Competition: Win! An Acer H6510BD 3D projector
Here's your chance to win a fantastic full HD, 3D projector capable of producing a display up to 300 inches in size courtesy of Acer.
Enter our simple competition and you'll be in with a chance of owning an Acer H6510BD projector which can display a screen of between 45 and 300 inches.
Connect it up to your television, laptop or games console for some serious high def viewing action.
It doesn't just excel at 2D footage, as the ultra bright 3000 lumen lamp inside also supports 3D playback, allowing you to get fully engrossed in your films.
You'll also find a remote control in the box, making it easy to control if you opt to wall or ceiling mount the H6510BD.
This is a prize worth over £600, so to be in with a chance of winning this great projector simply click here to enter the competition.
Please note that this competition is only open to UK residents over 18 years of age.
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Olympus OM-D E-M10 goes limited edition in orange, black and green
Olympus has three new premium limited edition OM-D E-M10 kits going on sale next month with matching coloured lens cap and leather straps.
The kits will come with the 14-42mm collapsible kit lens found with the original kit, but the E-M10's body will feature synthetic leather detail in green, orange or black.
Besides the more premium build, or rather premium-feeling body, all innards remain the same.
Colours all round
Along with the synthetic leather body details, you'll also get a matching genuine leather strap in the matching colour.To carry the colour theme along, the 14-42mm lens will also feature a matching coloured lens cap.
This limited edition kit will be priced at AU$1099 and will be available from July in Australia. Currently, the single lens E-M10 kit with 14-45mm lens goes for an RRP of $999.
- If you want to know more about the camera, read out review of the Olympus OM-D E-M10
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New Kickstarter wearable wants to help Smash your rivals at tennis
A common theme for the metric tonne of wrist-mounted wearables that were announced at CES this year is that they are all general purpose trackers, designed to give a snapshot at your overall health.
Aussie entrepreneur Rob Crowdor is taking a different approach with his tennis-themed wearable, Smash. Instead of focusing purely on stats, the Smash is designed to work as a training companion to help improve your game.
While the internals of the device are notably similar - pull the device apart and you'll find a three-axis accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer, Bluetooth Smart chip, a lithium polymer battery and some flash storage - the difference is that the software has been specifically tweaked for tennis coaching.
Game, Set, Apps
The team behind the Smash has developed iOS and Android apps specifically designed for helping tennis players get the most out of their game by wearing the device.After each match, players will be able to analyse every aspect of their game, from the number and types of shots taken and the racket head speed and momentum, to the amount of spin and wrist rotation in every shot, plus ongoing consistency throughout your game for both impact point and technique.
Players will be able to set goals, based off tips and advice offered by the app, to try and improve their performance over time.
There will also be social leaderboards and achievements, although we'll need to wait until after the project has been funded before we discover what those achievements will be.
Sporting deuce
The developers of the Smash wearable are planning on opening up an API for the device, which should offer a whole new range of functionality.Initially the API was to allow keen developers the opportunity to get more from the device's recorded data, but according to the FAQ on the Kickstarter page, the team is now looking at using the API to turn the Smash into a suitable training device for other sports.
Should the Smash hit its $200,000 funding target on Kickstarter, it's expected to begin shipping in February 2015.
- If you're interested in wearables, why not read out Jawbone Up24 review?
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Sharing is caring: Optus introduces data sharing and month-to-month plans
Optus has announced data sharing options across its post-paid My Plan range - now to be called My Plan Plus - that have no ongoing costs.
Available from June 10 and at the same $35, $50, $60, $80 and $100 price plans (which give you 500MB, 1GB, 2GB 3GB or 5GB data per month, respectively), the plans will allow you to share data across five devices.
While Telstra currently charges an extra $10 per month for data sharing on top of plan charges, Optus' new data sharing option will allow you to add each device for a one-off cost of $5 for the additional SIM and set up.
"Customers told us they loved the original My Plan products, and thanks to their feedback, we're making these plans even better," said Paul O'Sullivan, Country Chief Officer for Optus.
"With these new plans, we think many customers will choose to ditch standalone mobile broadband plans for good."
More for everyone
Families and small business customers can also pool together their individual mobile plans and share the grouped data across all connected devices.For example, if you have two mobile plans, one on a $80 mobile plan and the other on a $50 plan, you will have 4GB to share in total.
With these plans, Optus will still give you an additional 1GB for an extra $10 automatically if you use more than your monthly allowance, as per its current My Plan range.
SIM-only gets more attractive
Optus also announced a range of month-to-month, SIM-only plans, priced at $35, $45 and $60 per month.While the lowest $30 plan gives you only 300 minutes of talk, you do get unlimited SMS and MMS. The two other tiers get you unlimited calls, SMS and MMS, as well as 2GB on the $40 plan or 5GB the highest $60 plan.
You also get the data sharing option on these plans, along with automatic tier jump of an extra 1GB for an additional $10.
Arguably, these month-to-month plans, called My Plan Plus SIM Only, offer better value for money over the 24-month plans, all without locking you into a contract.
When asked, Optus said that the benefit of its 24-month plan is a subsidised phone, however Optus itself cited a downward trend in customers buying smartphones from their telco.
And with phone subsidies become less and less of a savings in comparison to an outright purchase Optus' $60 SIM only option is perhaps the best plan to be on if you want to share data across your devices.
The competition
Currently, Telstra is the only other telco offering data sharing for customers, but as noted earlier, it does demand an on-going $10 monthly charge and only on 24-month contract plans.Vodafone, on the other hand, only offers data sharing for its business customers currently, but it may bring out a consumer option later this year. It does however offer $5 daily-capped roaming options in 47 countries on all post-paid, which may be of more interest than data sharing for frequent travellers.
Interestingly, when asked if Optus will be looking to build its own Wi-Fi network like Telstra announced last week, the telco said that it will focus on developing 4G network for now.
"Wi-Fi hotspots are helpful if you're near one and you can connect to one... We think in Australia if you look at how people travel, consume, commute to work, we actually think they need the freedom and flexibility to be able to use a mobile network," said Vicki Brady, Optus' Managing Director of Customer.
Currently, Optus' data sharing options will not be available for pre-paid customers, though it will continue to monitor customer feedback and take up of data sharing.
Existing customers who are in-contract can move on to these new data-sharing plans by contacting Optus. Optus will also be contacting existing customers that may be better suited for data sharing.
- With all these new announcements, you may want to know which Aussie telco has the best 4G network
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Review: Updated: Fitbit Flex
Even though the Flex was briefly superseded earlier this year with the arrival of the Fitbit Force, it is once again the company's flagship tracker following the Force's recall earlier this year.
Fitbit has said it's fixed the issues that plagued the Force and is all set to release the new, updated version, but until that happens, the Flex is still the wrist-mounted tracker flagship from the company.
Announced at CES back in 2013, the Fitbit Flex combines the step-counting technology that made its One and Zip products so useful, and places it on the wrist for convenience.
This big design change has some pretty big advantages. For a start, the fear of having the small sensor pop out from a pocket while walking is gone. With the wrist mounted option, you always know where the device is.
The second major benefit is for sleep-tracking. While the Fitbit One offered the ability to track sleep by slipping the sensor into a soft, velcro arm band, the Flex leaves the sensor permanently attached, allowing you to switch modes without removing the device at all.
Unlike the Jawbone Up, the Flex consists of two separate parts - the sensor and the strap. The sensor itself is smaller than the One, thanks to the fact that it doesn't include an LED display.
Instead, five LED lights indicate the number of steps taken during a day, and are only activated by double tapping the device.
The rubber wristband is lightweight, but a little simplistic in its design. Unlike a watch strap or even a bracelet, the Flex uses a plastic grey latch to poke to plastic prongs into a series of holes on the band.
Getting the Flex closed the first time can be challenging, but it does quickly become second nature. It's not as comfortable or effortless as the Jawbone Up, but it is functional.
The other noteworthy aspect of the Flex band is the clear bar that sits above the LED lights in the actual tracker unit. This band allows you to view your progress while wearing the band.
But after a few weeks, that clear band was already showing signs of wear and tear, with scuffs and scratches, despite a blatant lack of gruelling conditions.
Of course, Fitbit offers a range of bands in a variety of colours, which might be a nice way (although expensive) to work around this problem.
Power to the people
One of the most immediate joys of using the Fitbit Flex over the Jawbone Up is the inclusion of Bluetooth 4.0 wireless syncing. Instead of having to manually remove the device and plug it into your phone to sync, the FitBit will periodically wake up and connect to your phone, keeping your stats up to date.The catch is that at the moment, wireless syncing to mobile still only works with a very limited number of devices. If you don't own an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 or Galaxy Note 2, then you're out of luck on the phone front.
That said, it also syncs with a 5th Gen iPod Touch, 3rd and 4th Gen iPad and iPad mini and the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet.
While this is currently a major frustration for Android users, there is good news on that front with Google announcing Bluetooth Smart support as part of the OS, which should theoretically give Bluetooth 4.0 syncing support to a much wider range of devices.
In the meantime, the Flex does come with a small USB dongle for syncing to Mac or PC. It works well, but is nowhere near as elegant a solution as the mobile syncing.
One thing that does work in the Flex's favour is battery life. Despite the inclusion of Bluetooth for wireless syncing, the Flex still managed to almost match the Jawbone Up for longevity when worn side by side.
While the Up can be pushed to 9 days of use - depending on how active you are - the Flex tended to last seven or eight days.
Sure, that's a step down, but the convenience of wireless syncing makes it all worthwhile. Especially given it also offers some kind of real time indication of your daily progress in the form of five LED lights, while the Up has nothing.
The question of accuracy
Like a high-tech hipster, we tested the Flex by wearing it on our weaker arm, with the Jawbone Up right alongside it. Despite the proximity of the two devices, the results were quite varied.On the sleep front, the Jawbone was easily the stronger device. Nights spent getting up and down to unsettled children were accurately broken up by the Up as times awake, while the Fitbit app claimed that sleep was just a little unsettled.
But when it came to step counting, the devices offered such varied results that you had to wonder how they could both claim to count the same thing.
Without fail, the Flex reported a significantly higher number of steps taken than the Up. On a day where we conquered our 10,000 step goal on the Flex, the Up would bring us back to earth by reporting only 8,000 steps taken.
To test which of the two was more accurate, we physically walked 200 steps, counting as we went. Neither device tracked the steps 100 per cent accurately, although the Flex did come up slightly closer to the mark.
How that extrapolates to larger numbers is unclear, but there's a real question mark over the accuracy of the wrist-mounted device, which is something we didn't encounter with the pocket-mounted One or Flex.
Steps to 'appiness
Fitbit's app is easy enough to come to grips with for even the most novice of users, but does let you drill down into more and more layers of information.That said, it still struggles with food tracking thanks to a lack of internationally localised cuisines, although that is something that can be worked around thanks to the third party app ecosystem and services like MyFitnessPal.
Compared to the Jawbone, the social aspect with the FitBit app seems undercooked, which seems like a missed opportunity.
On the upside, Fitbit has just launched IFTTT compatibility, which will automate many functions and help improve the overall function of the device with very little effort.
Which goes back to the verdict we came to in our Jawbone Up review, that the Fitbit is a much more useful fitness tool, while the Up is a lifestyle tech accessory.
The Flex does start to veer to the accessory side of the fence with its design, but it's app keeps it firmly in the fitness tool category.
Verdict
The Fitbit ecosystem is a great way to start using technology to keep on top of your personal health. But the Flex is the weakest link in the product lineup, a device that tries to take the same technology as the One and place it in a much more convenient position on the body.The catch is that it sacrifices too much. Gone is the satisfying feeling of accuracy, with high step counts seemingly too-easy to obtain thanks to inaccurate algorithms.
The wristband itself could also use a little more work. It's lightweight and comfortable, but looks more like the watchband on a kid's watch than a truly stylish piece of tech.
All that said though, Fitbit has shown the strengths of its platform. Wireless syncing is essential in this product lineup, and having a strong app ecosystem is a huge benefit to fitness trackers out there.
There's no doubt the second generation Flex will improve on all of the issues, but at this stage the One is still a much better alternative for your money.
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Google to open up Android voice search for an eyes-free driving experience
Google is reportedly working on expanding its Android voice search functionality with an eyes-free interface, allowing drivers to focus on the road while interacting with their phones.
The initiative, apparently codenamed KITT after the artificially intelligent talking car from Knight Rider, would allow users to utter 'OK Google' to search for the weather, for news, or for directions.
The feature would be an expansion of the feature offered by the Google-made Moto X, offering results in spoken form so as not to distract the user from the task at hand.
According to AndroidPolice, the site that uncovered the plans, users would 'take turns' with the phone as it walked them through tasks like searching the web, making calls, sending texts and more.
Safety first
When Google isn't unable to provide the information in a way the does not require the user to look at the screen, it will save the information until users can pull over and read it safely, the report claimed.The idea, naturally, is to make Android safer to use behind the wheel, with users able to access the 'OK Google' voice search feature from anywhere within the phone.
With Google I/O just a few weeks away, what price we'll see this feature unveiled at Google's annual expo?
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HP announces touchscreen Android SlateBook Tegra-powered laptop
HP has officially announced its first laptop running Android in the form of the previously rumoured 14-inch SlateBook PC.
The black-and-yellow coloured machine will arrive in August with an Nvidia Tegra 4 processor, which can handle 4K playback a la the firm's Android tablets, and 2GB of RAM.
The 14-inch display rocks 1920 x 1080 HD touchscreen display, a battery life of up to 9 hours and come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models.
The Slatebook will run a forked version of Android with HP's custom UI but will have full access to the Google Play store, with apps stretching across the full 14-inches without too much trouble.
Chromebook rival?
The Slatebook will answer the growing demand for Android on laptops, according to HP, and will rival Google's own range of Chromebooks, running the Chrome OS.While the Chromebooks will perhaps offer a better web browsing experience, the Android powered laptops have access to a much wider range of apps at their disposal.
The HP SlateBook PC will cost $399 (around £238, AU$428).
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12,000 people have already registered to be 'forgotten by Google'
Google has confirmed that 12,000 European citizens have jumped on the chance to be partially expunged from search records, just one day after the web giant released a registration form.
The European Court of Justice ruling, gives people the right to have information that is "irrelevant, outdated or otherwise inappropriate" to be removed from the results.
Many of the requests have been from criminals seeking to have records of convictions removed, people hit by scandals in the media or those whose character has been called into question.
The firm has vowed to inspect each of the requests and judge them on individual merits, but has made no promises about when the purging will take place.
Consuming
Google agreed to comply with the ruling, which was made in May after a Spanish man requested the right to have details of a house repossession 16 years ago, removed from Google Search results.Google said the result of the case was "disappointing," but the task of wading through thousands of requests from Europeans, and the prospect of similar cases in other territories may prove troublesome and resource consuming for the web giant.
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Samsung confirms Tizen-based Smart TVs with SDK coming in July
Samsung is throwing yet more of its considerable weight behind the home cooked Tizen OS, after confirming plans to introduce a new range of Smart TVs running the software.
Over the weekend, the firm announced it'll launch an SDK next month, which will allow developers to create apps, games and services for the new platform.
Samsung said the Beta version of the software comes with a Smart Interaction feature, that enables the use of voice and gesture controls.
There will also be multi-screen options and compatibility with the firm's other Tizen gadgets.
Tizen takeover
As well as a series of wrist-based wearables, like the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo, Samsung also has cameras running the software, while the first Tizen smartphones are also on the way.It is clear that the company is hoping to establish its own Apple-like ecosystem where everything plays nice with everything else, without relying on Google.
Samsung did not say when the Tizen-based tellies would arrive, but we may hear more this week when the Tizen Developers' Conference gets underway.
Our money would probably be on CES 2015 next January, where the firm usually does all of its televisual bidding for the year.
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Believe it or not, these people actually use Bing - and here's why
We all knew that Bing would have a tough time taking on the titan that is Google, but having now served a full five years on this planet just how much progress has it made?
There were rumblings that Microsoft might be planning to spin off Bing, but at the recent Code Conference, Nadella was quite insistent that the search engine will stay exactly where it is. He also added that Microsoft was working to build a smarter search that would predict users' intentions, similar to Google Now.
"Instead of you having to find information, information finds you," he said.
To mark the fifth birthday of Microsoft's search engine, we tracked down some Bing fans to ask them why they've been turned to the Microsoft side, what it offers that Google doesn't, and what they'd like to see improved.
Oh, and if any of them have actually ever said "Let me Bing that for you" to anyone before.
Nic Davies. Age: 17. Occupation: Student
So why do you use Bing?"First of all, it provides me with much more accurate results than Google. Sometimes I can find what I'm looking for on the first page of Bing, whereas it might be on the second or third page of Google.
"The advertisements are also not as obtrusive in the search results, such as with Google. It's also great for my Windows phone, I like seeing those great photographs as my lockscreen every day"
"I probably wouldn't have given it a chance if it weren't on my phone. Google is much greater in a lot of aspects compared to Bing. Although I feel Bing is catching up fast in terms of features."
What would you do to improve Bing right now?
"The sign-in option only allows a Microsoft account to be connected, I would like to see a Google account or a Yahoo account to be connected. Or even to sign in with social media accounts."
Ever said "Let me Bing that"?
"Not at all, but I've never said 'Google it' either."
Kevin Joyce. Age: 31. Occupation: Editor of VR Focus
So why do you use Bing?"I only started using it because it was default on my phone. But following that I did manually make it default on my PCs, laptops and tablet.
"Its international maps service is much better than Google. On site and image search, the difference is negligible. On maps and local search Bing is far quicker and more accurate.
"I only use Google for image search, and even then not all the time. I was part of the 'Meh. Bing.' trend until I actually used it"
What feature of Bing would you improve?
"I'm not a fan of the way images are displayed in image search. It uses this silly semi-page pop-out thing. I would prefer it just to open a new tab. You can't right-click like in Google."
Ever said "Let me Bing that"?
"Yes, but only as an ironic statement when with iPhone users."
Bajram Hoxha. Age 22. Occupation: Programmer
So why do you use Bing?"The User Interface and some of the unique features that Bing provides really attracted me, and I decided to try something different from what I was used to.
"Bing has some useful tools for web developers. In addition, Bing Maps seem a lot clearer to me, which is important because I'm a cyclist. Besides that, Bing is efficient.
"My favourite feature is the User interface. Video search preview is another feature that lets me [hold the[ mouse over video results and get a 30-second preview directly in the results, which is a better solution compared to my previous go-to search engine."
What feature of Bing would you improve?
"The name recognition is something that definitely Bing needs to improve in future."
Ever said "Let me Bing that"?
"I am the type of person that loves to try different things. Bing came out as an unique search engine, and I remember saying to my friends, 'I will Bing that code.' I truly believe we will hear that phrase from people more and more in the future."
So there you have it, folks. It turns out that there are Bing users out there. For some people it's just a way of sticking it to Google. Babur Yaqub, another person who we spoke to, said: "I don't think its about Bing being better than say Google. It's just that Google being 'advertising' company first is something which makes it less trustable."
But there's clearly some love for the design and features that Bing offers too. So Happy Birthday, Bing. You might not be number one but you're steadily winning people over.
And who knows? As Windows 8 grows stronger and Google grows scarier to some people, you might be a titan of your own come the big 10.
- LG busts out the big guns and Apple buys its groove back - it's the Week in Tech
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Week in Gaming: Steam Machines delayed, Red Dead 3 on the way, and Watch Dogs: the verdict
Thank goodness we've got E3 just around the corner to distract us from ALL THESE DELAYS (we're looking straight at you, 1886). Now Valve has announced that we won't be getting our hands on its Steam Machines until 2015 either.
Well, the controller at least. But with no Steam controller (we've tried it, it's awesome), there's really no Steam Machine, is there? It explains why all went a bit quiet after the big unveiling at CES; Valve says it needs a bit more time to perfect its gamepad, which has gone through a couple of iterations already.
"Realistically, we're now looking at a release window of 2015, not 2014," read a blog post from Gabe and the gang.
"We're now using wireless prototype controllers to conduct live playlists, with everyone from industry professionals to die-hard gamers to casual gamers. It's generating a ton of useful feedback, and it means we'll be able to make the controller a lot better."
Well, so you're ready for then, here's our rundown of the Steam Machines that are heading your way. Origin PC and Webhallen have already confirmed that their machines will be pushed back to meet Valve's new target.
Mutt monitors
Speaking of delays, Watch Dogs was finally unleashed this week after its six-month push-back. Having played the game ourselves several months ago we knew that things were looking good, but when Ubisoft announced that reviews would be embargoed until the release day... well, we couldn't help but be a smidge concerned.But despite a few gripes, the game has impressed across the board. CVG was particularly impressed, rating it 9/10 and saying: "Forget speculation about textures and framerates - Watch Dogs is a bona fide next-gen proposition with a wonderfully told tale at its heart."
Meanwhile GamesRadar gave it a 4/5 and said: "The story is unlikely to keep you logged in, and the missions will often feel annoyingly familiar, but if you connect with and really explore this high-tech world, there are plenty of virtual--and emotional--rewards to harvest."
Before its release, we visited Ubisoft to discuss just how 'next-gen' the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Watch Dogs are, and how frighteningly close to reality the game's vision of a hackable city actually is.
And to celebrate the game's release this week, we also looked back at some of the best and worst hacking features in games gone by, and even took a look at some of the real-life hackers who are protecting our smart cities.
Saddle up
A source recently told TechRadar that Rockstar will announce its next Red Dead game this year, and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has suggested that our snitch is on the money.Speaking at an analyst conference this week, Zelnich announced that Red Dead was a permanent franchise for the publisher, strongly hinting that a sequel is nigh.
"It's obvious that GTA is a permanent franchise as long as we keep slivering this incredible quality; it seems quite obvious that Red Dead is a permanent franchise, again with the same caveat," he said.
He also believes that BioShock still has a future, despite the closure of Irrational Games back in February.
"We think it's important [and] certainly something that we're focused on; something 2K Marin will be responsible for shepherding going forward," said Zelnick. "I think there's a lot of upside in that franchise. It hasn't necessarily been realised yet." [CVG]
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In depth: 6 amazing things you didn't know about your computer
Amazing things your computer does
It's a ritual across the globe: somewhere between sticking the kettle on and complaining about last night's match, you'll probably hit the button on your ageing company PC and wait while it slowly thinks about turning on. Rather than take it for granted, though, it's worth taking a couple minutes to realise a few of the things that your poor robot slave does without you ever knowing.1. Bits, Bytes, and Size
Next time you complain about the pitiful memory capacity of your old 8GB iPod Touch, it's worth remember what makes up eight whole gigabytes. Computer science grads will know that in every gigabyte, there's 1024 megabytes; 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte, and 1024 bytes in a kilobyte. Breaking it down to the lowest level, you've got 8 bits in a byte.
Why does that matter? Because on a flash drive, each bit of data is made up of eight separate floating gates, each comprising two physical transistors, which can basically record themselves as either a '1' or a '0'. (Want to be impressed ever further? Each floating gate actually relies on quantum mechanics to work.) That means that an 8GB iPod Touch – the one you were laughing at a minute ago for being puny – has, according to my back-of-the-napkin maths, 549,755,813,888 individual gates arrayed inside that svelte aluminium body. Mighty clever engineering indeed.
2. Everything you see or hear on the internet is actually on your computer
All your computer-whizz friends probably delight in telling you how having a 'library' of videos is so 2008, that no-one torrents any more, it's all Netflix and iPlayer and 'The Cloud', whatever that means. But, you might want to remind them: every time you stream a video or the week's latest Top 40 off the web, it's actually, technically playing off your computer.See, every internet media file has to make a local copy of itself on your machine, first. Ever wondered what that white buffering bar means on YouTube or Netflix? It's the amount of video that's been copied to the local cache, a.k.a. the amount you can still watch if your internet decides to up and die.
3. The distance data travels
A quick experiment for you: click this link, which should take you to Wikipedia. With one click, you've just fetched a bunch of data from servers in Ashburn, Virginia, about 6000km away. Your request has travelled from your computer, through a local Wi-Fi router or a modem, up to a local data centre, from there onwards (under the Atlantic Ocean, if you're in the UK), all the way to Virginia, and back again – in around 0.1 of a second, depending on how good your internet connection is.
By comparison, your body takes around 0.15 of a second for a signal to pass from your fingers, up your spinal cord to the brain, and back down again.
4. Counting Starts at Zero
At a base level, every computer's just a really big, complicated calculator. But thanks to the way its intrinsic circuitry works – with lots of little logic gates that are either 'on' or 'off' – every action that takes place at a base level is happening in binary, where things are either a 1 or a 0, with no shades of grey in between.This actually translates up to a neat bit of programming trivia – in the computer science world, all counting (with the rather notable exceptions of Fortran and Visual Basic) starts at zero, not one.
It actually makes a lot more sense – ever thought about why the 20th century refers to the 1900s? It's because when historians decided on the dating system, they weren't clever enough to call the very first century (0-99AD) the 0th century. If they had, we'd probably have far fewer confused school children the world over.
5. The work that goes into a Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V
One rather under-appreciated fact about solid state drives
(SSDs), regarded as the gold standard for fast, reliable storage, is
the amount of copying they have to do. When you want to copy some data
from one bit to another, it's not just a matter of shuffling the data
from one part of the drive to another.
Because of the complicated way a SSD works,
over-writing a block of old data with some shiny new data isn't as
simple as just writing the new stuff in with a bigger, thicker Sharpie.
Rather, the storage drive has to do some complicated shuffling around. 
In practice, this can mean that writing a tiny 4KB file can require the drive to read 2MB (that's thousands of times more data that the 4KB file you're trying to write), store that temporarily, erase a whole tonne of blocks, then re-write all the data. It's rather labour-intensive, so think before you juggle your files around next time.
6. Code isn't as clean as you think
The majority of us put faith in bits of technology you don't quite understand – be it committing your life to a 747, or your dirty pics to Snapchat's auto-delete. When you do you generally tend to assume that the code's been scrupulously examined by teams of caffeine-fuelled programmers, with most of the niggling little bugs found and nixed.The reverse seems to be quite the opposite. One Quora user pointed out that buried within the source code for Java, one of the internet's fundamental bits of code, is this gem:
/**
* This method returns the Nth bit that is set in the bit array. The
* current position is cached in the following 4 variables and will
* help speed up a sequence of next() call in an index iterator. This
* method is a mess, but it is fast and it works, so don't f*ck with it.
*/
private int _pos = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
It just goes to show that even programmers rush things to get home for the next installment of Game of Thrones sometimes.
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Inflame: Privacy auctioned off by Ebay hack
Auction site Ebay dominated the security side of the news last week after it revealed that user data had been stolen. Encrypted passwords, names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and more had been nicked from its servers.
15 million UK users and a staggering 145m Ebay accounts around the world were affected, in one of the biggest global security breaches since someone let Edward Snowden bring his external hard drive into the office with him.
Ebay took a critical kicking for its handling of the attack, which was said to have happened back in late February or early March. It took ages to tell people, took ages to issue password change requests, and generally made a mess of managing the situation. But it's still where we'll be buying everything, right?
P4SSW0RD
Discussion over on the Telegraph saw tech enthusiasts turn to a bragging match about the relative strength of their passwords. Reader IanHislop stepped up with: "I can recommend KeePass. I now have 80+ unique passwords, all up to 20 random characters that you could NEVER remember but as safe as a password can be."To which David19 replied with the slightly cynical: "So presumably you have these wonderful passwords on a phone or a computer somewhere… and how do you protect this list?"
He really shouldn't have gone there, as IanHislop replied with an insight into his insane password management skills, explaining: "Held on a USB stick (with a backup copy in a locked safe) protected by Bitlocker. The password file itself is encrypted and protected by a 32 character passphrase (the only one I need to know and, being a phrase that makes sense to me, I can readily recall it) that would take even the most powerful hacker tools '8 to the power of 25' centuries to crack on average."
Not that he's got anything to hide, of course.
Another fine mess
On Sky there was a suggestion that Ebay may be fined by the UK's Information Commissioner for breaching data protection rules, with reader Aquatic dreading the damage that will do to his monthly sales invoices, saying: "If Ebay gets fined loads of money, they will simply squeeze more out of their users to pay for it. They have already upped their fees to 11% and they include postage in their final valuation. eBbay never warned me to change my password, Sky News did, I heard nothing from Ebay."The financial implications of a fine are nothing to the auction giant, says reader Judgement Day, who complained: "£250,000 estimated fine is chicken feed to Ebay ... the rest of us are paying by having to sign up with Experian and other credit checking companies to ensure our details are not used for taking cash from our account."
Mr Day also summarised a lot of people's bewilderment that it appeared to take Ebay so long to work out what happened and tell people about it, adding: "Pretty poor excuse for a company with so much personal data, and this happened two months ago." Some negative feedback is definitely incoming.
Maximum security stockade
Beneath a Daily Mail piece that suggested the maximum fine Ebay could face in the UK is £500,000, the usual nutcases were out in force. Reader Vpharm is not happy at all, raging: "Hacking should be WHOLE LIFE IN JAIL. Selling data illegally should be LIFE in JAIL! Sadly a multi BILLION pound company will get a MAX £500,000 fine in the UK if any fine! We need the law to force companies like Ebay to compensate every victim £10,000 each time their data is taken!"Reader Wayne then made a joke that gathered 70 little green arrow things beside it, classifying him alongside the likes of Peter Kay and Bill Hicks in the all-time comedy rankings, with his comment: "Is the information for sale available for cash on collection or do you have to use PayPal?"
Not bad. Password security is one of the hardest things to care about, let alone attempt to be funny about.
Only me
And it wasn't just Ebay that hit the hack headlines this week. Odd news broke of an exploit that broke into Spotify's servers, although official comment from the streaming site claimed that "only one" person's data was actually accessed.Beneath an Ars Technica piece about the Spotify and Avast forum hacks, reader Robert Walter wonders why passwords are encrypted but not stuff like usernames and dates of birth, asking: "What kinds of idiots are running these companies that they think that credit card data (which is insured and can be cancelled and replaced) is more important than personal details which can't be replaced?"
There were a few technical explanations about why this is the case, but they didn't make particularly enjoyable reading, nor can we verify they're true as it's all a bit… hard.
The constant flood of highbrow hacking news is becoming routine reading for defeatist JohnnyTheGeek, though, who sighed a little further down: "I don't rant about these breaches anymore. It does no good, and I just accept that your information will be hacked online at some point and the bigger your footprint the faster this will happen."
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Prime time? Maybe not as HTC One M8 Prime 'suspended indefinitely'
When whispers of a super-premium HTC One M8 known as the 'Prime' began doing the rounds, some of those who'd just snapped up the company's flagship handset weren't best pleased.
After all, the argument went, would they have bought an M8 if they knew an improved version with superior innards and a better screen?
Well that angst may be over following word the Taiwanese smartphone firm may have curtailed their interest in launching the HTC One M8 Prime.
According to evleaks "development on Prime has been indefinitely suspended."
Prime power
Previous rumours had suggested the HTC One M8 Prime would have a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 (QHD) display, which would be up in both size and resolution from the 5-inch 1080p HTC One M8 display.It was also claimed the HTC One M8 Prime would be powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM and a 3000mAh battery back.
Has HTC ditched the phone completely, or might we see Prime's time come later than originally thought?
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