Street Of Rage IPhone Games : Anodia Anodia. IPhone Games : Bloody Xmas. IPhone Games : BloodyXmas IPhone Games : Dalton. IPhone Games : Demolition Dash. IPhone Games : done drinking. IPhone Games : Eco Punk. IPhone Games : Etolis: Arena. IPhone Games : Hysteria Project 2. IPhone Games : kick ass. IPhone Games : modern combat 2.
IPhone Games : red ball pro. IPhone Games : Volcano Escape. IPhone Games : Zombie Highway. Its Raining. IPhone Games :DaWindci. IPhone Games :Real Football v1. IPhone Games Jelly Car 3. IPhone Games tap tap zombie. IPhone Games: Air Penguin. IPhone Games: Egg Vs. Chicken Egg Vs. IPhone Games: iSoda. IPhone Games: Scream 4 v1. Max and the Magic Marker. Resident Evil Mercenaries VS. Road Fighter Infinity. TheMars [Skymetric] v1. World of Goo HD v1.
Yoo Sports [Triniti Interactive Limited] v1. Talking tom cat. Age of Empires II Gold. Age of Empires III 1. Age of Mythology. Air Hockey. And Yet It Moves. Angry Birds Rio. Asphalt 6: Adrenaline. Assassin's Creed II.
Big Fish Games Collection. Martyn Sandford. Youre spoilt for choice when it comes to computer art, whether you want to use apps such as Art Studio or Photoshop Touch on your iPad or plug a graphics tablet into your PC.
Graphics tablets for PCs are still popular among designers and artists. The biggest manufacturer, Wacom, makes a range of graphics tablets for consumers and professionals.
Star letter I have just upgraded a couple of computers from Windows 7 to Windows 8 and thought you would be interested in hearing about the experience.
The rst computer was a desktop PC running Windows 7. There were no problems with the installation but the new Metro interface was a disappointment it looks like something from the s. Even more irritating was having to use this interface to launch the normal Windows Desktop. The other computer was a netbook. Again, the installation went smoothly but on trying the Metro interface, I was informed that the screen resolution was too low for the Apps to work.
Its a pity that this wasnt highlighted at the start of the installation. Ive now unpinned all the Metro interface icons on both installations and simply press return to get into the desktop from the Metro UI. So now I have a desktop PC, for which the simple Metro interface is totally. On the positive side, Windows 8 loads and shuts down much faster than the previous version.
One last gripe is that the upgrade leaves a windows. Im sure that deleting it by booting into Ubuntu is not the best method. The overall feeling is that Windows 8 is a dumbed-down version of Windows 7 thats been designed so that it will work on less powerful systems such as tablets. Is this progress or nostalgia? Steve Byatt.
Weve been running it in the oce, and there was some denite gnashing of teeth while we were getting used to the relationship between the new Start screen and the Desktop.
We became used to it after a few days, though, and we like the quick booting and snappy performance. A couple of shortcut keys are invaluable: Windows-D takes you straight to the Desktop, and Windows-X brings up a useful menu offering all the advanced settings, such as Device Manager and Computer and Disk Management.
If you dont want to go back to your previous installation, you can remove it by running Disk Clean-up, selecting the Clean up system les option and then choosing Previous Windows installation s.
You can download free trials of Painter and Essentials from www. The reasoning behind a clean installation is that Windows 7 will correctly align the SSD and install only the required drivers. In Letters, Shopper , Clive Cooper questioned the need for a clean installation when tting a solid-state drive. If you clone from a hard disk theres no guarantee that you will get the correct alignment on the SSD. An incorrect alignment could degrade its performance.
Mechanical disks are divided into physical sectors, and even though SSDs dont need to organise their data in such a physical way, Windows still organises its data by sector. If you clone your hard disk straight to an SSD theres a chance that the alignment will be off, which can degrade performance and shorten its life.
Before you perform the cloning operation, make sure you run the following commands from Windows command prompt:. For this reason, I gave some thought to installing additional. This 12V fan is powered externally and has cut the temperature by about 2C.
As I have only an onscreen temperature display, I cant see what happens after the PC is turned off, but I suspect that temperatures in the CPU can peak for a few seconds when the CPU cooler fan stops after a PC is switched off or goes into standby.
My extra fan provides a constant airow on the CPU. Do your experts have any comments on the possibility of a short-duration temperature rise in the CPU immediately after turning the box off? Robin A Flood. Processors are small, light pieces of metal and silicone, which means they heat up and cool down quickly they dont.
Depending on the capacity of the cartridges that come with the printer, this can have an alarming hit on them, but its a one-off process and future supplies should last for the rated number of pages. The review printers we receive from Epson are usually pre-primed so we havent seen this problem. The printer probably isnt faulty, but if you have a similar problem with your next set of supplies, you may need to get in touch with Epson.
I had to make sure time hadnt gone into reverse and we were not back in Apparently Pentium 4s are still standard and a Core 2 Duo is something to aspire to quite comforting for those of us who still struggle along with one, although it was surprising to learn that PCI-E graphics cards are not yet the norm. It would be interesting to know how such an old article slipped past editing and proof checking.
Despite this, Computer Shopper is still the best computer magazine on the market and I greatly value and appreciate the coverage it gives to such a range of computerrelated equipment. One might occasionally disagree with its verdicts, but one can always take them seriously. David Dunford. Once you turn off your PC, the small amount of heat remaining in the processor is transferred to the heatsink, which is large enough to cope.
Some heat will remain in your case but, again, the components cool quickly once theyre no longer consuming W. We managed to nd a product called the Power Down Protector, which promised to keep your fans running after your PC powers down, but it doesnt seem to have been made for around 10 years, so we dont think many people have had problems with post-shutdown heat spikes.
I purchased an Epson WP inkjet printer after reading a review in your magazine Labs, Shopper Once Id installed the cartridges and initialised the printer, I was left with virtually no ink left. Epson tells me this is normal. Did this happen to you in your review of the item or do I have a faulty unit thats going to eat me out of house and home?
Kevin Horne. When a printer is new theres no ink in the system, so the priming process feeds ink through the. Ive been buying Computer Shopper since the days when the cover disk came on a 5in oppy disk and for most of that time Ive been a subscriber, so Im not likely to change any time soon. But there are two aspects of the new issue that make me wonder whether editorial standards have slipped a little. First, I was surprised to see no reference in your review of smartphones of any products by HTC, even though it was your review of the One S that helped me make my decision to upgrade to one recently.
Obviously, the consensus seems to be that the latest models are just pipped by the Galaxy 3, but HTCs range is at least worthy to be discussed in the same breath. Then I was taken aback to see the Best Buys piece on page. Do you wish your computer was faster when booting and loading applications?
The writer of our Star letter will be awarded one of these solid-state cache devices, which can be installed in a desktop PC alongside a hard disk. The Adrenalin caches data to and from your hard disk, giving you the speed boost of an SSD without you having to recongure your storage. With its simple installation instructions, its the perfect upgrade to any PC. The reason we didnt include HTC handsets in the smartphones group test is because we wanted the handsets to be as new as possible, and HTC hasnt released any models for a while.
Apologies for the error in the Best Buys section. That was some very old copy that found its way in by mistake, and slipped through the editorial process. Weve updated Choosing an Intel motherboard and expunged the old version from our system.
Sometimes even Linux can go wrong. We explain how to get Ubuntu back up and running after an operating system disaster. Unleash your creative side with our round-up of the best video-editing and photo-editing packages. We show you how to access your tunes from anywhere using FreeNAS, and how to download les to your server over BitTorrent. More and more of us are forsaking oces for the home.
Is this the future of work or, in Boris Johnsons words, a skivers charter? The object of his ire is a poor little squirrel one of the black type that apparently bullies the grey type that bullies our cute red type.
The squirrel, obviously uent in German, hops into my tree. I try mapping out this months article determined to beat the deadline.
My concentration lasts 30 seconds before Im bombarded with a hail of chewed-up bits of hard green stuff. The squirrel is chomping through a pine cone, spitting the detritus all over me. This detritus is just the right size and consistency to get stuck between the Lenovo keys. I consider recruiting the hairdresser to move the squirrel on again but, as my German is as poor as his non-existent English, its simpler for me to move.
Just as Im getting up, Droopy pops up above the hedge. Droopy is the rather downtrodden wife of Dafydd, the guy who cling-lms his laptop see Shopper Shes called Droopy because of Wi-Fi connection? Yes, hes got ve bars. I promise to call around later. Youre facing the wrong way, I quip. Meccas in the opposite direction.
That went over his head. Cant be too careful, he says. Well, you can, I think. The logic behind kneeling down to use the laptop is that nobody can see hes got it, so they wont be tempted to steal it. Frankly, you could leave it in the middle of the road, and it would still be there tomorrow. No-one would pick it up, as it seems to date from a time when Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard were in short trousers.
Everybody on the site has a laptop, tablet or iPhone, and theyre way newer. They dont have cling lm, though. I log on to the Wi-Fi using my card and browse the net. Then I place a Skype test call, which works as well. So I sign off and check the saved Firefox logins and passwords against the details on Dafydds card. The Wi-Fi provider logins all start with ccdo, followed by a number. Dafydd had typed ccd using a zero rather than a lowercase o , so he couldnt complete the connection. But Ive got ve bars he pleads, referring to the Wi-Fi signal strength.
I explain that this doesnt mean he got past the gatekeeper, which only lets you in when its satised youve coughed up the appropriate fee nor does good signal strength mean youll get decent bandwidth and, at busy times, that was hardly good enough for VoIP.
Finally, I ask about the potato. Thats there to stop the salty air getting into the engine and ruining the carburettor, he replies. There are two issues with that, I sigh.
One, the salty air wont get past the silencer or pistons, even in a hurricane, and two, your cars a diesel it hasnt got a carburettor. I sometimes think people should be made to pass a test before being allowed to use a PC.
The squirrel, obviously uent in German, bombards me with a hail of chewed-up bits of hard green stuff her resemblance to the cartoon character.
Hitched to Dafydd, shes entitled to be glum. Cant Skype, she says. Dafydds sent me to see if you can Skype. The site managers have extended the wee-fee coverage and there are network antennas all over the place, so getting a signal is no problem. A quick test using the Skype Test Call facility conrms that I can Skype, so Dafydds problem is probably mental and not environmental.
Has he rebooted? I ask. Yes, hes done that. The whole holiday has been a constant stream of interruptions, starting the day I arrived, with lots of contractual issues regarding the oce. Jim has also decided that the website kit in a box has to go live. He couldnt have picked a worse time, but he was adamant it had to be live by 1st August.
Then he shot off to the Seychelles and left us all to it. Thank goodness for the improved Wi-Fi, which enables me to sort the mess remotely, although doing so impinges on my mid-morning sleep, not to mention the afternoon nap.
Turns out the site couldnt return any order details placed by customers, which largely defeated the object of having it in the rst place.
Then Jims staff decide they want to revamp half the product descriptions. This would be ne if it were a matter of typing changes into the product le. These get dispatched to elds with corresponding names in the website.
It looks odd to me, but the customers always right I suppose. Although, strangely, the kit site doesnt show its own Long Description. Finally, I get round to paying Dafydd a visit. Passing by his car, I notice there is a potato stuck in the exhaust pipe. I then spot him kneeling down in the corner of the caravan, bashing the keys on his laptop. Hes bashing because. Im talking, of course, about piracy. My earliest memory of it involves being at a Christmas Eve party when I was still in short trousers.
While the grown-ups drank, laughed and cracked walnuts, the kids were in a separate room, watching a lm. That lm was E. Honestly, it was so bad I couldnt watch it, and believe me, I desperately wanted to see that lm. But even back then, when I was less than 10 years old, I couldnt really see the appeal in watching a copy of a lm that was recorded in a cinema on a camera behind someones head.
Id be lying if I said that that was the last time I was exposed to piracy. At school, I would record songs off the radio. At university, people would trade tapes of the. What does piracy mean to you? However benign your intentions may seem, it isnt worth risking a spell in a dank prison on the other side of the world, argues David Neal. This year, the war against piracy really stepped up a gear. We saw Megaupload get shut down and its boss, the cuddly Kim Dotcom, accused of everything from money laundering to racketeering.
Weve seen students who are guilty of building sites that offer links to The Simpsons become the target of the USs scary legal machine. Sharing sites and torrent portals are falling like dominos. A few months ago, I could probably have named you half a dozen such sites off the top of my head now Im not even sure there are half a dozen still in existence. Look at Megaupload: on the face of it, it was just a digital locker site.
The US threw its whole weight at that site, and it continues to do so. These sites werent all bad; many had legitimate uses and users. Megaupload, for example, was used by millions of people who wanted cloud storage for their photos, while The Pirate Bay recently launched The Promo Bay.
They lled a gap that no-one else knew how to ll, and people ocked to them. They didnt always get it right, but they were trying. But now we dont really need Napster. All kinds of sites from Apple to Amazon will let you download music these days, and for the most part they do so at fairly reasonable prices.
Similarly, services such as Netix and Lovelm have stepped in to offer lm fans a place to go when they want something to watch, and to be fair to them they dont charge a lot for the experience. They might not have all the lms ever made, but they have quite a few, and they are adding to them all the time. Even when I was less than 10 years old, I couldnt really see the appeal in watching a copy of a lm that was recorded in a cinema on a camera behind someones head bands of the day playing live.
I remember having at least one copy of Oasis playing somewhere, and a copy on vinyl of Princes Black album. It seemed kind of harmless back then. But it doesnt feel so harmless these days. We havent even mentioned Napster, which may have had its enemies but was known as the go-to place for hard-to-nd material a bit like a bootleg record market stall, as opposed to a place where people who wanted to assault Celine Dions prot margins holed up.
But its still not on. However, while these sites are good, I dont think that theyre responsible for stopping piracy in its tracks, or for stopping people from pirating: its fear thats doing that. When people who download or share music and lms are offered the sort of sentences that are usually reserved for people who run over cats while drunk and driving a stolen car, you realise the law really, really wants to put an end to it.
It took a while for old media to get with it and launch services to truly compete with Napster and Surfthechannel, but they have. Its taken them even longer to work out how to create a deterrent for people who still pirate but, again, they have. That deterrent is to make sure that the punishment really outweighs the crime. Now that sharing songs can earn you a ne that runs into the hundreds of thousands, and sharing links can earn you the attentions of a foreign government and lose you the support of your own, you really have to face the facts.
Piracy no matter how easy it is, and how often you have done it just isnt worth it. Thats why APC by Schneider Electric has designed battery backup solutions that protect the constant availability and connectivity you expect and depend on. Keep your electronics up and your energy use down! ES Series The ever-popular ES models are priced affordably yet provide enough extended runtime to allow you to work through short and medium power outages. Some power-saving models have been designed to actively reduce energy costs.
Peace-of-mind protection on two levels When the power goes out, our popular Back-UPS units go to work. They instantly switch your home technologies to emergency power, allowing you to work through brief power outages or safely shut down your systems so you wont lose valuable files such as digital photos and media libraries.
They also feature surge outlets to guard your electronics and data from dirty power and damaging power surges even lightning. The energy-efficient ES Series The new ES boasts innovative power-saving outlets, which automatically shut off power to unused devices when your electronics are turned off or asleep, eliminating wasteful electricity drains.
Energy-saving insurance for what matters most Our Back-UPS units protect your home office, digital living and home media applications, notebook computers, DVRs, and gaming application.
And since we now offer energy-efficient models that reduce electricity costs through unique power-saving outlets, you can realize true energy savings regardless of the applications youre backing up.
Throughout your home, the APC Back-UPS is the cost-saving insurance you need to stay up and running and reliably safeguarded from both unpredictable power and wasteful energy drains. Register today and get a chance to WIN an iPad 2! Visit www. All Rights Reserved. You can rearrange skin modules to look perfect on desktop resolutions. It uses a high-quality background that fits any desktop resolution perfectly. You can also add your favorite apps and games as a widget.
The skin lets you integrate a steam account and Xbox bar to quickly launch games and access various tools right from the desktop. Another top-notch Rainmeter skin was available on the DeviantArt. The polished and elaborated version of the highly used Elegance Rainmeter skin.
It comes with popular modules that an ideal skin must-have. All you have to do is to run and it will start to display an amazing information bar on the desktop. The skin shows you information which includes date and time, current location, shortcut to launch sites and programs, and RSS feed which you have subscribed. SimplyNova is an old is gold Rainmeter skin. When it was first launched, it won the tag of Skin of the Month and gained around , downloads.
The skin is featuring various elements from Enigma and Token skins. It is featuring modules for date and time, Weather and Recycle bin accompanied by the meter. FLHUD is awesome Rainmeter skin that makes it easier for you to switch to any site by making a single click.
The skin somewhat looks like a processor embedded into a motherboard. The skin has features like animated transitions for time and weather, custom icons for the icons which match with the theme, CPU usage, keyboard locks state skin, audio visualizer skin, custom action skin, and various others. Honeycomb is an interesting skin that has hexagons look like a honeycomb. Inside it, you can create a shortcut to get quick access to websites and apps.
The Rainmeter skin is based on Obsidian. It is a complete set of small customization system monitoring widgets for your PC desktop. As the name suggests, every widget is in the sidebar present on the theme, except for the clock widget. A minimalist clock widget is placed at the center whereas, all the widgets such as app drawer, essential tools, drive usage, and CPU usage is available in the sidebar.
You can customize the sidebar as per your desire. Skyrim Rainmeter Suite v2 based on popular Skyrim game. The skin includes around 12 different skins. Razor skin for Rainmeter comes with frosted glass effect accompanied full of transparency. It displays information that includes weather, drive shortcuts, power status, and more. It also comes with a customizable dock accompanied by network status. Rainify is another Rainmeter suite and aims to be both elegant and functional. Everything in the skin is customizable you can customize color, opacity, and much more.
One of the beautifully designed and the best Rainmeter skins available and display lots of information like Media controls, System folder, RSS feeds, Drive shortcuts, Current weather, Time and Date. This is dedicated to the fan of the popular game named as Mass Effect. Cash america pawn website Derma smoothe body oil Smart 4 year old Gazebo at pool city Top driver ohio Nintendo eshop card code Torque screwdriver set Fisico lipidene reviews The attention to detail is remarkable and the sounds are also similar to the droid from the movies.
It can be controlled using a remote control around your house, so you could command it to bring you a chilled can. If you overlook the excellent replication, and the capacity of the fridge concerns you then you must know that it can hold up to six cans of whatever you wish to stash away. Among the bevy of Star Wars branded products dropping in the market, this has to be one of the best. Now comes the most painful part, the price of this masterpiece. But if you are in fact looking forward to bring this home, do invite us over for a drink.
Why does Tag Heuer decide on such an exorbitant you ask? For starters, the smartwatch is made up of mostly premium materials including a titanium case and a ppi scratch-resistant sapphire crystal display.
It is IP67 certified and comes with carbide-coated titanium bezel on the 46mm diameter watchface. Not just high-quality materials, the Connected comes with a 1. In terms of connectivity, it comes with Bluetooh and Wi-Fi. Being an Android Wear smartwatch, its also compatible with iOS devices but dont expect it to function as smoothly on Android devices.
The Tag Heuer Connecteds textured rubber straps are available in seven colours. Broadly, it seems that Apple Watch now certainly has a smartwatch competitor representing the Android ecosystem through Connected.
Yes, take a minute to let that sink in. Although the blindingly crazy price isnt only for the headphones but with the tube amplifier and DAC combined, it sure does make one go back to ensuring whether they read the right amount of zeroes in the price.
Is it freakin made of gold? Well it is made of platinum at least the diaphragms are - 2. What else, you ask? The Quartz tube bulbs are encased in Italian marble!
Now thats something. What happens if they both are Italian? The offspring is an elegant piece of craftsmanship exuding class and luxury. It boasts a patented construction for the primary triangular monocoque along with the rear axle fitting, called as the Atomlink. The same 54cm frame is said to be quite sturdy, offering a considerable amount of resistance to stress. The appealing bike is covered with a blue and white paintjob, branded with the trident Maserati logo.
For those interested in the important technical specifications of the bike, it consists of an Ultegra mechanical groupset, a rigid looking Selle San Marco Aspide racing saddle and Fast Forward F2A alloy clinchers fitted with 25mm tyres.
Coming from Open Whisper Systems, the app ensures that none of your messages are intercepted while in transit. You can allow the app to replace your default messaging app and securely lock the app with a passphrase. Free calls and texts can be exchanged within the app with other Signal users, acting as a regular IM service with support for sending and receiving multimedia content.
If you dont want to take our word for how secure Signal is, perhaps it would comfort you know that even Snowden recommends using it. Fitso If youve always wanted to do something about your constantly devolving fitness level, but never had the right kind of motivation, perhaps Fitso is what youve always been looking for.
Pitched as an app to bring together fitness enthusiasts with professionals near you, Fitso features several useful sections. Activities will allow you to discover running and cycling meets conducted around you while Events does the same for any kind of a fitness event. Professional users can also post short articles on specific topics such as Yoga, Diet, Running etc and the regular users will be able to refer and employ those habits in their daily lives.
Prepathon There are numerous websites and apps to take courses on specialised subjects. There are hardly any services which offer subjects falling under entrance tests and the ones that do, arent really doing a great job in offering a seamless learning and browsing experience. The Discuss section will let you post your queries or scroll through queries posted by other users.
Youll also have access to a personal coach who will guide you and answer any type of doubts you have related to the courses. And the best part, everything is free. In this section, we put stuff through the grinder and closely examine what comes out; everything except gadgets, because theres more to life than just that.
We wouldnt spoil the movie but it shouldnt be difficult to recognise the references made to the previous movies. Whether you find them appealing is quite subjective but a decent attempt. Along with the short trip down memory lane, Sam Mendes comes back as the director, and teamed up with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema of Interstellar fame , both presented a wonderful looking backdrop to the movie.
It doesnt fall short on action, and Christopher Walken delivers a brilliant. Now thats reason enough to make you watch the movie.
The only shortcoming of the movie is the cliched espionage plot which takes a considerable amount of time to build it up.
The plot broadly looks similar to the one we watched in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and it doesnt stand out as a Bond movie that you would expect. Rating: - Abhijit Dey.
The X-Files Fox Mulder and Dana Scully return to the a new chapter of the popular sci-fi horror show The X-Files as they continue their journey to investigate weird, unexplained case files. Limitless is another such series which picks up where the movie ended. It brings back the highly notorious NZT, a pill capable of boosting up your intelligence and brain productivity.
For the TV show, you really dont need to catch up on the movie since the show keeps references to the movie at a minimum. If youve already watched the movie, the pilot will get you edgy owing to the eerie similarity to the plot. Of course, the elements depicting his enhanced cognitive abilities are different, thankfully, which obviously seem absurd but considering the premise set by the rare drug, it doesnt sound far-fetched.
This time around, our protagonist, Brian Finch, sees himself in the middle of a murder, the reason being no surprise of people trying to procure the clear pill by hook or crook.
Chased by the FBI, Brian takes advantage of his acquired intelligence to narrow down the killer and he does it in no time. Theres a short cameo by Bradley Cooper as well, establishing. Second Chance The upcoming sci-fi crime show follows a plot where a dead police officer is brought back to life by a billionaire and bioengineer duo-genius. The show is inspired from the novel Frankenstein which is quite evident. Considering how the plot unfolds at the end, the series will eventually take the investigative thriller way similar to Sherlock.
We know Mr. Holmes is already gifted with a remarkable sense of deductive abilities, leaving no requirement for a pill and he does solve the most complicated cases. Therefore, we would expect Limitless to showcase the most impossible crime cases one can hardly imagine. The series didnt feel like a drag, only because they introduced new examples about how the drug could affect your brain and bring out phenomenal outcomes.
Well be looking forward to more. Jessica Jones Marvels Jessica Jones is a new series by Netflix which sees Jessica Jones putting an end to her superhero career and opening up her own detective agency. TTD Bored out of your wits? Cant think of any fun thing to do? Worry not, well take that burden off your shoulders in our Things To Do section every month.
Read on! Whether yes or no, it doesnt really matter since youll only be deemed worthy if you accomplish the following and get yourself acquainted with everything about Star Wars, well almost.
There is no such thing as too much Star Wars, never forget. No thrice! Watch em till your eyes bleed. Those whore Star Wars virgins can be forgiven for thinking that the newer trilogy isnt blasphemous but if you think Jar-Jar was a titular character then you might as well jump out of the window.
If you do manage to get your hands on the DVDs with the directors commentary then you wont regret it one bit. Animated series Aside from the movies, there have been multiple animated series over time and some of which have been declared cannon.
But even the ones like The Clone Wars do elaborate upon certain elements. Extended universe Fan fiction isnt a recent thing and with a universe that originated in , the fans sure have been busy coming up with backstories of every single important character and when that was done with, they went ahead and made up new characters and then elaborated upon their backstories as well.
Jedi or Sith? Take one of the numerous online personality quizzes or perhaps take two and figure out where your loyalties lie. Do you follow the righteous path or one that is wrought with destruction and mayhem? Or perhaps you dont fall in either category and youre more content being a Gundark in the jungles of Dromund Kaas.
Pick a side! Cosplay Since youve come this far, you might as well walk the entire mile! Bonus points if you pick a species other than human. Extra bonus points if you can repurpose your moms favourite curtain as your robe. You could even go about ruining Princess Leia like this dude alongside. Or you could even make some character up Darth Dandelion? Find out how whistle blowers use the darknet for affecting change in society and bringing down surveillance.
None of us ever gave a second thought to whether we would be able to access YouTube as easily we could access Facebook, or access Skype as easily as Whatsapp. But come December , the internet was suddenly abuzz with posts, discussions, videos, interviews, all about one thing: Net neutrality. In the past five years, the Internet has been globally subjected to a lot of debate pertaining to network neutrality and differential pricing.
Countries, as contrasting as Chile and Netherlands, have adopted laws and legislation specifically aimed to keep the Internet an equal platform. And thanks to the Internet itself, when Indias turn came to face its lack of Internet specific laws it wasnt caught unawares.
Specifically initiated by Airtel and subsequently picked up by other network providers, the idea of charging for OverThe-Top services, like Skype or Whatsapp, received renewed vigour since the beginning of this year. Network providers and OTT services have been at loggerheads on this, with network providers demanding a pay-per-use billing model for these services instead of billing based on bandwidth consumed.
It is often speculated that the drop in revenues from voice calls vis-vis the growth in popularity of VOIP and drop in SMS traffic vis--vis chat apps is what prompted telecom operators to push for these measures. On the other hand, OTT services have demanded unregulated access to the internet without any hurdles for their growth and development. Learn how to make music on your Android smartphone using Stagelight. This violated the basic foundation principle of a neutral internet, or as popularly known, net neutrality.
Or did it? The Unbiased Principle The principle of net neutrality dictates that data over the internet has to be treated without any bias. This means that the internet can be used for anything by anyone without experiencing additional costs or limitations. For the sake of understanding this concept lets take this example: Consider the internet to be the power supply you receive at your homes. The concept of neutrality dictates that no power supply company or technician is allowed to alter the supply in such a way that you get higher voltage when you use your washing machine than when you use your vacuum cleaner, or charge you extra money if you decide to watch TV.
The terms of watching your TV are decided between you and your cable provider alone, without interference from the power company. Similarly, the terms of an OTT service on the internet should not be under any influence from the underlying Internet provider. This is important for two reasons. First, Suppose if Airtel provides a Viber only data pack for Rs. To retain its users, Hike will have to find a way to compensate users for that extra This reduces their ability to decide their own method of functioning to actually achieve what they set out to do with their idea or product.
Second, one of the basic things that a network provider has the technical power to do is selectively throttling or boosting the access speeds for a certain OTT service. Now, if Flipkart opens at the blink of an eye and Snapdeal keeps you perpetually waiting in a country already at the lower rungs when it comes to average internet speed, we all know which site we will shop from.
This hasnt been proposed or tried in India yet, but it might be well on its way once we allow networks to interfere with. Certain telecom majors have been trying to push the logic that they are similar to Highway corporations in the way they function. According to them, just like Highway corporations receive tolls for maintaining the Highway, they too deserve some form of regular monetary compensation from OTT content providers. The only and perhaps the sufficient reason why that is absurd is that they already do receive regular monetary compensation for maintaining those highways of data: Internet Bills!
This is the same provider that tried to bring in separate internet usage plans for VoIP services in December over concerns of lost revenue. Hence it was no surprise, that when TRAI tried to discuss Regulatory Framework for Over-the-Top Services over an open forum, it got over a million responses in spite of a short deadline.
The email address releasing debacle that followed was highly unfortunate and irresponsible on the part of TRAI, but the netizens of India had made their stand on net neutrality as clear as daylight. After all, it is only because the internet is neutral that applications like Whatsapp, YouTube, and Skype could become so good at what they do.
And for more of them to come by, be developed and used, OTT services have to stay unaffected. Free Internet or the Free Internet? Zero has always been a too-good-tobe-true number to show up on bills of any kind. So when Airtel launched the Airtel Zero platform in April , the internet smelt something fishy and was up in arms in no time.
Zero Rating is a scheme under which Mobile Network providers and ISPs do not charge the customer for data used to access certain specific websites or applications. For a developing country like ours, Internet is a very strong tool. From the advent of the Internet into homes to the comparatively recent smart-phone revolution, the economy of any sector has improved due to connectivity and the easy availability of information.
In spite of that, when a financially deprived citizen wants to use the internet, one of his most prominent hurdles is the cost. Facing the choice between spending money on basic necessities or the internet, it is evident why less than one fifth of the population is connected.
Until the gap between the cost and the need for connectivity is bridged, it is unlikely that Internet will. Free Basics Internet. His vision was to bring basic internet connectivity to the less developed parts of the world in the form of affordable access.
Similar to Airtel Zero, it is a platform centred on the idea of providing certain services like News, Weather Forecast, Messaging and more to the user without any data cost. The intentions are clear: to get a vast majority of the Indian populace online, empowering them to achieve more. This is where Airtel decided to give it a shot. Airtel Zero is a platform based on zero rating where Airtel customers can access certain apps or parts of apps and websites for free.
The app developer or company pays for the data consumption on their app and the customer is still free to access other apps or websites by paying for the data being used to access them. This gives the impression that Airtel is trying to create a separate island of privileged content providers who have the required bank balances to compensate Airtels bandwidth costs. The start-ups which rely heavily on popularity for their success would now face another formidable barrier to compete with big and established competition.
For obvious reasons and severe backlash, Flipkart, one of the most prominent companies to show interest in this, took a step back and exited the platform. Providing selective free access, even with the noblest of intentions, to a population of this size indicates a strong advantage for the provider.
It does raise the question that if Orkut could have done the same, would we even have a Facebook today? Launched in India in February this year, Facebooks timing was unfortunate to say the least. Even if there was any promise to be seen at the onset, it was promptly drowned in a barrage of net neutrality related accusations. The biggest point in question is Facebooks tie up with Reliance Communications providing exclusive access to the platform on their network.
Any form of free access over a mobile network certainly attracts more users to the network compared to other networks which charge the users for the same services. Perhaps Facebooks initiaDigit December www. In recent times, most countries have either adopted regulations regarding the internet or are currently grappling with the same.
The objective has been to achieve a solution that strikes a balance between user demands and the industry. The European Union seems to have achieved that with a Europewide net neutrality regulations standard. Also, they have legalized the provision of better speeds to innovative services like IPTV or telesurgery on the condition that they may come only on top of the existing free internet, not as a substitute.
They must use the same internet protocols as the rest of the internet. This preferential position has to be objectively necessary for the service to operate, and it should not affect the free internet. As ingenious and encompassing as the solution may seem, it doesnt really have a possible Indian counterpart at present. With the current stage of connectivity, the network congestion issue.
The Unachievable Grey We saw the differential pricing. We saw the free platforms. We had our debates and discussions on upholding and violating net neutrality. And then, along came a new concept: Data Refund.
The simplest and most accessible counterpart that can be provided to this is the cashbacks provided by online stores on the purchase of a certain product or of a certain amount. Take the example of Gigato, an android app, which rewards you with data balance for certain specific data usage.
The rewards are app specific and are added to your account once the said data is consumed on that app, e. So does this violate net neutrality or not? That is more complicated a question than it appears. Although it does favour apps which can pay Gigato for the data reward, it does not set any restrictions on how that data can be used. So basically, you, as a user, are encouraged to spend more data in any way you see fit. The way Gigato achieves this is by rewarding you a total data balance once you have achieved a certain total target MBs of rewards spread across a number of apps.
This assures that they provide app downloads and usage to their partners, while providing free unregulated data to their users. A win-win for all. One of the most interesting parts of the rules they have adopted is the exceptions list to traffic management. They have set aside some situations where a network provider is allowed to perform actions like blocking, throttling, degradation or discrimination of data over the open internet.
The situations are: If ordered by the law If threatened by cyber-attacks If network is temporarily congested As small as they may seem, the above list of exceptions is actually exhaustive and they are well on their way to set up national level regulatory committees which 40 Digit December www. The services mentioned above which require better connectivity are not a primary need for the unconnected India in the near future.
However, establishing a national level regulatory body for the Internet and issues pertaining to it might just give the regulatory aspect of Indias internet some much needed direction. Until that is done, we at least need to try and think of some new concepts to tackle the increasing dilemma between our need for connectivity and our right to a neutral internet.
Interestingly, we came across Gigato in from two vectors recently. It was cited as an example of how Facebook can realise its vision without creating barriers. Whats interesting is that it made us at least mull over our stance on net neutrality if not question it outright. If properly analysed, the similarities between Gigato and Airtel Zero are unmistakable.
What differs is only that the data is received in the form of a reward from Gigato, whereas by using Airtel Zero you save more of your data balance. An average person, without a zero rated. Is your job at risk? Now, if some of the things he accesses become free of cost, he just pays a lesser amount to access the same internet.
It need not be retold how this benefits the low income class of India. The two ideologies of net neutrality and the speedy adoption of internet cannot practically go hand in hand.
If the private sector is to be entrusted with the noble endeavour of getting online the million strong still unconnected populace certain innovative measures that dont outright violate network neutrality have to be adopted. Similarly, Facebooks Internet. Coming to the technical side of Zero rating, it has been established by observation and several studies that the quality of a network increases with. Ever thought if you could get paid for walking?
Checkout Bitwalking, an app that does exactly that! To continue with the Highway example, ask yourself where should you build a six-lane highway: a road actually suffering congestion or somewhere desolate where it might not be utilized fully? Numbers are good, so is competition The Internet is a two sided market. A greater number of users encourage content providers and app developers to expand and reinvent their services.
Simultaneously, a diverse and expansive range of content which is easier to access attracts more subscribers to the internet. In short, the more the netizens, the more the variety of content available. Along with that massive usage, something like Internet.
This ultimately reinforces the belief that some internet is better than no internet.
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