PC Magazine 2010-01

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS JANUARY 2010

Motorola Droid Verizon’s Best Smartphone How to Build Your Own Gaming PC

6 People and 10 Technologies That Led the Tech Revolution

JANUARY 2010

vol. 29 no. 1

44

COVER STORY

BEST of the DECADE

In this decade-ending blockbuster, we explore the people and technologies that defined the first ten years of the 21st Century. Come see how different 2009 looks from 1999. PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

Photos: (middle row, far leff and right) Getty Images

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22 FIRSt lOOKS 4 CONSUMEr ELECTrONICS Droid phones Apple tV Vizio VF551XVt carMD Plus Quick looks 22 hArDWArE hP Pavilion 6267c-b Apple iMac 27-inch (core 2 Duo) epson PictureMate charm Plus Quick looks 28 bUSINESS hP Proliant Ml330 G6 Server Outright (Sept 2009) hP ProBook 5310m 32 SOfTWArE Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Google chrome OS Panda cloud Antivirus Free edition Plus Quick looks 80 ThE bEST STUff

letteRS 5

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tech NewS 7 frONT SIDE Pc Mag’s annual technical excellence Award winners; a motorized skateboard; fitness gear for the road.

OPINIONS 2 fIrST WOrD: LANCE ULANOff 38 JOhN C. DvOrAk 40 SASChA SEGAN 42 DAN COSTA

SOlUtIONS 68 bUILD A GAMING PC we show you how to build a solid, midrange gaming box for less than $1,700. 74 SECUrITy Account controls in windows 7. 78 TECh TIPS Sorting contacts in windows Mail, recording voiceovers, and more.

PC Magazine Digital Edition, ISSN 0888-8507, is published monthly at $24.97 for one year. Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 east 28th Street, New York NY 10016-7940.

JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

FIRST WORD LANCE ULANOFF

The Word on Chrome OS

O

nce upon a time, Google’s Chrome operating system was an exciting idea that offered far more questions than answers. But now we now know much more about what the company is working on and have even seen the OS in action. Basically, there are some important things you need to know about the Google Chrome operating system. It’s not available yet. So far, Google has launched only the open-source development project. This means developers and third-party partners (including hardware manufacturers) can download, compile, and install the code. Most important, they can change and enhance it. All those changes could pour back into what will become the first shipping product late next year. The rest of us will have to wait until then. Every app in Chrome is a Web app. This means there are literally no desktop apps. Google execs reiterated this point by adding, “third party apps will work as long as they’re Web applications.” This fact could— and maybe should—scare you. All the application CDs you currently have sitting on shelves are useless with the Chrome OS. If PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

you have a favorite drawing or scrapbooking application, you might as well throw it out if you plan on devoting your life to Chrome. On the other hand, it’s likely that you’ve started using more and more cloudbased applications to get work done. Chrome OS uses parts of the Chrome browser. If you like Google’s upstart

browser, you may love the Chrome OS. They look almost exactly the same, though Chrome OS does add a number of important, OS–like features. You’ll get easy access to apps. A Web browser lets you add shortcuts to Web sites on the toolbar, but it isn’t particularly good at giving instant access to applications. Google Chrome OS tries to address this by adding a “Tabs” feature. These are persistent tabs that keep your favorite Apps a click away. Chrome will always be up to date.

Microsoft always recommends you turn on Windows Update, but not everyone does. In Chrome, there is no choice. If you’re currently running the Chrome browser, this shouldn’t surprise you. It always polls for new versions and updates on its own, as well.

What you see now probably doesn’t represent what the shipping product will look like in 2010. Chrome will repair itself. Google says

its primary goals for the Chrome OS are speed, simplicity, and security. To achieve that last part, the Chrome OS will do something never seen before in a desktop operating system: It will, if it needs to, re-image itself. If the OS detects a malware infection or even just a bad bit, it will get an updated version of the OS from the cloud and reinstall it. Thankfully, this will not blow away your data and settings, because they’re all stored in the cloud. Your data is in the cloud. Chrome OS will not store any of your data locally. As long as you’re online, it will constantly cache your data and settings in the cloud. All of that information is, by default, encrypted. There is a benefit here. If your computer is stolen, or even if you want to upgrade, you don’t have to back up or migrate a thing. You’ll have all your data as soon as you sync up your new computer. The concern, obviously, is what happens when you don’t have online access—cross-country flight, anyone? There is no hard drive. Chrome OS will not run on spinning hard drives. Google execs say they’re working with OEMS to create the ultimate reference design for Chrome OS machines. Part of that is flash or Solid State storage. A key benefit is speed. During Google’s demonstration of early code, the company showed a machine booting to the log-on screen in 7 seconds and launching an

app in an additional 3 seconds. Chrome will not run on any PC. Sorry,

but if you were planning on converting all your existing systems to the Google Chrome OS, you’re out of luck. Google is targeting a very specific kind of computer. In fact, even though Google expressed great love for all the world’s netbooks, the company has concerns about the current crop of small, affordable laptops. Google execs said they want to see netbooks with 100 percent keyboards and larger screens. They said they also want to focus on 802.11n connectivity. Google does believe that its operating system will eventually run on more powerful desktops and laptops, but not in 2010. Chrome will work offline—sort of.

Google has made some vague promises about “exposing offline capabilities” and supporting some offline storage. The company also talked about the ability to play offline media and games. There’s more, like the fact that whatever you see now probably doesn’t represent what the shipping product will look like in 2010, and the fact that Google doesn’t seem to have a hardware driver plan. But these are the early days. I expect we’ll learn a dozen or more key points when we finally download and compile the code in PC Labs. I have to say, I’m looking forward to it. Follow me on Twitter! Catch the chief’s comments on the latest tech developments at twitter.com/LanceUlanoff. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

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Editor-in-Chief, pc magazine network Editor

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Lance Ulanoff

Stephanie Chang

DIRECTOR OF ONLINE CONTENT, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

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Dan Costa Art Director Richard J. Demler Editorial Production director Nicholas Cosmo Executive Editor

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Windows 7 Over Snow Leopard In regard to Lance Ulanoff’s piece, “Windows 7 vs. Mac Snow Leopard: The Great Debate,” I have several thoughts. First, 64-bit operating systems are still not widely used, so no point arguing which system does it better. Same goes for Hyper-Threading, which also is not yet widely used. And, yes, there are those big yummy icons on Mac. But boo hoo, the icons on Windows 7 aren’t as big as ours! What are we, 3 years old, that we need kindergarten jumbo icons? Windows 7’s UI is a big improvement on XP and Vista’s, and many users are quite happy with its simplicity and user-friendly design. True, Time Machine on Macs is a great program that works really well. Windows Backup is pretty Spartan, but who cares when there are a plethora of free backup programs Windows users can have, versus the few backup programs available for Maccies who don’t like using Time Machine? Finally, Apple’s claim that Microsoft has left XP users behind is idiotic. XP has run its course, it’s now a legacy OS, and unfortunately, Microsoft simply couldn’t make it compatible enough to upgrade smoothly.

Yes, this is a shame, but what would you rather do: pay a few hundred to install Win 7 or pay over a thousand to buy a new Mac? Talk about leaving users behind. —”Truetech” Symantec Slipping on Customer Service Thanks to Neil J. Rubenking for stating out loud in his article, “Symantec Support Gone Rogue” what I’ve been finding over the past four months: Symantec’s customer assistance currently merits an “F” grade. It pains me to say that, because I have found the most recent version of Norton Internet Security to be a great program. But unfortunately, the off-shore customer service reps—just don’t know that program—or the other Symantec programs--well enough to provide helpful assistance. Most recently, a rep couldn’t figure out for me how to exclude programs from the NIS scan. I found the solution during a telephone chat session with the rep, and basically taught that rep how to do it. Even Symantec’s quality control seems affected. I have received no fewer than three quality control questionnaires following my last chat session with Symantec. It

how to contact us We welcome your comments and suggestions. When sending e-mail to Feedback, please state in the subject line which article or column prompted your response. E-mail [email protected]. All letters become the property of PC Magazine and are subject to editing. We regret that we cannot answer letters individually. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

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is sad, and a disservice to Symantec’s customers. And enough to make one reconsider whether freeware is the better way to go.—“Rufustel” Google’s Game Plan After reading Matthew Murray’s piece “Does Chrome OS Spell the End of Desktop PCs?” I think anything other than a Web OS wouldn’t be accepted from Google. The company has a plan. The thing about its plans is that they tend to work out. Putting everything ever written on the Web is literally changing the value landscape for computing. Who else is doing that? It’s true that with a Google OS netbook you won’t

be spending money on hardware and software that just sits there waiting to be called on and then isn’t. Fundamentally, however, Google is after the brainshare that will be released when all those millions of PC users are no longer trolling for the next PC killer app or performance boost. To what end? Google has made the Internet more than a method of interconnection. It’s now an agora, a marketplace where what is wanted is being defined. The best place to build and define content for this marketplace is in the roughand-tumble of that marketplace, not on your PC, the 21st century equivalent of the mud hut.—“Cpenoi”

Front What’s New from the World of Tech

The 2009 Technical Excellence Awards PC Mag editors and analysts choose the most innovative technology achievements of 2009. For the past 26 years, PC Mag has taken this time of year to put aside the rush of press releases, mountains of marketing hype, and legion of product launches to focus on the technologies that really mattered in 2009. And this year, we found some really cool stuff. When we first started handing out TechEx awards in 1985, the recipients included revolutionary products like the Javelin spreadsheet, Trailblazer Modem (9,600 bits per second!), and the IBM ProPrinter (the dot-

Intel’s lightpeak

matrix behemoth that made printing affordable). These milestones have long been surpassed, but traces of these innovations are still with us. In our opinion, the list below will leave similar traces 25 years from now. LightPeak We have written a lot about the advantages of fiber-optic cable to provide high-speed data and video to the home, but engineers at Intel are working on bringing those blazing speeds all the way to your PC. As demonstrated at IDF this year, LightPeak transmits data at 10 gigabits per second and has the JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

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Microsoft’s project natal

potential to scale to 100 Gbps over the next decade. To put that in perspective, at 10 Gbps you could transfer a full-length Blu-ray movie in less than 30 seconds. LightPeak can support multiple I/O protocols and could be used for everything from simple peripheral access to high-speed data connections. Although still expensive, LightPeak taps the extraordinary capacity of optical communications and could leap-frog more conventional connections in the next few years.

That box includes an RGB camera, infrared depth sensor, microphone, and processor. With this device in place, Natal can interpret a wide variety of inputs, including gestures, facial recognition, and voice commands. Although camera-enabled entertainment systems date back to the Sony EyeToy, Natal is far more than a toy. It can map the human body with as many as 48 skeletal frame points, a level of detail that offers developers unprecedented flexibility in building everything from sports games to first-person shooters. Natal won’t be available until later this year, but game developers are already building applications.

Project Natal We got our first glimpse of Microsoft’s Project Natal at the 2009 E3 show. Natal isn’t a single technology, but rather a collection of them inside a nvidia’s geforce 3d vision small box that connects to your Xbox and sits below your TV, much like the sensor on a Nintendo Wii. PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

Nvidia GeForce 3D Creating a truly threedimensional display has been a goal of the film, television, and PC industry since their inception, but Nvidia’s GeForce 3D Vision shows

just how close we are. It isn’t TouchTec Gloves seamless yet, however. You Anyone who has tried to still need to wear the $200 use an iPod with gloves on stereoscopic glasses, and will appreciate the invenyou also have to use a newer tion of Jerry Leto, founder graphics card and watch on of TouchTec. Although a 120-Hz capable display. capacitive screens are more The “active shutter” lenses sensitive and responsive synchronize with your disthan resistive touch screens, play so that each eye gets they’re no good when used 60-Hz worth of images. with non-conducting mateOnce you put those pieces in rials, like the cloth of your place, the results are pretty TOUCHTEC CAPACITIVE gloves. Leto found a soluimpressive. Best of all, there GLOVES tion by imbuing fabric with are more than 300 games nanoparticles that let you that support 3D vision right now, including operate an ATM, iPhone, or other touch Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. screen without removing your glove. The gloves come at a hefty price premium now Xerox Silver Ink Printable Electronics ($185), but in a few years we will be surThere are a lot of challenges in developing prised when a fabric doesn’t work with a printable circuits. One of the most basic is capacitive touch screen. that conductive metals melt at about 1,000 degrees Celsius, and the plastic sheets ideal Honda Stride Management Assist for holding them melt at around 150 degrees When it to comes to robots, many of us tend C. This year, Xerox cleared that hurdle by to focus on the futuristic and cool (Asimo) developing a silver-based ink that can be or the cute and useless (Pleo), ignoring the printed on plastic, paper, or a range of other fact that robotics will have a meaningful surfaces. Soon we may be able to print elec- impact on our everyday lives. And as Hontronic devices for a much lower cost, open- da’s Stride Management Assist and Bodying up a huge range of new applications. As weight Support Assist show, that impact is PC Labs’ printer analyst David Stone puts it: not far off. These prototypes aren’t designed “If you can print the RFID on packaging as to replace the function of standing or walkeasily as printing a bar code, you can replace ing, but could help an individual move more bar codes with RFID tags. This could mean easily or lift heavier objects. The 5.6-pound going through a checkout counter becomes Stride Assist device contains a CPU and batas easy as walking past an RFID reader to tery pack and straps around your waist. It’s connected to braces that fasten to your legs register everything in your cart.” JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

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and assist your movement. When PC Mag editor-inchief Lance Ulanoff tested the system he reported, “I could see how this [technology] might perform a dual purpose, assisting the infirm and helping the able-bodied become better walkers.”

has been available overseas since last year, its U.S. debut was in 2009—and it was an impressive one. Without additional spectrum to deploy a truly 4G network, like WiMaxor LTE, T-Mobile is using HSPA+ to wring as much performance out of its existing 3G network. Mobile MPEG Surround products managing editor Currently the vast majority Sascha Segan tested HSPA+ of TV broadcasts and Interin Philadelphia, and he says net radio stations use stereo that “speeds went wild. audio encoding, because it My little laptop stick gave takes too much bandwidth repeated results up to 3.6 to send true 5.1 surround honda stride assist megabits per second.” The sound. Fraunhofer Institechnology is just in Philatute’s new audio codex, MPEG Surround, delphia; expect more cities to light up soon. could change that. In fact, the company has demonstrated full 5.1 channel sound WiTricity Resonant Magnetic Coupling in as little as 48 kilobits per second. At the Magnetic induction isn’t new—it’s what 2009 CES show, PC Labs audio analyst Tim high-end electric toothbrushes use to Gideon said that “It was virtually impos- charge up without wires. But those toothsible to hear the difference between MPEG brushes need to be within millimeters to Surround and the original surround-sound power up. The Boston-based firm WiTricrecordings.” Not only could MPEG Surround ity can do the same thing over several feet change the way music is heard, but it also and power everything from a light bulb, a represents a boon for streaming TV firms, cell phone, or even a HDTV. The secret to WiTricity’s technology is the use of resolike Hulu and Netflix. nant magnetic coupling, which occurs when two objects exchange energy by varying or T-Mobile HSPA+ AT&T and Verizon are in a very public debate oscillating magnetic fields. The end result over who has the biggest 3G network, but is power transferred much more efficiently if you want to test out the fastest 3G net- than wires, and without the environmental work, you need to visit Philadelphia and log hazards of using a disposable battery. on to T-Mobile’s HSPA+. Although HSPA+ —Dan Costa and PC Mag staff 10 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

BEST of our blogs @WORK Square: Lets Businesses Accept Credit Card Payment by Phone Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter, recently unveiled a new startup called Square—a mobile payment system that enables users to process credit card transitions by phone. The service requires no contracts or fees, giving many small businesses that previously didn’t have the hardware or funds to accept credit card payments the ability to do so. All that’s needed is a small, simple device that plugs into the audio jack of almost any phone. —Errol Pierre-Louis

GEARLOG Motorized Skateboarding is Not a Crime If you’re looking to score some big points with your kids or just find an interesting new way to tear your meniscus, then this gadget is for you. Hammacher Schlemmer is selling a motorized skateboard ($599.95 direct) that can travel at up to 19 miles per hour. The gadget is powered by a 36-volt battery, and its 600-watt motor reaches top speed in only 4 seconds. It even has enough horsepower to propel you uphill. The rider controls acceleration and braking with a wireless trigger remote. The rechargeable battery lasts about 10 miles. The skateboard weighs 40 pounds and can handle riders up to 225 pounds.—Troy Dreier GOODCLEANTECH Use the Sun to Know When It’s Sunny Oregon Scientific has released the +ECO Solar Weather Station ($99.99 list) for monitoring inside and outside conditions. It comes with a detachable solar panel for powering up the rechargeable battery. The weather station lets you know indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity, as well as shows a graphic of the day’s forecast. It also includes an alarm with snooze.—TD

BEST of the Internet Culinary Culture Culinary Culture is a social network featuring a vibrant, active community of food lovers, a social calendar of food events submitted by users, restaurant and market reviews, and even a database of user-submitted recipes. —Alan Henry

Google Dictionary The search giant is taking on language with Google Dictionary, a fairly comprehensive resource featuring translations between English and 28 other languages, synonyms, related phrases, and definitions from other online sources.—Brian Heater

NeighborGoods NeighborGoods is a Web service designed to help you share things with your neighbors, rent things to them, or just sell them outright. NeighborGoods is in private beta at the moment, but it is accepting requests for invites.—AH

JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 11

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Connected Traveler

Stay Fit on the Road The right tech gear can help you stick to your fitness goals in 2010. It’s hard to stay in shape while traveling. Fast food is often the only food available and sitting on a plane for five hours certainly won’t strengthen your core. Many hotels don’t have a fitness center or pool—just vending machines. So if you’re one of the millions of Americans who make a New Year’s resolution to improve your fitness level, don’t let a busy travel schedule get in the way. With the help of some affordable technology, you can keep your promise to be totally cut by swimsuit season. If you already have an iPod or iPhone, get the most out of it. There are a slew of fitness apps for iPhone, including iFitness ($1.99 direct), which lets you record and follow workout info, track your body weight, set up custom workouts, and more. There’s also RunKeeper for recording your runs via GPS (Free; Pro version, $9.99 direct) and FitView ($5.99 direct), where you can record and crunch the numbers on many types of workouts. And iPod users can tap into the [1] Nike + iPod Sport Kit ($29.99 direct) to turn their iPods into a personal trainer that 12 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

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can give real-time feedback thanks to the wireless transmitter and receiver. And if you want to work out to your favorite jams without those little earbuds getting in the way, you can always plug your iPod into a portable, battery-powered speaker, such as the [2] iLuv iSP100 ($34.99 direct). Along with cable TV and on-demand

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movies, many hotel chains (such as Best Western, Marriott, and Embassy Suites) offer game consoles for check-out or as inroom amenities. So why not take along your copy of [3] Wii Fit Plus ($99.99 list), or you can try [4] Yourself!Fitness for the Xbox or PlayStation 2 ($39.99 list). In case you can’t get your hands on a game console, you could always commandeer your kid’s Nintendo DS and load a copy of [5] Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010 ($19.99

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list) for a no-mercy approach. For true gearheads, sometimes it takes serious hardware to get motivated. For example, the [6] Polar FT7 ($20 list) shows your heart rate and whether you’re hitting your target fitness “zones.” Finally, the [7] BodyMedia GoWear fit (armband, display, and 12-month subscription $249.90 direct) will track your calories burned to adjust your workouts to your weight-loss goals. —Erik Rhey JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 13

INSIDE 14 Consumer Electronics 22 HARDWARE 28 BUSINESS 32 SOFTWARE

First

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Battle of the Droids

I

f someone has mentioned the word “droid” recently and you think R2D2 or C3PO, you haven’t been paying attention. The hottest smartphones to hit the scene recently are “Droids” or phones that run Google’s Android mobile OS. The claims are that Droid phones are faster, more responsive, and feature the “Google experience.” We tested the first Android 2.0 phones out of the gate from Motorola and an Android 1.5 phone from HTC (with HTC add-ons). Read on to see how these two phones fared in a head-tohead showdown in PC Labs. Droid by Motorola (Verizon Wireless) The Motorola Droid is the first truly lustworthy smartphone from Verizon, and it puts all other Google Android phones to shame. Motorola may have stinted on a few of the basics in its quest for mind-blowing power. But the first Android 2.0 phone is definitely the most advanced and exciting device connecting to Verizon today. The Droid is a big, industrial contraption at 4.5 by 2.3 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and a hefty 14 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION january 2010

5.9 ounces. The front consists of a bright, rich 3.7-inch LCD capacitive touch screen (which can display the full width of desktop Web pages). Below the huge screen are four light-up, touch-sensitive buttons. The whole effect feels pleasantly expensive, but also rather masculine. Slide the screen to the right to reveal the first real disappointment, the Droid’s keyboard. The QWERTY keys are a little too small, a bit too flat, and a touch too tight to put this in the first rank of keyboards. Running Android 2.0 (including the “Google Experience”), the Droid is reliant on the curiosity and tech-savvy of its customers to customize their phones. With that said, Android supports Microsoft Exchange, as well as a more flexible camera app, better software keyboards, better browsing, and multitouch. Motorola’s Droid is also the fastest Android phone, with an ARM Cortex-A8 processor. I ran four publicly available Android benchmarks and found that on pure CPU measures, the Droid was about twice as fast as the Samsung Moment, which until now was the fastest Android phone Product name in RED indicates Editors’ Choice.

our ratings key: l l l l l EXCELLENT l l l l m VERY GOOD l l l m m GOOD l l m m m FAIR l m m m m POOR

Droid by Motorola (Verizon Wireless) With two-year contract, $199.99 list and up L l l l m

Pros Best screen we’ve ever seen. Excellent Web browser. Very fast and powerful. Great battery life. First Google Maps Navigation device. Cons Not a great voice phone. Physical keyboard is mediocre. No easy way to sync with PCs. CLICK HERE FOR MORE

available. The Droid was faster on memory and file system tests, too. However, the fast processor also made it more frustrating when programs (such as the camera app) would occasionally freeze or crash. Also, the Droid is not the greatest voice phone, with calls sounding acceptable but somewhat muffled and compressed. But it did get an amazing 7 hours, 7 minutes of talk time, one of the longest results we’ve ever seen for a Verizon phone. Although our current Verizon smartphone EC, the HTC Imagio, beats the Droid on

voice quality, music syncing, and handling Exchange calendars, the Droid is Verizon’s future (with the Android platform superior to the staid Windows Mobile), and thus also earns an Editors’ Choice. HTC Droid Eris (Verizon Wireless) Want a Verizon Droid, but, you know, with less Droid? The HTC Droid Eris is Verizon’s slightly watered-down Droid: slimmer, lighter and less powerful, but still a good smartphone. The Eris is a 4.4- by 2.1- by 0.5-inch (HWD) JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 15

first looks CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

HTC Droid Eris (Verizon Wireless) With two-year contract, $99.99 list and up l l l h m

Pros Polished interface. Good call quality. Has multitouch pinch-to-zoom. Supports all Android apps. Cons Poor camera. Poor video playback. Slower and lower resolution than the Motorola Droid. CLICK HERE FOR MORE

soft-touch black slab that weighs 4.2 ounces. The front of the phone is dominated by a 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen; below it, you’ll find a trackball for navigation and a range of physical buttons, including pick-up and hang-up buttons. There’s no physical keyboard. Instead, you rely on two very good virtual keyboards. The Droid Eris might share a name and 12,000 applications with the Motorola Droid, but as soon as you turn it on, you know it’s different. Whereas the Motorola phone runs Android 2.0, the Droid Eris runs Version 1.5 with HTC’s Sense 16 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

extensions. HTC brings a lot of Android 2.0’s advances to version 1.5 of the OS, but they do things a little bit differently. The Droid Eris has seven home screen panels, with some great widgets, such as a big clock, e-mail, and Twitter viewers (more robust than the Motorola Droid). The Droid Eris actually feels as if it has a slightly more finished interface than does the Motorola Droid, because HTC designs better icons and widgets than Google does. But while it’s faster than the Sprint HTC Hero because of firmware fixes, it’s still much slower on various benchmarks because its 528 MHz ARM11 processor doesn’t match up to the CortexA8 in the Motorola Droid. I was happy with the Eris’s stability, though. It didn’t crash while I was testing it, and apps stayed up to date, even if the interface was occasionally a little sluggish. Also, the Eris is a better voice phone than the Motorola Droid, but its video playback was largely inferior. Even though the Eris costs $100 less than the Motorola Droid, Motorola wins with its bigger screen, better multimedia abilities, and most important, its much faster processor. Simply put, the Eris is a good device, but the Motorola Droid is a great one.—Sascha Segan


Apple TV Apple TV

Apple TV

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or the second time since its introduction in 2007, the Apple TV has undergone a software-only facelift. The latest 3.0 update includes a snazzy redesign of the user interface and some fun new features, like Internet Radio. The basic concept remains unchanged: It plays iTunes and iPhoto content on your HDTV, including standard- and high-definition movies and TV shows. You can stream wired or wirelessly from your PC’s iTunes library or download content directly from iTunes to the 160GB hard drive. Add to this integrated YouTube, Flickr, and MobileMe support, and Apple TV is a compelling purchase. With the 3.0 update, the hardware has remained unchanged. The slick 1.1-by-7.7by-7.7-inch (HWD) silver box is mostly unadorned. Since everything is transferred to the device over your network, there’s no slot for DVDs or CDs. A note to the owners

$229 direct L l l l m

Pros Basically, an iPod for your HDTV. Easyto-use, efficient, attractive interface. Streams iTunes content from up to six computers. Gives you the ability to rent and purchase content from the sofa without a computer. Integrates YouTube, Flickr, and Internet Radio. Cons Requires a widescreen HDTV. No access to App Store (yet). Bundled bare-bones remote could be improved.

of older televisions: Apple TV only works with widescreen, flat-panel HDTVs. The best parts of this update are the overall redesign of the menus and the inclusion of Internet Radio. From the main screen to the Settings sub-menus, the new interface is a breeze to navigate with the remote. Video looks fantastic for the most part, especially when you opt to view HD, rather than standard-definition video. The latest improvements are welcome additions for current Apple TV owners. And for those who might be considering this media extender, the inclusion of Internet Radio and ability to work with iTunes 9’s features give you more bang for your buck.—Tim Gideon >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 17


Vizio VF551XVT

Vizio’s Big-Screen Bargain Best known for its rock-bottom prices on HDTVs, Vizio continues to deliver the latest technology affordably with the VF551XVT. This 55-inch LCD model features LED backlighting and 240-MHz technology for about the same price others charge for a 40-inch LCD. This HDTV is very energy efficient and picture quality is generally good, although the panel does produce some background noise and has a minor viewing angle flaw. Also, it’s not the prettiest or the slimmest TV you’ll find, but a very attractive price makes up for all that. At a depth of 5 inches, the VF551XVT may seem thick for an LED-backlit HDTV, but that’s because it uses Vizio’s TruLED backlighting technology. There is an obtrusive speaker bar under the massive 1,920-by1,080–pixel LCD panel, but it delivers very good audio quality. Connectivity options are plentiful, including five HDMI ports, a 15-pin PC (VGA) connector, mini audio port, USB, composite and component video, and stereo audio ports. With Smart Dimming enabled, the panel delivered very deep blacks, but the subtle 18 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

Vizio VF551XVT $2,199 direct L l l l m

Pros Very attractive price for a large-screen, LED-backlit LCD HDTV. 240-MHz technology reduces motion blur. Accurate colors. Robust port selection. Low power consumption. Cons Uninspired design. Narrow viewing-angle performance. Some noticeable artifacts in 1080p content.

change in backlighting can be distracting. Other advanced settings include Color Temperature and Smooth Motion, which uses 240-MHz technology to combat blurring and other motion errors. The VF551XVT turned in an average contrast ratio of 1173:1. Colors were accurate and flesh tones were natural looking after some tweaking. My biggest gripe was that during scenes with very light or white backgrounds, there were noticeable artifacts in the lighter fields. The VF551XVT has its flaws, but it offers plenty of ports and cutting-edge technology at a very aggressive price—without boosting your electric bill.—John Delaney >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE


CarMD

Play Doctor with Your Car

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ow would you know whether your mechanic or dealership were taking you for a ride? Now you can find out with CarMD, a handheld diagnostic tool that plugs into your car’s computer system, reads engine codes, and lets you diagnose potential problems before you hit the repair shop. It also displays technical service bulletins and safety recalls for your car. CarMD works with all 1996 and newer cars and trucks with the requisite, governmentmandated On-Board Diagnostics II (OBD-II) port (usually found under the dashboard). CarMD also offers access to its database, which contains thousands of real-life fixes from ASE certified technicians. It can generate an online diagnostic report with estimated repair costs, even broken down by parts and labor or by region. In general, the device covers only certain powertrain and electrical problems. The CarMD handheld feels like a large but lightweight cell phone. It’s constructed from cheap-feeling silver plastic, with a non-backlit LCD readout and three LED lights—green, yellow, and red, which are there to indicate whether or not your car will pass inspection. When I plugged CarMD into my computer after taking readings from a 2005 Mini Cooper, the software immediately identified the car make and model and displayed a sta-

CarMD $98.99 direct L l l m m

Pros Simple to use. Pulls up engine code information, estimated repair costs, service bulletins, and safety recalls. Works with all 1996and-newer cars and trucks. Bundled software compatible with PCs and Macs. Cons Doesn’t actually clear engine codes. Requires $20-per-year fee for unlimited reports. Technical service bulletins cost extra.

tus window with three tabs: My Summary, My Diagnosis, and Staying Healthy. When I tested with an older Volkswagen Golf, it caught many issues but missed a mass airflow sensor we intentionally disconnected. Overall, my biggest annoyances with CarMD are that you can’t clear the codes after a reading (your dealer or mechanic must do it) and you’re limited to three cars and six reports per month. Also, the company charges a restocking fee if you return the device. In the end, CarMD was fun, but it is too expensive and limited for the average consumer.—Jamie Lendino >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 19

Quick looks consumer electronics

SPECS

BOTTOM LINE

CONS

PROS

SMARTPHONES

GPS

PROJECTORS

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 (T-Mobile) $199.99 direct

Doro PhoneEasy 410gsm $50 direct

TomTom XXL 540-S $299.99 direct

Optoma PK102 Pico Pocket Projector $250 street

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• Excellent form factor • Razor-sharp screen • Wi-Fi calling • Good keyboard • Solid call quality

• Excellent keys • Elegant design • Easy to use • Good voice quality • Affordable

• Big 5-inch screen • Responsive interface • Fast boot-up and lock-in • Accurate directions • Easy POI searches

• Extremely portable at 4.4 ounces • Connects to both computers and video devices

• Browser still needs help • Not a big jump up from earlier models

• Somewhat difficult to set up

• No real-time traffic reporting • Dated map graphics

• Low brightness limits useful image size • Volume is far too low to be useful • No audio output

If you prefer your smartphones to be evolutionary, not revolutionary, the Bold 9700 is the one for you.

The PhoneEasy 410gsm is an excellent, affordable option for older folks and technophobes who want a simple voice phone.

The XXL 540-S isn’t the flashiest device on the market, but it offers a large screen and comprehensive routing at a reasonable price.

Small and light, the PK102 can show video but is best for displaying business presentations and photos.

T-Mobile; 2.4-inch, 360-by480 screen; 3.2MP camera; Bluetooth; 4.3 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD); 4.3 ounces.

2.0-inch, 176-by-220 color screen; Bluetooth; 3.8 by 2 by 0.7 inches (HWD); 3.8 ounces.

Automobile GPS; 5-inch touch screen; turn-by-turn; 3D view; 3.5 by 5.2 by 0.9 inches (HWD); 8.9 ounces.

DLP engine; 3:2 aspect ratio; 2000:1 contrast ratio; 11 ANSI lumens brightness; 0.7 by 2 by 4.2 inches (HWD); 4.4 ounces.

Product name in RED indicates Editors’ Choice.

20 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

DIGITAL CAMERAS

MEDIA EXTENDERS

GAMES

DIGITAL PHOTO FRAMES

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 $899.95 direct

Logitech Squeezebox Radio $199.99 direct

DJ Hero (PS3) $119.99 list

HP DreamScreen 100 $249.99 direct

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• More compact than a D-SLR • Fast focusing speeds • Extremely sharp images • HD video capture • Built-in flash

• Color display • Easy to operate • Streams Internet radio • Incorporates apps like Facebook and Amazon

• Simple interface • Diverse song catalog • Effectively teaches the basics of DJing

• Sexy design • Good image quality • Intuitive user interface • Simple network configuration

• Noisy images at ISO 1600 and higher • No optical viewfinder • No optical image stabilization with 20mm lens

• Set-up can be a hassle • Wi-Fi signal can be easily lost • Weak sound quality • Remote not included

• Multitasking can be difficult • No break between songs

• Pricey • UI is very sluggish • Limited video playback support • Networking software does not support Macs

The most promising Micro Four Thirds camera yet, DMC-GF1 offers a D-SLR experience in a body not much bigger than a superzoom.

The Squeezebox line of streaming devices keeps getting better, but the Squeezebox Radio is not the strongest here.

Though it can be difficult to truly master the skills of turntablism, once you get the hang of it, DJ Hero can be addictive.

Despite a slow interface and some less-than-useful applications, the DreamScreen 100 does a nice job of displaying photos and videos.

Micro Four Thirds camera; 12.1MP; 4,000 by 3,000 maximum resolution; 3-inch LCD; HD video capture; 2.8 by 4.7 by 1.4 inches (HWD); 12.2 ounces.

Internet radio playback; 802.11g Wi-Fi; Ethernet; AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA file support; 5.1 by 8.7 by 5.0 inches (HWD).

Turntable included.

10.2-inch screen; CompactFlash, Memory Stick Pro, xD-Picture Card, and Secure Digital High Capacity memory supported.

Visit pcmag.com for the full reviews of these and other consumer electronics products.


first looks hardware

HP Pavilion p6267c-b

A Stylish Quad-Core Desktop HP’s quad-core–powered Pavilion p6267c-b delivers impressive multimedia power and big screen goodness at a very reasonable price. For under a grand, you get 8GB of system memory, a nice-size hard drive, a beautiful 25-inch LCD monitor, and Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit). There’s even a dedicated graphics card, albeit a lowend one. On the outside, there’s nothing to distinguish the p6267c-b from its siblings, the p6207c-b and p6247c-b, as they all use the same sleek-looking matte black chassis with a silver-framed piano black front panel. A 15in-1 card reader and two optical drive bays sit above a 3.5-inch expansion bay. Around back are four additional USB ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, and a FireWire port. The bright 25-inch HP 2509m LCD monitor included in this bundle has a 1,920-by1,080 native resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio. You also get a multi-format recordable DVD

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drive with LightScribe-labeling capabilities. In typical HP fashion, unfortunately, this system is burdened with bloatware. On our benchmarks, the p6267c-b managed to edge past the Dell Inspiron 545 (our budget desktop EC) on most tests. Its PCMark Vantage score of 6,500 was almost 2,000 points higher than the 545 (4,529) and was 32 percent faster than the Lenovo IdeaCentre K220 (4,922). It finished our Windows Media Encoder test in 41 seconds, which was only 1 second faster than the Dell

Specs 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 processor; 8GB SDRAM; 750GB hard drive; ATI Radeon HD 4350 graphics; dual-layer DVD±RW drive; 25-inch widescreen LCD; Windows 7 Home Premium.


HP Pavilion p6267c-b $999.99 list L l l l m

Pros Good performance on productivity apps. Spacious hard drive. Comes with 25-inch LCD monitor. Lots of memory. Cons Lacks a Blu-ray drive. So-so graphics performance. Bloatware.

545 and 5 seconds faster than the Lenovo K220. Although the p6267c-b comes with an ATI Radeon HD 4350 discrete graphics card, it managed a paltry 16.5 frames per second (fps) on our Crysis 3D test, proving it is by no means meant for serious gaming.

So even with the bloatware, the p6267c-b delivers more bang for your buck, especially for workers with multimedia tasks, thus earning our Editors’ Choice for value desktops.—John Delaney >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE

PERFORMANCE TESTS PCMark Vantage* L

3DMark Vantage* L

Windows Media Encoder M min:sec

CineBench R10 L

HP Pavilion p6267c-b

6,500

5,496

0:41

10,640

1:35

Dell Inspiron 545

4,529

N/A

0:42

11,121

1:30

Lenovo IdeaCentre K220

4,922

2,793

0:46

10,171

1:42

L High scores are best. M Low scores are best. Bold type denotes first place.

PhotoshopC S4 M min:sec

Product name in RED indicates Editors’ Choice. N/A—Not applicable: The product could not complete the test, or the test was not compatible. * Test was run at the default resolution of 1,24 by 768.



Apple iMac 27-inch (Core 2 Duo)

Apple’s Big-Screen Beauty When it comes to the all-in-one desktop market, the Apple iMac is the standard bearer. And, like any other industry-leading product, this makes it a target for all of Apple’s competitors. So Apple has again updated the iMac with a wider screen, even more aluminum-replacing plastic, and a couple of neat new features. Not to mention its huge 27-inch screen. With a little tweaking, this desktop could replace the TV in your den, kitchen, or bedroom. Upon close inspection, you’ll notice the “Jay Leno chin” is slimmer, and this model comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard. The base iMacs (both 21.5-inch and 27-inch) now have 3.06-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, upgradeable to 3.33 GHz. HD videos look great on the backlit LCD, and the system is powerful enough to play 1080p videos smoothly. With the Mini DisplayPort you can connect another display, or with an adapter, a Blu-ray player, satellite/cable box, or game console. This model also snags our GreenTech Approved stamp for EPEAT Gold and

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Apple iMac 27-inch (Core 2 Duo) $1,699 list L l l l m

Pros Continues design dominance. Wireless keyboard. Wireless Magic Mouse. Mini DisplayPort input. Better screen resolution than a 1080p HDTV. EPEAT Gold and Energy Star 5.0. Cons Card reader is SD-only. No eSATA. Requires third-party adapter for HDMI or DVI input. No Blu-ray option.

Energy Star 5.0 ratings, as well as company recycling programs and energy efficiency. This system performed well, though it’s not significantly faster than the previous iMac (Nvidia GT130). This model scored a good 1:57 on the Photoshop CS4 test and proved to be fast at 3D and day-to-day tasks, with high marks on PCMark Vantage and 3DMark Vantage. Basically, this iMac is a class-defining product, with a huge screen, beautiful design, and serious power. —Joel Santo Domingo >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Specs 3.06-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 processor, 4GB SDRAM; 1TB SATA hard drive; 256MB ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card, dual-layer DVD±RW drive, integrated 27-inch widescreen monitor, Mac OS X 10.6.



Epson PictureMate Charm

Portable Photo Printer Champ The ninth model in Epson’s PictureMate line, the Charm isn’t very different from the previousgeneration models. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. PictureMate printers have been consistent Editors’ Choice material since the first generation in 2004. The Charm is just one more Editors’ Choice variation on a winning family of small-format dedicated photo printers. In some ways, the Charm takes a step back from the previous generation’s more attractive features. For example, the Charm’s 2.5inch LCD is smaller than previous models’ 3.6 inches. And the Charm doesn’t let you print from a USB memory key, as previous models did. On the other hand, the Charm kicks up the level of photo quality by a small, but noticeable, notch. Physically, the Charm is similar to earlier PictureMates, with a lunch-pail design—a 5.7- by 9.1- by 6.7-inch (HWD) and 7.9-pound white box with a handle on it. As options, you can add a rechargeable battery or Bluetooth adapter. The menu and front-panel controls are easy to use and entirely self explanatory.

Epson PictureMate Charm $149.99 direct L l l l h

Pros Fast. Low price per photo. High-quality 4-by-6-inch output. Long-lived photos. Cons Can’t print from USB memory keys. Relatively big and heavy.

The Charm’s speed printing a 4-by-6inch photo averaged 41 seconds, considerably faster than most of its competition (at 1 minute or more). Although not pro photo lab quality, the Charm’s output is better than you’d get from your local drugstore. And the cost per glossy photo comes out to a very reasonable 25.3 cents. This combination of fast speed, low cost per page, and high-quality prints puts the Charm way out in front of its competition, and earns it a spot as Editors’ Choice. —M. David Stone >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 25

Quick looks HARDWARE

SPECS

BOTTOM LINE

CONS

PROS

DESKTOPS

.

LAPTOPS

Asus Eee Top ET2002 $599 list

MSI Wind Top AE2010 $650 list

Acer Aspire AS8940-6865 $1,400 street

Sony VAIO VGN-NW270F/S $799.98 list

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• Wireless keyboard and mouse • Dual core Atom processor • HDMI In

• All-in-one touchscreen PC • VESA mount and wall mount adapters included • VGA in and out • eSATA port

• Affordable • Gorgeous 18.4-inch widescreen • 1080p resolution • Very good gaming scores • Blu-Ray included

• Blu-ray player in an $800 system • Big, wide display • Unique design • Comfortable keyboard and touchpad

• No touch screen • Smaller hard drive and memory than rival • Can’t run 3D benchmarks at standard settings

• Touch sensitivity is finicky • Only 60-day subscription to Norton Internet Security • Pricey for a nettop • Lots of bloatware

• Ugly on the outside • Small battery

• Mediocre battery life • Display falls short of 1080p resolution • Lid and screen are a bit too flexible • Low-resolution Webcam

Asus carries its netbook success into this attractive, dual-core nettop all-in-one, but it’s not enough to usurp our current nettop EC.

The touch-sensitive AE2010 is a decent system, but Windows Vista and lots of bloatware bring its scores down.

The AS8940-6865 has the performance and feature goods, delivered to you at an affordable price.

With its unique design and Blu-ray player, the VFNNW270F/S is an affordable entertainment laptop that pulls double duty as a workhorse machine.

1.6-GHz Intel Core Atom 330 processor; 2GB SDRAM; 320GB SATA hard drive; nVidia ION graphics; DVD±RW drive; 20-inch widescreen; Windows 7 Home Premium.

1.5-GHz AMD Athlon X2 3250e processor; 4GB SDRAM; 320GB SATA hard drive; ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics; 20inch widescreen; Windows Vista Home Premium.

1.6-GHz Intel Core i7720QM processor; 4GB SDRAM; 500GB hard drive; nVidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics; 18.4-inch display; 9.1 pounds; 66-Wh battery; Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor; 4GB SDRAM; 320GB hard drive; 15.5-inch display; Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics; 5.6 pounds; 6-cell battery; Windows 7 Home Premium.



NETBOOKS

SCANNERS

Dell Inspiron 1750 (2211MBU) $729.98 list

HP Mini 110-1134CL $349 direct

Nokia Booklet 3G $600 street

Epson Perfection V600 Photo $249.99 direct

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• Huge 17.3-inch display • Thin and light for desktop replacement • Pleasing design • Respectable battery life • Spacious hard drive

• Attractive design • Lightweight • Comfortable keyboard • Just over 7 hours of battery life

• Luxurious design • Lightweight • Embedded 3G • HDMI-Out • Great battery life

• High-quality scans • Fully automatic mode for easy scanning • Scans both 35mm and medium-format film

• Display falls short of 1080p • No HDMI port or Blu-ray support • No 802.11n Wi-Fi • Graphics limits performance

• Mouse buttons are awkward • Thicker than most netbooks • Battery bulges from the back of the system

• Overpriced • Slow-spinning hard drive • Crippling performance scores • No easy way to upgrade memory

• Scans only four 35mm slides at a time • Weak on office tasks

A basic, low-cost desktop replacement, the 1750 pairs a huge display with mainstream components for bigscreen bargain hunters.

The 110-1134CL’s attractive design and spruced-up feature set is now bundled with a longer running sixcell battery.

Although it’s the most luxurious netbook to date, the Booklet 3G is tough to recommend given its bloated price and lackluster performance.

The Epson Perfection V600 Photo offers high-quality scans for prints and both 35mm and medium-format film, plus an exceptionally easy-to-use scan utility.

2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor; 4GB SDRAM; 500GB hard drive; 17.3-inch display; Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics; 6.7 pounds; 6-cell battery; Windows 7 Home Premium.

1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 processor; 1GB SDRAM; 160GB hard drive; 10.1inch display; Intel GMA 950 graphics; 2.7 pounds; 6-cell battery; Windows 7 Starter Edition.

1.6-GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor; 1GB SDRAM; 120GB hard drive; Intel GMA 500 graphics; 10.1-inch display; 2.7 pounds 57-Wh battery; Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit).

Flatbed scanner; 6,400-pixel maximum optical resolution; USB connection; reflective and transparency scanning; 4.6 by 11 by 19 (HWD); 9.0 pounds.

Visit pcmag.com for the full reviews of these and scores of other hardware products.


first looks BUSINESS

HP ProLiant ML330 G6

HP Serves Up Great Performance

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here’s nothing pretty about HP servers from the outside, but once you open them up, you will be smitten by the solid engineering. HP certainly sets the server bar high. The HP ProLiant ML330 G6 is a newcomer in the venerable ProLiant line, and it proved to be a solid all-around tower server, with ample space for extra hardware. As tower servers go, the ProLiant ML330 is one of the largest for the SMB. But it can still fit well in a small office, and you won’t know it’s there because it runs quiet, with three fans to cool the box. HP also sells the ML330 in a 2U case, which is similar in size to the ProLiant DL380 G5, our Editors’ Choice pick from last year. This model has all the classic characteristics you expect, such as a roomy case with three PCIe2 slots (one is taken by the RAID card), enough room at the front for non-RAID configured SATA hard drives under the vertically oriented RAID drive bay, and space for two more optical drives. The P410 controller

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card in the ML330 can connect up to eight SAS (serial-attached SCSI) ports with a maximum of 12 drives. The card supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and optional 6. Management-software installation is straightforward. The Smart Array Configuration utility does what you would expect, creating logical drives and managing the controller card. If you have to troubleshoot the card or the drives, the diagnostic reporting provides lots of information on both the drives and controller. The other major utility is HP Insight Diagnostics, which is Web based. Insight is comparable to the System feature in the Windows Control Panel, except that you can compare different server configurations and even view the logical drives. The System Management tool, which is similar to the Insight tool, takes management one step further by providing visibility of all Web enabled HP system tools. The ML330 scored 5,430 with Geekbench 2.1 64-bit, a benchmark for measuring processor and memory performance. It scored 10,975 on Cinebench with the mul-

Specs 2.13-GHz Intel Xeon E5506 processor; 8GB SDRAM; three 250GB SATA hard drives; DVD drive; two Gigabit Ethernet ports; four USB 2.0 ports; legacy VGA and PS/2 ports.


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Pros Lots of room for expansion in case. Performance is excellent. Runs cool and quiet. Cons Case is a little big if space is tight.

tiple CPUs (cores) turned on. According to desktop analyst Joel Santo Domingo, that test was on a par with quad-core processor systems—a very good score. In a nutshell, the ML330 is a great generalpurpose server that fits nicely in a smalloffice network environment. Whether you

are running the latest Exchange 2010, some other database intensive server app, or just need a dedicated Web server, the ML330 can be adapted to any solution. No matter what the setup, I highly recommend it. —Mario Morejon >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 29


Outright (September 2009) Free L l l h m

Pros Clean, simple interface. Excellent integration with related services. Estimates Federal taxes due. Downloads credit card transactions. Can’t beat the price of free. Cons No state tax tracking. No export to tax prep solutions. No electronic tax payments.

Outright (September 2009)

Maximize Deductions and Accounting Time

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utright does three things, for free, within an extraordinarily clean, understandable interface: It tracks income and expenses, creates reports, and uses that data to give you an estimate of what you might owe in taxes. Though you can enter some data manually, Outright is Web-based, so there’s no software to install. Also, it imports data from FreshBooks (invoices), Shoeboxed (receipts and business card management), and oDesk (paytracking for remote contractors). Setup of Outright is as simple as clicking the Settings link and following the instructions for integrating external data. Outright will download current information on a set schedule. The site has added a crucial element: the ability to download transactions


from your business credit card, as well as from PayPal, Expensify, and eBay. Basically, your information lands in one of two places: your income register or your expense register. Click on the Income tab to see what’s been brought in, and the Expenses tab displays downloaded expenses—and you can add your own. The Taxes page calculates the tax impact of your income and expenses. I haven’t run into another financial application that handles accounting like Outright does, with this level of skill, usability, and elegance. It’s still young, and still lacking in some capabilities. But its innovation, security, and simplicity make Outright a good choice for the self-employed and very small businesses.—Kathy Yakal >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE


HP ProBook 5310m

Thin is ProBook’s Business The HP ProBook 5310m is evidence that small businesses are ready to embrace modern times. The 5310m sheds the optical drive and VGA port, which would have otherwise made the design thick and conservative. The result is a luxuriously thin ultraportable without the sticker shock. And it’s quite the performer, too. That’s why it earns our Editors’ Choice. The 5310m’s design is strikingly similar to that of the HP Mini 5101—a netbook—except its footprint is significantly larger, measuring 13 by 8.7 by 0.8 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.6 pounds. Brushed aluminum metals give the 5310m a striking, modern look. The 13.1-inch widescreen is the perfect size for maximizing productivity, and the typing and navigating experience easily rivals that of the Lenovo ThinkPad X301. You also get a webcam, three USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet, an SD/MMC slot, and various wireless options, including 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and options for mobile broadband.

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HP ProBook 5310m $899 direct L l l l m

Pros Luxuriously thin. Very lightweight. Amazing typing and navigating experience. Great battery life on a 41-Wh battery. Inexpensive. HP Quick tools are nice add-ons. Environmentally friendly. Cons 8-cell battery isn’t available yet.

The 5310m’s 2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo processor emphasizes both speed and energy efficiency. This system achieved impressive performance scores, with video encoding and Cinebench R10 scores easily beating out the ThinkPad X301. And on MobileMark 2007 tests, it lasted a respectable 5 hours 18 minutes. The 5310m also earned our GreenTech Approved seal for EPEAT Gold, Energy Star 5.0, and RoHS certifications, among other factors. In short, the 5310m is for business professionals who are always thinking and moving forward.—Cisco Cheng >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Specs 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SP9300 processor; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB hard drive; Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics; 13.1-inch widescreen; Broadcom AGN Wi-Fi; 3.8 pounds; 41-Wh battery; Windows 7 Pro (32-bit). JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 31

first looks SOFTWARE

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

Office Gets a Tune-U

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icrosoft Office 2010 has now gone public in a freely downloadable beta version, meaning anyone can try out time-limited versions of the next generation of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and the rest of the growing Office family. After a few days of intense testing, I’m deeply impressed by the many ways Microsoft has improved on the solid foundation of Office 2007. If you’re used to Office 2007, you’ll need no help using Office 2010. Old features remain where they were, although some are now displayed on spacious menus with lots of explanatory text instead of the cramped menus found in Office 2007. Here’s what it’s like to run an Office 2010 32 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

application. A nifty animated splash screen reduces the boredom of waiting for the app to start, and, even in beta, Office 2010 feels slightly snappier than Office 2007. When you launch an application, the first thing you notice is that the blindingly blue-toned background that the previous Office version used by default has been replaced by a restful gray-toned background. The ribbon is less distracting to look at because Microsoft ditched the boxes that used to surround many icons and groups of icons. The traditional File menu tab has also been restored, with a “Backstage” view where you can access file-management options, including export to PDF and privacy options to remove metadata and revisions before saving a file.

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Free Not rated Pros More informative, consistent interface. Improved navigation. Improved imageenhancement and typographic tools. Tighter OneNote integration. No additional learning required because the new features are so smoothly slotted in. 64-bit support enables gigantic spreadsheets. CONs Not a compelling upgrade for Office 2007 users.

Up Picture-editing options available in most Office apps include a new “remove background” feature, as well as blurs and pastels. And there’s an easy-to-use Insert Screenshot selection. A welcome new feature in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint lets you recover a document you closed without saving. As far as specific apps go, Word improvements include new typographic features that support graphic refinements and the new Navigation Pane, which automatically displays the sections of a document as a vertical stack of boxes. Excel innovations are “Sparklines,” which display in a tiny graphic image the data in a range of cells anywhere else in a worksheet and Slicer, a Pivot Table feature that displays a summary view of a Pivot Table in a chart that looks

like the stack of section headings in Word’s new Navigation Pane. PowerPoint’s big new feature takes advantage of today’s powerful computers by embedding impressive video-editing features directly into slides. And Outlook finally gets the Ribbon interface throughout, as well as the same clearer, less-boxy look that’s improved the rest of the suite. My overall judgment on the beta version is that it’s terrific but not essential for anyone already running Office 2007. If you’re still using Office 2003, however, I strongly recommend you upgrade to Office 2010 when it becomes available. In the meantime, try downloading the beta of Office 2010 and give it a try.—Edward Mendelson >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 33

first looks software

Google Chrome OS

A Peek at a Google Future

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nstalling Google’s Chrome OS is not for laymen, and even the tech-savvy will discover it doesn’t resemble the Google demos. This OS is truly tied to the hardware for which Google intends it, and current testers won’t see enhanced features, like instant boot times. Using a virtual machine running on a Windows 7 PC, I took an early look at Chrome. The first thing you see when starting up Chrome is a plain blue log-on screen, and any Gmail account sign-in will get you past this. Once you’re in, you’ll see what at first looks like nothing more than a browser. On closer examination, you’ll notice a white Google Chrome icon to the left of your tabs, which is sort of a Start button that drops down your most-often-used sites and perhaps settings (depending on the release). The two other major user interface features are pinned tabs and Panels. The first is similar to Windows 7’s pinned program buttons. The site you pin stays loaded in its pinned tab. But it’s too easy to unpin a tab accidentally by dragging it. Panels are windows such as chat and notifications that stay at the forefront of the screen. There’s also support for offline work using Google Gears. Also, a clunky experience trying to download and open a Microsoft Word attachment makes me wonder how the OS will handle downloading things like ZIP files. During my 34 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

Google Chrome Free Not rated Pros Simplified interface. Automatically updates. Apps and docs live in the cloud. Support for working offline via Google Gears. Cons Can run only on specific hardware. Repeatedly crashed test systems. Needs further refinement.

testing, the OS froze regularly—after about every five operations, requiring a restart. At this point, Chrome OS feels like a top browser layer stuck onto a minimalist Linux layer. Although this system will surely change, it still offers tantalizing hints at what Google considers the future of computing.—Michael Muchmore >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE

first looks software

Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition 1.0

Free Cloud-Based Security Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition 1.0 aims to head off disasters in your system by pushing its malware detection activity into the cloud, eliminating the need for local signatures. Panda calls it “the first antivirus without an update button.” It’s a malware weapon—and it’s free. Cloud Antivirus is a quick download, at about 22MB, and its streamlined installation doesn’t take long. The program starts by sending what Panda calls a “reverse signature” to the data center in the cloud, which quickly identifies each file as known good, known bad, or unknown. For unknown programs, the local program supplies more info for analysis. The program caches information about known good programs, so full scans after the first one run faster. On my standard low-resource clean test system, it took an hour the first time. That’s about twice the average; re-scanning shaved about 15 minutes from that time. Cloud AntiVirus has a minimal, chunky interface with basic features. When I opened a folder containing my collection of malware samples, Cloud AntiVirus started deleting them right away. Over a period of several minutes it wiped out 80 percent of the samples. It neutralized a few of them as

Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition 1.0 Free L l l l m

Pros Free. Small download. Fast install. No updates needed. Extremely effective at keeping malware out of a clean system. Detected all malware samples on infested test systems. Attractive user interface. Cons Can’t function properly without Internet connection. Failed to remove huge amounts of malware traces from threats it detected.

suspicious rather than deleting them outright. Cloud AntiVirus’s score of 9.7 points in this test puts it in a tie for first place with Spyware Doctor. It also scored a perfect 10 on the rootkit and scareware tests. I noticed, however, that this app is much better at detecting malware than at actually cleaning it up. Still, it’s a good, lightweight tool even when measured against the for-pay AV apps. Basically, it’s the best free antivirus software available, thus earning an Editors’ Choice.—Neil J. Rubenking >>CLICK HERE FOR MORE JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 35

Quick looks SOFTWARE

BOTTOM LINE

CONS

PROS

SECURITY

PC Tools Internet Security 2010 3 licenses, $49.95 per year

IObit Security 360 Free

Identity Finder Professional Edition 4.0 $29.85 direct per year

Trend Micro HouseCall 7.1 Free

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• Top-notch malware cleanup • Excellent protection against new malware infestation • Browser Defender identifies bad sites • Blocked leak tests and exploits • Accurate spam filter

• Free • Small download • Fast install • Fast scan for malware • Includes toolbar and security tools

• Finds and protects vulnerable personal data • Can save search results for analysis • Includes privacy clean-up tools

• Needs no real installation or configuration • Malware-detection database resides in the cloud • Scored well in malware removal tests

• Phishing protection less effective than IE alone • Spam filter significantly slows e-mail downloading • Slows boot process

• Poor malware removal left many executables • Poor malware blocking • By default, installation changes your homepage and search provider

• No support for Windows Live Mail • Can’t scan Outlook OST files or Exchange folders

• No real-time malware protection • No active tech support • Cleanup left many file and Registry traces

The impressive Spyware Doctor is at the heart of PC Tool; not every component measures up but overall the suite is worth a look.

IObit Security 360 installs and scans quickly but just doesn’t do the job of removing malware or preventing malware installation.

Identity Finder scours your PC for unprotected personal information and encrypts, redacts, or securely deletes it.

HouseCall’s cloud-based malware detection is great for a second opinion but shouldn’t be your only security.



OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION

avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 beta Free

ABBYY Finereader 10 Professional Edition $399.99 direct

Omnipage Professional 17 $499 direct

Readiris Corporate 12 $399 direct

Not rated

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• Free • Powerful malware, rootkit removal • Good malware blocking • Spiffy new interface

• Accurate • Feature-rich, highly-customizable • Intuitive interface • Innovative screen-reading feature

• Fast, powerful • Advanced automation features • Comes with PaperPort 11

• Reasonably fast • Barcode-triggered document indexing for corporate users

• Longer than average scan times

• Slightly slower than Omnipage • Some difficult documents require manual processing • No barcode-triggered processing

• Interface is over-complicated • Settings that should be defaults need to be turned on in option dialogs

• No spell-checking or proofreading inside the program • Limited options to correct layout errors

avast! offers very good malware protection at no cost. It’s especially good at malware removal and rootkit removal tests.

Not perfect, but overall the most powerful and reliable OCR, with more features and better ease of use than any rival.

Powerful and accurate OCR, but not the best when you need to fine-tune its output.

Decent automated OCR that stands out mostly for its built-in indexing feature.

Visit pcmag.com for the full reviews of these and scores of other software products.


john c. dvorak

Search Engine Cold Wars and SEO

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he process is called “search engine optimization” and is commonly referred to as SEO. It’s killing the Internet if it hasn’t already. I’ve complained about it before but it’s too late to do anything about it except moan more. Essentially the process involves tricking Google or Bing or Yahoo into ranking your particular Web site higher than the competition by reverse-engineering the tricks used by Google, et al to rank sites in the first place. The problem with the technique is that it ruins the search experience for users and also requires the search engine folks to constantly work on countermeasures to minimize the impact of SEO techniques. SEO techniques then adapt to the changes, and then begins round two, then three, etc. This behind-the-scenes war is why there is no one major search-optimization trick or large consulting firm doing this. It’s all underground and consists of thousands of individual specialists who consult for just a few companies and chat among them38 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

selves in the background. Nothing can get too big—such as a subscription service— because Google and Microsoft will simply subscribe and take action immediately. As it now stands there is a long enough lag time between the implementation of an SEO trick and the countermeasure for a company or individual to get a lot of attention and make extra money. The result is kind of an arms race in the world of search. The problem, as I see it, is the horrid results of certain searches ruining the enduser experience. Try and find the best cell phone deal on the Internet. Do it by using a search engine. Every hit is some commercial site trying to sell you something. Almost every time you ask for certain advice the pages get clogged with things for sale. What if I don’t want to buy anything and just want to find out about something or know the facts? Impossible. The results hardly ever link to a PC Magazine comparative review or any objective analysis. Just faux reviews and fake objectivity leading you to some product for sale.

Try and find the best cell phone deal on the Internet using a search engine. Every hit is some commercial site trying to sell you something. All sorts of tricks are used too. My favorite is the site that pretends to review the top three, four or five products. It’s usually designed to sell one of the products; we’ll call it product B. The reviews tend to show that only two of the products in category A and B are actually any good. C and D are just terrible. Seems objective so far, no? So the reviewer then goes into great detail and the differences between A and B are dissected. They are both close in quality and usefulness. But wait, A is way too expensive and B despite all its minor flaws is so much the better deal that you should buy B. Click here to buy B. Before we are done with the Internet this is the only sort of site that will exist. And, oh, by the way, product B is a piece of crap, okay? People who just have a few trusted sources that they can count on (such as PC Magazine) are better off using those than doing blind searches when it comes to comparative analysis. But I can assure you that most people will use Google, Bing or Yahoo before anything else. You can tell how well or poorly the search engine countermeasures are doing when you search for something, and you click on a link and the link leads to another search engine with the same term auto-entry in its search engine. This trick kills me. You are looking for something innocuous such

as “hub cap” and the result you get is one of those parker pages that is a faux search engine with a bunch of ads somehow related to hub caps and often a Google Adsense ad. How can this even happen? My advice to Web site managers, when you see this sort of result, is to contact THAT site and hire the consultant doing SEO for it. This sort of thing is no accident. There’s a sudden preoccupation with SEO. Perhaps it’s only an epidemic in Silicon Valley, but you can’t even do a blog post without everyone being worried about the SEO implicatons. “No, use a different word!” “Misspelling helps get attention!” I’m not sure where this is all headed, but it’s kind of like the Open Source movement. It relies on a large and vague group of mavens, and that group just keeps growing. I can assure you there are more people thinking about SEO than there are people at Google thinking about how to stop them. It’s like Open Source coders far outnumbering Microsoft coders. Now every person who has ever put up a Web site is reading more and more about SEO. So just wait, and get ready for an outand-out plague on the Net. Dvorak Live on the Web John’s Internet TV show airs every Wednesday at 3:30 ET on CrankyGeeks.com. You can download back episodes whenever you like. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 39

SASCHA SEGAN

Your Free Phone Cost $240

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our free phone cost you at least $240. T-Mobile wants you to know that. But is anybody listening? Cell-phone companies have dropped phones into American hands largely by lying about prices. In exchange for a free toy, you sign your life away to your cell phone carrier for two years. You usually grotesquely overpay for your phone, too. The toys aren’t free. Their prices are invisibly baked into your phone contract and then squeezed out of you if you try to get out of the contract early. The difference between the real and fake price of a phone is called the subsidy. Do you know why Verizon just raised its early termination fee to $350? That’s almost exactly the subsidy on the Motorola Droid. Don’t get me started on carriers’ “mailin” rebates, which often require jumping through annoying hoops and then result in oddball debit cards, not cash. That’s another way carriers hide prices to make things appear “free” when they aren’t. 40 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

Subsidized phones help more people get cool phones, but they’re evil in the way no-money-down mortgages are evil. Most people don’t think about what they’re really paying, or what they’re really overpaying. As with mortgages, mobile carriers charge more than a phone is really worth and drag it out over two years. But research generally shows that American consumers react to up-front prices, no matter how deeply they’ll be in the red down the road. T-Mobile, My Heroes T-Mobile became my hero a few weeks ago, when it introduced the first plans that let you strip out the phone subsidy. Up until now, you could never see a subsidized and unsubsidized price on the same carrier. But guess what, it’s almost always cheaper to pay for your phone up front. Let’s say you want a Nokia 5310 for free. The subsidized plan charges $10 more per month than the unsubsidized plan over 24 months. Yes, that’s right. You just paid $240 to get a $140 phone for free.

As with mortgages, carriers charge more than a phone is worth and drag it out over two years. Aside from gouging people, subsidies distort the market in other ways. Because people are afraid to break their contracts, they can’t jump ship to other carriers. This is good news for the carriers, who hate “churn,” but it’s bad news for competition. Fistfuls of Dollars Americans can’t think ahead. Forget subsidies, they don’t even react to cheaper monthly fees. All they care about is that lying device price tag. If anybody cared about long-term prices, Sprint and T-Mobile would both be doing much better. The iPhone 3GS and the HTC Hero on Sprint both look like they cost around $200. But over two years, with an unlimited talk plan, the iPhone costs $1,200 more. Yeah, sure, the iPhone is great, but is it $1,200 better than a Sprint phone? Really? Do you want an iPhone, or an HTC Hero and a 50-inch plasma TV? If people actually wanted to save fistfuls of money, they would be jumping over to TMobile’s “Even More Plus” plans. In response, the other carriers would introduce their own subsidy-free plans, and then we’d all have more money to spend on smartphone apps. But this will never happen. T-Mobile’s brilliant plan will fail, because the only price tag anyone reacts to is the misleading “free!” next to a phone. There is a tiny glimmer of hope. Last year, New York City started requiring fast food

restaurants to post calorie counts. The 15 percent of people who decided to use the information ordered less calorie-laden food. So better information helps about 15 percent of people. Could that be enough? Just Tell the Truth, Carriers A truth-in-billing law would definitely help. I’m not the only person who thinks so. Consumer advocates have been begging the FCC for this kind of regulation for years. When we’re buying our phones, let’s see online how much of our monthly fee goes to handset subsidies. While we’re at it, let’s also see the correct monthly fees on carrier Web sites, including all of those mysterious “taxes” that only appear after you actually complete the purchase. And heck, since I’m asking for the world, let’s make the carriers post all of their plans on one page, so we can actually compare them. This isn’t “interfering with the market.” This isn’t price control. This isn’t forbidding carriers from charging anything they want. It’s just asking them to explain themselves. I’m older and more cynical than I used to be; I know that Americans will ignore useful information and take the “free phone,” which costs them more in the end. But if they know what they’re getting, at least they’re making the choice with their eyes open. STAY PHONE-SMART Keep up with the latest on smartphones by reading Sascha’s column at go.pcmag.com/segan. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 41

DAN COSTA

E-mail Isn’t Dead, But It is Broken

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CMag.com’s managing editor for software, Sean Carroll, just got back from that rare place few of us can imagine these days: a two-week vacation. We got by without him, his reviews posted, and he only lost one staffer (his senior editor, Matthew Murray, just took the reins at ExtremeTech.com). He returned refreshed and reenergized, only to discover an inbox containing 2,200 messages! E-mail, that revolutionary advance in human productivity, is sucking our time. E-mail is, to be blunt, broken. And it is going to take some new technologies—and some changes in human behavior—to save it. Just this week, The Wall Street Journal, hardly a hot bed of techno-radicalism, ran a story suggesting that e-mail’s days are numbered. With the advent of Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, sending a plain old e-mail seems not just dated, but ineffective. If you sent Sean Carroll an e-mail over the last two weeks, you know what I am talking about. It was once poor etiquette not to reply to an 42 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

e-mail. Now most of us can honestly say we missed that message. Personally, I get 300 to 400 e-mails a day, (I send about 30). Can you blame me if I missed one, especially if it is from an address I have never seen before? Conflicted Over E-Mail Now, I should probably admit that I have mixed feelings about e-mail. My biggest problem with e-mail is that people just send too much of the stuff. It’s sometimes a result of misdirected manners: I can’t resist typing “Thanks” and hitting Send. But most of the e-mail I receive is just useless—press releases, random story pitches, line edits on a story, obscure newsletters I never signed up for, office joke threads (okay, I have chimed in on some of those). Honestly, keeping a heavy finger on the Delete key can resolve a lot of these annoyances and keep your inbox free. Let’s not forget that at its core, e-mail is a form of mail. Mail used to take three to four business days, now it takes three to four seconds. Too many people measure their impor-

We can no longer read all the e-mail we create. Technology can help. tance based on how many e-mails they read, and their self-worth on how many e-mails they send. We have hit the tipping point: We can no longer read all the e-mail we create. Technology can help. The New Tech Dialect The Wall Street Journal is right (gulp, did I just type that?). We are creating a new communication vocabulary, an evolving newmedia vernacular. Instant messaging is used for real-time cube-to-cube messages. If it is just office gossip, and I’m busy, I can ignore it. Texting is a great way to communicate point-to-point, and I can respond instantly or hours later. Best of all, you have to know my number to reach me, and I don’t spread it around. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are great for broadcast communications, and, when I have time, more direct conversations. Calling all of my old friends every week is impossible, but a few minutes here and there on Facebook, and we can keep in touch. I think there is a phone in my office as well, but I am pretty sure it just makes outbound calls. The Future of E-Mail I am currently testing a host of software tools designed to help you manage your e-mail. Xobni works with Outlook to provide context to all of your e-mail communications. When someone sends me an e-mail, Xobni shows me his or her most

recent e-mails, social network profiles, any attachments they have sent me, and most important, a headshot pulled from Linked In. Just seeing the face of the individuals I am e-mailing is a wonder. I am also looking at Gwabbit, a small app that sucks up the signature information at the bottom of emails and drops it into a Contact file. I am still testing it, but so far it’s amazing. Then there is Google Wave, Google’s attempt to combine e-mail, IM, search, collaboration software, photo management, and about a dozen other applications. Despite seeing and participating in lots of demos, Google Wave is a technology that you have to use to understand. It is like trying to explain Facebook to someone who has never logged on. We are just starting to use Wave at the office, so I will report back when I understand this technology better. Given my job, I am a huge fan of technological solutions, but fixing e-mail is going to require some serious behavioral modification. We need to rethink how we use e-mail. It isn’t a real-time communication tool, and shouldn’t be used as one. It may seem like we can send and receive an infinite supply of e-mail, but we can’t. Sending a lot of email doesn’t make you more productive—in fact, it makes everyone else less productive. Choose your e-mails carefully, for your own productivity and sanity. And for mine, too. TALK back to Dan E-mail your thoughts to [email protected]. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 43

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The Product and Techno Defined a

Thanks to these 10 game cha daily lives will never be t Think back to the final days of 1999. Now, look around, and see all that’s missing. Many of the technology products and services that today literally put information at our fingertips, keep us connected and entertained, and enable us to quickly and efficiently buy just about anything, either did not yet exist or had not yet matured. 44 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

Back then, when we needed information, we didn’t turn to the Web because its content was inchoate and not yet sufficiently organized. Besides, searching the Web was slow going, since most Americans used 54Kbps dial-up modems. We quaintly read printed newspapers and magazines instead. As for entertainment, we listened to CDs on saucer-size portable disc players. MP3 downloading was a brand new (and often

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ts, Services, ology That a Decade

angers in the tech world, our the same. By Rik Fairlie illegal) option for college kids. We still watched TV in real time. We communicated quite differently. Cell phones were devoted to phone calls, though some enabled text messaging. But we had not yet connected and reconnected with friends and family via social networking. Most of us were still humming the opening riffs of “Start Me Up” as we booted Windows 95 on our tower PCs. More significant,

we considered our computers primarily tools for work. PCs had not yet become the hubs of our personal lives. As 1999 wound down, we had no idea what wonders the new century held. Now we do, and this is our salute to 10 products, services, and technologies that transformed the first decade of the 21st century. Our tribute to the most influential people of the decade follows on page 56. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 45

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1. Google Is Google psychic or what? From the very beginning, the search engine has generated uncannily accurate results to search queries. It does so by using a storied (and secret) algorithm. We’ve had our eye on Google for some time now. In fact, in November 1999 we awarded the fledgling company a Technical Excellence Award. Ever since, Google has been a phenomenon unmatched. The scrappy search engine attracted a loyal following of Internet users who found they could quickly find exactly the information they wanted. It became the world’s largest search engine on July 11, 2000, with 1 billion items in its index. (Today, Google declines to disclose the size of its index, only saying “over the past year, we increased our index by billions of docu-


ments.”) The remarkable achievement of Google is that it has become our brain. These days, when we want information about a movie time, metric conversion, a historical tidbit, the solution to a software problem, the best price on just about any product, or an exact address, we simply Google it. More than 1 billion searches are performed on Google every day, and it is the most visited site on the Web, according to Alexa. Ten years ago, Google was only a search engine. Today the Google conglomerate includes e-mail, photo-sharing, video, office productivity software, a shopping site, mapping service, a blogging platform, and a Web browser, among others. In short, Google is where we go—for just about everything.

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2. Apple iPhone Talk about disruptive technology. The Apple iPhone has forever transformed our expectations of a cell phone. This 4.8-ounce wonder lets us make phone calls (arguably its weakest feature), browse Web sites, dispatch e-mail, watch and shoot video, take photos, and play games. Thousands of people camped out to be among the first to own the device when it hit stores on June 29, 2007. Subsequent releases—the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS— were slightly less frenzied, but the device itself just keeps getting better. Its bright multitouch screen, snap-simple interface, unmatched media player, and ample storage for data like contacts and calendars make it equally fun and essen-

tial. With the iPhone, Apple designers once again proved that a slick design and an intuitive interface are just as important as useful technology. Its capabilities expanded exponentially on July 11, 2008, when Apple opened an App Store that enables users to download thirdparty software that make the device the world’s most capable pocket computer. The App Store now contains more than 100,000 applications available for download, and competitors are scrambling to stock their own software stores. The Apple iPhone is arguably the most successful attempt at convergence in tech product history. It’s no wonder Apple has already sold more than 30 million iPhones. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 47

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3. Apple iPod If you’re like many of us, you remember the first time you held an iPod in your hand and marveled that this beautifully designed MP3 player could store 1,000 songs. The iPod, which debuted Oct. 23, 2001, was no one-hit wonder. The original 5GB device gave way to the Mini, the Shuffle, the Nano, the Touch, and the Classic, whose 160GB hard drive can store an astounding 40,000 tunes. The first iPod was a marvel of minimalist industrial design. Its scroll wheel redefined usability for handheld digital audio devices, with an interface that enables you to easily manage a library of thousands of tracks. Over the decade, the iPod became much more than an audio device, adding a color 48 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

LCD and the ability to store calendars, contacts, photos, podcasts, videos, and games. Apple’s iTunes store enabled us to download and organize content, and became a pioneering business model. And the iPod itself created its own ecosystem of cases, headphones, in-car adapters, and speaker docks that supplanted home stereos. Airlines and hotels began to tout their iPod connection options, and the auto industry started including auxiliary jacks on factoryinstalled radios. The iPod has transformed the way we buy, listen to, and share music. The device makes it possible to carry your entire collection of music in your pocket, buy new tunes on the fly, and play them in any number of ways.

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4. Facebook While Facebook was prefaced by Friendster and MySpace, neither attained the towering influence of Facebook. Today, the site counts some 350 million active users and accounts for 25 percent of page views in the United States. Facebook, which went live February 2004, is now the second most-visited Web site in the world—and there’s plenty to do when you get there. Members share personal trivia, likes and dislikes, videos, virtual gifts, and links to news stories. Facebook is the Web’s largest photo-sharing site, with more than 2.5 billion photos uploaded each month. Businesses and organizations now connect with customers and members via Fan pages. Facebook has become the digital equivalent of living in a small town, where everyone knows your business. It is not uncommon to learn that a friend’s baby was born, that an acquaintance was promoted (or down-

sized), or that your sister is stuck in a blizzard. Facebook has ushered in a new era in which privacy is out and ambient awareness is in. Facebook’s meteoric rise hasn’t been without controversy. Members have rebelled at the Beacon advertising program, site redesigns, privacy issues, and tolerance of offensive groups like holocaust deniers, to name a few. Nonetheless, Facebook membership is increasing at a clip that could soon make it larger than Google.


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5. Wi-Fi In 2000 Americans started unplugging from broadband modems—it was an unwired revolution, enabling us to work from home, from the road, on the train, and even at 35,000 feet. Wi-Fi also made the Internet an anytime, anywhere source of information and entertainment. Wi-Fi is a marketing term coined by the Wi-Fi Alliance for the IEEE 802.11 specification. The first spec that made wireless net-

working popular was 802.11b; 11a, 11g, and 11n followed. Before the specs, wireless devices were not interoperable—and therefore useless for the average home user. The Alliance tests products to make sure they place nicely together. As marketing initiatives go, Wi-Fi has been enormously influential. Today, 40 percent of U.S. homes have a wireless network,

6. Broadband Internet Acce Remember ISDN? Ten years ago that troublesome technology was the vanguard of broadband Internet access. Fortunately, the adoption of DSL and cable modems, as well as satellite and, later, cellular 3G Internet access, brought fast, always-on connections to a majority of homes. Broadband started to gain serious traction early in the decade, according to Nielsen, which proclaimed in March 2002 broadband had “hit mainstream” as highspeed users eclipsed dial-up surfers. Today,


Forrester Research says there are 80.9 million broadband homes in the United States. Always-on broadband connectivity made the Internet essential. It laid the foundation for audio and video downloads (not always legal), video on demand, buying any and

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according to Nielsen. And Wi-Fi is not limited to home or office use: Today it blankets coffee shops, airports, hotels, public parks, universities, and some airplanes. Besides liberating us from the RJ45 cord, (and helping laptop sales overtake those of desktops), Wi-Fi enabled a burgeoning ecosystem of devices to con-

nect and communicate on the home network. We use Wi-Fi to stream digital video and audio around our homes, send documents to a printer, connect to digital cameras for photo transfers, play videogames with far-flung combatants, and speed Web browsing on smart phones. And without Wi-Fi, today’s blockbuster computer, the netbook, would be virtually useless.

cess everything from online stores like Amazon. com, social networking, VoiP phone calls, videoconferencing, and (admit it) porn. The transformative power of broadband extends beyond the home, however. The adoption of broadband coincided with the

confluence of two momentous forces: the globalization of business and advancements in corporate IT networking. And that ushered in a new era of e-commerce, changing the way businesses operate. The speed at which these forces upended the global economy was breathless, and the overall impact has been profound. Never before has a single technology more dramatically changed the global economy and the way that we live. All at the speed of broadband.


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7.

TiVo

In essence, TiVo televised the digital revolution—much to the horror of Hollywood. Not since the debut of videocassette recorders has a home-entertainment device caused such boot-shaking fear among broadcasting bigwigs—or delight among the videoviewing classes. In 2003, FCC Chairman Michael Powell hailed the TiVo as “God’s machine.” It’s easy to understand the enthusiasm. TiVo took control away from the broadcasters and gave it to the viewers. You didn’t have to be at home on Thursday night to see Friends: You just set it to record all episodes, and watch them when you wanted. No time for commercials? Skip them! And if you miss the punchline while tuned into live TV, simply rewind. The first TiVo shipped in March 1999, and 52 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

users soon were buzzing about its nowlegendary ease of use, its ability to suggest programming based on viewing preferences, and its intuitive programming interface. Word spread, and by January 2007 TiVo reported an impressive 4.4 million subscribers. Today TiVo is not quite the force it once was. Cable companies have sliced into the company’s market share by integrating TiVo-like DVR capabilities into their set-top cable boxes. Nonetheless, the popularity of TiVo is unabated, at least in the generic sense. Today more than 38 million U.S. households have a DVR, most of which are provided by cable operators. So if you’re one of the millions of TV fans who can’t imagine a world without TV program time-shifting, thank TiVo.

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8.

GPS

Chances are, you may have first encountered a GPS navigational system in a Hertz rental car. The company started installing its pioneering NeverLost system in rental cars in 1997. At the time, GPS guidance was quite costly. Worse, the global positioning satellites, which are owned by the U.S. government, were intentionally degraded for civilian use. In 2000, the government allowed civilian use of the military GPS signal, and pinpoint accuracy and turn-by-turn directions became a reality. Today, about 31 percent of adults in North America use a mobile navigation system, according to Forrester Research. The in-car devices deliver turn-by-turn driving instructions that are automatically recalculated when you miss a turn. Spoken directions are

available in a wide choice of vocal styles, from Snoop Dogg to a more staid EveryLady elevator voice. In recent years we’ve seen GPS navigation gaining traction in smart phones like the iPhone by using downloadable apps. Cellular carriers offer a turn-by-turn GPS navigational service for roughly $10 a month. GPS is not limited to driving instructions. We are now seeing more people use geotagging to add precise latitude and longitude information to photos, videos, and maps. We can now plot vacation photos on a map and even use the latitude and longitude data to locate and identify that outof-the-way French restaurant we hope to return to. That’s the beauty of GPS: It not only tells us where we’re going, but where we’ve been.


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9.

Windows XP

We first reviewed Microsoft’s Windows XP in September 2001. We praised its fusion of Windows 98’s software and hardware support with the security of Windows NT. In fact, we proclaimed it “Microsoft’s latest—and dare we say greatest—operating system to date.” What a prescient declaration that was. Nine years later, Windows XP is, by a long shot, still the most popular operating system in the world. XP commands roughly 62 percent of market share, while newcomer Windows 7 claims about 7 percent market share. Old XP is the operating system typically loaded on netbooks, the newest computer category. And in what has to be an industry first, Microsoft offered a downgrade to XP for certain buyers of its disastrous Vista OS. What made XP so great? It was the first


consumer-oriented operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the Windows NT kernel and architecture. But it also included Windows 98’s aptitude for running games and legacy hardware. The DOS coding that had been visible in preceding Microsoft operating systems was gone, and the Blue Screen of Death was, for the most part, vanquished. Windows XP also added new networking capabilities (including support for wireless networking), features for mobile workers, an Internet firewall, and a Web cookie controller. We also liked the debut of Windows Media Player and automatic support for digital cameras. With Windows XP, Microsoft targeted some of the features that would define the coming decade. Rarely does Redmond presage the future so accurately.

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10.

Apple iMac

When Steve Jobs took the stage to introduce the first iMac on May 6, 1998, he promised it would combine “the excitement of the Internet with the simplicity of the Macintosh.” He might have just called it an “insanely great” all-in-one computer. The marriage of monitor and CPU box has been attempted time and time again, but it has never been carried off with the panache of the iMac. In the last decade, Apple has unveiled a string of all-in-one iMacs with LCD screens that have been eminently functional, elegantly designed, and increasingly affordable. The earliest iMac with an LCD screen, the G4, followed a bold new design: Its 15-inch

display was mounted on an adjustable arm above an ovoid base that housed the motherboard, processor, optical drive, hard drive, and other interior components. In future iterations, Apple would add much-copied innovations like a built-in Webcam, a slotloading DVD drive, integrated Wi-Fi, and wireless keyboards and mice. Each new model has been a wonder of better, cleaner design. Typically, the front panel lacks speakers, control buttons, or ports. Instead, all the ports are lined up vertically on the back panel. Other PC makers have tried to replicate the iMac, but none has come close. The iMac still represents the perfect fusion of style and performance, at an affordable price. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 55

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The Most Influ of the D By Rik Fairlie The products, services, and technologies that transformed our lives in the 00s each, in its own way, realized the promise and the premise of the Internet. So, too, do our most influential people of the decade. These bold thinkers burnish their reputations with game-changing innovation, whether it is measured by delivering information, creating indispensable services, or 56

Photos: (left & far right) Getty Images; (second on left) Gene X Hwang, Orange Photography

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uential People Decade parsing the curious new business of sharing. Among these six men we found some common attributes: the quest for connectivity and community, astute business acumen, and sometimes surprising sense of charity. Each, however, drew upon a unique reserve of outsize talent to maximize Internet technology and enrich our lives. Here’s how they did it. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 57

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Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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Steve Jobs Co-founder and CEO, Apple He loomed over the first decade of the 21st century like no other man. At 54, Steve Jobs and his accomplishments are legendary. The Apple co-founder is known for an exacting attention to detail and a keen knack for predicting a trend—not to mention a fixation on elegant design. He is widely considered the archetypal tech visionary of our time. Skeptical? Consider these breakthroughs of the past 10 years: the Apple retail store (2001), the iPod (2003), the Apple iTunes Store (2003), the iPhone (2007), and the Apple App Store (2008). Apple churned out a line of stunning laptops (the MacBook Air) and desktops (iMacs) throughout the decade, but Jobs was intensely focused on expanding the company’s reach. Accordingly, Jobs reached into the consumer electronics market to grab market share for new types of devices. In doing so, he used his formidable business acumen and persuasive negotiating skills to transform the way that the music, video, and cellular phone industries do business. Jobs fully understood computers had moved beyond Excel spreadsheets. Home users were creating audio playlists and burning CDs, editing photos, and watching video. His achievement is that he was able to bridge the home computer with a line of consumer electronics that entertain, connect, and engage.


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Larry Page and Sergey Brin Co-founders, Google


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Sergey Brin and Larry Page have led Google through an expansion in scope and influence so profound, it would seem preposterous were it not well documented. In 1998, the duo began working on an Internet search engine based on the notion that relevant results come from context. They registered the domain Google in 1997, and entered a period of fevered growth. By the year 2000, Google already had indexed 1 billion URLs, making it the world’s largest search engine. It retains that title today. Although it no longer reveals the size of its index, it is the world’s most visited site, fielding 1 billion search requests every day. Brin and Page put Google on the path to profitability with the 2003 launch of AdSense, a content-targeted advertising service. The ensuing influx of revenue has enabled Brin and Page to embark on a dizzying spree of acquisitions and product development. Today Google touches just about every aspect of our digital lives. We go to Google for news, free public-domain books, navigational mapping, sharing photos, productivity applications, and more. Google has developed its own Web browser, runs a platform for cloudbased data and application hosting, and is building its own operating system. What’s next for Brin and Page? Whatever it is, based on their extraordinary history, we bet they’ll get it done.


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Mark Zuckerberg Co-founder and CEO, Facebook In 1984, Bill Gates landed his first cover of Time magazine, the Macintosh computer debuted, and Dell Computer was founded in an Austin dorm room. Oh, and Mark Zuckerberg was born in New York. Today, at 25, Zuckerberg is the billionaire sultan of sharing. His Facebook social-networking site is the place where 350 million—and counting—friends log in to swap personal information, photos, videos, and games. To say that Zuckerberg is an early achiever is an understatement. He mastered computer programming at an early age, hatched the prototype for Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, and is now the CEO of a private company with an estimated market value of $6.5 billion to $9.5 billion. As CEO, he sets the overall direction and product strategy for Facebook. One of the most notable actions of the past decade was opening the Facebook API to third-party developers. That decision unleashed a torrent of applications that encouraged members to spend more time at the site taking quizzes and playing games, and to stay connected using mobile devices. Facebook’s on-site messaging and chat became two more powerful incentives to stay logged on. Zuckerberg says he is focused only on building membership and wants to make Facebook the place where the entire world connects. He’s well on his way to that, but how will Facebook profit from its astounding user base? Zuckerberg isn’t telling. He has, however, gathered a clutch of seasoned executives to help him guide the company into the new decade and, when the time is right, create a business plan.


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Photo: Bandeep Singh/India Today Group/Getty Images

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Bill Gates Co-founder and Chairman, Microsoft Bill Gates has been a titan of technology since the early days of the personal computer. Yet, even in retirement from Microsoft, he continues to wield tremendous influence on technology. Gates, who remains a non-executive chairman of Microsoft, left the company in June 2008 to run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropy. Although his imprint on day-to-day decisions gradually waned over the past decade, his final years at Microsoft yielded some notable achievements. Under his leadership, Microsoft focused on next-generation technology like cloud computing, which can help corporations efficiently manage data and applications by moving them to outsourced service providers. In 2007 Microsoft unveiled the Surface platform, a product Gates says will advance the natural user interface. And under his stewardship, the Windows Live and Microsoft Office Live platforms were developed in 2005, perhaps a bit late. For much of the past decade, however, Gates has focused on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose goal is to eradicate preventable diseases that imperil people in developing countries. The foundation harnesses the power of science and technology to research and halt diseases. Gates says he is optimistic that his foundation will help find the cure for some of the most common fatal diseases. Gates will forever be known as the Man Who Built Microsoft. But in the coming decades he aims to use the financial influence acquired as the founder of Microsoft to help save lives and end fatal diseases.


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Craig Newmark Founder, Craigslist.org You probably wouldn’t recognize Craig Newmark if you passed him on the street. But you know his eponymous list and what you can get there: Anything you want. Newmark, founder and chairman of Craigslist.org, is a self-professed nerd. Like his site, he is unassuming and simple, an everyman who just happens to run the eleventh most popular venture on the Web. He’s also the man who almost singlehandedly changed the landscape for traditional classified advertising. Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities that offer mostly free ads for products, services, and jobs. It is a behemoth that spans the globe, serving roughly 700 cities in 70 countries. Despite the scope and revenue potential of Craigslist, Newmark has refused to sell out. (The company did sell a 25 percent stake to eBay in 2004, but that transaction is now in litigation.) Newmark often says the real mission of Craigslist is to help people help one another, not to make a fast buck. To that end, most ads are free. The site charges only for select ads (jobs in certain cities, some apartment ads, and adult services) that generate estimated revenues of $100 million a year. The organization is amazingly lean, with a staff of 30 or so employees headquartered in a house in San Francisco. It all sounds so nonchalant and laid-back. Yet Craigslist would not have attained its globe-spanning stature without clever strategy and marketing. That’s the mark of Newmark, an uncommonly humane man in a digital world.


Photo: Gene X Hwang, Orange Photography

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Solutions BuILD IT

A Solid, Midrange Gaming PC for $1,700 Want a gaming PC that you can use now and soup up later? We give you the ultimate midrange gaming system. By Dan Evans

H

ardcore gamers constantly dream up bigger and better ways to kick their gaming experience up a notch. But for those without the means to have the biggest, baddest gaming rig out there, the ultimate system is one that provides enough horsepower not to shame them on multiplayer games, enough expansion room to upgrade, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Enter the midrange gaming system. When I sat down to plot out a midrange gaming system, I thought long and hard about how to spend the allotted $1,700. Do I go with a couple of rock-star components or try and spread the hard-earned cash around 68 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

the system evenly? Did I want to splurge on a fast processor or on multiple graphics? I ended up cutting a few corners to keep the cost down, but the components I chose produced a solid system that can easily be upgraded in the future. The bulk of my $1,700 budget went to the 2.93-GHz Intel Core i7-870 processor. I plan to push this system pretty hard, and with overclocking the 870 can reach 3.60 GHz. Also, because this is going to run Windows 7, the Hyper-Threading functionality that the Core i7 chip contains becomes especially important. Windows XP and Vista had problems scheduling multiple threads and sometimes multiple threads would be routed to the same core, causing performance prob-

74 SeCuRiTy A look at new User Account Control features in Windows 7

78 TiPS Find new ways to sort e-mail contacts, learn new iPhone tricks, and much more

COMPONENTs Processor 2.93-GHz Intel Core i7-870, $560 street Motherboard Gigabyte P55-uD6, $249.99 direct Graphics Card Asus EAH5850, $259.99 direct Memory Two 2GB CsX Diablo DDR3 RAM modules, $150 street Hard Drive 1.5TB seagate Barracuda 7200.11, $120 street Power supply Antec TruePower 650, $139.99 direct Optical Drive Lite-On iHAs422, $35 street Case Thermaltake Element G, $129.99 list Cooler Thermaltake spinQ CPu, $70 street

lems. These problems have been worked out in Windows 7, so this quad-core should perform like an octo-core. I paired this chip with a Gigabyte P55-UD6 motherboard because such a board is made for the kind of high-voltage work I’m going to put this system through. There is a quick-

boot button on the motherboard itself for quickly rebooting as I try to find the perfect settings. It also has a 24-phase VRM (voltage regulator module) design that ensures a smoother power transfer and keeps the heat down. This system also has 12 SATA ports—10 onboard and 2 external—so there JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 69

solutions BUILD-IT

Midrange Gaming PC: Step-by-Step Instructions

1

Open the side of the case. Set the case on its side on a flat surface.

2

Insert the motherboard risers in the case.

is a lot of room for internal expansion down the road. The center of any gaming PC is the GPU. I went with the brand new Asus EAH5850 card, AMD’s new Radeon 5800 series of GPUs. This card supports Direct X 11 and is stocked with 1GB of DDR5 video memory. What I really like about this card is the “Voltage Tweaking,” which allows you to play around with voltage on your GPU just like you would on the CPU. You can adjust the GPU voltage from 1.088V to 1.4V and that should boost your GPU clock speed from 725 MHz to 1,050 MHz. It also jacks up your memory clock speed from 4,000 MHz to 5,200 MHz. I went with a familiar case that I’d used 70 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

before, the Thermaltake Element G because of its design and spacious interior, but I decided that if I am going to overclock this gaming rig, I need a heavy-duty cooler. The Thermaltake Spin Q CPU, a stylish aluminum barrel-shaped unit with blue running lights, will also work with several different socket types if I choose to upgrade my motherboard later. For memory, I went with a couple of 2GB RAM sticks from CSX. I would have liked to have used the company’s triple channel RAM; unfortunately, there are no triple-channel DD3 boards with this chipset. The memory comes with cooling fins on top, which will help, because I am only aircooling this unit. Having laid all of this out, I should add

3

It’s time to install the CPU. First, release the socket lever by moving it slightly sideways, then raise it to a 90degree angle. Line up the chip and bring the lever down to lock it back into place. Make sure that the CPU is held securely, but don’t force the chip into place.

4

Place a dollop of thermal paste on top of the chip. The compound conducts heat well and increases cooling efficiency by filling in the small spaces between the CPU and the surface of the heat sink.

5

Install the cooler on top of the CPU and clip it onto the motherboard. JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 71

solutions BUILD-IT

6

Insert the RAM. The memory slots you use (you’ll see several) will depend on your memory configuration, so consult the manual before you install the sticks. The RAM modules are designed so that you can’t put them in backward—if one isn’t going in, don’t force it.

7

Install the power supply.

that there are several ways you could build a PC similar to this one for less money. First, you can downgrade the processor from the i7-870 to the i7-860 and save a couple hundred dollars. You could also go with the Asus EAH5750 and save another hundred dollars, but you wouldn’t get the voltage tweak and that is a 128-bit card. But it’s 72 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

8

Set the motherboard on the risers and screw it into place.

still a Direct X 11 card and will run all the latest games. Memory is another area where you could save an additional hundred dollars; instead of the CSX modules you could use lower-priced memory from Corsair or Kingston. Both companies sell 4GB kits for about $80. Finally, you can always find a cheap lower-capacity hard drive.

9

Remove the front panel of the case and take out the temporary faceplates.

10

Install your graphics card and hard drive.

11

Slide your optical drive into the front of the case.

12

Find the 20-pin power socket on the motherboard, and plug in the matching powersupply connector. Do the same with the power plug that mates with the fourpin socket near the CPU. Connect all of the leads from the external USB ports, indicator lights, the status display, and audio jacks to their appropriate motherboard partners. Do the same with the leads from the internal drives. Your hardware assembly work is done. Now load Windows 7 and get to work—er, play.


solutions SECURITY

What’s New with UAC In Windows 7 Its debut in Vista annoyed most of us, but User Account Control is much improved in Windows 7. Here’s a look at how the security feature has changed in the Microsoft’s new OS. By Neil J. Rubenking

P

eople who bought computers with Vista preinstalled tend to be a lot happier than those who upgraded from XP, especially those who failed to run the upgrade advisor. The same is true of Windows 7. Even after following all advice from the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, I still had to jump through hoops to re-enable my connection to PCMag’s Virtual Private Network after upgrading from Vista. Even the biggest Vista fans, the ones who’ve never experienced any upgrade tribulations, have to admit that User Account Control (UAC) can be a pain in the neck. Fortunately Microsoft made some significant improvements in it for Windows 7. Why User Account Control? Vista was designed to be significantly more secure than XP, and UAC is a cornerstone of its security scheme. The point of UAC is to make sure no system-level changes occur without an Administrator’s permission. Even if you normally use an Administrator account, all of your day-to-day activity hap74 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

pens at the low-privilege Standard level. Before a nasty virus (or a useful application) can do something potentially dangerous like writing to the Windows folder, it has to get permission. UAC pop-ups in Vista are especially shocking because of what’s called “secure desktop mode.” The screen blanks out briefly, then everything except the UAC pop-up goes dim. Anything else you were doing is out of reach until you respond to the pop-up. This prevents sneaky programs from meddling with the UAC dialog, but it can be an unpleasant shock. Less frightening but equally annoying is

QUERY PROMPT If either of the top two notification levels is active, changing to a different level will trigger a UAC query asking permission to make the change.

the “I just told you!” scenario. You launch a program and UAC immediately asks if you want to run this program. D’oh! Of course you do! Users can really get steamed about this, even Administrator users who merely have to click Yes. Imagine the frustration of a Standard user who must type an Administrator password or (more likely) go track down a supervisor to enter the password. One time in a thousand this precaution might prevent a malicious program from launching, assuming (and it’s a big assumption) that the user was alert enough to choose No. The other 999 times it’s just a pain. In the Engineering Windows 7 blog, Microsoft’s engineers trot out the notion that requiring a UAC confirmation for every sensitive action is good, because it “forces malware or poorly written software to show itself and get your approval before it can potentially harm the system.” That same rationale gave us old-style (and now obsolete) personal firewalls that deluged us with incomprehensible pop-up queries—ugh! In fact, Microsoft’s designers admit that UAC can’t really keep out malware, because users don’t know enough to correctly respond to its prompts. Most users just click Yes and allow the program to do what it was going to anyhow. Microsoft’s own figures show that users click Yes about 90 percent of the time. That’s usually the correct answer, but Joe User can’t distinguish a scary UAC prompt about a perfectly valid program from a scary UAC prompt about a malware attack.

VISTA VS. WIN 7 User Account Control prompts in Windows 7 (above) offer a slightly more detailed description than the corresponding prompts in Vista (top).

Big Ideas In the Windows 9 blog, Microsoft Engineers congratulate themselves on the fact that UAC has made program developers leery of techniques that unnecessarily require Administrator privilege. (Thanks, guys, but couldn’t you have found a way to whip developers into line without torturing users?) Eventually, though, they fess up to UAC’s problems. For example, their research shows that Windows itself accounts for about 40 percent of all UAC prompts. No, really! A Windows component tries to do something important and UAC stops it until you give the okay. They say we “can expect fewer prompts from Windows components” in Windows 7. Their goals for improvement with Windows 7 were to: JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 75

solutions SECURITY

NOTIFY ME AND WAIT In Windows 7 users can adjust the level of UAC popups. “Notify” is the wrong word; at the top level it will ask permission for every system change and halt other activity while awaiting a response, just like Vista.

• Reduce unnecessary and redundant UAC queries • Make customers confident that they’re in control • Make UAC prompts more informative • Offer better and more obvious control over UAC The beta showed some progress toward these goals and the Release Candidate even more. UAC in the final Windows 7 is significantly less irksome than that of Vista. Clearer Choices Where a Vista UAC prompt announces “Windows needs your permission to continue,” Windows 7 may ask, “Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?” or “You’ll need to provide administrator permission to rename this folder.” Microsoft says focus 76 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

groups showed these modified messages are easier to understand. Vista users had the option to shut down UAC; Windows 7 offers alternatives short of total shutdown. By tweaking a simple slider, users can select from four different notification levels. From the most to the least restrictive, they are: • Level 4. Always notify me when programs try to install software or make changes to my computer and when I make changes to Windows settings. • Level 3. Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer. Don’t notify me when I make changes to Windows settings. • Level 2. Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop). Don’t notify me when I make changes to Windows settings. • Level 1. Never notify me when programs try to install software or make changes to my computer or when I make changes to Windows settings. Level 3 is the default. At this level, program-initiated system changes trigger UAC prompts, but configuration changes made by the user do not. Crank it up to level 4, and even user-initiated changes can trigger UAC, as in Vista. Level 2 is the same as level 3, except that it doesn’t dim the desktop. That makes it less shocking, but without the benefit of the secure desktop there’s a faint possibility that malware could finagle its way into the process and interfere with UAC. I used to think that level 1 meant UAC is off,

TURNING UAC OFF Setting UAC to the lowest level actually turns it off. A reboot is required to make this change, and of course Windows suggests that you leave UAC turned on.

but the Help clarifies that it only turns off the pop-ups. For Administrator users, all programs—good and bad—can make system changes without hindrance. For Standard users, any action that would have triggered a UAC pop-up will just fail silently. Ouch! A Microsoft user study revealed that users who got more than one UAC prompt during a Windows session were a lot more likely to report the prompts as irritating. (I could have told them that.) They also found no measurable difference in malware defense between levels 3 and 4. That’s why they chose the less-strict level 3 as the default, and that’s why you should leave it set to the default. Resisting Key Stuffing Earlier this year, security experts reported that the UAC settings dialog in Windows 7 beta was vulnerable to attack. If the UAC level was set to anything but the maximum, a user-mode program could turn it entirely off by “key stuffing”—sending simulated

keystrokes to the UAC control dialog. Security Watch blogger Larry Seltzer points out that this attack only works if you’re running in Administrator mode. UAC is supposed to encourage everyone to run as a Standard user. Seltzer goes on to note that the same sort of attack could do a lot more damage if applied to other Control Panel applets. Microsoft didn’t ignore the problem, but fixed it by forcing the UAC dialog to run as a high-integrity process which, they say, “prevents all the mechanics around SendKeys and the like from working.” It seems to be true; the UAC settings dialog completely ignored a small program I wrote to send fake keystrokes and mouse clicks. I’d still be happier if any attempt to lower the protection level would always trigger a UAC pop-up with the desktop dimmed—that would be hard to break. My UAC Wish List UAC in Windows 7 is improved, but still somewhat annoying. I don’t think it should ever ask whether to allow elevated privileges for a known, valid program, and certainly never for a Windows component. Many security vendors use whitelist databases identifying millions of known good programs; surely Microsoft has the resources to do the same. If it’s not a known program, UAC could examine all of its behaviors, not just the fact that it needs elevated privilege, and make a considered decision to allow or block it. Don’t foist that responsibility off on the user! Now that would be a classy version of UAC. n JANUARY 2010

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 77

solutions

Tips Useful tidbits from PCMag editorial staff, Labs analysts, and readers WINDOWS MAIL

Sort Contacts By Last Name Reader Bill Pratt was perplexed when he imported his e-mail contact list from XP to Vista. Windows Mail insisted on listing his contacts in alphabetical order by the first letter of first names rather than last names, as it was with XP. Frustrating, for sure. In theory you should be able to do last name first You can sort your Windows Mail it this way: Right-click one of the col- contacts by last name instead of first name by doubleumn headers to see a list of available clicking each and then clicking OK. columns. Choose Last name from the list, thereby adding a last name column. give you the option to sort by last name. Sort on that column. But when I tried that in —Neil J. Rubenking my own setup, similar to Bill’s, I got nothing in the last-name column for most entries. APPLE IPHONE And pursuing Microsoft advice on the topic Scan Documents with your iPhone invariably seemed to end with “Use Win- The iPhone is no Canon Mark III, but it’s pretty sweet for taking pictures of your dows Live Mail instead.” I finally figured out what happened: Con- friends or some cool scenery. Trouble is, its tacts that I’ve added in Windows Mail show lack of a focus control makes it impossible to a last name in that column. Contacts that get clear close-up shots. Which is a shame have been imported but not changed since considering there are services like Evernote do not. By going down the list double-click- and scanR that let you use the camera on ing each contact and immediately click- your mobile phone as a scanner, even coning OK I can get the last names to appear. verting images into text or sending images Carrying out this one-time tedious task will as faxes. 78 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION JANUARY 2010

What to do? Just put a magnifying glass or one of those credit-card-size magnifying sheets in front of the lens when taking closeup pictures. The improvement in the quality and clarity of your image will be stunning. —Logan Kugler Keep a Photoblog on your iPhone The iPhone has everything you need to keep a visual diary online. Many blogging platforms, such as Blogger, allow you to e-mail photos directly to the site. In fact, you can create a “moblog” on the fly by e-mailing [email protected] from your phone (they’ll e-mail you back with log-in details so you can edit your blog later on, when you’re at a computer). Posterous is another service that will let you set up a blog directly from your phone—e-mail [email protected] to set up a new blog or to add an existing one. If you already have a blog and it doesn’t accept posts by e-mail directly, you can email images to your Flickr account and use the “Share This” link to post to most blogging platforms. Just set up a post-by-e-mail address at flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail and add the address to your iPhone’s address book.—LK AUDIO

Record Voiceovers with your Microphone Reader James Murphy writes that he can’t get his microphone to record any voiceover sounds. He uses Windows Vista Home Premium, has plenty of memory, and uses

both Pinnacle Studio Version 12 and the Windows Movie Maker program. He uses mics that have come with older computers (little white plastic ones). He has plugged them into both the front and rear jacks, and all drivers are indicated as current. Getting a microphone to work properly is one of the more annoying chores with any Windows PC. While many PCs now have jack recognition—that is, when you plug a device into the audio jack, the PC can figure out what was plugged in—that’s still not a common feature. What often happens is that the sound hardware defaults to line-level input, which may not be good enough to work with the low-cost microphones you’re using. On top of that, some systems offer separate line-level input and microphone ports—but default to a single input port. So you need to bring up your sound hardware’s control panel and switch to microphone input. If you still don’t get sound, check to see if the microphone boost, which adds a 20-dB boost to the incoming microphone signal, is enabled. Standalone USB microphones aren’t always a solution, as they have their own problems, particularly if they need to work alongside an analog sound card. What might work better is a USB headset (microphone plus headphones). Use that to record the voiceover, then unplug and work with your built-in sound hardware once the voice files have been recorded.—Loyd Case JANUARY 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 79

Bes

Editors’ Choices in Key Categories For the complete reviews of these products and more Editors’ Choices check out go.pcmag.com/editorschoice

Desktops mainstream

HP Pavilion Elite m9400t $843 list

tablet

Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet (Multitouch) $2,000 direct

sTORAGE

Budget/Value

HP Compaq Presario CQ5110f $699 list

Portable

Dell Inspiron 545 $899 list

Lenovo ThinkPad USB Portable Secure Drive $319 list

gaming/Multimedia

Clickfree HD325 $180 list

Falcon Northwest Mach V (Core i7-975) $8,240 direct NEW HP Pavilion 6267c-b n

$999.99 list all-in-one

Apple iMac (Nvidia GeForce 9400M) $799 list Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 $799 direct

Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive Mac Edition (500GB) $150 list

Western Digital MyBook Studio Edition II $430 list network-attached storage

Western Digital WD ShareSpace 4TB, $799.99 list LCD Monitors

Lenovo ThinkCentre M58p Eco Ultra Small $1,089 direct

Asus VW266H $309 list

nettop

HP LP2275w $349 direct

Lenovo C300 (3012-2DU) $549 list

Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP $689 direct

Laptops & netbooks mainstream

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch $1,199 direct

SCANNERS Epson Perfection V300 Photo $99.99 direct

projectors

gaming

Alienware M17x $4,850 direct Multimedia

n Acer Aspire AS8940-6865 NEW

Canon Realis X700 $2,500 list NEC VT800 $1,000 street

$1,400 street Desktop Replacement

Acer Aspire 6930G-6723 $1,020

Toshiba mini NB205 $400 street

Amazon Kindle 2 $359 direct Printers monochrome laser

business

Konica Minolta magicolor 1600W $180 street

NEW HP ProBook 5310m n

color laser

$899 direct budget NEW Asus UL80Vt-A1 n

$823 street

NEW Epson PictureMate Charm n

$149.99 direct all-in-one

Canon Color ImageClass MF8350Cdn $699 direct networking D-Link Xtreme N Storage Router (DIR-685) $299 direct SMC SMCGS8P $300 street Spiceworks 3.5 Free CloudEngines Pogoplug $99 direct

Cisco Network Magic Pro 5.5 $39.99 direct HDTVs plasma

Vizio VP505XVT $1,499.99 list LCD

Sharp Aquos LC-52D85U $2,099.99 direct

Sony Bravia KDL-46XBR8 $3,999.99 list

Samsung LN52A750 $3,999 list OLED

Sony XEL-1 OLED Digital TV $2,499.99 list

Gadgets

street netbook

Photo Printer

Netgear XAVB101 $130 street

desktop

business

Epson WorkForce 310 All-In-One $129.99 direct

Xerox Phaser 7500/DN $3,299.99 direct standard inkjet

Epson Stylus NX515 $149 direct

80 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION january 2010

Digital Cameras compact NEW Samsung DualView TL225 n

$349.99 list D-SLR

Nikon D300 $1,800 street Canon EOS Rebel T1i $899.99 list superzoom

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 $399.95 list

est Digital Video Cameras Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera $299.99 direct

Sony HDR-SR11 $1,099.99 direct

Cell phones

iphone apps

Alltel

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 From $229.99 with contract

Multimedia suite

Apple iPhone 3G S

ENTERTAINMENT

From $99 with contract

Adobe CS 3 $999 direct

LG Xenon GR500 $99 direct

VIDEO-Editing SOFTWARE

Sprint

CyberLink DVD Suite 7 Ultra

BlackBerry Tour 9630

$129.95 direct

T-Mobile

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8

Motorola CLIQ $199 list

Picasa 3.5 Free digital photo frame

Sony VAIO VGF-CP1 $299 list portable media Players Microsoft Zune 120GB $249 list Apple iPod touch (3rd generation) 8GB, $199 direct Apple iPod nano (5th generation) 16GB, $179 direct Speakers/Docks Altec Lansing Mix iMT800 $299.95 direct

Hercules XPS 2.1 Lounge $60 street

Logitech Pure-Fi Dream $200 direct

media extenders Sonos Bundle 150 $999 direct Slingbox PRO-HD $299 list Gaming consoles Sony PlayStation 3 120GB (PS3 Slim) $299.99 direct GPS Devices TomTom One 140-S $199.95 list

Pandora (for iPhone) Free Rhapsody From $12.99 per month Slacker Free

$199.99 with contract

photo editing

$99.99 direct

Stanza Free Photogene $2.99 direct

AT&T

Digital Photo & Video

Air Sharing $6.99 direct

Apple iLife ’09 $79 direct MLB 09: The Show $59.99 list iTunes 9 Free

Verizon Wireless NEW Droid by Motorola n

security

$199.99 direct

password protection

unlocked

LastPass 1.5 Free

Nokia N82 $629 direct

antimalware

Prevx 3.0 $29.95 direct per year

Headsets Aliph New Jawbone $129.99 list Plantronics Voyager Pro $99 list

antivirus NEW Panda Cloud Antivirus Free n

Edition 1.0 Free

Suite

headphones Klipsch Image S4i $99.99 direct 3G network adapters sprint

Norton Internet Security 2010 3 licenses, $69.99 yearly

Norton 360 version 3.0 $69.99 yearly

Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2010 $39.95 yearly

Sierra Wireless 598U $249.99 list

Backup

Office & productivity

SOS Online Backup (beta)

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

$19.95 direct

$449 direct

QuickBase $250 direct per month ACT! by Sage 2010 $299 list Citrix GoToAssist Express $69 direct per month

LapLink PCmover $19.95 to $59.95 list

n ABBYY Finereader 10 NEW

Professional Edition $399.99 direct

Dropbox 2GB, free; 50GB, $9.95 monthly

Financial QuickBooks 2010 $399 list Quicken Home & Business 2009 $79.99 direct

Mint.com (Winter 2009) Free Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009 Free

january 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 81

PC Magazine 2010-01

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