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    687 views123 pages

    Pcmag 052008

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    pc magazibne

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    GUS EA eg Protect Your Kids Online Why Sony Won the Format War Upgrade Your PC for $125 Top Devices, Cool Mobile Apps Big Screens, Small Prices ‘ii ¢Ultraportable & Mainstream Notebooks *The Science of Thin ze nan eo 10 Million Looking for a domain? We have already registered 10 million domains. Look below to find out why you should choose 181 today! Best price! With 1s al inclusive pricing you always know exactly what you cera eee ain Rone Perens eu err ete ceecan cel eer Cal eee Terr ees ‘a domein registration, No set up fee end no edditonel costs. Ever Maximum freedom! ‘Your 181 domain belongs to you as fong as youre with us. You can use ‘tto setup an e-mail account or for your website. You can even use a different web host without any restrictions. Reserve your rare nov Sere Cu tics zs mH Protectyour contact information from spammers! 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Put information you need right at your finger tips for under $500. There’s a new way to look atit. High standards. Remarkable pedormance. The Xerox DocuMate 152 scanner, winner of PC Magezine's Editors’ Choice Award, ts the ultimate office productivty tool, Convert documents into text searchable PDF, TIF. JPG, BMP or most other major file formats with Visioneer OneTouch®. Drop in an original. Touch a button. It's that eazy! The DocuMate 152 alse features One Touch ena nto 2 et 40 scanning with Kofax® VRS™ technology that sears aand delivers the highest level of image quality and OCR accuracy 0 Xerox DocuShare, Micosoft SharePoint, end many other eppliations. The scan- ner offers nearly $400 in bundled software including Nuance PaperPoxt®, OmniPage” Pro, and business card seanning software. Control of your paper documents Ie only one touch away xerox @,) Rich and Thin PC makers seek to enticecistomers wit laptops in lighter frames and forprices lower than ever. Meanwhile, ultraportables represent the cutting edge of innovative design. NG GUIDE feature-rich mainstream The New Schooling Your Pocket PCs Smartphone Ay Picking the perfect smart= ) phoneisn't just about find A, inga device that doesitall Youalso need to choose the right platform and ser- vice provider. Ourguide helps you withall three. ‘Cover seven image: Richard Johnstor/tone/Corbs Nomatterwhat cellphone you buyits never quite A right —there arc always problems withthe OS, We show you what apps to Gownloadtomake your newcell phone perfect. (ttm canter by Evan Sauter 27 Business Canon Realis X700 SimpleDrive500GB Portable Hard Drive ‘AcerP213W josoft Office Live Small Business 1360 Tools Suite (beta) MetaGeek WiSpy 24x Spice Works 20 34 Hardware BurocomLV220C ViVA, Gateway EX7020 Intel Classmate PC Epson Stylus Photo R1900 42 Software Net Nanny 5 Safe Hyes50 KidsWatch Internet Safety & Parental Control Adobe Premiere Elements 40 46 Consumer Electronics VINAVTA0 Pharos Drive GPS 25 Cobra Nav ONE S000 Canon PowerShot SDUOOIS Slacker Portable Helio Mysto. ‘Altec Lansing T612 LGS0PY3D 54 The Best Stuff 16 FEEDBACK Letters from our readers. FRONT SIDE 19 News ‘Technology to the rescue; making money from blogs; batteries of the future. 21 Ata Glance ‘Trends in “self-Geogling” the best of the Internet. 21084 Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Sivite 24 Connected Traveler Wireless gear for the road. uncniantnn PCONTENTS OPINIONS 9 First Word: Lance Ulanoft ‘Why Sony won the format war. 56 John C. Dvorak Where are the desktop breakthroughs 1 was promised 57 Inside Track: John C. Dvorak 58 Jim Louderback Nextgen solar shines bright, 60 Dan Costa Three steps to a paperless office. 61 Sascha Segan The winners and losers of the new mobile phone game. 124 BACKSPACE Corporate mergers we'd like to sec: Abort, Retry, Fail nanan enema nentnnn nt This Month on PCMag.com Tip ofthe day Get compu newsletters. 2 tips fromour experts delivered straight to your inbox with our Tip of the Daynewsletter. Subscribe fivrfree at go.pemag.com/ SOLUTIONS 87 Return to Windows XP You can go back. 90 Project Simple hardware upgrades that extend the life of an older PC. 92 Ask Neil 94 Ask Loyd 100 Business Considering Linux for your SMB; end-user security; Word 2007's building blocks. 104 Security Beware of the fake Shareaza, 106 Linux Fun with the Linux command line, 108 Tech Tips RECENT BUZZ Most Popular Stories @ oj ma +10 Weirdest Pod Accessories + The Ultimate USB Key ‘+ Nine Ways to Wipe Out Spyware We're building your dream home on PCMag.com. ‘The virtual house is going up roomby room, and it's hock fullof the best gear our analysts can find. Take the tour and get our picks for bath budget-conseious homes and spare- o-expense pads at se.pemag.com/dreamhore. Dive Into our Notebook Superguide onpage 64, thenhead overta our Laptop Product Guide (go.pemag -com/laptops), where yout ‘cancompare the specs, ratings, and prices of our favorite laptops. © PEMAGAZINE Mav 2008 Most E-Malled Stories + The Best Free Software + Apple OS X 10.52 (Leopard) review + The10 Coolest LEGO-Inspired Gadgets ‘Want more Dvorak? Get adouble dose of every- one's favorite crank inhis ‘weekly online columnand his Cranky Geeks show, available only at PCMag.com. Stay safe with our Security Watch blog which provides you with security advice, malware alerts, and new'son patch up- dates. You'l find ical Blogs -Pemag.com/secutity watch. ~ Housns photer Stave Tylor ety AMD. HP recommends Windows Vista® Business. Turion MH GmpUER . 6 Cin AGAIN. More choices for you means fewer limits for your business. HP Compan 6715 Se eee i eee Pees en Remedies eal ale ce eee oo aed ee ee ee ede a a ea peal ise s FMV Sree marci a Dictaaleninperdnervanenlneine buena Z Checetecis choose from, is easier lo know who fo choase from. Cea Pai atcrntry Senet) Learn more about HP mobility at hp.com/go/choices3 1-888-491-8355 | hp.com/go/rood3 | Find a reseller: hp.com/go/reseller ‘ erane fee Caen poe onal ea ee poe re ead Y Porte Cea en cetera turer Tee PT Te Na en Cae ee Re ee OLN Tablet PC takes reliability Sid i ‘The Fujitsu LifeBook T4200 Tablet PC with Intel” Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology proves just how far Fujtsu will go to deliver the most reliable products. It's manufactured in-house so we can maintain the highest quality standards. The Fujitsu LiteBook T4200 Tablet PC also features the industry's first bi-directional LCD hinge and a brifant, 12.1" XGA display with wide viewing angles, so it's impressive any way you look at it. And whether you use its keyboard or powerful inking capabilites and pen-driven navigation, you get the best of both worlds. Goto us.fujitsucom/computers/reliability for more in‘ormation, SUPERIOR CONNECTIVITY BUILT-IN MODULAR BAY % Bee fw = DUAL-FUNCTIONALITY Centrino; 2 FUJITSU THE POSSIBILITIES ARE IUFINITE FIRST WORD LANCE ULANOFF Why Sony Won the Format War finally figured out why Twas so dead wrong about the HD DVD-versus-Blu- ray format war. Tshould have analyzed the sides, Teshiba and Sony, not as two countries going to War bu as opponents inaclose-quarters boxing match Lad I done so, I would have properly assessed each technology's advantages and disad- vantages. Back inthe late sists and early seven- ties, when former heavy weight champi ‘Muhammad Ali was winning all hs bouts, commentatorsextolled Ali's “reacks” His fists extended a good 2or3 inches farther than his opponents. This allowed him to, inflict stinging jabs to the face and head ‘of bis overmatched opponents, including George Foreman and Leon Spinks, Sony it turns ut, has this advantage too. (On paper, Blu-ray developer Sony and HD DVD developer Toshiba may appear similar, but there are certain important differences between them that I failed to take into account. Sony was able to lever= age smartly its position ina number of key products and content-distribucion out= lets, Iteffectively seeded the market with, Bhu-ray-ready PS3 machines. They sold poorly in their first year, but it doesn take arocke! scientist to guess that more people ought PS3s than HD DVD players. Sony also controls a major television and movie studio, so it had an easier time getting Blu-ray content into the market- place. Toshiba and its partners kept pace for most of 2007, but once Warner Bros. walked away from HD DVD, ‘Toshiba could do little to prevent others from doing the same. Sony never had to worry about its own content factory turning its backon Blu-ray: When Muhammad Ali dismantled an opponent, he didn't jast methodically pound him into the canvas. Instead, he dancedl (some said floated), smiled, made faces, and just plain overacted. In other .words, be confused his opponent. and he got and held our attention. Somotimes win- ning in technology requires a litle lash, and dazzle, Sony's got that. Bh-ray drives artived inPCsbeforestanialone HD play= cts did. This might nat have hurt Toshiba so muchhad thecompany not lagged way behind Sony in burner availabilty Prices Jor burnable Blu-ray dises are sill ridicu- Jously high, but you know geeks scooped them up just so they could tell their techie friends that they just burned 50 gigabytes toonedisc. ‘Muhammad Ali was good TV. If you liked boxing, there was nothing better, Muhammad Allis three-time world heavyweight champion. The man never gave up. When he seemed down anil out, he woutd trainharder and come back with a pew battle plan that would flummox his overconfident opponents. [give Sony credit. ounted the company eut early on, and others did as well. Last summerthere ‘were even reports that Toshibe’s HD DVD hhad takeathe lead, bu those claims proved to be unsupported. And Toshiba made a critical error in January whenit responded to Wamer Bros’ defectionby canceling a Muhammad Ali’s fists extended a good 2 or 3 inches farther than his opponents. This let him inflict stinging jabs. Sony, it turns out, has this advantage, too. ‘whether he was talking ofghting. Toshiba and Sony both sell TVs, but ask anyone onthe street who sells the best TVs and HDTV and they'llinvariably answerSony. ts Bravia is considered a high-water marke by many. Part of Ali's success involved every- thing he did outside ofthe ring. He would ‘wage a verbal marketing campaign that rade fight enthusiasts andhhis opponents wonder if he'd won before anyone had stepped into the ring. For along time, Sony's marketing was mote “rope-a-dope” than hard sell. Then late lest year, the company rolled out a series of aggressive television ads that seamlessly tied together Sony Blu-ray content withthe players and, more impor- tantly, Sony HDTVs, Finally, a full marketing package was ‘out there—a compelling message that seemed to resonate not only withconsum- ers but with fence-sitting partners who ‘were trying to satisty both the HD DVD. and Blu-ray camps. Toshiba started ru ning similar ads, but it was too late. major Consumer Electronies Show press conference. Muhammad All never would hhavedone that, In This Issue ‘Take a lookat this ssue's cover and you'll see how fundamentally different our world is from wiat it was just five years ago. Thanks to a new generation of power- ful, supeatight laptops, incredibly smart phones (really mini PCs), and ubiquitous connectivity, we can compute just about anywhere. Recently, Idid anhour of office work onthe train, even while ina tunnel. ‘My Lenovo laptop and Verizon Rev A. EV-DO card made it all possible. In this, sue, we applaud that computing ideal with PC Labs reviews of mainstream and ultraporcable laptops, new smartphones, and the applications that'll make them smarter. truly isamobile world. TALK TO THE CHIEF You can contact Lanceat Lance_Ulanoif@ziffdavis.com. For more of his columns, go 10 go.pemag scom/ulenoff MAY 2009 PEMAGAZINE 9 _ Tatroducing the new AciinllD from Qaiwrek with 4 Mode Selections: Full Mode Selection: 1080p (440% 030) at 20 fps Action Mode: 1202 ||280«720) at 60 fps - Double the Frame Rate! 2 Internet Modes: DVD for you tube (720x480) and Web for email (320x240) Perfect for por and is n~ events ex Just under $200, the Action HD offers full High definition 1080p at up to 30 fps. ‘At 720p, the Action HD captures live action smoothly and effortlessly at an amazing 60 fps. Featuring a 3x optical zoom and Auto Focus, you'll capture every detail. Play back your video clips and photos on an HOTY, TY, PC or upload them to YouTube. eDITOR.N-CuIEF Lance Ulanoft eorroz Stesniane Crag ‘mecton oF onLNE conTENT.cxEuTIVE moUEEn Vicki B. Jaccbson ‘acute enions Den Coste (reviews), Cero! L Gorse, eramy A xasien be Ls omecron,sewonerrron anowane) Laarn| Aimendrala Ragaze semvoncorrons Sean Car‘ol (software, Internet, networking), Wendy Sreean Donael (consume electonics), Carol Manis (1098), Saran Pika (Solutions), Erik Rhey (Fron Side) senmawerren =r Gefith rearuneeornoe Dan Fvans sevizwe eortone Bilan Bennett (consumer alacteries) ‘Gary Bariine (software Intarnet,netwercing), Tony Hoffman hardware) ‘re Lass Lean anatrts Cisco Cheng, Tim Gideon, David Gussman, Robert Heron, Michael Muchmore Clivar Rist, Nels, Rubenkrg, Joe Santo Domine, Sascha Sedan, ¥: Davis Sto JUNIOR ANALYST Brian Ni any associare atv omecrom Aaron Able AgBeTaNT ART pingcron Chiistopher Ewan ‘rare rworosaarven Scott Scnedivy PRODUCTION EDITORIAL PRODUCTION RECTOR Nicholas Cosmo Convener Elzanet A. Parry coWy EoroRs Marcaret WeVeIgh, AnOvedou! ‘oMUNE vuwacte, onunsenceucron Yun-San Tes: pmosvcene Ma“k Lamorgees, Whitney A Reyno.es ews eontoe Mari Hachman wewaneronren Crloe Aloanasivs Associteepirons Jennifer | DeLee, Brian Heater (blogs), Melly. MeLaughin eviews) Kyle Monsen _sstsvar ron Corinne lozzio ReMews proDUceRs £/rol Plere-Louls, Neola Pic ‘moDUcTON ARTISTS Veronica da Le0n Reem LiChtna 0 a Jim Lyne ‘yoko sorronatemector vinzo ane o16AL events Sabastinn Rupey rresvesr Vaanne Coe associate rnooucens Sect Asroull, Brooks Rowlelt assinanr motucen Ser) Arbico ona nam10 west RoD/n Peterson ‘covremuris soins Halen Brady, John Delaney, Richars V Dragan, John © Ovoraic ‘Gaig Elton, Gaien Folk Bil Hovare, Don Labriola .im Louderback, Bil Machrone, ‘ard Mandezon Jan Ozer, Neil Randall, Matthew D Sere, Larry Seltzer LEXRENETEGHCOM eomoR Loyd Case sewoR TexINOLOGY ANALYSTS Jason Cross, Jos! Durhary prooucen Jeremy Atkinson auioR pRoDucER Civis Conlon, Snetaport fairy snd sblastivaly on the teal. ‘is edare aver vest name wncea proce or othr gts tava rom ase hms ‘oF diagnose probes with your PCY hone. AN Silocat pact nouns ctirwwipemeg com? in Pe tagesie and sonnatrasoie the promirs loose noha copies ctyout comeapondence Eo regency com ese tyon yn SURSCRETIONS: Tr one-yosr subscription rate ls StGn Pe nngeane be pustshedmonthy i eit SSS ga0 yao a favemoturtnr obgeton uous we receive 9 or RERISSUES Bach sues ofe $8250) {Seoshetenhete Prepayment ose The fastest way to learn a language. Guaranteed.” Think in the language! Our method is called Dynamic Immersion™ Vivid photos and native speakers help you learn without transtation — just like you learned your first language. Speak immediately! Start speaking in the first lesson with our proprietary speech recognition technology. Enjoy learning! Improved intuitive, sequential leaming makes every lesson count and builds progressively in a fun, almost addictive way. SVC Leet zee" NOW Level 182 Sea57 Now Ue 1283 322" NOW COP ee RosettaStone.com/pcs058 (es oores Aust, 208, 100% GUARANTEED SDX-MONTH MONEY-88¢i when xd (Cx Rot Suen AL esas Paes fenate Gamat hte carer ah te CONNECT WWW.PCMAGCONNECT.COM Visit PC Magazine Connect for special offers from PC Magazine and select partners. It's your resource tor sweepstakes, downloads, ‘announcements and updates that keep you connected. DISKEEPER® 2008 Diskeeper 2008 isthe key to fastor more rolablo systems Download Diskeeper today and experience autorratic, real-time defragmentation ‘with no resource conflict With the new InvisiTasking ‘technology, fast, thorough detragmentation is row done transparently. Tiy Diskeeper 2008 {or free now! Download from wn.diskeeper.conype4s D Diskeeper corporation DIGITAL LOVE PROGRAM Inhonor cf cur th Arworsary Po Magazines peed wth the ‘National Cristina Foundation (NCF) to crete tne PC ageaie Digtl Love Program. Donate your old, unused tectrlogy, and hob go serecra the power totemn Go e hur opera. comi/sonetet0 fn ut mero Cristina Foundation COMING TO YOU LIVE AND ON DEMAND AT'S DIGITALLIFETV.COM Visit DLTY, where Robert Heron and [Rogor Chang dish up product roviows and how-tos on the coolest cite technology, video gamoe & equipment and new website lunches for tech fans, DLW _FORTECH FANS BYTECH ANS For all this and more, visit www.pemagconnect.com A EXECUTIVEVICE PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Jim McCabe EAsvconsr spvenmiswpinscTon Amy Jarratt 212-508-5280, WEST COAST ADVERIISNG bIREcTOR Denise Clemelson 415-547-0564 fuses pinector Chistopher Urciuel VREPRESOENT, MARKETING Jor9s Selcon 212-503-4089 waneemnebinreron Ashley Kinley Kam neseancioMecton Frac Dosche sates openarions manastn Arne King 312-636:077) piaraL Accounts emecToR Crystal Luginsun 212-503+5455 ArT coer sates asseraNt Marsa Brockman weer coasr sates assist Alycia Eakin 415-547-8036 205 26ta St. Now York, NY 10016-7040 Phona, 200-226-2423, 212-605-2600, fax, 212-503-5000 For advertising nformation go to www pemagmedia.com Mary Jo Boudinet 212-503-5110 Hunter Milington 712-503-5422 Malsea Magelts 212-603-3833 Kevin McDonell 212-503-4683 Kory Crvstinson 292-508-5275, REM Associates 246-557-7490 ‘Ange Muctars 415-547-0807 Brett Resericerg 415-547-2131 Susan Nevte, S49-400-295) Kathy Pavia 712-503-6847 “Toa Altar (Mortneast) 212-508-5057 [Amy Loria (Southeast) 352-875-4288 Tara Wietecha Srvetophar Smyth Jamel Hibbert 212-503-5401 Saen Wiebe 415-547-8254 Rngelca Ferrer a13-547-0045 Sawie Maciel a19-547-8821 consuven wameraws CONSUMER MARKErHGEIAEETOR Toc MICROSOFT OFFICE LIVE SMALL BUSINESS A Quick and Easy Way to Take Your Business Online ‘faproduct purports to let anyone witha small busi= ‘ness build and runa Web shop, it had better let the aspiring e-merchant createan attractive and useful site,be quick and easy, supply the needed tools (like multiple e-mail accounts), and offer straightforward but effective marketing capabilities, Microsoft Office Live Small Business (OLSB) mexts those tests impressively and compares well with the only really similar service—Yalwo! SmallBusiness (YSB). You get a lot from the free service: SOOMB of ‘Web space, a year of domain registration, simple site-building tools, 100 e-mailzecounts, and over 20, Integrated business apps. Moreover site pages load quickly and took classy. After the simple domain-name registration pro~ cece, Iused the Web-based, WYSIWYG sitebuildes, quickly creating aprofessional-looking site without ‘writing code. Experts wanring to bypass the site buildercan usc the thin-party design tools option, But be warned: Doingso trashes any pages created in the sitebuilder and prevents you from taking advan- {age ofthe optional Webstore. Those whodousethe builder can choose from predesigned site templates for 25 business types, such as Pet Supplies, and 17 styles for header images and colors. That gives you a good amouni of choice, but YSB does better, with, ‘over 4) business types and more navigation styling. For your OLSB Web store, you can set up ship ping, payment processing, a product catalog with Images, and asbopping cart. For payment accep- tance, you choose PayPal Express or Credit Card Direct. YSR provesabit more flexible, letting you use ‘Chase Paymentechoran existing merchant aecount. ‘OLSB'S aiManager searcirad tool and its e-mail ‘marketing option helped me promote my faux busi- tess. The ad Manager gives you ancasy, integrated. way obuy search keywords, but only onLive Search and Ask.com—not Google. The e-mail campaign, ‘option (in beta) supplies 200 free messages: you pay Scents each thereafter easily created and managed ‘good-looking HTML marketing newsletters, Tooukd check the effect of allthis on trafficusing the comprehensive Reports tool, which shows unique visitors, total visits, referring sources, key~ ‘words, page traffic, and, in pie charts, the relative proportions ofbrowsers, screen resolutions, and OSs 1 visitors are using, You can also designate and trackcorversion points—pages that, when accessed, indicate sale o other significant action, To all of that, add the free business applications like the pro} ect and business managers, document manager, an expense tracker and an estimating module.No other small-business host supplies as many fee too!s that areas easy touse.—Michael Muchmore rnc) le to the word substance give sty Seabee sree lossy fnish and a mirimelist bezel desian to complement any homer offica.t'sallthe style thal substance could ever ask for. And vice-versa, 1 selling monitor brand in the ‘wwrw.samsung.com/monitor For more information from th: world’ call 1-800-SAMSUNG or = a [pt360 Tool Suite {bota) Basic version, free; Pro, $1489 eeeeo PROS Goes range of leaturee mn troa version, Decovary usas bets SNMP anc WML Good intorfaca. Pro version add eunaort Far Miero= {oft app management. (Caco davien manage CONS Weak on report- ing features. No asset menagerent garomag.com/ peseOsuterree 52 PEMAGARINE HAY 2000 FIRST LOOKS BUSINESS - Bargain Network Admin Powerful software and hardware helpers. By Oliver Rist ‘Keeping your necwork healthy requires an effective toolkit and thar means moze thana litle black baz witha few serewdrivers and a cable crimper. You'll also need smart software and at least a little ded cated hard ware. We've rounded up some basics that villhelp you maintain state-of-the-art toolkit let- ting you deal with wired and wireless networking. Bost of all, these tools won't break the budgets of stall and tnidsize companics (SMBs). LAN managers in these businesses have differ- cent priorities than do those managing enterprise networks. Tasks like capacity planning, migration scheduling, trafic shaping, and sometimes even ‘ac prioritizationtake a back seat to just keeping all thelink lights green. Admins have toensure that cricical switches, servers, and firewalls aze running smoothly. Attending to uscr complaints immedi ately, keeping critial server applications running, and knowing what's running and where are impor tant, t00. These are all far more common network- ing concerns for SMBs, and the tools you select for these jobs should reflect that emphasis. ‘The products here do just that. They let you focus on doing a few tasks well without requiring amassive training regimen, And, on the software side, they share clever front-end designs anda Web= based delivery model. We'll cover more management tools going for- ‘ward, Use what you glean fromour reviews to select based not on the number of features bur on those thet apply to your particular network. The powerful producishere will help illout yourtoolkit But don’t forget thescrewdrivers. pt360 Tool Suite (oota) Packet Trap makes an impressive network manage~ ment application that comes in a free version and a paid one. The pt360 Tool Suite Free beta concen trates more on network analysis and diagnostics than on asset management and reporting, whichis ‘Spice Worls’ strength The for-pay Pro version costs considerably moze than thead-fee version of Spice ‘works but also adds a ot of new capabilities. Both competitors, however: have devoted lots of attention o smart UIdesign. You'l find no nonintus= tive ‘by techie fortechie” sereens here. All of (360 isicon-and wizard-criven, with customizable views, and well-written help backed up by an instantly accessible online user community. Because pt360 can interact with $SHand SNMP in addition to WML it can glean more device and network information than Spiceworks, whieh concentrates on WML. Also, the p1360 toolkit has a load of testing, trace, and seanning tools that Spiceworks lacks, and each tool is clearly visible and easily accessible via wizard-configured widget icons. Overall, the interface is friendly and really doesn't take much time tomaster. Spiceworks docs a beticr job at reporting and asset management, but the pt360 Tool Suite isthe Deiter choice for acmins who just want tokecp their networks in tip-top shape. If you oversee an oper2- tion that hasagood dealinvested in Microsoft server applications and Cisco networking hardware, you'd dowelltoinvestizate the Proversionofpt360, which gives you anespanded toolkit Jammie Bernstein MetaGeek WiSpy 2.4x IT generalists caring for wireless networks need an easy-to~use and low-cost speetnim analyzer, and they'll be pleased to find that the MetaGeek WiSpy24x delivers exactly that. The device doesn't ‘operate inthe S-GHzband, but the vast majority of ‘home and SMB networks still runat 24 GHz. ‘This latest version of the WiSpy is a small, slightly customizable (you can adjust the antenna position) USE wireless device coupled with sophis- licated analysis software. Chanalyzer 21is asolid bit ‘ofcode, but the action is with Chanalyzer3.0,cur~ rently inbetaS This updated package ses smart UI design, so even wireless novices can easily identify surrounding wireless signals, their strength, and their sources, The software is capable of recording analysis sessions, You can then e-mail the recording to colleagues wha also use Chanalyzer, or you can upload it to MetaGeek's site for help from he user community. Nove, however that the 30 beta requires a Windows machine nmaing Net 20 orlater. ‘The Wispy 24x kit isa smart bit of engineering that gives generalists just the tools they need at a reasonable price rather than the vast array of analy sis and diagnostic tools— accompanied by aprice many times that ofthe WiSpy—found inenterprise= Jevel spectrum analyzers, i lke to see -GHz.capa- Dilty soon (he company says it's working omit). but despite its absence, this isa solid addition to your network manazement oolkit—JB Spiceworks 2.0 ‘This powerful network management tool is free, though Spiceworks keeps the lights bumingby ser ingupsds. I'you'rebothered by theproductpitehes, though, you can pay $10 yearly to make them disap- pear. Fither versions well worthexamining. Whereas pt360 focuses on net work monitor- ing and diagnosties, Spice works is more holistic. Itoifers monitoring, asset management, and even, help desk management wrapped in a slick interface that’s just as easy to use as its competitors’ The software's asset tracking, reporting, and help desic features all worked well in testing. The product is. heavily WMI-lependent, though, soit has trouble interacting with anything that’s not running Win- Included free help-desk app ‘eke: Welcome ete Slcewars Hip Cesk - nme Ove YT HHSC Com eae See ee eeeretecererence teeter eerste, dows, and that limits its monitoring and diseovery capabilities. ‘The software compensates for this, by allowing administrators to enter information ‘manually, but doing so is acumbersome process that didn’t always work for me. Still, in a Windows-centric small or midsize business, Spiceworks 20 can bea great boon. In addition o tracking servers, desktops, and laptops, itkeeps an inventory of installed software. You'll also find a wide variety of canned and customizable reports that can pitback the information in amum= ber of useful views. For straight network fixie tasks, p(350 definitely ‘comes out ahead but for aday-to-day network view with reporting and help desk function i ‘worksisacompelling choice—JB Spleeworks 2.0 With ads, tras without, S19 yeary eouen BROS F100, Easy to ace cess, undarstanc: Good Narety of reports. Daly summary Hap dsc CONS Very Wincows: entre. No SNMP sup port Ne natwork tact tools beyond iseovery For more ‘siceworrs2-0 MetaGeek WiSpy 2.4x $599 cect oo PROS Afferissie price Directonel fnterra, USB haranare, New Crane Iyzer soltware is easy to use, gives ‘ecto’ cal CONS Chanalyzer stil in bata artor ‘over 6 monins Wincows-comsatinia oni No S-GH rade, For mors: gogemag.con (wie 24 ay2009 Pe MAGAZINE 55 Eurocom LV220¢ ViIVA S376 crect eeeoc PROS Alkin-one setup Kao Things unciuttared. Bulten NTSC/ATSC TV tuner eSATA port Blustectn Srecrate Sraphies. Large wideseraan Sisplay Expancable ove ‘CONS Conia! cable/ontenn Ainclucee) eyooa'd are mouse fee! cao. A ite pricey, Coule use some more hive s20ce ‘ocemag.com/y2200 OTHER ALL-IN-ONE Pes REVIEWED AT PCMAG.COM Apple iMac (20-inch Aluminum) $1409 direct wn GB Dell XPS One $2,309 drect eoeee Gateway One (627220) ‘5179989 dirnct eeeoo Sony VAIO vee-LTIgu ‘52,900 direct eoeec PERFORMANCE TESTS orocorLva200 VA sony ato voe-urisue 54 PEMAGAZINE HAv20Ce FIRST LOOKS HARDWARE EUROCOM LV2206 VIVA, APCin HDTV Clothing ‘The “PCin a TV" coneept isn't new Sony's VAIO LY line has made anart ofhousing a multimedia rig, jinanHDTV casing. Eurocom has countered withthe 1V220C ViVA, anall-in-one PC ina 22-inch wide sereen frame that looks outstanding ina living room or office. Though a fine effort, itdoesnt providethe ‘oomphor the extras to match the Sony all-in-ones, andit’s pricier toboot. With the LV 2206, video is front and center. It has tuner plus an MC# remote that supports analog cable and digitalover-the-air (OTA) HDTV, as well as unscrambled digital able channels. (You ean use itwithout acablebox ifyour provider doesn scram- bie the signals) Because the LV220C lacks compo ‘ent video or HDMLinputs, you cantuse an external cable or satellite box, or an externalhigh-defplayer wa ‘wacTMoI. 10 516 am oa 2508 wa 1m Na “with it Our test unit came witha DVD burner that hias LightScribe disc labeling, though Furocom also. offers ED optical dise drives. “Thesystem packs a 266-GH¥z Intel Core? Duo 26700 CPU, The LV 220C did well on our Windows ‘Medlia Encoder est and aced our Photoshop CS3test in azippy 22 seconds. Its notebook-class nVidia Go. 7600 graphics areu’t up to ach 3D gaming. though. ‘The LV220C’s user-serviceable chassis can accept palr ofhard drives. Ours came witha320GB rive, but thebays canhold uptozTBbetweenthem. Ifthe drivesare identical, you can configure themas RAID 0 (forspeed and capacity) or RAID 1 (for data safety). You get 2GB of RAM, and there's an empty slot for another 268. Although the LV220Cis agood choice, checkout its rivals before buying. Comparable Sony LT sys- temssell for less and they offer far more hardware forjustalitle it ore—Joel Santo Domingo Specs: 2.56-Gilz Intel Core2 Dus B6700,208 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 20GB 1200-rpm SATA hae dv, 256M nVidia GeForce Go 7600 erophtes card ca layer DVD2RUY cre, integrated 22-rch widescreen ICD monitor, four USB 20 ports, one Fie Wee por, ‘ne SATA port, integrated store speckers, Windows Vista Ulimate. SPY WARE IS THE DISEASE. WERE a0) y is Ever feel like you're being watched? Right now spyware on your computer could be watching your every digital move Unies you have Mchfee. More than just anti-virus protection, Mcfe2 offers continuous s2curiy from spyware, hackers and other DE ru Cun Renee ok ence ee eC McAfee Gateway FX7020 $1700 direct eeeoo PROS Gaming-cass ‘graphics TV tuner AMD ‘uad-core CPU 305, of memory. Bult IR ‘riveinterlace Bloat- ‘ware. Stingy Internet security subscription, Unruly internal cao, No FireWire ports Motherboard isnot SL compatinie Labelias PERFORMANCE TESTS ‘atenay a0 at xes co 16 PEMAGARINE 12008 FIRST LOOKS HARDWARE GATEWAY Fx7020 MEDIA WHIZ A press of the mesia card reader's Copy button downloads your photes, videos, and Other media into the. prope Folders. Junior 3D Gaming Rig Indoesn't take a fortune toger one’s feet wet at 3D gaming. Smaller companies like Cyberpower and Velocity Micro have been selling gaming-class, dosktops for about $1,000 for some time, Now Gateway is doing the same with the FX7020, $1100 quad-core rig that you can find at select, retailers. Although it wou" give you blazing frame rates on the latest, eraphics-happy DXIO games, it willat least let you play them, and it does well ‘on DX9 games at any resolution. ‘The FX7020 packs a2.3-Gliz quad-core AMD. Phenom processor, the first use we've seen of that chip. The nVidia GeForce 8800 GT'is a good mid- level graphics card. SOOGB SAYA hard drive and a dual-layer DVD burner with Labelilash label- Durning technology (similar to HP's LightSeribe) syswang | MUCTEDIAY CANA OVERALL GES ne Sa Es = * round out the hardware. Tt does have some cool media features, such as a15-in- card reader. Integrated TR receiver paired witha Media Center remote, and a built-in HDTV tuner. Anothe! petkis the 1GB of online storage—free forever! “The system comes with major bloatware, Worse still. it has only one PCIe 316 slot, so you can't upgrade to adual-card SLiconfigurationshould you outgrow the single card's limited, though solid, per~ formance. Although it did fine on older games, its frame rates were pokey with the latest DX10 games, especially at higher resolutions. (Crysis at $20 by 1,200 looked almost likeaslidestiow at7 fps.) ‘The comparable Dell XPS 630 costs $170 more, bat it's upgradable to cither an SLI or a CrossFire dual-card array. When you buy from Dell, though, youhave to wait for the techs to assemble and ship your system, Pick up the Gateway FX7020 at your focal Best Buy and you can start fragging today. —Joel Santo Domingo Specs: 23-GHe AMD Phenom 9600 processor, 208 (667-MHls DDR2 SDRAM, SOOGR 7200-rpm SATA hard rive, SMR nVidia GeForce RSOOGT graphic card ‘dual-layer DVDERW driv, six USB 2D pert, Windows Vieta Horne Promiumn. Your data should last forever. And so should our planet. Save $40°a year on your electric bill with the most efficient battery backup yet. Lets protect whetsimportnt —Tiswosng eines Energy ficient Solutions for What’ your compuse? Protos, music, products mths bog, iyouromthe martet_| Every Level of Protection: Dotscnd es. fnata dat, broschend fra orksteton class UPS wht opt feces vceos. and more Your computer "the greener ation” has navor Doan mote mnportant. and Ate cy Surge Protection ct hie potctng ur power | Saag protection piles, o 2 les most people, you need to protect ut ike mest poeple ays fo ise and lghning Short years. The hgh raquercy 2 estos Paraben ‘Coppa design hs a small’ Wansiermar | Ormten Mears Oats rodets, you can do both Eneray : Sitcsea oy Most our newsiret and emyionmenta footprint Evan the Breducts protect the power gong your Computer 3 3. ‘quickly oiset by bg onorgy saings, How? Nt ent the now Back-UPS ES? and Surgofuros®® ver very wisely they alse boos! rio outs feature, which sy powers down idle devees a eS le Haas ‘towing et °9Q to protect Foe mo ACyouerpiesin pes we oie at ‘rour other gle procuct, 1 atte. 51 accone = a 29 rah 3 fee Be. Age herr por oc ote. (Greco ce orcoroewlie moc: fae ate es Sm oem APc it recapcesepame Key Cota MEQ o Cal 898.280. APOL e462 Fx 417882797 ‘noyneamy? Intel Classmate PC Not avalabie for PROS SD cave slot. Can fun a Windows or Line 05 Components simiar to those of the ASUS Ene PC 4G, Bult NWI land Etharnet port Lightweignt Inexoone've CONS Purchases imitec to goverment pertners Battery is not removabie gacemag.com/élaczmate See Cen Maes Oe NaC esa ne) World-Friendly Laptop ‘This bulky little laptop is priceless: It's free to the ids who eeele fr itsinacestbeo the rest of us (ienot avaliable for priate purchase, and itast may help to make the workd a better place. The Intel Classmate PCwillbeditrbted to needy students indcveloping anus. Ms asoidaltruaive tots ta the OLPOXOS, ray HARDWARE ‘The Classmate PC, clad in a blue folio case, ‘weighs 22 pound. Ithas a7-inch, 800-by-480 screen and an 83 percent keyboard, runs a 900-MEiz Cel- feron processor, and has SI2MB of memory. Its 263 flash drive is meager, but there’san SD card slot and ‘two USB ports toadd external storage. And unlike the XO4, which currently comes only with Linux, itcan run either Linux or Windows XP. In this for-profit project, Intel contracts with overseas partners to rebrand the Classmate PC and sell it en masse (at $235to $300 per unit) to gov ermments, who distribute the laptops to schools. ‘The partners provide setup and support, inclad- ing 802.11b net working, The Classmate PC comes crammed with educational software, and there's software provitled on dise forthe teacher as well The Classmate PC is a solid mini-laptop with onebig edge overthe OLPC XO-+E its ability to work with Windows. —Ciseo Chong ‘Spoce:900-MHs Ins] Cloron Mf S12MB DDRO RAM; 2GD NAND Flach; {MD Intel Grophice Media Accelers xc, 800 -by-490 screen; Raliak RT73 802. ‘22-pound system weight 39-pound travel weight): USE ports: SW leheum ton bate essanal Pee Pea OO With a suite of integrated modules, Kevin's Sage CRM Solution manages everything from sales opportunities to targeted retention marketing, it even helped Big River win industry accolades* and glowing customer reviews. And it's just one of our many software EPSON STYLUS PHOTO RI Shutterbug’s Delight 1 rh orinter mht ‘include large- vat md gorgeous onglasting pints The Epson sys Photo 0900 devs ona of ue is anearperiec cle or over oneltleglitch “The R1900 ean print pho Adinches,ona variety of standard an cent. Tiooka respectable 6 seconds foreach 4b} ‘nour tests and 143 for each 8 by 10 I's optimized for glossy printi ment inks ounded by incorrect recovery instru aheadache. Yet if you're lookin, speedily output gorgeous, large-format prints that should last for generations, the R1900 should head your short ist-—M. De Prints photos up to 13 by 44 inches Dhote iletime CONS Recover ha from er arin the rear ‘and service solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, from entry-level accounting and contact management to end-to-end solutions for CRM, accounting and HR. All of which come with expert advice, installation, training and support. For a fresh perspective on your business, visit sage360.com/erm Remote wanagenent via Web site gives Sull contro) Net Nanny 5.5 ssoco avert 1 PROS Erowcer request over~ Fides Way Internet time senecule Ema nottcation toring, Flexible proes. CONS No timesimt ‘overrces, Outsated Intarnet game-control feature. Delay before remote configuration changes tave att sgacemeg.com/ iretrannys6 42 PEMAGAZINE HAY 2008 FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE Fier Satnge For “Une Lo? (re ee Keeping Kids Safe Online Breathe a little easier. Today's parental-control products are more versatile and resistant to wily tykes. By Neil J. Rubenking Kids use computers for everything these days— homework, games, chatting with friends. The ‘computer isan invalable tool but, like any tool, can. be misused. Parental-control utilities let parents apply appropriate limits and even monitor exactly ‘what kids are doing on the computer ‘Most pazental-control uiities block kids from. accidentally or deliberately aceessing Internet sites Inage-inappropriate categories—sex and violence, for example. To be effective, this Feature must work atthe projocol level, inciependent of which browser Jsused. Mestsuch programs also contro] just when the kids canuse the computer che Internet, orboih, ‘Here, too, the product must resist tampering, suchas Dykids finding ways to tweak tha system clock. Many of these utilities also offer to block or control useof instant messaging, thoughaclever teen willprobably find ways to chat regardless. Parentak-monitoring capabilites can range from. simply listing Web sites visited to recording every keystroke, Products that emphasize monitoring may offer an undetectable “stealth mode.” You'll have to decide how you feel about spying on yourkids. ‘The best products notify you if the kids go ape ‘onthe Internet while you'reat work and also let you control their configuration remotely. Of course, direct parental supervision is the surest way to keep your kids safe online. But for the times when you can't diteetly supervise their computer use, a good parental-control solution fsthe next best thing. Net Nanny 5.6 ‘The Net Nanny name has been around since 1994, ‘but Net Nanny 5.5is mosily asuccessor fo Content Protect 2.0 from ContentProtect, which now owns the Net Nanny name. ‘The new Net Nanny controls and monitors your children's Internetand IM usage, has unusually flexible user-profile options, and blocks sites in unvwanted categories regardless of the browser In. use (so users can’t get past site restrictions by trying a nonmainstream browser). ‘You canallow the kids to send an override request ruse an override password; another option just, warns them away from particular category: ‘Net Nanay can cut aff browsing, IM, or peer-to- peer file-sharing at the protocol evel. Ifyou block IM, kids can't get around the barricade by using a third-party IM client, nor can they evade IM monitoring. The Internet time scheduler is also hardened: it gets its time from the Internet, 30 tweaking the systemelock wor't foolit. ‘Net Nanny can send e-mail notification of vari- us events fo one or moreaddresses, and you ean. log inremotely to take any necessary action. All program features are configurable remotely, but changes don’t take effect for hours unless the user logs out and in again or actively chooses to refresh the changed settings. The product's outstanding Flash-hased reports of Web and IM activity ean be viewed both locally and through the remote client. Thisisan excellen’ choice for eoninolling and monitoring your children’s online activity. Blocks 35 ait ferent categevies Safe Eyes 5.0 oily for ee computers o FTTH] PRos Stocks unsuitabie sites its me on Pernt. ster Internet access Logs onine oct es ity Remote management ma tot messace, or phone arts CONS Optional xxyworsnarec URL Slocking can bloeK val stos Web-based smi Parface ca sematimes oo bana Stating fora cenver responce KidsWatch internet Safety 4& Parental Control, ‘$39.98 Direct eeece PROS Scrmcules BC. Internet. aplica lion time, Bromser-ingaendent contuat Mitering, Records IMs at uss popular services. Femais reports alte alerts, CONS Limitec, buggy "Remote access" ‘were on local networds ony. Locks up teneatanly. Can't turn olf IM rscorcing Sends IV vilation alert aver For scr. Farmore:ge,pcamgacom/safeayess_0 Formore: gopcmazcorVeiswetchS ‘Safo Eyes 5.0 ‘Tohelp protect your kids whenthey go online, Safe yes 5 filters inappropriate sites, schedules the ime childron can spend online, and keops a detailed log oftheir activities. It controls Internet access for ‘various program types or specific programs, logs IM chats, and alerts you whe the kids seat ont private {information online. You can use the sofiware on up to three Macs or PCs, and the new Account Sum mary makes configurationeven easier, whether from local machineor viaremote manageme! ‘This version supports as many as ten users—up from fourintheprevious version. The Account Sun ‘mary table gives each usera row divided into eight columns, one per program feature. A check mar's shows thata feature is active for auser, and clicking ‘onacell takes youstraight to detailed configuration information. Also new are e-mail control (suitable for only the youngest children), monitoring of IM conversations, and a feature that notifies you when ‘your kids transmit personal information to social ‘net working sites lke Facebook, MySpace, or Xanga. All configuration settings ate stored online, and the administrator ean manage them from any Internet-capable computer In addition, the product, ccansenel analert via e-mail, text message, phone, or allthree if there's aspike of online misbehavior. KidsWatch intornot Safety & Parental Control Go back a bitin the history of Internet monitoring software and you'll find that KidsWatch Internet Safety & Parental Control shares acommon ances ‘ALSO ReviEWeD try with Webroot Parental Control Theformeradds AT PCMAG.COM afew feanures and lackssome (but notall) of WPC'S safe Online problems, though. 34995 Parenial-control settings are associated with @@@00 Windows user accounts. By initially choosing one ishield 2.0 of four age ranges, youselect default configuration $2495 for each child. You can create weekly schedulefor @@® OO access to the computer, to the Titernet, and 10 any NoedleNet 13 individual program, withan optional daily or weekly $39.9, cap. If—well, when—the little ykes try to beat the @@® OO schedule by resetting the system clock, KidsWatch Pp Pandora 5.0 willsquash the attempt, 34995 ‘The software can blocksites matching any of ®®®OO 60 different categories, and the feature is browser SnoopStick independert, As with WEC, KidsWatchcane-mail $89.95, e000 you regular reports on computer and program use as well as Web actinity. The activity report distin guishes valid sites visited from blocked sites, and. client independ Webroot Parental, Controls the utility cansend arealtime der when tbiocks $3095 sites or spots bad keywords in IMs. Allconversa- ®®® OO tions using popular iM services are recorded and Sentry At Home orted; however, the feature, which is norninal 323.05, Stem independens missedsome comersatem | ©# 00 ‘when Fused think party cle. ‘shield Pus 20 ‘The “Remote access” feature works only $4295 seco onthe local network and is too limited and bugey to be useful, Although Kids Watch doesn’t offer over-the-Web remote management, you can define special one-use passwords to override filtering, of time limit temporarily Safe Chat Universal Messenger with Parental Controls $3495 @0000 MAY 2008 PEMAGARINE 43 Road Tip PROS Biv~ay produce tion canotlites. New creative fitars Image Stabllzaton Aude iriver YouTube output CONS No AVCHD sup= formats to DVD-R No HOV capture 44 PEMAGAZINE HAY Z008 — Crk ean ae Wroun ieiccu ST LOOKS SOFTWARE Video Editor Just Shy of Great ‘Witha fresh interface and anumber of new features, Adobe Premiere Flements 4 draws clase to the hest consumer video editors. But it can't capture from AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) devices or create DVD#R high-def dises that play in Blu-ray or HD DVD boxes. And though thelatter formats dead, a million-pis people own players, ‘Tomake HD discs that play in the living room, you'll have to buy Blu-ray hardware (at $400 plus) and shoot HDY,not AVCHD (or wait forthe planed update that will include the missing capabilities) ‘The totally revamped timeline may jolt upgrad~ ers, butit's sleek, logical, consistent wit the time- 'sof most rvals,and should work well or simple projects. L'you add themes, though, or other ele~ ments froméracks that aren't always visible, you can_ easily get lost. The produc: content-organization capability however is akey competitive strength. ‘There's no time-cosde-hased scene detection for HV, but che content-based detection works nearly as wel, though ittakes much longer The nev image stabilizer (Pinnacle Studio doesn't offerthis) works. fine but slows rendering. The long-ovenue Old Fim, effect has good options, and the effects package is, one ofbroadest and mest configurable anywhere. An audio mixer,a very use‘ Laddition, displays available tracks and les you play your proxhuetion in realtime, adjusting the volume in eachtrack. Adobe revamped its rendering interface to very ‘good effec, dividing output into five categories— Disk, Online, Personal Computer, Mobile Phones, and Players and Tape—with relevara presets ineach ceateaory Files [created for my iPod and Zune, which were automatically deinterlaced (a nice touch), played normally, And now you also can upload videos to You'Tube from within Premiere Flements ‘Themes Adobe has added to the program give you fast and convenient way to apply 2 cohesive group of titles, transitions, and other effects. Pre ‘view is limited to tiny thumbuail in the program interface, though, and themes are easy to apply bat hard to remove. Also, there aze only one oF two themes per category. The product has always had ‘engaging DVD menu templates but limited navige~ tion, Version 4.0 extends the feature set to Blu-ray, though. Ihad no trouble creating and playing 2503, [Blueray dises that had good audio and video quality Premiere Elements finaly feels like atrue con- ‘sumer product, with acomprehensive and relevant feature set."Too bad it’s incompatible with AVCHD camcorders and can't produce high-definition discs om DVDER recorders. If you need those abilities, (end many will), you're better off with Pinnacle Stu dio Ultimate 11 (go.pemagcom/studioultimatel!), which, for that reason, retroactively earns our Biitors’ Choice award.—Jan Be") DELORME GPS for wherever you Go: COOKE) Earthmate' eo ee es eerie eM hae track logs we've seen in a handheld GPS...the PN-20 has the 2 ae Dee eee ue cies sue eee See Ca Cru wtronusay ©" ‘ike inthe woos withthe Eartm ata” GPS P20, nt hack othe store for expensive maps. A ne DeLonms-renosmod mys you reed are included. Copy U.S, soot a tpomays rom Topo USA® 7.0 fanaa atte a nape included, Dounloed $100 of roe wuw.dolorme.com FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS V7 NAV740 GPS Navigation §22995 Ist e00 me PROS Toxt-to-speach Hy convertion Nu tewgmant feuting, Muimacia piy~ fre, Huge POI catabase wth ta brane CONS Minor user interface 90 Discount Driving Directions Get where youre going for less than $350 with these affordable yet capable GPS devices. By Craig Filison and Molly K. McLaughlin Inthe past few years,theeverexpanding GPS market has seenplemy of new manufacturers enter the fray, and the devices just keep getting better and better, offering a wide variey of advanced capabilities. Po table navigation devices (PNDs) have evolved from basic, no-frills boxes to feature-flled, multitalented gadgets often with premiumprices. These days, you ccan find plenty of PNDs offering built-in multimedia players, advanced navigation and routing options, Jrge points of interest (POD databases, and even ALSO REVIEWED ar pcHaacom handy tools tohelp you wid trafic tickets, Whats Garmin e prime features have trickled downto SteetPior 2550 wodels, too, All ofthe products here offer excellent navigationalong withplentyofestras, but none cost more than $350 (and they ring up for © bagellen much less f' you can snag an online deal Maestro 4250 cease naga online deal), 5350 street eeees Cobra Nav ONE 5000 Ware With its sprawling S-inch casy-to-read 4:3 format {lo DisiWalker C520, ity. the Nav One 5000 from Cobra's asight for io sore,road-weary eye This text-to-speech-capable GPS can help Mote" you sidestep tickets with its built-in database of S82000 ust eeeoc 1 and speed-camera locations, which is a godsend if you'vegot a lead foot. There's also TomTom ONE. iam a $209 lat aseverrinilionentry POT database, which contains ° more than 600 retail brands so that you can find your way, for example, tothe closest Starbucks or Best Buy: Another helpful feature: You canalso plot and compare routes tothe same destination, based ‘ondifferent preferences, side byside. Designed to work in your ear under extreme ‘weather conditions, the Nav ONE S000 has the wid- est operating temperature range (-4° F to 158° F) ofany brand of GPS on the market. In testing, the device performed well on both local routes and ‘on.as0-miletrip, While the Nav ONE 5000 offers plenty of fea- tures, its large sereen means it’s big and heavy (9.5 ounces), and its Bluetooth hands-free phone interface could use some improvement. But if you're in the market for an affordable, easy-to-use GPS ‘with a screen that your eyes will have ne problem. with, the Nav ONE 5000 is worthalook. Pharos Drive GPS 250 “This budget-priced GPS ftom Pharos is a bargain, yet ithardly scems like an entry-level model. It has many of the features found in premium, higher- priced personal navigators, including a widescreen display, a sensitive, top-notch satel- lite receiver, and text-to-speech conversion, whieh enables the device to speak street names. StL as ‘you might expect, the 7.3-ounee Drive GPS 250 isn't ‘Cobra Nav ONE 5000 19350 street eeees PROS Lavoe S-incn verean inan eacy-to- re6 43 format Bultsin cataaace of ses nd rag-ight camaras. Large POI databaze Maltisegmant routing CONS Bie anc neavy Hands-free Buetooth Sounds ull and comsrvt transfer ee hone contact data ‘compketely without limitations: You get only asmall number of POls and support for just two languages (Englishand French), ‘Navteq maps for the L1S. (including Hawaii and ‘Alaska) and Canada and a one-million-entry POI database are preloaded on a supplied IGR SD card ‘Though there is an external SD card slot, it's not meant ro be opened. In order to take out the eard, youhave to removea nearly impossible-to-replace metal cover and breaka seal that voids your war- ranty The device comes with astylus, whieh stores nealy inside the case. With a simple-to-use menu system, the Drive GPS 250 offers a cool Map Browsing mode, which, Jets you scrolla map by touch. J especially like that when you touch the screen in both Map Browsing and Map View modes, the address of the point youtouch is displayed. You theahave the optionof addingit to your favorites or navigating to it During standard route-calculation tests, the Drive GPS 250 took approximately 12 seconds to piotatriptoadestination}2 miles away in Brooklyn. Finding its way to a destination 640 miles away in Ohio required 21 seconds. Route recalculation time afteramissed turn was acceptably speedy. Although it lacks media players, 2 Bluctooth phone interface, and can’t get real-time traffic updates, the Drive GPS 250 does have text-to- speecit functionality, a feature not always found in budget models. If you're looking for a basic, wallet-friendly, widescreen GPS, the Pharos Drive GPS 250 is asolid choice, V7 NAV740 GPS Navigation ‘The $299.95 NAV740 from newcomer V7 is not oly our favorite of the bunch, it's also the lightest (ZLounces) and the thinnest (at 0.8 inches), yet ait stillpacks ina ton of features, including ahigh-qual- ity receiverbased onthe excellent SiRFst2¥III chip, ancnormous POLdatabase, multimedia players, and advanced navigationopvions. Featuring.a.3inch (480-by.272-pinel) WQVGA, splay, the NAV740 comes with a 2GB SD card pre loaded with Tele Atlas maps for all 50 states and Puerto Rico, The POT database inthe NAV740 con= tains agenerous Umillionentries—easily thelargest at this price point. The multimediaplayer supports wide variety of video, audio, and photo formats, Conveniently, the device accepts SDHC cards up to 16GB. V7 markets a very similar version with a3.5-inch sereen, the $200 NAV730, which comes. ‘with alGB SD card that holds ore million POIs. ‘The NAV740does agood job ofhandling POIs. Each top-level eategory has subcategories to refine your scarch, or you can search all by name. The shopping subeategories also include 278 branded retail outlets. You have the option of searching around an address, the current GPS location, cursor position, apoint in your history list, or around CPS coordinates. In addition, you can select an entire category or subcategory to display on the map viow, ‘Text-to-speech support, maltisegment routing. route optimization, and route simulation round out the features, The NAV740 is easily one of the most talented PNDs available at this price point. Pharos Drive GPS 250, 5299.0 ist woven BROS 43-inch wide menus. 20-ehannel SIR Stall caver Textsto= CONS Smal! POI cata- Suppor * o.ncmea.com/ocs250 yay2008 Pe MmeaaINE <7 | ee Canon Powershot ‘sbT100 1s Cy high ISO settings tmage stapiizaton Optica tea CONS Wide-angle lent ‘Gnot ae nico ae the SDI000% Flash snote FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS Fingerprint vesistant LCD actnally attracts Angerreints CANON POWERSHOT SDIi00 1S Capable Shooter Can't Match Its Predecessor Anupdated version of our current Editors’ Choice winning $D1000, the &megapixe] Canon Power= Shot SDILOO IS offers a better LCD, adds image stabilization, and has acurvier body that comes ia five fum colors. Ala, it can't surpass the excellent SD1000, which has a wider wide-angle lens and produces sharper images. Besides adding image stabilization in the SOOO 41S, Canon has introduced motion-detection tech- nology. Ifthe camera picks up motion ina frame, it automatically adjuststhe ISO and exposurelevels 19 ‘compensate, Boththese features worked well on my tests, The camera also exceeded my expectations by producing good- to excellent-quality shots at 150 settings up to 800 with very litle noise. Noise typically cteeps in at around 180 400, In lash shots, images that the SDU00 IS captured were not as uniforms those of tte SD1000, and some were underexposed. Daylight shots, however, were exceptional, registering bright and vividcolors. The camera's 25-inch LCD has an impressive antireflective coating—one of the best P've seen, in fact. Even indirect sunlight, it was easyto read, ‘While it doesuit edge past its first-rate predeces- sor the SDU00 IS is accol-looking, capable camera that’s sure to please snapshooters who don't need manual controlor an exireme wide-angle lens David Gussman SLACKER PORTABLE Web Radio Anywhere “The ieabehin Slacker Tnernet radios petty co free cervice the kindof music you like and t will Slacker Portable you osimilar new artsts, And the Slacker Portal jit ed Jets you take all this musical goodness with you. The device 00 uses Wii (ora plainold USB connection to your PC) to load PROS Retresnes music customized “channels” that you create online and refreshes axomoteaiy via WF them, with uew tunes every time the device connects @landarts bios. can fanetwork iso store We3s an ‘Anexcellent concept, bu the player is bulky, and its vives hindered by buggy. unintizive software and antnrelisble CONS Bully fora YP. touchr-stsipeontioles, which had me unintentionally paus- Baeteniet sae {ng songs switching stations, or skipping tunes many times smpy playback: No uring testing. Luckily you can disableit and use the scroll wave oF pots support. ‘wheel instead. Three flash memory capacities are available: 2GB, 4GB, and 8B. You eam also.add yourown MPSand WMA files bbut most ofthe storage is reserved for Slack files (AAC Pro V2), The device doestt play videos or display photos, though the huge 4-inch, 480-by-272-pixel LCD is reserved for my favorite feature perusing artistbics. Shortcomings aside, listening to your customized sta- Sonsonthego isablast.1t combines the surpriseand discov exyot radio listening withthe ability to refine each station as you Tisten, Uafortanately. he player many las mean that only petientcatly adopters should tune in—Tira Gideon 0.7 inches HWD, 4G ounces LCD aisplays altoum art and awtist bies 46 PEMAGAZINE HAY 2006 Toshiba recommends indows Vista’ Business hen it’s been stolen. just what you’d expect from the laptop experts. TOSHIBA Leading Innovation >>> FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS HELIO MYSTO Slick Slider Doesn't Do Photos or Video Well A follow-up to Helio’s excellent Drifthandser, this svelte cell retains its predecessor's capable built-in GPS radio, robust soft- ‘ware bundle, and slim profile. Just don’t expect much from this phone's camera r its video playback abilities. ‘Weighing just 3.3 ounces, the Mysto is light and compact Sliding the sereen upward reveals a well-spaced, comfortable numeric keypad. Like all Helio phones, che Mysto works over Sprint's voice network. Call quality was fine, but Iran into some audio dropouts in testing. The handset supports fast 3G net works, ‘whichis abighelp when you are surfing or streaming video. Unfortunately video looks awful. Fyen though Tcoald watch an MPEG-4 version of Casino Royale in ts native 320-by-24 resolution it played at an unacceptable? frames persecond. The music player fared much better. Ithandled MP3 and unprotected AAC tracks at a wide variety of bit rates, although itcouldn't recognize some WMA files Itried. Using the included wired stereo earbuds-and-mic combo, [heard surprisingly detailed sound. Sadly, the 2-megapixel camera took blurry, washed-out, unusable paotos. It's a good choice for Helio fans who want agood-looking hone that doubles as an MP2 pleyer, but the Mysto isn't enough, toring me over from another carrie. —Jamio Lendino Basic controls ave on top panel Altec Lansing T612 5200 lst eeeoo PROS Full Phone functional ty, Bass/treble contro. Useful remote, Well balanced aude CONS Bass distorts at me-to- high auras No TV-out No 50 PEMAGAZINE Hav 2008 Holfo Mysto. S149 wn service 00 PROS Gorgeous design player Built-in GPS ane ‘CONS Useiass camera, Sulsper veo qualty Bright 2.2inch QVGA aisflay Haptic keys vibrate when: you press Hhem ALTEC LANSING T612, Finally, a Dock for the iPhone Altec Lansing’ latest speaker deck doesnt look particularly inno vative-—in fact, it closely resembles the company’ two-year-old (M02, What makes this set specials tha it's the first model to playnice with Apple's iPhone, ‘Until now iPhoneusers have had to put the handset into ‘Air plane mode” when using a speaker dock, rendering the device's phone abilities useless. This isbecause the phone gives offa dis {acting GSM buzz (caused by the cellular modem's regularly reaching out (o the network), which diminishes the music Lis tening experience. Ihe 612 fixes this problem and is certified by Apple with the “Works with iPhone" logo. (It will also work witha plain old iPod.) You can dial and receive calls when the iPhone isdocked and playing musi—the music willstep for your call But you dohave to pick the phone up to talk, since theres no speakerphone support here. ‘The Tels andio pertormance is fine at medium-to-iow vo umes but is hampered by low-end distortion at higher levels, so youcan forget about using it for your next fall-ceale dance party. Since there's no TV-out either, you can't connect itto your televi- sion or video watching A just $200, though, it maybe the perfect, small-space speaker solution for Phone wsers.—Tim Gideon FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SO-inch screen Le sopvap Not Perfect, but a Pleasing Plasma picture regardless of menu setting, and SD video the first S0-inch plasma television from LG to feature a 1080p-resolution sercen, the SOPY3D turned in mixed performance on my lab tests, bat Ifound its pieture quality to be very pleasing ‘once properly configured. ‘The main problems with standard- particle, ans, osc, ad ecuinn wll be explained in a’ way you can visualize, understand, and retain, Perhaps most fascinating ofall, you will see how scientists are creating a Standard Model of the Universe to create a “theory of everything” to show how all particles— for pethaps “even. “strings” of mavter— Don’t miss this unprecedented oppor- tunity to slice through the jargon and mystery of the exciting, incredibly impor- tant field of particle physies and glimpse the abundant subuniverse underlying one visible universe. You will take from this course the invaluable gifs of a sense of bysical order, ability to make sense of bing news, and an understanding of thee stiaents of the reer world. ‘About Our Sale Price Policy ‘Why is the sale price for this cousse s0 much lower than its standard priee? Every course we make goes on sale at kast once a year. Producing lage quantities of only the sale courses keeps costs down and allows us to pass the savings on to you. This approach also enables ust fillyour excer immediate- ly:99% ofall orders placed by 2.pm eastern time ship that same day. Order before June 13, 2008, wo receive these savings. 8 About Your Professor Dr. Steven Pollock (Ph-D., Stanford Univesity) is Associate Professor of Physics ac che University of Colorado at Boulder He has cnghe phyeis courses from introductory physics to advanced nuclear and particle physics. He received the Boulder Faculty Assembly Teaching Excellence Award in 1998. He became a Pew/Carnegie National Teaching Scholar in 2001. He is the author of Thinkwell’s Physics la CD-based textbook. About The Teaching Company ‘We review hundreds of top-rated pro- fessors from Amesica’s best colleges and s each year. From this extraor- dinary group we choose only those rated highest by panels of our customers. Fewer than 10% of these world-class. scholar teachers are selected 10 make The Great Courses. We've been doing, this since 1990, producing more than 3,000 hours of material in modern and ancient his- vo1y, philosophy, literature, fine ax, the sciences, and mathematies for intelligent, engaged adult ielong eamen, if coure is ever less than completely satisfying, you may exchange It for another ot we will refund your money prompt 1-800-TEACH-12 (1-800-832-2412) Fax: 703-378-3819 Lecture Titles 1, The Namuse of Physics 2. The Sandarcl Model of Particle Physics 3. The Pre-History of Particle Physics 4 The Birth of Modem Physics 5. 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Comparing the two machines wouldbe like comparing a Ferrari P60 witha Chewy Cavalier The problem is thatthe Ferrari P60 is being used as transportation to the new apps, such as database management software, would come alongto take advan- {age of it. The process continues with photo and video editing, but people seem Jess interested than inthe past when some= thing new arrives. Its clear that something, much more basic is going om than just a failure of people's imagination. [had to Jook back on some 20-year-old musings before I finally figured it out. Here goes. Backthen, [wrote a series of columns deseribing successful software and listing ‘common elements of success, Browsing trough the columns and comparingthose liststo today’s dominant programs, found We have these powerful machines, yet the only new application is digital photo storage. For at least a decade, we have been stalled on the desktop. Why? sgrocery store and back. To buy milk. The Ferrari will get you there faster and isa ot more funtodrive than the Chevy, bu itis anincredible wasteof money and energy. ‘This is essentially what we've got with today’spower-guzzling machines. I'mnot the only one puzzled by the lack of advances on the computer desk- top. We have these powerful machines, vei the only new application seems to be

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