-series and also A close-up of the USB 3.1 port and controller chip The new ECO series motherboards from MSI will be a great
previous gen variants opƟon for environments that have many PCs but not all
features and funcƟons of the board are uƟlised

chip malaysia july 14 065

 cover story
computex taipei 2014
Here’s an explanaƟon of what the Thunderbolt Plus extension is good for
and will most likely find their way to the
GAMING and Overclocking series line-up.
What we’re talking about here is
features such as USB 3.1, which hasn’t
even been officially launched and yet
MSI already has a motherboard that is
equipped with this new interface that can
deliver file transfer speeds that go up to
10Gbps. Other than that, MSI is also the
first manufacturer to boast of having a
Just a quick look at the ports on the Thunderbolt Plus PCIe
card
While the DDR4 support is impressive, what makes this even
more impressive is the fact that it is based on Intel’s yet to be
released X99 plaƞorm
066 july 14 chip malaysia
Other than the components, MSI also showed us some really neat All-In-One PCs like the
Adora20 2M which is designed for home entertainment
motherboard based on Intel’s upcoming
X99 chipset. As if that wasn’t impressive
enough, MSI’s X99 motherboard is also
the first to feature DDR4 RAM support.
While we’re on the topic of
components, we also found out that
MSI will be releasing what is known as
the Thunderbolt Plus, a PCIe card that
comes with a Thunderbolt 2 port and
a DisplayPort. This is yet another great
extension and initiative on MSI’s part as
this new peripheral will allow users to
equip their rigs with a Thunderbolt port
without having to change their entire
The Adora 20 2M is perfect for homes and oĸces as it is only
23mm thin which means it won’t take up too much space
system. This will be especially handy
for those who work on large sized files
such as Full HD videos, RAW image
files or production files as they can now
back their precious work files up to an
external storage with a Thunderbolt port
and not have to wait ages for the transfer
to complete.
To showcase just how stable and
powerful their motherboards are, MSI
also invited two renowned overclockers,
Coldest and Lucky_n00b, to their booth to
conduct an overclocking demonstration.
Armed with MSI’s Z97 MPower Max AC
motherboard and the latest Intel K-class
processor, the Core i7-4790K a.k.a Devil’s
Canyon the duo managed to overclock
the processor all the way up to 6.4GHz,
a 2.4GHz increase from the processors
default speed of 4.0GHz.
Once we were done checking out all
the components, MSI then led us to the
area where they were showcasing their
new All-In-One (AIO) desktop PCs and
Point-Of-Sales (POS) systems.
Gaming AIOs such as the AG240 2PE also made an
appearance at the booth. It is the World’s rst ultra-slim
gaming AIO and yet packs a punch in terms of performance
 cover story
computex taipei 2014

Shaking Up The RAID 2, Killer Gaming LAN, SteelSeries

keyboards, Dynaudio and Audio Boost
technology.
Gamers demand the best in

Gaming performance and this is where Super

RAID 2 comes in as this helps improve
load times and reduce lags as MSI

Notebook Space laptops equipped with this technology

have storage performance that boast
read speeds of up to 1,500MB/s, 15x
faster than a single 750GB 7,200rpm
MSI’s GAMING notebooks have gained quite a HDD. Combine that with a high-end CPU,
following and the devices that are about to be GPU and a sizeable amount of RAM and
launched will make them quite a force to be gamers will be able to do more than just
run their games on max settings.
reckoned with When it comes to lag, it isn’t always
just caused by a system’s hardware.

T
here was a point in time where manufacturers that have been hard at Instead, lag can also relate to ping and
gaming notebooks were literally work to give gamers what they want in a internet speeds. For gamers who love
unheard of. Gamers were pretty gaming laptop in terms of features and playing online games, Killer Gaming
much desk bound and while there was hardware. After some trial and errors, LAN is a must-have as it recognises
a certain “extra-terrestrial” brand that MSI seems to have
produced gaming laptops, they could gotten it down pat
only be purchased by those who were as their gaming
born with a platinum spoon in their laptops are some
mouths. Things aren’t quite the same of the most sought
anymore these days as gamers who after by gamers and
want a portable gaming rig are spoilt we really see the
for choice as the market just filled with appeal as well as
gaming laptops that come in different MSI tend to equip
sizes and specifications. even their mid-
Ever since they joined the gaming range devices with
laptop race, MSI has been one of those features found on
high-end offerings.
There are many
reasons why MSI’s
notebooks are so
appealing and
from what we saw
during our visit to
their booth during
COMPUTEX
Taipei, all we have The GS60 2PE Ghost Pro 4K EdiƟon will be a great gaming notebook to have when we get more
4K media and games
to say is things
are just about to get
really interesting as
these newer laptops
will come with the
latest hardware
and features that
most gamers will
want. While some
of those features
can be found on
their competitors’
offerings, MSI
does have a few
A model posing with one of MSI’s GAMING notebooks secret weapons While it is preƩy slim, MSI have managed to t in quite a bit of ports on the 15-inch GS60 2PE
namely Super Ghost Pro 4K EdiƟon

chip malaysia july 14 067

 cover story
computex taipei 2014

online game data packs and processes

them first, which in turn vastly improves
the online gaming experience. No longer
will gamers have to deal with chugging
frame rates and teleporting opponents
who suddenly kill them with a knife to
the head.
To provide gamers with responsive
controls, ever since they released their
first gaming laptop, MSI have worked
very closely with SteelSeries to ensure
that the keyboard on their gaming
laptops are responsive and comfortable
to use. Features such as Anti-Ghosting
gives gamers more freedom with higher
amount of simultaneous key presses
and not to mention gamers can even set
custom profiles and macros using the
SteelSeries Engine software.
Finally, to enhance immersion, which Here’s the upcoming GT72, a true beast of a gaming notebook

is an important aspect in gaming, MSI

equip all their notebooks with Dynaudio
speakers and Audio Boost technology.
With both these features combined
gamers will be able to easily tell where
their enemies are coming from or
just enjoy a game’s soundtrack and
environmental sounds to the fullest.
All the aforementioned features can
be found on two of the highlighted
laptops that were shown to us during
our visit to MSI. The first laptop that was
shown to us was the GS60 2PE Ghost
Pro 4K Edition. This super sleek laptop
is MSI’s very first laptop to feature a 4K
(3,840 x 2,160) UHD display. MSI have
perfected the art of building slim but
powerful laptops and this laptop is no With so much real estate around the GT72, MSI was able to equip it with plenty of ports
different as it is the first gaming laptop
to use the super lightweight material
known as Magnesium-Lithium alloy for
its chassis which by the way is only
19.95mm thin and 1.95kg light.
On the inside, the GS60 2PE Ghost
Pro 4K edition houses an Intel 4th
Generation Core i7 processor and
accompanied by an NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 870M GPU, Super RAID technology
that is made up of two 128GB SSD
in RAID 0 configuration and a 1TB
7,200RPM HD.
Besides just the 4K enabled laptop,
MSI also showed us their upcoming
flagship and behemoth, the GT72. There
were many aspects of the laptop that
was still kept under wraps but we are
sure that this 17.3-inch monster will
Besides the SteelSeries keyboard, there’s also ve quick
be fitted with the latest hardware and Also located on the boƩom of the boƩom is the bass reex
seƫng keys that allows gamers to quickly turn on and oī
port that will denitely give this laptop’s audio a kick
features. certain features of the GT72

068 july 14 chip malaysia

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computex taipei 2014

The GT72 sports the same supercar inspired lines and design
that most MSI GT notebooks are known for

Here’s the very familiar looking WT70 20L that uses the GT70 as a base making this a very cool and extreme looking mobile
workstaƟon compared to others in the market

Here’s a look at the boƩom of the GT72 where the dual-

cooling vents are located

Other than mobile workstaƟons and GAMING notebooks, MSI is also looking to make name for themselves in the hybrid device
segment with oīerings like the S100

As their upcoming agship, the GT72 will of course feature a

SteelSeries keyboard with plenty of features

Last but not least, when it comes to

laptops, MSI have also started to move
into the mobile workstation space.
They did so because they noticed that
there were a lot of customers who
purchased their GAMING notebooks
to do things such as photo and video
rendering and also simulation. So to
give these consumers what they want
and truly need, MSI used their GAMING
notebooks such as the GT70 as a base
to create mobile workstations like the
WT70 20L, which come with many of
the GAMING series’ features but instead
come equipped with NVIDIA’s Quadro
K4100M GPU.

chip malaysia july 14 069

 test lab
test bed

TEST LAB: The Tools

Here at the CHIP Test Labs, we adhere to the high requirements set by the CHIP International
Testcenter standards. This means that everything here -- from our own personal knowledge and
to our trusted tools of the trade -- are meant to provide the most optimised, unbiased and
comprehensive review to every product that comes through our doors. As thus, our test bed
tools are specifically picked to get the most out of every test we perform

Intel Platform AMD Platform

Motherboards Graphics Motherboards Graphics
Intel DZ77GA-70K Processing Unit ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Processing Unit
MSI Z87 MPower MSI GeForce GTX MSI A75MA-G55 ASUS AMD Radeon HD
680 Lightning 6970
Processors Processors
Intel Core i7-3770K CPU Cooler AMD FX-8150 CPU Cooler
Intel Core i7-4770K Cooler Master X6 AMD A8-3850 Cooler Master Hyper 212
EVO

PSU, Storage & RAM Benchmark Software

Power Supply Memory Operating Industry
Cooler Master Silent Pro Kingston HyperX System Standard
Hybrid (1300W) KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX Windows 7 Ultimate Benchmark
Kingston HyperX (64-bit) Tools
Storage KHX1600C8D3K4/8GX AIDA64
Western Digital Black² Futuremark SiSoftware SANDRA
Dual Drive PCMark 7 Speccy
Western Digital My Book PCMark 8 Unigine Heaven
Live Duo 3DMark 11
3DMark

chip malaysia july 14 071

 test lab
contents

TEST LAB 12

The
Technologica 22 1
Crux 11

It’s been a whirlwind month for us at CHIP

Malaysia, as we get down and dirty with all
the happenings both locally and around the
world.
10
COMPUTEX showed off a number of
interesting gadgets and components that
we’d definitely love to get our hands on
sooner or later.

WWDC meanwhile showcased a number of 1 ROCCAT Syva 080

new updates on the software side for Apple,
with the new Mac OSX Yosemite and iOS 8
2 MSI Z97 Gaming 5 081
providing Mac, iPhone and iPad users a 3 Canon PowerShot SX700 HS 082
new lease of life and quality of service in
their devices. 4 ASUS ROG Striker GTX 760 083
Google I/O featured a smorgasbord of new
5 Nokia Lumia 630 084
Android-based services, including, but not
limited to the Android One affordable
6 ASUS Z97-PRO 085
smartphone project, the next gen Android L, 7 Canon PIXMA iP8770 printer 086
Android Auto and more on the recently
announced Android Wear operating system 8 MSI Z97I GAMING AC 087
for wearables. 9 Samsung GALAXY K zoom 088
What were your favourite tech moments in 10 CM Storm QuickFire Rapid-i 089
June? Or the year so far, for that matter?
11 Lenovo ThinkPad S1 Yoga 090
Errata: In last month’s review of the MSI
GE60 2PE Apache Pro, we made some
12 Samsung SD360 091
mistakes regarding the specifications of the 13 Microsoft All-in-One Media Keyboard 092
notebook. The GE60 2PE we review actually
has a 1TB HDD not 500GB HDD + 256GB 14 ASUS ROG Maximus VII Ranger 093
Super RAID and also feature Wi-Fi 802.11ac.
Also, the main contact for this notebook
15 Xiaomi Redmi 1S 094
should have been MSI Malaysia Office, 1
300 22 1986 and not MediaForte. We
16 Armaggeddon Kalashnikov AK-770i 095
sincerely regret these errors.

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CONTENTS6
17 14 2 8

21
20 19
4 3

18 13
9 5 15

16

17 GIGABYTE H97-Gaming 3 096 20 ASUS Essence STX II Sound Card 099

18 ASUS Fonepad 7 (FE170CG) 097 21 Sony A77 MkII 100
19 TDK Wireless Weatherproof 22 MSI GT70 2PE 101
Speakers 098

Ratings CHIP Awards

Each product review is rated on a scale
of 1 to 5 for different key parameters: CHIP Editors’ Choice Award
Awarded to products that receive unanimous
endorsement from all CHIP editors for its overall
brilliance

PERFORMANCE : Refers to the efficiency of execution CHIP Outstanding Award

Reserved for products that combine astute technical
FEATURES : Rates the abilities and unique characteristics
performance with good quality and design
available
DESIGN : Varies according to product. Finished products -
form factor and build quality. Hardware components - CHIP Recommended Award
layout, size and cooling solution. Software - user interface Given to products that possess singular quality
worthy of a recommendation
VALUE : Calculated from the performance and features of
the product in relation to the price

chip malaysia july 14 073

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Loudness Is Life
TDK is known for their array of sound devices and this time, they have added the A26 to
their catalogue, which brings the noise to you wherever you go. Become the heart of the
party with a room filling TDK Signature Sound in an flexible and portable design. It also
includes a built-in microphone which provides speakerphone functionality
for accepting and making calls. It is Bluetooth v4.0 enabled as well as NFC
capable for a variety of syncing options. Users will also be able to use it
outdoors without worrying about the elements as the A26 is IP64 certified
and sports a weatherised design that protects the device from dust and
water. Finally, it also has a 2.0 Stereo configuration as well as a USB
speaker charging port.

TDK A26
Price: RM399
Contact: Digital Paper Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 5569 2002
Info: www.tdkperformance.com

Digital Magic
The latest addition to Sony’s Cyber-shot series is the RX100 MkIII. This latest camera in
the series comes with a 20.1 MP Exmor R sensor for extreme low light shots, a bright f/1.8
Zeiss Vario-Sonar T Lens (24-70mm), and a built-in SVGA OLED viewfinder with Zeiss
T coating. For those who admire their sense of being, the RX-100
also has a selfie ready multi-angle 3-inch Xtra Fine LCD display.
Avid photographers will be excited to know that this camera makes
shooting videos versatile as it supports XAVC S AVCHD and MP4
formats. It will also have a HDMI clear output for uncompressed
video recordings. The RX-100 MkIII also has NFC and Wi-Fi
capabilities that maximises a user’s connectivity options.

Sony Cyber-shot RX100 MkIII

Price: RM2,999
Contact: Sony (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: 1 300 88 1233
Info: www.sony.com.my

Mi Gets Bigger
Xiaomi has already created plenty of waves ever since they set foot in Malaysia. Don’t
expect that momentum to stop though as they are about to bring more new devices to
Malaysia including the Redmi Note. This Dual-SIM phablet is not only affordably priced,
it has the performance that exceeds its value. It sports a 5.5-inch HD IPS display and a
1.7GHz 8-Core MTK 6592 processor for unparalleled media experience. Accompanying
the CPU is a Mali-450 GPU which provides amazing graphic performance for high
resolution gameplay. To give it even smoother performance, Xiaomi have equipped the
Redmi Note with 2GB RAM and an internal memory of 8GB, which is expandable up to
32GB. Furthermore, the Redmi Note comes equipped with a 13MP rear facing camera
with f/2.2 aperture and a 28mm wide angle lens and 5MP front camera for photography
fun.

Xiaomi Redmi Note

Price: RM509
Contact: Xiaomi
Phone: 1 800 28 1882
Info: www.xiaomi.com/my/

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The God Of War

ASUS brings down the heavens with their latest graphic card that is dubbed
the fastest in the world, the ASUS ROG ARES III. This beast of a graphics cards
harnesses the power of two AMD Hawaii XT cores and has 8GB worth of GDDR5
memory, which means it can easily run even the most demanding games on
maximum settings and even last users for more than a few years before needing an
upgrade. With so much power, the ARES III of course will heat up but ASUS have
bolted on their custom loop Hybrid Cooler to keep it cool. It will also have a custom
designed EK water block which reduces heat by 25 percent. Furthermore, the card
will arrive with factory overclocked settings which means much faster performance
compared to its referenced card. It is said that ASUS will only release 500 units of the
ARES III.

ASUS ROG ARES III

Price: TBA
Contact: Build Technology Supply Sdn. Bhd., Servex (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7955 3699, (03) 8024 6689
Info: www.asus.com/my

Deep Impact
Kingston, a well-known memory storage solutions company has recently released the HyperX
Impact which is the world’s fastest SO-DIMM frequency clocking in at 2666MHz ensuring gamers
get only the best performance. It will automatically detect the platform and adjust itself
accordingly ensuring that the user does not need to adjust the BIOS settings which
helps to save time. It comes in two variants which are 4GB and 8GB
respectively. It is also eco-friendly because of its low voltage settings that
creates a cooler and quieter computing.

Kingston HyperX Impact

Price: TBA
Contact: Amble Action Sdn. Bhd., Convergent Distribution (M) Sdn. Bhd., Ingram
Micro Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7665 3939, (03) 2144 1881, (03) 7952 8188
Info: www.kingston.com

Rocking A New Year

Intel recently announced that they will be launching a new CPU to commemorate
their 20th Anniversary in the business. As one of Intel’s closest partners, ASRock has
launched the Z97 Anniversary that will take full advantage of this new processor. This
motherboard is special because when you overclock it to 4.8GHz, it increases CPU
frequency by 50 percent. Overclocking on this motherboard is made easy with the
ASRock Pentium Anniversary Boost Technology. The Z97 Anniversary will
also be built with the Premium Alloy Choke for a more efficient and reliable
motherboard. This motherboard supports 4th and 5th generation Intel
Core processors. Audio quality is also improved with ELNA Audio Caps that
reduces noise level significantly.

ASRock Z97 Anniversary

Price: RM399
Contact: AMT PC Distributors Sdn. Bhd., Cudo Technologies (M) Sdn. Bhd., Ingens Sdn.
Bhd.
Phone: (03) 3344 1124, (03) 2148 1177, (03) 7688 9888
Info: www.asrock.com

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Switch Your Life

Not too long after COMPUTEX Taipei, Acer released a new device that aims to
impact the lifestyles of consumers everywhere, by making it better and easier. The
new notebook and tablet hybrid, the Acer Switch 10 is a 2-in-1 notebook and tablet
that has a 10.1-inch HD IPS display and is powered by Intel’s Atom Z3745 processor
and runs on Windows 8.1. It provides smooth performance with 2GB worth of RAM
and has an internal storage of 32GB and also optional expandable 500GB storage with
the unique keyboard dock. It can also run apps easily thanks to Intel’s HD Graphics with
3D graphics hardware acceleration and it also sports a 2MP camera complete with
1080p FHD audio and video recording. In addition to all that, it will also provide 8
hours of battery life to last through the day.

Acer Switch 10
Price: RM1,399
Contact: Acer Sales and Servies Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: 1 800 88 1288
Info: www.acer.com.my

Inspired Once More

Dell is an industry mover and they have proven it time and time again with offerings like
the latest Dell Inspiron 15 5000 laptop which comes with a 15.6-inch HD 10-finger capacitive
touch screen display. It also comes with a 2GB discrete graphics card
which aids with gaming, photo and video editing without users
having to face a dip in performance. The Inspiron 15 5000 is also
powered by the 4th Generation Intel Core I processors that increases
overall battery life. Media experience are further enhanced with
the Waves MaxxAudio built-in to the laptop for improved audio
experience. It also comes bundled with a 20GB cloud storage
with Dropbox that helps users easily access important files across
multiple platforms.

Dell Inspiron 15 5000

Price: RM2,349
Contact: Dell Asia Pacific Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: 1 800 88 0301
Info: www.dell.com.my

7 Is The Magic Number

Huawei is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, so it does not come as
a surprise when we see Huawei releasing another anticipated mobile smartphone named
the Ascend P7. This LTE capable device comes with a 5-inch Full HD touchscreen display
with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 in both front and rear covers for amazing durability. Under the
beautiful shell, the Ascend P7 sports a 1.8GHz HiSilicon Kirin 910 quad-core processor, 2GB
RAM and the latest Android 4.4.2. This latest smartphone from Huawei will also provide
users with a 13MP non-spherical lens, BSI sensor rear facing camera which simulates
functions found in digital SLRs cameras. Selfie junkies will definitely love the front facing
8MP camera with a “groufie” function which takes panoramic selfie shots so every subject
will be in the frame perfectly.

Huawei Ascend P7
Price: RM1,499
Contact: Huawei Malaysia Mobile Hotline
Phone: 1 800 22 0086
Info: www.huawei.com/my

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It’s A SuperNova
The new premium Cooler Master Novatouch TKL Keyboard is the gaming peripheral gamers
should be looking out for and putting it on their wishlists. It utilises Hybrid Capacitive
switches that is specifically designed for heavy-duty typing and gaming. The new switches
are uniformly weighted over the entire keyboard while providing tactile actuation
feedback and precision. The Novatouch keyboard will also provide support for
Cherry MX keycaps for users to customise it so that it matches their
own personal flair and preference.

Cooler Master Novatouch TKL Keyboard

Price: TBA
Contact: Ban Leong Technologies Sdn Bhd., Build Technology Supply
Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7956 6300, (03) 7955 3699
Info: www.coolermaster.com

Engage The Nitro Boost

Strontium recently released the NITRO UHS-1 microSD Mobility Kit. This kit allows you to expand
storage of your smartphone or tablet while delivering high quality app performance. These microSD
cards provide up to 85MB per seconds read speeds and are compatible with all Windows and Android
phones. Each of these kits come with a My Backup Pro app which are available in the
Android App Store. This card is comes with 16GB worth of storage capacity and contain
a lifetime limited warranty. Other features of this card includes water-, temperature- and
X-Ray proofing, making them perfect for any environment.

Strontium NITRO UHS-1 microSD Mobility Kit

Price: RM30 (16GB)
Contact: Kaira Technologies (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7955 3669
Info: www.kairaglobal.com.my

A Force Of Coolness
Adding on to their already vast array of Intel 9 Series motherboards, GIGABYTE recently
revealed the GA-Z97x SOC Force LN2, which is an overclocking-centric motherboard. It
supports 4th and 5th Generation Intel Core Processors and has a 4-way Crossfire support
with OC Brace. It also has a SATA Express support for 10 Gb/s data transfer with exclusive
GIGABYTE OC features. What sets this board apart from the other OC boards is the fact
that it doesn’t have any bracket holes for the CPU cooler because this was made for
hardcore overclockers that only rely on Liquid Nitrogen. As with all their other
motherboards, the GA-Z97x SOC Force LN2 continues the use of KILLER E2200
gaming networking. Audio-wise, it has the Realtek ALC1150 115dB SNR HD
Audio with Built-in rear audio amplifier. This motherboard will also have the
GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS for a better overclocking experience.

GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC FORCE LN2

Price: RM1,029
Contact: Nation-Tech Sdn. Bhd., SDS Distribution Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 4280 6636, (03) 7788 8700
Info: www.gigabyte.my

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The Tab Gets The S Class Treatment

Korean electronics giant, Samsung is back with the Samsung GALAXY Tab S which is a
tablet that offers up an award winning design with a body small enough for convenience.
It has an option between two different Super AMOLED screen sizes, 8- and
10.5-inches. To give it smooth and powerful performance, Samsung
partnered their very own Samsung Exynos 5 Octa-core processor with 3GB
worth of RAM. Both variants of the GALAXY Tab S also have an internal
memory of 16/32GB and support for microSD cards up to 128GB. Camera-
wise, it has a 8MP, Flash enabled rear camera and a 2.1MP front camera.
It features the Samsung multi-window capability found on most Samsung
tablets as well as the new SideSync 3.0 which allows you to view your
phone screen on the tablet as well as receive and send voice calls via the
tablet. The Samsung GALAXY Tab S will also be LTE enabled giving users
the best connectivity option.

Samsung GALAXY Tab S

Price: RM1,699 (8-inch), RM1,999 (10.5-inch)
Contact: Samsung Malaysia Electronics
Phone: 1 800 88 9999
Info: www.samsung.com/my
Creativity Captured
Canon brings forth another digital camera in the Powershot series, the N100. This is a compact
digital camera with a 12.1 MP 1/1.7-inch CMOS sensor combined with the DIGIC 6 Image
Processor that provides amazing low-light performance. For its dimunitive size, it also
has a built-in flash, 5x Optical, 4x Digital and 20x Combined Zoom with Optical Image
Stabiliser. Avid photographers will enjoy the latest features included in the N100 such
as the Dual-Capture which uses the rear camera to capture your expression while
shooting to create a unique picture-in picture effect. It will also feature a built-in Wi-Fi
to provide easy transferring between devices as well as a built-in NFC for compatible
Android devices. Finally, it also has a Creative Shot mode which uses composition,
colour and lighting from your pictures to create a unique image.

Canon Powershot N100

Price: RM1,099
Contact: Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 7884 6000
Info: www.canon.com.my
Miix It Up
Lenovo is here to excite consumers again, this time they have launched the Miix 2 which
is a tablet powered by a quad-core Intel Atom processor. It has a beautiful 8-inch
IPS display that produces vibrant colours and supports five
finger multi-touch that will make navigation seamless.
It runs on the latest Windows 8.1 operating system and
has 2GB RAM and internal storage of up to 64GB . It has a
5MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera for those who love
photography with their tablets. Running all these hardware is made
possible with its 7 hour battery life. This device will also integrate the
Veriface Face Recognition Software for added security.

Lenovo Miix 2
Price: RM2,999
Contact: Lenovo Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: 1 800 80 85755
Info: www.lenovo.com/my/en/

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A Legendary Messenger
GAMDIAS has been making some powerful devices for the gaming community and this is
the latest addition to their arsenal of gaming peripherals, the Hermes mechanical gaming
keyboard. This keyboard incorporates Cherry MX switches which has a lifecycle of an
estimated 50 million clicks and has GAMDIAS Element technology which increases clicking
speed by 20 percent while reducing noise. It also has a 32-bits ARM Cortex
premium micro-processor that improves computing experience while
a 512KB on-board memory allows users to assign keys and arrange
their gaming profiles on the keyboard itself. It also comes with 13 additional macro
keys and it has anti-ghosting with full N-key rollover providing a better
gaming experience. Bundled with the Hermes is the unique magnetic
arm rest which doubles as protection against the dust and liquid. It is also
ergonomically designed to suit both right and left handers.

GAMDIAS Hermes
Price: RM419
Contact: Nation-Tech Sdn. Bhd.
Phone: (03) 4280 6636
Info: www.gamdias. com.my
Loving The New Berry
BlackBerry is known for their secure and fast communications technology, and their latest
BlackBerry Z3 cast no doubt on the quality that BlackBerry offers. The new Z3 has a 5-inch
LCD GFF/Cover Glass touch panel with 540 x 960 qHD resolution display. It is powered by
a Dual Core 1.2GHz Qualcomm 8230 processor and runs on 1.5GB RAM and 8GB flash. It
also has a hot swappable microSD slot. The Z3 also sports a 5MP rear facing camera with
Auto Focus, Camera Flash, Image Stabilisation, 5x digital zoom, 1080p HD video recording,
2DOF video stabilisation and a 1.1 MP front facing camera with 720p recording. New features
include an improved BlackBerry Hub, BBM with Natural sound technology, improved
Keyboard, Time Shift & Story Maker and a powerful new browser.

BlackBerry Z3
Price: RM669
Contact: Brightstar Corp Malaysia, BrightPoint Malaysia
Phone: (03) 7960 4877, (03) 9274 6000
Info: www.blackberry.com.my

Desire More
HTC never ceases to amaze with their latest entry of smartphones like the HTC Desire 610.
The device has a 4.7-inch qHD display and is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
400 processor. It runs on the Android platform with HTC Sense and it is LTE enabled. It
has a powerful 8MP rear camera, BSI sensor, f/2.4 and 1080p video recording and a 1.3MP
front camera with FSI sensor and 720p video recording. It can store 8GB internally and
supports microSD cards up to 128GB. It also showcases powerful audio with its built-in HTC
BoomSound dual frontal speakers. With a 3G talk time of 13.5 hours, this phone is bound to
last throughout a busy day.

HTC Desire 610

Price: RM999
Contact: HTC Careline
Phone: 1 800 88 9855
Info: www.htc.com/sea

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ROCCAT Syva
Price RM125
Info PLAY Interactive Sdn. Bhd.
Phone (03) 7731 5934
Contact www.facebook.com/
PLAYInteractiveSdnBhd

Specifications

Connection: 3.5mm jack

Frequency Response: 20~20,000Hz
Impedance: 32:
Max. Input Power: 10mW
Drive Diameter: Ø10mm
Cable Length: 1.2m
Microphone: Omni-directional

RATINGS

Performance
For The JetSet
Features

Design
Gamer
ROCCAT shows us how you make an awesome set of
Value

Tangle-free ribbon cable

gaming in-ear headset By Jeremy Cheong
Minimal distortion

M
Clear microphone ore often than not, when you ask
Price a gamer for a recommendation
when it comes to headphones,
Weak bass
Only Call/Play button they will probably tell you to get one of
those big and flashy headphones. While
those are great in terms of sound quality
and comfort, they may not be the best
solution for those who are constantly
on-the-move and require something a little
more portable. With that in mind, German
gaming extraordinaire has come up with
the Syva, a gaming in-ear headset that is
super portable and yet doesn’t compromise
in terms of quality.
Being in-ear headsets, the design of
the Syva isn’t too flashy but yet ROCCAT
has managed to make it quite outstanding
due to its very rugged and angular design
and standard ROCCAT-colours. Instead of
going with just all-black cables, ROCCAT
also gave the cables the ROCCAT-colour
treatment.
The in-line microphone is able to cancel out Being in-ear headsets, the Syva uses
background noise and clearly delivery audio
rubberised ergonomic earplugs, which are
very comfortable and remain so even after
long hours. But this of course depends on
your own ear. Fret not though as like most
in-ear headsets, ROCCAT have bundled
different sized earbuds with the Syva so
you can easily swap them out for ones that
fit your ear perfectly so they don’t fall out.
One of the great things about being
in-ear headsets is the fact that the Syva
easily blocks out noise and even on loud
volumes, there was no leakage at all.
In terms of audio quality, the Syva is
performed admirably. The highs and mids
are crisps and sharp and while the bass
was rich and smooth, it wasn’t quite deep
enough. Overall, we have to say the Syva
produces nice and balanced sound. The
soundstaging was also pretty good as we
managed to tell where certain instruments
were located in an acoustic track and also
tell which directions gunshots were coming
from.
Finally, we have to say that the in-line
microphone on the Syva are fantastic
as it managed to cancel out background
noise and delivered audio clearly to the
other end, which is great for LAN parties
or just having a conversation. The in-line
control also houses the Call/Play button,
which is great but we hope to see ROCCAT
implement more controls such as Volume
and Previous and Next track controls on to
their next iteration of in-ear headsets.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
In all honesty, we really like the
ROCCAT Syva and while it may
be designed for gamers who are
constantly on the move, we have to
say it is definitely good enough for
any type of user. It is also much more
portable and affordable compared to
larger gaming grade headsets.

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High-Five For
Simplicity
While the Z97 GAMING 5 isn’t the highest end in
MSI’s range of gaming motherboards, it still
comes with all the features and performance a
gamer would want By Nazrin Zain
G
aming motherboards are all the
rage these days. Performance,
coupled with cool bells and
whistles that don’t break the bank too
hard, have users spoilt for choice, which
is the base for any powerful PC. The MSI
Z97 GAMING 5 is one such motherboard,
providing users with both power and
affordability when it comes to building a
gaming rig.
The Z97 GAMING 5 features the
standard four DIMM slots, capable of
supporting up to 32GBs of RAM, six SATA
6.0Gbps ports and three PCIe slots, capable
of supporting both NVIDIA’s SLI and AMD’s
CrossFireX multi-GPU configurations.
At the back, MSI are relatively generous
with the selection of I/O ports here, which
include four USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0
ports, one VGA, DVI and HDMI port each,
in case you’re using Intel’s on-board
graphics for whatever reason. Six audio
ports complete the I/O port set, and these
are part of MSI’s special Audio Boost 2
feature.
The Audio Boost 2 feature is a great
boon for audiophiles as MSI has made
sure to use special components and
technologies in order for them to get
the most out of their speakers and
test lab
review
MSI Z97
GAMING 5
Price RM619
Contact Media Forte (Malaysia) Sdn.
Bhd., JW Power Marketing Sdn.
Bhd., AMT PC Distributors Sdn.
Bhd.
Phone (03) 2287 1177, (03) 2148 1307,
(03) 3344 1124
Info my.msi.com
Specifications
CPU Support: Intel Core Processor
CPU Socket: LGA 1150
Chipset: Intel Z87 Chipset, Intel Z97 Chipset
Memory Type: Dual Channel Memory
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Great performance
Easy to overclock
Some ports are
awkwardly positioned
headphones. Using an isolated audio
PCB allows for cleaner signals that are BENCHMARK RESULTS
not interrupted by other electromagnetic PCMark 8 (Home): 5,440 points
signals, and the use of Direct Audio power PCMark 8 (Creative): 4,618 points
PCMark 8 (Work): 5,161 points
means that the motherboard can drive
headphones with high impedance levels.
The usage of Military Class 4
components means that gamers can also
overclock their processors if they so desire.
During our tests, we managed to overclock
our Intel Core i7-4770K processor from
3.5GHz up to 4.0GHz without any issues
whatsoever.
Another new feature is also the MSI
Gaming App, which allows you to control
overclock settings right from the desktop MSI is pretty generous with the ports on the
for both the processor and the GPU, which Z97 GAMING 5 motherboard
gives you optimal performance when you
game. These include the Silent Mode,
Gaming Mode and OC Modes, and with
just one click, you’re well on your way to
gaming greatness.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The MSI Z97 GAMING 5 motherboard
is a really great option for those
who are looking for an inexpensive
The USB Audio Power ports on the Z97
motherboard, which doesn’t GAMING 5 motherboard ensures that your
compromise much in terms of USB audio devices are protected from power
surges
features and performance.
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Canon
PowerShot
SX700 HS
Price RM1,199
Contact Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn.
Bhd.
Phone 1 300 88 1233
Info www.sony.com.my

Specifications

Focal Length: 4.5-135.0 mm (35mm equivalent:

25-750mm)
Effective Pixels: Approx. 16.1MP
ISO: 100-3200
Flash: Built-In
Powerful Point
And Shoot
LCD Monitor: 3-inch PureColor II G (TFT)
External Storage: SD, SDHC, SDXC
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11, NFC, GPS,
Hi-Speed USB, HDMI Micro Connector
Dimensions: 112.7 x 65.8 x 34.8 mm While it may be a point and shoot, the PowerShot
Weight: 269g (with battery)
SX700 HS has a lot of features packed into its tiny
RATINGS body to satisfy just about any user By Nicolas See Tho

T
Performance he summer is a good season for
traveling abroad, and what better
Features
way to capture that once in a lifetime
Design experience than to capture memorable
pictures. While most of us tend to just rely
Value
on our smartphones these days, having
30x Zoom a dedicated camera still has plenty of
Built-in Wi-Fi
Plenty of shooting options advantages. Especially if it is a camera like
Good image noise control the recently released Canon PowerShot
SX700 HS that is super portable and comes
NFC functions are limited
Can’t be charged via USB with loads of nifty features.
The PowerShot SX700 HS looks very
much like a modern digital camera and
it features a dial interface which is not
normally found on a digital camera such
as this and the 3-inch display shows each
image with pristine detail. On the left side
of the cameras body is the flash button
as well as the face capture button. On the
interface panel next to the display screen
there is a new button which connects
wirelessly to a dedicated smartphone
via Bluetooth or NFC for easy transfer of
captured images.
Moving onwards to the features, the
Powershot SX700 HS has been packed with
With its rotating dial, experienced users can a truckload of interesting features for the
play around with the manual settings of the casual and semi-advanced photographer.
camera
First off, it comes with Wi-Fi capability
which enables you to share photos and
videos immediately to a PC or Smartphone.
This is also coupled with an NFC function
that sadly is a limited to only syncing the
device with your smartphone or tablet
which is rather disappointing when
compared to the other NFC cameras out on
the market today.
When it boils down to the performance
of the PowerShot SX700 HS, it definitely
delivers quality pictures that not many
compact cameras can compare. It has an
amazing 30X zoom which gives a good
shot coverage of your target. During
our tests, we find that it can take quality
pictures with low image noise up to a
healthy ISO range of 800 before the noise
control kicks in. Coupled with 16.1MP,
pictures we took came out vibrant and
crisp.
Besides just photos, this camera also
produces good HD quality videos for those
who enjoy video recording. Battery life
wise, this camera has a long battery life but
it varies on the user’s usage as different
factors such as enabling Wi-Fi may render
the user to have less shots. Another fact
to take note of is it does not have an USB
charger thus you might want to bring extra
pack of batteries just in case.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
Canon has definitely created a handy
compact digital camera which is easy
to carry while packing tons of features
for the user. Travellers and casual
users alike should take a gander at
the PowerShot SX700 HS if they are
looking for a quality compact camera.

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ASUS ROG
Striker GTX 760
Price RM1,239
Contact Build Technology Supply Sdn.
Bhd., Servex (Malaysia) Sdn.
Bhd.
Phone (03) 7955 3699, (03) 8024 6688
Info www.asus.com/my

Specifications

Core Clock: 1,085MHz

Boost Clock: 1,150MHz
Memory Size: 4GB
Ports: 1x Dual-link DVI-I, 1x Dual-link DVI-D,
1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort 1.2

Worthy Of An RATINGS

Performance

Features

MVP Title
ASUS’ ROG Striker GTX 760 is a lean, mean graphic
Cooling

Value
Colour Coded Load
beast that is here to quell fears for those who lack Indicator
Overclocked out-of-the-
the power to play high-end games By Nicolas See Tho box
Performance

A
lthough NVIDIA has yet to
announce a new series of graphics
cards, their partners like ASUS have
been doing their best with the GeForce
GTX 700 series. This month, we take a look
at ASUS’s variation of the GTX 760 in the
form of the ROG Striker GTX 760. This is
the highest-end GTX 760 we have seen
thus far and it does not disappoint.
Fresh out of the box, the ASUS Striker
GTX 760 does not look like a mid-range
graphic card but more like a high-end
graphics card similar to the GTX 780.
Sticking to their standard modus operandi,
ASUS have bolted on an updated DirectCU
II cooler which features thicker direct
contact copper heatpipe for better heat
dissipation to the GTX 760. This dual-
slot cooler also comes with two 90mm
CoolTech silent fans. When plugged in,
it has colour coded load indicators which
help users determine the current load it is
dealing with. As for its display ports, the
Striker has two DVI ports, a HDMI and a
DisplayPort, the standard fare.
graphics card is also the ROG Edition GPU None
Tweak which is a user-friendly overclocking
tool, and it will also search for updates
BENCHMARK RESULTS
automatically for drivers and BIOS. For the
more confident users, the Striker also has 3DMark (Fire Strike): 5,986 points
3DMark (Fire Strike Extreme): 2,951 points
a GPU Tweak Streaming application which
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
allows you to share on-screen action in 4.0 (Extreme): 41.4 FPS
real-time.
Performance-wise, this graphic card
does not hold back in terms of raw power.
It produced good scores all round from
our benchmarks such as 3DMark Fire
Strike Extreme and Unigine Heaven 4.0.
We also tested the Striker on several
high-end games on maximum settings
such as Crysis 3 and Skyrim with good
end results, with both games hovering at a
healthy 60 fps. It has quite some room for
overclocking too as we managed to bring it
up to 1,600MHz, which makes it a 515MHz
jump providing an all-round powerful
gaming experience.
The Striker has all the usual outputs of a
CHIP CONCLUDE : gaming graphics card

The Striker has some new and
improved features in this variation like
the DIGI+VRM with 8 phase Super Alloy
Power and digital voltage regulation which
reduces noise by 30 percent and provides
five time the durability during heavy
overclocking. Bundled together with this
Overall, the ASUS ROG Striker GTX
760 is a value for money mid-range
graphics card that will serve the
above average gamer well. From its
user friendly interface to its wide
overclocking potential, gamers will
most likely put this on their wish list.

chip malaysia july 14 083

 test lab
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Nokia Lumia 630

Price RM549
Contact Nokia (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone 1 300 88 1600
Info www.nokia.com.my

Specifications

Operating System: Windows 8

Processor: 1.2GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm
Snapdragon 400
Frequency: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz,
WCDMA 900/2100 MHz
Screen: 4.5-inch FWVGA (854 x 480) ClearBack
IPS LCD
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, USB 2.0,
Micro-USB, Bluetooth 4.0
Memory: 512MB
Storage: 8GB, expandable Micro SD storage
up to 128GB
Others: Accelerometer, 5MP camera w/ Auto
Focus, Dual-SIM
Dimensions: 129.5 x 66.7 x 9.2 mm
Duality Made
Weight: 134g

RATINGS
Better
The cute Nokia Lumia 630 Dual-SIM shows us that
Performance
productivity and design is not limited by size and
Features
price By Nicolas See Tho
Design

N
okia and their array of Windows
Value Phone devices are slowly making
an impression on the mobile
Good build quality
Affordable market. This is due to the fact that Nokia
Dual-SIM are still looking to cater to everyone user-
demographic possible. The Nokia Lumia
No front camera
Slow Wi-Fi connectivity 630 is one of the devices created to satisfy
those looking for an affordable mid-range
BENCHMARK RESULTS device and there is quite a lot to look
forward to.
AnTuTu: 12,139 points
The Nokia Lumia 630 comes in a
robust and exceptional build, with an
interchangeable shell which comes in
several colours. Its IPS display makes
viewing on the phone more comfortable
and glare is not much of an issue. In
overall design, the phone is simplistic and
easy to get accustomed to.
Keeping up with the times, the Lumia
630t has the ability to store two micro SIM
cards and the second SIM card is actually
hot-swappable. While it has an acceptable
5MP camera on the back, the Lumia 630
doesn’t feature a front camera, which
means no selfies with this device. Its 8GB
Lumia 630’s dual-SIM slots make it easy for
users with multiple lines to accept calls from
internal storage may not be much but the
different networks device does support microSD cards up
to 128GB, which is useful for those who
watch videos and takes lots of pictures
with their mobile devices.
Performance wise, it is a rather
impressive upgrade from the Lumia 620
and it can be seen when we were testing
it using the AnTuTu benchmarking system
and testing the device on various apps.
With most of the games that require 1GB
of RAM now being able to be played on
devices with 512MB RAM, the Lumia 630
has a wide variety of games to play with
such as Asphalt 6 and Temple Run 2.
Navigating through the apps is also fast
and snappy with only slight lag when
over 50 percent of its storage capacity is
reached.
In addition to that, it also has a
marvellous battery life which can easily
last you throughout your busy day with
ease, as during our test it lasted a whole
day with gaming and texting while surfing
the web all done throughout the day.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
Overall, this is a good budget
phone for users who wants extra
productivity packed into a mobile
package or for those who want a
small secondary phone that won’t
cost a bomb. With its bright coloured
designs and easy to use applications,
this will definitely be one of the ways
Nokia will be making its mark on the
mobile market.

084 july 14 chip malaysia


Becoming A Pro
The Z97-PRO is ASUS latest offering in motherboards
that support the latest Intel processors, so let’s see
how well it performs By Nicolas See Tho
T
he ASUS Z97-PRO is a premium
take on ASUS’s line of Z97 chipset
motherboards. Much like its
predecessor, it corners with a slew of
features that befits its slightly steep price
tag. Let’s take a look at the Z97-PRO in full
detail.
The first detail that stands out when we
first took a look at the motherboard was its
light gold colour scheme, while the rest of
the board is given the usual black and grey
treatment. It has eight SATA III ports on
board, a pair of internal USB 2.0 headers,
and a pair of SuperSpeed USB 3.0. It also
holds the usual array of visual outputs
such as HDMI, DVI-D, VGA and DisplayPort
outputs. Additionally, it has four DIMM
slots which can hold up to 32GB of DDR3
RAM.
The ASUS Z97-PRO comes with
some new features and also some that
have been improved such as the 5-way
Optimisation which does a complete
system optimisation all within a single
click. It will also have the ASUS 5X
Protection which consists of the ASUS
DIGI+VRM 12 phase digital power design,
Enhanced DRAM Overcurrent Protection
for short circuit prevention, ESD Guards,
High quality 5K-Hour Solid Capacitors and
the Stainless Steel Back I/O. It also comes
with the m.2 and SATA Express technology
that can boost your system’s speed as both
test lab
review
ASUS Z97-PRO
Price RM899 (Wi-Fi ac)
Contact Build Technology Supply Sdn.
Bhd., Servex (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone (03) 7955 3699, (03) 8024 6688
Info www.asus.com/my/
Specifications
CPU Support: Intel Core Processor
CPU Socket: LGA 1150
Chipset: Intel Z97 Express chipset
Memory Type: Dual Channel Memory
Architecture
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Plenty of features
Good Performance
Supports Thunderbolt
Pricey
boast a transfer rate of 10Gb/s. Gamers
can enjoy the inclusion of Crystal Sound 2 BENCHMARK RESULTS
and the Intel Gigabit Ethernet providing a PCMark 8 (Home): 4,647 points
combination of amazing audio with lag-less PCMark 8 (Creative): 3,856 points
gameplay. PCMark 8 (Work): 5,365 points
Moving on to the performance of the
board, we dabbled with the UEFI BIOS
which proved to be worthwhile. The EZ
mode in the BIOS allows us to tweak a big
chunk of the settings that users will need
access to enabling changes to be made in
the boot order, fan profiles, XMP settings
and EZ System Tuning. Overall, the BIOS
is made to be user-friendly and it does not
intimidate any new users. We tested the
performance of the motherboard using
Futuremark’s PCMark 8 benchmarks and
it scored remarkably well. The Z97-PRO Crystal Sound 2 allows users to enjoy better
has also provided a slight improvement quality audio through the ASUS Z97-PRO
motherboard
in gaming performance during our test
with games like Skyrim and Crysis 3 being
tested at maximum settings.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
In conclusion, The ASUS Z97-PRO
has all the makings of a good
all-rounder motherboard that caters
to consumers of all level. Though it
may be pricey, the features that come
bundled with it may justify the cost
The ASUS Z97-PRO supports all the standard
for some. On a side note, the retail outputs and inputs
edition of the ASUS Z97-PRO will be
sold with the Wi-Fi ac.
chip malaysia july 14 085
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Canon PIXMA
iP8770
Price RM998
Contact Canon Marketing Malaysia Sdn.
Bhd.
Phone (03) 7884 6000
Info www.canon.com.my

Specifications

Print Resolution: 9600 x 2400 dpi

Print Method: Inkjet
Print Speed: 10.4 ppm
Feeder capacity: 150

RATINGS

Performance

Features
Behold The
Design

Value
Master Printer
Canon’s PIXMA iP8770 is an inkjet printer looks
Fast print speeds
Multiple connectivity impressive on paper but does it really have what it
options
takes to do so? By Nicolas See Tho
Grainy colour prints

This printer supports all the essential colours
for a colour printer
With the Disc print slot users can print labels
directly onto any DVD or Blu-Ray disc with
printable surfaces
C
anon is a company that is well
known for their devices on digital
photography and also their high
quality printers. This month, we got a
chance to review the recently released
PIXMA iP8770 that has very impressive
specs and features but can it really satisfy
the modern user’s needs?
Taking a first look at the iP8770, it has
a futuristic black design that reminds us
of the machines in recent science fiction
movies. It has a cartridge port located
on the front section of the printer while
most of the usual ports such as the power
supply, and USB are located on the rear.
Located on the front of the printer is a
Wi-Fi button which turns on the wireless
connectivity manually for wireless printing.
Much like their latest range of printers,
Canon have implemented some unique
features into this printer for added utility
such as the Automated Power On system,
which allows the printer to turn on
automatically whenever the printer detects
a print command making, which equals
to faster print outs. Connectivity is not
a problem with this printer thanks to its
support for wireless connection and PIXMA
Printing Solutions app which enables
smartphones and tablets to print stored
documents and images directly from the
device. Cameras that come with Wi-Fi
support will also be able to make use of the
wireless connectivity with the PictBridge
function, whereby users can print photos
directly from their Wi-Fi enabled camera
without need for wires. Besides that, users
will also be able to print labels directly
on to DVDs/Blu-ray discs with printable
surfaces.
When it comes down to printing
performance, the PIXMA iP8770 does not
compromise with quality. It churns out
plain paper prints at 10 pages a minute
which makes it suitable for small-medium
office uses. However, the colour prints on
this printer tends to be a little grainy which
may be a setback for those with photo
printing in mind. The text print quality
however shows no cause for concern as
it provides perfectly readable text with
minimal ink bleeding. Additionally, its
wireless connectivity is fast and easy to use
with little delay in sending print commands
to the device.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
Overall, the Canon PIXMA iP8770
printer is a really good printer that
can handle home or office related
tasks with ease and it will be a boon
for individuals or businesses that are
looking for a printer that can perform
without taking up too much space.

086 july 14 chip malaysia


Size Has Become
Irrelevant
The Z97I GAMING AC is a microATX board that’s
small in size, but big in performance By Nazrin Zain
T
hanks to advancements in both
processor and motherboard
technologies, the micro-ATX and
mini-ITX form factors have received
tremendous response from enthusiasts
who are looking to build HTPCs or compact
gaming PCs for places with limited space.
MSI is one such proponent of this concept,
and with the MSI Z97I GAMING AC, they
set out to prove that you can also game
well on small PCs.
Being a mini-ITX motherboard, a
number of things have to be reduced on
the Z97I GAMING AC. This includes the
number of DDR3 DIMMs, of which there
are only two, being able to support up to
16GB, with speeds of up to 3,300MHz when
overclocked, four SATA III 6.0Gbps ports
and one PCIe 3.0 slot.
Having said that, MSI managed to
stack in a generous number of I/O ports
at the back, including four USB 3.0 ports,
four USB 2.0 ports, two HDMI ports,
one DisplayPort and six audio ports that
support surround sound speaker systems.
Despite being a small-sized
motherboard, the Z97I GAMING AC has
a lot of features built into it, such as the
Audio Boost 2 system which not only
comes with EMI shielding, but has enough
power flowing through it that allows the
audio ports to drive headphones and
speakers with high impedance levels.
Not only that, there’s also the Killer
test lab
review
MSI Z97I
GAMING AC
Price TBA
Contact Media Forte (Malaysia) Sdn.
Bhd., JW Power Marketing Sdn.
Bhd., AMT PC Distributors Sdn.
Bhd.
Phone (03) 2287 1177, (03) 2148 1307,
(03) 3344 1124
Info my.msi.com
Specifications
CPU Support: Intel Core Processor
CPU Socket: LGA 1150
Chipset: Intel Z87 Chipset, Intel Z97 Chipset
Memory Type: Dual Channel Memory
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Cooling
A very compact, but very
feature-packed
motherboard
E2200HD LAN port that is synonymous Overclocks well
with MSI’s GAMING motherboards, and
Awkwardly-positioned
also uses the same Hi-C capacitors, super ports on the board
ferrite chokes and Dark capacitors that
ensure the motherboard’s components last
BENCHMARK RESULTS
as long as possible, even when running
PCMark 8 (Home): 5,440 points
overclocked processors and RAM.
PCMark 8 (Creative): 4618 points
The Z97I GAMING AC performs PCMark 8 (Work): 5,161 points
exceptionally well for its small size, and
if you didn’t know any better, you’d think
it was a full-sized giant monolith that’s
running things in the background. We
even managed to overclock our Intel
Core i7 processor a fair bit, and it ran
very smoothly. That said however, the
motherboard does have several issues that
users will need to be somewhat aware of.
Due to the motherboard’s small
footprint, some sockets, such as the CPU
fan and the ATX power sockets are oddly
placed. We also recommend using a small
to medium-sized CPU fan so as to not
obstruct the PCIe port, unless you’re using
it to run a HTPC that does not require a
graphics card. For a microATX board, the Z97I GAMING AC
motherboard is chocked full of I/O ports at
the back
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The MSI Z97I GAMING AC is an
excellent motherboard that runs as
well as its ATX-sized counterparts. It’s
an excellent motherboard to consider
if you want to build a small HTPC, or a
small gaming rig for tight spaces.
chip malaysia july 14 087
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Samsung
GALAXY
K zoom
Price RM1,699
Contact Samsung Malaysia Electronics
Phone 1 800 88 9999
Info www.samsung.com/my/

Specifications

Operating System: Android 4.4.2 KitKat

Processor: Hexa-core (1.7GHz dual-core +
1.3GHz quad-core)

Zooming In
Frequency: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz,
HSPA 850/900/1900/2100MHz, LTE 800/850/900
/1800/1900/2100/2600MHz
Screen: 4.8-inch HD (1,280 x 720) Super
AMOLED
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 & Wondering if you should get a smartphone or
5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, USB 2.0
Memory: 2GB camera? Why not get both in one device with the
Storage: 8GB, microSD (up to 64GB)
Others: 20.7-megapixel rear camera,
GALAXY K zoom By Jeremy Cheong
2-megapixel front camera

L
ast year, after launching the hot-
Dimensions: 137.5 x 70.8 x 20.2mm
Weight: 200g selling GALAXY S4, Samsung went
on to create spin-offs of their flagship
device, one of which was the GALAXY S4
RATINGS
Zoom that was designed to cater to the
Performance crowd who loves taking photos with their
smartphones. Although the GALAXY S4
Features
Zoom got mixed reactions from critics
Design and consumers alike, Samsung hasn’t
Value
given up on their plan to create the best
cameraphone and this year, they give us
10x optical zoom the GALAXY K zoom.
Sturdy design
Snappy performance In the design department, just with a
look, you will know that this is a Samsung
Battery life device as it sports the same design
Limited manual
control language as most of Samsung’s latest
offerings. It has that same dotted rear
cover and buttons are even located on
the same place. The only real addition is
the dedicated shutter button, which is of
course a must for a cameraphone. We
found the shutter button easy to locate and
very responsive.
While the GALAXY S4 Zoom featured
a design more akin to a camera as it had
a more pronounce grip, the GALAXY K
zoom is closer to a smartphone, just a little
thicker. We would have preferred to have
the grip make a comeback as we found
the device just a little slippery at times
With a camera that has a 20.7-megapixel especially during one-handed operation.
1/2.3 BSI CMOS Sensor and 10x optical zoom But with that said, without the grip, we also
lens, users will be able to get shots that most
smartphones won’t be able to found it easier to slip into our jeans pockets
and had no discomfort while walking
around or sitting down.
When it comes to performance, the
GALAXY K zoom’s Hexa-core processor
combined with the 2GB of RAM and
Android 4.4.2 doesn’t disappoint at all. The
device was fast and loaded up apps very
quickly. We could even play games such
as Dead Trigger 2 on it with minimal lag.
Another great thing about the performance
is that we were able to edit our photos
using apps like SnapSeed and Photoshop
Touch without any hassle.
As for camera performance, the
20.7-megapixel sensor and 10x optical
zoom lens really doesn’t disappoint as we
found images to be sharp, had good details
and colour accuracy. One thing to note
though is that when shooting wide-angle
photos, sharpness is loss towards the edge
of the frame.
Depending on the usage, the 2,430mAh
battery can last you a full day but that’s if
you use it just for the more menial task. If
you do plan on taking a lot of photos and
videos and uploading them to Facebook
or Instagram, then you may want to have
a spare battery or power bank at arm’s
reach.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
All in all, the Samsung GALAXY
K zoom is a decent hybrid of
a smartphone and camera but
ultimately it will only appeal to a
very niche market as for its asking
price, most users will either opt
for a dedicated camera or sleeker
smartphone.

088 july 14 chip malaysia


A Light Show On
A Keyboard
Cooler Master’s newest keyboard is a flashy one but it
isn’t just all flash and no substance By Nazrin Zain
W
e’ve reviewed the excellently-
made CM Storm QuickFire Rapid
mechanical gaming keyboard
some time ago, and we loved its compact
styling, which makes it an excellent
keyboard to use regardless if you’re a picky
typist or an avid gamer. The CM Storm
QuickFire Rapid-I offers more of the same,
but with a few more extras thrown in.
The QuickFire Rapid-i comes with
a choice of three different Cherry MX
switches. For this review, Cooler Master
sent us the Cherry MX Brown unit, which is
great for its low actuation point and great
for typing as it isn’t as noisy as Cherry MX
Blue switches.
Despite being a compact keyboard
without a numpad, the QuickFire Rapid-i is
still decked with quite a number of shortcut
keys on it. These include backlighting
keys, multimedia keys, LED preset keys
as well as the keyboard’s response rate
settings which allows users to input more
commands faster.
Much like its predecessor, the QuickFire
Rapid-i is a nice keyboard to use,
regardless if you’re a typist or a gamer.
Not only does the N-Key Rollover feature
work extremely well, it also comes with
a Winlock key, which locks the Windows
key from being accidentally pressed when
you’re having an intense gaming session.
Having said that, the main pull of
the QuickFire Rapid-i keyboard is its
backlighting feature. Not only does it have
five different backlighting capabilities,
test lab
review
CM Storm
QuickFire Rapid-i
Price RM399
Contact Ban Leong Technologies Sdn.
Bhd., Build Technology Supply
Sdn. Bhd.
Phone (03) 7956 6300, (03) 7955 3699
Info www.cmstorm.com
Specifications
Switches: Cherry MX Blue/Brown/Red
NKRO: USB 2.0/PS2
Interface: USB 2.0
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Compact
you can also set the intensity levels to ActivLight brings new
suit your environment. These include full cool backlighting features
illumination, pulsing backlight, WASD No gaming macros
backlighting, as well as two reactive Price
backlighting features called ActivLite.
ActivLite is CM Storm’s keyboard
lighting system which serves two
purposes. One is that it allows two kinds
of reactive backlighting features, and the
other is to allow users to pick and choose
which keys they want to have backlit
and save onto four different backlighting
profiles, thanks to a 32-bit ARM processor
and on-board memory.
This can be achieved by pressing the
Function (FN) and Pause/Record buttons,
and then selecting which profile you want
to save to. You can then press the keys
you wish to have lit up, and then press The QuickFire Rapid-i keyboard comes with
the selected profile key again when you’re four different lighting modes, with five
different intensity levels.
done.
Another convenient feature the
QuickFire Rapid-i has is that its cable
can be detached for easy storage, which
is great if you’re always attending LAN
parties and such where portability is
important.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The CM Storm QuickFire Rapid-i is
an excellent keyboard to have when
You can also light up individual keys, and save
space is a luxury. The ActivLight them as four different lighting profiles if you
feature is something that is very new, want
but we expect it to be implemented
in future CM Storm keyboards in the
near future.
chip malaysia july 14 089
 test lab
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Lenovo
ThinkPad
S1 Yoga
Price Starts at RM4,600
Contact Lenovo Technology Sdn. Bhd.
Phone 1 800 80 8575
Info www.lenovo.com.my

Specifications

CPU: Intel Core i7-4500U @ 1.8GHz

OS: Windows 8.1
Memory: 8GB DDR3 RAM
Display: 12.5 inch @ 1,920x1,080
Graphics: Intel HD4400
Connectivity: USB 3.0 x2, HDMI x1, SD card
reader x1, WiFi

RATINGS
A Flexible
Performance

Features

Design
Workhorse
Lenovo’s ThinkPad S1 Yoga doesn’t compromise on
Value performance and is great for the on-the-go
Great performance professional By Nazrin Zain
Flexible hinge is very hardy,
even after extensive use

T
hanks to Intel’s 4th generation of
Core series processors, notebook
Lack of I/O ports
Price makers have launched a dizzying
array of convertible and detachable
notebooks, combining the aesthetics and
BENCHMARK RESULTS portability of a tablet, and the performance
PCMark 8 (Home): 2,730 points and usability of a notebook device. Lenovo
PCMark 8 (Creative): 2,092 points has one such device in its arsenal with the
PCMark 8 (Work): 2,955 points Lenovo ThinkPad S1 Yoga, a convertible
that shows no compromise in both design
and performance.
In traditional ThinkPad fashion, the S1
Yoga is clad in an all-black magnesium
alloy chassis, with the familiar ThinkPad
logo on the bottom right-hand corner of
the keyboard. The notebook itself feels very
rugged and professional, certainly a look
that would attract many travelling business
people.
Powered by a 4th generation Intel
Core i7-4500U quad-core processor, the
S1 Yoga also sports a 12.5-inch Full HD
display, alongside 8GB of DDR3 RAM, with
Windows 8.1 running on a 16GB mSATA
The ThinkPad S1 Yoga’s hinges are very
durable, and can take a lot of abuse from
SSD and 1TB of storage space to store a lot
rotating the display many times of data with.
As far as I/O ports are concerned, the S1
Yoga has two USB 3.0 ports, one on each
side of the notebook, a 4-in-1 card reader,
one HDMI port and ab audio/microphone
combo port. Unfortunately the S1 Yoga
does not come with a LAN port, most likely
to retain the thinness of the notebook, but
it would have been a nice addition to have.
As the name suggests, the S1 Yoga
is capable of flexing itself into several
different modes, including the traditional
notebook mode, the Tent mode and tablet
mode.
You also need not worry about the
hinge giving way, as we did some rigorous
testing on flexing the display, and they
remained firm, yet supple throughout. In
tablet mode, the keyboard is turned off,
and is sunken in a bit so that none of the
keys are pressed when laid down on a flat
surface.
Performance-wise, the S1 Yoga is great
as both a work machine and a multimedia
device, as it is able to not only playback
1080p videos, but also do a spot of gaming
thanks to Intel’s HD4400 onboard graphics
processor.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The Lenovo S1 Yoga is a great multi-
purpose notebook that functions
great for both work and leisure. Its
flexible hinge allows users to use the
S1 Yoga in a number of ways other
than the traditional notebook and
tablet form factors.

090 july 14 chip malaysia

 test lab
review

Samsung SD360
Price RM699
Contact Samsung Malaysia Electronics
Sdn. Bhd.
Phone 1 800 88 9999
Info www.samsung.com.my

Specifications

Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080

Screen: 21.5-inches
Response Time: 5ms
Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
Stand: Circle
Connectivity: 1x HDMI, 1x VGA

RATINGS

Performance

Features

Design

Colours Of The Value

Beautiful Design
Gorgeous Display

Wind
Samsung brings forth another beautiful LED monitor
Wide Angle View
provides ample viewing
space
Easy to use menu

The monitor can only tilt

in the form of the SD360, let’s see how well it forward and backward

performs By Nicolas See Tho

S
amsung is a known for making
stylish and powerful lifestyle
devices, and the Samsung
SD360 is an example of design meeting
performance.
This Full HD monitor is exquisitely
beautiful, with its Touch of Colour
crystalline design and glossy white scheme
with a small hint of blue. The beauty is
amplified in sunlight as the opaque blue
takes in the light to showcase minimalism
with unique design. The SD360 has a
single HDMI and a standard VGA outlet
and it has an easy to access menu on
the bottom right of the screen. The stand
provides good elevation but it only allows
the monitor to tilt forward and backward,
which is rather disappointing for those who
desire a greater range of movement.
Similar to Samsung’s other products,
the SD360 comes with some unique
features that befit its beautiful design, and
one of it is the Wide Angle display of up
to 178 degree. This allows you and your
friends to enjoy videos and games without
leaving out anyone due to bad viewing
angles. It also incorporates the Magic
Upscale technology which scales image
quality at a level where it is improved no
matter what the original source is. To test
this feature, we used a laptop connected
to the SD360 while playing a movie, and
it resulted with clear pristine images. The
Game mode feature is also present in the
SD360, and it adjusts monitor settings
according to the scene in the game to
provide a better gaming experience.
Performance wise, this monitor does
not disappoint. We tested the monitor on The Samsung SD360 Full HD does not take up
much space with its slim and sleek design
several Blu-Ray movies such as Gravity and
Star Trek: Into Darkness, and the picture
quality was simply superb. Gaming on the
SD360 was also a pleasure with the Game
Mode providing the touch of brilliance and
the monitors fast response time giving no
lag issues to gameplay. The SD360 is also
compatible with the new Windows 8.1 and
it looks great with this monitor.
CHIP CONCLUDE : The power ports, HDMI –in and RGB ports are
Overall, the Samsung SD360 is located behind the monitor of the Samsung
SD360
powerful for its price, and it definitely
lives up to its beautiful design with
brilliant display.

chip malaysia july 14 091

 test lab
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Microsoft All-
in-One Media
Keyboard
Price RM139
Contact Microsoft Malaysia
Phone (03) 2179 6838
Info www.microsoft.com/my

Specifications

Switch: Silent Membrane

Interface: Wireless
Others: Trackpad, customisable media keys

RATINGS

Performance
All For One, One
For All
Features

Design

Value
The latest keyboard from Microsoft, the All-in-One
Lightweight
Spill-resistant Media Keyboard proves to be a mixed bag of
Wide range of
accessibility
interesting features but with varied results
By Nicolas See Tho
Keys are placed too close

to each other
Trackpad provides the
bare minimal sensitivity
No Bluetooth
The All-in-One Media Keyboard has a nice
wide trackpad with an area space similar to
13-inch notebooks and it also allows you to
swipe gestures for an easier web navigation
experience
The USB Dongle is multi-purpose because
it connects to TVs, PCs and select consoles
giving access to these devices through one
keyboard
M
icrosoft, the technology giant
that brought us the Windows
PC and its many devices,
recently released the new Microsoft
All-in-One Media Keyboard in Malaysia.
This keyboard is designed for the living
room, and it can connect to multiple media
devices providing you with less device
clutter and improved space management.
It’s slim, sleek and light. This keyboard
design has everything well thought out for
a living room media device. It has media
shortcut buttons on the F1-F12 keys for
easy access, a trackpad so that you will
no longer have need for a mouse, and it is
connected via a wireless USB transmitter
which makes moving around with this
keyboard a portable affair. One quirk we
found annoying was the key placement.
Because the keyboard has to fit so many
different keys, shortcuts and trackpad, the
space between the keys tend to be too
narrow resulting in an increase in typos
during typing. This is more troublesome to
users with bigger hands.
The All-in-One Media keyboard has
some interesting features such as the
trackpad gestures that allow you to
navigate web pages with ease with the
two finger gestures that can be used to
scroll in four directions of a webpage. It
also has media shortcuts buttons which
can be modified to suit the need of the
individual. The wireless dongle provides
access to select TVs and consoles such as
the Xbox One however; the trackpad will
not be usable for consoles. We wished
that the keyboard would have Bluetooth
connectivity in addition to the wireless
because a Bluetooth connection will
increase the amount of devices that this
keyboard can connect to.
Performance wise, typing with this
keyboard is fun and easy. We used the
keyboard for a variety of tasks which
involve writing articles, playing MOBA
games and also tinker with the media
shortcuts. The end result is that the
keyboard, performed marvellously with
fast response to each keystroke. The only
exception is the track pad, which may feel
delayed to users who are picky about their
mouse sensitivity, however, the swipe
gestures works as described on the box so
it is really just a small niggle.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
After all is said and done, the
Microsoft All-in-One Media Keyboard
proves to be an astoundingly easy to
use keyboard with plenty of features
for the living room. For its price, it is
one of the best functions for value
keyboards in the market now.

092 july 14 chip malaysia

 test lab
review

ASUS ROG
Maximus
VII Ranger
Price RM699
Contact Build Technology Supply Sdn.
Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn. Bhd.
Phone (03) 7955 3699, (03) 6286 8222
Info www.asus.com/my

Specifications

CPU Support: Intel Core Processor

CPU Socket: LGA 1150
Chipset: Intel Z87 Chipset, Intel Z97 Chipset
Memory Type: Dual Channel Memory

Go! Go! ROG RATINGS

Performance

Features

Ranger! Design

Value
Great performance
ASUS’ latest ROG model provides budding Introduces cool new
enthusiasts with an affordable gaming motherboard features

By Nazrin Zain Lack of USB and SATA

ports

A
SUS’ line of ROG motherboards
are often the object of envy
for many enthusiast gamers,
mostly due to the quality, multitude of
a utility software, it allows you to map Ports are placed
extra functions, macros and shortcuts to awkwardly
your keyboard. These not only include
multimedia functions and shortcuts, but BENCHMARK RESULTS

features and components that these
motherboards offer. One factor many have
to take into consideration however is the
pricing, as more often than not the ROG
motherboards are quite expensive. ASUS
aims to fix that by introducing the ASUS
Maximus VII Ranger.
The ROG look and feel is certainly there
with the Maximus VII Ranger as it is clad
in the classic ROG matte black PCB. It
features a standard fare of internal ports,
including four DDR3 DIMM slots, capable
of supporting up to 32GB of memory, six
SATA III 6.0Gbps ports, as well as an M.2
SATA port and two PCIe 3.0 slots, capable
of supporting multi-GPU configurations.
At the back, the Maximus VII Ranger is
furnished with six USB ports, four of which
are USB 3.0, with the other two being USB
2.0, one VGA, DVI and HDMI port for video
output, and six audio ports for surround
sound system support. The motherboard
also has an Intel Gigabit Ethernet LAN port
for internet connectivity.
One of which in particular is the
KeyBot. The KeyBot serves an ingenious
function to basic keyboards. Alongside
also access motherboard features such as PCMark 8 (Home): 3,927 points
Intel XMP and the UEFI BIOS. PCMark 8 (Creative): 3,476 points
PCMark 8 (Work): 3,547 points
As far as overclocking is concerned, we
managed to get a stable clock speed of
4.1GHz for our Intel Core i7-4770K from the
Extreme Tweaker menu. Those who are
less adventurous can instead opt to use the
EZ Tuning Wizard.
If we had any nitpicks about the Ranger,
it would be that some of the sockets, such
as the CPU fan and 4+4 pin ATX power
ports are somewhat oddly placed. Be sure
to properly install the CPU fan and plug
in the ATX power cables before installing
other components to save time on
installation.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
What the ASUS ROG Maximus VII Lack of I/O ports at the back could be a deal-
Ranger lacks in terms of components, breaker to some.
it makes up for it in terms of features
and performance. The Maximus VII
Ranger may not be ideal for digital
data hoarders and those who insist
on having more USB ports than they
know what to do with, but initiates to
the circle may like what it has to offer.

chip malaysia july 14 093

 test lab
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Xiaomi Redmi 1S
Price RM419
Contact Xiaomi
Phone 1 800 28 1182
Info www.mi.com/my/

Specifications

Operating System: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean

Processor: 1.6GHz Quad-core Qualcomm
Snapdragon 400
Frequency: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz,
HSPA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
Screen: 4.7-inch 720p IPS LCD

Paint The Town

Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5GHz, Wi-Fi Direct,
Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, microUSB 2.0
Memory: 1GB
Storage: 8GB (expandable to 32GBs via
microSD)
Others: 8-megapixel rear camera,
1.3-megapixel front camera
Dimensions: 137 x 69 x 9.9 mm
Weight: 158g
Red
Xiaomi continues to spoil the market with the Redmi
RATINGS 1S By Nazrin Zain

M
Performance alaysians still aren’t quite over
the craze that is Xiaomi’s flagship
Features
smartphone, the Mi 3 just yet,
Design with the phones selling out in under a
minute every time it goes on sale every
Value
week. Xiaomi’s about to ramp up the
Good performance product line up with a couple more phones,
Supports dual-SIM
and this time around, we get to play with
Tends to overheat one of them, the Redmi 1S.
Below average battery life The Redmi 1S is an upgraded version of
the original Redmi that was first launched
BENCHMARK RESULTS in China and Singapore. The original Redmi
3DMark Ice Storm: 5,646 points was running a 1.4GHz Mediatek quad-core
3DMark Ice Storm (Extreme): 2,845 points processor and had 4GB of built-in storage.
3DMark Ice Storm (Unlimited): 4,645 points The Redmi 1S meanwhile features a
ANTUTU: 18,284 points
1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 and a
doubled 8GB of built-in storage that can be
expended up to 32GB via a microSD card.
The Redmi 1S runs Android 4.3 out of
the box, and not only that, it’s also a dual-
SIM phone, which makes it very useful for
those who use two phone number. An 8MP
rear-facing camera adorns the rear of the
Redmi 1S and it takes some pretty decent
casual photos. The Redmi 1S we reviewed
came in white, however, when the device
goes on sale, it will be available in black
first and the white variant will be arriving a
little alter.
The Xiaomi Redmi 1S supports dual-SIM, very
As far as build quality is concerned, the
useful for those who use two numbers Redmi 1S feels very solid despite featuring
a removable plastic back cover. This is
great because many smartphones often
feel very flimsy when using plastic as a
chassis.
Performance-wise, the Redmi 1S
punches well above its weight for a
phone that is sold at its price. There is no
noticeable lag when playing videos, and
the 4.7-inch 720p IPS display actually does
a great job at outputting great visuals.
Even when playing games such as Cut The
Rope, Fruit Ninja and Plants vs Zombies,
the phone hardly tanks from all the
computing and graphical processing power
needed to run the games, but it does have
a tendency to heat up quite fast even when
doing menial tasks such as browsing social
media platforms.
One of the few internal specs that
didn’t change is the Redmi 1S’ 2,000 mAh
Li-ion battery. On a full charge, the battery
will last you from morning till evening
with moderate usage of social media
and a bit of gaming. If you’re constantly
on the phone, the battery drain can be
quite significant, and you’ll end up with a
drained battery come late afternoon and/or
early evening.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
Xiaomi continues to impress and
amaze with affordable phones that
perform well above their price tag.
Despite some flaws in terms of
battery life and heating issues, the
Redmi 1S is a compelling choice for
those looking for an inexpensive
phone either as a starting smartphone
or a backup dual-SIM device.

094 july 14 chip malaysia


Kalashnikov
Brings Terror To
Games
Does the Kalashnikov AK-770i from Armaggeddon
bring the same firepower and reliability to gamers?
By Nicolas See Tho
A
rmaggeddon is no stranger to the
gaming peripheral market and
with the Kalashnikov AK-770i,
Armageddon intends to harness the raw
power and image of the famous assault
rifle and transfer it to digital warfare.
Straight out of the box, the AK-770i
looks good in its black exterior body. The
buttons feel good when typing and the
space between each button is adequately
placed causing no major problems when it
comes to ergonomics. After getting a feel
of the keyboard, the build may feel plastic
but it looks good from afar. It has back-lit
keys which can change to four different
colours depending on the user preference.
It connects to the PC via a USB cable and
installation is easy and painless with just a
simple Plug and Play that is the norm with
most keyboards on the market.
This keyboard has some interesting
features that gamers may find intriguing
such as the six shortcuts located on the
side of the keyboard which can enable
Window lock, Keyboard Lock, Increase/
Decrease key sensitivity, Change the WASD
configuration to directional buttons, change
the colour scheme of the backlit keyboard
and change the brightness of the LED
lights. The keyboard uses silent membrane
test lab
review
Armaggeddon
Kalashnikov
AK-770i
Price RM79
Contact Leapfroglobal Distribution Sdn.
Bhd.
Phone (03) 7803 8703
Info www.armaggeddon.net
Specifications
Switches: Membrane silent switch
Interface: Full Speed USB
Switch Life: 50 Million clicks
Others: N-Key Rollover with 13 macro keys
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Sensitive and accurate
response
Smooth typing
experience
Handy shortcuts
Plasticky Build
switches which can last up to 50 million
lifecycles and it has anti-ghosting and
N-key rollover with 13 macro keys for
better gameplay experience
During our tests, the AK-770i performed
marvellously throughout work and game
related tasks. We tested the keyboard on
different types of games such as Mortal
Kombat, Skyrim and Company of Heroes
2 for various styles of gameplay. The
anti-ghosting feature comes in handy for
games which require simultaneous clicking
and with the on-the-go sensitivity switch, The Kalashnikov AK-770i comes with three
we can change the sensitivity to match our backlit colours to pick from, which are Blue,
style of play very easily. Even during FPS Purple and Red
games such as Red Orchestra 2, we found
that gameplay was smooth and actions
were carried out effectively and accurately.
Typing was also a great experience on the
AK-770i, as the silent membrane switches
allows us to glide through words easily
and isn’t as disruptive as mechanical
keyboards.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
With six shortcuts built-in to the side, gamers
In conclusion, the Armageddon can easily turn off the non-essential features
Kalashnikov AK-770i is a good and improve gameplay performance
keyboard for its price range that can
meet the demands of any gamers
with any style of play and level.
chip malaysia july 14 095
 test lab
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GIGABYTE
H97-Gaming 3
Price RM399
Contact Nation-Tech Sdn. Bhd., SDS
Distribution Sdn. Bhd.
Phone (03) 4280 6636, (03) 7788 8700
Info www.gigabyte.my

Specifications

CPU Support: Intel Core Processor

CPU Socket: LGA 1150
Chipset: Intel Z87 Chipset, Intel Z97 Chipset
Memory Type: Dual Channel Memory

RATINGS

Performance

Features

Design

Value
All About Gaming
GIGABYTE’s H97-Gaming 3 is as simple as they come
Good performance out of
the box
but that’s not a bad thing By Nazrin Zain
Great audio features

M
ore often than not, gamers are
Easy overclocking
options, if needed always happy to buy a gaming
motherboard that comes with
Only supports AMD
an array of bells and whistles, but what
CrossFireX multi-GPU
configuration if all you want is a gaming motherboard
SATA ports disabled that does one thing, and one thing well?
when M.2 slot is in use
Lack of rear USB ports
GIGABYTE may have just the thing for
you with its GIGABYTE H97-Gaming 3
motherboard.
BENCHMARK RESULTS
The H97-Gaming 3 comes equipped
PCMark 8 (Home): 4,020 points with the standard four DDR3 DIMM
PCMark 8 (Creative): 3,563 points slots, capable of supporting memory
PCMark 8 (Work): 4,329 points
configurations of up to 32GB of 1,333
and 1,600MHz memory modules. As
far as SATA slots are concerned, the
motherboard has six SATA 3 6.0Gbps
connectors, one SATA Express 10.0Gbps
connector and one M.2 SATA PCIe
connector.
The H97-Gaming 3 has two PCIe 3.0
x16 slots, which allows it to run a dual-
GPU build, however this is only limited
to the use of AMD’s CrossFireX dual-GPU
configuration. As far as I/O ports at the
back are concerned, the motherboard has
six USB ports, four of which are USB 3.0,
with the other two being USB 2.0, four
video out ports which consists of one VGA,
The H97-Gaming 3 has an M.2 SATA port, but one DVI-D, one HDMI and one DisplayPort.
using it will disable the SATA3 4/5 ports
For LAN connections, GIGABYTE has
decided to go with the Killer E2200 gaming
network port.
The main focus of this motherboard
comes in the form its audio technology.
The H97-Gaming 3 has been fitted with
GIGABYTE’s AMP-UP audio technology,
which includes the usage of the Realtek
ALC1150 audio codec that is capable
of supporting 7.1 audio playback, and
independent stereo output via the front
panel.
Not only that, thanks to the built-in
audio amplifier, it is also capable of driving
headphones that have a high level of
impedence, up to 600 ohm in fact, which
require a lot of power to properly use.
As far as performance is concerned,
the H97-Gaming 3 did very well when
we tested it with benchmarks, HD video
decoding and even some gaming. Despite
being a slightly downgraded version, the
motherboard can still be used to build a
powerful rig.
If you’re looking to do some
overclocking GIGABYTE has also bundled
the motherboard together with a software
called EasyTune, which features a
simple-to-use interface that allows you
to tweak system and memory clocks in a
Windows desktop environment. There is
also the Smart Quick Boost feature that
automatically overclocks your system with
the click of a mouse button.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
If you’re looking for a no-frills gaming
motherboard, the GIGABYTE H97-
Gaming 3 is one to consider.

096 july 14 chip malaysia


Your First
Phablet
The refreshed Fonepad 7 from ASUS is here and it
will most likely entice those who are ready to
experience Android By Jeremy Cheong
A
SUS’ Fonepad line of device must
be doing pretty well in the market
as the Taiwanese tech powerhouse
is constantly releasing newer variants of
the Fonepad. This month, we had a chance
to review the latest and most affordable
Fonepad 7 to date.
The FE170CG sports a design that is
very similar to the other 7-inch Fonepads
that came before it save for a few
differences. The main departure here is
the textured rear which is nice to touch
and also provides a little more grip to
the device. Other than that, the buttons
and ports still in the same place as its
predecessors. Despite being a 7-inch
device, we found the FE170CG very easy to
hold in one hand in portrait more, which is
great if you mostly use it for reading. With
that said, you will still have to operate it
with your free hand though.
While its exterior may not have gotten
a major overhaul, its software certainly
did as the FE170CG is one of the very first
devices to utilise ASUS’ ZenUI, which
is a heavily customised user-interface
which is very user-friendly and intuitive.
Features like “Do It Later” and “What’s
Next” will definitely be a boon to users
who are constantly moving from one task
to another.
test lab
review
ASUS Fonepad
7 (FE170CG)
Price RM499 (4GB), RM599 (8GB)
Contact Dynamics Distribution Sdn. Bhd.,
ECS Astar Sdn. Bhd.
Phone (03) 8024 2100, (03) 6286 8222
Info www.asus.com/my
Specifications
OS: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
CPU: 2x2 1.2GHz Multi-core Intel Atom Z2520
RAM: 1GB
Storage: 4/8GB, microSD (up to 64GB), 5GB
ASUS Webstorage
Display: 7-inch LED Backlight WSVGA (1,024
x 600)
Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, HSPA
850/900/1900/2100MHz
Connectivity: WLAN 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth
4.0, Miracast, microUSB
Extras: 2-megapixel Rear Camera,
0.3-megapixel Front Camera, ASUS
SonicMaster technology, Dual-SIM
Dimensions: 192 x 110 x 10.7mm
Weight: 290g
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Other notable features of the FE170CG
include the support for dual-SIM cards, Design
which is always a nice touch for those
Value
who rely on two numbers. The device
does come with two cameras but both Dual-SIM
Very affordable
are a tad underwhelming and while the Solid & study build
2.0-megapixel rear camera takes decent
photos in bright environments, it falls flat Performance
Cameras
in darker environments as it lacks a flash.
As for performance, the FE170CG’s BENCHMARK RESULTS
1.2GHz dual-core Intel Atom Processor
AnTuTu: 15,068 points
and 1GB of RAM produced decent scores 3DMark (Ice Storm): 5,113 points
in our usual suite of benchmarks and was 3DMark (Ice Storm Extreme): 2,799 points
snappy with just a little hints of lag when
navigating. Gaming performance was
good when it came to more casual games
such as Angry Birds but was laggy in more
demanding ones. Battery performance was
pretty good as it managed to last us more
than a day with medium to heavy usage.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
At the end of the day, this version of
the ASUS Fonepad 7 may not seem
like a ground-breaking device but
do keep in mind it is an entry-level The 2-megapixel rear camera isn’t great but it
device that is super affordable for still takes decent shots in bright environments
what it brings to the table. It is great
for the first-time Android user or
students and seniors.
chip malaysia july 14 097
 test lab
review

TDK A33
Wireless
Weatherproof
Speakers
Price RM699
Contact Digital Paper Sdn. Bhd.
Phone (03) 5569 2002
Info www.tdkperformance.com

Specifications

Connectivity: Bluetooth, Aux-in, USB

Built-in Mid-range Speaker: 1.5-inch full range
drivers x2
Built-in Subwoofer Driver: 2.5-inch subwoofer
x1

Will Sing, Come

Others: IP64 weatherised design

RATINGS

Performance

Features

Design
Rain or Shine
TDK’s weatherproof speakers work as great portable
Value
entertainers in the great outdoors By Nazrin Zain

Great sound quality
Rugged design
Decent battery life
Bass drops a few levels
when turned on in open
spaces
No Play/Pause buttons on
device
The ports on the A33 are kept dry thanks to a
rubber seal that covers it when not in use
Strangely enough, the A33 does not have a
Play/Pause button on it
T
he old adage of “once you review
one portable Bluetooth speaker,
you’ve reviewed them all” rings as
bright as day here at the CHIP labs, but
sometimes we get a product that is actually
very usable, and we have to rethink our
thoughts about how good it actually is. The
TDK A33 Wireless Weatherproof Speakers
is one such device, and here we’ll wax
lyrical about it for a bit.
As far as design is concerned, the A33
speakers is quite standard, but TDK has the
right idea here as the rectangular shape
of the speakers is actually very conducive
to making it a lot more rugged and
weatherproof. Speaking of which, most
of the chassis of the A33 feels rubberised,
save for the speaker grilles, adding to the
charmingly rugged looks of the speakers.
On the right of the speaker is a rubber-
seal flap which houses the battery on/
off switch, a DC-in port, an auxiliary port
as well as a USB port that you can use to
charge your phone. Users may connect
to the A33 speakers via either a Bluetooth
connection or using the auxiliary port in
case the Bluetooth isn’t working.
One of the stranger things about the
A33 speakers is the fact that there is no
Play or Pause button on the device itself,
but it does have a phone answer button.
This is a rather peculiar decision by TDK
because they could have used the phone
call button and double it as the Play and
Pause button as well much like other
Bluetooth speakers we have reviewed.
As far as sound quality is concerned, the
A33 speakers performed admirably well,
with solid highs and mids. The bass feels
punchy indoors, but loses a degree of it
when the speakers are played outdoors or
in open areas.
The A33’s battery lasts about five to
six hours, which is relatively decent in
our books, and as an added extra, you
can also charge your phone via a micro-
USB cable. Another thing to note is that
charging the A33 can only be done via the
AC charging port, and not only that, the
device also supports pass-through USB
charging, which means you can charge
your speakers and your phone at the same
time.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The TDK A33 Wireless Weatherproof
Speakers are great if you always go
outdoors with family and friends.
The rugged nature of the device also
means it’s useable in almost any
weather condition, be it rain or shine.

098 july 14 chip malaysia


Discover The
Essence of
The Essence STX II is an audiophile modder’s
dreams come true By Nazrin Zain
A
s far as most people are concerned,
the era of standalone sound
cards is pretty much over. With
motherboards opting to provide users with
the best audio quality, and users opting
for desktop-based USB digital-to-analogue
converters (DAC) instead, it’s not hard to
see why. ASUS however is looking to cater
to a niche market that still does want to
use a dedicated soundcard with the ASUS
Essence STX II 7.1 sound card.
If you’ve never seen a dedicated sound
card before, fret not. It pretty much looks
like a graphics card, and slots into any
one of the PCIe slots that are available
on your motherboard. At the back of the
card, instead of video output ports, you get
audio output ports instead, including Front
Right, Front Left, Headphone, Line-in and
SPDIF ports.
The card itself houses a number
of interesting components familiar to
audiophiles, no doubt. The STX II uses
a Burr Brown PCM1792 as its DAC,
a component that is used in many
other audio solutions, that converts
digital signals to analogue with as little
degradation as possible.
The biggest pull for this card is the fact
that it has nine swappable op-amps on
the daughterboard, using a combination
of MUSES 8920 and 8820 ones. ASUS has
also been nice enough to include three
extra op-amps, which include two Texas
test lab
review
ASUS Essence
STX II Sound Card
Price RM838 / RM999 (with 7.1 card)
Contact Build Technology Supply Sdn.
Bhd., ECS Astar Sdn. Bhd.
Phone (03) 7955 3699, (03) 6286 8222
Info www.asus.com/my
Specifications
Output SnR: 124dB
Frequency Response: 10Hz – 90KHz
Connectivity: Headphone out, line out, front
left, front right, SPDIF out
Accessories: Op-amp swap kit, SPDIF
adapter, 6.3mm to 3.5mm adapter
RATINGS
Performance
Features
Design
Value
Improves sound quality
over on-board audio
options
Instruments LME49720 amplifiers and one
Swappable op-amps
extra MUSES 8820 amplifier, to get you
started with experimentations. Price
The STX II also comes with an option Only for desktop PC users
which allows you to use a daughterboard
that has a 7.1 sound system output that
allows you to hook up your surround
sound system to the sound card. Using
a second PCI slot, this daughterboard is
connected to the main card via a cable.
We tested the STX II with two pairs
of headphones, namely the Sennheiser
HD700 and a Grado SR60. In both
cases, when connected to the STX II,
the headphones gained a significance
improvement in terms of detail, with both
the mid and low notes.
With the HD700 in particular, listening The Essence STX II has an option that
allows you to get a 7.1 surround sound
to live albums is great as the STX II does a daughterboard that allows you to hook up
great job in replicating the sound signature your speakers to it
of live performances, which is no easy feat.
On the SR60, listening to studio-recorded
album feels almost like a dream, especially
if you’re a fan of the rock and/or ballad
genre.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
If you’re looking for a dedicated
sound card that’s not a desktop USB
There is also an op-amp swap kit that you can
DAC, the Essence STX II is definitely a use to swap out the op-amps on the Essence
great choice if you have the PCIe slot STX II sound card
to spare. You could opt to buy it with
or without the 7.1 daughterboard.
chip malaysia july 14 099
 test lab
review

Sony A77 MkII

Price RM5,999
Contact Sony (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Phone 1 300 88 1233
Info www.sony.com.my

Specifications

Sensor: 24.3MP Exmor CMOS Sensor

Display: 3.0-inch WhiteMagic LCD
Processor: Sony BIONZ X
Video Recording: 1080p
Storage: SDHC, SDXC
Connectivity: HDMI, USB, WiFi, NFC

Second Coming
RATINGS

Performance

Features

Design

Value
Of The SLT
Sony’s A77 MkII is an excellent shooter with
Great ISO-to-noise
performance impressive features, and a great lens to boot
Fast, reliable autofocus
us By Nazrin Zain
Great kit lens

Soft shutter button
There are a lot of buttons and dials on the A77
MkII, but they’re all well-spaced and easy to
use
You can opt to go with body-only, or also
get the Sony 16-55mm f/2.8 SSM constant
aperture lens, which is excellent for various
types of photography
S
ony is one of the few companies
who have been dedicating a lot of
resources into creating some of
the most compelling cameras in modern
history. The A77 MkII is the company’s
latest effort, and we’re about to take a look
at what makes it a great image shooter.
The A77 MkII comes with a number of
improvements, which include a new BIONZ
X imaging processor, a 24-megapixel
CMOS sensor which is capable of capturing
images in lighting conditions as low as
-2EV. The biggest improvement, however
comes in the form of its Autofocus sensor.
The main reason it is so impressive
is due to the fact that it has 79 autofocus
points, and 15 cross-type autofocus points
which covers much of the framed area. Its
tracking is also fast enough that it allows
the camera to shoot at 12 frames a second
in RAW.
Sony’s use of magnesium alloy in the
construction of the A77 MKII’s chassis
also shows, as it has a nice hefty feel to it
in our opinion. The layout of the buttons
on the A77 may look a bit much at first,
but we certainly appreciate the dedicated
buttons for ISO, white balance and Manual/
Autofocus modes on the body itself.
The A77 MkII’s 1.23M colour LCD is
also great because of the triple-hinged
articulation mechanism that allows users to
shoot from virtually any angle comfortably.
As far as image quality is concerned, the
Sony A77 MkII is very impressive in both
well-lit and under-lit conditions. Even as
we shot photos at ISO 3,200 and ISO 6,400,
there is hardly any noise, unless you zoom
in really-really deep, although beyond this
point, loss of detail is quite apparent.
One nitpick we do have however is
the fact that the shutter button is a bit
too soft for our liking. The half-press for
autofocusing felt more like a 1/3 press,
and anything beyond that will set off the
shutter.
That being said, what surprised us most
was the lens that the A77 MkII came with.
While most DSLRs typically have to be
content with being paired with a 16-55mm
f/3.5-5.6 lens, you have the option to pair
this Sony shooter with a 16-50mm f/2.8
SSM constant aperture lens, something
that’s almost unheard of. This lens allows
you to take a wide variety of shots, from
portraiture to macros as well as street
photography.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The Sony A77 MkII is a great camera
to use by both budding enthusiasts
and those who are aiming to become
pro photographers. Its autofocus is
easy to use, and is wickedly fast, even
when compared to some of the best
cameras out there.

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MSI GT70 2PE

Price RM8,999
Contact MSI Malaysia Office
Phone 1 300 22 1986
Info gaming.msi.com

Specifications

CPU: 4th Generation Intel Core i7-4810MQ

Processor (2.8GHz TurboBoost up to 3.8GHz,
6MB cache)
Memory: 16GB DDR3 RAM
Storage: Super RAID 256GB mSATA3 + 1TB
HDD (7200 rpm)
OS: Windows 8.1
Display: 17.3-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080)
Anti-Glare LED backlit

The Dominator
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M 8GB
GDDR51500
Connectivity: Blu-Ray, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0,
USB 2.0/3.0, HDMI, Mini-DisplayPort

Arrives
MSI’s GT70 2PE is a powerful, gaming laptop that
RATINGS

Performance

Features
brings awe inspiring stares wherever you go with this Design
behemoth By Nicolas See Tho Value

W
hen it comes to creating top-
of-the-line gaming notebooks,
consumers can always look
to MSI, as they can now be considered
seasoned veterans in the field. From their
highest-end to their mid-range gaming
laptops, MSI pack only the best and the
GT70 2PE is no exception. It exudes power
and class while bringing mobility to users;
let’s take a look at the full might of the MSI
GT70 2PE gaming laptop.
Much like MSI’s previous gaming
laptops, the GT70 2PE sports a sleek
black design. It has a SteelSeries gaming
keyboard and right above the keyboard
are the on-board shortcut keys which
glow scarlet when activated giving it
an aggressive vibe. Situated on the top
left and right of the keyboard are the
DYNAUDIO speakers. On the back lies all
the media outlets a gamer needs. One
downside to this laptop would be its size
and weight, which limits its portability.
The powerful gaming laptop comes fully
packed with features such as the KILLER
Ethernet game networking which improves
LAN connectivity by excluding gaming
networks from the normal traffic resulting
in lower latency during online gameplay.
This laptop also features Super RAID 2
technology providing users instant access
to their games with minimal loading time
with speeds that can achieve 1500MB/s. Extremely powerful
The SteelSeries Engine keyboard allows SteelSeries keyboard
allows for custom controls
players to customise any key completely settings
for different type of games, and there are Has an internal cooling fan
an unlimited amount of profiles any one
Bulky & heavy
player can create. Price
When it comes down to performance,
the GT70 2PE breezed through our BENCHMARK RESULTS
standard suite of benchmarks with ease.
PCMark 8 (Creative): 4,202 points
We also tested this gaming beast on a PCMark 8 (Home): 4,249 points
few games such as Metro: Last Light and PCMark 8 (Work): 4,105 points
Sleeping Dogs with settings stretched 3DMark (Fire Strike Extreme): 1,087 points
out to the max. Both of these games 3DMark (Fire Strike): 2,201 points
3DMark (Cloud Gate): 6,506 points
performed wondrously on this laptop
with a constant frame rate of 40-60fps
throughout the duration of our tests. Not
only that, this laptop also has an internal
cooling fan which provides further cooling
for the device when handling the most
resource hungry and demanding games
which tend to heat up the laptop.
CHIP CONCLUDE :
The MSI GT70 2PE proves to be
a formidable gaming device for
gamer’s who wants a gaming desktop
replacement that can also be brought
with them when they are on-the-go. MSI have equipped the GT70 2PE with all the
While the price tag is restrictive to essential media inputs and outputs required
by any gamer
some, for the level of performance
that it provides, it is an investment
worth looking into.

chip malaysia july 14 101

 lite & leisure
think
THINK the thoughts of our uncertified tech junkie
The Weird And Wonderful
As a road warrior who’s obsessed with reducing every gram of weight I carry around – excluding these
stubborn love handles – I look forward to the unexpected stuff coming out of shows like COMPUTEX
Taipei By Tim Lee
I
t’s tempting to think that we can rely on just one device for
all our computing needs, that being a tablet, smartphone or
phablet. The reality is a lot murkier where instead of one
converged device; we now have a closet full of gadgets that do
overlapping things. Maybe that explains the fashion trend for
man-bags and large handbags to cram all that stuff into.
And maybe ASUS was reading my mind when they showed
off their phone-tablet combos at the recent COMPUTEX Taipei.
Previous PadFones combined an
Android smartphone with a dumb
tablet, the latter being just a screen
and battery pack. You could use the
phone by itself or slot it into the
tablet’s back to get a larger display,
with all processing and network
connectivity handled by the phone.
Then there were various Transformer
tablets which combined an Android
tablet with a keyboard dock and battery
to make an Android laptop with really
long battery life. Most of these were
home-market novelties that never
made it to our shores.
The Transformer Book V takes this
to its logical conclusion by cramming
an Android smartphone, Android
tablet, Windows tablet and Windows
laptop all together. The phone runs
Android on Intel’s latest Atom system-
on-chip while the tablet, also packing
an Atom, runs Windows 8.1. Both can
run separately; when docked into the
tablet’s rear panel, the phone runs
Android in a window in Windows or as
a full screen environment.
Presumably there’s a lot of behind-
the-scenes interfacing being done so
Android and Windows can share data,
network connectivity and hardware like
cameras and sensors. Finally, there’s a
keyboard dock to complete the mad scientist-style
transformation into a proper laptop.
Now this could be a huge dud or a runaway success – more
likely the latter if the expected price of US$500 (~RM1,600)
comes true. For the price of the cheapest iPad, I could get three
different form factors and two different operating systems,
although ease of use could lift or bury the concept.
I’m more of a mix-and-match person and my current rig – a
Nokia Symbian smartphone, Lenovo Windows tablet and
102 july 14 chip malaysia
Microsoft Wedge keyboard – acts as my virtual office on the
road. It’s hard work trying to get these technological ducks and
chickens talking to each other but the reward is enjoying the
best each device can offer. My Nokia 808’s 41-megapixel
camera is still unrivalled even now, boasting incredible quality
from a tiny package, while Symbian’s media handling and
offline GPS navigation still make it a compelling platform.
Forget about popular apps on that abandoned platform
though.
My Lenovo tablet is like a Surface
Pro that’s been put through the drier
for too long. It’s a tiny 8-inch Windows
8.1 tablet with a quad-core Intel Atom
chip so it can run desktop Windows
programs at a pretty snappy pace
while still delivering almost 10 hours
of battery life. Using the Windows
desktop on a small screen isn’t always
pleasant – some programs don’t obey
DPI scaling options so the user
interface is either tiny or haphazardly
blown up. Modern UI apps are
optimised for tablets but the app
catalogue is much sparser than
Android or iOS.
I’m happy enough to have OneNote
and the full Microsoft Office suite in
something the size of a book. My
favourite party trick is to run a virtual
machine with some Linux servers in
the background while working on
some documents in the foreground,
the tablet steaming along without a
hiccup. My Microsoft Wedge keyboard
rounds off the list – it’s very light, not
much wider than the tablet and typing
on it is infinitely more enjoyable than
typing on glass.
Instead of being forced to use
clunky workarounds due to walled
garden policies, my devices talk to each other through
common protocols. I can share the phone’s 3G connection
through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and transfer data between tablet
and phone using Bluetooth or USB. There’s no need to send
stuff up to the cloud to share it. The best part is that the entire
kit weighs less than a kilogram and fits into a small folio.
Maybe convergence is overrated when you can make your
own mad scientist rig… and maybe I should go shopping for a
new man-bag.

EVE the world of tech through the eyes of the fairer sex
#Envy
Social media has opened up a lot of doors in our lives but it also easily opens up a can of green worms
with the labels “Jealousy & Envy” By Elis
T
here have been moments when
after scrolling through a friend of a
friend’s photo album I wished I had
her life, or her nose, or her hair. The list
goes on and may or may not be so
different for everyone else.
Not that I’m not happy with my own,
or grateful for the things I do have but I
do wish I had parts of this other person’s
life. For example, that holiday in Bali, that
pair of new shoes, or that fancy New York
Fashion Week event they were able to
attend. But that is exactly what it is, parts
they’ve chosen to put up on display for
an audience, carefully curated to show
the best bits and pieces. Like a trailer for
a movie, most of us choose to put up
photos and posts about the best parts of
our life. No one wants to see a picture of
your humdrum work desk that even you
are not happy to be at after all. And for
most of us, these posts are like diaries,
meant to encapsulate all memories that
make us happy.
Personally I post pictures of events
and yes, food, on my Instagram that I can
look back on and smile about. I did not
take part in the ‘100 happy days’
movement wherein participants uploaded
a photo of something that made them
happy or grateful every day for a hundred
days, but many I know did and it tells me
that many use these sharing platforms
for much of the same reason.
The problem appears when we look at
these photos and begin to wish we had
the same and more. Women and girls
have always been told in subliminal
messages via advertisements how they
should look, dress or act and it becomes
worse when we browse others’ photos
and judge ourselves by them too. A good
self-esteem was hard enough to build up
in a time before social media came along
but with it opening doors into almost
everyone’s personal lives and bathrooms
(I’m looking at you, bathroom selfies), it
lite & leisure
eve
may be an even bigger task for this ‘The grass is always greener on the
generation’s tech savvy bunch. other side’ but let’s not let too much of
For every meme that tells us to love that green reflect on our countenances
ourselves as we are, there are at least too.
five other memes, pseudo articles and
motivational posters that preach the
opposite. Campaign slogans like ‘real
women have curves’ demean naturally
skinny girls who do not seem to deserve
the basic right to feel like women since
they’re skinny. It’s a fine line between
articles that truly advocate good health
practices and those that fat or skinny
shame. This oversensitivity also leads
many, who wouldn’t say what they do
online in person, to attack other
individuals with mean spirited comments.
Even so, most of the time, the people
whose pictures we envy are mere
acquaintances or even strangers. We
know nothing of their life and personal
struggles, only what they choose to share
with us. And yet curiosity eggs us on to
browse through yet another holiday
album, another set of wedding pictures
and a celebrity’s happy tweets, perhaps
just because we can. There’s something
about these open
lives that’s better
than what the
tabloids can give
us because these
people seem to
allow us a peek
into their lives. But
when doing so
makes us feel
worse about
ourselves then it’s
really time to stop
wasting our time in
envy and instead
working on what
we can do to
achieve those
dreams we want
for ourselves.
chip malaysia july 14 103
 lite & leisure
touch

TOUCH the best apps to spice up your day

Budget Messiahs
We are constantly looking at news reports saying that the economy is taking a turn for the worst and the
cost of living is constantly increasing, so what does the average consumer need to survive in this tough
economy? This is where money saving apps comes into play; here are ten free apps that will help you
save money with little effort By Nicolas See Tho

Are you tired of carrying all

those plastic loyalty cards, then
this is the best app for you. If
you want an app that can key in
all your loyalty card
information into on app, this is
the one app you need. It is able
to recognise up to 2,000 loyalty
programs and all you need to
do is scan the encoded barcode
from your phone to make use
of your various loyalty cards.
RedLaser Barcode & QR Scanner Talk about time saving.
Developer: EBAY MOBILE
Platform: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
This app helps you save money by scanning a product and
creating a comparison with thousands of products online to Trivago
provide you with the best possible deals. You will be able to Developer: Trivago
find out alternatives and related products through a cross- Platform: iOS, Android
search within this app. Additionally, you will also be able to Travelling can sometimes be
buy items directly from the app, and collect them at selected restrictive when it comes to
retail outlets. booking a hotel especially
when you’re looking for
Groupon lodging that does not put a
Developer: noticeable dent in your saving.
Groupon Inc However, with Trivago, you can
Platform: iOS, now get the best deals on your
Android,
Windows
Phone, next overseas stay, as it
BlackBerry compares the price of your
There are selected hotel with websites
some of us such as hotels.com and Expedia
who are already enjoying the benefits of Groupon and for to generate the best bang for
those who haven’t hopped on this great deal train, Groupon is your buck. It also has user
a wonderful way to find new deals while saving money at the reviews and photos to preview
same time. Groupon provides daily deals of 50 to 90 percent your next hotel.
off on activities, venues and restaurants in over 500 cities. Use
this app, to get a discount on nearly everything. Skyscanner
Developer: Skyscanner Ltd
KeyRing Platforms: iOS, Android,
Developer: Mobestream Media Windows Phone, BlackBerry
Platform: iOS, Android Another useful travel budget

104 july 14 chip malaysia

 lite & leisure
touch

saver is Skyscanner. This app compiles prices of over 1,000 your cash with
airlines for the best deals on flight, hotels, and car rentals Goodbudget. This
creating an easy travel passage and at the lowest cost personal
possible. Searching is fast and easy and with this app, you can budgeting aid will
also book directly from your smartphone. Additionally, for ensure that you
those free spirits, this apps offers suggestions if you have no can keep a tight
specific destination to travel to. watch on your
monetary flow by
Skype creating an
Developer: Skype envelope
Platform: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry budgeting system
Long distance calls cost a bomb when unchecked, and with the which allocates your expenses into categories. You can then
advent of the information age, why pay for something when put money allocated into the category and deduct from there.
you can get it for free. Skype is the best way to communicate This app will save your life financially if used correctly
with someone when you are abroad or if your friends and
family are living in separate continents altogether. Skype Viber
allows you to call your significant other for free through Developer:
Internet calls; however charges are imposed if you are calling Viber Media
the mobile services. S.A R.L
Platform: iOS,
Android,
Windows
Phone, Nokia
Besides Skype,
consumers can
also call each
other for free
using Viber, an
app that allows
you to make
calls for free by tethering on to your data or Wi-Fi connection
rather than your cellular line. This allows you to easily call
WhatsApp other Viber users no matter what platform they are using
Developer: WhatsApp Inc without incurring any cellular costs. Additionally, it also allows
Platform: iOS, Windows Phone, you to text your contacts for free.
Android, BlackBerry
The days where we pay for Toshl Finance
texts are now over, with Developer: Toshl Inc.
WhatsApp, texting is done free Platform: iOS, Android
over any platform connecting Travellers on a budget should
us like never before. WhatsApp really get Toshl Finance. This
allows you to create groups to app allows travellers to
which you can invite friends or separate their travel expenses
family to join. You can with their everyday expenses,
designate an administrator providing a clear view of how
within those groups to handle they are spending their money.
who gets to see the messages This app will also provide bill
and who gets blocked out. Money saving made easy through reminders as well as set up
text. repeat expenses with
synchronisation to multiple
Goodbudget devices for ease of access and
Developer: Dayspring Technologies seamless integration. Besides
Platform: iOS, Android just using it when travelling, it
Instead of unwittingly letting your cash flow away, monitor is also a handy tool to keep tabs on your daily expenditure.

chip malaysia july 14 105

 lite & leisure
read

READ the books that shape our world of stories

Time And Time Again

With the recent live action retelling of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s military science fiction light novel “All You
Need Is Kill”, this month we take a look at two novels that uses time as a plot device and also a main
mechanism to provide a unique blend of creativity and philosophy By Nicolas See Tho

All You Need Is Kill sortie the next day, their plan of attack looper. After discovering his ability to
Author: Hiroshi Sakurazaka fails catastrophically and Keiji is killed respawn, he uses each encounter as a
Volumes: 2 almost immediately. However, he wakes learning experience and improves
Published: December 2004 up at the same bunker reliving the day himself with each battle. The
This was the military science fiction light again. He does not know it, but he progression of the story is very
novel that the live action movie The becomes trapped in a time loop and consistent for a light novel, and it goes
Edge of Tomorrow was based on. For restarts the day after each death. He into a careful amount of detail when it
those who have watched the movie, it is attempts to run away from the base, but comes to character expansion and
highly advisable to follow up with the he only gets killed by a Mimic outside background explanations.
light novel because the movie portrays a the base without his Jacket. The same Those who watched the movie will
lighter tone compared to the novel. The ordeal repeats over and over. find helpful insights on how the story
original story features the main The novel contains four chapters with began, with the history of the Mimics
character named Keiji Kiriya, a new each chapter going through the different being laid out in chronological order,
recruit who is posted at humanity’s last levels of awareness and his encounter and from there, we can see how the
line of defense against an alien threat with the super soldier named Rita Mimics came to be and their reason for
known as Mimics, located at Kotouishi Vrataski, who like Kenji is also a time invading the earth. This provides
Island which
is the last
available
industrial
resource for
their only
weapon the
Jacket,
which is a
Battle Suit
that can
fight against
the Mimics.
After
waking up
from a
dream
which
involves
himself
dying in a
battle
against the
Mimics, he
goes
through the
day just like
any other. In
his first

106 july 14 chip malaysia

 lite & leisure
read

readers with a global view of the story finds out that everything throughout the effect of a time travel drug. He remains
progression and it also justifies the day has happened. She later finds out with her for a month as Kazuko falls in
challenges that the main character faces that she has made a time-leap and has to love with him during their time together.
during his ordeal. Another interesting travel four days back into the past to However on the day he leaves, he erases
addition to the dynamics of the story is discover the source of her powers. all memories of his existence even to
Rita Vrataski, which in the novel; she has With many trials and errors, she Kazuko. It ends with Kazuko having a
a colder, straightforward and attempts to travel back further into time sense of longing every time she smells
masochistic persona. She does her job but fails. With sheer determination, she lavender.
and she does it well. finally manages to break her limit and go While the premise of time travel
While the novel is a short read, it back four days into the past. She finds, differs in each remake, the ending
definitely ends with the reader choosing that one of her friends who was assisting always portray the same outcome, with
to create their own conclusion on how her in the clean-up was a time traveller the protagonist going back in time to
the story will end. There are plot twists called Ken Sogoru, who comes from AD find out that she has limited time to
and gripping moments, but it will all be 2660 and his meeting with her is a side change the bad into good. While the
worth it in the end. This is story gives off a
one book you should read comedic vibe as
during your spare time. well as a romantic
undertone, the
The Girl Who Leapt novel actually plays
Through Time out as a tragedy. It
Author: Yasutaka Tsutsui gives readers the
Published: 1967 lesson on the value
Another interesting way that of time and how
time has been used as a plot short it seems even
device can be read through when you are given
this book. This book was one a chance to have
of the few pieces of literature more. For example,
that made time travel a in the anime
popular theme again. From retelling, the
this one science fiction protagonist does
novel, it spawned many live not reveal her love
adaptations, television for the time
adaptation and traditional traveller until it was
animation remakes. It was too late and by then
also loved internationally she can no longer
after being translated to go back in time but
English which made a great she was given a
impact on the West. chance to meet him
The light-hearted story in the future.
begins with a young girl So for those,
named Kazuko Yoshiyama, a who are looking for
third year middle school a light but thought
student, who is cleaning up provoking read, this
her schools science lab when novel will grip you
a sweet lavender scent and as hard as it
attracts her. As she wades in was to let go of the
the scent she suddenly ending, it will make
faints, and she awakens to sense when you
strange phenomenon that relate it to the
happens around her for the teachings that it
following three days. provides. That time
However, in a Groundhog shouldn’t be wasted
Day style retelling, she but rather
relives the next morning and quantified.

chip malaysia july 14 107

 lite & leisure
watch

WATCH the movies that becomes us

Edge Of Our Seats

The recently screened Edge Of Tomorrow, featuring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt had us on our seats
throughout the duration of the movie and it wasn’t hard to see why. It has all the making of a sci-fi
thriller movie which combined elements that made the Matrix cool, and it was also an indication of how
Hollywood can rely on Japanese graphic novels and manga as a source material to make entertaining and
memorable movies By Nicolas See Tho

“Groundhog Day” routine to which the main character has to

M
uch like most sci-fi movies that take place in the
“near” future, the Earth in Edge Of Tomorrow is in relive the day over and over until they find a meaning within
peril, as alien entities called the Mimics have invaded the loops. However, in this movie, Cage uses his ability to
cities and destroyed homes. Millions of lives are lost while better himself and discovers the way to eliminate the threat
resistance proves to be ever more futile. With each battle with the help of Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt). Movie-goers will be
humans wage upon these monstrosities, the number of the able to see through the progression of the movie how Cage
casualties in the human camp increases. However, in recent evolves as a coward to a reliable soldier who looks beyond his
years, humans developed new technology to fend off this personal gain and decides to try to sacrifice himself for the
threat, and with it, humanity has slowly been gaining ground. betterment of humanity.
As the war There are
rages on, the certain aspects to
aliens adapt, look out for in this
and they thriller sci-fi movie
evolve. Soon, such as the exo-
they began suits and the alien
their designs which
widespread draw a heavy
cycle of influence from the
violence and original graphic
destruction all novel from Hiroshi
over again. Sakurazaka “All
The movie You Need Is Kill”.
unfolds with Those who have
Major William read the manga
Cage who is a will find this
UDF (United movie to bear very
Defense Force) close resemblance
spokesman to the book and
who unwillingly while Tom Cruise
gets sent to the provides decent
frontlines as a acting in this
soldier, to which he is given a day’s training and sent to battle movie, Emily Blunt is the real star of this show. Warhammer
the following day. However, the Mimics anticipate the attack hobbyist will also enjoy certain exo-suit designs as they
which nearly decimates the entire UDF forces. Cage stumbles resemble the Space Marines battlesuits from the Warhammer
through the battlefield trying to stay alive but could do nothing series.
as he watches his team gets slaughtered by the larger sized In conclusion, aside from the gripping storyline, non-stop
aliens called Omegas. As Cage was the only survivor, he action, and cool looking exo-suits, the Edge Of Tomorrow is
manages to kill the Omega by sacrificing himself. By doing so, definitely one of the movies this year that is in contention for
he douses himself in the alien’s blood thus giving him the Best Movie of 2014 thus far. But instead of jumping the gun,
ability to reset the day every time he dies. This marks the we will be waiting for the upcoming release of Guardians of
beginning of his new routine, to live, die and repeat. the Galaxy and Hercules later this year. Until then, let’s Watch,
Edge Of Tomorrow is a throwback to the classic Read and repeat.

chip malaysia july 14 109


Explosive. Exciting.
Entertaining.
This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) left many gamers glued to our computer, tablet and
smartphone screens as they wanted to find out what games will be released later this year or in the future.
Here’s our picks for games we can’t wait to be released By CHIP Team
W
hen it comes to the video game
industry, there’s no event that
is as exciting as the Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3) as this is usually
the stage where developers showcase
their latest AAA titles. From First-Person
MORTAL KOMBAT X
Platform: PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4,
Xbox One, Xbox 360
Publisher: Warner Bros
Developer: NetherRealm Studios
Release Date: 2015
Next-gen consoles would never be
complete without an entry from the goriest
fighting franchise, Mortal Kombat and
thanks to the latest graphics capabilities
of next-gen consoles, things are about
to get a lot more gorier and realistically
repulsing. Characters and environments
now look more lifelike and even more
menacing. Taking a page out of Injustice:
Gods Among Us, players can also now
interact with the environment and use it
to manoeuvre around their opponents or
even use certain parts as weapons.
MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR
Platform: PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4,
Xbox One, Xbox 360
Publisher: Warner Bros, Interactive
Developer: Monolith Productions
Release Date: 7 October 2014
Have you ever wondered what a Ranger’s
life would be like in J.R.R Tolkien’s high
fantasy realm of Middle-earth? Now
you can embrace that role as Talion,
a ranger whose family was murdered
when Sauron and his army returned to
Middle-earth. After being resurrected by
a spirit of revenge and given Wraith-like
abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor to
wreak havoc on the Orc armies and exact
vengeance on those who murdered his
family.
Shadow of Mordor is essentially an
open-world game and players are given
lite & leisure
play
Shooters to Strategy games to quirky plenty of sequels to popular franchises
indie titles, E3 is the place to see it all. and there were also a lot of new titles that
Last year’s E3 was a bit lacklustre but this will be making their very first appearance
year, it seems like thing are back in high to the market. At the end of the day, the
gear as there were plenty of titles that got showcases prove that the gaming industry
gamers everywhere excited. There were is not in a slump, in fact, it is thriving.
Speaking of characters, the tenth chosen. For example, Scorpion’s styles
instalment will feature fan-favourites that include Ninjustsu, in which he wields dual
have been with the franchise since the swords and Hellfire, which relies more on
first game, however, this time they will fiery special moves.
noticeably be older as the
game is set 25 years into the
future. Besides just returning
characters, there will also be
new characters that will have
their own fighting styles and
methods of bringing the pain
to enemies. Also unveiled
during E3, each character will
now come with three fighting
styles that players can choose
before a match. Styles will add
different attacks and finishing
moves unique to the character
the freedom to roam around the world and on Talion for disfiguring him or he will
pursue side quests instead of being forced run and hide the next time he encounters
into completing the main storyline. The Talion.
game will also feature
what is known as
the Nemesis System
which remembers the
player’s interaction
with the characters
they encounter
throughout the game.
Enemies are also
made to be more
realistic and organic,
for example if Talion
throws an Uruk into a
fire and he survives,
he will either want
to exact revenge
chip malaysia july 14 111
 lite & leisure
play

BORDERLANDS: THE PRE-SEQUEL!

Platform: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: 2K Australia/ Gearbox Software
Release Date: 14 October 2014
Borderlands fans rejoice, for 2K Games is
set to release another instalment to their
super successful loot fest. Known as The
Pre-Sequel, this game is set between the
events of the last two games. This time
around the story focuses on Handsome
Jack’s rise to infamy and how he became
the tyrant who taunted and gave players
a hard time in the second game. A
large portion of the game will be spent
in space as players will be helping the
cunning despot to take over the Hyperion Finally, The Pre-Sequel will also feature an
Moonbase. This is where new mechanics all-new weapon type, freeze weapons that
such as anti-gravity and oxygen tanks will will cause enemies to….freeze. What were
come in. you expecting us to say? Melt?
Like the two titles that came before
it, The Pre-Sequel will come with four
new characters which include Athena the
Gladiator, Wilheim the Enforcer, Nisha
the Lawbringer and Claptrap the Fragtrap.
If these characters sound familiar to
you, they very well should as they have
appeared in previous games and DLCs.
Each character will of course come with
their own set of special abilities that will
cater to a player’s preferred style of play.

BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT

Genre: Action-adventure
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Entertainment
Release date: 2015
When it comes to games featuring comic
book heroes, none are as successful or
beautifully made as the Arkham series,
which is filled to the brim with fan service,
great storylines and mechanics that make
players feel like they are in the cape and
cowl of the Dark Knight. While Arkham
Origins was a good game in its own right,
it wasn’t developed by Rocksteady Studios
thus it lacked newer and more innovative
gameplay elements. players will also be able to finally jump
Now that the reins are back in into the seat of the Batmobile and use it
Rocksteady’s hands fans of the Arkham to solve puzzles and stop criminals in their
series can expect a loads to look forward tracks.
to. Arkham Knight is set a year
after the events of Arkham City and
this time the main baddie is the
Scarecrow as he threatens to incite
fear with a new strain of toxin and
bombs. Citizens of Gotham have all
been evacuated and the city is now
a playground for the criminals. So
it is up to the player as Batman to
take them down. Most of Batman’s
arsenal of gadgets will once again be
at players disposable but this time,

FAR CRY 4
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4,
Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release date: 18 November 2014
Ever since the Far Cry series was released,
it has become quite a favourite among
gamers. The first entry was praised for
its gorgeous graphics but was a fairly
hum-drum FPS. Things changed when Far
Cry 2 was released four years later as it
was a first-person shooter set in an open
world with a more believable storyline.
Then came Far Cry 3, which took the
same mechanics and improved on it by
leaps and bounds. Gamers were thrown players can also ride elephants into battle?
into a living-breathing world and it also We’re sold.
had one of the most memorable
antagonists to grace a video
game.
Ubisoft is definitely hoping
that lightning will strike twice
when Far Cry 4 is released later
this year as it shares many of the
same elements of the third game
including what seems to be a
very menacing antagonist, Pagan
Min. As Ajay Ghale, players will
have to use their wits and arsenal
of deadly weapons to play a role
in the war. Oh! Did we mention,

EVOLVE
Genre: First Person Shooter
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Developer: Turtle Rock Studios
Publisher: 2K Games
Release date: October 2015
Co-op first person shooter (FPS) games
are a dime-a-dozen, and they come in so
many different varieties too, such as Call
of Duty, Battlefield, Team Fortress 2 and
Left 4 Dead, amongst others. Created by
the makers of the super popular Left4
Dead series, Evolve however, looks to
change it up a bit with its sci-fi themes,
and survival horror motif, and is one of
the few games at E3 that turned a lot of

112 july 14 chip malaysia


heads.
One very big difference with Evolve
compared to Left 4 Dead is that instead
of a pack of monsters attacking humans,
there will be a team of hunters, which
consists of four team members, hunting
down one mega monster. This doesn’t
sound like much of a challenge, but the
monster can consume animals in the
SPLATOON
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Platform: Wii-U
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Release date: 2015
Many of us expected more Pokémon,
Mario and Zelda games at Nintendo’s
E3 video conference, and were not left
disappointed. However, it was Nintendo’s
surprising new title, Splatoon that left us
squealing away in delight at the end of it
all.
Splatoon is a short and casual 4 vs 4
third person shooter game where you play
CIVILIZATION: BEYOND EARTH
Genre: Strategy
Platform: Windows, OS X, Linux
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Release date: 2015
Civilization is an age old game of strategy
and resource management whereby
players can choose to win the game with
different victory conditions ranging from
military victory to diplomatic victory.
This latest instalment of the popular
franchise remains true to its roots, even if
those roots are no longer bound on Earth.
SUPER SMASH BROS. FOR NINTENDO 3DS
Genre: Fighting
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Developer: Sora Ltd, Bandai Namco Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Release date: 3 October 2014 (3DS)
Last year, pundits were forced to eat their
words as the Nintendo 3DS obliterated
the handheld console market, and now,
Nintendo 3DS fans will have yet another
reason to celebrate as Super Smash Bros.
is making their way to the handheld. The
best way to describe Super Smash Bros.
is that it is a melting pot of fun and pits all
your favourite favourite characters in an all
out brawl.
lite & leisure
play
game and evolve into a bigger monster,
making it easier to fend off the hunters.
The hunter team consists of four classes,
including a trapper, a support a medic
and a support class. Each class will also
have two different characters that play
differently. On the monsters’ side, there
will be a variety of them, but only two
were unveiled so far.
as Inklings, girls who can change between for strategic purposes. It’s a quirky game,
human and squid forms. In their bipedal but one that looks like it will be tonnes of
forms, the Inklings can shoot coloured ink fun when it eventually arrives on the Wii U
across the level, marking their territory. sometime in 2015.
In squid form, the Inklings can travel
faster in the ink, while replenishing
ammo. The squid form even allows
them to travel on walls, as long as there
is ink on them. Splatoon also makes
use of the Wii-U’s controller display,
allowing players to see where their
teammates are and teleport directly
to them. The game also utilises the
controller’s gyroscope to determine the
trajectory and aim of the teleportation
Beyond Earth will maintain its turn based 4X video game fans will definitely want to
gameplay, but will add in new mechanics keep this on their watch list.
such as the Purity affinity and instead of
nations, players will now control Factions.
One of the changes made to Beyond
Earth compared to previous Civ games
is the linear tech tree is now a tech web,
with one technology leading to multiple
options whereby players are forced
into one, making long term planning a
must. Each faction views the new world
differently, so each player can clearly see
how the definitions affect their gameplay.
While it used to be confined to the Nintendo 3DS owners out there, clearly this
living room played with a bunch of friends has to be on your wishlist for the Holiday
depending on their soberness, the latest season.
instalment of the Super Smash
Bros will be made available
for the 3DS, which means
unwarranted fun anywhere, any
time. The fun-plications cannot
be comprehended with just
words, as the 3DS Street Pass
system is already making the
3DS experience unique, you can
now battle with anyone globally
so long as you are connected
to a Wi-Fi network. So for those
chip malaysia july 14 113
 practice
under lock and key

Child Lock For

Android Tablets
With the help of an app and some smart setting up, you can prevent your child from
making unauthorised in-app purchases or access the Internet without supervision
By Jeremiah Jungmann

A
llowing children early access to devices such as
computers and tablets exposes them to the wonderful
world of IT and teaches them skills pertaining to
technology, including knowing which online content is good or
bad.
It is often not a good idea however to give unfettered access
to the Internet to children as sometimes it can do more harm
than good with regards to their upbringing. Tools such as Child
Lock Pro ensure that new tablet users can learn and play on
their tablet whilst comprehensively protecting them from
harmful content. If you’re using your own Google account on
the tablet, this also allows you to protect yourself from
unauthorised app purchases that can rack up a bill quite fast.
Free Solutions Are Time Consuming
Granted, a much cheaper alternative to parental apps is to just
root your tablet, and set the whitelist and blacklist
configurations using free system tools. One disadvantage to
doing this however is that it’s quite difficult to revoke the
changes made be they temporarily or permanently. The worst
that could happen is that your tablet gets damaged, and you
won’t be able to claim the warranty because the device was
tampered with.
How It Works
1 Purchase and Install Child Lock Pro
Search and purchase the Child Lock Pro for RM6.56 on the
Google Play Store. During the installation process, you will be
asked to grant some permissions to the app. This is necessary
in order to complete the installation of the app, but fret not. The
permissions granted to the app is harmless as all it asks for are
authentications that it needs in order to prevent other apps and
the Android system from incurring costs, make calls or join a
chat service
2 Configure Child Lock Pro
After installing the app, activate it, and an information screen

114 july 14 chip malaysia

 practice
under lock and key

1 6

2 7

will appear in the next dialogue box where you will be prompted
to select whether Child Lock Pro should be the standard app and
constantly on.

3 Assign a New Child Lock Pin

After the initial setup, you will then have the option to issue a
3 new 4-digit child-lock pin code. The default code for this app is
1234, and it is highly recommended that you change the
password because children will be able to figure it out relatively
quickly.

4 Install Games and Educational Apps

Now you can install a number of apps that you think will be
educational to your child. You can test out these apps, and
thanks to Google Play’s terms and conditions, you can return
the app within 15 minutes of purchasing it.

5 Integrate Installed Apps

Now navigate to the settings menu of the Child Lock Pro and tap
4 the Apps button. Check every app you want your child to access,
and complete the process by tapping on the Save button.

6 Check Apps For Functionality

After whitelisting the apps, you should check if the apps are
working properly under Child Lock Pro. This is particularly
important for apps that use the tablet’s built-in devices such as
microphone and speakers, as well as those with in-app
purchasing feature built-in.

7 Try In-app Purchases

At this point, you should try and check if you’re able to do in-
app purchases using apps that are whitelisted by Child Lock Pro.
If the settings were done correctly, the purchase should not
5 work, just as shown in the screenshot. Your child can now safely
learn and play with the tablet without worry.

chip malaysia july 14 115

 practice
perfectly visualised

Perfectly
Visualise Your
Survey Results
Closed questions can be evaluated wonderfully using Excel. Putting the results in a diagram
consolidates relevant information in a neat package By Sarah Lehmann

R
egardless if you’re at school, work, or in a community,
running surveys to determine the mood and opinions of the
general populace is a great thing to do. The variety of
responses allows faster evaluation using Excel, and one does not
need to be a statistics expert to determine the key data of a survey.
It’s All About Visualisation
As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, and a
cleverly selected diagram will portray the results of your survey at
a single glance. A simple pie chart can be a good choice for Yes
and No responses, a box diagram shows which answers are more
than others and minimum and maximum values are shown quite
clearly. If the median clearly lies on the left or right of the middle
then the statistician will talk about the right or left-skewed
distribution. If the shape of the box is elongated in a survey
evaluation or the antennae or whiskers reach till the respective
ends of the survey scale, then it is clear that the vote for this
question is far from clear. In this case, the results are distributed
over a wide spectrum. A small box with short antennae shows a
concentration of a specific area of the scale.
How It Works
1 Capture Data
If you haven’t already plugged the data electronically, you must
transfer it to an Excel table sheet. As seen in the example, if the
scale goes from 1 to 6, then only these values should appear.
Should you have zeroes in your list due to invalid or missing
entries, then they should be removed.
2 Determine Maximum and Minimum Values
First find the maximum and minimum values of the number
range. The syntax for this is “=Max(C7:CX7)”, while the minimum
is “=Max(C7:CX7)”. The values of the numbers inside the bracket
represent the data range for your project.
3 Determine Median
The median marks the mid-value of distribution, or the second
quartile. The syntax for this is “=Median(C7:CX7)”.

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 practice
perfectly visualised

2 7

3 8

4 Determine The Remaining Quartiles

We also need the first and third quartiles in order to calculate the
box diagram. The syntax for this is “=Quartile(C7:CX7,1)” and
“=Quartile(C7:CX7,3)”.

4 5 Determine Alternative Values

Now to calculate the values for the box diagram, we’ll need to do a
bit of mathematical wizardry to get those values. AD1 = Minimum
value, AD2 = First Quartile – Minimum value, AD3 = Median – First
Quartile, AD4 = Third Quartile – Median and AD5 = Maximum value
– Third Quartile.

6 Draw a Bar Diagram

Once the values have been calculated, you can select the AD1-4
values. Go to “Insert”, and insert a 2D stacked bar diagram. A bar
graph with the same colours will be displayed. You can change the
colours by right-clicking on the individual bar graphs and change
the colours to something you fancy.

5 7 Clean Up The Diagram

At the “Format” tab, you can choose the “Format Data Rows”
option to further make the chart look nicer. Repeat for each bar
chart as necessary.

8 Draw Antennae
Click on the Chart Elements icon and tick the Error Bar checkbox,
opening the sub-menu and clicking “More Options”. Set the
direction to “Minus” and “Percentage” to 100. Close the
configuration menu, and now select the section that is on the
extreme right. Navigate to the Error Bar checkbox again and this
time set the direction to “Plus” and enter the positive error value of
the AD5 for the number of errors under “User Defined”. Now you
6 have the perfect box diagram that is ready to visualise your survey.

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 tips & tricks
windows, applications & hardware
Tips
Tricks
JULY 2014
SOCIAL NETWORKS
Google Docs
01 Create and evaluate online
surveys with ease
01
There are various templates available for
various type of questions
Online surveys can sometimes be
some of the most frustrating things
to create on the internet. With Google
Docs however makes things easy for
you by automating the forms needed
to generate one, giving you more time
to create meaningful surveys instead of
trying to understand how survey forms
work.
As you log into your Google account,
you can access the survey forms either
by accessing it via the Google Docs
page, and accessing the “Products”
menu, or simply click on the Drive
shortcut and select the “Form” option
from the “Create” drop down menu.
You can then give a title to your
survey in the first row and add a short
description to it on the second row.
From the third row onwards, you will
then be required to give a question,
and you can choose between seven
different answering options, which
118 july 14 chip malaysia
include text, text paragraph, multiple
choice, checkboxes, list, grid, scale and
date, depending on the answer that is
required.
Depending on the type of answer,
you can also give the survey
participants an option to add their own
answering options by using the free
text box.
To add more questions to the
survey, select the “Add Item” function
which is located under the first question
box. When you’re done with creating
your survey, simply click “Send Form”
to generate the survey link. A field
will then open where you can invite
participants of the survey via email.
Alternatively you can also publish
the survey to Facebook, Twitter and
Google+.
Editing rights can be given to
either colleagues or friends upon the
completion of the survey, and you can
determine whether a new table should
be created or implement the results into
an already existing poll.
You can also get a graphical
evaluation of the questions and answers
in the form of pie charts for easy data
collection purposes.
MOBILE
Mail Service
02 Synchronise Your Android
smartphone with Outlook
Synchronising Outlook with your
Android smart device may look and
sound complicated at first, but the steps
needed to do this is actually simple,
and will serve you in good stead as
in some cases, not only can you link
02
Sync between Outlook and Android can be
done using clever software
your emails, calendar and contact book
details, but also your photos and music
as well.
For users of smartphones such as
HTC and Samsung, these two phone
manufacturers usually bundled software
such as HTC Sync and Samsung Kies
respectively that already synchronises
all these information automatically for
you.
For those who don’t have such
luxuries, there is a software called
MyPhoneExplorer that works with all
Android smartphones in the market.
First, you must install the software
and app on both your PC and your
smartphone. To sync your Outlook
account, open the “Settings” menu in
MyPhoneExplorer and select Outlook
in the “Synchronisation” menu for
contacts, calendar and notes.
Android
03 Move your apps to the SD card
and free built-in memory
Chances are, your phone comes with a
microSD slot that allows you to double
03
Easily move large apps to the SD card of your
Android smartphone

or even triple your phone’s storage
space. Installing apps and saving photos
and songs in a microSD card is actually
good practice as the built-in storage can
be used as paged memory.
Android has allowed for apps to be
installed on SD cards for a while now,
and this option can be accessed via
“Applications” under the “Settings”
menu. From there, tap “Manage
Applications” options to view installed
apps and from there, you will be given
the option to choose which apps you
want to move from the internal memory
to the SD card.
Confirm, and then the phone will
automatically move the app to the SD
card, after which you can repeat till
you’ve moved all the apps you want to
move from the phone to the external
storage. If there are way too many
apps on your phone and you want to
move many of them, or all of them at
once, the application App 2 SD Pro will
simplify the process for you by batch-
moving the apps from the phone to the
SD card at once.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Subject Selection
04 Perfect planning and setup for
evening and night photos
Planning and setup are of utmost
importance when it comes to
04
Every photo captured in the blue hour, by default, becomes a masterpiece
photography, but a little help from
Mother Nature isn’t such a bad thing
at all. Just after sunset, the ‘blue hour’
appears, and under this time-limited
lighting condition, even beginners can
get impressive shots at the get-go. It
is during this period that the tripod
and the flash exposure become a
photographer’s best friends, regardless
if you’re shooting landscape, portraits
or even urban photography.
Ensure that the right f-stop is
selected, which makes it easier for you
to set the brightness and focus area.
Using a remote trigger also helps in
ensuring that your camera does not
shake, hence improving the quality of
your image.
Another tip is that you can also use
P-mode, as it selects the exposure level
so that your photos aren’t too
dark, while maintaining decent
image quality. Manual mode
can also be used if you’re
a lot more comfortable with
adjusting the aperture and
shutter speed yourself. Limit
the maximum ISO value to
800 if you want noise-free, yet
bright photos. Selecting a lens
that is light intensive also is a
great bonus, but try avoiding
fixed focal length lenses as it
makes you inflexible in regards 05
to your position relative to the The min. number of pixels determines the max. print size.
subject you’re trying to capture. 7MP is more than enough
tips & tricks
windows, applications & hardware
Having a strong flash fixed with a
diffuser is also recommended, as it
allows you to light up the subject and
its surroundings without having to
worry about over-exposure.
Camera Selection
05 How many megapixels do you
need for your photos?
Cameras with at least 18- to
20-megapixel are the norm these days,
even when it comes to compact point
and shoot cameras. That said how
many megapixels does one really need
for casual and even enthusiast-level
photography for that matter?
In most typical cases, 7.0-megapixel
is generally sufficient, even for many
enthusiasts. 7.0-megapixel photos have
a resolution of about 3,072 x 2,304
pixels, leaving most users with enough
room to crop unwanted objects or
enlarge certain portions of the image.
At this resolution, you can also create
printouts at almost any photo size, be it
postcard, 4R, A4 and even A3 formats.
Uncompressed, a 7.0-megapixel photo
is about 20MB in size, while its JPG
equivalent is only 4MB in size.
That is not to say that having a
20-megapixel camera is pointless
however, as most cameras these days
pack large megapixel sensors anyway.
Paint.net
06 Add new background or crop
objects
Cropping and adding backgrounds
chip malaysia july 14 119
 tips & tricks
windows, applications & hardware
06
You can also edit photos to a certain extent with Paint.NET
to images is commonly done using
applications like Photoshop. Whilst it is
a powerful software, it’s very expensive
too. For a much more affordable option,
you can also try doing it using Paint.
net. Open the image in Paint.net, and
then use the Eraser tool and remove
the background. The only things that
should be there now are the objects
that you want to have against the new
background.
Alternatively, you could also use the
“Lasso” or the “Magic Wand” tool to
remove some of the more complicated
backgrounds in the image. After that
is done, you can then use the “Paint
Bucket” tool to recolour the background
by clicking on the transparent areas
on the image. If there are small areas
that are hard to colour, simply zoom in
and fill the enlarged background with
colour.
HARDWARE
WLAN Adapter
07 Share internet connection with
different devices using one
software
Creating a WLAN hotspot using your
PC is pretty much the way to go if
you want to connect your smartphone,
another desktop PC or a tablet to the
internet. Windows provides a platform
120 july 14 chip malaysia
for you to create ad-hoc wireless
networks, but only very few devices can
make use of it. mHotspot is one such
software that allows users to tether
multiple devices to the PC, sharing its
internet connection with them.
After downloading and installing the
software, you can specify the name
of the network and set a password
if needed. Subsequently, you will be
given the option to share the network
via a wireless network connection. Not
only that, the software also allows
you to set the maximum number of
users who are allowed to log onto the
network simultaneously.
By clicking on the “Start Hotspot”
button, the internet connection of your
computer is shared, and can then be
accessed by other devices.
07
The mHotspot tool distributes Internet access
to several clients
USB Flash Drive
08 Create and delete partitions on
your flash drives
8
You can easily remove unwanted partitions on
USB sticks using the DiskPart command
Technically speaking, there is no reason
for Windows users to partition a USB
drive, but if you’re using Linux, there
is a chance of it happening one way or
another. One way for you to remove
the partition is to format it directly from
the “My Computer” window, or use
Command Prompt’s DiskPart feature.
Run Command Prompt as
Administrator, and then enter the
DiskPart command, and you’ll now be
able to easily access the drives that you
want to format or partition. A tip here
is to use the “list disk” command to
list down the number of disks available
on your PC, which also lists down the
storage sizes of those drives.
From there, you can use the “select
disk x” command, where x is the
number of the drive listed down in
DiskPart. When the drive is selected,
you can either use the command
“clean” to format the drive, or “create
partition” to create partitions.
CPU
09 Reduce heavy CPU usage by
disabling startup programs
When your computer starts up, a lot
of the processor’s resources is spent
on starting up a bunch of software
that you may or may not use from
the get-go. There is a way for you to
disable some of these startups, and it
requires a bit of technical know-how.
First, you will need to open up
Task Manager, which can be done by

9
Programs that automatically start up tend to
consume quite a huge chunk of resource
right-clicking on the taskbar and clicking
on the Start Task Manager option. A
window will pop up, and you should
then click on the Processes tab to
see which software is running in the
background.
After which, type “msconfig” at
the search bar, and the MSConfig
window will pop up. From there, click
on the Startup tab and compare the
software in MSConfig to the one on the
Task Manager and disable whichever
software you don’t want to have open.
You will then save up precious CPU
resources to start more important
applications.
SSD
10 Disable automatic
defragmentation for your SSD
10
Defragmentation invites unnecessary write
access. You should disable it.
SSDs usually should not be
defragmented because the way data is
stored in SSDs are different compared
to traditional disk drives. In order to
disable this function, right click on your
SSD icon inside My Computer and
select “Properties”.
Inside the Properties menu, click on
the Tools tab and click “Defragment
Now” and then “Configure Schedule”.
From there, click the “Select Disk”
button, and uncheck the disk drive so
that the SSD doesn’t get defragmented.
OFFICE
Word
11 Insert Excel tables into Word
Documents
There are many ways for you to copy
and paste Excel data onto your Word
document file, but there is one elegant
way of doing it so that the data in your
copied Excel table gets reflected back
onto your Word document whenever
you make changes to the Excel file.
Copy the table from the Excel
document either by using Ctrl+C
or Start and Copy. Open the Word
document that you wish to copy said
table into, and set the cursor to a point
where you want the table to be copied.
Click on the arrow under Paste at the
top menu of the Word document, and
11
Depending on the method used, you can change the contents
of the table - or not.
click on the Paste Special option, where
a popup menu should open. From
there, click on the Paste Link radio
button and select the Microsoft Excel
Worksheet Object option, after which
Word will automatically paste the table
into the document.
With this done, you can edit the
cells inside Excel, and the changes will
be reflected on the Word document
itself. That being said, with this method,
you cannot change the content and
formatting of the table in Word, as
all changes need to be made in the
tips & tricks
windows, applications & hardware
original Excel spreadsheet.
Powerpoint
12 Spice up your presentations
with videos
12
Inserting a small video in a PowerPoint
presentation is child's play
Adding videos into a Powerpoint
presentation always helps in keeping
viewers refreshed after a few rounds of
slides. Adding videos to your slides is
as easy as clicking on the Video Icon
under the Insert tab, and with Microsoft
Powerpoint 2013, you can
embed both local and
online videos into your
presentation, which is
pretty nifty.
The formats that are
best supported include
AVI, MPEG and WMV. If
you run into video codec
problems and wish to
convert them into the
aforementioned formats,
the free program XMedia
Recode is best suited to
help you do so.
Outlook
13 Do not set selection as “read”
automatically
One of the more annoying things about
Outlook is the fact that the selected
emails are marked as read by default.
This is very annoying especially when
you’re just scrolling through your
emails to check what new emails come
in.
If you’re running older versions of
Outlook (up to 2007), you will need
to open “Extras”, go to “Options”
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 tips & tricks
windows, applications & hardware
13
By changing one option, Emails are no longer
automatically marked as "read"
and click “More”. In the “Outlook
Areas”, click on the “Reading Area”
and remove the check mark for “Mark
Element As Read When Selection
Changes”.
In Outlook 2010 onwards, the
function can be found under File,
Options and Advanced. You will see the
button “Read Area” on the top right,
where you can change the option. After
this, Outlook will only change the status
of the message when you open and
read the email, or change the status of
the email as “Mark As Read” via the
menu selection.
WINDOWS
Windows 8.1
14 Use the Start button with all its
functions
Microsoft first removed the Start button
from the taskbar in Windows 8, and
this was a major point of contention for
users of the popular operating system.
In its Windows 8.1 update, the company
put the Start button back in its place,
but what’s different here is that the
button’s main feature is to just return
the user back to the Windows 8’s Metro
UI.
That being said, the Start button
does provide several options when
you right-click it. This includes the
input prompt, Task Manager, the Run
dialogue box, and the restart and shut
down options for the PC.
Unfortunately, this right-click option
also has a few problems of its own.
When incorporated into an existing
domain, the right-click function ceases
to work because when creating a local
profile of the domain user, the user
122 july 14 chip malaysia
14
The new Start menu often brings users
straight to their destination
folder is incorrectly created at “C:\Users\
[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\
Windows\WinX”. One way to fix it
is to copy another user’s folder with
all its subfolders and paste it in the
aforementioned location, without any
restarting or re-login necessary.
Windows
15 Optimise RAM via script
Windows often stores frequently-
required data inside RAM. This is
useful for fetching data quickly as it
takes no time at all, but the downside
of it is that applications that require
the memory will not be able to get it,
and this causes PC slowdown, in many
cases.
There is a method however to get
Windows to free up memory from time
to time, and the PC is smart enough to
delete memory that is likely unneeded.
This can be done via a script, where
you simply need to double click every
time you have memory issues.
All you need to do is to open a
Notepad file and type in the following
15
The file ending with*.vbs turns any text file
into a Visual Basic script
text: “FreeMem = Space (32000000)".
Whilst saving the document, you must
change the .txt extension to .vbs, which
is a Visual Basic Script file, and set the
text encoding to ANSI. The number in
the script file denotes how many bytes
of memory is deleted from your RAM,
and in this example, the amount comes
up to 32,000,000 bytes, or 32MB.
As a general precaution however,
you should not set the number more
than half of your installed RAM, as
otherwise your PC will crash.
Windows 7
16 Set up DLNA Streaming feature
for Windows
You can access your media devices
on the PC via the DLNA (Digital Living
Network Alliance) option in Windows.
There are several steps you need to
do in order to get this option up and
running, and here are some tips.
At the search bar on the Start menu,
type Home, and an option labeled
HomeGroup should appear on the
search window. Click it and you will
then be presented with an option to set
what kind of media you want to stream
from your PC.
After this is done, you will also
need to check if the “Media Streaming
Options” is set to allowed or otherwise
the streaming service will not work.
Select the “All Networks” option inside
the “Show devices in” menu and now
you can set which devices you want to
whitelist and blacklist.
When you open Windows Media
Player, the available devices in the
network that were previously registered
with the network can be seen here.
16
If you exclude a device in this view, you will
not find it even in the SMediaplayer later.
Subscribe & Win!
As our technology and devices continue to improve, so do the tools of
cybercriminals who will stop at nothing to find loopholes and exploits to gain
access to our computers and the intimate and confidential data stored in them.
Without the proper protection, our computers are like open books with its
contents ready and waiting for these cybercriminals to steal and misuse.

We here at CHIP Malaysia know the dangers that are lurking in the dark and dank
corners of the web, this is why this month, we are once again giving away a
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Panda’s Internet Security 2014 comes with plenty of useful features that you will
keep your computer safe. Thanks to a collective intelligence whenever a new
threat is detected, every instance of the Internet Security 2014 will be updated to
protect users against it. Since this security solution also leverages Cloud
technology, users will get immediate protection against all types of known and
unknown threats. It also comes with a rescue kit that enables users to restore
their PCs to the way it was before being hit by a virus. Users can even create a
rescue USB drive to help restore other PCs. Other features of the Internet
Security 2014 includes a personal firewall, parental control, anti-spam
protection and the ability to create backups online. If you have more than one
PC at home or office, fear not, as we’re giving you the version that supports up to
three PCs for one year.

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If you select such a device then you
will have access to all the shared
multimedia content and will be able to
play it all back on your PC by double-
clicking on it.
Windows 8
17 Enable WLAN usage in system
settings
Windows 8 comes with a lot of
nifty features and options, but often
times the important menu options
are unnecessarily difficult to access
17
If your WLAN adapter is disabled here, then you cannot do anything
even with a switch in the Notebook
sometimes. One such issue is accessing
the WLAN options in the new operating
system.
There are a number of ways for
users to access the Wireless LAN option
in Windows 8. The easiest way would
be to simply go on the desktop mode,
find the WiFi icon on the taskbar and
you will be provided the option to
access wireless networks.
If your Wireless LAN module is
disabled, you can simply fire up the
charms bar and search for wlan, and
select “Enable” or “Disable” WLAN.
Another reason as to why you may not
be able to access wireless networks
may be because the laptop has Airplane
mode turned on. This is a new feature
that is implemented in Windows 8, and
it ensures that your WLAN adaptor does
not interfere with flight avionics, if you
use your laptop on a flight.
Windows 7
18 Create drive partitions with ease
Creating drive partitions sounds like a
difficult task, but it is a lot easier than
you might think. It is so easy in fact,
that if you’re running a Windows 7
operating system at least, there is no
need for you to install any third party
software to do so!
For starters, after installing your
hard disk inside your PC or notebook,
start it up, and then right-click on the
Computer option on the Start Menu,
and click “Manage”. From there, click
on the Disk Management option under
the Storage menu on the left. If you’re
trying to partition a new drive, you will
first need to activate the drive, after
which, you can
shrink the drive,
and choose how
much storage space
you want each
partition to have.
From one large
block of storage,
you can right click
on the drive and
choose the “Shrink
Volume” option,
which allows you
to partition a block
of the storage
space for use, while
keeping the rest dormant. To repeat
this step, simply right click on the
“Unallocated Storage” icon and select
“New Volume”. Follow the instructions,
and here, you will also be given an
option to set how much storage you
want that particular partition to have.
The new partition will be created,
formatted and will be available
henceforth under a newly assigned
drive letter as a logical drive.
18
You must first reduce the existing partition to
create space before making a new partition.
tips & tricks
windows, applications & hardware
Windows 8
19 Reset your PC to factory
settings
A very useful option that Windows
8 has, that previous versions do not
is the Factory Reset option. This is a
very nifty option to have especially
when you’re looking to sell your PC or
notebook, and are looking for a quick
and easy way to get rid of any sensitive
information it might have.
To access this option, you simply
need to activate the Charms bar, and go
to “Change PC Settings” at the bottom
corner of the bar. From there, access
the Update and Recovery menu, and
click on the Recovery option, where you
will be presented with three options.
Click on the “Get Started” button for
the Remove Everything and Reinstall
Windows option, and you’ll be on your
way to a clean install of Windows 8,
with no fuss whatsoever.
If you have a Recovery Partition on
your computer, Windows will detect it
automatically now and use it for the
reset. Should this not be the case, then
you will be requested to insert the
Windows 8 DVD. You will then be asked
which hard disk you wish to reset.
Here, you have to choose between the
partition on which Windows is installed
or all partitions.
Another option Windows 8 has is
that it can delete only files from your
machine. In this case, media files,
documents and games will be deleted,
but drivers and settings will be retained.
If you’re doing this with a notebook,
it is recommended that you connect it
to a power supply as the process can
take some time to complete.
19
Windows 8 offers several options to reset the
computer to factory settings
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events & happenings

COMPUTEX Taipei 2014

126 july 14 chip malaysia

picture perfect
events & happenings

chip malaysia july 14 127

 in the next issue
august 2014

Next Issue
Goodbye
Google
Starting from its humble beginnings as a search
engine, Google has grown to become a giant
digital conglomerate with fingers in almost
every pie imaginable, be it search, cloud,
mapping, email, video and mobile systems. For
those who are tired of using Google’s solution,
or don’t want to put their personal information
all in one place, we’ve got several alternatives
that may just help you wean off the search
Giant’s services.

1,000 Days
Without Steve
Jobs
Three years after the demise of Apple’s head-honcho, we take
a look at the direction the Cupertino-based company is taking.
Many have speculated that Apple’s stranglehold on the
industry is loosening, but is that all there is to it?

Technic Lexicon -
HD Voice
Smartphone technology has improved leaps and bounds over
the past few years, with the cameras on some phones capable
of taking photos and videos that rival dedicated devices. One
thing that hasn’t changed much all this while is voice quality.
In this article we take a look at what steps are being taken to
improve the quality of voice calls.

128 july 14 chip malaysia