PC Magazine - February 2014 USA

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DIGITAL EDITION

FEBRUARY 2014

CONTENTS

FEBRUARY 2014

COVER STORIES

THE ROMANCE ISSUE Valentine’s Day isn’t what it used to be— thanks to tech advancements of every type, it can now be better than ever.

FEATURES 5 STAGES OF ONLINE LOVE From meeting cute to the unlikely reunion, conducting your romance on the Internet can be loaded with either peril or promise.

BEST DATING SITES AND APPS Whether you’re looking for someone in your own age range, faith, or interest group, there’s a dating website or app that’s just right for you.

69 DIGITAL DATING TIPS Don’t suffer from bad first impressions, pre-dinner jitters, or risky dates. These tips will help you stay safe whether you’re meeting your e-fling online or off.

REVIEWS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS Olympus Stylus 1 Sony Xperia Z1s (T-Mobile) Double Telepresence Robot LockState LS-500I RemoteLock Wi-Fi Door Lock

HARDWARE Apple Mac Pro HP ZBook 14 Afinia H479 Desktop 3D Printer

SOFTWARE FileMaker Pro 13 DxO Optics Pro 9

Apple Mac Pro

Sony Xperia Z1s

WHAT’S NEW NOW PHOTOSYNTH: FOR TOURING PHOTOS IN 3D This new technology will put you into your photos as never before.

HOW THE NEW YORK SUBWAY LETS THE SUNSHINE IN Technology and creativity were instrumental in bringing the sun to subterranean Manhattan.

THE BEST MOMENTS OF CES 2014 Michael Bay, Shaquille O’Neal, and more made this year’s CES a show to remember.

TOP GEAR GADGET LUST

OPINIONS DAN COSTA First Word

SASCHA SEGAN Love, Internet Style

BRIAN WESTOVER

Making Connections In Our Connected World

SEBASTIAN ANTHONY The Look Of Lovotics

GET ORGANIZED Scan Your Old Photos

SHOPPING

10 Ways To Do Valentine’s Day Digitally

APPSCOUT

Our Favorite Apps For February

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JOHN C. DVORAK

Last Word

DIGITAL LIFE

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

It always falls to the public to pay the fee.

FEBRUARY 2014

FIRST WORD

O Data Drive Dating

DAN COSTA

nline dating used to come with a certain amount of stigma, but not anymore. One in ten Americans has used a dating site. Even more impressive, 23 percent of those people have met a spouse or long-term partner online, according to research done by the Pew Internet Research Center. All told, 38 percent of all of the single people looking for love in the U.S. are using online services to conduct the search. And that doesn’t even include the folks who use plain old social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn to meet people. In this month’s cover story, Chandra Steele looks at the five stages of digital dating. That first, excited virtual flirtation, followed by the dreaded unfriending, and the potential for rediscovery and reunion. As it turns out, 31 percent of social network users have used their networks to find out what their exes are up to. (And I think a fair number of the other 69 percent are lying.) We also look at the services themselves. Many boast custom algorithms that are designed to help you find a compatible match, a hallmark of “computer dating” for years. The first record I can find of an actual computer dating service is from 1957, when Dr. George W. Crane launched the Scientific Marriage Foundation. Dr. Crane claims to have arranged 5,000 marriages by using an IBM card-sorting machine to find matches among individuals who completed punch card surveys about their interests and personality traits. A few years later, Lewis Altfest and Robert Ross began Project TACT (Technical Automated Compatibility

There was a time on the Internet when no one knew you were a dog.

Testing), which matched customers by using an IBM 1400–series computer to process their answers to more than 100 questions—for $5. It’s safe to assume that the algorithms used today are more complex than the logic that ran the IBM 1400, but the principle is the same—and the universe of potential matches much larger. Match. com alone has more than 20 million members. The rise of dating apps has further blurred the line between online and real-world dating. Tinder, Blendr, Grindr, Are You Interested?, and Plenty are apps designed to leverage your social network and physical location to find love. But you aren’t sitting in front of your computer doing research; you’re out on the street living your life. Apps like these make it possible to digitally date in person and in real time. What used to simply be “dating” is now an augmented dating reality with constant access to a person’s biographical information, lifetime of photos, and employment history. It wasn’t always this way. There was a time on the Internet when no one knew you were a dog. Your official profile could be a simple handle and your online identity could be written anew in each open window. Now, a basic Google search reveals not just what you look like, but also your real age, weight, occupation, and, in all likelihood, a picture of you at a party doing something ridiculous. I’m not saying deception is essential to dating, but the technology leaves less room for mystery. Makes me glad I’m not playing that game anymore.

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FEBRUARY 2014

What’s New Now PHOTOSYNTH: FOR TOURING PHOTOS IN 3D

HOW THE NEW YORK SUBWAY LETS THE SUNSHINE IN THE BEST MOMENTS OF CES 2014 TOP GEAR GADGET LUST

WHAT’S NEW NOW

EXTREMETECH

Photosynth: For Touring Photos In 3D BY SEBASTIAN ANTHONY

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hen Blaise Agüera y Arcas (then of Microsoft Research, but now at Google) first demonstrated Photosynth at TED 2007, it became an immediate hit and has since become one of the most-watched and most-discussed tech demos of all time. (As of this writing, it’s accumulated more than 415,000 YouTube views.) Although that original iteration was certainly cool, the new one, Photosynth 3D, is even more guaranteed to blow your mind and redefine how you think about the limitations—and possibilities—of photography in 2014.

PHOTOSYNTH READY This Photosynth 3D screenshot shows London’s Bond Street and South Molton Street’s Christmas lights with light trails—just a hint of the technology’s potential.

NEW DIMENSIONS The Photosynth project was started almost a decade ago for the purpose of “reinventing the whole enterprise of photography for ordinary people,” says Agüera y Arcas. The original Photosynth stitched together thousands of photos from all over the Web to create a seamless 2D image that you could explore. It looked impressive, but at its core it was basically a clever computer vision algorithm combined with a super-slick “gigapixel” panorama builder/viewer. Photosynth 3D takes that algorithm and interface slickness into the third dimension. Photosynth can now take a bunch of photos and turn them into four different 3D views: Spin, Panorama, Walk, and Wall. These make it possible to move in space, rather than just pan and zoom a 2D plane. The 3D Panorama and Wall views are actually very similar to the original Photosynth, but the addition of 3D parallax makes it feel like you’re actually there, or that you’re watching a video. Spin is a new mode that basically turns the panorama inward, towards an object. Instead of turning on your feet to shoot a panorama of a

MULTIDIMENSIONAL In this December 2013 TED Talk, Blaise Agüera y Arcas demonstrates Photosynth 3D’s panorama capabilities.ne ni

scene, a Spin view is created by walking around a subject and taking dozens of photos. The Walk view, as the name implies, is basically a series of photos captured while you walk forward, and stitched together to create a 3D space. For all four modes, remember that when you stop the camera, you have full access to the original high-resolution images—it’s still like a gigapixel panorama in that regard. Whereas the original Photosynth used computer vision to align a large number of images in two dimensions, Photosynth 3D uses the spatial gap between each image to generate 3D models of the objects in each scene. Then, depending on your position

in the scene, textures (which have been cut out of the original photos) are overlaid on those objects. It’s fairly ingenious, and the new Photosynth viewer really adds to the experience. Try hitting the “C” key while in the viewer to reveal the 3D interpretation for each image, or the “M” key to view the (scarily accurate) reconstructed path taken by the camera.

PAN(ORAMA) AND ZOOM Photosynth’s threedimensional panorama mode lets foreground and background objects move at different speeds, and the depth of field changes as your perspective does.ni

PHOTOSYNTH’S NEXT JOURNEY As exciting as the original Photosynth was, we never really saw the tech come to fruition. In theory it is built into Bing Maps, letting it bring up geo-tagged synths, but it never really hit the critical mass required. For the most part, the Photosynth website seems to be Yet Another Gigapixel Panorama repository. With these new 3D views, however, it’s easy to see the correlation between these new 3D views and competing services such as Google’s Street View—especially when you consider that the Photosynth team moved from Microsoft Research to the Bing Maps department a few years ago. For now Photosynth 3D is just a preview of the possibilities, but hopefully Microsoft can find a way to bring it to the mass market. The tech is simply too cool to keep hidden away in the vaults. Copyright issues aside, imagine if, for example, Microsoft just left a few hundred Photosynth servers running in the background, joining up all of the photos to be found on Flickr and Facebook to create a 3D panorama of the entire world...


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THIS CAMERA WAS MADE FOR WALKING Capturing photos with forward motion lets Photosynth 3D recreate the walking effect with stunning accuracy and detail.i ne ni

WHAT’S NEW NOW

NEWS

How The New York Subway Lets The Sunshine In BY GRAHAM TEMPLETON

A

s transit systems get older, they become exponentially harder to deal with. You can upgrade tracks, cars, stations, and more, but you can’t upgrade a big hole in the ground, nor can you easily adjust that hole later on. As a result, maintaining and expanding a subway system beneath a fastevolving city is not just challenging—it’s often downright impossible without some seriously inconvenient allowances.

LET THERE BE LIGHT The Fulton Center Sky Reflector-Net brings natural sunlight into a key station of the New York subway system.

LIGHTBRINGERS Dozens of workers spent two months constructing the Fulton Center Sky Reflector-Net, ending with them hoisting the 4,000-pound net and 952 optical panels into just the right positions to unite the aboveground and subterranean worlds.

For instance, the most frequently upgraded portions of New York’s aging subway system have become more elaborate and arguably harder to navigate as they’ve progressed. Together with a warren-like underground feeling that many people find unpleasant, the constantly expanding system can seem like a poster boy for the victory of utilitarian design over comfort and aesthetics. And so, as the city began an enormous new retail and transit hub in the heart of downtown Manhattan, the Sky Reflector-Net project was born. The piece is designed primarily to ferry natural sunlight into the subterranean depths of the transit system. This halfway point between art and practical design is meant to both arrest the eye and ease the mind, as unique patterns of light fill the man-made space. No two days will look precisely the same, and the changing seasons will have a dramatic effect on the character of the station (located at Fulton Street and Broadway). To give it the correct shape, construction workers hung an enormous net tube, mounting their mirrors on the interior of the netting, facing inward. The curved structure will reflect light all over, and act as a polestar for disoriented travelers looking for a clear indication of where they are within the great complex, how far they are from the surface—and on a gloomy enough day, a nice confirmation that they have not accidentally passed on into purgatory. Though work on the Sky Reflector-Net is now finished, the rest of the Fulton Center is still not. The transit hub is slated to be completed later this year, when thousands of transit riders bound for lower Manhattan will begin a commute just a little bit sunnier than before. PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

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FEBUARY 2014

WHAT’S NEW NOW

NEWS

The Best Moments Of CES 2014

Photo credit: Ryan Notch/Monster

The Consumer Electronics Show, held every January in Las Vegas, has long been a showcase for the weird and wonderful, and this year’s was no exception. Here’s a look at the strangest and most interesting happenings we saw during the four-day show. BY CHANDRA STEELE

1. The Monster Cable Press Conference Okay, so Monster’s press conference wasn’t really a monster hit. Founder and CEO Noel Lee came in on his gold flame-wheeled Segway for a messy, haphazard introduction to a selection of headphones, a pocket DJ device, and a credit card–size portable electronics charger. But for pure star power, ranging from basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal to actor-rapper Nick Cannon and UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis (both shown here with O’Neal) and more, it couldn’t be beat.

WHAT’S NEW NOW

NEWS

The Best Moments Of CES 2014 The Consumer Electronics Show, held every January in Las Vegas, has long been a showcase for the weird and wonderful, and this year’s was no exception. Here’s a look at the strangest and most interesting happenings we saw during the four-day show. BY CHANDRA STEELE

2. David Pogue The tech writer and new editor of Yahoo Tech shared some of the spotlight at Marissa Mayer’s keynote to introduce the new site, but before he did, he took a hit at some competing tech blogs. Pogue said the likes of The Verge, Gizmodo, and Engadget, and others like them, do not cater to the “normals”—people who want easily digestible tech news. Pogue pledged to cater to these “normals,” but not everyone was impressed. Tech journalism is a small world, Pogue, so one day the blog you slam may be your own.

WHAT’S NEW NOW

NEWS


3. John Legere Crashes the AT&T Party T-Mobile CEO John Legere is unpredictable to say the least. But his off-the-cuff remarks are a journalist’s dream, so CNET’s Roger Cheng was eager to snap a pic of Legere when the CEO crashed AT&T’s CES party. Unfortunately, the photo got Legere bounced from the AT&T soirée. It did, however, make him a popular topic of discussion on Twitter all night, and Legere happily retweeted every humorous and congratulatory tweet about the incident. “I just wanted to hear Macklemore,” he later told Re/code.

WHAT’S NEW NOW

NEWS


4. Michael Bay The only explosion that occurred when film director Michael Bay (the Transformers series) took the stage for the Samsung keynote was inside his head. When his TelePrompTer failed two minutes into his appearance, Bay stammered, “We’ll just, we’ll wing it right now.” He didn’t finish another full sentence except for “Excuse me, I’m sorry,” and walked off the stage shortly afterward. In a blog post later that night, Bay said he was embarrassed and quipped that he really isn’t made for live events.

WHAT’S NEW NOW

NEWS


5. Triple H and Sascha Segan Our favorite moment at CES is one that was shared by the unlikely duo of WWE wrestler Triple H and PC Magazine’s own lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan. At the announcement of the 24/7 online streaming WWE Network, Triple H came out and nonchalantly spat all over the assembled tech journalists, including Segan, who captured the, um, moment on video, a still of which we’ve shown here.


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FEBRUARY 2014

WHAT’S NEW NOW

TOP GEAR

What We Love Most This Month BY MATTHEW MURRAY

PREP PAD The best way to celebrate Valentine’s Day—or, heck, any other day of the year—is to cook a meal just for you and the one you love. To make sure everything for your special night goes just right, start with the Prep Pad. Stylish enough for any kitchen décor, this Bluetoothenabled, all-aluminum food scale not only ensures exact measurements, it also connects to the associated Countertop iOS app to provide key nutritional information, potential ingredient substitutions, and more. The Prep Pad can hold up to 15 pounds and requires four AAA batteries (not included). $149.95 theorangechef.com

WHAT’S NEW NOW

TOP GEAR


CORAVIN There’s no better complement to a romantic dinner than a bottle of precisely aged wine, but what if you can’t finish it all in one sitting? The Coravin system inserts a thin, hollow needle through the cork and pressurizes the bottle with argon so you can pour out only the wine you want; remove Coravin and the cork reseals itself, preventing oxidation so the wine’s subtle flavors remain top-notch. It’s a fine way to enjoy multiple bottles at the same time, too. $299 coravin.com

WHAT’S NEW NOW

TOP GEAR


LYRIX SOUNDGLOW Your filet mignon is flawlessly seared, the Cabernet is aerating, your best silverware and crystal are laid out. All you need now are candlelight and music, and with the Lyrix SoundGlow you can take care of both at the same time. This compact light source is just right for the tabletop, complete with realistic flickering that comes with no danger of fire or melting wax, and it lets you wirelessly stream up to6 hours of room-filling music from any Bluetooth device. That’s more than enough time for even the most leisurely dinner, and hopefully an even more enjoyable dessert. $49.95 digitaltreasures.com

WHAT’S NEW NOW

TOP GEAR


IMPOSSIBLE INSTANT LAB If you want the warmest memento you can get of your night to remember, the Impossible Instant Lab can help you secure it. Just plug your iPhone into the camera-shaped Lab and snap a picture. The associated app maintains the correct exposure time, and the cradle keeps your phone steady and protects the developing physical photo from any unwanted light. You’ll fall in love with photography—and the person you’re shooting—all over again. $299 the-impossible-project.com


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FEBRUARY 2014

WHAT’S NEW NOW

GADGET LUST

Stand And Deliver BY MATTHEW MURRAY

The Geneva Sound System Model XXL is designed to hold an HDTV as big as 65 inches; you connect the set via the usual HDMI cable. Stream audio with either AirPlay or Bluetooth.

GENEVA SOUND SYSTEM MODEL XXL Is your home theater too cluttered? Tidy it up with this elegant combination of a wireless speaker system and TV stand. $3,499 genevalab.com

WHAT’S NEW NOW

GADGET LUST


GENEVA SOUND SYSTEM MODEL XXL Is your home theater too cluttered? Tidy it up with this elegant combination of a wireless speaker system and TV stand. $3,499 genevalab.com

Black, white, and red options ensure that the Model XXL will fit into your living room, whatever its color scheme.

WHAT’S NEW NOW

GADGET LUST


Six speakers and an 8-inch subwoofer create roomfilling sound for any type of music or movie.

GENEVA SOUND SYSTEM MODEL XXL Is your home theater too cluttered? Tidy it up with this elegant combination of a wireless speaker system and TV stand. $3,499 genevalab.com PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

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FEBRUARY 2014

Opinions SASCHA SEGAN

BRIAN WESTOVER SEBASTIAN ANTHONY

Modern romance, like most everything else, has shifted online. BRIAN WESTOVER MAKING CONNECTIONS IN OUR CONNECTED WORLD

Sascha Sega

OPINIONS

Love, Internet Style

O

nline dating isn’t just for geeks any more. It never was, in fact, except during that era when the whole Internet was just for geeks. But like so many aspects of the online world, as we transitioned from a land defined by Usenet to one defined by YouTube, I’m afraid we might have lost something. I met my wife online, 13 years ago, on a dating site. And the girlfriend before her on Usenet. I was chasing French girls on now-defunct teletext systems in the 1980s. Meeting online was never for losers; it was for the literate, and it’s part of a long tradition. I met that French girl through an international pen-pal scheme, where we traded Billy Joel tapes and she sent me long letters in loopy, light-blue script. Before that there were letters, of course, so many years of letters—letters as long as people have been literate, bundles of love letters found in dusty attic trunks all over America. In that way, online dating is nothing new. It’s keeping a very old, very good tradition alive. THE TWO FACES OF ONLINE DATING The Internet has done two things to dating. One of them is growing. One of them is dying. The truly new thing that the Internet has brought to dating is the infinite carousel, the clickable, dismissable, trading-card world of profiles. (This wasn’t entirely a new idea: there’s a scene in the 1976 film Logan’s Run where Michael York is essentially using Tinder.)

Sascha Segan is the lead mobile analyst for PC Magazine. His commentary has also appeared on Fox News, CNBC, CNN, and various radio stations and newspapers around the world.

Sascha Sega

Before the Net, your meeting-people chances were limited. You pretty much had to do it in person. Then some of us joined Usenet and realized there were other like-minded people far away; we chatted and, as can happen, sometimes fell in love. Then the entire world got on the Internet, the search-engine model took hold, and now you can practically custom order a date from your pick of ages, ethnicities, and interests. That’s stayed. That’s growing. That’s great, in that a lot of people can find soul mates they wouldn’t have met before. (It’s not so great in that some people end up paralyzed by the number of fish in the sea, always searching for one who perfectly fits their checklist.) Here’s what I don’t like. The whole Internet has become less literate over the years, as greater bandwidth and ubiquitous camera phones have let pictures and videos triumph over words. (I remember when porn on the Internet meant alt.sex.stories, kids. Get off my lawn!) Sadly, I think Internet dating has, too. Way back in the first dot-com boom, the difficulty of getting pictures onto the Net meant that we still had to rely mostly on words in our online dating experience. In case you haven’t guessed yet, I like words. But now, well, have you seen OKCupid’s latest layout? Heck, have you even heard of Tinder? The well-turned word has been replaced, in our multimedia age, by the pretty face. I’m going to let my geek flag fly and say that pretty faces have enough chances to get dates already. For more than a decade, online dating evened the playing field for the not-so-pretty (this writer included). I hope that doesn’t end under an onslaught of bathroom selfies.

The wellturned word has been replaced, in our multimedia age, by the pretty face.

Sascha Sega

NOT JUST PRETTY PEOPLE The absurdity of “online dating” is like the absurdity of the “online world” and “online people.” There is only dating, there is only one world, and we are all just people. Putting that online just exposes a different facet of who you are than when you’re in a bar, but it’s still you. Sure, people can lie on the Internet, but they can lie everywhere else, too, as you’d know if you’ve ever had a conversation with a stranger in a Las Vegas bar. But in this post-Tinder world, can I mourn the one where disembodied souls really did try to touch? I’m thinking of my friend Cam and his wife Kris, who met on Usenet in the early 1990s. He was literally, physically, a mess: born with a degenerative disease and living on borrowed time, wheezing into a respirator, but his fingers flew over the keys and conjured love. Eventually Kris moved to the U.K. to take care of him. Two more friends met on World of Warcraft— what better way to show someone your soul than to meet as the heroes you truly are inside? I’ve been married for more than ten years now. I know how much of life can’t be whisked away with words, how much of it is touch, smell, having a similar mutual attitude towards financial issues. But on Valentine’s Day, singletons, I say from my comfortable perch married to the best woman I could ever have met (online or off): Take a chance on words. Use the Internet to look past the surface. I hope you find something you like. [email protected]


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FEBRUARY 2014

The absurdity of “online dating” is like the absurdity of the “online world” and “online people.”

Brian Westove

OPINIONS

Making Connections In Our Connected World

W

hat ever happened to romance? Of the many charges that anti-tech naysayers have levelled at the Internet and the digital generation, one of the most interesting is the idea that social networks have somehow left us more disconnected now than in the past. In mild forms, this is simply poo-pooing digital conversations and relationships as lacking the genuine aspects of face-to-face interaction; when put in more extreme terms, some claim that the Internet is killing off old-fashioned romance for an entire generation. Though I’ve been married and off the market for several years now, I feel completely safe in saying that this is—to use a term familiar to the old-fashioned fuddy-duddies—balderdash. In days of yore, back when words like “yore” were bandied about with abandon, romance was (admittedly) a little different. There was a process to wooing your mate, a formal series of steps that progressed from formal introductions to interactions at balls and dances and finally dating under the close supervision of a chaperone. But the majority of the courtship was carried out at a distance, in the form of letters. For couples that were truly enthralled with each other, private correspondence provided the only way the two could really get any alone time, giving them an unsupervised opportunity to truly express passion and desire while at a safe distance and

Brian Westover is a hardware analyst for PC Magazine, and regularly writes about laptops, tablets, external storage solutions, and peripherals.

Brian Westove

with proper discretion. Over several centuries, love letters have provided a glimpse into the romantic lives of many famous individuals and couples. From writers (such as Ovid and Goethe) to leaders (Washington and Napoleon) and musicians (Beethoven and Mozart), love letters from years past have shown us the timeless quality of romance and the universality of love. In the modern era, when parchment and ink have given way to screens and binary code, it’s easy to imagine that the love letter has disappeared. I’m happy to say it has not. IN LOVE, ONLINE Modern romance, like most everything else, has shifted online. I’m not talking about the sensational topics you usually see in the news, such as sexting over SnapChat or hookups through Tinder or OKCupid. I’m just talking about all of the normal aspects of meeting people, determining who might be interested, lining up dates, and getting to know each other. As more of our lives are lived out on Facebook timelines and messages are fired back and forth through the ether, it’s inevitable that the same process is happening in the realm of dating. I spent the holidays with my in-laws, including my college freshman sister-in-law, and all the romantic drama that comes with that time of life. She was navigating both a breakup and a new relationship with the sort of deftness that only the young can manage. Whether exchanging sweet nothings with her new beau or fending off tortured missives from her previous paramour, all of her communication (aside from in-person dates with the new guy) was mediated by

In the modern era, when parchment and ink have given way to screens and binary code, it’s easy to imagine that the love letter has disappeared.

Brian Westove

technology: text messages, Facebook chats and status updates, Instagram photos, even oldschool email. Every social platform and communication service she uses regularly was brought to bear. It shouldn’t really be a surprise. Isn’t finding love the most central of our social activities? Why wouldn’t you use the tools at your disposal to reach out to potential partners, to research that upcoming date, or to put the kibosh on a failed pairing? Technology, if it can be defined as any one thing, is an augmentation: letting us do what we already do, but do it faster, with greater precision and broader reach. PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES There are new dangers, to be sure. All of that access and reach also opens up new vectors for age-old problems to come into our lives. Being more accessible to more people all the time—the euphemistically named friend list—might make it easier for predators to scope out prey. It’s harder to disentangle oneself from a clingy ex when Facebook and Twitter let even the most benign spurned suitor venture into stalker-ish behavior. And the disposable romance of the hookup culture is only magnified by apps and services designed to let you churn more quickly through a digital catalog of potential partners. But isn’t this simply technology letting human beings make the same stupid mistakes that they’ve made for centuries? There’s certainly something to be said about the pace of life increasing and the pervasiveness of technology that magnifies the negative for some of us. But that magnification is equally neutral, letting good and even great things happen more rapidly, and

Technology, if it can be defined as any one thing, is an augmentation: letting us do what we already do, but do it faster, with greater precision and broader reach.

Brian Westove

making the good parts of life a little better. For every bad date that’s dodged thanks to a little Googling or every nosy mother satisfied with a little Facebook snooping, isn’t that something a little better? I’d bet my last dollar that more than a few modern romances have been helped along by a digital-savvy Cyrano than ever benefited from his ghostwriting back in the days of quill pens and inkwells. How about the distant loved one brought a little closer thanks to a video call through Skype or a Google Hangout? If the Internet has done anything, it’s made the world more intimately connected, and brought together people who might otherwise have spent their lives alone. And though it’s different than it has been in the past, those connections—both digital and emotional—are worth celebrating. [email protected]


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If the Internet has done anything, it’s made the world more intimately connected.

Sebastian Anthon

OPINIONS

The Look Of Lovotics

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lowly but surely, robots are replacing humans. First it was on the production line, where a standardized environment meant simple automation was possible, but as computing power and our understanding of mechanics and materials have improved, and the price of components has decreased, robots have become increasingly flexible. There are now very few tasks that cannot be carried out by robots. In most cases, the deciding factor is no longer whether a robot can do something but whether we want a robot to do something. Rather than questioning the physical constraints of a robot deployment we are starting to consider the ethics. Is it right to replace a human with a robot? In the next few years, we will have the mechanical and material expertise to build robots that look, move, and feel like humans. They won’t have the conversational prowess of a human (mobile computing power just isn’t there yet), but they’ll still be remarkably lifelike—enough that they’ll make perfect robot prostitutes. To some (most?) people, the idea of sex with a robot is profoundly disturbing. But if the sci-fi canon and rapid pace of modern technological development have taught us anything, it’s that sexbots are coming—it’s just a matter of when. It is entirely possible that society in general will sneer in derision at the appearance of the first sexbots, but due to the massive advantages of robot prostitution I’m sure that popular sentiment will quickly swing around.

Sebastian Anthony is the senior editor of ExtremeTech.com, where he regularly writes stories about computing, space, and emerging technologies.

Sebastian Anthon

HOW TO CREATE HUMAN-ROBOT LOVE When I’ve discussed human-robot sex in the past, one point always comes up: Sex with robots might be just about okay if it’s just about the sex, but the human element—the intimacy, the connection, the companionship—is still the complete antithesis of robotics. Enter lovotics, the science of human-robot love. Developed by Dr. Hooman Samani at National Taipai University, lovotics essentially deals with the complexities of forming an emotional relationship between a human and a robot. So far, his work has mostly revolved around understanding the physics, physiology, and emotions that a human experiences in a relationship, and then simulating that in a robot’s artificial intelligence. One of Samani’s first forays into lovotics was the creation of an artificial endocrine system that accurately models the effects of animal hormones both emotional (dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, oxytocin) and biological (epinephrine, melatonin, and so on). When you’re in love, a very specific set of hormones are released into your body, creating a fairly characteristic response (the warm fuzzies). The artificial endocrine system is programmed to mirror the effects of love when it receives certain stimuli (such as repeated exposure, similarity, and privacy). This software was then placed inside a furry robot closely resembling a Star Trek tribble. If the emotionally intelligent tribble finds itself spending time with a human and the human is affectionate, the tribble starts to fall in love and makes affectionate movements and displays certain light patterns to communicate that love to the human. Perhaps surprisingly, Samani found

Sex with robots might be just about okay if it’s just about the sex.

Sebastian Anthon

that when these robotic tribbles fell in love, the feelings were somewhat reciprocal; the humans found themselves developing stronger emotional bonds with these emotive robots. The research paper includes this key line: “We have [successfully] developed an intelligent robotics system capable of emulating the love process of a human being, to establish long and meaningful relationships with humans. This holds potential for creating robots that can form meaningful bi-directional bonds with humans based on a level of emotional intelligence that is still lacking from robots today.” THE FUTURE: ROBOT PARTNERS There are still some mechanical and material hurdles to overcome. Silicone might feel kind of real, but it’s still a long way from real skin. Even simpler organs, such as muscles or bones, or physiological responses, such as pupil dilation and sweat, are hard to engineer—especially when the robot has to be light, flexible, and batterypowered. Technologically, it would be one of humanity’s greatest achievements if we could successfully build a robot that not only had the emotional intelligence of a human, but also the look and feel of one. With that said, given enough reverse engineering of the physiology and psychology of sex, love, passion, and companionship, and continued advances in artificial intelligence, mechanics, and materials science, it’s not unrealistic to think that one day we’ll be able to build robot companions that completely obviate the need for a human partner. I’ll let you decide whether that will be the best or worst day in the history of humanity. That’s not quite the end of the story, though.

Silicone might feel kind of real, but it’s still a long way from real skin.

Sebastian Anthon

The ultimate irony is that, to create the perfect robot companion we need to create a robot that looks, feels, and acts human: a robot that you could happily spend the rest of your life with in place of another human. And to do that, we must cross the Uncanny Valley, the feeling of repulsion that some people experience when something looks, feels, or acts almost, but not exactly, like a real human. This will require the aforementioned breakthroughs in technology and engineering, and probably neuroscience and psychology as well. To create such a machine we may even have to develop an artificial intelligence that’s selfaware. At that point, you have basically created a new race of sentient beings that have feelings. Is it then really ethical to force these sentient, selfaware, emotionally intelligent robots into being our companions and lovers? [email protected]


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To create the perfect robot companion we need to create a robot that looks, feels, and acts human.

Reviews CONSUMER ELECTRONICS Olympus Stylus 1 Sony Xperia Z1s (T-Mobile) Double Telepresence Robot LockState LS-500I RemoteLock Wi-Fi Door Lock

HARDWARE Apple Mac Pro HP ZBook 14 Afinia H479 Desktop 3D Printer

SOFTWARE FileMaker Pro 13 DxO Optics Pro 9

REVIEWS

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Olympus’ New Superzoom Is A Top-End Shooter The Olympus Stylus 1 has the look and feel of a top-end camera, and despite not being an interchangable lens camera with a huge image sensor, it is one. It is styled like the excellent EDITORS’ CHOICE Olympus OM-D E-M5, sharing the same EVF and tilting touch-screen LCD. At its heart is a 12-megapixel 1/1.7-inch image sensor, larger than those found in most long zoom cameras, and the integrated 28-300mm f/2.8 lens covers an impressive focal range at a constant aperture. It’s a solid performer, and even though its zoom lens doesn’t cover as long of a range as our previous favorite, the 24x Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ200, we’re naming the Stylus 1 as our new Editors’ Choice superzoom.

Olympus Stylus 1 $699.99 L L L L H

DESIGN AND FEATURES Measuring 3.4 by 4.5 by 2.2 inches (HWD) and weighing 14.2 ounces, the Stylus 1 is a bit larger than most compact long zoom cameras. The Stylus has a noticeably bigger lens that doesn’t collapse fully into the body, and its excellent integrated EVF (the same 1,440k-dot LCD found in the OM-D E-M5, with a good 1.15x magnification) and 3-inch tilting rear touch display (with a 1,040k-dot resolution) also contribute to the extra bulk. The Stylus 1 has a unique lens cover; the always-on cap (it can be removed to add a teleconverter accessory) has four hinged doors that automatically open as the lens extends. The 10.7x lens is a 28-300mm f/2.8 design, which is an impressive range for a camera

Olympus Stylus 1 PROS 28-300mm f/2.8 zoom lens. Excellent EVF. Tilting touch-screen LCD. Good high-ISO performance. 7.6fps burst shooting. Raw capture support. Supports Wi-Fi. CONS Noticeable color fringing in some images. Not as wideangle as others in its class. No mic input. Pricey.

LENS FLAIR The Stylus 1’s 10.7x, 28-300mm lens is impressive for a camera with a 1/1.7inch image sensor, and it features a unique “always-on” lens cap.

with a 1/1.7-inch image sensor. Olympus is targeting serious shooters with the Stylus 1, and as such has included a good array of physical controls. There’s a programmable Fn2 button up front, which is nestled inside of a switch that toggles the ring around the lens to either act as manual focus control or adjust shooting settings. There’s also a power zoom control on the front, at the left side of the lens barrel.

IN CONTROL Plenty of wellorganized physical controls make the Stylus 1 a good choice for serious photographers.

On top you’ll find a standard mode dial, a control dial for quick EV adjustments, an additional zoom rocker (surrounding the shutter release), a power button, and a record button for video capture. Rear controls include buttons to set exposure compensation, control the flash, adjust the active focus area, and control the drive mode. There’s also a programmable Fn1 button, and the normal menu and playback controls. The Stylus 1 has built-in Wi-Fi. The setup is identical for iOS and Android devices: You scan a QR code that’s displayed on the camera’s rear LCD using the Olympus Image Share app, and that installs a network profile for the SSID the camera broadcasts. Once you’ve connected to that network you’ll be able to transfer JPEG images and QuickTime videos to your phone. There’s also a GPS function that geo-tags your photos—you’ll need to enable a location log and make sure that your camera’s clock is set correctly to make this work. Remote control is also available, and works just as on other Olympus cameras. Your phone or tablet will show the Live View feed and you can choose a focus point and fire the shutter. The app provides full access to automatic and manual shooting modes, so it’s possible to adjust shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and the focal length of the lens. The Wi-Fi is easy to use and the remote control is one of the best I’ve seen. What’s missing right now is the ability to post photos from the camera to social networks when a hotspot is available; you have to transfer them to your phone and post from there.

PERFORMANCE AND CONCLUSIONS The Stylus 1 starts and shoots in about 1.3 seconds, manages a very short 0.1-second shutter lag at its widest angle, and can focus and fire in just 0.6 second when zoomed to the 300mm setting. Focus does slow a bit in very dim light; at its wide angle setting the camera requires about 0.9 second to lock and capture a shot. The Olympus can capture photos at 7.6 frames per second (fps), regardless of which image format you choose. It can manage that pace for 21 Raw+JPEG, 26 Raw, or 26 JPEG images before slowing. Writing all of those images to a memory card requires 15.2, 8.8, or 8.4 seconds, respectively. I used Imatest to check the sharpness that the Stylus 1’s lens is able to capture. At its widest angle it is just a little bit on the soft side, scoring 1,782 lines per picture height on a center-weighted test at f/2.8; narrowing the aperture to f/4 gets it to 1,860 lines (1,800 being necessary for a sharp image). Images at the 28mm setting show 1.8 percent barrel distortion, which causes straight lines to curve outward in images. That can be removed with some quick work in Lightroom, but doing so will slightly narrow the field of view of your image. At 60mm the lens is sharper and distortion disappears. It approaches 2,000 lines at f/2.8 and f/4. As you zoom in further it maintains about 1,900 lines through 200mm. It’s not until 300mm that images become a little soft, about 1,500 lines at f/2.8, but narrowing the aperture improves the score there to 1,840 lines.

TO THE TILT The 3-inch tilting display on the back of the Stylus 1 adds to the camera’s bulk, but it’s a sharp and useful addition.

Chromatic aberration was an issue for some images. A few of my test shots showed quite a bit of purple and green fringing around trees and branches. It’s more noticeable in Raw files than in JPEGs, and in most cases is easily corrected in Lightroom. But I did see some instances where even Lightroom struggled to remove the color fringing. It’s more of an issue at wider angles. Imatest also checks images for noise, which can rob detail when shooting in low light. The camera keeps noise under 1.5 percent through ISO 1600, which is good. More impressively, even JPEG images shot at ISO 1600 retain a good amount of detail. As with any camera, you’ll get the best results at lower ISO settings, but the Stylus 1 impresses through 1600. Noise is more aggressive at ISO 3200; that detail is lost due to the in-camera noise reduction. If you prefer a slightly grainier image with more detail, noise reduction can be set to low or disabled entirely via the camera menu. You can also opt to shoot in Raw; images contain an impressive amount of detail in that format through ISO 3200, but look considerably worse above that. Video is recorded at up to 1080p30 quality in QuickTime format. Video quality is very good; footage is crisp and detailed, and the camera refocuses quickly as the scene changes. But the sound of the lens zooming in and out while recording is audible on the soundtrack. There’s no microphone input, so you may want to look elsewhere if video is a primary concern. The Panasonic FZ200 is a better camera for recording video; it shoots at up to 1080p60 in AVCHD format and includes

FAR, FAR AWAY This telephoto accessory snaps on to the lens cover to let you capture more distant objects even though you can’t swap out the lens.

support for an external microphone. The Stylus 1 does have a micro HDMI output to connect to an HDTV, as well as a standard hot shoe and a proprietary USB port. An external battery charger is included; the Stylus 1 uses the same battery as the PEN E-PL5 and E-PM2. The usual SD card slot is there, as is support for SDHC and SDXC cards. The Olympus Stylus 1 has a long list of pros: a long zoom lens with an f/2.8 aperture, a relatively large image sensor for a camera of its class, surprisingly good image quality through ISO 1600, a sharp touch-screen display, an excellent EVF, Wi-Fi, and a solid control layout. The lens does show a bit more chromatic aberration than we’d like, but in most case the JPEG engine can remove it, and Raw shooters can handle all but the worst cases with ease in Lightroom. The FZ200 still wins out for video (and costs $100 less), and though the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 is bigger and nearly twice the price of the Stylus 1, its 1-inch image sensor and Zeiss 24-200mm f/2.8 lens are both top-notch. For now, however, the Stylus 1 is our favorite bridge-style superzoom camera. JIM FISHER


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REVIEWS


A Better Camera Improves Sony’s Waterproof Phone

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ony is ratcheting up the camera phone wars with the Android-powered Xperia Z1s. Available exclusively on T-Mobile, the Xperia Z1s is a waterproof smartphone with a 5-inch 1080p display, just like its predecessor, the Xperia Z. The Z1s has an upgraded camera with fun lens effects, a much larger battery, and a faster processor. The camera still isn’t as good as it needs to be, and there are some other minor issues, but the Z1s is an excellent choice if you want a speedy phone for multimedia or gaming that you can get wet.

Sony Xperia Z1s (T-Mobile) $528 L L L L m

DESIGN, DISPLAY, AND CONNECTIVITY The Xperia Z1s measures 5.74 by 2.79 by 0.31 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.71 ounces, which makes it noticeably larger and heavier than the 5.1-ounce Xperia Z. It’s still quite attractive, though. The handset has glass front and back panels, with an IP58-rated waterproof coating that also supports finger tracking underwater, and a smoked silver and black plastic band wrapped around the edges. A covered charger port and microSD memory card slot are on the left side, along with a center-mounted docking port. The bottom edge houses the speakerphone and mic behind a long rectangular grille. On the right there’s a covered SIM card slot, a circular silver power button, a volume rocker, and a camera shutter button; the 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top edge. The 5-inch, 1080p Triluminos display looks sharp at a very tight 441ppi, but not particularly vivid or bright. There’s a prominent bezel at the top and bottom, with a much thinner one on either side of the display; this explains why the phone is unusually tall given the display size. Typing on the on-screen keyboard is easy in portrait mode. The Xperia Z1s supports LTE and HSPA+ 42. Its LTE modem is Category 4, so it handles the maximum

Sony Xperia Z1s (T-Mobile) PROS Fast. Sleek styling. Waterproof. Extra-large battery. Fun camera apps. CONS Poor call quality. Display isn’t particularly vivid. A bit large, heavy. Uneven camera performance.

SCREEN CLEAN The Xperia Z1s’ 5-inch display is sharp, but lacks in brightness and colors that pop.

PERFECT PAIR Wireless NFC technology lets you pair the Xperia Z1s with more than 100 other products, such as your HDTV.

speeds of T-Mobile’s upcoming 20+20 LTE network. You also get 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, NFC, and Bluetooth 4.0. In a series of speed tests, the Xperia Z1s averaged 12 to 14Mbps down and 7 to 15Mbps up in Midtown Manhattan on T-Mobile’s rapidly expanding 4G LTE network. The Xperia Z1s also works as a wireless hotspot with the appropriate data plan. CALL QUALITY AND RECEPTION Voice quality was mixed; we were hoping for an improvement over the Xperia Z1’s inferior call quality, but we didn’t get it. Through the earpiece, callers sounded trebly and a bit harsh. There’s plenty of gain available, but it’s not pleasant to listen to. Transmissions through the microphone had the opposite problem: They sounded muffled and indistinct, and the Xperia Z1s’s mic let through plenty of Manhattan street noise. An iPhone 5s on T-Mobile sounded much better in all cases; it suppressed background street noise, and my voice was clear, crisp, and still warm-sounding in both directions. The Xperia Z1s also supports Wi-Fi calling. Calls sounded fine through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset. Voice dialing worked well enough over Bluetooth using Google’s built-in voice dialer. The Bluetooth stack is buggy, though; sometimes it took a minute or more to pair with the Jawbone Era, and once it froze up for a minute while searching for nearby devices. The speakerphone sounded clear and distinct, but should go louder than it does. The oversized 3,000mAh battery should be good for extralong battery life.

INTERFACE, APPS, AND MULTIMEDIA Under the hood are a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with an Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB RAM. The Xperia Z1s runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and a KitKat upgrade is in the works, but there’s no confirmed release date. Benchmark scores were excellent across the board; as you’d expect, the Xperia Z1s is as fast as the Galaxy Note 3 and any top-end Android tablet. You get five home screens to customize and swipe between. Everything looks and feels smooth. Sony includes its own Walkman, Movies, and Album apps, along with PlayStation and PlayStation Mobile for accessing your online PSN profile, messages, and notifications. Sony is promising a number of “second screen” PlayStation apps, and you can play PlayStation Mobile games with a wireless DualShock 3 controller. You also get MobiSystems Office Suite, which reads and edits Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and Sony Select, which froze on startup. There’s also a lot of T-Mobile bloatware, which unfortunately cannot be removed. There’s 32GB of internal storage, with 25.1GB free for your apps and media. The microSD card slot works with cards up to 64GB in capacity. Music tracks sounded clear and full through Plantronics BackBeat Go stereo Bluetooth headphones, and the Xperia Z1s also played FLAC, OGG, and AAC files. Fullscreen movies looked sharp, if not exceptionally vivid, at resolutions up to 1080p, and the phone played all the usual formats including DivX and Xvid. You can also display content wirelessly on a Sony Bravia HDTV.

CAMERA AND CONCLUSIONS The 20.7-megapixel autofocus f/2.0 camera features a 27mm focal length, image stabilization, and an HDR mode. It goes up to ISO 6400. The Z1s’ sensor is larger than the Xperia Z’s and collects more light, and it can also do lossless zoom up to 3x in a 5MP mode. There’s also a 2MP front-facing camera for selfies and video chats. Sony includes five apps dedicated to the camera: Info-eye, which scans books, wine bottles, and other objects, and searches the Web for information about them; AR (Augmented Reality) Effect, which adds costumes, glasses, flowers, or even dinosaurs to your photos; Background Defocus, which lets you adjust the depth of field for your photos; Social Live, which broadcasts live video on Facebook; and Timeshift Burst, which grabs a series of 60 shots in rapid succession and lets you pick the best one. We’ve tested some 13- and 16MP camera phones in the past, including the one on the Xperia Z, and they haven’t quite measured up to their ratings in image quality. Sadly, that’s still true here. The Xperia Z1s takes fine pictures, and they border on very good outdoors. But contrast is relatively poor, and flesh tones can come out looking jaundiced indoors. And though Sony says the faster processor helps with autofocus speed, the Xperia Z1s still takes longer to focus and fire than the iPhone 5s—that and the Lumia 1020 are still superior cameras. Recorded 1080p videos played smoothly at 30 frames per second from both cameras, though you can’t tap to focus the way you can with photos. Image

stabilization was superb; I saw very little shaking in the various videos I recorded with the Xperia Z1s. And you can shoot photos and videos underwater, though the sound will obviously be muffled. The Xperia Z1s is still surpassed by the thinner and lighter (if less rugged) Samsung Galaxy S4, which also has a more vivid AMOLED display and its genuinely useful TouchWiz UI layer and apps; the iPhone 5 has the best app selection and a clearly better camera; and the Motorola Moto X’s form factor falls nicely between those of the iPhone 5s and Xperia Z1s. Even so, the Z1s is a very good smartphone, and the only one on T-Mobile to fuse a waterproof design with top-end hardware. If that combination speaks to you, you can buy it with confidence. JAMIE LENDINO


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The Xperia Z1s is still surpassed by the thinner and lighter (if less rugged) Samsung Galaxy S4.

REVIEWS


Put A New Face On Telecommuting: Your Own Telecommuting is on the rise, and its potential benefits have been well documented. But although you can call, email, and IM to your heart’s EDITORS’ CHOICE content, there are few substitutes for person-to-person face time. Video conferencing goes part of the way, but it’s still difficult to have someone on the other end setting up everything for you and even more difficult to get everyone to come to you on your schedule. Double Robotics thinks it has a solution—the Double Telepresence Robot: your very own remote-controlled robot (part iPad, part Segway) that lets you be in the office without ever having to step foot in the office. Its blend of futuristic thinking and delightful simplicity makes it a joy to use. More importantly, it promises to combine the flexibility of telecommuting with the benefits of personal face time. This charmingly quirky robotic solution is not without limitations, but it earns our Editors’ Choice endorsement. DESIGN AND SETUP There are two wheels at either end of the Double’s cylindrical base, with a single metal tube extending upward and terminating in a plastic iPad cradle. When off, the Double uses retractable stands at the front and back

Double Telepresence Robot $2,499 L L L L m

to keep upright, but once turned on, the robot is selfbalancing, much like a Segway. A single LED on the front indicates charging or pairing status. Around back are a power port for use with the included AC adapter and one button for powering the device on or off or triggering pairing. The Double doesn’t come with an iPad, but it works with everything from the iPad 2 through the iPad Air. There’s an included wide-angle conversion lens to help widen your field of view using the iPad’s built-in frontfacing camera. A clever mirror around back lets you use the rear-facing camera to look down at the Double’s base, which proved really useful for avoiding obstacles.

Double Telepresence Robot

Setup will be dead simple for anyone who’s used a Bluetooth accessory with their iPad. The Double comes in pairing mode out of the box, but you can press the button around back three times to get it back into pairing mode. Then go into the iPad’s Bluetooth settings page and select the Double. Make sure your

MIRROR, MIRROR

PROS Easy to set up, control. Office presence without traveling to the office. Facilitates better interaction with coworkers. CONS Dependent on strong wireless connection. Audio, video quality limited by the iPad you use.

Need to look down while using the Double Telepresence Robot? A mirror on the back lets you do so easily.

iPad is connected to the Internet, and then go ahead and download the free Double iOS app. From there you’ll have to make a free account and sign in. To use the Double, you’ll actually need one iPad and either another iOS device (iPod touches, iPhones, and iPads are all supported) or a computer with the Chrome browser and special Double extension installed. This second device serves as the “driver” for the Double, controlling movement and transmitting audio and video from remote locations. IN THE OFFICE I paired our Double with a fourth-generation iPad, letting both charge fully overnight, and tested them the next day while working remotely from my apartment. The Double won’t let you move around when either it or the paired iPad is plugged in, which is a thoughtful measure. But that also means you’ll need someone on-site to unplug both and fire up the app. You also can’t wake the connected iPad remotely from sleep—placing a call from the driver iPad will display an on-screen notification on the connected iPad, but someone will have to be there to answer the incoming call. The Double app keeps the iPad awake when open, so you’ll only have to do this once. To minimize battery drain, the app dims the iPad’s display when idle. From there, you can use virtual on-screen buttons to direct your Double forward and back, or swivel it clockwise and counterclockwise. You can also adjust the height of your Double to either “standing” or “sitting” positions; the former maxes out at 60 inches, and the latter bottoms out at 47 inches. There’s a bit of a learning curve for navigation, and it’s complicated by some connection latency and occasional inconsistencies with button response. For example, sometimes tapping the forward or back button would inch the Double along, and other times

it would zoom the view one or two feet in either direction. Some complexity in the controls is understandable considering the robot’s self-balancing act, but it can take some getting used to. On the driver iPad or PC, you’ll see what the Double sees and a small box in the corner shows what’s displayed on the Double. Most times that’ll just be your face, but you can change it to show the rear-facing camera’s view. The Double itself doesn’t have any built-in speakers, so you’re limited by the iPad’s anemic mono speaker. Video quality is also dependent on your iPad model, as well as the strength of your Internet connection. I found both audio and video quality to be sufficient for quick one-on-one chats, but you should be ready to deal with some heavy compression artifacts and audio dropouts. I also tested the iPad in a larger meeting setting, and found it pretty difficult to hear people farther than about 10 feet away. When multiple people spoke at once, it was even more difficult. Double relies on the iPad’s wireless Internet connection, which can be either Wi-Fi or cellular. I used a Wi-Fi–only iPad on our corporate network that spans our entire office, but saw a few signal dropouts, each of which caused my Double to become stranded. In each case, it was easy enough to ask for some in-office assistance, but if your office is pretty expansive or your network coverage is spotty, it could get a bit annoying. In most cases, you won’t need to be connected on a video call all day, and in my tests, which involved five separate video calls ranging from 10 to 30

The Double can be an invaluable resource for the right company and the right workers.

minutes, the Double and iPad both lasted a full 8 hours. If you expect to use the Double for extensive periods of time, your mileage may vary. Thankfully, you can monitor the battery life of both the robot and iPad using the driver device. CONCLUSIONS I work remotely on occasion, and I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a robot. I’m not entirely sure if having an in-office Double really improved my workflow. But my own work commitments and intra-team communication aren’t necessarily indicative of the norm. The biggest issues lie with Double’s dependence on the iPad, rather than anything inherently wrong with the robot or concept itself. Even as such, it’s pretty easy to work around the limitations. The Double can be an invaluable resource for the right company and the right workers—especially those who put a premium on flexible work arrangements and in-person face time. EUGENE KIM


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REVIEWS


LockState LS-500I RemoteLock Wi-Fi Door Lock $249.95 L L L L m

Lock And Unlock Your Doors From Anywhere

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ith the LockState LS-500I RemoteLock Wi-Fi Door Lock you’ll never have to worry about whether you remembered to lock up before you left for the day. This electronic push button deadbolt lock connects via Wi-Fi and can be controlled from a remote PC as well as smart devices. Not only can you lock and unlock your door remotely, you can monitor the lock’s activity, create individual user codes with specific entry rights, and receive alerts when the door is locked and unlocked. The LS-500I isn’t cheap and you’ll have to pay a small annual subscription fee, but it’s ideal for scheduling and tracking access into and out of your home or office.

DESIGN AND INSTALLATION The LS-500I looks like a typical push button deadbolt lock. The exterior casing sports a ten-button rubberized number pad, a LockState programming/enter button, and a keyed cylinder. The lock comes with a deadbolt mechanism, two keys, a user manual, a Wi-Fi quick start provisioning guide, a template for drilling holes, and assorted screws and mounting hardware. The lock can be ordered with a Polished Brass, Satin Nickel, or Venetian Bronze finish. The interior casing contains a Wi-Fi radio for connecting to your wireless network and a lever used to manually lock or unlock the door. The lock is powered by four AA batteries (not included) that are hidden behind a removable plastic cover. Installing the LS-500I took less than 15 minutes, following the included instructions, and connecting the lock to my wireless network was a snap. I used my laptop to search for and connect to the lock’s Wi-Fi radio (you can use your smartphone as well), after which I was prompted to enter the lock’s Wi-Fi key. Next, I opened a browser and entered 10.10.1.1 in the

LockState LS-500I RemoteLock Wi-Fi Door Lock PROS Easy to install. Email and SMS notifications. Supports Web, iOS, Android apps. CONS Pricey. Mobile apps have limited functionality. Requires a small monthly subscription.

RAVE OF THE LOCK The LockState LS-500I lets you lock your door the old-fashioned way—or leap into the 21st century and do it with Wi-Fi.

URL bar, which initiated a search for nearby wireless networks. I chose my SSID, entered my password, and received a message that I was done. After reconnecting my laptop to my network I went to www.lockstateconnect.com to create an account, name the lock, and register it as a connected device. The lock showed up immediately and was ready to go. When creating an account you are prompted to supply information (such as the address and a house name) for each property using LS-500I locks. You also have to choose a subscription plan; LockState charges a small fee to help defray the costs of the cloud service used to push notifications and alerts. A Basic subscription costs $0.99 per month (billed annually) and provides basic lock/ unlock controls and scheduling abilities via the Web portal. If you want text and email notifications it’ll cost you $1.98 per month (billed annually) for the Premium plan. APP AND PERFORMANCE The LS-500I can be programmed using the keypad, but it’s much easier to do from the LockState Connect Web-based dashboard. The dashboard isn’t very flashy but is easy to navigate and can be used to control other LockState Wi-Fi devices, including thermostats, power plugs, cameras, and motion sensors. A panel on the left side of the page displays the local weather conditions, and in the upper-right corner is the date and time. Under the Locks tab is a list of installed locks by name. Next to each lock is a battery gauge, a Wi-Fi signal meter, and the lock’s status (locked or unlocked).

ANY PRODUCT, ANYWHERE Though it’s not visually stunning, the LockState Web dashboard gives you complete control over all the company’s devices that you currently have installed in your home and hooked up to your network.

Here you can add new locks and edit settings (such as lock name, master programming code, and Wi-Fi update intervals). You can also create, disable, and delete User and Guest access codes and grant specific scheduled rights. Guest codes can be assigned exact start and end times and dates, providing a not-so-subtle way to let your guests know they’ve overstayed their welcome. Both user and guest access codes can be set up to trigger an email or text message notification when that code is used to open or close the lock. Codes can contain between four and ten digits, and are used to unlock the lock only (only the programming code can be used to grant access and manage locks). The LS-500I keeps a log of everything, including programming changes, access code creation (and deletion), and access history. The access history log tells you the name of the user, the date and time of the event, the type of event (locked or unlocked), and if the attempt was successful. You can lock and unlock the LS-500I using the free iOS and Android apps, but you can’t create access codes or schedules, nor can you view the lock’s access history, battery life, and settings. In fact, the app looks more like an afterthought than a control mechanism. According to a LockState spokesman, an update that will add many

The LS-500I keeps a log of everything, including programming changes, access code creation (and deletion), and access history.

of the above-mentioned features is in the works and should be ready in a few months. Once programmed, the LS-500I performed without a hitch. User and guest access codes worked flawlessly, as did timed schedules. I received text and email messages each time a user engaged the lock and used the history feature to make sure the door was locked afterwards. As a parent, receiving a text that my child has arrived home as planned justifies the LS-500I’s lofty price. CONCLUSION The LockState LS-500I RemoteLock Wi-Fi Door Lock is more than just a push button door lock. It uses your wireless network to let you know who is entering your home or office and keeps a historical log of each opening and closing. Parents and business owners alike will appreciate the text and email alert feature as well. Granted, the LS-500I doesn’t offer the kind of handsfree access you get with the Kwikset Kevo, and its mobile apps aren’t as polished, but it does a better job of logging door activity and gives you much more control over who can enter your dwelling. JOHN R. DELANEY


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Receiving a text that my child has arrived home as planned justifies the LS-500I’s lofty price.

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HARDWARE

The Best Desktop Workstation Ever? There’s no ignoring it: The new Apple Mac Pro is stunning. But its distinctive look isn’t the only thing about EDITORS’ CHOICE it that’s different. The system is also a powerhouse in an astonishingly compact chassis, with a design that embraces innovations in manufacturing and cooling, and embodies concepts that may very well shape the future of the desktop PC. DESIGN AND FEATURES The new Mac Pro is an all-aluminum cylinder measuring 9.9 inches tall and 6.6 inches in diameter, and weighing 10.93 pounds. Though it appears to be burnished black in photos, Apple calls its color “Space Grey”—almost a cross between obsidian and polished chrome. The chassis is formed whole from a single billet of aluminum, shaped through several advanced manufacturing processes to have just the right shape, feel, and finish. The milled edges of the top and the window for port access are not simply cut into the metal once; they are then cut and polished, for edges that are smooth to the touch. The lock that keeps the cover

Apple Mac Pro $6,799 L L L L H

in place is almost invisible but smooth to operate. It’s a futuristic look indeed; from the first unveiling to the subsequent ads and private briefings, Apple has pushed the idea that this is the design of the future. Central to this sleek rethinking are two new concepts. The first is Apple’s new Unified Thermal Core, which leverages both materials and design for cooling hot components. The Mac Pro’s internal components are mounted onto a triangular aluminum frame that serves as the primary heat sink for the processor and graphics, with heat-dissipating vanes further enhancing cooling. Sitting on top of the whole thing is an exhaust fan, which pulls air up from intakes on the bottom of the case and pumps it out through the top. The second concept is one of peripherals over upgrades. Apple’s new paradigm does away with the easily accessible drive bays and swappable graphics cards of previous models in favor of an external, modular approach. About all you can upgrade are the RAM in the four DIMM slots and the PCIe-based flash storage. Anything else you want to add must be done via the rear ports: four USB 3.0, six Thunderbolt 2.0 (each offering up to 20GBps of throughput, for connecting up to three 4K displays or six regular Thunderbolt displays, external storage, and more), two Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and headphone and audio line out jacks. The rear panel containing these ports lights up for easy visibility. Finally, the Mac Pro has the latest wireless connectivity options, with Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the new faster connectivity standard set to eventually replace 802.11n. This helps further futureproof the Mac Pro, assuming the CPU and GPUs don’t ever need an upgrade until you’re ready to replace the whole system and hand it down.

Apple Mac Pro PROS Dramatic design departure. Powerful processing, video performance. Supports multiple simultaneous 4K video streams. Lots of external expansion options. CONS Expensive. No internal access to processor, graphics cards. Relatively short warranty.

CONFIGURATIONS Every configuration of the new Mac Pro comes outfitted with a single Intel Xeon E5 workstation-class processor, designed to offer plenty of raw processing power with minimal latency and maximum throughput, along with two AMD FirePro graphics cards. Unlike consumer graphics cards, which are optimized for gaming and multimedia, professional GPUs are designed to offer powerful and reliable processing for media editing and creation programs, engineering tools (such as CAD), and to drive multiple displays for enhanced productivity. The entry-level Mac Pro ($2,999) comes with a quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor and 12GB of RAM, two FirePro D300 graphics cards (each with 2GB of dedicated memory), and 128GB of local flash storage. At the other end of the spectrum, a Mac Pro kitted out with the best of everything rings up at $9,566: a 12-core Intel Xeon E5 CPU, 64GB of RAM, two AMD FirePro D700 GPUs, and 1TB of flash memory. Our $6,799 review unit fell somewhere in between, with a 3GHz eight-core Intel Xeon E5-1680 v2 processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of flash storage, and two AMD FirePro D700 GPUs (with 6GB of dedicated memory each). Apple covers the Mac Pro with a one-year warranty, and offers 90-days of free telephone support. Though this is the standard for Apple products, it falls far

short of industry norms, with other workstations from HP and Dell being covered by three-year warranties. AppleCare+, Apple’s extended warranty service, will extend that warranty and technical support up to three years from the initial purchase date for $249. SOFTWARE The Mac Pro comes preinstalled with OS X Mavericks, which includes all of the same iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) and iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) software that comes with a new consumer-level Mac. This is basic business software that you would need to purchase separately for a new Windows workstation, but Apple now includes it for free with every new Mac. Also free is the latest version of Final Cut Pro for taking advantage of the Mac Pro’s 4K video capabilities with features such as the simultaneous editing of multiple video angles, or the option of viewing footage in full 4K on one display while editing said footage on another. PERFORMANCE Peel back the slick marketing and fancy design, and you’ll find that the Mac Pro is still a potent work machine, built to offer the sort of performance that professionals need. In CineBench, the Mac Pro scored 13.54—the best score we’ve seen among single-CPU workstations. It easily outpaced the Dell Precision T3610 (7.44) and HP Z420 (7.21), but fell behind the Lenovo ThinkStation D30 (25.31), which uses two eight-core Xeon processors. The Mac Pro also made short work of multimedia benchmark tests, finishing Handbrake in 29 seconds and cranking through Photoshop in 3 minutes 3 seconds. The Photoshop performance isn’t shabby, but it is more toward the

middle of the pack than expected—the Lenovo ThinkStation D30 edged ahead (2:55), and the Dell Precision T3610 fell just The Mac Pro behind (3:16). offers some With its two graphics cards, the Mac Pro also offered solid of the most performance in our Heaven 3D gaming test. Set to 1,366-by768 resolution, the Mac Pro pumped out 113 frames per exciting second (fps), ahead of Dell’s and HP’s workstations (which updates scored 67fps and 40fps, respectively). The Nvidia-equipped to desktop iMac came closer, with 108fps, and the dual-GPU gamingdesign we’ve oriented systems pulled further ahead, with Maingear’s GTX seen. Titan–loaded F131 Super Stock leading with 288fps. Even when I increased the resolution to 1,920 by 1,080 and cranked up all the detail settings, the Mac Pro still held its own, its 41fps result putting it ahead of every workstation, but again falling behind the high-end gaming rigs. To push the Mac Pro a little harder than our regular testing does, I ran our Heaven benchmark test again, this time ramping up as far past our regular settings, with full 4K resolution (3,840 by 2,160, the maximum resolution offered on the Asus PQ321 monitor), and detail settings maxed out. The frame rates dropped to 10fps, but even during this test the Mac Pro was virtually silent. The portable hard drive I plugged into the back made more discernible noise than the system itself did. Although the Mac Pro didn’t get louder, it did get warmer, with its exterior reaching 96° F, and air from the top exhaust hitting 106°. CONCLUSION Beneath the blank, inscrutable surface of the Mac Pro, there’s a lot going on, from the potent processor and graphics hardware to the completely new approach to hardware expansion. The Mac Pro is expensive, its one-year warranty and 90-day tech support terms are lackluster, and the lack of internal expansion will force many professionals to change how they approach their work. But the Mac Pro offers some of the most exciting updates to desktop design we’ve seen, and backs it up with powerful professional-grade performance. The system is our new Editors’ Choice for single-processor workstations, and one of the best high-end desktops we’ve seen in years. BRIAN WESTOVER


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HP ZBook 14 $2,399 L L L L H

For Pros Who Need Power, The ZBook Is Tops Professional users will pay a premium for certain features such as a sharper-than-normal screen or workstation-class graphics. The HP ZBook 14 has these features, packed within a highly mobile design that’s thinner and lighter than we’ve yet seen on a system of this type. EDITORS’ CHOICE Add in performance, battery life, and a terrific display, and you have an Editors’ Choice–winning professional-grade mobile workstation. DESIGN AND FEATURES The ZBook 14 looks very much like a 14-inch ultrabook, and that’s the point. It measures about 0.83 by 13.5 by 9.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.88 pounds, so it will blend in with other business ultrabooks rather than stand out like previous chunkier mobile workstations we’ve seen. It’s also much lighter than full-size business desktop replacement laptops such as the Dell Latitude E6540.

Metal is the finish of choice on the ZBook 14’s top lid and keyboard deck, but the bottom lid is polycarbonate. This is one of the ZBook 14’s strengths: The light, removable lid provides tool-less access to the internal components, primarily the system’s hard drive bay, memory slots, and slots for accessories such as the optional WWAN/4G mobile broadband module, which is the only way to get GPS functionality. (Dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 come standard.) You can also remove the system’s 50Wh battery, a feature that you won’t find in most ultrabooks but that’s important if you regularly compute far away from a power outlet or car charger. The system’s components include an Intel Core i74600U processor, 16GB of DDR3L memory (maxed out), a 256GB SATA SSD (240GB usable), and an AMD FirePro M4100 GPU. The system uses AMD Switchable Graphics technology, so it can operate on the processor’s HD Graphics 4400 integrated GPU when you don’t need discrete-level performance. One of the ZBook 14’s greatest strengths is its screen. It’s a 14-inch 1,920-by-1,080 display, though some competitors (such as the Retina display– equipped 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro and Toshiba Kirabook) feature higher-resolution screens. Though the ZBook 14 is limited to 1080p, it trounces the other systems by offering a matte-finish antiglare screen. Users who need to perform scientific tasks, do edits, and create content full time may prefer the larger, more pixel-dense screens for their day-today work, but everyone else will be fine with HP’s choice here.

HP ZBook 14 PROS Portable workstation power. Weighs less than 4 pounds. Easy access to swappable components. Brilliant antiglare screen. Dual pointing devices. Removable battery. CONS Touch screen does not come standard. GPS requires optional WWAN module.

STELLAR SCREEN The ZBook 14’s display offers both 1080p resolution and a matte-finish antiglare coating that makes it easier for you to get work done anywhere.

The ZBook 14 has ample external ports as well: four USB 3.0 (one is a stay-awake charging port), a full-sized DisplayPort, Ethernet (vital for business users), VGA, Kensington lock, SmartCard and SD card slots, and a docking port like those you’ll see on other HP EliteBook laptops. DisplayPort enables multiple monitors regardless, but the optional dock lets the ZBook 14 support up to five external displays. The ZBook 14’s comfortable backlit chiclet-style keyboard has a multitouch touchpad and a pointing stick, each with its own set of physical mouse buttons (though you can also use tap-to-click on the touchpad). There’s no numeric keypad, however—if you need one, look at larger laptops, such as HP’s ZBook 15 or the Asus Zenbook VX51VZ-XB71. Our review unit came with Windows 7 Professional preinstalled, and includes discs for installing Windows 8 Pro. Because Windows 8 presently has few business adherents, it’s not a huge deal that there’s no touch screen, though you can configure your ZBook 14 with one (something you can’t do with the ZBook 15). The ZBook 14 comes with a three-year parts and labor warranty. PERFORMANCE The ZBook 14 is, as you’d expect, quite capable of creating multimedia projects, but its best attribute is that it is ISV certified and can work fine as a supervisor’s machine in the field. The 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro was a smidge faster than the ZBook 14 on Photoshop CS6 (4 minutes 27 seconds versus 6:28) and Handbrake (1:09 versus 1:11), most likely due to the MacBook’s slightly fasterclocked processor and speedier PCIe-based flash storage.

Though the ZBook 14 is limited to 1080p, it trounces the other systems by offering a matte-finish antiglare screen.

On 3D tasks, the ZBook 14 is closer to its peers. Its performance is on par with that of the Dell Precision M4700 with its 2GB Nvidia Quadro K2000M GPU on the 3DMark 11 test and our two game tests. True gaming cards, such as the Nvidia GeForce GT 765M you’ll find in the Digital Storm Veloce, give the best performance on 3D games and game tests, but the ZBook 14 is certainly capable of displaying 3D CAD designs in real time as well as working in entertainment development and testing. One of the ZBook 14’s main strengths is its battery life. It lasted 6 hours 28 minutes on our battery rundown test, matching the larger Dell Precision M4700 to the minute. The ZBook 14’s big brother, the ZBook 15, only lasted 3:48. If you’re looking for a nicely priced, full–Windows 7 mobile workstation and value portability, the HP ZBook 14 should be at the top of your list. It has the clear and glare-free studio-ready display that you’d expect from a professional workstation, combined with an ultrabook’s portability and battery life. IT serviceability is a big plus, especially if you have time-sensitive users who need to get back to work right now. Any director, manager, or vice president in the entertainment or engineering industries will be quite happy with the ZBook 14, especially if they travel. JOEL SANTO DOMINGO


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This Worry-Free Printer Is A Solid 3D Starter Kit

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he Afinia H479 Desktop 3D Printer has just about everything a beginner would want from a 3D printer. It’s relatively easy to set up and use, prints out objects of good quality, and has simple software and clear documentation. According to Afinia, the H479 is intended for educators (the printers are

Afinia H479 Desktop 3D Printer $1,599 L L L H m

installed in grade schools, middle schools, high schools, and universities), engineers (for in-house prototyping), and creative types (jewelry, robots, drones, cartoon characters). It’s worth considering by tech-savvy consumers, though it’s somewhat expensive for that role and for the features it provides. DESIGN AND SETUP This red, open-framed printer measures 13.8 by 9.6 by 10.2 inches (HWD), and weighs just under 11 pounds. It can print at any of three resolutions, from 0.15mm to 0.4mm. Its build area is just over 5 inches cubed, as compared with 10 by 9 by 9 inches for the Type A Machines Series 1, 4.7 inches cubed for the UP! mini, 5.5 inches for the 3D Systems Cube 3D Printer, and 6 inches for the Solidoodle 2 Pro. The printer’s assembly and setup are simple. You attach a spool holder to the printer’s side and place a spool of plastic filament in it (the H479 comes with a 1.5-pound spool of ABS plastic), thread the filament from the spool through a guide at the top of the printer and into the extruder assembly, and clip a piece of FR-4 board—a perforated, square sheet of epoxy laminate—into place with four small provided clips. The FR-4 board’s network of tiny holes serves an important role: to hold the molten (and quickly solidifying) plastic that’s squeezed into them as the first layers of a print job are extruded, and prevent the corners of the object from peeling up (a common issue when printing with ABS plastic), likely pulling the

Afinia H479 Desktop 3D Printer PROS Easy setup, operation. Quiet. Good software provided on disc. Clear, thorough user manual. Comes with spool of ABS plastic. Ample tool kit. Can print PC-free once a job is loaded. CONS Small build area. Relatively expensive for its capabilities. Won’t print without adding supports. Can be difficult to remove objects.

SPOOLS IN One spool of ABS plastic is included for use with the Afinia H479 Desktop 3D Printer, though it also works with PLA plastic.

rest of the job off the platform eventually and ruining it. Three FR-4 boards come with the printer. The manual indicates that you can also use blue masking tape as a print surface. Doing so will avoid one problem I encountered when printing with the perforated boards, which I’ll describe later in the review, although objects may not adhere as well to the tape. The software, which comes on a provided disc, can be installed on either a Mac or Windows machine; I used a laptop running Windows 7, and the installation was problem-free. When you connect the printer to the computer via USB cable, the computer will recognize it and install it automatically. The Afinia software is a single program that seamlessly performs all necessary functions, from initializing the printer to setting the extruder height and making sure the corners of the print bed are even to feeding filament into the extruder to fixing file problems to printing. (There isn’t a separate step for “slicing” an object into layers for printing, as there is with most 3D printers.) When you open an object file to print, a 3D representation of it will appear on screen. You can rescale an object, or set its location on the print bed before printing. Before you can start printing you need to set the initial gap between extruder nozzle and print bed. You can adjust it in increments of 0.1mm to narrow the gap until the extruder head is barely above the platform (the suggested gap is 0.2mm). Then you press Set Nozzle Height, and it will lock the setting. You can reset it if need be. If you need help at any point during the setup process, the user manual, which comes in printed form but is also accessible in PDF format from the Afinia website, is thorough and easy to read. THE H479 IN ACTION After you’ve opened an object file to print, you choose Print from the file menu, and then click Print from the dialog box. After about five minutes, when the

extruder is hot enough, printing will commence. Once it has, you can disconnect the printer from your computer, as the job is loaded in internal memory. Apart from beeping at the start and finish of a print job, the H479 made very little noise, a welcome change from some of the 3D printers I’ve tested. One thing to note is that the printer will add supports—vertical pylons of plastic—to an object, whether you like it or not. They can be helpful in preventing overhung areas from drooping, but for the most part are unnecessary. The best you can do is to adjust the settings so they only appear when an overhang is within 10 degrees of horizontal. They can sometimes be tricky to remove, and can leave a rough residue that usually has to be sanded or otherwise smoothed away. The H479 printed out our suite of test objects with no misprints. Overall print quality was good, with generally solid detail and smooth (where intended) surfaces. There were some artifacts and roughness from the supports, including some localized discoloration. Even at “fast” resolution, print quality was decent and should be sufficient for use by the teachers and designers for whom the printer is intended. Removal of printed objects from the perforated board on which they’re printed proved to be difficult. The plastic at the base of the object fills up the perforations and adheres to them. Fortunately, the printer comes with a good toolkit, including but not limited to gloves, a spatula-like “shovel,” an X-Acto knife, pliers, and wrenches. In theory, with a bit of coaxing, you should be able to slide the spatula between the object’s base and the perforated board, and sometimes I was able to do it (with a good amount of flexing of the board) and gradually lever the object away from the base.

PRINT-READY A minimum of controls, just a few buttons on the front and back, and solid documentation make the H479 a good 3D printer for those who don’t want to worry about having to learn how to use a 3D printer.

But the perforations were still full of the little plugs of plastic—and they must be removed for the board to be ready for another print job. I ultimately got them out mostly using a thumbtack, but it was a tedious and time-consuming task. With three boards (and you can order more from Afinia), you have some flexibility, but you still have to keep them clear of stray plastic. I tried widening the gap between the extruder nozzle and the board before printing in hopes that less plastic would fill the perforations, but the issue persisted. The H479 can print with either ABS or PLA plastic filament, though Afinia only sells ABS. It comes in two grades: Premium ($44.99 for a 1.5-pound roll), which is designed for the H479 and melts at 260° C, and Value Line ($31.99 for a 1.5-pound roll), which melts at a lower temperature and can be used across a range of printers. The downside of ABS is that it can emit a sometimes-strong odor, and that it’s mildly toxic—some people have reported headaches after being exposed to its fumes, and its particles can build up in the lungs. Once it’s cooled, though, ABS is safe enough; it’s the plastic from which Lego pieces are made. CONCLUSION The Afinia H479 Desktop 3D Printer has a lot going for it as a model intended for teachers and professionals. It’s easy to set up, the software is a cinch to install and use, and the printing process was fairly problem free. It can’t match the Editors’ Choice Type A Machines Series 1 in bang for the buck, as it has a much smaller build platform, but it scores points for its easy setup, good software and documentation, and ease of printing. Prying printed objects off the perforated board that Afinia supplies proved to be a hassle, but you may (as I did) have somewhat better luck by using the blue tape that the company suggests as an alternative. TONY HOFFMAN PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

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Landmark Database Software Still Sets Records FileMaker has been making database creation intuitive and hassle-free for years, and that tradition continues in its most recent version. FileMaker Pro 13 introduces more than 50 EDITORS’ CHOICE new features into the ecosystem, tightening security and letting you create incredibly Web-friendly design apps. There’s less concern than you might expect about supporting platforms such as Android and Windows Phone, although the ease with which you can create apps that run in a Web browser bypasses many compatibility issues.

FileMaker Pro 13 $329 (1-4 licenses) L L L L H

GETTING STARTED Experienced users can dive right in and create a new database or use one of the many database templates. These “starter solutions” are predesigned database apps that include apps for event management, product cataloging, time billing, and more. You can use the solutions “right out the box,” or customize them for your business or personal needs. One caveat that may apply to longtime users: Those currently using FileMaker databases should be aware that FileMaker 13 only works with databases created under FileMaker 12 and 13. Older databases in the FP7 format can be converted to version 13 and then opened in the latest version. In addition to creating a “from scratch” database app or using a template, you can also create a new, empty database and import data from a number of other file formats including TXT, CSV, and XLS, as well as from XML and ODBC data sources.

FileMaker Pro 13 PROS Lots of new features. Offers tools for creating beautiful custom apps. New AES-256 encryption. Create apps to run in Web browser. CONS Confusing online, built-in help resources. No Android, Windows Phone support. AES256 encryption not available in Pro version.

DATABASES FOR ANY DEVICE With the world growing increasingly mobile, FileMaker has adapted its classic model. Version 13 of the software lets you create apps for a wide variety of devices, though a lack of support may mar your Android or Windows Phone experience.

NEW FEATURES Though few significant changes have been made to FileMaker’s basic functionality since the release of version 12, there are plenty of new features to aid you in database creation and design. Styles are attributes such as color, font size, and so on that you apply to database components such as fields, buttons, and backgrounds. Custom themes and styles can be saved and then applied across multiple layouts and databases. Because the tech world continues to go mobile, the team at FileMaker has provided new ways to make apps more friendly for mobile devices, especially those that use touch screens. For example, you can now add features that are common in mobile device apps, such as popover buttons that can provide users with additional information or instructions when they click into a field. To enhance the mobile UI experience, you can also add objects such as slide and tab control buttons. And thanks to in-the-box scripts and conditional formatting, you don’t need to know how to program to add them. Securing data is a foremost concern when creating any software. FileMaker 13 now has AES 256-bit encryption to secure FileMaker data whether it resides on a desktop, server, or iOS device. Unfortunately, you will need to move to FileMaker Pro 13 Advanced to enable encryption. Four templates have been redesigned since version 12: Contacts, Assets, Content Management, and Invoices. Assets, for example, has a fresh, streamlined look, and is designed to include many images of an item— extending the capability of placing images into Container fields. All of FileMaker’s Templates, including the updated ones, now support the inclusion of scannable bar code fields. Creating a bar code field that will take

information by scanning a bar code with a camera is not immediately intuitive. FileMaker’s copious help database can explain this—and practically everything else—but the procedure is somewhat involved. OTHER MAJOR UPDATES A key feature in this latest version of FileMaker is WebDirect, which lets customers run their apps directly in a Web browser without requiring Web development skills. The only caveat: You need to have FileMaker Server 13 deployed to take advantage of it. Another useful update is the inclusion of iOS keyboards. You can specify in your apps which type of keyboard should be used to enter data, including URL, Phone, Numeric 10-key, and more.

WEBDIRECT

STUMBLES Although the FileMaker software works on a variety of current major platforms (Mac OS X 10.7 and up, as well as Windows 7 and Windows 8), because the company is an Apple subsidiary the application itself is almost too

The new WebDirect feature lets you run created apps in a Web browser rather than as a separate app (though you’ll need FileMaker Server 13).

iOS- and Mac-oriented. Android and Widows Phone platforms come across as being afterthoughts. FileMaker reps told me that plans to expand mobile support are on the roadmap, however. In my testing, I also found a lack of structured help to specific questions, even though there is an abundance of help links and data. I had to email FileMaker to learn the steps needed when I wanted to create the scannable bar code field. Of course, my questions were answered expediently so I could easily finish my testing, but I do wonder if customers would have the same experience seeking answers. There is a lot to learn and do in FileMaker, and being able to find the information you need (without necessarily perusing a forum of other users) is a must. SIMPLY THE BEST FileMaker reigns supreme when it comes to building beautiful, custom apps for nonprogrammers. The commitment to detail and aesthetics is apparent in using the software and I actually find it an enjoyable platform on which to create an app. It well deserves our Editors’ Choice award for business software and database apps. SAMARA LYNN


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AN APPLE A DAY Rich support for iOS devices, including a variety of keyboards, is prevalent through all of FileMaker Pro 13.

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Superb Photo Editing At A Sub-Lightroom Price DxO makes the standard camera sensor testing software, so it’s no surprise that DxO Optics Pro is indeed one of the most impressive pieces of photo software out there. EDITORS’ CHOICE It tops off improved organization features and program stability with unmatched image processing: DxO claims the new, unique Prime feature gives you a full extra stop of exposure with no increase in noise level. Even without that, however, Optics Pro can do wonders for your digital photos—particularly if you shoot in Raw mode.

DxO Optics Pro 9 $99 L L L L m

INSTALLATION AND OPERATION Optics Pro 9 is available as a fully functional 31-day trial, with both Mac and PC versions. (After the trial period, a DxO watermark appears on photos processed with the software.) There are two editions: Standard, for most consumer point-and-shoots and D-SLRs, and Elite, for pro-level full-frame cameras. There are only two modes in Optics Pro: Organize and Customize. Organize mode doesn’t have a full workflow function—there’s no importing from media, though you could simply open images from a card shown in the Organize folder tree. You do get star ratings, but no “picks” or color codes for organizing your photos, and forget about geo-tag maps and face detection. If those things are important to you, you’re better off using DxO Optics Pro as a plug-in for Lightroom or Aperture. The program does let you organize by Projects, in which you bring together photos you want to work with as a group from various sources. Customize mode is where you do all of your editing and tuning. You have access to tools such as cropping, forcing parallel lines, and a neutral color picker, as well as methods for reducing moiré, vignetting, and chromatic aberration, though there are no simple image rotation buttons (you can rotate via a right-click menu or keyboard shortcut). There’s also no history panel, for undoing back to a particular edit, or reverting back to the image’s original state. The program does make good use of keyboard shortcuts, however, and I like how the mouse wheel zooms you in and out. Adobe’s Lightroom 5 offers more flexibility with multiple modes for things such as sharing, printing, and books. But one major DxO feature is that each time you open a folder containing images, the program detects the camera and lens used for those photos and prompts you to download a module for that combination so Optics Pro can optimize the image. As a

DxO Optics Pro 9 PROS Best-in-class noise reduction. Excellent autocorrection. Clear interface. Direct export to Flickr, Facebook, other photo apps. Automatic chromatic aberration removal. CONS No local editing tools. Few workflow tools. Using highest noise-reduction setting takes several minutes for large images.

result, autocorrection is far better than you see in most photo software, and is often all you need to significantly improve a picture, though there are plenty of available presets for tweaking still further and adjusting contrast, color, lighting, exposure compensation, and more. The interface is somewhat customizable: You can adjust the interface border color from the default dark gray to anywhere from full white to full black. The full-screen view is less satisfying than Lightroom’s, as DxO always keeps the control bar on screen, though you can detach the image browser for full viewing on a second screen. DXO PRIME Version 9 of DxO adds a hallmark feature called Probabilistic Raw Image Enhancement, or Prime, a noise-reduction tool that the company claims will add an extra stop of exposure to digital photos shot in Raw. This means you can shoot in low light or at faster speeds and still retain sharpness and detail. Prime lets the program take as long as it needs to analyze and correct digital noise. Most noise correction just compares nearby pixels to determine which

NOISES OFF Prime, one of DxO Optics Pro 9’s flagship features, reduces the noise of photos shot in Raw by adding an extra stop of exposure. In our tests, it worked better than a similar feature in Lightroom.

are noise, but DxO examines a much larger area to make this determination, which should remove more noise while leaving more detail. When you choose Prime noise reduction, you won’t be able to see its effect on the full image view, just on a small 150-by-150-pixel area. Even viewing that preview takes a few seconds, and the only way to apply Prime to the whole image is to export it, which can take several minutes. Though Prime removed more noise (particularly in eye whites shot in low light at high ISO) and preserved more detail than Lightroom, I noticed too much smoothing on the Auto setting. Fortunately, you can tune the amount of correction with the Luminance slider, and even dig into Chrominance, Low Frequency, and Dead Pixel corrections. One important point to make about DxO Optics Pro is that it offers nothing in the way of local corrections—no dodge and burn, no selective blur, no retouching, not even red-eye correction. For those things, a more complete tool such as Lightroom is warranted. But for sports, nature, or night-event photographers who need to shoot at a high ISO, Prime could be a godsend in getting less noisy images to their clients. OUTPUT AND SHARING Once you’ve perfected your image, Optics Pro lets you output it to another photo editor or to sites such as Facebook and Flickr, save it to your hard drive, or print it out. The Facebook exporter lets you choose a target album, but not privacy level or tagging. The Flickr export has nice control, letting you choose an album, add keyword tags, or set privacy, and it pulls in your previously used tags and albums to pick from. One online sharing capability that’s lacking is via email: Lightroom lets you quickly send out any image onscreen via a right-click.

Although it won’t turn a bad photo into a good one, Optics Pro can make a good photo great.

Optics Pro includes utilitarian printing capabilities, in which you can choose a grid size for multiple images, apply sharpening, and add a caption in the font style of your choice. But for more layout options (including savable custom layouts) and soft proofing (which lets you see colors in the photo not supported by the printer), look to Lightroom. IF YOU WANT TO BE AN OPTICS PRO, DXO DxO Optics Pro 9 is hardly the last word in workflow, but it can give you an edge for better images not available in other full-capability photo applications. Even without its new and unique Prime noise reduction feature, DxO’s lens and camera calibrated corrections automatically achieve results that can be hard to accomplish in other software. Professional photographers will want Optics Pro at least as a tool in their photo software toolbox for the edge it can provide. Although it won’t turn a bad photo into a good one, Optics Pro can make a good photo great. That’s enough to earn it our Editors’ Choice award. MICHAEL MUCHMORE


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5 STAGES OF

ONLINE LOVE M

ovie love is so much more dramatic than real-life love, and that’s what we love about it. It takes feelings we have that are vast and powerful but often quiet and internal, and blows them up to dramatic scenes and emotional

outpourings. Our digital love lives are even more muted, but as deeply felt, and increasingly they occupy and influence our relationships. Whether love is played out on the scale of a movie screen or your smartphone screen, the formula is still the same. BY CHANDRA STEELE

MEET CUTE Even when you meet a love interest in the most idealized and adorable of ways, it’s difficult to replicate the flawlessly lit and whirlwind “meet cute” of a rom-com. In the world of online dating, an app like Tinder is the substitute for kismet. If it doesn’t lessen your love for the right person, it does make for a less lively story. But meeting digitally can still be sweet. Denis Lafargue and Elizabeth Wisdom met over a photo of Crater Lake that Wisdom posted on Instagram in 2012. “Let’s go move in on the island,” Lafargue commented, leading to the two communicating regularly and meeting that October when Wisdom flew from Texas to New Orleans. Nine months later, Lafargue popped the question—and Wisdom accepted. A Hefe-filtered sunset may not be the same as a real one, but it can be just as romantic.

Hi.

FIRST DATE There can be something delicious about butterflies in the stomach when they’re over a first date. The kind of jitters that are not so welcome are those of performance anxiety. We’re not talking about the performance of amorous activities here, but about the possibility that your getting-to-know-you chitchat comes under scrutiny by an audience far beyond your date. Tweet-by-tweet transcripts of first dates have been written by casual coffee-shop observers and even half of dating duos themselves. Comedian Tim Young went to write at a Starbucks in Baltimore and ended up with comedy gold... from the table next to him. A couple was on a first date that started out with thumb wrestling and ended with the guy being upset that his date didn’t pay for his coffee. Maybe avoid cafés altogether on a first date—cartoonist Joel Watson walked into a Dallas Starbucks and came out with a 30-tweet-long transcript of a couple’s disastrous first date that included the line, “You said you don’t see this as a date.” Should things go (seemingly) well on your first date, there’s the waiting to hear about a second one. Unlike in the movies, this occurs in agonizing real time. You’re not brushing your teeth, walking your dog, and grabbing a cup of coffee in a montage of five minutes before a phone rings. And when you do finally get a text, you can spend a long time on interpreting the punctuation alone. Katie Heaney, an editor at BuzzFeed, dissects the meaning of the messages for her friends in the series “Reading Between the Texts” on The Hairpin. For those who need a friend like Heaney available to them 24/7, there’s He Texted (hetexted.com), a site and app that crowdsource texting-related dating conundrums.

EARLY STAGES You’ve made it past a few dates and you’re entering that golden time of a new relationship. (Cue the montage.) You’re so happy to be done with the game-playing of dating around, but gamification could just have begun. Some of the romance is gone from romance when you can forget about strolling through a neighborhood to find a new place to have dinner. What if your date judges you for not having mapped out all the top-rated Yelp spots nearby? And your friends might be just as quick to judge your date if they see from your Foursquare check-in that you’re at a place they consider subpar. Of course, your friends aren’t the only ones who can track your day minute by minute. One of the sweetest parts of sharing your life with someone is that they’re the person you tell the little details of your day: that you went for a walk in the park on your way to work, the frustrations with a project, what you had for lunch. Now anyone who follows you on social media has seen the tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram shots that trailed you all day, and that bit of intimacy between you and your partner is now public.

BREAKUP Unlike intrepid film lovers, in real life breakups are frequently permanent. Should your relationship fall apart, it might haunt you—but so will social media. Your ex won’t just be in your thoughts and dreams but also in your news stream. Following them on social media can hamper your emotional recovery, according to a study from the U.K.’s Brunel University. Although participants in the study had fewer negative feelings about their ex, they had more trouble moving on than did those who unfriended them on Facebook. Separating yourself from your former flame throughout social media can be trickier than the few words it may have taken to do so in real life. And forget about those awful times when you come across their posts about their new partner because a friend of yours commented on them. But there are ways to avoid heartache on social media. (See the next page.)

Avoid Your Ex On Social Media

Although there are all sorts of rom-com– prescribed ways to avoid running into your ex in real life, steering clear of them on social media requires more finesse and is in many ways more necessary. A study out of the U.K.’s Brunel University found that emotional recovery from a breakup can be severely stunted from just remaining Facebook friends. You might not want to face the unpleasantness that goes along with unfriending and unfollowing your ex, but you also don’t want your heart to plummet when you see them Instagram dreamy dinners for two or the day when you see their relationship status change. So what can you do?

FACEBOOK Facebook is pretty much the worst when it comes to breakups. You share friends and photos with your ex and see their status updates not just when they’re posted but when friends comment on them. You can no longer hide people in your news feed, but there are other options. If you use Chrome you can install the Eternal Sunshine plugin to prevent a person’s status updates from appearing in your news feed and remove the person from your chat list. You can avoid having to sort through your profile to erase your ex by using KillSwitch (killswitchapp.com), an app that removes everything tagged with their name from your profile. KillSwitch can save everything in a folder on Facebook just in case you get back together.

TWITTER Former lovebirds can’t be silenced on Twitter itself unless you unfollow or block them. Use an app like TweetDeck and you can just mute them, though. Once you have TweetDeck running, go to the gear icon, select Settings, then locate the Mute tab, select User, type in the username of the account, and click Mute.

FOURSQUARE If you no longer want to follow in your ex’s every Foursquare footstep, wondering if that check-in is going to lead to a hookup, just go to your friends list and select Turn Notifications Off next to their name.

SNAPCHAT Sending Snapchats to your ex is a definite no-no, but you might receive some just because they decide to blast their friends list. You can block them so that you don’t appear on their list by going to their name, tapping the gear icon, and clicking Block. You can always undo the action yourself later on, which you can’t do if you select Delete.

INSTAGRAM We’re sorry to say that in the way Instagram preserves fleeting moments, it does the same with your ex. Unfollowing them is the only way not to be subject to their snaps.

REUNION Being reminded every time you read your Facebook news stream of the one (or two or three) who got away can be unbearable. But such sites have made it easier than ever to stay in touch, and perhaps even rekindle a flame, when not that long ago it wasn’t that difficult for someone who used to be the most important person in your life to vanish forever. For as much pain as it can cause, the Internet has also been the Cupid responsible for many reunited loves. Laine Thompson and Lucas Blum met in high school in Freeport, Illinois, in 1989, but had trouble maintaining their relationship when Thompson moved to southern California, according to the Huffington Post. They married—and divorced—other people, but never forgot about each other, and eventually reconnected on Facebook in 2011. They met up in Freeport once again, and sparks flew once again—and today the two are married. It was 1978 when Gay Cioffi and Mark Obenhaus embarked on a three-week fling in Southampton, bonding while trailing journalist and screenwriter Nora Ephron. They lost touch and went on to other marriages and families, but after Ephron’s death in 2012 the separated Cioffi was encouraged by her niece to look up Obenhaus on Facebook and send him a friend request. She did, and in a scenario that fits neatly within the Ephron oeuvre, the two got together and realized they could no longer live apart. They married last August. Romance may no longer be as simple as it once was, or as slick as a romantic comedy. But sometimes, even when powered by ebooks instead of storybooks, there can still be happy endings.


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For as much pain as it can cause, the Internet has also been the Cupid responsible for many reunited loves.

FEATURES

FINDING LOVE ONLINE I

f you’re in a relationship, you’ve probably had Valentine’s Day dinner reservations

booked since before New Year’s Eve. If you’re not, you’ve likely been taunted by the heart-shaped boxes of chocolates in almost every store window on a daily basis.

Remember, though, you’re not the only one without a date for February 14. If you haven’t looked for love online, it’s time to consider it. With hundreds of dating websites out there, some paid and some free, picking the right place to start can be daunting. Our list of the most popular sites will hopefully help you find your match. BY MEREDITH POPOLO AND ERIC GRIFFITH

MAINSTREAM DATING SITES For those looking to cast their net wide in the dating pool, the best bet is to dive into one of the many mainstream online dating sites. New users should migrate to free sites, such as OkCupid or PlentyOfFish, before committing to a paid account. OkCupid.com grants non-paying users search and messaging with other non-paying users. Paying “A-List” users, however, earn extras like adfree browsing and advanced filtering options. The site matches users with a patent-pending method based on answers to often cheeky usergenerated questions. OkCupid also features apps for iOS and Android. (The service is now owned by IAC, which also owns Match.com.)

The Canadian-based dating site PlentyOfFish (pof.com) has a user base that blows the competition out of the water, claiming 40 million registered “fish.” Users baited by sheer numbers might be able to overlook its primitive interface. If you’re mobile, POF also offers iOS and Android apps as well. More devoted (or desperate) daters should be willing to pay for online services, applying the philosophy that subscriptionbased sites will filter out spammers and attract other serious daters. Match.com is typically the first site that comes to mind for online daters testing the waters. It boasts more than 96 million registered users, but keep in mind that the number is generally inflated as the number of paid subscribers with privileges to connect with other users is significantly lower (about 2.8 million as of December 2012, according to IAC’s annual report).

ON THE OPEN SEA Mobile apps, like this one from PlentyOfFish, let you take your search for love anywhere.

Match.com has a free option, but it’s limited. Better to give the full service a whirl during a free trial period; after that it costs $34.99 per month ($19.99 per month for three months or $16.99 per month for six months). It gives users a lot of freedom over their profiles. Match.com also launched a new service called Stir in 2012, which holds singles events—about 400 a month in 80 markets. And of course, it features mobile apps for iOS and Android, so you can check your winks and matches while on the go. Marketing itself to more marriage-minded daters, eHarmony.com, on the other hand, is much more structured, offering guided communication. It begins with a lengthy 400-question survey that takes about 45 minutes to complete. The questionnaire is designed to identify dimensions of compatibility—on eHarmony, you don’t find your match, they find one for you. The service also comes with a serious price tag; subscriptions start at $59.95 per month, but get lower the longer you stay (or pay for a full year at $251.40-that’s $20.95 a month). The company’s newest effort is eH+, a $5,000-per-year option to get an actual counselor to pick your matches by hand. In addition, eHarmony has a full suite of mobile apps for smartphones plus a special version for iPad.

Match.com has a free option, but it’s limited. Better to give the full service a whirl during a free trial period.

(Unlike most other sites, eHarmony has a bit of a checkered past with the gay community, not catering to same-sex couples until it was sued into doing so. It launched a sister-site, CompatiblePartners.com, to make up for it, but further discrimination lawsuits have led to a melding of eHarmony and Compatible Partner subscriptions.)

Sometimes you don’t want to go one-on-one with a date. In this, the day and age of the “hook-up date,” those looking for love occasionally like to travel in packs. That’s where a site like Grouper (joingrouper. com) comes in, with its “mission to end loneliness.” You sign up with Facebook and Grouper matches you with someone, but then you grab two wingmen (or wingwomen) and the two groups of three hang out. Grouper even picks the venue for the meeting, and suggests you prepay for the drinks so everyone has even more incentive to show up. Nothing is disclosed before the meeting, so it’s almost like actually going to a bar randomly. Almost.

GO IN A GROUP Don’t want to date on-on-one? Grouper lets you go out in groups of six, which makes dates safer and lower-pressure.

GO BIG OR GO HOME (ALONE) Big sites, such as Badoo.com, make it easier to connect with people, but may introduce new problems that can interfere with your search for romance.

Other big sites that you might find around the world that have a big user base but not quite the reputation to go with them: Badoo.com (202 million users but lots of spam), Zoosk.com (25 million users, but expect it to tie you up your social networking), and LavaLife.com (which dates back to 1983!).

RELIGIOUS DATING SITES Whether it’s due to personal beliefs, cultural convenience, or traditional parents, some people prefer to date others of the same religion and many dating services cater to that choice. JDate.com, a popular site for those seeking a Jewish mate. About half of its members live in the United States. The site, which won a Webby in 2006 for social networking, organizes travel adventures and local events for its users. Although members don’t have to be Jewish to join, non-Jews are asked to indicate whether or not they would be willing to convert religions. JDate’s parent company, Spark Networks, also operates ChristianMingle.com for Christians and LDSSingles.com for Latter-day Saints (not to mention BlackSingles.com for African-Americans and SilverSingles.com for those over 50.) Muslima.com connects Muslims from all over the world looking for love. The homepage advertises the opportunity to meet “thousands of Muslim singles.”

HAVE FAITH JDate is one of a number of sites catering exclusively to specific religions; its handy mobile app is shown below.

LIFESTYLE DATING SITES Much in the way that someone may want to date another of the same religion, someone may want to date a potential partner close in age, with a similar relationship history, or even with mutually understood intentions. Well, in the online dating world, there are sites for almost every walk of life. The fastest growing demographic in online dating is singles 55 and older, according to Internet tracking firm Experian Hitwise. (Singles ages 45 to 54 come in second.) Rather than hitting bars filled with frat boys, these “more mature” daters are flocking to sites like SeniorPeopleMeet.com and SilverSingles.com, which keep setup and communication simple for those who find the Internet intimidating. Sometimes, though, those seniors seek someone younger. With more than two million members, CougarLife.com and its associated app help women over 35 find younger men. “Our website makes it easier for them to narrow down their prey while they are on the prowl,” the site says. At the opposite end of the spectrum is SugarSugar.com, “where romance meets finance.” There, Sugar Babies in search of some funding can find a Sugar Daddy to keep them happy, though the terms of the arrangements are often blurry. As if dating isn’t hard enough, try raising kids at the same time. Owned by the same company as SeniorPeopleMeet, SingleParentMeet.com hooks up single parents, who often

In the online dating world, there are sites for almost every walk of life.

share similar priorities and attitudes when it comes to dating. Similarly, WidowsOrWidowers.com connects those who have lost a spouse and helps them build new romances and friendships.

NICHE DATING SITES Sometimes merely a common concern for the environment (GreenSingles.com), a shared passion for moustaches (StachePassions.com), or a mutual hatred for Ron Paul (DemocratSingles.com) is enough to spark romance. Hundreds of sites accommodate such niche markets.

DATING IN GOOD TASTE Looking for a partner who shares your musical tastes? Tastebuds. fm can hook you up. It’s one of a large selection of dating sites aimed for those with special interests.

Tastebuds.fm, for example, pairs those who listen to the same music. “Meatless meet market” VeggieConnection. com matches those who eat (or eschew) the same foods. Those who fall hard for geeks might have luck on BrainiacDating.com. Pet lovers no longer have to choose between their dogs and their dates if they find an equally enthusiastic owner on MustLovePets.com. Trekkies may even meet others with whom they can live long and prosper on TrekPassions.com. If you love to ride horses (EquestrianCupid.com) or motorcycles (BikerKiss.com), you can find someone else who does, too. The list goes on and on—Google your passion and the word “dating” to find one that fits.

MOBILE DATING APPS

As we’ve noted, many of the above sites have their own apps that let you access accounts on a smartphone or tablet. But there’s an entire ecosystem of mobile apps that are just that: an app alone, bent on connecting you with a match who may be perfect not just because of compatibility, but also based on all-important proximity. Here’s a quick look at apps to consider downloading so you can meet that special someone, be it for a night or for a lifetime.

Tinder (iOS and Android) A free app that connects you with other Tinder app users nearby. You like them, and if they like you back, the app handles the introduction. What happens next is probably fire. (Get it?)

MOBILE DATING APPS


HowAboutWe Dating (iOS and Android) This app actually guarantees you’ll get a date. You describe your dream night out, view other date ideas, and you’ll soon meet the people whose mutual date ideas are liked. Upgrade to a paid membership ($8.33 per month) to send and receive messages.

MOBILE DATING APPS


AYI—Are You Interested? (iOS and Android) Supposedly 68 million people have installed this app, so if even a fraction are using it, your chances of meeting and chatting with someone are pretty good. Browse photos and interests of local singles to connect with someone, or let the service behind the app match you up.

MOBILE DATING APPS


Tingle (iOS) Tingle knows that it is just a dating app for iPhone users, but it wants to be so much more: It wants to be a community. Albeit a community of hot young people meeting up when they’re attracted to each other. You know you’re found attractive when you get a “wink.”

MOBILE DATING APPS


Down (iOS and Android) You probably can guess that an app formerly called “Bang with Friends” is all about. The gist: Make a list of your sexy friends that you’re interested in on the app. If they do the same and you’re on the list, you see each other and then... let nature take its course.

MOBILE DATING APPS


Grindr (iOS, BlackBerry, and Android) Gaydar is unreliable so this geosocial networking app helps six million gay, bisexual, and bi-curious men meet across the globe.

MOBILE DATING APPS


Blendr (iOS and Android) Think of this as the straight Grindr, with 180 million users around the world. That number is so high because this is the app version of Badoo.com. Still, Blendr has been an Apple featured favorite on iPhone, for its location awareness that lets you find and flirt with people nearby.

MOBILE DATING APPS


Bad Date Rescue (iOS) eHarmony is all about hooking you up with someone, right? In this case, it’s giving iPhone users an out with an app that can fake a phone call, complete with excuses to leave your date at the table before it gets worse.


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FEATURES

69DIGITAL

DATING TIPS O

nline dating once held such stigma that only your therapist and closest, least

judgmental friends knew about your digital escapades—but it doesn’t anymore. The Pew Research Center’s Internet Project confirmed in October that online

daters are increasingly finding lasting love on the Web. So if you’re dreading another Valentine’s Day alone, with a half-eaten box of chocolates melting onto the When Harry Met Sally... DVD case—already stained with tears and specks of Ben & Jerry’s—maybe this is the year to give online dating a chance. Whether you’re just dipping your toe into the deep end of digital love, or are wont to listen to Taylor Swift while skimming user profiles, our tips will help you do everything from compose a winning profile to keep your financial life intact to find your perfect match. BY STEPHANIE MLOT

SMART BEGINNINGS 1. Do some research, ask family and friends, and choose a reputable dating site. 2. Compare costs among various dating sites. Some offer free membership, others require a monthly or annual fee. 3. Understand what you’re looking for before signing up. Do you want a fling or a longterm relationship? 4. Create a Google Voice or Skype phone number and separate email address exclusively for online dating. 5. Restrict your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media profiles to friends-only. 6. Set up a P.O. box address exclusively for online dating. 7. Download or update your computer’s antivirus software. 8. Use a unique password for each site. And research the company’s password history, in an attempt to avoid another eHarmony-like hack. 9. If available, carefully read the site’s FAQ or safety tips. 10. Try to convince a friend to sign up as well, for protection and commiseration. 11. Study martial arts three times a week for about eight to ten years.

TAKE IT SLOW 12. Use your Web browser’s Incognito mode, if it has one. (If it doesn’t, download a browser that supports private surfing.) 13. Set up a dummy account on free sites so you can look at someone’s profile without arousing suspicion. 14. Remain anonymous at first, until you feel comfortable with the online dating process. 15. Once you’ve found your footing, make sure your profile is not private, so other users can see that you’ve looked at their profile. 16. Do not share your location beyond a state or large city (New York, Boston, Chicago, etc.). 17. Use the website’s rating or “liking” system to keep track of promising users and to show your interest. 18. Use caution when accessing your online profile from a public computer. 19. Avoid using automatic logins, even on your home computer. 20. Remember: Women subtract 10-20 pounds and men add 2 inches—to what, you’ll find out.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS 21. Be honest. You don’t want to generate false expectations before meeting someone. 22. Remember that you’re making a first impression— be your best possible self. 23. Remain consistent among different dating sites, but don’t copy and paste your spiel across them. Cater your wording to the site you’re using. 24. Stand out from the crowd with specific, unique profile details. 25. Include no fewer than three photos—the more the better. Do not post selfies, but throw in a full-body (and fully clothed) shot. It’s scientifically proven! 26. Be classy while showing some skin in your photos. 27. Do not post photos of family or friends (especially without permission). You don’t want to distract potential dates. 28. Refresh your profile with new pictures and life changes as they occur. Don’t dwell on your high school trip to Paris when you visited Barcelona two months ago.

CALM YOUR JITTERS 29. If available, use the dating site’s instant messaging and email features instead of handing out your personal addresses. 30. Beware of unexpected email attachments, especially those sent to a personal account (such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo). 31. Remain on a first-name basis as long as possible, but learn his or her full name before the first date. 32. Search for your date on Google and Facebook to get a feel for his or her personality and history. 33. Compare his or her dating profile to what you find on LinkedIn and other social media sites. 34. Do not be shy about ordering a background check on someone before meeting. 35. Keep work and personal details separate. Tell your date what you do, but don’t reveal your office address or gossip about coworkers. 36. Initially keep social media postings (such as status updates and photos) about potential mates to a minimum. If you tend to overshare, try to be vague about your activities and partner. 37. Remember that sarcasm does not breach written text. 38. Pay attention to what you read in someone’s profile, and ask questions based on their interests.

LOOK WHO’S COMING TO DINNER 39. Meet in person after about the fourth email—not too quickly, but not so drawn out that you become bored with each other. 40. Always meet in public, whether it’s the first or eighth date. 41. Share a profile picture of your date with family and friends, or, if possible, discreetly snap a photo to share in case of emergency. 42. Take your own transportation. Do not be dependent on your date to drive you.

SAFETY FIRST 43. Use a condom. 44. Block and immediately report verbally and/or physically abusive users. 45. Never provide bank account information or agree to lend someone money. 46. Be cautious if someone claims to live locally but is currently out of the country. 47. Completely cut off communications if you feel uncomfortable.

HONEYMOON’S OVER 48. Never break up electronically. Always dump someone in person, or in a phone conversation, if necessary. 49. If you’re feeling jaded or burned out by online dating, take a break. Jump back in after a month or two in the real world.

GENERAL DATING DOS 50. Proofread your profile and every email. It could take just one embarrassing spelling error to turn off the perfect mate. 51. Keep expectations low. Online sparks do not always mean reallife fireworks. 52. Avoid talking about your financial status, exes, or babycrazy mindset until at least date number six. 53. If you’ve hit a dry spell, refresh your account settings—change the distance you’re willing to travel, update photos, and rethink your position on pets or a future family—to find new matches. 54. Expand your horizons: Do not dismiss someone just because you don’t immediately jibe with their personality, hobbies, location, etc. 55. Be adventurous and date outside of your “usual type.” 56. Play the field; don’t pin all your hopes on just one potential online match. 57. Grow thick skin. Do not be offended by rejection. 58. Treat e-dating opportunities and relationships like any others: Just because you met online doesn’t mean you shouldn’t respect each other. 59. Be persistent, but not overly stalker-y. Remember: You get out of this what you put in it.

GENERAL DATING DON’TS 60. Don’t assume online dating is just for losers who can’t meet people on their own. 61. Don’t treat online dating like speed dating. Slow down and get to know someone. 62. Don’t use text-speak in your profile or messages. Write in full, grammatically correct sentences. 63. Don’t get too cozy too quickly on social media with a date’s family or friends. 64. Don’t swap Snapchat usernames (or racy photos) too quickly. 65. Don’t visit online dating sites while drunk or otherwise not fully in control of your faculties. 66. Don’t over-text or use email as a substitute for going on actual dates. 67. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification about a comment in their profile or an email correspondence. Better to understand their intentions now than regret something later. 68. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t immediately find Mr. or Miss Right. 69. Don’t assume that you will meet your future spouse. Just enjoy meeting new people and going on dates.


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GET ORGANIZED Scan Your Old Photos

SHOPPING 10 Ways To Do Valentine’s Day Digitally

APPSCOUT Our Favorite Apps For February

Digital

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DIGITAL LIFE

GET ORGANIZED

Scan Your Old Photos

If you have boxes of old photos that you’d like to digitize, here’s how to manage the project and do it right—so your memories will last a lifetime. BY JILL DUFFY

S

hoeboxes full of old photos may hold your family’s history and memories, but they’re difficult to preserve, share, organize, and back up. Digitized photos are much safer than physical ones because you can easily reorganize them, back them up, and create multiple copies, and they’re certainly easier to share—but digitizing print photos takes a good amount of time and effort. Break down the task and apply a few simple tricks, however, and the process will be much easier and quicker. Here are some tips for scanning and editing your old photos.

BREAK DOWN THE PROJECT Take inventory of the photos you want to scan. If you have more than a few dozen, you’ll want to divide the project into sessions. Decide which photos you want scanned first (maybe you have a deadline for a party project), and then separate the photos into piles that you’ll work through. You can scan one image at a time, or multiple images by laying them onto the scanner bed with about a quarter-inch space separating them. If you scan multiple images at once, you’ll have to crop them later into individual files.

Remember the first time you scan in photos will be the worst, slowest experience, and that it will get better.

KEEP TECHNICAL NOTES As you start your scanning, keep detailed notes about the settings and tricks that work for you so you can improve the process as you go. The most difficult part of this whole project is mastering the software that comes with your scanner, which varies depending on what kind of equipment you have and which operating system your computer is running. Remember the first time you scan in photos will be the worst, slowest experience, and that it will get better.

If long periods of time go by when you don’t scan photos, you’ll likely forget what you did that finally made everything come out to your liking the last time. If you stick to a daily scanning schedule, say, scanning ten images every day until the project is done, you’ll probably feel like a master by day three and won’t need notes. USE A SCANNER, NOT YOUR SMARTPHONE For quickly sharing old print photos, maybe you snap an image with your smartphone and post it to Facebook. That’s fine in a pinch, but it’s not the way to get good quality photos that you can save for life and use in other projects. You really need a scanner. If you don’t already have a multifunction printer (MFP), I would recommend investing a few hundred bucks in one because you’ll probably use it. You can keep costs down by buying only a scanner, but I think most households would use the other functions of an MFP anyway, so one is worth owning. CLEAN THE SCANNER BED Wipe off your scanner bed with a clean, dry cloth. If it has smudges, start with a slightly damp cloth and use it to clean the glass only. If that doesn’t work, put the smallest amount of white vinegar onto the cloth, and try wiping it again. Let it dry completely before putting anything on it. Then, wipe the scanner every so often with a dry cloth between scanning sessions to keep it clean. GENTLY WIPE PHOTOS Although most touch-up work can be done later in an editing program, you should gently wipe dust off of old photos before scanning them. Use a dust-free lens-wiping cloth, like the kind that comes with eyeglasses. Don’t use paper towels or tissues, as they can deposit particles on your images. And definitely don’t use water or any cleaning fluids.

DON’T FLATTEN CREASES If your photos have physical creases, don’t try to iron them out, as doing so will only cause more damage to the images. Gently lay the creased photo flat and scan it as best as you can. You can edit out the creases later, or send the physical photos to a service that can do it for you if you’re not adept at photo editing. (More on that in a moment.) SCAN MOSTLY IN COLOR You’ll want to scan most photos in color, not black and white or gray scale. Sepia photos need the full color setting enabled on your scanning program. Black-andwhite images will be fine with the color setting, too, unless they have been damaged by something topical, such as ink or tape. In those kinds of instances, a grayscale scan may actually make it easier to edit the images and remove the marks later. RESOLUTION AND FILE FORMAT The resolution and file format you choose will depend on what you plan to do with the photos. If you’re not sure, go higher rather than lower. Scanning at 600dpi to TIFF is ideal for creating archives. You can save space by scaling down to 300dpi and your images will still look sharp, but that resolution might not be sufficient if you intend to enlarge your photos later, say to make a photo wall calendar or print them on a large canvas. If you’re only sharing your photos online, 200dpi JPEGs are best, but I wouldn’t recommend scanning in photos at that quality. What if you decide later that you want to use your images for another project? You’d have to scan them all over again at a higher resolution. On the other hand, once photos are scanned in at a decent resolution, downsampling them (decreasing the resolution and saving a new copy of the lower-quality image, probably as a JPEG) is easy enough.

NEED A SCANNER? If you don’t have a scanner or MFP, here are our recommendations.

Portable Scanner Flip-Pal $149.99 The Flip-Pal mobile scanner offers an innovative design with PC-free scanning, a 4-by-6 flatbed, and a removable lid so you can easily scan things too large to otherwise fit.

Home Scanner Epson Perfection V550 $199.99 One of the most impressive scanners you can find for the price, the Epson Perfection V550 delivers fast, high-quality scans and plenty of useful built-in editing features.

Multifunction Printer Canon Pixma MG8220 $299.99 The Canon Pixma MG8220 is both a high-end wireless MFP and a photo lab, as capable of printing photos from 35mm slides and film, PictBridge Cameras, USB keys, and memory cards as it is scanning physical photos.

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CROPPING AND STRAIGHTENING If you do no other editing on your photos, be sure to crop and straighten them! Cropping and straightening are the two things you will most likely need to fix on photos that are scanned manually, and both processes are among the easiest you can perform.

ADJUSTING FOR COLOR, RED EYE, AND CREASES; AND ADDITIONAL EDITING To edit your photos further to adjust color, hide ugly marks, remove red-eye, and so forth, use an image editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop. Free alternatives, such as Photo Gallery for Windows and iPhoto for Mac, don’t have huge tool sets for editing, but they have the basics and will work just fine for anyone who either doesn’t have Photoshop or doesn’t know it inside and out. Editing out physical creases on photos takes extreme skill and care. If you know your way around Photoshop, try the clone stamp tool. If you don’t, get help. You can always make an initial scanned copy of your creased photos for safekeeping and then send them to a service, such as DigMyPics, ScanCafe, or ScanMyPhotos, to scan and touch them up for you. Prices for these services add up fast, however, so the more you’re able to do yourself, the better it will be on your wallet.


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DIGITAL LIFE

SHOPPING

10 Ways To Do Valentine’s Day Digitally Shopping sites, apps, and box-of the month clubs provide modern-day ways to find and give Valentine’s Day gifts your significant other is sure to love. BY KARA KAMENEC

W

hatever the status of your relationship, your length of commitment as a couple, or your financial situation, you’re likely feeling the pressure to give your significant other the “right” gift for Valentine’s Day. Flowers, cards, and candy may have cut it in years past, but the Internet has drastically increased expectations of creativity and originality. So instead of opting for avoidance or settling with outdated gifts, you can elevate your standards—and perhaps your relationship—by finding gifts you’re actually excited to give. This year the best way to give a sure-to-be-loved Valentine’s Day gift is to explore romantically themed websites and apps that help you give the things your partner will love—and keep you out of doghouse.

Red Envelope A staple for birthdays, holidays and other celebrations, RedEnvelope.com is devoted to providing classically themed gifts for every occasion. The 15-year-old company offers a full range of gifts that come delivered in large red signature boxes. Many on-site gifts have heartwarming background stories, which are printed and shipped along with the gift to make for an exceptionally genuine gifting experience. Different monogram and personalization options are available for a variety of gifts on Red Envelope, and all gifts come with a personal gift card enclosed in—what else?—a red envelope.

GiftTree If you’re looking for something more traditional but with a tasteful spin, check out GiftTree.com. The site features a full selection of romantic gift baskets, bouquets, balloons, and more. Most gifts have monogramming and other personalization options availabl,e and earliest delivery dates are clearly noted beside every item. You can sort by best sellers and price, and further refine your selection by dragging a price slider. GiftTree makes it easy to find, buy, and ship more elegant versions of traditional romantic gifts such as a personalized wine crate or classic bouquet of red roses.

FindGift FindGift.com is a curated collection of the best gifts from around the Web. From the Valentine’s Day gift section you can browse options by recipient (Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Husband, Wife, and Friend), then further sort results by Price Range, Category, and Gift Type (Unusual, Trendy, Humorous, and so on). Each gift page provides a picture, price, description, seller, options for saving and sharing the gift, and a More Details button that directs you off-site to the actual product page. Although you do not purchase directly from FindGift.com, the site is an excellent resource for discovering products and creating gift lists.

Bond Digitally handwritten letters aren’t a thing of the future—they’re already here. Gift site, app, and love letter–transcribing company Bond (BondGifts.com) transforms romantic text from digital to handwritten with cutting-edge technology. Text can be submitted from a desktop computer or iPhone using the Bond iOS App. Notes are written on paper with calligraphy-type handwriting using a ballpoint pen and prior to mailing are sealed with a wax stamp. Pricing for notes starts at $5, including mailing costs, for up to 225 characters. The specialty gift site also features midrange-priced specialty gifts sorted by price and organized by category, such as The Professional, Downtown, and Finds Under $50.

Giftly As the modern alterative to a gift card or daily deal voucher, Giftly.com is the foremost way to give intrinsically customizable gifts without limiting the recipient to a specific place, item, or service. With Giftly, you essentially give money toward a gift with a suggestion of what the recipient might like. To make it more specific you can select either the service or product to give, or the venue at which to redeem the gift. If you choose to suggest an item or service, you can select from more than 15 categories such as Hipster, Clothes for Him, or Get Fresh, and find second-level categories as detailed as Tattoo, Bling, Mani-Pedi, and more. Gifts can be digitally sent via email or text, mailed to yourself or the recipient via USPS, or downloaded for print as a PDF.

SnapFish When it comes to personalizing virtually any object with photographs, look no further than SnapFish.com. The photo service specializes in custom gifts such as photo calendars and cards, and its website features more than 100 customizable photo gifts and free, easy-to-use editing tools. Upload photos from a scanner or mobile phone, or have a friend send a photo that you can you can share in private group rooms. For Valentine’s Day, choose from more than 600 customizable holiday-themed cards or create photo gifts of all shapes and sizes ranging from sterling silver necklaces to pillows and stuffed animals.

BoldLoft The couples-focused BoldLoft.com features a unique collection of specialty gift lines crafted to suit any romantic gift occasion. BoldLoft products come in sets of two, featuring a male and female stick figure couple, and are organized in different series such as Boy Meets Girl, Love a Lot, Giggly & Wiggly, Love Element, F.A.M.I.L.Y, Bundles of Love, and Love Zodiac. Users shop products by Series; Gift Ideas, such as Gift for Him, Gifts for Her, and Long Distance; and Categories, such as body pillowcases and couple T-shirts. Gifts are further associated with romantic product brands such as You’re Irresistible, Love Has No Distance, My Heart Beats for You, and Love You Madly.

HowAboutWe... For Couples HowAboutWe... For Couples (couples.howaboutwe.com) is a unique romantic website that functions as an “Offline Dating Site” for singles and a collection of date experiences for couples to purchase. Although you don’t have to be a member to join, dates are available to members at discounts of up to 75 percent. Each date is displayed similar to a daily deal product and has a set expiration date. Deal pages feature customized description sections, as well as agenda details such as time, address, and map, and buying details including retail price, deal price, and the option to book the date. In the DateBook browse available dates sorted by Newest, Most Popular, and Last Chance. For Valentine’s Day, you can book an individual date, or give gift membership packages consisting of three-, six-, or 12-month subscriptions. HowAboutWe... Dates is currently available in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Romantic Gift of the Month Clubs For the perfect way to show you really do see a future with your significant other, explore gifting romantically themed box-of-the-month-club subscription gifts. SpicySubscriptions (thefantasybox.com) offers three subscription tiers, each delivering one box per month. Déjàmor (dejamor.com) has a standard gift-a-month subscription service delivering two boxes each month: one for him and one for her. Unbound (unboundbox.com) delivers a couples box every three months with single-use and sample products designed with the goal of “helping you try something new.” BlushBox (blushbox.com) is a female-specific gift-of-the-season club that delivers four annual boxes that combine the sensual and sultry with the fashionable, and contain beauty products, bedroom accessories, and intimates to make women feel sexy.

Couples Apps Give the gift of constant connectivity by setting up and gifting a couples app. These made-for-two social apps essentially construct a personal app and digital space for you and your significant other. Some of the most popular apps for couples include Couple (couple.me), Simply Us (simplyus.com), Avocado (avocado.io), and the Koreaoriginated Between (between.us). These apps let you privately share messages, pictures, calendars, lists, and more. Some have unique additional features that help you connect with your loved one like never before. Couple has a Thumbkiss feature; Avocado lets you digitally send hugs and kisses. Nowadays one of the best ways to show you want to share your life with someone else may be to create a private digital space exclusively for just the two of you.


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APPSCOUT

Our Favorite Apps iPad

EarthViewer

Android

Multi-platform

Android, iOS

Free

l l l l h EarthViewer is an informative and fun way to learn about our planet’s “deep history.” Geared to science teachers and students, it covers 4.5 billion years of geological and atmospheric information. Cool animations let you watch the continents drift on a virtual globe. The app shows changes to the planet’s temperature, oxygen, and carbon dioxide levels, the length of the day, and the EDITORS’ CHOICE Sun’s luminosity, from the earliest eons through modern times. Anyone with an interest in the Earth sciences has no reason not to download EarthViewer.

DIGITAL LIFE

APPSCOUT


Android

IP Network Calculator

Multi-platform

Android, iOS

Free

l l l l m Whether you’re a networking expert in need of every bit of information about a network or you’re just learning the craft, IP Network Calculator can help. It lets you determine IP addresses, subnets, and lots of other information, all from your Android device. Easily customizable, with the capability to copy and paste information in a number of formats, IP Network Calculator has only one drawback at present: It works only with IPv4 networks, though IPv6 support is reportedly coming soon.

DIGITAL LIFE

APPSCOUT


Mint

Android

Multi-platform

Android, iOS

Free

l l l l h If you don’t have a Mint.com account, you’re missing out on the best personal finance tool on the market. Mint tracks your spending, lets you set up budgets in different categories, and helps you plan your financial future. The mobile app lets you keep tabs on your cash when you’re on the go, putting data for all your financial account balances and transactions in one place. Mint takes time and EDITORS’ CHOICE patience to fully customize, and some features are available only on the Web, but there’s no better way to keep an eye on your money.

DIGITAL LIFE

APPSCOUT


Android

Ridiculous Fishing

Multi-platform

Android, iOS

$2.99

l l l l h Load your gun—it’s time to go fishing. This game starts off innocently enough: You lower your fishhook over the side of a small, retro-pixelated boat and try to snag as many of the best fish as you can. But once your hook is out of the water again, the fish are flung into the air and you must tap the screen furiously to shoot them with the firearm of your choice, blasting them to the clouds, moon, and eventually the EDITORS’ CHOICE stars. (Trust us, it makes sense when you play.) Loaded with fun visual and musical style, Ridiculous Fishing both lives up to its name and delivers serious, addictive fun.


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LAST WORD

T The Romance Of Net Neutrality Is Over

JOHN C. DVORAK

o me it was always a forgone conclusion that so-called net neutrality would not last for very long. Like a Valentine’s Day idea of romance, it’s unrealistic. Besides being a vague idea, net neutrality would only benefit the bandwidth-hog sites such as Netflix and others that offer movie downloading and streaming. Now an appeals court has ruled that the whole net neutrality idea is bogus and threw it out. According to The Wall Street Journal, this “raises the prospect that bandwidth-hungry websites like Netflix Inc. might have to pay tolls to ensure quality service.” They got the story right, but the concept of “tolls” paid by Netflix is highly unlikely for at least two good reasons. The idea of net neutrality was simple: All sites big and small were to be treated equally by the transport companies. Once upon a time there were thousands of little independent ISPs that would have been defined as transport companies. Now it has boiled down to a handful of monster companies such as Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast, plus a few small fry found in local markets. The thinking goes that these big companies in particular are looking for ways to make extra profits. Most of them sell TV services over the same wires they use to provide Internet service. So why would any of them want Netflix on their systems stealing their business? These folks think that Netflix should pay a tax if it wants to compete this way.

Companies will be going after the end user so it would be impossible to be indicted for anything.

Thus Netflix gets throttled in such a way that the only way you will be able to see a Netflix movie is via the old-fashioned download-and-play mechanism—which means waiting and waiting. Netflix and the other services bank on streaming on demand. That’s what people want and use. Why should any of the big cable companies put up with this? Netflix is going to have to pony up some dough to allow this in the future, right? Yes, but only if these companies have the guts to risk racketeering charges for extortion. That’s where things get dicey. And that’s the direction I’d take this debate: racketeering. As far as I can tell, this sort of thing—selective throttling resolved by a “fee”—seems to be in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) if these companies persist in gouging Netflix or any of the other streaming operations. This is pretty obviously not going to happen, because Netflix, Amazon, and others have huge coffers and teams of lawyers to make the transport companies miserable, if not subject to racketeering laws. Thus it won’t happen that way. Instead, these companies will be going after the end user so it would be impossible to be indicted for anything. It works differently and you should expect it. End users will have to pay extra for the special Quality of Service (QOS) services that will allow for high-bandwidth streaming. It will start at $10 per month more than you’re already paying, then shoot up to some ridiculous fee for 4K streaming support. It is so obvious that this is where the gouge will be targeted: the customers. There will be no direct throttling of Netflix streaming; instead, all streaming will be treated differently when it is observed appearing at the various nodes. I would

This is where the gouge will be targeted: the customers. There will be no direct throttling of Netflix streaming.

suspect that this will apply to YouTube and podcasts too. Yes, they will still kind of work, but not when it is a two-hour movie. You’ll need the special QOS package for $10 more a month. There are various ways of making this work for the big providers. I look at my data plan from T-Mobile. It’s one of the cheapie programs and the data is technically unlimited, but once it goes past a certain usage ceiling it switches the connection from 4G to 3G. I can see a similar tactic happening at the ISP level. I can watch a Netflix movie once a month before I hit the limit and the movie becomes unwatchable unless I pay a fee. All while The Wall Street Journal and others worry that poor Netflix will have to pay a fee, which never happens. It always falls to the public to pay the fee and not by paying more to Netflix, which is what would happen if Netflix had to pay a toll. No, the fee will be taken from the customer and go straight to the ISPs, cutting out the middleman. You watch.

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, PC MAGAZINE NETWORK Dan Costa CREATIVE DIRECTOR, ZIFF DAVIS Cynthia Passanante MANAGING EDITOR, DIGITAL EDITIONS Matthew Murray SENIOR DESIGNER Jackie Smith SENIOR PRODUCER Mark Lamorgese

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Laarni Almendrala Ragaza (hardware) LEAD ANALYSTS Jamie Lendino (consumer electronics), Samara Lynn (networking),

Michael Muchmore (software), Neil J. Rubenking (security), Joel Santo Domingo (desktops, laptops), Sascha Segan (mobile), M. David Stone (printers, scanners) SENIOR ANALYST, DIGITAL CAMERAS Jim Fisher ANALYSTS Jill Duffy (software, Internet, networking), Will Greenwald (consumer electronics),

Tony Hoffman (printers, scanners), Eugene Kim (mobile), Brian Westover (hardware), Jeff Wilson (software, Internet, networking) JUNIOR ANALYSTS Patrick Austin (consumer electronics), Max Eddy (software, Internet, networking) INVENTORY CONTROL COORDINATOR Nicole Graham

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