Techwit August 2011

* August 2011 *

Techwit Contest Inside!

Reserved For Cover Page

Secure Linux, Windows & Web Photoshop Tutorial, Camera & PC Buying Guide, Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro Review and more...

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Credits Editor : Abhijoy Sarkar

Acting Editor : Saurav Modak

Graphics & Cover Page : Siddharth Aditya Saurav DTP Typeset : Saurav Modak

Valuable Suggestions by : Gaurav Butola, Vaibhav Kushal, David Kai Singson, Gaurav Prabhu, George Salon, Dhavan Vaidya, Sathyajit Bhat Thanks To Our Guest Writer : Sathyajit Bhat.

Send us your articles, feedback, complaints etc to contact.techwit@gmail.com. Visit us at www.techwitmagazine.com. Like us at www.facebook.com/techwitmagazine. For advertising, contact Abhijoy Sarkar at (+91) 9002430671

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This Month in Techwit Credits Dear Readers Editorial Contest

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Software Zone

Antivirus Comparison 19 Security on Web 25

Hardware Zone

Thermaltake Chassis Review PC Buying Guide Mugen Extended Battery Review Belkin Spike Guard Review

Mobile Zone

SE Xperia Mini Pro Review

6 12 15 17

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Graphics Zone

Guide To Buy Digital Camera 44 47 Photoshop Tutorial

Linux & Programming

35 Installing Ubuntu 38 Secure Your Linux Distro Why Use PHP Frameworks? 41

Gaming Zone

C&C Red Alert Review 49

Reviews This Month

Thermaltake Chase MK足1 Chassis Mugen Extended Battery for Nexus S Belkin Economy Series Six Socket Spike Guard Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro Command & Conquer Red Alert

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Dear Readers kaisingson@gmail.com Hi everyone, this is David here.

I would like to say a few words. First of thank all of you for reading "techwit" e足magazine. I should have written this article in the first issue which we launched a month back. I sincerely apologise for the delay.

As already carried out in the editorial section in the first issue "techwit" was created for two sole purposes viz. first we dont use paper thus we do not harm any tree in the making of techwit. You can rightfully call it a "Green magazine". Secondly, giving you a tech magazine at no cost! Many of you may have hesitated to buy a tech magazine out there mainly because of the price. We decided to go against the theory of "pay per magazine" and we have managed it! You can read techwit for free anytime, anywhere as long as you are online of course. You can also print any particular page you like for individual purpose. However do be careful not to use any part for commercial purposes or you'll be on the wrong side of the law. Having stated the reasons leading to the creation of this magazine a short足line can be made: Techwit足 the non足profit tech magazine!

And when reading the first issue of this magazine you may have probably wondered why there were little product reviews. Truth be told we don't have much products (esp.the hardware parts) to review as of now. Rest assured we will try to bring up more reviews in the upcoming issues and requests for product samples have already been sent. We will do our best to give you detailed reviews mainly of hardware components in the magazine. For gaming, we will dedicate a few pages for the gaming section of the magazine. Tech news, events, product launch and others too will be there in the magazine.

We may not be experts in what we do unlike all the reputed magazines out there but we are doing and we will keep doing our best to serve the community. Afterall what is the use of having knowledge when you don't even want to share with your friends, family and the community?

Selfishness wont get you far my friends. Our aim of working for the community is what keeps us motivated. We need your support, your thoughts and feedbacks, even criticisms, they are important to us. techwit may face many obstacles in its path but with all your support and encouragemnt techwit will cross these hurdles and rise as it moves forward in its journey.

Signing out....

David "s0nic" Singson.

For techwit.

Twitter: Super_s0nic

Editorial

Welcome to the second edition of Techwit. We started off last month and it has been an interesting ride from then. We got a great response from the last edition and everyone appreciated our efforts. Some of them even are following our dream, to give you best of technology free of cost, so you will see a few new faces from this edition!

This edition of Techwit is focused on the major issue that annoys us today 足 security. We have covered articles on it, from Windows, Web and Linux sections. There is also a much needed guide to install Ubuntu in your PC for those people who can't wait to start their Linux journey. Also, our favorite photo maniac, Gaurav Prabhu gives you a perfect guide on buying a digital camera & embark on journey of creating pictures. Apart from regular hardware reviews and Photoshop tutorials, we have introduced new sections 足 'Gaming' and 'Programming', thus making our magazine a complete dose of technology for you.

Good news for our readers, we have a contest this month exclusively for you. All you need to do is answer a simple question and you may win yourself a year license of Bit Defender Internet Security, absolutely free! You heard that right.

Do not forget to check out our website, which has got a new look and hell lot of additional features and news. Also you can like our page in Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/techwitmagazine. We have even launched a discussion forum where you may post your tech problems, take part in discussion and get notified of latest technology news. Your likes, comments and criticism keep will keep us motivated to continue our good work & so feel free to give us your valuable feedback.

We hope that you will enjoy this edition more than before, and we are sure that it will help you to make yourself more secure and safe.

PS. Our editor Abhijoy has a few issues due to which he sadly cannot work with us in this month. We hope he can get back to us from the next month. Till then I will be the acting editor in his absence.

Stay Safe, Stay Secure,

足 Saurav Modak

www.techwitmagazine.com

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Thermaltake Chase MK­1 Chassis Review

Specifications

• Case Type Full Tower • Material SECC • Front Bezel Material Combination of plastic and high air flow mesh • Color Black • Side panel Swivel Door with Transparent Window • Motherboard Support mATX and ATX • 5.25" Drive Bay 4 • Ext. 3.5" Drive Bay (By using 5.25" to 3.5" Converter) • Int. 3.5" Drive Bay 6 • PCI Expansion Slots 8 • Front I/O Ports 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, 1x eSATA, Audio Jack 3.5mm

Cooling System

• Front (Intake) : 200x200x30mm Colorshift fan x1 (600~800rpm,13~15dBA) or 120x120x25mm x2 (optional), • Rear (Exhaust) : 140x140x25mm TurboFan, 1000rpm, 16dBA or 120x120x25mm x1 (optional) • Top (Exhaust) : 200x200x30mm Colorshift fan x1 (600~800rpm, 13~15dBA); 200x200x30mm x1 (optional) or 140x140x25mm x2 (optional) or 120x120x25mm x2 (optional) • Bottom (Intake) : 120x120x25mm x1 (optional) • Side (Intake) : 200x200x30mmx1 (optional) • Liquid Cooling Capable Yes • Liquid Cooling Embedded No • Dimension (H*W*D): 22.4x9.3x22.9 inch • Net Weight: 12.3 kg

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Features

• Command Center – With Chaser MK­1’s fan controller onboard, gamer and enthusiasts can appreciate the convenience of adjusting the fan speed or lighting effect of the computer system.

• USB 3.0 SuperSpeed – Tired of reaching to the back of the computer to connect a USB 3.0 device?

Chaser MK­1 features latest USB 3.0 ports with internal header. Two USB 3.0 ports are conveniently located on the front of the case.

• HDD Docking Station – By adapting world’s best selling BlacX Docking Station concept into a computer case, users can now effortlessly transfer large volume of data without the need for a conventional external storage device. Simply insert any 2.5” or 3.5” SATA hard drive into the docking station and start enjoying hot­swap capability and blazing­fast transfer speed through SATA interface.

• VGA TripleMax 33CM – All of today’s high­end and advanced graphic cards that are capable of delivering ultra­realistic, immersive and intense gaming experience have longer than usual form factor which means not all computer case will fit. Chaser MK­1 not only address this concern by supporting graphic card up to 330mm in length, but also designed cooling surrounding the graphic card location to improve heat dissipation and reduce acoustic output.

• CableClear Cable Management ­ Dramatically improves thermal efficiency of the computer system by ensuring power cables do not get in the way of airflow.

• Enthusiasts Water Cooling Ready ­ Spacious interior is only the bare minimum when it comes to water cooling. Chaser MK­1 features an innovative top removable panel that can be easily transformed to accommodate high­efficiency 24cm radiator!

• Combat Headset Holder – Headset holder designed into the case allows gamers to store their gaming headset easily and securely.

• Heightened Foot Stands – High thermal efficiency case that address all common and uncommon issues. Heighten foot stands elevate the whole computer system enough to prevent rug or any other soft flooring material from blocking the air intake/exhaust found on the bottom of the case.

Intro

I received the Chaser MK1 as a prize from Thermaltake Taiwan.

On the 11th June I was woken up just to sign a courier package. I was greeted by a “FedEx” man near the door. At first I wondered why he wanted to see me. Just instantly I was shocked and at the same time surprised to see a large box of the TT Chaser MK­1 beside him. Then he asked me some questions as security process of my identity (I think) including the silly ones like "Where are you from? Which country do you live in?" and others like "what is this package?, Who sent you and why?" etc. After I answered all the questions he replied "Congrats! You pass! This is your package from Taiwan". Oh how thrilled I was! By the way, Thermaltake, in their email, said that I may received it by June­end but I got it about two weeks early. Thermaltake keep it up!

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Briefly speaking, I won the Chaser MK­1 chassis as a second prize in a Thermaltake online puzzle contest a few months back.

Anyway, back to business.

Today, I have for you a first impression of the Thermaltake Chaser MK­1 chassis. The Chaser MK­1 chassis is a "Galaxy Episode" (VN300M) series which is meant for gamers and enthusiasts alike. Thermaltake said it its the first of its tower kind and labeled it "XB ATX" where 'XB" stands for "eXtra Big".

Lets go down to package un­boxing then.

Package

The box is blue­black­red combo colors with an image of the “Galaxy Episode” at the front. The colors blend very well­ a gamers’ want and just an example of my liking. The box is huge and very heavy weighting over 14kilos! I pity the courier guy who had to lift it to my second floor residence.

Thermaltake sent a very well packaged gift. Opening the box we can see that the Chaser MK­1 is covered in a plastic bag over which two hard plastic (polystyrene) bars holds it in place.

Exterior Looks

Looking at the Chaser MK­1 we, no doubt, know it is targeted to the gaming community. On a side note, there have been a lot, and by "lot" I mean a LOT!!, of gaming chassis (and other components) from different brands­ both cheap and reputed brands, in the gaming market today. Its not a surprise to see people getting confused in picking one! Some people say that getting a cabinet which fits all components will be enough and that one doesn’t

need to spend much money on it. But I disagree, buying a good­well built chassis is as important as getting other good components. However many of the chassis have not done enough (or should i say "failed to impress"?) to catch a glimpse of the gamers’ eyes even though they may have performed well in other fields. Hopefully the Chaser MK­1 is here to stay.

The Chaser MK­1 has nice looking transparent side panel which looks like a nine­sided polygon with the bottom pushed inside hence making it look a semi­ polygon.

Just beneath the transparent window there is honeycomb­meshed area with a dust filter behind it. An optional 200mm fan can be mounted here if there is a need. The side panels of the are made of a really good metal, have decent thickness and are not­so­light for chassis panels. However I feel this is for the better as they are highly durable and made of really good material which is a must for gaming components.

If you look at the pic above just beside the transparent panel we can see a hanger for headphones which is a plus. Just unclip it to use this. There are four chassis feet on the bottom of the MK­1.

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They are about 35mm high raising the chassis above the surface. Also, if you have fans placed on the bottom of the chassis they will do better in cooling. The MK­1's feet can bee turned 360° (45° alternate) both clockwise and ant­ clockwise. Do note that turning the feet too frequently will lead the feet to become too loose which may make them uncomfortable.

One thing i noticed while looking at the Chaser MK­1 is that it doesn’t have much of that "killing looks" gamers and enthusiasts would want. The good news is that this "disadvantage" has been complimented by many other cool features which we are about to see.

Front View

Certainly I must say that the front looks of the Chaser MK­1 chassis with its combination of blue and black colors, stylish looks and rugged body is quite impressive. You cant help but keep looking at it. The grey "Thermaltake" logo below the drive­ bays is a nice touch. There are 4x 5.25" drive bays on the front.

The drive covers can be easily removed by a slight press and tilting them.

If you want to mount the optical drives (which you will) then the drive covers will be of no use. I wish Thermaltake had implemented a way in such a way that the elegant drive bays' covers can be retained.

If you take out the front cover of the Chaser MK­1 you'll see the removable dust filter covering an LED 200mm intake fan behind the Thermaltake logo.

Rear View

On the rear there is a 140mm exhaust fan. Below the fan there are eight PCI expansion slots with their own ventilation (see pic below).

There is a rectangular honey­comb area just beside it for supporting better airflow. There are two openings in the rear of the Chaser MK­1. One on the left of the exhaust fan is for the motherboard ports while the other one is at the bottom for PSU. For those water­cooling fans the Chaser MK­1 has option for it by giving three rubber grommets.

Top View

The top of the Chaser MK­1 has an array of features including the cooling system.

There is a 200mm LED fan and an extra slot to add another 200mm fan or 2x 120/140mm fans. The fans are supported by a meshed honeycomb paneling with dust filters. Moreover the top cover is easily removable. You just have to pull it upward a bit.

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Going to the features, on the left side there are ports for audio jacks and buttons each for "Reset", Fan "Low", Fan "High" and "Fan LED" to control the color of the LED fans in which you can choose from Green, Blue or Red. Fan "High" sets the 200mm fans to run at 800RPM while fan "Low" will let them run at 600RPM. "Reset" resets the system. On the right we have 2x SS USB3.0 (SS meaning Super Speed), an E­Sata port and 2x USB2.0 ports.

In the middle between the left and right there is an external HDD docking station for 2.5" and 3.5" SATA hard disk and SSD respectively.

This is a great feature.

Interior

Removing transparent side panel first we can see a cool black spacious interior. The first thing which I noticed when I opened the panel was a brown box which contained small plastic pouches of various screws, an extra drive­bay cover, PCI­e adapters, a 3.5" adapter for 5.25" adapter and cable binders/ties.

The Chaser MK­1 supports ATX as well as mATX sized­ motherboards. Its very spacious and even the likes of long GPUs such as the HD6990 and GTX590 will fit comfortably inside the chassis. But sadly there was no anti­vibration pad on the bottom for the PSU. This may not bother much of the people but do note that the Chaser MK­1 is being made as a "Gaming" chassis so I feel it is necessary to include the pad as placing a non­silent PSU on the metal surface directly may not be nice.

Nevertheless it is not a really big issue. Also Thermaltake has given another removable dust filter (making it a total of two hassle­free removable dust filters) at the bottom just under the fans mounting area. There are 4x 5.25" drive bays and the drives can be locked to place when it is slid into the bays.

There are 6x HHD cages which can accommodate either 2.5" or 3.5" drives.

For the optical drives and HDD stacks we have a tool­less mechanisms for both. And frankly the materials used for the cages are quite sturdy. Just behind the Thermaltake logo at the front there is the 200mm LED­intake fan.Removing the other side panel we can see that the cables have been neatly tied and well arranged. The good thing here is that among the cables there is a USB3.0 header onto the USB3.0 ports at the front. Now tracing USB3.0 header/s among the cables is history!

Removing all the covers this is the "Skeletal looks" of the Chaser MK­1

Conclusion

Thermaltake has done a really good job with the Chaser MK­1 chassis. The looks may not appeal much but Thermaltake has done exceptionally in the rest of the other fields. The cooling systems­ both air and water, the materials used, the build quality and the rugged body coupled with the styles are all on a high! The features given to the Chaser MK­1 chassis is splendid, it has everything you need! Its like Thermaltake has taken into account what users would want and they did!

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However, availability of Thermaltake products here in India is a big letdown and so official price of the chassis is not known yet. Expect it to compete with the HAF932 from Cooler Master and Phantom from NZXT which I believe will be mostly in look­wise. Below them is the CoolerMaster's Enforcer which is a king in its own range.

Pros

• Great build and materials used.

• Lots of features including USB3.0 internal header.

• Great cooling system.

• Excellent cable management.

Cons

• Lack of "wow" looks.

• No anti­vibration pad.

• Mechanism needed to lock front and top covers in place.

• Heavy!

• Not available in India....yet!

Ratings

Looks (in terms of Gaming): 7/10 Features: 9/10 Build quality: 8.5/10 Value­for­money: Not known.

First impression rating: 8.5/10

­ David Kai Singson Twitter: Super_s0nic

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PC Buying Guide

Basic PC Set­Up : 1

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Rs.2600 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA MA78LMT­S2 Rs.2450 RAM: Corsair 2GB­DDR3­VS2GB1333D3G Rs.1000 HardDisk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB Rs.1500 Monitor: DELL IN1920 Rs.4800 GPU: Onboard IGP Chassis: iBall Entizer Rs.1200 PSU: FSP Saga II 350W Rs.1500 Optical Drive: Sony MultiWrite Rs.900 Keyboard: Logitech MK200 Combo Rs.650 Mouse: included in combo.

Speakers: Logitech R5 Rs.400 Total=Rs.17000* Other Options: Motherboard: Asus M4A78LT­MLE Rs.2400 GPU: Sapphire/MSI HD4670 Rs.3300 Accessories: Headphone: Logitech ClearChat Premium PC Headset Rs.650

Basic PC Set­Up : 2

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rs.3200 Motherboard: ­Gigabyte GA­880GM­UD2H Rs.4100 RAM: GSkill 2GB­DDR3­1333MHz Rs.1200 HardDisk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB Rs.1550 Monitor: DELL IN2030M­HD Rs.5800 GPU: Sapphire HD5670 Rs.4200 Chassis: CoolerMaster Elite 310 Rs.1500 PSU: FSP Saga II 400W Rs.1700 Optical Drive: Sony/LG MultiWrite Rs.900 Keyboard: Logitech MK200 Combo Rs.650 Mouse: (included in combo) Total: Rs.24800* Other Options: RAM: Corsair 2GB­DDR3­1333MHz Rs.1200 Monitor: BenQ G920WL Rs.6000 Chassis #2: NZXT Gamma Rs.2000 Accessories: Speakers: Altec Lansing VS2621 Rs.1700 UPS: APC 600VA Rs.1900

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Entry­Level Gaming PC Set­Up for 35000

CPU: Intel Core i3 2100 Rs.5500 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA­H61M­D2­B3 Rs.3400 RAM: GSkill RipJaws 4GB­DDR3­1600MHz Rs.2600 HardDisk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB Rs.1550 Monitor: DELL IN2020M Rs.5800 GPU: Sapphire HD6790 Rs.8000 Chassis: NZXT Gamma Rs.2000 PSU: FSP Blue Storm Pro 500 Rs.3050 Optical Drive: Sony/LG MultiWrite Rs.900 Keyboard: Logitech MK200 Combo Rs.650 Mouse: (included in combo) CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 Rs.1150 Total: Rs.34600* Other options: CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955BE Rs.5800 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA­880GM­UD2H Rs.4100 Monitor: BenQ G2220HD Rs.7100 PSU: Corsair VX450/GS600 Rs.3500 Chassis: CoolerMaster Elite 430 Rs.2400

Mid­Level Gaming PC Set­Up for 50000 CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K Rs.10700 Motherboard: Asus P8H67­MLX Rs.7100 RAM: GSkill RipJaws 4GB­DDR3­1600MHz Rs.2600 HardDisk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB Rs.2700 Monitor: BenQ G2220HD Rs.7100 GPU: Sapphire HD6850 Rs.9500 Chassis: CoolerMaster Enforcer Rs.5800 PSU: Corsair VX450 Rs.3500 Optical Drive: Sony/LG MultiWrite Rs.900 CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster V6 GT CPU Cooler Rs.3700 Total: Rs.52300* Other options: CPU: Core i5 2400 Rs.9600 (for non­overclocking system) RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4GB­DDR3­1600MHz Rs.2400 PSU: Corsair GS600 Rs.4500 GPU: Zotac GTX460 Rs.8500 CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 Rs.1150 Chassis: CoolerMaster HAF912 Rs.5800

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Gaming PC Set­Up for 75000

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K Rs.10700 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA­P67A­UD3R B3 Rs.9600 RAM: 2x GSkill F3­12800CL8T 4GB Rs.3200 x2= Rs.6400 HardDisk: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB Rs.2700 Monitor: DELL U2311H Rs.14000 GPU: MSI R6950 Twin Frozer III/Power Edition Rs.15300 Chassis: CoolerMaster Enforcer Rs.5900 PSU: Corsair TX650 Rs.6500 Optical Drive: Sony/LG MultiWrite Rs.900 CPU Cooler: CoolerMaster V6 GT CPU Cooler Rs.3700 Total: Rs.75400* Other options: CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K Rs.15850 RAM: 2x Corsair Vengeance 4GB­DDR3­1600MHz Rs.5000 GPU: MSI GTX560ti TwinFrozer II Rs.13000 GPU: Zotac GTX560ti AMP Rs.15500 GPU: Zotac GTX570 Rs.20000 Note: Gaming accessories such as keyboard, mice etc. have been ignored from 35k range set­up as users have different opinions and views on them. Nevertheless we’ll do the needful if it arises. Let us know. * The prices quoted are the cheapest from NewDelhi as of the day this guide is made. Prices are without tax. Price may differ. Also we don’t recommend unbranded/low/cheap products. We do not endorse any brand/store etc, we recommended the products purely based on their price/performance bar. For any error in this guide and suggestion/s please mail it to the editor. We will try to come up with a better config next issue.

­ David Kai Singson kaisingson@gmail.com

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Mugen Extended Battery for the Nexus S Review It’s been about 7 months now since I purchased the Nexus S, and overall I’ve been very pleased about the phone.

However a point of bother has been the battery life­ or the lack of it. While it’s better than my better than previous iPhone 3G, the stock Nexus S battery lasts just about a business day. By business day I mean about ~ 12­14hours (though I I do use it heavily – on an average ~3hours of music, about hour and half or so of browsing on 3G, checking mail, facebook, twitter every half hour or so).

And my addiction to the phone means that the low battery life generally becomes a problem when I’m travelling.

Mugen Power Batteries, one of the most popular aftermarket battery manufacturers have brought out some high capacity batteries for quite a few mobile devices, including the Nexus S. Mugen were kind enough to send me a review sample of the Mugen Power Nexus S Extended Capacity 3300mAH Batteries, and I’ve been testing them for the past 3 weeks and have been quite pleased.

First, a look at the extended battery specifications: Cell Type: Li­Ion Voltage: 3.7v Capacity (mAh): 3300 In comparison the stock Nexus S battery is a Li­Ion, 3.7v 1500mAh battery. Theoretically, the battery capacity is about 2.2 times the stock battery. Unfortunately, this also means that the battery is quite thick – almost 2 times as thick as the stock battery. The thickness of the battery means that Stock Nexus S back cover will not fit over the extended battery.

Mugen has thoughtfully provided a replacement battery door. It’s worth pointing out that the replacement battery door also features a NFC Antenna so that you don’t have to worry about losing any functionality.

Build Quality, Weight & Thickness

A pet­peeve I’ve had with the Nexus S is that the plastic back door doesn’t seem to be very durable and there’s this constant fear of it breaking into two while trying to remove the cover. While the replacement back cover is still plastic, thankfully it has a more rugged & sturdy feel. To aid in easy removal of the cover, there’s a handy little notch at the top of the cover. The notch also assists in giving you a nice grip to remove the cover.

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As mentioned earlier, the higher capacity battery is about 2 times as thick as the stock battery. This results in your very slim & slick Nexus S looking quite literally like a chalkboard duster. The battery also adds considerable weight to the phone. If you have trousers with rather tight pockets, the results are definitely not pretty and it’s going to look like a big bulge. The thickness also means that the phone will now be more susceptible to scratches from keys and the like.

Despite the bulk & thickness, the phone doesn’t feel awkard to hold, fits in your palms rather well.

Performance

For testing, rather than using any synthetic battery testing software or benchmarks, I subjected to my daily rigor. I consider my usage to be on the heavy side: on an average, my usage is as below: • Auto sync, background data transfer enabled.

• Sync Accounts: Google Apps ( Mail, Contacts, Calender), Google Account(Picasa, Google+), WhatsApp, facebook(all contacts) • Background apps: twicca, Skype, Latitude, Foursquare, Gtalk • About 3 hours of music playback( app used: PowerAmp + VooDoo sound) • Atleast 1.5 hours of dedicated Internet browsing( lunch time, while compiling) • Checking up on tweets, facebook, Hacker News once every 45 minutes or so.

• About 1 hour of calls, 10 or so SMS Note that I’m always on 3G, on the rare occasion the phone falls back to EDGE. With this kind of usage, my Nexus S lasted what I call as a “business day” – about 12hours or so. After fitting the battery and letting it settle into its groove, I subjected the extended battery to the same kind of usage. And the results were impressive.

Perhaps impressive is an understatement, I was blown away by the performance – normally I leave from my home with the battery fully charged and by the time I return home, the stock battery would be at about 15%­18% battery level. With the Mugen Extended battery, the battery level at the end of the day was about 50%. That’s just phenomenal.

I subjected the battery to yet another torture test: one of my favourite features of the Android: Portable WiFi Hotspot. With the portable hotspot running for about 3 hours on 3G, the battery drain was about 25%. That’s just awesome.

Conclusion

Despite it’s bulk & thickness, the Mugen Extended Battery is definitely a worthy purchase. Now you might wonder why go for a thick bulky piece of slab when you can always carry a spare battery? That decision is definitely up to you. My take? Honestly, I would rather have a single battery rather than have to juggle 2 batteries, their rotation, keeping them charged et al. At about $99.95 the extended battery isn’t exactly cheap – but then again, the ROI in terms of the how much longer you can use the phone without having to cut down your expenses is unmatched.

Definitely recommended by me.

Link : http://www.mugen­power­batteries.com/

­ Sathyajith Bhat

http://sathyabh.at/

16

Belkin Economy Series Six Socket Spike Guard – Initial Impression

Spike guards are one of the most neglected components when it comes to building a computer. Most folks get a cheap local brand for their high end rigs. They are unaware of the dangers of using a cheap spike guard. They don’t know a cheap spike guard make knock off the precious components inside their computers during a power surge. Even I used a cheap spike guard till now but then I realized its better to get a good one as I would not like any bad things happening to my computer components or worse still losing my precious photographs.

I had decided to get a good spike guard & it was really easy to get one as most cheap ones can be easy to spot. MX was a good brand but it had many fakes at the Lamington Road(The computer hub in Mumbai) so I decided to get one from economy series of Belkin. My requirement was of four sockets but then I went with six sockets as for future proofing.

Specifications

• Six Sockets • Two metre Power Cable • Maximum Spike Current : 13,000 Amps • Six Amp Circuit Breaker • 3­Line AC Protection

Construction

The Belkin spike guard is very slim & made of plastic which Belkin claims to be scratch­less. Only time will tell about it but most of the spike guards remain untouched & this should not be much of an issue.

Since the plastic has a matte finish, it should not scratch. Only the glossy plastic have a tendency to get scratches & bruises. Overall the quality is good & you should have no complaints.

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Sockets

The six sockets are without individual power switches something which I like but still its not what most users want. The plugs fit in securely & one can use Indian or other countries power plugs with ease. This eliminates the need for converter sockets which I used to need to connect my computer on my old spike guard. Again there are no sparks due to proper connections & this is a one of the hallmark of a good spike guard.

Miscellaneous

The power cord of the spike guard is two metre in length & that should be enough for the most. The sockets on spike guard have inbuilt safety shutters so to keep children safe & also to prevent dust from getting into unused sockets overtime. The unit even has factory pre足punched holes so you can wall mount it.

Conclusion/Final Thoughts

I got the Belkin Economy Six Socket Spike Guard for Rs.550 INR & it offers a good value for money. For similar price you may get cheap spike guards offering a long power cable & maybe even more sockets but that is not a bait to get caught in when the safety of your precious equipment & data is at stake. With lifetime warranty, I have no hesitation to recommend the Belkin Economy Six Socket Spike Guard for those on a budget.

足 Gaurav Prabhu

shuttertux.wordpress.com

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Antivirus Comparison

Here we'll decide which Antivirus is best suited for you to use to maintain safe distance from the possible threats of Internet.

There are a lot of choices and brands claiming for best security. We narrow down the list to a short range of 4 AVs for your easiness.We are testing these AVs on the basis of viruses being detected, false足positives, performance, system requirements, User Interface and of course price.

So, we tested Kaspersky Internet Security 2012, ESET Smart Security, Quick Heal Total Security and AVAST! Internet Security.

Go on and see for yourself which suits your needs!

ESET Smart Security 4

Price : 1200 INR (single PC) ESET's latest version has been launched recently and is up for testing. It provides basic elements of such a suite, leaving out features common in other packages, such as Web browser protection, backup, and parental controls etc.

The features provided are : Antivirus, Antispyware, Firewall, Anti足spam, integrated SysInspector and SysRescue, Self defense.

The suite has the so called ability "energy足sipping battery mode" that extends laptop battery life.

Eset scored right around average for its cleanup of active infections on a PC. It detected 93 percent of infections, disabled 80 percent (slightly below average), and removed all traces of infections in only 30 percent of our tests. Top performers here were able to detect and disable all infections. It's worth noting that the threat could not infect the system and remained inactive what so ever. It was tremendously fast at detecting thousands of threats.

Coming to rootkit (stealth malware often used to hide other infections) detections, the suite performed good. It scored 89% in detecting rootkits which is a respectable score.

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The user interface of the suite was simple. It's easy to get the hang of the UI and utilities are placed under obvious tabs. It provides advanced options only if enabled which is recommended for experienced users.

The boot time is very good too. It takes almost 5 seconds with our system and takes less resources. It's very light on the system and would not cause any effect on the system performance.

System Requirements • Processors Supported: Intel or AMD x86­x64 • Operating Systems: Windows® 7/Vista SP2/XP SP3/2000 SP4 • Download size: 46 MB • Installation size: 250 MB • Memory commit charge: 80 MB Pros: • Very good detection rate • Low system requirements Cons: • High price • Low removal rates

AVAST! Internet Security 6 Price : 1500 INR (1PC) First of all, we would like to mention the fact that AVAST! provides an unusual facility that no other software provides. Generally, if one gets a trial version or purchase only Antivirus the license only works with that version of the program. But in the case of AVAST! it's not so. The license works with both ­ Antivirus (trial or purchased) and Internet Security. It's new and a very good facility to be noticed.

Being a better suite, we'll go in a bit depth of the functions of the program. It has a lot of features to protect us from the internet threats.

The features provided are: Antivirus, Anti­spyware, Real­time anti­rootkit protection, Silent Firewall, Anti­spam, AVAST! WebRep. Using it's firewall, the program generally decides which program is to be allowed and which is not to

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be allowed. It divides the network into 3 simple states : Home, Work and Public. But it also allows to customise these settings. However, the firewall is just taken from AVAST! 5. The previous version was terrible and did not work quite well. So, there's no wonder that the current firewall works the same.

Anyway, we found AVAST Safezone isn’t like what AVAST says. AVAST says : "Opens a new (clean) desktop so that other applications don’t see what’s happening – perfect for banking or secure ordering/shopping – and leaves no traces once it’s closed."

As they said, we found normal desktop applications aren’t able to see what’s going on inside Safezone.

But, the vice versa is not true. SafeZone Browser (that’s running inside Safezone) is able to access the desktop applications. We were successful in opening Irfanview (a desktop app) and not only that we also were able to send a file from HDD to Gmail via Safezone.

AVAST! Internet Security is speed and impact on system is less (Using around 30 MB of RAM and rarely shoots upto 60 MB and then comes down to 30 MB). Provides good protection against malware.

In our tests, the suite detected all the viruses and cleaned all of them efficiently but the time taken to remove the threats was much better than the previous one. It took almost 45 seconds to remove all the threats. It's the fastest that we encountered in our tests.

Now coming to the cream part of AVAST! ­ the Boot Time Scan. The function is very good and really effective. This function is the same as all the previous versions. It scans the system before the windows loads any programs. This way, no viruses or other threats are active and they can be detected easily. It also provides Silent Mode which blocks all the pop­ups when playing games. Quite handy for the gamers.

Minimum Hardware Requirements • Pentium 3 Processor • 256 MB RAM • 380 MB of free hard disk space • Windows 7 (any Edition, 32­bit or 64­bit), vista, XP Service Pack 2 or higher Pros: • Boot time scan • Very good detection and removal rate.

Cons: • Poor Firewall • SafeZone not as promised

Quick Heal Total Security 2011 Price: 1050 INR ( 1PC/ year )

Antivirus, Anti­spyware, Antimalware, Anti­Rootkit, Entertainment mode, Anti­phishing, FIrewall, PC2Mobile scan, Registry Cleanup, Defragmenter, Disc Cleanup.

This candidate from our list is designed mainly keeping average users in mind. It provides a very easy interface, a fast and responsive threat detection and a worry­free protection.

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As all­in­one premium security suites, Quick Heal Total Security 2011 offers a host of capabilities beyond those of a typical virus protection program.

Now looking a bit deeper into the suite, we determine the abilities by performing tests. Regarding the detection level of Quick Heal Total Security 2011, at this moment it is close to average. During our testing Quick Heal TS 2011 left many threats behind, detecting 5,118 out of the 7,006 (73.05% detection rate).

While on­access testing, it managed to block 38 malwares out of 52. We've

also used some malicious links to test its browsing protection and it was able to block 16 links out 22.

Looking on the other bright side, Quick Heal TS 2011 managed to complete scans in record time, getting through over 3 GB of malware samples in less than 10 minutes.

A full­system manual scan only used 85% of CPU during our testing. But most of the time, CPU usage was under 30% when scanning text files and other files. Memory usage started around 80 MB and slowly increased to 137.2 MB after 03 minutes of scanning.

No noticeable computer lag­time was detected during full system scanning. The browsers responded normally without much delay. Real­Time protection resource usage is kept within acceptable parameters, about 52.61 MB. Quick Heal TS 2011 also took 354 MB of hard­drive space for installation.

Pros:

• Very fast detection • Perfect user interface • Designed for average users with a lot of utilities Cons: • Slightly over priced • Detection rates are average

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 Price: 550 INR ( 1PC/year )

The Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 is a feature rich program providing a very good amount of protection. And what's more, it also provides a gedget for windows 7 and vista.

The features provided are: antivirus protection (files, mail, instant messaging and web) spam protection, firewall, applications control, network defence, network monitoring, ad blocking, quick response to new threats via the cloud protection, parental controls, gaming profile, virtual keyboard which is a defence against keyloggers.

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Now coming to the main zone The Testing.

Upon scanning for viruses, it detected 93% of threats without a single false positive.

That's more than expected at this stage.

However, the main thing is it took >20 minutes to just scan and detect them and took another 5 minutes to remove them. It successfully removed all the nasty files from the hard disc.

Upon playing with malwares, we surfed through 15­20 files and it successfully detected them too.

The users and we too faced a problem. The

first update of the program takes just too long. It took almost 1 hour at an average of 50kBps of broadband speed. The installation files are small and the first update is larger.

The main feature that we would like to mention here is cloud protection. The suite instantly comes to recognize a newly introduced threat in any of the Kaspersky using system. Sometimes, it showed that the threat has been recognized with 5 minutes of its introduction to the cloud which is truly awesome. The cloud protection system sends all the malicious looking files to the server and checks for its activities.

Upon being proved as malicious, it generates the signatures instantly and sends through the network (a bit too techy but informative).

The programs works fine coming to the features like Application Control and parental controls too.

The firewall works just fine and keeps one protected upto a very good level of security.

System Requirements: • Windows XP Service Pack 2 /Vista /7 (both 32 bit and 64 bit) • A minimum of 480 MB free hard drive space • An internet connection • A processor rated at 1Ghz or above • 1 GB RAM for a 32 bit operating system / 2GB RAM if you are running 64 bit Windows Pros: Very effective against most threats Good and responsive UI Cons: A bit too slow The first update takes too much time

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Summary

After comparing all these awesome suites for protecting us against the huge world of data security, identity theft and other things, we've got our results. There are companies providing free AVs which we haven't included in our tests as our main criteria was to decide the optimal protection, we might have not included some major Antivirus Suits being free or commercial. We apologize if something has been mistaken.

So now coming back to the topic results, we initiated by testing ESET Smart Security and ended up with Kapsersky Internet Security 2012. As you've read through, we have encountered some astonishing results so far.

There are two candidates amongst which we declare a tie. The candidates are QuickHeal Total Security 2011 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012. Quick Heal being very user足friendly and fast at detecting and removing the threats while KIS being just perfect at detecting and removing threats and much less cost (as much as half of the Quick Heal).

In the performance test, the winner is AVAST as the program provides a voice足based User Interface and is very light upon the system. Avast also provides the ease of licensing as we've seen.

We leave upon you 足 the end user to decide which one to opt for after providing a guideline that will surely help you investing your money for your protecton.

足 Dhavan Vaidya

www.facebook.com/dhavan.vaidya

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Security on Web

The Internet has become a part of our day to day lives. We use it mainly for three purposes, email, remaining connected with friends in social networks and also to search for information. We get involved in Internet in such a way that it becomes a part of our lives, and we also demand much security and privacy there. This article aims to discover ways by which you can remain safe and sound in the web, and also carry your day to day web tasks without any hindrance.

Step One: Choosing a Good password

Whatever private activities we do here, most of them require to login to a site using a password. Thus its a single most important thing, and to remain safe, we must ensure that it remains strong so that crackers find it hard to crack it. Here are a few tips to have a good password for you.

• Make sure that your password is quite long. Recommended size is from eight to twenty characters, though some websites do not support passwords more than sixteen letters.

• Choose a password that's easy to remember for you but hard for others to guess. Now this doesn't mean to have a password of your mobile phone number, your birth date or the name of your best friend. Make it a bit more personal, something that only a few people know about you.

• Use digits in your password to make it stronger, but avoid birth dates, year of birth, your favorite number etc. Something like your graduation year, number of your previous flat, middle digits of your bank account etc will form a good password. However make sure that your password is not just numbers, but a combination of numbers and letters.

• Special characters make your password stronger. An underscore or comma in the middle, or a full stop in the beginning makes a password better. Use some rarely used symbols in your password, such as a semi colon, tilde ~ etc.

• Random combination of letters and digits form a good password but make sure not to forget it next time you login.

• Make your Facebook, primary email password and other things you use more stronger than others. This means using more special symbols and digits there.

• Use a combination of random capital and small letters in your password.

• Make sure you have different passwords for different accounts in the web. Otherwise if one of the accounts gets cracked somehow, chances are that others will get cracked too.

• Keep your password secret, don't tell it to anyone. If for some situation someone needs to access your account, make sure you change the password and give access to him. After the work is done, change the password again to the previous one.

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• Choose a security question that only few people, or if possible no one knows the answer of. Avoid common things such as father's middle name, birth date, school etc answer of which people may know.

Using the above tips I hope you will be able to choose a nice password for yourself.

Step Two : Securing your Email : Preventing Spam

If you are in web, at some point of time or other, for registering in sites or to communicate, you will need an email address. Email is a service that is required to enjoy most of the services in the web. Thus securing your email forms an important task to stay safe.

• Make sure you have different email for different purposes. For example, an email for social networking, another for personal use and the last for registering in sites. Use Gmail's multiple account login to effectively use this feature.

• Keep you personal email safe and give it only to people to whom you need to communicate with. Do not register sites with it. Some sites may sell it to someone who can spam you with unwanted ad email.

• If you run a blog or site that requires effective communication from clients, make sure to have a public email only for that purpose. Don't merge up your personal and public email addresses.

• When you find any site asking for email address or password, make sure that you trust the site and there is an https sign in front of the URL. Some sites can involve in phishing that can make a login form similar to your email provider and can fool you to enter your email and password.

• See what email you receive everyday and mark unwanted email as spam. This will improve the spam filter and further emails similar to the marked spam one will not crawl in inbox.

• Change your email's password every few months.

• Do not subscribe to newsletters and mailing lists if you are not interested or do not have time to read the mails. Most newsletters have an unsubscribe link at the bottom, you can also click that to unsubscribe from there.

• Archiving old messages, using folders and deleting unwanted messages is a nice way to clear your inbox and managing you email.

• If you receive spam from an email address again and again, you can create a filter that sends email from that email email address to your trash folder. Again if some important email of you gets marked as spam, you can add that address to your contacts to prevent it.

• Email accounts are free, if you find your email address that gets spammed everyday, you may think of changing the address.

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Step Three : Securing Your Social Network

Almost everyone of us use some sort of social communication in the web to stay connected with friends.

Facebook and Twitter are currently the largest social networks in the world. It is possible that in this vast virtual resource, one's privacy can be easily conceived. Here are a few tips to stay secure there.

• If you use twitter, make sure you use Direct Messages for sending important stuff. Remember all the information you send via tweets, including replies are publicly visible to all.

• In Facebook, you can control your privacy by not adding people whom you don't want to share your content. If you want the same features in twitter, make sure you turn the follow requests on, so that if someone starts following you, you can decide whether he/she will see your content or not.

• Use email or web chat for more private conversation.

• You can tweak Facebook settings to control which information to share with whom. Some features that needs to be tweaked is your email, mobile phone number, address etc which are visible to all friends by default.

• Add people you know. If you are going to add someone unknown, have a conversation with him via messages first.

• There is a feature in Facebook called login notifications which notifies you via email or SMS whenever you access Facebook from an unknown device. If you care your account too much, enable it. Also don't forget to enable secure browsing.

• Take care which apps you grant access to. Remember they can access your private stuff such as photos, status updates even profile information. If you don't need an app anymore, you can revoke its access anytime from account settings.

• In Facebook and Gmail you can see your login activity and see devices that you are currently logged in from. If you find any suspicious activity, make sure to end the session of that.

I hope the above tips will help you protect your privacy in web. Remember Web is a vast world and bad activities have also crept in it. Stay safe and secure.

­ Saurav Modak

intoanotherdawn.blogspot.com

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TechWit Contest Here's your chance to win one year license of BitDifender Internet Security absolutely free. Just answer this simple question and follow the steps to grab the prize.

Question for this contest: Which is your favorite Antivirus and why?

Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/techwitmagazine and like the page.

2. Write an answer of the above question within two sentences.

3. Email us your answers along with your name to contact.techwit@gmail.com with "contest" as the subject by 12th of September 2011.

Best answer to the above question will be declared as winner. Results will be announced in our Facebook page by 14th of September 2011. Our favorite answers will be published in next edition of TechWit. Note : Contestants not following any of the above mentioned conditions will be disqualified.

BitDefender is a registered trademark of BitDefender software company. Prize sponsored by George Solon.

All the best!! Hurry and rush your entries now!

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Sony Ericsson Xperia™ Mini Pro Review

Xperia™ Mini Pro Specifications Available colours

White Black Pink Turquoise

Size

92.0 x 53.0 x 18.0 mm / 3.6 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches

Weight

136.0 g / 4.8 oz

Screen

320 x 480 pixels (HVGA) / 16,777,216 color TFT

Platform

Android

Memory

microSD™ support up to 32GB / Memory card included: 2 GB microSD™ / Phone memory up to 320MB / RAM: 512MB / * Actual free memory may vary due to phone pre­configuration

Battery performance

Battery performance may vary depending on network conditions and configuration, and phone usage.

Networks

Standby time (up to)

GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

5 hours 40 min

331 hours

UMTS/HSPA 900/2100

5 hours 25 min

340 hours

UMTS HSPA 800/1900/2100

5 hours 25 min

340 hours

GreenHeart™ • Eco­smart packaging • GreenHeart™ headset • GreenHeart™ charger Camera • Aperture – f/2.6 • Video stabiliser • Flash / light type – LED • Red­eye reduction • Image stabiliser • Video light

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Talk time (up to)

• Touch focus • Smile detection • HD video recording (720p) • Front­facing camera (VGA) • Face detection • Auto focus • Digital Zoom – up to 8x • Camera – 5 megapixel Music • Music tones – MP3, AAC • xLOUD™ Experience • TrackID™ music recognition • PlayNow™ • Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP) Entertainment • Radio – FM radio with RDS • YouTube™ • Video streaming • Media Browser • 3D games Connectivity • Micro USB support • NeoReader® barcode scanner • Google Maps™ – with Street View • WiFi™ • Wisepilot™ turn­by­turn navigation • USB mass storage • Modem • DLNA Certified™ • Bluetooth™ technology • aGPS • 3.5 mm audio jack Communication • Twitter™ – Timescape™ integration • Video­chat ready • Sony Ericsson Timescape™ • Noise shield • Google Talk™ • Facebook™ application Design • Keyboard – QWERTY + Onscreen QWERTY and 12 key • Four corner home screen – customizable icons • Touchscreen • Smart Keyboard • Reality display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine

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Well that was the list I got from the Sony Ericsson site (I removed a few obvious ones like Android Market).So I got myself a Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro a few days ago and by far this is the smartest purchase I have ever done . Xperia Mini Pro has alot of features and shouldn’t not be under­estimated by its small size. And trust me the display is just plain awesome for its size. Let’s get into more details .

Phone Package/Boxing

After unboxing I found myself with • Xperia Mini Pro • USB cable/Charger • Instructions • Screen Guard • In ear Earphones • Another Backpanel • 2 GB microSD card • Battery

I really didn’t have much trouble with the unboxing part and found that the fact that a screenguard coming along with the product to be really cool and that will save a person the trouble of going around in search of one . Another thing I like is the USB/Charger (I think this is a Sony Ericsson standard thing) but the idea is really good as it saves up the space and well lesser wires to get untangle .

Design/Construction

Xperia Mini Pro does look like a Xperia X10 mini pro to some extent and there are high chances that people will mistake it for a X10 Mini I would call the phone chubby but thats pretty much inevitable considering the fact that this is QWERTY slide out keyboard phone .

Phone got a dedicated camera button and the volume (up/down)buttons on its right side .

On the top it sports a 3.5 mm audio jack with a mircoUSB port next to it. One thing i have experienced is that its really hard to open the USBport or to remove the protective cap . It took alot of tries for me to remove the cap (It gets really frustrating at times ) . And next to the USB port is the power button/lock button.

The back of the phone has a 5 mp camera with LED flash.

And on removing the back panel we can see where the SD card is which hot swappable . The phone claims to have a battery life of 331 hours on 2G network and up to 340 hours on 3Gwith a talk time of around 5 h 40 min.

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I can’t comment on wi­fi or 3G as I don’t have both . The phone lasted for around 12­13 hours for me with “normal” usage which includes a constant GPRS connection, 30 mins of arcade games +with background apps like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail etc.

The UI changes to landscape mode the moment the keyboard is slid out . I am not a fan of QWERTY or keys as I have big fingers. But the QWERTY keypad is comfortable for me as they keys are spaced adequately and is really comfortable to type.

The phone has a LED backlit LCD screen with 16 M colour display . Screen has a display of 320 x 480 pixels and is 3 inches. And the screen is scratch proof and supports multitouch and Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine .BRAVIA Engine does everything that Sony Ericsson promises it will do. It enhances sharpness, increases contrast and saturation and tries to tackle digital noise. Of course, that only works with photos and videos, so you shouldn’t be looking for its effect elsewhere.

User Interface

Xperia Mini Pro has a customized UI with launcher similar to the one in Xperia Arc. And it certainly does manage to impress the ones who look for eye candy . The animations and transitions are beautifully done .

There is no Mediascape application but there is Timescape. I am not impressed by Timescape as I find it to be a bit buggy and cluttered, the Timescape widget shows tweets, messages, missed calls and facebook posts. But when you try to click on a post it opens up the facebook/tweet in the browser rather than just showing it completely.

And the phone goes into an overview mode when you pinch zoom it(or that pich zoom action on your homescreen) where you will be treated with floating widgets which looks really neat and is something which you can show off to your friends.

Contacts are pretty neat and organised and you will be able to see your contact’s Facebook pictures and interests. Also

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you can create a shortcut to a contact and put on your homescreen.

There is no smart dialer so I suggest you gove Go Contacts a shot.

Messaging is simple and Sony Ericsson didn’t do much to the messaging application and everything is more like standard android stuff other than some minor UI changes. Its to type thanks to the QWERTY keypad. Sliding out the keyboard switches the UI orientation into landscape. But I really would loved it if there was some way to blacklist numbers.

Gallery

Gallery has some pretty cool animations, like when you pinch zoom on it. Also one can browse his/her Facebook albums, photos and Picassa pictures in the gallery .And another neat feature is the Facebook integration thanks to which you can like and comment on the pictures from your gallery .

Camera/Video Recording

The phone has a 5 mp camera which is capable of recording videos at 720p resolution.The camera app is pretty basic and simple to use.

There aren’t much options to mess around with. And thanks to camera button on the phone the experience is ok.Overall quality is good­ average and is perfect for your pictures to put on facebook and twitter.

As for videos ,the phone is pretty fast and responsive .Again there aren’t much options other than the basic ones like Face Detection ,Auto Focus etc .

Media(Video,Music,Radio)

The music player is simple and easy to use with basic features. It has a equaliser and the Sony Ericssons so called Infinity button. The infinty button is basically a cool name for a really common feature, it just searches the artist’s name in youtube and wikipedia. The sound quality is satisfactory and the given earphones are of average quality.

As for the radio it needs a headphone/earphone to work.Thats fine I guess . As usual the interface is just basic. You can use TrackID and find the current playing song which is pretty cool .

The phone can play only mp4 and WMV files .I really wished they had increased the file formats they supported. To play other files just download an alternative media player from the Android Market as there are many free ones. Sony Ericsson didn’t do anything to the video player and its just the standard android one with the very basic controls. As for the video quality I am impressed and its absolutely fine . I don’t think the Bravia Engine makes any noticeable difference.

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Apps

I got a pretty good number of apps bundled with the phone. The bundled apps include • Adobe Reader –read PDF files • Application Installer­Searches for apk files on the SD card and offers to install it • AppXtra­Pointless thing. Really don’t know what this does other than offer to install Opera Mini,Evernote and Imdb • Connected Devices­ Shows the devices connected to phone through wi­fi • Data Monitor – Keeps a track of mobile data usage like 3G Watchdog • Extension Search­ Opens up Android Market to search for Timescape addons • Friends and Music­Lists all the video links shared by your friends on facebook.

• Games by PopCap­Three demo games Peggle,Plants vs. Zombies,Chuzzle • Getapps­Pointless app which lists some applications and opens up the android market • Get games­Same as the pointless app which lists application and redirects you to the Android Market • Moxier Pro­ Mail Client with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync • Neo Reader – Really simple barcode scanner • OfficeSuite – Reads word files but asks you to buy the pro version to edit • PlayNow Store­ Sony Ericcson’s expensive music store • TouchNote­ Allows you to send postcards from pictures taken from your camera or in your gallery there is 1 credit available • WisePilot – GPS navigation • YouTube – Really not going to tell what this is.

Performance and Benchmarks

Xperia Mini Pro comes with 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon (info from gsmarena ). And thanks to the processor the phone is fast and doesn’t lag .Here is the screenshot of the benchmark done using Quadrant, The phone performs as expected and doesn’t not disappoint in terms of performance.

Verdict

The Xperia Mini Pro is a great phone to have especially for its compact size and QWERTY keypad . It has got the looks and a long list of features . In short it has *almost* everything a Xperia Arc has packed into a Xperia X10 Mini Pro . Its a great deal especially for the QWERTY + HD video recording + snappy 1ghz processor and UI . The price tag of 15.6 k approx is justified . And as I mentioned earlier this is a really smart purchase option .

Pros:­ Cons:­ * 1GHz Processor * Fat * HD recording +front camera * A bit heavy *QWERTY keypad(Really well designed ) * Small resolution+Screen Size *The QWERTY keypad is a bit easy to flip *UI(Facebook Integration,Timescape ) out ,so it shakes a bit when you try to make a *Android 2.3 + for the nice list of apps(bundled) call(Hard to explain,but this is not a strong *Awesome loudspeaker with Xloud point) *12 hour battery backup

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­ George Solon

dark69slayer.wordpress.com

Install Linux Without Affecting Your Current Windows Installation

So, you have finally decided to install one of the Linux flvours on your computer but still aren’t sure how to get it and/or how to install it. It’s easy to think otherwise, when it comes to installing Linux and you have people telling you that it’s all geeky and complex stuff to do for an average joe.

The reality is, it’s not really complex at all. If you have ever filled an online form then you may be wise enough to install Linux on your system. Seriously, it just takes few minutes to fill some information about your system and some common sense.

If you want to install linux on your computer then you can download it for free. There are many Linux distributions you can download. Here I am going to show you how to install Ubuntu Linux on your computer. I chose Ubuntu because it’s the most widely used Desktop Linux Distribution.

Before proceeding, make sure your hard disk has some unformatted space. We will use that space to install Ubuntu on it If your hard disk has some unformatted space which is not being used by any of your existing partition then you are good to go, if not then you can just remove one of your existing Windows partition to get some space freed.

First of all, go to http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download and Download the latest version of Ubuntu by clicking on the Big orange button saying 'Start Download'. Burn it to a CD and then insert it into your computers CD ROM. Wait for the CD to boot up.

When the CD boots up you'll see this screen.

Click on Install Ubuntu

Now you'll see the following screen. If you are connected to the internet then you should click on the checkboxes to get updates while your operating system installs. It’s fine even if you don't click on those checkboxes.

Now click on Forward to go to the next step.

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In the next screen that comes, click on (The first option) “Install Ubuntu alongside� and then click forward. You'll see that your operating system installation process has already started.

Now choose your Time zone (by clicking on the map) and click forward then select your keyboard layout (Usually default one is used the most so you may click forward without changing anything.) click on forward again.

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Fill in your Name and password in the form that you see and click forward once again. In this step the installer may ask you to import some settings from the previously installed operating system, click the checkbox if you want to import or just click on forward.

We are done here. Wait for the installer to finish installing the system and when finishes, a dialogue box will pop up asking for a restart. Click on restart and start using your fresh new Ubuntu Linux operating system.

足 Gaurav Butola

Twitter : GauravButola

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Secure Your Linux Distro

In previous articles we have learned about security that are Windows specific. In this article we will learn to do the same things in Linux. It is a multitasking, multiuser system in which each process, task or user has given limited privileges. So, whenever some person or process tries to access resources or do a task that it is not intended to do, either it will be prompted for the root password, or will get the permission denied error.

In this article we will aim to learn simple ways by which you can make your Linux system more secure.

Users and Groups

First thing we need to know that a Linux system needs at least one user to run. A user is a person/process which has been some privileges to access your computer's resources. Most users have a home directory associated with them in the /home folder that one may use to keep one's documents and other belongings. Except a few distros like *ubuntu ones, all of the distros require a root user for its proper working. This is known as the superuser who has all the privileges, even privileges to access and view your own documents. It is always advisable to have a super user for your system. Also know that for day to day tasks, you “MUST� work as a normal user, not as a super user. Remember, once you work as a super user, you wont be prevented to make any unwanted changes in your system, so to avoid your system from breaking up, work as a normal user so that you may be prompted before you do any mistake.

As can be understood from the name, a group is a section of users that can share data amongst themselves.

sudo

To access superuser on your Linux system, you need to type the su command in your terminal. You will then be prompted to enter the root password. But sometimes its beneficial to give super user privileges to some of the users who need to do administrative tasks in your PC, in case you don't want everyone to know the root password. For that you need to change the user's account from standard one to an administrator's one. Go to Settings in your distro's menu and look out something for User Accounts. You will be prompted to enter your root password. Once done, yo will see a list of users of the system. Click on the users you want to assign privileges to and change the account type as shown below.

Now the specific user can access root privileges by using the sudo command. If you want to revoke the privileges, you can always change his account to standard type.

Note: In Fedora, you cannot login as root from login menu. To do so, you need to uninstall GDM and install KDM in its place.

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chmod

Each user in a Linux system has some files and documents that one need to work with. If you work in Linux, then its possible that other users also work there. You can protect or restrict your files from access of other users. It is done via the chmod command, which is a very useful command in Linux.

A file has three access parameters, read, write and execute. You can change this parameters, for example you can make the file read­only or prevent its execution to other users. The parameters of the file is determined by four digits. For the time being, its enough to know that you must set the first digit to 0 (zero). The next digit determines the access rights for the person who owns the file, i.e. you. The next determines the access right for the people in same group as you, and the last for all other users. Please remember that the root user has all the privileges of your file, no matter whatever the assigned privileges be.

You can set the privileges in a file by assigning numbers that range from zero to seven. Read privileges have the value of 4, write privileges have a value 2 and execute have value 1. So suppose you need to assign read and execute privileges to a file, it will have a value of 5 (4+1).

Suppose you need to assign all privileges to yourself, read and execute privileges for other users of your group, and only read privileges to others. Then type the following command. chmod ­c 0754 file Here, the ­c flag denotes “change”. To change the privileges of a directory and files in it, use ­R (recursive) flag.

Note: You wont be able to change privileges of a file unless you have super user privileges or you are the owner of the file.

Encrypting & Password Protecting files in Linux

Sometimes you may need to send files to someone and you need to make sure that no one except the person you intend reads it. Also there are many share sites over the internet whom you may not trust to keep the privacy of the files. To ensure that you data is kept safe, you may do two things, password protect files or encrypt them, though its also quite possible that if you password protect a file, that will be encrypted too.

Gnome's default archive handling application file­roller has inbuilt preferences under the Edit menu to

do this. You may add some files to an archive, compress, password protect and then send them in this way. In KDE desktop, you have a nice app called Kleopatra which can be used to encrypt files in an

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advanced way. Do check out and use this apps if you want to encrypt and password protect your files.

Note: Its also possible to encrypt your entire home folder. For this you need to check the respective box during installing a distro.

Anti­virus in Linux

Linux is not that prone to viruses, so you really don't need an anti­virus in Linux. Fedora users have a nice thing called SE­Linux (Security Enhanced Linux) that keeps a watch over your system activity and notifies you/blocks any unwanted use of your resources. To me, it feels more irritating and even sometimes it may also block and application that you may need. You can enable/disable this feature by editing its configuration file. For this, navigate to /etc/selinux and open the config file. You will see the following text with options given above. Set the SE­Linux mode to your desired one. In this picture as shown, I have disabled it.

And If You Forget The root Password

You must not, must not, at any price, forget your root's password. However in rare cases when you do, here is a simple way to reset it.

Reboot your PC. On the boot menu that appears, select your desired OS and press e. You will be presented with a list of option. With your arrow keys, select the line that contains “kernel” as the first word and press e. Give a space and type capital S at the end of this line.

Press enter to save your changes and press b to boot. You will be logged in the single user mode with the root prompt.

Now to change the root password, type passwd root. Like this you can change the root password without knowing the previous one.

This opens a loop hole that other users may take advantage of. To prevent this action, you may protect your system with a GRUB password that users may need to enter before logging in single user mode. To do so, open terminal and switch to root. Type grub to enter the grub prompt. Type md5crypt. You will be asked to enter the Grub password. Enter the password, you will get the encrypted version of it. Copy this password to the grub.conf file and paste it after writing “password” in a line. This will ensure that whenever someone tries to access the single user mode, he/she will have to enter the GRUB's password to access it.

­ Saurav Modak

intoanotherdawn.blogspot.com

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Why Use PHP Frameworks?

PHP is one of the most widely used Languages for Web development. Almost every other blog is running on Wordpress. Major sites on the Internet are powered by Drupal, Joomla, Mambo or sometimes, even Wordpress (once again). All of these Content Management Systems use PHP to get the work done. In fact, they are written in PHP! We need not exaggerate on the fact that PHP is one of the best (some say it is the best) language available for Web Programming. From simple one liner to extremely powerful content management and community

management systems, PHP does it all. Its huge feature set would not let anyone complain for being in chains. The biggest plus point? Well, its damn easy!

But at times, PHP's large set of features mean 'confusion'. You can do the same work in more than a few ways. In fact a lot of methods can be used for one simple task. When developing web applications, there is no scope of mistakes in the planning stage. If you create something without speculating the future and the complete system design, you might end up with a fairly nice problem after some time on the development line is traveled. For this reason, frameworks must be brought in use. Of course there are ready made frameworks which you can use and then an intelligent programmer can create one all on his own! If you are someone ready to build his or her own framework, the following list should help you note and understand the important aspects that frameworks cover. In case you are a budding programmer, you might like to know how easy frameworks make life for you.

Best Features of PHP Frameworks • Generalizing Queries

Almost no Web application today can be created without databases. You insert anything dynamic and you would be searching on the web for words like PostgreSQL, MySQL or may be SQLite. You might pick one.

Now, think about creating queries. More tables and more and more queries, relations, joins, foreign keys and so on! If you make a mistake creating a query, your application gets screwed! PHP Frameworks help you by relieveing you off duty. Just call up the function which corresponds to a table / column and the work gets done.

• Code generation When you create a database, you create it for handling data. SQL INSERT statements are not the best way to use your time. So you would create a form for it? Well, no. You would run a code generator for the database and the framework should be able to generate the forms which you think are going to be used for entering the data.

• AJAX Face it, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) is not new but is one of the most desired functionality in web 2.0 powered websites. If you were to ajaxify whole of your website, it will take you a huge amount of time to write down the functions, the objects and so on to enable AJAX on websites. Frameworks make

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it real easy to do so. Just write the functions and call them the right way. Work gets done! How easier can anything be?

• Form Handling You submit something wrong in a form, database throws down an error and you start debugging about what went wrong. 10 minutes later your problem is solved! Using a framework, you can help this situation. First, the chances of getting errors gets reduced a whole lot because the framework will check whether everything worked fine. Second, they make debugging errors much easier.

Form Handling also contains Form Validation as one of its subdomains. Form Validation deals with the correctness of data you supply in a form. For example, if you enter alphabets in a form whose input is supposed to be numerical, Form validation logic will send back an error stating that the value was not expected and that the input must be numerical. With such amazing facilities, PHP frameworks help developers get the job done pretty fast compared to the raw logic which one might want to implement in his Website.

• State management The HTTP protocol powers the Web and the Web 2.0, so to name it. Among all the problems which the new technology implementations try to solve, is the stateless nature of the HTTP protocol. When we say 'state', we mean to indicate some method by which the website remembers what you were doing. One of the most well known example of a 'state' in context of a website is the 'Login' system. When you log in to a website, it remembers your 'state' as 'logged'. Along with this, there are a lot of states which a web application needs to maintain. PHP frameworks allow the developers to manage the state of the application along with a lot of other things, making the life a lot easier.

• MVC architecture Most websites are built on top of the famous Model View Controller (or as you would have guessed, MVC) architecture which talks about separation of the logics of Database handling (Model), the behavior (the controller) and the presentation (view) of the website. Most PHP frameworks out there also follow the same patterns and allow you to create web applications which are very much conforming to the MVC patterns. This keeps the development much easier than when a developer writes everything on his own.

• Event Driven Programming EDP or Event Driven Programming is one of those things which any developer would want to do. In case you do not understand the term, it is all about taking actions when the events are raised. It helps you take actions when particular events occur; for example, when you have to take a series of actions on the database for extraction, manipulation and insertion of data when a button is pressed on a page. A page might contain many such buttons which can raise any event and the website must take appropriate action when the particular action taken. Such a style is called Event Driven Programming. Frameworks, including the PHP development frameworks allow you to do EDP. They help you take a lot of actions on events such as Key presses or button clicks. It allows you, the developer to focus on the program logic rather than investing your precious intelligence figuring out how to route the request generated by the button press through the application. Since most other actions are also controlled by the framework, they take care of EDP style development quite easily.

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While the above is by no means an exhaustive list of features, we would surely say that there is a whole lot more which the PHP frameworks can help you do. We, however, do not mention them here because the extra functionalities provided by the frameworks hugely depend on which particular PHP framework you are using. We would take up the features of the other frameworks while we discuss about them individually.

足 Vaibhav Kaushal www.thetrozone.com

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A Buyer’s Guide to Compact Digital Camera

Purchasing a Digital Camera is not a simple task. With a large number of manufacturers battling it out against each other it gets more difficult. Not to mention the technology jargon involved in advertising often puts the non­geeky consumer with no option but to get a camera which the salesperson thrusts in his/her face. In this guide, I will tell you a few important things which are essential for you to know before you go out & get a digital camera. After reading this guide, you will be able to get just the right camera within your budget without succumbing to the salesperson choice.

• Type : This is the most important decision you need to make before you even touch a camera in the store. Digital camera comes in a variety of types. Choose whether you need a point & shoot or a full­ fledged Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. DSLR camera demands a premium & so do its accessories. Consider purchasing DSLR only if you plan to engross into serious photography or else you can settle for a budget point & shoot or a moderate prosumer digital camera. The type of camera you select will depend on your budget & it will also determine the flexibility you get.

• Megapixel : Quite often than not most of the people as well as the salesperson give a lot of weight to this 9 letter word. You often hear the statement, “The more the megapixel the better is the camera.” This is not true at all. The more the megapixel doesn’t necessarily mean the camera is better. The term ‘Megapixel’ just gives an indication about the number of pixels the cameras sensor can record. Generally you need more megapixels if you plan to enlarge your images to put in your living room or to print them out on a fairly large sheet of paper. If you need to use the images for web, then even a 3.2 MP camera phone is more than enough. A 5 megapixel camera is good enough to print for an A4 size paper & prints up to 5 by 7 in size. If your requirements exceed these then you should get a camera having 8MP or more.

Choose wisely though since there are those cheap companies who advertise their camera’s having 8MP sensor but in reality they are 5MP while the extra pixels are added using software manipulations. If you ever happen to see the term ‘Interpolated’ or ‘Interpolation’ then stay away from the camera.

• Zoom : Zoom is measured by manufacturers in two types – Digital & Optical. Every digital camera has both but the thing to watch here is the amount of Optical Zoom. Optical Zoom of the camera changes the focal length of the camera by moving the lens & thereby zooming into the subject. Since this is done by the lens, it does not produce pixelation caused by digital zoom. Digital zoom on the other hand uses software algorithms to crop the image & zoom it giving you a feel of getting closer. This leads to deterioration in the image quality which easily comes to the viewers notice. So my advise here is to get a camera having a good optical zoom (preferably more than 5x) & avoid purchasing camera by its Digital Zoom. Also I recommend you not to use Digital Zoom while shooting with your digital camera. There will be an option to disable it your camera menu so you cannot use it by accident during shooting.

• Wide­Angle Lens Coverage : After zoom, you should have a look at the wide angle lens coverage.

Now­a­days most compact cameras pretty much offer at­least 28mm wide angle coverage & this will be

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be good for most. There are even some cameras in the market offering 24mm focal length at the wide angle. The lesser the focal length, the more area you’ll be able to accommodate in your frame from a short distance. This helps when you’re shooting indoors in a limited space or when you capture large group portraits or like to do landscape photography. You can check this specification on the camera box or on the lens rim itself.

• Image Stabilization (IS) or Vibration Reduction (VR) : Photography is all about producing sharp well exposed images. Lugging around a tripod is inconvenient & sometimes even unpractical. To remedy this situation the manufacturers have come up with a technology which shifts the lens upon sensing movement caused by unsteady hands or caused by slower shutter speeds. This helps you in getting sharp images without tripod. This technology is known as Image Stabilization or Vibration reduction. As with Zoom, this too comes in two flavors – Digital & Optical. As you have guessed it, Digital Image Stabilization is practically useless since it achieves the stabilization by software manipulations whereas Optical Image Stabilization does it via shifting the lens to the opposite direction of the shake. This gives a perfect stabilization while keeping the image quality intact. Thus always choose a camera having Optical Image stabilization.

• Articulating LCD Screen : An articulating LCD screen is the one which flips out & rotates in order to make it convenient for the user. Often fixed LCD screens at the back of your digital camera mean doing guess work when you take shots from above your head or from angle close to the ground. The articulating LCD screen helps you to take such photographs without cranking up your neck or for that matter your steady posture. Its a big plus but can only be found on comparatively higher end compact cameras. The articulating LCD screen is also useful when shooting video, the reason why most digital camcorders have one. If you plan to take photos & videos from different angles(& which you should do to make your photos unique) then this feature is a must.

• Power Source : Different cameras use different power source. It is always advisable to get a camera which uses a popular type of power source like AA batteries. The plus point here is being popular you can find it anywhere if you need one at the earliest. Also they come cheap than the non­popular ones. Stay away from camera’s having proprietary battery packs since they are hard to get & cost a bomb. I recommend you to always keep a spare of batteries with you so you need not miss that special moment.

It will even save you time going hills & mountains. A digital camera providing an external power input through AC adapter is always a plus.

• Storage : Most camera have very less or no amount of internal memory to store your digital images.

So it becomes indispensable to get memory card to store your images. Memory cards come in myriad types but you will be stuck using only one which your camera supports. Get a camera which supports the most popular type of memory card so you can save money. Again proprietary memory cards cost a bomb & it’s best to stay away from camera which uses them. Also have a look at the memory card capacity your camera supports. You don’t want to buy a camera which holds just a few hundreds of images. Most of the newer digital camera support up­to 32GB memory cards which are huge enough to store thousands of digital images. I recommend you to get the biggest memory card your budget can accommodate.

• Weight : The camera you purchase should have just the right amount of weight that it doesn’t feel too skinny nor too rock solid. Camera weight is essential to consider if you are the one who takes camera with you always so as not to miss any photograph opportunity. If the camera is heavy no sooner your hands will start aching & this can mean you not enjoying the photography session. A light camera on the other hand will mean not rock solid to stay still while you depress the shutter button. So you need to get a camera that is neither too heavy nor too light. Thus while purchasing a digital camera use the camera

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for a while so you can get an idea of its weight. The weight criteria is subjective so it’s best to check the camera on your own than to go by suggestions of your friends or colleagues.

• Flash Hotshoe : Almost all digital camera have a small integrated flash which fires when it senses low light conditions. The flash is almost useless since it cannot illuminate objects beyond its specific length.

To remedy this get a digital camera which comes with an hotshoe to mount external flash unit. Though be warned since you will need to spend out for this feature since most of the entry or prosumer digital cameras don’t provide the hotshoe.

• Record Videos : I bet that you will occasional feel the need to record those special moments that cannot be described in pictures. For this having a good recording ability in your digital camera is a must.

Look for digital camera which offers you to record high definition videos(720p or 1980p @ 24/30fps) & also have a look at the format in which it saves. Saving video in RAW format will take oodles of space on your memory cards & so it is advisable to look for a camera which uses some good compression format like MP4 or MOV to save videos. Now­a­days most cameras come with HD video recording at 720p or 1080p so unless you get a very entry level camera(640*480@30fps) you’ll get decent video recording capabilities.

• Miscellaneous Tips: 1. Purchase a set or two of rechargeable batteries & charger. You can save a lot of money by this instead of using disposable ones.

2. Invest in a good camera pouch to protect your camera from dust & also to keep it safe during journey.

3. Instead of getting a single memory card of high capacity, purchase two memory cards of smaller capacity. If one card gets lost or goes corrupt you can at least continue shooting with the other. Get at­ least Class 6 memory card, if your camera has the ability to record HD videos. If it doesn’t you can go for standard ones which are cheaper.

4. Get a Lens hood to protect your camera lens from dust and sun glare. A polarizing filter is another must have if your camera supports filters.

5. Make the above purchases at the time you get your digital camera so you can get good discount on the total invoice amount.

Now go out, get your dream camera & start snapping away. Do remember, its not how good the camera is but how creative & competent the person behind the camera is for good photographs.

­ Gaurav Prabhu

shuttertux.wordpress.com

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Photoshop Tutorial

In this quick tip tutorial, we will learn how to create a realistic paper texture from scratch in just 5 minutes. To do this we will use some simple filters and effects.

Step One : Create new file 1280 x 1024 px. Create a rectangular selection in the center of the image, hit Q to enter quick mask mode. Go to Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize, use small cell size and click OK. Hit Q again to return to normal mode. Create a new layer. Press D then Ctrl+Delete to fill selection with white. To remove selection press Ctrl+D

Step Two : Activate the burn tool with exposure 20%. Paint the paper until it looks dark and dirty. Go to Filter > Texture > Texturizer, use Texture: Canvas and click OK. Step Three : Double click the paper layer to open the Layer Styles dialog and activate the Drop Shadow effect. Don’t worry with the settings, just click OK. This shadow is very flat and unrealistic, but we’ll fix it.

Step Four : From the Layers panel, right click Drop Shadow and choose Create Layer. This step will separate the Drop Shadow from the paper.

Step Five : Select the shadow layer, hit Ctrl+T to transform it. Right click it and choose Warp. Move the handles until the shadow looks irregular, just like a real one.

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Step Six : Activate the Gradient Tool, in the option bar and choose Linear and Mode: Difference. Create a random gradient, from top to bottom, bottom to top, left right, and right to left. Just go crazy!

Step Seven : Go to Filter > Stylize > Emboss.

Hit Ctrl+L and move the white and black sliders to the middle.

Step Eight : Hit Ctrl+alt+G. Change blending mode to Overlay.

Conclusion : That’s it! You can turn this into a thin paper by lowering its opacity. Below is the final paper on a wood texture.

Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Photoshop Difficulty: Beginner Estimated Completion Time: 5 Minutes Source: BASIC Photoshop.

­ Siddharth Aditya Saurav www.imsidz.cc.cc

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Command & Conquer: Red Alert Review

• One liner: An excellent Classic RTS • Platform: PC • Genre: RTS

If you read TECHWIT's first issue you may have been surprised as to why there was no retro game review.

Heck there wasn't any game review! However it's time you scoff away that "No game review, sucks!" feeling.

This is the magazine's first retro game review and to make it memorable I did my best to write a review on a really good game. I’m proud to present you an old school game which once ruled the RTS gaming in its time. Its Command&Conquer: Red Alert. I’m sure most of you have heard about "Red­Alert" game but haven't heard C&C: Red Alert. This classic RTS proves it still has the game play, good enough to shatter records!

Story

Command & Conquer: Red Alert takes place during an unspecified period in the 1950s of a parallel universe, which was inadvertently created by Albert Einstein in a failed attempt to prevent the horrors of World War II. Starting off in the year of 1946, at the Trinity site of New Mexico in the United States of America, the opening to Red Alert shows Albert Einstein as he is preparing to travel backwards through space and time. After his experimental "chronosphere" device is activated, he finds himself in Landsberg, Germany, in the year 1924, where he meets a young Adolf Hitler just after the latter's release from

Landsberg Prison. Following a brief conversation between the two, Einstein shakes Hitler's hand, with this somehow eliminating the man's existence from time and returning Einstein to his point of origin.

With the threat of Nazi Germany having been successfully removed from history, the Soviet Union began to grow increasingly powerful under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Had Adolf Hitler risen to power, Nazi Germany would have emerged as a force standing in the way of Stalin's own ambitions of conquest.

Instead, left unchecked, the USSR proceeds by seizing lands from China and then begins invading Eastern Europe, in order to achieve Joseph Stalin's vision of a Soviet Union stretching across the entire Eurasian landmass. In response, the nations of Europe form into the Alliance, and start a grim and desperate guerrilla war against the invading Soviet army. Over the course of the game's story, the Allies and Soviets fight out a devastating conflict for control over the European mainland, in what has become an alternate World War II.

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Gameplay

When a game that was the height of your gaming experience has lost its charm, you begin to show signs of wanting to play newer games such as the likes of Crysis, NFS: Shift etc. Thankfully C&C: RedAlert is a game which can just sings you back on your seat. This classic game still plays with a sharp edge that many current RTS games and gamers can only dream about. Sure the game's graphics never matches the likes of Crysis, NFS: Hot Pursuit etc and will never do, but the game itself can turn the tide on the current games.

The game is simple and doesn't need have all those complex controls where you take a closer look to give them an in­depth reading but this game and their AI is a little simpler by current standards but the point here us: this game still plays like it means business. C&C: Red Alert has been very well made by Nextwood studios. The allies and the Soviets have such sheer variety of units and structures that its astonishing for a game this old.

In my opinion an RTS is best when a game contains all the three distinct units ie, Air, Land and Water units and C&C: Red Alert didn’t fail to impress. The full layout of air, land and water units is covered in innovative ways. Most impressive is the superlative balance, not just between the factions but the individual units themselves. Its all backed up by the clever level design in the campaign driving great story, and blessed by an abundance of character­ the Allies and the Soviets are painted very well and in the unit voice work and art style. C&C: Red Alert contains some of the most iconic characters and units in the genre.

Going to the system specification, if your system cannot run this game then there is only one thing you can do: take out your CPU, RAM, motherboard (and GPU if any). Burn! Sell the cabinet to scrap dealers. Buy a new PC. C&C: Red Alert is a game that every fan of the genre should own and play and I feel I will be cursed by the God of gaming if I ever insult this great game. So I suggest you immediately download this game, play and see if you feel the same!

And for those of you who don’t know how to play RTS game or if you happen to be a newbie (read "beginner") fret not, this game will serve you as a tutorial very well.

Ratings: 8.5/10

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­ David Kai Singson kaisingson@gmail.com