Raspberry Pi 2 Distros

Since you can now use the Raspberry Pi 2 as an everyday desktop, Mayank Sharma needs a distro that fits the fill.

The original Raspberry Pi struck a chord with anyone who wanted a tiny little device that had enough juice for a specialised task. Thanks to desktop distributions optimised for the Pi, in particular Raspbian, you could also use the Pi as an underpowered desktop. But with the shiny new Raspberry Pi 2, the device for the hobbyist has broken into the mainstream. With a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, the new version has the right kind of components and physical resources to outpace some full-sized desktops produced in the last decade or so.

Sony KD-65X9005C

This is an eye-catching 4K screen from Sony, but Steve May would rather be dreaming of electric sheep

After eight mints and vinyl records. These are just two things thinner than a Sony X9005C 4K/Ultra HD TV. It’s not much of a list, granted, but then this flagship thinitron is almost incomprehensibly svelte. Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking it an OLED panel rather than edge-lit LCD...

Pioneer VSX-930

Pioneer returns to the £500 AVR killzone with a Dolby Atmos model. Mark Craven reports

Last year, Pioneer dipped its toes into the Dolby Atmos waters, but only with its upper-tier LX-branded receivers. In 2015, it's lowered its entry price for 3D audio to a tempting £500, in the shape of the VSX-930.

This is good news. Except perhaps for those who bought the non-Atmos VSX-924 last year that this model replaces – but, hey, you could probably still flog that receiver secondhand for £200.

Philips Fidelio B5

Once again Mark Craven enjoys the wireless multichannel flexibility of Philips' flagship soundbar

Two years ago Philips turned some heads with the launch of the Fidelio HTL9100 soundbar, which featured removable, battery-powered and wireless side speakers that meant it could also function in a 5.1 mode. And it's now returned to the concept, promising feature tweaks that improve usability.

Spendor D1

The D1 is beautifully finished in a dark wood veneer, and the crisp lines, perfect joints and attractively crafted binding posts all speak of attention to detail and a certain tactile quality. And yet, at least at face value, it seems an unremarkable design - just another face in the two-way speaker crowd.

Snap off the magnetically located cloth grilles, however, and you immediately spot something that is remarkable: a very unusual tweeter, featuring a wide all-metal mounting plate, and a what looks like a finely perforated metal grille instead of a conventional tweeter dome.

Marantz PM7005

The return to stereo has been almost as remarkable as the resurgence of interest in vinyl. At one stage it looked as if multichannel home theatre had all but exterminated the stereo market, leaving the two-channel segment to a motley crew of purists, traditionalists and music lovers.

Home theatre has always been sold as home entertainment for the whole family, while stereo is often considered a somewhat solitary pastime. That notwithstanding, stereo is back on the map, encouraging the emergence of a new generation of two-channel gear.

Samsung Galaxy A7

A Galaxy Note-esque phablet with a lower price but it compromises on power and battery

Once upon a time, you used to be able to set your watch by smartphone releases. Apple would release a new iPhone in the autumn, while Samsung and HTC would follow up the next spring with their own competitors. And then sure enough, just a few weeks after that, both would follow up with ‘Mini’ versions of their new Galaxy S or One Android phones, which tended to cut costs by ripping out all the premiums, including their classier casings and materials.

Inside Videocore

The GPU in the Raspberry Pi is remarkably powerful and energy-efficient. Tim Anderson talks to its creators…

“This is for me probably the finest bit of engineering I’ve ever been involved in,” says Eben Upton, founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. He is talking about VideoCore IV, the Broadcom GPU (graphics processing unit) in both the original Raspberry Pi and the newer Raspberry Pi 2.

We chatted to Eben, along with director of software Gordon Hollingworth and director of hardware engineering James Adams, about the history of VideoCore, what makes it so impressive, and how you can take advantage of it in your own projects.

Kill It With Water

Use Liquid-Cooling To Beat The Heat

Summer is the season of projects. Kids occupy themselves with exploring the neighborhood or undertaking an ambitious LEGO (or Minecraft, or LEGO Minecraft) creation. Adult projects are often less enjoyable, whether that’s staining the deck or renovating the 80s-era bathroom.

For PC enthusiasts, “project season” wouldn’t be complete without beginning a new adventure with their computer. The best part about a PC project is that it can be educational (learning to code), artistic (case modding), or pragmatic (setting up a NAS). Whatever you choose to do, try to make it fun. This is supposed to be a hobby, after all.

ASUS MG279Q

The Monitor Your Eyes Want Is The Monitor They Deserve

Ever been at a friend’s house or a LAN party and glimpsed a computer monitor so beautiful that you felt pangs of jealousy wash over you, to the point where you actually checked your arm to make sure you weren’t turning green? A bright, crisp monitor with excellent color reproduction is something that you can easily take for granted until you come face to face with one. But once you’ve basked in the glory of a really, really good monitor, you may as well know that it will haunt your dreams until you give in and bring one home. (This is sometimes referred to as the “The grass is always greener, until it isn’t” postulate, and it is totally not made-up science.)

Deepcool Tristellar

Set Jaw To Drop

Computer cases are supposed to be big metal boxes. We’ve practically had this belief hard-coded into our DNA. So, when a case comes along that defies this notion, we take notice. Whether we see them at an expo or a LAN party, cases with unique designs are seared into our brains.

Killing Floor 2

Time To Kill Some Zeds

Tripwire Interactive’s 2009 release Killing Floor was a squad-based shooter that dropped you and up to five friends into London following an outbreak of horrific zombie-like creatures from a biotech lab running experiments for the military. (Who would have guessed science could go so horribly awry?)

The follow-up, Killing Floor 2, is available now on Steam Early Access, and it takes the concept of the original game and turns everything about it up to 11.

Build an Android microscope

Carry a science lab in your pocket and add a USB microscope to your Android device. Darren Yates explains how

Getting greater numbers of the next-generation interested in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is one of the conundrums facing educators around Australia at the moment. Enrolments in these subjects have fallen steadily over the 20 years between 1992 and 2012, according to a recent report from the Queensland University of Technology, with its authors suggesting reasons most likely include students self-perception of ability and perceptions of subject difficulty and usefulness’ (tinyurl.com/qutstem). That’s such a pity, because I can’t think of four more interesting and fun subjects than science, technology, engineering and mathematics!

Stream your flicks to any device

Plex is a beautiful way to stream your videos and music to your TV, PC, phone, tablet and more. Simon Chester

There are many ways to consume media — that is, movies, TV shows, music and so on — on your big screen and speakers. From your Xbox, PlayStation, Apple TV, Chromecast, Boxee, WD TV and any of the lesser known media devices out there, people have been streaming digital media files to their TV in many different ways for over a decade.

A 4K video primer

What services support it, what’s coming up, what do you need to play it back? Simon Chester & Dan Gardiner

4K. Four Kay. Ultra High Definition. UHD. Forky. Puuuurdy. No matter what you call it, the replacement for 1080p HD resolution is now a standard part of the home entertainment lexicon. Like the megapixel race of the cameras of yore, and the MHz race of CPUs of even more yore, there’s been a push for higher resolution screens. And indeed, with larger TVs becoming standard, and projectors moving from ‘enthusiast’ to ‘consumer’ levels, there’s a definite need for more pixels.

Tt eSPORTS ISURUS PRO

Anyone who has spent much time playing PC games is likely very familiar with the pros and cons of big, over-the-ear gaming headsets. For top-shelf sound (and especially for directional/surround sound), full-sized headsets are hard to beat. They have massive, powerful drivers and, in some cases, comfortable padding on the ear cups, and they do a nice job of shutting down external noise and creating your own little cone of silence to game in.

GIGABYTE GA-X99-GAMING 5P

As the gaming-centric member of GIGABYTE’s lineup of Champion Series motherboards, the X99-GAMING 5P is actually a new take on an old favorite — as old as any LGA 2011-3 motherboard can get, that is. This board is actually nearly identical to the X99-GAMING 5 motherboard that the company launched earlier this year. In addition to the P suffix appended to the end of this motherboard’s model name, GIGABYTE widened the board from 9.6 inches to 10.3 inches, making it an E-ATX form factor board. In doing so, GIGABYTE was able to tweak things here and there and offer enthusiasts a more compelling piece of hardware.

SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 390 8GB

If you were starting to wonder what AMD had been up to since late 2013, the Radeon R9 300 Series is here to answer that burning question. Our first look at the slightly tweaked Hawaii Pro GPU, now code-named “Grenada,” comes courtesy of SAPPHIRE.

Transcoding For Consoles Or Tablets

Is your device of choice picky about the video file it will play? Here’s our guide to getting around it’s restrictions...

If you’ve ever tried to watch video on your games console or tablet, you’re probably familiar with the number of ways things can go wrong. Video without audio. Audio without video. Common video types almost entirely unsupported. No matter how smart these devices become, there’s still an element of chance in trying to play media files that your PC wouldn’t blink twice at.

Unfortunately (or possibly annoyingly), the way these systems work means that if they don’t recognise the media the first time, there’s not a lot you can do. Unlike your PC, you can’t install a new codec or try opening the content a different application. Your best alternative is to head back to your PC and see if you can do anything there. Luckily, you normally can – you just need to know how.

SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 380 4GB

Of the two SAPPHIRE NITRO Series cards featured in this issue, the R9 380 4GB leverages the newer architecture. That said, it’s still not completely new; the GPU in this graphics card is nearly identical to the one used in the Radeon R9 285, which launched less than a year ago under the codename Tonga. This card’s 28nm GCN 1.2-based GPU, code-named “Antigua”, features 5 billion transistors, 1,792 stream processors, 112 texture units, and 32 ROPs. Compared to GCN 1.1-based GPUs like those on the Radeon R9 390 and 390X, it is capable of parallel instruction processing between SIMD lanes, better compute task scheduling, and enhanced compute and media processing capabilities, thanks to a new set of 16-bit floating-point and integer instructions.

Getting A Better Signal

Keir Thomas looks at the options available if you’re one of the growing minority who has to deal with a poor or non-existent cellular signal

Arecent home move brought with it a most serious and modern of crippling afflictions: poor to non-existent mobile reception. At the front of the house family members are lucky to get three bars of antediluvian GPRS/Edge reception, while at the back of the house no bars is commonplace. Batteries drain quickly. Nobody is happy.

More than a MOBA

Battleborn’s multiplayer online battle arenas take a backseat during our time with the genre mash-up’s story-driven co-op missions. By Matt Cabral

Given all the buzz about Battleborn being a MOBA-inspired shooter from the studio that brought us Borderlands, we were as surprised as anyone when our extended hands-on session didn't plop us into a five-vs-five arena match, but had us tackling a rich, objective-driven story mission. As Orendi, a Chaos Witch that Gearbox software creative director Randy Varnell enthusiastically describes as a "wild channeler of chaotic and shadowy energies", we're tasked with escorting a bomb-strapped sentry bot to an enemy spawning portal. Our ambitious plan is ultimately thwarted by a screen-swallowing Golum... but we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

Brother DCP-J4120DW

An A4 printer that prints A3

This is a good idea from Brother: an A4-size colour multi-function printer that can take A3 sheets, twice the size, when you need bigger prints. It saves paying for a full A3 model and finding the extra desk space.

VirtualBox

Wake up unresponsive DVD drives, restore transparency effects and keep clocks in sync

Guest OS doesn’t respond to new CDs/DVDs

If you’re using VirtualBox to run a guest operating system (OS), such as an older version of Windows, you may find it fails to recognise your optical (CD/DVD) drive. A quick Registry tweak should fix the problem. Back up the Registry first, by creating a system restore point. Then, in your guest OS, type regedit into Start and press Enter to open Registry Editor. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\cdrom. Right-click AutoRun in the right-hand pane and choose Modify. Change the ‘Value data’ field to ‘1’ and then restart the guest OS.

Lightroom CC

Have Adobe Lightroom’s advanced RAW editing features made it more than a photo organisation tool? We take a look at the latest release to find out

It used to be the case that Lightroom was considered useful primarily for image organisation and RAW workflow. However, its image-editing capabilities have come such a long way that for many photographers, it now acts as a replacement for Photoshop for an increasing number of imaging tasks.

Download newspapers from the day you were born

What was making front-page news on the day you came into the world? Jonathan Parkyn reveals where to find historical headlines and download newspapers to keep

It’s now easier than ever to browse and obtain copies of historical newspapers and articles, whether that means getting hold of a real, physical copy or a downloadable one. In addition, there are other archive materials – newsreel videos, comics and more – that you can view or download. In this feature we’ll be explaining where to start your research, how much it’s likely to cost you and how to get some of it for free.

Lenovo B50-30

A full-size Windows laptop for well under £200

It’s a long time now since Lenovo took over IBM’s laptop division, but there’s still something of the business computer about this budget system. It’s functional rather than elegant, but it ticks a lot of boxes.

Laptops at low prices are usually very small and/or have limited functionality (such as Chromebooks, which run everything within a web browser). The B50-30 has a large 15.6in screen and a full-size keyboard. And while ‘under £200’ often means £199.99, in this case you’ll have £30 change.

How your tablet can save your life

Your tablet and phone can help you investigate symptoms, monitor your fitness and even train your brain. Jonathan Parkyn reveals the health apps that really work

Health trackers and “fitbands” have become big business over the last couple of years. But you don’t necessarily need an overpriced elastic band round your wrist to keep yourself in good nick. There are dozens of brilliant apps that let you monitor, analyse and improve your health using your tablet or phone – and many of the best are completely free.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of poor-quality, misleading health apps on the market, too. So here we’ll direct you to the best ones, so you can be sure of good health advice and steer clear of the virtual quacks.

Netgear PLP1200

Carry wireless broadband over your mains circuit

Powerline networking adapters (or HomePlugs) send your broadband connection around your home using your electrical wiring. They’re a great solution to those blackspots where your router’s Wi-Fi signal struggles to reach.

Plug one of the two Netgear units into a wall socket near your router and connect it to the router using one of the two Ethernet cables supplied. Plug the other one into a socket near to your PC, games console, or any other device with an Ethernet port and connect it using the second cable. If you need to connect a device wirelessly, such as your tablet or phone, you should consider the Devolo dLAN, which creates its own Wi-Fi network.

Get your PC ready for Windows 10. Part 2

In the second part of our series, Jonathan Parkyn reveals how to check if your installed programs and peripherals will continue to work in Windows 10

What will work?

When a new operating system (OS) is released, there’s no guarantee that programs or device drivers written for earlier versions will still work. Going by our experience with the Windows 10 Technical Preview, most software and peripherals that work in Windows 8/8.1 should work fine in the upcoming OS.

Cakewalk Music Creator 7

Ambitious music production on a budget

Considering the number of people that play a musical instrument, it’s surprising there isn’t more music-production software aimed at home users. Then again, it’s no easy matter creating software that combines recording, editing and mixing of live and MIDI performances, complete with effects and virtual instruments, for just £30.

Delete All Junk Files

Your hard drive is choking on giant junk files. Jane Hoskyn reveals how to find your PC’s space hogs and delete them completely

Hard drives are getting bigger, but digital files are getting bigger faster. Two minutes of video shot on a budget smartphone equals around 200MB. Ten minutes is a gigabyte (GB). Save that 10-minute clip to your PC, create a couple of edited versions and an accidental duplicate or three, and suddenly your humble video has swallowed a tenth of your hard drive – far more space than you can free up every time you run CCleaner.

The Useful Family Hub. Part 2

Keir Thomas explains how to turn a Raspberry Pi or old PC into a Swiss army knife for the family’s computers and handhelds

In last week’s instalment of this two-part feature, we looked at setting up a Raspberry Pi (or old PC with Linux installed) so it becomes a useful hub for all the computers or handheld devices on your home network. For example, we explained how to turn it into an ad blocker, NAS, AirPlay audio relay for Apple devices and even a personal cloud.

PoE Pi

Power Over Ethernet for your Raspberry Pi

I’m amazed it took this long, considering the amount of uses the Raspberry Pi has already been put to. But there’s a Kickstarter campaign running, with ten days left to go (at the time of writing), for an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi that brings Power over Ethernet.

The project has been created by Pi Supply, a dedicated shop and resource site for all thing Pi related and one that has some pretty interesting products currently in stock.

Synology DiskStation DS715 2-Bay NAS

A compact NAS that packs a decent punch

Synology has, in the past, offered a wide and varied selection of NAS units for both business and home users alike. The quality is generally very high and, of course, the added benefit of the built-in Synology DiskStation Manager software has lured in many a customer.

Sharkoon Shark Zone M20 Gaming Mouse

Who says gaming mice have to cost an arm and a leg?

Gaming mice come in all shapes and sizes. Some are very basic and can hardly be classed as a gaming peripheral. Others go the other way and are far too extreme for most users' needs, even the hardcore gamer. Often, finding something in the middle that’s pitched just right can be something of a chore. Sharkoon, though, may have the answer.

Sharkoon Skiller Pro Gaming Keyboard

A membrane keyboard capable of standing toe to toe with any mechanical switch type

We’ve already had the pleasure of testing and reviewing the Sharkoon Skiller, a keyboard  that impressed us with its functionality, feel and above all else, price. Now it’s the turn of its elder brother the Skiller Pro, so we were interested to see what the extra Pro element had to offer to an already good keyboard.

QNAP TS-453mini

It may be small in name, but it’s a bit of a beast

QNAP, we’ve often felt, has an advantage over some of the other big name NAS manufacturers. This is mainly due to the QTS 4.1 operating system, the range of add-on apps and packages, the sheer processing power inside its units and the addition of an HDMI port and virtualisation software.

HP Envy 7640 Multi-function Inkjet

HP smartens up its multi-function printer act with the Envy 7640

Whenever I see inkjet printers designed for business and incorporating fax technology, I age visibly. Inkjet technology simply isn’t appropriate for the high-volume printing that businesses often engage in, and fax needs to be consigned to the same historical bin as hand semaphore. The fact is that people still buy these products, so a market exists for devices exactly like the Envy 7640.

Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One 23

Lenovo supports its M-Series Tiny Desktops with a special monitor

When I recently covered Lenovo’s M73 Tiny system, it also sent me this device, the Tiny-in-One 23. At first I thought this was an all-inone system, but it’s actually something subtly different that’s designed to work alongside the M73 Tiny, and all the other M-Series ‘Tiny’ models that Lenovo makes.

DALI Rubicon 6

DALI does things a little differently and this luxury floorstander cuts to the musical chase. David Vivian takes a listen

Loudspeakers come in all shapes and sizes but there seems to be a point along the size versus price axis where the usual hi-fi considerations simply fade away. By this I mean you begin to relax while listening, the need, however subliminal, to make allowances for the volume of the enclosure, the number of drive units and the success or otherwise of their integration lets go and an immersive sense of realism takes over. The good news is it’s easy to hear (ironically because you’ll find yourself listening less intensely) and it doesn’t require a visit to the ‘High End’ to achieve.

Novafidelity X40

The X40 does almost everything you could want – and more – and claims audiophile credibility too. James Parker explores

Most people thinking of committing their music collection to some kind of digital storage solution have a wish list in mind. They’d like an all-in-one unit able to rip, store and play their CDs; or something able to access internet radio and lossless streaming services such as Qobuz; or perhaps a means of ripping their LP collection to hard disk for playback.

Abzû

Mankind came from the water, but it is not our home. The oceans and seas can be dangerous places, evoking a deep sense of loneliness even though you are never alone there. We can explore underwater thanks to artificial means, but these instruments can't mask what we feel when we come into contact with the masses of life down below. We connect with them because – although evolution has brought us out of the water – we know we are essentially the same.

Cambridge CXN

New logo, new look and all-new CX series, James Parker discovers if the same old Cambridge magic still remains

New range, new name, new markets: that’s just about the story of the Cambridge CXN network audio player. Not only does the new model carry the company’s new, abbreviated corporate identity, shorn of the word ‘Audio’, it also leads off an all-new CX range of hi-fi and home cinema components with freshened-up styling, and takes its streaming products into the mid-market hi-fi arena.

CyberPower Fang Trinity 300

CyberPower’s latest machine is, technically, a desktop PC, but it doesn't look like any gaming system we've seen recently. It uses the DeepCool Gamer Storm Tristellar case - a chassis that divides the system's components into three discrete sections, described as 'blades'. The trio of blades are coated with thick surrounds of sandblasted metal and make this machine look like a spaceship. The cables that flow between the components and their separate sections are stored in a strut in the middle of the case, and the large power button is illuminated with red LEDs.

Just Cause 3

The explosions are big, the options are overwhelming, and the pace is often frightening, but it’s the setting and scenery that consumes you upon first dipping your toes into Just Cause 3’s waters. For whatever reason, the Mediterranean has been largely ignored by the world of videogames; skyscraper skylines, dusty plains and post-apocalyptic cities taking centre stage in its absence.

Sure, Assassin’s Creed has depicted Italy and Total War has often provided a wider panorama of the region, but there’s been barely a blip when it comes to intimately portraying island chains set in the midst of Europe’s major sea. Avalanche Studios is here to change that, intent on showing that the area can provide as much in terms of aesthetic beauty as it does in the potential for brash, Eighties action movie-style destruction. Juxtaposition, in games as anywhere else, tends to go down well.

London Calling

15 things you need to, know about Assassin's Creed Syndicate and how it could save the Creed series

It’s bigger and braver

Whatever you might want to say about Assassin’s Creed Unity, there can be no denying that its re-creation of revolutionary Paris was impressive. Behind the bugs, it was a gorgeously detailed and rich world. London is that and more in Syndicate. At the height of Britain’s imperial power and industrial might, London is the centre of the world and it shows. Buildings are larger, streets are busier and the politics of the era are more nuanced and complex than those of revolutionary France. The world is building towards a confrontation between rich and poor, old world and new world. And Syndicate is placing the assassins right at the heart of it.

ViewSonic VG2401mh

One of the major downsides of G-Sync and FreeSync technology is vendor lock-in, since AMD cards won’t work at 144Hz with G-Sync screens, and vice versa. ViewSonic has taken a different approach with the VG2401mh, though, which supports a fixed 144Hz refresh rate, regardless of whether your graphics card has an Nvidia or AMD GPU.

Philips 272G5DYEB

Like AOC's G-Sync panel, Philips' 272G5DYEB is a 144Hz 1080p TN model, but its diagonal measures 27in rather than 24in. It sits on a large circular base and has thick bezels, so it's comparatively chunky, but it does have the full suite of physical adjustment options, so you can easily minimise the impact of the average viewing angles you get from a TN panel.

Oppo PM-3

Oppo has already impressed the high-end sector. Now, high-tech meets the high street as David Vivian tests its latest headphone

At the height of his boxing powers, Muhammad Ali would often quip: “How can I lose with the stuff I use?”. Oppo’s plan to sink its rivals is obviously built along similar lines, but in the fiercely fought £300-500 headphone market, that’s going to require more than a fast-foot shuffle.