[Preview + Feedback] Jan 2010

[Anorion]

We've begun a new year. A new start. Technology is rapidly changing, and we don't want you to be left behind. From concepts to products, ideas to entrepreneurship, you'll find this month's Digit flooded with insight.



This month, we've tested printers, hard disks and compared DTH services available in India. We've presented you with the figures in black and white. Read and make your choice.

Magazine Contents:

Enter
Inbox
Buzz - 11 Digit Mobile numbers, The future of Atom Chips and more tech news powered by www.thinkdigit.com
Industry Connect - We speak to Dr. Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, India software labs to find out what is cooking at IBM
Industry Connect - We meet up with Jun-Hsun Huang, Co-Founder, President and CEO of NVIDIA, on Tegra and computing in general

Connections
Web Watch - Online Security, Facebooks new privacy features and more
Mobile Watch - Nokia's new Booklet, IMEI numbers and more
Whacking the Wave - Why Wave is an old idea
Entrepreneurship - We look at promising startups

Digital Life
Drool Maal - Concepts and Prototypes, a Flash Forward into the future
Future of Cars - We look at the cutting edge of personal transportation technology

Sci-Tech
How Stuff Works - How a touch tablet works
Chrome OS - What it is, and what it means
Future of Computing - The hard and soft of tomorrow
Robotics - Current and future trends in Robotics, in India and abroad
From the Labs - Future of Sound

Tried and Tested
DTH Comparison - DTH services compared
Printers - Desktop printer shootout
HDD - This time, our tests included flash storage as well
First Look - Zune HD
Bazaar - Including the HTC Touch2, ATI Radeon 5970, Skullcandy Skullcrushers

Toolbox
Q&A
Tips and Tricks
DIY: Build your own amp

Street Smart
Great little gadgets to buy for under Rs. 500
Agent 001 goes shopping for ergonomic devices
Price Watch
Killer Rigs - revamped

Tech@Work
Google Go - The new language from Google
Chrome Extensions - and how to make your own

Escape
Unwind
Amateur Astronomy
Review: Assasin's Creed 2
Review: Forza Motorsport
Review: Saboteur
Digit 101

Fast Track to Maya

DVD Contents:

DVD1 - Mindware

Tools
Featured
Maya 2010
Maya Tutorial Videos
Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

Internet
Ares Galaxy 2.1.2
aTube Catcher 1.0.294
Billeo 2.1.0.1
BitComet 1.16
BitLord 1.1
BitSpirit 3.6.0.330 Stable
Boost Machine 1.5.8
CitrixWire 4.1.7
Core FTP LE 2.1 build 1631
CYK Desktop Twitter Interface 1.05
Darq Software Transmute 1.65
DBGO 2.0
Download Accelerator Manager 4.1.4
Easy Login Assist 5.2
FileZilla 3.3.0.1
FileZilla Portable 3.3.0.1
Flickr Uploadr 3.2.1
Free YouTube Download 2.3.3.66
FrostWire 4.18.4
GigaTribe 3.18
GoodieBoxLive 1.2.0.8
Hermes P2P 3.2
Home Ftp Server 1.10.1.139
Instant Hidden Internet 3.4
IPNetInfo 1.21
Ipswitch WS_FTP Home 12
KooLoader 1.6
KooLoader Plus 1.4
Meteor Share 2.5
MP3 Rocket 5.3.4
MSN Toolbar Powered By Bing 4.0.0346.1
Music MP3 Get 4.2.0.2
NetworX Open Source Social Networking Platform 1.0.2
Pando 2.3.2.8
PowerFolder 4.0.1
PrintScreen.Me 1.5
RapidShare Downloader 4.16
Seesmic Desktop 0.6.2
ShareGhost 1.1
Soulseek 157 NS 13e
Status Fairy 1.0
Tixati 1.21
TweetGlide 0.1.1.43 beta
uTorrent Ultra Accelerator 1.4.4
VDownloader 1.12
Veoh Web Player 1.1.7.1176 beta
Video4pc Downloader 1.2.1
VIP Torrent 3.0
Vuze 4.3.0.4
WebsBee 1.0 beta
WhoIs 1.4.3599
Zultrax P2P 4.40

Multimedia
Accord CD Ripper Free 6.1.6
AoA Audio Extractor 2.2.5
Apple QuickTime 7.6.5
Arclab Thumb Studio 2.1
Bryce 5.5
BS.Player 2.50.1017
BullZip PDF Printer 7.1.0.1078
BurnAware Free 2.4.2
CDBurnerXP 4.2.7.1801
Celtx 2.5.1
Contenta-Converter Basic 4.8
Daemon Tools Lite 4.35.5
Decompile Flash Free 2.1.2.1590
Digital Image Tool 2.0
Document3D Suite 2009 SP2
FairStars CD Ripper 1.30
FastStone Image Viewer 4.0
FastStone Photo Resizer 2.9
FLVPlayer4Free 3.8
Fly Free Photo Editing & Viewer 2.33
FotoMorph 9.3
Fotosizer 1.27.0.470
Fox CD Extractor 1.4
FoxRecorder 1.5
FoxTag Editor 1.5
Free Studio 4.2.4.69
Free Video to MP3 Converter 3.2.1.57
Fresh View 7.84
GOM Media Player 2.1.21.4846
HandBrake 0.9.4
Hornil StylePix 1.0.2
iSpring Free 4.3.0.2667
Just Color Picker 2.2
MediaCoder 0.7.2.4535
MediaMonkey Standard 3.2.0.1294
Moo0 ImageViewer 1.64
MP3 Tag Express 3.0
Mp3tag 2.45a
Multiple Image Resizer .NET 2.7
MultitrackStudio Lite 6.0
On-screen Ruler 2.0.1.0
Paint.NET 3.5.1
Photo Cutter 1.0
Photo Pos Pro 1.76
Photo to Sketch 4.0 Standard
PhotoViz 3.1
PhotoWham 1.6
Pictomio 1.2.31
Pipe2CAD 2.11
Pos Free Photo Editor 1.30
QuuxPlayer Standard Edition 2.8.0.5
Similarity 1.0
Soundbase 2009.12.01
SoundTaxi 3.9.3
Spesoft Audio Converter 2.10
Subtitle Edit 2.8.3
Super MP3 Download 3.3.0.8
TwistedBrush Open Studio 16.09
Vignetting Reducer 1.6
VSO Image Resizer 3.0.0.140
Watermark Image 1.0.0.4
Wave Editor 3.0.3
XnView 1.97
ZoomFoot Send Photo 1.0.28
Zortam MP3 Center 1.16
Zortam MP3 Media Studio 10.05

System
Ainvo Registry Defrag 3.1.3.834
Auto Shutdown Manager 4.6.9.8
BestSync 2009 4.2.38
Delete Lines 1.0.6
Driver Magician Lite 3.58
Eusing Free Registry Defrag 1.5
Free Registry Defrag 2.40
Fresh Diagnose 8.28
GPU-Z 0.3.8
IZArc 4.1
IZArc2Go 4.1
Little Registry Optimizer 0.3
Little Registry Optimizer Portable Edition 0.3
NetResView 1.16
PixDiskat 1.08
Program Starter 2.0.3
Risingware Exp+ Free Edition 2.6
Thoosje Windows 7 Logon Editor 1.0
Unknown Device Identifier 7.0
USBDeview 1.50
Windows Access Panel 1.0
Wise Registry Cleaner 4.92

Essentials
.net Framework 2.0
.net Framework 3.5
7Zip
Avast Home Edition 4.8
Comodo Internet Security Pro 3.5.55810.432
Fast Copy
Foxit Reader 3.0
Free Download Manager 3 build 848
Irfan View 4.23
Java 2 Runtime
K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 5.4.0 Mega
Opera 10
Silverlight 2.0
Spybot Search and Destroy 1.6.0
VLC Player 1.0
µTorrent 1.8.5

Mobile
Java
CacheTrack 1.10
camera player 1.0
Facebook Mobile 1.0
IQ Barking Phone 1.0
KD Player 0.9.6
MSDict Pocket Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus 8.30
Navizon Lite 3.3.2
Nimbuzz 2.0
SportyPal 1.0.1
Super Bluetooth Hack 1.08
YouTube 1.0

Symbian
Chase Mobile browser 1.0
DivX Mobile Media 1.1
dogWhistle 1.0
Facebook Mobile 1.0
Flyscreen 1.1.1
Jomtris Winter 2009 1.60
LCG Jukebox 2.41
Loki Mobile 0.8
MazeScrawl 0.4
NetQin Mobile Antivirus 2.4
Nimbuzz 2.0
PuTTY 1.5.1
SaveSmsIO 0.2
SmsShorter 1.10
SpeedySmsSave 0.2
UCWEB 6.3.3
Unity 2.20
Walkietooth 1.10
YesNo 1.2

Blackberry
Call Client 1.1
CameraToGo 0.3
Chase Mobile browser 1.0
CurrencyConverterLite 1.3
EasyReach 2.6.1
eBay Mobile 1.0
Loopt 3.1.1
Mobipocket Reader 6.0
Mundu Radio 1.0.1
Music Strands 1.0
Nimbuzz 2.0
Palringo Instant Messenger 1.3.1
Personal Assistant Free 2.3
SportyPal 1.0.1
Stubblinks 1.0
Upvise Mobile Wikipedia 2.0
Wallpaper Changer Lite 1.2

Windows Mobile
Facebook Mobile 1.0
LCG Jukebox 2.41
Mine-Fields 1.02
Nav4All 9.0
Nimbuzz 2.0
Office mobile 2010 beta
Opera Mini 4.2
SmartMovie 4.15
UCWEB 6.3.3
Yahoo Mobile 1.0

Lectures
Game Theory
Lecture 9 We continue our discussion of mixed strategies. First we discuss the payoff to a mixed strategy, pointing out that it must be a weighed average of the payoffs to the pure strategies used in the mix. We note a consequence of this: if a mixed strategy is a best response, then all the pure strategies in the mix must themselves be best responses and hence indifferent. We use this idea to find mixed-strategy Nash equilibria in a game within a game of tennis.
Lecture 10 We develop three different interpretations of mixed strategies in various contexts: sport, anti-terrorism strategy, dating, paying taxes and auditing taxpayers. One interpretation is that people literally randomize over their choices. Another is that your mixed strategy represents my belief about what you might do. A third is that the mixed strategy represents the proportions of people playing each pure strategy. Then we discuss some implications of the mixed equilibrium in games; in particular, we look how the equilibrium changes in the tax-compliance/auditor game as we increase the penalty for cheating on your taxes.

Introduction to Computer Science
Lecture 9 Strings as Arrays, Command-Line Arguments, and more Cryptography
Lecture 10 Run Times and Algorithms, Recursion
Lecture 11 Sorting: Bubble Sort, Selection Sort, and Merge Sort

OS
OS
Fedora 12
Linux Mint 8
Windows 7 Enterprise (x86 )


DVD2 - Playware
Digit
Digit TV Episode 3 of Digit TV, with the Zune HD, the HP Touchsmart PC, A feature on Ruchi Infotech and Left4Dead 2.

Featured
Digit Archives
Tabbles 1.3.9
Maths Helper
Nowhere 2 the Void
NeatDigit 2.64
Digit Software Archive

Gaming
Games
Aces High
Blackhole
Vektor Space
Dirt 2
Risen
Wolfenstein

Patches
Batman: Arkham Asylum v1.1 Patch
Dragon Age: Origins v1.01a Patch
F.E.A.R. v1.08 Patch
GRID v1.3 Patch
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare v1.7 Patch

Game Trailers
AntConflict
Blade & Soul
Blur
Class 3 Outbreak
Cosmo
Dark Void
EVE Online: Dominion
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
PSPgo
Super Street Fighter IV
teh internets: Attack of the Memes
TURN Episode I: The Lost Artefact

Casual Games
ASCII Portal
Bombie Zombie
Chicken Invaders 1.30
Dragon Ball Z 1.0
Halo Zero 1.8.3
Happyland Adventures 1.3
Icy Tower 1.4
Jardinains 1.2
La Ludo - The Game
N 1.4
Nanosmiles
RunMan: Race around the world
Starport Galactic Empires 2.0
Street Fighter 2
Super Mario Bros 3 : Mario Forever 4.4
Super Mario World 2
Tasty Static
Ultimate Sonic 1.0

Entertainment
HD Trailers
Across the Hall
Babies
Beastly
Clash of the Titans
Crazy on the outside
Extraordinary Measures
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Kickass
Race to Witch Mountain
Up in the air

Videos
10GUI
Better Life
Hep Cat Symphony
HP - invent
I'll be gone
Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection
Popeye the Sailor Meets Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp
The brave Tin Soldier
The PEN Story
The Tournament (UMOD)
Toybox
Tum Raider
Urban Abstract

Music
To Kill a King
Ambient symphony
Theme from the Past
Robot in Love
Lone wolf
Life's Path
The Heavens
Mind's Eye
Lonely Night
Tunguska Chillout Grooves vol. 4

[phuchungbhutia]

the mobile softwares seem to be repeated from last months issue if i m not wrong.
lots of thanks for the distros and ft.

[DigitCritic]

yeah, things have been repeated, why windows 7 we already have enough of it too ?

One more thing , some have suggested vmware server 2.0 alot of times and it is free too , it is great tool.

I would appreciate if digit can provide it on disc !

[krishnandu.sarkar]

Is the Fedora 12 Live CD one?? Or the DVD???

Why is the snapshot of mag is of Dec 2009 issue?????

[Anorion]

@phuchungbhutia: The monbile section has no repeates. Nimbuzz, Palringo are updates, Opera Mini has model updates.
@DigitCritic: Windows 7 is a 90 day trial, a version we haven't given before
@krishnandu.sarkar: Fedora 12 Live CD, and the Snapshot is of the Jan 2010 issue.

[topgear]

Thanks for FT on Maya. Wish to get FT on 3Ds max 2010 next month and VMWare workstation coz though virtualbox is good it does not provides many advanced options as VMWare which is a industry approved virtualization app

BTw, Thanks for the win 7 trial and office 2010 beta. Many wanted this for a long time though I upgraded to win 7 ultimate x64 will try out win7 x86 and office 2010 beta anyway.

Again Thanks a ton for those good old classic movie

Will try out linux mint - waiting for Helena ( linux mint's latest distro's name )for a long time

[krishnandu.sarkar]

@Anorion Say if I install Fedora 12 from this Live CD and can later upgrage if I download a DVD?? I mean to customise the packages like I want to use KDE while Live CD has only Gnome. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Anorion]

^, you can.

[saqib_khan]

FT To Maya seems good.

[Sumeet_naik]

Win 7 enterprise version and Office 2010 beta are tempting..

---------- Post added at 06:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:52 PM ----------

Also FT on Maya and Maya itself make this issue a good buy..

---------- Post added at 06:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:54 PM ----------

Also FT on Maya and Maya itself make this issue a good buy..

[Rishabh_sharma1990]

I am sorry.....but this issue sux (except for DVDs).
I am really annoyed that digit is getting more and more product centered.
Most of my friends call it only 'Product Guide'.

There used to be lost of interesting articles on computers in digit.
but now only products and products everywhere, and most of them are out of reach of normal persons.
Also, I personally don't like articles on Cars, Superbikes, or Future Robots or anything predicting future....

Please...Please I request you to include more and informative articles on current trends and technologies instead of products and future-tech because no one can predict future and not everyone can afford those expensive and swanky gadgets, I hope you understand what am I trying to say. I think most of the readers would be agree with me.

[raj_v1982]

DVD contents are Good and Nice, But the Mag Contents are poor

[Rishabh_sharma1990]

Originally Posted by raj_v1982

DVD contents are Good and Nice, But the Mag Contents are poor

True....
Magazine contents are really poor.
Don't know what's happening to digit.

[tarey_g]

It will be interesting to read about DTH Comparison (I hope its technical and not subjective).

I miss the old days when me an my friends installed each and every piece of software available on the DVD/CD to check the usefulness of it , poor internet connection made the game demos and trailers worth.
Biggest surprise were some melodious tracks included on DVD, i hope it still holds true .

[azaad_shri75]

what kinda tutorials are they of Maya

[karnikv]

hi,i bought digit magazine dec edition from newspaper wender.....dvd of games n 300 wallpapers does not carry any thing.......they r just obyte folders........give me rely on this ..issue.....n replace my dvd

[TheHumanBot]

o man i dont know how but topgear we think the same way.
FT on 3D Max will be awesome.
Tutorials or FT on VMware i want so badly.
i was about to request tutorial on VirtualBox cause its Open Source but
its okay with VMWare as topgear said many advanced options.

Thanks for All OS Fedora Mint and Win7
i was expecting Win7 64bit
Thanks for Popeye the Sailor Meets Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp

First time i am excited for Jan issue after Dec Special Issue

[ankitreloaded]

Originally Posted by raj_v1982

DVD contents are Good and Nice, But the Mag Contents are poor

yeah, we don't usually go about buying products all the time. It's just once a year or so. :C_disgusted:

[abhi-abhi]

I am regular user of Digit from past 2 years, recently joined this forum, and I have something to say to Team Digit...
I've been observing from last few issues, the magazine is full of Adds, to be true whether you like it or not Team Digit, every second page is Advertisement....!!!!!
You say its necessary to continue printing the magazine, its ok, but every second page of Advt...?????
I sometimes tell my friends or family member to bring Digit when I have no time to go to newsstand before the shelves are empty, they all tell me why i am wasting my money on "product catalog", a magazine full of Advts, they even tell me to go to some mall to get the catalog of these products free of cost.......
Do you think you are doing justice to your faithful readers and their hard earned money????
I hope you guys will take note of it, and I also hope we'll get something informative to read in magazine rather than seeing advts. of the product which no one really going to purchase..

[toofan]

Originally Posted by abhi-abhi

I am regular user of Digit from past 2 years, recently joined this forum, and I have something to say to Team Digit...
I've been observing from last few issues, the magazine is full of Adds, to be true whether you like it or not Team Digit, every second page is Advertisement....!!!!!
You say its necessary to continue printing the magazine, its ok, but every second page of Advt...?????
I sometimes tell my friends or family member to bring Digit when I have no time to go to newsstand before the shelves are empty, they all tell me why i am wasting my money on "product catalog", a magazine full of Advts, they even tell me to go to some mall to get the catalog of these products free of cost.......
Do you think you are doing justice to your faithful readers and their hard earned money????
I hope you guys will take note of it, and I also hope we'll get something informative to read in magazine rather than seeing advts. of the product which no one really going to purchase..

Very Well said.

Actually there are not that much ads but the magazine looks like advertising the products. Every month buying guides, best products of year, best brand of year, zero 1 awards, bazaar, "agent Fool", all do same every one month or other. Now In past some issues you can find HD TV reviews, shootout, agent also recommending HDTV every now and then. HDTV HDTV HDTV HDTV and HDTV . Why a PC magazine is selling HDTVs. What technology is there that every month we should know that and why.
Same is the case with DVD players. Why any pc user need a DVD player and thats too in a PC magazine.
There are many points. but I can't explain as I am not that much expressive with words.

And Happy New Year.

Just Recall One thing. Digit is a Special Computer Magazine don't make it ordinary product magazine.

[desiibond]

hmm. if you take a look at Dec'2009 magazine:

On Cloud 9.10
TED
Fun on the run (Mobile entertainment)
Surf's up (google wave)
Motorola Droid
Featuring Facebook
In touch... with tomorrow (touch technology) and The touchables
Bluray (The indian picture)
Home Sound setup
Flick in a click (internet tv)
Gains from loss (compression methods)
BSD
Desktop PCs shoot out
zero1 awards
Campaigning online
.NET
Skoar

November issue:

Windows mobile 6.5
interview with Ajay Pande, VP engineering, Adobe India
web 3.0
portability mania (android etc)
Google and cloud
Explore design (product design)
Indian designers and corporate trendsetters
Design Flops
Look & Feel
The Modscene (game modification)
going biotech way
Virtualization on mobile
Icons of trust
GPU shoot out
agent 001: 1080p fun
10 great ways to keep learning
Designing careers
increasing prodcutivity
Level Up (create own 3d games)


Now, There is only three pages in two mags about HDTV

I liked the December issue a lot. The content was superb and indeed special.
November issue was on designing and most of the articles were around the same feature.
The time when I didn't like content much was during Summer when there wasn't interesting in the mag and I also skipped few issues there but last three month's issues are just superb.

[Revolution]

Now I'm getting confused.....
What should I do ?
Will buy or not.....

[Rishabh_sharma1990]

Originally Posted by abhi-abhi

I am regular user of Digit from past 2 years, recently joined this forum, and I have something to say to Team Digit...
I've been observing from last few issues, the magazine is full of Adds, to be true whether you like it or not Team Digit, every second page is Advertisement....!!!!!
You say its necessary to continue printing the magazine, its ok, but every second page of Advt...?????
I sometimes tell my friends or family member to bring Digit when I have no time to go to newsstand before the shelves are empty, they all tell me why i am wasting my money on "product catalog", a magazine full of Advts, they even tell me to go to some mall to get the catalog of these products free of cost.......
Do you think you are doing justice to your faithful readers and their hard earned money????
I hope you guys will take note of it, and I also hope we'll get something informative to read in magazine rather than seeing advts. of the product which no one really going to purchase..

Completely agree with you. Digit is going less and less informative over time and what we see is only products and their reviews which doesn't make any sense at all.
I started reading digit in August 2006, and there used to be a lot of articles other really useful stuff that I could not finish even in a month. But now I finish it in just 1-2 days, because most of the digit is filled with reviews or product-buying guides. Do you think that we are going to purchase them at all ??
Why shouldn't we call digit a "Product Navigator" instead of "Technology Navigator"?

---------- Post added at 09:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Revolution

Now I'm getting confused.....
What should I do ?
Will buy or not.....

Well I think that it is not worth purchasing.
So spend your money on something better.

[Achuth]

Heyy plsss tell who got quoted in tha DTh test..havnt bought my digit...till now..hav'nt hit store till now i think..pls tell

[DigitCritic]

I agree with most of the readers of Digit magazine. I subscribe to 4 magazines every month PCQuest,Chip,Linux4You and Digit and honestly out of the four Digit is more of product guide and less tech articles are covered.

The dvd is content ok not mind blowing.

[Revolution]

Originally Posted by Rishabh_sharma1990

Well I think that it is not worth purchasing.
So spend your money on something better.

Too late.....
I already bought Digit.
You people were wright that the magazine was not good or even bad.
Full of adds.
Magazine and FT become thin to thinner......
Same old "Essential" softwares.
Nothing new.....

[ico]

One suggestion. Can Digit start giving Avira AntiVir instead of avast! Home?

Avira is way better. (Source: Tests of www.av-comparatives.org)

[topgear]

Originally Posted by Revolution

Too late.....
I already bought Digit.
You people were wright that the magazine was not good or even bad.
Full of adds.
Magazine and FT become thin to thinner......
Same old "Essential" softwares.
Nothing new.....

Is it out I mean available on news stands ?? Lazy me - have not got it yet - will get it ASAP

Originally Posted by ico

One suggestion. Can Digit start giving Avira AntiVir instead of avast! Home?

Avira is way better. (Source: Tests of www.av-comparatives.org)

Yup, Plus 1000 for that. I've benn using avira for 3 % a half year now and it's way better than any other free or commercial AV avaiable on market and it has the highest detection rate and will not slow down any system and offline updates are avaialble too

[phuchungbhutia]

it would b even better if both are given.

[rhitwick]

Well, I received my copy today

And, to all those shouting on Digit becoming product guide...and complaining on it shifting its focus from PCs, let me tell u, Digit is a technology magazine, and to me technology means each and everything that is worth mentioning and yeah not only mobo, GPU, CPU etc.

What is ur problem if it does survey on DTH services, why did u not protest when it did survey on IPTV or broadband, they are also a type of service.

What is ur problem if it compares DVD players, why did u not protest when it compared Multimedia Players.

And about the buying guide in every issue, remember the magazine is not published only for u, a lot more people read it and may be a few of them are waiting for that particular review. Yes, it comes handy, if not me, not u, someone else.

If u ask me, I would anyday trust Digit's comparison on even electric razors than any other product magazines