GPSM PC\ te Tr TODAY'S ne MOST INNOVATIVE See | PRODUCTSOccasionally, your IT problems require someone to go the extra mile. Above and beyond. Far and wide. Even then, we're there. ‘More demands and more pressure. Less time and fewer resources, Business today is full of challenges When it comes to technology, COW will do what it takes to De Ne ee ec ey almost every technology category imaginable. Our dedicated account managers Ser ane eC eee eo ee ane ‘to the complex. We even have a full range of custom configuration services at your disposal. So when you need IT help, think CDW. We're there with whatever you need, winenever you need it eee TM Rein Onesie ee Dy MolaIntroducing color laser printing for everyone whose goals are bigger than their budgets. y lt's called Plan b.Plan A called for you te break the bank on color printing, Or settle for fewer features and slow print speeds. I's time for Plan B. 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Visit woru-apecom/prama Key Code aS66w # Cll 888.289, APCC w482B » Fax 401.788.2797 Three easy steps to improved pewer protection. Yovemget to 25% Step sehat you fave neater Sota niber * capattynvotlmge VN ‘umber its Step 2: Choose whar’s Poste for you by Step 3 checiout + aloo oleic olen US twtr eran {etre pga dts >>FEATURES Today's Most Innovative Products. Selected from the hundreds of products we looked at in here ace 25 breakthroughs that are vransforming the Web, the PC, and d The Best Places {and Times) to Buy POW readers tell us where they 0 to find the best deals on PC, monitors, HDTVs, digital cam crag, and other tech gear. Plus: “The hest times of yearto shop for equipment of different types 7 The Wide World of Monitors ‘What should you look for in a display these days? We review 17 moderately priced units—with 19. to 28.inch diagonale—and cout fea keep in mind, DCW FEBRUARY 2008 Volume25 -Number2 www pewerld.com DEPARTMENTS. 3 Techtog PCW Forum Full Disclosure REVIEWS AND RANKINGS FORWARD In-Car GPS Devices First Tests: AMD Phenom As prices fall, the devices are get Impressive CPU tech, but i it fast? ting easier to use. We look at five. Plugged In Amazon Kindle 24 Beta Watch 3 Top 10 Laptops GeekTech Nokia N810 Internet Tablet 2 Gadget Freak Microsoft Office Accounting CONSUMER WATCH ‘Top 5 Monochrome Lasers 7 Vista's Incompatibilities niacin For users, headaches continue Skeptical Shopper On Your Side » BUSINESS CENTER Budget Videoconferencing Thuce good, inexpensive options. Net Work HERE’S HOW SECURITY ALERT Malware Evolving Too Fast and learn new ways to find what ‘Security firms fight to keep pace. you're looking for more quickly Bugs and Fixes Answer Line Privacy Watch Steve Bass's Hassle-Free PCnem i=l ensure to reinvent safety technology? = a ‘Aibiataaeen Sac eter" peeret ny PC thea orate sorT02 IN eHTEF Hany MeCracten Manscts eetraa forte") Bran {AY BIREETOR Barbar Amnon Sasurive eosten Aen Siti ‘eat CENTER BIRECTOR Ulike Debian ‘eden fra ie Botan, ean ‘tle Perea EER Ce Cosy etry Alen Rar an Seen caret. Str oy eee at ote Sa Seentitoes Spiga Era Perrone anast cron rong ‘er camencoaeonn Joe Rese ‘teatany we mace berber Jerera pO Gon TSF boo ix SCH ber ere rato Emenee (te vee Pe ots Re ond Pmiwore 6 Sr 0 an Seis watidsars noi Benorumber O | www.ecwoRLo.com ressuary 2008 ‘seut08 v9, c20}¢9 Vien Emcee ‘esoryour beri com ‘Bihes py yo vow youre Biota assraet rood sua, Por Sbierbee Series Patbor sie toons ROTTS, Eilean feed your Minamecnd the ates poweineus sz ie max s1saa7-6 ‘Simalltto PC Mer We ranrvethe roves ets #cerpas Siettsestecsrow rt ‘Someta era pean ‘WERLENE nowerOpoadsar, 005 no Faxes bnsrovertm ‘Stine manesarcworidcan Roskteocaonrscar om Fon eri 2pewer dom PusoeeD 2h ee dalpanedden Bsa powocom ‘tng wanton 2000 sok Petia wearin Sreored 0 venga checker mane Sdertsbe het edt BO Boe Si oer. 5000-978 prone bee i eratJ ! \ ee oa BURMA UTA Tee)westcoast AWARDS Ayr )/ MAGAZINE EDITORS" CHOICE CERTIFIED ig Webroot AntiVirus i Z with AntiSpyware & Firewall 2 The best protctien agaist uss, spare ata thet and rahe eer Clearly, experts like our technology. 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Webrotenpliye rt an actor or mec Pc Magee Eto Ce Award Loge inaregietiedtademark cf if Dav Pblching Hodge re Used ud conseILIKE TO think of myselfasa private person—but one whose oaline lifes ruled by common sense, not paranoia On one hand, I'd rather enter my credit card information everytime I visit an online merchant than lec the seller store it on some server permanently. Why sak getting it swiped il don't have to? Bue cher are abo plenty of times when I'l cheerfully ta site mine ‘ny personal information i get some- thing in return (Exhibit Ar The excel lent email client known as Gamal ‘which scans my messages inorder to display relevant text ads.) T've been managing my Internet pri sacy solong that Pd seen everything. Orso I thought, tila mint-fiestorm cxupted over Facebook's new Beacon aeluertising platform last November. As Juan Carlos Perez explains in “Can You ‘Trust Your Social Network” (page 22), Beacon was designed to serve asa viral- ‘marketing pipeline between the wildly popular social network and the sites of ‘ore than 30 commerce-related com- panies, including Blockbuster, eBay, Coca-Cola, Overstock.com, and Sony Techlog 8 The Three Immutable Laws of Online Privacy Online Entertainment. you rented a ‘movie online, for instance, Beacon cabled Blockbuster to transmit that fact co Facebook which could then lay the happy news to all your friends. Trouble was, you might or might not ‘want your Facebook pals to know you planned to kick back with Satan’s C= nibal Helecanst, Even worse, Beacon ‘ight spoil the surprise of» present for a friend or loved one by alerting them that you'd just bought it online. And privacy sticklers might prefer that the companies they do business with not disclose transactional information to Facebook at all, whether or not their buddies ever heard about it “True, you could instruct Beacon not to share a particular transaction, but the ‘option to let you co that was easy to miss. And there was no way to opt out (of Beacon’s “social ads" altogether or to prevent companies from handing over information about you to Facebook. After a flurry of member complaints, T'SBECOME A tradition for our February 'ssue to spotlight the brightest new ideas in herdware, software, and the Web. This year's raurdup “Today's Most Innovative Proce cts" [page $2), is bursting wih geekly wonders. But one of the most impressive ir aimed at gadget freaks at all: Tt's One Laptop Per Chile's XO laptop. the S200 system designed for childrenin developing countries. The X0 isn't just cheap—it sports aclev- cer sereen that doesn't need backlighting when used outdoors, employs wireless mesh netvrork= ing toconnect directly to other X0s, has alithium femo-phosphate battery aood for up to 24 hours fife, nd packs an inventive cpen-source soft ware suite. Evenif you tote a $2000 notebook, you might be left wondering, “Why can't my machine do that?" Small wonder two of ushere at POW took advantage of OLPC's "Give (ne Get One" offer before the holidays ta getX0s of our very ov. Facebook's ad fiasco wasn't your ordinary data leak. Bi social netwark made some mistakes that were all too typi he cal petition signing, and stinging criticism fiom bloggers—not to mention multi- ple instances of nervous matketers backing out of the program—Facebook rethought Beacon. Now the service no longer spreads the word about any dealings you have ata partner ste, un- less you explicitly give the go-ahead, and you can shut it off altogether. ‘As weied a the Beacon dust-up was, in some ways it was completely typical cof online privacy glitches. Facebook cexzed by ignoring come base principles of Web privaey—namely, these three: ‘Aboveal,beclear. Beacon’s original in camnation was just plain confusing. If reasonably smart people can't under- seand what's happening with their info, something is fundamentally amiss. Erronthesideofdiscration I's 2 big eal when you trust a Web site with your personal data—even something as ‘mundane as your taste in DVDs. Who son's want sites to treat such data ‘gingerly until instructed otherwise? Remember that more contetis always better thantesscontral One ofthe things Hike most about Facebook—and yes, Tm addieted—Is the rich control you exercise over who gets to see what fats about you. ls dozens of options give you the power to be anything from an exhibitionist to azecluse. At first, Bea- con was an exception. Now it’s closer to being...wel, pleasingly Fcebookian. Got any other laws of privacy that are immutable, orat last should be? Drop. rea line at harry_mecrackenaypeworld m with your thoughts. And hey, if find them interesting enough to share, Mask first—that’sa promise. ead Editor in Chief Mery McCracken'sblog attiogspeworldcom/techlos, @ eeeuasy 2008 www.ecwoRio.com |13New energy for greater mobility. The LifeBook® T4200 Tablet PC: Energize your mobile workforce with Enterprise-class reliability. Tho Fujtsu LifeBook? T4200 Tablet PC with intel? Cantrino® Duo Mobile Technology reflects tho Fujtsu commitment to doivering the most relable products. Is manufactured in-house so we can maintain the highest qualty standards, The Fujitsu LifeBook 4200 Tablet PC alo features the industry's frst bi-drectional LCD hinge and a brant, 12.1" XGA display wth wide viewng angles, 80 is impressive any way you look att. And whether you use its keyboard or powerlU inknig capabilties and pen-driven navigation, you get the best of both words. Go to us.fujitsu.com/computers/reliability for more information, SUPERIOR CONNECTIVITY WF, BUILT-IN MODULAR BAY. DUAL-FUNCTIONALITY o FUJITSU THE POSSIBILITIES ARE INFINITEi Many readers respond- ed to our December article about life with- out desktop software. Some have already gone online-only and are happy, PCW while others say they've encountered too many bugs and reliability issues. Share your opinions and your experiences with Web apps at find.pcworld.com/59432. Using Online-Based Software read Scott Spanbauer’s “Life Without Software” [December] with interest, because I have abandoned my Outlook e-mail for Gmail asa POP client, and 1 love it for the same reasons he does. But he fails to mention one important rea- son (to me, at least) to keep running the Outlook Address Book, Calendar, and Notes apps: the ability to syne with a smart phone. If Google could come Lup witha way to syne my phone (a Nokia 62} with the Google equivalents from any browser, that would be a illes app! Emery DeWitr, Lancaster: Penwgyloanta No thanks. There are, unfortunately, t00 many bugs with Web-based apps. _searight3, from te PC World foranss Tuse Google Docs because I have Gmail and it was there. It has some hassles, Dut for a quick and dicty way to work ona document, it’s not bad. Incdachocny, fromthe PC Word forts Thave been using online apps for a cou- ple of years now, and haven't been hap: pice | switched because I needed a cross: phtform solution for document editing and storage. sneoor97007, frome PC World foram Ul consider trusting Web-based servic- cs for important daily computing when: ‘The Net becomes as reliable asa com: ‘mon analog telephone; ISPs become ‘more responsible for their services and. support; and our goverment makes these two conditions possible by ‘requiring ISPs to obey ourlaws. roe fromthe PC World fora GPS Devices vs. Software Re: Dennis O'Reilly's review “Mapping Software Can't Keep Pace With GPS" [December]. I generally agree with O'Reilly's comments on GPS units However, for once T must defend Microsoft! Town a Garmin GPS V, a Garmin Nuvi 350, and Microsoft Screts & Trips. The Garmin Nuvi ishard to beat. But Streets & Trips lets you see what is over the horizon due to the ‘much larger screen size a laptop offers, as well as geographic details that small cr GPS units can’t display. During rips in Canada and Florida, we could look at ‘our laptop and “sec” where the beach was, idemtfy the beautiful lake offto ——$ Video game mods should not count toward a game's rating. Yert, from the PC World forums Forum the eft, what's over the mountain to the right, ete. The passenger/navigacor/ spouise can run the laptop, and you can easly hold the GPS antenna to the dash with Velero—thus negating two of (O'Reily’s objections to Stecets & Trips. Gary Keck Spokane, Washing ‘Author'sresponse: Having a full-time navi ator addresses my concem about the ctf culty of seeing info onthe screen: Veloro ‘may keep the GPS transceiver in place, but you shouldn't need suche workaround: and the price ofthe software remains hich com pared with low-end GPS devices, which are ‘much simpler to use and are usually more accurate aswell, — —DennivO'Reilly — Regarding the story on robots ['A Robot Bride by 20507" find, peworld.com/59467]: How are we going to be allowed to marry machines when many humans can't even marry each other? etruss, from the PC World forums Web, TV Tech: U.S. Lags Tread with interest Harry MeCracken’s, column in the December issue on how the United States fares in matters relate ing to the Internet [Feclag, December] The United States seems to lag be- hind in television technology as well. Analog television broadcasts ended last Augustin Finland. Ifyou watcha for cign film on TV, you hear the sound. track in the original language, and you ‘an choose Finnish or Swedish subti- les (or you can switeh the subtitles off ifyou know the language). Lassi Vabhiainen, Helsinki, Fialand Quibbles With Leopard {See fine poworecom/$8431 for more on the new Mac OS, I don't chink Stacks was intended for large folders. you want to browse yourapplications 2 eeeuaey 2008 www.ecwoRio.com | 15aa ae é-fficient. eat eased Renee ret tg Peter ay aa See ee craiay ree cai Oe een Oe coer coy Sa corre eet nl pee pee PECL. pee eae ard a UY PCW Forum to be faster. Stacks is ideally suited for common tasks involving small groups, RastaMon, from the PC Wor thac the sidebar in iCal has been re moved and that tabbing bewween mail been removed from Mall Ton Wolk, frome the PC World rants The one gripe that Ihave with Leopard is che new intesface when using the remote. If] am listening to iTunes and switch to the menu interface using my remote, Tunes stops playing. In Tiger it kept pl (che earlier OS| ying, whieh made for a seamless switeh, MEretag ow te PC World foranes My custent com) ar 3.0, Yes, it now autosizes pic tures in the window, and there is a right-click menu option for ‘Save as but hy clo we need to right-click change information about a bookmark? Packers from the PC World forans ‘Who cares about the logo on the front? 4 buy a Dell hing my Mac could do ev an do. and was less expensive, 'm not loyal to Apple, but at the moment they do have a better compute Ameri, fromthe PC World forums Hacker Pleads Guilty to. Spreading Botnets Tes time that these creeps [ | pay for their crimes whenev Remember, every single one of us isa victim of computer crime, even iPour passwords have never beca taken: we ace all vietims because of the added costs in money, time, and energy tha id weand businesses spend to a viruses and other malware bileclck from the PC World forans foreach of the 150, were infected with his malware. Itis 16 |www.eewoate.com reesvany 2008 the same as breaking and entering all of those ho ‘ornmit bur destruction of property. Anyone wh commits computer ecimes should get fined and se HUBY, froma the PC World farunar I wane the list of IP addresses he com promised. If my son's PC was one of them, [lake him to small claims court makean impression). xouan, frente PC World forunns He's a thiefbut a white collar one who's most Likely goin to get the mini rum fine with a vacation in some fed: cral prison, He infected 150, ‘counts, and at $10 from each account, his take is substantial, He gets only a 51.75 million fine, which his accomplic will gather up and pay Jy, fromthe PC World forum IE Drops ActiveX Warning { ] What if dor want to allow a Web page’s ActiveX application this will make IE even less safe than it .o run? It seems tome that sgpseym, fromthe PC World fora I'm ga to see it go. Thate clicking on the ‘yellow bar" fora response or something I have allowed to install Jicking on it to begin with. 0, fiene re BC World wr feedbock. Wer serve the right to eit fr lengthanciclarity Shere your PC Wer wetcornes inthe ndereach stry on our Web site. or vst cur Sende- decom. @ mailto letersGpe Tee Dance con tetenr ys See eet ceteraThe full-featured scanner you can take ET VCRs aS takes you. aN vs _ x \ a? \ MSS eon ne ae eo Ce ee ee en eer mr a ae eee occ ieee rere Rec mr ee Ren eee et ee ea Cee en eee Neue here) SU ccd or ee eee ey Pea err men nero Se Line ee Fo) Bene AUT ere ha co iat) THE POSSIBILITIES ARE INFINITE wae EMAL nie eeeForward First Tests: AMD's Phenom CPU Won't Scare Intel BY JON L. JACOBT AMD'S NEW PHENOM pro- cessors and Spider platform for desktop systems incor- porate some impressive steps forward for the chip maker. The chips, which are sade using a 65-nanometer manulfactuting process, fea ture both anative quad-core design and enhanced power management technology. But when we ran a Phenom- and Spider-based computer through our lab, the results revealed that AMD still has a lot of work todo. isn’t much faster than a Problems Already? AMD sent unlocked versions of ts 2.6-GHe Phenom 9900 chip to reviewers, but that ‘model likely won't be avail able on the market until well dato the fist quarter of 2008, ac an expected cost below S350. Unulthen,theface: = ea Phenom chips that you'll be ¢YSESEOES2 Siero AMD's new CPU has impressive technology but turns in disappointing performance. Can AMD. remain competitive if its high-end pro sor year-old Intel CPU? able to fine are the 2.2-GH12 Phengen 6600 CPU and an ATI Radeon MD 3670 graphics board. Phenom 9500 (5251 to OFMs) and the 2.3-GHz ‘Though both the 9500 and Phenom 9600 ($283). the 9600 appear to be widely A sub-$300 24-GHlz 9700 available now, AMD recently chipis scheduled to ship in owned! up coa bug in the the first quarter as well, and first generation ofits Phe- an unlocked, overelockable nom and Barcelona chips Black Edition 2.3-GHz Phe- that can cause systems to nom should be available by lock up when cunning cer the time you read this. tain rare sofiware workloads ax lock speeds greater than 2.4 Gz. A BIOS upgrade is availble as a workaround, but according to enthusiast Web site"The Tech Report, the workaround slows per~ formance by up to 10 per- cent. The faster Phenom processors that the company is preparing for release in the first quarter of 2008 should have this ervor corrected. Discouraging Results Now that we havea Phenom CPU in our labs, we can make better comparisons with test systems built around Intel based processors (sec the chart “Pentyn vs, Phenom: Two Different Worlds on page 20). Our Phenom test setup used the same sup- porting components—an Vidi GeForce 8820GTS- based graphhies board with 320MB of RAM, two West een Digital WD2500AAJS hard drives in a striped DDR2-800 RAM—as our eae- lier Penryn tests dic. We tested our unlocked Phenom acboth 26GHa and 2.3 GHz onan Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe mothesboard with an AMD TOOFX chip set. ‘When running the Phe- ‘nom 9900 at 2.6 GHz, our reo est system posted as 107 on WorldBench 6 Beta 2, not all that faster than the average mark of 96 wwmed in by the systems we've seen based on the last-generation Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU. The £6600, an okler chip, goes for $230 from stores such as Newegg.com, 18 | mwwecwoRLo.com FeeeuaRy 2008 See if any Phenom-based systems have made our top-PCs charts at find.pcworld.com/55713. And if you're curious about the competi- tion, check out our coverage of Penryn at find.pcworld.com/S9197,compared with the project- ¢ $350 price for the 9900, Of course, the fastest Phe- nom chip out now isa 2.3- GHz model, and at chat speed our test PC's score dropped 10 99—not much of an advantage a all fora CPU that costs about $50 more than its aging competition, And there's no comp to the ultrashighend Penryn chip we evaluated on the same test bed: That $1000 CPU clocked in at a Worle: Bench 6 Beta 2 score of By the time AMD's faster Phenom processors are ready to ship, Intel will likely have mainstream Penryn chips ready to compete. The first Phenom-based PC we could test—a $999 CyberPower Gamer Ulta CF 3870, featuring a 2.3-GHe Phenom 9600 and an ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics card—didn’ fare much bet ter with its score of 95. AMD currently has no answer to Intel's SSE4 in steuctions faraccelerating specific multimedia opera tions, which may widen the performance gap furtherin selected applications. On 1, unlike tnel’s the other quad-core models, which are basically two dual-core CPUs usinga shared bus interface, Phenom has four distinct cores, which should offer benefits. The perk comparison may evolve as more applications begin tak- sdvantage of mukimedia instructions suchas SSE and leveraging more than two CPU cores, but given the size of Intel's head stat, it’s cnlikely that AMD will be able to truly close the gap. At AMD's Phenom launch ATI, that company sid well tec ins ton plore Sa face with iia The requ aw Siion git AMD expertise man in GPUs and chipsets, plus ae independence from nVidia Tonge ally that had stared supporting intel the year before—but it added co the perception of AMD as Femly occupying second ANO'S OVERDRIVE UTILITY has an imoressieerayof options let- pce, Losing money for sev~ ting you change multipler and voltage settings ona per-corebasls. —cral st event in November, we also tested a 2.6-GHz Phenom 19990-based system featur ing two of ATI's recently re leased Radeon HD 3859 graphics cards, an MSI ‘motherboard using AMD's ‘OCEX chip set, and 2GB of DDR2-1066 RAM. On World Bench 6 Beta 2, AMD's test system received a score of 105, significantly faster chan. the 93 posted by a Polywell S8CCF-2900 with AMD's Iastgeneration GHz Ath- Ton 64 X2 6000s, though not nearly the 32 percent gain that AMD touts. While rep- resenting an impressive boost over AMD's previous CPUs, it's nowhere near enough to make Intel sweat. Tough Times All things considered, 2007 probably hasn't been AMD's favorite yea. In fact, things haven't been sunshine and roses for the company since the middle of 2006, when Intel introduced its Cove 2 Duo CPUs. Aer thice years asthe performance champ, AMD was suddenly getting its clock cleaned, o to speak: When running at the same clock speed, Core 2 Duo chips were anywhere fom 10 to neatly 20 percent jt quacters hasn't hhelped, ciches faster than comparable Ath- In 2007 AMD also fell in lon 64 X2 processors creasingly behind in the Nor only that, but almost competition for better pro: immediately after AMD's _cess technology. Intel manu: $5.4 billionacquisition of _factures its Pearya chips GPUand chip set vendor usinga 4S-nanometer. > PLUGGED IN eric om ‘MICROSOFT TWEAKS WGA: Calling it ‘an “advantage” stil an insutt, but this feature you never wanted on your PC ie naw somewhat lass teribie WSJ SITE GOES FREE: And so passes one ofthe last bastions of subscription based Web content, If we oul just erate ESPN Insider Tbe all set. WHITHER AMD? Wait, no! Stoo wither ing! Seriously, the industry reeds the ‘competition, andit’s beens tong time singe we all were Athlon fanboys, Feeeussy 2908 wuw pewoata.com | 18Forward process, which allows the company to pack in more wansistors pee squate mill: rmecer than in the 65nm pro- cess AMD is introducing with its Phenom chips. That can translate to more chips per slab of silicon for cheap- ex production, giving Incel yet another advantage AMD's latest G5nm Opter- cons, with thei parsimoni- ous power usage, are com- peting well inthe server market, but that does noch: ing for mainstecam users Platform News: With no way to regain the CPU performance crown, AMD has tied to focus the smedia’s attention on its graphics board and chip set technologies. This isn't all misdirection, though, since performance in games often relies more heavily ona sys- tem’s GPU than its CPU. The new Spicer T90FX sites as Anandltech indicate that these 3802-series graph- fies cards match up well with all but nVidia's fastest mod els in performance, and that they have very good power With no way to regain the CPU performance crown, AMD has tried to PUs and chip sets. This ame performance oft Y chip set plays right into that with support for AMD's HyperTransport 3.0/0 bus, which has 29 percent more bandwidth than its prede cessor. The T9OFX ean also combine four ATI 3890 PCle 2.0 graphies eards on one motherboard—a technology that AMD calls CrossFireX. Preliminary tests on such focus attention on n't all misdirection mn relies More on GPUs. consumption numbers Speaking of power con: sumption, AMD is offering users the ability to weak consumption (as well as the speed of Phenom chips) toa startling degree, using a new Utility called OverDrive. No mere overclocking util ity, OverDrive lets users adjust voltage settings and Penryn vs. Phenom: Two Different Worlds ETRE AMO'S PHENOM CPU's worids ahead ofthe company’s Athlon processors, butt c can't hold a candle to Intl’ festest chips. Of course Inte’ frst Penryn CPUs are ‘aimed atthe high end: They go for $1000 a piece. Still the frst Phenom systems we've tested compare best to PCs based on Intel's Core 2 Duo ESGOO CPU~e chip that's mace than a year ol. '2MD Phenom 9900 eeapreron) 16, = (teforence system) 3000 ’aMD Phenom 3600 G32 Prenom (tetorence system) ‘600 = ES ‘OjperPower Gamer aaa venom (os « Utra cr 3370 600 reel Core 2 Extreme re? “Ponrye(atrence systom)|ecrome axasso| 127 | 307 fverage ot tourcore2 Y 25-GHe Core? Buc 6600 systoms oeeeco | a Sort ations PatyweltPoty socr-ze00 | Cl! An 83 ae | oe | oe oa) m7 | oe ae | as | ss ser | as | sw os | wo | «7 CHART NOTES. We ene al torn ater wh 208 o OG EOD arr pal of 2008 Segre STREZOORAS hard desi {stip rand on NCA Ga ne 3800TS yap crk We nes Panomtasedaptens ng on Aus MOAZ-MY/P tee ‘sero AMD TOO nist The any sytem saan As Maxis arta vote Tae S138 ES Tess occ re Vr Wst cantor rao ow wa 1 20|wwwecworie.com Feseuaey 2008 Dever S26 AL MONS clock multipliers on a per core basis. For example, if you have a game that takes adh of only two CPU cores, you can build an Over: Drive profile that overclocks ‘ovo of the Phenom’s four cores and ratchers down the speed on the other two, con- serving power and lowering Ihcat to create more head= 00m for the tivo cores that you'll be using heavily. Ifyou would prefer not to ‘weak every bit of your hard ware manually, OverDrive includes a one-lick perfor- ‘mance tuning option that ‘benchmarks your system and ratchets up speeds to a sale level automatically AMD's 65nm manufac: curing process manages to produce Phenoms with overclocking headroom, (gamers could find value ia the ualocked, 2.3-GHz Black Edition Phenom chip. According to AMD, moth- cexboards based on its 790FX chip set should be inexpen- sive in comparison with the latest motherboards built for Inte’s Pencyn proces- sors, Consequently Spider- based systems could present an interesting choice for ‘mainstream gamers—that i, you could well spe ess on the CPU, motherboard, and ‘memory, yet combine them with up to four fast bu rea sonably priced 3800-series graphics boards. Although the CPU will not beable to compete with sinilasly priced offerings from Intel— especially with the main stream Penryn processors expected to lneh exc in the year—a quad-CrossFice system could be an allord- able gaming powerhouse. @y that helps you thought possible. Aajstane opto Crt FesytentintsForward Can You Trust Your Social Network? FACEBOOK AND MySpace know alot about you, such as where you live, where you work, who your friends ae, and what music and movies youlike. But would you want your social necwouk— and your row what you're doing at other sites, such as those of Blockbuster, Coca-Cola, and the NBA? Maybe rnot—and that's why Facebook caused such a Faroe when it turned on its Beacon ad service in November with ttle nds on ito The privacy concerns raised by Facebook's Beacon service are just the beginning: Broader {tracking is coming to social networks. have a very diferent opinion Beacon twice, making its of the new generation of /—_—_workings more explicit and socialads. The complaints giving people more control started soon afier Beacon’s over it including the ability launch, aserities charged to opt out of participating that the program was diff: inicentirely, At press time notice to its members. Tae Beacon debacle is just the beginning, The same deep connections that make online social networks valuable tool for connecting with friends and colleagues also make them great targets for advertisers. As the net- works open themselves up to new, highly targeted ad campaigns, members will need to look carefully a the services’ privacy policies. ABad Example The privacy controversy ver Facebook's Beacon exemplifies both the op- portunities and the pit falls of social neworking axis Beacon tracks eer ‘Travis added NCAA Narch Madness 08 to his ‘queue on GameFly. Learn More | This isn't me No Thanks partner sits, such as Blockbuster and Fanda 0, and reposts those ations back to the user's Facebook friends. Facebook considers these “social ads” an inno sative and ultimately more effective form of advertising because it leverages the con- nections between its users. Many users of Facebook 22 | ww MAKE A TRANSACTION on partner ste, and that site willinform Facebook about your purchase or other intorestin a product, cult tounderstand and opt however, privacy concerns out of, One user discovered remained. Independent re thathis contacts had been search by Computer Associ notified that he had bought ates shows that Beacon an engagement ring before tracks all users on partner he had even proposed. sites, not just Facebok Programs like Beacon do members who are logged in. offer better ways to target Facebook apparently has potential customers. Forex- no plans to narrow Beacon’s ample, ifsomeone has been broad user tracking, saying looking for Toyota ears on- that it deletes the daca it re- line, and in their social net- _eeives about the actions of ‘Gh Meagan Marks gave a4star rating to the movie Top Gun. Blockbuster Total Access Online Do you feel the need? The need for speed. Rent online, exchange in-store today! USING ITS BEACON ad system, Facebook canreport your actlltyon various partner sites to our contacts on the social network. working profile they have in- _loggedt-off Facebook users, dicated where they live, the former Faccbook members, site could deliver an ad in- and nonmembers. forming the person about the “With Beacon, Facebook nearest Toyota dealership _has given acase study as to and the most current deals. how not to do” advertising Facebook has tweaked in social networks, asserts IDC analyst Karsten Weide ‘Whatever ends up happen ing with Beacon, experts agree that advertisers will cevtinly want to use Beacon Like systems to hamess word- cof mouth marketing oppor Canities on social networks Tue public is likely to see ‘any similar programs ia the coming years. Financial Failures Despite their deeply ea- gaged audiences, broad reach, and heavy traffic, Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks have not come close to fulfiling their potential as advertising vehiles. Cur rently, many ads oa social networks are merely ince: vant or annoying, but this could change ifthe ads are more targeted and sel “Consumers hate adverts- ing because there's alot of stout there and most of ic doesn’t rehte to our needs co begin with,” Weide says. “Leveraging social relations is avery elegant way todo online advertsing..28 long as you give users the ability to contro] what other people see about their actions.” People should expect social networking sites to use what they know about their members and their online actions, includ ing demographic data and browsing history in ad pro- grams. As such programs develop, users will need to Jook out for ways to decline to participate, orto limit the lata they’ee giving away. Juan Cartos Pees#1 recommended display brand #1 display brand sold #1 recommended projector brand Your #1 trusted source for display technology. ViewSonic 44 See the difference* =iilaimtaimaForward HDTV Prices Will ‘$3000 U.S. LCD TV Street Price Forecast Drop Most Quickly in Late 2008 HIGH-DEFINITION TV TOOK some giant steps forward last year. New technologies debuted, 1080p went mainstream, and 40- inch LCD TVs became the new sweet spot. What will 2008 bring? Continued price cuts, mostly toward the second half of the year. And according to DisplaySearch’s Paul Gagnon, you can expect to pay a 10 per cent premium for sets featuring a 120-Hz refresh rate, which helps improve the pic- ture during fast-moving sports programs and movies. Models with LED backlighting may command a 20 percent price premium. —Eric Dahl $2500 $2000 BETA WATCH eownnow. acero $2861 $1465 seed Sn 40 inches, 1080p pleat OS, 36 $796 qi 2008 ‘S2 inches, 1080p $2269 48 inches, 1080p 37 inches, 720p 32 inches, 720p $634 ME) PE Ce ‘Source: DisplaySearch Q4'07 TV Cost and Price Forecast Report Spokeo: Providing the 411 on Your Friends With the explosion of social networks, fracturing is inevitable Some of your friends are on MySpace, other buddies use Linked- In, and still others are addicted to Twitter. Spokeo helps you keep track of everybody from one spot. The free service scans your address book, and finds your friends’ accounts on any of 30 networks and services, including old-school Friendster, photo spot Flickr, and even Amazon's Wish List. When your friends post new musings or pictures, Spokeo lets you know. Spokeo has one big hole—it doesn't monitor Facebook—but otherwise, it's scarily complete. The site displays only information you're authorized to view, but I still find it a little creepy that I am now fully informed about what kind of sheets a casual business acquaintance wants for his birthday. spokeo.com RescueTime: Charting What You Do Ever get to quitting time and wonder where your workday went? If you spent much of your day on your computer, RescueTime will tell you exactly what you were doing. After you download Rescue- Time's free monitoring software, the pragram keeps track of how long you worked in a specific application or browsed ata particular Web site. The software is smart about recognizing when you're actively working and when you ve merely left the system on during your lunch break, Afterward you log in to your account on the ser- vice's site to see detailed graphs illustrating what you've been up to. The site combines data from any PC you use that has the moni- toring software running. In addition, you can apply such tags as ‘work’ or ‘gaming’ to applications, to categorize haw you spend your time. You may find the answer disturbing. rescuetiime.com 24|www.pcworLp.com FEARUARY 2008 RESCUETIME KEEPS TRACK of exactly how long you spend working in various applications and visiting specific Web sites. Zoho Show 2: Improved Online Presentations The secand generation of Zoho's free, Web-based PowerPoint replacement gets closer to Microsoft's program, with some coal collaborative features. This version of Show brings new themes, the ability to add shapes and clip art, and more options for format ting text and arranging images. Show is certainly more capable than Google's bare-bones equivalent. The developers promise an improved import function, but I still encountered problems when I pulled a PowerPoint presentation into a prerelease version of the application; graphic elements on the pages displayed improperly. You can deliver your presentation remotely from within Zoho Show, and you can chat with participants and even allow them to take over the presentation. find.geworld.com/59501Alternative Thinking About Reliability: KEEP DOWNTIME WHERE SLT IT BELONGS: OUTSIDE THE OFFICE. The HP Proliant DL380 G5 server comes with Systems Insight Manager (SIM) software. HP SIM has shown an average reduction in server downtime! of 77%, by monitoring your system and alerting you of potential server problems before they occur. Wants olloron mm LeRoi HP ProLiant DL380 G5 HP StorageWorks Ultrium 448 Tape Drive SAS Bundle? $2249 (Save $958) Lease for os low os $56/mo" for 48 months ‘Check hp.com forthe most up-o-date pricing ‘Smart {PN: 470064-511) + Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor + 2GB PC25300 memory + Supports small form factor, high performance SAS or low-cost SATA hard drives + Smart Array P400 controller + Iniegrated Lights-Out (i102), Sysiems Insight Manager, SmortStart Get More: Smart 24x7, 4 hour response, 3 years IPN: UEB94E) $689 Smart Add IGB additional memory, (PN: 39740921) $189 or call 1-866-545-0298 Get the full story in the IDC white paper at k $1899 Lease for os low 08 $5d/mo? for 48 months Smart [PN: AG739A) + 400GB compressed capacity in holFheight form factor + Ships with Data Protactor Express Softwore, ‘One Button Disaster Recovery, a 1U Rackmount Kit, and a Host Bus Adapter ee eure re te en mee ar teen rr ent tenure Pe eee te een nee ee ene ee ed Se ence tae Sac Iee ci cid > Microsoft has been sued over another Vista logo campaign, in which vendors labeled PCs sold before the OS’s release as ‘Vista Capable’ or ‘Vista Premium Ready’ (see find.pcworld.com/59415). FEBRUARY 2008 WWW.PCWORLD.COM 37Consumer Watch SKEPTICAL SHOPPER varocwa azar port page for the product lists some advanced features that work only with XP, and the product also appears on Microsoft’s “Works with Windows Vista” list. The “Works with...” logo. means that an app meets baseline per- formance standards when run on Vista The HDTV Deliveryman Cometh... -but where he Leaves the set may vary. It pays to check out your delivery and installation options beforehand. I BUY LOTS of stuff online, but until recently I never gave much thought to how Don’t Blame Microsoft? Ben Reed, product marketing manager for the Windows Vista Logo Program, says Microsoft has worked more exten- sively with its hardware and software partners on ensuring Vista compatibili- ty than it did with Windows XP. He says that over 7000 products have been certified to work with Windows Vista or given the “Works with...” logo. Last May, he points out, the NPD Group stated that 48 out of the top 50 con- sumer applications work with Vista. Nevertheless, the Vista compatibility problems are apparently making people reluctant to upgrade to the new OS PCWorld.com community forum user stealth694, for example, wrote: “Com- patibility is the main problem [with Vista]. Just how compatible is Vista with Windows XP and Windows 2000 programs? Personally I am sticking with XP for at least another year to two years [to] see what happens. Vista has an aroma like [Windows] Me, and [am not interested in getting sick again.” But many software experts say con- sumers shouldn’t be angry with Micro- soft. “Microsoft did its best under incredibly difficult circumstances with Vista,” says Stephen Baker, another analyst with the NPD Group. “If you're going to spread blame for Vista head- aches, there is enough to spread around the entire computer industry.” If you're considering upgrading to Vista, carefully investigate the compati- bility of your existing hardware and software. Study the support pages, including forums or community sites, of the products you depend on; doa Web search for the names of these products and “Vista compatibility.” Otherwise, your upgrade may end up feeling more like a downgrade. 38 | www.pcworRLD.com FEaRUARY 2008 my purchases got to me. Afterall, there wasn't much to say about FedEx, UPS, or the U.S. Postal Service. Things changed when I bought a big flat-screen TV. As I surfed from e-tailer to e-tailer, I learned that delivery servic- es varied widely, and that failure to check out these services could result in unpleas- ant surprises when the set arrives. Here's what you need to know. First of all, most larger sets are delivered by specialized services that typically make an appointment to arrive within a window of time— say, 2 hours or so But what they do when they show up differs considerably. Doorstep Drop-Off Robert Masters, senior vice pres- ident at Minnesota-based Manna Distribu- tion Services, which specializes in deliver ing big-screen TVs and furniture, says his firm offers three levels of service The first, called threshold delivery, gets the TV set to your front doar, but no far- ther. If you live in an apartment, thresh- old service will leave the set in the hall- way on your floor, You want this service only if you have enough muscle power at your immediate disposal to carry the set indoors and to its intended location. The next step up is over-the-threshold delivery, which gets the set past the front door—but again, no farther. At least it’s now out of the rain, or the hallway. The deluxe service, called White Glove, means two people will remove the TV set from its packaging and put it exactly where you want it. And if you want setup services, Manna offers them tao, also at three levels (basic, deluxe, and premium) up to installing a wall mount you supply, and hiding the cables in your baseboard But you may not have access to all of those options: Manna’s customers—the companies that sell flat-screen TVs— decide which services to offer us (their customers) and what to charge for them. Abe's of Maine, for example, throws in Manna's threshold service free of charge with standard, seven-to-ten-day delivery for the plasma model I chose; White Glove service, $249, is the only other option. T bought my set from Sears.com, which charged $65 to place the box where I wanted it; unpack- ing and installation took several hours. Getting Set Tf you do pay for installation Masters offers a few tips. First, identify a place where the shippers can deposit the big (and possibly dirty) box the set comes in without damaging carpet or flooring, Don't disconnect entertainment-center components. Installers don't want to sort through a nest of disconnected cables to figure out which ones go where. Visually inspect the set for obvious problems. Masters says packaging origi- nally designed for bulk delivery to a big- box store isn't always sturdy enough to survive transfers of single sets in a van. Refuse delivery if you find damage Ifyou can, hang on to the box incase you need to return the unit. And consider buying new components at the same time as the HDTV instead of later. Manna will deliver up to 50 pounds of extra gear with the set free of charge—so you might be able to get free shipping for a Blu-ray or HD DVD player when it piggybacks on the delivery of your new big-screen TV.SANYO UNL ReTAEA yi 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Consumer Watch 16) N} YOUR SIDE CO ace ACOMPUTER I purchased last year had a preinstalled copy of Syman- tec's Norton Internet Security, and I bought a subscription to Symantec's service following a three-month free trial. But my computer crashed ten months later, and when I restored my system, I dropped Norton and started using McAfee Security Suite, which I received for free from my ISP. However, a year after I purchased the Symantec service, Symantec debited my bank account for $49.99, the cost of a year’s renewal. How can it take my money for a service that I’m not using? OYS Responds: All Symantec customers who purchase services online are en- rolled in the Norton Protection program, which automatically renews licenses for the products—in order, Symantec says, to prevent Lapses in protection (McAfee's services operate similarly). Symantec says that when Payne first subscribed, he should have received e-mail messages with details on the program, as well as instructions on how to opt out; he also should have received a notice (again with opt-out instructions) 15 days before he was billed for the renewal. Payne says that he did not receive these messages After we contacted Symantec, the com- pany refunded the charge. The lessons here: Don't assume that uninstalling a product will end a sub- scription service. Symantec says Payne could have prevented auto-renewal by accessing his account online and chang- ing the default instructions. Also, for any software purchase, look over the terms of service for clauses about billing and renewal. Finally, after you make a purchase on- line, expect to see messages from the merchant (check your spam filter if need be). Some will contain important infor- mation like Symantec's instructions for cancelling automatic renewal Too Much Info? Reader David Guinn from Rockford, Min- nesota, was dismayed when, while plac- ing an order with CyberPower, he was asked for copies of both sides of his cred- it card and driver's license. He had never been asked for such documentation be- fore and wondered why CyberPower 40 |www.pcworLo.com Fresruary 2008 Theron Payne, North Tazewell, Virginia needed it. A CyberPower representative said the company required the copies because Guinn wanted the system sent to his business address, which was dif- ferent from his billing address and was not on file with the credit card company. Guinn ultimately wound up buying from Hewlett-Packard, which did not require the additional documentation Coby Music Player Recall Coby Electronics has recalled about 12,000 portable DVD/CD/MP3 players following reports that they may overheat and pose fire hazard, The recall applies to models TF-DVD170 and TF-DVD176 sold between May and October 2007. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says Coby has received three reports of units overheating, includ- ing one involving minor property damage (but no injuries) froma fire. Customers should stop using the play- ers immediately and either call Coby at 877/231-9240 or go to www.cobyusa.com for information on returns and refunds You can read the CPSC report online at find peworld.com/59271, PayPal Offers Virtual Debit Card Plug-In PAYPAL LETS YOU make secure online payments without exposing your bank account or credit card number—but only for e-commerce sites that accept the service. Now, however, you can use a PayPal account to fund transactions on any site that accepts MasterCard, ‘Through a partnership with Master- Card, PayPal recently began offering its customers a virtual debit card via a Fire- fox or Internet Explorer plug-in (get the free download at find peworld.com/ 59285). The PayPal Plug-In recognizes e-commerce checkout forms, gives you the option of filling out the forms using your PayPal contact information, and. also offers to generate a unique Master- Card number to pay fora purchase ona site that doesn’t accept PayPal. ‘That Master- Card number is linked to the user’s PayPal account, which is charged for the purchase. Generate Secure Card ‘AutoFil form Save Receist View previous Secure View Receipts Manage Preferences Plug-in hela ‘Check PayPal balance Send money However, because the PayPal Plug-In isa debit card service, if you have insuffi- cient money in your PayPal account you must fund the purchase through either a bank account, PayPal Buyer Credit (PayPal’s installment-plan pro- gram), or a PayPal Plus credit card. You cannot use another credit card. None of the PayPal account info is stored on the user’s PC; rather, the in- formation is on secure PayPal servers. The plug-in uses the same virtual card technology that many banks already offer to MasterCard customers who prefer not to provide a permanent card number to Web retailers. —Yardena Arar @ ILLUSTRATION: HARRY CAMPOELLTonos anon co Every day the average employer loses 81 minutes of productivity per employee to Web-based distractions. Most employees don’t realize how quickly the stolen minutes add up. But some 13% of workers habitually log two or more hours of internet-based h shows. off-task activity per day win BeAware helps identify problem areas, offenders and frequency so you can coach ecuce company risk and help teams reclaim lost productivity. employ yall PC and BeAware tracks all employee PC activity through live, real-time monitoring of E-mails, Web-surfing, Chats and pro- gram usage (recording screen shots, time accessed, and content) “BeAware showed me exactly what my team was doing so | could coach & motivate them toward our goals.” BeAware can be remotely deployed on any networked company PC (local or remote) to monitor specific individuals departments or an enterprise up to 10,000 employees. Administrators can view reports of on-line activity from anywhere, and ive automatic notification when select keywords, websites or specific applications are accessed. re Once problem areas are identified, you can resolve them with better policies, access control, employee coaching and motivation for improved focus and productivity. Tameka ont Ebon Ask about BeAware Home Edition Dont let your PC Ascentive ) joid you back.Are your employees trying to tell you something? OCI TSM UNT\VA Rome (IU M N= TMCs@nTNLe) (68 \ MICO ODL p HP Compaq Business Desktop dc7800p CU May aC Ma OMe] -Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor £6550 (2.33GHz) ES aes a ae Sens OA ERS Mace acy Samsung SyncMaster” 940UX SRM elle icHies Pat kee) Sem eee acy REEL ERO MPL Eee Pos Seton a Sere ePsel ens eer ee Ree ee ace) OX erm Dt ae / \} + Professional design tools for page layout, image editing, illustration ay 51059” foray am * Provides new tools for producing engaging Web sites, interactive Oe eee MGCL RT CR me lees) RGD) MESA} Full version $1799.99 CDW 1153146 SCR CRU UCR LET Ct With the benefits of today’s improved technology, there's never been a better time to upgrade your systems. At DYNAN Com ecm TL Mesa ME C USB 2.0 | 320GB-1TB wwwlocie.comSecurity Aler Malware Evolving Too Fast for Antivirus Apps BY ERIK LARKIN IF YOU THINK that the latest security suites afford e protection against malware attacks, think again. Today's for profit malware pushers use dedicated test labs and other in- creasingly professional techniques to improve their chances of infecting your computer, And the techniques they employ to outpace security software makers appear to be working. Make no mistake—a good security program can go a long way toward Keeping you in control of your sys- tem, But PC Werd’s recent tests of security suites (find pewartdcomS0327) found that new malware easly evad- ed the applications. In our tests of hhow well security software blocks unknown malicious programs, the best performer detected only one in four new malware samples. In con- teast, February 2007 results from similar heuristics testing showed that the best utilities caught about half of new samples. Window of Opportunity Open “tnthis industry, unlike others, we have anantagonist we have to deal with, someone we've constantly bat= tling back and forth with,” says Hiep Dang, director of ancimalwace esearch with MeAfee's Avert Labs. “The bad guys have the element of surprise.” Even just a 12-hour head start can translate into thousands of infected PCS, and malware authors have long tested their programs against antivirus applications to make sure they get that critical jump on the opposition. VirusToral.com and sim ilar Web sites, which allow secutity researchers and consum- cs to submit a questionable file and have it seanned by mote than 39 diferent antivicus engines, have unfortunately made the testing easier for malware writers: Crooks can continue Bad guys use soy co create malware even the best security programs. to tweak their new makvare projects until VirusToral arone of the other new multilanguage sites shows that the rogue application can sip past the majority of antivius prograrns Good vs. Evil? Bad guys’ use of sites such as VirusTotal can havea hidden benefit After online thugs submit a sample, VirusTotal an sometimes share it with security companies, which can chen update their programs to block the new malware, But the site permits users to opt out of having their sam: ples submitted to antivirus vendors. VirusTotal says it offers the option 0 that people can scan sensitive files atthe site without having them beoadeast to companies. Some well-organized criminal ‘groups goa step farther and “main tain their own antivirus setups, alimost like theic own VirusTotal,” according to Don Jackson, senior security researcher with the security services firm SecureWorks. isticated testing jat can evade Keep Your Guard Up Jackson says the opportunities for prerelease testing make for harder- tocatch makvate—and underscore why smart PC users should never assume thac their machines are im- mune w acack. For example, ‘every day, SecureWorks sees new variants of the PRG Trojan horse made witha particular kit And when the new versions fist appear, usually only 25 per= ‘cent of antivir seanners detect them, he says ‘As bad as all ofthat might seem, don throw in the towel and cesign yourself to the inevitability of infection, For one thing, antivirus progeams can do very well once thei learn about a new sample. When filly updated and pitted aupinst PC World partner AV-Test’s “zoo” of 675,000 Tro- » Should vulnerabilities that could be used to attack your PC be up for bid? A Swiss site says that auctioning info about flaws will actually make you more secure. See find.pcworld.com/59455 for more. eeeuaey 2008 wwWw.ecwoRio.com | SISecurity Alert jan horses, keyloggers, and other mal ware, the best-performing security suites detected 98 percent of them. [And security companies are aware of the challenge they face in keeping pace with nimble online thieves. McAfee and Symantec are focusing on additional layers of security, including firewalls and behavioral scanners, which detect malicious software based on its behav- jor rather than on a signature match, Join the Good Fight Muilayered security is important, but you are the most important component by far, AV-Test's results (and other se- curity analyses) show that no program in provide complete protection. Some ‘malicious and creative entrepreneur will always discover a way around any particular security program, Getting around you can be much harder for malware creators, however, i you follow basic precautions. Crooks are quick to pounce on fresh program vulnerabilities, so be sure to keepall of your applications—not just your Web browserand Windows—up-to-date to seal off entire avenues of attack. Also, the best sociabenginceri accompany the newest a detect malware. Ifyou assume that every unexpected e-mail attachment is an attack, and ask for confirmation fromthe sender before opening any attachment, you'll block another huge chunk of potential infections. Malware authors may obtain a tem: porary lead over antivirus programs, but if you take sensible precautions in addition to running seeucity tools, they won't get a leg upon you. tactics often haidest-t0- reveal isa service thatanalyzes auspicious flos and facta the quick detection of wrses, worms, Yojans, and al kd of mahare detected br anansengnes Hote ormion MALWARE AUTHORS CAN explo sitestike \VirusTotal to get ajump on antivirus vendors, 52 |wwwecworie.com Feseuaey 2008 BUGS & FIXES Plug a Windows XP Copy Protection Hole Uiited” attacks on Win dows X° systerns va an unexpected path exploing asecurty hole in acopy protection program that comes with XP. (Windowrs Vistas not at risk) ‘The program that attackers ae leverag- ings Macrovision’s SafeDisc ontical-disc ‘ony prevention software for Windows ax- plications end games, The flaw is located inasystem driver fle called seccrvsys Microsoftimmeciately issued Security ‘Advisory. which you can find end read at find peworld com S416. Macrovision released a patch: yous can download it fn. word. comy/s9338, At press time Microsoft was still testing the patch and was net yet lctrbuting it viaiks ‘automatic updates. A successful attack could lead to 2 complete takeover of your PC, but sucha ‘success is hardor to pull off than with ‘most garden-varety “critical” bugs. Regerd.ess, grabbing tho patch is 2 good Idee: You never knaw when some unseru- ‘puious hacker wil tweak the explet code tomakeit far more dangerous MICROSOFT REPORTS (ee Fix Firefox stabili Get a Handle on URI Bug Microsoft finally produced the long awaited patch for the “URI Handler” bus that T wrote about last month. Tf you are ‘uaning Tnteret Explorer 7 on Windows XP. you're vulnerable ard you need the patch. Ifyou ererunning JE 7 on Win- dows Vista, though you're safe. ‘Attacks “in the wild" based on this flaw hhawe alveady occurred, This assault however, requires interaction with third party programs such as the Mozilla Firefox browser or Accbe Acrobat to work. Luckily, these software makers patched their products quichy, while everyone waited fora more complete fix from Microsoft. Ifyou have automatic snag Apple's Me problems, an OS X megapatch Updates enabled on your Windows XP system, you should have the patch by row Otherwise, you can get your hands ‘on the patch at find powor'd.cony/593. Keep Up With Firefox Versions Mozilahas released en update that. for ‘once, doesn’ directly involve security bugs. Instead, the patch fixes some sta- bility problems thatironically resulted fromthe previous securty uadete. (ne ofthe new annoyances caused Windows Vista to prevent Firefox from load: ing Java apres, forin: stance, Moailas devel pers quickly issued the second update, wien corrected the sott.intisted problems. Ifyou already have Firofox ‘2xinstalled and have updates turned on the default, you'l receive the revised version 20.0.9, automaticaly It rot you can got it manually by selecting (Creek for Updotes trom the Hela menu. Ifyou haves version ater than 20.0.9 (2.00.11 was the latest at press time), you're covered. Yu ca find more infor= ‘mation a find pwottd cor 58340. nag the Mac OS Megapatch Apple hasissved arother massive update (ind pework.cern/5834) for OS X that ary Macuser will want. The undate avaiable for bth client and server versions of OSX 30.39 and 0510.4 through 10.410, fires atotal of 4 security winerabilties— of which Ti classifyes ericaAre you exposing yourself? H your security software depends on a list of “known” viruses, you're more exposed than you think. BitDefender’ 2 layer security, protecting you from “known” and FetP TA ‘ut how exposed you are by downloading a free tr Shi lurking on your system 7 Total Security 2008 also includes: «Gamer Modo + System Tune Up + System Back Up Parental Controls & bitdefender: Try it FREE for 30 Days The Future of Security Now ‘ww bitdelendercom/FREEpew (Officemax COMPUSA Figz ea] oa: PattySecurity Alert VoIP Hacks Raise the Specter of Eavesdropping ‘YOU MIGHT HAVE thought that tele- phones were safe from the data breaches that plague computers, but two dem- ‘onstrations prove how easily criminals, could eavesdrop on VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone calls VoIP giant Cisco confirmed a hack, using software called VoIP Hopper, that would permit easy eavesdropping on some of its equipment (ist pcwortd cor) 58307). And another recent ckmonstea- Lionillustrated how a Trojan horse could be deployed to deliver software to eavesdrop inside a company of at an ISP (find pcnorte:com/58369), Through VoIP Hopper, hackers could supplant a VoIP device on a network \VoIP HOPPER (shownhere) and SIPtap ders onstrate the need fr better VlP security. with a malicious PC, creating an avenue for eavesdropping. With the other hack, SiPtap,a single Trojan horse-infected PC inside a company’s network could provide access to that company's phone ells, or even access to all of an ISP's customers’ call, SIPtap can re- mmotely record multiple VoIP calls ‘Cisco now provides workarounds to guard against the Hopper hack (find. _senorig com/58368), but the two proof: ‘of-concept demonstrations show that VoIP cavestropping is now well within teach of organized crime “Companies using VoIP internally think they are protected, ” SlPtap's creator, Peter Cox. “The thr is chatan attacker engineers a Trojan and has it i there passively [on an internal network), recording calls from anywhere on the Internet.” His advice: “Apply the same vigor ‘when building a VoIP network [as] you ‘would when building a Web site. Join E. Diam and Linda Leng PRIVACY WATCH enix cassin Keep Tabs on Your Financial Data to Fight Identity Theft QUICK, WHAT'S THE combined balance for alot your checking, savings, and exedit card accounts? Have any of thom incurred targe or unusuat charges recently? Cant say? Most people can't But knowing such datas and ather ‘account information wil help you recover more quickly from identity thet if you're ever unlucky enough to become a victim. ‘A recent Javelin Strategy and Research survey found that 10 fraud victims who discovered the crime on their own cleared things, Up on average 65 days after the scam began, compared with 104 cays for those notified by thei bank ora collection agency, The lesson Take control of your accounts, Online account services enc! anew account aggregator make keeping tabs quite simple Usually you can set up your online barking account to e-mail you alerts automatically. For example, I can choose to have Bank of ‘America e-mail me ifany cash transaction amounting to more than $100 posts to my crelt card or if transaction originates from out: side the United States. Washinaton Mutual can e-mail me ames: soge about a withdrawel over a certain amount ‘Such bank alerts are typically quick end easy to set up, but one revr service is even better. Ifyou cive Mint com (an Tnnovation ‘Award winner, page G8) the user name and password foreach of your fnanciat accounts—including checking, savings, creditcard, 54 | www ecworte.com Feseuaey 2008 and alerting services simplify Ontine monitorin ne job of staying in control of your accounts ‘andeven PayPal wil monitor them all daily and pull the trans- _2ctlons int ts site for you to chock. As a result, you can see deposits, ‘charges, fees, and upilates forall of your accounts in one place, You can also have Mirt com send you alerts based on specifed thesholds. For instance, you can arrange to receive alerts for any ‘charges cr withrawals of mere than $200. orf spending in any of the automatically tocaled categories is unusually large The site does allow you to vanster funds or doanything ese with your accounts, hich is @ good thingin terms of security, And while it can check acoounts fora wide array of inarcal institutions. youright beout of luck f you bank with small erect union. Stil beta, Mintcom had early problems handling rush of sign uss. The prablems appear resclved now. but the service managed to lock one of my accounts because of feild login attemats. Though Twas able to clear te Lock quickly, doing so was a minor pain Ofcourse. youll need to trustthe service with your account user names ane passwords, too. The company says that it encrypts al of its data, carefully controls employee access, and undergoes dally security testing from ScanAlert. 've chosen to extendit my trust bout whether to follow suit isa decision to make for yourself Setting account alerts is asmart ‘hope forthe best pan for the worst” move. And even ifthe worst never materializes, taking such a step wil sil help you be more aware of your finances. @Stop going outside to use your cell phone... Corre Mare ere eel wna e stele tg I’ve got signal Get 10% off at www.Wl-Ex.com/PCwW CES Booth 35112Special Advertising Supplement Get Smart, aes ets Stay Secure he computer threat environment is a nightmare for SMBs. pretty much grinds to halt, so doing noth Virlually every business is increasingly dependent on its "set realstc opten. 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Users other features, such as gateway protection ‘must Invent on-intutve letter- forviuses and othor mabware symbol-number combinations, and But the options, specticaions and inte~ alten wnte them down on sticky aration with existing networks can be over- notes or ina spreadsheet. ‘whaling, and high-performance appli- UPEK’s goal isto make secutty ances canbe pricey. Some SMBs may also as simple as the swipe ofa finger. ‘worry about being locked into one single The company’s Eikon Digital Piva- provider for multiple security mechanism, cy Manager is a USB fingerprint and theyre concerned about whether reader that makes the usr’ fingerprint te authentication component for IT secur. theyre getting best-ol-breed applications TT managers can lower costs associated with password resets, beter protect access to across the board castomer data, and mest new ard growirg regulatory compliance requirements Unke a password that can be disclosed to another person, orly the reystered fin- CORE REQUIREMENTS cerpint of an autiorized user can access aUUPER-secured network, desktop ot antop Regardless of nfeter you opt for a UTM Computer The company's award-winning ingemrnt authentication sokaions are used anpkance or seek to put together a series bbymany ofthe worlds largest brands in PCs portable storage devices, mobilephones, of bestotbreed apnlications, there are access control equoment. nd more. some core requirements for basic secunty UPEK's unique technology allows users to lagon to Windows, replay user names protection and passnerds, encrypt fles and folders, and launch applications, all with just the 1m Operating system patches-Criminal ele- sine of a finger. ‘ments and hackers can jump on operat- ing flaws before most SMBs wil even hear about them. Some form of patch evakiation and even commercial use. compfance it may well make sense to ‘management i requied, whether #5 Mostemailcfents and even Web-based invest in a intrusion detection product automaticaly downloading aveileble email servoes offer antispam features, ora managed servie that can spot sus patches or assigning someone to requ- _—butyouneed tomake sure theyre tuned _pcous ne work activi leryand fequenty monitor and manage on. Then stat looking at whether your mt Policies-Even the smallest companies the process, business needs mare speciale tools shoud have some form of formal poi ‘m Fronall-This is the fist line of defonso mt Authantiction-Your netwerk, fle and ces regarding appropriate uso of com against extemal assauits. With basic Web servers hald your crown jewols, so. _puters, data and netwarks. As the tech- frewal protection buit into operating ensuring tha! only appropriate people nology you employ becomes more systems and even the simplest routers, can access certainties and network sophisticated, you can embed these there's no excuse not to havesome pro- _—prviagasisamus.Serverswillgeneral- policies into networkaceess products 10 tection, Once you've estabished asecu- ly have authentication and password protect your compary’s assets. ‘ity paimeter, you can focus on how to acoass management builtin, s0 use it strengthen it and igure outifyoureedamaesoohis- The key to an effective security infra: 1m Antivirusjanti-spam/ant-spyware-AS lated adc-on sinuctue developing amutlayer defense with firewall protection is hard not tom Intusion detection-Simple firewalls may that protects against the variety of thats havesomebasiccapaliltes inthis ae. bell that you needto protect your busi that are out there, Just as important is i ust too easy for matcious soltwere ness, but how wilyouknowifsomebody developing the management discipline to (maivare) to hijack functions of your has penetrated your network? II youte routinely evaluate wnat security too's computers to collect information or string sensitive customer information youve employed, how they are used, and instal botnet agents. Fee antiins and or volved with companies subject to what new treats you may not yet be ro- antispam praduets are available for HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory ected from,Forgot Usorname/Password? Get in. Move on. Ne ia Cede Access your online accounts with the simple swipe of your finger. eikon. Deiat oad @ vpek. Cee uC nt ec eee ee east eee Sr ener en Stree eeReviews<. Rankings GPS Devices: Road-Tested and Reviewed The latest in-car navigators deliver 3D views, street-name pronunciation, and other trip aids for as little as $300. IN-CAR GPS devices have more features, are easier to use, and cost less than their predecessors of just a year ago. Using one can help you find the best route to your destination, saving you time deck of ci giesacapable does not provide speed and money while traveling. navigator. Besides offering warnings or school-zone Tested five recently re- first-rate maps and aninuu- alerts, either. You can.use it leased GPS devices designed itive interface (with 3D tolisten tomusicand audio- lef: Mio's DigiWatker €720, to be used in thecar; two of maps), italsohasamedia book files storeel on SD Card Pharos's Drive GPS 250, and our them (from Mio and Pharos) phayerfor viewing images. or MMC media while navi- gest Buy, Garmin's Nuv 360. also have pedestsian modes. and listening to audio; lan- gating, but you ean't stream Allwere accurate enough t© guage guides from Oxford the sound or the voiced nay- sunlight, however, and the use in unfamiliar locales, but University Press; and travel igation instructions through couch-screen controls make software interfaces and information (including res- your ca's FM radio. You can the tasks of entering street route cakultions differed. _taurants, hotels, and points buy an optional ($75) SD addresses and changing sct of interest) from Fodor's Card containing language tings quick and simple. The Garmin Nuvi 360 Nonth America guide for six languages unit's Safe mode (oll by de Garmin's Navi 360 earnedl _—Thedeviee's battery sted The Nuvi 360's SIRF Star fault) prevents you from our Best Buy nod. Despite for 4 hours, 6 minutes in my GPS transceiver atches changing certain settings, to ridrangecost (S413), ithas test—more than 30 minutes on to satellite sigaals quick-_help you aoid geting dis such high-end features as longer than any of the other Iy, andthe routes the device tracted while driving, You Bluctooth connectivity (for four competitors. suggested were timely and can entera code to prevent hands-free phone alls) pro: Unfortunately, the Nuvi accurate. The unit's smallish unauthorized use, too. i nunciation of street names, 360acks pedestrian mode (3.5:inch diagonal) display Tae Garmin Nuvi360's. and plenty of tools and in- _forebraining information on can't fit in the amount of in- compactness, accuracy, fear = formation for travelers pathways thaea carcan't formation shown on devices tures, and batery life make Thoughthe Nuvi360 is only travel though you can useit with 4.3inch sereens:itis tthe bestvalueamong the about the sizeand weight of outside vehicle; the device casytoread-even in bright five GPS devices tested. 80 | wwwecworie.com FeseuaRy 2008‘TONOKIA NALD Internet ‘Tablet “78 SEAGATE & Western (86 SAMSUNG ML-1630 Digital Hard Drives Mio DigiWatker C720 ‘The DigiWalker C720 doubles as a Z-megapixel digital cam- ceraand has handy features such as fee (in limited areas) trafic information, voices in 16 languages and thrce dif ferent English accents, and customizable speed alerts Youalso get modes for pedestrian, bicycle (a bicycle mount costs extra), taxi, bus, and emergency vehicle teavel (the last of which as- stumes that the user ean is- regard traffic signals and other rules ofthe 1024) The downside of the C729 Isis battery life of 2 hours, 45 minutes—shorter than all but one other device. This result may be due in part to the power consumed by the 43-inch touch screen, which gives youa clear view of the ‘map in 3D or 2D, as well as easy access to volume and other controls, and plenty of information about your route (including the estimat- ed artval time, the speed, and the distance your estination). I's also easy to see the distance to and the direction of your next turn Images shot with the built in 2-mogapixel camera were typical of pictures taken at that resolution, and you can +28h290y0% *slameer seme team See Tot wspech te seectnores sancharerntie | Bete conpbiy phones smnyrroreoision | -Nepekseanate oreble 0S mode ole sbgh-endeaturessuch as tad formation fom Fes NarthAern. saa ‘ndgonerideony 38221 ‘OTTOMLINE Tasty Mio Technology +500j32by00he Y sbateyite rors Smits 2 DiaiWalker 720, serene: Tosspech to svectres? S470 ‘eoinasceensoe | Etc camgnonsy shes Aetpones find generico 50223 say aretuton | Pete BOTTOM UNE Mutiste ede uithasa2-megapbe| gal camera frog ages with toda rracsoneaese AOI ssoosem Yoeecrecrreome, oe areca | eran Seen, am: 48007 ATRresolution | = Pedestrionmade mere nis ease Ses nes ati TERE eae Sea EE a ees . Scie | eee eee ears tpn icen/58725 ED say aroun | snepeasronmase BOTTOMLINE: Expensive OPS peductasa eda plays, Bluicah comes a easy to-se cons “savannah: | sesaeunacna toceevonesuiee IM Se | sercincat sears enn ay Sateen | ‘tame sm Sader tareniten | sNepteinats [OTTOMLINE Mansons PS Gece are easy to wse Det rectonsare sorties inaccurate and batters sho. HART NOTES eats rap tpn ves reals 1/701. Th athe ete Oat tagthem with GPS coordi- and play video and audio files you can syne your Bluctooth nates. Mio says that the C720 storedon SD Card or MMC, phone for hands-fec calling comes with optical character but you can't simultancous- over the C720's speaker. ition software ly use the media phyer and view maps—something every Pharos Drive GPS 250 captures address informa Con and then creates acon: other mediaequipped unit! Though it uses the same maps tact record. I didn't have looked at For this roundup and GPS transceiver as the ‘much luck using the camera lets you do. Youcan syncthe LG LN790, the Pharos Drive asa business card “scanner”: C720 with your Bluetooth GPS 259 omits the LG's Tcphotographed my cards headphones so that youcan media playerand other non- but didn't cecognizetext. listen to audio files and di- navigation functions to lower You candisplay photos _rections through them, and its street price to $295, > reeeuaey 2008 www.ecwoRio.com | 61Reviews:.Rankings Inthis case, exchiding tion onthe screen, features unrelated to navigation made the device easierto use, Icalso seems to have improved the naviga- tion performance: When Tested bord units simul- taneously, the Pharos con- lected me to my nounced. Though the LN790 lacks an FM cransmitter for listening to audio through your car stereo, thas a headphone jack that outputs to many new sistent ‘THE Lo Electronics LN90 (Let) next turn a second or two andthe Alpe ElectrontsBlackbird car aucio systems that have faster than the LG did. PMD-8200 cost more but don'tperformbette, an MP3 player input. You The Drive GPS 250 does canalso choose from ten have apedestuian mode, but slightly costlier devices sug- bird offers diections in Eng- languages, including Eng the unit's limited bawery hfe gest quicker routesand in- lish, French, or Spanish. lish, French, and Spanish. will restric its participation clude a media player and Alpine places four buttons When attempted to enter inyourextravchicularexcur- other uavel-elated features. ina circularcontroller onthe destination addresses, the sions to around 3 hours. Ab right side of the device's _LN79Q offered me the option though the screenis big (4.3. Alpine Electronics touch screen. Though these of entering the street name inches) and easy to read, the Blackbird PMD-B200 buttons are intended to sim- before the city—but when | size hampers the device's ‘The awigation features in _plify zooming inand out of tried todo 30, the database portability nd batterylile, this edesigned high-end GPS the map, adjusting the vol-- couldn't locace the street. Unfortunately, lke the LG unit fromearelectronics spe ume,and opening the op- When [entered the city fist LN790, the DiveGPS 250 clalst Alpine Electconicsare ons screea, they add bulk and then the steet, howev- plunges you into the heart easy to operate, butlower- tothe unit. found it ust as ee it found the location and cof urban walic rather than priced competitors lke the convenient touse the switch was prepared to direct me finding ways around t.On Garmin Nuvi 360 offer the onthetop ofthedevicetoad- there, Ako, the type-ahead several oceasions, the unit samefurctionsand some- just the volume, and to use feature works so slowly that recommended routes that times better accuracy. the cons on the creen to I frequently entered the in- ray have been shorterasthe Among the most significant reachthe options for enter. correct ke, leading the de- crow'lies, but that took options missing from the nga travel destination vice to present me with the rmuch longer to travel. One Blackbird are 3D map views, wrong choices, which in turn example: Instead of direct. pronunciation of street LG Electronics LN790 required meto press the ing me overa slightlylonger names, and theabilty:0 ‘LG Flectconies’ $600 LNT90 back butonand start over. secof surface sueets with view images that youstoreisanewcomerin the high Like most other GPS de- higher speed limits of 3 fon an SD Card. Thedevice’s end GPS market. Ieoffers vices, the LN790 lets you niles an hou, thedevice Centrality Atas IHGPS chip easy-to-read maps and well- choose between the shortest suggested ashorter route waslessaccuratethan the paced dixections, butaclunky routeand the fastest one; thatreled on sidesticets SIRF Star I'GPS tansceive interface andldubious routes however, the default routes with 25-mph speed limits. ersused by the otherfour put ita couple ofnotchesbe- that the device suggested Youcanchoose bewween units Ttested. Inaddition, low other, cheaper devices. dumped me into city-center ‘Shortest’ or ‘Quickest’ afier the Blackbird PMD-B209. The LNT9D has abright 4.3- raf rather than directing entering the adévess and be- was lower to update ditce-_inch-diagonal screenand in- me to byways that were lon- fore selecting ‘Go' (Quick- tions and map views than __cludesa media player for _ger but considerably faster. cst is the first option), but the other devices were. audio, image, and video files, Navigators such asthe Gar- youan'tinstruet thedevice Youcansyncyour Blue- The 3Dand 2D maps nr min Nuvi 360 and Mio Digh tousconeortheother set- tooth phone with the Black- cluded with the devicecover Walker C720 suggested ting forall your routes. bird PMD-B200 for hands- all 59U.S. statesand Canada. routes by default that avoid- Myou'relooking foran free calling, and its built-in Trackingyour progtessas_edareas of traffic congestion, affordable GPS device that _playerhandles AAC, MP3, you travelis simple, and your even with no trallie service has very readable screen, and WMA audio les stored next turn iseasyto antici- enabled. The LN790 lacks a the Drive GPS 250 iscertain- on SD Card or MMC media, pate because you'llsee the pedestrian mode as well Iyworth considering, though This version ofthe Black- street mame and turn dizee- Dennis O'Reily 62 |wwwecworte.com Feseuaey 2008Networks People Trust™ www.trendnet.com Share what you value most Fast Win a Wireless N Gigabit Router at www.trendnet.com/giveaway Use promotional cade MPOBPWO7 to double your priees eR eur ec) wireless n router in minutes with TRENOnet's EasyGo inst Visit wun trendinet. com or call 1.888.326.6081 for more information to purcaca cesar) Bh \ocUPere ponbuc yeu Saanssia psn legal BEN fe Utes ‘Shas uno au ot wat 18 yeast age Eves mst ecovd Yon gest 1, 207 Me 31, 2008 Ona rt pa prc For acopete ss, vst wnnbeniet convenReviews Rankings Amazon Kindles Interest in E-Books AMAZON IS PUSHING «e-books back into the lime- light with the launch ofits $399 Kindle e-book reader and corresponding service. ‘The device leaves some room for improvement, but ithas succeeded in renewing my interest in reading e-books The Kindle comes with 180MB of uscr-accessible memory (which the compar ny says can hold about 200 books) and supports SD Cards up to 2GB. instead of an LCD, a 6-inch electronic: Kindle | Amazon Benaits rom bult-nwesless ond 2 thoughtful design List $309 tira peworts comysas7t paper display from E Ink ‘occupies the top portion of the reader. The monochrome display which is designed to save power—supports four levels of grayscale, but no color. The sereen was easy to read in most cieum- stances, except in dim light ing, as it lacks a backlight ound the Kindle’s design fingerfriendly. A rubberized surface on the back of the device makes it comfortable to.grasp, and the unit's thickness tapers from let to right, s0it’s easy to hold What's especially notable about the Kindle, though, is its integrated 3G ecllube radio, which allows the device to connect to Ama- zon's Whispernet EvDO ser Vice for wireless transmis- sion of e-books. Youdon’t need a PC to make a purchase: Just browse the Kindle store and download your reading maceril Books take less hana minute to download, and their prices varys new release cs cost $10. At launch, the Kindle store offered about 99,000 tithes. The Kindle includes basic Web browser intended for se with text pages, not sgraphics-heavy sites. It's handy for quick news, ‘weather, or Wikipedia look- ups. Notas useful is che Kin dle's stab a daly relevance with its newspaper and blog delivery, in which Amazon changes you for services available elsewhere for free THE KINDLE larger than most paperbacks, but not as thick. on the Web. You can sub: setibe to various newspa- pers, blogs, and magneines. ‘The Kindle’s design won't wow anyone, but its usabili- ty touches aloneare enough co make me consider buying an e-book reader Melisa). Perearon Firefox 3 Beta Previews Subtle Upgrade ‘THE FIRST BETA release ofthe much- anticipated Fire- fox 3 browser offers several interesting, enhancements over the previous ver- sion, such as new tools for storing ‘ments, which again were nota avai able in this eta version. Twas able totesca revamp of the saved password Feature, which lets {you postpone sax- ing site credentials and accessing, FIREFOX INCLUDES new tools forstoringbookmarks until aftcr you hawe bookmarks, but it in folders and categorizing them with tags. doesn't look much different from Firefox 2. Most of the changes in version 3 (slated for final release inearly 2008), such as stability and performance enhancements, will be under the hood and were not ap- parent in this beta A few nice, though not carch shattering, additions do reveal themselves. A star icon next to the site URL allows you to add new book- ‘marks quickly. You can also add tags to bookmarks or make easy backups of book: ‘marks that you can then copy to other computers. Mozilla is also working on number of security enhance- successfully logged in. The final release ‘of the browser will lock known malicious sites that axtempt to install Trojan horses or other malware (the Blacklist of such sites isn't yet in place). Other updates inchide a new downloads manager thatallows for resuming downloads after the browser restarts, a full-page zoom, and improvements for han= dling browser acé-ons. IM you're interested in see- ing version 3's new Features, for yourself, eep in mind hat this beta release has known bugs. It's not well suited foreverycay brows: ing, Usingit, however, makes clear that Firefox 3 will have some attractive extras but won't push the bourdasies for browser upgrades. Erik Larkin Firefox 3Betal | Mozilla Bete version. not ated Offers alimpse ofcomingettrec- tions, but snot yet suitable for cereryday browsing Free find peworld com/SO407|AMD=\ January/February 2008 Turion! OBL Tec NOLocY Unique Innovation Ferrari 1100-5457 $1,999 (aseavor) + AMD Turion” 64 X2 Dual-Core + ATI Radeon” Xpress 1270 graphics Mobile Technology TL-65 * Integrated Acer OrbiCam camera * Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate * Dolby® Home Theater™ + 4GB DDR2 667 SDRAM * 802.11n WLAN, gigabit LAN, V92 modem. + 250GB" hard drive Bluetooth®, Bluetooth® VoIP phone + Integrated slotloaded Super-Multi chive * Wireless optical mouse (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) * Fingerprint reader © S-in-1 card reader * One-year limited warranty’ * 12.1" WXGA (1280 x 800) TFT display, Acer CrystalBrite Technology is hon aetna tr pi ad do inca tan shiping Fer ost pce arkAcer® Aspire® 4520 * AMD Turion" 64 X2_ Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-52 * Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium * 1GB DDR2 667 SDRAM * 120GB" hard drive * Integrated Super-Multi drive (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) + 5-in-1 card reader * 14.1" WXGA (1280 x 800) TFT display, Acer® CrystalBrite Technology * NVIDIA® GeForce® 7000M graphics * 802.1 1b/g WLAN, gigabit LAN, V.92 modem integrated webcam * One-year limited warranty? a Acer Aspire 4520-5582 $599 ‘AMD Turion” 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TLS2 ‘Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (UXAHSOX.170) @mpowering technology ‘Acer Empowering Technology One touch ofthe Empowering Key and you can easly, take contol of your notebook’s security, performance, settings and communications 7 —AMD7Z\| Acer® Aspire® 7520 * AMD Turion” 64 X2. Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-52 * Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium + 2GB DDR2 667 SDRAM + 160GB" hard drive * Integrated Super-Multi drive (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) + S.in-t card reader + 17.0" WXGA+ (1440 x 900) TFT display, Acer? CrystalBrite Technology * NVIDIA® GeForce® 7000M graphics * 802.1 1b/g WLAN, Bluetooth®, 10/100 LAN, V.92 modem, integrated webcam * One-year limited warranty? pc TN Turion MOBILE TECHNOLOGY Acer Signalup This technology strategically postions two PIFA antennas on the ratebooks top pene to generate {an omni-directional signal sphere for superar witless reception. Acer GridViste Easy-to-use software dasignad to automaticaly split the sercen in upto four separate windows ard make the ‘most of avaiable scien space Acer Crystaléye Enjoy al tho potonal of vido conferencing withthe integrated Acer CstlEye, simple to we and compatible With inteme- based video and voice communication need to remeber passwords and PINs with he ‘eer Bio Protection Sngepin eade. ex te Pston £, le execalare eeatyetie Gneety ie eter er male pes mayenAcer? LCDs Acer AL2216Weed #22" widescreen TUCO +1680 1050 native resolution #70021 conuast ratio #170 horzonal viewing ange #160" vera vewing angle VGA, VI (OCP signal connectors + 300 cl’ bighness Sie reponse time + nema power adapter #Black color $239 (E722168.009 Acer ALIONT Chima 19° LO + 12801024 native resolution #7001 contrast ratio + 150° horigomal viewing angle + 135° vertical viewing angle ‘Two 1.0W integrated speakers + VGA, DVI signal comecors + 300 ci rightness + 5s esponse time ‘Internal power acapter + Back color $229 (€119178.000) ‘Acer AL2016WBbd 1220" widescreen TFT LCD 1680 «1050 native resolution + 8001 contast rato 1160" hoon viewing angle 160° vertical viewing ange '= VGA. OV signal connects = 300 edi baghtnass ‘5s response time ‘Incr poner adaprer Black ovr $219 exorswPs00) Acer ALIST7W Abd (919° wide sreanTFT LCD 1 1440 1 990 native resolution 70021 contrast ratio + 150° horizontal viewing anole 135 vertical viewing angle Thro 1.0Wintegrated speakers VGA, DV signalcormecters, #300 cd bghtness ‘5s response tine *Imeral power adapter Black color $199 (ercr7weaos) ‘Acer ALIS16W Ab 119" widescreen TFT LED “1440 x900 native eslution #7001 contest ratio “150° horizontal viewing angie 135° vertical viewing angle + VGA signal crmecter +300 brightness ‘5 response time ‘iternl power edaoter «Black coior $195 en91 wos)AMDZ Acer® Aspire® 5050 + AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Technology MK-38 * Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium, + 1GB DDR2 533 SDRAM + 120GB" hard drive * Integrated SuperMulti drive (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) + 5-in-1 card reader + 14.1" WXGA (1280 x 800) TFT display, Acer Quickcharge Acer CrystalBrite Technology fund on selec nodes Ace uct tcc nals the rico bay ob 0 pret * Integrated ATI Radeon” Xpress 1100 graphics Sale ee {ly chro in jist oe her * 802.11b/g WLAN, 10/100 LAN, V.92 modem, integrated webcam * One-year limited warranty’ Turion MOBLE TECHNOLOGY AceOAS? = ; Dak Sed Ptecon 3 tcleht e wes Hage tettee lala eee Acer Cptalbrite AT Atecincloa that delves ehanced video pevlomance fr ant inages aking Tied for sopisiated ppt suchas HDTV ard digital games es hon ae etme tet sae owe dea HN eter ar male aes mayen '——————————Acer® Veriton® L410 Dipl sold epentely @mpowering technology * AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor * Genuine Windows Vista® Business or - Genuine Windows® XP Professional + 1GB DDR2 SODIMM © 160GB' SATA hard drive + Super-Multi drive (DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) * ATI Radeon™ X1250 graphics solution + 802.11b/g WLAN, gigabit LAN * USB keyboard and mouse ©2.4" Wx9.8" Dx7.9"H * One-year limited warranty? Acer Veriton L410 $499 ‘AMD Athion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+ Genuine Windows Vista® Business (VUat0-U042010) oF Genuine Wineours® XP Professional E (via10-UD4201}Acer® Veriton® M410 * AMD Phenom™ quad-core processor * Genuine Windows® XP Professional * DVD-Dual drive (DVD+/-RW) * ATI Radeon™ X1200 graphics solution * Gigabit LAN + Keyboard and mouse * One-year limited warranty? Acer Veriton M410 $799 AMD Phenom” 9600 quact-core processor Genuine Windows® XP Professional (vtna10-UF9600P) 3GB DDR SDRAM and 320GB" SATA hard drive Acer Veriton M410 $699 [AMD Phenom” 9500 quad-core processor Genuine Windows® XP Frofessional (viat0-uF9s00P) 2GB DOR SDRAM and 25068" SATA hard drive ela sid separate rT ‘Acer elock Management ‘Acer eLock Management locks and unlocks storage media with passwd protection for acdtonal secu ‘Acer ePerformance Management ‘Acer Performance Menagernet optimizes performance tw male the most of your computer's powet. ‘Acer eRecovery Management. ‘Acer eRecovery Management isan easy-to-use utility tw ceate backups restore from your archives ‘Acer eSettings Management ‘eer eSettngs Management provides easy acess to boot options security ox general system information. ‘Acer eDataSocurity Management Convenertiy integrated into the Windows” environment, ‘Aces eDataSecurty Management provides ene dick ‘encryption and decryption of yout les.|AMD7Z Turion! MOBILE TECHNOLOGY Acer® TravelMate? 5520 * AMD Turion” 64 x2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-52 * Genuine Windows Vista® Business * Microsoft® Office Ready (60-day trial? * CD with Genuine Windows? XP Professional * 1GB DDR2 533 SDRAM * 120GB' hard drive * Integrated Super-Multi drive (OVBeR, DVD-R, DVD-RAM) + 5:in-1 card reader + 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) TFT display * Integrated ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1250 graphics + 802.11b/g WLAN, gigabit LAN, V.92 modem * Fingerprint reader * One-year limited warranty’ a Acer TravelMate 5520-5313 $699 @mpowering technology [AMD Turion” 64 2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-52 Genuine Windows Vista® Business (Ux-tkU97.001) Protect Your Investment with an Acer Notebook Service Upgrade eats thr ry oneness ad Sch ct th aan oid 1 tug wed ar ai ined rar ier cpa fii kote“anch wy puto cna 2:¥ear extension of une waranty (46.8880) are weneer aman ema oat recon upaace repays tight rm eo opt $199 ‘xaut orem ctntoraonl Hane aan eatin thom om eet "nen ring say cy ond or ene ag Maer ere ilon be Seem ae yng Gea oa her eccesine apart may vty depending On eb atig eon EesieScon oh anda hed uray endune hel se 9a where Ar rst str wtf As rk {eo iy nal chose FNS Read na £900 ors omar, oration rede nt das tot ote ng tlie fom ne. 2408 rsh ey Sipertanapen eensleyConterum. Doty and ve Sosa bal ae waderan 9 Doky aortereeReviews«.Rankings Fujitsu, Toshiba Laptops Offer Big Value NEW MODELS WITH su ERT $1509 prices, as TEM well as the results of our recent celiabiliy ane service survey, rejiggered the rankings in our desktop replacements chart. The wo newcomers—Fujtsu’s 15.4 inch LifeBook A6L10 and ‘Toshiba's 17-inch Satellce P205D-S7479—are relatively inexpensive units. The Life Book comes with a brilliant screen and a touchpad with tablet-like features, while the Satelite makes a well- rounded office lngtop. FUSITSU'S LIFEBOOK A610 offers snappy speed for 1499, ‘Acer's Aspire 5920G pro. Vides solid performance and Dawery life fora reasonable price; i replaces the speedy ‘MacBook Pro in che top spot on the chart, though Apple remains in the hunt thanks to top marks forts reliability; see “Technolo 9's Most (and Least) Reli- able Beands'” (find a:woce ‘canti8487) for more details Curls Trortion Fer mere information abou these li idirg details to find, Cea Eg cor aspire , Bax 1009 . Foccvoriiconsis CAM Dettinspiron 1720 sz find pevertdeom 57903 81 BOTTOMLINE: Thissplasiy essa 81 ‘Apple MacBook Pro 3 ssa, Frdpenortdcoo57002 rosettes SOTTOMLINE: Septscatcookng tintin unithas ces fantom heybnerdbutons ard one teh sound setts + Del eign ey Cond sTestedbateryte srageas +10 60-towom:RovovesRWcRAM *eyoskoUO0-IW fers ocelententrisinnentopins andrich sounding speakers + el eign ey Cond seyoeRD UDO. 200 BOTTOMLINE Lightweight neh ron Mae or Windon ndoomeswthusei multimedia aeerestnesstovare. carvosrvoooe. PFET G) swoo iooctionse Seay ete Set 2 ser: + et esp Cont *2werecme 20911400 ‘oyoseoU0.IW [BOTTOMLINE Looks can dceve-the GateayHXEEOA leh air ett fa and poner wma ETO ss a SOTTOMLINE Stes ghenceont 80 Fujitsu LifeBook AGHIO 6 swaonew fingpevoritcom 53585 SOTTOMLINE ris spt. apreat screen, anda ua-motecuchpacbghht hs net arce eskepreplacere weraienseoson STG) same Trorootionsnes aay beh 80482 Very Ord + ol eign Seer och 8040220 aero + eral ei ond el eign ey Got ‘Testesbteyte 2 “aconzeae2 0.077700 ‘incite scien +0 60-20Wom:RLa¥nRw.AHM lacerer easy. ut ac periermance mest grat gemng machine arenscon26.0T7500 kine sen espe *oyoseoUOWDs Aw 24m espa +10 00-Rowom:RoUoWesRWZRAM SOTTOMLINE Euppec witha stish ne scren andan MO DWDere this is aterife mulimesanotebaok, Fujtsu LiteBook #610 $1800 Findpevortdcomst056 79 ite 6842s sTeseateryte 42 “22¢nscor? oT *ONOsROUDVO:AW RAN ‘OTTOMLINE.Thissleeh ching units pwerlleraugh fo edeshopyetight exeughte rare wall “Toshiba Satellite g P20s0-srars ‘SUSONEW. foapcvoridcomst0% 19 BOTTOM LINE Busget shop replacement depitlsshart ‘eshiba Satellite i 9 fexgevortdcomsaro QRS BOTTOMLINE Rbestnomapt WRT NOTES Pesan alingsee + oral eign ey Cont sTatetoneryte 36 ey, + eal es ont sera gamngwiinbemsil-ouneng 20 sprints + oyosROUD.0.H0 200 rs fe des rdsome attr hors gaming <2anecore701077H0 puns: +y0040-Rowom-Rayavnaew20M asayanstaee 5 IONE. esa ie pve reeeuaey 2008 www.ecwoRio.com | 73,Reviews Rankings Workspace Makes Office an Online Contender IF YOU USE Micro- chronize with any soft Office, you'll locally stored version want to sign up for (ifyou have one). This Office Live Wosk- arrangement means that you could end up with womor more— versions of a docu- space. Currently in beta, the fice service provides online file- storage, document- sharing, and desktop- presentation features, an finaly gives Micro- soft. challenger to the likes of Google Docs and Zoho. Unlike those two «excellent productivity ment with the same name, Google Docs and Zoho allow you to bothedit and save files online, which climinates this poten: tial problem. Workspace also throws ina nice suites, Workspace __OFFICELIVE WORKSPACE allows yout view your documents, buttoceltthem, bonus feature called doesn'tolice Web- yout need te open those files with your local Microsoft Office applications. ShareeView; Micto- based applications: soft informally calls it instead, you edit files offline and edit documents previ- beta) brings welcome back-_“LiveMeeting Lite.” Through using the desktop versions ously stored online. The site up ane anywhere-aecess SharedView you can easily of Office XP, 2003, or 2007. supports both Intemet Ex- advantages. You can use the invite another Workspace You installa free, download. plorerand Firefox, but the service to store your work —_user to view your desktop able plug-in, which installs Firefox version lacks a useful documents and thenaccess_or even take control toolbarin yourdeskiop ap-ActiveX-enabled button that them from yourhome com- Though Office Live Work- plications. The toolbar opensastored file in the puter, forexample. Inaddi- space greatly extends the lows you to save new filesto appropriate Office application, you canshare either __ usability and convenience the Workspace site, add files tion witha single cick. single documents orcallee- of Microsoft Office t's already swed on yourhard —Theeasytieiatoonline —_tlonsof documents called clearly stilla beta. Most of drive to thesite, oropen storage (SCOMB for the workspaces with anyone the site wouldn't display on (though users will have to one of my test machines, be logged in to the service and on the same system, toed fies), and you can. ——_-SharedView didn’t fanc- The Perfect Portable Printer? | ivintjoucomnsyae tolguconthecaneat have to photog aph about 75 subjects, and provide. onsite with Outlook. Ifyou're ona the problem. 4-by-6printsina4-hour time frame. Iwas wondering whether | computer without Office, Workspace makes Micro- itwoud pay to imestina dedicated 4by-6 printer. an ifs0, ‘you can still preview fleson sof’ suite more useful which one? Siphon. Solonon, Gariand, Texas | the-siteor create simple, Using it isa no-brainer if richtext notes. you've already sprung for Contributing Editor Melissa Riofrioresponds: You can buy ac00d Because youcteateand Office. But if you haven't, snapshot printer for as ite as $100, Epson's PictureMate Dash | edit Workspace-stored files you can find what you nced (6100)is very fast and it makes nice-loking prints. Teplugs in Office locally, you need an in Google Docs or Zoho. inte AC. cr you canbuy abattery pack for $60. The Lunchbox Tncernet connection only to =Enik Larkin lke desian includes a handle: Epson aso sels @ S35 carrying ‘opena file from Workspace case. Its pricier cousin the $200 PictureMate Zoom, has an and save the file back there, _OffceLve Workspace integrated CD burrer that would let youpresentadisc withall_ | Yourchanges will saveto ‘Microsoft the photesat the endof the event. theenline copy when you're Beta versen ro rated ‘connected, but changes you Adds extremely useul ertne feo E-moilyourauestions to askowrexperts@acnerldcamerpestit | make to theonline version turestoMixozot Otter Free enlineatforums.gewerlé.com, do not automaticaly syn- find peworl.comiS0465 74| awBe ef DELORME GPS for wherever you Go: ee Ree a ee (a National Geographic Adventure Magazine re Beara aU Re Ke ae Pieteton eR} Hite Inthe woods with ihe Eartmate® GPS PN-20, not back tothe stor for expansive maps, All te DeLorme-renowned raps you nesdare included. Copy .S. streetand toa maps from Topo USA®7.0, anette soltware to an SD card — easier than ever with pre-loaded maps ineiwed. Doweload $100 of ree weww.delorme.com USCS quads, NOAA naulcal chert, and even color imagery of yeurfavorle U.S: ocalons.Reviews Rankings Pantech's Serviceable Dual-Slide PDA Phone LOOKING FOR A phone that combines a ERM uniquedesign with a good dose of functionality? Here’s one for yourlis: the Pantech Duo from AT&T Wireless, Business users will like its good selection of office software, while its cool, dua-sliding design will satisfy gadget lovers—s0 Tf uo | Pantech (Cook duat-siing doin, but sad oe wth spetty sound qulty. List $200 (with two yoar con tract trom AT&T Wrelase) fire peworld com 50403 ongas they can stand the spotty sound quality About the size of a bar of soap, the Duo is one of the ‘most compact phones with a QWERTY keyboard that Tve seen. Even betters its Sliding the front panel vertically reveals the alphanumeric keypad, and sliding it to the right uncovers the keyboard, Granted, small isn’talways best. The Duo's keyboard is abit eramped, though easy to use. Similarly, the inch sereen is not ideal for viewing text documents, ‘The Duo runs Windows Mobile 6 and, despite the jons of the small dis- play, its nice to have the op: tonto edit and view files. You can also syne POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, as wellas send and receive cor porate e-mail via Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes. ‘The phone’s sound quality was subpar, however: | heard avhiss in the background during many of my call. AT&T states the battery will provide up to 3 hours of talk time; in ou lab tests it THE DUO SLIDES open toreveat ‘full QWERTY keyboard, was better, lnsting 4 hours, 46 minutes, but that’s poor compared with other PDA, phones we've tested. Stil, this unit proves that you don'talways have to trade form for function—the Duo gives you both. —GraceAguine Roxio’s Backup App Replaces System Restore ROXIO'S BACKONTRACK 3 Suite uses a three-pronged approach to data protection: Ie replaces Windows’ System Restore function with its own Instant Restore, images centre drives, and backs up {individual files and folders. Instant Restore works much as System Restore does, but restoring oceurs through a separate Windows ‘THE APP'S HOME soreen displays annoying ads for Rexio products. 76 | ww PE (Pre-install Edition) OS— handy inease you can't boot Into normal Windows. Unfoe- tunately, you must ether wait on or click through the ‘OS-selection menu it adds Instant Restore is incompat- Ile with System Restore and warns it off. This would be bad, except that Instant Restore can't be invoked by Windows or other applica- tions to automatically set a restore point—one of Sys- tem Restore’s best features The driverimaging feature, which includes boot CD cre ation, is effective if used sparingly. Since it backs up only entire drives and | docsn’t offer incremental backups, users with lots of dota may quickly find their backup media overflowing ‘have one other comphint with BackOnTrack 3: The hhome sereen displays annoy- ingads for Roxio products, which I could not tur of ‘The suites effective for users who have moderate sof data to protect, but it's no mateh for sme- priced competitors Acronis True Image Home and Nor- con Save & Restore Jour L. Jacobi BackOnTrack’ Suite | Roxio Decent bachipapp sn'tena par competion, List $50, find peworld enm9419 withteverypicture everyvideo everywhere ‘The waterproof SANYO Xacti £1 features a one-handed 0 you can capture grip design and super fast start MP photos and digital vicieo at the speed of life! [9] Waterproof [el Camcorder ctReviews Rankings Green Hard Drive Loses Little on Performance WHAT DO YOU have to give duce its power consumption, up to embrace ‘Though the Caviar GP isn't EERTEM sccm computing? the fastest drive we've seen, ‘The answer, based onourtest it ranked fifth in perfor~ results: Not much, Wecom- mance, anding in the top pared Western Digital’s Cavir third of drives we've tested. arGPWDIGEACS, whichis The Seagate 173 drive, mean- touted a an ecorrenely while, ranked third in per dive, with another new formance. (Forour full Top model, the agate Barracuda 10 Insert Hard Drives chart, 7201 1TB, whichdoesn't see find. poworidcom56534,) claim any greea benefits. ‘The Caviar GP performed The Caviar GP (for “Green poorly on our fike-seek tests, Power”) isthe fist ITB hard scoring in the bottom third drive to have variable rota- of outfield. On the other tional speed, ranging ftom hand, it excelled on some of 5400 gpm to 7200 rj our read tests, posting the Western Digital credits that second-fastest time on our technological change with ACDSee test of performance helping the hard drive ce on imaging tasks. And its, A Better Web Tablet NOKIA'S NSIO Intemet Tablet, the thied gen- eration af the com- pany's line of Linux- based Web devices, isa ‘minor upgrade. The S479 NS10 model costs about tuvice what its predecessor, the NSCO, currently does, but che new product is far ‘THE SLIDE-OUT more appealing, ‘keyboard fs handy. The NS10 is slimmer ane! easier to hold than the crous, 4.3inch, WVGA (800- NN800 also sponsa side- _by-600) ouchrscreen di cut keyboardanaddltion phy, makes this 802.11b/g that, together withthe gen- Wi product more usble However, while the incl sion ofthe heyboued isa 15 huge improvement, the de- sign sls perfct. The va top-row buttons are posi NeWOinternet Tablet Nokia tioned just a smidgen too More appealing thaneariermedsls, close to the display, to the btitsemensie List 6479 ppoint that they impede use, find peworkd cor/S0413 Melissa. Pereason look sitar, but the Western ‘Dightat (at right) has power-saving technology. performance on our WinZip file-compression test was better than average. "Better than average” describes the ‘Caviar GP's results on our write tests a8 well. By comparison, the Sea- gate Barracuda drive was the fastest on our write tests, out- performing the Caviar GP by 6 pesceat on our files and folders write test, and by 22 percent on our files and folders copy text twas one of the slower drives on our read tests, however. Power Savings, Too We ako ran the two drives through system power tests With each deive installed, we measured the watts that our test system consumed in ts off sleep, and ile states. During the aff state and the sleep state, our system drew the exact same amount ‘of power whether the West ‘em Digital Caviar GP or the Seagate Barracuda was in- stalled. Where we saw a dif ference, albeita slight one, was when the system was ile. In cha ease, we ob- served a 3.2 percent drop in the power draw when we used the Western Digital drive instead of the Seagate. Note that our tests show only the overall power draw, not the individual power draw of components such as the hard drive, Western Digital claims thac the Cavi- a¢ GP drops its operational draw to 8 watts, down from the 13 watts consumed bya previous generation model. ‘The company also says the power-consumption savings can reach up to 38 percent over a previous-generation drive. We were not able to test these claims, You can conserve a tue power with the Western Digital Caviar GP, which costs ess than the Seagate— proving that going green can save bit of green too. Melissa]. Perenson 83 Barracuda 7200.1 TBSATA Seagate Adve for pople whoneed toeke every crop of performance. List $363 find pewortd cm /S0409 Caviar GP WDIDEACS Western Digital, Eco-friendly erive wil save yous litle power and money List ‘Sind ocword eom/S0410Hanns G fT] BS |G, So BEYOND = © q@iIHD 10s0rp HOM See our full line of IT monitors at www.hannsg-usa.com Visit our showrooms at Beverly Hills, CA. 310.288.0208 or San Francisco, CA. 415.986.3300 dl 5 (ruses TigerDirectReviews Rankings All-in-One Communications App Tries to Do Too Much ITSANINTERNET phone. call landline orcell No, i’san instant message numbers (fora service. No, i's IPTV, Wait— fee), send e-mail i's a newsfeed. Acwally and insvant mes- Raketu combines all of the sages, and whisk above, andthen some. Asa off SMS messages software client andaWeb- (a5 cents. a pop). based service, Raketu wants‘ encountered tobe your communications, several issues from entertainment, and informa che stat; the frst ionhub, While that sounds appeared while great, Raketu overwhicls was trying to make _ RAKETU'S UNATTRACTIVE INTERFACE and its tinylcons are hard onthe eyes you with features, someof _ PC-te-PC calls. For which just don't work. starters, adding a Raketu with the contact remained. feeds from the BBC, CBC, After downloadingand _contact—a seemingly simple Other Raketu contacts The New York Times, and installing the Raketu client, I task—took lots of clicking appeared online without _other news sites; set up wasn't sure where to start— around, And once I success- hitch, though, and call qual- podcasts; get weather, and the cluttered, just plain fullyadded my contact, we ity was impressive: Our stock, and flight info; and ugly interface didn't help. My appeared offline to each voices came through loud view IPTV and Video on. eyes strained to adapt toits other, despite being signed and clear (no echoes), and Demand. RakWeb, the Web- reverse type style (white into Rakeww. Thecompany _ noted just oneinstance of _ based piece of the pie, in textona black background), concluded that the problem —_voice-packet breakdown, cludes many of the same and the tiny, unintuitive stemmed from my buddy's when a claster of words Features as the software cli- cons were far from ideal ISP (located overseas). At sounded slightly distorted. _ ent: It lets PC and smart- {decided to check out the presstime, the firm wasin- ‘Beyond that, however, phone users make calls, send application’s messaging fea- _vestigating further, and said encountered more troubles: e-mail and text messages. tures, which are supposed to that it was planning a work- The software initially re and watch TV. | haven't let you phone other Raketx _aroundto fix this issue, Infused toallow meto make even mentioned Raketn's users on theiccomputers, the meanwhile, my problem calls to landlines and to cell__ media player (with a kar phones. The company then _oke button) or its slide- e-mailed me a fix, which show viewer. But these fe2- eventually resolved the issue. tures just fee! like overkill Memory Card Prices Plummet Despite the unseay inter You're probably well set \crtmarpoyen@o mcanoioe | Spe Yowryar | Be Spe snr ‘many megapixels in your next camera. password, and Raketu effi: can't think of a good reason. Tanieasememrcoarteienduy nee | Gen inorsyou i ey reveyendeltondtinaosweebnaotrexicson | Tale fuicoc ncel ‘Secure Digital Cards make up the bulk of such media; nearly fer video calls, but the firm a Deiknantdanenesemeneocatssc ee | pumwsiinctoweln etTranscend et Reg reed Tee eM cena nt) eee ea en a PoE yee) use? The Tsonic™ 650 is a slim,n Teemu aT | eprcaectes [sar egy 4-800-886-5590 Authorized e-tailersReviews Rankings A More Versatile Microsoft Office Accounting Pro AT $200, the 2008 version of Microsoft Office Accounting Professional i $59 more than last year’s edition, but the update offers improved Web integration, simpler setup, and features that can enhance spreadsheet to track your business finances. A useful new online Resource Center provides links to general business tips, video tutori- als, a bulletin board where users can share questions and answers, and more Since debuting three years ago, Office Accounting has always had great integration with Word, Excel, and other Microsoft Office apps, allow- ing you to use forms and re- ports created in Oifce. Inte- gration is even better in this version: The program can, ‘now import almost any kind of Excel data, including accounts, transactions (such as invoices and vendor bills), ad listings (lke inventory products and customers). Many small businesses do not employ a professional accountant-lient communi- cations for small businesses. Oifice Accounting 2008 is better for neophytes than ts predecessor was. Getting started is easier—especially Ifyou currently use an Excel i Office Accounting Professional 2008) Microsoft Betterintogaton with Wob and casirsotup ads valu. despite preehite. 5200 find omer. com 940 SD Card Adds Well-Priced Wi-Fi \ ® DIGITAL CAMERAS HAVE been slow toadd wireless file uploading, but the $100 Fye-Fi Card, aWi-Feenabled SD Card, les you add that capability to any camera em ploying that memory-card Format, and ic makes the witless setup very simple You can have the card up- load photos to your PC, to one of 18 photo-sharing Web sites, or to both. The 2G card comes with a small USB memory card ceader Yyou use to set up the wise: less connection. Afterward when you take a shot, the card should sear uploading itautomacically (and most of the time, it dd, chough on ‘occasion | had to wait. You can upload images of any size, but big files take awhile to transfer. found that the card’s range is pret- ty limited, too—you mast pce your camera and the card close to your routes, ‘A.2GB SD Card costs about $30 t0 $40, s0 the Eye FiGard |Eye-Fi youdont shoot at hh resolu tion this cards useulane tan find gener. con'S0375 [Sotect source fle [OFFICE ACCOUNTING Professional 2008 can import almost any kind ‘of Excel data, ncuding accounts, transactions, and produet Ustlngs.. accountant, instead relying ‘ona public accounting firm tohhelp them prepare year- ‘end financial statements and tax returns, Office Account- ing introduces innovative Features to improve commnu- nications between an exter nal accountant ane a chen. counting firm may offer en- hhanced services to its elents. For example,an accounting firm can now integrate por tions ofits Web site into the lice Accounting menu, so an accountant could offer reminders of tax payment due dates or links to various Itdoes this by blurring the accounting services Line between traditional ‘Also added this year is packaged accounting soft- Spanish-language support. ‘ware cunning on a Windows PCand Web-based software; both are integrated in the OF fice Accounting menu, which ‘can be customized son ac- You can mix languages, too—for example, view Spanish menus while pee- paring invoices in English, A free (but ad-supported) version, Oifice Accounting Express 2008, targets new and home-based businesses. Express ean trick income and expenses, but it doesn’t ‘manage inventory. The Pro- fessional version (designed for businesses that have up co 25 employees) supports inventory management, job tracking, salesand purchase orders, and fixed assets. ‘The tight integration with Word and Excel should en- courage businesses that eur rently tack their financial records in those applica tions to graduate toa dedi- cated accounting system. Despite the $50 pre hike for the 2008 Professional edition, Office Accounting remains reasonably priced. — Richard Merociooe INSERT THEEye-FT's SD cardinto Its USB cerd reader for setup. added cost ofthe wireless capability is about $69 to '$70—reasonable, think. —Alan StaffordIS YOUR iPhone i] San fey VAN 41 Bors How ABOUT YOUR Treo ? ...OR YOUR BLACKBERRY ? COUPON CODE fences CENACASES HANDCRAFTED, FUNCTIONAL, www.senacases.com LUXURIOUS LEATHER CASESReviews®.Ran kings Snazzy Samsung: A Laser Printer With Style MONOCHROME LASERS occupy a humble EM niche among print- certypes. Designed primarily to print text (andl serviceable graphics), they're fast, cheap to buy and operate, and un- complicated. But that’s all that some people, and espe- cially some offices, need. The crop of low-end mono- chrome lasers we tested this, month is more diverse than you'd think. Two share the same low price but othes- wise differ dramatically. The Samsung ML-1630 looks more likea mother ship than printer, while the HP Laser- Jet P1SOS looks like it was stripped for spare parts. The ML-1030, however i actual Printer17204n s799NeW ed generico 50245 wetarietrsos IW swoonew fdpewerd.cm S267 TTOMLNE:Cvsly peu ssrmingnime (UO cece 3. smonew ner faeces ie BOTTOMLINE: Sie: ly the sparer of these two designs Tetakes only letter and A4-size paper, and its inpuc tray hokis just 100 sheets ts toner costs, at3 cents per page, ae high. The Laserjet P1505 has pricey toner too, but it's superst— race for a printer this ines: pensive, Ie averaged 26.1 pages per minute when gen erating our text documents, and just under 10 pages per mute when outputting photos (though the photo quality is poor, even fora ‘monochrome laser) ‘The more conventional, rapes gy abe ‘Teepe tt) 2Braphcs ‘Tetdepecdipm td gis ‘SAMSUNG'S ML-1090: hand- ‘some among laser printers. workhorse-type mono: chrome sor is best repre sented by our top-ranked ‘model, che Dell Laser Printer 1720dn, Well suited for either a small workgroup or a busy small office, i offers tiene strat dag *2s0sneets pat sta} ‘am by ¢p mina ern’ nara apt eet moat ean) by 80 mssimante reson opeet pete ‘203 by 80 dpm ee etn ‘Okt Printing Solutions Teg Speer 4 844000 Srp gy Cand s920NEW Tesedsped im): 238 to Haiorcccnss SMD as5iancs ‘OURTHOTES retndtgere Te gait Spear ‘raphe iy C208 “ent tons mann dapiocng sheets mt ana) 6 9 400 moana rtrin Etat atatic ping ‘rScohets pat antes a3 6120049 mninamwe esutin erp 01. Speksare pgespermints prescott ndopr sah strong overall per- formance, lots of standard and option- al features, and a competitive pric. Its strictly personal cheaper cousin, the Laser Printer 1720 (without neuworking or duplexing), costs the same asthe HP and Samsung mod- els discussed above, which also lack those features. Other office oriented models we tested include the Xerox Phaser 3150 (which dida’t make our chart) and the Lexmark 352dn, The E352da has a generous standard configu: ration plus expandability, while the Phaser 3150 is, unfortunately, more notable for what it lacks. Ob Peint- ing Solutions’ B442cn is Jaudably well builtand has economical consumables ‘When you shop fora laser, look elosely a standard and optional features. Asan indi- vidual user, you can proba- bly ive with one input tray no duplexing, and even low capacity toner cartridges, assuming you won't be printing that much. High- volume or office users need a fast engine, the ability © add input trays, and stan- dacd oF optional duplexing. Check toner costs by divid- ing the cartridge price by the estimated number of pages that the cartridge can print (the yield): Anything above 2 cents per page is getting expensive. Melita Raf 84 |wwecwonie.com FeseuaRy 2008Instantly enters text, numbers and images into ANY Windows or Mac application The IRISPen 6 is the smallest Pen Scanner ever designed for text recognition. Avoid keying printed information manually. Highlight words, numbers, sentences, barcodes, hand printed text with the IRISPen 6 and they are automatically and instantly retyped into your application with mind-boggling speed and accuracy. Visit www. irislink.com/pcworld to learn more about the 3 dif- ferent models and to take advantage of a special introductory offer! 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The motes, you mustteach the Expect co put ina centered, for exam- ARRU9canconnectto AR unit cotalk to yourvar> lot of time tweaking ple, you must press your home network and cous devices. Start by select- it until it works the the «Enter key. ing the device type (IV, DVR, way you want it co, I and so on) and manufactur A cool but point cex;then cycle through the less feature isthe codes for cach piece of gear to view head. lin until you finda code that weather re works. When the A ports, and Amazon Bottom line: The AR unit improves on its competitors Just be prepaved to spend time train ingit to work the AcousticResearch way you want, As Bul in Wi Fimakes this pricey remote a winner. $309 had to putit nose to nose THE ARRUGAO features fire poner conn s6373 with Sony's remote and 9 2ineh color Lc, Dia Tynan shopping lists on the with peace and love Vist FreeQuickire com now for @ FREE Color & Check Printr starter kt QuickWire" Ay oe ye Pyulont [es uh Jngtenily, Se uioey ee egos oy aieeuc ieee enkessena Usfe Merchants (Clete unseen eres eonas encima cries Sold your product? Instantly print your Piyagstoulas Institutions & Utility Companies Pore te Son ane Fast, Free & Secure! FREEQUICKIIRE COM.Portable Gadget Charger Harnesses the Sun WANT AWAY to juice up Xplorer unit, a lithium jon your gadgets when the pow- battery that looks like a car crgrid is unavailable? One power adapter. This is what solution: Powertraveie’s you plug into your devices. easy-to-use Pawermonkey. The second component is Xplorer solar charge the “solar slave,” a light but The charger has two main sturdy, Svolt DC fo parts, First isthe plas 1 According to the ‘uber Powermonkey- ixhours of expo- any sun, you can charge the Jntwill charge Powermonkey by plugging i tofully re intoa wall outlet (usin iPod), and Bhuctooth head- | phone. ofthe four bund sets (but not laptops) can tll that the Power- tional plug adapt ‘The Povwetmonkeyis ex monkey is building a charge a USB port on your PC pensive, but its LCD and its by watching the moving bars Powertraveleralso pro- rugged design will be worth Powertravelier on its Linch blue LCD or on daptees that pig che premium for outdoor Pricey solar chargerishandy—ard the solar slave's green LED. types ofhandheld types. For others, however, cnotrendly. Stet: $130 you happen to beendur- gadgets suchas cell phones, cheaper options ex! find pomert.com273 ing an arctic winter bereft of MP3 players (inelueling the Nanisu Rebbapragada Dada edie ence ae tag Cyrene Plies aae a uel Oe Dracaena esa and push (our abrenaine to a PAGE PA GeO) apy dina 75, reeeuagy 2008 www.ecwoRip.com|Reviews ©.Rank' ‘THE 324NCH SCREEN shows video and displays photos. A Potential Alternative to the iPod THOUGH THE OLD 30GB Zune didn’t go over too well the second generation of Mi cxosoft's media player is ‘more impressive. I tested $250, 89GB harddrive model, which performed well in our outpucand fre- quency response tests. Ever since Wi-Fi-cquipped players came out, users have wanted wireless syncing Well, i's hece. Teansfers weren't lightning-fast over ry 802.1 1g network, but the ability o syne without touching my PC was handy. All mall, the 86GB Zune sounds good. and its price is inline with its competition, 16 Zune 8068) Micrasoft Weless syncing rakes this Zune 0 Capable Pod alterrative. List: 250, SidoonctdconS64N1 88 | uwwecwonie.com FeseuaRy 2008 ings ee AN ey Nee iat Seetrrerecr Free Apps for Words, Screen Capture, and Sudoku ‘SOME PEOPLE NEO big-name, big-bucks pro- ‘grams. But f your software recuirements are ‘modest. our software budget should be oo Here ae free alternatives fr word processing sereen captures, and all-important fun A Portable Word Processor Taikis cheap, bt Word is exoensive. Fort nately, Jare is free. This clever litle word ro- ‘cessor from Carolina Road Software lets you ‘open, modify. and save flesin common fr ‘mats. And I do mean “ttle”: Jarte fits onto.a (64MB USB drive with roam tosoare fora few documents itsperfoot for travelers ‘who want to werk on proj- fects and might notheve Internet access for using Wieb based alternatives Jarte's tabbed interface ‘makes eciting several open files—in etferentformats— (easy Talso Uked the click: Less fle menus, which open Xp R OP aeRO (Selecting menu items, roqures clicks, of course) ‘You have your choice of three ayouts: the Notepad Like Minimal tne default, aptly named Com- pact and Classic with big, haney buttons) Whether Tran Jarte off an XP system's hard drive or a USB drive, t opened Wort! doc, Rich ‘Text Format, and Word 2007 docx fkes without hitch but for docx files youneed Microsofts free compatiblity pack for Word. Excel. and PowerPoint 2007, at find scwerld.com/58285).1 saved files in.dos, xt, and rtf formats, For 519, Jarte Plus adds automatic spelling correction and outlines: the ability to seve clip- pings: and support for independent user pro- files, which Jarte calls “personalities” Free, find peworld cor/SS256 Shoot All of Your Screens! EasyCopture lets you capture screen images in variety of sizes and formats, This free pro ‘ram adds afew nifty extra functions, too. To nab a sercen with EasyCopture, you select the desired area type (fll sereen, region, win ‘dow. and so on), move your pointer to select the area, and click The tabbed interface allows you to capture and edt several screen shots, ‘and then deal with each at your leisure. A smattering of oraphics tools lets you perform simple tasks such as adjusting brightness anc ‘ontrast:converting to grayscale; and adding text and simie incluxied graphics such as lines. arrows. and word balloons. You can save your nork es BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCK. PNG. and ‘TIFF files, Free, find pomord.com/S0257. [le em me car pon oe ery arom oe cameo. 445 seme ets [EASYCAPTURE LETS YOU embellish your seen shots with notes Get a Clue for Sudoku Puzzles |What's the method to your Sudoku madness? Reader Erste Jellinekof Voorhees. New Jersey, has. tip:Do the puzztesin SudoKive. This lover freebie analyzes puzzles anc provides cell-by-cell solution instructions ‘SudoKlue generates random puzzles or lets wiinput your own. Use the pencil ool to mark the possibilities. and the pen iool to enter your solution. Sudokive can give hints, ind errors, ‘and solve individual cells. Links tothe Sudo- Kive site explain the techniques. ‘The fee SudoAlueis ademo ofthe $20Sudo- Klue Pro. You cen play only the easiest ofthe sixalffcuty levels: clicking advanced levels clcts a nag screen. Only beginner hints enpear ‘at the Beginner level soyou won't learn a Lot. But even the basio version can help sharpen ‘your wits without moking you sharpen a penci. Free, fx ocwosid com/56750,0