Best Free Antivirus Software

BEST FREE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE SEPTEMBER 2010 fIrST LOOKS: Lenovo IdeaCentre B500 20 Twitter Tools You Can’t Live Without How to Build a Linux PC for $200 TOP 100 FREE MOBILe APPS • Google Android • Apple iPhone • BlackBerry • Palm • Symbian • Windows Mobile Plus The New BlackBerry Torch 9800 >> september 2010 vol. 29 no. 9 42 COVER STORY The top 100 Free mobile apps The dream of turning your phone into a PC on the go would be nothing without the right apps. In this blockbuster story, we include the best free apps for iPhone, Android, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile phones. You’ll find everything from e-book readers to VoIP. PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION september 2010 storemags & fantamag - magazines for all 17 23 FIRST LOOKS tech newS 12 hardware 5 Front Side Lenovo IdeaCentre B500 The “Internet kill switch” bill; wood- Ava Direct Nano Cube en iPhone skins; building a $200 Linux PC; the coolest laptop bags. Dell Studio XPS 7100 Acer Aspire AS5741Z-5433 OPINIONS Casio Green Slim XJ-A145U 2 First Word: Plus Quick Looks Lance Ulanoff 36 John C. Dvorak 20 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS 38 Sascha Segan Sony Bravia KDL-55HX800 40 Dan Costa BlackBerry Torch Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2 SOLUTIONS Plus Quick Looks 64 Top Twitter Tools Want to tweet with the pros? 26 BUSINESS Check out our list of handy Twitter HP Z200 companion apps and services. Imation Defender F200 + Bio 72 security: Free Av Software HP LaserJet Enterprise P3015dn Sure, pay suites are more powerful, but our list of free AV and anti- 30 SOFTWARE malware apps can also get the job Webroot AntiVirus 2011 done. Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security 8.3 76 office: super excel tips iMovie for iPhone 4 Master Excel 2010 with our 10 most Plus Quick Looks useful tips and shortcuts. 82 the best stuff PC Magazine Digital Edition, ISSN 0888-8507, is published monthly at $12 for one year. Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 East 28th Street, New York NY 10016-7940. september 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 1 FIRST WORD LANCE ULANOFF Easier on a Mac ’ve been cheating on my Windows dows in over a decade. For years, I’ve 7 PC. You see, when I need to edit used Adobe Premiere Elements to edit and and upload videos to YouTube, I upload videos on my Windows XP, Vista, use a Mac. My indiscretion began and, now, Windows 7 systems. When I was casually, but it’s evolved into a bit of shooting 640-by-480 video, things went anI obsession: This is an affair that I do not pretty smoothly. I’m actually a big fan of intend to end. The simple, painful truth is the remarkable level of control afforded that video editing and YouTube uploading me by Premiere Elements and have stuck is much smoother when I use iMovie on a with the app from Version 1 through 8. How- MacBook Pro. ever, when I switched to an HD pocket cam- I’ve been shooting a lot of video lately and, corder, things got dicey. if you’ve seen any of my YouTube uploads, These days, I’m using a Kodak Zi8 Pocket you know I’ve met with varying degrees of Video Camera to shoot most of my video. success. I’ve posted pixelated videos, vid- Naturally, the files are larger than VGA- eos that look a tad blurry, and even videos quality files, but not so large that a mid- that are too small for the now-standard 16:9 range, decently equipped PC shouldn’t be YouTube playback window. Each and every able to handle them. Unfortunately, even at one of these clips was edited and uploaded WVGA resolution, Adobe Premiere 8 seems via Windows. Contrast that with the results to choke on some of my files, struggling using my Mac: Every video looks better, and to catch up (it’s forever grinding through all properly fill the YouTube playback win- background processes). I can live with this dow. In each instance, producing the video when it’s on my laptop, but I am frustrated on the Mac was easier. when I see similar performance on my Win- dows 7 desktop, which has Nvidia graphics The Big Slowdown and 6GB of memory. What really drives me I’m not blaming Windows 7, per se. Instead, nuts, however, is what happens to my out- I’ll point a bony finger at the apps. As I’ve put. Adobe Premiere Elements is at a com- said before, this is the best version of Win- plete loss when it comes to guiding me to 2 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION september 2010 storemags & fantamag - magazines for all Every iMovie video I’ve uploaded to YouTube looks better than those edited with Premiere. the best output settings for my video. It Most of the work involved clicking, double- doesn’t appear to auto-sense the size or clicking, and dragging and dropping. I could resolution, and it doesn’t stop me when I preview portions of the video and my full select something that will make the video video at any time. You can do this with Pre- look like garbage. In fact, the more I dig miere and other Windows apps, too, but it into the program, the worse it becomes. If it was easier to do so in iMovie. took only a few minutes to convert and then upload the video I might not care. Too bad it Deceptively Simple can take well over an hour to compress and Most video-editing products make you upload a 9-minute video (longer if I choose choose between a timeline interface and the wrong settings). I have tried both local a storyboard. Perhaps the only video edi- and online help, but there is nothing that tor on the market to split the difference is addresses my specific problem. iMovie. The video-editing window is utterly unique. It gives you video-scene thumb- Keeping It Simple nails nearly as large as you’d find in a story- I tried switching to a simpler app—the very board editor, but with the near-frame-level usable Windows Movie Maker. It’s super- control you’d find in a timeline. On the sur- friendly, but, ultimately, a bit too simplistic face, iMovie appears to offer far less control for my needs. Plus, it offered no more advice than does Premiere; yet, what it does offer about proper upload settings than Premiere. usually results in highly professional out- I could go on about my frustrations, but put. iMovie gets the single most important why bother? I finally decided to switch to thing right: It defaults to the best YouTube the 15-inch MacBook Pro with iMovie (part output option. Virtually every iMovie video of iLife 9) that I have sitting in my office. I’ve uploaded to YouTube looks better than I discovered that iMovie on the Mac is what I posted via Premiere Elements and better in almost every way than any video- Windows Movie Maker. editing software I have ever tried. I simply For lower-resolution videos, Windows- booted the software, created a new project, based tools may suffice, but for videos of and then imported my video. The interface any resolution above 480i, I’m going with a seems to understand something that none Mac and iMovie whenever possible. Please of the Windows apps I’ve tried do—that do not tell my Windows 7 PC. you’re working with video. All video apps Follow me on Twitter! Catch the chief’s I’ve tried use drag-and-drop, but iMovie lets comments on the latest tech developments at you dispense with virtually everything else. twitter.com/LanceUlanoff. september 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 3 Editor-in-ChiEf, pC magazinE nEtwork Lance Ulanoff ® Editor Stephanie Chang dirECtor of onLinE ContEnt, EXECUtiVE prodUCEr Vicki B. Jacobson EXECUtiVE Editor Dan Costa pC Labs dirECtor, managing Editor (Laptops, dEsktops) Laarni Almendrala Ragaza www.pcmag.com managing Editors Sean Carroll (software, security, Internet, business), Tony Hoffman (printers, scanners), Matthew Murray (ExtremeTech), Sascha Segan (mobile), Wendy Sheehan Donnell (consumer electronics) fEatUrEs Editor Eric Griffith sEnior Editors Brian Heater (PCMag.com), Carol Mangis (blogs, community), Erik Rhey (Digital Edition) pC Labs LEad anaLysts Cisco Cheng (laptops), Tim Gideon (consumer electronics), Samara Lynn (business, networking), Michael Muchmore (software), Neil J. Rubenking (security), Joel Santo Domingo (desktops), M. David Stone (printers, scanners) anaLysts Dan Evans (DIY, hardware), PJ Jacobowitz (consumer electronics) inVEntory ControL Coordinator Nicole Graham staff photographEr Scott Schedivy pCmag.Com managEr, onLinE prodUCtion Yun-San Tsai prodUCErs Mark Lamorgese, Whitney A. Reynolds nEws Editor Mark Hachman nEws rEportEr Chloe Albanesius staff Editors Jennifer Bergen (blogs), Gregg Binder (printers, scanners), Errol Pierre-Louis (software, security, Internet), Jeffrey Wilson (software, security, Internet) assistant Editors Sean Ludwig (mobile), David Pierce (consumer electronics), Natalie Shoemaker (hardware) CommErCE prodUCErs Iman Edwards, Arielle Rochette UtiLity program managEr Tim Smith CrEatiVE dirECtor Chris Phillips ContribUting Editors Helen Bradley, John R. Delaney, Richard V. Dragan, John C. Dvorak, Craig Ellison, Galen Fott, Bill Howard, Don Labriola, Jamie Lendino, Jim Louderback, Bill Machrone, Edward Mendelson, Jan Ozer, Neil Randall, Matthew D. Sarrel, Larry Seltzer intErns Andrea Burciu, Joe Osborne ViCE prEsidEnt, digitaL saLEs Kenneth J. Detlet 212-503-5252 ViCE prEsidEnt, markEting James Selden 212-503-4689 markEting managEr Lindsay Garrison 212-503-5270 wEb dEsignEr Yoland Ouiya adVErtising offiCE 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7940; phone, 800-336-2423, 212-503-3500; fax, 212-503-5000 For advertising information go to www.pcmagmedia.com ziff daVis inC. ChiEf EXECUtiVE offiCEr Vivek Shah ChiEf finanCiaL offiCEr and sEnior ViCE prEsidEnt Neil Glass ChiEf opErating offiCEr Steve Sutton sEnior ViCE prEsidEnt, ContEnt Lance Ulanoff gEnEraL managEr and sEnior ViCE prEsidEnt, data soLUtions Bennett Zucker sEnior ViCE prEsidEnt, bUsinEss dEVELopmEnt Anurag Harsh gEnEraL CoUnsEL Stephen Hicks ViCE prEsidEnt James Selden (Marketing and Sales Development, Consumer/Small-Business) EXECUtiVE dirECtor Larry Chevres (Internet Technology) dirECtor Nyasha Bass (Licensing) thE indEpEndEnt gUidE PC Magazine is the Independent Guide to Technology.

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