Click for more articles BLU-RAY VS HD DVD CUTTING THROUGH THE HYPE WHAT’S GET MORE FROM TECHNOLOGY HOT NOW 63 NEW PRODUCTS THAT YOU JUST STUNNINGLY AFFORDABLE HDTVS GOTTA HAVE! LUSCIOUS LAMBORGHINI LAPTOP Plus BUDGET DIY How to Build a Core 2 PC This Weekend U.S. $5.99 / CAN. $7.99 / U.K. £4.00 SONY’S POWERFUL POCKET-SIZE PC YOUR DREAM NETWORK 10X Faster LG’S SENSATIONAL OCTOBER 3, 2006 3, OCTOBER WWW.PCMAG.COM CHOCOLATE PHONE & More Secure 1&1 Web Hosting, Simply If you run a small to medium-sized business and are looking to easily build a professional, interactive website, the 1&1 Business Package is your solution. 1&1 delivers the best value for your money. Receive the latest in Adobe design software free with our Premium Software Suite. Included with all Business and Developer Packages. FREE Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 4.0 combines power and Software Included simplicity to help you edit and enhance your photos. 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All rights reserved. Discount offer ends September 30, 2006 and applies to 1&1 Internet, Inc.'s shared hosting packages. Visit 1and1.com for details. Prices based on a comparison of regular Linux prices, effective 7/25/2006. If you choose to receive the Premium Software Suite you must commit to a one-year contract for the package you choose. $6.99 shipping & processing fee applies. Product and program specifications, availability, and pricing subject to change without notice. Go Daddy is a registered trademark of Go Daddy Software,Inc.; Yahoo! is a registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. or visit us now 1and1.com PCONTENTS OCTOBER 3, 2006 VOL. 25 NO. 17 Blu-ray vs. HD DVD Page 77 Lamborghini laptop HDTVs Page 34 Page 41 Pocket-size PC Page 40 Budget DIY Page 91 Your Dream Chocolate Network phone Page 29 Page 63 COVER STORY WHAT’S HOT FOR FALL The dog days of summer are fi rmly behind us, and we’re jazzed about a world of new high-tech gear and gadgets. Sony’s turning our heads with its tiny VGN-UX180P handheld PC, and we can’t get enough of the unbelievably affordable HDTV LCDs we have to choose from today. And don’t even get us started about the yummy-looking Chocolate phone from Verizon. Want to enjoy the fall as much as we do? Check out our First Looks reviews and Buying Guides. 27 FIRST LOOKS 28 Consumer WinBook 32M0 HP Scanjet 7800 52 Small Business 54 The Best Stuff Electronics Westinghouse Fujitsu ScanSnap Brother Award-winning Sony Alpha LTV-32w3 HD S500 MFC-8860DN products all in one place DSLR-A100 40 Hardware Canon DR-3580c HP Offi cejet 6310 46 Software Chocolate by LG/ Sony VAIO All-in-One 34 LG VX8500 Buying Guide: VGN-UX180P McAfee Total Sugar Enterprise LCD HDTVs JBL Radial ASUS- Protection 4.5 On Demand TomTom GO 910 Lamborghini VX1 Norton Confi dential Novatel Wireless 42 Buying Guide: Microsoft Seagate (beta) V640 Document Lifecam VX-6000 ST9160821U2-RK Faronics Anti- Scanners 160GB External Sharp Aquos LC- Executable Standard Hard Drive 32D40U Liquid Google Reader Xerox DocuMate Crystal TV TurnHere.com 152 Westinghouse Quicken Basic 2007 LVM-42w2 Plustek OpticSlim M12 Corporate Microsoft Money Vizio L32 Essentials On the cover: HDTV screen image: Shaun Best/Reuters/Corbis OCTOBER 3, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 7 PCONTENTS OPINIONS SOLUTIONS 10 First Word 96 Ask Neil Jim Louderback Change Word text back to black; teach 57 Michael J. Miller Outlook to spell your name; read 59 Bill Machrone e-mail safely. 60 Inside Track 98 Ask Loyd 120 John C. Dvorak Readers respond: replacing your CPU fan; SATA and PIPELINE PATA drives; bent 18 New concept CPU pins. phone—no 100 buttons! The SMB Boot Camp Why your business DIY NETWORKING 2 Onyx from Synap- tics is touch sensi- needs VoIP. PUMP UP YOUR HOME NETWORK tive. Also, consider 102 the new Segway Software Solutions: scooter. Make a Recovery Are you getting the most bang for your bandwidth? Partition 63 20 After a nasty spy- Future Watch Your home network could be doing more. We take ware attack—or you through the tips, tricks, and products you need to make Meet the robotic bomb squad from when Win dows your network faster and more secure—and show you how to Iraq. accumulates too implement cool features such as home automation, streaming much sludge—you video, and security cameras. CONNECTED may need to recon- TRAVELER struct your hard BLU-RAY VS. HD DVD drive. 23 Atlanta THE BATTLE OF THE DVDS 104 Security Watch How virtual PCs TECHNORIDE take down hackers. Can you make the switch to blue laser without 77 24 Acura MDX GAMING & getting the blues? An amazing amount of hype Also, Lexus—the surrounds the new Blu-ray and HD DVD standards. We sift most dependable CULTURE through it all, explain the new technology, and help you de- vehicle; Kensing- 116 Rarity games ton’s RDS FM trans- cide which next-generation DVD format is best for you. Are they really mitter/car charger; worth the dough? REAL-WORLD TESTING the shape-shifting LOSING IT hydrogen Z.Car. GEARLOG 25 Bill Howard 119 The banana phone Put this to your ear Misplacing a small gadget while away from home and you’ll draw a 87 ALSO INSIDE is easy. Often, getting it back is not. Now, recovery crowd. services are helping owners and lost products reunite. We 16 Feedback signed on to one service and affi xed labels to gizmos that we 16 Abort, Retry, Fail then “lost” in restaurants, trains, bars. Read on to see how well we did in recovering them. BUILD IT PCMAG ONLINE THE BEST PC FOR THE MONEY After reading our home-networking story, go to PCMag.com for more practical information on 91 Looking for awesome performance that won’t wiring (or unwiring) your home. This week, net- break the bank? Here’s how to build a high-quality, working expert Davis D. Janowski writes about all-purpose PC and select the components that give you the the ups and downs of relying on VoIP (go.pcmag best balance between price and performance. .com/livewithvoip). In addition, we share the details on what it takes to provide Wi-Fi to an entire apartment building in the city (go.pcmag PC Magazine, ISSN 0888-8507, is published semi-monthly except monthly in January and July and three issues in No- vember at $44.97 for one year. Ziff Davis Media Inc, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7940. Periodicals postage paid .com/unwiredapartment). And as always, you’ll 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 Canadian GST registration number is 865286033. Publications Mail Agree- fi nd expert reviews on the latest home-network- ment No. 40009221. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, R.P.O. West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6, Canada. Printed in the U.S.A. ing products and software. 8 PC MAGAZINE OCTOBER 3, 2006 Illustration by Ulla Puggaard ©2006 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. imagine your emotions amplified. Imagine a whole new way to see, hear, and feel movies. The new Samsung Blu-ray Disc™ player BD-P1000 gives you an amazing 5 times the resolution of standard DVD — making full use of your HDTV. With backwards compatibility, it also converts your existing DVDs to near high-definition, adding sharpness, richness, and color. Add to this superb 24-bit audio and you’ll discover details that heighten the emotional experience of everything you view. With Samsung Blu-ray Disc™ player BD-P1000 Samsung, it’s not that hard to imagine. To learn more, visit www.samsung.com/bluray Available at: ® FIRST WORD BY JIM LOUDERBACK, EDITOR I come not to bury Dell, but to praise it. The company has made missteps, but I’ve been pleased with its products and its efforts to overcome mistakes.