Inside CyanogenMod

Root your way inside the most popular Android hack with Mayank Sharma.

The CyanogenMod project is the quintessential open source success story. It's got open source code, an individual hacker burning the midnight oil, and community endorsement that led the project to the big leagues. From a forum board to the executive board, the CyanogenMod project has come a long way riding on the shoulder of its community of users and developers.

With over 12 million active users as of June 2014, CyanogenMod is the most popular free and open source aftermarket firmware for Android smartphones and tablets. The tricked-out version of Android replaces the stock OS that ships with your device and essentially gives you more control over it.

A New Hope

A first look at DICE’s gorgeous revival of the Star Wars Battlefront series. By Wes Fenlon

It’s day one of Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California, and I’m standing in the briefing room from Return of the Jedi, where Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar laid out the plans for the Rebel Alliance’s assault on the second Death Star. Barely an hour ago, Star Wars Episode VII director JJ Abrams revealed the second teaser trailer for The Force Awakens. Everyone in the room is starry-eyed, riding high on the rush of seeing Han Solo for the first time in 32 years.

Enter the Gungeon

One indie rapper’s rise in gaming

When Dodge Roll studio founder Dave Crooks tells me he’s brought Adam Drucker onto the team to provide the music for upcoming dungeon crawling indie shooter Enter the Gungeon, it sounds like a meeting of minds. Enter the Gungeon is, after all, the result of a lot of weird career moves.

If you don’t recognise the name you might know Drucker better as rapper-poet DoseOne, a native son of Idaho who spent decades in the trenches of the midwest’s indie hip hop scene – a thing that does, apparently, exist. It’s only in recent years that he’s become active in armchair games development. His synth-hop tunes are already found in the soundtracks of games from Vlambeer and Double Fine Productions among others: Gang Beasts, Samurai Gunn, Gun Godz, Nuclear Throne.

Ronin

The turn-based platformer that’s like very anxious chess.

My helmet-wearing avatar in this turn-based action platformer is dead. Again. This time, it’s because she was shot in the heel. I sigh. Reloaded. The old man must die. Sleep will slumber alone in my bed until my job is done.

In Ronin, you play an acrobatic young woman out to murder five nefarious looking figures from her indubitably dysfunctional childhood. You accomplish this through a mix of stealth and turn-based carnage, along with an optional dollop of Tarantino-flavoured style.

BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

After spending two months with the new phone, and one week abroad, we finally deliver our verdict.

Last month's cover feature was all about Ubuntu’s new mobile operating system. But we didn't include an objective look at the first mobile device it's available on: BQ’s Ubuntu Phone. This was for two reasons. First, we'd only had the phone for around a month and had yet to be brave enough to leave our regular phone, a Nexus 5, at home. Second, Canonical and BQ were pushing out a new update almost every day, and we wanted to give them both a chance to catch their breath. Almost two months later and the updates have abated, and we’re finally prepared to give our opinion on what is without doubt a monumental release for Canonical.

Ruark R1 Mk3 Tabletop Radio

Excellence in DAB radio design is something of a lost art. Perhaps this should come as no surprise considering the traditional radio experience is jostling for its place on the frontline of your daily routine. It has been replaced instead by a litany of Apple products that not only stream radio and music, but can connect to the likes of Twitter and Facebook. Then again, it isn’t every day you have the opportunity to wake up to the Ruark R1 Mk3 -perhaps the ultimate tabletop radio on the market.

Leef iBridge 32Gb

The longer that you own a smart device, the quicker it always seems to fill up. Apps get larger, bloat builds up and suddenly a storage warning is popping up on your screen, advising that you can’t upgrade to the latest operating system. You have two options when this happens: start organising everything (ie going through and deleting your photos), or just add extra storage in the form of a nifty accessory such as the Leef iBridge.

Penclic Bluetooth Mouse B2

Ever looked at a ballpoint pen and dock at a bank or a post office and thought “this would make a great alternative for a computer mouse”? Probably not, but that may have been what inspired Prestige International to produce the Penclic Mouse B2: an ergonomic alternative to desktop mice created with the prevention of RSI in mind.

Complete Guide To Watercooling

James Hunt lays out the fundementals of this effective form of PC cooling

For many PC enthusiasts, watercooling is still something of an unexplored frontier. You might be used to playing with extra fans, drilling additional ventilation and positioning hardware to reduce air pockets, but until you’ve made the switch from air to liquid, you’re always running a second-best system. The days of the humble fan are numbered.

Keeping your system as cool as possible isn’t just a way to keep your hardware within overclocking tolerances; it also extends the life of components and reduces the amount of noise you have to deal with. For all its simplicity, cooling components with air is inefficient. Fans can get clogged with dust, and air itself isn’t that good at conducting heat. Watercooling, by comparison, is so good that it does the work of several fans in a fraction of the space. So why wouldn’t you want to give it a go?

If you find watercooling hard to get into, this guide should help you tell your loops from your radiators, show you the difference between the good brands and the bad ones, and give you all the information you need to know in order to start tinkering with watercooling whether you’re interested in making your PC quieter, faster or just more efficient.