Pc Magazine 5 Pcontents

SECURITY SUITE SHOOTOUT TAKING PROTECTION TO THE NEXT LEVEL Top 200 Web Sites Undiscovered and Classic Destinations for Fun, Work, and Good Living SPECIAL 25 YEARS OF TECHNOLOGY DOUBLE PC LABS TESTS ISSUE! YOUR NEXT PC

Hot New 41 Systems Put to the Test NOVEMBER 6, 2007 WWW.PCMAG.COM HV20 HR10

HG10

©2007 Canon U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. “HDV” and the “HDV” logo are trademarks of Sony Corporation and Victor Company of Japan, LCD screen image is simulated. High defi nition footage captured in the AVCHD format and recorded to DVD can only be played back with Meet the family. Three HD camcorders. perfect for HD. Our camcorders also share Three HD recording formats. another genetic trait: stability. SuperRange Our latest line of High Defi nition camcorders Optical Image Stabilization addresses a covers the spectrum of HD formats. wide range of vibration — from normal The HG10 AVCHD HDD camcorder offers the longest hand-held jitters to the shake of a moving recording time of all three — up to 15 hours of HD vehicle. All without any loss in image quality. video on a 40 GB internal Hard Disk Drive. So Speaking of quality, each of our HD camcorders there’s no need for tapes or discs. Then there’s carries an auto focus system called Instant AF. the HR10, an AVCHD camcorder It’s technology that adds an external sensor to designed for the person who our internal auto focus system. The result is dramatically faster auto focus speed and accuracy, Intuitive handling makes shooting and playback as simple as it sounds. which is essential for HD. While we were at it, we even included the same sensor technology that made our enjoys the convenience of Canon EOS Digital SLR cameras the recording directly to DVD. And choice of professional photographers. completing the trio is the HV20 The Canon Full HD CMOS image HD camcorder that records High sensor captures HD information at Definition video to mini DV tape. 1920 x1080 for ultra-realistic detail. That makes three brilliant ways And for the budding fi lmmaker, each to get the ultimate in camcorder comes with 24p Cinema High Definition video Mode, a feature that allows you to capture. Despite their vThere’s HD, and there’s Canon HD. And each differences, our cam- and every technology makes it possible. corders have a lot in common — like our lenses, for instance. Our add a cinematic look and feel to your own High Defi nition story starts with Genuine Canon Optics. productions. So there it is: the highest form of High After all, we have a history of over 70 years of optical Definition from Canon. Ushering us all expertise. So it’s no surprise that our lenses deliver into the HD era with High Definition the finest HD image quality. Behind the formats and features that meet lens, we have our exclusive DIGIC your high expectations. And no matter which DV II Image Processor, optimized model you choose, you’ll discover so for HD Video. DIGIC DV II offers incredibly many ways to bring High Definition precise color and tonal reproduction — to your life. To learn more about Canon’s line of HD camcorders, visit Superior HD begins with the lens. And no one www.usa.canon.com/hdexpert can match Canon’s legendary optical expertise.

Limited (JVC). Canon and DIGIC are registered trademarks of Canon Inc. in the United States. IMAGEANYWARE is a trademark of Canon. AVCHD-compatible DVD players. For further information, visit www.canondv.com Looking for a total websit

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Visit us now 1and1.com Toshiba recommends Windows Vista® Ultimate

Get the ultimate in HD and a revolutionary recordable HD DVD drive1 with the Qosmio® G45 notebook PC. Enjoy a quiet evening with an indie film, your Qosmio G45 and millions of beautiful pixels. With HD DVD providing up to 6x the resolution of DVDs,2 you’ll discover a supreme home-theater experience.1 Throw in genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate, a 17-inch Ultimate TruBrite® widescreen display and four built-in Harman Kardon® Bass Reflex speakers, and pretty soon any movie will seem like a blockbuster. To learn more, visit www.toshiba.com/blockbuster.

1. Because HD DVD is a new format that makes use of new technologies, certain disc, digital connection and other compatibility and/or performance issues are possible. Depending on HD DVD content, you may experience “frame dropping” or lower performance. See HD DVD Technology Legal Footnote at www.info.toshiba.com. 2. Based on pixel count compared to standard NTSC DVD output. Qosmio and TruBrite are registered trademarks of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., and/or Toshiba Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, the Centrino logo, and Centrino are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Windows and Windows Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. While Toshiba has made every effort at the time of publication to ensure the accuracy of the information provided herein, product specifications, configurations, prices, system/component/options availability are all subject to change without notice. For the most up-to-date product information about your computer, or to stay current with the various computer software or hardware options, visit Toshiba’s Web site at www.pcsupport.toshiba.com. ©2007 Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. PContentsVOL. 26 NO. 21/22 NOVEMBER 6, 2007  FIRST LOOKS

27 Software Norton Internet Security 2008 Panda Internet Security 2008 Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard BullZip PDF Printer deskPDF Professional PDF Converter Professional 4 Pownce.com COVER STORY Totalidea TweakVI 34 Consumer Electronics Th e Ultimate Apple iPod touch Apple iPod nano (3rd generation) PC Buying Guide Motorola Q9m (Verizon) With the holidays just around the corner, PC manufacturers are HTC Advantage  rolling out their best systems. Whether you want to buy a new Sony PSP (model 2000) computer for yourself, or to surprise someone special, you’ve Westinghouse TX-47F430S come to the right place. We’ve tested dozens of systems—gaming rigs, family PCs, budget desktops, and laptops—to bring you our TomTom GO 720 top picks and pans. Fuji FinePix Z5fd Helio Fin Nokia E65 46 Hardware Security Suite Shootout page 27 Canon Pixma Pro9000 Top 200 Web Sites Iomega eGo page 78 CyberPower Gamer Ultra 8500 SE

48 Business Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N Your Next PC page 64 ASUS U1F HP Ofﬁ cejet Pro K5400dtn Color Printer Budget Graphics Cards Xerox Phaser 8560MFP/D page 95 54 The Best Stuff

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 5 PCONTENTS

GRAPHICS CARD SUPERGUIDE

SPECIAL REPORT: INTERNET Better Graphics Best of the Web 2007 On a Budget

Try as we might, we can’t ﬁ t all the best Web sites If you’re going to upgrade your PC to Vista, you’re  in the universe in a mere list of 100. That’s why  probably going to need a new graphics card. We we’ve scoured the Net to to bring you the choic- test six entry-level and midgrade graphics cards est morsels, including the Top 100 Undiscovered and give you step-by-step instructions on upgrad- sites as well as our annual Top 100 Classic sites. ing your PC for Vista-ready graphics.

FRONT SIDE OPINIONS SOLUTIONS INSIDE PCMAG.COM 17 News 9 First Word 103 Yahoo! Pipes Want more from our experts? Visit us Better medication Lance Ulanoff Create your own online for: through computing; mash-ups—no • PCMag.com’s Product Guides, 58 John C. Dvorak the new generation coding required. with product pricing, reviews, of thin clients; solid- 59 Inside Track and comparisons state storage arrives; John C. Dvorak 106 Ask Neil • Breaking tech news to keep you informed outlawing Wi-Fi 60 Jim Louderback scarﬁ ng; putting a 108 Ask Loyd • Industry analysis from our expert price on music piracy. 62 Dan Costa columnists • Lively tech discussions in our 63 Sascha Segan 110 Business 18 At a Glance Building a better Web PCMag.com Forums Photonic computing; site; keeping custom- Microsoft’s Side- 56 25 YEARS ers; new Microsoft Winder mouse; weird OF PC MAG Word features for research projects. 2002. iRobot co- longer documents. founder Colin 20 Q&A Angle; the wire- 128 BACKSPACE Felicia Yue, product less revolution; manager of Sport- memories of vision. Windows 95.

22 Connected Traveler

Using Web 2.0 to Take control of your PC’s start-up meet people and save process with our latest utility, StartUp money while travel- Cop Pro 3. This applet lets you decide ing; handy travel gear. which programs to launch at startup—and checks for threats using Bit9’s database. You can download StartUp PC Magazine, ISSN 0888-8507, is published semi-monthly, except monthly in July and three issues in November, at $44.97 for one Cop Pro 3 for $7.97 or access a year’s year. Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016-7940. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY 10016-7940 and at additional mailing ofﬁ ces. POSTMASTER: Address changes to PC Magazine, P.O. Box 54070, Boulder, CO 80328-4070. The Cana- worth of utilities for $19.97. Find more dian GST registration number is 865286033. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40009221. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses details at go.pcmag.com/download. to P.O. Box 503, R.P.O. West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6, Canada. Printed in the U.S.A.

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Family of Notebooks All the functionality. Half the size. U800 Ultra-Mobile PC

• Runs on Genuine The new 1.5-pound Fujitsu U800 Ultra-Mobile PC Windows Vista® Business is massively versatile and wonderfully small. With its • 1.5lbs Intel® Pentium® M processor, you can easily • 5 hour battery life U800800 Ultra-Mobile PPCC • 40GB hard drive ® ™ launch Microsoft Vista applications and YouTube videos • Webcam included and view them on a vivid 5.6-inch monitor/touch-screen. • Bluetooth® Share data and peripherals effortlessly with built-in • 5.6” screen • Wireless WAN enabled* ® PP16001600 Portable PPCC Bluetooth technology. And keep all your data ultra-safe with biometric security. It’s even Wireless WAN enabled* and includes a webcam. To learn more go to us.fujitsu.com/computers/smallwonder

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T4200 Tablet PC** ©2007 Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation. All rights reserved. Fujitsu, the Fujitsu logo and LifeBook are registered trademarks of Fujitsu Limited. Centrino, Intel, Intel Core, Core Inside, the Centrino logo, Pentium M, and the Intel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and ** Fujitsu T2000 and T4000 series Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ® ™ Tablet PCs feature Intel Core 2 * Wireless WAN not available on all models. Duo processor technology. FIRST WORD LANCE ULANOFF Fair Use Is a Failure

Blame the Apple iPhone for my new love the Internet long before it arrived on store The advent of Blu-ray, HD DVD, and affair with mobile video. I’ve always taken shelves. new encryption schemes has slowed the a skeptical view of video on tiny screens— Fair use made sense only as long as it DVD-ripping engine down, but it hasn’t until recently. A few weeks ago I took was virtually impossible for individuals stopped it. Soon someone will hack HD the iPhone on a business trip. I watched to replicate mass-market distribution of encryption, and new ripper apps will the Scott Baio Is 45 . . . And Single reality- major content. The digital nature of all arrive. show premiere, along with other brainless content, and easy access to the Internet Most people who do what I did are video treats. Most screens on devices of and a broadband pipe, have fundamentally acting in the spirit of fair use and have no this genre are too small for my enjoyment. changed the equation. intention of distributing the content. Real- Thanks to the iPhone, I’ve turned a corner So where does that leave me and other istically, though, once it’s in a digital form, and started thinking about all the other law-abiding citizens who simply want to redistribution is a possibility. video I might consume on this pocket-size watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 on our Fair use just doesn’t work in the digi- device. iPhones? Content providers counsel buy- tal age, and it’s time for content providers I set my sights on the massive DVD col- ing a version from iTunes. Nuts to them— to recognize that if they don’t give people lection in my den, almost a decade’s worth I’m not paying twice. As an experiment, I viewing options, people will generate them of my favorite movies. I also know that my started looking for easy ways to transfer a on their own. I suggest that movie studios future is fi lled with business trips. So, nat- purchased DVD movie onto an iPod. Doz- create a slightly more deluxe version of urally, I now want to get that DVD content onto the iPhone. But that would be breaking the law. Some people, however, would Where does that leave law-abiding citizens who want consider my plans fair use. The term “fair use” was a widely rec- to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 on their iPhones? ognized, albeit not specifically codified agreement between content creators and Content providers counsel buying a version from consumers for decades. It became an offi - cial part of copyright law in 1976, right iTunes. Nuts to them—I’m not paying twice. around the time VCRs arrived. Prior to that, fair use dealt largely with copying portions of books for research papers and ens of programs are out there, but many their DVD offerings: For another 99 cents, classrooms, and the less-common practice are too hard to use. Open-source Hand- say, you would also be able to download the of backing up audio LPs to tape. Brake is a favorite choice of Mac users. fi lm. That may not be fair use, but it is fair. The VCR changed things. Suddenly, And AoAMedia.com’s spectacularly easy consumers could copy entire television DVD Ripper includes output options for In This Issue shows and even movies from broadcast the AppleTV and the iPod. The following pages are fi lled with every- TV. The movie studios and television For my tests, I used DVD Ripper on thing I love about PC Magazine. Our block- networks grew concerned, and it became Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Since the buster PC story is the ultimate system obvious that more onerous copyright con- trialware version rips only 10 minutes of buying guide, complete with a features trols would essentially kill the nascent video, I ripped and converted one of the table, benchmarks, and scorecards. We also VCR industry. extra features. Next, I grabbed the com- show you how to buy a solid graphics card Fast-forward to the digital age, with its pleted file and dropped it into iTunes. without breaking the bank. And for those content-copying free-for-all. We encoun- Then I synced the iPod and was soon who live online, we’ve produced what I ter content piracy at every turn: Street watching the clip. The whole process took consider to be our best Top Web Sites story corners are littered with a wide selection only about 5 minutes. DVD encryption ever, with 200 fantastic destinations. of pirated DVDs, thousands of unsanc- was nothing to this app, and though many tioned studio and network clips are all similar apps discourage DVD ripping and TALK TO THE CHIEF You can contact over YouTube, and recently the world was others won’t do it at all, it’s likely that apps Lance at [email protected]. stunned to find complete PDF pages of such as DVD Ripper are not going away For more of his columns, go to go.pcmag Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on anytime soon. .com/ulanoff.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 9 ®

WWW.PCMAGCONNECT.COM

Visit PC Magazine Connect www.pcmag.com for special offers from PC EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lance Ulanoff Magazine and select EDITOR Stephanie Chang partners. It’s your resource EXECUTIVE PRODUCT DIRECTOR Robyn Peterson for sweepstakes, downloads, DIRECTOR OF ONLINE CONTENT, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Vicki B. Jacobson announcements and updates EXECUTIVE EDITORS Dan Costa (reviews), Carol L. Gonsher, Jeremy A. Kaplan that keep you connected. ART DIRECTOR Richard J. Demler

PC LABS DIRECTOR, SENIOR EDITOR (HARDWARE) Laarni Almendrala Ragaza

SENIOR EDITORS Sean Carroll (software, Internet, networking), Carol Mangis (blogs), Sarah Pike (Solutions), Erik Rhey (Front Side) DISKEEPER® 2007 SENIOR WRITER Eric Grifﬁ th Speed up your PCs and servers FEATURES EDITOR Dan Evans REVIEWS EDITORS Brian Bennett (consumer electronics), automatically! New Diskeeper® 2007 Gary Berline (software, Internet, networking), Tony Hoffman (hardware) guarantees peak system performance PC LABS LEAD ANALYSTS Cisco Cheng, Tim Gideon, Robert Heron, Michael Muchmore, and reliability at all times. Oliver Rist, Neil J. Rubenking, Joel Santo Domingo, Sascha Segan, M. David Stone Now compatible with JUNIOR ANALYST Brian Neal Windows Vista! Try it free PRODUCT REVIEW COORDINATOR PJ Jacobowitz INVENTORY CONTROL COORDINATOR Nicole Graham for 45 days. Download from ART SENIOR ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Michael St. George ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Aaron Able www.diskeeper.com/pc45 ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Christopher Ewen GRAPHICS DIRECTOR David Foster STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Scott Schedivy

PRODUCTION EDITORIAL PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Nicholas Cosmo PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jacqueline Oquendo COPY CHIEF Elizabeth A. Parry COPY EDITORS Margaret McVeigh, Ann Ovodow

ONLINE MANAGER, ONLINE PRODUCTION Yun-San Tsai PRODUCERS Mark Lamorgese, Whitney A. Reynolds DIGITAL LOVE PROGRAM NEWS EDITOR Mark Hachman NEWS REPORTER Chloe Albanesius ASSOCIATE EDITORS Jennifer L. DeLeo, Brian Heater (blogs), In honor of our 25th Anniversary, Molly K. McLaughlin (reviews), Kyle Monson PC Magazine has partnered with the ASSISTANT EDITOR Corinne Iozzio REVIEWS PRODUCERS Errol Pierre-Louis, Nicole Price Fasig PRODUCTION ARTISTS Veronica de Leon, Renée Lightner National Cristina Foundation (NCF) to COMMERCE PRODUCERS Iman Edwards, Arielle Rochette create the PC Magazine Digital Love UTILITY PROGRAM MANAGER Tim Smith COMMUNITY MANAGER Jim Lynch

Program. Donate your old, unused CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Helen Bradley, John R. Delaney, Richard V. Dragan, John C. Dvorak, technology, and help give someone the Craig Ellison, Galen Fott, Bill Howard, Don Labriola, Jim Louderback, Bill Machrone, power to learn. Go to www.go.pcmag. Ed Mendelson, Jan Ozer, Neil Randall, Matthew D. Sarrel, Larry Seltzer, Don Willmott com/donate to ﬁnd out more. EXTREMETECH.COM EDITOR Loyd Case SENIOR TECHNOLOGY ANALYSTS Jason Cross, Joel Durham PRODUCER Jeremy Atkinson

THE INDEPENDENT GUIDE SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION PC Magazine is the Independent Guide to Tech- For subscription service questions, for address nology. Our mission is to test and review com- changes, or to order, please contact us: puter- and Internet-related products and services INTERNET, service.pcmag.com (for customer and report fairly and objectively on the results. service) or subscribe.pcmag.com (to order); COMING TO YOU LIVE AND ON DEMAND Our editors do not invest in fi rms whose products TELEPHONE, 800-289-0429 or 850-682-7624 in or services we review, nor do we accept travel the U.S. and Canada, 303-604-7445 elsewhere; -IT’S DIGITALLIFETV.COM tickets or other gifts of value from such fi rms. MAIL, PC Magazine, P.O. Box 54070, Boulder, CO Except where noted, PC Magazine reviews are of 80322-4070 (please include your mailing label products and services that are currently available. with any correspondence, as it contains informa- Twice a week, host and teech journalist Our reviews are written without regard to adver- tion that will expedite processing); FAX, 850- Patrick Norton and co-host Robert Heron tising or business relationships with any vendor. 683-4094 in the U.S. and Canada, 303-604-0518 HOW TO CONTACT THE EDITORS elsewhere; E-MAIL, [email protected] (please dish up product reviews and how-tos on We welcome comments from readers. Send your type your full name and the address at which the coolest digital technology, video comments to Internet address pcmag@ziffdavis you subscribe). SUBSCRIPTIONS: The one-year .com or to PC Magazine, 28 E. 28th St., New subscription rate is $44.97. PC Magazine is pub- games and equipment and new Website York, NY 10016-7940. Please include a daytime lished semimonthly, with occasional exceptions: launches for tech fans. Go to DL.TV.com telephone number. PC Magazine’s general number A special issue may count as a subscription issue, is 212-503-3500. The West Coast Operations a combined or expanded issue may count as two number is 415-547-8000. We cannot look up subscription issues, and there may sometimes be stories from past issues, recommend products, an extra issue. Outside the U.S., add $36 per year or diagnose problems with your PC by phone. An for surface mail; U.S. funds only. Please allow four index of past issues is at www.pcmag.com/ to six weeks for your fi rst issue to arrive or for any previous_issues. For a list of upcoming stories, changes in your subscription to take place. browse www.pcmag.com. For a full description of BACK ISSUES: Back issues are $8 each in the U.S., who on staff covers what, go to www.pcmag $10 each elsewhere. Prepayment is required. .com/whocoverswhat. Contact customer service (above) for availability. If you are dissatisfi ed with a product advertised MAILING LISTS: We sometimes make lists of our in PC Magazine and cannot resolve the problem customers available to mailers of goods and with the vendor, write (do not call) Anne King, services that may interest you. If you do not wish 4]ÒZZbVWaO\R[]`SdWaWb Advertising Department, at the above address. to receive their mailings, please write to us at Please include copies of your correspondence PC Magazine, P.O. Box 54070, Boulder, CO eee^Q[OUQ]\\SQbQ][ with the vendor. 80322-4070. ADVERTISEMENT The Crucial Flaw in Server Performance Today’s server technology is designed to withstand critical workloads. But there is still one major flaw, and a secret edge for solving it.

The Importance of scheduled defragmentation leaves fragmented files behind after running, or in best cases only Server Reliability provides a very short respite from perform- It’s important enough that a single user is ance loss. Only Diskeeper 2007 consistently able to rely on a computer, and that the user’s eliminates fragmentation to continuously pro- data is always there and quickly retrievable. vide maximum performance and reliability — But when that computer is a server, and when automatically2. the number of users escalates from one or a few up to thousands, the word “important” as “I am very pleased with [the improved] ® it relates to reliability and uptime becomes a performance I am seeing on the Windows severe understatement. In today’s corporate 2003 servers we have Diskeeper 2007 world, servers are the brains and backbones installed and running on. SQL creates and of the enterprise, for executives, employees deletes many temporary tables. Setting up the and, most importantly, customers and defrags to be automatic, the SQL performance prospects. Even a few minutes of server increased substantially. Queries that originally slow-down or downtime impacts the bottom took 30 seconds or so are completing in 5 – 10 line of the company. seconds. The only change was having Diskeeper 2007 installed and operating.” A large part of the reason that server reli- today’s frantic pace of 24/7 server disk access, ability has become so vital is the evolution of Richard B. West, fragmentation is continuous and constant, and Systems Management Architect, the Web. No longer the static display that it scheduled defragmentation does not keep IT Solutions and Infrastructure once was, the Web is now a place where bil- 2 pace . To keep fragmentation from corrupting Engineering, Melbourne, FL lions in commerce is conducted, where buy- workflow, you truly need Diskeeper® 2007 ers shop for commodities, pricing and avail- ™ with its proprietary InvisiTasking technology Diskeeper EnterpriseServer version ability, and where customers log in to place defragmenting your disks, constantly and and track orders. CRM applications, once also contains advanced technologies such as invisibly, with no hit on system resources. ™ only used for internal employees on the Terabyte Volume Engine 2.0. phone, now interface with Web applications “Diskeeper has transparently prevented “Previously we were unable to defrag- so that customers and even employees can disk fragmentation from building up and ment the terabyte arrays and fragmentation interact with the company online. Databases measurably slowing down our production was resulting in processing delays of incom- such as SQL must be instantly responsive, as servers. The ability to prevent fragmentation ing data files. This resulted in our SQL server these interface with the Web as well. from building up without impacting CPU falling behind during times of high usage. load on the servers has been a key feature of Now, thanks to Diskeeper, we have breathing Server Technology Evolves the product.” room to handle future growth.” William Cox, IT Director, Georgia Department Julie McGowan, Santa Cruz County, CA to Keep Up — Almost of Easy Care and Learning, Atlanta, GA Server technology has some time since The backbone of enterprise computing passed the point of being single-box/single- InvisiTasking: The Secret Edge disk solution, having migrated into solutions environments is the server. And disk subsys- such as SAN (Storage Area Networks), pro- to Server Performance tems are, undoubtedly, vital to the overall per- viding scalability, redundancy, reliability, and As thousands of IT personnel throughout formance of a server. And as tens of thousands performance. Technology such as virtualiza- the world have discovered, Diskeeper 2007 have discovered, the most essential compo- tion takes server computing one step further, Server, with its proprietary breakthrough nent for maintaining maximum performance making more efficient use of resources for InvisiTasking technology, defragments and and reliability of those drives is Diskeeper greater power to deliver data and services. enhances file systems in real-time, with no 2007 Server editions. Take advantage of the Chip technology such as quad-core is being scheduling needed. Testing has shown that free 45-day trial and see for yourself. marketed to keep pace with the constantly rising need for processing power. But despite all these advances, the corner- Special Offer stone to server response remains the hard drives, as they remain the slowest components — the “weakest links.” Unfortunately emerging technologies such as virtualization Maximizing Performance and Reliability don’t change that fact, and actually exacerbate —Automatically!™ it. While being the weakest links, disks are also the storehouse for all server applications Try Diskeeper 2007 FREE for 45 days! and data. Keeping those drives defragmented for optimum performance has long ago Download: www.diskeeper.com/pc8 become a “given”1 — but it’s the defragmenta- (Note: Special 45-day trialware is only available at the above link) tion technology that can make the crucial dif- Volume licensing and Government / Education discounts are available from ference between keeping drives at maximum your favorite reseller or call 800-829-6468 code 4414 performance and simply “functioning.” With

1 File Fragmentation White Paper www.diskeeper.com/paper3 2 White Paper: Is Real-Time Defrag Needed? www.diskeeper.com/paper4 © 2007 Diskeeper Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Diskeeper, Maximizing Performance and Reliability—Automatically, InvisiTasking, Terabyte Volume Engine, and the Diskeeper Corporation logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Diskeeper Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Diskeeper Corporation • 7590 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91504 • 800-829-6468 • www.diskeeper.com ®

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FeedBack

Three Views on Net Neutrality I read Lance Ulanoff’s column on Net neutrality (“A Nitwit’s Guide to Net Neu- Th e only reason Net neutrality is an issue is that the trality,” page 7) in the September 18 issue. Although we are on the same side, I think ISPs for home users have an oligopoly—cable and DSL. his analogy is off. Here is my view of Net neutrality: I pay my ISP n dollars per In a truly competitive market, I could choose an month for x bandwidth. I should be able to use that bandwidth however I choose. ISP that was neutral. Ulanoff says: “To be fair, ISPs charge that bandwidth hogs like Google and You- broadband than slow dial-up so I can have justify charging it higher Internet rates. Tube pay no more than joesblog.com for faster service. This, like stealing copy- YouTube also sends and receives other, serving content over their networks.” righted content, is one more example of his smaller kinds of fi les, and even its videos This is not a fair statement. Google’s ISP generation’s “something for nothing” atti- are much smaller than a full episode of CSI charges Google a ton of money for getting tude. When can I expect my lower-priced or a feature fi lm. those bits onto the backbone. And my ISP magazine?—Bill Deaver It makes no more sense to give phone charges me for taking those bits off the and cable companies life-or-death power backbone. What the ISPs want is for my Here’s another analogy for Net neutrality: over Internet commerce than it did to ISP to be able to charge Google. “common carrier,” as applied to railroads give railroads that power over inter- Here is the analogy that I like to use. I and oil pipelines. In the late 1800s, Ameri- state commerce. Might it make sense pay my local road commission via prop- cans saw two justifi cations for regulating to let Internet carriers charge different erty taxes so much per year for road con- privately owned railroads. First, to lay rates for different kinds of fi les? Then we struction and upkeep. I use these roads track, railroad companies needed rights would need a “Net Commerce Commis- to go to businesses such as McDonald’s of way through both private and public sion” to set complicated rate schedules and Target. But McDonald’s doesn’t give land, which required both public support for carried products, just as the railroads a dime to my local road commission. It is and full cooperation from the government. and pipelines have. You don’t need a Ph.D. freeloading. In a road-unneutral world, my Second, because the public did not want in public policy to see the possibilities for road commission would ask me where I two or more railroads to compete by laying arguments and lawsuits.—Dave Datz was going every time I left my house and parallel tracks through one right of way, a ask that business for a fee. If the business railroad in that path had monopoly power A VoIP Reality Check paid, I could drive 50 miles per hour to that that could—and did—selectively ruin cus- In regard to your IP PBX Buying Guide business. If it didn’t pay, I could only drive tomers through discriminatory pricing. (“Small Business Talks Big,” page 67) and 20 MPH and might have to wait longer at So, the Interstate Commerce Commis- your Solutions article (“Virtual Phone every red light. sion was born to regulate railroads. The Systems,” page 79) in your September 4 The only reason Net neutrality is an railroads were called “common carriers,” issue, you make many arguments in favor issue is that the ISPs for home users have and the ICC banned them from using dis- of such systems but fail to inform readers an oligopoly—cable and DSL. In a truly criminatory pricing—but only for custom- properly about the negatives. I have to competitive market, I could choose an ISP ers, not for products shipped, for which the say that the largest issue with the IP PBX that was neutral, and others could choose ICC issued rate schedules. So, a railroad systems you reviewed is reliability. All an ISP that was “packet-shaped.” I might today can charge different rates for cars those systems are computer-based, and as pay a little more, but that would be fine. and computers, but it cannot discriminate we are all painfully aware, computers are —Bill Doran between Mitsubishi and Yamaha, which not really reliable. both ship both cars and computers. The Phone systems have customized Under Ulanoff’s interpretation of this Federal Energy Regulatory Commission architectures that were designed from the issue, no one should ever be allowed to applies the same logic to pipelines and oil ground up to be reliable; they are not based charge more to provide more service. So I companies shipping different kinds of oil. on a PC architecture that’s over 30 years should be able to get your magazine at the The common-carrier principles apply old. Newer phone systems include flash price I pay for my newspaper, 50 cents, and to the Net. Phone and cable companies memory for voice storage, instead of hard a Rolls-Royce for the cost of a Ford Escort. cannot string cable or use the air waves drives that wear out. The recurring costs of I already willingly pay more for wireless without public and government help, and hosted phone systems, along with the fact communities don’t want multiple cables that you never actually own anything, can HOW TO CONTACT US We welcome your com- covering the same ground. If carriers be bested by purchasing a traditional phone ments and suggestions. When sending e-mail to could charge different customers different system using a monthly lease payment with Feedback, please state in the subject line of your message which arti cle or column prompted your rates, they would have the power to nour- a small buyout at the end of the lease. response. E-mail [email protected]. ish some customers and to kill others. In addition, both articles fail to point All letters become the property of PC Magazine and are subject to edit ing. We regret that we To cite the YouTube example, you out the human element. If you buy or cannot answer letters individually. cannot use the large size of video files to lease a phone system, you can have tech-

14 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 /2D3@B7A3;3

nician at your door if you need one. If the names and faces I see in your magazine you have a falling-out with your service are my friends.—Isabel Berney company, you can call another dealer for that brand (with the hardware war- A Pat on the Back ranties for most brands intact). If you Your September 4 issue is the best in a have a falling-out with GotVMail, you’re very long time. A lot of good stuff on PCs stuck.—Jonathan Vine and not much on new cars! Lance Ula- noff’s column on page 11 seems to prom- Cut Apple Some Slack, Louderback ise this. Ask Neil is terrifi c, and Home and I read the Apple section of Jim Louder- Business Solutions are fabulous. The “Re- back’s column in the September 18 issue invent Your PC” feature story is also ex- (“That VuDu That U Du,” page 50) and cellent. And Jim Louderback’s fi nal First JOIN PC MAGAZINE felt compelled to respond. Jim oversells Word has made me happy to stay with Win his argument when he says Apple sees XP (at least until the second iteration of BEHIND THE SCENES everything through the iPod lens. It pains Vista).—Bob Lurie AT CES IN FABULOUS me to have to point out that Apple is fi rst and foremost a computer company. It Double Your Pleasure LAS VEGAS! sold computers before Microsoft existed Thanks for the tip in September 18’s Ask (some argue that it invented the personal Neil (“Two Yahoo! Log-Ins at Once,” page Experience the bright lights computer—debatable, I know), and the 78) I am now able to view (on screen) two of the Vegas strip with a four company still sells computers today. And financial and brokerage accounts at the day, three night trip to Las they’re good computers too! same time! For example, I can view my I can tolerate a certain amount of bias spouse’s account and my own account at Vegas including dinner each from “PC” Magazine, but I think this article the same time. Previously, I always had to night, tickets to a show and goes a bit too far. Let’s be honest. Apple log out and log back in.—Troy Crowder passes to attend the Consumer computers are good. iPods are good. The Electronics Show. iPhone is expensive, but it’s at least pretty Vista, Schmista good. People continue to pay a premium I enjoyed Sascha Segan’s column, “The Don’t miss your chance to win this for all these, and Apple’s market share is Vista Irrelevancy” (September 18, page increasing, despite all the criticism in mag- 56). Not only are consumers uninterested once in a lifetime experience! azines such as yours. And Apple’s products in Windows, they are fleeing from it in can be good at the same time that many droves. I’m an IT veteran, and for the past To enter visit PCs are good. So express a point of view, by ten years have been consulting primar- www .pcmagconnect.com/OFFICE2007 all means, but don’t abandon all objectivity. ily for consumers and small businesses. —Ron Embry When I started, it was Windows, all Win- dows—and my fellow geeks chuckled PC MVP: Neil Rubenking when I mentioned my Mac experience. Made possible by: I want to let you know how much I appre- These days, my Windows customers ciate the help I have received from Neil sob for help, while my Mac folks content- Rubenking. I have e-mailed him several edly go about their business, asking only times with problems that I couldn’t solve for the occasional upgrade or help with and gotten an answer almost immediately. a font issue. While the Mac is enjoying Only once was he not able to fi gure things record sales, nobody wants Vista. When out, because he couldn’t replicate my prob- buying new PCs, my Windows users are Sponsored by: lem. I solved it by getting a new computer! demanding Win XP. Those who wind up The other times he has been extremely with Vista do so primarily by accident, helpful, and I never would have been able to and are, at best, unimpressed. get things right without him. I have thanked So am I. Vista is nothing but Windows him myself, but I want to let you know what dressing, fancy graphics sprucing up the a helpful service he provides. I’ve been a PC same tired problems. My customers aren’t Magazine reader for 25 years, and I feel as if willing to pony up for the godlike hardware required to run this sorry excuse for an OS. People aren’t starting to look for NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. CORRECTIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS A purchase will not improve your chances of winning. In John Dvorak’s Inside Track column of Septem- alternatives, they’ve already embraced The “PC Magazine Behind the Scenes at CES Sweepstakes” ber 18, we incorrectly cited the name of one of them. As far as the consumer and small is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the the two companies that years ago “dominated the District of Columbia age 21 or older at time of entry. fl ash-memory business.” The correct name of the business market goes, both Vista and Sweepstakes begins at 12:01 AM Eastern Time (“ET”) company is Lexar Media Inc. Windows are irrelevant.—Triona Guidry on August 21, 2007 and ends at 11:59 PM (ET) on November 16, 2007. For details on how to enter and view Official Rules, which govern this sweepstakes, visit www. pcmagconnect.com/OFFICE2007. Void where prohibited.

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Computing a Cure Scientists are building digital libraries of drug data to fi ght potential outbreaks.

You’ve seen the killer virus used a hundred would be about a one-day turnaround,” sov is using a similar process—which he times as a doomsday scenario in movies. says Dr. Wendy Cornell, the director of calls chemoinformatics, with an additional But outbreaks can happen in real life, and if Merck’s Molecular Systems (MolSys) o—and artificial intelligence to map the they do, scientists need to come up with a laboratory. “If you started from scratch, it compound structures of existing drugs cure fast. Twenty-fi rst century computing would take months to synthesize them.” with new viruses, looking for similarities. is helping them in that quest. Currently, Merck’s drug archive is “In the case of new infectious threats, Cheminformatics is the process of cre- two million and growing. To perform the there might be no time to develop a com- ating molecular models and archiving drug modeling, the lab team uses a cluster pletely new drug from the ground up, as research on drugs. Scientists are compiling of several PCs, linked by a 1-gigabit-per- the corresponding toxicological studies a library from that data to serve as a start- second network—and connected to two and regulatory investigations will take ing point in fi ghting illness. In the face of a remote labs—to profile new drugs. The years to complete properly,” Cher kasov terrorist attack or newly discovered virus, system uses shared memory processing to says. chemists can tap into the library to develop speed throughput. The lab can load up to a The promise of these technologies is an antibody or treatment much faster. 100,000 compounds into a single test. that they will soon be able to create new “If you wanted to test out a hundred At the University of British Columbia drugs or fi nd new uses for existing ones to compounds, with cheminformatics there in Vancouver, Canada, Dr. Artem Cherka- save many more lives.—John Brandon

Illustration by Pietari Posti NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 17 FRONTSIDE

Computer Labs on a Budget Desktop virtualization promises dramatic cost and energy savings for businesses and schools.

Imagine the money you’d save if you could consume a fraction of the energy used by a run a whole office or computer lab from traditional PC lab. And because they have one PC. In this scheme, each workstation less hardware, fewer parts will go to the would have nothing more than a moni- e-waste graveyard. tor, keyboard, mouse, and small box that NComputing has already deployed clones the host computer. A few compa- more than 500,000 workstations in 70 nies are making that vision possible with countries. In the U.S., North Carolina’s desktop virtualization. McDowell School District purchased Unlike thin clients of the past, which NComputing technology last year to were slower and shoddier than traditional BUDGET LEARNING A school in North Car- upgrade its computers at a cost of $250 PCs, “the [virtual desktop] user experience olina using NComputing’s virtualization lab. to $350 per workstation. Barry Pace, the is no different from having a full-fledged district’s tech director, admits that vir- PC,” says Michael Rose, an analyst with the untapped power and deploys its resources. tual desktops are not problem-free: If one research ﬁ rm IDC. Desktop virtualization can also provide computer freezes, all the workstations One company, Pano Logic, has created a companies with tighter data security by freeze with it. But overall, Pace says, he sleek, palm-size device that, with no CPU, restricting USB privileges and storing all is pleased with the solution. “We were memory, OS, or software, clones Micro- data and software on a server. If someone able to eliminate 900 to 1,000 legacy desk- soft Windows XP or Vista systems from steals a virtualization device, no informa- tops in one school year, and we wouldn’t a server to workstations. And NComput- tion is lost. Virtual desktops offer another have been able to do so otherwise.” ing, has a system that harnesses one PC’s beneﬁ t for our eco-conscious times: They —Heather Eng Desktop Virtualization: How it Works In NComputing's X-Series desktop virtualization scheme, each workstation connects to the host computer via a terminal box, which links with the host system via PCI Card. The host computer's resources are divided among the terminals while giving each workstation its own independent experience.

Host Computer

User 2 User 3 User 4 User 1

PCI Card User 5 User 6 User 7

GEARLOG A Superior Gaming Mouse At the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, Microsoft unveiled its Side- Winder gaming mouse ($79.95) to ﬁ ll the void in gaming hardware customization. It’s designed to be more ergonomic, with its two vertical side buttons, a wide metal scroll wheel, and four balanced weights. Its Quick Turn capability, which lets gamers check their position wherever they are in the game, requires just a click of a button. For more gaming customization, the Side- Winder offers changeable feet for different glide preferences, a cable anchor (which doubles as the weight tray), and three DPI switches. Perhaps the most innovative feature is the gaming mouse’s LCD (yes, it has an LCD!). It’s meant to make it easy to keep track of key gaming actions—including DPI and steps for recording macros.—Jennifer L. DeLeo For more gear, show reports, and product news, visit Gearlog at www.gearlog.com

18 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Th e Solid State BEST of Storage of the Internet Th e likely successor to the hard drive is solid state. But there’s still a price barrier. ACCUWEATHER Are hard disk drives destined to go the way of .COM ASTRONOMY floppy drives? If the nascent trend in laptops is CENTER any indication, solid-state drives (SSDs) may www.accuweather .com/astronomy eventually supplant hard drives. Accuweather’s new SSDs are made of nonvolatile fl ash memory— Astronomy Center rather than the spinning disks and read/write includes data on SanDisk’s fl ash-based heads of hard drives—and are prized for their space weather, solid state drive astronomy news, lower power consumption, reduced heat buildup, nightly viewing con- and dead-quiet operation. They are also imper- ditions for different vious to shakes, shocks, and drops, which is why celestial objects, and Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Toshiba have more.—Alan Henry brought notebooks with SSDs to market. SanDisk, one of the top SSD makers, says the flash memory drives can also improve system performance with data transfer rates of 67MB per second or more. SSDs can also stretch battery life, requiring just 0.9 watt of power, versus 1.9 watts for a hard drive. The catch, however, is the price tag. SSDs cost Dell’s ATC series from $11 to $19 per gigabyte, whereas hard drives with SSD storage WOWIO cost a mere 32 cents per gigabyte. And though www.wowio.com several companies have announced 128GB SSDs, SSD prices will keep them out of the hands of WOWIO is an e-book site that offers all of its most offerings top out at 64GB. “Businesses need most consumers. Laptops with SSDs cost $500 to books for free in PDF to look at total cost of ownership of SSD versus $700 more than ones outfi tted with three times the format, so they’re easy HDD,” says Jim Elliott, director of fl ash marketing amount of hard disk storage. Analysts at Gartner to download, easy to at Samsung. “If you’re managing a fl eet of laptops, predict that prices will fall and capacities will rise read, and very portable. —AH SSDs can reduce failure rates, downtime, and lost so that by 2010, about 20 percent of notebooks will productivity.” ship with SSDs.—John R. Quain

FUTURE WATCH

DEEZER Computing Sees the Light www.deezer.com Formerly known as Imagine a CPU clocked at a few hundred terahertz. A pro- Blogmusik, Deezer is the gram that typically needs a full day to run would take a frac- hot new music site of tion of a second. Photonics, or the study of light and other the moment. No fees, no radiant energy, could make it possible. A U.K. research team registration—not even a free username and led by Fetah Benabid at the University of Bath is working password—and instant, toward this goal with the help of a special optical ﬁ ber one-click access.—Mark called “hollow-core photonic crystal ﬁ ber,” which allows THE CORE OF PHOTONICS This diagram Hachman spectrally coherent light (or light that is aligned spectrally) shows a hollow-core photonics structure. to pass through. The research may unlock the power to syn- For more cool Web sites and handy utilities and thesize and control the shape of photon waves. Combine this with the separate explorations into quantum apps, visit PC Magazine’s memory and the photonic computer may become a reality. Does this mean the death of electronics? Not blog AppScout (www quite; people are the limiting factor. “We have to slow things down for human use,” Benabid says. “Photon- .appscout.com). ics will always include some kind of electronics, at least as an interface.”—Anton Galang

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 19 FRONTSIDE

WEIRD Pinching Wi-Fi Poachers RESEARCH Police are arresting those who connect to unsecured wireless networks. PROJECTS What lurks But is it really a crime to surf for free? behind the walls of academia. Piggybacking on your neighbors Wi-Fi connec- charged with a third-class felony for lurking outside 1. University tion may seem like a victimless crime unworthy a Tampa house with his laptop. And two men, one College London of punishment, but some officials beg to differ. In in Alaska and one in Michigan, were handed down Neuroscientist Hen- late August, the BBC reported that London police fines for accessing free Wi-Fi hot spots from the rik Ehrsson is testing virtual simulation of arrested a 39-year-old man for connecting to an street, instead of inside the walls of the business. an OBE (out-of-body unsecured Wi-Fi network while standing outside In 2006, the legislature of Westchester County, experience) using the network owner’s home. In the U.K., clear provi- on the outskirts of New York City, became the ﬁ rst head-mounted video sions such as the Communications Act 2003 and the in the country to pass a law requiring businesses displays. Computer Misuse Act ban this practice. But here in to secure their internal wireless networks. County 2. Carnegie the States, the laws are vaguer. Board Chair Bill Ryan says that the measure was put Mellon The Enter- tainment Tech- The closest the U.S. comes to outlawing Wi-Fi into place to protect both the data of local businesses nology Center is mooching is Title 18, Section 1030 of the U.S. Code, and the personal information of employees. working on “live which prohibits “unauthorized access.” According Mitrano, like many others, feels the responsibil- virtual computer- to Tracy Mitrano, director of information technol- ity lies with users to secure their home or business generated robotic theatre puppetry” to ogy policy at Cornell University, there are three networks. She warns against hindering wireless create “Virpets” (or types of laws that courts use to try to prosecute Wi- technology’s progress through overlegislation. virtual puppets). Fi ﬁ lchers: those dealing with trespassing, hacking, “Thank goodness we don’t live in a country and creating counterfeit cable boxes. where we are required to process all of our technol- 3. Stanford Uni- versity The Rope “It’s not a perfect fit,” Mitrano says. “Trespass ogy through federal and state governments—where Manipulation Plan- law was based on physical space. I don’t think any of it is not released until lawmakers are shown every ning project involves them successfully address the issue.” intended and unintended use to establish a legal “design motion Often, state and local regulations are prosecuted framework,” she says. “We would throw ourselves planning to manipulate a rope” (that is, in vastly different ways. In 2005, a Florida man was back into the Stone Age if we did that.”—Erik Rhey teaching robots how to tie knots).

Q & A: FELICIA YUE, SPORTVISION all the shades of green that are in the grass Behind the First-Down Line and exclude all other colors, such as those of the uniforms, helmets, and skin tones. Felicia Yue, product manager for Sportvision—the company that created such Q: Are there particular conditions that are TV sports enhancements as the NFL’s virtual fi rst-down line—talks about the diffi cult to work with? tech that goes into bringing the big game to your living room. A: Rainy, snowy, muddy fields are difficult to chroma-key, as are some lighting Q: What kind of pregame prepa- Q: How is the conditions. Also, the Green Bay Packers ration is required to create the line implemented uniforms can be a similar shade of green “1st & Ten” line? during the game to the grass, so choosing the right shades A: We typically have one or two itself? of green to draw the line on while exclud- trained operators at each venue A: There is one ing the greens in the uniforms becomes a setting up the day before a game. main in-game challenge. The operators “teach” the main operator who Q: Is American football better suited than computers in the TV trucks what updates the loca- other sports to using technology? the football fi eld looks like from tion of the line A: Yes. American football has lots of pre- each game camera. They also each time a first- dictable breaks in the action, as well as set up special minicomputers down conver- many commercial breaks. Unless there’s on each camera, which send pan, sion is made and a hurry-up offense in effect, you typically tilt, and zoom [PTZ] information who also builds get at least 30 seconds between plays to down to the main computers. They can the chroma key. Building the chroma key update your graphics and settings. Other combine this PTZ data with a 3D model of is the magic step that creates the illusion sports like soccer are more difficult to the football fi eld to create a very accurate of players walking over the yellow line. incorporate virtual graphics into because calculation of what the yellow line should Basically, we select which colors the yel- the stoppages in the game action are far look like from each camera angle. low line should be drawn on. We choose less predictable.—Anton Galang

20 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 FRONTSIDE

Th e Price of Piracy A new report says music thievery costs our economy billions. Are such numbers reliable?

Calculating a business’s losses from theft and 20 percent for Internet piracy. In turn, typically involves some sleight of hand. the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis used Estimates are often based on the assump- industry-specific numbers to derive the tion that most items stolen would have been cascading effects of those direct losses sold. But can such a formula be applied to throughout the rest of the U.S. economy. music? But Koleman Strumpf, a professor of A new study by the Institute for Policy economics at the University of Kansas, Innovation (IPI) finds that global music is skeptical. He is the coauthor, with Felix piracy costs the U.S. economy $12.5 bil- Oberholzer-Gee of Harvard Business lion in losses and 71,060 jobs annually. The School, of a study that found that fi le shar- report, titled, “The True Cost of Sound PIRATE’S BOOTY According to the music ing has no signifi cant effect on CD sales in Recording Piracy to the U.S. Economy,” industry, billions are lost from bootlegs. the U.S. “If they [IPI] want to parade a large breaks down losses by physical piracy number, they have to defend it,” Strumpf (bootleg CDs) and illegal downloads on either via the Internet or on the streets.” says. “I don’t see it in this study.” peer-to-peer networks. Mitch Bainwol, To derive these numbers, the study esti- Stephen E. Siwek, however, the author CEO of the Recording Industry Association mated “substitution” rates, which assumes of the IPI study, says that Strumpf’s fi ndings of America (RIAA), released a statement that without counterfeit channels, many are fl awed. “I would be very hard pressed to saying, “This new report vividly illustrates pirates would purchase legitimate prod- accept their results based on the dramatic the serious economic harm caused by the ucts. The report uses an average substitu- decline in CD sales that we have seen in the widespread availability of illegal music tion rate of 65.7 percent for physical piracy last few years.”—Isabelle Groc CONNECTED TRAVELER Social Networking on the Go Using Web 2.0 in your travel plans can help you save money and meet new people.

In the dim, dark past (in other words, a few years ago), travel could be a lonely experience. Now, thanks to a slew of Web 2.0 social networking sites, even solo travelers can be surrounded by new friends practically at every stop of their journey. If you’re flying alone, AirTroductions (www.airtroductions .com) can make sure your seat neighbor isn’t a screaming baby, bel- ligerent cocktail swiller, or a hogger of pillows, blankets, and arm- rest. You fi ll out a profi le and fi nd someone simpatico to sit next to on your fl ight or to meet in the airport for a chat or quick meal. Saving money on rental cars or taxis is also a mouse click away. Your local craigslist (www.craigslist.org) site has a ride-share section under Community for fi nding someone going to the airport. You can also check your destination’s craigslist to fi nd a ride back ULTRA-BUDGET ACCOMMODATIONS At CouchSurfi ng.com, to the airport or around town. An alternative for New York City is users provide a profi le in hopes of a place to crash while traveling. a site called Hitchsters (www.hitchsters.com). Even when you reach your destination, you needn’t be lonely. staying with. A more relaxed version of this is the nonprofi t orga- Why bed down in a generic, overpriced hotel room when you could nization called the CouchSurfi ng Project (www.couchsurfi ng.com), be staying with a friendly local who is eager to show you around? whose Web site connects people who want to open their homes to GlobalFreeloaders.com is a network of travelers who request a travelers with those looking for a place to crash. If you want to meet place to stay in exchange for offering a couch or extra bed to oth- people at your destination but still return to room service at night, ers in the network. You can search your destination and see what’s you can also use the site just to meet up with locals for drinks or available, along with a detailed profi le of the person you could be walkabouts.—Aaron Dalton Smart Travel Gadgets Th e coolest new toys for your trip.

Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 Skooba Skin 1012 $99.95 list $27.95 direct www.microsoft.com Sleeptracker Pro www.skoobadesign.com The Mobile Memory Mouse $179 direct The Skooba Skin 1012 is a customizable laptop case 8000 may cost more than www.sleeptracker.com that you can decorate with markers, pens, paint, and you’d expect to pay for a com- The Sleeptracker Pro watch glue. The only thing you can’t do is use heat (so no puter mouse, but it has 1GB of monitors your sleeping pat- iron-ons!), which will do terrible things to the fabric. fl ash memory built right into terns. An internal accelerom- Some customer-designed bags are displayed on the the transceiver! This recharge- eter detects the movements site—lots of creative, cool stuff. Art supplies are not able mouse also features associated with restlessness that included.—Molly K. McLaughlin 2.4-GHz wireless technology, indicate we are in a light sleep four-way scrolling, and a mag- stage. You can also upload your nifi er.—Jennifer L. DeLeo sleep data to your computer via Flip Video Ultra USB and review it by day, week, 2GB, $179.99 list or month. It’s even waterproof 1GB, $149.99 up to 20 meters. Compared with www.thefl ip.com the fi rst-gen Sleeptracker, it has Pure Digital Technologies hopes to make your a vibrating alarm, instead of video experience more effi cient with the new just the standard beeps, and a Flip Video Ultra Camcorder. It’s not just for sleeker design.—JLD shooting video: You can organize and edit your videos right on the device. The Ultra has one- touch recording, one-click e-mailing of videos and video greeting cards, still-photo capture, and custom movie mixing; built-in software also lets you upload to video sites like YouTube.—JLD

22 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Panasonic recommends Windows Vista® Business.

LEGALLY, WE CANNOT SAY YOU CAN CONNECT ANYWHERE.

A laptop this thin and rugged is good for business in the places you’d least expect. No specially designated area or coffee shop needed. The business-rugged Panasonic Toughbook® Y5 has broadband wireless access built-in so you can email and work online 24/7 from virtually anywhere your cell phone does. It’s lightweight, yet rugged enough to withstand bumps, drops and spills on the road with a magnesium alloy case, shock-mounted hard drive and spill-resistant keyboard. The Toughbook Y5. It outperforms in locations more remote than we can legally say. For more information visit panasonic.com/businessrugged. To purchase now call Mooring Tech (1.866.381.9159).

THE RUGGED ORIGINAL.

Intel, Intel logo, Intel Centrino, Intel Centrino logo, Intel Inside, Intel Inside logo and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Toughbook notebook PCs are covered by a 3-year limited warranty, parts and labor. To view the full text of the warranty, log on to panasonic.com/business/toughbook/support.asp. Please consult your Panasonic representative prior to purchase. ©2007 Panasonic Corporation of North America. All rights reserved. ConnectAnywhere_H_MT_FY07-1 imagine color as mother nature intended

226CW 906CW

Desktop Monitors with exclusive MagicSpectrum technology ©2007 Samsung Electronics America, Inc. All rights reserved. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. All product and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Screen image simulated.

with MagicSpectrum

without MagicSpectrum

Whether you’re into gaming, watching movies or viewing photos, Samsung’s SyncMaster monitors with exclusive MagicSpectrum technology will change the way you experience color. MagicSpectrum displays deliver up to 90% – 114% of the NTSC standard producing richer, more natural colors than traditional LCD monitors. With the Samsung CW series, it’s not that hard to imagine. To see color the way it was meant to be seen, call 1-800-SAMSUNG or go to www.MagicSpectrum.com ©2007 Trend Micro Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Go ahead. Let your employees email, IM, and share their creative vision online, with conﬁ dence. Trend Micro Internet security solutions automatically monitor, respond, and protect your business from online threats. So while we’re busy keeping your infrastructure out of harm’s way, you can keep your eye on the prize. Learn more at trendmicro.com.

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END...... flip to back page Firstlllll llllmLookslllmm llmmm lmmmm OUR RATINGS KEY: EXCELLENT l VERY GOOD l GOOD l FAIR l POOR

Remotely monitor NIS 2008 on other network systems

New One-Click help even shows wait times!

Norton Internet Security 2008 $69.99 for 3 licenses llllh PROS Virus/spyware scans are highly accu- NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2008 rate, thorough. Top-quality, nonintrusive fi rewall. New Identity Safe Th e Best Defense Gets Better manages personal info, passwords. Built-in help Norton Internet Security crushed the competition then automatically fi lls in Web forms. It also records has live chat. in 2007, and since then the leading suite has only your username and password for secured Web sites, CONS Too many valid gotten better. The 2008 edition adds identity man- then fi lls in the info when you next visit. Addition- messages were marked as spam. Rudimentary agement, and new BrowserDefender technology ally, you can use the log-in record as a smart favorite parental control. defends against Web-based attacks. that goes to the site and logs in for you. Naturally, the For more: The firewall stealths all ports and is totally identity data is password protected. Highly accurate go.pcmag.com/nis2008 resistant to malware. It allows Internet access to phishing protection ensures that you don’t give your known good programs, removes known bad ones, private data to a fraudulent site. and watches others for malicious behavior. Very Antispam, parental control, and privacy control effective intrusion prevention stopped a dozen reside in an optional add-on. Identity Safe made pri- exploits. The new Network Map can control the vacy control obsolete, and the parental control sys- access that network-connected devices have to tem is just a rudimentary content-based Web fi lter. INSIDE your PC and warn you if your wireless network is The antispam designated way too much valid mail as unsecured, but it doesn’t detect wireless intruders. spam, though it does have a well-designed whitelist 27 Software The antivirus/antispyware scan takes longer than you can use to protect known correspondents. most but cleans up the dozens of fi les and Registry Norton 360 introduced built-in One-Click help, 34 Consumer items the majority of competitors leave. It’s accurate, and now NIS has it, too. If AutoFix can’t automati- Electronics too: It scored 9.3 out of 10 for malware removal and cally fi nd and correct a problem, you can get help via 10 against commercial keyloggers. It managed 9.0 e-mail, phone, or live chat. The live chat analyst can 46 Hardware against malware installs on a clean system and 10 remote-control your system to resolve issues. 50 Business against commercial keyloggers. As always, the anti- The 2008 suites are still rolling out, so there’s virus is highly rated by the independent testing labs. a chance another player could dethrone Symantec’s 54 The Best Identity Safe, new in this edition, stores per- masterpiece. But for now, Norton Internet Security Stuff sonal information in one or more identity cards, is the suite to beat.—Neil J. Rubenking

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 27 FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE

If a security setting needs attention, you’ll know it

The backup facility comes preconfi gured to copy important fi les Panda Internet PANDA INTERNET SECURITY 2008 Security 2008 $69.95 yearly for three licenses lllhm Security Suite Stomps Spies PROS Stellar antispyware. Backs up impor- Don’t be fooled. The 2008 version of Panda Internet if your Wi-Fi network is encrypted (as it should be), tant fi les. No confusing fi rewall pop-ups. Security may look like last year’s model, but you’ll this capability doesn’t add much. CONS Poor antispam. find exciting additions, like Wi-Fi security and The spam filter, parental control module, and Useless anti-phishing. backup capability. The biggest change is invisible, privacy protection features are virtually unchanged. Limited parental control. though: The on-demand virus and spyware scanner Spammers, however, have advanced; as a result, Tune-up feature is uses new technology, and it truly rocks. Panda 2008 let over half the junk e-mail into the nothing special. Panda 2008 defends against zero-day viruses Inbox. Also, parental and privacy features remain For more: go.pcmag.com/ and spyware using its TruPrevent behavior-based mediocre, and the new browser-independent pandais08 protection. Its signature-based scanning now uses feature for blocking fraudulent (phishing) sites “megadetection” technology, which comes from detected none—three other products verifi ed all 50 the company’s TotalScan online scanner, and it was test URLs as rogue sites. mega-successful. Another new capability will back up your essen- The suite removed every spyware sample from tial fi les to a local or network-connected disk, then my infested systems and prevented all of them optionally transfer the information to a CD or DVD. from installing on a clean system. It wasn’t nearly Backups occur once per day; your only choice is as effective at detecting and removing commercial the time. It’s a very basic solution, but it’s better keyloggers, but I give much less weight to that. than no backup. You also get a free year of hosted Like Symantec’s firewall, Panda’s uses its own online backup (1GB) with a Panda partner, but when discretion for program control rather than inun- the year is up you have to pay. You’d be better off dating you with confusing questions. The feature with 2GB free from Mozy and no time limit. And lets known good programs access the Internet and although Panda has added a performance optimiza- deletes known malware. By watching the behavior tion feature, Windows and Internet Explorer offer of unknown programs, the fi rewall decides whether the same or better. to allow them access. And naturally, it stealths all Virus and spyware protection are this suite’s ports, making your computer invisible to outside super standouts. If Panda can bring the other attackers. New Wi-Fi intruder detection actually modules up to a similar level, the next version of its senses any network access—wired or wireless—but suite will be an all-around killer.—NJR

28 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Think GAIA For Life and for Earth

1000x MORE CLICKS. Wirelessly surf, click, and surf some more with the battery that’s equal to 1000 regular alkalines*.

• 4x more shots than with alkaline • Long storage life • Recharges in most modern chargers† • Recharge up to 1000 times • Ready right out of the pack • No memory effect www.eneloopusa.com

Sanyo North America Corporation. All rights reserved. eneloop is a registered trademark of Sanyo Energy USA Corp. All rights reserved. *Estimate based on test results for battery life according to standard JIS C8708 (4.4). Actual results may vary according to use. †Sanyo eneloop batteries can be charged with most chargers for Ni-MH batteries. FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE

A PDQ Guide to PDFs If you need a guarantee that others will be able to read your digital docs, you need a PDF creator. One of these four should fi ll the bill—and your budget.

Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard $299 direct; upgrade, $99 llllm PROS Flexible, feature- packed PDF creation, editing, commenting, import/export. Converts Web sites to single, multipage PDFs. Can embed index in PDF fi les for fast searching. CONS Some tools are hard to fi nd. Costly. Can’t create fi llable PDF forms. OCR module has problems with older documents. For more: go.pcmag.com/acrobat8standard

Opening screen Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard doesn’t always produce perfect results. Still, Adobe’s leads to help You can get a less expensive PDF document maker product remains the gold standard. fi les and video than the highly polished Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard, demos but not a better one. You don’t get all the features BullZip PDF Printer of the Professional edition, such as the ability to After hours spent testing freeware PDF creators, create fillable PDF forms, but you can create PDF I kept just one: the simple, fast, straightforward Bul- fi les directly from Microsoft Offi ce applications. lZip PDF Printer. Print to its driver, and from the Within Acrobat, drop-down menus on a tool- tabbed dialog box that appears, you can specify bar provide quick access to the most commonly the security and display settings for the fi le, apply used features, which let you perform tasks such a watermark, and append the output to another PDF as creating, combining, exporting, securing, and fi le. A macro capability allows fi lenames to include commenting on PDF fi les. Some of the app’s most information such as the date, time, and username. impressive capabilities enable you to combine mul- BullZip lets you create multiple PDF printers, tiple PDF documents into one fi le and let you e-mail each with a different set of options. To generate one or more fi les in a secure package. a PDF file, you simply pick a printer—most com- With scanned images from office documents peting programs require you to pick a previously and modern books and periodic als, converting saved profile from a separate dialog, a more com- to searchable PDF files works well. For very old plex process. You can also control BullZip from the books, you’ll get better results with Nuance’s PDF Windows command prompt, letting you automate Converter 4 Professional or Abbyy’s ABBYY PDF tasks—not so with many free or low-cost rivals. Transformer 2.0 Pro. Acrobat can index scanned Actual PDF creation features are minimal: You can’t, fi les, though, making searches lightning-fast. for example, translate Microsoft Word comments Although the software can convert multipage into PDF annotation. For features like that, try one Web content, maintaining active form fi elds, it won’t of the other packages reviewed here. But you get correctly handle button bars. And exporting PDF high-quality output and an effi cient program with fi les to Microsoft Word or other standard formats a no-fuss interface.

30 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 DeskPDF Professional BullZip PDF Printer For a tenth the price of Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard, Free lllmm deskPDF Professional provides what most personal and small-business users require and even throws in PROS Simple PDF creation. Advanced settings for security clever conveniences. You can create PDFs by print- and display via dialog box or from ing from the standard Windows print dialog, by command line. dragging documents onto a desktop icon, or from CONS Can’t set initial zoom level within Microsoft Offi ce apps. for PDF fi les or translate Word My favorite feature puts all your PDF-making comments to PDF annotations. options in a single dialog box that gives the usual For more: go.pcmag.com/bullzippdf choices for specifying a fi lename and folder. It also lets you set output quality, send the PDF as an e-mail attachment if you want, and determine how the fi le will display by setting options for zoom levels and more—features other programs (including deskPDF Professional Acrobat) bury. Another welcome convenience lets $29.95 direct you save multiple settings as reusable profi les. lllhm Despite the low price, you get some high-level PROS Straightforward. Easily ac- features. You can convert Offi ce document annota- cessed display, security settings. tions into PDF comments, for example, and merge Converts Offi ce comments to multiple PDF fi les, although the latter isn’t exactly PDF annotations. Output defaults are easy to set. Raw PostScript intuitive. For more than creating or merging PDF output. docs, you’ll need a higher-end product, but deskPDF CONS Unintuitive interface for Professional gives most users all they need. merging two fi les. For more: PDF Converter Professional 4 go.pcmag.com/deskpdfpro Depending on your needs, you may be able to get more for less with PDF Converter Professional. The program isn’t as polished as Acrobat Standard—for example, a PDF page disappeared when I added a comment and then opened the utility’s navigation panel. But closing the fi le without saving it and then opening the uncommented version brought the page back, and I was pleasantly surprised by the package’s fl exibility, usability, and superior OCR capability. An automatically installed plug-in provides PDF Converter Professional 4 redaction that completely removes sensitive mate- $99.95 direct rial so hackers can’t uncover it—a crucial feature lllhm for some users, and one not in Acrobat Standard. PROS Converts PDF fi les to Micro- An even bigger plus is the OCR capability, which soft Offi ce and WordPerfect docs. excels at the really hard jobs that cause Acrobat to Exceptionally accurate OCR on image-only PDFs. Advanced PDF stumble, such as transforming a PDF of a scanned editing and form fi lling. Removes 19th-century book into a text-searchable PDF. sensitive data totally. Unfortunately, this software lags behind Adobe’s CONS Some unintuitive menus, latest versions of Acrobat Standard and Professional operations. Can create indexes in PDF indexing. It can create a separate index fi le only in separate fi les, not embed- ded in PDFs. No warning if you for one or more PDFs but can’t embed the index into have an old copy without a data- a PDF. For that convenience, you’ll have to stay with removal feature. Acrobat. Otherwise, PDF Converter Professional is For more: a worthy low-cost alternative.—Edward Mendelson go.pcmag.com/pdfconvertpro4

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 31 FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE

POWNCE Share More than Twitters Twitter and its clones may be okay for quickly sharing thoughts with a large audience. But what if you also want to send invites or share fi les and videos? Try Pownce. Like Twitter, it’s lighter than blogging software: Short posts all appear on a single page rather than getting their own pages. But Pownce lacks a public page and doesn’t give users the ability to post via mobile phone or PDA. By default, the interface is set up for posting a simple message, but when you click the Link, File, or Event links, the entry areas change to reveal appropriate extra fi elds. If you enter a YouTube link, your post will include a player for the video. With a free Pownce account, fi le size can be up to 10MB; a $20 yearly Pro Basic version, free; with 100MB Entry boxes below Message, account ups that to 100MB. You decide who gets to fi le-size limit, $20 yearly Link, File, and Event buttons see your posts, and you can even create user groups. llllm change to suit each task In addition to its Web interface, the service offers PROS Good interface. Options a pre-beta desktop version that takes advantage for lightweight desktop with notifi cation, private sharing. of Adobe’s new AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) CONS No mobile posting or noti- technology. If you want less than a blog but more fi cation. No public page of posts. than IM or e-mail for sharing your remarks and fi les, For more: go.pcmag.com/pownce you’ll like Pownce.—Michael Muchmore FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE

Shouldn’t have made that change? No problem

Shut down Windows Totalidea TweakVI with one click—fi nally! Basic, free; Premium, $30 direct; Ultimate, $40 lllhm TOTALIDEA TWEAKVI PROS Installs intelligently. Provides scads of system information. Whip Vista into Shape Makes confi guration highly accessible. from the Appearance button in Display Properties CONS Somewhat costly Why waste time waiting for Microsoft to come out yearly subscription for with a Vista release of the TweakUI Windows con- through the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties advanced versions. figuration utility? Just grab Totalidea Software’s dialog. Internet Tweaks contains a huge array of For more: TweakVI. Even the Basic version covered here goes settings for Microsoft Outlook and Windows Mail, go.pcmag.com/tweakvi considerably beyond its forefather’s capabilities. Internet Explorer, and Firefox. Miscellaneous tools Better still, the smart installer makes getting started let you change system folder settings, hide specifi c easy, and you don’t need much tech know-how Control Panel applets, and make a number of other to use the app. modifications that tighten your control over your The System Information and Tweaks area system and change the look of the interface. lets you see system information and configure TweakVI not only provides customization hard drive details, CPU settings, and Vista’s boot elements that you won’t find in Windows itself, it manager. An especially useful feature gives you also collects the huge array of Windows custom- access to the CD keys for your Microsoft Windows ization options into one interface. The choices are and Offi ce software and also lets you back up your generally well explained, so you’re not likely to run Offi ce XP/2003/2007 product activation fi les. into trouble. But if you do, you can easily revert to The CPU section, where you can optimize the the Windows defaults. system cache according to your system’s RAM—as The paid editions add, among many other well as force core processes to remain in physical things, features for automatic shutdown, password memory instead of being shunted off to virtual generation, and managing software installation and memory—does a much better job than the built-in system updates. Ultimate adds a disk doctor feature Vista equivalent. Hard drive tweaks let you further and a utility for protecting folders and dealing with speed your system by enabling defragmentation of virtual drives and page fi les. Even with the free ver- boot fi les (placing them next to each other for faster sion, TweakVI offers considerably more confi gura- start-ups), disabling an NTFS feature that places tion possibilities than Microsoft’s own TweakUI. a time stamp for the last access of folders and Choose one of the paid editions and you have an fi les, and more. entire suite of OS confi guration tools. This package Visual Tweaks collects all the configuration isn’t really a competitor to TweakUI at all—it’s a options available in various Windows dialog boxes— signifi cantly better tool all around.—Neil Randall

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 33 FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Same display as the iPhone’s

Apple iPod touch 8GB, $299 direct; 16GB, $399 lllll PROS Beauti- ful multitouch display. Wi-Fi access. Buy music via Wi-Fi. Headphone Excellent user interface. APPLE IPOD TOUCH Browser is a delight. Ac- jack is not cess to YouTube content. recessed Thinner than the iPhone. Double-click for music in any screen. A New Player Masterpiece CONS Can’t turn off Starbucks feature. When the iPhone came out in June, many people Drag your fi nger across the display to slide the cov- Can’t get podcasts or (including me) loved it but wanted it without the ers, as if thumbing through a virtual vinyl collection. purchase video via phone—and without that pesky two-year AT&T Clicking on the central album cover fl ips the graphic Wi-Fi. Earbuds suck. Wireless contract. With the new iPod touch, the over and reveals a music tracklist. From here you can For more: go.pcmag.com/ company has answered our prayers and even added click on a song and start playing. ipodtouch a Wi-Fi version of the iTunes Music Store. Now you The real hero is the new iTunes Wi-Fi Music can download tracks anywhere there’s Wi-Fi. store. Searching for artists can be done with the Apple has announced a partnership with Star- virtual keyboard or via tabs such as Featured and bucks that enables iPhone and touch owners Top Tens. Provided that your Wi-Fi signal strength to purchase songs they hear in Starbucks stores via is decent, downloading a song takes only seconds, Wi-Fi. It would be nice if the Wi-Fi store offered and the track is immediately put into your player’s video purchases—currently it’s music only. And, yes, library. Next time you plug into your PC, the songs the earbuds still suck. But these are my only com- will transfer to your computer’s library. plaints, and they’re minor. The relatively hefty prices I wish Apple would include user-adjustable EQ don’t bug me either. Why? Because this is probably settings such as the ones competitors like Samsung, the best portable media player ever made. Sansa, and Sony build into their players. With crappy On the iPod touch and iPhone, navigation of the earbuds and settings like Jazz and Dance, your best music, video, and photo menus is identical, as is bet is to leave the EQ off and upgrade your earphones. the excellent combo of the multitouch screen and I also had hoped you could turn the Starbucks feature the Safari Web browser. Both players load and sync off—you might not want to see a corporate logo pop with iTunes and can be managed much the same up whenever you walk by a store, and you’re even way manually. The touch is much skinnier than the less likely to share Starbucks’ musical tastes. Again, iPhone, however, and that pesky recessed head- these are fairly minor complaints. More signifi cant phone jack is gone—as is the ability to send e-mail gripes? Podcast users will be disappointed that they Double-click for (unless you use a Web-based program like Gmail). can’t get their ’casts via the Wi-Fi store, and the store music controls The YouTube features are nearly identical, except doesn’t sell video, either . . . yet. that the iPod touch does not allow users to send clip Whenever Apple releases a new product, “fan- links to friends. boys” proclaim it the greatest ever, while “haters” The excellent Cover Flow, part of iTunes and fea- lambaste the product and the fanboys as well. tured on the iPhone, arranges albums alphabetically This time the fanboys are right: The iPod touch is in a horizontal array using the albums’ cover art. amazing.—Tim Gideon

34 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Whether you’re a real estate developer

or a toy manufacturer,

Qwest’s tailored solutions allow you to get the most out of your network. Because every company is unique, Qwest offers a consultative approach with a full portfolio of business solutions. When your communications are optimized, business thrives. That’s why 95% of Fortune 500® companies choose Qwest. Get Qwest. Get Nimble. Call 1 877-816-8544 or visit qwest.com/business.

Highest pixel-per-inch New split-screen count in any iPod interface

Apple iPod nano APPLE IPOD NANO (3RD GENERATION) (3rd generation) 4GB, $149 list; 8GB, $199 llllh PROS Wide- Pocket-Size Yet Plenty Powerful screen video. New, excellent Since its inception, the only thing Apple’s small lists on the left and a moving image of an album user interface. player ever really lacked was the ability to screen cover, photo, or video on the right. When no tune Superb new graphics. Extremely thin. video—a trick that didn’t mesh with the iTunes is playing, the main menu shows a variety of album Strong battery life. Store’s commitment to TV shows and film covers slowly fl oating by, with specifi c spots zoomed CONS Cover Flow loses downloads. Sporting a bright, 2-inch widescreen in on. It’s a nice look. something without the that shows video in the highest pixel-per-inch count I found video performance to be exceptional. The touch screen. Crappy of any iPod ever, the nano is an entirely new beast. player has the same resolution as the old iPod video earbuds. No video out (yet). The flash player, which comes in 4GB and 8GB (now called the classic) but applied to a screen that’s For more: capacities, is wider than previous models. But when a half-inch smaller. The result is an even sharper go.pcmag.com/nano3 you hold it alongside a second-generation nano, its picture. When the new Brightness setting is adjusted widened dimensions don’t seem to matter: A beau- to the highest level, the new nano's screen is much tiful screen and a just-as-thin body make the device brighter than the previous model’s, as well. (Apple seem like a huge evolutionary step for the line. The claims it’s a 65 percent difference.) new user interface combines the nicer touches of The nano is not without its flaws. The video the iPhone’s slick UI—like Cover Flow—with novel output function is listed on the menu but cannot be elements (a split screen that shows album covers for switched on. Its inclusion implies that this function highlighted songs and a new Now Playing screen). will be available with iTunes upgrades down the File support offers no surprises. For audio, road, but for the time being, there’s no way to watch the nano plays AAC (16 to 320 Kbps)—including, nano-loaded video on your TV or video iPod dock. obviously, DRM and DRM-free tracks from iTunes, Also, Cover Flow, while beautiful and useful, MP3 (all bit rates, including VBR), Audible files, trips up occasionally during fast scrolling. Album AIFF, and WAV. If you have WMA fi les, loading them covers appear to have jagged edges, and sometimes the into iTunes automatically converts them to AAC, artwork takes a moment to appear. The feature is not so while there’s no compatibility, there is at least nearly as sexy as it is on the iPhone. a workaround. Video support is the typical Apple Even with these minor flaws, nothing beats the array: H.264 and MPEG-4. nano in its price range. Throw in the few bundled The new main menu has a split screen, dividing games with quality graphics and you’ve got yourself the space equally between the familiar iPod menu a winner.—Tim Gideon

36 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 I thought a virus was slowing my PC. Th en I realized it was my security soft ware.

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Download your free trial today at www.grisoft .com FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

MOTOROLA Q9M (VERIZON) Sophisticated, but Sluggish This latest smartphone for Verizon pairs excellent call quality with a top-notch keyboard, making it a strong Windows Mobile choice. I just wish it felt a little quicker. Motorola Q9m The Q9m’s keyboard is the biggest change from the old (Verizon) $199 to $349.99 list Motorola Q. The larger, rectangular keys are easier to settle your llllm fingers on (which helps prevent mistyping), and they depress PROS Excellent phone with satisfying clicks. All but the most ham-handed will fl y over quality. Top-notch this smartphone's keyboard. keyboard. Ability to A superior phone, the Q9m has very strong reception. The read and edit Microsoft earpiece and especially the speakerphone are unusually loud Offi ce documents. and clear, and ringtones sound terrifi c. CONS Feels slow. Lack- luster camera. No GPS. Verizon has updated the Q9m with a lot of useful new soft- No cut-and-paste in ware. At the head of the pack is DataViz DocumentsToGo for e-mails. Windows Mobile 6, which lets you view PDFs and view, edit, For more: and create Microsoft Offi ce documents. Also, its Word-, Excel-, go.pcmag.com/q9m and PowerPoint-compatible apps are refreshing oases of cutting and pasting. Verizon’s new media-player home screen is less accommodating, but you don’t have to use it. The Q9m’s one problem is that it feels a bit laggy. When typing an e-mail message, I sometimes had to wait for the screen Best smartphone to catch up with my typing, and PDF fi les took quite some time keyboard yet to open. Still, the new Q is a powerful, fl exible mobile offi ce. —Sascha Segan

2.3 x 3.9 x 0.5 inches

HTC ADVANTAGE Phone, Laptop in One At 12.7 ounces, this massive device is meant to be an über- PDA—a handheld for adventurous computer enthusiasts Detachable who wish they could inject their Treo with steroids. It keyboard can replace a laptop in more situations than any other smartphone on the market, but it doubles as a phone only when you wear a headset or use the speakerphone. Though the Advantage’s top-end 624-MHz Marvell PXA270 processor aced our benchmark tests, the unit still felt pokey. But built-in HSDPA and Wi-Fi didn’t disappoint, grabbing speeds approximating 700 Kbps on the AT&T network. The device’s keyboard is big, but fl at and soft. The Advantage makes a handy in-car GPS, thanks to its big 5-inch screen and TeleNav’s built-in GPS Navigator HTC Advantage 5.1 software. One button press gets TeleNav to reroute you $899.99 list Joystick or lllmm around tie-ups. The device runs Windows Mobile, so you touch screen? can sync e-mail, calendar, and contacts with Microsoft Out- PROS Stunning, bright screen. You choose! Includes basic document editing look 2003 and 2007, and the unit can receive push Exchange and robust keyboard. Built-in e-mail. Offi ce Mobile still needs work, though: I saw format- HSDPA, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. ting errors in some documents, which limits the handset’s CONS Too large to be a primary usefulness when editing important fi les. You can save data mobile phone. Occasional to the internal 8GB hard drive or to a miniSD card. OS glitches. Sluggish system performance. Pricey. The Advantage could bridge the gap between handhelds For more: and laptops, but for $900 you might as well buy a laptop and go.pcmag.com/ advantage get a free phone from your carrier.—Jamie Lendino

38 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007

FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Screen looks amazing Elevated pad and buttons provide better control

Quicker load times

Less complicated slot opens more easily

Sony PSP SONY PSP (MODEL 2000) (model 2000) $169.99 direct llllm PROS Sleeker and lighter Slimmer, Faster Mobile Gaming than the original. AV output. Additional RAM Slimmed down and souped up, Sony’s latest hand- The PSP’s multimedia prowess is impressive, makes load times faster. held gaming device offers some welcome improve- and the new model is no different. The device can Displays photos. Plays video and music fi les. ments over its predecessor. It boasts more RAM to play back full-length movies on UMD (Universal Built-in Wi-Fi and Web- make game load times a little faster, and it’s now able Media Disc—over 450 movies are available), play a browsing capabilities. to output video straight to your TV. wide range of digital audio fi les, and even transfer Stunning widescreen At 2.8 by 6.6 by 0.6 inches (HWD) the new PSP recorded shows from TiVo (series 2) DVRs. I found display. has been streamlined, and its sleekness is notice- that the 480p and 480i modes looked better; when CONS Unfortunate power button location able when compared with the original (which mea- the PSP upscaled video to HD resolution, the result is unchanged from the sures 2.9 by 6.7 by 0.9 inches). The major difference was a slightly distorted picture. In general, AVI and original. AV output lacks between the two devices, however, is that the new H.264/MPEG-4 fi les looked fi ne on a 65-inch HDTV, gaming support for PSP feels much lighter. Weighing 6.7 ounces, it’s and my S.W.A.T. UMD gave nearly as good a picture interlaced-only TV sets. USB charging alternative a third lighter than its predecessor. Those seasoned as you can get with a standard DVD. is inconvenient. UMD by hours of game play on the original model will feel Though rich on multimedia functions, the PSP’s load times still an issue. the difference instantly. primary focus is gaming. Most games for the PSP Screen smudges easily. A new A/V port serves two purposes. Since the now rely on richly detailed 3D graphics, and more For more: go.pcmag.com/psp2000 port uses the 3.5mm minijack format, it can be used and more titles are starting to take advantage of with any standard headset for listening. The port the device’s Wi-Fi capability and offer multiplayer also doubles as a video-out: A special cable (sold options. Add in the PSP’s TiVo compatibility, as well separately for about $20) lets you output your PSP as the ability to access streaming music and video via games, videos, movies, and photos directly to your Sony’s Location Free system or a PS3, and the PSP television or any LCD monitor via component or becomes a powerful, portable media extender, albeit composite connections. Videos and photos are dis- pretty much tied to other Sony hardware. played at DVD-quality resolution (up to 720 by 480, All in all, the new “enhanced” PSP is a satisfying or 480p), but games are limited to the PSP’s native addition to any gaming enthusiast’s collection, and resolution of 480 by 272 pixels in progressive format a must-buy for gamers who currently do not own a only. Out of juice from all those movies? Fortunately, PSP system. The new enhancements only broaden you can fully charge the PSP via a computer’s USB the appeal of this already exceptional gaming port in roughly 5 hours. device.—Brian K. Neal

40 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

47-inch widescreen display

Westinghouse TX-47F430S $1,799.99 list lllhm PROS: Excellent 1080i video processing. Four HDMI ports. Attractive price. CONS: Poor contrast ratio. No video noise reduction control. Oversaturated greens in skin tones. For more: go.pcmag.com/ tx47f430s

1080p resolution

WESTINGHOUSE TX-47F430S HDMI Ports Galore, and More

There’s no disputing that HDTVs look their best whelmed the corners and edges of the picture, when displaying high-definition video, and the resulting in decreased image contrast. Apart from ideal way to transmit this pristine high-def signal that, the set’s results on the HD HQV Benchmark is over an HDMI cable. That’s the draw for Westing- test DVD were among the best I’ve seen; I recorded house Digital’s affordable new 47-inch LCD set. perfect performance within the HQV’s ﬁ lm resolu- This well-priced TV boasts a total of four HDMI tion loss tests. In fact, the TX-47F430S is one of only ports for your viewing pleasure. two HDTVs I’ve reviewed that properly process 24p The TX-47F430S measures 31.4 by 46.1 by 9.8 video material encoded in 1080i format. inches (HWD) with its base attached, and weighs Sadly, contrast was another story. I configured in at 71.6 pounds. On-display controls consist of a the TX-47F430S for dark-room, eye-friendly viewing series of thin buttons along the right side of the TV’s by lowering the backlight control, which produced frame. A lone Westinghouse logo adorns the bottom a respectable but still relatively bright 0.25 Cd/m2 bezel, as does an unobtrusive blue power-indicator black level with a nearly identical contrast ratio of light. The TX-47F430S’s two integrated 10W speak- 463:1. Power consumption measurements put the ers are concealed within the TV’s frame along the monthly operating cost of the TX-47F430S at a rela- bottom edge and fire downward. The set delivers tively pricey $10.65 with the backlight set to maxi- ample volume for a large room, and an integrated mum. I based my calculations on 8 hours of daily PORTS INCLUDED subwoofer (15W) helps balance the system’s other- operation with a kilowatt-hour cost of $0.13. This HDMI 4 wise bright sound. was more than $3 higher than any similarly sized Component 2 Watching standard-definition video using LCD I’ve measured to date. Composite 1 DVD and satellite television sources revealed Despite the set’s competitive price, videophiles DVI 0 that the TX-47F430S’s picture was a bit too color- may be put off by the TV’s oversaturated green, IEEE 1394 0 ful. Light skin tones were excessively green, and relatively poor black levels, low gamma response, grass lawns tended to look eerily electric, likely a and lack of video noise reduction controls. I did ﬁ nd RF 1 “feature” designed to grab the attention of outdoor the TX-47F430S’s picture quality more appealing, S-Video 1 sports fans. Also distracting, at viewing angles of however, once its color was calibrated to realistic VGA 1 20 degrees or more, was screen glare that over- levels.— Robert Heron CableCARD 0

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 41 Get all your functions in one place. Better yet, CDW can help you get them all in one machine.

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$69999 HP LaserJet® 3390 All-in-One CDW 951782 • Monochrome laser printer, copier, fax and color flatbed scanner with automatic duplexing • Print speed: up to 22 ppm • Copy speed: up to 19 ppm • Print resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi • Scan resolution: 1200 x 1200 optical dpi • Duty cycle: 10,000 pages per month • USB 2.0 and Ethernet ports

Offer subject to CDW’s standard terms and conditions of sale, available at CDW.com. ©2007 CDW Corporation HP Color LaserJet® 2840mfp Multifunction Printer • Color laser printer, copier, fax and scanner $ 99 • Print and copy speed: up to 20 ppm black, 4 ppm color 899 CDW 762969 • Print resolution: 600 x 600 dpi with HP ImageREt 2400 • Scan resolution: 1200 x 1200 optical dpi • Duty cycle: 30,000 pages per month • USB and Ethernet ports

$749 99 Xerox® Phaser® 6110MFPX CDW 1066685 • Network-ready, color laser printer, copier, scanner, fax and scan to e-mail • Print and copy speed: up to 17 ppm black, 4 ppm color • Print resolution: 2400 x 600 Image Quality • Scan resolution: 600 x 1200 dpi • Duty cycle: 24,200 pages per month • USB and Ethernet ports

Xerox® Phaser® 6115MFPN • Color laser printer, copier, scanner and fax $ 99 • Print and copy speed: up to 20 ppm black, 5 ppm color 799 CDW 1127970 • Print resolution: 2400 x 600 dpi • Copy resolution: 600 x 600 dpi • Duty cycle: 35,000 pages per month • USB 2.0 and Ethernet ports

Xerox® Phaser® 8560MFPN $ 99 • Solid ink color printer, copier, scanner and fax 1499 • Print and copy speed: up to 30 ppm black, 30 ppm color CDW 1127973 • Print resolution: 2400 dpi FinePoint, 600 x 600 dpi • Scan resolution: 300 x 300 dpi • Duty cycle: 85,000 pages per month • USB 2.0 and Ethernet ports

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One-touch activation of a face-detection mode FUJI FINEPIX Z5FD Ultracompact With Awesome Auto Controls A sturdy build, quick performance, and useful advanced automatic features give this Fuji 6.3-megapixel ultracompact a big competitive edge. Stylish and available in four colors, the Z5fd has a sliding front cover that acts as the power switch and also protects the lens and built-in fl ash. Geared toward auto-shooting, the camera features 12 scene modes, as well as a mode that takes a quick pair of shots—one with fl ash and one without—and lets you save the one you prefer. Its 3X zoom lens has a focal length of 36mm to 108mm, with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 on the wide end and f/4.2 when zoomed in. The Z5fd’s 2.5-inch LCD is fl exible in that Fuji FinePix Z5fd you can adjust its brightness and refresh rate. $199.99 list In both daylight and flash shots, images were well exposed lllhm and exhibited realistic color. One serious problem, however, was PROS Useful advanced auto- 2.5-inch LCD automatically the heavy processing that left visible noise in my images. At the matic features. Responsive brightens in low light camera’s maximum ISO setting (1600), this noise made images operation. Sturdy build. look more like pastel drawings than like photographs. But when CONS Noticeable artifacts it came to performance, the Z5fd excelled, with a boot-up time of in photos. Limited manual adjustments. Some fre- 2.7 seconds, a 2.3-second recycle time, and a 1-second shutter lag. quently used functions Despite its image problems, the well-crafted Fuji Z5fd is a good aren’t quick to access. buy with a set of features typically found in more expensive models. For more: —Aimee Baldridge go.pcmag.com/z5fd

Lone power button—all other input is done with the on-screen keyboard

TOMTOM GO 720 A GPS Th at’s Always Up to Date Keeping GPS maps and POIs (points of interest) up to date is a gargantuan task. TomTom tries to alleviate this problem with its innovative Map Share technology, along with a little help from drivers like you. When you fi rst power up the TomTom GO 720, you notice a new Map Corrections icon in the main menu. From here, you can make edits such as reversing traffi c direction, changing a street name, and adding or augmenting POIs. You can also specify which types of changes you’d like to download: yours, those verifi ed by TomTom, or ones from “trusted sources.” The included USB dock makes it simple to connect to your PC for updates. The 7.8-ounce GO 720 sports a sleek new design, too: a 4.3- inch WQVGA touch screen display and a Bluetooth speaker- TomTom GO 720 phone interface. Its GPS receiver performed on a par with those $499.95 list of other devices using the ubiquitous SiRFstarIII, and there were 3.3 by 4.7 by 0.9 inches llllm no surprises in my road tests. PROS Text to speech. Multi- The TomTom Jukebox media player is the best I’ve seen segment routing. Map Share tech- in a PND, offering a variety of search options and audio book nology. Optional traffi c receiver. support. Furthermore, the GO 720 includes text-to-speech Lots of audio output options. conversion, with the option to purchase celebrity voices. CONS Limited cell-phone support. Mobile services are not There’s a lot to like about the TomTom GO 720, not least of compatible on Verizon or Sprint. which is the promise of easy map updates, as well as community- For more: go.pcmag.com/go720 based road and POI fi xes.—Craig Ellison

44 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

NOKIA E65 Business-Class Cellular A classy pin-striped suit of a phone, Nokia’s new handset gives you smartphone power with a dignifi ed feature-phone look. With its aluminum faceplate and snappy slide-out keypad, the E65’s build is unusually solid and feels decidedly rich. Watch out, though, as some of this cell’s keys may be too small for the ham-thumbed. The E65 is a Symbian Series 60 smartphone with unusually speedy EDGE data support, as well as Wi-Fi. Voice calls Helio Fin sounded clear, though the speakerphone’s sound level was low. $375 direct, The built-in e-mail client works with POP/IMAP accounts, and $175 with contract lllmm third-party software can let you edit Offi ce documents. Nokia’s Web browser, which handles full pages, is the best available on PROS Slim. Three-megapixel camera. Full Web any mobile platform. The bundled music player app had no browser. Excellent e-mail trouble with MP3 tracks but couldn’t play unprotected iTunes client. Plus AAC fi les. For pictures, an internal 2-megapixel camera CONS Very short bat- takes detailed, grayish photos with good light balance. Battery tery life. Annoyingly fl at life, at 7 hours and 44 minutes of talk time, is pretty good. keypad. Feels sluggish in advanced applications. Sold as an unlocked device, E65 is especially appealing to For more: world travelers, who appreciate the ability to swap in foreign go.pcmag.com/fi n SIM cards. But any professional could warm up to this solid GSM handset, which may look and act like an ordinary phone but offers a host of smartphone features.—Jamie Lendino Keys are Nokia E65 large $449 direct but too llllm fl at PROS Sharp, bright screen. Crisp slider mechanism and keypad. Includes Wi-Fi. Superb HELIO FIN Web browser. Fast camera. Th in but Short-Lived CONS Lacks 3G support. No document editing. Take a look at this sweet, svelte little cell. It happens to be the For more: thinnest phone yet from Helio, the extremely Web-friendly go.pcmag.com/e65 cellular carrier, and the company’s best camera phone, too. But with its slim body also comes an annoyingly short battery life. The Fin is a very good voice phone. Calls sound clear, with no hiss, though the speakerphone is somewhat quiet. For Helio users, however, voice is just where handhelds begin. This cell has the de rigueur MP3/AAC player supporting 4GB memory cards, though there’s no integration with Windows Media Leather- Player. (Better PC media software will come soon, Helio says.) textured With its big 2.3-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen, you can navi- back gate full Web pages, check multiple e-mail accounts including Yahoo! and Windows Live, or log on to MySpace. The ability to read Microsoft Office attachments in e-mails is a bonus. A 3-megapixel camera takes photos that but look a bit washed out in daylight and have a tendency to blur under low light. But the Fin’s performance felt sluggish at times, the flat keypad was a bit diffi cult to use, and battery life was pathetic, providing less than 3 hours of talk time. This brief battery life hurts, especially because this is a phone you’d want to use for extensive gaming and Web browsing. Helio’s Ocean, while larger, is a much better platform for the cellular carrier’s rich set of Web and messaging services.—Sascha Segan

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 45 FIRST LOOKS HARDWARE

PictBridge/ USB port

Front-loading paper path for large-format printing Canon Pixma Pro9000 $499.99 list LLLLM CANON PIXMA PRO9000 PROS Top- quality color photos and graphics. Photo Prints Fit for Framing Maximum 13-by-19-inch paper size. Choice of fi ne-art Almost any ink jet printer can churn out decent photo suite on a range of other papers. With matte papers available. photos, particularly at small sizes. But to get excep- paper, the quality was just as good for color pho- CONS Relatively poor tional quality, and to print on fi ne-art papers at sizes tos and better for monochrome prints, which were text quality. up to 13 by 19 inches, you need a high-end printer free of tint. I also printed an assortment of photos For more: built for professional photographers or serious on several of Canon's fine art papers, including go.pcmag.com/pro9000 amateurs. The Canon Pixma Pro9000 may just Museum Etching, Photo Rag, Premium Matte, and fi ll the bill. The Pro9000 packs an eight-color ink Semi-Gloss. I was so impressed with the results that system, designed both to widen the range of colors I plan to frame several of the photos. it can print and to reproduce the subtle shading that Graphics quality is also superior, with no nota- makes skin tones look realistic and rounded objects ble fl aws. This makes the Pro9000 a fi ne choice for look three-dimensional. graphic artists. Its text output was a little bit below Although it can serve as an all-purpose printer in par for an ink jet, particularly with more stylized, a pinch, the Pro9000 is clearly built for photos: The non-business fonts, but few people will be using the default paper setting in the driver is for photo paper. Pro9000 to print text. Slower than its rivals, the Pro9000 ran through our At 7.6 by 26.0 by 14.0 inches (HWD) and 30.8 business applications suite at a lackadaisical 25:58 pounds, the Pro9000 is larger and heavier than (min:sec), but nobody is going to buy it to output most ink jets. You’ll need extra room in the front spreadsheets. And although print speed is far less and back to print on large-size paper, in effect mak- important than output quality for photos, it’s worth ing the printer’s footprint 26 by 26 inches. But for noting that, in its price class, the Pro9000 is the most photo enthusiasts, the Pro9000’s spectacular fastest photo printer I’ve tested, averaging 1:06 for prints will be well worth the extra space it takes up. each 4-by-6 print and 2:05 for each 8-by-10. For photo quality in its price range, the Pro9000 Photo quality is equally impressive. When tested can’t be beat. About its only real drawback is that, if with semigloss fi ne-art paper, the Pro9000 earned a you print a lot of photos in a single session, you may perfect score on almost every point I use to evaluate fi nd that one or another of its eight ink cartridges color prints. The only shortcoming was a slight tint will always seem to be on the brink of needing on a monochrome photo. I also printed our standard replacement.—M. David Stone

46 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 FIRST LOOKS HARDWARE

IOMEGA EGO

Iomega eGo Storage to Go $160 street lllhm Pocket USB hard drives are all the rage. One of the more PROS Large capacity. attractive and reasonably priced offerings is the Iomega Drop resistance. eGo. The drive packs 160GB of storage capacity into its Compact. Good dollar- red, chrome-accented frame. It’s shielded from tumbles per-gigabyte value. and comes with a fine backup program—at least if you’re CONS Dual-headed a Microsoft Windows user. cable’s “Y-section” is a bit short. You have to Designed to be economical, the eGo offers a better download backup soft- cost per gigabyte ($1) than many of its peers. Its hard drive ware. Backup software is yields decent performance, taking 54 seconds to copy our Windows-only. Chrome 1.2GB test folder , which is fast enough for backup or data attracts ﬁ ngerprints. transfer. The drive is rated to survive a fall of 51 inches—at For more: go.pcmag.com/ego least when it’s not plugged in and operating. The eGo comes with a license for a good backup program, EMC’s Retrospect HD. Retrospect can protect both document folders and entire hard drives, including the Pocket-size drive operating system and applications. But the drawback is that (5.3 by 3.5 by you have to download the program from Iomega’s support 0.8 inches) site. Worse, it works only on Windows systems. All in all, the eGo is a solid portable hard drive for storing and transporting your digital life. It should be on your short list if you’re looking for more storage for your laptop or home PC.—Joel Santo Domingo

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RCapture video and audio from any USB or FireWire input device RThe Assistant Director takes all the guesswork out of movie-making RAutomatically divide your video footage into scenes RAdd narration and background music to your video effortlessly

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Cooling fan (loud) CyberPower Gamer Ultra 8500 SE $849 direct; $999 with 19-inch widescreen LCD monitor lllhm PROS Gaming performance on a sub-$1,000 system. Good performance on our multimedia benchmark tests. Nice mix of components for the money. Three-year warranty. CONS Loud cooling fans. Ball mouse. No included security software. For more: go.pcmag.com/ cyberpower8500se

CYBERPOWER GAMER ULTRA 8500 SE Ball mouse?! Gaming Rig with Room to Grow

As a budding gamer, you needn’t shell out fi ve grand Company of Heroes. At this resolution, it will be a for a system with all the bells and whistles. You bit jerky in action situations. The 8500 SE took 1:12 don’t even have to get a mainstream desktop and (min:sec) on our Photoshop CS2 test and a respect- slap a gaming card into it. Instead, you could get able 1:23 on the Windows Media Encoder test . the sub-$1,000 CyberPower Gamer Ultra 8500 SE The CyberPower Gamer Ultra 8500 SE is a rea- and expand it as your skill and funding increase. sonably priced performance system, with a decent The 8500 SE, with its windowed, mid-tower case feature set. It’s a good choice for a beginning gamer adorned with a Smilodon (saber-toothed tiger) logo or a fi lm student.—Joel Santo Domingo and LED lighting, looks like a gaming rig. It contains Specs: 3.0-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor; 1GB a speedy, 3-GHz dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 800-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard processor, 1GB of 800-MHz DDR2 memory, a 320GB drive; 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600 GT graphics card; hard drive, and an nVidia GeForce 8600 GT graph- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium ics card with 256MB of graphics memory. The card is DX10-compliant and has an SLI connector. The system can support a lot of expansion: four PERFORMANCE TESTS 3D TESTS GAMING TESTS (fps) more hard drives, two more memory DIMMs, two High scores are best. 3DMARK06 PREY COMPANY OF HEROES Bold type denotes fi rst place. more PCIe x1 cards, and two more PCI cards. The RESOLUTION 1,280 x 1,024 2,560 x 1,600 1,280 x 1,024 2,560 x 1,600 1,280 x 1,024 2,560 x 1,600 case is a cinch to get into, with easy-to-open latches. AA/AF** Default 0X/8X Default High 0X/0X 0X/0X Its downside is the loud case fans. You’ll probably CyberPower Gamer Ultra 8500 SE 4,428 1,774 46 16 48 4 want to turn the speakers up or wear headphones. Gaming performance wasn’t bad for a system at Velocity Micro Vector GX 5,112 2,331 51 18 55 11 this price. At 1,280-by-1,024 resolution, the 8500SE Campus Edition (2007) * scored 46 frames per second on Prey and 48 fps on * Editors' Choice, reported for comparison. ** Anti-aliasing/anisotropic fi ltering.

48 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 You’ve never settled for less. Why do it with your color laser all-in-one? Choose Plan b.

Up to 21ppm

DCP-9040CN MFC-9440CN MFC-9840CDW Color Laser Digital Copier/Printer Color Laser All-in-One Wireless Color Laser All-in-One $599* $699* $849*

When choosing a color laser all-in-one, Plan A is settling for the ordinary. Plan B from Brother is all about making the smarter choice. So you get more of the features you need. The 21ppm1 maximum color printing speeds you want. And the affordability you’ve been waiting for. It’s a combination that’s deﬁ nitely not Plan A. And it’s only found in the full color laser line from Brother. So don’t compromise on quality or break your budget. Choose Plan B. Visit us online at www.brother.com

Available at: Offi ce Depot, Offi ceMax, Staples, Fry’s Electronics, BestBuy.com, Costco.com, Brandsmart, Microcenter, J&R Computer World, CDW, Insight, PC Connection, PC Mall, Zones, Quill, PC Nation, TigerDirect.com, Provantage, Amazon.com, Buy.com, Newegg.com and other fi ne resellers.

LED screen

Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N $2,299 direct lllhm PROS Carbon ﬁ ber case. Improved, raised keyboard. LED-backlit screen. Inte grated optical drive. 2.7-pound featherweight. Excellent battery life. CONS Too much bloatware. Slow ULV processor. 1GB of RAM is not enough for Vista. Slow-spinning hard drive. For more: go.pcmag.com/sonytz150n

Raised keyboard Carbon-ﬁ ber frame

SONY VAIO VGN-TZ150N Laptop’s Beauty Is Only Skin-Deep

Laptop manufacturers are putting their focus on A modem—and a webcam, which, as far as I know, is design these days, and they’ve come out with some unique in a system weighing less than 3 pounds. amazingly sleek and sexy creations. This is fi ne—as Not so hot is the 1.06-GHz ultra-low-voltage long as they don’t forget that performance and fea- (ULV) Intel Core 2 Duo U7500 processor; nor does tures are an important part of the mix. The Sony it help that the system comes with only 1GB of RAM. VAIO VGN-TZ150N epitomizes elegance. It’s a feath- (You’ll want to double that to do justice to Win- erweight (2.7-pound) ultraportable with a gorgeous, dows Vista Business.) Then there’s the hard drive. LED-enhanced screen, a raised keyboard, and a Although its capacity (100GB) is adequate, it spins durable carbon-fi ber frame. Too bad that Sony hasn’t at only 4,200 rpm. Worse, the system is loaded with paid equal attention to what’s beneath the snazzy bloatware: no less than 30 VAIO apps, plus lots of exterior. If you need a system to keep you produc- trialware such as Corel Snapfire, Microsoft Office tive, you’ll run into a few snags with this one. 2007, and Norton Internet Security. The TZ150N has some top-notch features: LED One advantage to the TZ150N’s low power is backlighting that makes viewing the 11.1-inch screen that it extends battery life. The unit lasted almost 4 a joy, a dual-layer DVD burner, a Sprint EV-DO Rev hours (3:47) playing back a DVD, which translates into roughly 6 or 7 hours’ worth of more routine tasks. But long battery life doesn’t make up for feeble PERFORMANCE TESTS MULTIMEDIA TESTS M components, especially considering that the TZ150N BATTERY SYSMARK L High scores are best. 2007 carries the price tag of a luxury item.—Cisco Cheng M Low scores are best. RUNDOWN WINDOWS PHOTOSHOP CS2 L PREVIEW: Bold type denotes fi rst place. SCORE MEDIA ENCODER ACTION SET hr:min OVERALL L min:sec min:sec Specs: 1.06-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7500; 1GB DDR2 Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N 3:49 47 2:32 2:58 SDRAM; 100GB, 4,200-rpm hard drive; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950; 11.1-inch, 1,366-by-768 screen; 2.7- Dell XPS M1330* 3:23 96 1:32 1:07 pound system weight (3.3-pound travel weight); 63-Wh, * Editors' Choice, reported for comparison. 5.8-Ah lithium ion battery; Windows Vista Business.

50 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007

FIRST LOOKS BUSINESS

LED-backlit screen

ASUS U1F $2,100 street lllhm PROS LED backlight offers terriﬁ c contrast. Good battery life. Leather palm rests. Featherweight. Innovative design. CONS Lacks an integrated optical ASUS U1F drive. Low-powered Leather components. palm rests For more: go.pcmag.com/asusu1f An LED-Lit Ultraportable

The ASUS U1F is a sweet ultraportable with awe- VGN-TZ150N, page 50.) Another nit is that the U1F some picture quality and an innovative design. It’s a runs a weak ultra-low-voltage (ULV) 1.06-GHz Intel traveler’s delight, packing a lot of appealing features, Core Duo U2400 processor, which hampers perfor- but one thing you’ll miss is an optical drive. mance. Also, its hard drive spins at just 4,200 rpm. Thanks to LED backlighting, the U1F’s 11.1-inch The keyboard is a bit unwieldy, though the screen looks magnifi cent. Digital photos and even leather on the palm rests is a nice touch. The touch- YouTube videos look amazing under low light. pad is responsive, but the mouse buttons were However, the screen is very sensitive to glare com- diffi cult to press. The U1F has four USB ports, rare ing from any light source above you. ASUS uses on such a small system, and adds a FireWire port, a magnesium-aluminum alloy in its frame to protect an ExpressCard slot, and a 4-in-1 card reader. the screen, which is only 5mm (0.2 inches) thick. The U1F has a peculiar RAM configuration. It The small form factor presents challenges to comes with 1.5GB of memory (a 512MB and a 1GB ultraportable manufacturers. It’s unfortunate that module), enough to run Windows Vista Business. ASUS didn’t integrate an optical drive, as Panasonic, Still, I’d have liked to see a full 2GB of RAM. Toshiba, and Sony have managed to do on similar Good battery life is just one of the things we like lightweight systems. (See the review of Sony’s VAIO in this 2.7-pound wonder. The battery lasted 2 hours 48 minutes running a DVD; you’d probably get 5 to 6 hours on more basic tasks. I’d like the U1F better, PERFORMANCE TESTS MULTIMEDIA TESTS M though, with an integrated optical drive and a little BATTERY SYSMARK L High scores are best. 2007 more power.—Cisco Cheng M Low scores are best. RUNDOWN WINDOWS PHOTOSHOP CS2 L PREVIEW: Bold type denotes fi rst place. SCORE MEDIA ENCODER ACTION SET hr:min OVERALL L min:sec min:sec Specs: 1.06-GHz Intel Core Duo U2400; 1.5GB DDR2; 80GB, ASUS U1F 2:48 49 3:15 3:48 4,200-rpm hard drive; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, 224MB; 11.1-inch, 1,366-by-768 screen; 2.7-pound system Lenovo ThinkPad X60 (Vista)* 3:45 N/A 1:47 1:12 weight (3.4-pound travel weight); 53-Wh, 4.8-Ah lithium ion * Editors' Choice, reported for comparison. N/A—Not applicable: The product could not complete the test. battery; Microsoft Windows Vista Business.

52 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 FIRST LOOKS BUSINESS

HP Ofﬁ cejet Pro Ink jet with K5400dtn Color Printer laser-class $249.99 direct speed llllm PROS Laser-class speed for business applications. Network connector. Built-in duplexer. Two paper trays. CONS Photo quality is far less 350-sheet and than ideal. Photos aren’t even 250-sheet paper trays slightly water-resistant. For more: go.pcmag.com/hpk5400dtn

HP OFFICEJET PRO K5400DTN Laser-Class Ink Jet If you’re looking for a color printer for a small offi ce, put quality. Text and graphics were decent (though you might go with an inexpensive laser printer. Or not laser-quality), but photos fell short. Colors were you might pick the HP Offi cejet Pro K5400dtn Color often too punchy, and prints prone to smudging. Printer, an ink jet with many of the qualities of a Paper-handling capability is strong, thanks to color laser, at a much lower price and running costs. the two paper trays and duplexer. The K5400dtn The K5400dtn has laser-like speed on text, fi n- is priced inexpensively, and at 1.5 cents for a black- ishing our business suite in 8 minutes 49 seconds, a and-white page and 6 cents for a color page, the record for standard ink jets. But photo speed was not company’s claimed cost per page is relatively low. very good, averaging 2:25 (min:sec) for a 4-by-6 and When it comes to quality, the K5400dtn may not 5:22 for an 8-by-10. Like a laser, the K5400dtn is opti- be a match for a laser, but small offi ces may fi nd it mized for business printing, and that includes out- a good substitute.—M. David Stone

XEROX PHASER 8560MFP/D As Solid as Its Ink Solid-ink printers are designed to compete with color lasers, offering laser-like speed and output quality. They’re pretty much exclusive to Xerox, whose latest, the Phaser 8560MFP/D, is among the more impressive laser-class all-in-ones I’ve seen. Solid-ink printers are best for an ofﬁ ce that can keep the printer running all night so that the ink stays melted. The 8560MFP/D is a whiz at paper handling, with a standard 625-sheet paper capacity and a 1,675-sheet maximum with optional trays. It also has a built-in duplexer. The 8560MFP/D went through our business applications suite in 10 minutes 31 seconds, faster Xerox Phaser than the fastest color laser AIO I’ve tested. It also 8560MFP/D prints photos quickly, averaging 23 seconds for $2,000 street llllm a 4-by-6 and 36 seconds for an 8-by-10. The 8560MFP/D’s output quality is superb. Text PROS Fast. Reason- ably high quality. Prints, is a bit below ideal. Graphics were good enough for scans, and faxes from any internal business need. Photos were superior a PC. Standalone copier for a laser-class printer, good enough to pass as true and fax. photo quality at arm’s length. CONS Fax feature is If you’re looking for a color laser AIO, don’t rule inconveniently hidden in a driver. out a solid-ink unit. The Xerox Phaser 8560MFP/D For more: offers an effective balance of speed, output quality, 525-sheet and go.pcmag.com/ and features for a small to midsize ofﬁ ce.—MDS 100-sheet paper trays xerox8560mfpd

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 53 TheBestStuff Editors’ Choices SMB COLOR LASERS HDTVS AT&T, T-MOBILE Xerox Phaser 6180N $500 street Nokia N95 $749.99 list in Key Categories REAR-PROJECTION Xerox Phaser 6360DN For the complete HP Pavilion md5880n (NETWORKED) $1,600 street VOICE PHONES reviews of these $3,499.99 list VERIZON WIRELESS products, go to PHOTO PRINTERS PLASMA LG VX3450 $29.99 list go.pcmag.com/ Pioneer PRO-940HD $3,300 list ALL-IN-ONE AT&T editorschoice Vizio VP42 $1,099.99 list Canon Pixma MP960 $400 street Motorola RAZR V3xx $49.99 list LCD HDTV BUDGET PROSUMER Sharp LC-32D40U $1,599.99 list CELLULAR CARDS DESKTOPS Canon Pixma Pro9000 $500 street LCD MONITORS SPRINT Apple iMac HIGH-END Sierra Wireless AirCard 595 (20-inch Aluminum) $1,499 direct Epson PictureMate Flash Samsung SyncMaster 305T $99.99 direct MAINSTREAM $300 street $1,999.99 list AT&T Dell Inspiron 531 $709 direct Sierra Wireless AirCard 875U PORTABLE DIGITAL CAMERAS GAMING HP Deskjet 460wf $299 direct $299.99 list ULTRACOMPACT Falcon Northwest Mach V COMPACT BUDGET (Radeon HD 2900 XT) $7,930 direct Canon PowerShot SD1000 HEADSETS HP Photosmart A516 $299.99 list QNEW HP Blackbird 002 $100 street Aliph Jawbone $119.99 list $5,500 direct D-SLR COMPACT HIGH-END Canon Rebel XTi $799 list GPS DEVICES ALL-IN-ONE HP Photosmart A716 Nikon D80 $999.95 list HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC $250 street Garmin nüvi 680 $999.99 list $1,800 direct SUPERZOOM PROSUMER Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 CONTACT MANAGERS & PIMS BUSINESS HP Photosmart Pro B9180 $349.95 list Lenovo ThinkCentre M55e $700 street AnyTime Organizer $1,259 direct DIGITAL CAMCORDERS Deluxe 10.0 $29.95 direct BUDGET SCANNERS Sony Handycam DIGITAL IMAGING Velocity Micro Vector GX ALL-PURPOSE FLATBED DCR-DVD508 (SD) $899.99 list Campus Edition 2007 Canon CanoScan 8600F SUITE Sony HDR-HC3 HDV 1080i $999 direct $180 list Adobe Creative Suite 3 Handycam (HD) $1,499.99 direct $999 direct HIGH-END ALL-PURPOSE FLATBED LAPTOPS & NOTEBOOKS Canon CanoScan 9950F DIGITAL PHOTO FRAMES PHOTO MANAGEMENT Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch $400 street ProShow Gold 3.0 $69.95 direct Pandigital 8.0" Digital Photo (LED) $1,999 direct DOCUMENT Frame (DPF-80-2) $199.99 list DIGITAL VIDEO GAMING Canon DR-2580C $875 street Alienware Area-51 m9750 PROFESSIONAL EDITING PEN SCANNER PROJECTORS Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 $4,708 direct Planon DocuPen RC800 HIGH-END SXGA+ $799 direct $299.99 direct BUDGET Canon Realis SX50 Final Cut Studio 2 $1,299 direct Dell Inspiron 1420 $1,099 direct PORTABLE $5,000 street VIDEOCONFERENCING ULTRAPORTABLE Plustek OpticSlim M12 HIGH-END XGA SightSpeed 6.0 Free Dell XPS M1330 $2,200 direct Corporate $299 direct Canon Realis X600 VISTA SOHO/PERSONAL DOCUMENT $3,000 street E-MAIL QNEW HP Pavilion dv9500t Xerox Documate 152 $595 list BUDGET SVGA Windows Live Hotmail (beta) $1,949 direct Dell 1200MP $699 direct STORAGE Free BUSINESS PORTABLE Yahoo! Mail (beta) Free Lenovo ThinkPad T60p MULTI-DRIVE Toshiba TDP-FF1AU $699 direct Drobo $499 direct $4,048 direct MAINSTREAM XGA FINANCIAL PORTABLE Toshiba TDP-T95U $1,299 direct QuickBooks Simple Start TABLET PCS Toshiba 200GB USB 2.0 2007 $99.95 direct VISTA External Hard Drive $230 direct FEATURE PHONES Lenovo ThinkPad X60 DESKTOP AT&T OFFICE SUITES $2,299 direct Western Digital MyBook Pro 2 Motorola RAZR V9m Microsoft Offi ce 2007 $330 direct INTERNET TELEPHONY $249.99 list $149 direct HIGH-DEFINITION PLAYERS SPRINT GE DECT 6.0 Wireless Motorola RAZR2 V9m SECURITY $149 list Handset for Skype TiVo HD $299.99 list $249.99 list WEB-BASED ANTISPAM VERIZON WIRELESS OnlyMyEmail Personal PRINTERS MEDIA HUBS Motorola RAZR2 V9m $3 direct ALL-IN-ONE Slingbox Pro $249.99 direct Canon imageClass MF 4150 $299.99 list ANTI SPYWARE T-MOBILE Panda Anti-Rootkit Free (mono laser) $250 street MP3 PLAYERS Motorola RIZR Z3 $99.99 list Spy Sweeper 5.5 with STANDARD INK JET HARD DISK TV Antivirus $39.95 direct Canon Pixma iP4300 Photo Apple iPod 80GB $349 direct $149.99 list FIREWALL $99.99 direct Samsung SCH-U620 FLASH Comodo Personal ALL-IN-ONE INK JET Apple iPod nano (3rd gen) SMARTPHONES Firewall 2.0 Free Canon Pixma MP600 Photo $199 direct SPRINT NONSIGNATURE ANTI-MALWARE $199.99 direct NEW Apple iPod touch Q BlackBerry 8830 $199.99 list Norton Antibot $29.99 direct ALL-IN-ONE HIGH-END INK JET From $299 direct VERIZON WIRELESS Primary Response Canon Pixma MP830 Offi ce BUDGET FLASH BlackBerry 8830 $199.99 list SafeConnect 2.1 $29.95 direct $300 street Samsung YP-U3 (2GB) $90 list HELIO PARENTAL CONTROL ALL-IN-ONE WITH NETWORKING Helio Ocean $295 list Safe Eyes 5.0 $49.95 direct HP Offi cejet Pro L7680 SPEAKERS/DOCKS AT&T, T-MOBILE (KEYBOARD) $400 street Chestnut Hill Sound George SUITE Nokia E61i $484.95 list $549 direct Norton Internet Security 2008 $69.99 direct

54 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Where’s Your Point N?

From Your Linksys N Router. Into the breeze. 3 feet from the pool. To Point N.

Point N is the place you never thought a wireless router could reach. It’s sharing photos beside the pool. Watching videos on the veranda. Sending emails from the second floor bedroom. There are thousands of places you can connect from, but only one way to get there… Linksys Wireless-N Ultra Range routers. Find out where N will take you. www.linksys.com

WRT150N

Linksys is a registered trademark or trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. Maximum performance derived from IEEE Standard 802.11 specifications. Actual performance can vary, including lower wireless network capacity, data throughput rate, range and coverage. Performance depends on many factors, conditions and variables, including distance from the access point, volume of network traffic, building materials and construction, operating system used, mix of wireless products used, interference and other adverse conditions. Copyright © 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 25 YEARS OF PC MAGAZINE 2002

INNOVATORS Colin Angle RIDING A WIRE- LESS WAVE Our future robot overlords owe their evolution to When did phones Rosie on The Jetsons. Colin Angle knows she set a stop being phones stellar example. From the day iRobot began, the and become . . . cofounder and CEO was constantly asked, “When computers? We are you going to clean my fl oors?” dove into wireless For years, Angle and his team—including data headfi rst in May with a Wireless cofounder and CTO Rodney Brooks, Panasonic Pro- Super Guide, exam- fessor of Robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of ining e-mail devices, Technology—learned a lot about cleaning. But their call-forwarding ser- bots never made it to market. Costs were too high. It vices, PDA modems, wasn’t until they broke the magical sub-$200 barrier and the promis- in mid-2002—and fi nally garnered deals with cata- ing Stinger phone platform. It didn’t log retailers—that the Roomba hit America’s fl oors. create the “wireless The Roomba was the fi rst truly useful consumer ecosystem” Micro- robot—sorry, Sony AIBO—and is the most success- soft envisioned, ful yet. Two million have been sold. The new iRobot but mobile phones vacuums are even more versatile: some clean a became our most workshop, others scrub a kitchen fl oor. personal computers anyway. PC Mag Angle says iRobot’s secret is doing everything even hired an ana- possible to make a product better. His staff “accel- lyst (hello, Sascha erates the destruction of Roomba, so we can see it Segan) just to keep fail—and improve it.” track of it all.

PRODUCT FLASHBACK Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX $250 lllll Requires Intel Pentium 266 MHz, 64MB RAM, Windows 98SE or higher PROS External break-out box adds more ports than anyone should need. CONS Pricey, complex setup, takes up two PCI slots. BOTTOM LINE Creative Labs has topped itself once again.

“For three years, the Creative Labs PCI audio cards dominated the market. The company ups the ante with its new Audigy series . . . [it] makes a huge difference in the quality of your PC sound output, and it is in your best interest to take full advantage of it.”—Rich Brown, January 15, 2002

What product had you wating in line? READERS RESPOND When Windows Was Loved Send your memories I got to Egghead Software in Altamonte Springs, Florida, around 6 p.m [on of hot technology August 23, 1995]. They opened up at midnight to sell Windows 95. By 11 p.m. the to pcmag@ziffdavis. crowd was really large. People had come in from all over central Florida. The most com with “PC Mag unusual group had desktop computers in their van. They planned to install it all Anniversary” in the night long during their trip back to the University of Florida. I took the next day subject line. off to install the new Windows OS myself.—James L. Cioccio, Kansas City, Missouri

56 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Advertisement Discover a Mathematical World of Startling Beauty and Insight when you experience The Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas—in 24 fascinating and provocative lectures on DVD overs of mathematics have always 7. The Hidden Beauty of the shared a secret largely unknown to the Golden Rectangle Lrest of us: The subject they adore—for 8. The Pythagorean Theorem those granted a look beneath its surface—is and Geometry of Ellipses beautiful. 9. Not-so-Platonic Relationships Its shapes and proportions inspire painters in Platonic Solids and musicians. Its mysteries can tantalize and 10. Hunting for a Sixth Platonic Solid confound even its own deepest theoreticians. 11. Is There a Fourth Dimension? Can We See It?

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When you follow the computer scene tribalism—but they are no longer valid. cartridges? What’s weird about it is that the way I do, you begin to develop a list Linus Torvalds could make this happen every company in the world constantly of complaints and ideas for fixing them. overnight. moans and groans about having too many Here’s my latest Top Ten list. SKUs. Meanwhile, this situation continues 4. Motherboard Standardization unabated. We’re not talking about unique 1. Sun-Apple Merger Why do we need so many motherboard cartridge mechanisms here; they’re mostly This has been under discussion since 1985 variations? How many different x86 just little tanks fi lled with ink. or so, with no action taken. I have person- boards do we need in the world? I know ally never seen two companies that suit there are rationalizations for this, since 8. Standard Cell Batteries each other to a T as these two do. It would every new glue chip that hits the market Digital cameras should use standard cells so people could buy batteries in situations where they cannot recharge. This change What about Intel building a fabrication plant in would also get camera manufacturers back into the business of making cameras Macon, Georgia, instead of China? I understand all rather than making weird, overpriced proprietary batteries for profit. Companies the bogus arguments from the outsourcing perspective. have to fi gure out if they are in the camera business or the battery business. “Bogus” is the operative word. 9. Stop Outsourcing Everything This issue has died down in the news lately, round out the line of machines perfectly improves things a little. But this is a bigger but the problem is worse than ever. Intel and put Sun out of its misery. At one point mess than Linux distros. is dropping $2.5 billion into a fabrication in the late 1990s, Sun would have been the plant in China. Money is fl owing into India big dog in the deal, putting Apple out of its 5. Make Dead Products Public Domain in much the same way—by the billions. misery. Now it is the other way around. It’s ridiculous how much superb com- What about building a fab in Macon, Geor- puter code and how many cool products gia, instead? And, yes, I understand all the 2. Microsoft Split and inventions get shelved and die. Some- bogus arguments from the outsourcing As anyone who has read my columns over times one company buys another and then perspective. “Bogus” is the operative word. the years knows, I’m a big promoter of a decides to stop marketing the acquired Microsoft split. Whether it is into two, product because it is not making enough 10. Get Rid of DRM three, or four entities, I do not care. All I money. Users are left in the lurch. There There is more money being lost in digital know is that the Microsoft shareholders should be a proviso in the copyright and rights management schemes than any sav- and the company itself would benefi t from patent laws about abandoned properties. ings from thwarting piracy. I’m not con- a breakup. Only the egos of the executives They should become public domain. I’ve vinced that piracy prevention is necessarily keep it from happening. been harping on this for years. that good an idea when the evidence continues to indicate that a more open market 3. Unifi cation of Linux 6. AMD-Intel Merger for file sharing results in increased sales. More than anything else, the industry I’m sick of watching these two companies But everyone in Hollywood sees that seem- needs a unification of the Linux operat- bicker. Enough said. ing contradiction as a mere coincidence. ing system, with one purveyor that can Honestly, I could pull together similar control the details of the operating sys- 7. Universal Ink Cartridges lists of complaints week after week. This tem in such a way that you do not have all Why does a single printer company have is it—for now. these confusing distros (see Inside Track, a line of, say, 30 different printers that opposite). The current fl avor of the day is use 20 different kinds of ink cartridges? I DVORAK LIVE ON THE WEB John’s Inter- Ubuntu. In a year or two, it’ll be another could as easily complain about the price net TV show airs every Wednesday at 3:30 distro. Years ago there were good reasons of ink (another peeve of mine), but that EST on CrankyGeeks.com—and you can for this internecine battling—a form of said, what is the point of all these different download back episodes whenever you like.

58 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Dvorak’s InsideTrack

Another Bad Idea Bites the Dust Dept.: Palm wised up and Of course, the likelihood of this happening is zilch, since killed that Foleo micro laptop project. No one wants this form there are too many anarchists in the Linux community. Not factor. It began with the Gateway Handbook, deteriorated that that’s a bad thing. into the Toshiba Libretto, then mutated into the OQO after Two other things in the survey worth noting: First, IE 6/7 a few other exercises in futility. The Palm decision suppos- has 66.2 percent of the market. Remarkable when you consider edly happened because Apple’s iPhone has challenged the that, at one time, Microsoft had nearly 100 percent. And Opera smartphone category, and Palm now wants to concentrate is very low at 0.6 percent. This doesn’t sound right, and it tells on smartphones. Everyone wants to, despite the rather small me that many of the smarter users take advantage of the Opera market. Microsoft even says it would seriously consider devel- option of pretending to be IE. This is so downloads and other oping a Zune phone. I hope Microsoft calls it the PhoZune. functions go smoothly at sites that refuse to accommodate Get the URL now! non-Microsoft browsers. Opera should have 2 to 5 percent mar- Numerous Zune fanboy sites (yes, they exist) have been ket share, if not more. All those estimates would further reduce trying to guess at the name. Some ideas: the Z-phone, the Pune, the IE numbers. Most of the rest goes to Mozilla/Firefox. the Zell Phone, Telezune, MicroPhone (get In addition to browsers, the survey cov- it?), Zobile, Zone, etc. Another guess from ered screen size. 1,024-by-768 is the winner, me—and a likely candidate considering the at 49.5 percent. But only 8.3 percent of the way things are going for Microsoft—the users run a smaller (800-by-600) size. All Microsoft Zune Mobile Phone. The company the rest—over 42 percent—are bigger! So must be galled by the attention being paid people should get off the old 640-by-480 to Apple, considering that Microsoft has bandwagon for Web sites. been in the business for some time. Digital Cameras Are Clicking Dept.: Many In the meantime, I got one of the rare (in interesting machinations are taking place in the U.S.) Neonode N2 smartphones from the digital-camera arena, with pocket cam- Sweden. It plays movies, shows photos, eras moving to 12 megapixels. Kodak has two takes pictures, uses a touch screen, and does models selling for less than $249. All sorts much of what the iPhone does, in a package of cool, subtle feature improvements are the size of a pager. It hooks to a computer showing up on the new offerings, at a great and becomes a thumb drive so you can eas- low price. I am impressed with what Kodak ily download WAV and MP3 files to use as ringtones. Why is doing. This new 12MP CCD (charge-coupled device) sensor can’t you do that with the iPhone? I’ll eventually post an elabo- is the hot ticket. But Kodak and a few other companies are mak- rate review on www.dvorak.org/blog. ing noise about fi nally moving over to CMOS (complementary Never-Ending Stats Dept.: A site called W3Counter (www metal-oxide semiconductor). Nikon just showed its new D3 .w3counter.com) tallied 33 million visits at over 5,000 Web sites full-frame 35mm D-SLR, and just like the Kodak, it uses a big to develop some interesting stats people should know. The CMOS sensor. Its little brother, the D300, is also CMOS. So the most interesting by far is that very few people have jumped change fi rst promised around 1997 is fi nally beginning. Ha! on the Windows Vista bandwagon. (Duh!) The market share Will the E-Book Rise Again? Dept: The e-book and e-book for operating systems is still led by Windows XP, at 83.5 per- reader have been nibbling at the collective unconscious for cent, followed by Windows 2000, with 3.9 percent. The Mac years. But the promise has not been fulfi lled, as users have not OS comes in third, with 3.7 percent, followed by Vista, with warmed up to electronic reading devices. The Apple iPhone 3.5 percent. Linux as a desktop OS is still moribund, at 1.3 per- may change that, with its sharp image and page-flipping cent, the same as the laggards such as Windows 98. touch screen that adds needed tactility. Instead of iPhone- This does not bode well for Linux on the desktop. There compatible e-books, though, expect more proprietary readers needs to be a rigid Linux standard or reference platform. Too and new incompatible formats. many people have too much gear that simply doesn’t work That said, what happens if Apple decides to do an e-book with Linux; either no drivers exist or the gear is just incompat- reader? It will take off and leave everyone in disbelief. Is it a ible. People do not want to put together an elaborate system coincidence Apple took the iBook off the market but still has only to fi nd that their printer doesn’t work or that their system the name in waiting? After all, the company needs more con- doesn’t recognize the hard drive. Some sort of seal of approval tent to sell online, doesn’t it? It’s just too logical to ignore. list that covers the top 10 Linux distros and what works with them should reside in one place. Right now this information is WANT MORE DVORAK? John writes a weekly column for our scattered. It needs to be sensibly consolidated in one site with Web site, too. Log on to go.pcmag.com/dvorak. Or you can e-mail someone handing out “Approved” stickers. him at [email protected].

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 59 JIM LOUDERBACK My Tech-Support Rant

Those T-Mobile support people are some for free. But they’ll probably end up charg- the price. My only question is why the of the nicest folks around. Too bad they’re ing me double for all those service calls. company entertained the notion in the so useless. Here’s my problem. I returned fi rst place. from Europe with a snazzy new Windows Foleo, We Hardly Knew Ye mobile phone available only on the Con- I was crestfallen when I heard that Palm Beware Social Networks Bearing Gifts tinent. No problem, as it works on AT&T cancelled its $500 Foleo just before launch. Finally, a cautionary tale about the chang- or T-Mobile’s GSM network here in the Not because I had high hopes for this ing nature of spam. One of my coworkers, States. I wanted to avoid AT&T’s iPhone- tweener device, a halfl ing wedged between a savvy Web professional we’ll call Rube, saturated network, which made T-Mobile notebooks and smartphones. Nope, I was unwittingly fell prey to an Internet scam. the obvious choice. eagerly looking forward to buying a bunch He received an invitation from a new social My wife’s already on T-Mobile with for $100 on Woot when they were finally network, called Quechup, which sounded a Sidekick II, so the family plan saves me discontinued. promising. After filling out the requisite a few bucks. The bad news? Compared Palm did the smart thing, but why did it personal information, the software asked with the Sidekick, I’ll be paying 50 percent try to buck history? Back in the mid-1990s, to check his contacts, to see if any of his friends were already members. Rube prof- fered his Gmail username and password, It’s been weeks, and although my T-Mobile voice and then the unscrupulous program took him to the cleaners. Without asking or tell- service works beautifully, nary an Internet bit has ing, it stripped his contacts out of Gmail, and then sent e-mails to every one of them, been delivered. My only hope is that I just might get inviting them to join Quechup and spoof- ing Rube’s e-mail address to make it look as voice service for free. if he’d personally penned the message. That’s wrong in so many ways. First, Rube never should have given this pro- more for unlimited Internet access on my HP had high hopes for its Omnibook. Alas, gram—no matter how trustworthy it smartphone. And I had to sign a one-year with anemic storage, poor graphics, and seemed—his Gmail username and pass- contract for the privilege of paying through Microsoft Offi ce and Windows in ROM, it word. But that minor error is dwarfed the nose for that service. But that’s all failed to catch on. A few years later, Win- by the outrageous and possibly criminal beside the point, which was to rant about dows CE devices with full keyboards and 8- audacity of Quechup’s snarfing his per- T-Mobile’s emasculated support. inch screens debuted but suffered the cruel sonal contacts and then spamming them as I already had a T-Mobile SIM card, so death of a thousand compromises. And if Rube had personally authorized the mes- the company activated my phone in min- don’t get me started on Magic Cap. sages. I know, because I received an invite utes. But in trying to add unlimited Internet Some companies never learn. Micro- from Rube and went through the same pro- service, I suffered through a steady pro- soft, Samsung, and others have recently cess, using a fake e-mail account to monitor gression of cheery reps, only to encounter been pushing their $1,000 Origami/Ultra- its behavior. this Catch-22: Despite the fact that I could Mobile PC tablet computers that run a baby Quechup is the worst sort of malware make and receive calls, my SIM card num- version of Windows. Woot and Origami masquerading as a legitimate program. It ber had been deactivated. “We’ll fi x it,” they will shortly meet. At least Palm tried to get just goes to show you that even seemingly each insisted, “within 24 to 48 hours. And a reasonable $500 price. But the Foleo was legitimate Web businesses can’t be trusted. I’ll call you if there’s a problem.” still a halfl ing, neither fi sh nor fowl, neither So if you get a message from a friend invit- T-Mobile reps, apparently, live no lon- a full-featured notebook nor a pocket-size ing you to join something, be aware. It just ger than fruit flies. Every two-day period smartphone. might be a scam. Rube won’t let it happen came and went with no calls and no Inter- Why launch a third device class that again. And don’t you fall for it either. net access. It’s been weeks, and although has to be synchronized, supported, and my voice service works beautifully, nary serviced? Hats off to Palm for realizing KEEP IN TOUCH Contact Jim Louderback at an Internet bit has been delivered. My only that the Foleo’s portability and battery life [email protected]. For more hope is that I just might get voice service just weren’t compelling enough to justify columns: go.pcmag.com/louderback.

60 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007

DAN COSTA My Space Is Not Your Space

On campuses everywhere, Facebook is MySpace Friendster’s lunch—and eating it at the bigger than binge drinking. That is a good (teens/young adults, 14 to 30 years old) cool kids’ table. thing, but the company’s recent decision MySpace is the gateway social-network- to extend beyond colleges presents gradu- ing service—there is nothing wrong with LinkedIn.com ates with a problem potentially even more passing through it, but make sure you get (professionals, 22 to 80) destructive than underage drinking: over- to the other side. It’s garish, loud, and inﬁ - LinkedIn is designed for business network- age Facebooking. Facebook’s beauty was nitely customizable. Almost everybody I ing and makes it pretty easy to connect to the community of like-minded users to know, of every age, has a MySpace page. your peers and keep your professional which it catered. Now, the company has Officially, you have to be 14 years old to history online. Just don’t try to use it for decided to expand its focus and invite sign up, but my stepson signed up when he romance. This is a place to do business. users of all ages to join the fray. Bad idea. was 11 and simply claimed to be 100 years Facebook is killing the originality of its old. If you are older than 30, it is time to eHarmony community. move on. Leave the page up as a testament (straight singles, 35 to 60) If Facebook wants to use its technology to your youth, but it is time to put away After you put your single ways—or that to help people who aren’t college students childish things. first marriage—behind you, this is the network, it should rebrand itself or even There are two exceptions to this rule. place to go for romantic compatibility. launch a separate site. Perhaps to TheBig- First, if you are a musician, a MySpace Unfortunately, the site doesn’t offer any options for gay people. Founder Neil Clark Warren says it is because he hasn’t done Facebook decided to expand its focus and invite users enough research into same-sex relationships to provide accurate matches. Yahoo! of all ages to join the fray. Bad idea. Th e company and Match.com will gladly ﬁ ll in the gap. is killing the originality of its community. aSmallWorld (beautiful, rich, and powerful of any age) For the most exclusive social network, you Chill.com? Maybe give users the option of page is job requirement. MySpace made can try to get into aSmallWorld. Whereas connecting across networks, the way The its bones helping bands connect with fans, most networking services want to do Knot does for wedding planners. Once and it remains one of the best ways for everything to get you to sign up, aSmall- married, they are dumped into The Nest. bands to reach fans. I would also make an World probably won’t let you pass the I am not trying to keep the 50- exception for political candidates, though home page. To join you have to be invited something, married software engineer I don’t really believe Rudy Giuliani and by a trusted member. Once past the virtual away from the 17-year old coed cheer- Hillary Clinton are staying up late updat- velvet rope, you are presumably treated to leader majoring in Art History—although ing their Top 8s. These Potemkin pages pop-ups for high-end cognac and ocean- maybe I should be. I simply believe there is may be a farce, but they’re still better than front real-estate in the Hamptons. I will far more value for the people of the Face- having kids get all their political informa- report back as soon as my invite arrives. book community if Facebook the company tion from South Park. continues to focus on the college students There is a community for everyone, who made it successful. Friendster every reason, and every season online. Social-networking sites want as many (old Friendster users, 25 to 35) One giant, connected, indiscriminate net- people to sign up as possible, so they can It isn’t that no one under 25 should have work would look like, well, the Web. Sure, make the most money before they sell to a Friendster page; it’s just that no one online social networking is all the rage, but Google or Yahoo!. But that doesn’t mean under 25 has one. The company claims to you have to know your place. Just because you should join. My advice is to follow a have more than 48 million members, but you get an invite doesn’t mean you should few simple rules before you sign up for any I bet most of those pages haven’t been accept it. Please network responsibly. old network. Bear in mind, these aren’t the updated in a long time. Industry reports companies’ stated rules—they are mine. claims page views are rising, but it seems VOICE YOUR OPINION Debate Dan on this They tend to break down by age range. to me Facebook and MySpace are stealing topic at go.pcmag.com/costa.

62 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 SASCHA SEGAN Less Anonymity, More Privacy

We need less anonymity on the Internet. post on message boards just to inflame something I write not to be indexed and And we need more privacy. And the two passions, not to engage in genuine dis- not to be searchable, or if I want to delete should go together. cussion. Wonder if they’d do that if their something I wrote anywhere, I should be The vast, lazy culture of message-board names were attached? And the plague of able to do so. With the duty of accountabil- anonymity is a perfect example of “slack- spam would certainly slow if rules requir- ity should come the right to power over tivism”—an easy but false solution to the ing the authentication of e-mail senders your own words. problem of our eroding right to true pri- came into force. Real privacy would help the people vacy, which will take real grit and courage Meanwhile, you may have a false ano- who actually need to be anonymous on the to solve. nymity, but you have no privacy—not Net: corporate whistle-blowers, teenagers Face it, all “anonymity” saves you from from Google’s database of Web searches, seeking advice from Planned Parenthood, is accountability before your peers. It lets private addresses, and phone numbers, that sort of thing. Just as in the non-Net people release the worst in themselves nor from goverment agencies’ searches of world, there are limited situations where through trolling and online fraud, and your ISP’s records. False anonymity leads people need to be anonymous. But we disconnects people from a reality where to a complacency where we forget that we should start from a presumption that peo- you’re held responsible for the stupid don’t have privacy where it really counts— ple should be honest about who they are things you say. It dramatically lowers the because we’re able to act like idiots in front unless they have a real need for anonymity. Those who truly require it, the few Deep Throats, are outnumbered by self-serving “Anonymity” lets people release the worst in themselves agenda-pushers, cowards who don’t live up to their words. Opinions worth having through trolling and online fraud, and disconnects are worth putting your name to. Do you see people walking down the street in ski people from a reality where you’re held responsible for masks and wigs to hide their identities and calling themselves “xxLuvNKisses906xx?” the stupid things you say. I don’t, and I live in New York City. Or how about, let’s open a ghetto. If people want to flame each other with reliability of Internet communication, as of strangers who don’t matter. You may handles without a real reason for doing so, people can lie without real consequence. think you can pretend to be somebody they can do so on a limited set of message It makes Internet-based activism a joke else on the Internet, but the Department of boards, which will quickly devolve into when any online petition can be signed by Homeland Security doesn’t see the distinc- sludge. Perhaps each purveyor of message a thousand sock puppets. Internet users tion between you and your cyber-self. boards can have one free-for-all forum need to face up to the 21st-century truth: Getting rid of the Internet’s lazy ano- allowing that sort of nonsense. On the rest What’s online can’t be separated from “real nymity habits will actually aid the cause of the Net, we’ll be grownups. life.” It’s all real. It’s just life. of privacy, because it’ll finally bring the My proposal here applies only to the Losing the weak anonymity of handles issue of online privacy into the day-to- U.S. and Canada. People who live under and the false differentiation between “real- day world. Do you want to protect your more oppressive regimes can post all the ity” and “cyberspace” would stamp out all message-board postings from prying eyes? anonymous stuff they want; they have my sorts of worthless, childish behavior. Take Well, right now they can be probed by any blessing. But we, luckily, live in a place the jerk who has a second wife on Sec- law-enforcement tyro with a grudge. With- where the government and Web ﬁ rms will ond Life, to the dismay of wife #1. There out the imaginary shield of weak anonym- respond to the people, if the people get is no “second life.” There’s only one life, ity, people will have the incentive to rise up angry enough. And if the people sign their bigamist. Even Second Life the company and demand some laws that would actually own names. is starting to figure that out, demanding protect privacy—against our peers, our identity veriﬁ cation to access some parts corporations, and our government. We can MORE SEGAN ONLINE Have a comment of the service. Or take the loser who IM’d have a real societal debate over what infor- on Sascha’s latest PC Labs-tested and rated me trying to impersonate a celebrity for mation should be public and when people reviews of mobile gear at go.pcmag.com/ no apparent reason. Or all the folks who should be accountable. My vote: If I want segan? Speak up, but use your real name.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 63 THE ULTIMATE PC BUYING GUIDE

It’s that time of the year again, when PC manufacturers roll out their best and brightest systems for the holidays. If you’re planning on buying a new system to start the next year right, or want to surprise a loved one with a system of his or her dreams, you’ll fi nd out what you need to know right here. We have sift ed through the coolest, the fastest, and even the cheapest systems out there to bring you our picks for the best PCs to buy. Whether you’re looking for the ultimate gaming rig, the best family system, the cheapest desktop, or the coolest desktop-replacement laptop, we give you the must-have (and maybe the must-avoid) systems. So sit back, relax, and fi nd your ultimate PC. By Joel Santo Domingo and Cisco Cheng

64 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Desktop Performance 73 | LAPTOPS Desktop-Replacement Laptops 75 | Tablet PCs 75 | Laptop Performance 76

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 65 Mainstream Desktops

By Joel Santo Domingo Mainstream is a broad category. The newest mainstream systems we’ve seen cost as little as $1,200 or as much as $3,000. If you’re looking at a $500 PC, you’re trying to get the most bang for your buck while holding your purse strings tight. With a top-end PC, you’re looking for something more speciﬁ c, such as gaming performance. A mainstream system falls somewhere in between. I tend to define • Dell Inspiron 531 (Blu-ray) mainstream desktops as those systems you want to buy because you need more features than you’d get with a simple $500 PC, or because your old PC is just too darn slow. Two of the systems we review are all-in-one PCs that combine the best parts of notebook computers with the larger screen and design presence of a desktop built into a LCD panel. Meanwhile, the towers are multimedia powerhouses, with the expansion space, hard drive space, and computing power you can’t ﬁ nd in a notebook (yet).

Apple iMac (20-inch, Aluminum) $1,649 direct llllh Apple’s latest iMac continues the design excellence that placed previous versions at the top of the all-in-one PC heap. Improvements include a new metal keyboard, a more eco- friendly aluminum-and-glass recyclable exterior, and updates to the excellent iLife 08 software suite. Aside from its lack of TV tuners of any kind (that’s what the iTunes store is for), the new iMac is the epitome of simple-to-use multimedia. The built-in webcam, the ability to suck virtually any • HP Pavilion Media Center TV m8100y PC digital media off your digital camera or

66 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Business Desktops Buying desktop PCs for your small business can be more efﬁ cient than getting laptops for all your work- ers. They are usually less expensive, and they’re built on technologies that won’t go obsolete as quickly as mobile tech.—JSD

• Apple iMac (20-inch, Aluminum) • Gateway DX440X camcorder, and the iLife suite with which the Dell Inspiron 531 (Blu-ray), it rips one to glom the resulting pictures, music, and out of the park with its larger hard drive, videos together mean that you have an built-in TV tuner, enhanced graphics instant YouTube/Facebook/MySpace memory (though slower 3D graphics), a • Dell Vostro 200 machine that takes just minutes to set up. bay for a (proprietary) multimedia drive To coin (steal) a phrase, this is the com- cartridge, and better overall perfor- Dell Vostro 200 puter for the rest of us. mance. This is the one to get if you have $899 direct (E-Value Code: OC brde2ph) Specs: 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 pro- about $1,200 to $1,500 to spend. It’s also lllhm cessor; 2GB, 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB, a better bargain than the HP m8100y if Dell has introduced a small business 7,200-rpm hard drive; 256MB ATI Radeon HD you don’t need HD-quality movie play- desktop in the mold of the Inspiron con- 2600 PRO graphics card; Mac OS X 10.4. back or burning. sumer desktop. It’s a good choice for Specs: 2.4-GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor; business that doesn’t have IT staffers. Dell Inspiron 531 (Blu-ray) 2GB DDR2 SDRAM; 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard $1,129 direct; $1,409 with 20-inch LCD drive; 512MB nVidia GeForce 8500GT graphics HP Compaq dx2300 widescreen monitor card; Windows Vista Home Premium. lllmm $563 direct lllhm Dell’s Inspiron 531 (Blu-ray) is one of the HP Pavilion Media Center HP’s “budget” business desktop is two bargains in this category, coming TV m8100y PC just enough for the clerical worker $2,199 direct, $2,769 with 24-inch LCD in at under $1,200 without a monitor. in a medium-size business. It’s not a widescreen monitor powerhouse, but you’re not paying your Though it has more computing power llllh employees for ripping MP3s and work- than sub-$1,000 PCs do, it falls a step ing on YouTube videos, right? behind the competition. Its Blu-ray drive This fully loaded HP desktop is read-only, but you can use it to watch is the one with the most multi- HP rp5700 HD-quality movies. Other pluses include media bells and whistles in the $1,299 direct llllm Bluetooth, a USB multimedia keyboard, group. These include a dual- and the recommended “No Additional core processor, full-size removable hard HP’s “long life” PC will be available in its current confi guration for the Software” option. Not a bad machine, but drive bay, TV tuner, combo Blu-ray/HD next fi ve years, whereas most busi- the Gateway DX440X is a better value. DVD burner (read-and-write Blu-ray, ness PCs top out at 18 months. This Specs: 2.6-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual CDs, and DVDs, read-only HD DVD), reduces administration headaches Core 5000+ processor; 2GB, 667-MHz DDR2 wireless keyboard, mouse, and a multi- and IT costs. The system’s “green” features are an added bonus. SDRAM; 320GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; 256MB tude of input and output ports. With the ATI Radeon HD 2600XT graphics card; Win- removable HP Personal Media Drives, dows Vista Home Premium. Lenovo ThinkCentre M55e storage is convenient and limitless, so $1,259 direct your home videos and downloads have llllm Gateway DX440X a place to stay when you’re not actively The ThinkCentre line is no $1,108 direct; $1,268 with 19-inch LCD enjoying them. Performance was on a stranger to the corporate widescreen monitor worker. ThinkVantage utilities, lllhm par with that of the Gateway DX440X, so go for the cheaper DX440X if you don’t including rescue and recovery enterprise-class components, and a The Gateway DX440X is the best choice need or want Blu-ray and HD DVD in good feature set make this small- here for the cash-strapped multimedia one package. This is the one I would buy form-factor PC a shoo-in for busi- enthusiast. For about the same price as if I were a budding fi lmmaker. nesses of all sizes.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 67 • Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U • Velocity Micro Pro Magix

Specs: 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 pro- SLI (dual-card) graphics, the Pro Magix fan who wants to play at an impressive cessor; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM; 250GB, 7,200-rpm yields the gaming and multimedia per- number of frames per second but can’t hard drive, 512MB nVidia GeForce 8500GT formance normally found in gaming rigs. stomach the thought of a $6K+ bill. graphics card; Windows Vista Home Premium. It also features two hard drives, one at Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U 500GB and 7,200 rpm and the other at Specs: 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 pro- c $2,900 direct 150GB and 10,000 rpm. Both utilitarian essor (overclocked to 3.2 GHz); 2GB 800-MHz llllm DDR2 SDRAM; 150GB, 10,000-rpm hard drive, and a thing of beauty, the new case even and 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; two 320MB The VAIO VGC-LT19U is the PC to get if looks mean. The ProMagix is for the EVGA nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS graphics you want to hide it in plain sight, in your speed freak or the well-heeled gaming cards (SLI); Windows Vista Home Premium. bedroom or front room perhaps. It can be mounted on a wall or positioned in a cabinet, and it looks just like an HDTV How We Rate Desktops set if you hide the (wireless) mouse and The Design category takes into account aesthetics (which is admittedly subjective) and keyboard. Too bad there’s a huge amount also covers how well design elements function within a PC. We’re looking for systems that of bloatware, and the price of the fully use design intelligently to make the product better. Usability rates the functionality of loaded version is high. (A basic LT with- some design elements (for instance, how much sense the placement of the card reader out tuners starts at $1,700.) An external may make in ergonomic terms), but it also takes into account elements such as bloatware (or lack thereof), environmental concerns such as noise, and expandability and upgrades. CableCARD tuner, a built-in webcam, The Features rating looks at components: hard drives, card readers, TV tuners, and the a glorious 22-inch widescreen, and an like. We also considered system memory, the amount of hard drive space, and opti- HD-movie-friendly Blu-ray burner are cal drive(s). Performance is pretty self-explanatory. The rating is based on the system’s big pluses. benchmark-test results. The Overall rating takes all the other ratings into consideration, along with intangibles such as value for the dollar. Specs: 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor; 2GB, 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; 256MB nVidia GeForce MAINSTREAM SCORECARD 8400M GT graphics card; Windows Vista Ul- The best possible rating is 5. DESIGN USABILITY FEATURES PERFORMANCE OVERALL timate. Apple iMac (20-inch, Aluminum) lllll lllll llllm lllmm llllh

Velocity Micro ProMagix Dell Inspiron 531 (Blu-ray) lllmm lllhm llllm lllmm lllmm $2,926 direct; $3,295 with 22-inch LCD lllmm lllmm llllm llllm lllhm widescreen monitor Gateway DX440X lllhm HP Pavilion m8100y lllhm lllhm lllll llllm llllh

Performance and more performance: Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U llllh lllll llllh lllmm llllm That’s what the ProMagix gets you. With Velocity Micro ProMagix lllhm lllhm llllh lllll lllhm an overclocked quad-core processor and RED denotes Editors' Choice.

68 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMER 6, 2007 Small-Form- Factor Desktops Like cell phones and the cars on the road, desktop PCs are shrinking in size as never before. The combination of laptop processors, integrated components, and decent-size hard drives means that these little wonders can do most, if not all, of the tasks that your old tower PC could do—and more.—JSD

• Compaq Presario SR5130NX Budget Desktops

By Joel Santo Domingo Six years ago, we stated that you weren’t Specs: 2.4-GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+ pro- really getting such a bargain if you paid cessor; 1GB, 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 160GB, • enano e2 model ex7400u only $500 for a PC, but that’s changed. 7,200-rpm hard drive; 256MB integrated nVidia GeForce 6100 graphics; Windows Vista Home Acer Aspire L310 These days, you can buy a system with Basic. $849 direct 1GB or 2GB of RAM, a speedy dual-core lllhm processor, and over 160GB of drive space Compaq Presario SR5130NX The Acer Aspire L310 is a really small for less than $500. These specs make these $480 direct PC, and its design is as attractive as that lllmm systems more than capable of running of the Apple Mac mini. This is a terrifi c Windows-based alternative to the mini, Windows Vista, collecting your digital The Compaq Presario SR5130NX is a and it comes with hardly any bloatware. photos and music, and helping you enjoy cheap PC for the growing media enthu- them in the comfort of your home-office siast. It’s glossy black with silver high- chair. The sweet spot for Windows Vista lights and comes with Vista Home Pre- Apple Mac mini $874 direct is 2GB because it gives the operating sys- mium, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core lllmm tem some breathing room if you’re the 3800+ processor, and a DVD burner that The Apple Mac mini is a success story type who keeps a lot of windows open at lets you burn labels onto LightScribe in the small-form-factor arena. It has the same time. Look for at least that much discs. Performance was good, albeit a minimalist design, with a capable memory in your next PC. If you’ve gotten middle-of-the-pack. Drawbacks include processor and wireless networking steamed staring at the hourglass while a short Norton Internet Security sub- (including 802.11n and Bluetooth). You probably won’t miss its limited expand- waiting for your PC to do something, you scription (60 days) and a lot of bloat- ability if saving space is your aim. know what I mean. The following PCs ware. Still, there’s a lot to like here for have what it takes to manage your digital the majority of users. life while giving you a portal to the Web, all enano e2 model ex7400u Specs: 2-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ pro- $1,825 direct without emptying your wallet. cessor; 1GB, 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 200GB, llhmm 7,200-rpm hard drive; 128MB integrated nVidia Though the ex7400u model I reviewed GeForce 6150SE graphics; Windows Vista Home Acer Aspire T180 is a bit overpriced, enano’s core product $379 direct Premium. (and lower-priced confi gurations) is llhmm sound. It’s a small PC with power and The Acer Aspire T180 is hobbled by its multimedia capabilities. It also has a green “hook”: energy effi ciency, Energy single-core Athlon processor. It placed Star certifi cation, and fewer hazardous last on our multimedia tests, so I can materials used in its construction. recommend it only for light use and Web browsing. Still, on the plus side, it comes HP Slimline Pavilion S3020n with 90 days of Norton AntiVirus, and $580 direct it’s bloatware-free. It also has the most llllm internal tool-less expansion space. The There may soon be a new version in this Aspire is one of the more stylish value series, but it should be as capable as PCs, and it is the least expensive desk- the S3020n. The Slimline trades a little space (it’s bigger than the other small- top in our lineup. That said, the other size systems here) for a lot of capability choices here are a lot more computer for (desktop-class hard drives and the HP not a lot more money. • Dell Inspiron 531s Pocket Media Drive bay).

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 69 Gaming • Systemax Venture E21 • Acer Aspire T180 Desktops

By Joel Santo Domingo Dell Inspiron 531s ilarly equipped Compaq’s. It has the The ultimate gaming PC used to be solely $499 direct (E-value code: DDPMGX1) advantage of a longer (90-day) McAfee about benchmark numbers. Now, nearly llllm Internet security suite subscription. all the system builders overclock, and The slim, stylish Inspiron 531s The amount of bloatware is a downside. since they get their components from the uses a small-form-factor chas- Media enthusiasts and general users will same sources (Intel, AMD, ATI, nVidia), sis to save desk space. The 531s’s like this Vista Home Premium–equipped it is no wonder that these systems rack pluses include good-to-great per- budget desktop. up similar benchmark scores. All seven of formance numbers for a value PC, thanks Specs: 2.1-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ pro- this year’s competitors use the same quad- to its ATI Radeon HD 2400 discrete cessor; 1GB 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB, core overclockable processor: the Intel graphics card. The 531s also has 2GB of 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive; 128MB integrated Core 2 Extreme QX6850. The differences memory, one of only two value PCs that nVidia GeForce 6150SE graphics; Windows are in the features and execution. The HP Vista Home Premium. we feature here to do so. Dell now gives Blackbird 002’s efﬁ ciency, cooling, perfor- you a “No Additional Software” option Systemax Venture E21 mance, serviceability, and good looks raise to avoid bloatware. About the only nits $499 direct the bar way above the competition’s reach. lllhm to pick are the choice of Vista Home New tech, like solid-state drives in the Basic, the short (30-day) McAfee free- The Venture E21’s drab case holds the Falcon Northwest Mach V, increases the trial subscription, and the lack of a DVD heart of a lion, with an Intel Core 2 appeal of crazy-expensive systems. There burner. Otherwise, the 531s represents Duo CPU and 2GB of system memory. are also a couple of Blu-ray and HD DVD the best overall value here. It aced the photo-editing test and also drives in the mix. Gaming is not just about Specs: 2.1-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ pro- placed ﬁ rst on our Windows Media test. the benchmark drag races anymore; you cessor; 2GB, 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 160GB, Another plus is a year’s subscription to have to make the system drool-worthy yet 7,200-rpm hard drive; 256MB ATI Radeon HD CA eTrust Anti-Virus. Though the sys- packed with useful extras. 2400 graphics card; Vista Home Basic. tem is otherwise lackluster, you can’t ar- eMachines T5234 gue with its performance numbers. ABS Ultimate X Magnum $499 direct $6,399 direct lllhm Specs: 1.8-GHz Pentium E2160 processor; 2GB, lllhm 533-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 250GB, 7,200-rpm The eMachines T5234’s performance hard drive; 224MB integrated Intel GMA950 Though the ABS Ultimate X Magnum is numbers are almost a mirror of the sim- graphics; Windows Vista Home Premium. water-cooled, it’s noisy. The din from the cooling fans drowns out all other sounds in the room. Good thing it does perform, with very-good-to-excellent scores all around BUDGET SCORECARD in multimedia and 3D. The ABS proves it The best possible rating is 5. DESIGN USABILITY FEATURES PERFORMANCE OVERALL can play with the big boys and is worthy of Acer Aspire T180 lllmm lllmm llhmm llmmm llhmm consideration. Compaq Presario SR5130NX lllmm lllmm lllmm lllmm lllmm Specs: 3.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Dell Inspiron 531s lllhm lllhm llllm lllhm llllm (overclocked to 3.33 GHz); 4GB DDR3 SDRAM; eMachines T5234 lllmm lllmm lllhm lllmm lllhm four 150GB, 10,000-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID 0); one 750GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard Systemax Venture E21 llhmm lllmm llllm lllhm lllhm drive; two 1GB ATI Radeon HD 2900XT graph- RED denotes Editors' Choice. ics cards (CrossFire); Windows Vista Ultimate.

70 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Media Centers Not long ago, a Media Center was any system running Windows Media Center Edition. When Microsoft built MCE into the Vista Premium and Ulti- mate versions, the stakes got higher. Digital Cable Tuner and copious storage rule the day now.—JSD

• Dell XPS 720 H2C

• HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC

HP Pavilion a6130n $750 direct llllm The a6130n has expandable disk storage through the innovative HP Pocket Media Bay drive. It has integrated graphics, so it lacks 3D chops, but it’s powerful enough to handle all your digital life.

HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC $1,800 direct llllm The TouchSmart succeeds where previous all-in-one PCs have tried and failed. It has a touch-screen interface that works. It could use a speed bump and an HD DVD drive, but this all-in-one is a perfect TV/DVR/family communications center/kitchen PC.

Velocity Micro CineMagix Grand Theater $3,699 direct lllmm The Grand Theater does something that even a $5K+ gaming rig can’t: It replaces • HP Blackbird 002 your TiVo, recording HDTV over cable, even the premium channels. It does all this while looking like a piece of stereo equipment, unlike the gaming PCs.

Dell XPS 720 H2C system for those who can handle Dell’s Velocity Micro Vector GX $7,756 direct; $8,955 w/27-inch widescreen quirky take on upgrades: Components lllhm Campus Edition 2007 such as the power supply, motherboard, $999 direct Dell’s latest gaming PC is still in the old and sound card are often Dell-speciﬁ c. llllm XPS 700 case, but now it has a new, optional It may have “Campus Edition” in its window to show off the thermoelectric Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 name, but this is a system for the cooler. The exterior design is still love-it- (overclocked to 3.67 GHz); 4GB, 1,066-MHz budding director in your family. Its DDR2 SDRAM; two 160GB 10,000-rpm SATA overclocked processor gives it the or-hate-it, but the internals—including a hard drives ( RAID 0); one 1TB 7,200-rpm hard legs it needs to keep up with the latest 1TB hard drive and 4GB of memory—are drive, two 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra Internet trends, including helping you sound. This is the performance gaming graphics cards (SLI); Windows Vista Ultimate. express your creativity on the Web.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 71 • ABS Ultimate X Magnum • Falcon Northwest Mach V (8800 Ultra SLI)

Falcon Northwest Mach V Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 and out. The system’s “foot” helps stand (8800 Ultra SLI) (overclocked to 3.9 GHz); 4GB, 800-MHz DDR2 the system above the rest, literally as well $10,995 direct SDRAM; two 32GB solid-state drives (RAID as fi guratively, while providing increased llllm 0); one 1TB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; two 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards airfl ow to the components inside. In addi- Falcon’s latest Mach V, now with two (SLI ); Windows Vista Ultimate. tion to the CPU’s liquid cooling system, nVidia GeForce 800 Ultra graphics cards internal features include separate and in an SLI configuration, is as much of a HP Blackbird 002 innovative Voodoo-style wind tunnels that speed demon as the car that inspired its $5,400 direct blow air over the graphics cards. Tool-less lllll optional ($710) “BMW Montego Blue” hard drive caddies enable easy upgrades. I paint job. It comes with an Intel Core 2 The Blackbird comes from a huge love the Blackbird’s swinging chassis door Duo Extreme QX6850 CPU overclocked to system manufacturer, but its inter- that lets you into the case with one fi nger. 3.9 GHz. This, along with the pair of nVidia nals are from a so-called boutique The Blackbird is competitive, though not GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards, helped builder. It has “Voodoo DNA,” the fastest on the benchmark tests. Still, it’s it to beat the competition on several of our which means that its parts have been hand- a system well worth showing off. It’s the benchmark tests. Its solid-state hard drives picked by the overclocking experts from one I want. boost the cost, but boot-up and program Voodoo PC. The Blackbird’s case is mostly Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 pro- launches are near-instantaneous. This one a machined block of solid metal, with a cessor (overclocked to 3.67 GHz); 2GB, 1,066- is for the exotic technology fan for whom good heft and feel. Its design sets it apart— MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 160GB, 7,200-rpm hard cost is really, really no object. it looks like nothing else in the world, inside drive; 320GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive; two 1GB ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics cards (CrossFire); Windows Vista Ultimate.

GAMING SCORECARD Overdrive PC Core2.SLI The best possible rating is 5. DESIGN USABILITY FEATURES PERFORMANCE OVERALL $7,190 direct ABS Ultimate X Magnum llhmm llhmm llllm llllh lllhm llllm Dell XPS 720 H2C lllhm llllm llllh llllm lllhm The Overdrive PC Core2.SLI, along with Falcon Northwest Mach V (8800) lllhm llllm lllll llllh llllm its stablemate, the Velocity Micro Gamers’ HP Blackbird 002 lllll llllh llllh llllm lllll Edge PCX, is unique among these gaming rigs in that it is air-cooled yet overclocked Overdrive PC Core2.SLI lllmm lllmm llllh llllh llllm for performance (the other systems went Polywell P3503 llmmm llmmm llllm lllhm llhmm with sealed water or liquid cooling for their Velocity Micro Gamer's Edge PCX lllmm llllm llllm llllm llllm CPUs). This 4.0-GHz overclocked system RED denotes Editors' Choice. won top scores on several of our gaming K

72 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Desktop Performance: What the Numbers Mean

Whether they’re PCs under $500, mainstream systems, or aren’t too shabby, though, if 3D gaming isn’t your main concern. obscenely monstrous gaming machines that cost as much as a The Gateway DX440X and HP Pavilion m8100y both use a stock- car, the newest desktops share some common themes: dual- and clocked version of the Q6600 quad-core processor, and both quad-core processors, discrete dual graphics cards, and beefed- have single GeForce 8500GT graphics cards. The DX440X and up memory. Although the performance of the budget and main- m8100y are excellent-performing multimedia systems. You just stream systems was pretty much what we expected, things were have to decide if the HP’s extra features—such as HD DVD/Blu- a little more complicated with the gaming rigs. ray and the removable drive—are worth the extra expense. In the budget desktop category, it’s easy to see why the The two all-in-one PCs, the Apple iMac (20-inch, Aluminum) performance leaders are the Dell Inspiron 531s and the Systemax and the Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U, both use notebook-class compo- Venture E21. Both have dual-core processors and 2GB of RAM. nents to help with power and heat issues, but both are still com- The other systems came with 1GB of memory, which hurt their petitive. You don’t pay (too much) in performance for their sleek Adobe Photoshop scores. Notably, the Acer Aspire T180 we bodies, which is a vast improvement over notebook- component- tested had a single-core Athlon 3800+, so though that system based desktops of the past (Compaq iPaq PC, anyone?). had the highest clock speed here, it was the worst performer. Things are less clear-cut on the high-end systems. Five out (Think of it as two slower people performing a shared task faster of our seven gaming PCs placed fi rst on at least one of the than one quick person.) The Venture E21 beat out the Inspiron benchmark tests, including the various subsets in SYSmark 2007 531s on Photoshop partly because of its Intel Pentium E2160 Preview. It is perhaps notable that the Editors’ Choice HP Black- processor: Photoshop has Intel-based optimizations that make bird 002 did not place fi rst on any of those tests, though it was Intel CPUs a better choice for photo editing. within a few percentage points of the winner or slower by only With the mainstream systems, we saw that more horsepower a couple of seconds on many of them. means better performance. The Velocity Micro ProMagix, with The 3D tests were dominated by systems running dual-card its overclocked Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor (3.24 GHz, nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra SLI graphics (specifi cally, the Over- up from the stock 2.4 GHz) and two nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS drive PC Core 2.SLI and Falcon NW Mach V). The dual-card ATI graphics cards, ran away with wins across the gamut of bench- Radeon HD 2900XT Crossfi re graphics in the ABS Ultimate X mark tests. On 3DMark06, it scored 15,000 points when the Magnum and HP Blackbird 002 were smooth and stutter-free, others were all in the 2,400-to-4,700 range. The other systems but the 8800 Ultra SLI systems won the races. Interestingly, K

MAINSTREAM AND BUDGET TESTS SYSMARK 2007 PREVIEW L 3D L MULTIMEDIA M † 3DMARK06

L High scores are best. RESOLUTION 1,280 x 1,024 M Low scores are best.

Bold type denotes ﬁ rst place. PROCESSOR GRAPHICS CHIPSET ELECTRONIC LEARNING VIDEO CREATION OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY MODELING 3D OVERALL AA/AF* Default MEDIAWINDOWS ENCODER min:sec CS2 PHOTOSHOP ACTION SET min:sec CINEBENCH 9.5 MAINSTREAM Apple iMac (20-inch, Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 256MB ATI Radeon HD N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 3,784 1:16 0:58 745 Aluminum) (2.4 GHz) 2600 PRO

Dell Inspiron 531 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual 256MB ATI Radeon HD 84 104 91 102 95 4,767 1:26 1:08 721 (Blu-ray) Core 5000+ (2.6 GHz) 2600XT

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 512MB nVidia GeForce Gateway DX440X 123 135 152 142 138 2,442 0:59 0:44 1,262 (2.4 GHz) 8500GT

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 512MB nVidia GeForce HP Pavilion m8100y 127 129 126 144 131 2,409 0:59 0:44 1,266 (2.4 GHz) 8500GT

Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 256MB (Integrated) nVidia Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U 92 90 131 124 108 2,604 1:22 0:59 672 (2.2 GHz) GeForce 8400M GT

Velocity Micro Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 320MB nVidia GeForce 179 195 217 187 194 15,338 0:47 0:37 1,749 ProMagix (2.4 GHz @ 3.24 GHz) 8800GTS (SLI) BUDGET AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 256MB (integrated) nVidia Acer Aspire T180 48 36 56 77 52 217 2:45 5:21 5:21 (2.4 GHz) GeForce 6100

Compaq Presario AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 128MB (integrated) nVidia 55 45 53 84 58 247 1:48 4:37 4:37 SR5130NX (2.0 GHz) GeForce 6150SE

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 256MB ATI Radeon HD Dell Inspiron 531s 76 52 82 86 73 1,222 1:44 2:14 2:14 (2.11 GHz) 2400

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 128MB (integrated) nVidia eMachines T5234 56 49 58 85 60 265 1:51 4:59 4:59 (2.1 GHz) GeForce 6150SE

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 224MB (integrated) Intel Systemax Venture E21 70 80 83 86 80 232 1:41 1:08 1:08 (1.8 GHz) GMA 950

RED denotes Editors' Choice. * Anti-aliasing/anisotropic ﬁ ltering. N/A—Not applicable: The product could not complete the test. †On Cinebench 9.5 high scores are best.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 73 the Polywell P3503, the lone system with only one nVidia into class-leading performance, and it allowed the ABS and GeForce 8800 Ultra card, still returned smooth, stutter-free Polywell systems to outperform PCs with higher-clocked pro- results at 2,560-by-1,600 resolution on both Prey and Company cessors. The gap isn’t huge—only a couple of seconds on a test of Heroes gaming tests. This is the raison d’etre for gaming PCs: that these machines fi nish in less than 30 seconds—but it is still You pay major bank for smooth game play, even with all the eye signifi cant, since DDR3 is forward-looking technology. Main- candy turned on. stream systems and budget systems will take from 1 minute to Another new technology we saw was DDR3 SDSRAM. The as many as 5 minutes on the same Photoshop test. ABS Ultimate X Magnum and the Polywell P3503 are the fi rst So we see that quad-core rules the game grid, along with systems we’ve tested that have it. Both were the fastest or dual-card graphics. But you can certainly get a system with mul- among the fastest on the memory-intensive Windows Media timedia performance in the mainstream $1,000-to-$2,000 space, Encoder and Photoshop tests. Theoretically, DDR3-1,600 MHz and if you choose wisely, even in the $500 space. It’s all a matter has a peak transfer rate of 12.8 gigabytes per second versus of how much coin you want to trade for your time waiting for 6.4 GBps for DDR2-800 MHz. This extra bandwidth translates things to happen on your PC.—JSD

GAMING TESTS SYSMARK 2007 PREVIEW L 3D L GAMING (FPS) L MULTIMEDIA M

COMPANY INTEL CORE 3DMARK06 PREY OF HEROES L High scores are best. 2 EXTREME RESOLUTION 2,560 x 1,600 2,560 x 1,600 2,560 x 1,600 M Low scores are best. QX6850

Bold type denotes ﬁ rst place. PROCESSOR GRAPHICS CHIPSET ELECTRONIC LEARNING VIDEO CREATION OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY MODELING 3D OVERALL AA/AF* 0X/8X High 0X/0X MEDIAWINDOWS ENCODER min:sec PHOTOSHOP CS2 ACTION SET min:sec

ABS Ultimate X 3.0 GHz @ 1GB ATI Radeon HD 194 249 230 209 220 10,907 100 83 0:40 0:22 Magnum 3.33 GHz 2900 XT (CrossFire)

3.0 GHz @ 768MB nVidia GeForce Dell XPS 720 H2C 185 229 220 202 208 14,979 109 118 0:42 0:25 3.67 GHz 8800 Ultra (SLI)

Falcon Northwest Mach 3.0 GHz @ 768MB nVidia GeForce 217 235 200 225 219 14,273 133 126 0:42 0:25 V (8800 Ultra SLI) 3.9 GHz 8800 Ultra (SLI)

3.0 GHz @ 1GB ATI Radeon HD HP Blackbird 002 187 159 52 209 134 11,303 115 92 0:42 0:30 3.67 GHz 2900 XT (CrossFire)

3.0 GHz @ 768MB nVidia GeForce Overdrive PC Core2.SLI 209 188 254 210 214 13,635 127 156 0:46 0:31 4.0 GHz 8800 Ultra (SLI)

768MB nVidia GeForce Polywell P3503 3.0 GHz N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 8,745 74 65 0:40 0:25 8800 Ultra

Velocity Micro Gamer's 3.0 GHz @ 786MB nVidia GeForce 198 213 234 208 208 13,452 109 137 0:43 0:28 Edge 3.67 GHz 8800 GTX (SLI)

RED denotes Editors' Choice. * Anti-aliasing/anisotropic ﬁ ltering. N/A—Not applicable: The product could not complete the test.

tests and was competitive on the others. and it didn’t even fi nish the SYSmark 2007 several benchmark tests. It’s not the pret- I just wish its dozen-plus fans weren’t so Preview tests. It had problems, including tiest, though it is attractive, with a full loud. This is the one you want if you’re crashes. The P3503’s so-so build quality complement of internal lights to show looking to win the benchmark drag races. didn’t help its overall score. While its price off the neat wiring inside. It’s not the best Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 pro- tag is low for a high-end gaming box, alas, equipped, but it is loaded. It offers two cessor (overclocked to 4 GHz); 2GB, 800-MHz in the high-tech gaming stratosphere, you DVD burners, 10 USB 2.0 ports, and Cre- DDR2 SDRAM; 150GB, 10,000-rpm SATA hard get what you pay for. ative Labs’ X-Fi Extreme Gamer’s card drive, 750GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive; two Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 pro- and 5.1 surround speakers. And its price is 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cessor; 4GB, 1,600-MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two among the more manageable (that is, for cards (SLI); Windows Vista Home Premium. 74GB, 10,000-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID 0), the $5K+ club). The Velocity Micro Gam- two 500GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID ers’ Edge PCX makes its case as a high- Polywell P3503 0); 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics performing gaming desktop with great card; Windows Vista Ultimate. $4,559 direct value for the money. llhmm The Polywell P3503 is the one system here Velocity Micro Gamers’ Edge PCX Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 that runs the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 $5,126 direct processor (overclocked to 3.67 GHz); 2GB, 800- llllm CPU at its normal 3.0-GHz clock speed. MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 150GB, 10,000-rpm SATA hard drive, 750GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive; Although it came in fi rst on the Windows The Gamers’ Edge capitalizes on the two 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX graph- Encoder test (finishing in 40 seconds), it bang-for-the-buck quotient. It’s not the ics cards (SLI) confi guration; Windows Vista was last on many of our benchmark tests, fastest here, though it comes close on Home Premium.

74 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Get eWEEK— FREE! SPECIAL OFFER FOR PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL READERS

Only eWEEK provides news, analysis and real world reviews to help senior IT decision-makers reach the right decisions in building their enterprise infrastructure. TO APPLY FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION CLICK HERE Tablet PCs The concept behind a convertible tablet PC is simple. Flip it open and it looks and functions like a regular laptop. Rotate the laptop screen 180 degrees, however, and suddenly you can apply the digital pen to the screen as you would pen to paper. The trick is to ﬁ nd the best combination of power and features. And we, Desktop- as always, are here to help.—CC Replacement

Laptops • Acer Aspire 5920G

By Cisco Cheng Despite its name, the desktop-replacement rock. Inside you’ll find a pretty 15.4-inch laptop has evolved into something more widescreen and a built-in HD DVD-ROM, than just a portable version of a desktop. running off the latest Intel components and Thanks to shrinking components, you powerful nVidia graphics. can now find a 17-inch widescreen desk- Specs: 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM; 200GB, 5,400-rpm top replacement that’s under 8 pounds. • Gateway M285-E The heavier ones will pack in more power, hard drive; 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GT multiple drives, more storage capacity, and graphics card; 15.4-inch 1,280-by-800 screen; Windows Vista Home Ultimate. Fujitsu LifeBook T4210 Tablet PC cool media features. Most offer options $2,349 direct for either a Blu-ray or an HD DVD drive. Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch llllm They’ll feature high-resolution screens, (Intel Core 2 Duo T7700) This full-featured convertible tablet $3,799 direct as well as integrated webcams, wireless integrates a DVD burner and standard- llllm voltage processing parts. The built-in remotes, and cellular modems. Thinner security features and the lightweight bodies, fancier metals, cool finishes, and The MacBook Pro has added to its fabu- chassis make it a great choice for LED effects are just some of the things lous 1-inch-thick body and 17 inches’ worth professionals on the move. being done to heighten their appeal. All of of widescreen goodness a whole new set of these extras come at a cost, so be prepared Intel components, faster graphics, and big- Gateway M285-E to spend at least $2,000 on one of these. ger hard drives. With all that, it retains its $1,843 direct claim to fame as the thinnest and lightest lllhm Acer Aspire 5920G 17-inch laptop on the market. The M285-E is one of the few $1,999 list convertible tablets that give you llllm Specs: 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 pro- enough screen real estate (14 inches) cessor; 3GB DDR2 SDRAM; 160GB, 7,200-rpm and powerful discrete graphics to take Acer calls its new Aspire a Gemstone, and hard drive; 512MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GT your 3D drawings to another level. we agree: It’s a gem. The cover is edged with graphics card; 17-inch, 1,920-by-1,200 screen; a piano-black ﬁ nish reminiscent of a shiny Mac OS 10.4.9. Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet $2,299 direct llllh What’s not to love about this sturdy convertible tablet? Along with its magnesium-alloy housing, the superior keyboard, great battery life, and ubiquitous wireless options are a boon for tablet lovers.

Toshiba Portégé R400-S4931 $2,599 direct llllm The R400 is super-lightweight and sports a sexy, white piano ﬁ nish. We also love the fact that it has a Verizon EV-DO modem built into its 3.7-pound • Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E • HP Pavilion dv9500t frame.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 75 Laptop Performance: What the Numbers Mean

It’s natural to expect desktop-like performance numbers from as graphics-heavy software. Thanks to SLI graphics and a super desktop replacement laptops, and these systems do not disap- processor, the Dell M1730 reigns supreme in the gaming arena. point. With Intel dual-core CPUs and discrete graphics, we’re The Gateway M-150X, the only laptop to use an ATI graphics seeing performance that could have given some of last year’s chipset, didn’t fare as well as its counterparts with nVidia cards. desktops a run for their money. The nVidia GeForce 8600M GT was the graphics card of choice On SYSmark 2007 Preview tests, the Dell XPS 1730 stood among three of our desktop replacements, the Acer Aspire out from the rest of the pack. This pricey gaming system, with 5920G, the MacBook Pro 17-inch, and the Sony VAIO VGN- a 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo X7900 Extreme CPU and an nVidia AR590E. The MacBook Pro scored signiﬁ cantly better than the GeForce 8700M GT graphics card, had SYSmark Overall scores Sony and Acer laptops on 3DMark06 at 1,024-by-768 resolution, that were at least 20 percent faster than its closest competi- most likely because processor and hard drive speeds come into tor, the Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Core 2 Duo T7700). And play at low resolutions. The HP Pavilion dv9500t, with its lower- because video-encoding tests rely heavily on the processor, grade nVidia GeForce 8600M GS card, placed low on our 3D and it’s no surprise that the Dell XPS M1730 eclipsed the rest of the gaming tests. (Because Toshiba uses a weaker integrated graph- competition on the multimedia tests. ics chipset that couldn’t be expected to handle the gaming tests, With the exception of the Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237, every we didn’t run them on the P205-S6237.) system in this lineup had at least 2GB of RAM, which plays a This story also introduces BAPCo’s latest battery metric: huge role in SYSmark and Photoshop scores. The MacBook Pro MobileMark 2007. Desktop-replacement laptops aren’t known 17-inch deserves honorable mention for ﬁ nishing second in our for their long-lasting batteries. However, the HP Pavilion video-encoding tests with its 2.4-GHz T7700 processor. dv9500t and the Acer Aspire 5920G managed over 3 hours of The discrete graphics cards, increasingly common in desktop battery life, thanks to a combination of 70+ Wh batteries and replacement laptops, allow you to run popular 3D games, as well cooler-running components.—CC

LAPTOP TESTS SYSMARK 2007 PREVIEW L 3D L GAMING (FPS) L MULTIMEDIA M

COMPANY 3DMARK06 PREY OF HEROES

L L High scores are best. INTEL CORE RESOLUTION Native Native †Native M Low scores are best. 2 DUO

Bold type denotes ﬁ rst place. PROCESSOR GRAPHICS CHIPSET MOBILEMARK 2007 hr:min ELECTRONIC LEARNING VIDEO CREATION OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY MODELING 3D OVERALL AA/AF* 0X/4X 0X/4X 0X/4X MEDIAWINDOWS ENCODER min:sec CS2 PHOTOSHOP ACTION SET min:sec

T7300 nVidia GeForce Acer Aspire 5920G 3:21 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 3,048 35.4 17.6 1:29 1:07 (2.0 GHz) 8600M GT

Apple MacBook Pro T7700 nVidia GeForce 2:43 123 97 112 131 115 2,829 25.1 13.3 1:20 1:07 17-inch (2.4 GHz) 8600M GT

X7900 Extreme nVidia GeForce Dell XPS M1730 1:26 130 117 162 147 138 6,016 50.7 28.1 1:08 0:43 (2.8 GHz) 8700M GT

T7300 ATI Mobility Radeon Gateway M-150X 2:19 111 79 127 114 106 1,350 22.3 11.7 1:28 1:11 (2.0 GHz) HD 2400XT

T7500 nVidia GeForce HP Pavilion dv9500t 3:10 111 84 106 118 104 1,970 20 9.7 1:25 1:17 (2.2 GHz) 8600M GS

Sony VAIO VGN- T7300 nVidia GeForce 1:47 102 93 125 110 107 2,613 23.5 8.6 1:32 0:59 AR590E (2.0 GHz) 8600M GT

Toshiba Satellite T2080 Intel Graphics Media 2:10 53 59 52 83 61 N/A N/A N/A 2:07 2:04 P205-S6237 (1.73 GHz) Accelerator 950

RED denotes Editors' Choice. * Anti-aliasing/anisotropic ﬁ ltering. † High quality. N/A—Not applicable: The product could not complete the test.

Dell XPS M1730 This is a practical desktop replacement M-150X’s glossy black finish and lami- Price: $4,024 direct whose only downside is its high price. nated imprints are in step with the latest llllh Specs: 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo X7900 Extreme design trends. Gateway has also put high- What do you get when you combine processor; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM; 400GB, 7,200- deﬁ nition technology in the spotlight by the fastest laptop parts with the rpm hard drive; 256MB nVidia GeForce 8700M integrating an HD DVD-ROM, an HDMI most mind-blowing LED effects? GT SLI graphics card; 17-inch, 1,920-by-1,200 port, and an option for a 1,920-by-1,200 screen; Windows Vista Home Premium. You get the best gaming laptop resolution screen. known to man. The Dell XPS M1730 is a Gateway M-150X rare breed, integrating an Intel Core 2 Duo $1,926 direct Specs: 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 proces- lllhm sor; 2GB, DDR2 SDRAM; 100GB, 7,200-rpm Extreme processor, an Ageia physics card, hard drive; 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD and some of the most masterfully crafted Gateway has given its plain corporate 2400XT graphics card; 15.4-inch, 1,280-by-800 color-shifting lights available on a laptop. designs a newfound sex appeal. The screen; Windows Vista Home Premium.

76 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 MORE ON THE WEB For the full reviews of all the systems here, point your browser to go.pcmag .com/ultimatepc

• Dell XPS M1730 • Gateway M-150X

HP Pavilion dv9500t Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237 grated graphics. It may not run the fast- $1,949 direct $999 direct est components, but it’ll handle basic and llllh lllhm moderate workloads. The dv9500t is a tough act to follow Not long ago, 17-inch widescreen laptops when you factor in both features came at a premium, but not so these days. Specs: 1.73-GHz Intel Core 2 T2080 processor; 1GB DDR2 SDRAM; 120GB, 5,400-rpm hard and price. It’s not often you’ll fi nd Toshiba is serving up this 17-inch wide- drive; 224MB Intel Graphics Media Accelera- an HD DVD-ROM, a gorgeous 17- screen LCD for only $999. It comes with tor 950 graphics; 17-inch, 1440-by-900 screen; inch widescreen, and dual hard drives for a 1.73-GHz dual-core processor and inte- Windows Vista Home Premium. Q under $2,000. Looking at the dv9500t’s unique imprints and sleek black fi nish, you can see that HP’s effort to transform its How We Rate Desktop Replacement Laptops laptops into stylish devices has paid off. The Design rating takes into account aesthetics (admittedly, a subjective assessment) and Specs: 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 proces- also covers how well design elements function within the laptop. We considered colors, sor; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB, 5,400-rpm the metals used, and the balance between the system’s weight and its thickness. Usability hard drive; 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GS rates the placement and responsiveness of the keyboard, numeric keypad, touchpad, and graphics card; 17-inch, 1,440-by-900 screen; mouse. The software load (whether bloated or perhaps anemic) is also factored in. How a Windows Vista Home Premium. laptop opens and closes and portability are additional considerations. Under Features, we look at storage capacity, the amount of USB ports, high-defi nition screens and drives, A/V accessories, and dedicated media keys. Performance rating is clear-cut: We look at bench- Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E mark-test results, processor speeds, RAM confi guration, graphics cards, hard drive speeds, $3,149 direct and battery life. The Overall rating takes all the other ratings into consideration, along with lllhm intangibles such as value for the dollar.

It’s the best Blu-ray experience on a lap- LAPTOP SCORECARD top. The sleek AR series is one of the best- The best possible rating is 5. DESIGN USABILITY FEATURES PERFORMANCE OVERALL looking media centers in the industry. Sony Acer Aspire 5920G llllm lllhm llllm llllm llllm isn’t shy about putting in the latest processors and multiple hard drives, though you Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch llllh llllm lllhm llllh llllm might want to stay away from the Cable- Dell XPS M1730 llllh llllm llllm lllll llllh

CARD tuner option. Gateway M-150X lllhm lllhm lllhm llllm lllhm

Specs: 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300; 2GB HP Pavilion dv9500t llllh llllh llllm llllm llllh DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive; Sony VAIO VGN-AR590E llllm lllmm llllm lllhm lllhm 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card; 17-inch, 1,920-by-1,200 screen; Windows Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237 lllmm lllhm lllmm lllhm lllhm Vista Home Premium. RED denotes Editors' Choice.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 77 T HEBEST

INSIDE

80 Info, Reference, & Search 83 News, Politics, & Government 85 Hardware News & Blogs 80 Health & Food 83 Reading 86 Software & Internet Blogs 81 Lifestyle & Entertainment 84 Shopping, Classiﬁ ed, & Travel 86 Video 82 Money & Career 84 Download & DIY 87 Web Apps 82 Music 85 Gaming 88 Top 100 Classic Web Sites

78 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Illustration by Christoph Neiman of T HEW E B

We put our heads together to come up with the ultimate list of undiscovered and classic sites to satisfy your appetite for the Web. By Kyle Monson

Every year, we at PC Magazine excavate our browser bookmarks, games for those slow days at work. Some sites are completely under poll coworkers and friends, dig deep into the World Wide Web, and the radar, while others are hugely popular within a specifi c demo- put our heads together to come up with PC Magazine’s list of the graphic. But all deserve to be in your bookmarks. In the story’s Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites that have grabbed our attention. second half you’ll fi nd our Top 100 Classic Sites—the established You’ll fi nd a large collection of Web apps and tech sites, excellent best-of-breed sites in their respective categories. Download both blogs, offbeat social networks, and, as always, a few addictive Flash lists directly to your bookmarks from go.pcmag.com/topwebsites.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 79 Top 100 Undiscovered Sites Our picks for the top new or under-the-radar sites of 2007. You may not know many of these sites, but you should.

tech support is painful enough, so why you, just tell them you read it on the Inter- Info, Reference, and Search do tech companies also have to make it net.—WR so hard to find the toll-free 800 number to call? With Hard to Find 800 Numbers, Wikisky.org AfterVote you’ll never have to scramble for contact www.wikisky.org www.aftervote.com information again. The site organizes com- Much as Google has figured out how AfterVote is a search aggregator that companies alphabetically and displays phone to harness user-submitted content to bines results from Google, Yahoo!, and numbers and hours of operation. improve Google Earth, Wikisky.org turns MSN. Each search results page shows you —Jennifer L. DeLeo the collective wiki-eye on the vast reaches a particular page’s ranking on each search of space. Check out the draggable space site, lets you vote for and rank each result, Ninjawords model with constellations highlighted, and offers quick bookmarking. It also www.ninjawords.com learn more about distant stars, or see a offers goodies such as Firefox plug-ins, Sometimes you need to know the meaning model of the stars that are above you right desktop searchers, Yahoo! widgets, and of a word, and you need to know it two- now.—Kyle Monson more.—Corinne Iozzio tenths of a second faster than any other dictionary site can get it to you. That’s why Wink Footnote Ninjawords is there. Like a ninja, it’s smart, www.wink.com www.footnote.com fast, and accurate. And fortunately, unlike a Wink is a people-search engine that culls For genealogists, history buffs, and even ninja, it is not deadly.—Whitney Reynolds results from social-networking sites the average Web passerby, Footnote has a (MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, and more), fol- deal with the National Archives to digitize Uncyclopedia lowed by results from other sites where and upload every document it houses. You www.uncyclopedia.org users keep public profiles, followed by can fi nd anything from handwritten notes If the stress of worrying whether a Wiki- results from the Web at large. You can craft from the Continental Congress to Project pedia article is factual and accurate is get- your own Wink profi le if you want to shape Blue Book UFO sightings. Users can also ting you down, take a break and check out what others see when they do a search on upload their own content, so you may be Uncyclopedia; it promises to be content- your name, or you can just hunt for long- able to find your own high-school year- free. It’s easy to lose a few hours laughing at lost friends.—KM book.—Lisa Ruefenacht the nonsense presented with a straight face here. You could even “learn” a few “facts”; Hard to Find 800 Numbers for instance, did you know that a shark, Health and Food www.hardtofi nd800numbers.com while atop an elephant, is considered the Waiting on hold for customer service or deadliest animal ever? If anyone questions Cork’d www.corkd.com If you have trouble keeping track of whether that Château Lafite in your cel- lar is a 1787 or a 1788, this site can help you get your corks in a row. If your taste tends more to the Two-Buck Chuck varietals, this site also offers user-generated reviews and recommendations for wines you might like based upon your tastes.—WR

ExtraTasty www.extratasty.com It used to be that a social network for booze hounds was called “a bar,” but apparently, there are also Web sites devoted to keeping track of your friends and your drinks. ExtraTasty lets you search for drink recipes, share drink recipes, and talk to friends about drink recipes. Get the picture? UNCYCLOPEDIA Lose a few hours laughing at nonsense presented with a straight face. —Vicki B. Jacobson

80 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Lumosity www.lumosity.com Lifestyle & Entertainment It’s not the fi rst “brain-training” site we’ve ever encountered, but it may be the most scientifi c. On this site you can play games Dethroner that have been lab-tested and shown to www.dethroner.com improve memory, attention, processing Dethroner is the classy men’s magazine speed, and even cognitive control. If you of the Web world. With themed content decide you want the complete brain-train- based on topics like beer, meat, and dan- ing treatment, you’ll have to spend $9.95 a ger, and features such as “Testosterone month or $79.95 a year.—Carol Mangis Television,” a guide to the manliest sights on TV, this site has everything the mod- LUMOSITY Lab-tested games to help im- Menupages ern man needs (or the modern woman, prove memory and attention. www.menupages.com provided her interests are beer, meat, and The days of having to keep a messy stack danger).—WR of takeout menus or not knowing if a res- cheezburgers; leave comments; and vote taurant has a vegetarian option before EXPN on the comments, too.—CM you make the reservations are over. www.expn.com Menupages offers menus and reviews for EXPN is like ESPN but with an X for iminlikewithyou thousands of restaurants in New York, eXtreme—you know, for the kids. It cov- www.iminlikewithyou.com San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, ers the dangerous stuff in sports, such This dating site twists the old formula Boston, Chicago, Washington, and South as skating, surfing, motocross, and the X of online meet-and-greet. You can’t just Florida.—WR Games. EXPN has great photos and videos strike up a conversation. Rather, you must of death-defying stunts, along with the “bid” on a particular user. Users who are Top Secret Recipes typical (and safer) sports columns, feature bid on get to choose someone from the top www.topsecretrecipes.com stories, and podcasts.—KM fi ve bidders to interact with, and that’s how Bring the recipes of your favorite restau- you collect friends. If you’re miserly, you’ll rants into your kitchen with Todd Wilbur’s FirstShowing.net make no friends . . . but if you bid too gen- Top Secret Recipes. Wilbur clones the www.fi rstshowing.net erously you’ll run out of points to bid with. secret recipes of popular restaurants, let- Many of us have no idea what goes into Earn more points by answering questions ting you work up your favorite menu items making a fi lm and what takes place behind about yourself.—KM in the comfort of your own home. Also, the scenes. For those interested in peek- check out “The Sleuth” for secrets and lore ing behind the curtain, this movie blog I Watch Stuff about food.—VBJ will keep you up to date on the hot gossip. www.iwatchstuff.com (It’s also a great place to fi nd new teasers, Staffed by (gasp) trained journalists, Who Is Sick? trailers, and production stills.)—CI I Watch Stuff has an air of actual credibil- www.whoissick.org/sickness ity spliced into its snark-fi lled posts about We all know that misery loves company. Going.com fi lm news, trailers, and clips. That’s not to If you can’t manage to find company to www.going.com say they’re above sniffi ng out gay subtext share your illness, try turning to the Who Tired of your lame friends wanting to go in celebrity interviews or mocking Paula Is Sick? database. This fun beta site maps to the same restaurant, watch the same Abdul’s reality show—but that’s why we out illnesses, showing you who’s got what movies, and play the same video games keep going back.—CI (runny nose, cough, fever, headache, night after night? Going.com is just the muscle ache, stomachache, or whatever ticket. Search hundreds of local events by MeeVee ailment), and where. It’s a good little time- location, popularity, and time. Then search www.meevee.com waster—and when you’re sick, it can be for other Going.com members (currently MeeVee is more than just your average oddly comforting to know that others over 123,000 active) who are headed to the TV listings. It also provides personalized nearby are suffering, too.—Sean Carroll same place. Going also hosts monthly par- recommendations on shows you might ties for its members.—CI want to watch, based on shows or stars you The World’s Healthiest Foods already enjoy. You can also create channels www.whfoods.com I Can Has Cheezburger? based on your own interests; type in a key- This is the site for anyone who’s read a www.icanhascheezburger.com word and you’ll get videos, news, gossip, quick blurb in a magazine or seen a health Cats are comical. You either get that or and show listings based around it.—WR segment on the news and thought “cher- you don’t. If you do, this site will make ries fight XYZ disease? Really?” The site you very, very happy. The site collects MyPunchbowl provides info on how foods affect our and posts pictures of kitties that are cap- www.mypunchbowl.com health and can boost energy. You also tioned using ungrammatical “lolspeak,” Planning a party is a hassle, but invitations get daily menus laying out three smart, to (mostly) hilarious effect. Vote on the needn’t be an additional headache. Just nutrient-rich meals.—CI captioned pictures, awarding them 1 to 5 jaunt over to MyPunchbowl. The simple

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 81 depth interviews with both stars and up- and-comers are must-reads.—Dan Evans

Amie Street www.amiestreet.com Amie Street applies the simple economic principle of supply and demand to music selling. New or not-as-popular tracks sell for less, and popular tracks sell for more. Tracks start off free and go up to $0.98 as they catch on. The site gives new bands a way to get their music heard, and listeners BULLPOO An investors’ online community for swapping tips and making trades. get a free way to check out new bands, so it’s a win/win!—KM interface makes creating your invitation fortunate with Kiva, a site that makes small Beethere.net fun, walking you through styles and images, loans to deserving entrepreneurs world- www.beethere.net offering suggestions, and even helping wide. You might choose to fi nance a bou- Going to live music shows can be a has- locate supplies. A message board is auto- tique in Kenya ($200), help an Ecuadorian sle, but finding good shows in your area matically created to let invited guests chat shopkeeper diversify into toys ($600), or doesn’t have to be part of the problem. before the main event.—Jeremy A. Kaplan fund the launch of a fi rewood business in BeeThere makes it possible to track your Uganda ($350). You can lend as much or favorite artists and their tour dates in 800 Skeptic as little of the total as you like; Kiva takes cities, using your iTunes collection as a www.skeptic.com care of tracking the loan and getting your starting point.—Brian Heater Skeptic is a playground for those who face money back.—SC life with an incredulously raised eyebrow. Imeem Debunkers can find videos, articles, and Rentometer www.imeem.com podcasts that cast doubts on controversial www.rentometer.com Imeem is a social-networking/music- subjects from UFOs to, uh, the existence of Rentometer compares your rent with the discovery site that’s becoming one of God.—WR rest of your neighborhood. Just enter in the Web’s most popular destinations for your address and how much you pay—no the young. With an attractive design and personal information is saved—and the partner ships with Warner Music, SnoCap, Money and Career site will let you know if you’re paying and Pitchfork, it’s sure to catch on with us more, less, or the average compared with old folks as well before too long.—BH users in your area. A Google Map shows BullPoo logged rents, so you know which doors Musicovery www.bullpoo.com to knock on to score that rent-controlled www.musicovery.com The scatologically named site is an online place of your dreams.—WR This free music player asks you to plot community where investors can swap tips your mood on a spectrum and then creates (or stocks) and talk money. It includes built- Trulia a chart of songs to fit that mood. Narrow in stock-ticker features, solid blog content, www.trulia.com your results by genre, year, and whether and virtual brokerages for conducting Whether you’re looking to upgrade, move, the tunes are hits or not. It’s a great way to online trades. A leaderboard displays the or flip undervalued property, Trulia has discover new music and find the perfect net worth of the top ten users.—KM the sound real-estate advice and extensive tunes to fi t your day.—KM home listings you need. It provides you Indeed with all the vital stats for your new neigh- SingShot www.indeed.com borhood, including schools, local buying www.singshot.com Bored with your job? Search Indeed.com and selling trends, and purchasing advice Why sing in the shower? The SingShot for something new. It checks job Web sites, from local real-estate agents.—CI online community provides a way for newspapers, and company career pages crooners, belters, and the tone-deaf to strut by keyword and location to fi t your needs. their stuff. Record to karaoke tracks, rate Or browse jobs alphabetically by state, Music others’ recordings, and enter your songs category, company, or job title. Save your into member-initiated contests.—Gina Suk searches and have them delivered to your inbox or via an RSS reader.—JLD AllHipHop.com Slacker www.allhiphop.com www.slacker.com Kiva More than just record reviews and indus- This Internet radio service was a bit slow www.kiva.org try rumors, AllHipHop.com includes a in getting online, but with a name like Put your cash to work helping those less large archive of editorial content. Its in- “Slacker,” what do you expect? It’s been

82 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 run through the regular corporate filters Librivox, however, provides pod fodder and media machines? Take things into your for free. The site features a collection of own hands with Topix. It has local sections public-domain books read by volunteers— for thousands of towns and communities and anyone can volunteer. Some narrators and includes news links, stories, and blog are better than others, but almost every- posts gathered and overseen by local edi- thing is at least decent. The collection tors. If your hometown doesn’t have its (a bit more than 800 Project Gutenberg own section, start one yourself.—BH works so far) is a bit of a hodgepodge, with SLACKER Internet radio done right. everything from Walt Whitman to Edgar Rice Burroughs.—SC Reading worth the wait. The station browser and The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs “heart,” skip, and ban options make creat- fakesteve.blogspot.com ing or tweaking a custom station so effort- Act-I-Vate If you’re the type who gets excited by sexy less even a, um, slacker can do it.—CI community.livejournal.com/ gadgets, sleek OSs, and sultry photos of act_i_vate guys in black turtlenecks, then Fake Steve This LiveJournal-based collective offers has the keynote address to your heart. News, Politics, and “serialized graphic novels” by some of The blog—there’s a Forbes editor in there underground comics’ brightest stars, somewhere—lends a uniquely Jobsian Government including Dean Haspiel, Nick Bertozzi, perspective to the insane media coverage and Dan Goldman. The site is also the of the Apple empire.—BH home of Kevin Colden’s award- winning Guerrilla News Network serial, Fishtown.—BH Verbotomy www.guerrillanews.com www.verbotomy.com Combine CNN with Wikipedia and you’ve copyblogger Verbotomy gives you the power to cre- got Guerrilla News Network. It’s an inde- www.copyblogger.com ate words from meanings with daily pendent news organization that strives to A blog about online marketing? Look challenges: The site provides a defini- bring global issues to the masses through closer: Copyblogger is chock-full of excel- tion, and you invent a verb (or Verboti- wide-ranging articles, headlines, videos, lent tips and practical advice for online cism)—usually a mashup of others, such and blogs. Articles are all written by GNN writing and blogging.—KM as “Flirtagonist.” Entries are judged based users or contributors. You can ﬁ lter con- on spelling and whether anything similar tent on the site by country, keyword, and Goodreads already exists. You can also hear your word topic.—JLD www.goodreads.com pronounced, courtesy of AT&T Sound Goodreads combines the nosy fun of Labs.—CI MediaStorm snooping through your friends’ book- www.mediastorm.org shelves with the antisocial, shut-in joy of xkcd Photojournalist and technological innova- not actually having to go to their homes. www.xkcd.com tor Brian Storm’s site is a mixture of multi- The site not only lets you keep track of In the endless sea of mediocrity that is com- media stories that incorporates video, how many Danielle Steel novels you have, ics on the Web, there are occasional islands audio, photography, and personal essays. but also introduces you to other people of hope, and one of them is xkcd. The draw- This beautifully crafted multimedia Web with similar tastes.—WR ings are simple stick ﬁ gures, but the jokes site is sponsored by WashingtonPost.com and welcomes online submissions. It’s Ironic Sans great for browsing, too.—JLD www.ironicsans.com No, it’s not a site full of fonts for hipsters. Tech President Ironic Sans is actually a sharp and clever www.techpresident.com blog. The site’s author, photographer There’s no denying the huge impact the David Friedman, is a font of great ideas and Web will have on the 2008 presidential musings on design that he’s kind enough race. To respond to the political trend, the not to keep to himself. Highlights include Presidential Democracy Forum started the Google Maps Guide to Ghostbusters; the Tech President to keep tabs on campaign “60 Seconds in the Life of . . .” video series; sites, YouTube postings, and how each can- and the Uncensor the Internet Firefox plug- didate’s friend pool on social-networking in.—WR sites is growing (or not).—CI Librivox Topix www.librivox.org www.topix.net Audiobooks are ridiculously expensive: Tired of getting news only after it’s been The latest Harry Potter title is $80 on CD. XKCD Fabulous comics for nerds.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 83 are a source of nerdy glee, from limericks (or a euro). Search for the best rates by city, Wikitravel about Slashdot to musings on the romance peruse photos of your options, and—if you www.wikitravel.org of the Fibonacci sequence.—WR don’t trust the site’s own reviewers—read We’ve seen a ton of travel sites, but for user reviews.—KM the sheer amount of information, not one touches the user-generated content of Shopping, Classifi eds, Roadside America Wikitravel. Need to fi nd out how much to www.roadsideamerica.com tip in Costa Rica or where the sweet surf and Travel Roadside America is your definitive spots are in Santa Cruz? Wikitravel is your resource for kooky, nichey, and downright one-stop destination.—BH bizarre landmarks, such as the “Ax Murder The Bargainist House” and the birthplace of Kool-Aid. Yapta www.bargainist.com Use this site to plan your next road trip www.yapta.com Everyone loves a bargain; that’s what and getting from here to there will be more Simply enter in your flight information makes The Bargainist so great. Updated interesting than your average game of “I and the price you paid for your tickets, several times a day, it scours the Web for Spy.”—BH and Yapta will track the ticket price for the best bargains, coupons, and free offers, your fl ight(s) from that point on. If the fare from garden supplies and beauty prod- TheThingsIWant.com drops before you leave on your trip, the site ucts to movies and computers. The Stores www.thethingsiwant.com will let you know the price difference and section reveals bargain links to over 50 This ultimate service for creating shop- how to claim a refund or vouchers from retailers and online stores.—JLD ping and wish lists lets you make sure your the airline.—KM friends and family pick out the perfect gift Do My Stuff for you. With the click of a button on your www.domystuff.com favorite shopping sites, items you’re inter- Download and DIY No time to pick up that dry cleaning or do ested in will be added to your lists, with some little project around the house? No images, prices, and commerce links.—GS problem. A quick post on DoMyStuff.com afreeDLL sends your chore into cyberspace where Ugallery.com afreedll.com businesses and individuals place bids; the www.ugallery.com Hunting for a missing DLL (Dynamic- lowest bidder wins. There are even online Ugallery.com helps college artists find Link Library)? AfreeDLL makes finding, escrow accounts to keep your payment recognition; it includes artists from more downloading, and restoring DLLs a breeze, safe until the task is done.—CI than 60 universities nationwide. They’re and all of the downloads are free. You can not all Picassos, but the site vets artists’ browse the site’s most popular files or EuroCheapo work before letting them in and claims to search alphabetically, and the site includes www.eurocheapo.com accept only 25 percent of applicants. It’s a explanations and helpful tutorials to walk Heading across the pond? Let EuroChea- pleasure to browse as well as an affordable you through the download and installation po’s team of expert hotel reviewers show way to get your hands on a beautiful piece process.—KM you how and where you can save a buck of original art.—Christopher Ewen DaFont www.dafont.com With almost 7,500 fonts uploaded by various users worldwide, DaFont has the coolest, freshest fonts you’d ever need. Simply browse for fonts either by the categories listed at the top of each page, or by searching for a specifi c font name. Most of these free fonts are compatible with both Macs and PCs.—LR

DZone www.dzone.com DZone is a developer’s dream and much more—a vast network of user- submitted links to message boards, news, coding tricks, and more. The DZone Snippets section is the “ultimate community source clipboard” for everything from Java to C++. If you’re looking for new tools or tips, a quick DZone scan will definitely put you UGALLERY.COM Get affordable, original art from students at universities nationwide. on the right path.—CI

84 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Infected or Not www.infectedornot.com Gaming Panda’s Infected or Not service offers the excellent (and free) NanoScan tool to ascertain quickly whether there’s mal- Armor Games ware on your machine. It also tracks PC www.armorgames.com infections around the world. Get the data Is the boss looking? No? Good, then you on both active and latent threats, and fi nd can have a fi ne time at Armor Games, the out what percentage of scanned PCs have home of countless free Flash-based games, gunk on them.—KM all playable on the Web. This site has everything from classic card and puzzle InviteShare games to more complicated adventure or LIKEBETTER The “brain” knows you. www.inviteshare.com strategy games.—WR Don’t you hate when the coolest new Web services are by-invitation-only closed K2xl Shacknews betas? If you aren’t on the invite list, Invite- www.k2xl.com www.shacknews.com Share is your ticket in. The free service lets Watch dots. Place cursor on dot. Click The monumentally massive Shacknews early beta users share their invites—and mouse. Watch chain reaction as dots really is the new go-to spot for all your the more you share, the more likely you’ll explode. Repeat. Basically, this is all there gaming news. On top of an oft-updated receive the invites you crave.—CM is to Boomshine, one of K2xl’s highly blog, there are Shack Reviews, a Shack- addictive Flash games. It’s actually really Cast, and a FileShack filled with down- MajorGeeks.com hard to watch these beautifully colored loadable demos, movies, and game mods. www.majorgeeks.com dots dance across your screen and not It also highlights the best and brightest If your PC is behaving badly, MajorGeeks become hooked on this simple and relax- comments right on the home page.—CI .com has a collection of free and paid apps ing game.—VBJ and utilities for your PC that have been tested to recover, repair, protect, back up— Kongregate Hardware News and Blogs the list goes on and on. Sort fi les by name, www.kongregate.com date, license, OS, or popularity.—JLD Kongregate is a flash-video game site driven by user-generated content. Aspir- All Things Digital OldVersion.com ing game developers submit their work to www.allthingsd.com www.oldversion.com have it played and debated among the site’s All Things Digital is the online brand Everyone’s encountered new versions of online community. Not every game is a hit, extension of the D: All Things Digital con- products that add unnecessary features. but games such as Desktop Defender and ference, which in turn is a brand extension Or worse, a new version that’s simply Castle Wars will hook you and leave you of Walt Mossberg’s technology coverage incompatible with the other apps you need wondering what happened to all that free for The Wall Street Journal. The site uses for daily use. Roll back to the good old days time you used to have.—DE both text and video to dish on the hottest with OldVersion.com! Need QuickTime tech news, and industry experts and fresh 2.0 or AIM 5.9? Chances are, if you want it, LikeBetter voices contribute to the conversation. OldVersion’s got it.—JAK www.likebetter.com —KM This site presents you with two pictures, ProgrammableWeb and you click on the one you like bet- Anything But iPod www.programmableweb.com ter. Repeat on a new pair of images. After www.anythingbutipod.com ProgrammableWeb keeps tabs on mash- you’ve made your personal preference Who wants to be a part of the Apple iPod’s ups and open APIs across the Web. When known on enough pairs of photos, LikeBet- 80 percent market share? Certainly not the a service such as Google Maps or Flickr ter’s “brain” will know what kind of person bloggers and readers of Anything But iPod, opens its API, ProgrammableWeb is one of you really are . . . and what kind of people which tracks the market for non-Apple the best resources for fi nding new exten- you should befriend through its site.—WR audio hardware, software, and accessories. sions or building your own.—KM Whether you’re a fan of SanDisk players, Line Rider Archos PMPs, or the Microsoft Zune, ABi’s Website Grader www.offi cial-linerider.com got the news, rumors, and details.—KM www.websitegrader.com There’s something oddly addictive about Submit your URL (and your competitors’ sending a fragile, scarf-clad man hurtling Everything USB URLs) to Website Grader and it will give down a steep, crudely drawn slope on a www.everythingusb.com you some basic feedback on how your site sled. Line Rider is a simple online game Everything USB is a gadget blog dedicated is doing and in what areas it can improve. that lets you draw any kind of sledding to the one-wired-connection wonders It’s a free way to get advice on optimizing course for your character, who will then that are USB computer peripherals. From your site for search engines, which can bravely sled it with no regard for his per- keyboards to webcams and everything drastically boost your traffi c.—KM sonal safety.—KM in between, the newest and coolest—not

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 85 MakeUseOf.com www.makeuseof.com If you’re searching for in-depth, hands- on reviews of the latest Web apps, keep looking. MakeUseOf.com’s real strength lies in its quick but surprisingly compre- hensive roundups of apps and sites in a given space. If you’re looking to discover the best iPhone apps, Firefox extensions, or accounting sites, MakeUseOf can point you in the right direction.—BH

USTREAM.TV Stream your footage live as you record it, or watch video clips from others. Mashable www.mashable.com Mashable, a blog devoted to covering to mention the weirdest—gizmos pass the hottest news stories on the Web. It MySpace, Facebook, and their ilk, reports through here on their way to the mar- posts breaking tech news from around on the exploding world of social-network- ket.—CI the Web and routinely beats sites such as ing apps and features. It’s a top-notch news Digg (as well as the major media) to the resource for Web 2.0 developers and even GoodCleanTech story.—KM MySpace users who want to pimp their www.goodcleantech.com pages with the latest plug-ins.—KM With this brand-new resource, brought to you by the editors and analysts of PC Mag- Soft ware and Internet Blogs Uncov azine, consumers and techies should fi nd it www.uncov.com much easier to be green. The site’s goal is Uncov is kind of the bizarro equivalent of to keep you apprised of all manner of envi- AppScout TechCrunch. It mercilessly reviews start- ronmentally conscientious technology in www.appscout.com ups, harshes on everything Web 2.0, and an illustrated, user-friendly format. Our AppScout blog is a great place to fi nd passes along (or makes up) juicy Silicon —Maggie McVeigh software tips and tricks, cool or useful Valley rumors. The blog posts are written Web sites and applications, and the latest by potty-mouthed software nerds who dig iLounge news from the world of Web technology. deep into Web apps, exposing the sloppy www.ilounge.com The blog is written mainly by PC Maga- programming and faulty business models Industry news, hands-on product reviews, zine editors and analysts, and we give that so much of the Web is built on.—KM tips, tricks, downloads—everything readers exclusive access to our regular you wanted to know about the iPod (and vendor meetings, trade shows, and inter- now the iPhone, as well) can be found views.—KM Video on iLounge, which is every bit as user- friendly as the MP3 player that gave it its Download Squad name.—BH www.downloadsquad.com Dabble Download Squad is basically Engadget for www.dabble.com Phone Scoop software and Web apps, and it’s owned by Dabble.com aggregates video clips from www.phonescoop.com the same company, Weblogs Inc. The blog major services such as YouTube, blip.tv, Phone Scoop is an online resource for traffics in rumors and news announce- and Revver, along with smaller sites and mobile-phone users and enthusiasts, with ments, posts frequently, and has fun con- video podcasters. The site lets you search an emphasis on news, reviews, and build- tent like “Today’s Time Waster”—ways for all the video services at once and organize ing a mobile-phone community. It contin- bored cubicle-dwellers to entertain them- your favorite clips from them into custom ues to grow each year, with more in-depth selves online.—KM playlists that you can share with the Dab- coverage and videos. Don’t miss the site’s ble community.—KM glossary to familiarize yourself with rel- eHub evant technical terms such as CDMA and www.emilychang.com/go/ehub PrezVid SIM.—JLD Somehow Emily Chang manages to get www.prezvid.com wind of every Web 2.0 app long before the The pundits and talking heads have all TechMeme rest of the blogging world does. Her synop- proclaimed that much of the upcoming www.techmeme.com ses are short and sweet, which is just fi ne, presidential election campaign will play We’re not exactly sure what kind of secret given the frequency of her page updates. out on the Internet—specifi cally, on You- sauce Gabe Rivera uses to fi nd stories for eHub has been branching out recently, too, Tube. Jeff Jarvis is following the YouTube his TechMeme news aggregator, but what adding interviews, job listings, news, and campaigns on his PrezVid blog, where we do know is that it brilliantly unearths events.—BH he adds his own (written) commentary

86 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 to YouTube clips of the candidates’ TV appearances, stump speeches, gaffes, and rallies.—KM

ScienceHack www.sciencehack.com ScienceHack is a video-search engine dedicated to the world of science, including physics, green energy, and space. What sets it apart from the rest is that every indexed PICNIK Upload your photos, then crop, edit, add special effects, and share them. video is screened and approved by real scientists. You can search for a video by keyword or by selecting a tag.—JLD Eyejot let you crop, sharpen, adjust exposure and www.eyejot.com color, and more. Add some effects, such as uLinkx Eyejot combines elements of e-mail, voice doodles or infrared (try the “gooify” fea- www.ulinkx.com mail, and video chat into one free stream- ture for true wackiness), and then share For serendipitous video searching, check lined solution. The site lets you record a them with your friends.—JAK out uLinkx, which fi nds the most popular video message and e-mail a link to your videos from across the Web and makes friends, who can click on the link at their Remember the Milk aimless video browsing fun and easy. leisure, view your message, and reply via www.rememberthemilk.com Warning: The “Most Popular” videos that their own video messages.—KM Get organized with Remember the Milk, a uLinkx aggregates are often salacious handy online list-making app that makes (especially the ones from YouTube).—KM MediaFire your to-do list accessible from anywhere. www.mediafi re.com Adding items to your list is as easy as send- Ustream.tv Media Fire is a free fi le-sharing and storing an e-mail, and you can receive remind- www.ustream.tv age service that lets users upload unlim- ers via e-mail, IM, or text message.—KM Ustream.tv makes it easy to stream your ited files and images. After the easy, footage live—as it’s being recorded. All you registration-free fi le-upload process, you Wetpaint need is a webcam or video camera, a PC, can access your data from any computer www.wetpaint.com and an Internet connection. There’s plenty and post links to the fi les to share with fam- Wikis have revolutionized the way we con- to watch on Ustream, though obviously ily (and coworkers if you’re using the site sume information online, but for the most much of it is, shall we say, rough?—KM for work-related purposes).—CI part, they’ve never really been dynamic in terms of aesthetics and creation. Wetpaint VideoJug Meebo makes good-looking, easy-to-create wikis www.videojug.com www.meebo.com a reality, and since it’s a Web 2.0 site, you VideoJug touts itself as an “encyclopedia Why bother installing software for all your can bet dollars to donuts that it includes a of everything,” but what sets it apart from instant-messaging accounts? Use your social-networking component.—BH other how-to sites is the way the informa- most important app—your Web browser— tion is presented: no long articles, just to log on to all of them at once. Sign up with Zamzar video. All the video content is written, Meebo to access AIM, GoogleTalk, MSN, www.zamzar.com reviewed, and produced by experts and and Yahoo! networks automatically, with- Before Zamzar, you had to download a professionals to ensure that the informa- out a separate program.—Eric Griffi th utility—or two or three—to convert file tion and advice is factual and, to put it formats. But with Zamzar, you can convert bluntly, won’t kill you.—CI Only2Clicks anything—images, documents, and You- www.only2clicks.com Tube videos—and have it e-mailed back to Only2Clicks lets you set up a customized you in four quick steps . . . without down- Web Apps home page with instant access to the sites loading a thing.—CI on which you spend the majority of your time, along with previews of what’s on Zoho Bubbl.us their home pages. Yes, the Opera browser www.zoho.com www.bubbl.us has this “speed-dial” feature built in, but Zoho has the typical stuff (word processor, This free Web application helps you orga- Only2Clicks is a free and easy way to add spreadsheet, and presentations) along with nize your thoughts into easily readable and this functionality to any browser.—KM some distinctive items such as the Zoho colorful mind maps to print and to share Creator database, a notebook, a Wiki, and online. Bubbl.us lets you interact with your Picnik a Web-based collaboration tool. Not all the team to pool and sort out your thoughts www.picnik.com modules are free (like the project manager in a clean, crisp way that leaves the usual Upload a photo or import online photos and CRM tools), but all are exceptionally conference-room mishmash and endless from Flickr, Picasa, and others; then Pic- well done and kept fresh with new options e-mail threads behind.—CI nik’s real-time online manipulation tools and features.—EG

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 87 Top 100 Classic Sites You’ll see a lot of familiar URLs on this list, and we hope there are also quite a few that you haven’t heard of before. Th ese sites are best-of-breed in their respective categories.

Info and Reference

About.com www.about.com Thirty-four million monthly visitors head to About.com for guidance on subjects from careers to child-raising to technology.—JLD

How Stuff Works www.howstuffworks.com Find out how everything really works when experts share their knowledge on any and all subjects.—CI

Internet Archive www.archive.org NICKELODEON ONLINE Brimming with kid-centric news, forums, podcasts, and more. The archive and its celebrated WayBack Machine are, at this very moment, duti- fully cataloging the Internet.—KM (“Who invented the smiley face?”) with a certainly among the most eccentric, the delicious combination of sarcasm and pro- resulting conglomerate is truly “A Direc- The Library of Congress fanity.—CI tory of Wonderful Things.”—KM www.loc.gov Home to numerous reference materials, Urban Dictionary Epicurious digitized collections, films—everything www.urbandictionary.com www.epicurious.com ever published in the country.—LR This user-generated online slang diction- The online home of Gourmet and Bon ary doesn’t just teach us creative new ways Appetit , Epicurious has the swank recipes Merriam-Webster Online to swear; it can actually expand our com- you’d expect to ﬁ nd here.—CI www.m-w.com mon vernacular.—VBJ Besides the regular old dictionary features, Food Network learn your mother tongue with fun stuff Wikipedia www.foodnetwork.com like the Word of the Day and crossword www.wikipedia.org As if you can’t get enough Rachael Ray, puzzles.—KM Love it or hate it, you can’t ignore the get more—along with tons of extra reci- poster child for the wisdom of crowds, pes, entertaining tips, and 10-minute meal Nolo now featuring 8 million articles written in suggestions.—CI www.nolo.com 253 languages.—BH Get legal documents, advice, and informa- Nickelodeon Online tion for your business or family from this www.nick.com excellent online law resource center for Lifestyle The site captures the essence and draw non-lawyers.—KM that is Nickelodeon—it will suck your kids in for hours.—CI Snopes Beliefnet www.snopes.com www.beliefnet.com An extensive index of urban legends, com- This Web community covers all faiths: Money mon fallacies, old wives’ tales, strange Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, news stories, rumors, trashy gossip, and even Scientology and China’s Falun Gong. more.—CI (Sorry, Jedis. Try StarWars.com.)—EG Bloomberg.com The go-to financial news service for the The Straight Dope Boing Boing guys who manage your stock portfolio, and www.straightdope.com www.boingboing.net also for the Wall Street bigwigs who man- Tackling the burning questions of the day Among the top blogs on the Web, and age theirs.—KM

88 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov The tax code doesn’t make things easy, but the Web site does, with all the forms you need, plus loads of tips on how to save on your taxes.—KM

The Motley Fool www.fool.com The Motley Fool’s credo is “To Edu- cate, Amuse, and Enrich”—and it means PITCHFORK Fans can’t ignore this über-hip site for independent-music news and reviews. “enrich” literally.—KM

the cable news network’s Web site pro- Onion can be enjoyed daily, hourly, or even Music, Movies, and TV vides 24/7/365 coverage of the world.—EG (if your boss isn’t looking) by the minute.—Alex Ivey Digg allmusic www.digg.com Slate www.allmusic.com The premise: an online popularity contest. www.slate.com An exhaustive resource for music chronol- The contestants: everything on the Inter- The news site that excels at taking the lead- ogies, history, biographical information, net. Can you Digg it?—EG ing stories of the day and reanalyzing them and criticism, compiled by more than 900 is consistently both excellent and engag- writers.—BH Fark.com ing.—KM www.fark.com The Internet Movie Database Fark is not news. In fact, it wants to be syn- The Smoking Gun www.imdb.com onymous with “not news.” The Farkers www.thesmokinggun.com The most complete movie guide ever, with who submit the stories also provide witty Existing at the crossroads of First Amend- movie news, fi lmmaker bios, and unbeliev- commentary.—EG ment rights and gossip, The Smoking Gun ably detailed indexing of every film and specializes in incriminating evidence. TV show.—CI Gawker Celebs beware.—BH www.gawker.com Netfl ix The grande dame of celebrity blogs, www.netfl ix.com Gawker has single-handedly made snark Politics and Government The company that revolutionized the way the most valuable blog commodity.—VBJ videos are rented eight years ago must be doing something right, after one billion Guardian Unlimited Electronic Frontier Foundation transactions.—BH www.guardian.co.uk www.eff.org The Guardian is one of the most celebrated Regardless of whether you’re aware of it or Pitchfork English- language newspapers for its jour- not, the EFF is looking out for you, defend- www.PitchforkMedia.com nalistic transparency. The Web version is ing the civil rights of citizens as they per- This über-hip and impartially snarky site equally excellent, and free.—BH tain to technology.—BH has eclipsed the Spins and Rolling Stones of the world for news and reviews of inde- NPR Fact Check pendent artists.—BH www.npr.org www.factcheck.org News coverage doesn’t get much better The team at the Annenberg Political Fact Television Without Pity than NPR, which runs the gamut in terms Check does the verifying for you, translat- www.televisionwithoutpity.com of coverage, from serious to downright ing political speak into plain English.—CI The staff of professional “recappers” gives silly.—LR you the full dirt on TV’s most popular The Huffi ngton Post shows, complete with quips that you can The New York Times www.huffi ngtonpost.com pass off as your own.—CI www.nytimes.com This political commentary site (known as As you’d expect from the number-one the HuffPo) has become a news provider newspaper in America, the site is chock- to be reckoned with.—EG News full of video, photos, and traditional news articles.—LR opensecrets.org www.opensecrets.org CNN.com The Onion Follow the money that floats politics on www.cnn.com www.theonion.com both sides of the aisle with help from the Recently redesigned and as newsy as ever, A perk of living in the Internet age: The Center for Responsive Politics.—EG

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 89 Shopping, Classifi eds, and Travel

Amazon www.amazon.com Amazon isn’t content selling everything from DVDs to designer jeans. Check out WEBMD Internet doc for your ailments. PODCAST ALLEY The ’cast lover’s portal. Unbox for videos and even a new online grocery store.—CI

USA.gov NASA The Consumerist It’s the home page for the Land of the Free, www.nasa.gov www.consumerist.com offering governmental information and The neatest stuff at NASA.gov is for kids Read cathartic rants about retailers, and services.—JLD and educators. There is great material learn to save money on purchases.—KM about the earth, ocean, and space for all levels of students.—AI craigslist Reading and Listening www.craigslist.org National Geographic Online The world’s most popular online classi- www.nationalgeographic.com fi eds site is the premier one-stop destina- Arts & Letters Daily Millions of species, thousands of cultures, tion for rentals, jobs, secondhand goods, www.artsandlettersdaily.com seven continents, one Earth: National and, yep, casual encounters.—BH A clearinghouse for a dizzying number Geographic Online is one site that deliv- of articles on various subjects. What do ers it all.—Yun-San Tsai Dynamism.com they all have in common? Great writing. Buy your share of Japanese PCs, phones, —Laarni Almendrala Ragaza ScienceDaily and wacky gadgets such as a duck-inspired www.sciencedaily.com USB fl ash drive or robotic bird.—JLD McSweeney’s Internet Tendency News and videos are updated every 15 www.mcsweeneys.net minutes on topics such as health, space, eBay Until the hipster literati take over, and computers.—JLD www.ebay.com McSweeney’s will have to be content with The phrase online auction is synonymous being the best spot online where the well- Space.com with eBay.—BH read can kill some time.—BH Get the latest news and everything else cosmophiles could want for exploring the Google Product Search Podcast Alley fi nal frontier from a PC.—Tony Hoffman www.google.com/products www.podcastalley.com The former Froogle is a shopper’s dream The “podcast lovers’ portal,” indeed. This WebMD come true—a centralized product search alley is teeming with home-brewed pro- www.webmd.com that shows you all the sites selling what gramming.—EG If a Web site could replace a real, live doc- you’re looking for.—LR tor, WebMD would be just about as close Project Gutenberg as you could come.—CI Priceline www.gutenberg.org www.priceline.com The foremost online source for public- You can still Name Your Own Price to an domain literature, with over 20,000 books Search extent, but these days the deal-making site available.—Lisa Ruefenacht also offers you preexisting deals.—EG

Google ThinkGeek Science and Nature www.google.com www.thinkgeek.com We poke fun at it, but this search engine is This online store makes it easy to satisfy a fantastic tool that has revolutionized the your geeky appetites for oddball gadgets. Centers for Disease Control and way results are found and presented.—KM —JLD Prevention www.cdc.gov Technorati TripAdvisor Forget computer viruses and malware, www.technorati.com www.tripadvisor.com there are plenty of human ailments and Technorati’s core mission: to give you a Utilize user-to-user communication on diseases to go around. The CDC tracks quick snapshot of what’s happening in the what works and what doesn’t when you’re them all.—EG blogosphere.—KM out and about.—EG

90 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Social Networking

Facebook www.facebook.com This social network shares its premise with MySpace, but with less design ﬂ exibility (thank goodness!) and more updates on your friends’ activities.—Chloe Albane- sius

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com LinkedIn is social networking for professionals. That means more résumés but no THINKGEEK Oddball gadgets and techy INSTRUCTABLES Instructions for DIY drunken party pics.—KM trinkets for sale. projects with pictures and videos.

MySpace www.myspace.com SourceForge.net thing from tweaking your PC settings to The site that launched a million bathroom- www.sourceforge.net organizing your home.—KM mirror self-portraits continues to broaden “The world’s largest open-source software its reach with features such as the video development Web site”? With more than ProcessLibrary.com site MySpaceTV.—CA 150,000 registered projects, it’s not bluff- www.processlibrary.com ing.—KM Translates gibberish process names into familiar English and gives you a security Sports W3 Schools rating and recommended action.—KM www.w3schools.com Find loads of free training tools and refer- Version Tracker ESPN ences for all levels of developers.—KM www.versiontracker.com www.espn.com Among the most popular resources to keep Whatever your favorite league acronym— Download and D.I.Y. you on top of updates and patches.—CI NBA, NFL, NHL, PGA, MLB, even NAS- CAR—ESPN covers it on TV and in even AVS Forum Gaming more detail online.—EG www.avsforum.com Home-theater buffs, audiophiles, and high- 1up.com Yahoo! Fantasy Sports def junkies will feel right at home on these www.1up.com fantasysports.yahoo.com extensive forums.—BH Serving up news on upcoming game titles, The best fantasy sports site on the Web, plus a huge selection of reviews, cheats, with an easy-to-use interface and some DistroWatch.com and spoiler-ﬁ lled graphics.—EG clever features and alerts.—KM www.distrowatch.com Keep pace with the many-headed hydra IGN.com that is the open-source community.—KM www.ign.com Technolog y The site for gaming news and reviews ExtremeTech extends to entertainment, with movie trail- www.extremetech.com ers and television-show recaps.—JLD Dev and I.T. The site for people who build cutting-edge computers.—KM Kotaku DevX www.kotaku.com www.devx.com Instructables Gawker’s entry in the world of gaming This site is chock-full of great resources www.instructables.com blogs is everything it should be: tenacious, for software and Web developers of all There’s no DIY project too technical, artis- passionate, and full of rumors.—EG stripes.—KM tic, or edible for Instructables. Each step comes with an annotated picture—occa- News and Blogs The Register sionally a video.—EG www.theregister.com Akihabara News If your sense of humor runs along the lines Lifehacker www.akihabaranews.com of bits, bytes, and Monty Python, then The www.lifehacker.com Based in Tokyo’s Akihabara District, this Reg may be just your thing.—LAR The preeminent DIY blog covers every- site gets the gadget-oriented scoops and

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 91 stories that U.S. news outlets and blogs can’t.—KM

Ars Technica www.arstechnica.com Propeller-heads, check out the thorough how-tos, commentary, and deep collection of helpful tech knowledge.—EG

Engadget www.engadget.com The crown jewel of AOL’s Weblogs Inc., FLICKR Caper, senior writer Eric Griffi th’s dog, is ready for his closeup. Engadget posts briefs (always with pretty pictures) on everything a true-blue or budding early adopter cares about.—EG game for reviews and ratings on this online Google Labs community.—EG labs.google.com Slashdot Google always has quirky and brilliant www.slashdot.org GetNetWise beta products in the pipeline. Check them Before there was Digg, there was Slashdot, www.getnetwise.org out here.—KM still the leading gathering place for hard- An online learning center with all the info core nerds.—KM you need to keep your kids and yourself Google Maps safe. Fight spam, upgrade PC security, and maps.google.com TechCrunch protect your privacy.—EG It’s the spinning globe you always wanted, www.techcrunch.com only onscreen with infinite detail. There Michael Arrington’s blog covers software Gibson Research Corp. are new features added each year.—EG and Web start-ups with inimitable pas- www.grc.com sion, candor, and fervor.—KM Steve Gibson fills his site with free tools Last.fm and utilities (such as the legendary Shields www.last.fm Reviews UP!!), and information via his Security This social Web radio site is perhaps the Now column/podcast.—JAK best free music-discovery engine around. CNET Generate your own radio stations based on www.cnet.com Internet Storm Center virtually any criteria.—BH There’s no denying it (though we wish we isc.sans.org could): CNET is one of the premier tech- A program that monitors the level of mali- Live Search Maps nology destinations on the Web.—VBJ cious activity on the Internet is this site’s maps.live.com heart, but visit daily for a diary of technical Street maps and satellite images are almost Digital Photography Review analysis about the data.—JAK old hat. Live Search has bird’s-eye and 3D www.dpreview.com views that you can navigate like a flight Get exhaustive coverage of the digital- Security Focus simulation.—EG camera industry, with breaking news and www.securityfocus.com detailed hands-on reviews of new cam- Take a look at the vendor-neutral security Pandora eras.—KM information or read the BugTraq mailing www.pandora.com list. It’s fascinating, informative, and really, Pandora reimagined the way that we think PCMag.com really scary.—JAK about Internet radio. It utilizes a song’s www.pcmag.com traits to generate individual radio stations Is it cheeky of us to put ourselves on our Web Apps based on users’ favorites.—BH own list? Perhaps, but we think it’s war- ranted. Online extras include our product Flickr Yahoo! Mail (beta) guide, episodes of DL.TV and John Dvor- www.fl ickr.com mail.yahoo.com ak’s Cranky Geeks, PCMag Radio pod- The user-generated photo site lets you Stripped-down freemail might be all the casts, our blogs like SecurityWatch and document your life in photos for everyone rage, but Yahoo! goes in the opposite direc- AppScout, and so much more.—KM to see, browse other users’ photos, and tion. The service acts like a fast, responsive share pics with friends.—AI desktop application.—KM Security and the Web Google Docs & Spreadsheets YouTube BroadbandReports.com docs.google.com www.youtube.com www.dslreports.com Whether or not it ever supplants Micro- As therapy for the billions of bored people Fast Internet connections via cable, DSL, soft Offi ce, Google’s online offi ce software in the world, YouTube lets users upload FTTH, and even VoIP services are all fair is handy, collaborative, and free.—KM and view video content for free.—LR

92 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007

Better Graphics On a Budget Th ese six graphics cards feature low prices and decent performance. INSIDE How do they compare with their 96 Summary of Features higher-priced, enthusiast-level 98 Performance Tests counterparts? And is it time for 99 How to Upgrade a Graphics Card 101 ESD and Your Electronics an upgrade? By Joel Durham Jr.

Illustration by Sean McCabe NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 95 XFX nVidia GeForce 8500 GT $85 street 256MB DDR2 memory, 128-bit interface lllmm PROS Great price. Outpaces ATI part at similar price point. Very quiet. Good Aero performance. CONS Weak performance, unless you’re willing to make AMD ATI Radeon your games ugly so they run HD 2600 XT faster. $130 street 512MB GDDR3 memory, 128-bit interface lllmm PROS Low wattage. Does a decent job on Aero. Excel- lent video quality. Terriﬁ c for DirectX 9. CONS Insufﬁ cient for DirectX 10 3D apps or games.

Most people can’t tell a graphics card scenario requires a vast amount of pixel- cards, they are quietly available for far from an UNO card, and you’ll need one (a pushing graphics power. So when ATI or less money. They also pack less power for graphics card, that is) if you want to use nVidia releases a new chipset for cards 3D applications like games—and Vista’s Windows Vista to its full extent. Bear in that will cost upwards of $600, quite a few fancy, graphics-heavy Aero interface. Both mind that the vast majority of PCs in this of us simply shake our heads and wonder AMD and nVidia manufacture higher- and country fit into one of two categories: if there’s a decent next-gen card for non- lower-end versions of their latest chipsets. those used for Web surfing, e-mail, and gaming computers. The $400 AMD ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT shopping online; and those used for busi- The good news is that there are cards is the company’s top-of-the-line card, but ness, ﬁ nance, spreadsheets, and activities for the rest of us. Released with less fanfare you can buy cheaper 2600 and 2400 ver- such as monitoring stock tickers. Neither than those enthusiast-level, crazy-priced sions. And to complement its top-end K

Summary of Features

Memory The amount and type of memory that the card uses. To run processing units The number of special, multipurpose processing Windows Vista Aero, 256MB of DDR2 SDRAM is plenty, but it might units available on the card. Stream processing units aren’t tied to be a bit weak for gaming. GDDR3 SDRAM is faster and needs less graphical data but are used for various software functions. Die pro- power than other types of memory. (Discrete memory—located on cess Determines the size of the chip’s parts. Smaller parts require the card—is faster than shared, which requires the card to talk to less power, which usually means less heat to dissipate and less fan the computer’s main memory.) Memory interface The bandwidth noise to deal with. Core, shader, and memory clocks The differ- between the card’s memory and its GPU, or graphics processing ent frequencies used by the various components of a card. Faster unit. A wider bandwidth usually means better performance. Stream clocks allow more operations to be done in a shorter time.

MEMORY STREAM DIE CORE SHADER MEMORY TYPICAL INTERFACE PROCESSING PROCESS CLOCK CLOCK CLOCK RATINGS PRICE MEMORY (bits) UNITS (nm) (MHz) (MHz) (MHz)

Radeon HD 2400 Pro llmmm $70 256MB DDR2 64 40 80 525 525 400

Radeon HD 2600 Pro lllmm $100 256MB DDR2 128 120 65 600 600 500

Radeon HD 2600 XT lllmm $130 512MB GDDR3 128 120 65 600 600 1,000

Radeon HD 2900 XT* llllm $400 512MB GDDR3 512 320 65 740 740 1,650

GeForce 8500 GT lllmm $80 256MB or 512MB DDR2 128 16 80 450 900 800

GeForce 8600 GT lllmm $150 256MB DDR2 128 32 80 540 1,180 700

GeForce 8600 GTS llllm $200 256MB GDDR3 128 32 80 675 1,450 2,000

GeForce 8800 GTX* lllll $580 768MB GDDR3 384 128 80 575 1,350 1,800

* High-end cards, tested for comparison.

96 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 ASUS nVidia GeForce 8600 GT $150 street 256MB DDR2 memory, 128-bit interface lllmm PROS Generally decent benchmark test scores. Quiet. Excellent Aero acceleration. CONS Slow and weak in 3D apps and gaming. Insufﬁ cient for DirectX 10 3D apps or games. Compares poorly with last year’s high-end cards, which now sell for a similar price.

AMD ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro $100 street 256MB DDR2 memory, 128-bit interface lllmm PROS Low wattage. Very quiet. Does a decent job on Aero. Excellent video quality. CONS Slow and weak in 3D apps and gaming. Insufﬁ cient for DirectX 10 3D apps or games. Not CrossFire-compatible.

ASUS nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS AMD ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro $200 street $70 street 256MB GDDR3 memory, 128-bit interface 256MB DDR2 memory, 64-bit interface llllm llmmm PROS Speedy for its price. Does a great job PROS Very cheap. Energy effi cient. Silent. on DirectX 9 games. Shreds Aero. Runs Vista Aero (barely). CONS Insuffi cient for DirectX 10 apps or CONS Slow and weak in 3D apps and games. Huge heat sink for a single-width gaming. Insuffi cient for DirectX 10 apps or card. games. Limited amount of memory.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 97 GeForce 8800 series, nVidia offers the the Radeon HD 2400 Pro, the HD 2600 upon. The actual nVidia cards we tested less-expensive 8600, 8500, and even 8400 Pro, and the HD 2600 XT. The other three came from ASUS, EVGA, and XFX—popu- cards (although the latter seem to be avail- are nVidia cards based on the GeForce lar manufacturers that assemble the graph- able only to OEMs). 8500 GT, the 8600 GT, and the 8600 GTS ics chips, circuit boards, and memory chips These lower-tier cards are priced from chipsets. We tested two high-end cards for into products for sale on retail shelves. $200 down to as little as $70, but are they comparison: the Radeon HD 2900 XT and But keep in mind that the performance suffi cient for today’s newest technologies? the GeForce 8800 GTX. These cards cost of the nVidia chips doesn’t vary much Can they handle gaming at all? signifi cantly more than the other cards in despite different company labels, so any our roundup, and, as the test results show, given GeForce card with similar memory The Cards you get what you pay for. timings and specifi cations from any com- We tested eight cards in total. Three low- nVidia doesn’t make its own cards: It pany will show performance similar to that end cards are based on AMD ATI chipsets: produces only the hardware they’re based of the card we tested.

Graphics Card Performance: How We Tested

Specifi cations are one thing, but the actual performance of tion the card can draw in a single second. A rate of 30 fps is cards can vary. So we tested each of these cards in different considered playable. Anything less and you’ll be able to discern environments to see how they performed. We installed a brand- the changes from one frame to the next. new, fresh image of Windows Vista Ultimate on a computer and We ran each test at the relatively low resolution of 1,280-by- turned off variables that might eat up processing time, such as 1,024, with the game set at its defaults. We then ran the same automatic updates. And we used the latest drivers for each card, test with some features turned on: namely, anti-aliasing—the without enabling overclocking. removal of jagged edges and lines—and, if it was available, First we ran 3DMark06, a synthetic test that focuses primar- anisotropic fi ltering—the smoothing of the image between close ily on the graphics card. It runs six gamelike environments (four up and faraway items. (Company of Heroes, for example, does on the graphics card, two on the CPU) and measures the frame not have anisotropic fi ltering.) These features further burden the rates that each “game” sustains, as well as other factors, such graphics card and therefore result in lower frame rates; however, as how many polygons and pixels (the building blocks of 3D with these features turned on, images look better. images) the card can render each second. 3DMark06 then spits The lowest-end cards couldn’t run the DirectX 9 game Prey out a number, in 3DMarks, which constitutes the card’s score. at acceptable frame rates. Better cards could—barely. The more- Not surprisingly, the more a card costs, the higher its score expensive gaming cards had no trouble with it. We ran Com- and the better it generally does. This test shows why hard-core pany of Heroes twice: once in DirectX 9 and once in DirectX 10. gamers spend all that money on a high-end GPU: Pixel-pushing And just look at the difference! DirectX 10 takes a 30 percent or power makes all games look better. higher hit on performance. While in DirectX 9, most of the cards We also ran a number of gaming tests. These are performed render the game at playable frame rates; in DirectX 10, few do. not only for comparison but also to see how well a card can run Each of these cards has its strengths and weaknesses. As a particular 3D game. Most game results are reported in frames most of the benchmark test results showed, higher-end cards per second (fps), which refers to how many frames of anima- produce better performance. If all you’re looking for is simple graphics and absolutely no gaming fl are, BENCHMARK TESTS the cheapest ATI or nVidia cards will suffi ce. The upside is, these cards are PREY (fps) COMPANY OF HEROES (fps) remarkably quiet and energy effi cient as

High scores are best. 3DMARK06 4XAA, 8XAF DX9 DX9 4XAA DX10 DX10 4XAA well (especially the ATI models).

Radeon HD 2400 Pro 2,292 2.4 1.9 39.4 27.9 14.6 9.6 The more you want gaming or even Aero performance, the more you’ll have Radeon HD 2600 Pro 3,393 36.7 14.2 56.9 43.0 35.7 22.3 to spend—and that’s truly the bottom Radeon HD 2600 XT 4,953 54.8 21.8 58.6 45.9 39.4 30.6 line. Besides, DirectX 10 isn’t a draw for Radeon HD 2900 XT* 10,321 119.7 84.1 51.7 49.4 42.6 40.4 the lower end of these cards at all. If GeForce 8500 GT 2,215 20.2 14.4 27.1 21.0 14.6 13.1 you’re looking forward to future DirectX 10 gaming, you simply have to go high GeForce 8600 GT 3,969 37.5 22.9 47.8 40.1 30.3 26.5 end. That means buying an expensive GeForce 8600 GTS 5,184 50.6 32.1 54.6 53.6 38.2 34.8 card from nVidia’s GeForce 8 series or GeForce 8800 GTX* 10,707 130.4 93.4 59.2 57.3 54.3 51.7 from ATI’s HD 2000 series. Start saving * High-end cards, tested for comparison. All tests were run at 1,260-by-1,024 resolution. AA—Anti-aliasing; AF—anisotropic ﬁ ltering. those pennies!

98 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 How to Upgrade a Graphics Card Save a bundle on your graphics card upgrade by doing it yourself. It’s not diffi cult, and our handy guide does away with all the guesswork.

Windows Vista is the most graphically programs. It also means Vista needs more Prior to DirectX 10, each new version intensive operating system ever, and sophisticated graphics cards than Win- of DirectX has been backward-compatible. DirectX 10, its multimedia and gaming dows XP or Windows 9x ever did. For instance, a DirectX 8 game can run on component, has computer users all over DirectX 9 hardware. DX9 games, mean- the world considering upgrading their PCs. DirectX while, will usually run on DX8 hardware— With its 3D-driven Aero graphical user The DirectX libraries make gaming and albeit without all the features of the newer interface (GUI), Vista requires more graph- multimedia possible on the Windows library. ics-card muscle than XP does. And because platform, and they absolutely require DirectX 10, however, has thrown back- DirectX 10 isn’t backward-compatible, current-generation hardware. (Vista does ward compatibility into the recycle bin. gamers who are captivated by its power- feature a version of DirectX 9 as well, for Its rigid requirements mean anyone who ful specs are being forced to upgrade their compatibility with older games.) Basically, wants to run DirectX 10 games must have hardware in order to enjoy it. DirectX is a series of application program DirectX 10 hardware. DX10 hardware will Unlike earlier versions of Windows, interfaces (APIs). An API, in turn, is a layer work with software written for earlier ver- which used the 2D components of graph- of code that makes it easier for manufac- sions of DirectX, but the opposite is not ics hardware to display their GUIs, Win- turers and programmers to create hard- true: a DirectX 8 or 9 graphics card abso- dows Vista presents its Aero interface in ware and software for a given platform. In lutely will not run DirectX 10 titles. a 3D-intensive manner. The various win- theory, developers shouldn’t have to worry The “Big Two” makers of graphics hard- dows displayed on-screen are actually 3D about making their products compatible ware, nVidia and AMD (ATI’s parent com- surfaces. That allows interesting effects with the vast amount of hardware that pany), both have DirectX 10 hardware on like Flip 3D, the new alternative to the Alt- exists; they simply make their titles com- the market. nVidia’s DirectX 10 line is the Tab method of browsing through open patible with an API. GeForce 8 series (it includes the 8800 K

Illustration by Sean McCabe NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 99 LET’S GET STARTED THIS SIDE DOWN 1 Uninstall the graphics card driver in Windows Vista. After un- 2 Insert the gold contact edge of the graphics card into the plugging your PC, open the case and remove the old card. PCI Express x16 slot. Try not to touch the contacts.

NEW CARDS NEED POWER THE PCI EXPRESS BUS 3 Plug in the power-supply lead before you install the card. 4 The blue slot is the PCI Express x16 interface. Notice the It’s a six-wire cable and should be keyed to ﬁ t securely. tab at right; it must be depressed to remove the old card.

PRESS FIRMLY TO SEAT THE CARD FINAL STEPS 5 This graphics card is fully seated and ﬂ ush against the slot. 6 Use one or two screws to secure the graphics card. Then Note that the tab has secured the card in place. boot up, install the latest drivers, and reboot Vista.

100 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 READ THIS FIRST

ESD and Safe Electronics Handling

Bare electronic components on a circuit board are sus- 1. Before you touch any electronic parts, plant your feet. ceptible to all kinds of accidental damage. Handling your 2. Ground yourself by touching part of your computer’s graphics card safely and being very careful regarding static chassis. electricity are of paramount importance. Handle the card only by its edges, and by the metal 3. Don’t move your feet while you work inside the com- bracket on the rear. Be sure not to touch the gold contacts puter or handle the graphics card (or any other elec- that slide into the slot on the motherboard. The oils on your tronic parts). ﬁ ngers can interfere with the electrical contact, which can 4. If you do move your feet, plant them again and re- result in the card not working properly. Also, don’t touch the ground yourself before you reach back into the case chips! If you do, the small amount of static that can build up or pick up more electronic parts. in your body may discharge and permanently damage them. ESD, or electrostatic discharge, is a silent killer of elec- You can also wear an antistatic bracelet that you clip to tronics. Here’s how to avoid it: grounded metal to keep static from building up in your body.

GTX and GTS products, as well as the 8600 for the vanilla PCI standard. This guide, power connection, and place the card into and 8500 chipsets). ATI’s is its Radeon HD therefore, covers only the PCI Express x16 an antistatic bag. If you don’t have one 2000 series (featuring the HD 2900 XT, slot. Check your computer’s documenta- handy, lay the card fl at on a clean surface and the 2600 and 2400 products). tion, or that of its motherboard, to be sure and later, when you’ve freed up the anti- You’ve probably read that early DirectX it can take a PCI Express x16 graphics card. static bag that your new card came in, use it 10 efforts by game developers have been If not, you’re in for a far bigger upgrade to store your old one. disappointing. Still, it’s only a matter of than this article outlines. time before the developers fi gure out how Installing the New Graphics Card best to use the new APIs—and conse- Removing the Old Graphics Card There may be two PCIe x16 slots on your quently cease to support DirectX 9. Before you tear your computer’s case motherboard. If that’s the case, use the one The bottom line is this: Even if your open, you need to remove the software that held your old graphics card. If you’re DX9 graphics card has enough memory programs—the drivers—that make your still not sure which one to use, consult and muscle to handle Windows Vista, it old graphics card work with Windows. the motherboard’s documentation, which won’t run tomorrow’s games. If your old The drivers usually appear in the Add or should clearly identify one of them as the card can’t even run Vista and you’re going Remove Programs interface (in XP) or primary slot. Find the PCI Express power- to upgrade, you might as well jump to Programs and Features (in Vista). You can supply lead (some current cards actually current-generation, DirectX 10 hardware. open the pertinent interface through the require two of these) and plug it into the Both AMD and nVidia make a wide Control Panel. socket on the card. range of cards at several price points. The Highlight the drivers and click the Unin- Next, line up the card’s gold contacts highest-end cards (such as the nVidia stall button. You’ll probably encounter all with the slot on the motherboard and GeForce 8800 GTX and the AMD ATI kinds of prompts asking if you really want insert the card. Some current graphics Radeon HD 2900 XT) are aimed squarely to uninstall them, and Windows Vista’s cards are surprisingly big, so be careful not at gamers, whereas lower-end products User Account Control will kick in and to knock any other components or cables (from nVidia GeForce 8600 on down; require your permission to let the uninstall loose inside the case. AMD ATI Radeon HD 2600 series and continue. If you are using a mother board Press down on the top edge of the card below) are geared more for office and with integrated graphics, you will need to until it’s fi rmly seated in the PCI Express casual home users. disable them in the BIOS. x16 slot. The metal bracket on the back of Your screen might change to a lower the card should be tight against the case. The Right Slot resolution and color depth during or after Finally, using a screw (or two), secure the Depending on how old your computer the uninstall process. When it’s done, the card in place. Replace the side cover and is, you might have to replace the entire computer will prompt you to reboot. Say plug the monitor into the graphics card. board—and even the CPU, memory, and no! Instead, shut down the computer, Boot up the operating system. Cancel other components—just to replace the unplug the AC cord, open the case, and any Windows attempts to fi nd new hard- graphics card. prepare to remove the card physically. ware drivers, and open your favorite Web That’s because physical and electronic Look for the card that corresponds browser. Head to www.nvidia.com or www graphics card interfaces change every few with the monitor cable on the rear of the .ati.com to download the latest drivers for years. Until recently, the slot in which the machine. That’s your computer’s graph- your graphics chip. The drivers will be in graphics card sits, with its electronic con- ics card. Unplug the monitor cable, then an executable program; run the program nection to the motherboard, was called remove the screw or screws holding after it’s fully downloaded. the Accelerated Graphics Port, or AGP. the graphics card in place. Pop the card In Vista, User Account Control will In late 2005 the industry switched over upward, out of its slot. You might have to again break in to be sure you want to install to a new standard called PCI (Peripheral disengage a plastic clip on the slot on the the drivers. Simply follow the prompts Component Interconnect) Express x16. motherboard, near the front of the card, to and the installation routine will take care And way back before the AGP slot existed, release it fully. of everything. You’ll need to reboot when graphics cards used standard PCI slots. When you’ve removed the card from the driver installation is fi nished. After the You’re not likely to fi nd any DirectX 10 the case, unplug the power-supply cable computer boots back up, the graphics card hardware for the AGP standard, much less from the front of the card, if there is a installation is complete. Q

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 101 If you could only see the future…

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106 Outlook Express spell-checker not 106 Unremovable shadows in Excel 110 Building a better Web site working 108 How can I use multiple monitors? 112 Where do customers “drop out”? 106 Annoying USB 2.0 warning 108 Why is my computer so slow? 114 Making longer documents better

Create No-Code Mashups with Yahoo! Pipes Even if you don’t wear a hat with a propeller or write code, you can “mash up” a brand-new Web service right now. By Bill Dyszel

MASHING UP DATA You can combine the most relevant dynamic data from more than one site. Here we mashed the PC Magazine Edi- tors’ Choice feed and the Yahoo! Tech Advisors feed.

You’ve probably already used at least one of an array of new mashup tools designed mashup authoring tools. An easy—and online application that combines the ser- to help you assemble the relevant features free—way to begin is by using Yahoo! Pipes vices of different sources. You may have of multiple online sources and create a new (pipes.yahoo.com). It’s a totally graphical, used one, say, to create a local map that application that suits your needs precisely. integrated development environment that shows traffic reports, or to create a map Truly sophisticated mashups still is surprisingly intuitive, and really easy of the neighborhood you’ll be visiting in demand coding and often require a Web enough for ordinary, everyday Web users. Prague, highlighting the area’s four-star server, but anyone can accomplish quite Yahoo! Pipes lets you mix, match, and restaurants. Now you can take advantage a lot right now with hosted, Web-based kludge Web-based information into a con-

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 103 SOLUTIONS SOFTWARE

coction to suit your taste. It requires no example, we’ll remix an RSS feed from published for public use. You can run those coding—just drag and drop data sources PC Magazine and another from Yahoo! projects, copy them, modify their source and operators onto the Yahoo! Pipes work- to generate a uniquely useful result. That code to create your own project, and even space and tie them together. only scratches the surface of what’s possi- subscribe to the results in your favorite The most immediately valuable appli- ble with Yahoo! Pipes, but it’s a good place RSS reader. Most are pretty easy to fi gure cation of a Yahoo! Pipes project is to to begin. out. You can learn a lot from examining manipulate the contents of one or more When you fi rst sign on to Yahoo! Pipes, other people’s projects, even if you opt not RSS feeds to produce a new RSS feed tai- you’ll see listings of Pipes projects that to use them as a data source for a pipe of lored to a specifi c purpose. As a primitive have already been created by others and your own. Q

GET STARTED 1 To begin, drag a source module from the list on the left to the main workspace to reveal a dialog box in which you can enter sources, instructions, or operations. In this case, we’ve dragged in the Fetch Feed module, which will capture data from an RSS feed. The Debug window at the bottom of the screen shows the results of the currently selected module. In this case, it simply displays the contents of the feed we speciﬁ ed in the Fetch Feed module. Drag the circle at the bottom of one module to the circle at the top of another to create a “pipe” that moves data between them. The Pipe Output module simply makes the data in your Pipes project available through an RSS feed or Java. If you need to learn more about how a module functions, click the question-mark button at the upper right-hand corner of the module dialog box to reveal a small help window at the lower right-hand corner of the Pipes workspace.

SELECT DATA 2 Once you’ve chosen a feed to fetch, you can manipulate the data in the feed by choosing an operator; drag the operator in from the list on the left. The Filter module includes or excludes items according to the parameters you select. In this case we’re ﬁ ltering the PC Magazine Editors’ Choice RSS feed to limit the feed to items containing the word bluetooth.

EDITOR’S TIP READY-MADE MASHUPS If you want to take advantage of the mashup possibilities but creating a Pipes project doesn’t ﬂ oat your boat, look around the list of existing Pipes to see if someone has already created the project you need. An even better place to search for existing mashups is ProgrammableWeb (www .programmableweb.com), a clearinghouse of mashups, APIs, tools, and other mashup- related resources.

104 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 ADD SOURCES 3 Now we’ll bring in multiple fi lters and sources to enhance the value of this mashup. In this case we’ve combined RSS feeds from two sources, one from PC Magazine and another from Yahoo!. We’ve plugged each into the Union module, which is the fi lter that enables multiple sources. Then we’ve run the results through a multilevel fi lter seeking several prominent brands: Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony, and Nintendo. The Union module wasn’t actually necessary in this case— you can stack multiple feeds in a single Fetch Feed module, but the Union module comes in handy when you’re trying to test the contents of each feed separately by connecting only one at a time.

CHECK IT OUT! 4 After saving your Pipes project, click the View Results button to see the information your project delivers. From the results screen you can click any individual item to view its contents, or you can click Edit Source to go back and tweak your project.

EDITOR’S TIP

OTHER TOOLS Yahoo! Pipes is a great place to get started if you’re interested in creating mashups, but there are also other toolsets that might give you more of what you need. Some popular choices include Proto, Tequlo, and Open Kapow, along with dozens of others. Microsoft’s Popﬂ y service is still an invitation-only alpha product, but it’s already developing some buzz. Google has announced a similar service, as has IBM. We’re a long way from knowing whose mashup tools will BACK TO RSS dominate the ﬁ eld, but there’s never been Pipes serves up its output through RSS, which allows you to view 5 a better time to learn how to make your results in any RSS-enabled program, including most popular RSS Web experience your own. readers, as well as Microsoft Outlook 2007.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 105 SOLUTIONS SOFTWARE AskNeil

Offi ce 2007 Whacks OE You can turn off that message, but is dimmed. I have even tried to change the Spell-Checker only by turning off all USB-related shadow effect, but Excel maintains the cur- I have a Windows XP Media Cen- A error messages. Right-click My rent effect while applying the new effect. ter Edition PC, which includes Computer and choose Properties from the How do I remove an existing drop shadow? I Internet Explorer and Outlook pop-up menu. Click the Hardware tab and have searched the Microsoft Excel help and Q Express as well as Office 2007. click the Device Manager button on that the Internet for a solution but have not been I am English, but I can get only French tab. Near the bottom find the entry for able to fi nd one.—Dwight Jessup in the OE6 spell-checker. How can I get USB devices; click the plus sign at left to an English (U.K.) spell-checker? My old expand it. Find the entry for the controller If you simply select those Excel computer with OE6 checked in English! itself—it should have the word “Univer- cells again, you will indeed find —Christine Henderson sal” or “Open” in its name. Right-click it A that No Shadow is dimmed. And, and choose Properties. Click the Advanced yes, if you select one of the shadow styles, Outlook Express doesn’t actually tab, check the box titled Don’t tell me about you’ll just get an additional shadow—the have a spell-check feature of its USB errors, and click OK. If there are original won’t go away. But if you look A own, but it will exploit Microsoft multiple controllers listed, do this for each closely, you should see a skinny border Offi ce’s spell-checker if it’s installed. Your of them. around the block of shadowed cells. If loss of English-language spell-checking In the future, if you experience any you don’t see it, move the mouse slowly is a side effect of installing Office 2007. odd behavior or other USB device prob- around the edge of the cells until it Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article lems, go back and temporarily turn off the changes to a four-way arrow. When you 932974 confi rms that installation of Offi ce option to suppress USB error messages. click the border, the display will change 2007 “upgrades” the spell-check fi les for to show a set of object handles around English, Spanish, and German to new ver- Back from the Shadows Again the cells. In other words, you’ll see little sions that are incompatible with Outlook I have applied a drop-shadow circles at each corner and at the middle Express. effect to several cells in Microsoft of each side, plus another that looks like a Microsoft does not offer any solu- Excel 2003. I now wish to remove handle sticking straight up. tion for this problem, but it suggests you Q the shadow-box effect, but the “No Making sure the object handles remain “use a search site to find spell-checking Shadow” selection on the Drawing toolbar visible, click the Drop Shadow button in programs” or get advice in the Microsoft Communities discussion forums. You’ll have the added concern of fi nding one that supports English (U.K.) and not just Eng- lish (U.S.). Of course, you could just switch to using Outlook for e-mail. It’s part of Offi ce 2007, so you’ve already paid for it. When you fire it up, it will offer to import settings and messages from Outlook Express. Who knows—you might come to prefer it! (Hmm . . . is this a sinister plot by Micro- soft to marginalize Outlook Express?)

Turn Off USB 2.0 Warning Every time I start my PC I receive a message in a dialog box inform- ing me that the device (an external Q drive) I have attached to the USB port could perform faster if I attached it to a USB 2.0 port. I have not yet added a USB 2.0 card to the PC. I wonder, how can I prevent the message from appearing in the mean- I’LL STICK WITH 1.1 If you don’t plan to add USB 2.0 functionality to your older computer, time?—Brian Abbishaw you can turn off the warning that appears every time you plug in a USB 2.0 device.

106 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 the Drawing toolbar. Now the No Shad- ow option is enabled; click it. Finally, press the Delete key to delete the object handles. You’re back from the shadows again!

Find the Cookies Folder in Vista Where can I ﬁ nd the Cookies folder in Windows Vista? When I ran Windows XP, I put a shortcut to Q the Cookies folder on my desktop. When I went to a Web site, I could quickly see how many cookies a site was putting on my computer and delete them if I wanted to. I’ve tried searching in Vista but haven’t had much luck. Please help!—Walter Nowak

To find just about anything in Vista, you simply start typing its A name at the Start menu. When you type cookies, it points you to C:\Users\ HIDDEN COOKIES The obvious folder location for cookies in Windows Vista is wrong— username\cookies—great! Great, that they’re actually stored deep in a path of hidden folders. is, until you click on the link and get an “Access Denied” slap in the face. In actual since there would be no evidence on the hard each of the subtotal rows instead of the fact, that path is just a kind of pointer. The drive that I actually had Windows 2000 entire selection). Then proceed as nor- cookies are stored in a completely differ- installed previously. I typically clean the mal: Press Ctrl-C to copy to the clipboard, ent location. drive and then do a full OS reinstall about move to your destination cells, and press Open Windows Explorer, press F10 to twice a year. How well does the “clean Ctrl-V.—Jim McMichael see the menu, and choose Tools | Folder install” really clean the hard drive prior to Options. Click the View tab. Find the installing the OS?—George Chimich This is just one out of the dozens option to Show hidden files and folders of letters in response to “Copy and check it. Find Hide protected operat- Some past Windows versions have A Only Subtotals in Excel.” I used a ing system fi les and uncheck it (Vista will let you prove upgrade-readiness combination of the built-in Subtotal fea- gripe). Now you can navigate to the actual A by inserting the CD of the previous ture and Excel’s Advanced Filter, which location, which is twofold: C:\Users\ OS during the install process. Vista doesn’t. many readers felt was too complex. Most username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\ Microsoft specifi cally says: Windows Vista of them suggested the method described Windows\Cookies and C:\Users\user- does not check upgrade compliance. There- above, but actually there’s an even simpler name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Win- fore, you cannot use an upgrade key to per- way to select only visible cells when some dows\Cookies\Low. form a clean installation of Windows Vista. cells are hidden because of a fi lter or sub- If you like, you can put shortcuts to Microsoft’s solutions are (1) first install a total being active. these on the desktop or elsewhere—just compliant Windows version such as 2000, Select Tools | Customize from the menu right-drag the folder, let go, and choose XP, or Vista, or (2) purchase a full license. and click on the Commands tab. Select Create shortcut(s) here. These shortcuts So, no problem! Just run through Edit in the left-hand list and scroll down will work even if you change the Win- your usual full drive-wipe and reinstall the right-hand list until you fi nd the item dows Explorer options described above of Windows 2000, and then upgrade to Select Visible Cells. Drag that item onto back to their default values. Vista. Hang onto that Windows 2000 CD one of your toolbars. Now, whenever you if you want to continue this semiannual need to copy only the cells that are visible Clean Install Using Vista Upgrade reinstallation practice. within the highlighted region, you can I currently run Microsoft Win- just click this button and then press Ctrl- dows 2000 Professional on a “Copy Only Subtotals in Excel” C. Still too much work? Okay, how about custom-built PC, so I have the Revisited this one? Highlight the region, press Alt-; Q Win 2000 operating system CD. There’s a much quicker and easier solu- (semicolon) and then Ctrl-C. That’s about I am planning to buy Windows Vista Ulti- tion to “Copy Only Subtotals in Excel” as simple as anything can get! mate upgrade edition and install it on a (February 6, 2007). With the subtotals dis- new PC that I’ll be building. played at the level you want to copy, select NEED ANSWERS? PC Magazine’s software Because I’ll be purchasing the upgrade the entire area and then use Edit | Go To | expert, Neil J. Rubenking, tackles your edition of Vista, I won’t be able to com- Special and click the radio button Visible toughest software and Internet prob- pletely wipe my hard drive using a third- cells only. Now only the visible cells are lems. Send your questions to askneil@ party product and then install the upgrade, selected (note the dashed boxes around ziffdavis.com.

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 107 SOLUTIONS HARDWARE AskLoyd

Multiple Monitors, desk, particularly if the displays are old- Here’s why: Multiple Questions style CRT monitors. But once you get When you see “800-MHz FSB” (front- Please inform me whether I can used to having dual displays, you’ll never side bus), what you’re seeing is the effec- connect two or more monitors to go back. The additional screen space is a tive FSB clock frequency. The FSB is the same PC. If so, what addition- tremendous productivity asset. actually running at 200 MHz. That is, Q al settings are needed?—Shyam S there’s a clock control in the chip that Why So Slow? runs the FSB at 200 MHz. How do I go about getting dual monitors set I build my own computers and Intel processors, like the one in your up at my home computer? I do a lot of CAD usually figure out things on my ASUS, can move four data items per clock work, and having the extra space would be own, but my most recent PC is cycle, however. This is commonly referred great!—Timothy Hold Q causing me some problems. I to as a “quad-pumped bus.” To simplify used an ASUS P5V800-MX motherboard: labeling, this is often called an 800-MHz You should consider several The front-side bus is supposed to run at FSB. But it’s really a 200-MHz FSB mov- important factors before connect- 800 MHz, and the PC has a 3.2-GHz pro- ing four data items each clock cycle. A ing multiple displays: the graphics cessor. The machine should be running a lot Similarly, a 1,066-MHz FSB is really card, the operating system, and the physi- faster than it is. My BIOS tells me it is run- running at 266 MHz but is also quad- cal connectors. ning at 800 MHz, but I have a utility pro- pumped. I’m going to assume that you have gram that I really like called Belarc Advisor, Microsoft Windows XP or Windows and it’s telling me that the FSB is running at Oh . . . Blue Screen of Death Vista. Given that, you’ll need a graphics only 200 MHz, which would obviously slow Finally, an update. In “Blue Screen of . . . card or graphics subsystem that supports things down. Wait, What?” (October 2), I gave reader multiple displays. Any video card manu- I’ve racked my brains and tried to get Theodore Miller a checklist that might factured in the past three years—even answers from ASUS, but I am getting help keep his blue screens at bay—updat- the budget cards—can do that. But take nowhere fast.—Tasman1067 ing graphic card driver, checking memory a minute to refer to your PC’s manual if settings in the BIOS, checking and reseat- your system has only integrated graph- This is a pretty common mistake ing RAM modules, and ensuring the CPU ics hardware—that is, a graphics adapter to make; bus speed is an oddly fan was operational. that’s built into your system’s mother- A confusing issue. Both the BIOS What Mr. Miller had actually asked for, board chipset. Some integrated graphics and your Advisor software are correct. though, was a way to read the blue-screen systems can handle more than one dis- information before his machine rebooted. play, but others can’t. And it is strange that a screen meant to con- The bottom line is that you need a vey critical system error messages should graphics adapter with two physical con- disappear before the average human could nectors—either VGA or DVI—and two possibly read it, much less copy down the displays with appropriate connections. If often huge amounts of information on it. you have a video card with two DVI ports, My colleague Neil J. Rubenking chimed but one or both of your displays has only in: “You can keep that blue screen visible. VGA connectors, you can obtain DVI-to- Right-click My Computer. Choose Prop- VGA adapter dongles. erties. Click to select the Advanced tab Once you connect both displays, either (or the Advanced system properties link Windows or the graphics driver control in Vista). Click the Settings button in the panel should autodetect the second dis- Startup and Recovery pane. Uncheck play and walk you through setting it up. Automatically restart, Click OK | OK. Now If the autodetect message doesn’t pop up, the blue-screen information will remain you can set up the dual display yourself, visible on your screen until you force a either through the Display control panel WINDOWS DISPLAY CONTROL PANEL reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del.” Thanks, Neil! or the graphics driver. The Windows You can check the Extend the desktop onto this monitor box to enable your control panel is simpler, but the graphics NEED ANSWERS? ExtremeTech.com’s second display. driver may give you more options. Your graphics driver control panel editor, Loyd Case, tackles readers’ hard- The biggest problem you may encoun- offers more options but is also more ware problems in each issue. Send your ter is physical space on your real-world complex. toughest to [email protected].

108 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007

SOLUTIONS BUSINESS

INTERNET DEVELOPMENT Build a Better Web Site Getting site visitors is only half the battle. By Vicki B. Jacobson

Back in 1985, legendary music producer Quincy Jones invited the day’s most popular singers to record “We Are the World,” a single for charity. In his invitation, he asked the musicians to “check your egos at the door.” Sage advice, and something you should keep in mind as you gather with the editors, producers, designers, developers, and business folks who are creating or redesigning your business’s Web site. The process of designing or rework- ing a Web site can be a long one, and it shouldn’t be rushed. Tackling these criteria before and during the site’s development will save you time and help keep you from making costly mistakes.

Defi ne Your Goals There are user goals and then there are business goals. User goals are often defi ned by your content, what kind of peo- HOW’S IT DOING? Getting site visitors is only half the battle. You want them to stick ple you want to attract to your site, and the around and fi nd not only what they need but also what you want them to fi nd. One kind of experience you want to deliver for tool we use at PCMag.com is called SiteCatalyst. It tells us how many times each them. Business goals, well, they’re often link on a page has been clicked—the darker the red, the more clicks—which helps us about making money. As much as you can, determine how effective the page layout is. define the expectations for both these areas up front. the schedule for “deliverables” (deadlines Employ the same consistency for your for design, usability testing, templates, search box. Page elements, too, should be Identify Your Audience development, beta testing, launch dates, as consistent as possible. Disorganized, You may know your site and its content and so on). cluttered pages will only frustrate visitors. better than anyone—and you should— but, remember, you’re likely not the target Design and Development Make Pages Usable audience. Identifying the user, or site visi- Design is just as much about the organiza- Yes, your home page is important. It’s the tor, should be one of the first things that tion of content as it is about color schemes, front door to your site, but it’s not the only you do. One way to do this is by develop- font sizes, and compelling graphics. Every- way people enter. Visitors will often fi nd ing personas for the types of visitors you one will have an opinion about what should their way to your site via a search engine. have and want to attract. Give them names be included on your main pages and on That means that individual pages are just and some personality traits. Defi ne their individual article pages. And you’ll be as important as your home page. Each Internet habits (what they do online, how tempted to integrate all of that new technol- page should be a destination, with easy they might get to your site, how much ogy you’ve been hearing about. Start with access to related content as well as to the experience they have navigating Web everything but the kitchen sink, prioritize rest of the site. sites, how they may use your site . . . you elements, and then remove the extraneous. get the picture). Consistency is the name of the game Defi ne Success As you develop the site, click around here, and nowhere is this more important Is it all about money? Or are you interested the preview pages and ask yourself if you’re than with your site navigation. Navigation in delivering a good user experience? satisfying the needs of those personas. bars need to stay in the same place—typi- Maybe it’s both. Set goals. These may cally at the top or left—and look identical include fast page-load times as well as the Develop a Project Plan regardless of which page a visitor is on. expected number of page views, unique If possible, all parties should know what’s Keep it tight, too—provide all the navi- visitors, and pages viewed per visit. going on with the project. Most important, gation buttons a visitor should need, no It’s simple, really. Get them there. Keep a project plan lets the key players know fewer and certainly no more. them there. Everyone’s happy. Q

110 PC MAGAZINE NOVBEMBER 6, 2007

SOLUTIONS BUSINESS

SMB BOOT CAMP Keep Your Customers in View Analyzing how you deal with customers is almost always worthwhile. By Matthew D. Sarrel

Is your business as effi cient as it should be? Or do customers slip through the cracks? Many small businesses struggle just to get Fixing a Business Process routine things done, but a careful analysis The fi rst step in my analysis was to involve everyone who played a role, from clinic of the steps you take in dealing with cus- staff to data entry clerks to health offi cials to the IT director. We looked at the pro- tomers is almost always worth the time cess of preventive therapy and created a process diagram, paying special attention you invest. Examine the way your business to where we thought patients were slipping through the cracks. Manually review- functions and the daily tasks employees ing patient charts to schedule appointments wasn’t working. We mapped the old, perform. Take a special look at the role IT manual process and a new, automated process (see below). systems play in the process. Then look for I developed a custom database that automated the generation of reminder and ways to improve and serve the customer missed-appointment letters, lists of delinquent patients who needed follow-up better and less expensively. calls, and reports. It worked. We demonstrated a statistically signifi cant increase This is all common sense, of course, but in the percentage of patients who completed preventive therapy. it goes quite a bit further and has grown into a fi eld called business process analysis, Do Your Own Business Process Analysis or business process management. Compa- According to Ron Wince, CEO of Guidon Performance Solutions, a key factor in nies pay hundreds of millions of dollars a project success is engaging employees. Many people are resistant to change—espe- year in software and services for it. cially when the change is dictated from above. It’s important for IT to understand Years ago, I worked at the New Jersey the business side of things, and vice versa. “Hold short collaborative brainstorming Medical School National TB Center. Part of sessions with cross-functional teams,” advises Wince. To write an effective data- what we did was provide preventive ther- base, for example, the developer needs to understand how it will be used. apy for people infected with tuberculosis. TAKE A BASELINE MEASUREMENT Whether you measure your success by Those who were infected but not sick were straight fi nancial fi gures or other metrics, take stock of your current rate. asked to take medication for six months. BE THE CUSTOMER Look at your processes from the customer’s perspective. It’s pretty hard to get someone to take a DIAGRAM THE PROCESS Create a process diagram that shows the steps that a pill every day who doesn’t even feel sick, customer must go through to complete a transaction. I like to use Visio for this. so many patients in this category stopped USE FRESH EYES Try to view the process as an outsider might, not taking any- coming to the clinic, and we couldn’t fol- thing for granted. Look for procedures that don’t make sense, where steps don’t low up with them. In public-health terms, seem to be in the right order, and where there’s a chance for customers to drop out. that’s considered a “negative outcome.” CHANGE Easy to say, not always so easy to do. Fix the problems you identifi ed, In business-process terms, compare it to either by changing the overall process or by adding or subtracting technology. someone coming into a retail store in need MEASURE THE OUTCOME No initiative can be called successful unless you can of something, looking around, and leaving show a positive effect such as an increase in revenue or a decrease in costs. without buying anything. Q

AUTOMATED METHOD PROCESS FLOW Developing and implementing IT systems should be an ongoing process focused on continual improvement of the business process. Here’s a sample workflow that worked at the New Jersey Medical School National TB Center.

Does START <6 6th Patient No Yes Patient file patient times time file Patient Receptionist Nurse Data-entry Reception- Patient incomplete come to complete enters starts chart provides clerk ist returns in clinic? clinic treatment inputs schedules 1 month END END to patient appoint- next visit, ment files chart No

Yes Yes Data-entry Data-entry Patient Patient Data-entry Patient clerk Does clerk Does Receptionist is in No is in No clerk is in generates patient generates patient calls patient missed- treatment come to missed- treatment come to generates treatment appointment limbo clinic? appointment limbo clinic? delinquency limbo letter letter list

112 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007

SOLUTIONS OFFICE

New Features for Long Documents

Although most of us use Microsoft Word most of the time, when If you have multiple contributors working on your document, it’s time to write a long or complex document, such as a book, we Word 2007 style sets, which are predefi ned sets of style defi ni- switch to higher-end page-layout software—or at least Microsoft tions saved as a template, can ensure everyone’s contributions are Publisher—to get the features we need. With Word 2007, Micro- laid out consistently. You can provide your contributors with your soft has added a number of capabilities that make it much easier to style set or apply it to their contributions after you receive them. author long documents. Most exciting for students and research- For those who need to submit their fi nal documents electroni- ers are the greatly improved tools for providing a bibliography and cally, Microsoft has responded to user need and added a Docu- citations. You can enter the information once for each source you ment Inspector, which can remove old versions of text, hidden want to cite into a convenient dialog, and then Word lets you place text, or other potentially embarrassing or confi dential items left references. With one click, Word will generate a bibliography in around from your draft revisions.—David Cardinal, frequent one of several widely accepted standard formats. contributor

SAVE AS PDF One great new feature in Word 2007 for anyone COMPARE planning either to publish a document online or Even when you are working solo, the time will come when you want to to send it electronically for publication is the inte- compare two different versions of a document. Word has always let you grated PDF export capability. You need to down- compare documents, but with Word 2007, you can see two versions in load the free PDF converter from Microsoft Ofﬁ ce side-by-side windows, making it much easier to merge the multiple drafts Online, but then it’s a simple matter to generate into one. So if you have multiple authors or an editor, all parties can work PDFs optimized for Web display or printing. To get on the document, even without using the change-tracking tools, and still PDF export capability, go to Save As | Find add-ins have a good chance of integrating the changes from both versions. The for other formats, which takes you to Microsoft’s Compare and Combine options are located on the Review ribbon. download page.

EQUATIONS Word 2007 offers a powerful new equation editor. Simply click on Equation on the Insert ribbon and the Equation Editor ribbon will appear. It is amazingly simple to input almost any mathematical equation and print professional-looking results. You can customize how the equation editor works to adapt it to the speciﬁ c terminol- ogy in use in your industry, and save equations to a library for easy reuse. Note that Equations, like SmartArt and a few other new features, will not work in Compatibility mode (that is, if you save documents in Word 97–2003 format).

114 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 OUTLOOK TIP Better Searching

There are so many buttons, flags, pull-downs, and assorted gewgaws in the new Microsoft Outlook that it took me months of using the much-improved Search to notice the pull-down arrow—not the one in the box, but the double- arrow to the right of the box. And wouldn’t you know it, that arrow leads to a real, advanced search, with actual multiple fields and everything.—Sarah Pike

WORD TIP Changing Cases

RESEARCH If you don’t remember where you read something or perhaps are still working on your research, use the integrated Research pane to search both Word’s internal thesaurus and an array of online research sources. Currently, the online sources are mostly Microsoft-owned sites (Encarta is probably the best known), but there is a provision for third parties to make additional research sites available. To bring up the Research pane, you can Alt-click on a word, or go to Review | Research.

Hey thanks, Microsoft, for ﬁ nally making a button to change the case of selected text, and putting it on Word 2007’s Ribbon. Till now, I’ve had to make do with my favorite secret key combo: Shift-F3. (Keyboard monkeys will be pleased to hear that the combo still works: Select your text and press Shift-F3 to change the case from all-lowercase to all-uppercase to sentence capitalization.) In fairness, the button adds two options that Shift-F3 won’t give you: initial caps on all words, and toggle case (for when you accidentally iNTERcAP in reverse).—SP

EXCEL TIP Cell Navigation

Need to enter data in a number of noncon- tiguous Excel spreadsheet cells? Rather than inputting a value, clicking on the next location, and repeating, ﬁ rst select all the cells you CITATIONS want using Ctrl-click. After that, hitting Enter There is nothing I hate more about writing research papers than muddling or Tab will cause the cursor to jump automati- through formatting the bibliography. Word 2007 makes it a snap by automatically to each successive selection until you cally generating one based on data you type in. In the References tab, choose a reference style (for example, APA or Chicago). Then click on Manage Sources, break the spell by clicking on a cell that’s not then New to create a reference list. That done, making citations, footnotes, and in the chosen group. Entry will start on which- a bibliography really is as simple as clicking on the Insert Citation, Insert Foot- ever cell you select last, then roll around to the note, and Bibliography buttons. ﬁ rst.—Gary Berline

NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 115

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DOWN THE TUBES You’ve been to YouTube, but have you seen these “Tubes”?

JEWTUBE.COM Th e preeminent site for Jewish home video. EWETUBE.COM A blog for sheep lovers (no, not that way, sicko). MOOTUBE.COM Recently retired site where PBS showed clips of longhorn cattle. Yeah, um, retired. NEWTUBE.COM Didn’t know people still used tubes in amps? If you need a new one, shop here. TUTUTUBE.COM Do you like YouTube but fi nd that the videos aren’t random enough for you? Check this out. KUNGFUTUBE.COM “A Web site specializing in database retrieval for kung fu video.” TRUETUBE.COM & UTUBE.COM If you’re looking for information about construction and machine tubes, try these sites. And we ABORT, RETRY, FAIL by Don Willmott thought the OS/2 on Dvorak’s chest was hard-core.

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