pc pro - april 2015

ISSUE246

APR2015

£4.99

In praise of theunsung heroesThe computing pioneersyou’ve never heard of p42

SAMSUNG GEAR VR IN-DEPTH REVIEWp68

FIND OUT WHICHSOFTWARE MISSED 41%

OF ATTACKS

ARE YOU AT RISK?

ANTIVIRUS

10SUITESTESTED

Amazing £80Windows tabletFull Windows 8.1 power at anincredible price – full review p78

■ Your Windows annoyances solved p60

■ The secret to creating brilliant apps p54

■ Buyer’s guide: business printers p96

■ How to create pro-quality videos p34

Worldmags.netWorldmags.net

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Inthisissue

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10 Windows 10: a fresh start forexisting customers – and it’s freeMicrosoft has unveiled its newOS – includinga new browser and a virtual-reality headset –and confirmed amove to rolling updates.

14 CES Special: Is the Internet ofThings a dream or reality?Weattempt to separate the smart thinkingfrom the hype at CES 2015.

18 Microsoft’s court battleIs the tech giant’s data dispute an importantprivacy test case or a futile PR exercise?

COVER STORY42 In praise of the unsung heroesWe celebrate the heroes of computing whopaved the way for today’s IT success stories.

COVER STORY54 The truth behind app developmentWhat differentiates an also-ran app froman all-time great?We speak to the professionalapp developers to find out.

COVER STORY60 Windows annoyances solvedWindows is a powerful OS, but it has someinfuriating quirks and gotchas. Microsoft MVPMike Halsey shows how tomake it behave.

COVER STORY34 PowerDirector 11 LEWe introduce the professional-gradevideo-editing suite that headlines thismonth’s software downloads.

38 Ditch messy spreadsheetsand switch to a databaseWe show how tomigrate chaoticsheets of business data into astructured database.

41 Careers: SEO consultantShawnHarding explains how hehelps businesses improve theirdiscoverability online.

24 YouViewYouView is proving that a British technologyfirm canmatch the internationals when it comesto TV services – and the best is yet to come.

54 What makesan app great?

FEATURES BRIEFING

PROSPECTS

PROFILE

VIEWPOINTS

April2015 Issue246@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K

26 DARIEN GRAHAM-SMITH After years in thedoldrums, virtual reality is here to stay.

27 JONATHAN BRAY Why isn’t themotorindustry forging aheadwith in-car tech?

27 NICOLE KOBIE CES showed that, withoutbetter security, smart devices are stupid.

28 DICK POUNTAINThe fine-art world couldhelp us trace child-abuse images online.

■ Crapware’s true cost: reclaim your cashp50■ Grow your business using Facebook p36■ Buy a pro-quality printer: in-depth test p82■ Real-time translation:can it work? p124

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April2015 Issue246@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K

HEADLINE REVIEWSSamsung Gear VR 68Windows 10 preview 70HP Envy x2 13 72Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 74Chillblast Fusion Nano 75Asus ZenWatch 76Bush MyTablet 8 78Linx 10 79

ANTIVIRUS SOFTWAREKasperskyInternet Security 2015 88Avast Free Antivirus 89360 Safe Internet Security 90AVG AntiVirus Free 2015 90BitdefenderInternet Security 2015 91Eset Smart Security 8 91McAfee Internet Security 92Microsoft Security Essentials 92

Norton Security 2015 93Trend MicroMaximum Security 93

MFPS

Brother MFC-J5720DWBusiness Smart 98Epson WorkForcePro WF-5620DWF 99HP Officejet Pro 8620 100Oki MC562dnw 101Ricoh SP C252SF 102XeroxWorkCentre 6605DN 104

REVIEWS/LABS

REAL WORLD COMPUTING

116NICK DALEA background in aerodynamics and open-sourcesoftware is all that’s needed to create a prototype car – with

a little help from some friends.

113PAUL OCKENDEN Virtual reality may finally be hitting thetechnologymainstream – for less than £3, you can even turn

your phone into a headset.

120STEVE CASSIDYTwo traumatic recovery processes leaveour correspondent unsure how to feel about the state of

the technology industry.

118DAVEY WINDER Do you really knowwhat your apps aredoingwith your data? A few tools can help you get a grip

on yourmobile security.

110 JON HONEYBALLReasonably priced, Buckingham-producedGPS equipment shows that European companies still create

some of the best technology in the world.

80 LABS: ANTIVIRUS COVER STORYOnline security threats are more diverse than ever – and the leading

internet-security specialists are working flat out to neutralise emergingattacks. But which packages can you trust to protect your devices?

Editor’s letter 7The A-List 20Readers’ comments 30

Subscriptions 66Coding challenge 129One last thing… 130

124 Kick-starting the UK’sstart-up revolutionWe reveal how the newDigital Catapult Centresin London, Bradford, Brighton and Sunderlandwill help technology companies find their feet.

126 Light-speed PCs and altruistic AIWe put questions to theman leading anall-optical-computing team; and StephenHawking and colleagues pledge to protect usfrom super-intelligent machines.

COVER STORY96 The right MFP for your businessA business printer isn’t just about fusing toneronto a page.We explain how the right modelwill improve quality, workflow and costs.

106 Could you benefit from CRM?Is customer relationshipmanagement only forthe big boys?We ask the experts what CRM hasto offer, and how to get the best from it.

108 Cheat Sheet: Security as a ServiceModern security is more than just installingantivirus software on your workstations.

68 Samsung Gear VR: virtual realityhits the mainstream

FUTURES

THE NETWORK

REGULARS

72


7

April2015 Issue246

Nicole Kobie Could you,or your neighbour, createthe next Google? Thegovernment is providingsupport to tech start-upsaround Britain. Nicoleexplains how on p124

GENERALLY - AND THIS is one of those crucial things that thestaff of PC Pro are yet to grasp - it’s best to agree with yourboss. Your instinct should be to nod in appreciation at theirimmense wisdom, smother them in praise, fetch them acup of coffee, and then say nasty things about them later.

So when our CEO tweetedme during theWindows 10press conference (see p10) to explain that he’dmovedfromWindows to Apple, I didn’t call him a prize fool.No, I politely enquired why. His answer was surprisinglypersuasive: he needs to provide technical support to hiswhole family - and, like it or not, Apple just works.

Now, James Tye is no Apple fanboy. He’s actually aformer editor of PC Pro; until a couple of years ago, it wasa ThinkPad sitting in his office rather than aMacBook.

AndwhileMicrosoft would be foolish to base its strategyaround one ex-customer, I suspect he’s typical of the lostWindowsite. They’re lured into the Apple world with aphone or a tablet, and before long they’re unboxing aMacBook Pro. Everyone reading this can probably identifysomeone from their own circle who’s done the same.

So how do youwin back a lost heart? Simple: producesomething even better. To borrow a phrase from a certainSteve Jobs, you create a “magical experience”. And it hasto bemagical within seconds of using it, just as the iPadwas compared to every tablet that came before it.

Microsoft knows it can’t do this on its own, but itdoesn’t have to: in partners such as Dell, HP and Lenovo,it has undoubted experts at building hardware. I visitedall three companies at CES and, even after many years oflooking at metallic boxes containing processors, RAM andshiny screens, I walked away smiling. Our “Picks of CES”on p16 includes some stunningmachines.

They had only one problem: the software inside. Thisisn’t a jibe atWindows 8.1 per se, but at Microsoft’s failureto create a rival app platform to iOS. There’s no killer app;there isn’t even an app that can causemild bruising. Thefirm is attempting to change that with its “OneWindows”strategy, tomake it simple for developers to create apps torun across phones, tablets, laptops and even the Xbox – butfor the foreseeable future top developers will continue tolaunch for Apple first. Our interviewswith developers,part of our feature on creating great apps (see p54), madeclear thatWindows is barely on their radar. Microsoftneeds a groundswell of people whowant apps onWindows and are willing to pay for them.

Which is a problem.While some people have come tolike the Live Tiles interface inWindows 8’s tablet mode,it’s about 50 times less intuitive than iOS. Sure,Windows10 cuts much of the clutter, but new users aren’t goingto be wowed.

It’s also tough to imagine businesses switching enmasse to tablets. The ITmanagers I speak to are still buyinglaptops and PCs, and they fundamentally wantWindows10 to be an updatedWindows 7 that’s easier tomanage.Only if the idea of writing directly onto a screen takesoff will we see an invasion of tablets into businesses.

As for James, he wants a system that’s always on, likehis iPad, that enables him to do things quickly. There’sstill a chance that a combination of hardwaremakers andMicrosoft can pull this off. And that would bemagical.

Editor’sletter

David Hunt Computer-science tutor Davidsets our monthly codingchallenge (see p129), sowho are his programmingheroes? Find out as partof our feature on p42

Dave Mitchell Printersare a vital part of keepingbusinesses around theworld running smoothly.Dave’s rigorous testing ofMFPs will help you choosethe right one. See p96

Nick Dale A mix ofopen-source software,determination and lateralthinking helped Nick andfriends to create a highlyaerodynamic prototypecar. Read his story on p116

CONTRIBUTORS

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K

Tim DantonEditor-in-chief


8

The Nimda worm wentthrough McAfee Antivirus

like a dose of salts,infected the entire lab

and it took two full daysto clean up.

I discovered a passwordstealer on my work laptop.Which explained all the fun

people were having invarious hotels in America

at my expense.

I once sneezed andspilled Lemsip all over

my brand-newMacBook Pro.

PowerPoint ate mypresentation the night

before a big managementconference. I was up until

4am redoing it.

PC Pro, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JDDennis Publishing Ltd.

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What wasyour worstcomputingdisaster?

My first, dearly belovedThinkPad was struck bylightning – it got in via a

dial-up phone cable! – andcompletely fried.

Unplugging a veryexpensive Intel CPU, butforgetting to turn off the

power first. No survivors.

At university, my laptop started runningslowly, so I decided to restore the

system from a backup. My dissertationdraft went from 20,000 words to

3,000, just like that!

April2015 Issue246 @ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U KWorldmags.netWorldmags.net

10

Slug SectionheadSlug Sectionhead

MICROSOFT HAS REVEALEDmore detailsofWindows 10, including the Spartanbrowser and the HoloLens headset(see opposite).

Windows 10will be a free upgradefor users ofWindows 7 and 8 – newsthat may cheer those unhappywithWindows 8. But will the changes andnew features (see p70 for our preview)be enough to convince customers tostick withWindows?

■ Fresh StartAt a press conference at the end ofJanuary, Microsoft confirmed that,during its first year of release,Windows 10will be free for thoseupgrading fromWindows 7, 8 or 8.1 –but not Vista. Plus, the updates willkeep coming. “This is more than aone-time upgrade: once aWindowsdevice is upgraded toWindows 10,wewill continue to keep it current forits supported lifetime – at no cost,”executive vice president of operatingsystems Terry Myerson announced.

Windows 10: a fresh start forexistingcustomers–andit’sfreeMicrosoft has unveiled its OS, which includes a new browser and a virtual-reality headset. Perhaps mostsignificant, however, is the company’s move to rolling updates. Nicole Kobie takes a closer look

“The experience will evolveand get better over time.We’ll deliver new featureswhen they’re ready, not waitingfor the nextmajor release. And justlike any internet service, the idea ofasking ‘What version are you on?’ willcease tomake sense.”

This confirmedMicrosoft’sintention tomove to rolling updates,a switch that “makes sense in today’sconsumer-device world,” accordingto IDC analyst Al Gillen. The ideamaynot appeal to enterprises, but Myersonpromised to “continue to support thewaymany of themwork today”.

A number of the features inWindows 10 arealreadywellknown. However,Microsoft showedoff one upgradethat is sure toplease: the Startmenu features ascrolling area for

Live Tiles, with the option to expandto full-screen to suit tablet-stylehardware. Put simply: “It’s much,much improved onwhat we hadbefore,” said Gillen.

■ This is SpartanThe native browser inWindows 10will no longer be Internet Explorer,but rather a new one codenamedProject Spartan. Sporting a cleaner

look and a new rendering engine,Spartan features someintriguing new tools. Ontouchscreen devices, you’llbe able to take notes witha stylus on top of webpages and save them toOneDrive. Microsoft’svoice assistant Cortanawill integrate with thenew browser, too.But this doesn’t spell the

end of Internet Explorer.“For some users ... there will

be good justification for usingeither Spartan or IE, and, in rarecases, both products,” said Gillen.

■ Winning back customersMicrosoft has work to do to regaingoodwill, but Gillen is “encouraged”by the firm’s approach. Aside fromsmart headwear and big-screendevices, Microsoft also showedLumia phones runningWindows 10.

“Challenges will come in themobile arena,” noted Forrester analystFrank Gillett. “The newOSwillprovide an unprecedented ability tomake apps that work on PCs, tabletsand smartphones with a singleapplication development effort.However,Windows 10 doesn’t showenough potential for a differentiatedmobile experience that will draw bothdevelopers and consumers away fromiOS and Android.”

ABOVE Joe Belfiore,corporate vicepresident of theoperating systemsgroup at Microsoft,took centre stage atthe pre-launch event

BriefıngBackground and analysis on all the important news stories

PM’s encryption banExperts slam Cameron’s planto limit message security p12

Internet of ThingsSeparating the smart thinkingfrom the hype at CES p14

PC ProbeMicrosoft’s legal battle: privacytest case or PR exercise? p18

The native browserin Windows 10 will notbe Internet Explorer,but rather a new one,Project Spartan


@ P C P R O

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P C P R O . C O . U K / N E W S Briefing Windows10

4MicrosoftandGoogledukeitoutoverbugsGoogleresearchersuncoveredabuginWindows8.1andgaveMicrosoft90daystofixitbeforegoingpublic–andthenreleasedthedetailsjustbeforethecompanypatchedit,raisingaccusationsofirresponsibledisclosure.Googlesaidthedeadlinewasinplacetomaintainpressureonfirmstopatch,whileMicrosoftsaiditwasmerely“gotcha”tacticsthatultimatelyhurtcustomers.

5Office2016toarrivein2015AlongsideitsWindowsannouncements,MicrosoftsaidOffice2016willarriveinthesecondhalfofthisyear.Thefirmsaiditwillbethe“experienceyou’relongfamiliarwith”andwillworkbestwithamouseandkeyboard.Meanwhile,“universal”Officeappsfortouchandmobilearealsobeingpreparedforgeneralreleaselaterthisyear,andwillbeavailableinupcomingversionsoftheWindows10technicalpreview.

2GooglestopsGlasssalesGooglehasstoppedsellingitsaugmented-realityheadsetGlass.Itsaiditwasn’ttheendofthetechnology,withfutureversionstobelaunched“whenthey’reready”.The£1,000glasseshittheUSmarketin2013,butarrivedintheUKonlylastyear,withTescolaunchinganappjustdaysbeforeGoogle’sannouncementtopulltheproduct.

1 Sky’sparentalcontrolsonbydefaultSkywillautomaticallycensorwebconnectionsforadultcontentunlessrequestedbycustomerstoturnoffparentalcontrols.TheUK’ssecond-largestISPhasofferednetwork-levelfilterssince2014,withnewcustomersgiventheoptionoverwhethertheywantthefilteron.Skywillnowgiveexistingcustomers thesameoptionoveremail–failuretoreplywillresultinyourbroadbandbeingautomaticallyfiltered.

Fivestoriesnot tomiss

3SilkRoadtrialstartsinUSThetrialoftheallegedmastermindoftheSilkRoadhasstartedintheUS,withRossUlbrichtaccusedofrunningthedark-websitethatbecameinfamousforsellingdrugsandcybercrimeservices.Ulbrichtmaintainshisinnocenceclaimingthat,althoughhedevelopedthewebsite,he’dpasseditovertonewownersbeforeillegalactivitybegan.

Whatis...HoloLens?Microsoft surprised everyoneby revealing the new HoloLensheadset only days after Googleannounced that it was to stopmaking Glass. The timingcouldn’t have been better –but what exactly is HoloLens?

Is this Microsoft’s versionof Google Glass?Not quite. As one analystcheerfully pointed out to us,the only real similarity betweenthe two is that both are wornon your head. Glass overlaysa small box of information intoyour vision, whereas HoloLensprojects entire 3D objects intothe real world, allowing you toplay Minecraft on your coffeetable or follow maintenanceinstructions overlaid on aproblematic appliance. What’smore, you can interact withthese 3D virtual models viagestures and voice commands– and via Windows Holographic,Microsoft’s interface for thevirtual world.

Does this mean Windowsis going holographic?We have enough troublewith touch spreadsheets –imagine spreadsheetsprojected anywhere! WindowsHolographic will projectcontrols for you to work with– think of a miniature Startmenu hovering in the air infront of you, from which youcan tap to start up Netflix orSpartan. Rather than poppingup phone notifications likeGlass, HoloLens wants to giveyou access to your entire PC.

Sounds like the future.How far off is it?Believe it or not, Microsofthas already given earlydemonstrations to USjournalists; reports indicatethat the experience isimpressive, but finicky to use.It’s planned for release “in thesame timeframe” as the restof Windows 10. Prices have yetto be revealed.


12

Briefing News

Following the shootings at Charlie Hebdomagazine and a Jewish grocery in Paris,Cameron said: “Are we going to allowa means of communications which itsimply isn’t possible to read? My answerto that question is: ‘No, we must not’.”

Cameron hasn’t clarified what this meansin practice, but his words have sparkedspeculation that the government maytry to force tech firms to drop encryption,particularly for messaging apps such asSnapchat. It could also force sites and appsto include a backdoor for security services.

A number of internet experts haveresponded: Liberal Democrat MP JulianHuppert said the plan to ban encryptionwas “technologically illiterate”; sci-fi writerand digital-rights advocate Cory Doctorowsaid it would “endanger every Britonand destroy the IT industry”; and LadarLevison, the founder of encrypted emailservice Lavabit – which chose to shut downrather than hand over user data to the USgovernment – called the move “insane.”

■ Backdoors andbanned appsWhy would the PM suggest such an extremeplan? F-Secure security advisor TomGaffney saw Cameron’s pledge as a “gaffe”.

PM’santi-encryptionplanscausefuryBone-headed, dangerous and technology-illiterate – security experts pilecriticism on to David Cameron over threat to ban encryption

Highspeeds,highprices: whattheO2-ThreedealmeansfortheUKTHE CORPORATE GIANT behind Three hasbid £10.25 billion to buy O2, weeksafter BT bid £12.5 billion to pick up EE,the 4G-focused joint venture betweenT-Mobile and Orange.

The deals are expected to beapproved by regulators, meaningBritain’s mobile market will shrink toonly three players. Here’s what thetwo deals mean for the state of themobile market – and for consumers.

The tie-up between O2 and Threewouldmake the resultingmobilebehemoth the largest operator inthe UK, with a total of 31.5 millioncustomers. At themoment, EE isthe largest mobile operator, with28million customers, of which7.7 million are on 4G.

Analysts have warned thatconsolidation often leads to highercosts for users, with prices in Austriarising noticeably in the two years

“He was repeating what the securityservices’ bosses say about encryptioncausing them problems,” he told PC Pro.“What they really want is backdoors anddecryption keys so they can access the data.They’d prefer to have this access withoutneeding to go through due process.”

While it would be legally possible to banencryption, technically it would be difficultto enforce. “It would take an army of peopleto make it work, and that’s only if there werecomplete state control of the internet,”said Gaffney. “The moment that happens,freedom of speech and expression aredead and it’s no longer a democracy.”

Security analyst Graham Cluley pointedout that anyone living in the UK under anencrypted messaging ban could simplydownload programs from overseas orobtain access to the source code to compilethem themselves. “The idea is fundamentallyflawed and bone-headed,” he said.

Ross Anderson, professor of securityengineering at the University of Cambridge,argued that the only way to stop encryptedmessaging apps would be to mimic theChinese and block sites such as Facebook “atthe border”, sending thousands of police tobreak down the doors of those using proxies.“That isn’t consistent with the Conservativesever winning an election again.”

Backdoor accessmay seem like a simplersolution, but Gaffneysaid it made little senseto build something strongand then deliberatelyweaken it. “You can’t havebackdoors only for thegood guys. Weaknessescan be used by criminalsand totalitarian states,”he added.

■ What canbe done?Every time there’s a terrorattack, the government

responds in the same way: “give us morepower over communications”. What can bedone to help security services fight suchcrimes without breaking the internet?Gaffney said security services need morestaff to follow up leads and monitorsuspects. “Targeted surveillance ismore effective than mass surveillance.”

Cluley argued that privacy is worthprotecting, even at the risk of terror attacks.“I’m not expecting the authorities to stopall terrorism. Just like I’m not expectingyou to stop domestic abuse by plantingcameras in every household in the country.”

since Three bought a rival there,the Financial Times noted. Inthe past, the UKmarket has beenhighly competitive, with Three,in particular, helping to drivedown costs. “Fewer players in anessential market such as telecomsis rarely a good thing for consumersand competition,” saidWhich?executive director Richard Lloyd.

In terms of marketing, userswill continue to see once-dominantbrands phased out, with fewer thanone in ten new EE customers nowsigning up under either T-Mobile orOrange. A BT source told the FT thatthe telecoms giant would continuethat process – andmight stop selling3G contracts in favour of 4G only.

Ovum analyst MatthewHowettnoted that the Three and O2 tie-upwould “result in a concentration ofthe lower-frequency spectrum (idealfor providing coverage), yet wouldhave no higher-frequency spectrumat 2.6GHz, which is needed givenconsumers’ insatiable appetite fordata.” He added: “Interestingly, amerged BT and EEwould have thelion’s share of that higher-frequencyspectrum and, as part of thattransaction, would also likely haveto give up some of the airwaves.”

ABOVE With amarket consistingof only three players,consumers are likelyto see higher prices

ABOVE DavidCameron’s “gaffe”has the securityindustry up in arms


14

SOMETIMES TECH COMPANIES have brilliantideas, produce perfect products, andstill can’t convince consumers to buythem. Back in 2010, CES pushed 3DTVs as the next big thing. Trouble is,no-one bought them.

This year, themonstrous Vegastechnology showwas full of theInternet of Things (IoT) – but willfirms be able to convince consumersto connect every aspect of their lives?

Make nomistake, tech companies’vision of the future is that nigh-oneverything will be connected. AtSamsung’s CES keynote, co-CEOBoo-Keun Yoon claimed that 90%of the company’s products wouldbe able to connect to the internet by2017. And that includes fridges andwashingmachines.

“In the five-year view, it’s about aconnected experience,” CharleneMarini, vice president of marketingfor ARM’s embedded devices, told usat CES. “That is, the increasingmergerof our physical and digital worlds –that’s what we see IoT as being about.Our ability to understand context

Internet of Things:dream or reality?The tech industry is rushing headlong into a world full of connected “things”.Tim Danton attempts to separate the smart thinking from the hype at CES 2015

One interesting tech at CES was theRoost Smart Battery (smartroost.net),which on the surface looks like theconventional 9V battery inside yoursmoke alarm. Its makers haveintegrated Wi-Fi into the design andadded a smartphone app, which meansthat if there’s a problem, whether that be alow battery or a genuine emergency, you’llknow about it wherever you happen to be.

Meetthesmart battery

ABOVE Samsungco-CEO Boo-KeunYoon stressedthe company’scommitment toconnected devices

CES Special

from the physical world – such astemperature, motion, humidity – andalso to be able to control our physicalworld to some extent.”

■ The hub of the homeThe key to all this connectivity isthe so-called hub, a box of somedescription that will sit in your home

het.net),

heyour

andmeansr that be a

ency, you’llpen to be.

and, like the puppet master, controlall those connected devices: theheating, your fridge, your securitysystems and so on. Samsunglikes this idea somuch it boughthome-automation specialistsSmartThings back in August 2014.

Broadcom, which specialises insystem-on-a-chip solutions, wasmeanwhile pushing a vision of set-top

boxes as the hub at CES. That has alogic to it: after all, your set-top boxis connected to your internal networkand your broadband, and offers apayment system through yourservice provider. It also offers ahandy display. “When you’re readyto retire in the evening, youmightwant to see what’s going on in yourhouse,” said Stephen Palm, seniortechnical director at Broadcom.“We have the [wireless protocol]ZigBee in the set-top box, so youcould design a whole new securitysystemwith ZigBeemotion detectorsand sensors like that.”

Home securitymaywell be thefirst industry to quickly see a shiftfrom the traditional model: why

pay a separatemonthly feefor a service that can behandled by your ISP aspart of the bundle? “Inthe US, people are paying$30 permonth for theseservices – it basicallydials out if there’s an

alarm and it has someone

Samsung claimedthat 90% of thecompany’s productswould connect to theinternet by 2017


@ P C P R O

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P C P R O . C O . U K / N E W S

call the police,” said Palm. “They’recharging $300 per year to do that.The video-service providers couldcertainly provide that servicethrough their broadband connection,and amuch nicer user interface, andconnect to video cameras.”When youfactor in support for presence throughNFC and Bluetooth in people’sphones, it’s a smarter solution thantoday’s dumb on/off security alarms.

Such a setup seems a far morecompelling argument for connectedhomes than a smart fridge that tellsyou to buy some eggs. “There areapplications that make sense, and

Another CES sees another wearabletechnology from Intel. So what’s thedifference between Curie and Edison,which Intel announced last year?

Edison is the size of an SD card, but Curieis even smaller – the size of a button, as Inteldemoed at CES. And whereas Edison wasdesigned for the Internet of Things as awhole, Curie is all about wearables.

So what will I be wearing?It could be embedded into pretty muchanything: buttons, rings, handbags, fitnesstrackers or pendants. As an indicator of thecompany’s thinking, Intel has alreadycreated a luxury “smart bracelet” and has anestablished partnership with Fossil. “Wearablesare ultra-personal,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanichin his keynote.

What exactly is inside?There’s Bluetooth LE, 384KB of flashmemory and a six-axis sensor with anaccelerometer and gyroscope – but the keycomponent is Intel’s all-new Quark SE

system-on-a-chip, adaptedfrom the Quark SoC createdfor Edison. Mike Bell, Intel vicepresident for new devices,said the company had needed to“fundamentally re-architect some ofthe ways the pieces inside the chip playtogether to work the ways wearableswork”, and part of that challenge was batterylife. This device needs to be always connected,

so it was vital to be able to shut down partsof the SoC when they aren’t needed.

Talking of battery life…All Intel is saying so far is that Curie “canrun for extended periods from a coin-sizedbattery”. But, with battery-charging circuitrybuilt in, it’s safe to say that you’ll need to keepthat charging cable close by.

And when can I get myhands on one?

Intel is pushing hard onwearables – for example,

rather than relying on eachcompany to create its ownsoftware, it’s supplying areal-time operating system

that works with the chip – butmanufacturers that want

to integrate Curie into theirdesigns will have to wait until the

second half of the year to get theirhands on modules. Therefore, we’re unlikely tosee Curie-based wearables until next year.

IntroducingIntelCurie

ones that don’t make sense,” saidMarini. “If we’re talking aboutconsumers, psychology has a lot to dowith it, culture has a lot to dowith it,so there are going to be things that justdon’t work. This can’t be a push. It hasto be something consumers want.”

ABOVE & RIGHTVisitors flock to thestands at CES to seesmart wearables andhome-automationsystems

And that’s whatmanufacturersmust recognise before they foisttheir vision of the Internet ofThings into our homes – and ourlives: solve a real problem andwe’ll buy. Create a technologythat doesn’t solve a problem,and you’ll end upwith unsoldstock to join the warehousesfull of unsold 3D televisions.

If we’re talkingabout consumers,psychology andculture have a lotto do with it

Briefing CESSpecialWorldmags.netWorldmags.net

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CES Special

Best laptop

HP EliteBook Folio 1020Forget what you consider to be abusiness laptop: the Folio is partof a new breed of sleek, sexyultraportable, with Intel’s Core Mprocessor taking a starring role. It’sthis, alongwith a CNC aluminiumchassis, that helps the 1020 to asub-1kgweight. All this wouldmeannothing if it weren’t a pleasure touse in practice, but a top-qualitykeyboard and vibrant IPS screenensure this won’t be a problem.Pricing and availability are still to beconfirmed as we go to press, andwe’llhave to wait until we get the laptopinto our labs before can determineif its battery lasts the nine hours HPclaims – but so far, so fantastic.

2015 top picks: the 10 bestproducts and innovationsThousands of products were launched at CES, but only ten garnereda PC Pro award. Here, we celebrate the very best

Best phone

Asus ZenFone 2We had to double-and triple-checkthe price, but it’s true: Asus claimsthis stunning-looking 5.5in phonewill cost as little as $199 (around £131).The company hasn’t compromised onthe core specifications, with 2GB ofRAM for the basemodel – a 4GBversionwill be available – and anIntel Atom processor inside. Storagewill range from 16GB to 64GB, andthere’s amicroSD slot to potentiallyexpand that by another 64GB. Evenmore remarkably for such a cheapphone, it looks and feels likea premium device – helped in nosmall part by a 1080p IPS display.It will arrive in the US inMarch;the UK release date is yet tobe confirmed.

Best convertible

Toshiba Satellite Click MiniIf youwant to travel with a tablet anda fully fledged laptop, then you havetwo choices: separate devices or atwo-in-one. The latter design isstarting to buildmomentum, and

now Toshiba has joined the fraywith the stylish Satellite ClickMini. It’s light – just under 1kg in

laptopmode; 470g as a tablet – andToshiba claims a stunning 16-hourbattery life. We also love the 8.9in IPSdisplay, with a generous 1,920 x 1,200

resolution. Our one caveat isthat hitting smallWindows 8.1 UIfeatures – when youwant tominimisewindows, for instance – is a pain witha finger. Awell-sized keyboard andAtom processor are both good enoughfor everyday use, making this abargain at £249 inc VAT.

Best innovation

Intel CurieLast year Intel took our top innovationawardwith its development platformIntel Edison– including a 22nm SoC(system on a chip) for the Internet ofThings. This year it repeats the feat bycreating a button-sizedmodule withan enhanced version of Edison’s SoC

tailored for wearables.


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P C P R O . C O . U K / N E W S Briefing CESSpecial@ P C P R O

Aswe discuss on p15, Curie is abrilliant little innovation, making itsimple for manufacturers of wearabletech – think anything from braceletsto fitness trackers – to build theirdevices without having to worryabout the core technology. It’s small,yet potentially very, very big.

Best tablet

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 AnyPenWith somany tablets launched at CES,the winner of our Best Tablet awardneeded something a little bit extraspecial. And the Lenovo Yoga Tab 2AnyPen has that in spades.Which,coincidentally, you could use to writeon the screen, because this tabletdoesn’t need a stylus to work: it workswith any tip capable of conductingelectricity. That could be a pencil, abiro, even a screwdriver – and yes,that was part of the demowe sawat CES (pcpro.link/246anypen). Aspecial finish on the 8.9in displayprevents scratches, while an IntelAtom processor helps thisWindows8.1 tablet to 15 hours of battery life.We’re expecting it to go on sale earlythis year for around £250 inc VAT.

CES Top Pick

Asus Transformer Book T300 ChiSo nearly the winner for BestConvertible, this 12.5in device isthe largest in a new range of two-in-one Transformer Books that Asusannounced at CES.Whatmakes itmore interesting than the 8.9in T90

and 10.1in T100 is that it’s fully usableas amain laptop.While we struggledto type on the smaller machines’keyboards, the T300’s is a full-sizedaffair with a decent feel to the keys.What’s more, it’s powerful enough tobe yourmain PC, featuring a Core Mprocessor, and a great 12.5in display– the sample we saw had a 2,560 x1,440 resolution, but a Full HD versionwill be available. You can buy it nowin the US from $699 (around £460);UK availability will follow soon.

CES Top Pick

3D Sound Labs Neoh headphonesWith products such as the SamsungGear VR (see p68), we’re starting tosee the emergence of “immersive”visual environments. But whatabout audio? Thatnext step couldcome thanks tocompanies suchas 3D Sound Labs.It’s beenworkingon away tomakesurround sounda possibility inheadphones – so,when youmoveyour head to lookat something, the“sound field”moves tomatch. Look out for aKickstarter campaign soon, whereyou’ll be able to pre-order a set with“extremely attractive early-birdspecial deals”.

CES Top Pick

Nvidia Drive PXAutonomous cars drove one streetcloser to reality at CES 2015, withNvidia launching a technology thatcould be the force behind the nextgeneration of cars. Drive PX featurestwo of Nvidia’s “super chip” Tegra X1processors, whichmeans it canhandle up to 1.3 gigapixels of visualdata per second – enough to copewitha dozen 2-megapixel cameras at 60fpsdotted around the car. That’s matchedwith image-processing tech to build amap of the car’s surroundings on thefly, allowing it to auto-park, detectother vehicles bymake andmodel,and take action to avoid obstacles.

CES Top Pick

Dell XPS 13The 2015 update to Dell’s familiar XPS13 range has one stand-out feature: itsstunning screen. Dell refers to it as an“infinity display”, because the 5mmbezel on every side comes very closetomaking it look like it doesn’t havean edge. Nor is this just for looks: itmeans the all-new XPS 13 squeezesa 13.3in screen into what wouldtraditionally be a 11in laptop’s chassis.With one of Intel’s fifth-generationCore processors inside, you can alsoexpect plenty of speed, and Dellclaims a superb 15-hour battery life.It’s available nowwith only onedownside: the price, which startsat £1,099 inc VAT.

CES Top Pick

Lenovo LaVie ZThis laptopweighs 770g. Let’s repeatthat: 770g. Not a tablet, but a fullyloadedWindows 8.1 PCwith a lovely13.3in screen, Core i5 processor and128GB SSD. And it weighs 770g.Wewere lucky enough to have a playwith one at CES (pcpro.link/246lavie)and the experience of picking it upfor the first timewas simply bizarre:it feels like you’re holding an emptyshell. The LaVie Z does have somedrawbacks: with black, square lines,it’s no beauty; battery life is limited tosix hours; and it’s only for sale in theUS, for now. But if you find yourselfStateside fromMay, then you canpick one up for $1,299 (around £854).

a dozedottedwithmapfly, aotherand ta


18

PCProbePCProbe

M icrosoft has spentmore than a year battling the USadministration in court over data held in Dublin– but does it matter if it wins or loses?

The case concerns emails and related data that USauthorities are demanding from the firm – informationthat’s held in its data centre in Dublin. Microsoft contendsthat such a demand is in violation of a safe-harbouragreement between Europe and America, and has thereforerefused to play ball – falling into contempt of a US court.

The data includes all emails stored and sent from aparticular account, profile details, records of session times,the IP address used to register it and to log in, plusmethodsof accessing the account. The data is being sought as part ofa probe into drug trafficking andmoney laundering.

“The government cannot seek and a court cannot issue awarrant allowing federal agents to break down the doors ofMicrosoft’s Dublin facility,” Microsoft said in a court filing.“Likewise, the government cannot conscript Microsoft todowhat it has no authority itself to do – [in other words]execute a warranted search abroad.”

The American government disagrees, with one of thejudges saying: “It is a question of control, not a questionof the location of that information.”

■Data falloutMicrosoft’s legal counsel Brad Smith hassaid that if the company loses the case, cloudcompanies will have to consider encryptingdata without holding the keys, or store datawith firms abroad that have no US ties, toavoid governmentmeddling.

Caspar Bowden, who held the post ofMicrosoft’s chief privacy advisor until 2011,disagreed that the casemight have suchfar-reaching consequences. “The impactwill be cosmetic,” he told PC Pro. “The riskof NSA surveillance is unaffected.”

Bowden has publicly stated that he hopesMicrosoft loses the case because a winwillmake it seem as though the current systemworks. “If Microsoft wins, then the entire EUdata-protection establishment breathes asigh of relief; the [European] Commissioncan convince itself that a new Safe Harbourand Umbrella Agreement is doable; the EUdata-protection authorities can step back

from seeing the past 15 years’ work on transfers crumbleinto the abyss,” he said. “But then nothingwill change:the rotten system of illusory protection against the NSAwill stagger on.”

Daniel Castro, a senior analyst with the InformationTechnology and Innovation Foundation, noted thatthere are other legal methods bywhich the USgovernment could get its hands on that data. “In effect,it’s asking the company to conduct an extraterritorialsearch and seizure – one that the US government itselfcould never do in Ireland,” he told PC Pro. “However,the US government could alternatively obtain thisinformation through theMutual Legal Assistance Treaty(MLAT).” Using theMLAT process, the US government

could have subpoenaed thisinformation from Ireland.

Microsoft has found supportersin rival tech firms, including Apple,Cisco and Verizon, as well as theIrish government, which echoesMicrosoft’s contention that the USshould ask for the data via existinglegal agreements.

Microsoft has been found in contempt of court for refusing to hand over data held in Dublin.Is this an important privacy test case or a futile PR exercise? Nicole Kobie investigates

Fightingback:Microsoft’scourtbattle

If Microsoft wins,nothing will change: therotten system of illusoryprotection against theNSA will stagger on


@ P C P R O Briefing PCProbe

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P C P R O . C O . U K / N E W S

seeing evidence that UScompanies have been cut outof some deals because of fearsabout US surveillance. TheCEOs of both Qualcomm andCisco have stated that thefallout from the spying

scandal has cost them business in China.”Microsoft made a similar claim. “Over the past year,

Microsoft and other US technology companies have facedgrowingmistrust and concern about their ability to protectthe privacy of personal information located outside theUnited States,” Microsoft said in court documents. “Thegovernment’s position in this case further erodes thattrust, andwill ultimately erode the leadership of UStechnology companies in the global market.”

“This case highlights that where data is storedmayaffect how easy it is for government to gain access to it. Thetech industry needs to work to eliminate these differences,otherwise we’re going to see countries beginning to erectdata-residency requirements that limit where data can bestored.” The upshot of this, according to Castro, will be anincrease in costs for the users.

Bowden noted that Microsoft isn’t alone in strugglingto deal with American influence – potentially makingEuropean providers a wiser choice. “There’s nothing aUS-controlled company can do to credibly immunise itselffrom the taint of coercivemeasures by the US governmentagainst non-Americans,” he said. To fight that, he calledfor US tech companies to lobby the government to stop“discrimination by nationality” – that is, to stop treatingthe data of Americans and “non-Americans” differently. Heasked: “Would you get on a roller coaster that was built to‘good enough for non-American standards’, if Americanswere hopping on a different onewith vastly higher safetystandards that they thought necessary for themselves?”

■Data sharing after SnowdenAlthoughMicrosoft is voicing concerns that a lossin this case would result in putting user data atrisk, Bowden noted that prior to the Snowdenleaks, the company had already handed over datato the US authorities, “perhaps without warrant”.

“For years the company handed overmetadata to law enforcement without followingRIPA procedures for data obtained outside theUK,” said Bowden. RIPA is the Regulation ofInvestigatory Powers Act, which is the UK lawthat covers the interception of communications.

Indeed, before Edward Snowden releaseddetails about the NSA surveillance programme,Microsoft made clear when it launched Office 365that the US Patriot Act would let Americanauthorities have access to EU-stored data. That was backin 2011. Two years later, following the Snowden leaks andon the day the warrant was filed, Microsoft’s lawyer BradSmith changed the tune: “We are committing contractuallyto not turning it over without litigating that issue.”

■Safe in the cloud?Regardless of the outcome of this court case, it maywell bewise for Microsoft to be seen to be fighting US data grabs.In 2013, Castro predicted that Snowden’s revelations aboutthe NSA’s surveillance and IT firms’ apparent complicitywould knock $35 billion in revenue from the US cloudindustry. Has this been the case?

“Most of these companies don’t report such sales data ata detailed level,” Castro said. “That said, we’re certainly

Timelineofthecase

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DECEMBER 2013US government serves Microsoft with a search warrant, demandingaccess to Outlook.com emails stored in Dublin for a drugs andmoney-laundering case. Microsoft hands over some metadata,but refuses to give the US authorities the full content of the emails.

APRIL 2014A New York court finds that the warrant is valid,ruling that Microsoft must turn over the data.Microsoft still refuses.

JULY 2014After an appeal,another judgeorders Microsoft tohand over the data.

SEPTEMBER 2014Microsoft is found in contempt of court for its refusal to share the data – althoughthe court reveals that the company and the US government have agreed therewill be no fine or other punishment, in order to let it appeal.

DECEMBER 2014Microsoft files its arguments, and tech firms, rights groups,media organisations, academics and the Irish governmentfile amicus “friend of the court” briefs in support of the firm.Oral arguments in the case are expected this spring.

TOP Microsoft isconcerned about thegrowing mistrust thatusers feel towardsbig tech companies

BOTTOM The firm’slawyer, Brad Smith,states that thecompany has“contractuallycommitted” tolitigating the issue

LEFT Former employee CasparBowden has declared that he’d behappy to see Microsoft lose this battle


20

The A-List The ultimate guide to the very bestproducts on the market today

ALTERNATIVESALTERNATIVES

ALTERNATIVES ALTERNATIVES

SMARTPHONESLAPTOPS

TABLETS PCS

Gram for gram, the MacBook Pro13in is a powerhouse of a laptop. AnIntel Haswell CPU delivers strongperformance and great battery life,the PCI Express SSD is lightning-quick, and the sumptuous Retinadisplay is a pixel-perfect delight.REVIEW: pcpro.link/almb13rd

Sony Xperia Z3 CompactAndroid smartphone, 16GB,free phone, £23/mth, 24mthsomio.com

Apple iPad Air 29.7in tablet, 64GB, £479apple.com/uk

Lenovo IdeaPadYoga 2A versatile hybrid laptopwith the best IPS screenin its price range – nowavailable at an irresistibleprice. £400; johnlewis.com REVIEW: pcpro.link/alyoga2

Dell XPS 12 (2013)Sturdy build and a greatall-round design make thisan Ultrabook to lust after.The Full HD touchscreen isexcellent, as is battery life.£899; dell.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/aldell12

Asus X552CLA capable 15.6in desktopreplacement. Battery lifeis merely okay, but there’senough power here toget the job done. £350;saveonlaptops.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/alx552cl

Apple iMac21.5inA classy all-in-one witha compact frame, amplepower and a colour-accurate screen. From£899; apple.com/ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/alimac215

Scan 3XSGW-HT20The fastest workstationwe’ve seen, thanksto the Haswell-ECore i7-5960X CPU.£2,840; scan.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/algwht20

The 4.6in Xperia Z3 Compact is alluringlypocketable, yet combines speedyperformance with decent battery life anda fine camera. The rugged, water-resistantdesign is a plus point, too – and all for a veryreasonable price.REVIEW: pcpro.link/alsonyz3

Even faster, even lighter and just aspretty as ever – the iPad Air 2 takeseverything that made the original greatand improves on it. Updated camerasand the arrival of Touch ID are welcomeupgrades, too. Its only real rival is theoriginal 32GB iPad Air, now discountedto a tempting £359.REVIEW: pcpro.link/alipair

Chillblast’s Fusion Quasar isthe very definition of a classyall-round base unit. A Core i5 CPUoverclocked to 4.3GHz deliversplenty of raw power, combined withgood gaming capability and seriousupgrade potential. A five-yearwarranty seals the deal.REVIEW: pcpro.link/alchill

Chillblast Fusion QuasarBase unit, £600chillblast.com

Apple MacBook Pro 13in with Retina displayLaptop, from £999apple.com/uk

Motorola MotoG (2nd Gen.)An Android bargainwith a 5in screen, goodbattery life and a superbdesign. Free phone, £19/mth, 24mths; omio.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/almotog2

SamsungGalaxy S5A fast, weather-resistant,feature-packed phone.The camera is fantastic,too. Free phone, £23/mth, 24mths; omio.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/algals5

Apple iPhone 6Apple steps up to alarger screen size withthe classy, long-lasting4.7in iPhone – but it’spricey. Free phone,£35/mth, 24mths;omio.com REVIEW:pcpro.link/alip6

Nexus 7Great design, solidall-round performanceand keen pricing helpthe Nexus 7 retain itsplace on the A-List.16GB, £182; ebuyer.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/aln72013

Apple iPadmini 2The arrival of the iPadmini 3 has pushed downthe price of the mini 2,making it a steal.32GB, £279; apple.com/uk REVIEW: pcpro.link/alipmini2

Sony XperiaZ2 TabletThe most desirable full-sized Android tablet yet,thanks to great designand battery life. 16GB,£350; pcworld.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/alxz2tab

KASPERSKY INTERNET SECURITY 2015 Buy 1yr protection, 3 devices, for £24.99 (RRP £49.99) Visit store.pcpro.co.ukHALF-PRICE READER OFFER KAR

Apple iMac27in with Retina5K displayAstonishing image qualityand stunning resolutiongo hand in hand. £1,999;apple.com/ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/alimac27


@ P C P R O Briefing Bestbuys

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P C P R O . C O . U K /A L I S T

PRINTERS

MONITORS

Not so long ago, a 4K display for less than£500 was unthinkable. Asus deliversrazor-sharp pictures on a generous28in panel without breaking the bank.REVIEW: pcpro.link/alpb287q

AOC q2770PquA feature-packed, 27in, 2,560x 1,440 display offering a hugeworkspace, an adjustable stand,a four-port USB hub – and athree-year warranty. Super PLStechnology gives great viewingangles too. At this price, it’s asteal. £360; dabs.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alq2770

Eizo ColorEdge CS240Eizo ticks almost every boxwith the 24.1in, 1,920 x 1,200ColorEdge CS240. With a highlycolour-accurate IPS screen, it’sthe first truly professional-classmonitor we’ve seen at anywherenear this price. £545; nativedigital.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alcs240

Asus PB287QPremium monitor, £450overclockers.co.uk

The MG6450 inherits its predecessor’sstatus as PC Pro’s favourite inkjetall-in-one, offering high-qualityoutput at a very reasonable price.REVIEW: pcpro.link/almg6450

Canon PixmaPro-100Canon’s professional-level inkjetprinter is just the thing if you wantprints that are a cut above theaverage. Produces sumptuousphotographs at up to A3+ size,and its black-and-white outputis stunning. £364; jessops.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alpixmapro

Canon Pixma MG6450All-in-one inkjet printer, £80currys.co.uk

ROUTERS

A superfast router over 802.11ac, and speeds holdup well even at long range. With bundled backupsoftware and fast USB 3 sharing ports, it’s theultimate Wi-Fi router.REVIEW: pcpro.link/alr7000

D-Link DIR-868LThis 802.11ac wireless router maynot have the most impressive setof features, and it lacks an internalmodem. In our tests, however, itoutpaced routers costing twice asmuch, making it an affordable wayto get speedy wireless performance.£96; broadbandbuyer.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/aldir868l

Asus RT-AC68UHardly a value option, but Asus’flagship router offers 3x3 wireless,four wired Gigabit Ethernetports and a pair of integratedUSB sockets for high-speed filesharing. Cloud-based access andsynchronisation tools are a bonus.£176; broadbandbuyer.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alac68u

Netgear R7000 Nighthawk AC1900802.11ac cable router, £145broadbandbuyer.co.uk

HOME NETWORKING

A hugely versatile NAS with built-in Wi-Fi and someof the best media-streaming and cloud featureswe’ve seen, as well as eSATA and USB extensibility.It packs a lot of power into a solid, compact unit.REVIEW: pcpro.link/alds214play

NetgearReadyNAS 314This NAS drive isn’t cheap, but it’sfast, reliable and easy to use – whileoffering advanced features such asunlimited block-level snapshots andiSCSI thin provisioning. The bestbuy is the diskless model.£412; ebuyer.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alrnas314

Google ChromecastThis is the future of TV streaming– cheap to buy and simple to use.Plug the Chromecast into a spareHDMI port at the back of your TV,then browse on your smartphoneor tablet and beam Full HD contentdirectly onto the big screen.£30; play.google.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alccast

Synology DiskStation DS214playNetwork attached storage, £296ebuyer.com

WEARABLES

The Pebble Steel isn’t the flashiest smartwatchout there, but it offers great battery life, brilliantapps and a simple interface with solid physicalcontrols. Plus, it supports both iOS and Android.REVIEW: pcpro.link/alpebsteel

Motorola Moto 360Functionally, there isn’t muchto choose between the variousAndroid Wear contenders, butMotorola’s tasteful, circular-facedsmartwatch is a winner in the stylestakes. Qi wireless charging and abuilt-in heart monitor are welcomeadditions, too. £199; johnlewis.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/almoto360

LG G Watch RAndroid Wear smartwatches don’ttend to have great battery life, butthe G Watch R is the best we’ve seen.With an attractive, round-faceddesign, a punchy and colourfuldisplay and a heart-rate monitor,it’s the best Android smartwatchso far. £201; amazon.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/algwatchr

Pebble SteelSmartwatch, £180firebox.com

Epson ExpressionPhoto XP-950Epson’s high-end inkjet all-in-oneis a fantastic all-rounder for theenthusiast photographer. It combineshigh-quality prints with a decentscanner, a great touch interfaceand the ability to output photos at upto A3 in size. £250; pcworld.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/alxp950


@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K /A L I S T

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SECURITY SOFTWARE PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE CREATIVITY SOFTWAREKaspersky Internet Security 2015

Another year, anotherexcellent performance. It’ssuper-secure, lightweight and unintrusive.3 devices/1yr, £20; ebuyer.comREVIEW: see p88

Avast FreeAntivirusStill the best freeantivirus, althoughothers are catchingup. It offers dependableprotection – and itdoesn’t nag you aboutupgrading. Free;avast.comREVIEW: see p89

Norton Security2015It isn’t the cheapest,but the protectionprovided is good and itcovers up to five devices,from laptops to tabletsand smartphones.5 devices/1yr, £37;amazon.co.ukREVIEW: see p93

Microsoft Office 2013Microsoft retains the top spotfor the ultimate office suite,although tablet users may bedisappointed by lacklustre touch support.From £110; office.microsoft.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/aloffice13

LibreOffice 4The UI looks a littledated, and MicrosoftOffice has the edgeon features. All thesame, LibreOffice is animpressively powerfuloffice suite – and it won’tcost you a penny.Free; libreoffice.orgREVIEW: pcpro.link/allibreoffice

ScrivenerA brilliant package forserious writers: not justa word processor, buta tool that helps youorganise your ideas andmanage the processof composition fromstart to finish. £28;literatureandlatte.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alscrivener

Adobe Creative CloudThe licensing model won’t suit everyone,but Adobe’s suite of creative tools issecond to none, covering everythingfrom photo and video editing to web development.Complete plan, £46/mth; adobe.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alccloud14

AdobePhotoshopElements 13Adobe’s home image-editing tool is a terrificand powerful buy,although users of olderversions won’t findmuch reason to upgrade.£50; amazon.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/alelements13

SteinbergCubase Pro 8A big bump inperformance anda handful of UIimprovements keepCubase at the top ofthe audio-production tree.A worthwhile upgrade.£448; steinberg.netREVIEW: pcpro.link/alcubasepro8

SERVERS STORAGE APPLIANCES SECURITYBoston Value Series 361 G8Massive compute density, courtesy of a whopping40 Intel Xeon CPU cores, combines with high-endstorage features, 10GbE and integral batterybackup units. It adds up to the best 1U rack servermoney can buy. £5,899 exc VAT; boston.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/al361g8

Qnap TS-EC880 ProQnap’s eight-bay desktop NAS sets new standardsin the desktop NAS appliance space, combiningultra-powerful hardware with every storagefeature you could wish for. It has huge expansionpotential, and 10GbEnetworking seals thedeal. Diskless, £1,144exc VAT; dabs.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alec880pro

WatchGuard Firebox T10-WPacked with wired and wireless security features,the T10-W includes IPS, web-content filtering,application controls and HTTPS inspection. The boxacts as a dual-band wireless AP, too. There’s nothingbetter at this price. £510 exc VAT; watchguard.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alfireboxt10w

BUSINESS PRINTERS BACKUP NETWORK MANAGEMENTEpson WorkForce Pro WF-5620DWF

Shatters the myth that inkjets are only forlow-demand use, delivering fast outputspeeds, low running costs and tons of features.It prints at 20 pages perminute, and quality isperfectly acceptable –it can even print glossyphotos. £235 exc VAT;printerland.co.ukREVIEW: see p99

HP Officejet Pro 8620

A top-class business inkjet all-in-one with low runningcosts and top-quality colour output. Not the fastest, butit packs in the features. £136 exc VAT; misco.co.ukREVIEW: see p100

MozyProAn affordable cloud backup service for desktops andservers that sets the standard for deployment andmanagement. It will handle parallel local backups forfaster restores. 50GB/1yr, £154 exc VAT; mozy.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/almozypro

Barracuda Backup Server 290A beautifully simple appliance that brings togetheron-site and cloud backup. There’s block-leveldeduplication, extensive support for Windowssystems and applications, integral Exchange MLBand simple deployment and management.£4,446 exc VAT; barracuda.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alserver290

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor 12.4Licensed by the number of sensors, and with aproprietary database included, PRTG is a great-valueauditing and monitoring tool with no hidden costs.500 sensors, £1,077 exc VAT; paessler.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alprtg124

NetSupport Manager 12Release 12 of this indispensable support toolbrings a new PIN Connect feature for instantconnections and a redesigned console that makesit easy to manage a large number of PCs. Androidand iOS are supported via apps, and the priceis a one-off fee rather than asubscription, so it’s superb value.250 seats, £28 per seat excVAT; netsupportsoftware.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alnetsupport

HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8A space-saving microserver with excellentremote-management features that’s perfectfor even the smallest of businesses – and it’sreasonably priced, too. £370 exc VAT; ebuyer.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alhpgen8

Synology RackStation RS2414RP+Built with speed and expansion in mind, this 2U rackNAS offers a veritable feast of storage features andplenty of expansion potential. It’s good value, too.Diskless, £1,362 exc VAT; ballicom.co.ukREVIEW: pcpro.link/alrs2414rp

Sophos CloudUser-based policies and slick mobile support make thisa top-class cloud solution. Performance is impressive,too. It’s not the cheapest option, but it’s a pleasureto use. 10 users, £510/yr exc VAT; sophos.comREVIEW: pcpro.link/alscloud

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ProfileYOUVIEW INA NUTSHELLYouView is a BritishTV service thatcombines digitalterrestrialbroadcasts withon-demandinternet TV,including BBCiPlayer, ITV Playerand 4oD. It’s ownedby a number ofhigh-profilebroadcasters andbroadbandproviders,including the BBC,ITV, Channel 4, BTand TalkTalk.

LOCATION London

FOUNDED 2008

EMPLOYEES 170

WEBSITEyouview.com

KEY FACTS I f Microsoft’s software engineers have to cross theirfingers every time they send out one of their monthlypatches, hoping that it doesn’t brickmillions of people’s

PCs, spare a thought for those whowrite software for themost important box in the house: the TV.

“People view television as something that should justwork,” Piers Lomax, head of engineering at digital TV firmYouView, told PC Pro. “The pressure to get it right everytime is very high.”

That’s one reasonwhy Lomax is rapidly expanding histeam, boosting YouView’s London-based engineeringdepartment from 100 people to 150 in the comingmonths.They’ll be joining the fastest-growing TV platform in thecountry, which now boasts more than amillion customers.

Those numbersmask the occasionally tortuous roadYouView has travelled. Founded in 2008, it’s been throughseveral incarnations, including a turbulent few yearsunder the leadership of Lord Sugar. However, it finallylooks well placed to deliver the next generation of TVservices – be they regular terrestrial broadcasts, video-on-demand or live streams – tomillions of people.

■ Blank canvasYouView started life as Project Canvas, a joint venturebetween the BBC, ITV and BT. Having failed to gainthe Competition Commission’s permission to launcha pure video-on-demand service dubbed ProjectKangaroo, the broadcasters channelled their effortsinto digital terrestrial TVwith internet services.

Progress was always likely to be slowwith threebig corporations working together, and this wasexacerbated when Channel 4, Five (now Channel 5)and TalkTalk joined the party in 2009, followed bytransmitter operator Arqiva in 2010. The projectwas dogged by reports of delays and bickering overthe software design, not tomention the variousregulatory hoops throughwhich it had to jump.

By 2011, with the YouView brand now in place,the partners decided they needed an individual todrive the project to completion. In stepped Lord Sugar,who brought his experience of the set-top-boxmarketand no-nonsense attitude to the table. Sugar tookthe project by the scruff of the neck, and the firstYouView box finally appeared in July 2012 – almostfour years after Project Canvas was born.

Lomax insists it wasn’t somuch boardroom squabblesas getting the technology right that accounted for thattime. The service combinesmore than 70 free-to-airlive digital channels with on-demand shows from BBCiPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD andmore.

YouView aims tomake the join between terrestrialshows and internet TV as seamless as possible. It wasthe first TV service to offer a “seven-day-backwardsprogramme guide”, which allows viewers to hop backin the schedules and catch up on shows they’vemissedfrom the past week. “A lot of it hadn’t been done before,certainly not in a way that made it easy to use,” saidLomaxwhen pushed on the four-year wait. “We’ve wonmany awards for the waywe’ve simplified what is apotentially complex and hard-to-understand landscape.Certainly, whenwe launched, there was nothing like it.”

Sugar left the company in 2013, after a trademarkboardroom rowwith Channel 5’s then-owner, RichardDesmond. But YouView has flourishedwithout him:now bundledwith BT and TalkTalk’s broadbandpackages, YouView boxes sit beneath the TV inmore than amillion British homes.

■ Taking controlLomax isn’t planning on putting his feet up now thatthe service is established. Unlike chief rival Freeview,which is an open specification that TV and set-top-boxmanufacturers can build into their own firmware, thesoftware for YouView boxes is written and controlled byYouView. This means Lomax and his team can continue todrive new features into the boxes, helping to distinguishthe service from rivals that have been busy addingon-demand extras of their own in recentmonths.

“We can improve it ourselves; we don’t have towait for everyone to update their own version of thesoftware,” said Lomax. “Usually, we can push out updatesacross all devices in a short time frame. Having a singleinterface, without tweaks and customisations, avoids thefragmentation issues that can occur on other platforms.”

The team is currently engaged in transitioning someof its on-demand services, such as BBC iPlayer, fromFlash to HTML5, which Lomax claimswill be a boon forall involved. For the BBC, it means it can easily adaptiPlayer’s design to whatever device it’s running on at thetime, meaning the Beeb has fewer lines of code tomanage.

BACKGROUND INFO ON INNOVATIVE BRITISH COMPANIES

YouViewYouView is proving that a British technology firm is morethan capable of matching the internationals when it comesto offering TV services – and the best is yet to come


25

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K ProfileP C P R O . C O . U K Profile

ABOVE YouView willbe expanding its100-strongengineering teamto 150 this year

RIGHT YouView wasthe first TV serviceto offer a seven-day-backwardsprogramme guide

ABOVE YouView is now integrated intothird-party devices such as Humax’s

What about you?Do you work for a British technology company that could beprofiled in PC Pro? Then get in touch: [email protected]

Having a single UI,without tweaks andcustomisations, avoidsthe fragmentationissues that occur onother platforms

For YouView, it means exploiting new iPlayer featuresas andwhen they’re released. “Rather than having towait for an update to a particular platform, we can takeadvantage of BBC product changes as soon as they’reavailable and roll them out across a large number ofdevices,” Lomax said.

■ Testing timesOf course, regularly pushingout new features entails risk,and customers are incrediblyunforgiving if they can’t winddown in front of the TV of anevening because a software updatehas crippled their set-top box.Lomax insists, therefore, thatthe company takes great care toensure that such updates don’t

result in blank screens. “We’re heading rapidly towardstwomillion customers, so releasing software is anincredibly important thing to get right,” he said.

The company has an in-house team of testers, but itdoesn’t bank purely on human detection. “We rely a largeamount on test-automation equipment to reduce the chanceof any one feature causing problems,” Lomax added.

“We test 24 hours a day, with boxes of all types. Thesetests allow us to catch problemswell before releasing tocustomers.We then have a trial programme that allowsa small number of customers, and then an increasinglylarger number of customers, to use the software andprovide feedback before it’s releasedmainstream.”

They’re not testing only forglitches, but also for usability.“Our staff get involved in thesetrials, andwemake sure BTand TalkTalk are happywiththe software, and theircustomers are happy, beforeit’s released to everyone. Itgoes through a number ofdifferent phases, which istypical for software of thiscomplexity with thisnumber of customers.”

The testing team is onlyone that will benefit from

the influx of recruits that YouView hopes to attract inthe next fewmonths. There will be jobs available in theuser-interface team, vacancies for HTML and JavaScriptdevelopers andmore in the core device software team.

YouView is also looking to recruit a batch of interns forthree- and 12-month placements that begin this summer,following the success of a similar scheme last year. Thecompany promises that youngworkers will get theopportunity to work on “cutting-edge projects that makea real difference to the business, from product designsand code-writing to testing and project management,plusmuchmore”. Pushing the interns certainly reapsbenefits: a third of the 2014 intake were offered apermanent position or continuedworkwith the company.

■ Blending old and newLomax claims graduates are attracted to YouViewbecause they’re dealing with the “latest consumertechnology”, but, compared to cheaper rivals such asSky’s Now TV box or the Roku range, the companyappears to be clinging to relatively old-fashioned digitalTV tuners to deliver much of its content. Is an IP-onlyYouView box on the company’s technology roadmap?“There are huge advantages to broadcasting programmes,evenwith increased interest in [the digital TV] spectrumformobile use cases,” said Lomax.

“It will be a very long time before we see pure IPplays, because there just isn’t yet the coverage that canbe offered via [terrestrial] broadcast. But this is changingover time, and faster connections will become the norm.We’remaking sure the set-top boxes have the facility tobe able to receive channels in whatever is the appropriatemeans, andwe’re notmaking any statements aboutwhen one or the other will be phased out.”

For YouView, it’s in with the new and not quite outwith the old. BARRY COLLINS

ABOVE RIGHT Thesoftware integrateswith third-partyservices suchas Netflix andBBC iPlayer


26

ViewpointsPC Pro readers and experts give their views on the world of technology

As I manoeuvredSamsung’s newGearVR headset overmy spectacles, myexpectations weren’thigh. I didn’t see anyreasonwhy this latestimplementation of“virtual reality”should succeedwhere countlessantecedents hadfailed. Still, I pressedthe button to wake itup, and the binocular

displays leapt into life. My colleagues at theirneighbouring desks were naturally unable tosee what I was experiencing – but anyonewatching closely would have noticedmyindulgent smirk turn rapidly into thehanging jaw of astonishment.

Inside, I was trying outmy first virtual-reality app of themodern era, an oddcreation called The Blu VR. On paper, it’s anunambitious concept: you’re an underwaterobserver, drifting around the ocean as fishand othermarine creatures swim by. Youhave no control over yourmovements;you’re just there to watch. Apparentlythere’s a soundtrack too, but Jon, our reviewseditor, hadn’t givenme any headphones.

It didn’t matter. Although the resolutionof the imagewasn’t particularly sharp, andevenwith the noise of a busy publisher’s

Darien Graham-Smith isPC Pro’s deputy editor.Give him a VR edition ofSuper Mario 64 and youcan keep the real world.

office clattering inmy ears, I foundmyself –if you’ll pardon the expression – utterlyimmersed. As a school of digital angel fishglided past me, I felt, on a visceral level, theexhilarating isolation of the deep-sea diver.I’m here to tell you that virtual reality hasfinally arrived.

Needless to say, the technology thatmakes all this happen is sophisticated stuff:Paul Ockenden goes intomore detail about iton p113, and you’ll find Jonathan Bray’s fullreview of the Gear VR on p68. From the user’sperspective, however, themagic boils downto three ingredients. First, the image fillsyour entire field of vision, right out to theperiphery. If, as a child, you ever stood in thehuge 180-degree surround-cinema tent atThorpe Park, you’ll know how powerfulthis alone can be. The roller-coaster footageknockedme off balance every time.

The Gear VR also delivers truestereoscopic 3D. Even throughmyglasses, the effect was remarkably realistic.Actually, “remarkably” is precisely thewrongword: the 3Dwas so natural that Ihad to experimentally close one eye a fewtimes to assuremyself that I wasn’t simplyimagining it. Persuasive proof arrivedwhena shark came swimming straight towardsmeand I involuntarily jumped out of my seat.

But it’s the third stool-leg, as it were,that makes the Gear VR a revelation.Back in 1968, Ivan Sutherland’s

original “Sword of Damocles” VR displayused a head-tracking system to allow theuser to “look around” the virtual world –but with its industrial-scale mechanicalmounting, the experience was basicallylike peering through a periscope.

The Gear VR, by contrast, is a lightweight,standalone headset that gives you completefreedom ofmovement. You can tip yourhead back to look up; swivel in your chairto see what’s behind you; and glancenervously about as a blue whale passesclose by. It responds with accuracy toboth deliberate inputs and instinctivemovements. It makes you feel that you’renotmerely looking into a virtual world,but are actually within it.

So, the question arises: will I berushing out to buymy ownGear VRheadset? Honestly, I came away tempted,even though the £190 price doesn’t includethe cost of the Galaxy Note 4 smartphoneyou’ll need to drive the thing.

What cooledmy ardour was therealisation of what would happen once I gotthe unit home. I sawmyself bursting throughthe front room crying “look at this!” tomywife.We’d tear the headset out of its box, andexcitedly set it up. And then one of us wouldput it on, and the other would be left sittingon the sofa, twiddling his or her thumbs.

This, for me, is the key limitation of VR.The entertainment experiences on offer arecrying out to be shared, but the headsetinevitably isolates the user from friends andcolleagues. The effect is neatly illustrated bythe Oculus VR Cinema app, which comeswith the Gear VR headset. It’s a fun ideathat lets you enjoymovies in the comfort ofyour own virtual cinema – but look aroundand you’ll see that you’re surrounded byempty seats. The symbolism is hard tomiss.

Of course, this is a surmountable problem.No doubt, clever people are already buildingSecond Life-type frameworks that willenable us to commune in virtual spaceswith friends both local and remote.

What I’m not so certain of iswhether this is actually a goodthing. If VR can transport us toincredible places at the click of abutton – and I’ve seenwithmyown eyes that it can – thenwhatdoes that do to our relationshipwith the real world?Why commuteto workwhen you can attendthat important meeting in your

pyjamas?Why go to the pubwhen you canmeet your friends in a virtual speakeasy thatnever closes ?Why travel at all, when all theworld’s sights and landmarks are just a tapand a swipe away?

Given how readily we’ve acceptedcomputerisation into every other aspect ofour lives, I suspect wemay bewitnessingthe emergence of a tremendously disruptivetechnology – and I don’t mean disruptivelike a smartphone app, but disruptive likea nuclear bomb.

Sowhile I can’t wait to see how itdevelops, I’m reminded of Timothy Leary’sidentification of cyberspace as amodernanalogue to 1960s counterculture: once itbecomes possible to socially inhabit thevirtual world, I don’t doubt that many of uswill indeed turn on, tune in and drop out.

[email protected]

After decades in the doldrums,VR is finally starting to show itsworld-changing potential

The Gear VR responds withaccuracy; it makes you feel thatyou’re not merely looking into avirtual world, but are within it

Virtual reality ishere to stay – sois actual realityon the way out?


27

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K Viewpoints

I’mmore than atouch peeved thatDarien stole mythunder this month,by writing about VRin his column. TheSamsung Gear VR isthemost interestingpiece of hardwareI’ve seen for an age;it’s technology thatdemands to bewritten about,discussed anddebated, so you’ll

forgiveme if my new topic doesn’t quitematch upwhen it comes to excitementand intrigue.

However, this subject is one that’sclose tomy heart. It’s car tech or, morespecifically, in-vehicle communications andentertainment systems (dubbed by some asinfotainment systems). And I’m sad to saythis is not one of those positive columns;I’m here to have amoan.

Amoan about how far behind themotorindustry lags when it comes to the techavailable in everyday cars - and I’m nottalking here about top-endmodels such asAudi, Mercedes or Lexus, but the sort offamily runabout of which I’ve just takendelivery. Standard equipment is stillembarrassingly antediluvian.

Don’t get mewrong, the situation isn’tquite as parlous as it was ten or so years ago.I once remember seeing a full-page advert fora popular small car in The Guardian,whichchose to promote as amajor feature the factthat it had a 3.5mm audio auxiliary input.At the time I was agog; I still am today.

Fortunately, car manufacturers haveovercome that particular speed bump. Mynew car – a shiny blue Hyundai i40 Tourer –has a stereo that complements its aux inputwith a USB port and Bluetooth, plus theability to playMP3s and CDs, and connect an

Tech firms have avision of howwe’lllive in the near future– andwhat we’ll buyfrom them tomakeit happen. If theproducts on show atCES in Las Vegas atthe beginning ofJanuary (see p14)are any indication,within the next yearor so, we’ll havesmartwatches onour wrists, fridges

that restock themselves, TVs that knowwhat wewant to watch, and heatingsystems in our homes that are awareof howwarmwe like it.

Tomake this exciting world of thefuture happen, manufacturers and theirengineering geniuses have innovated innumerous areas, reimagining everythingfrom batteries to data analytics, and all atprices that we can actually afford.What theyhaven’t done, however, is to address theproblems that exist in the technologywealready have, notably privacy and security.

Take smartphones as an example. They’veundoubtedly changed howwe go about ourlives, but they also give governments (andanyone else with the power or inclination)the ability to track exactly where we are andto whomwe’re speaking. If you doubt theseriousness of this, consider the fact that theUSmilitary usesmobile metadata to targetits drones. This information is powerful.

We all know this is happening.What’sthe response from the tech industry? Ratherthan invest in securing smartphones,manufacturers are spending their R&Dbudgets on developing new gadgets, with

iPhone or iPod. But it’s still not ideal, and thesystem hasmajor niggles: for example, youcan only connect USB sticks formatted withthe FAT32 file system, and only then thoseformatted with a sector size of 512KB or 2MB,and you can’t use card readers or hard disks.

Andwhile the Bluetooth audio connectionworks well when the phone is dealing withall audio, things get fiddly when youwanttomix andmatch.Want to listen to AMor FM on the car stereo, with Google Mapsinterjecting turn-by-turn instructions viaBluetooth? You can’t, because the softwareroutes audio via Bluetoothmedia playback;the stereo only picks up on phone calls.

Sowhat’s the answer?Well what Iwant – as do, I suspect, themajorityof smartphone-toting consumers – is

proper smartphone integration. Almosteveryone now has one of these compactcomputers in their pockets; almosteveryone hasmusic, satnav and theinternet on tap, so why not take advantageof it?Why notmake space in the dashfor the phone, provide a convenient USBcharging point and implement a flexibleBluetooth audio interface?

The bad news is that there’s precious littleto suggest that the car industry is actuallytaking note of these trends in consumertechnology, withmany still opting tomakemoney from underpowered satnav upgrades.

The good news is that there is a light at theend of theMont Blanc Tunnel, and it comes inthe form of rival in-car systems fromAppleand Google, namely CarPlay and AndroidAuto.While neither system employs thesmartphone as themain control surface,bothmake use of its capabilities to “stream”the apps installed therein to the car’scomparatively dumb touchscreen.A significant part of both systems isthat voice recognition is set to providecomprehensive hands-free control andinput. In the case of CarPlay it’s Siri, and forAndroid Auto, Google Now takes the reins.

From personal experience of usingtouchscreen entertainment and satnavsystems in the car, I’d suggest this latterfeature is likely to be themost significantstep forward: speech input allows driversto keep their hands on the wheel and yetremain fully in control of audio, messaging,phone calls and navigation. Scrolling,swiping and entering text manually tosearch are hugely distracting and dangerous.With Siri and Google Now bothwired intoactivation buttons on car steering wheels,operating them should be considerablysafer thanmost current systems.

Youmay notice that I’ve used the futuretense here to describe the systems. That’sbecause, despite the fact that both CarPlay

and Android Auto are available tocarmanufacturers, few have addedeither system to their current carranges, even thoughmany haveannounced support for them.And those that have are ratherexclusive – Ferrari’s FFwas thefirst to deliver CarPlay to drivers

Jonathan Bray is PC Pro’sreviews editor. The in-cartech he’s really waiting foris a mute button for his kidssitting in the back seat.

in September last year. As usual, the carindustry is taking its time.

For the rest of us, then, the brave newworld of ubiquitous in-car smartphoneintegration still looks to be a longway off.Maybe next time I change the car it will be adifferent story; past experience, however,suggests that I’m likely to be disappointed.

[email protected]

Smart devicesare stupidwithout bettersecurityTech firms showed off the wrongsort of innovation at this year’sConsumer Electronics Show

The cars wedrive arein need of atech boostThere’s plenty of tech that could beintegrated into cars, so why isn’tthe motor industry forging ahead?

The bad news is that much ofthe car industry is still optingto make money from under-powered satnav upgrades

Nicole Kobie is Briefingand Futures editor. She’slooking forward toignoring updates on herwatch as well as her PC.


28


For several years,mymajor digitalpastime has beenphotography. Ijoined Flickr eightyears ago, and havenow postedmorethan 1,500 picturesthere (you can findthem at pcpro.link/246dpflickr).

During this time,the digital imagingmarket has beenthrough a technical

revolution, and now faces what tech guruslove to call “disruption”. A generation nowprefers to use a smartphone to take pictures,rather than a proper camera – and the qualityof the results has improved extraordinarily,thanks to sensors and image processors fromreal cameramanufacturers such as Sony.

Cameramakersmeanwhile are strikingbackwith retro designs that recall thegolden age of the Leica, with premium£1,000-plus prices aimed at separating“real photographers” from selfie-snappers.

As for me, I’ve resisted both trends. Istarted out postingmostly travel pics, street

photos and landscapes. In recent years, I’vebecomemore interested in post-processingimages tomake them like paintings. Thereare plenty of software tools now available tospice up photos, and some, such as Google’sNik Collection of filters for Photoshop andLightroom, are very good. But I’m lessinterested in buffing upmy pictures thanin dismantling and reconstructing them,and for this my chosen tool is PhotoshopElements 5. This ancient release lacks allthe smart cut-out features of later versions,andmany of the abilities of full Photoshop,but it has all I want: layers, blendmodesand a handful of filters.

Image editingcan transforma photograph –for good and ill

engineers making decisions over whether awatch’s face will be round or square. Andhow dowe respond?We shell out money tostrap an even better spy onto our wrists.

Making a smartwatch or any otherconnected device that works well requiresa host of clever innovations: simplifyingthe OS; redesigning notifications andnavigation; extending battery life insmaller formats; new intelligent sensors;and ever smaller butmore powerful chips.If manufacturers put asmuch effortinto privacy and security, we’d be leapsand bounds ahead of where we are now.Instead, we have plenty of good-looking,functionally capable but deeply flawedproducts. It’s time to slow the pace ofinnovation and take the time to do it right.

This isn’t the first timewe’ve leaptforwardwith a technologywithoutreally acknowledging existing

problems. Consider the internet: it’sdifficult to imagine a technology that’shad such a far-reaching impact on ourlives. The internet and the web layered ontop of it are such a brilliant combinationthat we’ve shiftedmuch of our livesonline: our work, our shopping, ourbank accounts, ourmusic andmore.

That shift continues unabated,despite repeated hacks showing that noneof what we put online is secure. Last year’sShellshock and Heartbleed flaws highlightedthat much of the software infrastructurewe depend on is full of long-running bugs.Clearly we’re not safe online, yet forconvenience we pushmore andmoreof our lives out there. The advent ofsmartphones was an opportunity todemand better security – building inencryption, for example – but the techindustrymissed the opportunity to do so.

Nowmanufacturers want to addappliances, cars andmany other productsto themix.We clearly don’t learn ourlessons. These days, we hope that ourbank, shopping and email accounts aren’thacked, and rush to update passwordswhen attacks are reported. In a few years’time, we’ll have the same response toattacks on our fridges, the heatingsystems in our homes and our cars too.

But would you buy a car where themanufacturer hadn’t bothered to testthe brakes properly? Thenwhy buy asmart car where themanufacturer hasn’tproperly addressed digital security?You simply shouldn’t.

CESwill continue to be an annualshowcase for new but flawed tech – unlesswe stop buying it. It’s time to demandinnovation in the areas that really matter.

[email protected]

Mymodus operandi is as eccentric as mychoice of platform. I perform sequencesof operations on picture, duplicating andsaving layers, tinting, filtering and blendingthem in different modes – and rather thanwriting down this sequence so I can repeatit, I deliberately don’t note a thing. I merelyobserve the changing image until I like it wellenough to stop. I can never repeat exactlythat effect again, which I’m convincedmakes it “art” rather thanmere processing.

Doing this somany times has givenmea deep grasp of how pictures aremade up,and aboutmanipulating levels of detail andtonality. One of my favourite tools is the HighPass filter, which can separate levels of detailso that you can enhance or remove just thatlevel. Another favourite trick is mixing somepercentage of an outrageously processedimage back into the original, to temper theeffect andmake it more subtle.

W ith this experience of the internalmake-up of digital pictures, Iwas interested to hear about a

new project by GCHQ and the NationalCrime Agency (NCA), announced inDecember 2014, which aims to deploy newalgorithms for identifying online picturesof child abuse. According to the pressrelease, these algorithms are “hash-based”,whichmeans they reduce the bit streamof an image to a single number that actsas its “fingerprint”. Such fingerprintingis essential for evidence to be acceptablelegally: it’s necessary to prove that apicture confiscated from some offender isthe same as one obtained from someone else.Obviously filenames and othermetadata areof no use, since they’re only loosely attachedproperties that can be easily changed.

According to the USwebsite FederalEvidence Review, however, the hashingsystemwidely used for this purpose isSHA-1: an algorithm designed for useon alphanumeric data, such as texts,passwords and gun serial numbers. It

won’t generatematching hashesfrom bitmapped images whosecontrast, saturation, sharpnessand so on has been altered, eitherdeliberately, or by accident.

The answer is contentanalysis – notmerely hashing thebits – to electronically establishthe identity of two versions ofany bitmapped image. Face

recognition is well advanced nowadays,and so is the dissection of bitmaps intoseparate objects. So, although challenging,it may be possible to create a unique hashfrom the collection of persons, furnitureand stuff isolated from each image.

Oddly enough, the required expertiseis currentlymost advanced in the field offine art rather than criminology: Iconclass(iconclass.nl) is a hierarchical notationsystem developed by Dutch painting scholarsfor cataloguing unique configurations ofpicture elements. All we need is somethingsimilar for far less salubrious subject matter.

[email protected]

Content analysis, not merelyhashing the bits, is needed toestablish the identity of twoversions of a bitmapped image

New technology in the fine-artworld could help to search outchild-abuse images online

Dick Pountain editsReal World Computing.He thinks it would be greatif people came equippedwith blend modes.

Viewpoints Worldmags.netWorldmags.net

30

Your views and feedbackfrom email and the web

Readers’comments

30

Filling the broadband gapsI’m pleased to see in last month’sBriefing (see issue 245, p10)that Ofcom has recognised that a2Mbits/sec downstream speed isn’tenough for aminimum broadbandstandard. But I note that upload speedgets nomention at all. Many smallbusinesses need a fast uplink: yourdownload is someone else’s upload.

And for those who can’t currentlyget 2Mbits/sec, surely the onlysensible upgrade is to at least30Mbits/sec? Otherwise, thoselocations will shortly have to berevisited at yet more cost. Andwhynot use 4G as a fixed-premises link,charged at a landline rate, creatingamore cost-effective solution forfilling in “not-spots”?

As for households not upgradingto the fastest speed available, a moreattractive pricingmodel is needed.Why should they pay a high pricefor a service that will be used onlyoccasionally?Why not offer abase-level service at a lower price,with the facility to speed up ondemand for an additional charge –say, while making a video call, orstreaming a show in high definitionwith surround sound? That wayusers and content providers canprogressivelymakemore use ofthe higher speeds. AlanWheatley

An alternative to AccessRegarding Simon Jones’ article onsolving spreadsheet problems, I’ma little surprised he didn’t includeFileMaker in his database solutions.I use Access, but find it seriouslylimited since it can’t be used – as Iunderstand it – on Apple systems. Inmy view, this rules it out as an option,since developing a solution that won’twork on an iPad, for example, is anon-starter. FileMaker works acrossPCs andMacs, whichmakes it afavourite over Access for the workI do. Martin Stoneham

Simon Jones replies: “I suggest people lookat Access not because it’s good, but becauseit’s ubiquitous. You don’t even need to ownAccess to run an Access database, sincethere’s a free runtime version availablefor any Windows PC. The latest version ofAccess will also make web apps that run inthe browser, so these can be used from Macand Linux desktops and from mobile devices.However, FileMaker has a long history as across-platform database application, and

although it isn’t cheap, it’s well appointedwith features. I’d agree that anyoneconsidering creating a small databaseapplication should consider FileMaker.”

Sexism in PC ProIn your feature on sexism in tech (seeissue 245, p56), Stewart Mitchellrightly noted the patronising toneof a developer who comparedApacheMaven software to hisgirlfriend, declaring “the softwarelooks beautiful, complains a lot,demands attention, interruptsmewhen I’mworking and doesn’t playwell withmy other friends”.

Four pages later, in “10 inventionsnobodywants”, Stuart Turtonwrote: “Artificial intelligence willeithermirror themind of its creator,or surpass it so completely we’llhave no idea how to control it. Icall this the girlfriend protocol,and it’s frightening.”

Full marks to Stewart, nomarksto Stuart and none to TimDanton

BELOW Sexism isn’tthe preserve of thebuilding site

either – you should have spotted thisone, Tim! Peter Clegg

Editor-in-chief Tim Danton replies: “It’s afair cop. I’d love to say we did this deliberately,to check whether people were reading thewhole of the magazine or not, but that isn’ttrue – we’ll keep a closer eye on our ownsexism in the future. Thanks to everyonewho wrote in and pointed this out.”

Smart desk is smart techWhat an interesting insight you gaveinto the future of the workspace withthe HP Sprout and Dell smart desk (seeissue 244, p127). Mymoney’s on thesmart desk: the idea of a horizontaltouchscreen tablet in conjunctionwitha hi-res monitor really appeals tome. Itopens up awealth of things you coulddo – not only typing, pointing andswiping, but drawing, writing andmanipulating objects in a digital space,just as youmight in the real world.

But the Sprout? Nah. The3D-camera interface will go the

sameway as 3D TV.Mind you, if you’dsuggested five yearsago that I might bytyping this emailfrom a touchscreenonmy phone in bed,I’d have dismissedthat, too! TomAllen-Stevens

A future withoutwork – almostI read DarienGraham-Smith’smost recent columnwith interest (seeissue 245, p24). In anideal world, I picturethat we’d have 100%automation and 90%

Starletter

This month’s star letter wins a Corsair Force Series LS 120GB SSD worth £75. Visit corsair.com

For many years, my advice to online buyers has beento purchase with a credit card. This way, if somethinggoes wrong you have someone on your side who hasa legal imperative to refund your money, even if theoriginal vendor disappears.

Now PayPal and Apple are marketing themselvesas ubiquitous payment systems for purchases. Youcan buy anything from anyone, even from physicalvendors, using such services – but they aren’tcovered by the Consumer Credit Act. AlthoughPayPal highlights its “Buyer Protection”, myexperience is that, unless the details of the

transaction and the procedure you followed fallwithin its defined small print, you won’t be covered.With credit card transactions, the ConsumerCredit Act provides consumer protection firstand foremost, with no burden on the consumerto meet any arbitrary requirements.

Will Apple’s new payment-processing systembe any more effective in protecting consumers?Until the legislators catch up, people need to bemade aware of just what they’re giving away byclicking that seemingly inconsequential optionof paying by PayPal! Alan Ingram

THEUNCOMFTRUTHABSEXISMINTECH

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K Sexismintech

55

Our low-level acceptance of sexism,from British schools to blue-chipcompanies, is pushing women awayfrom potentially great careers intech. Stewart Mitchell investigates

ORTABLEBOUT

Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, HP’s MegWhitman andlastminute.com co-founder Martha Lane Fox –they’re the high-flyers whose rise to the top of thetechnology industry suggests that we’ve finallybroken free of gender discrimination. But have we?

Behind those headline successes, manywomen intechnology still find themselves isolated in an unwelcomingenvironment. Those who take steps to confront sexism canmeet with resentment or disdain, and theymay even findthemselves sidelined professionally.

Certainly there are womenwho enjoy rewarding,well-paid work in the technology field. But some sectorsremain a boys’ club, which appears to resist femaleinvolvement. The Gamergate saga proved that: whatstarted as a debate over game-review ethics splinteredinto a character assassination of female developers.

Game creator BriannaWu, for example, came under fireafter mocking Gamergate for “fighting an apocalyptic futurewhere women are 8% of programmers and not 3%”. Shereceived a deluge of online threats, including one stating:“I’m going to rape your filthy ass until you bleed thenchoke you to death on your husband’s tiny Asian penis.”Themessage included details ofWu’s home address,which forced her tomove out of her home in fear.

It’s a shameful situation in an industry that owes somuch to pioneering women such as Ada Lovelace and GraceHopper, and themany female software engineers who drovecoding during the 1960s. Such attacks create an environmentin which technically capable women are fearful to confrontsexismwhere it still exists.

EVERYDAY SEXISMAlthough efforts are underway to address some inequalities– including pay, to an extent – the IT industry remainsmale-dominated. According to the latest Office for NationalStatistics figures fromAugust 2014, there are 723,000male“information technology and telecommunicationsprofessionals” in the UK, comparedwith 124,000women.

It’s an imbalance that’s reflected in company diversityreports. Microsoft, for example, boasts 29% female workersacross its staff, but in technical positions only 17% arewomen. Of Google’s seniormanagement and executiveofficer team, 17 aremale while only three are women.Menmake up 83% of Google’s engineering staff; Apple’stechnical team is 80%male.

The high percentage of men in the sector doesn’tnecessarily make it sexist; if fewer women go througheducation to get on the first rung of the ladder, an imbalance

54

ORTABLE


31

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K Viewpoints

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Get the latest news andupdates by following us @pcpro

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Add your comments to news, reviewsand features at pcpro.co.uk

SUBSCRIBETo subscribe to PC Pro, visit subscribe.pcpro.co.uk. For existingsubscriber queries, contact [email protected],call 0845 126 0386 or visit subsinfo.co.uk

Readers’ poll

31

There’s no strict medicaldefinition of “too much” screentime, but staring at a digitaldisplay for hours on end cancause eye strain, and it’s beenassociated with depression andsleep disorders too. Employersare legally required to ensureworkers take regular breaksaway from their PCs, but inreality, few of us do so, either atwork or at home. As this month’spoll shows, many PC Pro readersspend the majority of theirwaking lives looking at theirlaptop, smartphone or tablet.

unemployment – the 10% beingshared jobs performed by all in thesociety tomonitor, maintain andrepair themachinery.

However, I don’t thinkwe’llreach the ideal. Instead, we’ll reacha point where 75% of people are freeto pursue a life of leisure, while theother 25% domost of thework inreturn for a reward. Notmoney,but perhaps a bigger house orsome othermaterial luxury.

I think themajority of peoplewill accept the deal if they have amodest home and threemeals a day,and never have to work. I see thistransition taking place over 500,maybe even 1,000 years – andweare only 50 or so years into thatjourney. Mosh Jahan

The case of the lost product keyI purchased an Advent desktopcomputer from PCWorld a few yearsago. Recently it stoppedworking, so Isourced a newmotherboard, installedit and great – it worked again. At thesame time, I decided to start fromscratch and reinstall Windows 8from the provided image, and thisalso worked fine.

However,Windows demandedreactivating, and that’s where things

took a turn for the worse. I knewamotherboard changewould upsetWindows, and had been told a phonecall to Microsoft would sort out theissue. But when I spoke to Microsoft,they asked formyWindows productkey. I looked on the case for thefamiliar sticker, but it wasn’t there.I rang Advent andwas told that myproduct key had been embedded intomy oldmotherboard. “Tell Microsoftit’s a repair,” was the advice.

So I rangMicrosoft again: theyinsisted I neededmy product key. Irang Advent again: they said they hadnoway of knowingwhat it had been.Both of them now suggest I purchase anew copy ofWindows 8. Thanks a lot.

So a word of advice – if you don’tknowwhat yourWindows productkey is, I’d strongly advise writing itdown somewhere. As for me, I’m offto download Ubuntu. Microsoft maynever seeme again, and I won’t bebuying another computer fromAdvent any time soon. Paul Crossley

See our feature on p60 for advice on thisand other Windows annoyances.

The amount of time Ispend looking at my iPadat home is unnecessary

My previous job involvedscreen time, but breakstoo. I’m staring at a screenall day now, and my eyesnotice the difference

I was recently diagnosedas needing glasses. Itmight be my age, or itmight be the PC, laptop,tablet, phone, smartwatchand Kindle!

I spend nine hours atwork looking at a screen –then head home and watcha movie on my monitorwhile freelancing

On a work day, how many hours do you spend looking at a PC screen?

Microsoft may neversee me again, and Iwon’t be buying anothercomputer from Adventany time soon either

ISSUE244

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34

Home-movie footage has anundeniable charm, but itdoesn’t takemuch effort

to turn a piece of video that looksdistinctly amateur into somethingmore professional. We’re fortunateenough to have CyberLinkPowerDirector 11 LE as part ofour downloads this month (see theinsert between pp66-67 for details;if there’s no insert, you’ll need tobuy the Download edition of PC Pro tograb the relevant code), and the goodnews is that it’s perfect for this job.

The LE indicates this is a “light”edition, but fear not: this is still a fullyfeatured video-editing tool, and anexcellent way to create professionalvideos to share online. It just lackssome capabilities of the full version:in particular, themaximum outputresolution is Full HD (1,920 x 1,080),so 4K rendering isn’t supported, anddirect transfer to DVD and Blu-rayisn’t included either. MPEG-2 andAVCHD video files can’t be imported,but this shouldn’t pose a big problem;almost all modern smartphones andDSLRs capture MPEG-4 files in eitherMP4 or MOV format, both of whichare fully supported via codecsalready built intoWindows.

This edition of the software alsocomes with a limited selection ofvideo and transition effects – butsuch things are superfluous anyway.Professional film-makers don’t

distract the viewer withcrazy colour filters andanimated transitions, andneither should the rest of us.

Over the next threepages, we’ll walk throughthe process of assembling

a professional-looking video, andmaking it available for others toview. Althoughwe’ll focus onthe PowerDirector interface, theworkflow is similar inmost majorediting software, so if youwant to getstarted with a different package, thesame general principles will apply.

“This is a fully featuredvideo-editing tool and anexcellent way to createprofessional videos toshare online”

ReviewsRegular intro and catch-up section. Facts and background on any important news stories of the past nth

Xxxxxxxx3 Uxxwg online to-do lists toorganise your work and life p00

Xxxxxxxx3 Axng online to-do lists toorganise your work and life p00

Xxxxxxxx3 Uxxg online to-do lists to orgnise your work and life p00

ProspectsUpgrade your life, business and career with our practical projects and expert advice

Create professional videosHow to turn your personal moviefiles into a slick production p34

Switching to a databaseDitch disorganised spreadsheetsand take control of your data p38

CareersIs it me you’re looking for?Life as an SEO consultant p41

■ First stepsWhether you’re creating a ten-secondvideo for friends or putting togethera professional TV show, the video-editing workflow follows a standardsequence. You start, naturally, byshooting and collecting together allthe footage youwant to use. Next, inyour editing software, arrange yourclips into the desired order and trimaway any extraneous footage, so themovie cuts cleanly from one scene tothe next. At this point you can alsoapply any video corrections andeffects where necessary – for example,

Create professional videoswith PowerDirector 11 LEDarien Graham-Smith introduces theprofessional-grade video-editing suite thatheadlines this month’s software downloads


@ P C P R O Prospects Videoediting

35

P C P R O . C O . U K

youmight want to brighten updark footage. You can also createtransitions between scenes whereappropriate, and finish the job byadding extra elements such as titlesandmusic.When you’re happywiththe way it all plays through, you canfinally render the project to a newvideo file, ready to be shared.

Although PowerDirector has thecapability to capture directly from acamera attached to your PC, mostpeople are likely to shoot using astandalone camera. It’s worthdouble-checking that your device isset to a supported format – SonyDSLRs, for example, can optionallycapture video in AVCHD – and alsohowmany frames per second you’recapturing. Many devices default to30fps, but in the UK it’s better tochoose 25fps, as otherwise you’relikely to see a strobing effect fromfluorescent lights.

With these settings in place,you’re ready to shoot your footageandmove on to the editing stage. Ifyouwant to workwith pre-existingvideo files in uncertain formats, don’tpanic – these can be converted, eitherwithin PowerDirector or using freeconversion software. This can reducequality and smoothness, however, soit’s best avoided if possible.

■Getting your clips ontothe timelineWhen you first start up PowerDirector11 LE, you’ll be invited to choose eitherthe Full Feature Editor or the EasyEditor. The Easy Editor is a simple wayto turn a set of video files into a singlemovie, but it doesn’t give youmuchscope for creativity. The Full FeatureEditor isn’t difficult to use, and offersfar more room to experiment andlearn – so we recommend you skipthe Easy Editor and dive right intothemain program.

Once you enter the Full FeatureEditor, you’ll see the screen divided

into three sections. Theupper-left area shows, bydefault, the current libraryof video clips and stillimages that are available foruse in yourmovie; a series oficons down the left-handside of this pane lets you

changewhat’s shown here.Whenthe time comes, this area is alsowhere you’ll find transitions andother effects.

In the upper right of the window,meanwhile, you can see a preview ofthe selected clip; and along the bottomhalf of the screen sits the timeline,which at present will be a stack ofempty tracks.

You’ll notice that a collection ofclips and images comes pre-loadedinto the library. These are fine to playwith if you’re just tinkering with theprogram, but if you have your ownfootage, it makesmore sense to workwith that. We’ll start therefore byremoving the default clips from thelibrary; this won’t delete them fromthe disk, only from this particularproject. To do this, simply clickanywhere in the library pane, thenpress Ctrl+A to select all clips, thenthe Delete key to remove them.

Now it’s time to import yourownmedia, by clicking the yellow“from folder” icon at the top leftof the library. You can importindividual files or select an entirefolder of media as needed. If yourclips are inMOV format, youmightneed to select “All Files” in thefile-import dialog to see them,since PowerDirector doesn’t showsuch files by default.

Once all your clips are imported,you can start dragging them ontothe top track of the timeline.Arrange them sequentially asneeded: to zoom in and out of thetimeline, use the zoom control atthe bottom left, or drag left and rightin the time-code area above thetimeline. To check that you have thecorrect clips in the correct order, youcan use the previewwindow at theupper right to play, pause and skiparound the timeline.

LEFT A few clickscan correct colourcasts and brightenup murky footage

LEFT CyberLinkPowerDirector 11LE has a friendlyinterface so shouldbe easy to pick up

Working with audioAs well as video clips, it’s possible to drag audio files onto thetimeline to add sound effects or background music to your video.By default you’ll see an audio-only Track 3 available for this purpose.

Audio clips can be trimmed and dragged like regular video clips,and volume changes can be automated using envelopes. To set thisup, click on the line along the middle of the audio clip to create a“node”, then drag that node up or down to fade or boost the volumeat that point. To make this easier, you can expand the track view bydragging the track-dividing line in the track list.

In the same way, you can also edit the volume envelopes of videoclips – click the waveform in the lower half of each clip. To move,copy or trim a clip’s audio independently of its video, right-click onthe clip and select “Unlink Video and Audio”.

“PowerDirector’sFull Feature Editorisn’t difficult to use andoffers far more room toexperiment and learn”


36

Prospects Videoediting

■ Edits, effectsand transitionsOnce your clips are in order, the nextstep is to trim away any extraneousfootage that comes before and afterthe action. If you hover over the edgeof a clip, you can click and drag tomake the clip start playing from alater point, or finish earlier.

After you change the length of aclip, you’ll see a dropdownmenugiving you the option to shunt allsubsequent footage left or rightaccordingly – this is called rippleediting, and it can be useful to ensureyou’re not left with unwanted gaps(or overlapping clips).

If you’re workingwith a long clipthat containsmultiple scenes, youmight want to split it into two ormoreparts. This is also helpful if youwantto cut away from a clip to a differentone, then cut back to the first. Toachieve this, position the timelinecursor at the point where youwant tosplit the clip, then click the contextualSplit button that appears above thetimeline. PowerDirector also includesa tool that tries to detect differentscenes in a video and split up clipsautomatically: to access this function,hover over a clip in the library, thenclick the “Detect scenes” button thatappears at its lower left.

Once you start assembling scenesinto sequences, youmay notice thatyour clips aren’t all lit in quite thesameway – or perhaps that all yourfootage is too dark, or suffers from anunwanted colour cast. You can easilyadjust the appearance of a clip byselecting it on the timeline andclicking the Fix/Enhance button


Titles and captionsNot all videos need an introduction: it’s oftenbest to jump straight into the action. And asit happens, PowerDirector 11 LE comes withonly a handful of animated title cards – noneof which meet our professional ambitions.

However, you can easily create yourown titles and captions in any graphicsprogram, such as the free Paint.NET(getpaint.net). Simply create a newdocument with a size of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels,then paint it with a suitable backgroundcolour and type your required text on top,alongside adding any graphical effectsyou may desire. Save this as a PNG file andimport it onto the PowerDirector timeline.You can adjust its position and length, andapply transitions just as you would a normalvideo clip.

A similar approach can be used tocreate a text overlay. The difference is thatthis time you’ll want to ensure that thebackground behind your text is transparent;

in Paint.NET, this is represented as agrey-and-white chequered patternbehind the text. Again, save the imageas a PNG file (the JPEG format doesn’tsupport transparency), then import it intoPowerDirector and place it onto Track 2 ofthe timeline. You’ll see Track 1 show throughthe transparent areas of the image, withyour text superimposed.

TOP Ripple editingensures you won’tbe left with gaps inyour movie

above to open a new pane.Tick “Colour Adjustment”to reveal a series of sliders,allowing you to adjust theexposure, contrast, colourbalance and so forth. If youwish, you can click “Apply toAll” to correct all clips on thetrack in one go. Click theclose icon at the top rightof this pane to return to thelibrary view.

The last stage is to applyany transitions as needed.We recommend that youdo this sparingly: a simplejump-cut is normally lessdistracting than an animatedtransition. However, if youfeel a crossfade or a jazzytransition is needed, you canaccess the Transition Roomby clicking the relevant iconat the upper left-hand sideof the interface (it lookslike a frame of filmwith alightning bolt in front of it).

Here you’ll see a selectionof transition effects. Click onone to preview it, and drag itonto the timeline to apply it.If you place your chosentransition over the start orend of a clip, you’ll see a transitionfrom or to black – or, if you’reassembling your video across multipletracks, a transition from or towhatever is on the track behind it.(In PowerDirector, each track sits “infront of” the last, so if you have clipspositioned simultaneously on twotracks, the video for Track 2 will hidethe video on Track 1.)

“PowerDirectorincludes a tool thattries to detect differentscenes in a video and splitup clips automatically”

ABOVE Your finishedproject can be sharedonline in minutes

If you drag the transition to apoint where two clips on the sametrack touch, the first clip will seguedirectly into the second, using yourchosen effect: do this with the Fadetransition effect to create a crossfade.Transitions appear as a cyan rectanglesuperimposed onto a clip; you canchange the duration of a transitionby simply dragging its edges.

■Renderingyour videoWhen you’re ready torender the finished product,click the Produce button atthe top of the screen toswitch to the production

interface. Here, under the Standard2D tab, you can choose a format:MPEG-4 at 1,920 x 1,080 resolutionwill suit most purposes.

It’s also possible to target specificdevices, and if you click the Onlinetab you’ll see the option to uploadyour video directly to Facebook orYouTube (you’ll be prompted to fillin details and log in to the relevantservice as appropriate). Again, theFull HD template is probably a goodchoice, although if you’re workingwith low-resolution footage, youmight opt to save space and uploadtime by choosing a lower resolution.

When you’ve selected suitablesettings, hit the Start button towardsthe bottom left of the interface andPowerDirector will render yourvideo. Job done.


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38

“At this point thespreadsheet approachbecame unworkable: therewere far too many peopletrying to keep it up to date”

LEFT The existingworkbook exhibitsmany problems,most concerning alack of consistencyand concurrency

Ditch messy spreadsheetsand switch to a database

Last monthwe looked at thepitfalls of using a spreadsheetapplication such as Excel to store

lists of data. This approachmay seemlike the best solution at first, but youcan run into problems sharing thatdata withmultiple users, validatingthe content or even navigating yourdata.Why? Because you’re using atool that wasn’t designed to do the job.

This monthwe’ll consider animaginary (but typical) case of abusiness using a spreadsheet-basedlist, and look at how this could beconverted to a database applicationto overcome such problems.

■ How workbooksget out of handOur list began as a simple record ofprojects undertaken for clients. As thecompany grew, so too did the numberof clients, with names and contactdetails added to the workbook. Also,somewaywas needed of recordingwhat variousmembers of staff weredoing on these projects, so evenmoredata was added into this workbook.

At this point the spreadsheetapproach became unworkable: therewere far toomany people trying tokeep it up to date, often at the sametime. The company tried instituting a

rota, so that people took it in turns toupdate the workbook, but this meantthat some tasks were forgotten aboutbefore theywere recorded.

In the end, people set up theirownworkbooks to keep track of theirtasks, sometimes remembering tocopy the data into themainworkbookat the end of the week. Employeesdeveloped their own shorthand for

When it comes to storing business data, Excel isn’t always the right tool.Simon Jones shows how to migrate a chaotic set of sheets into a structured database

these books, and some changed theformatting and the order of thecolumns to suit their way of working.Copying this data into themainworkbook resulted in a horrible mess.

This may be amade-up example,but I’ve actually seen all of thesepractices in real life. Let’s take a closerlook at some of the issues thrown upby this method of working.

■ Plenty of problemsYou can see the first sheet of ourimaginary spreadsheet below. Thefirst column details the name of theproject to which each entry refers.Some of these names are long,however, so staff may have beentempted to use abbreviations; as aresult, typos have crept in. This makesit difficult to tie upwhich tasks belongto which project. The solution doesn’thave to be difficult: you could choosea short name for each project thateveryone agrees on, or give eachproject an ID number and translatethis to the project name automatically.

There’s a similar problemwith theStarted column. Some cells contain adate, but others record only amonth– and one or two records just say“Yes”. Excel does support datavalidation, so it’s possible to ensure

that particular cellsalways contain data of aparticular type – but whena spreadsheet is developedin an ad hoc fashion, it’srarely used.

Youwon’t have thisproblem in a database

application, since the data type of thefield will be fixed from the outset. Ifyou don’t know the exact date whenwork began, you can use the first ofthemonth, or 1 January if you onlyknow the year. If the project hasn’t yetbeen started, youmight leave the fieldblank – a NULL in database terms. Ifyou knew the project had been startedbut didn’t knowwhen, you can usea date that would ordinarily beimpossible for your data, such as1/1/1900. Immediately it becomes


39

@ P C P R O Prospects DatabasesP C P R O . C O . U K

easy to sort projects and gain achronological overview of activity.

Amore subtle challenge ispresented by the column labelledClient. The entries in this columnaren’t linked to anything else inthe workbook, but there’s a listof Customers on Sheet 1, which isprobably what it refers to. Storingmultiple lists of the same items,referred to by different names, isconfusing. You need to clarify thenaming and settle on an unambiguousname for this entity: are they clientsor customers?

The Status column is another onewhere there’s been no validation, sopeople have again opted to writewhatever theywant. It would bebetter to establish a short list of allthe permissible values.

The second sheet – Sheet 1 – is justas problematic. For a start, the sheetname isn’t descriptive.What itactually contains is a list headedCustomers, but this isn’t formatted asa table in Excel: the address is in onefield, which limits your ability to useExcel’s built-in tools to search or sortit. You could, for example, filter foraddresses that contain “Cardiff”, butthe results would also include thoseon Cardiff Road in Newport.

When it comes to addresses, thebest approach is to use separate fieldsfor the postcode, county, city, andstreet (although county informationis optional for UK addresses – see Nocounties, please, we’re British). Streetshould contain everything that isn’t inthe other parts of the address.

There’s a Contact field, whichpresents problems too.Where wehave several contacts within asingle-client business, their nameshave all been lumped into this field,with their phone numbers and emailaddresses similarly placed into theother fields. Separating these out will

be challenging – especially if there arethree names in the Contact field butonly two phone numbers.

The final column in this sheet isheaded Last Contacted: employees are

supposed to update thiseach time theymakecontact with a customer.Since this informationis an extra thing for theemployee to remember,and there’s no guaranteetheywill – especially since

it’s hidden out of the way on a secondsheet– it’s unreliable. This is reallysomething the computer should betracking automatically.

Finally we come to the Taskssheets, which detail the tasks andcomments for eachworker. Thesearen’t named consistently, and don’tcontain the same columns in thesame order.While it makes sense forindividual users to enter their dataon their own sheets, the lack ofcoherencemakes it difficult to collateand analyse the data.When amanagerwants to see what work has been doneon each project, for example, all thetasks have to be copied by hand fromthe individual sheets into one listbefore they can be sorted andreported on.

■ Building your databaseSorting out these issues will take somework, possibly several days. Sinceusers will probably have to continueto use the old systemwhile we’rebuilding a new one, it’s best tomake acopy of the existing workbooks fromwhich to work. This means we’ll wantto document every step in convertingthe data, so we can quickly do it againwhen the time comes to switch over tothe new system.

The first thing you need to dois clean the data in your Excelworkbook. Using Find & Replacecan help, and you should delete any

column or row that doesn’t containdata (except for the column headingrow, whichmust be kept). Add an IDcolumn to each sheet, in column A,and populate it with incrementalnumbers by typing 1 in the first cell,selecting to the bottom of the data(Shift+End, Down) then using the FillDown command (Ctrl+D). Create amaster list of project names, andwherever a project name is recorded,use the VLookup() function to confirmits master ID number; if there’s nonumber, there’s an inconsistency inyour data.

Once your data is clean, it’s timeto design a new database to hold it.We’ll use Access 2013, because in ourtheoretical example it’s available toall our users through our Office 365subscription.When you create a newAccess database, you get a choice ofcreating it as an AccessWeb App or anAccess Desktop Database.Web Appshave a simplified interface and can beused only if you have Office 365withSharePoint Online or SharePointServer 2013 with Access Servicesand SQL Server 2012.We’ll use thetraditional Desktop Database, sinceit offers more options and greatercontrol over the user experience. Fulldetails of the differences are given atpcpro.link/246access

Select to create a newDesktopDatabase and name it: Access createsa new table called “Table 1”, andplaces you into the Design Viewwith one column, called “ID”. Hereyou can design the tables you’ll needin your database. Every table shouldhave an ID field (an automaticallyincremental integer), but to avoidconfusion it’s best to give it a moredescriptive name. In the Projects tableit would be “ProjectID”, “CustomerID”in the Customers table, and so on.

You can set the data type for everycolumn created, and you need to giveeach column a name and set any other

RIGHT You can usethe Table Design Viewto quickly set up yourfields. The propertiesand lookup definitionsof each field appear atthe bottom

“While it makes sense forusers to enter their data ontheir own sheets, the lackof coherence makes itdifficult to analyse”

No counties, please, we’re BritishIf you’re storing addresses in your database, it’s important tounderstand what information you actually need. Althoughcounty information can be useful for marketing – and may beneeded for some overseas addresses – it’s no longer officiallyused in UK addresses.

The reason is that UK postal addresses rely on the conceptof a “post town”, where post for you is sent and sorted beforeit’s delivered to your door. Not all towns or villages are servedby post towns in the same county – for example, Melbourn (inCambridgeshire) gets its mail through Royston (in Hertfordshire)– so specifying a county in the address doesn’t necessarilyhelp anyone.

To avoid confusion, the Post Office stopped using counties inaddresses back in 1996, relying on postcode information instead– and by 2016, it plans to remove county names from the “aliasdata file” of supplementary address information. So, if you includea county in a UK address it will simply be ignored.


40

@ P C P R OProspects Databases P C P R O . C O . U K

properties and formatting asappropriate for the field. As withthe ID field, make sure the columnnamesmake it obvious what datashould go in the field – so, forexample, use ProjectName ratherthan just Name, DueDate ratherthan Due. You can use the Name &Caption button on the ribbon tocreate an abbreviated caption aswell as the explicit name. You canuse spaces in column names, butyou’ll have to surround themwithsquare brackets whenwritingqueries and reports.

Set the formatting on columns suchas PercentageComplete to be Percentand dates to be ShortDate, and also themaximum length of text fields to asensible value, or they’ll all be 255characters long. Remember that somewords (such as Date) are reserved, soyou can’t use them as column names:use TaskDate or something elsemoredescriptive instead.

When it comes to columnswhereyouwant to look up a value in anothertable (such as the Customer column inthe Projects table), define those othertables in Access before you add thelookup column.When it comes toStatus, the simplest option is to justtype the values to be shown in thedropdown list – but this makes itdifficult to add or edit the list ofpossible values later. Unless you’redealing with a short list wherepossible values are unlikely to change– such as a field recording someone’ssex – it’s a better idea to create anothertable for entries such as ProjectStatus.This allows you to easily add extraoptions to the list in future withouta programming change.

■ EnhancementsWhile we’re designing our database,we can implement improvementsover the old spreadsheet-basedway ofdoing things. One complaint our usershadwith their Excel workbooks wasthat each task contained only one cellfor comments, and sometimes theyneeded tomakemore than one

comment on a task – or, thesupervisor needed tomake acomment about a task and thenthe user reply to this. Crammingeverything into a single cell made itdifficult to see when, and bywhom,comments weremade.We can dobetter by creating a separate table forcomments, linked to the Tasks table.In this way, each task can have asmany comments as necessary, withseparate fields for the date, usernameand text of each one.

Another enhancement wecanmake is to set entries such asProjectStatus to display in a particularorder, rather than alphabetically –for example, youmight want“Completed” to go at the bottom of thelist. To do this, add a DisplayOrdercolumn and use it to sort the lookuplist. Don’t be tempted to use the IDfield; with this, any new records couldonly go on the end of the list.

To ensure our data remains clean,we canmark fields that the usermustfill in as “Required”, and addvalidation to ensure that the dataentered is in the correct form. You canmake life easier by setting sensibledefault values: the CommentDate fieldon the Comments table could have itsdefault value set to “=Date()”, whichwill automatically set it to today’s datewhenever a new Comment is created.You can use validation alongwith a“Withdrawn” column in a table (aBoolean) to stop users adding newrecords with specific values. Thisallows you to keep historic values thatused to be valid, but that aren’t usedanymore. These features can all befound on the Table Tools | Fields tab onthe ribbon or in the Field Properties inTable Design View.

■ Importing your dataOnce your tables are set up, you canuse the External Data | Import & Link |Excel button on the ribbon to appendthe data from your Excel workbook tothe tables in your Access database.Make a backup of your blank Accessdatabase before you start, in caseanything goes wrong, and start bypopulating the small tables by hand ifnecessary. Take another backup oncethis is done, so you can get back to thispoint if anything goes wrong in thefollowing steps.

Now import themain tables thatdon’t rely on any other tables, such asCustomers, before finishing with thetables that do have relationships, suchas Projects and Tasks. If you rearrangeand rename the columns in your Excelworkbook tomatch the fields in yourAccess database as closely as possible,you shouldn’t have any difficultyimporting the data. Remember tomake a note of everything you do soyou can repeat it later if you need toconvert the data again.

Once the data is imported, thetables in Datasheet View should workmuch as the Excel worksheets did –but withmuch better data validation,searching and sorting. If youwish,you can now start to design new formsand reports based on this data: forexample, a Master/Detail form forProjects might show the data of oneProject at the top of the form and agrid of the Tasks for that project atthe bottom.

You could also set up a “My Tasks”form that lists all the outstandingtasks for the current user and anOverdue Tasks report that lists allthe outstanding tasks for all usersthat are past their due date.

ABOVE TheRelationships Viewon the Database Toolstab shows how yourtables are related toeach other

BELOW The ImportSpreadsheet wizardlets you bring yourExcel data into Accessone table at a time


@ P C P R O Prospects Careers

41


SEO consultant

ShawnHarding

Where to start■ 58 resources to help you learn and master SEO (pcpro.link/246c1)■ Major Google algorithm updates (pcpro.link/246up)■ Do you need an SEO? (pcpro.link/246seo)

£27kApproximatestarting salary

£38kAverageearnings

32Permanent jobs(itjobswatch.co.uk)

■What is your job?I’m a search-engine optimisation (SEO) expert, and pay-per-click(PPC) specialist. Very simply, I help brands to be discovered online.I work in a creativemarketing agency that handles promotions forclients of all sizes, and that might also include leaflet drops ormagazine advertising – butmy role is specifically online.

■What does your day look like?I spend a fair amount of time checking analytics, which enablemeto stay on top of the trends among visitors to the sites we look after.There’s a lot of work involved inmaintaining a site’s online presence:there aremore than 200 factors that Google looks at to decide whereyou should rank for a given search phrase, the weighting of which ischanged regularly, with bigger updates every so often.We need torespond to be able to respond to thosemovements.

■What tools do you use?I use a variety of tools to trackwebsite metrics. Google Analytics isthe biggest one, and then there’s SEOprofiler and theMoz tools. I liketheMoz tools: everything you need is there, so it’s easy to perform abasic audit of a site and see how it’s performing. GoogleWebmasterTools is useful as well – it’s surprising how few developers use it.

I use a variety of website-editing packages too. Even if you have adedicated in-house designer or developer, you don’t want to be goingto them every day and asking them tomake tweaks, so I tend to dothat myself as needed.

■How did you get started in the SEO business?A few years ago, I used to runmy own YouTube channel, andwhilelooking for ways to optimise it, I learnt a bit about SEO. At the sametime, I was also runningmy own business; to promote it I needed tolearn SEO principles and apply them tomy own site. Throughmyown SEO and online promotion, my business was actually discoveredand picked as a primary contractor for the London 2012 Olympics.

Along the way, I realised that there were a lot of SEO guys outtheremaking promises, such as “we canmake you the number-onehit on Google” – claiming stuff that simply wasn’t true, or focusing onmethods that weren’t relevant anymore, such as selling links to yoursite. I knew I could do better, so I started offeringmy own services ona freelance basis, and then ended up in a full-time position here.

■What advice would you give to someone interested in the career?You can start learning about SEO on forums such as Search EngineWatch and Search Engine Land. Moz.comwill help you to understandwhat people are looking for, andwhat Google wants.

You don’t necessarily need advanced technical skills – if you’recomfortable in HTML and PHP, that’s great, but if you’re not then youcanwork alongside a web developer. You need copywriting ability,however. Onemistake people oftenmake is to create websites thatappeal to search engines, rather than the visitor. If visitors don’tfind your site engaging, what’s Google going tomake of that?

■ Is SEO a career with a future?Already Google is looking at semantics and searcher contextwhen ranking search results. This means old ideas such as keywordstuffing don’t work anymore. Amore holistic approach is needed,

and I think in time traditional SEOmethodswill become irrelevant. This doesn’t mean theend of digital promotion as a whole, however:social media, for example, will be with us fora long time, so the focus will shift. If youwantto get into this type of work, you’ll need to beprepared for that change – you have to beready to learn new skills and look at thingsin newways.

■What’s the worst thing about the job?Sometimes it can take up to sixmonths fora change to percolate through the system.So you’ll make an improvement to a site inJanuary, say, and youmay not see the benefituntil July. That can be hard to explain to aclient. Google, meanwhile, can just change itsalgorithmwithout warning and suddenly you’llfind your site has dropped off the first page ofresults. This too can be difficult to explain to aclient: “Your traffic is down 80%; we’re workingto fix it, but it may be sixmonths before we seean improvement.”

■What’s the pay like?If youwork for an agency, the pay isn’t ashigh as if you’re freelance, or employed inan enterprise-level business, but we havea range of skills on hand, such as in-housegraphic designers. Plus I get paid at the end ofeverymonth. This isn’t something that can beguaranteed if you’re working freelance: if youtake that route, there’s always the risk that yourclients will be hit out of the blue by a Googlealgorithm update and abruptly decide to taketheir business elsewhere.


4242

IN PRAISE OFTHEUNSUNGHEROES The achievements of the

IT industry’s householdnames are founded onthe pioneering work oflesser-known researchersand innovators. Wecelebrate the unsungheroes of computing


43

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K Unsungheroes

43

Talk about the heroes of computing and a host offamiliar names are bound to surface – from pioneerssuch as Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace and AlanTuring, to more contemporary examples such as BillGates, Steve Jobs and Linus Torvalds.

Yet the truth is that the greatest visionaries rarely workalone. Just as Isaac Newton, one of the fathers of modernscience, modestly acknowledged that he “stood on theshoulders of giants”, so the best-known names in computinghave frequently built on the cumulative achievements andresearch of lesser-known – but no less important – researchersand inventors.

So it’s time to turn the spotlight on some of thoseunderappreciated figures of computing, and give them therecognition they deserve. On the pages that follow, ourexperts nominate their own unsung heroes in a variety of fields,from security to graphics and business productivity, and set outtheir impact on computing. And on p46, you’ll also find theresults of our reader poll of your own computing heroes – inwhich the big-hitters of computing rub shoulders with somenames that may surprise you.


44

Peter GutmannFor most of us, “data security”means worrying about how toprotect your valuable information.In 1996, Peter Gutmann published apaper addressing a more insidiousissue: what to do with data that youdon’t want any more. He foresawthe growing issue of disposing ofhardware that might contain tracesof confidential data that shouldn’t fallinto the wrong hands.

Accordingly, he developed aprocess of data destruction knownas the Gutmann method, wherebythe contents of a hard drive areoverwritten by a series of 35 patterns,erasing the data so securely that not

even someone with a magnetic-forcemicroscope and plenty of

determination could stand achance of getting it back.

While the full 35-passmethod is overkill for

modern drives,Gutmann’s approach isintended to be secureenough to reliably wipeany type of disk. Hedeserves recognitionfor identifying a keydata-security problem

and proposing a robustsolution to it, giving data

privacy its deservedprominence.

Tommy FlowersMy final nomination isn’t for acode-maker, but for a codebreaker.Pretty much everyone knows aboutAlan Turing’s work in this area,which is credited with shorteningWorld War II. Unfortunately, the focuson Turing tends to overshadow thework done by his Bletchley colleagueTommy Flowers.

The son of a bricklayer, Flowers hadoriginally joined the General Post Officein 1926 to research the (then largelytheoretical) development of electronictelephone exchanges, but when anEnigma machine arrived at BletchleyPark, it was Flowers who immediatelyenvisioned the possibility of creating acomputer to decrypt it. Thus he setabout building the Colossus computer– despite a lack of enthusiasm from theBletchley Park management, who gavehim minimal support and let him fundthe project partly from his own pocket.

Without Colossus, Turing and histeam would have struggled to crackthe Enigma code, and the war mighthave continued for many years longer.Flowers received an MBE for hiswork, but the £1,000 payout he wasawarded after the war by thegovernment didn’t even cover thecost of building the computer. Im

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Phil ZimmermannIf anyone in the data-securitybusiness deserves to be called a hero,it’s Phil Zimmermann. In 1991, hedeveloped Pretty Good Privacy (PGP),the first email-encryption productthat allowed ordinary internetusers to secure their emailcommunications. What’s more, hepublished it for free, at a time whenthe only organisation with real emailprivacy was the US government.

The official response was todeclare his software a “weapon” andban it from being exported: whenZimmermann travelled, his laptopswere regularly searched (normallyby people who had no idea what theywere looking for). He was eveninvestigated under the Arms ExportControl Act, the argument being thatdistributing the software onlinemight be a form of export.

It took five years for the USto relax its position on PGP;Zimmermann deserves recognitionnot only for the importance of hissoftware, but also for what he wentthrough for the greater good.

Dr Taher ElgamalNext time you place an onlineshopping order, thank Dr TaherElgamal – the Egyptian-Americancryptographer who more orless single-handedly kicked offthe e-commerce revolution.

Elgamal was behindseveral breakthroughs inonline cryptography. In themid-1990s, as chief scientistat Netscape Communications,he was responsible for theintroduction and promotion ofthe Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) –the technology that enablesend-to-end security for creditcard transactions and VPNs.Although SSL has largely beenreplaced by Transport LayerSecurity (TLS) these days, it wasDr Elgamal who first introducedtrust to the online world,transforming the internet into achannel for real-world business.

Davey Winder names the heroeswho’ve made e-commerce possibleand saved countless lives

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF…SECURITY

“He introducedtrust to theonline world,transformingthe internetinto a channelfor real-worldbusiness”


45

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K Unsungheroes

Computer-science tutor David Huntnames the key programming figuresof the past – and the future

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF…PROGRAMMING

MartinDougiamasDougiamas is a computer scientistand educator, and for me animportant figure thanks to hisrecognition that non-technicalpeople tend to struggle withelectronic learning systems.

In 1999, he began developing aproject called Moodle (modularobject-oriented dynamic learningenvironment) – an open-sourcelearning management system usedby millions of students to study onlinecourses in industry and universitiesaround the world.

Moodle’s key point is its focuson social interaction andcollaboration, making both thesystem and the subject matter moreaccessible. As virtual educationbecomes more commonplace, it’slikely that Dougiamas’ work willbecome increasingly influential. As aneducator, I also salute Dougiamas formaking his solution open source.

SatoshiNakamotoThe mysterious Nakamoto has beencredited with the invention of theBitcoin protocol, although there aredoubts as to whether he exists. It’sbeen suggested that this pseudonymmay in fact represent a group ofcoders who, for their own reasons,want to remain anonymous.

Whoever created it, Bitcoinrepresents a great achievement of

software design. I’m in awe ofNakamoto: working in software,

he had the vision to create anew currency and turned ourunderstanding of traditionalbanking on its head. The valueof bitcoins has fluctuatedwildly in the past few years: at

the time of writing one coin isworth £210, up from around 4p

in 2010. What’s the differencebetween spending virtual money

as bitcoins and spending it via creditcard on a website?

Sebastian ThrunSebastian Thrun is a man withmany hats: he’s a vice president atGoogle, a part-time professor ofcomputer science at StanfordUniversity and CEO of educationalorganisation Udacity. What makesThrun’s research particularlyinteresting is his focus on roboticsand artificial intelligence.

In the course of his work,Thrun has developed a number ofautonomous robots, including adriverless car that he enteredinto the 2005 DARPA GrandChallenge – a contest todesign a car that could followa 150-mile off-road routeacross the Mojave Desert inthe United States withouthuman intervention. His teamaddressed the problem bycreating software that workedout the optimum route using laserscanners and range finders placed onthe car. His car, Stanley, became thefirst winner of the challenge, afterdriving autonomously for almostseven hours.

Thrun is now working onGoogle’s driverless car systems.With the UK government ruling toallow driverless cars onto publicroads in January 2015, his work isset to revolutionise our transporthabits in the next decade.

Gennady KorotkevichAt just 20 years old, Gennady Korotkevichhas already made his mark on theprogramming world by winning a rangeof international competitions. He haswon Gold for six consecutive yearsat the International Olympiad inInformatics, an annual event open tosecondary-school pupils. Typically,contestants have to solve three problemswithin five hours, working on their own witha computer using C, C++ or Pascal (Java isbeing introduced next year).

Among many other achievements, Korotkevich wasalso the Google Code Jam 2014 winner, beating contestants from around theworld. His focus is currently on “sport programming”, in which he competes tosolve problems by writing computer programs as quickly as possible.

Edsger DijkstraIn the late 1950s, Dutch computerscientist Edsger Dijkstra developed analgorithm to find the shortest pathbetween two points. This may notsound revolutionary, but it has endlessapplications in the modern world –navigating the road using satnav, or ina web-based mapping system such asGoogle Maps, for example.

Dijkstra is also notable for aletter he wrote to the editor of theAssociation for Computing Machineryin 1968, which was published underthe playful heading “Go To StatementConsidered Harmful”. In it, hesuggested that the Go To statementshould be abolished from high-levellanguages, advocating a structuredprogramming approach instead. In histime, he was one of the most influentialthinkers about programming,

“Dijkstrasuggested thatthe Go Tostatement beabolished fromhigh-levellanguages”

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46

Jon Honeyball names the innovatorswhose work underpins the richinterfaces we enjoy today

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF…OPERATINGSYSTEMS

David CutlerNow a senior technical fellow at

Microsoft, Cutler’s early workincluded the development of theVAX superminicomputer and theVAX/VMS OS at the DigitalEquipment Corporation.

When DEC financially implodedin the mid-1980s, Cutler moved to

Microsoft and started work on aportable 32-bit OS that becameWindows NT – the bedrock ofMicrosoft’s OS offerings. He’s now inthe cloud services team – which workson Azure and its underlying OS and VMtechnology – so his influence lookscertain to continue growing.

Perhaps surprisingly, Cutler isnotoriously press-shy, and is reputedto have a fiery temper. Reportedly, heonce punched his way through arecalcitrant coder’s door; I’ve seenwhat is claimed to be that door,although I can’t verify the story.

Avie TevanianAvie Tevanian worked at CarnegieMellon University on the Mach kernel,which became the underlying OSfor Steve Jobs’ NeXT platform – theextremely powerful but unsuccessfulproject that occupied Jobs while hewas away from Apple.

NeXTStep was extraordinary:I’ll never forget the way it usedPostScript for onscreen graphics,nor the overall beauty and simplicityof the user interface, which wasclearly designed by a small team.Everything about the platformscreamed quality, and it was a hugeshame it wasn’t more successful.

Happily, some part of NeXTSteplives on: when Jobs returned toApple in 1997, Tevanian came withhim. Mach became the underlyingkernel of OS X, resulting in earlybuilds of the OS having a curioushybrid feel to them. OS X has beena life-saver for Apple: it hasunderpinned the resurgence ofinterest in Apple’s desktop andlaptop platforms, and also providesthe foundation for iOS, which hasclearly been hugely successful.

It’s a shame that Apple neverproperly developed the OS for serverroles, staying away from the itemsthat made Microsoft Windows Serverso successful in the business andenterprise space. But perhaps Applewas wise not to invest too heavily inthat fight and instead focus on themobile space.

TimPatersonBack in early 1980, Tim Patersonworked at Seattle ComputerProducts, developing motherboardsfor the new Intel 8086 CPU. Theplatform was struggling, however,because CP/M – the standard smallOS at the time – wasn’t available forthis architecture. So Paterson didwhat any true geek would do: he setabout writing his own operatingsystem. The first release of QDOS (the“Quick and Dirty Operating System”)was completed in three months. Bythe end of 1980, it had been renamed86-DOS and had grown through anumber of iterations – at which pointthe rights were purchased by BillGates. 86-DOS became MS-DOS andthe rest, as they say, is history.

Paterson is a hero not merelybecause he was in the right place atthe right time: he saw a need and putin the work to address it.

“NeXTStep wasextraordinary;it screamedquality – it’s ashame itwasn’t moresuccessful”

Although Tevanian left Applein 2006, his work on Mach, NeXTStepand OS X still lives on today in half abillion iPhones worldwide andbeyond – and for that reason, heearns his place as one of my top threeOS heroes.

Sir Clive SinclairToday, the rubber-keyed ZX Spectrumseems primitive, but 8% of readersrecognised how, in the 1980s, Sinclairwas a key driver of home computing inBritain. “When I was a child, Sinclairmade computers affordable enoughfor me to own, and simple enough forme to use,” said Steve Pouncey.Rick Dickerson recalled how Sinclairinspired “the first real generation ofhome-computer geeks”. “I bought onewith my first wage packet in 1983,”added PC Pro contributing editorKevin Partner.

In recent years, wartime computinginnovator Alan Turing has begun toreceive the recognition he deserves.As Andrew Earle succinctly put it:“Turing devised a revolutionarymachine against the odds, and savedcountless lives in the process.” Manyreaders also remembered TommyFlowers (see p44), who workedalongside Turing – “a true pioneerwho designed the world’s firstprogrammable electronic computer,”wrote Gary Akehurst.

Sir Tim Berners-LeeWith almost 15% of the vote, the Britishinventor of the World Wide Web wasthe single most popular figure in ourpoll. “Without Berners-Lee’spioneering work, I’d know a lot lessabout cats and Jedi,” wrote ChrisTimms. Readers praised Berners-Lee’s motivations, as well as hisachievements: Richard Taylorthanked Berners-Lee for “choosing toshare his revolutionary technology forthe use of humankind, rather thangoing down the corporate ‘it’s mine’trademark and profit route”.

YOUR COMPUTINGHEROES

Alan Turing andTommy Flowers

WeaskedPCPro readerstonominate theirowncomputingheroes–here’swhoyouchose,andwhy

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Unsungheroes@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K

Ray NoordaNoorda’s name isn’t one thatfrequently bothers the headlinesthese days, but back in the early daysof business networking he was the CEOof Novell who took the bold decision tosell Ethernet cards for PCs at a loss.Before that decision, it had been afour-figure investment to add a PC – oran Apple II, or an Apricot – to amainframe or minicomputer LAN.Noorda squeezed that down to a“bargain” $250.

The result was a boom innetworking and tremendous successfor Novell itself. Even though it wasoften other people’s networks runningover Novell’s infrastructure, it wasNoorda’s overall approach thatcemented the idea that computerswork better when they’re connectedtogether. Without that push, the stateof networking as a whole would beyears behind where we are now.

Vint CerfIf you’re a “networks person” youmay feel that Vint Cerf is hardlyunsung, but to the man in the streetthe name means nothing. Yet hisinfluence is universal: there couldbe no internet without a means fordevices to talk to one another overunreliable links, and Cerf made thatpossible by creating TCP/IPv4.

It’s a measure of the quality andforesight of Cerf’s work that it haslasted twice as long as he expectedit to, covering the planet with fourbillion addresses. We’re reachingthe limit of where IPv4 can take us,however: an update is urgentlyneeded so the internet can continueexpanding into new communities andacross more devices. Perhaps thecomparatively slow adoption of IPv6can be explained by the fact that it’sthe product of a committee, ratherthan an individual hero.

Vic HayesLet’s say this as brutally aspossible: while networkingexperts like to think interms of miles of CAT- 6cable, for the majority ofhumanity, networking iswireless. Yet, incredibly,it all hangs togetherseamlessly, because ourtablets and laptops useexactly the same protocolsand rules of configurationas a wired LAN.

This wasn’t a foregoneconclusion. There were plenty ofprecedents for crazy alternativemethods of connection, andindeed there remain somewayward approaches out there.France Telecom, for example,gives some home users “Wi-Fi”base stations that in fact useBluetooth, not Wi-Fi. This leads tomuch hilarity when the users cometo the UK and mysteriously can’tconnect to anything.

That such situations are theexception is thanks to Vic Hayes –chair of the charmingly named IEEE802.11 Standards Working Group forWireless Local Area Networks – whosaved us all a world of pain byensuring that Wi-Fi would useexisting standards. Despite hisimportance, Hayes is a name youhave to search for carefully: Wi-Fi’sgenesis came sufficiently late in theinternet age that web searches are

Networking is complex stuff. SteveCassidy celebrates the work of thosewho brought it to the mainstream

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF…NETWORKING

“There wereplenty ofprecedents foralternativemethods ofconnection”

Charles Babbage“His purpose for getting into computing was the verypractical one of doing away with mistakes caused bymanual calculations, and he was aware of the need forusability.” Michael O’Donnell

Jay Miner“As the father of the Amiga, he arguably changed homecomputing more than anyone other than Sir Clive Sinclair.”Ryan Thomas

SteveWozniak“With his product ideas, elegant design, and basic concept thatcomputers should benefit the user first, it was Wozniak whoestablished the core values of Apple.” John Melville

likely to turn up fascinating butmisleading diversions, such as therole of golden-age Hollywood actressHedy Lamarr in developingtechniques for improving bandwidth.

HONOURABLEMENTIONS

Bill GatesAlthough not as widely admired asSinclair, the Microsoft co-foundertook the runner-up place. “Gates didmore to bring PCs to the masses thanany other individual,” wrote TimCutting. Peter Ward agreed: “He hadthe vision of ‘a PC on every desktop’,and made it a reality.” Praise for Gatesdidn’t focus solely on his computingcareer, but also on his work since withthe proceeds. “He’s using his fortuneto help change the world for thebetter, and continues to behave withintegrity,” concluded Ward.

OTHERNOMINATIONS

Frederick Brooks Software engineering guru

Steve Furber Architect of the BBC Micro andARM processor

Alan Kay Innovator of object-orientedprogramming

Don Knuth Programming educator anddeveloper of TeX

Ada Lovelace Victorian programming pioneer

Alan Sugar Mass-market electronicsentrepreneur

Linus Torvalds Creator of Linux andopen-source champion

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48

Ivan SutherlandIvan Sutherland is credited withinventing modern CAD software in1962, and developing the graphicaluser interface. Perhaps his mostambitious project was the Sword ofDamocles – a fully functionalvirtual-reality system, built in 1968 atthe University of Utah (see p113). TheCRT-based headset implementedbinocular vision, creating animpression of a three-dimensionalworld, and used head-tracking to allowthe display to follow the user’s view.

The device was limited toblack-and-white graphics – andweighed so much that it had to besuspended from the ceiling so as not tobreak the user’s neck – but its potentialwas evident. In his paper describingthe experiment, Sutherland noted that“observers uniformly remark on therealism of the resulting images”.

More than 40 years on, we’re onlyjust starting to see viable personalvirtual-reality systems – a strikingreminder of just how far ahead of histime Sutherland was. The floodgatesmay be about to open, however: onp68 we review the Samsung Gear VRheadset, developed in partnership withCalifornia-based VR specialist Oculus– whose CTO is none other than oneJohn Carmack.

Thomas KnollIn 1987, while studying computerscience, Thomas Knoll created asimple program to displayimages on the Macintosh Plus.His brother John – who at thetime worked for visual-effectscompany Industrial Light & Magic –encouraged him to develop it intoa general-purpose image-editingtool, and agreed to help him marketit. A year later, Photoshop waslicensed to Adobe.

Although the original release ofPhotoshop would appear to beextremely basic today, Knoll wasdedicated to constantly addingfeatures. A year after the initialrelease, EPS and CMYK supportwere added, allowing Photoshopto become the backbone of theemerging digital print industry.Windows support followed in 1993,and a continuing stream ofenhancements and new featureshas ensured that Photoshop’sposition has remained unassailableever since.

Needless to say, keeping upthe momentum long ago becamea job too big for Knoll to handlealone: the credits for the latestversion of Photoshop list more than200 names. But Thomas Knollremained the lead programmer until2008’s Adobe CS4 release, and – witha little help from his brother – canclaim the credit for developingperhaps the most widely used andinfluential creative tool in history.

John CarmackJohn Carmack was the leadprogrammer on a series of influential1990s games – notably Wolfenstein3D, Doom and Quake. At a time when3D was primarily associated withray-tracing approaches that tookhours to produce a single frame,Carmack pioneered a whole newgenre of fast-moving, first-personaction games.

The computing techniques heinnovated to make such gamespossible are often praised for theirsheer cleverness. But perhapsmore significant is Carmack’sgreater influence on the course ofcomputer graphics. Previously,computer games had been almostuniversally flat, side-on affairs. OnceCarmack had shown the potential ofinteractive 3D, everything changed:

dedicated 3D accelerator cardsbegan to appear for the PC,

and games consoleslaunched with fully

3D-capable hardware.The race was on to

produce hardwarecapable of renderingever more detailat ever higherresolutions.

Today, even thelowliest GPU builtinto a budget

processor canproduce astonishing

levels of detail. WithoutCarmack’s influence,

the entertainmentlandscape might look

very different today, and ourgraphical hardware would likelybe generations behind.

Edwin CatmullEd Catmull is president of Walt DisneyAnimation Studios (and its subsidiaryPixar) – but his journey to corporatesuccess started in the computer lab.

In the early 1970s, as a PhDstudent of Sutherland’s, hedeveloped several advancedgraphical techniques, includingtexture mapping and bicubicpatches, as well as independentlydiscovering Z-buffering.Significantly, he was one of the firstpioneers in the field to see the potentialof computer graphics in film; beforegraduating, he had created ananimation of a human hand thatfeatured in the 1976 film Futureworld.Three years later, he was vicepresident of the computer graphicsdivision at Lucasfilm, and then in 1986became CTO of Pixar under Steve Jobs,where he worked on the renderingsystems that would produce thestudio’s iconic animated movies, suchas Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

As both a visionary and a computerartist himself, Catmull has done morethan anyone to promote and fulfil thecreative potential of computer-generated cinema.

Darien Graham-Smith praises fourcreators whose visual innovationshave stood the test of time

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF…GRAPHICS

“As a PhDstudent, hedevelopedseveralgraphicaltechniques ”

Unsungheroes @ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K

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“A staggeringamount ofwork went intoanalysing,designing andproving thisradical new UI”

Unsungheroes @ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K

Between 2003 and 2007, Harrisand Larson-Green wereleading members of ateam at Microsoft thatcompletely rewrotethe book on userinterfaces. Theythrew awaythe menus andtoolbars thathad been inuse since thefirst days ofgraphical userinterfacesin the 1970s,replacingthem with theMicrosoft OfficeFluent UI, also knownas the ribbon.

A staggering amountof work went into analysing,designing, and proving thisradical new user interface, whichaffects millions of people in theireveryday work. It rescued usersfrom the confusing array oftoolbars, task panes and menusthat “helpfully” hid commands youhadn’t used for a while – therebyguaranteeing that you’d neverfind them again. Microsoft’s ownfigures reveal that, before therelease of Office 2007, 75% of the“new features” being requested byusers were in fact already presentin the software.

Although the change had itsdetractors, surveys show thatmore than 80% of users think theribbon makes Office more intuitiveand more fun to use – and awhopping 88% of users agreethat it makes it easier to createprofessional-looking documents.Before Office 2007, it was cynicallysuggested that Microsoft Office wascomplete and needed no furtherupdates: Harris and Larson-Greenproved that idea wrong.

Edward TufteEdward Tufte is an American professor, statistician and writer who nowworks at Yale University. He’s best known for his work on information designand data visualisation: in the 1970s, he taught statistics to journalists, and thisled to his influential 1982 book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

At that time, Tufte’s work addressed a select group of communicators andprofessional illustrators. But with the rise of PowerPoint, his work takes on amuch wider relevance, and over the years he’s often criticised the overuse(and misuse) of presentation software. He can certainly beconsidered a hero for his extensive efforts to save usfrom “death by PowerPoint”.

It’s worth mentioning that Tufte also inventedthe Sparkline, introducing the idea in his 2006book Beautiful Evidence. Microsoft filed a patentin 2008 concerning sparklines in Excel 2010;given his own prior publication, I think Tufte isright to declare that Microsoft’s claims expose“the ridiculous state of the US patent system”.

British computer scientists Ted Coddand Chris Date were two men fromdifferent eras. Codd was born in 1923and studied at the University of Oxfordbefore becoming a pilot in the RAF in

World War II; Date was born 18 yearslater and went to Cambridge. In

the 1970s, however, they bothworked for IBM, and together

developed a hugely importantframework for handling largequantities of data.

The key work was Codd’s1970 paper A Relational Modelof Data for Large Shared Data

Banks, which proposedarranging data into tables of

columns and rows, withrelationships between the tables

formed by putting the key values fromone table into the other. His inventionof the relational database led IBM tocreate a query system known as theStructured English Query Language –SEQUEL for short, which was quicklyrenamed SQL to avoid treading on thetoes of an existing trademark.

This led in turn to the rise of Oracle,and of Microsoft’s SQL Server –technologies that are today ubiquitousin business and government. Datehelped Codd develop and extend therelational model, including work on thenormalisation of data. In 1985, Coddpublished his 12 Rules for RelationalDatabase Systems.

Codd and Date eventually left IBMto set up their own consulting firm.Codd received the Turing Award for his

Simon Jones names the individualswho’ve helped us to get more done,and do it better

THE UNSUNG HEROES OF…PRODUCTIVITY

Jensen Harris and Julie Larson-Green Ted Codd and Chris Datework in 1981, and in the same year Datewrote a book on relational databases:his Introduction to Database Systemsis now in its eighth edition and is usedby universities around the world;I’ve still got my copy. Although Coddpassed away in 2003, Date is stillwriting: his latest book The ThirdManifesto is a proposal, written withHugh Darwen, for the future ofdatabase-management systems.

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YOURKILLERAPP

FROM IDEA TO


Apps

55

Is developing an app still a route toriches? Done right, andwith luck,the answer remains a resoundingyes. Annual app sales now accountfor roughly $20 billion of revenue

across the Apple and Google app stores, andGartner predicts cumulative revenuewillhit $77 billion (£51 billion) by 2017.

Meanwhile, both Facebook and Googleare hungrywhen it comes to acquisitions: inthe past fewmonths, we’ve seen FacebookbuyWhatsApp for $19 billion (£13 billion),while Google has gobbled up travel-appdeveloper Jetpac and translation specialistQuest Visual for undisclosed sums.Undisclosed, but undoubtedly very high.

Yet themajority of app developersaren’t raking it in. A 2014 Gartner reportclaimed that less than 1% of apps werefinancially successful, while MidiaResearch found that only 50 companieswere responsible for 81% of sales. It’samarket for superstars.

This doesn’t mean a new app can’t be araging success, but it takes expertise,

market knowledge, great ideas and hardgraft.We spoke to a range of app developers,from freelance contractors to studiosworkingwithmajor brands. They told ushow app development works in the realworld, andwhat differentiates a successfrom another poor little orphan app.

SUCCESS VS FAILURESo, what differentiates a successful appfrom one that nevermakes it off the startingblock? For one, the original idea plays a bigpart. Ben Paterson is creative producer atFigure Digital, developer of the virtual petapp, Animin. “Ideas for apps are ten apenny,” he said. “Everyone and their iDogdown the pub has an idea for an app, and99% of them are either rubbish, insaneor completely undevelopable.”

It’s a view shared by Kevin King, founderof the Devon-based studio Createanet,which has a roster of successful apps thatincludes Temphis Availability Managerand the FA Coach’s App. “You get somany‘sad birds’ instead of ‘angry birds’ floating

What differentiates an also-ran app from anall-time great? Stuart Andrews speaks tothe professional app developers to find out

THE TRUTHBEHIND APPDEVELOPMENT

CHART-TOPPER


56

around,” he told us. “Because they didn’thave the creativity to start with, theydon’t go anywhere.” It’s also no goodtrying to ape existing success stories:“We get two or three ideas a weekwhere,once you drill down, they really just wantto do Facebook. You can’t take on peoplelike that.”

Successful apps are about satisfyingneeds, not inventing them. It doesn’tmatter whether that need is a way tocontrol a hot tub from a smartphone orenable property developers to keep ontop of ongoing projects; as long as the appdoes something users want, and does itwell, it has a chance of succeeding.

pRACTICAL hurdlesA great idea also needs to be backed upby a business case. As ChrisWilliams,managing director of UK app studio B60,puts it: “The first key step is to understandthe business need and requirements. Thisis fundamental. Many apps fail becausethey have no real need, or the plan tomakemoney from it isn’t thought through.”

Usability is just as crucial. RobHayward, a successful UK freelance appdeveloper who has workedwith FormulaOne and The Comedy Store, says you needtomake it “effortlessly easy”. “You’ve gotsomeone’s attention for a fraction of time,often a few spare seconds while they’redoing something else. Theywant a coupleof taps and everything is done.”

Williams thinks that a successful app“provides the features the end user needswhile keeping the interface as clear, simpleand easy to use as possible”. B60 pulls thisoff by understanding user habits mainlythrough a combination of in-houseexpertise, workflow analysis and client

consultation, although it also sees valuein focus groups and end-user research.

Mobile-development studio andmarketing agency RokkMedia alsospends a lengthy research phase lookingat potential users, sorting them intopersonas and following those personason a journey through the app. “We look atwhat theywant to achieve andwhat theirhopes and fears might be – particularly thefears, since understanding the concernsusers might have can help you pointthem in the right direction,” said MartinDainton, RokkMedia’s chief creativeofficer. When developing an app forinternal use by the non-technical salesteam of a car dealership, for example,Rokk ensured built-in guidance and simpleinstructions were provided at every stage.

For Createanet, it’s a question of carefulprototyping, so that the key interactionsare in place before a single line of code iswritten – and then putting usability at thecore of the design. “The beauty of apps isthat they’re simplistic. You have to comeupwith an interface you can use with yourthumb,” explained King. “They’re quitefickle. If you find something and it engagesyou then you’re on board – and that’s allabout usability.”

Independent developer Nick Kuhwould put usability ahead of evenfunction. “I try to keep the UI as simpleand uncluttered as possible,” he said.“I believe that a good appwill focus ondoing one thing really well rather thanbeing feature-rich. Users are used tomultitasking, so switching betweenapps that perform focused functionsmakes for a good experience inmy book.”

However, the biggest hurdle on thetrack to app success is how to stand

out in such a crowdedmarket. “Mybiggest obstacle these days is a saturatedapp store,” said Kuh. “That, combinedwith competitors spending largeadvertising budgets onmasses ofpaid-for installs, makes app storediscovery very difficult.”

Figure Digital’s Paterson agreed,suggesting that “the biggest obstacleof all is getting the word out thereand raising awareness, to find that

community ofusers you originallyhad inmind and toensure they hear

The processAll apps begin with an idea, whether it’s promotinga brand or something truly groundbreaking. If youhave technical skills, you might be able to developthat idea for yourself, but in most cases there’llbe a need to find investment and partner witha professional developer or studio.

The development process tends to take astandard shape. First, there’s a pre-productionphase, which may take in conceptualisation, userresearch and profiling, prototyping with wireframesor mock-ups, and the nailing down of a set offeatures, functions, specifications andrequirements. The app then goes through a designphase, where those concepts are transformedinto screens, buttons, menus and displays.

At this point, development begins in earnest,as servers are set up to support any back-endfunctions, and the different elements and featuresare coded. As with most software projects, there’llbe milestones, where limited alpha or beta releasesor slices of the app are released internally and to theclient for feedback. Bugs, issues and feedback will bespun back into development, hopefully producing amore polished and stable version 1 release.

When ready, the app is submitted to the relevantapp stores. With Android, launch may be merely afew hours away. On iOS, however, you could belooking at a wait of up to two weeks as Apple vetsthe app. Only when Apple’s gatekeepers are happyis it released, appearing on the App Store’s“Featured” pages if you’re lucky, or joining theendless ranks if not.

ABOVE Getting to the featured pages of the iOS andGoogle app stores is the holy grail for developers,with a huge impact on visibility and sales

RIGHT Virtual petapp Animin is theproduct of thousandsin investment


57

Appsabout your app and have a chance totry it out.”

How? “We have a philosophy that greatcontent finds its users,” said Paterson.“First, make something amazing. Second,find your advocates: those users whowilleffectively do yourmarketing and PR foryou. Finally, continue to develop, tweakand innovate based onwhat these keyadvocates want.” Nick Kuh concurs:“Focus onmaking apps that will retainusers. Enable your users to reach out toyou, and listen to their feature requestsand concerns. Continue to iterate anddon’t give up on a good product.”

Finally, as RokkMedia’s Daintonexplains, you need to acknowledge thatthe launch is the beginning, not the end.“You have to spend timemarketing apps,nurturing and developing them, andwhen there’s a new release of the operatingsystem – particularly with Apple – you’vegot to update them.” Not only will this keepthe app fresh, but it will also ensure thatApple’s habit of cycling out deprecatedcode doesn’t leave youwith an app thatno longer functions.

Invested developmentUnless you have the skills to design, codeand test an app yourself, developmentdoesn’t come cheap. “Some people expectto get an app developed for £150, and theycan’t,” said Createanet’s King.

It’s possible to findsolo developers whowilltackle a project for a fewhundred pounds, heexplained, but warnedthat the archetypalbedroomwhizz-kid“might be really good atthe coding, but he won’tbe so good at the designor the user experience side of things”.Kingwent on: “If you can’t spendmoneyon decent development, then youwon’tget a company that will be around in acouple of months’ time to support you.”

In other words, apps need a budget,whichmay be anywhere between afew thousand pounds and hundreds ofthousands. Even freelance app developerswill look at the budget as ameans ofseparating serious prospects from thosewithout a realistic idea of what’s involved.“I get lots of enquiries,” said Jason Kneen,who develops iOS and Android appsthrough his studio, BouncingFish. “A lot ofthem are rubbish, to be honest. Theywantto do the nextWhatsApp or Instagram andusually have no clue about how thewholeprocess works or the costs involved.”

Havingworkedwith the likes ofEnglish Heritage and Friends of the Earth,Kneen takes the ideas that interest him andsketches out the work involved, then usesthat to form a ballpark budget. It’s at thispoint that those without a solid businessplan back out.

Manywould-be app tycoons alsounderestimate the costs of the back-end

infrastructure that supports the app.“People look sites such as Instagram andYo, and are unaware that alongside thefront-end there’s back-end infrastructurein place,” said Kneen. “This needs to bepaid for somehow. There are cloud servicesthat will do this for free, up to a point, butwhen they start charging you - when youhit amillion users - youmight suddenlyreceive a bill for $10,000.”

In addition there are design andtechnical challenges, from the difficultiesinherent in building an app to work acrossmultiple devices, resolutions and screensizes, to issues concerningmobileconnectivity and data flow.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in appdevelopment is time. App projects often runon short two- or three-month cycles, withimmovable deadlines such as Christmasor sporting events with which to contend.“Anything is possible, within reason,” saidRob Hayward. “It’s just figuring out whatyou can achieve in the given amount oftime.”While there’s always a temptation toaddmore features, app developers learn toresist. “If there weren’t a limited amount oftime, there wouldn’t be any restrictions,”Hayward said, “but when you’re deliveringa product in threemonths, then extrasneed to do something vital – or at leasttick a boxwith an investor.”

In a world where the changing of asingle button can often result in hours of

work, testing can be amajor time sink, onethat benefits from someone dedicated tothe job, according to Hayward. This will notonly cut down on lead times when addingnew features, but could also uncover issuesthat developers and designers fail to spot.“You could be focused on how the designworks, with different screen resolutionsor languages, then a tester comes along,presses all the buttons in a differentorder, and finds something youwouldn’tnormally find.”

The submission process can also leadto delays. Kneen told us how agenciesoften expect an app finished on Friday to golive onMonday. “I have to say that we cansubmit it onMonday, but it may be ten to 15days before it can go live.” Apple sometimesrejects apps for peculiar reasons, andyoumay need to resubmit several timesbefore this reason becomes clear.

Oneway to workwith the time issueis to forget about cramming every lastfeature into version 1, and focus insteadon producing a good, stable version thatyou can update. “Youmight get to a pointwhere you have a fully functioning app,but with twomissing features that the

BELOW Like many independent developers, Nick Kuhworks as a gun for hire, but he also develops his ownapps, including Scrabble-style game Wordsy

as long as the appdoes something userswant, it has a chanceof succeeding

My Favourite AppKevin King, Createanet: “I’m proud of our work onthe FA Coach’s App. The customer was a nice guywho had a vision and stuck to it – and he’s done wellfrom it. Otherwise, apps are more utilities to me. Ilike the Spotify app, however. They had a big brief interms of the information and features they had todeliver, but they did a great job in terms of usability.”

Martin Dainton, Rokk Media: “Our Make It Yoursapp had a unique interface, taking the concept of avisual success map and presenting it in a form withwhich people could interact. I’m quite impressed byGoogle’s Inbox at the moment. It isn’t the flashiestof apps, but it makes dealing with mail so mucheasier. One of the nicest-looking apps I’ve usedrecently was Taasky. It flows very well. It has agreat UI and it’s easy to use.”

Nick Kuh, independent developer: “Wordsy is amultiplayer speed Scrabble-style game I conceivedabout a year ago. I built the game alongside clientwork throughout 2014 and have enjoyed watchingmy family and friends become hooked. I’d also listapps that I use daily: Google Maps and Apple’sCalendar app make my life easier. Instagram is areally fun way to share raucous pics with mates.”

Ben Paterson, Figure Digital: “I’m immenselyproud of Animin, our next-gen digital pet. As formy favourite apps – that’s tough! It changes weekly,as I imagine it does for most mobile power usersand hardcore gamers.”


58

Appsclient wants to add,” said Jason Kneen.“If they hold out they couldmiss adeadline, and there’s no shame in havinga version 1 app that does the job, thenupdating it two days later.”

Nick Kuh agrees this can be a viableapproach, with developers “creating anMVP (minimum viable product), theniterating frequent app updates as theylearn from their users and improve theirproduct over time”. However, he alsosounded a note of caution: “If you’relaunching a brand-new app based on agreat idea then youwant your initialoffering to be polished at launch.”

Why? Because it’s at launch that theappmight benefit from press coverageand establish a long-term position insearch results, while initial reviewswillbemore prominent and, in Kuh’s words,“more likely to sway new users”. “Thebetter youmake your app for launch,”he argued, “themore chance you haveof long-term success. Also, submittinga great first version to the App Storegives you your best shot at gettingfeatured by Apple – the holy grail.”

The bottom lineIs all this effort worth it?Well, few appdevelopers end up selling up to Facebookfor several billion dollars, but all thosewe spoke to were sustaining a successfulbusiness. “There’s plenty of work outthere,” said Jason Kneen, who becamea full-time freelance app developer in2011 and has been busy ever since.

“It’s definitely possible tomake agood living from app development ifyou combine the development of goodindie apps with work-for-hire,” agreedNick Kuh. “I’ve been developing solelyfor iOS since 2009, and five years onI’m still inundatedwith iOS projectsand opportunities. I pridemyself onthe fact that every one of my own appshas earned enough through App Storesales to payme back for the developmenttime that I originally invested.”

What’s more, there aremajoropportunities in the enterprisesphere. “From our point of view, thebiggest growth has been in businessapplications,” said RokkMedia’sDainton. “People are starting to seethat these devices are really useful ona business level. If they have satelliteteams or those going into different areasand different departments, then appsreally help with productivity.” It’sa market Createanet is also chasingin earnest. “Youmight notmake thenext Angry Birds, but you could sella lot of product into a 2,000-seatbusiness,” said Kevin King.

In short, the gold rushmight beover, but it’s still possible tomake agood living from app development,and keep your hopes of building abreakthrough app alive. It won’t bequick or easy, but then building asuccessful business rarely is.

Which platform?According to the latest figures from app-marketanalyst App Annie, there are 60% more downloadsfrom Google Play than the Apple App Store – yet theApp Store makes 60% more revenue. Does thatmake iOS development a safer bet?

It depends. For some apps, the core purpose is tosupport the brand, increase online sales or supporta product, in which case ignoring Android is risky.“Android has definitely caught up,” said Rokk Media’sMartin Dainton, “so the requirement tends to bethat your app must work across the board. Forsome clients, this means we need to consider aframework that allows us to publish to differentplatforms, or they may need simply to developdifferent apps for those platforms.”

However, as Createanet’s Kevin King explains: “ifyou’re trialling something new – a new concept or anew idea – then my recommendation would alwaysbe to build iOS first. Make sure you’re completelyhappy with it, go through the first two or threemonths of development and get the bugs andusability issues ironed out. You’ll then have a stableplatform from which you can build in Android.”

The ease with which you can go cross-platformboils down to your approach. You can code nativelyusing Apple or Google’s development tools, then portthe finished app to the other platform; or you canbuild within a framework such as PhoneGap orAppcelerator’s Titanium, so that you can compileapps that run across both.

The first approach has some key advantages.“If you’re building something as a native app, then

you definitely have more access to the deviceand its functionality,” said Dainton. “If you’reusing a framework – such as PhoneGap, forexample – then there’ll be limitations.”

The upside of using a framework is that itspeeds up development and makes supportingother platforms far quicker and easier. AsTitanium user Jason Kneen explained, “90%of the work that has to be done will be applicableto both platforms, and the other 10% coverswhatever I have to do to get it working on theother platform, which is usually UI-related.”

And what about Windows? Well, what about it?Most of the developers we spoke to said there waslittle to no interest in developing apps for Windowsor Windows Phone. “There’s just no demand,” saidKing. “It’s chicken and egg. A few top apps are nowon Windows, but there’s an app culture aroundApple that just doesn’t exist in Windows.”

“Clients don’t seem to be that worried aboutWindows,” said Dainton. “We ask them if they’d liketo consider it, but it often isn’t on their radar.” B60’sChris Williams agrees. “We have targeted WindowsPhone devices, but it’s rare for this to be a viableprospect due to the relatively small userbase.”

Will Microsoft’s unified Windows platformchange this situation? Possibly – as might thegrowth in business-app development acrosstablets, phones and the desktop. At the moment,however, iOS and Android remain the focusof the app-development scene, even for thosebuilding business-focused apps.

ABOVE Despite many big-name apps now beingavailable for Windows Phone, interest in developingfor the platform is very low

BELOW Android is catching up with iOS fast – there arenow 60% more app downloads from Google Play thanfrom the Apple App Store


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SOLVEDWindows is a powerful OS, but it has

some infuriating quirks and

gotchas. Darien Graham-Smith andMicrosoftMVPMikeHalsey

show you how tomake it behave

60

WINDOWSANNOYAN

CES


@ P C P R O Windowsannoyances

61

Microsoft is paranoid aboutpeople pirating Windows,so your new PC almost

certainly didn’t come with a disc forinstalling the OS. It probably camewith a recovery tool, which you canuse to restore the system to itsfresh-from-the-box state – but thisincludes wiping all your personaldata, so isn’t a convenient solutionif you simply want to declutteryour system.

If you’re using Windows 8,there’s a simple answer. The newRefresh My PC feature restores theOS to its “naked” state withouttouching your data files (althoughyou’ll still need to reinstall yourdesktop applications). You’ll find itin the Metro-style PC Settings app,under Update And Recovery.

If you’re using an earlier versionof Windows, the official line is tomake a backup of all your data, usethe manufacturer’s recovery tool,then simply copyyour files backafterwards.Backing up issomething youought to be doinganyway: pricesare dropping oncloud storage,so even if you’recurrently backingup your files to anexternal harddisk, it’s a good

idea to keep a copy off-site, justin case of disaster.

It is, however, possible toreinstall Windows “in place”. To doit, you’ll need to somehow get yourhands on an official installationDVD, and you’ll also need to findyour product key (see above right).When you open the disc withinWindows and select Upgrade, theinstaller will try to reinstall theoperating system while leavingyour programs and files intact;if you’re trying to fix a corruptedinstallation, this may be all youneed. If you’d rather start from aclean slate, boot from the DVD andchoose the “Custom (advanced)”installation option. Follow theprompts, and install Windows onthe same disk as your old OS, butdo not format the disk. Once theinstallation is complete, your olddata files will be found in a foldercalled C:\Windows.old.

W indows stores a database of files andfolders on your hard disk, so thatwhen you search for something, the

results can be returned instantaneously.However, for speed and efficiency, only themost common file types and personal foldersare included by default.

There are two ways to getWindows to search outside ofyour user folders: one is toopen the target volume orfolder in Explorer and use thesearch box to search directlyfrom there. This will promptWindows to ask if you want toadd this location to its index.Alternatively, open IndexingOptions from the controlpanel, and click the Modifybutton in the dialog that

appears. This will bring up a list of all searchablelocations, which you can tick to add to the index.

Another challenge you might face is findingfiles by a property other than filenames (forexample, if you want to see all images createdon a certain day). You can do this by directly

specifying file properties,such as “size:>250mb –” or, inour example to the left, youmight type “datecreated:14/1/2015”. In many cases,as you type, Windows willpop up a requester to help youselect the values you want.The set of phrases that canbe used to search for specificfiles is called the AdvancedQuery Syntax, and you canread more about it at pcpro.link/246aqs.

W hen you format a USBdrive of more than 32GB,the default option is to

use NTFS, which is Windows’“native” file system. Unfortunately,while NTFS drives can be read byall major computing platforms,OS X and Linux systems can’twrite to these volumes withoutthird-party software.

The simplest solution is to use theFAT32 format, which is supportedacross all three major platforms. Ifyour disk is larger than 32GB, theWindows Format requester won’tshow FAT32 as an option, but youcan format a disk with this filessystem from the command promptby typing “format d: /fs:fat32 /q”– where d: is the letter of yourremovable drive. The /q parameterspecifies a quick format, whichmeans Windows won’t spend timechecking the drive for errors.

FAT32 has one limitation:individual files can’t exceed 4GB,which could be a problem if – forexample – you’re planning to movehuge videos or database files

around. In this case, you shouldchoose the exFAT file system: thisraises the maximum file size to 16billion gigabytes. exFAT is onlysupported on Windows Vista andlater, however, and on OS X 10.6.5(Snow Leopard) or later.

How do ImakeWindows Search find thefiles I’m actually looking for?

I want to reinstall Windowswithout losing all my data

I can’t write tomyUSB driveson aMac or in Linux

Some of our tips for solving Windows

annoyances involve installing third-party

software, editing the Registry and even

reinstalling Windows. Always make a backup

before embarking on any operation that might

endanger the wellbeing of your PC – we can’t be held responsible if

something goes wrong!

Iwant to reinstallWindows:where do I findmy product key?The product key used to be printed on a labelon the side or underside of your PC, but onWindows 8 systems it now tends to be buriedaway in the operating system, or embeddedin the BIOS. This isn’t helpful if you suffer asystem crash and need to reinstall the OS,so use a tool such aswinkeyfinder.com todiscover your key before you need it.

I’m seeing an extra drive inMyComputer called “SystemReserved”.What is it?This partition is createdwhen you installWindows on a disk that’s completely blank.It containsWindows’ startup files, so youcan’t get rid of it – but there’s nothing herethat you need to access, so we suggest yousimply hide it from your Computer view.Open the DiskManagement Console,right-click on the drive and removeits drive letter tomake it disappear.

P C P R O . C O . U K Worldmags.netWorldmags.net

This shouldn’t be a problem for Windows 8users, as Microsoft has completelyrevamped the way the OS shuts down and

restarts. Parts of the OS are hibernated, ratherthan being completely shut down, and the resultis a restart cycle that typically takes less than20 seconds.

However, those on older versions of Windowshave to wait for all programs and services toshut down before the computer switches off,which can be a slow process. By default, Windows 7gives programs that are running 12 seconds toclose down cleanly before attempting to forcethem to shut down.

There are two ways to speed up this process:one is simply to close programs yourself as youfinish using them, so that there’s less waitingaround when the time comes to shut down the PC.This also saves resources, so you might see aperformance benefit too.

If this still isn’t fast enough, you can edit theRegistry to shorten the 12-second timeout. Open theRegistry editor – and make a backup of yourRegistry just in case – then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, create anew DWORD value called “AutoEndTasks” and setits value to “1”. Then, find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WaitToKillAppTimeout andgive it a value of “2000”. This is in milliseconds, sothis setting will cause programs to be automaticallyclosed after two seconds. Remember that forcingprograms to close early can result in lost data, asfiles might not be saved.

What about the other side of the equation –making Windows start up more quickly?Defragmenting your hard disk may help, but it’sunlikely to save you more than a few seconds; on anSSD, it won’t have any effect at all, since all flashcells take the same time to access, regardless oftheir physical location.

Instead, try running the third-party BootRacertool (greatis.com/bootracer), which is free fornon-commercial use. This tool tracks Windowsactivity during startup, and can tell you whichprograms and processes are taking the most time,so you can identify what you may want to removeor prevent from running automatically.

MyPC takes forever to shut down and restart

It’s maddening when you’re trying to movea folder from one place to another – ordelete it – and Windows stops mid-action

to pop up a requester asking you to confirmthat you want to move one particular file. It’seven more annoying if you’ve gone off to dosomething else, and come back to find thatWindows has been sitting idle for an hour,rather than getting on with the task at hand.

In some cases, you should heed thewarning. Files are generally flagged as“system files” for a reason, and movingthem around can cause OS and applicationfunctions to fail when they can no longerfind the resources they need.

Often, though, the file in question issomething perfectly innocuous – such as the

THUMBS.DB file that storespreviews of the images in afolder, or the FOLDER.INI filethat contains various viewsettings. It’s safe to movethese files, or to deletethem in the course ofremoving an unwantedfolder. Unfortunately,there’s no way to disablethe warnings that will pop

up when you try to do so.If you want to rid yourself of this

annoyance, you’ll need to resort to athird-party trick. If you’re adept withscripting hosts such as AutoHotKey orAutoIt, you could write a script that looks outfor this particular requester, andautomatically hits the “Yes” button wheneverit pops up. Alternatively, check out a programcalled PTFB Pro (ptfbpro.com), which letsyou set up all sorts of automatic behavioursand shortcuts such as this – the name standsfor “Push The Freakin’ Button”. Of course,when setting up a system that’s deliberatelyintended to defeat Windows’ built-inprotections, you should be extremely careful,as a misstep could have disastrous results!

Are you sure that youwant tomovethis system file?

Can ImutemyPCwhen idle so itdoesn’t keepmaking noiseswhile I’min the other room?There isn’t a simple setting for this inWindows, but it can be donewith third-partysoftware. NirCmd lets youmute and unmuteWindows audio from the command line(pcpro.link/246nircmd); you can usetheWindows Task Scheduler to call thisautomatically at timeswhen the computeris idle. InWindows 8, you can also silencenotifications for up to eight hours by openingthe Settings charm and clicking Notifications– or set up recurrent Quiet Hours within PCSettings | Search&Apps | Notifications.

I can’t installWindows 8.1withmyWindows 8 product keyFor some reason,Windows 8.1 uses differentproduct keys toWindows 8, so if youwant toreinstall, the official recommendation is touse theWindows 8 installer, then upgrade toWindows 8.1 throughWindows Update andthe Store. However, it is possible to trick theinstaller into installingWindows 8.1with aWindows 8 key: see pcpro.link/246win81for a step-by-step guide.

Mymusic library is full of fileswithnames such as “ALBUMART_{E6043A1C-BBEB-49C5-B3F0-5259B6312 C34}_LARGE.JPG” – howdo I get rid of them?These are the thumbnail art files for yourmusic tracks; they’re downloaded byWindowsMedia Player on all recentversions ofWindows, and they’re usuallyhidden, so there isn’t normally a need toget rid of them. The bad news is that, atpresent, there’s noway to stopWindowsMedia Player from creating these files(disabling “Retrieve additional informationfrom the internet” ought to do it, but doesn’t).Pending a new version of the software, thebest course of actionwould be to switch toa differentmedia player.

I’m seeing an “Unknowndevice”in DeviceManager. Howdo Iwork outwhat it is?First, make sure you’ve downloadedand installed all the drivers availablefrom themanufacturers of your PC,components and peripherals. If thedevice still can’t be identified, open itsProperties panel, select the Details tab

and select Hardware IDs fromthe dropdownmenu. You shouldsee a string similar to “PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8168&CC_0200”.Aweb search for the vendor code(“VEN_10EC” in this case) should tellyou themanufacturer, and searchingfor the device code (“DEV_8168”)maywell lead you to the specific device.


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@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K Windowsannoyances

This is an issue we’ve faced ourselves, on a PC connected to a4K display by a DisplayPort cable. In our case, when thescreen wakes up from sleep, it takes a moment for Windows

to correctly re-identify the monitor resolution. While that’shappening the OS momentarily falls back to the default 1,024 x 768resolution, so all open windows are shuffled up to fit the smallerdesktop. Once the proper resolution is detected, the desktopswitches back to the correct resolution – but now everything is leftbunched up at the top-left corner of the screen.

The likely cause is an issue with the graphics driver, so if you’rehaving similar problems, the first step is to check whether anupdated driver is available that might fix the problem.

If you have a graphics driver utility such as the AMD CatalystControl Center or Nvidia Control Panel, it’s also worth checking thesettings here, as something could be misconfigured. If you havemultiple monitors connected, running both screens at the sameresolution may help.

When a file is in use by aprogram or process on yourPC, Windows locks it so that

no other process can modify it. Youmay be able to open multiple instancesof the file, but actions such as moving ordeleting won’t be permitted, as this mayresult in a crash or in data loss.

Unfortunately, sometimes WindowsExplorer, or some invisible backgroundprocess, fails to release its handle on afile after it’s been accessed. In thiscase, even though you’re no longeractively using the file, it still can’t bemoved, deleted or renamed.

The simplest way round this is torestart the PC, which will clear alllocks. If that’s too drastic, you can alsotry opening the Task Manager andrestarting Windows Explorer.

For a more targeted approach, tryout the freeware Unlocker tool fromemptyloop.com/unlocker – this adds aright-click menu option to WindowsExplorer that will attempt to releaseany locks on the selected file.

If you want to know more aboutwhat’s locking your files in the firstplace, download Process Explorerfrom sysinternals.com; run thesoftware, then select File | ShowDetails For All Processes. Next, openthe Find menu and click “Find handle orDLL”. Search for the name of the lockedfile and select it in the search results.You’ll then see it appear in the detailsbox at the bottom of the ProcessExplorer window; you can release thelock by right-clicking and selectingClose Handle.

The action can’t be completed, as thefolder/file is open in another program

Docking or wakingmy PC causes icons andwindows to rearrange

Group Policy Editor seems to bemissingfrommyPCOnly the Professional and Enterprise editions ofWindows include the Group Policy Editor; there’s noofficially supportedway to install it on Home editions.However, if there’s a particular template youwantto apply, youmay be able to achieve the samething by editing the Registry directly: see pcpro.link/246gpedit for a long table of Group Policyobjects and the Registry keys they control.

Help!My screen has turned upside down!You’ve accidentally activated Australian regionalsettings. Press Ctrl+Alt+UpArrow to restore theregular orientation. If that doesn’t work, look forrotation options in your graphics driver.

I can’t connect tomyPC remotely becauseit keeps going to sleep or hibernatingYou can disable sleep and hibernation fromwithin the Power Options in the control panel.Alternatively, many systems can be configured towake automatically when an incoming networkconnection is detected: to check this is enabled,open DeviceManager, then open the Propertiespage for your network controller, click on the PowerManagement tab and enable “Allow this device towake the computer”. Note that youmay still need toconfigure your router and remote access software toenableWake-on-LAN for this system.

Can I automatically switchmy defaultprinterwhen Imove between home andthe office?OpenDevices And Printers from the control panel andclick on any printer. Then selectManage DefaultPrinters from the toolbar; fromhere you can set updifferent default printers for different networks.

I did something and nowWindows 8won’tstart. Howdo I get into SafeMode?Can you create a Recovery Drive on anotherWindows 8 PC, or boot from your install DVD? If so,you should be able to get to the Advanced RepairOptions: fromhere, click Troubleshoot, thenAdvanced Options, thenWindows Startup Settingsto find SafeMode.


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Windowsannoyances

In fairness, Windows is doing its best.To provide any sort of estimate, theoperating system has to extrapolate from

the observed transfer speed. At first, it has torely on the speeds achieved during the firstfew seconds of the copy operation.

This speed can easily change, however.If, while copying, you’re also performinganother action – such as loading a program orwatching a video – your copy operation mightbriefly stall, causing Windows to drasticallyrevise its timing estimate.

Even if the computer is otherwise idle,there are plenty of factors that can affectcopying speed. For example, writing lots of smallfiles tends to be much slower than one big one. If a

mechanical disk is becoming full, fragmentationcould cause the second half of a large file to write

more slowly than the first half. If you’recopying files over a network, interferencecould have a similar effect. And so on.

There’s no true reliable way to get betterestimates: a cynic might suspect that thereason Microsoft added the speed graph tothe Windows 8 file-copy progress windowwas so that you could see for yourself justhow unpredictable data rates are.

If you want your copy operations tocomplete as quickly as possible, your best betis simply to minimise the number of otherthings going on. You can also use softwaresuch as TeraCopy (codesector.com/

teracopy), which uses memory buffers to speedup file copying where possible.

When I’m copying files, the “time remaining...” indicator keepsswitching from twominutes to a couple of days and then back again

T he obvious answer is forsecurity – and if you’re atwork, or on a laptop

containing personal or confidentialinformation, we suggest you leavethese password prompts enabled.Data theft is a growing threat,so requiring re-authenticationwhenever your PC wakes up is agood thing. If you have youngchildren who might be tempted tomeddle, a wake-up password canhelp there too.

For a home PC, however, youmight understandably want toskip the password. To disable thepassword request when Windowswakes up from sleep, right-click onthe desktop and select Personalise.Next, click the Screen Saver linkand you’ll see a tickbox labelled“On resume, display log-on screen”.Untick this and in future your PCwill spring straight back intothe desktop.

If you don’t want to be askedfor a password even when youstart up Windows, this too can beconfigured, although the option is

slightly more hidden away. Searchfor netplwiz at the Start menu orStart screen, and open the appletthat appears. This will show aselection of master settings for alluser accounts on the PC, one ofwhich is “Users must enter ausername and password to usethis computer”. Untick this option– and enter your password one lasttime to authenticate – and theselected user will henceforth beautomatically logged on wheneverWindows starts up.

Why do I have to log in everytime I turn onmy PC?

Windows Update keeps turningitself back on!

I t goes withoutsaying that, inmost cases,

Windows Updateshould be left on. Andto be precise, it isn’tnormally WindowsUpdate itself thatcauses frustration,but the way it insistson restarting your PC at inconvenient times. The simplest solution to this isto open Windows Update from the control panel, click “Change settings” inthe left of the window and change the dropdown option to “Downloadupdates, but let me choose when to install them”. You’ll still be naggedwhen updates are available, but you’ll be able to install them and reboot atyour own convenience.

If you want to prevent Windows Update from restarting your PCaltogether, open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU. If this keydoesn’t exist, you can create it. Create a DWORD called “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers” and give it the value “1”. This will tell Windows to stopautomatically restarting your PC: updates will now only be installed whenyou restart the PC yourself.

If you never want to download updates – for example, if you’re adeveloper testing against a specific OS component – you can disableWindows Update from the control panel, but be warned: you’ll still have tokeep an eye on your settings, as Microsoft has a sneaky habit of re-enablingWindows Update whenever it gets a chance, such as when you install newsoftware or change settings for Office or Internet Explorer.

Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP and the author

of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out

and Troubleshoot and Optimize Windows 8

Inside Out from Microsoft Press. He’s also the

author of Windows 10 Troubleshooting and a

new series of short guides to subjects such as

the Registry and software compatibility, to be

released this spring from Apress. Find him on

Facebook and Twitter as PCSupportTV.

Where has allmy harddisk space gone?Installing OS and applicationupdates can result in largecaches of backed up files youdon’t need. Applications canalso leave temporary files onyour disk in places that aren’tobvious. RunWindows’ built-in

Disk Clean-Up tool and youmay be surprised at howmuchcan be safely junked. If you stillcan’t account for all your harddisk space, tryWinDirStat(windirstat.info), a graphicaltool that scans your hard diskand shows you the heaviestfiles and folders at a glance.


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SamsungGear VR

Slug SectionheadReviewsThe biggest, best, most exciting products in tech – tested, evaluated and reviewed

A real eye-opener, but it’s still early daysfor consumer-grade virtual reality

frustratingly out of reach. Now,though, a host of companies areintroducing new technologies thatpromise to immerse you into thedigital world, and the Gear VR isthe first fully realised product ofthis new generation.

For such a pioneering product, theGear VRmakes an unassuming firstimpression. It’s made entirely of whiteplastic, and has the appearance of a

rather bulky pair of ski goggles. Youmay also be surprised to find thatthe Gear VR lacks a display of itsown: similarly to Google’s Cardboardconcept, it works in conjunctionwitha Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, whichclips on at the front of the headset.Internal lenses then focus your visiononto specific areas of the screen.

Controls areminimal: a wheel ontop of the headset adjusts the focus,

The concept of virtual realityhas arguably been aroundfor as long as computers

themselves – but a really persuasiveimplementation has always seemed

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪

PRICE £158 (£190 inc VAT), pre-orderfrom clove.co.uk (pcpro.link/246gearvr)

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@ P C P R O

69

P C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W S Reviews

and there’s a pair of volume buttonson the right, alongside a capacitivetouchpad and a back button. A sensorinside the goggles detects whenyou’ve removed them and turns offthe screen, and a standalone gamepadis available for an extra £30.

■ How it worksWhile the Gear VR looks fairly basicfrom the outside, as soon as youdon the headset you’ll realise a lotof clever work has gone into it. Usinga series of gyroscopes - technologylicensed fromOculus VR, theFacebook-owned organisationbehind themuch-hyped OculusRift headset - the Gear VR tracksyour headmovements in real-time,providing a seamless and completelyimmersive VR experience.

To see just how good it is, you onlyhave to play with one of the supplied360-degree apps. Our first try waswith The Blu VR, an educational“video” that flies you through aseascape, allowing you to look aroundfreely as you go. The experience offollowing a killer whale as it driftsalong, or a shark as it swims past, isenough to convince us this technologyis here to stay. Anything that cancause PC Pro’s normally articulateeditor-in-chief TimDanton to blurtout “that’s amazing” like a hormonalteenager has to be pretty good.

This isn’t where the Gear VR’stalents end, either. It’s possible to playgames, view static (but immersive)360-degree photographs, and evenwatch standard 3D and 2Dmovies viathe Oculus Cinema app. The latterisn’t as daft as it sounds: the appplaces you in a virtual seat in avirtual cinema, allowingyou to watch themovie ascomfortably as you’dexpect. Since the screendoesn’t follow your gazeas you glance around, it’scompletely convincing,and the viewing experiencefeels remarkably natural.

Some of this content is suppliedon amicroSD card, which comes withthe headset, and you can downloadfurther apps, games, photos andvideos from the Gear VR’s store app.Not all of it is inspiring, though: MilkVR’s 360-degree videos are effectivebut rather boring, while the gamesaremostly lightweight “look, shootand explore” affairs. One of themore developed offerings is TempleRun VR: this looks great, but afterfiveminutes of running andjumping through its virtual worldwewere reaching for the sick bucket.Perhaps not all games are suitablefor the full VR treatment.

Such issues aside, there’s enoughhere to provide a tantalising insight

into what future VR contentmightlook like. Amore developed versionof The Blu VR, for instance, wouldbe a revelation in an educationalenvironment.With the ability to pausethe action, zoom in on a particularcreature and launch a floatinginformation panel, it could create a

new genre of immersivepedagogic tools.

The cinema is anothertaster of things to come:why sully yourminimalistdesigner living roomwitha huge 100in telly, whenall you really need for the

home-theatre experience is a Gear VRstrapped to your noggin and a pair ofdecent headphones?

Our only caveat here is that, fornow, the image isn’t sharp enough.The Note 4’s 2,560 x 1,440 screen

resolution is exceptionallyhigh by smartphonestandards, but split it intotwo and stare at it froman inch away and grain isclearly visible, especiallyaround the edges of text,buttons and graphics.Still, in time, as

the pixel density of LCD panelsrises inexorably, we can see VRbecoming a genuine alternativeto static TVs and projectors forbig-screen viewing.

■ VerdictIt’s clear that the Gear VR is anearly-adopter device. The fact thatit can only be usedwith one type ofsmartphone inevitably limits itsappeal, and any consumer VR systemhoping to win over themassmarketwill need amore developed contentlibrary thanwhat’s currently on offer– not tomention a sharper resolution.

Wemust alsomention somespecific niggly problemswith theSamsung hardware. Sometimes westruggled to position the headset soour eyes could focus comfortably onthe display (mounting the goggleshigh up on your face seems to providethe best results), and since there’slittle ventilation, the lenses tend tofog up in use, ruining the effect.

Overall, though, the Samsung GearVR is a fabulous piece of kit. It’s a trulyimpressive technical achievement,good enough to convince us thatwithin a couple of generations virtualreality will be a truemainstreamtechnology. And for now, it’s anexciting glimpse of the future – onethat, if you’re curious, and happento own the right phone, can be yoursfor amere £190. JONATHAN BRAY

“The experience offollowing a killer whale asit drifts along is enoughto convince us that thistechnology is here to stay”

ABOVE The Gear VRsplits the Note 4’sscreen into twosections, one foreach eye

A trulyimmersive VRexperience that’ssimple to use andreasonablypriced

Only workswith a Note 4, andthe content issuperficial

ABOVE The Gear VRrequires a SamsungGalaxy Note 4 towork; this clips inneatly at the front


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M icrosoft’s Next Chapterevent (see p10) brought a newpreview build ofWindows

10, allowingmembers of the InsiderProgramme to see how the OS istaking shape. The Project Spartanbrowser is notably absent – evidentlyit isn’t ready for a public debut yet– but there’s plenty else to see interms of tweaks and new features.

■ Cleaner looksOn installing Build 9926, you’ll spota few visual changes. The taskbaricons have shrunk, making it easierto see the underline effect that showswhich applications are open. Explorerwindows gain a cleaner look, withsimpler minimise, maximise andclose icons, as well as moreminimalback and forward buttons.

Tablet-style apps and PC Settings(now just called Settings) pick up onthe same theme, as does a new betarelease of the Store app. Both sporttasteful redesigns that make use offamiliar elements such as tabs andicons; writing on theWindows blog,Insider boss Gabe Aul described thisas “a new visual design, whichwill becommon across PCs, tablets, phonesand the web”, and it’s definitely a stepforward from the garish, unstructuredlook ofWindows 8.

Not all the aesthetic changes area success, however. The new foldericons in Explorer are ugly, andwhileit’s clever that recently accessedfolders now add themselves to thequick-access list in the Navigationpane automatically, the big, greyicons that indicate pinned itemshere are hardly elegant.

Onemoremajor upgrade to thefront-end comes in the shape of theNotifications panel. Previously, this

was a bare box listing recent pop-ups,but it’s grown into a proper sidebar,with entries neatly shown in eithergrey or black to indicate with whichyou can interact. At the bottom sitquick-access buttons for varioussettings, switching into tablet modeor quickly connecting to Bluetoothaudio devices andMiracast displays.It’s a coherent replacement for themultiple sidebars ofWindows 8.

■ I started somethingAt first glance, the Start menu looksmuch like that of previous builds,with application icons at the leftand tiles at the right. However,

LEFT The Windows 10Explorer has a newlook, with cleanericons and brightlycoloured folder icons

ABOVE The Startmenu now scrolls,and optionallyexpands into afull-screen interface

Windows 10:the next chapterMicrosoft’s new OS is takingshape nicely, and the latestbuild is packed with newthings to play with

PRICE Free, available now frominsider.windows.com (pcpro.link/246windows10)


@ P C P R O Reviews

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P C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W S

LEFT The updatedSettings app providesanother look atMicrosoft’s ideas fora cleaner aesthetic

BELOW PressingWindows and thentyping to searchresults in an uglycollision of interfaces

rather than expanding sidewaysas you pin tiles and apps, themenunow keeps a consistent width andscrolls up and down – a far moremanageable arrangement.

Search behaviour has become a bitmuddled, however. You can still hittheWindows key and type to locateapplications, documents or onlineresources – but to reflect the idea thatall searches now go through Cortana(see Hey, Cortana, right), your resultsnow pop up from the search field andsit awkwardly over the top of the Startmenu. For a neater experience, youcan pressWindows+S to access thesearch box directly, but we preferredthe way Start and search used to worktogether seamlessly.

■ Windows 10 on a tabletOne final update to the Start menu is anew toggle that expands the tile-basedinterface into full-screenmode. Thisview replaces the old Start screen:rather than switching between twodifferent launchers, you now get onlyonemenu that scales up and downto suit either desktop or tablet use.It’s an eminently sensible way toaccommodate different usages: theonly question is whyWindows 8didn’t do this in the first place.

The other big change for tabletusers is the quiet removal of thecharms bar: swipe in from the rightand you now get the Notificationssidebar instead. Frankly, we’re happyabout this – the charmswere never aparticularly quick or intuitive way toget things done. Similarly, Modernapps – asWindows 10 still calls them– now offer a streamlined set ofcontrols in windowedmode, witha proddable button to switch tofull-screen view at any time.

Once again, the only letdown issearch. In tablet mode, the onscreenkeyboard squeezes the results box intoa tiny space, restricting the number ofvisible results andmaking them fiddlyto select. We hopeMicrosoft keepsworking on this aspect of thingsahead of the final release.

■ Smartphones and XboxWindows 10 isn’t just about PCs andtablets. It’s coming for smartphonestoo, with a new look and feel tomatchthe desktop OS, and support for thenew universal app framework, whichallowsModern apps to run on bothphone and desktop devices. As withthe desktop platform, Microsoft plansto release a preview smartphone buildto the public in the comingmonths –suggesting that the final releasemight come as an upgrade forcurrentWindows Phone 8.1 users.

Interestingly,Windows 10 alsointegrates with the Xbox One console:a bundled app lets you access your

The latest build of Windows 10 includesthe desktop debut of Microsoft’s“personal digital assistant”, Cortana.Officially the feature is, for now, US-only,but you can enable it in the UK bychanging your region and keyboardsettings. Without the Spartan browser– which Cortana uses to learn aboutyou and make browsing suggestions –there’s a limit to her usefulness, butyou can still get a taster of the idea.

You can access Cortana by typingqueries into the taskbar search field,but the real focus is on voice commands,which you can issue by clicking themicrophone icon – or, in the optionalalways-listening mode, by using the keyphrase “Hey, Cortana”. You can carryout web searches, search for documents (using thesomewhat unintuitive “show me” phrase), ask about avariety of topics – from the weather forecast to factssuch as “What’s the longest bridge in the world?” – andset reminders. At present, however, you can’t usevoice to create appointments or take notes.

Unfortunately, the speech interface is patchy. The“Hey, Cortana” key phrase isn’t always registered, andwhen it is, Cortana sometimes doesn’t listen for long

Hey, Cortana

Xbox friends list, achievements,activities and so forth, and in thefinal release it will also be possibleto stream games from the consoleto anyWindows 10 device. Theconsole itself, meanwhile, will beable to run universal apps – part ofa clever joined-up strategy to attractdevelopers to theWindows Storeby growing the potential market.

■ VerdictThis latest build showsWindows 10starting to develop a personality of itsown. Not everything is fully realised,but the newOS no longer feels like aniteration ofWindows 8 – at this pointit’s more like the antidote to that OS,pulling off a genuinely harmoniousmarriage of desktop and touch-operationmodes, while managing toremain fluid and intuitive in both.

Which is just as well, since thislatest build ofWindows 10 carriesparticular significance: it’s thefirst to emerge since Microsoftannounced that upgrades withinthe first year of the official launchwillbe free for users ofWindows 7 and 8(excluding Enterprise versions). Thatmeans a lot of previously ambivalentcustomers will suddenly be eyeingupWindows 10 as their next OS. Toan extent, Microsoft’s fate hingesonwhether or not they like whatthey see. Happily, the signs are thatdevelopment is continuing down theright track to win back those heartsandminds. DARIEN GRAHAM-SMITH

enough, resulting in half-recognised questions.Another problem is the quality of Cortana’s voicerecognition, which simply isn’t as accurate or reliableas Apple’s or Google’s. It’s particularly weak atrecognising names and other non-dictionary words,which can make searching the web infuriating. Overall,we can see Cortana’s potential as a rival to GoogleNow and Siri, but there’s a lot of work to be done if it’sto become a really useful and usable part of Windows.


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I f you can’t beat them, join them.That appears to be themantra forHPwith its new Envy x2 13.Where

the previous Envy x2 partnered an11.6in tablet with a keyboard dock,2015 sees it grow into a larger13.3inmodel replete with a built-inkickstand and a thin, clip-onkeyboard; a design clearly inspiredby theMicrosoft Surface Pro 3.

If you’re hoping to be bowled overby a futuristic, super-svelte hybrid,however, we suggest you look awaynow – this simply isn’t what you’vebeenwaiting for. Themain problem isthat it’s far too big, especially giventhat it’s powered by one of Intel’slatest Core M processors, purpose-built for thin-and-light devices.

In fairness, the Envy x2 isn’t ahorribly ugly thing, but HP hasmadesome truly baffling decisions in thedesign department. For starters, thepair of Beats-branded speakers takeup a couple of centimetres at each sideof the display, and the thick bezels atthe top and bottommean that withthe keyboard attached the Envy x2 isas wide and tall as most 15.6in laptops.It positively dwarfs the Surface Pro 3and, at 14mm thick, it’s never going towin the award for slimmestWindowstablet, either.

It’s difficult to handle, too. Thetablet alone weighs 1.27kg, and theonly real plus point of this is thatthe silver metal body feels pleasinglysolid in the hand. But the build is toohefty for a tablet: unless you’re aregular at theWorld’s Strongest Man(orWoman) competition, this isn’t adevice you can hold comfortably in

one hand. The presence of a sturdy,fold-out kickstand at the rear doeshelp a little, though: it’s easy to propup the HP on a flat surface, and sinceit folds right back to almost flat, it’scomfortable to use in tablet modewhether on a lap or a desk.

Thanks to the layer of fetching greyfabric on its underside, the clip-onBluetooth keyboard looks smart. Thisclaspsmagnetically to the tablet andfolds against the display when youneed to pop it in a bag, with strong,hiddenmagnets holding it firmly inplace. A loop along the keyboard’sedge hints at stylus support, butthis is a £32 optional extra. Sadly,the keyboard doesn’t have a reservebattery for keeping the tablet toppedup – instead, it draws its power fromthe tablet.

The keyboard itself is pretty good.We’re not fans of the vertical strip ofPage Up, Page Down, Home and Endbuttons on the far-right edge – thearrangementmakes it fartoo easy to press thesebuttons bymistake – butthe widely spaced backlitkeys provide just the rightamount of feedback, andthe soft-leather wristrestmakes for comfy typing.The touchpad, however,made us thankful of thetouchscreen; it’s far toosensitive to taps, yetfeels oddly laggy andunresponsive to cursormovements, and it oftenregistered left-clickswhenwewere simplytrying to scroll themousecursor across the screen.

We can only hope that a driver updateimprovesmatters.

Otherwise, the Envy x2 suffersfrom several of the same usabilityissues as Microsoft’s Surface Protablets. The x2 is fine on a desk: thekickstand provides an excellent rangeof movement, and the large keyboard

and screenmake for aworkable substitute to alaptop. However, thingsgo downhill rapidly onceyou try to use the Envy x2elsewhere. The heavytablet and lightweightkeyboardmake for an

unstable combination on your lap,and the sheer size of the Envy x2makes it a poor travelling companion.

There are glimmers of quality hereand there. The Envy x2’s display isgreat. This stretches a Full HDresolution across a 13in IPS panel,and it bursts with dynamic, punchyimages. Brightness tops out at

HP Envy x2 13HP takes on the Surface Pro3 with its Core M-poweredtablet, but can it competewith Microsoft’s design?

PRICE £520 (£650 inc VAT) fromjohnlewis.com (pcpro.link/246envy)

BATTERY: light use, 9hrs 12mins

3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600K, 4GB DDR3 = 1REAL WORLD BENCHMARKS

0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75

OVERALL 0.59

“Unless you’re a regular atthe World’s Strongest Man(or Woman), this isn’t atablet you can holdcomfortably in one hand”

ABOVE The Envy x213’s design appearsto have been inspiredby the MicrosoftSurface Pro 3

ABOVE The fold-outkickstand providesa good range ofmovement


73

SPECIFICATIONS800MHz Intel Core M-5Y10 ●

4GB RAM ● 128GB SSD ●

13.3in 1,920 x 1,080touchscreen ● 2 x USB 3,HDMI ● 802.11ac Wi-Fi ●Bluetooth 4 ● Windows8.1 64-bit ● 1yr RTBwarranty ● 355 x216 x 14mm (WDH)● 1.27kg (1.83kgwith keyboard)

Brightdisplay, goodperformance andkeen pricing

Middlingbattery life,annoyingtouchpad andfar too heavy

392cd/m2, contrast reaches 1,095:1,and the panel covers a respectable93% of the sRGB colour gamut. It’s byfar the HP’s strongest suit.

Behind the scenes, Intel’s CoreM-5Y10 CPU provides the Envy x2’sprocessing power, a chip that soundsrather frugal on paper. It runs at abase frequency of only 800MHz,boosts up to 2GHz and has a TDPof amere 4.5W. In truth, wewereprimed for disappointment, afterthe faster-clocked Core M-5Y70 inthe Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro turned insome verymediocre numbers.

Happily, the x2 confounded ourexpectations. In our RealWorldBenchmarks, the combination of theCore M, 4GB ofmemory and 128GBSSD turned in an Overall score of0.59, which is well ahead of theYoga 3 Pro’s 0.45, and not far offthe performance of Ultrabooks andrival hybrids with Core i5 Haswellhardware. It’s clear that, with theright hardware design, Intel’sCore M has a surprisingly healthyperformance kick.What’s more, thefanless designmeans there isn’t awhisper of noise, evenwhen theEnvy x2 is working flat out.

Battery life is limitedmore by thedemands of the Envy x2’s displaythan the power-frugal CPU, but theHP acquitted itself reasonably well inour tests. With the display brightnessset to 120cd/m2, our looping-videotest saw the Envy x2 chew throughits capacity in a reasonable 6hrs8mins.We had been hoping formore, however: given the CoreM CPU, this is by nomeans arecord-breaking performance.

The Envy x2wants for littlewhen it comes to connectivity.There are two full-sized USB 3ports, one on either edge of thetablet, a full-sized HDMI output andamicroSD slot. Speedy 802.11acwireless networking is the orderof the day, and Bluetooth 4 isincluded as well. The front-facing2-megapixel webcam isn’tstunning, but there’s detail enoughfor video chats over Skype.

The final disappointment here isthe Envy x2’s speakers: althoughthey take up a sizable chunk ofspace either side of the display,sound quality is middle of the road.There’s plenty of volume, andenough energy tomakemusic andmovie soundtracks listenable, butthere’s a harsh quality to the soundthat made several of our test trackssound edgy and thin, and the lackof low-end andmid-range warmthsees basslines almost disappear.We expected far better.

After a few days with the Envyx2, we kept returning to onequestion: what is it actually good

at? It’s too big and unwieldy fora tablet we’d want to use withany regularity, and the clip-onkeyboard is borderline impossibleto use on your lap, or inmostsituations when you’re travelling.The Envy x2 is most at homewhenit’s sitting on a desk, but even in thisscenario we found the touchpad tobe a regular aggravation.

It’s a shame, because theexcellent display and solidperformance tick two importantboxes, and the £650 price is a hugeplus point. The Surface Pro 3 ispricier at £849, and that’s withoutthe keyboard. Despite the keenpricing, though, the HP’s flaws

@ P C P R O ReviewsP C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W S

BELOW With thekeyboard attached,the Envy x2 is aswide and tall as a15.6in laptop

make it impossible to recommend;for a device that promisesthe best of bothworlds, theEnvy x2 delivers neither.SASHA MULLER

The Core M processor inside the Envy x2 isone of the first chips we’ve seen based onIntel’s new Broadwell microarchitecture– but it will soon be joined by a new familyof fifth-generation mobile Core i3, i5 and i7processors. Broadwell desktop chipsaren’t due until this summer, butanyone using a Haswell laptop right nowis about to find themselves runninglast-generation hardware.

Does this mean your current laptop isobsolete? Absolutely not. According toIntel’s “Tick-Tock” model, Broadwell is a“Tick” – a scaling down of aprevious architecture,rather than a new one.Specifically, Broadwelluses the same CPUcore as Haswell,but shrunkfrom a 22nmmanufacturingprocess to 14nm.This brings a minorperformance benefit:smaller chips generateless heat, so they can spendmore time running at “TurboBoost” frequencies before they needto slow down and cool off. But thepractical effect is small: Intel’s ownmarketing material anticipates only a 4%improvement in productivity performanceover last-generation chips.

Another benefit of smaller die size isincreased electrical efficiency, and that’shelped in Broadwell by a new low-poweraudio subsystem. Intel claims its latestchips consume around half as muchpower as their Haswell equivalents whenidle, and around 40% less power whileplaying video. This isn’t quite as significantas it sounds, since the CPU accounts foronly a fraction of a system’s total power

consumption. Once you factor thescreen and the rest of the componentsinto the calculation, the overall differencebetween Haswell and Broadwell laptopsis less than 5% when idle, and a littlemore than 13% when watching a film.

One area where Broadwell does scoresignificantly over Haswell is graphics. Aswith the previous “Tick” (2012’s Ivy Bridgearchitecture), while shrinking the die Intelhas also taken the opportunity to upgradethe GPU. In this case, a 22% increase inperformance is promised – not something

to be sniffed at, especially ifthere’s a chance you might

be investing in a 4Kdisplay within the

lifetime of yournext PC.

All the same,we’d advise againstbuying a new laptop

purely to get yourhands on the latest

CPU. Even if yourcurrent PC is on its last

legs, keep an eye out for dealson Haswell systems, which may

well be discounted as Broadwell filtersinto the mainstream.

And then there’s the question ofwhat’s around the corner. Broadwell wasoriginally intended to launch last year, butwas held up by the technical challengesof the new 14nm manufacturing process.Now that the process is up and running,Intel plans to get back on track byswitching production to Broadwell’ssuccessor – codenamed Skylake – in thesecond half of this year. Since Skylake is abrand-new architecture (a “Tock”), it’slikely to bring significant new featuresand improvements, making it a moreinteresting upgrade than Broadwell.

RIGHT The heavytablet and lightweightkeyboard make for anunstable combinationon your lap

Broadwell: need to know


74


The Venue 11 Pro 7000won’t winany awards for groundbreakingdesign. Dell has barely deviated

from the format of previous Venue 11Promodels, save formoving a fewports around the tablet’s edges, andit’s fair to say the look remainsmore“functional business tool” than“funkyWindows hybrid”; betweenthis and theMicrosoft Surface Pro 3,there’s no contest in terms of looks.

It’s well built, though. At 757g,it’s light enough to wield in one hand,and the rubberised plastic rear stops itslipping. It feels like a quality device,and, if our Venue 11 Pro from last yearis anything to go by, it should bemorethan capable of surviving day-to-dayknocks and scrapes.

As ever, the Venue 11 Pro’s highpoint is its Full HD display, whichgives the Surface Pro 3 a run for itsmoney. Maximum brightness is downon last year’s model, but 398cd/m2 isstill bright enough for outdoor use,and a contrast ratio of 886:1 ensuresimages have plenty of pop. Colour isgood, too: the Dell’s IPS panel covers91.7% of the sRGB colour gamut witha decent level of accuracy. The onlysticking point is that greyscales aretinted with a slight greenish cast.

Behind the display, a dual-coreIntel Core M processor now takespride of place. Gone are the ultra-low-voltage Y-class Core i3 and Core i5Haswell chips of previousmodels:instead you can choose from the800MHz CoreM-5Y10 and the 1.2GHzCore M-5Y71. Those speedsmay soundfairly slow, but the CoreM-5Y10 boostsup to 2GHzwhen required, with theCore M-5Y71 reaching 2.9GHz.

As a result, the Venue 11 Prodelivers nippy performance. Ourreview unit partnered the CoreM-5Y10with 4GB of RAM and a128GBM.2 SanDisk SSD, achievinga respectable 0.56 in our RealWorldBenchmarks. That’s a little behindthe 0.59 scored by the HP Envy x2 13(see p72), but the trade-off is asmaller, thinner chassis.

Battery life is good too, bestingeven last year’s Atom-basedmodel.With the screen set to 75cd/m2 andWi-Fi turned off, the Venue 11 Pro’s38Wh battery lasted 11hrs 21mins inour light-use browser test – almostan hour longer than its predecessor.

We remain impressed by the Venue11 Pro’s connectivity options, too. Onthe wireless front, it has dual-band802.11ac, Bluetooth 4, Miracast andan optional 4Gmodule. There’s alsovideo output via amicro-HDMI port,plus a single full-sized USB 3 portandmicro-USB for charging.

A final nice touch – and one thatIT departments in particular willappreciate – is that you can leveroff the Venue 11 Pro’s plastic rear toaccess and replace both the internalbattery and the SSD. There’s also an

optional tablet keyboardwith asecondary 28Wh battery; in our tests,this almost doubled the Venue 11Pro’s battery life.

The Dell doesn’t get everythingright. The Surface Pro’s 3:2-ratioscreen feels more comfortable in bothlandscape and portrait orientations,and it offers a higher resolution, too.In addition, the Venue 11 Pro providesnowhere to stash the stylus and, whilethe tablet keyboard provides a comfy,usable keyboard and touchpad, it’sannoying that you can’t tilt back thedisplay very far.

On the other hand, the Venue 11Pro not only serves as a very likeabletablet, but it can also transform intoa pleasingly compact ultraportable,and even a desktop PC replacement.Of course, the requisite accessoriescome as optional extras, so you’llhave to shell out £29 for the activestylus, £160 for the tablet keyboardand £139 for the docking station.

Thankfully, the tablet itself isn’ttoo pricey, especially if you canmakedowith a 64GB SSD. The entry-levelmodel throws in a slim, clip-onkeyboard for £559 inc VAT, whilethemodel with the faster CPU and128GB SSD comes in at £639 inc VAT– comparing very favourably with theSurface Pro 3. If you’re after a nippy,long lasting andmultitalentedWindows tablet, the Venue 11 Prohits themark. SASHA MULLER

SPECIFICATIONSDual-core 800MHz Intel Core M-5Y10 ●

4GB RAM ● 128GB SSD ● 10.8in 1,920 x1,080 display ● 2MP/8MP front/rearcameras ● 802.11ac Wi-Fi ● Bluetooth 4 ●

Windows 8.1 64-bit ● 1yr C&R warranty● 279 x 177 x 11mm (WDH) ● 757g

ABOVE As withprevious models,the Venue 11 Pro’shighlight is its screen

LEFT The Haswellchips of old havebeen replaced withCore M processors

Greatperformance,complementedby a top-qualityscreen andexcellent flexibility

Awkward touse comfortablyin portrait mode

Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000Dell spruces up its superb10.8in business tablet withIntel’s Core M to create thebest business tablet yet

PRICE £454 (£545 inc VAT) fromdell.co.uk (pcpro.link/246dellven)

RECOMMENDED

BATTERY: light use, 11hrs 21mins


0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75

OVERALL 0.56


75


I f you didn’t think it was possibleto squeeze serious gaming powerinto a compact case, take a look at

Chillblast’s Fusion Nano – a pint-sizedperformer that brings togetherNvidia’s newGTX 970 graphics, awater-cooled Intel Core i5 CPU anda premiummini-ITXmotherboard.

It’s tough to arguewith Chillblast’schoice of case: the RaijintekMetis isa handsome example of the breed. Itcomes in a choice of grey, red, green,blue, black and gold, and our bluesample looked very smart indeed.

The finish feels top-notch, too,with classy brushedmetal all around,and awindow on the right-handpanel. There’s room inside for afull-sized ATX power supply and a120mm fan at the rear – essential forpowerful gaming components. Tofurther improve airflow, Chillblasthas also cut an extra vent into theroof of the case.

Our onlyminormoan is that theplastic around this top vent looksdecidedly rough around the edges,but we understandwhy Chillblast hasreached for the Dremel: the FusionNano’s core components wouldnormally reside in a far larger case.There’s an Intel Core i5-4690K,pushed from 3.4GHz up to 4.4GHzthanks to the Corsair H55watercooler;a dinky “mini-ITX” edition of Nvidia’sGeForce GTX 970 occupying the singlePCI Express slot; and a 250GB Samsung

840 Evo SSD, accompanied by a 1TBSeagate hybrid SSHD and 16GB of RAM.

With all this plumbed into the AsusZ97i-Plusmotherboard, the FusionNano’s performance is predictablysolid. In our desktop benchmarks, theoverclocked Core i5 and speedy SSDhelped the Fusion Nano rack up anOverall score of 1.13 – a competent,if unexceptional result. This isaround 10 to 12% slower than gamingPCs we’ve seenwith Core i7 CPUsrunning at similar overclocks, butrealistically there’s more than enoughva-va-voom here to handle high-endgames for several years to come.

The unassumingminiaturegraphics card eschews the dual-slotcoolers found onmost high-endgraphics cards, instead cramming acompact heatsink onto a card thatmeasures a dainty 17cm long. But youstill get plenty of connectors: there arethree full-sized DisplayPort outputs,plus HDMI 1.4 and dual DVI.

And despite the card’s modest size,Nvidia’s Maxwell architecture – with

4GB of GDDR5RAM – packs amighty wallop.In our Crysis test,at 2,560 x 1,440with Very Highdetail, the GTX970 averaged65fps. Evenwiththe resolutioncranked up to3,840 x 2,160,the GTX 970kept up a solidaverage of 31fps.When you considerthat Chillblast’sgaming beast fromlast year, the FusionDragon, managedonly 37fps in thesame test – with aCore i7 CPU anda stupendouslyexpensive GTX780Ti graphics

card – it’s clear that the GTX 970is a force to be reckonedwith.

With all this power in such a smallcase, things do get hot. Whenwe setFurMark and Prime95 to do theirworst, the GPU happily ticked along at60˚C, but the CPU quickly hit 100˚C.This shouldn’t be a real-worldproblem, though: even under thisunrealistic 100% load, the systemremained smooth and stable.

Surprisingly, when it comes topower consumption the Fusion Nanois actually quite frugal. Evenwithboth CPU and GPUworking flat out,we recorded amaximum draw of281W. Sitting idle on theWindows 8desktop, this fell to 66W. It isn’t toonoisy either: even under heavy load,the GTX 970 and Corsair H55 unit emitonly a low, unobtrusive whoosh of air.

Finally, we also have to praise thesheer degree of connectivity packedinto the Asusmotherboard. There’s802.11acWi-Fi, four USB 2 ports anda total of six USB 3 ports – four at therear and two at the front. Inside, a10GB/sec M.2 socket sits ready for youto add a high-speed SSD, and if youneed evenmore storage, there are alsotwo spare SATA 6Gbits/sec ports.

We’ve seen a fair few compactgaming PCs over the years, but theFusion Nano is one of the best. It’scompact, good-looking and quiet, yetoffers enough grunt to tackle themostdemanding games head-on. If you’reshort on space and big on games, it’sa great choice. SASHA MULLER

SPECIFICATIONS3.4GHz Intel Core i5-4690K @ 4.4GHz ● 16GBDDR3 RAM ● 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 ●

250GB Samsung SSD ● 1TB SSHD ● GigabitEthernet ● Windows 8.1 64-bit ● 2yr C&Rwarranty ● 190 x 280 x 250mm (WDH)

ABOVE Despite itscompact size, theChillblast Fusion Nanosqueezes in a fine setof components

BELOW The extravent at the top of theRaijintek Metis casehelps to keep it cool

Size, looks,great gamingperformance

Limitedupgradability,and can be alittle noisy

Chillblast Fusion NanoHigh-end gaming power in acompact package – Chillblasttakes full advantage ofNvidia’s latest GTX 970 GPU

PRICE £916 (£1,099 inc VAT) fromchillblast.com (pcpro.link/246nano)


0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75

OVERALL 1.13

Crysis3D BENCHMARKS

VERY HIGH(4K)

VERY HIGH(WQHD)

VERY HIGH(FULL HD)

65fpsSMOOTH PLAY

31fpsPLAYABLE

90fpsSMOOTH PLAY

@ P C P R O ReviewsP C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W SWorldmags.netWorldmags.net

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Reviews


A ndroidWear has yet to reachits first birthday, but we’vealready seen a healthy

selection of hardware. The AsusZenWatch is the latest, and it joinsan increasingly capable crew.

Of all the AndroidWear deviceswe’ve seen so far, the ZenWatch takesfirst prize for looks. Its slim, stainless-steel body – complete with “rose gold”inlay around the edges and a curvedGorilla Glass 3 touchscreen – lendsit a touch of class; the tan leather strapandmetal clasp, in combinationwitha selection of slick customwatchfaces, top off the look nicely.

It’s light and comfy – notsomething all the wearableswe’ve tested recently canclaim – and the hinged claspis both secure and easy torelease. If you don’t like thebrown strap, the ZenWatch’sstandard 22mm fittingsmeanyou can easily swap it out withone of your choice.

■ Specificationsand screenBeneath that glitzy exterior,it’s pretty standard fare.Similar tomost other wearableswe’ve encountered, theZenWatch is both dust- andwater-resistant: its IP55ratingmeans it isn’t as toughas the Sony SmartWatch 3,but you’ll be okay ifyou’re caught out ina rain shower.

The screen is a square1.63in affair, and boasts aresolution of 320 x 320pixels for a pixel densityof 278ppi. It usesAMOLED technology,and its vibrant coloursand deep, dark blackmake it a joy to look at.It isn’t as readable as theSony SmartWatch 3 in directsunlight – but indoors, andon grey days, it’s far moreappealing to the eye.

There are a couple of minorirritations, however. First,

because of the way the RGBsubpixels are arranged,there’s visible grain to thescreen. Second, with thewatch in ambient displaymode, you’ll often see thatone edge of your watch face ischopped off - this is becausethe ZenWatch shifts thepixels around regularlytomitigate the effects ofAMOLED screen burn.

Behind that screensits a 1.2GHz QualcommSnapdragon 400 processor,512MB of RAM and 4GB ofstorage. Although it isn’t

immediately obvious,the ZenWatch alsoincludes a heart-ratemonitor. This isintegrated intothe bezel of theZenWatch: to readyour pulse, yousimply launch theAsusWellness appand rest your indexandmiddle fingerlightly on each side

of the watch face. Itworks quickly and isreasonably accurate – butonly when usedwith theWellness app; it’s all overthe place when usedwithGoogle Fit. There’s also an

option tomeasure yourstress levels.

The only area inwhich the ZenWatchfalls seriously short isstamina. Presumablybecause the watch is so

slim, Asus hasn’t been able to squeezein a large battery – and it shows.With the screen set to always on,we found it didn’t last significantlylonger than a day, andwith heavyuse it often didn’t make it to bedtime,even after having been fully chargedin themorning.

Our smartwatch batterybenchmark proved the ZenWatch stillcan’t compete with the best wearableson themarket. With appointments setto trigger a notification every fiveminutes, and the screen set to alwayson, its projected runtime of one day

RIGHT TheZenWatch’sstainless-steel claspfeels secure and iseasy to release

Classy design,a comfortableleather strapand somegenuinely usefulcustomisations

Short batterylife and a clip-oncharger; inambient displaymode, the screenmoves around

Asus ZenWatchAsus brings a touchof luxury to AndroidWear, with its sleek,good-looking ZenWatch

PRICE £166 (£199 inc VAT) frompcworld.co.uk (pcpro.link/246zenwatch)

“In addition to a selectionof watch faces, you can usethe ZenWatch Manager appto customise them and to setup proprietary features”


P C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W S@ P C P R O

77

SPECIFICATIONS1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon

400 CPU ● 512MB RAM ● 4GBstorage ● 1.63in square 320 x 320

AMOLED touchscreen ● heart-ratemonitor ● Bluetooth 4 ● 1.4Wh Li-poly

battery ● Android Wear ● 1yr RTB warranty● 40 x 9.7 x 51mm (WDH) ● 70g

and ten hours is well short ofthe LG GWatch R’s two daysand 21 hours.

We also aren’t particularlykeen on the charger, a USBclip-on that wraps around theentire body of the watch.We’dprefer to see amicro-USB port suchas that on the Sony SmartWatch 3, orwireless charging. Clip-on chargersare far too easy to lose.

■ SoftwareThe ZenWatch comes loadedwiththe latest version of AndroidWear,but it’s great to see that Asus hasmademore of an effort to extendthe ZenWatch’s capabilities.

In addition to a selection ofcustomwatch faces, you can usethe ZenWatchManager app (availableto download and install from the Playstore) to customise those watch faces,and set up proprietary features suchas “Findmywatch” and “Forgotphonewarning”.

You can also use theManagerapp to activate extra tools on the

watch, including a compass,flashlight, camera remote andSOS emergency dialler. Themostuseful of all the Asus extras, however,is theWellness app, which keepstrack of your steps and heart ratein amuchmore visually attractivemanner than Google Fit.

■ VerdictThe Asus ZenWatch brings a touchof class to the world of AndroidWear,and of all the smartwatches we’vecome across in the past year, it’s theonewe’ve beenmost takenwith interms of design.

Despite appearances, it isn’tparticularly pricey. At £199, it’sslightly cheaper than the round-facedMotorola Moto 360 and LG GWatch R,and a little more than the SamsungGear Live.

With better battery life, itwould have been our newfavourite AndroidWearwatch; as it is, however,unless you valueappearance aboveall else, our top pickremains the LG GWatch. JONATHAN BRAY

BELOW The USB clip-on charger wrapsaround the body of the watch

ABOVE Design-wise, theZenWatch stands out forall the right reasons


78


Back in 2013, Intel’s Paul Otelliniboldly promised that the BayTrail Atom processor would

powerWindows devices priced “aslow as $200”. It was an ambitiousclaim, but now the BushMyTabletgoes one better: this fully featured 8inWindows tablet costs just £80.

The headline specifications areimpressive. You get an 8in, quad-coretablet running 32-bitWindows 8.1with Bing, Microsoft’s fully functionalversion ofWindows designed forlow-cost devices. You also receivea year’s subscription to Office 365Personal and 1TB of OneDrive cloudstorage. On paper, it almost lookstoo good to be true.

In the hand, surprisingly, theMyTablet doesn’t look or feel cheap.There’s no give or flex in the 9mm-thick body, and the narrow bezelsmake for a smart, presentable-lookingpiece of hardware. The whole thingweighs a reasonable 366g.

The display, too, exceeded ourexpectations – by quite a stretch.While the 1,280 x 800 resolutionwon’t win awards for pixel density,the IPS panel delivers wide viewingangles and a contrast ratio of 1,200:1that makes for punchy and vibrantimages. Maximum brightness isn’tgreat at 260cd/m2, but the panelwas able to reproduce an impressive78.3% of the sRGB colour gamut –better than themuch pricier AppleiPadmini 3.

We noticed no issues with thetouchscreen’s responsiveness either,although one oddity is that the bezelscreep slightly over the edges, whichmakes it difficult to tap onscreenbuttons positioned right at the edge of

the display. Still, ridiculous as thissounds, it’s a minor annoyance ratherthan a deal-breaker.

If you’re wondering where theStart button is, you’ll need to lookclosely: like several of its rivals, Bushhasmoved this control to the edge oftheMyTablet, alongside the volumebuttons. This takes a little gettingused to, but it’s a better position thansqueezing a capacitive button intothe tablet’s slim bezels, where itwould be easy to press by accident.

Inside theMyTablet, the IntelAtom Z3735G processor is supportedby amere 1GB RAM,which doeslead to some stuttering if you trytomultitask with demanding apps.Overall performance doesn’tsuffer, though: the Bush achieveda score of 0.38 in our RealWorldBenchmarks, placing it on par withits 2GB rivals.

TheMyTablet’s Atom processoralso fares pretty well inmobile tests:it rattled through the SunSpiderJavaScript benchmark in a nippy

504ms, and achievedsingle- andmulti-corescores of 968 and 2,808respectively in thebrowser-basedGeekbench 3 test.That places it ahead

of luxury Android compacts such asthe Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and theSony Xperia Z3 Compact.

Connectivity is bang-on forthemoney.Wireless networkingincludes single-band 802.11n andBluetooth 4, and the Bush eventrumps some of its pricier big-brandrivals by providing amicro-HDMIsocket and amicroSD slot forexpanding the onboard storage. TheMyTablet charges via amicro-USBconnection (amains charger issupplied). This is On-The-Go-compatible, so you can use a third-party USBOTG cable or hub toconnect external USB devices such ashard disks, keyboards and the like –although naturally you can’t use themand charge the tablet at the same time.

TheMyTablet also sports both0.3-megapixel front and 2-megapixelrear cameras, although the imagequality is dreadfully lacklustre.The rear-facing camera produceswashed-out, low-resolution imagessmearedwith compression artefacts;the front-facing camera is so blurryand lacking in detail that it’s barelysatisfactory for Skype calls. Frankly,you’d be better off drawing a self-portrait in Microsoft Paint. TheBush’s speakers are similarlydisappointing, with limited volumeand little depth or clarity: if youwantto enjoymovies, a decent pair ofheadphones is a necessity.

The BushMyTablet’s biggestbugbear, though, is battery life.With the display dimmed to 120cd/m2

andWi-Fi switched off, our 720p HDmovie kept looping for amere 7hrs42mins – someway behind rivalcompactWindows tablets, and alongway off the stamina of the bestAndroid and iOS devices.

Overall, the MyTablet remains aremarkable device for the price. If wewere betting types, we’d have been

willing to wager that a£80Windows 8 tabletwould be a lost cause fromthe off. We’d have beenwrong. TheMyTablet’slimited RAM andmiddlingbattery life may put offsome people, but the only

real questionmark concerns theimminent arrival of a flood of rivaltablets at similar, ultra-low prices.It remains to be seen how these willmeasure up – but if you’re after alightweightWindows tablet rightnow, the BushMyTablet representsincredible value. SASHA MULLER

SPECIFICATIONS1.8GHz Intel Atom Z3735G ● 1GB RAM ● 32GBstorage ● 8in 1,280 x 800 IPS touchscreen ●

Intel HD Graphics ● Windows 8.1 with Bing32-bit ● 1yr RTB warranty ● 124 x 9 x 217mm(WDH) ● 366g

ABOVE Great buildquality, decentconnectivity optionsand a superb screen– the MyTabletdelivers plentyfor the money

Compact,cheap, a decentdisplay and Officebundled for free

Terriblecameras, middlingbattery life andlimited RAM

Bush MyTablet 8A Windows tablet thatcosts £80? The BushMyTablet is small instature but big on value

PRICE £67 (£80 inc VAT) fromargos.co.uk (pcpro.link/246bush)

“There’s no give or flex inthe 9mm-thick body, and thenarrow bezels make for asmart, presentable-lookingpiece of hardware”

BATTERY: video playback, 7hrs 42mins


79


W ith themobile world stilldominated by Android andiOS, Microsoft’s new tactic

is to push production of ultra-cheapWindows tablets. We’ve already beenimpressed by the BushMyTablet 8in;now comes the Linx 10 – a 10inWindows tablet for only £159.

Just like theMyTablet, the Linxruns full Windows 8.1 32-bit “withBing”, and includes a one-yearsubscription to Office 365 Personal.Inside, there’s a quad-core Intel BayTrail Atom Z3735F CPU clocked at1.33GHz (with burst speeds up to1.83GHz), and 2GB of RAM – twiceasmuch as the Bush.

This allowsWindows 8.1’stile-based touch interface to whizzaroundwithout a hitch. Scrollingand panning in Internet Explorer issmooth; in the Geekbench 3mobilebenchmark, the Linx achievedcompetitive scores of 784 and 2,204 inthe single- andmulti-core tests, plus arespectable SunSpider time of 514ms.

Even demanding desktop apps areusable: we kicked off a 1080p videorender using Sony Vegas Pro 10, andsaw very little slowdown. It doesn’tfeel like a budget experience at all.

Of course, this is still an Atomprocessor, so those renders will take awhile. In our desktop benchmarks,the Linx 10 returned an Overall scoreof 0.33 – a touch behind the BushMyTablet, andmiles off mainstreamCoreM and Core i3 devices.

Gaming isn’t a strong pointeither: Fifa Ultimate Team andDespicable Me: Minion Rushwerevisibly jerky, and GFXBenchwouldn’trun at all during our testing – there

appeared to be some compatibilityissues at play.

And althoughwewere a littledisappointedwith battery life, it’s farfrom disastrous. The claimed runtimeis only six to eight hours, but dim thescreen a touch and you should be ableto eke out an hourmore.With thescreen set to a brightness of 120cd/m2,the Linx 10 lasted 8hrs 59mins.

There’s better newswhen itcomes to screen quality. The 1,280 x800-resolution, 10.1in display usesIPS technology, ensuring goodbrightness, contrast and viewingangles. According to our colorimeter,the Linx 10’s display beamed out at329cd/m2 (much brighter than theBushMyTablet), with a solid contrastratio of 823:1. Photos and video look alittle muted, but in general, this is adecent screen for the price.

It all comes housed in a chassisthat, if not particularly classy, feelswell made. Finished inmatte,soft-touch black plastic, the designcalls tomind the look of Amazon’sHDX tablets, if not their slenderness.The slightly weak speakers areunhelpfully mounted on the rear, andthe screen picks up grease and grimerather too easily for our liking, butyou do get a decent array of ports andsockets: there’s mini-HDMI, microSD

and amicro-USB socket with USBOn-The-Go support for connectingexternal peripherals (an adapter cableis provided in the box). The tabletcharges via a separate DC connector,so accessories can remain connectedwhile charging.

On the wireless front, you getBluetooth 4, but only single-band802.11nWi-Fi, and the tablet has32GB of integrated storage – of whichWindows and the Linx 10’s recoverypartition take up around half.

Perhaps the Linx 10’s weakestpoint is its cameras. Althoughfront- and rear-facing snappersare included, both capture at alow resolution of 2megapixels,and the resulting images looksmeary and unpleasant.

At £159, the Linx 10 isconsiderablymore expensivethan the BushMyTablet, and nextto other popular budget tablets – suchas the Android-based, 8.4in TescoHudl 2 – its lower-resolutiondisplay counts against it.

However, once youweigh in theOffice 365 subscription (worth £48alone), and the fact that, with amonitor, keyboard andmouse,the Linx could plausibly replaceyourmain home computer, thatprice looksmore palatable. Ifyou’re in themarket for anentertainment device and basichome PC in one low-cost package,the Linx 10 is definitely one foryour shortlist. JONATHAN BRAY

SPECIFICATIONS1.3GHz Intel Atom Z3735F ● 2GB RAM ● 32GBstorage ● 10.1in 1,280 x 800 IPS touchscreen● Intel HD Graphics ● 7,900mAh battery ●

Windows 8.1 with Bing 32-bit ● 1yr RTBwarranty ● 258 x 11.5 x 172mm (WDH) ● 588g

ABOVE For £159,you get the Linx 10and a subscriptionto Office 365

BELOW Design-wise,the Linx 10’s matte,soft-touch finishis reminiscent ofAmazon’s HDX tablets

Cheap andresponsive, witha generous oneyear of Office365 Personalthrown in

Poor cameras,and the screenis lacking inresolution

Linx 10A nippy, well-connectedWindows tablet with adecent-quality screen – allat a very tempting price

PRICE £133 (£159 inc VAT) fromamazon.co.uk (pcpro.link/246linx)

BATTERY: video playback, 8hrs 59mins


0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75

OVERALL 0.33

Reviews@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W SWorldmags.netWorldmags.net

ANTI VIRWHICH PACKAGE CAN YOU TRUST


81

VIRUSTO PROTECT YOUR DEVICES?

T he internet-security landscape is changing fast,mirroring the changes in howwe use technology.Threats are no longer only in the form of viruses,

trojans, worms and spyware – although these remain ascommon as ever – and they no longer attack only your PC.

Mobile devices are increasingly being targeted, withAndroid the fastest-growing platform formalware aroundtheworld. Cybercriminals are as interested in the feed fromyourwebcam as they are in the data stored on your harddisk. Hackers andmalware coders are continually workingto find newways to exploit vulnerabilities in web platformsand social networks, while high-profile security breacheshave shown that the convenience of cloud computing comeswith a dark side, too.

Luckily, the leading internet-security specialists areworking just as hard to developmore effective ways ofdetecting and neutralising emerging threats. They’readding features tomake internet shopping and bankingsafer, and are doing the same for social networking.

They’re building and improving tools that analyse oridentifymalignant websites, and deliveringmore effectiveprotection against phishing and ID theft. Meanwhile,security packages are now bundling protection formobile

ContentsKaspersky InternetSecurity 2015 88Avast Free Antivirus 89360 SafeInternet Security 90AVG AntiVirus Free 2015 90Bitdefender InternetSecurity 2015 91Eset Smart Security 8 91McAfee Internet Security 92Microsoft Security Essentials 92Norton Security 2015 93Trend MicroMaximum Security 93

How we test 82Home security 84Feature table 86View from the Labs 94Test results 94


82

devices. Keeping upwith the threats isa challenge, but the best anti-malwarepackages are doing a credible job.

■ What to look forAntivirus and anti-spywareprotection is still the core of anygood security package, and the bestapplications now take a heuristicapproach – not just checkingfiles against the signatures intheir database, but also continuallymonitoring your computer for signsof malware-like behaviour. Malwaremight be deflected before it caninfect your PC, or simply neutralisedonce it’s installed; most apps have aquarantine area in which suspiciousfiles can be isolated for deletion or,in the case that they’ve been blockedunjustly, restored.

Yet anti-malware tools aren’tthe be-all and end-all. The betterpackages replaceWindows’ ratherbasic built-in firewall withmoresophisticated features.Webprotection is rapidly becomingde rigueur too, as the securitycompanies understand thatpreventing infection and educatingusers can bemore effective thandealing with the infection once it’staken hold. However, there’s always abalance to bemet between providingstrong security and spoiling yoursurfing experience by switchingsearch engines or adding in a slow,intrusive toolbar. Some packagesmanage this better than others.

Beyond this, you’ll find packageswith hardened browsers for secureonline shopping and banking; toolsto scan formalware in Facebook

of sight, and even have “gamer” or“movie”modes that are purposefullydesigned to ensure you’re notdisturbed at the wrongmoment.

■ Multiple devicesThe days of one PC per household arelong gone, andmany of us now havetwo ormore desktops or laptops in thehouse, plus smartphones and tabletsto consider.While you can still buypackages or licences covering onemachine for one year, many supportthree ormore PCs andmobile devices,providing one-stop protection.

This type of protection is worthhaving if you have several PCsto secure, and it’s worth notingthat the threat via mobile devicesis growing. For our security expert’stake on this, see DaveyWinder’sRealWorld Computing columnthis month (see p118).

Each package’s core anti-malwarefeatures are tested at the state-of-the-art facilities of Dennis Technology Labs.Rather than artificially infecting ourtarget systems, we set them up in anenvironment that mimics how ourPCs become infected in the wild, toget an accurate picture of how eachsecurity package fends off malwarein real-world situations.

We look at whether the packageprovides protection, and also how ithandles each threat. The resultingdata informs a protection rating ofup to 100%. Meanwhile, we alsoinstall legitimate software to seewhat the security packages blockand where they prompt for userintervention, factoring in the obscurityor otherwise of the application. Weaward a score for false positives(100% represents a perfect record)and combine this with the protectionrating to provide an overall score(see test results, p94).

After formal testing, we run througheach package to check its otherfeatures and get a feel for its usability,its burden on system resources and theuser’s ability to configure how it works.All this information is factored intoits final, Overall rating.

How we test

Protection False positives

99% 100%BELOW Developersare constantlybuilding new featuresinto their suites

posts or other social network feeds;secure file-shredders to ensure thatdeleted files remain deleted; andencryption tools to secure your data.A number of packages now includepassword-management features, too,where an applicationmanages yourlogin details across different onlineservices and sites, giving you onlyone strong password to remember.

Meanwhile, parentalcontrols allow you todefine how andwhenspecific user accountson your PC can accessthe internet, restrictingaccess to adult contentor even age-rated gamesand applications.

Developers also like to throwin bonus features, often focusedon optimisation, backup orsynchronisation. Many of thesecan be found as standalone utilities,often for free, but it’s useful to getthem as part of the bundle. Somepackages do a better job of integratingthemwith the core security toolsthan youmight expect.

■ Do not disturbA security package that can’t offer youa decent level of security isn’t worthhaving but, on the other hand, onethat continually prompts youwithqueries and notifications or consumesvaluable system resources will onlyget in the way.

The good news is that we’re nowfindingmost packages are lighteron their feet than they used to be,workingwell on older systemsor Atom-basedWindows tablets.

There areexceptions,however,and they’reworth avoiding.

There’s alsoa lot of variationin terms of howquietly securitysoftware runs.A few in thistest still botherthe user withregular queries,interrupt workor entertainmentwithmaintenancetasks, or preventlegitimateapplicationsfrom installing.

The bestpackages outthere knowwhen tostay out

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W S

“The best applicationstake a heuristic approach,continually monitoringyour computer for signsof malware-like behaviour”

Labs Antivirus Worldmags.netWorldmags.net

84

Home security

Thewaywe use the internet, andthe devices onwhichwe use it,are changing, both in business

andwithin the home.Where onceinternet securitymeant defendingWindows frommalware, one PC ata time, now it involves securing anetwork, and protectingmultipledevices and operating systems from awhole range of online threats. Whileinstalling good security software onevery PC in your home should be apriority, it isn’t the only securitymeasure you should take.

■ Secure your PCsand laptopsDesktop and laptop PCs are stillthemost vulnerable devices in yourhome, partly becauseWindows hasbeen the primary target for hackersfor several decades, and also becausethey either hold or provide access tosomuch sensitive data.

First things first, ensure they’reall running recent, fully updatedsecurity software. Next, check thatyour operating system is up to date.Whether you’re using OS X,Windows8, 7 or Vista, ensure the latest patchesand updates have been applied; ifyou’re usingWindows XP, considerswitching to something that’s stillsupported byMicrosoft, or a reliableLinux distribution instead.

Windows Updatemay be a pain,but it’s still the best way to ensure thatWindows stays patched and secure.

While you’re at it,keep your applicationsup to date too,particularlyyour browser.

Finally, avoidlogging onwith themain administratoraccount. Sure, usingan account withoutadmin rights can beannoying if youwantto install software, butit’s much safer for thesame reasons.We allknowwe should doit, even if we don’t.

■ Secure yourrouterRunning a wireless networkwithoutsecurity is folly, putting you at risk ofattacks from remote locations, andinfiltration and/or piggybackingfrom nearby. Switching to aWPA2-protected network is a smart idea –thankfully the days of some devicesonly supporting the insecureWEPprotocol seem to have gone – andchoosing a strong passwordwill helpkeep your network stranger-free;avoid anything obvious, such as yoursurname, pet’s name or house name.

For additional security, turn offSSID broadcasting, so thosemakinga new connection can do so only ifthey know the network name. It alsowon’t turn upwhen neighbours scan

for available networks. Again,changing the SSID to something youcan remember, but isn’t obvious toothers, is a good idea. Similarly, if youabsolutelymust run a guest network,make sure it’s secured viaWPA2 – anddon’t allow guests to have access tonetwork resources.

Finally, protect your router’sconfiguration. Most offer passwordprotection for the settings: youshould change yours from theeasily researchedmanufacturer’sdefault. Keep your firmware updatedand disable administrator accessthrough the web. It’s also a goodidea to disableWPS and UPnP (ifyou don’t need it).

It isn’t only your laptop and PC you need to protect these days, but other devices too

BELOW Your wirelessrouter is a single pointof vulnerability, somake sure it’s fullylocked down

ABOVE If any of youronline providersoffer two-stepauthentication, use it


@ P C P R O

85

P C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W S Labs Antivirus

■ Secure your mobile devicesThemost important considerationwithmobile devices is physicalsecurity. Keep an eye on themwhenyou’re out and about, and have thelockscreen passcode-protected orlockedwith biometric security; thiswill prevent a lost or stolen tablet orsmartphone from opening up thegates to internet services andaccounts at online stores.

What’s more, both Androidand iOS have features to enableyou to lock down and evenwipea stolen device remotely.WithiOS devices, you can useiCloud’s FindMy iPhone/iPadfeature, while Android has thisfunction built into AndroidDevice Manager.

Apple andWindows Phone devicesdon’t require additional securitysoftware; Apple keeps a tight gripon iOS security, while hackers andmalware coders aren’t really botheredenough to attackWindows Phone.

Android is another story, however.In theory, Google’s security effortsshould keep the OS clear andapps free of infection, yet it’s thefastest-growing platform formalware, withmany infectionsoriginating in side-loaded apps fromunofficial stores. Some of themalwareis particularly nasty, sending SMSmessages to premium numbers orreplicating itselfover Bluetooth,and it’s difficultto spot and evenharder to remove.

Unofficialapp storesshould ofcourse beavoided, butit’s still worthinstalling freesecurity appsfromGoogle Play– and some PCsecurity suitesnow providecomplimentarymobile softwareas part of thebundle. AviraAntivirusSecurity isone suchexample,while EsetMobile Security

“Never use the samepassword for all youraccounts; cybercriminalscould end up with access toyour credit card details”

&Antivirus is free for basic useand affordable evenwith the £5premium subscription.

■ Online servicesSecurity doesn’t stopwith physicalproducts; think carefully about theonline services you use, too. Startby not being lax when it comes topasswords: make them lengthyand awkward to guess or breaksystematically, and if you can’tmanage that or have troubleremembering them, then considerusing a password-management toolto recall the details for you.

Never use thesame passwordacross all youraccounts; if oneonline game orservice has poorsecurity onits servers,cybercriminalscould end upwith access tosensitive dataand even creditcard details.

If a serviceoffers two-factorauthentication– andmany nowdo – then use it.You’ll receivean SMSmessageevery timesomebodywantsto access theservice from anew device, andwithout access

to your phone, hackers won’t be ableto break in.

Finally, try to avoid providinginformation on social networks thatmight be used to guess usernames orpasswords, or information that couldbe used to reset them. It’s beensuggested that the celebrities targetedin last year’s iCloud breaches werehacked because toomuch informationwas available online, allowinghackers in through the backdoor.We doubtmany PC Pro readers havenaked selfies stored in the cloud, butisn’t it better to be safe than sorry?

■ Disaster recoveryNo business should be without adisaster-recovery plan, providingcover in the event of a catastrophic

hardware breakdown,fire or theft. The sameshould be true of everyhome. Cloud-basedstorage and backupservices are idealfor archiving andprotecting yourmost

important and least replaceablefiles – whether documents, digitalphotos or homemovies. Externalhard disks can handle the bigger,lower-priority stuff, or considerusing a NAS to cover both your PCsandmobile devices in the home.

■ Old hardwareFinally, recycling or donating oldhardware when you’re no longerusing it is a good thing. Doing sobefore it’s properly wiped, however,is not. You can find details of how todo this at pcpro.link/246erasehdd.

ABOVE Considerusing a NAS appliancefor local backups oflarger files such ashome videos


86

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1. Price for a retail boxed edition from the stated supplier, where applicable.

@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W SLabs Antivirus Worldmags.netWorldmags.net

www.iiyama.com


88

KasperskyInternet Security 2015Unobtrusive, and packedwith useful features –Kaspersky’s security packageremains the best-in-breed

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE 3 devices/1yr, £17 (£20 inc VAT)from pcpro.link/246kaspersky

Although this release still makesit slightly awkward to reachsome features, the UI is becomingmore focused on providing accessto themost important securitytools. The settings reach goodlevels of detail, and you canswitch components on or off,choose how the system reactsto detected threats, and use aGaming Profile to avoid beinginterruptedwhen playing games

or watching videos. There’s a lotto get to grips with, but it’s presentedin a straightforwardmanner that’seasy to understand.

Crucially, Kaspersky retainsthe crownwhen it comes to strongsecurity. It protected against 99%of threats in our tests – only Esetwas better, with a 100% score.

While scanning, CPU usage stayedbelow 25% on our dual-core system,andmemory usage was kept below20%. Kaspersky is clearly confidentabout its footprint: it has a built-insystem resourcemonitor to showwhat it’s using.

It isn’t the only security packagein town – Norton, Eset and Avastare also excellent choices – butKaspersky remains, on balance,the best of the bunch.When youcan pick up a one-year, three-devicelicence for £20, it’s practically a steal.

RIGHT Kaspersky’sparental controls arethe most impressivewe’ve seen in asecurity package

Having held on to a place on ourA-List with its 2014 edition,Kaspersky Internet Security

isn’t about to relinquish it. Likeprevious versions, the 2015 editionhits a sweet spot between the featuresand in-depth configuration options ofEset and Norton, and the set-and-forget usability of Microsoft SecurityEssentials and Avast.

The default configurationneither requests nor needsmuchuser input, and it’s both unobtrusiveand smart when handling legitimatesoftware; it was the only paid-forpackage on test that permittedevery legitimate application toinstall without user intervention.

All the same, it has plenty offeatures. The Safe Money browser isparticularly useful, providing extrasecurity in a hardened version ofyour current browser, protectingagainst such exploits as remotescreen-grabbing. You can informKaspersky of whichwebsites tolaunchwithin the browsermanually,and it can prompt youwhen youvisit your bank’s login screen oran online store’s checkout page.The onscreen keyboard is first-rate,foiling keyloggers at a clickwhenyou need to enter your credentials.

Kaspersky also offers avulnerability scanner; a browserchecker to search out potentialweaknesses; a privacy cleaner toremove sensitive information; anda rescue disc utility. What’s more,it has a fully comprehensive set ofparental controls, with featuresto block or allow PC use and/orinternet access at specific timesduring weekdays or weekends,and an option to set up breaks, say,for half an hour after every hour.

Games can be blocked – by agerating or filename – alongside accessto adult web content. You canwhitelist or blacklist contacts forcommunications, or even outlaw theuse of certain keywords onweb forms.

Despite all these goodies,Kaspersky handles the basics well.

Performance at a glance

Protection False positives Resource usage(during scan)

Basic scan time(mins:secs)

99% 100%23%CPU RAM 5:56

19%

50% 15:00


@ P C P R O Labs Antivirus

89

P C P R O . C O . U K / R E V I E W S

Avast Free AntivirusA solid propositionthat’s easy to use and hasa well-balanced set offeatures – plus it’s free

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE Free from pcpro.link/246avast

control how the package behaves,putting it in Silent modewithno pop-ups or alerts for gaming,or a Hardenedmode to protectinexperienced users. Avast evenincludes a series of statistics screens,where you can see not only the goodwork it’s doing on your behalf, butalso how its anti-malware crusadeis working around the globe.

The package comes close tomatching the performance of thebest paid-for software when itcomes to protection, defendingagainst 97% of threats, and inmostcases preventing them from gettinga foothold on the system, rather thanneutralising them after the fact.360 Safe performs better, with 99%protection, but falls behind Avastwhen it comes to false positives, sinceit blocksmore legitimate applications.The weaker protection is notable, butnot so significant that we’d prefer 360Safe’s anti-application paranoia overAvast’s common sense approach.

Avast is also fairly light on systemresources, not noticeably slowingdown our ageing dual-core PC.Withall these strengths, it deserves to walkawaywith an award.

RIGHT Avast’s freesoftware includes arescue disk tool forcreating bootableUSB sticks

Avast Free Antivirus was ourpick of the free packages lastyear, and this year we see little

reason to change ourminds.With awealth of useful features – includingstrong anti-malware protection – itkeeps your PC secure, while itsrelaxed approach to flogging premiumfeatures and skill at identifyinglegitimate softwaremake it apleasure to live with. If you don’twant to pay for security software,it’s themost balanced proposition.

It gets off to a good start. Thepackage downloads the latestsignatures during the initialinstall, then performs a quick scanas soon as setup is complete. The UIis equally straightforward, exposingall themajor features in a clean,pane-based interface.

Themain Overview panel revealswhat’s protected at a glance, whileexposing the core Scan, BrowserCleanup and Home Network Securitytools, plus the SecureLine VPNservice. The latter is – like the firewall,anti-spam and secure online-bankingfeatures – a paid-for extra, but thesoftware is upfront about this anddoesn’t endlessly nag aboutupgrading. Avast’s built-in storemaybe only one click away, but no-one isforcing you to use it.

For a free package, Avast packs inplenty of additional features, with arescue disk tool for creating bootableUSB sticks or CDswith antivirussoftware and the latest definitionspreinstalled, plus a browser cleanupfeature that gets rid of irritatingtoolbars and extensions. The HomeNetwork Security feature checks outyour entire home network forpotential risks, while the softwareupdater can reveal whether the likesof Java and Adobe Flash are up to date.Both features speak of amore holisticapproach to security than that takenby the other free packages.

When it comes to scanning,you can choose between a quickscan, a full system scan, and optionsto scan specific folders or removablemedia, plus a boot-time scan to dealwith nasties that can’t be handledfollowing startup. You can also

RECOMMENDED


Protection False positives Resource usage(during scan)

97% 97% 17%CPU RAM

7%

50% 15:00

11:44



90

AVG’s free antivirus packageseems to have lost its way inthe past few years, focusing too

heavily on upselling to its paid-forproducts, and too little on ensuringit’s the best of the free tools. Sadly,this continues in the 2015 release.

Even during installation thesoftware tries a pre-emptive bait-and-switch, asking you to choose betweeninstalling a free trial of AVG InternetSecurity, or the free product youpreviously selected. Guess which isthe default? Meanwhile, every page ofthe UI features an advert suggestingthat you “maximise your protection”by upgrading to the paid-for suite.

The line-up of features is basic.Firewall and anti-spam are paid-for

AVG AntiVirusFree 2015

extras, while the web-protection features addAVG Secure Search andan extension – AVGWebTuneUp – to your browser.The former ratherannoyingly switches thehomepage and defaultsearch to the AVG SecureSearch homepage (poweredby Yahoo) without asking.On the plus side, AVGis a highly configurablepackage, with optionsto schedule scans, scanfor rootkits and disablenotifications and sounds,while theWindows 8-inspired interface looksclean andmakes it easy tofind your way around.

AVG’s biggest problem isn’toverbearingmarketing or a lack offeatures, however, but the fact that itsanti-malware protection lags behindmost of its rivals. It came second from

Intrusive upselling andlacklustre protectionmake this free softwareoption one to avoid

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE Free from pcpro.link/246avg

ABOVE AVG’s packageallows you to schedulescans and disablenotifications

The 360 Safe Internet Securitysuite nearly has it all, with greatprotection, useful features and

a simple, intuitive UI. Unfortunately,it has an Achilles heel that preventsit from snapping up an award.

What’s most interesting about thissoftware is that it uses a combinationof antivirus engines, with 360’s owncloud engine backed up by QVM II andBitdefender technologies. Those whoupgrade to the Total Security packagereceive Avira’s engine too.

The free version’s features arefocused on security, with a sandboxwhere you can drag programs to run

360 SafeInternet Security

in isolation of the OS, anda cleaner that wipes alltraces of activity from yourbrowser history,Windowshistory andMicrosoftOffice. You’ll also findinternet protection, withURL and downloadfiltering, plus anti-keylogging andwebcam-hijack protection, plus toolsfor scanning USB devices.

It’s hard to fault 360Safe on the protectionfront: it caught 99% ofthreats aimed at ourtarget systems. It tendsto neutralise more threatsthan Norton or Kaspersky,meaning they’re evicted oncethey’vemade themselves at home,but your PC remains protectedeither way.

The best protection ofany free package, usingmultiple antivirus enginesto mop up malware

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE Free from pcpro.link/246safe

Unfortunately, 360 Safe can beoverzealous, resulting in a greaternumber of false positives than anyother package on test. It blocked twolegitimate applications outright andrecommended blocking a furtherseven, requiring user interventionto allow the applications to install.We also found it harder on systemresources than Avast.

Overall, 360 Safe can be a little tooonerous to use and obtrusive, but if itsdeveloper Qihoo 360 can sort that out,this will definitely be one to watch.

ABOVE 360 Safecan be a little tooobtrusive

bottom in our tests for protection,defending against only 76% of threats.While this puts it ahead of MicrosoftSecurity Essentials, it incorrectlyblockedmore legitimate applicationsalong the way.

AVG also places a greater burdenon resources, noticeably slowingdown performance in browser-basedtasks. Overall, it isn’t a disastrouseffort, but where AVG oncematchedthe paid-for packages onmalwareprotection, it’s now falling short of themark. Avast’s free option is the betterof the two by some distance.



99% 90%



76% 98%

Resource usage(during scan)


23%CPU RAM 5:40

6%

50% 15:00


17%CPU RAM

25%

50%


30:23

30:23


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Eset may not have as broad-ranging a feature set asNorton or Kaspersky, but it

makes up for this with an efficient UI,exceptional protection, and a hostof security-focused tools that powerusers will appreciate.

The basic anti-malware tools andfirewall are backed by anti-theftprotection, unobtrusive web-accessprotection –with anti-spam andanti-phishing. The package’sparental controls are optional.

There’s a gamingmode that haltspop-ups and pauses scheduled tasksuntil you’ve finished playing, and asocial media scanner to protectaccounts on Twitter and Facebook.Optimisation and cleanup toolsaren’t included.

Eset Smart Security 8 The UI adopts apane-based approachthat places themostimportant informationupfront. Malware scansinclude a basic smart scanthat makes intelligentdecisions about customscans and removablemedia scans, plus whereandwhat to analyse.

Look in Setup,meanwhile, and you’llfind options to enable anddisable all components, ordisable them only for a settime – ideal when you needto temporarily turn offantivirus to install a newapplication. An Advanced Setuppanel allows evenmore fine-grainedcontrol, down to how andwhen yousee notifications andmessage boxes,and lets you set passwords to protectyour configuration. Eset also scoresbig for its reporting features, and for

A good selection of toolstargeted at those wantingprofessional-gradeprotection

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE 1 PC/1yr, £32 (£40 inc VAT) frompcpro.link/246eset

ABOVE Eset’s pane-based interface placesthe most importantinformation upfront

I f Bitdefender has onemajor sellingpoint, it’s the range of innovativefeatures it offers.Aside from basic antivirus

protection and an intelligent firewallwith easy-to-use rules, it crams in arescuemode to reboot, clean and fixyour system, andweb protectionwithan optional browser toolbar. You alsoget anti-fraud and anti-phishingprotection, a whole raft of privacytools, a hardened browser for bankingand shopping, parental controls andbuilt-in optimisation utilities. It evenhas a batterymode for use on laptops,

Bitdefender InternetSecurity 2015

cutting back on non-essential securityactivities when you’re low on charge.

Sometimes it goes overboard: thereare seven clean-up, optimisation andRegistry tools fromwhich to choose,which is odd given the prominence ofthe one-click optimiser.

Andwhile we’re impressed byBitdefender’s Profiles feature, whichpostpones notifications, backgroundprograms andmaintenance taskswhile you’re working, watchingvideos or playing games, it’s keen tothrow upwidgets the rest of the time.For example, a splash in the top cornerof the screen asks if you’d ratherswitch to the Safepay browser, and acircular widget in the bottom-rightcorner provides status notificationsand one-click access to the dashboard,where a system-tray applet wouldwork just as well. On the whole,however, the UI is easy to navigate.

Packed full of innovativefeatures, but protectiondoesn’t match that of thebest in this group

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE 3 PCs/1yr, £13 (£16 inc VAT) frompcpro.link/246bitdef

Quick scans in Bitdefender areextremely fast, taking just over aminute on our old dual-core PC.It’s heavier on system resources,consuming an average of 24% of RAMand 25% of CPUwhile scanning, butthe system still felt responsive.

Bitdefender’s only real failing isthat it doesn’t match the best productswhere it matters most: malwareprotection. It staved off only 77% ofattacks, which puts it just above thefree AVG andMicrosoft products. Onthe plus side, it’s very good at ignoringlegitimate software, but if the pricefor this is weaker security, thenwecan’t really recommend it.

ABOVE Bitdefenderincludes a generouschoice of cleanup,optimisation andRegistry tools

hidden extras such as the ability toscan running processes to tell youwhether or not any risks exist.

Eset can be slowwhen runningscans, with our first scan on theageing dual-core test PC takingmorethan an hour, although subsequentscans were faster. It’s also quiteresource-hungry, hogging anaverage of 32% of the CPU and21% of RAM during scans.

Luckily, the results are worth it:Eset is the only package here to havedefended against every threat in ourtests, although it’s behind Kasperskywhen identifying legitimate software.A great suite for the pros.



77% 99%



100% 98%Resource usage

(during scan)Basic scan time

(mins:secs)

32%

CPU RAM

21%

50% 15:09



25%

CPU RAM 1:01

24%

50% 15:00

15:09


92

I f you useWindows 8, then youmay already be usingMicrosoft’santi-malware package without

knowing it; in the guise ofWindowsDefender, it’s the operating system’sdefault antivirus solution. ForWindows 7, Vista and XP users,it’s a quick and easy downloadfrommicrosoft.com.

Security Essentials is designedto workwith the other securityfeatures baked intoWindows,including theWindows firewalland the SmartScreenwebsite anddownload filter, and its biggestselling point is that you normallywouldn’t know it’s there. It updatesautomatically throughWindowsUpdate, and sends the few

Microsoft SecurityEssentials

notifications youmight seethrough the standard ActionCenter in theWindowssystem tray. It protects inreal-time, but also allowsscheduled andmanualscans, and there’s littlereason to ever open itscontrol panel.

If you do, however,you’ll find a simple interfacewith a focus on performingquick, full and customscans, and providinginformation onwhetherthe signatures are up todate. You can look throughthe history and see if anyquarantined items deserveto be released into the wild, andthe settings allow you to excludecertain files, locations, file types orprocesses, and decide whether ornot to scan removable drives.

That’s it. It’s a deliberately simpleanti-malware tool, and speedy too,

Simple to use, quiet inoperation and unobtrusive,but protection isn’tgood enough

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE Free from pcpro.link/246mssecess

ABOVE MicrosoftSecurity Essentials issimple and speedy atperforming full andcustom scans

Once Norton’s biggest rival,McAfee has been strugglingtomaintain the pace over the

past few years, producing softwarethat hasn’t performedwell in ourmalware tests. This doesn’t lookset to change in the near future.

Features in the latest release arelimited by Norton and Kasperskystandards, but McAfee still crams in afirewall, web-protection, anti-spam,parental controls, plus cleanuptools, a vulnerability scanner anda home-network scanner.

McAfeeInternet Security

These features are individuallypretty good. The parental controls,for example, make short work ofsetting up internet content andsearch restrictions for specificWindows accounts, and can also beused to restrict access to specifiedtimes. The vulnerability scanner doesa great job of spottingmissing patchesand updates, then downloading andinstalling anyWindows updates foryou. AlthoughMcAfee’s SiteAdvisoris available as a free browser plugin,its at-a-glance site ratings are helpfuland reassuring.

While the dashboard looks dated,it’s perfectly functional, with themajor security tools up front andthe secondary features sensiblyorganised. However, the interfacefeels sluggish and slow to respond.Even the system-tray applet suffers;click on it and you have to wait a

Dated looks and poorperformance – this securitysuite fails to keep up withthe competition

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE 3 PCs and 3 mobile devices/1yr,£14 (£18 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/246mcafee second or two to check the status

of the current scan.All-round performance could be

stronger. On our old dual-core PC,McAfee tookmore than eightminutesto complete a quick scan, using anaverage of 53% of the CPU and 8% ifRAMwhile it did so. In the processit slowed everything else to a crawl.

Is the struggle worth it? Notreally. Its protection score was only89%,meaning that 11% of threatscompromised our test systems.McAfee also blocked one of ourlegitimate applications withoutsomuch as a prompt. Overall, thispackage is a big disappointment.

ABOVE Thedashboard issensibly laid out, withthe most importanttools to hand

taking around 1min 34secs tocomplete a scan on our ageingdual-core PC.We also found it lighton system resources, not noticeablyaffecting usability.

The problem is that SecurityEssentials can’t offer real peaceof mind. In our tests, SecurityEssentials allowed the system to becompromised by 41% of threats. Itsflawless response to legitimatesoftware boosted its Overall score,but this is still worrying.

With this being the case, wewouldn’t trust our PCs and our datato Security Essentials alone. Frankly,neither should you.



89% 99%



59% 100%



53%CPU

RAM8:268%

15:00



25%

CPURAM 1:348%

50% 15:00

53%


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There aren’t many internet-security packages that you candescribe as beautifully designed,

but TrendMicroMaximum Securityqualifies. The installation is slick,with an animated progress metersurrounding explanations of thepackage’s key benefits, and thiscontinues into the UI, which is alloversized buttons, intuitive displaysand tasteful fonts. At times formthreatens to get in theway of function,but themore you use the package, themore sensible it seems.

It’s full of features, too. Even themore basic Internet Security packagepacks in anti-malware tools, familyprotection features, anti-phishing

Trend MicroMaximum Security

protection and scans to check privacysettings in themajor social networks.TheMaximum Security editionthrows in a secure browser foronline shopping and bankingalongside a passwordmanager.

TrendMicro’s SafeSync toolsecurely synchronises files betweenPCs, and a password-protected vaultallows you to store sensitive files inthe cloud. Features are easy toconfigure, and introduction pages –which you can prevent popping up infuture – explain the purpose of eachtool andwhy you need it.

Elsewhere, detailed reportsprovide up-to-date information onwhat the package is doing on yourbehalf, and even the configurationis user-friendly. There aren’t manyother security packages on themarket that let you choose between“automatic”, “normal” and“hypersensitive” protection levels.

There’s some impact onperformance, but it isn’t too painful.

The updated interface isvery likeable, but elsewherethis package lags behindthe best

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE £33 (£42 inc VAT) for 1yr, 3 devicesfrom pcpro.link/246trend

ABOVE Trend Micro’sUI is among the mostattractive we’ve seen

Norton’s security product mightnot be the cheapest of themajor security suites, but it

protects up to five devices in onehousehold, includingWindows andOS X systems, and iOS or Androidsmartphones and tablets. It’s also oneof themore slick-looking packageswe’ve seen: animated slideshowsduring installation showcase all itsadvanced features, and its interface isattractive, functional and accessible.

The package certainly crams a lotin, from firewall and anti-malwaretools to anti-spam protection, socialnetwork protection and aweb-basedpassword generator.

Norton Security 2015 There are also optimisation toolsfor your hard disk, a file cleanup tooland a startupmanager. Norton’s SafeWeb browser toolbar verifies webpages and links while you’researching and browsing, withoutpushing you towards a specific searchengine or browser. Identity Safestores and retrieves passwords andauto-complete settings from thecloud, linking in neatly with Norton’smobile apps. These include remote-wipe and remote-lock features toprotect Android smartphones, as wellas app-scanning and anti-phishingprotection for the browser.

There’s no shortage of scanningoptions within themain package. Youcan put Norton Security into a silentmode and switch features on and offwith ease. You can also set whichactions youwant the software to takeautomatically andwhere youwant to

A great security package,with plenty of featuresand a focus on all-roundhome protection

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE 5 devices/1yr, £29 (£37 inc VAT)from pcpro.link/246norton

be prompted. Meanwhile, if your PCfalls victim to a particularly nastyinfection, Norton’s Power Eraserprovides an aggressive repair tool.

Norton’s antivirus protection isamong the best on test, warding off99% of threats and tending to deflectthem rather than neutralise them inplace. It isn’t quite as hot as McAfeeand Kaspersky for avoiding falsepositives, but the odd prompt to blocka legitimate application is somethingwe can live with.

Kaspersky is our first choice, butmainstream users who know and trustthe Norton brand namewon’t go farwrongwith this package.

ABOVE NortonSecurity 2015’s packsin an impressive rangeof features

Even on our old dual-core PC, CPUutilisation rarely rose above 50%;most of the time it stayed below 30%.The same is true of RAM. The quickscan took 8mins 32secs, but thatincluded threeminutes or so ofoptimisations, removing unnecessaryand unwanted files.

Unfortunately, Maximum Securitycan’t catch the leaders when it comesto protection, warding off only 96%of attacks – a figure that’s lowerthan the free Avast package.We also found it one of themoreobstructive packages in everydayuse, blocking four legitimateapplications from installing withouta prompt. A shame, since in everyother way it’s a pleasure to use.



99% 98%



96% 96%Resource usage

(during scan)Basic scan time

(mins:secs)

23%CPU

RAM8:328%

50% 15:00



33%

CPURAM 4:165%

50% 15:00


94

There’s plenty of reason tofeel cheerful about the resultsfrom this test. While the

malware and internet threats keepcoming, antivirus software seemsto be developing at a rate that’s fastenough to cope. Of the ten packagestested here, six were able to fend offmore than 95% of attacks, while fourmanaged protection ratings of 99%or 100%. Given how hard DennisTechnology Labs works to simulatereal-world threats, those areexcellent results.

Opt for Kaspersky InternetSecurity, Norton Security, Eset SmartSecurity or Avast Free Antivirus andyou can feel confident that your PCwill be infection-free – althoughyou can aid the cause by behavingintelligently and adopting goodsecurity practices yourself.

Sadly, some security suites –particularly the free ones – are stillstruggling. It’s a shame to see theonce-mighty AVG languishing atthe bottom of our league table, butletting 24% of the test malware finda home on our target computer isn’tgood enough.

While we accept that not everyPCwill encounter the threats thatour target systems are subjected to,Microsoft’s Security Essentials is alsofailing as a base level, anti-malwaredefence. Some 41% of our test malwaremade it past Microsoft’s detection,putting it behind every other optionby a significant margin.We used tosay that the freeWindows optionwasperfectly adequate for many users, butnot anymore. If you’re using SecurityEssentials orWindows Defender, weadvise you switch.

It’s becomingmore andmoreobvious that simplyrecognising andneutralisingmalware isno longer enough; the bestpackages on test take amore proactive approach,screening links andwebsites so users don’t

comewithin reach of their malwarepayload. They’re also workingmuchharder to close down vulnerabilities,withmost security software nowoffering features that scan for crucialsoftware updates, and several offeringtools to watch for phishing behaviour

or privacy risks both on the openinternet and on social networks.

There are still areas where we’dlike to see improvement, however.One of the reasons Microsoft SecurityEssentials is the package of choicefor many is because it’s unobtrusive,working quietly in the backgroundand rarely troubling the user for anyintervention. A number of productson test ruined their chances of gaininga recommendation by preventingperfectly legitimate software frominstalling, by hijacking browsersand switching search engines, or bydemanding user interactionwherenone should have been needed.

Others still have too high animpact on system performance,or seemmore focused onupselling to a premium versionthan delivering protectionwiththe one you’ve already installed.This is why Kaspersky InternetSecurity remains our choice ofsecurity software: not only does itprovide great protection and all theoptions and features we could askfor, but it does so in a no-nonsense,fuss-freemanner.

“We used to say that thefree Windows optionwas perfectly adequatefor many users, but notany more”

View from the LabsAlthough antivirus software is doing well to keep pace with the rate of threats,Stuart Andrews believes there is still room for improvement

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Kaspersky

Norton

Eset

Avast

Bitdefender

McAfee

Trend Micro

AVG

Microsoft

360 Safe

Kaspersky

Norton

Eset

Avast

Trend

McAfee

360 Safe

Bitdefender

AVG

Microsoft

Bitdefender

Microsoft

Norton

360 Safe

Kaspersky

McAfee

Trend Micro

Avast

Eset

AVG

Average Overall score for previous 6 monthsOverall score *

Labs WinnerLabs Winner

Labs Winner

Test results

100%100%

99%

99%

97%

96%

95%

94%

88%

87%

80%

1:01

1:34

4:16

5:40

5:56

8:26

8:32

11:44

15:09

30:23

99%

97%

97%

96%

95%

92%

92%

79%

Not tested

Basic scan time mins:secs

*The Overall score is a weighted average of detection rates and false positives. See reviews for a detailed breakdown.

Stuart Andrews isa regular contributor,and former PC Proreviews editor

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Slug Sectionhead

96

The NetworkPractical buying and strategic advice for IT managers and decision makers

Business FocusWhat to look for when buyinga multifunction printer p98

The Business QuestionHow CRM can transformyour business p106

Cheat SheetSaaS: your security needsdelivered via the cloud p108

Choose theright MFP foryour businessA business printer isn’t just about fusing toneronto a page. Dave Mitchell explains how the rightmodel will improve quality, workflow and costs

Let’s be honest: the paperlessofficemay never happen.Businesses of all sizes need

printers because people still want toprint everything from boarding passesto emails to 60-page reports. But thereis a need to reduce printing, driven byboth environmental considerationsand operating costs.

Themost practical short-termsolution for businesses is to takecontrol of employees’ print output,and this is where themodern-daymultifunction printer (MFP) hasa pivotal part to play.

The good news is that increaseddemand for MFPs has resulted in hugereductions in price, making colourprinting affordable for even thesmallest business. In this month’sbuyer’s guide, we look at five colourMFP solutions that go beyond thebasic 4-in-1 remit and offer a wealthof document-management features.

■ Paper trailCombining print, scan, fax and copyfunctions into a single unit givesbusinesses more choice over how theyhandle documents. If they need to beprinted out or copied, fine, but if notyou can use anMFP to cut down onwastage by digitising documents.

BUSINESS FOCUS

All the MFPs on review featurehigh-quality colour flatbed scanners,but it’s what they let you dowithyour scanned documents that’smore interesting. For instance,you can scan straight to email, withan address book available on theprinters for swift selection; even thesmallest one can store 100 entries.

Want to scan direct to fax? Noproblem, since all six MFPs on test

have built-in fax/modems. All themodels here even allowed us to scandirectly to network shares or FTPservers for document storage.

Even if you do need to copy straightto paper, newermodels tend toinclude duplex (double-sided)printing as standard, since it’s lesswasteful and therefore cheaper.

■ Cloud controlRelatively new is the ability to senddocuments to the cloud. Brother winshands down in this regard: it supportsa range of service providers includingBox, Google Drive, Evernote, Dropboxand OneDrive.

Epson isn’t far behind: registeringour accounts was simple, and onceauthenticated, they appeared as scandestinations in the control panel,making document uploading easy.

Oki and Ricoh lag behind in thisarea, while Xerox uses the cloud onlyto provide printer-managementservices: its Mobile PrintCloud portal is designed forbig businesses, with printersspread across multiple sites.

All business-focusedMFPsinclude wired network support, andmany include wireless support too.Just note that youmay only have the

BELOW The XeroxWorkCentre’s secureprint function enablesusers to control whena print-out is releasedvia a PIN


@ P C P R O

97

P C P R O . C O . U K The Network BusinessFocus

option of using one at a time, and theHP and Xeroxmodels will require youto buy awireless module.

■ Laser, LED or inkjet?The biggest decisionwill undoubtedlybe which print technology to opt for.High-volume print environmentshave traditionally favoured lasers orLEDs, but inkjets are attacking thisdominationwith fervour. If you’restill attached to the notion that inkjetsare for home offices only, the productson test here should be a wake-up call.

Take the perception that inkjetshave lowmonthly duty cycles.While this used to be true, Epson’sWorkForce ProWF-5620DWF andBrother’s MFC-J5720DWdeliverrespectivemaximummonthly dutycycles of 35,000 and 30,000 pages.

Alongwith bigger ink tanks, bothoffer high resolutions, making themideal for printingmarketingmaterialand photos. Brother’s device goesfurther: it has three input sources, allsupporting A3 paper, and yet it costsonly £162 – almost ten times less thanthe cheapest A3 colour laser MFP.

As a rule, laser and LED printerswin for speed, as they canmaintaintheir pace regardless of what’s on thepage. For example, Brother claims alaser-beating 35/27ppm formono/colour but, as we found, this can beachieved only in Draft mode. HP’sOfficejet Pro X Series tops out at70ppm, andmanaged 40ppm inour tougher DTP test.

Lasers and LED printers also copebetter with variable paper quality,being able to print on prettymuchanything. Using cheap photocopierpaper in an inkjet will result in thepaper wrinkling while it dries out.

■ Power to the printerAn environmentally friendly officenot only saves paper – it also savespower. Lasers have a reputation

for their heating and fusingcomponents being far moreresource-hungry than inkjets.

Wemeasured power consumptionthroughout our tests and recorded theEpson and Brother inkjets drawing amere 22W and 14W in use. All six MFPsoffer a Sleepmode, and it was theXerox device that recorded thehighest draw in this mode at 5W,with the rest sipping only 2 to 3W.

Oki claims its LED technology usesless power than laser technology, butthis doesn’t necessarily mean thatLED-based printers will always be thelowest consumers. Ricoh’s SP C252SFpulled amaximum of 1kW duringprinting; Xerox’sWorkCentre6605DN peaked at 1.14kW; andOki’s MC562dnw drew 1.17kW.

■ Think securityIf you buy a high-quality printer, thenyoumay find it becomes an attractivetool for employees’personal use. Ifyou’d like to curbsuch use, youshould turn to therange of accesscontrols on offer.For example,Brother’s SecureFunction Lock 2controls access tokeyMFP featuressuch as colourprinting for amaximum of tenusers, and can setpage limits too.

Oki offers similarfeatures, but forcesall users to log in atthe printer or from the driver to useany feature. Xerox’s Copy Lock andScan Lock stop unauthorised usersfrom accessing the scanner, but theSecure Access option is expensive: itrequires a USB swipe card reader

installed on the printer alongside alink to an authenticated server.

To protect confidential documents,Epson, HP, Oki, Ricoh and Xerox offera secure print function in theirWindows drivers. This enables usersto assign a PIN to a particular job, sothey canwalk up and enter it at thecontrol panel to release the print-out.

While we’re all aware that usedtoner and ink cartridges should bedisposed of responsibly, the same istrue of your MFPwhen it reaches endof life –make sure you erase anyconfidential information stored on it.

However, one of the demoprinters supplied fortesting hadn’t beencleared after previouslybeing using by a largetravel company. Afterbeginning testing, wesoon realised that its

internal address book still containeda long list of private company emailaddresses alongside fax details oftheir bank and customers.

■ Go forth and scanSmall businesses looking tostreamline printing processes andreduce paper usage will find anMFPan invaluable ally, since it combinesall the hardware needed into adesktop-sized unit. Furthermore,all the MFPs on review here areaffordable and their running costslikely to be a significant improvementon your current equipment.

The paperless officemay stillbe a pipe dream, but anMFPprovides businesses with the toolsthey need to lessen their impact onthe environment and reduce paperusage.Whether you choose inkjet,laser or LED, they all offer an

impressiverange offeatures,so turn thepage to seewhich onesuits you best.

BELOW Each printerhas a TWAIN driverfor grabbing remotescans direct tothe desktop

LEFT Keep a closeeye on the Ricoh’sconsumables from itstidy web interface

“High-volume printenvironments havetraditionally favouredlasers and LEDs, but inkjetsare on the attack”


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Brother MFC-J5720DWBusiness SmartGreat value and beats therest for cloud features – butprint quality and speedaren’t its strong points

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE £169 exc VAT fromprinterland.co.uk

TheMFC-J5720DW is the largestmodel in Brother’s new J5000Series of inkjet MFPs, and it

packs in a superb range of features ata giveaway price. It touts fast monoand colour speeds, laser-trouncingrunning costs, wired or wirelessoperation and automatic duplexing.

Its dual 250-sheet lower trays arepartnered by a rearmultipurpose tray,and the real clincher is that all threesupport A3 paper. Brother has alsoimproved build quality: the traysare sturdier than themanual feedsupports we criticised on theMFC-J4710DW (pcpro.link/246brother).

Forget any preconceptions youmay have about inkjets beingmoreexpensive than lasers: so long as youopt for the XL ink cartridges, monoand colour pages work out at 0.8pand 3.8p per page. The printer comeswith standard cartridges, but there’sno benefit to buyingmore at thiscapacity since they push up pagecosts to 2.3p and 7.3p.

The printer’s colour touchscreenis easy to use, with chunky icons toshow scan, copy and fax operations.It also provides swift access to an arrayof cloud features, with options for

only 1.4ppm in Best mode, while ahigh-resolution A3 poster crawled outin around sixminutes. Duplexing isalso tardy: a 24-pageWord documentprinted at a noisy 6ppm.

The scanner produces excellentresults, but its ADF is noisy, and slow,with a ten-page copy in Normalmodereturningmono and colour speeds of11ppm and 8.5ppm.

Output quality varied significantlyacross different paper weights. Wefound Fast and Normalmodes onlow-cost 90gsm paper were only goodenough for draft copies since text wasslightly fuzzy. Heavier, 100gsm paperproduced sharper text, and althoughcolour graphics and photos weremoredetailed, they were still pallid andlacking in contrast. Glossy photo

paper producedfar superior detail andvivid colours, but somebleeding along theedges was evident andthe print heads leftunsightly scuff markson the surface.

TheMFC-J5720DW takes somebeating in the value stakes, but itsaverage print quality and low speedscompromise its scores. It wins outfor paper flexibility, though, with A3support across the threemain papersources. Plus, its cloud features areamong the best here and printingcosts are commendably low.

LEFT Brother includesplenty of useful tools,including utilities toremotely scandocuments andemail, OCR or savethem manually

“Wired and wirelessmodes are set fromthe web interface, butnote that both can’t beactive simultaneously”

SPECIFICATIONS6,000 x 1,200dpi A4/A3 inkjet● 2,400dpi colourflatbed A4 scanner● 35/27ppm mono/colour●

2 x USB 2● 802.11n Wi-Fi● 33.6Kbits/sec fax/modem● 2 x RJ11● duplex● 2 x 250-sheet A4/A3 input trays● 50-sheet ADF● 490 x 345 x308mm (WDH)● 1yr warrantyRUNNING COSTS XL cartridges: mono (2,400pages), £19● CMY (1,200 pages), £12

Box, Google Drive,Evernote, Dropbox,Facebook, Picasa,Flickr, OneNoteand OneDrive.

Setting up accessis a cinch: we selectedGoogle Drive, enteredthe unique registrationcode provided byBrother’s cloud portaland enabled PIN-protected access. Weuploaded images fromthe scanner anda USB stick toour account,browsed ourcloud foldersand pickedfiles to print orsave to USB. Simple.

Brother’s web-based UI provideseffortless access to the printer’s otherfeatures – for example, monitoringconsumables and creating a 100-entryfax address book.With LDAP enabled,wewere able to browse a list of ActiveDirectory users from the printer andsend emails and faxes to them.

We created scan profiles for FTPservers and network shares, and usedtheWindows Control Center 4 utilityto access copy, scan, OCR and faxfunctions from the desktop. Scanoperations can also be linkeddirectly to local apps such as email.

Wired andwireless modes are setfrom theweb interface, but note thatboth can’t be active simultaneously.While NFC isn’t supported, AppleAirPrint worked fine with our iPad,and Brother’s nifty iPrint&Scanmobile app let us print directly fromour photo album and any registeredcloud services.

Alas, we couldn’t match Brother’sclaimed 27ppm print speeds in ourtests. Our 27-pageWord document

was deliveredat 21ppm usingthe driver’s Fastmode, 15.5ppmat Normal and1.7ppm at Bestmode. Likewise,our colour24-page DTPprint returned

ABOVE Buildquality has beenimproved overprevious models


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Epson WorkForce ProWF-5620DWFAn A4 inkjet MFP ideallysuited to heavy hitters whowant low running costs andclassy cloud service support


Think inkjets are onlygood for low-demand use?Epson’sWorkForce Pro

WF-5620DWF shatters this myth,with amonthly duty cycle of 35,000pages.What’s more, it uses the samePrecisionCore print-head technologyas Epson’s commercial printers andits high-capacity cartridges keep itrunning for longer.

Epson has a firm eye on costs too.That £235 exc VAT price is no typo,while running costs for the XXLcartridges (eachwith a 4,000-pagecapacity) are among the lowest inthis class: expect to pay only 1p permono and 4.4p per colour page.

Epson’s installation software hasevery angle covered. It provides atutorial on setting up the printerand, whenwewere ready, it loadedthe drivers, downloaded the latestfirmware and installed an E-WebPrint browser plugin plus desktopscan and fax utilities.

The only annoyance was havingto run a head-clean cycle beforetesting, but with the gaps in thenozzle-pattern test now filled in, theprinter proceeded to deliver goodspeeds and quality. In Draft andStandardmodes, our 20-pageWord

document was deliveredin oneminute (matchingEpson’s claims) whilethe High-qualitymode dropped speedto 10.5ppm.

Colour printing isslower: our 24-pageDTP test printreturned 18ppm inStandardmode and10ppm for High-quality. Even so, thetime to first page wasfast – we rarely had towait more than eightto nine seconds for anyof our test prints.

The scanner isa simplex version,but its ADF copiesboth sides of adocument by reversingeach page automatically.Speeds are a little slow, though, with asingle-sided 15-pagemono documentcopying at 7.5ppm at Standard and6ppm in Best mode.

It’s best to stick to Standardmodefor text printing, since it produces thesharpest results; Best mode leaves aslight dusting on some characters. Thelatter delivers the goods for printinggraphics and photos, however, withbold, punchy reports and sharp,glossy photos without any bandingor bleeding at the edges.

Epson Connect enablesremote users to email print jobsas attachments to the printer.After registering, wewere providedwith a unique email address for theprinter and, from theweb portal,we created approved-sender listsand decidedwhich features theywere allowed to access. Wired orwireless operations are available, asare AirPrint andWi-Fi Direct, whileprettymuch every cloud servicewe can think of is supported.

Nor is cloud support only afeature Epson has casually tickedoff: we couldn’t believe how easyit was to enable the scan-to-cloudservice. From the Connect portal,we added our Google Driveaccount; after authentication,it immediately became availablein the printer’s control panel asa scan destination.

LDAPwas justas easy to use,as we discoveredon adding our ActiveDirectory (AD) serveralongwith authenticationdetails and a search base.From the printer, we

could then search for AD users andadd them to the address book as emailand fax contacts.

The colour touchscreenmakeslight work of scan, copy and faxfunctions.With Epson’s softwaretools loaded on aWindows 7 client,we could also run remote scans,maintain a local fax phone book andupload a speed-dial list to the printer’saddress book.

There’s plenty we like about theWF-5620DWF: it’s cheap to run,has tons of features and is veryuser-friendly. It puts forward acompelling argument for inkjets inthe workplace, and therefore takes awell-deserved place on the A-List.

BELOW Epson’s XXLink tanks last for4,000 pages – monitortheir contents fromthe printer’s web UI

“Wired and wirelessoperations are available,while pretty much everycloud service we can thinkof is supported”

SPECIFICATIONS4,800 x 1,200dpi A4 inkjet● 1,200 x 2,400dpicolour flatbed A4 scanner● 20ppm mono/colour● 2 x USB 2● Gigabit Ethernet● 802.11nWi-Fi● 33.6Kbits/sec fax/modem● 2 x RJ11●duplex● 35-sheet ADF● 461 x 442 x 342mm(WDH)● 1yr on-site warrantyRUNNING COSTS XXL cartridges: mono(4,000 pages), £40● CMY (4,000 pages), £45


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HP Officejet Pro 8620A low-cost inkjet MFP withuseful features, good colouroutput and laser-trouncingrunning costs

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE £136 exc VAT from misco.co.uk

Youmight not expect low-costinkjets to holdmuch appeal forbusinesses, but HP’s Officejet

Pro 8620 turns that perception on itshead. Despite its low price, this A4inkjet prints, scans, faxes and copies;it has web andmobile printingabilities to rival its more expensivebrethren; and it does all of this withfar lower running costs than a laser.

HP’s XL ink cartridges deliver amono page for 1p and a colour pagefor 4p, similar to those of the EpsonWorkForce Pro (see p99). The onlypotential irritation is that HP’scartridges last for around half thepage count of those of Epson.

The 8620 can’t compete with thelasers for speed: it’s rated at only21ppm formono and 16.5ppm forcolour, using the driver’s Normalsetting. Sending a 25-pageWorddocument to the HP saw printspeeds hit 22ppm, but this figuredwindled to a sluggish 5.2ppmwhenwe switched to Best mode.Similarly, our 24-page colour DTPdocument returned 14ppm inNormalmode but only 3ppm atthe highest quality. For all tests wefound that the time to first pagewas around 12 seconds. (If youwantlaser-like speeds in an inkjet, anddon’t require a fax or scanner, takea look at HP’s Officejet Pro X Series.

Visit pcpro.link/246hppfor our review.)

The 8620 canturn its hand tostandalonecopying, butagain, it won’twin any prizesfor speed. In ourtests, a ten-pagemono copy sentthrough its50-page ADFdropped intothe output trayat a rate of9ppm. Handily,there’s aclip-on duplexunit at the rear,but copying thesame document to adouble-sided printpushed speeds downfurther to 8ppm.

Print quality isvariable. We foundtext looked slightly fuzzy inNormalmode, but noticeablymore crisp in Best mode. Monophotos printed at the Normalsetting were equally uninspiring,and suffered from unsightlybanding and poor levels of detail.Upping the print resolution didlittle to improvematters.

Where this printer wins is withcolour output. The 8620 churnedout punchymarketing reports withbold charts and graphs – the onlylimitation is that you’ll need toshell out for good-quality paper ifyouwant to avoid wrinkly prints.But, of course, the 8620 does onething that lasers can’t, and that’sprint high-quality colour photoson glossy paper.

The 8620 is jam-packedwithfeatures. The large 4.3in colourtouchscreen gives quick, easy access

to all themain functions, and there’ssupport for bothwired andwirelessprinting via Apple AirPrint, Wi-FiDirect and NFC connections. Scanscan be sent to an email address or anetwork share, and HP provides atool for remote scanning from a PC.

HP’s cloud integration is good, butnot quite on a par with that of Epson,which offers superior support forGoogle Drive, Dropbox and othercloud services. For instance, the HPwill workwith Google Drive, but wefoundwe had tomanually configurethis from our Google account; Epson’ssoftware does this automatically.

HP focusesmore on its Connectedservice, which assigns an emailaddress to the printer and therebymakes it possible for anyone to send

messages to it and haveattachments printedautomatically. This issimilar to Epson’s Connectservice, since it also letsyou decide which senderscan use the service, printusing colour and so on.

The Officejet Pro 8620 packs in agenerous range of printing options ata good price. Print speeds are slowbut, crucially, it scores well for itssuperb colour output, low runningcosts andwealth of useful features.

LEFT HP’s PrinterAssistant is easyto use and comescomplete withestimated ink levels

“The Officejet 8620does one thing that laserscan’t – and that’s to printhigh-quality colour photoson glossy paper”

SPECIFICATIONS4,800 x 1,200dpi (optimised) A4 inkjet● 1,200 x1,200dpi colour flatbed scanner● 21/16.5ppmmono/colour● 2 x USB 2● 802.11n Wi-Fi●33.6Kbits/sec fax/modem● 2 x RJ11● duplex●

50- sheet ADF● 505 x 407 x 315mm (WDH, withtray out, duplexer detached)● 3yr warrantyRUNNING COSTS XL cartridges: mono(2,300 pages), £22● CMY (1,500 pages), £15

RECOMMENDED


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Oki MC562dnwTop-quality output andgood print speeds, but theMC562dnw is comparativelyexpensive to run


Businesses wanting to see thebig picture will love Oki’sLED printing technology. It uses

fewermoving parts than a laser andthe flat paper path in theMC562dnwallows it to handle heavier 220gsmmedia and print banners up to 1.32min length.

To realise your banner headlines,you open up the frontmultipurposetray and rear output slot to allow aclear run straight through theprinter. It works well. Another pluspoint is that theMC562dnw deliversthe characteristic vibrancy and highlevels of detail we’ve seenwith otherOki colour LED printers.

Text quality, even at the smallestsizes, is pin-sharp, while colourphotos and graphics are punchy, withexcellent contrast and detail. Oki’sPS3 driver produces vibrant colours,although our performance chartshowed it up as a tad overenthusiasticwithmagenta, leaving a slight pinktinge tomono photos.

The driver’s Photo Enhancesetting delivers improvements inquality, upping the sharpnessand contrast, and as a result givingcolour photos real depth. Just notethat one of the few drawbacksof LED printing is a perceptible

cross-hatch effect evident in largeareas of single colours.

TheMC562dnw’s printing costsare a little high. The four high-yieldcartridges, drum, belt and fusercombine to deliver amono page for1.7p and colour for just under 9p.

It can’t be faulted for performance,however, with a 30-pageWorddocument whizzing through onboth Standard and Enhanced driversettings in 59 seconds. The Okialso shrugged off our 24-pageDTP colour test, returning it at26.5ppm, at both high-resolutionand top 2,400dpi ProQ settings.

The scanner also performswell, with colour copies ofa glossymagazine coverlooking close to the original.Its ADF kept up the goodwork, with a 15-page copytimed at 22ppm, while aduplex-to-duplex copymanaged 6ppm.

The printer’s basicweb interface isn’t as wellfeatured as the TopAccessversion on Oki’s B700 Series of LEDprinters. General printer settings suchas wired or wireless operations can beset up from here, but no options areprovided for controlling user accessto print, scan and copy functions.

LDAP support allowed us to use theprinter’s mono LCD control panel tosearch our Active Directory serverfor email addresses to use as scandestinations. The search process ismade easier by the full Qwertykeyboard lurking beneath theprinter’s flip-up jobmacro panel.

Cloud services are thin on theground: only Google Print issupported. AirPrint is enabled out ofthe box andwe experienced no issuesusing it with our iPad 4; however,note that the Oki-recommendedePrint app fromMicrotech isn’t free.

We used Oki’s Configuration Toolto remotelymanage the printer’slist of fax speed-dials and emailaddresses. We also created profilesdefining scanning destinations fornetwork shares, plus FTP and HTTPservers. TheMC562dnw comes asstandardwith a 4GB SDHCmemorycard installed. This is accessed fromthe StorageManager desktop plugin,where we viewed its contents anduploaded custom fonts and forms.

PCs running Oki’s ActKey utilityautomatically become remote scan

destinations that canbe accessed from theprinter’s control panel.After defining ActKeyapplications, a scan folderor a PC-Fax destination,we could send scannedimages directly to any

of these locations.Oki’s MC562dnw’s LED engine

delivers top-quality colour prints.It has a good turn of speed, but itsabove-average running costs andminimal cloud service supportstop us short of recommending it.

ABOVE The Okisupports 1.32banners and duplex-to-duplex copying

LEFT The desktopConfiguration Toolprovides a handystatus monitorand remote accessto the printer’saddress book

“Text quality, even at thesmallest sizes, is pin-sharp,while colour photos andgraphics are punchy, withexcellent contrast”

SPECIFICATIONS1,200 x 600dpi colour A4 LED printer● 1,200dpicolour flatbed A4 scanner● 30/26ppm mono/colour● 2 x USB 2● 10/100 Ethernet● 802.11nWi-Fi● 33.6Kbits/sec fax/modem● 2 x RJ11●4GB SDHC card● duplex● 50-sheet ADF●

Nuance PaperPort SE 11 and OmniPage SE 16software● 427 x 444 x 509mm (WDH)● 3yron-site warrantyRUNNING COSTS High-yield: mono (7,000pages), £78; CMY (5,000 pages), £119


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Ricoh SP C252SFA basic set of features, butthis no-nonsense colour MFPis cheap to buy and offersvery low printing costs


At £308 exc VAT, Ricoh’s SPC252SF immediately scorespoints for price, but you only

need to glance at its mono LCD controlpanel to see that features aren’tits strong point. What you do get,however, is a competent colour A4MFPwith 4-in-1 print, copy, fax andscan options, wired andwirelessoperation, and exceptionally lowrunning costs.

Even using standard high-yieldinks, print costs are reasonable:mono and colour pages cost 1.6pand 7.5p respectively. These numbersimprove if you use Ricoh’s newultra-high-yield cartridges,which reduce costs to 1.1p and 6p.

The printer sits comfortably on adesk, and claims speeds of 20ppm forcolour andmono prints. Its 250-sheetpaper tray has a single-sheet bypassslot and can be supplementedwitha 500-sheet lower tray.

Installation could be smoother.After finding the printer on ournetwork, the utility loaded onlyRicoh’s PCL6 and TWAIN drivers. Wehad to run it again for the PostScript 3driver and then for a third time to loadthe LAN-Fax driver for desktop faxing.

The printer’s 200-entry addressbook can be set up from the controlpanel or, more easily, from its web UI.We created scan destinations to FTPservers, network shares and email

addresses, which are accessed fromthe control panel using their assignedspeed-dial numbers.

Businesses with an eye on securitywill appreciate Ricoh’s extra features.Using the PCL6 driver, we lockedprint jobs with a PIN andwalkedto the unit to release them (this alsohelps to prevent pile-ups of forgottenprint jobs). If youwant to controlaccess tomore expensiveprinter functions – suchas colour printing andcopying – then the Restrictfeature requires users toenter a registered nameto access such operations.

That’s where the goodnews on features ends.While bothwired andwireless modes areavailable, both can’t beactive simultaneously.The printer doesn’tsupport Apple AirPrint orNFC, either. Scanning to orprinting from cloud servicesmay prove difficult, with poorsupport compared to rivals. Ricoh’sSmart Device Print&Scan app allowedus to view our Dropbox and GoogleDrive accounts from an iPad, andwesuccessfully printed files from themtoo, but this printer doesn’t supportthe app’s Scan Import function.

The 600dpi print engine and driver“magic up” higher resolutions usinggradations of 1 bit per pixel in Fastmode, 2 bits for Standard and 4 bitsfor Fine. The first twomodes returneda 20-pageWord document at 20ppm;Finemode halved speed, andautomatic duplexing at Standardmode saw 9ppm.

Colour provedmore challenging,with our 24-page DTP test printreturning only 10ppm in Fast modeand a tedious 4ppm in Finemode.Quality is good, however, with photosshowing vivid colours, high levels ofdetail and imperceptible banding: ourcolour-performance chart revealed

smooth transitions across complexcolour fades in Finemode. Text atStandard and Finemodes waspin-sharp, while mono photosrevealed good detail in darker areas.

The time to first page was around14 seconds, increasing to 20 secondsfor colour prints in Finemode. A DeepSleepmode reduces power usage toless than 3W, but the printer takes 30seconds to wake from this mode.

Copyingwas handled deftly, withthe 50-page ADF printing our sheaf of30 bank statements at an average of17ppm. Although duplexing requirespages to be turned over and rescanned,we couldn’t complain about theoutput quality, with copies almost

as good as the originals.The lack of cloud

features and slow colourspeeds count againstRicoh’s SP C252SF, butit claws back points forlow running costs andgood output quality.

Businesses looking for a no-frillscolour laser MFP should place thisprinter on their shortlist.

ABOVE Print jobssent to the RicohC252SF can belocked using a PIN

“The printer’s 200-entryaddress book can be setup from the control panelor, more easily, fromits web interface”

SPECIFICATIONS600dpi A4 colour laser● 1,200dpi colour flatbedA4 scanner● 20ppm mono/colour● 2 x USB 2●

10/100 Ethernet● 802.11n Wi-Fi● 33.6Kbits/secfax/modem● 2 x RJ11● duplex● single-sheetbypass slot● 50-sheet ADF● PrestoPageManager 9 SE software● 420 x 493 x460mm (WDH)● 2yr warrantyRUNNING COSTS Ultra-high-yield toner:mono (6,500 pages), £69● CMY (6,000 pages),£98● waste toner bottle (25,000 pages), £17

LEFT Ricoh providesexcellent usercontrols, allowingyou to restrict whatMFP functionsindividuals can access

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Xerox WorkCentre6605DNBig and bold – the 6605DNremains a great choicefor businesses with apaper-hungry workforce

SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪PRICE £434 exc VAT fromprinterbase.co.uk

The 6605DN is one of thelongest-servingmembers ofXerox’sWorkCentre family of

colour laser MFPs, but with age hascomewisdom: it’s beautifully built;it’s fast and cheap to run; and busyworkgroups will love its hefty 80,000-pagemaximummonthly duty cycle.

Tipping the scales at almost 33kg,moving it is a two-person job – butonce on the desktop, we had it upand running inside 30minutes. Afterloading the PS3 and PCL6 drivers,we visited the printer’s CentreWareweb console to set up scan, fax andemail functions.

Via the console you can alsoset up address books, covering faxspeed-dial lists, users, groups, emailaddresses, network shares and FTPsites. These are stored on the printer,so users canwalk up and send or copydocuments by browsing destinationson the control panel.

We remotely updated theprinter using a desktop utility thatallowed us to view the address bookand upload new entries. Wewere ableto use the TWAIN driver to acquirenetwork scans to the desktop, butnote the Express ScanManagerutility only works with a direct USBconnection - as does the printer’sScan-To-PC option.

For direct scanning to email, weentered ourmail-server details fromthe CentreWare console.We also usedLDAP to import Active Directory usersso we could search for them directlyfrom the printer’s touchscreen forfaxing and emailing documents.

Xerox hasn’t forgottenmobileusers. The 6605DN supports AppleAirPrint, while the Xerox Print Portalapp allowed us to print to and scanfrom the printer using our iPad 4.The downside is that it usesXerox’s Mobile Print Cloudportal, which isn’t free andrequires a cloud-connectionagent permanently loadedon a PC on the same networkas the printer.

More positively, theportal let us enforce accesscontrols andmake availablemultiple printers acrossdifferent sites to logged-inusers. It also assigns anemail address to theprinter to enable remoteusers tomail print jobs asattachments to it. Theprinter doesn’t directlysupport any cloud services,but the Cloud Connector in theNuance software bundle has optionsfor more than 30 global services.

The 6605DN is fast, spitting outa 35-pageWord document in oneminute at both the PS3 driver’sStandard and Enhanced settings.Our 24-page DTP colour test printmanaged a slower 29ppm and 22ppm,but the time to first page neverexceeded ten seconds.

Xerox scores for print quality,producing razor-sharp text andhigh levels of detail inmono photos.Colour photos using the PS3 driverare equally detailed with goodcontrast and bright colours andonlyminor evidence of banding.Our colour performance chartshowed the PCL6 driver deliveringslightly duller primary colours,

which reduced the impact of ourmarketing brochures.

The scanner returned goodresults: colour photos and glossymagazine covers revealed plentyof detail and good colour rendition.Its ADF performedwell, too, with a 15-pagemono copymanaging 18ppm,while a colour copy returned 11.4ppm.

Xerox’s high-yield cartridgesdeliver low running costs of 1.3p permono page and 7.8p for colour. If youstick with the recommended 5,000-pagemonthly duty cycle, the imagedrum and transfer unit should last

the life of the printer – butreplacing them only adds0.5p to your page costs.

The XeroxWorkCentre6605DNmay be anold-timer, but it hasthe legs to keep upwithmore recent laser

MFPs. Although the initial outlayis high andwireless is optional,this is more thanmade up forwith excellent print quality,affordable running costs and itshigh duty cycle. DAVE MITCHELL

LEFT Users canaccess ActiveDirectory from theprinter to directlysearch for colleagues’email addresses andfax numbers

“We remotely updated theprinter using a desktoputility that allowed us toview the address book andupload new entries”

SPECIFICATIONS600dpi colour A4 laser● 1,200 x 1,200dpicolour flatbed A4 scanner● 35ppm mono/colour● 2 x USB 2● Gigabit Ethernet●33.6Kbits/sec fax/modem● 2 x RJ11● duplex●

50-sheet ADF● 430 x 528 x 560mm (WDH)●1yr on-site warrantyRUNNING COSTS High-yield: mono (8,000pages), £99; CMY (6,000 pages), £129

RECOMMENDED

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106106

In its simplest sense, CRM isn’t aproduct. “Customer relationshipmanagement”mightmean

something as simple asmaking noteson a piece of paper. But investing in acentralised CRM system can help anybusiness to better understand andserve its customer base.

“Companies of all sizes, in sectorsas diverse as retail, healthcare, media,public services andmanufacturing,rely on CRM systems,” Steve Garnett,EMEA chairman of industry giantSalesforce, told PC Pro. “For smallbusinesses, a CRM systemmaysimply help put data in the cloud,making it accessible from any device.As a business grows, CRM can bequickly scaled up to includemoresophisticated features that help teamscollaborate with colleagues and

customers, send customised emails,gather insights from social mediaconversations, and get a holistic,real-time picture of business health.”DarynMason, a senior director atOracle, agrees. “All companies canbenefit,” he told us. “Today it’s justas important to have a CRM as it isto have an ERP (enterprise resourceplanning) system, or back-officesystems. It’s an essential part ofthe infrastructure.”

■ Measurable benefitsCRMmay look like a questionableinvestment at first, because it doesn’tdirectly generate revenue. “It’sdifficult to point to a specific numberand say ‘that’s from CRM’,” admittedGrahamAnderson, managing directorof OpenCRM, a British company

providing bespoke CRM services.“But better access to informationmakes your teammore credible tocustomers, as well as better ableto collaborate internally – we callit more ‘joined-up’. That shouldlead to an uplift in both sales andretention.” Garnett agrees: “Thecustomer expects a great experience,and that can’t be achievedwithoutintimate knowledge of their likes,dislikes and preferences.”

Mason notes that CRM systems canalso improve a sales team’s efficiency.“There’s a direct correlation between‘face time’ and success in closingbusiness; CRM systems free up peopleto spendmore timewith customers.I’ve worked in organisations where

the sales guys use Fridayafternoon to update theirforecasts,” he recalled. “ACRM service could buildthat forecast for them,and roll it up to theirmanager automatically.”

■ Calculating the costsFree CRM software does exist, but inmost cases it makes sense to pay for aservice that’s tailored to your needs.

“There are products out therethat you can just take off the shelf,download and use,” said Anderson,“and they have their place. But Ithink it’s been proved time andtime again that you still need someexpertise and planning around thesesorts of implementations.We buildon open-source projects – such asMySQL, Apache and PHP – to keep the

“CRM is as important todayas enterprise resourceplanning or back-officesystems; it’s an essentialpart of the infrastructure”

THE BUSINESS QUESTION

Is customer relationship management only for the bigboys? Darien Graham-Smith asks the experts whatCRM has to offer, and how to get the best from it

Could your businessbenefit from CRM?


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P C P R O . C O . U K The Network TheBusinessQuestion

licensing costs down, andwewrapthat up in our own code, so that whencustomers need a particular function,we have a development team thatworks on it. That way, our clients getwhat they need, rather than choosinga product they have to shoehorn intotheir business.”

In terms of architecture, modernCRM is normally a web- or app-basedservice, sominimal infrastructureinvestment is needed. “There arecertain situations where ‘installit yourself’ still works,” notedAnderson, “butmore andmorewe’re finding that evenmid-rangecustomers don’t have the dedicatedresources to run internal CRMsystems.When you look at the costsof maintaining your own hardware,the hosted approach almost becomesa no-brainer.”

“Another advantage of acloud-based approach is that it’svery scalable,” said Mason. “Withon-premises computing, youmaystart small, but then grow to a pointwhere you need amore powerfulbox, or a faster network.With cloudCRM, you don’t hit those sudden costpoints. If you start with ten usersand you grow to 100 users, it’s linear:you never have that ‘ouch’ momentwhere you have to do a big upgrade.”

Remember, however, thatimplementing CRM brings costsbeyond the licensing fee. “Normallywhen people take on CRM theywant to see big changes, and bigtransformations,” Mason continued.“So there’s a change-managementprocess involved. It isn’t only abouttechnology; you’re probably going toneed to re-engineer some processes,and take people through changemanagement and training.”

■ Thinking bigThe industry experts agreethat a simplistic approachcan be the undoing of a CRMimplementation plan. “Youhave to think about theproject as amix betweentechnologymanagementand peoplemanagement,”said Anderson. “Managersare often far too optimistic intheir expectations about howusers will accept change. It’ssomethingwe strive to say,particularly in larger projects:if you don’t include thisamount of time in your plan foryour personnel to prepare andadapt, then frankly you’re onthe cusp of ‘sales prevention’.”

“People like to think oftechnology as amagic pill,”agreedMason. “They think thatif they get great technology,that’s enough to transformtheir sales success, but it’snever as simple as that. Youabsolutely have to understandthe problem you’re trying tosolve, but it has to be seen in thecontext of people and processes.I see CRM as a stool with threelegs – people, processes andtechnology – and your customer issitting on top. If any one of those legsis wobbly, your customers are at risk.”

Perhaps the fatal pitfall isunderestimating the scale of thecultural shift involved in buyinginto a CRM platform, and the levelof management buy-in that’sneeded accordingly.

“If CRM implementation isrelegated to a departmental projector initiative, it often isn’t given theprominence it needs,” Masonwarned.

“It needs to be seen as a strategicinitiative for the whole business,and supported with sponsorshipat board level. Otherwise, if you’retrying to change business practices,and revitalise your customerrelationships, the decisions youneed tomake can get stuck at thedepartmental level – they’re seen astoo hard, and aremet with inertia andresistance. High-level sponsorshiphelps to drive through the changesand implement great CRM.”

There’s a very wide set oftasks that come under

the umbrella of customerrelationship management,

depending on your market sector, size of business,number of customers and so forth. This leads toa dilemma: do you try to squeeze your perfectlyformed, well-run business into whatever shapeyour chosen CRM system demands? Are youprepared to change your workflow, and your wayof talking to customers, in order to bow down atthe Temple of the Great CRM? Or, do you try toget something written or customised to fit yourbusiness, in the hope that it will help you to dowhat you do already without getting in the way?

For many businesses, the reality fallsbetween the two: you end up with some significantchanges to the way you work, along with somereinforcement of how you do things already.

Is this the optimal approach? Well, here we getto the crux of the matter. If you implement a newCRM (be it local, cloud-based or scribbled on theback of a well-worn envelope), how are you goingto measure its effectiveness? How do you measurethe quality of your customer relationship today? Doyou wait for someone to shout, or for a writ to landin the post? Or do you have regular conversationswith your customers to discuss what you’re doingwell, what you need to improve, and indeed whatthe client needs to do in order to work moreeffectively with you?

When it comes to CRM, it’s important to mapyour solution onto those issues. But far too often Ihave seen CRM simply bolted on to a workflow, withno attempt to work out what customers are reallyexperiencing. The results are usually dire, in somecases resulting in the failure of the company. Iwouldn’t suggest that such businesses had been

rock-solid before, of course, but I’m certain thatsome companies’ CRM implementations haveaccelerated their decline.

So my recommendation is to tread carefully.Try to talk to others in your market segment, ifthat’s possible and appropriate, and find out fromthem what works well and what doesn’t. Indigesting their experiences, consider howsimilar their operations are to yours, and whatdifferences between your circumstances youneed to take into account. Ask yourself exactlywhat problem you’re actually trying to solve –and when you’ve decided on a CRM solution,ask yourself whether you’ve truly analysed thecost of implementation, in terms of time, training,disruption and overall risk to your business.

Moving to a new CRM platform is a huge project,and if you can’t answer these questions with totalconfidence, you’re not ready to undertake it.

The expert view Jon Honeyball

ABOVE Tailor-madeCRM systems areadapted to fityour business


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The Network CheatSheet

■ Security as a Service –what’s that then?Security as a Service (SaaS) is a licensingmodel whereby your securityproduct is purchased on a subscription basis, and delivered through acentrally hostedmechanism. Think of it as a cloud-based outsourcingmodel for securitymanagement and youwon’t be far wrong. Or, ifyou prefer, you can go all Tolkien and describe it as “one solution toserve them all” –meaning the same back-endwatches over all of yourvarious endpoints, from desktops to servers tomobile devices. Theservices on offer range from traditional desktop security scanning tofully managed email hosting andwebsite-vulnerability scanning.

■ But isn’t the cloud theWildWest of the IT world? Shouldwetrust our security to it?Like it or not, the cloud is now accepted as part of the business ITfurniture, from the smallest to the biggest of companies. The sameis true in the consumer space: we’ve all become used to interactingwith cloud services for data storage, email and service delivery suchasmusic and video streaming. As the cloud has becomemore familiar,it’s matured, to the point where it can be generally trusted to deliversecurity solutions. Remember, we’re not talking about the security ofthe cloud itself, merely its suitability as a distribution channel for theservices that do the actual work of protecting our data and resources.

■ Sowhat’s really new and different about SaaS?Traditionally, the security industry has tended to develop inevolutionary steps – even in response tomajor developments inthe threatscape, from the emergence of distributed denial-of-service(DDoS) through to the rise of targeted, long-term attacks known as“advanced persistent threats”. With the speed of delivery offered bythe cloud, there’s a real feel of revolutionary change in our defencesat last. By its very nature, the security-services industry will alwaysbe largely reactive – attackers launch a new threat, and then securityservices respond to it – but cloud deliverymeans the response can belaunchedmore effectively than ever.

Securityas a ServiceDavey Winder explains how modern security ismuch more than simply installing antivirus softwareon your workstations

■ Isn’t this just a case of following the herd?It may look like security providers are simplyjumping onto the fashionable cloud bandwagon,but there’s more to it than that. Themajor threatno longer comes from virus infections that canbe countered by signature-based standaloneproducts; threats are nowmobile and dynamic,so the defences need to be the same. Bymovingto amodel where both users and threats arediversely distributed, the vendors can do a betterjob of protecting the former from the latter.

■ Sowhere does this leave traditional,perimeter securitymeasures?If traditional measures aren’t dead in the water,they’remuch less relevant than they used to be.The average business nowadays has data sittingacross a number of networks and devices – plususers bringing in their own devices and usingtheir own cloud services – so traditional networksecurity becomes difficult to enforce. Movingsecurity into the cloudmakes it easier to applyto all devices and all traffic.

■ So SaaS is more than just a cloud-basedantivirus scanner?You seem to be getting the idea! SaaS is muchmore flexible than conventional antivirus,so it can fit the needs of both businesses andconsumers. Think of it a pick-and-mix approach,offering the precise protection tomeet yourneeds. For example, as well as protecting againstthe latest malware threats by ensuring yoursecurity database is always up to date, SaaS cansimultaneously provide DDoS protection thatkicks in with the necessarymeasures as soonas a potential attack is identified.

■ This is starting to sound expensive...The subscription fees actually comparequite favourably tomanaging yoursecurity locally – once you factor inthe regular product upgrades and themanagement of those updates, whichyou no longer need to worry about.

Being able to budget on a per-user basis, withmanagement of real-time updates, can diluteboth the cost and complexity of keeping yourbusiness secure. It’s easier to deploy additionalservices, too: DDoS protection, for example, canbe provided byway of a budgetablemonthlysupplement, without the need to roll out newhardware or think about update costs as thethreat evolves.

SaaS Originally “Software as aService”, now often stands for“Security as a Service”. Generallyspeaking, a software service that’sdelivered via a central host and paidfor on a subscription basis.

DDoS Distributed denial-of-service:an attack whereby online businessresources are taken offline byoverwhelming them with “junk”traffic from multiple sources.

Perimeter security Networkdefences provided via firewalls andintrusion-detection systems – awell-established model, but onethat doesn’t necessarily suit themodern Bring Your Own Device(BYOD) approach.

Threatscape The overall securitythreat environment, comprisingboth attack methodologies andattacker profiles.

The jargon

“The major threat nolonger comes from virusinfections that can becountered by signature-based products”


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Real worldcomputıng EXPERT ADVICE FROM OUR PANEL OF PROFESSIONALS

Last month I was talkingabout some of the technicalinnovations coming from the

companyMeridian, in Huntingdon,in the field of studio-quality encodingof music over a limited-data-ratepipe. This month I’ve decided toextend this theme by covering somemore interesting technology froma pair of companies – one in the UKand one in the Netherlands – whoare shining examples of the waywein Europe are still creating some ofthe very best technology in the world.The American hegemony in electronicinnovationwas an historical accidentthat’s becoming less relevant: indeed,it’s the lack of true global visionthat will be the downfall of thebig American companies.

Let’s begin with GPS. There’s a setof orbiting satellites that transmit theGPS signal: essentially a very accuratetime clock that’s synchronisedbetween these satellites. If you canreceive this signal from a number ofthe satellites, and because you knowwhere they are and the time delaysbetween their transmissions, you cantriangulate your position in 3D space,relative to the satellites’ orbits. That’sright, 3D: it’s easy to forget that GPS

provides height information, becausemost of us are locked into amindsetof strictly 2D, in-car GPS from thelikes of TomTom and Garmin.

However, give it some thought andyou’ll soon discover that informationabout absolute 3D positioning isterribly important if you’re, say, thecaptain of a Boeing 747. (Incidentally,there’s a world of pain concerning theway 2Dmaps can be projected ontothe roughly spherical surface ofour planet, and how the inevitabledistortions each different projectionproduces are to be compensated for– but I’ll leave reading up on that toyou, if you’re sufficiently interested.)

So your current position is definednot only bywhere the satellites are,andwhichmembers of the global setthey are, but also by the time at whichyou’re taking themeasurement –move the time by tenminutes andthe satellites will havemoved, asthey aren’t in geosynchronous orbit.

If youwanted to subject a GPS unitto exactly the same conditions – andI’mwilling to confess this isn’tsomething that will interest mostpeople, but bear withme – it would beincredibly useful to be able to recordthese actual GPS signals (say, while

going for a drive) and to then playthem back at a later date. As far asthe GPS unit was concerned, suchplaybackwould be as if it weretravelling that exact same routeagain, at that date, and nothingwould ever change, run after run.

GPS record-and-replay equipmenthas been around for a while, butit’s been prohibitively expensive,affordable only by themilitary,space agencies and similar. Now,Racelogic – a small but highlyrespected UKGPS engineeringfirm based in Buckingham – haschanged all that, because its newLabSat 3 box can record real GPS andthen play it back, at a reasonable cost.

Before we go any further, I need toexplain something important. Whenyou replay recorded GPS signals,you’re creating an entirely time- andlocation-shifted space. So while itmight strike you as being hugelyamusing to sit in a traffic jam ontheM1while transmitting a signalthat tells everyone around you thatyou’re all actually in Devon lastTuesday, it would also be highlyillegal. And very dangerous too.

I flew into Incheon Airport inSeoul, South Korea, last year, a fewdays after North Korea had beenmaking noises about disrupting theGPS signals – not what youwant tohear just as your 747 is coming in toland. Handling signals of this kindclearly requires great care: youmustoperate it within a radio-screenedenvironment (commonly called aFaraday cage) andmeasure the signallevels to ensure that there’s noleakage whatsoever. That’s a legalrequirement, and if you do otherwisemen in suits will arrive, knock onyour door and cart you off to jail.

Racelogic’s software is stunning.Record a GPS scenario while drivingaround in your car, and replay it intoa GPS device when you’re back in thewarmth of your lab (you do have alab, don’t you?). Then do exactly thesame again tomorrow, to provide anentirely repeatable test environment.

Jon is the MD ofan IT consultancythat specialisesin testing anddeploying hardware

@jonhoneyball

“ThesecompaniesareshiningexamplesofthewayEuropeisstillcreatingsomeofthebesttechnologyintheworld”Jon is impressed by some Buckingham-produced GPS equipment,which provides record-and-replay capabilities at a reasonable price

JONHONEYBALL

“The Americanhegemony inelectronicinnovation wasa historicalaccident that’sbecoming lessrelevant”

LEFT Racelogic’sLabSat 3 box canplay back recordedGPS signals


111

Jon HoneyballOpinion on Windows, Apple and

everything in between – p110

Davey WinderKeeping small businesses

safe since 1997 – p118

Steve CassidyThe wider vision on cloudand infrastructure – p120

Paul OckendenUnique insight into mobile

and wireless tech – p113

Nick DaleHow open-source tools builtreal-world prototypes – p116

But that’s not all – this software canimport the simple recorded routeinformation that any normal civilianGPS unit logs during a journey, thenrecreate the original GPS satellitesignals that must have produced thatinformation, so they can be playedout again. This is amassively difficultcomputational geometry problem,and you can expect it to take up toten times longer than real-time,so to regenerate the signals for aone-hour journeymight takeeight hours of processing time.

Or how about firing up GoogleMaps and just drawing in a route thatyouwant to take, or synthesising aroute entirely from numbers? In eachcase, Racelogic’s software can thengenerate the appropriate GPS signalsfor you.Want tomake a GPS unitthink it’s in themiddle of Madridon a Thursday afternoon, withoutleaving your desk? No problem.

The company has also designeda unit for video recording, called theVbox, which takes the output fromanHD-resolution bullet camera anda live GPS feed from amag-mountGPS aerial, and records video ofwhat the camera sees throughyour windscreen; alongwith all the

synchronous GPS data too.When youplay back this video on yourWindowsPC, it not only plays back the videobut it can also calculate a whole rangeof data (see screenshot above) such asthe acceleration, direction of travel,vertical height and so forth, whichyou can just read out as the videoplays. You can see why that would beincredibly useful for car-developmentwork or analysing race performance.

The power really starts once youconnect the LabSat box to the PCrunning the playback of the Vboxvideo file. Now you can generatethe “real” GPS signals to feed into aGPS device and receive a correctlysynchronised view of exactly wherethe device was located at that point intime on the video feed. This makes iteasy to see whether, for example, theGPS unit you’re testing is sufferingfrom lag when going around aroundabout (due to having toreacquire its signals repeatedly).

This is all powerful stuff, whichwould have been almost unthinkableeven only a few years ago. It clearlyshows the strength of the engineeringbase we have within the UK, and istherefore to be loudly applauded.

DAB handsNow let’s move on to a differenttransmission technology, namelyDigital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).DAB is an antiquated, supersededand, frankly, rather insulting piece

of technology. However, it hasentranced various governmentdepartments for decades, sowe’re stuckwith it, despite itbeing the wrong solution to thewrong problem at the wrong time.

The rest of Europe hasmovedon to DAB+, but we’re stuckwith theoriginal. The core function of DABis to take a low data rate – and hencelow-quality – audio feed, crunch itdown to the size of a postage stampand then broadcast it over a digitalcarrier in around the 200MHzfrequency range. As you canimagine, there’s quite a smallmarket for DAB generation andtransmission hardware, since allthe big broadcasters already havereal-time solutions in place thatonce did cost vast sums of money,but which they’ve been able toamortise over several decades. Therest of us, whomight someday needto generate a desktop DAB signalfor test purposes, have to scrabblearoundwithwhat’s available.

Ormaybe not. DekTec, fromthe Netherlands, has come upwith a range of affordable, high-performance PCI Express cards,alongside hardware based on theUSB bus, which can transmit DAB,DAB+, DVB-T (digital terrestrial TV)and so on.

Let’s just walk through theprocess of making this work.We’llstart with the audio file youwant toworkwith, which should beWAVformat at 48kHz sampling rate (thatis, a sound quality akin to CD). Butthe data rate for such quality is fartoo high for DAB transmission, sowe need to reduce it. Youmaythink this is simply amatter ofchoosing a different output fromyour audio-editing software, butthis won’t happen for two reasons:first, DAB doesn’t use MP3 format,but rather MP2, its predecessor; andsecond, it isn’t even normal MP2,whichwould havemade things toosimple. There are special data flagsthat have to be placed into theMP2stream to support DAB.

But that’s not all – next you haveto think about the data rate that you’llbe using over DAB. The best qualityemployed in the UK is for BBC Radio 3,which transmits at 192Kbits/sec,butmost other stations aremorecompressed at 128Kbits/sec, whilespeech is right down at 64Kbits/sec.Just think that through. Take somecontent that was once akin to CD orFM at its best, encode it using anancient codec at a ridiculously lowdata rate: does anyone really want to

“DAB is anantiquated,supersededand, frankly,rather insultingpiece oftechnology”

ABOVE Playing backvideo enables you tocalculate plenty ofother data, allowingyou to analyse raceperformance,for example


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Real worldcomputıng

listen to 128Kbits/sec MP2? Doesanyone really think this is quality?

The best tool for performingthis feat of aural desecration is anopen-source one called TooLAME,and the command line you’d use totake in a nice 48kHzWAV file andoutput a grotty MP2 is:

C:\toolame -s 48 -m s -b 192 -e -D 0logicbouncenewmaterial2.wavlogicbouncenewmaterial2.mp2

You now have anMP2 file you canwork on. Next you have to turn thisinto an ETI file, which stands forEnsemble Transport Interface.Without getting bogged down incomplex details, DAB employs atransmission format called OFDM,or orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiplexing. OFDM is also used forthe likes of 802.11n and 802.11acWi-Fiand even for terrestrial digital TVin the DVB format. ETI streams areeffectively the bundled data thatallow the transmitter to outputthem in OFDM format. You haveto remember that DAB isn’t justone station transmitting on onefrequency: unlike FM radio, you canbundle together several DAB “radiostations” onto a single channel andtransmit them all at the same time on

the same frequency, which is all partof the idea called an “ensemble”. Toconvert your newlymintedMP2 fileinto an ETI file, you need to use a toolcalled DabMux, which is driven by acommand line that looks like this:

C:\"program files (X86)"\dektec\StreamXpress\dabmux -f 25000 -o logicbouncenew "material2.eti wlabmp2.xml

This tells DabMux to generate 25,000frames of data (a data frame beingabout 2,500 perminute) and outputthe ETI file, but also to suck in aconfiguration file in XML format.Here’s the XML file I used:

<ensemble transmode="1" id="0x123"country="15" ecc="0xE1" label="Myensemble">

<service id="3" country="15"label="WLABNEW">

<component primary="true" ca="false"prot="UEP-3" bitrate="192" filename="logicbouncenewmaterial2.mp2">

<mp2/></component></service></ensemble>

As you can see, there’s some technicalstuff in the first part, including acountry code, and the name I’m goingto use for my ensemble. Thenwe go tothe service part; the “WLABNEW” isthe name ofmy radio station. This iswhat you’ll tune into on a DAB radioset. Then there’s the componentitself: it references theMP2 file just

created and specifies the data rateto be 192Kbits/sec. There’s anMP2section to this XML file, but this isn’tused. Now having this ETI file, I canfire up the DekTec software, load inthe file, choose a broadcast frequency,and press Play. At this point, my newradio stationwill be broadcast out ofthe aerial socket of the DekTec unit,and I could attach a small aerial to itfor reception by nearby DAB radios.Tune in the radio set and our newradio station is on air. Once again,just as with those GPS transmissions,youmust do this inside a shieldedFaraday cage environment to ensurethat there’s no possibility of leakageover even a fewmetres.

Less than friendlySowhat do these two hi-techsolutions have in common?Well, first, bothwould have beenimpossible only a few years ago.The power of modern PCsmeansthat such specialist hardware cannow be connected via USB andused to perform high-endwork.General-purpose programminglanguages enable developers towrite software solutions that candrive such hardware, and the pricesare now affordable – in the context ofprofessional lab equipment. Neitherof these solutions is appropriatefor a bedroom hobbyist, from acost, complexity or broadcastresponsibility perspective.

They’re also similar in terms ofthe sheer complexity of their exposedcapabilities. These aren’t solutionsthat you can just fire up, fiddle withand press Go. Both require detailedknowledge and an understanding ofwhat’s going on; there’s nothingwrongwith that, of course, sincethey’re professional tools. However,both also have UIs that are, shall wesay, “curiously cranky”, and theyprovide a clear and fascinatingreminder of just how far we’vetravelled in the business of deliveringsoftware tomainstream audiences.These tools are generally written bythe engineers themselves, so poorerror-handling and crashes when youask them to do anything odd aren’tunusual. They can be frustrating toworkwith.

At this point, you’re probablyexpectingme to turnmyflamethrower of hate onto bothfirms for delivering fragile and crankysoftware, but I’m not going to do that,and here’s why. These are bleeding-edge technologies and solutions;professional tools for professionals.Andwith that comes responsibility

ABOVE With DabMuxfrom DekTec you canconvert your MP2 fileinto an ETI file

“Withprofessionaltools, there’s aresponsibilityfor providing alevel of supportthat goesbeyond call-centre staffasking: ‘haveyou triedturning it offand on again?’”



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Paul owns an agencythat helps businessesexploit the web, fromsales to marketingand everythingin between

@PaulOckenden

for providing a level of support thatgoes beyond call-centre staff asking:“have you tried turning it off andon again?”. Both companies haveexcelled in this regard.

I uncovered aWindows 8.1 USBport bug in the Racelogic code, andthe developer sentme a new versionon Boxing Day, then several moreversions over the subsequent days.I was doing battle with the DekTecDabMux software, PDF instructionsfor whichwere inducing a headache:it looked like English, it sounded likeEnglish, but I had no idea what it wassaying. DekTec’s developers workedtirelessly to explain what to do, howtomake it work, and sent over scriptsand example files. Both companiesactively seek suggestions on how toimprove their products, but beingsuch niche products they probablywon’t receivemany. I’mmore thanhappy to help (after all, I’ve invested afive-figure sum in their technologies)simply because I believe both areserious about what they’re doingand clearly want to smooth out thefew remaining rough edges.

Contrast this with a companythat sells an expensive Thunderbolt-connected 4K video encode/decodebox I bought last spring. I’ll be politeand simply say the claimsmade by thecompany around the capabilities of itsproduct didn’t matchmy experience.Only when I went nuclear over thephone at the product manager didhe admit that some of those claimswere a tad optimistic. I won’t bedoing business with the companyever again, because I don’t needhassle like that.

Racelogic, on the other hand,even delivered some of its kit of partsin person, because it wanted to knowwhat wewere intending to dowith it.This sort of support is the lifeblood ofserious engineering companies, andis a clear differentiator between thegood and the ugly.

I hope this insight into someslightly unusual technology hasbeen useful. It’s a clear reminderthat our desktop computing world –whether that beWindows, OS X orLinux – has a far broader reach thanthemillion-selling butmundaneOffice applications – and thatthere’s still world-leading workbeing done on our doorsteps.

[email protected]

“Afterafewseconds,youcompletelyforgetthatyou’restaringintoaphonestrappedtoacerealbox”Virtual reality may finally be hitting the mainstream – for lessthan £3, you can even turn your phone into a headset

PAULOCKENDEN

V irtual reality (VR) is one ofthose strange areas of techthat’s been knocking around

for ages, perpetually about to explodeinto themainstream but never quitemanaging to achieve it. The idea canbe traced back to science fiction fromthe 1930s, while the first crude andclumsy devices appeared in the 1960s.One of these first VR incarnations,created by the influential computerscientist Ivan Sutherland, dangledabove the user’s head in such aprecarious fashion that it wasnicknamed the “Sword of Damocles”(seemore about Ivan Sutherland inour feature on tech heroes, p42).

At various times since then,mass-market adoption has seemedjust around the corner but neveractually happened. It was almost 25years ago that Sega promised the SegaVR headset for its popular Mega Driveconsole. There wasmuch hype, but itnever arrived: the project proved toodifficult for mass-market productionandwas shelved, although a versiondid appear in arcades a couple of yearslater. In themid-1990s, Nintendotried for the samemarket with itsVirtual Boy, an innovative headset-based games console. Unfortunately,that was such a commercial flop that

it never even reached Europe, and thewhole project was cancelled within ayear. (Even its product namewouldbe considered a bit dodgy these days!)

I ought to clarify something atthis point, because the term “virtualreality” bears twomeanings, onebroad and one narrow. The term canencompass anything that simulates areal environment, and somay includethose walk-in flight simulators onstilts that pilots use for training, andtheir smaller cousins that youmightfind in theme parks. The second, farmore specific meaning of virtualreality (especially when abbreviatedto VR) is restricted to those headsetsyou strap over your eyes (and oftenears) that give a stereoscopic view ofan artificially generated world, thedisplay of which is updated as youmove around this environment. I’mtalking here about this restrictedsense of VR, and it’s such VR headsetsthat over the past year have seemedabout to gomainstream.

The best known is the Oculus Rift,which despite all the hype hasn’tactually shipped yet. The kit youmayhave read about or seen on TV gadgetprogrammes, perhaps even playedwith at a demo or show, is allpre-release developer and SDKhardware. These developer headsetsprovide vision only, so the user hasto supply headphones. They’re alsoquite heavy, at around 379g, roughlythe same as a can of Coke. Just try toimagine walking aroundwith a canstrapped to your face by a thick elasticband. Padding inside the headsethelps, but it’s still not themostcomfortable of experiences. I hopewhen the consumer version arrives –promised later this year – it will beboth lighter andwireless. All theversions to date have requiredan umbilical cord tethering themto a controller box, which uploadsstereoscopic visuals to the headsetand downloads six-axis motion-detection data to the host computer.

Youmaywonder why six axes ofdata have to be recorded, sincemany

BELOW IvanSutherland’s “Swordof Damocles” wasone of the firstVR headsets


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motion-tracking systemsmonitoronly the X, Y and Z axes. However, asix-axis system (onewith six degreesof freedom, or 6DoF) canmonitornot only the estimated position in3-space using accelerometers, butalso rotation in any plane usinggyroscopes. This is important forheadset-based VR, as the displayneeds to scroll when you rotate yourhead. It’s quite different from anXbox Kinect cameramonitoring yourmovements, with the display stayingin a fixed position (although there arelibraries available to extract estimatedhead-pose data fromKinect sensors).

I mentioned “gyroscopes”, butdon’t imagine them as those spinningdiscs in use a decade or two ago:modern gyroscopic sensors are tinysolid-state chipswith lithographicallyconstructed components. Variouskinds are available, but perhaps theeasiest to understand is the “tuningfork”, which has twomoving armscontinually oscillating in oppositedirections.When a twistingmotionis applied, the Coriolis force oneach arm acts in opposite directions,changing the capacitance betweenthem proportionally to the angularvelocity of twist. It’s mind-bogglingto imagine this going on insideminute sensors inside each OculusRift (as well as many other everydayobjects, such as optically stabilisedcamera lenses). Thesemovement andpositional sensors distinguish trueVR headsets from first-person view(FPV) kit such as Fat Shark goggles– normally used for remote pilotingof radio-controlled aircraft anddrones – or home-cinema goggles(yet another technology that neverreally took off). Both these headsetsare for display only and don’t needto record head tilt or position.

Interestingly, Oculus Rift startedlife as a Kickstarter project with a

$250,000 goal, but ended up raisingten times that and subsequently beingbought by Facebook for $2 billion. Allof this happened long before the finalproduct had shipped, which causedsomething of a backlash: many of theoriginal backers demanded the returnof their crowdfunding cash, as theyweren’t happy their investment ina niche product had ended up in thehands of an “evil empire”.

Despite these complaints, thesuccess of the crowdfunding venturemeantmany other rival VR systemssoon started to appear on Kickstarter,Indiegogo and other funding sites.Some of them are obviously just flyinga kite, and these are pretty easy tospot for making outlandish claimsand/ormerely using images of readilyavailable hardware. Here’s a tip:before investing in any crowdfundedproject, always do a reverse search onthe images shown in their listing. Ifyou find them being used anywhereelse – especially on one of the largeChinesemarketing websites suchas Alibaba or Banggood – then thisproject might not be what it seems...

A few of these projects doseem credible, though. One calledTotem, fromVrvana (pronouncedver-vana, and yes, it sounds likesomething from Shooting Stars),looks particularly interesting: it hastwo front-facing cameras in additionto the individual display screens foreach eye. This enables it tomix aVR feedwith images from the realworld, like a halfway house betweena full-on VR unit and an augmented-reality headset, such as Epson’swonderful Moverio BT-200.

Beyond these start-ups andcrowdfunded projects, there are afew big-name players entering theVR arena. Sony has Project Morpheus,a five-year (and counting) R&Dproject, which is being continually

updated. It should be ready to launchquickly whenever Sony feels marketconditions are right. Certainly thedemo versions Sony takes to varioustrade shows have a fairly finished feelto them,with nice, smoothlymouldedplastics and a really solid build. This isno temporary, 3D-printed demo kit.

I’m in the phone...There’s a whole other angle tothis market sector, too. Think foramoment about the componentsyou need for a VR headset: a high-resolution display, accelerometers,gyroscopes, connectivity to theoutside world, and CPU grunt to tiethem all together. As a list of parts,does that sound vaguely familiar? Youprobably have all of it in your pocketright now. Yes, themain guts of a VRheadset can already be found insideany smartphone, and a few vendorshave already cottoned on to this fact.

For a start, there’s Samsungwithits Gear VR (see our full review onp74). Essentially this is an OculusRift-style housing, into the front ofwhich you slip a Note 4 “phablet”(I’ll never stop being embarrassedto type that word, hence the quotes).Strangely, this headset contains itsownmovement sensors rather thanusing those built into the phone.The Gear VR is not only confinedto Samsung’s Note 4model, but thecurrent development version is evenfurther restricted to work only withhandsets locked to certain US carriernetworks. No, don’t askmewhy – itseems crazy tome.

If youwant a wider choice ofphones, look no further than the CarlZeiss VROne. The big selling point isthat it contains “quality” Zeiss lenses,although I suspect for many the Zeissbrand has been tarnished by licensingthe name to glass made by companiessuch as Sony andMicrosoft/Nokia.The VROne not only supports anumber of different handsets, but alsoexploits their internal gyroscopes andaccelerometers. You need a specialtray to hold your phone, but Zeiss isplanning to release these for popularhandsets, and to offer 3D-printingplans for more obscure phones.

Cheaper still, and evenmoreflexible, are the Archos VR Glasses, asimple, black plastic affair designedto workwithmost smartphones witha 6in screen or smaller. It’s a no-frillsaffair, but what do you expect for£25? Surely youwon’t find a VRheadset any cheaper than that.

Or will you? Actually, the answeris yes! By far the cheapest option isthe Google Cardboard, and you can

“You probablyhave all of thecomponentsneeded for aVR headset inyour pocketright now”

LEFT The OculusRift is probablythe best-knownvirtual-reality headset



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probably guess what it’s made from –the clue is in the name. It’s essentiallya folded piece of cardboardwith twoplastic lenses, a couple of magnetsand some Velcro. The brilliant thingabout it is the price: you can pick oneup for less than £3 (for example, frompcpro.link/246rw1). You can even cutone out yourself using a template, butI can’t really see the point when thekits are so cheap. It’s been somewhatcheekily nicknamedOculus Thrift!

So, what can you dowith GoogleCardboard?Well, Google has a Demoapp that provides a number of simplethings such as 3D Google Earth views,3D YouTube videos, and a natty VRtour of Versailles. You’ll soon getboredwith those, but head on over topcpro.link/246rw2, or go to the Playstore on your phone and search forCardboard. You’ll find plenty ofCardboard-enabled apps there thatlet you ride a VR roller coaster orwatch a 3D Paul McCartney gig (to behonest, I’m not sure which is scarier).

There’s muchmore to try, too. Myfavourites include Vanguard V, athird-person rail shooter game thatdelivers an immersive experience –after a few seconds, you completelyforget that you’re staring into a phonestrapped to a cereal box. Sisters fromOtherworld Interactive is a haunted-house story, and it’s really very scary!

Most of these apps are free, but ifyou don’t mind spending a smallamount, I highly recommend ProtonPulse. If I tell you it’s a 3D version ofthe old brick-busting Breakout gameyou’ll probably roll your eyes, but it’sfar better than it sounds.

Incidentally, although Cardboardhas its greatest support on Android,you can also use it with iPhones.Search for Google Cardboard in theApp Store and you’ll find some greatapps, including the inevitable virtualroller coaster, alongwith a quaintduck-shooting game (quaint in theway it works, not in the way you killvirtual animals!).

Before you do, though, may Isuggest youmark those panels andedges of the Google Cardboard thattouch your face or hair, then unfoldit and cover those edges with parcel

tape or similar fabric. If you don’t,you’ll find the cardboard sucks greasefrom your face (especially if you passit around among friends) and startsto resemble a used pizza box. It seemsdaft to go to all that trouble to protectsomething so cheap, but it’s worth it.

I wanted to find out what aprofessional VR developer thought ofGoogle Cardboard so I spoke to IestynLloyd, one of the UK’s leading VRdevelopers, who has created gamesand apps for Oculus Rift and otherhigh-end hardware. He toldme:“It’s great as a platform to keep kidsentertained. Not only are the headsetsvery cheap, but they can be drawn onor otherwise customised. If youwantmore robust versions, some vendorsare supplying them in aluminium.”

Iestyn and I got chattingabout possible applications forVR, particularly for low-end kitsuch as Cardboard. He explainedhow “for installations and expos,it’s much cheaper to demo VRusing Google Cardboard rather thanexpensive PCs running Oculus orother high-end headsets. Supervisionis still important, though, becausethe headsets containmobile phones,and you don’t want those to gowalkies. Google Cardboard alsooffers a great marketing opportunity:you can give away customisedheadsets (printed with your brandingand logos) at events, including a QRcode or NFC tag for the visitors todownload and install your company’sVR app. You can then use pushnotifications to keep these peopleengaged over a longer time frame.For people such asmyself whobuild VR games and apps for aliving, we can use Cardboardto deliver cut-down or‘lite’ versions of ‘full’VR experiences, fora preview.”

I also askedwhether he could seeany instances where low-end VRheadsets had an advantage overhigher-end kit. He explained: “It’simportant to realise app-basedcontent produced for any of theselow-end, phone-based headsets canbe repurposed or built into a normalnon-VR app. Imagine, for example, anapp that showcases a stunning newoffice development. It would work asa perfectly normal app, but whenviewing photos the user could poptheir phone into a Google Cardboardheadset and take a look around for thefull-on VR experience. Frankly, thepossibilities are endless, and I’m veryexcited to be working in a field suchas this right now.”

I can’t help but agree.We’ve seensomany false starts for VR, but withall these players currently developingboth hardware and content, it willalmost certainly break through tothemainstream this time. Right now,hardware and software remain fairlycrude, but I’m sure we’ll quicklymove beyond headsets. I’m not surewe’ll reach the point once envisagedby Ivan Sutherland, inventor of thatoriginal Sword of Damocles, whenback in his 1965 paper The UltimateDisplay hewrote: “The ultimatedisplay would, of course, be a roomwithin which the computer cancontrol the existence of matter. Achair displayed in such a roomwouldbe good enough to sit in. Handcuffsdisplayed in such a roomwould beconfining, and a bullet displayed insuch a roomwould be fatal.” Nowthat’s a scary game opportunity(and a strong incentive to payyour phone bill on time!).

@PaulOckenden

“Frankly, thepossibilities forvirtual realityare endless,and I’m veryexcited to beworking in afield such asthis right now”

LEFT The CarlZeiss VR One is alow-cost headsetthat should workwith most phones

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you can give away customisedheadsets (printed with your brandingand logos) at events, including a QRcode or NFC tag for the visitors todownload and install your company’sVR app. You can then use pushnotifications to keep these peopleengaged over a longer time frame.For people such asmyself whobuild VR games and apps for aliving, we can use Cardboardto deliver cut-down or‘lite’ versions of ‘full’VR experiences, fora preview.”

BELOW GoogleCardboard canconvert yoursmartphone into a VRheadset for only £3


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Nick initially workedas an aerodynamicistbefore moving intosystems engineering.He’s currently anengineering manager

NICKDALE

“Todayit’sfeasibleforsmallteamsofmotivatedengineerstotacklepreviously‘impossible’problems”A background in aerodynamics and open-source software provesenough to create a prototype car – with a little help from some friends

From time to time, we all findourselves looking out of thewindow and daydreaming.

Among the fast cars, holidays andlottery wins, theremay be theoccasional “Wouldn’t it be great if…”,quickly followed by, at least inmycase, “How hard can it be?”

This is one such story. It’s a taleof ambition, teamwork and talent(mostly other people’s). And it’s alsothe story of howmodern PCs andlargely open-source tools can solveproblems that a generation agoweren’t only difficult but, by allpractical measures, impossible.

By personality and training, I’man engineer. Many years ago, whenBBCMicros were cutting-edge, afascinationwith aircraft ledme tostudy aerodynamics. On qualifying,my career quickly tookme in otherdirections, but the fascinationwithall things aeronautic remained.

Two years ago, my brother,Jeremy Dale, asked if I knew anythingabout car aerodynamics. He anda business partner were buildingan ambitious tandem-seat hybridcar.While he could take on thecomplicated electronic tasks, he hadno understanding of aerodynamics.They needed a body shell thatwouldn’t compromise performance.

Since I spend some ofmyspare time using the open-sourcesurface-modelling package Blender,I had themeans to draft such a shape.Google would surely provide thetechnical guidance on vehicle drag.“How hard could it be?”

Several things quickly becameapparent. To do this properly wouldrequiremultiple computational fluidmechanics (CFD) iterations, followedby validation in a wind tunnel. CFDtools typically cost thousands perlicence and run on computers that

could heat a small town. All of whichwere beyond ourmeans.

Searching for a solution, I cameacross an open-source CFD toolsetcalled OpenFOAM,which standsfor open-source field operation andmanipulation. It has the capacity tomodel a huge range of fluid-mechanicsproblems. The toolset comprisessolvers for the equations of motion,turbulencemodels, mesh generatorsand analysis tools. Everything youcould possibly want, apart fromknowledge and understanding.

So begins the journeyOpenFOAM runs only on Linux,so the first of many learningopportunities involved setting upa VirtualBox Ubuntu VM onmytrusty Acer laptop (Intel Core 2 Duoprocessor, 4GB of RAM). Tomysurprise, with the settingsmore orless a stab in the dark, OpenFOAM ransuccessfully – albeit slowly. Clearlyhaving good tools doesn’t alter thefact that fluidmechanics calculationsare computationally expensive.Wequickly replacedmy laptopwith aCore i7-equipped Dell PC. It was easilythe fastest computer I’d ever playedwith, earning the nameMonster.

Porting the laptop’s setup toMonster convinced us wemight be

able to do something useful withoff-the-shelf hardware, particularlywhenwe started to run OpenFOAMin parallel across eight threads.Everything subsequently representedrefinement, streamlining orsupercharging of this setup.

WithMonster up and running,we had a tool that could provide aninsight into what was happening.I’d have felt less smug had I realisedjust how poorly I had configuredthe software. Important aspectsof the solver, mesh and turbulencemodels were incorrect and,ultimately, had to be corrected.Fortunately, ignorance stoppedus being daunted.

Having proved the concept, theproject needed funding – andmoreeffort thanmywork commitmentsallowed. My brother’s businesspartner identified a potential source:the Niche Vehicle Network (NVN).

The NVN promotes thedevelopment and application ofnew technology by bringing togetherindependent vehicle manufacturers,system suppliers, automotivetechnology companies and higher-education institutes, to collaborateon the innovative application oftechnology in low-volume vehicleproduction. Following discussions,NVN generously agreed to fund aprogramme of work, codenamedASTAN, with the following scope:1. To produce a practical tandem-seatsmall car body shell shape, withexceptional aerodynamic dragperformance to enable a workingcar to deliver groundbreaking fuelefficiency and low emissions.2. To deliver this challenging task toa high standardwith limited resourcesof both time and budget, by usingopen-source CFD software and alow-cost multicore PC network.

3. To build and test afull-scale prototype bodyshell in a wind tunnel andassess the accuracy of theCFDmodel.

Of these very challengingobjectives, the timescale wasthemost daunting. Approvalcame amonth before ASTANwas due to start. We thenhad threemonths tocomplete the study beforethe tax year ended. Myworkcommitmentsmeant thatthe project-managementload fell onmy brother’sshoulders. We had toidentify specialistaerodynamic support,establish a computing

BELOW The teamdiscarded 40different shapesbefore finding theright one, hereshown with pressuresand velocitiesfrom the front

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infrastructure, optimise theshell shape, find someone tobuild it, and then get it testedto confirm the CFD results.

Sheffield unitedFor specialist CFD support,we engaged Professor NingQin and Dr Jason Chen of theAerodynamics Research Groupat the University of Sheffield.They provided exceptionalsupport. They scrappedmuch ofmy original setup and replacedit with a theoretically soundanalysis environment. The onlynon-open-source componentwas themesh generator, asthe learning curve for thedelightfully namedOpenFOAMsnappyHexMeshwas notconsistent with our timescales.

While Sheffield has a120-core cluster computer witha lot of capability, access wasan issue. Insteadwe decidedto scale up theMonster setup.We bought four unbrandedPCs, each toting a 3.5GHzCore i7-3770K CPU, with16GB of RAM and a 1TB harddisk. Lacking the sophistication of theDell box, andwith fans that soundedlike hairdryers, they nonethelessprovided exceptional multithreadedperformance. They ran intensivelyfor four weeks over extended periodswithout issues… once we’d earthedthe four PC cases together properly.

We used a cheap eight-portGigabit switch to provide networkconnectivity. If anything, this wasa bigger revelation thanmany ofthe other things we achieved. Itshovelled all the data we neededreliably throughout.

Oncemy brother hadworkedout the intricacies of parallelcomputing across multiple nodes(one of many firsts for him), we had astandalone cluster of computers thatcould service 32 simultaneous parallelthreads - quite a step up from a singleT6400. Processing times tumbledfrom several days to a few hours. Ourproblems stopped being infrastructureand became design andmanufacturing.

We ran awholly digital workflow.Shapes weremodified onmy laptop inBlender and exchanged electronicallywith Sheffield. By the timewefinished, we’d drawn, assessed and

rejected almost 40 different shapes.Valuable confirmation that the shellshould fit was achieved by generatingfull-sized cross-sections from Blenderand comparing themwith the car. Thefinal shape was very different frommy initial sketches. The bright guys atSheffield were quietly optimistic thatthe figures would be excellent.

Our next challenge was tomakea foam buck to use as amould for thefinal shell and also as a full-sizedwind-tunnel model. Followingdesign-freeze, the final shape wasmachined in foam. The result wasexcellent, apart from beingmade ofpolystyrene – one of our fewmistakes.It turns out polystyrene collapses oncontact with resin, becoming a gooeymess.We had to protect it with a hardcoating, which added hugely to thetime: this had to be applied and thensmoothed. If we’d used polyurethane,which is insensitive to the resin, we’dhave saved a lot of hassle. Wewerevery lucky to find amould builder whotirelessly worked tomake us a shelland bore the brunt of the consequencesof our decision to opt for polystyrene.

The missing pieceThe final piece of the jigsawwasWarwickshire-basedMira, whichprovides a variety of testing services tothe automotive industry. For ASTAN,wewanted to use its wind tunnel,measuring 15 x 7.9 x 4.4m (WDH).

It’s as impressive as it sounds, withfour 250kW fans, although it’s prettycold inMarch. Mira also provided agreat deal of technical support, bothin terms of howwemight best use thewind tunnel and how to set up the CFDto reflect the wind-tunnel conditionsand ensure a fair comparison.

Testing daywas the first occasiononwhich the team had come together- another testament to the power oftechnology. Following installation andcalibration, we started to gather realdata.We collectively held our breath.Some of the features we’d introducedinto the shapewere fairly aggressiveaerodynamically. The CFD said they’dwork; the humans had doubts...

The computers were right. We’dachieved a shapewith a drag coefficientof 0.18, a third less than that of atypical production car. Furthermore,the CFD results were within 5% ofthose of the wind tunnel. Outstandingunder any circumstances; evenmoreso given the complexity, novelty andtime pressure of the ASTAN project.

Lessons to be learnedASTAN taught usmany things. Forme, themost profoundwas what itsaid aboutmy profession. Today it’sfeasible for small teams of motivated,vision-driven engineers to tacklepreviously “impossible” problems.The days where useful work can beundertaken only by large teamswithhuge IT budgets are over: the onlylimit is your vision, skill and drive.

ASTAN also highlights some brutalfacts of CFD, whichwill always havethe capacity to consume all availablecomputing power. The ASTAN setupmaxes out at 6 to 7million cells permachine and relatively benign flowconditions with limited areas of flowseparation. More complex geometriesinexorably requiremore power.However, it also demonstrates thelevel of flexibility, modularity andextensibility of these tools.

CFD results will also alwaysrequire validation for complexseparated flows such as this one. Suchvalidation requires physical models.Cost inevitably follows, but the valueof testing at Mira was immense, andASTAN demonstrated that a digitalpath tomanufacture is readilyachievable. Computer-driven analysesscore in the 40 versions that don’t needto be expensively built and discarded.

Whatever your field, the relevanthigh-quality tools are probably justa search away. The only prerequisiteis to have the idea and to ask thequestion: “How hard can it be?”

“The dayswhere usefulwork can beundertakenonly by largeteams withhuge IT budgetsare over”

[email protected]

TOP The raw foambuck prior tosurface prep

BOTTOM The finalsample in the Mirawind tunnel, completewith smoke to showthe aerodynamiceffect of theprototype model

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Davey is anaward-winningjournalist andconsultantspecialising in privacyand security issues

@happygeek

DAVEY WINDER

“IdiscoveredunencrypteddatawasbeingsenttoChinabyabattery-usageapp”Do you really know what your apps are doing with your data?A few tools can help you get a grip on your mobile security

“OpeningNowSecurereveals at aglance whichapps aren’tbeing as secureas you’d like”

Kofi Annan, former secretarygeneral of the United Nations,once said “knowledge is

power, information is liberating”.This certainly applies to technology,evenmore so the technology inyour hand. Are you aware of thepermissions you’ve granted appson your smartphone and tablet,andwhat they’re doingwiththose permissions? Chances are,you don’t – and liberating thoseapps to dowhat they like greatlydiminishes the power you haveover your privacy and data security.

What set me thinking aboutthis was some advice that recentlyappeared on the PC Prowebsite,the aim of whichwas to helpreaders to better understand theirdata allowance under iOS 8 (pcpro.link/246dw). This isn’t somethingthat’s of great concern tome, sinceI’m on true unlimited data plansfor bothmy smartphone and tablet.What does botherme, however, (andshould bother you) is what data thoseapps are shoving around andwherethey’re shoving it to. For example,malware needs to communicatewith its external server in order forits perpetrator to profit from theinfection, whether that profit ispaid in stolen data or resources.

So, here’s how to determine what’susing data (andmuchmore besides)

on your Android devices. If you diginto the Android system settings,there’s plenty of information availableto users about permissions grantedandwhat data is being used bywhichapps, butmaking sense of it isn’talways easy. More importantly, suchraw system information doesn’tprovide enough knowledge withwhich to power your decisions aboutwhat apps to use.What you need,ironically, is yet more apps...

The first of these apps isNowSecure, which is best describedas an application activity visibilitymonitor. Catchy, I know. Immediatelyfollowing installation, it won’t tellyoumuch: it needs to sit in thebackground andwatch for awhile before it becomes useful(or displays any informationat all, for that matter). After aweek or so, it will begin to supplyinformation about the security ofyour connections, the specifics ofeach app’s communications, andeven the geographic location ofyour data, in order for you to bebetter informed about your apps.

You’ll first see a screen displayinga fairly arbitrary “security score”that’s calculated fromwhatproportion of your network trafficis secure; whether your device hasbeen rooted; whether there areany unverified apps installed, and

whether these canbe debugged overUSB; and if it’sconnected to anyinsecureWi-Finetworks. Aswithmany suchscore-basedapplications, Itook the resultingnumber with apinch of salt – andyou should do thesame – but feel freeto drill down bytapping on thescore itself andthen on the various

categories listed. Don’t expect agreat deal of detail at first: onmyfirst glance at the security category,the appmerely informedme thatthemajority of my network trafficis encrypted; it would have beenmore useful to see which partsof my traffic are unencrypted.

With this being so, youmay bewondering why I’m recommendingyou install this app.Well, it’sbecause the useful detail comesfrom elsewhere. Not from theSecurity Feed section, which seemstomerely be a vehicle for promotionalnews about the product, but in theData Security section, where thepower of NowSecure starts toreveal itself. It’s here that I gainedinformation onwhich of my datawas being sent unencrypted.Opening it reveals at a glance whichapps aren’t being as secure as you’dlike, and this app activity can beviewed as it’s happened today, orover the course of the past weekormonth, to achieve amoremeaningful portrait of risk.

I discovered that my data is87% secure. Of the 13% that’sunencrypted, Google Searchwasthe biggest offender, responsiblefor 71% of unencrypted traffic onmy test device. Second in the list wasthe operating system on 9%, followedby a battery-chargingmonitor on 7%,and then a bunch of other stuff on1% or less, which includes Facebook,Chrome, Amazon and eBay.

The depth of detail also coverswheremy unencrypted data isbeing sent: not surprisingly, withGoogle as themain offender,some 47% of it ended up in the USA,but 14%went to the Netherlandsand 6% to China. Heading backto themainmenu and selecting“Countries” allowedme to drilldown into this geolocation aspectof data usage, across all apps andin further detail. Destinationcountries are listed by the volumeof data received, again on a daily/weekly/monthly basis at the clickof a tab, which confirmed thatthe USA is where 71% ofmy datawas ending up. Clicking on thecountry name reveals which appsare doing that particular talking:once again, as expected, Googleproved responsible for 69% oftraffic, although only 15% of theoverall traffic was unsecured.

Taking a look at China enabledme to discover that not only wasan alarming 100% ofmy data beingsent there unencrypted, but that95% of that traffic was as a result

BELOW NowSecuretells me my data is87% secure – is thatsecure enough?



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BELOW Antivirushas now become anessential install onall mobile devices

ABOVE What dataare your apps sending,and to where?

of a battery-usage app I’d installed.This is information I’d never haveknown about without the NowSecurereport, andwhile it doesn’tnecessarily indicate a security orprivacy threat per se, it certainlypresentedmewith food for thought.

The final option available throughNowSecure is “organisations”, whichreveals exactly who your apps aretalking to – expect this to be amixof ISPs and advertising hosts. Onceagain, any unknown or unexpectednames can be drilled down intoto see which app is talking tothem andwhether or not thedata being sent is secure. You canalso then Google the organisationformore information.

NowSecure is a free downloadfromGoogle Play, but that doesn’tmean it comes without a cost. It’sjust a cost to your system resources;of all the apps installed onmy Androiddevice, NowSecure has become thebiggest resource hog, responsiblefor running the battery down fasterthan any other app. Information atthe cost of power is perhaps a gooddescription. In fact, I uninstalledthe app after amonth of testingas a result – I’d recommend youuse it as a report-building tool,leaving it for a week or so to gatherdata. Spend some time interrogatingthe results before uninstalling itagain to save resources. Repeat thisinstall-for-a week treatment oncea quarter to keep on top of whereyour data is going.

Get a clueThe second app I installed to gaininsight into whatmy other appswere up to comes from securityvendor Bitdefender, in the shape ofa free download called Clueful. LikeNowSecure, Clueful hits youwith anoverall privacy score, which inmycase was a less-than-comforting 57%,described as only “fair”. This scoreis apparently calculated from the“danger level” of the apps I haveinstalled, and Clueful warns that“the lower the score, themoredangerous are your applicationsand you should take the necessarysteps”. How does Clueful come tothis conclusion? Actually, it’s quitesimple: it checks the permissionsyou’ve granted to each app (thoseones you should think about beforeclicking the Install button) againstBitdefender’s cloud database, whichholds data onwhat previouslyscanned apps are actually up to.

The idea is that you canthenmake an informed choiceas to whether you believe theratio of potential privacyrisk to resource reward issufficiently favourable onan app-by-app basis. Onceagain, I’ll admit to treatingthis main-screen privacyscore as arbitrary, feelinginclined to ignore it. It wouldbe far more useful if I couldinform Clueful that I do trustcertain apps, based onmyown assessment, and thenhavemy privacy ratingadjusted accordingly.However, if you scrolldown past the big target thatoccupies most of the screen,you’ll see a breakdown of the

risks –my test device showed I had 39low-risk apps installed, 22moderate-risk ones, and none consideredhigh-risk. This immediately suggeststhe situation isn’t all that bad, butdigging into the detail is obviouslystill required. I opted to take a look atall 69 apps installed onmy device, andone click opened up a vertically splitscreenwithmy apps listed in orderof apparent risk on the left, whiledetails of the risk are displayed on theright. I could see that my calendar apphad permission to readmy contactslist andmy calendar entries, whichClueful considers to be amoderateprivacy risk, but that common sensesays is clearly a requirement for anycalendar app. I’d have expected thatthese would have been classified aslow-risk “expected behaviour”, inthe sameway Clueful understandsthat Messenger requires permissionto send and receive SMSmessages.

This doesn’t mean that Clueful is acomplete waste of space, merely thatyou need to apply a little commonsense when interpreting the results.Remember it isn’t telling youwhichapps you ought to remove, but ratherproviding data about them to enableyou tomake an informed decision.

Where things become reallyinteresting is when you use it inconjunctionwith NowSecure to builda broader image of your “privacy-scape”. If we go back to that batteryapp NowSecure informedmewassending unencrypted data to China,Clueful shows only one concernwithit, namely that it “leaks device ID”.Clicking on this in the right-handscreen enabledme to delve deeper,revealing that the app uploadsmyAndroid ID, Device ID or IMEI to anumber of specific servers registeredto Chinese companies. A little extraresearch revealed one of these to be amobile-tools provider, while another

“If you useClueful withNowSecure,you can builda broaderimage of your‘privacy-scape’ ”


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appears to be an ad-serving/trackingnetwork. Neither would suggest muchto worry about, but Clueful’s advicethat a unique identifier can be usedto track your behaviour across morethan one app is certainly useful.

I like the way Clueful displays itsprivacy information, and the fact thatI can opt to uninstall any offendingappwithout even leaving the app. Ialso like its filtering option, whichquickly enables me to show only thoseapps that present a specific risk. Theserisk filter topics range from usingintrusive ads through to trackingyour location and gaining access tosensitive data. The number of apps,if any, which are found tomatchis displayed to the right of the filtercategory, saving you fromwastingtime looking into empty categories.

However, the number of appsnot being analysed does concernme. You can see an Analyse buttonnext to them, but pressing this justtells me that Bitdefender will try toanalyse this app as soon as possible.Considering that some of the appshere are pretty popular (NovaLauncher Prime, for example),this strikesme as a weakness.

Overall, though, Clueful can fulfilthat “information is liberating” brief– especially if used in conjunctionwith an occasional NowSecure scan.Keep inmind that neither is a securityapp in the usual sense of performingmalware scans, so you should stillinstall such software alongside them.That’s right, I’m saying that commonsecurity sense nowadays dictates theneed to install a completemobilesecurity suite on your device.

There are a huge number of suchsecurity apps out there, from the freeto the hugely overpriced. Among thebest value, inmy opinion, are thosemulti-device suites that allow you toinstall protection across device typesand operating systems, offering youthe same protection on a couple oflaptops, your smartphone and tabletwith a single licence (see our grouptest on p80). On themobile device,your Android appwill most likelyinclude antivirus/anti-malwareprotection, alongwith some kind ofanti-phishing filter and a theft/lossdata wipe and geolocating function.

[email protected]

Continued from previous page

Steve is a consultantwho specialises innetworks, cloud, HRand upsetting thecorporate apple cart

@stardotpro

STEVECASSIDY

“Iknowthateverybodylovesarantandadisasterstory,solet’sgettothatpartfirst”Two traumatic recovery processes leave Steve unsure howto feel about the state of the technology industry

Idon’t knowwhether to laugh orcry. Literally, such is the state oflife in the information technology

business at the start of year 2015. Onone hand, I’ve just witnessed a classicstory of hardware failure that’senough tomake you despair for thewhole industry. On the other, I’vebeen able to use some clever softwareto get out of trouble – in ways thatgiveme hope for the future, not onlyof our own business, but of themultitudes of businesses that havebecome painfully dependent on us (inways that, even two years ago, nobodysaw coming).

I know that everybody loves a rantand a disaster story, though, so let’sstart with that part. In what follows,I may perhaps be accused of navel-gazing, sincemy rant touches onproduct reviews, an area in which PCPro itself has a certain interest. Reallythe story is about knowing how far youcan trust your own hardware, and inthis case I’m thinking specificallyabout storage devices. To a degree,reviews of such boxes all tend toask and address a similar series of

questions, based on the reasonableassumption that the list of factorsrelevant to your business remainsfairly constant. We also accept that themanufacturer’s representations ofhow you’ll use the device, and how itwill behave, alignmore or less withwhat’s important to your operations.

When it comes to a buyingdecision, however, it’s importantto bear inmind that the parts of thereview that seemmost importantmay in fact be red herrings, while lesssexy but crucial considerationsmightbe understated. In a comparativereview, there’s a natural inclinationto view performance as the keydifferentiator – an understandableinstinct in an industry that has fordecadesmeasured progress in termsof operations, frames or bits persecond. Storagemanufacturersthemselves like to focus onperformance claims as ameansto distinguish their products.

These days, however, the raw speedof the chips in terms of bit-shovellingneeds to be considered alongsiderelative power-efficiency. The goodnews is that the low-energymovementis already paying dividends: data-centre and server-room design isbecoming easier, and ongoing per-unitrunning costs are falling. On thatinevitable mid-summer daywhenthe air conditioning dies, you’ll begrateful for your VMmanagement andyour power-efficient post-Xeon 5500Series servers.

This bringsme to the real point ofmy rant: if you believe, as I do, that ITis only becomingmore fundamental tobusinesses, then it’s absolutely crucialto consider not only how a piece of kitperformswhen all is well, but alsohow it will cope with the grungiest ofreal-world operations and scenarios.

For a business, that’s true of almostany type of product, but it appliesparticularly to storage.We’re stowingaway an unprecedented amount ofdata, and our interactions with thesehuge piles of data increasinglyresemble needle-in-a-haystack

BELOW Fast transferspeeds are great – butwhat happens whena drive fails?



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“The majorityof the storagefailuresI’m seeingrecently areno differentfrom thosethat happenedback in thenoughties”

exercises, such as picking out that vitalseven-year-old, two-page documentfrom the irrelevant terabytes ofgossipy emails, holiday photos andbackups of unusedwebsite designs(whichmay turn out to be tomorrow’svital document).

This kind of contingent usagepattern can result in performance thatbears little resemblance to benchmarkscores. Recently I’ve seen a bottom-end NAS device achieve impressivetransfer speeds when given a fewgigabytes byWindows Server 2012,reporting data rates of as much as500MB/sec across a bonded GigabitEthernet, using jumbo frames, flowcontrol, iSCSI and separate LAN cardsfor the front-end and back-end trafficinside the server. Change the test datafrom a single file to amessy directorytree, however, and speed plummets.Another test on a single 100GB VHDshowed a similar performance level:small, single files can zoom down thepipes, but once the workload starts tooverwhelm the available memorycache, sploosh, into the swamp...

In this case, though, I’m not justtalking about how challenging usagepatterns can destroy a device’sadvertised transfer rates. I’mwritingin the aftermath of one of those awfulhorrors that leave seniormanagementswearing never to use a particularplatform again.

Here’s how that came about: thismonth, one of my clients discoveredto their horror that their main serverdidn’t have amirrored boot volume –and the controller was reporting thatthe surviving half of the originalmirror was on its last legs. Theiron-site tech specialist certainly wasn’tgoing to ignore the predictive failuremonitoring of the RAID card, but forsome reason decided he didn’t trust itto re-mirror a live boot partition.

I partly sympathise with hiswariness, because the experiment todiscover whether or not one has atrustworthy boot config is about asedgy as experiments get (short of thosetwo blokes onMythBusterswith somegunpowder). There are plenty ofhorror stories involving otherwisetrustworthy server vendors whodecide the best way to cut productioncosts is by skimping on the basicrequirement to keep the customerssafe, nomatter what sort of fit thehardwaremay throw.

And it’s the way of such horrorstories that the long tail of badreputation becomes a bit like the rearend of a brontosaurus: there’s the realpart, composed of plenty of red gristleandwhite bone, but then there’s also

the shadow it casts, which, althoughwholly insubstantial, appears farlarger andmore intimidating. Storiesabout a single version of Dell’s PERCcontrollers and its broken boot-volume handling are of exactly thissort: with one prehistoric badexperience hanging in everyone’scollectivememory, all of Dell’s RAIDcards suddenly came to be treatedas untrustworthy.

In fact, inmy client’s case, thetechie’s fear was focused on the leastdeserving suspect, because the serverwas an HP ProLiant of the almost-universal G5 generation. HP serverscan be specified with own-brandSmart Array controllers, which haveearnedmy almost complete trust. Justlike those Dell PERCs you’re likely tofind in the wild nowadays, HP SmartArrays can be tested by simply lookinginto the Array Configuration Utility(in case there’s one deadmemberalready), then yanking amember driveout of an array and plugging it back inagain. The array controller will start tojump about like a cat chasing a laserpointer, and then the array will slowdown a little as the controller quietlygets onwith resyncing the drives.

That’s all the upheaval you’ll see,and this is how RAID is meant to work.And I don’t mean only top-end storagecontrollers in big DAS deployments –the very essence of RAID is that all thisstuff is supposed to work that way.Yet the very sad truth in 2015 is thatalmost nobody in our business actsas if this were a reasonable thing tobe asking for!

Thus, my client’s local techie didn’tsimply rip the cellophane from abrand-new 147GB SAS disk and letthe controller get onwith re-mirroringit. Instead he took down the server and

set about cloning its partitions –agonisingly slowly, because HPs builtwith certain releases of SmartStartsoftware have an unobvious partitionlayout on their boot disks. Then hecreated a whole new boot array tolayer these partitions back over.

Since he hadn’t built this serverhimself, nor done any torture testingon it with this specific setup, I canperhaps see why he chose this path.But really, must we persist in believingthat the data integrity of RAID storagedevices is somethingmade up only tosound good in sales pitches?

It’s perhaps noteworthy that themajority of the storage failures I’mseeing recently are no different fromthose that happened back in thenoughties. Something goes bad insidea SATA disk, but rather than fittingneatly into those faults that SMARTmonitoring and reporting can copewith, this badnessmanifests itself asa low-level electrical fault that stopsthe power supply – and hence the restof the device, including the other disksin the RAID array – stone deadin its tracks. Nothing is left running,nothing can recover automatically andno clever alarm-raising features canbe used, because the problem is ashortcoming in the entire SATAspecification. It’s such experiencesthat teach us not to trust the superiorfeature sets in basic diskmanagement.

To take just one example: if youread up about those early Iomega ix2NAS boxes, you’ll find numerouscustomers lamenting that when theirbargain-basement SATA disks gave upthe ghost, their equally simple-minded RAID controllers wouldn’trebuild the set with anything exceptan absolutely perfect identical twinof the deadmember disk. Of course,having been bought at the verycheapest end of themarket, such atwinwas no longer available whenthe failure occurred.

Similarly, as I discovered over theChristmas break, there’s a rich vein ofcomplaint threads in the Netgear NASsupport forums that all boil down tobottom-end devices failing to properlyrecover from a drive falling out ofsync. Normally, if you have a deadNAS, and you suspect this problem –that one of the drives is holding therest to ransom for purely electricalreasons – then your best course ofaction is to pull the drives out of theircages one after another, as I used to dowith HP Smart Array RAIDs. However,Netgear’s ReadyNASOS responds tosuch attempts by declaring that it isn’tonly one that’s drive dead, but in factit’s two!With a four-drive NAS, this

ABOVE Now here’ssomething I’d trustin a crisis: HP’sown-brand SmartArray controller


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can easily lead you to believe thatall your files are history, becausethe OS doesn’t consider whether theproblem could simply be yourhaving popped out the wrong drive.It tries to direct clients to a web UI,but says as little as possible on itssmall onboard status screen beyonda curt “restart failed”.

In the case of the failure I attendedto over Christmas, the device did endup recovering itself, but only after anepic volume reconstruction exercisefollowing the reintroduction of thatthird crucial drive. It seems as thougha SATA bus failure had caused thefirmware to think that drive 4 wasdead, when in fact the culprit wasdrive 3. As soon as drive 4 was takenout and put backwith drive 3removed, reconstruction couldproceed – albeit in a somewhatbloody-mindedway. Even though the6TB of available space was less than10% occupied, the RAID re-constructorwhirred away formore than an hourbefore remounting its volumes, as wediscovered by refreshing themanagement interface every tenminutes or so. The recovery waseventually completed roughly ninehours later.

You can see why this mightmake apersonwant to cry. The combinationof somewhat hopeful promises,minimal progress information,woefully scattered and inaccurateuser-written “documentation”and colossal datasets makes for anunhappy recovery process.

This isn’t the sort of scenario areviewwill necessarily focus on. Nor– perhaps understandably – is theRAID rebuild process often givenprominence in vendors’ claims forthe capabilities of their hardware.

All the same, if you can, beforeinvesting in a NAS system, it’simportant to find out everything youcan about array failure and recoverybehaviour. You could even test ityourself: this needn’t require sittingwith stopwatches and sandwiches atunsocial hours. If you can get yourhands on a test unit, simply yank outa drive, wait for it to spin down andthen re-insert it, before logging in toits management pages to see what themachinery has to say. Drives fail, andthere’s nothing that can be done aboutthat; good reporting of a bad situationis the ultimate recommendation.

You’re laughing, squireThat’s enough of the crying. Nowlet’s get onto the laughter, whichactually arises from these samemerry incidents over the Christmasbreak and just before.

If you’re involved in networkmanagement at all, you’ll be familiarwith the great efforts that sales droidsand cloud architects regularly put intowarning us about how fragile andawkward our poor oldWindowsservers are. And theymay have apoint – if you’remisguidedly tryingto wring the very last squeaks out ofyour creaking pre-recession hardwareand software.

My own experience however hasbeen that, in all my years of runningaround after apparently dead disks,and generating volumes of war storiesconcerning diskmanager firmware inthe process, the actual data saved onsuch drives has generally provedsurprisingly robust.

At least one of the dramas I’verecently stage-managed to a happyconclusion concerned an Exchange2013message store, which – as theresult of a penny-pinching decisionto avoid investing in rack-mounthardware – had been kept and updatedfor several months on a cheap andcheerful external NASwithmarginaliSCSI ability.

It was impressive, really, howwellthis setup endured the considerableabuse that was regularlymeted out toit. People pulled out Ethernet leads;they yanked out the power connectorbymistake; they ignored updaterequests; they thrashed the poor disksby copying huge volumes of messagesaround from private to publicmailboxes. It added up to the worsttorture test I could ever imagine forsuch a storage system.

Remarkably, though, this budgetiSCSI target device withstoodeverything they threw at it – right upto the point where it finally threw upits hands and dropped a RAID disk.

Exchange copedwith thisadmirably. It reconnected on a rebootof the guest VM and undertook onlyan occasional bit of database repair,without the users being aware thatanything had happened. I was sure,however, that if the RAID array neededrebuilding, it would be game over forthe innermost layer of this pyramid ofstorage types – a ReadyNAS logicalvolume, containing a thin-provisionediSCSI LUN, containing aWindowsHyper-V host NTFS drive, containing aHyper-V guest logical disk, containingthe Exchangemessage store itself.

I was wrong! Once the array hadbeen green-lighted, everything startedback upwith the barest of delays.

When I cast mymemory back to thebad old days of bleeding-edge servermanagement, such recoverability (ona network cobbled together, I remindyou, from non-specialist equipmentwith aminimum of clever tuningtricks) givesme considerable hopeon two fronts.

First, I feel encouraged thatMicrosoft has evidently done the rightkind of work in understandingwhereto expend its development efforts,so that a failure in one area of yoursystems doesn’t necessarily meaneverything else comes tumbling down.

Second, I’m heartened to see thatit’s now possible to take advantageof technologies once reserved forheavy-metal data centres in thesmallest of deskside deployments.That’s the best possible kind of serverand networking innovation: the kindthat delivers peace of mind.

[email protected]

“This level ofrecoverabilityin a badlytreated NASgave meconsiderablehope”

ABOVE Credit toMicrosoft, it hasinvested time andmoney in getting itsserver tools right


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The government is fascinatedwith the potential of start-ups,investingmillions into schemes

to help kick-start the next Google.Efforts have largely focused on EastLondon’s Silicon Roundabout (alsoknown as Tech City), but start-upsupport is beginning to spreadnationwide thanks to newDigitalCatapult Centres.

While that namemay soundlike it was created by an Old Streetmarketing team, the first centreopened its doors last November nearKing’s Cross station in North London;now further centres are to follow inBradford, Brighton and Sunderland.

Digital Catapult is funded by thegovernment’s Innovate UK quango,which provides support to companieswith IT-themed ideas. Neil Crockett,CEO of Digital Catapult,explained the aim is tohelp “small guys overcomedevelopment challenges”so they “don’t have to go tothe US” to succeed – a pointhammered home by a boardof British heavy hitters thatincludes names such asWarren East, former chiefexecutive of ARM.

Crockett stresses thatDigital Catapult isn’t anaccelerator or an incubator,which normally involvefunding. Instead, the focusis on taking good ideas bypeople with sound techcredentials and helping

Kick-starting the UK’sstart-up revolution

them turn those clever innovationsinto businesses. They receive practicalassistance on taxes and copyright lawand, rather ironically, help applyingfor government contracts (seeGovernment barriers, opposite).

■ Four challengesAdmitting that “digital” is too widea remit to cover well, Crockett saidthat Digital Catapult is focusing onthe challenges surrounding data. “Thecollection, the transport, the analysis,the insight, the visualisation of data –that is what we’re calling our fieldof play,” he said.

Crockett cited a lack of opennessas one of themain problems, claimingthat as much as 90% of data is lockeddown or proprietary. “We’re blessedin the UK to have some of the best

Slug SectionheadSlug SectionheadFuturesWe explore the trends and technologies that are set to shape the future

Light-speed PCsResearchers develop materials tocreate all-optical computers p126

MU-MIMOThe technology that’s bringingfaster and more efficient Wi-Fi p127

Geek Day OutGet hands-on with more than1,000 classic computers p128

thought-leaders in open data,”Crockett said. “Wewant to workon four challenges to try to help theUK become the front-runner increating innovation and sharing

closed or proprietary data in faster,better andmore trusted ways.”

Those four challenges arecopyright; trust for personaldata; sharing business data;and the Internet of Things.According to Crockett,creative content is key tothe first challenge. “I alwaysthought that if the UKwere

going to have a Silicon Valley,it would be something to do

with creative content,” he said.However, the “mechanisms”

of copyright – such as gettingand checking licensing – are“very cumbersome”. To aid, DigitalCatapult is helping to develop theUK’s Copyright Hub, which aimstomake it easier to find owners ofcontent and ensure they’re paid forit. “No-one else was getting onwithit because no-one else could seepersonal value in it,” he said.

Second, Digital Catapult isworking to encourage peopleto share their personal data bycreating tools, architectures andbusiness models that build trust,alongside setting up a voluntarycode for British firms “so we canaspire to what is good”. Crockettsaid it would be from personaldata “that the next wave of digitalinnovationwill come, so we haveto solve that problem.”

Companies need to be encouragedto share their data, too. “If peopleshared the data that’s sitting insidetheir organisations, theymight findbetter ways of running their supplychain; even though they’re sharingdata with a competitor, they allmight benefit,” Crockett suggested.To help, Digital Catapult is settingup “safe zones”, where competingcompanies can pool their data andlet trusted organisations access itto show them how to use it better.“The bigger companies get moreconfident, and the smaller onesget an opportunity to showwhatthey can do,” Crockett said.

Nicole Kobie reveals how the newDigital Catapult Centres are helpingtech companies find their feet

BELOW Neil Crockett,CEO of DigitalCatapult, hopes theinitiative will help tocreate more “leading”businesses in the UK


@ P C P R O Futures Supportingstart-ups

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The last challenge is theInternet of Things (IoT). “This isa revolution in which the UKshould be a leader,” Crockett said.“We haveworld-class researchersand universities; an inventiveentrepreneurial environment; wehave real strength in data science;we’re strong in the verticals – energy,transport cities. We’re good at this.”

Saying it’s a “global race” to leadthe IoT, Crockett argued that theUK needs a “joined-up approach” toresearch, as well as “large-scale testbeds” so that products can be broughtto life more quickly. “If we don’t,we’re going to once again createthe ideas that everyone elsecommercialises,” he warned.

Addressing these four areaswill help “the small guys” overcomedevelopment challenges, and “getthe big guys to see that, instead ofgoing to the west coast of the US, orKorea, you can come to the UK andfind awave of open innovation andbrilliant ideas,” Crockett added.

This is key not only to thosetrying to build a business in thecompetitive tech industry, but forthe rest of the UK too. “If we don’ttake this opportunity, we’re notgoing to lead the next wave indigital – we’re just going to beits consumers,” he warned.

Threestart-upsworthwatching

ABOVE The first Digital Catapult Centreopened in King’s Cross in 2014

Digital Catapult has beenasked to help start-ups applyfor government contracts.Despite the governmentpledging to cut use of hugecontractors in favour ofSMBs, and its support fortech start-ups, public sectorbids remain difficult forsmaller companies to applyfor, let alone win, accordingto Jonathan Raper, founderof Transport API, one ofthe start-ups supportedby Digital Catapult.

He said the public sectoris very “risk-averse”, so bidapplications have set scoringfactors: you receive morepoints if you have a health-and-safety advisor andenvironmental accreditation,and are a certifiedconsiderate contractor.It’s unlikely that a start-upwill have such qualifications,which are surely overkillfor merely supplying a

data stream to city planners?As a result of such barriers,Raper has already decidednot to submit bids for atleast one council.

This doesn’t mean hisstart-up’s data is lost to thegovernment, however: alarge tech supplier could winthe bid and then subcontractit to his small business. Thisroute will result in highercosts for the government,though, and will be lessvaluable to Transport API,he said. “It’s a lose-losesituation for everyoneexcept systems integrators,”Raper concluded.

Government barriers

ScraperWikiHave you ever tried to extract data from a PDFor website? Then you’ll be aware of the painScraperWiki is trying to avoid. Its tools makeit easy to pull data from such locked-down andmessy sources, and pump clean numbersinto analysis software such as Tableau andQlikView, or use them to make interactiveweb apps.

The aim is to make it faster and cheaper tocreate data visualisations – “we’re trying tomake data accessible,” CMO Aine McGuire toldPC Pro – and the success of the tools is clearfrom ScraperWiki’s work for the United Nationsmapping Ebola. You can try out its PDF-scrapingtools for free at pdftables.com.

CueSongsSome bright ideas are very specific: CueSongsmakes it easier for musicians and rights-holders to license music for use on YouTube.Co-founder Ed Averdieck – with Peter Gabriel –explained that online video production isgrowing “ballistically” and, while royalty-freemusic is available, many YouTube stars wantto use better-known songs.

CueSongs lets short clips of songs be usedon a one-off basis for reasonable fees. “It’sa cost-effective way to get legal music”, saidAverdieck, noting that licensing for the webis tougher than for national broadcast, sinceyou need to obtain global permission.

CueSongs currently holds 50,000 tracks,including songs by indie favourites The TemperTrap. Plus, to avoid copyright claims, YouTubewhitelists videos associated with CueSongs,so producers benefit from not having to paya slice of their earnings to the song owners.

iGeoliseiGeolise is a new way of searching forlocations: it makes maps searchable bytravel time, pulling in data on public transport,driving, walking and even cycling. Co-founderPeter Lilley told us that 40% of web searchesare for items with a location, such as a shopor property. “If you’re going to travel, youcare about time.”

The technology is already used byVisitBritain as well as home-hunting websitesZoopla and Countrywide. For example, you canlook for a new flat based on neighbourhoodsthat are no more than 30 minutes from yourplace of work.

Cycling is the hardest to figure out, Lilleyadded, since it’s tough to average travel timesof the “basket brigade versus Lycra louts”.


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Universityresearchersarecurrentlyworkingoncomponentsthatwillallowthemtomakeall-opticalcomputersthatcanprocessatthespeedoflight.DrRichardCurryrevealsthesciencebehindthebreakthroughandwhatitmeansforcomputing

DATA RACES OVER fibre broadbandcables to your computer, only toslow to a comparative crawl asit’s converted to electrical signals.This could be set to change, withresearchers at the University ofSurrey and University of Cambridgecreating newmaterials to build thefirst all-optical computers.

The latest breakthrough sees thetypes of glass used in CDs and DVDs,know as amorphous chalcogenides,altered via a technique called iondoping, to form amaterial that cancreate, guide and detect light – andcan therefore be used to build opticalcomputing components.

Dr Richard Curry of the Universityof Surrey has beenworking todevelop suchmaterials for morethan a decade.We spoketo him to find out whatbreakthroughs need tohappen next, and how farinto the future we can expectto see light-speed computers.

■ Computers currently usesilicon rather than glass.What needs to change foroptical computing?Your computer works on silicon,and then at some point, we turn itinto lights and optical fibres to sendover broadband, but when it getsto the other end, it slows downagain. It’s slowly converted backto electrons, which crawl along incomparison to photons.What we’retrying to achieve is to ultimately not

an advantage in that we’re alreadyusing them in our computers todayformemory. So we already know howto use them.

■How long until this technologyis in computers?It’s probably a ten-year path fromhere to getting an all-opticalcomputer, but we’ll see benefitsbefore then because we can startbymaking a hybrid system, whichis half light, half electronic. Thiswill be better thanwhat we haveat present; there are gains to behad sooner, as well as the ultimatelong-term goal.

■Whatwill all-optical computersoffer in terms of processing power?It will be the equivalent to, orbetter than the difference between,sending a letter via post and sendingit via email. [It will be a] switchin capability: people developingdrugs will have faster computers,way faster thanwhat we have now,whichwill allow them to carry outfar more complex calculations. Thenet benefits are huge.

What we need to consider is thatall our devices are coming together –our phones, all the electronic gadgetsthat we have, even gadgets in thehouse are becomingmore andmoreconnected to the internet. ThisInternet of Things is going to requiremuch greater ability to actuallyhandle the data and process it, andthis new technologywill enable allof that to come to fruition.

Whytheworldneedslight-speedcomputers

RIGHT & BELOWResearchers at theUniversity of Surreyare developingmaterials that cancreate, guide anddetect light

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Unive

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ofSu

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BELOW Glass usedin CDs and DVDs isbeing altered to forma material that canform the basis ofsuperfast chips

have a conversion. I’dlike to stop using [silicon]and electrons and uselight instead, but theproblem is we don’thavematerials thatcan use photons oflight in the samewayas electrons.We’ve beentrying for years to do this.

■ You’ve recentlymade a breakthroughwith a newmaterial.What key propertiesdid it need?In this material, weneeded to find a way inwhichwe could actually control

the light in the sameway that inelectronicmaterials we canswitch electrons and send themto places or store information.

■What has to happen nextfor all-optical computers tobe built?There’s a series of devices that

we have to demonstrate goingforward.When you get them

all, we can put them all together,integrate them, and thenwe canstart computing with it. Currentlywe’ve built one of those devices,which is like a detector, so itcan identify that light is there.Thereafter you need a source oflight, so we’ll work on that next;then it becomesmore andmorecomplicated. Thesematerials have


@ P C P R O

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P C P R O . C O . U K Futures

Wi-Fi is about to get more efficient– and therefore faster – for all thoseconnected devices we have in ourhomes. D-Link and Netgear wereamong many companies at thisyear’s CES to announce routerswith support for MU-MIMO, partof the second wave of the 802.11acspecification. Here’s how it worksand what it means for you.

What is MU-MIMO, other than anacronym that’s fun to repeat?MU-MIMO not only sounds like acharacter from a children’s televisionseries, it’s our favourite new techterm, thanks to its multiple use ofthe word “multiple”: it stands formulti-user multiple input, multipleoutput. While plain MIMO time-slicesthe data if you need to send asignal to multiple devices – that is,it exchanges data with one deviceat any one time, alternating betweenthem – MU-MIMO takes full advantageof the multiple antennas on connectingdevices. So, if your router has threeantennas and you’re connectinga two-antenna laptop and a one-antenna phone, the signal will besent at the maximum possible speedto both devices.

What does that mean for users,other than adding another confusingmarketing term for routers?If you’re using a MIMO router,you may have noticed a slowdownas more devices have been added tothe system. MU-MIMO is designed toget around this and make Wi-Fi moreefficient for multiple users. You canalso expect a boost in overall speed:D-Link’s two new MU-MIMO routersoffer up to 2.2Gbits/sec on the 5GHzband, the company said.

Sounds very whoosh. What arethe limitations?Sadly, you’re not going to get that2.2Gbits/sec bandwidth on everydevice you connect, since it still hasto be split. Also, because MU-MIMOrequires separated antennas andsignal processing, it isn’t a two-waystreet: it works only downstream,from the router to your PC or otherdevice, not upstream.

Don’t place devices right next toeach other, either: MU-MIMO uses asystem called beamforming, whicheffectively focuses the signal on eachclient device. In short, two devices inthe same direction will share the samestream of data, but those in oppositedirections will get their own.

The final limitation? Your accessdevices – the laptops or phones you’reusing to hop onto Wi-Fi – will need tosupport MU-MIMO, so you may needto update their firmware.

When will MU-MIMO get here?MU-MIMO was approved as part ofthe second wave of the 802.11acspecification at the end of 2013, androuters that support the technologyare already hitting the shelves.D-Link’s sci-fi-looking AC5300(pictured above) and AC3100 wereunveiled at CES, although pricesand availability won’t be confirmeduntil the second quarter of theyear. Netgear used the showto demonstrate its Nighthawk X4AC2350 Smart WiFi router, whichwas first announced in September2014; it’s already available for$280 in the US. Both devices followthe Asus RT-AC87U, which costsaround £200 and became the firstrouter to support MU-MIMO whenit arrived last summer.

Whatis...MU-MIMO?Multi-userMIMOisfinallyarrivingenmasse,promisingfasterspeedsformultipleWi-Fiusers,withhardwareonthewayfromD-LinkandNetgear

ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE EXPERTS have longwarned thatsuper-intelligent machines could – on purpose orinadvertently – pose a threat to human life. In an openletter signed by AI luminaries, including Stephen Hawkingand Nick Bostrom,members of the research communityhave now pledged to ensure AI systems build in safeguardsto ensure that our greatest invention benefits mankind,rather thanwiping it out.

Dr Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, an AI researcher who helps runthe Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk,said such a pledge is necessary because recent progressin deep learning and statistical learning is increasinglyraising troubling questions aboutmachine intelligence.“It’s no longer enough to ask ‘canwe build it?’,” he toldPC Pro. “Now that it looks like we can, we have to ask:‘How canwe build it to providemost benefit? And howmust we update our own systems – legal, economic,ethical – so that the transition is smooth?’”

Even positive results fromAI could have “near-termchallenges,” he warned. For example, automation couldaffect jobs, robots could cause industrial or road accidents,and decisionsmust bemade about the ethics of usingautonomousweapons in war.

While Ó hÉigeartaigh sees “human-level” intelligenceinmachines as centuries away, he believes that it’snecessary to build in controls now. “We need to startwork on today’s challenges – how to design AI so that wecan understand it and control it, and how to change oursocietal systems so we gain the benefits AI has to offer,”he said. “We can’t assumewe’ll get it right by default.”

“We have already seen unexpectedbehaviour from systems that weren’tthought through enough – the role ofalgorithms in the 2010 financial flashcrash, for example. It’s essential thatpowerful artificial-intelligence systemsdon’t become black boxes operating inways that we can’t entirely understandor predict,” he added.

HowtomakeAIdowhatwewantResearchershaveagreedtoworktoensureAIandrelatedtechnologieshelphumanity

LEFT Researcher Dr Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh believes nowis the time to address the challenges thrown up by AI


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Much as we loveshiny newtablets

and laptopsincorporating thelatest processortechnology,classic machineswill always hold aspecial place in ourgeeky hearts. If youagree, you havemuchin commonwith us, andwith Andy Spencer, thefounder and chairman of theRetro Computer Museum in Leicester.

Run entirely by volunteers,the RCMwas set up in 2008withSpencer’s initial collection of25 classic computers. Thanksto donations, that number hassince increased tomore than 1,000machines ranging from classic Ataristo a virtual-reality systemmadebyW Industries back in the 1990s.

A rotating selection of around 50machines is on display eachmonth;if youwant to see a specific machinethat’s tucked away out back, just aska volunteer staff member, whowillfetch it for you.

We’re happy to report that this isno stuffy, hands-off museum: all ofthemachines on display are in fullworking order, and you can use them.

ABOVE A blast fromthe past: there areclassic computersaplenty at the RetroComputer Museum

The museum hadan initial collection of25 classic computers;there are now morethan 1,000

“My personal favouritesare the Sinclair ZX81,ZX Spectrum and theCommodore 64,”Spencer told PCPro. “There areway toomanyhighlights tomention specificitems –however,our collection

of software iscertainly something

worth seeing.”For those of you in

possession of an ancient machinethat might be of interest to others,get in touchwith RCM. Themuseumis always looking for donations,and thosemachines that aren’t inworking order can still be salvagedfor spare parts.

The Retro Computer Museum isopenmost Sundays from 11am to 5pm;entry costs £6.50 for adults and £3.50for children – visit retrocomputermuseum.co.uk for details.

GeekDayOutAreyouinthemoodforabitofnostalgia?ThenheadtoLeicestertofeastyoureyesonacollectionofmorethan1,000workingcomputers

LEFT The museumalso has an extensivecollection of softwareon show

Futures

What is it? The ExoFingerMouse is a tinytouchpad that sticks toan Android smartphone,tablet or a set-top box.

Why would you want that?Its makers point outthat fingers smear yourtouchscreen and blockyour view of what you’retrying to see – and it’s sometimesawkward to use your touchscreento flip pages or take a selfie.

And this solves that? You can stickthe Exo FingerMouse to the backof your device, and use its tinytouchpad to flip through pages onyour smartphone one-handed ortake a selfie by tapping the rear ofthe device. Or you can pair it withan Android-powered set-top boxto use as a remote control.

How does it work? It connects overBluetooth to whatever device you’reusing – so long as it’s Android 4 andup – so you don’t even have to stick itto your phone or tablet. The makerssuggest you could leave it on the armof your “favourite reading chair, orin your hand”. You’ll have to keep itcharged up; it comes with an adapterthat lets you power up your phone andthe Exo FingerMouse simultaneously.

What does it cost? The first 100people to order can pick up the ExoFingerMouse for only £4, before itgoes up to £5. Also available area “limited edition” unit for £18,a “signature” version with yourinitials on it for £50 – and for £250,you can get one engraved withyour name and be “enshrined”on the FingerMouse websiteas a “Founding Friend”.

Likely to get funded?At the time of writing, the ExoFingerMouse had raised only £54of its £35,000 goal, with more thanthree weeks to go. However, it’s onIndiegogo’s “flexible funding” model,so the makers keep your moneywhether or not it’s fully funded.Delivery is expected by June.

Link: pcpro.link/246exofinger

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CodingchallengeStoring an image in the smallest file size possible

❱❱ Saving space with an invaderThe amount of data stored on computers continues to increase – asdoes the desire to transfer it over the internet. So it’s beneficial tosqueeze our information into the smallest space possible.

To see how this might be achieved, let’s use an image as anexample. Imagine a 16 x 16monochrome bitmap, such as the spaceinvader image to the right. Each pixel can be represented by a blackor white pixel, so the entire thing can be expressed as 256 bits ofdata. Canwe devise an algorithm to store this image in a smallerspace, in a way that can be easily reversed torecreate the original image?

The first thing to specify is that wewantto recreate the image perfectly, rather thanusing a “lossy” compressionmethod such asJPEG. Sometimes a little image degradation isan acceptable trade-off for a smaller file size,but in other cases only lossless compressionwill do. For written documents or computercode it’s a must, since even the tiniest changemightmake the text incomprehensible, orcause a program to stopworking.

Wemight start by translating our sourceimage into a string of characters, each onerepresenting either a black pixel or a whiteone. This gives us a set of 256 “B” and “W” characters, whichincludes lots of repetition (the graphic ends with 54 “B” charactersin a row). Immediately this suggests a waywe can save space – bynotating the length of each series of pixels, rather than describingeach one individually:

34B, 1W, 10B, 1W, 4B, 2W, 8B, 2W, 5B, 3W, 4B, 3W, 6B,10W, 5B, 12W, 3B, 4W, 2B, 2W, 2B, 4W, 2B, 14W, 4B,10W, 7B, 1W, 2B, 2W, 2B, 1W, 9B, 1W, 4B, 1W, 11B, 1W, 2B,1W, 54B

This method is known as run-length encoding, and here ithas enabled us to significantly reduce the size of data. However,additional metadata will need to be stored to convey the widthand height of the original image – and, for more complex images,the range of colours used.

An alternative way to compress the image is based on thepopular Japanese game of Hanjie, which is like a graphical versionof Sudoku. In this model, each column and row has one ormorenumbers associated with it, indicating which squares are to becoloured in black. If there aremultiple numbers, it indicates thatthere’s at least one white pixel (but possiblymore) between setsof black pixels. If we encode our space invader graphic in this way,the third row comes out as 2,10,2 – indicating two black pixels,a gap, ten black pixels, then another gap, then twomore blackpixels. The second column is notated as 7,7, and so forth.

It’s easy to create an algorithm to calculate the numbers forthe rows and columns in this way. Decompressing the data,however, is more difficult, as an individual piece of datamaynot contain all the information needed to reconstitute a row orcolumn. You could use brute force to decode the image one lineat a time using a recursive loop:

Start with an empty white board

For every row in the image:

Find a possible interpretationof numbers for that row

Check whether it fits thecolumn numbers

If the two don’t match up, try the nextpossible configuration of that row

Once the two match, move on tothe next row

Howmight we turn this into real code? Ifyouwere trying to solve the puzzle without acomputer, you’d probably start by sketchingout the grid on paper. For our program, theequivalent might be a two-dimensionalarray, alongwith a data structure to holdthe numeric data itself.

There are some areas where efficiency canbe improved. For example, rows and columnswith 16 black boxes can be filled in right away.

Another trick youmight try is aligning asequence of pixels at the far-left-hand side,

with a single spacebetween runs of blackpixels, and then try liningit up at the far-right-handside in the sameway. Anypixel that “overlaps” inboth arrangementsmustbe solid – see the exampleabove. If youwork along

all columns and rows in this manner, you’llquickly work outmany of the cells that haveto be solid for the whole image.

As you can see, although solving theproblem is a rewarding challenge, thedecoding procedure is quite complex: thisis why Hanjie tends to be used for puzzlesrather than practical purposes! DAVID HUNT

Position 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 18,4 (far left)8,4 (far right)Overlap

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@ P C P R O P C P R O . C O . U K Brainteaser

As we now have the luxury of good bandwidth and cheap storage by theterabyte, it may sometimes make sense to accept a larger file, ratherthan one that requires complex decoding. Software engineering is full ofquestions such as this, where the challenge isn’t only how to implementyour chosen system, but choosing the most appropriate system in thefirst place. Can you come up with a compression method that reducesfile size without resorting to brute-force decoding?

Next steps

An alternativeway to compress theimage is based on thepopular Japanesegame Hanjie



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Onelastthing...

It sounds idyllic: extend your Christmasholiday by popping over to Las Vegas for thefirst week in January. Yes, I’m talking about

CES, that industrymelting pot where anyonewho is anyone in techwill be there.Well, ifyou exclude Apple. AndMicrosoft. And Google.

Each year, CES gets bigger, louder and,supposedly, better. But some are claimingthis year’s event was a letdown, referringto the lack of a “kaboom!” industryannouncement by someone huge.

This follows last year’s CES, whichwasmostly progression based upon existing work.That said, the sight of Michael Bay, Hollywooddirector of the Transformers franchise,stumbling off stage during the Samsungkeynote, apparently due to an autocue failure,is something I will remember for a long time.

This year, however, even the large-scale pressconferences were boring, with little to showfor the past 12months. As always, there wasa big push towards smaller, thinner and lighterdevices with longer battery life and lowerprices, all of whichwill appeal to the consumer.But there was little new inmobile, withmost vendors holding off until MobileWorld Congress in a fewweeks’ time.

Youmight think, therefore, that CES’stime has come and gone. The reality couldn’tbe further from the truth. CES isn’t merely aplace to see new things, despite the hugecathedral-sizedmanufacturer stands and thedancing girls. It’s a place to do business. Mytypical day runs from 7am through tomidnight.Endless meetings, breakfasts, dinners, and thena flood of stand visits. I receive a triple-digitnumber of invitations to go and see someexciting newwidget. Some PRs are quite pushy,insisting that I bookmy on-stand interviewslot immediately because availability is scarce.Uh-uh, no it isn’t – it’s my time that’s short.

One friend, a technical director at a UKfirm, uses CES as the ideal opportunity tomeet upwith suppliers. Hemet withmorethan 40 of them in two days, which is thesort of workload that can bring a grownmanto his knees. The youngermanage to partyon through the night, and innumerable standsare staffed by people in that post-zombie “Ihave been up for 36 hours” look.

CESisbigbusiness,saysJonHoneyball,andit’stimethebigplayerssatupandtooknotice

My time at CES is amix betweenwandering around theshow floor, PR events and business meetings. And it’s incrediblyproductive, if enough to flattenme for a few days once I return tothe UK. I simply couldn’t get through that amount of work in thattime frame anywhere else on the planet.

This year, I carried around a pocket-sized Garminwalking GPSsystemwithme. The squiggle of walking, taxis and rental car lookslike a child has frantically scribbled over Las Vegas Boulevard witha crayon, as my path goes back and forth between themajor hotelsand the Las Vegas Convention Center.

And it is somewhat intriguing that all of this manages to happenwithout some of the biggest names in the industry being visiblypresent. Apple is never there, but then it never talks about any ofits products in advance of its own carefully orchestrated launches.

Microsoft wasn’t really there, either, although there werediscussions taking place behind closed doors. Other big industry

companies weren’t visible either. But then,it’s CES – the Consumer Electronics Show.What does Microsoft make in that space?There’s its range of Surface tablets, andmaybea newmouse or keyboard to show. That’shardly worth a full stand. Theremight havebeen some presence for Xbox but, like phones,gaming has dedicated events later in the year.

And therein lies the problem. Far toomuch of this stuff is still too sandboxed,

with product developments happening in contained spaces.Instead of a clear path forward, the whole industry seems to begroping around for a new direction, and in doing so is reachingout in several different directions simultaneously.

Yes, it mostly knowswhere it wants to go to, but the control,configuration and security aspects aremaking the public wary.We really need a vendor to step up to the plate and provide anopen, free framework tomake all of this stuff relevant andcomprehensible to the home user. Niche vertical solutionswon’t work.We need a broader, more daring solution.

I’m hoping the big players were watching, and that at least onewill have its act together for January 2016. It’s time for someone totake the lead andmake a bold push. Treadingwater does no-one anyfavours, especially those consumers the show aims to serve.

■ Jon Honeyball is a contributing editor to PC Pro. He has one word of warningif you ever go to CES: don’t wear new shoes. Email [email protected]

We need a vendorto provide an open, freeframework to makeall this stuff relevantto the home user


pc pro - april 2015

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