The third Startup Weekend HKU (SWHKU) concluded last Sunday and it was a day full of surprises. As teams lined up to pitch, reporters from TecHKU (who are also the organisers this time around) kept guessing what the products of companies such as Aftercrap or FaceAsk could be.

The #SWHKU3 judges (from left to right): Ray Chan, Raymond Yip, Nickey Khemchandani, Felix Lam, and Daisy Jiang.

On Saturday, During the final judging, we could clearly see that this year, the ideas, presentations, and pitches were of remarkable quality. Over course of the weekend, 8 mentors, 3 pitch “doctors”, a workshop on UI/UX design for mobile apps and another one on landing page essentials. The participants had come up with amazing products in a very brief period of time. Managing to do market research, make demos, identify any issues, pivot their idea, and then go through the cycle all over again in the span of the weekend! Not to mention they also had to allocate time for consultation with 8 mentors, rehearsed their pitch with 3 pitch “doctors”, and attended 3 workshops specifically on the Business Model Canvas, UI/UX design for mobile apps, and landing page essentials! Although sometimes in such competitions, there are always clear winners and losers, this time at SWHKU it was impossible to shoot down even a single idea because they were all good!

Judge Nickey Khemchandani presents DATAmined with the Best Validation Award at #SWHKU3.

Some of the judges told us that evaluating the winners was a very hard task especially for the prize of The Best Validation. The award finally went to DATAmined, a team of academic researchers who came up with the idea of bridging the gap between researchers who require data that is lying waste with companies. DATAmined will be an online market place that would allow companies to sell their research data to academics in universities who are willing to buy it for their own research. The team spent a lot of time fine tuning their idea by speaking to researchers of HKU and also evaluating the market model to gain the best returns for itself.

Judge Raymond Yip, whose team won the Best Design and Evaluation Award in the April 2013 edition of Startup Weekend HK, presents the same award to Team MusicSpark at #SWHKU3.

The Best Design and Evaluation Award went to team MusicSpark who pitched a business venture to encourage high-school students to collaborate and learn music. Differentiating themselves from the competition, the team gave a live demo showing their prototype’s ability to convert voice into MIDI musical notes leaving the judges very impressed. Although I was personally skeptical about the MusicSpark’s idea, after talking to their team briefly, I realised that the application could have potential as a Slack for musicians.

Judge Daisy Jiang presents the Best Business Model Award to Paperfox at #SWHKU3.

Finally, it was Paperfox, a subscription management platform that bagged the biggest prize, The Best Business Model. A company with the biggest team at SWHKU, Paperfox plans to help its customers reduce their expenditure on their unnecessary subscriptions such as gym memberships and Netflix while customers are away on vacations. The company had a very strong pitch and reassured the doubters in the audience that partner companies that live on the subscription model will like to sign-up for their apps since it promises the companies a chance to auto-renew subscriptions and eliminate the hassle of maintain their personal subscription renewal databases. Judge Daisy Jiang said Paperfox showed the most promise out of all the thirteen pitches that were presented to them at SWHKU.

Team Weavle doing their final pitch on Sunday.

However, there were several notable entries at SWHKU; an interesting one was Aftercrap, an app to register customer complaints of companies, small or large. They wanted to “meme-ify” the complaints by adding hilarious distortions and slogans to the complaint letters. Aftercrap plans to attract companies to their platform to address these complaints in exchange for a fee. Another interesting idea was MELT, a company to eliminate order-time and WAITERS from restaurants. MELT would provide its customers with the ability to place an order to a restaurant while they are on their way to it and provide a payment portal to settle bills. While applications such as Weavle promised its clients an event and location sharing app with a targeted advertising revenue model. We also saw two job-hunting / networking apps and two travel apps among the 13 ideas presented. The pitches also included other companies that offered services such as counselling to graduates, a marketplace for local goods, as well as an idea to make another object-tracking hardware (but with a difference).

Overall, it was very satisfying to see that this year, all pitches were for ideas that were for the betterment of the society. The quality of ideas is only improving every year and I personally, cannot wait to see SWHKU next year!

• About
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Aman Gupta

An everyday tech-enthusiast who runs his own blog, listens to rock and spends more time on 9GAG than reading books. Doesn't understand the idea of playing sports on gaming consoles but loves FPS games. Follows too many TV series and studies engineering (in his free time) - Computer Science usually and sometimes also finance! That is me. *yawn*

Latest posts by Aman Gupta (see all)

• Blog: Final pitches at Startup Weekend HKU #3 - October 23, 2016
• Examining the Hybrid Theory and Microsoft’s Brand New Entry - October 27, 2015
• Geeking Out: Testing the Windows 10 Insider Preview - July 16, 2015

Ever since the advent of Windows 8, the computer has been evolving into a hybrid machine: part Tablet, part Laptop. This decade has been about reinventing the laptop and in hindsight, it has been totally reinvented! A large proportion of laptops we see today are touch-enabled and even Apple, who ridiculed the Hybrid category only a few years ago, has made an entry into this segment with the iPad Pro. Is this really the way forward, or are these hybrid machines all hype?

In order to come to a conclusion, let us examine the products that fit this category and are present in the market today. Just a heads up: all of these machines have touch-screens and a detachable keyboard of some type; the hybrids discussed have the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously.

Surface Pro 4

Microsoft’s Surface Pro series has been well accepted as the leader of the hybrid segment. The just-announced Surface Pro 4 (which has been available in the US and Canada since yesterday) has configurations that beat those of a conventional desktop. With the option for a 1TB SSD, i7 Skylake Processors and a humongous 16 Gigs of RAM all attached to a display that packs five million pixels into a 12.3-inch screen. It is understandable that these high-end configurations are for a limited number of customers with very deep pockets, but even the basic configurations that come at a price of USD 900 are enough to get you through the day especially with a battery that lasts 12 hours. The Surface Pen that compliments the Surface Pro is engineered to give more precision than a mouse. It not only enables note taking but also gives the designers an edge to sketch and design directly on the screen.

iPad Pro

Apple introduced in September its “Surface Killer”, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Although it isn’t out yet, it is believed that the iPad Pro packs a punch. It takes advantage of the fact that the Operating System is designed for the hardware (vis-a-vis Microsoft), and iOS9 is a highly-regarded mobile OS; the iPad Pro increases the productivity of the already efficient iPad with its larger form factor. Apple has also engineered a Surface like keyboard and pencil for the iPad Pro which I believe will be on-par with, if not better than, Microsoft’s. Moreover, Apple’s fan-base will make sure the product is a huge success. The iPad Pro is 78% larger than the iPad, retains Apple’s famous Retina Display and supposedly has an amazingly fast processor. All these features accompany the slew of applications and integrations that make Apple products unbeatable. However, it falls short on the number of different configurations available – but it is available in 3 colours.

Surface Book

The Surface Book is a glorious piece of engineering dressed in alumnium. It has specifications even higher than that of his younger brother Surface, and like the Surface, it also has a detachable keyboard. Microsoft has been able to create a “dynamic fulcrum hinge” for its keyboard, which makes the screen sit back when using the keyboard. The Surface Book has a “Muscle Wire Lock” which helps the screen attach and escape from its keyboard; a keyboard they claim is the best keyboard in the world. The best part about this machine is that the keyboard assembly also houses a dedicated NVidia Laptop class GPU that makes this hybrid like no other! It has all the USB ports one needs, however, they are only in the keyboard housing which makes it impossible to add a thumb drive when you are hopping around without it.

Google Pixel C

Google Pixel C is one of the most talked about Android Tablets. Although its specifications will make it look ridiculous in front of the iPad Pro or the Surface series, it can’t be ignored in this discussion. Android tablets were among the first hybrids, with the new Android Marshmallow software and the Pixel C- the Android tablets/hybrids have certainly raised the bar. Honestly speaking, the Pixel C is a great piece of machinery for its software but not for its hardware. It packs only 3GB of RAM (the Samsung Galaxy S6 phone has 4GB) and houses a NVidia Trega Quad-core Processor. It isn’t much when it comes to computation, speed or power, but it is wallet friendly. Even though Marshmallow has not been tested on tablets or large displays, it is a beautiful, material design OS that should function smoothly.

Since Microsoft has been toying with hybrid machines for a longer time, they will have more expertise and experience. Their Surface line-up surpasses Google’s and Apple’s when it comes to computation. I believe it is more because of the OS available to them; Windows machines run on the same native desktop class operating system, Windows 10, whereas the iPad Pro and the Pixel C run on Operating Systems better suited for and designed for mobile devices. The iOS and Android Marshmallow put both the tablets at an advantage in terms of the App-Gap. On the other hand, Microsoft significantly lacks on their part; however, Microsoft and their OEM’s offerings allow for native desktop apps to run fluidly on their hybrid machines; the App-Gap is compensated for even if the apps are not touch ready.

We live in a day and age where the Moore’s Law has been broken, yet we are getting smaller and faster chipsets simply because we are using power more efficiently. A mobile phone today has more computation power than all the processing it took to land a man on the moon! Obviously, a 8.2 mm-thick piece of machined aluminium can compensate for a fat overweight machine that we only use to browse 9GAG. The modern user has minimum requirements from a laptop: a word processor, a web browser, and a web browser– all of which can be satisfied by the hybrids we had yesterday. Today’s hybrids can do much more. They are beautifully crafted and are suitable for even someone like me, who needs the power for Adobe Software, high-end graphics for gaming, and portability to make notes in lectures.

I believe, and as every keynote speaker (be it Apple’s or Microsoft’s or Google’s) says, the finger and the touch screen are the most human way to interact with a machine (until dictation evolves from being more than a personal assistant). We may be able to remove the touchpad but because the keyboard is still the most important input device, we need a physical keyboard. That is why the Big Three offer physical keyboards for their tablets. However, at times and places where we can make do without, why not just walk around with a screen? In my opinion, it makes a lot of sense to have hybrids around. The hybrids we discussed are based on similar chains of thought.

I give a thumbs up to hybrids. They are not just substitutes to laptops anymore– they are the future of desktop computing.

• About
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Aman Gupta

An everyday tech-enthusiast who runs his own blog, listens to rock and spends more time on 9GAG than reading books. Doesn't understand the idea of playing sports on gaming consoles but loves FPS games. Follows too many TV series and studies engineering (in his free time) - Computer Science usually and sometimes also finance! That is me. *yawn*

Latest posts by Aman Gupta (see all)

• Blog: Final pitches at Startup Weekend HKU #3 - October 23, 2016
• Examining the Hybrid Theory and Microsoft’s Brand New Entry - October 27, 2015
• Geeking Out: Testing the Windows 10 Insider Preview - July 16, 2015

The opinion and views in this article are that of the authors and do not reflect the opinion or views of The HKU Journal of Technology, or the TecHKU Editorial Team. You can comment below to let the authors know what you think.
To submit an opinion piece of your own, send an email to techkueditors@gmail.com or use the contribute button on the top right of this site.

Now that I am back home and surrounded by four computers, I have finally installed Windows 10 Technical Preview on one of the machines. It is the 100130 build on a 64-bit system without a touchscreen, and I just installed the Office 2016 Preview. In fact, I am writing this article on the brand new operating system (OS) and word processor!

As one can expect from a Beta Build, the Windows 10 platform still has quite a few glitches and limitations. Microsoft has fixed most issues and all the native apps that will come pre-installed with the release to manufacturing (RTM) version are now available. Some of the apps do shut down unexpectedly and “snapping” some of them can cause resizing issues. Nevertheless, Windows 10 seems to be an amazing OS and hopefully the Microsoft wheel of one incredible release preceded by an unappealing one will continue.

Most of us are aware that Windows 10 will be free for owners of Windows 7 and later versions and up to one-year subscription for non-genuine copy holders which makes this a big deal. Adoption rates should be significantly high especially after Windows has installed a sign-up application in all the consumer machines using Windows Update.

Windows users may have noticed a new icon in their system tray prompting them to reserve a copy of Win10.

In my honest opinion, people who want a solid, non-buggy build should not sign-up for the Day 0 update since the history of Microsoft and Windows reflects that the engineers will take at least a month, post the initial RTM release, to give you a stable Windows Experience.

However, the user interface and features of the new Windows 10 is state of the art. Borrowing from Linux and OS X, Windows 10 will finally have multiple desktops to work on, making it easier to multi-task and it will have its own notification bar as an extension to the banner notifications we saw in Windows 8. Cortana has been ported from the phone and now it endlessly extends functionality on your PC with web and computer searches along with the usual virtual-assistant feature.

The Start menu and web browser make a comeback

However, like every other Microsoft fan-boy, my favourite feature is the Start menu. It is back, and it looks beautiful. Microsoft has perfectly merged the functionality of the Windows 7 Start Menu with the Metro user interface of 8.1. It is fast, efficient and really beautiful once you pick the perfect accent colour.

The new web browser, Edge, is actually cutting edge! Although it is still named Project Spartan on the Preview, it is faster, smoother and revolutionary not just when compared to the Internet Explorer, but even the industry standard, Chrome. Despite the fact that I am testing it on a Desktop without a touch-screen, with the note taking functionality and the amazing OS integration, there is no reason to install Chrome in the computer. I do miss the extensions, but they will come eventually in the final release of Edge.

The Store, Settings, Music and Photos apps have refreshing designs and great utility. With OneDrive integration everything is interconnected and if you own several computers , your Windows Environment is going to get a whole lot better. Although the revolutionary new Windows Store has become an one-stop-shop for Music, Movies, Apps and Games, the Mail or People apps are not a significant improvement from their previous incarnations in Windows 8.1; you cannot improve an email client further than that; however, Calendar is efficient and fast and with Cortana integrated in it, very smart.

Office 2016: Improved OneDrive integration but no changes in UI

I also had a chance to install the Microsoft Office 2016 preview and frankly it is a major disappointment in terms of user interface overhauls. If you are advancing from Office 2013, you wouldn’t even notice the difference in Word 2016 since everything is the same barring a few improvements. There is a help-box of sorts on the ribbon which understands “Natural English” and is a quick way to get through all the clutter of Word or PowerPoint.

Microsoft has also improved OneDrive integration. Back in Office 2013 when you wanted to save a document in OneDrive, the program would query the server and obviously take a lot of time to open the OneDrive directory and then save the document. Microsoft has changed that and now the Office Apps save the document in the OneDrive directory on the machine and then sync with the cloud. This saves precious time and, that’s how I used to save my documents on OneDrive even in Office 2013.

Some readers will be left disappointed with no mention of Windows Hello (my Desktop doesn’t even have a microphone – forget a high-tech webcam). I have also not mentioned the Xbox App, since I am not aware of its features.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and Windows 10 has certainly more to offer. I cannot wait for July 29th when I finally get to install it on my everyday laptop and Tablet, so I can experience features like Continuum and enjoy the touch functionality of the OS.

• About
• Latest Posts

Aman Gupta

An everyday tech-enthusiast who runs his own blog, listens to rock and spends more time on 9GAG than reading books. Doesn't understand the idea of playing sports on gaming consoles but loves FPS games. Follows too many TV series and studies engineering (in his free time) - Computer Science usually and sometimes also finance! That is me. *yawn*

Latest posts by Aman Gupta (see all)

• Blog: Final pitches at Startup Weekend HKU #3 - October 23, 2016
• Examining the Hybrid Theory and Microsoft’s Brand New Entry - October 27, 2015
• Geeking Out: Testing the Windows 10 Insider Preview - July 16, 2015

The opinion and views in this article are that of the authors and do not reflect the opinion or views of The HKU Journal of Technology, or the TecHKU Editorial Team. You can comment below to let the authors know what you think.
To submit an opinion piece of your own, send an email to techkueditors@gmail.com or use the contribute button on the top right of this site.

Call of Duty is one of the biggest game franchises in the world, with fans spending a startling amount of money on the game, downloadable content (DLC), and maps. Even though it has had more misses than hits in the last few years, people eagerly await its event every November. Call of Duty and its creator, Activision, are loved by people around the world for its legendary first person shooters like Modern Warfare – Call of Duty 4 and simultaneously disliked for their eternal tale of the same story line every year. I am writing about how I have grown frustrated with the game and how equally excited I am for their next title, Black Ops 3 – just like every other crazy fan!

I have played every Call of Duty game from Modern Warfare (that’s on PC, others are on Play Station 3). Ghosts released while I was in university, so I didn’t get the opportunity to buy it. After reading the reviews, I don’t intend to either.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Reveal Trailer

Activision recently revealed a dark teaser for the next Call of Duty instalment, Black Ops 3, sending shivers down the spines of many. As per the leaked information and reveal trailer fresh off the web (in fact just yesterday), Black Ops 3 will be set in the future like all other recent titles. But unlike Advance Warfare, which introduced boost assisted jumping, this time Treyarch will be focusing on Cybernetic Body Parts from a “program” called Evolved Variable Operator. Some of this cybernetics is believed to allow faster movements while others will allow players to take more damage.

Enthusiasts have left no stone unturned in order to find out more details about the game; while some have been reading the Call of Duty website’s source code or the numbers in the teaser, others are still stuck on the “How far are you willing to go?” part in the 20-second teaser. It is safe to say that Call of Duty fans are insane. I’m writing an article about Black Ops 3– that counts for something!

But going back down memory lane and looking at the last few releases from Activision, you can only resent buying those video games. Call of Duty has had the same 3-hour campaign storyline set in different themes and powered by various weapons. Nothing really changes! They try introducing Zombies or Black Ops game-like modes into the videogames with Extinction in Call of Duty: Ghosts which are obviously not as exciting as the original Zombies multi-player.

Recently, Call of Duty has also started to do regional locking in console games. Now you end up playing and sometimes waiting endlessly for a match to appear; more often than not, these gamers are not ranked properly and teams become unbalanced. The production houses are facing such a brain drain that they are using schematics of old multiplayer maps to make new ones! Still people (including me) are ready to buy the new Call of Duty.

What I don’t like – and I believe I can speak for the entire community – is the DLC Drop-offs; Activision’s way of squeezing out another 60 USD out of your pocket for some extra guns, maps, and call signs. Frankly, it is annoying that after spending a substantial amount on a video game, you only get three-quarters of the experience, as you need to pay-up for the rest of it.

Although ‘nobles’ who can afford to buy the DLC don’t get any undue advantage over us ‘peasants’, it isn’t moral to sell only a part of the game at the full price. Call of Duty is one of the most expensive titles on consoles even without the DLC package.

I have stronger faith in Treyarch than Infinity Ward, or Sledgehammer (the three developers of Call of Duty titles). Therefore, I am sure that Black Ops 3 will be far better than anything we have seen since Black Ops 2.

• About
• Latest Posts

Aman Gupta

An everyday tech-enthusiast who runs his own blog, listens to rock and spends more time on 9GAG than reading books. Doesn't understand the idea of playing sports on gaming consoles but loves FPS games. Follows too many TV series and studies engineering (in his free time) - Computer Science usually and sometimes also finance! That is me. *yawn*

Latest posts by Aman Gupta (see all)

• Blog: Final pitches at Startup Weekend HKU #3 - October 23, 2016
• Examining the Hybrid Theory and Microsoft’s Brand New Entry - October 27, 2015
• Geeking Out: Testing the Windows 10 Insider Preview - July 16, 2015

The opinion and views in this article are that of the authors and do not reflect the opinion or views of The HKU Journal of Technology, or the TecHKU Editorial Team. You can comment below to let the authors know what you think.
To submit an opinion piece of your own, send an email to techkueditors@gmail.com or use the contribute button on the top right of this site.

For the last two decades, there have been giant leaps in the fields of networks and connectivity: where once we got excited looking at a 256Kbps LAN connection, today we cringe if our Wi-Fi is giving us speeds of less than 4Mbps. The Internet has grown tremendously—we are switching from IPv4 to IPv6 to accommodate the growing number of websites, laptops, and people on the Internet, but it is not just these three things we will have to accommodate in the future. Currently, we already have more “things” than people on the Internet, and by 2020, there will be over 50 billion devices connected to the Internet.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future, welcome to the Internet of Things! To give you a glimpse into the future, we will talk about some everyday appliances that are now connected to the Internet to create the smart home of tomorrow.

Apple HomeKit

At the last WWDC, Apple rolled out HomeKit along with the preview of the iOS 8. HomeKit is a platform by Apple for developers to make iOS apps that facilitate and manage the functioning of everyday home appliances using one’s mobile phone. Lighting bulb giant Phillips and smart-door locks geniuses August have already teamed up with Apple, and smart products are slowly being churned out of their factories. Moreover, Apple has integrated Siri with the HomeKit, thus eliminating the need to even tap the touch-screen in order to switch off the lights of the room making an iPhone the only remote you will ever need in the home of tomorrow.

Nest Thermostat and Nest Protect

When we are discussing Internet of Things, Nest Labs – now a subsidiary of Google – cannot go unspoken of; unlike the rest of the products or firms we are discussing here, Nest Labs has churned out only two products but they have already taken over the world.

Let us first talk about the Nest Thermostat, which guarantees a decrease in energy consumption by 20%. The thermostat learns your schedule and has clever features such as “Auto-Away” that lower the house temperature (and save energy while you are away). The Nest Thermostat also comes with a companion app that informs you about how much energy you have saved by adjusting the temperature and within a week or two, you will never even have to change the thermostat since it has acquired information to make the adjustments for you. There are rewards called Nest Leaf for making energy-saving adjustments to your home temperatures that show up on your Monthly Energy Report.

Nest’s other product, Nest Protect is a smoke sensor that is less annoying than the ones we live with these days. It connects to your Nest Thermostat so in case of fires, the Thermostat shuts off the furnace gas automatically. Nest Protect informs you about the location and type of issue in a room using a friendly voice, instead of an annoying beep. It will then send notifications to your phone if you are away and something is wrong back home. Even colour-less, odourless, deadly, Carbon Monoxide cannot escape its sight.

Belkin WeMo

WeMo is an app, as well as a range of products and solutions by Belkin that work together using Wi-Fi or 3G Internet to create a home for tomorrow. WeMo’s best product has to be the WeMo’s Insight Switch. With these smart plugs, you can basically connect any device to the Internet; they can be switched on/off over the Internet. Even antique lamps or turn-tables can be controlled remotely if they are plugged into these Insight Switches. Moreover, the insight switches send notifications to your mobile phone about how much energy your device is consuming, giving you the control of your carbon-footprint. WeMo is also connected to IFTTT’s DO and IF apps taking automation to a whole new level; the IF app lets you “Switch on the WeMo Light Switch IF the Sun Sets” and with the DO app, you can create recipes to turn on the Optimal Brew Coffee Maker at a touch of a button.

Samsung Smart Home Solution

Samsung appliances already crowd our homes, so it is only appropriate for the company to venture into Smart Home Solutions and that, it has. Samsung is taking out several products particularly in the smart-home security arena that constantly keep you aware of what is happening at home even while you are on a different continent! Their range of IoT products includes CCTV cameras, door-locks, intruder detection systems, gas-leak sensors, among other things providing every paranoid mother mental satisfaction especially when the teenagers are home alone. It goes without saying that simple things such as turning on the air-conditioner or resetting the boiler temperature are now at your fingertips. However, the security solutions that Samsung is providing are impressive to say the least.

Long ago we envisioned our furniture and homes to be responsive to our commands and habits; now technology has turned fiction into reality. As with all advancing technology, we are excited to see where the Internet of Things will take us. Let us know what else you would want to include in the IoT!

• About
• Latest Posts

Aman Gupta

An everyday tech-enthusiast who runs his own blog, listens to rock and spends more time on 9GAG than reading books. Doesn't understand the idea of playing sports on gaming consoles but loves FPS games. Follows too many TV series and studies engineering (in his free time) - Computer Science usually and sometimes also finance! That is me. *yawn*

Latest posts by Aman Gupta (see all)

• Blog: Final pitches at Startup Weekend HKU #3 - October 23, 2016
• Examining the Hybrid Theory and Microsoft’s Brand New Entry - October 27, 2015
• Geeking Out: Testing the Windows 10 Insider Preview - July 16, 2015